Transcripts For CNNW At This Hour With Berman And Michaela 2

Terror attacks and even find and kill Osama Bin Laden himself. Former Vice President dick cheney calls the report a bunch of hooey. He said that before it was released or had a chance to read it. The reaction not purely partisan. Some democrats say the report is biased. Some republicans, you heard john mccain on the floor yesterday, defending the report. Lets check jim acosta at the white house in the Briefing Room where that briefing is set to take place. What are you hearing, jim. What are we expecting to hear here today . Good morning, john and michaela. The White House Press secretary josh ernest, they scheduled an unusually early briefing this morning. But theyre saying that purely for logistical reasons but we are going to hear josh ernest take these questions head on about this torture report that was released by the Senate Intelligence Committee Chair yesterday dianne feinstein. We shall point out ernest took questions about this on air force one during a press gaggle with reporters but that was off camera. This will be the first time we hear from josh ernest on camera about this torture report and i think this is really the first time that the press is going to have a chance to ask josh about some of the really damning, really revealing allegations that are made in this report. That there was extensive waterboarding way beyond what the American Public knew about that. There were other forms of these harsh interrogation techniques that sunk to levels that Many Americans would probably be shocked by if they were to go through and read this report line by line. So i think whats going to be playing out over the course of the next hour or so, youll hear questions from reporters pressing ernest on this key critical question. A couple key critical questions. One is did this intelligence that came out of this harsh Interrogation Program amount to anything . Was some of the stories that were told by these detainees, were they fabbricated because they wanted the torture to stop . Does the white house believe that or do they believe there was intelligence that helped lead to the killing of Osama Bin Laden for example. You mentioned what former cia directors are saying. Former cia directors michael hayden, porter goss and george tenant had the oped responding to this report saying they believe this intelligence coming out of this Interrogation Program helped lead to the killing of Osama Bin Laden. Theres one passage in the oped where they talk about the fact that in the weeks and months after 9 11 it was like a ticking time bomb scenario that they were afraid that Osama Bin Laden was plotting with pakistani scientists to develop a Nuclear Weapon that could be set off in manhattan. Some its in that vane that these former cia directors are saying, look, this is why we did what we did. And its interesting to hear what the president had to say about this yesterday, john and michaela, when he was doing the interviews with the Spanish Language stations univision and tell mundo, originally supposed to be about immigration but they ended up asking him about the torture report. The president really sort of saying on a couple different occasions that you have to z goes back and look at the time frame where all of this took place. He was characterizing this Interrogation Program as sort of a relic of the early years after 9 11 and that that might explain somewhat as to why these American Values in the president s view were not upheld in carrying out these arse interrogation techniques. Were hearing the two minute warning for the press briefing but i think those are the key questions playing out. I can get another question in if we have two minutes left, jim. One of the key questions now is what now . What will the white house and do . Several times over the last few years attorney general eric holder has said the Justice Department will not prosecute the cia officers who may or may not have been engaged in torture for the years. Does that change now . Any indication of that . There is no indication right now, john, that the Justice Department is going to launch investigation investigations into these former cia officials and i think the question will be asked a couple different ways. One is, yes, eric holder said these things but they were not in the context of this torture report as it was laid out to the American People yesterday. There are details in this report that clearly amount to torture under u. S. And International Law and youve had some you heard some conversation over the last 24 hours that perhaps this is a case for International Criminal Court Proceedings and certainly u. S. Justice proceedings. But i think what the president is saying is that he wants to move forward not back. Thats an early indication they dont want to see prosecution bus it will be an interesting question to ask of josh ernest in a couple minutes. Were waiting on that. While we are lets turn to barbara starr, pentagon correspondent. One of the concerns here is the fbi and the department of Homeland Security are concerned about what could result in overseas, in fact, going lengths to release a bulletin warning that there could be repercussions. What more do we know . I may have the quickest answer because right now while the warnings are out there. While forces are on alert and being watchful, no indications yet of any direct threats to any u. S. Facilities either many the United States or overseas. Still keeping watch but right now its really extraordinary, theyre seeing a very muted reaction to all of this. What about u. S. Allies, barbara . One of the fears has been that some countries that the u. S. Is friendly with would be outed as hosting some of these black sites for secret prisons. Well, weve just actually heard from the former president of poland who was in charge of that country when some of this happened. He said yes he was asked by the United States to provide a facility where people could be questioned but he says he did not know what was going on inside that facility and, of course, now we know that poland did provide one of those socalled black sites where the cia was secretly interrogating these prisoners so poland coming forward very much out in public. There has been some talk about it before. Other countries have been named out there. The big concern about this, the former polish president said, with this out in public it may be tough for the United States to find other countries in the future who will agree to work with the cia on these covert programs over fear of being outed about them eventually. Barbara, i suppose one of the concerns about it here is that this is hours after the report has been released. It may be a question of just watching and waiting. We know often times this kind of information is used as a propaganda tool, it has been before. So this is something theyll continue to monitor. Absolutely. Watching social media, especially those isis web site there iss already some commentary on there. The government of iran has come out publicly saying unpleasant things about the United States in all of this as you can well imagine. So its not that theres no chatter but theyre not seeing it turn into action on the streets if you will. People moving against u. S. Embassies or facilities overseas. So the social media universe becomes kind of an Early Warning signal that they look at constantly to see if there is chatter out there, how legitimate it might be and how much trouble it may be stirring up. But, you know, thankfully right now, at least, its all quiet, essentially. Not to say theyre not still watching, no forces have come off alert status as far as we know at this point. I think its fair to say theyre going to give it a few days, maybe perhaps until friday. But theyre just not seeing it. This is not turning in, at least at this point, to the kind of thing when you saw situations develop after there were threats by a preacher in the United States to burn the koran. After the danish cartoon about the prophet mohammed. Youre just not its not that kind of reaction that youre seeing. At least thankfully not yet. Barbara, josh ernest the White House Press secretary is beginning his briefing right now. Hes going over scheduling and administrative issues. The minute he starts talking substance about the report well go back to him. Let me sneak in one more question to you if i can. This report is about the cia which is a different entity than the military, than the pentagon, than the defense establishment. Im wondering if youve had a chance to get reaction from the soldiers in the field who could be affected by this report. The United States military has its own history on this subject with this notorious events at the abu ghraib prison in iraq a number of years ago. What it all has led to is the u. S. Government now has the standard. It obeys something called the Army Field Manual. There are international norms, rules and regulations for how interrogations are conducted and you guys just pointed to the key reason for all of this. Its because the u. S. Follows these you would be told. Its because its always concerned. If u. S. Troops were captured overseas, the American People would not want them or the which you ared in any way so the u. S. Has to follow the rules, too. Barbara starr, that briefing is about to commence. Why dont we return now to the White House Briefing room and joshe josherners. Does he plan to meet with eric holder to discuss it or with his nominee, loretta lynch, to discuss the content . Id refer you to the department of justice on. This i do that because its my understanding that the department of justice actually did conduct a review of the actions of cia operatives that are mentioned in this report. There was a career federal prosecutor assigned to this case and this individual conducted an extensive inquiry. And upon looking at the facts in evidence decided not to pursue an indictment. So for questions about what that investigation included and how and why that conclusion was reached id refer you to the department of justice. And these are the kind of decisions that should be made without any without even the appearance of political appearance and weve been very clear about the proper role for the Justice Department in this matter. In addition, i understand that there were Inspector General investigations, at least one, i think maybe even two that were conducted along these lines. The Inspector General is somebody who operates independent of the executive branch. And for the conclusions of those reports, i believe some of those conclusions have been made public so id refer you to those reports. But those are done absent the or aside from any sort of president ial directive. Does the president agree with former cia officials that the interrogation techniques did result in actionable intelligence or does he agree with the Senate Committees conclusion that they did not. Well, jim, you are acknowledging that there are a couple of sides of a very vigorous ongoing debate. This is a debate that occurred around the announcement of a Successful Mission to take Osama Bin Laden off the battlefield. There was a similarly robust debate that occurred around the release of the movie zero dark 30 that examined issues around the bin laden mission. The conclusion that this president has reached is that these differences which are held by wellmeaning, patriotic americans, many of whom have detailed knowledge of these programs and of our National Security efforts more broad ly s that there is one thing that both sides do agree on and its something the president agrees, too. Which is that the most powerful one of the most powerful tools in our arsenal to protect and advance our interests around the globe is the moral authority of the United States of america. And the commanderinchief concluded that the use of the techniques that are described in this report significantly undermines the moral authority of the United States of america. And thats why the president on his second full day here at the white house issued an executive order ending those tactics. And theres not been a lot of discussion about this lately so i wanted to call it to your attention. The president also through an executive action asked that the department of justice and a couple of other relevant National Security agencies conduct a review of our of the way that the u. S. Government interrogates those individuals who are in u. S. Custody. He also urged this task force to conduct a review of the way that individuals who are in u. S. Government custody are handled and in some cases transferred to other countries. And the outcome of this review led by a career prosecutor identified a couple things. The first is he concluded again, i think this is in august of 2009, he concluded that the Army Field Manual and Law Enforcement techniques were sufficient guidance for u. S. Personnel who are conducting interrogations. That that was clear guidance that they could use he suggested the creation of something we have used to great effect, something called a highvalue detainee interrogation group. This is another terrible government acronym called the hig, but that acronym does not describe what this group is. What it suggests is that there should be an Interagency Group of expert interrogators convened where they can share best practices and they can be deployed on very short notice to essentially anywhere in the world where a highvalue detainee has been taken into custody. And these expert interrogators can use their skills and training to illicit information thats useful to National Security but in a way that doesnt prohibit our ability to bring these individuals to justice in the u. S. Court system. And this is the hig, has been deployed on a number of occasions to great effect. The other reforms that are included in this review included specific guidelines that u. S. Personnel should use when transferring individuals to the custody of the u. S. Government to other countries. And this included getting certain assurances from other countries about how these individuals will be treated when they are detained. It also provides guidelines for u. S. Personnel to conduct some oversight and ensure these other countries are living up to the commitment they have made in terms of detention and treatment of these individuals. So this is just one example. Again, this is the result of a task force that the president created on his second day in office to make sure that proper guidance and oversight and reform was implemented as it relates to interrogation and detention of individuals in u. S. Custody. This is important because the Senate Report released yesterday highlights that there was not good guidance. That there was not good leadership and proper oversight of these programs and yet thats what the president sought to institute on his second day in office. I think it demonstrates the president s commitment to taking seriously, very seriously, the need to show some leadership and to reform some of the shortcomings of these programs. On the question of effectiveness, hes going to remaining a gnostic . Hes going to let 2 det debate without him playing a role . Well, the conclusion that the president has reached again, its two principle things here. The conclusion that the president reached is a principle that people on both sides of this debate can agree to, which is that the moral authority of the United States of america is one of the most powerful tools in our arsenal to protect interests around the globe and its the view of the president that the use of these techniques regardless of whether or not they illicit National Intelligence information undermine our ability to use this very powerful tool. And thats why the president outlawed these techniques on the first or second day in office. On the omnibus, 1600 pages, 1. 1 trillion, will the pay sign it . Its lengthy, isnt it . Has he read it . He has not. Neither has everybody in his administration so its still something that the administration is reviewing. They are a couple of things i can say about it, though, that we know generally. As a general matter i can tell you that we are pleased that democrats and republicans on the hill do seem to be coming together around a proposal that will avoid a government shutdown. Weve talked in the past about how a goth shutdown is bad for the economy. And particularly at this point where we are starting to see some head winds from the global economy. Ath at the same time the u. S. Economy is demonstrating signs of real strength and resilience. The last thing we need are additional head winds emanating from capitol hill. So we certainly are pleased that they seem to be coming around a proposal that would avoid exactly that. Youll also recall, jim, over the course of the last several month there is have been a couple spe