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CNN Live At Daybreak
Mobile Labs Found in Iraq Studied
Aired April 15, 2003 - 06:03 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: We want to talk more about chemical and biological weapons now. We've been telling you about a number of vans or mobile labs found buried near Karbala. So, were they America's smoking gun?
Let's go live to the Pentagon and Chris Plante, who joins us now to tell us more.
Good morning -- Chris.
CHRIS PLANTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Carol. Well, that's the question that everyone is looking to have answered.
Ryan Chilcote, traveling with the 101st Airborne near Karbala, reported much earlier today or yesterday, depending on where you are, that 11 vehicles, apparently containers, possibly transport containers that might be mounted on the back of trucks were discovered buried underground. Highly suspicious just on the face of it for the fact that they were buried underground.
But these were also the type of vehicles that Colin Powell was referring to when he addressed the United Nations before this conflict began. He did show diagrams much like the graphics that we're seeing here, demonstrating that they had constructed -- Iraq had constructed some mobile laboratories that could be used for the creation of chemical and biological weapons.
And, as you mentioned, the 101st Airborne also discovered some barrels of chemicals last week that they believe might have been chemical or biological weapons. It turned out to be pesticides.
So the Pentagon is not leaping to any conclusions at this point, but this may turn out to be a smoking gun. They're just going through all of the processes and examining what they found and going through all of the checks before they come to any firm conclusions.
But Donald Rumsfeld, the secretary of defense, will be quick to tell you that they weren't really expecting to stumble across weapons of mass destruction sites in the course of this military exercise. Their expectation all along was that once they had toppled the regime and taken into custody a number of key players involved in the weapons of mass destruction program that they would have these people lead them to the sites; that the individuals involved directly with the programs, such as General Amer Saadi who turned himself in to U.S. authorities in Baghdad on Saturday.
And now there is a new defection, Jaffar al-Jaffer, who was believed to be the father of Iran's -- excuse me -- Iraq's nuclear weapons program, who has turned himself in to authorities in a third Arab nation, not in Iraq, but another Arab nation, and is being interrogated there by authorities, including U.S. authorities.
The hope is that these individuals with knowledge of these programs will lead U.S. authorities to these weapons of mass destruction sites, providing the smoking gun that the U.S. and Great Britain so desperately need to legitimatize effectively this campaign against Iraq, since this was the cornerstone of the argument that they brought to the United Nations -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Understand. Chris Plante, thanks for the update, live from the Pentagon this morning.
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 April 15, 2003 - 06:03 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: We want to talk more about chemical and biological weapons now. We've been telling you about a number of vans or mobile labs found buried near Karbala. So, were they America's smoking gun?
Let's go live to the Pentagon and Chris Plante, who joins us now to tell us more.
Good morning -- Chris.
CHRIS PLANTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Carol. Well, that's the question that everyone is looking to have answered.
Ryan Chilcote, traveling with the 101st Airborne near Karbala, reported much earlier today or yesterday, depending on where you are, that 11 vehicles, apparently containers, possibly transport containers that might be mounted on the back of trucks were discovered buried underground. Highly suspicious just on the face of it for the fact that they were buried underground.
But these were also the type of vehicles that Colin Powell was referring to when he addressed the United Nations before this conflict began. He did show diagrams much like the graphics that we're seeing here, demonstrating that they had constructed -- Iraq had constructed some mobile laboratories that could be used for the creation of chemical and biological weapons.
And, as you mentioned, the 101st Airborne also discovered some barrels of chemicals last week that they believe might have been chemical or biological weapons. It turned out to be pesticides.
So the Pentagon is not leaping to any conclusions at this point, but this may turn out to be a smoking gun. They're just going through all of the processes and examining what they found and going through all of the checks before they come to any firm conclusions.
But Donald Rumsfeld, the secretary of defense, will be quick to tell you that they weren't really expecting to stumble across weapons of mass destruction sites in the course of this military exercise. Their expectation all along was that once they had toppled the regime and taken into custody a number of key players involved in the weapons of mass destruction program that they would have these people lead them to the sites; that the individuals involved directly with the programs, such as General Amer Saadi who turned himself in to U.S. authorities in Baghdad on Saturday.
And now there is a new defection, Jaffar al-Jaffer, who was believed to be the father of Iran's -- excuse me -- Iraq's nuclear weapons program, who has turned himself in to authorities in a third Arab nation, not in Iraq, but another Arab nation, and is being interrogated there by authorities, including U.S. authorities.
The hope is that these individuals with knowledge of these programs will lead U.S. authorities to these weapons of mass destruction sites, providing the smoking gun that the U.S. and Great Britain so desperately need to legitimatize effectively this campaign against Iraq, since this was the cornerstone of the argument that they brought to the United Nations -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Understand. Chris Plante, thanks for the update, live from the Pentagon this morning.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
