Draft Resolution Says Iraq has Failed to Disarm
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Back to our top story. The U.S. is pushing the U.N. to approve a new resolution declaring that Iraq has failed to disarm. That is, the Bush administration is characterizing the decision not as a choice over war, which it says it is already prepared for, according to "The Washington Post," but whether the U.N. is willing to irrevocably hurt its legitimacy. We have two reports this morning. John King joins us from the White House. Rym Brahimi is in Baghdad, where Saddam Hussein is challenging President Bush to a debate. Good morning to both of you. Let's start with you this morning, John. Good morning.</s>JOHN KING, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Paula. The administration hopes that two weeks from today, on March 11, it will have had a vote on that new resolution, and we will have a decision as to whether the United Nations Security Council will back the Bush administration if there is to be, and it appears there will be, a war in Iraq. You noted the Bush administration's case in making this debate. Not only does it says Saddam Hussein is not complying at all with the U.N.'s mandates, but the president says the Security Council risks becoming irrelevant. His national security advisor told reporters here yesterday that in the end, this essentially is a choice; that other Security Council members have to choose between siding with the United States and siding with Saddam Hussein. The White House press secretary, Ari Fleischer, pointedly noting that back in the Kosovo conflict when Bill Clinton went to war and ultimately removed Slobodan Milosevic from power, that the Security Council did not act. Ari Fleisher saying if the Security Council refuses to act again, it will not become the body it is supposed to be, the body that enforces international law. So, the Bush administration is playing some hard-ball politics here. As of this morning, it does not have the votes, but senior officials note that 12 hours before Resolution 1441 was voted on back in November, the administration had only seven votes; 12 hours later that resolution passed 15 to nothing. Tough diplomacy in the two weeks coming, and as that diplomacy unfolds, you noted that debate challenge from Saddam Hussein. They are laughing about it here at the White House. Some officials noting the last time Saddam Hussein challenged President Bush, it was to a duel. Senior officials say perhaps this is a sign of some diplomatic progress. They're laughing as they say that. Of course, they say no such debate will happen. They say there is no debating what Saddam Hussein has to do -- Paula.</s>ZAHN: Let's quickly come back to what "The Washington Post" is reporting this morning that they're characterizing this more not as about whether a decision has been made to go to war, but questioning the legitimacy of the U.N. And they actually have a senior diplomat saying that U.S. officials told him, you're not going to decide whether there is war in Iraq or not. That decision is ours. We have already made it. The only question now is whether the council would go along with it or not.</s>KING: Don't know why that's attributed anonymously in "The Washington Post." That is something the president says every day, and that his staff says every day, that he will disarm. He said it just yesterday speaking to governors that he will disarm Saddam Hussein. The only question is whether the Security Council will join him.</s>ZAHN: So, are you saying, John King, then, that the administration has made up its mind and indeed will go to war?</s>KING: Barring some dramatic turnaround from Saddam Hussein that no one in this White House believes will happen. They say if Saddam Hussein destroys those missiles, although he said in the CBS interview he apparently won't, they say if Saddam Hussein can produce evidence either showing where the mustard gas is, where the sarin gas or how it was destroyed over the past 12 years, the United States says, yes, there is a final opportunity if Saddam Hussein comes completely clean about his weapons programs. But they say here at the White House that they see zero evidence he is prepared to do so. And they say unless they see that evidence very soon, meaning in the next two to three weeks, that, yes, the president is prepared to go to war.</s>ZAHN: John King, thanks so much. Let's check in with Rym Brahimi now standing by in Baghdad. Good morning -- Rym.</s>RYM BRAHIMI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Paula. Well, here in Baghdad, of course, everyone is looking at what President Saddam Hussein said in that CBS interview with regard to this famous debate. This offer for a debate President Saddam Hussein apparently offering, in his words, an opportunity to a worldwide audience to see what President Bush has to offer, what case for war President Bush might be making, basically saying to Dan Rather in that interview that the world audience needs to know why Bush is so -- why President Bush is so committed to war. Now, that's not the first time that this talk of debate has come up here among Iraqi officials, Paula. It has come up many times in the past few months. The president himself in a speech and in a previous interview suggesting that that could be another way than war, suggesting that those ways could be either diplomacy or cooperation. Now, of course, the other hot issue, as we mentioned, is the question of the destruction of the Al Samoud 2 missiles. Well, on that, the president seemed to offer very little clarification, saying only that Iraq doesnt have any missiles that go beyond the prescribed 93-mile range. Earlier on today, however, Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz was addressing a panel of Egyptian peace delegates. He told them that Iraq was still studying that issue -- Paula.</s>ZAHN: Rym Brahimi, we're going to leave it there and check back in with you in our next hour.