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CNN Live At Daybreak
International News Desk
Aired September 30, 2003 - 05:37 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: Well, from Tony Blair to Laura Bush, all part of the mixed bag of international issues to discuss with our senior international editor David Clinch.
And, you know, this leak in Washington sounds an awful lot like the sexed up dossier scandal in Britain.
DAVID CLINCH, CNN INTERNATIONAL EDITOR: Right. Absolutely. Well, we are covering today, later today, this morning, Tony Blair, the British prime minister, addressing his own party, the annual conference of the Labor Party in England. You'd think a very friendly audience. But he, Tony Blair, still under enormous pressure over the British government's prewar Iraq weapons of mass destruction claims, and specifically the outing, if you want the word of the day, the outing by his government of a British government scientist, David Kelly, who later killed himself over the pressure that he suffered after his name was in the public.
Now, not an exact parallel with the situation here, the allegation that the Bush administration has outed Joe Wilson's wife as a CIA operative, but similar in two ways. One, it's a person whose career has been ended by their name going into the public. And also, obviously, they're both involved in this Iraq weapons of mass destruction story. And if what's being reported turns out to be true, the illustration there would appear to be that the Bush administration and the Blair government, at least some elements in those governments, were prepared to sacrifice these individuals and their careers in order to stay on message on Iraq weapons of mass destruction.
Now...
COSTELLO: Although it's not certain that there was any leak from the White House here in the United States.
CLINCH: Absolutely. Absolutely. A lot of these things remain to be proven. But one of the interesting things internationally is that this story now hitting the front pages in Europe and elsewhere and, of course, those Europeans and others who already want to think of the Bush administration as having sexed up their claims prewar, it just fits perfectly into that idea.
COSTELLO: But Laura Bush is over there.
CLINCH: Well, exactly, and this is, you know, the other side of the Bush administration, the other side of America, the real people, which, of course, throughout all of this process of the tension between particularly Europe and the United States over the war in Iraq, most Europeans still actually love the United States and they certainly love the average American and no better person to represent that than Laura Bush.
She had a wonderful day in Paris yesterday and is in Moscow later today. Soledad O'Brien is following her and will be reporting live from Moscow today.
And, surprisingly, as Jill Dougherty was reporting earlier, she has a very high profile there in Europe and in Moscow, particularly. She's very highly regarded. So I think despite all of the tensions that still exist over the war in Iraq and everything else, there are people like Laura Bush that can go to Europe and receive a very warm welcome.
So, we'll be following both of those stories today, Tony Blair under pressure; Laura Bush receiving a very warm welcome in Paris and now today in Moscow.
COSTELLO: All right, David Clinch, many thanks.
CLINCH: OK.
COSTELLO: We appreciate it.
CLINCH: All right.
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 September 30, 2003 - 05:37 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Well, from Tony Blair to Laura Bush, all part of the mixed bag of international issues to discuss with our senior international editor David Clinch.
And, you know, this leak in Washington sounds an awful lot like the sexed up dossier scandal in Britain.
DAVID CLINCH, CNN INTERNATIONAL EDITOR: Right. Absolutely. Well, we are covering today, later today, this morning, Tony Blair, the British prime minister, addressing his own party, the annual conference of the Labor Party in England. You'd think a very friendly audience. But he, Tony Blair, still under enormous pressure over the British government's prewar Iraq weapons of mass destruction claims, and specifically the outing, if you want the word of the day, the outing by his government of a British government scientist, David Kelly, who later killed himself over the pressure that he suffered after his name was in the public.
Now, not an exact parallel with the situation here, the allegation that the Bush administration has outed Joe Wilson's wife as a CIA operative, but similar in two ways. One, it's a person whose career has been ended by their name going into the public. And also, obviously, they're both involved in this Iraq weapons of mass destruction story. And if what's being reported turns out to be true, the illustration there would appear to be that the Bush administration and the Blair government, at least some elements in those governments, were prepared to sacrifice these individuals and their careers in order to stay on message on Iraq weapons of mass destruction.
Now...
COSTELLO: Although it's not certain that there was any leak from the White House here in the United States.
CLINCH: Absolutely. Absolutely. A lot of these things remain to be proven. But one of the interesting things internationally is that this story now hitting the front pages in Europe and elsewhere and, of course, those Europeans and others who already want to think of the Bush administration as having sexed up their claims prewar, it just fits perfectly into that idea.
COSTELLO: But Laura Bush is over there.
CLINCH: Well, exactly, and this is, you know, the other side of the Bush administration, the other side of America, the real people, which, of course, throughout all of this process of the tension between particularly Europe and the United States over the war in Iraq, most Europeans still actually love the United States and they certainly love the average American and no better person to represent that than Laura Bush.
She had a wonderful day in Paris yesterday and is in Moscow later today. Soledad O'Brien is following her and will be reporting live from Moscow today.
And, surprisingly, as Jill Dougherty was reporting earlier, she has a very high profile there in Europe and in Moscow, particularly. She's very highly regarded. So I think despite all of the tensions that still exist over the war in Iraq and everything else, there are people like Laura Bush that can go to Europe and receive a very warm welcome.
So, we'll be following both of those stories today, Tony Blair under pressure; Laura Bush receiving a very warm welcome in Paris and now today in Moscow.
COSTELLO: All right, David Clinch, many thanks.
CLINCH: OK.
COSTELLO: We appreciate it.
CLINCH: All right.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
