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Saddam's Sons Killed: What's Next?
Aired July 23, 2003 - 11:07 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.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: The U.S. military says it will provide positive proof in due time of the death of Saddam Hussein's two sons. Their killing raises as many questions as it answers. Chief among them is, where is Saddam Hussein?
Well, to look at the effects of the deaths, let's bring in CNN analyst Ken Pollack. He is standing by in Washington.
Good, Ken, good to see you, Ken.
First of all, does this indicate to you that they may be closer now to finding out exactly where Saddam Hussein is? Would you expect any information to his whereabouts to be with Uday or Qusay?
KEN POLLACK, CNN ANALYST: I think the best we can say is it's certainly possible, that there is information with Uday and Qusay that will give them a better sense either of where Saddam is, or perhaps better how he is operating, because I think that's the big thing. What we've learned from Uday and Qusay's death is that the key regime figures continue to move around quite frequently. The little bit of information we have indicates that they showed up rather suddenly at this home, and they probably weren't planning on staying very long. This was how the key regime figures operated during the recent war, and also during the first Gulf War, and it suggests that Saddam is doing the same thing.
So chances are, even if there's information saying he was at this address a week ago, he's probably isn't there again. But what may be there is information indicating how he is moving around the country, who's protecting him, how he is evading U.S. surveillance and how the U.S. might be able to catch him.
HARRIS: Are you at all curious in why they were found in Mosul? Because it would seem as though that would be the one place that would be most hostile to anyone from the regime, seeing as Mosul is right next -- or pretty much smack-dab in the middle of the Kurdish areas of Iraq?
POLLACK: Well, that's certainly true, but Mosul actually has a very large Sunni-Arab population as well. In fact, a lot of key regime figures, key Army generals and other members of the regime came from Mosul. Mosul is famous for having a number of large Sunni-Arab families who furnished many well-respected Iraqi generals over the last 80 to 100 years.
HARRIS: Do you think that the Pentagon is going to have any other choice but to release the pictures of the bodies here? And it's been stated the mission here is to win the hearts and minds of Iraqi citizens. The best way in almost every estimation to do that is to do so with the pictures. Do you think the Pentagon has any choice here?
POLLACK: Well, I think they do have a choice. I don't think that it's quite a sealed case at this point in time, because who knows exactly what the pictures show, how gruesome, how grisly they may be, what their other reasons may be by not releasing the photos. But I certainly do believe that it's going to be hard to convince the Iraqi people if they don't show the photos, if they don't broadcast them in some way, shape or form. The Iraqi people have been traumatized by this regime. While they seem to be very glad that it looks like Uday and Qusay are dead. Until they're certain, I think many Iraqis are going to still have it in the back of their heads that may be they're being deceived, maybe the Americans don't know where he is and want to convince them, otherwise until they can see real, tangible proof, it's going to be very hard for them to really internalize the idea that Uday and Qusay are finally dead.
HARRIS: Ken Pollack, we thank you for your comments this morning. Ken Pollack in Washington.
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 23, 2003 - 11:07 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: The U.S. military says it will provide positive proof in due time of the death of Saddam Hussein's two sons. Their killing raises as many questions as it answers. Chief among them is, where is Saddam Hussein?
Well, to look at the effects of the deaths, let's bring in CNN analyst Ken Pollack. He is standing by in Washington.
Good, Ken, good to see you, Ken.
First of all, does this indicate to you that they may be closer now to finding out exactly where Saddam Hussein is? Would you expect any information to his whereabouts to be with Uday or Qusay?
KEN POLLACK, CNN ANALYST: I think the best we can say is it's certainly possible, that there is information with Uday and Qusay that will give them a better sense either of where Saddam is, or perhaps better how he is operating, because I think that's the big thing. What we've learned from Uday and Qusay's death is that the key regime figures continue to move around quite frequently. The little bit of information we have indicates that they showed up rather suddenly at this home, and they probably weren't planning on staying very long. This was how the key regime figures operated during the recent war, and also during the first Gulf War, and it suggests that Saddam is doing the same thing.
So chances are, even if there's information saying he was at this address a week ago, he's probably isn't there again. But what may be there is information indicating how he is moving around the country, who's protecting him, how he is evading U.S. surveillance and how the U.S. might be able to catch him.
HARRIS: Are you at all curious in why they were found in Mosul? Because it would seem as though that would be the one place that would be most hostile to anyone from the regime, seeing as Mosul is right next -- or pretty much smack-dab in the middle of the Kurdish areas of Iraq?
POLLACK: Well, that's certainly true, but Mosul actually has a very large Sunni-Arab population as well. In fact, a lot of key regime figures, key Army generals and other members of the regime came from Mosul. Mosul is famous for having a number of large Sunni-Arab families who furnished many well-respected Iraqi generals over the last 80 to 100 years.
HARRIS: Do you think that the Pentagon is going to have any other choice but to release the pictures of the bodies here? And it's been stated the mission here is to win the hearts and minds of Iraqi citizens. The best way in almost every estimation to do that is to do so with the pictures. Do you think the Pentagon has any choice here?
POLLACK: Well, I think they do have a choice. I don't think that it's quite a sealed case at this point in time, because who knows exactly what the pictures show, how gruesome, how grisly they may be, what their other reasons may be by not releasing the photos. But I certainly do believe that it's going to be hard to convince the Iraqi people if they don't show the photos, if they don't broadcast them in some way, shape or form. The Iraqi people have been traumatized by this regime. While they seem to be very glad that it looks like Uday and Qusay are dead. Until they're certain, I think many Iraqis are going to still have it in the back of their heads that may be they're being deceived, maybe the Americans don't know where he is and want to convince them, otherwise until they can see real, tangible proof, it's going to be very hard for them to really internalize the idea that Uday and Qusay are finally dead.
HARRIS: Ken Pollack, we thank you for your comments this morning. Ken Pollack in Washington.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
