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CNN Saturday Morning News

Blix, Elbaradei to Arrive in Baghdad on Sunday

Aired January 18, 2003 - 09:05   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: Now to Iraq we go, where United Nations weapons inspectors have returned to that site where they found about a dozen empty chemical warheads.
CNN's Rym Brahimi is standing by in Baghdad with details about this second visit to that particular weapons depot. Hello, Rym.

RYM BRAHIMI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Miles.

Well, I'm going to tell you about that and about a lot of the other activities that the inspectors have been up to today. They indeed returned to that ammunition depot, that's about a two-hour drive southwest of Baghdad. It's a place where they found those 11 empty chemical warheads, as you mentioned, and that one warhead that they thought needed further evaluation.

Now, that site in particular, the bunker where they found those things, they sealed after they left it last time. So they returned again today to check it out. We're hoping to hear more on that later.

Another team, a team that included the team leader of the chemical, biological, and missile experts, went to visit a place -- it's actually in the center of Baghdad -- where Iraq stores the food and tests the food that it actually distributes on a monthly basis as rations to the people. Now, they went in there in the morning.

The director of site told us that they were particularly interested in a mobile laboratory that was standing there in a truck. She said that that laboratory had been declared, it had been visited many times previously. She invited the journalists to go and look at it. We entered. It was just of sort of -- it was -- inside a truck, just something that looked like a kitchen counter, a cooker pressure here and there.

And then she said that this had nothing to do for a search, in her view, with weapons of mass destruction. The inspectors left after three hours.

And then we also spoke to the Iraqi scientist whose house was searched a couple of days ago, very, very unhappy, very -- He said he complained about what he said was an intrusive inspection. He said he felt he had to cooperate in order not to endanger the people of Iraq, that he felt he had to let them in. He said they searched his bedroom when his wife was sick in bed.

He was asked by reporters whether he would consider leaving the country. Here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FALEH HASSAN AL-BASRI, DIRECTOR GENERAL, AL-RAZI COMPANY: Never, never, never ever.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Even if they insisted?

AL-BASRI: Never ever.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So what was the...

AL-BASRI: Even if I have instruction from my government, I would (UNINTELLIGIBLE), I will not leave my country.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So what happened on this point that you were just explaining?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRAHIMI: He also told reporters that at one point during the long, long time that he had spent with the inspectors, roughly between 10:00 a.m. Until 6:00 a.m. the following day, well, at one point when they were out of earshot from a minder, from the Iraqi national monitoring directorate, he was approached by an inspector who he said was a female. He said she was American.

And he said she approached asking him, Do you ever think about the alternatives? He said no, he didn't know what she meant. Then she asked her -- she asked him whether he was interested in maybe allowing his wife to get out of the country for treatment, saying that maybe they could help him, help his wife, and maybe allow him to accompany his wife outside of the country if he were interested.

He compared that to a Mafia-like approach, something he said you would see in a film like "The Godfather," Miles.

O'BRIEN: All right, CNN's Rym Brahimi in Baghdad. Thanks very much.

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 18, 2003 - 09:05   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Now to Iraq we go, where United Nations weapons inspectors have returned to that site where they found about a dozen empty chemical warheads.
CNN's Rym Brahimi is standing by in Baghdad with details about this second visit to that particular weapons depot. Hello, Rym.

RYM BRAHIMI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Miles.

Well, I'm going to tell you about that and about a lot of the other activities that the inspectors have been up to today. They indeed returned to that ammunition depot, that's about a two-hour drive southwest of Baghdad. It's a place where they found those 11 empty chemical warheads, as you mentioned, and that one warhead that they thought needed further evaluation.

Now, that site in particular, the bunker where they found those things, they sealed after they left it last time. So they returned again today to check it out. We're hoping to hear more on that later.

Another team, a team that included the team leader of the chemical, biological, and missile experts, went to visit a place -- it's actually in the center of Baghdad -- where Iraq stores the food and tests the food that it actually distributes on a monthly basis as rations to the people. Now, they went in there in the morning.

The director of site told us that they were particularly interested in a mobile laboratory that was standing there in a truck. She said that that laboratory had been declared, it had been visited many times previously. She invited the journalists to go and look at it. We entered. It was just of sort of -- it was -- inside a truck, just something that looked like a kitchen counter, a cooker pressure here and there.

And then she said that this had nothing to do for a search, in her view, with weapons of mass destruction. The inspectors left after three hours.

And then we also spoke to the Iraqi scientist whose house was searched a couple of days ago, very, very unhappy, very -- He said he complained about what he said was an intrusive inspection. He said he felt he had to cooperate in order not to endanger the people of Iraq, that he felt he had to let them in. He said they searched his bedroom when his wife was sick in bed.

He was asked by reporters whether he would consider leaving the country. Here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FALEH HASSAN AL-BASRI, DIRECTOR GENERAL, AL-RAZI COMPANY: Never, never, never ever.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Even if they insisted?

AL-BASRI: Never ever.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So what was the...

AL-BASRI: Even if I have instruction from my government, I would (UNINTELLIGIBLE), I will not leave my country.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So what happened on this point that you were just explaining?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRAHIMI: He also told reporters that at one point during the long, long time that he had spent with the inspectors, roughly between 10:00 a.m. Until 6:00 a.m. the following day, well, at one point when they were out of earshot from a minder, from the Iraqi national monitoring directorate, he was approached by an inspector who he said was a female. He said she was American.

And he said she approached asking him, Do you ever think about the alternatives? He said no, he didn't know what she meant. Then she asked her -- she asked him whether he was interested in maybe allowing his wife to get out of the country for treatment, saying that maybe they could help him, help his wife, and maybe allow him to accompany his wife outside of the country if he were interested.

He compared that to a Mafia-like approach, something he said you would see in a film like "The Godfather," Miles.

O'BRIEN: All right, CNN's Rym Brahimi in Baghdad. Thanks very much.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com