Saddam interview

davej

What did you think of Saddam and Tony Benn last night ?

I really felt that Benn didn't ask any difficult questions and bascially gave Saddam a platform to say whatever he liked.

On the other hand, Saddam did make a good point about America's real objectives: gaining control of oil so that China (amongst others) can be contained economically.

oh and if you missed it last night the transcript is on the channel4 news site at:

http://www.channel4.com/news/home/z/stories/20030204/saddam_benn.html

davej

Washout

Saddam still answered the questions quite directly.. He makes a very good point about how the language coming from Britain and American administrations is all about having this war and there is no choice but to have this war.

To this day neither Tony Blair nor George Bush have stated factually and prven that Iraq has tons of weapons...Every speech has been about allegations of Iraq possessing such implements of evil. And its on this Basis they want to go to War with Iraq only?

Bateman

Well I think that once Bush and by extention Blair make up their mind that there is going to be a war (which they have), then there is no other way to look at it other than being inevitable. Not that that means that there is no point in protesting, but its looking ominous.

Sand

Thats the most hilarious bit of sucking up Ive ever seen masquerading as investigative reporting tbh. Granted your man is asking these questions in Baghdad and is unlikley to annoy Mr President for fear of any "accident" that might befall him him but he might as well have asked Saddam to set the questions, He offered to show him the questions beforehand apparently so as not to catch Saddam off guard with any tricky ones. Would he give Bush, Blair or indeed any other protagonist in this whole conflict such a pathetically easy ride? He didnt tackle Saddam on a single issue, not one - just served up a few easy ....cant even call them questions because benn often practically guides saddam to the answer himself. To be honest it sounds like the "reporter" got his "questions to ask" from the Iraqi security forces.

Its just sad that this is being passed off as reporting. If this is the standard then corrupt politicians need never fear being taken to task on an issue. Christ if Saddam gets a ride like this Bush neednt even bother turning up to his interviews. Saddam, the man of peace. Pffft.

As for Benn, if hes any measure of "old" labour then its no wonder theyre dead and buried and a good thing too.

bonkey

Originally posted by Sand
Would he give Bush, Blair or indeed any other protagonist in this whole conflict such a pathetically easy ride?

Quite possibly. It is not unheard of for senior western diplomats to insist on seeing the questions beforehand, or indeed on insisting prior to the interview that certain things are not to be discussed.

Yes, Saddam got an easy ride. But when can you honestly say you saw any western leader in an open and honest interview about events of such significance, getting grilled on the topics they didnt want to go in to?

Junior officials, perhaps, but rarely (if ever) the senior ones.

jc

shotamoose

To be fair to Tony Blair, I've just finished watching him spend fifty minutes being interviewed by Jeremy Paxman and a studio audience (in Gateshead) on BBC2.

He acquitted himself pretty well - which he always does when he believes himself to be in the right, as he clearly does. He was also asked some pretty poor questions, and he's at his best when he thinks he's doing the tough but necessary job of explaining to the plebs why they should leave things to him.

But nobody asked him how many thousands of innocent casualties he is prepared to accept in a war on Iraq.

Nobody asked him why Saddam would ever be so daft as to pose a direct military threat in the future, instead they allowed him to get away with calling him 'a menace in the past'. True but not relevant.

Nobody asked him why he was allowing the US to threaten the continuing existence of the UN by unilaterally deciding to go to war and demanding that everyone else come along for the ride.

And nobody asked him how an American-led war and occupation of Iraq was supposed to decrease the appeal of Al-Qaeda and other arab terrorist groups to people in the Middle East.

daveirl

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