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American Morning

In Six Months Since 9/11, Government's Issued Four Broad Terrorist Alerts

Aired March 11, 2002 - 07:07   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.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: In the six months since 9/11, the government's issued four broad terrorist alerts. The latest one was due to expire today. And homeland security director Tom Ridge is unveiling a new warning system that provides even more precise information about the likelihood of an attack and the immediacy of a terrorist threat.

The new system is color coded to reflect degrees of danger -- critical, serious alert and ready.

Meanwhile, nearly three fourths of Americans surveyed for a just released CNN/"USA Today"/Gallup poll say time has not healed America's wounds. And just three percent believe life has completely returned to normal.

The question this morning on so many minds is could 9/11 happen again?

James Kallstrom is New York State's chief of public security and as assistant director of the FBI, he led the investigation into the crash of TWA Flight 800. And James Kallstrom joins us now from New York. Brave man to come out here without a jacket this morning.

JAMES KALLSTROM, NEW YORK PUBLIC SECURITY DIRECTOR: Good morning.

ZAHN: How are you doing this morning?

KALLSTROM: I'm doing fine.

ZAHN: I know you lost a number of friends on 9/11. Describe to us what's going through your mind this morning.

KALLSTROM: Well, I think it's a good time to reflect back on the tremendous tragedy and I think that poll is a good poll. People should not forget the tragedy and they should not forget what we have to do together as a nation. It's going to take a long time for us to be successful against this terrorism.

ZAHN: You obviously, in your new job with the State of New York, are intimately familiar with all these warnings that come down. Is New York any better prepared today to withstand a terrorist attack than it was on 9/11? KALLSTROM: Absolutely. I mean when I came back here, the governor asked me to come back, I knew we had a great team of people here because I spent so much time here. And, you know, in the last six months now a lot of planning, a lot of people at every level of government, I mean from the little police department in upstate New York to the NYPD to the CIA to the FBI, all working together as a team.

So we're a lot better off than we were six months ago.

ZAHN: Tell us about this new threat system that is being unveiled by Governor Tom Ridge, now director of homeland security. What should it mean to the average American out there?

KALLSTROM: Well, you know, after the tragedy, every state, every locality had their own system of alerting the public based on, you know, what would come out of Washington. And it was very, very confusing. And, of course, it is a very confusing time because we don't have the type of intelligence that would really let us focus on a particular target or a particular group. We don't know what we don't know.

So at least to have everybody on the same sheet of music, you know, from the standpoint of the same nomenclature, the same semantics, I think would be really helpful.

ZAHN: Walk us back to what happened in October. "Time" magazine broke a story last week that there was a threat that was believed to be credible at the time that later turned out not to be, that perhaps there was a barge headed into the harbor with a 10 kiloton nuclear bomb. The fallout from this story came afterwards when it was learned that no one in the New York State of government was apparently notified. Is that true?

KALLSTROM: Well, you know, there's so many threats every day, you know, and that threat, you know, a lot of them get up in the gray area, you know, where there's no definitive information. And that threat actually was something that was told to most people, but without the definition that came out later in the "Time" magazine article.

So it's very, very difficult to separate these uncorroborated, unsubstantiated threats that came from people of unknown reliability and they happen every day, you know? So that was not the big deal it was. Could it have happened? You know, could a nuclear weapon come into the United States? Unfortunately, it could. So obviously we have to take all these things seriously. But without any definition and without any information, it's really hard to react to it.

ZAHN: Are you confident that a would be hijacker is going to be stopped at these airports today, given the new security guidelines that are in place?

KALLSTROM: Well, you know...

ZAHN: You know, nine of the 16 hijackers were stopped. They were looked at again.

KALLSTROM: Right.

ZAHN: And the box cutters were on them.

KALLSTROM: Right.

ZAHN: And apparently they weren't stopped.

KALLSTROM: Well, it's a work in progress, obviously. Aviation security, you know, changing our whole immigration policy so we know a little bit more of who's coming in the United States and taking a fingerprint or photograph of them.

But I think so. I think, you know, a couple of things. The cockpit doors are now secure. That's a huge plus. Everybody on the plane is a sky marshal. That's a huge plus. And then as we move through all these changes in security, you know, obviously we're in a lot better position from that type of terrorist situation than we were before. But we still have a long way to go in so many areas.

And the way we have to do it is to stay together as a people. That's the most important thing. And, of course, the leadership at every level is absolutely critical.

ZAHN: I know when you took this new job you realized how challenging it was going to be. But is it even more challenging than you thought it would be?

KALLSTROM: It's challenging but, you know, people in my former life in the FBI and CIA, you know, as shocked as we were that day to see that catastrophe and, you know, the sympathy we have today thinking about all the families that were destroyed and people jumping off the top of that building and people in the Pentagon. You know, we weren't surprised by it, Paula. You know, there have been a string of terrorist attacks against this country starting back in '93 and a whole litany of them, the towers in Kobar, the embassies, the USS Cole, you know, Ramsey Yousef's plot to blow up 11 jetliners, the plot against the tunnels.

So this war has been going on for a long time. It moved back to the United States with this tremendous event that shocked so many people and shocked us and angered us.

ZAHN: A final thought as you look over your right shoulder and you look downtown to what used to be the World Trade Center.

KALLSTROM: Yes, I still cannot get used to not seeing the buildings there. I mean I came up back up here yesterday on the train and, you know, to look out the window and not see the towers is just something that still hasn't sunk into my memory and, you know, my whole psyche of myself. And I'm sure that's the way most people feel about it.

ZAHN: Well, we appreciate your joining us this morning, Jim Kallstrom. KALLSTROM: Thank you.

ZAHN: Best of luck to you in your new job.

KALLSTROM: Thank you very much.

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