Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Live Today

Powell Sharing Insights With Congress About Mission to Mideast

Aired April 24, 2002 - 13:11   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.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Secretary of State Colin Powell is sharing insights with Congress today about his own recent mission to the Middle East.

CNN's State Department correspondent Andrea Koppel is following Powell's testimony and brings us more from Capitol Hill -- Andrea.

ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, good afternoon.

This is Secretary Powell's first appearance. It just ended, as a matter of fact, before the Senate or for that matter before the Hill. He appeared before the Senate Foreign Appropriations Committee. And as you might imagine, most of the question or at least a lot of it had to do with his recent mission to the Middle East, his 10 days of trying to bring about a cease-fire, trying to bring about a full Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank, and also trying to get Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to publicly condemn terrorism and urge his people to refrain from suicide bombings.

Secretary Powell came up short on all fronts and, in fact, under heavy questioning from at least one senator, Patrick Leahy, Democrat from Vermont, he was asked generally about the Bush administration's policy in the Middle East and whether or not in fact it had blundered.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COLIN POWELL, SECY. OF STATE: Immediately upon taking office last year, we become engaged with Senator George Mitchell, your colleague from past days, and encouraged him to remain engaged with the work he was doing with the Mitchell Committee. They did. We encouraged the Israelis to participate with Senator Mitchell's group, and they did, and we came out with a very fine report, with a blueprint of way to move to forward. We pressed hard to get both sides to enter that blueprint plan, and unfortunately, we were not successful, but it wasn't because we aren't trying.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOPPEL: The pictures that you were just looking at there came from what really began Israel's latest military offensive, and that was what has now become known as the Passover massacre in Netanya.

Secretary Powell added there at the end of his statement that it is because of the continuing violence that the U.S. government, that the Bush administration has decided to side with Israel, at least on the matter of the importance of security for the Israeli people, and for that matter, Kyra, a U.S. understanding of why Israel had to have its military incursions into the West Bank and, of course, the U.S. wants those incursions to end as soon as possible -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: And Powell also addressing the situation in Jenin, correct, and this fact finding mission?

KOPPEL: That's right. In particular, this is one of the hottest subjects that's out there at the moment, and that is, what in fact happened in the Jenin refugee camp during the Israeli occupation of Jenin, really until last Friday. Palestinians have alleged that there was a massacre. There has been no evidence, however, of that. In fact, much of the evidence points to the fact that Secretary Powell brought out in his testimony, that the Israelis were, in fact, targeting terrorist there.

But there is that big question, Kyra, as to whether or not the Israeli government will allow this independent U.N. fact-finding committee to come in. Until now, the Israeli government says that it want to postpone this until it believes it can get a fair hearing from those representatives of the United Nations that would come in. Secretary Powell himself said that the U.S. would like the mission to go forward -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Andrea Koppel from the State Department, thank you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com