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CNN Live At Daybreak

'International News Desk'

Aired February 02, 2004 - 05:34   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 check on some of the international stories in the making -- Iraq, the violence there, and the search for weapons of mass destruction, along with Pakistan's nuclear program.
Helping us do that, of course, is David Clinch, our senior international editor -- good morning, David.

DAVID CLINCH, CNN INTERNATIONAL EDITOR: Good morning, Carol.

COSTELLO: Where do you want to start?

CLINCH: We know exactly where the weapons of mass destruction are, they're in Pakistan. And thanks to Pakistan, they're in Libya, Iran and North Korea.

But I'll get to that in a minute.

First of all, in Iraq today, just the big story that we've been covering since yesterday, this suicide bombing up in northern Iraq in the Kurdish area, killing dozens of Kurds, including some top leaders of a couple of the factions there. The big question mark there is whether that violence, particularly wrapping in the Kurds and the trend of renewed violence that we've seen in the last few weeks in Iraq, will affect the process, the timetable for the hand over of power in Iraq in June.

Now, it's way too early to tell on that, but obviously the Kurds very self-conscious about that whole handover of power. They want to make sure that they retain the traditional autonomy they've had since the first Gulf War under the protection, basically, of the United States. And they've been more or less immune from major violence for the last few months. But this has really hit them hard and there is a big question mark about what this will mean for them and that political process.

So we're looking at that. And obviously the big story here in the U.S., this report now that the Bush administration will sign on to a full independent investigation into the weapons of mass destruction intelligence. Was the intelligence wrong? Who misled them? We're going to take that ball and in Baghdad talk to some of the Iraqi groups that supplied at least some parts of that intelligence to the CIA and see what they're saying now in terms, you know, what their story is. They were pushing very hard, giving the CIA as much intelligence as they possibly could before the war. So we're interested to talk to them now. COSTELLO: Well, it will be interesting, too, to see when Americans will get the information coming out of that commission to be appointed by President Bush. It probably won't come until after the elections.

CLINCH: Yes, there are strong indications that the earliest that that report would come out would be next year, but that, of course, also, for us internationally, brings up the question, Prime Minister Blair and others have been under huge pressure to have a similar investigation. They had this Hutton inquiry last week, but that was far too narrow for most people. They want, the British opposition pushing for a much broader look into prewar intelligence, as well, so.

COSTELLO: All right, and we'll get to Pakistan a little later on DAYBREAK.

CLINCH: Yes, I'll come back. Yes.

COSTELLO: All right, thank you, David.

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 February 2, 2004 - 05:34   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 check on some of the international stories in the making -- Iraq, the violence there, and the search for weapons of mass destruction, along with Pakistan's nuclear program.
Helping us do that, of course, is David Clinch, our senior international editor -- good morning, David.

DAVID CLINCH, CNN INTERNATIONAL EDITOR: Good morning, Carol.

COSTELLO: Where do you want to start?

CLINCH: We know exactly where the weapons of mass destruction are, they're in Pakistan. And thanks to Pakistan, they're in Libya, Iran and North Korea.

But I'll get to that in a minute.

First of all, in Iraq today, just the big story that we've been covering since yesterday, this suicide bombing up in northern Iraq in the Kurdish area, killing dozens of Kurds, including some top leaders of a couple of the factions there. The big question mark there is whether that violence, particularly wrapping in the Kurds and the trend of renewed violence that we've seen in the last few weeks in Iraq, will affect the process, the timetable for the hand over of power in Iraq in June.

Now, it's way too early to tell on that, but obviously the Kurds very self-conscious about that whole handover of power. They want to make sure that they retain the traditional autonomy they've had since the first Gulf War under the protection, basically, of the United States. And they've been more or less immune from major violence for the last few months. But this has really hit them hard and there is a big question mark about what this will mean for them and that political process.

So we're looking at that. And obviously the big story here in the U.S., this report now that the Bush administration will sign on to a full independent investigation into the weapons of mass destruction intelligence. Was the intelligence wrong? Who misled them? We're going to take that ball and in Baghdad talk to some of the Iraqi groups that supplied at least some parts of that intelligence to the CIA and see what they're saying now in terms, you know, what their story is. They were pushing very hard, giving the CIA as much intelligence as they possibly could before the war. So we're interested to talk to them now. COSTELLO: Well, it will be interesting, too, to see when Americans will get the information coming out of that commission to be appointed by President Bush. It probably won't come until after the elections.

CLINCH: Yes, there are strong indications that the earliest that that report would come out would be next year, but that, of course, also, for us internationally, brings up the question, Prime Minister Blair and others have been under huge pressure to have a similar investigation. They had this Hutton inquiry last week, but that was far too narrow for most people. They want, the British opposition pushing for a much broader look into prewar intelligence, as well, so.

COSTELLO: All right, and we'll get to Pakistan a little later on DAYBREAK.

CLINCH: Yes, I'll come back. Yes.

COSTELLO: All right, thank you, David.

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