CAVUTO :
Prime Minister, welcome, thank you for joining us.
PRIME MINISTER:
Very good to be on your programme.
CAVUTO :
Let me ask you something Mr Prime Minister, the US has gotten a lot of opposition on its stance on Iraq. What do you think of the way the world has been responding to Iraq?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I think the response of many countries has been misguided, I can understand why countries don't want military conflict, I don't, no Australian wants unnecessary military conflict but my Government has a very strong view that Iraq must be disarmed, we don't think countries like Iraq being allowed to keep chemical and biological weapons, encouraging others to think they can do the same and ultimately those weapons getting into the hands of terrorists, we don't think that is a world that we want to be living in and we have to take a stand and quite honestly if the 15 member countries of the Security Council were even at this late hour to come together and express a unanimous view that might provide the faintest of hopes that war could be avoided because maybe that combined international pressure might encourage Iraq to take a different attitude.
CAVUTO :
Mr Prime Minister do you think Saddam Hussein is laughing at the UN and its global position?
PRIME MINISTER:
I have no doubt that he's greatly comforted by the apparent division within the Western world, I have no doubt about that. He's survived on world indecision and difference for 12 years and for 12 years the world in effect has prevaricated and it continues to do so and I do think he's drawing great comfort from that. That's why I say if the world stopped prevaricating and was less divided he might, because in the end he could well be pragmatic, he might in the end realise the game was up and disarm or disappear. Now that doesn't seem likely but it is less likely while the world is divided than it would be if the world were united.
CAVUTO :
Our President is going to speak to our country in a little less than four hours from now and one of the bets is that he's going to say that this country is prepared to go it essentially with the support it's got from your fine country, from Great Britain, Spain, a host of others, but clearly not, without the Germans or the French or the Chinese or the Russians. What does he risk doing that?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I think the President has been very strong on this issue. We've got to understand that the weapons inspectors would not be back in Iraq had it not been for the American military build up. Hans Blix has admitted that and Kofi Annan has admitted that. Our position is that we, like the British, have forward deployed troops beside the Americans. We'll make a final decision about a military commitment when we know the outcome of the United Nations process. I hope that another resolution can be obtained, not because it is legally necessary, there's enough legal authority in existing resolutions but because it would provide far greater international political momentum and support for action to be taken against Iraq. Now it may not look good at present but the Security Council has a peculiar habit of suddenly experiencing a bit of a mood swing towards the end. So whilst I acknowledge that the resolution of the British and the Americans and the Spanish appears to be a little becalm at the moment, I wouldn't see that as being the end of the whole story.
CAVUTO :
Mr Prime Minister your country has experienced terrorism first hand with the Bali bombing some months back. You had reminded people, even ahead of those terrorist attacks that Australia like any country is vulnerable to things like this. People didn't believe you then but given those developments do they believe you now?
PRIME MINISTER:
I think Australians are a lot more aware now that every Western country is a terrorist target, there's no doubt about that and I think we're also increasingly aware that you can't buy yourself immunity from terrorist attacks by taking different political stances on difficult international issues. If you look over the last few years Australians and Americans and Brits and Germans and French and Kenyans and Pakistanis and people of all different, Indonesians, Koreans, Japanese, people of all different backgrounds and countries are being victims of terrorism and the terrorist attacks are not calibrated according to various international political stances, they're based on a blind hatred of Western values and Western civilisation and they strike irrationally, irrespective of the behaviour of the individual components of Western civilisation.
CAVUTO :
You know Mr Prime Minister you've put a lot on the line when you were so strong against terrorism and forcing the position with the United States. Some might argue countries like Australia and Britain, with the United States, make themselves more of a target by taking such a hard stance, what do you think of that?
PRIME MINISTER:
I don't accept that view, I look at the German tourists who died when that synagogue was blown up in Algeria, I think of the French people who've died in terrorist attacks, several hundred Kenyans who died when your embassy was blown up in Mombassa in 1998. I see terrorism in its current form as essentially a manifestation of hatred of Western civilisations and values and as I said a moment ago I think it strikes at countries that represent those values, irrespective of the individual stances they take. In the case of my country the one issue that bin Laden associated with Australia was the liberation of East Timor, something that 85 or 90 per cent of the Australian people very strongly supported.
CAVUTO :
Finally Mr Prime Minister if we were to catch Osama bin Laden would you kill him?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I think he would be dealt with accordant with United States law, and that does provide for capital punishment.
CAVUTO :
Would you welcome that?
PRIME MINISTER:
I think everybody would.
CAVUTO:
Mr Prime Minister...
PRIME MINISTER:
...if he were caught and punished and dealt with in accordance with United States law.
CAVUTO :
I see. Thank you sir. John Howard, Australia's Prime Minister, joining us from Australia.
[ends]