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American Morning

Interview with Daniel Benjamin

Aired October 09, 2002 - 08:20   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.


BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: The former FBI director disputing charges that the Bureau missed warning signals about 9/11 while he was in charge.
Here's Louis Freeh.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LOUIS FREEH, FORMER FBI DIRECTOR: The FBI was focused both on preventing domestic and foreign terrorist attacks. And I take exception to the finding that we were not sufficiently paying attention to terrorism at home.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HEMMER: In a newly released book, though, it's called "The Age Of Sacred Terror," the co-author, Daniel Benjamin, says secrecy and red tape in Washington tied the hands of those who were warning about terrorists.

Benjamin served on the National Security Council from 1994 to 1999. He's with us now.

Sir, good morning to you.

DANIEL BENJAMIN, FORMER NSC DIRECTOR FOR COUNTER-TERRORISM: Good morning.

HEMMER: Part of Louis Freeh's testimony yesterday says he was not given the money that he wanted to hire more agents, in essence, beef up the department. You say that claim is preposterous. Why?

BENJAMIN: Well, it doesn't stand up to scrutiny. In fact, the administration, the Clinton administration poured hundreds of millions of dollars into the FBI's counter-terrorism efforts and, in fact, the administration was told that the FBI had more than doubled the number of terrorism agents. After September 11, it became clear that there were no more FBI personnel working on straight counter-terrorism than there were in 1998 and an FBI agent has testified to that effect.

Most of the money was going into the FBI's computer security program.

HEMMER: The other allegation -- and you make a number of them in the book -- has to do with the former president, Bill Clinton, about this rift between Louis Freeh and the president. You also bring into play this Saudi diplomat who had some role, as well. Give us some background. Give us some substance as to why you make this claim between the strain in relationships, in essence, affecting the fight on terrorism prior to last year.

BENJAMIN: There was a poisonous relationship between the FBI and the White House from fairly early on in the Clinton administration. One of the elements that made it much worse was the director's suspicion that the White House was not working as hard as it could to pursue indictments in the Khobar Towers bombing. And to that effect, the director was more prepared to listen to the remarks of the Saudi ambassador, Bandar Bin Sultan, about that.

The White House felt that it was working very hard to get those indictments. It also felt that it had an interest in the emergence of a moderate Iran, which is the only way that we would get our hands on the people in Iran responsible for the bombings.

HEMMER: But do you allege that the relationship, the strain in this relationship between Louis Freeh and the former president, hurt the FBI and the operation and things it did?

BENJAMIN: I don't think, I wouldn't say that it hurt the FBI so much as it hurt the nation's counter-terrorism effort. The FBI was an insular institution during this period. It wasn't taking direction from the White House. And because the FBI was investigating the president for almost the entire eight years of the Clinton presidency, there was no way to fire Louis Freeh or to bring any real pressure to bear on the FBI. And as a result, the FBI was doing what it wanted.

HEMMER: "The Age Of Sacred Terror" came front and center yesterday, Louis Freeh in the hot seat again, as we mentioned, on Capitol Hill.

Daniel Benjamin, co-author, thanks for your time.

BENJAMIN: Thanks for having me.

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 9, 2002 - 08:20   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: The former FBI director disputing charges that the Bureau missed warning signals about 9/11 while he was in charge.
Here's Louis Freeh.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LOUIS FREEH, FORMER FBI DIRECTOR: The FBI was focused both on preventing domestic and foreign terrorist attacks. And I take exception to the finding that we were not sufficiently paying attention to terrorism at home.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HEMMER: In a newly released book, though, it's called "The Age Of Sacred Terror," the co-author, Daniel Benjamin, says secrecy and red tape in Washington tied the hands of those who were warning about terrorists.

Benjamin served on the National Security Council from 1994 to 1999. He's with us now.

Sir, good morning to you.

DANIEL BENJAMIN, FORMER NSC DIRECTOR FOR COUNTER-TERRORISM: Good morning.

HEMMER: Part of Louis Freeh's testimony yesterday says he was not given the money that he wanted to hire more agents, in essence, beef up the department. You say that claim is preposterous. Why?

BENJAMIN: Well, it doesn't stand up to scrutiny. In fact, the administration, the Clinton administration poured hundreds of millions of dollars into the FBI's counter-terrorism efforts and, in fact, the administration was told that the FBI had more than doubled the number of terrorism agents. After September 11, it became clear that there were no more FBI personnel working on straight counter-terrorism than there were in 1998 and an FBI agent has testified to that effect.

Most of the money was going into the FBI's computer security program.

HEMMER: The other allegation -- and you make a number of them in the book -- has to do with the former president, Bill Clinton, about this rift between Louis Freeh and the president. You also bring into play this Saudi diplomat who had some role, as well. Give us some background. Give us some substance as to why you make this claim between the strain in relationships, in essence, affecting the fight on terrorism prior to last year.

BENJAMIN: There was a poisonous relationship between the FBI and the White House from fairly early on in the Clinton administration. One of the elements that made it much worse was the director's suspicion that the White House was not working as hard as it could to pursue indictments in the Khobar Towers bombing. And to that effect, the director was more prepared to listen to the remarks of the Saudi ambassador, Bandar Bin Sultan, about that.

The White House felt that it was working very hard to get those indictments. It also felt that it had an interest in the emergence of a moderate Iran, which is the only way that we would get our hands on the people in Iran responsible for the bombings.

HEMMER: But do you allege that the relationship, the strain in this relationship between Louis Freeh and the former president, hurt the FBI and the operation and things it did?

BENJAMIN: I don't think, I wouldn't say that it hurt the FBI so much as it hurt the nation's counter-terrorism effort. The FBI was an insular institution during this period. It wasn't taking direction from the White House. And because the FBI was investigating the president for almost the entire eight years of the Clinton presidency, there was no way to fire Louis Freeh or to bring any real pressure to bear on the FBI. And as a result, the FBI was doing what it wanted.

HEMMER: "The Age Of Sacred Terror" came front and center yesterday, Louis Freeh in the hot seat again, as we mentioned, on Capitol Hill.

Daniel Benjamin, co-author, thanks for your time.

BENJAMIN: Thanks for having me.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com