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CIA Chief Takes Capitol Hill Heat
Aired July 16, 2003 - 14:32 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.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: And now to Capitol Hill, where closed door testimony is under way right now. In the hot seat, CIA chief George Tenet, who's facing tough questions on the intelligence behind a controversial claim in the president's State of the Union speech.
Our Jonathan Karl joins us now live with the latest -- John, what kind of reception do you think he'll get?
JONATHAN KARL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, a pretty tough one, especially, by the way, from Republicans. But director of CIA George Tenet just arrived here on Capitol Hill just a few minutes ago. The hearing is just now getting under way. Democrats actually believe that Tenet, who, of course, was first appointed to his position by Bill Clinton, has been made into something of a scapegoat here by the White House. They believe that the true responsibility for what happened may actually lie more with Condoleezza Rice, the national security adviser, or with the vice president, or perhaps the president himself, than with the CIA director.
But some of the toughest questions that he will face will be from Republicans that believe the real problem here was that the CIA did not serve the president as it should have.
One of those Republicans on the committee spoke with CNN earlier and had this to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. SAXBY CHAMBLISS (R), GEORGIA: The fact of the matter is we know where it started, and that's in the intelligence gathering community. So that's where we're going to start. We'll have Director Tenet up today, and if it's necessary to bring Secretary Rumsfeld or Ms. Rice up, then we'll do so. But right now we just need to get to the bottom of it, find out what happened and how it happened. And the American people are entitled to know that and I think at the end of the day they're going to know it and we can move on. We've got much more serious issues to deal with.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KARL: Democrats are saying, and you can bet they'll bring it up at the hearing, that they believe that this goes far beyond those now famous 16 words in the president's State of the Union address about Iraq's alleged attempts to buy uranium in Africa and get to the general question of just how good was the intelligence before the war. The president made the case for going to war against Iraq by saying that Iraq had not only a nuclear weapons program, but also had vast stockpiles of biological and chemical weapons. Nothing of the sort has been found yet in Iraq. Democrats want to know why.
One of the Democrats who has been asking the question is one of those running for president, John Kerry, who gave a speech a short while ago in New York, where he took the president on generally on national security and specifically on this.
He also spoke on CNN today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOHN KERRY (D), MASSACHUSETTS: It's not just the 16 words. It's all of our intelligence. I mean we were told they had weapons that could be deployed within 45 minutes. We were told they had unmanned vehicles that had the ability to deliver. I mean there are a series of things here.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KARL: And there is one of those Democrats running for president who is on the Intelligence Committee, John Edwards of North Carolina, whom we expect to hear from shortly. He's also got some of his own questions for George Tenet, but ultimately for George Bush. After all, he's running for president against George Bush, not George Tenet. He'll be at that hearing and we expect to hear from him.
These are closed hearings, Kyra, but we do expect to have public hearings on this, public hearings on the issue generally starting next week in the House and full scale public hearings where we expect to hear again from George Tenet and from other top advisers to the president in September before the Senate hearing.
And tomorrow one very interesting thing to watch for is the presence of Tony Blair. The British prime minister will be addressing a joint session of Congress, a joint meeting of Congress, that is. He is still standing by that revelation, that allegation that Iraq was trying to get uranium from Africa. So that'll be a very interesting visit, indeed. He's only going to be in Washington about eight hours, but that will include a speech before both the House and the Senate, and a join press conference with the president.
PHILLIPS: Jon Karl on the Hill.
Thanks, Jon.
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 16, 2003 - 14:32 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: And now to Capitol Hill, where closed door testimony is under way right now. In the hot seat, CIA chief George Tenet, who's facing tough questions on the intelligence behind a controversial claim in the president's State of the Union speech.
Our Jonathan Karl joins us now live with the latest -- John, what kind of reception do you think he'll get?
JONATHAN KARL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, a pretty tough one, especially, by the way, from Republicans. But director of CIA George Tenet just arrived here on Capitol Hill just a few minutes ago. The hearing is just now getting under way. Democrats actually believe that Tenet, who, of course, was first appointed to his position by Bill Clinton, has been made into something of a scapegoat here by the White House. They believe that the true responsibility for what happened may actually lie more with Condoleezza Rice, the national security adviser, or with the vice president, or perhaps the president himself, than with the CIA director.
But some of the toughest questions that he will face will be from Republicans that believe the real problem here was that the CIA did not serve the president as it should have.
One of those Republicans on the committee spoke with CNN earlier and had this to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. SAXBY CHAMBLISS (R), GEORGIA: The fact of the matter is we know where it started, and that's in the intelligence gathering community. So that's where we're going to start. We'll have Director Tenet up today, and if it's necessary to bring Secretary Rumsfeld or Ms. Rice up, then we'll do so. But right now we just need to get to the bottom of it, find out what happened and how it happened. And the American people are entitled to know that and I think at the end of the day they're going to know it and we can move on. We've got much more serious issues to deal with.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KARL: Democrats are saying, and you can bet they'll bring it up at the hearing, that they believe that this goes far beyond those now famous 16 words in the president's State of the Union address about Iraq's alleged attempts to buy uranium in Africa and get to the general question of just how good was the intelligence before the war. The president made the case for going to war against Iraq by saying that Iraq had not only a nuclear weapons program, but also had vast stockpiles of biological and chemical weapons. Nothing of the sort has been found yet in Iraq. Democrats want to know why.
One of the Democrats who has been asking the question is one of those running for president, John Kerry, who gave a speech a short while ago in New York, where he took the president on generally on national security and specifically on this.
He also spoke on CNN today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOHN KERRY (D), MASSACHUSETTS: It's not just the 16 words. It's all of our intelligence. I mean we were told they had weapons that could be deployed within 45 minutes. We were told they had unmanned vehicles that had the ability to deliver. I mean there are a series of things here.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KARL: And there is one of those Democrats running for president who is on the Intelligence Committee, John Edwards of North Carolina, whom we expect to hear from shortly. He's also got some of his own questions for George Tenet, but ultimately for George Bush. After all, he's running for president against George Bush, not George Tenet. He'll be at that hearing and we expect to hear from him.
These are closed hearings, Kyra, but we do expect to have public hearings on this, public hearings on the issue generally starting next week in the House and full scale public hearings where we expect to hear again from George Tenet and from other top advisers to the president in September before the Senate hearing.
And tomorrow one very interesting thing to watch for is the presence of Tony Blair. The British prime minister will be addressing a joint session of Congress, a joint meeting of Congress, that is. He is still standing by that revelation, that allegation that Iraq was trying to get uranium from Africa. So that'll be a very interesting visit, indeed. He's only going to be in Washington about eight hours, but that will include a speech before both the House and the Senate, and a join press conference with the president.
PHILLIPS: Jon Karl on the Hill.
Thanks, Jon.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
