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CNN Sunday Morning
Hussein Puts Iraq on War Footing
Aired March 16, 2003 - 07:05 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.
ARTHEL NEVILLE, CNN ANCHOR: Just hours before that emergency summit in the Azores, Saddam Hussein put Iraq on a war footing and prepared his military for a possible assault by U.S. and British troops.
CNN's Rym Brahimi joins us now from the Iraqi capital of Baghdad with the details -- Rym.
RYM BRAHIMI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. The decree was issued by the Revolution Command Council, which is the highest authority in the country. It is dividing the country into four regions.
Now the main thing from that decree is -- one, the central region of -- including Baghdad, which is the seat of power -- that falls under the command of Qusay Saddam Hussein, who is the president's son.
And then the president, President Saddam Hussein, will be the one giving the direct orders to the Air Force, to the people in charge of the surface to surface, surface to air missiles and the air defense command.
Now that decree was announced on all three channels last night, worrying maybe a lot of Iraqis who today have been rushing to make more stops, buy more fuel during the day. Back to you.
NEVILLE: Rym, of course, Dr. Blix and Mohamed ElBaradei have been invited back to Baghdad. Will they go?
BRAHIMI: Well, we are still waiting to hear from them on that issue. But what is certain is that at the same time as Iraq is preparing for war -- and very actively in the past 48 hours clearly -- well, it's also making a case that it is trying to overt war.
The destruction of the Al Samoud 2 missiles continues. Iraqi officials say that two Al Samoud missiles are being destroyed today along with eight warheads.
And the national monitoring director that is a counterpart of the weapons inspectors here -- well, they have handed over to the U.N. weapons inspectors some films and videos on what they say are mobile laboratories that are not producing biological weapons as the U.S. alleges.
All of that material is yet to be transferred to New York to UNMOVIC headquarters to be analyzed. Back to you. NEVILLE: So I guess we will have to wait and see if ElBaradei and Dr. Blix will return to Baghdad. Rym Brahimi, thank you very much for that report.
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 March 16, 2003 - 07:05 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ARTHEL NEVILLE, CNN ANCHOR: Just hours before that emergency summit in the Azores, Saddam Hussein put Iraq on a war footing and prepared his military for a possible assault by U.S. and British troops.
CNN's Rym Brahimi joins us now from the Iraqi capital of Baghdad with the details -- Rym.
RYM BRAHIMI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. The decree was issued by the Revolution Command Council, which is the highest authority in the country. It is dividing the country into four regions.
Now the main thing from that decree is -- one, the central region of -- including Baghdad, which is the seat of power -- that falls under the command of Qusay Saddam Hussein, who is the president's son.
And then the president, President Saddam Hussein, will be the one giving the direct orders to the Air Force, to the people in charge of the surface to surface, surface to air missiles and the air defense command.
Now that decree was announced on all three channels last night, worrying maybe a lot of Iraqis who today have been rushing to make more stops, buy more fuel during the day. Back to you.
NEVILLE: Rym, of course, Dr. Blix and Mohamed ElBaradei have been invited back to Baghdad. Will they go?
BRAHIMI: Well, we are still waiting to hear from them on that issue. But what is certain is that at the same time as Iraq is preparing for war -- and very actively in the past 48 hours clearly -- well, it's also making a case that it is trying to overt war.
The destruction of the Al Samoud 2 missiles continues. Iraqi officials say that two Al Samoud missiles are being destroyed today along with eight warheads.
And the national monitoring director that is a counterpart of the weapons inspectors here -- well, they have handed over to the U.N. weapons inspectors some films and videos on what they say are mobile laboratories that are not producing biological weapons as the U.S. alleges.
All of that material is yet to be transferred to New York to UNMOVIC headquarters to be analyzed. Back to you. NEVILLE: So I guess we will have to wait and see if ElBaradei and Dr. Blix will return to Baghdad. Rym Brahimi, thank you very much for that report.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
