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CNN Saturday Morning News

Interview with John McCain

Aired February 07, 2004 - 07:45   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.


FRANK BUCKLEY, CNN ANCHOR: President Bush finalized plans for a bipartisan panel to look into alleged intelligence failures with regard to Iraq and weapons of mass destruction that haven't been found.
One of the members of that panel is Arizona Senator John McCain, who joins us now from Munich, Germany.

Senator, we appreciate your being here.

One of the first questions I wanted to run by you here is that some Democrats are suggesting that this panel isn't truly independent because everyone has been selected by the Bush administration. Nancy Pelosi says, for example, that, "it's a commission wholly owned by the executive branch investigating the executive branch."

What do you have to say about that?

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: Well, I'll leave that judgment up to others. But I would leave the judgment up to people a little less partisan than Congresswoman Pelosi. I think that from what I can tell is that these are very highly qualified people. I'll let people judge about my own, but other people on the panel, I think, are very highly qualified. But, very frankly, there will be outside observers and media people who will make a judgment as to whether this is an independent commission or not.

BUCKLEY: You've said, sir, that there were, in fact, intelligence failures in Iraq.

What is it that you hope to see and what areas do you want to delve into?

MCCAIN: Well, I think it's clear that we need to find out where our intelligence either overestimated or underestimated. In the case of Iran and North Korea, perhaps we underestimated. And there were failures, I believe, in Iraq, certainly when Mr. David Kay says that "we were all wrong."

But I think that it's important to find out not only whether the estimates were wrong or whether they were misinterpreted or whether they were exaggerated -- in other words, there's a great deal to be found out, keeping in mind that it was not just U.S. intelligence that failed. British, German, Israeli, every other intelligence agency basically reached the same conclusion that ours did.

BUCKLEY: How can you be assured and what will you do to make sure that you have access to everything you need to come to the proper conclusions? Are there safeguards built into this process that will make sure that you get the access to the information you need?

MCCAIN: I'm confident there will be. If we were not, I think you would see some statements made and a reaction. I don't, it's, I think the president is very sincere in wanting to get to the bottom of this issue and get it resolved.

BUCKLEY: Speak to the critics, though, who suggest that the timing of the deadline of this and the way this is being done gives him some political cover during the campaign season, allows him to say look, this is being investigated, we can't really go into that right now.

What do you have to say about that?

MCCAIN: Well, I think it would be difficult to conclude an investigation of this scope in a short period of time. I would remind you that there's a number of other investigations going on which will report out before, including the House and Senate Intelligence Committees, before the election. So, look, I think whenever an issue like this comes up, it's fraught with controversy.

I, as soon as I heard Dr. Kay said we needed an independent commission, I hope that this commission can fulfill that duty. The American public need to know, as well as people in the world, because we have to have reliable intelligence when we're in an era where we feel we may have to attack a country if they are posing a great enough threat to us. So we have to have good intelligence and I think a case could be made that that wasn't the case prior to Iraq. But that doesn't, in my view, not justify our engagement there.

BUCKLEY: Senator John McCain in Munich, Germany, thanks for taking time out with us, sir.

MCCAIN: Thank you.

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 7, 2004 - 07:45   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FRANK BUCKLEY, CNN ANCHOR: President Bush finalized plans for a bipartisan panel to look into alleged intelligence failures with regard to Iraq and weapons of mass destruction that haven't been found.
One of the members of that panel is Arizona Senator John McCain, who joins us now from Munich, Germany.

Senator, we appreciate your being here.

One of the first questions I wanted to run by you here is that some Democrats are suggesting that this panel isn't truly independent because everyone has been selected by the Bush administration. Nancy Pelosi says, for example, that, "it's a commission wholly owned by the executive branch investigating the executive branch."

What do you have to say about that?

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: Well, I'll leave that judgment up to others. But I would leave the judgment up to people a little less partisan than Congresswoman Pelosi. I think that from what I can tell is that these are very highly qualified people. I'll let people judge about my own, but other people on the panel, I think, are very highly qualified. But, very frankly, there will be outside observers and media people who will make a judgment as to whether this is an independent commission or not.

BUCKLEY: You've said, sir, that there were, in fact, intelligence failures in Iraq.

What is it that you hope to see and what areas do you want to delve into?

MCCAIN: Well, I think it's clear that we need to find out where our intelligence either overestimated or underestimated. In the case of Iran and North Korea, perhaps we underestimated. And there were failures, I believe, in Iraq, certainly when Mr. David Kay says that "we were all wrong."

But I think that it's important to find out not only whether the estimates were wrong or whether they were misinterpreted or whether they were exaggerated -- in other words, there's a great deal to be found out, keeping in mind that it was not just U.S. intelligence that failed. British, German, Israeli, every other intelligence agency basically reached the same conclusion that ours did.

BUCKLEY: How can you be assured and what will you do to make sure that you have access to everything you need to come to the proper conclusions? Are there safeguards built into this process that will make sure that you get the access to the information you need?

MCCAIN: I'm confident there will be. If we were not, I think you would see some statements made and a reaction. I don't, it's, I think the president is very sincere in wanting to get to the bottom of this issue and get it resolved.

BUCKLEY: Speak to the critics, though, who suggest that the timing of the deadline of this and the way this is being done gives him some political cover during the campaign season, allows him to say look, this is being investigated, we can't really go into that right now.

What do you have to say about that?

MCCAIN: Well, I think it would be difficult to conclude an investigation of this scope in a short period of time. I would remind you that there's a number of other investigations going on which will report out before, including the House and Senate Intelligence Committees, before the election. So, look, I think whenever an issue like this comes up, it's fraught with controversy.

I, as soon as I heard Dr. Kay said we needed an independent commission, I hope that this commission can fulfill that duty. The American public need to know, as well as people in the world, because we have to have reliable intelligence when we're in an era where we feel we may have to attack a country if they are posing a great enough threat to us. So we have to have good intelligence and I think a case could be made that that wasn't the case prior to Iraq. But that doesn't, in my view, not justify our engagement there.

BUCKLEY: Senator John McCain in Munich, Germany, thanks for taking time out with us, sir.

MCCAIN: Thank you.

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