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Iraq Weapons Declaration Gets Bad Reviews
Aired December 19, 2002 - 14:01 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.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Absence of evidence -- Saddam Hussein's weapons declaration has gotten some bad reviews. But what do the weapons inspectors in Iraq think of it?
(UNINTELLIGIBLE) has told the UN Security Council today.
Richard Roth, our senior UN correspondent, brings us more from there.
RICHARD ROTH, CNN SR. UN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, chief weapons inspector on Iraq Hans Blix says an opportunity was missed by Baghdad to provide necessary evidence, the weapons inspectors including the International Atomic Energy Agency telling the security council in a closed door briefing that there are a lot of unanswered questions related to missiles, biological weapons, chemical, things like that. Hans Blix then told the press just what his conclusion was about this nearly 12,000 page report submitted by Iraq.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HANS BLIX, UNITED NATIONS: As to the assessment of the declaration, we are consistent in the view that there has been relatively little given in the declaration by way of evidence concerning the programs of weapons of mass destruction. There has been some material concerning the period between 1998 and 2002 in the nonnuclear weapons field. And we will evidently continue the analysis, and the council is clear that it wants us to come back sometime in January for a more profound, thorough briefing than we were able to do so far.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROTH: Blix added that he really can't account for large amounts of anthrax that Iraq had in the mid '90s, and then can't seem to determine what happened to it. And there's other items such as aluminum tube shipments, according to the IAEA.
The conclusions, the United States already has one, they say that Iraq, based upon this document submission, is in material breach of security council resolutions. Not enough to trigger war yet, but the most high level criticism, diplomatically speaking, to date.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN NEGROPONTE, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO UN: It should be obvious that this pattern of systematic holes and gaps in Iraq's declaration is not the result of accidents, editing oversights, or technical mistakes. These are material omissions that in our view constitute another material breach. It is up to Iraq to prove that there is some other explanation besides the obvious one that this declaration is just one more act of deception in a history of lies from a defiant dictator.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROTH: Shortly after that, Iraq's deputy ambassador came to the microphone and denied what the United States says, Baghdad saying that Iraq was not in material breach, and that the United States is just trying to use the documents as an excuse to overthrow President Saddam Hussein. Despite some of the earlier hype, Syria did attend the security council meeting. Damascus was outraged that it did not get the full 12,000 pages, that it received 3,000, as did the other nonpermanent members. But Syria's ambassador was seen entering the council chamber and also was in there for several hours before backing Iraq in public comments -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Richard Roth from the UN, thank you.
Fresh reaction from the White House now, correspondent Suzanne Malveaux -- Suzanne.
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, we expect Secretary of State Colin Powell to speak in less than a half hour. We are told by sources that he is going to say that Iraq is in material breach for not providing a full accounting in its declaration, its 12,000 page declaration, but that that does not mean that military action is imminent.
Now I just spoke with a senior White House official who said that this is a new phase that the United States is in with Saddam Hussein. He says that things are beginning to coalesce, meaning world support, that this is really, Kyra, all a part of an orchestrated series of public statements really building the case, the administration building the case against Saddam Hussein.
White House aides say just take a look at three months ago where the president, where this administration was. The president went before Congress, he was able to get their approval, a resolution allowing the call for perhaps even military action to hold Saddam Hussein to account. Also went before the UN Security Council, got a unanimous vote of approval there. Just weeks ago a statement from NATO, as well, at the summit there, a statement of support. All of this, White House aides say, a true vindication of what this administration has been saying for weeks now: That Saddam Hussein, that Iraq is not in compliance with the UN Security Council resolution. This is Ari Fleischer from earlier today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ARI FLEISCHER, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: I think that it will become increasingly clear that the world community, including the United Nations, sees omissions in the Iraqi document and at a time when the United Nations Security Council and the United States and all member states of the security council were looking to Iraq to provide a full, complete and accurate description of their weapons programs. There is a wide recognition that Iraq has not done that. There are omissions and there are problems.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MALVEAUX: Now, Kyra, there was a flurry of activity here at the White House earlier today, a number of meetings. The president, of course, being briefed by the FBI intelligence, as well as the National Security Council. We saw Secretary Powell, we saw the head of the CIA, as well as Defense officials, all here, meetings in the morning.
Again, sources telling us that Secretary Powell will say that Iraq is in material breach of the UN Security Council resolution, but that military action is not imminent. That it is not a trigger for war. Now, I want to tell you, we have been getting from sources kind of a timetable to take a look. The administration's laying out the case, getting all the information. We are told by a senior administration official to look at late January, or early February for this administration to decide whether or not to use military action, whether or not the United States is going to go to war.
There are a couple of key dates to take a look at: January 27 -- that's when the chief of the UN weapons inspectors, Hans Blix, will go before the UN Security Council. He will lay out a comprehensive assessment of how the inspections are going, as well as the Iraqi declaration.
Also, we are told that the administration wants to take time to allow those weapons inspections to intensify, to set up a system to get those Iraqi scientists out of the country, to get as much information from them as possible, and, of course, to build the kind of allies, to get those allies to coalesce around the United States. And, finally, to get the kind of military, the troops, the personnel, and the equipment in place in case the United States does say that military action is necessary.
Kyra, I have to tell you that sources are telling us it is a matter of weeks, not months, before the decision is made whether or not this country is going to go to war -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Suzanne Malveaux from the White House, thank you so much.
All right. Secretary of State Colin Powell's announcement is expected to come in less than 30 minutes. CNN will have live coverage beginning at 2:30 p.m. Eastern time.
There's nothing they can pin on us. Those are the words of a top Iraqi scientific adviser to President Saddam Hussein. He's referring to UN weapons inspectors and the United States.
We get the latest from Iraq and this report, CNN's Rym Brahimi from Baghdad.
RYM BRAHIMI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, hi there. Well, indeed the chief weapons adviser, the chief, sorry, scientific adviser to President Saddam Hussein, well he briefed reporters just as Hans Blix was talking to the UN Security Council, and what he said was he was pretty confident that Iraq had complied with the resolution and had said all it had to say in that declaration. He responded to the U.S. allegations. This is what he had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEN. AMIR AL-SAADI, IRAQ SCIENCE ADVISER: All these are just allegations. They haven't submitted one, single concrete evidence to support them. They continue to say that in an obvious attempt to preempt the assessment of the specialists. And I might add that we have only heard politicians talk like that. We haven't heard any reputable weapon expert come out and pick out the holes in our declaration.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRAHIMI: So, to the United States, basically saying that they need to come up with evidence, if they have any, and to Hans Blix, he actually predicted that Hans Blix would say that a lot of what was given in the declaration was not new. He explained that this was because he'd been requested, Iraq had been requested to also provide the historical account of Iraq's past weapons programs, and he said that most of the declaration, most of the 12,000 pages, actually involved historical programs -- the history of Iraq's past programs, not only until '91 when the Gulf War started, but also until '98 after seven years of weapons inspections.
He said what was new was actually 500 to 600 pages, and he said that was in Arabic and that as far as he knew, he said, had not yet been translated. So he said that they should wait until they make a full assessment to translate and have the full text before they actually get back to Iraq and say that they haven't complied. Back to you.
PHILLIPS: Live from Baghdad, Rym Brahimi, thank you.
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 19, 2002 - 14:01 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Absence of evidence -- Saddam Hussein's weapons declaration has gotten some bad reviews. But what do the weapons inspectors in Iraq think of it?
(UNINTELLIGIBLE) has told the UN Security Council today.
Richard Roth, our senior UN correspondent, brings us more from there.
RICHARD ROTH, CNN SR. UN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, chief weapons inspector on Iraq Hans Blix says an opportunity was missed by Baghdad to provide necessary evidence, the weapons inspectors including the International Atomic Energy Agency telling the security council in a closed door briefing that there are a lot of unanswered questions related to missiles, biological weapons, chemical, things like that. Hans Blix then told the press just what his conclusion was about this nearly 12,000 page report submitted by Iraq.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HANS BLIX, UNITED NATIONS: As to the assessment of the declaration, we are consistent in the view that there has been relatively little given in the declaration by way of evidence concerning the programs of weapons of mass destruction. There has been some material concerning the period between 1998 and 2002 in the nonnuclear weapons field. And we will evidently continue the analysis, and the council is clear that it wants us to come back sometime in January for a more profound, thorough briefing than we were able to do so far.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROTH: Blix added that he really can't account for large amounts of anthrax that Iraq had in the mid '90s, and then can't seem to determine what happened to it. And there's other items such as aluminum tube shipments, according to the IAEA.
The conclusions, the United States already has one, they say that Iraq, based upon this document submission, is in material breach of security council resolutions. Not enough to trigger war yet, but the most high level criticism, diplomatically speaking, to date.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN NEGROPONTE, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO UN: It should be obvious that this pattern of systematic holes and gaps in Iraq's declaration is not the result of accidents, editing oversights, or technical mistakes. These are material omissions that in our view constitute another material breach. It is up to Iraq to prove that there is some other explanation besides the obvious one that this declaration is just one more act of deception in a history of lies from a defiant dictator.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROTH: Shortly after that, Iraq's deputy ambassador came to the microphone and denied what the United States says, Baghdad saying that Iraq was not in material breach, and that the United States is just trying to use the documents as an excuse to overthrow President Saddam Hussein. Despite some of the earlier hype, Syria did attend the security council meeting. Damascus was outraged that it did not get the full 12,000 pages, that it received 3,000, as did the other nonpermanent members. But Syria's ambassador was seen entering the council chamber and also was in there for several hours before backing Iraq in public comments -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Richard Roth from the UN, thank you.
Fresh reaction from the White House now, correspondent Suzanne Malveaux -- Suzanne.
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, we expect Secretary of State Colin Powell to speak in less than a half hour. We are told by sources that he is going to say that Iraq is in material breach for not providing a full accounting in its declaration, its 12,000 page declaration, but that that does not mean that military action is imminent.
Now I just spoke with a senior White House official who said that this is a new phase that the United States is in with Saddam Hussein. He says that things are beginning to coalesce, meaning world support, that this is really, Kyra, all a part of an orchestrated series of public statements really building the case, the administration building the case against Saddam Hussein.
White House aides say just take a look at three months ago where the president, where this administration was. The president went before Congress, he was able to get their approval, a resolution allowing the call for perhaps even military action to hold Saddam Hussein to account. Also went before the UN Security Council, got a unanimous vote of approval there. Just weeks ago a statement from NATO, as well, at the summit there, a statement of support. All of this, White House aides say, a true vindication of what this administration has been saying for weeks now: That Saddam Hussein, that Iraq is not in compliance with the UN Security Council resolution. This is Ari Fleischer from earlier today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ARI FLEISCHER, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: I think that it will become increasingly clear that the world community, including the United Nations, sees omissions in the Iraqi document and at a time when the United Nations Security Council and the United States and all member states of the security council were looking to Iraq to provide a full, complete and accurate description of their weapons programs. There is a wide recognition that Iraq has not done that. There are omissions and there are problems.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MALVEAUX: Now, Kyra, there was a flurry of activity here at the White House earlier today, a number of meetings. The president, of course, being briefed by the FBI intelligence, as well as the National Security Council. We saw Secretary Powell, we saw the head of the CIA, as well as Defense officials, all here, meetings in the morning.
Again, sources telling us that Secretary Powell will say that Iraq is in material breach of the UN Security Council resolution, but that military action is not imminent. That it is not a trigger for war. Now, I want to tell you, we have been getting from sources kind of a timetable to take a look. The administration's laying out the case, getting all the information. We are told by a senior administration official to look at late January, or early February for this administration to decide whether or not to use military action, whether or not the United States is going to go to war.
There are a couple of key dates to take a look at: January 27 -- that's when the chief of the UN weapons inspectors, Hans Blix, will go before the UN Security Council. He will lay out a comprehensive assessment of how the inspections are going, as well as the Iraqi declaration.
Also, we are told that the administration wants to take time to allow those weapons inspections to intensify, to set up a system to get those Iraqi scientists out of the country, to get as much information from them as possible, and, of course, to build the kind of allies, to get those allies to coalesce around the United States. And, finally, to get the kind of military, the troops, the personnel, and the equipment in place in case the United States does say that military action is necessary.
Kyra, I have to tell you that sources are telling us it is a matter of weeks, not months, before the decision is made whether or not this country is going to go to war -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Suzanne Malveaux from the White House, thank you so much.
All right. Secretary of State Colin Powell's announcement is expected to come in less than 30 minutes. CNN will have live coverage beginning at 2:30 p.m. Eastern time.
There's nothing they can pin on us. Those are the words of a top Iraqi scientific adviser to President Saddam Hussein. He's referring to UN weapons inspectors and the United States.
We get the latest from Iraq and this report, CNN's Rym Brahimi from Baghdad.
RYM BRAHIMI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, hi there. Well, indeed the chief weapons adviser, the chief, sorry, scientific adviser to President Saddam Hussein, well he briefed reporters just as Hans Blix was talking to the UN Security Council, and what he said was he was pretty confident that Iraq had complied with the resolution and had said all it had to say in that declaration. He responded to the U.S. allegations. This is what he had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEN. AMIR AL-SAADI, IRAQ SCIENCE ADVISER: All these are just allegations. They haven't submitted one, single concrete evidence to support them. They continue to say that in an obvious attempt to preempt the assessment of the specialists. And I might add that we have only heard politicians talk like that. We haven't heard any reputable weapon expert come out and pick out the holes in our declaration.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRAHIMI: So, to the United States, basically saying that they need to come up with evidence, if they have any, and to Hans Blix, he actually predicted that Hans Blix would say that a lot of what was given in the declaration was not new. He explained that this was because he'd been requested, Iraq had been requested to also provide the historical account of Iraq's past weapons programs, and he said that most of the declaration, most of the 12,000 pages, actually involved historical programs -- the history of Iraq's past programs, not only until '91 when the Gulf War started, but also until '98 after seven years of weapons inspections.
He said what was new was actually 500 to 600 pages, and he said that was in Arabic and that as far as he knew, he said, had not yet been translated. So he said that they should wait until they make a full assessment to translate and have the full text before they actually get back to Iraq and say that they haven't complied. Back to you.
PHILLIPS: Live from Baghdad, Rym Brahimi, thank you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
