Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Live At Daybreak

America's New War: America Forges on with Largest Criminal Investigation in U.S. History

Aired September 20, 2001 - 08:41   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.
JOHN KING, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The attorney general and the FBI director call that the largest criminal investigation in U.S. history.

And for more on the latest developments, CNN's Eileen O'Connor joins us here in Washington?

EILEEN O'CONNOR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You are right, it is huge. And people are working overtime. ATF, FBI, INS, every federal agency. It's possible that rescue workers, firefighters, police and construction workers are getting close to unearthing one of the flight data recorders of the flights that crashed into the World Trade Center towers.

The FBI cannot confirm this information, but according to a member of Congress, workers at the site are saying they're hearing beeping. They believe it may be coming from one of those flight data recorders. Clearly, the voice recorder would be most helpful to investigators.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I met with some of the construction companies. There are four of them that are clearing the sites and working with the fire. One of them called me last night and said that he thought they had found the black box; that they were removing it, they were hearing beeps, they thought they had the black box.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'CONNOR: Now a chilling piece of evidence was released yesterday in Portland, Maine. It's Mohamed Atta and another suspected hijacker coming through security. Minutes before boarding a flight from Portland, they ended up on American 11, crashing into the World Trade Center. These two suspected hijackers calmly walking through that security gate in Portland, Maine. Investigators are concerned about the possibility of other attacks, but they're waving people off published reports indicating September 22 as a critical day. A spokesman for the FBI said there's no credible evidence relating to that date.

Still, they have been issuing warnings to the military, police and business communities to be aware of suspicious activities, and they are warning of such things as people around water supplies, but again, they say this is an abundance of caution. As for people in custody, authorities took three in Detroit for using false documents. They're looking for a fourth man. But they say the police say, they are not involved in the attacks -- John.

KING: Eileen, thank you very much.

The president will echo some of those comments in his address to Congress. We are told the president, will tell the America people, do not live in fear, but please stay alert.

ZAHN: But one thing they can't really stamp out, John, is the one overwhelming fear that some Americans have, is that terrorists could obtain or use chemical or biological weapons.

Our next guest, John Tucker, knows about all of this. He is a director of chemical and biological weapons, nonproliferation at the Monterey Institute of International Studies.

Good of you to join us. Welcome.

JOHN TUCKER, MONTEREY INST. OF INTL. STUDIES: Good to be with you.

ZAHN: So Americans unfortunately now understand how terrorists can affect us here by relatively conventional means. How real is the threat of biological or chemical attacks?

TUCKER: Well, historically, very few terrorists have tried to acquire chemical or biological weapons, and even fewer have been successful in using them, even on a small scale, and reason is there are very significant technical hurdles that have to be overcome before terrorists could carry out a successful attack, particularly in the biological area. Terrorists would have to acquire a virulent strain of microorganism, produce it in sufficient quantities and then find a way to disseminate it over a large area. They would also have to test the agent to make sure it worked, and overcome the uncertainties of the wind and weather.

So for all of these reasons, terrorists have in the past not been drawn to these weapons, and those few that have, have not been able to use them effectively.

That having been said, it is still a serious threat in the future.

ZAHN: So how should the U.S. deal with that threat?

TUCKER: Well, one thing we need to do is to improve our intelligence, particularly our technical expertise in the intelligence community. We have very limited depth of knowledge among our intelligence agencies in microbiology and chemistry, and we need more analysts with technical backgrounds, because it's very difficult to track the acquisition of chemical and biological weapons. A lot of the technology used to acquire these weapons is dual use. It has legitimate commercial applications. Production of biological weapons can be concealed in vaccine plants, in other commercial facilities. So we need people who are very attuned to these technologies and can penetrate efforts by the terrorists and their sponsors to cover up such activities.

ZAHN: Do you have confidence that the American government can gin up in time to face that threat?

TUCKER: I think there is currently -- this is obviously the highest priority of the American government, and I imagine there will be a very aggressive effort to track terrorists with a particular emphasis on whether they are trying to acquire weapons of mass destruction.

ZAHN: One last question for you, Mr. Tucker, you talked about some of the technical hurdles that someone would have to go through to successfully create biological or chemical weapons. How much would it cost them?

TUCKER: Well, it depends on the capability they're trying to acquire. We know that states have invested millions if not billions of dollars in very sophisticated chemical and biological weapons programs. If terrorists had access to some of this state-level technology, it would be a very substantial shortcut in their acquisition of these weapons. But we don't know the extent to which terrorists have access to either state sponsors in this area or to former weapons scientists, such as those who worked in the Soviet Union's very substantial biological warfare program.

Because of the technical hurdles, I believe it would be difficult for terrorists working alone to acquire these weapons. However, we saw in last week's attack, a remarkably methodical long-term effort to acquire expertise, in that case, people who are trained to fly commercial aircraft. If terrorists were to devote a similar effort to acquisition of chemical and biological technology, they might, over a period of years, be able to obtain this capability.

ZAHN: An extremely frightening thought to most of -- all of America for that matter. Jonathan Tucker thank you very much for trying to make better sense what might ultimately happen. Appreciate your time.

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