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CNN Live Today

Bush Makes Case Against Hussein to UN

Aired September 12, 2002 - 11:38   ET

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

LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: President Bush last hour stepped on the world stage to make his case against Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. Mr. Bush spoke before the UN General Assembly this morning.
Our senior White House correspondent John King joins us now live from New York. He's got more details on all that.

Good morning -- John.

JOHN KING, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Leon.

A tough speech from the president and a defining day for the president as he tries to not only sway the world and the United Nations to confront Saddam Hussein but to turn the tables on this argument, if you will. For months throughout the summertime, the world has been asking the president what is the evidence that the world should stand up to Saddam Hussein? What is the evidence that could justify possible U.S. military strikes? In a speech to United Nations General Assembly this morning, Mr. Bush said the very credibility of the United Nations was at stake here. He said Saddam Hussein has repeatedly violated every promise he made at end of the Persian Gulf War, more than a decade ago. Mr. Bush said Saddam Hussein is trying to rebuild chemical, biological and nuclear weapons programs.

He raised the prospect of an alliance between the Iraqi government and terrorists. Mr. Bush said those looking for evidence for why this is an urgent crisis should look no further than the conduct of Saddam Hussein.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Iraq's dictator accepted a series of commitments. The terms were clear. To him and to all. And he agreed to prove he is complying with every one of those obligations. He has proven instead only his contempt for the United Nations and for all his pledges. By breaking every pledge, by his deceptions and by his cruelties, Saddam Hussein has made the case against himself.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Answering many of his critics, the president said would he very much like to work within the United Nations to confront this issue. The president didn't say so directly in his speech, but CNN is told the administration will now press for a new Security Council resolution that opens a period of three or four weeks to get the weapons inspectors back inside Iraq. The administration wants tough language, though, that makes clear that if those inspectors are interfered with the consequences would be military action.

Again, the president saying today he wants it work with the United Nations to confront what he calls a serious threat to world security. He said, though, at the end of that speech that if the United Nations did not meet its obligations, he was prepared it act on his own -- Leon.

HARRIS: John, any way at all how to gauge the UN's reaction or reception to these words?

KING: The administration actually feels quite happy. This has been a messy debate over the summer. Many have said this president was unilaterally, or just with the support of Great Britain, moving toward a military confrontation. The administration said today should prove all the critics and all the doubters wrong, that Mr. Bush very much wants to work with the United Nations, but he also issued that credibility challenge to the United Nations.

And over recent weeks, we have seen the French -- first say they saw no need for military confrontation, now saying they support sending the weapons inspectors back in with a clear threat of military force if those inspectors are interfered with.

The UN secretary-general gave a speech in which he said no country should be unilateral. That was a lecture of sorts at the United States. But he also said in that very same speech Iraq has defied the will of the United Nations and the Security Council, the very same message President Bush delivered. So the administration believes despite all the dust about this argument, that Iraq is now on the center stage, if you will, of the world policy debate. And that's just what the president wants.

HARRIS: John King, in New York. Thank you very much, John.

The president's words also were monitored very closely by former UN chief nuclear weapons inspector David Kay, who joins us now from Washington. Let's get his perspective on this.

Good morning, sir. Thank you much for taking time to talk with us today about this.

Your reaction to the words you heard from President Bush this mourning? Critics of his have been saying that he needed to lay out a specific case against Iraq. Did what you hear today seem to be specific enough?

DAVID KAY, FORMER UN NUCLEAR WEAPONS INSPECTOR: Leon, I thought it was an extraordinarily impressive speech. I think most Americans don't realize how hard it is to give a good speech for an American in the General Assembly. You're facing an audience with everyone wearing earpieces. A lot of motion going on. You're diminished in the scale of a building which is so large. The president did something that I have very seldom seen from an American speaker there, and I have watched them for 35 years. That is he started by getting applause. He mentioning that the U.S. was returning to an organization we left 20 years ago, UNESCO.

And then he laid out what I thought was a very specific indictment of 11 years of behavior by Saddam Hussein designed to frustrate the Security Council's will in removing those weapons. I found it, I must say, as impressive as a speech he gave to the U.S. Congress for a very different purpose a year ago.

HARRIS: Is anything that you heard today something that we have not seen or heard publicly before now?

KAY: No, no. It was putting the indictment of a 11 years of behavior together that I think was what was impressive. Most people remember one incident or another incident; they don't realize there is 11 years of continuous defiance of the Security Council.

I was also impressed by the very tough words he used with regard to Saddam's behavior in other areas. For example, the refusal to repatriate prisoners of war, the torture involved with Iraqis in Iraq at the present time.

All in all, a very tough speech.

HARRIS: How convincing was his making of the case of this immediacy of this threat here?

KAY: I think he was. He spoke to the issue of how 9/11 has changed the world for all of us. That to take the first shot when it involves weapons of mass destruction is to ask the United States -- and I would add, and I think the president amply laid it out -- other countries as well, to run intolerable risks to their survival. We cannot do that, and particularly when you've got an individual who for 11 years has essentially thumbed his nose at the international community.

HARRIS: You are as familiar with that body as anyone I have talked to. How do you make of the response you saw this morning from those who were there in the audience of the UN? And how soon do you think they are likely to react?

KAY: I thought the response was very good. Like I say, I always found the General Assembly to be one of the toughest places to go. The scale doesn't have the intimacy of the U.S. Congress, for example. Very seldom do you get a long camera shot. But when you are there looking at it, the speaker always looks like a toy action figure. He is diminished. Have you got an audience with everyone listening to the speech in six or seven different languages.

I thought the president captured their attention by offering them something they wanted. He was very even handed on his discussion of the obligation of the Palestinians and Israel to find a course that provided both with a course of peace. And they moved through his Iraqi thing by clearly laying out the challenge. The challenge is first to the Security Council, wider to the General Assembly. If they meet it, there is infinite possibilities of improvement in a number of issues of the world. If they fail to live up to that obligation, it is stark for the UN and it's stark for Saddam Hussein.

HARRIS: Finally, if you can quickly, this morning, anything you wanted to hear but did not hear this morning?

KAY: No, I thought he covered all of the essential bases. I think the next stage is to move to the Security Council, where I think we will see the administration laying out what it believes an effective inspection approach would be, as well as for a deadline for response. I think it was perfectly proper, and in fact good, communications not to put that in a General Assembly speech. That is the Security Council when you get down to that, and that's where that needs to be crafted.

HARRIS: David Kay, a former UN chief nuclear weapons inspector. Thank you very much for your time and your insight this morning. We sure do appreciate it.

KAY: Thank you very much, Leon.

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