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CNN Sunday Morning
U.N. Inspectors Search Iraqi National Monitoring Directorate
Aired January 05, 2003 - 09:02 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.
RENAY SAN MIGUEL, CNN ANCHOR: Let's get more now on Iraq. For hours, U.N. inspectors searched Iraq's monitoring headquarters today, looking for signs of a biological or nuclear weapons program. Our Rym Brahimi is in Baghdad covering the latest developments. She joins us now with more, and Rym, how significant was this search of the monitoring directorate?
RYM BRAHIMI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's interesting. You said for hours; it actually lasted for something like six hours, Renay. That's a pretty long inspection.
Now, they went to that place which is actually a compound. It's like a center for various companies that do research. And one of the buildings there is, indeed, the Iraqi National Monitoring Directorate, which is actually, in essence, the interlocutor for the U.N. weapons inspectors. But the building that they were really interested in was one that belongs to a company that does a lot of chemical and petrochemical research.
Now, when they arrived early in the morning, Renay, they just froze the site immediately. A couple of them went out to an area where they were wearing protective clothing. They sort of circled that building, while the others literally blocked anyone from leaving the site or entering the site.
After many hours, they finally agreed to let some people leave the site, but then, before anyone could leave those -- that compound, they checked every single handbag. They checked every single car and every single (UNINTELLIGIBLE), even filming the car before it was allowed to actually to leave the gates of the building.
Now, after the inspectors finished their work, we were allowed in and the general director of the Iraqi National Monitoring Directorate spoke to reporters and he said that all this searching, he felt, the whole freezing of the site, he felt was totally unnecessary. At the same time, he was trying to be a little conciliatory. Let's listen to how he put it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEN. HOSSAM AMIN, IRAQI MONITORING DIRECTORATE: I just want to object on the behavior of an inspection team not to give them any pretext that Iraq is trying to put (UNINTELLIGIBLE) of the inspections.
(END VIDEO CLIP) BRAHIMI: So clearly, he didn't want to complain to the inspectors, but he did complain to reporters, saying that he didn't think that was really necessary for what they were looking for at that particular site. At the same time, it tells you a lot about how the Iraqis see things. As the inspections expanded and intensified, well, a lot of Iraqis see them as more intrusive, and sometimes more aggressive, even -- Renay.
SAN MIGUEL: Rym, I know the big issue a couple of weeks ago was the inspectors believing they didn't have enough intelligence from the U.S., from, you know, U.S. intelligence agencies on where to look for possible weapons of mass destruction. Do the inspectors feel like they've been given enough intelligence from the U.S. and the British to do their search thoroughly?
BRAHIMI: It's hard for us to tell so far, Renay, because we're not really sure what they're being given. You know, when they go and inspect a site, we don't really know why they go there. They just decide to go there. Nobody knows where they're going until we actually arrive at that site. So it's quite hard for us to know if the sites that they're visiting they're choosing on the basis of intelligence reports that they've just received or on the basis of the weapons declaration, even, that Iraq just submitted a month ago.
That said, I know, as you said, that it was an issue. It seems, though, from what the U.S. had said that they were going to start cooperating a little more and giving those reports to the U.N. weapons inspectors. I think a lot will become much more clear when the U.N. weapons inspectors provide that report that they have to hand over on the 27th of January to the U.N. Security Council -- Renay.
SAN MIGUEL: All right, Rym Brahimi, live in Baghdad, thank you so much for the report.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
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Aired January 5, 2003 - 09:02 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
RENAY SAN MIGUEL, CNN ANCHOR: Let's get more now on Iraq. For hours, U.N. inspectors searched Iraq's monitoring headquarters today, looking for signs of a biological or nuclear weapons program. Our Rym Brahimi is in Baghdad covering the latest developments. She joins us now with more, and Rym, how significant was this search of the monitoring directorate?
RYM BRAHIMI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's interesting. You said for hours; it actually lasted for something like six hours, Renay. That's a pretty long inspection.
Now, they went to that place which is actually a compound. It's like a center for various companies that do research. And one of the buildings there is, indeed, the Iraqi National Monitoring Directorate, which is actually, in essence, the interlocutor for the U.N. weapons inspectors. But the building that they were really interested in was one that belongs to a company that does a lot of chemical and petrochemical research.
Now, when they arrived early in the morning, Renay, they just froze the site immediately. A couple of them went out to an area where they were wearing protective clothing. They sort of circled that building, while the others literally blocked anyone from leaving the site or entering the site.
After many hours, they finally agreed to let some people leave the site, but then, before anyone could leave those -- that compound, they checked every single handbag. They checked every single car and every single (UNINTELLIGIBLE), even filming the car before it was allowed to actually to leave the gates of the building.
Now, after the inspectors finished their work, we were allowed in and the general director of the Iraqi National Monitoring Directorate spoke to reporters and he said that all this searching, he felt, the whole freezing of the site, he felt was totally unnecessary. At the same time, he was trying to be a little conciliatory. Let's listen to how he put it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEN. HOSSAM AMIN, IRAQI MONITORING DIRECTORATE: I just want to object on the behavior of an inspection team not to give them any pretext that Iraq is trying to put (UNINTELLIGIBLE) of the inspections.
(END VIDEO CLIP) BRAHIMI: So clearly, he didn't want to complain to the inspectors, but he did complain to reporters, saying that he didn't think that was really necessary for what they were looking for at that particular site. At the same time, it tells you a lot about how the Iraqis see things. As the inspections expanded and intensified, well, a lot of Iraqis see them as more intrusive, and sometimes more aggressive, even -- Renay.
SAN MIGUEL: Rym, I know the big issue a couple of weeks ago was the inspectors believing they didn't have enough intelligence from the U.S., from, you know, U.S. intelligence agencies on where to look for possible weapons of mass destruction. Do the inspectors feel like they've been given enough intelligence from the U.S. and the British to do their search thoroughly?
BRAHIMI: It's hard for us to tell so far, Renay, because we're not really sure what they're being given. You know, when they go and inspect a site, we don't really know why they go there. They just decide to go there. Nobody knows where they're going until we actually arrive at that site. So it's quite hard for us to know if the sites that they're visiting they're choosing on the basis of intelligence reports that they've just received or on the basis of the weapons declaration, even, that Iraq just submitted a month ago.
That said, I know, as you said, that it was an issue. It seems, though, from what the U.S. had said that they were going to start cooperating a little more and giving those reports to the U.N. weapons inspectors. I think a lot will become much more clear when the U.N. weapons inspectors provide that report that they have to hand over on the 27th of January to the U.N. Security Council -- Renay.
SAN MIGUEL: All right, Rym Brahimi, live in Baghdad, thank you so much for the report.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
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