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American Morning
Are White House Evacuation Procedures Sound?
Aired June 21, 2002 - 07:02 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: "Up Front" this morning, as we continue now, protecting the president. Evacuation procedures the White House coming under close scrutiny now, after Wednesday's scare, Wednesday evening in fact, at the White House when a small plane flew into restricted airspace. The question again raised today: Why were reporters evacuated, but not the president? Why was he not even informed of the possible danger until the next morning?
We put those questions this morning to our senior White House correspondent, John King -- John, good morning. What are they saying on both of those fronts today?
JOHN KING, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Bill. You might find it a little odd, all of this commotion out here in the yard, if you will. Reporters and staff members being evacuated on the grounds of the West Wing, Secret Service running through the West Wing telling people they have to leave. And they did not tell for more than 10 hours the president of the United States, who was in the house, the White House residence here as all this was playing out.
But the White House says they didn't do so because they didn't think it was necessary to tell the president. They said that plane entered airspace, and yes, the Secret Service was put on alert, but at no time was the plane aimed directly at the White House. And as the Secret Service began to instigate its security protocols, that it was only in a matter of minutes before the plane left the White House and was not viewed as a direct threat to the White House.
Now, the president wasn't told, but we are told his security detail in the White House itself was put on notice that they might have to go get the president and rush him and the first lady to a secure bunker underground. But as those deliberations were underway, again, the plane was deemed to be not a threat. Ari Fleischer says it simply was not necessary to tell the president.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ARI FLEISCHER, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: The Secret Service took precautionary steps to protect the White House in case it was necessary. As events turned out, it indeed was not necessary to take any additional actions. The president was not notified nor moved, because the nature of the threat did not indicate that he needed to be. (END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: Now, as always after these incidents, they will go back and look at everything that happened, but they say they do not have any second-guessing at all about the decision not to go immediately to the president and tell him. They say that they wait until a point where the White House is deemed to be a threat, and that plane never entered the most protected airspace. It did enter restricted airspace, but never entered the most restricted airspace directly around the White House. Had it done so, we are told by the Secret Service, you can rest assured, just like on September 11, those agents would have picked him up as they did the vice president on September 11 and rushed him immediately to that bunker.
Again, they will look at all of this after the facts, as they always do. The bigger question seems to be the response time of those two F-16s scrambled from Andrews Air Force Base to go up and intercept that small plane -- Bill.
HEMMER: John, you raised a number of interesting points. It's striking to hear the first lady yesterday morning saying she heard about it on the news in fact.
Tell us, going forward now, for White House security, are things like surface-to-air missiles out of the question for the White House in terms of fortification? Or is that something that may be on the list of possibilities here?
KING: I want to tell you that that entire subject is something that we here, who work at the White House every day and see a lot of what goes on around here, are extremely reluctant to talk about. I will tell you this. There are a number of security protocols here in place before September 11, and a number of projects, shall we say, that some of us have watched in place after September 11 to improve security around here. I do not want to describe them in any detail. I think that would be irresponsible to let those who might want to attack the White House know exactly what goes on in the White House.
HEMMER: John, I clearly understand and respect your position there. One more item here, they are saying about a dozen violations of that airspace since September 11. Why were fighter jets scrambled on this particular incident?
KING: Well, remember right after September 11, there were fighter jets in the sky around the clock over New York and Washington. Some of those incidents occurred when you did have the 24-hour combat patrols. In this particular case, they tried repeatedly to establish radio contact with the pilot, and they could not. In most of those prior cases, we are told radio contact was established quite quickly. The pilots acknowledged they had made a mistake and wandered into that airspace.
Because after two or three times they could not get radio contact, at that point it was determined to scramble the fighters. And again, the plane was actually in a larger restricted airspace set up after September 11, a bigger bubble, if you will, over the Capitol. There is about a four-mile loop directly around the White House and the Washington Monument and the Capitol. The plane came close to that, was actually at one point four miles from the White House. At that point, the fighters were put into the air and were on their way.
Again, the big question here is: Why couldn't they get up in the air quicker and not intercept that plane while it was still over Washington, D.C.?
HEMMER: Thank you, John -- John King on the Front Lawn this morning.
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