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American Morning
Did Putin Give U.S. Administration Warnings from Saddam Hussein That He May Attack U.S.?
Aired June 18, 2004 - 07:21 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: Twenty-one past the hour. Developing story now out of Moscow. Did Vladimir Putin give the U.S. administration warnings from Saddam Hussein that he may attack the U.S.? Jill Dougherty, our Moscow chief, breaking this story.
Jill, what do you have?
JILL DOUGHERTY, MOSCOW BUREAU CHIEF: Well, Bill, these comments are coming out just in the past few minutes from President Vladimir Putin, who is in Kazakhstan right now.
And what Mr. Putin said is that Russian special intelligence services several times -- repeatedly --warned the United States, giving it intelligence information that Russia had collected that the regime of Saddam Hussein was preparing to carry out terrorist attacks against the United States, both in the United States and outside of the United States.
Now, the timeframe of this is very important. He said we are talking about the period after 9/11 and before the beginning of the war in Iraq.
Mr. Putin said that this information that Saddam Hussein's people were planning these terrorist attacks was received several times and it was passed on, as he put it, to our American colleagues in the intelligence services and he even said that President Bush personally thanked the head of one of those Russian intelligence services for passing on this information, which he said was very important.
Mr. Putin also said that they have no intelligence information that Mr. Saddam -- that Saddam Hussein's people -- were actually involved in any terrorist acts -- Bill.
HEMMER: Developing story and an intriguing one at that -- thanks. Jill Dougherty out of Moscow. More on that when we get it again from overseas.
O'BRIEN: Still to come this morning, it is a big fat rejection for one major airline that's trying to crawl its way back into the black. We're "Minding Your Business" just ahead.
HEMMER: Also in a moment, Bill Clinton says he knows his greatest accomplishment as president, and he's ready to tell. We'll get to that in a moment here.
O'BRIEN: Plus, Mel Gibson knocks Jennifer Anniston down a few notches. One magazine says he has God to thank for it.
We'll explain as AMERICAN MORNING continues right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HEMMER: Welcome back everybody. United Airlines dealt a big blow by the government. Andy has details now, "Minding Your Business." What's up here?
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Good morning. More trouble for a big airline, you guys.
The federal government rejecting a plea from United Airlines for $1.6 billion loan guarantee. This is the second time the Air Transportation Stabilization Board has said no to United in 18 months.
The world's second largest airline, that's after American, went into bankruptcy in December of '02. It was expected to emerge soon. This throws that into jeopardy. No implications for passengers if you're flying on United immediately.
But the real questions now about the long-term viability for this carrier.
Want to talk about the markets also a little bit here. A down day for Wall Street yesterday. Not so bad though. You can see here. We can sort of deal with that as long as it doesn't happen every day.
Futures down this morning, though. Oil prices higher this morning. A strike on Norwegian oil workers, sending oil prices -- just what we need.
HEMMER: It's always something, right?
SERWER: Just what we need. So we'll be watching that this morning.
O'BRIEN: All right, Andy thanks.
SERWER: Yes.
O'BRIEN: Coming up this morning, what better way to kick off your weekend than with "90-Second Pop?"
And now for something completely different. The Material Girl makes a life-changing decision. Maybe we should all call her the Artist Formerly Known As Madonna.
Also, if you're a bachelorette, first comes love, then comes marriage. But if you're one of the bachelors, say hello to splitsville. "90-Second Pop" just ahead on this AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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 June 18, 2004 - 07:21 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Twenty-one past the hour. Developing story now out of Moscow. Did Vladimir Putin give the U.S. administration warnings from Saddam Hussein that he may attack the U.S.? Jill Dougherty, our Moscow chief, breaking this story.
Jill, what do you have?
JILL DOUGHERTY, MOSCOW BUREAU CHIEF: Well, Bill, these comments are coming out just in the past few minutes from President Vladimir Putin, who is in Kazakhstan right now.
And what Mr. Putin said is that Russian special intelligence services several times -- repeatedly --warned the United States, giving it intelligence information that Russia had collected that the regime of Saddam Hussein was preparing to carry out terrorist attacks against the United States, both in the United States and outside of the United States.
Now, the timeframe of this is very important. He said we are talking about the period after 9/11 and before the beginning of the war in Iraq.
Mr. Putin said that this information that Saddam Hussein's people were planning these terrorist attacks was received several times and it was passed on, as he put it, to our American colleagues in the intelligence services and he even said that President Bush personally thanked the head of one of those Russian intelligence services for passing on this information, which he said was very important.
Mr. Putin also said that they have no intelligence information that Mr. Saddam -- that Saddam Hussein's people -- were actually involved in any terrorist acts -- Bill.
HEMMER: Developing story and an intriguing one at that -- thanks. Jill Dougherty out of Moscow. More on that when we get it again from overseas.
O'BRIEN: Still to come this morning, it is a big fat rejection for one major airline that's trying to crawl its way back into the black. We're "Minding Your Business" just ahead.
HEMMER: Also in a moment, Bill Clinton says he knows his greatest accomplishment as president, and he's ready to tell. We'll get to that in a moment here.
O'BRIEN: Plus, Mel Gibson knocks Jennifer Anniston down a few notches. One magazine says he has God to thank for it.
We'll explain as AMERICAN MORNING continues right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HEMMER: Welcome back everybody. United Airlines dealt a big blow by the government. Andy has details now, "Minding Your Business." What's up here?
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Good morning. More trouble for a big airline, you guys.
The federal government rejecting a plea from United Airlines for $1.6 billion loan guarantee. This is the second time the Air Transportation Stabilization Board has said no to United in 18 months.
The world's second largest airline, that's after American, went into bankruptcy in December of '02. It was expected to emerge soon. This throws that into jeopardy. No implications for passengers if you're flying on United immediately.
But the real questions now about the long-term viability for this carrier.
Want to talk about the markets also a little bit here. A down day for Wall Street yesterday. Not so bad though. You can see here. We can sort of deal with that as long as it doesn't happen every day.
Futures down this morning, though. Oil prices higher this morning. A strike on Norwegian oil workers, sending oil prices -- just what we need.
HEMMER: It's always something, right?
SERWER: Just what we need. So we'll be watching that this morning.
O'BRIEN: All right, Andy thanks.
SERWER: Yes.
O'BRIEN: Coming up this morning, what better way to kick off your weekend than with "90-Second Pop?"
And now for something completely different. The Material Girl makes a life-changing decision. Maybe we should all call her the Artist Formerly Known As Madonna.
Also, if you're a bachelorette, first comes love, then comes marriage. But if you're one of the bachelors, say hello to splitsville. "90-Second Pop" just ahead on this AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
