CNN Inside Politics September 9, 2002

JUDY WOODRUFF: Well, the Bush administration's concerted public relations campaign on Iraq was launched after a number of prominent Republicans publicly questioned the president's approach. Particularly striking was an op-ed piece by Brent Scowcroft, former national security adviser and close friend of the first President Bush. On the record today, General Scowcroft joins us now for his first interview since his article was published in the Wall Street Journal just about three weeks ago. General Scowcroft, thank you for being here.

BRENT SCOWCROFT: Sure, Judy.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Have you heard anything in the last three weeks since your article appeared to dissuade you from your original argument that an attack on Iraq should take a back seat to the ongoing broader war on terrorism?

BRENT SCOWCROFT: What I was trying to say is that we were in danger of getting our priorities mixed up. There is no question Saddam Hussein is an evil man. I have no problem with regime change. But there are other things that we have to do. For example, the president has said that the war on terrorism is our primary national objective. It was my sense that at the time I wrote the piece, that going after Saddam Hussein would severely damage our effectiveness in the war on terrorism.

JUDY WOODRUFF: You still feel that way?

BRENT SCOWCROFT: I feel much better now because I think the direction the president is taking I think is exactly the right direction, to reach out, to get our friends, to get our allies, to get the U.N. involved. That's exactly what I was trying to get across.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Well, I asked you about that because, you know, administration officials, Vice President Cheney is one in particular, have said that they disagree with your premise about Saddam Hussein not being connected to terrorist organizations. You made that point that there was no proof of a connection between Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein.

Just yesterday, the vice president said on NBC on "Meet the Press," he said Saddam Hussein is connected to Al Qaeda, if only because both of them want to drive the United States out of the Middle East and both of them want to strike the United States.

BRENT SCOWCROFT: Vice President Cheney is a very dear friend of mine. Not all my good friends are always right. I'm not even saying he is wrong. What I really am saying is that suppose there had been no 9/11 attack at all. Saddam Hussein would still be doing exactly what he is doing. He is not a problem for us because of terrorism. He is a problem because of his own objectives.

Both he and the terrorists don't like the United States. That may be the one thing they have in common. Saddam Hussein is after domination of either the oil, or the region of the middle east or both. And we're in his way. But if we backed out of his way, won't come after us. Al Qaeda would.

JUDY WOODRUFF: So when the administration says that they see Saddam Hussein as a threat to the United States, either directly or indirectly, you say?

BRENT SCOWCROFT: I say he may be a threat. He was a threat -- he was a threat to our interests in 1990 and we did something about it. He is a problem, but what I'm really saying is that the most important problem we face is the war on terrorism and we need friends and allies. We cannot win that war by ourselves.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Let me ask you about something else the vice president said yesterday, again on this "Meet the Press" interview. He said he and the president after 9/11 have to look at the real world, and I'm quoting him now. He said, "I think we probably see things differently than somebody who's sat in these positions and occupied them 10 years ago." That would include you, he said, "and hasn't seen all the intelligence that we've seen and isn't as sensitive as we are to the enormous consequences to the United States if Saddam Hussein or terrorists attack the United States with smallpox or anthrax or a nuclear weapon." Are you less sensitive to these consequences?

BRENT SCOWCROFT: I don't know that I am because I don't know what I don't know. What I have seen and most of it is in the papers, and so on. I see Saddam doing the same thing he was doing in 1990. He was buying aluminum rods. He was buying things. He was trying to build centrifuges. He is still trying.

But in a decade, he hasn't succeeded. So I'm not saying don't go after him. I'm saying let's put it all in perspective and remember that when we go after him, we need to have the support of the world community behind us because we need that support for the war on terrorism.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Those are pretty stinging words from somebody who also calls himself a close friend of yours. In his saying, you may not take this as seriously as he and the president.

BRENT SCOWCROFT: I take it very seriously but not nearly as serious as what the president has said. Our number one priority is the war on terrorism. For that -- that, the cockpit of the war on terrorism is the Middle East and we've got to have the support of the nations there, if we are to win the war on terrorism.

JUDY WOODRUFF: You were the national security adviser for this President Bush's father, the former President George H. W. Bush. Does he agree with you about this?

BRENT SCOWCROFT: You will have to ask him. This is my own view, my own individual view...

JUDY WOODRUFF: You haven't talked to him about anything...

BRENT SCOWCROFT: No, I did not discuss whether or not I should go public with any of this. As a matter of fact, the op-ed got a lot of publicity. But I have been saying this in one form or another for a year. So it just happened to resonate this time. But it has nothing with the former president.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Do you know what his views are?

BRENT SCOWCROFT: It has nothing to do with the former president, and if I did know, I would not characterize it.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Former national security adviser, retired General Brent Scowcroft. It's very good to see you. Thank you for coming by. We appreciate it.

BRENT SCOWCROFT: Thank you.