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CNN Newsnight Aaron Brown

D-Day Minus 10?

Aired March 07, 2003 - 22:00   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.


AARON BROWN, HOST: Good evening again. I'm Aaron Brown.
In newsrooms and in military units, those who placed their bets on March 14 for the start of a war are asking for a do-over tonight. In a day when thousands of words were spoken, it's doubtful to us that many minds were changed. Not in the Security Council and not in the country either. So now we're now looking at March 17 as a deadline, and there's little doubt that Iraq will miss that deadline too.

The anti-war side ought not kid themselves what cooperation there has been from Iraq has come not because of a U.N. resolution, but because there are more than 200,000 soldiers parked at their doorstep. And the administration ought not kid itself either. In the diplomatic game, the Iraqis have played their cards better, showing just enough cooperation to give the French and the Russians something to work with.

A wise old foreign policy guy told us the other day the scars of this battle will take decades to heal. It is a mess, and it's not likely to get any better as March 17 approaches.

So we begin The Whip at the United Nations with CNN's Richard Roth. Richard, a busy day for you. A headline, please.

RICHARD ROTH, CNN SR. U.N. CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, the U.S. and Britain have made a slight adjustment to their latest resolution on Iraq, but it packs a wallop. If approved, and that's no sure thing, Iraq would have to turn over all weapons of mass destruction by March 17 or else.

BROWN: Richard, thank you. And back to you at the top.

So what's behind this last ditch push for U.N. support? Andrea Koppel has been working that part of the U.N. story. Andrea, the headline.

ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN STATE DEPARTMENT CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, good evening. Believe it or not, it's a last-ditch effort in the hopes of keeping British Prime Minister Tony Blair's government in power. And while it may not work, officials are hoping it will provide Mr. Blair with enough of a political fig leaf that, with or without the backing of the United Nations, Britain can join the U.S. in a war with Iraq.

BROWN: Andrea, thank you. The other big story of this week, the hunt for Osama bin Laden, after the capture over the weekend, last weekend, of one of his top deputies. Mike Boettcher is on the videophone from Islamabad. Mike, a headline from you.

MIKE BOETTCHER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Aaron, there hasn't been this much news about the hunt for Osama bin Laden in more than a year. Coming up, we'll try to separate fact from fiction, which is proving to be a very difficult task.

BROWN: Michael, thank you.

And in all the talk about the possibility of war with Iraq, the bloodshed continues in another place. Kelly Wallace is in Gaza tonight. Kelly, a headline from you.

KELLY WALLACE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, it has been a deadly week here in the region. And now Israeli forces have set up posts inside the Gaza strip. The first time they have done this in the two-and-a-half-year-old conflict. Palestinian militants are responding by vowing more attacks inside Israel.

BROWN: Kelly, thank you. Back to all of you shortly.

Also coming up tonight, NEWSNIGHT, Friday, the 7th of March. The military making its final preparations for war. We'll look at one element that seems to be missing; namely, surprise. We'll also talk with retired General Wesley Clark.

And story time in "Segment 7". A fable from CNN's Michael Shoulder (ph) about the value sometimes of keeping your mouth shut and your ears open. All that to come in the hour ahead.

We begin at the United Nations. The two chief weapons inspectors gave their reports today and didn't change many minds. But their words were overshadowed by those of the United States and Great Britain. Words designed to set a deadline to press the point to force the issue and to vote.

Last night, the president said he wants a vote no matter what the whip count is. That vote might come as early as Tuesday, and a lot can still happen between now and then. But tonight, at least, especially after all we've seen today, the whip count looks pretty iffy and the war looks fairly certain. We begin with CNN's Richard Roth.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROTH (voice-over): A deadline for Iraq. The U.S., Britain and Spain want to give Iraq until March 17 to give up weapons of mass destruction.

JACK STRAW, BRITISH FOREIGN MINISTER: Mr. President, the Council must send Iraq the clear message that we will resolve this crisis on the United Nations' terms. ROTH: The deadline included an amended draft resolution, which still needs approval by the full Security Council. France immediately rejected the idea.

DOMINIQUE DE VILLEPIN, FRENCH FOREIGN MINISTER: They are giving the deadline of the 17 of March, which is 10 days. We don't think that we go to war on timetable.

ROTH: The deadline dilemma pushed a U.N. weapons inspectors' report into the background. Chief weapons inspector Hans Blix did cite better Iraqi cooperation. But again with a caveat.

HANS BLIX, CHIEF U.N. WEAPONS INSPECTOR: Iraq, with a highly developed administrative system, should be able to provide more documentary evidence about its proscribed weapons programs. Only a few new such documents have come to light so far.

ROTH: The bottom line on the Blix report: no evidence of mobile weapons production centers, no evidence of underground weapon production, despite U.S. charges. Blix gives Iraq points for trying to give an accurate count of biological and chemical weapons it already destroyed, but scolds them for failing to reveal how many of those weapons it produced in the first place. When it comes to Iraq's destruction of Al Samoud 2 missiles, this showdown...

BLIX: We are not watching the breaking of toothpicks. Lethal weapons are being destroyed.

COLIN POWELL, SECRETARY OF STATE: But the problem is we don't know how many missiles there are, how many toothpicks there are.

ROTH: Blix's assessment of a timetable for Iraqi disarmament could not have sat well with the Bush administration.

BLIX: It will not take years, nor weeks, but months.

ROTH: And this, from am the top nuclear inspector...

MOHAMED ELBARADEI, IAEA: We have, to date, found no evidence or (UNINTELLIGIBLE) indication of the revival of a nuclear weapon program in Iraq.

ROTH: Blix and ElBaradei both cited better Iraqi cooperation in allowing scientists to be interviewed in private. But they both said they want to be able to speak to those scientists outside Iraq. When they finished, divided Council members dug in deeper.

DE VILLEPIN (through translator): Why should we wish to proceed by force at any price, when we can succeed peacefully?

STRAW: Dominique, that's a false choice. I wish it were that easy because we wouldn't be having to have this discussion. We could all put up our hands for disarmament by peace and go home.

POWELL: The clock continues to tick and the consequences of Saddam Hussein's continued refusal to disarm will be very real. ROTH: The final speaker in the debate, the Iraqi ambassador who was unyielding.

MOHAMMED ALDOURI, IRAQI AMBASSADOR TO U.N.: War against Iraq will not (UNINTELLIGIBLE) any weapons of mass destruction. But it will reap destruction for a very simple reason. There are no such weapons.

ROTH: Friday evening Council consultations did not bring the warring diplomats closer together. And the U.S. ambassador warned the time for nations to show their hands is just days away.

JOHN NEGROPONTE, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO U.N.: There will be no vote on Monday. But that we were advising delegations to advise their governments to have instructions back to them to be prepared to vote as early as Tuesday, from Tuesday onward. So we are advising delegations to be prepared.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROTH: But it's still going to be a hard fight for the U.S. Early reaction from the uncommitted. Angola's representative called it a bad draft. Chile was noncommittal still, and the Security Council was divided as ever during those consultations.

Meanwhile there's another draft floating around, that believe to be by Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, not a Council member. That one definitely does not call for use of force, even offers amnesty for any Iraqi officials who cooperate with the U.N. weapons inspectors. That draft, Aaron, has not been introduced yet.

BROWN: All right. Lay out the timetable as best you can guess at this point, starting tomorrow. Any action tomorrow and moving on through next week?

ROTH: Expect for the weekend phone consultations, as many of the ministers are already on planes headed over oceans right now. A lot of contact through there. No consultation here. Monday at 4:00 Eastern Time, consultations, and then the U.S. could call for a vote Tuesday.

BROWN: And if any member calls for a vote, then the vote immediately happens? Is that how -- is that how it works?

ROTH: It could work that way. There still could be some bargaining. They could call for the vote. Everybody could gather, and then someone says, well, let's talk about it further, and then they'll go back to the consultation room. Actually, this evening's consultations ended rather early by U.N. crisis standards. We've all been here until 7:00 or 8:00 in the morning in some past historic crises for the international organization.

BROWN: Richard, thank you. Richard Roth at the United Nations. That is our lead story.

It played about 15 minutes into the evening news in Baghdad today. It was, however, the first time Iraqi TV had an immediate reaction to the developments at the U.N., positive reaction to the report from Hans Blix and the broadcast focusing on speeches by the Germans, the French, the Russians. Mostly highlighting their comments about Iraq's cooperation.

Missing from Iraqi TV, the American and the British side. And the British side is where we turn next. The headline up on "The New York Times" Web site reads: "British Proposal Sets March 17 Deadline for Iraq to Disarm." Being seen as seeking U.N. approval, even unsuccessfully, is tremendously important to the British government of Tony Blair.

Keeping the British on board matters immensely to the United States. So a British proposal it was today. Here again, CNN's Andrea Koppel.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

STRAW: I'm asking the secretariat to circulate an amendment which we are tabling.

KOPPEL (voice-over): A final flurry of late-night meetings Thursday and early Friday morning sealed what administration sources tell CNN was a British idea from start to finish. A last-ditch effort to not only build consensus in the Security Council ahead of next week's vote, but also to give embattled British Prime Minister Tony Blair, whose government is in jeopardy of falling, ammunition back home. Proof positive, said one U.S. official, that Blair went the extra mile to avoid a war.

STRAW: We have to increase the pressure on Saddam Hussein. We have to put this man to the test. He has shown this week he doesn't need more time to comply. He can act with astonishing speed when he chooses to.

KOPPEL: The British amendment also provides potential wiggle room for six undecided countries like Chile and Mexico, whose governments have pushed to give inspectors more time and whose votes would be essential to pass the resolution.

LUIS ERNESTO DERBEZ, MEXICAN FOREIGN MINISTER: I will have to analyze. This is something that we'll have to bring back to Mexico and analyze together with our president.

KOPPEL: But for France, Russia and China, three permanent members with veto power, the 10-day reprieve didn't seem to change minds.

DE VILLEPIN: We won't accept this new resolution. I heard very closely my British colleague expressing the new amendment they have for the resolution and we have said that we cannot accept any ultimatum.

KOPPEL: Undeterred by the threat of veto, Powell made clear it's shaping up to be a high stakes diplomatic dare.

POWELL: Now is the time for the Council to tell Saddam that the clock has not been stopped by his strategies and his machinations.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KOPPEL: The U.S., the U.K. and Spain, all sponsors of this newly amended resolution, are gambling that, while they may get the nine out of 15 Council votes necessary to pass it, it could be vetoed by either China, Russia, France or all of the above, killing it in its tracks. But as one senior administration official told me, Aaron, it's a damn the torpedoes, damn the vetoes, full steam ahead mentality.

BROWN: Do they then still believe at the State Department that they can find nine votes?

KOPPEL: The Bush administration at large -- and I recognize you are asking about the State Department, but...

BROWN: That's OK. Go ahead. You won't be the first person to answer the question on your own terms on this program -- thank you.

KOPPEL: OK. The Bush administration at large at this stage doesn't know. They think that they do. They say they won't know until the votes are actually cast.

They are hoping that this 10-day extension, if you will, this 10- day ultimatum, will give all of those governments not just the British, but the Guineans, the Angolans, the Cameroonians, all of them an excuse to go back to their governments and say, look, the last two weeks of negotiating was worth it. We got a little more time.

Look, let's do this. We stand to gain their aid projects. There's all kinds of things in it for us.

BROWN: Andrea, thank you. A long day for you, too. Andrea Koppel here in New York with us tonight.

On now to the search about Osama bin Laden. About a dozen headlines were written and then torn up as this day went along. So, at the end of the day, what do we really know about the manhunt going on in Pakistan? We go back to Mike Boettcher on the videophone from Islamabad -- Mike.

BOETTCHER: Well, Aaron, right. And this has been a very crazy 48 hours. All sorts of reports.

Forty-eight hours ago there was a report that Osama bin Laden had been captured. But that was roundly denied by U.S. authorities, intelligence officials in the Arab world, and officials elsewhere. Then yesterday The Associated Press reported that the home minister of Baluchistan province in southwest Pakistan reported that there had been a big gun battle between U.S. forces and supposed al Qaeda forces just across the border in Afghanistan ,and that Osama bin Laden's two sons had been captured.

He has 23 sons -- two of those 23. But that was also roundly denied by U.S. officials and Pakistani officials. So let's look at the accounting. Let's go back and see what we do know and what we don't know.

Now Pakistani authorities say they are conducting no heightened level of operations, but they are in a heightened level of alert, after the capture of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed. They say that they conducted some raids in Baluchistan province that turned up nothing. On the Washington side of this, the Pentagon sources are telling our people that the joint Special operations command known as JSOC (ph) is conducting operations along the border, and that would extend from the northwest territories, which is an area of northwest Pakistan not under central control of the government here, stretching down to the southwest and Baluchistan province.

What is clear is information has been gleaned from Khalid Shaikh Mohammed. I have that confirmed from Arab intelligence sources. But the information does not completely pinpoint where Osama bin Laden is. And certainly, Aaron, there is a heightened search underway out there somewhere, and if there is an operation underway to get Osama bin Laden, we don't know the specifics about it and, frankly, we won't know about it until after it happens -- Aaron.

BROWN: I expect you're right about that. The one change that I note here, tell me if I'm right, is that Pakistan at least now seems to be acknowledging that it is likely that bin Laden is in Pakistan.

BOETTCHER: Well, there are conflicting reports about that. Pakistani officials are maintaining that he is alive, but some high- ranking officials say he is not in Pakistan. Others have said in other intelligence sources I've spoken to, say that what is clear is that the previous thinking that bin Laden was staying hunkered down in a cave, is changing somewhat after the arrest of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed.

That it appears that Osama bin Laden did move around a bit and perhaps moved to bigger cities. But at least publicly, the Pakistanis are saying they don't believe he is here. The caveat there is, this is a border that's very porous between Afghanistan and Pakistan and what they might be saying is he's a step or two across the border.

BROWN: Mike, thank you. Mike Boettcher on the videophone from Islamabad in Pakistan tonight.

Ahead on NEWSNIGHT: we have more on the Iraq story. We'll talk with Ken Pollack of the Brookings Institution about the latest maneuvering. And we'll have the latest on the military preparations and talk with retired General Wesley Clark as well.

A long way to go here on a Friday night. This is NEWSNIGHT on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Last night President Bush reiterated in clear and stark tones the case against Iraq. And while his sense of certainty and perhaps even destiny is reassuring to many Americans, it is less so in many parts of the world. There seems a hunger, if not for shades of gray from the president. At least recognition that they do exist and need to be dealt with.

One of the many things to talk with our next guest about. Ken Pollack joins us again in Washington. Good to have you back. It seems like a Friday thing we have going, Ken. Thank you.

At the end of all of this, whenever the end comes, will we look back at today for all the words spoken and the fuss and the tension of it all, will we look at it as particularly important?

KEN POLLACK, CNN ANALYST: I suspect that we probably won't, Aaron. I think that the really important dates happened several weeks ago, maybe even several months ago. I think it's pretty clear that the administration has long made up its mind.

I think that the French, the Germans and the Russians have pretty much made up their mind. Certainly that's the case for the French and Germans. And I think that what you saw today was simply the playing out of these different positions. They are still jostling to compete for those six undecided votes for the U.N. That's really what's going on. But most of today was really just political theater.

BROWN: And so, it's -- I'm not even reading between the lines. I think what I hear you saying is that the government, the American government, has made its decision it's going to war.

POLLACK: Right. In fact, I would actually argue, Aaron, that we are already at war. We have greatly increased the number of sorties that we're flying in the no-fly zones. We've already gotten -- you've seen the press reports out there that we've already got special forces in Iraq, (UNINTELLIGIBLE), doing all the stuff the special forces does.

We're in that stage that the military calls preparing the battlefield. It's already started. And, in fact, I think that what President Bush was saying last night was playing very much into that saying, look, we are going to war. And so you undecided countries out there, you need to understand that.

Saddam Hussein, he is a goner. He is finished. When this is over, he is going to be gone. And the question that you need to ask yourselves is, what side of history do you want to be on when this is over?

After we have opened up Iraq and we've opened up Saddam's horrible jails and the people start coming out and telling stories about what life was like in Saddam's awful society, when we do find the weapons of mass destruction -- the administration does seem very confident they are going to find weapons of mass destruction in there -- when history is written about this war, you countries, when you have to vote, which side do you want history to record you stood up on?

BROWN: I would guess the president, at least a half a dozen times yesterday, said he hopes this can be settled peacefully or he hadn't made up his mind. We should not take that seriously? POLLACK: As I said, Aaron, I think that the administration made up its mind a while ago that the president just decided that Iraq can't be disarmed peacefully and it's going to be war.

BROWN: All right. Let's talk about, then, what happens in that war. If -- what is your sense that the Iraq -- are the Iraqis nervous? The Iraqi people nervous about the the American intention?

Obviously anyone would be nervous if cruise missiles were raining down on them. But I think you understand what I'm saying here. Do they have confidence in the United States?

POLLACK: It's actually a great question. It's a very important one. And let me start by saying that the honest answer is we just don't know. Iraq has basically been cut off from the rest of the world for about 30 years because Saddam does control popular opinion, because the people are so terrified of speaking out against him.

Now that said, we've actually got quite a bit of information that's been trickling out of Iraq and it has been fairly consistent. Which is, it's basically indicated that the Iraqi people are so desperate to be rid of Saddam Hussein that at this point in time they would actually in kind of a bizarre way, welcome a war.

Now they are nervous about the war. They are nervous both about the war, because they do believe that people will die in the war and obviously that will be awful for them. But what they are saying is, if you don't go to war with us, people are still going to die because people die every year in Saddam's Iraq. Tens of thousands die every year in Saddam's Iraq, and we think that war will at least get this over with and allow us to live in freedom and some degree of peace.

But they are also nervous about U.S. intentions for the post-war period. There are a lot of Iraqis, like a lot of Arabs, who just don't know what the U.S. is planning. And they suspect that all the United States wants to do is to go into Iraq, grab Iraq's oil well, put in place a new dictator, and walk away.

And I think that once we go in there, on the one hand they're going to be relieved to be rid Saddam Hussein. But they're also going to want to know what it is that we plan to do next.

BROWN: And how then -- we're talking about this as if this thing were over already. How then does the American government or the American military convince them of their intentions, that their intentions are good?

POLLACK: Sure. I think that first thing that we have to do is that we have to restart a humanitarian aid program immediately. We've got to move in there quickly and be able to start feeding Iraqis and helping them in terms of their medical needs, getting their water turned back on, dealing with their sanitation problems, and immediately showing them that there are immediate positive benefits from the war itself.

The second thing is that I think the United States is going to have to work more closely with the United Nations. It's something that the administration is still wrestling with. But I think that the clearest way, the best way to send a signal to the Iraqi people that, look, this is not about Mobile and other American oil companies grabbing your oil well, is to put the whole operation in some way, shape or form, under the rubric of the United Nations.

If you have a U.N. hand on the Iraqi oil spigot, I think that the Iraqis, the Arabs, a whole bunch of other countries are going to feel much better about why the United States is there than if you have an American hand on that spigot.

BROWN: Ken, good to talk to you. The way things are going, I guess we'll talk to you next Friday, too. Thank you very much.

POLLACK: I look forward to it, Aaron.

BROWN: Ken Pollack tonight.

Coming up on NEWSNIGHT: getting ready for the war. The latest from what could soon be the front lines. We'll also talk with retired General Wesley Clark. Around the world, this is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Iraq again. This time the military side of things. As Ken Pollack said, to some extent, the war has already started. Nearly all the pieces are in place. The operation even has a name of sorts.

There's a story tonight in all the preparations being made, but a story as well in how little there is of the element of surprise. And that's by design.

Here's CNN's Jamie McIntyre.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MCINTYRE (voice-over): Usually D-Day, the first day of a war, is a closely guarded secret. But Pentagon sources say the U.S. is considering give up what it calls tactical surprise in order to minimize civilian deaths. President Bush has said as much.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We will give people a chance to leave. And we don't want anybody in harm's way who shouldn't be in harm's way.

MCINTYRE: Sources say the U.S. is considering dropping leaflets, warning the Iraqi populace 24 hours in advance. That would also maximize pressure on Saddam Hussein to reconsider the U.S.' long- standing offer to accept exile.

BUSH: Hopefully as a result of the pressure that we've placed and others have placed, that Saddam will disarm and/or leave the country.

MCINTYRE: Meanwhile, along the Iraqi border in northern Kuwait, contractors guarded by the U.S. military are literally clearing a path for invasion. At least seven openings have been cut into the wire fence, marking the U.N. monitored demilitarized zone. And more openings will be cut in the days ahead, sources say.

And sources tell CNN that Saudi Arabia is quietly allowing the U.S. to reposition forces from the Prince Sultan Air Base southeast of Riyadh, to several forward bases closer to the Iraqi border. Sources say the forces include fighter planes, helicopters and some special forces.

And in Kuwait, the first of the 101st Airborne Division's Apache Longbow helicopters have arrived. Sources say the entire fleet could be up and flying within five to seven days. The U.S. is still waiting for Turkey to grant overflight rights for planes on two aircraft carriers in the Mediterranean Sea. At the very least, the U.S. is hoping to use the 25 U.S. warplanes that patrol the northern no-fly zone from Incirlik, Turkey.

(on camera): The war plan for Iraq does not yet have a catchy name such as Operation Desert Storm, but it does have a designation, Op Plan 1003 Victor. And sources say it could be executed in as little as 10 days.

Jamie McIntyre, CNN, the Pentagon.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: More now on Op Plan 1003 Victor from a man who speaks such lingo and can interpret it for us, we're joined tonight from Little Rock by CNN military analyst Retired General Wesley Clark.

It' good to see you, General.

RET. GENERAL WESLEY CLARK, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: It's nice to be with you, Aaron.

BROWN: One quick question on the goings-on at the U.N. and then I want to move to military stuff. From a military point of view, this 10 days, it doesn't matter at all, does it?

CLARK: Actually, I think it helps the United States, because all the forces aren't there yet. We'll more ready in 10 days than we are now.

BROWN: OK.

Let's talk about the element of surprise or lack thereof. There's much bravado that comes from the Pentagon of late about how they are going to execute this. In part, are they literally trying to scare the Iraqis?

CLARK: Well, I think that this is part of the plan. It's part, of course, of diplomacy. There's no point in keeping all your cards behind your back, because what -- I think it is a sincere effort. It would be better if Saddam Hussein left and we avoided a war.

On the other hand, this is a total military mismatch, as you look at the sides and their technology and their capabilities and their training and the quality of leadership and so forth. And so we are able to take some liberty, if you will, with disclosing certain things and not protecting other things the same way we would if it were, say, a repeat of the invasion at D-Day in Normandy in 1944.

BROWN: Is there anything -- you've got these 200,000-plus soldiers and Marines on the border, essentially, or in Kuwait and around the area. It's not like they don't know they're there. So what is it that, if anything, that the Pentagon has said that would be surprising to the Iraqis at this point?

CLARK: Well, I think the Iraqis still are missing the essential details of the plan. Even if they know the exact hour it comes, they don't know exactly what targets are going to be struck and what sequence. And they aren't able to anticipate, let's say, the electronic warfare that's going to blow their radar off the air.

And when the ground forces advance, they aren't going to know exactly where the landing zones are or where the river crossings are or the avenue of advance up to Baghdad. So, there are still elements of tactical surprise. And when those M1A1 tanks roll over the rise for the first time, if there are any Iraqi gunners left in their tanks, even though they may have been told they are coming, there's going to be a huge feeling of shock in the Iraqi ranks.

BROWN: Yes.

When we were in Kuwait, we were talking to helicopter pilots. And one of the things one said to me was -- and he had been in Desert Storm -- he said: 10 years ago, we really had a lot of respect for the Iraqi military. We thought they'd fight, fight hard, fight to the end. Now I don't believe that.

Do you agree with him that there is -- in this respect, that there is less respect for the Iraqi military than there was a dozen years ago?

CLARK: There's no doubt about it. In Desert Storm, I think there was a real mixed feeling. Some of our commanders had tremendous respect for the Iraqi military. Others said, these are Arabs. They are not going to fight well. And, subsequently, of course, most of the Iraqi military didn't fight well.

Now we've sort of -- we've taken that aboard and we don't have the respect for the Iraqi military. My guess is, some of the units might fight pretty hard, the Special Republican Guards, the people that are close to Saddam Hussein, that have been screened and handpicked for loyalty. We always have to respect our adversary. Some of the units that we might encounter early, maybe they will surrender. But we shouldn't go into battle thinking it's going to be a cakewalk. We can't let ourselves believe that.

BROWN: And a final question: Someone on the program last night expressed concerns about the concept of the plan in this regard: that there's this almost simultaneous air/ground war effort being made. And he argued -- he's a flyer -- that not enough time is being allowed the air side to soften up the ground to let the ground guys go in.

CLARK: Well, hopefully, we've got reconnaissance, so we'll know what the effect of the airstrikes are.

When we were doing the operation in Kosovo, if the Serbs had fought back against us, we would have quickly taken down their air defense. And our greatest concern was, they wouldn't fight back. And, subsequently, that's what happened. They didn't. In this case, I think we're going to strike so hard and so heavily against Saddam Hussein that he's going to have to fight back. We'll be running reconnaissance.

We'll know almost immediately how well we're doing at degrading his capabilities. And then we'll make a command judgment as to when to send the ground troops in.

BROWN: General Clark, I have a feeling we're going to spend a lot of time together before this month is out.

CLARK: I think we will, Aaron.

BROWN: Thank you, sir, very much, General Wesley Clark in Little Rock.

A few other stories to get in tonight before we go to break. We start in Texas. The state's former attorney general surrendered to face federal charges. Prosecutors say Dan Morales schemed with a friend to get hundreds of millions of dollars in lawyers fees from the state's 1998 settlement with the tobacco companies. Morales denies any wrongdoing.

Farewell today to one of the fallen astronauts of the shuttle Columbia. Crew member Michael Anderson was buried at Arlington National Cemetery, steps away from the grave of Dick Scobee, the commander of the shuttle Challenger. At the service, one mourner recalled what Anderson said to his minister. "If this thing doesn't come out right," he said, "don't worry about me. I'm just going on higher."

And a scare tonight at the Boston Celtics basketball game: The Celtics suddenly evacuated their bench between periods of their game between the Los Angeles Clippers. An unknown substance made it difficult for them to breathe. The game was delayed for nine minutes. One player said this: "Everybody started coughing" -- no comment yet from security officials of what the substance might be.

Still to come on NEWSNIGHT: The lights go out on Broadway.

And up next: The fighting between Israel and Palestinians intensifies, and Gaza now the main battleground.

From New York, this is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: And as NEWSNIGHT continues: battleground Gaza. As the Israelis move in, the question tonight: Are they planning to stay?

A short break. Right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: That's two days in a row for the giant Chee-to story.

With all the focus on Iraq, we shouldn't forget there is already war going on in the Middle East. Close to Hebron today, a Palestinian gunman killed a husband and wife at Sabbath dinner. It comes after a suicide bombing in Haifa on Wednesday that killed 15 people, most of them teenagers, and some of the teenagers peace activists.

On the other side, dozens of Palestinians have been killed, some of them militiamen, others civilians; 11 were killed just yesterday, including three teenage boys. And so now, for the first time since the region exploded more than two years ago, Israeli forces are not just going into Gaza. They apparently are planning to stay.

Once again, here's CNN's Kelly Wallace.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WALLACE (voice-over): A new phase in Israel's stepped-up offensive: More than 40 tanks and vehicles take up positions in northern Gaza. They might not be leaving any time soon.

BRIG. CMDR. JOEL STRIEK, ISRAELI DEFENSE FORCES (through translator): It could be short. It could be ongoing, everything according to what we will decide.

WALLACE: The army's goal: to prevent Palestinian militants from getting close enough to the border to fire homemade rockets into Israel, such an ongoing operation familiar in the West Bank, but, up until now, Israel has been reluctant to do it here. Palestinian children get close and throw stones, until they realize the stakes could be very high.

(on camera): Over the past 2 1/2 years of this conflict, Israeli forces would only spend a few hours here in the Gaza Strip. But what is significant this time, this is the second operation in less than two weeks where Israeli military sources say the Israeli forces will remain in the Gaza Strip until the security situation improves.

(voice-over): The latest incursion comes at the end of a bloody week: in Gaza, 19 Palestinians killed in Israeli operations targeting Hamas, while in Israel's northern city of Haifa, 15 people killed, many young students, in a suicide bus bombing.

At a Gaza rally Friday, some 2,000 Hamas supporters marched, vowing Israel's incursions wouldn't stop their attacks.

ABDEL AZIZ RANTISI, HAMAS LEADER: The Israelis are going to escalation their aggression. If you're in any war in Iraq, then we will escalate our resistance everywhere. WALLACE: But Hamas is facing pressure, and not just from the Israelis. This member of the Palestinian Central Council says attacks by Hamas are only giving Israel -- quote -- "cover" to carry out raids in the Gaza Strip.

JAMAL ZAKOUT, PALESTINIAN HIGHER COMMITTEE OF NATIONAL AND ISLAMIC FORCES: I suggest all the Palestinians' leadership, factions, parties, people, innocent people, farmers, women, etcetera, to go out and to speak to Hamas: Enough. What you are doing, it's against the Palestinian agenda.

WALLACE: The violence will complicate matters for Mahmoud Abbas, the man Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat is expected to appoint prime minister this weekend. His immediate challenges: trying to exert some control over Hamas and trying to convince Israel, as a first step, to pull its forces out of Gaza.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WALLACE: Quiet night and morning so far here in the Gaza Strip, but no one expects this quiet to continue. Israeli officials believe, as a possible U.S. war with Iraq approaches, Palestinian militants will increase their attacks, while Palestinians believe the Israelis will increase their offensive here, charging that Israel will take advantage of the world's attention on Saddam Hussein -- Aaron.

BROWN: Kelly, thank you -- Kelly Wallace in Gaza tonight. It's good to have you back on the program as well.

Ahead on NEWSNIGHT, we'll check tomorrow morning's papers from around the country and around the world.

And one headline sure to be in the New York papers tomorrow, as much of Broadway goes dark: Musicians have gone on strike.

This is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: The latest on a scene of intense negotiations, 11th-hour threats, a bitter collapse of unity -- and this isn't going on at the United Nations. It's across town here in New York City, a great Broadway drama you've probably never heard of: a fight between producers and musician that came to a head today, with stunning consequences. Much of Broadway tonight is dark and quiet and on strike.

Here's CNN's Serena Altschul.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SERENA ALTSCHUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Thousands of theatergoers hoping to catch a Broadway musical were left out in the cold.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm from Massachusetts. And we're just here for the weekend. And we were hoping to see a performance this evening. And we had tickets for "Aida." And we're a little disappointed we're not going to be able to see the show.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think it's unfortunate, because the people who really get hurt in the end are those people like us. We came all the way from South Dakota. We're standing here. We may not be able to go see any more shows. So those are the people that really get hurt.

ALTSCHUL: Seventeen Broadway musicals, including crowd-pleasers like "Mamma Mia" and "Hairspray" shut down actors said they wouldn't cross picket lines of striking musicians.

HARVEY FIERSTEIN, ACTOR: We're professionals. We're artists. And a machine is a dead thing. Though it's played by a human being, it's still a computer. And that's not why people go to the live theater. It's certainly not why I want to be in the live theater.

ALTSCHUL: The musicians went on strike Friday night, after they were unable to reach a deal with producers over the number of musicians mandated for each show.

BILL DENNISON, UNION OFFICIAL: To be honest with you, this is no longer, if it ever was, about creativity issues on the other side. They have made clear to us that this is about money and nothing else.

ALTSCHUL: Broadway producers say, in addition to the high cost of being told how many musicians they are forced to hire, it stifles creativity, creativity that will indefinitely be missed as the lights go out on Broadway.

Serena Altschul, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: All right, time for tomorrow morning's papers around the country and around the world. And I must tell you, this is my worst nightmare, because, basically, every headline is the same But here we go.

"The Guardian": "Showdown as Britain Sets March 17 Deadline on Iraq." When this happens, when all the headlines are the same, you have got to go to another part of the paper. So down here on the front part -- wait, glasses are coming off -- "Police Beans Warning: Do Not Put Your Foot in It." This is a story of a con man of sorts who imagined to convince some storekeeper to put her feet in a big tub of baked beans. That's front-page news.

"The Times of London": "Iraq Gets 10 Days to Avert War." And they're still running the bin Laden's sons wounded in Afghan gunfight story that's been pretty much shot down.

"Daily Telegraph," we're still overseas. I love the picture here. That's why I did this: "March 17 Deadline for War." And that is the general chief of staff -- chief of the general staff in Britain. Isn't that a great face? "We are ready," insists British army chief, though there's some talk about that.

"Chicago Sun-Times" -- we move back to the United States. "Saddam Down to His Last Nine Days" the headline there. And I don't know if you've ever noticed this, but up in the corner, they put the weather, and sometimes does it in a really kind of odd -- I guess it's going to rain tomorrow in Chicago. One day, it was "hideous" was the way they described it."

"Ten Days" is the "Boston Herald" lead. Now, OK, can we do this? You got nine days in Chicago, 10 days in Boston. I can't figure it out either, but that's what it is.

"San Francisco Chronicle": "U.S. Asks For Deadline to Disarm," their headline.

Quickly to two pictures. Let's try and get them both in, first the motorcycle guys. All right, these are the kids. This will break your heart. These are kids in Iraq. And they are hanging around in Baghdad, where the sandbags have already gone in. And quickly to Kuwait: two British soldiers on motorcycles in a sandstorm of significant proportion. They are not going to be getting much R&R in a couple weeks, we suspect. So whatever fun they are going to have, they're going to have now.

That's the morning papers, tomorrow morning's papers.

Segment seven coming up next -- it takes on the body politic, if you will.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Finally tonight: an old-fashioned fable about a very modern crisis. It's told by CNN's Michael Sholder (ph), not to a classroom of kids, but to a roomful of grownups at a comedy club in Atlanta. In this case, it's the grownups who might need the lesson the most, a story about words.

And it begins with a story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Basically, with the whole Iraq situation, I was thinking about this old story about a king. And the king calls in the best hunter in the land and tells him, I want the milk of a lioness. Go out and get it.

So, the hunter goes out, runs really fast, catches the lioness, milks her, gets out alive. Bringing the milk back to the palace, an argument erupts among his body parts. And the legs say, we are the most important body part, because we caught that lioness for you. And the hands say, no, no, we're the most important body part. We milked the lioness for you.

And the ears say, ah, without us, you wouldn't have heard the king's order. And the mouth says, I'm the most important body part. The other body parts double over with laughter. What did you mean, mouth? You had nothing to do with this.

So they get back to the palace. The king welcomes the hunter in. He says, did you get me what I demanded? The hunter says, yes, your highness, I got you the milk of a pig.

The milk of a pig? Off with your head. The other body parts panic. Mouth, what do you say? You're going to get us killed. The mouth says, now, what's the most important body part?

(LAUGHTER)

DONALD RUMSFELD, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: You're thinking of Europe as Germany and France. I don't. I think that's old Europe.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, one's mouth can certainly work against one's interests. That remark from Secretary Rumsfeld dismissing France and Germany as old Europe and other Rumsfeld comments like it, may -- may -- have hurt the Bush administration's efforts to build an alliance for a hard-line approach towards Iraq.

JOHN KING, CNN SR. WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Perhaps this sentiment best summed up by Prime Minister Aznar of Spain during his visit to the Bush ranch in Crawford, Texas. We are told, in a private discussion -- and Prime Minister Aznar has talked about this publicly -- that he turned to the president and said, when communicating on this issue, the Europeans would prefer much more Powell, much less Rumsfeld.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now, just as disrespectful words can help turn allies away, respectful words can, in some cases, help win friends.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Islam affirms God's justice.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: For example, at the end of the Muslim holiday of Ramadan, President Bush spoke at a mosque about the positive role that Islam plays in the world.

BUSH: I'm pleased to join you today in the celebration of Eid, the culmination of this holy month of Ramadan.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: CNN showed a tape of that to people in Muslim capitals. And this teacher in Afghanistan echoed much of the positive reaction we heard.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When he is remembering this special occasion, we can say that he really respects Muslim people. And we respect them if they respect us.

BUSH: One of America's strongest friends and allies.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In the end, though, words can only go so far in shaping policy. The mouth cannot do it alone. One more note: In "The New York Times," a top Russian official is quoted as saying: "We are prepared for a compromise, but what kind of compromise can you have if the U.S. doesn't want to hear anybody?" If the U.S. doesn't want to hear anybody, maybe the most important body part is the ears.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Mike Sholder (ph), it's good to have you with us tonight.

Have a great weekend. We'll see you Monday.

Good night for all of us.

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 March 7, 2003 - 22:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
AARON BROWN, HOST: Good evening again. I'm Aaron Brown.
In newsrooms and in military units, those who placed their bets on March 14 for the start of a war are asking for a do-over tonight. In a day when thousands of words were spoken, it's doubtful to us that many minds were changed. Not in the Security Council and not in the country either. So now we're now looking at March 17 as a deadline, and there's little doubt that Iraq will miss that deadline too.

The anti-war side ought not kid themselves what cooperation there has been from Iraq has come not because of a U.N. resolution, but because there are more than 200,000 soldiers parked at their doorstep. And the administration ought not kid itself either. In the diplomatic game, the Iraqis have played their cards better, showing just enough cooperation to give the French and the Russians something to work with.

A wise old foreign policy guy told us the other day the scars of this battle will take decades to heal. It is a mess, and it's not likely to get any better as March 17 approaches.

So we begin The Whip at the United Nations with CNN's Richard Roth. Richard, a busy day for you. A headline, please.

RICHARD ROTH, CNN SR. U.N. CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, the U.S. and Britain have made a slight adjustment to their latest resolution on Iraq, but it packs a wallop. If approved, and that's no sure thing, Iraq would have to turn over all weapons of mass destruction by March 17 or else.

BROWN: Richard, thank you. And back to you at the top.

So what's behind this last ditch push for U.N. support? Andrea Koppel has been working that part of the U.N. story. Andrea, the headline.

ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN STATE DEPARTMENT CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, good evening. Believe it or not, it's a last-ditch effort in the hopes of keeping British Prime Minister Tony Blair's government in power. And while it may not work, officials are hoping it will provide Mr. Blair with enough of a political fig leaf that, with or without the backing of the United Nations, Britain can join the U.S. in a war with Iraq.

BROWN: Andrea, thank you. The other big story of this week, the hunt for Osama bin Laden, after the capture over the weekend, last weekend, of one of his top deputies. Mike Boettcher is on the videophone from Islamabad. Mike, a headline from you.

MIKE BOETTCHER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Aaron, there hasn't been this much news about the hunt for Osama bin Laden in more than a year. Coming up, we'll try to separate fact from fiction, which is proving to be a very difficult task.

BROWN: Michael, thank you.

And in all the talk about the possibility of war with Iraq, the bloodshed continues in another place. Kelly Wallace is in Gaza tonight. Kelly, a headline from you.

KELLY WALLACE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, it has been a deadly week here in the region. And now Israeli forces have set up posts inside the Gaza strip. The first time they have done this in the two-and-a-half-year-old conflict. Palestinian militants are responding by vowing more attacks inside Israel.

BROWN: Kelly, thank you. Back to all of you shortly.

Also coming up tonight, NEWSNIGHT, Friday, the 7th of March. The military making its final preparations for war. We'll look at one element that seems to be missing; namely, surprise. We'll also talk with retired General Wesley Clark.

And story time in "Segment 7". A fable from CNN's Michael Shoulder (ph) about the value sometimes of keeping your mouth shut and your ears open. All that to come in the hour ahead.

We begin at the United Nations. The two chief weapons inspectors gave their reports today and didn't change many minds. But their words were overshadowed by those of the United States and Great Britain. Words designed to set a deadline to press the point to force the issue and to vote.

Last night, the president said he wants a vote no matter what the whip count is. That vote might come as early as Tuesday, and a lot can still happen between now and then. But tonight, at least, especially after all we've seen today, the whip count looks pretty iffy and the war looks fairly certain. We begin with CNN's Richard Roth.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROTH (voice-over): A deadline for Iraq. The U.S., Britain and Spain want to give Iraq until March 17 to give up weapons of mass destruction.

JACK STRAW, BRITISH FOREIGN MINISTER: Mr. President, the Council must send Iraq the clear message that we will resolve this crisis on the United Nations' terms. ROTH: The deadline included an amended draft resolution, which still needs approval by the full Security Council. France immediately rejected the idea.

DOMINIQUE DE VILLEPIN, FRENCH FOREIGN MINISTER: They are giving the deadline of the 17 of March, which is 10 days. We don't think that we go to war on timetable.

ROTH: The deadline dilemma pushed a U.N. weapons inspectors' report into the background. Chief weapons inspector Hans Blix did cite better Iraqi cooperation. But again with a caveat.

HANS BLIX, CHIEF U.N. WEAPONS INSPECTOR: Iraq, with a highly developed administrative system, should be able to provide more documentary evidence about its proscribed weapons programs. Only a few new such documents have come to light so far.

ROTH: The bottom line on the Blix report: no evidence of mobile weapons production centers, no evidence of underground weapon production, despite U.S. charges. Blix gives Iraq points for trying to give an accurate count of biological and chemical weapons it already destroyed, but scolds them for failing to reveal how many of those weapons it produced in the first place. When it comes to Iraq's destruction of Al Samoud 2 missiles, this showdown...

BLIX: We are not watching the breaking of toothpicks. Lethal weapons are being destroyed.

COLIN POWELL, SECRETARY OF STATE: But the problem is we don't know how many missiles there are, how many toothpicks there are.

ROTH: Blix's assessment of a timetable for Iraqi disarmament could not have sat well with the Bush administration.

BLIX: It will not take years, nor weeks, but months.

ROTH: And this, from am the top nuclear inspector...

MOHAMED ELBARADEI, IAEA: We have, to date, found no evidence or (UNINTELLIGIBLE) indication of the revival of a nuclear weapon program in Iraq.

ROTH: Blix and ElBaradei both cited better Iraqi cooperation in allowing scientists to be interviewed in private. But they both said they want to be able to speak to those scientists outside Iraq. When they finished, divided Council members dug in deeper.

DE VILLEPIN (through translator): Why should we wish to proceed by force at any price, when we can succeed peacefully?

STRAW: Dominique, that's a false choice. I wish it were that easy because we wouldn't be having to have this discussion. We could all put up our hands for disarmament by peace and go home.

POWELL: The clock continues to tick and the consequences of Saddam Hussein's continued refusal to disarm will be very real. ROTH: The final speaker in the debate, the Iraqi ambassador who was unyielding.

MOHAMMED ALDOURI, IRAQI AMBASSADOR TO U.N.: War against Iraq will not (UNINTELLIGIBLE) any weapons of mass destruction. But it will reap destruction for a very simple reason. There are no such weapons.

ROTH: Friday evening Council consultations did not bring the warring diplomats closer together. And the U.S. ambassador warned the time for nations to show their hands is just days away.

JOHN NEGROPONTE, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO U.N.: There will be no vote on Monday. But that we were advising delegations to advise their governments to have instructions back to them to be prepared to vote as early as Tuesday, from Tuesday onward. So we are advising delegations to be prepared.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROTH: But it's still going to be a hard fight for the U.S. Early reaction from the uncommitted. Angola's representative called it a bad draft. Chile was noncommittal still, and the Security Council was divided as ever during those consultations.

Meanwhile there's another draft floating around, that believe to be by Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, not a Council member. That one definitely does not call for use of force, even offers amnesty for any Iraqi officials who cooperate with the U.N. weapons inspectors. That draft, Aaron, has not been introduced yet.

BROWN: All right. Lay out the timetable as best you can guess at this point, starting tomorrow. Any action tomorrow and moving on through next week?

ROTH: Expect for the weekend phone consultations, as many of the ministers are already on planes headed over oceans right now. A lot of contact through there. No consultation here. Monday at 4:00 Eastern Time, consultations, and then the U.S. could call for a vote Tuesday.

BROWN: And if any member calls for a vote, then the vote immediately happens? Is that how -- is that how it works?

ROTH: It could work that way. There still could be some bargaining. They could call for the vote. Everybody could gather, and then someone says, well, let's talk about it further, and then they'll go back to the consultation room. Actually, this evening's consultations ended rather early by U.N. crisis standards. We've all been here until 7:00 or 8:00 in the morning in some past historic crises for the international organization.

BROWN: Richard, thank you. Richard Roth at the United Nations. That is our lead story.

It played about 15 minutes into the evening news in Baghdad today. It was, however, the first time Iraqi TV had an immediate reaction to the developments at the U.N., positive reaction to the report from Hans Blix and the broadcast focusing on speeches by the Germans, the French, the Russians. Mostly highlighting their comments about Iraq's cooperation.

Missing from Iraqi TV, the American and the British side. And the British side is where we turn next. The headline up on "The New York Times" Web site reads: "British Proposal Sets March 17 Deadline for Iraq to Disarm." Being seen as seeking U.N. approval, even unsuccessfully, is tremendously important to the British government of Tony Blair.

Keeping the British on board matters immensely to the United States. So a British proposal it was today. Here again, CNN's Andrea Koppel.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

STRAW: I'm asking the secretariat to circulate an amendment which we are tabling.

KOPPEL (voice-over): A final flurry of late-night meetings Thursday and early Friday morning sealed what administration sources tell CNN was a British idea from start to finish. A last-ditch effort to not only build consensus in the Security Council ahead of next week's vote, but also to give embattled British Prime Minister Tony Blair, whose government is in jeopardy of falling, ammunition back home. Proof positive, said one U.S. official, that Blair went the extra mile to avoid a war.

STRAW: We have to increase the pressure on Saddam Hussein. We have to put this man to the test. He has shown this week he doesn't need more time to comply. He can act with astonishing speed when he chooses to.

KOPPEL: The British amendment also provides potential wiggle room for six undecided countries like Chile and Mexico, whose governments have pushed to give inspectors more time and whose votes would be essential to pass the resolution.

LUIS ERNESTO DERBEZ, MEXICAN FOREIGN MINISTER: I will have to analyze. This is something that we'll have to bring back to Mexico and analyze together with our president.

KOPPEL: But for France, Russia and China, three permanent members with veto power, the 10-day reprieve didn't seem to change minds.

DE VILLEPIN: We won't accept this new resolution. I heard very closely my British colleague expressing the new amendment they have for the resolution and we have said that we cannot accept any ultimatum.

KOPPEL: Undeterred by the threat of veto, Powell made clear it's shaping up to be a high stakes diplomatic dare.

POWELL: Now is the time for the Council to tell Saddam that the clock has not been stopped by his strategies and his machinations.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KOPPEL: The U.S., the U.K. and Spain, all sponsors of this newly amended resolution, are gambling that, while they may get the nine out of 15 Council votes necessary to pass it, it could be vetoed by either China, Russia, France or all of the above, killing it in its tracks. But as one senior administration official told me, Aaron, it's a damn the torpedoes, damn the vetoes, full steam ahead mentality.

BROWN: Do they then still believe at the State Department that they can find nine votes?

KOPPEL: The Bush administration at large -- and I recognize you are asking about the State Department, but...

BROWN: That's OK. Go ahead. You won't be the first person to answer the question on your own terms on this program -- thank you.

KOPPEL: OK. The Bush administration at large at this stage doesn't know. They think that they do. They say they won't know until the votes are actually cast.

They are hoping that this 10-day extension, if you will, this 10- day ultimatum, will give all of those governments not just the British, but the Guineans, the Angolans, the Cameroonians, all of them an excuse to go back to their governments and say, look, the last two weeks of negotiating was worth it. We got a little more time.

Look, let's do this. We stand to gain their aid projects. There's all kinds of things in it for us.

BROWN: Andrea, thank you. A long day for you, too. Andrea Koppel here in New York with us tonight.

On now to the search about Osama bin Laden. About a dozen headlines were written and then torn up as this day went along. So, at the end of the day, what do we really know about the manhunt going on in Pakistan? We go back to Mike Boettcher on the videophone from Islamabad -- Mike.

BOETTCHER: Well, Aaron, right. And this has been a very crazy 48 hours. All sorts of reports.

Forty-eight hours ago there was a report that Osama bin Laden had been captured. But that was roundly denied by U.S. authorities, intelligence officials in the Arab world, and officials elsewhere. Then yesterday The Associated Press reported that the home minister of Baluchistan province in southwest Pakistan reported that there had been a big gun battle between U.S. forces and supposed al Qaeda forces just across the border in Afghanistan ,and that Osama bin Laden's two sons had been captured.

He has 23 sons -- two of those 23. But that was also roundly denied by U.S. officials and Pakistani officials. So let's look at the accounting. Let's go back and see what we do know and what we don't know.

Now Pakistani authorities say they are conducting no heightened level of operations, but they are in a heightened level of alert, after the capture of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed. They say that they conducted some raids in Baluchistan province that turned up nothing. On the Washington side of this, the Pentagon sources are telling our people that the joint Special operations command known as JSOC (ph) is conducting operations along the border, and that would extend from the northwest territories, which is an area of northwest Pakistan not under central control of the government here, stretching down to the southwest and Baluchistan province.

What is clear is information has been gleaned from Khalid Shaikh Mohammed. I have that confirmed from Arab intelligence sources. But the information does not completely pinpoint where Osama bin Laden is. And certainly, Aaron, there is a heightened search underway out there somewhere, and if there is an operation underway to get Osama bin Laden, we don't know the specifics about it and, frankly, we won't know about it until after it happens -- Aaron.

BROWN: I expect you're right about that. The one change that I note here, tell me if I'm right, is that Pakistan at least now seems to be acknowledging that it is likely that bin Laden is in Pakistan.

BOETTCHER: Well, there are conflicting reports about that. Pakistani officials are maintaining that he is alive, but some high- ranking officials say he is not in Pakistan. Others have said in other intelligence sources I've spoken to, say that what is clear is that the previous thinking that bin Laden was staying hunkered down in a cave, is changing somewhat after the arrest of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed.

That it appears that Osama bin Laden did move around a bit and perhaps moved to bigger cities. But at least publicly, the Pakistanis are saying they don't believe he is here. The caveat there is, this is a border that's very porous between Afghanistan and Pakistan and what they might be saying is he's a step or two across the border.

BROWN: Mike, thank you. Mike Boettcher on the videophone from Islamabad in Pakistan tonight.

Ahead on NEWSNIGHT: we have more on the Iraq story. We'll talk with Ken Pollack of the Brookings Institution about the latest maneuvering. And we'll have the latest on the military preparations and talk with retired General Wesley Clark as well.

A long way to go here on a Friday night. This is NEWSNIGHT on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Last night President Bush reiterated in clear and stark tones the case against Iraq. And while his sense of certainty and perhaps even destiny is reassuring to many Americans, it is less so in many parts of the world. There seems a hunger, if not for shades of gray from the president. At least recognition that they do exist and need to be dealt with.

One of the many things to talk with our next guest about. Ken Pollack joins us again in Washington. Good to have you back. It seems like a Friday thing we have going, Ken. Thank you.

At the end of all of this, whenever the end comes, will we look back at today for all the words spoken and the fuss and the tension of it all, will we look at it as particularly important?

KEN POLLACK, CNN ANALYST: I suspect that we probably won't, Aaron. I think that the really important dates happened several weeks ago, maybe even several months ago. I think it's pretty clear that the administration has long made up its mind.

I think that the French, the Germans and the Russians have pretty much made up their mind. Certainly that's the case for the French and Germans. And I think that what you saw today was simply the playing out of these different positions. They are still jostling to compete for those six undecided votes for the U.N. That's really what's going on. But most of today was really just political theater.

BROWN: And so, it's -- I'm not even reading between the lines. I think what I hear you saying is that the government, the American government, has made its decision it's going to war.

POLLACK: Right. In fact, I would actually argue, Aaron, that we are already at war. We have greatly increased the number of sorties that we're flying in the no-fly zones. We've already gotten -- you've seen the press reports out there that we've already got special forces in Iraq, (UNINTELLIGIBLE), doing all the stuff the special forces does.

We're in that stage that the military calls preparing the battlefield. It's already started. And, in fact, I think that what President Bush was saying last night was playing very much into that saying, look, we are going to war. And so you undecided countries out there, you need to understand that.

Saddam Hussein, he is a goner. He is finished. When this is over, he is going to be gone. And the question that you need to ask yourselves is, what side of history do you want to be on when this is over?

After we have opened up Iraq and we've opened up Saddam's horrible jails and the people start coming out and telling stories about what life was like in Saddam's awful society, when we do find the weapons of mass destruction -- the administration does seem very confident they are going to find weapons of mass destruction in there -- when history is written about this war, you countries, when you have to vote, which side do you want history to record you stood up on?

BROWN: I would guess the president, at least a half a dozen times yesterday, said he hopes this can be settled peacefully or he hadn't made up his mind. We should not take that seriously? POLLACK: As I said, Aaron, I think that the administration made up its mind a while ago that the president just decided that Iraq can't be disarmed peacefully and it's going to be war.

BROWN: All right. Let's talk about, then, what happens in that war. If -- what is your sense that the Iraq -- are the Iraqis nervous? The Iraqi people nervous about the the American intention?

Obviously anyone would be nervous if cruise missiles were raining down on them. But I think you understand what I'm saying here. Do they have confidence in the United States?

POLLACK: It's actually a great question. It's a very important one. And let me start by saying that the honest answer is we just don't know. Iraq has basically been cut off from the rest of the world for about 30 years because Saddam does control popular opinion, because the people are so terrified of speaking out against him.

Now that said, we've actually got quite a bit of information that's been trickling out of Iraq and it has been fairly consistent. Which is, it's basically indicated that the Iraqi people are so desperate to be rid of Saddam Hussein that at this point in time they would actually in kind of a bizarre way, welcome a war.

Now they are nervous about the war. They are nervous both about the war, because they do believe that people will die in the war and obviously that will be awful for them. But what they are saying is, if you don't go to war with us, people are still going to die because people die every year in Saddam's Iraq. Tens of thousands die every year in Saddam's Iraq, and we think that war will at least get this over with and allow us to live in freedom and some degree of peace.

But they are also nervous about U.S. intentions for the post-war period. There are a lot of Iraqis, like a lot of Arabs, who just don't know what the U.S. is planning. And they suspect that all the United States wants to do is to go into Iraq, grab Iraq's oil well, put in place a new dictator, and walk away.

And I think that once we go in there, on the one hand they're going to be relieved to be rid Saddam Hussein. But they're also going to want to know what it is that we plan to do next.

BROWN: And how then -- we're talking about this as if this thing were over already. How then does the American government or the American military convince them of their intentions, that their intentions are good?

POLLACK: Sure. I think that first thing that we have to do is that we have to restart a humanitarian aid program immediately. We've got to move in there quickly and be able to start feeding Iraqis and helping them in terms of their medical needs, getting their water turned back on, dealing with their sanitation problems, and immediately showing them that there are immediate positive benefits from the war itself.

The second thing is that I think the United States is going to have to work more closely with the United Nations. It's something that the administration is still wrestling with. But I think that the clearest way, the best way to send a signal to the Iraqi people that, look, this is not about Mobile and other American oil companies grabbing your oil well, is to put the whole operation in some way, shape or form, under the rubric of the United Nations.

If you have a U.N. hand on the Iraqi oil spigot, I think that the Iraqis, the Arabs, a whole bunch of other countries are going to feel much better about why the United States is there than if you have an American hand on that spigot.

BROWN: Ken, good to talk to you. The way things are going, I guess we'll talk to you next Friday, too. Thank you very much.

POLLACK: I look forward to it, Aaron.

BROWN: Ken Pollack tonight.

Coming up on NEWSNIGHT: getting ready for the war. The latest from what could soon be the front lines. We'll also talk with retired General Wesley Clark. Around the world, this is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Iraq again. This time the military side of things. As Ken Pollack said, to some extent, the war has already started. Nearly all the pieces are in place. The operation even has a name of sorts.

There's a story tonight in all the preparations being made, but a story as well in how little there is of the element of surprise. And that's by design.

Here's CNN's Jamie McIntyre.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MCINTYRE (voice-over): Usually D-Day, the first day of a war, is a closely guarded secret. But Pentagon sources say the U.S. is considering give up what it calls tactical surprise in order to minimize civilian deaths. President Bush has said as much.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We will give people a chance to leave. And we don't want anybody in harm's way who shouldn't be in harm's way.

MCINTYRE: Sources say the U.S. is considering dropping leaflets, warning the Iraqi populace 24 hours in advance. That would also maximize pressure on Saddam Hussein to reconsider the U.S.' long- standing offer to accept exile.

BUSH: Hopefully as a result of the pressure that we've placed and others have placed, that Saddam will disarm and/or leave the country.

MCINTYRE: Meanwhile, along the Iraqi border in northern Kuwait, contractors guarded by the U.S. military are literally clearing a path for invasion. At least seven openings have been cut into the wire fence, marking the U.N. monitored demilitarized zone. And more openings will be cut in the days ahead, sources say.

And sources tell CNN that Saudi Arabia is quietly allowing the U.S. to reposition forces from the Prince Sultan Air Base southeast of Riyadh, to several forward bases closer to the Iraqi border. Sources say the forces include fighter planes, helicopters and some special forces.

And in Kuwait, the first of the 101st Airborne Division's Apache Longbow helicopters have arrived. Sources say the entire fleet could be up and flying within five to seven days. The U.S. is still waiting for Turkey to grant overflight rights for planes on two aircraft carriers in the Mediterranean Sea. At the very least, the U.S. is hoping to use the 25 U.S. warplanes that patrol the northern no-fly zone from Incirlik, Turkey.

(on camera): The war plan for Iraq does not yet have a catchy name such as Operation Desert Storm, but it does have a designation, Op Plan 1003 Victor. And sources say it could be executed in as little as 10 days.

Jamie McIntyre, CNN, the Pentagon.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: More now on Op Plan 1003 Victor from a man who speaks such lingo and can interpret it for us, we're joined tonight from Little Rock by CNN military analyst Retired General Wesley Clark.

It' good to see you, General.

RET. GENERAL WESLEY CLARK, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: It's nice to be with you, Aaron.

BROWN: One quick question on the goings-on at the U.N. and then I want to move to military stuff. From a military point of view, this 10 days, it doesn't matter at all, does it?

CLARK: Actually, I think it helps the United States, because all the forces aren't there yet. We'll more ready in 10 days than we are now.

BROWN: OK.

Let's talk about the element of surprise or lack thereof. There's much bravado that comes from the Pentagon of late about how they are going to execute this. In part, are they literally trying to scare the Iraqis?

CLARK: Well, I think that this is part of the plan. It's part, of course, of diplomacy. There's no point in keeping all your cards behind your back, because what -- I think it is a sincere effort. It would be better if Saddam Hussein left and we avoided a war.

On the other hand, this is a total military mismatch, as you look at the sides and their technology and their capabilities and their training and the quality of leadership and so forth. And so we are able to take some liberty, if you will, with disclosing certain things and not protecting other things the same way we would if it were, say, a repeat of the invasion at D-Day in Normandy in 1944.

BROWN: Is there anything -- you've got these 200,000-plus soldiers and Marines on the border, essentially, or in Kuwait and around the area. It's not like they don't know they're there. So what is it that, if anything, that the Pentagon has said that would be surprising to the Iraqis at this point?

CLARK: Well, I think the Iraqis still are missing the essential details of the plan. Even if they know the exact hour it comes, they don't know exactly what targets are going to be struck and what sequence. And they aren't able to anticipate, let's say, the electronic warfare that's going to blow their radar off the air.

And when the ground forces advance, they aren't going to know exactly where the landing zones are or where the river crossings are or the avenue of advance up to Baghdad. So, there are still elements of tactical surprise. And when those M1A1 tanks roll over the rise for the first time, if there are any Iraqi gunners left in their tanks, even though they may have been told they are coming, there's going to be a huge feeling of shock in the Iraqi ranks.

BROWN: Yes.

When we were in Kuwait, we were talking to helicopter pilots. And one of the things one said to me was -- and he had been in Desert Storm -- he said: 10 years ago, we really had a lot of respect for the Iraqi military. We thought they'd fight, fight hard, fight to the end. Now I don't believe that.

Do you agree with him that there is -- in this respect, that there is less respect for the Iraqi military than there was a dozen years ago?

CLARK: There's no doubt about it. In Desert Storm, I think there was a real mixed feeling. Some of our commanders had tremendous respect for the Iraqi military. Others said, these are Arabs. They are not going to fight well. And, subsequently, of course, most of the Iraqi military didn't fight well.

Now we've sort of -- we've taken that aboard and we don't have the respect for the Iraqi military. My guess is, some of the units might fight pretty hard, the Special Republican Guards, the people that are close to Saddam Hussein, that have been screened and handpicked for loyalty. We always have to respect our adversary. Some of the units that we might encounter early, maybe they will surrender. But we shouldn't go into battle thinking it's going to be a cakewalk. We can't let ourselves believe that.

BROWN: And a final question: Someone on the program last night expressed concerns about the concept of the plan in this regard: that there's this almost simultaneous air/ground war effort being made. And he argued -- he's a flyer -- that not enough time is being allowed the air side to soften up the ground to let the ground guys go in.

CLARK: Well, hopefully, we've got reconnaissance, so we'll know what the effect of the airstrikes are.

When we were doing the operation in Kosovo, if the Serbs had fought back against us, we would have quickly taken down their air defense. And our greatest concern was, they wouldn't fight back. And, subsequently, that's what happened. They didn't. In this case, I think we're going to strike so hard and so heavily against Saddam Hussein that he's going to have to fight back. We'll be running reconnaissance.

We'll know almost immediately how well we're doing at degrading his capabilities. And then we'll make a command judgment as to when to send the ground troops in.

BROWN: General Clark, I have a feeling we're going to spend a lot of time together before this month is out.

CLARK: I think we will, Aaron.

BROWN: Thank you, sir, very much, General Wesley Clark in Little Rock.

A few other stories to get in tonight before we go to break. We start in Texas. The state's former attorney general surrendered to face federal charges. Prosecutors say Dan Morales schemed with a friend to get hundreds of millions of dollars in lawyers fees from the state's 1998 settlement with the tobacco companies. Morales denies any wrongdoing.

Farewell today to one of the fallen astronauts of the shuttle Columbia. Crew member Michael Anderson was buried at Arlington National Cemetery, steps away from the grave of Dick Scobee, the commander of the shuttle Challenger. At the service, one mourner recalled what Anderson said to his minister. "If this thing doesn't come out right," he said, "don't worry about me. I'm just going on higher."

And a scare tonight at the Boston Celtics basketball game: The Celtics suddenly evacuated their bench between periods of their game between the Los Angeles Clippers. An unknown substance made it difficult for them to breathe. The game was delayed for nine minutes. One player said this: "Everybody started coughing" -- no comment yet from security officials of what the substance might be.

Still to come on NEWSNIGHT: The lights go out on Broadway.

And up next: The fighting between Israel and Palestinians intensifies, and Gaza now the main battleground.

From New York, this is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: And as NEWSNIGHT continues: battleground Gaza. As the Israelis move in, the question tonight: Are they planning to stay?

A short break. Right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: That's two days in a row for the giant Chee-to story.

With all the focus on Iraq, we shouldn't forget there is already war going on in the Middle East. Close to Hebron today, a Palestinian gunman killed a husband and wife at Sabbath dinner. It comes after a suicide bombing in Haifa on Wednesday that killed 15 people, most of them teenagers, and some of the teenagers peace activists.

On the other side, dozens of Palestinians have been killed, some of them militiamen, others civilians; 11 were killed just yesterday, including three teenage boys. And so now, for the first time since the region exploded more than two years ago, Israeli forces are not just going into Gaza. They apparently are planning to stay.

Once again, here's CNN's Kelly Wallace.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WALLACE (voice-over): A new phase in Israel's stepped-up offensive: More than 40 tanks and vehicles take up positions in northern Gaza. They might not be leaving any time soon.

BRIG. CMDR. JOEL STRIEK, ISRAELI DEFENSE FORCES (through translator): It could be short. It could be ongoing, everything according to what we will decide.

WALLACE: The army's goal: to prevent Palestinian militants from getting close enough to the border to fire homemade rockets into Israel, such an ongoing operation familiar in the West Bank, but, up until now, Israel has been reluctant to do it here. Palestinian children get close and throw stones, until they realize the stakes could be very high.

(on camera): Over the past 2 1/2 years of this conflict, Israeli forces would only spend a few hours here in the Gaza Strip. But what is significant this time, this is the second operation in less than two weeks where Israeli military sources say the Israeli forces will remain in the Gaza Strip until the security situation improves.

(voice-over): The latest incursion comes at the end of a bloody week: in Gaza, 19 Palestinians killed in Israeli operations targeting Hamas, while in Israel's northern city of Haifa, 15 people killed, many young students, in a suicide bus bombing.

At a Gaza rally Friday, some 2,000 Hamas supporters marched, vowing Israel's incursions wouldn't stop their attacks.

ABDEL AZIZ RANTISI, HAMAS LEADER: The Israelis are going to escalation their aggression. If you're in any war in Iraq, then we will escalate our resistance everywhere. WALLACE: But Hamas is facing pressure, and not just from the Israelis. This member of the Palestinian Central Council says attacks by Hamas are only giving Israel -- quote -- "cover" to carry out raids in the Gaza Strip.

JAMAL ZAKOUT, PALESTINIAN HIGHER COMMITTEE OF NATIONAL AND ISLAMIC FORCES: I suggest all the Palestinians' leadership, factions, parties, people, innocent people, farmers, women, etcetera, to go out and to speak to Hamas: Enough. What you are doing, it's against the Palestinian agenda.

WALLACE: The violence will complicate matters for Mahmoud Abbas, the man Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat is expected to appoint prime minister this weekend. His immediate challenges: trying to exert some control over Hamas and trying to convince Israel, as a first step, to pull its forces out of Gaza.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WALLACE: Quiet night and morning so far here in the Gaza Strip, but no one expects this quiet to continue. Israeli officials believe, as a possible U.S. war with Iraq approaches, Palestinian militants will increase their attacks, while Palestinians believe the Israelis will increase their offensive here, charging that Israel will take advantage of the world's attention on Saddam Hussein -- Aaron.

BROWN: Kelly, thank you -- Kelly Wallace in Gaza tonight. It's good to have you back on the program as well.

Ahead on NEWSNIGHT, we'll check tomorrow morning's papers from around the country and around the world.

And one headline sure to be in the New York papers tomorrow, as much of Broadway goes dark: Musicians have gone on strike.

This is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: The latest on a scene of intense negotiations, 11th-hour threats, a bitter collapse of unity -- and this isn't going on at the United Nations. It's across town here in New York City, a great Broadway drama you've probably never heard of: a fight between producers and musician that came to a head today, with stunning consequences. Much of Broadway tonight is dark and quiet and on strike.

Here's CNN's Serena Altschul.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SERENA ALTSCHUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Thousands of theatergoers hoping to catch a Broadway musical were left out in the cold.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm from Massachusetts. And we're just here for the weekend. And we were hoping to see a performance this evening. And we had tickets for "Aida." And we're a little disappointed we're not going to be able to see the show.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think it's unfortunate, because the people who really get hurt in the end are those people like us. We came all the way from South Dakota. We're standing here. We may not be able to go see any more shows. So those are the people that really get hurt.

ALTSCHUL: Seventeen Broadway musicals, including crowd-pleasers like "Mamma Mia" and "Hairspray" shut down actors said they wouldn't cross picket lines of striking musicians.

HARVEY FIERSTEIN, ACTOR: We're professionals. We're artists. And a machine is a dead thing. Though it's played by a human being, it's still a computer. And that's not why people go to the live theater. It's certainly not why I want to be in the live theater.

ALTSCHUL: The musicians went on strike Friday night, after they were unable to reach a deal with producers over the number of musicians mandated for each show.

BILL DENNISON, UNION OFFICIAL: To be honest with you, this is no longer, if it ever was, about creativity issues on the other side. They have made clear to us that this is about money and nothing else.

ALTSCHUL: Broadway producers say, in addition to the high cost of being told how many musicians they are forced to hire, it stifles creativity, creativity that will indefinitely be missed as the lights go out on Broadway.

Serena Altschul, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: All right, time for tomorrow morning's papers around the country and around the world. And I must tell you, this is my worst nightmare, because, basically, every headline is the same But here we go.

"The Guardian": "Showdown as Britain Sets March 17 Deadline on Iraq." When this happens, when all the headlines are the same, you have got to go to another part of the paper. So down here on the front part -- wait, glasses are coming off -- "Police Beans Warning: Do Not Put Your Foot in It." This is a story of a con man of sorts who imagined to convince some storekeeper to put her feet in a big tub of baked beans. That's front-page news.

"The Times of London": "Iraq Gets 10 Days to Avert War." And they're still running the bin Laden's sons wounded in Afghan gunfight story that's been pretty much shot down.

"Daily Telegraph," we're still overseas. I love the picture here. That's why I did this: "March 17 Deadline for War." And that is the general chief of staff -- chief of the general staff in Britain. Isn't that a great face? "We are ready," insists British army chief, though there's some talk about that.

"Chicago Sun-Times" -- we move back to the United States. "Saddam Down to His Last Nine Days" the headline there. And I don't know if you've ever noticed this, but up in the corner, they put the weather, and sometimes does it in a really kind of odd -- I guess it's going to rain tomorrow in Chicago. One day, it was "hideous" was the way they described it."

"Ten Days" is the "Boston Herald" lead. Now, OK, can we do this? You got nine days in Chicago, 10 days in Boston. I can't figure it out either, but that's what it is.

"San Francisco Chronicle": "U.S. Asks For Deadline to Disarm," their headline.

Quickly to two pictures. Let's try and get them both in, first the motorcycle guys. All right, these are the kids. This will break your heart. These are kids in Iraq. And they are hanging around in Baghdad, where the sandbags have already gone in. And quickly to Kuwait: two British soldiers on motorcycles in a sandstorm of significant proportion. They are not going to be getting much R&R in a couple weeks, we suspect. So whatever fun they are going to have, they're going to have now.

That's the morning papers, tomorrow morning's papers.

Segment seven coming up next -- it takes on the body politic, if you will.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Finally tonight: an old-fashioned fable about a very modern crisis. It's told by CNN's Michael Sholder (ph), not to a classroom of kids, but to a roomful of grownups at a comedy club in Atlanta. In this case, it's the grownups who might need the lesson the most, a story about words.

And it begins with a story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Basically, with the whole Iraq situation, I was thinking about this old story about a king. And the king calls in the best hunter in the land and tells him, I want the milk of a lioness. Go out and get it.

So, the hunter goes out, runs really fast, catches the lioness, milks her, gets out alive. Bringing the milk back to the palace, an argument erupts among his body parts. And the legs say, we are the most important body part, because we caught that lioness for you. And the hands say, no, no, we're the most important body part. We milked the lioness for you.

And the ears say, ah, without us, you wouldn't have heard the king's order. And the mouth says, I'm the most important body part. The other body parts double over with laughter. What did you mean, mouth? You had nothing to do with this.

So they get back to the palace. The king welcomes the hunter in. He says, did you get me what I demanded? The hunter says, yes, your highness, I got you the milk of a pig.

The milk of a pig? Off with your head. The other body parts panic. Mouth, what do you say? You're going to get us killed. The mouth says, now, what's the most important body part?

(LAUGHTER)

DONALD RUMSFELD, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: You're thinking of Europe as Germany and France. I don't. I think that's old Europe.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, one's mouth can certainly work against one's interests. That remark from Secretary Rumsfeld dismissing France and Germany as old Europe and other Rumsfeld comments like it, may -- may -- have hurt the Bush administration's efforts to build an alliance for a hard-line approach towards Iraq.

JOHN KING, CNN SR. WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Perhaps this sentiment best summed up by Prime Minister Aznar of Spain during his visit to the Bush ranch in Crawford, Texas. We are told, in a private discussion -- and Prime Minister Aznar has talked about this publicly -- that he turned to the president and said, when communicating on this issue, the Europeans would prefer much more Powell, much less Rumsfeld.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now, just as disrespectful words can help turn allies away, respectful words can, in some cases, help win friends.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Islam affirms God's justice.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: For example, at the end of the Muslim holiday of Ramadan, President Bush spoke at a mosque about the positive role that Islam plays in the world.

BUSH: I'm pleased to join you today in the celebration of Eid, the culmination of this holy month of Ramadan.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: CNN showed a tape of that to people in Muslim capitals. And this teacher in Afghanistan echoed much of the positive reaction we heard.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When he is remembering this special occasion, we can say that he really respects Muslim people. And we respect them if they respect us.

BUSH: One of America's strongest friends and allies.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In the end, though, words can only go so far in shaping policy. The mouth cannot do it alone. One more note: In "The New York Times," a top Russian official is quoted as saying: "We are prepared for a compromise, but what kind of compromise can you have if the U.S. doesn't want to hear anybody?" If the U.S. doesn't want to hear anybody, maybe the most important body part is the ears.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Mike Sholder (ph), it's good to have you with us tonight.

Have a great weekend. We'll see you Monday.

Good night for all of us.

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