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CNN Live Today
More Arrests Made From Documents Held by Saddam
Aired December 15, 2003 - 10:06 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.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: We begin our coverage this morning in Baghdad where insurgents have struck. Meanwhile U.S. forces have made key arrests on former regime insiders. CNN's Baghdad bureau chief Jane Arraf is in the Iraqi capital. She's got the very latest for us on this this morning. Jane, good morning.
JANE ARRAF, CNN BAGHDAD BUREAU CHIEF: Good morning, Soledad. We're still getting the details on those arrests, but they have been facilitated. In fact are directly linked to documents found with Saddam, according to a senior military official.
He tells us that those documents included details that led them to several members of resistance cells, several members of the insurgency that may have been responsible for attacks on U.S. troops, including one person who is believed to be one of the leaders of perhaps one of the cells or a group that has led some of the attacks.
Now, still sorting out those things, but, again, they say this doesn't mean that Saddam was directing attacks against U.S. targets or anything else, just that he was being briefed on them. But they believe they may have gotten to that important mid-level of former fighters that they have always believed have been responsible for a lot of these -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Jane, quick question for you. Earlier this morning when we were talking to General Odierno, he seemed to indicate that $750,000 that was found with Saddam Hussein was not being used to pay off the insurgents, but, instead, was being used to pay off people that were helping in the hiding of him and the transport of him.
Any more information on this, the exact role he may have had in the insurgency if it was anything more than sort of a figure head, an emotional role, so to speak?
ARRAF: Well, may have provided some sort of help to them, but it does seem to be the case from everything we have heard all along. And you have to remember they have been looking for Saddam for a long time and trying to figure out exactly what the structure is of the people behind these attacks.
That he has been -- they believe he had been in the tribal areas, believed he had been devoting a lot of his time to hiding and staying safe. And that there were others, particularly at that mid-level, all the way up to his former right hand man, Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, who's still at large, who had been more directly involved.
Now that $750,000, quite a big chunk of cash in the old tin box. But he had been known to have his family withdraw much of the reserves from the Central Bank of Iraq before the war started. And those were presumed to be -- have kept -- for safe keeping by him in order to ensure his safety Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Jane Arraf for us this morning in Baghdad. Jane, thanks.
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 - 10:06 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: We begin our coverage this morning in Baghdad where insurgents have struck. Meanwhile U.S. forces have made key arrests on former regime insiders. CNN's Baghdad bureau chief Jane Arraf is in the Iraqi capital. She's got the very latest for us on this this morning. Jane, good morning.
JANE ARRAF, CNN BAGHDAD BUREAU CHIEF: Good morning, Soledad. We're still getting the details on those arrests, but they have been facilitated. In fact are directly linked to documents found with Saddam, according to a senior military official.
He tells us that those documents included details that led them to several members of resistance cells, several members of the insurgency that may have been responsible for attacks on U.S. troops, including one person who is believed to be one of the leaders of perhaps one of the cells or a group that has led some of the attacks.
Now, still sorting out those things, but, again, they say this doesn't mean that Saddam was directing attacks against U.S. targets or anything else, just that he was being briefed on them. But they believe they may have gotten to that important mid-level of former fighters that they have always believed have been responsible for a lot of these -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Jane, quick question for you. Earlier this morning when we were talking to General Odierno, he seemed to indicate that $750,000 that was found with Saddam Hussein was not being used to pay off the insurgents, but, instead, was being used to pay off people that were helping in the hiding of him and the transport of him.
Any more information on this, the exact role he may have had in the insurgency if it was anything more than sort of a figure head, an emotional role, so to speak?
ARRAF: Well, may have provided some sort of help to them, but it does seem to be the case from everything we have heard all along. And you have to remember they have been looking for Saddam for a long time and trying to figure out exactly what the structure is of the people behind these attacks.
That he has been -- they believe he had been in the tribal areas, believed he had been devoting a lot of his time to hiding and staying safe. And that there were others, particularly at that mid-level, all the way up to his former right hand man, Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, who's still at large, who had been more directly involved.
Now that $750,000, quite a big chunk of cash in the old tin box. But he had been known to have his family withdraw much of the reserves from the Central Bank of Iraq before the war started. And those were presumed to be -- have kept -- for safe keeping by him in order to ensure his safety Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Jane Arraf for us this morning in Baghdad. Jane, thanks.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
