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American Morning
Number of Weapons Inspectors Up to 100
Aired December 16, 2002 - 08:35 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.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Now back to Iraq. The number of weapons inspectors is up to 100. They are fanning out today, looking for weapons of mass destruction, and our own Nic Robertson is standing by in Baghdad to bring us up to date on all that have.
Good morning, Nic.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula.
The numbers noticeably up, Saturday was a record day for the inspectors, 12 teams, 14 sites. Today, not quite so many sites, but still making an impressive dent into all the over several hundred sites they have to go to, visiting for the first time a university this Baghdad, going to the biological facility there, revisiting a nuclear facility they visited before.
Now, Iraq's foreign ministry noted today that the inspectors have begun to ask at these sites for names of scientists. They want to know everyone with a postgraduate degree, anyone who's been involved in research and production in the nuclear field.
So it appears the inspectors beginning to gather those names of scientists they may later want to interview.
Now, the team we followed today went to a huge oil refinery, Al Dura (ph), on the south side of Baghdad. That was a chemical team. They had their protective gear on. But really they were starting from square one, it seemed. They had these old maps in their hands, going around the site, rubbing bits out, redrawing it where a car park was no longer a car park, and it was a building site. This is what we're beginning to see, Paula.
The teams are revisiting sites that they've already been to since they've been here, huge sites, and I think this gives us an idea of how long their job is going to take, that one visit alone this time around just isn't enough --Paula.
ZAHN: Do you get any sense from these inspectors they wish they had gotten to some of these Iraqi scientists before?
ROBERTSON: That would seem sensible, that the inspectors would have loved to have had better information before they'd come in. They've asked governments to provide them with that kind of intelligence that will really give them a head start, that can save all the sites that they've been to before they know so much about. They can just Make that one key visit visit. Well, they haven't had it. Whether or not they're allowed to take Iraqi scientists out of the country for interview, still that is a hurdle yet to be crossed. The Iraqi government here has not expressed a great deal of desire to do that, and any of the scientists we've talked to so far say, no, happy to be interviewed, but let's do it inside the country -- Paula.
ZAHN: Quickly here, you said inside the country, so what happens if Iraq absolutely says there is no way you can drag these scientists outside of the country to interview them?
ROBERTSON: Well, Hans Blix has said he doesn't have an army, and he said he's not an abduction agency, so one would expect the U.N., Hans Blix, to take this back to the Security Council, and as he said, it isn't up to him to decide what constitutes a material breach, but you could see him taking perhaps something he's used as serious as this because his counterpart with the Atomic Energy Agency, the head of the nuclear inspectors here, has said he wouldn't hesitate to take someone out of the country.
You could see them perhaps taking this back to the Security Council, passing it over to the Security Council. The Security Council would have to decide, is this a material breach?
ZAHN: Nic Robertson. We're going to have to leave it there this morning. Thanks for the update.
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 16, 2002 - 08:35 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Now back to Iraq. The number of weapons inspectors is up to 100. They are fanning out today, looking for weapons of mass destruction, and our own Nic Robertson is standing by in Baghdad to bring us up to date on all that have.
Good morning, Nic.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula.
The numbers noticeably up, Saturday was a record day for the inspectors, 12 teams, 14 sites. Today, not quite so many sites, but still making an impressive dent into all the over several hundred sites they have to go to, visiting for the first time a university this Baghdad, going to the biological facility there, revisiting a nuclear facility they visited before.
Now, Iraq's foreign ministry noted today that the inspectors have begun to ask at these sites for names of scientists. They want to know everyone with a postgraduate degree, anyone who's been involved in research and production in the nuclear field.
So it appears the inspectors beginning to gather those names of scientists they may later want to interview.
Now, the team we followed today went to a huge oil refinery, Al Dura (ph), on the south side of Baghdad. That was a chemical team. They had their protective gear on. But really they were starting from square one, it seemed. They had these old maps in their hands, going around the site, rubbing bits out, redrawing it where a car park was no longer a car park, and it was a building site. This is what we're beginning to see, Paula.
The teams are revisiting sites that they've already been to since they've been here, huge sites, and I think this gives us an idea of how long their job is going to take, that one visit alone this time around just isn't enough --Paula.
ZAHN: Do you get any sense from these inspectors they wish they had gotten to some of these Iraqi scientists before?
ROBERTSON: That would seem sensible, that the inspectors would have loved to have had better information before they'd come in. They've asked governments to provide them with that kind of intelligence that will really give them a head start, that can save all the sites that they've been to before they know so much about. They can just Make that one key visit visit. Well, they haven't had it. Whether or not they're allowed to take Iraqi scientists out of the country for interview, still that is a hurdle yet to be crossed. The Iraqi government here has not expressed a great deal of desire to do that, and any of the scientists we've talked to so far say, no, happy to be interviewed, but let's do it inside the country -- Paula.
ZAHN: Quickly here, you said inside the country, so what happens if Iraq absolutely says there is no way you can drag these scientists outside of the country to interview them?
ROBERTSON: Well, Hans Blix has said he doesn't have an army, and he said he's not an abduction agency, so one would expect the U.N., Hans Blix, to take this back to the Security Council, and as he said, it isn't up to him to decide what constitutes a material breach, but you could see him taking perhaps something he's used as serious as this because his counterpart with the Atomic Energy Agency, the head of the nuclear inspectors here, has said he wouldn't hesitate to take someone out of the country.
You could see them perhaps taking this back to the Security Council, passing it over to the Security Council. The Security Council would have to decide, is this a material breach?
ZAHN: Nic Robertson. We're going to have to leave it there this morning. Thanks for the update.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
