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American Morning

Target: Terrorism: Is the New Airport Security Enough?

Aired October 04, 2001 - 11:40   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.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Reagan National reopened today along the Potomac, the last airport to get back to business since the attacks of 9/11. Shuttle flights took off for New York and Boston, with very limited service to other cities. Passengers had to pass through two security checkpoints, show ID twice, and were limited to one carry-on bag. Previous flight last carried planes very near the Pentagon, just about a mile away from Reagan National, and the White House only three miles away. Now some planes will fly different routes, over residential areas. In addition to that, another big safety step, armed air marshals on every flight in and out of Reagan National, which begs the question, is the new security enough?

Peter Goelz is a former director with the NTSB, the National Transportation Safety Board, currently at APCO Worldwide, a Washington-based PR firm.

Hello to you.

PETER GOELZ, FMR. NTSB MANAGING DIR.: Good morning.

HEMMER: Tell us about Reagan National first, armed marshals on that flight. Is this, in your belief, the shape of things to come for every airport, or the greater majority of them across the country?

GOELZ: I think Reagan will always face extraordinary security challenges just because of its location. But I think you are going to see the air marshal program expanding dramatically, whether there is going to be an air marshal on every plane, I don't think anyone is going to tell. But certainly hijackers will have to consider the fact that there will be an armed guard on virtually every flight in the U.S.

HEMMER: Peter, let's broaden our conversation a bit. You well know the big argument in Washington regarding screening has to do with whether or not it is federal oversight or whether or not it is federal employees actually doing the screening. What is your take on this? What's likely to come of it?

GOELZ: It's a complicated debate, and Secretary Mineta yesterday indicated that one of the reasons why he favors a combined private and federal supervision of the screeners is because of federal employment policies. Once you get the screeners into the federal system, it is very difficult to get them out. The costs are expensive. I would think you are going to see the screening process transferred to perhaps the airport securities, with increased federal supervision.

HEMMER: What about steel bars? A couple of airlines coming out this week indicating they will immediately implement steel bars. Good idea in the short term?

GOELZ: Absolutely. First of all, the pilots and the flight crews need to feel as though they have security inside their cabins. I think the steel bars are a good step. It's a good interim measure. You will see planes being retrofitted aggressively over the next year, once a final design is approved by the FAA. I think the steel bars are a good idea.

HEMMER: Peter, in a broad sense also, to passengers, you mentioned the pilots on board inside these cockpits, the passengers, though, who are still apprehensive about travel in the U.S. What is needed to be said to them in terms of a message, and how much time will it take?

GOELZ: Well, I think it is going to take some time to get people back on the planes. But I think people need to see that the government, that the industry are committed to putting every procedure in place to ensure safety, and I think there also has got to be acknowledgement that the president already started, that America's got to get back to work. We cannot let this horrific event on September 11th knock this country down. I think that it has to be a combined program of security steps, of visible actions at the airports and on the -- in the flights and also psychological steps as well.

HEMMER: I think just about everybody would agree with you. In many cases, though, it would appear it is easier said than done. Nonetheless, time will certainly tell.

Peter Goelz in Washington. Thank you, Peter. Come on back, OK?

GOELZ: Thank you.

HEMMER: Much appreciated.

President Bush has asked for National Guard troops to help guard the nation's airports.

And today, members of the Georgia National Guard training for that very duty.

CNN's Kyra Phillips watching the drills in Savannah, Georgia.

Kyra, good morning.

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, Bill.

I was listening to the conversation you were having with Peter there just a moment ago, and he was mentioning safety and protection and security issues. Well, that's exactly what we are going to show you right now.

What you are seeing behind me are the soldiers here at the National Guard Combat Ready Training Center getting ready to practice their mechanics of arrest. Earlier on this morning, we showed you how they were practicing on using their M-9 handguns and getting ready for any type of high-threat situation involving their weapons.

Now we're going to talk about mechanics of arrest. I am going to bring in Colonel Bill Thomas, and he is in charge of these men. He is goign -- will talk about the training going on.

Thank you for being with us sir.

COL. BILL THOMAS: Glad to be here.

PHILLIPS: Why don't you go ahead and tell me what they are going through right now with regard to the specific mechanics.

THOMAS: Well, we try to do a level of escalation starting with just talking to a person and calming them down, up until the point that we would actually detain them. Now we will be working with law enforcement people, so the idea is to let law enforcement make any arrests, and we will just assist them. But we need to know what the law enforcement is doing so we know when to step in and how to be the most helpful.

PHILLIPS: And I know issues at hand here are not only supporting law enforcement, but use of force, safety, force protection, reacting to bomb threats. Can you talk to me about some of the threats that you are preparing for? Obviously a hijack situation would be one. What else?

THOMAS: Well, mainly, what we are trying to do is preventative maintenance, I guess, is the best term, in that we will be working specifically with the security scanners. We want to keep anybody from getting on a plane or into the concourse area now with anything that they could cause problems with. So we are trying to avoid it at the very beginning, and we'll be plussing up whatever security is in place from all of the airports in Georgia.

PHILLIPS: You talk about preventative maintenance. How do you eliminate the weakest link? I guess that's the best way to say it, right?

THOMAS: Yes, the weakest link, a lot of people overlook the fact that some of the terrorists got on at a small airport...

(INTERRUPTED BY LIVE EVENT)

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