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American Morning
Discussion With Undersecretary of Defense Douglas Feith
Aired June 12, 2003 - 09:17 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: From Washington, Republicans in Congress rejecting calls for a full blown investigation and hearings into whether or not evidence about banned weapons in Iraq was exaggerated prior to the war.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOHN WARNER (R-VA), ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE: The evidence that I have examined does not rise to give the presumption that anyone in this administration has hyped or cooked or embellished such evidence to a particular purpose. And I regret that those allegations have been made.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HEMMER: A Senate committee will hold a review next week to review the prewar intelligence work and the White House denies that the weapons information was blown out of proportion in the first place.
From the Pentagon, the undersecretary of defense, Douglas Feith, defends the separate intelligence team that he created after the attacks of 9/11.
He's our guest now live from the Pentagon this morning.
Good to see you, sir.
Thanks for taking time and talking with us on this.
DOUGLAS FEITH, UNDERSECRETARY OF DEFENSE FOR POLICY: Good morning.
HEMMER: That team you set up after the attacks of 9/11, you've heard the accusations that the White House used this team to take in certain bits of information to buffer an argument against Iraq. Can you say categorically that this information was never taken in a way that was used, let's say, out of context to support a particular argument?
FEITH: I can say that categorically. The group that you're talking about, which was two full time people, was set up after September 11 in order to help the Defense Department understand the nature of international terrorist networks, basically how the international terrorist organizations relate to each other and cooperate with each other and with their state sponsors. And the purpose of the group was to help us analyze the intelligence that the intelligence community had produced and collected and given to us, so that we could do our own policy work here in the Pentagon in developing a strategy for the war on terrorism.
HEMMER: It appears in hindsight, though, that part of the information that team never saw was this report and trip, essentially, by CIA agents to Niger to find out whether or not Iraq was importing processed uranium to build a nuclear program. That report never came out from the CIA. Had it come out, would your evaluation have been different regarding Iraq and weapons of mass destruction?
FEITH: No, I don't think that was of great consequence in light of the large amount of other relevant information we got from the intelligence community.
HEMMER: You heard the reports this past week about a key al Qaeda leader is in custody right now saying there was no connection with Baghdad, between the group al Qaeda and the Iraqi regime. I'm not suggesting that you believe those in captivity about what they say or not, but what you said back in February in an interview with ABC News, you said, and quoting now, "People who do not see the link are just not familiar with the evidence, much of which we have in recent months talked about publicly. There have been linkages between the Iraqi government and al Qaeda going back more or less a decade."
In retrospect now, where is the evidence, yet again, that makes that connection?
FEITH: The CIA produced evidence of this connection and it was discussed by the director and various other CIA and other administration officials. And the information was, in essence, that high ranking people in al Qaeda had contacts for a period of about a decade with high ranking people in the Iraqi intelligence service and that there was cooperation between al Qaeda and the Iraqis on exercises and training, including with regard to chemical weapons.
HEMMER: On the mobile labs right now in Iraq, there apparently have been a couple of groups going to examine these labs to find out what they were used for in the first place. Some groups say no connection with biological or chemical weapons. Other groups come in and say well, there could have been.
Well, at this point right now, why is it that we do not have a definitive answer on whether or not these mobile labs that we're seeing in this picture were used for weapons of mass destruction?
FEITH: Well, we believe that those labs are the, among the set of mobile labs that Secretary Powell talked about when he made his presentation to the U.N. Security Council earlier this year.
HEMMER: So you're standing by that, then, even though that some experts have gone there and said hold on, we're not so sure of this?
FEITH: Well, there's more work being done. There's a lot of analytical work that is continuing. There's still some physical studies that need to be done of the labs. And also the information that we had from somebody who had participated who says that he participated in the Iraqi biological weapons program and originally told us about those labs, that information is that there are a number of these vehicles around the country. We only have a few and we're looking for the rest and the more we learn, the more we'll be able to put pieces together and get the full picture.
HEMMER: Doug Feith from the Pentagon.
This is a rare opportunity we get to speak.
I hope we can do it again some time soon, all right?
FEITH: Good to talk to you.
HEMMER: 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 June 12, 2003 - 09:17 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: From Washington, Republicans in Congress rejecting calls for a full blown investigation and hearings into whether or not evidence about banned weapons in Iraq was exaggerated prior to the war.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOHN WARNER (R-VA), ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE: The evidence that I have examined does not rise to give the presumption that anyone in this administration has hyped or cooked or embellished such evidence to a particular purpose. And I regret that those allegations have been made.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HEMMER: A Senate committee will hold a review next week to review the prewar intelligence work and the White House denies that the weapons information was blown out of proportion in the first place.
From the Pentagon, the undersecretary of defense, Douglas Feith, defends the separate intelligence team that he created after the attacks of 9/11.
He's our guest now live from the Pentagon this morning.
Good to see you, sir.
Thanks for taking time and talking with us on this.
DOUGLAS FEITH, UNDERSECRETARY OF DEFENSE FOR POLICY: Good morning.
HEMMER: That team you set up after the attacks of 9/11, you've heard the accusations that the White House used this team to take in certain bits of information to buffer an argument against Iraq. Can you say categorically that this information was never taken in a way that was used, let's say, out of context to support a particular argument?
FEITH: I can say that categorically. The group that you're talking about, which was two full time people, was set up after September 11 in order to help the Defense Department understand the nature of international terrorist networks, basically how the international terrorist organizations relate to each other and cooperate with each other and with their state sponsors. And the purpose of the group was to help us analyze the intelligence that the intelligence community had produced and collected and given to us, so that we could do our own policy work here in the Pentagon in developing a strategy for the war on terrorism.
HEMMER: It appears in hindsight, though, that part of the information that team never saw was this report and trip, essentially, by CIA agents to Niger to find out whether or not Iraq was importing processed uranium to build a nuclear program. That report never came out from the CIA. Had it come out, would your evaluation have been different regarding Iraq and weapons of mass destruction?
FEITH: No, I don't think that was of great consequence in light of the large amount of other relevant information we got from the intelligence community.
HEMMER: You heard the reports this past week about a key al Qaeda leader is in custody right now saying there was no connection with Baghdad, between the group al Qaeda and the Iraqi regime. I'm not suggesting that you believe those in captivity about what they say or not, but what you said back in February in an interview with ABC News, you said, and quoting now, "People who do not see the link are just not familiar with the evidence, much of which we have in recent months talked about publicly. There have been linkages between the Iraqi government and al Qaeda going back more or less a decade."
In retrospect now, where is the evidence, yet again, that makes that connection?
FEITH: The CIA produced evidence of this connection and it was discussed by the director and various other CIA and other administration officials. And the information was, in essence, that high ranking people in al Qaeda had contacts for a period of about a decade with high ranking people in the Iraqi intelligence service and that there was cooperation between al Qaeda and the Iraqis on exercises and training, including with regard to chemical weapons.
HEMMER: On the mobile labs right now in Iraq, there apparently have been a couple of groups going to examine these labs to find out what they were used for in the first place. Some groups say no connection with biological or chemical weapons. Other groups come in and say well, there could have been.
Well, at this point right now, why is it that we do not have a definitive answer on whether or not these mobile labs that we're seeing in this picture were used for weapons of mass destruction?
FEITH: Well, we believe that those labs are the, among the set of mobile labs that Secretary Powell talked about when he made his presentation to the U.N. Security Council earlier this year.
HEMMER: So you're standing by that, then, even though that some experts have gone there and said hold on, we're not so sure of this?
FEITH: Well, there's more work being done. There's a lot of analytical work that is continuing. There's still some physical studies that need to be done of the labs. And also the information that we had from somebody who had participated who says that he participated in the Iraqi biological weapons program and originally told us about those labs, that information is that there are a number of these vehicles around the country. We only have a few and we're looking for the rest and the more we learn, the more we'll be able to put pieces together and get the full picture.
HEMMER: Doug Feith from the Pentagon.
This is a rare opportunity we get to speak.
I hope we can do it again some time soon, all right?
FEITH: Good to talk to you.
HEMMER: 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
