CNN Newsnight Aaron Brown - Transcript

SHOW: CNN NEWSNIGHT AARON BROWN 22:00

HEADLINE: American Combat Deaths in Iraq Exceeds Number of Deaths in First Gulf War; Abizaid Calls Iraqi Campaign 'Guerrilla War'; Driver Kills 8 in Santa Monica

GUESTS: Ron Wyden, Ken Burns

BYLINE: Aaron Brown, Dan Lothian, Jamie McIntyre, Bob Franken, Jonathan Karl, Jason Carroll, Maria Hinojosa

HIGHLIGHT:
The number of American combat deaths exceeded the number of combat deaths in the first Gulf War. Then, Central Command commander calls war in Iraq "guerrilla war." Finally, elderly driver kills eight in Santa Monica, California.

BODY:
BROWN: We concede at the outset here there are certain limitations to interviewing a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee about hearings that take place behind closed doors. That said, we also like a good challenge, so we're pleased to have Senator Ron Wyden with us, Democrat, from the state of Oregon. He's in our Washington Bureau. Senator, good to see you.

SEN. RON WYDEN (D), OREGON: Thank you.

BROWN: Anything said in that hearing today in your view that could not have been said in an open public hearing?

WYDEN: I do think it was appropriate to have this first session one behind closed doors. The public hearings are going to be even more important to get the most accountability with Sunshine but I think it was appropriate to begin the way we did today.

BROWN: Because?

WYDEN: Because this was fact finding. Certainly, the challenge now is to not politicize this. I will tell you, Aaron, I've been hearing all day about people saying that this is political. I'd be asking the tough question now, the questions that the American people deserve to have asked no matter who is involved in this.

BROWN: We heard a few moments ago Senator Roberts describe the director's testimony today as contrite, candid, and forthcoming. Would you agree with all of that?

WYDEN: Well, I feel a bit badly for George Tenet tonight. I've got to tell you I don't think I know anybody who doesn't feel that he fell on a sword on this. You kind of get the sense a little bit that the truth seems to belong to the administration. If there were factual problems, misrepresentations, now they're being put at George Tenet's door. So, I feel a little bad for him tonight.

BROWN: Have you lost confidence in him as the director of the CIA based on this whole episode?

WYDEN: Well, I think we've got a long way to go before we say that we have confidence given the way this has been handled. Clearly, the truth didn't get to all of the relevant agencies and my own sense is some of the parties who got the truth didn't like it and wouldn't accept it. So, it's important that the committee continue the hearings and that's what's ahead.

BROWN: You believe that, if I understood that answer, let me play it back and make sure I understand it. You are suggesting at the very least that somebody in the administration was trying to politicize, if you will, intelligence, trying to get the answer it wanted, whether it was the truthful answer or not, are you saying that?

WYDEN: I do believe that there were some in the administration who made the judgment at the very beginning that they wanted to go to war and, in effect, they went on something of a scavenger hunt to try to get any possible information that would justify it. Now, we've got to follow the details, dig into exactly who said what when and get to the bottom of this.

BROWN: Do you think you know who?

WYDEN: Right now we're a long way from being able to determine that. You look, for example, at this matter of the uranium from Africa. Clearly, there were many in the intelligence branch who were very skeptical about this. They didn't think that this idea had any credence but the second the British got involved in it they jumped on it sort of like a duck on a June bug and those kinds of matters trouble me.

BROWN: So, where in terms of the facts of this, the administration has argued essentially that it was a mistake -- that it was a mistake that this got into the State of the Union speech but I think there's another argument that says it wasn't a mistake. Somebody wanted it in there. It didn't just happen to be in there. Somebody wanted it in there. Do you think we will ever know who wanted it in there?

WYDEN: We're going to continue to examine that. I will tell you I'm convinced that George Tenet and the CIA were not out there exactly battling to have this information in the State of the Union speech. I think they doubted the quality of the intelligence and my sense is that there were others in the administration who pushed very hard for it.

They prevailed and that's why we're going to continue this inquiry to find out exactly how it happened. The American people have got to have intelligence that is accurate and objective. They need to know, for example, whether the threat of war was as serious as was portrayed.

BROWN: Do you think this is the 16 words, if you will, if it was an isolated incident or the tip of an iceberg?

WYDEN: We're going to look at other issues, for example the question of the aluminum tubes, the question of these trucks on which bio weapons may have been placed. There are differing opinions with respect to how these materials might be used and we have to inquire further but, certainly at this point, I will tell you I'm concerned that there may here be a pattern of shading of the facts and that is not what the American people have a right to expect.

BROWN: Senator Wyden, it's always good to have you on the program, thank you sir.

WYDEN: Thank you.

BROWN: Senator Wyden, Senator Ron Wyden from Oregon tonight.