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American Morning

Interview With Ehud Barak

Aired September 04, 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: Again, as we've been reporting, President Bush today set to make out his case to several key members of Congress at the White House. But apparently Saddam Hussein not ignoring all the talk of war.
Reaction from Baghdad now, where CNN's James Martone is on the ground in the Iraqi capital -- James, hello. Good afternoon to you there.

JAMES MARTONE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good afternoon from Baghdad, Bill.

Well, today there is a message, front page, of all Iraq's newspapers, including the English language newspaper. All the newspapers are state controlled, I might add. He's calling on the world, Iraqis and other Arabs, he says, to have faith, faith, he says, that is immune of what he calls "negative media and fabricated news." So basically a call from President Saddam Hussein to the world not to believe anything negative about Iraq.

Now this comes about with a backdrop of people, he's sent out his diplomats, senior diplomats abroad, Tariq Aziz, the deputy prime minister, was in Johannesburg yesterday where he suggested that Iraq would be open to allow U.N. weapons inspectors back in in conjunction, he said, with a lifting, an eventual lifting of the embargo.

Likewise, the foreign minister of Iraq is today in Cairo for meetings there focused, meetings there with other Arab foreign ministers focused, in part, also on these U.S. threats against Iraq, with that country supporting Iraq in its stance, in its rejection of U.S. threats on the regime here -- Bill.

HEMMER: James, thank you.

James Martone in the Iraqi capital.

And, again, back in this country, Iraq is Topic A. Here's Paula now with more for you.

PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks, Bill.

In Israel, which had been the target of Iraqi missiles during the Gulf War, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is warning his emergency and security forces to be ready for a U.S. strike on Iraq by as early as November. The news comes in today's Israeli newspaper "Haretz." Israel has been a firm backer of President Bush's hard-line Iraq. Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak says inaction is the greatest risk and wrote in today's "New York Times:" "Few will doubt Mr. Hussein's readiness to use nuclear weapons against American assets or against Israel if only under extreme circumstances. Once Iraq becomes a nuclear power, the very decision to go to war against it would become a totally different ball game."

And the former prime minister joins us right now, Ehud Barak, in our New York studios.

Good to see you again.

EHUD BARAK, FORMER ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: Good morning.

ZAHN: Welcome to AMERICAN MORNING.

First off, I watched your reaction to our report just out of Iraq that Saddam Hussein is telling the world to ignore anything negative about the country. This man has gall or what?

BARAK: Saddam Hussein is a master of deception. He will be ready to use any possible tweak to mislead the public in the free world about his intentions. I believe that the case against Iraq is very, very strong, but for obvious reasons the president as well as Tony Blair and our intelligence community cannot share it with the public before the time is right, since the very sharing of all the information with the public will risk highly precious intelligence resources.

ZAHN: But I guess what has become clear to the American public, at least in the last couple of weeks, when you have the vice president saying that the Iraqis are in the process of obtaining nuclear weapons, you had Secretary Rumsfeld go even further than that yesterday. Is that what you believe to be the case, that Iraq now has nuclear capability?

BARAK: I don't know and I don't believe that anyone knows whether Iraq or how close Saddam Hussein is to a crude nuclear device, the kind of which destroyed the Hiroshima or Nagasaki. But the very fact that we cannot know when exactly the point of no return will be crossed makes us much more responsible to replace Saddam Hussein before that happens.

ZAHN: What kind of strategy should the U.S. be using now? There are some folks highly critical of the Bush administration because they think they're moving too quickly. It now appears as though the administration is going to try to use the U.N. and set up some sort of deadline for unfettered access to inspectors going into Iraq and that'll set the stage for the timetable here.

BARAK: I'm not exactly in a position to advise the administration. I believe that the people there know what should be done. But my personal view is that a U.N. Security Council resolution is a must. You cannot avoid it in the world the way we know it. But at the same time, we should know that Mr. Saddam Hussein will never accept the kind of inspection regime that would really be able to expose what he is doing. He is trying to hide, not to uncover, what he is doing.

So basically if tough demanding rigor regime is put in place, he will not comply. And once he does not comply or even if the United States decides that the time for action has come, the situation will be much better after the U.N. Security Council had been consulted.

The point is, of course, not, to make a clear message in advance that any slight kind of deviation from the language and the spirit of the resolution would lead to an action.

In fact, his violation of previous U.N. Security Council resolutions makes it clear to any one of us that Saddam Hussein will never comply to a consistent regime.

ZAHN: There is much concern among Israelis that if the U.S. starts any kind of military action against Iraq, that among the first things that will happen are some kind of chemical or biological weapon being fired into Israel. How real is that prospect and how would Israel respond?

BARAK: We feel that when Saddam is cornered, he might well use whatever he has against Israel. We clearly will respond, unlike what happened in '91. But I believe that a lot of thought is invested these days both in Israel as well as here in order to find what could be done to reduce or to minimize the risk that such operations will be launched and will be successful.

ZAHN: A newspaper account in your country suggested a couple weeks ago that if chemical weapons were lobbed into your country, Israel would respond with nuclear weapons. Do you believe that?

BARAK: I don't think that it makes sense to discuss these issues on TV. I should remind you that there are...

ZAHN: But do you discount that report? I mean is that possible?

BARAK: Well, you know, there is a freedom of speech in Israel. Any newspaper can write whatever comes to its mind. But I don't think that it's proper for me, the former prime minister and minister of defense, to discuss it on TV.

But let me tell you that we feel that Saddam Hussein has only residual capacity of launching, namely rockets. And with proper operation, well deployed, it won't be easy for him to launch them against Israel or to launch them effectively. Since '91, we've developed certain means of self-defense, a system that can intercept an incoming missile when it repenetrates the atmosphere. And so we are much better deployed than in the past. But, of course, we can kind of make a point of defending, we could be attacked.

ZAHN: A final question for you, sir, and we just have about 10 seconds left. Is there any doubt in your mind that some time, maybe at the beginning of next year, that the U.S. will be at war with Iraq?

BARAK: I have no doubt that Saddam Hussein should be ousted. I have no doubt that it will happen. I don't know when it will happen. It might take several months, it might take more time, but it will happen and should happen.

ZAHN: Former prime minister of Israel, Ehud Barak, thank you for dropping by our studios here in New York. Good to see you in person for a change.

BARAK: Thank you.

ZAHN: Appreciate your time this morning.

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