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CNN Live At Daybreak
CENTCOM Update
Aired April 15, 2003 - 05:03 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.
On to a topic we'd like to explore more in depth, those vans or mobile labs found buried near Karbala. Were they used to make weapons of mass destruction or not? We take you live to Doha, Qatar and Tom Mintier for the answer -- good morning, Tom.
TOM MINTIER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.
Investigators will be looking at about 1,000 pounds of documents found buried with those 11 Conex containers. These are 20 foot by 20 foot containers and if, indeed, it proves out to be what they think they are, it's quite possible that it backs up what U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said before Congress and before the Security Council, talking about mobile laboratories that were being driven around Iraq.
Hans Blix said that no such laboratories had been found by the inspectors, but this find by the 101st Airborne is in line with what they've been saying here at, in Doha, Qatar, that once they take control of Iraq, once the fighting stops and the investigation can begin, they're going to be focusing seriously on finding the possible weapons of mass destruction sites, finding anything that the Iraqi regime had been attempting to hide.
I've been told there are 1,500 teams currently operating inside Iraq, looking for sites just like this one. Asked about the 11 containers here at Central Command, officials told me that any response to that will probably come from somewhere else, most likely in Washington. So we'll have to wait and see what the investigation reveals, an ongoing investigation into these 11 containers.
I asked this spokesman if he knew about the containers and he said yes, he saw it on CNN.
COSTELLO: Understand.
I want to ask you about Syria, too, because there are these allegations from the U.S. government that members of the Iraqi regime are hiding out there. Who specifically are they talking about and how is Syria responding?
MINTIER: Well, I think that what Central Command would like to know is who possibly made it across the border from Iraq into Syria. Also, the British foreign secretary, Jack Straw, was in town today about the issue of allowing Iraqis to take shelter there or transit beyond there and the issue of chemical weapons. Mr. Straw said that Syria has a lot of questions to answer. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JACK STRAW, BRITISH FOREIGN SECRETARY: There are some important questions for Syria to answer and to deal with, and it's very important that Syria accepts the new reality and operates in a constructive, cooperative way with us and the United States, and in particular deals with all these questions about whether they have taken in fugitives from the Saddam regime and so on. But there's an opportunity here for an important new beginning with Syria.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MINTIER: The British foreign secretary was here for meetings with his air marshal and with General Tommy Franks, meetings that occurred this morning, talking about the situation in Iraq and surely discussing the possibility of a situation in Syria -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Understand.
Tom Mintier live from Doha, Qatar this morning, from CENTCOM.
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 - 05:03 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
On to a topic we'd like to explore more in depth, those vans or mobile labs found buried near Karbala. Were they used to make weapons of mass destruction or not? We take you live to Doha, Qatar and Tom Mintier for the answer -- good morning, Tom.
TOM MINTIER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.
Investigators will be looking at about 1,000 pounds of documents found buried with those 11 Conex containers. These are 20 foot by 20 foot containers and if, indeed, it proves out to be what they think they are, it's quite possible that it backs up what U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said before Congress and before the Security Council, talking about mobile laboratories that were being driven around Iraq.
Hans Blix said that no such laboratories had been found by the inspectors, but this find by the 101st Airborne is in line with what they've been saying here at, in Doha, Qatar, that once they take control of Iraq, once the fighting stops and the investigation can begin, they're going to be focusing seriously on finding the possible weapons of mass destruction sites, finding anything that the Iraqi regime had been attempting to hide.
I've been told there are 1,500 teams currently operating inside Iraq, looking for sites just like this one. Asked about the 11 containers here at Central Command, officials told me that any response to that will probably come from somewhere else, most likely in Washington. So we'll have to wait and see what the investigation reveals, an ongoing investigation into these 11 containers.
I asked this spokesman if he knew about the containers and he said yes, he saw it on CNN.
COSTELLO: Understand.
I want to ask you about Syria, too, because there are these allegations from the U.S. government that members of the Iraqi regime are hiding out there. Who specifically are they talking about and how is Syria responding?
MINTIER: Well, I think that what Central Command would like to know is who possibly made it across the border from Iraq into Syria. Also, the British foreign secretary, Jack Straw, was in town today about the issue of allowing Iraqis to take shelter there or transit beyond there and the issue of chemical weapons. Mr. Straw said that Syria has a lot of questions to answer. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JACK STRAW, BRITISH FOREIGN SECRETARY: There are some important questions for Syria to answer and to deal with, and it's very important that Syria accepts the new reality and operates in a constructive, cooperative way with us and the United States, and in particular deals with all these questions about whether they have taken in fugitives from the Saddam regime and so on. But there's an opportunity here for an important new beginning with Syria.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MINTIER: The British foreign secretary was here for meetings with his air marshal and with General Tommy Franks, meetings that occurred this morning, talking about the situation in Iraq and surely discussing the possibility of a situation in Syria -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Understand.
Tom Mintier live from Doha, Qatar this morning, from CENTCOM.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
