Return to Transcripts main page

American Morning

New Book by Former CIA Officer Harshly Criticizes Former Agency for Way It's Not Gathered Intelligence

Aired January 21, 2002 - 07:40   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.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: It is time now for our weekly intelligence briefing. A new book, "See No Evil," by former CIA Officer Robert Baer, harshly criticizes his former agency for the way it's not gathered intelligence. And there's word of another world terrorist out there the U.S. should be hunting.

With more on this and other news, CNN National Security Correspondent David Ensor joins us from Washington.

Good morning, David.

DAVID ENSOR, NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Anderson. How are you?

COOPER: Good.

ENSOR: I should perhaps talk about Robert Baer and the book and his criticisms. First, he says rather forcefully that over the last couple of decades the CIA has been forced to pull in its horns by the U.S. government and by the U.S. people, and has not been as aggressive as it should have been.

He is a veteran CIA officer, a veteran of Iraq, a veteran of Lebanon. And he says the U.S. has relied far too much on technology.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROBERT BAER, AUTHOR: Satellites cannot see inside of a mosque. They cannot see inside of a person's head. We can see what's going on at ground, but the terrorists move around so quickly and so easily that we simply can't follow them with satellites or with telephone intercepts.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: And it was just too dangerous, too dirty, too politically difficult to get down and do what you were doing?

BAER: Absolutely. It was political correctness. Because, if we were to recruit a fundamentalist, and he were to go off on his own and kill somebody, not on our orders but by himself, the CIA would pay the price.

(END VIDEOTAPE) ENSOR: You can be sure those are the kinds of criticisms that we'll probably hear from witnesses during the hearings that will come up in the spring, Anderson. As the Congress looks at the intelligence failure -- by definition, it wasn't a failure that the CIA missed any clues that there might have been about September 11th.

The CIA responds that Mr. Baer is out of date. That there are hundreds of CIA agents and human intelligence sources on the ground, in Afghanistan, and in the region now. And that they really have turned a corner. But U.S. intelligence is back on the ground and in a human form trying to collect intelligence against al Qaeda, Anderson.

COOPER: David, just very briefly, CIA officers are under strict security obligations even after they leave the agency. Why is this man allowed to speak?

ENSOR: Well, his book had to go through a thorough review process and had to be approved. There were no doubt some clips and parts of it removed, in order not to violate national security matters. It is, however, a novel, and so it -- excuse me, it's not a novel. It is -- it was approved through a CIA process. Some parts of it would have been removed in the process.

COOPER: All right, just -- in other news, we've been talking a lot this morning about the possibility of Osama bin Laden needing dialysis for kidney failure. What are your sources saying/

ENSOR: My sources say that's not true. My sources say that at least one knowledgeable U.S. official says that there's been this recurrent rumor that bin Laden had imported a couple of dialysis machines and needed the use of a dialysis machine. This source says they have no information suggesting that bin Laden ever had kidney failure. They do believe he had a kidney infection at one point that was not as serious as to require dialysis.

They're puzzled as to where this rumor -- as they describe it -- came up and why President Musharraf repeated it. So, again, this is one source, but one that has been reliable in the past -- Anderson.

COOPER: David, a lot of people obviously know the name Osama bin Laden, but I understand that there's another person out there who we perhaps should be paying attention to, and that people in the intelligence community are paying attention to. Who is it, and why should we know about this person?

ENSOR: Well, this man -- as you see him on the screen there -- is Imad Mugniyah. He's on the FBI most wanted list. He is considered to be an Iranian officer, an Iranian agent. He's though to be behind the Marine barracks, killing more than 200 Marines in the time of President Reagan -- and scores of other attacks on American targets.

He is thought to divide his time between Beirut, Syria and Iran. There have been reports, which U.S. officials are not able to confirm, that he may have had plastic surgery to change his appearance. He's back in the news because of that shipment of arms that went to the Palestinian authority. There are reports that someone close to Mugniyah may have been behind making that shipment -- which was Iranian arms, in the view of U.S. officials -- making that possible.

So he may be active once again, and there is a good deal of concern about him in the U.S. intelligence community today, Anderson.

COOPER: All right. David Ensor, CNN National Security Correspondent, thanks very much. We will no doubt be checking with you again.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com