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CNN LIVE AT DAYBREAK

In Iraq, They Have Begun Third Week of Inspections

Aired December 11, 2002 - 05:06   ET

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

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And now to the hunt for weapons in Iraq. We could seen get at least a preliminary idea of what's contained in Iraq's 11,000 page declaration. Chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix says the main part, about 3,000 pages, will be analyzed by Friday. He says right now his people are removing some portions of the report that could help other nations build and distribute weapons of mass destruction.
The "Washington Times" is reporting the CIA might rush a preliminary report to the White House today.

U.N. teams, in the meantime, in Iraq have begun their third week of inspections. Today, they're scouring a site near Baghdad believed to be linked to missile production. There are now 60 plus inspectors in the country and more on the way.

CNN's Rym Brahimi joins us live from Baghdad -- good morning.

RYM BRAHIMI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.

Well, as you say, the reinforcements have certainly allowed the inspectors to adopt a much, much quicker pace in their inspections. And they're also going farther away from the capital. We spent an entire day yesterday at about 250 miles out west from Baghdad. We were actually right near the Syrian border as we followed some inspectors that were part of the nuclear expert team, the members of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

They drove all the way there to look at what is, what used to be a uranium purification plant. It's known as Akashad (ph) and was visited already back in September by journalists because there have been a lot of allegations, Carol, as you may know, by the U.S. administration that there may have been some renewed activity at that plant.

So as part of a sort of a P.R. campaign, they had taken journalists there. The Iraqi officials had taken journalists there in September.

Now, we were back there again. We saw, we, of course, as usual, let the inspectors go in. They finished their inspection, but they're spending the night there, so we didn't actually see them leave the site. But then as soon as they'd finished their two and a half hour long inspection, we were allowed in to watch this uranium, old uranium purification facility that had been bombed in '91 and that was totally sealed. And the director told us it wasn't being used, they were just producing fertilizer there from phosphates now. Now, as you say, there's been a lot of work going on and that's because there's more inspectors on the ground. Today, again, several teams, and there's going to be now, there's about 65 to 70 inspectors on the ground. We're hoping it'll reach -- or they're hoping, rather, it'll reach the number 100 by Christmas -- Carol.

COSTELLO: OK, Rym, thanks, reporting live from Baghdad this morning.

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