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FBI, CIA Officials Testify on Capitol Hill

Aired September 20, 2002 - 12:28   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.


MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Congress's joint hearing on intelligence failures leading up to September 11th, is focusing today on missed opportunities to nab two of the hijackers.
CNN national security correspondent David Ensor brings us more now from Capitol Hill.

Hello, David.

DAVID ENSOR, NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Miles.

Well quite a dramatic scene at the moment. Behind me witnesses, two of them from CIA and FBI are testifying behind a screen because they are going to continue to be involved in top secret work, and their identities cannot be revealed.

The subject of today's hearing is what did U.S. intelligence and law enforcement know about the hijackers, any of the hijackers, prior to September 11th and were there dots that should have been connected, were there communications problems.

Clearly from what the staff report that was issued first says, there were some serious communications breakdowns. For example, they're talking about two of the hijackers primarily, Nawaf Alhazmi and Khalid Almidhar, who were -- we have reported about them in the past. Two of the hijackers -- they attended a terrorist summit in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and subsequently traveled to the United States and were, of course, among those on the aircraft.

Let me give you a couple of quotes from the staff report. First of all -- quote -- "A CIA communication in early January 2000 states that Almidhar's travel documents, including his multiple entry visa for the United States, were shared with the FBI for further investigation. No one at the FBI recalls having received such documents at the time. No confirmatory record of the transmittal of the travel documents has yet been located at either the FBI -- at the CIA or the FBI."

Here we have an example of the two agencies trying to figure out who told who what. The CIA says they did tell FBI, but there's no backup, no paperwork on it.

Secondly, let me give you another quote from the -- from the report. And here CIA Director George Tenet, the director of central intelligence, acknowledges some blame on the part of his agency -- quote -- "In his testimony before the joint inquiry on June 18, 2002," this was closed testimony, "the DCI," that's George Tenet, "acknowledged that the CIA should have acted to add these individuals to the State Department's watch list in March of 2000 and characterized this omission as a mistake."

Here again, the CIA, the FBI and other agencies could have put these two future hijackers on a watchlist that might have allowed people at the border or at airports to have kept them out of this country. It wasn't done and that's one of the main focuses of these hearings.

Now, intelligence officials, including those testifying now, will stress to you, this is very difficult work. They were going through thousands of intelligence intercepts. To pick these needles out of the haystack was not easy. It is now, of course. And that point was underscored by one of the CIA officers the one who's not identified.

Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED CIA OFFICER: There are also the kind of misses that happen when people, even very competent, dedicated people such as the CIA officers and the FBI agents and analysts involved in all aspects of this story, are simply overwhelmed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ENSOR: Certain amount of emotion in the hearing room today, Miles. We heard the FBI agent, the one who's not identified, saying his office was in the World Trade Center. He believes one of the firemen saved his life, telling him where to go, and he believes that fireman died thereafter -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: Poignant moments there. David Ensor on Capitol Hill, thank you very much.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired September 20, 2002 - 12:28   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Congress's joint hearing on intelligence failures leading up to September 11th, is focusing today on missed opportunities to nab two of the hijackers.
CNN national security correspondent David Ensor brings us more now from Capitol Hill.

Hello, David.

DAVID ENSOR, NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Miles.

Well quite a dramatic scene at the moment. Behind me witnesses, two of them from CIA and FBI are testifying behind a screen because they are going to continue to be involved in top secret work, and their identities cannot be revealed.

The subject of today's hearing is what did U.S. intelligence and law enforcement know about the hijackers, any of the hijackers, prior to September 11th and were there dots that should have been connected, were there communications problems.

Clearly from what the staff report that was issued first says, there were some serious communications breakdowns. For example, they're talking about two of the hijackers primarily, Nawaf Alhazmi and Khalid Almidhar, who were -- we have reported about them in the past. Two of the hijackers -- they attended a terrorist summit in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and subsequently traveled to the United States and were, of course, among those on the aircraft.

Let me give you a couple of quotes from the staff report. First of all -- quote -- "A CIA communication in early January 2000 states that Almidhar's travel documents, including his multiple entry visa for the United States, were shared with the FBI for further investigation. No one at the FBI recalls having received such documents at the time. No confirmatory record of the transmittal of the travel documents has yet been located at either the FBI -- at the CIA or the FBI."

Here we have an example of the two agencies trying to figure out who told who what. The CIA says they did tell FBI, but there's no backup, no paperwork on it.

Secondly, let me give you another quote from the -- from the report. And here CIA Director George Tenet, the director of central intelligence, acknowledges some blame on the part of his agency -- quote -- "In his testimony before the joint inquiry on June 18, 2002," this was closed testimony, "the DCI," that's George Tenet, "acknowledged that the CIA should have acted to add these individuals to the State Department's watch list in March of 2000 and characterized this omission as a mistake."

Here again, the CIA, the FBI and other agencies could have put these two future hijackers on a watchlist that might have allowed people at the border or at airports to have kept them out of this country. It wasn't done and that's one of the main focuses of these hearings.

Now, intelligence officials, including those testifying now, will stress to you, this is very difficult work. They were going through thousands of intelligence intercepts. To pick these needles out of the haystack was not easy. It is now, of course. And that point was underscored by one of the CIA officers the one who's not identified.

Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED CIA OFFICER: There are also the kind of misses that happen when people, even very competent, dedicated people such as the CIA officers and the FBI agents and analysts involved in all aspects of this story, are simply overwhelmed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ENSOR: Certain amount of emotion in the hearing room today, Miles. We heard the FBI agent, the one who's not identified, saying his office was in the World Trade Center. He believes one of the firemen saved his life, telling him where to go, and he believes that fireman died thereafter -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: Poignant moments there. David Ensor on Capitol Hill, thank you very much.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com