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CNN Live At Daybreak
Looking Like Weapons Inspectors Will be Going in Iraq in Few Days
Aired November 14, 2002 - 05:32 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: It is looking more and more like U.N. weapons inspectors will be going back into Iraq within the next few days.
And CNN national security correspondent David Ensor looks at the challenges that they will face as they hunt for Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAVID ENSOR, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The U.N. arms inspectors must pick up where their predecessors left off in the search for weapons of mass destruction when they left Iraq in 1998. This time, veterans say, Iraq must be forced to give up its old policy of cheat and retreat.
TIM TREVAN, FORMER U.N. WEAPONS INSPECTOR: They cheat with the lie about what they held. They would retreat when the evidence was, they were confronted with the evidence and come up with a new lie.
ENSOR: The man who will lead 220 inspectors this time around, with 50 more being trained, is a firm but soft-spoken Swedish former minister, Hans Blix.
HANS BLIX, CHIEF U.N. WEAPONS INSPECTOR: What works best as a matter of psychology, shouting or soft speaking with some leverage, and I don't, my habit is not to shout.
ENSOR: The inspectors' tool kit will include satellite photographs like these released by the White House showing, U.S. officials say, that construction has resumed on a building that was originally meant to house a centrifuge enrichment facility, part of the process of building an Iraqi nuclear bomb. Then, there are dual use facilities like this heavy industry complex north of Baghdad, recently shown to reporters. The Iraqis deny charges some of these machines may have been used to produce equipment for nuclear weapons.
The inspectors' tool kit includes a pile of CD-ROMs the Iraqis recently turned over containing their version of what has gone on at potential dual use facilities in the last few years. And, of course, the U.N. team will also need the basics.
TREVAN: Clearly they need offices which are clean in every respect, clean enough to operate delicate equipment physically and clean from eavesdropping and surveillance bugs within the building. ENSOR: But first there are even more basic questions for President Bush and the leaders of the U.N. Security Council nations to consider, and likely disagree on -- exactly what would be the trigger for war? How much detail on its weapons program must Iraq produce in the coming weeks to avoid it?
JAMIE RUBIN, FORMER ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF STATE: I think it's crucial that a dialogue begin in defining between the United States, between the U.N. inspectors, between the French, the British, the Russians and other key countries of what we're going to do if this declaration is false. Are we going to wait for the inspectors to go about proving that it's false or are we going to realize right away that Saddam Hussein is not going to disarm himself and we're going to have to disarm him?
ENSOR (on camera): In the meantime, U.S. intelligence officials say, they will be providing U.N. arms inspectors with information to help them look for weapons of mass destruction, sites they should check, individuals they should speak to. It will be, one official said, a forward leaning operation.
David Ensor, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CALLAWAY: And for a comprehensive look at Iraq and the questions about its weapons program, just click onto our Web site, cnn.com. AOL keyword is CNN.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Few Days>
Aired November 14, 2002 - 05:32 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CATHERINE CALLAWAY, CNN ANCHOR: It is looking more and more like U.N. weapons inspectors will be going back into Iraq within the next few days.
And CNN national security correspondent David Ensor looks at the challenges that they will face as they hunt for Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAVID ENSOR, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The U.N. arms inspectors must pick up where their predecessors left off in the search for weapons of mass destruction when they left Iraq in 1998. This time, veterans say, Iraq must be forced to give up its old policy of cheat and retreat.
TIM TREVAN, FORMER U.N. WEAPONS INSPECTOR: They cheat with the lie about what they held. They would retreat when the evidence was, they were confronted with the evidence and come up with a new lie.
ENSOR: The man who will lead 220 inspectors this time around, with 50 more being trained, is a firm but soft-spoken Swedish former minister, Hans Blix.
HANS BLIX, CHIEF U.N. WEAPONS INSPECTOR: What works best as a matter of psychology, shouting or soft speaking with some leverage, and I don't, my habit is not to shout.
ENSOR: The inspectors' tool kit will include satellite photographs like these released by the White House showing, U.S. officials say, that construction has resumed on a building that was originally meant to house a centrifuge enrichment facility, part of the process of building an Iraqi nuclear bomb. Then, there are dual use facilities like this heavy industry complex north of Baghdad, recently shown to reporters. The Iraqis deny charges some of these machines may have been used to produce equipment for nuclear weapons.
The inspectors' tool kit includes a pile of CD-ROMs the Iraqis recently turned over containing their version of what has gone on at potential dual use facilities in the last few years. And, of course, the U.N. team will also need the basics.
TREVAN: Clearly they need offices which are clean in every respect, clean enough to operate delicate equipment physically and clean from eavesdropping and surveillance bugs within the building. ENSOR: But first there are even more basic questions for President Bush and the leaders of the U.N. Security Council nations to consider, and likely disagree on -- exactly what would be the trigger for war? How much detail on its weapons program must Iraq produce in the coming weeks to avoid it?
JAMIE RUBIN, FORMER ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF STATE: I think it's crucial that a dialogue begin in defining between the United States, between the U.N. inspectors, between the French, the British, the Russians and other key countries of what we're going to do if this declaration is false. Are we going to wait for the inspectors to go about proving that it's false or are we going to realize right away that Saddam Hussein is not going to disarm himself and we're going to have to disarm him?
ENSOR (on camera): In the meantime, U.S. intelligence officials say, they will be providing U.N. arms inspectors with information to help them look for weapons of mass destruction, sites they should check, individuals they should speak to. It will be, one official said, a forward leaning operation.
David Ensor, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CALLAWAY: And for a comprehensive look at Iraq and the questions about its weapons program, just click onto our Web site, cnn.com. AOL keyword is CNN.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Few Days>
