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CNN SHOWDOWN: IRAQ
Bush Holding Primetime Nationally Televised News Conference
Aired March 6, 2003 - 12:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: President Bush will do something this evening he doesn't do very often. He's holding a primetime nationally televised news conference. The White House is billing it as a straightforward question and answer session with reporters and not a declaration of war or anything else.
Our White House correspondent Suzanne Malveaux is joining us now live from the North Lawn of the White House to help set the stage -- Suzanne.
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, you're absolutely right. It is not going to be a war declaration. He's not going to offer any new evidence or make any type of new major announcements. But what the president is going to do is answer reporters' questions. We're told he is going to lay out the case, an optimistic progress report on the war on Iraq to make the case against Saddam Hussein, and according to one senior administration official, to tell the American people it is just days before he has to make that critical decision of whether or not the United States will go to war with Iraq.
Now this is just the eighth formal press conference the president has had in his presidency. Aides say he decided this was the right time to do it, because Americans had legitimate questions about Iraq.
At the same time, of course, the administration making the case to our allies as well. Later today, Secretary of State Colin Powell will travel to New York. He'll be meeting with his counterparts from Britain, Spain, as well as Qatar, to talk about that second resolution that they are still trying to push to the U.N. Security Council, and even a compromised proposal from the British that may give the Iraqis more time -- Wolf.
BLITZER: The plan, at some point, Suzanne, we are told the president will have a formal address to the nation from the Oval Office.
Any word on when that might happen?
MALVEAUX: We don't know when that might happen. We have been told that if there is a vote on that resolution, either Monday or Tuesday or earlier in the week, the president then would make the determination, whether or not the United States is going to go to war following that in the days ahead. Then he'd go ahead go before the American people to make the case. There would also be a signal, a 72- hour window for Americans and others to get out of Iraq, and then, of course, war would follow. We have been told the president has not yet made that decision -- Wolf.
BLITZER: Suzanne Malveaux at the White House, thanks very much.
And this note, CNN, of course, will have live coverage of the president's primetime news conference tonight. Please join Aaron Brown and me for our special coverage. That begins at 7:45 p.m. Eastern.
Later today, the Secretary of State Colin Powell will make his fourth visit to U.N. headquarters in two month. His purpose is the same, to rally an undecided, sharply divided, maybe even hostile U.N. Security Council to lower the boom on Iraq.
Our senior U.N. correspondent Richard Roth is joining us now live to give us a preview of what we can expect -- Wolf.
RICHARD ROTH, CNN SR. U.N. CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Wolf. Well, first, you have to get a united Security Council, though the U.S. has made it clear it doesn't necessarily need this newer resolution, this second resolution, what Washington calls the 18th that Iraq has been given by the security council. Inside that council, perhaps a new compromise offer by Britain, though the British ambassador today denying that he was formally aware of one.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SIR JEREMY GREENSTOCK, BRITISH AMB. TO U.N.: I haven't heard ministers talk about a compromise. We're going to the objective of this whole operation, which is complete disarmament of Iraq. Let's see what ministers say. They are coming tomorrow. No decisions have been taken. We're still talking with all members of the Security Council. We'll take it day by day.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROTH: One member of the Security Council, a nonpermanent member, said we're losing hope of a peaceful solution. The nonpermanent members have been talking about trying to get some space between the authorization of force and the use of force. And the British compromise, whether it comes from Britain, or the Canadian compromise, that's been floating around for two weeks at least, is aimed at giving Iraq a deadline, and giving them more time, not much time, to comply with strict disarmament terms -- Wolf.
BLITZER: Remind our viewers, Richard, where those 15 members of the Security Council stand right now.
ROTH: Well, publicly, we know there are four countries right now that are behind the U.S. resolution, and of them is the United States. The other is of course Britain, Spain and Bulgaria. Against the resolution as it stands, permanent members France Russia, China -- China, again, a news conference in Beijing denouncing the resolution, not needed, and Germany and Syria. Germany and Syria do not have veto power. And then there are the uncommitted six, the swinging six, Chile, Pakistan, Mexico, Angola, Cameroon and Guinea. There's a lot of economic interest that could swing their votes either way. A lot of them have deals pending either with the U.S. or France, and they're still up in the air. And they would just love, Wolf, to not have to be pressured into a vote. They wish the big powers can decide among themselves on a new resolution if that is indeed the course.
We'll find out soon if that is indeed possible. Richard Roth at the United Nations, thanks very much.
And this other important note: We'll have expensive live coverage tomorrow of the important, indeed the critical Security Council meeting. Please join Paula Zahn, Christiane Amanpour and me. That special coverage will begin at 9:30 a.m. Eastern. It could set the stage for war or peace.
BLITZER: Diplomacy aside, U.S. officials have maintained that if President Bush gives the order, U.S. forces are ready to go to war right now. Still, the military buildup continues and with complications in turkey, there could be some major maneuvering before everybody and everything is fully in place.
CNN military analyst, retired U.S. Air Force Major General Don Shepherd is joining us live from Atlanta to talk about that.
What ideally, General Shepperd, needs to happen between now and the start of the war?
MAJ. GEN. DON SHEPPERD, (RET.) CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Basically, Wolf, many of the forces are in place. If I could switch to a map here and do a little telestrating for you from the set here in CNN. Basically, what is in place out there, is there are army forces in place in Kuwait, Air Force forces in place in place in Saudi Arabia, Prince Sultan Airbase, in Qatar, perhaps other bases, over here in Diego Garcia for the bombers. The ships are in place, the carriers in the Red Sea, and in the Persian Gulf, so we are set, if you will, for an invasion from the south, through southern Iraq, being able to put pressure on western Iraq.
Here, right now, is the big question. What are we going to do about the northern front? That's the part that's missing right now. The plan, basically, was to take equipment off the ships, take it over railroads and roads from -- through Turkey to the northern front. The fourth mechanized, which was a heavy division out of Germany, was the ideal force to do that.
Now, depending on what happens with Turkey, if we don't get that permission from Turkey to station troops there, we'll be switching to lighter forces, undoubtedly airborne forces from the 82nd Airbone, 173rd Airborne from Vinchensa (ph), Italy, and perhaps elements of the 101st Airborne that's already in Kuwait.
So the forces are in place everywhere, except the northern front, which has to be sorted out, and we must have a northern front -- Wolf.
BLITZER: A key issue is rights to use air space over a lot of these countries that surround Iraq. Obviously Kuwait is on board. It looks like Saudi Arabia is on board. We don't even know if Turkey is going to allow U.S. planes to fly over their air space to attack positions in Iraq, do we?
SHEPPERD: No, we don't. Airspace is key everywhere we go. There are workarounds for all of this. You can fly airplanes around and over, if you will, but basically, we'd like to have the air space of Turkey, the airspace up here in Turkey. We'd like to have the ability to fly over Jordan. Of course, we want it from Saudi Arabia. We also have the ability to rescue pilots from Iran, supposedly.
We'd like to have freedom to use the air space from any direction we want. But if we don't, air power is flexible, and you can come from another direction. Turkey would be key. Saudi Arabia would be key. It could be nice to come over Jordan. And of course we can come from the Persian Gulf and the ships in the Red Sea as well.
KAGAN: Well, that's important that Jordanian airspace, if the Jordanian government were to allow U.S. warplanes to fly over their airspace, the two carriers right now in the Eastern Mediterranean, they could stay there, fly over Israel, the West Bank and then across Jordan and hit Iraq that way. That would be significant if -- if -- the Jordanians were to permit that to go forward. The two carriers would not have to move into the Red Sea through the Suez Canal.
SHEPPERD: That's true, Wolf, this is very sensitive.
And the secretary of defense has been very careful during the Afghan conflict to be care to say we're going to let other countries tell us what they are and announce what they will allow us to do.
For us to come out and make an announcement or speculate may shut the door, rather than open the door. So if we could get Jordanian airspace, we could indeed come from carriers in the Mediterranean, opens another door. It's not essential, but it would be key, especially if we don't get Turkey. If we get Turkey, we probably don't need Jordanian airspace.
KAGAN: And the likelihood of getting Syrian permission is obviously remote.
General Shepperd, thanks very much for that report.
SHEPPERD: Pleasure.
KAGAN: A few more Iraqi Al Samoud missiles join the scrap heap today, while Saddam Hussein publicly wondered what all the fuss was about. Through it all, hundreds of Russian workers and dependents are rushing to leave the country.
CNN's Nic Robertson is joining us now live from Baghdad with more on that -- Wolf.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Nic, the latest from Iraq's News Agencies here -- three innocent citizens, they say, were killed in an airstrike in the region west of Baghdad.
Now, coalition forces through the Southern Central Command said that overnight, a position 250 miles west of Baghdad that they struck an air defensive position there. But Iraq's news agency saying three innocent citizens killed in an overnight bombing raid by coalition aircraft there.
Also Iraqi officials today saying that another six of the Al Samoud II missiles have been destroyed. That means now, 34 now have been broken up. That's about a quarter of Iraq's arsenal of Al Samoud II missiles.
President Saddam Hussein, on the television late last night, talking to military commanders, for the first time, spoke about the Al Samoud, saying that their destruction was not going to hurt the morale of the country.
We've also seen the Iraqi leaders meet with top ministers today, telling them that anyone who thought they could attack Iraq and just hit the army and everything would be over, then that would be wrong to conclude that everyone would fight behind the leader, saying that to attack Iraq -- quote -- would be "absolutely foolish."
Also, we're hearing from diplomatic sources, that many U.N. workers, some 855, leaving only 45 key workers; some 855 U.N. workers, have left the country in the last few months or are going to leave in the next few days, leaving only 45 core U.N. humanitarian workers in the country.
Also, we're hearing from diplomatic sources that not only did the dependents of Russian diplomats leave last week, but today, many Russian workers in the country left. Many of them waiting at the main airport in Baghdad to leave today. There are many Russian oil workers, perhaps several hundred in the country. They are now leaving -- Wolf.
BLITZER: We know, Nic, that the -- over these past several weeks we've been talking to you, yes, that people anticipate there is going to be a war, but people are still going about their day-to-day activities in Baghdad and the other major cities of Iraq. Is that still the case?
ROBERTSON: Wolf, it does still appear to be the case. If one judges perhaps from the traffic flows here, then the immediate indication, are that very little has changed. Perhaps the traffic flows and the daily rush hour slowed down a little, but people are still going about their daily business. One doesn't get the impression, that there is a huge panic on for war. People have prepared that -- trying to prepare their homes, make their homes safer, find places in the home to take shelter, dug wells in their garden, brought in extra food if they can. Some people have got their families out of the country if they can afford it.
However, when one looks on the streets here, it does appear to be normal, but it's very clear below the surface here, that people are very, very concerned. They are very aware what's going to happen. They are very fearful about the possibility of that, very fearful about how they'll survive it -- Wolf.
BLITZER: Well, we'll see, Nic Robertson, thanks so much for that report.
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