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Terror Threat Level Returns to Elevated

Aired September 24, 2002 - 14:00   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.


KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: You may not have noticed, but the official U.S. assessment of terror threats facing Americans is back down to elevated. The change comes two weeks to the day after the threat level was upgraded to high.
CNN's John King is live from White House with more on that -- John.

JOHN KING, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello to you, Kyra. This color code implemented by the Homeland Security Office here at the White House back in March to give the American people, and law enforcement agencies a sense -- at least the best sense the government could give them -- as to what intelligence said about the threat here at home. It had been at yellow since it was implemented in March; as you noted, two weeks ago, that level went up to orange, the day before the September 11 anniversary, the president deciding to raise it to orange, saying the country was at the high risk of terrorist attacks.

Today, after a debate that lasted several days, the president made the decision to put that back down to yellow -- a roll back from orange to yellow, but still the country at an elevated risk of a terrorist attack. This is a difficult decision for the president, based on intelligence, information -- an art, not a science, the press secretary, Ari Fleischer, told us today in explaining why the president decided now was the time to act.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ARI FLEISCHER, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: The determination was made because of the intelligence we have, because of the arrests in the passage of time from September 11. That it is appropriate to always bring the alert level to the level that measures the perceived threat. Keeping the alert level at an artificially high level over time leads to the degradation of the meaning of the level, because it's impossible for the law enforcement community to stay up at that heightened level unless there is sufficient ongoing information to justify it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: The change of the threat level here at home coming on a day in which Mr. Bush publicly complimenting the British prime minister, Tony Blair, for laying out his case with new detail in a British dossier case against Iraq and a call for a tough United Nations Security Council resolution against Iraq, Mr. Bush saying he will continue to work with the British prime minister, hopefully within the confines of the United Nations, but outside of the UN if the UN does not meet the president's demand for a tough new resolution.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: He is willing to use weapons of mass destruction. And the prime minister continues to make the case, and so will I. And I again call for the United Nations to pass a strong resolution holding this man to account, and if there the if they are unable do so, the United States and our friends will act, because we believe in peace. We want to keep the peace. We don't trust this man. That is what the Blair report showed today.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Some critics saying very little if any new information in the British document, the White House saying there is some new information and that even if you don't believe that, if you just read the fact-by-fact analysis of the Iraqi weapons programs, the White House says, no one at the United Nations should be able to walk away without thinking there is an urgent need to confront are the Iraqi dictator -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: So John, this report is very comprehensive and very detailed. My question to you is why didn't the U.S. come out with some type of intelligence report like this. Why did it take Britain to do it?

KING: Well, this administration and even the British government very reluctant to disclose any sources of intelligence information, so it is hard to put out a finding if you are not willing to back it up by where you got the information, the president saying that he doesn't want to put that information out in public because it could choke off future information from key intelligence sources.

This is also the way the United States government and the British government worked hand in hand in the past on issues like this. Remember back at the very beginning of the war on terrorism, it was the British government that had first put out dossier about the abuses, the alleged abuses, under Taliban regime in Afghanistan. This a familiar script, if you will, as the United States, in concert with Great Britain, try to rally world opinion to their side.

PHILLIPS: John King, at the White House. Thanks, John.

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 September 24, 2002 - 14:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: You may not have noticed, but the official U.S. assessment of terror threats facing Americans is back down to elevated. The change comes two weeks to the day after the threat level was upgraded to high.
CNN's John King is live from White House with more on that -- John.

JOHN KING, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello to you, Kyra. This color code implemented by the Homeland Security Office here at the White House back in March to give the American people, and law enforcement agencies a sense -- at least the best sense the government could give them -- as to what intelligence said about the threat here at home. It had been at yellow since it was implemented in March; as you noted, two weeks ago, that level went up to orange, the day before the September 11 anniversary, the president deciding to raise it to orange, saying the country was at the high risk of terrorist attacks.

Today, after a debate that lasted several days, the president made the decision to put that back down to yellow -- a roll back from orange to yellow, but still the country at an elevated risk of a terrorist attack. This is a difficult decision for the president, based on intelligence, information -- an art, not a science, the press secretary, Ari Fleischer, told us today in explaining why the president decided now was the time to act.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ARI FLEISCHER, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: The determination was made because of the intelligence we have, because of the arrests in the passage of time from September 11. That it is appropriate to always bring the alert level to the level that measures the perceived threat. Keeping the alert level at an artificially high level over time leads to the degradation of the meaning of the level, because it's impossible for the law enforcement community to stay up at that heightened level unless there is sufficient ongoing information to justify it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: The change of the threat level here at home coming on a day in which Mr. Bush publicly complimenting the British prime minister, Tony Blair, for laying out his case with new detail in a British dossier case against Iraq and a call for a tough United Nations Security Council resolution against Iraq, Mr. Bush saying he will continue to work with the British prime minister, hopefully within the confines of the United Nations, but outside of the UN if the UN does not meet the president's demand for a tough new resolution.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: He is willing to use weapons of mass destruction. And the prime minister continues to make the case, and so will I. And I again call for the United Nations to pass a strong resolution holding this man to account, and if there the if they are unable do so, the United States and our friends will act, because we believe in peace. We want to keep the peace. We don't trust this man. That is what the Blair report showed today.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Some critics saying very little if any new information in the British document, the White House saying there is some new information and that even if you don't believe that, if you just read the fact-by-fact analysis of the Iraqi weapons programs, the White House says, no one at the United Nations should be able to walk away without thinking there is an urgent need to confront are the Iraqi dictator -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: So John, this report is very comprehensive and very detailed. My question to you is why didn't the U.S. come out with some type of intelligence report like this. Why did it take Britain to do it?

KING: Well, this administration and even the British government very reluctant to disclose any sources of intelligence information, so it is hard to put out a finding if you are not willing to back it up by where you got the information, the president saying that he doesn't want to put that information out in public because it could choke off future information from key intelligence sources.

This is also the way the United States government and the British government worked hand in hand in the past on issues like this. Remember back at the very beginning of the war on terrorism, it was the British government that had first put out dossier about the abuses, the alleged abuses, under Taliban regime in Afghanistan. This a familiar script, if you will, as the United States, in concert with Great Britain, try to rally world opinion to their side.

PHILLIPS: John King, at the White House. Thanks, John.

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