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American Morning
Interview with Senator Bob Graham
Aired February 03, 2004 - 07:37 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: As soon as the president announced his plans to name panelists to investigate intelligence failures, some Democrats say they are not satisfied with the president's plan for that probe.
A bit earlier today, I talked with Democratic Senator Bob Graham, the former head of the Senate Intelligence Committee, and asked him whether or not this approach is acceptable to him.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SEN. BOB GRAHAM (D-FL), INTELLIGENCE CHAIRMAN: No, Bill. It's positive that the president has removed himself from a state of denial is now going to look into what happened on the lead up to the war in Iraq through an independence commission. But we still have got a lot of work to do to start the reforms of the intelligence community.
For the last five or six years, important commissions have made recommendations for intelligence committee reform, including the joint House-Senate Intelligence Committees. Virtually none of those have been adopted so we are no safer today in terms of a credible intelligence capability than we were before September the 11th.
HEMMER: Senator, that phrase you used there, a state of denial, what is the president denying, do you believe?
GRAHAM: He was denying the fact that he had relied on non- credible information to start a war in Iraq or that people around him had manipulated credible intelligence in order to create a false impression.
HEMMER: Senator, the president says it will be independent, his words from yesterday, a bipartisan commission.
Do you not believe that will be the case?
GRAHAM: It could be the case. Let's wait and see which individuals the president selects to be the members of this commission. I think that from a matter of perception, it would have been preferable if there were several different sources of recommendations for members of the commission so that it would have appeared to be more independent.
HEMMER: The entire commission apparently is going to take a pretty wide swath here -- North Korea, Libya, other apparent missteps within the intelligence community.
Do you see a problem with that?
GRAHAM: No, I think that the committee needs to operate across a broad range of areas where fault lines in the intelligence community have been disclosed and it also needs to go up and down the chain of command, from the people who gather the information to those who analyzed it and to those at the White House and the Defense Department and elsewhere who used the intelligence.
HEMMER: You've said in the past the CIA director, George Tenet, should be fired.
Do you still believe that today? And if that has not been the case, what does that indicate to you?
GRAHAM: Well, what it indicates to me is that this president has been reluctant to hold anybody accountable. No one was held accountable after September the 11th. Nobody's been held accountable after the clear flaws in intelligence leading up to the war in Iraq. And I believe in the theory that the accountability starts from the captain of the ship. And the captain of our intelligence community is George Tenet, and therefore he has got to be the first point of accountability and responsibility.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HEMMER: Senator Bob Graham of Florida from earlier today.
Also, we're told this commission that will be appointed by the president could take as long as 18 months before it reaches any conclusions about WMD in Iraq.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
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Aired February 3, 2004 - 07:37 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: As soon as the president announced his plans to name panelists to investigate intelligence failures, some Democrats say they are not satisfied with the president's plan for that probe.
A bit earlier today, I talked with Democratic Senator Bob Graham, the former head of the Senate Intelligence Committee, and asked him whether or not this approach is acceptable to him.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SEN. BOB GRAHAM (D-FL), INTELLIGENCE CHAIRMAN: No, Bill. It's positive that the president has removed himself from a state of denial is now going to look into what happened on the lead up to the war in Iraq through an independence commission. But we still have got a lot of work to do to start the reforms of the intelligence community.
For the last five or six years, important commissions have made recommendations for intelligence committee reform, including the joint House-Senate Intelligence Committees. Virtually none of those have been adopted so we are no safer today in terms of a credible intelligence capability than we were before September the 11th.
HEMMER: Senator, that phrase you used there, a state of denial, what is the president denying, do you believe?
GRAHAM: He was denying the fact that he had relied on non- credible information to start a war in Iraq or that people around him had manipulated credible intelligence in order to create a false impression.
HEMMER: Senator, the president says it will be independent, his words from yesterday, a bipartisan commission.
Do you not believe that will be the case?
GRAHAM: It could be the case. Let's wait and see which individuals the president selects to be the members of this commission. I think that from a matter of perception, it would have been preferable if there were several different sources of recommendations for members of the commission so that it would have appeared to be more independent.
HEMMER: The entire commission apparently is going to take a pretty wide swath here -- North Korea, Libya, other apparent missteps within the intelligence community.
Do you see a problem with that?
GRAHAM: No, I think that the committee needs to operate across a broad range of areas where fault lines in the intelligence community have been disclosed and it also needs to go up and down the chain of command, from the people who gather the information to those who analyzed it and to those at the White House and the Defense Department and elsewhere who used the intelligence.
HEMMER: You've said in the past the CIA director, George Tenet, should be fired.
Do you still believe that today? And if that has not been the case, what does that indicate to you?
GRAHAM: Well, what it indicates to me is that this president has been reluctant to hold anybody accountable. No one was held accountable after September the 11th. Nobody's been held accountable after the clear flaws in intelligence leading up to the war in Iraq. And I believe in the theory that the accountability starts from the captain of the ship. And the captain of our intelligence community is George Tenet, and therefore he has got to be the first point of accountability and responsibility.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HEMMER: Senator Bob Graham of Florida from earlier today.
Also, we're told this commission that will be appointed by the president could take as long as 18 months before it reaches any conclusions about WMD in Iraq.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
c
