Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

DATE=4/9/03

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=IRAQ / WRAP - 2ND UPD (L-O)

NUMBER=2-302005

BYLINE=STEPHANIE HO

DATELINE=WASHINGTON

VOICED AT:

INTRO: U-S forces took control of central Baghdad, as jubilant crowds toppled a statue of Saddam Hussein in a downtown square. As V-O-A's Stephanie Ho reports, U-S officials called it a good day for Iraq, but cautioned more fighting lies ahead.

TEXT: The image carried on live television around the world Wednesday was the tearing down of a tall statue of Saddam Hussein in central Baghdad.

/// NAT SOUND OF CROWDS SHOUTING "DEATH TO SADDAM" AND HACKING AWAY AT HIS STATUE ///

Jubilant crowds danced on the felled torso and dragged the statue's severed head through the streets.

Mohammed Sowaillam is a former general in the Egyptian army and director of the Armed Forces Center for Strategic Studies in Cairo. He says he believes Saddam and his regime, in the end, had no substance.

/// SOWAILLAM ACT ///

He was dreaming, he was dreaming and living an illusion and dreams. No strategy, no tactics, no anything, but lies, lies from Saddam and the Baath party. All was an illusion.

/// END ACT ///

At the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld called the events of the day historic.

/// RUMSFELD ACT ///

Saddam Hussein is now taking his rightful place -- alongside Hitler, Stalin, Lenin, Ceausescu -- in the pantheon of failed, brutal dictators, and the Iraqi people are well on their way to freedom.

/// END ACT ///

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer warned, though, that the war is not over.

/// FLEISCHER ACT ///

We still need to be cautious because we still have our armed forces in harm's way. There is still fighting ahead of us.

/// END ACT ///

Coalition troops have full control of three key cities south of Baghdad -- Najaf, Karbala and Hillah. Control of these cities is crucial because U-S army supplies and humanitarian assistance need to be trucked through the area.

In the north, U-S and Kurdish forces are moving on the cities of Mosul, Kirkuk and Tikrit, Saddam Hussein's hometown.

As coalition troops consolidate their hold over Iraq, Iraqi exiles and local leaders are taking steps to organize what is being called the "Iraqi Interim Authority."

State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said a meeting scheduled as early as Saturday in southern Iraq should not be seen as putting exile figure Ahmad Chalabi, head of the Iraqi National Congress, in power.

/// OPT BOUCHER ACT ///

It's not a coronation. It's not a choice of some kind of government. It's an opportunity for American, for U-S, for coalition officials to meet with free Iraqis from inside and outside Iraq to discuss their vision of the future, to start working with local administrators and talk about their vision of the future.

/// END ACT, END OPT ///

After hostilities end in Iraq, a civilian authority headed by retired U-S Army General Jay Garner is to govern the country initially. The Iraqi Interim Authority would then be phased in to run the country until the seating of a freely-elected Iraqi government. (SIGNED)

NEB/SHO/MAR