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Interview With Army Colonel On Progress Of Saddam Hussein Hunt

Aired July 26, 2003 - 12:19   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.


ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN ANCHOR: For more on the continuing search for Saddam Hussein, let's talk with retired Army Colonel Patrick Lang, he's in our bureau in Washington.
Colonel Lang, I'm not going to ask you where you think Saddam Hussein is presumably, if you knew you would have told Central Command. But, if you were to look at the clues that the U.S. used getting both Uday and Saddam, obviously the tip-off, and where they were hiding and how -- how would you use that information to help you get a lead on where Saddam might be and where he might be hiding?

COL. PATRICK LANG, U.S. ARMY (RET.): Well, I think the process is the thing, Andrea. In fact, you know in a situation like this, the amount of pressure that the U.S. Army is putting on these guerrillas, pushing them around all the time and making life difficult for them, makes it harder and harder for them to remain in hiding. They're apt to get tripped over at a roadblock anytime or anytime a kind of raid is apt to turn him up.

The amount of money offered as -- and is getting paid, as well, for the death of these two men will be a powerful incentive, as well. So, I think that -- you know, the combination of pressure and the incentives, the continual putting together of the information on the ground will lead to Saddam's capture, probably in the next couple of weeks.

KOPPEL: What is it in the way that Uday and Qusay were captured, and obviously killed, that could be used to help the U.S. track down Saddam Hussein and might teach the U.S. as to how Saddam is operating right now and staying below the radar?

LANG: It seems very likely that what is going on here is that -- that the Saddamists, I guess you could call them, managed to generate enough of an underground structure so that it is protecting people in safe-houses around the country, especially their more important figures. The one thing that bothers me about all this is there is a kind of unspoken belief around town, in Washington here, that the death of Saddam will necessarily lead to the end of this resistance. And, so far as I can see there are many groups in the Sunni Arab part of Iraq who are unhappy with our presence there, that I'm not sure that's entirely true.

KOPPEL: So, you don't believe, in fact, that Saddam and his sons were leading this resistance?

LANG: Well, I think that they certainly did everything they could in the last days of their control of Iraq to set up the possibility for such resistance. And, I think there are -- you know, Iraq was saturated with weapons anyway and I think there are a lot of caches of arms around the country and their -- and of money, as well, which some of which have been found, but there are -- there are so many Sunni Arabs who feel they're threatened with dispossession of their power in Iraq and their primacy in the country, as well as so many soldiers who are unemployed, and policemen and things like that. I think there's a lot of potential for resistance and I don't think the two Saddam Hussein sons and he are really in control of all that. I think that this is apt to go on, even if they -- if he dies.

KOPPEL: Do you think, Colonel Lang, that the actual display of Uday and Qusay's body might in fact back fire on the U.S. and cause more, not only resistance to the U.S., but perhaps get more supporters out there to try to protect Saddam and his cronies?

LANG: Well, as a long-term student of the Arab world, you know, one of the people who called an Arabist around Washington here, it grates on me really badly to see Islamic burial customs and norms violated so thoroughly in that these people are suppose to be buried quickly and not embalmed, not put on display, that kind of thing, but in this situation, I think it may have been, in fact, inevitable. But, I think we ought to stop looking at these pictures and stop stressing this and move on with what else has to be done.

KOPPEL: Colonel Patrick Lang of the Global Resources Group in Washington, thank you so much for joining us.

LANG: Thank you.

KOPPEL: And we'll be back right after this.

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





Hunt>


Aired July 26, 2003 - 12:19   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN ANCHOR: For more on the continuing search for Saddam Hussein, let's talk with retired Army Colonel Patrick Lang, he's in our bureau in Washington.
Colonel Lang, I'm not going to ask you where you think Saddam Hussein is presumably, if you knew you would have told Central Command. But, if you were to look at the clues that the U.S. used getting both Uday and Saddam, obviously the tip-off, and where they were hiding and how -- how would you use that information to help you get a lead on where Saddam might be and where he might be hiding?

COL. PATRICK LANG, U.S. ARMY (RET.): Well, I think the process is the thing, Andrea. In fact, you know in a situation like this, the amount of pressure that the U.S. Army is putting on these guerrillas, pushing them around all the time and making life difficult for them, makes it harder and harder for them to remain in hiding. They're apt to get tripped over at a roadblock anytime or anytime a kind of raid is apt to turn him up.

The amount of money offered as -- and is getting paid, as well, for the death of these two men will be a powerful incentive, as well. So, I think that -- you know, the combination of pressure and the incentives, the continual putting together of the information on the ground will lead to Saddam's capture, probably in the next couple of weeks.

KOPPEL: What is it in the way that Uday and Qusay were captured, and obviously killed, that could be used to help the U.S. track down Saddam Hussein and might teach the U.S. as to how Saddam is operating right now and staying below the radar?

LANG: It seems very likely that what is going on here is that -- that the Saddamists, I guess you could call them, managed to generate enough of an underground structure so that it is protecting people in safe-houses around the country, especially their more important figures. The one thing that bothers me about all this is there is a kind of unspoken belief around town, in Washington here, that the death of Saddam will necessarily lead to the end of this resistance. And, so far as I can see there are many groups in the Sunni Arab part of Iraq who are unhappy with our presence there, that I'm not sure that's entirely true.

KOPPEL: So, you don't believe, in fact, that Saddam and his sons were leading this resistance?

LANG: Well, I think that they certainly did everything they could in the last days of their control of Iraq to set up the possibility for such resistance. And, I think there are -- you know, Iraq was saturated with weapons anyway and I think there are a lot of caches of arms around the country and their -- and of money, as well, which some of which have been found, but there are -- there are so many Sunni Arabs who feel they're threatened with dispossession of their power in Iraq and their primacy in the country, as well as so many soldiers who are unemployed, and policemen and things like that. I think there's a lot of potential for resistance and I don't think the two Saddam Hussein sons and he are really in control of all that. I think that this is apt to go on, even if they -- if he dies.

KOPPEL: Do you think, Colonel Lang, that the actual display of Uday and Qusay's body might in fact back fire on the U.S. and cause more, not only resistance to the U.S., but perhaps get more supporters out there to try to protect Saddam and his cronies?

LANG: Well, as a long-term student of the Arab world, you know, one of the people who called an Arabist around Washington here, it grates on me really badly to see Islamic burial customs and norms violated so thoroughly in that these people are suppose to be buried quickly and not embalmed, not put on display, that kind of thing, but in this situation, I think it may have been, in fact, inevitable. But, I think we ought to stop looking at these pictures and stop stressing this and move on with what else has to be done.

KOPPEL: Colonel Patrick Lang of the Global Resources Group in Washington, thank you so much for joining us.

LANG: Thank you.

KOPPEL: And we'll be back right after this.

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





Hunt>