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American Morning
Interview with Senator Bob Graham, Intelligence Committee
Aired June 05, 2002 - 07:16 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 we heard a few minutes ago from Kate Snow, lawmakers in Washington go back behind closed doors this morning to investigate what went wrong with U.S. intelligence gathering before 9/11. The president says the FBI and the CIA failed to communicate before the attacks, but the head of the House Intelligence Committee says their probe is about accountability, not finger-pointing.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. PORTER GOSS (R), INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: We will be a fact- driven, witness-driven review inquiry. We will not be driven by outside pressures.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ZAHN: And joining us now from Capitol Hill is the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Florida Democrat Bob Graham -- welcome back, Senator -- good to see you again.
SEN. BOB GRAHAM (D-FL), INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: Good morning.
ZAHN: Did you learn anything new yesterday?
GRAHAM: Paula, yesterday was primarily a getting organized day. We adopted our scope of inquiry, which is sort of the road map of where we intend to go over the next few months, and our rules. This is the first time in the history of the United States Congress where a standing committee of the House and another of the Senate have come together for a common investigation. So we don't have any precedence to go on. We are developing our own procedures and process.
ZAHN: And I know you believe yesterday's meeting was constructive, and yet there are critics out there who are suggesting that perhaps these hearings won't be all that effective at all.
Let's read what "The Wall Street Journal" has written in an editorial -- quote: "What is there to know that we don't already know? And what are the chances that another congressional inquiry in the long string that these agencies endured over the years will make them more effective? One source of their ineffectiveness has been the erosion of morale and tendencies toward risk aversion brought about by past congressional experiences -- or experiments in micromanagement."
What kind of changes do you believe these hearings will actually bring about?
GRAHAM: Well, first, I would say the record of the last three or four years has been one in which Congress has worked with the agencies to increase their capabilities. For instance, we have known for some time that we didn't have an adequate number of human being spies to go out and do the job that we need, and those didn't have the skills of language and culture to understand the new areas of the world in which we are operating.
We have been pumping a lot of new resources and policy into that specific area in order to beef up our capabilities, and we will get some dividends from that investment over the next few years.
I believe that the value of having these joint congressional committees do the analysis of what happened on September 11 is that they are like a doctor who cannot only diagnose why the patient is sick, but also can prescribe the appropriate medicines to make it better in the future. That's where I think our ultimate test is going to be is how effective we are in developing some prescriptions, and then effectively advocating to our colleagues for their adoption.
ZAHN: Even your colleague, Senator Shelby, who is on your committee, admitted yesterday that perhaps Congress didn't come up with enough prescriptions. Here is what he had to say yesterday on AMERICAN MORNING.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. RICHARD SHELBY (R), INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: I wish we could have done more, but sometimes you have to have a crisis, which is unfortunate, to push the envelope. We are pushing it now. A lot of us pushed it earlier, but nobody listened.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ZAHN: Did you feel that way, that no one listened to you?
GRAHAM: There is a lot of truth in what Senator Shelby said that unfortunately it frequently takes a horrific event in order to galvanize people around the idea that the status quo was not acceptable, and we have got to change. There is no event that has had a greater impact on Americans in my lifetime than what happened on September 11, and if that's not a motivator for basic change within our intelligence and law enforcement agencies, I don't know what chance we are going to get in the future to do a better job.
ZAHN: There is a quote in "The New York Times" this morning from an -- excuse me -- an anonymous member of your committee, who said that the panel decided to look back to 1986, as far back to that point, as a compromise. And the quote from that person is -- "The Democrats were trying to stop going back too far into what President Clinton did or did not do, and the Republicans tried to stop Bush from having to take any bullets for what they did in the run-up to 9/11."
Can you assure us that these hearings will not turn into a partisan blame-game? GRAHAM: Paula, I can't give you an insurance policy on that, but I think we have the best chance of any combination of people in or out of Congress to conduct a thorough investigation. We are a group of 38 people who have had considerable experience in the intelligence area in dealing with classified information with the personalities involved. I think we start from an advanced position.
We also have the responsibility not only to determine what happened, but why it happened, and what can be done about it. And that date, 1986, was not arbitrarily selected. That happens to be the year in which for the first time the intelligence community established a separate counterterrorism unit that recognized terrorism as a specific problem for United States intelligence. That seemed to be a logical date from which to begin to ask the question. Well, we have been at this business now for more than 15 years. What did we learn during that 15 year period that might have avoided September 11? What didn't we learn that contributed to that terrible tragedy?
ZAHN: We've got about 10 seconds left, sir. You will be talking with Coleen Rowley, the woman who penned a devastating memo about the workings of the FBI. What's the key question you want answered from her today?
GRAHAM: Well, our staff will be interviewing Ms. Rowley, and the question will be more details as to the relationship between Minneapolis and the headquarters here in Washington. And why she felt that the field office was blown off in the way it was with what now we know to be very important potential information that would have avoided September 11 from occurring.
ZAHN: Well, we wish you luck with the hearings -- thanks so much for giving us a better understanding of what happened yesterday on day one -- thank you, Senator Graham.
GRAHAM: Thank you, Paula.
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