Return to Transcripts main page

American Morning

Bush Gathers Advisers in Texas

Aired August 21, 2002 - 08:02   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: We're watching Texas again this morning. President Bush meeting with top military advisers today at his ranch there in Crawford. The White House says Iraq is not on the agenda.
Our Senior White House Correspondent John King in Crawford live with us this morning today.

What is on the agenda, then, John?

Good morning.

JOHN KING, CNN CORRESPONDENT: How to dice up, Bill, the tens of billions of dollars the Pentagon will spend for the rest of this year into next year and years beyond. Remember at the very beginning of the Bush administration one of the big controversies was missile defense. This president wants to spend tens of billions of dollars to develop a missile shield, if you will, over the United States.

Much of the planning was put aside because of September 11, because of some diplomacy that needed to be done with Russia. The United States no longer part of the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. Defense Secretary Don Rumsfeld will tell the president today we are ready to move forward aggressively building this missile defense system. He needs the president to sign off on just how fast to go and that will have a domino effect on the rest of the Pentagon budget because of how much it costs, how many new ships to buy, how many new fighter jets to buy.

All of that, of course, will cause tension and fights with Congress because all these weapons are built where? Back home in the districts of congressional members.

So Iraq is likely to come up at this meeting, Bill, make no mistake about it. All officials expected it to be discussed briefly. But the main event here, the president having a face to face meeting with the vice president, the defense secretary and others to focus on what Don Rumsfeld calls the transformation of the U.S. military for the wars of tomorrow.

HEMMER: Thank you, John.

John King.

All eyes on Crawford today. We'll be back in touch later through the morning here.

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