Return to Transcripts main page

American Morning

Interview with Richard Shelby

Aired September 09, 2002 - 07:30   ET

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

PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: The Bush administration's claim that Iraq is aggressively pursuing nuclear weapons capability now has some independent corroboration. A report just released this morning by the International Institute for Strategic Studies found Iraq could assemble a nuclear device in a matter of months with some outside help. The group adds Baghdad may have been stockpiling chemical and biological weapons since U.N. inspectors left that country in 1998.
The president and his top advisers have been meeting with congressional leaders to make the administration's case for removing Saddam.

And Senator Richard Shelby, vice chairman of the Intelligence Committee, joins us from our Washington bureau.

Good to see you again, Senator.

SEN. RICHARD SHELBY (R-AL), VICE CHAIRMAN, INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: Good morning, Paula.

ZAHN: Thanks for joining us this morning.

First of all, your reaction to the "New York Times" report that the vice president also commented on about the idea that Iraq has been trying to buy thousands of specifically designed aluminum tubes that could be used ultimately in the construction of a centrifuge and the manufacture of nuclear weapons.

Had you heard that before? Had you heard that in a briefing?

SHELBY: I have and I believe the vice president's description of that is very accurate. He's right on point. I think the real question here is what we don't know, Paula. We do know that Saddam Hussein has for years tried to build nuclear capability. Our intelligence estimates in '91 were not accurate. In other words, they had understated his capability then.

I'm afraid we might be understating his capability now. And if he gets nuclear weapons, in addition to biological and chemical weapons that he already possesses, it changes the whole political equation, military equation in the Middle East, Persian Gulf, the whole area.

ZAHN: So what do you make of what Scott Ritter said, a former U.N. weapons inspectors, yesterday from Baghdad? He says Iraq poses no threat to the U.S. SHELBY: Well, I was troubled by what he said. I have met Scott Ritter before and I think he's an idealist. I think he wants to believe that everybody's good and the world's going to be safe. But I don't believe there's any real credence to his statements.

It looks to me like that he's over there courting Saddam Hussein at the wrong time at the wrong place.

ZAHN: Let me ask you this. Is it your expectation, then, as John King just indicated about 10 minutes ago in his interview with Dick Cheney, that he expects the president to pretty much say on Thursday that we want more inspections and they don't expect much out of them? And then you go the next step.

SHELBY: Well, I would, I can't anticipate everything the president might say. I was in a meeting with him last week at the White House and I'll wait for his own words. But I believe that the president's on the right track. The vice president has a lot of experience in this area. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, the deputy secretary of defense, Paul Wolfowitz, we've got a tremendous foreign policy team, not to mention Condoleezza Rice and Colin Powell.

I believe the president is onto something big. He knows that we've got to do something or it could be too late down the road, especially if the equation is changed.

ZAHN: Do you see the U.S. going it alone or perhaps only with the help of Britain?

SHELBY: I hope we don't have to go it alone. But, Paula, after it's all over with and we go through the debate and if Congress, which I predict will support the president, if we have to do it ourselves, we'll do it because I think we owe that not only to the people in the U.S. that are looking for security, but for the victims of 9/11.

ZAHN: I know the vice president in a number of interviews has said that while there is no direct link with al Qaeda to the September 11 attacks, clearly there have been communications between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda members, or at least his cronies and al Qaeda members. And I wanted to ask you about your reaction to an ABC report which later this week will indicate that one of Saddam Hussein's mistresses told Claire Shipman of ABC that Osama bin Laden visited Hussein in the '80s and then years later, the mistress says, Saddam's son met with bin Laden and that Saddam Hussein actually gave him money?

SHELBY: I don't have any direct evidence of that. But none of that would surprise me because historically we've had these affiliations. Who would help any type of terrorist group, ordinarily? Saddam Hussein, because they might not have exactly the same beliefs on everything, but they have the same goals, doing damage to the United States and to the West.

ZAHN: And the "Washington Post" reporting this morning that a year after the 9/11 attacks, you've got scattered groups of al Qaeda everywhere and the concern now is that since they graduated from the terrorist camps, they're now going to be capable of, perhaps, launching smaller scale attacks, perhaps suicide bombing attacks against American targets abroad.

Do you have reason to believe this and if you do, how does our intelligence community prepare for these kinds of potential attacks?

SHELBY: I believe that with the dispersal of the al Qaeda network all over the world, including the U.S., that there will be more attacks, although we all hope and pray there won't be. A lot of them will probably be smaller attacks. They could be big like September the 11th, in a different configuration.

I believe the "Washington Post" is right on line.

ZAHN: And when you say a different configuration, what do you mean by that?

SHELBY: Well, it might not be an airline attack or using a plane as a weapon. It could be something else. I don't want to suggest something that the terrorists might use, because they might pick up my words.

ZAHN: And just a final thought this morning. Do you think some time next year the U.S., indeed, will be at war with Iraq?

SHELBY: I believe we will do what we have to do to have a regime change and make sure that we don't have to face a nuclear power with a madman in the future. Could it come later this year or early next year? I'm not sure. But I believe it will come.

ZAHN: Can it come without military action?

SHELBY: Well, it could always come without military action. That is, if the people of Iraq rose up in a revolt -- which is very unlikely considering the military stamp that he has on the country -- and overthrew him and changed the government and changed attitudes.

ZAHN: We're going to leave it there this morning. Senator Richard Shelby, always good to hear your views.

SHELBY: Thank you, Paula.

ZAHN: Appreciate your time this morning, vice chairman of the Intelligence Committee.

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