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CNN Live At Daybreak

CIA Director George Tenet's Highly Anticipated Speech

Aired February 05, 2004 - 05:01   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: More now on CIA Director George Tenet's highly anticipated speech over intelligence gathering in Iraq. It's coming up just about four and a half hours from now at Georgetown University.
Our national security correspondent David Ensor tells us what we can expect to hear.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID ENSOR, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In an unusual, hastily arranged speech, George Tenet is going public to defend the CIA against blunt criticisms from David Kay, his former weapons inspector.

DAVID KAY, FORMER U.S. WEAPONS INSPECTOR: We were all wrong.

ENSOR: That judgment is premature, Tenet will say, according to intelligence officials, and the suggestion that the search for weapons in Iraq is 85 percent done is wrong, too. Tenet will likely say that millions of pages of documents remain to be translated and thousands of knowledgeable Iraqis remain to be interrogated. At the same time, Tenet will remind Americans intelligence is not a crystal ball.

The speech is a second salvo, following Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld on the Hill insisting weapons could still be found.

GEORGE TENET, CIA DIRECTOR: Think. It took us 10 months to find Saddam Hussein. The reality is that the hole he was found hiding in was large enough to hold enough biological weapons to kill thousands of human beings.

ENSOR: Stung by Kay's charges that U.S. intelligence got it wrong on Libya and Iran, too, aides suggest Tenet will say, in fact, the CIA knew plenty about both nuclear programs. And there may be a surprise revelation or two, according to Rumsfeld, designed to answer all the talk of intelligence failures.

DONALD RUMSFELD, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: The director of Central Intelligence, George Tenet, will be able to make some of those recent examples of successes -- and there have been many -- public so that the impression that has and is being created of broad intelligence failures can be dispelled.

ENSOR (on camera): CIA officials say Tenet decided to take the unusual step because he could not wait any longer to respond to all the criticism by Kay, Democratic presidential candidates and others. They say they want to correct misimpressions before the conventional wisdom hardens into the idea that U.S. intelligence got nothing right on Iraq.

David Ensor, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: And there is certainly a lot of interest in this story here in the United States. But does anyone in Iraq really care?

For the answer, let's turn to our Gaven Morris.

He's live in Baghdad this morning.

Will people be listening to George Tenet's speech in Baghdad today?

GAVEN MORRIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Carol, I think they will. I think they'll really be paying attention because there is very much a growing feeling of mistrust, of anger with the Americans over the fact that, as the Iraqis understand it, the whole reason why America and the coalition were coming here was to get these weapons of mass destruction. With no evidence so far, there's a growing feeling on the states and among political analysts here that really the Iraqis are quite angry. And the longer it goes on without any evidence of weapons of mass destruction, the angrier they will get.

There are some important connotations, then, for future leaders or prospective leaders of Iraq, because before the war, many of them were opposition members in exile. They worked with the Americans on some of this apparent evidence. And so even looking forward now, there are many Iraqis saying that how can we trust these people when they were involved in these claims, as well -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Gaven Morris reporting live from Baghdad.

We'll get back to you later on on DAYBREAK.

George Tenet's speech, by the way, is set for 9:30 Eastern this morning and CNN, of course, will bring that to you live.

And if you go to our Web site, you can read more about what Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has to say about the intelligence used in the search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. The address, cnn.com.

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 - 05:01   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: More now on CIA Director George Tenet's highly anticipated speech over intelligence gathering in Iraq. It's coming up just about four and a half hours from now at Georgetown University.
Our national security correspondent David Ensor tells us what we can expect to hear.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID ENSOR, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In an unusual, hastily arranged speech, George Tenet is going public to defend the CIA against blunt criticisms from David Kay, his former weapons inspector.

DAVID KAY, FORMER U.S. WEAPONS INSPECTOR: We were all wrong.

ENSOR: That judgment is premature, Tenet will say, according to intelligence officials, and the suggestion that the search for weapons in Iraq is 85 percent done is wrong, too. Tenet will likely say that millions of pages of documents remain to be translated and thousands of knowledgeable Iraqis remain to be interrogated. At the same time, Tenet will remind Americans intelligence is not a crystal ball.

The speech is a second salvo, following Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld on the Hill insisting weapons could still be found.

GEORGE TENET, CIA DIRECTOR: Think. It took us 10 months to find Saddam Hussein. The reality is that the hole he was found hiding in was large enough to hold enough biological weapons to kill thousands of human beings.

ENSOR: Stung by Kay's charges that U.S. intelligence got it wrong on Libya and Iran, too, aides suggest Tenet will say, in fact, the CIA knew plenty about both nuclear programs. And there may be a surprise revelation or two, according to Rumsfeld, designed to answer all the talk of intelligence failures.

DONALD RUMSFELD, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: The director of Central Intelligence, George Tenet, will be able to make some of those recent examples of successes -- and there have been many -- public so that the impression that has and is being created of broad intelligence failures can be dispelled.

ENSOR (on camera): CIA officials say Tenet decided to take the unusual step because he could not wait any longer to respond to all the criticism by Kay, Democratic presidential candidates and others. They say they want to correct misimpressions before the conventional wisdom hardens into the idea that U.S. intelligence got nothing right on Iraq.

David Ensor, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: And there is certainly a lot of interest in this story here in the United States. But does anyone in Iraq really care?

For the answer, let's turn to our Gaven Morris.

He's live in Baghdad this morning.

Will people be listening to George Tenet's speech in Baghdad today?

GAVEN MORRIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Carol, I think they will. I think they'll really be paying attention because there is very much a growing feeling of mistrust, of anger with the Americans over the fact that, as the Iraqis understand it, the whole reason why America and the coalition were coming here was to get these weapons of mass destruction. With no evidence so far, there's a growing feeling on the states and among political analysts here that really the Iraqis are quite angry. And the longer it goes on without any evidence of weapons of mass destruction, the angrier they will get.

There are some important connotations, then, for future leaders or prospective leaders of Iraq, because before the war, many of them were opposition members in exile. They worked with the Americans on some of this apparent evidence. And so even looking forward now, there are many Iraqis saying that how can we trust these people when they were involved in these claims, as well -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Gaven Morris reporting live from Baghdad.

We'll get back to you later on on DAYBREAK.

George Tenet's speech, by the way, is set for 9:30 Eastern this morning and CNN, of course, will bring that to you live.

And if you go to our Web site, you can read more about what Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has to say about the intelligence used in the search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. The address, cnn.com.

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