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Interview With Michael Weisskopf

Aired May 26, 2003 - 13:12   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: With the fall of Saddam Hussein's government and the end of the war in Iraq, never before revealed secrets of Saddam Hussein's family life are coming to light.
The story they tell is one of unimaginable wealth, cruelty, and sibling rivalry between sons Uday and Qusay. You can read all about it in this week's "TIME" magazine article, "The Sum of Two Evils."

Joining me to talk about it is coauthor Michael Weisskopf. Michael, thanks for being with us.

MICHAEL WEISSKOPF, "TIME": Welcome, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Well, you report that Saddam, Uday and Qusay all survived the U.S. attacks. Tell me how you gained that intel.

WEISSKOPF: A domestic servant is one. We also have contact with a family member who has contacts in Iraq.

PHILLIPS: When talking about the leadership, all three -- the sons and Saddam Hussein, what did you learn about these three men days before the U.S. attacks, hours before the U.S. attacks?

WEISSKOPF: One of the most compelling is the role of Qusay, who was the leader of the Republican Guard, and was described by a close aide as being so erratic and so impulsive in his movement of Republican Guards around Baghdad that by the time U.S. troops arrived, the Republican Guard was out of position. Helps explain how easily we waltzed into the capital city.

PHILLIPS: You also have a number of pretty shocking and revealing antidotes (ph) about the way the sons, in particular, lived. I pulled a couple of these. I want to talk to you about them. One of them here, you write, "In the winter of 2002, says a butler, Uday demanded that his aides bring to him a woman who had just had a baby. When the mother, in her 20s, with golden brown hair in a henna-colored skirt and matching shirt arrived, Uday sucked her nipples for what he believed would be vitamin-rich milk."

Explain to me this obsession with his health, and just these type of things that he would do.

WEISSKOPF: Kyra, in 1996, at the end of the year, Uday was badly injured in a botched assassination attempt. It took him months of surgery and recovery to approximate his past strength. He remained a cripple. But, after that, strove through tremendous lengths to try to regain strength, and we found, for instance, in one of his palaces, dozens and dozens of acupuncture needles and all kinds of herbs from China. One of the things he thought he would gain is through the breasts of this woman who just gave birth was a source of vitamins that would give him strength.

PHILLIPS: Michael, what appalled you the most about this man? I am talking about Uday now.

WEISSKOPF: The very personal style of his cruelty and murder and how he acted with absolutely no restraint. His brother was much more of an icy professional killer. Uday, however, swept brides out of wedding parties for his own delight. He lined up 15 or 20 women at a time at night, and ran, sort of beauty contests to decide whom he would sleep with. He was so cruel he would surf the Internet for torture techniques from past eras and other nations, discovering, for instance, the torment of keeping people in closed coffins, which he did. Or beating people on the sides until their kidneys dysfunctioned.

PHILLIPS: You're mentioning, exactly, one of the other quotes I had pulled from there, and you continue to say a maid who cleaned one of Uday's houses says he once saw him lop off the ear of one of his guards and then use a welder's torch on his face. Where does all this obsession come from with torture and sex and just the way he carried out his life?

WEISSKOPF: Well, of course, that would take deep psychological analysis, but our kind of seat of the pants analysis is he had grave disappointments from his father, who ended up turning to the younger of the sons as the heir apparent. He, himself, suffered greatly in this botched assassination attempt, and he was just a twisted, demented personality, and the scene you just described was of an employee. He was no less brutal when it came to his friends, including one who he suspected of leaving the country and snitching on him, so he had the man arrested, his tongue pulled out by pliers and lopped off with a scalpel.

PHILLIPS: Pretty gruesome investigation that you did. I have to ask you before I go quickly, do you believe that Saddam and his sons will be found? Dead or alive, either way, do you think they will be found?

WEISSKOPF: Yes, I do. I think it's a matter of time until they are spotted and informed upon.

PHILLIPS: Michael Weisskopf. You can pick up the article in this recent edition of "TIME" magazine. Thank you.

WEISSKOPF: You're welcome.

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 May 26, 2003 - 13:12   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: With the fall of Saddam Hussein's government and the end of the war in Iraq, never before revealed secrets of Saddam Hussein's family life are coming to light.
The story they tell is one of unimaginable wealth, cruelty, and sibling rivalry between sons Uday and Qusay. You can read all about it in this week's "TIME" magazine article, "The Sum of Two Evils."

Joining me to talk about it is coauthor Michael Weisskopf. Michael, thanks for being with us.

MICHAEL WEISSKOPF, "TIME": Welcome, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Well, you report that Saddam, Uday and Qusay all survived the U.S. attacks. Tell me how you gained that intel.

WEISSKOPF: A domestic servant is one. We also have contact with a family member who has contacts in Iraq.

PHILLIPS: When talking about the leadership, all three -- the sons and Saddam Hussein, what did you learn about these three men days before the U.S. attacks, hours before the U.S. attacks?

WEISSKOPF: One of the most compelling is the role of Qusay, who was the leader of the Republican Guard, and was described by a close aide as being so erratic and so impulsive in his movement of Republican Guards around Baghdad that by the time U.S. troops arrived, the Republican Guard was out of position. Helps explain how easily we waltzed into the capital city.

PHILLIPS: You also have a number of pretty shocking and revealing antidotes (ph) about the way the sons, in particular, lived. I pulled a couple of these. I want to talk to you about them. One of them here, you write, "In the winter of 2002, says a butler, Uday demanded that his aides bring to him a woman who had just had a baby. When the mother, in her 20s, with golden brown hair in a henna-colored skirt and matching shirt arrived, Uday sucked her nipples for what he believed would be vitamin-rich milk."

Explain to me this obsession with his health, and just these type of things that he would do.

WEISSKOPF: Kyra, in 1996, at the end of the year, Uday was badly injured in a botched assassination attempt. It took him months of surgery and recovery to approximate his past strength. He remained a cripple. But, after that, strove through tremendous lengths to try to regain strength, and we found, for instance, in one of his palaces, dozens and dozens of acupuncture needles and all kinds of herbs from China. One of the things he thought he would gain is through the breasts of this woman who just gave birth was a source of vitamins that would give him strength.

PHILLIPS: Michael, what appalled you the most about this man? I am talking about Uday now.

WEISSKOPF: The very personal style of his cruelty and murder and how he acted with absolutely no restraint. His brother was much more of an icy professional killer. Uday, however, swept brides out of wedding parties for his own delight. He lined up 15 or 20 women at a time at night, and ran, sort of beauty contests to decide whom he would sleep with. He was so cruel he would surf the Internet for torture techniques from past eras and other nations, discovering, for instance, the torment of keeping people in closed coffins, which he did. Or beating people on the sides until their kidneys dysfunctioned.

PHILLIPS: You're mentioning, exactly, one of the other quotes I had pulled from there, and you continue to say a maid who cleaned one of Uday's houses says he once saw him lop off the ear of one of his guards and then use a welder's torch on his face. Where does all this obsession come from with torture and sex and just the way he carried out his life?

WEISSKOPF: Well, of course, that would take deep psychological analysis, but our kind of seat of the pants analysis is he had grave disappointments from his father, who ended up turning to the younger of the sons as the heir apparent. He, himself, suffered greatly in this botched assassination attempt, and he was just a twisted, demented personality, and the scene you just described was of an employee. He was no less brutal when it came to his friends, including one who he suspected of leaving the country and snitching on him, so he had the man arrested, his tongue pulled out by pliers and lopped off with a scalpel.

PHILLIPS: Pretty gruesome investigation that you did. I have to ask you before I go quickly, do you believe that Saddam and his sons will be found? Dead or alive, either way, do you think they will be found?

WEISSKOPF: Yes, I do. I think it's a matter of time until they are spotted and informed upon.

PHILLIPS: Michael Weisskopf. You can pick up the article in this recent edition of "TIME" magazine. Thank you.

WEISSKOPF: You're welcome.

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