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CNN Live At Daybreak
Wake-Up Call: Iraqi Intelligence
Aired January 28, 2003 - 06:08 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.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: We touched on whether the Bush administration will release more damaging intelligence to prove Iraq has weapons of mass destruction. If it does declassify the evidence, what will it be?
Elise Labott, our producer at the State Department, is on the phone for this morning's 2"Wake-Up Call."
Good morning.
ELISE LABOTT, CNN STATE DEPARTMENT PRODUCER: Good morning, Carol.
COSTELLO: First off, how is the United States reacting to the weapons inspectors' report?
LABOTT: Well, Carol, there aren't any surprises here. The Bush administration said that the U.N. weapons inspectors' report proves what the U.S. has said all along, that Iraq has not made a decision to disarm, hasn't accepted the fact that it needs to comply with U.N. Security Council resolutions.
And to prove their point yesterday, Secretary Powell seized on some of the weapons that inspectors yesterday said they believe Iraq is hiding -- chemical weapons such as anthrax and VX. And in response to criticism the U.S. has not made enough case against Iraq, as you talked about with Dana, Secretary Powell said the U.S. is planning to introduce more evidence. Officials tell us this evidence includes unclassified intelligence information on Iraq's weapons program and on alleged links to terrorist groups, including al Qaeda. But we aren't expecting to see that tonight during the State of the Union. As Dana said, it will probably be towards the end of the week after consultations with Security Council members and other countries. Prime Minister Tony Blair and the Italian prime minister are due this weekend for talks with President Bush.
So, I think in the next week or so, the U.S. is going to start to prove its case a little -- in a more detailed way -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Yes, but are you getting any hint of exactly what evidence they are going to provide to the nation and to the world? I mean, might they provide that direct link to al Qaeda that everybody in the United States government has been trying to persuade the American people it has?
LABOTT: Well, some of the reports that have been out there are that al Qaeda training manuals were found, that some of the detainees have been speaking about alleged links, but everybody has said that those links are, you know, circumspect at best. And the U.S. really needs to make a pretty hard case here in terms of finding any direct links. You know, there were some reports earlier that there were meetings in Prague between an al Qaeda operative, one of the hijackers, Mohamed Atta, and an Iraqi official. But again, none of this has really ever been proven.
And so, those links is one area where a lot of people don't believe that the United States has a hard case here -- Carol.
COSTELLO: All right, Elise, thanks for waking up early with DAYBREAK this morning.
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 28, 2003 - 06:08 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: We touched on whether the Bush administration will release more damaging intelligence to prove Iraq has weapons of mass destruction. If it does declassify the evidence, what will it be?
Elise Labott, our producer at the State Department, is on the phone for this morning's 2"Wake-Up Call."
Good morning.
ELISE LABOTT, CNN STATE DEPARTMENT PRODUCER: Good morning, Carol.
COSTELLO: First off, how is the United States reacting to the weapons inspectors' report?
LABOTT: Well, Carol, there aren't any surprises here. The Bush administration said that the U.N. weapons inspectors' report proves what the U.S. has said all along, that Iraq has not made a decision to disarm, hasn't accepted the fact that it needs to comply with U.N. Security Council resolutions.
And to prove their point yesterday, Secretary Powell seized on some of the weapons that inspectors yesterday said they believe Iraq is hiding -- chemical weapons such as anthrax and VX. And in response to criticism the U.S. has not made enough case against Iraq, as you talked about with Dana, Secretary Powell said the U.S. is planning to introduce more evidence. Officials tell us this evidence includes unclassified intelligence information on Iraq's weapons program and on alleged links to terrorist groups, including al Qaeda. But we aren't expecting to see that tonight during the State of the Union. As Dana said, it will probably be towards the end of the week after consultations with Security Council members and other countries. Prime Minister Tony Blair and the Italian prime minister are due this weekend for talks with President Bush.
So, I think in the next week or so, the U.S. is going to start to prove its case a little -- in a more detailed way -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Yes, but are you getting any hint of exactly what evidence they are going to provide to the nation and to the world? I mean, might they provide that direct link to al Qaeda that everybody in the United States government has been trying to persuade the American people it has?
LABOTT: Well, some of the reports that have been out there are that al Qaeda training manuals were found, that some of the detainees have been speaking about alleged links, but everybody has said that those links are, you know, circumspect at best. And the U.S. really needs to make a pretty hard case here in terms of finding any direct links. You know, there were some reports earlier that there were meetings in Prague between an al Qaeda operative, one of the hijackers, Mohamed Atta, and an Iraqi official. But again, none of this has really ever been proven.
And so, those links is one area where a lot of people don't believe that the United States has a hard case here -- Carol.
COSTELLO: All right, Elise, thanks for waking up early with DAYBREAK this morning.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
