Return to Transcripts main page

American Morning

CNN Looks at Americans' Terror Response

Aired May 24, 2002 - 07:12   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: As terror threats are made public, officials run the risk of creating a climate of fear. A new CNN/USA Today/Gallup Poll finds the number of Americans who believe a terrorist attack in the United States is likely in the next few weeks is on the rise: 21 percent now believe an attack is very likely; 44 percent believe one is somewhat likely.

Let's turn now to CNN security analyst, former Special Operations officer J. Kelly McCann.

He joins us from Washington -- good to see you -- good morning.

J. KELLY MCCANN, FORMER SPECIAL OPERATIONS OFFICER: Hi, Paula.

ZAHN: I wanted to go deeper into this poll and put some more statistics up on the screen for you to analyze. There was also the question of our government's ability to protect us, and about one- fifth of Americans have a great deal of confidence, and just as many are pessimistic. Where are you on that spectrum?

MCCANN: Well, I think the standard has changed, and in fact, the standard may be now to impede, interrupt, prevent, but perhaps not catch initially, anyway, the people who would perpetrate these kinds of crimes. It's a very, very fluid environment, and we're getting intelligence from very different sources -- very hard to corroborate.

So I think everyone is turning now to creating an untenable environment for the bad guy to get in motion and risk an operation. And that may be good enough.

ZAHN: So what's so untenable about the current environment? I mean, haven't we basically scared the wits out of every American? They are not feeling too comfortable getting on trains, because of the travel advisory of the Department of Transportation. You've got the landmark threats, and then you've got the daily threats.

MCCANN: Sure. It's a bad situation, obviously, for people, but you know, people have to remember they have a life. This is the only one they get, and they should, you know, not waste it in fear.

The untenable environment goes to, Paula, understanding that these guys that are perpetrating these terrorist acts are not afraid of going to jail. They are not afraid of dying. What they are afraid of is failure. They are afraid of failure in the face of their peers, and they are afraid of failure in the face of their own organization, who has put them out there with funding in order to do a specific task.

So to the extent possible that we can make an environment that is more uncertain than it normally would be -- we have a higher percentage or a probability of making them choose another date, push it back, etcetera? And at the moment, that might be the most clever thing we can do.

ZAHN: I spoke with Tipper Gore yesterday about the impact she thinks these warnings are having on the American psyche, and here is what she had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TIPPER GORE, NATIONAL MENTAL HEALTH AWARENESS CAMPAIGN: I am experiencing this, and I know other people are as well. And they are talking about it, an alert a day practically. It's not very specific.

Americans want the information. We want to know what's going on. But then we want to be told what to do. And if you frighten someone but you don't give them a solution to that frightened state, then you leave them anxious, frightened, wondering what to do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZAHN: So in your judgment, Kelly, what is it that Americans are supposed to do, and what is this state of alert we are supposed to be in?

MCCANN: Well, every American -- remember on this network, we have talked about the endurance that we are going to need to get through this. This is the new landscape, and we're never going to lean back and say, boy, am I glad that's over. This is the way it is, because the illusion of invincibility here in the United States is gone, regardless of what organization chooses to find a vulnerability, whether it's al Qaeda or somebody totally unrelated.

So this is the new reality. The thing that people have to remember is that the very basic element of the grassroots side is there are so many citizens here. They truly -- and I have said this so many times -- they are the eyes and ears. And it is a force multiplier to the military, to the police agencies, to the federal agencies that they are out and amongst where these criminals or where these terrorists are. It is their powers of observation, and their finding things that are strange, that are odd, that are unusual, things we have had on your show before, that will alert people who are in duty status to interrupt.

And I know that sounds like vague and intangible advice, but it is the thing that will make the difference, and people just have to get their head around that.

ZAHN: And I'm going to up on the screen some of your recommendations to keep people alert here: videotaping, note taking, site survey, feigning an "incident." And against that backdrop, though, a lot of this information that has come in has come in, apparently, from Abu Zubaydah, who has been questioned by authorities overseas.

But yesterday, a former CIA agent was saying that he thinks Zubaydah is playing us. He might even be making stuff up to put us in this state of terror.

MCCANN: Sure. He has been described to me as near brilliant. Bin Laden surrounded himself, like any good businessman, with brilliant people. He was kind of like the character in the Peter Lorie movies that had the strange voice but knew everybody. He spoke five languages. He was a facilitator, so he met people coming and going. And al Qaeda trusted him to identify people with particular skills or particular documentation that would be useful. For instance, a citizen of country X and they saw a usefulness there.

So this was a guy that was very well trusted in the organization, and in fact, may have replaced Atef when he died as the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) for the whole organization in the strategic and tactical campaign.

So he is a person that is very capable of playing the disinformation card. But everyone has to understand nothing that he says is going to be a stand-alone piece of information. It's going to be corroborated with other disparate sources, but that takes time.

And right now, everyone should also understand that the old faces and the old players are mostly in custody, and we've got lines on those people. But that means that there is a whole new face parade coming in, and there is no shortage of new people to come in to replace these guys.

So al Qaeda is very much alive, very much in the planning stages of things and very much in motion. This is not over from a very far long shot.

ZAHN: All right. Thanks for the warning, J. Kelly McCann. Have a good weekend.

MCCANN: Thank you, Paula.

ZAHN: Plan to get in an airplane this weekend or an automobile, like most Americans?

MCCANN: I'm going to hunker down and try to stay out of everybody's way.

ZAHN: Good for you -- thank you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.