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American Morning
Day Two for Inspectors on the Ground
Aired November 28, 2002 - 08:13 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.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: We want to get to Carol right now. There is other news to talk about, including the news out of Baghdad, which continues to be, as we say, day two for inspectors there.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: That's right. We have to talk about the weapons inspections going on right now in Iraq. The weapons inspectors have a long list of sites they want to search, some 700 of them. They tackled two more today after visiting three sites yesterday.
Nic Robertson is following their work and he joins us live now from Baghdad -- Nic.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Carol.
Well, one of those sites visited today on the south side of Baghdad, Al Dahra (ph). The Iraqi officials say that this was a site in the 1980s that had been producing, been manufacturing animal vaccines, hoof and mouth vaccines. They said that ceased in 1991. However, this was a site that had become very familiar with the U.N. weapons inspectors working here in the 1990s. Indeed, in 1996 they went to that site and destroyed what they believed were botulinin toxin fermenters. Now, botulinin toxin is the most deadly of all the biological warfare agents. That facility, they essentially prevented it from working again, removing fermenters, breaking some of the pipes there.
The inspectors that were there today were seen taking soil samples. Indeed, after they left, after about four hours, the director general of the plant confirmed that they'd been taking samples. He also said that this was a surprise visit and he hadn't expected the inspectors to come round. However, he also said that he had absolutely nothing to hide.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
You can see, you can see, you can enter inside and see, it's all they are destroyed. You can see. No one can do anything inside here.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTSON: However, despite the fact that this equipment had been destroyed in 1996, the inspection teams, previous inspection teams had installed cameras. The team that was at this base have returned now to their headquarters. We also know that another nuclear inspection team was at a dual use site north of Baghdad -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Nic, I want to turn our attention away from Iraq for just a minute now because of the attacks that went down in Kenya. You had those exclusive videotapes of al Qaeda training tapes. What does that tell you about the attacks in Kenya and does it connect?
ROBERTSON: Yes. I think we're in the category here, again, of the if regarding the conversation Bill just had with a terrorism expert. The expert said that the type of missile fired at the aircraft appeared to, it could have been a surface to air missile, an SA-7. Now, if we look at those videotapes that we discovered, those al Qaeda videotapes we discovered in August, there was a training tape there that showed explicit details of how to use an SA-7 surface to air missile. It went through the intricacies of how to fire it, of how to hold it, of how to use the sighting system on it.
There were indications across the broad range of these tapes that al Qaeda had been disseminating this type of training information to its operatives to other affiliated organizations around the world. And it was the belief of the experts we interviewed at that time with the discovery of those tapes that al Qaeda was perhaps gearing up, perhaps it had an idea in its mind to use this type of military surface to air missile against civilian aircraft.
Again, it's only if at this stage, with no group claiming responsibility for this particular action. But again worth noting, across a broad range of these al Qaeda videotapes, we saw how al Qaeda had affiliated itself. It had connections with different groups around the world that perhaps had different objectives -- Carol.
COSTELLO: All right, Nic Robertson, thank you for your insight.
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 November 28, 2002 - 08:13 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: We want to get to Carol right now. There is other news to talk about, including the news out of Baghdad, which continues to be, as we say, day two for inspectors there.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: That's right. We have to talk about the weapons inspections going on right now in Iraq. The weapons inspectors have a long list of sites they want to search, some 700 of them. They tackled two more today after visiting three sites yesterday.
Nic Robertson is following their work and he joins us live now from Baghdad -- Nic.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Carol.
Well, one of those sites visited today on the south side of Baghdad, Al Dahra (ph). The Iraqi officials say that this was a site in the 1980s that had been producing, been manufacturing animal vaccines, hoof and mouth vaccines. They said that ceased in 1991. However, this was a site that had become very familiar with the U.N. weapons inspectors working here in the 1990s. Indeed, in 1996 they went to that site and destroyed what they believed were botulinin toxin fermenters. Now, botulinin toxin is the most deadly of all the biological warfare agents. That facility, they essentially prevented it from working again, removing fermenters, breaking some of the pipes there.
The inspectors that were there today were seen taking soil samples. Indeed, after they left, after about four hours, the director general of the plant confirmed that they'd been taking samples. He also said that this was a surprise visit and he hadn't expected the inspectors to come round. However, he also said that he had absolutely nothing to hide.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
You can see, you can see, you can enter inside and see, it's all they are destroyed. You can see. No one can do anything inside here.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTSON: However, despite the fact that this equipment had been destroyed in 1996, the inspection teams, previous inspection teams had installed cameras. The team that was at this base have returned now to their headquarters. We also know that another nuclear inspection team was at a dual use site north of Baghdad -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Nic, I want to turn our attention away from Iraq for just a minute now because of the attacks that went down in Kenya. You had those exclusive videotapes of al Qaeda training tapes. What does that tell you about the attacks in Kenya and does it connect?
ROBERTSON: Yes. I think we're in the category here, again, of the if regarding the conversation Bill just had with a terrorism expert. The expert said that the type of missile fired at the aircraft appeared to, it could have been a surface to air missile, an SA-7. Now, if we look at those videotapes that we discovered, those al Qaeda videotapes we discovered in August, there was a training tape there that showed explicit details of how to use an SA-7 surface to air missile. It went through the intricacies of how to fire it, of how to hold it, of how to use the sighting system on it.
There were indications across the broad range of these tapes that al Qaeda had been disseminating this type of training information to its operatives to other affiliated organizations around the world. And it was the belief of the experts we interviewed at that time with the discovery of those tapes that al Qaeda was perhaps gearing up, perhaps it had an idea in its mind to use this type of military surface to air missile against civilian aircraft.
Again, it's only if at this stage, with no group claiming responsibility for this particular action. But again worth noting, across a broad range of these al Qaeda videotapes, we saw how al Qaeda had affiliated itself. It had connections with different groups around the world that perhaps had different objectives -- Carol.
COSTELLO: All right, Nic Robertson, thank you for your insight.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
