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American Morning
Interview With Senator Richard Shelby
Aired September 25, 2003 - 07:35 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: A critical front in the fight against terrorists is cutting out their access to money. The Senate Banking Committee this morning will open hearings on how to protect the banking system from being used to finance terrorism.
That committee's chairman, Senator Richard Shelby, is our guest this morning back here on AMERICAN MORNING.
Nice to see you, Senator.
Thanks for coming back here.
SEN. RICHARD SHELBY (R-AL), VICE CHAIRMAN, SENATE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: Good morning.
HEMMER: I want to show our viewers a statistic the Treasury Department put out about a week ago. It says since 9/11, going back two years, 1,439 accounts containing almost $137 million belonging to al Qaeda and other terror groups have been frozen. The flip side of that, although there's a substantial amount of money, is that many say this is just a drop in the bucket.
How do you respond to that?
SHELBY: I agree with that. It's just the beginning, but it is a beginning, Bill. Treasury and a lot of our allies in the world are working toward an end game and the end game is to choke off the money from terrorists, which is the key to sustaining them anywhere in the world. If we can do this, and it's a very complex, very complicated endeavor that we're undertaking, if we can do it, that will help us win the war against the terrorists.
HEMMER: Part of this choking method you described for us is aimed at Saudi Arabia, trying to get new regulations in this hearing later today to prevent that country and that kingdom from using charities or other organizations, collecting money in Saudi Arabia then sending it to other countries and overseas.
How do you think those regulations can be put in place and will they be effective?
SHELBY: That's a very good question that you've just come up with. Will they be? Can they be? Yes. The regulations, can they be put in place and will they be effective? That's one question. The other question, though, and probably the toughest one, will they be implemented? Will the regulations work? Will they -- will we have good cooperation? We haven't in the past. I know it's been mixed, at best. Saudi Arabia had a wake up call back in May with attacks on their own soil.
But if you look at history as a guide, it's going to be a torturous process to get the Saudi Arabian government and others to cooperate in the war against terrorism on the scale that we've got to have it.
HEMMER: Flip that argument around just a little bit. Treasury Secretary John Snow, in the Middle East region not too long ago, the criticism he heard many times is that many countries, like Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, say the U.S. is not providing enough information to these countries to empower them with the information to do the crackdown on their own.
Do you buy that criticism?
SHELBY: No, I don't. I think that's an excuse. It's -- we've had excuses over the years. We know that a lot of the charities, so- called charities, are fronts for terrorist funding. We also know that there's been a lot of high ranking people in Saudi Arabia and other countries that have, wittingly or unwittingly, given money to these charities, having been warned of what some of their end games would be like.
HEMMER: I want to talk about a different topic, quickly here. The front page of the "New York Times," the front page of the "Washington Post," David Kaye, who's heading up the search for weapons of mass destruction, some leaks are coming out about a report he will issue maybe next week, maybe a couple weeks after that. But the early indication is that there are "no firm conclusions right now," that's a quote, as to weapons of mass destruction being located in Iraq.
What is the fallout if that report continues to ride that line?
SHELBY: Well, I hope that we're past that, but that issue continues to linger and if...
HEMMER: Why do you hope we're past that if that was the preface for the war?
SHELBY: Well, I think that we're past -- I hope we are because we fought the war. Now we're trying to implement the peace over there and it's not a question are we going to war, we've already been there and we're going to be there. And I think it's for the right reasons.
But, we have to remember, Bill, that Saddam Hussein gassed his own people. He obviously had weapons of mass destruction. We know that he was very involved in research of biological weapons. A lot of these weapons could have been destroyed. They could have been transported. They could be hidden today. I wish we could find them all. But I have reason to believe that there's evidence, will be evidence that they were there.
HEMMER: Senator, thanks.
Always a pleasure to talk to you.
SHELBY: Thank you, Bill.
HEMMER: We'll speak again.
Richard Shelby in D.C.
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 September 25, 2003 - 07:35 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: A critical front in the fight against terrorists is cutting out their access to money. The Senate Banking Committee this morning will open hearings on how to protect the banking system from being used to finance terrorism.
That committee's chairman, Senator Richard Shelby, is our guest this morning back here on AMERICAN MORNING.
Nice to see you, Senator.
Thanks for coming back here.
SEN. RICHARD SHELBY (R-AL), VICE CHAIRMAN, SENATE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: Good morning.
HEMMER: I want to show our viewers a statistic the Treasury Department put out about a week ago. It says since 9/11, going back two years, 1,439 accounts containing almost $137 million belonging to al Qaeda and other terror groups have been frozen. The flip side of that, although there's a substantial amount of money, is that many say this is just a drop in the bucket.
How do you respond to that?
SHELBY: I agree with that. It's just the beginning, but it is a beginning, Bill. Treasury and a lot of our allies in the world are working toward an end game and the end game is to choke off the money from terrorists, which is the key to sustaining them anywhere in the world. If we can do this, and it's a very complex, very complicated endeavor that we're undertaking, if we can do it, that will help us win the war against the terrorists.
HEMMER: Part of this choking method you described for us is aimed at Saudi Arabia, trying to get new regulations in this hearing later today to prevent that country and that kingdom from using charities or other organizations, collecting money in Saudi Arabia then sending it to other countries and overseas.
How do you think those regulations can be put in place and will they be effective?
SHELBY: That's a very good question that you've just come up with. Will they be? Can they be? Yes. The regulations, can they be put in place and will they be effective? That's one question. The other question, though, and probably the toughest one, will they be implemented? Will the regulations work? Will they -- will we have good cooperation? We haven't in the past. I know it's been mixed, at best. Saudi Arabia had a wake up call back in May with attacks on their own soil.
But if you look at history as a guide, it's going to be a torturous process to get the Saudi Arabian government and others to cooperate in the war against terrorism on the scale that we've got to have it.
HEMMER: Flip that argument around just a little bit. Treasury Secretary John Snow, in the Middle East region not too long ago, the criticism he heard many times is that many countries, like Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, say the U.S. is not providing enough information to these countries to empower them with the information to do the crackdown on their own.
Do you buy that criticism?
SHELBY: No, I don't. I think that's an excuse. It's -- we've had excuses over the years. We know that a lot of the charities, so- called charities, are fronts for terrorist funding. We also know that there's been a lot of high ranking people in Saudi Arabia and other countries that have, wittingly or unwittingly, given money to these charities, having been warned of what some of their end games would be like.
HEMMER: I want to talk about a different topic, quickly here. The front page of the "New York Times," the front page of the "Washington Post," David Kaye, who's heading up the search for weapons of mass destruction, some leaks are coming out about a report he will issue maybe next week, maybe a couple weeks after that. But the early indication is that there are "no firm conclusions right now," that's a quote, as to weapons of mass destruction being located in Iraq.
What is the fallout if that report continues to ride that line?
SHELBY: Well, I hope that we're past that, but that issue continues to linger and if...
HEMMER: Why do you hope we're past that if that was the preface for the war?
SHELBY: Well, I think that we're past -- I hope we are because we fought the war. Now we're trying to implement the peace over there and it's not a question are we going to war, we've already been there and we're going to be there. And I think it's for the right reasons.
But, we have to remember, Bill, that Saddam Hussein gassed his own people. He obviously had weapons of mass destruction. We know that he was very involved in research of biological weapons. A lot of these weapons could have been destroyed. They could have been transported. They could be hidden today. I wish we could find them all. But I have reason to believe that there's evidence, will be evidence that they were there.
HEMMER: Senator, thanks.
Always a pleasure to talk to you.
SHELBY: Thank you, Bill.
HEMMER: We'll speak again.
Richard Shelby in D.C.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
