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Congress, White House Upset Over pre-9/11 al Qaeda Messages
Aired June 20, 2002 - 14:04 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.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: More now on another story CNN broke -- the interception of al Qaeda pre-9/11 dialogue.
Today it was much of the talk on Capitol Hill, and it concerned those chilling words that were picked up by the United States last September 10, but not translated until the 12th, the day after.
Here's CNN's congressional correspondent, Kate Snow. She joins us now from the hill.
Hi there, Kate.
KATE SNOW, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Fredricka.
Well, remember where this all came from. If you were listening closely when we reported this yesterday on CNN, it all came from Congress originally, those sources who told us about this NSA, National Security Agency, intercept, these two messages that were intercepted. Those were congressional sources that told us about this. And that's because they had, in the room, for the past two days, the director of that agency, the NSA, Michael Hayden, who was testifying behind closed doors, out of the view of our cameras, about these very issues -- about what happened just prior to 9/11.
We understand from congressional sources that he was questioned at length about this particular memo.
They have these meetings right behind that sign there, where it says, "Authorized Personnel Only," behind those closed door.
He was questioned at length about this.
The members then, again, some of them, talked to the media, and I can tell you that when we put this on television yesterday, it just happened to be right when they were coming back from a lunch break. They were just about to go back into their afternoon session and we're told that they actually -- up that staircase that you just saw a moment ago -- had a TV on and they saw the report on CNN by my colleague David Ensor.
Well, that raised a lot of questions inside the room, about who was talking to the media. We're told now, Fredricka, that they were admonished, in the words of one lawmaker, to not talk to the media anymore. And, indeed, we haven't heard much from them up to this point. They have not commented on our reporting about these two messages that were intercepted by the NSA on September 10 but then not translated until September 12 -- Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: All right, Kate Snow, thank you very much.
And those congressional leaders were admonished because today we heard very clearly from the White House that they were very upset about those intelligence leaks.
Our Kelly Wallace is at the White House. She's got more from there.
Hi there, Kelly.
KELLY WALLACE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Fredricka.
President Bush was very angry, aides say, about what the White House is calling the inappropriate leak of extremely sensitive information. So angry that he directed the vice president to make a telephone call this morning to the chairman of the House and Senate Intelligence Committees.
That phone call has taken place and aides say the president is satisfied lawmakers will address the issue.
Now Ari Fleischer, the White House press secretary, saying earlier the issue is about protecting intelligence sources and methods, and protecting the government's ability to prevent another terrorist attack.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FLEISCHER: This is not to finger-point. This is not to place blame. If it comes from the administration, it's wrong. If it comes from the hill, it's wrong. No matter where the source, no matter where it comes from, we all are in this together. And everyone needs to remember the delicacy of this information and the sensitivity of the information, and the fact that making specific information of this nature public does raise important concerns, because it can harm our ability to continue to gather that information.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WALLACE: And to hammer that point home, Fleischer offered an example. He said back in 1998, that super-secret National Security Agency -- there was a leak from the NSA, apparently, or from congressional sources, that the NSA was able to listen in to one of Osama bin Laden's satellite phone calls. Fleischer said after that leak, bin Laden never used that satellite phone, again.
So the message coming from the White House is, would-be terrorist know that United States intelligence is able to pick up on their conversations, they will change their methods in order to fool United States intelligence. This is not something that Democrats or Republicans disagree with, but, Fredricka, what we are seeing is a fine line the administration and members of Congress are walking between the public's right to know what the government knew before September 11 and how it handled that information, and of course the ability to protect intelligence sources and methods -- Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: Kelly Wallace, thank you, from the White House.
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