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CNN SHOWDOWN: IRAQ
Bush to Give Ultimatum Tonight
Aired March 17, 2003 - 12:01 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: President Bush's address to the nation will begin just about eight hours from now. His spokesman has already said the diplomatic window is closed. So what's the president going to say tonight?
Let's check in with CNN White House Correspondent Dana Bash -- Dana.
DANA BASH, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Anderson, we've been hearing here at the White House that there had been weeks not months left for diplomacy. And today, diplomacy, they are being very clear, has come to an end. And, as you said, that diplomatic window is now closed as far as the White House is concerned.
We will hear from the president himself tonight at 8:00 Eastern. He will speak to the nation and to the world, and we are told he will say that there's an ultimatum for Saddam Hussein, that unless he leaves the country, he can't avoid military action. Military action will proceed unless Saddam Hussein leaves the country.
That is going to be the president's message tonight. He will give, likely, a short window perhaps 72 hours for that to occur. He also is intending to send a signal tonight to U.S. citizens and other friendly diplomats in Iraq that it is time for them to leave, that they also have a short window to get out. And, of course, you're seeing that happening already in Iraq.
Now, this speech tonight was sort of decided finally at a meeting this morning among the president and his top national security team. The regular national security council meeting, the president was informed by Colin Powell, we are told. You see him leaving the White House today. We are told that Colin Powell told the president that he had spoken with about six foreign ministers from around the world and Kofi Annan and they had concluded what they sort of already knew, which is that there was no hope for getting resolution -- another resolution through the United Nations at this point, and that they were going to have to abandon the process at the U.N. That is when they made the final decision to go ahead and pull the plug on the U.N., and say the diplomatic window at the U.N. had been closed, and that the president would, indeed, give his ultimatum speech tonight. That is what he will do.
The president has been working the phones this morning. He spoke with the Spanish prime minister, Jose Maria Aznar, and he spoke with Tony Blair, the British prime minister. The two men he met with yesterday in the Azores when they made it pretty clear that the moment of truth had arrived or almost arrived, and now, of course, it has. I should also note, Anderson, later today the president will have some other meetings with members of Congress.
Later this afternoon, he will meet with the top Congressional leadership, including the speaker of the house, Denny Hastert, and the Senate minority leader, Tom Daschle. So he is going to keep informing the people he needs to inform, and he will have this major speech tonight -- Anderson.
COOPER: All right. Dana Bash, live at the White House. Thanks very much.
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