Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee: “Hot on the trail” of Ayman al-Zawahiri
Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI) spoke with CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer about Osama bin Laden’s death and about the information obtained by the U.S. from bin Laden’s residence. Part of this interview aired on CNN’s The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer in the 5 p.m. ET hour. A highlight from the full interview is after the jump. Please visit CNN.com for the full transcript.
Additional Video: Rep. Rogers: Bin Laden photo gruesome
Please credit all usage of the interview to CNN’s The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer
Highlight from Full Interview
THIS IS A RUSH FDCH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: So far, have you gotten that, any kind of really new, credible, important information based on what you know?
REP. MIKE ROGERS (R), MICHIGAN: I can say that it’s going to be a good for — on the terrorism — the global war on terrorism in the months ahead.
BLITZER: All right, so I’ll take that as a yes, there’s really great stuff in there that will help the U.S. fight terrorists.
ROGERS: Well, I believe it will be and I would argue now is the time to step on the gas. You know, we’ve spent a lot of time on Osama bin Laden, more than a savage terrorist deserves, and this organization is going to try to change. We know their pattern. They immediately are trying to change couriers, change the way they operate. They’re going to instigate all across their network security protocol that they have developed that keeps them from getting caught.
So all of that is going on right now and it’s going to be an interesting and challenging time for our intelligence services to keep up with those changes. And, of course, one of the things we were definitely afraid of here in the Obama — the UBL case was that if he did get out or he did — it was leaked and he did escape, it would be another ten years, given his security protocols, before we could catch him, and that was certainly our concern then and that’s kind of the thing we’re looking at now with the network.
BLITZER: All right, I got a few questions, give me a quick answer.
ROGERS: All right.
BLITZER: Any closer to finding Ayman al-Zawahiri, the number two?
ROGERS: We have lots of information on him. I do believe that we’re — I can’t say it’s imminent, but I do believe we’re hot on the trail.
BLITZER: In Pakistan?
ROGERS: I do believe we’re hot on the trail. Wolf, you’re good.
###