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American Morning
Blame in Government Intelligence Mishandling
Aired June 05, 2002 - 08:21 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: There is no letup in the accusations over the intelligence lapses prior to 9/11. President Bush says the FBI and the CIA were not communicating properly before the attacks, but is worried that the hearings could become counterproductive.
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GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: What I am concerned about is tying up valuable assets and time, and possibly jeopardizing sources of intelligence. And that's why it is very important that the Congress do investigate, but they do so in a way that doesn't jeopardize our intelligence gathering capacity.
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ZAHN: And here is what Maureen Dowd of "The New York Times" had to say about the tension between the two agencies: "The two counterterrorism agencies, separated by the Potomac, can't devote themselves entirely to homeland defense. They are too busy ripping each other apart, leak for leak, in their own homeland civil war."
So against this background, can Congress really find out who is to blame?
Here with me now is CNN senior analyst Jeff Greenfield.
Good morning.
JEFF GREENFIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.
ZAHN: Boy, the rhetoric is heating up. You had Sen. Shelby the other day saying George Tenet, the head of the CIA, is in a state of denial. There have been calls for resignations in newspapers and among our esteemed representatives of the U.S. government, calling for resignations. Are we going to see any heads roll, either voluntarily or from the very top?
GREENFIELD: I'm skeptical for two reasons. The first is that Robert Mueller of the FBI was in charge for a matter of days when 9/11 happened. That's hard to hold somebody responsible, at least for that. And in the case of CIA Director Tenet, President Bush went to the CIA and figuratively and literally put his arm around him. And more even directly, five days after 9/11, Vice President Cheney went on "Meet The Press" with a very strong defense of Tenet, which I think we are going to hear.
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DICK CHENEY, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think George clearly should remain as director of the CIA. I think I have great confidence in him, and I think it would be a tragedy if somehow we were to go back now in the search for scapegoats and say that George Tenet or any other official ought to eliminated and disciplined.
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ZAHN: Well, but let's forget about scapegoats for a moment. Let's talk about the issue of accountability.
GREENFIELD: Yes.
ZAHN: And there are a lot of questions being raised about the accountability of our elected officials and our appointed officials.
GREENFIELD: I think this is one of the most interesting differences between the United States and other countries. In other countries, when a policy fails, when there's some kind of obvious mistake, heads roll. Winston Churchill, when he was first lord of the admiralty in World War I, there was a military disaster, a naval disaster, he was out. When Anthony Eden was prime minister of Britain, they tried to take back the Suez Canal; it didn't work -- he was out. When Argentina seized the Falkland Islands in 1982 from Britain, the foreign secretary resigned.
You know, in Japan it's routine. The prime minister leads his party to an electoral defeat and he says I'm out as the party leader. It's my fault.
This is very common in other countries. It's not common in America.
ZAHN: But we have had some resignations along the way.
GREENFIELD: You know when? It's when people get into personal trouble -- when James Watt, Reagan's interior secretary, makes dismissive remarks about minorities; when Jocelyn Elders seems to be too enthusiastic about the teaching of masturbation in public schools; when John Sununu, the first President Bush's chief of staff, takes a government limo to buy stamps.
But on policy failures -- I mean this is one of the most striking examples: 1993, Waco. The standoff ends in a fire and the death of dozens of people. Here's what then Attorney General Janet Reno had to say about it. It's fascinating.
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JANET RENO, ATTORNEY GENERAL: I approved the plan, and I'm responsible for it. I advised the president, but I did not advise him as to the details.
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GREENFIELD: Now, in other countries, the response is Right, it's your responsibility, it was a disaster -- resign. But we are so unused to in the United States for any important person saying, you know, it was my responsibility. She became a heroine for that and kept her job for eight years.
ZAHN: But one wonders how many more leaks we can look into where the American public will have tolerance for people remaining in power if it is proven that they in some way were responsible for information not being handed over to superiors and information that might ultimately have saved the lives of thousands of Americans.
GREENFIELD: I'm going to say something that's very grim right now, but this is a grim story. If there is a second attack and many Americans die, I think that's when the issue becomes of personal -- of responsibility becomes unavoidable, and you will then see people leave. But I think when you're talking about such a deep culture in this country -- I mean this is in the corporate world, too. How many corporate executives led their companies to billion dollar losses and walked away with tens and hundreds of millions of dollars?
ZAHN: Sure. The Peter Principle alive and well in America.
Jeff Greenfield, thanks so much.
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