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CNN Live At Daybreak

Focus Shifts to Documents in Weapons Inspections

Aired December 10, 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: Our top story this morning, there is a lot riding on the documents Baghdad has submitted to the United Nations. President Bush has been skeptical that Iraq is being truthful. More than once, Mr. Bush has threatened war. Still, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan says war can be avoided if Saddam Hussein complies with the U.N. mandate.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KOFI ANNAN, U.N. SECRETARY GENERAL: I have maintained that war is not inevitable and it is up to President Saddam Hussein to disarm, to cooperate fully with the inspectors and honor all his obligations to the United Nations. If that were to be done, I would see no reason for war.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: And guess what? You can actually read the opening page of Baghdad's report yourself on the Internet. It's easy. Just click onto our Web site at cnn.com, AOL keyword: CNN. It's all there for you.

The search for weapons of mass destruction does go on in Iraq, as much of the focus shifts to those documents.

Our Nic Robertson is following this story.

He joins us live from Baghdad -- Nic, are you with the weapons inspectors again today?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm in Baghdad today. Weapons inspectors, Carol, have gone to four different sites today, splitting up into four teams. That's something new. Up until now it's been two teams, a reflection, perhaps, that we had more weapons inspectors arrive in over the weekend. We're also expecting more weapons inspectors today.

Now, one team, according to the information ministry here, they believe has gone to al-Kaheem (ph) site. That is a phosphate and uranium ore mine some 400 kilometers from Baghdad, the furthest the team has been away from the city so far, right on the border with Syria, way, way, way out into the west of the country.

A team gone back to the nuclear facility at al-Tuwaitha for the fourth day now, a team gone to the west of Baghdad to an animal vaccine site and a team gone to another site, ibn al-Haifan (ph) in the south side of Baghdad. Again, there believed to be a facility connected with Iraq's former biological warfare program -- Carol.

COSTELLO: So, Nic, here in the United States you would think intelligence officials are poring over that huge document from Iraq. But if the United States can't show a smoking gun, so to speak, to match it to something that's not in the documents, what will be the next step for the United States, do you think?

ROBERTSON: It's very much going to be wait at this time, really waiting to see what the weapons inspectors come up with. One perhaps interesting insight in today's inspections, one of the sites in the south of Baghdad, U.N. officials at the time feeling that Iraq hadn't made full and final and complete declarations, as it had said it had done in 1996 and '97. What they're doing today is going back to follow up. Perhaps they'll be able to match the information they find there today with Iraq's new full and final and complete declaration that is currently being examined by experts.

But really it does seem to be in a period of waiting right now for the United States, for other governments to see what the weapons inspectors come up with. However, the United States has said that it does have information and it will provide it to those weapons inspectors should they not come up with the information themselves.

COSTELLO: And those weapons inspectors are still waiting for that.

Nic Robertson, thanks.

We appreciate it.

Not far from Iraq, U.S. high tech war games in Qatar are in high gear. The Pentagon's Central Command has kicked off exercise Internal Look. The war game simulation will test military command and control communications from the base in the Persian Gulf nation. This is the first time such war games have been held outside the continental United States.

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 - 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: Our top story this morning, there is a lot riding on the documents Baghdad has submitted to the United Nations. President Bush has been skeptical that Iraq is being truthful. More than once, Mr. Bush has threatened war. Still, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan says war can be avoided if Saddam Hussein complies with the U.N. mandate.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KOFI ANNAN, U.N. SECRETARY GENERAL: I have maintained that war is not inevitable and it is up to President Saddam Hussein to disarm, to cooperate fully with the inspectors and honor all his obligations to the United Nations. If that were to be done, I would see no reason for war.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: And guess what? You can actually read the opening page of Baghdad's report yourself on the Internet. It's easy. Just click onto our Web site at cnn.com, AOL keyword: CNN. It's all there for you.

The search for weapons of mass destruction does go on in Iraq, as much of the focus shifts to those documents.

Our Nic Robertson is following this story.

He joins us live from Baghdad -- Nic, are you with the weapons inspectors again today?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm in Baghdad today. Weapons inspectors, Carol, have gone to four different sites today, splitting up into four teams. That's something new. Up until now it's been two teams, a reflection, perhaps, that we had more weapons inspectors arrive in over the weekend. We're also expecting more weapons inspectors today.

Now, one team, according to the information ministry here, they believe has gone to al-Kaheem (ph) site. That is a phosphate and uranium ore mine some 400 kilometers from Baghdad, the furthest the team has been away from the city so far, right on the border with Syria, way, way, way out into the west of the country.

A team gone back to the nuclear facility at al-Tuwaitha for the fourth day now, a team gone to the west of Baghdad to an animal vaccine site and a team gone to another site, ibn al-Haifan (ph) in the south side of Baghdad. Again, there believed to be a facility connected with Iraq's former biological warfare program -- Carol.

COSTELLO: So, Nic, here in the United States you would think intelligence officials are poring over that huge document from Iraq. But if the United States can't show a smoking gun, so to speak, to match it to something that's not in the documents, what will be the next step for the United States, do you think?

ROBERTSON: It's very much going to be wait at this time, really waiting to see what the weapons inspectors come up with. One perhaps interesting insight in today's inspections, one of the sites in the south of Baghdad, U.N. officials at the time feeling that Iraq hadn't made full and final and complete declarations, as it had said it had done in 1996 and '97. What they're doing today is going back to follow up. Perhaps they'll be able to match the information they find there today with Iraq's new full and final and complete declaration that is currently being examined by experts.

But really it does seem to be in a period of waiting right now for the United States, for other governments to see what the weapons inspectors come up with. However, the United States has said that it does have information and it will provide it to those weapons inspectors should they not come up with the information themselves.

COSTELLO: And those weapons inspectors are still waiting for that.

Nic Robertson, thanks.

We appreciate it.

Not far from Iraq, U.S. high tech war games in Qatar are in high gear. The Pentagon's Central Command has kicked off exercise Internal Look. The war game simulation will test military command and control communications from the base in the Persian Gulf nation. This is the first time such war games have been held outside the continental United States.

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