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CNN Live At Daybreak

Shi'ites Converge on Najaf for Cleric's Funeral

Aired September 02, 2003 - 06:37   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: We want to take you back to Iraq now to Najaf for the latest on that massive funeral for the slain Shi'ite cleric. Ben Wedeman is live there.
The funeral procession has ended, right? But hundreds of thousands are still gathered, aren't they?

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN CAIRO BUREAU CHIEF: That's correct, Carol. They're gathered outside the Imam Ali Mosque. That's where that bomb went off on Friday. But today, throughout the morning, they were streaming into the city from a variety of directions.

And we had a chance to see the coffin of the late Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim. He was the leader of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, who was assassinated in that bombing.

Of course, his remains are not in the coffin, because they simply have not been able to be identified. All they could find was a wristwatch, his ring and his turban.

And as the crowd went by, we heard them chanting for the death to former members of the deposed Ba'ath Party. And, in fact, just a while afterwards, Ahmed Chalabi, who is the head of the Iraqi National Congress and now the rotating head of the coalition-appointed Governing Council, said that he does believe that investigators will eventually follow a trail back to Saddam Hussein, Ba'ath Party members, and what he described as foreign elements who have entered the country since the fall of that regime.

Now, another bit of information. According to Iraqi police, they found a car today that was stuffed with explosives. That is the second car bomb that was found in this city in the last two days -- Carol.

COSTELLO: And interesting, there was another car bomb, of course, which exploded outside of a police station in Baghdad, so an interesting series of events.

I wanted to ask you about the chanting there, though, about the death to former Ba'ath Party leaders. Does that mean most Iraqis do not believe this latest audiotape of what is supposedly Saddam Hussein?

WEDEMAN: No, they certainly do not. And many people here were quite angry that the Al-Jazeera Arabic satellite news channel even broadcast that. They are very hostile to Al-Jazeera, because they accuse it if being sympathetic to Saddam Hussein. They say that during the regime of the reign of Saddam, they were completely indifferent to the suffering of the Iraqi people in general and to the suffering of Shi'ites in particular.

So, most people immediately discount whatever is purported to be a statement from Saddam Hussein. They don't believe he had nothing to do with it. They, in fact, have personal experience at having dealt with the brutality of that regime, and they expect the worst from this man who slaughtered, in their opinion, hundreds of thousands of their own -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Ben Wedeman reporting live from Najaf 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 September 2, 2003 - 06:37   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: We want to take you back to Iraq now to Najaf for the latest on that massive funeral for the slain Shi'ite cleric. Ben Wedeman is live there.
The funeral procession has ended, right? But hundreds of thousands are still gathered, aren't they?

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN CAIRO BUREAU CHIEF: That's correct, Carol. They're gathered outside the Imam Ali Mosque. That's where that bomb went off on Friday. But today, throughout the morning, they were streaming into the city from a variety of directions.

And we had a chance to see the coffin of the late Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim. He was the leader of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, who was assassinated in that bombing.

Of course, his remains are not in the coffin, because they simply have not been able to be identified. All they could find was a wristwatch, his ring and his turban.

And as the crowd went by, we heard them chanting for the death to former members of the deposed Ba'ath Party. And, in fact, just a while afterwards, Ahmed Chalabi, who is the head of the Iraqi National Congress and now the rotating head of the coalition-appointed Governing Council, said that he does believe that investigators will eventually follow a trail back to Saddam Hussein, Ba'ath Party members, and what he described as foreign elements who have entered the country since the fall of that regime.

Now, another bit of information. According to Iraqi police, they found a car today that was stuffed with explosives. That is the second car bomb that was found in this city in the last two days -- Carol.

COSTELLO: And interesting, there was another car bomb, of course, which exploded outside of a police station in Baghdad, so an interesting series of events.

I wanted to ask you about the chanting there, though, about the death to former Ba'ath Party leaders. Does that mean most Iraqis do not believe this latest audiotape of what is supposedly Saddam Hussein?

WEDEMAN: No, they certainly do not. And many people here were quite angry that the Al-Jazeera Arabic satellite news channel even broadcast that. They are very hostile to Al-Jazeera, because they accuse it if being sympathetic to Saddam Hussein. They say that during the regime of the reign of Saddam, they were completely indifferent to the suffering of the Iraqi people in general and to the suffering of Shi'ites in particular.

So, most people immediately discount whatever is purported to be a statement from Saddam Hussein. They don't believe he had nothing to do with it. They, in fact, have personal experience at having dealt with the brutality of that regime, and they expect the worst from this man who slaughtered, in their opinion, hundreds of thousands of their own -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Ben Wedeman reporting live from Najaf 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.