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American Morning

Sound Off: Should NSA Share in Blame for Intel Failures?

Aired June 20, 2002 - 07:44   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: Hindsight, as we know, is 20/20, but chilling words intercepted the day before 9/11 and not translated until the day after were a warning that something major was planned. The messages said: "The match begins tomorrow," and "Tomorrow is zero hour."

Who knows what the repercussions of these revelations will be? But here to sound off on what they think should happen from now, from Washington, former Democratic political strategist, Bob Beckel, and former RNC communications director, Cliff May -- good morning, gentlemen.

BOB BECKEL, FORMER DEMOCRATIC POLITICAL STRATEGIST: Good morning.

CLIFF MAY, FORMER RNC COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: Good morning, Daryn.

KAGAN: Bob, you were playing hurt earlier this week with a bad voice. How are you feeling today?

BECKEL: It's actually coming back a little bit now. I can take on the right again. Good thing.

KAGAN: All right then. We will start with you. Let's look at these words: "The match begins tomorrow," "tomorrow is the zero hour." It sounds bad when you isolate it, but as we have heard, both from our David Ensor and other experts that we have talked to, this was like a needle in a haystack of millions of bits of information. Really, can the NSA be criticized for not getting on this sooner?

BECKEL: Oh, they certainly can be. Now, let's put this in some context. It was August when Condoleezza Rice gave George Bush a memo about potential activity by al Qaeda. And then the CIA had information, and we know the FBI had information about flight schools and others, the Phoenix memo and the Minnesota memo.

And none of that was brought together. It had to have been brought together. The statement that she has made, Condoleezza Rice, is that nobody could know this given the information they had, is wrong. When she got warned in August, they should have been put on heightened alert, and the NSA should have done this the second they got it, and they could do that if they had put it on a high priority. Putting all this together, Condoleezza Rice is responsible for coordinating intelligence. She didn't do it. I think it's time for her to resign.

KAGAN: Cliff, what do you say? Does the buck stop with Condi Rice?

MAY: No. I think it's wrong to blame Condi Rice, and to do so for partisan purposes or for any purposes. The fact of the matter is, Daryn, that Condi Rice, like everybody else, didn't know about these messages that were intercepted until two days after September 11. Now, what does that tell you? That tells you about a problem at the National Security Agency. I think the NSA, like the CIA and the FBI, they all need profound reform.

You are right, Daryn. It's sort of like a needle in a haystack, except it shouldn't be exactly, and here is why. They have these messages. Who are they from? If we had the human intelligence in place, they would say this goes to the head of the stack, because these are al Qaeda operatives.

What went wrong? There are a couple of possibilities. One, we didn't have the human intelligence to know that these were senior operatives, and only senior al Qaeda operatives knew this was going to happen the next day. Or, and this is important too, because of ineptitude or political correctness did we not put Islamic militant terrorism at the top of the list, was it about the same as the IRA and Colombian guerrillas and all of that sort of thing.

So what has to happen is a real review and reevaluation of how the NSA does its job. We have to get our human intelligence up. NSA doesn't do that. The CIA does that. And we have to have the best intelligence gathering and analysis in the world. Right now, it's not what it should be.

KAGAN: Well, what we need to do, the three of us, is move onto our next topic, and that is what has happened in Jerusalem, two suicide bombers over the last two days. This seems to have delayed President Bush's speech on his vision for a Palestinian state. Does the president need to come out and set a path for peace and a Palestinian state for the Middle East? Cliff, you go first on this one.

MAY: Yes, I have to say, you know, you really see me criticize the administration, but...

KAGAN: Let's hear it.

MAY: ... I can't see how the idea of an interim state is at all useful at this point, and I am not sure what it would mean. If it would mean that Arafat would then be able...

KAGAN: But then should the president come out and say that?

MAY: I think...

KAGAN: Where is his speech?

MAY: Yes, I think what the president should say is that our focus right now has to be on ending the terrorism in the Middle East and all over the world. And that we will never appease terrorists, and that we will never in any way reward terrorism. And I am afraid an interim state will look like that.

And isn't the Palestinian Authority itself already an interim state? When the Palestinian Authority was set up by the Israelis, and Arafat was put in charge of it and installed in the West Bank by the Israelis in '93 as the head of it, that was the deal. You will have authority over 98 percent of the Palestinian people. In exchange, we want to (UNINTELLIGIBLE) terrorism. That's your job.

(CROSSTALK)

KAGAN: Cliff, we've got to cut off, so I can get Bob in with our remaining time. Do we need to hear from the president on his vision for a Palestinian state?

BECKEL: Yes, we do. And by the way, we are not in Oz. You know, somebody is responsible for this intelligence, Cliff. Clearly, there is not intelligence in the White House. The answer on this is I am for people going today for some reason. I have now changed my position. I think it's time for Arafat to go. Hook that in with an interim state on the condition that Arafat is exiled. It does not have anything to do with the Palestinian Authority. And I think President Bush, if he says that, and we finally cut our ties with Arafat, as hard as that is going to be to do, I think the time frankly has come. I just don't think Israel can take anymore of this.

KAGAN: Well, I think we are -- I think we are making...

MAY: Bob is saying Arafat should go?

KAGAN: I know.

MAY: He is listening to me.

KAGAN: We are making news, both Bob and Cliff changing positions. There you go -- gentlemen, thank you.

MAY: He is learning from me. I am so gratified.

BECKEL: Oh, yes.

MAY: It makes my day.

KAGAN: Don't push your luck, Cliff. Don't push your luck.

BECKEL: Yes, Cliff, don't.

KAGAN: I think we are going to have our...

KAGAN: We are going to have our viewers write in and give suggestions to help Bob's voice out there. Any solutions for laryngitis. Bob Beckel, Cliff May...

MAY: I think he should be quiet for a while.

KAGAN: Yes.

MAY: I think that would be good.

KAGAN: Cliff is enjoying it, but the rest of the world might want to hear it.

MAY: Rest that voice.

BECKEL: If I am quiet, that means you have talked, which is dangerous to society.

MAY: That is...

(CROSSTALK)

KAGAN: Gentlemen, thank you so much -- Bob, good luck working on that voice.

BECKEL: Thanks.

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