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CNN Live Today
White House Deciding About Second Resolution
Aired February 17, 2003 - 10:39 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: Now, in Washington, the Bush administration faces a decision on whether to seek a tough second U.N. resolution with these protests as a backdrop. The U.S. and Britain agree that the U.N. should impose a deadline on Saddam and authorize force if Iraq does not comply.
Our Dana Bash is here this morning with more of what's coming up at the White House today, the White House, literally, white today. And, Dana, glad to see you were able to make it in out there.
DANA BASH, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: I was, Leon. And I have to tell you one of four White House producers, Tim McCann (ph) walked two-and-a-half hours this morning to get here. So that's dedication. But as for the president, he didn't really have to go very far. He lives here, of course, lives in the place he works at the White House. He did have to cancel some of his schedule today. He was supposed to go and celebrate today. Today, of course, is President's Day, celebrated at the National Museum of American History. He had to cancel that.
But he is going to have another meeting here at the White House. He's going to meet with the president of Latvia in about half an hour. The president of Latvia is one of the members of what the president likes to call the "coalition of the willing." One of the countries actually that signed a letter from Eastern European countries saying that they support the president on Iraq.
Meanwhile, some of the president's aides, in addition to British officials, are continuing to work on a second resolution to present to the Security Council this coming week. I just spoke with one official who said that right now what their hope is to keep it very, very simple. They say here at the White House that they actually don't need another resolution to have force, to use military action against Iraq because they say that they already have that authority from the last resolution that passed in November. That was Resolution 1441.
But they do want to continue to work through the United Nations to deal with the situation in Iraq; so they are going to try to offer that resolution this coming week. The specific language is still up in the air, because they do want to try to get something that will pass. They want to try to have something that will not be vetoed by some of the members of the permanent -- of the Security Council, the five permanent members. And they also need nine votes to get it to pass. So it's really up in the air exactly what the specific language of that resolution will be, but they're working behind the scenes probably as we speak on that. - Leon. HARRIS: All right. Good deal. Thanks, Dana. Dana Bash reporting live from the White House. We'll let you go and get warm now, all right.
A Saudi newspaper is calling for Saddam Hussein to make a heroic gesture and step down to save his country. This while the U.N. weapons inspectors visited at least eight sites across Iraq. With more on this, our Nic Robertson joins us now live from Baghdad. Hello, Nic.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Leon. Well, the weapons inspectors are focusing on some of the items that Hans Blix mentioned in his speech to the U.N. on Friday. If you remember back just a few days ago now, he talked about how some missiles, how some newly imported missile engines and some reconstructed missile production equipment have been prescribed or (ph) prohibited. What we have seen in the last couple of days, and today as well, U.N. weapons inspectors going out to sites and putting what they call tags on these Al Samoud II missiles and tags on these newly imported engines.
Now, the tags system is the U.N. inspectors' system here of keeping track of dual use or prescribed items. Now, in the past, these prescribed or prohibited items, which now categorize these Al Samoud II missiles -- these 380 newly imported engines, plus this reconstructed missile production facility -- are essentially banned, outlawed. What the U.N. weapons inspectors have done in the past is to destroy such facilities.
Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz over the weekend said that that was unfair, that it was unscientific, that it was unnecessary. And he said that was because these missiles, although they can go 20 miles and have been shown to go up to 20 miles over range, it's not proved that they're designed to attack another country. And he said that it was merely that they didn't have all the necessary control guidance and explosives fitted to them. - Leon.
HARRIS: All right, Nic. Let me ask you about these protests that we have been seeing take place all around the world, some 600 cities as we just noted moments ago staging protests. What is the reaction there within Baghdad and around the country of Iraq, if you can tell? I've got to think that they must be rather pleased to see this.
ROBERTSON: It's been played out on the television here for everyone to see. People we've talked to on the streets here say they think that it shows that the United States is becoming increasingly isolated, that it should listen to its people and the people of the world. The newspapers saying the same thing, that the best that can happen for world peace is that President Bush should be removed from office. A kind of reversal of what we hear coming from the White House towards President Saddam Hussein. That's in the newspapers. And officials here making a lot of it, saying that President Bush is leading the world to catastrophe. And that the United States and President Bush should listen to the people of the world, that this is a clear signal that they're heading in the wrong direction with their aggression towards Iraq. Indeed, one Iraqi official saying that the fact that Iraq has no weapons of mass destruction, Iraq is therefore proving that the United States is lying. And, therefore, now they say with all these demonstrations, the rest of the world can see that, too. - Leon.
HARRIS: Nic Robertson in Baghdad. Thanks, Nic. Take care. We'll check back with you later on.
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 17, 2003 - 10:39 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Now, in Washington, the Bush administration faces a decision on whether to seek a tough second U.N. resolution with these protests as a backdrop. The U.S. and Britain agree that the U.N. should impose a deadline on Saddam and authorize force if Iraq does not comply.
Our Dana Bash is here this morning with more of what's coming up at the White House today, the White House, literally, white today. And, Dana, glad to see you were able to make it in out there.
DANA BASH, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: I was, Leon. And I have to tell you one of four White House producers, Tim McCann (ph) walked two-and-a-half hours this morning to get here. So that's dedication. But as for the president, he didn't really have to go very far. He lives here, of course, lives in the place he works at the White House. He did have to cancel some of his schedule today. He was supposed to go and celebrate today. Today, of course, is President's Day, celebrated at the National Museum of American History. He had to cancel that.
But he is going to have another meeting here at the White House. He's going to meet with the president of Latvia in about half an hour. The president of Latvia is one of the members of what the president likes to call the "coalition of the willing." One of the countries actually that signed a letter from Eastern European countries saying that they support the president on Iraq.
Meanwhile, some of the president's aides, in addition to British officials, are continuing to work on a second resolution to present to the Security Council this coming week. I just spoke with one official who said that right now what their hope is to keep it very, very simple. They say here at the White House that they actually don't need another resolution to have force, to use military action against Iraq because they say that they already have that authority from the last resolution that passed in November. That was Resolution 1441.
But they do want to continue to work through the United Nations to deal with the situation in Iraq; so they are going to try to offer that resolution this coming week. The specific language is still up in the air, because they do want to try to get something that will pass. They want to try to have something that will not be vetoed by some of the members of the permanent -- of the Security Council, the five permanent members. And they also need nine votes to get it to pass. So it's really up in the air exactly what the specific language of that resolution will be, but they're working behind the scenes probably as we speak on that. - Leon. HARRIS: All right. Good deal. Thanks, Dana. Dana Bash reporting live from the White House. We'll let you go and get warm now, all right.
A Saudi newspaper is calling for Saddam Hussein to make a heroic gesture and step down to save his country. This while the U.N. weapons inspectors visited at least eight sites across Iraq. With more on this, our Nic Robertson joins us now live from Baghdad. Hello, Nic.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Leon. Well, the weapons inspectors are focusing on some of the items that Hans Blix mentioned in his speech to the U.N. on Friday. If you remember back just a few days ago now, he talked about how some missiles, how some newly imported missile engines and some reconstructed missile production equipment have been prescribed or (ph) prohibited. What we have seen in the last couple of days, and today as well, U.N. weapons inspectors going out to sites and putting what they call tags on these Al Samoud II missiles and tags on these newly imported engines.
Now, the tags system is the U.N. inspectors' system here of keeping track of dual use or prescribed items. Now, in the past, these prescribed or prohibited items, which now categorize these Al Samoud II missiles -- these 380 newly imported engines, plus this reconstructed missile production facility -- are essentially banned, outlawed. What the U.N. weapons inspectors have done in the past is to destroy such facilities.
Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz over the weekend said that that was unfair, that it was unscientific, that it was unnecessary. And he said that was because these missiles, although they can go 20 miles and have been shown to go up to 20 miles over range, it's not proved that they're designed to attack another country. And he said that it was merely that they didn't have all the necessary control guidance and explosives fitted to them. - Leon.
HARRIS: All right, Nic. Let me ask you about these protests that we have been seeing take place all around the world, some 600 cities as we just noted moments ago staging protests. What is the reaction there within Baghdad and around the country of Iraq, if you can tell? I've got to think that they must be rather pleased to see this.
ROBERTSON: It's been played out on the television here for everyone to see. People we've talked to on the streets here say they think that it shows that the United States is becoming increasingly isolated, that it should listen to its people and the people of the world. The newspapers saying the same thing, that the best that can happen for world peace is that President Bush should be removed from office. A kind of reversal of what we hear coming from the White House towards President Saddam Hussein. That's in the newspapers. And officials here making a lot of it, saying that President Bush is leading the world to catastrophe. And that the United States and President Bush should listen to the people of the world, that this is a clear signal that they're heading in the wrong direction with their aggression towards Iraq. Indeed, one Iraqi official saying that the fact that Iraq has no weapons of mass destruction, Iraq is therefore proving that the United States is lying. And, therefore, now they say with all these demonstrations, the rest of the world can see that, too. - Leon.
HARRIS: Nic Robertson in Baghdad. Thanks, Nic. Take care. We'll check back with you later on.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
