Iraq: Allegations of Weapons in Syria 'Lies'
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: We begin with those U.N. teams that were sent back to Baghdad Tech today for more interviews with scientists believed to have firsthand knowledge of Iraqi weapons programs. Our Rym Brahimi once again is joining us from the Iraqi capital. Give us the latest, Rym.</s>RYM BRAHIMI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, indeed. A team of U.N. weapons inspectors went back to Baghdad's Technology University. Now, they were there a couple of days ago, and that's where they conducted their first formal interview with an Iraqi scientist. They interviewed a nuclear researcher who was quite familiar with the U.N. inspection teams, having also been interviewed in the past. Now, today, they went back, a more diverse and more numerous team, according to the president of the university. They questioned a whole number of scientists, of professors at the university. Also, asked them to come up with a list of the top researchers, according to them, in technology fields. Now, the president of the university said that that went smoothly, that the inspections were carried out with high skill and professionalism. And so far, everything was smooth. They also verified a few facilities that had been -- the chemical engineering department in particular, that had been tagged previously. Now, a little earlier on, Wolf, we heard from General Houssam Amin, who is in charge of the national monitoring directorate, one of the people from that institution was present at that formal interview conducted with the nuclear researcher -- nuclear researcher because the nuclear researcher didn't want to be interviewed alone. And then, responding to a question about whether or not it was necessary for scientists to leave the country to be interviewed, General Houssam Amin not only said that he felt it wasn't necessary, he said that Hans Blix and Mohammed ElBaradei thought it wasn't necessary either. But he also said that -- asked if he would leave, he said he would not leave, he would refuse to leave the country if asked to do so for an interview, because, he said, Iraq is my country -- Wolf.</s>BLITZER: Rym, what about the claims from Israeli government leaders, suggesting that the Iraqis may -- may have sent some of the suspected weapons of mass destruction materials to its neighbor, Syria, for safe storing there? I know the Iraqis are fiercely denying this, but what's the latest denial? What are they saying about that?</s>BRAHIMI: Well, that's interesting. I did ask General Houssam Amin about that. He qualified those allegations as total and complete lies. He said that that was absolutely not true, and he actually said that this was probably a way of -- for the Israeli government to ward off some internal problems it was having. He said, it's just to do with their own internal problems and their elections, they are trying to distract attention by accusing us. I have nothing more to say. These are just lies. Interestingly enough, this hasn't been reported in any of the newspapers, those allegations, only "Babiel" (ph), the newspaper owned by the president's eldest son, Uday Saddam Hussein, was just sort of -- just published an article that was taken by the Syrian news agency, saying that, according to the Syrian news agency, these allegations were qualified as "comic" -- Wolf.</s>BLITZER: Rym Brahimi in Baghdad once again for us. Rym, thanks very much for all your good reporting.