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CNN Live Today
The New Iraq: Torture Tapes
Aired October 31, 2003 - 10:30 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.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Amid the problems of the new Iraq, reminders of the brutality of its past.
CNN has obtained a gruesome videotape allegedly showing the torture and executions of some of Saddam Hussein's troops, all under the guise of punishment. U.S. troops first discovered the tape, and CNN has acquired it through independent sources.
Our Baghdad bureau chief Jean Arraf joins us from the capital with details on this.
Jane, hello.
JANE ARRAF, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Daryn.
You know there's always been rumors of this sort of thing, but just after the war is the first time we started seeing details and images this graphic, and this certainly is among the most gruesome.
Now, these found near a police station in Baghdad show punishment being inflicted on Saddam's Fedayeen. This was a group of paramilitary formed in the mid '90s.
And in this video, which was essentially this group documenting punishments as a deterrent to their own people. You can see that they use horrifying methods. In one, they cut off someone's tongue, apparently a punishment where something he would have said. In another, someone's arm is broken. Another person is thrown off a building, and there is even a beheading. Now the amazing thing about this is they documented everything, and that really is what we've seen. You can find tapes like this sold in the marketplace. And it's an indication this really did go on, to quite a horrifying extent. And it was made public just to make people afraid, and it certainly worked -- Daryn.
KAGAN: And what's being done with these tapes now, Jane?
ARRAF: Well, they do circulate in the markets. Some -- this gruesome, some a little bit less so. And they serve a variety of different purposes. One, people have a morbid fascination here, an intense fascination for this. For so long, this country was isolated and was cut off, and you could really only whisper about these things. And now you can actually see them in their full horror. Some of them may eventually be used for any war crimes trials, but again, this country is full of videotapes, of documents, of things that very meticulously kept a record of exactly what this regime is like.
KAGAN: Kind of makes you wonder who would want to buy the things in the marketplace.
Let's talk a little bit more about Saddam Hussein and links he might have to terrorist activities in his home city of Tikrit.
ARRAF: Well, officials here are saying they are not seeing so far any direct link between Saddam and those attacks. In fact, they are pointing the finger more at what they call foreign fighters. Now, there's always speculation he's inspiring them, and even recent talk, as we've been referring to, he may, indeed, have some connection with them. But coalition officials here in Baghdad are telling us they don't see anything solid in that.
Now an interesting development overnight actually in Saddam's birthplace. It's a tiny little place just out of Tikrit. It's called Al-Ajah (ph), And it's essentially started out as a mud village, where he was born in, now essentially a suburb, the U.S. military has sealed it off. They have cordoned off all the entrances and issued people with I.D. passes to ensure security in and out. It's an indication there that things are still turbulent around Saddam's hometown. And that is, in effect, when they find him, where they expect to find him, somewhere pretty close to home -- Daryn.
KAGAN: Jane Arraf in Baghdad. Thank you for that.
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 October 31, 2003 - 10:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Amid the problems of the new Iraq, reminders of the brutality of its past.
CNN has obtained a gruesome videotape allegedly showing the torture and executions of some of Saddam Hussein's troops, all under the guise of punishment. U.S. troops first discovered the tape, and CNN has acquired it through independent sources.
Our Baghdad bureau chief Jean Arraf joins us from the capital with details on this.
Jane, hello.
JANE ARRAF, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Daryn.
You know there's always been rumors of this sort of thing, but just after the war is the first time we started seeing details and images this graphic, and this certainly is among the most gruesome.
Now, these found near a police station in Baghdad show punishment being inflicted on Saddam's Fedayeen. This was a group of paramilitary formed in the mid '90s.
And in this video, which was essentially this group documenting punishments as a deterrent to their own people. You can see that they use horrifying methods. In one, they cut off someone's tongue, apparently a punishment where something he would have said. In another, someone's arm is broken. Another person is thrown off a building, and there is even a beheading. Now the amazing thing about this is they documented everything, and that really is what we've seen. You can find tapes like this sold in the marketplace. And it's an indication this really did go on, to quite a horrifying extent. And it was made public just to make people afraid, and it certainly worked -- Daryn.
KAGAN: And what's being done with these tapes now, Jane?
ARRAF: Well, they do circulate in the markets. Some -- this gruesome, some a little bit less so. And they serve a variety of different purposes. One, people have a morbid fascination here, an intense fascination for this. For so long, this country was isolated and was cut off, and you could really only whisper about these things. And now you can actually see them in their full horror. Some of them may eventually be used for any war crimes trials, but again, this country is full of videotapes, of documents, of things that very meticulously kept a record of exactly what this regime is like.
KAGAN: Kind of makes you wonder who would want to buy the things in the marketplace.
Let's talk a little bit more about Saddam Hussein and links he might have to terrorist activities in his home city of Tikrit.
ARRAF: Well, officials here are saying they are not seeing so far any direct link between Saddam and those attacks. In fact, they are pointing the finger more at what they call foreign fighters. Now, there's always speculation he's inspiring them, and even recent talk, as we've been referring to, he may, indeed, have some connection with them. But coalition officials here in Baghdad are telling us they don't see anything solid in that.
Now an interesting development overnight actually in Saddam's birthplace. It's a tiny little place just out of Tikrit. It's called Al-Ajah (ph), And it's essentially started out as a mud village, where he was born in, now essentially a suburb, the U.S. military has sealed it off. They have cordoned off all the entrances and issued people with I.D. passes to ensure security in and out. It's an indication there that things are still turbulent around Saddam's hometown. And that is, in effect, when they find him, where they expect to find him, somewhere pretty close to home -- Daryn.
KAGAN: Jane Arraf in Baghdad. Thank you for that.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
