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CNN Live At Daybreak

Inspection Team Spends Only a Few Hours at Presidential Site

Aired December 03, 2002 - 05:33   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.


CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And we certainly want to get an update now on today's inspection of an Iraqi presidential palace by U.N. weapons experts.
Let's go back to CNN's Nic Robertson live in Baghdad for the latest -- good morning, Nic.

They didn't stay long, did they?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They didn't, Carol. A few hours was all the time they spent on the site, and this was quite a large site. Interestingly, they split into two teams to get onto the site, one going in by the back door, one at the front door. And the guards at the gate seemed pretty surprised that the U.N. inspectors should have been turning up this morning. A lot of talk on the Walkie-Talkies. But after about five minutes, the inspectors getting in and officials telling us the inspectors getting all the access they wanted.

COSTELLO: This presidential palace, I was going to ask you how large it was, because some of them are as large as Yankee Stadium.

ROBERTSON: Well, I'd like to compare it, perhaps just because of my nationality, to Buckingham Palace. It's a lot larger than Buckingham Palace. Its stretches perhaps half a mile to a mile long. There are some very, very big buildings in there. are a lot of apartment buildings, as well. It's an area where there's not only the formal palaces, but also areas where people are living.

When we, when journalists got in, they were able to see gardeners working on the gardens in there. Even the gardeners seemed sort of surprised to be seeing journalists walking into their presidential palace -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Rym Brahimi, was she one of the journalists that got into the palace with the weapons inspectors?

ROBERTSON: No, this has been the situation over the last six days of inspections that the inspectors go in first and then once they leave, then the Iraqi officials let the journalists in. Now, the inspectors had two hours. The journalists had far less than that, just a handful of minutes, actually, and weren't able to go around and see as much as the inspectors had seen.

And that, again, has been sort of symptomatic of what we've been able to see here. The journalists get a tiny bit of access, officials explaining the access that the inspectors had, explaining that it was full access. The inspectors had been able to see everything they wanted to see.

COSTELLO: I'm just curious to know what was inside the palace. I know that you weren't inside yourself, but have you heard any descriptions of what the palace looked like on the inside?

ROBERTSON: Well, typically these palaces have been full of splendor inside, chandeliers, a lot of ornate marble work. They've been very, let's say, ostentatious, to say the least. And the gardens very well kept, very much in keeping with, perhaps, what one would expect from a head of state.

COSTELLO: OK, one final question. I know that many suspect there are these underground bunkers along the palace grounds. Did weapons inspectors look for anything like that?

ROBERTSON: Carol, I couldn't hear you properly there. The in -- we don't know what the inspectors were looking for on the grounds. Generally, we don't find out or we get very few details, and generally we don't find out exactly what they've seen or what they've done until late in the day. For example, yesterday they found that certain items they were looking for were missing. Now, we didn't find that out until very late in the evening Baghdad time.

So I don't expect us to get an accurate readout from the inspectors immediately on what they found, or even exactly, we don't ever find out particularly exactly what they're looking for either.

It seems that possibly it was something reasonably specific, because this is such a large site and they only spent two hours on the site. So that, perhaps, indicates that there were a few specific things they were looking for there.

COSTELLO: Understand.

Nic Robertson, thanks.

We'll get back to you in the next hour.

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




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Aired December 3, 2002 - 05:33   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And we certainly want to get an update now on today's inspection of an Iraqi presidential palace by U.N. weapons experts.
Let's go back to CNN's Nic Robertson live in Baghdad for the latest -- good morning, Nic.

They didn't stay long, did they?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They didn't, Carol. A few hours was all the time they spent on the site, and this was quite a large site. Interestingly, they split into two teams to get onto the site, one going in by the back door, one at the front door. And the guards at the gate seemed pretty surprised that the U.N. inspectors should have been turning up this morning. A lot of talk on the Walkie-Talkies. But after about five minutes, the inspectors getting in and officials telling us the inspectors getting all the access they wanted.

COSTELLO: This presidential palace, I was going to ask you how large it was, because some of them are as large as Yankee Stadium.

ROBERTSON: Well, I'd like to compare it, perhaps just because of my nationality, to Buckingham Palace. It's a lot larger than Buckingham Palace. Its stretches perhaps half a mile to a mile long. There are some very, very big buildings in there. are a lot of apartment buildings, as well. It's an area where there's not only the formal palaces, but also areas where people are living.

When we, when journalists got in, they were able to see gardeners working on the gardens in there. Even the gardeners seemed sort of surprised to be seeing journalists walking into their presidential palace -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Rym Brahimi, was she one of the journalists that got into the palace with the weapons inspectors?

ROBERTSON: No, this has been the situation over the last six days of inspections that the inspectors go in first and then once they leave, then the Iraqi officials let the journalists in. Now, the inspectors had two hours. The journalists had far less than that, just a handful of minutes, actually, and weren't able to go around and see as much as the inspectors had seen.

And that, again, has been sort of symptomatic of what we've been able to see here. The journalists get a tiny bit of access, officials explaining the access that the inspectors had, explaining that it was full access. The inspectors had been able to see everything they wanted to see.

COSTELLO: I'm just curious to know what was inside the palace. I know that you weren't inside yourself, but have you heard any descriptions of what the palace looked like on the inside?

ROBERTSON: Well, typically these palaces have been full of splendor inside, chandeliers, a lot of ornate marble work. They've been very, let's say, ostentatious, to say the least. And the gardens very well kept, very much in keeping with, perhaps, what one would expect from a head of state.

COSTELLO: OK, one final question. I know that many suspect there are these underground bunkers along the palace grounds. Did weapons inspectors look for anything like that?

ROBERTSON: Carol, I couldn't hear you properly there. The in -- we don't know what the inspectors were looking for on the grounds. Generally, we don't find out or we get very few details, and generally we don't find out exactly what they've seen or what they've done until late in the day. For example, yesterday they found that certain items they were looking for were missing. Now, we didn't find that out until very late in the evening Baghdad time.

So I don't expect us to get an accurate readout from the inspectors immediately on what they found, or even exactly, we don't ever find out particularly exactly what they're looking for either.

It seems that possibly it was something reasonably specific, because this is such a large site and they only spent two hours on the site. So that, perhaps, indicates that there were a few specific things they were looking for there.

COSTELLO: Understand.

Nic Robertson, thanks.

We'll get back to you in the next hour.

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




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