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CNN Live Today

Interview With Former Weapons Inspector

Aired April 15, 2003 - 10:23   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.


LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, a U.S. general says that coalition forces have found proof of such mobile laboratories in Iraq. In fact, he says they were buried in the ground near Karbala. Now, we need to stress that there have been no weapons of mass destruction found as yet, but this is, possibly, the smoking gun that the U.S. has been waiting for. Or is it?
Olivia Bosch joins us now from our London bureau. She is a former U.N. weapons inspector, and Ms. Bosch, thank you for taking time to talk with us today.

I would like to get your first reaction when you first heard the news about these buried 10 by 10 laboratories. What is that that popped in your mind?

OLIVIA BOSCH, FORMER U.N. WEAPONS INSPECTOR: Well, this continues in a series of reports that we've heard over the previous weeks when there is something been found and then on further evaluation is deemed not to be the smoking gun. This one is much more interesting because now that most of the military fighting has stopped, there is more time to have a closer examination of this particular find. These mobile production facilities were one of the high priorities of the inspections during -- especially during the recent past months prior to the conflict. So we do...

HARRIS: Doesn't the fact -- but the fact that they were buried, does that tell you anything specifically, doesn't that tip you off that there must be something there that was not supposed to be found?

BOSCH: Well, the Iraqis are quite well known to have buried and have little caches all around in the desert. They are known to bury all sorts of armaments, guns, etcetera, and throughout the place to preserve, if not hide, particular precious items.

This, of course, would seem to be on the surface, pending further evaluation, that these large containers, that they were buried, suspect that they were trying to conceal having moved them around in the past, to conceal them to minimize their finding in the aftermath of the conflict, and therefore minimize their role in weapons of mass destruction programs.

HARRIS: But the thing is -- another thing that jumps out and seems awfully curious, though, here, Ms. Bosch, is the fact that it was buried -- they were buried, I should say, and they were buried near a facility that is a facility that is described as being an ammunition filling facility. Now, as I understand it, U.N. weapons inspectors have inspected that site before, and it is used to fill munitions, if you have hidden laboratories buried underground at a place where they fill munitions, wouldn't that tell you something?

BOSCH: Well, this sounds like this is -- as people have highlighted, close to being a smoking gun, and of course, the Iraqis were known to move items around, and especially since the fighting began, it would not be unreasonable to expect that they would have moved these to somewhere where the U.N. inspectors had visited before. In fact, any kind of baseline that the UNMOVIC -- the previous inspections had found -- had been set is now totally destroyed, because the conflict will have meant that there would have been time for the Iraqis to move stuff during the conflict, and of course, with some of the bombing operations, other items will have been destroyed as well.

So, in a way, the various exploitation teams that now have more time that the conflict has finished, they can go at a slightly more leisurely place, and go to many of the suspect sites. There are more than 100 that are on the list to be going through, and I think they are only up to seven or ten right now. During the prosecution of the conflict...

HARRIS: I've actually -- we've actually heard the generals talk about thousands of sites that they want to get to and inspect. But before we wrap up, I have got to ask you one last question, because I read a comment that you made earlier saying something about how it was important that we determine whether or not this site that we're talking about now, while they are still waiting for tests to determine whether there is anything there, it's important to determine whether or not it was discovered by accident, whether or not the troops happened to just happen upon it, or if they had specific intelligence leading them to that. Why is that distinction important?

BOSCH: This was more relevant during the course of the conflict itself. It's quite possible that ordinary troops, they might accidentally have come across it while they were prosecuting their other military objectives. The primary military -- initial objectives were to deal with leadership targets and command and control. Once those had disintegrated, as we've seen, especially in the last week, then the use and the intent to acquire weapons of mass destruction disappears with that. So now we are in the stage where we're in the process of accounting for the physical components and most importantly, for accounting the whole program which includes the organization, management, paperwork, funding, as well as the more journalistically appealing items such as the stockpiles. And this is important for the Iraqi people and the Iraqi government as well, where they would like an account of the last 20 years of programs that make weapons of mass destruction.

HARRIS: No doubt. And we're all going to wait and see what happens, and I know you are going to be just as interested as we are in seeing what the results of this testing is going to be.

Olivia Bosch, thank you very much for your time. Hope to talk with you later on.

BOSCH: OK.

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 - 10:23   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, a U.S. general says that coalition forces have found proof of such mobile laboratories in Iraq. In fact, he says they were buried in the ground near Karbala. Now, we need to stress that there have been no weapons of mass destruction found as yet, but this is, possibly, the smoking gun that the U.S. has been waiting for. Or is it?
Olivia Bosch joins us now from our London bureau. She is a former U.N. weapons inspector, and Ms. Bosch, thank you for taking time to talk with us today.

I would like to get your first reaction when you first heard the news about these buried 10 by 10 laboratories. What is that that popped in your mind?

OLIVIA BOSCH, FORMER U.N. WEAPONS INSPECTOR: Well, this continues in a series of reports that we've heard over the previous weeks when there is something been found and then on further evaluation is deemed not to be the smoking gun. This one is much more interesting because now that most of the military fighting has stopped, there is more time to have a closer examination of this particular find. These mobile production facilities were one of the high priorities of the inspections during -- especially during the recent past months prior to the conflict. So we do...

HARRIS: Doesn't the fact -- but the fact that they were buried, does that tell you anything specifically, doesn't that tip you off that there must be something there that was not supposed to be found?

BOSCH: Well, the Iraqis are quite well known to have buried and have little caches all around in the desert. They are known to bury all sorts of armaments, guns, etcetera, and throughout the place to preserve, if not hide, particular precious items.

This, of course, would seem to be on the surface, pending further evaluation, that these large containers, that they were buried, suspect that they were trying to conceal having moved them around in the past, to conceal them to minimize their finding in the aftermath of the conflict, and therefore minimize their role in weapons of mass destruction programs.

HARRIS: But the thing is -- another thing that jumps out and seems awfully curious, though, here, Ms. Bosch, is the fact that it was buried -- they were buried, I should say, and they were buried near a facility that is a facility that is described as being an ammunition filling facility. Now, as I understand it, U.N. weapons inspectors have inspected that site before, and it is used to fill munitions, if you have hidden laboratories buried underground at a place where they fill munitions, wouldn't that tell you something?

BOSCH: Well, this sounds like this is -- as people have highlighted, close to being a smoking gun, and of course, the Iraqis were known to move items around, and especially since the fighting began, it would not be unreasonable to expect that they would have moved these to somewhere where the U.N. inspectors had visited before. In fact, any kind of baseline that the UNMOVIC -- the previous inspections had found -- had been set is now totally destroyed, because the conflict will have meant that there would have been time for the Iraqis to move stuff during the conflict, and of course, with some of the bombing operations, other items will have been destroyed as well.

So, in a way, the various exploitation teams that now have more time that the conflict has finished, they can go at a slightly more leisurely place, and go to many of the suspect sites. There are more than 100 that are on the list to be going through, and I think they are only up to seven or ten right now. During the prosecution of the conflict...

HARRIS: I've actually -- we've actually heard the generals talk about thousands of sites that they want to get to and inspect. But before we wrap up, I have got to ask you one last question, because I read a comment that you made earlier saying something about how it was important that we determine whether or not this site that we're talking about now, while they are still waiting for tests to determine whether there is anything there, it's important to determine whether or not it was discovered by accident, whether or not the troops happened to just happen upon it, or if they had specific intelligence leading them to that. Why is that distinction important?

BOSCH: This was more relevant during the course of the conflict itself. It's quite possible that ordinary troops, they might accidentally have come across it while they were prosecuting their other military objectives. The primary military -- initial objectives were to deal with leadership targets and command and control. Once those had disintegrated, as we've seen, especially in the last week, then the use and the intent to acquire weapons of mass destruction disappears with that. So now we are in the stage where we're in the process of accounting for the physical components and most importantly, for accounting the whole program which includes the organization, management, paperwork, funding, as well as the more journalistically appealing items such as the stockpiles. And this is important for the Iraqi people and the Iraqi government as well, where they would like an account of the last 20 years of programs that make weapons of mass destruction.

HARRIS: No doubt. And we're all going to wait and see what happens, and I know you are going to be just as interested as we are in seeing what the results of this testing is going to be.

Olivia Bosch, thank you very much for your time. Hope to talk with you later on.

BOSCH: OK.

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