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(20 Mar 2003) 1. Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf, Iraqi Information Minister and Culture Minister Hamed Hamadi enter news conference at Iraqi Information Ministry 2. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf, Iraqi Information Minister: “As you have been following, just before dawn, the aggressors of this generation have started their attack against our country. The administration of the United States behaving like a bunch of criminals and following them is their poodle, Tony Blair the Prime Minister of Britain.“ 3. Camera crews 4. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf, Iraqi Information Minister: “Those filthy muggers, criminals, pirates started dropping their bombs on our peaceful people defying the whole international community as well as the international law.“ 5. Journalist asking question 6. SOUNDBITE (English) Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf, Iraqi Information Minister: “I'm sure they are stupid and they will never succeed, but at the same time this is a good testimony, this is a good proof that they are criminals and they are killers and they are believing in assassinations. So, I think they should be condemned. They are stupid and condemned.“ 7. Wide of Al-Sahaf 8. SOUNDBITE (English) Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf, Iraqi Information Minister: “They have targetted two buildings in (the) west of Iraq which is a building of custom authorities and the casualties is one martyr and a few injured, Iraqis. Then, they targetted a small compound for the Iraqi TV and radio corporation, also in West of Iraq and they targetted - up to now the information is saying - they targetted two places, civilian places in the peripheries of Baghdad city.“ (Q: Are they shelters, the two civilian places?) “No, they are not shelters, they are civilian places.“ (Q. Was President Saddam Hussein near any of those places?) “We said those villains, in particular the villain Bush, he said and the British Defence Minister, they said, the Pentagon said, they have striked Iraq with 40 cruise missiles in order to assassinate President Saddam Hussein. The natural answer came when his Excellency Saddam Hussein delivered his speech. So, not only they are disappointed, I think they are now hysterical.“ 9. Wide shot of al-Sahaf STORYLINE: Iraq's Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf said on Thursday the US attacks killed one Iraqi and wounded several others in Baghdad. He told reporters that President Saddam Hussein's survival of the first night's bombing raids would not only have disappointed US President Bush and his allies, but have made them “hysterical“. The attack on Baghdad targeted a customs office at Rutba, empty buildings for Iraqi TV in Ramadi west of Baghdad and two civilian suburbs of Baghdad, Dora and another suburb east of it, Al-Sahaf said. He added the Americans used high-tech devices to distort the signal on Iraqi satellite television which interrupted the president's address to the nation earlier on Thursday morning. Al-Sahaf called the attackers “stupid and condemned“ and claimed they would not succeed. He promised the journalists that they would have free access to report and would be shown the effects of the military action on Iraq's civilian population. Find out more about AP Archive: Twitter: Facebook: Instagram: You can license this story through AP Archive:
