Hussein Has Been Addressing Nation
JOHN VAUSE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Now to Iraq, where today is Army Day, and Saddam Hussein has been addressing his nation. CNN's Rym Brahimi joins us now live from Baghdad with the latest -- good morning, Rym.</s>RYM BRAHIMI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John. As you said, Army Day. This is the 82nd anniversary of the Iraqi armed forces. President Saddam Hussein addressed the nation, making a certain number of points, of course, addressing the huge military buildup in the region, saying that the U.S. threatened not only Iraq, but also the entire region. Let's listen to how he put it.</s>PRES. SADDAM HUSSEIN, IRAQ: Instead of looking for the so-called weapons of mass destruction in order to expose the distortion and lies propagated by those who endeavor in vain to deceive public opinion, the inspection teams are interested in collecting names and making lists of Iraqi scientists, addressing employees with questions that carry hidden agendas.</s>BRAHIMI: Now, he also addressed the question of the inspections, accusing the U.N. weapons inspectors of spying in their methods of work, saying that they were not doing work to disarm Iraq, but actually to gather intelligence here. Another couple of points he made, John, one of them saying that the United States, by threatening the region, was actually trying to divert the American public opinion from the problems it has at home from the fact that, in his view, the American agencies had failed to prevent the September 11 attacks, saying he's also trying to divert the American public opinion from what he said was a collapsed economy in the United States. And he also pointed out maybe a response to what many people are speculating about, the big question being what will the army do if there is an attack against Iraq. Well, President Saddam Hussein said he was confident the army would stand firm and stand by the country -- John.</s>VAUSE: Rym, in his speech we heard a lot of references, a lot of religious references. Now, Iraq traditionally is a secular country. What can we read into that?</s>BRAHIMI: Well, that's been a trend in recent years, John. Iraq is, as you said, a secular country, mainly because the ruling Baath Party's policies are strictly secular. But in the past few years, there has been a tendency on the part of a lot of leaders to maybe lean towards more religious references. That's been the case certainly in many of the president's speeches. He's been seen quite often going to mosques. He's been filmed attending mosques. He also apparently was, sent someone to the pilgrimage. He wants to be giving, he wants to give this image also of someone that plays also to that side of the Arab public opinion, not just the secular, but following maybe the trend of many countries in the Arab world, following that more religious trend recently. So playing on as much, as many boards as he can, if you will -- John.</s>VAUSE: OK, CNN's Rym Brahimi on duty for us again in Baghdad. Thank you, Rym.