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American Morning
U.N. Inspectors at Work
Aired December 03, 2002 - 07:04 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: From Baghdad right now, U.N. inspectors again paying an unannounced visit to one of Saddam Hussein's palaces.
Nic Robertson back with us live from the Iraqi capital.
Nic -- I want to talk about that visit to the palace, but I also want to know about what you're gathering right now about this deadline. We've all said it's December 8, which is Sunday this coming weekend; now getting word the filing will officially come from the Iraqis on the 7th. What's to be contained on that list, and what do we know at this point?
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We've been told by the head of Iraq's National Monitoring director -- that's the group that deals with the U.N. inspectors here -- that they will submit this declaration that has to contain all of their weapons of mass destruction, that has to contain all of the civilian industries that could be considered related to weapons of mass destruction, we've been told that instead of waiting for the Sunday December 8 deadline, that they'll submit this document on December 7.
It seems to be, Bill, in keeping with what we've been hearing from both the U.N. inspectors and Iraqi officials that there's good cooperation. It seems as if the Iraqi officials here really want to get this document in on time. They've created, so far, a favorable impression among many people, among the U.N. inspectors, that everything is going well, and they appear to be wanting to keep that record going -- Bill.
HEMMER: Nic, what about the palace visit then? About 90 minutes inside, how much of it was a test to see whether or not the guards let them inside? And how much of this truly was a search for weapons inside the palace walls -- Nic?
ROBERTSON: Bill, good question. We, the journalists, are kept outside, so we're not getting in with the inspectors, and we don't have a read out from them yet. So, we don't know what they were looking for precisely or what they may have found or what they may have found was missing.
We know, of course, that in the past, the inspectors couldn't have visited a presidential palace without giving prior notice. They couldn't have gone there without being accompanied by international diplomats.
So, today, it was a first, but what did they achieve there, we don't know. The journalists got in after the inspectors left and were shown a big hall, rather resplendent, a large chandelier hanging -- not a lot else in there -- marble floors, very presidential-palace looking. But difficult for journalists to judge what the inspectors had done, what they might have seen.
An Iraqi official said, as we've heard over recent days, that the inspectors had had full access, been able to see everything they wanted to see, but details, we're pretty short on those -- Bill.
HEMMER: Nic, thank you -- Nic Robertson in Baghdad.
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 3, 2002 - 07:04 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: From Baghdad right now, U.N. inspectors again paying an unannounced visit to one of Saddam Hussein's palaces.
Nic Robertson back with us live from the Iraqi capital.
Nic -- I want to talk about that visit to the palace, but I also want to know about what you're gathering right now about this deadline. We've all said it's December 8, which is Sunday this coming weekend; now getting word the filing will officially come from the Iraqis on the 7th. What's to be contained on that list, and what do we know at this point?
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We've been told by the head of Iraq's National Monitoring director -- that's the group that deals with the U.N. inspectors here -- that they will submit this declaration that has to contain all of their weapons of mass destruction, that has to contain all of the civilian industries that could be considered related to weapons of mass destruction, we've been told that instead of waiting for the Sunday December 8 deadline, that they'll submit this document on December 7.
It seems to be, Bill, in keeping with what we've been hearing from both the U.N. inspectors and Iraqi officials that there's good cooperation. It seems as if the Iraqi officials here really want to get this document in on time. They've created, so far, a favorable impression among many people, among the U.N. inspectors, that everything is going well, and they appear to be wanting to keep that record going -- Bill.
HEMMER: Nic, what about the palace visit then? About 90 minutes inside, how much of it was a test to see whether or not the guards let them inside? And how much of this truly was a search for weapons inside the palace walls -- Nic?
ROBERTSON: Bill, good question. We, the journalists, are kept outside, so we're not getting in with the inspectors, and we don't have a read out from them yet. So, we don't know what they were looking for precisely or what they may have found or what they may have found was missing.
We know, of course, that in the past, the inspectors couldn't have visited a presidential palace without giving prior notice. They couldn't have gone there without being accompanied by international diplomats.
So, today, it was a first, but what did they achieve there, we don't know. The journalists got in after the inspectors left and were shown a big hall, rather resplendent, a large chandelier hanging -- not a lot else in there -- marble floors, very presidential-palace looking. But difficult for journalists to judge what the inspectors had done, what they might have seen.
An Iraqi official said, as we've heard over recent days, that the inspectors had had full access, been able to see everything they wanted to see, but details, we're pretty short on those -- Bill.
HEMMER: Nic, thank you -- Nic Robertson in Baghdad.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
