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American Morning

Target: Terrorism: Interview of Adviser, Student Seeking CIA Job

Aired November 01, 2001 - 09:04   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.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: The House of Representatives will vote today on airline security. It is going to be really close one; lawmakers are split over the federal government's role in who should be employing the people screening airport baggage.

Congressional correspondent Jonathan Karl is standing by on Capitol Hill, with more on that.

Jonathan, do you want to hazard a prediction on how that vote might go?

Good morning.

JONATHAN KARL, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Paula, I just got off the phone with one of the key vote counters for the Republicans on this issue what he told me -- this is somebody in Tom DeLay's office -- is this could come down to one or two votes. So it's shaping up to be an extremely close vote, and with that in mind, President Bush is bringing 15 Republicans down to the White House later this morning, about half of those considered truly fence-sitters on issue, people at Republican leadership up here think need they need a little presidential persuasion to get them to come along to the Republican version of this bill, which, as you mentioned, would give the president the choice whether or not to make those baggage screeners federal employees. The Democratic version would establish them, all 28,000 baggage screeners at major airports, to be federal employees.

A little while ago we heard two key players in this debate the issues. Here is what they had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. DAVID BONIOR (D-MI), MINORITY WHIP: We need a change in system. The system that the Republicans in the House are advocating today is basically the system that we have had before, and it failed us on September 11. We need a system where people are well paid, well trained, and a system where we protect, at the front line, the flying public.

REP. CHRISTOPHER COX (R-CA), HOUSE POLICY CHAIRMAN: What we have authorized in this legislation is 100 percent federal workers, but we have also given the president the flexibility that he needs to get the job zone right. When this bill went through the Senate 100-0, this piece of it had not become salient -- literally after the vote, most senators discovered this was in the bill. So it is because the president asked us to do this that we are doing this in the legislation in the House of Representatives.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KARL: So Republicans want to give the president the power to decide how those employees should be paid, either by the federal government, directly as federal employees or private contractors. Democrats say all federal employees.

Let me tell you, Paula, this bill is a big bill has to do with aviation security. Ninety percent of the Democratic and Republican versions almost exactly the same, questions like putting more federal marshals, air marshals, on airplanes, questions like strengthening cockpit doors, and even giving pilots the option to carry firearms -- Paula.

ZAHN: Jonathan, in the end, you talk about your vote counters think this may come down to a vote margin of 1 separating the haves from the have-nots. My question to you is, ultimately, what impact will the president's lobbying have with those fence-sitters that aren't so convinced the Republican version is the way to go?

KARL: Some people, especially Democrats, are seeing this as the first real test of the president's 90 percent approval rating. This is the first time he has really gotten in on a very close vote and played a very active role in lobbying. Of course, he didn't really start doing this until the last couple of days. Many Republicans up here have been very frustrated that the president, very popular, had not come in and taken a more active role in this debate.

So he is getting into this game late, and that is the real open question: Will it be enough to sway lawmakers? He has done a pretty good job so far; a number of people have gone down to the White House. Moderate Republicans who had on the fence said the president was very persuasive, and that is what's gotten this vote so close.

But again, it's unclear right now, even the Republican say, unclear whether that is going to be enough to get their version of the bill passed.

ZAHN: We will be watching the action alongside you. Jonathan Karl, thanks so much for the update.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: U.S. Jets pounded Taliban troop positions near a key Afghan city today. It's part of a stepped up U.S. effort to attack frontline Taliban positions.

CNN's Kathleen Koch is following the developments at the Pentagon for us.

Good morning, Kathleen.

KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Miles. Carpet bombing now in Afghanistan, as the U.S. anti-terrorism efforts, over that country intensify. Some 70 U.S. strike aircraft have been pummeling areas along the front lines between the Northern Alliance opposition troops and the Taliban. This is just kind of support the opposition forces had been hoping for in order to give a leg up, in their efforts to open more strategic supply lines and claim some vital areas, vital cities in the north. The aircraft -- 55 jets, half a dozen long-range bombers -- hit numerous targets near Mazar-e- Sharif, and also north of Kabul, some including a column of armored vehicles, an al Qaeda training camp, and a fuel and ammunition depot.

As those airstrikes ratchet up, the defense secretary himself fired a few shots in the battle for public opinion. Speaking in a commentary in "The Washington Post," Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld warning that the United States must adapt quickly and decisively to what he calls a new era of vulnerability, Rumsfeld writing, "Rather than planning primarily for large conventional wars in precisely defined theaters, we must plan for a world of new and different adversaries who will rely on surprise, deception, and asymmetric weapons."

Soon to join that campaign against the Taliban, will be forces from the allied country of Turkey, Turkey sending some 90 forces into northern Afghanistan, to help train opposition forces there.

Also headed to the region, new U.S. spy warplanes, which are going to be helping make that bombing campaign more effective. First what we'll see heading to the area is the Global Hawk; it's an experimental spy drone only in use since 1998. It sends back realtime pictures of what's happening on the ground. It operates at a very high altitude, of about 50,000 to 60,000 feet, which puts it out of the range of antiaircraft fire. It has range of 1,200 nautical miles, and it can swoop into an area and roam there for some 24 hours, isolating targets.

Also headed to the region is the J-Star. That's an experimental plane that was rushed into service and proved to be very valuable during the 1991 Persian Gulf War. It is designed primarily to track the movement of ground forces.

Now Miles, taking out those ground forces will prove to be more and more important, as U.S. military is finding, basically, a paucity, an increasing lack, of Taliban targets -- hardware structures -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: CNN's Kathleen Koch, at the Pentagon, thank you very much.

The wave of patriotism since September 11 has triggered a surge of job applications to the Central Intelligence Agency. Before September 11, the agency received 500 to 600 applications each week. The spy shop now averages that many each day.

Ed Friedman is one of those trying to get a job with the CIA. I guess it's not a secret anymore. He is a senior at Georgetown University, in Washington. And Jim Dixey is associate director for employer and alumni relations at Georgetown's career center.

Let's begin with you, Ed. You were at job fair recently. The CIA set up shop, as they are wont to do, at Georgetown. You had to wait some time even to talk to a recruiter, didn't you?

ED FRIEDMAN, STUDENT, GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY: That's right, I had to wait about half an hour on line. I had gone to one about two years ago, and there maybe a two to three minute wait at the CIA and much longer waits at Goldman Sachs or Deloitte & Touche.

O'BRIEN: So we have gone from investment banking to spying. That's a significant shift. What was the conversation in line -- or, actually, can you share with me the conversation in line, or is it classified?

FRIEDMAN: I don't think that is classified. I think most people are thinking now that the goal of making some money was nice before September 11. But I have always been interested in the CIA, and I know that many of my friends have; it was just seen as more of a fantasy, a James Bond goal, and now it's reality. September 11 changed that for a lot of people.

O'BRIEN: Mr. Dixey, a long history of the CIA recruiting at Georgetown -- and other campuses, to be fair. What's different now?

JIM DIXEY, GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY CAREER CENTER: What's different now is a surge of patriotism among the students. I think the CIA, for the last eight or nine years has, essentially, not been the agency that we probably wanted it to be. They have had some needs that have gone unattended. September 11 certainly crystallized it, and we have had a surge of student interest. There are particular areas they look for, but the big thing, I think, quite frankly, is student patriotism, a sincere interest in serving their country.

O'BRIEN: For those few students who are up at this hour right now watching this program, what are the qualities, what is the experience, that is required to make an application to the CIA that will be at least taken somewhat seriously, Mr. Dixey.

DIXEY: I think it depends on each agency, because there are numerous agencies that are in each, shall we say, intelligence field. So it depends on each agency; it depends what their particular needs are. Certainly, right now, if you speak a Middle Eastern language, I think if you have some experience in that area, you are certainly a very interesting commodity, and you would be attractive to agency. But I think the agency needs -- and when I say agency, we are talking about numerous intelligence-related associations, organizations in the government -- is intelligent, capable, strong-willed, qualified people that understand this isn't James Bond, this is tough hard work, but there is a purpose behind it. And you are not going to make a lot of money.

O'BRIEN: A little while ago, we talked to James Woolsey, former director of Central Intelligence, and he had some interesting things to say about the role of intelligence in this current engagement. Let's listen for just a moment. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAMES WOOLSEY, FORMER CIA DIRECTOR: Not all spies are bought. Some come to you because they believe in what you are doing. But in this part of the world, I imagine money is going to have to change hands, and some of the people who have strong allegiances, religious and other, to the Taliban, may not be able to be persuaded to be separated under any circumstances, and they will have to be regarded the way we regarded the Nazis in World War II: They will be the enemy, period.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: Ed, as you listen to that and you hear him talking about having to bribe people in order to get what you need done, you realize that this is really a dirty business. I wonder if you are going into it with your eyes wide open, or if you are going into it with a James Bond view of it all?

FRIEDMAN: Oh, no, I understand fully that it is a dirty business, and again, I said I have been interested in intelligence agencies for quite sometime. It is just that that never crystallized into action until September 11. I don't think that the dirty aspects bother me now as much as they might have beforehand.

O'BRIEN: Do you think you are going to get an offer from the CIA?

FRIEDMAN: Now that my face is on TV, I'm not sure.

O'BRIEN: Not at liberty to discuss that.

Thank you very much, Ed Friedman, Jim Dixey.

We will never know whether Ed gets in there. If he tells friends he is a greeting card salesmen, I think he might be winking and nodding.

Thank you very much, gentlemen, for joining us.

FRIEDMAN: Thank you.

DIXEY: Thank you.

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