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CNN Live At Daybreak

Interview With Senator Richard Shelby

Aired February 05, 2004 - 07:08   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.


BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Senator Richard Shelby of Alabama was chairman of the Intelligence Committee in the days and months leading up to the war with Iraq last March.
Senator Shelby is our guest this morning in D.C.

Senator, welcome back. Good to have you here on AMERICAN MORNING.

SEN. RICHARD SHELBY (R-AL), FORMER CHAIRMAN OF INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: Good morning.

HEMMER: Let's take one issue at a time here. David Kay, you know his testimony, he says there are no large stockpiles of weapons in Iraq. Do you believe him?

SHELBY: Well, David Kay has a lot of credibility. You've got to remember, he was chosen by George Tenet, the director of CIA, for this role, specific role. And what basically David Kay is saying, and has said, is that the intelligence community has not served the president, has not served the nation as it should. And that's why George Tenet is going to try to make a big speech today to defend -- unusual that he does this -- defend the actions of the agency.

We all know -- we all know, Bill, that there are a lot of successes in the intelligence community, but they've been too, too many failures, huge -- September 11, Khobar Towers -- all of this. We've got to do better.

HEMMER: If George Tenet is going to make this public speech, and, as you mentioned, he will defend his own agency, what does he say that satisfies you? And more importantly, what does he say that satisfies the American people today?

SHELBY: Well, I would say at the end of the day he's not going to satisfy me or the American people, because he's in a defensive mode, and you've got the Senate Intelligence Committee right now coming forth with condemnation of some of their actions. They are under attack. He's got a lot to defend.

We should praise the successes of the intelligence community, but we should not ignore, we cannot ignore the failures, and there have been too many of them.

And what bothers me -- I'm a big supporter of the president. I support what he's done. I supported the war. But the information that he gets from the intelligence community should be information that he can act upon, not information based on guesses and estimates and so forth.

HEMMER: We are told that there was no consultation with the White House prior to this speech you can expect in about two hours and 20 minutes from now.

SHELBY: Well...

HEMMER: Do you see it the same way we do -- that a turf war seems to be developing in various parts of Washington, with Capitol Hill in one corner, the White House in another, and now the CIA director in his position today?

SHELBY: Perhaps. But, Bill, the Congress has a right -- the Senate Intelligence Committee headed by Senator Roberts and Senator Rockefeller. They have a right and an obligation to do the proper oversight in the intelligence community, and they are doing this. And I believe people ought to listen to them.

Also, we have this commission that's been ongoing to look at the failures of intelligence up to September 11, what went wrong and what went right. And now the president is going to appoint, I hope, which would be a blue ribbon commission to look at the failures of intelligence leading up to Iraq.

The intelligence community is on the defensive. It shouldn't always be on the defensive, but it should be forthright with the American people and especially the policyholders -- I mean, the policymakers. And I'm not sure that's the case.

HEMMER: Richard Shelby, thank you, Senator.

SHELBY: Thank you, Bill.

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 February 5, 2004 - 07:08   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Senator Richard Shelby of Alabama was chairman of the Intelligence Committee in the days and months leading up to the war with Iraq last March.
Senator Shelby is our guest this morning in D.C.

Senator, welcome back. Good to have you here on AMERICAN MORNING.

SEN. RICHARD SHELBY (R-AL), FORMER CHAIRMAN OF INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: Good morning.

HEMMER: Let's take one issue at a time here. David Kay, you know his testimony, he says there are no large stockpiles of weapons in Iraq. Do you believe him?

SHELBY: Well, David Kay has a lot of credibility. You've got to remember, he was chosen by George Tenet, the director of CIA, for this role, specific role. And what basically David Kay is saying, and has said, is that the intelligence community has not served the president, has not served the nation as it should. And that's why George Tenet is going to try to make a big speech today to defend -- unusual that he does this -- defend the actions of the agency.

We all know -- we all know, Bill, that there are a lot of successes in the intelligence community, but they've been too, too many failures, huge -- September 11, Khobar Towers -- all of this. We've got to do better.

HEMMER: If George Tenet is going to make this public speech, and, as you mentioned, he will defend his own agency, what does he say that satisfies you? And more importantly, what does he say that satisfies the American people today?

SHELBY: Well, I would say at the end of the day he's not going to satisfy me or the American people, because he's in a defensive mode, and you've got the Senate Intelligence Committee right now coming forth with condemnation of some of their actions. They are under attack. He's got a lot to defend.

We should praise the successes of the intelligence community, but we should not ignore, we cannot ignore the failures, and there have been too many of them.

And what bothers me -- I'm a big supporter of the president. I support what he's done. I supported the war. But the information that he gets from the intelligence community should be information that he can act upon, not information based on guesses and estimates and so forth.

HEMMER: We are told that there was no consultation with the White House prior to this speech you can expect in about two hours and 20 minutes from now.

SHELBY: Well...

HEMMER: Do you see it the same way we do -- that a turf war seems to be developing in various parts of Washington, with Capitol Hill in one corner, the White House in another, and now the CIA director in his position today?

SHELBY: Perhaps. But, Bill, the Congress has a right -- the Senate Intelligence Committee headed by Senator Roberts and Senator Rockefeller. They have a right and an obligation to do the proper oversight in the intelligence community, and they are doing this. And I believe people ought to listen to them.

Also, we have this commission that's been ongoing to look at the failures of intelligence up to September 11, what went wrong and what went right. And now the president is going to appoint, I hope, which would be a blue ribbon commission to look at the failures of intelligence leading up to Iraq.

The intelligence community is on the defensive. It shouldn't always be on the defensive, but it should be forthright with the American people and especially the policyholders -- I mean, the policymakers. And I'm not sure that's the case.

HEMMER: Richard Shelby, thank you, Senator.

SHELBY: Thank you, Bill.

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