CNN Larry King Live - Transcript

CNN LARRY KING LIVE 21:00

HEADLINE: Analysis of Bombing of U.N. Headquarters in Iraq

GUESTS: Salim Lone, George Joulwan, Colin Soloway, Robin Wright, Shashi Tharoor, Bill Richardson, Mitch McConnell

BYLINE: Larry King, Jane Arraf

HIGHLIGHT: Panel discusses the bombing of U.N. headquarters in Iraq.

KING: Senator McConnell, what's your reading on this event?

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY), CHMN, FOREIGN OPS SUBCOMMITTEE: Well, Larry, my take on it is the terrorists have attacked the United States through its soldiers, trying to pick off our soldiers from time to time. That hasn't worked. And now, in the last few days, they're attacking the Iraqi people by taking out oil pipelines and water lines and the U.N., the international community.

I hope what this is going to do is further convince the U.N., which has been pretty skeptical about the American operation in Iraq, to now take a greater interest. And I think it clearly brings the message home that the terrorists are not just after the United States, they're after the international community and after, for that matter, the Iraqi people themselves. So I think this should make it easier for us to get other countries interested in helping us in this operation in Iraq, which is clearly going to take a while.

KING: In other words, Senator, are you saying that, in effect, what they did hurts their own idea?

MCCONNELL: I think so.

KING: If their idea was to discourage the U.N., they will encourage the U.N.?

MCCONNELL: I think so. I think the U.N. clearly has to react to this attack on its own people. I think it makes it more likely that we're going to have greater loyalty among Iraqi people and more interest in the international community.

KING: Robin, what did—tell us about your relationship with the late Mr. Vieira de Mello.

WRIGHT: Well, he was in Lebanon when I was there in the 1980s. And there is a generation, almost two generations of war correspondents who knew him in all the hotspots—in Beirut, in East Africa, in the Balkans. And he was a man with extraordinary political savvy and tremendous personal charm. And he used both to be able to reach out and bring together people who opposed each other. He was a true peacemaker and clearly destined some day to be a secretary general of the United Nations.

KING: Was—and this is strange to ask, but was he as nice as he looks?

WRIGHT: Absolutely. The last time I saw him was in June, at the Dead Sea summit in Jordan, and he was as charming as ever, coming out of Baghdad.

KING: We'll take a break and come back. We'll ask Jane Arraf and Colin Soloway to remain with us. We'll have some more questions for Robin and Governor Richardson and Senator McConnell, as well. You're watching LARRY KING LIVE. Don't go away.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL BREMER, U.S. CIVILIAN ADMINISTRATOR: ... is a clear act of terrorism that took innocent lives, Iraqis, people working for the U.N., whose only goal was to help make Iraq a better place to live. It's really the ugliest face of terrorism you can imagine.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: Jane Arraf, do you think they were specifically targeting Mr. de Mello?

ARRAF: Perhaps not specifically targeting him, but certainly, targeting as high-profile individuals as they could get in the U.N. or anywhere else, for that matter. And he would appear and this whole building would have appeared to have been perhaps the perfect target. It was very high-visible. It's been a feature of Baghdad for more than a decade.

And it was full of people who made a point of saying that they did not want the kind of security that would make it look like a U.S. military base. And indeed, they didn't have that kind of security. They had recently beefed up security measures. There had been specific threats against the U.N., as there have been specific threats against other international agencies, and general threats, as well, against foreigners here. But they really did make a point of making clear they were not part of the coalition, they were not part of the occupying powers—Larry.

KING: Governor Richardson, what does the U.N. do now?

RICHARDSON: Well, the U.N., I believe, has to have a broader role in Iraq. I would hope that the Security Council, which authorizes peacekeeping and reconstruction and refugee operation, should redouble its efforts to not be deterred by what happened. I do think that a lot of U.N. personnel—I think we should do everything we can to give them added security, since the United States is the primary military force there.

But again, Larry, it shows that terrorism is a threat not just to America but to every nation in the world. There was a tragic bombing in Jerusalem today. And so my hope is that the Security Council very soon, on an emergency basis, establishes broader parameters for U.N. participation in Iraq. It's in our interest. The U.S. can't do it alone. We've got to broaden the participation, get troops from other nations as part of the U.N. peacekeeping force, but also perform other police functions that U.S. troops are doing—reconstruction, refugee, civil administration, eventually elections.

I think the U.N. can play a very constructive role there, and the worst thing to do would be to shirk from that responsibility by letting these terrorists win by reducing the U.N. presence there.

KING: Senator McConnell, these deaths today and the deaths of the servicemen and women—is it starting to get frustrating for you?

MCCONNELL: Well, look, Larry, the president said all along this was not going to be easy. We knew that it would go on for a while. The United States is prepared to stay there for as long as it takes to complete the mission. And the mission is to give the Iraqi people a chance to have a democratic country in which they choose their own leadership, to have peace and security and an opportunity to speak freely whenever they choose to do that. That took quite a while, even in our own country, where we had a history of it inherited from England.

We knew it was going take a while, and we're going stay the course. And I do think that the stupid mistakes that were made today by the terrorists are going to, exactly as Bill Richardson indicated, make it more likely that we'll be able to get additional help from countries around the world and an added interest in helping on the part of the United Nations.

KING: Colin Soloway, are you concerned about your own safety as a journalist there?

SOLOWAY: Well, we're always concerned about our safety here in Baghdad, Larry. This event is just another sort of soft target which has been gone—which has attacked here recently. You know, the Jordanian embassy was a couple of weeks ago. And you know, for journalists working here, you know, anytime a soft target like this is attacked, it certainly raises the question of, you know, Are we going to be next? We take security precautions in how we work and how we travel. We try and get security on the places where we're living. But you know, just as with the United Nations, you know, we have a job to do out here, and you know, we try and be as careful as we can. But it's always a possibility.

KING: Robin Wright will be remaining with us. So will Colin Soloway and Jane Arraf. And as Governor Richardson will be leaving shortly, so will Senator McConnell. And then we'll be joined, as well, by General Joulwan.

Are you pessimistic now, Governor Richardson?

RICHARDSON: Well, I am a bit pessimistic because I agree with Senator McConnell. I supported the president in the war. I just think we have got to recognize that we don't want to step into a quagmire. Yes, we have a responsibility to be there, but I want to see more outside participation, other countries, the U.N., a peacekeeping force, not just of Americans. I worry about every American every day. I just—I'm very depressed after what happened today, not just to our country and to the international community, but my friend, Sergio, who died in the line of duty.

KING: Robin, we have a minute before we go to break. And you'll be remaining with us. But do you have any thoughts as to who might have done this?

WRIGHT: Well, one of the most striking things about today was the full range of possible suspects, from those loyal to Saddam Hussein on one side, to the Islamic extremists on the other. There's not a single one of the six borders with Iraq that is secure. And there are a number of particularly religious extremist groups who have used the suicide bomb, the truck bomb, car bomb as their favorite weapon, that are possibles, from Ansar al Islam, small groups, small cells that once operated in northern Iraq, to al Qaeda operatives moving across Iran into Iraq, agents possibly, again, affiliated with al Qaeda moving in from Saudi Arabia, and then others from Hezbollah and groups that actually tries to get into Iraq during the war, that penetrated via Syria. There are a full range of Islamic extremists and also some secular groups.

KING: All right, I'm going to take a break. We thank you, Governor Richardson and Senator McConnell. We'll be calling upon you again, we hope under better circumstances. We appreciate your spending this time with us. Jane Arraf and Colin Soloway and Robin Wright will remain with us, as will—and we'll be joined by General George Joulwan, the former NATO supreme allied commander. You're watching LARRY KING LIVE. We'll be right back.