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CNN Live At Daybreak

International Stories for Today

Aired December 04, 2002 - 05:35   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: Of course, we're following the inspections in Iraq, but there is a lot more out there to cover. It's time to see what's going on.
Our senior international editor David Clinch joins us now -- David, you know, I have a question.

DAVID CLINCH, CNN INTERNATIONAL EDITOR: Yes, Carol?

COSTELLO: Maybe I'll throw you, maybe -- he's bracing himself.

CLINCH: Go ahead.

COSTELLO: Well, I wonder why the inspectors are going back to old sites that Iraq has used in the past, because wouldn't Saddam Hussein know that those are the sites that the inspectors are going to go and hide whatever may or may not be there?

CLINCH: Well, that's a very good question. I suppose it's because, like most inspectors, you would have to assume they need to be systematic. Before they get imaginative, we assume -- and we are assuming, to a certain extent -- we know that they have said they want to go back to these sites. So it's not surprising us that they're doing this. And we are believing, we're assuming, as I said, that that's because they want to be systematic.

In order to get to the point where they can start going beyond that and going to other places that we may not know about or that they may not even really know much about that other intelligence may be telling them they need to go to, they need to go back and get back to square one, as it were.

COSTELLO: Got you.

CLINCH: So they need to go back to these places.

The other reason, of course, and we've reported on this a lot, and Nic has reported on it a lot, is that they have far more sophisticated equipment now. So they may potentially be able to go to places they've been to before and discover things, traces of things which they weren't able to before.

I mean, for instance, if they were to find even the tiniest trace of chemical weapons or biological weapons or nuclear weapons at a site, not necessarily the actual weapon, but a trace that it had been there before...

COSTELLO: Right.

CLINCH: ... that they were not aware of before with their previous equipment, they'd have to go back and start all over again looking at where that trace came from. So I think that's why you'll see them go to all of these places. But then again, they have hundreds of places to go to before they could even get to that point of going to somewhere, you know, beyond the sites they already know of.

They're also, of course, waiting. At some point they may ask for or they may be given more intelligence. The Americans in particular are waiting for this declaration on Saturday...

COSTELLO: That's right.

CLINCH: After that declaration, we may very well see the United States and other countries revealing, perhaps, more specifics of other sites or more places that they think should be looked at.

COSTELLO: Got you.

CLINCH: So systematic first...

COSTELLO: So I understand that now. That's good. So you...

CLINCH: Well, that's what, you know, that's one of the things I was going to talk about. You know, they're going -- Nic was reporting about how far afield he had to go today. That creates a more interesting story, in some ways, but a more difficult one to cover. It's going to take him hours to get out there, take him hours to get back. It'll be much later today before we...

COSTELLO: Because basically it's in the middle of nowhere.

CLINCH: The middle of the desert, a great story when we get it. The pictures will be very interesting, but it just takes that much longer and it's that much more complicated, so.

COSTELLO: Do you have any more information on the explosives that were found in the Dutch IKEA?

CLINCH: It's a very interesting story. I mean, you know, we look at these stories, sometimes these things happen. Stores, you know, an explosive might be there that some crazy person has put there, to be semantic about it. But this seems to be a little bit more dangerous, more scary.

Just to update anyone who hasn't been watching, explosive devices were found, not just a bomb scare, but devices were found in a number of IKEA stores in the Netherlands. It's a Swedish based company, but I think people here in the U.S. know the name.

COSTELLO: Oh, definitely.

CLINCH: There are IKEA stores all throughout the U.S. And just to say where we are on the story, we know explosives were found. One of them either went off or -- as it was being defused hurt one of the policemen who was trying to defuse it. So we're taking it very seriously. We're going to go to the Netherlands. And we're making sure we're in touch with IKEA stores here in the U.S. and all over Europe to find out what their security measures will be.

COSTELLO: Oh, yes.

CLINCH: As of now, no threat to any other source, you know, stores anywhere that we're aware of.

COSTELLO: Other than the Netherlands?

CLINCH: Other than the Netherlands.

COSTELLO: Got you.

CLINCH: We'll follow that through the day.

COSTELLO: OK, David, thanks.

I'll let you get back to work now.

CLINCH: OK.

COSTELLO: We appreciate it.

CLINCH: Thanks.

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 December 4, 2002 - 05:35   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Of course, we're following the inspections in Iraq, but there is a lot more out there to cover. It's time to see what's going on.
Our senior international editor David Clinch joins us now -- David, you know, I have a question.

DAVID CLINCH, CNN INTERNATIONAL EDITOR: Yes, Carol?

COSTELLO: Maybe I'll throw you, maybe -- he's bracing himself.

CLINCH: Go ahead.

COSTELLO: Well, I wonder why the inspectors are going back to old sites that Iraq has used in the past, because wouldn't Saddam Hussein know that those are the sites that the inspectors are going to go and hide whatever may or may not be there?

CLINCH: Well, that's a very good question. I suppose it's because, like most inspectors, you would have to assume they need to be systematic. Before they get imaginative, we assume -- and we are assuming, to a certain extent -- we know that they have said they want to go back to these sites. So it's not surprising us that they're doing this. And we are believing, we're assuming, as I said, that that's because they want to be systematic.

In order to get to the point where they can start going beyond that and going to other places that we may not know about or that they may not even really know much about that other intelligence may be telling them they need to go to, they need to go back and get back to square one, as it were.

COSTELLO: Got you.

CLINCH: So they need to go back to these places.

The other reason, of course, and we've reported on this a lot, and Nic has reported on it a lot, is that they have far more sophisticated equipment now. So they may potentially be able to go to places they've been to before and discover things, traces of things which they weren't able to before.

I mean, for instance, if they were to find even the tiniest trace of chemical weapons or biological weapons or nuclear weapons at a site, not necessarily the actual weapon, but a trace that it had been there before...

COSTELLO: Right.

CLINCH: ... that they were not aware of before with their previous equipment, they'd have to go back and start all over again looking at where that trace came from. So I think that's why you'll see them go to all of these places. But then again, they have hundreds of places to go to before they could even get to that point of going to somewhere, you know, beyond the sites they already know of.

They're also, of course, waiting. At some point they may ask for or they may be given more intelligence. The Americans in particular are waiting for this declaration on Saturday...

COSTELLO: That's right.

CLINCH: After that declaration, we may very well see the United States and other countries revealing, perhaps, more specifics of other sites or more places that they think should be looked at.

COSTELLO: Got you.

CLINCH: So systematic first...

COSTELLO: So I understand that now. That's good. So you...

CLINCH: Well, that's what, you know, that's one of the things I was going to talk about. You know, they're going -- Nic was reporting about how far afield he had to go today. That creates a more interesting story, in some ways, but a more difficult one to cover. It's going to take him hours to get out there, take him hours to get back. It'll be much later today before we...

COSTELLO: Because basically it's in the middle of nowhere.

CLINCH: The middle of the desert, a great story when we get it. The pictures will be very interesting, but it just takes that much longer and it's that much more complicated, so.

COSTELLO: Do you have any more information on the explosives that were found in the Dutch IKEA?

CLINCH: It's a very interesting story. I mean, you know, we look at these stories, sometimes these things happen. Stores, you know, an explosive might be there that some crazy person has put there, to be semantic about it. But this seems to be a little bit more dangerous, more scary.

Just to update anyone who hasn't been watching, explosive devices were found, not just a bomb scare, but devices were found in a number of IKEA stores in the Netherlands. It's a Swedish based company, but I think people here in the U.S. know the name.

COSTELLO: Oh, definitely.

CLINCH: There are IKEA stores all throughout the U.S. And just to say where we are on the story, we know explosives were found. One of them either went off or -- as it was being defused hurt one of the policemen who was trying to defuse it. So we're taking it very seriously. We're going to go to the Netherlands. And we're making sure we're in touch with IKEA stores here in the U.S. and all over Europe to find out what their security measures will be.

COSTELLO: Oh, yes.

CLINCH: As of now, no threat to any other source, you know, stores anywhere that we're aware of.

COSTELLO: Other than the Netherlands?

CLINCH: Other than the Netherlands.

COSTELLO: Got you.

CLINCH: We'll follow that through the day.

COSTELLO: OK, David, thanks.

I'll let you get back to work now.

CLINCH: OK.

COSTELLO: We appreciate it.

CLINCH: Thanks.

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