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President to Address Nation, Give Ultimatum
Aired March 17, 2003 - 13:22 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.
JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: Tonight the president will address the nation at 8:00 p.m. Eastern. We want to go quickly to the White House to CNN's Dana Dash. Dana, how much do we know about what the president is going to say tonight?
DANA BASH, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, we know the president intents to give an ultimatum tonight, Judy. He is going to say that the time for diplomacy is over. Despite some of the interesting comments we just heard coming from the United Nations, here at the White House, they definitely feel the diplomatic window is closed. And the president will say that unless Saddam Hussein leaves the country, military action could be imminent. That is the ultimatum that he will give tonight. He will likely give a short window, perhaps a 72 hour window, maybe he won't specifically give the number of hours or days, but make it clear that he's not talking about a lot of time for Saddam Hussein to have that ultimatum. He also will send a signal with his speech that U.S. citizens in Iraq, journalists, other friendly diplomats in Iraq, it's time for them to leave. You, of course, have seen some of that leaving already going on today.
Now, Colin Powell, Judy, earlier today spoke about the fact it was clear to them, of course they made it clear yesterday at the summit in the Azores, but clear to them this morning that the process at the U.N. had been exhausted. And he made clear that the diplomatic window is closed.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COLIN POWELL, SECRETARY OF STATE: I can think of nothing that Saddam Hussein can do diplomatically. I think that -- that time is now over. He had his chance. He's had many chances over the last 12 years and he's blown every one of those chances.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BASH: This morning, when he -- when Colin Powell was here at the White House along with other top members of the president's national security team, they met in the situation room, as they usually do. But today it was a very important day, and a very important meeting that Colin Powell, we are told, said to the president that he had been on the phone with a number of foreign secretaries from around the world this morning and he had spoken with Kofi Annan and it was clear they were not going to have success at the U.N., that they weren't going to be able to get another resolution passed with any kind of deadline. That's when they made the final decision to have that speech tonight. Judy?
WOODRUFF: All right, Dana Bash, a day full of meetings and activity at the White House. Dana Bash, thanks very much.
Now, Miles, back to you.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: British Prime Minister Tony Blair has paid a terrible political price already for his strident support of Mr. Bush and the United States' position on Iraq. Today he called an emergency cabinet meeting, got some mixed news. His attorney general gave his legal blessing for the use of force but a key member of his cabinet also resigned. CNN's Robin Oakley is live in London with the latest on that. A bit of turmoil at Number 10 Downing, to say the least, robin.
ROBIN OAKLEY, CNN SENIOR EUROPEAN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Turmoil, indeed, Miles. The departure of Robin Cook, the former foreign secretary, until recently -- until today, the leader of the House of Commons . He said that he could not accept the idea of the U.S. and the U.K. going into action against Saddam Hussein on a unilateral basis. The resignation letter that he sent to Tony Blair says in principle he believes it is "wrong to embark on military action without broad international support. In practice, I believe it's against Britain's interests to create a precedent for unilateral military action."
Interestingly in his reply to Robin Cook, Tony Blair really let out some of his anger with the French. Because he says, in his reply, the government is staying true to resolution 1441, others in the face of continuing Iraqi noncompliance are walking away from it. And he says that the threatened French veto set back hugely the considerable progress we were making in building a consensus among members of the U.N. Security Council. So a lot of that anger showing really from the British cabinet.
John Prescott, the deputy prime minister, came out into Downing Street when the cabinet ended and said, now the diplomatic window has closed that there was only two possible options -- Saddam Hussein had to go into exile or he had to be disarmed by force.
Tony Blair will go to the House of Commons tomorrow, meet his MPs and Parliament will be asked to support military action without the sanction of a U.N. Security Council resolution which Tony Blair had desperately wanted for political cover. Miles?
O'BRIEN: That should be a very interesting meeting in the Parliament. Undoubtedly we will be watching that one live.
But let me ask you this, how will this play on the home front? Mr. Cook is highly respected. His resignation cannot help Tony Blair in the polls. Already he's taken a beating there, hasn't he?
OAKLEY: The difficulty is that Robin Cook could, to some extent, embolden some of those who have been thinking about rebellion. The first time that Tony Blair's Iraqi policy was put to the House of Commons a week or two back, 122 of his own Labor MPs rebelled against him. People are expecting that number to increase this time because others have warned that if the U.N. didn't sanction military action, then they couldn't support it. The fact that Mr. Cook has walked out from Tony Blair's cabinet makes it more likely that that rebellion will swell and, of course, public opinion is split 70-30 against military action without the sanction of the United Nations. So Tony Blair has an uphill struggle to convince the public, but he will go to the House of Commons tomorrow and appeal for the support of the public and of the nation.
And he was telling us as reporters on the plane on the way back from the Azores yesterday that he believes public opinion will start coming around once British troops are committed and are in action. And there is some evidence to support that. The opinion polls are starting to show just a little bit of a move in his direction. But there's a long, long way to go, Miles.
O'BRIEN: A little rallying around the Union Jack. OK, Robin Oakley, we'll check in with you tomorrow on that House of Commons session. That should be quite interesting. Thanks very much from Number 10 Downing Street.
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 17, 2003 - 13:22 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: Tonight the president will address the nation at 8:00 p.m. Eastern. We want to go quickly to the White House to CNN's Dana Dash. Dana, how much do we know about what the president is going to say tonight?
DANA BASH, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, we know the president intents to give an ultimatum tonight, Judy. He is going to say that the time for diplomacy is over. Despite some of the interesting comments we just heard coming from the United Nations, here at the White House, they definitely feel the diplomatic window is closed. And the president will say that unless Saddam Hussein leaves the country, military action could be imminent. That is the ultimatum that he will give tonight. He will likely give a short window, perhaps a 72 hour window, maybe he won't specifically give the number of hours or days, but make it clear that he's not talking about a lot of time for Saddam Hussein to have that ultimatum. He also will send a signal with his speech that U.S. citizens in Iraq, journalists, other friendly diplomats in Iraq, it's time for them to leave. You, of course, have seen some of that leaving already going on today.
Now, Colin Powell, Judy, earlier today spoke about the fact it was clear to them, of course they made it clear yesterday at the summit in the Azores, but clear to them this morning that the process at the U.N. had been exhausted. And he made clear that the diplomatic window is closed.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COLIN POWELL, SECRETARY OF STATE: I can think of nothing that Saddam Hussein can do diplomatically. I think that -- that time is now over. He had his chance. He's had many chances over the last 12 years and he's blown every one of those chances.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BASH: This morning, when he -- when Colin Powell was here at the White House along with other top members of the president's national security team, they met in the situation room, as they usually do. But today it was a very important day, and a very important meeting that Colin Powell, we are told, said to the president that he had been on the phone with a number of foreign secretaries from around the world this morning and he had spoken with Kofi Annan and it was clear they were not going to have success at the U.N., that they weren't going to be able to get another resolution passed with any kind of deadline. That's when they made the final decision to have that speech tonight. Judy?
WOODRUFF: All right, Dana Bash, a day full of meetings and activity at the White House. Dana Bash, thanks very much.
Now, Miles, back to you.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: British Prime Minister Tony Blair has paid a terrible political price already for his strident support of Mr. Bush and the United States' position on Iraq. Today he called an emergency cabinet meeting, got some mixed news. His attorney general gave his legal blessing for the use of force but a key member of his cabinet also resigned. CNN's Robin Oakley is live in London with the latest on that. A bit of turmoil at Number 10 Downing, to say the least, robin.
ROBIN OAKLEY, CNN SENIOR EUROPEAN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Turmoil, indeed, Miles. The departure of Robin Cook, the former foreign secretary, until recently -- until today, the leader of the House of Commons . He said that he could not accept the idea of the U.S. and the U.K. going into action against Saddam Hussein on a unilateral basis. The resignation letter that he sent to Tony Blair says in principle he believes it is "wrong to embark on military action without broad international support. In practice, I believe it's against Britain's interests to create a precedent for unilateral military action."
Interestingly in his reply to Robin Cook, Tony Blair really let out some of his anger with the French. Because he says, in his reply, the government is staying true to resolution 1441, others in the face of continuing Iraqi noncompliance are walking away from it. And he says that the threatened French veto set back hugely the considerable progress we were making in building a consensus among members of the U.N. Security Council. So a lot of that anger showing really from the British cabinet.
John Prescott, the deputy prime minister, came out into Downing Street when the cabinet ended and said, now the diplomatic window has closed that there was only two possible options -- Saddam Hussein had to go into exile or he had to be disarmed by force.
Tony Blair will go to the House of Commons tomorrow, meet his MPs and Parliament will be asked to support military action without the sanction of a U.N. Security Council resolution which Tony Blair had desperately wanted for political cover. Miles?
O'BRIEN: That should be a very interesting meeting in the Parliament. Undoubtedly we will be watching that one live.
But let me ask you this, how will this play on the home front? Mr. Cook is highly respected. His resignation cannot help Tony Blair in the polls. Already he's taken a beating there, hasn't he?
OAKLEY: The difficulty is that Robin Cook could, to some extent, embolden some of those who have been thinking about rebellion. The first time that Tony Blair's Iraqi policy was put to the House of Commons a week or two back, 122 of his own Labor MPs rebelled against him. People are expecting that number to increase this time because others have warned that if the U.N. didn't sanction military action, then they couldn't support it. The fact that Mr. Cook has walked out from Tony Blair's cabinet makes it more likely that that rebellion will swell and, of course, public opinion is split 70-30 against military action without the sanction of the United Nations. So Tony Blair has an uphill struggle to convince the public, but he will go to the House of Commons tomorrow and appeal for the support of the public and of the nation.
And he was telling us as reporters on the plane on the way back from the Azores yesterday that he believes public opinion will start coming around once British troops are committed and are in action. And there is some evidence to support that. The opinion polls are starting to show just a little bit of a move in his direction. But there's a long, long way to go, Miles.
O'BRIEN: A little rallying around the Union Jack. OK, Robin Oakley, we'll check in with you tomorrow on that House of Commons session. That should be quite interesting. Thanks very much from Number 10 Downing Street.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
