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CNN Live Saturday

How Vulnerable Are Passenger Jets to Terrorist Attacks?

Aired November 30, 2002 - 17:05   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 LIN, CNN ANCHOR: The hotel bombing happened minutes after someone tried to shoot down an Israeli charter jet over Kenya. Two launchers and some unused surface-to-air missiles were found near the runway and now the U.S. Transportation Security Administration is telling U.S. airports to review the security in place to protect against similar attacks right here in the United States.
And when you think about it how vulnerable passenger jets can be to a shoulder-fired missile, which is why we asked CNN's law enforcement analyst Mike Brooks to join us tonight to talk a little bit more about this, good to see you Mike.

MIKE BROOKS, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Good to see you, Carol.

LIN: What are the chances of something like this happening in the United States?

BROOKS: I think they're highly improbable.

LIN: Why?

BROOKS: Highly unlikely to happen. Here in the United States, it's not as easy to get a weapon like the SAM-7 that was used in Mombasa, we don't have a black market here like they do in Europe and in Africa especially. Here any military weapon that's unaccounted for Army CID starts looking for it right away. I find it probably it's highly unlikely but over the years when I was on the joint terrorism task force in Washington, D.C., we used to get reports now and then of vehicles at the end of some of the runways of airports in the Washington, D.C. area, in New York, Philadelphia, and we went and looked into that and we found out that it was Israeli officials who were at the end of the runways when there wasn't even a threat, looking after the safety...

LIN: Scoping out the area.

BROOKS: ...of the El Al jets, right exactly. And even in Washington, D.C., you look at Washington National Airport, Reagan National Airport, there's a park at the end of there. Now and then you see it's a U.S. Department of Interior, U.S. Park Police patrols that. They patrol that on a regular basis just in case things like that happen. In Washington, D.C., at Andrews Air Force Base where Air Force One takes off and lands on a regular basis, precautions are looked after in case of something like this, but it's highly unlikely that that would happen here in the United States. LIN: Really? I have to ask you though about importing these weapons. I mean drugs are imported routinely into this country. They're illegal. They're prohibited. Why couldn't weapons or weapons parts be brought in as well somehow?

BROOKS: Well, when it comes to terrorism, I never say never and could it happen? Yes but it's highly unlikely and you know hopefully our customs and our customs officials and our new homeland security agency will look after this. The Transportation Security Administration is reviewing their plans along with all the airport directors and security directors in most of the airports in the United States against - take a look at their security plans to make sure that they have at least some safeguards in place to be vigilant, have their officers have their security people be vigilant for these kind of things. But again, I think in the United States, it's highly unlikely.

LIN: All right. Let's talk a little bit about these warnings that apparently the Australians had given to the United States about the possibility of attacks in Kenya against a soft target like a tourist hotel. At what point are these threats considered credible?

BROOKS: Well, usually when you have a specific - you can have a city but unless you have a specific target, you know, you just have to raise your sense of awareness, your vigilance, those kind of things. But it sounded like this time, though, it was - there was talk against specifically Mombasa. Where that information came from we've yet to hear exactly on what basis the Australians gave that information out but I'm sure we will in the very near future.

LIN: I mean I'm just wondering how these threats are assessed and when they say, when U.S. officials say well we didn't consider it credible...

BROOKS: Right.

LIN: ...what does that mean?

BROOKS: Well, it could be where the information comes from. Where did the Australians get that information? Was it a walk-in to the Australian embassy that says hey I have information that says that something may happen in Mombasa? You know how well did they vet that information? That's how the United States intelligence officials take all that information and consider it and kind of vet the information on their own. They'll say to the Australians, where did you get this information? They'll get together and kind of vet it and say, well yeah it's credible. Yes, it's not credible.

LIN: And see it looks like U.S. officials were wrong.

BROOKS: There's a possibility. We have to look into that a little bit further to see exactly what information was given to the U.S. officials from the Australians.

LIN: OK, in the meantime information going out to tourists, a warning for American tourists in Yemen that a similar attack may occur there. Are these warnings helpful?

BROOKS: Well, the one they just gave just today supersedes the one they put out in March. It's kind of a no-brainer I think. Any American right now that would want to go to Yemen on a vacation should have his or her head examined actually.

LIN: There are academics, for example, who go right?

BROOKS: There are but you know right now you have to use your common sense. You know you have book sense and you have common sense. Common sense would tell you after the Cole bombing, after the bombing of the tanker, after everything else that's going on there, you know it's the homeland of Osama bin Laden, Americans you should look for somewhere else to go besides Yemen.

LIN: All right, we'll see what happens. Thank you very much, Mike Brooks.

BROOKS: All right, 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 November 30, 2002 - 17:05   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: The hotel bombing happened minutes after someone tried to shoot down an Israeli charter jet over Kenya. Two launchers and some unused surface-to-air missiles were found near the runway and now the U.S. Transportation Security Administration is telling U.S. airports to review the security in place to protect against similar attacks right here in the United States.
And when you think about it how vulnerable passenger jets can be to a shoulder-fired missile, which is why we asked CNN's law enforcement analyst Mike Brooks to join us tonight to talk a little bit more about this, good to see you Mike.

MIKE BROOKS, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Good to see you, Carol.

LIN: What are the chances of something like this happening in the United States?

BROOKS: I think they're highly improbable.

LIN: Why?

BROOKS: Highly unlikely to happen. Here in the United States, it's not as easy to get a weapon like the SAM-7 that was used in Mombasa, we don't have a black market here like they do in Europe and in Africa especially. Here any military weapon that's unaccounted for Army CID starts looking for it right away. I find it probably it's highly unlikely but over the years when I was on the joint terrorism task force in Washington, D.C., we used to get reports now and then of vehicles at the end of some of the runways of airports in the Washington, D.C. area, in New York, Philadelphia, and we went and looked into that and we found out that it was Israeli officials who were at the end of the runways when there wasn't even a threat, looking after the safety...

LIN: Scoping out the area.

BROOKS: ...of the El Al jets, right exactly. And even in Washington, D.C., you look at Washington National Airport, Reagan National Airport, there's a park at the end of there. Now and then you see it's a U.S. Department of Interior, U.S. Park Police patrols that. They patrol that on a regular basis just in case things like that happen. In Washington, D.C., at Andrews Air Force Base where Air Force One takes off and lands on a regular basis, precautions are looked after in case of something like this, but it's highly unlikely that that would happen here in the United States. LIN: Really? I have to ask you though about importing these weapons. I mean drugs are imported routinely into this country. They're illegal. They're prohibited. Why couldn't weapons or weapons parts be brought in as well somehow?

BROOKS: Well, when it comes to terrorism, I never say never and could it happen? Yes but it's highly unlikely and you know hopefully our customs and our customs officials and our new homeland security agency will look after this. The Transportation Security Administration is reviewing their plans along with all the airport directors and security directors in most of the airports in the United States against - take a look at their security plans to make sure that they have at least some safeguards in place to be vigilant, have their officers have their security people be vigilant for these kind of things. But again, I think in the United States, it's highly unlikely.

LIN: All right. Let's talk a little bit about these warnings that apparently the Australians had given to the United States about the possibility of attacks in Kenya against a soft target like a tourist hotel. At what point are these threats considered credible?

BROOKS: Well, usually when you have a specific - you can have a city but unless you have a specific target, you know, you just have to raise your sense of awareness, your vigilance, those kind of things. But it sounded like this time, though, it was - there was talk against specifically Mombasa. Where that information came from we've yet to hear exactly on what basis the Australians gave that information out but I'm sure we will in the very near future.

LIN: I mean I'm just wondering how these threats are assessed and when they say, when U.S. officials say well we didn't consider it credible...

BROOKS: Right.

LIN: ...what does that mean?

BROOKS: Well, it could be where the information comes from. Where did the Australians get that information? Was it a walk-in to the Australian embassy that says hey I have information that says that something may happen in Mombasa? You know how well did they vet that information? That's how the United States intelligence officials take all that information and consider it and kind of vet the information on their own. They'll say to the Australians, where did you get this information? They'll get together and kind of vet it and say, well yeah it's credible. Yes, it's not credible.

LIN: And see it looks like U.S. officials were wrong.

BROOKS: There's a possibility. We have to look into that a little bit further to see exactly what information was given to the U.S. officials from the Australians.

LIN: OK, in the meantime information going out to tourists, a warning for American tourists in Yemen that a similar attack may occur there. Are these warnings helpful?

BROOKS: Well, the one they just gave just today supersedes the one they put out in March. It's kind of a no-brainer I think. Any American right now that would want to go to Yemen on a vacation should have his or her head examined actually.

LIN: There are academics, for example, who go right?

BROOKS: There are but you know right now you have to use your common sense. You know you have book sense and you have common sense. Common sense would tell you after the Cole bombing, after the bombing of the tanker, after everything else that's going on there, you know it's the homeland of Osama bin Laden, Americans you should look for somewhere else to go besides Yemen.

LIN: All right, we'll see what happens. Thank you very much, Mike Brooks.

BROOKS: All right, 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