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American Morning

Iraq Security

Aired January 28, 2004 - 08:15   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: More bloodshed in Iraq this morning. A truck bomb outside a hotel in central Baghdad killed at least three people. It is the second straight day of deadly violence. On Tuesday, six U.S. soldiers were killed in roadside bombings. Two CNN employees were shot to death near Baghdad.
Could the violence block the transition to Iraqi self-rule? Hassan Fattah is the editor of the English-language newspaper "Iraq Today." He's live for us in Baghdad.

Hassan, thanks for being with us. Appreciate it.

HASSAN FATTAH, EDITOR, "IRAQ TODAY": Thank you.

O'BRIEN: Let's talk a little bit about yesterday, which was a particularly bloody day. As we mentioned, two CNN employees killed, six U.S. soldiers, and five Iraqis as well. Is it your sense from where you stand that journalists are being targeted?

FATTAH: Well, it's still unclear whether journalists are being targeted. What it probably emphasizes more than anything else is how dangerous this place remains. What makes Iraq especially dangerous is you think that nothing is going wrong, that everything is OK, and out of nowhere something big happens. And that's what is especially dangerous. You let your guard down, and you think everything is going to be fine.

O'BRIEN: You have mentioned this is, you think, a particularly strange time, because, especially, there are so many different groups that are jockeying for power right now. How dangerous does Iraq feel to you?

FATTAH: To be honest with you, it feels as if you're sitting or standing on a volcano that's ready to blow. The tension is in the air everywhere you go today. There is a lot of political posturing over the demands by Ayatollah Ali Sistani for elections, and there is a lot of uncertainty about where this entire transition process is going to go.

O'BRIEN: On Tuesday, there was an emergency meeting of the Governing Council, and they say that they want to speak with one voice when the U.S. assessment -- U.N., rather, assessment teams comes in. How did that meeting go? And how likely do you think that it is that that disparate group of people can actually speak with one voice to the U.N.?

FATTAH: Well, if anything, as I understand it so far, in fact, nothing came out of that meeting. So, if that was ultimately the goal of the meeting, it doesn't seem that anything -- at least the talking is continuing, and it hasn't ended, yet. I think that it's a time of great uncertainty, and everybody is watching to see how this is going to work out. Nobody has a clean formula yet, and that's what makes it especially dangerous and especially important, and yet at the same time for a journalist, especially interesting.

O'BRIEN: You mentioned just a moment ago the grand Ayatollah Sistani. He has indicated that he will accept what the U.N. assessment team has to say as far as elections go. What kind of an impact is that having?

FATTAH: Well, look, it's still kind of questionable whether that's actually exactly what he meant, that he will accept -- if the U.N. inspectors say no elections, that that's going to be the end of the discussion. But certainly what is now happening is you see a lot of lobbying, a lot of jostling and a lot of posturing to try to either appeal to the U.N. inspectors on one side or another. That's a very critical issue right now, and we'll see how it ends up by the end of the week.

O'BRIEN: Here in the U.S., David Kay's report really, I think it's fair to say, is a bombshell about what he thinks about weapons of mass destruction ever being found in Iraq. He says he doesn't think it's ever going to happen. Is that playing back in Iraq? What's the impact of those words there?

FATTAH: Really not as significant as you would think. Most people knew this fact. Most people knew that a lot of what was happening during the days of the former regime was basic insanity and didn't have much behind it. So, it's not necessarily resonating in the streets. It's basically saying, look, you should have listened to us and, you know, look where we've arrived.

O'BRIEN: Hassan Fattah is the editor of "Baghdad Today" (sic). Hassan, thanks for being with us. Appreciate it. Please take care of yourself.

FATTAH: Thank you, Soledad.

O'BRIEN: The violence obviously just sounds like it's spiraling out of control. 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 January 28, 2004 - 08:15   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: More bloodshed in Iraq this morning. A truck bomb outside a hotel in central Baghdad killed at least three people. It is the second straight day of deadly violence. On Tuesday, six U.S. soldiers were killed in roadside bombings. Two CNN employees were shot to death near Baghdad.
Could the violence block the transition to Iraqi self-rule? Hassan Fattah is the editor of the English-language newspaper "Iraq Today." He's live for us in Baghdad.

Hassan, thanks for being with us. Appreciate it.

HASSAN FATTAH, EDITOR, "IRAQ TODAY": Thank you.

O'BRIEN: Let's talk a little bit about yesterday, which was a particularly bloody day. As we mentioned, two CNN employees killed, six U.S. soldiers, and five Iraqis as well. Is it your sense from where you stand that journalists are being targeted?

FATTAH: Well, it's still unclear whether journalists are being targeted. What it probably emphasizes more than anything else is how dangerous this place remains. What makes Iraq especially dangerous is you think that nothing is going wrong, that everything is OK, and out of nowhere something big happens. And that's what is especially dangerous. You let your guard down, and you think everything is going to be fine.

O'BRIEN: You have mentioned this is, you think, a particularly strange time, because, especially, there are so many different groups that are jockeying for power right now. How dangerous does Iraq feel to you?

FATTAH: To be honest with you, it feels as if you're sitting or standing on a volcano that's ready to blow. The tension is in the air everywhere you go today. There is a lot of political posturing over the demands by Ayatollah Ali Sistani for elections, and there is a lot of uncertainty about where this entire transition process is going to go.

O'BRIEN: On Tuesday, there was an emergency meeting of the Governing Council, and they say that they want to speak with one voice when the U.S. assessment -- U.N., rather, assessment teams comes in. How did that meeting go? And how likely do you think that it is that that disparate group of people can actually speak with one voice to the U.N.?

FATTAH: Well, if anything, as I understand it so far, in fact, nothing came out of that meeting. So, if that was ultimately the goal of the meeting, it doesn't seem that anything -- at least the talking is continuing, and it hasn't ended, yet. I think that it's a time of great uncertainty, and everybody is watching to see how this is going to work out. Nobody has a clean formula yet, and that's what makes it especially dangerous and especially important, and yet at the same time for a journalist, especially interesting.

O'BRIEN: You mentioned just a moment ago the grand Ayatollah Sistani. He has indicated that he will accept what the U.N. assessment team has to say as far as elections go. What kind of an impact is that having?

FATTAH: Well, look, it's still kind of questionable whether that's actually exactly what he meant, that he will accept -- if the U.N. inspectors say no elections, that that's going to be the end of the discussion. But certainly what is now happening is you see a lot of lobbying, a lot of jostling and a lot of posturing to try to either appeal to the U.N. inspectors on one side or another. That's a very critical issue right now, and we'll see how it ends up by the end of the week.

O'BRIEN: Here in the U.S., David Kay's report really, I think it's fair to say, is a bombshell about what he thinks about weapons of mass destruction ever being found in Iraq. He says he doesn't think it's ever going to happen. Is that playing back in Iraq? What's the impact of those words there?

FATTAH: Really not as significant as you would think. Most people knew this fact. Most people knew that a lot of what was happening during the days of the former regime was basic insanity and didn't have much behind it. So, it's not necessarily resonating in the streets. It's basically saying, look, you should have listened to us and, you know, look where we've arrived.

O'BRIEN: Hassan Fattah is the editor of "Baghdad Today" (sic). Hassan, thanks for being with us. Appreciate it. Please take care of yourself.

FATTAH: Thank you, Soledad.

O'BRIEN: The violence obviously just sounds like it's spiraling out of control. 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.