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American Morning

The New Iraq: With the President

Aired April 17, 2003 - 07:39   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.


BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Back in this country now, a day after signing a $79 billion dollar spending bill to help pay for the war, President Bush spending a long Easter weekend at his ranch in Crawford, Texas.
White House correspondent Suzanne Malveaux traveling with the president, up early this morning with us.

Suzanne, good morning.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning, Bill.

President Bush is going to be spending the long holiday weekend at his Crawford ranch. While the president has yet to declare a victory with the war with Iraq, White House aides tell us expect something of the sort perhaps in the days and weeks to come.

Now the priorities of the administration now, of course, is to help the Iraqis create their own government. As we saw Tuesday, the beginning of that process in Nasiriya. Also to find and destroy those weapons, the alleged weapons of mass destruction, and also to convince the U.N. to lift economic sanctions against Iraq. We heard President Bush yesterday in St. Louis calling for that. That would allow oil revenue from Iraq to be used for reconstruction.

And as you know, Bill, the administration downplaying, of course, the significance of Saddam Hussein. But yesterday, quite a bit of a stir that occurred when Chief of Staff Andy Card in a White House chat, an online chat, answered some questions. One of those questions whether or not Saddam Hussein was dead or alive. He said that he did believe that he was dead. Shortly after, White House officials said that that was merely speculation; but that is also something that the administration, as you know, keeping a very close eye on -- Bill.

HEMMER: That comment did make headlines when he said I think he is dead, referring to Saddam Hussein.

Referring to Colin Powell, the Secretary of State, we now understand he will go to Damascus at some point. What brought this about? And do we know when he will travel?

MALVEAUX: We think he's going to travel as early as next week. He'll be meeting with his counterpart in Syria.

And as you know, this has been building. Just within the last couple of days, the rhetoric has gone down somewhat; but there has been a lot of concern, this tough talk, that perhaps military action was eminent, because Syria, the U.S. officials are saying, is hiding some of the officials from Saddam Hussein's regime.

Well officials here are coming out saying that no, military action is not eminent. But certainly the administration taking advantage of the political capital, the success here of the war with Iraq, at the very least, to influence Syria's behavior. That is what they are saying, that it's a young leadership, they want to make sure that those officials come forward, those Saddam officials come forward, and that yes, Syria follows the line -- Bill.

HEMMER: Suzanne Malveaux, live in Texas, thanks. We'll talk a bit later this morning.

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 April 17, 2003 - 07:39   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Back in this country now, a day after signing a $79 billion dollar spending bill to help pay for the war, President Bush spending a long Easter weekend at his ranch in Crawford, Texas.
White House correspondent Suzanne Malveaux traveling with the president, up early this morning with us.

Suzanne, good morning.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning, Bill.

President Bush is going to be spending the long holiday weekend at his Crawford ranch. While the president has yet to declare a victory with the war with Iraq, White House aides tell us expect something of the sort perhaps in the days and weeks to come.

Now the priorities of the administration now, of course, is to help the Iraqis create their own government. As we saw Tuesday, the beginning of that process in Nasiriya. Also to find and destroy those weapons, the alleged weapons of mass destruction, and also to convince the U.N. to lift economic sanctions against Iraq. We heard President Bush yesterday in St. Louis calling for that. That would allow oil revenue from Iraq to be used for reconstruction.

And as you know, Bill, the administration downplaying, of course, the significance of Saddam Hussein. But yesterday, quite a bit of a stir that occurred when Chief of Staff Andy Card in a White House chat, an online chat, answered some questions. One of those questions whether or not Saddam Hussein was dead or alive. He said that he did believe that he was dead. Shortly after, White House officials said that that was merely speculation; but that is also something that the administration, as you know, keeping a very close eye on -- Bill.

HEMMER: That comment did make headlines when he said I think he is dead, referring to Saddam Hussein.

Referring to Colin Powell, the Secretary of State, we now understand he will go to Damascus at some point. What brought this about? And do we know when he will travel?

MALVEAUX: We think he's going to travel as early as next week. He'll be meeting with his counterpart in Syria.

And as you know, this has been building. Just within the last couple of days, the rhetoric has gone down somewhat; but there has been a lot of concern, this tough talk, that perhaps military action was eminent, because Syria, the U.S. officials are saying, is hiding some of the officials from Saddam Hussein's regime.

Well officials here are coming out saying that no, military action is not eminent. But certainly the administration taking advantage of the political capital, the success here of the war with Iraq, at the very least, to influence Syria's behavior. That is what they are saying, that it's a young leadership, they want to make sure that those officials come forward, those Saddam officials come forward, and that yes, Syria follows the line -- Bill.

HEMMER: Suzanne Malveaux, live in Texas, thanks. We'll talk a bit later this morning.

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