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CNN Live At Daybreak

America's New War: Bush Uses Support for Long Campaign Against Terrorism

Aired September 24, 2001 - 07:26   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.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: And a new poll out shows Americans giving President Bush the highest approval rating ever for a president. Of 1,000 adults polled over the weekend, a whopping 90 percent say they approve of the job George W. Bush is doing as president. That is higher than the 89 percent approval rating for his father at the end of the Persian Gulf War. The sampling error is plus or minus three points.

And our John King has been waiting patiently in Washington to give us some perspective on that. So, hello again, John.

I imagine the challenge for the administration is to keep these numbers going.

JOHN KING, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESP.: That's right, and over the weekend we heard again and again and again and again, Paula, that this will be a long cooperation, that as much as it involves military assets it also will involve diplomacy and trying to disrupt the financial network of Osama bin Laden.

The president's challenge now, trying to turn that political capital he has into long-term support from the American people and support in the Congress, as well, for some difficult choices in the days ahead, things like this new anti-terrorism package. There are some things in there, wiretapping and the like, that raise concerns about civil liberties.

This president, though, when you ask him about his father's presidency -- and you made the comparison to the poll numbers -- he says his father's biggest mistake was he built up all that capital with the American people and never spent it.

This president, George W. Bush, says he will never make that mistake, that when he has capital in the bank, he will spend it and use it. So we should keep an eye on that in the days ahead as he asks the Congress and the American people to make some difficult choices and in some cases to sacrifice.

The president, Paula, is back at the White House now. He was at Camp David over the weekend meeting with his national security team through a teleconference but also participating here yesterday. This, the end of the official government mourning period for the victims of the September 11 attacks, marines raising the flag at the Camp David presidential retreat from half staff to full staff as the president listened in there to the national anthem.

Let's pause for a moment.

More diplomacy on tap at the White House this week. The president will meet with the prime minister of Canada today, the prime minister of Japan tomorrow, again, as he tries to build this international coalition. And one of the things he is asking these leaders is to follow his lead. The president today will sign an executive order trying to disrupt the financial network of Mr. Bin Laden and the al Qaeda organization.

Now, the Clinton administration tried this with limited success. The Bush administration hoping it has more information now on just where bin Laden gets his money and how to disrupt it. Again, support from international, other international banking systems will be critical in this regard.

Over the weekend, as well, there were reports you were discussing at the top of the show with Christiane Amanpour. The Taliban now saying it does not know where Mr. Bin Laden is. The United States government, obviously, has demanded that bin Laden be turned over to the United States. Over the weekend, the administration putting little stock in those comments from the Taliban. The defense secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, saying the idea that the Taliban doesn't know where bin Laden is "laughable."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD RUMSFELD, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: They're hardy, tough people. They have networks throughout the country and it is just not believable that the Taliban do not know where the network can be located and found and either turned over or expelled.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Now, as the president moves on the diplomatic front, let's check in over across the Potomac River. Bob Franken is over at the Pentagon for us this morning keeping track of all the military maneuvers -- Bob.

BOB FRANKEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, there are a variety and some of them overlap. For instance, will the United States, John, come to agree to some sort of coalition with the anti-Taliban forces, the opposition groups? And the problem there is that many of these groups have, in fact, had -- been fighting among themselves for years but, of course, now they're united in their fervor to topple the Taliban government and so the United States has to decide whether it will form some sort of coalition with them.

There are appearances that that, in fact, will be the case. And, of course, there's been quite a bit of questioning raised about military deployment around the world and the United States officially admits to very little of it. Of course, much of it is there to be seen. But the one thing that the defense secretary has acknowledged is the presence of one drone aircraft. By that I mean an unmanned surveillance plane. He admits to it because it's missing. The Taliban say it was shot down. Secretary Rumsfeld would only say that they've lost contact with it, would not comment on whether, in fact, it was shot down.

Now, the question of the day is where is Osama bin Laden? As you pointed out, John, the Taliban government says it does not know where he is. The defense secretary says yes, they do, and, as a matter of fact, even if they do, he might be very hard to target.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RUMSFELD: No. I'm not confident that we will find him and use this firepower. Let's think of it this way. First of all, the fact is that the Taliban do know where the al Qaeda organization is and the fact that they're saying they don't is simply not credible. Second, is it likely that an aircraft carrier or a cruise missile is going to find a person? No, it's not likely. That isn't how this is going to happen.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FRANKEN: Well, there are a lot of aircraft carriers and cruise missiles out there right now, not just focused on Afghanistan, the defense secretary points out, but put in position, he says, just in case the president decides on military action anywhere, the United States will be ready -- John.

KING: Well, Bob, even the defense secretary there noting quote -- in your, the piece used there -- "we might not use this firepower." So even the man who runs the Pentagon acknowledging military assets only one part of this cooperation?

FRANKEN: One part of the cooperation. Of course, there are different types of military assets and, of course, there could be different targets. They've made that very clear, that there are any number of countries that could be in jeopardy.

KING: Bob Franken at the Pentagon, thank you for keeping track of developments across the river this morning -- now back to Paula Zahn in New York.

ZAHN: Thanks, John. See you a little bit later on this morning.

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