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American Morning
Blix Report Card
Aired January 22, 2003 - 09:02 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: Time to talk about Iraq again. President Bush warns Saddam Hussein stop playing hide and seek with our inspectors, or the U.S. will lead a coalition of the willing to disarm Baghdad. His warning comes as a substantial U.S. military buildup continues in the region.
John King is standing by at the White House with more on that.
Good morning, John.
JOHN KING, CNN SR. WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Paula.
Senior administration officials say perhaps several weeks to a month from now, the president will be facing the fateful decision to return from inspections to diplomacy to military confrontation. The president making clear yesterday that he believes the inspection process is not working and that Saddam Hussein is not cooperating.
Mr. Bush is on the road today selling his economic plan off to St. Louis to promote his tax cut plan, $640 billion over 10 years. Other administration officials trying to sell his Iraq policy.
Mr. Bush frequently says if he cannot get the support of the full United Nations, he will lead a coalition of the willing. Quite obvious today after consultations in Paris, France between the president of France, Jacques Chirac, and the German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, that if there is such a coalition, at least as of this point, Germany and France will not be part of it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JACQUES CHIRAC, FRENCH PRESIDENT (through translator): The Security Council and the Security Council alone, which will express itself after having read the report of the inspectors, and they will make the relevant decisions.
And secondly, as far as we are concerned, war always means failure. Therefore, everything must be done to avoid war.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: Russia, another Security Council member, saying it believes the inspectors should be given more time. The Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage in Moscow today trying to bring them around to the president's point of view on all of this. White House officials say they understand the deep opposition to the president's position. They also say that if Mr. Bush stays the course and voices his determine nation, that perhaps in time, the United States over the next several weeks can sway them to come around and be part of any operation, believing they would want to have a stake in it, instead of letting the United States and a few allies do it their way -- Paula.
ZAHN: So, John, I think we all understand the challenge of the president to try to find this coalition of the willing, but against this backdrop, polls continue to show that Americans have growing doubts about military action in Iraq. How does that figure into the equation?
KING: Well, you have seen in recent weeks and months Prime Minister Tony Blair of Great Britain dealing with that same circumstance. Prime Minister Blair's view is that leaders are supposed to pull public opinion, not follow public opinion. President Bush now faces the very same challenge, which is one of the reasons you hear him speaking out. You have Deputy Secretary defense Paul Wolfowitz, who will give a big speech tomorrow. The administration making a major public relations blitz, and of course leading that effort in his State of the Union Address will be the president, trying to revive the support in the polls, to what he says is the right approach in Iraq.
But you are right, rising doubts, especially to the idea that the United States would go it alone, without the backing of the United Nations.
ZAHN: Thanks so much. John King reporting from the White House this morning.
Meanwhile, the clock, as the president says, is ticking for Iraq. In just five days, chief weapons inspector Hans Blix will give a crucial report to the Security Council, and Michael Okwu is on duty at the United Nations and brings us up to date on what might happen.
Good morning, Michael.
MICHAEL OKWU, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Paula.
Chief weapons inspector Hans Blix arrived here in New York at John F. Kennedy International Airport, fresh from his visit with Iraqi officials and with European leaders just a few days ago.
The focus now, of course, is the January 27th report, a highly anticipated report to the Security Council. It will likely include a pattern of cooperation on the ground by the Iraqis, as well as some -- many difficulties, what some people continue to believe is a list of missions that the Iraqis failed to really include in that report, essentially, about their weapons programs. This is not viewed here at the United Nations as a final report.
They say, essentially, that inspections continue on the ground, that they are tougher, they are much more focused, that the inspectors are working with a great deal more intelligence than they did in the past, so they expect for this to continue for a few months. But Blix may likely view a great deal of pressure from the United States because, as far as the Bush administration is concerned, this, essentially, was supposed to be the last phase of dealing with the Iraqi government diplomatically.
So we will wait and see what happens for next week -- Paula.
ZAHN: And, Michael, adding to the confusion of all this, are the varying interpretations of this resolution and whether, as the president tries to build the coalition of the willing, whether he can do that on this resolution on or need an additional one. What's the latest on that?
OKWU: Well, that's exactly right, people have been talking about a second resolution. They were several weeks ago, but now everybody is talking about the fact that we don't need a second resolution, that we ought to wait to see what the inspections are doing, and we need to let them do their work for a few more weeks. The United States pushing the Security Council members to at least start thinking about preparations for war, that may or may not include a second resolution, but none of the other countries are really ready to start talking about a second resolution. France, Russia, China, all oppose talk about war at this point, and Germany, who will be the president of the Security Council next month, quite emphatic in saying, it is not time to think about war -- Paula.
ZAHN: Michael Okwu, thanks for the update. Appreciate it.
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 22, 2003 - 09:02 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Time to talk about Iraq again. President Bush warns Saddam Hussein stop playing hide and seek with our inspectors, or the U.S. will lead a coalition of the willing to disarm Baghdad. His warning comes as a substantial U.S. military buildup continues in the region.
John King is standing by at the White House with more on that.
Good morning, John.
JOHN KING, CNN SR. WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Paula.
Senior administration officials say perhaps several weeks to a month from now, the president will be facing the fateful decision to return from inspections to diplomacy to military confrontation. The president making clear yesterday that he believes the inspection process is not working and that Saddam Hussein is not cooperating.
Mr. Bush is on the road today selling his economic plan off to St. Louis to promote his tax cut plan, $640 billion over 10 years. Other administration officials trying to sell his Iraq policy.
Mr. Bush frequently says if he cannot get the support of the full United Nations, he will lead a coalition of the willing. Quite obvious today after consultations in Paris, France between the president of France, Jacques Chirac, and the German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, that if there is such a coalition, at least as of this point, Germany and France will not be part of it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JACQUES CHIRAC, FRENCH PRESIDENT (through translator): The Security Council and the Security Council alone, which will express itself after having read the report of the inspectors, and they will make the relevant decisions.
And secondly, as far as we are concerned, war always means failure. Therefore, everything must be done to avoid war.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: Russia, another Security Council member, saying it believes the inspectors should be given more time. The Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage in Moscow today trying to bring them around to the president's point of view on all of this. White House officials say they understand the deep opposition to the president's position. They also say that if Mr. Bush stays the course and voices his determine nation, that perhaps in time, the United States over the next several weeks can sway them to come around and be part of any operation, believing they would want to have a stake in it, instead of letting the United States and a few allies do it their way -- Paula.
ZAHN: So, John, I think we all understand the challenge of the president to try to find this coalition of the willing, but against this backdrop, polls continue to show that Americans have growing doubts about military action in Iraq. How does that figure into the equation?
KING: Well, you have seen in recent weeks and months Prime Minister Tony Blair of Great Britain dealing with that same circumstance. Prime Minister Blair's view is that leaders are supposed to pull public opinion, not follow public opinion. President Bush now faces the very same challenge, which is one of the reasons you hear him speaking out. You have Deputy Secretary defense Paul Wolfowitz, who will give a big speech tomorrow. The administration making a major public relations blitz, and of course leading that effort in his State of the Union Address will be the president, trying to revive the support in the polls, to what he says is the right approach in Iraq.
But you are right, rising doubts, especially to the idea that the United States would go it alone, without the backing of the United Nations.
ZAHN: Thanks so much. John King reporting from the White House this morning.
Meanwhile, the clock, as the president says, is ticking for Iraq. In just five days, chief weapons inspector Hans Blix will give a crucial report to the Security Council, and Michael Okwu is on duty at the United Nations and brings us up to date on what might happen.
Good morning, Michael.
MICHAEL OKWU, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Paula.
Chief weapons inspector Hans Blix arrived here in New York at John F. Kennedy International Airport, fresh from his visit with Iraqi officials and with European leaders just a few days ago.
The focus now, of course, is the January 27th report, a highly anticipated report to the Security Council. It will likely include a pattern of cooperation on the ground by the Iraqis, as well as some -- many difficulties, what some people continue to believe is a list of missions that the Iraqis failed to really include in that report, essentially, about their weapons programs. This is not viewed here at the United Nations as a final report.
They say, essentially, that inspections continue on the ground, that they are tougher, they are much more focused, that the inspectors are working with a great deal more intelligence than they did in the past, so they expect for this to continue for a few months. But Blix may likely view a great deal of pressure from the United States because, as far as the Bush administration is concerned, this, essentially, was supposed to be the last phase of dealing with the Iraqi government diplomatically.
So we will wait and see what happens for next week -- Paula.
ZAHN: And, Michael, adding to the confusion of all this, are the varying interpretations of this resolution and whether, as the president tries to build the coalition of the willing, whether he can do that on this resolution on or need an additional one. What's the latest on that?
OKWU: Well, that's exactly right, people have been talking about a second resolution. They were several weeks ago, but now everybody is talking about the fact that we don't need a second resolution, that we ought to wait to see what the inspections are doing, and we need to let them do their work for a few more weeks. The United States pushing the Security Council members to at least start thinking about preparations for war, that may or may not include a second resolution, but none of the other countries are really ready to start talking about a second resolution. France, Russia, China, all oppose talk about war at this point, and Germany, who will be the president of the Security Council next month, quite emphatic in saying, it is not time to think about war -- Paula.
ZAHN: Michael Okwu, thanks for the update. Appreciate it.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
