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Was Bush Warned of al Qaeda Hijackings One Month Before 9-11?

Aired May 16, 2002 - 14:03   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.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: The White House is on the defensive, as we said at the top of the hour here, and Congress is buzzing today, all about these revelations that President Bush was warned of a possible al Qaeda hijacking a month before the September 11 attacks.

JONATHAN KARL, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Our congressional correspondent, Jonathan Karl, joins us once again, live, with a look at what lawmakers have been saying there on Capitol Hill -- Jon.

KARL: Well, Leon, I'll tell you, Democrats have been coming out fast and furious on this, saying that this raises some disturbing questions about, to quote the old question, what the president knew and when he knew it.

You've heard from both the Democratic leader of the Senate, Tom Daschle, the Democratic leader of the House, Richard Gephardt, raising some questions and calling on the president to come forward and explain exactly what he was told in August and why it took eight months to learn that he had been warned about possible hijackings.

Now I'm joined by a Republican here, Missouri Republican Kit Bond, who was just at a meeting up here with the president of the United States. He came up here to talk to Republicans about a number of issues, including this one.

What can you tell us about what the president had to say about this controversy?

SEN. KIT BOND (R), MISSOURI: Jonathan, I'm not going to quote the president, that's Ari Fleischer's job, but let me tell you that this is a very strong smell of politics. Looks like November must be coming up. The president is popular, and I'm really very saddened to know that our Democratic colleagues are trying to use this as a shot at the president.

The president and the congressional committees are continually warned about hijacking threats. There are nonspecific threats, and I know they've been going on for at least the last five or six years. There was no evidence that the president knew of or had any inkling that they were going to hijack planes, use them as bombs against the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

If he had known, I am confident that he would have pulled out all the stops, as he did after the attack happened.

KARL: Now, what about -- even Richard Shelby, who is the top Republican on that intelligence committee, said that he is disturbed by this, disturbed by the fact that it took eight months for this information to come out.

BOND: I know Rick Shelby well. What he is disturbed about is the lack of coordination of information between the CIA and the FBI. Sen. Shelby has been on this tear for a long time, and he thinks that there should be a better job of coordination, of getting that information, evaluating it.

I think the intelligence community realize that it needs to do a better job of sharing that information and analyzing it.

But what got to the president was, in everything we've heard, is nothing more than the general warning that they consider they may be trying hijackings.

KARL: Now, as you know, the president and his top staff have said repeatedly since September 11th that they had no inclination that there was an attack coming on the United States of this nature.

Some Democrats have suggested that that was a misleading statement, now given the briefing the president had in August.

BOND: Given the briefing that there were hijackings planned, there was not, in no way does that constitute a warning that there was going to be the kind of attack that we saw on September 11th.

They continually get warnings about hijackings. This is something that -- warnings and threats come in all the time, and they adjust to those. There was no evidence that the president ever had that got any.

KARL: So are you suggesting that the Democrats are trying to find a way to chip away at the president's popularity?

BOND: Oh, clearly. Clearly. This is pure, pure politics by the Democrats. You've got to give them credit. They're down on their own 10 yard line with about four or five months to go, and they're throwing some Hail Mary passes. But this is not a good way to support our war effort. We need to be united.

KARL: Now you also know -- I'm hearing in my ear, I guess we're seeing pictures right now of the president in the Rotunda, of course, giving the medal on honor to Nancy Reagan.

What about all these calls, from Republicans as well as Democrats, for a full investigation as to what went wrong on September 11th. Are you in favor of that?

BOND: The intelligence committees are doing that right now. The intelligence committees are going to come back with their report this year. We'll find out whether there is enough that requires any fuller investigation. I have not seen the details of that report. I hope to be on the intelligence committee, because I want to get involved in that.

But this investigation has been underway, it is underway, and I know they're going to look at all aspects of intelligence gathering and analysis.

KARL: I know you don't want to quote the president...

BOND: You're right.

KARL: But you were at the meeting with the president, and my understanding is that he made it clear that if he had information, if he had information that something was going to happen around September 11th, that he would have done everything possible to stop it.

BOND: I think we all can -- we all know that. And the president is a man of action. He took action like we had not taken action against terrorism in past years, and now the axis of evil knows we consider them evil. And had he had any information like this kind of attack on September 11th, you can be sure he would have taken very strong action.

KARL: All right. Well, Senator Kit Bond, thank you very much for joining us.

KARL: Thanks, Jon.

KARL: Appreciate your time.

So, Leon, there a word from Missouri Republican Kit Bond, very much defending the White House and defending the president on this. At the same time, you've got a lot of Democrats coming forward with the exact opposite argument.

You can be sure, Leon, we're going to be hearing a lot more about this. The actual hearings on this, the first hearings, however, are not going to be happening until June. Those will be intelligence committee hearings, and those will probably be the first of many.

HARRIS: And if you think the fireworks are starting now, wait until then.

All right -- Jonathan Karl on Capitol Hill, thank you very much.

Let's check in with Kelly Wallace for the word from the White House there on this question of the morning -- Kelly.

KELLY WALLACE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Leon, interesting -- Senator Bond did not, of course, want to quote President Bush, but we know -- our Capitol Hill producer, Dana Bash (ph), multiple sources telling her that Mr. Bush, in that meeting with Senate Republicans, saying that he believes there is, quote, "a sniff of politics in the air."

So he is believing, according to these Senate Republicans, that some Democrats are trying to seize on a political opportunity here. Still, lingering questions, such as, number one, why United States officials, over these past eight months, never revealed that they had what they are saying was very general information, including the possibility that Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network could try to hijack a United States commercial airliner.

The White House trying to put to rest these questions, is going to have Condoleezza Rice, the president's national security adviser, briefing reporters a little bit later this afternoon. It's very important to note, she sits in on the president's briefings on a daily basis.

So when he was briefed by the CIA in early August -- that is the first time, we understand, he was told of these threats that were out there, beginning in May of last year, about the possibility of a hijacking by bin Laden's group, Dr. Rice was in on that briefing and can provide all of us with some context.

The message we're getting from this White House continues to be general information out there, but that this administration had no specific information about what happened on September 11.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ARI FLEISCHER, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECT.: The president did not, no, receive information about the use of airplanes as missiles by suicide bombers. This was a new type of attack that had not been foreseen. As a result, a series of changes and improvements have been made in the way the United States deals with the terrorist threat.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALLACE: Again, though, more lingering questions, which Dr. Rice will answer, such as why this administration did not sort of connect the dots with other information out there, as we've been reporting throughout the day, that FBI agent's memo from Phoenix, out there in July, Leon, talking about the threat or concern about Middle Eastern students attending flight schools in the United States who could be linked to Osama bin Laden.

So, more questions. Leon, back to you.

HARRIS: Right. And Kelly, just to clarify things for people who may be just tuning in, just catching on on the drift of all of this -- there really have not been any assertions that there were specific information or specific threats that the White House had been alerted to, correct?

WALLACE: Absolutely correct. The criticism has been coming from some lawmakers who say they were not aware even of this general information about threats out there, including the possibility of a hijacking by a United States commercial airliner.

So right now, no one accusing the administration of covering up any specific information. No one accusing the president of really not doing enough to prevent this. A lot of concern about what the administration knew, who was communicated, and then the steps that were taken.

As we know, the Department of Transportation, the FAA, according to Ari Fleischer, the president's spokesman, alerted during the summer months about this general threat information out there, and Fleischer saying those agencies informed the commercial airlines, and they took appropriate steps.

But very important, the administration saying it had no specific warning that these commercial airliners would be hijacked and that what happened on September 11 would take place.

HARRIS: Got you. Finally, Kelly, one quick question here. Considering that the White House did keep this information pretty much under its hat, if it did have this information at its fingertips, it was at least kept under its hat, at least for the last eight months or so.

With that in mind, what's the word there about whether or not there will be a high level of cooperation between the White House and any congressional committees that may be looking into all of this?

WALLACE: Well, you heard Fleischer take a number of questions about that. He said the administration will cooperate. We know Sen. Shelby, the chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, wants access to the entire briefing that Mr. Bush received by the CIA in August.

Fleischer saying the administration would cooperate, would not say if it would reveal the entire content of that briefing.

The message, really, Leon, is that United States officials say you have to sort of keep in mind how questions were asked. When this administration was asked did it have any specific information that September 11th would happen, it said no, that there was general information out there.

So United States officials saying they were very forthcoming. They say that the possibility of a hijacking really has been going on for decades. They're saying nothing new there, that they were really forthcoming.

But, of course, you have members of Congress very concerned, saying they were not given even that general information -- Leon.

HARRIS: Exactly. Kelly Wallace at the White House, thank you very much, Kelly. we are waiting for some more briefings on this topic.

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