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CNN Live At Daybreak

U.N. Experts Begin Full Day of Report Analysis

Aired December 09, 2002 - 05:02   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: And let's get back to Iraq's weapons declaration. This morning, United Nations experts begin their first full day of analysis. The document arrived at the United Nations last night. Unedited copies of it will be given to the United States and other permanent members of the U.N. Security Council.
The Iraqi declaration is 12,000 pages long and is accompanied by 12 computer disks. The voluminous dossier is written in both English and Arabic, so analysis is expected to take some time. Now, experts at the International Atomic Energy Agency in Austria will scrutinize the nuclear parts of the declaration. The chemical, biological and missile components are being analyzed at the United Nations.

And that's where our Michael Okwu brings us up to speed.

MICHAEL OKWU, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Diplomatic sources tell me the five permanent members of the Security Council will be receiving unedited copies of the Iraqi declaration. After the documents arrived here at the United Nations headquarters in New York, CNN learned the P5 were to receive copies potentially within hours. Last week, Chief Weapons Inspector Hans Blix had indicated he would review the document and edit out sensitive portions dealing with the making of weapons of mass destruction before distributing it to the Council. That appears to have changed.

The president of the Security Council, Colombian Ambassador Alfonso Valdivieso, issued this statement after meeting with Blix. "After consulting with the members of the Security Council, the presidency decided to allow access to the Iraqi declaration to those members with the expertise to assess the risks of proliferation and other sensitive information to begin its immediate review."

The first known meeting between Blix and the entire Security Council, including the non-permanent members, will be on Tuesday at a regularly scheduled luncheon with Secretary General Kofi Annan.

Michael Okwu, CNN, at the United Nations.

COSTELLO: Of course, the White House is not convinced that Saddam Hussein no longer has weapons of mass destruction. Many law makers say President Bush will have to release intelligence information to prove that.

As our White House correspondent Suzanne Malveaux reports, Iraq is also pressing the U.S. to put up or shut up.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, with the arrival of the document, the credibility of the White House is on the line. Iraq declares that it has no weapons of mass destruction and it is daring President Bush to prove otherwise.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We hope that it will satisfy, because it is currently accurate, as they have asked for, and comprehensive, truthful, everything. If they have anything to the contrary, let them forthwith come up with it, give it to the IAEA, give it to UNMOVIC. They are here. They could check it. Why play this game?

MALVEAUX (voice-over): A possible war game now just an escalating war of words. President Bush, returning from Camp David, did not directly respond to the arrival of the Iraqi document, but U.S. intelligence officials say they have clear evidence that Saddam Hussein has an extensive weapons program, even proof in recent months that Iraqi scientists have been taking measures to conceal biological and chemical facilities. That's why the White House and members of Congress are skeptical that the document tells the truth.

SEN. JOSEPH LIEBERMAN (D), CONNECTICUT: It would be a great surprise if the 12,000 pages they filed yesterday did not amount to one 12,000 page, hundred pound lie.

SEN. THOMAS DASCHLE (D-SD), SENATE MAJORITY LEADER: If we can find defectors, if we can find people who are willing to tell the inside story, it may be our single best way with which to extract the truth.

MALVEAUX (on camera): Getting to the truth, White House aides say, will take time, weeks to analyze the Iraqi declaration, also weeks for weapons inspectors to continue their search. But White House officials also saying there is a time limit before the U.S. decides whether or not to force Saddam Hussein to disarm, with or without the approval of the U.N. Security Council.

Suzanne Malveaux, CNN, the White House.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: And about two and a half hours from now, Richard Butler, the former U.N. chief weapons inspector, will be the guest on AMERICAN MORNING.

Back now in Baghdad, inspectors are going about their search for weapons of mass destruction.

Our Nic Robertson joins us live from northwest of the Iraqi capital -- and, Nic, there are more inspectors on the ground now, so have the inspections intensified?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Not yet. So far what we've seen today, the original inspections teams, there are two of them, going out to do their work. We followed the first team that went out this morning. They're about 40 miles northwest of Baghdad at a military-industrial complex called Faluga (ph). Now, looking around this site, and we've had a pretty good view of it today, there's a huge sand berm all the way down one site, much of it appearing to be destroyed or damaged either during the Gulf War or the bombing in 1998.

But the other part of it's still functioning, some kind of chemical/industrial facility. We've seen the weapons inspectors in brown protective suits going through the equipment and they were looking through some, what appear to be huge, rusting fermentation type vessels or large chemical industry vessels lying around in the desert sand outside. They appear to be checking them against lists that they had in their hands.

So far they've been on site three and a half hours. Very difficult to know exactly what they're looking for. Normally we get a briefing late in the evening, an update on exactly what they've done in the day. But there are, as you say, more inspectors in country and they are expected to go out soon. Another 25 arrived in yesterday. Another 20 or 30 expected tomorrow.

COSTELLO: And, Nic, I should mention that you're with the inspectors right now. But when all of the inspectors start working there, that will make the United Nations and the United States pretty happy because that means there will be more of a surprise element as to the inspections and more inspections can go on at the same time.

ROBERTSON: Absolutely. We're told -- there are two teams currently working each day here now. We're told almost within a week there will probably be eight teams working on any given day. They've already unloaded their first helicopter here. That's been put together over the weekend. It was shipped in on an aircraft. It's having rotor blades fixed to it. And that's only one of a fleet of eight helicopters.

The U.N. also wants to open offices in the north of Iraq and the south. Once they have those up and running, then they should be able to do more inspections, cover more of the country, have more of a surprise element and essentially get more ground covered much more quickly.

COSTELLO: Understand.

OK, that was Nic Robertson from Baghdad.

Let's travel to Qatar right now. U.S. troops are playing deadly serious war games there. The exercise is called Operation Internal Look and it will last up to 10 days. It's testing the military's command and control communications system. Now, the idea is to discover and fix any problems before a possible war with Iraq.

For more on Iraq, including the latest on how its nuclear declaration breaks down, log onto our Web site at cnn.com.

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 9, 2002 - 05:02   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And let's get back to Iraq's weapons declaration. This morning, United Nations experts begin their first full day of analysis. The document arrived at the United Nations last night. Unedited copies of it will be given to the United States and other permanent members of the U.N. Security Council.
The Iraqi declaration is 12,000 pages long and is accompanied by 12 computer disks. The voluminous dossier is written in both English and Arabic, so analysis is expected to take some time. Now, experts at the International Atomic Energy Agency in Austria will scrutinize the nuclear parts of the declaration. The chemical, biological and missile components are being analyzed at the United Nations.

And that's where our Michael Okwu brings us up to speed.

MICHAEL OKWU, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Diplomatic sources tell me the five permanent members of the Security Council will be receiving unedited copies of the Iraqi declaration. After the documents arrived here at the United Nations headquarters in New York, CNN learned the P5 were to receive copies potentially within hours. Last week, Chief Weapons Inspector Hans Blix had indicated he would review the document and edit out sensitive portions dealing with the making of weapons of mass destruction before distributing it to the Council. That appears to have changed.

The president of the Security Council, Colombian Ambassador Alfonso Valdivieso, issued this statement after meeting with Blix. "After consulting with the members of the Security Council, the presidency decided to allow access to the Iraqi declaration to those members with the expertise to assess the risks of proliferation and other sensitive information to begin its immediate review."

The first known meeting between Blix and the entire Security Council, including the non-permanent members, will be on Tuesday at a regularly scheduled luncheon with Secretary General Kofi Annan.

Michael Okwu, CNN, at the United Nations.

COSTELLO: Of course, the White House is not convinced that Saddam Hussein no longer has weapons of mass destruction. Many law makers say President Bush will have to release intelligence information to prove that.

As our White House correspondent Suzanne Malveaux reports, Iraq is also pressing the U.S. to put up or shut up.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, with the arrival of the document, the credibility of the White House is on the line. Iraq declares that it has no weapons of mass destruction and it is daring President Bush to prove otherwise.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We hope that it will satisfy, because it is currently accurate, as they have asked for, and comprehensive, truthful, everything. If they have anything to the contrary, let them forthwith come up with it, give it to the IAEA, give it to UNMOVIC. They are here. They could check it. Why play this game?

MALVEAUX (voice-over): A possible war game now just an escalating war of words. President Bush, returning from Camp David, did not directly respond to the arrival of the Iraqi document, but U.S. intelligence officials say they have clear evidence that Saddam Hussein has an extensive weapons program, even proof in recent months that Iraqi scientists have been taking measures to conceal biological and chemical facilities. That's why the White House and members of Congress are skeptical that the document tells the truth.

SEN. JOSEPH LIEBERMAN (D), CONNECTICUT: It would be a great surprise if the 12,000 pages they filed yesterday did not amount to one 12,000 page, hundred pound lie.

SEN. THOMAS DASCHLE (D-SD), SENATE MAJORITY LEADER: If we can find defectors, if we can find people who are willing to tell the inside story, it may be our single best way with which to extract the truth.

MALVEAUX (on camera): Getting to the truth, White House aides say, will take time, weeks to analyze the Iraqi declaration, also weeks for weapons inspectors to continue their search. But White House officials also saying there is a time limit before the U.S. decides whether or not to force Saddam Hussein to disarm, with or without the approval of the U.N. Security Council.

Suzanne Malveaux, CNN, the White House.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: And about two and a half hours from now, Richard Butler, the former U.N. chief weapons inspector, will be the guest on AMERICAN MORNING.

Back now in Baghdad, inspectors are going about their search for weapons of mass destruction.

Our Nic Robertson joins us live from northwest of the Iraqi capital -- and, Nic, there are more inspectors on the ground now, so have the inspections intensified?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Not yet. So far what we've seen today, the original inspections teams, there are two of them, going out to do their work. We followed the first team that went out this morning. They're about 40 miles northwest of Baghdad at a military-industrial complex called Faluga (ph). Now, looking around this site, and we've had a pretty good view of it today, there's a huge sand berm all the way down one site, much of it appearing to be destroyed or damaged either during the Gulf War or the bombing in 1998.

But the other part of it's still functioning, some kind of chemical/industrial facility. We've seen the weapons inspectors in brown protective suits going through the equipment and they were looking through some, what appear to be huge, rusting fermentation type vessels or large chemical industry vessels lying around in the desert sand outside. They appear to be checking them against lists that they had in their hands.

So far they've been on site three and a half hours. Very difficult to know exactly what they're looking for. Normally we get a briefing late in the evening, an update on exactly what they've done in the day. But there are, as you say, more inspectors in country and they are expected to go out soon. Another 25 arrived in yesterday. Another 20 or 30 expected tomorrow.

COSTELLO: And, Nic, I should mention that you're with the inspectors right now. But when all of the inspectors start working there, that will make the United Nations and the United States pretty happy because that means there will be more of a surprise element as to the inspections and more inspections can go on at the same time.

ROBERTSON: Absolutely. We're told -- there are two teams currently working each day here now. We're told almost within a week there will probably be eight teams working on any given day. They've already unloaded their first helicopter here. That's been put together over the weekend. It was shipped in on an aircraft. It's having rotor blades fixed to it. And that's only one of a fleet of eight helicopters.

The U.N. also wants to open offices in the north of Iraq and the south. Once they have those up and running, then they should be able to do more inspections, cover more of the country, have more of a surprise element and essentially get more ground covered much more quickly.

COSTELLO: Understand.

OK, that was Nic Robertson from Baghdad.

Let's travel to Qatar right now. U.S. troops are playing deadly serious war games there. The exercise is called Operation Internal Look and it will last up to 10 days. It's testing the military's command and control communications system. Now, the idea is to discover and fix any problems before a possible war with Iraq.

For more on Iraq, including the latest on how its nuclear declaration breaks down, log onto our Web site at cnn.com.

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