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CNN Live Saturday
Interview With Richard Wolffe
Aired May 03, 2003 - 16:02 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.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Let's get started with the search for Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. President Bush insisted today that Saddam Hussein had chemical and biological agents. It's just going to take some time to find them he said.
His statement stood in sharp contrast today to one reported from a senior administration official. The unnamed individual is quoted in the "London Times" -- "Financial Times" rather as saying the U.S. probably will not find any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
White House Correspondent Chris Burns is at the president's ranch in Crawford, Texas with the very latest -- Chris.
CHRIS BURNS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well hi, Fredricka. That is an issue that dogged the president as he hosted Australian Prime Minister John Howard here. We got some fresh pictures of the Australian prime minister visiting downtown Crawford, population 700. He visited some of the people there, did some shopping, pressed the flesh.
He gave his support to President Bush during the war. Some 2,000 Australian troops participated, Mr. Howard congratulation the president during a brief news briefing today here at the ranch that the president had the leadership to bring this through, the president congratulating the prime minister for his, in his words, his courage in facing down popular opposition within his own country against the war, and actually winding up very popular in his country now after the ward.
But the post-war reconstruction and search for weapons of mass destruction really topping the concerns as journalists talked to the two leaders, the president saying that it is very difficult to find those weapons but he insists they will be found.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: He spent 14 years hiding weapons of mass destruction and he spent an entire decade making sure that inspectors would never find them. Iraq's the size of the state of California. It's got tunnels, caves, all kinds of complexes. We'll find them and it will be a matter of time of do so.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNS: Now, part of the reason, U.S. officials say, is that a lot of these leading former Iraqi officials who were nabbed since the fall of Baghdad are not really talking, President Bush saying one of them is Tariq Aziz, Tariq Aziz, the former deputy prime minister. He is one of those who's in that deck of cards of most wanted, the president saying that they do hope to get more information from these people but that so far it's been very difficult.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BUSH: It may not be the aces, kings, and queens and jacks that do the talking. It may be those who were doing the -- carrying the water for the aces, kings, queens, and jacks that do the talking and we will learn a lot when the Iraqi people -- as the Iraqi people continue to come forth.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNS: Now, the next step in the Middle East, according to Prime Minister Howard is there has to be a Middle East peace deal to even consolidate what's been done in Iraq. That is the next step, support for that road map that President Bush has proposed -- Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: Now, Chris, let me ask you one more thing about Iraq, the war in Iraq. Reportedly Washington is now considering getting the U.S. military out of Iraq with a deadline of the fall. What are you hearing about that?
BURNS: Well, essentially what a senior administration official has told us this afternoon is that the U.S. intends to pull out three of its five divisions out of Iraq by this fall. That goes along the line of how the U.S. led coalition is now looking for other troops from other countries and within the coalition itself to replace those forces that are on the ground.
Keep in mind that it is costing some $2 billion a month for that U.S. effort and that is what President Bush would like to save on that. Also, look at the polls that have come out in the last few days indicating the U.S. voters and population would like to see most troops out of there very soon.
WHITFIELD: All right, Chris Burns from Crawford, thank you very much.
Well, we heard what the president thinks about the whole issue of weapons of mass destruction. If it turns out there is no smoking gun, no evidence of WMD, will the president or British Prime Minister Tony Blair face political consequences?
Let's talk to Richard Wolffe, senior diplomatic correspondent for "NEWSWEEK" magazine, and he joins us now from Washington. Good to see you, Richard.
RICHARD WOLFFE, "NEWSWEEK": Good to be with you.
WHITFIELD: Well, we heard the president say that he is certain, the administration is certain that there are weapons of mass destruction but it's going to take some time to find them. Well, whatever happened to the satellite imagery or perhaps even the intercepted telephone information, the intelligence information that the president Secretary of State Colin Powell said that they had before the onset of the war?
WOLFFE: No question this is a very hard issue for the administration to deal with, also British officials too. In the run up to war, they were saying both publicly and privately they were absolutely convinced that they knew where these weapons were and they knew about the kind of subterfuge that the Iraqis were undertaking to hide them.
I have to say that what we've seen since then is a certain amount of scaling back, saying things are hard to find but, behind that, there are a couple of concerns. First of all that things may have been so well hidden that they actually may have fallen into the hands of terrorist groups. After all, this whole thing was part of the war on terror.
And, of course, the other explanation is that Iraq simply didn't get that far in terms of its weapons programs and what we were picking up through all of those intercepts was merely the intent to acquire, rather than the successful development of those weapons. So, both things worrying on the one hand because of the threat, on the other hand because of the credibility of coalition forces.
WHITFIELD: And isn't there yet another explanation that some administration officials are saying that perhaps Saddam Hussein or at least leaders of his regime were able to destroy those WMDs just as the U.S. and the British were making their way into Iraq?
WOLFFE: Yes, that's the public argument or the semi public argument they're making right now.
WHITFIELD: Do you believe that?
WOLFFE: You know I think it really stretches credibility. Something just doesn't quite ring true here. If you are threatened, if your regime is threatened, the CIA analysis was that they would use those weapons, not that they would destroy them.
WHITFIELD: Right. Well, let me ask you, you talk about credibility the president's credibility is on the line as is Tony Blair's. Can they possibly be able to escape not finding any evidence of weapons of mass destruction? Could their presidencies and their leadership survive?
WOLFFE: I think we're beyond that stage in terms of the survival of the leaders. Certainly Tony Blair faced the biggest crisis and that was before the war. Really now he seems to be pretty safe in his position.
The bigger test of credibility here is in terms of foreign policy because it's hard to convince the Arab world, which is already very suspicious about American and British motives, hard to convince them that in fact this is not a kind of conquest of empire and that American and British forces will leave if there's no credibility there. So, credibility is important in terms of what the impact is on the region.
WHITFIELD: Richard Wolffe thank you very much of "NEWSWEEK."
WOLFFE: Thank you.
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 May 3, 2003 - 16:02 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Let's get started with the search for Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. President Bush insisted today that Saddam Hussein had chemical and biological agents. It's just going to take some time to find them he said.
His statement stood in sharp contrast today to one reported from a senior administration official. The unnamed individual is quoted in the "London Times" -- "Financial Times" rather as saying the U.S. probably will not find any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
White House Correspondent Chris Burns is at the president's ranch in Crawford, Texas with the very latest -- Chris.
CHRIS BURNS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well hi, Fredricka. That is an issue that dogged the president as he hosted Australian Prime Minister John Howard here. We got some fresh pictures of the Australian prime minister visiting downtown Crawford, population 700. He visited some of the people there, did some shopping, pressed the flesh.
He gave his support to President Bush during the war. Some 2,000 Australian troops participated, Mr. Howard congratulation the president during a brief news briefing today here at the ranch that the president had the leadership to bring this through, the president congratulating the prime minister for his, in his words, his courage in facing down popular opposition within his own country against the war, and actually winding up very popular in his country now after the ward.
But the post-war reconstruction and search for weapons of mass destruction really topping the concerns as journalists talked to the two leaders, the president saying that it is very difficult to find those weapons but he insists they will be found.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: He spent 14 years hiding weapons of mass destruction and he spent an entire decade making sure that inspectors would never find them. Iraq's the size of the state of California. It's got tunnels, caves, all kinds of complexes. We'll find them and it will be a matter of time of do so.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNS: Now, part of the reason, U.S. officials say, is that a lot of these leading former Iraqi officials who were nabbed since the fall of Baghdad are not really talking, President Bush saying one of them is Tariq Aziz, Tariq Aziz, the former deputy prime minister. He is one of those who's in that deck of cards of most wanted, the president saying that they do hope to get more information from these people but that so far it's been very difficult.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BUSH: It may not be the aces, kings, and queens and jacks that do the talking. It may be those who were doing the -- carrying the water for the aces, kings, queens, and jacks that do the talking and we will learn a lot when the Iraqi people -- as the Iraqi people continue to come forth.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNS: Now, the next step in the Middle East, according to Prime Minister Howard is there has to be a Middle East peace deal to even consolidate what's been done in Iraq. That is the next step, support for that road map that President Bush has proposed -- Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: Now, Chris, let me ask you one more thing about Iraq, the war in Iraq. Reportedly Washington is now considering getting the U.S. military out of Iraq with a deadline of the fall. What are you hearing about that?
BURNS: Well, essentially what a senior administration official has told us this afternoon is that the U.S. intends to pull out three of its five divisions out of Iraq by this fall. That goes along the line of how the U.S. led coalition is now looking for other troops from other countries and within the coalition itself to replace those forces that are on the ground.
Keep in mind that it is costing some $2 billion a month for that U.S. effort and that is what President Bush would like to save on that. Also, look at the polls that have come out in the last few days indicating the U.S. voters and population would like to see most troops out of there very soon.
WHITFIELD: All right, Chris Burns from Crawford, thank you very much.
Well, we heard what the president thinks about the whole issue of weapons of mass destruction. If it turns out there is no smoking gun, no evidence of WMD, will the president or British Prime Minister Tony Blair face political consequences?
Let's talk to Richard Wolffe, senior diplomatic correspondent for "NEWSWEEK" magazine, and he joins us now from Washington. Good to see you, Richard.
RICHARD WOLFFE, "NEWSWEEK": Good to be with you.
WHITFIELD: Well, we heard the president say that he is certain, the administration is certain that there are weapons of mass destruction but it's going to take some time to find them. Well, whatever happened to the satellite imagery or perhaps even the intercepted telephone information, the intelligence information that the president Secretary of State Colin Powell said that they had before the onset of the war?
WOLFFE: No question this is a very hard issue for the administration to deal with, also British officials too. In the run up to war, they were saying both publicly and privately they were absolutely convinced that they knew where these weapons were and they knew about the kind of subterfuge that the Iraqis were undertaking to hide them.
I have to say that what we've seen since then is a certain amount of scaling back, saying things are hard to find but, behind that, there are a couple of concerns. First of all that things may have been so well hidden that they actually may have fallen into the hands of terrorist groups. After all, this whole thing was part of the war on terror.
And, of course, the other explanation is that Iraq simply didn't get that far in terms of its weapons programs and what we were picking up through all of those intercepts was merely the intent to acquire, rather than the successful development of those weapons. So, both things worrying on the one hand because of the threat, on the other hand because of the credibility of coalition forces.
WHITFIELD: And isn't there yet another explanation that some administration officials are saying that perhaps Saddam Hussein or at least leaders of his regime were able to destroy those WMDs just as the U.S. and the British were making their way into Iraq?
WOLFFE: Yes, that's the public argument or the semi public argument they're making right now.
WHITFIELD: Do you believe that?
WOLFFE: You know I think it really stretches credibility. Something just doesn't quite ring true here. If you are threatened, if your regime is threatened, the CIA analysis was that they would use those weapons, not that they would destroy them.
WHITFIELD: Right. Well, let me ask you, you talk about credibility the president's credibility is on the line as is Tony Blair's. Can they possibly be able to escape not finding any evidence of weapons of mass destruction? Could their presidencies and their leadership survive?
WOLFFE: I think we're beyond that stage in terms of the survival of the leaders. Certainly Tony Blair faced the biggest crisis and that was before the war. Really now he seems to be pretty safe in his position.
The bigger test of credibility here is in terms of foreign policy because it's hard to convince the Arab world, which is already very suspicious about American and British motives, hard to convince them that in fact this is not a kind of conquest of empire and that American and British forces will leave if there's no credibility there. So, credibility is important in terms of what the impact is on the region.
WHITFIELD: Richard Wolffe thank you very much of "NEWSWEEK."
WOLFFE: Thank you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
