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Talk with Former CIA Director James Woolsey
Aired November 27, 2003 - 16:09 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: We knew the Bush administration put a premium on discretion, loyalty and at times secrecy, but nobody expected a cloak and dagger mission by the president himself into the heart of a very dangerous Baghdad. If anybody can appreciate a secret like that, it is the CIA, and that led us to ring up retired CIA director James Woolsey, who joins us on line now from Maryland on this Thanksgiving.
Happy thanksgiving. Thanks for spending time with us, Mr. Woolsey.
JAMES WOOLSEY, FMR. CIA DIR.: Thanks, Miles. Good to be with you.
O'BRIEN: All right, let's talk about secrets and keeping secrets. Supposedly, according to some of the accounts i've seen here, the decision to do this goes back five or six weeks, while the president was touring Asia. That's a long time to keep a secret of this magnitude, isn't it?
WOOLSEY: It is, indeed. And as a sometime practitioner and long-time admirer of clandestine operations, I take my hat off to them in keeping this as secret as they had to in order to be able to do it. It was a very fine thing for the president to do, and most professionally executed.
O'BRIEN: And to execute something like this, I guess, the real key is to keep it closely held, as they say?
WOOLSEY: Absolutely. He apparently didn't tell either his wife until yesterday, his daughters until a few hours before he took off, or left the ranch. So that's real secrecy in the case of something like this.
O'BRIEN: Well, and supposedly, according to these accounts, his father and mother showed up at the ranch to have dinner and were not told. He was already well on his way.
WOOLSEY: That's real secrecy, especially given the job his father once had.
O'BRIEN: I should say. I think he's got the clearances, doesn't he?
WOOLSEY: I think he does.
O'BRIEN: You've been in a position to advise presidents. What would your advice have been, had you been asked?
WOOLSEY: I think that was a marvelous move. I think the key sentence, as your correspondent mentioned toward the end of his report a few minutes ago, was where he said we're going to stay until the job's done. It is one thing to say that in Washington. It's another to say it in Iraq, on Thanksgiving, the day, really all Americans, whatever religion, anything, want to be at home with their families. It's -- and where you've got troops, a number of whom, reservists and others, have been over there longer than they expected. It was in very fine gesture and a real, I think a real coup for him.
O'BRIEN: So for spies, you give him an a?
WOOLSEY: Absolutely.
O'BRIEN: Someone engaged, in the past at least, in clandestine activity, James Woolsey, former CIA director, thank you for spending a little of your Thanksgiving with us. We appreciate it.
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 November 27, 2003 - 16:09 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: We knew the Bush administration put a premium on discretion, loyalty and at times secrecy, but nobody expected a cloak and dagger mission by the president himself into the heart of a very dangerous Baghdad. If anybody can appreciate a secret like that, it is the CIA, and that led us to ring up retired CIA director James Woolsey, who joins us on line now from Maryland on this Thanksgiving.
Happy thanksgiving. Thanks for spending time with us, Mr. Woolsey.
JAMES WOOLSEY, FMR. CIA DIR.: Thanks, Miles. Good to be with you.
O'BRIEN: All right, let's talk about secrets and keeping secrets. Supposedly, according to some of the accounts i've seen here, the decision to do this goes back five or six weeks, while the president was touring Asia. That's a long time to keep a secret of this magnitude, isn't it?
WOOLSEY: It is, indeed. And as a sometime practitioner and long-time admirer of clandestine operations, I take my hat off to them in keeping this as secret as they had to in order to be able to do it. It was a very fine thing for the president to do, and most professionally executed.
O'BRIEN: And to execute something like this, I guess, the real key is to keep it closely held, as they say?
WOOLSEY: Absolutely. He apparently didn't tell either his wife until yesterday, his daughters until a few hours before he took off, or left the ranch. So that's real secrecy in the case of something like this.
O'BRIEN: Well, and supposedly, according to these accounts, his father and mother showed up at the ranch to have dinner and were not told. He was already well on his way.
WOOLSEY: That's real secrecy, especially given the job his father once had.
O'BRIEN: I should say. I think he's got the clearances, doesn't he?
WOOLSEY: I think he does.
O'BRIEN: You've been in a position to advise presidents. What would your advice have been, had you been asked?
WOOLSEY: I think that was a marvelous move. I think the key sentence, as your correspondent mentioned toward the end of his report a few minutes ago, was where he said we're going to stay until the job's done. It is one thing to say that in Washington. It's another to say it in Iraq, on Thanksgiving, the day, really all Americans, whatever religion, anything, want to be at home with their families. It's -- and where you've got troops, a number of whom, reservists and others, have been over there longer than they expected. It was in very fine gesture and a real, I think a real coup for him.
O'BRIEN: So for spies, you give him an a?
WOOLSEY: Absolutely.
O'BRIEN: Someone engaged, in the past at least, in clandestine activity, James Woolsey, former CIA director, thank you for spending a little of your Thanksgiving with us. We appreciate it.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
