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CNN Live Today
Freeh Takes Hot Seat Before Panel
Aired October 08, 2002 - 11:21 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.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Today begins the fourth week of a congressional probe into intelligence failures before 9/11. The joint congressional panel is going to hear from a crucial witness, former FBI director Louis Freeh speaking publicly for the first time about how the agency handled terrorism clues.
Justice Department correspondent Kelli Arena checks in now with a bit of preview for us -- hello, Kelli.
KELLI ARENA, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Leon. Actually, the former director just started speaking about 10 minutes ago before the committee. He started off by offering his condolences to the victims of the families who suffered losses during the September 11 attacks and also said that he was proud to work with his former FBI colleagues, calling them "dedicated Americans."
He started off his speech, though, telling Congress that there's not a single agency, not a single country on earth that can prevent every single terrorist attack. Here's a bit of what he had to say at the start of his opening statement.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LOUIS FREEH, FORMER DIRECTOR, FBI: ... terrorist sympathizers in the United States. They committed no crimes with the exception of minor traffic violations. They dressed and acted like Americans, shopping and eating at places like Wal-Mart and Pizza Hut. They came into different cities, moved around a lot, did not hold jobs. When three got speeding tickets in the days heading up to September 11, they remained calm and aroused no suspicion. One of the suicide hijackers, Alhazmi, even reported an attempted street robbery on May 1, 2001 to Fairfax, Virginia police. He later declined to press charges.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ARENA: Obviously, Leon, that wasn't the bit of his speech that I spoke about earlier. What he was talking about there was how the hijackers went about their business quite legally while they were here in the United States, did not bring any attention to themselves, and sort of his defense of the FBI's actions pre-9/11.
We do have a copy of his entire statement, and I'll tell you a little bit of a summary of that. He says that, A, as far as he's concerned, the intelligence community did not have the sufficient information to prevent September 11. He defends the FBI's prosecutorial approach, its investigative approach toward terrorism, and says that many investigations and the uncovering of witnesses has led to the prevention of terror attacks.
He says that the issue of combating terrorism is not only up to the intelligence community, the law enforcement community, but it needs to be part of a larger foreign policy, military approach. He also said that the FBI did know that aircraft could be used as weapons by terrorists, passed that information along to other government agencies, including the FAA. He says you cannot look at the FBI in a vacuum.
He will continue his opening statement. He's been up for question and answer from lawmakers and we will bring it all to you later on -- back to you, Leon.
HARRIS: All right. Thank you very much, Kelli.
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 October 8, 2002 - 11:21 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Today begins the fourth week of a congressional probe into intelligence failures before 9/11. The joint congressional panel is going to hear from a crucial witness, former FBI director Louis Freeh speaking publicly for the first time about how the agency handled terrorism clues.
Justice Department correspondent Kelli Arena checks in now with a bit of preview for us -- hello, Kelli.
KELLI ARENA, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Leon. Actually, the former director just started speaking about 10 minutes ago before the committee. He started off by offering his condolences to the victims of the families who suffered losses during the September 11 attacks and also said that he was proud to work with his former FBI colleagues, calling them "dedicated Americans."
He started off his speech, though, telling Congress that there's not a single agency, not a single country on earth that can prevent every single terrorist attack. Here's a bit of what he had to say at the start of his opening statement.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LOUIS FREEH, FORMER DIRECTOR, FBI: ... terrorist sympathizers in the United States. They committed no crimes with the exception of minor traffic violations. They dressed and acted like Americans, shopping and eating at places like Wal-Mart and Pizza Hut. They came into different cities, moved around a lot, did not hold jobs. When three got speeding tickets in the days heading up to September 11, they remained calm and aroused no suspicion. One of the suicide hijackers, Alhazmi, even reported an attempted street robbery on May 1, 2001 to Fairfax, Virginia police. He later declined to press charges.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ARENA: Obviously, Leon, that wasn't the bit of his speech that I spoke about earlier. What he was talking about there was how the hijackers went about their business quite legally while they were here in the United States, did not bring any attention to themselves, and sort of his defense of the FBI's actions pre-9/11.
We do have a copy of his entire statement, and I'll tell you a little bit of a summary of that. He says that, A, as far as he's concerned, the intelligence community did not have the sufficient information to prevent September 11. He defends the FBI's prosecutorial approach, its investigative approach toward terrorism, and says that many investigations and the uncovering of witnesses has led to the prevention of terror attacks.
He says that the issue of combating terrorism is not only up to the intelligence community, the law enforcement community, but it needs to be part of a larger foreign policy, military approach. He also said that the FBI did know that aircraft could be used as weapons by terrorists, passed that information along to other government agencies, including the FAA. He says you cannot look at the FBI in a vacuum.
He will continue his opening statement. He's been up for question and answer from lawmakers and we will bring it all to you later on -- back to you, Leon.
HARRIS: All right. Thank you very much, Kelli.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
