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CNN Live At Daybreak

Where is the WMD?

Aired June 03, 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.


CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: First to Iraq now and that lingering question many people have -- where are those weapons of mass destruction? As you just heard the U.S. military has a new chief leading the search.
For more, we take you live to Baghdad and Jane Arraf -- good morning, Jane.

JANE ARRAF, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.

Well, U.S. officials say this is a major shift in the hunt for weapons of mass destruction. General Keith Dayton will arrive with some of the members of his team. Now, those members are going to be about 1,200 people from the U.S. military, from defense agencies, from intelligence agencies, as well as from the U.K. and Australia. And the shift is that they will, apparently for the first time, be able to coordinate intelligence.

Now, this team will take over the responsibilities of the former U.N. team and as you mentioned, the question is why have we not found these weapons of mass destruction if they do exist?

Now, the chief U.S. administrator in Iraq, Paul Bremer, spoke to reporters yesterday and he said he believed that although we were seven weeks into the war and nothing had been found, that those banned weapons were still out there.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

L. PAUL BREMER, U.S./IRAQ RECONSTRUCTION ADMINISTRATOR: It is, in my view, a very important priority of the coalition. I think we will, we will find something at some point. It seems very hard to believe that Saddam Hussein would have put his people through the misery he put them through for 12 years, given up billions and billions of dollars of revenue if he didn't have something to hide.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ARRAF: Now, General Dayton has been in charge of what they call human intelligence at the defense agency, which analyzes, which is responsible for analyzing intelligence. And that really seems the way forward. They're going to be looking at known suspected sites, sites they hadn't looked at before. But they will also be speaking to people, both people they consider hostile and friendly, interrogating them., sifting through mounds of documents and just trying to get closer to where banned weapons might be, if, indeed, they do exist -- Carol. COSTELLO: We'll keep following it.

Jane Arraf live from Baghdad this morning.

Of course, the issue remains a sore spot on Capitol Hill. But the Pentagon maintains there are weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and they will be found.

CNN's senior Pentagon correspondent Jamie McIntyre takes a look at if the Bush administration can save face until then.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Colin Powell says his presentation to the United Nations February 5 followed three straight days of preparation, during which he grilled CIA analysts late into the night about the quality of U.S. intelligence. In Rome, Powell says he still stands by that report.

COLIN POWELL, SECRETARY OF STATE: There were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. It wasn't a figment of anyone's imagination.

MCINTYRE: But an administration official tells CNN Powell did have doubts about evidence linking Iraq to al Qaeda and included the reference only after being persuaded by the White House. The failure of the U.S. to find any banned weapons so far has some in Congress calling for hearings into whether the case against Iraq was overstated or even intentionally inflated.

SEN. EVAN BAYH (D-IA), ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE: After all of the facts are in, it looks as if the intelligence was simply wrong. I think we need to do two things. First, get to the bottom of why errors in judgment were made. And secondly, I think there will be a heightened level of skepticism.

MCINTYRE: A CNN/"USA Today"/Gallup poll shows for now two thirds of Americans seem willing to give President Bush the benefit of the doubt. Asked whether the Bush administration deliberately misled the American public about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, 31 percent said yes, it deliberately misled, but 67 percent said no, it did not.

Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair is facing a more skeptical public and criticism from within his own party.

TONY BLAIR, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: And the idea that Saddam Hussein has for 12 years been obstructing the U.N. weapons inspectors, has been engaged in this huge battle with the international community when all the way along he'd actually destroyed these weapons is completely absurd.

MCINTYRE: So, where are the weapons? It's clear intelligence indicating they were deployed on the battlefield was wrong. Some administration officials are saying instead that in an effort to ride out U.N. inspections, Saddam Hussein might have destroyed any large stockpiles and hidden production capability inside dual use commercial facilities. (on camera): New U.S. search teams heading to Iraq this week will focus on finding people and documents to lead them to the banned weapons. But they say just because they haven't found weapons of mass destruction so far doesn't mean they're not there. After all, some might argue, they haven't found Saddam Hussein either, and no one is suggesting that he wasn't really there before the war.

Jamie McIntyre, CNN, the Pentagon.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: And what we're interested in is what former chief weapons inspector Scott Ritter has to say. He's certainly not one to hold back. And he'll be on AMERICAN MORNING. That's coming up in just a bit.

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 June 3, 2003 - 05:03   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: First to Iraq now and that lingering question many people have -- where are those weapons of mass destruction? As you just heard the U.S. military has a new chief leading the search.
For more, we take you live to Baghdad and Jane Arraf -- good morning, Jane.

JANE ARRAF, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.

Well, U.S. officials say this is a major shift in the hunt for weapons of mass destruction. General Keith Dayton will arrive with some of the members of his team. Now, those members are going to be about 1,200 people from the U.S. military, from defense agencies, from intelligence agencies, as well as from the U.K. and Australia. And the shift is that they will, apparently for the first time, be able to coordinate intelligence.

Now, this team will take over the responsibilities of the former U.N. team and as you mentioned, the question is why have we not found these weapons of mass destruction if they do exist?

Now, the chief U.S. administrator in Iraq, Paul Bremer, spoke to reporters yesterday and he said he believed that although we were seven weeks into the war and nothing had been found, that those banned weapons were still out there.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

L. PAUL BREMER, U.S./IRAQ RECONSTRUCTION ADMINISTRATOR: It is, in my view, a very important priority of the coalition. I think we will, we will find something at some point. It seems very hard to believe that Saddam Hussein would have put his people through the misery he put them through for 12 years, given up billions and billions of dollars of revenue if he didn't have something to hide.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ARRAF: Now, General Dayton has been in charge of what they call human intelligence at the defense agency, which analyzes, which is responsible for analyzing intelligence. And that really seems the way forward. They're going to be looking at known suspected sites, sites they hadn't looked at before. But they will also be speaking to people, both people they consider hostile and friendly, interrogating them., sifting through mounds of documents and just trying to get closer to where banned weapons might be, if, indeed, they do exist -- Carol. COSTELLO: We'll keep following it.

Jane Arraf live from Baghdad this morning.

Of course, the issue remains a sore spot on Capitol Hill. But the Pentagon maintains there are weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and they will be found.

CNN's senior Pentagon correspondent Jamie McIntyre takes a look at if the Bush administration can save face until then.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Colin Powell says his presentation to the United Nations February 5 followed three straight days of preparation, during which he grilled CIA analysts late into the night about the quality of U.S. intelligence. In Rome, Powell says he still stands by that report.

COLIN POWELL, SECRETARY OF STATE: There were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. It wasn't a figment of anyone's imagination.

MCINTYRE: But an administration official tells CNN Powell did have doubts about evidence linking Iraq to al Qaeda and included the reference only after being persuaded by the White House. The failure of the U.S. to find any banned weapons so far has some in Congress calling for hearings into whether the case against Iraq was overstated or even intentionally inflated.

SEN. EVAN BAYH (D-IA), ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE: After all of the facts are in, it looks as if the intelligence was simply wrong. I think we need to do two things. First, get to the bottom of why errors in judgment were made. And secondly, I think there will be a heightened level of skepticism.

MCINTYRE: A CNN/"USA Today"/Gallup poll shows for now two thirds of Americans seem willing to give President Bush the benefit of the doubt. Asked whether the Bush administration deliberately misled the American public about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, 31 percent said yes, it deliberately misled, but 67 percent said no, it did not.

Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair is facing a more skeptical public and criticism from within his own party.

TONY BLAIR, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: And the idea that Saddam Hussein has for 12 years been obstructing the U.N. weapons inspectors, has been engaged in this huge battle with the international community when all the way along he'd actually destroyed these weapons is completely absurd.

MCINTYRE: So, where are the weapons? It's clear intelligence indicating they were deployed on the battlefield was wrong. Some administration officials are saying instead that in an effort to ride out U.N. inspections, Saddam Hussein might have destroyed any large stockpiles and hidden production capability inside dual use commercial facilities. (on camera): New U.S. search teams heading to Iraq this week will focus on finding people and documents to lead them to the banned weapons. But they say just because they haven't found weapons of mass destruction so far doesn't mean they're not there. After all, some might argue, they haven't found Saddam Hussein either, and no one is suggesting that he wasn't really there before the war.

Jamie McIntyre, CNN, the Pentagon.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: And what we're interested in is what former chief weapons inspector Scott Ritter has to say. He's certainly not one to hold back. And he'll be on AMERICAN MORNING. That's coming up in just a bit.

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