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American Morning

Saddam Hussein May Have Been Seen in Tikrit Area

Aired October 14, 2003 - 07:34   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: Well, Saddam Hussein may have been seen in the Tikrit area. The U.S. 4th Infantry Division patrols that part of northern Iraq and claims it had credible reports that the former dictator was sighed recently. But the Pentagon insists there is no new evidence of his whereabouts.
Joining us from Baghdad this morning, Simon Robinson is of "Time" magazine.

Mr. Robinson, good morning.

Nice to have you.

Thanks for joining us.

SIMON ROBINSON, "TIME" MAGAZINE: Good morning, Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Thank you very much.

Give me a sense of how much credibility is being placed in these reports and where are they coming from?

ROBINSON: Well, they're coming from the ground, from the 4th Infantry Division commanders in Tikrit. And they told a group of journalists yesterday that they had new evidence that he had been sighted recently in his hometown and they wouldn't go into details of what that evidence was. But reading between the lines, one can assume that it's human intelligence. They've got reports from locals, perhaps, who have sighted him.

And the commanding, the second in command of the 4th Infantry up there, of the group that's there, says that he has been coming in and out of the town over the last couple of weeks. And I know that a couple of people who have information about the resistance movement in Iraq, who spoke to "Time" recently, said that he's probably been moving in a triangle between Falluja, which is to the west of Baghdad and where we've seen all sorts of problems recently, and up into Tikrit via Samarah, another town in that area.

O'BRIEN: I know you don't have a lot of detail coming out of the 4th Infantry, but the way you're describing it almost makes it sound like Saddam Hussein is traveling openly and sort of freely. Is there a sense that there are multiple confirmations of these sightings? Is it just one? Is it -- do they feel confident in this information?

ROBINSON: I'm not sure that there's been multiple sightings. But the information that's coming through is that he has been moving around in that area. Of course, it's his home area and there are people in that area who still support him.

Interestingly, people have been telling us that there are also people who, when he was in power, didn't support him, but now they're so anti-American that -- and he's become like their poster boy, their symbol of the resistance -- that they now are happy to give him help in transport, to lend them his, their homes so that he can stay there for a couple of nights. And the -- I know that for a long time the American military in that area have been working on the assumption that at some point he will make a mistake, that he will slip up and that they're waiting for that moment and keeping up very vigorous patrols and raids of houses in the area in the hope that that lucky break happens.

O'BRIEN: Are the people who are sheltering Saddam Hussein, as you describe, also believed to be the same people who are perpetrating violence on U.S. troops in the area?

ROBINSON: Yes, there is that connection, the belief that he's their symbol and he's, people believe that he's bankrolling a lot of the resistance with money that he took at the end of the regime, paying people to attack Americans and generally, if coordinating, then certainly being the kind of symbolic and spiritual leader of that resistance.

O'BRIEN: The 4th Infantry Division has said that it plans to act on the information about these sightings. What do you think that specifically means?

ROBINSON: Well, we saw on Sunday morning there was a raid of various houses in Tikrit. They arrested a few people, including one senior sheikh of the area. And it would be something along those lines. There would be information about certain houses that they might act upon in the next few days.

Interestingly, I'm also hearing that the resistance over the next 10 days, in the lead up to Ramadan, intends to step up its campaign. We saw also on Sunday the big explosion, the suicide car bombing at the hotel just up the road from here. And we can perhaps expect more of that in the coming days.

O'BRIEN: Simon Robinson of "Time" magazine, thanks for your insight this morning.

Appreciate it.

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 October 14, 2003 - 07:34   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, Saddam Hussein may have been seen in the Tikrit area. The U.S. 4th Infantry Division patrols that part of northern Iraq and claims it had credible reports that the former dictator was sighed recently. But the Pentagon insists there is no new evidence of his whereabouts.
Joining us from Baghdad this morning, Simon Robinson is of "Time" magazine.

Mr. Robinson, good morning.

Nice to have you.

Thanks for joining us.

SIMON ROBINSON, "TIME" MAGAZINE: Good morning, Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Thank you very much.

Give me a sense of how much credibility is being placed in these reports and where are they coming from?

ROBINSON: Well, they're coming from the ground, from the 4th Infantry Division commanders in Tikrit. And they told a group of journalists yesterday that they had new evidence that he had been sighted recently in his hometown and they wouldn't go into details of what that evidence was. But reading between the lines, one can assume that it's human intelligence. They've got reports from locals, perhaps, who have sighted him.

And the commanding, the second in command of the 4th Infantry up there, of the group that's there, says that he has been coming in and out of the town over the last couple of weeks. And I know that a couple of people who have information about the resistance movement in Iraq, who spoke to "Time" recently, said that he's probably been moving in a triangle between Falluja, which is to the west of Baghdad and where we've seen all sorts of problems recently, and up into Tikrit via Samarah, another town in that area.

O'BRIEN: I know you don't have a lot of detail coming out of the 4th Infantry, but the way you're describing it almost makes it sound like Saddam Hussein is traveling openly and sort of freely. Is there a sense that there are multiple confirmations of these sightings? Is it just one? Is it -- do they feel confident in this information?

ROBINSON: I'm not sure that there's been multiple sightings. But the information that's coming through is that he has been moving around in that area. Of course, it's his home area and there are people in that area who still support him.

Interestingly, people have been telling us that there are also people who, when he was in power, didn't support him, but now they're so anti-American that -- and he's become like their poster boy, their symbol of the resistance -- that they now are happy to give him help in transport, to lend them his, their homes so that he can stay there for a couple of nights. And the -- I know that for a long time the American military in that area have been working on the assumption that at some point he will make a mistake, that he will slip up and that they're waiting for that moment and keeping up very vigorous patrols and raids of houses in the area in the hope that that lucky break happens.

O'BRIEN: Are the people who are sheltering Saddam Hussein, as you describe, also believed to be the same people who are perpetrating violence on U.S. troops in the area?

ROBINSON: Yes, there is that connection, the belief that he's their symbol and he's, people believe that he's bankrolling a lot of the resistance with money that he took at the end of the regime, paying people to attack Americans and generally, if coordinating, then certainly being the kind of symbolic and spiritual leader of that resistance.

O'BRIEN: The 4th Infantry Division has said that it plans to act on the information about these sightings. What do you think that specifically means?

ROBINSON: Well, we saw on Sunday morning there was a raid of various houses in Tikrit. They arrested a few people, including one senior sheikh of the area. And it would be something along those lines. There would be information about certain houses that they might act upon in the next few days.

Interestingly, I'm also hearing that the resistance over the next 10 days, in the lead up to Ramadan, intends to step up its campaign. We saw also on Sunday the big explosion, the suicide car bombing at the hotel just up the road from here. And we can perhaps expect more of that in the coming days.

O'BRIEN: Simon Robinson of "Time" magazine, thanks for your insight this morning.

Appreciate it.

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