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American Morning

Bush to Meet with Blair at Camp David

Aired September 05, 2002 - 09:03   ET

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

PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: The countdown to military action against Iraq is accelerating. President Bush is stepping up his campaign to convince Congress and the world Saddam Hussein must go.
As you probably know, the president met with congressional leaders yesterday. He will talk with British Prime Minister Tony Blair this coming weekend at the Camp David, and John King is standing by at the White House this morning to bring us up-to-date on all of the above -- good morning, John.

JOHN KING, CNN SR. WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning again to you, Paula. An all out effort led by the president now to convince the Congress, convince the American people and to convince key allies around the world that the world must do something to confront Saddam Hussein and Iraq. The president insisting he still has not decided with any certainty that that something has to include a U.S.-led military confrontation with Iraq. But the president promising to make his case in the weeks ahead.

Today, the president is focussed on a more short-term goal. Mr. Bush left the White House a few minutes ago. He is off to Kentucky and Indiana for Republican fund raising, but in the days ahead, Mr. Bush will pick up the telephone and call the leaders of Russia, China and France, all part of his effort to convince the United Nations that it must stand up to Saddam Hussein again.

As you noted, Mr. Bush met with key members of Congress yesterday. The White House is convinced the president will get a strong resolution now from the Congress, non-binding, but essentially agreeing with the president's position that Saddam Hussein must go. But as you know, Paula, from talking with Nancy Pelosi, the number two Democrat in the House of Representatives earlier today, there is widespread agreement in the Congress, democrats and Republicans, liberals and conservatives, that Saddam Hussein is a problem. The debate is over whether there needs to be a military solution.

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REP. NANCY PELOSI (D), CALIFORNIA: His behavior is outside the circle of civilized human behavior. There is no question about that. But the question is, do we put our young people at risk in order to make sure that he is not developing weapons of mass destruction, or do we try to exhaust every diplomatic remedy first, and try to build support among our allies for this diplomatic initiative.

(END VIDEO CLIP) KING: Now the White House would argue diplomacy over the past decade simply has not worked and Saddam Hussein has cheated on all those agreements he made with the United Nations at the end of the Gulf War. Still, the administration believes there will be one more debate about whether to push for more weapons inspections in Iraq. If that happens, the administration believes Saddam Hussein will ultimately say no, but if inspectors do go back into Iraq, what the president wants to accomplish in his meetings with other world leaders and his speech to the United Nations next week, is to make this clear. That if those inspectors go in, and if they are turned away, in his view, there will be no more negotiations with Saddam Hussein, and Saddam Hussein should be prepared to face the consequences.

ZAHN: And John, about the same time, the president was trying to make his case before members of Congress yesterday. A trillion dollar lawsuit that was filed in a Manhattan federal court became public for the first time. It is a suit filed on behalf of 9/11 families which alleges, among other things, that Saddam Hussein was very well aware of what Osama bin Laden had planned on 9/11, weeks in advance of the attacks. What does the administration say about this lawsuit and the allegations?

KING: The administration says it will let the family press that lawsuit, but what it says is that U.S. intelligence has turned up absolutely no evidence that Saddam Hussein had advanced knowledge, had any involvement, had any complications at all, any involvement at all in what happened on September 11, and you can be certain this administration, as it tries to make the case against Saddam Hussein has explored any possible tips, clues or whatever, and if it could draw that line, this administrations would love to draw that line, but senior Bush administration officials say they have looked at all the available intelligence data, and from what they see, they say there is no way to make that connection.

ZAHN: But clearly, involvement is a different thing from having knowledge of this ahead of time. Will they even acknowledge that it is a possibility that Saddam Hussein knew very much ahead of time what was going to happen on 9/11?

KING: They say they don't believe that to be true, but they will obviously pay attention as this lawsuit pays out. They obviously are analyzing any tips they get from any other intelligence sources, whether they be public record, or things behind the scenes. But they say they have looked very long and hard at this question, and if they could make the case that Saddam Hussein knew about this, and did not put the world on notice, they would very much love to make that case here at the White House. They simply say that there is no evidence that that is the case.

ZAHN: All right, John King. Thanks so much. Appreciate it.

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