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CNN Live Today

Saddam and the Bomb

Aired September 09, 2002 - 13:02   ET

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

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: A respected British think tank reports that Iraq is maybe a step away from building a nuclear weapon. It's a pretty big step, but the group says Iraq could do it with the right kind of help.
CNN's Walter Rodgers is in London to tell us more about that -- Walter.

WALTER RODGERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Kyra.

The respected British think tank the International Institute for Strategic Studies weighed in on the debate over whether to go to war with Saddam Hussein or not. They said Saddam is definitely inclined to try to build nuclear weapons, but he is not there yet. And in point of fact, they say he may be years away, because the United States bombing campaign against Iraq in the 1991 Gulf War was so effective that it seriously set back Saddam's nuclear weapons program, such that without international help, he is still more than a few years, perhaps five or more years, from acquiring a nuclear weapon.

Now there is one possible shortcut the Iraqis could use to acquire nuclear weapons, and that would be if they could buy enriched uranium on the black market, enriched uranium, weapons grade uranium, that might come from one of the former Soviet republics. Under those circumstances, it seems fairly clear the Iraqis might well be able to develop a nuclear weapon. Nonetheless, they have a substantial and more threatening, more immediately threatening arsenal. That's their chemical and biological weapons.

Gary Saymore of the institute commented on the findings.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GARY SAYMORE: We argue that it's very likely that Iraq retains an interest in acquiring nuclear weapons, although its ability to achieve that through the indigenous production of nuclear material is likely to be several years away. If they were to somehow acquire nuclear material from a foreign source, then they could probably do it much quicker, perhaps within a matter of months.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RODGERS: Another short coming for Saddam Hussein if indeed he has to fight a war, is that he does not have the delivery systems he had before, nowhere near the numbers of ballistic missiles that he had, so he's going to be will be fighting a much more difficult situation if indeed it comes to war with the United States -- Kyra. PHILLIPS: Walt Rodgers, thank you so much.

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