‘Meet the Press’ transcript for May 6, 2007

MR. RUSSERT:  This is late July.  The evidence coming in the intelligence: big event, spectacular, King, King Abdullah of Jordan calling, saying, "We have to go to Afghanistan.  We have to do something." A presidential daily brief was prepared for the president on August 6 entitled "Bin Laden Determined To Strike in the U.S."

Late August, you went to Crawford, Texas, first time ever, met with the president, rode with him in his pickup truck.  Did you say to him at that time, "Mr.  President, Rich B told me at the CIA they are coming. You got to do something now"?

MR. TENET:  Tim, by, by August, remember, this threat reporting starts way back in the spring--May, June, July, August.  I held nothing back from the president.  He understood our concerns about threats. He understood what we were doing around the world at the time.  The interesting thing is is by the end of July, everything goes silent on us.

MR. RUSSERT:  But did you say to him, "I brought in recommendations in March that they sent back. I need those now."

MR. TENET:  At that, at that time, the policymakers were deliberating on those things, Tim.  I believe that you've got to let them come to their conclusions.  You know, I, I have every confidence that everybody in our government understood what I believed to be a very, very serious time period. At the end of the day, the authorities we were seeking were to get on the ground and work covertly with, with Ahmed Shah Massoud and the northern alliance.  We wanted to get more proactive on the ground.  The hijackers were already here.

So what, what did you learn from all this?  You know, you warn, you provide strategic warning.  You work around the world.  We stopped many, many attacks in that summer overseas, saved thousands of lives.  You go back and look at this, people always will focus either on the intelligence community, on the law enforcement.  Everybody looks at individual vignettes, this mistake, that--here's the truth:  An entire government, over two administrations, we, we all have to say everybody could've done more.  And this was a period of time that there's a, there's a strategic and important point.  We had no system of
domestic protection in place in this country.  We didn't think about the United States as a target.  People focus on watch listing.  Yes, we didn't watch list people in a timely way.  Even when we watch listed them, they weren't put on a no-fly list.

You know, in, in, in, in the millennium period, we told the president of the United States five to 50 attacks against the United States.  None occurred. We caught a guy trying to cross the border from Canada.  And the message was, "You know, they're starting to think about us here." So lots of things could've been done better.  We think we provided strategic warning.  We think we were acting aggressively overseas.  But you have to have offense and defense playing together, Tim.

MR. RUSSERT:  Do you think the president should've come off vacation back to Washington and pulled all the principals together and said, "This intelligence is alarming.  We got to do something"?

MR. TENET:  I think, Tim, that in, in the August time period, I didn't, we didn't, we weren't giving the president more.  I think principal--I think, you know, Condi Rice was running the NSC, Dick Clarke was taking actions.  We--you can go back and think about this.  The hindsight may be perfect.  But that's what happened.

MR. RUSSERT:  The CIA inspector general has written a report and analysis of what happened leading up to this.  Do you think that should be made public?

MR. TENET:  Well, Tim, we've been evaluated by 9/11 Commission, by a joint inquiry staff.  This is the same CIA inspector general who told me in, in August of 2001 that my counterterrorism center was working extremely well, we were driving the community, our relationship with the FBI was good.  General Hayden has this in front of them.  As long as, as long as people get the opportunity to also declassify their responses because there're many pieces of this report that many of us felt were terribly flawed.

MR. RUSSERT:  Put it all out?

MR. TENET:  General Hayden will have to make this decision.  Two of my successors did not believe it should be.  Let them wrestle--let, let them deal with all of that.

But, Tim, at the end of the day, our record here is, we--we've let everybody know.  We'd--we've hidden nothing from anybody, and there was a terrible event here.  I hope people will balance what we did before and after.  I hope people will look at what we did in Afghanistan.  I hope people will understand two thirds of the al-Qaeda leadership no longer operates because of us.  I hope they'll understand thousands of people have been saved because of the work of the men and women of CIA and our intelligence community and put some balance in this.

MR. RUSSERT:  The president awarded Tommy Franks, the commander in Iraq; Paul Bremer, who led the postwar effort; and you the Medal of Freedom.  John McLaughlin, your top deputy, told Ron Suskind in his book, "I know he," Tenet, "wishes he could give that damn medal back."

MR. TENET:  It's absolutely untrue.  I've talked to John.  We never had such a conversation.

MR. RUSSERT:  And you won't give it back?

MR. TENET:  No, sir.  I, I--that medal was--it was about terrorism, it was about what we did in Afghanistan, it was about the work of great men and women, and I, I received that medal on our--on their behalf, and no, I will not give that medal back.

MR. RUSSERT:  In your book, a chapter entitled "They Want to Change History," you write this:  "One mushroom cloud would change history.  My deepest fear is that this is exactly what they intend." Do you believe that there are terrorist organizations that now have the capability of detonating a nuclear device in the United States?

MR. TENET:  Tim, what I believe is, is that al-Qaeda is, is seeking this capability.  You know, when we write about this, I take you back, he was looking--he, Bin Laden was looking for uranium in the Sudan in 1993.  He had a meeting with a nongovernmental organization of former Pakistani nuclear scientists, 2001, where crude weapons designs were shared.  The leader of this NGO looked at him and said, "You know, the hard part about doing this is getting the fissile material." And Bin Laden looked back at him and said, "What if I already have the fissile material?"

MR. RUSSERT:  You think he does?

MR. TENET:  We don't know.  All I'm--I don't know, Tim.  I'm trying to alert people to the fact that this is an, an organization that wants to hurt us commensurate with our standing as a superpower.

MR. RUSSERT:  Do you believe a nuclear device will be detonated in the U.S. in your lifetime?

MR. TENET:  Tim, I don't know the answer to that question.  All I know is, is that we should be moving heaven and earth--the best scientists, policies, where's the loose fissile material, where are the scientists?

MR. RUSSERT:  A.Q. Khan in Pakistan, the Pakistanis won't let us talk to him.

MR. TENET:  Well, well, but, Tim, there's a, there's a great success there, because we, over eight years we ended up taking down that network.

MR. RUSSERT:  But we don't know where he sent the materials.

MR. TENET:  Well, we--we're working very, very hard at it.  There are lots of places that we--
remember, remember, al-Qaeda approached A.Q. Khan twice, allegedly they were rebuffed.  We're now living in a world where networks of people pose threats to nation states.  Men like A.Q. Khan, men like-- and other nongovernmental--how many A.Q. Khans are out there that we don't know about?  You know, in the, in the Cold War, we were looking at big targets and big countries.  Now we're looking at networks of people who seek to do us harm, and this issue, I think, is the most important issue we face.

MR. RUSSERT:  Are you surprised we haven't been hit by more suicide bombers?

MR. TENET:  Well, Tim, the interesting thing is why haven't they?  I don't know, except they think about the United States as a target from the perspective of doing big, spectacular things.  And that's how they think about us as a target.  And, and, you know, we, we had a, we had a saying at CIA, it's all over offices out there.  It said today is September the 12.  We always got up every day believing today is September the 12, and we have to keep thinking that way.

MR. RUSSERT:  George Tenet, we thank you for coming us, and share--with us and sharing your views. The book, "At the Center of the Storm." Thank you very much.

MR. TENET:  Thanks very much, Tim.

MR. RUSSERT:  And we'll be right back.

                               (Announcements)

MR. RUSSERT:  That's all for today.  We'll be back next week, another installment of our 2008 Meet the Candidates series, a live, in-depth interview, Republican candidate for president Senator John McCain.  That's next Sunday right here.  If it's Sunday, it's MEET THE PRESS.

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