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CNN Live At Daybreak

Pentagon Responds to Terror Tapes

Aired August 20, 2002 - 05:03   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: A suspected al Qaeda chemical and biological weapons facility in northern Iraq has been a potential U.S. target.
CNN Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr has an update for you on that.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BARBARA STARR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: CNN has been told that no attack is imminent, but in recent weeks Bush administration officials have discussed the possibility of launching a covert military and CIA mission to attack a suspected al Qaeda chemical and biological weapons facility in northern Iraq, a part of Iraq that Saddam Hussein does not control.

But one U.S. official going so far as to tell CNN that any plan for an attack has now been called off.

The site is said to have been fairly primitive. It is believed that al Qaeda members who have slipped across the border from Iran into Iraq may have been there in recent weeks, again, testing lethal agents against barnyard animals and even, perhaps, against an unsuspecting man living in the region.

It is not clear if the U.S. military ever put forth a formal plan to attack the site, but it is likely it would have involved the insertion of special forces on the ground, a covert mission to destroy this facility in place.

It is said that the site is located in Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq, again, a part of Iraq that Saddam Hussein does not control. It's likely he did not even know that this facility existed. There is a radical Kurdish party called Ansar al-Islam and they are in control of much of this region.

Senior administration officials have also confirmed to CNN that President Bush was briefed by his national security team on this potential target. What is not clear, however, is why any mission was called off.

Barbara Starr, CNN, the Pentagon.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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