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CNN Sunday Morning

Cheney Prepares for London

Aired March 10, 2002 - 08:02   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.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: We begin with Vice President Cheney's mission overseas -- that is at the top of our news this morning -- as he prepares to part for London, the first stop on a 10 day, 12 nation tour. We are told an unprecedented level of security is going into the planning in and around this trip.

CNN White House Correspondent Major Garrett joins us live from the White House with more on that. Major, we're not even releasing the itinerary, are we?

MAJOR GARRETT, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: No we're not, Miles. This is a very difficult story to talk about because the security is so incredibly tight for the vice president's trip. What I can tell you is, on Friday, when the reporters who will be traveling with Vice President Cheney -- among them, our CNN Senior White House Correspondent John King -- sat down, they were briefed by a military aide. And that military aide looked them all in the eye and said, "Listen, I've been on a lot of trips in my career. This is by far the most intense security environment I have ever entered. You will do everything I say, you will follow every order I give you. And if you don't, you will not make the next leg of the trip and you will be left behind, because we have not time to wait. We have to move when we need to move. You need to be with us and ready to move at every single moment."

That's going to be throughout this entire trip. We can't even describe in very much detail, Miles, the itinerary. Just to say, the vice president will be in the region. The two issues, of course, the Middle East and what may or may not happen in Iraq, as far as the United States and its coalition partners are concerned.

Very big issues, the vice president has tried to downplay expectations on the Middle East front. But, clearly, continued dialog with partners throughout the region on war on terrorism and what may happen in Iraq. Very high on the agenda, but first and foremost for those traveling with the vice president, intense, intense security, because the White House believes that in some cases he's not flying into altogether hospitable territory. They need to move quickly to keep the vice president and this small contingent of reporters as safe as possible -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: Major, so much on the agenda for the vice president. When you talk about the situation in the Middle East being (UNINTELLIGIBLE) in violence and the possibility at least -- maybe not directly, but at least the inference that some military actions aimed at Iraq might be on the horizon and some discussion about that. I'm curious how those two issues sit with each other, sitting down with these heads of state, as the vice president will in these various locations. What kind of linkages are there between the two and what -- do the two complicate the other in any way?

GARRETT: Well the two reinforce each other in a couple of ways, Miles. First of all, the leaders of Jordan and Egypt, for example -- King Abdullah of Jordan, President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt -- have more or less told the administration, look, you cannot expect support from us for any campaign, limited or very expansive, against Iraq, unless we see some progress -- some real progress -- as to narrowing the differences between the Israelis and the Palestinians. I think you can understand, in that context, while the administration reversing policy stepped back in to try to restart security talks between the Israelis and the Palestinians last week, up until Thursday, when the president announced his envoy, Anthony Zinni, would be returning to the region, (UNINTELLIGIBLE) U.S. policy was Mr. Zinni would not return until violence had subsided.

Well that's anything but the case now. White House stepping back into it in part because it has been told my moderate (ph) Arab allies, "You simply must do more if you want to expect any support -- even limited support -- for what you may intend to do in Iraq several months down the road." So these issues are very much linked. And, of course, it's also the broader issue of campaign against terrorism that's not really directed against Iraq. There are hot spots throughout the region: Yemen, Saudi Arabia. There's going to need to be cooperation -- continued cooperation -- on the diplomatic and financial front there.

So the vice president has an incredibly intensive agenda indeed. And this will not be like a typical dignitary type trip, Miles, where you're going to see the vice president going to a lot of podiums, giving a lot of speeches and having a lot of elaborate press conferences. He's going to have meetings, get out of the meeting, get to his car, get to the plane and move on. The press will have very little time to file its stories and there'll be almost no real photographs of the vice president and almost no real time to ask him questions, except on the plane. But it's going to be a very different trip indeed, both as people consume the news coming out of it and as reporters try to produce it -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: And to think, most vice presidents did trips like these to go to funerals. All right, big difference. Major Garrett, at the White House, I appreciate it.

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