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Interview With David Albright

Aired April 14, 2003 - 13:59   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.


JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: Right now, joining us is former United nations weapons inspector, David Albright. And, David Albright, I want ask you about this find today that we've been reporting, that there are 11, apparently 11 mobile labs, chemical and biological weapons labs found underground south of Baghdad. What's the significance of this?
DAVID ALBRIGHT, FRM. U.N. WEAPONS INSP.: The report talked about them being dual-use equipment and, more importantly, documents. So it could be that Iraq had a very active program to hide things from the inspectors and hadn't gone about the process of digging them up and actually putting them back into use.

So -- but I do think that these cases have to be looked at. And I would suspect that we would find some weapons of mass destruction production capability in Iraq. I just can't believe that they would have given all of that up.

(CROSSTALK)

ALBRIGHT: I'm sorry. The issue is how did they have a large stockpile of chemical weapons? I mean that's really been the U.S. claim that the stocks were large and in essence ready to use.

WOODRUFF: Well what we're finding -- at least the early reports are that they did not find weapons, but they found the laboratory for putting the weapons together and they found it close to a plant that manufactures artillery ammunition.

ALBRIGHT: That's right. And it could be a bad sign that Iraq has hidden weapons production capability and that it did intend to make chemical agents or biological weapons in that equipment and then put it on delivery systems.

WOODRUFF: But we don't know that yet.

ALBRIGHT: That's right, no. It has to be tested. And it's very important to actually get hold of the documents. If it is dual-use equipment, it's really impossible to know what it was intended for. But if there's documents there talking about the use of this equipment, then it could be very important.

WOODRUFF: And very quickly, we had again, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld saying Syria, next door to Iraq, as recently as 12 to 15 months ago was testing chemical weapons. ALBRIGHT: Well, my understanding is we've known for a long time that Syria has chemical weapons. I mean it's -- you have to think of those weapons in context of their struggle with Israel.

Israel has nuclear weapons, Syria has chemical weapons. They both fear each other and both want to threaten each other with doomsday. And I think that's what you have to think about in the situation.

And also, there's nothing that bans Syria from having chemical weapons. So I think we have to very be careful not to rush off and start, in a sense upping the rhetoric against Syria as a follow on to what we're discussing on Iraq.

WOODRUFF: And it was interesting that as the press asked Victoria Clarke why shouldn't the world see this as a threat what the administration is saying, she did not disabuse them of that. She simply said it's not rhetoric, it's the facts.

We're going to have to leave it at that. David Albright is a former United Nations weapons inspector. We thank you very much for coming in to talk with us today.

ALBRIGHT: Thank you.

WOODRUFF: Thanks very much.

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 14, 2003 - 13:59   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: Right now, joining us is former United nations weapons inspector, David Albright. And, David Albright, I want ask you about this find today that we've been reporting, that there are 11, apparently 11 mobile labs, chemical and biological weapons labs found underground south of Baghdad. What's the significance of this?
DAVID ALBRIGHT, FRM. U.N. WEAPONS INSP.: The report talked about them being dual-use equipment and, more importantly, documents. So it could be that Iraq had a very active program to hide things from the inspectors and hadn't gone about the process of digging them up and actually putting them back into use.

So -- but I do think that these cases have to be looked at. And I would suspect that we would find some weapons of mass destruction production capability in Iraq. I just can't believe that they would have given all of that up.

(CROSSTALK)

ALBRIGHT: I'm sorry. The issue is how did they have a large stockpile of chemical weapons? I mean that's really been the U.S. claim that the stocks were large and in essence ready to use.

WOODRUFF: Well what we're finding -- at least the early reports are that they did not find weapons, but they found the laboratory for putting the weapons together and they found it close to a plant that manufactures artillery ammunition.

ALBRIGHT: That's right. And it could be a bad sign that Iraq has hidden weapons production capability and that it did intend to make chemical agents or biological weapons in that equipment and then put it on delivery systems.

WOODRUFF: But we don't know that yet.

ALBRIGHT: That's right, no. It has to be tested. And it's very important to actually get hold of the documents. If it is dual-use equipment, it's really impossible to know what it was intended for. But if there's documents there talking about the use of this equipment, then it could be very important.

WOODRUFF: And very quickly, we had again, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld saying Syria, next door to Iraq, as recently as 12 to 15 months ago was testing chemical weapons. ALBRIGHT: Well, my understanding is we've known for a long time that Syria has chemical weapons. I mean it's -- you have to think of those weapons in context of their struggle with Israel.

Israel has nuclear weapons, Syria has chemical weapons. They both fear each other and both want to threaten each other with doomsday. And I think that's what you have to think about in the situation.

And also, there's nothing that bans Syria from having chemical weapons. So I think we have to very be careful not to rush off and start, in a sense upping the rhetoric against Syria as a follow on to what we're discussing on Iraq.

WOODRUFF: And it was interesting that as the press asked Victoria Clarke why shouldn't the world see this as a threat what the administration is saying, she did not disabuse them of that. She simply said it's not rhetoric, it's the facts.

We're going to have to leave it at that. David Albright is a former United Nations weapons inspector. We thank you very much for coming in to talk with us today.

ALBRIGHT: Thank you.

WOODRUFF: Thanks very much.

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