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CNN Live At Daybreak

Senate Committee Begins Closed-Door Hearings Into Pre-09-11 Intelligence Failures

Aired June 04, 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: Well, today is the day. A Senate committee begins closed-door hearings into pre-September 11 intelligence failures.

But as CNN'S Jonathan Karl reports, lawmakers say they are not playing the blame game.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JONATHAN KARL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The first Intelligence Committee hearings will be held behind closed doors in the most secure room in the Capitol complex, an attic room in the Senate side of the Capitol building with no windows and completely soundproof.

The first hearings will be a precursor for later public hearings that will be held. But already the Intelligence Committee staff has conducted about 200 interviews, compiled about 100,000 pages worth of documents to look into the intelligence failure of September 11.

The committee members, though, say this is not about assigning blame for what went wrong on September 11, but about learning lessons to prevent future tragedy.

SEN. EVAN BAYH (D-IA), INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: What's the old saying, he who doesn't know history is doomed to repeat it? Well, we can't let the American people go through this kind of calamity again because we haven't learned from previous mistakes.

KARL: There will be a public hearing, though, this week. It is not of the Intelligence Committee. It's the Judiciary Committee, that is looking into the reorganization of the FBI. And they will be hearing from Colleen Rowley, the FBI whistleblower out of the Minneapolis field office who accused the FBI headquarters of bungling the case of Zacarias Moussaoui, the so-called 20th hijacker. That testimony will come in public on Thursday.

Jonathan Karl, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)e

COSTELLO: And lawmakers at those intelligence hearings will get to pore over hundreds of thousands of pages of documents. "USA Today" reports on some of the clues those documents contain. For example, now, as late as September 10, U.S. intelligence was intercepting communications between al Qaeda members speaking cryptically of a major attack. Officials say the messages included such remarks as "good things are coming," "watch the news" and "tomorrow will be a great day for us."

And intelligence officials do say the CIA had warned the FBI back in January of 2000 about a suspected terrorist who attended an al Qaeda meeting in Malaysia and deserved closer attention. That suspect, Khalid Almihdhar, who turned out to be one of the September 11 hijackers. But despite that early warning, it wasn't until three weeks before the terror attacks that Almihdhar was placed on a watch list.

That revaluation prompted this comment from Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chairman Richard Shelby.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. RICHARD SHELBY (R-AL), VICE CHAIRMAN, INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: I can tell you, I believe, again, this points toward more failures at the CIA, at the FBI and all over the intelligence agencies, the community. I've said that for the past six, eight months. Now people are beginning to see it as the information dribbles out that it's true.

I believe that as our investigation unfolds, Larry, the House/Senate investigation, that you will see more and more failures like this. And what we've got to do, I believe, is get to the bottom of the successes and failures, because we owe that to the American people, the security of our nation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: In an apparent reference to recent reports about intelligence failures, President Bush says the FBI and CIA are now sharing intelligence.

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