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CNN Live Today

White House Says Time has Run Out

Aired January 21, 2003 - 10:08   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: Well, again today inspections came in a variety of places across the country. A chemical inspection team returned to a huge complex south of Baghdad. That place has been visited more than a dozen times already. The British government has previously listed the site as a facility for weapons of mass destruction.
The U.S. secretary of state, Colin Powell, ran into some strong opposition yesterday in his appearance before the U.N. Security Council, which is ultimately going to decide if Iraq is in compliance. France's foreign minister repeated calls for patience and said that nothing thus far justifies military action.

Well, Iraq is just one topic attracting attention at the White House today.

CNN White House Correspondent Dana Bash joins us now with more -- good morning, Dana.

DANA BASH, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Leon. Greetings from the snowy White House here. Well, the White House is continuing to press for the U.S. allies around the world, particularly at the U.N., to understand that they believe that time has run out for Saddam Hussein, that inspections don't necessarily need to continue for months, as allies like France and China and others made very clear, and Russia made clear yesterday and again today. White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer before saying that it is necessary for the United States and other nations around the world to continue to put the spine into the United Nations and the rest of the international community, so the world will not slide back to the dead-end road of the 1990s.

The White House specifically is really pushing, they have a PR campaign, essentially, going on this week. In advance of next week's -- next Monday's deadline for the inspections report at the U.N. Today they're pointing to a speech that will happen about an hour and a half from now, from the deputy secretary of state, Richard Armitage. That speech, says Ari Fleischer, will talk about the fact that the U.S. believes Saddam Hussein is engaged in a pattern of lying to the world. He will release a 32-page document called "The Apparatus of Lies" to back up claims that the U.S. says that Saddam Hussein is not telling the truth about what is really going on inside Iraq in terms of what weapons of mass destruction he actually has.

Now, the U.S. -- Ari Fleischer is also saying that, yes, if the United Nations doesn't go along with the U.S. and the president decides that military action is needed, that he will lead what he calls a coalition of the willing, though he won't say exactly who will be in that coalition of the willing, to go ahead and get -- and attack Saddam Hussein.

But the hard thing is going to be convincing, and that's part of this PR campaign, convincing the American people that going ahead with military action without the U.N. is a good thing. Take a look at this latest CNN Time poll. The -- when you ask Americans if they support attacking Saddam Hussein with U.N. support, 51 percent say yes. But if the U.N. opposes it, only 27 percent say yes.

That is part of the reason why the administration knows it has to convince Americans and the world that Saddam Hussein is not complying. He has weapons of mass destruction, and no matter what the rest of the world says, the U.S. feels it's necessary, perhaps, to force Saddam Hussein to get rid of them -- Leon.

HARRIS: Well, the tricky thing is those numbers don't even come close to matching the numbers that we've seen coming across Europe. Those numbers over there are even lower than those you just saw in that poll there.

Hey Dana, are you hearing any reaction there from the White House to the story that we just talked about moments ago, about this attack on -- what's been called an ambush on these civilians in Kuwait? Any extra concern on the White House's part there about troops over there, or the civilians who are over there?

BASH: Well, we asked Ari Fleischer about that just a couple of minutes ago, and he said that the White House is monitoring the situation, that they are talking to folks in the region there and the president. They don't know, certainly, who is behind that. At least they aren't saying who is behind that. But the White House press secretary is saying that the president wants to make sure that the families -- of the person who was killed, his heart goes out to him, and that they are monitoring the situation there very closely and working with the government there to try to figure out how this happened and why it happened -- Leon.

HARRIS: Got you. Got you. Thanks, Dana. Dana Bash reporting from the snow flurries there in Washington, D.C.

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 January 21, 2003 - 10:08   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, again today inspections came in a variety of places across the country. A chemical inspection team returned to a huge complex south of Baghdad. That place has been visited more than a dozen times already. The British government has previously listed the site as a facility for weapons of mass destruction.
The U.S. secretary of state, Colin Powell, ran into some strong opposition yesterday in his appearance before the U.N. Security Council, which is ultimately going to decide if Iraq is in compliance. France's foreign minister repeated calls for patience and said that nothing thus far justifies military action.

Well, Iraq is just one topic attracting attention at the White House today.

CNN White House Correspondent Dana Bash joins us now with more -- good morning, Dana.

DANA BASH, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Leon. Greetings from the snowy White House here. Well, the White House is continuing to press for the U.S. allies around the world, particularly at the U.N., to understand that they believe that time has run out for Saddam Hussein, that inspections don't necessarily need to continue for months, as allies like France and China and others made very clear, and Russia made clear yesterday and again today. White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer before saying that it is necessary for the United States and other nations around the world to continue to put the spine into the United Nations and the rest of the international community, so the world will not slide back to the dead-end road of the 1990s.

The White House specifically is really pushing, they have a PR campaign, essentially, going on this week. In advance of next week's -- next Monday's deadline for the inspections report at the U.N. Today they're pointing to a speech that will happen about an hour and a half from now, from the deputy secretary of state, Richard Armitage. That speech, says Ari Fleischer, will talk about the fact that the U.S. believes Saddam Hussein is engaged in a pattern of lying to the world. He will release a 32-page document called "The Apparatus of Lies" to back up claims that the U.S. says that Saddam Hussein is not telling the truth about what is really going on inside Iraq in terms of what weapons of mass destruction he actually has.

Now, the U.S. -- Ari Fleischer is also saying that, yes, if the United Nations doesn't go along with the U.S. and the president decides that military action is needed, that he will lead what he calls a coalition of the willing, though he won't say exactly who will be in that coalition of the willing, to go ahead and get -- and attack Saddam Hussein.

But the hard thing is going to be convincing, and that's part of this PR campaign, convincing the American people that going ahead with military action without the U.N. is a good thing. Take a look at this latest CNN Time poll. The -- when you ask Americans if they support attacking Saddam Hussein with U.N. support, 51 percent say yes. But if the U.N. opposes it, only 27 percent say yes.

That is part of the reason why the administration knows it has to convince Americans and the world that Saddam Hussein is not complying. He has weapons of mass destruction, and no matter what the rest of the world says, the U.S. feels it's necessary, perhaps, to force Saddam Hussein to get rid of them -- Leon.

HARRIS: Well, the tricky thing is those numbers don't even come close to matching the numbers that we've seen coming across Europe. Those numbers over there are even lower than those you just saw in that poll there.

Hey Dana, are you hearing any reaction there from the White House to the story that we just talked about moments ago, about this attack on -- what's been called an ambush on these civilians in Kuwait? Any extra concern on the White House's part there about troops over there, or the civilians who are over there?

BASH: Well, we asked Ari Fleischer about that just a couple of minutes ago, and he said that the White House is monitoring the situation, that they are talking to folks in the region there and the president. They don't know, certainly, who is behind that. At least they aren't saying who is behind that. But the White House press secretary is saying that the president wants to make sure that the families -- of the person who was killed, his heart goes out to him, and that they are monitoring the situation there very closely and working with the government there to try to figure out how this happened and why it happened -- Leon.

HARRIS: Got you. Got you. Thanks, Dana. Dana Bash reporting from the snow flurries there in Washington, D.C.

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