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Bush Tells World Leaders and Delegates Saddam Hussein Poses a Threat

Aired September 12, 2002 - 12:02   ET

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

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: First, President Bush told fellow world leaders and U.N. delegates today that Saddam Hussein poses, and we quote, "exactly the kind of aggressive threat the United Nations was born to confront."
CNN's John King tells us more about the President's long-awaited case against Saddam from a world stage.

Hi, John.

JOHN KING, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello to you, Kyra.

Now the job of the administration to sell this approach as it seeks new Security Council resolutions. What the President's speech today was essentially a challenge to the very credibility of the United Nations. Mr. Bush saying that Saddam Hussein has repeatedly and daily violated agreements with the Security Council, made at the end of the Persian Gulf War, agreements to disarm, to completely disintegrate and verify that he has no chemical weapons program, no biological weapons programs, no nuclear weapons program.

Mr. Bush says people should not be asking him for the evidence, they should be looking at the behavior of Saddam Hussein and the president said -- answering his critics -- he would very much like to work with the United Nations but he also made clear his own resolve to deal with what he considered to be a major threat.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: If Iraq's regime defies us again, the world must move deliberately, decisively to hold Iraq to account. We will work with the U.N. Security Council for the necessary resolutions, but the purposes of the United States should not be doubted. The Security Council resolutions will be enforced. The just demands of peace and security will be met, or action will be unavoidable. And a regime that has lost its legitimacy will also lose its power.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: The president also invoked the painful anniversary marked yesterday, the one-year anniversary of the September 11th attacks, telling the United Nations that it must confront Saddam Hussein and his weapons programs because, the president said, the greatest threat to world security, the greatest lesson of September 11th, is that the world cannot allow regimes like Saddam Hussein to strike up an alliance with terrorists.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BUSH: And our greatest fear, is that terrorists will find a shortcut to their mad ambitions when an outlaw regime supplies them with the technologies to kill on a massive scale. In one place, in one regime, we find all of these dangers, in their most lethal and aggressive forms. Exactly the kind of aggressive threat the United Nations was born to confront.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: The debate now moves to the United Nations Security Council, administration officials telling CNN that the Bush administration will seek a new resolution that spells out that those weapons inspectors should go back into Iraq, that they should have unfettered anytime, anyplace, anywhere access.

The administration also wants what one official called "teeth" in that resolution, meaning a very clear language, making it clear to Saddam Hussein that if he interferes with inspections, the result would be military strikes. To help sell that policy, the administration lobbying not only at the United Nations, but it will send teams out fanning across the world in the next several days, the key emphasis on Russia, France and China, three members of the Security Council that have veto power -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: John, quickly, back here at home, do you think this speech satisfied Democrats and Republicans? This has been a very important speech, especially to Republicans.

KING: Some still have questions, if there is military action, how many troops, how much would it cost, how long would it take, what next in Iraq? But the main criticism of the President was that he was speaking out unilaterally, that he was not working within United Nations, and the president quieted most of those critics today.

PHILLIPS: John King, thanks so much.

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