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Saddam Hussein, Elder Sons Flatly Reject White House Demands

Aired March 18, 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.


CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Let's talk more of what's happening in Iraq right now. Saddam Hussein and his elder sons have flatly rejected the White House demands that the ruling family retreat into exile in order to avoid war. That is just one of the many developments this hour in Baghdad, as the Iraqi capital braces in both word and deed as the deadline approaches.
CNN's senior international correspondent Nic Robertson is live in Iraq with the latest.

Good morning, Nic.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.

President Saddam Hussein describing that ultimatum as debased, and that Iraq would not give into the ultimatums or the dictation coming from foreign countries. Now this came from a meeting President Saddam Hussein had with his top members of the Revolutionary Command Council, top members of the ruling Ba'ath Party. And for the first time in two years, President Saddam Hussein was seen on television here in his military uniform. That just doesn't happen normally. He went on to say in his speech to those politicians that the United States, indeed President Bush, thinks that he can win this -- his sick hope is that he win can win this war without actually having to fight. President Saddam Hussein saying that this was an indication of how isolated and how defeated the United States is at this time.

President Saddam Hussein's elder son, Uday Saddam Hussein, also weighing in at this time on the issue of the ultimatum, saying that it was President Bush and his family that should step down and get out of politics. Also saying that anyone that invades Iraq will regret the day -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Nic, I wanted to ask you about this too, something crossed the wire that pregnant women in Iraq are demanding cesarean sections so they can have their babies early before a war breaks out. The mood there is very tense, isn't it?

ROBERTSON: The mood is tense. People are extremely concerned about how they're going to survive, how they will get their families to a safe place, how they will have food and water for their families in those safe places. Now, we have seen some people leaving the city, loading their cars up, getting out of the city. Not everyone has that ability. Many people in this city of five million people will be staying here.

Also, we have seen many of the stores closed down. Store owners have taken their goods out. The shutters are down, people very much battening down the hatches.

But also late this afternoon in the last hour or so, the government has organized demonstrations, demonstrations designed to show support for President Saddam Hussein, not just to show support to the international community, but these are being broadcast on Iraqi Television to show people here that there is strong support for President Saddam Hussein at this time. We have seen people out from the pictures that we have seen, they seem to be older men with weapons, many people holding guns. A lot of chanting, a lot of singing, all the same things that we have seen in recent demonstrations. People saying that they support President Saddam Hussein. The government really putting on a show for the people here, that there is support for the president at this time -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Nic Robertson, reporting live from Baghdad, Iraq, this morning.

Let's talk about the French now. French President Jacques Chirac has intensified his condemnation of U.S. war plans, saying such an offensive jeopardizes not only stability in the Middle East, but international relations as a whole.

CNN's Jim Bittermann live in Paris with the latest -- Jim.

JIM BITTERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.

Yes, in fact, it was 2:00 in the morning here when George Bush spoke last night, but Jacques Chirac wasted no time getting out the reaction to the speech. He had a communique out by breakfast time, saying basically that he believed the United States is defying the will of the international community, that will he believes is that the disarmament and the inspections continue. And then a little later on in the morning, he took to the airwaves for a kind of mini address to the nation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JACQUES CHIRAC, FRENCH PRESIDENT (through translator): The United States presented an ultimatum to Iraq. Whether or not this was concerned with disarmament of Iraq or of much hope for regime change in the country. There's no justification for this unilateral resort to war.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BITTERMANN: And Chirac also said that to act without the legitimacy of the United Nations, to favor the use of force over law, is taking on a very serious responsibility.

Now, the other bit of news out of here is that French Foreign Minister Dominique De Villepen is planning to go to New York tomorrow for the United States Security Council meeting. Hans Blix is supposed to bring in his key disarmament issues, his final key disarmament issues for Iraq, and Devillepen wants to be there. He's asking for other foreign ministers to attend. It's not clear how many other foreign ministers may attend. He also wants to see about how the French might be able to get the disarmament process back on track, as overcome as that may be facts on the ground if war in fact starts.

Now elsewhere in Europe, the Belgian foreign minister said he agrees with the French. The German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder took to airwaves today. He said, does the threat, he asks, does this threat imposed by the Iraqi dictator justify a war? And answered his own question by saying, no. The Russians have said that, in fact, a war in Iraq could endanger a war on terror. And the Chinese have chimed in, and they've said, they're not in favor of any kind of use of force.

It also should be said that the anti-war camp got together on the telephone, the presidents of China, Russia and France got together to talk of strategy over the next couple of days -- Carol.

LIN: Something dug up by Andrea Koppel at the State Department -- the French are ready to send equipment to the Persian Gulf, if forces are attacked with biological weapons. What have you heard about that?

BITTERMANN: Well, we've been trying to check that out. We have talked both to the presidential palace and to the French foreign ministry, and both say they know nothing about this. We are not sure. This apparently was from the United Nations ambassador to the United States. It clearly was baffling to the -- both the spokesman at the foreign ministry and the presidential palace, so we'll have to see if this was some kind of a misstatement, or in fact it was something that perhaps precursing French policy.

COSTELLO: I wanted you to speculate on why the French might be saying this now?

BITTERMANN: Well, I'm not sure they're saying that now. This is a French ambassador in Washington, and it cannot be confirmed by either the foreign ministry or the presidential palace.

COSTELLO: Although Andrea Koppel did confirm it.

She's going to join us in a little bit to tell us exactly what the French ambassador to the United States said about this in D.C.

Jim Bittermann, many thanks to you, -- Leon.

LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: All right. As we mentioned at the top of the show, we're still waiting in about another minute and a half or so, we believe, if they're on time, Secretary Tom Ridge of the Homeland Security Agency is going to be coming out and having a press briefing and introducing the latest compilations that are coming out of the agency. Operation Liberty Shield is the talk of the town today, and we'll learn more about that come up.

And while we're waiting for that to begin, we want to go the White House and see how much more news we can squeeze in from there. Our Suzanne Malveaux was just leaving the so-called gaggle this morning, the informal off camera briefing, and she's just coming up to the cameras now to give us a view as to what they're talking about there behind the scenes.

Good morning, Suzanne. What's the word there?

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Leon, the White House is reacting those statements coming out of Iraq from the Iraqi leader and his son, saying that they're not going to leave the country. White House spokesman Ari Fleischer, and I'm quoting here, saying "Iraq has made a series of mistakes." He goes on to say, "This is the latest mistake that Iraq has made." He said, "This will be the last mistake that Saddam Hussein makes. Now, he says the administration has not heard anything officially from Iraq, and he did reiterate whether or not that meant that military action can happen before that deadline. He said that Saddam Hussein has until Wednesday, 8:00 in the evening, Eastern Standard Time, to leave his country.

Today, the president very busy. A number of meetings with his national security team. Also as well with the Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. We are told they went over the last minute, the details of military planning. He's also going to be meeting with his cabinet members, as well as policymakers.

He's also going to be making some phone calls to allies as well, a very busy day for the president.

And we also should mention as well, Leon, Ari Fleischer did respond to the comments that were made yesterday from Senator Daschle, when he said that the president had failed miserably in his efforts for diplomacy. Ari Fleischer saying that every member of Congress is entitled to his opinion. Then he said, it's hard to know what that means, what Daschle said. He went on to say that Daschle said himself last year that we ought not to politicize this war; the implication that Daschle is doing just that -- Leon.

HARRIS: Well, Senator Tom Daschle is not the only person we heard say that in the last 36 or 72 hours or so.

But let me ask you whether or not the White House has gotten indication that there are more countries coming on board now that it's clear this is inevitable, and this whole process is proceeding at a pace now. The thinking coming into the whole thing right now was as it got to this point, more and more countries would be coming off the sidelines. Any sign of that happening here at the White House?

MALVEAUX: Well, the administration is certainly hoping so, but they did get some good news. Of course, you know that Australia has been on board from the very beginning, but they reiterated their commitment of sending nominal amount of troops. Also from Japanese leadership, that yes, they are backing the United States as well. They're hoping that more countries will come forward. That is part of what they're doing, reaching out to some of the allies, to some those countries. And really a key goal here is to keep that coalition of the willing, as they like it to call it, together. They know that they have to continue to make the president's case to sell this war -- Leon.

HARRIS: Suzanne Malveaux at the White House. Thanks, Suzanne. We'll see you soon.

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




Demands>


Aired March 18, 2003 - 10:08   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Let's talk more of what's happening in Iraq right now. Saddam Hussein and his elder sons have flatly rejected the White House demands that the ruling family retreat into exile in order to avoid war. That is just one of the many developments this hour in Baghdad, as the Iraqi capital braces in both word and deed as the deadline approaches.
CNN's senior international correspondent Nic Robertson is live in Iraq with the latest.

Good morning, Nic.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.

President Saddam Hussein describing that ultimatum as debased, and that Iraq would not give into the ultimatums or the dictation coming from foreign countries. Now this came from a meeting President Saddam Hussein had with his top members of the Revolutionary Command Council, top members of the ruling Ba'ath Party. And for the first time in two years, President Saddam Hussein was seen on television here in his military uniform. That just doesn't happen normally. He went on to say in his speech to those politicians that the United States, indeed President Bush, thinks that he can win this -- his sick hope is that he win can win this war without actually having to fight. President Saddam Hussein saying that this was an indication of how isolated and how defeated the United States is at this time.

President Saddam Hussein's elder son, Uday Saddam Hussein, also weighing in at this time on the issue of the ultimatum, saying that it was President Bush and his family that should step down and get out of politics. Also saying that anyone that invades Iraq will regret the day -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Nic, I wanted to ask you about this too, something crossed the wire that pregnant women in Iraq are demanding cesarean sections so they can have their babies early before a war breaks out. The mood there is very tense, isn't it?

ROBERTSON: The mood is tense. People are extremely concerned about how they're going to survive, how they will get their families to a safe place, how they will have food and water for their families in those safe places. Now, we have seen some people leaving the city, loading their cars up, getting out of the city. Not everyone has that ability. Many people in this city of five million people will be staying here.

Also, we have seen many of the stores closed down. Store owners have taken their goods out. The shutters are down, people very much battening down the hatches.

But also late this afternoon in the last hour or so, the government has organized demonstrations, demonstrations designed to show support for President Saddam Hussein, not just to show support to the international community, but these are being broadcast on Iraqi Television to show people here that there is strong support for President Saddam Hussein at this time. We have seen people out from the pictures that we have seen, they seem to be older men with weapons, many people holding guns. A lot of chanting, a lot of singing, all the same things that we have seen in recent demonstrations. People saying that they support President Saddam Hussein. The government really putting on a show for the people here, that there is support for the president at this time -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Nic Robertson, reporting live from Baghdad, Iraq, this morning.

Let's talk about the French now. French President Jacques Chirac has intensified his condemnation of U.S. war plans, saying such an offensive jeopardizes not only stability in the Middle East, but international relations as a whole.

CNN's Jim Bittermann live in Paris with the latest -- Jim.

JIM BITTERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.

Yes, in fact, it was 2:00 in the morning here when George Bush spoke last night, but Jacques Chirac wasted no time getting out the reaction to the speech. He had a communique out by breakfast time, saying basically that he believed the United States is defying the will of the international community, that will he believes is that the disarmament and the inspections continue. And then a little later on in the morning, he took to the airwaves for a kind of mini address to the nation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JACQUES CHIRAC, FRENCH PRESIDENT (through translator): The United States presented an ultimatum to Iraq. Whether or not this was concerned with disarmament of Iraq or of much hope for regime change in the country. There's no justification for this unilateral resort to war.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BITTERMANN: And Chirac also said that to act without the legitimacy of the United Nations, to favor the use of force over law, is taking on a very serious responsibility.

Now, the other bit of news out of here is that French Foreign Minister Dominique De Villepen is planning to go to New York tomorrow for the United States Security Council meeting. Hans Blix is supposed to bring in his key disarmament issues, his final key disarmament issues for Iraq, and Devillepen wants to be there. He's asking for other foreign ministers to attend. It's not clear how many other foreign ministers may attend. He also wants to see about how the French might be able to get the disarmament process back on track, as overcome as that may be facts on the ground if war in fact starts.

Now elsewhere in Europe, the Belgian foreign minister said he agrees with the French. The German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder took to airwaves today. He said, does the threat, he asks, does this threat imposed by the Iraqi dictator justify a war? And answered his own question by saying, no. The Russians have said that, in fact, a war in Iraq could endanger a war on terror. And the Chinese have chimed in, and they've said, they're not in favor of any kind of use of force.

It also should be said that the anti-war camp got together on the telephone, the presidents of China, Russia and France got together to talk of strategy over the next couple of days -- Carol.

LIN: Something dug up by Andrea Koppel at the State Department -- the French are ready to send equipment to the Persian Gulf, if forces are attacked with biological weapons. What have you heard about that?

BITTERMANN: Well, we've been trying to check that out. We have talked both to the presidential palace and to the French foreign ministry, and both say they know nothing about this. We are not sure. This apparently was from the United Nations ambassador to the United States. It clearly was baffling to the -- both the spokesman at the foreign ministry and the presidential palace, so we'll have to see if this was some kind of a misstatement, or in fact it was something that perhaps precursing French policy.

COSTELLO: I wanted you to speculate on why the French might be saying this now?

BITTERMANN: Well, I'm not sure they're saying that now. This is a French ambassador in Washington, and it cannot be confirmed by either the foreign ministry or the presidential palace.

COSTELLO: Although Andrea Koppel did confirm it.

She's going to join us in a little bit to tell us exactly what the French ambassador to the United States said about this in D.C.

Jim Bittermann, many thanks to you, -- Leon.

LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: All right. As we mentioned at the top of the show, we're still waiting in about another minute and a half or so, we believe, if they're on time, Secretary Tom Ridge of the Homeland Security Agency is going to be coming out and having a press briefing and introducing the latest compilations that are coming out of the agency. Operation Liberty Shield is the talk of the town today, and we'll learn more about that come up.

And while we're waiting for that to begin, we want to go the White House and see how much more news we can squeeze in from there. Our Suzanne Malveaux was just leaving the so-called gaggle this morning, the informal off camera briefing, and she's just coming up to the cameras now to give us a view as to what they're talking about there behind the scenes.

Good morning, Suzanne. What's the word there?

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Leon, the White House is reacting those statements coming out of Iraq from the Iraqi leader and his son, saying that they're not going to leave the country. White House spokesman Ari Fleischer, and I'm quoting here, saying "Iraq has made a series of mistakes." He goes on to say, "This is the latest mistake that Iraq has made." He said, "This will be the last mistake that Saddam Hussein makes. Now, he says the administration has not heard anything officially from Iraq, and he did reiterate whether or not that meant that military action can happen before that deadline. He said that Saddam Hussein has until Wednesday, 8:00 in the evening, Eastern Standard Time, to leave his country.

Today, the president very busy. A number of meetings with his national security team. Also as well with the Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. We are told they went over the last minute, the details of military planning. He's also going to be meeting with his cabinet members, as well as policymakers.

He's also going to be making some phone calls to allies as well, a very busy day for the president.

And we also should mention as well, Leon, Ari Fleischer did respond to the comments that were made yesterday from Senator Daschle, when he said that the president had failed miserably in his efforts for diplomacy. Ari Fleischer saying that every member of Congress is entitled to his opinion. Then he said, it's hard to know what that means, what Daschle said. He went on to say that Daschle said himself last year that we ought not to politicize this war; the implication that Daschle is doing just that -- Leon.

HARRIS: Well, Senator Tom Daschle is not the only person we heard say that in the last 36 or 72 hours or so.

But let me ask you whether or not the White House has gotten indication that there are more countries coming on board now that it's clear this is inevitable, and this whole process is proceeding at a pace now. The thinking coming into the whole thing right now was as it got to this point, more and more countries would be coming off the sidelines. Any sign of that happening here at the White House?

MALVEAUX: Well, the administration is certainly hoping so, but they did get some good news. Of course, you know that Australia has been on board from the very beginning, but they reiterated their commitment of sending nominal amount of troops. Also from Japanese leadership, that yes, they are backing the United States as well. They're hoping that more countries will come forward. That is part of what they're doing, reaching out to some of the allies, to some those countries. And really a key goal here is to keep that coalition of the willing, as they like it to call it, together. They know that they have to continue to make the president's case to sell this war -- Leon.

HARRIS: Suzanne Malveaux at the White House. Thanks, Suzanne. We'll see you soon.

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




Demands>