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CNN Live At Daybreak
Tenet: Al Qaeda Regrouping, Planning to Strike
Aired October 18, 2002 - 05:02 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.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Now to this hour's top story. Al Qaeda is regrouping and plans to strike again. That's what members of Congress heard as five weeks of hearings on intelligence failures wrapped up. It was CIA Director George Tenet who delivered that ominous final message.
National security correspondent David Ensor was there to hear it.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GEORGE TENET, CIA DIRECTOR: You can do the strategic analysis...
DAVID ENSOR, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was a blunt warning about al Qaeda from the nation's top intelligence officer.
TENET: The threat environment we find ourselves in today is as bad as it was last summer, the summer before 9/11. It is serious. They have reconstituted. They're coming after us. They want to execute attacks.
ENSOR: Tenet pointed to the bombings against nightclubs on the island of Bali and to the attacks on U.S. servicemen in Kuwait. There was also the attack on a French oil tanker off Yemen, all suspected to be al Qaeda related.
TENET: Al Qaeda is in an execution phase and intends to strike us both here and overseas. That's unambiguous as far as I am concerned.
ENSOR: The warning came as law makers sought answers from intelligence and law enforcement chiefs on why some clues were dropped prior to 9/11, why, when the CIA knew two of the future hijackers had attended a terrorist summit in Malaysia and then had flown to the United States, why they still were not put on a watch list and whether anyone has lost their job for dropping that ball.
SEN. RICHARD SHELBY (R-AL), VICE CHAIRMAN, SENATE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: Has anyone in the CIA or the FBI been held accountable for the failures thus far of September the 11th or the events leading up to it, Director Tenet?
TENET: No. And there's a reason.
SHELBY: What's the reason?
TENET: We're in the middle of a war.
SHELBY: Oh, wait a minute.
TENET: We're in the middle of a war...
SHELBY: No, that's not much of an excuse.
TENET: ... and I'll tell you, no, sir...
SHELBY: Director, Tenet, let me tell you something...
TENET: No, that's...
SHELBY: No, wait a minute...
TENET: That's my judgment to make.
ENSOR: Senator Shelby rejected that, saying during WWII even generals who made mistakes were relieved of their commands.
(on camera): Homeland security officials tell CNN that while they do not currently plan to raise the threat level from yellow, where it is now, up to orange, a message has gone out to state and local governments and certain key infrastructure officials urging them to take additional measures to protect the nation against terrorism.
David Ensor, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
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 18, 2002 - 05:02 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Now to this hour's top story. Al Qaeda is regrouping and plans to strike again. That's what members of Congress heard as five weeks of hearings on intelligence failures wrapped up. It was CIA Director George Tenet who delivered that ominous final message.
National security correspondent David Ensor was there to hear it.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GEORGE TENET, CIA DIRECTOR: You can do the strategic analysis...
DAVID ENSOR, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was a blunt warning about al Qaeda from the nation's top intelligence officer.
TENET: The threat environment we find ourselves in today is as bad as it was last summer, the summer before 9/11. It is serious. They have reconstituted. They're coming after us. They want to execute attacks.
ENSOR: Tenet pointed to the bombings against nightclubs on the island of Bali and to the attacks on U.S. servicemen in Kuwait. There was also the attack on a French oil tanker off Yemen, all suspected to be al Qaeda related.
TENET: Al Qaeda is in an execution phase and intends to strike us both here and overseas. That's unambiguous as far as I am concerned.
ENSOR: The warning came as law makers sought answers from intelligence and law enforcement chiefs on why some clues were dropped prior to 9/11, why, when the CIA knew two of the future hijackers had attended a terrorist summit in Malaysia and then had flown to the United States, why they still were not put on a watch list and whether anyone has lost their job for dropping that ball.
SEN. RICHARD SHELBY (R-AL), VICE CHAIRMAN, SENATE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: Has anyone in the CIA or the FBI been held accountable for the failures thus far of September the 11th or the events leading up to it, Director Tenet?
TENET: No. And there's a reason.
SHELBY: What's the reason?
TENET: We're in the middle of a war.
SHELBY: Oh, wait a minute.
TENET: We're in the middle of a war...
SHELBY: No, that's not much of an excuse.
TENET: ... and I'll tell you, no, sir...
SHELBY: Director, Tenet, let me tell you something...
TENET: No, that's...
SHELBY: No, wait a minute...
TENET: That's my judgment to make.
ENSOR: Senator Shelby rejected that, saying during WWII even generals who made mistakes were relieved of their commands.
(on camera): Homeland security officials tell CNN that while they do not currently plan to raise the threat level from yellow, where it is now, up to orange, a message has gone out to state and local governments and certain key infrastructure officials urging them to take additional measures to protect the nation against terrorism.
David Ensor, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
