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Rumsfeld Calls for Regime Change in Iraq

Aired September 03, 2002 - 14:00   ET

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

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: We begin this hour at the Pentagon, where Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is keeping up the drumbeat for regime change in Iraq, while downplaying talk that not all of the president's men and women see things the same way.
CNN's Jamie McIntyre is live with the secretary's latest tangle with reporters, and he was right in middle of that tangle.

Didn't get a lot of direct answers, Jamie.

JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SR. PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kyra, Defense Secretary Rumsfeld seems to be, again putting -- charting his own course to an extent. Earlier this week or last week we saw Vice President Cheney perhaps opening the door, a crack to the idea of allowing inspections in Iraq. Secretary of State Colin Powell over the weekend seemed to also lay out the prospect of inspections in Iraq as a first step to possibly averting war.

But today, Defense Secretary Rumsfeld seemed to slam that door closed, saying that first of all, he couldn't imagine that these inspections that would have to be as intrusive as they would have to be, would be anything that Iraq would agree to, and he dismissed the latest talk from Iraq's Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz, for possible inspections as simply a ploy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD RUMSFELD, DEFENSE SECY.: It is unlikely for the folks there to agree to it, and I haven't seen any inclination on their part to agree to anything, except as a ploy from time to time, to muse over the possibility we might do this we might do that, And kind of play the international community and the U.N. process like a guitar, plucking the right string at the right moment to delay something.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCINTYRE: Now that said, Defense Secretary Rumsfeld still said President Bush has not yet made a decision to move militarily against Iraq. He said, when the time comes, he expects the president will lay out the evidence, the intelligence that the U.S. has, that Iraq is a clear and present threat, now something that the world community is not yet convinced of, but he said that would be the president's decision as well, what kind of facts he would have to lay out to back up his decision.

But also, Rumsfeld completely downplayed all of the reports, of rifts within the administration. He said it would simply a matter of different people saying things in different ways. He said, all of the national security team meets and discusses the situation in Iraq and the rest of the global war on terrorism, and that while he said they are all on same page, even though some people can sometimes see things slightly different.

So that was his take on where the administration stands, and that you notice, as I pointed out to him at the end of today's briefing that when he went to talked to the troops who might actually have to fight in Iraq. That was one of the first things they wanted to know about, what was going on with Iraq, and if the U.S. moved against Iraq, would it have any friends in the world alongside with them -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Jamie McIntyre at the Pentagon. Thanks, Jamie.

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