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CNN Live At Daybreak

Search Goes on in Iraq

Aired December 09, 2002 - 06:05   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: While U.N. experts in New York are pouring over Saddam Hussein's declaration of his weapons programs, inspectors in Iraq continue their high-stakes hunt for prohibited weapons and material. Today's inspection site is northwest of Baghdad.
Our Rym Brahimi joins us live from the Iraqi capital with the latest.

Rym -- bring us up-to-date.

RYM BRAHIMI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Carol, you know that the inspectors received some reinforcements yesterday. About 25 more inspectors arrived at Saddam International Airport. Well, some of them are already out in the field today with the inspectors that have been going on about their daily routine, going about various sites.

Now, the inspectors split into two teams again. The nuclear team went to a site south of Baghdad, a site they've already visited twice before, and that was already visited by previous U.N. inspection teams until 1998.

The other team, the experts in the chemical and biological field, they went to a site about 40 miles or some 60 kilometers north of Baghdad -- northwest of Baghdad really. Now, that site is believed to be one of those that may have supported in the past Iraq's chemical weapons program.

We spoke to our senior correspondent, Nic Robertson. He described it as a chemical processing plant. He said it looked like it had been bombed at some stage, and he said he saw some inspectors in there that were wearing protective clothing.

Now, while these inspections have been going on, the Iraqi newspapers here have been saying that if the inspectors were allowed to do their work properly, they would be able to prove to the world that Iraq has nothing to hide, no weapons of mass destruction.

And, Carol, they're not the only ones. There's a group of protesters here, American citizens who are here in Baghdad protesting U.S. policy with regard to Iraq. Now, about a dozen of them were at the offices of the United Nations Development Program this morning. They were protesting many things -- the sanctions, saying that the United States was using the United Nations to, in effect, strangle this country.

They were also saying that it's important that the inspectors be allowed to do their work before jumping to any conclusions, and they're offering to actually be used as human shields. What they want to do is actually stay here. They're living quite right now with some Iraqi families, and what they want to do, Carol, is they say if there is a war, if the U.S. does attack Iraq, well, we will stay by the Iraqi people -- Carol.

COSTELLO: So, Rym, this is probably quite shocking to some of our viewers. There are actual American citizens there offering to be human shields. Who let them into the country, because it's not easy to get into Iraq, is it?

BRAHIMI: Well, they got visas. They applied for visas, and they received visas. Some of them are part of a group that's well-known by now here in Iraq, to Iraqi authorities, called Voices in the Wilderness. They make the point, though, Carol, that they are really, really here to support the Iraqi people.

They make a distinction between the people and the leadership here, and they really make a point that they're here to support the Iraqi people, because they say, they believe that Iraq -- that U.S. foreign policy with regard to Iraq is extremely unfair. They think that the United States should not attack Iraq, that the Iraqi people should be given a chance to live, and this is why, they say, they want to act as human shields -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Understand. Rym Brahimi, 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 9, 2002 - 06:05   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: While U.N. experts in New York are pouring over Saddam Hussein's declaration of his weapons programs, inspectors in Iraq continue their high-stakes hunt for prohibited weapons and material. Today's inspection site is northwest of Baghdad.
Our Rym Brahimi joins us live from the Iraqi capital with the latest.

Rym -- bring us up-to-date.

RYM BRAHIMI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Carol, you know that the inspectors received some reinforcements yesterday. About 25 more inspectors arrived at Saddam International Airport. Well, some of them are already out in the field today with the inspectors that have been going on about their daily routine, going about various sites.

Now, the inspectors split into two teams again. The nuclear team went to a site south of Baghdad, a site they've already visited twice before, and that was already visited by previous U.N. inspection teams until 1998.

The other team, the experts in the chemical and biological field, they went to a site about 40 miles or some 60 kilometers north of Baghdad -- northwest of Baghdad really. Now, that site is believed to be one of those that may have supported in the past Iraq's chemical weapons program.

We spoke to our senior correspondent, Nic Robertson. He described it as a chemical processing plant. He said it looked like it had been bombed at some stage, and he said he saw some inspectors in there that were wearing protective clothing.

Now, while these inspections have been going on, the Iraqi newspapers here have been saying that if the inspectors were allowed to do their work properly, they would be able to prove to the world that Iraq has nothing to hide, no weapons of mass destruction.

And, Carol, they're not the only ones. There's a group of protesters here, American citizens who are here in Baghdad protesting U.S. policy with regard to Iraq. Now, about a dozen of them were at the offices of the United Nations Development Program this morning. They were protesting many things -- the sanctions, saying that the United States was using the United Nations to, in effect, strangle this country.

They were also saying that it's important that the inspectors be allowed to do their work before jumping to any conclusions, and they're offering to actually be used as human shields. What they want to do is actually stay here. They're living quite right now with some Iraqi families, and what they want to do, Carol, is they say if there is a war, if the U.S. does attack Iraq, well, we will stay by the Iraqi people -- Carol.

COSTELLO: So, Rym, this is probably quite shocking to some of our viewers. There are actual American citizens there offering to be human shields. Who let them into the country, because it's not easy to get into Iraq, is it?

BRAHIMI: Well, they got visas. They applied for visas, and they received visas. Some of them are part of a group that's well-known by now here in Iraq, to Iraqi authorities, called Voices in the Wilderness. They make the point, though, Carol, that they are really, really here to support the Iraqi people.

They make a distinction between the people and the leadership here, and they really make a point that they're here to support the Iraqi people, because they say, they believe that Iraq -- that U.S. foreign policy with regard to Iraq is extremely unfair. They think that the United States should not attack Iraq, that the Iraqi people should be given a chance to live, and this is why, they say, they want to act as human shields -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Understand. Rym Brahimi, 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.