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American Morning

Warning Out About Yemeni; Interview of Rep. Jane Harman

Aired February 12, 2002 - 09:06   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.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: "Up Front" this morning, an urgent warning from the FBI. The new terror alert advises law enforcement and the American public to be on the lookout for a Yemeni man and his associates. It warns they could be planning an immediate attack in the U.S., or on U.S. interests abroad.

Let's get the very latest from CNN's Jonathan Aiken in Washington -- have you learned anything new? Good morning, Jonathan.

JONATHAN AIKEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Paula, we know that there's a dozen or so names out there, and a credible threat, at least according to the FBI, and that is why the agency went public late last night with this information that warns of a possible terrorist attack either somewhere in the United States or perhaps on U.S. interests in Yemen. This is an attack that the FBI says it was told could come as early as today.

Now no specific target was mentioned, but the agency did put out some photos on its web site, what you are looking at now. It's www.fbi.gov. There is a link that will take you to these pictures. These pictures a baker's dozen of people that the agency says may be involved, and of particular interest is this man. A 23-year-old Fawaz Yahya al-Rabeei. Very little is known about him, he was born in Saudi Arabia. He travels on a Yemeni passport. He is 23 years old. Until this alert, the FBI said it had no information linking him to a specific terrorist organization.

Now, the information for this alert came within the past few days, some of it within the past 48 hours from detainees being held by the United States, both at the military air base just outside of Kandahar in Afghanistan, and also those detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. While the FBI says this is credible information about a credible threat, we should tell you this is not fully corroborated by overseas intelligence agencies, but the U.S. erring on the side of caution, and also given some concern, Paula, about the Olympics decided to release the information anyway, not only to us, but also to about 18,000 law enforcement agencies across the country.

ZAHN: Jonathan, help us understand better what this connection is to Yemen?

AIKEN: Well, it is somewhat complicated, it goes back into time, but the bottom line is that there has always been a cell of anti- Americanism quite active in Yemen. You might remember the attack of USS Cole in October of 2000. It was hit by suicide bombers while on a refueling stop in the port of Aden. 17 sailors were killed in that attack. Until recently, the United States government always held Yemen as a rather suspect country in the way that it deals with terrorists, but since the events of September 11th, Paula, Yemen's government has gone out of its way to be cooperative with Washington. In fact, going as far as to bust an al Qaeda cell that was operating in the heartland of its country.

ZAHN: All right, Jonathan Aiken. Appreciate that update.

AIKEN: Sure.

ZAHN: We're going to move on to the big question now this morning. Who ordered the missile attack in Afghanistan? The Pentagon says evidence recovered from the site of last week's CIA missile attack in Eastern Afghanistan disputes claims that those killed were innocent civilians. Military officials believe those killed were al Qaeda terrorists, but that has yet to be confirmed. Here is how the Pentagon responded to questions about this incident.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ADMIRAL JOHN STUFFLEBEEM, PENTAGON SPOKESMAN: I would tell you that I don't know what to believe. I've become smart enough now in this job to question everything, and to ask for, who can verify what it is that I'm seeing and reading.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZAHN: Joining us now to talk more about the CIA's expanded role in the war on terror and about the new FBI terror alert, California Congressman Jane -- Congress -- we just called you "congressman." Very good. Congresswoman Jane Harman. She is the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee. She joins us from Washington. Good to see you, welcome back.

REP. JANE HARMAN (D-CA), RANKING MEMBER, INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: Nice to be back, Paula.

ZAHN: Before we talk about some of this CIA confusion, your reaction to this alert that was issued late last night. I think American needs to understand we are living under a warning that was extended to March. Why the second warning?

HARMAN: Well, I don't know specifically why the second warning, but I would say that it's a good thing we're questioning the detainees in Afghanistan and in Guantanamo, because this is how we get accurate up-to-date information about what is planned in our future, and that's where we need to focus is on our future, what are the threats against Americans at home and abroad.

As far as this threat warning, it's confusing. It's a continuation of the problem we've been having, which is sometimes the FBI speaks, sometimes the office of Homeland Security speaks, and we don't know how really to take these warning. In the foreign scene, in the -- on a battlefield, there are things call DEFCONs, defense conditions, where there are protocols one through five, and five is the most extreme warning. We don't have that domestically. The office of Homeland Security has said we are going to have that, but we really need that for Americans and for law enforcement to understand precisely what to do with these warnings.

ZAHN: So, do you believe this puts Americans in an unnecessary state of anxiety and, in some cases, panic?

HARMAN: Well, if there's an attack today or tomorrow, you know, no, but if there isn't, what I worry about is what's called the boy who cried wolf syndrome, is Americans hearing these things and just filing them away, and even law enforcement officials hearing these things and filing them away. I think we need a much better, more specific strategy for homeland defense. The office of Tom Ridge needs authority so that it can deliver this kind of a system, and I hope we get going with this in the next several weeks.

ZAHN: Love to come back to issue some of the confusion surrounding Monday's Hellfire missile attack. There were initially reports that it was solely a CIA operation, and then two senior U.S. officials came out and they told CNN that the CIA had actually begun the surveillance and that the targeting at the request of the U.S. Central Command, indicating it was a joint CIA-U.S. military operation. What's going on here?

HARMAN: Well, I'm not going to comment on classified information, but there have been published reports about the system that is used, and it includes the CIA, but clearly the missiles are directed by our Defense Department, and it -- we have been sending signals to our intelligence agencies not to be risk averse. This is how we are going to round up the rest of the bad guys on the ground, and so my instinct is to defend our intelligence and defense services on the ground, to investigate, but to be clear about this. The fog of war, which is what Carl Sandburg called it, makes it hard to make accurate judgments at the time. It seems to me if he want to win this war, we have to defend the people on the ground who are risking their lives to protect Americans and other lives both in Afghanistan and in America.

ZAHN: Does this suggest, though, an expansion of the role of CIA in this war?

HARMAN: Well, it is -- depends how you count. It may be a return to prior roles that the CIA and our intelligence services have played. Let's understand what they do. What they do is, on the ground, identify some targets. That is an intelligence function, and then what happens beyond that with our technology is directed by the Defense Department, but they are one of a number of inputs into a targeting system which is designed as best as possible to minimize civilian casualties, but to do what we intend to do, which is to remove the al Qaeda threat from Afghanistan and from the world.

ZAHN: Just got 15 seconds left. A quick reflection on the "Washington Post" report now that there will be an unprecedented joint investigation of the intelligence community's response to terrorism over the last 16 years. HARMAN: Well, I'm ranking member on a subcommittee on the House Intelligence Committee which is doing, really, the first phase of the study. Then we'll have the bicameral investigation, and beyond that we may have a commission. I think it's useful to understand how we missed those clues, but I think it's most important to focus on the future and protecting against the next wave and make certain that our people on the ground and in the field have the resources they need, and that's what I am planning to do for the next months.

ZAHN: Representative Jane Harman. Always good of you to drop by "American Morning." Appreciate your time this morning. Take care.

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