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CNN Live At Daybreak
Covering Aftermath of Operation Iraqi Freedom
Aired August 21, 2003 - 05:33 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 a slice of every day life where life is a precision commodity, Iraq.
International assignment editor Tomaz Etzler has just returned from covering the aftermath of the Operation Iraqi Freedom.
So welcome back belatedly.
TOMAZ ETZLER, INTERNATIONAL ASSIGNMENT EDITOR: Good morning.
Thank you.
COSTELLO: I always see you over there working, but I never come and talk to you because you look so busy.
ETZLER: Well, its extremely busy, especially in Iraq. We have been working 18, 20 hours a day, sometimes two days straight, you know? It's very, very, very busy.
COSTELLO: It's crazy. But you just returned from Iraq.
ETZLER: Yes.
COSTELLO: And you brought back some pictures for us. And I was curious to know what life is like just as a -- just living there.
ETZLER: It's, it is very difficult. It's a country which is pretty much destroyed, not just by the, you know, the war, but, you know, the sanctions. They left the whole entire country in shambles. You know, every infrastructure needs updating. You know, every infrastructure needs repairs. There is no functioning phones. There is poor plumbing everywhere. It's a very difficult country to work in and to live in.
COSTELLO: Well, let's start at the beginning, because what you were telling me yesterday was quite interesting. You can't exactly fly into Baghdad. You fly into Jordan?
ETZLER: Yes, you fly to Jordan to Amman and then you take -- you have to take a freeway to Baghdad, which takes around 13 to 15 hours. It depends on conditions. It's a freeway which is frequently attacked, especially before Baghdad, 16, 17 miles west of Baghdad is this fairly dangerous area where many convoys are attacked either with journalists or with NGOs, because the bandits operating in that area realize that the journalists and NGOs are coming with stacks of cash and with very expensive equipment so...
COSTELLO: So you're carrying money in the car because there aren't any ATMs in Baghdad.
ETZLER: Absolutely. There is no ATM, there are no functioning banks. Everything was looted from the banks. So we have to bring the cash on our own.
COSTELLO: And CNN correspondents stay at the Palestine Hotel still?
ETZLER: Yes. CNN correspondents, I believe APTN stays still in the Palestine Hotel. It's an infamous hotel. It's a hotel which is also in need of repairs. I, for example, had, you know, only half of the time I was there I had electricity in my room, which means sometimes, you know, during the 125 degree weather outside, there is no air conditioning. Also, the bizarre thing what happened, for two weeks I only had hot water in my room and my colleagues who were even a couple stories above me, they had only cold water. So it's not a five star hotel.
COSTELLO: You have to wonder how that would happen. Only having hot water in a country that's 125 degrees would not be pleasant.
ETZLER: It's not refreshing, no. Absolutely not.
COSTELLO: So there is a swimming pool there, but you can't exactly use it.
ETZLER: Well, I hope they've fixed it. You know, they, the swimming pool when we first arrived was empty, filled with trash and dust. It was very, very dirty. And they took great care of it. It took them months to clear it and clean it up and then finally fill it up with water. But the next morning when we wake up, we were looking forward to get, you know, chilled out within the pool, their filter broke. And I have no idea where they are getting the water from, but the water that was in the pool was disgusting. It was...
COSTELLO: Where do you get a new filter in Baghdad?
ETZLER: I know. Well, they got it, actually, but the water in the pool was disgusting for another month. It was kind of a green liquid which you couldn't see through with some oil kind of greasy in terms of...
COSTELLO: Yes, I mean in the grand scheme of life, you know, a swimming pool isn't important, but living there with not much to do and 125 degree heat with no air conditioning, that must be miserable. What do you eat there?
ETZLER: You eat local food. You order from local restaurants.
COSTELLO: What is that?
ETZLER: Most of the diet there is chicken and lamb kebobs or kufta, rice, beans and they open now restaurants, you know, they try to call it Chinese restaurants or Indian restaurants. But we ordered from them and we never recognized actually what the food is, you know? It was all about... COSTELLO: It was still chicken and lamb.
ETZLER: It was chicken with some -- or lamb with some very sweet sauce and fruit, you know? And we had these little discussion clubs, you know, trying to guess what is in there. But it's an amazing experience, very, very interesting.
COSTELLO: Yes, just one more question, because, you know, I've been so curious about this. You know, we see Rym Brahimi out there working for hours and hours and hours. What can she do as a woman when she's off work? Can she go anywhere to have a good time, to relax?
ETZLER: There is no, there is really no place to go, you know, neither for men or women at the moment in Baghdad. There is no entertainment. It's still very, very dangerous for, especially for Westerners to walk around by, you know, on their own. The biggest source of entertainment is like meeting other journalists, you know, people -- it's sharing stories, sharing stories not just about the story in Iraq, but, you know, from our previous meetings. Where have you been for the last year, you know? What did you see?
And it's like one of the few little moments when you can kind of relax, if you have time to do that. In the last three days, Rym was, or two days, was covering the tragedy of the explosion in the U.N. compound and I'm sure she was working 48 hours a day.
COSTELLO: Exactly.
Thank you very much for joining us this morning and giving us a look at that slice of life.
ETZLER: Thank you.
COSTELLO: Very interesting, Tomaz.
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 August 21, 2003 - 05:33 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Now a slice of every day life where life is a precision commodity, Iraq.
International assignment editor Tomaz Etzler has just returned from covering the aftermath of the Operation Iraqi Freedom.
So welcome back belatedly.
TOMAZ ETZLER, INTERNATIONAL ASSIGNMENT EDITOR: Good morning.
Thank you.
COSTELLO: I always see you over there working, but I never come and talk to you because you look so busy.
ETZLER: Well, its extremely busy, especially in Iraq. We have been working 18, 20 hours a day, sometimes two days straight, you know? It's very, very, very busy.
COSTELLO: It's crazy. But you just returned from Iraq.
ETZLER: Yes.
COSTELLO: And you brought back some pictures for us. And I was curious to know what life is like just as a -- just living there.
ETZLER: It's, it is very difficult. It's a country which is pretty much destroyed, not just by the, you know, the war, but, you know, the sanctions. They left the whole entire country in shambles. You know, every infrastructure needs updating. You know, every infrastructure needs repairs. There is no functioning phones. There is poor plumbing everywhere. It's a very difficult country to work in and to live in.
COSTELLO: Well, let's start at the beginning, because what you were telling me yesterday was quite interesting. You can't exactly fly into Baghdad. You fly into Jordan?
ETZLER: Yes, you fly to Jordan to Amman and then you take -- you have to take a freeway to Baghdad, which takes around 13 to 15 hours. It depends on conditions. It's a freeway which is frequently attacked, especially before Baghdad, 16, 17 miles west of Baghdad is this fairly dangerous area where many convoys are attacked either with journalists or with NGOs, because the bandits operating in that area realize that the journalists and NGOs are coming with stacks of cash and with very expensive equipment so...
COSTELLO: So you're carrying money in the car because there aren't any ATMs in Baghdad.
ETZLER: Absolutely. There is no ATM, there are no functioning banks. Everything was looted from the banks. So we have to bring the cash on our own.
COSTELLO: And CNN correspondents stay at the Palestine Hotel still?
ETZLER: Yes. CNN correspondents, I believe APTN stays still in the Palestine Hotel. It's an infamous hotel. It's a hotel which is also in need of repairs. I, for example, had, you know, only half of the time I was there I had electricity in my room, which means sometimes, you know, during the 125 degree weather outside, there is no air conditioning. Also, the bizarre thing what happened, for two weeks I only had hot water in my room and my colleagues who were even a couple stories above me, they had only cold water. So it's not a five star hotel.
COSTELLO: You have to wonder how that would happen. Only having hot water in a country that's 125 degrees would not be pleasant.
ETZLER: It's not refreshing, no. Absolutely not.
COSTELLO: So there is a swimming pool there, but you can't exactly use it.
ETZLER: Well, I hope they've fixed it. You know, they, the swimming pool when we first arrived was empty, filled with trash and dust. It was very, very dirty. And they took great care of it. It took them months to clear it and clean it up and then finally fill it up with water. But the next morning when we wake up, we were looking forward to get, you know, chilled out within the pool, their filter broke. And I have no idea where they are getting the water from, but the water that was in the pool was disgusting. It was...
COSTELLO: Where do you get a new filter in Baghdad?
ETZLER: I know. Well, they got it, actually, but the water in the pool was disgusting for another month. It was kind of a green liquid which you couldn't see through with some oil kind of greasy in terms of...
COSTELLO: Yes, I mean in the grand scheme of life, you know, a swimming pool isn't important, but living there with not much to do and 125 degree heat with no air conditioning, that must be miserable. What do you eat there?
ETZLER: You eat local food. You order from local restaurants.
COSTELLO: What is that?
ETZLER: Most of the diet there is chicken and lamb kebobs or kufta, rice, beans and they open now restaurants, you know, they try to call it Chinese restaurants or Indian restaurants. But we ordered from them and we never recognized actually what the food is, you know? It was all about... COSTELLO: It was still chicken and lamb.
ETZLER: It was chicken with some -- or lamb with some very sweet sauce and fruit, you know? And we had these little discussion clubs, you know, trying to guess what is in there. But it's an amazing experience, very, very interesting.
COSTELLO: Yes, just one more question, because, you know, I've been so curious about this. You know, we see Rym Brahimi out there working for hours and hours and hours. What can she do as a woman when she's off work? Can she go anywhere to have a good time, to relax?
ETZLER: There is no, there is really no place to go, you know, neither for men or women at the moment in Baghdad. There is no entertainment. It's still very, very dangerous for, especially for Westerners to walk around by, you know, on their own. The biggest source of entertainment is like meeting other journalists, you know, people -- it's sharing stories, sharing stories not just about the story in Iraq, but, you know, from our previous meetings. Where have you been for the last year, you know? What did you see?
And it's like one of the few little moments when you can kind of relax, if you have time to do that. In the last three days, Rym was, or two days, was covering the tragedy of the explosion in the U.N. compound and I'm sure she was working 48 hours a day.
COSTELLO: Exactly.
Thank you very much for joining us this morning and giving us a look at that slice of life.
ETZLER: Thank you.
COSTELLO: Very interesting, Tomaz.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
