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American Morning
U.S. Forces in Iraq Came Under Attack This Morning
Aired July 09, 2003 - 08:04 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.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: U.S. forces in Iraq came under attack this morning, this time in Fallujah. And CENTCOM is now confirming that two more Iraqis from the list of 55 most wanted are now in custody.
Baghdad bureau chief Jane Arraf has the latest developments for us this morning.
She is live in the capital -- good morning to you, Jane.
JANE ARRAF, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.
Well, it is turning out to be almost the weapon of choice, rocket propelled grenades. And as you mentioned, U.S. soldiers in Fallujah, that restive town west of Baghdad, did come under attack. No casualties reported in that one, though. It's an indication that things are continuing to simmer in Baghdad and around Baghdad, north and west. But they are making progress on that list of most wanted.
Now, Saddam and his sons remains elusive targets. But two more arrests, as you mentioned, and these ones fairly significant. One is number 23, Mizban Khadr Al Hadi. He's a member of Saddam's Revolutionary Command Council, which was the highest body in the land, and a member of the regional command of the Baath Party leadership.
Now, he was said to have given himself up yesterday in Baghdad.
The second man was arrested. He did not give himself up. He had to be taken. It was Mahmud Dhiyab Al-Ahmad, who was a former interior minister. Now, he was removed as an interior minister two years ago, but he still holds considerable sway.
At the police academy this morning, where we were watching training, police there were telling us they were overjoyed that he was gone.
Now, they're training police to try to crack down on a lot of the day to day kind of violence that's happening in Baghdad and other places. There were gunfights reported today, one in the City of Baghdad, between Iraqi police and local gunmen. No one seemed to be injured in that shootout, but it's an indication of that, and reported gunfights, as well, in Fallujah and Ramadi, another town west of Baghdad, that things are just not really settling down -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: All right, Jane Arraf, thank you very much for that report. And for the second time in less than a week, an audiotape has surfaced that is said to be the voice of Saddam Hussein. The speaker calls on Iraqis to intensify resistance against "occupying troops." The tapes revive the questions about whether Saddam is alive and directing attacks on American forces.
Thirty U.S. soldiers have been killed by hostile fire in Iraq since May 1st, which is when President Bush declared major fighting over.
Joining us this morning from Baghdad is Scott Peterson.
He is a correspondent for the "Christian Science Monitor."
Good morning to you.
Thanks for joining us.
SCOTT PETERSON, "CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR": Thank you.
O'BRIEN: It seems, at least from a military perspective, that the worst option is this uncertainty about where Saddam Hussein is. In fact, supporters of the regime seem to believe he's going to come back. People who hate Saddam Hussein seem to believe that he's going to come back.
Give me a sense of just how much this goes toward undermining any sort of efforts to build democracy in Iraq.
PETERSON: Well, I think that the fact that Saddam Hussein is still at large, or at least not proven to be dead, is probably one of the single most undermining events that's taking place in Iraq, and it's really seizing Iraqis, like you say, those who fear him and those who hope that he will come back and restore the old Baath Party and restore his regime.
So that really is, I think, one of the key aims and goals of American forces here, to try and take him down. And, of course, the problem is is that Baghdad and the rest of the country are absolutely rife with rumors, rumors of sightings of Saddam Hussein. The fact that these audiotapes have come out have further given hope to those who think that he will come back, who think that he is basically controlling the resistance against American forces here.
O'BRIEN: CENTCOM has said there is no indication that there is any sort of central command or any kind of organization in the attacks against American and British soldiers.
Do you think there's any indication from the tapes, though, that in some way Saddam Hussein is directing the attacks?
PETERSON: Well, I think that his ability to actually organize and communicate with the resistance is very, very limited. I mean we've seen some of his top people who have been arrested, who've been captured, who really are, I mean, people who haven't eaten for a couple of days who obviously are not having the kind of protection or help within the community that people imagine that Saddam Hussein has when he travels around.
So at the moment, he's probably alone or with his sons. His ability to communicate almost certainly is limited at the moment to these audiotapes that he's putting out. In that way he's able to reach a national and even international audience in a way that he never could using radios or these kind of means of communication. And, but then again, he also almost certainly is able to use different means of communications, such as sending notes. This is the kind of thing that we saw Osama bin Laden carry out when directing al Qaeda and Taliban resistance in Afghanistan.
So there really are, there are some means open to him, but certainly not very many.
O'BRIEN: Saddam Hussein is the best known person in Iraq. There is a massive bounty on his head. Security forces are searching for him day in and day out. How is he eluding capture?
PETERSON: Well, I think probably one of the reasons we're seeing audiotapes and not videotapes is he's almost certainly changed his appearance. You will -- when he is eventually found and/or killed, you'll probably find that he no longer has a mustache, maybe he's grown a beard, maybe he's changed his appearance in other far more marked ways. I mean, for example, men who have tried to evade American capture in the past, I mean General Mohamed Farah Adid in Somalia, for example, in 1993, we know for a fact that he dressed up as a woman sometimes. He dressed up as a doctor. He traveled around in taxis looking like any other Somalian.
Of course, now, Mohamed Farah Adid looked like many other Somalis in a way that Saddam Hussein is a much more recognizable character. But if he's disguised himself in ways that certainly they used in order to make his doubles, for example, look like him, then he could be very hard to spot, even if he was right in front of you.
O'BRIEN: All right, Scott Peterson from the "Christian Science Monitor," thanks for talking with us this morning.
Appreciate it.
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 July 9, 2003 - 08:04 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: U.S. forces in Iraq came under attack this morning, this time in Fallujah. And CENTCOM is now confirming that two more Iraqis from the list of 55 most wanted are now in custody.
Baghdad bureau chief Jane Arraf has the latest developments for us this morning.
She is live in the capital -- good morning to you, Jane.
JANE ARRAF, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.
Well, it is turning out to be almost the weapon of choice, rocket propelled grenades. And as you mentioned, U.S. soldiers in Fallujah, that restive town west of Baghdad, did come under attack. No casualties reported in that one, though. It's an indication that things are continuing to simmer in Baghdad and around Baghdad, north and west. But they are making progress on that list of most wanted.
Now, Saddam and his sons remains elusive targets. But two more arrests, as you mentioned, and these ones fairly significant. One is number 23, Mizban Khadr Al Hadi. He's a member of Saddam's Revolutionary Command Council, which was the highest body in the land, and a member of the regional command of the Baath Party leadership.
Now, he was said to have given himself up yesterday in Baghdad.
The second man was arrested. He did not give himself up. He had to be taken. It was Mahmud Dhiyab Al-Ahmad, who was a former interior minister. Now, he was removed as an interior minister two years ago, but he still holds considerable sway.
At the police academy this morning, where we were watching training, police there were telling us they were overjoyed that he was gone.
Now, they're training police to try to crack down on a lot of the day to day kind of violence that's happening in Baghdad and other places. There were gunfights reported today, one in the City of Baghdad, between Iraqi police and local gunmen. No one seemed to be injured in that shootout, but it's an indication of that, and reported gunfights, as well, in Fallujah and Ramadi, another town west of Baghdad, that things are just not really settling down -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: All right, Jane Arraf, thank you very much for that report. And for the second time in less than a week, an audiotape has surfaced that is said to be the voice of Saddam Hussein. The speaker calls on Iraqis to intensify resistance against "occupying troops." The tapes revive the questions about whether Saddam is alive and directing attacks on American forces.
Thirty U.S. soldiers have been killed by hostile fire in Iraq since May 1st, which is when President Bush declared major fighting over.
Joining us this morning from Baghdad is Scott Peterson.
He is a correspondent for the "Christian Science Monitor."
Good morning to you.
Thanks for joining us.
SCOTT PETERSON, "CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR": Thank you.
O'BRIEN: It seems, at least from a military perspective, that the worst option is this uncertainty about where Saddam Hussein is. In fact, supporters of the regime seem to believe he's going to come back. People who hate Saddam Hussein seem to believe that he's going to come back.
Give me a sense of just how much this goes toward undermining any sort of efforts to build democracy in Iraq.
PETERSON: Well, I think that the fact that Saddam Hussein is still at large, or at least not proven to be dead, is probably one of the single most undermining events that's taking place in Iraq, and it's really seizing Iraqis, like you say, those who fear him and those who hope that he will come back and restore the old Baath Party and restore his regime.
So that really is, I think, one of the key aims and goals of American forces here, to try and take him down. And, of course, the problem is is that Baghdad and the rest of the country are absolutely rife with rumors, rumors of sightings of Saddam Hussein. The fact that these audiotapes have come out have further given hope to those who think that he will come back, who think that he is basically controlling the resistance against American forces here.
O'BRIEN: CENTCOM has said there is no indication that there is any sort of central command or any kind of organization in the attacks against American and British soldiers.
Do you think there's any indication from the tapes, though, that in some way Saddam Hussein is directing the attacks?
PETERSON: Well, I think that his ability to actually organize and communicate with the resistance is very, very limited. I mean we've seen some of his top people who have been arrested, who've been captured, who really are, I mean, people who haven't eaten for a couple of days who obviously are not having the kind of protection or help within the community that people imagine that Saddam Hussein has when he travels around.
So at the moment, he's probably alone or with his sons. His ability to communicate almost certainly is limited at the moment to these audiotapes that he's putting out. In that way he's able to reach a national and even international audience in a way that he never could using radios or these kind of means of communication. And, but then again, he also almost certainly is able to use different means of communications, such as sending notes. This is the kind of thing that we saw Osama bin Laden carry out when directing al Qaeda and Taliban resistance in Afghanistan.
So there really are, there are some means open to him, but certainly not very many.
O'BRIEN: Saddam Hussein is the best known person in Iraq. There is a massive bounty on his head. Security forces are searching for him day in and day out. How is he eluding capture?
PETERSON: Well, I think probably one of the reasons we're seeing audiotapes and not videotapes is he's almost certainly changed his appearance. You will -- when he is eventually found and/or killed, you'll probably find that he no longer has a mustache, maybe he's grown a beard, maybe he's changed his appearance in other far more marked ways. I mean, for example, men who have tried to evade American capture in the past, I mean General Mohamed Farah Adid in Somalia, for example, in 1993, we know for a fact that he dressed up as a woman sometimes. He dressed up as a doctor. He traveled around in taxis looking like any other Somalian.
Of course, now, Mohamed Farah Adid looked like many other Somalis in a way that Saddam Hussein is a much more recognizable character. But if he's disguised himself in ways that certainly they used in order to make his doubles, for example, look like him, then he could be very hard to spot, even if he was right in front of you.
O'BRIEN: All right, Scott Peterson from the "Christian Science Monitor," thanks for talking with us this morning.
Appreciate it.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
