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Robertson: Former Iraqi bio-warfare plant inspected
(CNN) -- A team of United Nations weapons inspectors took to the Iraqi desert Wednesday in the search for weapons of mass destruction. CNN correspondent Nic Robertson followed the team into one of the facilities it investigated. After returning to Baghdad, the Iraqi capital, Robertson talked to CNN anchor Leon Harris about what he had seen at the site. ROBERTSON: Leon, (it was) a long day for the inspectors. (They took) about two hours to drive 120 kilometers (74 miles) northwest of Baghdad to ... one of the largest sites they have to visit, (covering) 25 square kilometers (10 square miles), (and spent) five hours on the site. Now, a lot of the site was destroyed by coalition bombing during the Gulf War. An inspection team in the 1990s finished decommissioning all the equipment on the site. Now, that site is -- or was, rather -- the birthplace for Iraq's biological warfare program. And it was also the heart of (Iraq's) chemical warfare program for research and development on the chemicals producing (weapons) like (the nerve agent) VX. Also, they were there researching and developing how to put (agents) in bombs (and) how to drop these chemicals from the air on an enemy. Now, when the inspectors left, we got access to the site. All the equipment that we could see -- and we were given quite an extensive tour there today, Leon, unlike previous days, (we were) taken to some of the only buildings left standing on the site -- we were shown what appeared to be a lot of equipment that was connected with the production of chemical weapons. It was rusting, it was rotting, it was lying in old warehouses, covered in dust, covered in all sorts of debris from the rotting warehouses. A lot of it had had holes cut in it. Some of the equipment had cement poured into it. Most of the equipment, significantly, Leon, had U.N. tags on it. And that appears to be what the inspectors were doing there today: going back to a site they had previously visited, checking that the equipment that had been decommissioned, broken down, put to one side, was left lying there. That's the impression we had from the equipment we saw. At one point, the inspectors brought onto the site a heavy lifting crane. One of the Iraqi officials at the site told us that crane was used to lift some heavy container cases in front of the warehouse doors to prevent people (from) going in and out of the warehouses, Leon. But both the U.N. and the Iraqi officials there said they got good cooperation for their work today. HARRIS: Nic, let me ask about whether or not you've seen any signs of any kind of resistance. I've been reading some reports that in some cases that some of the Iraqi guards have been putting up at least a nominal amount of resistance ... Have you seen any of that? ROBERTSON: Leon, from what we've seen, the inspectors are getting access as quick as is reasonably expected, let's say. Now, they did spend six or seven minutes (getting into) the presidential palace yesterday. Today, (at what was) perhaps a less-secure site, they got onto the site much more quickly ... Obviously, the journalists are very keen to follow the inspectors in because we're not getting to see the detail of the work they do. That's something (we and) the rest of the world would like to see. The guards (were) keeping the journalists back at the gate. So for the inspectors, they appear to be getting the access that they're expecting.
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