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Saddam Hussein Makes Unannounced Speech on Iraqi TV; Mohammed Saeed Al-Sahaf, Iraq's Information Minister, Warns About Untraditional Iraqi Action

Aired April 04, 2003 - 12:01   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.


(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SADDAM HUSSEIN, IRAQI PRESIDENT (through translator): They can be resisted and destroyed by you with what you have of weapons. And maybe you'll remember the villager, the Iraqi villager, how he downed an Apache. The American Apache was the old weapon (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: With that reference to the loss of a U.S. helicopter back on March 24, Saddam Hussein -- or someone who looks and sounds very much like him -- finally says something to suggest he did indeed survive the opening night of the war.

Hello. I'm Wolf Blitzer, reporting today live from Kuwait City. We're expecting a White House news briefing in less than 15 minutes. We'll take you to the White House live once it begins.

In the meantime, Baghdad up there just after 9:00 p.m. on a day that saw U.S. infantry forces sweep into the former Saddam International Airport. The U.S. military's Central Command promptly renamed the airport "Baghdad International Airport," but coalition armor has not gone into the city proper.

It's hot in Baghdad, very hot. Indeed, it was around 100 degrees at midday, and most of the city remains without power. The city saw wave after wave of air strikes earlier in the day, but the buzz this hour comes from that unannounced TV appearance by the Iraqi president, Saddam Hussein, and the ominous warning a few minutes earlier from his minister of information.

Joining me now to make some sort of sense of all of these late- breaking developments are CNN's David Ensor and CNN analyst Ken Pollack. Both are in Washington.

David, let me begin with you. What do you make of this latest reference that Saddam Hussein made in this videotape to the shootdown of that downed Apache helicopter?

DAVID ENSOR, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: As you said, Wolf, it is the first time that on one of these tapes that's been broadcast since the war that Saddam Hussein has referred to something specific that happened after March 19th. So U.S. officials are saying that it does seem to indicate that this tape was made after that date.

That was the day, of course, that the United States forces dropped a tremendous amount of ordnance on a place called Dora (ph) farm, where there is a leadership bunker, which U.S. intelligence had information suggesting Saddam Hussein was in the bunker. And U.S. officials say they still believe he was, but they are now assessing this new evidence, and some analysts are drawing the conclusion that Saddam Hussein is clearly still alive and well enough to make broadcasts.

Now they do point out that it's also possible that there was always a plan to have a story about a villager who fired on a helicopter and so forth. But that is a somewhat complex analysis. And officials are now starting to lean to the idea that Saddam Hussein is alive.

Now why is he doing this now at such a late date? Officials saying clearly he's lost communication with many of his military forces and, in fact, has lost many of his military forces. And he may have felt it was necessary for he, himself, to get on the television and try to appeal to those Baghdaders who might still be willing to fight for him to do so. As has been pointed out by our correspondents in the region, since there's no electrical power in Baghdad, quite a few Iraqis will have missed the broadcast -- Wolf.

BLITZER: David, what about this notion that it could be a body double, if you will? Somebody impersonating Saddam Hussein, looks very much like him, sounds very much like him? I assume the intelligence community has not had a chance to triangulate or listen to the voice, get that kind of assessment down pat. It's only been, what, an hour or so since this videotape was aired. Is that fair?

ENSOR: That's exactly right, Wolf. They did do that eventually. The first questions were really about that picture we just saw on the left, the one of Saddam Hussein in the large glasses, which was the first one broadcast after March 19th. And he really did look different to some people, so they did a pretty detailed analysis of that tape. And the consensus was that, in the end, the voice was definitely Saddam's and it did look like it was Saddam Hussein.

So most officials I speak to suspect that that's the conclusion they will draw about this latest tape as well. But you're right, that analysis has not yet been done -- Wolf.

BLITZER: All right. David Ensor is going to be checking back with us often. He's got excellent sources in Washington and elsewhere. David, thanks very much.

Coalition forces are closing in on Baghdad City limits. And U.S. troops have seized control of the huge international airport about 10 or 12 miles outside of Baghdad.

Meantime, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is urging Iraqis to fight promising victory. Joining us now from Washington to talk a little about war, all of these developments unfolding in Baghdad, our CNN analyst Ken Pollack of the Saban Center at the Brookings Institution in Washington.

Ken, first of all, what's your take on this latest videotape that we just reported on of Saddam Hussein making this address to the people of Iraq?

KEN POLLACK, CNN ANALYST: Well, obviously, Wolf, as you pointed out, U.S. intelligence analysts are going to have to do a little more sophisticated analysis of the tape to determine whether it is Saddam or one of his body doubles. That said, I think that it is reasonable to believe that it may be Saddam.

You know it's hard to penetrate down into Saddam's bunker and his inner circle in terms of the kind of information that we may be getting and what's important in terms of Western media and what kind of messages he might want to send. Who knows why it is that Saddam, if this is actually Saddam, decided at this point in time he should come forward and speak when he didn't in the past. It may simply be that in the past it never occurred to him that he needed to do this.

After all, Saddam has never really been in the business of proving to his own people that he was alive. They generally assume that he's alive. And until they are certain that he is dead, they're probably going to continue to assume that.

BLITZER: This speech that he made was about eight or 10 minutes or so. He was clearly reading from notes. There was no teleprompter or anything like that, as we've seen in other speeches he's given.

This is very similar to the sort of impromptu speech he gave with those weird glasses that he was wearing in the immediate, after the war started, the first few days of the war. Is this typical of the way Saddam Hussein would address the people of Iraq, reading from a notebook, if you will?

POLLACK: No, it absolutely is not. In the past, the addresses that Saddam has given, he generally does not read from notes. You've never seen him actually use glasses, although we did know that he did use glasses to read. This is something new.

I think that it demonstrates, at the very least, Saddam is being forced to operate in ways that he wouldn't otherwise. At the very least, it does seem that he is making this tape from a facility which perhaps doesn't have a teleprompter, which doesn't have the other facilities. It may be that they're doing this in a private home, which is something that Saddam has done in the past. They may go into the private home, clear off the walls, set up an Iraqi flag, and start filming right then and there.

BLITZER: Just before we heard directly from Saddam Hussein -- and we assume now it is Saddam Hussein -- Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf, the information minister, once again making a statement and warning ominously -- it was almost eerie -- very scary, if you will, about some sort of untraditional Iraqi action. I want our viewers to listen precisely to what the information minister said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) MOHAMMED SAEED AL-SAHAF, IRAQI INFORMATION MINISTER (through translator): This evening we will carry out something that is untraditional against them. Not conventional. Military action that is not ordinary. This is not by military.

We will do something to them that will be a great example for those mercenaries. I'm not revealing a secret, because working in the dark is useful with these mercenaries. It's not the way that armies behave.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Well what do you make of that statement from Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf, the information minister, Ken?

POLLACK: Well, first, Wolf, we always have to take into account the possibility that this is pure bluster on the Iraqi's part. They said a lot of things over the last two weeks that haven't exactly come to pass. So this may just be a form of psychological warfare on Saddam's behalf, trying to get U.S. forces spun up about something, only to not have it take place.

That's a possibility. But by the same token, it's clear that the Iraqis have come down to their last redoubt in Baghdad. They're going to pull out all of the cards that they possibly can to try to defend the city. One thing that's suggested in there, that is, you know, possibility that you might have Iraqi troops, Special Republican Guard, Fedayeen Saddam, other forces devoted to Saddam who might be willing to martyr themselves, carry explosives charged to their bodies, attack the U.S. forces that way.

Another possibility might be that you might see the Iraqis driver large numbers of Iraqi civilians toward the Air Force. Use the civilians, use masses of civilians to create a wall. Not just human shields, but a wall of Iraqi civilians, and fire from behind that, attack the U.S. troops that way.

They could pitch this as -- the Iraqi troops -- the city of Baghdad rising up along with the Iraqi troops to attack the Americans. We can't rule that out either.

And the bottom line is the Iraqis are capable of just about anything. Saddam Hussein has no regard for human life. He has no regard even for the lives of his own people. He is capable of doing anything.

He could send suicide attacks, as I suggested. He could use the population of Baghdad as a shield behind which to attack American forces. They're capable of just about anything.

BLITZER: One very quick question before I let you go, Ken. Getting back to Saddam Hussein's statement, the videotape, it just popped up on Iraqi television without any notification, without any advanced announcement that he was going to be speaking. Is that extraordinary? Is that unusual? POLLACK: Yes, it absolutely is extraordinary. It is absolutely unusual. But again, I think that it goes to the problems that Saddam has. The fact that he is probably being -- assuming that he is alive, that he is being forced to move around constantly.

He is probably doing what he did during the Gulf War, which is bouncing from one private home to the next, where he believes the coalition won't try to target him. And being forced to do all of the stuff ad hoc on the fly. To some extent, they're also probably concerned that American intelligence might be able to pinpoint him.

If there is an announcement, if it's announced ahead of time that he's going to be making some kind of a broadcast, that maybe U.S. forces will be able to pinpoint him that way. And so they're doing everything on a very ad hoc basis.

BLITZER: And the U.S. government making it clear if they could, they'd like to kill him. So maybe there's an understandable sense of concern on his part for his own security. Ken Pollack, thanks very much, our CNN analyst, for your expertise.

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




Mohammed Saeed Al-Sahaf, Iraq's Information Minister, Warns About Untraditional Iraqi Action>


Aired April 4, 2003 - 12:01   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SADDAM HUSSEIN, IRAQI PRESIDENT (through translator): They can be resisted and destroyed by you with what you have of weapons. And maybe you'll remember the villager, the Iraqi villager, how he downed an Apache. The American Apache was the old weapon (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: With that reference to the loss of a U.S. helicopter back on March 24, Saddam Hussein -- or someone who looks and sounds very much like him -- finally says something to suggest he did indeed survive the opening night of the war.

Hello. I'm Wolf Blitzer, reporting today live from Kuwait City. We're expecting a White House news briefing in less than 15 minutes. We'll take you to the White House live once it begins.

In the meantime, Baghdad up there just after 9:00 p.m. on a day that saw U.S. infantry forces sweep into the former Saddam International Airport. The U.S. military's Central Command promptly renamed the airport "Baghdad International Airport," but coalition armor has not gone into the city proper.

It's hot in Baghdad, very hot. Indeed, it was around 100 degrees at midday, and most of the city remains without power. The city saw wave after wave of air strikes earlier in the day, but the buzz this hour comes from that unannounced TV appearance by the Iraqi president, Saddam Hussein, and the ominous warning a few minutes earlier from his minister of information.

Joining me now to make some sort of sense of all of these late- breaking developments are CNN's David Ensor and CNN analyst Ken Pollack. Both are in Washington.

David, let me begin with you. What do you make of this latest reference that Saddam Hussein made in this videotape to the shootdown of that downed Apache helicopter?

DAVID ENSOR, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: As you said, Wolf, it is the first time that on one of these tapes that's been broadcast since the war that Saddam Hussein has referred to something specific that happened after March 19th. So U.S. officials are saying that it does seem to indicate that this tape was made after that date.

That was the day, of course, that the United States forces dropped a tremendous amount of ordnance on a place called Dora (ph) farm, where there is a leadership bunker, which U.S. intelligence had information suggesting Saddam Hussein was in the bunker. And U.S. officials say they still believe he was, but they are now assessing this new evidence, and some analysts are drawing the conclusion that Saddam Hussein is clearly still alive and well enough to make broadcasts.

Now they do point out that it's also possible that there was always a plan to have a story about a villager who fired on a helicopter and so forth. But that is a somewhat complex analysis. And officials are now starting to lean to the idea that Saddam Hussein is alive.

Now why is he doing this now at such a late date? Officials saying clearly he's lost communication with many of his military forces and, in fact, has lost many of his military forces. And he may have felt it was necessary for he, himself, to get on the television and try to appeal to those Baghdaders who might still be willing to fight for him to do so. As has been pointed out by our correspondents in the region, since there's no electrical power in Baghdad, quite a few Iraqis will have missed the broadcast -- Wolf.

BLITZER: David, what about this notion that it could be a body double, if you will? Somebody impersonating Saddam Hussein, looks very much like him, sounds very much like him? I assume the intelligence community has not had a chance to triangulate or listen to the voice, get that kind of assessment down pat. It's only been, what, an hour or so since this videotape was aired. Is that fair?

ENSOR: That's exactly right, Wolf. They did do that eventually. The first questions were really about that picture we just saw on the left, the one of Saddam Hussein in the large glasses, which was the first one broadcast after March 19th. And he really did look different to some people, so they did a pretty detailed analysis of that tape. And the consensus was that, in the end, the voice was definitely Saddam's and it did look like it was Saddam Hussein.

So most officials I speak to suspect that that's the conclusion they will draw about this latest tape as well. But you're right, that analysis has not yet been done -- Wolf.

BLITZER: All right. David Ensor is going to be checking back with us often. He's got excellent sources in Washington and elsewhere. David, thanks very much.

Coalition forces are closing in on Baghdad City limits. And U.S. troops have seized control of the huge international airport about 10 or 12 miles outside of Baghdad.

Meantime, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is urging Iraqis to fight promising victory. Joining us now from Washington to talk a little about war, all of these developments unfolding in Baghdad, our CNN analyst Ken Pollack of the Saban Center at the Brookings Institution in Washington.

Ken, first of all, what's your take on this latest videotape that we just reported on of Saddam Hussein making this address to the people of Iraq?

KEN POLLACK, CNN ANALYST: Well, obviously, Wolf, as you pointed out, U.S. intelligence analysts are going to have to do a little more sophisticated analysis of the tape to determine whether it is Saddam or one of his body doubles. That said, I think that it is reasonable to believe that it may be Saddam.

You know it's hard to penetrate down into Saddam's bunker and his inner circle in terms of the kind of information that we may be getting and what's important in terms of Western media and what kind of messages he might want to send. Who knows why it is that Saddam, if this is actually Saddam, decided at this point in time he should come forward and speak when he didn't in the past. It may simply be that in the past it never occurred to him that he needed to do this.

After all, Saddam has never really been in the business of proving to his own people that he was alive. They generally assume that he's alive. And until they are certain that he is dead, they're probably going to continue to assume that.

BLITZER: This speech that he made was about eight or 10 minutes or so. He was clearly reading from notes. There was no teleprompter or anything like that, as we've seen in other speeches he's given.

This is very similar to the sort of impromptu speech he gave with those weird glasses that he was wearing in the immediate, after the war started, the first few days of the war. Is this typical of the way Saddam Hussein would address the people of Iraq, reading from a notebook, if you will?

POLLACK: No, it absolutely is not. In the past, the addresses that Saddam has given, he generally does not read from notes. You've never seen him actually use glasses, although we did know that he did use glasses to read. This is something new.

I think that it demonstrates, at the very least, Saddam is being forced to operate in ways that he wouldn't otherwise. At the very least, it does seem that he is making this tape from a facility which perhaps doesn't have a teleprompter, which doesn't have the other facilities. It may be that they're doing this in a private home, which is something that Saddam has done in the past. They may go into the private home, clear off the walls, set up an Iraqi flag, and start filming right then and there.

BLITZER: Just before we heard directly from Saddam Hussein -- and we assume now it is Saddam Hussein -- Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf, the information minister, once again making a statement and warning ominously -- it was almost eerie -- very scary, if you will, about some sort of untraditional Iraqi action. I want our viewers to listen precisely to what the information minister said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) MOHAMMED SAEED AL-SAHAF, IRAQI INFORMATION MINISTER (through translator): This evening we will carry out something that is untraditional against them. Not conventional. Military action that is not ordinary. This is not by military.

We will do something to them that will be a great example for those mercenaries. I'm not revealing a secret, because working in the dark is useful with these mercenaries. It's not the way that armies behave.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Well what do you make of that statement from Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf, the information minister, Ken?

POLLACK: Well, first, Wolf, we always have to take into account the possibility that this is pure bluster on the Iraqi's part. They said a lot of things over the last two weeks that haven't exactly come to pass. So this may just be a form of psychological warfare on Saddam's behalf, trying to get U.S. forces spun up about something, only to not have it take place.

That's a possibility. But by the same token, it's clear that the Iraqis have come down to their last redoubt in Baghdad. They're going to pull out all of the cards that they possibly can to try to defend the city. One thing that's suggested in there, that is, you know, possibility that you might have Iraqi troops, Special Republican Guard, Fedayeen Saddam, other forces devoted to Saddam who might be willing to martyr themselves, carry explosives charged to their bodies, attack the U.S. forces that way.

Another possibility might be that you might see the Iraqis driver large numbers of Iraqi civilians toward the Air Force. Use the civilians, use masses of civilians to create a wall. Not just human shields, but a wall of Iraqi civilians, and fire from behind that, attack the U.S. troops that way.

They could pitch this as -- the Iraqi troops -- the city of Baghdad rising up along with the Iraqi troops to attack the Americans. We can't rule that out either.

And the bottom line is the Iraqis are capable of just about anything. Saddam Hussein has no regard for human life. He has no regard even for the lives of his own people. He is capable of doing anything.

He could send suicide attacks, as I suggested. He could use the population of Baghdad as a shield behind which to attack American forces. They're capable of just about anything.

BLITZER: One very quick question before I let you go, Ken. Getting back to Saddam Hussein's statement, the videotape, it just popped up on Iraqi television without any notification, without any advanced announcement that he was going to be speaking. Is that extraordinary? Is that unusual? POLLACK: Yes, it absolutely is extraordinary. It is absolutely unusual. But again, I think that it goes to the problems that Saddam has. The fact that he is probably being -- assuming that he is alive, that he is being forced to move around constantly.

He is probably doing what he did during the Gulf War, which is bouncing from one private home to the next, where he believes the coalition won't try to target him. And being forced to do all of the stuff ad hoc on the fly. To some extent, they're also probably concerned that American intelligence might be able to pinpoint him.

If there is an announcement, if it's announced ahead of time that he's going to be making some kind of a broadcast, that maybe U.S. forces will be able to pinpoint him that way. And so they're doing everything on a very ad hoc basis.

BLITZER: And the U.S. government making it clear if they could, they'd like to kill him. So maybe there's an understandable sense of concern on his part for his own security. Ken Pollack, thanks very much, our CNN analyst, for your expertise.

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




Mohammed Saeed Al-Sahaf, Iraq's Information Minister, Warns About Untraditional Iraqi Action>