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White House Processing Report, Skeptical of Iraq's Compliance
Aired December 13, 2002 - 11:01 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: U.N. Security Council members are starting to digest that massive, almost 12,000-page Iraqi weapons report that was submitted to them, and the U.S., at least, is saying that it is a dish that Iraq has served up before, and a skimpy serving at that.
Bush administration officials say that the document falls far short of what intelligence shows Iraq has and is doing. Now we're watching developments from Washington all the way to Baghdad.
CNN Senior White House Correspondent John King is with us as well as CNN Senior International Correspondent, Nic Robertson.
Let's get right to it with John King at his post at the White House -- John.
JOHN KING, CNN SR. WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Leon, from the podium at the White House this morning, Ari Fleischer, the press secretary, said he would have nothing to say, that the United States did not have a final analysis of the Iraqi document yet, and that he would not speak to any preliminary analysis, but CNN was told by several administration officials that the United States will report to the United Nations inspectors today, Hans Blix and his deputies, that its preliminary review finds that the Iraqi document comes up, in the words of one senior official, "far, far, far, far short" of what it believes Iraq was supposed to report to the United Nations.
This official says there is not enough information in there, in some cases, no information, as to whether Iraq kept its agreements to destroy mustard gas shells and other chemical and biological weapons it has previously acknowledged having in its arsenal. The United States also says there is not nearly enough information to assess any developments in Iraq's nuclear program since 1991.
U.S. officials say Iraq has been busy in that regard. Iraq, of course, denies it has had any activity in nuclear weapons in quite some time.
The United States also, we are told, is not about to say Iraq is in material breech for push for an immediate military confrontation. The strategy right now, we are told, is to urge the United Nations to get more inspectors in on the ground, be more aggressive in waging those inspections.
Now, it could take, we are told, another week perhaps even two weeks for the United States to come to a complete analysis of the 12,000 pages, the CD-ROMs that Iraq filed with the United Nations. U.S. officials, though, say their early analysis is that Iraq did not meet the test, that this is not a full and complete and accurate report to the United Nations. That will put some pressure on Mr. Bush, if that is the final analysis, because, of course, he said this was Mr. Saddam Hussein's one test, one chance to come clean, and remember, the president has said he would have zero tolerance if Iraq did not meet that test -- Leon.
HARRIS: Good deal. Thank you very much, John. John King at the White House. Now, let's move over to Baghdad where CNN's Nic Robertson is monitoring the ongoing weapons inspections -- Nic, what's the latest?
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Leon, an inspection today running into perhaps the first of the hitches of any of the inspections here. This is the first Friday, and the inspectors have been here for three Fridays now -- the first Friday, the U.N. weapons inspectors have carried out inspections. It is a Muslim holy day, and it is a day many Iraqis are off work. What happened today is one team went to a disease control center in Baghdad. They've been working there for several hours, and then they found they couldn't get into some of the rooms in the building.
Now they were told that was because some of the staff in the building were off, that they had the keys with them at home. Therefore, no one was able to let them in. What happened? The United Nations called on Iraq's top interlocutor with them, General Hossam Amin from Iraq's national monitoring directorate. They called him on their hotline. He came right over to the disease control center, went in, dealt with the U.N. inspectors there and the Iraqi officials on site. Within five or ten minutes, he came out, along with another U.N. official, telling us the situation had been resolved, that it was merely a new site. They wanted to get the procedures right at the new site, and that it was a tagging issue.
Now, normally, tagging refers to the pieces of equipment that the U.N. feels can be used not only for civilian applications, but also for military applications. The bottom line today is that the U.N. and Iraqi officials say there is no problem. The headline is that this is the first time the U.N. has failed to get entry into a premises that it wanted to get entry into, or at least a room, and it is the first time the U.N. has had to use its hotline to help Iraqi officials diffuse a situation on the ground -- Leon.
HARRIS: All right, Nic. So what do we know about the way that the plan is unfolding for more inspections over the weekend, or if more inspectors are actually going to be coming in over the next couple of days?
ROBERTSON: Leon, Hans Blix had outlooked -- outlooked (ph) about 100 inspectors being on the ground by Christmas. What we have already is 98 inspectors, 28 arrived in yesterday. We're expecting them to break out into a number of teams to head out to different sites. We know they are going further afield, we know they are making more inspections around the country.
The average now with this increased number, apart from today of course, the average has been perhaps between six and 12 inspections a day. So it's likely that we're going to start seeing a high number of inspections continue like that from this weekend onwards -- Leon.
HARRIS: Nic Robertson in Baghdad. Thanks, Nic.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Compliance>
Aired December 13, 2002 - 11:01 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: U.N. Security Council members are starting to digest that massive, almost 12,000-page Iraqi weapons report that was submitted to them, and the U.S., at least, is saying that it is a dish that Iraq has served up before, and a skimpy serving at that.
Bush administration officials say that the document falls far short of what intelligence shows Iraq has and is doing. Now we're watching developments from Washington all the way to Baghdad.
CNN Senior White House Correspondent John King is with us as well as CNN Senior International Correspondent, Nic Robertson.
Let's get right to it with John King at his post at the White House -- John.
JOHN KING, CNN SR. WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Leon, from the podium at the White House this morning, Ari Fleischer, the press secretary, said he would have nothing to say, that the United States did not have a final analysis of the Iraqi document yet, and that he would not speak to any preliminary analysis, but CNN was told by several administration officials that the United States will report to the United Nations inspectors today, Hans Blix and his deputies, that its preliminary review finds that the Iraqi document comes up, in the words of one senior official, "far, far, far, far short" of what it believes Iraq was supposed to report to the United Nations.
This official says there is not enough information in there, in some cases, no information, as to whether Iraq kept its agreements to destroy mustard gas shells and other chemical and biological weapons it has previously acknowledged having in its arsenal. The United States also says there is not nearly enough information to assess any developments in Iraq's nuclear program since 1991.
U.S. officials say Iraq has been busy in that regard. Iraq, of course, denies it has had any activity in nuclear weapons in quite some time.
The United States also, we are told, is not about to say Iraq is in material breech for push for an immediate military confrontation. The strategy right now, we are told, is to urge the United Nations to get more inspectors in on the ground, be more aggressive in waging those inspections.
Now, it could take, we are told, another week perhaps even two weeks for the United States to come to a complete analysis of the 12,000 pages, the CD-ROMs that Iraq filed with the United Nations. U.S. officials, though, say their early analysis is that Iraq did not meet the test, that this is not a full and complete and accurate report to the United Nations. That will put some pressure on Mr. Bush, if that is the final analysis, because, of course, he said this was Mr. Saddam Hussein's one test, one chance to come clean, and remember, the president has said he would have zero tolerance if Iraq did not meet that test -- Leon.
HARRIS: Good deal. Thank you very much, John. John King at the White House. Now, let's move over to Baghdad where CNN's Nic Robertson is monitoring the ongoing weapons inspections -- Nic, what's the latest?
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Leon, an inspection today running into perhaps the first of the hitches of any of the inspections here. This is the first Friday, and the inspectors have been here for three Fridays now -- the first Friday, the U.N. weapons inspectors have carried out inspections. It is a Muslim holy day, and it is a day many Iraqis are off work. What happened today is one team went to a disease control center in Baghdad. They've been working there for several hours, and then they found they couldn't get into some of the rooms in the building.
Now they were told that was because some of the staff in the building were off, that they had the keys with them at home. Therefore, no one was able to let them in. What happened? The United Nations called on Iraq's top interlocutor with them, General Hossam Amin from Iraq's national monitoring directorate. They called him on their hotline. He came right over to the disease control center, went in, dealt with the U.N. inspectors there and the Iraqi officials on site. Within five or ten minutes, he came out, along with another U.N. official, telling us the situation had been resolved, that it was merely a new site. They wanted to get the procedures right at the new site, and that it was a tagging issue.
Now, normally, tagging refers to the pieces of equipment that the U.N. feels can be used not only for civilian applications, but also for military applications. The bottom line today is that the U.N. and Iraqi officials say there is no problem. The headline is that this is the first time the U.N. has failed to get entry into a premises that it wanted to get entry into, or at least a room, and it is the first time the U.N. has had to use its hotline to help Iraqi officials diffuse a situation on the ground -- Leon.
HARRIS: All right, Nic. So what do we know about the way that the plan is unfolding for more inspections over the weekend, or if more inspectors are actually going to be coming in over the next couple of days?
ROBERTSON: Leon, Hans Blix had outlooked -- outlooked (ph) about 100 inspectors being on the ground by Christmas. What we have already is 98 inspectors, 28 arrived in yesterday. We're expecting them to break out into a number of teams to head out to different sites. We know they are going further afield, we know they are making more inspections around the country.
The average now with this increased number, apart from today of course, the average has been perhaps between six and 12 inspections a day. So it's likely that we're going to start seeing a high number of inspections continue like that from this weekend onwards -- Leon.
HARRIS: Nic Robertson in Baghdad. Thanks, Nic.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Compliance>
