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CNN Live Saturday

Iraq Delivers Weapons of Mass Destruction Declaration

Aired December 07, 2002 - 16:02   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.


KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Earlier in the day the world got a chance to see the long-awaited Iraqi declaration about the weapons of mass destruction. The documents were delivered to weapons inspectors in Iraq. As Nic Robertson reports, journalists were very eager to get a look at that report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): So intense, the pressure to get the first pictures of Iraq's declaration of weapons of mass destruction, journalists jockeying for position broke windows.

Finally, inside, laid out in orderly rows, the paperwork the world has been waiting to see. Document upon document on A4 sized- paper, some labeled currently accurate. Others titled, "Full And Complete Declaration".

In total, 11,807 pages, plus 529 megabytes of data on CD-ROMS, ready to be handed over to U.N. Officials. Journalists were not allowed to open the documents to read what's inside. The inclination in this room, likely defining for many governments, Iraq's compliance with U.N. Resolution 1441.

ROBERTSON (on camera): Iraqi officials say producing this declaration has been a huge project involving the work of more than 100 scientists. Indeed, they say, barely 24 hours before the declaration's handover, they've been fine-tuning its details.

(voice over): It is, Iraqi officials insist, enough to prevent war.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This declaration satisfies, certifies our country's (ph) position of the Resolution 1441, and this should prevent any threat against Iraq.

ROBERTSON: But when asked if the document would answer U.N. questions, such as what happened to the 500 bombs designed for delivering chemicals and biological weapons? Questions still unresolved since inspectors left in 1998, this response --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, I cannot give you the detailed information of the declarations before it arrives at the Security Council.

ROBERTSON: General Amin (ph) reasserted that Iraq has no weapons of mass destruction, and he challenged the United States to give the declaration a careful review.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think if the United States has the minimum level of fairness and braveness, it should accept the report. And say yes, this is the truth.

ROBERTSON: Despite the focus on the declaration, inspectors were still at work visiting two more sites, apparently with good cooperation from Iraqi officials. How easy their job continues to be is now defined on the pages already beginning their journey to New York from Vienna.

Nic Robertson, CNN, Baghdad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Just when will the Bush administration get its hands on that Iraqi report? And will it be enough to prevent war? For that we turn CNN's State Department correspondent Andrea Koppel -- Andrea.

ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN STATE DEPT. CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, nobody here within the Bush administration knows when it will get its hands on those documents. I've spoken to a number of different sources. Someone have said, oh, maybe we'll get it Sunday night, another Monday. Some said it would be a matter of days.

The reason there is some confusion is that the U.N. Security Council, which the U.N. obviously -- the U.S. is a member, decided yesterday that Hans Blix and other weapons inspectors would get to screen all the documents before they would be disseminated to other Security Council members.

Nevertheless, the Bush administration today did issue a statement reacting to the declaration out of the White House. A statement from the White House press secretary saying that the Iraqi regime did submit this, what it claims is a declaration of its programs to develop WMD. Said that according to Resolution 1441, Iraq must have a current, accurate, full and complete declaration. And said they're going to analyze the declaration with respect to its credibility and compliance.

Now, the U.S. diplomatic strategy is the following -- right now, what it's doing is, it's putting pressure on Hans Blix to step up, not only the intensity of the inspections in Iraq but also to start interviewing some of those Iraqi scientists. Take them out of Iraq, if necessary, with their families, if necessary, a whole bunch of them. Because, one source told me, that the administration believes that is the key to unlocking the secret of whether or not Baghdad does, in fact, have a weapons program.

There is another part to this strategy, Kyra. That is the diplomatic side. What you've had in the last number of days are high- level diplomatic missions. You've had Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, who has gone to Turkey, that is Iraq's northern neighbor, to talk about perhaps giving a huge aid package to Turkey, help it get into the European Union in exchange for use of air bases and perhaps even stage U.S. troops there. You also have Secretary of State Powell's deputy heading out to China, to Russia. These are permanent members of the U.N. Security Council. At the same time that you have General Tommy Franks in Qatar, and he's there because he's going to be staging this war game. So it's keeping up the psychological pressure on Saddam Hussein while the U.S. eventually gets to take a look at those documents, analyze them Kyra. And compare them with the intelligence the U.S. has that it says will prove that Saddam Hussein is in breach of the U.N. Security Council -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Live from the State Department, Andrea Koppel. Thank you.

More than 12,000 pages of materials that make up that Iraqi declaration will be flown out of Iraq tomorrow on a United Nations plane and delivered at the U.N. headquarters in New York City later in the day. Michael Okwu joins us from the United Nations with the latest reactions from there.

And then, Michael, what happens?

MICHAEL OKWU, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I can tell you right now that that is the $60,000 question. But for the better part of today the United Nations has certainly not felt like the major focal point of an international news story. But that may belie the feelings and concerns of the diplomatic residents and missions all around this city.

Essentially, the ambassadors on the Security Council are very eager to get their hands on this document. But chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix has made it very clear that he will review the declaration and extract sensitive information before members of the Security Council can view it.

Blix, acting on the behalf of the council, expressed concern about providing a manual for weapons of mass destruction. What, basically, some inspectors in the past have referred to as cookbooks.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID ALBRIGHT, FMR. WEAPONS INSPECTOR: The other aspect is that these declarations usually are loaded with the names of companies, because that's always been a requirement. You've got an item from overseas? Well, who supplied it? And it's been very difficult for the member states of the United Nations or the Security Council to allow these documents to be made public, because they're intensely embarrassing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

OKWU: Blix will be meeting members of the Security Council at a luncheon on Tuesday where they hope they will get a much more clear sense from him about when they can actually get their hands on the document. A Western diplomatic source, however, telling us that Blix will likely not have anything of real substance ton say to them until the week of the 16th. In the meantime, the Iraqi ambassador, Mohammed Aldouri, making his way out of his residence this morning, on his way to the mission, paused for our cameras.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MOHAMMED ALDOURI, IRAQI AMBASSADOR: We have two aims for them, two goals for them. The first one is peace. We want peace. We want to avoid war by any price.

And the other side, you have United States and British want this war. So the ultimate goal for Iraq is to avoid the war. The second one is to satisfy the Security Council and the international opinion that Iraq is cleared from any kind of mass destruction weapon. This is the most important.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

OKWU: No official comment out of the United Nations today. We expect that when the document gets here, at some point tomorrow night -- on Sunday, that the secretary-general might make some sort of a statement. But in the meantime, there are a lot of things to do. Hans Blix and the rest of the Security Council eventually having to go through this very long document. So when all of this will be resolved, looks like it will be weeks rather than days -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Michael Okwu, live from the U.N. Thank 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 December 7, 2002 - 16:02   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Earlier in the day the world got a chance to see the long-awaited Iraqi declaration about the weapons of mass destruction. The documents were delivered to weapons inspectors in Iraq. As Nic Robertson reports, journalists were very eager to get a look at that report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): So intense, the pressure to get the first pictures of Iraq's declaration of weapons of mass destruction, journalists jockeying for position broke windows.

Finally, inside, laid out in orderly rows, the paperwork the world has been waiting to see. Document upon document on A4 sized- paper, some labeled currently accurate. Others titled, "Full And Complete Declaration".

In total, 11,807 pages, plus 529 megabytes of data on CD-ROMS, ready to be handed over to U.N. Officials. Journalists were not allowed to open the documents to read what's inside. The inclination in this room, likely defining for many governments, Iraq's compliance with U.N. Resolution 1441.

ROBERTSON (on camera): Iraqi officials say producing this declaration has been a huge project involving the work of more than 100 scientists. Indeed, they say, barely 24 hours before the declaration's handover, they've been fine-tuning its details.

(voice over): It is, Iraqi officials insist, enough to prevent war.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This declaration satisfies, certifies our country's (ph) position of the Resolution 1441, and this should prevent any threat against Iraq.

ROBERTSON: But when asked if the document would answer U.N. questions, such as what happened to the 500 bombs designed for delivering chemicals and biological weapons? Questions still unresolved since inspectors left in 1998, this response --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, I cannot give you the detailed information of the declarations before it arrives at the Security Council.

ROBERTSON: General Amin (ph) reasserted that Iraq has no weapons of mass destruction, and he challenged the United States to give the declaration a careful review.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think if the United States has the minimum level of fairness and braveness, it should accept the report. And say yes, this is the truth.

ROBERTSON: Despite the focus on the declaration, inspectors were still at work visiting two more sites, apparently with good cooperation from Iraqi officials. How easy their job continues to be is now defined on the pages already beginning their journey to New York from Vienna.

Nic Robertson, CNN, Baghdad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Just when will the Bush administration get its hands on that Iraqi report? And will it be enough to prevent war? For that we turn CNN's State Department correspondent Andrea Koppel -- Andrea.

ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN STATE DEPT. CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, nobody here within the Bush administration knows when it will get its hands on those documents. I've spoken to a number of different sources. Someone have said, oh, maybe we'll get it Sunday night, another Monday. Some said it would be a matter of days.

The reason there is some confusion is that the U.N. Security Council, which the U.N. obviously -- the U.S. is a member, decided yesterday that Hans Blix and other weapons inspectors would get to screen all the documents before they would be disseminated to other Security Council members.

Nevertheless, the Bush administration today did issue a statement reacting to the declaration out of the White House. A statement from the White House press secretary saying that the Iraqi regime did submit this, what it claims is a declaration of its programs to develop WMD. Said that according to Resolution 1441, Iraq must have a current, accurate, full and complete declaration. And said they're going to analyze the declaration with respect to its credibility and compliance.

Now, the U.S. diplomatic strategy is the following -- right now, what it's doing is, it's putting pressure on Hans Blix to step up, not only the intensity of the inspections in Iraq but also to start interviewing some of those Iraqi scientists. Take them out of Iraq, if necessary, with their families, if necessary, a whole bunch of them. Because, one source told me, that the administration believes that is the key to unlocking the secret of whether or not Baghdad does, in fact, have a weapons program.

There is another part to this strategy, Kyra. That is the diplomatic side. What you've had in the last number of days are high- level diplomatic missions. You've had Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, who has gone to Turkey, that is Iraq's northern neighbor, to talk about perhaps giving a huge aid package to Turkey, help it get into the European Union in exchange for use of air bases and perhaps even stage U.S. troops there. You also have Secretary of State Powell's deputy heading out to China, to Russia. These are permanent members of the U.N. Security Council. At the same time that you have General Tommy Franks in Qatar, and he's there because he's going to be staging this war game. So it's keeping up the psychological pressure on Saddam Hussein while the U.S. eventually gets to take a look at those documents, analyze them Kyra. And compare them with the intelligence the U.S. has that it says will prove that Saddam Hussein is in breach of the U.N. Security Council -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Live from the State Department, Andrea Koppel. Thank you.

More than 12,000 pages of materials that make up that Iraqi declaration will be flown out of Iraq tomorrow on a United Nations plane and delivered at the U.N. headquarters in New York City later in the day. Michael Okwu joins us from the United Nations with the latest reactions from there.

And then, Michael, what happens?

MICHAEL OKWU, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I can tell you right now that that is the $60,000 question. But for the better part of today the United Nations has certainly not felt like the major focal point of an international news story. But that may belie the feelings and concerns of the diplomatic residents and missions all around this city.

Essentially, the ambassadors on the Security Council are very eager to get their hands on this document. But chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix has made it very clear that he will review the declaration and extract sensitive information before members of the Security Council can view it.

Blix, acting on the behalf of the council, expressed concern about providing a manual for weapons of mass destruction. What, basically, some inspectors in the past have referred to as cookbooks.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID ALBRIGHT, FMR. WEAPONS INSPECTOR: The other aspect is that these declarations usually are loaded with the names of companies, because that's always been a requirement. You've got an item from overseas? Well, who supplied it? And it's been very difficult for the member states of the United Nations or the Security Council to allow these documents to be made public, because they're intensely embarrassing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

OKWU: Blix will be meeting members of the Security Council at a luncheon on Tuesday where they hope they will get a much more clear sense from him about when they can actually get their hands on the document. A Western diplomatic source, however, telling us that Blix will likely not have anything of real substance ton say to them until the week of the 16th. In the meantime, the Iraqi ambassador, Mohammed Aldouri, making his way out of his residence this morning, on his way to the mission, paused for our cameras.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MOHAMMED ALDOURI, IRAQI AMBASSADOR: We have two aims for them, two goals for them. The first one is peace. We want peace. We want to avoid war by any price.

And the other side, you have United States and British want this war. So the ultimate goal for Iraq is to avoid the war. The second one is to satisfy the Security Council and the international opinion that Iraq is cleared from any kind of mass destruction weapon. This is the most important.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

OKWU: No official comment out of the United Nations today. We expect that when the document gets here, at some point tomorrow night -- on Sunday, that the secretary-general might make some sort of a statement. But in the meantime, there are a lot of things to do. Hans Blix and the rest of the Security Council eventually having to go through this very long document. So when all of this will be resolved, looks like it will be weeks rather than days -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Michael Okwu, live from the U.N. Thank 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