Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Live Today

Shell in Iraq Found to Have Contained Sarin

Aired May 17, 2004 - 10:44   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.


DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Meanwhile, we've been getting some incredible news out of Iraq. We were listening in. We had to leave it just a little bit early to get Senator Kerry's speech in. But the news briefing today from the Coalition Provisional Authority, Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt making the announcement that a bomb containing sarin was exploded in Baghdad. It was near some U.S. troops. There were no casualties. But of course the development of the us of sarin gas by insurgents in Iraq. it is a huge development. Our David Ensor is working on that. And we'll much more on that just ahead.
Right now, time for a break right here on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: Want to get back to our developing story out of Iraq. Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt in the news briefing held within the last announcing that U.S. forces have found an exploded artillery shell that was emitting sarin gas. With more on that, let's bring our David Ensor in. he is in Washington, D.C. more on this -- David.

DAVID ENSOR, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Daryn, quite a surprising announcement there from General Kimmitt in Iraq. Of course, most people have been assuming at this point there were going to be no weapons of mass destruction found in Iraq. But it looks as if one has actually been used in one of those improvised explosives that insurgents have been trying to use against Americans and the other coalition forces in Iraq.

Here is how General Kimmitt described the finding.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRIG. GEN. MARK KIMMITT, U.S. ARMY: Iraqi Survey Group confirmed today that 155-millimeter artillery round containing sarin nerve agent had been found. The round had been rigged as an IED was which discovered by a U.S. force convoy. A detonation occurred before the IED could be rendered inoperable. It's produced a very small disbursal of agent.

The round was an old binary-type requiring the mixing of two components in separate sections of the cell before the deadly agent is produced. The cell is designed to work after being fired from an artillery piece mixing a disbursal of the agent from such a projectile as an IED is very limited.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ENSOR: U.S. intelligence officials say that the Iraqi Survey Group, which is headed by Charles Dulfer, the CIA-led group that is looking for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, has confirmed at least initially that this shell did, indeed, contain sarin, which of course is a nerve gas that was used by Iraq in chemical weapons that it admitted to having at the end of the Gulf War.

Now, it of course had said it had no further weapons of that sort. But this findings suggests that there may be additional shells and the Iraq working group, the Iraq Survey Group, is now very much on the lookout for them.

This shell was not marked in any way. And the working hypothesis of U.S. officials at this point is that the insurgents who used the shell as part of an improvised explosive device did not realize they were using a shell that had sarin gas in it. And the fear is that there may be a lot of additional shells that also may contain it, since they aren't marked.

Now 10 days ago, U.S. officials found another shell which they now have said they believe contained mustard gas, another chemical weapon.

So this, on the one hand, causes concern that there may be additional attacks by insurgents using these kinds of shells which have the additional danger, because they have chemical weapons in them, but secondly, it also suggests that there may be weapons of mass destruction in Iraq after all.

Now no one is suggesting that this is any kind of evidence that Iraq was producing, was newly producing in recent years chemical weapons, but it is evidence there was a stockpile of old weapons still there.

A couple of the soldiers who were involved in transporting this discovery, this exploded shell back to where it could be inspected and checked out into a laboratory have suffered, we are told, minor health problems caused by the sarin gas -- Daryn.

KAGAN: David, isn't it significant that the shell was unmarked, therefore, the source, we're hearing reports that insurgents could be coming into Iraq from other countries, from Iran, from other places, perhaps there is a chance that this is not of Iraqi origin?

ENSOR: Well, that's very unlikely. This is a fairly bulky object, and I gather it is considered to be -- it looks like it is an Iraqi shell.

The problem is, is that there are so many -- there is so much unexploded ordnance in Iraq all around the country, and given this one isn't marked, there may be many other shells that could contain mustard or sarin gas that are out there, and are unmarked so that they'd be harder to find, and now they're showing up because they're being exploded -- Daryn. KAGAN: David Ensor, we'll have much more with you on the discovery of the shell and what it might mean in the battle in Iraq ahead.

Also mentioned in today's news conference, the assassination of Izzadine Saleem, who was the head of the Coalition Provisional Authority, assassinated by a suicide bomber. A lot of questions in the news conference about security that was provided by the Coalition Provision.

With reaction to that, let's go to the Dana Bash now. Our Dana Bash standing by -- Dana.

DANA BASH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Daryn, some very familiar words and phrases coming from this White House this morning as they have dealt with the ongoing violence in Iraq over the past few months. A senior administration official saying, quote, "We condemn this shocking and vile act. It was a tragic loss. The forces who hope to halt Iraq's march toward freedom and democracy will be defeated. The Iraqi people will insure that MR. Saleem's vision of a free, Democratic prosperous Iraq will become a reality.

Now this of course as we've been reporting all morning comes at a very critical time for the administration. Senior officials have been working around the globe. The secretary of state was in Jordan over the weekend, talking to Arab leaders, and the national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice was in Russia, and then Europe. She's actually in Berlin today, talking to some of her counterparts about the whole question of how they can find international consensus for transferring sovereignty to Iraq. That deadline is in six weeks, and as you heard from that statement, the White House maintains, they are sticking to that deadline. But there are lots of questions, not as many answers, on how exactly they're going to achieve that and what kind of support they're going to get from the world and of course from inside Iraq, who the political leaders will be, and this particular killing might make it harder for them to find who the leaders are will be, at least for the caretaker government, before the elections happen, and they are still saying that will happen in January 2005 -- Daryn.

KAGAN: All right, Dana Bash at the White House. Thank you.

Now as we mentioned earlier, President Bush will be in Topeka, Kansas later today on the 50th anniversary decision of the Supreme Court decision of Brown versus Board of Education.

We're going to check in on business news just ahead. Right now, a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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 May 17, 2004 - 10:44   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Meanwhile, we've been getting some incredible news out of Iraq. We were listening in. We had to leave it just a little bit early to get Senator Kerry's speech in. But the news briefing today from the Coalition Provisional Authority, Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt making the announcement that a bomb containing sarin was exploded in Baghdad. It was near some U.S. troops. There were no casualties. But of course the development of the us of sarin gas by insurgents in Iraq. it is a huge development. Our David Ensor is working on that. And we'll much more on that just ahead.
Right now, time for a break right here on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: Want to get back to our developing story out of Iraq. Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt in the news briefing held within the last announcing that U.S. forces have found an exploded artillery shell that was emitting sarin gas. With more on that, let's bring our David Ensor in. he is in Washington, D.C. more on this -- David.

DAVID ENSOR, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Daryn, quite a surprising announcement there from General Kimmitt in Iraq. Of course, most people have been assuming at this point there were going to be no weapons of mass destruction found in Iraq. But it looks as if one has actually been used in one of those improvised explosives that insurgents have been trying to use against Americans and the other coalition forces in Iraq.

Here is how General Kimmitt described the finding.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRIG. GEN. MARK KIMMITT, U.S. ARMY: Iraqi Survey Group confirmed today that 155-millimeter artillery round containing sarin nerve agent had been found. The round had been rigged as an IED was which discovered by a U.S. force convoy. A detonation occurred before the IED could be rendered inoperable. It's produced a very small disbursal of agent.

The round was an old binary-type requiring the mixing of two components in separate sections of the cell before the deadly agent is produced. The cell is designed to work after being fired from an artillery piece mixing a disbursal of the agent from such a projectile as an IED is very limited.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ENSOR: U.S. intelligence officials say that the Iraqi Survey Group, which is headed by Charles Dulfer, the CIA-led group that is looking for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, has confirmed at least initially that this shell did, indeed, contain sarin, which of course is a nerve gas that was used by Iraq in chemical weapons that it admitted to having at the end of the Gulf War.

Now, it of course had said it had no further weapons of that sort. But this findings suggests that there may be additional shells and the Iraq working group, the Iraq Survey Group, is now very much on the lookout for them.

This shell was not marked in any way. And the working hypothesis of U.S. officials at this point is that the insurgents who used the shell as part of an improvised explosive device did not realize they were using a shell that had sarin gas in it. And the fear is that there may be a lot of additional shells that also may contain it, since they aren't marked.

Now 10 days ago, U.S. officials found another shell which they now have said they believe contained mustard gas, another chemical weapon.

So this, on the one hand, causes concern that there may be additional attacks by insurgents using these kinds of shells which have the additional danger, because they have chemical weapons in them, but secondly, it also suggests that there may be weapons of mass destruction in Iraq after all.

Now no one is suggesting that this is any kind of evidence that Iraq was producing, was newly producing in recent years chemical weapons, but it is evidence there was a stockpile of old weapons still there.

A couple of the soldiers who were involved in transporting this discovery, this exploded shell back to where it could be inspected and checked out into a laboratory have suffered, we are told, minor health problems caused by the sarin gas -- Daryn.

KAGAN: David, isn't it significant that the shell was unmarked, therefore, the source, we're hearing reports that insurgents could be coming into Iraq from other countries, from Iran, from other places, perhaps there is a chance that this is not of Iraqi origin?

ENSOR: Well, that's very unlikely. This is a fairly bulky object, and I gather it is considered to be -- it looks like it is an Iraqi shell.

The problem is, is that there are so many -- there is so much unexploded ordnance in Iraq all around the country, and given this one isn't marked, there may be many other shells that could contain mustard or sarin gas that are out there, and are unmarked so that they'd be harder to find, and now they're showing up because they're being exploded -- Daryn. KAGAN: David Ensor, we'll have much more with you on the discovery of the shell and what it might mean in the battle in Iraq ahead.

Also mentioned in today's news conference, the assassination of Izzadine Saleem, who was the head of the Coalition Provisional Authority, assassinated by a suicide bomber. A lot of questions in the news conference about security that was provided by the Coalition Provision.

With reaction to that, let's go to the Dana Bash now. Our Dana Bash standing by -- Dana.

DANA BASH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Daryn, some very familiar words and phrases coming from this White House this morning as they have dealt with the ongoing violence in Iraq over the past few months. A senior administration official saying, quote, "We condemn this shocking and vile act. It was a tragic loss. The forces who hope to halt Iraq's march toward freedom and democracy will be defeated. The Iraqi people will insure that MR. Saleem's vision of a free, Democratic prosperous Iraq will become a reality.

Now this of course as we've been reporting all morning comes at a very critical time for the administration. Senior officials have been working around the globe. The secretary of state was in Jordan over the weekend, talking to Arab leaders, and the national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice was in Russia, and then Europe. She's actually in Berlin today, talking to some of her counterparts about the whole question of how they can find international consensus for transferring sovereignty to Iraq. That deadline is in six weeks, and as you heard from that statement, the White House maintains, they are sticking to that deadline. But there are lots of questions, not as many answers, on how exactly they're going to achieve that and what kind of support they're going to get from the world and of course from inside Iraq, who the political leaders will be, and this particular killing might make it harder for them to find who the leaders are will be, at least for the caretaker government, before the elections happen, and they are still saying that will happen in January 2005 -- Daryn.

KAGAN: All right, Dana Bash at the White House. Thank you.

Now as we mentioned earlier, President Bush will be in Topeka, Kansas later today on the 50th anniversary decision of the Supreme Court decision of Brown versus Board of Education.

We're going to check in on business news just ahead. Right now, a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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