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CNN Live Today
Iraq Documents Arrived at U.N. Sunday
Aired December 10, 2002 - 10:01 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.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Baghdad says Washington's acquisition of an early copy of the report is nothing more than a crafty ploy to pave the way for war. '
CNN's Michael Okwu joins us now. He is at the U.N. headquarters in New York. He's got more for us on all of this.
Good morning, Michael.
MICHAEL OKWU, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Leon, good morning to you.
The focus here now as the United Nations experts start their second full of basically deciphering this 12,000-day declaration is on the documents. And in fact, we've been able to get our hands on a table of contents here. It's a document that has essentially been circulating around members of the Security Council. And it really gives people now, I think, a good sense of what the experts might be looking at.
Essentially, it breaks down the declaration by the various disciplines, nuclear, chemical, biological and long-range ballistic missile programs. And the table of contents also indicates that there could be several mentions of suppliers to Iraq, both countries and individuals. One of the sections here reads, foreign and technical assistance, relations with companies, representatives and individuals.
And it also gives a very clear sense of some of the programs that the Iraqi government has been involved in in the past 11, 12 years or so.
One reference here talks about terminated radiation bomb project, or what some people have commonly referred to as a dirty bomb. This is nothing new. The United Nations has known for years that the Iraqi government had been involved in trying to develop a dirty bomb back in the late '80s when they were having conflicts with their neighboring Iran.
But it gives experts a very good sense and journalists here a very good sense of what they might be looking at and what they might be sifting through in this document.
In the meantime, the United States and the other permanent five members of the Security Council have now secured unsanitized, unedited versions of the document. We know that the Security Council will be meeting at about 1:15 this afternoon at a regularly scheduled luncheon with the secretary general here, and with the chief weapons inspectors, Hans Blix. They hope to get a better sense as to what the process is, how long the translation will take.
HARRIS: Thanks, Michael. Michael Okwu, reporting live for us from the U.N. here.
Folks, if you want to see that document that Michael just had in his hands there, the table of contents, you can actually read these opening pages of Baghdad's report translated into English, if you click on our Web site, cnn.com, AOL keyword "CNN."
Now, there's been a change on the gameplan on the ground in Iraq by the weapons inspectors. Four inspection teams have fanned out now across Iraq today. Now that is twice the normal number of inspectors who are usually snooping around. And that marks a dramatic expansion of the searches.
Let's go to Baghdad now. We find our CNN senior international correspondent Nic Robertson there now live. ' Hello, Nic.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Leon.
That's right, the teams are really expanding their role and capacity here. We've just seen in the last hour or so, even more inspectors arriving to Baghdad; several dozen flew into the airport here. Those teams, as you say,k fanning out across the country. The team going farthest today, some 250 miles, right across the western Iraqi desert, almost to the border with Syria to Akashaf (ph). That is a former uranium mine facility back in the 1980s. Back in the 1980s, Iraq was mining uranium ore there, turning it into processed uranium. yellow cake product. That site heavily bombed in '91, and it was pretty much put out of commission.
Now, perhaps the closest visit to Baghdad by another team to the Ibin Al Hytham (ph) site. This us a civilian industrial electrical engineering site, we're told. Here, they produce air conditioning, they produce generators. But perhaps the most important thing for the inspectors there, some of the precision engineering equipment, Leon. That is the type of equipment that inspectors think can be put to dual use, can be taken out of civilian context and used because of its high precision and accuracy in the military environment.
Also, today on television here in Iraq, President Saddam Hussein appearing with his two sons, Hussei (ph) and Uday. Also with him the head of Iraq;s military industrial corporation. That is the group here who sites very often visited by the U.N. weapons inspectors. The head of the commission saying that his employees would be a thorn in the eyes of all aggressors against Iraq. President Saddam Hussein and television report said to be praising the work of all the employees, to thwart the efforts of aggressors against Iraq -- Leon.
HARRIS: Well, Nic, as you know here, back stateside, the focus right now continues to be on this 12,000-page document that's now being disseminated by the U.N. to the other permanent members of the Security Council, and then later to the rest of the Security Council.
Is there any talk at all or any concerns back there in Baghdad about the process as it's underway today stateside?
ROBERTSON: Sharp criticism this afternoon, a statement from the Foreign Ministry, saying the fact the United States had acquired this unedited copy, calling it historic blackmail at the U.N., saying that it violated the U.N. mandate and charter, and saying this was entirely a pretext to manipulate Iraq's declaration to be used in an aggressive way against Iraq. So very sharp criticism of United States acquisition of the declaration -- Leon.
HARRIS: And therefore, no surprise. Nic Robertson, in the evening hours there in Baghdad.
Thanks, Nic. We'll see you soon.
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 - 10:01 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Baghdad says Washington's acquisition of an early copy of the report is nothing more than a crafty ploy to pave the way for war. '
CNN's Michael Okwu joins us now. He is at the U.N. headquarters in New York. He's got more for us on all of this.
Good morning, Michael.
MICHAEL OKWU, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Leon, good morning to you.
The focus here now as the United Nations experts start their second full of basically deciphering this 12,000-day declaration is on the documents. And in fact, we've been able to get our hands on a table of contents here. It's a document that has essentially been circulating around members of the Security Council. And it really gives people now, I think, a good sense of what the experts might be looking at.
Essentially, it breaks down the declaration by the various disciplines, nuclear, chemical, biological and long-range ballistic missile programs. And the table of contents also indicates that there could be several mentions of suppliers to Iraq, both countries and individuals. One of the sections here reads, foreign and technical assistance, relations with companies, representatives and individuals.
And it also gives a very clear sense of some of the programs that the Iraqi government has been involved in in the past 11, 12 years or so.
One reference here talks about terminated radiation bomb project, or what some people have commonly referred to as a dirty bomb. This is nothing new. The United Nations has known for years that the Iraqi government had been involved in trying to develop a dirty bomb back in the late '80s when they were having conflicts with their neighboring Iran.
But it gives experts a very good sense and journalists here a very good sense of what they might be looking at and what they might be sifting through in this document.
In the meantime, the United States and the other permanent five members of the Security Council have now secured unsanitized, unedited versions of the document. We know that the Security Council will be meeting at about 1:15 this afternoon at a regularly scheduled luncheon with the secretary general here, and with the chief weapons inspectors, Hans Blix. They hope to get a better sense as to what the process is, how long the translation will take.
HARRIS: Thanks, Michael. Michael Okwu, reporting live for us from the U.N. here.
Folks, if you want to see that document that Michael just had in his hands there, the table of contents, you can actually read these opening pages of Baghdad's report translated into English, if you click on our Web site, cnn.com, AOL keyword "CNN."
Now, there's been a change on the gameplan on the ground in Iraq by the weapons inspectors. Four inspection teams have fanned out now across Iraq today. Now that is twice the normal number of inspectors who are usually snooping around. And that marks a dramatic expansion of the searches.
Let's go to Baghdad now. We find our CNN senior international correspondent Nic Robertson there now live. ' Hello, Nic.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Leon.
That's right, the teams are really expanding their role and capacity here. We've just seen in the last hour or so, even more inspectors arriving to Baghdad; several dozen flew into the airport here. Those teams, as you say,k fanning out across the country. The team going farthest today, some 250 miles, right across the western Iraqi desert, almost to the border with Syria to Akashaf (ph). That is a former uranium mine facility back in the 1980s. Back in the 1980s, Iraq was mining uranium ore there, turning it into processed uranium. yellow cake product. That site heavily bombed in '91, and it was pretty much put out of commission.
Now, perhaps the closest visit to Baghdad by another team to the Ibin Al Hytham (ph) site. This us a civilian industrial electrical engineering site, we're told. Here, they produce air conditioning, they produce generators. But perhaps the most important thing for the inspectors there, some of the precision engineering equipment, Leon. That is the type of equipment that inspectors think can be put to dual use, can be taken out of civilian context and used because of its high precision and accuracy in the military environment.
Also, today on television here in Iraq, President Saddam Hussein appearing with his two sons, Hussei (ph) and Uday. Also with him the head of Iraq;s military industrial corporation. That is the group here who sites very often visited by the U.N. weapons inspectors. The head of the commission saying that his employees would be a thorn in the eyes of all aggressors against Iraq. President Saddam Hussein and television report said to be praising the work of all the employees, to thwart the efforts of aggressors against Iraq -- Leon.
HARRIS: Well, Nic, as you know here, back stateside, the focus right now continues to be on this 12,000-page document that's now being disseminated by the U.N. to the other permanent members of the Security Council, and then later to the rest of the Security Council.
Is there any talk at all or any concerns back there in Baghdad about the process as it's underway today stateside?
ROBERTSON: Sharp criticism this afternoon, a statement from the Foreign Ministry, saying the fact the United States had acquired this unedited copy, calling it historic blackmail at the U.N., saying that it violated the U.N. mandate and charter, and saying this was entirely a pretext to manipulate Iraq's declaration to be used in an aggressive way against Iraq. So very sharp criticism of United States acquisition of the declaration -- Leon.
HARRIS: And therefore, no surprise. Nic Robertson, in the evening hours there in Baghdad.
Thanks, Nic. We'll see you soon.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
