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CNN Live Today
Joint Intelligence Committee Looks into 9/11 Clues
Aired June 04, 2002 - 11:01 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.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Up first this hour on CNN, law-makers looking for answers about intelligence lapses prior to the September 11 terrorist attacks. The House and Senate Intelligence Committees begin closed door hearings today on what went wrong.
Our Congressional Correspondent, Kate Snow, is live on Capitol Hill with details about what we do know that will be happening behind closed doors -- Kate, good morning, once again.
KATE SNOW, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, again, Daryn.
Today's hearing the first time that some 37 law-makers who formed this joint inquiry between the House and Senate looking into 9/11, 37 of them have not really sat down all in one room before. It might sound mundane, but the first thing they have to do is get organized. That's what they've got to do this afternoon. Figure out how they're going to subpoena witnesses, how they're going to meet, when they're going to meet, that sort of thing.
Once they do the housekeeping, then they may be getting briefs this afternoon by some of their staff. They have two dozen staffers who have already looked through 30,000 documents. They've already interviewed close to 200 people. So they've got a lot of information already gathered. They need to lay out the case for the law-makers, so they know where to go and who to start calling as witnesses.
And this, as I said, is a joint inquiry, it's led by two men; both of whom happen to be from the state of Florida. One is the senator who is leading the -- rather the House member, let's start with him, Representative Porter Goss. He is the Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, and he's a former CIA man himself.
He was a clandestine service officer for a number of years, about 10 years. He was elected to Congress in 1988, and is now in his second term as Intelligence Committee chairman over on the House side.
On the Senate side, you have another Floridian, and that is the former governor of the state of Florida, Senator Bob Graham. He is a Democrat, he is primary author of the post September 11 Patriot Act, which gave more ability to the FBI and other agencies to be able to go after terrorism.
He was elected to the Senate in 1986. And, as I mentioned, he's the former governor of Florida. His Republican counterpart is a man named Senator Richard Shelby, who actually used to be a Democrat, but he's now a Republican from the state of Alabama. We talked with him a little bit earlier about what he expects to get out of these hearings.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. RICHARD SHELBY (R), ALABAMA: I believe that the information will come out, some public, some will be classified and never come out, showing that there were massive intelligence failures. It's a question now, what do we learn from it, what do we do about it? How can we get our agencies working together for the security of this nation?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SNOW: Now looking in hindsight at 9/11, this committee already exists, this joint inquiry. But there's also been some question about whether there should be an outside group. Perhaps there should be a group of people who have nothing to do with Congress, nothing to do with the agencies involved, who would come in and take a look, much like happened after the Pearl Harbor incident back in the '40s.
That's something that's been pushed by Senator Tom Daschle. It's also being suggested by Representative Nancy Pelosi. She's the top House Democrat on this panel. We spoke with her earlier as well.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. NANCY PELOSI (D), CALIFORNIA: Congress has called for more analysts, more linguists, more diversity in our recruitment, in our intelligence agencies, so that we understand better the language, the cultures, the possibilities that this and other countries that might be directed against us.
But I think an independent commission, which thinks innovatively with imagination and in a different way, can shed some different light on this. And I don't think that Congress should be excluded from the scrutiny.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SNOW: There are others though, Daryn, as you might imagine, on the panel that gets to work today who say, let us do our job. Let us do the intelligence oversight here. We don't need other groups here coming in trying to monitor things. There's a difference of opinion on that note.
One other committee that's going to be looking into things is the Senate Judiciary Committee, as if there weren't enough committees already. They're going to be holding a hearing, a public hearing on Thursday, Daryn. And we'll look forward to that, because that's going to be open to the cameras and open to the public with some key witnesses to include Coleen Rowley, the woman who wrote that scathing memo out of Minnesota.
So we'll be watching for that on Thursday this week -- Daryn. KAGAN: That is one lady I look forward to hearing from and hearing what she has to say. Getting back to this -- what's starting today, you did a really good job, Kate, of laying out the different parties and who everyone belongs to. How do they keep this from just turning into an election year mess and finger pointing?
SNOW: Yes. That's a very good question. And, you know, there are some Democrats already who have been critical, but also some Republicans who have been critical of the administration. And I think Democrats are walking a fine line. Some Democrats want to sort of play the blame game, but others are very wary of that because it could backfire on them.
I think if you talk to the people who are running this committee, this oversight joint inquiry, the four people -- you know, two Democrats, two Republicans -- they are very clear -- I talked to all of them. They all say we've got to keep this from becoming some kind of political circus. We've really got to do our job, but not let it degenerate into some sort of election year politicking -- Daryn.
KAGAN: Only the closed doors will tell. We will see. Kate Snow, on Capitol Hill -- Kate, thank you very much.
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