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CNN Live At Daybreak
New Report Linking Iraq to Islamic Terrorism
Aired November 08, 2001 - 07:40 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.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: There is a new report this morning directly linking Iraq to Islamic terrorism. "The New York Times" reports that two Iraqi intelligence officials who defected say Iraq ran training camps for terrorists dating back to 1995.
They also say that in one of those camps, there's a group of Iraqi scientists and a stash of biological weapons. For his perspective on this now, we turn to Ambassador Richard Butler, the former U.N. Chief Weapons Inspector in Iraq now with the council of foreign relations who joins us.
We call him our ambassador and resident.
AMBASSADOR RICHARD BUTLER, FORMER U.N. CHIEF WEAPONS INSPECTOR: Good morning Paula.
ZAHN: Good morning. When you were in Iraq, did you ever see any evidence of these camps?
BUTLER: We didn't see the training camp as such, but we knew it was there. Let me explain - the place is called Salmon Pack (ph), just a little way outside of Bank Nare (ph). It was where they had a biological weapons manufacturing facility. So our biological inspectors went there to look at that.
We partly destroyed it, OK, but we knew that just next to that plant was this training facility. They never let us see it, but we knew it was there. This story in today's newspaper is true.
ZAHN: So let's talk a little bit about what we're learning from these Iraqi factors. Exactly what were these fundamentalists trained to do?
BUTLER: What they would do is get fundamentalists - Islamic fundamentalists from around the region from a variety of countries - from Egypt to Yemen to Saudi Arabia and offer them training - training on how to hijack an aircraft. They had the body of a Boeing 707 ...
ZAHN: To practice ...
BUTLER: ... to practice on. How to hijack an aircraft; how to hijack a bus; how to assassinate people and there are credible reports that some of the people trained there indeed did go out into other countries of the region and commit assassinations. ZAHN: Wow. Now can we - we can not, at this point, link any of those folks who were trained in any way to these terrorist attacks on September 11th.
BUTLER: No we can't.
ZAHN: Do you suspect they might have been involved?
BUTLER: Yes.
ZAHN: And tell me why.
BUTLER: Because of the nationalities of the people who were trained there. They match the nationalities of the World Trade Center and Pentagon terrorists. That's - so it's a - I suspect it. Do I know it? No, but this is a fascinating report.
By the way, a western news team from another place went to Baghdad recently and asked Saddam's deputy Tarek Gazeeze (ph), the man that I always dealt with, could they go to Salmon Pack; could they go and look at the place; and Gazeeze pompously said of course you can. You can go there, we'll show you anything you want. You go there, and they did go to the village of Salmon Pack, but the Iraqis refused to let them look over the wall. There literally is a wall around this facility, so ...
ZAHN: But they didn't really see what was going on.
BUTLER: ... no, with all of his pomposity he didn't deliver. That place is very likely still there. That's the point.
ZAHN: One of the most interesting points I think was made this defector said he did not see anybody that looked like Mohammed Atta.
BUTLER: Right.
ZAHN: (INAUDIBLE) the beginning ...
BUTLER: Right.
ZAHN: ... but that comes against the backdraft (pfh) of the reports, of course, the Czechs confirming ...
BUTLER: Right.
ZAHN: ... that in fact Mohammed Atta had met with top ranking intelligence - Iraqi intelligence officials in their country.
BUTLER: That's right and there are other reports of such makings coming in. You might need to talk about that in the future, but I suspect that we haven't heard the last of those (INAUDIBLE).
ZAHN: Why don't you come back tomorrow same time?
BUTLER: OK.
ZAHN: See you then, Richard Butler ...
(CROSSTALK)
ZAHN: ... our ambassador and resident, thanks so much.
BUTLER: Sure.
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