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American Morning

President Bush Proposes Creating New Government Department for Homeland Security

Aired June 07, 2002 - 07:13   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.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: As we have been saying, President Bush last night proposed creating a new government department for Homeland Security.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: As Governor Ridge has worked with all levels of government to prepare a national strategy, and as we have learned more about the plans and capabilities of the terrorist network, we have concluded that our government must be reorganized to deal more effectively with the new threats of the 21st century.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZAHN: And I am joined now by L. Paul Bremer III, the former ambassador-at-large for counterterrorism. Good to see you in person for a change.

L. PAUL BREMER III, FMR. AMBASSADOR-AT-LARGE FOR COUNTERTERRORISM: Nice to see you.

ZAHN: So what do you think ultimately will work with this plan?

BREMER: I think this is a good start. You know, you cannot fight the new war we are in, the president said last night we are a changed nation, and you can't fight that with the old bureaucratic structure. You've got to do something. And this plan has the advantage of beginning to put authority and responsibility in the same place, and that's a good start.

ZAHN: What doesn't work?

BREMER: What doesn't work now is you've got, as the president pointed out last night, something like 100 different agencies doing various parts of this. You have 88 congressional committees doing various parts of it. We are in a new situation here, and we've got to face the facts that that requires a new organization.

ZAHN: I want to share with the audience now an outline of the proposal the president put forward last night, and he basically reinforced his rationale for doing this. He said the reason to create this department is not to create the size of government, but to increase its focus and effectiveness. The staff of this new department will be largely drawn from the agencies we are combining by ending duplication and overlap. We will spend less on overhead and more on protecting America.

There are analysts out there this morning saying this, in fact, does increase the bureaucracy.

BREMER: Well, it all depends on the execution. First of all, of course, he has got to get this law through Congress, and the Congress will have something to say about what the ultimate department looks like. But you cannot argue with the general thrust of what he is saying, which is we've got a new situation. It needs new governmental structures, just as in the post-war period, Harry Truman recognized and Congress agreed that we needed to reorganize our national security structure. So we created the Department of Defense, the CIA and the National Security Council.

We have a problem. We have enemies who are trying to kill us in our thousands now, and we have got to get ourselves organized to find them and deal with them before they kill us.

ZAHN: The intelligence prong of this is critical.

BREMER: Yes.

ZAHN: Because the fact is under this new department, those folks will not be analyzing raw data. They will be looking at distilled data, and they are critics out there saying, wait a minute. You missed it the last time with raw data. What makes you think that this new department...

BREMER: Right.

ZAHN: ... is going to catch anything with distilled data?

BREMER: Well, I think the one thing that is still missing, and we may get to it, is despite Director Mueller's efforts to reorganize the FBI, I think there really is still another major step. We need a domestic intelligence agency here, just as the British have an agency that does domestic intelligence and another agency that does law enforcement. That's what we need.

The FBI is a wonderful organization, terrifically dedicated men and women, but their job is law enforcement. They are basically going out to try to find, prosecute and put criminals in jail. That's a very different culture than what is needed in terms of collecting and analyzing intelligence.

So this does not address that. You are quite right. That, I think, still has to come. We have to take a very close look at the question of how we collect intelligence.

ZAHN: And what have you seen in this plan that would suggest that there will be any greater cooperation between the CIA and the FBI? BREMER: I think that is a question that is going to have to be addressed irrespective of what happens in this agency. I mean, I think this agency can perhaps begin to encourage that. But basically, that is not the job, as I read the proposal, of this secretary of Homeland Security. His or her job is different.

The problem coordinating the intelligence really lies more with the National Security Council and indeed with the president.

ZAHN: Any chance (ph) you are going to get involved with this new department?

BREMER: I don't think so. I've got plenty to do in the private sector.

ZAHN: L. Paul Bremer III, thank you again...

BREMER: Nice to see you again.

ZAHN: ... for coming to our rooftop perch this morning.

BREMER: Very pretty.

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