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CNN Live Today

House Intelligence Hears of Phoenix Memo

Aired May 22, 2002 - 11:17   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 author of the Phoenix memo is back on Capitol Hill this morning. FBI agent Ken Williams is behind closed doors. He's briefing the House Intelligence Committee this morning. He did the same Tuesday for the Senate.

Williams's memo last July warned that Osama bin Laden may be sending terrorists to U.S. flight schools. This memo did not reach the FBI director until after September 11. But sources familiar with Williams's account say that he never intended the document for the highest levels of government. FBI middle managers wrote off that (UNINTELLIGIBLE) agent's warning as speculative.

CNN's Kathleen Koch standing by at the White House this morning, where the memo is also getting plenty of attention there.

Good morning -- Kathleen.

KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Leon.

Well, obviously, the question here is, why didn't President Bush learn about the contents of this memo until a week or two ago? That, when the FBI director, the attorney general, apparently got a briefing on it just days after 9/11. Now the latest White House briefing, spokesman Ari Fleischer was peppered with questions about whether or not President Bush was disappointed, whether or not he felt top officials had kept something from him. But Fleischer would not go there, only saying that the president still did have confidence in his attorney general, in his FBI chief.

And Fleischer said that essentially the contents of this memo were not that important, were basically no surprise once the 9/11 attacks had already occurred.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ARI FLEISCHER, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: I don't think anybody needed a memo after September 11 to know that there were general suspicions that people were in flight schools. Everybody knew it as a result of September 11.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOCH: Fleischer says that at this point the president believes that looking backward is the Congress' job to investigate, the House and Senate Intelligence Committees to investigate just what happened, what fell through the cracks in the days before 9/11 with these continuing terror attack warnings that the Bush administration is better served working hard trying to prevent them, instead of looking in the rearview mirror.

And, Leon, right now, the president is on his way to western Europe for a week-long trip, where he is going to be meeting with leaders in Germany, France, Italy and also in Russia. the centerpiece of that trip will be the signing of a groundbreaking arms control treaty with Russia, which will have both countries slashing their strategic nuclear warheads by two-thirds over the next 10 years -- Leon.

HARRIS: All right. Kathleen Koch, at the White House, thank you very much.

KOCH: You're welcome.

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