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American Morning
Sniper Letter Demands $10 Million
Aired October 23, 2002 - 07:07 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: Montgomery County's police chief is hoping the person presumed to be the sniper continues a dialogue with investigators.
On Monday, Charles Moose revealed the chilling handwritten warning left at the scene of the 12th shooting.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHIEF CHARLES MOOSE, MONTGOMERY COUNTY POLICE: Your children are not safe anywhere at any time.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ZAHN: Chief Moose says he thought the public needed to know about the threat.
So, what can parents do to keep their kids safe? In a moment, we're going to be joined by a Montgomery County resident, Rosetta, who has two teenage grandchildren attending school in the area, and we will address her concerns in just a moment.
But first, let's go straight to CNN security analyst, Kelly McCann.
Welcome back.
J. KELLY MCCANN, CNN SECURITY ANALYST: Hi, Paula.
ZAHN: Kelly, good morning. Lots of territory to cover here this morning.
First of all, let's talk about what our understanding is of this first letter that was left behind in Ashland, Virginia.
There is believed to be a bunch of information very critical of law enforcement and actual information, according to "The Washington Post," that would suggest the sniper listed a half-a-dozen calls that he presumably made that had been ignored. What do you make of that?
MCCANN: A couple of things. No. 1, perhaps an unfair assumption that because it was broken English or because there was no grammatical syntax that people may have assumed that this was a non-intelligent person, which is not the case. I mean, he's demonstrated cleverness and intelligence.
Secondly, he mentioned specifically incompetence, which he has not been. He has not been incompetent.
So, it was a contentious note, and he actually attributed some murders to that incompetence, which is really a friction-building element.
ZAHN: And wasn't it also true, they cite in "The Washington Post," an FBI trainee was accused of -- quote -- "Pretty much blowing him off?"
MCCANN: Absolutely right. I read that on the way in. And you know, I mean, as in all cases, we're going to be able to isolate specific things that in hindsight certainly affected this adversely, but when you've got all of this pressure going on, people just miss it.
ZAHN: Also the "Baltimore Sun" reporting this morning that a second note was left at the scene of yesterday's killing. What can we read into that as investigators are still trying to make a ballistics match between the bullet fired into the victim and the other sniper victims?
MCCANN: Two things, Paula, on that. One was the selection of that target. This person or people determined a time and place predictability element to put a bus driver without passengers there, and actually linked that with other things that are common with all of these objectives. In other words, he had a clear line of sight, he had a right of egress. This person -- that is a whole another level of sophistication.
And then of course, with the letter being left behind communicating that, you know, "Your children are not safe," that's terrifying language, and they knew it. And that's probably why the chief was somewhat reluctant to release that, because they deal with that kind of language all of the time, but the public does not.
ZAHN: So, do you think it was appropriate for them to withhold that information from the public? I know that they say they notified the local municipalities of this very specific threat, but there are parents out there saying, wait a minute, we didn't know that. We might not have sent our kids to school yesterday.
MCCANN: True enough. A difficult question; I'll answer it in two parts.
The first part is he actually took two actions, Chief Moose did. No. 1, he issued the general threat that anybody, anywhere at any time, regardless of gender or race or whatever, could be engaged. And that really kind of says it all, I mean, in fact, and he had shot a child before, so he had already done that.
And the second thing was that he did release it when there was compelling need to, because people started -- it leaked, and people started getting really uneasy about it.
So, he's in a difficult position, Paula. This is actually -- there's no model for this ever having been done before. ZAHN: Yes, there certainly is no model for it, particularly when you look at the number of jurisdictions involved.
And "The New York Times" has a pretty explosive story this morning, suggesting that the inquiry is -- quote -- "Hobbled by turf battles and a fear of leaks that has kept important information from street-level investigators." And it goes on to say that one federal agent basically says, "I don't have a clue what's going on here."
Is it time for the feds to take over this case?
MCCANN: That's compartmentalization, and they do that, obviously, to keep information secure in the face of leaks.
I watched Aaron last night, Aaron Brown, and he had Jimmy Breslin on, and of course, he suggested that the media really, really put the pressure on the police to use shoe leather and get out there and canvass the area and go door-to-door, et cetera.
And you know, that is great policing, and it's good police philosophy. However, there is so much friction right now, and there is so much pressure that, one, legally, the feds can't take this over. They're prohibited from doing that. It was in the "Times" yesterday.
So, you know, this is a new case. There are no pre-existing standard operating procedures to cover this, and it's being built as we go.
ZAHN: Also in the "L.A. Times" this morning, apparently, according to them, the CIA has offered to help in this case, and so far, apparently, all they've been asked for is some of their bomb- sniffing dogs.
Given what you said about laws limiting federal involvement in these kinds of actions, what else could the CIA do at this point, if asked?
MCCANN: Well, because, you know, we've been careful I think pretty much on CNN to stay center-of-the-road, but there's a lot of people opinionating that this is two children doing this or this is two adults or this is three people or a woman or whatever. Nobody knows, Paula. And it's fairly irresponsible to suggest that any one person has the crystal ball and knows this.
But one thing that has not been ruled out is al Qaeda. The level of planning, the level of execution and sophistication would not be an unlikely element here.
So, people find it unpalatable to have a secret police or an intelligence organization working domestically. That again would be a first here in the United States. This is ground-cutting stuff. I mean, it's incredible.
ZAHN: Given all of the challenges that you think investigators are up against, what is your assessment of how you think the investigation is going? MCCANN: I wouldn't presume to make that decision based on -- they have all of the information. But what I see from outside is a very earnest struggle, and I think that Chief Moose is under the gun. Everybody involved in this is under the gun. And my sources, who are peers of mine from the counterterrorist community, when I talk to them, I can hear it in their voices, I mean, they are working nonstop.
Again, my assessment is that they have done the best they could with the information at-hand in a multi-jurisdictional, rolling investigation, where there are exigent circumstances. In other words, the pressure does not relieve. It keeps going, and there are going to be more murders. It's their first time.
ZAHN: J. Kelly McCann, we're going to have to leave it there this morning. As always, good to see you. Thank you for your perspective.
MCCANN: Thanks, Paula.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
Aired October 23, 2002 - 07:07 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Montgomery County's police chief is hoping the person presumed to be the sniper continues a dialogue with investigators.
On Monday, Charles Moose revealed the chilling handwritten warning left at the scene of the 12th shooting.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHIEF CHARLES MOOSE, MONTGOMERY COUNTY POLICE: Your children are not safe anywhere at any time.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ZAHN: Chief Moose says he thought the public needed to know about the threat.
So, what can parents do to keep their kids safe? In a moment, we're going to be joined by a Montgomery County resident, Rosetta, who has two teenage grandchildren attending school in the area, and we will address her concerns in just a moment.
But first, let's go straight to CNN security analyst, Kelly McCann.
Welcome back.
J. KELLY MCCANN, CNN SECURITY ANALYST: Hi, Paula.
ZAHN: Kelly, good morning. Lots of territory to cover here this morning.
First of all, let's talk about what our understanding is of this first letter that was left behind in Ashland, Virginia.
There is believed to be a bunch of information very critical of law enforcement and actual information, according to "The Washington Post," that would suggest the sniper listed a half-a-dozen calls that he presumably made that had been ignored. What do you make of that?
MCCANN: A couple of things. No. 1, perhaps an unfair assumption that because it was broken English or because there was no grammatical syntax that people may have assumed that this was a non-intelligent person, which is not the case. I mean, he's demonstrated cleverness and intelligence.
Secondly, he mentioned specifically incompetence, which he has not been. He has not been incompetent.
So, it was a contentious note, and he actually attributed some murders to that incompetence, which is really a friction-building element.
ZAHN: And wasn't it also true, they cite in "The Washington Post," an FBI trainee was accused of -- quote -- "Pretty much blowing him off?"
MCCANN: Absolutely right. I read that on the way in. And you know, I mean, as in all cases, we're going to be able to isolate specific things that in hindsight certainly affected this adversely, but when you've got all of this pressure going on, people just miss it.
ZAHN: Also the "Baltimore Sun" reporting this morning that a second note was left at the scene of yesterday's killing. What can we read into that as investigators are still trying to make a ballistics match between the bullet fired into the victim and the other sniper victims?
MCCANN: Two things, Paula, on that. One was the selection of that target. This person or people determined a time and place predictability element to put a bus driver without passengers there, and actually linked that with other things that are common with all of these objectives. In other words, he had a clear line of sight, he had a right of egress. This person -- that is a whole another level of sophistication.
And then of course, with the letter being left behind communicating that, you know, "Your children are not safe," that's terrifying language, and they knew it. And that's probably why the chief was somewhat reluctant to release that, because they deal with that kind of language all of the time, but the public does not.
ZAHN: So, do you think it was appropriate for them to withhold that information from the public? I know that they say they notified the local municipalities of this very specific threat, but there are parents out there saying, wait a minute, we didn't know that. We might not have sent our kids to school yesterday.
MCCANN: True enough. A difficult question; I'll answer it in two parts.
The first part is he actually took two actions, Chief Moose did. No. 1, he issued the general threat that anybody, anywhere at any time, regardless of gender or race or whatever, could be engaged. And that really kind of says it all, I mean, in fact, and he had shot a child before, so he had already done that.
And the second thing was that he did release it when there was compelling need to, because people started -- it leaked, and people started getting really uneasy about it.
So, he's in a difficult position, Paula. This is actually -- there's no model for this ever having been done before. ZAHN: Yes, there certainly is no model for it, particularly when you look at the number of jurisdictions involved.
And "The New York Times" has a pretty explosive story this morning, suggesting that the inquiry is -- quote -- "Hobbled by turf battles and a fear of leaks that has kept important information from street-level investigators." And it goes on to say that one federal agent basically says, "I don't have a clue what's going on here."
Is it time for the feds to take over this case?
MCCANN: That's compartmentalization, and they do that, obviously, to keep information secure in the face of leaks.
I watched Aaron last night, Aaron Brown, and he had Jimmy Breslin on, and of course, he suggested that the media really, really put the pressure on the police to use shoe leather and get out there and canvass the area and go door-to-door, et cetera.
And you know, that is great policing, and it's good police philosophy. However, there is so much friction right now, and there is so much pressure that, one, legally, the feds can't take this over. They're prohibited from doing that. It was in the "Times" yesterday.
So, you know, this is a new case. There are no pre-existing standard operating procedures to cover this, and it's being built as we go.
ZAHN: Also in the "L.A. Times" this morning, apparently, according to them, the CIA has offered to help in this case, and so far, apparently, all they've been asked for is some of their bomb- sniffing dogs.
Given what you said about laws limiting federal involvement in these kinds of actions, what else could the CIA do at this point, if asked?
MCCANN: Well, because, you know, we've been careful I think pretty much on CNN to stay center-of-the-road, but there's a lot of people opinionating that this is two children doing this or this is two adults or this is three people or a woman or whatever. Nobody knows, Paula. And it's fairly irresponsible to suggest that any one person has the crystal ball and knows this.
But one thing that has not been ruled out is al Qaeda. The level of planning, the level of execution and sophistication would not be an unlikely element here.
So, people find it unpalatable to have a secret police or an intelligence organization working domestically. That again would be a first here in the United States. This is ground-cutting stuff. I mean, it's incredible.
ZAHN: Given all of the challenges that you think investigators are up against, what is your assessment of how you think the investigation is going? MCCANN: I wouldn't presume to make that decision based on -- they have all of the information. But what I see from outside is a very earnest struggle, and I think that Chief Moose is under the gun. Everybody involved in this is under the gun. And my sources, who are peers of mine from the counterterrorist community, when I talk to them, I can hear it in their voices, I mean, they are working nonstop.
Again, my assessment is that they have done the best they could with the information at-hand in a multi-jurisdictional, rolling investigation, where there are exigent circumstances. In other words, the pressure does not relieve. It keeps going, and there are going to be more murders. It's their first time.
ZAHN: J. Kelly McCann, we're going to have to leave it there this morning. As always, good to see you. Thank you for your perspective.
MCCANN: Thanks, Paula.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
