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CNN Live At Daybreak

More Tests Being Conducted in Northern Iraq

Aired April 28, 2003 - 05:06   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: More tests are being conducted in northern Iraq on what could be the smoking gun. A 55 gallon drum was found with what could be a mixture of nerve and blister agents.
For more on that story, we take you right to CNN's Nic Robertson -- good morning, Nic.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.

Well, the site here that I'm at just about 130 miles north of Baghdad, outside a small town called Barji, is a very remote site, very different to the sites that have been suspected chemical weapons agents have previously been discovered at.

Now, what the First Squadron of the 10th Calvary discovered when they came here on a tip off from U.S. forces were 14 55-gallon drums containing a suspect agent. They opened one of these drums. They performed three different tests -- a paper litmus test, if you will; a chemical sniffing test using complex equipment and a mass spectrometer test.

Those tests concluded the following results -- a positive test for Blister Agent H; a positive test for Cyclosarin, a nerve agent; and a probable indication that the blister agent could be mustard gas. That is only probable at this time.

Now, once the First Squadron of the 10th Calvary had found their results, they called in the next team, the sensitive site exploitation team. They also got positive results on the -- for the same accounts, for a blister agent, for a nerve agent. The sensitive site team then called in the mobile exploitation team. This has been the most senior team to come and investigate this site so far.

Now, this latest team, the most senior team, have only come away with negative results, negative for blister agent, negative for the nerve agent. However, samples have been taken away from this site for analysis in the United States, analysis elsewhere with more sensitive equipment in Iraq. And at this time, the First Squadron of the 10th Calvary are still guarding this site, because the results are not yet known. Therefore, they are waiting to find opened out whether or not this really is the smoking gun, whether or not there really are chemical weapons here.

What has made this site more interesting to the 10th Calvary over the other sites that have been investigated in Iraq, it is a remote site. It has apparently a military application. There are two mobile laboratories here with units on them designed for mixing chemicals. There are a number of missiles on this site. We've seen several dozen missiles so far.

COSTELLO: Nic, I'm going to test your scientific knowledge right now, but why is it so difficult to figure out what this stuff is? They had two positive readings and a negative. Why does that happen sometimes?

ROBERTSON: It's a possible -- it's possibly that the equipment that is being used for the sampling in the field here is not designed to differentiate between a mixture of chemicals such as this. What there appears to be in the drum so far, they're discovering, is a blister agent and a nerve agent. That is, perhaps, not what the equipment was designed to test.

The mass spectrometer is coming up, they say, with very high readings for the nerve agent. The litmus paper tests, the sniffing test is coming up with very high readings for a blister agent.

But missile rocket fuel also is a blister agent. So therefore they say why would we see a nerve agent mixed in with that? So it's possibly a mixture of chemicals. It is possible that the equipment being used is not designed for this type of chemical concoction that they're discovering.

COSTELLO: All right, we understand.

We'll check back with you throughout DAYBREAK.

Thank you.

Nic Robertson reporting from near Baghdad 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 28, 2003 - 05:06   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: More tests are being conducted in northern Iraq on what could be the smoking gun. A 55 gallon drum was found with what could be a mixture of nerve and blister agents.
For more on that story, we take you right to CNN's Nic Robertson -- good morning, Nic.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.

Well, the site here that I'm at just about 130 miles north of Baghdad, outside a small town called Barji, is a very remote site, very different to the sites that have been suspected chemical weapons agents have previously been discovered at.

Now, what the First Squadron of the 10th Calvary discovered when they came here on a tip off from U.S. forces were 14 55-gallon drums containing a suspect agent. They opened one of these drums. They performed three different tests -- a paper litmus test, if you will; a chemical sniffing test using complex equipment and a mass spectrometer test.

Those tests concluded the following results -- a positive test for Blister Agent H; a positive test for Cyclosarin, a nerve agent; and a probable indication that the blister agent could be mustard gas. That is only probable at this time.

Now, once the First Squadron of the 10th Calvary had found their results, they called in the next team, the sensitive site exploitation team. They also got positive results on the -- for the same accounts, for a blister agent, for a nerve agent. The sensitive site team then called in the mobile exploitation team. This has been the most senior team to come and investigate this site so far.

Now, this latest team, the most senior team, have only come away with negative results, negative for blister agent, negative for the nerve agent. However, samples have been taken away from this site for analysis in the United States, analysis elsewhere with more sensitive equipment in Iraq. And at this time, the First Squadron of the 10th Calvary are still guarding this site, because the results are not yet known. Therefore, they are waiting to find opened out whether or not this really is the smoking gun, whether or not there really are chemical weapons here.

What has made this site more interesting to the 10th Calvary over the other sites that have been investigated in Iraq, it is a remote site. It has apparently a military application. There are two mobile laboratories here with units on them designed for mixing chemicals. There are a number of missiles on this site. We've seen several dozen missiles so far.

COSTELLO: Nic, I'm going to test your scientific knowledge right now, but why is it so difficult to figure out what this stuff is? They had two positive readings and a negative. Why does that happen sometimes?

ROBERTSON: It's a possible -- it's possibly that the equipment that is being used for the sampling in the field here is not designed to differentiate between a mixture of chemicals such as this. What there appears to be in the drum so far, they're discovering, is a blister agent and a nerve agent. That is, perhaps, not what the equipment was designed to test.

The mass spectrometer is coming up, they say, with very high readings for the nerve agent. The litmus paper tests, the sniffing test is coming up with very high readings for a blister agent.

But missile rocket fuel also is a blister agent. So therefore they say why would we see a nerve agent mixed in with that? So it's possibly a mixture of chemicals. It is possible that the equipment being used is not designed for this type of chemical concoction that they're discovering.

COSTELLO: All right, we understand.

We'll check back with you throughout DAYBREAK.

Thank you.

Nic Robertson reporting from near Baghdad 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