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CNN Live Today

New York City Keeps Guard Against Terror

Aired May 22, 2002 - 11:00   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: New York City is keeping its guard up today. The FBI warns that terrorists may be targeting popular landmarks.

Our Deborah Feyerick is standing by at one of the sites this morning, the Brooklyn Bridge.

Deborah, good morning.

And as we understand it, the information that led to this alert today is being called vague and uncorroborated. How is that?

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it definitely is, because the FBI really has no hard details on what kind of an attack could even take place. Right now, all they have is some information that at one point somebody may have spoken about the bridge being a possible target.

Right now, we can tell you that there are checkpoints at the entry of the Brooklyn Bridge. Cars going into Manhattan are being searched. There are no details again on how a possible attack might even happen. The FBI does call the information unsubstantiated. Basically, they got the information from an al Qaeda detainee. And then right now what they are doing is they're trying to confirm it through sources of their own.

They did decide to tell the NYPD and the joint terrorism task force, and the police decided to take action on it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COMM. RAYMOND KELLY, NEW YORK POLICE: Well, 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.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FEYERICK: The threat is not a done deal. There's no time, there's no date, there's no method. Investigators don't know how such an attack could take place. That's why they call it "unsubstantiated," that's why they call it "uncorroborated."

Security throughout the city is definitely tighter than it has been in the last couple of weeks, just because the security checkpoints are a lot more obvious. A number of the bridges that are around the city, traffic is backed up, drivers developing migraine- size headaches over all of this.

Also potentially at risk, according to the FBI, is the Statue of Liberty. The island itself is open, so tourists can go there. But the statue itself is shut. It has been shut since 9/11. Officials not taking any chances there.

There are lots of ships in the New York Harbor because of Fleet Week, but there are a lot of rules in place. Small vessels can not approach large ships. They definitely want to avoid something like the USS Cole. But also ships cannot go too close to land. They're keeping them away, for example, from the United Nations, so that that doesn't become a potential target.

Now, the city is not in a crisis mode by any stretch of the imagination. But there is this sense that because they have the name of a target, they better be safe than sorry. Leon, just to sort of tell you where we are, the Brooklyn Bridge is over here, and as you walk across lower Manhattan, the World Trade Center used to be just beyond that small building there -- well, small from this side anyway.

So, again, the lesson, the philosophy right now, better to have the information than not and do what you can -- Leon.

HARRIS: All right. Deborah Feyerick, there in New York. Thank you very much. Talking about landmarks there.

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