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CNN Live At Daybreak

Missile Mystery, Scuds Aboard Ship

Aired December 11, 2002 - 06:06   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: Want to delve deeper into this missile mystery and get some expert analysis. For that, we turn to our military analyst, Major General Don Shepperd. He joins us today from Doha, Qatar, where the Pentagon's war game exercises are now under way.
Good morning to you.

GEN. DON SHEPPERD (RET.), U.S. AIR FORCE: Hello, Carol.

COSTELLO: This sort of confirms U.S. suspicions that North Korea is a major proliferator of weapons.

SHEPPERD: Yes, indeed. Well, that's no big surprise. We've known that for some time.

Now, this has got us really scratching our heads out here. There's nothing illegal about North Korea selling missiles, and there's nothing illegal about Yemen buying the missiles, if indeed it's Yemen itself that was going to buy them.

The administration is about 99 percent sure they say that it was -- the cargo was headed for Yemen. There's got to be a lot of people complicit in it. Unloading 12 Scuds and then parts for eight others is no small deal. You've got to have a port, you've got to have cranes, you've got to have people to hide them when they come off the ship and transport them wherever you're going to go. So, there almost has to be a state actor.

But it's a little bit funny that Yemen, who is trying to get closer to the West and providing us a great deal of help, would be trading for missile parts with North Korea right now. This is a little bit puzzling, and we've got a lot of ways to go before we figure out the whole story -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Yes, word that we're getting is that the ship was stopped where it was, far enough away from Yemen, so that Yemen can deny it was coming there.

SHEPPERD: Good guess...

COSTELLO: Oh, General Shepperd, I must interrupt you. We're going to go to the news conference now to listen to the Spanish defense minister.

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 11, 2002 - 06:06   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Want to delve deeper into this missile mystery and get some expert analysis. For that, we turn to our military analyst, Major General Don Shepperd. He joins us today from Doha, Qatar, where the Pentagon's war game exercises are now under way.
Good morning to you.

GEN. DON SHEPPERD (RET.), U.S. AIR FORCE: Hello, Carol.

COSTELLO: This sort of confirms U.S. suspicions that North Korea is a major proliferator of weapons.

SHEPPERD: Yes, indeed. Well, that's no big surprise. We've known that for some time.

Now, this has got us really scratching our heads out here. There's nothing illegal about North Korea selling missiles, and there's nothing illegal about Yemen buying the missiles, if indeed it's Yemen itself that was going to buy them.

The administration is about 99 percent sure they say that it was -- the cargo was headed for Yemen. There's got to be a lot of people complicit in it. Unloading 12 Scuds and then parts for eight others is no small deal. You've got to have a port, you've got to have cranes, you've got to have people to hide them when they come off the ship and transport them wherever you're going to go. So, there almost has to be a state actor.

But it's a little bit funny that Yemen, who is trying to get closer to the West and providing us a great deal of help, would be trading for missile parts with North Korea right now. This is a little bit puzzling, and we've got a lot of ways to go before we figure out the whole story -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Yes, word that we're getting is that the ship was stopped where it was, far enough away from Yemen, so that Yemen can deny it was coming there.

SHEPPERD: Good guess...

COSTELLO: Oh, General Shepperd, I must interrupt you. We're going to go to the news conference now to listen to the Spanish defense minister.

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