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CNN Live Saturday
Iraq Begins Destroying Al Samoud 2 Missiles
Aired March 01, 2003 - 15:10 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 LIN, CNN ANCHOR: And now to the possibility of war with Iraq.
Iraq apparently has -- or seemingly has met an important deadline. Today was the deadline, according to Hans Blix, the chief U.N. weapons inspector, for Iraq to start destroying its Al Samoud 2 missiles.
Well, Iraq made the decision to start at least destroying four of them. The weapons stock is anywhere from 100 to 120, according to U.S. intelligence.
So what does this mean in terms of what the Bush Administration may do next or the U.N. Security Council? CNN's senior international correspondent, Nic Robertson, is standing by live in Baghdad with the latest on what happened today -- Nic.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Indeed, Carol, this was a deadline set by the U.N. The U.N. says it doesn't have a specific time frame for this whole process of destruction of all these missiles and other related bits of equipment and manufacturing equipment. It doesn't have a time frame that it wants it to happen in.
But the deadline for the beginning of the destruction was today. Iraqi officials have met that.
It did get off to a slow start, we're told. Originally, the bulldozers that were brought in to destroy the missiles, to crush the missiles, weren't strong enough and Iraqi officials and the U.N. say they had to get heavier equipment.
That equipment was brought in and these Al Samoud 2 missiles were then crushed flat.
Also, we understand that on a parallel track, some of the manufacturing equipment, some casting chambers that are used in the manufacture of the Al Samoud 2 missiles, those have also been dug out from deep concrete pits. They have begun to destroy those, as well, today.
Now, when U.N. officials were asked specifically what would the timeline be for the destruction, they wouldn't give an exact number of days or number of weeks, but they did imply that it was very important for Iraq to carry it out quickly.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DIMITRI PERRICOS, DEPUTY EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN, UNMOVIC: We cannot oblige the Iraqi side to take the same (UNINTELLIGIBLE) that we would like. It is up to them, knowing very well what are the different perspectives out of their actions. That they do accelerate the activities that they are doing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTSON: Now the U.N. says it's also made some progress on other key issues.
For the last three weeks, they've been pushing Iraqi officials very hard to restart the private interviews of Iraqi scientists.
Last night, they held two private interviews, one with a biologist, one with an engineer and they expect those interviews to continue into the future, those interviews, they say, being conducted without tape recordings or at least not in such a way that Iraqi authorities would end up with a tape recording of the interview. That, U.N. officials say, is positive.
The U.N. also says it is expecting to start talks with Iraqi officials on Sunday about a proposal by Iraq to discover how much of its VX and anthrax have been disposed. Now what Iraq is saying, it has a high tech solution to -- that the U.N. experts can test out on some sites where Iraq says it destroyed, disposed of and blew up some of these biological and chemical agents.
The U.N. so far has said it's not sure if this method that Iraq is proposing will work, but they're going to enter into talks Sunday to find out more about that -- Carol.
LIN: Nic, the White House's reaction to today's action by Iraq in beginning to destroy some of its Al Samoud missiles, the White House saying that this is simply a game of deception.
From your vantage point, how serious do you think the Iraqis are in destroying its entire stock of Al Samoud 2 missiles?
ROBERTSON: There are a number of ways, I think, to answer that, Carol.
At one level, we hear from many Iraqi officials at the moment that they're intent on meeting many of the items that they have to achieve under U.N. Resolution 1441. Not only the scientists, not only the past documents on VX and anthrax, they've begun digging up biological bombs they destroyed in 1991, not only these missiles, they do appear to be complying on a number of fronts.
So we hear at one level they are beginning to comply across all these different fronts.
However, there's also a feeling that pervades not only Iraqi officials here but people we talked to in the street, that whatever they do, it's not going to be enough to head off the possibility of war.
The feeling among officials, the feeling among people on the street here, is that U.N. Resolution 1441, as many people keep telling us here, that they see it as a front for a U.S.-led war against Iraq.
And for that reason, despite all these apparent efforts that have apparently begun recently, it's against that backdrop that many here feel whatever they do is not going to be enough, Carol.
LIN: Thank you very much, Nic Robertson, reporting live in Baghdad.
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 March 1, 2003 - 15:10 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: And now to the possibility of war with Iraq.
Iraq apparently has -- or seemingly has met an important deadline. Today was the deadline, according to Hans Blix, the chief U.N. weapons inspector, for Iraq to start destroying its Al Samoud 2 missiles.
Well, Iraq made the decision to start at least destroying four of them. The weapons stock is anywhere from 100 to 120, according to U.S. intelligence.
So what does this mean in terms of what the Bush Administration may do next or the U.N. Security Council? CNN's senior international correspondent, Nic Robertson, is standing by live in Baghdad with the latest on what happened today -- Nic.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Indeed, Carol, this was a deadline set by the U.N. The U.N. says it doesn't have a specific time frame for this whole process of destruction of all these missiles and other related bits of equipment and manufacturing equipment. It doesn't have a time frame that it wants it to happen in.
But the deadline for the beginning of the destruction was today. Iraqi officials have met that.
It did get off to a slow start, we're told. Originally, the bulldozers that were brought in to destroy the missiles, to crush the missiles, weren't strong enough and Iraqi officials and the U.N. say they had to get heavier equipment.
That equipment was brought in and these Al Samoud 2 missiles were then crushed flat.
Also, we understand that on a parallel track, some of the manufacturing equipment, some casting chambers that are used in the manufacture of the Al Samoud 2 missiles, those have also been dug out from deep concrete pits. They have begun to destroy those, as well, today.
Now, when U.N. officials were asked specifically what would the timeline be for the destruction, they wouldn't give an exact number of days or number of weeks, but they did imply that it was very important for Iraq to carry it out quickly.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DIMITRI PERRICOS, DEPUTY EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN, UNMOVIC: We cannot oblige the Iraqi side to take the same (UNINTELLIGIBLE) that we would like. It is up to them, knowing very well what are the different perspectives out of their actions. That they do accelerate the activities that they are doing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTSON: Now the U.N. says it's also made some progress on other key issues.
For the last three weeks, they've been pushing Iraqi officials very hard to restart the private interviews of Iraqi scientists.
Last night, they held two private interviews, one with a biologist, one with an engineer and they expect those interviews to continue into the future, those interviews, they say, being conducted without tape recordings or at least not in such a way that Iraqi authorities would end up with a tape recording of the interview. That, U.N. officials say, is positive.
The U.N. also says it is expecting to start talks with Iraqi officials on Sunday about a proposal by Iraq to discover how much of its VX and anthrax have been disposed. Now what Iraq is saying, it has a high tech solution to -- that the U.N. experts can test out on some sites where Iraq says it destroyed, disposed of and blew up some of these biological and chemical agents.
The U.N. so far has said it's not sure if this method that Iraq is proposing will work, but they're going to enter into talks Sunday to find out more about that -- Carol.
LIN: Nic, the White House's reaction to today's action by Iraq in beginning to destroy some of its Al Samoud missiles, the White House saying that this is simply a game of deception.
From your vantage point, how serious do you think the Iraqis are in destroying its entire stock of Al Samoud 2 missiles?
ROBERTSON: There are a number of ways, I think, to answer that, Carol.
At one level, we hear from many Iraqi officials at the moment that they're intent on meeting many of the items that they have to achieve under U.N. Resolution 1441. Not only the scientists, not only the past documents on VX and anthrax, they've begun digging up biological bombs they destroyed in 1991, not only these missiles, they do appear to be complying on a number of fronts.
So we hear at one level they are beginning to comply across all these different fronts.
However, there's also a feeling that pervades not only Iraqi officials here but people we talked to in the street, that whatever they do, it's not going to be enough to head off the possibility of war.
The feeling among officials, the feeling among people on the street here, is that U.N. Resolution 1441, as many people keep telling us here, that they see it as a front for a U.S.-led war against Iraq.
And for that reason, despite all these apparent efforts that have apparently begun recently, it's against that backdrop that many here feel whatever they do is not going to be enough, Carol.
LIN: Thank you very much, Nic Robertson, reporting live in Baghdad.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
