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CNN Live At Daybreak
Iraqis Clamoring for Contact With Outside World
Aired April 14, 2003 - 06:50 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.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Now some images, the latest images of the war. U.S. Cobra attack helicopters were seen this morning flying over the city of Tikrit. The Cobras, along with F-18s, supported a major Marine ground offensive in Saddam Hussein's ancestral homeland. Tikrit is just about under coalition control.
Earlier today, a two hour firefight in central Baghdad showed the capital is still not safe. U.S. Marines arrested three men suspected of shooting at them. And U.S. Marines found a score of luxury cars in Baghdad's city hall. The vehicles are believed to belong to major players in the Iraqi regime. Some of the cars are worth as much as $10 million, and that's just for one car.
Keeping in touch is something we Americans, with our cell phones attached to our ears, take for granted. But go to Baghdad and keeping in touch can take hours of waiting and lots of pleading.
Here's Rula Amin.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RULA AMIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They wait for hours to find a journalist and they plead with us to borrow or mobile satellite phones. They need to send a message to their families abroad, just to tell them we are alive, says this woman. Here, they wait outside a restaurant, where journalists hang out and they are desperate. "Only for one minute," says this mother. She wants to call her pregnant daughter Sabah (ph) in Sweden to see if she has delivered. "It's not good for her to worry about us," she says.
Across the fence, a 21-year-old U.S. Marine named Jason Cook (ph) is after the same phones. He wants to call his mom in Houston. A "New York Times" reporter lends Cook his mobile SAT phone.
COOK: I love you too, mom. Hey, old man. I'm in the middle of Baghdad, just patrolling up and down the streets.
AMIN: Cook hasn't spoken to his family since Super Bowl Sunday, January 26. On this one sidewalk in Baghdad, they were all doing the most natural thing during war, trying to reach their loved ones.
COOK: My mother, brother and sister.
AMIN (on camera): How many do you have?
COOK: I've got an older brother and a little brother and sister.
AMIN (voice-over): His mother told him to keep his head down.
COOK: She didn't believe I was really talking to her.
AMIN: We do our share. And the first to call is the mother.
(VIDEO CLIP OF MOTHER TALKING TO DAUGHTER IN ARABIC)
AMIN: Sabah hasn't delivered yet. Nevertheless, the mother is happy. Everyone wanted to call. We couldn't accommodate everybody, so on small notes they wrote the phone numbers we didn't get to dial, hoping we'd deliver on our promise that we call on their behalf.
Rula Amin, CNN, Baghdad.
(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
Aired April 14, 2003 - 06:50 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Now some images, the latest images of the war. U.S. Cobra attack helicopters were seen this morning flying over the city of Tikrit. The Cobras, along with F-18s, supported a major Marine ground offensive in Saddam Hussein's ancestral homeland. Tikrit is just about under coalition control.
Earlier today, a two hour firefight in central Baghdad showed the capital is still not safe. U.S. Marines arrested three men suspected of shooting at them. And U.S. Marines found a score of luxury cars in Baghdad's city hall. The vehicles are believed to belong to major players in the Iraqi regime. Some of the cars are worth as much as $10 million, and that's just for one car.
Keeping in touch is something we Americans, with our cell phones attached to our ears, take for granted. But go to Baghdad and keeping in touch can take hours of waiting and lots of pleading.
Here's Rula Amin.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RULA AMIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They wait for hours to find a journalist and they plead with us to borrow or mobile satellite phones. They need to send a message to their families abroad, just to tell them we are alive, says this woman. Here, they wait outside a restaurant, where journalists hang out and they are desperate. "Only for one minute," says this mother. She wants to call her pregnant daughter Sabah (ph) in Sweden to see if she has delivered. "It's not good for her to worry about us," she says.
Across the fence, a 21-year-old U.S. Marine named Jason Cook (ph) is after the same phones. He wants to call his mom in Houston. A "New York Times" reporter lends Cook his mobile SAT phone.
COOK: I love you too, mom. Hey, old man. I'm in the middle of Baghdad, just patrolling up and down the streets.
AMIN: Cook hasn't spoken to his family since Super Bowl Sunday, January 26. On this one sidewalk in Baghdad, they were all doing the most natural thing during war, trying to reach their loved ones.
COOK: My mother, brother and sister.
AMIN (on camera): How many do you have?
COOK: I've got an older brother and a little brother and sister.
AMIN (voice-over): His mother told him to keep his head down.
COOK: She didn't believe I was really talking to her.
AMIN: We do our share. And the first to call is the mother.
(VIDEO CLIP OF MOTHER TALKING TO DAUGHTER IN ARABIC)
AMIN: Sabah hasn't delivered yet. Nevertheless, the mother is happy. Everyone wanted to call. We couldn't accommodate everybody, so on small notes they wrote the phone numbers we didn't get to dial, hoping we'd deliver on our promise that we call on their behalf.
Rula Amin, CNN, Baghdad.
(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
