Interview with Christopher Cobb Smith
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN ANCHOR: For obvious reasons, inspectors won't divulge their plans or their schedules, but among the many sites experts consider ripe for inspection is a uranium mine in Kashat. The mine shaft was sealed by previous U.N. teams, but its current state is unknown. There is also the explosives plant that U.N. inspectors never saw. So far as the outside world knows, it is still active. And there's a nuclear weapons research center whose buildings and equipment were destroyed by U.N. teams in the 1990s. What, if anything, is going on there now is anybody's guess. Just how do inspectors go about their searches? What signs do they look for at the various sites? Well, someone who's been there, done that is former weapons inspector Christopher Cobb Smith. He joins us now from London. Thank you, sir, for being with us.</s>CHRISTOPHER COBB SMITH, FMR. WEAPONS INSPECTOR: My pleasure.</s>SAVIDGE: Obviously, there is a lot of pressure on the Iraqi government, but one of the questions I had is what about the pressure on the team members, the U.N. team members, themselves? Does that affect you as you work?</s>SMITH: There's bound to be a certain amount of pressure on the team, but I really don't think in this case the teams are going to be distracted by the bigger picture going on, the geo-strategic questions being asked. They've got to concentrate on their job in the hand and go about their mission of physically inspecting and searching these sites. And as I said, I don't believe they should be distracted by the very bigger questions that are being asked over this mission.</s>SAVIDGE: And from what you saw today of the missions that took place, do they seem reminiscent of what you went through when you were there?</s>SMITH: Yes, very much so, but I think it's important to remember that these initial inspections are very much going back to the old monitoring verification missions, which were done of the declared sites that the Iraqis declared after the Gulf War. We have not got the stage yet where these teams are really hitting the sensitive sites. I don't think as yet they're following up key intelligence, looking at, say, the concealment mechanisms or actually hidden weapons. This is very much still -- I think they're putting a toe in the water here. This is very much a monitoring and verification process at the moment.</s>SAVIDGE: Obviously, cameras weren't allowed inside as the inspection goes about. So, give us some insight? What would have been going on while they were in there?</s>SMITH: Well, I don't know exactly how the teams are set up now. If it was four years ago when I was involved, this is quite a small team, but we certainly would have approached the site. We would navigate it from obviously the Canal Hotel, the BMBC (ph), in Baghdad to the site itself, and try to approach the site from all different directions, at least one car approaching from north, south, east and west roughly to make sure all entrances were covered. As soon as the site was surrounded and under observation, then the chief inspector would hand over the NIF (ph), the notice of inspection. This is the official declaration that that site is nominated for inspection, a piece of paper with geographical coordinates on and signed by Hans Blix. Once that piece of paper is accepted by the Iraqis, and they have -- they would always call back to Baghdad and say, hey, this is where the teams are, and get a full authorization from ministers in Baghdad. Then the inspection element will then actually go in, and they will search building by building, methodically, room by room, cupboard by cupboard, all of which will be ticked off a sort of database, so I make sure I don't leave anything out.</s>SAVIDGE: Obviously you're all professionals at what you do, but there is a human element as well. I would think the adrenaline, maybe the heart rate -- everything is kind of going. As you first drive up there, what goes through your mind as you approach the site?</s>SMITH: Safety, safety, safety is always, always prominent in your mind on approaching the site. Normally in the bigger teams, it would be led by an operations officer, and I would always like to keep my chief inspector -- I never led the inspections -- behind me. So, I'd navigate to the site and always slow down. I'd always encourage every vehicle to slow down as you approach the site itself, because that is the occasion where these young Iraqi soldiers fanatically keen on their job, and they know the big enemy is coming up to the gates, and they've been warned about America and the U.S. and the United Nations. So, that's the time not to do any sudden moves, to take it very steadily, methodically, and make sure none of these young Iraqi guards get too excited.</s>SAVIDGE: And what is your feeling? Do you think...</s>SMITH: It's an exciting time.</s>SAVIDGE: I'm sure. I'm sure it is. What do you think overall? Do you think the mission will be successful? Do they have the right tools and the right resolutions to get the job done correctly?</s>SMITH: I think they do have the right resolution. It certainly sounds like they have the right tools. They've got the resolve of the Security Council behind them on this occasion, as long as that Security Council remains united and resolved. And they certainly have the technology to back them up this time. But it's going to be a very, very long and methodical process. They've got hundreds of sites to verify and monitor, even before they start going for the more sensitive sites or the capable sites where items may be hidden, where prescribed activity may have been going on over the last four years.</s>SAVIDGE: And that is obviously still to come. Christopher Cobb Smith, thank you very much for joining us from London and talking about the weapons inspection program.