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CNN Saturday Morning News
Analysis of Alleged Axis of Evil
Aired December 14, 2002 - 07:20 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.
CHARLES MOLINEAUX: President Bush has said Iraq, North Korea, and Iran form an axis of evil. Now the U.S. says it has new information indicating Iran is developing a secret nuclear weapons program. And North Korea says it plans to unfreeze its nuclear program. Both countries say their nuclear programs are solely for peaceful purposes, like generating power.
CNN's military analyst, Kelly McCann, joins us from Washington to talk about this.
Kelly, let's rewind here back to January. We were worried about al Qaeda, we were worried about Afghanistan, and in the State of the Union address, President Bush starts talking about this axis of evil, Iran, Iraq, North Korea. Now here we are in December, and is he vindicated?
KELLY MCCANN, CNN SECURITY ANALYST: Well, I think that people forget that, you know, a presidential figure, someone who's, you know, in that position, is not going to say anything to the press or nationwide on a whim. And certainly he had seen information through the intelligence community that, you know, indicated that there was a problem here.
Sometimes I think people forget that, you know, being responsible, a person in that position of authority's got to be able to quantify what he's saying, and here we are seeing now proof of why he said that.
MOLINEAUX: Well, let's talk about this active nuclear weapons program that the U.S. is now accusing Iran of being on. We've got a big nuclear facility there. What are we actually looking at?
MCCANN: Well, Voice of America's reporting now that in February, the director general of the Atomic Energy Agency is going to send an inspection team there to actually go on the ground and see exactly what it is. And I think that's important, because it's difficult for analysts, when they look at imagery, to discern what the production of fissile material actually means.
In other words, it can be used for peaceful purposes in order to develop nuclear energy. Of course, opponents of that thought process have pointed out that why would they spend that kind of money on a project in a country where oil and gas is, you know, everywhere?
So, I mean, there are some interesting questions. I think we'll get a first look in February.
MOLINEAUX: All right, what about North Korea, then? Restarting its nuclear program, what would that consist of?
MCCANN: Well, it consists of using a lot of money to generate something that doesn't make a lot of sense, I think, in the world community, when you can't feed your own people. Economically, it's hard to justify a thrust in that direction.
I think what it shows is a little bit of defiance, obviously, because over the last few years, where they were (UNINTELLIGIBLE), you know, tenuously signed up to the nonproliferation treaty, in fact they kept their program going. So now they're out in front and actually saying, We're going to do this.
MOLINEAUX: Defiance or...
MCCANN: Despite protestations.
MOLINEAUX: ... extortion?
MCCANN: I don't know, and the reason I don't think anybody can really say is, they're kind of in their own Ptolemaic (ph) universe over here. Although we've always known that there's -- you know, they're threatening -- their gross national product is weapons, proliferation of weapons. That's how they make money.
It's difficult to discern their intent, because they're virtually cut off from most normal places that people have diplomatic ties to.
So we don't know.
MOLINEAUX: In which case, you got a lot of people who would say, Well, look at North Korea. Why are we so fixated on Iraq? Why Iraq now when we have this much greater threat? And of course North Korea's been a threat for 50 years. So why Iraq, if this is going on in North Korea?
MCCANN: I'm going to give you a general answer to that question, Charles, which is, you know, if you try to isolate a particular place and prioritize it, sometimes you end up chasing the tail. In other words, you never do get in front of it.
In order to get in front of it, the U.S. has to generally, across the board, lift our level of national security. If we do that, then we're protecting ourselves against from all of the threats that are out there.
To try to discern or to try to get out in front without real good predictive intelligence is impossible. It would be like me asking you what's going to be the top story next week. How would you know?
MOLINEAUX: That shipment of Scud missiles from North Korea to Yemen has now arrived in Yemen. The -- we -- it was spotted, it was detained, and then the U.S. let it go.
What did this exercise accomplish?
MCCANN: It exercised some questions. We need to ask now if the Yemen government is supposed to be, you know, on board with us, moving forward and helping in the war against terrorism. And what would be a -- what would have been the harm with them clearly admitting that, yes, these weapons are for us, they're for national defense, coordinating it, yes, the ship's going to be movement. Instead, in moving through, you know, the waters.
Instead what we saw was a method of transport, very analogous to smuggling, names not on ships, funny manifests, registries that don't add up, covering the weapons systems with cement bags. I mean, none of that adds up to an open purchase. And then the initial denial, which was denied, and then, you know, an acceptance of these things.
So I think that there are some interesting international questions. And we have to say, are you an ally or are you not an ally? And what was the purpose of your deception here?
MOLINEAUX: Really briefly, status of the war on terror at this point?
MCCANN: I think we're making strides, but the clearest indication is, as George Tenet, Condoleezza Rice, and the people who have access to the intelligence always say, which is, we are still looking at potentially imminent attacks. And I think that's enough said.
MOLINEAUX: OK. Thank you very much, Kelly McCann.
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 December 14, 2002 - 07:20 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CHARLES MOLINEAUX: President Bush has said Iraq, North Korea, and Iran form an axis of evil. Now the U.S. says it has new information indicating Iran is developing a secret nuclear weapons program. And North Korea says it plans to unfreeze its nuclear program. Both countries say their nuclear programs are solely for peaceful purposes, like generating power.
CNN's military analyst, Kelly McCann, joins us from Washington to talk about this.
Kelly, let's rewind here back to January. We were worried about al Qaeda, we were worried about Afghanistan, and in the State of the Union address, President Bush starts talking about this axis of evil, Iran, Iraq, North Korea. Now here we are in December, and is he vindicated?
KELLY MCCANN, CNN SECURITY ANALYST: Well, I think that people forget that, you know, a presidential figure, someone who's, you know, in that position, is not going to say anything to the press or nationwide on a whim. And certainly he had seen information through the intelligence community that, you know, indicated that there was a problem here.
Sometimes I think people forget that, you know, being responsible, a person in that position of authority's got to be able to quantify what he's saying, and here we are seeing now proof of why he said that.
MOLINEAUX: Well, let's talk about this active nuclear weapons program that the U.S. is now accusing Iran of being on. We've got a big nuclear facility there. What are we actually looking at?
MCCANN: Well, Voice of America's reporting now that in February, the director general of the Atomic Energy Agency is going to send an inspection team there to actually go on the ground and see exactly what it is. And I think that's important, because it's difficult for analysts, when they look at imagery, to discern what the production of fissile material actually means.
In other words, it can be used for peaceful purposes in order to develop nuclear energy. Of course, opponents of that thought process have pointed out that why would they spend that kind of money on a project in a country where oil and gas is, you know, everywhere?
So, I mean, there are some interesting questions. I think we'll get a first look in February.
MOLINEAUX: All right, what about North Korea, then? Restarting its nuclear program, what would that consist of?
MCCANN: Well, it consists of using a lot of money to generate something that doesn't make a lot of sense, I think, in the world community, when you can't feed your own people. Economically, it's hard to justify a thrust in that direction.
I think what it shows is a little bit of defiance, obviously, because over the last few years, where they were (UNINTELLIGIBLE), you know, tenuously signed up to the nonproliferation treaty, in fact they kept their program going. So now they're out in front and actually saying, We're going to do this.
MOLINEAUX: Defiance or...
MCCANN: Despite protestations.
MOLINEAUX: ... extortion?
MCCANN: I don't know, and the reason I don't think anybody can really say is, they're kind of in their own Ptolemaic (ph) universe over here. Although we've always known that there's -- you know, they're threatening -- their gross national product is weapons, proliferation of weapons. That's how they make money.
It's difficult to discern their intent, because they're virtually cut off from most normal places that people have diplomatic ties to.
So we don't know.
MOLINEAUX: In which case, you got a lot of people who would say, Well, look at North Korea. Why are we so fixated on Iraq? Why Iraq now when we have this much greater threat? And of course North Korea's been a threat for 50 years. So why Iraq, if this is going on in North Korea?
MCCANN: I'm going to give you a general answer to that question, Charles, which is, you know, if you try to isolate a particular place and prioritize it, sometimes you end up chasing the tail. In other words, you never do get in front of it.
In order to get in front of it, the U.S. has to generally, across the board, lift our level of national security. If we do that, then we're protecting ourselves against from all of the threats that are out there.
To try to discern or to try to get out in front without real good predictive intelligence is impossible. It would be like me asking you what's going to be the top story next week. How would you know?
MOLINEAUX: That shipment of Scud missiles from North Korea to Yemen has now arrived in Yemen. The -- we -- it was spotted, it was detained, and then the U.S. let it go.
What did this exercise accomplish?
MCCANN: It exercised some questions. We need to ask now if the Yemen government is supposed to be, you know, on board with us, moving forward and helping in the war against terrorism. And what would be a -- what would have been the harm with them clearly admitting that, yes, these weapons are for us, they're for national defense, coordinating it, yes, the ship's going to be movement. Instead, in moving through, you know, the waters.
Instead what we saw was a method of transport, very analogous to smuggling, names not on ships, funny manifests, registries that don't add up, covering the weapons systems with cement bags. I mean, none of that adds up to an open purchase. And then the initial denial, which was denied, and then, you know, an acceptance of these things.
So I think that there are some interesting international questions. And we have to say, are you an ally or are you not an ally? And what was the purpose of your deception here?
MOLINEAUX: Really briefly, status of the war on terror at this point?
MCCANN: I think we're making strides, but the clearest indication is, as George Tenet, Condoleezza Rice, and the people who have access to the intelligence always say, which is, we are still looking at potentially imminent attacks. And I think that's enough said.
MOLINEAUX: OK. Thank you very much, Kelly McCann.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
