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American Morning

Homeland Defense: Security Still Increased

Aired November 02, 2001 - 10:07   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.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: On Capitol Hill, they are talking about aviation security. It passed last night in the House. However, this is not a done deal yet.

Kate Snow has with more now, live on the Hill.

Kate, good morning.

KATE SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Bill, good morning.

In the end, a lot of members on the House were jumping on board with the White House to pass this aviation security bill. But the more crucial vote happened earlier in the evening yesterday, and it was a reflection of just how contentious this battle was over how to make the skies and airports safer.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: On this vote, the ayes are 214; the nays are 218. The amendment is not agreed to.

SNOW (voice-over): By just four votes, the House rejected the democratic version of the airport security bill, instead delivering the president what he wanted -- federal oversight of airport security screening with the option of using private companies to do the job.

REP. JOHN THUNE (R), SOUTH DAKOTA: The bottom line is public safety. The president of the United States has asked for the authority to decide whether or not at various airports that end, public safety is better achieved by the use of federal employees or by the use of private contractors.

SNOW: But winning that argument was a struggle. Democrats railed against the Republican approach and pushed hard to make security screeners at the nation's largest airports federal employees.

REP. PETER DEFAZIO (D), OREGON: They're going to take the private security employees, the same ones that are failing us today, some of them are even convicted felons, some are illegal aliens, but they're going to put federal uniforms on them -- they're even going to deputize them, but guess what, they're not going to be federal law enforcement. They're trying to fool the American public.

SNOW: They nearly won, but six Democrats sided with the president and Republican leaders put enormous pressure on their own, according to one congressman, offering favors, money for projects back home in exchange for votes. At the White House the president made a personal appeal to the undecided.

REP. SHERWOOD BOEHLERT (R), NEW YORK: I'll tell you who's right in this case.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The president.

BOEHLERT: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What did he say to you?

BOEHLERT: Well, he -- he told us how important it is to deal with this issue in a timely manner.

SNOW: The bill calls for stronger cockpit doors, air marshals on flights, screening for checked baggage, background checks for non Americans seeking flight training at aviation schools and to pay for security enhancements, passengers would pay a fee, $2.50 per one-way trip.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

The issues are contained in both the bill that passed last night in the House and also the Senate bill, but the Senate bill and the House bill differ on that contentious point about who should do security screening. The Senate bill says it should be Senate employees. The House, as you know, said it could be either them or private companies.

If the Senate bill passed last night, this could have all gone to the president as one bill, but because there are differences between the House and the Senate, a committee will have to work out these differences, and that could take some time, with two very entrenched points of view, Bill.

Finally, none of these measures are going to go into place right away. The bill will probably take some time to implement no matter which bill passes ultimately and gets to the president. It might take a matter of months before the flying public notices in any difference.

Back to you, Bill.

HEMMER: Kate, there is something in the bill that talks about liability for companies that were impacted or affected by the impacts of 9/11. It is said that that help put the passage over in the House. Can you explain what this liability measure means?

SNOW: It was added on a couple of nights ago, sort of at the last minute. It was an appeal to the Republicans from New York to try and get some votes from those New York Republicans. And what it is is it shields companies involved in these attacks, anybody that might be sued because of what happened on 9/11. For example, the company that makes the glass for the World Trade Center or Boeing, that made the planes. Any of those related companies, it would shield them from being sued and would limit their liability in lawsuits.

It did attract a lot of votes from the state of New York. Democrats say that is going to be a real problem because that's on the House bill -- remember, that's not on the Senate bill, so now they have to reconcile these differences. They say that alone could a real sticking point causing them not to be able to come to a compromise very quickly.

HEMMER: A lot more to come. Kate, thanks, Kate Snow, in Washington.

What does the White House have to say about the latest terrorism threat?

For that we check in at the White House and CNN's Kelly Wallace, who joins us with that perspective.

Kelly, good morning.

KELLY WALLACE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Bill.

I just came out of Ari Fleischer's, the press secretary's, daily meeting with reporters. Lots of questions about the White House reaction to the way California Gov. Gray Davis handled the release of this information, the alert from the FBI to local law enforcement officials along the West Coast, uncorroborated information, according to Justice Department officials, unspecified reports about the possibility of terrorist attacks involving suspension bridges. Ari Fleischer said Davis did not notify the White House before going public, but that he did speak with Tom Ridge, the president's Homeland Security director last night and that Gov. Ridge is talking with Gov. Davis, saying that governors have a difficult job to do and that the White House respects the way the governor decided to handle this, that if the governor decided not to handle it, the White House would have respected that. If he decided it was in the best interest of California to release it, the White House respects that as well.

Ari Fleischer was asked, though, should there be some sort of standard system for how local law enforcement agencies and how state and local officials handle this? Should there be a general approach, any advice from the White House? Ari Fleischer said there is no one- size-fits-all approach. He said this is a difficult situation, that governors have a difficult job to do.

Again, the FBI felt it important to release this information to local law enforcement, but the message, Bill, from the White House is it up to the local and the state officials about what they decide the best way to handle that information is -- Bill.

HEMMER: Kelly, in the near term, this morning anyway, the focus will be on the economy, at White House. The jobs numbers came out earlier today. Well up, 5.4 percent, the biggest jump in 21 years. What's being talked about there thus far on that?

WALLACE: As you know, Bill, even worse than most economists predicted. We know, just moments from now, really, about 10 minutes from now, the president will be meeting, in the Oval Office, with his labor secretary and also his treasury secretary, to talk about these numbers, Ari Fleischer saying the president is concerned, saying one American out of a job is one too many, in his view.

But you will also hear the president use these new numbers to press Congress again, the message from the White House, further proof that the Senate needs to finish up work on an economic stimulus package and get one to his desk very soon, Bill -- the same message we heard earlier in the week, when we learned, in the third quarter, the economy had the biggest drop in about ten years. So look for Mr. Bush to press Congress to pass a bill to give a boost to the economy -- Bill.

HEMMER: Kelly, thank you.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HEMMER: In New Jersey, the acting governor there is asking for federal help in testing every post office in the state. Three tainted letters have been processed there, and seven people are believed to be infected.

Meanwhile, investigators in New York say the anthrax that killed a woman in the Bronx is virtually identical to the bacteria found elsewhere. But the question still remaining how did she contract it?

CNN's Jason Carroll is outside her former workplace, at the Manhattan Eye, Ear, and Throat Hospital, on the Upper East Side in Manhattan.

Jason, good morning.

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Bill.

Doctors took a culture from Kathy Nguyen and we able to confirmed that the strain of anthrax that killed her is the same strain of anthrax found in the letters sent to Sen. Tom Daschle's office and to several media organizations, including NBC. That could indicate that that bacteria came from the same source, but at this point, they still have no indication of how Kathy Nguyen was initially exposed to anthrax.

At this point, investigators have done an environmental check of the hospital where she worked. They have also done an environmental check of her apartment, in the Bronx. Those test results have come back negative.

In other developing news in Manhattan, more tests have come back from the Morgan Processing Facility. That is the mail processing facility here in Manhattan where traces of anthrax were found on four mail-sorting machines up on the third floor. More tests results are back: Two more machines are found have traces of anthrax. That brings the total number of machines to six. Health officials are recommending the employees there take additional 50 day supply of Cipro. As you can imagine, there are plenty of employees showing up for work this morning concerned about their safety. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... letting us know what's happening, and we are still working in here. I feel if they keep finding these spores on different machines, it has to be in the air.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All management is telling us is to take Cipro for a longer period of time. And it's frightening.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If we were in danger, we wouldn't be here, OK? I mean, these people are coming in. Do you know what I'm saying? They are cleaning it out, they are taking it away. So if we were in danger, I don't think they would let us stay here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARROLL: The postal union wants that facility shut down while environmental tests are completed. On Tuesday, they will go to a federal judge to ask that that facility be shut down.

In the meantime, the facility remains open but the Manhattan Eye, Ear, and Throat Hospital remains closed while environmental testing is completed here -- Bill.

HEMMER: Jason Carroll, in Manhattan, thanks.

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