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American Morning

Was U.S. Nuclear Power Plant Next Target for Terrorists?

Aired February 01, 2002 - 07:33   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.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Was a U.S. nuclear power plant the next target for terrorists? Nuclear facilities across the country now are on high alert, after the government last week reportedly warned of a plot to crash a commercial airliner into a nuclear reactor. While no specific time or target was given, news of the alert came on the same day Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld issued an even more alarming warning to the public.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD RUMSFELD, DEFENSE SECRETARY: And let there be no doubt in the years ahead it is likely that we will be surprised again by new adversaries who may also strike in unexpected ways. And as they gain access to weapons of increasing power, and let there be no doubt but that they are, these attacks will grow vastly more deadly than those we suffered several months ago.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZAHN: Not what any one of us wanted to hear, but U.S. officials now say they believe terrorist sleeper cells exist in the U.S. today and could be considering other targets besides nuclear power plants. Our Bill Delaney is standing by outside the Seabrook Nuclear Power Plant in New Hampshire. We'll hear from him in a moment, but first, let's get the very latest from our own Susan Candiotti, who joins us now from Washington -- good morning, Susan. What else have you learned?

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula. Well, as you indicated, one of the latest threats turned out to be a recycled one, an alert warning of a possible attack on a nuclear power plant. An al Qaeda operative claiming three people who were recruiting others to fly a plane into a reactor. No time, no place indicated.

A high-level FBI source says because of a mix-up, the warning, which was never verified or substantiated, went out again last week, even though the same information was circulated late last year.

Ad to the mix, growing concerns that power plants, water reservoirs and U.S. landmarks might be targets. President Bush warning the public this week that diagrams of nuclear power plants, reservoirs and water systems were recovered from abandoned al Qaeda hiding places. All of this indicating al Qaeda apparently had operatives scoping out possible U.S. targets.

Experts say the hard part is trying to figure out how far along al Qaeda might be in any possible plan for another terrorist attack.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BEN VENZKE, TERRORISM EXPERT: What we can clearly discern from that is al Qaeda members or associates of al Qaeda have looked at this, have thought about the possibility of it being a target. But we don't know if they have actually begun planning to attack that target.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CANDIOTTI: FBI Director Robert Mueller says of all the al Qaeda information picked up so far, if there had been any specific plans for an attack, officials would be told, in his words, "lightening quick" -- Paula.

ZAHN: Susan Candiotti, thanks so much for that update. I mean, I know you just reported that the warning might not have been verified and might not have been substantiated, but the fact that the warning is recirculated certainly is a concern for many folks in America. And the question is just how prepared are America's nuclear power plants in the event of a terror attack?

Now, 60 miles from Boston is the Seabrook nuclear facility in New Hampshire, and that is exactly where we find Bill Delaney this morning. How concerned, though, are people there about this recirculated warning?

BILL DELANEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Not very concerned at all. Here at Seabrook, officials do not consider this latest warning, and there have been 20 such advisories from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission since September 11, they don't consider this latest warning credible, they told us. Business very much as usual here at the Seabrook Nuclear Power Plant in what of course, are nonetheless unusual times for nuclear power plants. There are 103 of them around the country.

About an hour or so ago, Paula, we saw the morning shift coming in here, a long line of cars, not much traffic going into the power plant at this point. But this power plant, like all 103 around the country, Paula, have been on the highest state of alert since 9/11 and all of the months since 9/11. Perimeter security has been heightened here. Public access has been severely limited. Delivery people around this part of New Hampshire will tell you it's much tougher to get into this power plant than ever before.

Now, as for that nightmare scenario outlined in that FBI debriefing of that al Qaeda senior operative of a commercial jet hitting a nuclear power plant, well, Seabrook officials have told us for months now, since we first raised this issue with them, that their facility will handle any commercial jet out there. A direct hit from a commercial jet, they say, would not penetrate to the nuclear core here. It's so swathed in concrete and other protective materials, Paula. ZAHN: Bill Delaney, appreciate that report -- thanks so much. Stay warm. It looks cold there this morning.

That brings us to the big question this hour. Is there a blueprint for terror? Reports that terrorists may have had nuclear plants and other U.S. landmarks in their sights. It's just another chilling reminder of just how serious this threat remains at home.

Joining us now from Dallas, Oliver Buck Revell, former deputy associate director of the FBI -- good to see you again.

BUCK REVELL, FMR. FBI ASSOC. DEPUTY DIRECTOR: Good morning.

ZAHN: And joining us in New York this morning, George Friedman, chairman of Stratfor.com -- welcome to you as well.

GEORGE FRIEDMAN, CHAIRMAN, STRATFOR.COM: Thanks.

ZAHN: All right. I'm going to start with you this morning, George. You just heard Bill Delaney's report, and yet, Americans probably know how close many American cities are to nuclear power plants. We are going to put up on the screen now the number of power plants there are in -- nuclear power plants in Chicago, Philadelphia, Baltimore, New York and Detroit. These plants, according to Bill Delaney, at least Seabrook is considered secure by the people that run the place. But what about the rest of these?

FRIEDMAN: (AUDIO GAP) all of them are potentially vulnerable to an attack by aircraft. There have been some studies done about whether or not the containment buildings are survivable from a direct attack by an aircraft with a great deal of fuel on board. The hope is that the answer is yes. There is no certainty on this. This is really not something anybody planned for in the building.

So there is a real question about what would the consequences be of a successful strike, which doesn't mean that there is a strike being planned. Al Qaeda has had many contingency plans for many operations, as we have, and the mere fact that they have been thinking about this doesn't mean they are in the process of executing it.

ZAHN: Although, as you know, there was a confidential memo that CNN has obtained and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission warned all nuclear power plants of this potential threat. We have a graphic to support this during debriefings of an al Qaeda senior operative. He stated there would be a second airline attack in the U.S. The plan is to fly a commercial aircraft into a nuclear power plant to be chosen by a team on the ground.

I know you say that in some places these places are fortified enough, perhaps withstand that. But given yet another sign that this is a possibility, what else can the government do about this?

FRIEDMAN: Well, they can do what they are doing, which is issuing warnings hoping to deter attacks. Remember, one of the purposes of these prisoners is to provide false and misleading information. These are skilled, dedicate professionals under interrogation. They are probably not motivated to provide accurate information, but they are motivated to provide confusing information, misleading information and so on.

One of the real problems we have is we can't disregard any threat, but on the other hand, and I don't know the circumstances of the debriefing, but the simple fact that a senior al Qaeda leader has said that they are planning to do this doesn't give me high confidence that that's exactly what they are planning to do. What they are planning to do is probably not something they're going to talk about.

ZAHN: What do you make of what Bill Delaney just reported in that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has issued repeatedly a number of warnings about this potential scenario? And this latest memo obviously was recirculated, and not substantiated as Susan Candiotti reported and not necessarily factual.

FRIEDMAN: Well, there are two reasons to do that. The first is you can't simply disregard it on the theory that it may not be true. We better keep everybody informed. And the second theory is that as you issue these public alerts, al Qaeda may be deterred from the action. Al Qaeda does not like to strike at security alerts. They don't like to take high risks of failure. They want the operations to succeed, so by issuing a very public alert, we are hoping, in addition to alerting people, to deter al Qaeda.

It's a perfectly sensible thing to do it, but at the same time, we should remember that the attacks that are likely to happen are not the ones we are expecting. Surprise is the key.

ZAHN: Buck, what do you think is the significance of the photos the U.S. government has retrieved of, among other things, Seattle as a potential landmark for a terrorist attack? Some of this was taken from a cave in Afghanistan.

REVELL: Well, there is no question that over a long period of time, essentially since 1993, the al Qaeda network has been developing plans to attack various key components of American society. Obviously the World Trade Center was the first that they picked, but they also, if you call, were targeting the Lincoln and Holland Tunnels, the George Washington Bridge, the U.N. building. And the materials that have been recovered in Afghanistan simply show that there is a broad spectrum of potential targets within the United States, as well as U.S. interests overseas, that have been on their target list. And that means that they assess the potential of an attack, their capabilities, and then choose from those that they believe will be most effective for them.

We saw that with the USS Cole. That went on -- the planning for that went on for some time, and in fact, one operation was preempted earlier, but then they successfully attacked the USS Cole. And as we know, they attacked the World Trade Center in '93 and didn't succeed, and on September 11, they did. So they have been able to sustain a rather complex planning process, and lord knows they have access to all of the information they need right from our own Internet and other sources of open information. ZAHN: Buck, need a real quick answer to this one. Your reaction to Secretary Rumsfeld's warnings that the next terrorist attack could even be worse than those of September 11.

REVELL: Well, they have been attempting to acquire weapons of mass destruction, and of even more concern is increasing the lethality of conventional weapons that they might have access to. I think it's a legitimate concern and one that we will be facing for a long time to come.

ZAHN: Buck Revell, George Friedman -- glad to have both of you with us this morning on A.M. Thanks for coming in on a Friday morning -- appreciate it.

REVELL: You are welcome.

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