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American Morning

America Strikes Back: President Bush Concerned Too Many Intelligence Secrets Leaking

Aired October 09, 2001 - 09:38   ET

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

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Good intelligence a critical weapon on the war on terrorism, but President Bush is concerned now that too many intelligence secrets are leaking, so he's taking steps to limit the number of people on Capitol Hill in Congress who give those classified briefings.

Senator Jon Kyl, the ranking Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, live from Washington now.

Senator, good morning.

SENATOR JON KYL (R), INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: Good morning.

HEMMER: Are you on the list to get those briefings.

KYL: Well, I haven't heard yet. And I've very distressed about what's occurred,, because members ought to know better than to talk about things they shouldn't talk about. But in order to do our job, we have to get the briefings, and the CIA works with both the Congress and the president, so I'm not sure that we could be cut off.

HEMMER: Sounds like a fine line, senator. Does the president have a point though?

KYL: The president has a very good point. There have been things said that shouldn't have been said, and I'm just glad that most of us weren't aware of the operational plans, or maybe somebody would have talked about those as well.

ZAHN: And understanding the sensitivity here, senator, can you give us an idea of how often are how much you are briefed than others?

KYL: Well, the Intelligence Committee has meetings and hearings throughout the week, and we get briefings on a situation like this pretty much anytime we want to get them. All members have also received briefings about once a week from different people, like the secretary of state, secretary of defense, as well as some of the intelligence people, although they don't talk quite as much to the group at large as they would to the Intelligence Committee members themselves.

HEMMER: Then, senator, on the same thought, without giving away anything classified, it appears through British sources and also through the Pentagon, the current war on terrorism is going quite well against the Taliban. If that's the case, and if this is group that will continue to be starved out and suffocated basically, with no resupplying possible, at this point, what is next after the Taliban and after Afghanistan?

KYL: Well, I really don't know. I mean, those are operational plans. We all have a rough idea what's intended there. But the object is to eliminate the base of support for terrorists. If we are going to avoid living in the situation that we live in right now, where our life in fact is disrupted, the only way we're going to avoid that in the long run is to eliminate the base of operations so that there can't be any more terrorists, and that means we're going to have to get countries like Iran, and Iraq, and Syria and Libya and others to clean themselves of all the terrorist, and not to support them in any way in the future.

HEMMER: And given those countries you just mentioned, if indeed there are strikes that go outside the Afghan borders, how difficult will this to keep a coalition together?

KYL: Well, obviously, it's going to be very difficult. But remember what the president said, the mission defines the coalition, not the other way around. So the coalition does not dictate to the United States our operational plan here. We are going to decide what has to be done, and then basically say, all right, this is what we're going to do, who is with us? And the object here is to get those countries one way or the other to cooperate with us. It doesn't have to be that we have to beat them over the head militarily. Hopefully, they'll see our success in Afghanistan and decide that it's better to be with us than against us.

HEMMER: And part of that, though -- and we've heard from the White House and the Pentagon and Colin Powell at the State Department -- is getting that message out that this is a battle not against the Arab world, not against the world of Islam, but against specific terrorist targets. Do you believe at this point that message is being communicated?

KYL: Well, it's very hard to say. As you know, throughout the Muslim world, there are all kinds of demonstrations going on right now, and there are just a lot of people there that don't like us and would like to foment revolution and rebellion within their own countries, so it will be very, very difficult, but it's not something that we can throw up our hands about and say, well, it's tough, so we have to go home.

Again, unless we are willing to live with the kind of uncertainty that we have here in the United States today forever, we've got to root out the source of this terrorism and eliminate it so that we can get back to life as normal.

HEMMER: Quickly on another issue, before we let you go, the anthrax issue right now. Are you convinced this is isolated, or do you believe there's more to it?

KYL: I don't know. I mean, I haven't gotten any briefings on that. I've been back in Arizona this past weekend, and I simply don't know.

HEMMER: Understood.

Senator Jon Kyl in, Republican from Arizona, thank you, senator, appreciate it.

Back to Paula now in New York -- Paula.

PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks, Bill.

Researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are in charge of tracking dangerous bacteria like anthrax. In fact, the CDC actually has Anthrax on hand, along with smallpox and other dangerous bacteria.

CNN medical correspondent Rhonda Rowland is at CDC headquarters in Atlanta with a look at how they're making sure would-be terrorists don't get access to potential weapons.

We hope you can hear you this time, Rhonda. Take two on this one.

RHONDA ROWLAND, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: OK, Paula.

ZAHN: We can hear you.

ROWLAND: Good. OK. All right.

The CDC is the command center for tracking and preventing disease, not just here in the United States, but around the world. And there are teams of scientists here at the CDC that can be dispatched at a moment's notice, anywhere in the world, if there is evidence of a possible outbreak. And the CDC has confirmed sent a team to West Palm Beach Area, the headquarters for American Media Incorporated, where the two cases of anthrax have been identified. They've also sent a team to Northern Carolina, and that's because the first victim, Bob Stevens, did respond time there.

Now these teams of scientists have been called disease detectives. Just like the FBI is an expert at tracking crime, these disease detectives can reconstruct an exposure and try to determine the extent of exposure.

And we heard that Dr. Jeffrey Copeland, who is the director of the CDC, has said, that as they have gathered more information, that is the two people who have tested positive for anthrax, and also the positive sample of anthrax in the building, in American Media Incorporated, and the fact that employees there are not sorting wool or tanning hides, which that is a known exposure for anthrax, that that lowers the likelihood that this is a natural exposure.

So from a disease epidemiology perspective, the evidence is stacking up that this does not look like an environmental exposure.

Now, also, here at the CDC, in the building behind me, there is a biosafety level-four laboratory. What that means as they can do laboratory testing of the most contagious agents, like smallpox, Ebola, hemmoraghic fever and although anthrax is not contagious, they do have the capability to test it here, and the CDC has confirmed that samples from Florida have been sent up here as well.

Now in addition to the testing that can be done here at the CDC, there is a network of 50 laboratories around the country that can also do this sophisticated testing. So there are probably some in Florida, and if there is ever a suspected case, samples for a patient are sent to the closest laboratory.

Now, once again, the scientist here are quite expert at traveling the globe to try to pick up possible outbreaks. The CDC scientists went to Zaire in 1995 to look at Ebola. Hong Kong in '97 to look at the bird flu outbreak. They tracked down the West Nile Virus that was first spotted last year in New York City.

So it is possible with, again, the disease-tracking, testing, that they will be able to get to the source of the anthrax outbreak very soon. -- Paula.

ZAHN: All right, Rhonda, thanks so much for that update. Appreciate that report.

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