Rice: Iraqi/Bolivian "Insurgencies" Thriving Because of Popular Support

CR: One of the clear findings of the 9/11 Commission was that our intelligence agencies were looking outward, our law enforcement agencies were looking inward, and a gap had developed; we didn't know the connection between what people with terrorist ties inside the United States were doing to what people who were terrorists or might be planning terrorist operations, outside the country were doing. And so the President made that decision and he did it on the basis of his constitutional authority under Article II and other statutory authorities.

…the FISA act, as you said -- 1978, very different circumstances imagined at the time. FISA has been principally for longer term monitoring. It has been capable of helping us when we have been principally concerned with the activities of people who might be acting on behalf of a foreign government. …these people, these networks, these shadowy networks which are not associated with countries, they are stateless, not stable targets, are pretty agile themselves. And so in order to give our intelligence agencies the kind of agility that they need in order to detect -- and I want to say once again the President has a constitutional responsibility to protect the country. That means physically.

Wolf Blitzer: How do you know these people are associated with al-Qaida?

CR: Wolf, I'm not going to get into the program.

WB: When you were the National Security Advisor, did you ever say, “Well, maybe we should go seek new legislation, get some new authority, go to the courts and make sure this is done so that there will be no question whatsoever that this was done properly”?

CR: Wolf, this is a carefully and very deliberately considered issue for the President of how best to fulfill his responsibilities to protect the country and how best to do it legally within his constitutional and legal authorities.

…this is not criminal activity where you let the criminal commit the crime and then you investigate after the fact. This is not trying to understand the activities of people who might be working on behalf of foreign governments. This is trying to detect in a very rapid fashion plots against this country by not having the territory of the United States as a safe haven for conversations between people with terrorist ties here and with terrorists outside.

…the President felt that after this very damaging leak -- and frankly, it's a very sad day when the United States reveals to the people that we are trying to follow, trying to track, trying to disrupt, how we're doing it -- and anything about how we are doing it. You know, Wolf, as the President cited earlier, we had a bead on Usama bin Laden's phone at one point, too; and when an article appeared saying that, he stopped using it, from all that we can tell. So it is a danger to the country when there are leaks of this sort.

…an insurgency cannot exist, cannot thrive, without the basis of popular support.

…I think everybody ought to be worried about an Iranian President who says these outrageous things and then expects the world to somehow trust Iran with nuclear technologies that could lead to a nuclear weapon. That really says it all.

…we believe that Prime Minister Sharon is somebody with a vision for a better life for Israelis based on a two-state solution. He's taken great personal risk. He's also taken great policy risks. He's been very courageous in his decision to withdraw from the Gaza and to do it, to disengage, to do it despite a lot of criticism and a lot of skepticism. Personal courage matters and this man matters.

…we will do what we do with every elected government -- governor -- elected president, which is to say that we'll look to the behavior of the Bolivian government to determine the course of U.S.-Bolivian relations. We have good relations with people across the political spectrum in Latin America. The issue for us is will the new Bolivian government govern democratically? Are they open to cooperation that, in economic terms, will undoubtedly help the Bolivian people, because Bolivia cannot be isolated from the international economy? And so from our point of view, this is a matter of behavior.

Interview with Wolf Blitzer, CNN, Washington, DC, 12/19/05.