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MORNINGS WITH PAULA ZAHN

Senior Iraqi Intelligence Officials Says Saddam Hussein Has Trained an Elite Fighting force in Sabotage, Urban Warfare, Hijacking and Murder

Aired December 21, 2001 - 07:40   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.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back. We told you earlier this week about one Iraqi defector who brought out details of some Barak's terror plans. Well another defector, a senior Iraqi intelligence officials tells "Vanity Fair" in an exclusive interview that Saddam Hussein has trained an elite fighting force in sabotage, urban warfare, hijacking, and murder. David Rose wrote the story. He joins us now from London. Thank you for joining us, appreciate your ...

DAVID ROSE, VANITY FAIR: Good morning.

ZAHN: ... spending time with us this morning. Can you describe to us what these strikers were trained to do?

ROSE: Well this is a kind of super elite unit. It's coweled (ph) from the very finest special forces that Iraq has. And they're basically trying to do offensive terrorism sabotage outside Iraq. There is nothing this unit exist for except to attack countries that Iraq considers hostile.

ZAHN: So how serious of a threat are they to countries like Great Britain and America?

ROSE: (INAUDIBLE) what the defector Al Querari (ph), a former brigadier general in the Iraqi intelligence service told me is that these guys - there are 1200 in all. They've been trained to hijack trains, buses, ships, and so forth. But perhaps the most sinister aspect of his disclosure concerns 30 of the very best of the already elite force, who have been equipped with entirely false identities as citizens of the United Arab (INAUDIBLE) with genuine UAE passports, and they left Iraq at the beginning of this year and who knows where they are.

They were told to tell their families they could be away for a very long time. Their mission is to attack countries that Iraq considers hostile. Their last training exercise was to blow up a full- size markup of a U.S. destroyer in a lake in central Iraq using (INAUDIBLE) and (INAUDIBLE) mines. They could be anywhere.

ZAHN: Did this Iraqi defector at any point in this interview with you confirm that these strikers were in any way involved with the 9-11 attacks? ROSE: Well he worked at the Saman Pack (ph) terrorist training camp south of Baghdad. He was (INAUDIBLE) Saddam Sung (ph), his right-hand man and he - at Saman Pack (ph), there were two sections of that camp. His section involved this unit Al Caria (ph), which is the Iraqi strikers. Al Caria actually means the strikers.

The second part of the camp was where non-Iraqi Arabs were trained and of course some of the training that both these groups underwent was how to hijack planes without using firearms - using box cutters, knives, and so forth. Now it's possible, of course, that some of the 9-11 fighters trained at Saman Pack. We can't be sure.

I showed him photographs of all the hijackers from 9-11 and he said well, I can't be sure because they all have beards when they were being trained at the camp, but it's certainly possible that some of those hijackers were trained there. I think it's interesting to note there's no proof that any of those hijackers ever actually went to Afghanistan. No Visas or other documentation that shows that they ever spent any time in al Qaeda camps. I'm quite sure that they may well have had connections with al Qaeda, but maybe they were trained in Iraq.

ZAHN: Well David Rose, the piece is absolutely stunning in its details. Thank you for sharing a small part of it with us. Once again David Rose's piece appears in this month's issue of "Vanity Fair". Thank you for your time this morning. Let's bring back in Ambassador Richard Butler. Now Richard, what we didn't have time to say was the same defector told David Rose - quote - "when I saw the World Trade Center attack on television, I turned to a friend and said that is ours".

AMBASSADOR RICHARD BUTLER, FORMER U.N. CHIEF WEAPONS INSPECTOR: Yes, I've seen the report. It's credible. By the way, when we were inspecting in Iraq, we were aware of Saman Pack because it's where they also had a biological facility, which we blew up and over the war (ph) with this training camp, with the whole body of an aircrafter, you know, to train the hijacking of aircraft.

This report, once again, is authentic. Same kind of brutality, by the way, remember a few moments ago I mentioned testing biology on live human beings. At this training camp, those who failed to pass the test, they then - they then get used as targets for live firing exercises. This is a hideous regime. This report has to be taken very seriously.

ZAHN: But there is no doubt in your mind that in some way these strikers - these Iraqi strikers, which were given by the way to Saddam Hussein as a birthday gift from his son, according to this "Vanity Fair" piece - there's no doubt in your mind that they were in some way involved in September 11th.

BUTLER: I can't say that, but I take Rose's point. No evidence of them having gone to Afghanistan; the techniques used on September 11th are the sorts of things that are taught at Saman Pack. It definitely is a very credible, not (ph) exact connection, but circumstantial connection - I mean it'd be unintelligent not to think of it that way.

ZAHN: In the piece David Rose also goes into information about Mohamed Atta and he confirms that there were in fact two meetings between hijacker Mohamed Atta and two high-ranking members of the Iraqi intelligence forces. You want to give us your insight to that one?

BUTLER: We've been through that Paula. The attempt a week ago to try to walk back from those meetings between Atta and Iraqi intelligence, I hope is over. I hope we've heard the last of that. It's perfectly clear that he did. It's perfectly clear that a senior Iraqi intelligence officer who now happens to be their ambassador in Turkey, also went south and met with al Qaeda - may Osama bin Laden himself.

I mean these links are established. Now we have a further set of circumstances. This extraordinary terrorist training facility run by Iraq in which non-Iraqi Arabs also participate -- people like Mohamed Atta, not just Iraqis. It's very, very serious. Draw your own conclusion.

ZAHN: It's hard to.

BUTLER: Yes.

ZAHN: But I don't know, for two days in a row we've seen these absolutely ...

(CROSSTALK)

ZAHN: ... about Iraqi involvement and all that.

BUTLER: Yes. Yes, it just grows and grows.

ZAHN: All right, Richard Butler, thank you so much.

BUTLER: OK.

ZAHN: Appreciate your time.

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