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CNN Live At Daybreak

CIA Director Will Speak at Georgetown University

Aired February 05, 2004 - 05:31   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: There is a big speech today at Georgetown University. George Tenet will be the speaker. He is the embattled director of the CIA. He's taking the unusual step of addressing accusations of intelligence failures in the lead up to the war in Iraq. And, of course, CNN will provide live coverage of Tenet's speech this morning. That's at 9:30 Eastern, 6:30 Pacific time.
And just to give you a little background, it was a year ago today that the secretary of state, Colin Powell, presented the administration's case for war in that speech to the United Nations. This week, he says despite criticism swirling around intelligence on Iraq, the U.S. did the right thing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COLIN POWELL, SECRETARY OF STATE: The president made the right decision. There should be no doubt in the mind of the American people or anyone else in the world that we have done the right thing, and history will certainly be the test of that. But I think the test really has already been passed by the Iraqi people now seeing that they're going to have a democratic future, they're going to be living in peace with their neighbors and we'll never have to have a discussion about weapons of mass destruction again with respect to Iraq.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: You can bet George Tenet's speech today will be closely watched around the world.

Our senior international editor David Clinch is here to talk more about that.

It'll be watched in Baghdad. We just heard from our correspondent there.

DAVID CLINCH, CNN INTERNATIONAL EDITOR: It will be. A year ago we were listening to Powell at the United Nations lay out the case claiming weapons of mass destruction existed and that they would be found. They have not been yet found. We'll listen to George Tenet today to hear his position on where the CIA stands in terms of why they haven't been found yet and his interpretation of the role that intelligence has played so far.

COSTELLO: This will be watched with interest, I would suppose, in Britain. CLINCH: It will be watched in Britain. We're watching there. But Prime Minister Blair under his own pressure for exactly the same question, why these things haven't been found, what was the role of intelligence. And also in Iraq itself, and there, particularly in Baghdad, we're making another effort to talk to a number of the Iraqi opposition figures who supplied some -- we don't know how much -- but some of the intelligence that was used by the CIA and others to justify the war, Chalabi and some of these others who are now, of course, on the Governing Council.

They're busy trying to arrange the hand over in Iraq, but we are attempting to talk to them...

COSTELLO: Well, how might this affect them? Let's talk about that. Because they gave information to U.S. intelligence sources that there were probably weapons of mass destruction and some people think they were just saying that to gain a foothold in Iraq.

CLINCH: Right. Well, we are working to find out more. But so far what we are hearing from them in interviews that they've given in newspapers is that their position is they did supply information, but it was just raw information, they can't be held responsible for how it was collated and how it was used. And, again, we want to speak to them directly. But we're also hearing from a lot of Iraqi analysts that many Iraqis, those that are aware of the situation, feel a very bad taste in their mouth about those opposition figures because of exactly this and now are questioning whether they should play a role in the future leadership of Iraq.

Now, also from George Tenet today, we're hearing he will broaden the question of intelligence to look into what we know about North Korea and others. And, of course, we're also hearing that he may mention Pakistan. We've been following the story of Dr. Khan, the scientist there who now, just now we're hearing has been granted clemency despite...

COSTELLO: He has been?

CLINCH: Yes, just been granted clemency despite the fact that he has admitted selling nuclear secrets to North Korea, Libya and Iran.

COSTELLO: And by clemency, you mean nothing is going to happen to him?

CLINCH: We're not sure exactly what that means, but he will not be sent to prison, we know that for sure. We expect to hear from President Musharraf. And we're, interestingly, also hearing from ElBaradei, the head of the IAEA in Vienna today, that his view on Dr. Khan and his activities is that that's just the tip of the iceberg, that there's a massive black market out there. And, also -- we'll be looking into that.

Also, just interestingly, in the "Washington Post" today, I was reading, the "Washington Post" saying that the U.S. administration will now have to face the fact -- this is their editorial lead today -- the U.S. will now have to accept the fact that, "Pakistan's military leadership has done more to threaten the U.S. and global security with weapons of mass destruction than either al Qaeda or Saddam Hussein."

So as we listen to George Tenet today and we watch this story...

COSTELLO: How can that...

CLINCH: ... in Pakistan...

COSTELLO: I'm just playing devil's advocate here, but Pakistan certainly helped the United States in many ways in the fight against al Qaeda.

CLINCH: Right, well, and we've talked about this yesterday and previously, as well. It's a rock and a hard place in Pakistan for Musharraf about what to do with Khan, but also for the United States in how to view how much damage was done by Khan. And, again, we expect George Tenet to speak about this today and what to do now, if he's granted clemency despite admitting selling these things to what the U.S. describes as rogue nations.

And, also, now looking back at Dr. Khan, was he involved in trying to sell nuclear secrets to Iraq previously? Was he involved in dealing with al Qaeda? All of those questions remain to be answered.

COSTELLO: Interesting. And hopefully some of those questions will be answered, but some may never be.

CLINCH: Sure.

COSTELLO: Thank you, David.

CLINCH: OK.

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 - 05:31   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: There is a big speech today at Georgetown University. George Tenet will be the speaker. He is the embattled director of the CIA. He's taking the unusual step of addressing accusations of intelligence failures in the lead up to the war in Iraq. And, of course, CNN will provide live coverage of Tenet's speech this morning. That's at 9:30 Eastern, 6:30 Pacific time.
And just to give you a little background, it was a year ago today that the secretary of state, Colin Powell, presented the administration's case for war in that speech to the United Nations. This week, he says despite criticism swirling around intelligence on Iraq, the U.S. did the right thing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COLIN POWELL, SECRETARY OF STATE: The president made the right decision. There should be no doubt in the mind of the American people or anyone else in the world that we have done the right thing, and history will certainly be the test of that. But I think the test really has already been passed by the Iraqi people now seeing that they're going to have a democratic future, they're going to be living in peace with their neighbors and we'll never have to have a discussion about weapons of mass destruction again with respect to Iraq.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: You can bet George Tenet's speech today will be closely watched around the world.

Our senior international editor David Clinch is here to talk more about that.

It'll be watched in Baghdad. We just heard from our correspondent there.

DAVID CLINCH, CNN INTERNATIONAL EDITOR: It will be. A year ago we were listening to Powell at the United Nations lay out the case claiming weapons of mass destruction existed and that they would be found. They have not been yet found. We'll listen to George Tenet today to hear his position on where the CIA stands in terms of why they haven't been found yet and his interpretation of the role that intelligence has played so far.

COSTELLO: This will be watched with interest, I would suppose, in Britain. CLINCH: It will be watched in Britain. We're watching there. But Prime Minister Blair under his own pressure for exactly the same question, why these things haven't been found, what was the role of intelligence. And also in Iraq itself, and there, particularly in Baghdad, we're making another effort to talk to a number of the Iraqi opposition figures who supplied some -- we don't know how much -- but some of the intelligence that was used by the CIA and others to justify the war, Chalabi and some of these others who are now, of course, on the Governing Council.

They're busy trying to arrange the hand over in Iraq, but we are attempting to talk to them...

COSTELLO: Well, how might this affect them? Let's talk about that. Because they gave information to U.S. intelligence sources that there were probably weapons of mass destruction and some people think they were just saying that to gain a foothold in Iraq.

CLINCH: Right. Well, we are working to find out more. But so far what we are hearing from them in interviews that they've given in newspapers is that their position is they did supply information, but it was just raw information, they can't be held responsible for how it was collated and how it was used. And, again, we want to speak to them directly. But we're also hearing from a lot of Iraqi analysts that many Iraqis, those that are aware of the situation, feel a very bad taste in their mouth about those opposition figures because of exactly this and now are questioning whether they should play a role in the future leadership of Iraq.

Now, also from George Tenet today, we're hearing he will broaden the question of intelligence to look into what we know about North Korea and others. And, of course, we're also hearing that he may mention Pakistan. We've been following the story of Dr. Khan, the scientist there who now, just now we're hearing has been granted clemency despite...

COSTELLO: He has been?

CLINCH: Yes, just been granted clemency despite the fact that he has admitted selling nuclear secrets to North Korea, Libya and Iran.

COSTELLO: And by clemency, you mean nothing is going to happen to him?

CLINCH: We're not sure exactly what that means, but he will not be sent to prison, we know that for sure. We expect to hear from President Musharraf. And we're, interestingly, also hearing from ElBaradei, the head of the IAEA in Vienna today, that his view on Dr. Khan and his activities is that that's just the tip of the iceberg, that there's a massive black market out there. And, also -- we'll be looking into that.

Also, just interestingly, in the "Washington Post" today, I was reading, the "Washington Post" saying that the U.S. administration will now have to face the fact -- this is their editorial lead today -- the U.S. will now have to accept the fact that, "Pakistan's military leadership has done more to threaten the U.S. and global security with weapons of mass destruction than either al Qaeda or Saddam Hussein."

So as we listen to George Tenet today and we watch this story...

COSTELLO: How can that...

CLINCH: ... in Pakistan...

COSTELLO: I'm just playing devil's advocate here, but Pakistan certainly helped the United States in many ways in the fight against al Qaeda.

CLINCH: Right, well, and we've talked about this yesterday and previously, as well. It's a rock and a hard place in Pakistan for Musharraf about what to do with Khan, but also for the United States in how to view how much damage was done by Khan. And, again, we expect George Tenet to speak about this today and what to do now, if he's granted clemency despite admitting selling these things to what the U.S. describes as rogue nations.

And, also, now looking back at Dr. Khan, was he involved in trying to sell nuclear secrets to Iraq previously? Was he involved in dealing with al Qaeda? All of those questions remain to be answered.

COSTELLO: Interesting. And hopefully some of those questions will be answered, but some may never be.

CLINCH: Sure.

COSTELLO: Thank you, David.

CLINCH: OK.

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