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Containers Thought to be Mobile Labs Proved not to be
Aired April 15, 2003 - 12:46 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: I want to turn now to one of our embedded journalists in central Iraq, Ryan Chilcote. he's with the 101st Airborne Division not far from Karbala.
Ryan, yesterday you were telling us about these 11 containers, these so-called mobile labs, that could be used for chemical or biological warfare discovered by elements of the 101st Airborne. What's the latest on that score?
RYAN CHILCOTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, we are actually at that ammunition plant, as you said near Karbala where the 101st believed, and as you said -- said on our air yesterday, that they had found chemical dual use chemical and biological laboratories buried under the ground here.
That was, it turns out, not entirely accurate. A team of experts from the Mobile Exploitation Team Alpha, some of the best experts from the U.S. Army here in country, have been working at this site tirelessly for the last few days. And they have found that there are no chemical and biological laboratories here. Obviously the reason why that would be interesting is if there were, then perhaps they would be part of some kind of chemical and biological program, Iraqi listed chemical or biological program.
Now we actually have a member from the Mobile Exploitation Team alpha with us. He is Chief Mante Gonzalez. He's been working at this site the last few days, can really explain some of the confusion. What did you find here?
CHIEF MONTE GONZALES, U.S. ARMY: What we had here just a very vast industrial military complex based on our assessment of what we've looked at here. We don't find anything that links this facility to any sort of WMD program. It's all conventional weapons production and storage facility.
CHILCOTE: Now, yesterday we heard that very specifically that some -- what were described as CONEXs, which are, I should point out, these containers, cargo containers you see behind us. We heard that they had been buried under the ground. And the 101st said they suspected -- actually they said that they were indeed chemical and biological laboratories. And they described them as mobile chemical and biological laboratories. What are they?
GONZALES: First off I can't speculate on how that information came out. Our final report on the assessment of the site hasn't even been submitted to the general of the 101st. So what I would tell you is that based on what we've seen here, all these containers are full of millions of dollars of very high tech equipment. But it appears that everything inside of there, while it is possible that it has a dual use, it appears to be used for the future construction of additional conventional munitions production on this site.
CHILCOTE: Now I think that no one in our audience would understand why someone would bury these -- you said that they were indeed buried or at least partially buried, these cargo containers. No one would understand why they were buried but it sounds very suspect. Why do you think that the containers were buried here?
GONZALES: Figuring this out it's like a Scooby Doo mystery. And our best assessment is the stuff was covered up for either survivability in anticipation of a coalition attack or to prevent looting, plain and simple.
CHILCOTE: And you are saying this is really, actually pretty difficult work, tough to expect quick results. Describe the difficulty in accomplishing, in finding chemical and -- elements of a chemical and biological program.
GONZALES: It's very difficult. I have a team of experts. Part of the reason we haven't finished this up yet is because our expert Clyde (ph) is currently working on a lot of documents that still need to be processed. Once he's done, we'll take that and submit that to the division that we're working for right now.
It's a puzzle. We don't expect to find a smoking gun on any site we go to. We're collecting pieces and parts of a larger body of evidence which at the end will no doubt produce unequivocal evidence that says yes, there was a WMD program in Iraq.
CHILCOTE: All right, well, thank you very much. That was Chief Monte Gonzales from the Mobile Exploitation Team Alpha reporting that there are no chemical or biological laboratories here at this site at this ammunition plant outside Karbala. No evidence whatsoever. So far they have not found any evidence whatsoever that there is a chemical, any elements of a chemical or biological Iraqi program here at this site -- Wolf.
BLITZER: Well, that's -- I'm still confused a little bit, Ryan, because yesterday you interviewed on our air Benjamin Freakly, Brigadier General Benjamin Freakly of the 101st Airborne. Something of those 11 containers, something in those so-called mobile labs, raised enough suspicion in his mind to suggest they could be used for chemical or biological work. Not that there were any chemical or biological weapons necessarily inside, but they could be used to make chemical or biological weapons.
What raised that suspicion in the mind of Brigadier General Benjamin Freakly, whom you interviewed here on CNN?
CHILCOTE: Well, you know, I think the initial report was rather cryptic. And perhaps that's where the problem was. The initial report was that they had found a large amount of chemical laboratory equipment buried in containers that could be moved, buried next to an ammunition plant. And I think that what happened was that the 101st at its highest levels probably didn't get the follow-up information that, in fact, that those were actually cargo containers, that they've been checked out and that the laboratory equipment inside, according to the Mobile Exploitation Team here, appears to be equipment that the plant would have used to produce propellants and things like that, to produce conventional munition munitions, regular munitions that don't include chemical or biological agents inside of them.
So I think that perhaps the message got a little confused as it went up the echelon here in the Army -- Wolf.
BLITZER: All right, Ryan Chilcote reporting the latest development. Apparently no chemical or biological labs discovered at that site near Karbala. Ryan Chilcote embedded with the 101st. We'll continue to monitor this story, a story we've been following now for 24 some hours.
Ryan yesterday doing good work in that interview with Brigadier General Benjamin Freakly. Suspicious about those 11 cargo containers.
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 15, 2003 - 12:46 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: I want to turn now to one of our embedded journalists in central Iraq, Ryan Chilcote. he's with the 101st Airborne Division not far from Karbala.
Ryan, yesterday you were telling us about these 11 containers, these so-called mobile labs, that could be used for chemical or biological warfare discovered by elements of the 101st Airborne. What's the latest on that score?
RYAN CHILCOTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, we are actually at that ammunition plant, as you said near Karbala where the 101st believed, and as you said -- said on our air yesterday, that they had found chemical dual use chemical and biological laboratories buried under the ground here.
That was, it turns out, not entirely accurate. A team of experts from the Mobile Exploitation Team Alpha, some of the best experts from the U.S. Army here in country, have been working at this site tirelessly for the last few days. And they have found that there are no chemical and biological laboratories here. Obviously the reason why that would be interesting is if there were, then perhaps they would be part of some kind of chemical and biological program, Iraqi listed chemical or biological program.
Now we actually have a member from the Mobile Exploitation Team alpha with us. He is Chief Mante Gonzalez. He's been working at this site the last few days, can really explain some of the confusion. What did you find here?
CHIEF MONTE GONZALES, U.S. ARMY: What we had here just a very vast industrial military complex based on our assessment of what we've looked at here. We don't find anything that links this facility to any sort of WMD program. It's all conventional weapons production and storage facility.
CHILCOTE: Now, yesterday we heard that very specifically that some -- what were described as CONEXs, which are, I should point out, these containers, cargo containers you see behind us. We heard that they had been buried under the ground. And the 101st said they suspected -- actually they said that they were indeed chemical and biological laboratories. And they described them as mobile chemical and biological laboratories. What are they?
GONZALES: First off I can't speculate on how that information came out. Our final report on the assessment of the site hasn't even been submitted to the general of the 101st. So what I would tell you is that based on what we've seen here, all these containers are full of millions of dollars of very high tech equipment. But it appears that everything inside of there, while it is possible that it has a dual use, it appears to be used for the future construction of additional conventional munitions production on this site.
CHILCOTE: Now I think that no one in our audience would understand why someone would bury these -- you said that they were indeed buried or at least partially buried, these cargo containers. No one would understand why they were buried but it sounds very suspect. Why do you think that the containers were buried here?
GONZALES: Figuring this out it's like a Scooby Doo mystery. And our best assessment is the stuff was covered up for either survivability in anticipation of a coalition attack or to prevent looting, plain and simple.
CHILCOTE: And you are saying this is really, actually pretty difficult work, tough to expect quick results. Describe the difficulty in accomplishing, in finding chemical and -- elements of a chemical and biological program.
GONZALES: It's very difficult. I have a team of experts. Part of the reason we haven't finished this up yet is because our expert Clyde (ph) is currently working on a lot of documents that still need to be processed. Once he's done, we'll take that and submit that to the division that we're working for right now.
It's a puzzle. We don't expect to find a smoking gun on any site we go to. We're collecting pieces and parts of a larger body of evidence which at the end will no doubt produce unequivocal evidence that says yes, there was a WMD program in Iraq.
CHILCOTE: All right, well, thank you very much. That was Chief Monte Gonzales from the Mobile Exploitation Team Alpha reporting that there are no chemical or biological laboratories here at this site at this ammunition plant outside Karbala. No evidence whatsoever. So far they have not found any evidence whatsoever that there is a chemical, any elements of a chemical or biological Iraqi program here at this site -- Wolf.
BLITZER: Well, that's -- I'm still confused a little bit, Ryan, because yesterday you interviewed on our air Benjamin Freakly, Brigadier General Benjamin Freakly of the 101st Airborne. Something of those 11 containers, something in those so-called mobile labs, raised enough suspicion in his mind to suggest they could be used for chemical or biological work. Not that there were any chemical or biological weapons necessarily inside, but they could be used to make chemical or biological weapons.
What raised that suspicion in the mind of Brigadier General Benjamin Freakly, whom you interviewed here on CNN?
CHILCOTE: Well, you know, I think the initial report was rather cryptic. And perhaps that's where the problem was. The initial report was that they had found a large amount of chemical laboratory equipment buried in containers that could be moved, buried next to an ammunition plant. And I think that what happened was that the 101st at its highest levels probably didn't get the follow-up information that, in fact, that those were actually cargo containers, that they've been checked out and that the laboratory equipment inside, according to the Mobile Exploitation Team here, appears to be equipment that the plant would have used to produce propellants and things like that, to produce conventional munition munitions, regular munitions that don't include chemical or biological agents inside of them.
So I think that perhaps the message got a little confused as it went up the echelon here in the Army -- Wolf.
BLITZER: All right, Ryan Chilcote reporting the latest development. Apparently no chemical or biological labs discovered at that site near Karbala. Ryan Chilcote embedded with the 101st. We'll continue to monitor this story, a story we've been following now for 24 some hours.
Ryan yesterday doing good work in that interview with Brigadier General Benjamin Freakly. Suspicious about those 11 cargo containers.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
