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American Morning
Discussion With Ambassador Joseph Wilson
Aired January 17, 2003 - 07:32 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: We're going to turn our attention back to Iraq now. Saddam Hussein marks the 12th anniversary of the Gulf War with a very defiant speech this morning.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PRES. SADDAM HUSSEIN, IRAQ: The state of Iraq stood in the face of the aggression of 42 countries on the night of 16-17 January. The battle lasted for a month and a half with such momentum. Afterwards, the sanctions and aggression continued for 13 years until the present day.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ZAHN: The Iraqi leader said America failed to conquer Iraq then and has not learned from its mistakes.
Meanwhile, chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix called on Saddam Hussein to provide more information about the warheads found in an Iraqi warehouse. Weapons inspectors uncovered 11 empty chemical warheads plus one more that is still being evaluated. The Bush administration is responding cautiously to the find. But could it become grounds for war?
Joining us from Washington, Ambassador Joseph Wilson, the former U.S. charge d'affair and one of the last Americans to sit down and meet face to face the Saddam Hussein.
Good morning.
Welcome back, Mr. Ambassador.
AMBASSADOR JOSEPH WILSON, FORMER U.S. CHARGE D'AFFAIRS: Good morning, Paula.
How are you today?
ZAHN: I am fine, thanks.
I guess by now you could probably almost write Saddam Hussein's speeches. They are so predictable. But is there anything he said today that leapt out at you?
WILSON: Well, like Jack said earlier, it was as difficult to understand the translator as it was to understand Saddam himself in a language that very few people over here understand. But I think the important thing was that he reminded the people of Iraq of the effects of the sanctions over the past 13 years. Sanctions have really devastated the Iraqi economy. They tell me that the price of gold in Hadameya (ph), the gold market in Baghdad, is cheaper than anywhere else in the world because most Iraqi families have had to sell family heirlooms in order to buy staples.
Now, that's a problem for us during the occupation period because Iraqi families will not necessarily transfer their feelings of liberation and joy to the United States if, in fact, we go in there, invade and then overthrow the regime and then have to occupy it for up to 10 years, as some people are suggesting.
ZAHN: Is this the smoking gun the U.S. administration needed?
WILSON: Well, anybody who believed that Saddam was actually complying with the U.N. Resolution 1441 simply hadn't been watching what was going on. There has been a fair amount of passive cooperation, as Ken Pollack likes to say, which is to say he allows people, the inspectors into sites, but in terms of being proactive and offering up what he might have, I don't think anybody believed that he has done that, or that he's going to do that.
The question really is what sort of reaction should that provoke? And I think that Mr. Blix and the administration is proceeding in a prudent fashion, trying to ratchet up the pressure, make sure that Saddam understands that the credible threat of force is there and that makes that point that the inspectors are going to continue to go into houses of scientists and are going to continue to turn up things.
ZAHN: Well, let me ask you this. John King just reported the White House is taking this wait and see attitude as the declaration is reexamined, looking for any mention of these 12 warheads. Meanwhile, the "Washington Post" is reporting this morning they simply were not declared.
What do you think?
WILSON: Well, I suspect that they probably were not declared. Everybody that I've talked to who's read extensive parts of the declaration say that it offered nothing new. So, but the important point in this, it seems to me, is what is the reaction -- are we going to invade and occupy Iraq for the next decade as a consequence of 12 artillery shells that weren't declared? I think we need to be thinking of what the commensurate punishment to be meted out in the face of violations and continuing violations ought to be.
At the end of the day, as the president correctly has pointed out on several occasions, the object of this exercise is disarmament. We have been hugely successful. The administration has been hugely successful in getting an intrusive inspection regime back into place. And what we want, it seems to me, is for this inspection regime to succeed, with the credible threat of force to ensure its success, and that Saddam be disarmed from his weapons of mass destruction.
The rest of it feeds a different agenda. ZAHN: All right, Mr. Ambassador, we've got 15 seconds left. I hear what you're saying about what would be the commensurate action for finding these 12 warheads the Iraqis simply aren't supposed to have. Short of war, what would you do?
WILSON: Well, I think we keep going the way that Hans Blix is proceeding with a, with the inspections and with the questioning of the scientists. When and if we find violations and when we find obstacles posed, then the use of force enhances the credibility of the inspectors going forward. I wouldn't shy away from using force in a punctual response to any sort of obstacle that Saddam poses in the inspections doing their job.
ZAHN: Well, we're going to have leave it there this morning.
Ambassador Joseph Wilson, always good to see you.
Thanks for spending a little time with us this morning.
WILSON: Nice to see you, Paula.
ZAHN: 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 17, 2003 - 07:32 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: We're going to turn our attention back to Iraq now. Saddam Hussein marks the 12th anniversary of the Gulf War with a very defiant speech this morning.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PRES. SADDAM HUSSEIN, IRAQ: The state of Iraq stood in the face of the aggression of 42 countries on the night of 16-17 January. The battle lasted for a month and a half with such momentum. Afterwards, the sanctions and aggression continued for 13 years until the present day.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ZAHN: The Iraqi leader said America failed to conquer Iraq then and has not learned from its mistakes.
Meanwhile, chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix called on Saddam Hussein to provide more information about the warheads found in an Iraqi warehouse. Weapons inspectors uncovered 11 empty chemical warheads plus one more that is still being evaluated. The Bush administration is responding cautiously to the find. But could it become grounds for war?
Joining us from Washington, Ambassador Joseph Wilson, the former U.S. charge d'affair and one of the last Americans to sit down and meet face to face the Saddam Hussein.
Good morning.
Welcome back, Mr. Ambassador.
AMBASSADOR JOSEPH WILSON, FORMER U.S. CHARGE D'AFFAIRS: Good morning, Paula.
How are you today?
ZAHN: I am fine, thanks.
I guess by now you could probably almost write Saddam Hussein's speeches. They are so predictable. But is there anything he said today that leapt out at you?
WILSON: Well, like Jack said earlier, it was as difficult to understand the translator as it was to understand Saddam himself in a language that very few people over here understand. But I think the important thing was that he reminded the people of Iraq of the effects of the sanctions over the past 13 years. Sanctions have really devastated the Iraqi economy. They tell me that the price of gold in Hadameya (ph), the gold market in Baghdad, is cheaper than anywhere else in the world because most Iraqi families have had to sell family heirlooms in order to buy staples.
Now, that's a problem for us during the occupation period because Iraqi families will not necessarily transfer their feelings of liberation and joy to the United States if, in fact, we go in there, invade and then overthrow the regime and then have to occupy it for up to 10 years, as some people are suggesting.
ZAHN: Is this the smoking gun the U.S. administration needed?
WILSON: Well, anybody who believed that Saddam was actually complying with the U.N. Resolution 1441 simply hadn't been watching what was going on. There has been a fair amount of passive cooperation, as Ken Pollack likes to say, which is to say he allows people, the inspectors into sites, but in terms of being proactive and offering up what he might have, I don't think anybody believed that he has done that, or that he's going to do that.
The question really is what sort of reaction should that provoke? And I think that Mr. Blix and the administration is proceeding in a prudent fashion, trying to ratchet up the pressure, make sure that Saddam understands that the credible threat of force is there and that makes that point that the inspectors are going to continue to go into houses of scientists and are going to continue to turn up things.
ZAHN: Well, let me ask you this. John King just reported the White House is taking this wait and see attitude as the declaration is reexamined, looking for any mention of these 12 warheads. Meanwhile, the "Washington Post" is reporting this morning they simply were not declared.
What do you think?
WILSON: Well, I suspect that they probably were not declared. Everybody that I've talked to who's read extensive parts of the declaration say that it offered nothing new. So, but the important point in this, it seems to me, is what is the reaction -- are we going to invade and occupy Iraq for the next decade as a consequence of 12 artillery shells that weren't declared? I think we need to be thinking of what the commensurate punishment to be meted out in the face of violations and continuing violations ought to be.
At the end of the day, as the president correctly has pointed out on several occasions, the object of this exercise is disarmament. We have been hugely successful. The administration has been hugely successful in getting an intrusive inspection regime back into place. And what we want, it seems to me, is for this inspection regime to succeed, with the credible threat of force to ensure its success, and that Saddam be disarmed from his weapons of mass destruction.
The rest of it feeds a different agenda. ZAHN: All right, Mr. Ambassador, we've got 15 seconds left. I hear what you're saying about what would be the commensurate action for finding these 12 warheads the Iraqis simply aren't supposed to have. Short of war, what would you do?
WILSON: Well, I think we keep going the way that Hans Blix is proceeding with a, with the inspections and with the questioning of the scientists. When and if we find violations and when we find obstacles posed, then the use of force enhances the credibility of the inspectors going forward. I wouldn't shy away from using force in a punctual response to any sort of obstacle that Saddam poses in the inspections doing their job.
ZAHN: Well, we're going to have leave it there this morning.
Ambassador Joseph Wilson, always good to see you.
Thanks for spending a little time with us this morning.
WILSON: Nice to see you, Paula.
ZAHN: 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
