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CNN Live At Daybreak
Handover of Iraq's Declaration
Aired December 06, 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: The first step will be taken tomorrow in getting Iraq's official answer about weapons of mass destruction.
CNN's Nic Robertson is live in Baghdad with a look at this lengthy process.
It is quite complicated -- Nic.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Very complicated, Carol. We're beginning to get some indications, however, from Iraqi officials that we may get access here to seeing this document handed over. Now, up until now, Iraqi officials have been very keen to really give the media here a lot of exposure to the whole weapons inspection process, and that appears as if that's what's going to happen on Saturday here.
Now, General Hasam Amin, the head of Iraq's National Monitoring Directorate, the U.N. inspectors counterpart here, the man in charge of the Iraqi side of the inspections, is likely to hand over this document to a courier from the United Nations. This person will hand- carry the document from Baghdad to U.N. headquarters in New York.
Now, a senior Iraqi official today told us that he thought this document could be 4,000 pages long -- that's the declaration part of Iraq's declaration of weapons of mass destruction -- accompanied by another 7,000 to 8,000 pages of supporting documents. It's likely to be a mixture of Arabic and English. There's likely to be much of it on paper; some of it may be on CD-ROM.
Now, when the document gets to New York, we know that the U.N. analysts there have a million-page database that they plan to compare this document from Iraq with and see how it stands up against that. We know as well, the same declaration is going to go to Vienna to the International Atomic Energy Agency there. At the U.N. Security Council, the member governments there will also get a copy of this declaration. So, everyone will be able to look at it.
But, Carol, everyone is telling us it's going to take a long time to sift through it, to find out what the nuggets are in it -- Carol.
COSTELLO: You're not kidding, Nic. And when will United States officials get to look at that document?
ROBERTSON: The specific timing, we're not aware of here, but we know that once it gets to the U.N. -- and it is expected to arrive at the headquarters in New York there on Sunday -- that it will be up to the secretary-general, Kofi Annan, to distribute it out to the members of the Security Council. Of course, the United States is a very key and permanent member there, so they will likely be very much on the top of Kofi Annan's list to hand it out to. But the timing, not yet clear on that specifically.
COSTELLO: Only that it will take weeks to go through that lengthy document. Nic Robertson, 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 6, 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: The first step will be taken tomorrow in getting Iraq's official answer about weapons of mass destruction.
CNN's Nic Robertson is live in Baghdad with a look at this lengthy process.
It is quite complicated -- Nic.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Very complicated, Carol. We're beginning to get some indications, however, from Iraqi officials that we may get access here to seeing this document handed over. Now, up until now, Iraqi officials have been very keen to really give the media here a lot of exposure to the whole weapons inspection process, and that appears as if that's what's going to happen on Saturday here.
Now, General Hasam Amin, the head of Iraq's National Monitoring Directorate, the U.N. inspectors counterpart here, the man in charge of the Iraqi side of the inspections, is likely to hand over this document to a courier from the United Nations. This person will hand- carry the document from Baghdad to U.N. headquarters in New York.
Now, a senior Iraqi official today told us that he thought this document could be 4,000 pages long -- that's the declaration part of Iraq's declaration of weapons of mass destruction -- accompanied by another 7,000 to 8,000 pages of supporting documents. It's likely to be a mixture of Arabic and English. There's likely to be much of it on paper; some of it may be on CD-ROM.
Now, when the document gets to New York, we know that the U.N. analysts there have a million-page database that they plan to compare this document from Iraq with and see how it stands up against that. We know as well, the same declaration is going to go to Vienna to the International Atomic Energy Agency there. At the U.N. Security Council, the member governments there will also get a copy of this declaration. So, everyone will be able to look at it.
But, Carol, everyone is telling us it's going to take a long time to sift through it, to find out what the nuggets are in it -- Carol.
COSTELLO: You're not kidding, Nic. And when will United States officials get to look at that document?
ROBERTSON: The specific timing, we're not aware of here, but we know that once it gets to the U.N. -- and it is expected to arrive at the headquarters in New York there on Sunday -- that it will be up to the secretary-general, Kofi Annan, to distribute it out to the members of the Security Council. Of course, the United States is a very key and permanent member there, so they will likely be very much on the top of Kofi Annan's list to hand it out to. But the timing, not yet clear on that specifically.
COSTELLO: Only that it will take weeks to go through that lengthy document. Nic Robertson, 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.
