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CNN Live At Daybreak
Spotlight Falls on Secretary of State Colin Powell
Aired February 05, 2003 - 05:33 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: OK, on to the matter of Iraq. The spotlight falls this morning on Secretary of State Colin Powell. In just five hours, Powell will state his case against Iraq before the U.N. Security Council. He met with China's U.N. diplomats yesterday and, of course, as you know, China has veto power on the Security Council. Powell is expected to present video, slides and audiotape. The White House says it will be proof of Iraq's descriptions.
But no matter what Powell says, U.N. chief weapons inspector Hans Blix will be back in Baghdad next weekend. Blix says he'll demand access to Iraqi scientists without government minders listening in. Blix adds he doesn't expect Powell's report to affect what his inspectors are doing.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HANS BLIX, CHIEF U.N. WEAPONS INSPECTOR: I assume that he is not going to indicate any sites which we should visit, because I would assume that he would, the U.S. would have given the sites to us rather than telling the Iraqis that here is where we think the inspectors should go, unless it was a full fledged new reactor or something like that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Blix will be at the United Nations for Colin Powell's report, but he is not expected to speak afterwards.
We want to go global now for more on the showdown with Iraq as the U.S. prepares to present its case.
Our Walter Rodgers is in London, CNN's senior European political correspondent Robin Oakley is in Paris and our Martin Savidge is in Kuwait.
We begin with Walter in London.
WALTER RODGERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.
The U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell is certainly the most trusted member of the U.S. Bush administration, at least among the British public. Now he is going to have to be the most persuasive. The most current polls in Britain show 81 percent of the British public are opposed to war unless there is a second United Nations resolution approving the use of force. Among the British public -- and I was out on the street yesterday or the day, and the day before interviewing the people here -- the British public seems to be still very much opposed to this war. But they are receptive, they will listen to Colin Powell to see if he can make a good case.
One thing that's going to make Powell's case perhaps a little more difficult is that he's taking the director of Central Intelligence, George Tenet, to the United Nations to help make the case. That's going to inflame the British left, who are going to scream, of course, that the CIA can never be trusted and they may have fabricated the evidence.
It's going to be a hard sell across Europe.
And for a look at what Mr. Powell's task will be in France, here's my colleague, Robin Oakley.
ROBIN OAKLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Thank you, Walter.
And here in France, public opinion is very heavily against any military action against Saddam Hussein at this stage. President Jacques Chirac of France making it very clear in a summit meeting with Tony Blair yesterday that he's not part of any war party. He was saying that the last thing that part of the Middle East wanted was another war at this stage, that the inspectors, the U.N. inspectors must be allowed to go on doing their work.
That said, there do seem to be some reports now of French military preparations just in case. Jacques Chirac has never actually closed off finally the possibility of France joining in military action at some stage if that is supported by the United Nations. Stories now of advanced electronics being fitted to French planes, of visits to the U.S. Central Command in Florida by some French officers. And the French aircraft carrier Charles DeGaulle sailed yesterday for the Eastern Mediterranean for exercises there.
What French officials are saying in advance of Colin Powell's key statement is that they will listen very carefully to that statement, but still France's reaction is that they must allow, as long as possible, for the U.N. inspectors to do their work and they won't put a time frame on that.
Now for a view closer to any potential action, over to my colleague Martin Savidge in Kuwait City.
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Thank you, Robin, very much.
Kuwait shaping up more and more with each passing day as a major launching pad if it comes down to war and the U.S. leading the way. Numbers right now of U.S. troops in Kuwait, 45,000. That is up by 15,000 from what was being reported here from just one week ago. Taking part in exercises in the desert, urban combat and also trench warfare. Some of the largest live fire exercises to be seen since the last Gulf War.
Then just yesterday, the defense ministry of Kuwait announced that it was expanding the military training zone. Take a look at this on the map. This is a map here of Kuwait. Anything now in black as of the 15th of February will be considered a military training zone, civilians not allowed to go there unless they have a special pass. It will allow this expanded area for training not only on the ground, also by air forces and also by sea units. It's taking up about half of the country.
And it's also been announced that if it does come down to conflict, Kuwait will be shutting down its air space, at least in the initial days of a war, if it comes to that -- Carol.
COSTELLO: All right, Martin Savidge, thanks to Walter and Robin, as well.
We'll wake up our State Department producer Elise Labott in our next hour to get a better feel for today's show and tell with Colin Powell.
And you can count on CNN to bring you live coverage of Secretary of State Colin Powell's address to the Security Council, 10:30 a.m. Eastern, 7:30 Pacific Time.
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 February 5, 2003 - 05:33 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: OK, on to the matter of Iraq. The spotlight falls this morning on Secretary of State Colin Powell. In just five hours, Powell will state his case against Iraq before the U.N. Security Council. He met with China's U.N. diplomats yesterday and, of course, as you know, China has veto power on the Security Council. Powell is expected to present video, slides and audiotape. The White House says it will be proof of Iraq's descriptions.
But no matter what Powell says, U.N. chief weapons inspector Hans Blix will be back in Baghdad next weekend. Blix says he'll demand access to Iraqi scientists without government minders listening in. Blix adds he doesn't expect Powell's report to affect what his inspectors are doing.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HANS BLIX, CHIEF U.N. WEAPONS INSPECTOR: I assume that he is not going to indicate any sites which we should visit, because I would assume that he would, the U.S. would have given the sites to us rather than telling the Iraqis that here is where we think the inspectors should go, unless it was a full fledged new reactor or something like that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Blix will be at the United Nations for Colin Powell's report, but he is not expected to speak afterwards.
We want to go global now for more on the showdown with Iraq as the U.S. prepares to present its case.
Our Walter Rodgers is in London, CNN's senior European political correspondent Robin Oakley is in Paris and our Martin Savidge is in Kuwait.
We begin with Walter in London.
WALTER RODGERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.
The U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell is certainly the most trusted member of the U.S. Bush administration, at least among the British public. Now he is going to have to be the most persuasive. The most current polls in Britain show 81 percent of the British public are opposed to war unless there is a second United Nations resolution approving the use of force. Among the British public -- and I was out on the street yesterday or the day, and the day before interviewing the people here -- the British public seems to be still very much opposed to this war. But they are receptive, they will listen to Colin Powell to see if he can make a good case.
One thing that's going to make Powell's case perhaps a little more difficult is that he's taking the director of Central Intelligence, George Tenet, to the United Nations to help make the case. That's going to inflame the British left, who are going to scream, of course, that the CIA can never be trusted and they may have fabricated the evidence.
It's going to be a hard sell across Europe.
And for a look at what Mr. Powell's task will be in France, here's my colleague, Robin Oakley.
ROBIN OAKLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Thank you, Walter.
And here in France, public opinion is very heavily against any military action against Saddam Hussein at this stage. President Jacques Chirac of France making it very clear in a summit meeting with Tony Blair yesterday that he's not part of any war party. He was saying that the last thing that part of the Middle East wanted was another war at this stage, that the inspectors, the U.N. inspectors must be allowed to go on doing their work.
That said, there do seem to be some reports now of French military preparations just in case. Jacques Chirac has never actually closed off finally the possibility of France joining in military action at some stage if that is supported by the United Nations. Stories now of advanced electronics being fitted to French planes, of visits to the U.S. Central Command in Florida by some French officers. And the French aircraft carrier Charles DeGaulle sailed yesterday for the Eastern Mediterranean for exercises there.
What French officials are saying in advance of Colin Powell's key statement is that they will listen very carefully to that statement, but still France's reaction is that they must allow, as long as possible, for the U.N. inspectors to do their work and they won't put a time frame on that.
Now for a view closer to any potential action, over to my colleague Martin Savidge in Kuwait City.
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Thank you, Robin, very much.
Kuwait shaping up more and more with each passing day as a major launching pad if it comes down to war and the U.S. leading the way. Numbers right now of U.S. troops in Kuwait, 45,000. That is up by 15,000 from what was being reported here from just one week ago. Taking part in exercises in the desert, urban combat and also trench warfare. Some of the largest live fire exercises to be seen since the last Gulf War.
Then just yesterday, the defense ministry of Kuwait announced that it was expanding the military training zone. Take a look at this on the map. This is a map here of Kuwait. Anything now in black as of the 15th of February will be considered a military training zone, civilians not allowed to go there unless they have a special pass. It will allow this expanded area for training not only on the ground, also by air forces and also by sea units. It's taking up about half of the country.
And it's also been announced that if it does come down to conflict, Kuwait will be shutting down its air space, at least in the initial days of a war, if it comes to that -- Carol.
COSTELLO: All right, Martin Savidge, thanks to Walter and Robin, as well.
We'll wake up our State Department producer Elise Labott in our next hour to get a better feel for today's show and tell with Colin Powell.
And you can count on CNN to bring you live coverage of Secretary of State Colin Powell's address to the Security Council, 10:30 a.m. Eastern, 7:30 Pacific Time.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
