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New York City Council Likely to Vote in Favor of Passing Resolution Condemning War
Aired March 12, 2003 - 15:16 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.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Just a few blocks from where the worst terror attack in U.S. history took place, the New York City Council is considering whether or not to pass the resolution condemning war with Iraq. Our Maria Hinojosa is live in New York and she has the latest on this vote.
Maria, hello.
MARIA HINOJOSA, CNN URBAN AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Daryn. Well, the vote comes after several months of heated debate within the New York City Council.
And there were many people who expected that given New York City's liberal tradition that passing an anti-war resolution would come easily. But there were many different perspectives on this and it really all stems from the city's experience of being a target for terrorist.
So many city council members were hearing different things from constituents who were tied to September 11. They heard from a group called September 11 Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, people who lost family on September 11 who don't want to see war or any more loss of life under any circumstance.
But they also heard from constituents who felt that terrorism should be dealt with, a very strong hand, and it needs to be dealt with now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PETER VALONE JR., NYC COUNCILMAN: I would rather go with the U.N., but I do not believe we need to wait for them. It was not France that was attacked, it was not Russia that was attack, it was us and we need to defend ourselves before we're attacked again.
CHRISTINE QUINN, NYC COUNCILWOMAN: Because we were the site of the attack, I think we send a stronger message that the president has not made a clear connection between Iraq and al Qaeda. And that that connection can't be thrown about without firm evidence backing it up.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HINOJOSA: Now the earlier resolutions that were presented to the city council were very clearly against any war with Iraq under any circumstances. And some cities softened that a bit.
But for New York City, the wording is that the city council opposes a preemptive military attack on Iraq unless it has demonstrated that Iraq poses a real and imminent threat to the United States or unless all other options for getting Iraq to comply with disarmament fail.
Now the organizers for the Cities for Peace Campaign are expecting this resolution to pass, hoping that New York will become the 141st city to pass an anti-war resolution. Their focus will then be to get that number up to 200. They plan to target Southern states, as well as Texas, where only one city has passed a resolution, that would be Austin -- Daryn.
KAGAN: All right. Maria, a couple of questions here for you. We're really talking about making a statement. Other than that, there's really no impact that something like this would have.
HINOJOSA: That's right. It really is a statement.
Now organizers say that because of the fact that this is coming from city councils across the country, that these might not be your typical anti-war activists, that that's why they are hoping that the president pays attention.
There's a city, Kalamazoo, that has a majority of Republicans in the city council and they passed it. So they're just hoping that symbolically it will draw the president's attention to the issue of funding that will be drawn away from cities to be used for possible war.
KAGAN: And also, give us some New York City perspective here, you New Yorker, you. Does the city council have a history of making statements and taking votes on international issues like this, given there is so much to focus on just in New York City alone?
HINOJOSA: New York City Council votes on a lot of things from, you know, very kind of -- from the most eclectic strange things to the very mundane. So they do like to take positions on this. It's not strange for them. It's just that in this particular case it didn't happen as people thought. That it would happen so quickly that this was an anti-war city.
KAGAN: And what will it take in terms of number of votes to pass?
HINOJOSA: It's more than likely going to pass, Daryn. It looks like there's going to be a very few number of people who are going to come up against it. Overwhelmingly it will pass and we're expecting for that vote to happen really any minute. it's just that as good New Yorkers, they can't stop debating.
KAGAN: Keeping that tradition going. Maria Hinojosa in New York City, thanks so much for that.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Resolution Condemning War>
Aired March 12, 2003 - 15:16 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Just a few blocks from where the worst terror attack in U.S. history took place, the New York City Council is considering whether or not to pass the resolution condemning war with Iraq. Our Maria Hinojosa is live in New York and she has the latest on this vote.
Maria, hello.
MARIA HINOJOSA, CNN URBAN AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Daryn. Well, the vote comes after several months of heated debate within the New York City Council.
And there were many people who expected that given New York City's liberal tradition that passing an anti-war resolution would come easily. But there were many different perspectives on this and it really all stems from the city's experience of being a target for terrorist.
So many city council members were hearing different things from constituents who were tied to September 11. They heard from a group called September 11 Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, people who lost family on September 11 who don't want to see war or any more loss of life under any circumstance.
But they also heard from constituents who felt that terrorism should be dealt with, a very strong hand, and it needs to be dealt with now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PETER VALONE JR., NYC COUNCILMAN: I would rather go with the U.N., but I do not believe we need to wait for them. It was not France that was attacked, it was not Russia that was attack, it was us and we need to defend ourselves before we're attacked again.
CHRISTINE QUINN, NYC COUNCILWOMAN: Because we were the site of the attack, I think we send a stronger message that the president has not made a clear connection between Iraq and al Qaeda. And that that connection can't be thrown about without firm evidence backing it up.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HINOJOSA: Now the earlier resolutions that were presented to the city council were very clearly against any war with Iraq under any circumstances. And some cities softened that a bit.
But for New York City, the wording is that the city council opposes a preemptive military attack on Iraq unless it has demonstrated that Iraq poses a real and imminent threat to the United States or unless all other options for getting Iraq to comply with disarmament fail.
Now the organizers for the Cities for Peace Campaign are expecting this resolution to pass, hoping that New York will become the 141st city to pass an anti-war resolution. Their focus will then be to get that number up to 200. They plan to target Southern states, as well as Texas, where only one city has passed a resolution, that would be Austin -- Daryn.
KAGAN: All right. Maria, a couple of questions here for you. We're really talking about making a statement. Other than that, there's really no impact that something like this would have.
HINOJOSA: That's right. It really is a statement.
Now organizers say that because of the fact that this is coming from city councils across the country, that these might not be your typical anti-war activists, that that's why they are hoping that the president pays attention.
There's a city, Kalamazoo, that has a majority of Republicans in the city council and they passed it. So they're just hoping that symbolically it will draw the president's attention to the issue of funding that will be drawn away from cities to be used for possible war.
KAGAN: And also, give us some New York City perspective here, you New Yorker, you. Does the city council have a history of making statements and taking votes on international issues like this, given there is so much to focus on just in New York City alone?
HINOJOSA: New York City Council votes on a lot of things from, you know, very kind of -- from the most eclectic strange things to the very mundane. So they do like to take positions on this. It's not strange for them. It's just that in this particular case it didn't happen as people thought. That it would happen so quickly that this was an anti-war city.
KAGAN: And what will it take in terms of number of votes to pass?
HINOJOSA: It's more than likely going to pass, Daryn. It looks like there's going to be a very few number of people who are going to come up against it. Overwhelmingly it will pass and we're expecting for that vote to happen really any minute. it's just that as good New Yorkers, they can't stop debating.
KAGAN: Keeping that tradition going. Maria Hinojosa in New York City, thanks so much for that.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Resolution Condemning War>
