Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Live Saturday
Iraq Destroys Six More Al Samoud 2 Missiles
Aired March 08, 2003 - 15:11 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.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Iraq says it has destroyed six more Al Samoud 2 weapons today. CNN senior international correspondent Nic Robertson is in Baghdad with the very latest from there. And Nic, Iraq says it has destroyed now 40 Al Samoud 2 weapons altogether. The U.N. is confirming that number?
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: They are, indeed. Six today, including three warheads. That's about one-third now of Iraq's total arsenal of Al Samoud 2 missiles. Iraq has declared they have about 120 of those missiles. The U.N. also says today that they've now interviewed an 11th Iraqi scientist in a private interview. That was -- that's the 11th over the last three months.
Now, Iraq's news agency today also reporting that west of Baghdad, what they call a civilian and service infrastructure was hit by coalition aircraft flying in the northern -- flying in the southern no-fly zone.
Now, at approximately the same time, Central Command confirms that in the same region, they struck an air defense facility that was targeting aircraft flying in that region. But what Iraq's news agency is saying, they are saying that yesterday, there were 225 what they call armed violations of their airspace, patrols of the northern and southern no-fly zone.
Now, if we compare that figure to about a month ago, the figure that Iraq's news agency was reporting was about 100 of those such flights a day. About two or three months ago, it was anywhere between 20 and 70 such flights; 225 are a significant increase, according to Iraq's news agency, of these -- what they call illegal sorties over their airspace, patrolling by coalition aircraft of the northern and southern no-fly zones.
We've also seen today some fairly positive reaction from Iraqi officials towards Hans Blix and Mohamed ElBaradei, the two U.N. weapons chief speeches at the U.N. Security Council, but President Saddam Hussein, meeting with top politicians today, said that it was time for some changes, said that it was clear to governments around the world that the United States and Great Britain were trying to cover up Iraq's cooperation with the U.N. weapons inspectors, and he said it was time for the U.N. Security Council to call the United States and Great Britain liars, to lift the embargo against Iraq, to enforce Resolution 687 and paragraph 14 that calls for getting rid of all weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, and the Iraqi news announcer reading that, said -- pointing in particular to Israel. Also calling for Israel to pull out of Palestinian areas. A very strong statement against the United States and against Great Britain coming from Iraq's leadership today -- Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: And, Nic, let's continue to look head, if we can, to Monday. If Iraq is saying that it just might produce evidence of its destruction of chemical and biological weapons to the U.N. on Monday, if it had that, wouldn't it have done it already? Isn't that the conventional thinking?
ROBERTSON: Well, what Iraq is going to do on Monday, the report the U.N. is expecting them to give is a report that is going to tell the U.N. how to analyze soil samples where Iraq said it got rid of anthrax, where it got rid of VX nerve agent.
Now the U.N. has already said that it doesn't believe Iraq's analysis can give verifiable results. It says the DNA sampling and the high tech equipment that it will take to do that DNA sampling just won't be able to tell how much of these biological and chemical agents Iraq got rid of.
This is a second time Iraq will have put this report forward. However, the way the U.N. views it, they view this cooperation as good cooperation, and they've said that they welcome it, but what they've also said they want is more documents, full access to scientists and they say that they're going to begin soon asking for those private interviews outside of the country -- Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: Nic, thank you very much from 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 8, 2003 - 15:11 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Iraq says it has destroyed six more Al Samoud 2 weapons today. CNN senior international correspondent Nic Robertson is in Baghdad with the very latest from there. And Nic, Iraq says it has destroyed now 40 Al Samoud 2 weapons altogether. The U.N. is confirming that number?
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: They are, indeed. Six today, including three warheads. That's about one-third now of Iraq's total arsenal of Al Samoud 2 missiles. Iraq has declared they have about 120 of those missiles. The U.N. also says today that they've now interviewed an 11th Iraqi scientist in a private interview. That was -- that's the 11th over the last three months.
Now, Iraq's news agency today also reporting that west of Baghdad, what they call a civilian and service infrastructure was hit by coalition aircraft flying in the northern -- flying in the southern no-fly zone.
Now, at approximately the same time, Central Command confirms that in the same region, they struck an air defense facility that was targeting aircraft flying in that region. But what Iraq's news agency is saying, they are saying that yesterday, there were 225 what they call armed violations of their airspace, patrols of the northern and southern no-fly zone.
Now, if we compare that figure to about a month ago, the figure that Iraq's news agency was reporting was about 100 of those such flights a day. About two or three months ago, it was anywhere between 20 and 70 such flights; 225 are a significant increase, according to Iraq's news agency, of these -- what they call illegal sorties over their airspace, patrolling by coalition aircraft of the northern and southern no-fly zones.
We've also seen today some fairly positive reaction from Iraqi officials towards Hans Blix and Mohamed ElBaradei, the two U.N. weapons chief speeches at the U.N. Security Council, but President Saddam Hussein, meeting with top politicians today, said that it was time for some changes, said that it was clear to governments around the world that the United States and Great Britain were trying to cover up Iraq's cooperation with the U.N. weapons inspectors, and he said it was time for the U.N. Security Council to call the United States and Great Britain liars, to lift the embargo against Iraq, to enforce Resolution 687 and paragraph 14 that calls for getting rid of all weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, and the Iraqi news announcer reading that, said -- pointing in particular to Israel. Also calling for Israel to pull out of Palestinian areas. A very strong statement against the United States and against Great Britain coming from Iraq's leadership today -- Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: And, Nic, let's continue to look head, if we can, to Monday. If Iraq is saying that it just might produce evidence of its destruction of chemical and biological weapons to the U.N. on Monday, if it had that, wouldn't it have done it already? Isn't that the conventional thinking?
ROBERTSON: Well, what Iraq is going to do on Monday, the report the U.N. is expecting them to give is a report that is going to tell the U.N. how to analyze soil samples where Iraq said it got rid of anthrax, where it got rid of VX nerve agent.
Now the U.N. has already said that it doesn't believe Iraq's analysis can give verifiable results. It says the DNA sampling and the high tech equipment that it will take to do that DNA sampling just won't be able to tell how much of these biological and chemical agents Iraq got rid of.
This is a second time Iraq will have put this report forward. However, the way the U.N. views it, they view this cooperation as good cooperation, and they've said that they welcome it, but what they've also said they want is more documents, full access to scientists and they say that they're going to begin soon asking for those private interviews outside of the country -- Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: Nic, thank you very much from 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
