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U.N. Inspectors Allowed into Palace
Aired December 03, 2002 - 13:09 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: As we reported, U.N. weapons inspectors were allowed inside a presidential palace in Iraq today. In the past, Iraq has placed its presidential sites off limits, which has led to speculation that they had something to hide.
CNN's Nic Robertson standing by in Baghdad to tell us how that inspection went -- Nic, this was a real acid test for weapons inspectors today.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This was a real first, absolutely. But once again, Marty, hearing the same thing from the U.N. inspectors, getting the cooperation they were looking for. They said, at that presidential palace, they were able to go into every room and look in every corner.
Now, they were on that site for two hours, very interesting the way they approached this site. Coming in from two sides, the front door and the back door, splitting into two teams to do that.
Very interesting as well the fact that this was the first time all the weapons inspectors, all 17 of them, the nuclear, the chemical, biological, missile guys, all going to the same site at the same time. That's also a first.
But having been on that site, and having left Iraqi officials saying the same thing, that they were able to see everything that they wanted to see, it is a big site, however, and they were there for only a relatively short period of time.
When they left, journalists were allowed in. It was a pretty ornate palace building that the inspectors had gone into. There were chandeliers, a lot of marble, but very difficult to see what it was the inspectors were looking for.
There wasn't a lot of furniture, ostentatious, maybe, but no signs of documents lying around, no signs of industrial processes, so very difficult to gauge what it was specifically the inspectors were looking for there.
SAVIDGE: Well, maybe, Nic, they were just testing Iraqi reaction. But on another front, Iraq says now it is going to come out with its weapons report a day early. What is up with that?
ROBERTSON: That seems to be in keeping with the sort of good cooperation we have heard Kofi Annan talk about, we have heard the weapons inspectors here talk about, and we have heard the Iraqi counterparts here talking about as well. So, they seem to want to get the declaration in with enough time to make sure they make that deadline on Sunday.
Now, interestingly, the Iraqi spokesman who said that this would happen a day early also said that there would be new elements inside this declaration. He said, however, that those new elements may not contain any information about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, and he pointed out, again, for the record, that Iraq says it doesn't have any weapons of mass destruction. He said, Everybody in the world knows that. So it is still anybody's guess what is going to be in that document, but certainly the U.N. expecting something, perhaps many hundreds, many thousands of pages long -- Marty.
SAVIDGE: Nic Robertson, live from Baghdad where weapons inspectors had a day at the palace -- one of them.
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 3, 2002 - 13:09 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN ANCHOR: As we reported, U.N. weapons inspectors were allowed inside a presidential palace in Iraq today. In the past, Iraq has placed its presidential sites off limits, which has led to speculation that they had something to hide.
CNN's Nic Robertson standing by in Baghdad to tell us how that inspection went -- Nic, this was a real acid test for weapons inspectors today.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This was a real first, absolutely. But once again, Marty, hearing the same thing from the U.N. inspectors, getting the cooperation they were looking for. They said, at that presidential palace, they were able to go into every room and look in every corner.
Now, they were on that site for two hours, very interesting the way they approached this site. Coming in from two sides, the front door and the back door, splitting into two teams to do that.
Very interesting as well the fact that this was the first time all the weapons inspectors, all 17 of them, the nuclear, the chemical, biological, missile guys, all going to the same site at the same time. That's also a first.
But having been on that site, and having left Iraqi officials saying the same thing, that they were able to see everything that they wanted to see, it is a big site, however, and they were there for only a relatively short period of time.
When they left, journalists were allowed in. It was a pretty ornate palace building that the inspectors had gone into. There were chandeliers, a lot of marble, but very difficult to see what it was the inspectors were looking for.
There wasn't a lot of furniture, ostentatious, maybe, but no signs of documents lying around, no signs of industrial processes, so very difficult to gauge what it was specifically the inspectors were looking for there.
SAVIDGE: Well, maybe, Nic, they were just testing Iraqi reaction. But on another front, Iraq says now it is going to come out with its weapons report a day early. What is up with that?
ROBERTSON: That seems to be in keeping with the sort of good cooperation we have heard Kofi Annan talk about, we have heard the weapons inspectors here talk about, and we have heard the Iraqi counterparts here talking about as well. So, they seem to want to get the declaration in with enough time to make sure they make that deadline on Sunday.
Now, interestingly, the Iraqi spokesman who said that this would happen a day early also said that there would be new elements inside this declaration. He said, however, that those new elements may not contain any information about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, and he pointed out, again, for the record, that Iraq says it doesn't have any weapons of mass destruction. He said, Everybody in the world knows that. So it is still anybody's guess what is going to be in that document, but certainly the U.N. expecting something, perhaps many hundreds, many thousands of pages long -- Marty.
SAVIDGE: Nic Robertson, live from Baghdad where weapons inspectors had a day at the palace -- one of them.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
