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CNN Live At Daybreak
Weapons Inspectors Covering Old Ground in Iraq
Aired December 10, 2002 - 06:03 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: Some former nuclear and chemical sites are getting lots of attention from U.N. weapons inspectors in Iraq. Four teams are out today.
Let's get more on that and Iraq's weapons report. Nic Robertson is live in Baghdad.
So, four teams are out right now. Where are they?
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Carol. That's something new here. Up until now, only two teams each day, a sign perhaps that the new weapons inspectors that came in over the weekend are getting to work.
Now, one team, a team of nuclear experts, has gone to al- Tuwaitha. That is a site on the south side of Baghdad. It was really the forefront of the atomic research that was going on in Iraq in the 1980s, early 1990s. It is a site that has over 100 buildings. There are many scientists there, and that is why those U.N. experts say they have to keep going back there to talk to all of the scientists to find out what is happening in all the different areas of that facility.
Now, another team going to Ibbin al-Hathem (ph), a site about 24 minutes south of Baghdad, another team going about 40 kilometers west of Baghdad, Abu Grab (ph), a former animal vaccine site there.
One team of inspectors has made a huge journey today, a five-and- a-half hour drive across the western Iraqi desert all the way to the border with Syria. Akashat (ph) is the name of the site that they've gone to there, a former phosphate and uranium ore mine. Now that team is likely not to get back to Baghdad until very, very late today.
Also, Carol, expecting more inspectors to land in Baghdad today, really seeing an increase in the pace of work by those teams here.
COSTELLO: And of course, one of the reasons so many teams are out, Nic, is that it's harder for Iraqi officials to keep track of them. Are they keeping track of the four teams out today?
ROBERTSON: Very much. They deploy every day a group from the Iraqi National Monitoring Directorate. They're always sitting outside the U.N. compound in jeeps, always ready to greet and then follow on with the weapons inspectors. There have seemed, so far, to be plenty enough of them.
An interesting comment in one of the newspapers here from the head of that Iraqi monitoring team, General Hasam Amin, saying, that so far, he considered the inspectors were carrying out their duties professionally and in a calm manner -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Interesting. 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 10, 2002 - 06:03 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Some former nuclear and chemical sites are getting lots of attention from U.N. weapons inspectors in Iraq. Four teams are out today.
Let's get more on that and Iraq's weapons report. Nic Robertson is live in Baghdad.
So, four teams are out right now. Where are they?
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Carol. That's something new here. Up until now, only two teams each day, a sign perhaps that the new weapons inspectors that came in over the weekend are getting to work.
Now, one team, a team of nuclear experts, has gone to al- Tuwaitha. That is a site on the south side of Baghdad. It was really the forefront of the atomic research that was going on in Iraq in the 1980s, early 1990s. It is a site that has over 100 buildings. There are many scientists there, and that is why those U.N. experts say they have to keep going back there to talk to all of the scientists to find out what is happening in all the different areas of that facility.
Now, another team going to Ibbin al-Hathem (ph), a site about 24 minutes south of Baghdad, another team going about 40 kilometers west of Baghdad, Abu Grab (ph), a former animal vaccine site there.
One team of inspectors has made a huge journey today, a five-and- a-half hour drive across the western Iraqi desert all the way to the border with Syria. Akashat (ph) is the name of the site that they've gone to there, a former phosphate and uranium ore mine. Now that team is likely not to get back to Baghdad until very, very late today.
Also, Carol, expecting more inspectors to land in Baghdad today, really seeing an increase in the pace of work by those teams here.
COSTELLO: And of course, one of the reasons so many teams are out, Nic, is that it's harder for Iraqi officials to keep track of them. Are they keeping track of the four teams out today?
ROBERTSON: Very much. They deploy every day a group from the Iraqi National Monitoring Directorate. They're always sitting outside the U.N. compound in jeeps, always ready to greet and then follow on with the weapons inspectors. There have seemed, so far, to be plenty enough of them.
An interesting comment in one of the newspapers here from the head of that Iraqi monitoring team, General Hasam Amin, saying, that so far, he considered the inspectors were carrying out their duties professionally and in a calm manner -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Interesting. 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.
