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CNN Live Today

More Terrorist Warnings for New York

Aired May 22, 2002 - 10:02   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: Looming over New York's towering skyline forever altered after the September 11 attacks now is a new threat. The FBI has warned city officials of new terrorist threats against the nation's largest metropolis and its landmarks. That threat is once again vague, but impossible to ignore in a climate charged with rising concerns, and politics, as well.

CNN's Deborah Feyerick has the report this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Brooklyn Bridge and Statue of Liberty, American symbols. Now, sources say, possible terrorist targets, the FBI alerting New York's Joint Terrorist Task Force of new information city landmarks may be at risk. Also warning the public in a statement that the United States government has received unsubstantiated and uncorroborated information that terrorists are considering attacks against landmarks in New York City.

The FBI has few other details -- no time, no date, no idea how such an attack would be carried out. It's America's new reality in the war against terrorists.

MIKE BROOKS, FORMER DETECTIVE, FBI TERRORISM TASK FORCE: We're in the game. We were in the game before 9/11 and a lot of people didn't realize we were in the game. And this game they're playing for keeps.

FEYERICK: Security in New York City already tight after 9/11, now even tighter. Police, who never comment on counterterrorism operations, saying...

RAY KELLY, NEW YORK CITY POLICE COMMISSIONER: Certainly after 9/11, anything is possible, but I think we are doing the best that we reasonably can do to prevent another incident and to respond if, God forbid, there is one.

FEYERICK: Traffic at many New York bridges slowed by police checkpoints. And though tourists can travel to Liberty Island, the statue itself remains shut following the September attacks. With the holiday weekend coming up and 22 ships expected in New York Harbor for Fleet Week, officials are urging people to carry on as they usually do and not blow the warnings out of proportion. GOV. GEORGE PATAKI (R), NEW YORK: We're going to have threats for the foreseeable future, and we just have to have confidence that the federal officials, working with state officials and local officials, and that alert system, are capable of responding and preventing and making sure that we don't give into the fear.

FEYERICK: Earlier information on possible targets has come from al Qaeda detainees in custody on Guantanamo Bay and in Afghanistan, where hundreds of documents have also been seized and are being analyzed.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

Traffic is moving over the Brooklyn Bridge. It was shut down for about an hour. Police were investigating a suspicious package. It turned out that it was nothing. The checkpoint is still in place. Cars are moving slowly, but at least they are not being waved away, as they were earlier.

Officially, there is no FBI warning, there's no NYPD warning. The city is not in crisis mode. What officials are saying is Look, we are on alert, keeping our eyes open. You need keep your eyes open also.

Just to situate you, you've got the Brooklyn Bridge, in lower Manhattan. You can see a lower building there with sort of the black stripes. The World Trade Center used to be just beyond that. The lesson, the philosophy right now, is better safe than sorry -- Leon.

HARRIS: All right, Deborah Feyerick, that's good advice.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Also in New York this morning, a juxtaposition of war, peace, and protection. As early as this hour, 19 ships loaded with thousands of sailors, Marines and Coast Guard personnel will sail into the harbor and slowly past by the bleak acreage known as ground zero. This year's Fleet Week will be like no other.

CNN's Michael Okwu is awaiting the ships' arrival and joins us with more.

Can you see any ships on the horizon yet?

MICHAEL OKWU, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I have been looking all morning, Carol, but I haven't been able to see nary a one. There is no sense of crises here whatsoever. People have been jogging, walking their dogs, absolutely enjoying the day. We are told it's going to get to 68 to 70 degrees today, and everybody seems to be bent on enjoying it.

But we all are waiting of course for those ships. We are told something like 20 ships will make their way up the Hudson River, starting at about 10:30 Eastern time. It is the largest deployment, we are told, of the Atlantic fleet to the New York harbor in the 15- year history of Fleet Week. The U.S. Coast Guard says there will be a great deal of security here. They say they are at their most heightened state since World War II. Just a sense of some of the precautions and measures that they are putting in place, there's a 200-yard restrictive zone around any U.S. vessel that is moored or anchored here.

But they have had measures in place since 9/11. For example, no vessel is allowed within 150 yards of the United Nations or 150 yards around Ellis Island or Liberty Island, which is where the Statue of Liberty is located. They also make the point that they will be prohibiting any vessel from going within 25 yards of any bridge or peer or abutment or any facilities along the water's edge. All of this will be monitored by personnel who will be on board a blimp that will be flying around lower Manhattan throughout the course of this day, and we are told perhaps for the next week or so as Fleet Week continues.

But the main attraction, of course, will be those ships. There are 20 ships, as we mentioned, including seven ships that are returning to U.S. waters from Operation Enduring Freedom. Those ships include guided missile cruisers, destroyers, minesweepers.

We are told there will also be a glorious display of compassion, that when those ships make their way along the Hudson River, their 6,000 Marines and sailors aboard them will stand at attention as they pass ground zero and salute.

One more thing, Carol. We also know there was a U.S. flag that used to fly proudly just at the concourse level of the World Trade Center. That flag made its way to Afghanistan and, in fact, was hoisted above the airport in Kandahar, and it is now making its way back to the United States, and it will be flying aboard the USS Iwo Jima, which one of the newest and largest ships that will be on display here today. When that flag makes its way to the ground zero area, it be lowered in respect to those who lost their lives on September 11 -- Carol.

COSTELLO: I'm sure that will be very touching.

Thank you, Michael. And when those ships come into the harbor, we will go to it live. Catch you later.

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