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CNN Live Today

Homeland Security Makes Progress, Has Problems

Aired September 10, 2002 - 10:04   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: New warnings echo from Washington to Americans around the world today. It is a dramatic reminder that the war on terrorism, born in the ruins of September 11, continues a year later.
We have two reports this morning, Jason Carroll is outside the United Nations, and Jeanne Meserve is in our Washington bureau with the latest on homeland security. We are going to begin with Jason in New York -- good morning, Jason.

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Anderson. The FBI issued an alert, saying in part that the United Nations represents a potentially attractive target for terrorists, but long before this alert and another alerts were issued, New York City's police department was hard at work, trying to make the city more secure.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CARROLL (voice-over): As New York prepares to mourn those who lost their lives last September 11, the city's mayor sent a message to those who might want to disrupt the day.

MAYOR MICHAEL BLOOMBERG, NEW YORK: A fair warning to anybody, whether you're a petty criminal or a terrorist, New York City's Police Department is there to protect all of us.

CARROLL: The man who heads the police department, Commissioner Ray Kelly, says the city in this post-9/11 world is better prepared for a terrorist attack.

COMM. RAY KELLY, NEW YORK POLICE: We've done a lot of training. We'll be doing more training. We've done a lot of training. We've got new equipment. We're working more closely with federal authorities, with other state and local agencies to prepare for another event if, god forbid, it does happen.

CARROLL: The department doesn't want to reveal specific numbers, but expect more officers on the streets, on rooftops above memorial ceremonies, even in the water. NYPD scuba teams are patrolling docks and harbors.

Diver Sergeant John Harkins feels the importance of his job now more than ever.

SGT. JOHN HARKINS, NYPD SCUBA TEAM: It gives you extra emphasis on how important your job is and how important it is to society to keep everybody safe and, you know, their families and everyone, and the loved ones secure.

CARROLL: In the months following September 11, there were announcements about security checkpoints at bridges and tunnels. Not anymore. Kelly says checkpoints will be unannounced.

KELLY: We'll be using this intermittent enforcement strategy for the foreseeable future. We take a fairly robust group of officers, well armed, using detection equipment, bomb dogs, we move them throughout the city to sensitive locations.

CARROLL: Kelly says appropriate attention will be given to the city's national landmarks and religious institutions. He also says his department is used to meeting security challenges. Within the past week, the city hosted the U.S. Open, the NFL concert in Times Square, a special meeting of Congress and the United Nations General Assembly begins this week.

(on camera): Do any of the men or women within the NYPD feel any sort of sense of fatigue? I mean there have been so many events that require so much of their attention.

KELLY: It's possible. I don't think so. I think, on the other hand, there's more of a sense of exhilaration. They're working hard, no question about it. But I think they're on a mission.

CARROLL: A mission the department plans to keep pursuing beyond this September 11.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CARROLL: Kelly held me there is one thing that his department needs more of, and that is more federal dollars to help pay all the overtime that his officers are going to have to work to help keep the city safe -- Anderson.

COOPER: All right. Jason Carroll, thanks very much. Now the latest on the nation's homeland defense, and what is being done within the U.S. We go to Jeanne Meserve in Washington -- good morning, Jeanne.

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Anderson. The U.S. is surely better protected than it was a year ago, but adequately protected? Even the director of homeland security says we have some distance to go, especially considering the skill of the terrorists.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TOM RIDGE, DIRECTOR, HOMELAND SECURITY: Unfortunately, this is a very sophisticated group of people, they are very resolute. We know they plan, we know they prepare, but we should never be lulled into a sense of complacency in that all we have to do is prepare for means of attack that they have used before, because clearly their portfolio is much greater than that, and we do work on potential scenarios involving different means of attacks.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MESERVE: You can look at almost every area of homeland security and see both progress and problems. Take immigration. Yes, the Immigration and Nationalization Service will hire 4,000 new inspectors this year. The student visa tracking system has been automated. There is increased intelligence sharing to help filter the bad from the good, but on the opposite side of the ledger, the U.S. is still years away from a comprehensive entry and exit program, and virtually nothing has been done about the 8 to 12 million illegal aliens who live in our midst.

Look at another area, port security. Yes, the Coast Guard has beefed up, the Customs Service has deployed new technology, and almost 1,500 new inspectors to screen cargo. Customs has begun putting some of those inspectors in foreign seaports to screen shipments before they come to our shores, and ships now have to produce data on what they are carrying 96 hours before they get here.

But still, only about 2 percent of containers are inspected, and vulnerability assessments of major ports aren't slated to be completed for five years.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEPHEN FLYNN, COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATION: That is just unacceptable. We should at least have stepped up understanding where our critical vulnerabilities lie, and already be in the place of maturing the plans to deal (ph) with those safeguards.

If we have a five year plan to just do that assessment, I think we are in a very sorry state, because I don't think the terrorists are going to give us the time to sort this all out in that kind of methodical kind of way.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MESERVE: Stephen Flynn says that putting together a homeland security plan is a little like putting together a huge jigsaw puzzle. You have hundreds of pieces on the table, and have to put them together one by one until you start to see a pattern. In his assessment, and the assessment of many experts and people on the front lines, the U.S. is a long way from putting together the full picture -- Anderson.

COOPER: All right. Jeanne, thanks very much.

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