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White House Says Iraq Weapons Report Incomplete
Aired December 18, 2002 - 10:11 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.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Back to the White House and this talk now about the administration's concerns about Baghdad's complete report and the concerns of the White House that that report is not complete enough. We understand our John King was just inside a briefing at the White House where Ari Fleischer was telling the press the president is quite concerned about omissions in this report.
Good morning, John. What have you learned?
JOHN KING, SR. WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Leon. That briefing, Ari Fleischer's morning session with reporters taking place as President Bush is meeting with the National Security Council. It is clear the administration is racheting up, if you will, the pressure on Iraq through the United Nations Security Council for now.
Ari Fleischer in that briefing, asked about the president's reaction to the Iraqi declaration about its weapons program, said this, quote, "the president is concerned about omissions in the declaration and also about problems in the declaration."
Ari Fleischer declining to get into any details, but we are told the president has come to the conclusion, as has all of the members of his national security team that in their view Iraq has flunked the test. Not enough details about what happened to known existing stockpiles of chemical and biological weapon. Not enough details, the United States says, about developments the U.S. says have definitely occurred over the past decade when it comes to Iraq's nuclear weapons program.
Plans are being made for the president and other top administration officials to speak out on this, to offer a more detailed assessment, perhaps as early as tomorrow. We are told there are certainly plans for the president to speak to this during a meeting here at the White House on Friday.
And all this being coordinated with the chief U.S. ally. You have heard in the past several hours from across the Atlantic in London, both the British foreign secretary and now, just moments ago, the British prime minister saying Great Britain also concludes that there are glaring omissions in this document.
Here at the White House, though, everybody saying no push for any imminent military confrontation. The focus here at the White House is let the weapons inspectors do their work, but the United States hoping along with Great Britain, by declaring that they believe Iraq is in violation of its commitment, you can get the inspectors to step up the pace of their work, the pressure of their work and to include in those inspections taking Iraqi scientists outside of the country to interview them. The U.S. believes that is critical. They believe those scientists will only tell the truth if they're out of the grip of Saddam Hussein -- Leon.
HARRIS: All right, John, what do we know then about how complete the president's prepared remarks are at this particular point about what he's going to be saying about this declaration and mentioning of these problems and omissions that may be therein. And this announcement is supposed to come form him on Friday and right after the U.N. council actually gets its copies of the report, actually briefed on it -- they will be briefed on it, rather, by Hans Blix.
What do we know about where the president stands right now with his pronouncement?
KING: Well, Hans Blix speaks to the security council tomorrow, which is one of the reasons the United States and Great Britain wanted to get their reactions, their analysis on the table.
The president himself, we may hear from the president a little bit later today. He's meeting with the prime minister of Spain in the 11:00 hour here at the White House, reporters allowed at the top of the meeting. So look for a brief assessment at least from the president during the question and answer session there.
There is a conversation now under way here at the White House about how to coordinate a more detailed communication of this strategy. It will include the president. There is a meeting here of what's called the quartet on Friday, that is, the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations. The quartet formed to try to focus on a way to get the Israelis and the Palestinians back to the peace table. We are told the president plans to discuss Iraq at that session as well.
But there's some talk here that Mr. Bush could add a formal speech on this. They're working all that out within the administration. We expect by the end of the day to have a better assessment, but we are told the president will be involved publicly, as will be other key administration officials. And you can be certain to include in that group the secretary of state, Colin Powell.
HARRIS: Got you. John King at the White House, thanks very much, John.
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 18, 2002 - 10:11 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Back to the White House and this talk now about the administration's concerns about Baghdad's complete report and the concerns of the White House that that report is not complete enough. We understand our John King was just inside a briefing at the White House where Ari Fleischer was telling the press the president is quite concerned about omissions in this report.
Good morning, John. What have you learned?
JOHN KING, SR. WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Leon. That briefing, Ari Fleischer's morning session with reporters taking place as President Bush is meeting with the National Security Council. It is clear the administration is racheting up, if you will, the pressure on Iraq through the United Nations Security Council for now.
Ari Fleischer in that briefing, asked about the president's reaction to the Iraqi declaration about its weapons program, said this, quote, "the president is concerned about omissions in the declaration and also about problems in the declaration."
Ari Fleischer declining to get into any details, but we are told the president has come to the conclusion, as has all of the members of his national security team that in their view Iraq has flunked the test. Not enough details about what happened to known existing stockpiles of chemical and biological weapon. Not enough details, the United States says, about developments the U.S. says have definitely occurred over the past decade when it comes to Iraq's nuclear weapons program.
Plans are being made for the president and other top administration officials to speak out on this, to offer a more detailed assessment, perhaps as early as tomorrow. We are told there are certainly plans for the president to speak to this during a meeting here at the White House on Friday.
And all this being coordinated with the chief U.S. ally. You have heard in the past several hours from across the Atlantic in London, both the British foreign secretary and now, just moments ago, the British prime minister saying Great Britain also concludes that there are glaring omissions in this document.
Here at the White House, though, everybody saying no push for any imminent military confrontation. The focus here at the White House is let the weapons inspectors do their work, but the United States hoping along with Great Britain, by declaring that they believe Iraq is in violation of its commitment, you can get the inspectors to step up the pace of their work, the pressure of their work and to include in those inspections taking Iraqi scientists outside of the country to interview them. The U.S. believes that is critical. They believe those scientists will only tell the truth if they're out of the grip of Saddam Hussein -- Leon.
HARRIS: All right, John, what do we know then about how complete the president's prepared remarks are at this particular point about what he's going to be saying about this declaration and mentioning of these problems and omissions that may be therein. And this announcement is supposed to come form him on Friday and right after the U.N. council actually gets its copies of the report, actually briefed on it -- they will be briefed on it, rather, by Hans Blix.
What do we know about where the president stands right now with his pronouncement?
KING: Well, Hans Blix speaks to the security council tomorrow, which is one of the reasons the United States and Great Britain wanted to get their reactions, their analysis on the table.
The president himself, we may hear from the president a little bit later today. He's meeting with the prime minister of Spain in the 11:00 hour here at the White House, reporters allowed at the top of the meeting. So look for a brief assessment at least from the president during the question and answer session there.
There is a conversation now under way here at the White House about how to coordinate a more detailed communication of this strategy. It will include the president. There is a meeting here of what's called the quartet on Friday, that is, the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations. The quartet formed to try to focus on a way to get the Israelis and the Palestinians back to the peace table. We are told the president plans to discuss Iraq at that session as well.
But there's some talk here that Mr. Bush could add a formal speech on this. They're working all that out within the administration. We expect by the end of the day to have a better assessment, but we are told the president will be involved publicly, as will be other key administration officials. And you can be certain to include in that group the secretary of state, Colin Powell.
HARRIS: Got you. John King at the White House, thanks very much, John.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
