Leading Iraqi opposition official on embassy siege

1. Entifadh K. Qanbar walks into his office 2. Wideshot of Qanbar talking 3. SOUNDBITE: (English) Entifadh Qanbar, Director, Iraqi National Congress: "We were in touch with them, they are basically a group of Iraqi's who wanted to demonstrate and highlight the suffering of the Iraqi people and their frustration and and their wish to have Saddam removed from power. We have a totalitarian regime for the past 35 years which devastated Iraq and also a part of their demands was to expel and evacuate Iraqi embassies from Iraqi intelligence agents, who are basically harrassing Iraqis in Germany and Europe." 4. Cutaway 5. SOUNDBITE: Entifadh Qanbar, Director - Iraqi National Congress: "We do not interfere with the policy of the United States, the United States government is a sovereign government and they have the right to take actions and decisions that suits and fits their political gains and goals. We don't interfere with the United States decisions and we respect it and so as we would like our decisions to be respected and treated independently rather than interfere with our decisions." 6. Cutaway STORYLINE: When German police commandos stormed the Iraqi Embassy in Berlin on Tuesday, the Democratic Iraqi Opposition of Germany members had reportedly been on the phone to members of the Iraqi National Congress in Washington. As a result, representatives of the group in Washington were taking some credit for helping to bring about a peaceful resolution to Tuesday's embassy takeover. The embassy seizure came at a time when Germany is expressing opposition to U.S.-led military action to remove Saddam, who is accused of trying to develop weapons of mass destruction. The German position has stoked a rare open spat between Washington and one of its chief European allies. Embassy employees arrived at the three-story building after the standoff ended, and about a dozen came out parading two framed pictures of Saddam Hussein and an Iraqi flag. One man said the hostage-takers had taken down the flag and the pictures when they went inside. You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/b41fad06ab831612ae19c105b99ff35e Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork