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CNN Live Sunday

U.N. Will Get First Look at Iraqi Arms Declaration Soon

Aired December 08, 2002 - 17:01   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.


CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: United Nations officials in New York are about to get their first look at the Iraqi weapons declaration. The 12,000 page report denying that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction is due at U.N. headquarters in just three hours. CNN's Michael Okwu is standing by. Michael, exactly what is the process for the handover of these documents? And is anybody going to be examining them tonight?
MICHAEL OKWU, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's really unclear, what exactly is going to happen tonight. There's been a lot of speculation, but clearly everyone here at the United Nations including diplomats in missions across the city, very keenly aware, Carol, that tonight begins yet another chapter in the nearly 12-year odyssey to disarm Iraq.

What we do know at this point is that the 12,000-page declaration is expected to arrive at the offices of chief weapons inspector Hans Blix here at the United Nations at about 8:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. At some point after this, it remains unclear, translators who have been asked to be on standby tonight will begin deciphering the Arabic. In the coming days, we know that Blix will edit out some sensitive portions having to do with making weapons of mass destruction.

On Tuesday, sources tell us Blix will be meeting with the Security Council at a regularly scheduled luncheon. We expect that the Security Council members will be asking him about when they will receive the documents at that point.

Sources also say that Blix's first assessment of the declaration is expected the week of December 16. The U.N., of course, here in New York is the last stop for the declaration. It was handed to U.N. officials in Baghdad yesterday, 24 hours ahead of its deadline, and flown to a U.N. staging ground in Cyprus. Sections of the declaration having to do with Iraq's nuclear programs were put on a flight to Vienna, where an official handed it to the IAEA headquarters.

But the focus, Carol, is firmly back here at the United Nations, where we're told that it may take weeks rather than days to resolve this issue -- Carol.

LIN: Michael, I'm just wondering, when you say that the first assessment of these documents may be made by a week from Monday, I mean, potentially, would that be grounds for military action, if they found a material breach in that amount of time? OKWU: Well, it's very difficult to predict what's going to happen here at the United Nations. Carol, I think that you can be very certain that nothing substantive is going to happen a week from now. Essentially what Blix is doing is painstakingly looking through this document, trying to excise out of it all the sensitive areas, and then going back to the council and saying, look, there's some areas that I know about, give me some feedback as to what we can do. Essentially, he has said to them already, Carol, that he's basically an agent of the Security Council. There will doubtless be a number of meetings behind closed doors with the Security Council determining how to proceed from that point. We don't believe that anything of real substance is going to known, however, in a week's time -- Carol.

LIN: There you go. All right. Thank you very much. Michael Okwu, reporting live from New York.

Well, the White House will be taking a close and probably a very skeptical look at the Iraqi weapons declaration.

CNN national correspondent Frank Buckley has more on this from the White House. Hi, Frank.

FRANK BUCKLEY, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Carol. White House officials say they'll take the appropriate amount of time to review the declaration, but you're right, they are skeptical. They don't expect Saddam Hussein to come clean in this declaration. They point to what they consider to be a history of deception by Saddam Hussein in the past.

The president returned to the White House this afternoon from Camp David aboard Marine One. Over the weekend, the president said in his radio address that disarming the Iraqi regime is a central commitment of the war on terror. He did not respond to questions, as he arrived back here at the White House, but administration sources say even if the declaration is false in their view, it will not be used as a trigger for war. An administration source says it wouldn't play well in the international community to take military action so quickly.

But today, one prominent senator warned that given the president's zero tolerance policy, U.S. credibility is on the line.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOSEPH LIEBERMAN (D), CONNECTICUT: America's credibility is on the line here, and you're right, the Bush administration has said it would have zero tolerance of Iraqi breaches of United Nations resolutions. I understand why the administration wants to take some days now to look at the 12,000 pages that the Iraqis gave the U.N. yesterday, and work with our allies as we review them, but this can't go on for too long.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BUCKLEY: Neither the president nor White House officials today officially reacting to the declaration moving over now to U.N. custody. And, again, with 12,000 pages, it may be several days before we have a White House reaction to the actual data that's contained within this declaration -- Carol.

LIN: All right, we'll wait and see. Thank you very much, Frank Buckley at the White House tonight.

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 8, 2002 - 17:01   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: United Nations officials in New York are about to get their first look at the Iraqi weapons declaration. The 12,000 page report denying that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction is due at U.N. headquarters in just three hours. CNN's Michael Okwu is standing by. Michael, exactly what is the process for the handover of these documents? And is anybody going to be examining them tonight?
MICHAEL OKWU, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's really unclear, what exactly is going to happen tonight. There's been a lot of speculation, but clearly everyone here at the United Nations including diplomats in missions across the city, very keenly aware, Carol, that tonight begins yet another chapter in the nearly 12-year odyssey to disarm Iraq.

What we do know at this point is that the 12,000-page declaration is expected to arrive at the offices of chief weapons inspector Hans Blix here at the United Nations at about 8:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. At some point after this, it remains unclear, translators who have been asked to be on standby tonight will begin deciphering the Arabic. In the coming days, we know that Blix will edit out some sensitive portions having to do with making weapons of mass destruction.

On Tuesday, sources tell us Blix will be meeting with the Security Council at a regularly scheduled luncheon. We expect that the Security Council members will be asking him about when they will receive the documents at that point.

Sources also say that Blix's first assessment of the declaration is expected the week of December 16. The U.N., of course, here in New York is the last stop for the declaration. It was handed to U.N. officials in Baghdad yesterday, 24 hours ahead of its deadline, and flown to a U.N. staging ground in Cyprus. Sections of the declaration having to do with Iraq's nuclear programs were put on a flight to Vienna, where an official handed it to the IAEA headquarters.

But the focus, Carol, is firmly back here at the United Nations, where we're told that it may take weeks rather than days to resolve this issue -- Carol.

LIN: Michael, I'm just wondering, when you say that the first assessment of these documents may be made by a week from Monday, I mean, potentially, would that be grounds for military action, if they found a material breach in that amount of time? OKWU: Well, it's very difficult to predict what's going to happen here at the United Nations. Carol, I think that you can be very certain that nothing substantive is going to happen a week from now. Essentially what Blix is doing is painstakingly looking through this document, trying to excise out of it all the sensitive areas, and then going back to the council and saying, look, there's some areas that I know about, give me some feedback as to what we can do. Essentially, he has said to them already, Carol, that he's basically an agent of the Security Council. There will doubtless be a number of meetings behind closed doors with the Security Council determining how to proceed from that point. We don't believe that anything of real substance is going to known, however, in a week's time -- Carol.

LIN: There you go. All right. Thank you very much. Michael Okwu, reporting live from New York.

Well, the White House will be taking a close and probably a very skeptical look at the Iraqi weapons declaration.

CNN national correspondent Frank Buckley has more on this from the White House. Hi, Frank.

FRANK BUCKLEY, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Carol. White House officials say they'll take the appropriate amount of time to review the declaration, but you're right, they are skeptical. They don't expect Saddam Hussein to come clean in this declaration. They point to what they consider to be a history of deception by Saddam Hussein in the past.

The president returned to the White House this afternoon from Camp David aboard Marine One. Over the weekend, the president said in his radio address that disarming the Iraqi regime is a central commitment of the war on terror. He did not respond to questions, as he arrived back here at the White House, but administration sources say even if the declaration is false in their view, it will not be used as a trigger for war. An administration source says it wouldn't play well in the international community to take military action so quickly.

But today, one prominent senator warned that given the president's zero tolerance policy, U.S. credibility is on the line.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOSEPH LIEBERMAN (D), CONNECTICUT: America's credibility is on the line here, and you're right, the Bush administration has said it would have zero tolerance of Iraqi breaches of United Nations resolutions. I understand why the administration wants to take some days now to look at the 12,000 pages that the Iraqis gave the U.N. yesterday, and work with our allies as we review them, but this can't go on for too long.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BUCKLEY: Neither the president nor White House officials today officially reacting to the declaration moving over now to U.N. custody. And, again, with 12,000 pages, it may be several days before we have a White House reaction to the actual data that's contained within this declaration -- Carol.

LIN: All right, we'll wait and see. Thank you very much, Frank Buckley at the White House tonight.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT WWW.FDCH.COM