Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Live At Daybreak
Baghdad Now Saying It Will Begin Destroying Missiles
Aired February 28, 2003 - 05:02 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: OK, right on to our top story now, those Iraqi missiles. Baghdad is now saying it will begin destroying them. The question, will it begin today, tomorrow, when?
We want to take you to the center of the controversy right now, Baghdad, and Rym Brahimi -- Rym, fill us in.
RYM BRAHIMI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Carol, we have just received this from informed Iraqi sources, and I quote, "Iraq has sent a letter to UNMOVIC agreeing to destroy the al-Samoud 2 missiles, confirming that the decision by UNMOVIC to destroy the said missiles is an unjust, abusive decision and is not taking into consideration the technical and scientific facts relating to those missiles. It seems the timing coincides with political goals," says that source. The destruction may start by tomorrow.
Now, we know, of course, from U.N. sources that a letter was received yesterday by chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix. The letter was signed, General Amir al-Sadi, who is President Saddam Hussein's top scientific adviser, saying that the principle of the destruction of the al-Samoud missiles had been accepted, but also saying that Iraq did not know how to do that and needed a team of technical experts here on the ground to help them with that.
Now, one of the people that's here, expected to arrive last night, Dimitri Perricos. He is the director of planning for UNMOVIC operations. He is here to supervise that destruction process. He says that it's up to Iraq to destroy that under supervision of the United Nations -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Rym, can you fill us in on how many missiles we're talking about?
BRAHIMI: It's very difficult to say. U.N. spokesmen that we've spoken to so far say that they're not exactly sure how many missiles we're talking about. Something in the range of a hundred. Now, that's, of course, because just until a couple of days ago, even, Iraq was still producing those al-Samoud missiles. There's roughly between 80 and 120 maximum maybe. Some of them are already deployed. All of them have been tagged by the UNMOVIC or the U.N. weapons inspectors here on the ground. All, not only the missiles, Carol, but also the components, the engines. A lot of the let's say components related to those missiles have been tagged and accounted for by the U.N. weapons inspectors -- Carol.
COSTELLO: OK, I know you have a busy time of it.
Rym Brahimi reporting live from Baghdad for us now.
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 February 28, 2003 - 05:02 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: OK, right on to our top story now, those Iraqi missiles. Baghdad is now saying it will begin destroying them. The question, will it begin today, tomorrow, when?
We want to take you to the center of the controversy right now, Baghdad, and Rym Brahimi -- Rym, fill us in.
RYM BRAHIMI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Carol, we have just received this from informed Iraqi sources, and I quote, "Iraq has sent a letter to UNMOVIC agreeing to destroy the al-Samoud 2 missiles, confirming that the decision by UNMOVIC to destroy the said missiles is an unjust, abusive decision and is not taking into consideration the technical and scientific facts relating to those missiles. It seems the timing coincides with political goals," says that source. The destruction may start by tomorrow.
Now, we know, of course, from U.N. sources that a letter was received yesterday by chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix. The letter was signed, General Amir al-Sadi, who is President Saddam Hussein's top scientific adviser, saying that the principle of the destruction of the al-Samoud missiles had been accepted, but also saying that Iraq did not know how to do that and needed a team of technical experts here on the ground to help them with that.
Now, one of the people that's here, expected to arrive last night, Dimitri Perricos. He is the director of planning for UNMOVIC operations. He is here to supervise that destruction process. He says that it's up to Iraq to destroy that under supervision of the United Nations -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Rym, can you fill us in on how many missiles we're talking about?
BRAHIMI: It's very difficult to say. U.N. spokesmen that we've spoken to so far say that they're not exactly sure how many missiles we're talking about. Something in the range of a hundred. Now, that's, of course, because just until a couple of days ago, even, Iraq was still producing those al-Samoud missiles. There's roughly between 80 and 120 maximum maybe. Some of them are already deployed. All of them have been tagged by the UNMOVIC or the U.N. weapons inspectors here on the ground. All, not only the missiles, Carol, but also the components, the engines. A lot of the let's say components related to those missiles have been tagged and accounted for by the U.N. weapons inspectors -- Carol.
COSTELLO: OK, I know you have a busy time of it.
Rym Brahimi reporting live from Baghdad for us now.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
