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CNN SUNDAY MORNING

Powell Makes Pitch for War With Iraq

Aired January 26, 2003 - 07:07   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

CHARLES MOLINEAUX, CNN ANCHOR: Back of course, to the developing story we've been following, just wrapped up a few minutes ago. A short time ago, Secretary of State Colin Powell made the Bush administration's pitch for a possible military strike on Iraq. This comes one day before the U.N. inspectors are scheduled to tell the Security Council how their work is going in Iraq.
Our Charles Hodson is on Davos, Switzerland with more on Powell's message. Charles, it seems like he laid out a pretty clear case. What kind of reception does it seem to have gotten there?

CHARLES HODSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well in fact, the session is still continuing with some very, very interesting questions, which I'll return too in a moment.

You have to remember, Charles, that this is an audience, a mixed audience. There are those who are very convinced -- U.S. business leaders for example, or generally convinced, though equally those who are doubting, European leaders, Muslim leaders from the Muslim world, from the Arab world, many people.

So, I think this was Colin Powell at his most persuasive, at his most far ranging. He took a big swing at the Iraq issue, turning first to Afghanistan, pointing to all of the good that he said that the United States has done there in terms of new roads, new schools, disarming, creating a new state in Afghanistan.

In terms of the rhetoric that we heard, some of it was old, familiar rhetoric that we've heard many times from senior administration officials, but it had to be dressed up very differently, and Colin Powell was at his most persuasive in doing so.

He talked about the consensus that he wanted with Europe. He said, "We wouldn't join a consensus which does not respect our core principles, we don't expect the Europeans to do so either, but we do want to work with the Europeans on this." He pointed repeatedly to the fact that Resolution 1441 of the U.N. Security Council, which calls, of course, upon Iraq, gives Iraq a last chance, as the Bush administration says, to disarm, was voted through by that Security Council 15 to nothing, 15 nil, no one was against it. He says that he took as his theme, trust, building trust as the overall theme of this annual meeting of the World Economic Forum.

He says, "Saddam Hussein had repeatedly violated the trust of the United Nations, utterly failed to complete -- to comply." He said that it's not a -- it may be a question of time, but it's not a question of more time for the weapons inspectors, this is a question of time for Iraq. He said, if the Iraqi regime does not disarm peacefully at this juncture, it will be disarmed down the road. Time is running out, he said, this has to be done peacefully, if possible, but he made it clear that the military option was very much there -- Charles.

MOLINEAUX: OK, thank you very much, Charles Hodson in Davos, Switzerland. Good to have you with us this morning.

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