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CNN Live At Daybreak
CIA Tracked Two 9/11 Hijackers into U.S.
Aired June 03, 2002 - 05:02 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.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: More changes at the FBI. Today's "Washington Post" says the FBI director will now review all search warrant request in counter-terrorism cases. This in response to obstacles that reportedly hampered Minneapolis agents investigating Zacarias Moussaoui, an alleged co-conspirator in the September 11 attacks.
On the subject of breakdowns in America's intelligence gathering and sharing in advance of 9/11, we have more new information for you. "Newsweek" is reporting yet another missed opportunity.
Our Patty Davis has that.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PATTY DAVIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The CIA knew two terrorists who commandeered the American Airlines plane that crashed into the Pentagon were in the United States for 18 months before telling any other agencies, according to "Newsweek" magazine. But by that time, August of last year, they had slipped out of sight.
MICHAEL ISIKOFF, "NEWSWEEK": They failed to alert the INS, the State Department, the Customs Service, agencies that could have kept them out of the country, and, perhaps more importantly, they failed to alert the FBI.
DAVIS: That disclosure as congressional hearings about intelligence failures connected to the September 11 terror attacks get underway this week.
SEN. BOB GRAHAM (D-FL), CHAIRMAN, INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: I think it's just another example of a missed opportunity.
SEN. RICHARD SHELBY (R-AL), VICE CHAIRMAN, INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: It has not been a flow of information when people needed it between all the agencies. We've got to do better.
DAVIS: Both the FBI and CIA will have tough questions to answer. Why didn't they share information? Why didn't they connect the dots leading up to September 11?
SEN. DIANNE FEINSTEIN (D), CALIFORNIA: I don't think this is the only revelation that's going to come forward. I suspect there are numbers of bits and pieces. They weren't put together. ROBERT MUELLER, FBI DIRECTOR: We have to do a better job pulling these pieces together, analyzing them and disseminating them.
DAVIS: Pieces such as the arrest last August of the suspected 20th hijacker, Zacarias Moussaoui. He had aroused suspicion while training at a Minnesota flight school. And the July memo by Phoenix FBI agent Kenneth Williams suggesting the FBI look into Middle Eastern men training at U.S. flight schools.
As a result, the FBI has announced a massive reorganization plan and new rules allowing agents to monitor Web sites, mosques, anything open to the public as they look for terrorist activity.
The Justice Department has been criticized for opening the door to domestic spying.
JOHN ASHCROFT, ATTORNEY GENERAL: So both the laws passed by the Congress and the regulations that I've recently promulgated reinforce the safeguards, but they do not tie the hands of our agents.
DAVIS (on camera): While Congress considers further reforms, FBI Director Mueller says the intelligence community has thwarted new attacks in the U.S. Even so, he and others say, terrorists will strike again.
Patty Davis, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: Former CIA Director James Woolsey says there's a black and white explanation for some of the intelligence communications breakdowns that are coming to light. He says it was part of the government's mandated system of checks and balances.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JAMES WOOLSEY, FORMER CIA DIRECTOR: Well, this break down should not have happened. Some breakdowns in communications or absence of communications were required by law before this fall. There was a purposeful keeping the agency and the Bureau apart. But this one should have happened. We don't know yet the details about this and it will be interesting. You know, one of the reasons FBI agents were put into the CIA's counter-terrorism center some years ago out at Langley was precisely so that they would pick up on things that ought to go to the Bureau and to domestic agencies when they came into the CIA.
So it's not clear from the initial reports why that didn't happen.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: As we've been reporting, the FBI and other key agencies are now reorganizing to improve counter-terrorism operations.
And you can learn even more about who knew what and when they knew it and what they did with the information by logging onto cnn.com. It's the lead story.
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