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Baghdad Reacts to Last Night's Bush Speech
Aired October 08, 2002 - 14:05 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.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Baghdad is reacting with ridicule to President Bush's speech last night on Iraq. The Iraqis say the president offers not one shred of evidence to support his claims that President Saddam Hussein harbors terrorists and has weapons of mass destruction.
Our Baghdad bureau chief, Jane Arraf, has more for us from there -- Jane.
JANE ARRAF, CNN BAGHDAD BUREAU CHIEF: Well, Kyra, the official Iraqi line is that this is all about oil, and all about Iraq's support for the Palestinians against Israel, not about disarmament.
Now, unofficially, people are breathing a bit of a sigh of relief here from President Bush's statements that war is not imminent or unavoidable.
Now, the Iraqi government, in its official response to this Bush -- to the President Bush's statement also said that the U.S. administration was trying to divert attention from its clear position towards the weapons inspectors. Now, there is still that issue of unfettered access to the palaces, so it hasn't been made crystal clear yet, but there is one thing that's clear, the Iraqi government is very keen to send the message that the Iraqi people support Saddam Hussein.
They've been organizing rallies. Now, usually rallies are typical things in the street, a few hundred or a few thousand people with chants like "with our blood and our souls, we sacrifice for you, oh, Saddam."
Rally today, though, a bit different. This one took it literally. The government organized people to come to a main neighborhood in Baghdad where they donated their blood, and what they did with that blood was use it to write slogans. Now that pot of what looks like red ink you might be seeing isn't ink, it is actually blood, and it is being used for a slogan that says, "yes, yes, to Saddam."
A message that the Iraqi government wants to send to the rest of the world, and to its own people as well -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: All right. Jane Arraf in Baghdad. Thank you.
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 October 8, 2002 - 14:05 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Baghdad is reacting with ridicule to President Bush's speech last night on Iraq. The Iraqis say the president offers not one shred of evidence to support his claims that President Saddam Hussein harbors terrorists and has weapons of mass destruction.
Our Baghdad bureau chief, Jane Arraf, has more for us from there -- Jane.
JANE ARRAF, CNN BAGHDAD BUREAU CHIEF: Well, Kyra, the official Iraqi line is that this is all about oil, and all about Iraq's support for the Palestinians against Israel, not about disarmament.
Now, unofficially, people are breathing a bit of a sigh of relief here from President Bush's statements that war is not imminent or unavoidable.
Now, the Iraqi government, in its official response to this Bush -- to the President Bush's statement also said that the U.S. administration was trying to divert attention from its clear position towards the weapons inspectors. Now, there is still that issue of unfettered access to the palaces, so it hasn't been made crystal clear yet, but there is one thing that's clear, the Iraqi government is very keen to send the message that the Iraqi people support Saddam Hussein.
They've been organizing rallies. Now, usually rallies are typical things in the street, a few hundred or a few thousand people with chants like "with our blood and our souls, we sacrifice for you, oh, Saddam."
Rally today, though, a bit different. This one took it literally. The government organized people to come to a main neighborhood in Baghdad where they donated their blood, and what they did with that blood was use it to write slogans. Now that pot of what looks like red ink you might be seeing isn't ink, it is actually blood, and it is being used for a slogan that says, "yes, yes, to Saddam."
A message that the Iraqi government wants to send to the rest of the world, and to its own people as well -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: All right. Jane Arraf in Baghdad. Thank you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
