CNBC News September 18, 2002
What's changed since the last time weapons inspectors were in Iraq
RON INSANA, co-anchor:
As UN weapons inspectors get ready for their return to Iraq for the first time in four years, what has changed since then?, and what is the time table likely to be? Diana Olick has the latest from Washington.
President GEORGE W. BUSH: He deceives, he delays, he denies.
DIANA OLICK reporting: And that's why United Nations weapons inspectors will need more than just Saddam Hussein's word to get on the ground and running in his country. Mr. CHARLES DUELFER (Former UN Weapons Inspector): They've had now four years to prepare for another set of inspectors coming in, so I think you can expect that the Iraqis will have taken precautions in terms of how they locate their weapons systems and designed a system that would be responsive to the threat of inspections.
OLICK: A system of mobile weapons facilities, underground nuclear laboratories and biological agents being developed in civilian buildings. John Duelfer, a former weapons inspector himself, believes it could take up to a year to even lay the groundwork for real inspections, given what Iraq has been up to over the last few years.
Mr. DUELFER: Saddam clearly has in mind a--a--a way of buying some time. And he may buy a lot of time, depending upon how the new inspectors proceed.
OLICK: Now part of the UN inspection team, the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency, which will head up the nuclear inspections, is now in negotiations with the Iraqis. Its team of 10 is packed and ready to go, but they need a guarantee, which they are still trying to get.
Ms. MELISSA FLEMING (International Atomic Energy Agency): We absolutely require immediate and unrestricted access to carry out our mandate.
OLICK: Access which has yet to be clearly defined by the Iraqis on all levels of the inspections.
Mr. JOHN PIKE (GlobalSecurity.org): And on some level, you are talking about doing a door-to-door search of a city, Baghdad, with five million people in a country, Iraq, of 20 million people.
OLICK: The good news is in the time since UNSCOM was in Iraq, technology has advanced and inspectors now have more tools.
Mr. PIKE: The commercial satellite imagery, it's commercially available. You don't have the security classification restrictions around it. So these inspectors are basically going to have a satellite image of every facility that they visit, so they know exactly where they are on the site, and they can figure out exactly what they've seen and what they haven't seen.
OLICK: Beyond the new color satellites and other technological toys, the most important information resource is the Iraqis themselves, specifically scientists and engineers. If the inspectors could speak to them while assuring their safety, they could get all the information they need. Of course, the chances of that are next to zero. Diana Olick, CNBC, Washington.
INSANA: Coming up in the next half-hour of BUSINESS CENTER, OPEC oil ministers get ready for their meeting in Japan; anticipation of what they'll decide already moving the price of oil. We'll get a preview from Osaka.
Then our InDepth panel focuses on protecting your portfolio from the effects of US military action against Iraq. BUSINESS CENTER will be right back.
Copyright 2002 CNBC, Inc.
