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CNN Live At Daybreak

Pentagon Update

Aired April 15, 2003 - 05:37   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, now for more on those mobile labs, we're going to take you live to the Pentagon now to get that perspective.
Our Chris Plante joins us with the latest -- Good morning, Chris.

CHRIS PLANTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Carol.

As Tom was describing, that's right, elements of the 101st Airborne Division operating south of Baghdad did come across these, apparently with the help of some local people, 11 containers or vehicles -- we believe that they're sort of transport containers that would mount on the back of vehicles -- buried underground, which immediately raised suspicion. And also, as Tom mentioned, these are essentially exactly what Colin Powell had described to the United Nations in one of his pleas to the U.N. Security Council early on in this process before the war started with Iraq.

He described the mobile laboratories that they had constructed that would mount on the back of trucks, much like what was apparently discovered by the 101st Airborne. There now the Pentagon and the Central Command are not saying right now with any great certainty what these discoveries are, but they are in the process of investigating, trying to determine whether these are, in fact, the mobile chemical and biological laboratories that they had outlined to the United Nations and that U.S. intelligence had claimed the Iraqis had built some time ago.

These things, of course, would constitute what the United States would call a smoking gun in their campaign to establish that Iraq had been deceiving the public and the United Nations about their chemical weapons program, their biological weapons program and other weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear and biological and missiles.

And Donald Rumsfeld, the secretary of defense, has, when this came up recently after the 101st Airborne discovered barrels filled with chemicals, Donald Rumsfeld, being pressed by members of the news media here at the Pentagon, insisted that they would have to take their time and go through a very careful and scrupulous process of examining what they had found before going public with any determinations.

So this is what they're also stressing at this point, is that they don't want to leap to any conclusions. Even though it looks like this may be the smoking gun. They don't want to go so far as to say that at this point.

In fact, Donald Rumsfeld has said throughout the course of this process that they didn't really expect that U.S. forces would stumble across weapons of mass destruction sites, that they would likely reach more successful conclusions when they got a hold of individuals, which they have done now, such as General Amin Saadi and now Jaffar al- Jaffar, who is considered to be the father of Iraq's nuclear program.

So now that these two people are speaking to the American authorities, the expectation is that these individuals will lead them to sites, even if these mobile vehicles don't turn out to be the smoking gun that they're looking for -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right, Chris Plante, thanks for bringing us up to date live from the Pentagon.

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 - 05:37   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: OK, now for more on those mobile labs, we're going to take you live to the Pentagon now to get that perspective.
Our Chris Plante joins us with the latest -- Good morning, Chris.

CHRIS PLANTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Carol.

As Tom was describing, that's right, elements of the 101st Airborne Division operating south of Baghdad did come across these, apparently with the help of some local people, 11 containers or vehicles -- we believe that they're sort of transport containers that would mount on the back of vehicles -- buried underground, which immediately raised suspicion. And also, as Tom mentioned, these are essentially exactly what Colin Powell had described to the United Nations in one of his pleas to the U.N. Security Council early on in this process before the war started with Iraq.

He described the mobile laboratories that they had constructed that would mount on the back of trucks, much like what was apparently discovered by the 101st Airborne. There now the Pentagon and the Central Command are not saying right now with any great certainty what these discoveries are, but they are in the process of investigating, trying to determine whether these are, in fact, the mobile chemical and biological laboratories that they had outlined to the United Nations and that U.S. intelligence had claimed the Iraqis had built some time ago.

These things, of course, would constitute what the United States would call a smoking gun in their campaign to establish that Iraq had been deceiving the public and the United Nations about their chemical weapons program, their biological weapons program and other weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear and biological and missiles.

And Donald Rumsfeld, the secretary of defense, has, when this came up recently after the 101st Airborne discovered barrels filled with chemicals, Donald Rumsfeld, being pressed by members of the news media here at the Pentagon, insisted that they would have to take their time and go through a very careful and scrupulous process of examining what they had found before going public with any determinations.

So this is what they're also stressing at this point, is that they don't want to leap to any conclusions. Even though it looks like this may be the smoking gun. They don't want to go so far as to say that at this point.

In fact, Donald Rumsfeld has said throughout the course of this process that they didn't really expect that U.S. forces would stumble across weapons of mass destruction sites, that they would likely reach more successful conclusions when they got a hold of individuals, which they have done now, such as General Amin Saadi and now Jaffar al- Jaffar, who is considered to be the father of Iraq's nuclear program.

So now that these two people are speaking to the American authorities, the expectation is that these individuals will lead them to sites, even if these mobile vehicles don't turn out to be the smoking gun that they're looking for -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right, Chris Plante, thanks for bringing us up to date live from the Pentagon.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com