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CNN LIVE AT DAYBREAK

Concerns Baghdad May be Importing Military Equipment

Aired November 26, 2002 - 05:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

CATHERINE CALLAWAY, CNN ANCHOR: On the eve of weapons inspections in Iraq, there are concerns that Baghdad may be importing military equipment. The U.S. wants to add additional items to a banned list for Iraq, items that could have some use in case of war.
Let's go now to CNN's Rym Brahimi, who joins us from Baghdad with the latest.

RYM BRAHIMI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The inspectors arrived yesterday evening on a U.N. plane from Cyprus. Now, there were about 11 specialists in biological and chemical field, and also six specialists in the nuclear field. Now, what they're actually going, what they're going to do as of today is they're going to start looking at the technicalities. They started immediately upon arrival yesterday in their hotel discussing, obviously talking shop. They went into a few meetings at their hotel where they're staying, in downtown Baghdad.

And today we're expecting to hear from them on the technical aspect of their mission. They're supposed to, in just about an hour from now we're supposed to meet with them at U.N. headquarters here in Baghdad, and they're going to maybe show us some of their latest equipment that they plan to use on these missions to look for chemical or biological weapons, if there are any, and take us through the process, but just from a technical and logical point of view.

Of course, we're not privy to the other details, as in what sites they're going to see exactly when they start their inspections on Wednesday. What we do know is that they are going to start looking at those sites that were left behind by the previous U.N. inspection teams. That's maybe sites that would have had even cameras still left that were being monitored by the previous teams.

Now, they're also, there are also going to be no notice inspections and obviously the name of the game there is that nobody knows where or when they're going to visit those sites. At the same time as the inspectors arrived yesterday, well, a few hours later this, a few hours later we had, we were hearing that the United Nations Security Council had approved another resolution for Iraq. This resolution this time about the Oil For Food program. That's a humanitarian program that has helped Iraqis survive the sanctions since they were put in place to punish Iraq after it invaded Kuwait.

What happens is this program is usually renewed, extended every six months. But surprisingly yesterday at the U.N. Security Council it was only extended for about nine days because, we understand the United States is still discussing modalities about the review of the list of goods that Iraq is allowed to import -- back to you. CALLAWAY: All right, that's CNN's Rym Brahimi joining us live from Baghdad this morning.

Thank you, Rym.

Well, Chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix has no allusions that the work ahead will be a breeze. Blix had the following comment after arriving at the U.N.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HANS BLIX, CHIEF U.N. WEAPONS INSPECTOR: We are going in in good faith and on the instruction of the Council and the Iraqis are saying to us that they want to cooperate. Some members of the Council said that so far so good, and I think that's true. But while the Council has had a difficult time, we have been in the easy face. And we do not have any illusions that it's an easy job laid upon us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CALLAWAY: And you can hear much more from Hans Blix tomorrow on CNN. Christiane Amanpour has an exclusive interview with the chief U.N. weapons inspector. That's coming up Wednesday at 3:00 p.m. Eastern time.

And also you can keep up with all the developments surrounding Iraq on our Web site. We have a special report there, what the key figures are saying, the history, it's all there. Just click onto cnn.com. the AOL keyword is CNN.

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