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American Morning

Sen. Hutchison Discusses Airport Security

Aired December 24, 2001 - 09:06   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.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: The airline passenger that authorities say had explosives in his shoes is set to face a judge less than 30 minutes from now.

CNN's Kathleen Koch is outside the federal courthouse where the man known as Richard Reid is scheduled to appear.

Kathleen, what's the latest there?

KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Miles, at this point, here at the Moakley Courthouse, in Boston, we are awaiting the arrival of suspect Richard C. Reid, a 28-year-old man who has a British passport, but is a Sri Lankan national.

What law enforcement authorities said in the affidavit that they filed yesterday was that two functional improvised explosive devices were found in his shoes. Additional tests are still being conducted at the FBI lab in Washington, to determine exactly what that explosive material was. Sources tell CNN there were 10 ounce of it in Reid's shoes.

The affidavit paints a chilling account of exactly what happened on board American Airlines Flight 63 on Saturday and also explains who the heroes were, and these were the flight attendants and the messengers who leapt in to help them. Apparently, a French flight attendant, Hermis Moutardier, noticed the smell of sulfur in the aircraft, approached Mr. Reid, who is a very big man -- 6 foot, 4 inches tall, more than 200 pounds -- and saw him with a match, at which point he popped it in his mouth. She approached him, and he tried to light the tongue of his shoes on fire. She saw a wire protruding from it.

She wrestled with him, trying to grab the shoes, and this large man shoved her into the bulkhead, shoved her to the floor, and then she ran to get some water, to extinguish any other matches he might light, at which point another flight attendant, Cristina Jones, American Airlines flight attendant, leapt in to help, as did other passengers. They were able to tackle this man, to pin him into his seat, and strap him down with belts and other items.

There were also a couple of doctors on the flight, and sources tell CNN that they used the in-flight medical kit to sedate Reid during the remainder of flight. French authorities tell CNN that on Friday, Reid tried to board the very same flight, from Paris to Miami, but he missed the plane because he was stopped for questioning by French authorities. We don't know what aroused their suspicion; however, it is notable that while he did have carry-on luggage, Reid had no checked luggage, which is quite unusual for an overseas flight.

At this point, there is no evidence that connects Reid to Osama bin Laden, to the September 11 terrorist attacks, or to any other terrorist group. This morning here, he is going to be charged with interfering with the performance of the duties of a flight crew by assault or intimidation. The maximum penalty is 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

As you pointed out, people who are going to be traveling today will notice there's a change, because the FAA issued a security directive to all airlines, because of this incident on Saturday, explaining particular steps that they must take to examine the shoes of every person who is flying now.

Back to you, Miles.

O'BRIEN: That should increase the wait at the airport quite a bit. I guess the word to the wise is if you're traveling today, get there even earlier, right, Kathleen?

KOCH: Yes, people should be noticing it immediately. And actually, I'm flying back to Washington today myself, so I will report on what I see.

O'BRIEN: That would be a good idea. Otherwise, if it weren't for the fact that you'd learn a lot, you might want to the train today, I think.

Kathleen Koch, in Boston, thanks you very much.

Congress has passed legislation heightening security at the nation's airports, but after word of this rather unusual case, the question comes up is more security needed?

Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas is coauthor of that new airline security legislation. She joins us from Dallas, to talk about airline security.

Sen. Hutchison, good to have you with us. Happy Holidays to you.

SEN. KAY BAILEY HUTCHISON (R), TEXAS: Thank you, Miles, thank you.

O'BRIEN: It seems like every time some legislation is passed, these terrorists or would-be terrorists come up with yet a new way to thwart the system. Is legislation destined to be always sort of lagging behind these sick minds?

Miles, I think you've hit a good point. We try to close every loophole we know, and of course, they're looking for those loopholes. They found the loopholes September 11, they found the loophole yesterday, and we are going to have to learn from every experience. But also, I think we have to look ahead and try to determine what they might be looking for. Right now, I think that is the checked baggage, and that's what we try to close, before we have an incident.

O'BRIEN: Let's talk about checked baggage for a moment. We have got to remind people that on domestic flights, the checked baggage still is not routinely screened. I think a lot of people before 9/11 assumed that it was all screened before it went into the belly of aircraft. It seems to be a gaping loophole there. Are the airlines resisting this because it is so expensive? What is the big stumbling block here?

HUTCHISON: We just don't have the systems in place yet. We do screen bags that are on certain profiled passengers, and this passenger from Paris would have been a profiled passenger. So it's a question why that man wasn't checked more thoroughly. He didn't check bags, but he should have been checked more thoroughly because he was a profiled passenger. The same thing happens now for checked baggage for passengers who pay for their tickets in cash, who have a one-way ticket.

I think we're also going to have to look, Miles, at passports and perhaps convene the nation's from which we fly to look at our passport processes and try to make sure that we have a system that would detect passports that have been doctored more readily.

O'BRIEN: A lot to talk about there, but let's talk about the issue of this suspect, who tried to get on the plane one day, the security saw all kinds of red flags and wouldn't even let him on the plane, because he didn't have a bag. I'll tell you honestly, Senator, if I were getting on a flight to Paris without a bag, I would fully expect to be interrogated, because I think that's unusual in and of itself, on the face of it.

But the fact is that what this points out no matter what we do here in the United States, there's a jurisdictional issue here. There are international flights. What can be done to control what's coming in from other countries, at airports where there may or may not be the same sorts of security adopted?

HUTCHISON: We have agreements with every country from whom we accept flights into our country, so I think we can require, through agreement, if they want their constituents to be able to fly into America, that they would have to agree to certain security measures. I don't think that would be hard at all. I think there were some lapses here in normal security procedures, though, and I think the French police are aware of that.

I just would say there's another big question that I have, and that is that I think we have air marshals, generally, on all international flights coming into America, and I don't know where the air marshal was on this flight.

O'BRIEN: One final question before you get away, and this sounds like a bleak question, but you can't help but come to this conclusion sometimes: that if somebody is so determined to blow themselves up, is there really anything that can be done in the way of security and legislation? Won't they always find a way?

HUTCHISON: I think that is the case walking down the street, in a building, on a highway, or in an airport. People will be able to find some way to do what they want to do if they are vigilant enough. But we have already seen instances where people have been thwarted, where people have been left off and airplane or they have been refused the ability to get on an airplane.

We've seen many instances where it has worked, our security system has worked. And I think we need to keep learning from the experiences, making sure that we're doing everything we can, look for the opportunities to be more secure, and I think we're doing that.

I think the legislation that we have just passed is going to make the United States the state of the art: We are going to have the best equipment, we are going to have the best-trained personnel. We are going to close the loopholes and hope these terrorist go look somewhere else.

O'BRIEN: I guess it's worth pointing out when it does work, it doesn't end up on front pages.

HUTCHISON: Exactly.

O'BRIEN: Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, thanks you for spending some time with us, from Texas, today. Merry Christmas to you.

HUTCHISON: Thank you, Miles.

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