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CNN Live At Daybreak
Audiotape Supposedly Made This Week by Saddam Hussein
Aired May 07, 2003 - 05:04 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: All right, on to that report now about an audiotape supposedly made this week by Saddam Hussein. It's not confirmed, but the "Sydney Morning Herald" is reporting the tape sounds like the ousted Iraqi leader.
We want to get more details on this from our Karl Penhaul, who is live in Baghdad this morning -- so where did this tape come from, Karl?
KARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Carol.
Yes, first, a little bit about the circumstances of the tape. Two men were approaching, two Iraqi men were approaching the Palestine Hotel, which is the hangout for most Western journalists in Baghdad. They came close to the hotel but then saw the perimeter surrounded by U.S. troops, by barbed wire covered by tanks.
And so what then happened was apparently they came across a Western newspaper reporter and his translator. It seems that they may have recognized the translator as a former person who used to work with Saddam Hussein's regime. And so at that point they panicked a little bit. They said to the translator, if you consider yourself a true Iraqi, make sure this tape gets out.
They handed him the tape and then they were gone, panicking. They left before American troops could get a bead on them and that anything was going on. And so from then on CNN has now acquired a tape, a copy of the tape. It must be said that the tape has been recorded a little fast. It seems there were some faults in the audio recordings. Not a great recording. We're trying to go into a studio and try and fix that up now.
But the calls contained in the tape quite dramatic, a call to the Iraqi people to start a resistance war against the Americans.
Let's listen to part of that speech.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Through the secret means, I'm talking to you from inside great Iraq and I say to you, the main task for you, Arab and Kurd, Shiite and Sunni, Muslim and Christian and the whole Iraqi people of all religions, your main task is to kick the enemy out from our country. You have to believe that he who is working with the foreigners is working against you. He is not only a servant for foreigners, he is an enemy of god and an enemy of the people, as well. Reject these people and reject anything that will divide you, Iraqi people.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PENHAUL: We've had one of our longstanding CNN Baghdad staff listen to this tape. He's had more than many years of experience listening to Saddam Hussein's speeches and he says there are many of the trademarks of Saddam's speech patterns in this speech.
It starts off with a verse from the Quran. He throws insults and criticisms against the Americans. He rails against the Zionists. He express support for the Palestinians. But we took this tape and a tape recorder onto the streets of Baghdad and we played it to some of the people gathering on street corners to see what they thought.
Mixed reactions and certainly very hot debate, certain people thinking that, yes, it indefinitely was Saddam. Others thinking no, it definitely wasn't Saddam. Others said it doesn't matter whether it is Saddam or not. We don't care if he's dead or alive. Saddam is gone. Saddam is no longer our leader.
But that doesn't necessarily mean that they support the Americans. They think that the Americans are not doing a particularly good job in restoring law and order to this country. But they say that they're not ready to support any calls for a real resistance war, as Saddam is calling for in this speech -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Yes, I was just going to ask you that, Karl. He speaks of this underground struggle. Is there any sense at all there is actually one out there?
PENHAUL: Not really, Carol. Yes, obviously we've all heard the reports of sporadic shootings both in Baghdad and certain parts of Iraq. We hear gunfire every night in Baghdad. It doesn't seem that there's any organized resistance. In fact, we're here standing now at the old headquarters of Saddam's military intelligence apparatus. You can see one of the mosaics of Saddam Hussein behind us still not being defaced.
But within these buildings, there's a whole gang of looters raiding this place. We also talked to them. Their reaction was much the same. They're not going to support any calls for a resistance war by Saddam Hussein.
COSTELLO: All right, Karl Penhaul, you're going to talk much more about this throughout the two hours of DAYBREAK and beyond.
Thanks so much for bringing us up to date.
You can stay on top of developments in Iraq by clicking onto our Web site throughout the work day. The address, cnn.com, AOL keyword: CNN.
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 May 7, 2003 - 05:04 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: All right, on to that report now about an audiotape supposedly made this week by Saddam Hussein. It's not confirmed, but the "Sydney Morning Herald" is reporting the tape sounds like the ousted Iraqi leader.
We want to get more details on this from our Karl Penhaul, who is live in Baghdad this morning -- so where did this tape come from, Karl?
KARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Carol.
Yes, first, a little bit about the circumstances of the tape. Two men were approaching, two Iraqi men were approaching the Palestine Hotel, which is the hangout for most Western journalists in Baghdad. They came close to the hotel but then saw the perimeter surrounded by U.S. troops, by barbed wire covered by tanks.
And so what then happened was apparently they came across a Western newspaper reporter and his translator. It seems that they may have recognized the translator as a former person who used to work with Saddam Hussein's regime. And so at that point they panicked a little bit. They said to the translator, if you consider yourself a true Iraqi, make sure this tape gets out.
They handed him the tape and then they were gone, panicking. They left before American troops could get a bead on them and that anything was going on. And so from then on CNN has now acquired a tape, a copy of the tape. It must be said that the tape has been recorded a little fast. It seems there were some faults in the audio recordings. Not a great recording. We're trying to go into a studio and try and fix that up now.
But the calls contained in the tape quite dramatic, a call to the Iraqi people to start a resistance war against the Americans.
Let's listen to part of that speech.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Through the secret means, I'm talking to you from inside great Iraq and I say to you, the main task for you, Arab and Kurd, Shiite and Sunni, Muslim and Christian and the whole Iraqi people of all religions, your main task is to kick the enemy out from our country. You have to believe that he who is working with the foreigners is working against you. He is not only a servant for foreigners, he is an enemy of god and an enemy of the people, as well. Reject these people and reject anything that will divide you, Iraqi people.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PENHAUL: We've had one of our longstanding CNN Baghdad staff listen to this tape. He's had more than many years of experience listening to Saddam Hussein's speeches and he says there are many of the trademarks of Saddam's speech patterns in this speech.
It starts off with a verse from the Quran. He throws insults and criticisms against the Americans. He rails against the Zionists. He express support for the Palestinians. But we took this tape and a tape recorder onto the streets of Baghdad and we played it to some of the people gathering on street corners to see what they thought.
Mixed reactions and certainly very hot debate, certain people thinking that, yes, it indefinitely was Saddam. Others thinking no, it definitely wasn't Saddam. Others said it doesn't matter whether it is Saddam or not. We don't care if he's dead or alive. Saddam is gone. Saddam is no longer our leader.
But that doesn't necessarily mean that they support the Americans. They think that the Americans are not doing a particularly good job in restoring law and order to this country. But they say that they're not ready to support any calls for a real resistance war, as Saddam is calling for in this speech -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Yes, I was just going to ask you that, Karl. He speaks of this underground struggle. Is there any sense at all there is actually one out there?
PENHAUL: Not really, Carol. Yes, obviously we've all heard the reports of sporadic shootings both in Baghdad and certain parts of Iraq. We hear gunfire every night in Baghdad. It doesn't seem that there's any organized resistance. In fact, we're here standing now at the old headquarters of Saddam's military intelligence apparatus. You can see one of the mosaics of Saddam Hussein behind us still not being defaced.
But within these buildings, there's a whole gang of looters raiding this place. We also talked to them. Their reaction was much the same. They're not going to support any calls for a resistance war by Saddam Hussein.
COSTELLO: All right, Karl Penhaul, you're going to talk much more about this throughout the two hours of DAYBREAK and beyond.
Thanks so much for bringing us up to date.
You can stay on top of developments in Iraq by clicking onto our Web site throughout the work day. The address, cnn.com, AOL keyword: CNN.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
