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CNN Live Sunday

IAEA Will Begin Studying Iraqi Report Tonight

Aired December 08, 2002 - 18:11   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: The U.N.'s nuclear agency says it will need at least 10 days to review Iraq's weapons report. They'll begin weeding through the thousands of pages tonight. Meanwhile, U.S. military officials are close by in Qatar where they're conducting war games. CNN's Anderson Cooper joins us from Doha, Qatar with more on that. Anderson, the big game starts tomorrow, is that right?
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. It's called Internal Look. It's a major military exercise, really a command and control exercise, a high tech computer simulation if you will. It's really testing the U.S. military's ability and CENTCOM's ability to command their forces in the field.

They're going to be using a very high tech mobile command headquarters that they've shipped over here in the last month or so and Tommy Franks, general, commander who runs CENTCOM is going to be communicating with his other headquarters in Saudi Arabia in Bahrain, in Turkey, the NATO air base there in Oman and Diego Garcia with warships currently in the Persian Gulf. It's really a test of what any potential operation against Iraq would look like if, in fact, it does come to that.

It has been a very busy day here, the day before this exercise is set to begin, a very busy day for the U.S. military, Tommy Franks meeting with his top commanders, just going through all the different systems they are going to be deploying tomorrow. Also, two very important U.S. Senators arrived in Qatar yesterday.

They spoke exclusively with CNN's Wolf Blitzer, Senators Joe Biden of Delaware, Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, both on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, both came to meet with General Franks. They had breakfast with a number of U.S. military personnel at this top secret base (UNINTELLIGIBLE). They also received a briefing from General Franks. I think we have some still photos we're going to show of that.

Again, this is a very well guarded, very protected base. We really haven't seen much video images from there really, just a lot of still photos. They received that briefing from Tommy Franks and some of his top commanders. One official from CENTCOM said that Senator Biden said he had never seen such a comprehensive and up-to-date military plan in place.

This all located in this base which is this mobile unit which they've never used before. It's a modular headquarters. It's really going to be a test run of how effective that is. Obviously it's been a busy couple of days. Also at the Al-Udeid base, that's another base here in Qatar which has a massive runway, 15,000-foot runway and that's a base that is being used really for the last year non-stop by the U.S. military in order to refuel and for transport aircraft for U.S. operations in Afghanistan.

Also a busy day throughout the Persian Gulf, as we all know Iraq, this was a major weekend, that U.N. deadline passing, Iraq handing over about 11,000 pages of documents the day before that U.N. deadline came to pass. CNN's Nic Robertson now is in Baghdad and he filed this report on the aftermath of the document hand over and new inspections.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, in the 45-minute press briefing, General Amer al-Saadi, President Saddam Hussein's top scientific adviser told journalists of what was contained in Iraq's declaration of weapons of mass destruction. He said that each category, the nuclear, the chemical, the biological and missile were broken down into different components.

There would be a component on the programs before 1991, a component on the programs from 1991 until the current date, and also an annex with supporting documentation. He said, however, that the whole weapons inspection process was a very bitter pill for Iraqis to swallow.

AMER AL-SAADI, IRAQI SCIENTIFIC ADVISER: We have accepted this before and we accept this now. That doesn't mean that we welcome it and we are happy with it. Naturally we're not happy because it affects us considerably. A site which is subject to monitoring is practically at standstill when it is inspected and that affects its productivity, losses, people can not move about.

ROBERTSON: On the issue of would this answer a lot of questions that have been left unanswered by the U.N. weapons inspection teams, in 1998 when they left for example one of those would be on the VX nerve agent. Those inspectors believe Iraq has left unaccounted for 1.7 tons of VX nerve agents.

On that issue and Hans Blix had made a very strong point about this when he was in Baghdad with Iraqi officials a few weeks ago, he had said if Iraq wants to say it doesn't have weapons of mass destruction, it must provide supporting evidence, supporting documentation to prove that.

Now, General Amer al-Saadi saying that they've looked into their records, that everything all the accounts they've made to the U.N. before in 1996 and 1997, their full, final, and complete disclosures then, he said that they looked into their records, that they hadn't been able to find any more documents.

AL-SAADI: Our problem now is to produce complete evidence of the picture of the biological program. We have presented documents regarding, supporting documents. Now those documents have not been increased since then not by a single document because we have done all researching we could and we could not find any more. ROBERTSON: So, the outline he made of the declaration very lengthy, some 45 minutes in total, an indication of just how complex and detailed it will be for experts and analysts to go through Iraq's declaration. He had made another couple of points as well. He said in talking with the weapons inspection chief Hans Blix, he'd asked for clarification of dual use, that is items used in civilian industry that the U.N. weapons inspectors believe could have a military application.

He said they had not had a clear answer. For that reason, in the declaration they had included such things as breweries, distilleries, a tannery, even he said an agricultural site, a dairy site, the dairy site he said contained a fermenter for yogurt. That had been included in the declaration.

He made one other point as well. He said that in the declaration the wording called for Iraq to put forward its bi-annual reports. He said that that was an error that these are semi-annual reports, twice a year, not once every two years. He said that went to show that this document was drafted not by scientists but by politicians, making the point that Iraq feels that the whole of Resolution 1441 and Iraq's compliance with it is very politically motivated.

Nic Robertson, CNN, Baghdad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Well, of course, the Bush administration waiting to see what is in those documents, waiting to hear from the U.N. but the U.S. military is not waiting. They have to go ahead and keep planning and they have this massive exercise about to begin -- Carol.

LIN: Anderson, is there going to be any media coverage of this massive exercise since it is supposed to be an indication of things to come and maybe the military doesn't want to tip off the Iraqis?

COOPER: Yes, it's a very tightly guarded exercise at this point. I mean we're anticipating minimal access, perhaps you know one day where we're allowed to go to these bases but we really are not anticipating a great deal of openness. Obviously, the security is very tight around these exercises and both for they don't want to tip off Iraq as to what their various scenarios are that they're going to be executing. They also don't want to have too much of a big footprint here in Qatar, don't want to upset the Qataris and keep their presence basically to a minimum. So, we're not anticipating a great amount of coverage but we will be covering it all week -- Carol.

LIN: Anderson, I'm just wondering how is this playing out in the local media? I'm wondering if local Qataris there actually get to see any sort of American broadcasts. I guess CNN might be one of them but they also have Arab television. Have you noticed the difference in how the story is being covered in both?

COOPER: The story is definitely being covered by both very closely and then, of course, Al Jazeera is the 24-hour news network in many Arab nations and obviously they have a lot of people deployed on this story. But there, again, access is really the big question for them as well. It's a very difficult story to cover and it's a story that has certainly had a lot of people here interested but you don't see too much about it simply because there's not many pictures to show. It's a difficult story to tell, so it's not as huge a story right now here in Qatar -- Carol.

LIN: All right, thank you very much, Anderson Cooper.

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 - 18:11   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: The U.N.'s nuclear agency says it will need at least 10 days to review Iraq's weapons report. They'll begin weeding through the thousands of pages tonight. Meanwhile, U.S. military officials are close by in Qatar where they're conducting war games. CNN's Anderson Cooper joins us from Doha, Qatar with more on that. Anderson, the big game starts tomorrow, is that right?
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. It's called Internal Look. It's a major military exercise, really a command and control exercise, a high tech computer simulation if you will. It's really testing the U.S. military's ability and CENTCOM's ability to command their forces in the field.

They're going to be using a very high tech mobile command headquarters that they've shipped over here in the last month or so and Tommy Franks, general, commander who runs CENTCOM is going to be communicating with his other headquarters in Saudi Arabia in Bahrain, in Turkey, the NATO air base there in Oman and Diego Garcia with warships currently in the Persian Gulf. It's really a test of what any potential operation against Iraq would look like if, in fact, it does come to that.

It has been a very busy day here, the day before this exercise is set to begin, a very busy day for the U.S. military, Tommy Franks meeting with his top commanders, just going through all the different systems they are going to be deploying tomorrow. Also, two very important U.S. Senators arrived in Qatar yesterday.

They spoke exclusively with CNN's Wolf Blitzer, Senators Joe Biden of Delaware, Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, both on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, both came to meet with General Franks. They had breakfast with a number of U.S. military personnel at this top secret base (UNINTELLIGIBLE). They also received a briefing from General Franks. I think we have some still photos we're going to show of that.

Again, this is a very well guarded, very protected base. We really haven't seen much video images from there really, just a lot of still photos. They received that briefing from Tommy Franks and some of his top commanders. One official from CENTCOM said that Senator Biden said he had never seen such a comprehensive and up-to-date military plan in place.

This all located in this base which is this mobile unit which they've never used before. It's a modular headquarters. It's really going to be a test run of how effective that is. Obviously it's been a busy couple of days. Also at the Al-Udeid base, that's another base here in Qatar which has a massive runway, 15,000-foot runway and that's a base that is being used really for the last year non-stop by the U.S. military in order to refuel and for transport aircraft for U.S. operations in Afghanistan.

Also a busy day throughout the Persian Gulf, as we all know Iraq, this was a major weekend, that U.N. deadline passing, Iraq handing over about 11,000 pages of documents the day before that U.N. deadline came to pass. CNN's Nic Robertson now is in Baghdad and he filed this report on the aftermath of the document hand over and new inspections.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, in the 45-minute press briefing, General Amer al-Saadi, President Saddam Hussein's top scientific adviser told journalists of what was contained in Iraq's declaration of weapons of mass destruction. He said that each category, the nuclear, the chemical, the biological and missile were broken down into different components.

There would be a component on the programs before 1991, a component on the programs from 1991 until the current date, and also an annex with supporting documentation. He said, however, that the whole weapons inspection process was a very bitter pill for Iraqis to swallow.

AMER AL-SAADI, IRAQI SCIENTIFIC ADVISER: We have accepted this before and we accept this now. That doesn't mean that we welcome it and we are happy with it. Naturally we're not happy because it affects us considerably. A site which is subject to monitoring is practically at standstill when it is inspected and that affects its productivity, losses, people can not move about.

ROBERTSON: On the issue of would this answer a lot of questions that have been left unanswered by the U.N. weapons inspection teams, in 1998 when they left for example one of those would be on the VX nerve agent. Those inspectors believe Iraq has left unaccounted for 1.7 tons of VX nerve agents.

On that issue and Hans Blix had made a very strong point about this when he was in Baghdad with Iraqi officials a few weeks ago, he had said if Iraq wants to say it doesn't have weapons of mass destruction, it must provide supporting evidence, supporting documentation to prove that.

Now, General Amer al-Saadi saying that they've looked into their records, that everything all the accounts they've made to the U.N. before in 1996 and 1997, their full, final, and complete disclosures then, he said that they looked into their records, that they hadn't been able to find any more documents.

AL-SAADI: Our problem now is to produce complete evidence of the picture of the biological program. We have presented documents regarding, supporting documents. Now those documents have not been increased since then not by a single document because we have done all researching we could and we could not find any more. ROBERTSON: So, the outline he made of the declaration very lengthy, some 45 minutes in total, an indication of just how complex and detailed it will be for experts and analysts to go through Iraq's declaration. He had made another couple of points as well. He said in talking with the weapons inspection chief Hans Blix, he'd asked for clarification of dual use, that is items used in civilian industry that the U.N. weapons inspectors believe could have a military application.

He said they had not had a clear answer. For that reason, in the declaration they had included such things as breweries, distilleries, a tannery, even he said an agricultural site, a dairy site, the dairy site he said contained a fermenter for yogurt. That had been included in the declaration.

He made one other point as well. He said that in the declaration the wording called for Iraq to put forward its bi-annual reports. He said that that was an error that these are semi-annual reports, twice a year, not once every two years. He said that went to show that this document was drafted not by scientists but by politicians, making the point that Iraq feels that the whole of Resolution 1441 and Iraq's compliance with it is very politically motivated.

Nic Robertson, CNN, Baghdad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Well, of course, the Bush administration waiting to see what is in those documents, waiting to hear from the U.N. but the U.S. military is not waiting. They have to go ahead and keep planning and they have this massive exercise about to begin -- Carol.

LIN: Anderson, is there going to be any media coverage of this massive exercise since it is supposed to be an indication of things to come and maybe the military doesn't want to tip off the Iraqis?

COOPER: Yes, it's a very tightly guarded exercise at this point. I mean we're anticipating minimal access, perhaps you know one day where we're allowed to go to these bases but we really are not anticipating a great deal of openness. Obviously, the security is very tight around these exercises and both for they don't want to tip off Iraq as to what their various scenarios are that they're going to be executing. They also don't want to have too much of a big footprint here in Qatar, don't want to upset the Qataris and keep their presence basically to a minimum. So, we're not anticipating a great amount of coverage but we will be covering it all week -- Carol.

LIN: Anderson, I'm just wondering how is this playing out in the local media? I'm wondering if local Qataris there actually get to see any sort of American broadcasts. I guess CNN might be one of them but they also have Arab television. Have you noticed the difference in how the story is being covered in both?

COOPER: The story is definitely being covered by both very closely and then, of course, Al Jazeera is the 24-hour news network in many Arab nations and obviously they have a lot of people deployed on this story. But there, again, access is really the big question for them as well. It's a very difficult story to cover and it's a story that has certainly had a lot of people here interested but you don't see too much about it simply because there's not many pictures to show. It's a difficult story to tell, so it's not as huge a story right now here in Qatar -- Carol.

LIN: All right, thank you very much, Anderson Cooper.

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