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American Morning

Interview with Journalist Hassan Fattah

Aired July 11, 2003 - 07:09   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: The top U.S. military commander in Iraq has declared that the war is not over, but the U.S. might be losing in another war it's waging in Iraq -- the battle to win over Iraqi public opinion.
Hassan Fattah is an Iraqi American and also a journalist with "The New Republic," and he joins us live from Baghdad this morning.

Good morning. Thanks for joining us.

HASSAN FATTAH, "THE NEW REPUBLIC": Good morning, Soledad. Thanks so much.

O'BRIEN: As we have seen continued attacks on American and British soldiers, at the same time services for the Iraqi people are severely lacking, whether you're talking about electricity or gasoline or even just employment. Give me a sense of the mood of the average Iraqi.

FATTAH: The mood is very dark, very unhappy, very angry, in fact. There was a sense of growth, a sense of improvement, and then all of a sudden things turned. It feels like we're sort of on the other side of the hill; that we're actually now starting to hurdle back to where we came from.

O'BRIEN: So then are you saying that anti-American feeling and hostility to Americans is growing stronger each and every day in Iraq?

FATTAH: I don't think it's anti-American. It's anti-occupation. It's frustration with the occupation. It's just not understanding why isn't the occupation managing to do these few simple basic things. There is no electricity. Electricity is barely showing up 10 hours a day for most people. This is in peak months. Security is collapsing. I mean, you have crime rates rising. And the gas lines -- basic things like gas lines are starting to grow. It's frustrating a lot of people at a very, very critical time.

O'BRIEN: So then you're saying that the dissatisfaction is not coming from the bigger picture, the political process, but truly the basic services that are lacking and would frustrate anybody.

FATTAH: Well, in fact, if we're trying to make this humongous political change, we at least have to start showing them some results, and that's basically what most Iraqis are saying. You know, we can sit and talk politics all we want, but if we can't simply show electricity, we can't turn on the lights, we can't get on with life as we used to know it, what is the political system going to be able to do for us, besides which we don't have much of a voice in that political system. That's what a lot of Iraqis are saying.

This is a land of perceptions, and I think that so many of the pictures that people are starting to see are just turning them against what -- the longer picture, the longer road ahead of us.

O'BRIEN: You talked a little bit about having a voice in the political system. Authorities, as you well know, are set to launch an Iraqi governing council, which will include of course seven political parties and 15 other representative Iraqis. Do you think that will go a long way in really I guess relieving some of these problems?

FATTAH: It's not clear yet. I mean, to be fair, it's a very important first step. There are a lot of people who are very, very concerned about this step, though, because it's not really representative. It's not an elected body. It's basically a body that's chosen by an American occupying force. And for good reason, a lot of people are very concerned about that. Does the occupying force get to be judge and jury? Do they get to decide on the very basic future of this country and leave out Iraqis? It's not clear. And as long as you have those kinds of questions and as long as you have anger over the basics of life, you continue the swirl -- the spiral downward, effectively.

O'BRIEN: Is it your sense that the militant forces are leveraging this discontent, and it could grow and improve their support?

FATTAH: Absolutely. I think one of the problems is what we're losing are the people who are very pro-American. We're basically losing guys who welcomed the troops with open arms, were happy to see Americans here and were happy to give them the benefit of the doubt to see what they can do. Those are the real important people we're losing, and those are the people we need on our side.

O'BRIEN: Hassan Fattah reporting for us from Baghdad this morning. Thanks so much for that.

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 July 11, 2003 - 07:09   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: The top U.S. military commander in Iraq has declared that the war is not over, but the U.S. might be losing in another war it's waging in Iraq -- the battle to win over Iraqi public opinion.
Hassan Fattah is an Iraqi American and also a journalist with "The New Republic," and he joins us live from Baghdad this morning.

Good morning. Thanks for joining us.

HASSAN FATTAH, "THE NEW REPUBLIC": Good morning, Soledad. Thanks so much.

O'BRIEN: As we have seen continued attacks on American and British soldiers, at the same time services for the Iraqi people are severely lacking, whether you're talking about electricity or gasoline or even just employment. Give me a sense of the mood of the average Iraqi.

FATTAH: The mood is very dark, very unhappy, very angry, in fact. There was a sense of growth, a sense of improvement, and then all of a sudden things turned. It feels like we're sort of on the other side of the hill; that we're actually now starting to hurdle back to where we came from.

O'BRIEN: So then are you saying that anti-American feeling and hostility to Americans is growing stronger each and every day in Iraq?

FATTAH: I don't think it's anti-American. It's anti-occupation. It's frustration with the occupation. It's just not understanding why isn't the occupation managing to do these few simple basic things. There is no electricity. Electricity is barely showing up 10 hours a day for most people. This is in peak months. Security is collapsing. I mean, you have crime rates rising. And the gas lines -- basic things like gas lines are starting to grow. It's frustrating a lot of people at a very, very critical time.

O'BRIEN: So then you're saying that the dissatisfaction is not coming from the bigger picture, the political process, but truly the basic services that are lacking and would frustrate anybody.

FATTAH: Well, in fact, if we're trying to make this humongous political change, we at least have to start showing them some results, and that's basically what most Iraqis are saying. You know, we can sit and talk politics all we want, but if we can't simply show electricity, we can't turn on the lights, we can't get on with life as we used to know it, what is the political system going to be able to do for us, besides which we don't have much of a voice in that political system. That's what a lot of Iraqis are saying.

This is a land of perceptions, and I think that so many of the pictures that people are starting to see are just turning them against what -- the longer picture, the longer road ahead of us.

O'BRIEN: You talked a little bit about having a voice in the political system. Authorities, as you well know, are set to launch an Iraqi governing council, which will include of course seven political parties and 15 other representative Iraqis. Do you think that will go a long way in really I guess relieving some of these problems?

FATTAH: It's not clear yet. I mean, to be fair, it's a very important first step. There are a lot of people who are very, very concerned about this step, though, because it's not really representative. It's not an elected body. It's basically a body that's chosen by an American occupying force. And for good reason, a lot of people are very concerned about that. Does the occupying force get to be judge and jury? Do they get to decide on the very basic future of this country and leave out Iraqis? It's not clear. And as long as you have those kinds of questions and as long as you have anger over the basics of life, you continue the swirl -- the spiral downward, effectively.

O'BRIEN: Is it your sense that the militant forces are leveraging this discontent, and it could grow and improve their support?

FATTAH: Absolutely. I think one of the problems is what we're losing are the people who are very pro-American. We're basically losing guys who welcomed the troops with open arms, were happy to see Americans here and were happy to give them the benefit of the doubt to see what they can do. Those are the real important people we're losing, and those are the people we need on our side.

O'BRIEN: Hassan Fattah reporting for us from Baghdad this morning. Thanks so much for that.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.