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CIA Director Porter Goss Resigns; Autopsy Finds Suffocation Caused Boot Camp Death of Teen; Congressman Patrick Kennedy to Enter Rehab After Thursday Accident
Aired May 05, 2006 - 14:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: And there you have it, the statements from the president and from Director Goss, Porter Goss, director of the Central Intelligence Agency, the CIA, just a few momenting ago. Porter Goss offering his resignation to the president earlier today, and the president accepting that.
Carol Lin is with us in the newsroom now.
And Carol, I'm looking over Porter Goss's resume. And it's quite impressive. U.S. Army intelligence, served as a clandestine service officer for the Central Intelligence Agency.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: Eight years in Congress.
HARRIS: Eight years, yes.
LIN: You know, this is a man who spent, what, not even two years as the director of the CIA.
Right now, just taking a look at what's out on the Internet, really not much controversy directly involving the director himself. The last that we heard that -- you know, you talk about the secrecy of the CIA, well, there was a big crackdown inside the CIA, a crackdown on leaks to the media. And as CNN was reporting, this woman, a CIA -- a veteran CIA employee who was fired just 10 days before her retirement qualification, we believe her name to be Mary McCarthy, that's the last time.
But apparently there are lie detector tests being conducted on CIA employees. I mean, this is a man who took his mission very seriously to stop the leaks coming out of the CIA to get control of the situation.
And you look at the meeting between the president and the director. This was very cordial, professional. I mean, wouldn't you say even warm, a fond farewell to this director who has served for such a short period of time?
HARRIS: Yes, you're absolutely right. And what you were referring to just a moment ago is operative Mary -- officer -- I should say, CIA officer Mary McCarthy. And the allegation is -- that she denies, flatly denies -- is that she was the person that leaked information about the existence of these so-called secret prisons in Europe. And clearly, as you mentioned, he was the guy who was brought in after George Tenet, and his job one, it seemed to be, was to clamp down on the flow of information that was coming out of the CIA. And most of it not flattering for this administration.
LIN: No, certainly not at this point. And the timing is such, as you saw the defense secretary yesterday taking heat from members of the audience...
HARRIS: Yes. Yes.
LIN: ... as to whether there were chemical weapons and weapons of mass destruction on the ground in Iraq. There's also, you know, the ongoing debate from the Tenet administration about interrogation techniques...
HARRIS: Yes.
LIN: ... right, and the so-called water board technique...
HARRIS: That's right.
LIN: ... where they fake a drowning, an execution by drowning on a captive, on a militant, an insurgent who may have information, and whether that's considered acceptable. You know, and the argument within the CIA has been, well, look, what do you want to give us in order to get the information that we may need to save lives? But again, you know, other than the Mary McCarthy firing, there hasn't been a lot of heat on the CIA.
And, you know, Kathleen Koch was talking about, well, you know, some of the responsibility of the director has been taken away. Maybe it wasn't the job that he expected it to be.
HARRIS: Well, I think that's a question -- thanks, Carol.
I think that's a question that will be asked. And maybe it's one we can pose to Kathleen Koch right now.
Kathleen, you can offer your resignation. We understand there was a period of time where Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld offered his resignation. It wasn't accepted. But this one was.
Some will ask, was it a forced resignation? Any indication that perhaps it was?
KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Certainly not, Tony, here, for those covering the White House. This was not one of those areas of the Bush administration where we had heard at least that there was any widespread dissatisfaction either on the part of President Bush or incoming chief of staff Josh Bolten. This was not an area that we'd heard widely discussed, where there was a strong feeling that changes needed to be made.
Now, certainly, we aren't privy to every there behind the -- in the West Wing, behind the White House walls. So there could have been some concern, but then very well, as I pointed out, there could have been a level of dissatisfaction on the part of CIA chief Goss that perhaps his role had been diminished.
He didn't have the presidential access, didn't have the clout he had when he initially took the job and was ready for something different. Or again, as I mentioned earlier, he could have really heeded the call from Josh Bolten that, well, if I'm dissatisfied, if I'm thinking of leaving, let me take this opportunity now and then give the president the chance to bring in, again, that fresh blood, someone with new ideas, someone who, again, might either -- either actually help change the direction of the administration, or at least give the appearance of some forward movement that might help the president.
HARRIS: Kathleen, I have to ask you, it's one thing that you take the job and your first mission is to sort of bring this -- I don't particular like the word, a greater sense of professionalism to the job, but once you do that, once you accomplish that, you plug the leaks, or whatever, there is still a job of moving the CIA forward to making it a more effective agency. We heard the president talking about increasing the number of analysts, of operatives and Arab speakers, obviously.
Do we have a sense as whether or not Porter Goss was effective in moving the agency forward?
KOCH: Well, Tony, I think that's difficult to judge, but, you know, if you look at something that was said yesterday in the courtroom in Alexandria, Virginia, by Zacarias Moussaoui, who has now been sentenced to life in prison, I think he really touched on something that's very central here, and he talked about Osama bin Laden. He said Osama bin Laden will never be caught, dead or alive.
And I think, again, if you look at the list of most wanted on the part of President Bush, the United States, law enforcement, Osama bin Laden's name, his face would be right there. And that has been a central failure, that he is still at large. So I don't know if you judge Porter Goss, his performance at all by that. But that's certainly, perhaps, the largest unmet goal when it comes to the president and fighting terrorism.
HARRIS: And we were talking about his resume, and we'll show you some side panels of the things that Porter Goss has done with his career. Obviously, he represented the 14th Congressional District out of Florida for 16 years, chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence from 1997 until his nomination as DCI in August of 2004.
This is a man who was a U.S. Army intelligence officer from 1960 to 1962. Served as a clandestine service officer for the CIA from 1962 until 1972.
So this is a man who is steeped in this kind of work and would have seemed to be if not a perfect fit, a near perfect fit to take this agency forward, Kathleen. KOCH: Certainly so, Tony. And so I think the question is here, and hopefully something that we will get more information on in the coming hours and perhaps days, is why.
HARRIS: Yes.
KOCH: Is really, why did Porter Goss choose to move on at this time? And we've been throwing out a lot of -- a lot of possibilities, a lot of ideas, but certainly they are all speculation until we hear from the man himself.
HARRIS: OK. And we didn't here the cliche, standard cliche answer, to spend more time with family. So we suspect there's something more to it than that.
Kathleen, thank you. Appreciate it.
KOCH: You bet.
HARRIS: Just want to update you again if you're just joining us, nine minutes after the hour Eastern Standard Time, 2:09, if you're just joining us, just learned inside the hour that the director of Central Intelligence, the CIA, Porter Goss, has offered his resignation, and that resignation has been accepted by the president today. The president saying in his remarks to Porter Goss that he was charged with bringing a greater sense of professionalism to the agency.
The president thanked him for those efforts. That it was also his charge to increase the number of analysts, to make the CIA a better functioning agency, to increase the number of analysts and operatives, Arabic speakers, as the agency moves forward aggressively as it continues to fight the international war on terrorism.
I'm just being informed that former CIA director Stansfield Turner is on the line with us.
Great to talk to you, sir.
STANSFIELD TURNER, FMR. CIA DIRECTOR: Good afternoon.
HARRIS: Well, I have to ask you, are you at all surprised? There was certainly a lot of speculation in the newsroom as to what this particular change might me. Are you surprised to hear that it is the director of Central Intelligence who is stepping down.
TURNER: I don't think it's the director of Central Intelligence stepping down, is it? That's Negroponte.
HARRIS: I'm sorry. It is CIA director -- I'm sorry.
TURNER: Actually, they changed the name from director of Central Intelligence to National Intelligence.
HARRIS: Yes. That's right. That's right. TURNER: That's the overall job that coordinates the 15 intelligence agencies, whereas the man who resigned, Porter Goss, headed one of those agencies, the CIA.
HARRIS: Correct. Correct.
TURNER: I'm not too surprised at this, because Porter Goss clearly was a candidate to be the director of National Intelligence when they created that job in December of '04. And I think he felt maybe a little passed over by that, having Negroponte put in on top of him.
HARRIS: That's interesting. So you think this might have to do with a sense that this was -- this was a job that he was ready for, had the skills set for, and for whatever reason he was passed over?
TURNER: Yes. I think that's very likely to be it.
HARRIS: So was he still a man who could have functioned -- do you think, because he was passed over, if that's, in fact, the case, or he feels that way, do you feel that he felt he could no longer function under the umbrella of the current structure?
TURNER: I think that it's more a case of he probably didn't want to be the number two guy, in a sense. He could have expected to have been elevated to the new job of director of National Intelligence, and yet, he wasn't chosen for that.
HARRIS: And if you don't have the president's ear, if you're not the person as director of Central Intelligence, who gets to be in the room with the president and offering the briefings, it doesn't feel -- it doesn't seem that it is the same job. It feels like it's a diminished job?
TURNER: Well, yes. But it's a very important job, still.
HARRIS: Yes. Yes.
TURNER: But it's limited to the one agency, the CIA, whereas the other job coordinates all 15 of the agencies and sits over the person who runs the CIA.
HARRIS: And yet, there is still, it seems to me, plenty that could have been accomplished by Porter Goss moving the agency forward, as we heard from the president. There's still so much to do with that agency, from increasing the number of analysts, to operators, Arabic speakers, to fight this war on terrorism, it seems that there was still plenty that the director could accomplish.
TURNER: No question about that. And one just has to speculate on how Porter Goss's reaction to this all came about. Was he really disturbed that he wasn't selected to be the top person?
HARRIS: Yes. That's interesting.
Former CIA director Stansfield Turner with us. Great to talk with you, sir. Thank you.
TURNER: Certainly.
Let's go back to Carol Lin, who's helping us with this story in the newsroom -- Carol.
LIN: Tony, on the telephone with me right now is former congressman Bob Barr. He was a former CIA analyst, so he knows the institution well.
Congressman Bar, we just heard from Stansfield Turner, former CIA director. He believes that it's really, in essence, a job snit, that he was passed over, and therefore, he's not going to complete his term. Do you believe that to be so, or do you think there's something more to this resignation?
Congressman Barr?
All right. I don't think we have the congressman on the line.
There we go.
BOB BARR, FMR. CONGRESSMAN: I think there's more to it than that. I certainly think that partially what Admiral Turner has said is true. I think there probably is a sense on the part of Porter Goss of disappointment that he was passed over for the top job as DNI.
But this indicates something more to me. It indicates a continuing and very, very devastating downward slide in terms of the ability of our government to get its intelligence, it's foreign intelligence operation in order.
This is, I think, a devastating blow, the importance of which really cannot be overestimated. This is very, very important. And it indicates, again, a continuing downward slide in the intelligence capabilities of our government. And it indicates, again, the disorganization on the part of our intelligence agencies at a time when we can ill afford to see that happen.
LIN: But Congressman, so why is the president accepting Porter Goss's resignation? What do you make of the timing of it?
BARR: I think there's going to be more coming out. We don't know the whole story.
The president really has no choice. If you have a top person like the head of the CIA come to you and say, "I don't want this job anymore. I'm leaving," you know, there's really no choice that the president has. You know, he can say, well, you're going to stay here whether you like it or not. But that's kind of silly.
I think this indicates a real deficiency on the part of the president, who does not seem to understand the delicacy of gathering and analyzing and coordinating foreign intelligence. When you take a new director of National Intelligence and plunk him down on top of the CIA and all these other agencies, you don't really give him the power, but you don't give it to the CIA either. You just make the problems that have been festering in the disorganization of our intelligence for decades, you just make them even worse.
And this is really now, as we say in the South, it's come a cropper. And you could see this brewing for quite sometime, I'm afraid.
LIN: But Congressman, see, there's something that doesn't make sense here, you know? There's something that doesn't make sense. And what I am wondering is whether this resignation is an indication of something to come. Porter Goss wants to get out of the way.
Do you have any sense of that on Capitol Hill or from your sources in Washington?
BARR: It could very well be. I mean, we've seen brewing out of the Duke Cunningham -- former Congressman Duke Cunningham scandal, which has been growing now for several months...
LIN: That he accepted bribes from defense contractors.
BARR: Right. It's starting to reach into the CIA. And that could very well be something that is going to -- you know, like a sore that's been festering. That could bust out sometime now. And maybe that could reach into the top levels of the agency.
LIN: Are you saying the director himself, Congressman? Are you saying the director himself?
BARR: I can't imagine that. I know Porter. I've known him for many years. I cannot imagine that he would be a part of that, but if you have the top two or three people at an agency working under him, and he's the one that put them in there and placed the faith and trust of the government in these people, and then they become tainted with this, it certainly reflects on the leadership.
LIN: All right. Congressman -- former Congressman Bob Barr, thank you very much.
So, Tony...
HARRIS: Yes?
LIN: ... there is a sense that isn't just a lifestyle decision.
HARRIS: Yes.
LIN: That there may be something more afoot. And, you know, in a place like Washington, it's a caldron's brew when, you know, as Bob Barr was talking about Randall Cunningham, who had -- was convicted and sentenced to eight years in federal prison for taking defense bribes, there's no direct connection to the director of the CIA. But there's an investigation, a federal investigation...
HARRIS: That's good, yes. LIN: ... that's reaching into all different sectors of the government.
HARRIS: All different directions. Carol, thank you. That's good. That's good information from Bob Barr.
Let's take this up now with our senior national correspondent, John Roberts. John is joining us from Washington.
And John, this is a -- this is a heck of a little bombshell for a Friday afternoon, isn't it?
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN SR. NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's pretty surprising, Tony, I've got to say, because I was at the White House when President Bush named Porter Goss to the position of director of Central Intelligence, head of the CIA, and there was never any kind of mention that he was going to be merely a transitional figure.
He was always talked about as the best guy who could reform the CIA from the top down. And, of course, one of the hallmarks was to really kind of tighten up on the amount of information that was leaking out of the CIA. The dismissal of Mary McCarthy very recently was probably the most public example of that. But this idea that he would suddenly leave, and particularly without there not being another candidate to take over from Goss, is quite startling.
Now, just to add a little bit to what former Congressman Bob Barr was talking about, what's all swirling around the CIA with the Duke Cunningham case goes to a fellow named Brent Wilkes, who was an unindicted co-conspirator in that -- that Cunningham case. There is a fellow who has pled guilty in that case by the name of Mitchell Wade who contends -- and this is only a contention, allegations again -- that Wilkes had been procuring prostitutes and limousines for Duke Cunningham and had also been hosting poker parties at a couple of hotels in Washington, one of them being the Watergate hotel right down there by the Potomac, and the other one being the Westin Grand up on M street at 24th.
Now, Wilkes has denied any involvement in this prostitution idea, but we do know that he did have some poker parties and that a very senior official at the CIA had been a guest at a few of those poker parties, a fellow by the name of Dusty Foggo, who is actually the number three at the CIA.
There is an inspector general's investigation at the CIA going on over Foggo's appearance at those poker parties. And the CIA, I should say, has also come out to say that at no time did CIA director Porter Goss ever appear at one of those poker parties.
So, this is reaching into the highest levels of the CIA.
HARRIS: Well, John...
ROBERTS: Yes?
HARRIS: John, if I could, let me just have you hold that thought for just a second. I've got to get a Q tone (ph) in here.
We will take a quick break and we will come back, and John will tie up all these ends. An intriguing story he's telling us.
And once again, if you're just joining us, CIA Director Porter Goss has resigned.
We'll take a break. More LIVE FROM right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOSS: ... a very distinct honor and privilege to serve you, of course the people of the country, and the employees of the Central Intelligence Agency. I can tell you, the trust and confidence you've placed in me and given me, the latitude to work, is something I could have never imagined, and I am most grateful for it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: Wow. If you're just joining us, inside the hour we learned that Porter Goss, director of the CIA, is stepping down, resigning.
Our senior national correspondent, John Roberts, is back with us.
And John, you were telling -- we understand that in Washington there is a sense that there is more to this resignation than meets the eye. Let me have you recap the story you were telling us. Frankly, it gives me a chance to hear it a second time. And you can move the story forward for us.
ROBERTS: Well, first of all, I'm not suggesting that there's anything more than meets the eye on this whole thing, but it is unusual that this fellow who was hailed by President Bush to be the savior of the CIA would suddenly leave short of a -- a little more than a year and a month after he was put in the position.
HARRIS: Yes.
ROBERTS: So that -- that is highly unusual.
Now, as to -- let me try to elucidate a little bit more about what former Congressman Barr was talking about. He was talking about this idea of swirling CIA connection to the Duke Cunningham investigation.
Again, a fellow named Mitchell Wade, who was involved with Duke Cunningham, has pled guilty to that involvement. He's cooperating with investigators, he's talking with the FBI. And he's told a story that another person who is described as an unindicted co-conspirator in the Duke Cunningham case by the name of Brent Wilkes was procuring limousines and prostitutes for former Congressman Cunningham and was hosting hospitality suites at the Watergate and the Westin Grand hotels. Now, he was also -- and this could be completely unconnected to the prostitution idea -- hosting poker parties at those hospitality suites. And among of the people who have attended the poker parties, poker parties only...
HARRIS: Yes.
ROBERTS: ... no suggestion of anything else going on, just playing cards...
HARRIS: Sure.
ROBERTS: ... is a fellow by the name of Dusty Foggo, who is the number three at the CIA, who was brought in by Porter Goss.
Now, the whole swirling allegations around this whole thing have launched an inspector general's investigation of Foggo's participation in these poker parties and as well have also elicited from the CIA a stark denial that Porter Goss was ever involved. But when people talk about other things swirling...
HARRIS: Yes.
ROBERTS: ... around this whole idea of the resignation and possible connections between Duke Cunningham and the CIA, that's what they're talking about.
HARRIS: Hey, John, let me ask you -- one of the things the president alluded to is that this was a big job, and it was certainly a transitional job when you talk about George Tenet leaving and Porter Goss taking over. Was there a sense that he had done a good job? Did he have enough time to be evaluated as to the kind of job he had done in moving the CIA forward?
ROBERTS: I think he had done a lot of what the president asked him to do. And one of the things that the president wanted him to do was beef up the CIA on the analysis front. He also wanted to put the cloak of secrecy back over an organization that had become somewhat leaky under the tenure of George Tenet, all of which it seemed Goss did.
Of course, the most public example of that was the recent dismissal of Mary McCarthy over allegations that she was the source for "The Washington Post" on those secret CIA prisons in eastern Europe. So, definitely Goss was in there to crack the whip, and it looks like, by all measures, he's done a pretty good job of that.
HARRIS: Yes.
ROBERTS: He turned it into a very disciplined organization, or at least restored a lot of the discipline that some people had complained had been lost under George Tenet.
HARRIS: John, stay with us. I'm going to bring in former interim director of the CIA, John McLaughlin, who is with us.
John, thanks for taking the time to talk to us. We appreciate it. Thank you.
Are you surprised by this announcement today?
JOHN MCLAUGHLIN, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: I am a little surprised in the sense that I don't think there was any indication that this was coming.
HARRIS: So what do you make of it? We're obviously just speculating here, and we're in that wide realm.
There was nothing -- Porter Goss didn't give anything away in his statement to the president. What do you think is behind this? We've heard everything from perhaps he was just a little disgruntled, a little disappointed that he didn't get the director of National Intelligence job.
MCLAUGHLIN: Well, you know, I don't know what's behind it. What I would say is this: Porter Goss came in at a very difficult time in the agency's history. Not only was the agency accused, I think unfairly, in many cases, of various mistakes and failings at the time of his arrival, but in addition, he came in at a time when a whole new structure had been created to manage the intelligence community. And the CIA, in the process, of course, had to step back from some of the leadership responsibilities that it had traditionally exercised.
So, I think Porter Goss came in at a time when the challenges were particularly difficult, hard to overcome, and when the agency was struggling to regain its balance and the traditional align (ph) that it has had over the years.
HARRIS: Yes.
MCLAUGHLIN: And I have no clue as to exactly why Porter Goss decided to step down at this moment, but sometimes a gargantuan job like that takes its toll.
HARRIS: Right.
MCLAUGHLIN: There may be something of that in it, as well.
HARRIS: Well, I have to ask you. You were not only the interim director before he...
MCLAUGHLIN: Right.
HARRIS: You also worked with him for, what is it, a month or so?
MCLAUGHLIN: About a month, yes. I was deputy director, appointed in the Clinton administration, and then I worked through the first Bush administration with George Tenet. And then when Porter Goss came in, I was there for about a month or six weeks as a deputy before I left.
HARRIS: Well, John, here's what I'm getting at. Was there a sense, in those initial days and weeks and months -- or at least in the period that you were with him -- that he was coming in with a sense of an agenda that he wanted to put forward, that he wanted to execute, in his time as director?
MCLAUGHLIN: Yes, I think so. And I want to be a little careful here in characterizing things, because I did have a privileged position at that point. And I'm also always careful in talking about people who have come into positions that I've either held or held in an acting capacity. I think everyone needs to have their due on that score.
But Porter Goss came in with a view that he wanted to strengthen the clandestine service, which is the part of the agency that collects secrets overseas, and strengthen other parts of the agency, but particularly the clandestine service. He came in at a difficult moment, and I think got off to a rocky start for a number of reasons.
And -- but his agenda was principally, I think, that he -- as chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, his committee had published a number of studies and statements that were quite critical of the performance of CIA. And those of us who were there frequently disagreed with the characterization. So he came in in a climate where a number of people who had worked hard on these problems would have given the agency higher marks or disagreed with the thrust of his initial thoughts as expressed in those studies.
HARRIS: OK.
MCLAUGHLIN: So that was part it.
HARRIS: Got you.
MCLAUGHLIN: And he also, I think, had a charge to, as I think John Roberts noted a minute ago -- to tighten the agency up at a time when people thought it was leaking.
HARRIS: Yes.
MCLAUGHLIN: I suspect -- and I have always argued that it wasn't leaking to the extent that many people thought it was, but clearly, he had an agenda to tighten it up, which he has done.
HARRIS: Former interim director of the CIA, John McLaughlin. John, thanks for your time. Appreciate it. Thank you.
Once again, if you're just joining us, we've just learned inside the last hour that CIA Director Porter Goss, former Congressman from Florida, former CIA operative Porter Goss, is resigning as director of the Central Intelligence Agency. The announcement from the president inside the hour.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BUSH: Porter Goss offered his resignation as the director of the Central Intelligence Agency. I've accepted it. And during the course of his tenure, I've established a very close personal relationship with Porter, which is very important for the director of the CIA. He's spent a lot of time here in the Oval Office, and he's told me -- he's given me his candid advice. I appreciate his integrity. I appreciate the honor in which -- that he brought to the job.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: Still seeking more input and more context on this story and what it means as the CIA moves forward. The other big story we are following today, obviously, the story of the accident that Rhode Island Congressman Pat Kennedy was involved in. He is going to hold a news conference from Washington, 3:00 p.m. Eastern time, to address a number of questions raised in the aftermath of his accident early Thursday morning. We'll have that for you live when it happens.
We'll take a break. More LIVE FROM right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOSS: Very distinct honor and privilege to serve you, of course the people of the country and the employees of the Central Intelligence Agency. I can tell you the trust and confidence you've placed in me and given me, the latitude to work, is something I could never have imagined, and I am most grateful for it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: CIA Director Porter Goss resigning. That resignation accepted by the president. News just unfolding in the last hour. And we understand, as we bring in our senior Pentagon correspondent Jamie McIntyre that this is an announcement, Jamie, I understand, that caught the Pentagon a bit by surprise.
JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SENIOR PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, you now, Tony, we're trying to find the story behind the story, what's actually going on here with Porter Goss. And checking with intelligence officials here in the building, I can tell you it came as a complete surprise to them. In fact, Porter Goss apparently was supposed to attend a regularly scheduled afternoon meeting that takes place really about this time in the afternoon. The Defense Department has representatives there. And according to sources, none of the people at that meeting had any advance word that Porter Goss was going to be tendering his resignation.
So it indicates the sudden nature that this took place. And again, it just fuels the speculation that -- you know, of what the real back story is here. And again, nobody here seems to know. They're all just very surprised. They had no idea this was coming, and they really just wonder what was actually behind it.
HARRIS: Huh. Jamie, I guess the question is, had the relationship between the intelligence sharing, the back and forth of information, is there a sense that it had improved between the CIA and the Pentagon during Porter Goss' short tenure?
GOSS: You know, it's really hard to tell. You know, Rumsfeld, Defense Secretary Rumsfeld, insisted the entire time during the Tenet administration, when George Tenet was CIA director, that the relationship was good and that he was very happy with the product that he got. And of course, the defense secretary is a consumer of intelligence, and the CIA is the provider of that intelligence, along with other intelligence agencies.
But we do know that privately, Rumsfeld wasn't happy with the intelligence, in fact to the point that he assigned some of his own people to analyze -- do their own analysis, their own separate analysis of intelligence, to make sure that the CIA and others had not missed dots that needed to be connected related to Iraq and al Qaeda.
So -- but it's very hard to tell about what the actual relationship is here, because it's not something they talk about publicly. And the nature of that relationship is such that they always claim that everything's fine, and we never -- it's very hard to get the back story until usually some time passes.
HARRIS: Jamie, let me ask you -- what's the sort of flow of information? Is the director of central intelligence dealing directly with the secretary of defense, or is it -- the information going around to the director of national intelligence and then to the -- can you help clear that up for me?
MCINTYRE: Well, I wish I knew. You know, CNN's national security correspondent David Ensor could probably recite this, you know, by -- from memory off the top of his head. You know, the way it works is the -- at the Pentagon is, Rumsfeld gets intelligence briefings every morning from his staff that's developed through the -- what's called the interagency process. They also get, from time to time, separate briefings.
The president is briefed directly by the CIA or the director of new intelligence -- the national intelligence director. And that job was supposed to, of course, make sure that they didn't miss anything, to smooth out the relations between the various agencies collecting intelligence. And there's been some speculation or criticism about whether adding that whole layer of bureaucracy has worked the way it intended to work.
And of course, you're well aware, of course, that Porter Goss was one of the people considered for that new top intelligence job. And obviously, he wasn't selected when Ambassador Negroponte was picked.
HARRIS: Senior Pentagon correspondent Jamie McIntyre with us. Jamie, appreciate it, thank you.
The other top story that we're following. Rhode Island Congressman Pat Kennedy is due at a news conference in Washington 3:00 p.m. Eastern time to address, as we've mentioned, just a number of questions that have raised in the aftermath of his accident early Thursday morning. He says he was not driving drunk when he slammed his Mustang into a security barricade near the U.S. Capitol. He says he was taking two precipitation drugs that made him disoriented.
Now, the Capitol Police filed a report that shows officers clearly suspected alcohol, but they did not perform a sobriety check and they did not make an arrest. They only offered up three citations. So we will, I suppose, get some of the answers to a number of lingering questions from the Congressman himself 3:00 p.m. Eastern time. And when that happens, we will, of course, bring it to you live.
Let's get to Carol Lin now, in the newsroom, who is following another developing story -- Carol.
LIN: That's right. Tony, while you've been handling a couple of the lead stories out of Washington, we got another report in. You remember the 14-year-old boy who was in a Panama City boot camp, and it was videotaped? It looked like the guards were beating him. Well, at one point, this young man died and it caused a huge controversy. You know, tons of people were marching on school campuses in protest.
Well, there were two autopsies and I've got the latest autopsy reports. The -- in this investigation, this autopsy requested by the state attorney in Florida was that this young man, this teenager, was suffocated. All right. So we've got a live report now on this and what happened.
John Zarrella standing by in our bureau in Miami. John, does this come as a surprise? Because the initial allegation was that it was due to some complication of a sickle cell trait.
JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, initially, the first autopsy that was conducted in January, shortly after 14-year-old Martin Anderson's death. The medical examiner in Bay County came back and said that it was the result of sickle cell trait, that that's why he died and not the result of what happened at the hands of the guards at that boot camp in Florida.
Now, for our viewers who remember this, there were about 40 minutes of tape showing Martin Anderson. It was his first day of an orientation at that boot camp. And during that orientation, the video shows him being grabbed, being shoved, being pushed by the guards. They, of course, saying in defense of themselves that he was being belligerent, that he was not cooperating, not doing what he was supposed to do.
And -- so that's the backdrop to it. Then the autopsy comes out after his death, and the finding of sickle cell trait. And his family was absolutely furious about that, saying there's no way. Other experts said there was no way that that could be the case. The governor of Florida, Jeb Bush, appointed a special prosecutor then to handle the case. A second autopsy was then performed back in March. His body was exhumed and the second autopsy performed.
Now, today the results of the second autopsy performed by Vernard Adams, the chief medical examiner in Hillsborough County. And his findings are, one, Martin Anderson did have sickle cell trait. Number two, the repeated blows to Martin Anderson's limbs and the gripping of his limbs left several bruises, but did not contribute to his death. In other words, he was not beaten to death. Number three, Martin Anderson's death was caused by suffocation due to actions of the guards at the boot camp. The suffocation was caused by manual occlusion of the mouth, in concert with forced inhalation of ammonia fumes that caused spasms of the vocal cords resulting in internal blockage of the upper airways.
In other words, the guards put their hand over his mouth to force him to breathe through his nose to revive him, because he seemed to be passing out. Well, that, according to the medical examiner's report, is -- and I'm not a doctor, but it appears that's what caused -- that is ultimately what caused the death.
We must emphasize that no one has been charged in this case. The guards have not been charged in this case. And the special prosecutor again today, after releasing this statement by the medical examiner, said that the investigation is still under way. There's still a long process, Carol, perhaps before any charges, if any, are filed -- Carol. And the family, by the way, is going to hold a presser this afternoon.
LIN: All right. Be anxious to hear from them and see -- because they were the ones who really were the force initially to push this forward and say, no, no, no, you have got to be kidding me. And take a look at this videotape. It was the timing of that videotape that came out. But is the medical examiner, by his conclusion, saying it was an accident?
ZARRELLA: No, I don't think he's saying it's an accident, because he says it was suffocation due to the actions of the guards at the boot camp. But I mean, that's up to the special prosecutor in Hillsborough County to determine whether what they were doing, trying to revive him, was an accident or something else. But you know, clearly, from what this says, it was not the beating that you see on the videotape that gave everyone such great pause looking at it, that it was not that -- those punches to his limbs that caused his death. Not according to the second autopsy -- Carol.
LIN: The focus may be just on whether the guards should be administering the ammonia salts, right, and whether they should have been taking medical action to cover his mouth to try to get him to inhale those salts?
ZARRELLA: Right. And, in fact, on the tape you can see them with salt by his nose. But you also can see -- we do know that there was a nurse there. And, you know, perhaps that there's going to be some question as to, you know, was the nurse not involved, if she was or wasn't. But they thought he -- they, according to what the guard's attorney has said, was they thought Martin Anderson was faking this, that he wasn't really hurt, that he wasn't really passing out. So that's according to one of the attorneys representing one of the guards.
But again, no charges have been filed against anyone at this point. And again, the family is going to speak this afternoon, we believe about 5:45, from Tallahassee with reaction to this latest development. And that certainly should be very, very interesting -- Carol.
LIN: All right. We'll all be watching "THE SITUATION ROOM" at that point to see what the family has to say. Thanks very much, John.
Tony, back to you.
HARRIS: John, thank you both for your help on that story. Appreciate it.
A couple of things, just sort to reset where we are. A couple of breaking stories today. A couple of big news stories. First of all, out of Washington, D.C., both of these stories -- both of our top stories this afternoon coming out of Washington, D.C.
First of all, the director of central intelligence meeting with the president today in the Oval Office as the president accepted the resignation of the CIA director Porter Goss. Still trying to determine the answer to the question that still lingers in the wake of this resignation: why? Why now? And how does the agency move forward, and with who as its next director?
The other top story that we're following is we're standing by for a news conference at the top of the hour, 3:00 p.m. Eastern time, from Congressman Patrick Kennedy from Rhode Island. He is going to hold a news conference to answer a number of questions that have been raised since his accident, crashing his mustang into a security barrier outside of the U.S. Capitol. A lot of questions since that accident early Thursday morning. The news conference expected at the top of the hour. When that happens, we will bring it to you live.
More LIVE FROM right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. PATRICK KENNEDY (D), RHODE ISLAND: I never asked for any preferential treatment.
QUESTION: Do you think you received it?
KENNEDY: That's up for the police to decide, and I'm going to cooperate fully with them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: And that is Patrick Kennedy, the six-term Democratic Congressman representing Rhode Island. He says he was not driving drunk when he slammed his Ford Mustang into a security barricade very near the U.S. Capitol building. That happened early Thursday morning. He says he was taking two prescription drugs that made him disoriented. OK.
So let's sort of reset where we are. We're expecting to hear from the Congressman in just a couple of minutes. He scheduled a news conference for 3:00 p.m. Eastern Time to address a number of questions, one of which -- the Capitol Police report shows that officers clearly suspected alcohol, but they did not perform a sobriety check. And they also didn't make an arrest at the time. Only issued three citations, so we will hear the Congressman's response to a number of the questions that have been raised in the aftermath of that crash. Once again, the news conference scheduled for 3:00 p.m. Eastern time in Washington, D.C.
The other big story that we're following is the resignation of CIA director Porter Goss, Porter Goss offering that resignation to the president today, and the president accepting it and making the announcement in the Oval Office. Here's a bit of the statements from both men.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BUSH: This morning, Director Porter Goss offered his resignation as the director of the Central Intelligence Agency. I've accepted it. And during the course of his tenure, I've established a very close personal relationship with Porter, which is very important for the director of the CIA.
He's spent a lot of time here in the Oval Office, and he's told me -- he's given me his candid advice. I appreciate his integrity. I appreciate the honor in which -- that he brought to the job.
Porter's tenure at the CIA was one of transition where he's helped this agency become integrated into the intelligence community, and that was a tough job, and he's led ably. He's got a five-year plan to increase the number of analysts and operatives, which is going to help make this country a safer place and help us win the war on terror.
He's instilled a sense of professionalism. He honors the proud history of the CIA, an organization that is known for its secrecy and accountability. I am confident that his successor will continue the reforms that he's put in place, and as a result, this country will be more secure. We have to win the war on terror, and the Central Intelligence Agency is a vital part of that war, and so I want to thank you for your service.
GOSS: Mr. President, thank you very much. It has been a very distinct honor and privilege to serve you, of course, the people of the country, and the employees of the Central Intelligence Agency. I can tell you the trust and confidence you've placed in me and given me the latitude to work is something I could never have imagined, and I am most grateful for it.
I would like to report back to you that I believe the agency is on a very even keel, sailing well. I honestly believe that we have improved dramatically your goals for our nation's intelligence capabilities, which are, in fact, the things that I think are keeping us very safe.
And I honestly would report to you, sir, that we are safer for your efforts, your leadership and for the men and women in the community that are working so hard and doing so well. Thank you for the support, the encouragement, and the understanding of how tough the work is and how important it is.
BUSH: God bless.
GOSS: God bless, sir.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: And there you have it. That's the statement a little over an hour ago now from President Bush and CIA Director Porter Goss. Porter Goss announcing his resignation, offering it to the president, and the president accepting. That's where the story stands right now.
We're still trying to answer the unanswerable, at least right now, as to why, the timing, why now, and how the agency moves forward and who will be the next director of central intelligence.
Let's change gears right now and get to our other top story out of Washington, D.C. and, of course, that is a story surrounding Patrick Kennedy, the six-term Democratic Congressman from Rhode Island. He says he was not driving drunk when he slammed his car into a security barricade.
Dana Bash, our Capitol Hill correspondent, is with us now with some new details -- Dana.
DANA BASH, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Tony.
Well, CNN has learned that in the press conference Patrick Kennedy will give in just a few minutes, he will announce he's going to check himself into rehab. This is a decision that he made apparently in the last few hours, I guess, throughout the day. Essentially, the bottom line is he did not remember what happened in the wee hours of the night, night before last, crashing his car into the a barricade.
As we've been reporting, he had said that he had taken a combination of two prescription drugs. Well, apparently, there was more to it than that, and we're told that he essentially has an addiction. Now, it's unclear if there's one specific drug that he believes he is addicted to.
It sounds as though, in just sort of big picture, he has had an addictive personality even he has said before, and he's had addiction in the past even, since he was a teenager. He was in rehab for an addiction to cocaine. He apparently has had a relapse lately.
Again, we don't have a lot of the details, but we will hear it from himself -- from Patrick Kennedy himself in the next five minutes or so when this press conference starts.
So this has certainly been -- it was a surprise press conference that they announced the initial plan was for the Congressman to go back to his home state of Rhode Island and explain the details of the incident, but this has obviously turned into a much bigger thing for him personally, and that's what he's going to share, his personal story as to why he's decided to check himself into rehab -- Tony. HARRIS: And, Dana, we don't know -- it's probably still too early to know. We'll find out from him in just a couple of moments I'm sure, but we don't know how long he will be in that clinic, and we don't know what happens to the work that he's charged to do for his district in that time, do we?
BASH: We don't. And it's too early to sort of -- to know the answers to any of those questions for sure. But we will likely hear the answers and -- I'm told in a very detailed way, and I'm told in a very, quote, "personal" way from the Congressman himself here in the Capitol building just in the next few minutes. So we'll wait for that.
HARRIS: OK, let's bring in our senior political analyst Bill Schneider. And, Bill, this is a young man who has -- as Dana mentioned, has had kind of a career that has, you know, had its bumpy roads, isn't it?
WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, CNN SR. POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, he's had problems before. There was an incident in Los Angeles at the airport back in 2000 where he apologized to a security guard. He's gone through drug rehabilitation in the past. He just had an auto accident recently, a small one in Rhode Island. He's had a very rocky career both because of personal problems, because of some difficulties with the law in the past.
HARRIS: And, Bill, I'm wondering, what happens now? Does he simply check himself in? Is there anything that has to happen in terms of his role as a Congressman?
SCHNEIDER: No, he's not -- well, we don't know yet, but there's no indication he plans to resign from Congress. If he were to do that, there would have to be a special election. We simply don't know.
There are lots of unanswered questions here, particularly about his use of alcohol. He denied any use of alcohol. The police did not give him a sobriety test, so there are questions for him to answer, as well as questions for the Capitol Police to answer.
HARRIS: Has he been viewed, in your experience, as being a particularly effective congressman for his district of Rhode Island?
SCHNEIDER: Well he's been returned a number of times to that district, I think six terms as a member of Congress, so the district has apparently been satisfied with him. He was the chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, so he was in a leadership position in his party. So I think that speaks for itself.
HARRIS: Yes, it sure does.
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