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CNN Live At Daybreak
Saudi Bombing: Was It All a Mistake?
Aired November 11, 2003 - 05:01 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: Was it all a mistake? Sources in the Saudi government tell CNN Saturday's suicide bombers thought they were hitting Americans. And with mostly Arab victims in that attack, there are concerns no one is safe.
CNN's Nic Robertson spoke to some who survived the Riyadh attack.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In hospital, the injured helped on the road to recovery. Lebanese sales manager Gassan (ph) doesn't know how many stitches he's had. But with well wishers and good care, he says he's already getting better.
GASSAN: Now, the most important that we are, we get out alive. Stage two, to be able to work and to continue our life.
ROBERTSON: In another ward, Alia (ph), also Lebanese, explains it was realizing her son had survived that made her fight for her own life.
ALIA: And he was safe, without even one scratch. Don't ask me how he was that, how, he was sitting like that.
ROBERTSON: But trauma here is more than skin deep. Her husband remembers less. His few memories already hardening into mental scars.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I still hear my neighbor calling me for help and calling me to save his children.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I hope that the kids will...
ROBERTSON: Egyptian pharmacist Amir (ph) hid his children behind a couch when the attack started. They escaped unhurt and profoundly shaken.
AMIR: Everybody who was through that night would have to reevaluate his life in general. And I'm staying in a hotel right now and I'm not sure whether it's safe or not.
ROBERTSON: He's not alone. Businessmen, like expatriate Jordanian pharmacist Haldoun (ph) and his friends, who were miles from the attack Saturday, now worry Muslims are also al Qaeda's targets.
HALDOUN: Actually, now we feel that anybody could be a target because we are seeing that even, as I told you, innocent people without differentiation whether they are Westerners or they are Arab. ROBERTSON: Among Saudis, too, that strikes a raw nerve.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are not happy about that because this is not the truth of Islam that we want. These people, they are idiots.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: That report from Nic Robertson, who we believe is the only journalist from an American network reporting now from inside Saudi Arabia.
Log onto cnn.com/world for an interactive time line of the Saudi bombing and the arrests, the AOL keyword: CNN.
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 November 11, 2003 - 05:01 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Was it all a mistake? Sources in the Saudi government tell CNN Saturday's suicide bombers thought they were hitting Americans. And with mostly Arab victims in that attack, there are concerns no one is safe.
CNN's Nic Robertson spoke to some who survived the Riyadh attack.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In hospital, the injured helped on the road to recovery. Lebanese sales manager Gassan (ph) doesn't know how many stitches he's had. But with well wishers and good care, he says he's already getting better.
GASSAN: Now, the most important that we are, we get out alive. Stage two, to be able to work and to continue our life.
ROBERTSON: In another ward, Alia (ph), also Lebanese, explains it was realizing her son had survived that made her fight for her own life.
ALIA: And he was safe, without even one scratch. Don't ask me how he was that, how, he was sitting like that.
ROBERTSON: But trauma here is more than skin deep. Her husband remembers less. His few memories already hardening into mental scars.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I still hear my neighbor calling me for help and calling me to save his children.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I hope that the kids will...
ROBERTSON: Egyptian pharmacist Amir (ph) hid his children behind a couch when the attack started. They escaped unhurt and profoundly shaken.
AMIR: Everybody who was through that night would have to reevaluate his life in general. And I'm staying in a hotel right now and I'm not sure whether it's safe or not.
ROBERTSON: He's not alone. Businessmen, like expatriate Jordanian pharmacist Haldoun (ph) and his friends, who were miles from the attack Saturday, now worry Muslims are also al Qaeda's targets.
HALDOUN: Actually, now we feel that anybody could be a target because we are seeing that even, as I told you, innocent people without differentiation whether they are Westerners or they are Arab. ROBERTSON: Among Saudis, too, that strikes a raw nerve.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are not happy about that because this is not the truth of Islam that we want. These people, they are idiots.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: That report from Nic Robertson, who we believe is the only journalist from an American network reporting now from inside Saudi Arabia.
Log onto cnn.com/world for an interactive time line of the Saudi bombing and the arrests, the AOL keyword: CNN.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
