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CNN Live At Daybreak
Today's International Stories
Aired December 06, 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: Now for a complete look at the international stories we'll be following throughout the day here on CNN, we're joined by senior international editor Eli Flournoy.
Welcome.
ELI FLOURNOY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL EDITOR: Thank you, Carol.
Yes, we are set on a number of big stories today. In particular, as Nic Robertson was reporting earlier, we are expecting tomorrow's declaration of weapons of mass destruction from Iraq. So we're set up in Baghdad, obviously, Nic Robertson, Rym Brahimi there. We're also going to be set up in Vienna, where a copy of the report is going to be taken, and in New York.
COSTELLO: It's such an elaborate process.
FLOURNOY: Yes, it is going to be a big process. We're talking about thousands, it could be as many as 12,000, 13,000 pages in this document. So we're going to have to take a look at it. The officials are going to have to translate. Some of it's going to be in Arabic, we expect, although some will be in English. So the process could take a while to know the details of it.
COSTELLO: Is it unusual that it would be 13,000 pages? That seems excessively long.
FLOURNOY: Well, if you look at the details of what is being required of Iraq, they're having to account for all the chemicals in the country. It's very broad. So there could be a lot of, you know, details for a whole country to list all of that information, so.
COSTELLO: It'll also take everybody a long time to get through that and to decipher what it means, which would give Iraq more time. I guess I'm thinking a little cynically now.
FLOURNOY: Yes, that's true. That's true. There's going to be some interpretation of it and there are going to be a lot of determinations about what course of action, if any, will come following that declaration.
COSTELLO: Got you.
What else do you have on your plate this morning?
FLOURNOY: Well, we are also in Venezuela, where there has been a lot of unrest between opposition to President Hugo Chavez and his supporters. It's really teetering on the brink of violence. Just yesterday, oil output was halted because the oil prices on the New York Mercantile Exchange didn't go up.
COSTELLO: That's right, because the United States gets a lot of its oil from Venezuela.
FLOURNOY: Yes, Venezuela is the fifth largest oil exporter/producer in the world. So it's very, very tense. U.S. officials very concerned about that situation today and we're going to be looking out very anxiously through the rest of today to see if there's a lot of people on the streets concerned about that.
COSTELLO: Got you. Got you.
I know you're busy. We'll let you get back to work.
Thank you, Eli.
FLOURNOY: All right.
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 6, 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: Now for a complete look at the international stories we'll be following throughout the day here on CNN, we're joined by senior international editor Eli Flournoy.
Welcome.
ELI FLOURNOY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL EDITOR: Thank you, Carol.
Yes, we are set on a number of big stories today. In particular, as Nic Robertson was reporting earlier, we are expecting tomorrow's declaration of weapons of mass destruction from Iraq. So we're set up in Baghdad, obviously, Nic Robertson, Rym Brahimi there. We're also going to be set up in Vienna, where a copy of the report is going to be taken, and in New York.
COSTELLO: It's such an elaborate process.
FLOURNOY: Yes, it is going to be a big process. We're talking about thousands, it could be as many as 12,000, 13,000 pages in this document. So we're going to have to take a look at it. The officials are going to have to translate. Some of it's going to be in Arabic, we expect, although some will be in English. So the process could take a while to know the details of it.
COSTELLO: Is it unusual that it would be 13,000 pages? That seems excessively long.
FLOURNOY: Well, if you look at the details of what is being required of Iraq, they're having to account for all the chemicals in the country. It's very broad. So there could be a lot of, you know, details for a whole country to list all of that information, so.
COSTELLO: It'll also take everybody a long time to get through that and to decipher what it means, which would give Iraq more time. I guess I'm thinking a little cynically now.
FLOURNOY: Yes, that's true. That's true. There's going to be some interpretation of it and there are going to be a lot of determinations about what course of action, if any, will come following that declaration.
COSTELLO: Got you.
What else do you have on your plate this morning?
FLOURNOY: Well, we are also in Venezuela, where there has been a lot of unrest between opposition to President Hugo Chavez and his supporters. It's really teetering on the brink of violence. Just yesterday, oil output was halted because the oil prices on the New York Mercantile Exchange didn't go up.
COSTELLO: That's right, because the United States gets a lot of its oil from Venezuela.
FLOURNOY: Yes, Venezuela is the fifth largest oil exporter/producer in the world. So it's very, very tense. U.S. officials very concerned about that situation today and we're going to be looking out very anxiously through the rest of today to see if there's a lot of people on the streets concerned about that.
COSTELLO: Got you. Got you.
I know you're busy. We'll let you get back to work.
Thank you, Eli.
FLOURNOY: All right.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
