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American Morning
The Big Question: What is Terror Threat Level Right Now?
Aired March 12, 2002 - 07:16 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: The big question at this hour, what is the terror threat level right now? Homeland security chief Tom Ridge says a new terror alert early warning system will provide a common vocabulary for federal, state and local law enforcement. The multi- level, multi-colored system is designed, as you can see, to give specific guidance when there is a new terrorist threat. And homeland security chief Ridge will unveil it officially in just a couple of hours.
He joins us now with a preview from the White House.
Good morning. Good to see you again, sir.
TOM RIDGE, HOMELAND SECURITY DIRECTOR: Great, Paula. Nice to be with you this morning. Thank you.
ZAHN: Thank you for standing by for us.
Describe to us what this alert system might mean to the average American and how they live their life.
RIDGE: Well, it's a wonderful question because this national threat advisory system, as you alluded to earlier, creates a national framework and a common vocabulary that hopefully everyone will understand once we get into its usage on a day to day basis. But the advisory system simply deals with our assessment of the risk. And the second portion of the advisory system is something that we are working very closely with state and local governments and the private sector so that they come up with various measures of readiness and preparedness.
And I've seen it already happening around the country. I mean Mayor Williams here in D.C. has already issued some information and pamphlets telling the citizens of the nation's capital what to do under certain circumstances. I've seen it in Houston. They're doing it in Winston-Salem.
So as we've traveled around the country seeing how communities have begun to prepare their communities in anticipation of the possibility of a terrorist attack, once we have a threat advisory system and then with the commensurate measures of preparedness, I think the communities and families and individuals will feel much more comfortable than they are today. They'll know exactly what to do with a particular condition that occurs. ZAHN: So it is entirely the state's responsibility, then, to decide how to react to the level of threat or how much federal intervention will there be?
RIDGE: Well, we're going to work with our state and local counterparts to come up with these protective measures. As I said before, one half of the system is what is the information community, the intelligence community, how have they concluded the level of risk, maybe, at a given day. But the real work or a lot of the basic work has to be done at the local level. As we have these various levels of threat they have to determine what they will do to protect their community if the situation occurs where the threat level rises.
And so you're going to have the communities engaged in preparing for the possibility of a terrorist attack. And I think that's a very, very good component and good characteristic of this threat advisory system.
ZAHN: I know that Mayor Michael Bloomberg was a guest on the air yesterday and he said he had a personal conversation where you absolutely assured him that he will know about every threat that may involve the New York area. Now, that is different than what happened back in October when there seemed to be a credible threat that someone was coming to New York Harbor with a 10 kiloton nuclear bomb. And that later turned out to be a false threat.
But state officials maintain they were never notified. Did you concede yesterday, then, with Mayor Michael Bloomberg that was a mistake and perhaps state officials in New York should have been notified?
RIDGE: Well, I had a very good, actually, I had several very good conversations with officials in New York and I assured them, as the president has promised, if we receive credible information about a specific threat, we will share it. And I will tell you that the information with regard to that 10 kiloton suitcase bomb was viewed by the intelligence community as lacking credibility. And since it lacked any credibility whatsoever, that information was not shared.
I mean literally on a day to day basis, Paula, the intelligence community gathers all kinds of information, misinformation, fabrication. And they do have to make a determination as to whether or not it is credible, whether or not we can corroborate it, how specific it is, the gravity of the potential threat. And these are the kinds of calculations that go into this threat advisory system.
So the reason that they were not informed of that particular situation was that the intelligence community was united in their conclusion that it was not, it was not a credible threat.
ZAHN: Governor Ridge, I just wanted to quickly close with information that have, I believe the federal authorities now have charged a man with possession of chemical weapons on Monday. This was a man who apparently was storing it in Chicago, storing over a pound of cyanide. Do we know anything more this morning about what he was up to? RIDGE: We don't know anything more about that. I was advised of that over the weekend. They continue their investigation of this individual. You had an adult along with a juvenile in places that he shouldn't have been. They did a chemical analysis on some of the material that he had with him. But it's an ongoing investigation.
ZAHN: All right, we are going to leave it there this morning.
RIDGE: Thanks, Paula.
ZAHN: Governor Tom Ridge, thank you for the preview and the update.
RIDGE: Thank you.
ZAHN: And we should make it clear to our audience this color coded warning system will be under review for the next 45 days and then I guess within a 90 day period it may become official.
Thanks again.
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