Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Live At Daybreak

International Wrap, Eye on World

Aired November 10, 2003 - 06:33   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: Let's talk more about the fight on terrorism, not only in Iraq, but in Saudi Arabia as well. Our senior international editor, David Clinch, is here to expound more on those topics this morning.
DAVID CLINCH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL EDITOR: Yes. Good morning, Carol.

Well, we're covering, as you see, the explosion in Riyadh in Saudi Arabia, and continuing in our coverage in Iraq. We're beginning to see a lot of parallels in the two stories. The key connection obviously is terrorism. Terrorism, the most difficult war to fight, is a conventional army trying to fight terrorism.

In Iraq, we've seen it again and again and again. The terrorists don't have to face the might of the U.S. military face to face. They are picking the soft targets. They're hitting the proxy targets -- the Iraqi police, the soldiers from other countries. They are hitting hotels from a distance, and then they run away. They're hitting helicopters from a distance, and then they run away. A very difficult battle to fight.

The Saudis are facing the same battle, as we look in Riyadh at what happened there. There were warnings there. The U.S. embassy had been closed down. There were warnings coming to us and to the U.S. and to the Saudis for weeks before this, and still a soft target was hit.

Now, obviously there are some things that can be done, but we saw that Richard Armitage was in Saudi Arabia yesterday. We've been following him, and he's now in Cairo. I just heard him use a very interesting phrase, which sort of encapsulates this. The defenders -- that is, in his view, the U.S., the Saudis and the Egyptians -- need to be right 100 percent of the time. The terrorists only need to be right once.

And that is the difficulty in the battle. It's also our difficulty in covering these, because in being right once, in planting a bomb in Riyadh and killing people, they are right once. Our coverage of that cannot magnify that beyond what it is. There are so many victories in the war on terror. Every day in Iraq, in Egypt, in Saudi Arabia and everywhere else there is progress being made. Every time one explosion happens, of course it's a story. There are victims. That is the story, but it's not the whole story.

COSTELLO: Well, one final question before you go. And, unfortunately, we're running low on time. CLINCH: Yes.

COSTELLO: So hopefully you'll be able to answer this quickly. As al Qaeda continues to strike targets within Saudi Arabia, what will happen? What might happen? What will Saudi Arabia be forced to do?

CLINCH: Well, Saudi Arabia is already under huge pressure from the United States to open up, to turn into a democracy. The United States and other Western countries, having allowed the kingdom, the royal family, to rule Saudi Arabia untouched for years, are now turning around and putting huge pressure on them to open up to remove the reasons for fundamentalism and terrorism.

We're going to look and see whether that will happen. It's going to take time. Time is the key. The war on terror -- President Bush laid it out in his speech last week -- will take time.

COSTELLO: All right, David Clinch, many thanks.

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 November 10, 2003 - 06:33   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 about the fight on terrorism, not only in Iraq, but in Saudi Arabia as well. Our senior international editor, David Clinch, is here to expound more on those topics this morning.
DAVID CLINCH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL EDITOR: Yes. Good morning, Carol.

Well, we're covering, as you see, the explosion in Riyadh in Saudi Arabia, and continuing in our coverage in Iraq. We're beginning to see a lot of parallels in the two stories. The key connection obviously is terrorism. Terrorism, the most difficult war to fight, is a conventional army trying to fight terrorism.

In Iraq, we've seen it again and again and again. The terrorists don't have to face the might of the U.S. military face to face. They are picking the soft targets. They're hitting the proxy targets -- the Iraqi police, the soldiers from other countries. They are hitting hotels from a distance, and then they run away. They're hitting helicopters from a distance, and then they run away. A very difficult battle to fight.

The Saudis are facing the same battle, as we look in Riyadh at what happened there. There were warnings there. The U.S. embassy had been closed down. There were warnings coming to us and to the U.S. and to the Saudis for weeks before this, and still a soft target was hit.

Now, obviously there are some things that can be done, but we saw that Richard Armitage was in Saudi Arabia yesterday. We've been following him, and he's now in Cairo. I just heard him use a very interesting phrase, which sort of encapsulates this. The defenders -- that is, in his view, the U.S., the Saudis and the Egyptians -- need to be right 100 percent of the time. The terrorists only need to be right once.

And that is the difficulty in the battle. It's also our difficulty in covering these, because in being right once, in planting a bomb in Riyadh and killing people, they are right once. Our coverage of that cannot magnify that beyond what it is. There are so many victories in the war on terror. Every day in Iraq, in Egypt, in Saudi Arabia and everywhere else there is progress being made. Every time one explosion happens, of course it's a story. There are victims. That is the story, but it's not the whole story.

COSTELLO: Well, one final question before you go. And, unfortunately, we're running low on time. CLINCH: Yes.

COSTELLO: So hopefully you'll be able to answer this quickly. As al Qaeda continues to strike targets within Saudi Arabia, what will happen? What might happen? What will Saudi Arabia be forced to do?

CLINCH: Well, Saudi Arabia is already under huge pressure from the United States to open up, to turn into a democracy. The United States and other Western countries, having allowed the kingdom, the royal family, to rule Saudi Arabia untouched for years, are now turning around and putting huge pressure on them to open up to remove the reasons for fundamentalism and terrorism.

We're going to look and see whether that will happen. It's going to take time. Time is the key. The war on terror -- President Bush laid it out in his speech last week -- will take time.

COSTELLO: All right, David Clinch, many thanks.

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