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Interview With Author of Terrorism Readiness Report

Aired February 07, 2003 - 13:51   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: Well, how prepared is America if, indeed, a terrorist attack does take place? On the phone with us now, a retired commander in the U.S. Coast Guard, Stephen Flynn, a senior and principle author on the Hart-Rudman Security Task Force report on "Homeland Security: America Still Unprepared and in Danger" -- Commander, can you hear me OK?
CMDR. STEPHEN FLYNN, U.S. COAST GUARD (RET.): I sure can.

PHILLIPS: I appreciate you being with us. Why don't you tell me what exactly you discovered as you started putting together this report?

FLYNN: Well, this group of very distinguished Americans was co- led by former senators Gary Hurt and Warren Rudman. We also had two former secretaries of state and chairmen of the joint chiefs, and three Nobel laureates. It was quite a blue ribbon group of folks.

Basically, we began an assessment in August 2002 in advance of the first anniversary to see where we are with regard to both the threat and in terms of our preparedness to respond to that threat.

Our conclusion in the record that we released in late October was that America was dangerously unprepared to prevent and respond to a catastrophic terrorist attack on U.S. soil, and we are afraid we're not a whole lot better today as this warning has just risen up to the orange level.

PHILLIPS: So what is it? Is it money? Is it lack of training? Is it not enough men and women, not enough bodies?

FLYNN: It is a bit of all of the above. It is the fact that we cannot turn a nation as big and complex as this one on a dime. It takes time. We built the national security establishment we have at the end of the second world war on Ford really for an away game, to take care of problems over there, so we could largely pursue our happiness here at home with the least amount of cost and inconvenience on our lives.

Of course, what changed on September 11, and with the al Qaeda specifically was that they said we are going to change that game book. We are going to come home to your home, and we're going to cause mass disruption in your lives as a means of warfare.

PHILLIPS: So commander, on one hand, we are seeing so many news conferences and reporting so much on the new Homeland Security Department, and all these efforts going forward to protect us, and that we shouldn't worry, and that we should feel secure, and although this high terror threat is coming forward, it's OK, don't worry, we have things under control.

Yet you're telling me you did this report and -- are you saying that that's simply just not true? We are not prepared, and we are not able -- we would not be able to defend ourselves properly?

FLYNN: Look, we're more prepared than we were, certainly, prior to September 11. The federal government has its act together a bit better than where we were prior to that dreadful day. But the fact remains is most of the security that's going to be done, most of the wherewithal to prevent and respond to these acts are going to be taking place at the local level in our major cities, by our fire departments and police departments, and they're going to be taking place by the private sector who owns and operates most of our critical infrastructure.

There we've seen, while Congress passed money at $3.5 billion to go to first responders in the last year's federal budget, that budget has yet to be passed, and it may not even get passed this year. So no money has trickled down to those first responders. We -- in virtually every city in our country, fire departments cannot talk to the police departments because they don't use the same radios. That's a disgraceful state of affairs. They don't have the protective gear to respond to catastrophic-scale events. So there's a lot that needs to be done on an urgent basis that is about money, it is about commitment and leadership to get these very difficult challenges resolved to deal with the threat environment we're in.

PHILLIPS: Retired commander in the U.S. Coast Guard, Stephen Flynn. Sir, thank you for your time. I'm sure we will talk again very soon.

FLYNN: Thank you.

PHILLIPS: All right. Let's bring in our Mike Brooks once again, following all law enforcement and security issues for us. You have some new information.

Why don't you start with the TSA and what your sources have been telling you in the past 45 minutes or so?

MIKE BROOKS, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CORRESPONDENT: Just spoke with one source, an airline source, and they said that the Transportation Security Administration yesterday put out a circular addressing specifically the period of the Hajj, and basically it was a vigilance alert to the airlines that they wanted -- maybe just wanted to make sure that they have all of their security measures in place during this period. Now, will we see anything different at the airports? Probably not, because they've already had additional measures in place since 9/11.

Now, we have screeners, all domestic baggage is now checked. So we probably will not see any additional measures because they already have been in place. But the airlines will send an information circular of their own out to their pilots, to their flight attendants, to their airport customer service people who deal first hand with the public, to let them know to remain vigilant. And that these -- that the alert level -- the threat level has been bumped up one step.

PHILLIPS: All right. So from the sources that you've been talking with, you feel pretty good about the security of our airports right now?

BROOKS: Absolutely. I think right now, and coming from an airport security background prior to CNN, I do feel right now -- that right now is probably the safest time to fly in the United States that we've ever had. But people still have to remain vigilant. And people also have to understand why they will have security lines, and because they will -- the screeners and everyone else, as they go through the airports, will make sure that there is nothing that is going to get on to those airplanes.

PHILLIPS: Our Mike Brooks.

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 February 7, 2003 - 13:51   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, how prepared is America if, indeed, a terrorist attack does take place? On the phone with us now, a retired commander in the U.S. Coast Guard, Stephen Flynn, a senior and principle author on the Hart-Rudman Security Task Force report on "Homeland Security: America Still Unprepared and in Danger" -- Commander, can you hear me OK?
CMDR. STEPHEN FLYNN, U.S. COAST GUARD (RET.): I sure can.

PHILLIPS: I appreciate you being with us. Why don't you tell me what exactly you discovered as you started putting together this report?

FLYNN: Well, this group of very distinguished Americans was co- led by former senators Gary Hurt and Warren Rudman. We also had two former secretaries of state and chairmen of the joint chiefs, and three Nobel laureates. It was quite a blue ribbon group of folks.

Basically, we began an assessment in August 2002 in advance of the first anniversary to see where we are with regard to both the threat and in terms of our preparedness to respond to that threat.

Our conclusion in the record that we released in late October was that America was dangerously unprepared to prevent and respond to a catastrophic terrorist attack on U.S. soil, and we are afraid we're not a whole lot better today as this warning has just risen up to the orange level.

PHILLIPS: So what is it? Is it money? Is it lack of training? Is it not enough men and women, not enough bodies?

FLYNN: It is a bit of all of the above. It is the fact that we cannot turn a nation as big and complex as this one on a dime. It takes time. We built the national security establishment we have at the end of the second world war on Ford really for an away game, to take care of problems over there, so we could largely pursue our happiness here at home with the least amount of cost and inconvenience on our lives.

Of course, what changed on September 11, and with the al Qaeda specifically was that they said we are going to change that game book. We are going to come home to your home, and we're going to cause mass disruption in your lives as a means of warfare.

PHILLIPS: So commander, on one hand, we are seeing so many news conferences and reporting so much on the new Homeland Security Department, and all these efforts going forward to protect us, and that we shouldn't worry, and that we should feel secure, and although this high terror threat is coming forward, it's OK, don't worry, we have things under control.

Yet you're telling me you did this report and -- are you saying that that's simply just not true? We are not prepared, and we are not able -- we would not be able to defend ourselves properly?

FLYNN: Look, we're more prepared than we were, certainly, prior to September 11. The federal government has its act together a bit better than where we were prior to that dreadful day. But the fact remains is most of the security that's going to be done, most of the wherewithal to prevent and respond to these acts are going to be taking place at the local level in our major cities, by our fire departments and police departments, and they're going to be taking place by the private sector who owns and operates most of our critical infrastructure.

There we've seen, while Congress passed money at $3.5 billion to go to first responders in the last year's federal budget, that budget has yet to be passed, and it may not even get passed this year. So no money has trickled down to those first responders. We -- in virtually every city in our country, fire departments cannot talk to the police departments because they don't use the same radios. That's a disgraceful state of affairs. They don't have the protective gear to respond to catastrophic-scale events. So there's a lot that needs to be done on an urgent basis that is about money, it is about commitment and leadership to get these very difficult challenges resolved to deal with the threat environment we're in.

PHILLIPS: Retired commander in the U.S. Coast Guard, Stephen Flynn. Sir, thank you for your time. I'm sure we will talk again very soon.

FLYNN: Thank you.

PHILLIPS: All right. Let's bring in our Mike Brooks once again, following all law enforcement and security issues for us. You have some new information.

Why don't you start with the TSA and what your sources have been telling you in the past 45 minutes or so?

MIKE BROOKS, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CORRESPONDENT: Just spoke with one source, an airline source, and they said that the Transportation Security Administration yesterday put out a circular addressing specifically the period of the Hajj, and basically it was a vigilance alert to the airlines that they wanted -- maybe just wanted to make sure that they have all of their security measures in place during this period. Now, will we see anything different at the airports? Probably not, because they've already had additional measures in place since 9/11.

Now, we have screeners, all domestic baggage is now checked. So we probably will not see any additional measures because they already have been in place. But the airlines will send an information circular of their own out to their pilots, to their flight attendants, to their airport customer service people who deal first hand with the public, to let them know to remain vigilant. And that these -- that the alert level -- the threat level has been bumped up one step.

PHILLIPS: All right. So from the sources that you've been talking with, you feel pretty good about the security of our airports right now?

BROOKS: Absolutely. I think right now, and coming from an airport security background prior to CNN, I do feel right now -- that right now is probably the safest time to fly in the United States that we've ever had. But people still have to remain vigilant. And people also have to understand why they will have security lines, and because they will -- the screeners and everyone else, as they go through the airports, will make sure that there is nothing that is going to get on to those airplanes.

PHILLIPS: Our Mike Brooks.

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