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Robertson: Inspectors arrive, prepare to begin work
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- U.N. weapons inspectors arrived Monday evening in Baghdad armed with a U.N. mandate and escorted by U.N. security. CNN Senior International Correspondent Nic Robertson spoke to CNN anchor Carol Lin about the inspectors' arrival and the tasks ahead of them. ROBERTSON: They touched down just before dusk. It's already dark here now, so they're not expected to get down to any work tonight. They're likely not expected even to visit their offices on the outskirts of Baghdad. Now, we're told, of all of the preparation work that's been going on there for them, they should at least have a couple of offices to work out of, a couple of offices that have been cleaned out of the dust. Not clear yet if the laboratories are up and running. Now, their real work is going to begin on Wednesday. Tuesday will be a day of familiarization for them in their new headquarters. But Wednesday is when they're going to head out. We know that there are 12 missile, chemical and biological weapons experts and six nuclear weapons experts. They're going to split into different teams on Wednesday morning, head out of their compound. They'll be followed by Iraqi officials who will follow them to whichever sites they go to. Now, they're expected to go to some of what are known as dual-use sites. These are the sites where there are civilian industries for, where in the past, the U.N. weapons inspectors have believed that possibly this equipment has been put to alternate use to be involved in weapons of mass destruction. Now, the last U.N. monitoring teams here left cameras and other monitoring equipment behind at those sites. These new teams will be going out to see if that equipment is still working. If it's not, they plan to replace it. But what they really want to do in the next few weeks and months is find out exactly what has happened in Iraq at all of these different sites previously inspected over the last four years, essentially draw a new operational baseline, if you will. LIN: Nic, there was some question as to whether these inspectors would have security with them and whether that security would be armed. Any information there? ROBERTSON: Still no clarity on the issue of arming the security members with those teams. We are told they will have a security element with them. We're not told whether this will be a uniformed element, or whether these members will just appear to be part of the inspection teams. We may not even recognize them as they go out in their vehicles. But we're told -- and it is stipulated in the resolution 1441, the resolution these inspectors are working under -- that they can have their own security and they do intend to provide that. That's been made clear to us by a spokesman here. Probably in these early days as they begin to get to work, the communication systems that will be up and running later that will help augment that security. That's going to be built on. So, perhaps [in] these early days, their security structure [will be] not as solid as it will become. And the issue, again, of arming -- we don't know if those security elements with these teams will have weapons.
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