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CNN Saturday Morning News
U.S. Intelligence Community Reacts To Iraqi Weapons Declaration.
Aired December 07, 2002 - 07:37 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: There are a lot of parties that would like to get their hands, if they could fit their hands around it, on that Iraqi weapons declaration -- some 11,800 pages we're told, not to mention a few CD-ROMs.
As CNN's David Ensor reports, the U.S. and others will check that voluminous document and those CD-ROMs against what they believe Iraq possesses.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAVID ENSOR, CNN NATION SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): United Nations officials will pour over Iraq's weapons declaration documents when U.S., British, and other officials from governments permanently on the U.N. Security Council also expect to have access to them very quickly. All will be comparing what weapons Saddam Hussein says he has with what they believe he really has. Looking, especially in the U.S. case with a very skeptical eye.
DONALD RUMSFELD, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: The United States knows that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction. The U.K. knows that they have weapons of mass destruction. Any country on the face of the earth with an active intelligence program knows that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction.
ENSOR: According to a British government report made public just days ago, Iraq has still failed to account for 3300 tons of precursor chemicals, 397 tons of chemical agents, including 1.7 tons of VX nerve gas and more than 30,00 special munitions for delivery of chemical and biological agents -- all missing during the 1998 U.N. inspections. British and U.S. intelligence officials believe Saddam Hussein has continued to produce a variety of chemical and biological agents with at least some of those weapons capable of being deployed in as little as 45 minutes.
U.S. intelligence officials believe Iraq has retained a delivery system of as many as 20 Al Hussein missiles with a 650-kilometer range capable of reaching Israel. And, according to a CIA report, Baghdad maintains multiple delivery systems and mobile production facilities, making its biological weapons capability more advanced than before the Gulf War.
RICHARD BUTLER, FMR. U.N. WEAPONS INSPECTOR: The reports that say that Iraq has mobilized that production capability in order to evade detection it seems to me are extremely credible reports. ENSOR: Both the agents and the delivery system would be in direct violation of U.N. resolution 687. Iraq recently admitted that it tried to obtain aluminum cubes for use, it says, in producing conventional short-range missiles that are not forbidden and not for a nuclear weapons program. According to the report by Britain's joint intelligence committee, Saddam Hussein has also sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa. And if successful in obtaining fissile material, the Iraqis are one to two years away from producing a nuclear bomb.
Other nuclear experts say they doubt Iraq got much uranium in Africa but that if it did get enough fissile material somehow, the British estimate of up to two years may be too optimistic.
DAVID ALBRIGHT, FMR. WEAPONS INSPECTOR: I would say that's too long. I mean the U.S. assessment in a report published by the CIA is that they could do it within a year. And there are -- and if they prepared doing all the other components for a nuclear explosive, they could do it within a few weeks.
ENSOR: U.S. National Security and intelligence officials will be going over the Iraqi declaration documents with a fine tooth comb once they get access to them, officials say. Washington wants to make its own assessment of the evidence, even as it waits to hear what the U.N. inspectors think. David Ensor, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Declaration.>
Aired December 7, 2002 - 07:37 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: There are a lot of parties that would like to get their hands, if they could fit their hands around it, on that Iraqi weapons declaration -- some 11,800 pages we're told, not to mention a few CD-ROMs.
As CNN's David Ensor reports, the U.S. and others will check that voluminous document and those CD-ROMs against what they believe Iraq possesses.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAVID ENSOR, CNN NATION SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): United Nations officials will pour over Iraq's weapons declaration documents when U.S., British, and other officials from governments permanently on the U.N. Security Council also expect to have access to them very quickly. All will be comparing what weapons Saddam Hussein says he has with what they believe he really has. Looking, especially in the U.S. case with a very skeptical eye.
DONALD RUMSFELD, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: The United States knows that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction. The U.K. knows that they have weapons of mass destruction. Any country on the face of the earth with an active intelligence program knows that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction.
ENSOR: According to a British government report made public just days ago, Iraq has still failed to account for 3300 tons of precursor chemicals, 397 tons of chemical agents, including 1.7 tons of VX nerve gas and more than 30,00 special munitions for delivery of chemical and biological agents -- all missing during the 1998 U.N. inspections. British and U.S. intelligence officials believe Saddam Hussein has continued to produce a variety of chemical and biological agents with at least some of those weapons capable of being deployed in as little as 45 minutes.
U.S. intelligence officials believe Iraq has retained a delivery system of as many as 20 Al Hussein missiles with a 650-kilometer range capable of reaching Israel. And, according to a CIA report, Baghdad maintains multiple delivery systems and mobile production facilities, making its biological weapons capability more advanced than before the Gulf War.
RICHARD BUTLER, FMR. U.N. WEAPONS INSPECTOR: The reports that say that Iraq has mobilized that production capability in order to evade detection it seems to me are extremely credible reports. ENSOR: Both the agents and the delivery system would be in direct violation of U.N. resolution 687. Iraq recently admitted that it tried to obtain aluminum cubes for use, it says, in producing conventional short-range missiles that are not forbidden and not for a nuclear weapons program. According to the report by Britain's joint intelligence committee, Saddam Hussein has also sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa. And if successful in obtaining fissile material, the Iraqis are one to two years away from producing a nuclear bomb.
Other nuclear experts say they doubt Iraq got much uranium in Africa but that if it did get enough fissile material somehow, the British estimate of up to two years may be too optimistic.
DAVID ALBRIGHT, FMR. WEAPONS INSPECTOR: I would say that's too long. I mean the U.S. assessment in a report published by the CIA is that they could do it within a year. And there are -- and if they prepared doing all the other components for a nuclear explosive, they could do it within a few weeks.
ENSOR: U.S. National Security and intelligence officials will be going over the Iraqi declaration documents with a fine tooth comb once they get access to them, officials say. Washington wants to make its own assessment of the evidence, even as it waits to hear what the U.N. inspectors think. David Ensor, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Declaration.>
