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CNN Live Today
Could Bush Have Known of 9/11?
Aired May 17, 2002 - 11:02 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.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Up first this hour on CNN, 9/11 political fallout. The bipartisan approach to the al Qaeda attacks and the war on terror is severely strained today. This new Washington reality, after the White House acknowledged that intelligence officials tipped the president last August about a possible al Qaeda hijacking.
Our Senior White House correspondent, John King, joins us this morning with the latest -- John, good morning.
JOHN KING, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Daryn.
This one unfolding on two fronts. You might call one the policy track. What did the president know, what did other government agencies know before September 11? How did that act on that information? Did they share it amongst themselves?
The White House says those are perfectly legitimate questions. The White House, on the other hand, suggesting that Democrats in Congress might be trying to play politics with all this by selectively leaking information or suggesting the president had enough evidence to do something before the September 11th attacks. The White House says that's absolutely not the case.
And we also have a little bit of history here. For months, Vice President Dick Cheney and others called key members of Congress; told them they didn't think there needed to be any deep investigation into what the government knew before September 11th, especially no public investigation into what the government knew. Because the administration said at the time it was sensitive intelligence information. Last night, though, the vice president said this administration would fully support an investigation. But, once again, said that investigation should be bipartisan not political.
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DICK CHENEY, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: There is an obligation on the part of the Congress to make certain that any investigation is conducted in a professional and responsible manner by members who are knowledgeable and are committed to improving our ability to defend the nation. Not those who would seek short-term political advantage.
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KING: Now one of the key questions in any investigation and in the political debate here in Washington is just what was the president told. We are told on August 6 of last year he read a 1 1/2-page CIA analysis that for the first time raised the prospect that the al Qaeda, Osama bin Laden's terrorist network, might try to hijack American planes. Now at the time, the White House says the president did take steps, and even before he got the briefing, the administration had taken steps to put airports on general alert about the possibility of a high jacking. But they say the information was very nonspecific. And they also say the word "hijacking" -- Condoleezza Rice say -- means a lot more now than it did then.
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CONDOLEEZZA RICE, NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: Hijacking before 9- 11 and high jacking after 9-11 do mean two very, very different things. And so you know focusing on it before 9-11 perhaps it's clear that after 9-11 you would have looked at this differently, but certainly not before 9-11.
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KING: Some skeptics in Congress, Republicans and Democrats, don't buy that explanation. They say there had been evidence from previous cases that terrorist were thinking about hijacking planes to crash them into the CIA headquarters or to crash them into the Eiffel Tower, and that the administration should have had that option on the table as well.
And, Daryn, as all this unfolds, the White House confirming today something that did come up several months ago just before the September 11th attacks. The president had asked his national security team about al Qaeda activity, had asked them for a plan to do something about it. Sitting on National Security Adviser Rice's desk, not yet to the president on September 11th, was a game plan that included military strikes. But, again, it had not reached the president's desk by the time of the September 11th attacks.
KAGAN: John, real quickly, any chance we will hear from the president on this one? .
KING: The president has a couple of events today. We have asked whether he will address this, and we have been told to stay tuned. He is the one person in the administration who has not yet spoken out on this controversy. No clear guidance just yet as to whether he will, but he does have a few public events today. We will give a try.
KAGAN: All right. We'll leave you up to the task. John King, at the White House -- John, thank you.
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