Return to Transcripts main page
American Morning
Bush Vows to Root out Terrorist Could Put U.S. on Collision Course with Iraq; Perspective of 09/11 from International Space Station
Aired November 20, 2001 - 08:38 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.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: President Bush vows to root out terrorist wherever they may be. That is a pledge that could put the U.S. on a collision course with Iraq 10 years after the Persian Gulf War.
Bill Hemmer is in Atlanta with more on that -- Bill.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Paula, good morning again.
Three years ago, U.S. weapon's inspectors were booted out of Iraq, and since then, it has been difficult for the West to know exactly what the Iraqi government and Saddam Hussein has been up to lately.
CNN military analyst David Grange from Chicago with us live to talk more about it.
General, Good morning to you.
GEN. DAVID GRANGE, (RET.) CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Good morning, Bill.
HEMMER: We heard allusions to this in weeks' past, and we heard it again on Sunday from Condoleezza Rice when went she went through the talk shows in Washington.
Right now, how difficult, how precarious would it be for the U.S. to hit Iraq diplomatically and politically?
GRANGE: I believe right now it would be difficult, mainly because I think the armed forces of the United States are stretched rather thin. You know, before this war on terrorism began, the military was at a pretty low strength level, engaged all over the world -- key support operations, humanitarian assistance, small-scale contingencies, and this new war on terrorism with the focus right now on Afghanistan really created a surge of military might in that region.
We're already enforcing no-fly zones in Iraq. They're still engagements of U.S. forces in other places in the world, so it's pretty tough right now. We're looking over our shoulder at Iraq, obviously, because something will probably happen there in the future. It could happen right away. But it would be difficult, but the military could do it, of course.
HEMMER: Refocus that away from the U.S. military. You served in the Persian Gulf War. You remember the coalition held together so tightly and so closely. Thinking back 10 years, how much support still there now to do such action?
GRANGE: Well, I think the support may not be as vibrant as it was during Desert Storm, because you had some Arab countries right next to bordering Iraq, for instance, Saudi Arabia, that were under threat themselves. So they wouldn't be as tough about supporting us in a fight with Iraq. However, I think as they watch how Afghanistan goes down, that will influence any kind of support, though it may be meek from Arab countries in the area, if we did have to go to war against with Iraq, which eventually I believe we will.
HEMMER: More to come in the future, General David Grange in Chicago. Good to see you again.
WE go from Chicago to outerspace now. Back to New York and more with Paula.
ZAHN: Thanks, Bill.
The horrifying images we saw 10 weeks ago today will stay with us forever, but three men witnessed the events from a very different perspective, 240 miles above the Earth from the orbiting International Space Station.
American commander Frank Culbertson and his two Russian crewmates, copilot Vladimir Dizoro (ph) and flight engineer Mikhail Tyurin join us now from space.
Good morning. Good to have you with us, gentlemen.
Commander Culbertson, if you would, take us back to September 11th, and as you talk, we are going to try to show an aerial representation of exactly what you saw from space.
FRANK CULBERTSON, COMMANDER: Paula, we were in the middle of typical workday here, and, in fact, had just finished some physical exams, so I was doing a private conference with our flight surgeon, who came in and said, Frank, we're not having a good day down here on Earth, and began to tell me what was happening, and while we were talking, the second aircraft hit the World Trade Center.
Shortly after that, we took a look at the computer that gives us a map of the world showing where we are in relation to it. I notice we were coming across Canada towards New England, and we looked around the window that would allow a view of New York City and managed to take a look at video of southern Manhattan. We could see the smoke trailing off to the south and a big pall of smoke over the southern part of city.
When our doctor first told us, it was something that we just had a hard time believing. It was one of those things that news comes to you say, no that's not really true, this is not real, and took a while for us to have it sink in.
ZAHN: And it is true, one rotation later, then, you actually saw smoke rising from the Pentagon site?
CULBERTSON: Next orbit, we came across the U.S. between Washington and New York, and we could see smoke around the Pentagon. It was not as dramatic as the World Trade Center, but we could also see lots of smoke from there, and all three busy with cameras at the windows trying to record the event and understand for ourselves what was happening. It was still difficult to digest.
ZAHN: Commander, how long was it before you knew that you had lost a good friend, Chip Billingain (ph), one of the pilots of the American flight that slammed into the Pentagon. You had attended the U.S. Naval Academy together.
CULBERTSON: Chip and I were classmates together. We played in the chorus together. I knew him for all four years. I've only seen him a couple times in recent past, but he was off flying and I was still in military and with NASA. But Chip Chuck was a great guy, and I know how hard he must have fought. It was the next day before I found out about it. It was so many people affected and pilots affected and all, and people I know who travel a lot, I was afraid there had to be at least one or two involved.
ZAHN: Mikhail, I understand you and Vladimir tried to cheer up the commander. What did you do for him to try to lift his spirits?
MIKHAIL TYRURIN, FLIGHT ENGINEER: For him, it was a very sad day, for all of us, for each of us definitely. But for him, of course, it was more strong, more important day, and we tried, of course, tried to do whatever we could to -- for him to help him. I would like also to tell (UNINTELLIGIBLE) that I received a lot of messages from my friends from Russia, and all of them said from work to friend, and all of them asked me to tell him something warm and good words to support him.
ZAHN: Commander, you will be heading home in -- Denver is headed up to you at the end of the month to replace your crew. You will be arriving home on December 10th. What are your thoughts about the future of the space program now that the whole world has been confronted with this new reality in the states of September 11th attacks?
CULBERTSON: Well, Paula, as our president said, nothing is going to stop our country in what we do. And our partners feel exactly the same. In fact, I received assurances from Mr. Goldin that all of our partners are still backing what we are doing and backing our operations on Earth and they have proven that ever since that day.
The space program is a big program, and we have a long future ahead of us. We support it to continue this research, this exploration, this broadening of our horizons of humanity, and these problems we have on Earth, we will solve. I'm Hoping that what we do up here will help some of the problems we have on Earth. A lot of the research we're doing applies to things that are problems for us on Earth.
And if we don't continue to look towards the future, and if we don't look toward examples of international cooperation, like this one, we are probably doomed to additional tragedies on Earth. But if we look positively toward the future and what we can do when we set positive goals, when we decide we are going to work together and resolve cultural, language and communications differences, we can do great things. This is a phenomenal laboratory, phenomenal station we have up here, thanks to lots of countries and lots of people who worked very hard to solve very difficult problems to get us to this point.
ZAHN: And any anticipation what you guys are going to feel like when you finally get back on the ground? You've been in that weightless environment for many, many weeks now?
CULBERTSON: I'm sure the first thing we will feel is very, very heavy. It will take a while to get used to walking and to not dropping things. When we take something here and try to set down next to us, it just stays right there. But on Earth, of course, it just falls right to the floor, and that takes a while to get used to.
Also there's a lot of changes, according to our families down there on Earth, that I think we are going to have to get used to. Life is different now, and we will take some time to acclimate.
ZAHN: Well, we wish you all great luck in that transition, and I know Vladimir, Mikhail tried to cheer you up. Are you planning to respond in kind and make them a great turkey dinner on Thursday?
CULBERTSON: We have turkey, and candied yams and rice, and don't have any stuffing unfortunately, but I'll do the best I can, and we'll try to have a big feast for Thanksgiving, and we will think about our families and all of the friends, and particularly in the U.S., but all around the world, and all the things we have to be thankful for. We hope everybody will be reminded of that, and think of that as with families. We want to wish our families happy Thanksgiving, our friends, and hope everybody has a great and a safe holiday.
ZAHN: Thank you very much for those kind words, Commander Culbertson, Vladimir Dizoro and Mikhail Tyrurin best of luck to you as you complete your mission. Again, thank you for your time this morning.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
