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American Morning

Bush Administration Not Pleased with Blame Game

Aired June 04, 2002 - 07:02   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: "Up Front" this morning, the CIA provides proof it informed the FBI about one of the suspected hijackers well before September 11. This latest volley of finger pointing first reported by CNN continues today, as a joint congressional hearing opens.

CNN's justice correspondent, Kelli Arena, joins us now with more from Washington -- good morning, Kelli.

KELLI ARENA, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula. Well, I can tell you this. The administration is not pleased with the blame game that's being played. And in fact, last night when I called the FBI for a response to this latest news, their official answer was that a joint committee in Congress is examining this issue, it's not helpful to engage in finger pointing.

Now, government officials with the knowledge of the timeline that both the FBI and CIA have submitted did provide somewhat of a defense for the FBI.

Now, to give a little background here. The CIA was tracking one of the hijackers as early as January of 2000. His name, as we know, was Khalid Almihdhar. Now, at times within January, the CIA passed on information to the FBI of a man named Khalid -- no name was given, no last name was given -- who had possible terrorist connections.

Now, after that first communication, the CIA informed the FBI that this man, again first name only, Khalid, would be attending a meeting of suspected terrorists in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Now, another U.S. agency at the same time discovered that a man named Khalid Almihdhar was also heading to Malaysia, and it assumed at that point that the two men are one in the same. Now, that's the last information that the FBI received about Khalid Almihdhar until August of 2001, just about two weeks before the September 11 attacks.

Now, during that time, a big window of time when there was no communication between the FBI and the CIA, the CIA discovered that the reason for that meeting in Kuala Lumpur was to allegedly plan the bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen. The CIA also discovered that Khalid Almihdhar had gone from Malaysia to the United States. In fact, he had made several trips to the United States, and that is a practice which would usually raise red flags in the intelligence community, but the CIA did not share any of this information with the FBI, again according to people who are familiar with the timelines. Now, all of this information, Paula, has been shared with Congress, and of course, it will be up to congressional investigators to determine who should have done what with the information, and that's where we are at.

ZAHN: Now, add into this equation an explosive article in "The New York Times" this morning where President Mubarak suggests that the Egyptians actually warned the U.S. of a potential significant attack against an American target. What is the administration saying about this charge?

ARENA: Well, I can tell you, we haven't got an official response from the intelligence community or the administration on this information. But I can tell you this fits in with what we have been hearing and reporting all along.

As you know, Paula, there was what's called increased chatter in the intelligence community, an increased volume of information that was coming. And the intelligence community was on high alert, as we know now, prior to the 9/11 attacks. The problem was -- and if you read this article carefully, the problem is that there was nothing specific. There was no time. There was no target.

The intelligence community in the U.S. knew that something was brewing concerning the United States, but they didn't know if it was a target -- a U.S. target overseas or domestically. So if this is true, it does fit in with the fact that the U.S. was reaching out for information globally from the intelligence community, but as I said, we have not gotten official confirmation that he did, in fact, pass on the information.

ZAHN: It's interesting, Kelli, to note that Ben Wedeman at our bureau in Cairo got in contact with some U.S. embassy people there. And their quote this morning is: "We are pretty sure we were not warned of an impending attack" -- "pretty sure." So we will try to get to the bottom of that a little bit later on this morning. Kelli Arena, thanks so much for that live update.

ARENA: You are welcome, Paula.

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