ACCOUNT OF SADDAM INTERVIEW
CNN correspondent Peter Arnett yesterday interviewed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. Describing the circumstances surrounding the interview, Arnett said he was driven to a surburban area where he met Saddam in a bungalow that looked like every other "house in the neighborhood." Three Iraqi television cameras were there. Arnett said Saddam spent two hours with him, 90 minutes of it in an interview.
Arnett described Saddam as "very relaxed . . . dressed in an impeccable blue suit and a pretty tie. . . . He was cordial with me. The interview he gave was chilling."
What follows is a transcript of Arnett's account of the interview on CNN obtained from Reuter and staff reports:
I spent an hour and a half with Saddam Hussein this evening, with the president of Iraq. It was an unexpected meeting. I was called at the hotel about 4 o'clock to prepare to meet a senior official. We drove through the dark streets of Baghdad. I waited about an hour at a private bungalow. The president gave me about -- nearly two hours of his time, 90 minutes of that in an interview.
I brought up some points that I thought that everyone had been asking me in the past week since I've been here on the phone about what was the Iraqi view of this, that and other matters.
The first one I did bring up was the oil spill in the gulf. I asked what he had to say about claims by the United States that Iraq had opened its spigots, or opened spigots in Kuwait, and let oil pour into the gulf.
The president responded that the United States has used oil as a weapon by attacking Iraqi tankers and oil installations on land. He said it showed that the U.S. is not concerned about the effect on the environment. Therefore, he said, if his field commanders used oil in the framework of self-defense, such as trenches filled with burning oil or other techniques, his commanders would be justified in this action.
He said if Iraq uses oil for self-defense, including in the sea, then Iraq will be justified in taking such an action. He said the future will show which action the United States is responsible for and which one Iraq is responsible for.
I asked, Do you reserve the right to use oil as a military weapon? He said, I have said what I have said and the issue is clear.
I asked about Iraqi aircraft that are reported flying to Iranian air fields. He said that Iraq and Iran are neighboring Moslem countries, and regardless of the circumstances of the past, both see the current confrontation here as a battle between faith and the infidel. He said it's only natural that if certain Iraqi aircraft find it necessary to come down in that neighboring country, he said this could be done in the light of the spirit, in the light of the practice or the light of their history.
I asked, Will the planes be used again in the war? He said, In all circumstances we respect the decisions and regulations of the state of Iran. Would they be used again, I asked him, would the planes be used again? He said each case in its own circumstance.
And the POWs, the American and other multinational pilots that are being captured here, I asked about his government's decision to place captured pilots as human shields at strategic locations. The Iraqi president said Iraqi students were being unfairly interned in the West, in England and maybe elsewhere, and there are restrictions, he said, on Arabs of Iraqi descent.
I asked about how his human-shield decision squared with his promise the day after the war to treat captured soldiers according to the Geneva Convention. He responded, Does the Geneva Convention allow Iraqi students to be imprisoned in the West?
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