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American Morning

Government Conducting Most Extensive Terror Drills Ever in U.S

Aired May 15, 2003 - 07:32   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.


BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: This week the government has been conducting the most extensive terror drills ever in the U.S. The exercises include a mock dirty bomb explosion in Seattle, a simulated biological attack in the city of Chicago. The Department of Homeland Security set up the drills to test government readiness.
Critics say the events are too scripted, effectively making them a waste of time and resources.

Our guest today to talk about it, live in Miami, Florida, the city's police chief, John Timoney, back with us here on AMERICAN MORNING.

Chief, good morning to you.

CHIEF JOHN TIMONEY, MIAMI, FLORIDA POLICE: Good morning, Bill.

HEMMER: What about it? A waste of time and energy and money?

TIMONEY: Oh, no, not at all. I think they're not only useful, I think they're necessary that you continually do these drills, that you get the major first responders of government -- fire, EMS, police doing these scenarios. It's almost impossible to make them real genuine. But the notion or the theory of going through every, occasionally, every couple of months, the drill does a few things.

One, it gets you used to the practice of meeting, if you will, your colleagues not for the first time, but on a regular basis -- the police chief meeting the fire chief. In every major incident that happens where police and fire have to respond, there's always a huge window of chaos involved. When you do these scenarios, it doesn't eliminate that chaos, but it does reduce, if you will, that window from maybe eight or 10 hours to two hours.

HEMMER: Yes, Chief, I can understand that, Chief.

TIMONEY: Yes.

HEMMER: You know, there are critics out there -- listen to Phil Anderson. He's with the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

TIMONEY: Right.

HEMMER: Listen to his words.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) PHIL ANDERSON, CENTER FOR STRATEGIC AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES: I think that, to a certain extent, dilutes the exercise, because in reality we're not going to know where these things are going to be employed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HEMMER: What about that, Chief, lack of spontaneity? I heard the mayor in Seattle even gave the time and the location and the type of attack before the drill was carried out.

Is that smart?

TIMONEY: Well, no, I think the actions of the mayor of Seattle were not very smart. You need to have a certain amount of, if you will, spontaneity or surprise. And I know in New York on a regular basis, these scenarios go unannounced, particularly the police response go unannounced.

Here's the bottom line, though. For example, when we did post- mortems on some of the major incidents when I was in New York, on the Avianca plane crash in '91 and the bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993, in some cases it was the parking, for example, of emergency vehicles that caused a delay, if you will, in the response.

HEMMER: Really?

TIMONEY: Getting -- you didn't get out.

HEMMER: So that was the human element involved in that you were talking about.

TIMONEY: Exactly. Exactly. The one thing that you can't replicate, if you will, during these scenarios is the human factor. For example, a 9/11 in New York and in Philadelphia, where I was at the time with the police commissioner, and in every major American city, people in high rise buildings self-evacuated. Now, there's no way of controlling that. But it's nice to know when it does happen that you've got plans, traffic plans to get people out of these to center city, get them to the highways and byways.

If you're only going to do this the first time when it happens because you want to have spontaneity, I guarantee you, I guarantee you lives are going to be lost.

HEMMER: Yes, listen, the police commissioner here in New York, Ray Kelly, is saying that city is less of a target now.

TIMONEY: Yes.

HEMMER: Upon what does he base that? And if that is the case, where are the targets in this country, Chief?

TIMONEY: Well, I still think New York and Washington are the primary targets. But every big city, a place like Miami or Los Angeles, that have huge ports, transportation hubs, they're always, are always the target.

But Ray Kelly is absolutely right, New York is spending $5 million a week to shore up their defenses and...

HEMMER: Five million dollars a week?

TIMONEY: Five million dollars a week.

HEMMER: Wow.

TIMONEY: Yes. And you, and when you go to New York, you notice it. There is a huge police presence at major buildings, at signature buildings, at historic locations, the usual targets. And now if you look, for example, at New York, it wasn't by accident that it was the World Trade Center. You know, they had hit it in 1993. They hit it again.

The terrorists generally go for two things, some kind of a symbolic target, number one; and then number two, something that's going to give them a high body count. You get those two elements, if you will, in big cities in America.

HEMMER: Good luck, Chief.

TIMONEY: Bill, thank you very much.

HEMMER: John Timoney in Miami, Florida.

You've got it.

We'll talk again.

TIMONEY: Yes.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com





U.S>


Aired May 15, 2003 - 07:32   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: This week the government has been conducting the most extensive terror drills ever in the U.S. The exercises include a mock dirty bomb explosion in Seattle, a simulated biological attack in the city of Chicago. The Department of Homeland Security set up the drills to test government readiness.
Critics say the events are too scripted, effectively making them a waste of time and resources.

Our guest today to talk about it, live in Miami, Florida, the city's police chief, John Timoney, back with us here on AMERICAN MORNING.

Chief, good morning to you.

CHIEF JOHN TIMONEY, MIAMI, FLORIDA POLICE: Good morning, Bill.

HEMMER: What about it? A waste of time and energy and money?

TIMONEY: Oh, no, not at all. I think they're not only useful, I think they're necessary that you continually do these drills, that you get the major first responders of government -- fire, EMS, police doing these scenarios. It's almost impossible to make them real genuine. But the notion or the theory of going through every, occasionally, every couple of months, the drill does a few things.

One, it gets you used to the practice of meeting, if you will, your colleagues not for the first time, but on a regular basis -- the police chief meeting the fire chief. In every major incident that happens where police and fire have to respond, there's always a huge window of chaos involved. When you do these scenarios, it doesn't eliminate that chaos, but it does reduce, if you will, that window from maybe eight or 10 hours to two hours.

HEMMER: Yes, Chief, I can understand that, Chief.

TIMONEY: Yes.

HEMMER: You know, there are critics out there -- listen to Phil Anderson. He's with the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

TIMONEY: Right.

HEMMER: Listen to his words.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) PHIL ANDERSON, CENTER FOR STRATEGIC AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES: I think that, to a certain extent, dilutes the exercise, because in reality we're not going to know where these things are going to be employed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HEMMER: What about that, Chief, lack of spontaneity? I heard the mayor in Seattle even gave the time and the location and the type of attack before the drill was carried out.

Is that smart?

TIMONEY: Well, no, I think the actions of the mayor of Seattle were not very smart. You need to have a certain amount of, if you will, spontaneity or surprise. And I know in New York on a regular basis, these scenarios go unannounced, particularly the police response go unannounced.

Here's the bottom line, though. For example, when we did post- mortems on some of the major incidents when I was in New York, on the Avianca plane crash in '91 and the bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993, in some cases it was the parking, for example, of emergency vehicles that caused a delay, if you will, in the response.

HEMMER: Really?

TIMONEY: Getting -- you didn't get out.

HEMMER: So that was the human element involved in that you were talking about.

TIMONEY: Exactly. Exactly. The one thing that you can't replicate, if you will, during these scenarios is the human factor. For example, a 9/11 in New York and in Philadelphia, where I was at the time with the police commissioner, and in every major American city, people in high rise buildings self-evacuated. Now, there's no way of controlling that. But it's nice to know when it does happen that you've got plans, traffic plans to get people out of these to center city, get them to the highways and byways.

If you're only going to do this the first time when it happens because you want to have spontaneity, I guarantee you, I guarantee you lives are going to be lost.

HEMMER: Yes, listen, the police commissioner here in New York, Ray Kelly, is saying that city is less of a target now.

TIMONEY: Yes.

HEMMER: Upon what does he base that? And if that is the case, where are the targets in this country, Chief?

TIMONEY: Well, I still think New York and Washington are the primary targets. But every big city, a place like Miami or Los Angeles, that have huge ports, transportation hubs, they're always, are always the target.

But Ray Kelly is absolutely right, New York is spending $5 million a week to shore up their defenses and...

HEMMER: Five million dollars a week?

TIMONEY: Five million dollars a week.

HEMMER: Wow.

TIMONEY: Yes. And you, and when you go to New York, you notice it. There is a huge police presence at major buildings, at signature buildings, at historic locations, the usual targets. And now if you look, for example, at New York, it wasn't by accident that it was the World Trade Center. You know, they had hit it in 1993. They hit it again.

The terrorists generally go for two things, some kind of a symbolic target, number one; and then number two, something that's going to give them a high body count. You get those two elements, if you will, in big cities in America.

HEMMER: Good luck, Chief.

TIMONEY: Bill, thank you very much.

HEMMER: John Timoney in Miami, Florida.

You've got it.

We'll talk again.

TIMONEY: Yes.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com





U.S>