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Important Address for Barack Obama Tonight; U.S. to Try Russian Plan for Syria; 2 New iPhones from Apple; Heightened Security Alert on 9/11 Anniversary.

Aired September 10, 2013 - 13:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: This is certainly a crucial week for the Obama presidency. A lot riding on his major speech to the nation tonight. He'll certainly try to make the case for U.S. military action against the Syrian regime but, at the same time, he will also clearly leave the door open for diplomacy.

I had a chance to sit down with President Obama for a one-on-one interview just ahead of tonight's primetime address.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: Mr. President, thanks so much for joining us.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Thank you.

BLITZER: This latest idea floated by the Secretary of State John Kerry, picked up by the Russians, is it possible this could avert a U.S. military strike on Syria?

OBAMA: It's possible if it's real. And you know, I think it's certainly a positive development when the Russians and the Syrians both make gestures towards dealing with these chemical weapons. This is what we've been asking for, not just over the last week or the last month but for the last couple of years because these chemical weapons pose a significant threat to all nations and to the United States in particular. That's why 98 percent of humanity has said we don't use these. That protects our troops and it protects children like the ones we saw in those videos inside of Syria. So it is a potentially positive development.

I have to say that it's unlikely that we would have arrived at that point where there were even public statements like that without a credible military threat to deal with the chemical weapons used inside of Syria. But we're going to run this to ground. And John Kerry and the rest of my national security team will engage with the Russians and the international community to see, can we arrive at something that is enforceable and serious.

One reason that this may have a chance of success is that even Syria's allies like Iran detest chemical weapons. Iran, you know, unfortunately, was the target of chemical weapons at the hands of Saddam Hussein back during the Iraq-Iran war. We may be able to arrive at a consensus in which it doesn't solve the underlying problems of a civil war in Syria but it does solve the problem that I'm trying to focus on right now, which is making sure you don't have over 400 children gassed indiscriminately by these chemical weapons.

BLITZER: As Ban Ki-moon, the U.N. secretary-general, says not only control them but go ahead and destroy them. That's a lot better than deterring the Syrians from using these chemical weapons.

OBAMA: Absolutely. That's why we're going to take this seriously.

But I have to consistently point out that we have not seen these kinds of gestures up until now. And, in part, the fact that the U.S. administration and I have said we are serious about this, I think has prompted some interesting conversations. And these are conversations that I've had directly with Mr. Putin. When I was at the G-20, we had some time to discuss this. And I believe that Mr. Putin does not see the use of chemical weapons as a good thing inside of Syria or any place else, and so it's possible that we can get a break-through, but it's going to have to be followed up on. And we don't want just a stalling or delaying tactic to put off the pressure that we have on there right now. We have to maintain this pressure, which is -- I'll still be speaking to the nation tomorrow about why this is so important.

BLITZER: Is this Bashar al Assad's last chance?

OBAMA: Well, I think it is important for Assad to understand that the chemical weapons ban, which has been in place, is one that the entire civilized world just about respects and observes. It's something that protects our troops, even when we're in the toughest war theaters, from being threatened by these chemical weapons. It's something that protects women and children and civilians because these weapons, by definition, are indiscriminate. They don't just target somebody in uniform. And you know, I suspect that some of Assad's allies recognize the mistakes he made in using these weapons. And it may be that he is under pressure from them, as well.

You know, again, this doesn't solve the underlying terrible conflict inside of Syria, but if we can accomplish this limited goal without taking military action, that would be my preference. On the other hand, if we don't maintain and move forward with a credible threat of military pressure, I do not think we will actually get the kind of agreement I'd like to see.

BLITZER: You're being seen right now on CNN and CNN INTERNATIONAL around the world, including in Damascus. What I'd like you to do Mr. President, if you're amenable to doing it, look into the camera, talk directly to president Bashar al Assad, tell him specifically what you think he must do to avert a U.S. military strike?

OBAMA: You know, I don't need to talk in the camera. I suspect he's got people who will be watching this.

BLITZER: He's probably watching it himself.

OBAMA: We've been very clear about what we expect, and that is: do not use chemical weapons. Control the chemical weapons. And now, because we've seen Assad's willingness to use chemical weapons, we're going to have to go further and give the international community assurances that they will not be used potentially by getting them out of there, at minimum, making sure that international control over those chemical weapons takes place. That can be accomplished. And it does not solve the broader political situation.

I would say to Mr. Assad, we need a political settlement so that you're not slaughtering your own people and by the way, encouraging some elements of the opposition to engage in some terrible behavior, as well.

You know, what I'm thinking about is right now though, how do we make sure that we can verify that we do not have chemical weapons that can be used not only inside of Syria, but potentially could drift outside of Syria.

BLITZER: He said in an interview with Charlie Rose that if you, the United States, attack, launch military strikes, he said he will respond anything, he said, "Expect anything."

OBAMA: Yeah.

BLITZER: Not only from him but from his allies. That sounds like a threat to the United States.

OBAMA: Yeah. Mr. Assad doesn't have a lot of capability. He has capability relative to children. He has capability relative to an opposition that is still getting itself organized or not professional- trained fighters. He doesn't have a credible means to threaten the United States. His allies, Iran and Hezbollah, could potentially engage in asymmetrical strikes against us, but frankly, the kind of threats that they could pose against us are typical of the kinds of threats that we're dealing with around the world that I've spoken of recently, which is embassies that are being threatened, you know, U.S. personnel in the region. Those are threats that we deal with on an ongoing basis. They are always of concern. Obviously, we saw the situation in Yemen just a few weeks ago where we wanted to respond by getting some of our folks out of there. But the notion that Mr. Assad could significantly threaten the United States is just not the case.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: Strong words from the president.

More of my interview coming up this hour. I asked the president how worried Americans should be about the 12th anniversary of 9/11 that happens to be tomorrow. You'll be interested to hear what he says about threats that are out there.

Let's bring in our chief political analyst, Gloria Borger.

Gloria, he's got a major assignment tonight when he delivers this speech because he's got American audiences who will be watching. The whole world will be watching at the same time. GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Right. As he's been doing throughout this entire crisis, he's got to thread the needle again because what he has to do is go to Congress and say, this is a vote for diplomacy. The only reason that the Russians and the Syrians are even thinking about coming to the table or letting inspectors in to Syria is because of the threat of use of American force. So what he's got to say, the threat got us to this point, I'm skeptical about whether they really will cooperate but we have to make the threat real. So he's got to continue to ask for the authorization of the use of force but, at the same time, he's got to the portray it as a diplomatic initiative and as kind of a last resort, which, by the way, reminds me of Iraq which is -- which was a vote to authorize the use of force, not the vote to use force.

BLITZER: And Iraq, they gave Saddam Hussein a lot of chances.

BORGER: They did. They did.

BLITZER: In the end, to let the inspectors do what they wanted to do.

BORGER: And that's why the administration says, you know, and John McCain says we want a timetable. We want benchmarks. We're not going to go through that all over again. But as Nick Burns was saying to you earlier, we're not quite sure where all these chemical weapons are. And that's not going to be an easy process.

BLITZER: He speaks at a time when the overwhelming majority of the American people don't want to go to war against Syria.

BORGER: That's right.

BLITZER: And the public is deeply divided about him as president of the United States. We asked this question in our new CNN/ORC poll: Is President Obama a strong and decisive leader? 50 percent said yes, 49 percent said no. That's a deep division within the country.

BORGER: Well, it is a deep division within the country. As you've seen this Syria issue play out, it's completely understandable. If you dig deeper into our polls, we also asked whether the president inspires confidence and the public is split right down the middle on that. We asked the public whether the president is honest and trustworthy. Split right down the middle on that.

You remember during the election, one of the things that President Obama had going for him when he was seeking re-election was the fact that the public always believed him to be honest and trustworthy. And as a president, you really cannot afford to lose that, particularly as you're asking members of Congress to take a tough vote that their constituents are opposed to.

But again, this gives him an opening because he can call this a vote for diplomacy rather than a vote for war.

BLITZER: Gives him a huge opening and I'm sure a lifeline as some people -- a political life line as a lot of people are suggesting.

BORGER: Yes.

BLITZER: Gloria will be later with me later in "The Situation Room, throughout the night for our coverage of the president's address.

And please be sure to tune in right here to CNN for the president's address on Syria. It will air, 9:00 p.m. eastern. Our special coverage will begin at 7:00 p.m. eastern with "Aaron Burnett OutFront."

We'll have much more on Syria ahead. But we're also monitoring a live event in Silicon Valley. Apple unveiling two new iPhones. This hour, we have some details. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: We'll get back to the crisis in Syria in a few moments. But happening right now in Silicon Valley, we're monitoring a live event. Apple is announcing not one, but two new iPhones, including what they're calling a budget version.

Alison Kosik is monitoring the event for us.

Alison, what are we hearing from Apple?

ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: We're hearing from Tim Cook and other executives from Apple. They're in Cupertino, California, announcing all the new stuff coming out of Apple. Cook even joking about the rumors, saying some of you may have expected the iPhone 5 being replaced with two phones, including the 5C, the sort of lower- end version, the cheaper version that companies out in green, yellow, blue, red and white. Once again, it will be cheaper. One Apple executive saying it's beautifully, unapologetically plastic because -- instead of being made of glass aluminum, it's made of plastic. It's cheaper to produce.

As far as the prices go for this phone, it looks like it will be about $99 for the 16 gigabyte, $199 for the 32 gigabyte. And these are the subsidized prices, meaning this is a price that you would pay when you get a two-year contract with your carrier.

By the way, the battery on this one is expected to be a little larger than the iPhone 5. That's the first phone coming out. The second is the iPhone 5S. This is called the gold standard in smartphones. At least this is what Apple is calling it. It's referencing to the new colors, gold, silver, space gray.

The big deal here is the 64-bit chip that can handle double the memory of the current model. That is a big difference -- that's a big deal. As far as what we're waiting on, we're waiting on pricing on this iPhone 5S and when both of these phones are going to go on sale.

One more thing to mention for those of us who still have our iPhones and iPads right now, Wolf, the IOS operating system, the next generation operating system will be available for you to get on September 18th. You can download that for free -- Wolf?

BLITZER: Alison Kosik with the latest on the new iPhones.

Thanks very, very much.

And just ahead, we'll get back to our coverage of the crisis in Syria. The Obama administration, at least a lot of officials, they're skeptical of Russia's plan to have Syria hand over its chemical arsenal but they're willing to give it a shot. We're taking a closer look at what's going on.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: You just heard President Obama say Syria must get rid of its chemical weapons stockpiles. He's not alone by any means. Even Russia has chimed in with a proposal to disarm Syria of those weapons.

Let's bring in Brian Todd. He's looking at this story.

A lot of folks are saying it's ironic for Russia to be stepping in on this sensitive issue of chemical weapons.

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's ironic because, you dig up information from Russia's past dealings with Syria, we know they've supplied them with conventional weapons in the past and other components like that. But we're digging up information from documents -- this is a CIA document from 1983, and talking to U.S. officials and chemical weapons experts. But what this boils down to is that the Russians, as the Soviet Union back in the '70s and '80s, helped the Syrians lay the foundation for their chemical weapons program.

This is a CIA document from 1983. It's entitled "Implications of Soviet Use of Chemical and Toxin Weapons." A clear passage from this, it says, "Syria is a major recipient of Soviet chemical weapons assistance, probably has the most advanced chemical warfare capability in the Arab world with the possible exception of Egypt." It also says, "With Czechoslovakia, the Soviet Union provided the chemical agents, delivery systems and training that flowed to Syria." The Soviets made a conscious decision to help Syria build its chemical weapons program back at least in the 1980s.

A U.S. official told me a short time ago that Russia in more recent years may have been one of the many sources for precursors and other ingredients for Syria's chemical weapons program, but not necessarily consciously supporting that program in recent years. Maybe shipping some chemicals they thought were being used for dual use like pharmaceuticals in more recent years.

But back in the Soviet era, the Russians consciously helped them lay the foundation for that program. And that lends to skepticism of whether Russia will be an honest broker right now.

BLITZER: We'll see what happens. But if you look carefully at that Syrian weapons program, they got a lot of help not just from Russia but from various European countries --

TODD: Right. Absolutely.

BLITZER: -- even some American companies.

TODD: Yes.

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: -- that inadvertently provided some badly needed -- I know you have a lot more on this story coming up in "The Situation Room."

TODD: We are.

BLITZER: Brian Todd, thank you.

Just ahead, we'll have more of my interview with President Obama, including why the United States apparently is going to be on some sort of heightened alert tomorrow on the anniversary of 9/11.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: We're only one day away from the 12th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks and the first anniversary of the attack in Benghazi that killed four Americans, including the U.S. ambassador. I asked President Obama when I sat down with him about all of that, how worried potentially we all should be. Here's what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: One final quick question. 9/11, the anniversary this Wednesday. Should Americans expect some sort of attack?

OBAMA: I think that we are always on heightened alert on 9/11. We will continue to be.

You know, what we've seen over the last decade, because of the heroism of our troops and the enormous sacrifices of them and their families, America is safer than it was right before 9/11. But we still have threats out there, particularly outside of the homeland. We also have lone-wolf threats as we saw during the Boston Marathon bombing. We have to remain vigilant. We're not going to be able to protect ourselves 100 percent of the time against every threat. But what we can do is make sure that we understand these threats are real. We have to be prepared. But not overreact in ways that potentially compromise our values and our ideals over the long term.

BLITZER: Mr. President, thanks very much.

OBAMA: I appreciate it. Thank you, Wolf.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: And other U.S. officials have suggested to me that those so- called lone-wolf threats, they are very, very serious out there. There are a lot of people apparently who would like to do something to hurt the United States for whatever reason. That's something that U.S. law enforcement, counterterrorism, Homeland Security officials are on the look out for tomorrow on the 12th anniversary of 9/11. We'll have extensive coverage, obviously, of that. Don't forget, later tonight, tune into CNN for the president's address to the nation on Syria and potential military and diplomatic options. The president will speak at 9:00 p.m. eastern. Our special coverage will begin at 7:00 p.m. eastern with "Erin Burnett OutFront."

I'll be back later today in "The Situation Room," 5:00 p.m. eastern, for special coverage of the crisis in Syria. Much more coming up on that.

I'll be back later tonight to anchor our coverage around the president's address to the nation, a critically important address. We'll hear what the president has to say today.

That's it for me. Thanks very much for watching. I'm Wolf Blitzer in Washington. NEWSROOM continues right now with Brooke Baldwin.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Wolf, thank you.