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CNN Live At Daybreak
'International News Desk'
Aired December 16, 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: Well, under pressure and under tough questioning, what is Saddam saying?
Our senior international editor, David Clinch, joins us now with his eye on the world.
And they must have been questioning Saddam over these past few days.
DAVID CLINCH, CNN INTERNATIONAL EDITOR: They have been. They have been interrogating him on the first day and then again at the undisclosed location where they're holding him yesterday. Not getting too much from him. He is replying to questioning, we're told, is denying they had weapons of mass destruction, denying they had any links to al Qaeda, denying lots of things. But not giving what has been described as useful information, although some useful information, we're told, has been gleaned from documents that were found at the site where he was picked up.
But the U.S. military using the very technical term "wiseass" to describe what Saddam Hussein's attitude has been in the interrogation so far.
COSTELLO: It would be tough to get him to say anything because you can't make a deal with him. I mean he's pretty much going to be in captivity for the rest of his days.
CLINCH: You would think so. It's obviously an area in which the United States military has a lot of expertise, getting people to talk. And they obviously succeeded in getting one person to talk on Friday. We're getting some more details on this now. They captured a man in Baghdad who they didn't really know who they had at first. It turned out to be a man they'd been looking for who they thought might have information related to Saddam.
COSTELLO: Is this the fat man?
CLINCH: The so-called fat man. It turns out he had exactly that, information about specifically where Saddam was. We're trying to find out more about who this fat man is. We've not been given his identity, except to say that he was a member of Saddam's security operation. So some tantalizing details there.
But, again, they got him to talk. I can't tell you how they did, but they got him to talk. That led them to Saddam.
COSTELLO: And he actually physically led them to where this spider hole was?
CLINCH: We're not clear on that. But clearly very specific information was given that led them to this and one other farm, to the location where they found Saddam. And obviously they're in hot pursuit of Izzat Ibrahim Al-Duri and other top Saddamites who are still on the loose. We're watching very closely to see if they get any more information on that.
What else have we got going on today?
Israel, this is a great story from Israel in the papers today in "Maariv," one specific paper in Israel, saying that Israel -- giving great detail, saying that Israel had a plan to assassinate Saddam Hussein back in 1992, in a specific response, the article says, to Saddam having fired SCUDs at Israel, obviously. They had a very specific plan. Commanders were going to go in and hit Saddam at his uncle's funeral, according to the report, in '92.
Called off, again, according to this media report, because there was an accident in the plan. We're showing file from Tel Aviv here of the SCUDs, you know, that were fired at Israel. This was a huge issue at the time, whether they should take action against him, and apparently they had a plan. Called off because there was an accident in the planning stage, which led to the killing of some Israeli soldiers. And so it was called off.
But great story.
COSTELLO: Interesting.
CLINCH: We're looking into that a little bit more in Jerusalem today.
So, we'll talk more at six about this interrogation process and more details about this fat man...
COSTELLO: This fat man.
CLINCH: ... who handed over the information or gave up the information and what process they used to get that information from him.
COSTELLO: And he's not going to get the $25 million.
CLINCH: No, we don't believe he will.
COSTELLO: All right.
Thank you, David.
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 December 16, 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: Well, under pressure and under tough questioning, what is Saddam saying?
Our senior international editor, David Clinch, joins us now with his eye on the world.
And they must have been questioning Saddam over these past few days.
DAVID CLINCH, CNN INTERNATIONAL EDITOR: They have been. They have been interrogating him on the first day and then again at the undisclosed location where they're holding him yesterday. Not getting too much from him. He is replying to questioning, we're told, is denying they had weapons of mass destruction, denying they had any links to al Qaeda, denying lots of things. But not giving what has been described as useful information, although some useful information, we're told, has been gleaned from documents that were found at the site where he was picked up.
But the U.S. military using the very technical term "wiseass" to describe what Saddam Hussein's attitude has been in the interrogation so far.
COSTELLO: It would be tough to get him to say anything because you can't make a deal with him. I mean he's pretty much going to be in captivity for the rest of his days.
CLINCH: You would think so. It's obviously an area in which the United States military has a lot of expertise, getting people to talk. And they obviously succeeded in getting one person to talk on Friday. We're getting some more details on this now. They captured a man in Baghdad who they didn't really know who they had at first. It turned out to be a man they'd been looking for who they thought might have information related to Saddam.
COSTELLO: Is this the fat man?
CLINCH: The so-called fat man. It turns out he had exactly that, information about specifically where Saddam was. We're trying to find out more about who this fat man is. We've not been given his identity, except to say that he was a member of Saddam's security operation. So some tantalizing details there.
But, again, they got him to talk. I can't tell you how they did, but they got him to talk. That led them to Saddam.
COSTELLO: And he actually physically led them to where this spider hole was?
CLINCH: We're not clear on that. But clearly very specific information was given that led them to this and one other farm, to the location where they found Saddam. And obviously they're in hot pursuit of Izzat Ibrahim Al-Duri and other top Saddamites who are still on the loose. We're watching very closely to see if they get any more information on that.
What else have we got going on today?
Israel, this is a great story from Israel in the papers today in "Maariv," one specific paper in Israel, saying that Israel -- giving great detail, saying that Israel had a plan to assassinate Saddam Hussein back in 1992, in a specific response, the article says, to Saddam having fired SCUDs at Israel, obviously. They had a very specific plan. Commanders were going to go in and hit Saddam at his uncle's funeral, according to the report, in '92.
Called off, again, according to this media report, because there was an accident in the plan. We're showing file from Tel Aviv here of the SCUDs, you know, that were fired at Israel. This was a huge issue at the time, whether they should take action against him, and apparently they had a plan. Called off because there was an accident in the planning stage, which led to the killing of some Israeli soldiers. And so it was called off.
But great story.
COSTELLO: Interesting.
CLINCH: We're looking into that a little bit more in Jerusalem today.
So, we'll talk more at six about this interrogation process and more details about this fat man...
COSTELLO: This fat man.
CLINCH: ... who handed over the information or gave up the information and what process they used to get that information from him.
COSTELLO: And he's not going to get the $25 million.
CLINCH: No, we don't believe he will.
COSTELLO: All right.
Thank you, David.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
