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CNN Sunday Morning

Bush Continues Working Vacation

Aired August 18, 2002 - 09:03   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: President Bush continuing his working vacation. For details, we turn to our CNN White House correspondent John King, who seldom takes a vacation. Joining us from near the ranch, John, good morning to you, sir.
JOHN KING, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Miles. It actually appears the president might take a few days of actual vacation. He does call this a working vacation, and in the past two weeks, he held an economic forum, he traveled the country quite extensively, staging events, also holding fund-raisers for Republican candidates.

We're not scheduled to see the president until Thursday. That doesn't mean we won't see him beforehand, but we're not scheduled to see the president here until Thursday. But it is still not all play at the ranch. The national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, comes to Texas tomorrow. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld due her Wednesday. Those to continue discussions that the president would have back in Washington about the ongoing military campaign in Afghanistan and elsewhere, also the contingency planning for operations, potential operations down the road against Iraq.

And if you pick up today's "Washington Post," you'll also see another item at the top of Secretary Rumsfeld's agenda. He has sent a classified memo to the White House, warning that he's increasingly concerned about the possibility of countries around the world that don't like the United States obtaining cruise missile technology, hard-to-detect missiles that could come in low, strike U.S. installations, if not here in the United States, certainly the secretary is worried about troops stationed overseas. He wants the president to think about expanding the administration's anti-missile defense programs to work on that as well.

So we're not scheduled to see the president. We'll let you know if and when we do, but he's certainly still working, just not out on the road as much, although come Thursday, Mr. Bush then will head out to the West Coast. Again, a mix of policy speeches, mostly though Republican fund-raising, the November elections drawing ever closer -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: John, it's worth pointing out that the missile defense shield as it is contemplated by now is not really aimed at cruise missiles. This is a new wrinkle, isn't it?

KING: It is a new wrinkle. Right now, the plans, and there are still plans, the early work beginning for ballistic missiles that tend to fly very high in the sky, they go up into the atmosphere and they have an arc on them so you can see them. What they're worried about are cruise missiles can be launched from a ship, from an airplane, even in some cases, from submarines obviously is how the United States does it and some of its allies who have the most sophisticated technology. Much harder to detect, can fly under the radar.

Secretary Rumsfeld says now there are some 70 countries around the world that have at least crude missile technology of that sort, and he says the United States defense policy must consider that, especially when you have so many U.S. troops deployed all around the world.

O'BRIEN: John, the situation in Roswell, New Mexico, confiscation of some weaponry at a facility that trains people how to use explosives, many of the students Saudis, Yemenis. The White House reacting on this? Does this rise to the level of White House concern, or is this something that is more a licensing matter, as the U.S. attorney there suggests?

KING: We will certainly ask the question of the White House, and the White House has said consistently that the Justice Department and other federal authorities are taking aggressive steps to look for potential trouble spots around the country. No reaction as yet. It is early Sunday morning here in Crawford, but something -- look for more reaction out of the Justice Department, but we'll certainly ask the White House about it.

O'BRIEN: All right, John. Thanks very much. We appreciate it. You have a good day there in Texas.

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