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Rumsfeld on Paul O'Neill Comments; U.S. Helicopter Goes Down in Iraq

Aired January 13, 2004 - 15:01   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.


MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: We begin this hour just across the river from where I sit at the Pentagon.
At a news conference we brought to you live here on CNN, Donald Rumsfeld ruminated on the war in Iraq, the thaw between India and Pakistan, and the tell-all book for which former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill was the principal source.

Now, guess which topic he was asked about first?

CNN's Jamie McIntyre had a front-row seat. He joins us with the highlights on the briefing -- hello, Jamie.

JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN MILITARY AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, hello, Miles.

Well, Defense Secretary Rumsfeld launched a vigorous defense today of his boss, President Bush, describing him as engaged and asking probing questions, saying that he was honored to work with somebody with President Bush's character and ability. And he denied that there was any predisposition to go to war with Iraq before the events of September 11, back in the early part of the administration.

As for his friend Paul O'Neill, who he said he had known for 30 years, Rumsfeld said he did call him a couple of times when he heard he was going to be involved in this possibly critical book, but he denied he made any effort to muzzle him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD RUMSFELD, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: I didn't ask him not to write a book. I didn't ask him to do anything. He's a person I've known since the 1960s. I must say, I have not read the book, so I really am reluctant to comment on it, other than to say that what I've been reading about the book is so different from my experience in this administration, it is just dramatic. It's night and day.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCINTYRE: Rumsfeld completely dismissed the notion that the Bush administration was -- quote -- "predisposed to invade Iraq."

He said Iraq was a topic of great interest in the beginning of the administration, because, he said, U.S. pilots were being fired at with impunity by Iraq in both northern and southern no-fly zones. And he believed that something needed to be done about that. He also noted that regime change was the official policy of the U.S. government before Bush took office, a statement that -- of support today, as obtained by my colleague Barbara Starr, who has been in communication with a former chairman of the just chiefs, General Hugh Shelton, who was President Bush's first chairman.

And General Shelton tells our Barbara Starr -- quote -- "During the first six months of the new administration, I saw nothing that would lead me to believe we were any closer to attacking Iraq than we had been during the previous administration," a statement given to CNN by former Joint Chiefs Chairman General Hugh Shelton about his understanding of events in the period in the period before September 11 of 2001 -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: Jamie, watch that briefing, it was interesting to see the secretary of defense taking great pains not to call the book a kiss-and-tell book or a tell-all book. What's the story there? Are they close friends from way back? And has this hurt a personal friendship?

MCINTYRE: Well, I don't know how close they are, but Rumsfeld has a personal feeling about books, he said, that are sort of, as you said, kiss-and-tell.

He claims he's not writing one. He thinks that, a lot of times, they distort the history because they give only a narrow slice of the picture. And so he's sort of predisposed against those kind of books. He said his initial call to Paul O'Neill was simply because he heard he was involved in it and he said he was assured that it wasn't going to be that kind of a book.

And then he said, just a few days ago, when he heard the book was coming out and, in fact, it was quite critical of the administration, he said he had a follow-up call to his friend to find out what the story was.

O'BRIEN: Oh, to be a fly on the phone line.

All right, Jamie McIntyre at the Pentagon, thank you very much -- Kyra.

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Now to Iraq, where yet another U.S. helicopter is totaled, but this time, the soldiers on board are safe. The same can't be said of insurgents who targeted a mayor's office today.

And we get all the day's news from CNN's Karl Penhaul. He's in Baghdad.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's been another day of troubles in the so-called Sunni Triangle, west of Baghdad in the restive town of Fallujah.

Officials at the mayor's office say unidentified assailants fired a rocket-propelled grenade as U.S. paratroopers as they stood guard outside the mayor's office. Those officials say that the paratroopers then opened fire, and, in the ensuing gunfight, three Iraqis were killed, including one woman. Earlier in the day, and also yesterday, there had been anti-coalition protests in the town, after U.S. forces arrested an Iraqi woman. It's unclear, though, at this stage the exact relationship between that attack and those earlier demonstrations.

A little west of the town of Fallujah, around the town of Habbaniyah, also in the Sunni Triangle, a U.S. Apache attack helicopter went down. Coalition military authorities say the helicopter was probably shot down by enemy fire. It does say, though, that the two-man crew was rescued. It's the third helicopter crash in that area in the last two weeks. All three have been taken down apparently by insurgent fire.

The most deadly was late last week, when a Black Hawk helicopter on a medical evacuation mission was shot down. All nine crew and passengers aboard died.

Karl Penhaul, CNN, Baghdad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com




Down in Iraq>


Aired January 13, 2004 - 15:01   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: We begin this hour just across the river from where I sit at the Pentagon.
At a news conference we brought to you live here on CNN, Donald Rumsfeld ruminated on the war in Iraq, the thaw between India and Pakistan, and the tell-all book for which former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill was the principal source.

Now, guess which topic he was asked about first?

CNN's Jamie McIntyre had a front-row seat. He joins us with the highlights on the briefing -- hello, Jamie.

JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN MILITARY AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, hello, Miles.

Well, Defense Secretary Rumsfeld launched a vigorous defense today of his boss, President Bush, describing him as engaged and asking probing questions, saying that he was honored to work with somebody with President Bush's character and ability. And he denied that there was any predisposition to go to war with Iraq before the events of September 11, back in the early part of the administration.

As for his friend Paul O'Neill, who he said he had known for 30 years, Rumsfeld said he did call him a couple of times when he heard he was going to be involved in this possibly critical book, but he denied he made any effort to muzzle him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD RUMSFELD, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: I didn't ask him not to write a book. I didn't ask him to do anything. He's a person I've known since the 1960s. I must say, I have not read the book, so I really am reluctant to comment on it, other than to say that what I've been reading about the book is so different from my experience in this administration, it is just dramatic. It's night and day.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCINTYRE: Rumsfeld completely dismissed the notion that the Bush administration was -- quote -- "predisposed to invade Iraq."

He said Iraq was a topic of great interest in the beginning of the administration, because, he said, U.S. pilots were being fired at with impunity by Iraq in both northern and southern no-fly zones. And he believed that something needed to be done about that. He also noted that regime change was the official policy of the U.S. government before Bush took office, a statement that -- of support today, as obtained by my colleague Barbara Starr, who has been in communication with a former chairman of the just chiefs, General Hugh Shelton, who was President Bush's first chairman.

And General Shelton tells our Barbara Starr -- quote -- "During the first six months of the new administration, I saw nothing that would lead me to believe we were any closer to attacking Iraq than we had been during the previous administration," a statement given to CNN by former Joint Chiefs Chairman General Hugh Shelton about his understanding of events in the period in the period before September 11 of 2001 -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: Jamie, watch that briefing, it was interesting to see the secretary of defense taking great pains not to call the book a kiss-and-tell book or a tell-all book. What's the story there? Are they close friends from way back? And has this hurt a personal friendship?

MCINTYRE: Well, I don't know how close they are, but Rumsfeld has a personal feeling about books, he said, that are sort of, as you said, kiss-and-tell.

He claims he's not writing one. He thinks that, a lot of times, they distort the history because they give only a narrow slice of the picture. And so he's sort of predisposed against those kind of books. He said his initial call to Paul O'Neill was simply because he heard he was involved in it and he said he was assured that it wasn't going to be that kind of a book.

And then he said, just a few days ago, when he heard the book was coming out and, in fact, it was quite critical of the administration, he said he had a follow-up call to his friend to find out what the story was.

O'BRIEN: Oh, to be a fly on the phone line.

All right, Jamie McIntyre at the Pentagon, thank you very much -- Kyra.

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Now to Iraq, where yet another U.S. helicopter is totaled, but this time, the soldiers on board are safe. The same can't be said of insurgents who targeted a mayor's office today.

And we get all the day's news from CNN's Karl Penhaul. He's in Baghdad.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's been another day of troubles in the so-called Sunni Triangle, west of Baghdad in the restive town of Fallujah.

Officials at the mayor's office say unidentified assailants fired a rocket-propelled grenade as U.S. paratroopers as they stood guard outside the mayor's office. Those officials say that the paratroopers then opened fire, and, in the ensuing gunfight, three Iraqis were killed, including one woman. Earlier in the day, and also yesterday, there had been anti-coalition protests in the town, after U.S. forces arrested an Iraqi woman. It's unclear, though, at this stage the exact relationship between that attack and those earlier demonstrations.

A little west of the town of Fallujah, around the town of Habbaniyah, also in the Sunni Triangle, a U.S. Apache attack helicopter went down. Coalition military authorities say the helicopter was probably shot down by enemy fire. It does say, though, that the two-man crew was rescued. It's the third helicopter crash in that area in the last two weeks. All three have been taken down apparently by insurgent fire.

The most deadly was late last week, when a Black Hawk helicopter on a medical evacuation mission was shot down. All nine crew and passengers aboard died.

Karl Penhaul, CNN, Baghdad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com




Down in Iraq>