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American Morning

Interview With Senator Saxby Chambliss

Aired July 16, 2003 - 07:04   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: CIA Director George Tenet will testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee today, there to answer questions about the disputed charge in the president's State of the Union address that Iraq sought to buy uranium in Africa. Several Democrats have been directing their criticism directly at the White House.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BOB GRAHAM (D-FL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The problem is not George Tenet. The problem is George W. Bush.

SEN. CARL LEVIN (D), MICHIGAN: I am deeply troubled by Ms. Rice's continuing justification of the use of the statement in the president's State of the Union address. She repeatedly says it was -- quote -- "accurate."

SEN. EDWARD KENNEDY (D), MASSACHUSETTS: It's a disgrace that the case for war seems to have been based on shoddy intelligence, hyped intelligence and even false intelligence.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HEMMER: Republican Senator Saxby Chambliss sits on the Senate Intelligence Committee. He's back with us here on AMERICAN MORNING live down in D.C.

Senator, good morning to you there.

SEN. SAXBY CHAMBLISS (R), GEORGIA: Good morning, Bill.

HEMMER: Is there any part of you that believes this matter is settled after George Tenet answers your questions today?

CHAMBLISS: Oh, no. This is a fact-finding mission we're going to be on. George Tenet is a very professional individual, and when he comes to the Hill to testify he's always very aggressive, very forthright. I expect him to be that way today. And there are a number of issues that we've got to talk about, not just the Niger issue, but leaks coming from the CIA are a critical problem that we have today and we've had for several months. Obviously the issue with Liberia is a very serious problem. But certainly it will be focused on the Niger issue.

HEMMER: Let's get to that Niger issue and stick on that for a moment if we could. Then we'll get to the leaks a bit later. How is it that this item can be removed from a speech in October in Cincinnati then find its way back into the State of the Union address in January? Is that your principal question right now for George Tenet?

CHAMBLISS: Well, certainly, that's one troublesome issue for us, because, you know, George Tenet, it's been said, had his people scrub the speech in January. And if they took it out in October, allowed it in January, then why did they? Why has nobody been forthcoming since January if, in fact, the information was not correct? So, there are a number of issues that are going to be out on the table today, and I expect we'll have some good answers to them.

HEMMER: Just about a minute ago, you heard, along with us, several Democratic senators challenging right now the veracity of this information in this story. Your colleague, Chuck Hagel, a Republican in Nebraska, listen to what he said about the amount of blame that he believes should go around on this matter.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. CHUCK HAGEL (R), NEBRASKA: We had the vice president and his office involved, Secretary Rumsfeld, Condi Rice, Secretary Powell's people. This wasn't just a one-man show. And this is too serious here for this country to not know what happened, and America will want to know what happened, as the world will.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HEMMER: Senator, he says there is a lot of blame to go around. Will Secretaries Rumsfeld and Powell, will Dr. Rice, all have to come before your committee? Would you like to see that?

CHAMBLISS: Well, he very well may be right that the blame needs to be shared among any number of individuals. But the fact of the matter is we know where it started, and that's in the intelligence gathering community, so that's where we're going to start. We'll have Director Tenet up today, and if it's necessary to bring Secretary Rumsfeld or Ms. Rice up, then we'll do so. But right now we just need to get to the bottom of it, find out what happened and how it happened. And the American people are entitled to know that, and I think at the end of the day they're going to know it, and we can move on. We've got much more serious issues to deal with.

HEMMER: There are those who contend that if you find the weapons of mass destruction, this Africa issue is over. Do you buy that argument?

CHAMBLISS: Well, I think at the end of the day we're going to find weapons of mass destruction. We know they're there. It's just a matter of ultimately getting our hands on these weapons that are probably contained in a very small area, in somebody's backyard, in the trunk of a car or wherever. But, you know, it doesn't take many weapons of mass destruction to wreak havoc among people, and at the end of the day we're going to find them.

However, I think this whole matter of intelligence gathering is so serious that we've got to get to the bottom of it. We've got to improve the way the CIA and other operatives operate in order to make sure that Americans are protected, and we can't have anybody losing confidence in our intelligence community.

HEMMER: You mentioned the leaks from the CIA. Many people think that this is a summer pastime. The leaks in Washington, D.C. happens in your town all of the time. Why the concern now at the senior level of the CIA?

CHAMBLISS: Well, it happened certainly not just in federal agencies, but in the halls of Congress itself. So, we know that's the case. But there are certain areas, like in the intelligence community, where it's more critical than in other areas. And, you know, we need to know not just who is doing it, but why they're doing it. Is there a motive there? Are they trying to cover up for somebody? Or just what is the motive for these leaks to continue to come out of agencies like the CIA? And they're not the only ones doing it. But we just can't have that in the intelligence community, because it puts lives and methods and sources at risk.

HEMMER: Senator, I want to talk about North Korea quickly here. You raise a number of questions right now about the intelligence gathering ability of the United States. Do you believe the credibility? Do you believe right now the reliability of the intelligence community should be called into question, given the events and the words that are coming out of Pyongyang?

CHAMBLISS: Well, no, I don't think so. We've been gathering intelligence in the limited manner that it's available to us on North Korea for some time now, and I don't know, but what exactly what they've said is not correct. It very probably is that they're moving in a direction of having a significant amount of material available to produce nuclear weapons. We obviously cannot allow those kinds of weapons to be in the hands of a guy like Kim Jong Il. So, I think it's probably correct, and I don't think it's a failure on our intelligence community, and I think we've known that.

HEMMER: Senator, thank you. Saxby Chambliss the Republican senator from Georgia.

CHAMBLISS: Always a pleasure, Bill.

HEMMER: You got it. We'll watch the hearings today.

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 July 16, 2003 - 07:04   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: CIA Director George Tenet will testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee today, there to answer questions about the disputed charge in the president's State of the Union address that Iraq sought to buy uranium in Africa. Several Democrats have been directing their criticism directly at the White House.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BOB GRAHAM (D-FL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The problem is not George Tenet. The problem is George W. Bush.

SEN. CARL LEVIN (D), MICHIGAN: I am deeply troubled by Ms. Rice's continuing justification of the use of the statement in the president's State of the Union address. She repeatedly says it was -- quote -- "accurate."

SEN. EDWARD KENNEDY (D), MASSACHUSETTS: It's a disgrace that the case for war seems to have been based on shoddy intelligence, hyped intelligence and even false intelligence.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HEMMER: Republican Senator Saxby Chambliss sits on the Senate Intelligence Committee. He's back with us here on AMERICAN MORNING live down in D.C.

Senator, good morning to you there.

SEN. SAXBY CHAMBLISS (R), GEORGIA: Good morning, Bill.

HEMMER: Is there any part of you that believes this matter is settled after George Tenet answers your questions today?

CHAMBLISS: Oh, no. This is a fact-finding mission we're going to be on. George Tenet is a very professional individual, and when he comes to the Hill to testify he's always very aggressive, very forthright. I expect him to be that way today. And there are a number of issues that we've got to talk about, not just the Niger issue, but leaks coming from the CIA are a critical problem that we have today and we've had for several months. Obviously the issue with Liberia is a very serious problem. But certainly it will be focused on the Niger issue.

HEMMER: Let's get to that Niger issue and stick on that for a moment if we could. Then we'll get to the leaks a bit later. How is it that this item can be removed from a speech in October in Cincinnati then find its way back into the State of the Union address in January? Is that your principal question right now for George Tenet?

CHAMBLISS: Well, certainly, that's one troublesome issue for us, because, you know, George Tenet, it's been said, had his people scrub the speech in January. And if they took it out in October, allowed it in January, then why did they? Why has nobody been forthcoming since January if, in fact, the information was not correct? So, there are a number of issues that are going to be out on the table today, and I expect we'll have some good answers to them.

HEMMER: Just about a minute ago, you heard, along with us, several Democratic senators challenging right now the veracity of this information in this story. Your colleague, Chuck Hagel, a Republican in Nebraska, listen to what he said about the amount of blame that he believes should go around on this matter.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. CHUCK HAGEL (R), NEBRASKA: We had the vice president and his office involved, Secretary Rumsfeld, Condi Rice, Secretary Powell's people. This wasn't just a one-man show. And this is too serious here for this country to not know what happened, and America will want to know what happened, as the world will.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HEMMER: Senator, he says there is a lot of blame to go around. Will Secretaries Rumsfeld and Powell, will Dr. Rice, all have to come before your committee? Would you like to see that?

CHAMBLISS: Well, he very well may be right that the blame needs to be shared among any number of individuals. But the fact of the matter is we know where it started, and that's in the intelligence gathering community, so that's where we're going to start. We'll have Director Tenet up today, and if it's necessary to bring Secretary Rumsfeld or Ms. Rice up, then we'll do so. But right now we just need to get to the bottom of it, find out what happened and how it happened. And the American people are entitled to know that, and I think at the end of the day they're going to know it, and we can move on. We've got much more serious issues to deal with.

HEMMER: There are those who contend that if you find the weapons of mass destruction, this Africa issue is over. Do you buy that argument?

CHAMBLISS: Well, I think at the end of the day we're going to find weapons of mass destruction. We know they're there. It's just a matter of ultimately getting our hands on these weapons that are probably contained in a very small area, in somebody's backyard, in the trunk of a car or wherever. But, you know, it doesn't take many weapons of mass destruction to wreak havoc among people, and at the end of the day we're going to find them.

However, I think this whole matter of intelligence gathering is so serious that we've got to get to the bottom of it. We've got to improve the way the CIA and other operatives operate in order to make sure that Americans are protected, and we can't have anybody losing confidence in our intelligence community.

HEMMER: You mentioned the leaks from the CIA. Many people think that this is a summer pastime. The leaks in Washington, D.C. happens in your town all of the time. Why the concern now at the senior level of the CIA?

CHAMBLISS: Well, it happened certainly not just in federal agencies, but in the halls of Congress itself. So, we know that's the case. But there are certain areas, like in the intelligence community, where it's more critical than in other areas. And, you know, we need to know not just who is doing it, but why they're doing it. Is there a motive there? Are they trying to cover up for somebody? Or just what is the motive for these leaks to continue to come out of agencies like the CIA? And they're not the only ones doing it. But we just can't have that in the intelligence community, because it puts lives and methods and sources at risk.

HEMMER: Senator, I want to talk about North Korea quickly here. You raise a number of questions right now about the intelligence gathering ability of the United States. Do you believe the credibility? Do you believe right now the reliability of the intelligence community should be called into question, given the events and the words that are coming out of Pyongyang?

CHAMBLISS: Well, no, I don't think so. We've been gathering intelligence in the limited manner that it's available to us on North Korea for some time now, and I don't know, but what exactly what they've said is not correct. It very probably is that they're moving in a direction of having a significant amount of material available to produce nuclear weapons. We obviously cannot allow those kinds of weapons to be in the hands of a guy like Kim Jong Il. So, I think it's probably correct, and I don't think it's a failure on our intelligence community, and I think we've known that.

HEMMER: Senator, thank you. Saxby Chambliss the Republican senator from Georgia.

CHAMBLISS: Always a pleasure, Bill.

HEMMER: You got it. We'll watch the hearings today.

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