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American Morning

Bush Reportedly Orders CIA to Remove Saddam Hussein

Aired June 17, 2002 - 08:01   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.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: "Up Front" now, the president has reportedly ordered the CIA to use all available tools, including lethal force, to capture Saddam Hussein. According to a report in the "Washington Post" this weekend, that order goes beyond the Bush administration's earlier plans to get rid of the Iraqi president.

More now on the plan from Barbara Starr, live at the Pentagon this morning -- Barbara, what do we know now? Good morning.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning Bill. Well, of course, we don't know exactly what the White House has said to the CIA, but what we do understand is what some of the problems and issues are that are going to confront the White House in the months ahead.

Now, of course, President Bush has had the policy for some months now of what is called "regime change" in Iraq, and "regime change" does mean getting rid of Saddam Hussein one way or the other, with or without U.S. military force, and with or without lethal force.

But there are a series of continuing problems in trying to do that. President Bush says at the moment, he has no war plans on his desk, and he's right about that from all accounts. As far as we know, the war plans are still here at the Pentagon. But a decade after the Persian Gulf War, the problem about going to war again in Iraq remains essentially the same, the difficulty of landing large numbers of U.S. combat forces, perhaps 200,000, in Southern Iraq, and marching them, as quickly as possible, north towards Baghdad, taking territory all along the way, holding territory in Baghdad.

By all accounts, it would be long, difficult, and bloody, and the intelligence assessment, of course, is that Saddam Hussein would react to any U.S. action by using chemical and biological weapons, something he did not do during Desert Storm. Now, there is another option, perhaps, a smaller number of forces, perhaps Special Forces and CIA, basically sent to kill the Iraqi leadership. And, of course, there is the third option, which does not necessarily involve U.S. military force, and that's trying to support Iraqi opposition groups and get them to overthrow Saddam Hussein. But that's also full of problems. The Iraqi opposition groups are fractured, there is no overwhelming, clear leadership in the opposition groups that is believed to be able to take over a government in Iraq. And this leads to the bottom line problem for the White House. If they could get rid of Saddam Hussein, who and what would replace him? There's no understanding of that problem at the moment.

It is widely believed that if Saddam was to go, Iraq might be fractured, might be partitioned, and it could lead to even more instability in the region.

HEMMER: A lot of wildcards. Barbara, you were recently overseas with Donald Rumsfeld, returning from that trip last week. Anything come of that visit regarding Saddam Hussein, anything that you or others picked up on while overseas?

STARR: Well, he said that -- publicly, he said, in a number of press conferences, that the issue of military action against Iraq did not come up. But, in every stop in the Persian Gulf, and even in India and Pakistan, by all accounts, he spoke very, very strongly to the leaders he met with about the Saddam Hussein region having chemical, biological weapons, and still trying to work on nuclear weapons, and Iraq's ties to terrorist groups. He says all of that is the reason that Saddam has to go.

HEMMER: Barbara, thank you. Barbara Starr at the Pentagon.

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