World Awaits Saddam Hussein's Next Move
CHUNG: Iraq now has four days left to declare if it will abide by the United Nations resolution calling for unconditional inspections of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. And today, President Bush repeated his warnings that the U.S. will not let the U.N. tie its hands.</s>GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This great nation will not live at the mercy of any foreign plot or power. The dictator of Iraq will fully disarm or the United States will lead a coalition and disarm him.</s>CHUNG: Iraq continues to deny possessing such weapons or posing a threat to the United States. Today, Iraq's parliament debated its response to the resolution. A vote is expected tomorrow. And, like most things in Iraq, it is expected to be exactly what Saddam Hussein wants. Joining us now from Iraq's capital, where it's now before dawn on Tuesday morning, is Baghdad bureau chief Jane Arraf. Jane, thank you so much for staying up so late for us. Tell us, will there be a decision tomorrow?</s>JANE ARRAF, CNN BAGHDAD BUREAU CHIEF: There will be some sort of decision tomorrow, Connie. Now, this National Assembly meeting was convened, as you said, by the Iraqi president, Saddam Hussein, an emergency session that's supposed to discuss this resolution and then send its recommendation to the body that really makes the decision, the Revolution Command Council, chaired by the Iraqi president. Now, the session started in the evening and had several hours of discussion. All of the speakers said that the resolution was aimed at attacking Iraq, a pretext for a U.S. attack, and had conditions that were impossible to meet. But they said it would be up to the leadership to decide. And what the leadership seems to be about to decide is that it really is in Iraq's best interests to accept this resolution -- Connie.</s>CHUNG: Jane, but Iraq is still claiming that it has no weapons of mass destruction, correct?</s>ARRAF: Absolutely. It says it's completely free of those banned weapons, chemical, nuclear, biological, and long-range ballistic missiles. It says that any weapons that it had were destroyed after the Gulf War, either during the Gulf or afterwards, in those seven years when previous U.N. weapons inspectors were here and they went throughout the country destroying most of those programs. They also quote the former weapons inspections chief who was originally here as saying that Iraq's banned weapons program had been 95 percent accounted for. Now, obviously, it's been a while since then, but they do say they have no weapons, no banned weapons -- Connie.</s>CHUNG: Thank you, Jane Arraf. Appreciate your being with us. This weekend, U.S. officials reiterated that the Bush administration does not consider U.N. approval necessary for an invasion. And today, President Bush said, if he thinks it's necessary, he'll throw everything America's got against Iraq.</s>BUSH: I have no greater responsibility than protecting the American people. And should military action become necessary for our own security, I will commit the full force and might of the United States military. And we will prevail.</s>CHUNG: What exactly does that mean? For obvious reasons, the Pentagon isn't eager to get into many specifics. But CNN senior Pentagon correspondent Jamie McIntyre has been reporting on some of the obvious moves and joins us now from the Pentagon. Jamie, is the United States trying to put fear in Saddam Hussein by detailing or allowing some of this military information to leak out?</s>JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN MILITARY AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think that the United States clearly wants to -- wants Saddam Hussein to believe that the U.S. is resolute in its resolve to take action against him personally. And so that's why we are seeing very strong statements from the United States that it would move ahead with military action even without the international support of others, if that becomes necessary. And the U.S. is also giving itself sort of maximum flexibility in terms of what would actually trigger a U.S. military response, not spelling it out precisely, but basically saying Saddam Hussein knows what he has to do. And, on Friday, Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld essentially said that any act of delay or defiance, he said, would be considered an additional breach of Iraq's international obligations. He said the choice was totally up to Baghdad about what happens. And Rumsfeld said -- quote -- "For the sake of peace, let's hope the Iraqi regime chooses wisely," indicating there still may be a chance to avert war -- Connie.</s>CHUNG: Now, if Saddam Hussein does not comply and, in the end, the United States does intend to attack, what do you think the timetable would be?</s>MCINTYRE: Well, the conventional wisdom is that we're looking at a February timetable. Now, I talked to a senior defense official last week who told me that, practically speaking, it was going to be difficult to get the forces in place by January. So that made February look more likely. And, of course, the cool weather season is when the U.S. would prefer to fight, although they make the point they could fight in any month of the year. But there's another factor here that you have to keep in mind. And that is that there is a quiet buildup going under way, prepositioning supplies, making a lot of prudent moves that need to be made, including everything from buying up satellite time to moving more stocks of ammunition into the area. So, if the U.S. wants to preserve the tactical surprise of an operation, it may be trying to give the impression that it can't move until later, while trying to be prepared to do something sooner. The key is, nobody has the war plan. CNN doesn't have the war plan. "The New York Times" doesn't have the war plan. "The Washington Post" doesn't have it. We have sort of a general concept of how it's going to go. But we don't know the specifics that will keep it a surprise until the end for Saddam Hussein.</s>CHUNG: All right, Jamie McIntyre, thank you. Still ahead: The royal scandal is getting serious. And it's raising questions about the possible next king of England. Stay with us.</s>ANNOUNCER: Up next: Did one sniper suspect confess? And what might this mean for the case against Malvo and Muhammad? CONNIE CHUNG TONIGHT continues in a moment.