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Group Seeks Independent Probe of Bush WMD Claims
Aired June 18, 2003 - 15:09 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: An anti-war coalition now is calling on the Congress to appoint an independent commission to investigate the president's prewar claims about the Iraqi threat. The group "Win Without War" has bought a full-page ad in tomorrow's "New York Times." Now it recaps some of Mr. Bush's past quotes about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction under the headline "Misleader".
A short while ago, Mr. Bush again rejected allegations that he and British Prime Minister Tony Blair misled the public.
Let's go to our White House correspondent, Dana Bash.
Dana, what is the president saying?
DANA BASH, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Judy.
Well, the president was meeting on a domestic issue, Medicare, with a group of bipartisan senators. But he got questions all dealing with international issues, and one of those issues was Tony Blair and the fire that he is coming under at home for the fact that weapons of mass destruction have not been found in Iraq, and questions about the intelligence leading to the understanding that they existed in that country. He is under fire, as Mr. Bush is here, but by any measure, he is certainly in a different political firestorm than Mr. Bush is facing back here in Washington. And the president came to a very strong and very blunt defense of his friend and ally.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: He operated on very sound intelligence and those accusations are simply not true.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BASH: Now, Judy, the president was also asked about the subject of Iran and he made the point to say how much he appreciates the people in that country who he calls "courageous souls," who are speaking of what he called "freedom" from there. And he warned the government to treat them with respect.
But he was asked about Iran's nuclear program. Earlier in the day, his spokesman, Ari Fleischer, made clear that they simply don't believe Iran, that they are using their nuclear capability or have their nuclear program for domestic issues. Thy made clear that there is only one thing that they want them for back in Iran, and that is for potential weapons. The president had very strong statements that that is something that the U.S. and its international allies will not tolerate.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BUSH: The international community must come together to make it very clear to Iran that we will not tolerate the construction of the nuclear weapons. Iran could be dangerous if they had a nuclear weapon. I brought the subject up at the G-8 and had good discussion on the subject. There was near universal agreement that we all must work together to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BASH: And lastly, Judy, the other interesting thing the president let us know in this meeting in the Cabinet room was that he called today the Egyptian President Mubarak. It is, as far as we know, the first phone call he has made to any of the leaders to the Middle East since he was in Aqaba, Jordan two weeks ago. He said that he asked the Egyptian president to help the Palestinian authority in consolidating the security forces to try to start cracking down on the terrorism -- Judy.
WOODRUFF: OK. Very latest from the White House. Dana, thank you very 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 June 18, 2003 - 15:09 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: An anti-war coalition now is calling on the Congress to appoint an independent commission to investigate the president's prewar claims about the Iraqi threat. The group "Win Without War" has bought a full-page ad in tomorrow's "New York Times." Now it recaps some of Mr. Bush's past quotes about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction under the headline "Misleader".
A short while ago, Mr. Bush again rejected allegations that he and British Prime Minister Tony Blair misled the public.
Let's go to our White House correspondent, Dana Bash.
Dana, what is the president saying?
DANA BASH, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Judy.
Well, the president was meeting on a domestic issue, Medicare, with a group of bipartisan senators. But he got questions all dealing with international issues, and one of those issues was Tony Blair and the fire that he is coming under at home for the fact that weapons of mass destruction have not been found in Iraq, and questions about the intelligence leading to the understanding that they existed in that country. He is under fire, as Mr. Bush is here, but by any measure, he is certainly in a different political firestorm than Mr. Bush is facing back here in Washington. And the president came to a very strong and very blunt defense of his friend and ally.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: He operated on very sound intelligence and those accusations are simply not true.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BASH: Now, Judy, the president was also asked about the subject of Iran and he made the point to say how much he appreciates the people in that country who he calls "courageous souls," who are speaking of what he called "freedom" from there. And he warned the government to treat them with respect.
But he was asked about Iran's nuclear program. Earlier in the day, his spokesman, Ari Fleischer, made clear that they simply don't believe Iran, that they are using their nuclear capability or have their nuclear program for domestic issues. Thy made clear that there is only one thing that they want them for back in Iran, and that is for potential weapons. The president had very strong statements that that is something that the U.S. and its international allies will not tolerate.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BUSH: The international community must come together to make it very clear to Iran that we will not tolerate the construction of the nuclear weapons. Iran could be dangerous if they had a nuclear weapon. I brought the subject up at the G-8 and had good discussion on the subject. There was near universal agreement that we all must work together to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BASH: And lastly, Judy, the other interesting thing the president let us know in this meeting in the Cabinet room was that he called today the Egyptian President Mubarak. It is, as far as we know, the first phone call he has made to any of the leaders to the Middle East since he was in Aqaba, Jordan two weeks ago. He said that he asked the Egyptian president to help the Palestinian authority in consolidating the security forces to try to start cracking down on the terrorism -- Judy.
WOODRUFF: OK. Very latest from the White House. Dana, thank you very 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
