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Rumsfeld Explains to NATO U.S. Stance on Iraq
Aired September 24, 2002 - 14:28 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.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: While Britain's Tony Blair is laying out evidence against Iraq, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is explaining the U.S. position to its NATO allies.
Rumsfeld met with NATO foreign ministers in Warsaw, Poland, today. CNN military affairs correspondent Jamie McIntyre joins us with details from that meeting.
Hi, Jamie.
JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN MILITARY AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Kyra.
Well, the Iraq issue wasn't technically on the agenda but it was all the talk at this meeting today. That British dossier, by the way, was distributed to the NATO defense ministers and then it was followed up with a highly classified presentation by the U.S. CIA about the nature of the threat from Saddam Hussein.
And then if that wasn't enough, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld delivered an American proposal essentially to get NATO to really upgrade its special operations forces so it can do the kinds of things that U.S. forces can do: deploy on short notice, use the latest technology in order to combat terrorism, and be able to respond to terrorist threats.
Now, Rumsfeld said despite his stern warnings he got a pretty good reception from his fellow ministers.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD RUMSFELD, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: We talked about fashioning a NATO response force that can do things faster and with greater agility and be capable of sustaining itself. This is not a meeting where decisions were taken, but there's no question but that the response to our proposals was excellent. Uniformly excellent.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MCINTYRE: That's going to require a commitment of resources from the NATO partners.
You know, of NATO's 19 nations, the 18 that aren't the United States, they spend together, the United States spends 85% more on defense than all the rest of them put together and they're going to need upgrade a lot of capabilities and they're hoping to nail that plan down by the Prague summit which is coming up in November. Meanwhile, the Secretary-General George Robertson basically acknowledged that NATO needs to bring its capabilities, up to speed. And he also called the intelligence briefing presented by the United States "sobering," but he noted that there was no action taken about Iraq and no action required. He said that the question still remains at the U.N. And he pointedly pointed out that its U.N. resolutions that are being defied by Iraq and he said the next move should come at that international body --Kyra.
PHILLIPS: All right. Jamie McIntyre from Poland. 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 September 24, 2002 - 14:28 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: While Britain's Tony Blair is laying out evidence against Iraq, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is explaining the U.S. position to its NATO allies.
Rumsfeld met with NATO foreign ministers in Warsaw, Poland, today. CNN military affairs correspondent Jamie McIntyre joins us with details from that meeting.
Hi, Jamie.
JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN MILITARY AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Kyra.
Well, the Iraq issue wasn't technically on the agenda but it was all the talk at this meeting today. That British dossier, by the way, was distributed to the NATO defense ministers and then it was followed up with a highly classified presentation by the U.S. CIA about the nature of the threat from Saddam Hussein.
And then if that wasn't enough, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld delivered an American proposal essentially to get NATO to really upgrade its special operations forces so it can do the kinds of things that U.S. forces can do: deploy on short notice, use the latest technology in order to combat terrorism, and be able to respond to terrorist threats.
Now, Rumsfeld said despite his stern warnings he got a pretty good reception from his fellow ministers.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD RUMSFELD, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: We talked about fashioning a NATO response force that can do things faster and with greater agility and be capable of sustaining itself. This is not a meeting where decisions were taken, but there's no question but that the response to our proposals was excellent. Uniformly excellent.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MCINTYRE: That's going to require a commitment of resources from the NATO partners.
You know, of NATO's 19 nations, the 18 that aren't the United States, they spend together, the United States spends 85% more on defense than all the rest of them put together and they're going to need upgrade a lot of capabilities and they're hoping to nail that plan down by the Prague summit which is coming up in November. Meanwhile, the Secretary-General George Robertson basically acknowledged that NATO needs to bring its capabilities, up to speed. And he also called the intelligence briefing presented by the United States "sobering," but he noted that there was no action taken about Iraq and no action required. He said that the question still remains at the U.N. And he pointedly pointed out that its U.N. resolutions that are being defied by Iraq and he said the next move should come at that international body --Kyra.
PHILLIPS: All right. Jamie McIntyre from Poland. 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
