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CNN Live Sunday

White House Officials Press Case for Removing Hussein

Aired September 08, 2002 - 18:01   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: Vice President Dick Cheney and other administration officials are on the offensive today pressing their case for removing Saddam Hussein from power. Cheney accuses Iraq of actively seeking nuclear and biological weapons.
CNN's White House correspondent Kelly Wallace joins us now with the latest. Hi, Kelly.

KELLY WALLACE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Carol. Well, this information coming out after this Bush administration has faced a lot of criticism from U.S. lawmakers and U.S. allies -- many world leaders, members of Congress urging the president and his top aides to reveal the evidence it has or they have to prove that Saddam Hussein must go and that military action might be necessary.

Well, on this day U.S. officials started releasing that information. U.S. officials say over the past 14 months they believe Saddam Hussein has been trying to get his hands on aluminum tubes, which they believe could be used to enrich uranium and build a nuclear bomb.

Now Vice President Cheney saying that he believes Saddam Hussein has been unsuccessful so far in getting this aluminum tubing but he is concerned, saying the Iraqi leader is aggressively trying to develop nuclear weapons and that was a concern he articulated in an interview with CNN's John King.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RICHARD CHENEY, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: He does not have the raw material but he may be working on it. We're -- our -- based on what we've seen we're fairly confident that he, in fact, is moving forward once again to develop nuclear weapons.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALLACE: Now, President Bush did not have any comment today as he returned from a weekend at the presidential retreat at Camp David. Yesterday, of course, he huddled with British Prime Minister Tony Blair but all of the president's top national security advisers fanning out on the Sunday interview programs making the case that the Iraqi leader must go.

The message from all advisers, including Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld -- the world cannot sit and wait for Saddam Hussein one day to obtain a nuclear weapon. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD RUMSFELD, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE OF THE UNITED STATES: When you have knowledge of weapons of mass destruction -- chemical, biological and nuclear weapon programs in countries that are terrorist states and that have relations with terrorist networks the time is not on your side.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALLACE: And that is the message President Bush is expected to convey to Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien tomorrow when the two leaders get together in Michigan. The Canadian leader one of several U.S. allies very concerned about any military action in Iraq.

And then, Carol, of course, the president to deliver what U.S. officials are billings as a major address to the United Nations general assembly on Thursday.

He will be urging the United Nations to get tough and deal with the Iraqi leader -- Carol.

LIN: Kelly, the administration has indicated that it also has additional information on what Saddam is doing with his weapons program. Is President Bush planning on sharing this information behind closed doors with members of the Security Council at the United Nations as well as other allies? And, if so, will that information ever be made public, say, in an Oval Office address?

WALLACE: Well, number one -- to the first part of your question -- U.S. officials say that this administration will be sharing some of this information with members of Congress. In fact, this new information about Saddam Hussein allegedly trying to get his hands on this aluminum tubing was given to the top congressional leaders last week and is expected to be given to the most skeptical members of the United Nations of the Security Council -- the members of the permanent five -- France, China and Russia -- after the president's speech to the United Nations.

So the message from U.S. officials -- they will give this information as they can as long as, of course, they don't compromise sources and methods.

And to your second part of your question, Carol -- the message is the president will definitely in some way be communicating to the Congress and the American people when he ultimately has decided what to do to deal with Saddam Hussein. Carol?

LIN: We'll look forward to it. Thank you very much. Kelly Wallace live at the White House today.

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