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CNN Saturday Morning News
Democrats on House Judiciary Call for Hearings Into 9-11 Warnings
Aired May 18, 2002 - 09:01 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.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: President Bush is waking up to another day of questions about what his administration knew about possible terror attacks. Now Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee are calling for hearings into the matter.
And joining us with the latest from the White House is CNN's Kelly Wallace. Good morning, Kelly.
KELLY WALLACE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Miles.
Well, President Bush spending the weekend at the presidential retreat at Camp David. He and his aides definitely preparing for more questions, possible congressional hearings, and, of course, an investigation. But the White House, very furious about the criticism, definitely went on the offensive. President Bush speaking out for the first time yesterday while his aides definitely accusing Democrats of playing politics with all of this.
It was an angry-looking President Bush we saw in the Rose Garden. He denounced what he called Washington second-guessing, and he said if he had any knowledge that anyone would use planes to ram into buildings on September 11, he would have done everything in his power to prevent that from happening.
But that's all he said. He left the rest to his aides. Democratic or Republican aides here at the White House stepping up attacks on the Democrats. Just listen to Ari Fleischer, the president's spokesman, during his briefing yesterday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ARI FLEISCHER, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: I think that yesterday who made insinuations or suggestions that this president had information that could have prevented the attacks and did not act on them is asking questions in such a way as to create an impression that the president could have and should have done something that he didn't do.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WALLACE: And Fleischer singled out one Democratic senator, Senator Hillary Clinton of New York, taking issue with how she referred to a "New York Post" headline Thursday night on the Senate floor. That headline said, quote, "Bush Knew." Well, Senator Clinton responding yesterday, saying she is not being divisive, simply asking what she called legitimate questions.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON (D), NEW YORK: We're going to learn a lot about what the government knew, and that's why it's important to get this information out, and then see it in context. But I think that my purpose here is on behalf of my constituents, and along with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle, to ask responsible questions that look forward.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WALLACE: One lingering question that this administration continues to face is why no one even considered or imagined that anyone could hijack a plane and ram it into a building. We learned yesterday about a report going back to September 1999, commissioned by the CIA under the Clinton administration, called "The Sociology and Psychology of Terrorism." In that report, this prediction, that al Qaeda operatives could, quote, "crash-land aircraft packed with explosives into the Pentagon, the headquarters of the CIA, or the White House."
Now, this White House says it knew nothing of that report until yesterday. It's also downplaying the significance, saying it was not based on any intelligence information.
And Miles, officials here are saying that the past administration and the Congress at the time clearly didn't take notice of this report either.
Miles, back to you.
O'BRIEN: All right, that's a lot of fodder for discussion, which will be coming up very shortly. Kelly Wallace one of four people participating in our Reporter's Notebook segment coming up at the bottom of the hour. Send us your e-mails now.
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