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American Morning
Bush Signs Homeland Security Bill Today
Aired November 25, 2002 - 07:17 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: Over this weekend, a leading U.S. senator warning of a terrorist attack that could rival 9/11. Senator Richard Shelby said on NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday that he thinks it's going to happen, and that "it would be spectacular," his words again. We'll talk with the senator about that in our next hour here on AMERICAN MORNING.
But this dire warning coming now as the president gets ready to sign that homeland security bill into law this afternoon.
From the Front Lawn this morning, here's Frank Buckley tracking that for us.
Frank -- good morning.
FRANK BUCKLEY, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Bill.
A big day for President Bush here, a bill signing to take place in the East Room here at the White House. It represents a major political victory for President Bush, who insisted on passage of this bill from the 107th Congress, the lame duck Congress. He told them that it was the single most important piece of legislation they had to deal with.
It had stalled in the Senate prior to the midterm elections, but after the Republican victories this month, Mr. Bush had some significant political capital to spend. He dipped into that political capital bank and spent it on HR 5710, the Homeland Security Act of 2002.
Here is what it does: It is the largest government reorganization since the creation of the Defense Department. That was more than 50 years ago. It will blend 22 agencies and departments, and it will include some 170,000 employees.
Sources tell us that the president's top choice to lead the new agency will be Tom Ridge. He is the current homeland security director, and we are expecting an announcement announcing Tom Ridge also to take place today -- Bill.
HEMMER: Frank, on this Saudi Arabian connection, if we could turn our focus to that. What is the White House position on that right now, knowing that this was the talk all weekend long, especially on the talk shows yesterday?
A more pointed question today, though: Is there anything that's being done in terms of U.S.-Saudi cooperation to make sure that the possibility of money eventually funneling down to the potential sleeper cells in this country is not happening right now?
BUCKLEY: Well, the White House continues to caution that there is no conclusive evidence that money from the Saudi government went directly to the hijackers. In fact, White House officials continue to say that the Saudi government is cooperating in the ongoing investigation.
For people who don't know the circumstances, a princess -- a Saudi Arabian princess, who is also the wife of the Saudi ambassador to the U.S., concedes that money that she gave to a person on her charity recipient list went to two Saudi students. And that money may have gone to two hijackers, who were in California -- Nawaf al Hazmi and Khalid al Midhar. Those two hijackers were involved in the Pentagon case.
It's all being investigated by the FBI. Congress is coming out with a report that will say that the FBI wasn't aggressive enough in looking into some of those Saudi leads in the investigation. The FBI denies that. But they're also not going on the record or speaking on camera at this point, because they say this investigation is still ongoing -- Bill.
HEMMER: Frank, thank you.
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 November 25, 2002 - 07:17 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Over this weekend, a leading U.S. senator warning of a terrorist attack that could rival 9/11. Senator Richard Shelby said on NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday that he thinks it's going to happen, and that "it would be spectacular," his words again. We'll talk with the senator about that in our next hour here on AMERICAN MORNING.
But this dire warning coming now as the president gets ready to sign that homeland security bill into law this afternoon.
From the Front Lawn this morning, here's Frank Buckley tracking that for us.
Frank -- good morning.
FRANK BUCKLEY, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Bill.
A big day for President Bush here, a bill signing to take place in the East Room here at the White House. It represents a major political victory for President Bush, who insisted on passage of this bill from the 107th Congress, the lame duck Congress. He told them that it was the single most important piece of legislation they had to deal with.
It had stalled in the Senate prior to the midterm elections, but after the Republican victories this month, Mr. Bush had some significant political capital to spend. He dipped into that political capital bank and spent it on HR 5710, the Homeland Security Act of 2002.
Here is what it does: It is the largest government reorganization since the creation of the Defense Department. That was more than 50 years ago. It will blend 22 agencies and departments, and it will include some 170,000 employees.
Sources tell us that the president's top choice to lead the new agency will be Tom Ridge. He is the current homeland security director, and we are expecting an announcement announcing Tom Ridge also to take place today -- Bill.
HEMMER: Frank, on this Saudi Arabian connection, if we could turn our focus to that. What is the White House position on that right now, knowing that this was the talk all weekend long, especially on the talk shows yesterday?
A more pointed question today, though: Is there anything that's being done in terms of U.S.-Saudi cooperation to make sure that the possibility of money eventually funneling down to the potential sleeper cells in this country is not happening right now?
BUCKLEY: Well, the White House continues to caution that there is no conclusive evidence that money from the Saudi government went directly to the hijackers. In fact, White House officials continue to say that the Saudi government is cooperating in the ongoing investigation.
For people who don't know the circumstances, a princess -- a Saudi Arabian princess, who is also the wife of the Saudi ambassador to the U.S., concedes that money that she gave to a person on her charity recipient list went to two Saudi students. And that money may have gone to two hijackers, who were in California -- Nawaf al Hazmi and Khalid al Midhar. Those two hijackers were involved in the Pentagon case.
It's all being investigated by the FBI. Congress is coming out with a report that will say that the FBI wasn't aggressive enough in looking into some of those Saudi leads in the investigation. The FBI denies that. But they're also not going on the record or speaking on camera at this point, because they say this investigation is still ongoing -- Bill.
HEMMER: Frank, thank you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
