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Rift Possible in Administration Iraq Policy

Aired September 02, 2002 - 14:07   ET

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

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Suspicion persists that a rift in the Bush administration itself over the wisdom of attacking Iraq with little or no allied support -- based on their own public comments, Secretary of State Powell and Vice President Cheney disagree on the value of UN weapons inspectors, but the White House insists Powell is fully on board.
CNN's Suzanne Malveaux is live from Neville Island, Pennsylvania, where President Bush is celebrating Labor Day with some union carpenters.

But Suzanne, why don't we start with Iraq?

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN CORRESPONDENT: White House spokesperson Ari Fleischer says he does not anticipate that the president is going to talk directly about Iraq in his speech later on today, but Ari Fleischer certainly did. This is regarding the weekend. As you mentioned before, Secretary of State Powell in a BBC interview that was released yesterday said that he thought the first step should be to send the UN weapons inspectors back into Iraq to give it another shot. But at the same time, it was last week that Vice President Dick Cheney suggested that allowing UN weapons inspectors back in would be really be useless, that it would be pointless because Saddam Hussein has a history of breaking agreements, hiding these weapons, that he has enhanced his weapons of mass destruction program.

We asked Ari Fleischer earlier today what was the White House reaction to all this. He says there is no difference really between Powell's position, Cheney's position, and President Bush's position. He says that it is -- quote -- much ado about no difference. He is emphasizing again that U.S. policy is that of regime change, the ousting of Saddam Hussein, and that on that score, everybody is basically in line.

He also responded to as well the Iraq Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz's comments that he made just yesterday suggesting that allowing UN weapons inspectors back was really a nonstarter, that the United States is being disingenuous, that is was simply a pretext to allow UN forces into the country to attack Iraq. Today, Aziz seemed to pull back from that position, suggesting that perhaps Iraq was in fact open to those inspectors coming in, while Ari Fleischer responding to that difference, saying -- and I'm quoting here -- he says that "Iraq changes positions more than Saddam Hussein changes bunkers." So very little faith in what is coming out of Iraq -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Suzanne, now back to your beautiful backdrop in Pennsylvania, the president talking about the economy. MALVEAUX: He certainly is. He is meeting with the carpenters union today. He is going to be touring their training facility. He is also going to be sharing in a holiday picnic. The focus of his speech is gong to on the economy. He's going to be talking about the need for Congress to really buckle down and to look at key legislation that the administration says is really going to improve economic conditions. He's going to talk about the need for pension reform.

He's also going to talk about the need for terrorism insurance. This is particularly important for carpenters. He is going to argue that without this terrorism insurance, it is costing hundreds of construction jobs as well as thousands of jobs from workers (UNINTELLIGIBLE). He is making that point.

He is also as well really courting labor groups. This is something the Bush administration realizes is very valuable. As you know, the Democrats have had a lot of the money and support for big labor. The Bush administration has been more successful in really courting the more conservative labor groups, that is the Teamsters as well as the carpenters union. They have had very little success in according the AFL-CIO. As a matter of fact, when Fleischer was asked about that this morning, if there was a rift, a growing rift, between that labor group and the administration, he said -- and I am quoting here -- that "the leadership of the labor movement is more like an appendage of the DNC" -- that being the Democratic National Committee -- but that president is trying to bring the gap with the rank and file, and that the rank and file have been more receptive -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Suzanne Malveaux, Neville Island there, thank you so much.

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