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Rumsfeld: CIA in Charge of Interrogating Saddam; Many in Arab World Feel Saddam was Humiliated

Aired December 16, 2003 - 15:01   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: CIA versus Saddam. If you've been watching CNN, you've heard Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld say that intelligence agents, not military officials, are taking the lead in trying to elicit information from the ex Iraqi dictator. Rumsfeld declined to say what, if anything, Saddam has given up so far, apart from the obvious difficulty in finding anything buried in Iraq.
Let's get an update now from CNN Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr -- Barbara.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kyra, that's right. Secretary Rumsfeld just completing his first news briefing with reporters here in the Pentagon since the capture of Saddam Hussein. And he spoke in detail about the plans now for Saddam's treatment, his interrogation, and why the Central Intelligence Agency will now be in charge of that interrogation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD RUMSFELD, DEFENSE SECRETARY: I have asked George Tenet to be responsible for the handling of the interrogation of Saddam Hussein. And his people, he and his people, will be the regulator over the interrogations. Who will do it, the questions that will get posed, the management of the information that flows from those interrogations.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STARR: The secretary saying it's the CIA that has the professional expertise to conduct this type of long, complex interrogation process. Now, he also said that there will be an inter- agency committee formed to deal with other key issues regarding Saddam Hussein, such as whether or not he will be classified officially as a prisoner of war, whether he will be allowed visits by the international committee of the Red Cross, and other issues such as whether, when he comes to trial, how that will be held, whether he will be granted a lawyer. All of those things now to be considered by an inter-agency committee.

And how is Saddam Hussein doing now? Well, Secretary Rumsfeld, to use his words, says the former leader is resigned to being in captivity. Secretary Rumsfeld repeatedly calling Saddam Hussein a common fugitive.

And while the current plan, Kyra, remains for him to eventually be turned over to a new Iraqi government for legal disposition, the secretary also held the door open today. He said, if it is proved that Saddam Hussein had anything to do with the insurgency that has now killed hundreds of American troops, that Iraqi prosecution could be reconsidered down the road -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Barbara Starr from the Pentagon, thanks.

Rumsfeld says it was vital to show the world that Saddam is out of circulation. And though he's not technically a POW, he's being given POW protections. But CNN's Brent Sadler reports many people in the Arab world are less than reassured.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRENT SADLER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Saddam Hussein wasn't just captured by U.S. troops, he was a rat in a trap, according to one Arab cartoonist. The mask of a once mighty dictator cut away, illustrates another. "Saddam Hussein's mouth was examined, but it was his nose," says this leading Lebanese lawyer, "that was rubbed in the dirt."

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Humiliation clearly comes as a message. The importance of this message is whether Saddam remains the exception, as he is now, or whether all those who carry out on the same path of brutality in the region are going to be stood against. That's what the Arab world needs.

SADLER: Saddam Hussein was both revered and reviled in the Arab world. Financing Palestinian extremists won him support on the street, but no Arab leader is publicly lamenting the dictator's demise. And his eventual trial, say observers here, may be a key U.S. element to help promote democracy in the Middle East, especially in advance of presidential elections in the U.S., where there has been mixed support for the war.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Will America want to have a fair trial develop in Iraq as a model for the rest of the region? Or whether it's going to be another Hollywood show that people will perceive immediately as one that is staged, managed again either for electoral purposes or as a way to vindicate a war which remains very, very unpopular.

SADLER: It's a debate which rages on the campus of the American University of Beirut, where students and some professors question U.S. government policy. One that relentlessly targeted and now humiliates Saddam Hussein, they say, but goes easy on other dubious leaders, pointing to Israel's prime minister, Ariel Sharon.

NABIL DAJANI, AMERICAN UNIVERSITY OF BEIRUT: But so many other people deserve humiliation. For instance, Arabs believe that Sharon deserves that humiliation also. And many other Arab leaders deserve it who are very much pro-American deserve humiliation.

SADLER: Most Arabs seem to agree that Saddam Hussein got the treatment he deserves, but at the hands of the wrong people. And for the wrong reason.

Brent Sadler, CNN, Beirut.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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




Arab World Feel Saddam was Humiliated>


Aired December 16, 2003 - 15:01   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Now: CIA versus Saddam. If you've been watching CNN, you've heard Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld say that intelligence agents, not military officials, are taking the lead in trying to elicit information from the ex Iraqi dictator. Rumsfeld declined to say what, if anything, Saddam has given up so far, apart from the obvious difficulty in finding anything buried in Iraq.
Let's get an update now from CNN Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr -- Barbara.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kyra, that's right. Secretary Rumsfeld just completing his first news briefing with reporters here in the Pentagon since the capture of Saddam Hussein. And he spoke in detail about the plans now for Saddam's treatment, his interrogation, and why the Central Intelligence Agency will now be in charge of that interrogation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD RUMSFELD, DEFENSE SECRETARY: I have asked George Tenet to be responsible for the handling of the interrogation of Saddam Hussein. And his people, he and his people, will be the regulator over the interrogations. Who will do it, the questions that will get posed, the management of the information that flows from those interrogations.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STARR: The secretary saying it's the CIA that has the professional expertise to conduct this type of long, complex interrogation process. Now, he also said that there will be an inter- agency committee formed to deal with other key issues regarding Saddam Hussein, such as whether or not he will be classified officially as a prisoner of war, whether he will be allowed visits by the international committee of the Red Cross, and other issues such as whether, when he comes to trial, how that will be held, whether he will be granted a lawyer. All of those things now to be considered by an inter-agency committee.

And how is Saddam Hussein doing now? Well, Secretary Rumsfeld, to use his words, says the former leader is resigned to being in captivity. Secretary Rumsfeld repeatedly calling Saddam Hussein a common fugitive.

And while the current plan, Kyra, remains for him to eventually be turned over to a new Iraqi government for legal disposition, the secretary also held the door open today. He said, if it is proved that Saddam Hussein had anything to do with the insurgency that has now killed hundreds of American troops, that Iraqi prosecution could be reconsidered down the road -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Barbara Starr from the Pentagon, thanks.

Rumsfeld says it was vital to show the world that Saddam is out of circulation. And though he's not technically a POW, he's being given POW protections. But CNN's Brent Sadler reports many people in the Arab world are less than reassured.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRENT SADLER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Saddam Hussein wasn't just captured by U.S. troops, he was a rat in a trap, according to one Arab cartoonist. The mask of a once mighty dictator cut away, illustrates another. "Saddam Hussein's mouth was examined, but it was his nose," says this leading Lebanese lawyer, "that was rubbed in the dirt."

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Humiliation clearly comes as a message. The importance of this message is whether Saddam remains the exception, as he is now, or whether all those who carry out on the same path of brutality in the region are going to be stood against. That's what the Arab world needs.

SADLER: Saddam Hussein was both revered and reviled in the Arab world. Financing Palestinian extremists won him support on the street, but no Arab leader is publicly lamenting the dictator's demise. And his eventual trial, say observers here, may be a key U.S. element to help promote democracy in the Middle East, especially in advance of presidential elections in the U.S., where there has been mixed support for the war.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Will America want to have a fair trial develop in Iraq as a model for the rest of the region? Or whether it's going to be another Hollywood show that people will perceive immediately as one that is staged, managed again either for electoral purposes or as a way to vindicate a war which remains very, very unpopular.

SADLER: It's a debate which rages on the campus of the American University of Beirut, where students and some professors question U.S. government policy. One that relentlessly targeted and now humiliates Saddam Hussein, they say, but goes easy on other dubious leaders, pointing to Israel's prime minister, Ariel Sharon.

NABIL DAJANI, AMERICAN UNIVERSITY OF BEIRUT: But so many other people deserve humiliation. For instance, Arabs believe that Sharon deserves that humiliation also. And many other Arab leaders deserve it who are very much pro-American deserve humiliation.

SADLER: Most Arabs seem to agree that Saddam Hussein got the treatment he deserves, but at the hands of the wrong people. And for the wrong reason.

Brent Sadler, CNN, Beirut.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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




Arab World Feel Saddam was Humiliated>