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CNN Live Today

International Flights Checked More Carefully

Aired January 02, 2004 - 11:02   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.


CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: CNN has learned several Air France flights into the United States this week have received F-16 escorts. Let's bring in CNN contributor, counter terrorism expert Kelly McCann. He joins us live by phone.
Good morning.

KELLY MCCANN, CNN COUNTER TERRORISM EXPERT: Hi, Carol.

COSTELLO: Talk about this British Airway flight 223. Why this same flight? What information do you think they have?

MCCANN: Well, I'll echo what Robin said, which is I spoke to some senior TSA officials there this morning, and there are specific indicators about specific flights and specific people. And that's what's driving this whole kind of security measures that are taken. The biggest indicator, of course, is that some flights are being allowed to come in. So it goes to the specificity of the information.

COSTELLO: Why 223? And if word of Flight 223 is out there through the media, wouldn't the terrorist just change their tactics?

MCCANN: Well, they can't change that easily. Remember, that any of these incidents take an incredible amount of planning and coordination from their side, as well. So when you introduce variables, any variables -- that could be timing, if they think that there's a time device that could be onboard and the timing is changed, suddenly; if new security measures are introduced, hand searches, for example, or the random use of dogs to sniff for explosives, any of that can be very troublesome to terrorists.

So to the extent that they're able, they like to do things as they had planned.

COSTELLO: I understand. So why doesn't British Airways just ground Flight 223 altogether?

MCCANN: They may. I mean, in fact, you've got to remember, of course, the ripple effect. As one flight is held up or not allowed to fly, there's a backup of, you know, hundreds and hundreds of passengers that then have to go on to other aircraft.

So this is kind of one of those collisions of business and security. People still have to be moved to the U.S. It's a difficult situation.

COSTELLO: I just can't imagine how scary it was at Dulles, you know, when they kept that British flight on the ground for five hours. They went onboard. They questioned all of the passengers. They re- screened the baggage.

Supposedly some of the names they had on the passenger list matched names kind of on a terrorist list. Can you get into that for us?

MCCANN: Sure, Carol. I mean, think of how many Frank Smiths there are here in the U.S. There are literally thousands. There are also literally hundreds and thousands Muslim or Arabic names that could be very similar.

Don't forget, also. that al Qaeda is very practiced at forging documents and using aliases. So it's not, I don't think, an unreasonable kind of measure that they took.

The other thing is that some of the screening that may have been conducted could have been in the, say, 30 percent of cargo that is loaded aboard these commercial aircraft, not necessarily personnel baggage. Personal baggage is 100 percent checked. The cargo. if it originated from what's called a known shipper, sometimes is not checked. So all of those things are being put in place to, you know, increase security levels.

COSTELLO: I want to talk about the flights coming in from France that were escorted by those F-16 military jets. What could they do if, you know, the military suspects something is awry onboard that Air France plane?

MCCANN: Well, Carol, all they can do is prevent them from targeting institutional targets. In other words, if that aircraft had the intent or it looked like it was going to fly into a government building or something like that, they can deter and actually use lethal force if they needed to.

Of course, that would be a very traumatic thing. But there still would be significant fall-out if they had to down an aircraft, of obviously the passengers onboard and then the place where the plane falls. So it's not 100 percent answer. That's why there's so many efforts taken on the ground to make sure that we don't have to have that kind of eventuality happen.

COSTELLO: And I guess the positive thing in this is that obviously France and the United States are working together on this.

MCCANN: Absolutely. I mean, it really goes to the strength of the information. Because as we know, things have been a little bit chilly between the U.S. and France recently. So the fact that they actually threw in 100 percent in order to help us in this really goes to the strength of the information and hopefully a warming trend in relationships.

COSTELLO: All right, one last question. How nervous should we be if we're flying to Britain or to Europe or anywhere in the United States? MCCANN: You know, it's a subjective question, Carol. A good one and one that's on everyone's mind, but the bottom line is everyone has to make the personal decisions.

You know the cliche as well as I do, which is if you stop doing things that you normally would, they win. It is true, though.

But the bottom line is that to the extent we're able, the U.S. and other countries that are involved in the war on terror are trying to make the airways safer.

COSTELLO: All right. Kelly McCann, thanks for joining us this morning.

MCCANN: You bet, Carol.

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 January 2, 2004 - 11:02   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: CNN has learned several Air France flights into the United States this week have received F-16 escorts. Let's bring in CNN contributor, counter terrorism expert Kelly McCann. He joins us live by phone.
Good morning.

KELLY MCCANN, CNN COUNTER TERRORISM EXPERT: Hi, Carol.

COSTELLO: Talk about this British Airway flight 223. Why this same flight? What information do you think they have?

MCCANN: Well, I'll echo what Robin said, which is I spoke to some senior TSA officials there this morning, and there are specific indicators about specific flights and specific people. And that's what's driving this whole kind of security measures that are taken. The biggest indicator, of course, is that some flights are being allowed to come in. So it goes to the specificity of the information.

COSTELLO: Why 223? And if word of Flight 223 is out there through the media, wouldn't the terrorist just change their tactics?

MCCANN: Well, they can't change that easily. Remember, that any of these incidents take an incredible amount of planning and coordination from their side, as well. So when you introduce variables, any variables -- that could be timing, if they think that there's a time device that could be onboard and the timing is changed, suddenly; if new security measures are introduced, hand searches, for example, or the random use of dogs to sniff for explosives, any of that can be very troublesome to terrorists.

So to the extent that they're able, they like to do things as they had planned.

COSTELLO: I understand. So why doesn't British Airways just ground Flight 223 altogether?

MCCANN: They may. I mean, in fact, you've got to remember, of course, the ripple effect. As one flight is held up or not allowed to fly, there's a backup of, you know, hundreds and hundreds of passengers that then have to go on to other aircraft.

So this is kind of one of those collisions of business and security. People still have to be moved to the U.S. It's a difficult situation.

COSTELLO: I just can't imagine how scary it was at Dulles, you know, when they kept that British flight on the ground for five hours. They went onboard. They questioned all of the passengers. They re- screened the baggage.

Supposedly some of the names they had on the passenger list matched names kind of on a terrorist list. Can you get into that for us?

MCCANN: Sure, Carol. I mean, think of how many Frank Smiths there are here in the U.S. There are literally thousands. There are also literally hundreds and thousands Muslim or Arabic names that could be very similar.

Don't forget, also. that al Qaeda is very practiced at forging documents and using aliases. So it's not, I don't think, an unreasonable kind of measure that they took.

The other thing is that some of the screening that may have been conducted could have been in the, say, 30 percent of cargo that is loaded aboard these commercial aircraft, not necessarily personnel baggage. Personal baggage is 100 percent checked. The cargo. if it originated from what's called a known shipper, sometimes is not checked. So all of those things are being put in place to, you know, increase security levels.

COSTELLO: I want to talk about the flights coming in from France that were escorted by those F-16 military jets. What could they do if, you know, the military suspects something is awry onboard that Air France plane?

MCCANN: Well, Carol, all they can do is prevent them from targeting institutional targets. In other words, if that aircraft had the intent or it looked like it was going to fly into a government building or something like that, they can deter and actually use lethal force if they needed to.

Of course, that would be a very traumatic thing. But there still would be significant fall-out if they had to down an aircraft, of obviously the passengers onboard and then the place where the plane falls. So it's not 100 percent answer. That's why there's so many efforts taken on the ground to make sure that we don't have to have that kind of eventuality happen.

COSTELLO: And I guess the positive thing in this is that obviously France and the United States are working together on this.

MCCANN: Absolutely. I mean, it really goes to the strength of the information. Because as we know, things have been a little bit chilly between the U.S. and France recently. So the fact that they actually threw in 100 percent in order to help us in this really goes to the strength of the information and hopefully a warming trend in relationships.

COSTELLO: All right, one last question. How nervous should we be if we're flying to Britain or to Europe or anywhere in the United States? MCCANN: You know, it's a subjective question, Carol. A good one and one that's on everyone's mind, but the bottom line is everyone has to make the personal decisions.

You know the cliche as well as I do, which is if you stop doing things that you normally would, they win. It is true, though.

But the bottom line is that to the extent we're able, the U.S. and other countries that are involved in the war on terror are trying to make the airways safer.

COSTELLO: All right. Kelly McCann, thanks for joining us this morning.

MCCANN: You bet, Carol.

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