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American Morning

Interview with Michael Moodie

Aired September 06, 2002 - 07:31   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: This morning, officials at a chemical weapons facility in Utah say operations are finally back to normal and they're actually deploying a so-called terrorism alert at the facility. But the incident certainly raises some questions about just how safe the nation's chemical weapons facilities are.
Now, here's what happened. The alarm sounded on Thursday at the Army's Deseret Chemical Weapons Depot when guards spotted an intruder. Forty percent of the nation's chemical arsenal, including nerve and mustard gas, are stored there. A search of the grounds, though, turned up nothing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GENE WHITE, TOOELE COUNTY COMMISSIONER: It appears that there was never a danger to any of the citizens or the public in general that the personnel had been notified on the depot and that there was a lock down process going on at the depot. We feel like everything has been handled very professionally and very properly.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZAHN: Deseret is located some 45 miles from Salt Lake City. Just so, that raises questions this morning, how safe are America's chemical weapons facilities?

Michael Moodie, president of the Chemical & Biological Arms Control Institute, joins us from Washington.

Welcome. Good to have you with us this morning, sir.

MICHAEL MOODIE, CHEMICAL & BIOLOGICAL ARMS CONTROL INSTITUTE: Hi. Thank you.

ZAHN: How concerned are you about this potential threat that was posed by an intruder? You know, we can't even get confirmed this morning whether there was an intruder or not.

MOODIE: Well, certainly we can't take the situation or the event lightly. It's a serious breach of security for anyone to get inside the perimeter. But on the other hand we should take great confidence in the fact that the security systems seemed to work. They identified that something had happened and they seemed to take the appropriate actions.

So we have to be aware, obviously, especially after the events of last year, that these facilities could be targets. But in this case I think that the efforts they have made to enhance security and deal with this kind of situation were seen to work effectively.

ZAHN: So they say the system worked in this case, but how confident are you that the security in place at the other facilities would have ended up in the same result?

MOODIE: Well, you can never have a hundred percent guarantee that nothing is ever going to go wrong. But awareness of security concerns has been a big part of the design and operation of these facilities. The storage facilities for the chemical weapons themselves, for example, are underground bunkers that have special locks to prevent access to them other than for authorized personnel.

So I think that the efforts, all the efforts that could be made have been made to ensure that these materials are stored safely and that the operations of this facility are also safe.

ZAHN: So, essentially what you're saying, in order for an intruder to have done any damage, they would have had to have penetrated two or three levels of this security?

MOODIE: That's right. It's my understanding that in this case he might have gotten beyond the initial perimeter, but he didn't get really very close to the actual chemical weapons themselves or the destruction facility that's there.

ZAHN: How tough would that be in any other weapons facilities around the country based on what you know about security in place?

MOODIE: Well, I think that the United States has taken security for these facilities enormously seriously and has invested a lot to ensure that we have the most up to date security at these facilities. So I think the situation in the United States is probably a good one.

I'm not sure that that's the case with other countries around the world who also have chemical weapons and are in the process of destroying them. There is concern, for example, that the chemical weapons stored in Russia are not as well secured as they should be and the United States has been trying to work with the Russians in order to enhance security at their chemical weapons facilities, as well.

ZAHN: Well, Michael Moodie, we appreciate your perspective very much this morning, as everybody still tries to sort out the details of this story.

Appreciate your time. Thanks.

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