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American Morning

Day One of the Weapons Hunt

Aired November 27, 2002 - 09:03   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.


BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Inspectors on the ground, day one, for the first time in two years. Nic Robertson was with one of the teams. He's live again in Baghdad to tell us how the inspections went today, on day one.
Nic, good afternoon to you there.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good afternoon, and good morning to you, Bill.

Well, the team that went west of Baghdad today, they've just come back. I've talked to somebody along with that team. That team was at a site where the inspectors were looking at in the compound there what appeared to be missile test beds.

Now, Iraq is banned from having missiles that go over 19 miles and satellite topography has been leading inspectors to believe that perhaps they've been trying upgrade those missiles. That's what that team is doing to the west of Baghdad.

We followed a team headed to the east of the Tahardi (ph) site. Now they did have a little hiccup on the way there, Bill. They got a little lost, unsurprising, really, first day on the job, unfamiliar with the roads. They are not able to stop and ask people directions. That would give away where they were going.

But when they got to the site there, they went in through the gates. All the journalists had to stop outside, just take a look at the confusion as all the journalists were trying to get in there -- Bill.

You can imagine the scene, a lot of pushing and shoving and everybody wanting to get in and follow the inspectors into the site. We weren't able to do that. We were able to look through some gaps in the wall there. This was a big compound area, about a mile square, had about 12 warehouses. We could see inspectors moving between the warehouses, taking photographs, talking with some of the Iraqi officials at that site there.

After the team left, they left after about three hours, we were able to get into the site and taken to one of the warehouse buildings there, where we could see what appeared to be and these look like big parts of motors, big industrial motors, that are being refurbished. We couldn't see any signs of what you might consider weapons of mass destruction, but then we're not the experts. We talked with the director general of the site. We asked what, had they done there? He said they'd been around the site. We asked had they had access to everything he said, yes. We asked had they taken anything away. He said nothing. Did they have any weapons of mass destruction or anything remotely connected to that? He denied that. He says absolutely not. He said the inspectors had free hands to look over the whole site. Indeed, he said that the inspectors had gone away happy -- Bill.

HEMMER: Interesting note here. We are told the inspectors have this code (ph) called "freeze it" policy. Now there is, when they go, nobody in, nobody out, even after they leave. That does not appear to be the case there, because you and other journalists went inside. Do you know when that policy then is initiated for nobody in, nobody out depending on the site.

ROBERTSON: Nobody in, nobody out from the moment they arrive until the moment they leave. That sight is their jurisdiction. That's the tough mandate they have in this new resolution. When we arrived about two minutes after the inspectors got there, it looked as if a bus was about to drive out of the site. Somebody ran up to it and stopped it. That was an indication to me that the policy was effective. We couldn't get in either, another indication that nobody could get in on the site. Interestingly, the Iraqi officials, their counterparts for the Iraqi National Monetary Directive, they were able to get into the site, that was something we hadn't expected them to hold outside -- Bill.

HEMMER: Nic, thank you. Nic Robertson, day two tomorrow.

Nic Robertson, live in Baghdad.

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 November 27, 2002 - 09:03   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Inspectors on the ground, day one, for the first time in two years. Nic Robertson was with one of the teams. He's live again in Baghdad to tell us how the inspections went today, on day one.
Nic, good afternoon to you there.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good afternoon, and good morning to you, Bill.

Well, the team that went west of Baghdad today, they've just come back. I've talked to somebody along with that team. That team was at a site where the inspectors were looking at in the compound there what appeared to be missile test beds.

Now, Iraq is banned from having missiles that go over 19 miles and satellite topography has been leading inspectors to believe that perhaps they've been trying upgrade those missiles. That's what that team is doing to the west of Baghdad.

We followed a team headed to the east of the Tahardi (ph) site. Now they did have a little hiccup on the way there, Bill. They got a little lost, unsurprising, really, first day on the job, unfamiliar with the roads. They are not able to stop and ask people directions. That would give away where they were going.

But when they got to the site there, they went in through the gates. All the journalists had to stop outside, just take a look at the confusion as all the journalists were trying to get in there -- Bill.

You can imagine the scene, a lot of pushing and shoving and everybody wanting to get in and follow the inspectors into the site. We weren't able to do that. We were able to look through some gaps in the wall there. This was a big compound area, about a mile square, had about 12 warehouses. We could see inspectors moving between the warehouses, taking photographs, talking with some of the Iraqi officials at that site there.

After the team left, they left after about three hours, we were able to get into the site and taken to one of the warehouse buildings there, where we could see what appeared to be and these look like big parts of motors, big industrial motors, that are being refurbished. We couldn't see any signs of what you might consider weapons of mass destruction, but then we're not the experts. We talked with the director general of the site. We asked what, had they done there? He said they'd been around the site. We asked had they had access to everything he said, yes. We asked had they taken anything away. He said nothing. Did they have any weapons of mass destruction or anything remotely connected to that? He denied that. He says absolutely not. He said the inspectors had free hands to look over the whole site. Indeed, he said that the inspectors had gone away happy -- Bill.

HEMMER: Interesting note here. We are told the inspectors have this code (ph) called "freeze it" policy. Now there is, when they go, nobody in, nobody out, even after they leave. That does not appear to be the case there, because you and other journalists went inside. Do you know when that policy then is initiated for nobody in, nobody out depending on the site.

ROBERTSON: Nobody in, nobody out from the moment they arrive until the moment they leave. That sight is their jurisdiction. That's the tough mandate they have in this new resolution. When we arrived about two minutes after the inspectors got there, it looked as if a bus was about to drive out of the site. Somebody ran up to it and stopped it. That was an indication to me that the policy was effective. We couldn't get in either, another indication that nobody could get in on the site. Interestingly, the Iraqi officials, their counterparts for the Iraqi National Monetary Directive, they were able to get into the site, that was something we hadn't expected them to hold outside -- Bill.

HEMMER: Nic, thank you. Nic Robertson, day two tomorrow.

Nic Robertson, live in Baghdad.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com