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American Morning
Interview With Former POWs
Aired February 20, 2003 - 09:35 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.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: We change our focus now to preparations for a possible war with Iraq. Seventeen former POWs from the Gulf War want pay back from Saddam Hussein. Iraq has failed to respond to their $910 million lawsuit filed last April which claims the Americans were tortured during their imprisonment. The former POWs will present evidence next month to a federal court in Washington.
Joining us now are two plaintiffs and former Iraqi prisoners, Jeff Zaun -- Z-A-U-N, not Z-A-H-N -- and Dale Storr, and their attorney, Steven Fennell, also with us this morning.
Nice to have all three of you with us.
You were held POW for the longest period of time. What happened to you during your imprisonment?
JEFF ZAUN, FORMER POW: There are many stories. I got shot down, was actually taken care of fairly well for the first couple of days until we were turned over to the secret police, and that's what has brought up the issue of the treatment of POWs is that once we were turned over to the secret police, the treatment got fairly nasty, and we were, in fact, beaten up and threatened with execution, and I made the tape which folks saw right here on this network, I think.
ZAHN: Right, where a gun was actually held to your head?
ZAUN: Well, brandished to me. Then beyond that, we were turned over to the army. Once again, the treatment was fair.
ZAHN: By the army -- it was just with the Iraqi secret police.
ZAUN: And then, once again, we were turned over to the secret police. And there are a lot of gray areas in international law. Chemical weapons and treatment of POWs are two areas that are not gray. So I think we have a very good case in the law.
ZAHN: Were you ever concerned that you were going to lose your life when you were under the custody of the Iraqi secret police?
ZAUN: There was never a moment when I thought they were going to kill me then and there. There was -- I do remember a mock execution, but I was blindfolded, and I remember I could look down underneath the blindfold and I could see there was carpet, and I figured they're not going to shoot me on the carpet.
However, just in a bigger picture, they kept me in isolation a lot, and I was pretty sure that at some point they would decide to execute me. At some point, Saddam would decide, OK, take this guy out in front a public crowd and execute him. And that played on my mind a lot and I think that probably played on my mind more than anything else.
ZAHN: Dale, describe to us what happened to you when you were in prison. Was it similar to what Jeff endured?
STORR: Yes, it is similar. I endured three days of very tough interrogations and beatings, the first three days I was shot down. Then that slowed down a little bit, but was threatened with death, had a pistol pointed to my head, and faced with basic -- executions, they threatened that several times.
ZAHN: And did they threaten you in English? You knew everything they were saying?
STORR: I knew every word they were saying. And I believed -- when they were -- had an Iraqi colonel holding a cocked .45-caliber pistol up to my forehead, he was screaming at me in Arabic but the interrogator explained everything that he was saying, and it was perfectly clear to me that he intended to kill me.
ZAHN: What do you hope to accomplish from this lawsuit?
STORR: Several things. But deterrence, that you can't treat prisoners like this and expect to get away with it. We would like to punish Saddam Hussein. He can't get a free pass anymore. He has been putting this off for 12 years, and somebody -- he's got to pay one of these days.
ZAHN: Do you have any faith that Saddam Hussein will ever pay for what happened to these two men?
STEVEN FENNELL, ATTORNEY: We don't think Saddam Hussein will pay directly, but the U.S. Congress has passed a law that allows us, once we have a judgment, to go against frozen Iraqi assets in this country, and there are $1.7 billion worth of those assets.
ZAHN: Gentlemen, I just have to interrupt you for a moment...
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 February 20, 2003 - 09:35 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: We change our focus now to preparations for a possible war with Iraq. Seventeen former POWs from the Gulf War want pay back from Saddam Hussein. Iraq has failed to respond to their $910 million lawsuit filed last April which claims the Americans were tortured during their imprisonment. The former POWs will present evidence next month to a federal court in Washington.
Joining us now are two plaintiffs and former Iraqi prisoners, Jeff Zaun -- Z-A-U-N, not Z-A-H-N -- and Dale Storr, and their attorney, Steven Fennell, also with us this morning.
Nice to have all three of you with us.
You were held POW for the longest period of time. What happened to you during your imprisonment?
JEFF ZAUN, FORMER POW: There are many stories. I got shot down, was actually taken care of fairly well for the first couple of days until we were turned over to the secret police, and that's what has brought up the issue of the treatment of POWs is that once we were turned over to the secret police, the treatment got fairly nasty, and we were, in fact, beaten up and threatened with execution, and I made the tape which folks saw right here on this network, I think.
ZAHN: Right, where a gun was actually held to your head?
ZAUN: Well, brandished to me. Then beyond that, we were turned over to the army. Once again, the treatment was fair.
ZAHN: By the army -- it was just with the Iraqi secret police.
ZAUN: And then, once again, we were turned over to the secret police. And there are a lot of gray areas in international law. Chemical weapons and treatment of POWs are two areas that are not gray. So I think we have a very good case in the law.
ZAHN: Were you ever concerned that you were going to lose your life when you were under the custody of the Iraqi secret police?
ZAUN: There was never a moment when I thought they were going to kill me then and there. There was -- I do remember a mock execution, but I was blindfolded, and I remember I could look down underneath the blindfold and I could see there was carpet, and I figured they're not going to shoot me on the carpet.
However, just in a bigger picture, they kept me in isolation a lot, and I was pretty sure that at some point they would decide to execute me. At some point, Saddam would decide, OK, take this guy out in front a public crowd and execute him. And that played on my mind a lot and I think that probably played on my mind more than anything else.
ZAHN: Dale, describe to us what happened to you when you were in prison. Was it similar to what Jeff endured?
STORR: Yes, it is similar. I endured three days of very tough interrogations and beatings, the first three days I was shot down. Then that slowed down a little bit, but was threatened with death, had a pistol pointed to my head, and faced with basic -- executions, they threatened that several times.
ZAHN: And did they threaten you in English? You knew everything they were saying?
STORR: I knew every word they were saying. And I believed -- when they were -- had an Iraqi colonel holding a cocked .45-caliber pistol up to my forehead, he was screaming at me in Arabic but the interrogator explained everything that he was saying, and it was perfectly clear to me that he intended to kill me.
ZAHN: What do you hope to accomplish from this lawsuit?
STORR: Several things. But deterrence, that you can't treat prisoners like this and expect to get away with it. We would like to punish Saddam Hussein. He can't get a free pass anymore. He has been putting this off for 12 years, and somebody -- he's got to pay one of these days.
ZAHN: Do you have any faith that Saddam Hussein will ever pay for what happened to these two men?
STEVEN FENNELL, ATTORNEY: We don't think Saddam Hussein will pay directly, but the U.S. Congress has passed a law that allows us, once we have a judgment, to go against frozen Iraqi assets in this country, and there are $1.7 billion worth of those assets.
ZAHN: Gentlemen, I just have to interrupt you for a moment...
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
