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CNN Live At Daybreak
Interview with Melissa Flemming
Aired September 18, 2002 - 06:04 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CATHERINE CALLAWAY, CNN ANCHOR: Weapons inspectors say that they are ready to go back into Iraq immediately. They meet with Iraqi officials in Austria next week to finalize the agreement.
For some insight into all of this, we are joined by International Atomic Energy Agency spokeswoman, Melissa Flemming. She is joining us on the phone from Geneva.
Thanks for being with us this morning, Melissa.
MELISSA FLEMMING, INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY: Good morning. And may I correct you? I'm talking to you from Vienna.
CALLAWAY: Oh, are you? OK.
FLEMMING: Yes.
CALLAWAY: Well, we apologize.
FLEMMING: The headquarters of the IEA is here.
CALLAWAY: Can you please tell me if you are ready, or how soon you could be ready to go to Iraq for inspections?
FLEMMING: Our inspectors have been waiting to go back for four years. Their plans are in place, and their suitcases are about to be packed. We are waiting for the green light from the U.N. Security Council and, as you mentioned before, a discussion of practical arrangements that will probably take place here in Vienna next week.
CALLAWAY: And how do you feel about the offer that's been made? Do you expect unconditional -- this to be an unconditional allowance into this area?
FLEMMING: Well, I heard what Mr. Butler just said. We absolutely expect and would need exactly his words, "unfettered access." We'd need to be able to go anywhere at anytime and see any thing and any person we wanted to see. That has to be made clear, but that is part of the U.N. Security Council mandate under which we operate.
It's now up to the Security Council to decide whether the Iraqis will follow through on this and will cooperate with us fully under our, you know, very intrusive inspection mandate.
CALLAWAY: And I know you haven't been allowed to do any weapons inspections, but have you been able to observe Iraq through other means, and what type of information have you been able to acquire?
FLEMMING: Certainly, observing Iraq from satellite images, interviewing people who have come out, checking imports and exports has been the only means with which we have been able to collect data, collect information. This is perhaps, you know, 10 percent as good as going back and having our inspectors on the ground. That's why we have been insisting, the U.N. secretary-general has been insisting, Hans Blix has been insisting that the only way we can actually conclude whether Iraq has or has not weapons of mass destruction is to have our inspectors on the ground.
CALLAWAY: Right. And it seems to me that if you don't have unfettered access and the full cooperation of that government, then you're not going to be able to do the job effectively.
FLEMMING: We certainly wouldn't be able to do the job as effectively as we'd like. We were -- and we'd like to remind people -- in Iraq from 1991 to 1998 under the same mandate as we would go back with. And we did manage, although there were some problems, to uncover Iraq's nuclear weapons program and to destroy it during that period of time.
CALLAWAY: All right, Melissa -- Melissa Flemming joining us from Vienna this morning. Thank you, Melissa.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
Aired September 18, 2002 - 06:04 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CATHERINE CALLAWAY, CNN ANCHOR: Weapons inspectors say that they are ready to go back into Iraq immediately. They meet with Iraqi officials in Austria next week to finalize the agreement.
For some insight into all of this, we are joined by International Atomic Energy Agency spokeswoman, Melissa Flemming. She is joining us on the phone from Geneva.
Thanks for being with us this morning, Melissa.
MELISSA FLEMMING, INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY: Good morning. And may I correct you? I'm talking to you from Vienna.
CALLAWAY: Oh, are you? OK.
FLEMMING: Yes.
CALLAWAY: Well, we apologize.
FLEMMING: The headquarters of the IEA is here.
CALLAWAY: Can you please tell me if you are ready, or how soon you could be ready to go to Iraq for inspections?
FLEMMING: Our inspectors have been waiting to go back for four years. Their plans are in place, and their suitcases are about to be packed. We are waiting for the green light from the U.N. Security Council and, as you mentioned before, a discussion of practical arrangements that will probably take place here in Vienna next week.
CALLAWAY: And how do you feel about the offer that's been made? Do you expect unconditional -- this to be an unconditional allowance into this area?
FLEMMING: Well, I heard what Mr. Butler just said. We absolutely expect and would need exactly his words, "unfettered access." We'd need to be able to go anywhere at anytime and see any thing and any person we wanted to see. That has to be made clear, but that is part of the U.N. Security Council mandate under which we operate.
It's now up to the Security Council to decide whether the Iraqis will follow through on this and will cooperate with us fully under our, you know, very intrusive inspection mandate.
CALLAWAY: And I know you haven't been allowed to do any weapons inspections, but have you been able to observe Iraq through other means, and what type of information have you been able to acquire?
FLEMMING: Certainly, observing Iraq from satellite images, interviewing people who have come out, checking imports and exports has been the only means with which we have been able to collect data, collect information. This is perhaps, you know, 10 percent as good as going back and having our inspectors on the ground. That's why we have been insisting, the U.N. secretary-general has been insisting, Hans Blix has been insisting that the only way we can actually conclude whether Iraq has or has not weapons of mass destruction is to have our inspectors on the ground.
CALLAWAY: Right. And it seems to me that if you don't have unfettered access and the full cooperation of that government, then you're not going to be able to do the job effectively.
FLEMMING: We certainly wouldn't be able to do the job as effectively as we'd like. We were -- and we'd like to remind people -- in Iraq from 1991 to 1998 under the same mandate as we would go back with. And we did manage, although there were some problems, to uncover Iraq's nuclear weapons program and to destroy it during that period of time.
CALLAWAY: All right, Melissa -- Melissa Flemming joining us from Vienna this morning. Thank you, Melissa.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
