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CNN Sunday Morning

Interview With Mike Thompson

Aired September 29, 2002 - 07:34   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.


ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Three Democratic representatives are part of a humanitarian mission to Iraq. Congressman Mike Thompson of California and his two colleagues say President Bush should not be so quick to pull the trigger.
Congressman Thompson joins us live from Baghdad. Good morning. Thanks for being with us, congressman.

REP. MIKE THOMPSON (D), CALIFORNIA: Hello, Anderson.

COOPER: The front page of papers here in the United States this morning all about Iraq's statements yesterday, saying they will not accept any new rules for the work of U.N. weapons inspectors. Iraq's comments were characterized by the White House as basically an attempt by Iraq to string things along, and just continue business as usual. Do you think that's what those statements were?

THOMPSON: Well, that's contrary to what we've heard. We've made -- my message has been to everyone (UNINTELLIGIBLE) that we need to bring the inspectors in right away. They have to have free and open access. They can't be denied access to anything. And every place we've gone, we've been told that would, in fact, be the case.

The only think the mention is that they hope that we would honor their sovereignty and their traditions, but they said even without that, they are going in, they're going to let us in open access, no questions asked.

COOPER: Well, let me ask you, congressman, because I mean, I'm reading from the front page of "New York Times" right now. Vice President Ramadan in Baghdad yesterday said, "the stance on the inspectors has been decided. And any additional procedure that aims at harming Iraq will not be accepted." Basically rejecting any attempt by the U.S. and Britain to, you know, to get this resolution going?

THOMPSON: Well, my insistence is that they understand how important it is to get the inspectors in here, to make sure that they don't have the weapons of mass destruction that we believe they have, and they claim they don't. And they need to understand that.

Short of that, I don't see how they can possibly believe that this will go on much longer.

COOPER: You met yesterday with Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz, a man many Americans have come to know over the years. What was your take on him? Did you find him credible at all? And what did you hear from him?

THOMPSON: Well, we heard a lot of his perception of how things are, and what history was. We all made our points. And again, my point was let the inspectors in, try and avert war. I think that's important.

This country will suffer to even greater lengths than it's suffering already if war is brought here. We will lose soldiers. I don't want to see bloodshed, I don't want to see another war. I'd like to resolve this without going to war. And he told us, as everyone else did, that they were prepared to let those inspectors in, no questions asked.

COOPER: Yesterday, we -- I was anchoring this program. And we got a lot of e-mail from viewers who were basically questioning what you and the other two congressmen are doing in Baghdad right now. I mean, a lot of them were saying they felt like you guys were being used as tools, that you were, you know, being shown hospitals and shown children with cancer, obviously very moving pictures. And that basically, you were being used by the Iraqi regime. This is what many viewers wrote in yesterday, sort of questioning.

I just want to put that to you. What -- you know, when you hear that kind of criticism, what do you think? Obviously, we have lost the satellite signal to Baghdad. We will try to get that back for you. We were talking to Congressman Mike Thompson, who is in Baghdad.

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 September 29, 2002 - 07:34   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Three Democratic representatives are part of a humanitarian mission to Iraq. Congressman Mike Thompson of California and his two colleagues say President Bush should not be so quick to pull the trigger.
Congressman Thompson joins us live from Baghdad. Good morning. Thanks for being with us, congressman.

REP. MIKE THOMPSON (D), CALIFORNIA: Hello, Anderson.

COOPER: The front page of papers here in the United States this morning all about Iraq's statements yesterday, saying they will not accept any new rules for the work of U.N. weapons inspectors. Iraq's comments were characterized by the White House as basically an attempt by Iraq to string things along, and just continue business as usual. Do you think that's what those statements were?

THOMPSON: Well, that's contrary to what we've heard. We've made -- my message has been to everyone (UNINTELLIGIBLE) that we need to bring the inspectors in right away. They have to have free and open access. They can't be denied access to anything. And every place we've gone, we've been told that would, in fact, be the case.

The only think the mention is that they hope that we would honor their sovereignty and their traditions, but they said even without that, they are going in, they're going to let us in open access, no questions asked.

COOPER: Well, let me ask you, congressman, because I mean, I'm reading from the front page of "New York Times" right now. Vice President Ramadan in Baghdad yesterday said, "the stance on the inspectors has been decided. And any additional procedure that aims at harming Iraq will not be accepted." Basically rejecting any attempt by the U.S. and Britain to, you know, to get this resolution going?

THOMPSON: Well, my insistence is that they understand how important it is to get the inspectors in here, to make sure that they don't have the weapons of mass destruction that we believe they have, and they claim they don't. And they need to understand that.

Short of that, I don't see how they can possibly believe that this will go on much longer.

COOPER: You met yesterday with Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz, a man many Americans have come to know over the years. What was your take on him? Did you find him credible at all? And what did you hear from him?

THOMPSON: Well, we heard a lot of his perception of how things are, and what history was. We all made our points. And again, my point was let the inspectors in, try and avert war. I think that's important.

This country will suffer to even greater lengths than it's suffering already if war is brought here. We will lose soldiers. I don't want to see bloodshed, I don't want to see another war. I'd like to resolve this without going to war. And he told us, as everyone else did, that they were prepared to let those inspectors in, no questions asked.

COOPER: Yesterday, we -- I was anchoring this program. And we got a lot of e-mail from viewers who were basically questioning what you and the other two congressmen are doing in Baghdad right now. I mean, a lot of them were saying they felt like you guys were being used as tools, that you were, you know, being shown hospitals and shown children with cancer, obviously very moving pictures. And that basically, you were being used by the Iraqi regime. This is what many viewers wrote in yesterday, sort of questioning.

I just want to put that to you. What -- you know, when you hear that kind of criticism, what do you think? Obviously, we have lost the satellite signal to Baghdad. We will try to get that back for you. We were talking to Congressman Mike Thompson, who is in Baghdad.

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