Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Live Today

Terrorists: Who Are They, and Where?

Aired May 21, 2002 - 10:33   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.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: So who are the terrorists, and where are they coiled up right now, waiting to strike? Our guest boasts some expertise in U.S. defense strategy, security issues, and peacekeeping operations.

He is Michael Swetnam, and he is a terrorism expert, and is the CEO of the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies. The thinktank conducts policy studies for Congress and the administration, and Mr. Swetnam joins us in our Washington bureau as you see him there.

Good morning, sir. Thank you for coming in today.

MICHAEL SWETNAM: Good morning, Leon. Thank you for having me.

HARRIS: What do you make of these different pronouncements that we've gotten from FBI director Mueller, and what we've also been hearing from Vice President Cheney as well, about these new threats about apartment building and perhaps people sneaking in on containers on ships and whatnot? Are these new things to consider, new threats? Or are these just sort of things that have been happening all along and just under the radar here?

SWETNAM: Well, they are just under the radar. This type of activity has been in the works and planning for quite some. Time this is an effort by the administration to make sure that the American public is aware and is as ready as possible, as you can be for this type of attack. Certainly it is going to happen.

HARRIS: When you say things like we heard the FBI director say these attacks are inevitable. Is that information helpful, or will it just alarm people unnecessarily?

SWETNAM: Well, it hopefully will allow people to understand that even though it's been quite some time since September 11th, that this is a long-term war, that it's a war in which the terrorist take their time between attacks, but that does not mean that they've stopped, or that the war is over.

The fact is, that we have not brought the Al Qaeda leadership to justice. They're still out there on the loose and they're planning new attacks, and it's important to make sure that the American public knows that until we get these leaders, Osama bin Laden and his disciples, either in jail or on their way to meet their maker, the potential of another attack is very high. In fact, it's probably, as the vice president said, almost certain to happen within the next year.

HARRIS: Since we hear this coming from the administration, we figure they must be working on it. What do we know right now about how well these loopholes have been getting closed down?

SWETNAM: We, of course, closed down some of the more obvious ones that we knew about, such as making our airline industry a lot tighter than it was before. But just as we begin to secure things like our airline industry, the terrorist will turn to areas of our infrastructure that are a little less secure. That's why there's warnings about our seaports and the potential for terrorist coming in, in cargo containers. We have not yet figured how to clamp down on the tremendous amount of trade that goes in and out of seaports every day. That's a vulnerability. We need to figure out how to cap those vulnerabilities, not just there, but across our society, if we're ever to have any type of security.

HARRIS: I know this tall order to ask you to solve the problem, within five seconds here, or within 30 seconds on the air this morning, but what could be done about this, this idea with the nation's ports? There's so many of them, and there is so much traffic, as you say, coming in because of increased trade around the world, and as I understand it, there's only one or two percent of all of these containers coming in that are actually now being examined . How can you possibly look into every single one of them?

SWETNAM: Well, you probably can't look into everyone container, but you can begin to understand and track the vessels that visit our ports. Today, many of the vessels supposed to report that they're coming, but often, we don't know of all of the vessels that are coming to our U.S. shores until just a day or so beforehand.

We need to have the same kind of tracking system of seagoing vessels as we have of aircraft, real-time tracking of all the vessels, and then when they dock, we need to have real-time inspection of a significant percentage of them if we're ever to have a hope of getting control of the potential for a terrorist to use that as an entry into the United States.

HARRIS: And that is still only just one venue. There are so many other venues in so many different other -- when you consider the airports, you consider the boarders, you consider everything.

SWETNAM: That's correct.

HARRIS: At some point here, is there going to be something of a point at which there's no way the federal government will be able to do this, and we're going to have to have perhaps the private sector step in here and take over the load here?

SWETNAM: Well, the private sector needs to step in today, as has been said many times. Look for the unusual. If you live in an apartment building and you see something very unusual, report it. If you work at a port, a seaport, and you see unusual things, immediately report it. The public has a tremendous role to play, and the public needs to play that role immediately. If you remember back to World War II, citizen patrols along our beaches and our coasts were a tremendous benefit to the security of the country back over 50 years ago. We need the same kind of vigilance today.

HARRIS: Michael Swetnam, of the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies, thank you very much. Appreciate the insight as always.

SWETNAM: Thank you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com