Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Live Saturday
What to do with Saddam Hussein?
Aired December 29, 2001 - 16:07 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN ANCHOR: The Bush Administration has always said that the war on terrorism will be long and difficult. After Afghanistan, could Iraq be the next target? CNN national correspondent Mike Boettcher has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MIKE BOETTCHER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Viewed from this satellite image, this patch of land inside a river bend south of Baghdad seems like an odd place for a jetliner to be parked. There's no passenger airport around, but anti-terror coalition intelligence analysts familiar with this place a few miles southeast of Baghdad say it is not so odd.
They tell CNN they strongly suspect that this old Boeing 707 fuselage, highlighted here, is part of a terrorist training camp called Solman Pac (ph), a place where, among other things, terrorists practice hijacking techniques.
Ten years after the end of the Gulf War, Solman Pac is a major piece of evidence for those who want to make Saddam Hussein's Iraq the next target in the war against terror. Iraq claims the fuselage is used for anti-terror training.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: He ought to let the inspectors back in.
BOETTCHER: But President Bush talked tough when asked what would happen if United Nations weapons inspectors aren't allowed back in Iraq to examine such sites.
QUESTION: If he does not do that, what will be the consequences?
BUSH: He'll find out.
BOETTCHER: Former CIA director James Woolsey is the leading voice for those calling for Iraq to be targeted. He has the ear of the White House and was even sent by the Pentagon to Europe to investigate possible links between Iraq and the September 11 attacks.
JAMES WOOLSEY, FORMER CIA DIRECTOR: There is more than a little bit of smoke here. Is there material that would prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Saddam has been involved in specific terrorist acts against the United States other than the attempt to kill President Bush in '93? Perhaps not. But we're still learning things, and we, I think, need to stay tuned.
BOETTCHER: Suspicions about Iraq were heightened after the September 11 attacks when Czech intelligence revealed that Mohammed Atta, considered a ringleader in the hijackings, met at least twice with Iraqi an intelligence agent in Prague in June 2000, before he came to the United States to begin flight training.
Iraq denies such meetings ever took place. Czech authorities claim they weren't meeting to plan attacks on New York's Twin Towers and the Pentagon.
MILOS ZEMAN, CZECH PRIME MINISTER: At first, Atta, a contacted some Iraq agent not to prepare the terroristic attack on Twins, but to prepare terroristic attack on just the building of Radio Free Europe.
BOETTCHER: But that was not the extent of the alleged contact between al Qaeda and Iraq. CNN has learned that coalition intelligence agencies have tracked high-level meetings between Iraq and al Qaeda operatives dating back seven years.
The first meeting, according to intelligence sources, occurred in the Sudan in 1994, when Osama bin Laden received an Iraqi delegation led by Iraqi intelligence chief Faruq Kajhazi (ph). Those same intelligence sources say another key meeting occurred in 1998, in Baghdad between Aiman al-Zawahiri (oh), bin Laden's top adviser, and Iraqi vice president Taha Ramidan (ph) .
That same year, more meetings during Saddam Hussein's birthday celebration. Iraq strenuously denies it supports terrorism, and any connection to al Qaeda.
TARIQ AZIZ, IRAQI DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER: We are using a pretext. For instance, in the beginning they said Iraq might have a connection with the -- which is not true, you see. Then they didn't find, or they found the truth, that that Iraq was not involved in this matter.
BOETTCHER: And the question of Iraq's biological and chemical weapons capability, which it maintains was destroyed by U.N. inspectors after the Gulf War, is also an issue. There are new accusations from an Iraqi defector reported in "The New York Times" alleging that Saddam Hussein is using his scientists to rebuild his chemical and biological weapons capability.
AZIZ: Have we could cut the heads off of the experts, you see? They can be used for civilian purposes. All this knowledge could be used for civilian purposes, and all the fields, the nuclear, the chemical field, the biological field.
WOOLSEY: We know that he murdered some of his own people using chemical weapons back in the early 90s. We know that he used weapons of mass destruction against the Iranians in the Iran-Iraq war. This is a regime that would really stop at nothing in order to dominate its region and to terrorize its neighbors. BOETTCHER: A repeat of the 1991 Gulf War appears to be the least likely option. If the Bush Administration decides Iraq should be the next target in the war against terrorism. Instead, the model of success in Afghanistan is being pushed by proponents of action against Iraq, give military backing to Iraqi opposition groups. However, key figures in the Bush Administration have doubts.
COLIN POWELL, SECRETARY OF STATE: We're talking about two different countries, two different situations, and two different kinds of military forces. The Northern Alliance was a force that was that owned a part of Afghanistan, and was a competent military force, but needed the support of American air power. The Iraqi opposition does not yet rise to that level.
BOETTCHER: Still, Washington is in agreement on one point, President Bush is faced with his father's problem a full ten years after the Gulf War: What to do with Saddam Hussein.
Mike Boettcher CNN Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
