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Shaky start for U.N. inspectors
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- United Nations experts complete their first weapons inspection in Iraq for four years despite getting lost on their way to the first suspect site. The 11 U.N. inspectors are focusing on chemical weapons, biological weapons and missiles, while six inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) are searching for nuclear weapons capability. CNN's Senior International Correspondent Nic Robertson, who was allowed inside the facility that inspectors checked on Wednesday morning, talked to Anchor Catherine Callaway. CALLAWAY: What's the latest -- Nic? ROBERTSON: Well, Catherine, I'll start at the beginning. The inspectors came out like clockwork at 8:30 this morning. They said they'd leave at 8:30 a.m., and it was bang on the nose. But after that, things sort of went downhill a little bit. There was a lot of confusion. The inspectors split off into two teams. That's what they had planned to do. One headed to the west of Baghdad. We followed the team to the east of Baghdad. They kind of got a little bit lost, and it's different for these inspectors, because they can't stop and ask anybody where is so and so, because these are no-notice inspections. But eventually, they found their way, and within half an hour, they were going into the first site at 9:00 in the morning. Now, we couldn't get into the site with them, but we could look through the gates. We know that this was a nuclear inspection team. They were associated with the Atomic Energy Agency authority in Vienna. We saw them going about the site, taking photographs, walking through the different buildings inside the site. Then after three hours, they left. Now, that's when we were allowed in, and what we saw -- we were taken to one building inside this, what is probably a one-square mile complex. This was a complex that had armed guards at the gate, and it had razor wire on the walls around the site. We were taken to one building, and in there, they were making reconditioned motors. But we were able to talk with the director general at that site. He told us that this was a site the inspectors had been to in the 1990s, that in the 1990s it had monitoring equipment. He said absolutely, categorically that there was nothing there, no weapons of mass destruction on his site. He said that the inspectors didn't take anything away with them, and he even said they seemed to go away happy.
In all, the inspectors were on site for about three hours. We don't have any feedback from the inspectors yet, and perhaps we won't get any. But now, they're back at their base. CALLAWAY: So, you weren't really able to talk with the inspectors as they were leaving the facility? ROBERTSON: No, they just drove right by very quickly, and certainly no opportunity to talk to them before they went in. CALLAWAY: Nic, any idea if they're going to be back out again today? ROBERTSON: We don't know. They certainly have indicated that they want to do a lot of work as quickly as possible, so there is that possibility they will go out again. CALLAWAY: Were they checking some of the equipment that had been left behind? Any word on what kind of condition that was in? ROBERTSON: No word whatsoever. One person in the plant did say to us that they were interested in a new construction. We could see a new building being put up. Now, we do know that there has been a lot of interest in this site before. We certainly know that it's been spoken about, both in the United States and in Britain as being a site of interest, where both governments believe that perhaps weapons of mass destruction have been developed. And we know that it's of interest to weapons inspectors, because they went there before, which doesn't gel with what the director general told us. CALLAWAY: Right. ROBERTSON: ... that he had no idea; that there was nothing there. CALLAWAY: Now, Nic, I'm a little confused. Weren't Iraqi representatives going along with the inspectors on these inspections? How did they get lost? ROBERTSON: Well, that's the thing. These Iraqi officials from the Iraqi National Monitoring Directorate have to follow the U.N. weapons inspectors. U.N. weapons inspectors -- these are no-notice inspections. They just choose where to go to. So, if they roll out of their base, as they did this morning, and they take a wrong turn, they're not able to stop and ask somebody where is such and such, because that's going to give the Iraqi officials an idea of where they're going, and perhaps a head start to do something at that site.
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