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CNN Live At Daybreak

Paul Bremer News Conference Soon

Aired January 07, 2004 - 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: As I told you, we are awaiting a news conference by Paul Bremer, the U.S. civilian administrator in Iraq. We're told he could make a significant announcement.
Let's head live to Baghdad now to get a preview from our Karl Penhaul -- Karl, what do we expect him to say?

KARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Carol.

We understand that the keynote announcement here is going to be about the release of more than 500 detainees, 500 Iraqi detainees. We expect him to announce that these prisoners will begin to be released over the next few days, beginning possibly as soon as Thursday.

It's not clear exactly who these detainees will be and how long they've been in detention. From what we understand initially, these aren't prisoners of war taken during the war, but Iraqis that have been detained following the end of majority hostilities on May the 1st, those who have been detained on suspicion of taking part in anti- coalition activities.

In earlier, in announcements or messages about what the message -- the announcement is likely to contain, we have been told that these won't be people, in Bremer's words, with blood on their hands. These are likely to be low level suspects, people that haven't, in fact, been formally charged since their detention -- Carol.

COSTELLO: There have been protests by Iraqis about these prisoners. Tell us about them.

PENHAUL: There have, indeed. We've talked in the past to family members, relatives who have been looking for members of their families that have been detained and have really had no word, no answer from the coalition authorities. One of the biggest problems, the families say, is that they don't know why their relatives have been detained and they also say there are no conclusive lists.

In addition to the word on the detainees and the possible release of these 500, Carol, we also expect Ambassador Bremer to tell us a little bit about some senior Baath Party members towards the north of the country who in recent days have handed over weapons caches and have also renounced violence.

So, again, that will bolster the coalition campaign to take out the insurgency here -- Carol.

COSTELLO: What is the hope in releasing these prisoners? Are officials hoping they'll get more information from Iraqis on the street because of this good will gesture?

PENHAUL: The coalition is certainly billing this as a good will gesture. They hope by doing this, that will then allow them to get further leads on anti-coalition activities. That said, one must really look at the fine print here and look at why these detainees have been detained in the first place and really see whether they were actually suspected of anything. It could be that this is a group of detainees that are simply being released because the coalition really has no major evidence on them -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Carl, we're going to wrap it up because it, well, let me say who's coming in the building now.

This looks like Karl -- Mr. Bremer to me. Does it look like Mr. Bremer to you?

No, it does not.

We're going to wrap it up here and when Mr. Bremer takes the podium...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Each will make a statement. First off, Adnan Pachachi will make brief remarks and then Ambassador Bremer...

COSTELLO: Well, let's stay with this for a while and see what happens.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... then they will depart. We will wait about 10 to 15 minutes and then General Kimmett, Hamid al-Kifai, who is the official spokesman for the Iraqi Governing Council, and I, will come up and answer any questions you have on background. So we can really walk through the details...

COSTELLO: All right, as you can see, they're just going through some procedures right now. This is actually what we call the two minute warning. So Paul Bremer will be out here at the podium in two minutes.

Do we want to go on or do we want to stick with this?

We'll go on. We'll get back to that in, oh, about a minute 30.

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 January 7, 2004 - 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: As I told you, we are awaiting a news conference by Paul Bremer, the U.S. civilian administrator in Iraq. We're told he could make a significant announcement.
Let's head live to Baghdad now to get a preview from our Karl Penhaul -- Karl, what do we expect him to say?

KARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Carol.

We understand that the keynote announcement here is going to be about the release of more than 500 detainees, 500 Iraqi detainees. We expect him to announce that these prisoners will begin to be released over the next few days, beginning possibly as soon as Thursday.

It's not clear exactly who these detainees will be and how long they've been in detention. From what we understand initially, these aren't prisoners of war taken during the war, but Iraqis that have been detained following the end of majority hostilities on May the 1st, those who have been detained on suspicion of taking part in anti- coalition activities.

In earlier, in announcements or messages about what the message -- the announcement is likely to contain, we have been told that these won't be people, in Bremer's words, with blood on their hands. These are likely to be low level suspects, people that haven't, in fact, been formally charged since their detention -- Carol.

COSTELLO: There have been protests by Iraqis about these prisoners. Tell us about them.

PENHAUL: There have, indeed. We've talked in the past to family members, relatives who have been looking for members of their families that have been detained and have really had no word, no answer from the coalition authorities. One of the biggest problems, the families say, is that they don't know why their relatives have been detained and they also say there are no conclusive lists.

In addition to the word on the detainees and the possible release of these 500, Carol, we also expect Ambassador Bremer to tell us a little bit about some senior Baath Party members towards the north of the country who in recent days have handed over weapons caches and have also renounced violence.

So, again, that will bolster the coalition campaign to take out the insurgency here -- Carol.

COSTELLO: What is the hope in releasing these prisoners? Are officials hoping they'll get more information from Iraqis on the street because of this good will gesture?

PENHAUL: The coalition is certainly billing this as a good will gesture. They hope by doing this, that will then allow them to get further leads on anti-coalition activities. That said, one must really look at the fine print here and look at why these detainees have been detained in the first place and really see whether they were actually suspected of anything. It could be that this is a group of detainees that are simply being released because the coalition really has no major evidence on them -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Carl, we're going to wrap it up because it, well, let me say who's coming in the building now.

This looks like Karl -- Mr. Bremer to me. Does it look like Mr. Bremer to you?

No, it does not.

We're going to wrap it up here and when Mr. Bremer takes the podium...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Each will make a statement. First off, Adnan Pachachi will make brief remarks and then Ambassador Bremer...

COSTELLO: Well, let's stay with this for a while and see what happens.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... then they will depart. We will wait about 10 to 15 minutes and then General Kimmett, Hamid al-Kifai, who is the official spokesman for the Iraqi Governing Council, and I, will come up and answer any questions you have on background. So we can really walk through the details...

COSTELLO: All right, as you can see, they're just going through some procedures right now. This is actually what we call the two minute warning. So Paul Bremer will be out here at the podium in two minutes.

Do we want to go on or do we want to stick with this?

We'll go on. We'll get back to that in, oh, about a minute 30.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com