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American Morning

America Under Attack: Former CIA Director Asserts Iraq May be Behind Terrorist Attacks

Aired September 12, 2001 - 10:54   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.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Let's bring back in former CIA director James Woolsey.

Mr. Ambassador, I understand you were listening right along with us to the president.

JAMES WOOLSEY, FORMER CIA DIRECTOR: Yes.

KAGAN: When the president says, this is a different enemy than every before, what does he mean by that?

WOOLSEY: Well, he's talking about terrorists, in particularly, a group like bin Laden's. And I thought the president's address was eloquent and stirring even. But he used a word, "harbor," which he used last night. A harbor for terrorists might be, say, the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. But there may be more involved than harbors here, there may be a government other than a harbor, such as the Iraqi government, that is orchestrating this to some extent, funding it, working closely on it behind bin Laden or some other terrorist group. I very much hope the Bush administration, unlike Clinton administration, will not set aside this possibility and assume that everything is just a terrorist group, even a terrorist group as major as bin Laden's. It really need to look carefully at the possibility there may be state sponsorship here, and I think the most likely, certainly not the only possibility is Iraq.

KAGAN: So to look outside the box, in other words, the terrorists might be...

(AUDIO GAP)

WOOLSEY: ... intelligence organization assistance to terrorists, there are all sorts of possibilities.

This was the original theory of the chief FBI investigator, Mr. Fox, of the World Trade Center bombing in 1993. But the government prosecutors turned away from it a couple of years later and the Clinton administration turned away from it, turned toward the theory that this was all just loose associations of terrorists and then later bin Laden.

I think -- I hope the Bush administration will go back and take a fresh look and consider at least the possibility that there could be some state-sponsored involvement here.

KAGAN: James Woolsey, Mr. Ambassador, former CIA director, Sir, thanks for your time this morning and thanks for your insight as well.

WOOLSEY: Thank you.

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