[Catherine Callaway, Cnn Anchor:] And we begin with a closer look inside the U.S. intelligence community. In the latest issue of "Newsweek," writer Michael Isikoff reports that the CIA had been tracking two of the September 11 hijackers, and that surveillance began two years before those deadly terror attacks. In a moment, we'll speak with the former CIA director, James Woolsey. But first, Patty Davis reports on the disconnect in the intelligence community.
[Patty Davis, Cnn Correspondent:] The CIA knew two terrorists who commandeered the American Airlines plane that crashed into the Pentagon were in the United States for 18 months before telling other agencies, according to "Newsweek" magazine. But by that time, August of last year, they had slipped out of sight.
[Michael Isikoff, Newsweek:] They failed to alert the INS, the State Department, the Custom Services, agencies that could have kept them out of the country. And perhaps more importantly, they failed to alert the
[Fbi. Davis:] That disclosure, as congressional hearings about intelligence failures connected to the September 11 terror attacks get underway this week.
[Sen. Bob Graham , Florida:] I think it's just another example of a missed opportunity.
[Sen. Richard Shelby , Alabama:] It has not been a flow of information when people needed it, between all the agencies. We've got to do better.
[Davis:] Both the FBI and CIA will have tough questions to answer. Why didn't they share information? Why didn't they connect the dots leading up to September 11?
[Sen. Dianne Feinstein , California:] I don't think this is the only revelation that's going to come forward. I suspect there are numbers of bits and pieces. They weren't put together.
[Robert Mueller, Fbi Director:] We have to do a better job pulling these pieces together, analyzing them, and disseminating them.
[Davis:] Pieces, such as the arrest last August of the suspected 20th hijacker, Zacarias Moussaoui. He had aroused suspicion while training at a Minnesota flight school. And the July memo by Phoenix FBI agent Kenneth Williams, suggesting the FBI look into Middle Eastern men training at U.S. flight schools. As a result, the FBI has announced a massive reorganization plan and new rules, allowing agents to monitor websites, mosques, anything open to the public as they look for terrorist activity. The Justice Department has been criticized for opening the door to domestic spying.
[John Ashcroft, Attorney General:] So both the laws passed by the Congress and the regulations that I've recently promulgated reinforce the safeguards, but they do not tie the hands of our agents.
[Davis:] While Congress considers further reform, FBI director Mueller says the intelligence community has thwarted new attacks in the U.S. Even so, he and others say terrorists will strike again. Patty Davis, CNN, Washington.
[Callaway:] So why is it that the FBI and the CIA didn't work well together? With us now with more on this is attorney James Woolsey. He served for two years as CIA director under President Clinton. Mr. Woolsey, thank you for being with us this evening.
[James Woolsey, Former Cia Director:] Good to be with you.
[Callaway:] Disturbing revelations in this article. Some of this we did already know, but perhaps what is the most disturbing is the breakdown in communication between the CIA and the FBI, after at least one of these known terrorists returned to the U.S. to begin living here. How could this type of breakdown in communications happen?
[Woolsey:] Well, this breakdown should not have happened. Some breakdowns in communications or absence of communications were required by law before this fall. There was a purpose for keeping the agency and the bureau apart. But this one should not have happened. We don't know yet the details about this. And it will be interesting. You know, one of the reasons FBI agents were put into the CIA's counterterrorism center some years ago out at Langley was precisely so that they would pick up on things that ought to go to the bureau and to domestic agencies when they came into the CIA. So it's not clear from the initial reports why that didn't happen. And certainly, it should have.
[Callaway:] Let's break up our or back up just a little bit, to give people a bit of history on the CIA and the FBI, created I guess back in 1947, I believe. Why exactly were there two agencies created?
[Woolsey:] Well, President Truman wanted to make sure that there was not single agency like the Gestapo or the KGB that we'd been fighting against that had a lot of power and controlled both foreign and domestic intelligence. And so, over J. Edgar Hoover's objections out of the FBI, he set up the CIA to be a completely separate organization. And over the years, there have been a lot of efforts, some of them invited into law, to keep the agencies apart. For example, until this past fall, it was illegal for the FBI, if it got information about terrorism from a domestic investigation and used grand jury subpoenas to get it. It was illegal for them to give it to the CIA. Now that got changed this past fall, but just one example of people wanting to preserve civil liberties by keeping these agencies apart.
[Callaway:] To try to understand the difference in what the CIA's capabilities are, and the FBI's capability, now the CIA is not able to really spy and investigate on anyone inside the U.S., right? Is that right?
[Woolsey:] Right. That's right.
[Callaway:] And is that where the breakdown happened, because once these two terrorists, known terrorists, entered the U.S. after this meeting in Malaysia, that information should clearly have been related to the FBI, who is able to investigate. It's just so hard to understand why, not how, but why it wasn't given to the FBI?
[Woolsey:] When it works right, there's a hand over. For example, if the CIA recruits a member of a foreign intelligence services overseas, and then that person gets assigned to the United Nations, let's say, and lives in New York, they'd normally be handed over to the FBI. And the FBI would communicate with him, while he's in this country. So there usually is on some things, close cooperation between the agencies when it was permitted by law. Why this was not done in this case, we just don't know. But you know, there may be a lesson here. The British do this differently than we do.
[Callaway:] Right.
[Woolsey:] They have a foreign intelligence service, MI-6 or the Secret Intelligence Service, it's like the CIA, and domestic law enforcement agency, Scotland Yard, that's like the FBI. But they have a third entity, MI-5, that effectively collects domestic intelligence related to things like terrorism, such as the IRA bombings in Britain. It may be that we will find as the congressional committees look into this, that we need to look more to something like the British model, rather than trying to reshape the FBI to do something that it hasn't really done.
[Callaway:] Has that suggestion been thrown about or discussed inside the intelligence community? Or is there such a turf war, that no one wants a third party involved?
[Woolsey:] Well, people have been very resistant, particularly in the Justice Department to getting Governor Ridge an enhanced role.
[Callaway:] Right.
[Woolsey:] And so, I think there is a lot of turf consciousness. But you know, we're in a war now. Really, and some people call it World War IV, World War III having been the Cold War. And we have to think, I think, about bold new ways of doing things.
[Callaway:] And you took over the CIA in 1993, just right before the World Trade Center bombing happened. WOOLSEY; Right. Interesting time for you to take that over, right, with that kind of tragedy happening. And at that time, my understanding that the FBI and the CIA agreed to work to jointly, in some fashion, at least in some type of terrorism unit, what happened after that. Certainly, there was a lot of talk about that after. And there was some teamwork there. It seemed to have dissolve in a few years.
[Woolsey:] Well, there were good instances of teamwork in the counterterrorism center out at the CIA. But you know, even then, a lot of material about Ramsey Youssef and Yassan, the Iraqi, who was involved in their false passports, their telephone calls to the Mid East, this was collected by the FBI pursuant to grand jury subpoena.
[Callaway:] Right.
[Woolsey:] In that case. And it was boxed up and put in the courthouse basement because it was illegal at that point to give it to the CIA. That got changed this past fall.
[Callaway:] Yes, I was going to say some of those things have changed. So...
[Woolsey:] Yes.
[Callaway:] ...we can move beyond that. But in that instance, and I guess my point being that there were efforts to try to get the two agencies to work together, after that tragedy. Seems to have fallen apart since then. What's going to happen now? It seems the FBI is taking a lot of blame for this with Mueller having to go before the Senate committee this week. Are we going to see the CIA having to answer any questions?
[Woolsey:] Well, they should. And but the point is to get beyond the finger pointing. And you know, someone made a terrible mistake then obviously, they need to be held accountable. But generally speaking, I think Mueller and Tenet, the head of the FBI and CIA, are able men. They have good experience in these areas. We need to fix these communications problems, instead of just kind of getting into backbiting.
[Callaway:] All right, James Woolsey. Seems like the investigation's truly just beginning. And it's interesting to see how all of this plays out. We hope to have you back with us very soon to discuss more about this. Thank you so much for being with us.
[Woolsey:] Glad to be with you.
[Callaway:] Former CIA director James Woolsey. Well, the September 11 attacks cast a heavy cloud over the mistrust over Muslim Americans. Many felt that they were seen as potential terrorists. Now law enforcement is looking at them with an eye toward recruiting Muslims. Here's CNN's Brian Palmer.
[Brian Palmer, Cnn Correspondent:] Anas Aberdrabour, a Syrian American, has come to his mosque to pray and to look for a job.
[Unidentified Male:] This brochure
[Palmer:] He's making the rounds of law enforcement agencies, local, state and federal, that are recruiting at his Patterson, New Jersey mosque. Among the agencies, the New Jersey state police, the Secret Service, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, the
[Fbi:] Why are you here?
[Melinda Anderson, Fbi Reporter:] To recruit for the special agent position, and also other job opportunities in the
[Fbi. Anthony Colegry, Secret Service:] The career fair was for everybody. Obviously, we're grateful to get the Islamic people here, too.
[Palmer:] The Islamic Center for Pasaic County is one of the largest mosques in the area with thousands of members. Before September 11, mosque leaders say they had a good working relationship with the FBI. The day after the September 11 attacks, FBI agents were here, seeking information. [voice-over]: The FBI has detained thousands of Muslim non- citizens on immigration violations since September 11. Civil rights groups have sued to force the Justice Department to release information about them. Sohail Mohammed represents 18 of these men. He is also a sponsor of the job fair. He says Muslims should be represented in federal law enforcement agencies, but they shouldn't be afraid to ask tough questions.
[Sohail Mohammed, Job Fair Sponsor:] Why don't have fair representation of American Muslims in your forces? We ought to be asking why your agencies are suspicious of Muslim activities? Why is our places of worship the focus of your attention, when you know the hijackers were not worshiping at religious centers, but they were hanging out at bars?
[Palmer:] Under new law enforcement guidelines announced by the Attorney General, FBI agents would be able to come into this mosque and monitor activity, file reports. You could be called on to that as an agent. How would you feel?
[Anas Aberdrabour, Job Fair Attendee:] I don't have a problem. We have nothing to hide.
[Palmer:] Others were less enthusiastic about the job fair. Attorney Michael Ratner also represents Muslim detainees.
[Michael Ratner, Center For Constitutional Rights:] First, there has be an investigation of the FBI in which they determine why they didn't get the perpetrators of September 11. What the results of that will be, I don't know, but it's certainly going to be hiring more Arabic speaking and Muslim agents. But then, what should they do? They shouldn't be going after legitimate dissent in this country. They should be going after people who have at least some evidence of criminality.
[Palmer:] But even skeptics allow that the job fair may be an important step in improving communication between federal law enforcement and Muslim Americans. Brian Palmer, CNN, Patterson, New Jersey.