Return to Transcripts main page

Live From...

Interview With David Isby

Aired August 29, 2003 - 13:15   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.


HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: U.S. troops are coming under attack almost daily in Iraq. But the two most devastating terror-type bombings targeted U.N. headquarters in Baghdad last week and a Shi'ite mosque in Najaf today.
How these targets being chosen and by whom? Journalist, defense analyst and international affairs consultant David Isby joins us now from Washington. Mr. Isby, thank you so much for being with us.

DAVID ISBY, DEFENSE ANALYST: Good Afternoon.

COLLINS: Tell us who you is doing this? In this situation it has certainly become very complicated.

ISBY: Well, certainly, most of the suspicion has focused on Ba'ath Party loyalists, followers of Saddam Hussein, who certainly have been opponents of Ayatollah al-Hakim and his family for many years. However, al Qaeda and their foreign allies have some very strong anti-Shi'a terrorists. They've been behind, for example, much of the anti-Shi'a terrorism that we've seen in Pakistan. So it's really very hard to tell.

COLLINS: What is your reaction to a comment that Ahmed Chalabi made, of course the leader of the Iraqi national Congress, in saying that the same people who killed Sergio de Mello, the U.N. envoy to Iraq in the bombing in Baghdad, are responsible for the outrage in Najaf?

ISBY: Well we can't tell. But, again this is very obviously like that earlier bombing, terrorism, pure and simple. It's obviously not military action against foreign occupying troops. This is, again, a soft target, one that wasn't protected by military forces.

COLLINS: You also say that this attack is legitimate to those of course who have done it. You say that they are sort of telling the people, Look, the U.S. cannot help you, they cannot keep you safe.

ISBY: Yes. Legitimacy was the target, very much, this terrorist act. The first step in the U.S. saying our presence is legitimate, the Iraqi government we're trying to set up is legitimate, is being able to keep citizens such as those at the mosques safe and alive.

Saddam was able to do this through oppression. Now those who are doing this through terrorism are targeting individuals to underscore they cannot keep them alive.

And again, for us here in the West it underlines the fact that terrorism, even that which tries to justify itself through Islamic ideology, has killed many more Muslims than anyone else, even when you count 9/11.

COLLINS: And that brings up the point that I was asking our correspondent Ben Wedeman, who is in Najaf right now. Try to talk a little bit about how this latest incident changes the face of the conflict in Iraq now. What are your thoughts on that?

ISBY: Well, I don't know if it changes it. We see more, again, the attacking soft targets, attacking legitimacy, and, again, the fact that we can't put a finger on it shows how easily the Ba'athists, al Qaeda foreigners, these all intermesh.

And, indeed, terror, far from being just the tool is becoming the end and the ideology of a very desperate and dangerous group.

COLLINS: But these are not U.S. troops being killed, these are Iraqi people now.

ISBY: Absolutely because this shows that the U.S. and the Iraqi government cannot keep them alive. So even though they use the rhetoric of, we are opposed to foreign occupation, opposed to the U.S., they're simply killing Iraqi civilians, which Saddam Hussein was very pleased to do, especially Shi'ites, for most of his career.

COLLINS: All right, analyst David Isby joining us from Washington. Thanks so much for all your insight on all of this.

ISBY: 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 August 29, 2003 - 13:15   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: U.S. troops are coming under attack almost daily in Iraq. But the two most devastating terror-type bombings targeted U.N. headquarters in Baghdad last week and a Shi'ite mosque in Najaf today.
How these targets being chosen and by whom? Journalist, defense analyst and international affairs consultant David Isby joins us now from Washington. Mr. Isby, thank you so much for being with us.

DAVID ISBY, DEFENSE ANALYST: Good Afternoon.

COLLINS: Tell us who you is doing this? In this situation it has certainly become very complicated.

ISBY: Well, certainly, most of the suspicion has focused on Ba'ath Party loyalists, followers of Saddam Hussein, who certainly have been opponents of Ayatollah al-Hakim and his family for many years. However, al Qaeda and their foreign allies have some very strong anti-Shi'a terrorists. They've been behind, for example, much of the anti-Shi'a terrorism that we've seen in Pakistan. So it's really very hard to tell.

COLLINS: What is your reaction to a comment that Ahmed Chalabi made, of course the leader of the Iraqi national Congress, in saying that the same people who killed Sergio de Mello, the U.N. envoy to Iraq in the bombing in Baghdad, are responsible for the outrage in Najaf?

ISBY: Well we can't tell. But, again this is very obviously like that earlier bombing, terrorism, pure and simple. It's obviously not military action against foreign occupying troops. This is, again, a soft target, one that wasn't protected by military forces.

COLLINS: You also say that this attack is legitimate to those of course who have done it. You say that they are sort of telling the people, Look, the U.S. cannot help you, they cannot keep you safe.

ISBY: Yes. Legitimacy was the target, very much, this terrorist act. The first step in the U.S. saying our presence is legitimate, the Iraqi government we're trying to set up is legitimate, is being able to keep citizens such as those at the mosques safe and alive.

Saddam was able to do this through oppression. Now those who are doing this through terrorism are targeting individuals to underscore they cannot keep them alive.

And again, for us here in the West it underlines the fact that terrorism, even that which tries to justify itself through Islamic ideology, has killed many more Muslims than anyone else, even when you count 9/11.

COLLINS: And that brings up the point that I was asking our correspondent Ben Wedeman, who is in Najaf right now. Try to talk a little bit about how this latest incident changes the face of the conflict in Iraq now. What are your thoughts on that?

ISBY: Well, I don't know if it changes it. We see more, again, the attacking soft targets, attacking legitimacy, and, again, the fact that we can't put a finger on it shows how easily the Ba'athists, al Qaeda foreigners, these all intermesh.

And, indeed, terror, far from being just the tool is becoming the end and the ideology of a very desperate and dangerous group.

COLLINS: But these are not U.S. troops being killed, these are Iraqi people now.

ISBY: Absolutely because this shows that the U.S. and the Iraqi government cannot keep them alive. So even though they use the rhetoric of, we are opposed to foreign occupation, opposed to the U.S., they're simply killing Iraqi civilians, which Saddam Hussein was very pleased to do, especially Shi'ites, for most of his career.

COLLINS: All right, analyst David Isby joining us from Washington. Thanks so much for all your insight on all of this.

ISBY: 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