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Rym in the House
Aired September 17, 2003 - 14:11 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're joined by a voice and face we know is authentic. We've seen her excellent on the scene reports during and after the war.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: She's our own Rym Brahimi, safe and sound, we must say.
RYM BRAHIMI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, definitely. It's been a rough few months, being in Baghdad before, and during part of the war, and then after again.
O'BRIEN: Bit of an understatement there, I think.
PHILLIPS: We watched your reports well before the war started, during the war. I don't know if it's something to brag about, you were kicked out of the country by Saddam Hussein. Is that something to be proud of? Tell us about that?
BRAHIMI: I guess it says a lot about our integrity as reporters that the entire CNN team was kicked out in a certain way. It does say something about the fact that we did our jobs, and we didn't necessarily do our jobs the way people would like us to do it, but that's not our problem; as reporters, we just have to say what we see.
O'BRIEN: It's got be so challenging to operate in that environment. Tremendous amount of stress. You had a limbed amount of people there. And you had a minder keeping track of what you were doing. Must have been very difficult. Each and every live shot was sort of make or break proposition, wasn't it?
BRAHIMI: In a way it was, there were three things. There was minder situation. We had a minder who was initially -- before the buildup to the war started, we had a minder we would pick out from the ministry of information. I mean, they would send someone with us all the time. And gradually, they assigned one minder who was in the office all the time.
Three days before the war, they add another minder, and that guy was a scary person. He came in and had a gun in the back of his suit, and he was monitoring everything, and that was really weird. We knew they were monitoring our air anyway, that they had people who were actually paid to sit there and take notes what CNN was saying.
But this guy with a gun was scary. The funny point actually -- when the war started, they moved into the Palestine hotel us, the minders, and this particular fell, the second one we were sent, was in the room where we were reporting with us, and at one point, I remember Nic on the balcony, on the cordless phone doing a live report for TV, and I was monitoring the TV to see what was going on, if there were any changes reported on Iraqi TV, and at that point, the minder goes, could you cut down the volume, I'm trying to listen to Nic, for God's sake.
O'BRIEN: Really? Wow. Wow.
BRAHIMI: It was really...
PHILLIPS: I'm just curious, as a female, we heard all these stories about the torture chambers and how the regime treated people and how women were treated, and not only are you very smart, but you're also very attractive. I am just wondering, were you ever in a situation where you thought, why am I here, and this is scary, anything could happen to me?
BRAHIMI: Oh, you're very kind, first of all. But, you know, in a way, being a female was maybe less scary then than it is now.
The only scary part about being a female then is because we had -- we were in touch with the office of Uday Saddam Hussein, the son of Saddam Hussein, and we were trying to get an interview with him, and I was the person with the contacts there, which means I would have had to do the interview. And a lot of my colleagues and friends were telling me, you really have to be careful with this person, because he obviously has a problem with females.
But that ended up, it didn't -- it fell through. Now it's much more dangerous in certain ways. Now when we're hearing about the rapes -- when I talk to women now, and so that makes me feel I'm in a more fragile situation.
O'BRIEN: I'm curious what your encounters on a day-to-day basis on the street. What's the sentiment there? Is there a lot of anger directed toward the U.S., or is there hope that ultimately they'll come out of this occupation and move toward a freer Iraq?
BRAHIMI: You know, Miles, there's a bit of both, and you know, on the one hand, yes, you see great things in street that you would never have seen before, and people just say what they want, and they're not afraid of the camera anymore as they were before.
But on the other hand, there is a lot of anger, not only at the U.S., but at journalists. And some of the anger that is felt toward the U.S. is directed at journalists, and especially us, as Western media representatives, if you will. And I think, as I was telling you earlier on, we had this really strange experience one evening. It was midnight maybe, and we happened on a raid in a bad neighborhood of Baghdad, and we waited for the U.S. military to come out, obviously not to interfere in their raid.
Once they moved out, we went in with the cameraman with Iraqi translator to talk to the people who had just been raided. There was so much anger there at the Americans, but also at us. These people started yelling at us and crowding around us, and this guy just -- we had to stop moving, and this guy shouted at me and said, "This is an occupation God damn it, and you're not telling the story right. You're saying what Bush wants you to say. You're not saying what Iraqis are going through. And the next time there's a raid, I'm going to bomb the media." So that was a scary moment.
O'BRIEN: What did you say?
BRAHIMI: You know, I think that say moment you shouldn't say anything, just keep your mike up.
O'BRIEN: That's the cue to leave, I think. Wow. Well, I assume you're headed back soon. And obviously, it's a very dangerous place, we wish you well. And continue your excellent reporting.
BRAHIMI: Pleasure to be here.
PHILLIPS: You cover the military side. You obviously spent a lot of the times with the families. We remember those pieces even more so. You really gave us a great balance, a sense of what is happening there.
BRAHIMI: Well, we try to bring both sides of the story, and hopefully, this is what comes out in our report.
PHILLIPS: Rym Brahimi, thanks.
O'BRIEN: No muscle there. Rym Brahimi, thank you very much.
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 September 17, 2003 - 14:11 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're joined by a voice and face we know is authentic. We've seen her excellent on the scene reports during and after the war.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: She's our own Rym Brahimi, safe and sound, we must say.
RYM BRAHIMI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, definitely. It's been a rough few months, being in Baghdad before, and during part of the war, and then after again.
O'BRIEN: Bit of an understatement there, I think.
PHILLIPS: We watched your reports well before the war started, during the war. I don't know if it's something to brag about, you were kicked out of the country by Saddam Hussein. Is that something to be proud of? Tell us about that?
BRAHIMI: I guess it says a lot about our integrity as reporters that the entire CNN team was kicked out in a certain way. It does say something about the fact that we did our jobs, and we didn't necessarily do our jobs the way people would like us to do it, but that's not our problem; as reporters, we just have to say what we see.
O'BRIEN: It's got be so challenging to operate in that environment. Tremendous amount of stress. You had a limbed amount of people there. And you had a minder keeping track of what you were doing. Must have been very difficult. Each and every live shot was sort of make or break proposition, wasn't it?
BRAHIMI: In a way it was, there were three things. There was minder situation. We had a minder who was initially -- before the buildup to the war started, we had a minder we would pick out from the ministry of information. I mean, they would send someone with us all the time. And gradually, they assigned one minder who was in the office all the time.
Three days before the war, they add another minder, and that guy was a scary person. He came in and had a gun in the back of his suit, and he was monitoring everything, and that was really weird. We knew they were monitoring our air anyway, that they had people who were actually paid to sit there and take notes what CNN was saying.
But this guy with a gun was scary. The funny point actually -- when the war started, they moved into the Palestine hotel us, the minders, and this particular fell, the second one we were sent, was in the room where we were reporting with us, and at one point, I remember Nic on the balcony, on the cordless phone doing a live report for TV, and I was monitoring the TV to see what was going on, if there were any changes reported on Iraqi TV, and at that point, the minder goes, could you cut down the volume, I'm trying to listen to Nic, for God's sake.
O'BRIEN: Really? Wow. Wow.
BRAHIMI: It was really...
PHILLIPS: I'm just curious, as a female, we heard all these stories about the torture chambers and how the regime treated people and how women were treated, and not only are you very smart, but you're also very attractive. I am just wondering, were you ever in a situation where you thought, why am I here, and this is scary, anything could happen to me?
BRAHIMI: Oh, you're very kind, first of all. But, you know, in a way, being a female was maybe less scary then than it is now.
The only scary part about being a female then is because we had -- we were in touch with the office of Uday Saddam Hussein, the son of Saddam Hussein, and we were trying to get an interview with him, and I was the person with the contacts there, which means I would have had to do the interview. And a lot of my colleagues and friends were telling me, you really have to be careful with this person, because he obviously has a problem with females.
But that ended up, it didn't -- it fell through. Now it's much more dangerous in certain ways. Now when we're hearing about the rapes -- when I talk to women now, and so that makes me feel I'm in a more fragile situation.
O'BRIEN: I'm curious what your encounters on a day-to-day basis on the street. What's the sentiment there? Is there a lot of anger directed toward the U.S., or is there hope that ultimately they'll come out of this occupation and move toward a freer Iraq?
BRAHIMI: You know, Miles, there's a bit of both, and you know, on the one hand, yes, you see great things in street that you would never have seen before, and people just say what they want, and they're not afraid of the camera anymore as they were before.
But on the other hand, there is a lot of anger, not only at the U.S., but at journalists. And some of the anger that is felt toward the U.S. is directed at journalists, and especially us, as Western media representatives, if you will. And I think, as I was telling you earlier on, we had this really strange experience one evening. It was midnight maybe, and we happened on a raid in a bad neighborhood of Baghdad, and we waited for the U.S. military to come out, obviously not to interfere in their raid.
Once they moved out, we went in with the cameraman with Iraqi translator to talk to the people who had just been raided. There was so much anger there at the Americans, but also at us. These people started yelling at us and crowding around us, and this guy just -- we had to stop moving, and this guy shouted at me and said, "This is an occupation God damn it, and you're not telling the story right. You're saying what Bush wants you to say. You're not saying what Iraqis are going through. And the next time there's a raid, I'm going to bomb the media." So that was a scary moment.
O'BRIEN: What did you say?
BRAHIMI: You know, I think that say moment you shouldn't say anything, just keep your mike up.
O'BRIEN: That's the cue to leave, I think. Wow. Well, I assume you're headed back soon. And obviously, it's a very dangerous place, we wish you well. And continue your excellent reporting.
BRAHIMI: Pleasure to be here.
PHILLIPS: You cover the military side. You obviously spent a lot of the times with the families. We remember those pieces even more so. You really gave us a great balance, a sense of what is happening there.
BRAHIMI: Well, we try to bring both sides of the story, and hopefully, this is what comes out in our report.
PHILLIPS: Rym Brahimi, thanks.
O'BRIEN: No muscle there. Rym Brahimi, thank you very much.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
