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CNN Live At Daybreak
Hunt for Weapons of Mass Destruction Continues
Aired April 18, 2003 - 06:17 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: No smoking gun yet, but the search for weapons of mass destruction does go on. And this morning we find out the U.S. is stepping up the search.
Let's go live to the Pentagon and Chris Plante to find out how -- good morning.
CHRIS PLANTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Carol.
Well, for openers, the United States is sending in about 1,000 essentially weapons inspectors, they're calling them survey teams, to go into Baghdad and fan across -- into Iraq, rather, and fan out across the country looking for weapons of mass destruction. But also probably more directly talking to people about where these programs may have been ongoing, where the storage facilities may be.
It is a situation where Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has said that they do not expect, really, that they will stumble across these sites, which Iraq has been able to effectively conceal over the course of the past 12 years. But the hope is that once they get a hold of individuals in the regime, senior members of the regime of Saddam Hussein, that they will be able to direct them to the sites where the storage facilities are and where the production facilities are.
Along with this group of 1,000 experts, there will be private contractors, these are civilian contractors, a number of civilian scientists and of course a significant number of U.S. intelligence experts that specialize in various weapons of mass destruction, chemical, biological and nuclear weapons, and interrogators. That is people who are expert in extracting information from people.
These interrogators, intelligence experts hope to discuss the situation with senior members of the regime, a few of which have come into U.S. hands, including, just in the last day or so, the half- brother of Saddam Hussein who has come into the custody of the United States following a special operations raid at his location in the city of Baghdad. That's Barzan Ibrahim Hasan who is the half-brother of Saddam Hussein and has held a number of senior posts within the regime.
It's expected that, or hoped, at least, by U.S. officials, that he will be able to be instrumental in leading these inspectors or the U.S. forces, coalition forces in general, to some of the weapons of mass destruction sites or give them information that will help them in that regard. They're also hoping that this man will be able to help them in locating other senior members of the regime, of course most of whom are not in U.S. hands at this point. It's not clear where many of them are, some may have been killed in some targeted attacks against the senior leadership; but it's not known where, for the most part, these people have ended up.
Also, as you were reporting a bit earlier, we're expecting that the seven POWs, the seven U.S. Army POWs that were taken by the Iraqis during the course of this conflict, will return to the United States tomorrow. Five of those from the 507 Ordnance Maintenance Company, which was Jessica Lynch's company, ambushed. A number of people in that company killed after they made a wrong turn, more taken prisoner.
Jessica Lynch and one additional member of that group wounded during the -- that process, Specialist Shoshana Johnson who we saw had been shot apparently in both feet or both ankles. Some of the details still emerging on that. But we're expecting that they will be back at Fort Hood tomorrow, which is home base to a couple of them, but family members for the rest will be coming in from around the country to greet them there at Fort Hood -- Carol.
COSTELLO: As you'd expect. Chris Plante, live at Pentagon, many thanks to you.
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 18, 2003 - 06:17 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: No smoking gun yet, but the search for weapons of mass destruction does go on. And this morning we find out the U.S. is stepping up the search.
Let's go live to the Pentagon and Chris Plante to find out how -- good morning.
CHRIS PLANTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Carol.
Well, for openers, the United States is sending in about 1,000 essentially weapons inspectors, they're calling them survey teams, to go into Baghdad and fan across -- into Iraq, rather, and fan out across the country looking for weapons of mass destruction. But also probably more directly talking to people about where these programs may have been ongoing, where the storage facilities may be.
It is a situation where Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has said that they do not expect, really, that they will stumble across these sites, which Iraq has been able to effectively conceal over the course of the past 12 years. But the hope is that once they get a hold of individuals in the regime, senior members of the regime of Saddam Hussein, that they will be able to direct them to the sites where the storage facilities are and where the production facilities are.
Along with this group of 1,000 experts, there will be private contractors, these are civilian contractors, a number of civilian scientists and of course a significant number of U.S. intelligence experts that specialize in various weapons of mass destruction, chemical, biological and nuclear weapons, and interrogators. That is people who are expert in extracting information from people.
These interrogators, intelligence experts hope to discuss the situation with senior members of the regime, a few of which have come into U.S. hands, including, just in the last day or so, the half- brother of Saddam Hussein who has come into the custody of the United States following a special operations raid at his location in the city of Baghdad. That's Barzan Ibrahim Hasan who is the half-brother of Saddam Hussein and has held a number of senior posts within the regime.
It's expected that, or hoped, at least, by U.S. officials, that he will be able to be instrumental in leading these inspectors or the U.S. forces, coalition forces in general, to some of the weapons of mass destruction sites or give them information that will help them in that regard. They're also hoping that this man will be able to help them in locating other senior members of the regime, of course most of whom are not in U.S. hands at this point. It's not clear where many of them are, some may have been killed in some targeted attacks against the senior leadership; but it's not known where, for the most part, these people have ended up.
Also, as you were reporting a bit earlier, we're expecting that the seven POWs, the seven U.S. Army POWs that were taken by the Iraqis during the course of this conflict, will return to the United States tomorrow. Five of those from the 507 Ordnance Maintenance Company, which was Jessica Lynch's company, ambushed. A number of people in that company killed after they made a wrong turn, more taken prisoner.
Jessica Lynch and one additional member of that group wounded during the -- that process, Specialist Shoshana Johnson who we saw had been shot apparently in both feet or both ankles. Some of the details still emerging on that. But we're expecting that they will be back at Fort Hood tomorrow, which is home base to a couple of them, but family members for the rest will be coming in from around the country to greet them there at Fort Hood -- Carol.
COSTELLO: As you'd expect. Chris Plante, live at Pentagon, many thanks to you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
