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CNN Live At Daybreak

Nuclear Inspectors Return to Baghdad

Aired June 06, 2003 - 05:02   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: We begin with deja vu in Iraq. U.N. nuclear inspectors are back in Baghdad. But this time they're not looking for weapons of mass destruction. Instead, they have another special mission.
Let's go live to Baghdad now and check in with Jane Arraf -- Jane, why are they coming back?

JANE ARRAF, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Carol, it is a special mission, as you mentioned, and a huge problem. These are safety experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency. That's based in Vienna and it basically oversees nuclear plants and nuclear programs around the world.

Now, they're coming here on a very tight leash. The United States has made clear that it is not going to allow any more nuclear inspections that it doesn't do itself. But it is letting the IAEA come here to oversee the safety of one facility. That's Tuwaitha. It was a major nuclear center, the site of a secret program, bombed by the Israelis in 1981, heavily damaged in 1991 during the Gulf War. And the only thing that was left there were barrels of things like naturally occurring uranium and low enriched uranium.

Now, by themselves, these were not enough to be able to create any kind of bomb. But they were radioactive and they were kept under seal by this organization that's coming.

Now, the problem is that place had been looted and villagers were taking away the barrels that held this stuff and using the barrels to hold water in, radioactive in themselves. So it's a huge safety problem. This team is coming to address that. But they will be operating under very strict guidelines -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Yes, I was just going to ask you about that again, because the United States was so dead set against allowing any sort of weapons inspector types to be back in Iraq, but now they're back.

ARRAF: Well, these are more safety experts than actual inspectors. And the inspection part of it will really be taken over by the U.S., which is sending in another team of 1,200 people. Now, the general attached to that has already arrived and he comes from the intelligence community, from the Defense Department Intelligence Analysis. They're going to be doing inspections in a whole new way and as you know, the point of this on the U.S. side and the British side is actually to show that there have been weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, which was really the major rationale for starting this war. Now, Hans Blix, who is the U.N. weapons inspector who's out of a job at the end of the month, has said that there is no evidence that there were weapons. Lots of unanswered questions. So a major difference of opinion there -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right, Jane Arraf live from 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 June 6, 2003 - 05:02   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: We begin with deja vu in Iraq. U.N. nuclear inspectors are back in Baghdad. But this time they're not looking for weapons of mass destruction. Instead, they have another special mission.
Let's go live to Baghdad now and check in with Jane Arraf -- Jane, why are they coming back?

JANE ARRAF, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Carol, it is a special mission, as you mentioned, and a huge problem. These are safety experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency. That's based in Vienna and it basically oversees nuclear plants and nuclear programs around the world.

Now, they're coming here on a very tight leash. The United States has made clear that it is not going to allow any more nuclear inspections that it doesn't do itself. But it is letting the IAEA come here to oversee the safety of one facility. That's Tuwaitha. It was a major nuclear center, the site of a secret program, bombed by the Israelis in 1981, heavily damaged in 1991 during the Gulf War. And the only thing that was left there were barrels of things like naturally occurring uranium and low enriched uranium.

Now, by themselves, these were not enough to be able to create any kind of bomb. But they were radioactive and they were kept under seal by this organization that's coming.

Now, the problem is that place had been looted and villagers were taking away the barrels that held this stuff and using the barrels to hold water in, radioactive in themselves. So it's a huge safety problem. This team is coming to address that. But they will be operating under very strict guidelines -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Yes, I was just going to ask you about that again, because the United States was so dead set against allowing any sort of weapons inspector types to be back in Iraq, but now they're back.

ARRAF: Well, these are more safety experts than actual inspectors. And the inspection part of it will really be taken over by the U.S., which is sending in another team of 1,200 people. Now, the general attached to that has already arrived and he comes from the intelligence community, from the Defense Department Intelligence Analysis. They're going to be doing inspections in a whole new way and as you know, the point of this on the U.S. side and the British side is actually to show that there have been weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, which was really the major rationale for starting this war. Now, Hans Blix, who is the U.N. weapons inspector who's out of a job at the end of the month, has said that there is no evidence that there were weapons. Lots of unanswered questions. So a major difference of opinion there -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right, Jane Arraf live from 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