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Interview With Charles Slepian

Aired September 10, 2003 - 13:56   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.


HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Charles Slepian is the head of Foreseeable Risks Analysis Center which evaluates security issues. He's joining us now this afternoon from Washington.
Mr. Slepian, thanks for being here. What about this? Could anybody do this?

CHARLES SLEPIAN, FORESEEABLE RISKS ANALYSIS CENTER: Well, apparently anybody can. He did us a favor, think, by focusing the attention, really, of the nation of how serious this issue remains.

We are still in the phase of playing catch up. We know that we have a problem with our cargo security. We talk about it. There's some experimentation with our technology. But we are surely not up to speed if somebody can put himself into a box and ship himself to any destination he want.

Just think about what could have happened if he were a suicide bomber.

COLLINS: Mr. Slepian, I don't mean to put you on the spot, but I am just wondering if you could prioritize in your mind, what are the top three most pressing things that the airports need to do to get things at least better on track or faster on track to make things more safe?

SLEPIAN: Well, Heidi, you know that I have a long-standing argument with the way we are handling the back of the airport.

First of all, we need to move security from inside the terminals and spread it out to the ramp area of the airport, we need to deal with the people who work out there, we need to check cargo, we need to check baggage. We're just simply not doing it.

Putting a person in a box and shipping themselves is one thing, but the ability to put an explosive device into baggage or into cargo or on to an airplane by people who work in the back of the airport or have access to the back of the airport, is, as far as I'm concerned, of the most serious problem.

And we need to put security back there to see to it that everybody who works back there goes through the same kind of searching that passengers go through inside of the airport. And let me say, the law requires it.

COLLINS: Are people being misled when they travel, Mr. Slepian, about the explosive detection systems that their bags are going through? Do they feel like they are safe and yet they are not?

SLEPIAN: Well, I don't really believe that the public feels entirely safe. I think we're being misled when we think -- or at least when we are being told that everything that can be done is being done to make sure that there are no weapons or explosives put that baggage on board airplanes.

It's just not the fact. I mean, these things can happen and they can happen easily. We are doing some things, a certain percentage of baggage goes through electronic systems to detect explosives. But it also -- an awful lot of it does not get searched that way, it's hand searched, it's sniffed by dogs. We use other ways of attempting to accomplish this.

We really need to put security in the back of the airport so that we make sure that when a bag goes down the belt, particularly now when it's unlocked, that no body slips something into that bag before it's bored onto a plane.

COLLINS: In your words many time before, much improvement to be made still even at this juncture.

Mr. Charles Slepian, head of the Foreseeable Risk Analysis Center, thanks for your time today.

SLEPIAN: Thank you.

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 10, 2003 - 13:56   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Charles Slepian is the head of Foreseeable Risks Analysis Center which evaluates security issues. He's joining us now this afternoon from Washington.
Mr. Slepian, thanks for being here. What about this? Could anybody do this?

CHARLES SLEPIAN, FORESEEABLE RISKS ANALYSIS CENTER: Well, apparently anybody can. He did us a favor, think, by focusing the attention, really, of the nation of how serious this issue remains.

We are still in the phase of playing catch up. We know that we have a problem with our cargo security. We talk about it. There's some experimentation with our technology. But we are surely not up to speed if somebody can put himself into a box and ship himself to any destination he want.

Just think about what could have happened if he were a suicide bomber.

COLLINS: Mr. Slepian, I don't mean to put you on the spot, but I am just wondering if you could prioritize in your mind, what are the top three most pressing things that the airports need to do to get things at least better on track or faster on track to make things more safe?

SLEPIAN: Well, Heidi, you know that I have a long-standing argument with the way we are handling the back of the airport.

First of all, we need to move security from inside the terminals and spread it out to the ramp area of the airport, we need to deal with the people who work out there, we need to check cargo, we need to check baggage. We're just simply not doing it.

Putting a person in a box and shipping themselves is one thing, but the ability to put an explosive device into baggage or into cargo or on to an airplane by people who work in the back of the airport or have access to the back of the airport, is, as far as I'm concerned, of the most serious problem.

And we need to put security back there to see to it that everybody who works back there goes through the same kind of searching that passengers go through inside of the airport. And let me say, the law requires it.

COLLINS: Are people being misled when they travel, Mr. Slepian, about the explosive detection systems that their bags are going through? Do they feel like they are safe and yet they are not?

SLEPIAN: Well, I don't really believe that the public feels entirely safe. I think we're being misled when we think -- or at least when we are being told that everything that can be done is being done to make sure that there are no weapons or explosives put that baggage on board airplanes.

It's just not the fact. I mean, these things can happen and they can happen easily. We are doing some things, a certain percentage of baggage goes through electronic systems to detect explosives. But it also -- an awful lot of it does not get searched that way, it's hand searched, it's sniffed by dogs. We use other ways of attempting to accomplish this.

We really need to put security in the back of the airport so that we make sure that when a bag goes down the belt, particularly now when it's unlocked, that no body slips something into that bag before it's bored onto a plane.

COLLINS: In your words many time before, much improvement to be made still even at this juncture.

Mr. Charles Slepian, head of the Foreseeable Risk Analysis Center, thanks for your time today.

SLEPIAN: Thank you.

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