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CNN Live At Daybreak
Bloodshed in Baghdad
Aired February 19, 2004 - 05:04 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: Bloodshed in Baghdad. Sadly, nothing unusual about that. But part of it seems to be an organized campaign of political killings, with professional people as the targets.
CNN's Brent Sadler has details.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRENT SADLER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is the price for helping to build a new Iraq. It's paid in blood by Salah Hadein Mehdi (ph), drop by drop. Salah is a Baghdad city official ambushed and shot, a passenger in this government car. The driver died at the wheel. Salah's wife fears she may lost her husband, one of the latest victims in a widespread campaign, say coalition officials, to kill off the professional class.
GEN. MARK KIMMITT, U.S. MILITARY SPOKESMAN: Ten to 15 attacks per month with roughly five, one to five deaths per month.
SADLER: And, say Iraqi police, the numbers could be much higher, as many hits go unreported and unsolved. Law enforcement, say Iraqi officials, is virtually non-existent, even though the police and the U.S. military often work hand in hand. But the police are targets, too.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): To be honest with you, we have become immune to fear since the war and the more danger we see, the more immune we become.
SADLER: And danger is unrelenting. In recent months, assassins have eliminated a string of well known professionals, including Abdul al Lateef al Maya (ph), a political scientist and human rights activist. Hours after taking part in this political discussion about the future of Iraq on an Arabic news channel, he was gunned down. The murder wasn't personal, says his family, still in mourning. It was, they say, a crime against their nation.
A crime that is filed here, in the bottom drawer of this over worked and under funded police station in Baghdad. This file contains more than 30 pages of inquiries, including a sketch map of where al Maya was ambushed and fragments of the bullets that killed him. But no hard leads to the assassins. "We have the American forces, but they can only see with one eye. They patrol the streets, but don't know the people."
(on camera): When Saddam Hussein's regime was destroyed, Iraq's multi-layered intelligence services were also swept away, making police work, especially solving politically motivated murders, all the more difficult.
(voice-over): Tracking down suspects in crowded and inadequately controlled cities is like searching for needles in a haystack. It's easy to get away with murder in this jungle.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So, yes, the focus by the insurgents, elements of the former regime, the foreign fighters, the terrorists that are coming into this country, is to break our will.
SADLER: By scaring off or killing people like Salah Hadein Mehdi, who's lucky to survive.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SADLER: And the police force itself finds itself increasingly in the firing line. Since the Iraqi police force was reconstituted last year, around 350 policemen have been killed in gun and bomb attacks -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Brent Sadler reporting live from Baghdad 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 February 19, 2004 - 05:04 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Bloodshed in Baghdad. Sadly, nothing unusual about that. But part of it seems to be an organized campaign of political killings, with professional people as the targets.
CNN's Brent Sadler has details.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRENT SADLER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is the price for helping to build a new Iraq. It's paid in blood by Salah Hadein Mehdi (ph), drop by drop. Salah is a Baghdad city official ambushed and shot, a passenger in this government car. The driver died at the wheel. Salah's wife fears she may lost her husband, one of the latest victims in a widespread campaign, say coalition officials, to kill off the professional class.
GEN. MARK KIMMITT, U.S. MILITARY SPOKESMAN: Ten to 15 attacks per month with roughly five, one to five deaths per month.
SADLER: And, say Iraqi police, the numbers could be much higher, as many hits go unreported and unsolved. Law enforcement, say Iraqi officials, is virtually non-existent, even though the police and the U.S. military often work hand in hand. But the police are targets, too.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): To be honest with you, we have become immune to fear since the war and the more danger we see, the more immune we become.
SADLER: And danger is unrelenting. In recent months, assassins have eliminated a string of well known professionals, including Abdul al Lateef al Maya (ph), a political scientist and human rights activist. Hours after taking part in this political discussion about the future of Iraq on an Arabic news channel, he was gunned down. The murder wasn't personal, says his family, still in mourning. It was, they say, a crime against their nation.
A crime that is filed here, in the bottom drawer of this over worked and under funded police station in Baghdad. This file contains more than 30 pages of inquiries, including a sketch map of where al Maya was ambushed and fragments of the bullets that killed him. But no hard leads to the assassins. "We have the American forces, but they can only see with one eye. They patrol the streets, but don't know the people."
(on camera): When Saddam Hussein's regime was destroyed, Iraq's multi-layered intelligence services were also swept away, making police work, especially solving politically motivated murders, all the more difficult.
(voice-over): Tracking down suspects in crowded and inadequately controlled cities is like searching for needles in a haystack. It's easy to get away with murder in this jungle.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So, yes, the focus by the insurgents, elements of the former regime, the foreign fighters, the terrorists that are coming into this country, is to break our will.
SADLER: By scaring off or killing people like Salah Hadein Mehdi, who's lucky to survive.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SADLER: And the police force itself finds itself increasingly in the firing line. Since the Iraqi police force was reconstituted last year, around 350 policemen have been killed in gun and bomb attacks -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Brent Sadler reporting live from Baghdad 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
