Return to Transcripts main page
American Morning
Interview with Rep. Jane Harman (D), Intelligence Committee
Aired June 04, 2002 - 07:10 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: ` On to the issue of the CIA and the FBI taking each other on in the blame game. Intelligence committees from both the House and Senate start joint hearings to look at whether 9/11 warnings were missed, and what is being done to change the way intelligence agencies operate.
Representative Jane Harman is a member of the House Intelligence Committee. She joins us now from Washington -- good to see you again -- welcome back.
REP. JANE HARMAN (D-CA), INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: Nice to be back, Paula.
ZAHN: Let's talk a little bit about where these closed-door hearings will be taking place. I understand they are going to be held at sort of the attic level of an area where the rooms are locked up by combination locks. What will be the level of secrecy?
HARMAN: Well, today's hearing and the hearings for the next few weeks are organizational and classified. We meet in the Dome of the Capitol, literally, in a series of rooms that are closed off, because we do want to be sure that we can keep the nation's secrets there. After that, we are going to public hearings, and at those, the public and the press will be invited.
ZAHN: What specific questions do you want answered, particularly on the heels of these revelations about the CIA and what they knew months before, in fact, a year-and-a-half before these attacks, and what the FBI knew well in advance of these attacks?
HARMAN: Well, the goal of the hearings is to fix the problem. Let's focus on that. Secretary Rumsfeld is warning in today's papers that there may well be a second wave of attacks. I believe that. I think many of my colleagues believe that too. And we need to keep America safe going forward. I do want to look backward. I want to understand what went wrong. I want to understand what was broken in the system, so we can fix it. But the goal is to fix the system, and that's what I am going to be looking for. What recommendations do we have either to change organization, change practices, or change the law to fix the system, so we don't miss clues?
And I want to say, though, there are a lot of good people out there. Certainly this Coleen Rowley and Ken Williams are excellent FBI agents, and I think that Bob Mueller is trying to fix the FBI as George Tenet is trying to fix the CIA. But the point is to keep these people at their jobs working to connect the dots the next time to keep us safe.
ZAHN: Well, I'm just curious if you think that any of these immediate changes they are talking about making at both of those organizations would make Americans any safer today? You have the administration admitting yesterday that the FBI was told by the CIA of the identity of two of these hijackers who were living quite openly in the United States, opening bank accounts, driving on expired driver's licenses.
HARMAN: Well, clearly I am not excusing any of that. And it makes me personally sad, because I served on a commission on terrorism in 1999 and 2000, and we pointed to lots of these problems. And our recommendations were not heeded, and these problems continued. Of course, I am unhappy about that. I am not defending the specific misses of either agency, but this blame game, as you call it, is pointless. The point is to fix the system, protect us next time. If we still look backwards, and we make everyone look backwards, and we don't keep them focused forward, we are going to miss the next clues, and that would be a tragedy.
ZAHN: Even though no one wants to really play the blame game here, you have esteemed colleagues out there questioning the credibility of some of the leaders of these agencies. Senator Shelby yesterday accusing George Tenet, the head of the CIA, of being in a state of denial. Is he?
HARMAN: Well, I can't speak for his state of mind. I hope he is working hard on the Middle East. Richard Shelby has his opinion of George Tenet. I have a different opinion of George Tenet. I am sure that George Tenet, when he returns from the Middle East, will look hard at the systems he has in place. He needs to do that. The CIA needs to change certain practices. No question about that.
But my point, Paula, is there are many good people working in a system that is broken. We've got to fix the system. We've got to create what I call digital capacity across these agencies with databases that let us see all the clues on one template with analysts that are interagency, so that we put all of it together, very imaginative people, and we have actionable intelligence.
It makes sense, and people know what we need to do to prevent when we see people who are in the wrong immigration status, to prevent them from re-entering the country or to find them in the country. That's what we don't know how to do yet. We know there are people roaming around. We don't know how to find them. Let's figure that out. That's what we have to do.
ZAHN: In spite of your well-articulated goal that you just laid out here this morning, there are critics out there who are saying that members of Congress are just too close to the culture of the FBI and the CIA. They point out that Porter Goss, who heads up your committee, the former CIA operative, who they accuse of being an apologist for the CIA. How objective will you and your fellow members of Congress be? HARMAN: Well, all I can say is all of us were elected to represent our constituents and to put the national interests first. I think there are some very good members of Congress on a bipartisan basis who serve on the intelligence committees.
Speaking of Porter Goss, he is no apologist. I have never seen that. He has been very tough on this administration about what's going on in Guantanamo Bay, and I support him there. I think we need to be doing more to question those prisoners down there and get information about the next wave of attacks.
So I am comfortable starting out with this, first of all, with my subcommittee investigation. We are due to file a report in about a month. I am the ranking member on the Subcommittee on Homeland Security and Terrorism. But then working on this bicameral panel, and I think the outside staff, not inside staff, that's been selected is excellent. We have a new director, Eleanor Hill, who started yesterday. We will hear from them today on how this is going.
And down the road, if for any reason we don't feel or the country doesn't feel we can get the whole job done, I personally think we can make a very good start at this. Then maybe we need to form a commission, but commissions aren't a magic answer. I just told you I served on one in 1999 and 2000. We made a lot of good recommendations which were ignored.
ZAHN: Well, we wish you better luck this time around. Representative Jane Harman, I'd love to have you come back when you are able to share publicly some of what was discussed at these very important closed-door hearings taking place later today.
HARMAN: Thank you, Paula.
ZAHN: Appreciate your time this morning.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
