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CNN Live Saturday

U.S. Warns Attacks Against America Could Come After Ramadan

Aired November 22, 2003 - 12:05   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.


CATHERINE CALLAWAY, CNN ANCHOR: Here in the U.S., Washington warns that al-Qaeda could attack Americans as the Muslim holy month of Ramadan comes to an end. Let's go to CNN's security analyst, Kelly McCann, who's assessing all of this for us. He's joining us today from Washington.
Hello, Kelly.

KELLY MCCANN, CNN SECURITY ANALYST: Hi, Catherine.

CALLAWAY: We have another terror warning that has been issued. What does this mean? What now? What's brought this about?

MCCANN: Sure. I mean, people have to get used to these warnings, because the situation's always going to be dynamic, you know, as the threat develops, then obviously, security warnings will be issued, so proper measures can be taken and then as the threat wanes, so will the warnings. But, the bottom line is, the measure of success, at least domestically here is, that there haven't been any incidents. Overseas is a little -- is slightly different because of the number of soft targets that present themselves for an attack overseas -- Catherine.

CALLAWAY: What should we take away from this? I mean, who is truly is behind these attacks? Is it all al-Qaeda?

MCCANN: No, that's a very good question. As Mike Boettcher just reported, it's a very complicated kind of issue, right now. And, complicating it is this kind of momentum in the region. I mean, we're seeing that there's been bombings in Saudi, now in Turkey. There's ongoing events in Iraq and to the layman, it's very difficult to kind of distinguish between this. It just shows there is a terrorist momentum. But, I think there are a couple of good theories, on of which is that there are emerging groups that have used the benchmarking done by al-Qaeda to kind of follow in their footsteps, and then also, disassociated actors, previous people who were not associated with anybody, but suddenly, because of the events and Ramadan and the lucrative nature of the targets overseas, are being moved to action -- Catherine.

CALLAWAY: You have to ask though -- why now? Because, back in October we already heard from the FBI that there were warnings and possible violence during Ramadan.

MCCANN: Sure, and Ramadan was on everybody's scope. But, now let's take it a step further and look at Thanksgiving -- traditionally a very high volume of travel being conducted then, and then certainly, there are other -- this kind of feeling of regional momentum. I can't emphasize enough that people who would normally not be moved to action suddenly feel compelled to act in the face of successes that --- you know, have been all over the media.

CALLAWAY: Now, let's talk about what this means for travelers, for those -- I mean, this is the traveling season now, we're getting into the holiday season. A lot of people travel -- planning to travel abroad.

MCCANN: Sure.

CALLAWAY: What does this really mean for them?

MCCANN: I mean if people wanted to do individual protective measures, as it's called in the military, I mean, they might consider doing things like, not going to places that would be seen as lucrative targets, where there's a high density of people at any given time of day. So, if you want to go to a busy marketplace, for example, you might want to go there when it's not so busy, early in the morning, you might want to go to travel nodes or hubs when the volume of travelers hasn't hit just yet, instead of in the afternoon you might want to go late at night or early in the morning. Again, limiting the kind of target profile that would present itself to bad guys. But, beyond that there's really not an awful lot that can be done. This where we have to rely on the antiterrorism and counterterrorism efforts by host nations and our own government to protect us.

CALLAWAY: And using common sense as an individual.

MCCANN: Absolutely.

CALLAWAY: What about Homeland Security, domestically. Will we see the threat increase?

MCCANN: We could, and I think that -- you know, the Homeland Security Department is long passed attributing high warning periods to, like, specific holidays or anything like that. They will raise the threat level when there is specific information that directly shows that an attack could be imminent. Other than that, I think what they'll do is just put it, kind of, under florescent underline, like -- we're still in yellow, but it's bright yellow at the moment.

CALLAWAY: Yes. Thank you. Thank you. That's Kelly McCann, our CNN security analyst putting aside some of the fears people may be having.

MCCANN: Pleasure, Catherine.

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





Ramadan>


Aired November 22, 2003 - 12:05   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CATHERINE CALLAWAY, CNN ANCHOR: Here in the U.S., Washington warns that al-Qaeda could attack Americans as the Muslim holy month of Ramadan comes to an end. Let's go to CNN's security analyst, Kelly McCann, who's assessing all of this for us. He's joining us today from Washington.
Hello, Kelly.

KELLY MCCANN, CNN SECURITY ANALYST: Hi, Catherine.

CALLAWAY: We have another terror warning that has been issued. What does this mean? What now? What's brought this about?

MCCANN: Sure. I mean, people have to get used to these warnings, because the situation's always going to be dynamic, you know, as the threat develops, then obviously, security warnings will be issued, so proper measures can be taken and then as the threat wanes, so will the warnings. But, the bottom line is, the measure of success, at least domestically here is, that there haven't been any incidents. Overseas is a little -- is slightly different because of the number of soft targets that present themselves for an attack overseas -- Catherine.

CALLAWAY: What should we take away from this? I mean, who is truly is behind these attacks? Is it all al-Qaeda?

MCCANN: No, that's a very good question. As Mike Boettcher just reported, it's a very complicated kind of issue, right now. And, complicating it is this kind of momentum in the region. I mean, we're seeing that there's been bombings in Saudi, now in Turkey. There's ongoing events in Iraq and to the layman, it's very difficult to kind of distinguish between this. It just shows there is a terrorist momentum. But, I think there are a couple of good theories, on of which is that there are emerging groups that have used the benchmarking done by al-Qaeda to kind of follow in their footsteps, and then also, disassociated actors, previous people who were not associated with anybody, but suddenly, because of the events and Ramadan and the lucrative nature of the targets overseas, are being moved to action -- Catherine.

CALLAWAY: You have to ask though -- why now? Because, back in October we already heard from the FBI that there were warnings and possible violence during Ramadan.

MCCANN: Sure, and Ramadan was on everybody's scope. But, now let's take it a step further and look at Thanksgiving -- traditionally a very high volume of travel being conducted then, and then certainly, there are other -- this kind of feeling of regional momentum. I can't emphasize enough that people who would normally not be moved to action suddenly feel compelled to act in the face of successes that --- you know, have been all over the media.

CALLAWAY: Now, let's talk about what this means for travelers, for those -- I mean, this is the traveling season now, we're getting into the holiday season. A lot of people travel -- planning to travel abroad.

MCCANN: Sure.

CALLAWAY: What does this really mean for them?

MCCANN: I mean if people wanted to do individual protective measures, as it's called in the military, I mean, they might consider doing things like, not going to places that would be seen as lucrative targets, where there's a high density of people at any given time of day. So, if you want to go to a busy marketplace, for example, you might want to go there when it's not so busy, early in the morning, you might want to go to travel nodes or hubs when the volume of travelers hasn't hit just yet, instead of in the afternoon you might want to go late at night or early in the morning. Again, limiting the kind of target profile that would present itself to bad guys. But, beyond that there's really not an awful lot that can be done. This where we have to rely on the antiterrorism and counterterrorism efforts by host nations and our own government to protect us.

CALLAWAY: And using common sense as an individual.

MCCANN: Absolutely.

CALLAWAY: What about Homeland Security, domestically. Will we see the threat increase?

MCCANN: We could, and I think that -- you know, the Homeland Security Department is long passed attributing high warning periods to, like, specific holidays or anything like that. They will raise the threat level when there is specific information that directly shows that an attack could be imminent. Other than that, I think what they'll do is just put it, kind of, under florescent underline, like -- we're still in yellow, but it's bright yellow at the moment.

CALLAWAY: Yes. Thank you. Thank you. That's Kelly McCann, our CNN security analyst putting aside some of the fears people may be having.

MCCANN: Pleasure, Catherine.

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





Ramadan>