Iraqi opposition meeting in London

1. Wide of Press conference 2. Cutaway cameramen 3. SOUNDBITE: (Arabic with English translation) Tawfik al-Yassiri, Secretary General of Iraqi National Council: "The officers their full willingness to participate in the opposing military effort and to shoulder the responsibility in the effort to change the dictatorial regime and to take part in the lying down of the foundation of a democratic Iraq, federal, plural and based on the rule of law and the establishment of civil society" 4. Journalist looking at press release 5. Wide of journalists 6. SOUNDBITE: (Arabic with English translation) Tawfik al-Yassiri, Secretary General of Iraqi National Council: "In the opening session of this meeting there were American representatives from the White house, Pentagon and the US State Department. We have no problem with establishing good relations with friendly relations with any party which will extend the hand of friendship to help us achieve our aim among those is certainly the Americans." 7. Cutaway 8. Set up of Adel Darwish middle expert 9. SOUNDBITE: (English) Adel Darwish, Middle East Expert: "First of you really have to work very hard to convince us observers specialising in the middle east whether they can actually achieve their aims without a massive American military assistance and after which I doubt it very much whether they would be the only people who would call the shots." 10. Darwish talking STORYLINE: Winding up a three-day meeting on how to depose Saddam Hussein, a group of former Iraqi military officers said they would support war crimes tribunals for the leader and his top aides once he was removed from power. Following the meeting in London, the 65 defectors from Saddam's forces issued a statement affirming their commitment to join any effort to topple him and promised the army would be subordinate to civilian authority in a democratic, post-Saddam Iraq. The group said it would "charge the leadership of the current regime and its main figures with full responsibility for the crimes committed by the authority during the years they have been in power," according to the statement read by the Secretary General of Iraqi National Council and former Brigadier General Tawfik al-Yassiri. Al-Yassiri said the officers had elected a 15-member military council to work on issues related to the hoped-for overthrow of Saddam and the role of the armed forces afterward. Al-Yassiri declined to name the members of the new 15-person military council. But he said that former Brigadier General Najeb al-Salhi, who lives outside Washington and heads the Movement of Free Officers, and former Brigadier General Saad al-Ubaidi, who once ran Iraq's psychological warfare operations, were among them. Al-Yassiri also said some council members were officers still living in Iraq. He said the council included members of all Iraq's major ethnic groups and representatives of different schools of political thought. Al-Yassiri said the officers believed much of the Iraqi military was prepared to turn on Saddam once an offensive was launched against him. The officers, who were joined by members of various Iraqi political opposition groups at their opening session on Friday, have said they are hopeful that the United States will launch a military effort to oust Saddam. America accuses the Iraqi president of stockpiling weapons of mass destruction and supporting terrorists. Representatives of the US State Department and Pentagon attended the group's opening session on Friday, and State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said in Washington that American officials thought the meeting was "a useful tool," although the United States did not help fund the conference. You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/bf79cb9f2946db0a32f73ab75860f168 Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork