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Saddam Safe House Found

Aired April 17, 2003 - 14:06   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.


MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: We begin again today in Baghdad where another sibling of Saddam Hussein is out of circulation, and where a nondescript house is telling secrets on Saddam's final days in power, possibly his final days on Earth, we don't know for sure.
Our Nic Robertson tells us these stories from the Iraqi capital.

Hello, Nic.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Miles. Well, Barzan Ibrahim Hasan al-Tikriti, a half-brother of President Saddam Hussein, a former head of Iraq's intelligence, 1979 to 1983, has been picked up by Special Forces. His brother, Watban, also a half-brother of Saddam Hussein, was picked up a few days earlier. Likely both of these men will be able to provide a lot of very useful intelligence to the coalition forces, possibly even about the whereabouts of Saddam Hussein, but certainly about many of the things that the coalition is interested in, weapons of mass destruction, the country's finances, Saddam Hussein's finances.

Barzan al-Tikriti was Saddam Hussein's money man in Switzerland for many years. He was there, essentially, as Iraq's representative to the U.N. in Geneva, but he was widely regarded as controlling the family's and the country's international finances from Geneva in Switzerland. So he will be a very key and useful figure to the coalition at this time.

And another location that's been discovered in Baghdad by the Arab news network Al-Jazeera may also prove to be a treasure-trove of information for the coalition forces.

According to Al-Jazeera, this particular location was Saddam Hussein's last hideaway during the war, a place where he made his last broadcast transmission to the Iraqi people. They believe that they have discovered a meeting room in this particular hideaway that matches and fits exactly those pictures that we saw in the last weeks of the war on Iraqi television with Saddam Hussein meeting with his ministers, meeting with his military officials. Also discovered at that location, a presidential seal, or what is believed to be a presidential seal, a military uniform that appears to bear the insignia that Saddam Hussein would have worn. So appears at this stage, at this very key and last hideaway, according to Al-Jazeera, at least, the last known place where -- where Saddam Hussein may have been, this may now have been found -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: Tell us a little bit more about this place. This is not a bunker beneath a palace, is it? ROBERTSON: No, this is in a residential neighborhood. It's not a palace. It's more of a villa-type apartment, and it's very interesting that despite all these palaces that Saddam Hussein built around Iraq, that he should choose somewhere as nondescript as a villa in a suburb of Baghdad to essentially use as his headquarters during the war.

It fits to a degree with what we heard, the rumors that we heard about the Gulf War in 1991, where he was said to have driven around Baghdad, hidden in different people's houses. It fits with what we heard that leadership figures were in this up-market neighborhood, Al- Mansour of Baghdad. It fits to a degree with these pictures we saw of somebody purporting to be Saddam Hussein in the last days of the war on the streets of western Baghdad. It all fits into the picture...

O'BRIEN: Nic, I'm sorry. My apologies, Nic. We need to turn our attention now to a news conference in Washington. Fascinating stuff.

(INTERRUPTED BY LIVE EVENT)

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 April 17, 2003 - 14:06   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: We begin again today in Baghdad where another sibling of Saddam Hussein is out of circulation, and where a nondescript house is telling secrets on Saddam's final days in power, possibly his final days on Earth, we don't know for sure.
Our Nic Robertson tells us these stories from the Iraqi capital.

Hello, Nic.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Miles. Well, Barzan Ibrahim Hasan al-Tikriti, a half-brother of President Saddam Hussein, a former head of Iraq's intelligence, 1979 to 1983, has been picked up by Special Forces. His brother, Watban, also a half-brother of Saddam Hussein, was picked up a few days earlier. Likely both of these men will be able to provide a lot of very useful intelligence to the coalition forces, possibly even about the whereabouts of Saddam Hussein, but certainly about many of the things that the coalition is interested in, weapons of mass destruction, the country's finances, Saddam Hussein's finances.

Barzan al-Tikriti was Saddam Hussein's money man in Switzerland for many years. He was there, essentially, as Iraq's representative to the U.N. in Geneva, but he was widely regarded as controlling the family's and the country's international finances from Geneva in Switzerland. So he will be a very key and useful figure to the coalition at this time.

And another location that's been discovered in Baghdad by the Arab news network Al-Jazeera may also prove to be a treasure-trove of information for the coalition forces.

According to Al-Jazeera, this particular location was Saddam Hussein's last hideaway during the war, a place where he made his last broadcast transmission to the Iraqi people. They believe that they have discovered a meeting room in this particular hideaway that matches and fits exactly those pictures that we saw in the last weeks of the war on Iraqi television with Saddam Hussein meeting with his ministers, meeting with his military officials. Also discovered at that location, a presidential seal, or what is believed to be a presidential seal, a military uniform that appears to bear the insignia that Saddam Hussein would have worn. So appears at this stage, at this very key and last hideaway, according to Al-Jazeera, at least, the last known place where -- where Saddam Hussein may have been, this may now have been found -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: Tell us a little bit more about this place. This is not a bunker beneath a palace, is it? ROBERTSON: No, this is in a residential neighborhood. It's not a palace. It's more of a villa-type apartment, and it's very interesting that despite all these palaces that Saddam Hussein built around Iraq, that he should choose somewhere as nondescript as a villa in a suburb of Baghdad to essentially use as his headquarters during the war.

It fits to a degree with what we heard, the rumors that we heard about the Gulf War in 1991, where he was said to have driven around Baghdad, hidden in different people's houses. It fits with what we heard that leadership figures were in this up-market neighborhood, Al- Mansour of Baghdad. It fits to a degree with these pictures we saw of somebody purporting to be Saddam Hussein in the last days of the war on the streets of western Baghdad. It all fits into the picture...

O'BRIEN: Nic, I'm sorry. My apologies, Nic. We need to turn our attention now to a news conference in Washington. Fascinating stuff.

(INTERRUPTED BY LIVE EVENT)

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