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American Morning
Abu Dhabi TV: New Tape Shows Saddam Last Wednesday
Aired April 18, 2003 - 08:22 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.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: We have live with us this morning, Jasim Al-Azzawi. He is a news anchor for Abu Dhabi TV. The pictures that you were just seeing were coming from Abu Dhabi TV, and we want to ask him a little bit more about this.
Good morning to you. Thanks for being with us.
And I just want to let you know we are looking at these pictures now. And just to kind of clarify, our understanding is that these pictures are just coming out now, but they were to have possibly been taken place on April 9th, that would have been last Wednesday, the day that Baghdad fell. So we want to ask you what you know about these and when they came in to the station.
JASIM AL-AZZAWI, ABU DHABI TV NEWS ANCHOR: To be honest with you, Heidi, I am at a disadvantage. I just walked into the studio. And just about 30 seconds ago, I was with CNN International and they are asking me about these pictures. I'm looking at the gallery in the distance and I saw those images. I thought these are the old pictures, and now they are reminding me, these are just fresh pictures we just received. I am at disadvantage of not knowing what I'm looking at right now. They are in the very distant, something like 20 yards away from me.
From what I see, there is Baghdad, there is Saddam Hussein, there are pictures. I cannot tell you, to be honest with you. I need to apologize for not having seen these pictures. I think they are being broadcast live as we speak right now.
Actually, I believe that these were, as we say, we are just now looking at them. I do not believe they are live. I believe they are from last Wednesday.
But let me ask you this, Jasim, how would you go about confirming this if, in fact, it's Saddam Hussein, if in fact, when the pictures came in, who they came from? How does Abu Dhabi TV usually go about doing that?
AL-AZZAWI: We have to go by our standards. We have to check the pictures again and again. We look at the previous images, at current images to see the stands, to see the surrounding area, who is with him, his bodyguards, very well-known. Aguton (ph) would be with him normally. The security surrounding. You cannot miss him. And like I said, I'm looking at the pictures from a distance and I see genuine Iraqis, genuine Baghdadis around him. So this, most likely, is going to be one of the staunchest areas of support for him. COLLINS: All right, I think what we should do, is I think we should let you go and talk to your people at the television station and find out more about where the pictures came from and give you a chance to look at them and get back to us. We're going to let you do that, and we'll check in a little bit later.
Jasim Al-Azzawi from Abu Dhabi TV, we hope to speak to you in just a few minutes.
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 April 18, 2003 - 08:22 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: We have live with us this morning, Jasim Al-Azzawi. He is a news anchor for Abu Dhabi TV. The pictures that you were just seeing were coming from Abu Dhabi TV, and we want to ask him a little bit more about this.
Good morning to you. Thanks for being with us.
And I just want to let you know we are looking at these pictures now. And just to kind of clarify, our understanding is that these pictures are just coming out now, but they were to have possibly been taken place on April 9th, that would have been last Wednesday, the day that Baghdad fell. So we want to ask you what you know about these and when they came in to the station.
JASIM AL-AZZAWI, ABU DHABI TV NEWS ANCHOR: To be honest with you, Heidi, I am at a disadvantage. I just walked into the studio. And just about 30 seconds ago, I was with CNN International and they are asking me about these pictures. I'm looking at the gallery in the distance and I saw those images. I thought these are the old pictures, and now they are reminding me, these are just fresh pictures we just received. I am at disadvantage of not knowing what I'm looking at right now. They are in the very distant, something like 20 yards away from me.
From what I see, there is Baghdad, there is Saddam Hussein, there are pictures. I cannot tell you, to be honest with you. I need to apologize for not having seen these pictures. I think they are being broadcast live as we speak right now.
Actually, I believe that these were, as we say, we are just now looking at them. I do not believe they are live. I believe they are from last Wednesday.
But let me ask you this, Jasim, how would you go about confirming this if, in fact, it's Saddam Hussein, if in fact, when the pictures came in, who they came from? How does Abu Dhabi TV usually go about doing that?
AL-AZZAWI: We have to go by our standards. We have to check the pictures again and again. We look at the previous images, at current images to see the stands, to see the surrounding area, who is with him, his bodyguards, very well-known. Aguton (ph) would be with him normally. The security surrounding. You cannot miss him. And like I said, I'm looking at the pictures from a distance and I see genuine Iraqis, genuine Baghdadis around him. So this, most likely, is going to be one of the staunchest areas of support for him. COLLINS: All right, I think what we should do, is I think we should let you go and talk to your people at the television station and find out more about where the pictures came from and give you a chance to look at them and get back to us. We're going to let you do that, and we'll check in a little bit later.
Jasim Al-Azzawi from Abu Dhabi TV, we hope to speak to you in just a few minutes.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
