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American Morning
Panel to Hear from Freeh
Aired October 08, 2002 - 09:36 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: Back to the issue of intelligence failures. After three weeks of hearings into potential intelligence failures before 9/11, the joint congressional panel this morning is about to hear from a crucial witness, a man we haven't seen a whole lot of lately, former FBI Director Louis Freeh will be in the hot seat today, speaking publicly for the first time about how his agency handled clues about terrorism.
Our Justice Correspondent Kelli Arena will be attending the hearing, and she joins us now with a preview -- good morning, Kelli.
KELLI ARENA, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula. As you know, Louis Freeh was director of the FBI for eight years. He retired just about three months before the September 11 attacks.
While he was director, he did enjoy a very good relationship with Congress. He's credited with tripling the FBI counterterrorism budget, with increasing FBI's presence overseas. But obviously, in the wake of 9/11, his role and how the FBI was handled has come under greater scrutiny.
Among some of the criticisms is that the FBI did not pay serious enough attention to the al Qaeda threat, and the threat of an attack on U.S. soil or the possible presence of al Qaeda here in the United States.
The threats that airlines could pose, and the use of aircraft in a possible terrorist attack. The fact that the FBI's technology computer systems were not given proper attention. Information sharing between the FBI and the CIA was not dealt with successfully.
And, also, just the culture of the FBI was something that did not change under Freeh's leadership. It was a culture that dealt mostly with prosecution and reacting after the fact, rather than being preemptive, gathering intelligence to move to prevent an attack or a crime.
It was something that some officials say was in the progress, but perhaps moved a little bit too slowly. Freeh, being an FBI agent himself, had grown up in that culture, a prosecutorial culture.
So it will be interesting to see what happens. As I said, he did enjoy a good relationship with Congress before he left. It was not hostile at all. We'll see how he does here today -- Paula.
ZAHN: But is there an expectation that some folks are out to skewer him today? ARENA: I think the expectation is that they want answers. They want answers from the man who was in charge, pretty much leading up to September 11.
As you know, Director Mueller has had to answer questions, but he came on the job just a week before, so he has had to answer for the bureau for an organization that he really didn't have much to do with much before September 11.
ZAHN: We will look forward to your reports tomorrow. Thanks, Kelli. Appreciate the preview.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired October 8, 2002 - 09:36 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Back to the issue of intelligence failures. After three weeks of hearings into potential intelligence failures before 9/11, the joint congressional panel this morning is about to hear from a crucial witness, a man we haven't seen a whole lot of lately, former FBI Director Louis Freeh will be in the hot seat today, speaking publicly for the first time about how his agency handled clues about terrorism.
Our Justice Correspondent Kelli Arena will be attending the hearing, and she joins us now with a preview -- good morning, Kelli.
KELLI ARENA, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula. As you know, Louis Freeh was director of the FBI for eight years. He retired just about three months before the September 11 attacks.
While he was director, he did enjoy a very good relationship with Congress. He's credited with tripling the FBI counterterrorism budget, with increasing FBI's presence overseas. But obviously, in the wake of 9/11, his role and how the FBI was handled has come under greater scrutiny.
Among some of the criticisms is that the FBI did not pay serious enough attention to the al Qaeda threat, and the threat of an attack on U.S. soil or the possible presence of al Qaeda here in the United States.
The threats that airlines could pose, and the use of aircraft in a possible terrorist attack. The fact that the FBI's technology computer systems were not given proper attention. Information sharing between the FBI and the CIA was not dealt with successfully.
And, also, just the culture of the FBI was something that did not change under Freeh's leadership. It was a culture that dealt mostly with prosecution and reacting after the fact, rather than being preemptive, gathering intelligence to move to prevent an attack or a crime.
It was something that some officials say was in the progress, but perhaps moved a little bit too slowly. Freeh, being an FBI agent himself, had grown up in that culture, a prosecutorial culture.
So it will be interesting to see what happens. As I said, he did enjoy a good relationship with Congress before he left. It was not hostile at all. We'll see how he does here today -- Paula.
ZAHN: But is there an expectation that some folks are out to skewer him today? ARENA: I think the expectation is that they want answers. They want answers from the man who was in charge, pretty much leading up to September 11.
As you know, Director Mueller has had to answer questions, but he came on the job just a week before, so he has had to answer for the bureau for an organization that he really didn't have much to do with much before September 11.
ZAHN: We will look forward to your reports tomorrow. Thanks, Kelli. Appreciate the preview.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
