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CNN Live At Daybreak
Bush Protests
Aired November 19, 2003 - 05:31 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: All right, we've seen the pomp and the circumstance, but what about another ceremony surrounding President Bush's visit to London? I don't know if we can call it a ceremony or not.
Live now to Christiane Amanpour, who's at Trafalgar Square. She's covering the protests. And, of course, no protesters yet, right?
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Carol.
In fact, at about 11:00 our time, which is in about half an hour, protesters are due to start from a little bit away from here and then gather here at Trafalgar Square in a few hours. And what today's protest is about, it's being called a faux state procession, basically, an alternative state procession. This is, of course, a state visit. But for security and other reasons, President Bush will not be taking the traditional carriage ride, the horse drawn carriage ride with the queen down the mall here in London.
So this is going to be the first of what demonstrators say will be tens of thousands of protesters coming out to speak up against what they disagree with in terms of President Bush and American foreign policy.
Today's is going to be more of a sort of a light relief, if you like, more of a comical procession. And tomorrow's, though, is expected to be the big Stop The War coalition, which is now being dubbed "stop Bush" protest. They expect tens of thousands of people to come here to Trafalgar Square.
Having said that, of course, there are polls that have been brought over the last couple of days somewhat conflicting in terms of how Britain is looking at this state visit. About 60 percent of Britons on Sunday who were polled said that they considered President Bush a threat to world peace. But a poll that came out yesterday, on the eve of his visit, basically said that 43 percent of Britons welcome the visit, while 36 percent of Britons oppose it.
This is the most controversial visit by an American president ever, according to all the pundits and newspapers here. But what people are at pains to point out in much of the press, whether it be left or right press here, they're saying that it is not about anti- Americanism because Britons overwhelmingly cherish the relationship with America and the alliance with America.
What it is, they say, is specifically about being against President Bush and the foreign policy of this administration. Specifically, they are concerned about war, about the war in Iraq, about what's happening in the post-war situation and they're concerned, they say, that future crises will be solved by war, even though President Bush has given a few interviews to the British press trying to mollify that impression and say that war isn't always the only option and that negotiations are also on the able for future crises.
Nonetheless, this is a controversial visit. A huge amount of security is being deployed. Some 14,000 British police are out. That's triple the number that they announced would be on the streets just last week. So they've really ramped up the security. There are marksmen along all the rooftops where President Bush may be riding in procession or in his heavily armed motorcade. There are concrete blocks up. There are metal detectors in various streets.
So it is an unprecedented security operation for this visit -- Carol.
COSTELLO: And Christiane, just so our viewers know, to your right, we're seeing you in a split screen. You can see President Bush and the queen inside Buckingham Palace and she's been talking to him and showing him historic pictures.
Back to you, Christiane, for a second, though.
AMANPOUR: Yes?
COSTELLO: What do the British people want to hear from President Bush later today?
AMANPOUR: Well, I think they want to hear what is Britain going to get in return for providing such staunch political cover to President Bush over the Gulf -- over the Iraq war. You know, commentators here are saying that, yes, it's all very well talking about the special relationship, but we don't want it just to be a one way street. We provided political cover, and not only that, we provided troops to go and fight and take part in the occupation of Iraq, what are we going to get in return?
They're very concerned that instead of rewards, they're getting sort of trade tariffs. We don't know whether those trade tariffs are going to be modified or whether there will be any announcement on that. But certainly there's a lot of concern that that happen.
Of course, an interesting aside, usually a president on a state visit, or even on an official visit, will address a session of parliament here. President Bush is not doing that. Instead, he will give his one formal speech on the transatlantic alliance at a morning closed invited guest occasion at Banqueting Hall later this afternoon.
So they're a bit concerned why he hasn't addressed M.P.s, why he's not going to do that. There's been quite a lot of protest by members of parliament here. There seems to be a feeling that he doesn't want to go to parliament because he fears he may be heckled there. So they're a bit concerned about that. But there's a clear message that the Britons are waiting to hear. And whether or not they're satisfied at the end of that speech, we'll have to see.
COSTELLO: All right, chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour, live from London, from Trafalgar Square, this morning.
You can follow President Bush's official state visit by logging onto our Web site. The address, cnn.com, AOL keyword: CNN.
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 19, 2003 - 05:31 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: All right, we've seen the pomp and the circumstance, but what about another ceremony surrounding President Bush's visit to London? I don't know if we can call it a ceremony or not.
Live now to Christiane Amanpour, who's at Trafalgar Square. She's covering the protests. And, of course, no protesters yet, right?
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Carol.
In fact, at about 11:00 our time, which is in about half an hour, protesters are due to start from a little bit away from here and then gather here at Trafalgar Square in a few hours. And what today's protest is about, it's being called a faux state procession, basically, an alternative state procession. This is, of course, a state visit. But for security and other reasons, President Bush will not be taking the traditional carriage ride, the horse drawn carriage ride with the queen down the mall here in London.
So this is going to be the first of what demonstrators say will be tens of thousands of protesters coming out to speak up against what they disagree with in terms of President Bush and American foreign policy.
Today's is going to be more of a sort of a light relief, if you like, more of a comical procession. And tomorrow's, though, is expected to be the big Stop The War coalition, which is now being dubbed "stop Bush" protest. They expect tens of thousands of people to come here to Trafalgar Square.
Having said that, of course, there are polls that have been brought over the last couple of days somewhat conflicting in terms of how Britain is looking at this state visit. About 60 percent of Britons on Sunday who were polled said that they considered President Bush a threat to world peace. But a poll that came out yesterday, on the eve of his visit, basically said that 43 percent of Britons welcome the visit, while 36 percent of Britons oppose it.
This is the most controversial visit by an American president ever, according to all the pundits and newspapers here. But what people are at pains to point out in much of the press, whether it be left or right press here, they're saying that it is not about anti- Americanism because Britons overwhelmingly cherish the relationship with America and the alliance with America.
What it is, they say, is specifically about being against President Bush and the foreign policy of this administration. Specifically, they are concerned about war, about the war in Iraq, about what's happening in the post-war situation and they're concerned, they say, that future crises will be solved by war, even though President Bush has given a few interviews to the British press trying to mollify that impression and say that war isn't always the only option and that negotiations are also on the able for future crises.
Nonetheless, this is a controversial visit. A huge amount of security is being deployed. Some 14,000 British police are out. That's triple the number that they announced would be on the streets just last week. So they've really ramped up the security. There are marksmen along all the rooftops where President Bush may be riding in procession or in his heavily armed motorcade. There are concrete blocks up. There are metal detectors in various streets.
So it is an unprecedented security operation for this visit -- Carol.
COSTELLO: And Christiane, just so our viewers know, to your right, we're seeing you in a split screen. You can see President Bush and the queen inside Buckingham Palace and she's been talking to him and showing him historic pictures.
Back to you, Christiane, for a second, though.
AMANPOUR: Yes?
COSTELLO: What do the British people want to hear from President Bush later today?
AMANPOUR: Well, I think they want to hear what is Britain going to get in return for providing such staunch political cover to President Bush over the Gulf -- over the Iraq war. You know, commentators here are saying that, yes, it's all very well talking about the special relationship, but we don't want it just to be a one way street. We provided political cover, and not only that, we provided troops to go and fight and take part in the occupation of Iraq, what are we going to get in return?
They're very concerned that instead of rewards, they're getting sort of trade tariffs. We don't know whether those trade tariffs are going to be modified or whether there will be any announcement on that. But certainly there's a lot of concern that that happen.
Of course, an interesting aside, usually a president on a state visit, or even on an official visit, will address a session of parliament here. President Bush is not doing that. Instead, he will give his one formal speech on the transatlantic alliance at a morning closed invited guest occasion at Banqueting Hall later this afternoon.
So they're a bit concerned why he hasn't addressed M.P.s, why he's not going to do that. There's been quite a lot of protest by members of parliament here. There seems to be a feeling that he doesn't want to go to parliament because he fears he may be heckled there. So they're a bit concerned about that. But there's a clear message that the Britons are waiting to hear. And whether or not they're satisfied at the end of that speech, we'll have to see.
COSTELLO: All right, chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour, live from London, from Trafalgar Square, this morning.
You can follow President Bush's official state visit by logging onto our Web site. The address, cnn.com, AOL keyword: CNN.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
