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CNN Live At Daybreak

International Wrap, Eye on World

Aired June 03, 2003 - 05:44   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: Oh, the elusive weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and the equally elusive peace in the Middle East are the big international stories today.
David Clinch is here to talk more about them.

DAVID CLINCH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL EDITOR: Right, yes, another busy day for us, as usual really. We're taking the opportunity today to do sort of an in-depth coverage across the day today on the search for weapons of mass destruction. Were they hidden? Were they destroyed? Were they ever there? Looking...

COSTELLO: Are they in Syria.

CLINCH: Exactly. Looking back at all of the claims and statements that were made by the Bush administration and the British and Australians, everybody else, before the war, looking at the process so far in terms of searching for them, and then asking the question of whether they will ever be found.

Acknowledging the whole time while we're doing this today that in many cases -- and I think particularly here in the U.S. -- a lot of people don't really care at this point; that, yes, it's a point, it's a political point, it's a point of honesty I suppose you would say if it turns out that information was exaggerated. But effectively what we're looking at today is there obviously are many ways in which these weapons could have been taken out, could have been destroyed, could have been hidden. We don't really know where they were in the first place.

What we do know is that the U.S. is going all out to find them and actually sending a relatively-speaking huge team over there to search for them. And we're going to follow that over the next few weeks and months as they do that.

Of course, President Bush not necessarily getting politically hit too hard by it, but Prime Minister Blair...

COSTELLO: Well, we have an interesting Gallup Poll out that will show us numbers of how people feel about President Bush...

CLINCH: Right.

COSTELLO: ... you know, as it applies to whether we find weapons of mass destruction or not.

CLINCH: Right. I think you'd have to say it's unlikely to hit him too hard at this point, although Prime Minister Blair in Britain, on the other hand, is getting to a certain degree quite a hit on that politically. And we'll be following that today and tomorrow as well.

And, as you say, in the Middle East as well following President Bush, who is out there in the Middle East today, Sharm el-Sheik, and then going to Aqaba tomorrow.

We're also from Israel today looking at the primary people involved in the Middle East peace process here. Abbas, the new Palestinian prime minister, a very interesting character, very popular in many ways, but in the Bush administration's view a moderate, but he doesn't really have much political support from the Palestinians. So, it will be interesting to see whether he really can do what the Americans want him to do.

COSTELLO: And how the specter of Yasser Arafat will affect this.

CLINCH: He's always there in the shadows. He won't be in Aqaba, but he will be not too far away and always in the shadows.

I'm also going to come back at 6:00 a.m. to talk a little bit more about this stone trial, sharia law, in Nigeria, which is very interesting. And an interesting story we just found in New Zealand, a fellow who says, on his Web site at least, says that he's building a cruise missile.

COSTELLO: In his basement.

CLINCH: In his basement. And we'll talk a little bit more about that at 6:00.

COSTELLO: Well, you know, everybody needs a project.

CLINCH: Absolutely.

COSTELLO: David Clinch, many thanks.

CLINCH: OK.

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 June 3, 2003 - 05:44   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Oh, the elusive weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and the equally elusive peace in the Middle East are the big international stories today.
David Clinch is here to talk more about them.

DAVID CLINCH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL EDITOR: Right, yes, another busy day for us, as usual really. We're taking the opportunity today to do sort of an in-depth coverage across the day today on the search for weapons of mass destruction. Were they hidden? Were they destroyed? Were they ever there? Looking...

COSTELLO: Are they in Syria.

CLINCH: Exactly. Looking back at all of the claims and statements that were made by the Bush administration and the British and Australians, everybody else, before the war, looking at the process so far in terms of searching for them, and then asking the question of whether they will ever be found.

Acknowledging the whole time while we're doing this today that in many cases -- and I think particularly here in the U.S. -- a lot of people don't really care at this point; that, yes, it's a point, it's a political point, it's a point of honesty I suppose you would say if it turns out that information was exaggerated. But effectively what we're looking at today is there obviously are many ways in which these weapons could have been taken out, could have been destroyed, could have been hidden. We don't really know where they were in the first place.

What we do know is that the U.S. is going all out to find them and actually sending a relatively-speaking huge team over there to search for them. And we're going to follow that over the next few weeks and months as they do that.

Of course, President Bush not necessarily getting politically hit too hard by it, but Prime Minister Blair...

COSTELLO: Well, we have an interesting Gallup Poll out that will show us numbers of how people feel about President Bush...

CLINCH: Right.

COSTELLO: ... you know, as it applies to whether we find weapons of mass destruction or not.

CLINCH: Right. I think you'd have to say it's unlikely to hit him too hard at this point, although Prime Minister Blair in Britain, on the other hand, is getting to a certain degree quite a hit on that politically. And we'll be following that today and tomorrow as well.

And, as you say, in the Middle East as well following President Bush, who is out there in the Middle East today, Sharm el-Sheik, and then going to Aqaba tomorrow.

We're also from Israel today looking at the primary people involved in the Middle East peace process here. Abbas, the new Palestinian prime minister, a very interesting character, very popular in many ways, but in the Bush administration's view a moderate, but he doesn't really have much political support from the Palestinians. So, it will be interesting to see whether he really can do what the Americans want him to do.

COSTELLO: And how the specter of Yasser Arafat will affect this.

CLINCH: He's always there in the shadows. He won't be in Aqaba, but he will be not too far away and always in the shadows.

I'm also going to come back at 6:00 a.m. to talk a little bit more about this stone trial, sharia law, in Nigeria, which is very interesting. And an interesting story we just found in New Zealand, a fellow who says, on his Web site at least, says that he's building a cruise missile.

COSTELLO: In his basement.

CLINCH: In his basement. And we'll talk a little bit more about that at 6:00.

COSTELLO: Well, you know, everybody needs a project.

CLINCH: Absolutely.

COSTELLO: David Clinch, many thanks.

CLINCH: OK.

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