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American Morning

America's New War: Bioterrorism Attack Feared by U.S. Authorities

Aired September 28, 2001 - 09:10   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JOHN KING, CNN SR. WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Since the terrorist airplane attacks on September 11th, U.S. authorities have raised the possibility of another perhaps more terrible type of attack, bioterrorism: terrorists using biological or chemical weapons. When you ask the experts which cities are best prepared to handle such an attack, Los Angeles keeps coming up.

CNN's Thelma Guttierez has been giving unique access to the Los Angeles approach.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

THELMA GUTTIEREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Los Angeles, a portrait of vulnerability, a megalopolis that cover many miles. Population: 10 million. How would such a place deal with a biochemical terrorist attack. Los Angeles County has a plan.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We don't learn during the incident. We learn during these types of drills.

GUTTIEREZ: It's called the "Terrorism Early Warning Plan," and it requires a lot of practice. In 1999, a biochemical attack was simulated at a local airport. Those on the frontline, the FBI, the Marine Corps and paramedics were at the very center of what they call the "hot zone." They're equipped with airtight suits that cost over $5,000 each. Their job is to secure the most heavily contaminated area. Firefighters spray down agents that may be in the air, and people who may have been hit with dangerous chemicals. The wounded are carried off to portable triage areas.

(on camera): This is the nurse center for Los Angeles County. If there were ever a terrorist attack, representatives from the Los Angeles Police Department, the Red Cross, even the utilities, would all immediately meet here at the sheriff's emergency operations center.

(voice-over): It's called the situation room, a state of the art $22 million communications operation.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The federal government, the FEMA region nine doesn't have a facility like this.

GUTTIEREZ: This center equipped to keep a large number of decisionmakers fed, housed and safe, without having to leave the facility for two weeks. It has direct computer links to all 88 cities within l.a. County.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Bioterrorism, bomb, bomb threats.

GUTTIEREZ: This computer program is the first. Developed by Lockheed, it tracks disasters, information collected by emergency crews in the field, and instantly shows up here on the big screen.

LEE SAPADEN, OFFICE OF EMERGENCY MGMT.: In the scenario we were looking at, we saw a toxic cloud coming on to a popular racetrack here in Los Angeles County. What that tells me then is we should talk to the city of Arcadia, let them know there was a toxic cloud that's been released there.

GUTTIEREZ: Evacuations would begin, and lives possibly saved.

What if we were hit with biological agent and didn't know it? That's where the health department's bioterrorism response team comes in.

LAURENE MASCOLA, DISEASES EXPERT: Our main goal is, first, to educate the physicians to be able to recognize it. Because again, we don't think that for biological warfare, it's going to be overt. In other words, for them to say, we've just dropped anthrax in your backyard. I mean, that would be nice, it would be easier for us, but what we're looking for is the covert attempt, in other words, people starting to come to an emergency room sick, but not necessarily with anything that has a little stamp across their forehead: I was infected with a biological agent.

GUTTIEREZ: You can call them disease detectives, experts who would identify a list biological weapons, like anthrax, smallpox and the plague.

MASCOLA: The time element for a lot of these agents is very critical.

GUTTIEREZ: Critical because you could survive, if you were diagnosed and treated in time, usually with antibiotics or vaccines. Smallpox, symptoms show within 12 days; if untreated, by day 14, you could be dead. With the plague, it's 10 days. Anthrax, symptoms within 6 days, death by day nine if not treated.

MASCOLA: Let's say you were going to go have this plane, you know, drop stuff over, and the winds didn't cooperate, so all the anthrax went plop right on the ground. Now no one is going to infected, except the two people there. Now if it was a windy day and it blew the spores all over, you are going to have a broader coverage.

CAROL GUNTER, EMERGENCY MEDICAL SERVICE: There are so many different types of warfare that could be used, different kinds of agents that can be used, and their released without us ever knowing that they are released.

GUTTIEREZ (on camera): So why don't the mask and the suits make sense?

GUNTER: Because you would have to wear this 24 hours a day.

GUTTIEREZ (voice-over): In an attack, the county's readiness system would track resources, like beds in 80 hospitals, and more than 15,000 paramedics.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is a military-grade drug.

GUTTIEREZ: All L.A. County paramedics carry this auto pen to inject themselves and civilians who are exposed to nerve agents and have symptoms.

(on camera): We have not had bioterrorist attack. How do we know it is going to work?

LEE SAPADEN, OFFICE OF EMERGENCY MGMT.: Oh, yes. L.A. County in the early '90s was literally the disaster capital of the world.

GUTTIEREZ (voice-over): It's this experience with disaster and emergency response, they say, riots, earthquakes and fires that have given Los Angeles emergency teams lots of real practice.

Thelma Guttierez, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KING: The coordinator of the Los Angeles Terrorism Early Warning Group is Sergeant John Sullivan. The group is run out of the sheriff's department, and Sergeant Sullivan joins us this morning live from Los Angeles.

Good morning to you, sir.

SGT. JOHN SULLIVAN, EARLY WARNING COORDINATOR: Good morning.

KING: The federal government trying to adopt this very approach. The president creating a new cabinet-level agency, the director of homeland security, will be the Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge.

Tell us, from your experience, how difficult of a task does he face in trying to coordinate more than 40 federal agencies that now spend $12 billion a year, we are told, on this, and often don't talk to each other. What is the challenge ahead?

SULLIVAN: I think the challenge is going to be to integrate all levels of government and remember that all disasters and all terrorist attacks are local in nature, effect the local community, and they require integration with local, state and federal assets to include law enforcement, the fire service, the medical community, and perhaps civil military interoperability so we can work together as one cohesive team.

KING: Well, help me with the current situation. Are you satisfied now with the communication that you have with the federal government. When there is a threat, is there an immediate hotline, if you will, or some form of communication that you feel is instantaneous?

SULLIVAN: Well, I wouldn't say instantaneous, but very near realtime. We have excellent relationships with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the L.A. field office that participate in Early Warning Group. We work regularly with the FAA security and all the other branches of federal government, in a team approach.

KING: And what, sir, is your sense of the situation today?

SULLIVAN: Obviously, there is a heightened alert, immediately after these terrorist attacks, and we have seen the checkpoints, checking trucks for hazardous materials. Obviously combat air patrols looking just in case there are additional hijackings.

Are you receiving information from the federal government that they believe there is still a direct credible threat on targets in the United States?

SULLIVAN: Well, clearly, as of the national leadership has indicated, we are in the long-haul campaign against terrorism. And as we build our response, the opposing force, the terrorists, are likely to continue operations. So we remain at a high state of vigilance to try and prevent future attacks, and if they do occur, to mitigate them, and limit their effect.

KING: And in your training, and in your discussions and coordination with the other federal agencies, what is it you fear most? Obviously, the country and the world has seen these horrific pictures, jetliners turned into flying bombs, if you will. But what is it that you worry about most on a day-to-day basis?

SULLIVAN: I guess on a day-to-day basis, what I really worry about is that those lines of communication will break down and that it will seem overwhelming, but I can tell you from experience, and that if we practice and work together with drill and exercise, we can keep a very firm emergency response community able to react quickly.

KING: Any sense of -- what would you say if someone asked you, what is the biggest problem in the federal government in how it works to coordinate its response? What would you say is number one?

SULLIVAN: Well, I would just say basically, right now, there are number of agencies, a number of initiatives, that need to be brought together into a cohesive framework to develop a true national strategy that builds from the bottom up, local responders, includes the state, integrates the federal community, and then works together as a team. So I think we need to recognize that a national strategy is necessary and it's not necessarily something that is going to come in a command- and-control nature, but it's going to be more of a network, collaborative effort.

KING: All right, certainly a sense of urgency on that front, sir.

Sergeant John Sullivan, from the Los Angeles Terrorism Early Warning Group, thank you for your time and your thoughts today. Good luck in the days and weeks ahead, sir.

KING: Thank you.

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