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CNN Saturday Morning News

Bush Administration To Reavel Sensitive Spy Intelligence

Aired February 01, 2003 - 08:01   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.


MILES O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: All right, we're back on our top story, Saddam Hussein, Iraq. To make its case against Iraq, the Bush administration is preparing to reveal some very sensitive spy intelligence showing, it is said, that Iraq is thwarting weapons inspections.
White House correspondent Suzanne Malveaux live from our bureau with details -- good morning, Suzanne.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Miles.

The White House approach is really two pronged, first and foremost to introduce as much evidence as possible before the U.N. Security Council. As you had mentioned, still up for debate just how much information they'll be introducing. But, yes, spy satellite photos showing Iraqi officials moving weapons components around before the inspectors arrive, mobile labs in action. And "Newsweek" reporting transcripts of intercepts of Iraqi officials saying move that or don't report that, and these conversations actually boasting about how they are tricking the U.N. weapons inspectors.

The second part of the administration's approach is also a possible second resolution for the U.N. Security Council, one that would set a deadline for Saddam Hussein to comply. If he did not, it would call for immediate military action authorized by the U.N. Security Council. Yesterday, President Bush, as well as British Prime Minister Tony Blair, both saying that they agreed that that could be a possibility, but also making the point that this must not allow the process to drag out.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Any attempt to drag the process on for months will be resisted by the United States.

TONY BLAIR, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: And therefore what is important is that the international community comes together again and makes it absolutely clear that this is unacceptable.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: The White House dead set against this idea that Hans Blix and ElBaradei would return to Baghdad, perhaps for more consultations or more discussions with Iraqi leaders, saying that really they don't believe that any of that is necessary. What they want to see are the goods. They want to see Saddam Hussein comply and turn over those weapons of mass destruction -- Miles. O'BRIEN: Suzanne, you had the sense going into that meeting with Tony Blair that there was a little more daylight between the two leaders than you saw when the final communique came out there at the White House. I know you're not a fly on the wall, but what do you think happened behind closed doors there that put them a little closer together?

MALVEAUX: Well, there are a couple of things the administration certainly is acknowledging. First and foremost, that they need to win over more international support. They would like those allies on board. They would like the French, the Russians and the Chinese to be on board, that, yes, they say they're going to go for it without them, but they certainly would like much more international support if they call for military action.

The second thing is, and this is an acknowledgement here, is that the administration realizes it has to provide some sort of political cover not only for British Prime Minister Tony Blair but other U.S. allies who really are facing a great deal of opposition in their own countries for this idea of military action.

O'BRIEN: All right, Suzanne Malveaux at the D.C. bureau, thank you very much -- Heidi.

HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: If there is a war with Iraq, the U.S. hopes to base tens of thousands of troops in neighboring Turkey. The Pentagon says some 20,000 support troops who received deployment orders last month will head to Turkey and at least seven other countries in the region.

CNN's Jane Arraf joins us now along the Iraq-Turkey border with more -- good morning, Jane.

JANE ARRAF, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Heidi.

Well, here near the mountains of northern Iraq, Turkey is preparing for a potential wave of refugees it fears would happen if any war broke out. At the same time, it's making preparations, getting a step closer to allowing U.S. troops to be based here.

A very important meeting of the National Security Council, which brings together Turkey's top generals and political officials, last night, decided that parliament should look at allowing foreign troops here. That, of course, is a reference to the United States, which wants to base at least count up to 40,000 troops that would go into Iraq to attack Baghdad from the north, if needed.

Now, the refugees preparations under way here are to try to stall, to forestall what happened during the 1991 Gulf War, when almost half a million Kurds fleeing a failed uprising against the Iraqi government, tried to flood into Turkey over the mountains. Some of them died. We saw horrible scenes then and the Turkish government would very much like to stop a repeat of that.

It's made clear that it won't allow a lot of those refugees on this territory, but it is making preparations for some of them. As to the preparations, though, on the other side with the Turkish government participating in northern Iraq -- Heidi.

COLLINS: Jane, tell us, what is keeping Turkey from coming out and just saying that, yes, it is on board as far as U.S. military cooperation is concerned in going into Iraq?

ARRAF: Well, Heidi, it's a really complicated country and a very complicated issue. It's complicated because while Turkey is really a very strong U.S. ally, that has to be said, and the only Muslim member of NATO, it's got a lot of internal considerations. Now, a lot of those considerations are here in this area where we are, the southeast, which is the Kurdish area.

Now, Turkey is very concerned that if there were a war it could actually potentially lead to the break-up of Iraq and give Iraqi Kurds more autonomy. They worry that that would give the Kurdish minority in Turkey more power, as well, and that's the last thing that the Turkish military would want.

There's also a very strong sentiment here against the war, not just in the southeast, but across Turkey. Polls show that more than 80 percent of Turks are opposed to a war and almost as many opposed to Turkey getting involved with the United States.

And, finally, the last one is economic. People here are really poor. They worry that they would get even poorer if a war did break out and all the promises in the world from the United States wouldn't alleviate that -- Heidi.

COLLINS: All right, Jane Arraf coming to us from Turkey this morning.

Thank you so much.

And we want to let you know that if you'd like to stay with the story 24-7 you can do that at cnn.com. Just log onto cnn.com/iraq for the latest news, quotes and analysis. You can also check out an interactive map of U.S. military deployments to the region. The AOL keyword is CNN.

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 February 1, 2003 - 08:01   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: All right, we're back on our top story, Saddam Hussein, Iraq. To make its case against Iraq, the Bush administration is preparing to reveal some very sensitive spy intelligence showing, it is said, that Iraq is thwarting weapons inspections.
White House correspondent Suzanne Malveaux live from our bureau with details -- good morning, Suzanne.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Miles.

The White House approach is really two pronged, first and foremost to introduce as much evidence as possible before the U.N. Security Council. As you had mentioned, still up for debate just how much information they'll be introducing. But, yes, spy satellite photos showing Iraqi officials moving weapons components around before the inspectors arrive, mobile labs in action. And "Newsweek" reporting transcripts of intercepts of Iraqi officials saying move that or don't report that, and these conversations actually boasting about how they are tricking the U.N. weapons inspectors.

The second part of the administration's approach is also a possible second resolution for the U.N. Security Council, one that would set a deadline for Saddam Hussein to comply. If he did not, it would call for immediate military action authorized by the U.N. Security Council. Yesterday, President Bush, as well as British Prime Minister Tony Blair, both saying that they agreed that that could be a possibility, but also making the point that this must not allow the process to drag out.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Any attempt to drag the process on for months will be resisted by the United States.

TONY BLAIR, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: And therefore what is important is that the international community comes together again and makes it absolutely clear that this is unacceptable.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: The White House dead set against this idea that Hans Blix and ElBaradei would return to Baghdad, perhaps for more consultations or more discussions with Iraqi leaders, saying that really they don't believe that any of that is necessary. What they want to see are the goods. They want to see Saddam Hussein comply and turn over those weapons of mass destruction -- Miles. O'BRIEN: Suzanne, you had the sense going into that meeting with Tony Blair that there was a little more daylight between the two leaders than you saw when the final communique came out there at the White House. I know you're not a fly on the wall, but what do you think happened behind closed doors there that put them a little closer together?

MALVEAUX: Well, there are a couple of things the administration certainly is acknowledging. First and foremost, that they need to win over more international support. They would like those allies on board. They would like the French, the Russians and the Chinese to be on board, that, yes, they say they're going to go for it without them, but they certainly would like much more international support if they call for military action.

The second thing is, and this is an acknowledgement here, is that the administration realizes it has to provide some sort of political cover not only for British Prime Minister Tony Blair but other U.S. allies who really are facing a great deal of opposition in their own countries for this idea of military action.

O'BRIEN: All right, Suzanne Malveaux at the D.C. bureau, thank you very much -- Heidi.

HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: If there is a war with Iraq, the U.S. hopes to base tens of thousands of troops in neighboring Turkey. The Pentagon says some 20,000 support troops who received deployment orders last month will head to Turkey and at least seven other countries in the region.

CNN's Jane Arraf joins us now along the Iraq-Turkey border with more -- good morning, Jane.

JANE ARRAF, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Heidi.

Well, here near the mountains of northern Iraq, Turkey is preparing for a potential wave of refugees it fears would happen if any war broke out. At the same time, it's making preparations, getting a step closer to allowing U.S. troops to be based here.

A very important meeting of the National Security Council, which brings together Turkey's top generals and political officials, last night, decided that parliament should look at allowing foreign troops here. That, of course, is a reference to the United States, which wants to base at least count up to 40,000 troops that would go into Iraq to attack Baghdad from the north, if needed.

Now, the refugees preparations under way here are to try to stall, to forestall what happened during the 1991 Gulf War, when almost half a million Kurds fleeing a failed uprising against the Iraqi government, tried to flood into Turkey over the mountains. Some of them died. We saw horrible scenes then and the Turkish government would very much like to stop a repeat of that.

It's made clear that it won't allow a lot of those refugees on this territory, but it is making preparations for some of them. As to the preparations, though, on the other side with the Turkish government participating in northern Iraq -- Heidi.

COLLINS: Jane, tell us, what is keeping Turkey from coming out and just saying that, yes, it is on board as far as U.S. military cooperation is concerned in going into Iraq?

ARRAF: Well, Heidi, it's a really complicated country and a very complicated issue. It's complicated because while Turkey is really a very strong U.S. ally, that has to be said, and the only Muslim member of NATO, it's got a lot of internal considerations. Now, a lot of those considerations are here in this area where we are, the southeast, which is the Kurdish area.

Now, Turkey is very concerned that if there were a war it could actually potentially lead to the break-up of Iraq and give Iraqi Kurds more autonomy. They worry that that would give the Kurdish minority in Turkey more power, as well, and that's the last thing that the Turkish military would want.

There's also a very strong sentiment here against the war, not just in the southeast, but across Turkey. Polls show that more than 80 percent of Turks are opposed to a war and almost as many opposed to Turkey getting involved with the United States.

And, finally, the last one is economic. People here are really poor. They worry that they would get even poorer if a war did break out and all the promises in the world from the United States wouldn't alleviate that -- Heidi.

COLLINS: All right, Jane Arraf coming to us from Turkey this morning.

Thank you so much.

And we want to let you know that if you'd like to stay with the story 24-7 you can do that at cnn.com. Just log onto cnn.com/iraq for the latest news, quotes and analysis. You can also check out an interactive map of U.S. military deployments to the region. The AOL keyword is CNN.

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