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September 11 Report Released
Aired July 24, 2003 - 15:02 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.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Now missed opportunities: The government's final report on what went wrong that day, 9/11, is out. It's highly critical and full of finger-pointing at the intelligence community. But officials also hope it has taught certain agencies a few lessons.
Our congressional correspondent Jonathan Karl has been reviewing what is a 900-page report. I believe he's committed it to memory and he's going to tell us everything about it now -- hello, Jonathan.
JONATHAN KARL, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Miles.
Just about all of it. Here it is, the eagerly anticipated report. It was actually written back in December by the Joint Intelligence Committees, but they've been arguing ever since then about how much of this could be declassified and made public. And although it is about 900 pages, there are many pages in here that are completely blanked out, because they've been censored for national security concerns.
More on that in a minute. But on the central finding here, there is no smoking gun, nothing that they've found that could point to an advance, specific warning that attack like September 11 would happen at that precise time. But there was plenty of warnings, plenty missed opportunities that the report concludes could have led to, perhaps, unraveling the plot itself.
One line kind of summing all of that up from the report, it says -- quote -- "The important point is that the intelligence community, for a variety of reasons, did not bring together and fully appreciate a range of information that could have greatly enhanced its chances of uncovering and preventing Osama bin Laden's attack on the United States on September 11."
Now, the report goes on to talk in some detail about the fact that several of the hijackers had contact with people that were already under FBI surveillance. There are as many as 14 separate people that were under FBI surveillance at one point or another that came into contact with the hijackers. The FBI never was able to make those connections, though, until after September 11.
The most glaring example comes out of the San Diego field office of the FBI, where two of the hijackers had great, extensive contact with somebody that was actually an FBI informant. But the problem here was that, although the CIA had already been watching those two future hijackers, knew that they had ties to al Qaeda, they did not pass that information on to the FBI until just a few weeks before September 11.
And even when they did that, the FBI national office here in Washington did not tell its field office in San Diego. On that point, the report reads -- quote -- "What is clear, however, is that the informant's contacts with the hijackers, had they been capitalized on, would have given the San Diego field office perhaps the intelligence community's best chance to unravel the September 11 plot."
Now on to the redacted part, the pages and pages of this report that have just blanks, blanks, page after page. The biggest section that has been left censored is a section that deals with whether or not there were foreign governments that aided the hijackers. The question is raised. It says there was evidence of foreign government support for at least some of the hijackers while they were in the United States, doesn't say which country.
Now, people who have seen the uncensored part of this report tell CNN that that refers very directly to the government of Saudi Arabia. Now, although that is censored, there's much in report that is highly critical of the Saudi government's role in all of this. One rather particular line that is rather damning. It says that, according to a U.S. government official, it was clear, from about 1996, that the Saudi government would not cooperate with the United States on matters related to Osama bin Laden.
So there's much here to go over, Miles, and, as you can imagine, a little bit of political fallout as well. Democrats are complaining that too much was left out of this report.
O'BRIEN: Well, and you mention that point, Senator Bob Graham kind of leading the charge there. And his point is that a lot of those so-called redactions, or the things that are crossed out, to put it in more layman's terms, a lot of those redactions are really there for political reasons and not necessarily national security reasons. Impossible for us to know, isn't it?
KARL: Impossible.
You have already Democrats like -- Charles Schumer of New York is saying that what's happening here is that the U.S. government, that the Bush administration specifically, is trying to coddle and cover up for the Saudis for political reasons. But it is impossible to know. The stuff has been -- it remains classified. And there are other sections in here that don't even have to do with the question of foreign influence.
There are questions -- a whole section, one of the most intriguing sections, is about covert action against Osama bin Laden, the lack of such covert action. Much of that is also left redacted.
O'BRIEN: CNN's Jonathan Karl on Capitol Hill, digesting that very long report, thank you very much -- Kyra.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: And what does the Bush administration have to say about all this?
Well, our Chris Burns is at the White House, gathering reaction from there -- Chris.
CHRIS BURNS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, hi, Kyra.
A senior administration official doesn't want to point fingers. There's going to be no fall guy, at least according to him, but the White House saying in a statement by Scott McClellan -- Scott McCormack (ph) -- saying that: We commend the committee on their work. It confirms the strong, aggressive stance they've taken, including the integration of intelligence agencies, maximizing sharing of information, creating the Homeland Security Department, cracking down on terrorists.
They do expect to give a longer statement later today. But, basically, they're saying that they do support the committee findings and that they do hope that, perhaps in the future, we can connect the dots a little bit better -- back to you, Kyra.
PHILLIPS: All right, Chris Burns, live from the White House, 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 July 24, 2003 - 15:02 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Now missed opportunities: The government's final report on what went wrong that day, 9/11, is out. It's highly critical and full of finger-pointing at the intelligence community. But officials also hope it has taught certain agencies a few lessons.
Our congressional correspondent Jonathan Karl has been reviewing what is a 900-page report. I believe he's committed it to memory and he's going to tell us everything about it now -- hello, Jonathan.
JONATHAN KARL, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Miles.
Just about all of it. Here it is, the eagerly anticipated report. It was actually written back in December by the Joint Intelligence Committees, but they've been arguing ever since then about how much of this could be declassified and made public. And although it is about 900 pages, there are many pages in here that are completely blanked out, because they've been censored for national security concerns.
More on that in a minute. But on the central finding here, there is no smoking gun, nothing that they've found that could point to an advance, specific warning that attack like September 11 would happen at that precise time. But there was plenty of warnings, plenty missed opportunities that the report concludes could have led to, perhaps, unraveling the plot itself.
One line kind of summing all of that up from the report, it says -- quote -- "The important point is that the intelligence community, for a variety of reasons, did not bring together and fully appreciate a range of information that could have greatly enhanced its chances of uncovering and preventing Osama bin Laden's attack on the United States on September 11."
Now, the report goes on to talk in some detail about the fact that several of the hijackers had contact with people that were already under FBI surveillance. There are as many as 14 separate people that were under FBI surveillance at one point or another that came into contact with the hijackers. The FBI never was able to make those connections, though, until after September 11.
The most glaring example comes out of the San Diego field office of the FBI, where two of the hijackers had great, extensive contact with somebody that was actually an FBI informant. But the problem here was that, although the CIA had already been watching those two future hijackers, knew that they had ties to al Qaeda, they did not pass that information on to the FBI until just a few weeks before September 11.
And even when they did that, the FBI national office here in Washington did not tell its field office in San Diego. On that point, the report reads -- quote -- "What is clear, however, is that the informant's contacts with the hijackers, had they been capitalized on, would have given the San Diego field office perhaps the intelligence community's best chance to unravel the September 11 plot."
Now on to the redacted part, the pages and pages of this report that have just blanks, blanks, page after page. The biggest section that has been left censored is a section that deals with whether or not there were foreign governments that aided the hijackers. The question is raised. It says there was evidence of foreign government support for at least some of the hijackers while they were in the United States, doesn't say which country.
Now, people who have seen the uncensored part of this report tell CNN that that refers very directly to the government of Saudi Arabia. Now, although that is censored, there's much in report that is highly critical of the Saudi government's role in all of this. One rather particular line that is rather damning. It says that, according to a U.S. government official, it was clear, from about 1996, that the Saudi government would not cooperate with the United States on matters related to Osama bin Laden.
So there's much here to go over, Miles, and, as you can imagine, a little bit of political fallout as well. Democrats are complaining that too much was left out of this report.
O'BRIEN: Well, and you mention that point, Senator Bob Graham kind of leading the charge there. And his point is that a lot of those so-called redactions, or the things that are crossed out, to put it in more layman's terms, a lot of those redactions are really there for political reasons and not necessarily national security reasons. Impossible for us to know, isn't it?
KARL: Impossible.
You have already Democrats like -- Charles Schumer of New York is saying that what's happening here is that the U.S. government, that the Bush administration specifically, is trying to coddle and cover up for the Saudis for political reasons. But it is impossible to know. The stuff has been -- it remains classified. And there are other sections in here that don't even have to do with the question of foreign influence.
There are questions -- a whole section, one of the most intriguing sections, is about covert action against Osama bin Laden, the lack of such covert action. Much of that is also left redacted.
O'BRIEN: CNN's Jonathan Karl on Capitol Hill, digesting that very long report, thank you very much -- Kyra.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: And what does the Bush administration have to say about all this?
Well, our Chris Burns is at the White House, gathering reaction from there -- Chris.
CHRIS BURNS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, hi, Kyra.
A senior administration official doesn't want to point fingers. There's going to be no fall guy, at least according to him, but the White House saying in a statement by Scott McClellan -- Scott McCormack (ph) -- saying that: We commend the committee on their work. It confirms the strong, aggressive stance they've taken, including the integration of intelligence agencies, maximizing sharing of information, creating the Homeland Security Department, cracking down on terrorists.
They do expect to give a longer statement later today. But, basically, they're saying that they do support the committee findings and that they do hope that, perhaps in the future, we can connect the dots a little bit better -- back to you, Kyra.
PHILLIPS: All right, Chris Burns, live from the White House, 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
