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Aired April 07, 2003 - 14:34   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.


WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: We're going to interrupt the Pentagon briefing to go immediately to CNN's Ryan Chilcote. He's covering the 101st Airborne Division. Elements of that division have discovered some suspicious chemical material at a facility near Karbala, suspicious material that could potentially be the so-called smoking gun, suggesting that the Iraqis did indeed have banned chemical weapons ready to use.
So, Ryan, you're with us. You have a guest there with you. We just heard the defense secretary of the United States say this material is going to be brought to the United States for further examination, no hard and fast conclusion yet. But I know you've been working this story right from the beginning. Tell us what's going on.

RYAN CHILCOTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Sure. Well, a little background. First of all, the site that is under investigation -- there are actually two sites. But the most suspicious site right now was actually discovered about three days ago. It is what is being described as an agricultural complex, or an agricultural compound. And soldiers from the 101st Airborne found inside of it a large number of weapons -- a very large weapons cache.

Outside of it, they found a number of drums, chemical drums. They also found a lot of pesticides in a storage facility area just next to it. Some representatives from the 63rd Chemical Company came and checked it out, and they did some tests. They came back inconclusive.

Now, today, they brought in another -- a higher level, if you will, of testing that's called the Fuchs vehicle. And with us we have General Freakly, who can talk about what they discovered with those drums.

GEN. BENJAMIN FREAKLY, 101ST AIRBORNE: As you mentioned, Ryan, the division started this a couple of days ago, took the cache, and then subsequent security operations found two bunkers below the ground with camouflage netting or mats over the top of it. One bunker tested to be inconclusive, negative. The other bunker, which had over 10 25- gallon drums and three 55-gallon drums with the Fuchs tested positive for a nerve agent and for a blister agent.

Now, this could be either some type of pesticides, because this was an agricultural compound and literature inside the compound talked about dealing with mosquitoes and other type of airborne vermin. And it was right along the Euphrates River, very close to the Euphrates River.

But on the other hand, it could be a chemical agent. Not weaponized. A liquid agent that's in drums. And so our Fuchs are very sensitive, they're great equipment. And we'll follow up with higher level testing in the next day or so to confirm what we have here.

CHILCOTE: Now if you could just explains some of the terms to people. You said it tested positive for two different kinds of agents. So basically we're dealing with two different batches of something?

FREAKLY: Well that's what the tests would lead us to believe. One, a blister type agent and the other a nerve agent.

Again, they could be a chemical that we haven't run across in our studies, in our work. The other side of it, it could be -- the Fuchs could be operating just as they should and telling us that we've got these type of agents.

We don't have any soldiers in the division that are in kind of harm whatsoever. There are townspeople near this, there are dogs around this. Soldiers have been in and out of this testing. There's no great threat to our soldiers.

And, again, as I said, it is not weaponized but it is a liquid agent that poses some concerns to us that we want to investigate further.

CHILCOTE: Now about the testing because I know there was really actually a battery of tests done beginning three days ago. And you could explain to people what kind of tests were done and what they mean and why, even after today's tests, you need to do more tests?

FREAKLY: Well, they began with the infantry company that actually secured the area, which involves a bridge complex. Their chemical sergeant, very well trained, used a chemical paper that we have with us called an M-8 paper which is like your chem lab litmus paper. And that paper at that site initially showed that there was a possible agent there.

We also have a miniature card called a 256 Kit which is along the lines of a mobile chem lab, very small. And that initially showed positive as well. But our other chemical agents were inconclusive and that's why we called for the Fuchs vehicle to come forward. It's the next echelon up. It's the chemical company's capabilities to come in and add to our chemical menu, if you will, all the things that we can do, a menu of testing. And we added more to that to get more precise information on what we might have there.

CHILCOTE: But still you could get a -- even with the Fuchs vehicle, you still could get a false positive?

FREAKLY: Well, any type of pesticide, industrial chemicals might lead you down a path that you would think would be one type of agent but in turn, might just be some industrial chemicals. CHILCOTE: And, Wolf, yes, I was at this site. We were actually there when they first started investigating it. And it is an agricultural site. There's a warehouse just adjacent to at least one of those bunkers where they have a large amount of these insecticides inside with labels on them. I think we actually have some of that video, I don't know if we have it right now available to show people. But it is clear that they did have insecticide on at the scene. So that's not completely clear yet how you know what this is.

Now, you also mentioned that this isn't -- and I think this is really important to underscore. You said this isn't weaponized. Explain the difference.

FREAKLY: Well, it's in your conventional 25 or 55-gallon drums. Not -- they are not military drums. They have no special marking on them whatsoever. And weaponized, we would see it in probably an artillery projectile or in an artillery missile or perhaps in an aircraft bomb or something that we could -- the enemy would spray troops with.

And so it's a liquid chemical, but it hasn't been put in a delivery means or anything that could be disbursed against our soldiers.

CHILCOTE: Now, Wolf, if we could back up a second, there actually was a second site that was also, as the military says, exploited. In other words, explored or investigated. And there were a battery of tests done there as well that results there, however, at least up until yesterday evening, inconclusive and may still be inconclusive.

But initially there were some tests there that came up positive for nerve agent. Now, you were talking about -- but the division's thinking, if I understand you correctly, was that even if it comes up positive for nerve agent, again, it can be it can an insecticide, what we saw at that first site.

FREAKLY: Well at the first site you saw yesterday, that was a training compound, outdoor obstacle course, indoor rifle range, outdoor rifle range, a plethora of enemy weapon systems, ambulance that had been stripped on the inside, probably to move forces around this town. And an NBC, quite extensive inventory of chemical/biological suits, brand new masks, rubber boots...

CHILCOTE: They were training how to use them?

FREAKLY: They were training on how to use them. Other literature supporting Palestine was at this camp. And when we initially tested there, again with the 256 Kit, the mobile small chem lab, that gave us a positive reading, the initial, for a nerve agent.

But we did secondary tests with two more 256 Kits. We normally use them in pairs to confirm our finings. They came up negative. Then last night we brought in three Fuchses you were present when we did that...

CHILCOTE: Three separate vehicles.

FREAKLY: Three separate vehicles. And those tests all gave us very low-level readings of what probably is a pesticide. And so we don't think at that camp -- it was either a -- something to train with, because it was associated with the chemical garments or it's just a low pesticide that was in the area to hold down problems in the camp.

CHILCOTE: Wolf, maybe I can open this back up to you, if you have any questions. I think the moral so far of what I've seen over the last couple of days is that you can't test enough and that these tests aren't always consistent. We've had several tests that were positive, several that were negative at both sites. And it's really difficult to understand why one test comes out positive and another negative.

And it's really clear that additional testing and what, I think, the 101st Airborne is planning on doing is bringing in yet another higher level of testing with more expertise as really necessary to really understand, at least in the case of this site that we're reporting on today, whether this is a pesticide or whether this is a chemical agent, not weaponized, that simply is something that they haven't seen before -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Ryan, I have a few questions. Maybe you can relay them to the General for us. The first question, will the additional testing...

CHILCOTE: Absolutely.

BLITZER: ... of this chemical material, will the additional testing require the material to be sent to laboratories back in the United States or can they get the job done on the site?

CHILCOTE: Do you hear the question?

FREAKLY: I do. Well, the Fuchs vehicle has a capability to actually sample, and we have taken a number of samples and we can hand off these samples to other -- and we do have the capability of doing some higher-level lab type testing in the region.

CHILCOTE: And I understand that from Wolf, from some earlier reporting, that apparently Secretary Rumsfeld was talking about perhaps these materials being brought back to the United States for testing.

FREAKLY: We can certainly do that. We'll do whatever our headquarters wants us to do with the material. But we have secured the site, number one, so we have access to as much sampling as we want to. And secondly, the Fuchses have taken and have controlled samples now that we can move back into the theater and have a local theater lab test further.

CHILCOTE: Wolf, you had another question?

BLITZER: Yes, General, if you could help us understand this aspect of the investigation as well. We heard at the Pentagon briefing just a few minutes ago from a question to General Myers and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld that there is some sort of chain of custody there to make sure that no one is tampering with this material.

Are there outside experts with you or are they all members of the 101st Airborne, others who might provide some sort of third-party assurance that no one has tampered with this suspected material?

FREAKLY: Well, currently, Wolf, we have the three samples I talked about. This is all actually soldiers assigned to the 101st, the 63rd Chemical Company. And we also have a Fuchs Platoon from Fort Polk, Louisiana who are assisting us in this.

But currently the 101st has control of this. But we are asking 5th Corp to come in and give us some additional expertise. And so I think we have good control of the samples and we also have good control of the site for further exploitation by whomever needs to get here and assess what's going on at this local site.

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: ... there was also some fear -- Ryan, let me just ask him this -- some fear that some of those who may have come into contact with this material over the past three days were showing at least some preliminary ill effects. Has anyone been showing symptoms of ill effects from a potential chemical agent, a nerve agent, for example?

FREAKLY: Well, two nights ago when the company first secured this objective area, yesterday morning some of the soldiers were nauseous, had headaches. We moved in the, 63rd Chemical Company, right away to assess that. And it is our belief that those soldiers were suffering from heat exhaustion and dehydration, which the symptoms can be very similar.

Some of the soldiers complained of some red blotchy skin. But quite frankly, that was prickly heat, that once the soldiers cooled down, that went away right away. The 63rd Chem did give the soldiers showers, which is good -- they did not do a decontamination. They showered the soldiers, which is a good way to prevent heat stroke.

None of those soldiers have had any problems since then. And one of the tell-tale signs of being exposed to nerve agent is pinpointed pupils and none of the soldiers had any of that. We have both the decon capability forward, Wolf, and we also have medics -- medical capability forward to examine the soldiers.

All the soldiers are fine, no one is harm's way and we haven't seen all the tell-tale signs of exposure to a nerve agent. Senior leaders in the division have been present, Ryan's been present. None of us have come down with any symptoms. So I think we're in an OK shape right there.

CHILCOTE: Yes, all those soldiers, Wolf, if I could jump in for a sec, all those soldiers feeling fine now, back to work. I did interview all of the soldiers.

And just to follow up on that, eight the 13 experienced vomiting. They -- a lot of them had some pretty serious symptoms. But it's not obvious that they are from any kind of chemical agent.

Now, I think it's worth mentioning that those soldiers that felt sick were at -- were not at the site that is being discussed in such detail today. In other words, those soldiers were not at the site with all of the chemical drums that were discovered in those two bunkers that the General is talking about. Those soldiers were at the training complex. Basically an Iraqi training facility. And they had spent the night there. They were exploiting that site. The General had mentioned, had talked about that site.

That is the site that had the NBC suits where obviously Iraqi soldiers or perhaps paramilitaries were doing some kind of training for combat. But they did do some tests there. And the results of those tests, the last of those tests were done late last night, which I guess about 18 hours ago. And they did come up positive, as the General said, there for a nerve agent...

(CROSSTALK)

FREAKLY: ... really a pesticide. Not a nerve agent but a pesticide. And low-level readings, low-level readings.

CHILCOTE: It's not fair to say that was a nerve agent?

FREAKLY: I don't think so, not at all. I mean it was pretty conclusive evidence that we saw -- pesticides and chemicals that you might find in paint or you might find in, like I said, a pesticide.

CHILCOTE: So it could just be industrial chemical...

FREAKLY: Correct.

CHILCOTE: And that could be one of the reasons why the soldiers felt sick.

FREAKLY: We're pretty sure the soldiers were sick for -- they had been up for 48 hours and a lot of strenuous activity to secure this town. I'm convinced more and more what that was all about is heat exposure. All fine now.

CHILCOTE: And, Wolf, I think that's something in this conversation we cannot stress enough that it was initially 13 soldiers that were not feeling well. Thirteen of the 15 that had been in the site -- been at this site. Obviously, as the general was saying, it could be from heat exhaustion. It could be from just a general exhaustion.

But all of those soldiers are fine now. They've all been medically screened. And, you know, I've been to Fort Campbell where all of these soldiers are from. I know when you put the two words chemical and soldiers next to one another, people really get concerned. But we want to convey -- and I know it's obviously the wishes of the general -- to convey that these soldiers are OK.

If we were talking about -- this has come from several experts on the ground have been telling me here that if we were looking at either location at high levels of nerve agent -- and this is something that you've been telling me about -- if we were looking at high levels of a nerve agent in the case of the agricultural complex, also a blister agent, then they would be feeling -- they would be a lot sicker.

FREAKLY: I think we'd see it in the townspeople. You know, there is a lot of townspeople around these complexes. We would see it there. And certainly we would see it with the soldiers. That's one of the reasons why senior division leaders went forward yesterday to personally assess this, to make sure that none of our soldiers were in harm's way. And we're convinced that they indeed are not.

CHILCOTE: Wolf, do you have any more questions?

BLITZER: Yes, let me try to wrap this up. This is a very significant development. General, do you know, A: if this facility, this area was ever inspected by U.N. weapons inspectors? And B: do you know if around these drums where the suspected chemicals were located, were there any other kind of military protective gear, gas masks, suits that you might find in an area where they would have banned chemical weapons presumably?

FREAKLY: Well, Wolf, I'm purely speculating here. But this is a small town along the Euphrates River. I would find it very unlikely that the U.N. inspectors would have had any idea that this was there.

Secondly, it's behind a civilian complex, as Ryan told you, an agricultural building where there is a lot of material about dealing with insects. And it would be very difficult to find. What's interesting to me is there are warehouses that could have held a couple hundred drums probably. They are empty. And these are buried in bunkers at that compound below the ground. With regard to chemical protective gear, there was none at this site, but there was a substantial amount of small arms AK-47s, RPGs and ammunition that was in this same agricultural building.

CHILCOTE: Yes. Obviously, I think that further thickens the whole plot. It's really very difficult to understand. On the one hand, it's an agricultural complex. Very clearly they had, like the general said, the literature. They also have the chemical -- the pesticides in one store house that I saw. On the other hand, they found a very large weapons cache. We were actually present when they found those weapons cache -- that weapons cache and we showed those pictures on CNN. So very difficult to understand.

Again, on the bunkers, obviously suspect. It is possible, however, that those drums were put in those bunkers not to hide them but maybe to hide them from the heat.

FREAKLY: It's possible. I mean...

CHILCOTE: It would be strange put together with the weapons found in the building, it makes it more unorthodox. But it is possible that they were put there for some other reason than to hide them. And they're not actually hidden, are they?

FREAKLY: They are. They are hidden. They're below the ground in about a four to six-foot hole. And there were matting -- there was a woven reed type matting pulled over the top with dirt and leaves thrown over the top as well. So there was some veiled attempt to camouflage those. Or as you speculate, could have been to keep them out of the sun. But I think the warehouses would have provided adequate protection to keep them out of the sun.

CHILCOTE: Anything more? We should probably let the General go.

BLITZER: I think the General has been very generous with his time. Thanks very much to the General. Ryan Chilcote, our man on the scene. I know you've been working this story now for the past three days. We're glad to see you're OK. We're certainly glad to see all the troops are okay and we'll await the outcome of the further testing. General, thanks very much. Ryan, thanks be careful out there.

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Aired April 7, 2003 - 14:34   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: We're going to interrupt the Pentagon briefing to go immediately to CNN's Ryan Chilcote. He's covering the 101st Airborne Division. Elements of that division have discovered some suspicious chemical material at a facility near Karbala, suspicious material that could potentially be the so-called smoking gun, suggesting that the Iraqis did indeed have banned chemical weapons ready to use.
So, Ryan, you're with us. You have a guest there with you. We just heard the defense secretary of the United States say this material is going to be brought to the United States for further examination, no hard and fast conclusion yet. But I know you've been working this story right from the beginning. Tell us what's going on.

RYAN CHILCOTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Sure. Well, a little background. First of all, the site that is under investigation -- there are actually two sites. But the most suspicious site right now was actually discovered about three days ago. It is what is being described as an agricultural complex, or an agricultural compound. And soldiers from the 101st Airborne found inside of it a large number of weapons -- a very large weapons cache.

Outside of it, they found a number of drums, chemical drums. They also found a lot of pesticides in a storage facility area just next to it. Some representatives from the 63rd Chemical Company came and checked it out, and they did some tests. They came back inconclusive.

Now, today, they brought in another -- a higher level, if you will, of testing that's called the Fuchs vehicle. And with us we have General Freakly, who can talk about what they discovered with those drums.

GEN. BENJAMIN FREAKLY, 101ST AIRBORNE: As you mentioned, Ryan, the division started this a couple of days ago, took the cache, and then subsequent security operations found two bunkers below the ground with camouflage netting or mats over the top of it. One bunker tested to be inconclusive, negative. The other bunker, which had over 10 25- gallon drums and three 55-gallon drums with the Fuchs tested positive for a nerve agent and for a blister agent.

Now, this could be either some type of pesticides, because this was an agricultural compound and literature inside the compound talked about dealing with mosquitoes and other type of airborne vermin. And it was right along the Euphrates River, very close to the Euphrates River.

But on the other hand, it could be a chemical agent. Not weaponized. A liquid agent that's in drums. And so our Fuchs are very sensitive, they're great equipment. And we'll follow up with higher level testing in the next day or so to confirm what we have here.

CHILCOTE: Now if you could just explains some of the terms to people. You said it tested positive for two different kinds of agents. So basically we're dealing with two different batches of something?

FREAKLY: Well that's what the tests would lead us to believe. One, a blister type agent and the other a nerve agent.

Again, they could be a chemical that we haven't run across in our studies, in our work. The other side of it, it could be -- the Fuchs could be operating just as they should and telling us that we've got these type of agents.

We don't have any soldiers in the division that are in kind of harm whatsoever. There are townspeople near this, there are dogs around this. Soldiers have been in and out of this testing. There's no great threat to our soldiers.

And, again, as I said, it is not weaponized but it is a liquid agent that poses some concerns to us that we want to investigate further.

CHILCOTE: Now about the testing because I know there was really actually a battery of tests done beginning three days ago. And you could explain to people what kind of tests were done and what they mean and why, even after today's tests, you need to do more tests?

FREAKLY: Well, they began with the infantry company that actually secured the area, which involves a bridge complex. Their chemical sergeant, very well trained, used a chemical paper that we have with us called an M-8 paper which is like your chem lab litmus paper. And that paper at that site initially showed that there was a possible agent there.

We also have a miniature card called a 256 Kit which is along the lines of a mobile chem lab, very small. And that initially showed positive as well. But our other chemical agents were inconclusive and that's why we called for the Fuchs vehicle to come forward. It's the next echelon up. It's the chemical company's capabilities to come in and add to our chemical menu, if you will, all the things that we can do, a menu of testing. And we added more to that to get more precise information on what we might have there.

CHILCOTE: But still you could get a -- even with the Fuchs vehicle, you still could get a false positive?

FREAKLY: Well, any type of pesticide, industrial chemicals might lead you down a path that you would think would be one type of agent but in turn, might just be some industrial chemicals. CHILCOTE: And, Wolf, yes, I was at this site. We were actually there when they first started investigating it. And it is an agricultural site. There's a warehouse just adjacent to at least one of those bunkers where they have a large amount of these insecticides inside with labels on them. I think we actually have some of that video, I don't know if we have it right now available to show people. But it is clear that they did have insecticide on at the scene. So that's not completely clear yet how you know what this is.

Now, you also mentioned that this isn't -- and I think this is really important to underscore. You said this isn't weaponized. Explain the difference.

FREAKLY: Well, it's in your conventional 25 or 55-gallon drums. Not -- they are not military drums. They have no special marking on them whatsoever. And weaponized, we would see it in probably an artillery projectile or in an artillery missile or perhaps in an aircraft bomb or something that we could -- the enemy would spray troops with.

And so it's a liquid chemical, but it hasn't been put in a delivery means or anything that could be disbursed against our soldiers.

CHILCOTE: Now, Wolf, if we could back up a second, there actually was a second site that was also, as the military says, exploited. In other words, explored or investigated. And there were a battery of tests done there as well that results there, however, at least up until yesterday evening, inconclusive and may still be inconclusive.

But initially there were some tests there that came up positive for nerve agent. Now, you were talking about -- but the division's thinking, if I understand you correctly, was that even if it comes up positive for nerve agent, again, it can be it can an insecticide, what we saw at that first site.

FREAKLY: Well at the first site you saw yesterday, that was a training compound, outdoor obstacle course, indoor rifle range, outdoor rifle range, a plethora of enemy weapon systems, ambulance that had been stripped on the inside, probably to move forces around this town. And an NBC, quite extensive inventory of chemical/biological suits, brand new masks, rubber boots...

CHILCOTE: They were training how to use them?

FREAKLY: They were training on how to use them. Other literature supporting Palestine was at this camp. And when we initially tested there, again with the 256 Kit, the mobile small chem lab, that gave us a positive reading, the initial, for a nerve agent.

But we did secondary tests with two more 256 Kits. We normally use them in pairs to confirm our finings. They came up negative. Then last night we brought in three Fuchses you were present when we did that...

CHILCOTE: Three separate vehicles.

FREAKLY: Three separate vehicles. And those tests all gave us very low-level readings of what probably is a pesticide. And so we don't think at that camp -- it was either a -- something to train with, because it was associated with the chemical garments or it's just a low pesticide that was in the area to hold down problems in the camp.

CHILCOTE: Wolf, maybe I can open this back up to you, if you have any questions. I think the moral so far of what I've seen over the last couple of days is that you can't test enough and that these tests aren't always consistent. We've had several tests that were positive, several that were negative at both sites. And it's really difficult to understand why one test comes out positive and another negative.

And it's really clear that additional testing and what, I think, the 101st Airborne is planning on doing is bringing in yet another higher level of testing with more expertise as really necessary to really understand, at least in the case of this site that we're reporting on today, whether this is a pesticide or whether this is a chemical agent, not weaponized, that simply is something that they haven't seen before -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Ryan, I have a few questions. Maybe you can relay them to the General for us. The first question, will the additional testing...

CHILCOTE: Absolutely.

BLITZER: ... of this chemical material, will the additional testing require the material to be sent to laboratories back in the United States or can they get the job done on the site?

CHILCOTE: Do you hear the question?

FREAKLY: I do. Well, the Fuchs vehicle has a capability to actually sample, and we have taken a number of samples and we can hand off these samples to other -- and we do have the capability of doing some higher-level lab type testing in the region.

CHILCOTE: And I understand that from Wolf, from some earlier reporting, that apparently Secretary Rumsfeld was talking about perhaps these materials being brought back to the United States for testing.

FREAKLY: We can certainly do that. We'll do whatever our headquarters wants us to do with the material. But we have secured the site, number one, so we have access to as much sampling as we want to. And secondly, the Fuchses have taken and have controlled samples now that we can move back into the theater and have a local theater lab test further.

CHILCOTE: Wolf, you had another question?

BLITZER: Yes, General, if you could help us understand this aspect of the investigation as well. We heard at the Pentagon briefing just a few minutes ago from a question to General Myers and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld that there is some sort of chain of custody there to make sure that no one is tampering with this material.

Are there outside experts with you or are they all members of the 101st Airborne, others who might provide some sort of third-party assurance that no one has tampered with this suspected material?

FREAKLY: Well, currently, Wolf, we have the three samples I talked about. This is all actually soldiers assigned to the 101st, the 63rd Chemical Company. And we also have a Fuchs Platoon from Fort Polk, Louisiana who are assisting us in this.

But currently the 101st has control of this. But we are asking 5th Corp to come in and give us some additional expertise. And so I think we have good control of the samples and we also have good control of the site for further exploitation by whomever needs to get here and assess what's going on at this local site.

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: ... there was also some fear -- Ryan, let me just ask him this -- some fear that some of those who may have come into contact with this material over the past three days were showing at least some preliminary ill effects. Has anyone been showing symptoms of ill effects from a potential chemical agent, a nerve agent, for example?

FREAKLY: Well, two nights ago when the company first secured this objective area, yesterday morning some of the soldiers were nauseous, had headaches. We moved in the, 63rd Chemical Company, right away to assess that. And it is our belief that those soldiers were suffering from heat exhaustion and dehydration, which the symptoms can be very similar.

Some of the soldiers complained of some red blotchy skin. But quite frankly, that was prickly heat, that once the soldiers cooled down, that went away right away. The 63rd Chem did give the soldiers showers, which is good -- they did not do a decontamination. They showered the soldiers, which is a good way to prevent heat stroke.

None of those soldiers have had any problems since then. And one of the tell-tale signs of being exposed to nerve agent is pinpointed pupils and none of the soldiers had any of that. We have both the decon capability forward, Wolf, and we also have medics -- medical capability forward to examine the soldiers.

All the soldiers are fine, no one is harm's way and we haven't seen all the tell-tale signs of exposure to a nerve agent. Senior leaders in the division have been present, Ryan's been present. None of us have come down with any symptoms. So I think we're in an OK shape right there.

CHILCOTE: Yes, all those soldiers, Wolf, if I could jump in for a sec, all those soldiers feeling fine now, back to work. I did interview all of the soldiers.

And just to follow up on that, eight the 13 experienced vomiting. They -- a lot of them had some pretty serious symptoms. But it's not obvious that they are from any kind of chemical agent.

Now, I think it's worth mentioning that those soldiers that felt sick were at -- were not at the site that is being discussed in such detail today. In other words, those soldiers were not at the site with all of the chemical drums that were discovered in those two bunkers that the General is talking about. Those soldiers were at the training complex. Basically an Iraqi training facility. And they had spent the night there. They were exploiting that site. The General had mentioned, had talked about that site.

That is the site that had the NBC suits where obviously Iraqi soldiers or perhaps paramilitaries were doing some kind of training for combat. But they did do some tests there. And the results of those tests, the last of those tests were done late last night, which I guess about 18 hours ago. And they did come up positive, as the General said, there for a nerve agent...

(CROSSTALK)

FREAKLY: ... really a pesticide. Not a nerve agent but a pesticide. And low-level readings, low-level readings.

CHILCOTE: It's not fair to say that was a nerve agent?

FREAKLY: I don't think so, not at all. I mean it was pretty conclusive evidence that we saw -- pesticides and chemicals that you might find in paint or you might find in, like I said, a pesticide.

CHILCOTE: So it could just be industrial chemical...

FREAKLY: Correct.

CHILCOTE: And that could be one of the reasons why the soldiers felt sick.

FREAKLY: We're pretty sure the soldiers were sick for -- they had been up for 48 hours and a lot of strenuous activity to secure this town. I'm convinced more and more what that was all about is heat exposure. All fine now.

CHILCOTE: And, Wolf, I think that's something in this conversation we cannot stress enough that it was initially 13 soldiers that were not feeling well. Thirteen of the 15 that had been in the site -- been at this site. Obviously, as the general was saying, it could be from heat exhaustion. It could be from just a general exhaustion.

But all of those soldiers are fine now. They've all been medically screened. And, you know, I've been to Fort Campbell where all of these soldiers are from. I know when you put the two words chemical and soldiers next to one another, people really get concerned. But we want to convey -- and I know it's obviously the wishes of the general -- to convey that these soldiers are OK.

If we were talking about -- this has come from several experts on the ground have been telling me here that if we were looking at either location at high levels of nerve agent -- and this is something that you've been telling me about -- if we were looking at high levels of a nerve agent in the case of the agricultural complex, also a blister agent, then they would be feeling -- they would be a lot sicker.

FREAKLY: I think we'd see it in the townspeople. You know, there is a lot of townspeople around these complexes. We would see it there. And certainly we would see it with the soldiers. That's one of the reasons why senior division leaders went forward yesterday to personally assess this, to make sure that none of our soldiers were in harm's way. And we're convinced that they indeed are not.

CHILCOTE: Wolf, do you have any more questions?

BLITZER: Yes, let me try to wrap this up. This is a very significant development. General, do you know, A: if this facility, this area was ever inspected by U.N. weapons inspectors? And B: do you know if around these drums where the suspected chemicals were located, were there any other kind of military protective gear, gas masks, suits that you might find in an area where they would have banned chemical weapons presumably?

FREAKLY: Well, Wolf, I'm purely speculating here. But this is a small town along the Euphrates River. I would find it very unlikely that the U.N. inspectors would have had any idea that this was there.

Secondly, it's behind a civilian complex, as Ryan told you, an agricultural building where there is a lot of material about dealing with insects. And it would be very difficult to find. What's interesting to me is there are warehouses that could have held a couple hundred drums probably. They are empty. And these are buried in bunkers at that compound below the ground. With regard to chemical protective gear, there was none at this site, but there was a substantial amount of small arms AK-47s, RPGs and ammunition that was in this same agricultural building.

CHILCOTE: Yes. Obviously, I think that further thickens the whole plot. It's really very difficult to understand. On the one hand, it's an agricultural complex. Very clearly they had, like the general said, the literature. They also have the chemical -- the pesticides in one store house that I saw. On the other hand, they found a very large weapons cache. We were actually present when they found those weapons cache -- that weapons cache and we showed those pictures on CNN. So very difficult to understand.

Again, on the bunkers, obviously suspect. It is possible, however, that those drums were put in those bunkers not to hide them but maybe to hide them from the heat.

FREAKLY: It's possible. I mean...

CHILCOTE: It would be strange put together with the weapons found in the building, it makes it more unorthodox. But it is possible that they were put there for some other reason than to hide them. And they're not actually hidden, are they?

FREAKLY: They are. They are hidden. They're below the ground in about a four to six-foot hole. And there were matting -- there was a woven reed type matting pulled over the top with dirt and leaves thrown over the top as well. So there was some veiled attempt to camouflage those. Or as you speculate, could have been to keep them out of the sun. But I think the warehouses would have provided adequate protection to keep them out of the sun.

CHILCOTE: Anything more? We should probably let the General go.

BLITZER: I think the General has been very generous with his time. Thanks very much to the General. Ryan Chilcote, our man on the scene. I know you've been working this story now for the past three days. We're glad to see you're OK. We're certainly glad to see all the troops are okay and we'll await the outcome of the further testing. General, thanks very much. Ryan, thanks be careful out there.

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