Return to Transcripts main page
Live From...
Tonight's News Conference Will Not Be Declaration of War
Aired March 06, 2003 - 14:01 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.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: We begin this hour at the White House where officials say tonight's presidential news conference will be strictly informational, not declarational.
Mr. Bush, aides say, won't declare -- they will not declare war on Iraq or make any other bombshell announcements. But he will say life or death decisions are not many days away.
We get a preview now from CNN White House Correspondent Suzanne Malveaux -- hi, Suzanne.
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Heidi. That's absolutely right. The president is not going to declare war. He's not going to introduce any type of new intelligence or make any kind of new announcement, but he is going to answer reporters' questions in the East Room at 8:00. He's also going to be making an opening statement. This is a chance for him to talk about the war on terror, to talk about the progress, including the recent arrest of al Qaeda, of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed.
He will also make the case against Saddam Hussein and senior administration officials say the most important point of his opening statement is really going to emphasize the sense of urgency in dealing with Saddam Hussein, that it is simply a matter of days before the president makes that critical decision whether the U.S. is going to go to war with Iraq.
Now, this is only the eighth time since the president has had a formal news conference in his presidency, but aides say that he felt it was the right time, that the American people had legitimate questions when it came to Iraq. So he is going to try his best to answer them -- Heidi.
COLLINS: Suzanne, there has been quite a bit of criticism on the Bush administration for going -- or thinking about going into Iraq before the war on terror was finished, so to speak.
This was a huge get for the war on terror and the Bush administration. How does that change, sort of, the situation as a whole with Iraq?
MALVEAUX: Well, absolutely. You make a very good point, and the administration says that this is all a part of the same thing, that on one front, you have Afghanistan, you have al Qaeda. On the other front, they argue that you have Saddam Hussein and Iraq. Not everybody is buying that argument, but that is certainly that the administration is saying, that look, this is all a part of the same thing. We need to move forward here.
They say that the next major threat here is from Saddam Hussein. They say that he has weapons of mass destruction, that he is either willing to use against the United States or the fear is that he will provide that to terrorists like al Qaeda to use against Americans in the future.
COLLINS: All right. Suzanne Malveaux live from the White House. Thank you.
And, of course, CNN will have live coverage of the president's news conference tonight. It begins at 7:45 Eastern time.
Now to the numbers game in the United Nations Security Council. Secretary of State Colin Powell is leading an effort to get to nine. That's nine votes in favor of military action against Iraq.
And CNN's Andrea Koppel is standing by at the State Department now to tell us more about that -- hello to you once again, Andrea.
KOPPEL: Hi there, Heidi. Well, the math seems simple enough, but getting to nine when you only have four, as the U.S. does including its own vote, is a Herculean task, one that Secretary of State Colin Powell is having to do most of the diplomatic heavy lifting on, as you might expect.
He spent the last number of weeks not only talking with officials on the phone, but meeting with them secretly, in fact, over the weekend with the Mexican foreign minister, focusing on those undecided six countries who are members of the Security Council, Mexico among them.
That is why Secretary Powell is going up to the U.N. today. He's going to hold some private meetings with some of these governments, and of course, will do the same tomorrow ahead of the Blix report, trying to get to the magic number nine. At this point, depending upon who you talk to, Heidi, the U.S. believes that it does have those votes, but doesn't want to take any chances.
Just a short time ago, we heard from the British foreign secretary, one of the cosponsors of the resolution, saying that they are open -- the British government open to the possibility of an amendment to this resolution.
I just spoke with a senior administration official who told me the U.S. is also open to this possibility. But it would probably only be a matter of a week extension, maybe two weeks extension. These are the ideas that are floating around.
Now, earlier this morning, Secretary of State Powell was on the Hill, speaking to members of the Senate subcommittee. Basically, making his case again. One, a case that the world has been hearing now for months, explaining why the U.S. believes it is time now to take action against Iraq.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) COLIN POWELL, SECRETARY OF STATE: This is the time to deal with this kind of threat, not after we have seen thousands of people die as a result of the use of one of these horrible weapons. And we cannot allow ourselves to be deterred by false claims that it's all OK, he is complying, when he is not complying, when he's merely deceiving the international community and trying to keep us from doing what we said we would be prepared to do last October -- excuse me -- November when we passed Resolution 1441.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KOPPEL: Now, Secretary Powell also today met with the papal envoy, who met with President Bush yesterday, one of many diplomatic activities that he is engaged in, as I said, today, Heidi.
But really what you have is a decision that the United States, Spain and Great Britain are going to have to make in the next couple of days after the Blix report, whether or not they feel they have the nine votes necessary, and then they would probably introduce it very quickly, I'm told, because they're afraid people might change their mind -- Heidi.
COLLINS: Hopefully, we will know a lot more after tomorrow. Andrea Koppel, live from the State Department. Thank you.
The arm twisting, hand holding, and finger pointing are already well underway at U.N. headquarters, and that's where CNN Senior U.N. correspondent Richard Roth can update us now on developments there -- hello to you, Richard. There you are.
RICHARD ROTH, CNN SENIOR U.N. CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Heidi. First of all, don't count on things clearing up tomorrow. This is a big issue and the United Nations, and a lot of countries are involved, and we've seen things that looked like they were going to bring things to a head at any moment only to go for weeks more.
As Andrea Koppel just mentioned, the British foreign secretary, Jack Straw, saying that his country is interested in any changes to a resolution that the United States, United Kingdom and Spain introduced a couple of weeks ago. Here you see the British foreign secretary meeting today with U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan. Annan is the world's top diplomat, very interested in any type of compromise, whether it comes from Canada or Britain or Chile, anything that could unite the Security Council in some form of action. There could be great damage to the U.N. organization as a whole should anyone go on its own without council approval.
Although the United States will charge that the resolution passed unanimously November 8 has already said that the council is on record as telling Iraq it faces serious consequences if it fails to comply.
Today, the British foreign secretary, Jack Straw, talked about the resolution and its goals.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JACK STRAW, BRITISH FOREIGN SECRETARY: We obviously attached to the principle set out and to the inevitable conclusion that Iraq has missed its final opportunity. Of course, we are ready to discuss the wording of that second resolution and to take on board any constructive suggestions as to how the process set out in that draft resolution could be improved. And that is exactly what we are doing, and I look forward to further discussions as fellow foreign ministers arrive.
(CROSSTALK)
QUESTION: What's the possibility of an amendment?
STRAW: There is certainly a possibility of an amendment, and that's something we're looking at.
QUESTION: Non-permanent members of the Security Council are also awaiting to see the wording in this type of compromise proposal. One Security Council ambassador said that the non-permanent nations would be very interested in having some type of a break between the consideration of war and the actual implementation, the authorization and the going of the forces there.
It's possible that this new resolution will contain a deadline for Iraq to cooperate, time with various Security Council disarmament requests, all of that coming from chief weapons inspector Hans Blix, one U.N. official telling us that Blix's report on Friday, tomorrow, will be a mixed bag -- Heidi.
COLLINS: All right. Richard Roth from the United Nations headquarters. Thanks so much.
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 March 6, 2003 - 14:01 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: We begin this hour at the White House where officials say tonight's presidential news conference will be strictly informational, not declarational.
Mr. Bush, aides say, won't declare -- they will not declare war on Iraq or make any other bombshell announcements. But he will say life or death decisions are not many days away.
We get a preview now from CNN White House Correspondent Suzanne Malveaux -- hi, Suzanne.
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Heidi. That's absolutely right. The president is not going to declare war. He's not going to introduce any type of new intelligence or make any kind of new announcement, but he is going to answer reporters' questions in the East Room at 8:00. He's also going to be making an opening statement. This is a chance for him to talk about the war on terror, to talk about the progress, including the recent arrest of al Qaeda, of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed.
He will also make the case against Saddam Hussein and senior administration officials say the most important point of his opening statement is really going to emphasize the sense of urgency in dealing with Saddam Hussein, that it is simply a matter of days before the president makes that critical decision whether the U.S. is going to go to war with Iraq.
Now, this is only the eighth time since the president has had a formal news conference in his presidency, but aides say that he felt it was the right time, that the American people had legitimate questions when it came to Iraq. So he is going to try his best to answer them -- Heidi.
COLLINS: Suzanne, there has been quite a bit of criticism on the Bush administration for going -- or thinking about going into Iraq before the war on terror was finished, so to speak.
This was a huge get for the war on terror and the Bush administration. How does that change, sort of, the situation as a whole with Iraq?
MALVEAUX: Well, absolutely. You make a very good point, and the administration says that this is all a part of the same thing, that on one front, you have Afghanistan, you have al Qaeda. On the other front, they argue that you have Saddam Hussein and Iraq. Not everybody is buying that argument, but that is certainly that the administration is saying, that look, this is all a part of the same thing. We need to move forward here.
They say that the next major threat here is from Saddam Hussein. They say that he has weapons of mass destruction, that he is either willing to use against the United States or the fear is that he will provide that to terrorists like al Qaeda to use against Americans in the future.
COLLINS: All right. Suzanne Malveaux live from the White House. Thank you.
And, of course, CNN will have live coverage of the president's news conference tonight. It begins at 7:45 Eastern time.
Now to the numbers game in the United Nations Security Council. Secretary of State Colin Powell is leading an effort to get to nine. That's nine votes in favor of military action against Iraq.
And CNN's Andrea Koppel is standing by at the State Department now to tell us more about that -- hello to you once again, Andrea.
KOPPEL: Hi there, Heidi. Well, the math seems simple enough, but getting to nine when you only have four, as the U.S. does including its own vote, is a Herculean task, one that Secretary of State Colin Powell is having to do most of the diplomatic heavy lifting on, as you might expect.
He spent the last number of weeks not only talking with officials on the phone, but meeting with them secretly, in fact, over the weekend with the Mexican foreign minister, focusing on those undecided six countries who are members of the Security Council, Mexico among them.
That is why Secretary Powell is going up to the U.N. today. He's going to hold some private meetings with some of these governments, and of course, will do the same tomorrow ahead of the Blix report, trying to get to the magic number nine. At this point, depending upon who you talk to, Heidi, the U.S. believes that it does have those votes, but doesn't want to take any chances.
Just a short time ago, we heard from the British foreign secretary, one of the cosponsors of the resolution, saying that they are open -- the British government open to the possibility of an amendment to this resolution.
I just spoke with a senior administration official who told me the U.S. is also open to this possibility. But it would probably only be a matter of a week extension, maybe two weeks extension. These are the ideas that are floating around.
Now, earlier this morning, Secretary of State Powell was on the Hill, speaking to members of the Senate subcommittee. Basically, making his case again. One, a case that the world has been hearing now for months, explaining why the U.S. believes it is time now to take action against Iraq.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) COLIN POWELL, SECRETARY OF STATE: This is the time to deal with this kind of threat, not after we have seen thousands of people die as a result of the use of one of these horrible weapons. And we cannot allow ourselves to be deterred by false claims that it's all OK, he is complying, when he is not complying, when he's merely deceiving the international community and trying to keep us from doing what we said we would be prepared to do last October -- excuse me -- November when we passed Resolution 1441.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KOPPEL: Now, Secretary Powell also today met with the papal envoy, who met with President Bush yesterday, one of many diplomatic activities that he is engaged in, as I said, today, Heidi.
But really what you have is a decision that the United States, Spain and Great Britain are going to have to make in the next couple of days after the Blix report, whether or not they feel they have the nine votes necessary, and then they would probably introduce it very quickly, I'm told, because they're afraid people might change their mind -- Heidi.
COLLINS: Hopefully, we will know a lot more after tomorrow. Andrea Koppel, live from the State Department. Thank you.
The arm twisting, hand holding, and finger pointing are already well underway at U.N. headquarters, and that's where CNN Senior U.N. correspondent Richard Roth can update us now on developments there -- hello to you, Richard. There you are.
RICHARD ROTH, CNN SENIOR U.N. CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Heidi. First of all, don't count on things clearing up tomorrow. This is a big issue and the United Nations, and a lot of countries are involved, and we've seen things that looked like they were going to bring things to a head at any moment only to go for weeks more.
As Andrea Koppel just mentioned, the British foreign secretary, Jack Straw, saying that his country is interested in any changes to a resolution that the United States, United Kingdom and Spain introduced a couple of weeks ago. Here you see the British foreign secretary meeting today with U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan. Annan is the world's top diplomat, very interested in any type of compromise, whether it comes from Canada or Britain or Chile, anything that could unite the Security Council in some form of action. There could be great damage to the U.N. organization as a whole should anyone go on its own without council approval.
Although the United States will charge that the resolution passed unanimously November 8 has already said that the council is on record as telling Iraq it faces serious consequences if it fails to comply.
Today, the British foreign secretary, Jack Straw, talked about the resolution and its goals.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JACK STRAW, BRITISH FOREIGN SECRETARY: We obviously attached to the principle set out and to the inevitable conclusion that Iraq has missed its final opportunity. Of course, we are ready to discuss the wording of that second resolution and to take on board any constructive suggestions as to how the process set out in that draft resolution could be improved. And that is exactly what we are doing, and I look forward to further discussions as fellow foreign ministers arrive.
(CROSSTALK)
QUESTION: What's the possibility of an amendment?
STRAW: There is certainly a possibility of an amendment, and that's something we're looking at.
QUESTION: Non-permanent members of the Security Council are also awaiting to see the wording in this type of compromise proposal. One Security Council ambassador said that the non-permanent nations would be very interested in having some type of a break between the consideration of war and the actual implementation, the authorization and the going of the forces there.
It's possible that this new resolution will contain a deadline for Iraq to cooperate, time with various Security Council disarmament requests, all of that coming from chief weapons inspector Hans Blix, one U.N. official telling us that Blix's report on Friday, tomorrow, will be a mixed bag -- Heidi.
COLLINS: All right. Richard Roth from the United Nations headquarters. Thanks so much.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
