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U.S.: Four Countries With Smallpox Stockpiles
Aired November 05, 2002 - 14:32 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.
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN ANCHOR: U.S. officials say an intelligence review found four nations with secret stocks of the smallpox virus. Iraq, North Korea, Russia and France are believed to have smallpox on hand. The intelligence review was requested by the Bush administration.
And joining us with more on that is our CNN national correspondent and also our security correspondent, David Ensor.
David, this is a bit perplexing to me. A review finds this? I mean, what exactly -- what kind of a review was this?
DAVID ENSOR, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, Marty, the Bush administration asked the U.S. intelligence community last year to take a look and give its best estimate of who might have secret stocks of smallpox. Now there are publicly known, nonsecret stocks at the CDC in the United States and at a particular lab in Russia. This report, which was given by the intelligence community to the White House and others in the spring of last year, says those four countries you mentioned, North Korea, Iraq, France and Russia, have secret stocks of smallpox or are suspected to have them.
SAVIDGE: It's all right, David, I've got another question for you, Yemen, yesterday, the explosion, we now know that the United States is claiming responsibility for this.
ENSOR: Well, that's right. Yesterday, they were rather hesitant to do so for a number of reasons. Mostly they didn't want to embarrass the Yemeni government which is helping the war on terrorism but doesn't want to be embarrassed in front of Yemenese who are against that kind of assistance. The attack was conducted by the Central Intelligence Agency using a pilotless drone aircraft firing hellfire missiles. It took out, among others, Abu Ali al-Harthi, who is also Qaed Senyan al-Harthi, and is considered one of the top 15 or so in the leadership of al-Qaeda. He was a senior bodyguard of Osama bin Laden and he's suspected of involvement in the USS Cole bombing.
SAVIDGE: All right, David Ensor, thank you very much for the update from Yemen.
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 November 5, 2002 - 14:32 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN ANCHOR: U.S. officials say an intelligence review found four nations with secret stocks of the smallpox virus. Iraq, North Korea, Russia and France are believed to have smallpox on hand. The intelligence review was requested by the Bush administration.
And joining us with more on that is our CNN national correspondent and also our security correspondent, David Ensor.
David, this is a bit perplexing to me. A review finds this? I mean, what exactly -- what kind of a review was this?
DAVID ENSOR, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, Marty, the Bush administration asked the U.S. intelligence community last year to take a look and give its best estimate of who might have secret stocks of smallpox. Now there are publicly known, nonsecret stocks at the CDC in the United States and at a particular lab in Russia. This report, which was given by the intelligence community to the White House and others in the spring of last year, says those four countries you mentioned, North Korea, Iraq, France and Russia, have secret stocks of smallpox or are suspected to have them.
SAVIDGE: It's all right, David, I've got another question for you, Yemen, yesterday, the explosion, we now know that the United States is claiming responsibility for this.
ENSOR: Well, that's right. Yesterday, they were rather hesitant to do so for a number of reasons. Mostly they didn't want to embarrass the Yemeni government which is helping the war on terrorism but doesn't want to be embarrassed in front of Yemenese who are against that kind of assistance. The attack was conducted by the Central Intelligence Agency using a pilotless drone aircraft firing hellfire missiles. It took out, among others, Abu Ali al-Harthi, who is also Qaed Senyan al-Harthi, and is considered one of the top 15 or so in the leadership of al-Qaeda. He was a senior bodyguard of Osama bin Laden and he's suspected of involvement in the USS Cole bombing.
SAVIDGE: All right, David Ensor, thank you very much for the update from Yemen.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
