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CNN Wolf Blitzer Reports

President Bush Outlines His Defense Strategy

Aired May 01, 2001 - 20:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
WOLF BLITZER, HOST: Tonight: "Star Wars" or starry-eyed? President Bush outlines his new defense strategy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We need a new framework that allows us to build missile defenses to counter the different threats of today's world.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: We'll go live to the White House. We'll hear about doubts at the Pentagon. And I'll speak with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, a long-time advocate of missile defense.

Also, tonight's Hollywood cliffhanger: we'll go live to Los Angeles, where a deadline looms in contract talks between writers and film and television producers. Will summer reruns go on forever?

Good evening. I'm Wolf Blitzer reporting tonight from Washington.

Almost 20 years ago, then-President Ronald Reagan unveiled his strategic defense initiative, or what came to be called "Star Wars." Today, President Bush made clear he wants a national missile defense system despite opposition from Russia, China, many of the NATO allies and many members of Congress. The debate is just beginning, and that's our top story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BUSH: Cold War deterrence is no longer enough.

BLITZER (voice-over): Giving few specifics, President Bush outlined his concept for a land, air, sea and space-based system to protect the U.S. from missile attack.

BUSH: To maintain peace, to protect our own citizens and our own allies and friends, we must seek security based on more than the grim premise that we can destroy those who seek to destroy us.

BLITZER: Mr. Bush said he's ready to sharply reduce the U.S. nuclear stockpile, though he didn't provide numbers. Both that idea and the missile shield are linked to his view that the main threat to the U.S. comes not necessarily from Russia, but from Iraq and other U.S. enemies.

BUSH: States for whom terror and blackmail are a way of life.

BLITZER: Critics say a national missile defense system would cost too much, and won't necessarily work.

SEN. TOM DASCHLE (D-SD), MAJORITY LEADER: We fear that the president may be buying a lemon here. I don't know how you support the deployment of a program that doesn't work.

BLITZER: Other critics say it would not completely seal the U.S. from attack.

SEN. JOSEPH BIDEN (D), DELAWARE: Much greater threat is that a nuclear weapon would be put in the hull of a ship and come up the San Francisco harbor or the New York harbor and detonate it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: A short while ago, I sat down with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who's long been a strong supporter of a missile defense system.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: Mr. Secretary, thank you so much for joining us. I want right to get to some of the criticisms that been leveled against the defense missile shield.

The first criticism, maybe the most important is, so far the tests that have been conducted -- I think there have been three major tests -- two have been less than successful. One has been successful. How do you know it is going to work?

DONALD RUMSFELD, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: Wolf, look, every new major research and development program has failures. Even in the pharmaceutical business, anyone who thinks you get a 100 percent success -- you're lucky if you get 10 percent success.

Second, if you think of the Corona program, they have had 11 straight failures, and President Eisenhower continued with it, and then they had a success, and it saved this country billions of dollars. It is to be expected.

When you're talking about research and development, you're not talking about a full-blown, perfect system, and the expectation level that something would be perfect from the very beginning, I think is totally unrealistic.

BLITZER: But you have confidence that the technology is potentially there?

RUMSFELD: Sure.

BLITZER: The other criticism is that it could make the world less stable, it could generate a lot of nuclear instability by going forward. As you know, the Russians don't like it, the Chinese don't like it, and many of the European allies aren't happy about it either.

RUMSFELD: Well, the question of stability is an interesting one. There is no question that the world got comfortable in the Cold War, with the Soviet Union and the United States having tens of thousands of nuclear weapons, the ability to destroy each other in 30 minutes many times over, and called mutual assured destruction a stabilizing situation.

The Cold War is over. Today, we have countries that are able to get nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles, and they are not the Soviet Union. Soviet Union is no longer our adversary. We don't get up in the morning and worry about them trying to attack Western Europe. Poland is part of NATO, not part of the Warsaw Pact, and that old Cold War thinking, it seems to me, is outdated.

The president in his remarks today properly pointed out that it's stabilizing to have defenses. It's important to bring defenses and offenses together.

BLITZER: But if the Russians complain that if you unilaterally abrogate the 1972 anti-ballistic missile treaty, which was signed between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, what's to stop them from starting to abrogate some treaties they don't like?

RUMSFELD: Well, it isn't a matter of liking or not liking. The ABM treaty is a treaty, as the president pointed out, that it was in the 1970s. Technology has evolved dramatically. We have had the end of the Cold War. It was based on an adversarial relationship. We don't have that kind of a relationship today. You've had proliferation over the past decade that has put in the hands of people like Saddam Hussein very powerful capabilities that put at risk their neighbors and Western Europe and the United States.

BLITZER: But they say that if you want to do it, renegotiate the treaty, write a new treaty, rather than the United States on its own saying, "forget about it."

RUMSFELD: Well, the president said today in his remarks that he intends to -- in fact, he spoke with Mr. tin today, President Putin, and he is sending a high-level consultation over to meet with the Russian officials some time next week. The issue isn't: do you abrogate or -- the treaty contains an ability to have changes in the treaty and to amend it. The issue how do you approach, how do we, the Russians and the United States, approach a new world situation, and those consultations will take forward.

What is very clear, however, and the president pointed it out, the purpose of the ABM treaty was to prevent countries from having the ability to defend against ballistic missiles. The president is going to defend against ballistic missiles, because to fail to do so would put the people in the United States at risk, it would put our friends and allies at risk, it would put our deployed forces at risk.

BLITZER: The other issue is the Chinese say, they have about 20 intercontinental ballistic missiles that right now, potentially, they could reach the U.S. If we go forward with this, they will build a lot more, which would scare the Indians, for example, who also have demonstrated nuclear capability, create further instability in South Asia.

RUMSFELD: The truth is that the Chinese have been building more. They are building more. They are going to build more, quite apart from any ABM treaty. They're not a party to the ABM treaty.

The arguments you're making, or putting forward, suggest that vulnerability is a strategy, that the idea that we should be remain vulnerable to Saddam Hussein, or to Iran, or to North Korea, or to some other country that may get their hands on these capabilities -- that our goal in life should be to get up in the morning and remain vulnerable to them is so pointedly unwise and dangerous, that the real questions have to be: what are the risks if we don't deploy ballistic missile defense?

And the answer to that is, you're left vulnerable. You'd have to become isolationist and pull back, or you'd have to preempt, and that's a very unhappy choice for a president.

BLITZER: Senator Joe Biden, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relation Committee says a much greater threat to U.S. right now than an intercontinental ballistic missile hitting the U.S. is a ship coming into New York or San Francisco harbor with a nuclear bomb on board and detonating that, and this is going to do nothing that is going to prevent that scenario.

RUMSFELD: There's no question that Senator Biden's pointing out that a terrorist act like that is a risk to our country or other countries, and it's true, it is true. There are all kinds of threats. There are threats from armies, form navies, from air forces. There are threats from terrorism. There are threats from cruise missiles. There are threats from ballistic missiles.

The fact that something doesn't defend against every conceivable threat does not mean that one should not defend against that specific threat. The idea that you can't do -- that you shouldn't do anything unless you can do everything is obviously utter nonsense.

BLITZER: The president quoted you in a speech today as saying that "there may be some near-term options with existing technologies that could prove to be useful in dealing with this missile threat. What was he talking about?

RUMSFELD: Well, what he's talking about is that the United States government, because of the ABM treaty, made a decision not to investigate or engage in research and development and testing of anything that conceivably could violate the treaty, would be outside the bounds of the constraints of the treaty.

That means nothing was looked at by way of sea-based, nothing was looked at by way of air-based, or a space-based. And once you say to yourself, what we want to do is have the most cost-effective and the most near-term and technologically effective capability for missile defense, what you do then is start looking at these other options. And what we're now doing is looking at those options. And it is true that there are 10 or 12 different things that can be explored. Some of them won't work. Some will.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: Tomorrow: part two of my interview with Secretary Rumsfeld, who'll discuss the recent standoff with China, U.S. troop commitments around the world and his overall strategic review.

But is the Pentagon brass being left out of the loop as the Bush administration puts together a new national security policy? CNN military affairs correspondent Jamie McIntyre has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): During the campaign George W. Bush surrounded himself with retired generals and admirals, and promised to be the president who would rebuild the U.S. military and restore morale. But Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is drawing fire from senior military officers who privately complain they are being cut out of the strategy reviews that will determine how much the Pentagon spends and on what.

LOREN THOMPSON, LEXINGTON INSTITUTE: They've excluded all the key players, including the military, and as a consequence there's going to be a lot of alienated people when they have to go out and sell this plan.

MCINTYRE: Rumsfeld insists he's kept the joint chiefs and the top military commanders, known as the "CINCs," in the loop even if they are not represented on any of his review panels.

RUMSFELD: There's no question with a big department, that not everybody is involved in everything that goes on, but the CINCs and chiefs have had repeated opportunities to participate as has the joint staff.

MCINTYRE: Rumsfeld does meet daily with joint chiefs chairman General Hugh Shelton or his deputy. But military sources say while the generals offer their guidance, they rarely get any idea of what Rumsfeld is thinking. The military services complain they are in the dark about basic plans, such as whether they will get money needed for pilot training in the coming months. Other officers fear the administration is rushing to spend billions of dollars on a missile defense system that they would argue, if they could, might be better used on other weapons.

Its creating concern among uniformed leaders that, some say, is a byproduct of Rumsfeld's close-to-the-vest style, and his penchant for asserting civilian control over the military.

THOMPSON: He's very disciplined, he's very intelligent, and he's also a little autocratic.

MCINTYRE: The irony is that the administration that ran on respect for the military appears to have left the military feeling a little disrespected.

Jamie McIntyre, CNN, the Pentagon.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: For more on the president's defense proposals, let's go live to the White House and our CNN senior White House correspondent John King.

John, what is the administration strategy for selling this missile defense system to Congress?

JOHN KING, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: A very cautious, go slow approach, Wolf. Notice: no details today, no budget. In the short term, all the administration is looking for, we're told, is billions more for research and development. They do not expect that to be controversial on Capitol Hill.

And when the president finally gets around to a plan that could cost billions, tens of billions or more, look for a strategy very much like on taxes and spending. Keep the Republican base in line; remember, Republicans have wanted this program since dating back to the Reagan administration, and get the rest of the necessary support from conservative and moderate Democrats, especially from those in places like the south, where defense spending is still quite popular.

BLITZER: John, shifting gears, the House and Senate Republicans seem to have come up with a new number for an across-the-board tax cut, less than the president's original number; tell us about that.

KING: A new number on spending tonight, Wolf. The first breakthrough in the budget. The first budget deal of the Bush presidency taking shape tonight. On taxes, a little bit less than the president wanted: $1.35 trillion in tax cuts over 11 years, including 100 billion this year, an immediate stimulus package, if you will, when the budget resolution comes to the floor.

Now, on spending, remember, the president had drawn a firm line, saying that he wanted no more than a 4 percent increase in discretionary spending in next year's budget. We're told the final compromise negotiated this evening, has about a 5.2 increase in spending.

So, the president getting a little less than he wanted on tax cuts, a little more than he wanted on spending, but he's calling this a major breakthrough for the American people and, he says, a recipe for the bipartisan cooperation he hopes will follow as the debate shifts to other issues, including missile defense.

BLITZER: John King, thank you very much.

On another front, the White House says President Bush was caught by surprise, by Louis Freeh's sudden announcement to step down in June as director of the FBI. Freeh, who's been in the post almost eight years, says he needs a job that pays more, in part because he has six sons living at home. The search for his replacement begins immediately. Up next, it was a crime that horrified the nation during the civil rights era. Four decades later, a verdict, in the Birmingham church bombing.

And later, will Hollywood suffer from writers' block? As contract talks move toward a deadline just hours away, are your favorite shows at risk?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: The jury in the Birmingham, Alabama church bombing trial has reached a verdict, after only two-and-a-half hours of deliberation. CNN national correspondent Brian Cabell is on the scene with the decision -- Brian.

BRIAN CABELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good evening, Wolf. It took almost 38 years to get this case to trial. It took about a week and a half to try it. And, as you indicated, only two and a half hours for the jury to reach a verdict: guilty.

Thomas Blanton, a former Klu Klux Klansman, avowed racist, allowed, according to his attorney back in 1963, a womanizer, a drunk, was found guilty on four counts of first-degree murder. The bombing in September 15th, 1963 killed four girls: three of them 14-years-old, one 11, as they were getting ready for church on a Sunday morning.

It was a crime that shocked the nation, shocked Birmingham, a crime that Birmingham has lived with ever since. Today, Thomas Blanton, 62-years-old, is in jail.

It's worthy to note, however, that this is not the first case here. Back in 1977, another gentleman, Bob Chambliss, also known as Dynamite Bob, was convicted in this case. He was the apparent ring leader in this case. He served in prison from 1977 to 1985, where he died. Two other men were also suspects, one of them died in 1994 without ever being charged. Another recently was declared mentally incompetent. He probably won't face trial at all.

But again, Thomas Blanton, Klu Klux Klansman, convicted today; he will face life in prison -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Thank you very much.

In other news, no end has been scripted yet for the drama now gripping Hollywood. The Writers Guild Of America and Hollywood studio executives are trying to settle a contract dispute before a deadline set for just under seven hours from now. The prospect of an immediate walkout may be remote. But it's giving the dream factory, nightmares. CNN's Thelma Gutierrez joins us live from Los Angeles with more -- Thelma.

THELMA GUTIERREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, the good news is that both sides are still at the bargaining table here at the WGA headquarters in Los Angeles. Negotiate -- negotiations began at 10:00 this morning, but there is a news blackout in place, so there is no indication as to whether or not any progress has been made. We have some video for you right now. The Writers Guild represents 11,000 members, there are 11,000 people who write for the sitcoms, the films, the made for TV movies, that we all watch. And there are three possible scenarios that could come out of today's negotiations.

No. 1: The Writers Guild and alliance of producers could reach an agreement which would have to be ratified by the guild members.

Two: They could announce the industry's best, last, and final offer is not good enough. Writers at that point would have to authorize a strike, but a strike would take time; it would not happen overnight.

Three: The talks would progress past tonight's deadline and would continue through tomorrow. If that happens, WGA contract is automatically extend and so that means the writers continue to work -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Thelma Gutierrez in Los Angeles, thank you very much.

And when we return, it's cheap and easy to build: the Pentagon shows off a weapon which can zap a nation's infrastructure. Will terrorists be taking notes? And guess which celebrity wants to be the next tourist aboard the international space station?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Tonight on the leading edge: Imagine terrorist weapons built using parts from your local electronics store that can shut down entire computer systems with nothing but a jolt of radio frequency. Pentagon officials say recent testing shows it's possible. Now they want computer makers to build protection into new models before terrorists get their hands on the weapons.

A commonly-used cholesterol drug may help the battle against Alzheimer's disease. Doctors have found people who take drugs known as statins have a 60 to 70 percent reduction in the risk of Alzheimer's. Even so, they warn more testing needs to be done before the drugs are taken to treat the disease.

Space Shuttle Endeavour is back on solid ground after an 11-day mission. Bad weather in Florida forced it to land at the backup runway at Edwards Air Force base in California. Shortly after it left the International Space Station, American multi-millionaire Dennis Tito arrived, making him the first paying space tourist. Filmmaker James Cameron confirms he'd like to be the next in line. Considering how much money he made on the "Titanic" and "Terminator" movies he should be able to afford the trip.

Up next, I'll open our mailbag. The debate over missile defense is already under way. One of you wonders what poses a greater threat: Nuclear warheads or $3 a gallon of gasoline? Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BLITZER: Welcome back. Time now to open our mailbag. Lots of reaction to President Bush's decision to go forward with the missile defense system. This from Havah in Minneapolis: "Is there any way to push Bush out of office because he poses a threat to world stability in terms of his foreign policy, environmental policy, et cetera."

But Mike from San Diego writes, "I think we do need a missile defense shield. We need to protect ourselves from the rogue states that have nuclear missiles."

And this from George in Vero Beach, Florida, "Instead of reporting on the missile defense system, be more realistic and report on surging gasoline prices: Possibly $3 a gallon by mid summer."

I want to know what you think. Send an e-mail to me at wolf@cnn.com. I might share your comments with the world. And you can read my daily online column, and sign up for my daily e-mail preview on each night's program by just going to our WOLF BLITZER REPORTS Web site: cnn,com/wolf.

Please stay with CNN throughout the night. Marie Osmund is Larry King's guest at the top of the hour. Up next, Greta Van Susteren. She's standing by to tell us what she has -- Greta.

GRETA VAN SUSTEREN, HOST, CNN'S "THE POINT": Wolf, a unique and touching friendship between two fathers -- one, the father of bombing victim, the other, the father of a man who's going to be executed on May 16, Timothy McVeigh. One of those father's will join us tonight.

Plus, an ultra-secret agency, the NSA. What's going on there?

Finally, the writer's strike: Will it affect you? The Mayor of Los Angeles joins me to talk about it -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Thanks Greta, sounds good. Tomorrow night, part two of my interview with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on China: The U.S. commitment to Taiwan, U.S. troop deployments around the world and much more. Until then, thanks very much for watching. I'm Wolf Blitzer in Washington. "THE POINT WITH GRETA VAN SUSTEREN" begins right now.

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