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U.N. Weapons Experts Search Eights Sites Today in Iraq
Aired January 08, 2003 - 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: Now on to Iraq and the hunt for weapons of mass destruction. UN experts are out again this morning, and they're checking at least eight sites.
Our Rym Brahimi joins us live from Baghdad with details.
What are they searching this morning -- Rym?
RYM BRAHIMI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, they're searching a variety of sites. One team, at least a chemical team, has gone to a pesticide factory that's been visited a couple of times before. And the nuclear experts seem to be focusing these days on cement factories.
Meanwhile, Carol, there's quite a lot going on here. In the past couple of days, we've seen an increasingly confident and defiant President Saddam Hussein, shown here on Iraqi TV with his two sons, and talking to top military commanders, telling them that they should be prepared to fight if necessary. Also expressing confidence that Iraq will triumph, and also warning the United States not to put too much faith in their military technology.
Now, meanwhile on the concrete level, Iraqis have been given advance food rations to last them several months.
Meanwhile, the foreign minister of Iraq has complained again to the United Nations secretary-general. This time, the foreign minister has accused the United States of having 60 heavy tanks cross into the demilitarized zone that's between Iraq and Kuwait.
Now, apparently -- now that zone is about 200 kilometers long. It's patrolled by a United Nations peacekeeping force called UNIKOM. I spoke a little earlier to the spokesman of that peacekeeping force. He says he wasn't aware of such an incident, and he would have noticed if that many tanks had crossed into that demilitarized zone.
Now meanwhile, there have been quite a number of peace groups, Carol, coming into town. The latest, it arrived last night, a group that includes family members of -- that are relatives of victims of 9/11.
Now, they arrived last night. They've been meeting with Iraqi families, who are relatives of people that were bombed, killed in the 1991 Gulf War, and also may have died throughout the sanctions. They're also visiting this afternoon the Amavia (ph) shelter, which is a shelter that was bombed again in 1991 by the U.S. in which many Iraqi civilians, more then 200 seeking shelter, had died, and those included women and children -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Rym, I was just curious about something. With more U.S. troops headed to the Middle East, is there a sense on the weapons inspectors that it doesn't matter what they find or don't find that the United States is going to do what it wants to anyway?
BRAHIMI: I'm not sure if the weapons inspectors have that sense. They say that they're just doing their job. They're going about their job. They don't really want to be involved in any talk of war. They say they have a technical mission. They just have to verify what is here, what is not here.
The people, on the other hand, many Iraqis that you would talk to in the streets here, well, they have a sense. Many of them would tell you, well, we know that whatever happens, even though we've been cooperating, in their view that they've been extending -- giving a lot of access, if you will, to the inspectors, a lot of people I've talked to here say that they're pretty confident the U.S. will try to find a pretext to attack anyway -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Rym Brahimi reporting live from Baghdad.
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 January 8, 2003 - 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: Now on to Iraq and the hunt for weapons of mass destruction. UN experts are out again this morning, and they're checking at least eight sites.
Our Rym Brahimi joins us live from Baghdad with details.
What are they searching this morning -- Rym?
RYM BRAHIMI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, they're searching a variety of sites. One team, at least a chemical team, has gone to a pesticide factory that's been visited a couple of times before. And the nuclear experts seem to be focusing these days on cement factories.
Meanwhile, Carol, there's quite a lot going on here. In the past couple of days, we've seen an increasingly confident and defiant President Saddam Hussein, shown here on Iraqi TV with his two sons, and talking to top military commanders, telling them that they should be prepared to fight if necessary. Also expressing confidence that Iraq will triumph, and also warning the United States not to put too much faith in their military technology.
Now, meanwhile on the concrete level, Iraqis have been given advance food rations to last them several months.
Meanwhile, the foreign minister of Iraq has complained again to the United Nations secretary-general. This time, the foreign minister has accused the United States of having 60 heavy tanks cross into the demilitarized zone that's between Iraq and Kuwait.
Now, apparently -- now that zone is about 200 kilometers long. It's patrolled by a United Nations peacekeeping force called UNIKOM. I spoke a little earlier to the spokesman of that peacekeeping force. He says he wasn't aware of such an incident, and he would have noticed if that many tanks had crossed into that demilitarized zone.
Now meanwhile, there have been quite a number of peace groups, Carol, coming into town. The latest, it arrived last night, a group that includes family members of -- that are relatives of victims of 9/11.
Now, they arrived last night. They've been meeting with Iraqi families, who are relatives of people that were bombed, killed in the 1991 Gulf War, and also may have died throughout the sanctions. They're also visiting this afternoon the Amavia (ph) shelter, which is a shelter that was bombed again in 1991 by the U.S. in which many Iraqi civilians, more then 200 seeking shelter, had died, and those included women and children -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Rym, I was just curious about something. With more U.S. troops headed to the Middle East, is there a sense on the weapons inspectors that it doesn't matter what they find or don't find that the United States is going to do what it wants to anyway?
BRAHIMI: I'm not sure if the weapons inspectors have that sense. They say that they're just doing their job. They're going about their job. They don't really want to be involved in any talk of war. They say they have a technical mission. They just have to verify what is here, what is not here.
The people, on the other hand, many Iraqis that you would talk to in the streets here, well, they have a sense. Many of them would tell you, well, we know that whatever happens, even though we've been cooperating, in their view that they've been extending -- giving a lot of access, if you will, to the inspectors, a lot of people I've talked to here say that they're pretty confident the U.S. will try to find a pretext to attack anyway -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Rym Brahimi reporting live from Baghdad.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
