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American Morning

Administration Wrests With War, Economy

Aired December 09, 2002 - 09:32   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: More on Iraq now, The Bush administration has what it has lobbied for, an unedited copy of Iraq's weapons declaration. Frank Buckley is standing by at the White House with the view from there.
Good morning -- Frank.

FRANK BUCKLEY, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula.

This is exactly what the Bush administration wanted. They wanted to get their hands on these documents as quickly as possible, to begin going through these thousands of pages of data. You got a sense as the documents were moving across the ocean and the land on their way to New York of the skepticism that this White House has in a statement issued over the weekend when Ari Fleischer said Iraq has submitted what it claims to be a declaration.

U.S. officials concerned that Iraqi leaders have consistently said they have no weapons of mass destruction. U.S. intelligence showing that there are indeed weapons of mass destruction, according to government sources. There is a conflict there. The U.S. wants to quickly get to the documents and make some decisions about whether or not to declare a material breach and then what the next step should be.

Meanwhile, another major situation developing here at the White House today, the replacements beginning of the president's -- two key members of the president's economic team. We are told that in just over an hour, at about 10:45 eastern time, we will have the official announcement of John Snow to replace Paul O'Neill as treasury secretary. He is the chairman of CSX Corporation, the major freight network here in the U.S. He does have government experience. He's a former undersecretary of transportation. He's also former chairman of the Business Roundtable, which is that influential group of CEOs.

Administration officials are believed to be pleased with the fact that he can reach out to the Main Street side of things. He will be complemented by Stephen Friedman, the former chairman of Goldman Sachs. Don't know when his announcement will be coming.

ZAHN: You've got a lot to keep your eyes on today. Thanks so much, Frank, appreciate the update.

And while the U.N. and the U.S. begin to pore over Iraq's declaration, war preparations continue for American forces in Qatar. Beginning today, Operation Internal Look gets into high gear for its first test. And let's turn to John Vause, who is on the ground not too far from there, to give us a live update on what we can expect.

Good morning, John.

JOHN VAUSE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Paula.

We're actually about 20 miles away from where they're conducting that exercise, Internal Look, that big computer-simulated war game.. It started about ten hours ago, about 158 hours to go. They'll run it 24 hours a day for the next seven days. Basically, this is a test of the Central Command's ability for their communications, their command and their control in the field. General Tommy Franks is here. He's overseeing this exercise. He's actually locked away in a room with about 50 senior staff. They call that room the war room. It's the most secure room at the Al Sayliyah military base, a high security area in itself.

Now, they say that also during exercise Internal Look, it will be a chance for them to work out the bugs, fine tune that portable forward command unit. You may recall, they built it in Florida, they flew it in here the last couple of weeks. This is a chance to iron out all the problems. They say an example of the fact that it's working and it's working well, this morning, General Tommy Frank received his usual daily briefing including an update on everything that's going on inside Afghanistan. They say this portable headquarters is just like a home away from home, Paula.

ZAHN: And what would be the purpose or the usage of this same base if there eventually is military action against Iraq?

VAUSE: Well, the beauty of having this whole portable command here in this region, they say it gives them a greater degree of flexibility. It puts the command center right on the battle lines. It allows the commander, General Tommy Franks, to deal with his commanders in the field. He can deal with them face to face. It cuts down on travel time. It gives them a greater degree of flexibility. That's the word we hear over and over again.

Now, the scenarios that they're working out today, they say that's classified. But they have admitted that Iraq will be a consideration. They say it's not the only consideration, but certainly in this part of the world, everyone here is seeing this as a dry run for a war on Iraq. Paula.

ZAHN: So the cooperation from Qatar has been good?

VAUSE: Sorry, Paula?

ZAHN: The cooperation then from the government of Qatar has been very good indeed?

VAUSE: Well, in fact they've been invited in here by the emir of Qatar. They've been welcomed here by the emir. People on the ground, though, will tell you privately, they're not particularly happy about having a large military U.S. force here, especially -- even unhappier rather -- with the thought that they could be involved with a war on Iraq. They see the Iraqis as their cousins. You must remember this is still a predominantly Muslim country and so they feel an affinity towards Iraq. They would prefer not to have them here. But what you have is a fairly liberal society, a fairly progressive society and also a high number of immigrant workers who basically aren't citizens here. And they fear that if they do go out, they do protest, they burn the flags, those immigrant workers could lose their jobs, or they say that they fear they could in fact be deported.

ZAHN: John Vause, thank you. Appreciate that live report.

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 9, 2002 - 09:32   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: More on Iraq now, The Bush administration has what it has lobbied for, an unedited copy of Iraq's weapons declaration. Frank Buckley is standing by at the White House with the view from there.
Good morning -- Frank.

FRANK BUCKLEY, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula.

This is exactly what the Bush administration wanted. They wanted to get their hands on these documents as quickly as possible, to begin going through these thousands of pages of data. You got a sense as the documents were moving across the ocean and the land on their way to New York of the skepticism that this White House has in a statement issued over the weekend when Ari Fleischer said Iraq has submitted what it claims to be a declaration.

U.S. officials concerned that Iraqi leaders have consistently said they have no weapons of mass destruction. U.S. intelligence showing that there are indeed weapons of mass destruction, according to government sources. There is a conflict there. The U.S. wants to quickly get to the documents and make some decisions about whether or not to declare a material breach and then what the next step should be.

Meanwhile, another major situation developing here at the White House today, the replacements beginning of the president's -- two key members of the president's economic team. We are told that in just over an hour, at about 10:45 eastern time, we will have the official announcement of John Snow to replace Paul O'Neill as treasury secretary. He is the chairman of CSX Corporation, the major freight network here in the U.S. He does have government experience. He's a former undersecretary of transportation. He's also former chairman of the Business Roundtable, which is that influential group of CEOs.

Administration officials are believed to be pleased with the fact that he can reach out to the Main Street side of things. He will be complemented by Stephen Friedman, the former chairman of Goldman Sachs. Don't know when his announcement will be coming.

ZAHN: You've got a lot to keep your eyes on today. Thanks so much, Frank, appreciate the update.

And while the U.N. and the U.S. begin to pore over Iraq's declaration, war preparations continue for American forces in Qatar. Beginning today, Operation Internal Look gets into high gear for its first test. And let's turn to John Vause, who is on the ground not too far from there, to give us a live update on what we can expect.

Good morning, John.

JOHN VAUSE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Paula.

We're actually about 20 miles away from where they're conducting that exercise, Internal Look, that big computer-simulated war game.. It started about ten hours ago, about 158 hours to go. They'll run it 24 hours a day for the next seven days. Basically, this is a test of the Central Command's ability for their communications, their command and their control in the field. General Tommy Franks is here. He's overseeing this exercise. He's actually locked away in a room with about 50 senior staff. They call that room the war room. It's the most secure room at the Al Sayliyah military base, a high security area in itself.

Now, they say that also during exercise Internal Look, it will be a chance for them to work out the bugs, fine tune that portable forward command unit. You may recall, they built it in Florida, they flew it in here the last couple of weeks. This is a chance to iron out all the problems. They say an example of the fact that it's working and it's working well, this morning, General Tommy Frank received his usual daily briefing including an update on everything that's going on inside Afghanistan. They say this portable headquarters is just like a home away from home, Paula.

ZAHN: And what would be the purpose or the usage of this same base if there eventually is military action against Iraq?

VAUSE: Well, the beauty of having this whole portable command here in this region, they say it gives them a greater degree of flexibility. It puts the command center right on the battle lines. It allows the commander, General Tommy Franks, to deal with his commanders in the field. He can deal with them face to face. It cuts down on travel time. It gives them a greater degree of flexibility. That's the word we hear over and over again.

Now, the scenarios that they're working out today, they say that's classified. But they have admitted that Iraq will be a consideration. They say it's not the only consideration, but certainly in this part of the world, everyone here is seeing this as a dry run for a war on Iraq. Paula.

ZAHN: So the cooperation from Qatar has been good?

VAUSE: Sorry, Paula?

ZAHN: The cooperation then from the government of Qatar has been very good indeed?

VAUSE: Well, in fact they've been invited in here by the emir of Qatar. They've been welcomed here by the emir. People on the ground, though, will tell you privately, they're not particularly happy about having a large military U.S. force here, especially -- even unhappier rather -- with the thought that they could be involved with a war on Iraq. They see the Iraqis as their cousins. You must remember this is still a predominantly Muslim country and so they feel an affinity towards Iraq. They would prefer not to have them here. But what you have is a fairly liberal society, a fairly progressive society and also a high number of immigrant workers who basically aren't citizens here. And they fear that if they do go out, they do protest, they burn the flags, those immigrant workers could lose their jobs, or they say that they fear they could in fact be deported.

ZAHN: John Vause, thank you. Appreciate that live report.

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