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Will The Real Saddam Please Stand Up?
Aired March 20, 2003 - 14:31 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.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks very much, Aaron.
David Ensor, our national security correspondent, has been checking in with his sources throughout the U.S. government, trying to figure out, as all of us have been trying to figure out, whether or not that was, in fact, Saddam Hussein who appeared on Iraqi television only about an hour or an hour-and-a-half after that initial strike that occurred last night.
David, what are you hearing precisely right now from your sources?
DAVID ENSOR, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, as you say, Wolf, we've all turned into amateur photo analysts today as we try to figure out whether in fact those pictures are Saddam Hussein, or could be a double, as some have suggested.
Officials -- the professionals are looking at the tape. That's the one on the left that's in question. The one on the right we feel definitely is Saddam.
The professionals are looking at it. They are increasingly convinced that that is indeed Saddam in both pictures. They're analyzing the voice, the speech inflection, the mouth movements. And these appear, officials say, consistent with other appearances of Saddam Hussein.
And then, of course, there's a subsequent tape that we've been showing of President Hussein meeting with some of his leadership, and there is that tape. And, again, it does appear to be Saddam Hussein, although there is no definitive judgment yet.
Now, the decision to try to make this initial strike was made after a -- was made at a meeting at the White House yesterday, where -- now, and this picture here was taken today, a subsequent meeting -- but a meeting where George Tenet -- and you see Mr. Tenet there in shirtsleeves -- came to report to the president and his senior advisors, that there was a rare and perhaps not-to-be-repeated opportunity to hit some key Iraqi leadership, possibly -- possibly including Saddam Hussein and his sons.
That was why -- that was the meeting at which the decision was made to fire off these cruise missiles that we saw starting off the hostilities late last night.
And officials that I speak to here say that while they are increasingly convinced that Saddam Hussein is alive, that that is him on those tapes, and that those tapes are most probably made subsequent to the attacks that we're looking at here, they do believe -- there is optimism among U.S. intelligence officials, that they may have knocked off some of the Iraqi leadership.
The compound that was hit they believe contained a number of senior leaders, possibly Republican Guard or Ba'ath Party leaders, who had already gone to bed in that compound. So there is a measure of confidence, of optimism among U.S. officials that some of the leadership are already gone -- Wolf.
BLITZER: I've been checking with some sources, as well, David, to try to find out those two points, whether or not that was in fact Saddam Hussein.
And as you report, the growing suspicion is that it probably was, although I'm told that the technical experts have not yet completed the audio analysis to make sure that the voice, the inflections, all the aspects of the normal way Saddam Hussein speaks, coincides with what we saw here.
Some of the intelligence experts I've spoken to, though, point out, David, as I'm sure they have to you, that the glasses that Saddam Hussein was wearing -- the glasses that we saw in that hurried kind of videotape he delivered yesterday -- not the normal glasses that he normally wears.
Also, we did hear in that speech that was -- he read, basically from notebooks, as if he had scrawled out some words only before reading them.
He did mention March 20. Remember, the bombing occurred at 9:30 p.m. Eastern time, which was March 20, 5:30 a.m. here in the Persian Gulf.
There was only one line, I'm told, in that speech that could have suggested it was delivered after the first bombs struck -- those Tomahawk cruise missiles -- when he said something along the lines, like this.
He said, with the dawn prayers, today the reckless criminal Bush carried out crime. Well, with -- carried a criminal action, which in effect, might, might suggest that it was, in fact, made after that strike. But we're going to continue to analyze that.
David Ensor will be getting back to 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 March 20, 2003 - 14:31 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks very much, Aaron.
David Ensor, our national security correspondent, has been checking in with his sources throughout the U.S. government, trying to figure out, as all of us have been trying to figure out, whether or not that was, in fact, Saddam Hussein who appeared on Iraqi television only about an hour or an hour-and-a-half after that initial strike that occurred last night.
David, what are you hearing precisely right now from your sources?
DAVID ENSOR, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, as you say, Wolf, we've all turned into amateur photo analysts today as we try to figure out whether in fact those pictures are Saddam Hussein, or could be a double, as some have suggested.
Officials -- the professionals are looking at the tape. That's the one on the left that's in question. The one on the right we feel definitely is Saddam.
The professionals are looking at it. They are increasingly convinced that that is indeed Saddam in both pictures. They're analyzing the voice, the speech inflection, the mouth movements. And these appear, officials say, consistent with other appearances of Saddam Hussein.
And then, of course, there's a subsequent tape that we've been showing of President Hussein meeting with some of his leadership, and there is that tape. And, again, it does appear to be Saddam Hussein, although there is no definitive judgment yet.
Now, the decision to try to make this initial strike was made after a -- was made at a meeting at the White House yesterday, where -- now, and this picture here was taken today, a subsequent meeting -- but a meeting where George Tenet -- and you see Mr. Tenet there in shirtsleeves -- came to report to the president and his senior advisors, that there was a rare and perhaps not-to-be-repeated opportunity to hit some key Iraqi leadership, possibly -- possibly including Saddam Hussein and his sons.
That was why -- that was the meeting at which the decision was made to fire off these cruise missiles that we saw starting off the hostilities late last night.
And officials that I speak to here say that while they are increasingly convinced that Saddam Hussein is alive, that that is him on those tapes, and that those tapes are most probably made subsequent to the attacks that we're looking at here, they do believe -- there is optimism among U.S. intelligence officials, that they may have knocked off some of the Iraqi leadership.
The compound that was hit they believe contained a number of senior leaders, possibly Republican Guard or Ba'ath Party leaders, who had already gone to bed in that compound. So there is a measure of confidence, of optimism among U.S. officials that some of the leadership are already gone -- Wolf.
BLITZER: I've been checking with some sources, as well, David, to try to find out those two points, whether or not that was in fact Saddam Hussein.
And as you report, the growing suspicion is that it probably was, although I'm told that the technical experts have not yet completed the audio analysis to make sure that the voice, the inflections, all the aspects of the normal way Saddam Hussein speaks, coincides with what we saw here.
Some of the intelligence experts I've spoken to, though, point out, David, as I'm sure they have to you, that the glasses that Saddam Hussein was wearing -- the glasses that we saw in that hurried kind of videotape he delivered yesterday -- not the normal glasses that he normally wears.
Also, we did hear in that speech that was -- he read, basically from notebooks, as if he had scrawled out some words only before reading them.
He did mention March 20. Remember, the bombing occurred at 9:30 p.m. Eastern time, which was March 20, 5:30 a.m. here in the Persian Gulf.
There was only one line, I'm told, in that speech that could have suggested it was delivered after the first bombs struck -- those Tomahawk cruise missiles -- when he said something along the lines, like this.
He said, with the dawn prayers, today the reckless criminal Bush carried out crime. Well, with -- carried a criminal action, which in effect, might, might suggest that it was, in fact, made after that strike. But we're going to continue to analyze that.
David Ensor will be getting back to 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
