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CNN Wolf Blitzer Reports
America's New War: Target Terrorism
Aired September 26, 2001 - 19:00 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.
FRANK SESNO, CNN ANCHOR: Tonight, target terrorism. After a massive intelligence failure, President Bush says the U.S. is in a war that require the best intelligence.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And I've got a lot of confidence in the CIA.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SESNO: We'll look at the role of intelligence in a new kind of conflict and we'll find out what went wrong the last time the U.S. targeted Osama Bin Laden. As the U.S. draws up targets this time, we'll look at the struggle for power in Afghanistan where great powers have been humbled a year after another attack linked to Osama Bin Laden. We'll go behind the scenes as the Coast Guard trains to protect U.S. vessels and we'll take you for a ride in an F-15 fighter guarding the skies over U.S. cities as America targets terrorism.
Good evening and welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm Frank Sesno reporting from Washington. Wolf Blitzer is off tonight.
Among the latest developments we're following this hour, New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani says he wants some kind of continuing role in the city's recovery. He's barred by term limits from running for a third consecutive term, but in a news conference this afternoon he said he wants to talk to the mayoral candidates about what he can do for the city.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAYOR RUDY GIULIANI (R), NEW YORK: There are now three candidates for mayor. We don't know which one of them is going to be the mayor so I'm going to present them with a proposal that as the current mayor who has, I think the best interests of the city at heart, that I think will help to unify this city. And I want to see if I can get their agreement. It has nothing to do with me. It has to do with the city.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SESNO: And police are randomly inspecting vehicles coming into Manhattan creating gridlock at bridges and tunnels. That's prompted a mandatory carpool order from six in the morning until noon. It covers vehicles using all East River bridges, including the famous Brooklyn Bridge and those using the Lincoln and Queens mid-town tunnels. The Holland tunnel and the Brooklyn Battery tunnel remain closed.
Fifteen days after terrorist attacks on the United States, President Bush is expressing his unqualified support for the CIA.
CNN's senior White House correspondent, John King, joins us with more on Mr. Bush's visit today to the Central Intelligence Agency's headquarters. John.
JOHN KING, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Frank, obviously a great number of questions raised about the CIA in the wake of these terrorist strikes a little more than two weeks ago. How could this have happened many Americans asking that question. Many in Congress who oversee the CIA and other intelligence agencies asking that question as well. President Bush today after visiting the FBI went over to Virginia today to voice his confidence taking a tour over at the CIA. Also making clear that the CIA Director George Tenet, a man who sits by his side everyday in the president's national security meetings, has his full confidence as well. And not another day in which the president made clear that Osama Bin Laden is hardly the only target in this campaign. He said he has full confidence in the nation's spy agency.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BUSH: If you harbor a terrorist, you're just as guilty as the terrorists. If you provide safe haven to a terrorist, you're just as guilty as the terrorists. If you fund a terrorist, you're just as guilty as a terrorist. And in order to make sure that we're able to conduct a winning victory, we've got to have the best intelligence you can possibly have and my report to the nation is we've got the best intelligence we could possibly have thanks to the men and women of the CIA.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: Mr. Bush also said in those remarks that the suspected hijackers had burrowed themselves in the United States for several months, seemingly making the case that the CIA was not to blame for some sudden lapse overseas. That doesn't mean there won't be questions raised about what can be done better in the future. Many in Congress already raising that question, promising there will be changes in the CIA and throughout the U.S. intelligence community. But an important gesture by the president today visiting Virginia for the CIA headquarters named after his father and standing by the CIA director. Frank.
SESNO: John, the president busy today as well on another front and that is meeting with the various ethnic groups the Sikhs and Muslims in particular. Multiple audiences in mind here. Fill us in a bit.
KING: At home the president, once again and he's done this almost everyday in the past two weeks, urging America to be tolerant. To be mad at the terrorists and no one else, not to take this out on Arab Americans or Muslim Americans or any other Americans they might want to lash out and blame right now. So a very important domestic message from the president, but make no mistake -- this is also a critical message as the president tries to build an international coalition. New pictures today in Afghanistan angry anti-American protests. Fires lit at the site of the now closed U.S. embassy.
The president knows there is an effort under way to ferment anti- American sentiment among radical Islamic fundamentalists in critical nations, like Saudi Arabia, like Egypt. He met with the Foreign Minister of Egypt today. So, this message designed to send a signal of tolerance at home, but also to send a strong signal to those modern Arab nations that he is prepared everyday, if necessary, to say this is a war against terrorism, not against Muslims or against Islam -- Frank.
SESNO: John King at the White House.
As the United States continues its military preparations for its war on terrorism, we have news on the latest deployment orders. From the Pentagon now and CNN military affairs correspondent Jamie McIntyre -- Jamie.
JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Frank, get used to this. The White House has authorized the Pentagon to call up 35,000 National Guard and Reserve troops. They've called up about 15,000 so far, 20,000 more to go. The latest batch today including about 600 or so Navy security personnel. All part of the deployment as the U.S. mobilizes both for homeland defense and for possible action overseas against terrorists. Frank.
SESNO: Jamie, as the United States is deploying these assets and personnel, it's looking to the future, but it's also looking to the past for lessons and for guidance. Specifically I imagine about 1998. I know you've been looking into that and what happened then.
MCINTYRE: Well, Frank, I have been talking to military planners around the building about what they might have in store for their attempts to try to capture and even kill Osama Bin Laden in the coming weeks or months. There's not a whole lot I can say about that, but in the process CNN has learned some new information about how the Pentagon missed Osama Bin Laden when it tried to get him back in 1998.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MCINTYRE (voice-over): August 1998, just two weeks after terrorists bombed U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, the United States sent more than 60 cruise missiles into Afghanistan. The aim was to kill Osama Bin Laden and his top lieutenants while they gathered for a meeting at a remote training camp. This spy satellite photograph released by the Pentagon a few months later, showed that Bin Laden's mountaintop complex of five buildings was destroyed. The only problem -- Bin Laden wasn't there at the time. Former President Clinton has now confirmed the United States believes Bin Laden left a few hours before the missiles hit. BILL CLINTON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I authorized the arrest and if necessary the killing of Osama Bin Laden. And we actually made contact with a group within Afghanistan to do it and they were unsuccessful.
MCINTYRE: CNN has learned the Pentagon's concluded in retrospect, its decision to time the attack to coincide with a strike against a pharmaceutical plant in Sudan, probably was a mistake. Because of the desire to hold down civilian deaths at the suspected chemical weapons plant in Khartoum, the whole operation was moved into the night time hours when workers would have gone home. By that time, in Afghanistan, the meeting of Bin Laden and his followers had broken up. The lesson for today say, Pentagon planners is that a military strike is only as good as the intelligence it's based upon.
FRANK CILLUFFO, CENTER FOR STRATEGIC AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES: The role of intelligence underpins all of our potential responses, whether it's identifying where his money supplies are, whether it's identifying who the different actors are and how they weave into one another, whether it's identifying command and control facilities. Not only to exploit and steal secrets, but also to respond.
MCINTYRE: President Clinton also confirmed a U.S. trained special forces commandos to snatch Bin Laden, but they never got enough intelligence to act.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MCINTYRE: And while the buildup of U.S. military forces within striking distance of Afghanistan continues, Pentagon officials are still down playing the prospect of any immediate military action. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, in Brussels for meetings with America's NATO allies, told reporters today quote: Everybody who's waiting for military action needs to rethink this thing, Frank.
SESNO: Jamie McIntyre at the Pentagon. Thanks.
Well, diplomacy, of course, is a very key component of this new war on terrorism. It's a multi-front war. Diplomacy a key battleground and the Bush administration coalition building moves forward. We get the latest from CNN State Department correspondent Andrea Koppel.
ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Frank, Secretary Powell leading that charge to build this international coalition. Another busy day here, but he also met with one of the toughest customers in trying to make this sale, this need to join the international coalition. And that was the Egyptian Foreign Minister. Not only Secretary Powell, but President Bush sat down with him today. The Egyptians although publicly saying they 100 percent support this effort. If you listen carefully to what the Foreign Minister has to say, he is clearly pointing out that they are not giving a carte blanche. They want this to be a very focused campaign perhaps on Afghanistan, only if the evidence is there.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) AHMED MAHER, EGYPTIAN FOREIGN MINISTER: We would support without any reservation any action to punish those who are responsible for this crime. And we believe that if the United States moves against the Taliban or against Afghanistan or Bin Laden, they would have a solid, good case. We trust that they will act according to what they believe in, the rule of law and any action is going to be based on evidence.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KOPPEL: And clearly at this point, Frank, Foreign Minister Maher speaking for the Egyptian government is saying that they haven't seen the evidence to move forward with such a campaign.
SESNO: Andrea, I know you're looking down the line as well as we go here. And that is specific question -- what are you hearing from those you speak with in this administration as to what comes next or down the line for Afghanistan.
KOPPEL: Well, what we're hearing, Frank, from our sources is that the administration has really a broad strategy for going after not only Osama Bin Laden and his Al Qaeda network, but also to a certain degree trying to help the Afghan people choose their own government. Secretary Powell was asked about this today and this is what he had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COLIN POWELL, SECRETARY OF STATE: Hopefully, a better day is ahead for the Afghan people, but right now I'm not prepared to say, nor is the United States government prepared to say how they might be governed in the future or what might be the fate of the Taliban regime.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KOPPEL: The Bush administration, Frank, believes that there is fertile ground right now within Afghanistan as far as the Taliban are concerned. The Taliban, the U.S. says, has not delivered on what it promised the Afghan people, that is a stable society.
Afghanistan is among the poorest and most isolated countries in the world and so that is why we've been hearing President Bush and others in this administration say things like this campaign is not against the Afghan people. That is also why the administration is reaching out to various opposition groups, not only those within Afghanistan like the Northern Alliance and others, but also outside -- the Afghan Diaspora if you will. Meeting with various members of groups and letting them know, Frank, that the U.S. is behind them and that this campaign is not targeting the Afghan people. It's targeting the Taliban, hoping that this will in effect cause the collapse of the Taliban government. Something along the lines of what we saw with Ferdinand Marcos and the people power movement in the Philippines.
SESNO: Andrea, turn now to another country where the politics are very delicate, the diplomatic dance is very precise and careful because the situation is so dicey and that's Saudi Arabia. Today, the Saudis said that it is a duty to fight terrorism. At least they said they were going to be part of the coalition. What are people at the State Department saying about that more importantly how they interpret it.
KOPPEL: Well, it is a very delicate issue, and it's one that officials are very reluctant to talk about, Frank, because it's such a sensitive relationship. As you know, Saudi Arabia has had very close ties, many Saudi businessmen with the Al Qaeda network through money, whatnot. There are cells based in Saudi Arabia and for that reason, the monarchy, and also for the reasons of religion there are two of the holiest sites in Islam that are in Saudi Arabia.
The monarchy is treading on very, very delicate ground here trying on the one hand to join this fight against terrorism, but on the other hand, not wanting to seem as if it is uniting with the West against Islam. And so while it was a very positive move and it's welcomed here at the State Department and by the Bush administration that they would cut off ties, the administration is also trying to be very considerate of Saudi concerns at home.
SESNO: And the sensibilities. Andrea Koppel at the State Department thanks. Well, great powers have tried and failed before to achieve their aims in Afghanistan. Will this time be any different? Up next, we'll look at the ongoing power struggle. And life in a village on the front lines of Northern Afghanistan, still ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANNOUNCER: Of the almost 10 million land mines planted on Afghan soil during the conflict with the Soviets in the 1980s, only 14,000 have been removed. Afghanistan remains the most heavily mined area in the world.
SESNO: Welcome back. I'm Frank Sesno sitting in for Wolf Blitzer tonight.
It has long been abandoned, but the U.S. embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan was the sight of thousands of demonstrators today. There was violence there and violence, too in neighboring Pakistan, which the U.S. is hoping, will play a key role in the war against terrorism. I spoke earlier with CNN's Christiane Amanpour who's in Islamabad.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SESNO: Christiane, what's the latest in Kabul?
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kabul has been fairly unruly today, in that there's been a very large demonstration against the United States, taking place outside the old, abandoned U.S. embassy. It was abandoned back in 1989. There were a lot of people who stormed basically, the embassy, set some vehicles on fire and took down the U.S. embassy shield there. So this was really the biggest anti-American demonstration that we've seen in the region so far -- Frank. SESNO: Christiane, I understand that there's another side of this coin. Some pro-American demonstrations not far from where you are. What's that all about? Where are they?
AMANPOUR: Well, this is the first time there has been such a demonstration here in Pakistan. We've seen all the little isolated anti-American ones recently, but a large rally was called by one of the biggest political parties here in Karachi, the big Southern port city and it was called to talk about solidarity with this international fight against terror. There were some incidents of injury where some opponents of the United States tried to storm this rally, but in the end the organizers said it was successful and again it is the first one so in that way it's significant, Frank.
SESNO: Very significant development. Christiane, you've also been looking into I know the context of what we're seeing in Afghanistan and the complicated patchwork between Afghanistan and some of its neighbors.
AMANPOUR: Yes, indeed and really Pakistan is looking very, very closely at Afghanistan. This key question on its border that has been the source of such instability for so long and now with this crisis they seem to be shifting alliance or the possibility of sort of realignment on various fronts here and the Pakistanis are looking very closely to what ends up as the political reality in their neighboring Afghanistan.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
AMANPOUR (voice-over): Afghanistan, rugged, treacherous and wild. Where great powers fought their great game, but never won. In 1842, only a single British soldier survived of 16,000 in retreat. In 1989, the Soviet Army suffered such heavy losses that it withdrew. And then the Empire collapsed.
ABDUL SATTAR, PAKISTANI FOREIGN MINISTER: Those who intervened in Afghanistan and tried to plant their own preferred leaders on Afghanistan paid a very high price for that blunder.
AMANPOUR: A blunder that Pakistan says it too made when it imposed its own proxy government in the nineties -- the Taliban. But this blunder was born in the vacuum that was left when the United States lost interest after the Soviet Army pulled out. To defeat the Soviets, the CIA and Saudi Arabian intelligence had poured billions of dollars in arms through Pakistan's intelligence services to the Afghan Mujahideen and holy warriors who had come from all over the Islamic world. It worked, but then Afghanistan was left to its weapons, warlords, and Islamic zealots. So with U.S. and Saudi approval, Pakistan then installed what it hoped would be a unifying and stabilizing government the Taliban from the majority Pashtun ethnic group. Instead, Afghanistan has become the epicenter of instability in this region. It's principal export, Islamic insurrection and terrorism. Now, a new great game may be fought over Afghanistan. The anti-Taliban Northern Alliance is making some military gains and Pakistan doesn't like it, warning the U.S. and others not to pour in weapons again.
SATTAR: We are concerned to bring news that groups upon groups are asking for foreign military assistance. The Northern Alliance has said so.
AMANPOUR: The Northern Alliance is a network of minority groups whose allies include Russia, Iran, and Pakistan's great rival, India. Pakistan now knows the Taliban's time is all but up, but it still needs a friendly government on its borders, acceptable to its own large Pashtun population.
RIFAAT HUSSEIN, PAKISTAN ANALYST: What Pakistan would like to see is a non-Taliban, but a Pashtun-elect government in Afghanistan in which the Northern Alliance and in fact, all the other minorities get an adequate representation. Because now is the time, I think, to push for this idea of a broad-based representative government.
AMANPOUR: A stable Afghanistan could also, eventually, be a major trading route, enabling Central Asian states on its northern border to export vast oil and gas resources via Pakistan to the world market. Pakistan wants the United States to help reconstruct Afghanistan, wants it to stay engaged this time.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
AMANPOUR: Well, with this current crisis, obviously the focus is on Pakistan. A U.S. delegation, military delegation has been meeting with their Pakistani counterparts, but we are told that no operational plan has been presented yet to the Pakistanis -- Frank.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SESNO: Christiane Amanpour speaking with me a bit earlier today. The fighting has escalated in Northern Afghanistan where an anti- Taliban who's eager to work with the United States. CNN's Chris Burns has spent some time in a village close to the battle lines.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHRIS BURNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): An anti-aircraft gun fires off, only practicing this time. In a village living on the edge, but trying to live nonetheless. Deboli, controlled by the Northern Alliance, is only about 5 kilometers -- 3 miles -- from the front. The hills blocking the front line rise up perilously close behind the village roofs. Behind the mountains, the Taliban- controlled capital, Kabul. Fighting rages nearby, sometimes day and night. But something else makes it even harder for Vatsyar Tremalon (ph) to sleep.
"I work in a village where I've vaccinated children. I cry at night when I think of how many who've grown up are now dying on the front."
BURNS: Refugees from the Taliban-held capital, Kabul, drive here speaking of a climate of fear in a city preparing for possible war with the Americans. But the people of Deboli, who support the alliance, are digging in their heels in a conflict that seems without end. The village of Deboli is a symbol of a stalemated war. It's passed between the Northern Alliance and the Taliban three times during this five-year-old conflict and yet life somehow rumbles on. Rumbling here as it has for centuries. Coping without electricity and still spinning a traditional yarn. And coping with aging ex-Soviet weapons to wage their war. Though hoping for more international help, especially from the Americans, to break though to Kabul. Among those hoping is Abdul Rahman (ph), who runs his shop by day and says he joins the fights by night.
"We are extremely happy that we've recently heard that America's going to start striking the Taliban and eradicate terrorism and the people who support the Taliban."
Perhaps wishful thinking, but that doesn't stop this village from getting on with life even if the next battle is probably just around the corner.
Chris Burns, CNN, Deboli, Afghanistan.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SESNO: And if that battle is just around the corner as the U.S. tries to ramp up an international coalition. What does it face? Coming up, we'll talk with a former national, deputy national security adviser who knows the situation in Afghanistan and has faced it down before.
ANNOUNCER: The United States provided about 1,000 Stinger anti- aircraft missiles to the Afghan rebels fighting the Soviet Union during the 1980s. An estimated 100 to 200 are believed to remain in Afghanistan.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SESNO: Here's a quick look at some of today's latest developments. Armed federal air marshals could become a fixture on almost all U.S. commercial flights. President Bush will unveil new security measures tomorrow at Chicago's O'Hare airport.
Economic troubles continue to dog the nation's air carriers. Delta Airlines says it will lay off 13,000 workers and cut its flight schedule 15 percent.
And Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat met with Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres today. That meeting led to an agreement to resume full security cooperation.
We turn now to a man who knows just how tough it is to flush out terrorists and to quell the situation in the Middle East and beyond. James Steinberg served in the Clinton Administration as deputy national security adviser. He was there during the last U.S. strike against Afghanistan and Osama bin Laden. Good to see you. Let's start with actually that last small item that I just read that is by no means a small item -- this meeting between the Israeli foreign minister and Yasser Arafat and this plan anyway to resume discussions. What do you make of that and what is its relevance in this larger context, this much larger story?
JAMES STEINBERG, FORMER DEPUTY NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: I think it's a very positive development and I think that it's a situation that is one that's come about because I think that the Palestinian leader understands that the United States is looking to get cooperation on the fight against terrorism everywhere and to have this kind of very significant gesture by him to say yes we're going to be part of that effort, makes him part -- in some respects -- of the coalition that the administration is trying to build.
And so I think that Arafat remembers the last time we had a war in the region. He was on the side of Saddam Hussein and I think this time, this time he doesn't want to be there. But what it does is it helps generally, helping the coalition because now the president can say to other Arab leaders we're making progress in the peace process. Two sides are meeting. It's easier for you to be on our side now in this fight.
SESNO: So how does that translate into the coalition that the president's trying to build?
STEINBERG: What it means is that it will be for Arab leaders they can say to their own people that it's easier to work with the United States now. They see the United States working on a problem that's of concern to them in Saudi Arabia, Egypt and elsewhere. And I think that will make it that much easier to go out to their publics and say it's OK to be with the U.S..
SESNO: As we saw, President Bush went to the CIA today and voiced support, confidence in the current team over there, including CIA Director George Tenet. Is that confidence well-placed? We've heard a lot about intelligence failures that led to the World Trade Center disaster.
STEINBERG: I think it's too early to talk about failures. You know, the intelligence people have the hardest job in this business. They can be right nine times out of 10, but if they're not right one time there are big consequences. We're never going to be perfect in this business. They have been working this problem incredibly hard. It's been the major focus at the CIA for a long time, and I think that they deserve a vote of confidence, to try to keep that work going.
SESNO: You have seen those top-secret and most highly confidential cables and communications that come through the intelligence community, and now we're hearing that more and better intelligence will be key to the battles ahead. And yet, questions have been raised about the reliability of the information, the loyalties of some of the people who may pass along that information.
What are the implications, and how certain can anybody be of anything that they're getting? STEINBERG: This is the toughest business, because you get information from all kinds of sources. Some of it may even be disinformation, designed to try and mislead you or put you on the wrong track. That's why you need really experienced analysts, who not only have the technical abilities to read the material, but to understand, to know from their past patterns: "Does this make sense? Would they really be thinking about doing something like that?"
It takes seasoned experience, it takes a lot of people to spend a lot of time. And it's hard to come by. That's why it's hard to retain the right people that we need in intelligence.
SESNO: And a major push amidst all of this, to have more and better intelligence sharing among the various intelligence services and countries involved in this operation. I want to play a quick piece of videotape of George Robertson, the NATO secretary-general. I want you to see what he had to say about this today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE ROBERTSON, NATO SECRETARY-GENERAL: We need to do a much better job at collecting and sharing vital intelligence. We need to adopt a much more flexible approach, taking into account the changing nature of terrorist threats. And we need to coordinate better our collective actions.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SESNO: James Steinberg, that's all very vague. Give us some specifics -- you've been on the inside -- as to what needs to be better collected, better shared?
STEINBERG: Well, in a fight like this, you need the support of intelligence services everywhere, because these network are spread out around the globe.
SESNO: OK, but specifically, what hasn't come in the past that should?
STEINBERG: What hasn't come in the past is that often people have been afraid to share the information because they are afraid that it will blow back on them, that it'll be seen as somehow, they're cooperating with the CIA, that they're somehow part of a fight that they don't want to have to defend at home.
But now that the coalition is out there and countries can be visibly associated with the United States, it's easier for those intelligence services to work with us, so that could have a really big impact.
SESNO: Turning to another country now, Saudi Arabia. I was talking about this with Andrea Koppel a little while ago -- some significant comments from the Saudis today, at least at face value, if you take them. They said it's their duty to fight terrorism, and offered to join the coalition, and they said -- I'm quoting here, the foreign minister -- "This calls for a new perception of cooperation within the international community."
Is it for real? Will they make a difference? Are they pivotal, the Saudis?
STEINBERG: They're certainly very important. After all, we've seen that a number of the individuals who may be implicated in this attack were Saudis. There are certainly a lot of connections between some of extremists in Saudi Arabia and the organization in Afghanistan. They have good intelligence. They have terrific services, both law enforcement, intelligence services. They can make a real contribution, if they're really willing to put their shoulder into it.
And what we're seeing now, I think, is a renewed determination from the Saudis to say, yes, we don't see this as part of defending Islam. Even though we had a connection in the past with the Taliban, we're done with that. And that makes them a much more effective ally for us in this fight.
SESNO: Another country pivotal to all of this, because it's been linked to terrorism is Iran. And today Iran's spiritual leader said, essentially, in no way is Iran going to cooperate with a U.S.-led coalition. Does that put Iran and the coalition on a collision course?
STEINBERG: I think we still don't know. We've had mixed signals from Iran. We've also had signals that were sent through the British foreign minister, who was just recently in Tehran talking with the Iranians. I think they have a common interest with us and others, in some of the problems with the Taliban. It's been their adversary for a long time.
SESNO: If you were in your job, deputy national security adviser, right now, today, what would you be doing?
STEINBERG: I think what we'd be focusing on, first of all, is preventing any near-term attacks, making sure that we're doing everything we can to protect the American people. Second, really using this coalition to put pressure on the Taliban and to put pressure on the cells throughout the world to try to crack down now, while we've got a lot of international support.
Now is the time that we can use that diplomacy and that intelligence cooperation most effectively.
SESNO: James Steinberg, thanks very much. Appreciate it.
And when we return, the CIA is on the nation's front line defense against terrorism, as we said, and now many are wondering what went wrong -- more than what we discussed here. We'll look at that.
Also, few pilots ever break the sound barrier. Coming up, CNN's Miles O'Brien climbs inside the cockpit of one of the fastest planes on earth. Don't go away.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) SESNO: Welcome back. As we have been discussing, President Bush visited the CIA headquarters to show his support for that agency's director, George Tenet, and the staff. CNN national security correspondent David Ensor is following the story.
You've been looking more deeply into many of the implications connected with the intelligence part of this story, a critical part of where, really, global developments are now headed.
DAVID ENSOR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Frank. The - since September 11th, there has been discussion about intelligence failure at the CIA. You talked about that just now with Jim.
But over at the agency, officials say morale is high, and of course, President Bush made clear he wants to keep it that way.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ENSOR (voice-over): A presidential visit to the Central Intelligence Agency was clearly a morale boost for employees, especially for George Tenet, the CIA director who, one senator has suggested, should resign because of the intelligence failure of September 11th.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You know, George and I have been spending a lot of quality time together.
(LAUGHTER)
BUSH: There's a reason. I've got a lot of confidence in him, and I've got a lot of confidence in the CIA.
(APPLAUSE)
ENSOR: Bush came to thank CIA employees, who, as he noted, are putting in long hours, searching for Osama bin Laden and guarding against future terror threats.
BUSH: Men and women of the CIA who are sleeping on the floor, eating cold pizza, calling their kids on the phone saying "well, I won't be able to tuck you in tonight," because they love America.
ENSOR: The same is true, officials say, at other intelligence agencies. The National Security Agency, which eavesdrops on terrorist communications, the National Reconnaissance Office, which fields and controls the spy satellites now trained on Afghanistan.
And officials point out, U.S. intelligence has been warning Americans about bin Laden's group for years.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, OCTOBER 1999)
GEORGE TENET, CIA DIRECTOR: He has declared the acquisition of weapons of mass destruction a religious duty, and identified every American as a legitimate target.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ENSOR: But U.S. intelligence had no warning of the Africa embassy bombings, nor the plots in Yemen, first unsuccessful against the USS The Sullivans, and then deadly against the USS Cole.
And now the attacks in New York and Washington. Former CIA officer Reuel Gerecht says the agency remains dangerously weak on human intelligence, on spies recruited inside terrorist groups.
REUEL GERECHT, FORMER CIA OFFICER: Case officers, operatives overseas, for the most part are bureaucrats. I mean, they are sort of fake diplomats who spend most of their time running around at cocktail parties. So it's very difficult for that type of an officer to effectively develop networks in a place like Afghanistan, where there are no cocktail parties.
ENSOR: U.S. officials decline comment on whether they have more officers now working without official cover outside embassy compounds, but they do say that since Gerecht left the agency, the number of CIA officers proficient in, for example, Arabic, has more than tripled.
And experts warn that no target is harder than a terrorist cell.
LEE HAMILTON, FORMER U.S. REPRESENTATIVE: No one should think that we're going to have someone penetrating Osama bin Laden's inner circle tomorrow afternoon.
ENSOR: The greatest strength of U.S. intelligence has traditionally been on the technical side, spy satellites and eavesdropping wizardry.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ENSOR: U.S. officials say much has been done in recent years to improve the human intelligence that is so critical to tracking terrorists. Much has been done, but not enough, not yet -- Frank.
SESNO: They do point to successes, important successes, though, to demonstrate that if you get one thing wrong but 10 things right, you are getting things right.
ENSOR: Well, that's right. For example, at the turn of the century, at the millennium, there were a tremendous number of attempts under way around the world to bomb U.S. targets. We heard about one of them, the Ahmed Ressam case, where he was arrested on his way to try to get into Canada. But I understand there were multiple plots. We may not have heard about all of them.
So they believe that they've had many successes, and of course, you always hear about the failures.
SESNO: So going forward, David, what are the priorities at central intelligence?
ENSOR: The first priority is to find any kind of threat against American citizens or American targets and to catch it before it happens. Obviously, that is what didn't happen this past time. They are desperate to make sure they catch it this next time. And the intelligence level of effort is very, very high.
Secondly, they're looking for bin Laden, they're looking for targets in Afghanistan, in the event the military needs some, and this is very difficult work. Working along with liaison services, other intelligence agencies, as you mentioned in the conversation with Jim Steinberg, that is critical. The Pakistani intelligence service knows more about Afghanistan than any other. If they're willing to play ball, they really could help in this. It's not clear yet whether they're willing to go all the way, though.
SESNO: They're considered to be wired in Afghanistan, and wired into some of that network, anyway.
ENSOR: That's right.
SESNO: All right, David Ensor, national security correspondent.
The F-15 Eagle is one of the Air Force's most effective front line weapons. When we return, a bird's eye view from inside this fighter jet.
And later, the best offense is a good defense. A look at the Coast Guard, as it prepares for war.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SESNO: Welcome back. The U.S. Coast Guard is training to protect U.S. ports and Navy ships abroad from terrorist attacks. It is a daunting assignment.
CNN's Brian Nelson spent two days with Unit 308 in Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, and filed this report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRIAN NELSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is an exercise the U.S. Coast Guard, in a fictional port in Southwest Asia, under attack from terrorists.
(GUNFIRE)
NELSON: Easily mistaken for camouflaged Marines, the Coast Guard fires back.
A fictional fire fight against fictional terrorists. Only nothing involving terrorism seems fictional anymore. Coast Guard personnel train for all scenarios.
At the camp gate, another drills. A protest from make-believe Arab demonstrators waiving posters and chanting slogans denouncing America. Another drill includes local fishermen angered by the American presence.
Many of the 135 reservists of Port Security Unit 308 were hurriedly activated in the last two weeks to help protect U.S. vessels and sailors avoid a repeat of what happened in the Port of Aden last October.
COMMANDER FRED WHITE, U.S. COAST GUARD: I can tell you that the morning the Cole blew up, it changed out lives forever in port security.
NELSON: Mindful that it took only a few terrorists and a dinghy to blow a large hole in the USS Cole and take the lives of 17 sailors, the PSU 308, Russia's heavily-armed patrol boats, to confront a fictional intruder in the harbor. There is an intense exchange of fire.
The attack boat in this exercise comes dangerously close. A Coast Guard defender, wearing electronic sensors, takes a hit, becoming a casualty. The intruder speeds away.
Does the commander feel comfortable leading his reservists into a real fight?
WHITE: I will by the end of the week.
NELSON: Port security is. for the first time, involved in homeland defense. Units are now guarding the port of New York, as well as those in Boston and Seattle.
(on camera): Three additional units, including PSU-308, are on standby to go overseas, where until two weeks ago, it was presumed the greatest threat existed. Now it can happen anywhere. And port security now has all the makings of a growth industry, at home and abroad.
Brian Nelson, CNN, Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SESNO: And coming up, we'll go to CNN correspondent Miles O'Brien for that inside look at an F-15 fighter jet. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SESNO: Fighter jets from Otis Air National Guard Base in Massachusetts have been patrolling the skies over New York ever since the attacks September 11th. CNN's Miles O'Brien rode along on one such mission. He joins us live from the base -- Miles.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm live at the maintenance hangar, right beside the flight line at the 102nd fighter wing here at Otis Air National Guard Base. These are some of the 18 F-18's that are responsible for a 500-square-mile swathe of airspace in the northeastern United States. They are continuing what are called cat missions. Those are combat air patrol missions.
A little bit earlier today I got an opportunity to fly along for one of those missions. Why don't you join me?
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN (voice-over): During the Cold War, fighters stationed at this base routinely scrambled to intercept and dog Soviet bear bombers probing U.S. air defenses.
But that was then. On the morning of September 11th, a pair of F-15 Eagles stationed here at Otis Air National Guard Base lit the afterburners and launched on a frantic mission across Long Island Sound to New York City.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They're supersonic, how much more than that, I don't know.
O'BRIEN: By the time they reached Manhattan, the Twin Towers were ablaze. They circled overhead for hours, watching the horrifying scene unfold, wondering if it was over.
(on camera): At that point, did they have reason to believe there might be others coming in?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah, that's what they were thinking.
O'BRIEN (voice-over): Ever since then, the pilots here at the 102nd Fighter Wing, whose job has always been homeland defense, have been swamped by a mission they could never have predicted: defending U.S. airspace against U.S.-registered aircraft.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We don't really train for this stuff.
O'BRIEN (on camera): Right.
(voice-over): I flew a combat air patrol, or cat mission, with one veteran F-15 pilot. His handle is Flave, and for security reasons, we agreed to leave it at that. In fact, for the same reasons, we allowed the guard officials who granted us the extraordinary access to review our material before we aired it.
(on camera): How many aircraft in the area right now?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's a couple of 16's and a tanker.
O'BRIEN (voice-over): It's a typical situation four miles above New York these days. We were joined by F-16 fighters from two other guard units, all of the planes bristling with radar-guided and heat- seeking missiles.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: These are one-in-a-million shots. Armed fighters over New York -- unbelievable.
O'BRIEN: It was a crystal-clear day, just as it was on the morning of the attacks.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, right through that gap, there's ground zero.
O'BRIEN: It was easy to spot the gaping hole in lower Manhattan. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: God, what a hole. That's a huge hole.
O'BRIEN (on camera): What goes through your mind when you see that?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All the standard stuff. Makes you kind of sick.
O'BRIEN (voice-over): F-15s are fuel-thirsty machines. They need airborne fueling to say aloft for these missions, typically five hours long.
O'BRIEN (on camera): How do you feel about being a part of this mission?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm glad to be here and do it. but I'm not really glad about the mission.
O'BRIEN: Yeah.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: After flying that two-hour mission, it became clear to me that the pilots of these F-15s, not F-18s, as I said a little while ago --- there are 18 of them here, 18 F-15s. The biggest challenge facing them is not some of the normal issues that a fighter pilot contends with, dealing with high G situations, intercepting an enemy dog fight scenario.
This is a situation where the most difficult thing is maintaining their focus on their mission. They have to go on to stations above New York City, orbit around for as long as five hours, maintain their focus and be ready in the event that they're called to do something.
Now, in the case of the pilot I flew with today, Flave, he's only had two intercepts in this entire two-week plus period. In both cases, they were commercial or general aviation aircraft, helicopters, for example, that weren't in proper communication with the FAA. When the FAA finally figured out who they were, he broke off the intercept and it turned out to be a non-event.
So once again, this is something that's going to be going on for the foreseeable future. And here at Otis International Guard Base, they are going to be taxed for the foreseeable future, as this homeland defense continues -- Frank.
SESNO: Miles O'Brien. A difficult mission, indeed.
I'll be right back with a look at the latest developments, as America targets terrorism, right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SESNO: Before we go, we want to update you on some of the latest developments we're following. At least nine men in three states in the U.S. have been arrested for illegally trying to get licenses to transport hazardous materials. The Justice Department is investigating haz-mat licensing nationwide in an effort to prevent chemical or biological attacks.
President Bush visited CIA headquarters today and spoke of his confidence in the agency, which some lawmakers have criticized following the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The president is also showing solidarity with America's Sikh community, which has been the target of revenge attacks since September 11th.
And thousands of people attended a memorial outside Boston's city hall today, for victims of the two planes that crashed into the World Trade Center. Both took off from Boston's Logan Airport.
That's all the time we have tonight. Thanks very much for watching. I'm Frank Sesno in Washington. Wolf Blitzer will be back tomorrow at 7:00 p.m. Eastern time. "THE POINT WITH GRETA VAN SUSTEREN" begins right now.
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