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CNN Sunday Morning

Surviving the Regime

Aired April 20, 2003 - 10:46   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.


FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: For many Iraqis, the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime meant freedom, freedom from a tyrant and from the fear of his regime instilled. Our Nic Robertson has one man's story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Rushing down the dimly lit prison corridor, Adnan (ph) looks for his room.

(on camera): This is your room?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, of course.

ROBERTSON: Number 26?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, of course.

ROBERTSON (voice-over): Blackness, as he takes the light into the cell, aghast.

(on camera): This is your (UNINTELLIGIBLE) here?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

ROBERTSON (voice-over): Seemingly overcome, he searches for other clues to his time spent in the dark intelligence headquarters jail. Showing where he used to sit, Adnan (ph) explains, when they brought in breakfast, I knew it was the beginning of another day and I'd scratch a mark on the wall. Forty-four days, total. As we talk, a cockroach scurries up the wall and Adnan (ph) recalls those days of terror.

He tells me he used to dream his mother was there, but he'd wake up and find her gone.

Succumbing to the memory, he mumbles how he prayed to God; tears welling up. "I wish they destroy this place," he sobs, "they don't need it."

But how this 28-year-old came to be incarcerated, something of a well-publicized mystery.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This. This is this one. ROBERTSON: In a well-lit hotel room, I show Adnan (ph) the videotape of his arrest, on January the 25th this year. A record of the morning he jumped into a U.N. weapons inspector's vehicle and demanded sanctuary. It was the second security incident at the U.N. headquarters that morning, just as Saddam Hussein's regime seemed to be putting pressure on the U.N.

At the time, Adnan (ph) seemed to play to the camera. Watching the video now, he shows anger that the U.N. let Iraqi intelligence police take him away.

"I had no other refuge," he says. "The Mukhabarat, the intelligence, were watching me, and they'd taken my friend," all because, he says, he voted against Saddam Hussein in the presidential referendum.

Back at intelligence headquarters, he shows how his hands were tied, his eyes blindfold as interrogators whipped him, asking him questions about his family.

As we toured the looted building, he seems to know much a normal prisoner would not know about the layout, implying a familiarity with the intelligence services. Outside his cell, with seemingly well practiced dexterity, he demonstrates how jailers used to unlock the door. It was at those moments, he says, he thought would be killed.

That he was locked up seems indisputable, whether for voting against the Iraqi leader or something more complicated is unknown. Freed by the changing fortunes of war, and like everyone here, Adnan (ph) looking for a new path.

Nic Robertson, CNN, Baghdad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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 20, 2003 - 10:46   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: For many Iraqis, the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime meant freedom, freedom from a tyrant and from the fear of his regime instilled. Our Nic Robertson has one man's story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Rushing down the dimly lit prison corridor, Adnan (ph) looks for his room.

(on camera): This is your room?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, of course.

ROBERTSON: Number 26?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, of course.

ROBERTSON (voice-over): Blackness, as he takes the light into the cell, aghast.

(on camera): This is your (UNINTELLIGIBLE) here?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

ROBERTSON (voice-over): Seemingly overcome, he searches for other clues to his time spent in the dark intelligence headquarters jail. Showing where he used to sit, Adnan (ph) explains, when they brought in breakfast, I knew it was the beginning of another day and I'd scratch a mark on the wall. Forty-four days, total. As we talk, a cockroach scurries up the wall and Adnan (ph) recalls those days of terror.

He tells me he used to dream his mother was there, but he'd wake up and find her gone.

Succumbing to the memory, he mumbles how he prayed to God; tears welling up. "I wish they destroy this place," he sobs, "they don't need it."

But how this 28-year-old came to be incarcerated, something of a well-publicized mystery.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This. This is this one. ROBERTSON: In a well-lit hotel room, I show Adnan (ph) the videotape of his arrest, on January the 25th this year. A record of the morning he jumped into a U.N. weapons inspector's vehicle and demanded sanctuary. It was the second security incident at the U.N. headquarters that morning, just as Saddam Hussein's regime seemed to be putting pressure on the U.N.

At the time, Adnan (ph) seemed to play to the camera. Watching the video now, he shows anger that the U.N. let Iraqi intelligence police take him away.

"I had no other refuge," he says. "The Mukhabarat, the intelligence, were watching me, and they'd taken my friend," all because, he says, he voted against Saddam Hussein in the presidential referendum.

Back at intelligence headquarters, he shows how his hands were tied, his eyes blindfold as interrogators whipped him, asking him questions about his family.

As we toured the looted building, he seems to know much a normal prisoner would not know about the layout, implying a familiarity with the intelligence services. Outside his cell, with seemingly well practiced dexterity, he demonstrates how jailers used to unlock the door. It was at those moments, he says, he thought would be killed.

That he was locked up seems indisputable, whether for voting against the Iraqi leader or something more complicated is unknown. Freed by the changing fortunes of war, and like everyone here, Adnan (ph) looking for a new path.

Nic Robertson, CNN, Baghdad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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