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American Morning
Strong Words on Iraq From Bush
Aired January 15, 2003 - 09:32 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Iraqi officials angry today after inspectors in Baghdad entered one of Saddam Hussein's presidential palaces. That inspection comes just one day after President Bush issued a very strong warning to the Iraqi leader.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Time is running out on Saddam Hussein. He must disarm. I'm sick and tired of games and deception.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ZAHN: And our own Dana Bash joins us from the White House with more.
Good morning, Dana.
DANA BASH, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula.
Well, that's right, the president was very tough in his language on Saddam Hussein yesterday, clearly, showing that his patience is running out with Saddam Hussein, but also trying to send a signal, we believe, to both allies and to officials at the U.N., who are saying that inspectors need more time. He is saying while he does not have a timetable, time is clearly running out for Saddam Hussein.
Now earlier today, British Prime Minister Tony Blair mentioned the fact that he believes there should be and probably will be a second resolution before any decision is made to use military forces, a second resolution at the U.N. Here at the White House, they don't believe that the second resolution is really needed and certainly won't seek one, but they say that if the right one is crafted and something that they believe that everybody can agree to, perhaps they will go along with it, but the first resolution, resolution 1441, was pretty hard to pull off, Paula, and once they go down that road, it may complicate things, because the administration believes they don't want anything that will tie their hands if they feel military action is needed.
All of this comes as the January 27th U.N. deadline is looming. That is the deadline for Iraqi -- to the U.N. inspectors to give their report on what they have found or haven't found in Iraq.
Given that, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice went up to New York yesterday and met with the chief weapons inspector Hans Blix to discuss what officials here at the White House say is what -- to ask him what he needs, if he needs anything more. We are also told she really pressed him to try to get his inspectors to pull Iraqi scientists out of the country, to interview them on neutral ground in order to try to get information out of them as to what Saddam Hussein has in terms of his weapon stockpile -- Paula.
ZAHN: The most interesting thing you're reporting is this Tony Blair angle. It was just yesterday we broke some news that when his foreign secretary said, yes, it would be great to have two resolutions, but we don't see that as absolutely necessary. So a little change of message from that government.
BASH: It seems that way. Although Tony Blair has, in recent days, been kind of trying to explain to his people over there in Britain just how the U.S. and Britain plans to go about this, trying to quell some of the criticism there that the U.S. is pulling Britain along and trying to pull them too fast -- Paula.
ZAHN: Dana Bash, we are going to leave it there and let you warm up.
BASH: Thanks.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired January 15, 2003 - 09:32 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Iraqi officials angry today after inspectors in Baghdad entered one of Saddam Hussein's presidential palaces. That inspection comes just one day after President Bush issued a very strong warning to the Iraqi leader.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Time is running out on Saddam Hussein. He must disarm. I'm sick and tired of games and deception.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ZAHN: And our own Dana Bash joins us from the White House with more.
Good morning, Dana.
DANA BASH, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula.
Well, that's right, the president was very tough in his language on Saddam Hussein yesterday, clearly, showing that his patience is running out with Saddam Hussein, but also trying to send a signal, we believe, to both allies and to officials at the U.N., who are saying that inspectors need more time. He is saying while he does not have a timetable, time is clearly running out for Saddam Hussein.
Now earlier today, British Prime Minister Tony Blair mentioned the fact that he believes there should be and probably will be a second resolution before any decision is made to use military forces, a second resolution at the U.N. Here at the White House, they don't believe that the second resolution is really needed and certainly won't seek one, but they say that if the right one is crafted and something that they believe that everybody can agree to, perhaps they will go along with it, but the first resolution, resolution 1441, was pretty hard to pull off, Paula, and once they go down that road, it may complicate things, because the administration believes they don't want anything that will tie their hands if they feel military action is needed.
All of this comes as the January 27th U.N. deadline is looming. That is the deadline for Iraqi -- to the U.N. inspectors to give their report on what they have found or haven't found in Iraq.
Given that, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice went up to New York yesterday and met with the chief weapons inspector Hans Blix to discuss what officials here at the White House say is what -- to ask him what he needs, if he needs anything more. We are also told she really pressed him to try to get his inspectors to pull Iraqi scientists out of the country, to interview them on neutral ground in order to try to get information out of them as to what Saddam Hussein has in terms of his weapon stockpile -- Paula.
ZAHN: The most interesting thing you're reporting is this Tony Blair angle. It was just yesterday we broke some news that when his foreign secretary said, yes, it would be great to have two resolutions, but we don't see that as absolutely necessary. So a little change of message from that government.
BASH: It seems that way. Although Tony Blair has, in recent days, been kind of trying to explain to his people over there in Britain just how the U.S. and Britain plans to go about this, trying to quell some of the criticism there that the U.S. is pulling Britain along and trying to pull them too fast -- Paula.
ZAHN: Dana Bash, we are going to leave it there and let you warm up.
BASH: Thanks.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
