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CNN Live Today

Iraqi Leaders Say Iraq Is Ready to Defend Itself

Aired April 29, 2002 - 12:24   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.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Well, the White House and President Bush facing pressure from some corners of Congress to get legislative clearance before any targeting of Iraq is to take place.

Senator Russ Feingold is responding to a newspaper report that the U.S. is plotting a major military campaign against Saddam Hussein early next year. That report was in the "New York Times" over the weekend, but the White House and many Pentagon officials are downplaying that article.

How does it all sound though to the people living in Baghdad? CNN's Nic Robertson standing by live in Iraq, the capitol where he has been taking the pulse among the Iraqi people there, Nic, hello. Good evening.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Bill. Well, with the people here it does depend who you talk to but their responses vary from defiance to resignation, from answers like "let America come, we'll show them exactly what we can do" to "well; we've been through it before. We know we can survive, so we know we'll be OK."

Now a little earlier, this question was put to the Iraqi Oil Minister here, General Amer Rashid, and he said if the United States tries something like this, then we'll defeat them. Those were his words; we'll defeat them as we did before in the Gulf War.

Now Tariq Aziz, the Deputy Prime Minister here, perhaps a little more pragmatic. He says that the Iraqi people are ready to defend their country, ready to defend their sovereignty. He says the Iraqi leadership is ready to defend the country and the sovereignty. He also went on to say that the United States doesn't have any...

HEMMER: All right, clearly we had a bit of an interruption in our satellite signal there from Baghdad. Oftentimes, it is difficult as one can imagine to figure out all the technology and get it back here to the CNN Center.

Nic Robertson again reporting live from the streets of Baghdad, reaction from the Iraqi people about what they're hearing based on various news reports here in the U.S. If we can reestablish that, we'll certainly get you back to Baghdad.

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