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CNN Live At Daybreak
David Kay to Appear Before Armed Services Committee
Aired January 28, 2004 - 06:37 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 LIN, CNN ANCHOR: Four and a half hours from now, the former head of the U.S. team looking for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq goes before the Senate Armed Services Committee.
CNN's Paul Courson joins us live from Washington to talk about David Kay's appearance on Capitol Hill.
Good morning -- Paul. Any headlines you're expecting?
PAUL COURSON, CNN WASHINGTON MORNING PRODUCER: Well, good morning, Carol.
No, I think Dr. Kay is in a place of explaining. His panel was commissioned to go find the truth in Iraq, and even though they haven't come up with actual weapons of mass destruction -- something he's called shiny pointed objects that we might call a weapon -- he may tell lawmakers that they found a lot of other ingredients that could form the foundation for what could have become a resumed production in Iraq of some kind.
Under the Saddam Hussein regime, his weapons inspectors found many within the Saddam military saying, oh, yes, we've got such weapons, but the other unit has it, not our unit. And this seemed to be sort of shell game, where they never actually found any weapons of mass destruction. And it seemed to be a disinformation campaign orchestrated and motivated by points unknown to convince the world, and perhaps even Saddam, that such weapons were indeed somewhere in the wings of Iraq, if you will.
LIN: Paul, on the campaign trail, Senator Joe Lieberman said after David Kay's remarks about not finding weapons of mass destruction, Senator Lieberman said that there should be a formal congressional investigation. Is today's hearing the beginning of that? And if so, where would this investigation likely go? How far could it go?
COURSON: Well, Dr. Kay was among the many who once upon a time felt that weapons of mass destruction would have been there, and much of that conclusion at the time of the preliminary assessment was based on intelligence. So, the intelligence community, its methodology, its sourcing is probably going to be called into question in a structural sort of sense. What went wrong? Why were we so off the mark? Those are the questions that lawmakers are liable to launch at Dr. Kay today to say, you relied on this. Why didn't you question it more severely?
LIN: That will be interesting to hear that side of the argument. Thank you very much, Paul. 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 January 28, 2004 - 06:37 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: Four and a half hours from now, the former head of the U.S. team looking for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq goes before the Senate Armed Services Committee.
CNN's Paul Courson joins us live from Washington to talk about David Kay's appearance on Capitol Hill.
Good morning -- Paul. Any headlines you're expecting?
PAUL COURSON, CNN WASHINGTON MORNING PRODUCER: Well, good morning, Carol.
No, I think Dr. Kay is in a place of explaining. His panel was commissioned to go find the truth in Iraq, and even though they haven't come up with actual weapons of mass destruction -- something he's called shiny pointed objects that we might call a weapon -- he may tell lawmakers that they found a lot of other ingredients that could form the foundation for what could have become a resumed production in Iraq of some kind.
Under the Saddam Hussein regime, his weapons inspectors found many within the Saddam military saying, oh, yes, we've got such weapons, but the other unit has it, not our unit. And this seemed to be sort of shell game, where they never actually found any weapons of mass destruction. And it seemed to be a disinformation campaign orchestrated and motivated by points unknown to convince the world, and perhaps even Saddam, that such weapons were indeed somewhere in the wings of Iraq, if you will.
LIN: Paul, on the campaign trail, Senator Joe Lieberman said after David Kay's remarks about not finding weapons of mass destruction, Senator Lieberman said that there should be a formal congressional investigation. Is today's hearing the beginning of that? And if so, where would this investigation likely go? How far could it go?
COURSON: Well, Dr. Kay was among the many who once upon a time felt that weapons of mass destruction would have been there, and much of that conclusion at the time of the preliminary assessment was based on intelligence. So, the intelligence community, its methodology, its sourcing is probably going to be called into question in a structural sort of sense. What went wrong? Why were we so off the mark? Those are the questions that lawmakers are liable to launch at Dr. Kay today to say, you relied on this. Why didn't you question it more severely?
LIN: That will be interesting to hear that side of the argument. Thank you very much, Paul. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
