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CNN Live At Daybreak

Former Iraqi Oil Minister Surrenders

Aired April 29, 2003 - 06:07   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.


CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Let's travel 50 miles now and head to Baghdad to check in with Rym Brahimi, where another in the deck of cards has surrendered to U.S. authorities.
Good morning -- Rym. Tell us about it.

RYM BRAHIMI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Carol.

Before we get to that, I'd just like to say in the context of what we just heard on Karl's reporting of that incident in Falluja, we hear from the U.S. deputy commander of ground forces here in Iraq that they will be boosting the number of U.S. troops here on the ground in the Iraqi capital. Now, between the next 7 to 10 days, up to 4,000 infantry and military policemen will be coming into Baghdad, and that's precisely to stem the level of violence, the insecurity here in Iraq.

There's quite a lot of sporadic gun fighting -- gunfire shots that we hear. In fact, just two minutes ago, Carol, we were hearing gunfire coming from that area just behind me. So, security a major problem still in Iraq.

Let's get back to Amir Rashid, the oil minister. He surrendered himself to U.S. coalition forces yesterday.

Now, he would be an interesting catch for the U.S. indeed, because he was oil minister for some six years. And, of course, he would have been privy to all of the oil contracts that Iraq signed, as well as to the oil smuggling that is believed to have paid for a lot of the rebuilding of Iraq's weapons programs.

He would also be of great use in terms of just what Iraq was doing with its missile programs, because before that, he was in charge of developing long-range missile programs as well.

So, definitely a good catch here for the U.S. military -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Absolutely. Rym Brahimi reporting live from Baghdad this morning.

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 29, 2003 - 06:07   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Let's travel 50 miles now and head to Baghdad to check in with Rym Brahimi, where another in the deck of cards has surrendered to U.S. authorities.
Good morning -- Rym. Tell us about it.

RYM BRAHIMI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Carol.

Before we get to that, I'd just like to say in the context of what we just heard on Karl's reporting of that incident in Falluja, we hear from the U.S. deputy commander of ground forces here in Iraq that they will be boosting the number of U.S. troops here on the ground in the Iraqi capital. Now, between the next 7 to 10 days, up to 4,000 infantry and military policemen will be coming into Baghdad, and that's precisely to stem the level of violence, the insecurity here in Iraq.

There's quite a lot of sporadic gun fighting -- gunfire shots that we hear. In fact, just two minutes ago, Carol, we were hearing gunfire coming from that area just behind me. So, security a major problem still in Iraq.

Let's get back to Amir Rashid, the oil minister. He surrendered himself to U.S. coalition forces yesterday.

Now, he would be an interesting catch for the U.S. indeed, because he was oil minister for some six years. And, of course, he would have been privy to all of the oil contracts that Iraq signed, as well as to the oil smuggling that is believed to have paid for a lot of the rebuilding of Iraq's weapons programs.

He would also be of great use in terms of just what Iraq was doing with its missile programs, because before that, he was in charge of developing long-range missile programs as well.

So, definitely a good catch here for the U.S. military -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Absolutely. Rym Brahimi reporting live from Baghdad this morning.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.