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White House Issues Official Statement in Response to Iraqi Arms Declaration
Aired December 08, 2002 - 09:07 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.
CATHERINE CALLAWAY, CNN ANCHOR: The White House issued a statement after the release of Iraq's weapons declaration and with more on that let's head to Washington, where we find Frank Buckley standing by at the White House.
What's the latest from the administration, Frank?
FRANK BUCKLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Catherine, White House press secretary Ari Fleischer in his issuing the statement yesterday in response to the declaration, gives you a sense of the skepticism of this White House, Ari Fleischer saying that Iraq has issued what it claims to be a declaration.
White House officials and intelligence officials in the U.S. are very skeptical that Iraq will come clean, as it is required to do, in Security Council Resolution 1441.
President Bush, meanwhile, has yet to officially react or speak on the subject. Yesterday, he left the White House for the weekend retreat to Camp David aboard Marine 1. President Bush will come back at some point today.
We don't know if he'll speak on the subject when he gets back, but U.S. intelligence officials say it's a matter of record that Iraq has a developed and deployed weapons of mass destruction, but it's up to Iraq to demonstrate that they have disarmed. If they don't do that, they will consider that to mean that Iraq has not disarmed.
And here's a portion of the official White House statement that was issued yesterday: "The U.S. Government will analyze this declaration with respect to its credibility and compliance with U-N-S- C-R 14-41. We will continue to work with other countries to achieve the ultimate goal of protecting the peace by ending Saddam Hussein's pursuit and accumulation of weapons of mass destruction."
Catherine, some 11,000 pages for U.S. officials to analyze. We don't believe that they have received the documents yet. So it may be some time before they officially react to the actual data within the declaration -- Catherine.
CALLAWAY: All right. Thank you. That's Frank Buckley at the White House.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Arms Declaration>
Aired December 8, 2002 - 09:07 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CATHERINE CALLAWAY, CNN ANCHOR: The White House issued a statement after the release of Iraq's weapons declaration and with more on that let's head to Washington, where we find Frank Buckley standing by at the White House.
What's the latest from the administration, Frank?
FRANK BUCKLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Catherine, White House press secretary Ari Fleischer in his issuing the statement yesterday in response to the declaration, gives you a sense of the skepticism of this White House, Ari Fleischer saying that Iraq has issued what it claims to be a declaration.
White House officials and intelligence officials in the U.S. are very skeptical that Iraq will come clean, as it is required to do, in Security Council Resolution 1441.
President Bush, meanwhile, has yet to officially react or speak on the subject. Yesterday, he left the White House for the weekend retreat to Camp David aboard Marine 1. President Bush will come back at some point today.
We don't know if he'll speak on the subject when he gets back, but U.S. intelligence officials say it's a matter of record that Iraq has a developed and deployed weapons of mass destruction, but it's up to Iraq to demonstrate that they have disarmed. If they don't do that, they will consider that to mean that Iraq has not disarmed.
And here's a portion of the official White House statement that was issued yesterday: "The U.S. Government will analyze this declaration with respect to its credibility and compliance with U-N-S- C-R 14-41. We will continue to work with other countries to achieve the ultimate goal of protecting the peace by ending Saddam Hussein's pursuit and accumulation of weapons of mass destruction."
Catherine, some 11,000 pages for U.S. officials to analyze. We don't believe that they have received the documents yet. So it may be some time before they officially react to the actual data within the declaration -- Catherine.
CALLAWAY: All right. Thank you. That's Frank Buckley at the White House.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Arms Declaration>
