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CNN Live At Daybreak

America's New War: President Bush Turning Attention to Building International Coalition for Campaign Against Terrorism.

Aired September 28, 2001 - 08:40   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.
JOHN KING, CNN SR. WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Obviously, the economy one of the president's urgent concerns, but today, Paula, Mr. Bush turning his attention to another urgent task, trying to build and fortify, if you will, the international coalition for what he promises, remember, will be a multiyear campaign against terrorism.

For the latest on that, I want to bring in my colleague over at the White House, Kelly Wallace. Kelly.

KELLY WALLACE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, a very important meeting indeed. President Bush to sit down later this morning with King Abdullah of Jordan. The king met yesterday with Secretary of State Colin Powell. Jordan, one of the United States' most important and closest Arab allies, and the reason this meeting is so important is that the president has been trying to reach out to as many moderate Arab nations and Muslim nations to make the case that this is a campaign against terrorism, and not a campaign against Islam.

The king is likely behind closed doors to express some caution in any response to the September 11th attacks. He has indicated some concern, trying to make sure that any response does not exacerbate tensions which already exist in the Middle East. And the timing, interesting, John; today happens to be the one year anniversary of the Palestinian uprising against the Israelis. So certainly Mideast tensions likely to be discussed as well. John.

KING: All right, Kelly Wallace at the White House. And the president also trying to deal with some congressional opposition to his new airline safety package. We'll check in with you on that in just a little bit.

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