Return to Transcripts main page
Live From...
Government Agencies Resisting 9/11 Probe?
Aired July 09, 2003 - 15:12 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.
JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: Leaders of the commission named by Congress and President Bush to investigate terrorism are now criticizing the low level of cooperation they say they've received from the Bush administration.
A little while ago, I spoke with a commission chairmen, former New Jersey Government Tom Kean, and the vice chairman, former Indiana Congressman Lee Hamilton.
I started by asking Tom Kean about his recent statement that the commission has received only a small portion of the information it's requested.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TOM KEAN, CHAIRMAN, 9-11 COMMISSION: It's a little hard to tell as yet, because we're asking for so much. And we asked for whole categories of documents. But we have certainly received probably less than one-third of what we ultimately are going to need in order to do the job. And it's varied from department to department.
Some departments have been very forthcoming. Others have been very, very slow. But we're working on the clock. So we haven't got time for the ones that are slow.
WOODRUFF: Well, for example, Congressman Hamilton, the Justice Department put out a statement saying they have produced -- quote -- "thousands of pages of documents."
LEE HAMILTON, VICE CHAIRMAN, 9-11 COMMISSION: Well, you're dealing with a very large universe here. And, of course, it's not just the quantity of materials. It's also the quality of the materials.
We don't know, really, all of the papers and documents that may be out there. We are now sending to the various agencies, including the Department of Justice, quite broad requests for information. We are now beginning to get a lot of documents coming in to the commission office. They're coming in by the boxes. So I think things have improved. But we've got many, many more requests to make. And I'm sure we're going to be receiving a lot more boxes of information.
WOODRUFF: Governor Kean, what happens when you don't get what you ask for? Do you two personally get involved? Do you get on the phone? What happens?
KEAN: Well, the staff, of course, works on it first. And then either Congress Hamilton or I might get on the phone, or another member of the commission who has a contact. What -- we don't want to use it. We have ultimately, of course, got the power of subpoena. But we would much rather have this done voluntarily and work with the various agencies in that way.
WOODRUFF: Well, I'm sure you know there's a spokeswoman at the White House who is saying, in response to your report, "The president has directed federal agencies to cooperate and do so quickly."
Now, did he do this at the beginning, or when?
KEAN: There was a -- fairly near the beginning, the president's chief of staff, Andy Card, sent out a memo in the president's name to all the agencies asking them to cooperate fully with the commission. And some of them have been.
And none of them have been totally uncooperative. Some of them are just very, very slow. They're busy people and they have got a lot to do. And we probably haven't been at the top of the list. We're saying, because of our timetable and because of the importance of our task, we really have to be on top of the list.
WOODRUFF: But, Congressman Hamilton, if the president is telling people to cooperate and even his own White House isn't, what does that say to you?
HAMILTON: Well, first of all, we think the president has indicated very clearly that he wants to cooperate. Secondly, I think we have a lot of evidence that he is cooperating.
Not all of the difficulty here is a reluctance to give us material. It's hard to find all of this material in some of these large bureaucracies. There are some national security factors. There are some factors relating to trials -- particularly the Moussaoui trial that's the Justice Department's major concerns at the moment -- that make it more difficult to get to material.
We understand that some of the requests we're making are difficult for the president, for the executive branch to respond to. We're going after the most sensitive information I think any investigating committee has ever gone after. And we appreciate that fact. And it is not easy for the president or others to turn over a lot of this information.
WOODRUFF: Well, Governor Kean, by going public, as you are, you are obviously putting some heat on the administration, on the White House. Are you getting any reaction from them?
KEAN: Well, we hope the reaction is going to be that there will be a lot more documents coming into our office, so our staff can get to work. One thing that has happened I think is very positive. We had a part-time official in the Justice Department who was working to expedite our requests. There's a now full-time official with four assistants who is going to work to expedite our requests.
WOODRUFF: When did that happen? KEAN: I think it happened about -- well, on the change. It happened in the last week. Maybe about four or five days ago, we got that word. And that, I think, is going to be very helpful. I can't say -- it hasn't happened yet, but I think, in the next couple of weeks, that is going to make a big difference.
WOODRUFF: What happens if you don't get the documents you need?
KEAN: Well, if we don't get the materials we need, our staff can't get working on the report. And if we can't get working on the report, then the worst possible scenario would be that we couldn't meet our deadline, which is the deadline given us by Congress and by the White House. And we want to do that.
HAMILTON: We fully expect to get the information we want. We have no indication at this point that we will not get it. We are running into a few obstacles relating to national security, relating to trials, relating to the conditions under which we may exam the material. But I think Governor Kean and I are both confident that we'll get the material. Our concern is time.
We're fighting a real deadline here. So we not only need cooperation. We need prompt cooperation.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WOODRUFF: Lee Hamilton and Tom Kean, of the commission investigating 9/11.
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 July 9, 2003 - 15:12 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: Leaders of the commission named by Congress and President Bush to investigate terrorism are now criticizing the low level of cooperation they say they've received from the Bush administration.
A little while ago, I spoke with a commission chairmen, former New Jersey Government Tom Kean, and the vice chairman, former Indiana Congressman Lee Hamilton.
I started by asking Tom Kean about his recent statement that the commission has received only a small portion of the information it's requested.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TOM KEAN, CHAIRMAN, 9-11 COMMISSION: It's a little hard to tell as yet, because we're asking for so much. And we asked for whole categories of documents. But we have certainly received probably less than one-third of what we ultimately are going to need in order to do the job. And it's varied from department to department.
Some departments have been very forthcoming. Others have been very, very slow. But we're working on the clock. So we haven't got time for the ones that are slow.
WOODRUFF: Well, for example, Congressman Hamilton, the Justice Department put out a statement saying they have produced -- quote -- "thousands of pages of documents."
LEE HAMILTON, VICE CHAIRMAN, 9-11 COMMISSION: Well, you're dealing with a very large universe here. And, of course, it's not just the quantity of materials. It's also the quality of the materials.
We don't know, really, all of the papers and documents that may be out there. We are now sending to the various agencies, including the Department of Justice, quite broad requests for information. We are now beginning to get a lot of documents coming in to the commission office. They're coming in by the boxes. So I think things have improved. But we've got many, many more requests to make. And I'm sure we're going to be receiving a lot more boxes of information.
WOODRUFF: Governor Kean, what happens when you don't get what you ask for? Do you two personally get involved? Do you get on the phone? What happens?
KEAN: Well, the staff, of course, works on it first. And then either Congress Hamilton or I might get on the phone, or another member of the commission who has a contact. What -- we don't want to use it. We have ultimately, of course, got the power of subpoena. But we would much rather have this done voluntarily and work with the various agencies in that way.
WOODRUFF: Well, I'm sure you know there's a spokeswoman at the White House who is saying, in response to your report, "The president has directed federal agencies to cooperate and do so quickly."
Now, did he do this at the beginning, or when?
KEAN: There was a -- fairly near the beginning, the president's chief of staff, Andy Card, sent out a memo in the president's name to all the agencies asking them to cooperate fully with the commission. And some of them have been.
And none of them have been totally uncooperative. Some of them are just very, very slow. They're busy people and they have got a lot to do. And we probably haven't been at the top of the list. We're saying, because of our timetable and because of the importance of our task, we really have to be on top of the list.
WOODRUFF: But, Congressman Hamilton, if the president is telling people to cooperate and even his own White House isn't, what does that say to you?
HAMILTON: Well, first of all, we think the president has indicated very clearly that he wants to cooperate. Secondly, I think we have a lot of evidence that he is cooperating.
Not all of the difficulty here is a reluctance to give us material. It's hard to find all of this material in some of these large bureaucracies. There are some national security factors. There are some factors relating to trials -- particularly the Moussaoui trial that's the Justice Department's major concerns at the moment -- that make it more difficult to get to material.
We understand that some of the requests we're making are difficult for the president, for the executive branch to respond to. We're going after the most sensitive information I think any investigating committee has ever gone after. And we appreciate that fact. And it is not easy for the president or others to turn over a lot of this information.
WOODRUFF: Well, Governor Kean, by going public, as you are, you are obviously putting some heat on the administration, on the White House. Are you getting any reaction from them?
KEAN: Well, we hope the reaction is going to be that there will be a lot more documents coming into our office, so our staff can get to work. One thing that has happened I think is very positive. We had a part-time official in the Justice Department who was working to expedite our requests. There's a now full-time official with four assistants who is going to work to expedite our requests.
WOODRUFF: When did that happen? KEAN: I think it happened about -- well, on the change. It happened in the last week. Maybe about four or five days ago, we got that word. And that, I think, is going to be very helpful. I can't say -- it hasn't happened yet, but I think, in the next couple of weeks, that is going to make a big difference.
WOODRUFF: What happens if you don't get the documents you need?
KEAN: Well, if we don't get the materials we need, our staff can't get working on the report. And if we can't get working on the report, then the worst possible scenario would be that we couldn't meet our deadline, which is the deadline given us by Congress and by the White House. And we want to do that.
HAMILTON: We fully expect to get the information we want. We have no indication at this point that we will not get it. We are running into a few obstacles relating to national security, relating to trials, relating to the conditions under which we may exam the material. But I think Governor Kean and I are both confident that we'll get the material. Our concern is time.
We're fighting a real deadline here. So we not only need cooperation. We need prompt cooperation.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WOODRUFF: Lee Hamilton and Tom Kean, of the commission investigating 9/11.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
