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CNN Live At Daybreak

Homeland Defense: Response to Warning is Concern or Ambivalence

Aired October 12, 2001 - 08:10   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.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: We very much now want to try to figure out how people in the streets are taking to the latest terrorist warning, and for that, we go to CNN's Michael Okwu, who is down on 8th Avenue here in New York.

Michael, how afraid are people this morning?

MICHAEL OKWU, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Paula, we've talked to just a number of people, and the feeling is you -- people say that they're either very concerned about this, or that they're not concerned about it at all.

I spoke to somebody just moments ago, who hadn't even known about this last night and was working all night and just getting off this morning. And when I showed him the paper, he just said, "Well, life goes on."

But let me show you the cover of the -- one of the local papers here -- the "New York Post," that simply says, "Red Alert." And we don't want to be too alarmist about this. We wanted to get a sense of what people down on the street were thinking.

I'm joined here by Ernest Liebowitz (ph), who in fact, you were just coming off work this morning. That's right, right, Ernest?

ERNEST Liebowitz: That's right.

OKWU: Well, when you see this red alert indication that the FBI says that there are going to be warnings, that there may be terrorist attacks in the United States or on U.S. interests overseas, what is your feeling?

Liebowitz: Well, first of all, the cover is a little bit funny. I mean, I thought the red alerts were over with since the Soviet Union fell down. But I'm not that excited. I think the government is doing a lot to counteract all of these problems. And having lived in Israel for about 14 years, I may not be quite as excitable as your average American. So life goes on like I heard somebody else say.

OKWU: You know, it's interesting -- so many of the people that I talk to, my friends included, say we are living in Israel now -- that this is a place, it's a democracy. They live under the threat of terrorist attacks all of the time, and they just conduct their lives as if it's normal.

Would you say that that's, in fact, what we're living in?

Liebowitz: I don't know if it's as critical here and hopefully will not get that serious, you know. But in a sense, we have to learn from that, because you have people live their lives over there.

OKWU: Is it going to change your life at all? Will you change where you go?

Liebowitz: No, not at all. I will not change anything. Well, the exception that there's no more summer stage or whatever it was called by the World Trade Center, which I used to enjoy a lot.

OKWU: OK. Ernest Liebowitz, I thank you very much for your time.

Again, I want to show some of our viewers this headline, "Red Alert -- FBI: New Terror Attacks in Days."

I should tell you, Paula, that last night I was at a social event, and while so many people had different ideas about how they were going to react to this, it was all-consuming. This is what everyone was talking about. New York has been through a lot in the last past month, and it looks like people are sort of hardening to the reality that this is what we may face every day and every week -- Paula.

ZAHN: Yes, Michael, it's interesting, because I have heard two very different reactions. The reaction much like the gentlemen you just talked to said, hey, look, I'm going to try to live my life the way I'm living it. And other people who are actually talking about moving from this region. So it strikes us all in a very different way.

OKWU: That's right. I even talked to some people who said that they were thinking about moving their kids out to school districts outside of the city in various parts of Connecticut and Long Island, where they may have summer homes. And then other people saying, look, this is all so ridiculous -- that to give in to this sort of -- that sort of thinking is really letting the terrorists win.

ZAHN: Yes, there's not much middle ground on this one, is there? OK, Michael, thanks -- see you a little bit later on this morning.

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