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CNN Sunday Morning
Bush Urges Congress to Move Quickly on Counterterrorism Package
Aired September 30, 2001 - 08:03 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.
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN ANCHOR: The Bush administration has indicated Congress is not moving quickly enough on the proposed counterterrorism package. CNN's White House correspondent Major Garret joins us now with more on that from outside Camp David. Major, what's the latest?
MAJOR GARRETT, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning, Jean. It's a gentle nudge from the Bush White House, which is very much trying to maintain an atmosphere and a sense of unity and bipartisanship in Washington.
A senior administration official telling CNN on Saturday that the White House wished, particularly in the Senate, progress was a bit more rapid on the president's counterterrorism package. There have been high level conversations throughout the week. There is supposed to be a conversation today between the attorney general, John Ashcroft, and the key player in the Senate, Patrick Leahy, a Democrat from Vermont who is the chairman of the Judiciary Committee.
Senior staff on both sides, from the White House and the Senate Judiciary Committee, have been conferring throughout the week. They conferred again yesterday. A senior Democratic Senate aide tells CNN that progress is being made and, in the end, there probably will be an agreement. Whether it will be reached this week, that's not quite clear.
A couple of issues remain outstanding. Some sense among the Senate Democrats that they'd like to have a little bit more explanation from the administration on how rapid they would like to see secret grand jury testimony that might be relevant in the terrorism investigation transferred to intelligence or other law enforcement sources. They want some clarification on that.
Also, deeper discussions about how rapidly and how frequently the government could trace and monitor cell phone to cell phone to cell phone communications, often in a daisy chain investigators have found in a terrorist network.
Those are some of the issues at stake. They're trying to work it out. But the interesting thing, Jean, is, all these conversations are at the very highest level. And they have been day in and day out. That's one of the interesting things that has happened since September 11. When they talk about bipartisanship in Washington, they really do mean it.
One senior Senate Democratic aide told me, you know, we're really surprised. If the president put a piece of counterterrorism legislation on the Senate, they could roll us, it would get 85, 90 votes. They're keeping us in the room. They're talking to us. It looks like they really want to do this the right way, the source told me. Jean.
MESERVE: Major, I want to ask you about a "New York Times" this morning, that "The New York Times" reports that the U.S. began working with the anti-Taliban rebel alliance in Afghanistan three years ago to try and encourage them to either capture or kill Osama bin Laden. Any reaction at all from the White House to that report?
GARRETT: No reaction from the White House this morning, Jean, but clearly the president, former President Clinton had indicated that he had sought, and his administration had sought, ways to oust or isolate, possibly even assassinate Osama bin Laden. Those efforts proved unsuccessful in part because Pakistan wasn't nearly so cooperative with the Clinton administration as it has proved to be for the Bush administration.
Much of the coalition has changed, but yesterday a key development. CNN confirmed the contents of an internal White House memorandum prepared by senior State Department and National Security Counsel staff members for the president. Among the interesting items in that memorandum was the declaration of administration policy that goes as follows: "The Taliban do not represent the Afghan people, who never elected or chose the Taliban faction. We (meaning the United States government) do not want to chose who rules, Afghanistan, but we will assist those who seek a peaceful, economically developing Afghanistan free of terrorism."
The first and clearest and most explicit sign that the Bush administration will aid those who seek to topple the Taliban regime. Jean.
MESERVE: Major Garret, thank you.
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