Return to Transcripts main page

Live From...

Hussein's Scientific Adviser Gives Himself Up

Aired April 12, 2003 - 13:00   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.


LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, Leon Harris here in the CNN newsroom in Atlanta with a look at what's happening this hour in the war in Iraq.
Well, the seven of diamonds is out of the game. The former scientific adviser to Saddam Hussein cashed in his chips and gave himself up today to U.S. forces in Baghdad. And again, he insisted that Iraq has no weapons of mass destruction. Amir al-Saadi is among the 55 Iraqi officials in that deck of most wanted cards that was issued to coalition troops yesterday.

Now, coalition weapons experts want to further examine a warhead found at an abandoned Iraqi air base in the northern town of Kirkuk.

CNN's Thomas Nybo is traveling with the Army's 173rd Airborne, and he says preliminary tests show traces of a possible nerve agent. We will have much more on this development coming up shortly.

Fifty U.S. wounded troops are on their way home this hour. And former POW Jessica Lynch is among them. Their group departed Ramstein Air Base in Germany for Andrews Air Force Base near Washington, D.C. Their plane expected in around 5:30 p.m. Eastern.

And away from the war, North Korea is apparently giving ground in its standoff with Washington over all things nuclear. North says it may abandon its insistence on one-on-one talks, which the U.S. has flatly been rejecting, that is if Washington is ready to make bold moves as well, their words.

CNN's coverage of the war in Iraq continues right now.

JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, I'm Judy Woodruff at the CNN bureau in Washington. In a moment, Daryn Kagan will be joining me from Kuwait City.

Once again, chaos was the order of the day in Baghdad, although moves are afoot to reconstitute a police force, perhaps, among retired Iraqi officers.

CNN's Martin Savidge joins us with that and with a notable surrender among the former movers and shakers.

Hello -- Marty.

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Judy. Though we begin with some other news tonight. We have been told that a U.S. Marine has been killed in Baghdad today. We don't have a lot of information on this, only that it occurred in the city, reportedly at a checkpoint that was being manned by Marines.

According to a public affairs officer with the U.S. Marine Corps, he said that two gunmen reportedly attacked this checkpoint, and in the gunfire that was exchanged, one U.S. Marine was killed and one of the attackers was also killed. The second gunman reportedly got away.

Now, as to Lieutenant Amir Al-Saadi, this is or could be a major development for the U.S. government and, certainly, for the U.S. military, when it comes to wanting to know more about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.

He was the senior scientist and adviser -- still is, I guess, to a former regime -- to Saddam Hussein, when it comes to weapons of mass destruction. He turned himself in today, reportedly through a mediation that was done through a German television network.

Now, Mr. Al-Saadi's wife is German, so that may explain how this came about. As he turn himself into U.S. authorities in Baghdad today, he made a statement on television saying, number one, Iraq does not have weapons of mass destruction, did not have weapons of mass destruction and said that the whole U.S. evasion of Iraq, based upon that principle, was unjustified. Those were his words.

What he is saying to interrogators and investigators now, well, behind closed doors, that could be a different story. We will wait and see.

As to other develops taking place Iraq today, there is the issue of suicide vests. This is a very intriguing story, again, from the U.S. Marine Corps. Suicide vests were basically found in an elementary school. They describe it as a factory that was actually putting these vests together and getting ready to distribute them.

There were about 50 to 75 vests that were found, also a high -- and amount of high explosive, including dynamite and C4. Obviously, you put the two together and you have the potential for a number of suicide bombing attacks. We've already have one here in Iraq.

And what was disturbing to officials on site there of the Marines is that they found packaging that was empty, indicating that a number of these vests may already have been distributed, very similar to the type of vests that had been used in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

And then lastly, we were talking about security. A major gunfight broke out just outside the Palestinian Hotel here, which is the headquarters for all of the international media. It broke out on the backside late this afternoon.

Apparently, someone was firing on the U.S. Marines. The Marines don't waste any time. They returned with heavy gunfire, 50 caliber machine guns, M-16s, also mortar rounds could be heard going off.

It is unclear who was doing the firing or whether they were hit in the return fire from the U.S. Marines, but it shows how quickly, no matter where you are in the city of Baghdad, things can flair up -- Judy.

WOODRUFF: Marty, certainly disturbing, also, about those suicide vests, but what I want to ask you about is the Marine who you just reported has been killed today or this evening in Baghdad. I think we are getting a mixed picture back here in the United States. On the one hand, the sense is that Saddam's loyalists have left the city or are in hiding. On the other hand, things like this can happen. Just how unsafe is it for these troops?

SAVIDGE: Well, there is, obviously, a security threat to all U.S. military forces that are in Iraq at this time. The concern is, and what is unclear was, was this an Iraqi regime -- or a member of the Iraqi military open fire on the U.S. Marines? Or was it terrorism? And that's the point that is uncertain.

It is well-known that there are a number of international Arabs that have come into Iraq -- in other words, not Iraqis -- for the specific purpose, according to the U.S. military, to carry out attacks against U.S. military forces.

So at this point, it is unclear whether this was remnants of the Iraqi military, or was it a terrorist attack? Since the one government was killed, the other one got away, I'm not sure we're going to be able to determine that -- or at least the military is going to be able to determine that this evening. It remains to be seen, Judy.

WOODRUFF: Well, just all of the more reason, one assumes, why the U.S. military just has to continue to be very wary wherever they are, and we are sure that that's the case. All right -- Marty Savidge joining us live from Baghdad, where it is just after 9:00 in the evening, I believe that's right. Marty, thanks very much.

Well, troops from the U.S. Army's 4th Infantry began their move into southern Iraq today after weeks in limbo. You may recall the 4th was meant to launch a northern offensive through Turkey, but Turkish lawmakers balked, voted against it.

Instead, about 30,000 soldiers, based at Fort Hood, Texas, were flown into Kuwait in late March. The Iraqi town of Kut, 100 miles southeast of Baghdad, was formerly handed over to U.S. Marines today, after days of meetings with local officials and clerics. So far at least, the fears of terror attacks there have proved groundless, so far.

And in the southern city of Basra, British troops foresee joint patrols with Iraqi police to try to stem the looting that we've seen. We also hear that the first U.N. aid convoy is due in Basra anytime now from Iran.

A discovery and an air base in northern Iraq now has some coalition forces putting on chemical suits. In Kirkuk, weapons experts are testing a warhead they found there for possible chemical agents.

CNN's Thomas Nybo broke this story, and he's in Kirkuk with the 173rd Airborne.

Hello again -- Thomas.

THOMAS NYBO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Judy. Yes, I am just a couple hundred yards away from what the U.S. Army says could be a possible chemical warhead. Now, they've had mixed results on testing. Early on, they went in with what is called an I-cam. It's a testing device. And it showed trace amounts a nerve agent.

Now, just a few minutes ago, there was another team that was brought in with the same result, with the same testing device, and they actually showed no traces of the agent. As they said, you really can't tell, with any certainty, until you crack it open. And that's essentially what's going to be happening next.

Now, before the second team arrived, I spoke with Major Rob Gowan, the public affairs officer. He is traveling with the 173rd, and he spoke about the chemical warhead -- the possible chemical warhead.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAJ. ROB GOWAN, PUBLIC AFFAIRS OFFICER, 173RD AIRBORNE BRIGADE: Elements of the 173rd Airborne Brigade were clearing the air field, going from building-to-building, facility-to-facility, and they came across a weapon.

They checked it. It appeared as though it had some markings that indicated it was -- could be a chemical weapon. They came back later and checked it with some technical instruments, and it did test positive for nerve agent.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NYBO: Now, there was also another interesting development, the Army says, and that essentially had to do with the former base commander of the Kirkuk military airfield. They say that -- the intelligence summary that I read said that this man was basically imprisoned and, with the fall of Kirkuk, he was released, he and showed up here at the airfield. I also spoke with Major Gowan about his situation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOWAN: An Iraqi gentleman has come forth, claiming to have some specific knowledge about possible chemical weapons that may be stored here on this air base. It appears as though the air base was evacuated hastily. A lot of indicators seem to say that the Iraqi forces that were here left very quickly.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NYBO: Now, as I mentioned, I am just a few hundred yards from that suspected chemical warhead. As I understand it, there are no further tests planned for tonight, but the Army is bringing in their experts with equipment that will allow them to break open the warhead and get a more definitive verdict on what's inside -- Thomas Nybo, reporting from the Kirkuk military airfield.

WOODRUFF: Thomas, if you're still there, is it your sense that the troops, before they got to this area, knew that it might be a place where there would be chemical weapons, chemical warheads?

NYBO: I only caught part of your question. But if you are asking whether they expected to find something like this, on the one hand, I think, whenever you're dealing with a regime like that of Saddam Hussein, anything's possible. But I know, on one front they, they said they were surprised by the shear volume of weapons found.

We have been touring huge bunkers. These bunkers about the size of the basketball court. They are underground. And some of have just cans of various munitions and crates of missiles, and I saw a number of thousand-pound bombs. And that certainly caught them off guard.

Even when these guys were out on patrol, going form building-to- building, they didn't think that they would be encountering chemical weapons, and that kind of caught them off guard. And they took the picture and found out that this thing had one of those green bands that possibly signifies the presence of a chemical agent.

But I think anyone in the U.S. military will say, when you are dealing with Iraq, you can expect anything.

WOODRUFF: OK. Thank you very much -- Thomas Nybo, as you can see, still embedded with the 173rd Airborne. Thomas, thank you very much.

Elements of the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne have now moved into Baghdad to help improve security in the capital city. We have been hearing about the problems there, but their mission is turning into a lot more.

CNN's Ryan Chilcote is embedded with the 101st, and he joins us with the latest.

Ryan, tell us what is going on with your unit.

RYAN CHILCOTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Sure. Well, the 101st had a very busy day, the day beginning with an Iraqi man leading the soldiers to a shallow grave, if you could call it that, where the soldiers found some remains. They later identified those remains of a U.S. serviceman. And in a very dignified ceremony there, they prayed for that serviceman before evacuating his remains from that area. First on helicopter, now those remains, of course, on their way on a very long trip back to the United States.

Less than an hour after that acting on a tip from an Iraqi informant, the soldiers were raiding a mosque here in southern Baghdad. They had been told that they would find 30 Fedayeen, the so- called paramilitary fighters in southern Baghdad, inside that mosque. According to that informant, many of them would be injured.

What they found instead were 15 men, all of whom said that they had simply been there for the evening prayer. And also they found an AK-47, some military garb, a first-aid station, and a lot of identification, some of which came from Syria.

One man there told me that the first-aid station was simply there because, during the bombing, the residents of that neighborhood couldn't get to downtown Baghdad.

As for the military garb, he said, well, yes, we did have Iraqi soldiers, dead Iraqi soldiers, here -- were brought here. I disrobed them here and prepared them for their burials. So a mixed picture there that has the 101st, no, doubt scratching their heads, trying to figure out exactly what took place in that mosque.

And with us right now, we have the commander of the 101st Airborne's 3rd Brigade, Colonel Mike Linnington, to talk a little more about this.

First, given the sensitivities about going in to mosque in Iraq, why go in?

COL. MIKE LINNINGTON, 101ST AIRBORNE: We're very sensitive to those areas. We know the importance of those areas to the Iraqi people, and we refrain, at all costs -- or not at all costs, but we try to refrain from going in there, if at all possible.

Unfortunately, as we have been experiencing over the past couple of days, the mosques and the schools seem to be the areas that the paramilitaries have been seeking their safe haven, have been storing their weapons caches and have been gathering in the small pockets of resistance that are left in this area of southern Baghdad.

So we don't routinely search those areas, but as we receive credible tips from Iraqi citizens to go to this area, you'll find paramilitary forces or you will find weapons caches. That's where we go. And we have been pretty successful in uncovering both of those items in those areas.

CHILCOTE: Now, your area of responsibility, not specifically the 3rd Brigade's, but the 101st Airborne, is pretty much almost the entirety of southern Baghdad, at least east to the Tigris River anyway. What do you -- how do you see your role here? Is it combat operations or something else?

LINNINGTON: I believe, right now, we're in very much in a transition period between the end of combat operations and the initiation of full-blown stability and support operations.

As you saw today and as we made our way around the battlefield, a lot of unrest in this portion of the town and in all of Baghdad. Overwhelmingly, the citizenry are in support of what we are here for, but we still have pockets of resistance, so we still need to keep our guard up. We still need to find and destroy the remnants of the support of Saddam Hussein. And we have to route out those paramilitaries that still take pot shots at us, as they have done tonight and as they have done over the past several days.

CHILCOTE: All right. Well, thank you. That was Colonel Mike Linnington. He is the brigade commander for the 3rd Brigade of the 101st Airborne, one of two brigades -- one of the two brigades from the 101st Airborne that are now in southern Baghdad, moving into, as the colonel described, very much of a policing role in this part of the city. Back to you.

WOODRUFF: Ryan, do you know -- or maybe you can ask the colonel if he is still around, still close by -- what is the role of these troops, at this point, when they see looting going on or other lawlessness? What is the policy right now for the military? Is it to stay back, or what? I mean, I heard him say they're in transition, but what does that mean?

CHILCOTE: Sure. That's a good question. Well, we've seen some looting, quite a bit of looting actually. Southern Baghdad is home to several factories, and when we rolled in -- and remember, that was just yesterday that the 101st arrived in southern Baghdad -- we saw a lot of people -- I saw a lot of people moving all kinds of things down the road, in particular, tires and clothing.

I later learned that there's a textile factory and a tire factory in this part of the city, but it wasn't limited to that. They're also moving office supplies.

And my colleague back in the states has the question, what is the U.S. military's role -- what is your role right now in dealing with the looting? Is that something that -- is that a first priority right now?

LINNINGTON: It's not a first priority. But it's definitely something that we are trying to prevent from occurring. And by our presence in the town, we feel that we can help assist to get the citizenry back in a lawful environment and prevent the looting.

And with the return of services, services being power, water and basic necessities, we think a lot of the looting will stop taking place. As you saw today, a lot of the looting was citizens out trying to get the things that they couldn't legitimately get otherwise, stealing fuel, stealing water and stealing those things that, once those basic services come back on board, we think a lot of that will stop.

And that'll be our focus tomorrow, is to get the basic services back, back in operation, and then, by our presence, preclude some of the looting that's been taking place.

CHILCOTE: All right, thank you very much. OK, back to you. We're all done here in Baghdad.

WOODRUFF: Ryan Chilcote -- thanks very much. And also, thank you very much to Colonel Linnington for talking to us and answering those questions, helping us understand a little bit better about just what the troops are up against there in Baghdad.

All right. Now joining us is my colleague Daryn Kagan. She is in Kuwait City.

Hello -- Daryn. DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, Judy. A pleasure to be working with you from Kuwait tonight.

I want to focus now on the town of Kut. This is a city of about 300,000 people along the Tigris River, southeast of Baghdad. A very surprising reception today as U.S. military moved into there. Our Art Harris is in that area and joins us now on the phone.

Art -- hello.

ART HARRIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Daryn, hi. The Marines I'm with, the 2nd Marines, say that the town is very peaceful, unlike the expectation, where they thought that 2,000 to 3,000 terrorists would be hiding. They expect to be welcomed by civic and religious leaders in next day or so, and the doors will remain open, they're told.

I'm in a little town about 12 miles to the west called Anumeinia (ph), and I took a tour of the town today with the psychological operations people, loudspeakers blaring that the curfew had been extended because it had been so peaceful here.

And indeed, we stopped several places, got out. I had a chance, through translators, to talk with people. They said they were very happy the Marines were here. They wanted their basic power and light and security back. And the Marines said they were working hard to do that, as they are in Baghdad and elsewhere in country.

I talked to one man who was a builder, he said. And he said there are three classes of people in this town, the rich, the poor, and the middle class. He said he was rich because he had two cars and two wives. I asked him about that. He said, well, one lives upstairs, one lives downstairs. But what we have, he said, is a democracy -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Doesn't sound look a democracy in that household, but Art, thank you so much for telling us about something that has gone right. Good to report that news, as well.

We want to move into northern Iraq now, where the people are also trying to restore some semblance of law and order.

Our Ben Wedeman is standing by there -- Ben.

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Daryn. Well, the situation in Mosul is fairly grim at the moment. Yesterday, there was an orgy of looting, people going on a rampage, stealing essentially whatever they could get their hands on from government buildings and other state-related facilities. Now, that in the wake of the surrender of the Iraqi garrison in that city.

Now, when we went there this morning, we saw several key government buildings were still on fire. An oil storage facility was also on fire, sending thick black smoke throughout the city.

Now, the looting does seem to have tapered off ever so slightly today, and this is not because of the presence of American troops or Kurdish irregulars, but largely because local people have taken matters into their own hands. They've set up roadblocks around the city, around the neighborhoods.

You see them, they're carry any kind of weapons they can get their hands on, and there are lots of weapons out there, also knives and clubs. Now, when you drive up to these roadblocks, it's very disconcerting because they do not look friendly. Fortunately, however, when we drove up, nothing happened.

Now, speaking to the people of Mosul -- and it's a predominantly Arab Sunni city that traditionally has been loyal to Saddam Hussein -- we heard some mixed emotions. Some people resentful of the Iraqi president, others resentful of him because he had -- they said he had abandoned him. After all his defiant rhetoric, he seems to have disappeared.

There was anger at the Americans for not doing enough to stop the looting that really has shocked people, just the way law and order simply collapsed in an instant, in a flash, causing this city, a fairly prosperous northern Iraqi city, to really, within 24 hours, to be in shambles. Going around the city, you see paper all over the place. You see smashed furniture, other things that people have hauled away and just discarded into streets.

Now, today, there was an American force in -- present in the city, but a very small one. We saw three cars with American soldiers drive by. They had a recorded message. They were playing over a loudspeaker, announcing the arrival of the coalition, saying that they would try to restore law and order.

Now, law and order, however, is being maintained, to a certain extent, by Kurdish irregulars, or Peshmerga, who entered the city yesterday. But the problem is that there is a lot of animosity between the Kurds and the Arabs. The Arabs feeling -- their feeling is that, of course, the Kurds have come in as an occupation force and may be here to settle some very old and bitter scores -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Yes, the story line that goes back many, many years. Ben Wedeman in Mosul, in northern Iraq -- thank you very much. Judy, back to you in Washington, D.C.

WOODRUFF: Thanks, Daryn. Well, the last major pro-Saddam city, you might say, that's standing in Iraq is Tikrit, where Saddam Hussein himself grew up.

Coalition forces are maneuvering, we're told, to get inside the city. We get a situation report now from Miles O'Brien at the CNN Center.

Miles -- and I gather it's somewhat a mixed picture, reading in the "Washington Post" and other places today, that intelligence showing there are no defensive preparations, and there's a lot of looting going on.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The big question, Judy, you are right, is, is there going to be a big fight in Tikrit? Don Shepherd here to kind of walk us through this.

Tikrit, if there is any place that might be a hold out for the Saddam Hussein regime, it would, in fact, be Tikrit. Just to give you a sense of it, this is the birthplace of Saddam Hussein. His clan, his cousins, his palace fortress compound is there. But so far, no evidence that tells us that there's a fight there.

MAJ. GEN. DON SHEPPERD, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Lots being bombed by air power around there, anything they can find in the way of military, but no organized plan of defense that can be seen, at least from the air.

A lot of Saddam's minions, as on those cards that we've been talking about, have al-Tikriti after their names, so they're from this area. If you were going to make a last stand, it would be here, but no evidence yet that it will be a battle, Miles.

O'BRIEN: What are the chances -- let's move in on EarthViewer.com into that area, down into Tikrit, which is right along the Tigris River there, a big area that has been dammed up there, which is the core of the compound there. That's the main palace there.

What is the chance that Saddam Hussein or perhaps some key members of the regime might be holed up in some of these places and the inevitable warren of tunnels which lie beneath?

SHEPPERD: Well, it would be a good place to hold up. Again, it's a city of 28,000 people. And this area that we're looking at is about two miles by almost three miles. It's a very, very large area, lots of sub-palace, lots of VIP quarters for his minions and visitors and what have you, lots of lakes and tunnels and places to hide.

So if -- if he wanted to make a last stand and hide some place, this would be a good one.

O'BRIEN: But, as we say, it's difficult to predict these things. Thus far, every time that we have been in a mode where we predicted a big fight with some sort of Republican Guard entity, they have melted away.

SHEPPERD: Indeed, and reports also that the 101st Airborne is being able to relieve the 3rd Infantry Division and the Marine to move north towards Tikrit, so we may find the answer to this very soon.

O'BRIEN: Let's take a look at some of the damage that has been incurred to the Tikrit area just by that allied bombing campaign. When you look at what's happened thus far in this campaign -- this is a little bit inside out. This is a big air campaign, perhaps preceding a ground effort. There is some limitations as to what the air campaign can do.

SHEPPERD: There is indeed. Basically, you've got to have people go in and search the tunnels on the ground at some point. But what you see here is evidence of smart weapons, precision-guided munitions, coming in with delayed fuses, going through the roof and then going off inside, hopefully to kill anyone that was there was the idea.

O'BRIEN: Those bunker busters, once again being used heavily. Don Shepperd, thank you very much, as always. We appreciate it. We appreciate your analysis -- Judy.

WOODRUFF: All right. Miles, General Shepperd, thank you both. Of course, everybody waiting to see whether there is any sort of battle in Tikrit.

The Army's newest hero: coming up, the journey home for rescued POW Jessica Lynch.

Also, life is anything but normal in northern Iraq, a palace striped barren in the absence of government control.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: Welcome back live to Kuwait City. Want to talk about different countries around the region here and the reverberations of what has taken place in Iraq.

Nowhere are they watching this more closely than in Syria and the ramifications of what it might mean for that country.

Our Sheila MacVicar is in Damascus right now.

And I understand, Sheila, you've just had a chance to meet with Syria's foreign minister. Hello.

SHEILA MACVICAR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The occasion was a press conference between the French foreign minister, Dominique de Villepin, who arrived in Syria this afternoon for meetings with Syria's president Bashar al-Assad [AUDIO GAP].

The two men then met the [AUDIO GAP] press, Faruq al-Shara, Syria's foreign minister and Dominique de Villepin, and, of course, there were many questions for Mr. al-Shara regarding allegations and statements that have been coming in recent days and with increasing frequency from the U.S. administration, suggestions that perhaps Syria has been concealing Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, suggesting that perhaps there were members of the Saddam Hussein regime who had sought shelter in Syria, and allegations -- repeated allegations that Syria has been transferring military material over its borders to support Iraqi forces.

It was a clearly frustrated Syrian foreign minister, who when asked about these allegations, said -- quote -- They are not coming -- these allegations are not coming against Syria from the U.S. administration." They are coming of what he called "fanatic circles in the administration." He went on to say that sometimes I don't think the Americans know what they want. They tell us that you have -- you may have the weapons of mass destruction smuggled from Iraq into Syria, but they bring us no evidence. We don't have such things.

And there was this one amazing moment in this press conference, where Mr. al-Shara began to talk about what America's policy has been over the course of the last year and a half or so. He talked about the war in Afghanistan, about the war in Iraq. He said that given the mess that has been left in both of these countries, they are turning their attention now to a third country. And just as he was about to make an analogy, linking the United States to Nazi Germany of the Second World War, he was interrupted by the French foreign minister who said, "You really don't want to say that. You really do not want to go there."

So clearly, a lot of tension, clearly, a great deal of sensitivity of the part of the Syrians -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Sheila, it sounds like a very dramatic moment that you're covering there in Damascus. More on that just ahead. Right now, it's time to go to Atlanta. Our Leon Harris with the latest developments of the day.

HARRIS: Hello, Daryn. Hello, folks. Leon Harris here in the newsroom at CNN. Here's what's happening at this hour in the war in Iraq. Saddam Hussein's top scientific adviser, Lieutenant General Amir al-Saadi, has surrendered to U.S. authorities. CENTCOM says German television network, Zatavi (ph) helped to arrange the surrender. Al Saadi told the network that he has no information about the 54 others on the U.S. most wanted list, and he continues to insist that Iraq has no banned weapons.

The U.S. troops are investigating the possibility a chemical weapons discovery at an occupied air base in Kirkuk. CNN's Thomas Nybo is there, and he reports initial testing on a suspicious warhead are positive for trace amounts of a nerve agent. Weapons experts have been called in to check out this find there.

Southeast of Baghdad, coalition forces say the city of al Kut has surrendered without having to fire a single shot. CNN's Art Harris reports that U.S. Marines were welcomed like liberators as they rolled into the center of the city. One Marine told Harris that it looks like the suicide bombers they expected to encounter may have Kut before the troop arrived.

Now, the most vocal opponents in the war have wrapped up a hastily called summit in Russia. Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted French President Jacques Chirac and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder. They're pushing for the U.N. to lead the rebuilding of Iraq.

An extensive worldwide investigation has concluded that a shooting spree at Los Angeles International Airport was indeed terrorism. The FBI and the Justice Department say an Egyptian immigrant was acting alone when he opened fire, killing two Israelis and wounding four others.

Now, CNN has much more coming up for you next hour. Looting and lawlessness in Baghdad, the latest as coalition forces work to calm the chaos in the country's capital. Now that Saddam Hussein is out, a new government is desperately needed, rebuilding Iraq from the ground up. And Jessica lynch heading home, the latest on her injuries and what challenges lie ahead for her. We are live at hospital where she's expected to be brought in the next couple of hours. All of that and more next hour right here on CNN. Our coverage of the war in Iraq continues right now.

WOODRUFF: Rescued prisoner-of-war, Jessica Lynch, should be arriving at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland, near Washington, around 5:30 Eastern this afternoon. The Army private was said to be in pain, but in good spirits as she was loaded onto a transport plane in Germany this morning. CNN's medical correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen, is outside of Walter Reed Army Medical Center where Private Lynch is expected to continue her recuperation.

Hello, Elizabeth.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Judy. Private Lynch will come here after she lands at Andrews Air Force Base. She'll be joined by other war wounded. They will go to Walter Reed behind me where 23 war wounded are already being treated.

Now, Jessica has already received some treatment for her injuries in Germany. She received surgeries for two broken legs, a broken arm, and a broken foot and a broken ankle. She also received -- had a surgery for a fractured disc in her lower spine. She also suffered from head lacerations. A military spokesman today read a statement from her family.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAJ. MIKE YOUNG, U.S. ARMY SPOKESMAN: Jessie's recovery continues and she is doing well. She is in pain, but she is in good spirits. Although she faces a lengthy rehabilitation, she is tough. We believe she will regain her strength soon. Our family is proud of Jessie.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COHEN: The rehab is indeed expected to be extensive. We talked to a specialist who said with injuries like hers it's a matter of months not just weeks -- Judy.

WOODRUFF: And what about -- we talked about this before, Elizabeth -- what about -- what are they saying about the psychological recuperation that she may or may not need?

COHEN: That would also be extensive, Judy. There's a process that in military lingo, they call decompression. This is where psychologists speak to released POWs and they talk to them about what happened while they were in captivity. One important part of decompression is that the released POW not be exposed to media pressure or to the outside world at all, so we are not expected to see very much of Jessica Lynch once she returns.

WOODRUFF: Understandably. And Elizabeth, one other thing, they're still not saying how she received these injuries, whether it was during the firefight, the ambush, or later while she was in captivity?

COHEN: That's right, Judy. We still don't know that.

WOODRUFF: OK, Elizabeth Cohen reporting for us from Walter Reed Army Medical Center where Elizabeth will be throughout the afternoon until Jessica Lynch is brought to the hospital. Thanks, Elizabeth.

For more on Private Lynch's journey home, tune in tonight for a CNN special, "THE RESCUE OF JESSICA LYNCH" hosted by Anderson Cooper. That's at 7:30 p.m. Eastern, 4:30 Pacific.

The city of Basra and the casualties of war, coming up, one of the youngest victims and the obstacles facing doctors struggling to save lives.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN VAUSE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The fight for Basra took less than two weeks but the war will last a lifetime for this little girl. Zeneb (ph), just 10 years old, has lost her right leg. There are compound fractures in the left. Her mother is dead, so, too, her three brothers. Her home was destroyed. Her youngest sister and father, Hamid, survived. He says they were hit by a coalition air strike.

HAMID ABB-LAI, BASRA RESIDENT (through translator): I see the (UNINTELLIGIBLE). I see the planes throw bombardments on our town.

VAUSE: Hamid says 17 people, all relatives, were killed in that house. He says he watched his wife die. Zeneb (ph) tells me there is now pain where the doctors amputate it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are deeply sad about the future of this child and the future of many other children. You see just one. We have many. They will live in bad situation as a handicapped child.

VAUSE: Other children, like 9-year-old Salim (ph), he was hit by liberation fire. The men of his village fired their AK-47s into the air to celebrate the end of the war, but one bullet found Salim's (ph) right arm.

(on camera): Will there be permanent damage?

DR. M.M. MUDHI, ORTHOPEDIC SURGEON: Probably, because he has what probably damaged to (UNINTELLIGIBLE) nerve. There is a big segment lost and he may have a deformative like (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

VAUSE (voice-over): A tour through Dr. Mudhi's wards at Basra General Hospital is as sad as it is grim.

(on camera): His prognosis?

MUDHI: His prognosis, we don't know because he's in state of (UNINTELLIGIBLE). Probably, he's going to have very bad complications. VAUSE (voice-over): Complications because the doctor says he does not have the right drugs or the equipment to treat this man not because the war, he says, but because of 12 years of sanctions. But this man's burns, he points out, were the result of coalition bombing.

The hospital is short on everything from water to electricity, which runs for just a few hours a day. It's the best their old generator can do. Normally, they could admit 700 patients. Right now, there are just 80. The rest are treated and sent home. But worst of all, they say, are the looters.

MUDHI: They want us to get out and to steal something.

VAUSE (on camera): Anything?

MUDHI: Yes. We are present here just to protect the hospital.

VAUSE (voice-over): Of the 1,200 people employed here, about 100 have turned up for work over the last few days. Most are too scared and the administrator told me, no one has been paid for months. The hospital corridors have now become makeshift shelters for those whose homes were destroyed. Everyone here thought the end of Saddam would be a time of celebration, instead, there is uncertainty and disappointment mixed with a growing anger because there has been little sign of that much-promised humanitarian aid.

John Vause, CNN, Basra.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: Well, I got to tell you; it's not for a lack of people trying in this area. Right now, are there representatives from various human agencies arriving in the Iraqi town of Basra, in fact, on the Iranian border. They say between 30,000 to 60,000 displaced Iraqis are taking refuge there. Joining us to talk more about humanitarian aid are Jordan Dey, a spokesman for the U.N. World Food Program, and Peter Bell. He is president of CARE USA.

Jordan, I want to go ahead and start with you in New York City. We've heard so much all day long and just in John Vause's piece about the problem of looting. I understand your organization knows about this only too well?

JORDAN DEY, U.N. WORLD FOOD PROGRAM: Sure. Obviously, it's a highly volatile and chaotic situation in Iraq right now, particularly in southern and central Iraq. We've had warehouses that have been looted; even our WFP offices in Baghdad have been looted. So it's -- right now, it's not a secure environment for us to move in. The good news, however, is that we have enough food in the region, in Jordan, in Turkey, in Iran, in Kuwait, to move massive amounts of food in Iraq as soon as needed. We'd like to get in as soon as possible and hopefully, the security situation will change drastically in the next couple of days to allow that.

KAGAN: Well, as you say, the good news is that the supplies are there, but that's been the case for weeks now. What do you think the timing is? And is this the timeline you expected in order to be able to get into Iraq?

DEY: Well, we calculate that the average Iraqi family has enough food to last them until early May. They were given a double ration by the Iraqi government before the conflict, so there's some degree of food security. We would ideally like to get in as soon as possible to start replenishing those warehouses and we will need to be able to do that in the next couple weeks.

But again, the good news is we do have food in and around the region. It's been arriving from the U.S., from Australia. We've been buying it locally as well. We've got the food corridor set up. We'll use ports in southern Jordan and southern Turkey and we'll be able to use the Umm Qasr port in southern Iraq as soon as it opens up. So we'll have the ability to get the food in there. It'll be a massive operation. It will be our largest humanitarian operation ever. We'll have anywhere from 800,000 to 100,000 trucks on the road on any given day, but again, we need access. We need a secure working environment.

KAGAN: And that's a frustration. Peter Bell, I want to bring you into this conversation from Atlanta. Let's talk a little bit about what seems to be a sticky political situation with the U.S. military. The U.S. military in charge of the distribution of humanitarian aid and yet organizations like yours that work all around the world, it's key to what you do to not necessarily associate with one particular military. So how does that make your job more difficult?

PETER BELL, PRESIDENT, CARE USA: Well, we understand that as long as hostilities are going on and as long as there's looting and disorder, the military are going to have to be in charge and indeed, they are going to have to supply much of the humanitarian assistance. But CARE has been operating in Baghdad, in central and southern Iraq, now for 12 years, and our senior staff was just able to return to Baghdad a couple of days ago and are doing assessments in the Baghdad area. And we would expect to resume activities there as quickly as possible. Working with hospitals, distributing food, to vulnerable people and also working on water and sanitation. At the same time, we have a group working in Amman, to respond more broadly within Iraq as needed.

KAGAN: You mention the hospital situation in Baghdad. I had a chance to talk with the representative of the International Red Cross earlier. She described a situation that is so dire with these hospitals not only have the beds been looted and the drugs and the supplies, the patient, the doctors, are afraid to be at the hospitals.

BELL: It's a terrible situation, Daryn. It really is. As a say, we've been working with these hospitals for many years now, and there's a desperate need for security, for those hospitals. It's absolutely necessary. And I hope it's being supplied now and will be in the days to come.

KAGAN: I know neither one of you has a crystal ball, but just to wrap up this discussion, any timeline as to when you expect to have better access to the people who really need your help inside of Iraq? Peter, you go first. BELL: Well, I would expect within the coming days, we would be able to be operative again at least in parts of Baghdad. And then beyond that, we're ready at the border. We're ready to work side-by- side with the World Food Program as we have in Afghanistan and Kosovo and other places.

KAGAN: And Jordan, it sounds like you're ready as well. Gentlemen, thank you both for joining us in this discussion. I appreciate it very much.

BELL: Thank you very much.

KAGAN: Still ahead, Saddam's secret police, more on them coming up. Thousands of Iraqis dig through the rubble of jail cells in hopes of finding some trace of a missing relative or perhaps a missing friend. We'll be back after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WOODRUFF: For almost a quarter of a century, Iraqis have lived under Saddam Hussein's thumb. And even now, after his regime has been toppled, many Iraqis say they are still terrified of him. CNN's Richard Blystone takes us to Baghdad's abandoned, secret police headquarters to help understand this all-consuming fear.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RICHARD BLYSTONE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It would be a pity to let the roses go to waste. For within any luck, this place won't be restored.

(on camera): This was the headquarters of perhaps the regime's most important institution, the Mukhabarat, literally, the Informers, the secret police.

(voice-over): A few people are here for some light looting; others just to have a look. This man says he used to be afraid just to drive past here. A guide appears and shows us the scars of his personal experience of the Mukhabarat. He brings us documents, another illustration of venality of evil. This one says the Mukhabarat needs more and better cars.

At a military camp, hundreds have gathered.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mukhabarat, about 10 years and don't see him.

BLYSTONE: These people believe there's a complex of underground cells here, thousands of them, five stories deep. They tear up floors and find nothing. The rifled documents. A mother searches for word of her son. They leave U.S. Special Forces here and there. They think there are prisoners alive down there.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We don't know how to get underground.

BLYSTONE: They want bulldozers to come and dig the whole place up now. They think they've heard voices from below. But it looks more and more like a reflection of their own mind-sets molded by totalitarianism where you can believe all or nothing.

It's down here, no, that's a pump house. Here are cells, but above ground clean and empty.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's always important to show the people that you're here to help them, take a little time to listen to them.

BLYSTONE: The soldiers hear there are tunnels leading all the way from the river. But the sad fact is these people don't know this place. They are still in the grip of Saddam Hussein's deadliest weapon, fear.

Richard Blystone, CNN, Baghdad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WOODRUFF: It's still so hard to imagine even after all of these days what these people must be thinking and what they are feeling.

Well, one quick programming note for you -- be sure to tune in to "LATE EDITION" tomorrow. General Tommy Franks of the U.S. Central Command will sit down with our Wolf Blitzer to talk about the war in Iraq. That's Sunday at noon Eastern, 9:00 Pacific a.m. right here on CNN.

Still ahead, how to rebuild a war ravaged nation? We'll talk about with an international security expert, coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Hello. Leon Harris here in the CNN newsroom in Atlanta with a look at what's happening this hour in the war in Iraq.

Sophisticated tests are underway right now on a warhead found in northern Iraq. This warhead tested positively preliminarily for traces of nerve agents. CNN's Thomas Nybo with the U.S. Army's 173rd Airborne says the warhead was among an arsenal of weapons left behind at an air base in Kirkuk.

Well, one man in a position to know about Iraq's most dangerous weapons is now in coalition custody this hour. Amir Al-Saadi, the former top scientific adviser to Saddam Hussein, surrendered today to U.S. forces in Baghdad. The general is one of CENTCOM's 55 most wanted Iraqi leaders. Iraq's information ministries among the Baghdad buildings on fire tonight after another day of looting and pillaging. CENTCOM and CNN correspondents said the lawlessness may be subsiding as available targets dwindle. U.S. forces are hoping to reconstitute a Baghdad police force.

And southeast of Baghdad, talks continue between U.S. forces and local officials in al Kut. The topic is that city's peaceful hand over to coalition control and it's expected to happen sometime soon. Marines say a convoy of theirs was welcomed like liberators today despite fears of suicide attacks by non-Iraqi terrorists.

And now, our coverage of the war in Iraq continues with Judy Woodruff in Washington.

KAGAN: Good afternoon, it is 9:00 p.m. in Kuwait City and 10:00 p.m. in Baghdad. That is where the news is being made this Saturday, April 12th. I'm Daryn Kagan. Coming up this hour, looting and lawlessness in Baghdad, the latest as coalition forces work to calm the chaos in the country's capital.

WOODRUFF: A disturbing find in an Iraqi air base in Kirkuk now under coalition control, a warhead that U.S. military sources say shows traces of a nerve agent. More definitive tests are being done.

From CNN's studios in Washington, I'm Judy Woodruff.

Now, that Saddam Hussein is out, Iraq is in desperate need of new leadership. Rebuilding Iraq from the ground up. Also this hour, Jessica Lynch headed home, the latest on her injuries. We'll be live at the hospital where she's expected to be brought in the next couple of hours.

And now, let's go back it my colleague, Daryn, in Kuwait City.

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 April 12, 2003 - 13:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, Leon Harris here in the CNN newsroom in Atlanta with a look at what's happening this hour in the war in Iraq.
Well, the seven of diamonds is out of the game. The former scientific adviser to Saddam Hussein cashed in his chips and gave himself up today to U.S. forces in Baghdad. And again, he insisted that Iraq has no weapons of mass destruction. Amir al-Saadi is among the 55 Iraqi officials in that deck of most wanted cards that was issued to coalition troops yesterday.

Now, coalition weapons experts want to further examine a warhead found at an abandoned Iraqi air base in the northern town of Kirkuk.

CNN's Thomas Nybo is traveling with the Army's 173rd Airborne, and he says preliminary tests show traces of a possible nerve agent. We will have much more on this development coming up shortly.

Fifty U.S. wounded troops are on their way home this hour. And former POW Jessica Lynch is among them. Their group departed Ramstein Air Base in Germany for Andrews Air Force Base near Washington, D.C. Their plane expected in around 5:30 p.m. Eastern.

And away from the war, North Korea is apparently giving ground in its standoff with Washington over all things nuclear. North says it may abandon its insistence on one-on-one talks, which the U.S. has flatly been rejecting, that is if Washington is ready to make bold moves as well, their words.

CNN's coverage of the war in Iraq continues right now.

JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, I'm Judy Woodruff at the CNN bureau in Washington. In a moment, Daryn Kagan will be joining me from Kuwait City.

Once again, chaos was the order of the day in Baghdad, although moves are afoot to reconstitute a police force, perhaps, among retired Iraqi officers.

CNN's Martin Savidge joins us with that and with a notable surrender among the former movers and shakers.

Hello -- Marty.

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Judy. Though we begin with some other news tonight. We have been told that a U.S. Marine has been killed in Baghdad today. We don't have a lot of information on this, only that it occurred in the city, reportedly at a checkpoint that was being manned by Marines.

According to a public affairs officer with the U.S. Marine Corps, he said that two gunmen reportedly attacked this checkpoint, and in the gunfire that was exchanged, one U.S. Marine was killed and one of the attackers was also killed. The second gunman reportedly got away.

Now, as to Lieutenant Amir Al-Saadi, this is or could be a major development for the U.S. government and, certainly, for the U.S. military, when it comes to wanting to know more about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.

He was the senior scientist and adviser -- still is, I guess, to a former regime -- to Saddam Hussein, when it comes to weapons of mass destruction. He turned himself in today, reportedly through a mediation that was done through a German television network.

Now, Mr. Al-Saadi's wife is German, so that may explain how this came about. As he turn himself into U.S. authorities in Baghdad today, he made a statement on television saying, number one, Iraq does not have weapons of mass destruction, did not have weapons of mass destruction and said that the whole U.S. evasion of Iraq, based upon that principle, was unjustified. Those were his words.

What he is saying to interrogators and investigators now, well, behind closed doors, that could be a different story. We will wait and see.

As to other develops taking place Iraq today, there is the issue of suicide vests. This is a very intriguing story, again, from the U.S. Marine Corps. Suicide vests were basically found in an elementary school. They describe it as a factory that was actually putting these vests together and getting ready to distribute them.

There were about 50 to 75 vests that were found, also a high -- and amount of high explosive, including dynamite and C4. Obviously, you put the two together and you have the potential for a number of suicide bombing attacks. We've already have one here in Iraq.

And what was disturbing to officials on site there of the Marines is that they found packaging that was empty, indicating that a number of these vests may already have been distributed, very similar to the type of vests that had been used in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

And then lastly, we were talking about security. A major gunfight broke out just outside the Palestinian Hotel here, which is the headquarters for all of the international media. It broke out on the backside late this afternoon.

Apparently, someone was firing on the U.S. Marines. The Marines don't waste any time. They returned with heavy gunfire, 50 caliber machine guns, M-16s, also mortar rounds could be heard going off.

It is unclear who was doing the firing or whether they were hit in the return fire from the U.S. Marines, but it shows how quickly, no matter where you are in the city of Baghdad, things can flair up -- Judy.

WOODRUFF: Marty, certainly disturbing, also, about those suicide vests, but what I want to ask you about is the Marine who you just reported has been killed today or this evening in Baghdad. I think we are getting a mixed picture back here in the United States. On the one hand, the sense is that Saddam's loyalists have left the city or are in hiding. On the other hand, things like this can happen. Just how unsafe is it for these troops?

SAVIDGE: Well, there is, obviously, a security threat to all U.S. military forces that are in Iraq at this time. The concern is, and what is unclear was, was this an Iraqi regime -- or a member of the Iraqi military open fire on the U.S. Marines? Or was it terrorism? And that's the point that is uncertain.

It is well-known that there are a number of international Arabs that have come into Iraq -- in other words, not Iraqis -- for the specific purpose, according to the U.S. military, to carry out attacks against U.S. military forces.

So at this point, it is unclear whether this was remnants of the Iraqi military, or was it a terrorist attack? Since the one government was killed, the other one got away, I'm not sure we're going to be able to determine that -- or at least the military is going to be able to determine that this evening. It remains to be seen, Judy.

WOODRUFF: Well, just all of the more reason, one assumes, why the U.S. military just has to continue to be very wary wherever they are, and we are sure that that's the case. All right -- Marty Savidge joining us live from Baghdad, where it is just after 9:00 in the evening, I believe that's right. Marty, thanks very much.

Well, troops from the U.S. Army's 4th Infantry began their move into southern Iraq today after weeks in limbo. You may recall the 4th was meant to launch a northern offensive through Turkey, but Turkish lawmakers balked, voted against it.

Instead, about 30,000 soldiers, based at Fort Hood, Texas, were flown into Kuwait in late March. The Iraqi town of Kut, 100 miles southeast of Baghdad, was formerly handed over to U.S. Marines today, after days of meetings with local officials and clerics. So far at least, the fears of terror attacks there have proved groundless, so far.

And in the southern city of Basra, British troops foresee joint patrols with Iraqi police to try to stem the looting that we've seen. We also hear that the first U.N. aid convoy is due in Basra anytime now from Iran.

A discovery and an air base in northern Iraq now has some coalition forces putting on chemical suits. In Kirkuk, weapons experts are testing a warhead they found there for possible chemical agents.

CNN's Thomas Nybo broke this story, and he's in Kirkuk with the 173rd Airborne.

Hello again -- Thomas.

THOMAS NYBO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Judy. Yes, I am just a couple hundred yards away from what the U.S. Army says could be a possible chemical warhead. Now, they've had mixed results on testing. Early on, they went in with what is called an I-cam. It's a testing device. And it showed trace amounts a nerve agent.

Now, just a few minutes ago, there was another team that was brought in with the same result, with the same testing device, and they actually showed no traces of the agent. As they said, you really can't tell, with any certainty, until you crack it open. And that's essentially what's going to be happening next.

Now, before the second team arrived, I spoke with Major Rob Gowan, the public affairs officer. He is traveling with the 173rd, and he spoke about the chemical warhead -- the possible chemical warhead.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAJ. ROB GOWAN, PUBLIC AFFAIRS OFFICER, 173RD AIRBORNE BRIGADE: Elements of the 173rd Airborne Brigade were clearing the air field, going from building-to-building, facility-to-facility, and they came across a weapon.

They checked it. It appeared as though it had some markings that indicated it was -- could be a chemical weapon. They came back later and checked it with some technical instruments, and it did test positive for nerve agent.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NYBO: Now, there was also another interesting development, the Army says, and that essentially had to do with the former base commander of the Kirkuk military airfield. They say that -- the intelligence summary that I read said that this man was basically imprisoned and, with the fall of Kirkuk, he was released, he and showed up here at the airfield. I also spoke with Major Gowan about his situation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOWAN: An Iraqi gentleman has come forth, claiming to have some specific knowledge about possible chemical weapons that may be stored here on this air base. It appears as though the air base was evacuated hastily. A lot of indicators seem to say that the Iraqi forces that were here left very quickly.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NYBO: Now, as I mentioned, I am just a few hundred yards from that suspected chemical warhead. As I understand it, there are no further tests planned for tonight, but the Army is bringing in their experts with equipment that will allow them to break open the warhead and get a more definitive verdict on what's inside -- Thomas Nybo, reporting from the Kirkuk military airfield.

WOODRUFF: Thomas, if you're still there, is it your sense that the troops, before they got to this area, knew that it might be a place where there would be chemical weapons, chemical warheads?

NYBO: I only caught part of your question. But if you are asking whether they expected to find something like this, on the one hand, I think, whenever you're dealing with a regime like that of Saddam Hussein, anything's possible. But I know, on one front they, they said they were surprised by the shear volume of weapons found.

We have been touring huge bunkers. These bunkers about the size of the basketball court. They are underground. And some of have just cans of various munitions and crates of missiles, and I saw a number of thousand-pound bombs. And that certainly caught them off guard.

Even when these guys were out on patrol, going form building-to- building, they didn't think that they would be encountering chemical weapons, and that kind of caught them off guard. And they took the picture and found out that this thing had one of those green bands that possibly signifies the presence of a chemical agent.

But I think anyone in the U.S. military will say, when you are dealing with Iraq, you can expect anything.

WOODRUFF: OK. Thank you very much -- Thomas Nybo, as you can see, still embedded with the 173rd Airborne. Thomas, thank you very much.

Elements of the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne have now moved into Baghdad to help improve security in the capital city. We have been hearing about the problems there, but their mission is turning into a lot more.

CNN's Ryan Chilcote is embedded with the 101st, and he joins us with the latest.

Ryan, tell us what is going on with your unit.

RYAN CHILCOTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Sure. Well, the 101st had a very busy day, the day beginning with an Iraqi man leading the soldiers to a shallow grave, if you could call it that, where the soldiers found some remains. They later identified those remains of a U.S. serviceman. And in a very dignified ceremony there, they prayed for that serviceman before evacuating his remains from that area. First on helicopter, now those remains, of course, on their way on a very long trip back to the United States.

Less than an hour after that acting on a tip from an Iraqi informant, the soldiers were raiding a mosque here in southern Baghdad. They had been told that they would find 30 Fedayeen, the so- called paramilitary fighters in southern Baghdad, inside that mosque. According to that informant, many of them would be injured.

What they found instead were 15 men, all of whom said that they had simply been there for the evening prayer. And also they found an AK-47, some military garb, a first-aid station, and a lot of identification, some of which came from Syria.

One man there told me that the first-aid station was simply there because, during the bombing, the residents of that neighborhood couldn't get to downtown Baghdad.

As for the military garb, he said, well, yes, we did have Iraqi soldiers, dead Iraqi soldiers, here -- were brought here. I disrobed them here and prepared them for their burials. So a mixed picture there that has the 101st, no, doubt scratching their heads, trying to figure out exactly what took place in that mosque.

And with us right now, we have the commander of the 101st Airborne's 3rd Brigade, Colonel Mike Linnington, to talk a little more about this.

First, given the sensitivities about going in to mosque in Iraq, why go in?

COL. MIKE LINNINGTON, 101ST AIRBORNE: We're very sensitive to those areas. We know the importance of those areas to the Iraqi people, and we refrain, at all costs -- or not at all costs, but we try to refrain from going in there, if at all possible.

Unfortunately, as we have been experiencing over the past couple of days, the mosques and the schools seem to be the areas that the paramilitaries have been seeking their safe haven, have been storing their weapons caches and have been gathering in the small pockets of resistance that are left in this area of southern Baghdad.

So we don't routinely search those areas, but as we receive credible tips from Iraqi citizens to go to this area, you'll find paramilitary forces or you will find weapons caches. That's where we go. And we have been pretty successful in uncovering both of those items in those areas.

CHILCOTE: Now, your area of responsibility, not specifically the 3rd Brigade's, but the 101st Airborne, is pretty much almost the entirety of southern Baghdad, at least east to the Tigris River anyway. What do you -- how do you see your role here? Is it combat operations or something else?

LINNINGTON: I believe, right now, we're in very much in a transition period between the end of combat operations and the initiation of full-blown stability and support operations.

As you saw today and as we made our way around the battlefield, a lot of unrest in this portion of the town and in all of Baghdad. Overwhelmingly, the citizenry are in support of what we are here for, but we still have pockets of resistance, so we still need to keep our guard up. We still need to find and destroy the remnants of the support of Saddam Hussein. And we have to route out those paramilitaries that still take pot shots at us, as they have done tonight and as they have done over the past several days.

CHILCOTE: All right. Well, thank you. That was Colonel Mike Linnington. He is the brigade commander for the 3rd Brigade of the 101st Airborne, one of two brigades -- one of the two brigades from the 101st Airborne that are now in southern Baghdad, moving into, as the colonel described, very much of a policing role in this part of the city. Back to you.

WOODRUFF: Ryan, do you know -- or maybe you can ask the colonel if he is still around, still close by -- what is the role of these troops, at this point, when they see looting going on or other lawlessness? What is the policy right now for the military? Is it to stay back, or what? I mean, I heard him say they're in transition, but what does that mean?

CHILCOTE: Sure. That's a good question. Well, we've seen some looting, quite a bit of looting actually. Southern Baghdad is home to several factories, and when we rolled in -- and remember, that was just yesterday that the 101st arrived in southern Baghdad -- we saw a lot of people -- I saw a lot of people moving all kinds of things down the road, in particular, tires and clothing.

I later learned that there's a textile factory and a tire factory in this part of the city, but it wasn't limited to that. They're also moving office supplies.

And my colleague back in the states has the question, what is the U.S. military's role -- what is your role right now in dealing with the looting? Is that something that -- is that a first priority right now?

LINNINGTON: It's not a first priority. But it's definitely something that we are trying to prevent from occurring. And by our presence in the town, we feel that we can help assist to get the citizenry back in a lawful environment and prevent the looting.

And with the return of services, services being power, water and basic necessities, we think a lot of the looting will stop taking place. As you saw today, a lot of the looting was citizens out trying to get the things that they couldn't legitimately get otherwise, stealing fuel, stealing water and stealing those things that, once those basic services come back on board, we think a lot of that will stop.

And that'll be our focus tomorrow, is to get the basic services back, back in operation, and then, by our presence, preclude some of the looting that's been taking place.

CHILCOTE: All right, thank you very much. OK, back to you. We're all done here in Baghdad.

WOODRUFF: Ryan Chilcote -- thanks very much. And also, thank you very much to Colonel Linnington for talking to us and answering those questions, helping us understand a little bit better about just what the troops are up against there in Baghdad.

All right. Now joining us is my colleague Daryn Kagan. She is in Kuwait City.

Hello -- Daryn. DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, Judy. A pleasure to be working with you from Kuwait tonight.

I want to focus now on the town of Kut. This is a city of about 300,000 people along the Tigris River, southeast of Baghdad. A very surprising reception today as U.S. military moved into there. Our Art Harris is in that area and joins us now on the phone.

Art -- hello.

ART HARRIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Daryn, hi. The Marines I'm with, the 2nd Marines, say that the town is very peaceful, unlike the expectation, where they thought that 2,000 to 3,000 terrorists would be hiding. They expect to be welcomed by civic and religious leaders in next day or so, and the doors will remain open, they're told.

I'm in a little town about 12 miles to the west called Anumeinia (ph), and I took a tour of the town today with the psychological operations people, loudspeakers blaring that the curfew had been extended because it had been so peaceful here.

And indeed, we stopped several places, got out. I had a chance, through translators, to talk with people. They said they were very happy the Marines were here. They wanted their basic power and light and security back. And the Marines said they were working hard to do that, as they are in Baghdad and elsewhere in country.

I talked to one man who was a builder, he said. And he said there are three classes of people in this town, the rich, the poor, and the middle class. He said he was rich because he had two cars and two wives. I asked him about that. He said, well, one lives upstairs, one lives downstairs. But what we have, he said, is a democracy -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Doesn't sound look a democracy in that household, but Art, thank you so much for telling us about something that has gone right. Good to report that news, as well.

We want to move into northern Iraq now, where the people are also trying to restore some semblance of law and order.

Our Ben Wedeman is standing by there -- Ben.

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Daryn. Well, the situation in Mosul is fairly grim at the moment. Yesterday, there was an orgy of looting, people going on a rampage, stealing essentially whatever they could get their hands on from government buildings and other state-related facilities. Now, that in the wake of the surrender of the Iraqi garrison in that city.

Now, when we went there this morning, we saw several key government buildings were still on fire. An oil storage facility was also on fire, sending thick black smoke throughout the city.

Now, the looting does seem to have tapered off ever so slightly today, and this is not because of the presence of American troops or Kurdish irregulars, but largely because local people have taken matters into their own hands. They've set up roadblocks around the city, around the neighborhoods.

You see them, they're carry any kind of weapons they can get their hands on, and there are lots of weapons out there, also knives and clubs. Now, when you drive up to these roadblocks, it's very disconcerting because they do not look friendly. Fortunately, however, when we drove up, nothing happened.

Now, speaking to the people of Mosul -- and it's a predominantly Arab Sunni city that traditionally has been loyal to Saddam Hussein -- we heard some mixed emotions. Some people resentful of the Iraqi president, others resentful of him because he had -- they said he had abandoned him. After all his defiant rhetoric, he seems to have disappeared.

There was anger at the Americans for not doing enough to stop the looting that really has shocked people, just the way law and order simply collapsed in an instant, in a flash, causing this city, a fairly prosperous northern Iraqi city, to really, within 24 hours, to be in shambles. Going around the city, you see paper all over the place. You see smashed furniture, other things that people have hauled away and just discarded into streets.

Now, today, there was an American force in -- present in the city, but a very small one. We saw three cars with American soldiers drive by. They had a recorded message. They were playing over a loudspeaker, announcing the arrival of the coalition, saying that they would try to restore law and order.

Now, law and order, however, is being maintained, to a certain extent, by Kurdish irregulars, or Peshmerga, who entered the city yesterday. But the problem is that there is a lot of animosity between the Kurds and the Arabs. The Arabs feeling -- their feeling is that, of course, the Kurds have come in as an occupation force and may be here to settle some very old and bitter scores -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Yes, the story line that goes back many, many years. Ben Wedeman in Mosul, in northern Iraq -- thank you very much. Judy, back to you in Washington, D.C.

WOODRUFF: Thanks, Daryn. Well, the last major pro-Saddam city, you might say, that's standing in Iraq is Tikrit, where Saddam Hussein himself grew up.

Coalition forces are maneuvering, we're told, to get inside the city. We get a situation report now from Miles O'Brien at the CNN Center.

Miles -- and I gather it's somewhat a mixed picture, reading in the "Washington Post" and other places today, that intelligence showing there are no defensive preparations, and there's a lot of looting going on.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The big question, Judy, you are right, is, is there going to be a big fight in Tikrit? Don Shepherd here to kind of walk us through this.

Tikrit, if there is any place that might be a hold out for the Saddam Hussein regime, it would, in fact, be Tikrit. Just to give you a sense of it, this is the birthplace of Saddam Hussein. His clan, his cousins, his palace fortress compound is there. But so far, no evidence that tells us that there's a fight there.

MAJ. GEN. DON SHEPPERD, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Lots being bombed by air power around there, anything they can find in the way of military, but no organized plan of defense that can be seen, at least from the air.

A lot of Saddam's minions, as on those cards that we've been talking about, have al-Tikriti after their names, so they're from this area. If you were going to make a last stand, it would be here, but no evidence yet that it will be a battle, Miles.

O'BRIEN: What are the chances -- let's move in on EarthViewer.com into that area, down into Tikrit, which is right along the Tigris River there, a big area that has been dammed up there, which is the core of the compound there. That's the main palace there.

What is the chance that Saddam Hussein or perhaps some key members of the regime might be holed up in some of these places and the inevitable warren of tunnels which lie beneath?

SHEPPERD: Well, it would be a good place to hold up. Again, it's a city of 28,000 people. And this area that we're looking at is about two miles by almost three miles. It's a very, very large area, lots of sub-palace, lots of VIP quarters for his minions and visitors and what have you, lots of lakes and tunnels and places to hide.

So if -- if he wanted to make a last stand and hide some place, this would be a good one.

O'BRIEN: But, as we say, it's difficult to predict these things. Thus far, every time that we have been in a mode where we predicted a big fight with some sort of Republican Guard entity, they have melted away.

SHEPPERD: Indeed, and reports also that the 101st Airborne is being able to relieve the 3rd Infantry Division and the Marine to move north towards Tikrit, so we may find the answer to this very soon.

O'BRIEN: Let's take a look at some of the damage that has been incurred to the Tikrit area just by that allied bombing campaign. When you look at what's happened thus far in this campaign -- this is a little bit inside out. This is a big air campaign, perhaps preceding a ground effort. There is some limitations as to what the air campaign can do.

SHEPPERD: There is indeed. Basically, you've got to have people go in and search the tunnels on the ground at some point. But what you see here is evidence of smart weapons, precision-guided munitions, coming in with delayed fuses, going through the roof and then going off inside, hopefully to kill anyone that was there was the idea.

O'BRIEN: Those bunker busters, once again being used heavily. Don Shepperd, thank you very much, as always. We appreciate it. We appreciate your analysis -- Judy.

WOODRUFF: All right. Miles, General Shepperd, thank you both. Of course, everybody waiting to see whether there is any sort of battle in Tikrit.

The Army's newest hero: coming up, the journey home for rescued POW Jessica Lynch.

Also, life is anything but normal in northern Iraq, a palace striped barren in the absence of government control.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: Welcome back live to Kuwait City. Want to talk about different countries around the region here and the reverberations of what has taken place in Iraq.

Nowhere are they watching this more closely than in Syria and the ramifications of what it might mean for that country.

Our Sheila MacVicar is in Damascus right now.

And I understand, Sheila, you've just had a chance to meet with Syria's foreign minister. Hello.

SHEILA MACVICAR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The occasion was a press conference between the French foreign minister, Dominique de Villepin, who arrived in Syria this afternoon for meetings with Syria's president Bashar al-Assad [AUDIO GAP].

The two men then met the [AUDIO GAP] press, Faruq al-Shara, Syria's foreign minister and Dominique de Villepin, and, of course, there were many questions for Mr. al-Shara regarding allegations and statements that have been coming in recent days and with increasing frequency from the U.S. administration, suggestions that perhaps Syria has been concealing Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, suggesting that perhaps there were members of the Saddam Hussein regime who had sought shelter in Syria, and allegations -- repeated allegations that Syria has been transferring military material over its borders to support Iraqi forces.

It was a clearly frustrated Syrian foreign minister, who when asked about these allegations, said -- quote -- They are not coming -- these allegations are not coming against Syria from the U.S. administration." They are coming of what he called "fanatic circles in the administration." He went on to say that sometimes I don't think the Americans know what they want. They tell us that you have -- you may have the weapons of mass destruction smuggled from Iraq into Syria, but they bring us no evidence. We don't have such things.

And there was this one amazing moment in this press conference, where Mr. al-Shara began to talk about what America's policy has been over the course of the last year and a half or so. He talked about the war in Afghanistan, about the war in Iraq. He said that given the mess that has been left in both of these countries, they are turning their attention now to a third country. And just as he was about to make an analogy, linking the United States to Nazi Germany of the Second World War, he was interrupted by the French foreign minister who said, "You really don't want to say that. You really do not want to go there."

So clearly, a lot of tension, clearly, a great deal of sensitivity of the part of the Syrians -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Sheila, it sounds like a very dramatic moment that you're covering there in Damascus. More on that just ahead. Right now, it's time to go to Atlanta. Our Leon Harris with the latest developments of the day.

HARRIS: Hello, Daryn. Hello, folks. Leon Harris here in the newsroom at CNN. Here's what's happening at this hour in the war in Iraq. Saddam Hussein's top scientific adviser, Lieutenant General Amir al-Saadi, has surrendered to U.S. authorities. CENTCOM says German television network, Zatavi (ph) helped to arrange the surrender. Al Saadi told the network that he has no information about the 54 others on the U.S. most wanted list, and he continues to insist that Iraq has no banned weapons.

The U.S. troops are investigating the possibility a chemical weapons discovery at an occupied air base in Kirkuk. CNN's Thomas Nybo is there, and he reports initial testing on a suspicious warhead are positive for trace amounts of a nerve agent. Weapons experts have been called in to check out this find there.

Southeast of Baghdad, coalition forces say the city of al Kut has surrendered without having to fire a single shot. CNN's Art Harris reports that U.S. Marines were welcomed like liberators as they rolled into the center of the city. One Marine told Harris that it looks like the suicide bombers they expected to encounter may have Kut before the troop arrived.

Now, the most vocal opponents in the war have wrapped up a hastily called summit in Russia. Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted French President Jacques Chirac and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder. They're pushing for the U.N. to lead the rebuilding of Iraq.

An extensive worldwide investigation has concluded that a shooting spree at Los Angeles International Airport was indeed terrorism. The FBI and the Justice Department say an Egyptian immigrant was acting alone when he opened fire, killing two Israelis and wounding four others.

Now, CNN has much more coming up for you next hour. Looting and lawlessness in Baghdad, the latest as coalition forces work to calm the chaos in the country's capital. Now that Saddam Hussein is out, a new government is desperately needed, rebuilding Iraq from the ground up. And Jessica lynch heading home, the latest on her injuries and what challenges lie ahead for her. We are live at hospital where she's expected to be brought in the next couple of hours. All of that and more next hour right here on CNN. Our coverage of the war in Iraq continues right now.

WOODRUFF: Rescued prisoner-of-war, Jessica Lynch, should be arriving at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland, near Washington, around 5:30 Eastern this afternoon. The Army private was said to be in pain, but in good spirits as she was loaded onto a transport plane in Germany this morning. CNN's medical correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen, is outside of Walter Reed Army Medical Center where Private Lynch is expected to continue her recuperation.

Hello, Elizabeth.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Judy. Private Lynch will come here after she lands at Andrews Air Force Base. She'll be joined by other war wounded. They will go to Walter Reed behind me where 23 war wounded are already being treated.

Now, Jessica has already received some treatment for her injuries in Germany. She received surgeries for two broken legs, a broken arm, and a broken foot and a broken ankle. She also received -- had a surgery for a fractured disc in her lower spine. She also suffered from head lacerations. A military spokesman today read a statement from her family.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAJ. MIKE YOUNG, U.S. ARMY SPOKESMAN: Jessie's recovery continues and she is doing well. She is in pain, but she is in good spirits. Although she faces a lengthy rehabilitation, she is tough. We believe she will regain her strength soon. Our family is proud of Jessie.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COHEN: The rehab is indeed expected to be extensive. We talked to a specialist who said with injuries like hers it's a matter of months not just weeks -- Judy.

WOODRUFF: And what about -- we talked about this before, Elizabeth -- what about -- what are they saying about the psychological recuperation that she may or may not need?

COHEN: That would also be extensive, Judy. There's a process that in military lingo, they call decompression. This is where psychologists speak to released POWs and they talk to them about what happened while they were in captivity. One important part of decompression is that the released POW not be exposed to media pressure or to the outside world at all, so we are not expected to see very much of Jessica Lynch once she returns.

WOODRUFF: Understandably. And Elizabeth, one other thing, they're still not saying how she received these injuries, whether it was during the firefight, the ambush, or later while she was in captivity?

COHEN: That's right, Judy. We still don't know that.

WOODRUFF: OK, Elizabeth Cohen reporting for us from Walter Reed Army Medical Center where Elizabeth will be throughout the afternoon until Jessica Lynch is brought to the hospital. Thanks, Elizabeth.

For more on Private Lynch's journey home, tune in tonight for a CNN special, "THE RESCUE OF JESSICA LYNCH" hosted by Anderson Cooper. That's at 7:30 p.m. Eastern, 4:30 Pacific.

The city of Basra and the casualties of war, coming up, one of the youngest victims and the obstacles facing doctors struggling to save lives.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN VAUSE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The fight for Basra took less than two weeks but the war will last a lifetime for this little girl. Zeneb (ph), just 10 years old, has lost her right leg. There are compound fractures in the left. Her mother is dead, so, too, her three brothers. Her home was destroyed. Her youngest sister and father, Hamid, survived. He says they were hit by a coalition air strike.

HAMID ABB-LAI, BASRA RESIDENT (through translator): I see the (UNINTELLIGIBLE). I see the planes throw bombardments on our town.

VAUSE: Hamid says 17 people, all relatives, were killed in that house. He says he watched his wife die. Zeneb (ph) tells me there is now pain where the doctors amputate it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are deeply sad about the future of this child and the future of many other children. You see just one. We have many. They will live in bad situation as a handicapped child.

VAUSE: Other children, like 9-year-old Salim (ph), he was hit by liberation fire. The men of his village fired their AK-47s into the air to celebrate the end of the war, but one bullet found Salim's (ph) right arm.

(on camera): Will there be permanent damage?

DR. M.M. MUDHI, ORTHOPEDIC SURGEON: Probably, because he has what probably damaged to (UNINTELLIGIBLE) nerve. There is a big segment lost and he may have a deformative like (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

VAUSE (voice-over): A tour through Dr. Mudhi's wards at Basra General Hospital is as sad as it is grim.

(on camera): His prognosis?

MUDHI: His prognosis, we don't know because he's in state of (UNINTELLIGIBLE). Probably, he's going to have very bad complications. VAUSE (voice-over): Complications because the doctor says he does not have the right drugs or the equipment to treat this man not because the war, he says, but because of 12 years of sanctions. But this man's burns, he points out, were the result of coalition bombing.

The hospital is short on everything from water to electricity, which runs for just a few hours a day. It's the best their old generator can do. Normally, they could admit 700 patients. Right now, there are just 80. The rest are treated and sent home. But worst of all, they say, are the looters.

MUDHI: They want us to get out and to steal something.

VAUSE (on camera): Anything?

MUDHI: Yes. We are present here just to protect the hospital.

VAUSE (voice-over): Of the 1,200 people employed here, about 100 have turned up for work over the last few days. Most are too scared and the administrator told me, no one has been paid for months. The hospital corridors have now become makeshift shelters for those whose homes were destroyed. Everyone here thought the end of Saddam would be a time of celebration, instead, there is uncertainty and disappointment mixed with a growing anger because there has been little sign of that much-promised humanitarian aid.

John Vause, CNN, Basra.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: Well, I got to tell you; it's not for a lack of people trying in this area. Right now, are there representatives from various human agencies arriving in the Iraqi town of Basra, in fact, on the Iranian border. They say between 30,000 to 60,000 displaced Iraqis are taking refuge there. Joining us to talk more about humanitarian aid are Jordan Dey, a spokesman for the U.N. World Food Program, and Peter Bell. He is president of CARE USA.

Jordan, I want to go ahead and start with you in New York City. We've heard so much all day long and just in John Vause's piece about the problem of looting. I understand your organization knows about this only too well?

JORDAN DEY, U.N. WORLD FOOD PROGRAM: Sure. Obviously, it's a highly volatile and chaotic situation in Iraq right now, particularly in southern and central Iraq. We've had warehouses that have been looted; even our WFP offices in Baghdad have been looted. So it's -- right now, it's not a secure environment for us to move in. The good news, however, is that we have enough food in the region, in Jordan, in Turkey, in Iran, in Kuwait, to move massive amounts of food in Iraq as soon as needed. We'd like to get in as soon as possible and hopefully, the security situation will change drastically in the next couple of days to allow that.

KAGAN: Well, as you say, the good news is that the supplies are there, but that's been the case for weeks now. What do you think the timing is? And is this the timeline you expected in order to be able to get into Iraq?

DEY: Well, we calculate that the average Iraqi family has enough food to last them until early May. They were given a double ration by the Iraqi government before the conflict, so there's some degree of food security. We would ideally like to get in as soon as possible to start replenishing those warehouses and we will need to be able to do that in the next couple weeks.

But again, the good news is we do have food in and around the region. It's been arriving from the U.S., from Australia. We've been buying it locally as well. We've got the food corridor set up. We'll use ports in southern Jordan and southern Turkey and we'll be able to use the Umm Qasr port in southern Iraq as soon as it opens up. So we'll have the ability to get the food in there. It'll be a massive operation. It will be our largest humanitarian operation ever. We'll have anywhere from 800,000 to 100,000 trucks on the road on any given day, but again, we need access. We need a secure working environment.

KAGAN: And that's a frustration. Peter Bell, I want to bring you into this conversation from Atlanta. Let's talk a little bit about what seems to be a sticky political situation with the U.S. military. The U.S. military in charge of the distribution of humanitarian aid and yet organizations like yours that work all around the world, it's key to what you do to not necessarily associate with one particular military. So how does that make your job more difficult?

PETER BELL, PRESIDENT, CARE USA: Well, we understand that as long as hostilities are going on and as long as there's looting and disorder, the military are going to have to be in charge and indeed, they are going to have to supply much of the humanitarian assistance. But CARE has been operating in Baghdad, in central and southern Iraq, now for 12 years, and our senior staff was just able to return to Baghdad a couple of days ago and are doing assessments in the Baghdad area. And we would expect to resume activities there as quickly as possible. Working with hospitals, distributing food, to vulnerable people and also working on water and sanitation. At the same time, we have a group working in Amman, to respond more broadly within Iraq as needed.

KAGAN: You mention the hospital situation in Baghdad. I had a chance to talk with the representative of the International Red Cross earlier. She described a situation that is so dire with these hospitals not only have the beds been looted and the drugs and the supplies, the patient, the doctors, are afraid to be at the hospitals.

BELL: It's a terrible situation, Daryn. It really is. As a say, we've been working with these hospitals for many years now, and there's a desperate need for security, for those hospitals. It's absolutely necessary. And I hope it's being supplied now and will be in the days to come.

KAGAN: I know neither one of you has a crystal ball, but just to wrap up this discussion, any timeline as to when you expect to have better access to the people who really need your help inside of Iraq? Peter, you go first. BELL: Well, I would expect within the coming days, we would be able to be operative again at least in parts of Baghdad. And then beyond that, we're ready at the border. We're ready to work side-by- side with the World Food Program as we have in Afghanistan and Kosovo and other places.

KAGAN: And Jordan, it sounds like you're ready as well. Gentlemen, thank you both for joining us in this discussion. I appreciate it very much.

BELL: Thank you very much.

KAGAN: Still ahead, Saddam's secret police, more on them coming up. Thousands of Iraqis dig through the rubble of jail cells in hopes of finding some trace of a missing relative or perhaps a missing friend. We'll be back after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WOODRUFF: For almost a quarter of a century, Iraqis have lived under Saddam Hussein's thumb. And even now, after his regime has been toppled, many Iraqis say they are still terrified of him. CNN's Richard Blystone takes us to Baghdad's abandoned, secret police headquarters to help understand this all-consuming fear.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RICHARD BLYSTONE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It would be a pity to let the roses go to waste. For within any luck, this place won't be restored.

(on camera): This was the headquarters of perhaps the regime's most important institution, the Mukhabarat, literally, the Informers, the secret police.

(voice-over): A few people are here for some light looting; others just to have a look. This man says he used to be afraid just to drive past here. A guide appears and shows us the scars of his personal experience of the Mukhabarat. He brings us documents, another illustration of venality of evil. This one says the Mukhabarat needs more and better cars.

At a military camp, hundreds have gathered.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mukhabarat, about 10 years and don't see him.

BLYSTONE: These people believe there's a complex of underground cells here, thousands of them, five stories deep. They tear up floors and find nothing. The rifled documents. A mother searches for word of her son. They leave U.S. Special Forces here and there. They think there are prisoners alive down there.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We don't know how to get underground.

BLYSTONE: They want bulldozers to come and dig the whole place up now. They think they've heard voices from below. But it looks more and more like a reflection of their own mind-sets molded by totalitarianism where you can believe all or nothing.

It's down here, no, that's a pump house. Here are cells, but above ground clean and empty.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's always important to show the people that you're here to help them, take a little time to listen to them.

BLYSTONE: The soldiers hear there are tunnels leading all the way from the river. But the sad fact is these people don't know this place. They are still in the grip of Saddam Hussein's deadliest weapon, fear.

Richard Blystone, CNN, Baghdad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WOODRUFF: It's still so hard to imagine even after all of these days what these people must be thinking and what they are feeling.

Well, one quick programming note for you -- be sure to tune in to "LATE EDITION" tomorrow. General Tommy Franks of the U.S. Central Command will sit down with our Wolf Blitzer to talk about the war in Iraq. That's Sunday at noon Eastern, 9:00 Pacific a.m. right here on CNN.

Still ahead, how to rebuild a war ravaged nation? We'll talk about with an international security expert, coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Hello. Leon Harris here in the CNN newsroom in Atlanta with a look at what's happening this hour in the war in Iraq.

Sophisticated tests are underway right now on a warhead found in northern Iraq. This warhead tested positively preliminarily for traces of nerve agents. CNN's Thomas Nybo with the U.S. Army's 173rd Airborne says the warhead was among an arsenal of weapons left behind at an air base in Kirkuk.

Well, one man in a position to know about Iraq's most dangerous weapons is now in coalition custody this hour. Amir Al-Saadi, the former top scientific adviser to Saddam Hussein, surrendered today to U.S. forces in Baghdad. The general is one of CENTCOM's 55 most wanted Iraqi leaders. Iraq's information ministries among the Baghdad buildings on fire tonight after another day of looting and pillaging. CENTCOM and CNN correspondents said the lawlessness may be subsiding as available targets dwindle. U.S. forces are hoping to reconstitute a Baghdad police force.

And southeast of Baghdad, talks continue between U.S. forces and local officials in al Kut. The topic is that city's peaceful hand over to coalition control and it's expected to happen sometime soon. Marines say a convoy of theirs was welcomed like liberators today despite fears of suicide attacks by non-Iraqi terrorists.

And now, our coverage of the war in Iraq continues with Judy Woodruff in Washington.

KAGAN: Good afternoon, it is 9:00 p.m. in Kuwait City and 10:00 p.m. in Baghdad. That is where the news is being made this Saturday, April 12th. I'm Daryn Kagan. Coming up this hour, looting and lawlessness in Baghdad, the latest as coalition forces work to calm the chaos in the country's capital.

WOODRUFF: A disturbing find in an Iraqi air base in Kirkuk now under coalition control, a warhead that U.S. military sources say shows traces of a nerve agent. More definitive tests are being done.

From CNN's studios in Washington, I'm Judy Woodruff.

Now, that Saddam Hussein is out, Iraq is in desperate need of new leadership. Rebuilding Iraq from the ground up. Also this hour, Jessica Lynch headed home, the latest on her injuries. We'll be live at the hospital where she's expected to be brought in the next couple of hours.

And now, let's go back it my colleague, Daryn, in Kuwait City.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com