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American Morning
Interview with Richard Shelby
Aired September 16, 2002 - 07:04 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 is trying to make its case against Iraq to two different groups that will have a lot to say about what happens next: the U.N. Security Council and the U.S. Congress. Congress is due to start hearings on Iraq a little bit later on this week.
Senator Bob Graham of Florida says there is no question it will approve a resolution, backing President Bush's stance that Iraq must obey U.N. resolutions on weapons.
For his view, we are joined now by a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Senator Richard Shelby, who joins us from Tuscaloosa, Alabama, back home.
Welcome back -- good to see you.
SEN. RICHARD SHELBY (R), ALABAMA: Good morning, Paula.
ZAHN: Sir, let's talk a little bit about the timing of this resolution that now even one of your Democratic colleagues says is clear to pass in Congress. There is a lot of criticism of the timing of it. Suggestions coming from some Democrats, this is all about politics and helping the Republicans in mid-term elections.
GRAHAM: Well, I don't believe...
ZAHN: Your reaction to that.
GRAHAM: Paula, I don't believe there is any substance to that. First of all, we are at or near the end of a two-year term of Congress. We only have a few weeks left, and I think that's what's pushing the agenda that President Bush wants Congress to support the Iraq situation before we adjourn. I think that's very fair. I think we will. After the conclusion of the debate, I predict an overwhelming vote of support from Republicans and Democrats.
ZAHN: Before we move away from the politics of this, I just wanted to read something that Jim Jordan of the Democrat Senate Campaign Committee, and what he has had to say. He said, "It is absolutely clear that the administration has timed the Iraq public relations campaign to influence the mid-term elections, and to distract the voting public from a failing economy and an unpopular Republican domestic agenda."
You just made the point, obviously, that congressional terms are wrapping up for many folks representing their district. But can you deny that there is any political calculation at work here? GRAHAM: Absolutely. I don't believe there is any political calculation at work dealing with the Iraq situation. This is a grave situation. It's something if we put it off, I think -- when would we come back in session? January, February. We don't know what's going to happen by then.
I believe that President Bush is working the high road. He's going to prevail, and we're going to have a regime change one way or the other in Iraq.
ZAHN: There is a very disturbing report being circulated in a number of newspapers this morning, and it has to do with the -- if the U.S. ends up attacking Iraq, that Saddam Hussein in some way would use al Qaeda to help attack the U.S. in perhaps like even a briefcase bomb scenario. Have you seen intelligence to suggest that that is a possibility?
GRAHAM: Well, we've had news stories and talk about a dirty bomb for the last year or so, and if that's the reference, you know, that could happen. That could happen with low-level radioactive hospital waste. But I don't think that's going to happen. One, Paula, I believe we're really on alert in this country, and if we ratchet up, which I think we will, the Iraqi situation, we will become more and more on alert in this country.
Now, does that mean that we don't have risk here? It doesn't. We will always have some risk. We've got to calculate that risk, and we've got to do everything we can, I believe, to protect our people.
ZAHN: It's being reported in "The Telegraph" -- or "The Sunday Telegraph" of London that the prime minister has some intelligence that he plans share publicly for the first time sometime within the next several weeks. And the quote is that: "The British government's long-awaited dossier on Iraq is to reveal the first definitive evidence that Saddam Hussein trained some of Osama bin Laden's key lieutenants as terrorists. It is also expected to disclose that Saddam has reconstructed three plants to manufacture biological and chemical weapons."
Have you been privy to that intelligence?
GRAHAM: Well, I'm not going to acknowledge that on a TV show or publicly. But I can say this. It will be interesting to watch the British prime minister's address on that, because he has been briefed on a lot of intelligence situations. He has done this before. And I think he's got a job to do to sell to the British Parliament, and he's very persuasive, and I think the evidence that he lists will help.
ZAHN: Final thought this morning on where you think Secretary Powell will be able to move in regards to the U.N. Security Council?
GRAHAM: Paula, I believe there has been some movement in the direction of support at the U.N. I think President Bush laid it down clearly the other day, when he -- he has basically said, is the U.N. going to be what it was structured to do? Was it going to be meaningful, and was it going to be a debating society? And I think the French, the British, and I hope, the Russians and the Chinese want the U.N. to be something. It has to be. If it's going to let people like Saddam Hussein to defy them 16 times, then it will mean nothing. That's what President Bush was talking about. I believe the U.N. is going to step up, at least I hope they will.
ZAHN: Does that mean you think war can be avoided, then?
GRAHAM: Well, I don't know about that. I think that we've got to have a regime change. You can't trust a Saddam Hussein, Paula. You -- I think you've got to rid him of any weapons of mass destruction. He could be just months away from a nuclear option. Let's hope he's not, but he could be.
ZAHN: Senator Richard Shelby, always good to have you on the air.
GRAHAM: Thank you, Paula.
ZAHN: Appreciate your perspective this morning. Take care.
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