Iraqis Delete Threat From Jackson’s Interview

Iraqi officials cut from a taped TV interview Saddam Hussein’s warning to the Rev. Jesse Jackson that foreigners hiding from Iraqi forces in Kuwait could be treated as spies, a TV producer said today.

But Saddam made no threats of harm to them, said Ken Walker, a former ABC News correspondent who accompanied Jackson on his 90-minute interview Friday night with the Iraqi president. (Portions of the interview will air at 7 tonight on the syndicated “Inside Edition” on Channel 7.)

The censorship wasn’t discovered until Monday night, when the “Inside Edition” staff was editing Jackson’s interview, said Av Westin, executive producer of the series. Jackson went to Baghdad as a journalist for the newsmagazine show.

Westin said about eight to 10 minutes was found to have been cut.

The tapes were given to Jackson’s entourage on Saturday, said Walker, who added that three camera crews from state-run Iraqi television shot the interview.

There had been no conditions set for the interview, nor was there any warning that censorship would occur, he said.

The deleted portions included a “dire threat” by Saddam about foreigners in Kuwait, including Americans, who have been hiding from Iraqi forces there since his Aug. 2 takeover of the country, Westin said.

“The dire threat was that anybody who did not turn themselves in within 10 days would be treated as a spy,” Westin said. “It was that they would be treated as spies and dealt with as spies . . . that was eliminated from the tape.”

Walker said the warning came in the context of Jackson’s questions about foreign women and children in Kuwait.