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CIA Director to Defend Iraqi Intelligence
Aired February 04, 2004 - 15:11 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, MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Defending prewar intelligence, that's what CIA chief George Tenet reportedly will do tomorrow, answering for the first time criticism that the intelligence was wrong.
CNN national security correspondent David Ensor has more for us now from Washington -- David.
DAVID ENSOR, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, this speech was scheduled on short notice. And in it, George Tenet will forcefully defend his embattled agency's judgments about Iraqi weapons prior to the war.
The U.S. officials say he'll also try to correct misimpressions -- their words -- about what U.S. intelligence knew of Libya and Iran's nuclear programs. And he will warn Americans that intelligence is not a crystal ball.
For Tenet, the speech will be a chance to respond to criticisms from David Kay, his former weapons inspector in Iraq who says U.S. intelligence given to the president before the war about weapons of mass destruction programs was, quite plainly, wrong. The speech is the second salvo in the administration's response to the growing chorus of critics on the case for war.
The first salvo came today from Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, who strongly defended the record and who also predicted that Tenet will make some news tomorrow.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD RUMSFELD, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: I hope and trust that the director of central intelligence, George Tenet, will be able to make some of those recent examples of successes -- and there have been many -- public, so that the impression that has and is being created of broad intelligence failures can be dispelled.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ENSOR: The suggestion there that George Tenet may reveal some successes that U.S. intelligence may have had recently that have not been made public until now.
Tenet will also respond to Kay's statements that the CIA was apparently wrong, had underestimated how advanced Libya and Iran's nuclear programs were. Officials say that Libya decided to give up its program, in part only after hearing how much the CIA already knew all about it -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: David Ensor, we'll be listening tomorrow. 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 February 4, 2004 - 15:11 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Defending prewar intelligence, that's what CIA chief George Tenet reportedly will do tomorrow, answering for the first time criticism that the intelligence was wrong.
CNN national security correspondent David Ensor has more for us now from Washington -- David.
DAVID ENSOR, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, this speech was scheduled on short notice. And in it, George Tenet will forcefully defend his embattled agency's judgments about Iraqi weapons prior to the war.
The U.S. officials say he'll also try to correct misimpressions -- their words -- about what U.S. intelligence knew of Libya and Iran's nuclear programs. And he will warn Americans that intelligence is not a crystal ball.
For Tenet, the speech will be a chance to respond to criticisms from David Kay, his former weapons inspector in Iraq who says U.S. intelligence given to the president before the war about weapons of mass destruction programs was, quite plainly, wrong. The speech is the second salvo in the administration's response to the growing chorus of critics on the case for war.
The first salvo came today from Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, who strongly defended the record and who also predicted that Tenet will make some news tomorrow.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD RUMSFELD, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: I hope and trust that the director of central intelligence, George Tenet, will be able to make some of those recent examples of successes -- and there have been many -- public, so that the impression that has and is being created of broad intelligence failures can be dispelled.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ENSOR: The suggestion there that George Tenet may reveal some successes that U.S. intelligence may have had recently that have not been made public until now.
Tenet will also respond to Kay's statements that the CIA was apparently wrong, had underestimated how advanced Libya and Iran's nuclear programs were. Officials say that Libya decided to give up its program, in part only after hearing how much the CIA already knew all about it -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: David Ensor, we'll be listening tomorrow. 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
