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American Morning
U.N. Weapons Inspectors Visit Four Sites In Iraq Today
Aired January 03, 2003 - 07:08 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.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: In Iraq, U.S. and British forces struck two military targets. The U.S. says the attacks on anti-aircraft sites there were in response to hostility against coalition aircraft.
And all of this is going on as yet another busy day of U.N. weapons inspections begins.
Rym Brahimi joins us now live from Baghdad. She's got the very latest look at all of that.
Good morning -- Rym.
RYM BRAHIMI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Leon.
Well, as you said, inspectors are out again today, at least four sites, two of them have to do with Iraq's military industrial complex, so they're still going strong there.
And as they pursue these inspections very intensively, questions are being raised, Leon, about the process of interviewing Iraqi scientists.
Now, one Iraqi official has criticized the questions being asked of scientists, saying they have no legitimacy in the context of a search for weapons. Let's listen to how he put it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TAHA YASSIN RAMADAN, IRAQI VICE PRESIDENT (through translator): When you ask a scientist: Is your salary paid by the Iraqi government enough? Is this a question that falls under the search for weapons of mass destruction? Our scientists are not supposed to answer these questions, because they are very obvious questions that express bad and malicious intentions.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRAHIMI: Now, meanwhile, very vocal comments in the Iraqi state- run media here against President Bush; one editorial calling him a master evildoer on the same level as Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. Now, that editorial also says that Iraqis don't buy President Bush's comments on New Year's Day, hinting at a possibility that this crisis could be resolved peacefully, but said that President Bush's comments do seem to have sparked some sort of optimism, Leon. And you can tell by the exchange rate of the dollar here.
Now, the dollar had been steadily climbing in the past six months or so. Well, in the past two days, it's actually lost the value that it had gained in the past three months. So, there's a big dip here. Of course, that's not the general tendency. The general tendency for the dollar is still to sort of slowly climb, so we can expect it to get back to that normal tendency soon.
Now, at the same today, as you know, Leon, is Friday. It's a day when Iraqis fulfill their religious duty, go to the mosques. One of the people that we saw at the mosque that we went to film was the minister of trade. He was there fulfilling his religious duty, alongside a lot of other ordinary Iraqis.
Meanwhile, the sermon -- the official sermon that was broadcast on Iraqi TV from the main mosque here in Baghdad was calling on Iraqis to be patient in the face of all of this adversity -- Leon.
HARRIS: Rym Brahimi reporting live for us from Baghdad -- thanks, Rym. We'll check back with you later on.
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 January 3, 2003 - 07:08 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: In Iraq, U.S. and British forces struck two military targets. The U.S. says the attacks on anti-aircraft sites there were in response to hostility against coalition aircraft.
And all of this is going on as yet another busy day of U.N. weapons inspections begins.
Rym Brahimi joins us now live from Baghdad. She's got the very latest look at all of that.
Good morning -- Rym.
RYM BRAHIMI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Leon.
Well, as you said, inspectors are out again today, at least four sites, two of them have to do with Iraq's military industrial complex, so they're still going strong there.
And as they pursue these inspections very intensively, questions are being raised, Leon, about the process of interviewing Iraqi scientists.
Now, one Iraqi official has criticized the questions being asked of scientists, saying they have no legitimacy in the context of a search for weapons. Let's listen to how he put it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TAHA YASSIN RAMADAN, IRAQI VICE PRESIDENT (through translator): When you ask a scientist: Is your salary paid by the Iraqi government enough? Is this a question that falls under the search for weapons of mass destruction? Our scientists are not supposed to answer these questions, because they are very obvious questions that express bad and malicious intentions.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRAHIMI: Now, meanwhile, very vocal comments in the Iraqi state- run media here against President Bush; one editorial calling him a master evildoer on the same level as Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. Now, that editorial also says that Iraqis don't buy President Bush's comments on New Year's Day, hinting at a possibility that this crisis could be resolved peacefully, but said that President Bush's comments do seem to have sparked some sort of optimism, Leon. And you can tell by the exchange rate of the dollar here.
Now, the dollar had been steadily climbing in the past six months or so. Well, in the past two days, it's actually lost the value that it had gained in the past three months. So, there's a big dip here. Of course, that's not the general tendency. The general tendency for the dollar is still to sort of slowly climb, so we can expect it to get back to that normal tendency soon.
Now, at the same today, as you know, Leon, is Friday. It's a day when Iraqis fulfill their religious duty, go to the mosques. One of the people that we saw at the mosque that we went to film was the minister of trade. He was there fulfilling his religious duty, alongside a lot of other ordinary Iraqis.
Meanwhile, the sermon -- the official sermon that was broadcast on Iraqi TV from the main mosque here in Baghdad was calling on Iraqis to be patient in the face of all of this adversity -- Leon.
HARRIS: Rym Brahimi reporting live for us from Baghdad -- thanks, Rym. We'll check back with you later on.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
