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Coleen Rowley to Meet with Congressional Investigators Today

Aired June 05, 2002 - 10:01   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: First up this hour on CNN, the terror trial to September 11. Lawmakers on Capitol Hill are trying to unravel the tangle of intelligence leads and intelligence failures that preceded the attacks.

Our congressional correspondent Kate Snow is on Capitol Hill with what we know about the probe, which is still taking place behind closed doors.

Kate, good morning.

KATE SNOW, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Daryn.

What we know right now is CNN has learned that Coleen Rowley, you remember her, she's that Minneapolis field agent of the FBI, she's going to be in town today. She's meeting at 2:30 this afternoon Eastern Time with congressional investigators over at FBI headquarters. They're going to take her away from the Capitol over at the FBI. They're going to talk to her behind closed doors. These are investigators from the committee that will meet with her. She will be under oath, according Senator Bob Graham.

Now investigators had met with her once before, but that was before she wrote that letter, that we all know about, to FBI director Robert Mueller. You'll remember it was a scathing critique of the way headquarters handled her Minneapolis field office's complaint about Zacarias Moussaoui who's now accused of playing a role in 9/11. Remember, she accused director Robert Mueller of misleading Congress in that letter. She also accused other top officials of bungling work that she said may have saved lives.

Now Senator Bob Graham, one of the leaders of this committee, said that he thinks that she will help them fill in some important gaps.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BOB GRAHAM (D), FLORIDA: She is, first, a very courageous woman to have come forward the way she has and an experienced FBI professional. I think that she can give us some insight into the culture of the agency, why was there this sort of standoff between the field office in Minneapolis and headquarters here in Washington when most Americans think that the FBI works as a cohesive team.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SNOW: Now while some of the staff members will be interviewing Coleen Rowley this afternoon, others will be here on Capitol Hill, back up in that fourth floor attic room talking with the lawmakers. Thirty-seven of them sit on this joint inquiry -- the joint committee. They're going to be briefed by the staff members about what the staff has learned since they've interviewed almost 200 people, Daryn, throughout this process. They've got to fill in the lawmakers now of what they know.

Tomorrow they may have their first witness, Senator Graham tells me. They may have Cofer Black who is a man who used to be the director of the counterterrorism center that was located at the CIA when 9/11 happened. He has since left that post (UNINTELLIGIBLE) -- he's finished that assignment. But he may be their first witness -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Kate, you bring all those people in and you brief them, that's a lot of potentially loose lips running around Washington. How are they going to prevent leaks?

SNOW: Yes, well and this committee is very concerned about that. I talked to Senator Graham about that this morning. He said look, yesterday when they met, you know they had this organizational meeting yesterday afternoon, they were very clear to the members, all 37 of them, they said look, you cannot leak classified information. It's actually illegal. You're under a legal requirement to keep your mouth shut here. Senator Graham said to me, Washington is a town with a lot of holes in it, Daryn, we don't want to be responsible for any of those holes.

KAGAN: It will be interesting to watch and listen because they might not want leaks but we sure would be interested to hear if any do pop up.

SNOW: Exactly.

KAGAN: Kate Snow on Capitol Hill, thank you so much.

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