Secretary Colin L. Powell CBS Early Show Harry Smith

Interview on CBS's Early Show With Harry Smith

Secretary Colin L. Powell Washington, DC December 28, 2004 (7:08 a.m. EST)

MR. SMITH: The United States is sending supplies, disaster specialists and an initial $15 million in aid. Secretary of State Colin Powell made that announcement yesterday. Mr. Secretary, thanks for joining us this morning.

SECRETARY POWELL: Thank you, Harry. Good morning.

MR. SMITH: Well, we heard that number, $15 million, yesterday. I honestly thought that doesn't seem like very much money from the United States of America.

SECRETARY POWELL: Well, it's a start, Harry. In addition to the $15 million, we have nine P-3 reconnaissance planes on the way, another dozen C-130s are on the way with relief supplies, and so we'll be making an assessment as the days go by to see what the need really is and we'll adjust our plans accordingly. But this was an initial infusion of money to join the international relief effort.

MR. SMITH: Does it seem like there will be more forthcoming?

SECRETARY POWELL: I think a lot more aid is going to be needed. The extent of this catastrophe is really not yet fully known. What makes it such a unique event is the number of countries that were involved. I mean, from an earthquake just off the coast of Sumatra, this tsunami went across the Indian Ocean and hit the subcontinent and then continued across and hit the west -- the east coast of Africa. So the extent of damage is quite significant and the loss of life still is not yet fully tallied up. So I think more aid will be required from the international community, but we've got to get started, and that's what we're doing now.

MR. SMITH: There's a lot to talk about this morning. There's a new tape purportedly by Usama bin Laden, who's backing Zarqawi, the terrorist leader in Iraq, also calling for a boycott of the elections next month in Iraq.

Do you want to respond to that?

SECRETARY POWELL: Yeah, of course, they'll call for a boycott. The last thing they want to see is the Iraqi people stepping forward and deciding who would be their leaders. They don't want democracy. They want tyranny. They want to go back to the past of a Saddam Hussein type regime, and that's not going to happen. The Iraqi people want to vote for their leaders and we're moving forward to give them that opportunity on the 30th of January.

MR. SMITH: The security situation in Iraq is tenuous, at best. The Iraqi Islamist Party -- that's a big Sunni party -- backed out of the elections yesterday, said they're not boycotting but they're backing out of the elections, citing security as an example. We saw a terrorist attack at our own base in Mosul just a week ago.

Is there sufficient security in this country for an election to take place?

SECRETARY POWELL: Well, in most of the country, yes, there is sufficient security for elections to take place. In the Sunni areas, the security isn't what we would like it to be, and that's what we're working on. That's what the coalition troops are working on and the Iraqi forces and Iraqi police forces are working on. And we hope that by the end of January people will feel secure enough, even in the Sunni areas, to step forward and vote.

I know that that one party said that they would not be participating, but let's wait and see. They may be back in the game before this is all over.

I think it's important for us not to step aside from the requirement in the UN resolution for this election to take place on the 30th of January. And the Iraqi people have clearly indicated they want an election, and the President and Prime Minister of the Iraqi Interim Government are determined to make that happen.

MR. SMITH: We've had these benchmarks before when Iraq became sovereign, now we have an election benchmark, and always there was there hope that soon thereafter things would get better in Iraq. Can you promise, or at least believe, that things will improve after the election at the end of January?

SECRETARY POWELL: What I can say is that after the election at the end of January you will have a government that is representative of the Iraqi people. They will have voted for that government. The insurgency will not end. These insurgents are determined to have no representative government. They want to go back to a tyranny. And so the insurgency will continue and the insurgency will have to be defeated by coalition forces, but increasingly the insurgency will be defeated and brought under control, if not completely defeated, by Iraqi forces that we are building up as rapidly as we can under the distinguished leadership of General Petraeus.

MR. SMITH: Mr. Secretary, we thank you for your time this morning.

SECRETARY POWELL: Thank you, Harry.
2004/1402 [End] Released on December 28, 2004