Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Sunday Morning
President Bush Reacts to Latest al Qaeda Statement
Aired October 14, 2001 - 10:07 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.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: I want to check in there with President Bush now. He's working with his aides and advisers at Camp David once again this weekend, and we found our White House correspondent Kelly Wallace is near Camp David this morning. She has got president's reaction to the al Qaeda statement. Kelly, good morning to you.
KELLY WALLACE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Daryn. Well, the White House responded very, very quickly. Short time after that statement by the al Qaeda organization, released Saturday afternoon, the White House dismissing it and the threats it contained as "just more propaganda." No surprise, that was the same message from Attorney General John Ashcroft, who appeared on one of the Sunday talk shows earlier this morning.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN ASHCROFT, ATTORNEY GENERAL: I don't think it's valuable for us to deal with propaganda. I don't want to further their position or enhance their standing. I just think that the propaganda campaign is a part of the effort and the war here, the war effort. And, I think the American people can evaluate the credibility of it, and they see it for what it is. It's nothing more nor less than a propaganda.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WALLACE: At the same time, though, administration officials do say privately that this statement combined with the previous statements by Osama bin Laden and the al Qaeda group show again how the al Qaeda organization definitely played a key role in the September 11 terrorist attacks.
We do know federal officials reviewing the statement to see if it included any coded messages for any terrorist cells around the world to engage in future attacks against Americans or American interests overseas, and the British Prime Minister Tony Blair in his statement saying that this statement can leave no one in any doubt of Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda's intentions to continue to conduct inside and support acts of terrorism. So the statements being viewed as propaganda by the administration, but Daryn, certainly being viewed as well for any coded messages it could contain - Daryn.
KAGAN: I think that the terrorism that a lot of Americans are focused on this weekend has to do with anthrax and the increased cases we are hearing about more exposure. Any word from the administration or the president on dealing with that?
WALLACE: Well, one of the president's top individuals on this, Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson appearing on the Sunday talk shows as well as Attorney General John Ashcroft. Secretary Thompson saying no new cases of people being testing positive for anthrax overnight, but he's waiting to get more reports from the Center for Disease Control.
And then, Secretary Thompson is getting a lot of questions about whether the Federal Government is ready to deal with this case. If more and more people test positive for the anthrax bacteria, he said he will be going to Congress to get more funding for an antibiotic. Here's what he said earlier today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TOMMY THOMPSON, HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES SECRETARY: We have enough dosage to treat two million people for 60 days. And we're going in to Congress, and we're going to ask Congress to increase that from two million to 12 million.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WALLACE: Now, of course the secretary also urging Americans to be calm and that people should not rush to their doctors to get this antibiotic known as Cipro that it isn't effective, only - you should only take it if you are infected with anthrax.
And another message, Daryn, coming from the Sunday talk shows, whether these cases, the case in New York, Nevada, and Florida, if these cases are linked together and if they are linked in any way to the September 11 terrorist attacks, Attorney General John Ashcroft saying no conclusive evidence yet that the cases are linked together and linked to again 09/11, but he said that this is not -- this is something that you can't rule out right now. The Vice President Dick Cheney raised suspicions about some linkage, and so that is something they are certainly investigating on this day. Daryn, back to you.
KAGAN: Kelly, thank you so much.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
