Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Saturday Morning News

White House, Capitol Hill Keep Eye on Powell's Mission

Aired April 13, 2002 - 08:06   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.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, there's a lot riding on Powell's trip to the Middle East. And as you can imagine, the White House is watching the situation ever so closely. Our Kelly Wallace is at the White House. She joins us now with the latest from there. Hi, Kelly.

KELLY WALLACE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hello to you, Kyra. Certainly this administration watching developments in the Middle East very, very closely. Indeed a big question which really continues to sort of circulate from here is, just as Chris was saying, whether Secretary Powell will in fact meet with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

It is interesting. U.S. officials continue to stress that President Bush has given Secretary Powell, quote, "maximum flexibility" for this mission, meaning that ultimately the decision on whether to hold such a meeting rests with the secretary of state.

Now, as for President Bush, he is monitoring developments this weekend from the Camp David presidential retreat. He headed there yesterday afternoon. He is expected to do what he typically does on Saturday mornings, begin his day with a briefing from his top advisers, certainly getting the latest on the situation in the Middle East.

In fact, the president was in the middle of his National Security Council briefing yesterday when an aide handed him a note informing him of the latest suicide bombing. The president then immediately condemned it. The White House now calling it "a homicide bombing," and the president saying he would not be deterred from seeking peace.

But, Kyra, everyone here throughout the White House agrees that this suicide bombing is making what was already going to be a difficult mission for Secretary Powell even more difficult. And it's now been nine days -- you'll recall President Bush -- there he is leaving yesterday. It was nine days ago when he came out into the Rose Garden with that big speech, saying he was going to send Secretary Powell to the region. He called on the Israelis to halt their military incursions and to begin to withdraw from the Palestinian areas. That has not happened. He called on the Palestinians to agree to a cease-fire and denounce terrorism. That has not happened, either.

The president, aides say, is expecting results, but, Kyra, right now this administration has to concede that so far there haven't been many results at this point in time -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Kelly, let's talk a bit about the other Arab nations and leaders for a moment and the pressure coming from there. Now we are even seeing telethons in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia raising money to support the Palestinians and their fight. What is the U.S. government's position? Is there concern about this money being raised and these Arab leaders really stepping up to the plate and supporting Palestinians right now?

WALLACE: Well, you know, U.S. officials were certainly pressed about that telethon you mentioned, in particular in Saudi Arabia. Ari Fleischer, the president's spokesman, taking a number of questions yesterday at the briefing about that.

He said that his understanding of that telethon is that the Saudi Arabian people were raising money for the Palestinian people, for humanitarian causes to help people in need, and that this administration is also concerned about the plight of the Palestinian people and has tried to impress that on the Israelis as this military offensive continues.

But lots of reporters press that this telethon looked more like it was possibly stirring up or getting money for Palestinian martyrs, for those people and their families who go ahead and take part in acts of terror. Fleischer said he couldn't confirm if that really is the case, but clearly, Kyra, there is concern, because part of Secretary Powell's mission, you saw that he visited with Arab leaders, with King Abdullah of Jordan, President Mubarak of Egypt, going to these leaders privately and saying, you need to do more, you need to put more pressure on Yasser Arafat, but you also need to speak out publicly and condemn terrorism, stop this sort of incitement of terror attacks against innocent civilians.

U.S. officials say that those meetings were encouraging, but clearly they're looking for more results from the Arab leaders as well, and they have to concede they haven't had too many of those as well, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Kelly Wallace, live from the White House this morning, thanks again. We'll see you again, Kelly.

WALLACE: Sure.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, let's take a trip down Pennsylvania Avenue and get the view from Capitol Hill on the unfolding crisis in the Middle East. For that, we turn to CNN congressional correspondent Kate Snow, who is in our bureau, actually, not on the Capitol. Good to see you. Well, close to the Capitol.

KATE SNOW, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Miles.

O'BRIEN: Good to see you, Kate.

SNOW: Good to see you, too. A little bit about congressional reaction to what's going on in the Middle East. For the most part I'd say what you're seeing is restraint on behalf of most of the 535 lawmakers on Capitol Hill. Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle sort of encapsulating things on Thursday of this week, saying we need to be very concerned about not sending the wrong message from Capitol Hill while Mr. Powell is in the region, while the secretary is trying to do his job. He said it's critical to be supportive of the secretary. Those words echoed also by the House Speaker Dennis Hastert. One Republican aide said to me yesterday, look, we're saying keep your powder dry for now, for the most part.

But, Miles, beyond that, sort of around the edges, you do start to hear, at least privately, some talk from two different camps critical of the administration. One camp, of course, those who are very pro-Israel on the Democratic side of the aisle tend to be more of the Jewish members of Congress. Chuck Schumer of New York, for example, that senator being very critical.

On the other hand, you have conservative Republicans who feel very strongly pro-Israel. They're more hawkish. They want the U.S. to take a very strong line against -- for the Israeli government and against Yasser Arafat. Some of them say that the administration is being a little too soft on Arafat.

One of those who's been a bit more out there with his criticism, Congressman -- Senator, Republican of Missouri, Senator Kit Bond. Yesterday he said off camera that he thought that Powell should come home. After the suicide bombing yesterday, he said come on home. Now, on camera, Miles, he was a little more circumspect, he was a little more diplomatic. He said that it should be up to the White House. But again, he said -- he reiterated that he thought that Arafat was not being handled sternly enough. Senator Rick Santorum echoing that. So there's a number of people saying that on the Republican side of the aisle.

Then again, there is still a lot of support for the president, a lot of support for Colin Powell. One senator, Chuck Hagel, who you'll recall is often critical of the White House, said, look, there's even more reason now to support Powell's meeting with Arafat. It should go ahead in light of yesterday's suicide bombing. It just makes it all the more important to sit down with Yasser Arafat. So sort of a mixed bag from Capitol Hill, Miles.

O'BRIEN: Well, Kate, I'm just marveling as you talk about these. It's such an unusual coalition, isn't it?

SNOW: Yeah, it is. I mean, look at the guests that you just had on last hour. You had Harold Ford, a Democrat from Tennessee, basically saying let Powell do his work. And then you had a Republican on the other side, Mike Pence, saying, no, we're not being strong enough and we need to not meet with Arafat. We need to -- so that sort of -- there is a strange dichotomy going on and a strange alliance with some very liberal Democrats supporting Israel, along with some very conservative Republicans.

O'BRIEN: Interesting stuff. Kate Snow is going to explore this a little bit further a little later on CNN. "SATURDAY EDITION" is the name of the program. We hope you will join us. I know you'll be there, Kate. Thank you for dropping in. SNOW: Senator Jon Kyl is out guest on that.

O'BRIEN: Senator Jon Kyl, that's a good one. Who else do you have?

SNOW: We also have some guests that are going to talk about Arafat and Sharon in terms of their personalities. I think that's going to be very interesting. Who are these two men and what makes them tick and why can't they just sit down and make something work out. We're going to talk about that. We're also going to talk about oil and how this plays into all of this. You know, are your gas prices going to go up this summer because of everything that's going on in the Middle East.

O'BRIEN: All right. Why can't we all get along, as Rodney King put it.

SNOW: That's right.

O'BRIEN: Kate Snow, coming up at 10:00 a.m. Eastern, thanks for dropping in.

SNOW: Thanks, Miles.

O'BRIEN: See you later.

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