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CNN Live At Daybreak

International Wrap, Eye on World

Aired December 02, 2002 - 06:37   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.


CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Two big international stories we're working on today, though -- the attacks in Kenya and the weapons inspections in Iraq.
Our senior international editor, David Clinch, joins us once again.

You've got people everywhere.

DAVID CLINCH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL EDITOR: We do. We were talking earlier about how many reporters we have and how many different stories we're covering. We're in Kenya, we're in Israel, we're in Baghdad. And as well as gathering the information about the stories and doing reports on the stories, we also try, as much as we can, to look in a big-picture way at the stories we're covering, and look at the themes that underlie them.

Now, sometimes, those themes are simple ones. For instance, the pope took it upon himself on Friday to describe the world at the moment as being involved in a clash of civilizations. And when you look at the attacks in Kenya, where Israelis are targeted -- apparently or according to the Israelis -- by al Qaeda, for the first time you would have to say, that brings up the suggestion that it is radical Muslims attacking both Christians, Americans, Israelis -- you know, the Western civilization against radical Islam.

It's never as simple as that, and that's why we also want our reporters to go the extra mile and make sure that we ask the questions and do the reports that really explore those themes. Some of them are true.

COSTELLO: Right.

CLINCH: Some of them are as obvious and as true as they are obvious. Some of them are not.

I mean, Ben Wedeman went out in the streets of Kenya the other day and filed an excellent piece, which we've been running this morning, in which he had people in the -- Muslims in the streets of Kenya saying that as far as they were concerned, all of the leaders of the United States are Jews -- President Bush is a Jew -- and that the United States is the great enemy of Islam.

Now, from their perspective, that may be true, it may not be true, but it's something really interesting that we need to look at. We need to look at the way people in that region think about these things, not just the way we think about them...

COSTELLO: Right.

CLINCH: ... or the way the Israelis think about them. The Israelis, of course, would be in some ways very interested in the idea that al Qaeda is targeting them in the same way it's targeting the United States.

The United States, on the other hand, would be quite happy not to be paired with Israel in that same bucket.

COSTELLO: Not (UNINTELLIGIBLE). Hey...

CLINCH: And so, those things need to be looked at...

COSTELLO: ... quickly before you have to go again.

CLINCH: Yes.

COSTELLO: I want to get into what Christiane Amanpour reported earlier today...

CLINCH: Right.

COSTELLO: ... about the aluminum tubes.

CLINCH: Yes, very interesting stuff. She's basically telling us that the Iraqis, in talks before the inspections ever began, said yes, we tried to get these aluminum -- I say aluminum, so does Christiane -- aluminum tubes...

COSTELLO: The Irish way.

CLINCH: ... which the Americans had previously -- the United States had previously claimed they were trying to get and were trying to use for nuclear weapons. The Iraqis, quite surprisingly, according to Christiane, told the U.N., yes, we're trying to get them, but not for use in nuclear weapons.

Well, they may have inadvertently said something which the Americans may use against them at some future point.

COSTELLO: Yes, because...

CLINCH: Because they were never trying to get these things.

COSTELLO: ... which was prohibited. They're not allowed to do that for any reason, right?

CLINCH: Yes. Well, there are some intricacies, which we're trying to get to the bottom of. They are allowed to have some weapons, but whether these were covered by that or not, we're not sure.

But just the fact that they were trying to bend rules and get around rules to get stuff to develop weapons is exactly what the U.S. and Bush administration are saying that they're trying to do. And if they did it there, the Bush administration, of course, is convinced that they'll do it elsewhere.

COSTELLO: Gotcha.

CLINCH: And so, that's really the important information that she's revealing.

COSTELLO: Understand. David Clinch, thank you very much. We'll let you get back to work.

CLINCH: OK.

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






Aired December 2, 2002 - 06:37   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Two big international stories we're working on today, though -- the attacks in Kenya and the weapons inspections in Iraq.
Our senior international editor, David Clinch, joins us once again.

You've got people everywhere.

DAVID CLINCH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL EDITOR: We do. We were talking earlier about how many reporters we have and how many different stories we're covering. We're in Kenya, we're in Israel, we're in Baghdad. And as well as gathering the information about the stories and doing reports on the stories, we also try, as much as we can, to look in a big-picture way at the stories we're covering, and look at the themes that underlie them.

Now, sometimes, those themes are simple ones. For instance, the pope took it upon himself on Friday to describe the world at the moment as being involved in a clash of civilizations. And when you look at the attacks in Kenya, where Israelis are targeted -- apparently or according to the Israelis -- by al Qaeda, for the first time you would have to say, that brings up the suggestion that it is radical Muslims attacking both Christians, Americans, Israelis -- you know, the Western civilization against radical Islam.

It's never as simple as that, and that's why we also want our reporters to go the extra mile and make sure that we ask the questions and do the reports that really explore those themes. Some of them are true.

COSTELLO: Right.

CLINCH: Some of them are as obvious and as true as they are obvious. Some of them are not.

I mean, Ben Wedeman went out in the streets of Kenya the other day and filed an excellent piece, which we've been running this morning, in which he had people in the -- Muslims in the streets of Kenya saying that as far as they were concerned, all of the leaders of the United States are Jews -- President Bush is a Jew -- and that the United States is the great enemy of Islam.

Now, from their perspective, that may be true, it may not be true, but it's something really interesting that we need to look at. We need to look at the way people in that region think about these things, not just the way we think about them...

COSTELLO: Right.

CLINCH: ... or the way the Israelis think about them. The Israelis, of course, would be in some ways very interested in the idea that al Qaeda is targeting them in the same way it's targeting the United States.

The United States, on the other hand, would be quite happy not to be paired with Israel in that same bucket.

COSTELLO: Not (UNINTELLIGIBLE). Hey...

CLINCH: And so, those things need to be looked at...

COSTELLO: ... quickly before you have to go again.

CLINCH: Yes.

COSTELLO: I want to get into what Christiane Amanpour reported earlier today...

CLINCH: Right.

COSTELLO: ... about the aluminum tubes.

CLINCH: Yes, very interesting stuff. She's basically telling us that the Iraqis, in talks before the inspections ever began, said yes, we tried to get these aluminum -- I say aluminum, so does Christiane -- aluminum tubes...

COSTELLO: The Irish way.

CLINCH: ... which the Americans had previously -- the United States had previously claimed they were trying to get and were trying to use for nuclear weapons. The Iraqis, quite surprisingly, according to Christiane, told the U.N., yes, we're trying to get them, but not for use in nuclear weapons.

Well, they may have inadvertently said something which the Americans may use against them at some future point.

COSTELLO: Yes, because...

CLINCH: Because they were never trying to get these things.

COSTELLO: ... which was prohibited. They're not allowed to do that for any reason, right?

CLINCH: Yes. Well, there are some intricacies, which we're trying to get to the bottom of. They are allowed to have some weapons, but whether these were covered by that or not, we're not sure.

But just the fact that they were trying to bend rules and get around rules to get stuff to develop weapons is exactly what the U.S. and Bush administration are saying that they're trying to do. And if they did it there, the Bush administration, of course, is convinced that they'll do it elsewhere.

COSTELLO: Gotcha.

CLINCH: And so, that's really the important information that she's revealing.

COSTELLO: Understand. David Clinch, thank you very much. We'll let you get back to work.

CLINCH: OK.

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