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American Morning
Hussein Expects to Prove U.S. Wrong
Aired December 05, 2002 - 08:07 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.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: We have to go to where things are heating up, instead of cooling down. And that most definitely is Iraq. And that is where President Saddam Hussein says the inspections are actually, he thinks, a welcome opportunity to prove that the U.S. is wrong about the country's weapons programs.
Our Nic Robertson is in Baghdad. He's joining us live right now -- Nic, two confusing messages here. Yesterday we hear from Saddam Hussein about that. But then we also hear from one of Iraq's vice presidents, accusing the inspectors of being spies.
So which is it and which is the official line coming from the Iraqi government?
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Daryn, I think they're both the official lines. President Saddam Hussein, and we've seen very little of him on television here while the inspectors have been here, but he appeared this morning with a lot of senior officials from the cabinet, from the Bath Party. And he made a statement to the Iraqi people, and this is perhaps the key to it all here. This was to the Iraqi people, telling them that they faced a test, that they should show their capacity for bearing, telling them that some people would accuse Iraq of producing weapons of mass destruction, fingering America in that regard, but saying the U.N. inspectors should be given a chance to do their job.
Now, very much here that a message to the Iraqi people, whereas Taha Yassin Ramadan, the vice president, the message he gave was to a delegation from Egypt, as well as a group of Arab journalists. His message apparently more so to the region here, telling these people that the U.N. inspectors are spies for the United States and Israel, being paid for by Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency, being paid for by the CIA, all laying groundwork, he said, for a future war.
Iraq has been reaching out to the region here to try and encourage people, encourage countries onto its side, encourage understanding of its position.
So I think what we're seeing is one message for the region, one message for the Iraqi people. For the Iraqi people, this type of message tends to set the president up here, President Saddam Hussein, as a man offering them the opportunity for peace, not war -- Daryn.
KAGAN: Nic, let's go ahead and look ahead toward this weekend. We learned earlier this week that Iraq plans to put out its report about whatever kind of weapons of mass destruction it might or might not have a day ahead of the U.N. deadline. But from what we're hearing, it doesn't look like this is going to be any kind of easy reading. What do you know about the report?
ROBERTSON: It doesn't at all. No, absolutely not. We have some details. It's expected to be delivered here to the U.N. headquarters here Saturday. It's not clear whether it will all be on paper or whether it will be on CD-ROM. We understand that this document, in whatever form it's in, will, then have to be taken to Vienna for the International Atomic Energy Agency and to New York for the U.N. Security Council and for the UNMOVIC chief, Hans Blix, there.
So there's going to be this period where it will have to be physically moved there. Now, we're told it will be in Arabic and English, as well. So it's going to be a very complex document, many hundreds or thousands of pages long, and going to take a lot of time, we are told, for analysts to sift through the fine detail. But one thing Iraq keeps saying, every official that comes out here, we don't have weapons of mass destruction -- Daryn.
KAGAN: Well, they could say that in one sentence and we could get to the next step. But apparently they're going to buy themselves some time with a thousand page report.
Nic Robertson in Baghdad, 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 December 5, 2002 - 08:07 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: We have to go to where things are heating up, instead of cooling down. And that most definitely is Iraq. And that is where President Saddam Hussein says the inspections are actually, he thinks, a welcome opportunity to prove that the U.S. is wrong about the country's weapons programs.
Our Nic Robertson is in Baghdad. He's joining us live right now -- Nic, two confusing messages here. Yesterday we hear from Saddam Hussein about that. But then we also hear from one of Iraq's vice presidents, accusing the inspectors of being spies.
So which is it and which is the official line coming from the Iraqi government?
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Daryn, I think they're both the official lines. President Saddam Hussein, and we've seen very little of him on television here while the inspectors have been here, but he appeared this morning with a lot of senior officials from the cabinet, from the Bath Party. And he made a statement to the Iraqi people, and this is perhaps the key to it all here. This was to the Iraqi people, telling them that they faced a test, that they should show their capacity for bearing, telling them that some people would accuse Iraq of producing weapons of mass destruction, fingering America in that regard, but saying the U.N. inspectors should be given a chance to do their job.
Now, very much here that a message to the Iraqi people, whereas Taha Yassin Ramadan, the vice president, the message he gave was to a delegation from Egypt, as well as a group of Arab journalists. His message apparently more so to the region here, telling these people that the U.N. inspectors are spies for the United States and Israel, being paid for by Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency, being paid for by the CIA, all laying groundwork, he said, for a future war.
Iraq has been reaching out to the region here to try and encourage people, encourage countries onto its side, encourage understanding of its position.
So I think what we're seeing is one message for the region, one message for the Iraqi people. For the Iraqi people, this type of message tends to set the president up here, President Saddam Hussein, as a man offering them the opportunity for peace, not war -- Daryn.
KAGAN: Nic, let's go ahead and look ahead toward this weekend. We learned earlier this week that Iraq plans to put out its report about whatever kind of weapons of mass destruction it might or might not have a day ahead of the U.N. deadline. But from what we're hearing, it doesn't look like this is going to be any kind of easy reading. What do you know about the report?
ROBERTSON: It doesn't at all. No, absolutely not. We have some details. It's expected to be delivered here to the U.N. headquarters here Saturday. It's not clear whether it will all be on paper or whether it will be on CD-ROM. We understand that this document, in whatever form it's in, will, then have to be taken to Vienna for the International Atomic Energy Agency and to New York for the U.N. Security Council and for the UNMOVIC chief, Hans Blix, there.
So there's going to be this period where it will have to be physically moved there. Now, we're told it will be in Arabic and English, as well. So it's going to be a very complex document, many hundreds or thousands of pages long, and going to take a lot of time, we are told, for analysts to sift through the fine detail. But one thing Iraq keeps saying, every official that comes out here, we don't have weapons of mass destruction -- Daryn.
KAGAN: Well, they could say that in one sentence and we could get to the next step. But apparently they're going to buy themselves some time with a thousand page report.
Nic Robertson in Baghdad, 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
