NOVAK:   Welcome back to CROSSFIRE. Senior administration officials confirm to CNN that al Qaeda's top operations chief for the Persian Gulf has been captured. The guy's the suspected mastermind of the USS Cole attack and was probably on the U.S. embassy bombings in Africa, as well. Suppose this will stop Al Gore and his fellow whining Democrats from complaining that the Bush administration has forgotten the war on terrorism? Not a chance. In the CROSSFIRE are retired Air Force Colonel and former Clinton administration National Security Council Spokesman P.J. Crowley. And with him is Republican Congressman and now Senator-elect from Georgia, congratulations, Saxby Chambliss. 
CARVILLE:   Let me -- let me start out, Senator Chablis, a question I asked Senator McCain, and that is, what sacrifice has this president caused on us as Americans to make since we started this war on terrorism? 
CHAMBLISS:   What sacrifice has he called on us to make? 
CARVILLE:   Well, how has he challenged us as a nation? 
CHAMBLISS:   You know I think the nation's been challenged to make sure that everybody participates in winning the war on terrorism. He's asked the American people to participate in the process by being on the lookout for different activities, suspicious activities...  
CARVILLE:   In World War II, people got together, gave blood, they paid more taxes. 
CHAMBLISS:   Well, that's what happened with the shoe bomber on the airplane. That's the classic example that you can look at, where the American people had their eyes open. 
CARVILLE:   Why isn't this president calling for any national sacrifice? Why doesn't he challege us? Why is it just giving tax breaks to pharmaceutical companies? Is there something else that we can do? 
CHAMBLISS:   Well, you missed the whole point. We've got to win the war on terrorism. Tax breaks and Social Security and anything else in this country doesn't make any difference. 
CARVILLE:   I agree. 
CHAMBLISS:   And he's providing great leadership on winning the war on terrorism. 
NOVAK:   The Democrats can always find a reason for raising taxes, I can tell you that. Colonel Crowley, I want to quote for you of one of your former bosses, former Vice President Al Gore. Wasn't he one of your bosses? 
CROWLEY:   Yes. 
NOVAK:   In "The New York Times" -- and we'll put it upen the screen -- he said, "Osama is back. al Qaeda hs reconstituted itself. And, according to the director of central intelligence, possesses just as severe threat to us right now as he did in the weeks leading up to September 11. Meanwhile, the president has been out on the campaign trail beating the drums of war against Saddam Hussein." You're an expert on this. That's just political claptrap, isn't it? 
CROWLEY:   Well, I think it reflects the fact that the war on terrorism is not over. And the fact that bin Laden has re-emerged and the attacks in Yemen and Bali prove that al Qaeda is a very immediate and significant threat to the United States. What the vice president was saying was, there is a risk that, in this single focus on Iraq, we can get diverted from the immediate threat that we face, which is the war on terrorism and al Qaeda. 
NOVAK:   What's his credibility after lying low for a year, not talking about anything, and suddenly he is just mimicking what Tom Daschle said, what a lot of the left-wing press says? What's his credibility? 
CROWLEY:   Well, in the same "New York Times" today, none other than William Sapphire (ph) complimented Vice President Gore for the work that he did in setting the stage for the baltic nations to come into NATO. So he is an acknowledged expert on international affairs and he has a right to get out and give his opinion, as a patriotic American. I hope you don't consider him unpatriotic. 
NOVAK:   Well, I don't judge anybody's patriotism, not yours and not mine. But I just wondered if you can possibly associate yourself with this dismal view... 
CROWLEY:   I mean, absolutely. The fact remains that, if we go into Iraq precipitously, we cannot win the war on terrorism in Iraq, but we can make it much more difficult to accomplish. 
CARVILLE:   Senator Chambliss, let me show you what two whining Democrats had to say. And that was Senator Warren Rudman, Republican of New Hampshire, and Reagan Secretary of State George Schultz. "America remains dangerously unprepared to prevent and respond to a new catastrophic attack." The source was the "Wall Street Journal." They said that last month in a report that they issued. Why are George Schultz and Warren Rudman whining like this? 
CHAMBLISS:   Well, you know, I think everybody agrees, James, that another attack is probably imminent. And are we prepared for it? No, we aren't. Are we moving in the right direction? You bet we are. We're better prepared than we were on September 11th from a number of instances with respect to intelligence gathering. We're doing a better job today with the FBI, the NSA and the CIA gathering intelligence. They're doing a better job of sharing information. They're a long ways away from sharing information like they need to. They're a long ways away from getting it down to the state and local level. 
CARVILLE:     this morning? On the front page of "The New York Times" the FBI is saying that we don't take terrorism seriously enough. This is over a year. Senator, it's right there. It's the own FBI saying we're not ready on the front page of America's newspapers. 
CHAMBLISS:   And you heard me say we're not ready. But we're moving in the right direction. You know that statement, obviously is taken out of context. 
CARVILLE:   No. 
CHAMBLISS:   But the statement is not totally incorrect. Because we are in the right situation today. You know, we're vulnerable. We're such an open and free country that we remain vulnerable. But we are moving in the right direction to protect America. 
CARVILLE:   Senator, after all of this, the FBI is saying that they don't take -- our own people are saying that. Here, two days after the election, General Myers went and said we're losing ground in Afghanistan.  Let me show you "TIME" magazine right here, says, "The U.S. concedes it has lost momentum in Afghanistan, while its enemies grow bolder." This is the November 18th thing of "TIME" magazine. Why are we sitting around? Not as a partisan (ph). Why are we sitting around pretending to the American people that we are winning this war on terrorism, when, in fact, we're not? 
CHAMBLISS:   We are winning the war on terrorism. We're doing a good job, whether you're talking about counting heads and the number of people that we've got either killed or detained today. If you look at the quality of the people that we have arrested, you look at just what was announced today. We've had a series beginning with Abu Zubaydah back in, what, several months ago now. You look at what happened on November 3rd, when we took out   with a hell-fire missile from a predator. You look at today. We're not going to get them all at one time, but we're going to get them. 
NOVAK:   Go ahead, Colonel Crowley. 
CROWLEY:   I agree with the senator that we are in a better position today than we were one year ago. But, at the same time, a lot of what is going to win this war on terrorism is not a matter of bombs and bullets. It's a matter of making sure that we remain true to who we are as Americans. I won't feel confident that we're winning the war on terrorism when all Americans citizens, even those who would wish us ill, have a right to a lawyer and a day in court. 
NOVAK:   But I just want to look at where the situation is now compared to where it was on 9/11/2001. And that is that Afghanistan has been eliminated as a terrorist base that can really run free without any -- just let me finish the question. 
CROWLEY:   I don't agree with you, but that's all right. 
NOVAK:   We have not had a serious terrorist attack on the United States since the 9/11. And we are, you know, Colonel, this is a slow process. This isn't like going to war against Haiti, as your administration did. This is a... 
CROWLEY:   Cleaning up after the previous administration that left that... 
NOVAK:   Well, we don't want to debate Haiti, do we? But this is a slow process. Isn't it unreasonable and political to say... 
CROWLEY:   It is a long-term process. There's no question about that. 
CHAMBLISS:   There's another aspect to this too, and the other aspect is not the glamorous and glorious part of it, where we're winning a war. And that is, we're confiscating assets. We've got over $135 million in assets that have been frozen. We're slowly encroaching on their   in Afghanistan.  
NOVAK:   We have to take a break right now. In a minute, we'll ask our guests if they remember how the Clinton administration handled terrorism. Later, we'll get a helping of the latest junk food lawsuit. Would you like a multimillion-dollar settlement for fries and shakes? And our quote of the day is a shot, hard to believe at one of the hosts of CROSSFIRE.
