Saddam Challenges Bush To Debate
Feb. 24, 2003
In an exclusive interview with CBS News Anchor Dan Rather, Saddam Hussein has challenged President George W. Bush to a live, international television and radio debate about the looming war.
Saddam envisions it as being along the lines of U.S. presidential campaign debates. The Iraqi president also flatly denies that his al-Samoud missiles are in violation of United Nations' mandates and indicates he does not intend to destroy them or pledge to destroy them as demanded by chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix. Blix had set a deadline for at least a promise by this weekend.
Responding to Saddam's proposal, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer tells CBS News Correspondent Mark Knoller that it's "not a serious statement."
Fleischer said, "This is not about a debate. This is about disarmament and complying with the worlds instructions that Iraq disarm."
As for Saddam's denial of possession weapons of mass destruction, Fleischer said Saddam "is not facing reality on the issue of the al-Samoud missiles, why would his other statements have creditability?"
Fleischer said it would be more helpful to the world if Saddam engaged in disarmament and not debates.
Meanwhile, the U.S. and Britain readied a measure that could lead to military action while war opponents introduced a call for more inspections.
Britain's U.N. Ambassador Jeremy Greenstock will introduce the resolution on behalf of London and Washington at a council meeting Monday afternoon, the diplomats said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
"The best way to protect America is to find the killers before they kill us," President Bush told a meeting of U.S. governors at the White House.
The U.S. British resolution is expected to be accompanied by a deadline for a vote, which a spokesman for British Prime Minister Tony Blair said is expected by mid-March.
The resolution will state that Iraq remains in "material breach" of U.N. resolutions ordering its disarmament and refer to "serious consequences," the diplomats said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
It does not call for "all necessary means" to be used against Iraq.
The United States and Britain believe a declaration that Iraq is in "further material breach" would be enough to pave the way for military action against Saddam.
French President Jacques Chirac, meanwhile, announced that France, Germany and Russia have submitted a proposal Monday in the United Nations for step-by-step disarmament of Iraq, part of a European drive to counter U.S. pressure for military action.
"The aim is to establish a timetable for Iraq's disarmament, program by program, relating to weapons of mass destruction," Chirac told reporters before talks with German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.
The U.S. is hoping to win the nine council votes necessary to pass a resolution ? and thus put the pressure on war skeptics like France, China and Russia, to either use their vetoes or acquiesce to military action.
The idea is that none of the three, who have criticized the U.S. for pushing a war without an international consensus, will want to be seen blocking a resolution with consensus support.
In Beijing, Secretary of State Colin Powell urged Chinese support for the resolution authorizing force against Saddam, but the Chinese stood by their position that U.N. inspections should continue.
France reiterated its long-held position that a new resolution on Iraq was "neither useful nor necessary" and that weapons inspections should continue and be reinforced.
Russia issued a strongly worded statement opposing a war over Iraq. The Foreign Ministry said, "Russia intends to use its full arsenal of diplomatic means in order to resolve the current critical situation around Iraq through political methods."
The United States has said it may go ahead with an attack even if it doesn't win Security Council approval.
The Security Council vote could depend heavily on the next report by chief inspector Hans Blix, and especially upon Iraq's reaction to Blix's call for the destruction of all Al-Samoud 2 missiles, which experts say violate range limits.
Iraq, which contends the missiles are still in a testing stage, has not refused to destroy them but has asked Blix to reconsider, claiming the missiles don't exceed the 93-mile limit once loaded with warheads and guidance systems.
But Blix said Iraq had increased the diameter of the Al Samoud in violation of a 1994 order from the previous U.N. inspectors, and that computer simulations showed the missile exceeded the limit. A larger diameter means the missile has the potential to travel farther.
U.N. inspectors now estimate Iraq has between 100 and 120 of the missiles, according to diplomatic sources.
Blix is also expressing skepticism over Iraq's claims to have destroyed the stocks of anthrax and VX nerve agent. Blix told a magazine he found it "a bit odd" that Baghdad, with "one of the best-organized regimes in the Arab world," had no records of the substances' destruction.
But Iraqi Lt. Gen. Hossam Mohamed Amin repeated claims that Iraq is "clean" of weapons of mass destruction, and said Iraq is cooperating with the inspectors in an attempt to prove it.
He said a U.N. team will come to Iraq on March 2 to check the soil for proof of weapons' destruction.
Amin also cited as an example of Iraq's cooperation its agreement to let American U-2 spy planes fly over its territory to support the work of the inspectors. He said Iraq was working on plans for flights by French Mirage fighters and German drones.
Separately, the United States on Monday overcame a hurdle in military preparations with Turkey's Cabinet agreeing to the deployment of tens of thousands of U.S. troops, allowing for a possible northern front against Iraq.
Turkey's parliament was expected to vote Tuesday on whether to allow the troops. A deadlock on the issue was broken when Washington offered Turkey $5 billion in aid and $10 billion in loans to cushion its economy in a war.
©MMIII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report. opps!
