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CNN Live Saturday

Is Higher Level of Security Going to Impact Holiday Travel?

Aired May 24, 2003 - 12:18   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.


FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Is the higher level of security impacting your holiday plans? That's our "Quick Vote" question at CNN.com and here are the results. Seven percent of you, so far, saying yes and 83 percent saying no. well, what security precautions, if any, should you and your family take this holiday weekend? CNN security analyst Kelly McCann addresses that from Washington for us.
Good to see you this weekend.

J. KELLY MCCANN, CNN SECURITY ANALYST: Hi, Fred.

Well, what are the events that likely led up to this heightened state of alert?

MCCANN: Well, if you think about it, there's been really six kind -- things have happened just in the last three weeks. The Prince Nayef attack that was foiled in Saudi Arabia, and of course Thabet bin Qais came out in "Al Majalla," and sister publication of "Arab News" and -- with threaten information more rhetoric against Americans and their allies overseas. Right after that, of course, and we had the Riyadh bombing and the Morocco incident. And then the Department of State released an alert here in the United States, which is a little bit unusual, usually they're a foreign jurisdiction, they'll put out information about -- for expatriates overseas, about truck bombs here in the U.S., although they didn't have anything that drew specific information. And then lastly, we had the Amin Al-Zawahiri statement that came out that, reportedly was him, that said, again, threatening information, al Qaeda was still strong, et cetera.

So, you can see where there was a momentum. Add to that, the chatter, chatter is defined as, you know, electronic intelligence, communications intelligence, signals intelligence, kind of volume content, frequency between people who are being surveilled, and rhythm. There can be a rhythm were it's either an up-tick or a slowing down, or a (UNINTELLIGIBLE) of information, all of those things together, combined with other information that the intelligence agencies have gotten from interrogations pointed to this being a time of high concern and that's why they raised the alert.

WHITFIELD: This orange level is asking what agencies to be at the ready?

MCCANN: Well, basically, people should remember, Fred, that when it goes to orange or up to red it really has to do with agency preparedness and those three things under orange really are looking at public venues, places where there are public events scheduled, where there'll be a lot of people tomorrow, for instance, there's the "Rolling Thunder" rally, here in D.C. which a tremendous amount of people will be in Washington, D.C. It also has to do with the coordination efforts between federal agencies that will either work through one of these events and then lastly, their contingency, making sure that those people that will actually respond, the first responder, EMS units, etcetera are ready and equipped to handle emergencies.

WHITFIELD: So, this alert is sent mostly to alert these federal agencies, and last to put citizens on guard, but isn't there a mixed message there, because this heightened state of alert does put a lot of American citizens -- civilians on alert?

MCCANN: There is a mixed message, but I think that why we -- when we say that, okay, we're in now condition orange, is because people will likely notice the additional police officers, the additional security people that are out there, different kinds of things that are obviously coordinated by the government. So, rather than let them come to their own conclusion why that's happening, it's a very public kind of claim that, okay, now we're in condition orange. But, if you look at the individual citizen, beyond that person being able to see something suspicious and report it, there's really little he can do, or she can do, because they're not in an intelligence cycle, they're really not in the input system. Now, if you're abroad, as you had in your lead-in story, it's a little bit different. If you are time and place predictable, people need to stop that and change their schedules, change their routes, make sure that they're not frequenting the same places over and over. That's for people who are staying in a location for a long period of time.

WHITFIELD: All right, so in other words, Kelly, we're not seeing people put up the duct tape and the plastic like a few months ago in that state of panic.

MCCANN: I don't think we're going see the market rise on duct tape sales.

WHITFIELD: All right, very good. Thanks very much, Kelly McCann from Washington.

MCCANN: Pleasure, Fred.

WHITFIELD: Good to see 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




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Aired May 24, 2003 - 12:18   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Is the higher level of security impacting your holiday plans? That's our "Quick Vote" question at CNN.com and here are the results. Seven percent of you, so far, saying yes and 83 percent saying no. well, what security precautions, if any, should you and your family take this holiday weekend? CNN security analyst Kelly McCann addresses that from Washington for us.
Good to see you this weekend.

J. KELLY MCCANN, CNN SECURITY ANALYST: Hi, Fred.

Well, what are the events that likely led up to this heightened state of alert?

MCCANN: Well, if you think about it, there's been really six kind -- things have happened just in the last three weeks. The Prince Nayef attack that was foiled in Saudi Arabia, and of course Thabet bin Qais came out in "Al Majalla," and sister publication of "Arab News" and -- with threaten information more rhetoric against Americans and their allies overseas. Right after that, of course, and we had the Riyadh bombing and the Morocco incident. And then the Department of State released an alert here in the United States, which is a little bit unusual, usually they're a foreign jurisdiction, they'll put out information about -- for expatriates overseas, about truck bombs here in the U.S., although they didn't have anything that drew specific information. And then lastly, we had the Amin Al-Zawahiri statement that came out that, reportedly was him, that said, again, threatening information, al Qaeda was still strong, et cetera.

So, you can see where there was a momentum. Add to that, the chatter, chatter is defined as, you know, electronic intelligence, communications intelligence, signals intelligence, kind of volume content, frequency between people who are being surveilled, and rhythm. There can be a rhythm were it's either an up-tick or a slowing down, or a (UNINTELLIGIBLE) of information, all of those things together, combined with other information that the intelligence agencies have gotten from interrogations pointed to this being a time of high concern and that's why they raised the alert.

WHITFIELD: This orange level is asking what agencies to be at the ready?

MCCANN: Well, basically, people should remember, Fred, that when it goes to orange or up to red it really has to do with agency preparedness and those three things under orange really are looking at public venues, places where there are public events scheduled, where there'll be a lot of people tomorrow, for instance, there's the "Rolling Thunder" rally, here in D.C. which a tremendous amount of people will be in Washington, D.C. It also has to do with the coordination efforts between federal agencies that will either work through one of these events and then lastly, their contingency, making sure that those people that will actually respond, the first responder, EMS units, etcetera are ready and equipped to handle emergencies.

WHITFIELD: So, this alert is sent mostly to alert these federal agencies, and last to put citizens on guard, but isn't there a mixed message there, because this heightened state of alert does put a lot of American citizens -- civilians on alert?

MCCANN: There is a mixed message, but I think that why we -- when we say that, okay, we're in now condition orange, is because people will likely notice the additional police officers, the additional security people that are out there, different kinds of things that are obviously coordinated by the government. So, rather than let them come to their own conclusion why that's happening, it's a very public kind of claim that, okay, now we're in condition orange. But, if you look at the individual citizen, beyond that person being able to see something suspicious and report it, there's really little he can do, or she can do, because they're not in an intelligence cycle, they're really not in the input system. Now, if you're abroad, as you had in your lead-in story, it's a little bit different. If you are time and place predictable, people need to stop that and change their schedules, change their routes, make sure that they're not frequenting the same places over and over. That's for people who are staying in a location for a long period of time.

WHITFIELD: All right, so in other words, Kelly, we're not seeing people put up the duct tape and the plastic like a few months ago in that state of panic.

MCCANN: I don't think we're going see the market rise on duct tape sales.

WHITFIELD: All right, very good. Thanks very much, Kelly McCann from Washington.

MCCANN: Pleasure, Fred.

WHITFIELD: Good to see 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




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