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American Morning

Discussion With Iraqi Opposition Leader Sharif Ali Bin Al- Hussein

Aired August 12, 2002 - 09:15   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Iraq's military ready to raise up against Saddam Hussein, at least one Iraqi opposition leader thinks so. Sharif Ali Bin Al-Hussein was among opposition officials meeting this weekend with U.S. officials in Washington, and he says he came away with no doubt of a U.S. commitment to freeing the people of Iraq. Sharif Ali is in Washington this morning.
Good morning. Welcome, sir. Glad to have you with us this morning.

SHARIF ALI BIN AL-HUSSEIN, IRAQI OPPOSITION MOVEMENT: Good morning.

ZAHN: When you say you have no doubt of the U.S. commitment to freeing the people of Iraq, does that mean you have no doubt that the U.S. ultimately will go to war against Iraq?

BIN AL-HUSSEIN: Well these are two separate issues. From the meetings, they clearly stated that no decision had been made about military conflict or the how and when of regime change. What was without doubt was their commitment to helping to bring about regime change and that their policy would not hesitate or stop toward that end.

ZAHN: Can you walk us through the process of a regime change and how that would work without military conflict?

BIN AL-HUSSEIN: Well, you -- first you have to understand is the whole of the Iraqi people are against Saddam Hussein, including the military, including the army, including the Republican Guard.

Nevertheless, modern states are very powerful, and this state -- regime is very ruthless. So it's a constant process of undermining Saddam Hussein's control and authority over the country. We are winning that.

But with the help of all those they believe in freedom and justice, particularly in the United States, that process will be greatly shortened.

ZAHN: Share with us some evidence that you have in any way that you are eroding the power of Saddam Hussein now through the opposition movement.

BIN AL-HUSSEIN: Well, clearly a lot of his control and authority has dissipated from the outside of their major cities. We can now free political prisoners from his grip, because we've infiltrated his security apparatus. The further away from Baghdad, the less control he has.

Plus, in many areas it might -- his authority doesn't run. The security forces have to stay holed up in their headquarters.

And so there are many issues here that show that the regime no longer has a control it used to enjoy.

ZAHN: And you would predict that if there is military action, the Republican Guard would and him all together, because some folks suggest that there are still about 1,000 or so -- of those troops that would stay with him.

BIN AL-HUSSEIN: Well, I think that there would be a few thousand that might hang around for a while, but that would be -- and depend on the operational results of the attack. I mean, these are details.

But in any eventuality, the majority of the military and Republican Guard wouldn't only defend him but would look for opportunity to rise up against him. These are people who have been insulted, humiliated, tortured and executed, led to military defeat after military defeat. Their heroes have been murdered. There's absolutely no motivation for anybody in the Iraqi officer corps to the defense (ph) of Saddam Hussein. On the contrary, they want revenge.

ZAHN: Yesterday, I spoke with Saudi foreign policy adviser Adel Al-Jubeir about the prospects of war, and here's what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ADEL AL-JUBEIR, SAUDI FOREIGN POLICY ADVISER: I would say they're less than 50/50.

ZAHN: You have that much faith in this process, those inspections?

AL-JUBEIR: Yes, I think the Iraqis will let the inspectors back in. When you look at the whole litany of choices before the president and the cost of something like this, there's an economic costs that would cost tens of billions of dollars. There's a human cost that will leave a large number of troops in Iraq for a long period of time. There's a question of what comes after Saddam. There's a question of the impact on the region. There's a question of, are your resources spread too thin?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZAHN: do you share view that the prospects of war you would put at 50/50?

Well, once, again, I'm not going to put numbers on what President Bush decides.

But the point is, that I suspect their views would change in a couple of years time when Saddam Hussein has a nuclear bomb and begins to threaten Saudi oil fields, and that's what this is really about. It's that Saddam is a threat that is not going to go away. He's trying to develop a nuclear weapon, and he is the kind of dictator that will use it. And the choices are stark. Either we go and get rid of him now, or we go in and get rid of him later, but at 10,000 time mores the cost. And you know, who in the world would want to face that.

ZAHN: We will continue to stay in touch with you and other members of the opposition movement. Thank you, Sharif Ali Bin Al- Hussein, for joining us this morning.

BIN AL-HUSSEIN: Thank you.

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