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American Morning

FBI Suicide Bomb Warning Not Meant to Be Released

Aired May 21, 2002 - 09:01   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: As you've heard, the head of the FBI says that a suicide bombing in the United States is inevitable.

Let us begin our coverage now with CNN's Kelly Wallace, who has reaction from the White House.

Now, Kelly, is it true that the director of the FBI never expected this to be released publicly? He was making these comments at a conference of U.S. attorneys.

KELLY WALLACE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I can't completely answer that, Paula. But clearly he was making these comments -- no cameras were present -- obviously to a group of district attorneys. So it does appear he didn't necessarily expect these comments to get out. And so far, U.S. officials here at the White House not saying very much at all. A senior official I talked to, though, did say no one should be surprised that someone or others would want to bring these quote, "acts of evil to the United States."

Still, it wasn't until FBI Director Mueller's comments yesterday that a suicide bombing in the U.S. is quote, "inevitable," that any senior U.S. official talked about what we're seeing in the Middle East, suicide bombings to the United States. Of course, Director Mueller also saying, quote, "There will be another terrorist attack," talking about an attack in the United States. We will not be able to stop it. It's something we all live with.

And, Paula, as you know, the director's comments following Vice President Cheney's comments on Sunday, when he said not a question if there will be a terrorist attack, but a question of when -- Paula.

ZAHN: But the administration is saying that this was not a planned series of announcements. And you know there are cynics out there who are suggesting that this is a great way for the White House, as they're saying, to cover its derriere and to distract the public from criticism it's been receiving about pre-September 11 warnings. Is that fair?

WALLACE: Well -- and those questions are being raised. Condoleeza Rice, the president's national security adviser, in fact asked about that very question during a Sunday morning interview appearance. She said, "We don't play games with this." Still, though, new terror warnings have been coming out over the past several days after lots of attention to what this administration knew before September 11 and what it did with that information.

The message we're getting from U.S. officials is that over the past few months there has been this increased chatter or activity that is not very specific. And Condoleeza Rice telling reporters yesterday part of what's happening is the administration is better able to gather this intelligence because it has more resources available.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CONDOLEEZA RICE, NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: You have to recognize that we have more in the way of sheer volume of information now. We have detainees in custody. We have kind of worldwide mobilization of the intelligence networks. So we're just getting a lot more information and some of it may be sheer volume. But we also understand better through some of the systems that are in place, like the threat alert system, that there are different kinds of information that need to be communicated differently.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALLACE: Paula, U.S. officials, though, also asked if they're changing their policies in any way. Kind of learning lessons from what happened before September 11 and putting out a lot more information now in a way to make sure that the American public doesn't come back and say, why didn't you tell us about this or that? U.S. officials are saying no change in policy. But it does appear, Paula, we've heard a lot more about these new warnings and new intelligence information over the past several days than we did in previous weeks -- Paula.

ZAHN: All right. Thanks, Kelly. We're going to be checking back with you in a few minutes to talk more about the president's trip to Europe and Russia this week.

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