Return to Transcripts main page
Live From...
Al Qaeda Plotting Another Airline Attack?
Aired July 29, 2003 - 15:07 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.
CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SR. POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: A warning today about possible plans to launch another September 11, and soon. U.S. airlines are now on notice, al Qaeda terrorists may be plotting another attack with hijacked passenger planes.
Here to tell us more, CNN homeland security correspondent Jeanne Meserve.
Jeanne, exactly what does this mean? Where does this come from?
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, it comes from interrogations of high-level Al Qaeda operatives, according to intelligent sources. There also are some other sources of the information. Those, however, are not being divulged at this point in time.
What these al Qaeda detainees have told them, apparently, is that there is a possibility of future hijackings, that these could take place over the summer months, that they could take place against targets in the U.S. or perhaps overseas. Officials do tell me that one of the interesting things about is that it would differ from 9/11, from what they understand, in that the hijackers might not need to have training to actually fly aircraft.
They also say there is a possibility that the hijackers would try to convince passengers on board the plane that they were dealing with a conventional hostage sort of hijacking, rather than a situation where a plane would be used as a weapon. That, officials theorize, might be an attack by the hijackers to defuse the possibility of passenger preemptive action. You'll remember United Flight 93. On September 11, passengers on that plane did have word that aircraft had gone into the World Trade Center and so they took matters into their own hands and brought that aircraft down into a field in the state of Pennsylvania.
The credibility of all of this information is still being vetted. Some officials are voicing some skepticism about it, one government official calling it dubious, but serious enough that the Department of Homeland Security chose to put out this advisory to the aviation community and also to state and local law enforcement, Candy.
CROWLEY: Has the aviation community responded? Any change at the airports at the airports in terms of security?
MESERVE: Nothing that anyone has been explicit about. Officials say that they don't want to give a blueprint to the hijackers. I'm told, however, that there will be some additional security measures taken. Probably, those will be most visible at the nation's largest airports.
They do emphasize, of course, that, already, there have been significant steps taken to tighten aircraft and airport security. There are now reinforced bulletproof doors on the cockpits of aircraft. There are now federalized screening of passengers and also of baggage. And there are also air marshals on flights, thousands of them flying, I'm told, every day of the year -- Candy.
CROWLEY: Thanks so much, Jeanne Meserve, homeland security correspondent. Appreciate it.
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 July 29, 2003 - 15:07 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SR. POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: A warning today about possible plans to launch another September 11, and soon. U.S. airlines are now on notice, al Qaeda terrorists may be plotting another attack with hijacked passenger planes.
Here to tell us more, CNN homeland security correspondent Jeanne Meserve.
Jeanne, exactly what does this mean? Where does this come from?
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, it comes from interrogations of high-level Al Qaeda operatives, according to intelligent sources. There also are some other sources of the information. Those, however, are not being divulged at this point in time.
What these al Qaeda detainees have told them, apparently, is that there is a possibility of future hijackings, that these could take place over the summer months, that they could take place against targets in the U.S. or perhaps overseas. Officials do tell me that one of the interesting things about is that it would differ from 9/11, from what they understand, in that the hijackers might not need to have training to actually fly aircraft.
They also say there is a possibility that the hijackers would try to convince passengers on board the plane that they were dealing with a conventional hostage sort of hijacking, rather than a situation where a plane would be used as a weapon. That, officials theorize, might be an attack by the hijackers to defuse the possibility of passenger preemptive action. You'll remember United Flight 93. On September 11, passengers on that plane did have word that aircraft had gone into the World Trade Center and so they took matters into their own hands and brought that aircraft down into a field in the state of Pennsylvania.
The credibility of all of this information is still being vetted. Some officials are voicing some skepticism about it, one government official calling it dubious, but serious enough that the Department of Homeland Security chose to put out this advisory to the aviation community and also to state and local law enforcement, Candy.
CROWLEY: Has the aviation community responded? Any change at the airports at the airports in terms of security?
MESERVE: Nothing that anyone has been explicit about. Officials say that they don't want to give a blueprint to the hijackers. I'm told, however, that there will be some additional security measures taken. Probably, those will be most visible at the nation's largest airports.
They do emphasize, of course, that, already, there have been significant steps taken to tighten aircraft and airport security. There are now reinforced bulletproof doors on the cockpits of aircraft. There are now federalized screening of passengers and also of baggage. And there are also air marshals on flights, thousands of them flying, I'm told, every day of the year -- Candy.
CROWLEY: Thanks so much, Jeanne Meserve, homeland security correspondent. Appreciate it.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
