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American Morning
Interview with Michael Weisskopf, 'Time' Magazine
Aired February 17, 2003 - 07:41 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: The prospect of war and the raising of the nation's threat level have Americans bracing for new terror attacks. But a new "TIME" magazine report questions whether the Bush administration has done enough to prevent another strike by terrorists. Is the country any safer now than before 9/11?
Michael Weisskopf is a senior correspondent for "TIME." He joins us from Washington.
Thanks for braving the elements to spend a little time with us this morning, Michael.
MICHAEL WEISSKOPF, "TIME" MAGAZINE: Youre welcome, Paula.
ZAHN: You report in this latest issue of "TIME" magazine that members of Congress are possible targets of assassination. How real a fear is this?
WEISSKOPF: You have to remember, Paula, these reports come in, in a fragmentary and vague basis. But there was such a report. It did not name a member in particular of Congress or a time. The report, which came in from a caller to counterintelligence officials, did say that members of Congress are in danger.
It was considered serious enough for the Capitol police chief, Terrence Gainer, to call together members of Congress, brief them on the threat, and warn them to change their comings and goings, their patterns of behavior, in case there is a stalker of some sort to throw off his surveillance.
ZAHN: Wow! It's really scary to think about that. Another chilling thing about your report is your conclusion that basically we won't know how well-prepared we are for a terrorist attack until another one is unleashed.
And you quote Vice President Dick Cheney as saying this: "All we can do is ask ourselves, have we done everything we can do to prevent an attack? I want to be able to look all of you in the eye and have you tell me that we have done all that we can."
Is the White House resigned to another terrorist attack?
WEISSKOPF: Yes, and there was a sort of chilling moment reported to us in a meeting of U.S. senators with Tom Ridge, who is the head of Homeland Security. And the meeting began with senators asking whether they should get their families out of town. Ridge thought that that would send the wrong signal. But when he was pressed to handicap the potential for a terrorist attack, he said it was 50 percent or better.
So clearly, decision-makers in Washington do expect something to come down the pike. It's the result of fairly extensive intelligence readings, again from electronic intercepts, from recent detainees who have cooperated with U.S. intelligence, also from just people calling in.
ZAHN: You just mentioned detainees. We also know in the case of this latest alert level being raised, one of the elements leading to that was the fact that the government had heard from a paid informant about a potential attack in Virginia on a soft target at a hotel. And now, we learn that that information was bogus, and that a lie detector wasn't even given to this informant.
How much is the credibility of the administration now being compromised by having to sift through all of this information and decide whether any of it's worth beans?
WEISSKOPF: You can answer that question by only looking retrospectively. And if something occurs and the administration was very vigilant, you can hardly blame it. If something doesn't occur, its natural to second-guess.
That particular case was not a paid informant. Our understanding was it was a detainee overseas, who, in an attempt to try to please or placate interrogators, spun this story about a potential attack in Virginia Beach against a hotel frequented or owned by Jews. And to its credit, the administration ran down this report, did not alarm Virginia Beach, and ran it to ground. It turned out to be false.
I think probably after that amount of shoe leather, there was a good deal of breathing of relief, not of a sense of lost opportunity.
ZAHN: Michael Weisskopf, we're going to have to leave it there this morning. Thanks again for getting in the nasty weather and to join us this morning. Appreciate it very much.
WEISSKOPF: 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.
Aired February 17, 2003 - 07:41 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: The prospect of war and the raising of the nation's threat level have Americans bracing for new terror attacks. But a new "TIME" magazine report questions whether the Bush administration has done enough to prevent another strike by terrorists. Is the country any safer now than before 9/11?
Michael Weisskopf is a senior correspondent for "TIME." He joins us from Washington.
Thanks for braving the elements to spend a little time with us this morning, Michael.
MICHAEL WEISSKOPF, "TIME" MAGAZINE: Youre welcome, Paula.
ZAHN: You report in this latest issue of "TIME" magazine that members of Congress are possible targets of assassination. How real a fear is this?
WEISSKOPF: You have to remember, Paula, these reports come in, in a fragmentary and vague basis. But there was such a report. It did not name a member in particular of Congress or a time. The report, which came in from a caller to counterintelligence officials, did say that members of Congress are in danger.
It was considered serious enough for the Capitol police chief, Terrence Gainer, to call together members of Congress, brief them on the threat, and warn them to change their comings and goings, their patterns of behavior, in case there is a stalker of some sort to throw off his surveillance.
ZAHN: Wow! It's really scary to think about that. Another chilling thing about your report is your conclusion that basically we won't know how well-prepared we are for a terrorist attack until another one is unleashed.
And you quote Vice President Dick Cheney as saying this: "All we can do is ask ourselves, have we done everything we can do to prevent an attack? I want to be able to look all of you in the eye and have you tell me that we have done all that we can."
Is the White House resigned to another terrorist attack?
WEISSKOPF: Yes, and there was a sort of chilling moment reported to us in a meeting of U.S. senators with Tom Ridge, who is the head of Homeland Security. And the meeting began with senators asking whether they should get their families out of town. Ridge thought that that would send the wrong signal. But when he was pressed to handicap the potential for a terrorist attack, he said it was 50 percent or better.
So clearly, decision-makers in Washington do expect something to come down the pike. It's the result of fairly extensive intelligence readings, again from electronic intercepts, from recent detainees who have cooperated with U.S. intelligence, also from just people calling in.
ZAHN: You just mentioned detainees. We also know in the case of this latest alert level being raised, one of the elements leading to that was the fact that the government had heard from a paid informant about a potential attack in Virginia on a soft target at a hotel. And now, we learn that that information was bogus, and that a lie detector wasn't even given to this informant.
How much is the credibility of the administration now being compromised by having to sift through all of this information and decide whether any of it's worth beans?
WEISSKOPF: You can answer that question by only looking retrospectively. And if something occurs and the administration was very vigilant, you can hardly blame it. If something doesn't occur, its natural to second-guess.
That particular case was not a paid informant. Our understanding was it was a detainee overseas, who, in an attempt to try to please or placate interrogators, spun this story about a potential attack in Virginia Beach against a hotel frequented or owned by Jews. And to its credit, the administration ran down this report, did not alarm Virginia Beach, and ran it to ground. It turned out to be false.
I think probably after that amount of shoe leather, there was a good deal of breathing of relief, not of a sense of lost opportunity.
ZAHN: Michael Weisskopf, we're going to have to leave it there this morning. Thanks again for getting in the nasty weather and to join us this morning. Appreciate it very much.
WEISSKOPF: 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.
