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Libyan Weapons Secrets Revealed

Aired December 29, 2003 - 13:29   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.


MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Libya shook the world recently when it announced it was abandoning its nuclear program. How extensive was that program and is the country really living up to its promise?
The U.N.'s top nuclear inspector, Mohamed ElBaradei, just got a firsthand look at some previously, undisclosed facilities. CNN's State Department correspondent Andrea Koppel caught up with him in Tripoli and she joins us now via videophone. Hello, Andrea.

ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN STATE DEPARTMENT CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Miles.

Well, during his three days here in Libya's capital, Mr. ElBaradei had a pretty straightforward objective and that was to test the Libyan government's seriousness, for a matter of speaking, putting its money where its mouth is. And to do that Mr. ElBaradei and his team of inspectors visited four previously undisclosed sites somewhere in the city behind me in Tripoli. He said they are pretty nondescript buildings. You probably wouldn't have taken a second glance at them had you not known what they were.

They went inside them. They took a checklist of what kind of equipment was there and the bottom line according to Mr. ElBaradei, the Libyans are serious about coming clean. As for their nuclear weapons program, Mr. ElBaradei says that in his estimation there are about three to seven years away from having a nuclear weapon.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MOHAMED ELBARADEI, IAEA DIR. GEN.: So far, you know, we believe that it was at an early stage of development with the capability to enrich uranium. We are now working with them to neutralize any activities, any program that could have led it a nuclear weapon.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOPPEL: If you think of it like this, suppose you were going to make a really complicated recipe and you needed to go to a variety of different grocery stores. You didn't have a recipe for it, but you went out and you bought a whole bunch of ingredients.

That is kind of what the Libyans have done here, Miles. They have uranium centrifuges and they have uranium themselves -- or itself. But they don't actually have any nuclear weapons -- list. They didn't have necessarily scientists here who knew how to make them. That was the status that ElBaradei found, at least preliminarily what he found of the Libyan weapons program. He's leaving inspectors behind to follow through on this. And it's probably going to take them a number of week, perhaps even a number of months to make their way through, at least another five previously undisclosed nuclear weapons site -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: There are still many of us scratching our heads wondering why Colonel Gadhafi would do this now given as far as his program progressed. Did Mr. ElBaradei have any thoughts on that?

KOPPEL: Well, I can tell you we've spoken to Colonel Gadhafi himself and obviously to Mr. ElBaradei. There are any number of theories out there, not least of which is the fact that the Libyans have been pursuing this weapons program for a number of years and they really haven't made a whole lot of progress. At least that's what most experts are saying now at this stage.

In addition, you've got 20 years worth of sanctions that have been in place here. We spent the last ten days roaming around the city. This is the socialist country, Miles, that is in disrepair, to say the very least. Salaries have been frozen since 1973. And even though this is an oil-rich country, their technology has not been advanced because a lot of that technology and know how comes from American companies which have been barred from here for almost the last 20 years.

So Moammar Gadhafi, it's believed, has seized the opportunity, perhaps some believe because of the war in Iraq. He saw the writing on the wall. Perhaps just for fundamental economic reasons he made the decision that this was what he had to do to keep his country from continuing to go down the roofed disrepair. And also to secure his place in power in this country as well -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: Well he's nothing, if not a survivor. Andrea Koppel in Tripoli. Thank you 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 December 29, 2003 - 13:29   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Libya shook the world recently when it announced it was abandoning its nuclear program. How extensive was that program and is the country really living up to its promise?
The U.N.'s top nuclear inspector, Mohamed ElBaradei, just got a firsthand look at some previously, undisclosed facilities. CNN's State Department correspondent Andrea Koppel caught up with him in Tripoli and she joins us now via videophone. Hello, Andrea.

ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN STATE DEPARTMENT CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Miles.

Well, during his three days here in Libya's capital, Mr. ElBaradei had a pretty straightforward objective and that was to test the Libyan government's seriousness, for a matter of speaking, putting its money where its mouth is. And to do that Mr. ElBaradei and his team of inspectors visited four previously undisclosed sites somewhere in the city behind me in Tripoli. He said they are pretty nondescript buildings. You probably wouldn't have taken a second glance at them had you not known what they were.

They went inside them. They took a checklist of what kind of equipment was there and the bottom line according to Mr. ElBaradei, the Libyans are serious about coming clean. As for their nuclear weapons program, Mr. ElBaradei says that in his estimation there are about three to seven years away from having a nuclear weapon.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MOHAMED ELBARADEI, IAEA DIR. GEN.: So far, you know, we believe that it was at an early stage of development with the capability to enrich uranium. We are now working with them to neutralize any activities, any program that could have led it a nuclear weapon.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOPPEL: If you think of it like this, suppose you were going to make a really complicated recipe and you needed to go to a variety of different grocery stores. You didn't have a recipe for it, but you went out and you bought a whole bunch of ingredients.

That is kind of what the Libyans have done here, Miles. They have uranium centrifuges and they have uranium themselves -- or itself. But they don't actually have any nuclear weapons -- list. They didn't have necessarily scientists here who knew how to make them. That was the status that ElBaradei found, at least preliminarily what he found of the Libyan weapons program. He's leaving inspectors behind to follow through on this. And it's probably going to take them a number of week, perhaps even a number of months to make their way through, at least another five previously undisclosed nuclear weapons site -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: There are still many of us scratching our heads wondering why Colonel Gadhafi would do this now given as far as his program progressed. Did Mr. ElBaradei have any thoughts on that?

KOPPEL: Well, I can tell you we've spoken to Colonel Gadhafi himself and obviously to Mr. ElBaradei. There are any number of theories out there, not least of which is the fact that the Libyans have been pursuing this weapons program for a number of years and they really haven't made a whole lot of progress. At least that's what most experts are saying now at this stage.

In addition, you've got 20 years worth of sanctions that have been in place here. We spent the last ten days roaming around the city. This is the socialist country, Miles, that is in disrepair, to say the very least. Salaries have been frozen since 1973. And even though this is an oil-rich country, their technology has not been advanced because a lot of that technology and know how comes from American companies which have been barred from here for almost the last 20 years.

So Moammar Gadhafi, it's believed, has seized the opportunity, perhaps some believe because of the war in Iraq. He saw the writing on the wall. Perhaps just for fundamental economic reasons he made the decision that this was what he had to do to keep his country from continuing to go down the roofed disrepair. And also to secure his place in power in this country as well -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: Well he's nothing, if not a survivor. Andrea Koppel in Tripoli. Thank you 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