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American Morning
Lot of Reaction to Story that About Nuclear Threat Against New York
Aired March 05, 2002 - 07:34 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.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: There has been a lot of reaction to the "Time" magazine cover story that broke yesterday about a nuclear threat against New York a month after the September terrorist attacks. U.S. officials say the article had a string of errors. At the same time, almost every official in and around New York has expressed anger, when they found out that federal officials never even bothered to notify them that a missing Russian nuclear weapon might have been smuggled into New York Harbor.
Joining us again today is Michael Elliot of "Time" magazine. How are you under fire, Michael Elliot?
MICHAEL ELLIOT, "TIME" MAGAZINE: I feel fine. I feel absolutely fine.
ZAHN: Let's talk a little bit about the criticism.
ELLIOT: Well...
ZAHN: Because it's all coming from unnamed administration sources. And essentially, I think if I am understanding the criticism, they are saying the report was overblown.
ELLIOT: Yes, well, you know...
ZAHN: You guys hyped something.
ELLIOT: ... you can -- it's always useful to be able to kind of reach for Shakespeare at 7:30 in the morning, and there's that wonderful line, "Me thinks they doth protest too much." And I think they are protesting too much here.
We made it absolutely plain in our report that the intelligence report of a 10 kiloton bomb that might have been smuggled into New York Harbor was of undetermined reliability. That it had to be checked out, but that it seemed to tally with the report that a Russian source had indicated that one of their nukes had gone missing. So this had to be looked at very, very carefully.
And the point here is not whether or not the story checked out, as people looked at the various reports. It's the fact that no one in New York...
ZAHN: Knew about this potential...
ELLIOT: ... governor's office, mayor's office, police commissioner, knew that senior U.S. officials were taking this threat very, very seriously. And that -- I mean, no one is suggesting that every time someone kind of picks up a phone and says, we've got a nuke in New York Harbor, you know, that there is an announcement, because obviously that would lead to kind of mass panic and mass hysteria.
ZAHN: Sure.
ELLIOT: But the question that the mayor and the governor and the outgoing police commissioner, Commissioner Kerik, were making yesterday was...
ZAHN: They were outraged.
ELLIOT: ... if you guys are taking this seriously, if you guys are spending days or weeks taking this seriously, even if you think it's not going to check out, shouldn't we have known?
ZAHN: Is there any defense for U.S. administration officials not notifying at least the mayor and the governor of the state that this potential plot existed?
ELLIOT: Well, look, I think one of the things that we have learned since September 11 is, is it not -- and the anthrax cases were kind of exhibit A on this. Is the coordination between federal agencies and state and local agencies is, to put it mildly, not perfect?
Now, that presumably is part of Governor Ridge's mission as director of Homeland Security to make sure that the right people get to know about threats that are being taken seriously, not to scare the bejeezus out of everyone, but to make sure that everyone with appropriate responsibilities, whether it's law enforcement or customs, or whether it's a governor's office or a mayor's office, is in the loop on something that senior federal officials are devoting sufficient time to to indicate that it's a serious threat.
ZAHN: Well, it remains to be seen exactly what the city would have done...
ELLIOT: I don't think...
ZAHN: ... had they been notified about this plan.
ELLIOT: Well, sure. Sure.
ZAHN: And a little later on this morning, we have John Timoney, the outgoing police commissioner of Philadelphia...
ELLIOT: Absolutely. Right.
ZAHN: ... as well as a former FBI agent who will (UNINTELLIGIBLE) all that.
ELLIOT: A great guy incidentally, yes.
ZAHN: Can I move you someplace else?
ELLIOT: Sure.
ZAHN: Let's take a look at some of the CNN polling that was done on Americans' attitudes towards Muslims.
ELLIOT: Right.
ZAHN: The question was asked is U.S. military action in Afghanistan morally justified. Seventy-seven percent said yes, 12 percent said unjustified. Is that number striking to you in any way?
ELLIOT: Not at the 77 percent level, no. I mean, I suppose there will always be, you know, a few who will have moral qualms about it. Twelve percent, you know, to an extent, it strikes me as a little -- a tiny little bit high. But you know, I think there are always some people who are bothered about military force.
ZAHN: Here's another interesting one. The question was asked if Muslim countries should adopt western values. And essentially 68 percent said they would be better off, 15 percent worse off...
ELLIOT: Right.
ZAHN: ... no difference at all, 11 percent.
ELLIOT: I think that's a problem actually. I think that's a problem, because I think it kind of -- it sends a message to the rest of the world that our view is that there is only one way. You know, that there is only one way of living, there is only one way of (UNINTELLIGIBLE), there is only one way of worshipping, you know. And...
ZAHN: Is that a nice way of saying we are arrogant, Michael?
ELLIOT: And I think -- well, I'm -- you know, too early in the morning to accuse anyone of such a venal sin as arrogance. But I think it is -- I think there is -- that sort of response is read outside the U.S. in a slightly troubling way. It's -- you know, they want us to be just like them. They want us to crush our own -- they want to crush our culture. They want us to worship in the same way that we do. They don't want to pay attention to our traditions and so on and so forth.
Now, you know, look, after what happened on September 11, I give a kind of, you know, free pass to anyone who wants to kind of criticize some aspects of the Muslim world. It's hard not to. But I think occasionally that sort of attitude can come across as, unfortunately, arrogant. Yes.
ZAHN: And in closing, it has certainly borne out of the opinion that the U.S. residents have of Muslim nations. Twenty-four percent have a favorable view, 41 percent unfavorable, 33 percent neutral. What (UNINTELLIGIBLE) there? ELLIOT: The lesson there is we both have to do a lot more work.
ZAHN: Michael Elliot -- good to see you.
ELLIOT: Thank you.
ZAHN: See you same time, same place tomorrow morning.
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