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Saddam Hussein Being Questioned
Aired December 15, 2003 - 14:05 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: Now Saddam Hussein is being questioned at a secret location. It's unclear what, if anything, he's revealing. The documents seized with the ex-Iraqi dictator have provided some valuable intelligence and produced some arrests.
Our national security correspondent David Ensor has more on intelligence, its role in the capture and the aftermath -- David.
DAVID ENSOR, NATL. SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kyra, again, today Saddam Hussein the prisoner has been interrogated by U.S. military and intelligence officials. In the first such questioning yesterday, the former Iraqi leader, we are told, was defiant. He was quite ready to talk, but he offered no new information. He was, as one senior official put it, quote, "a wise ass."
U.S. officials say the initial questioning is focusing on the insurgent attacks against American forces and their Iraqi allies in Baghdad and the area. Is there anything that can be learned from Saddam that might save lives? No one is particularly optimistic, but they feel that it needs to be tried.
From the top down, though, the bush administration is skeptical that Saddam will prove useful or credible. The president himself said he thought Saddam had been lying for 30 years and would probably continue to do so, even as a prisoner.
Still, intelligence officials say prisoners that are willing to talk with interrogators from the start, as Saddam is doing, often do provide useful intelligence eventually.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERT BAER, FMR. CIA OFFICER: We've got plenty of time with this guy, you're going to wear him down. You're going to deprive him of information. He's going to fall gradually under the dependence of the interrogators. And as time goes along, he's going to, we hope, not resist.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ENSOR: At the CIA today, there's a meeting about the hunt in Iraq for weapons of mass destruction. The effort headed by former U.N. weapons inspector David Kay. That search, of course, has not found any weapons thus far. While officials say they are not holding their breath for Saddam to reveal all he knows about WMD, they are hopeful that with his capture other Iraqis may become less fearful and more willing to tell what they know -- Kyra. PHILLIPS: David, do we know anything more about this tip? If it was one individual, more than one? And what about this reward?
ENSOR: It wasn't a tip. What it was under hostile questioning, various people who gradually were closer and closer to Saddam himself, revealed what they knew, and eventually, there was the last man who knew that Saddam was hiding in one of a couple of locations, and said what they were. But this was not volunteered information. So I'm told by U.S. officials, they don't see anyone who should be getting the reward.
PHILLIPS: National security correspondent David Ensor, 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 December 15, 2003 - 14:05 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Now Saddam Hussein is being questioned at a secret location. It's unclear what, if anything, he's revealing. The documents seized with the ex-Iraqi dictator have provided some valuable intelligence and produced some arrests.
Our national security correspondent David Ensor has more on intelligence, its role in the capture and the aftermath -- David.
DAVID ENSOR, NATL. SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kyra, again, today Saddam Hussein the prisoner has been interrogated by U.S. military and intelligence officials. In the first such questioning yesterday, the former Iraqi leader, we are told, was defiant. He was quite ready to talk, but he offered no new information. He was, as one senior official put it, quote, "a wise ass."
U.S. officials say the initial questioning is focusing on the insurgent attacks against American forces and their Iraqi allies in Baghdad and the area. Is there anything that can be learned from Saddam that might save lives? No one is particularly optimistic, but they feel that it needs to be tried.
From the top down, though, the bush administration is skeptical that Saddam will prove useful or credible. The president himself said he thought Saddam had been lying for 30 years and would probably continue to do so, even as a prisoner.
Still, intelligence officials say prisoners that are willing to talk with interrogators from the start, as Saddam is doing, often do provide useful intelligence eventually.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERT BAER, FMR. CIA OFFICER: We've got plenty of time with this guy, you're going to wear him down. You're going to deprive him of information. He's going to fall gradually under the dependence of the interrogators. And as time goes along, he's going to, we hope, not resist.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ENSOR: At the CIA today, there's a meeting about the hunt in Iraq for weapons of mass destruction. The effort headed by former U.N. weapons inspector David Kay. That search, of course, has not found any weapons thus far. While officials say they are not holding their breath for Saddam to reveal all he knows about WMD, they are hopeful that with his capture other Iraqis may become less fearful and more willing to tell what they know -- Kyra. PHILLIPS: David, do we know anything more about this tip? If it was one individual, more than one? And what about this reward?
ENSOR: It wasn't a tip. What it was under hostile questioning, various people who gradually were closer and closer to Saddam himself, revealed what they knew, and eventually, there was the last man who knew that Saddam was hiding in one of a couple of locations, and said what they were. But this was not volunteered information. So I'm told by U.S. officials, they don't see anyone who should be getting the reward.
PHILLIPS: National security correspondent David Ensor, 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
