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CNN Saturday Morning News

Are FBI, CIA Starting to Really Work Together?

Aired June 15, 2002 - 08:10   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.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: In the aftermath of September 11, President Bush is pushing for a new Department of Homeland Security. The president's proposal comes amid continued concerns that terrorists will try to strike again. Even if as Mr. Bush deals with that threat at home, he's also focusing on U.S. interests abroad.

Joining us to talk more about security issues is CNN law enforcement analyst Mike Brooks, and we've been talking all the way up to this point, we've been going through the break. So many things to cover, but let's focus right now on the FBI and the CIA. They've finally kind of made a truce. Yeah, you kind of give me that look. Is this the truce, or is this do we have to get along, guys?

MIKE BROOKS, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Well, it's not the first time. You know, they haven't played well in their sandbox together for quite sometime. But I think now formally, they both said, well, we're going to play well together, especially after 9/11. There has been so much criticism of the FBI, and there has also been finger-pointing by the CIA. You know, who had what information? Who didn't give information when? And recently, I spoke to one of my good friends and sources, and he said that he was at a conference where they were talking about bomb-making books that were found in Afghanistan that they hadn't turned over to the FBI, and they were given it at an FBI conference to -- the CIA found it.

So a lot of this has been going on. I think they need to stop it, and I think they need to just give the information to each other. But, again, we're talking about cultural differences. There is a lot of difference between the FBI folks and CIA folks. They have different missions. FBI -- law enforcement; CIA -- intelligence. So I think we're going to have to overcome that cultural difference too.

PHILLIPS: You got to overcome these egos too. I mean, we're talking about our safety. This is the most serious thing ever to ever hit our country, so that has got to be dissolved, this war between those two.

BROOKS: Yeah. It's gotten better over the years, I think. I remember when you would go to a reception or a Christmas party, you know, try to play nice with the CIA when I was working over at the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) and joint terrorism task force, and you go in and as soon you walk into the room, they'd be talking, they'd turn around, they look at you, and they say, oh, here come the FBI folks, and they'd just get together, surround each other, and that would be it. But it's gotten better over the years. The leadership of CIA has been at FBI headquarters for sometime now, and the leadership at all levels from FBI has been at the CIA at the counter terrorism center, and I think they're working better together. And then we've seen this on a couple of cases that have come along recently, the Padilla case, where they did share information, and it worked well.

PHILLIPS: And that was a good outcome.

All right. George Tenet, going to go before the hearings this upcoming week. What do you think? He's going to talk about what he knew prior to September 11? What are your sources telling you about this? Will this be a good outcome, bad outcome?

BROOKS: I think it will be a good outcome. I think overall that they -- if you think about it, what government agency that had information about something like September 11 would not share it? You know, people talk about it, you know, how in their right minds could the FBI or CIA keep any information at all if they know it would harm Americans? And I think that maybe there had been some information -- and again, a lot of finger-pointing, and it should be interesting what the outcome is going to be and what Mr. Tenet has to say.

PHILLIPS: Definitely want to grab this before we let you go. EPA now proposing more chemical plant security. What do you think about this? Is this new?

BROOKS: No, it's not new. They've done -- some of the red teams before have gone out to some of the chemical plants, the government facilities where they store anthrax and some of these places, and have seen that some of the security is pretty shoddy, just simple padlocks on buildings that contain anthrax, nerve agents, these kinds of things. I think it needs -- something that's needed to be addressed for quite some time, and in light -- and even prior to September 11 -- and in light of September 11 now, and the increased awareness and everything else, I think it needs to be addressed.

PHILLIPS: All right. Coming up next hour, we're going to talk about Karachi, the bombing that took place there, and the FBI, and how the FBI is really involved with that. Coming up next hour.

BROOKS: Will do.

PHILLIPS: All right, Mike Brooks, thank you so much.

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