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CNN Live At Daybreak
Day 7 of Weapons Inspections
Aired December 04, 2002 - 06:02 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: It is day seven of U.N. weapons inspections in Iraq, and teams are searching two separate sites.
We want to go live now to Baghdad and CNN's Rym Brahimi for an update.
Rym -- are they still out there in the middle of the desert?
RYM BRAHIMI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, they are, Carol. Actually, they've been there for three-and-a-half hours. Now, that's not the longest they've spent at a site so far. The other day, they spent six hours on one site.
But you see this one that they're visiting right now is really very big. It's about five kilometers by five kilometers large. It's two hours away from Baghdad, so it's likely they're going to spent quite some time there today.
Now, we understand that that site, called al-Musuna (ph), is known, like many of the sites they've visited, this site was also known to the previous team of U.N. weapons inspectors, namely because, Carol, this was the main center to research the development and production of biological and chemical warfare agents.
Now, it was known to the other team. They had visited it many times. They know that basically in the '80s and in the '90s, this was where they developed things like anthrax, for instance, or the biological agent that causes botulism. They also developed a whole range of chemical warfare agents, namely mustard gas, for instance, and VX.
And so, the previous team of inspectors, Carol, well, they had been there for awhile. They were there mainly between '92 and '94. The site was bombed during the Gulf War in '91, and then when the previous team of inspectors went there, well, they also destroyed a lot of the equipment.
So, we're going to hope to find out more about what's left. The previous UNSCOM team says not everything was unaccounted for -- was accounted for when they left in '98, and we'll hear more on that later -- Carol.
COSTELLO: All right, Rym, I want to read you an e-mail that we got in this morning. And it says: "Why aren't CNN and other news services reporting on how this U.N. inspection team is a joke? This team could not find a nuclear warhead in my living room if I called them and told them to look for it in my home." Are the weapons inspectors aware of this kind of sentiment in the United States?
BRAHIMI: Well, I think they are aware of that. They're probably not too preoccupied, so far from what we've seen, because we have daily briefings -- almost daily briefings with them, Carol, and they're quite keen to explain to us how they go about doing their work. They've told us many times that they are experts in nuclear, biological and chemical fields. They know their stuff. A lot of them are actually also part of the previous U.N. team. They're not all new, Carol.
They're also very keen to tell us that they're going about this maybe in a tough way but a different way than the previous team. They've emphasized that although they want these inspections to be carried out as they should be, according to the new resolution that gives them a lot of powers, well, they also insist on being very cordial and not provocative.
So, maybe that's why they may be perceived by many people as not being as tough or competent in the view of many people as the previous team -- Carol.
COSTELLO: That, and many more reasons. Rym, 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 - 06:02 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: It is day seven of U.N. weapons inspections in Iraq, and teams are searching two separate sites.
We want to go live now to Baghdad and CNN's Rym Brahimi for an update.
Rym -- are they still out there in the middle of the desert?
RYM BRAHIMI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, they are, Carol. Actually, they've been there for three-and-a-half hours. Now, that's not the longest they've spent at a site so far. The other day, they spent six hours on one site.
But you see this one that they're visiting right now is really very big. It's about five kilometers by five kilometers large. It's two hours away from Baghdad, so it's likely they're going to spent quite some time there today.
Now, we understand that that site, called al-Musuna (ph), is known, like many of the sites they've visited, this site was also known to the previous team of U.N. weapons inspectors, namely because, Carol, this was the main center to research the development and production of biological and chemical warfare agents.
Now, it was known to the other team. They had visited it many times. They know that basically in the '80s and in the '90s, this was where they developed things like anthrax, for instance, or the biological agent that causes botulism. They also developed a whole range of chemical warfare agents, namely mustard gas, for instance, and VX.
And so, the previous team of inspectors, Carol, well, they had been there for awhile. They were there mainly between '92 and '94. The site was bombed during the Gulf War in '91, and then when the previous team of inspectors went there, well, they also destroyed a lot of the equipment.
So, we're going to hope to find out more about what's left. The previous UNSCOM team says not everything was unaccounted for -- was accounted for when they left in '98, and we'll hear more on that later -- Carol.
COSTELLO: All right, Rym, I want to read you an e-mail that we got in this morning. And it says: "Why aren't CNN and other news services reporting on how this U.N. inspection team is a joke? This team could not find a nuclear warhead in my living room if I called them and told them to look for it in my home." Are the weapons inspectors aware of this kind of sentiment in the United States?
BRAHIMI: Well, I think they are aware of that. They're probably not too preoccupied, so far from what we've seen, because we have daily briefings -- almost daily briefings with them, Carol, and they're quite keen to explain to us how they go about doing their work. They've told us many times that they are experts in nuclear, biological and chemical fields. They know their stuff. A lot of them are actually also part of the previous U.N. team. They're not all new, Carol.
They're also very keen to tell us that they're going about this maybe in a tough way but a different way than the previous team. They've emphasized that although they want these inspections to be carried out as they should be, according to the new resolution that gives them a lot of powers, well, they also insist on being very cordial and not provocative.
So, maybe that's why they may be perceived by many people as not being as tough or competent in the view of many people as the previous team -- Carol.
COSTELLO: That, and many more reasons. Rym, 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.
