Return to Transcripts main page
American Morning
Clearing the Skies
Aired September 10, 2002 - 09:33 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: U.S. military began employing U.S. air systems around Washington this week as 9/11 approaches. Here with more on the exercise being called Clear Skies II, Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr.
Good to see you, again, Barbara. What's up?
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Paula.
Well, for the record, the Pentagon says it is just an exercise. But air defense radars and equipment are now deployed around Washington D.C., including right outside our door here at the Pentagon and a number of other locations in the nation's capital that the military would prefer we not publicly name.
About 300 military personnel are involved in the exercise. It's aimed at testing communications and comm (ph) activity and that sort of thing during the 9-11 timeframe. This is some of the equipment that is out there, and it is ground-based and shoulder-fired type equipment, all aimed at connecting the military to those 24-hour around the clock air patrols over the nation's capitol, trying to see how things would work in the event of a real crisis.
As you can see, it involves NORAD, the Air Force, Navy, Army, Customs Service, FAA and Secret Service.
Now, for the record, the military tells us there are no missiles involved, no live ammunition in this exercise. But as one official says, in the event of a real crisis, there certainly is live ammunition, missiles, nearby, available to use if there was the unthinkable of a real problem on September 11th.
As this one official told us this morning, and I'm quoting -- "This exercise is clearly tied to the recent events, but prudence dictates that you are able to change from an exercise to an operation if you need to."
Paula.
ZAHN: So were they expecting this to be talked about publicly?
STARR: Well, they couldn't quite help it entirely, because some of this equipment, especially the equipment outside here at the Pentagon, is quite visible. There is a vehicle parked outside. It's called an Avenger. It's basically a military vehicle with a turret on top that contains during real warfare, during real combat, missiles that are fired in an air-defense mode from the ground to the air to shoot down an air threat.
I can tell you this morning that turret is empty. There are no missiles in those launcher tubes just outside the Pentagon, but nonetheless, the vehicles are visible, and have not been part of the typical security environment around the Pentagon, even in the last year, although things have been stepped up considerably.
ZAHN: Barbara, before we let you go, give us a sense of how folks at the Pentagon, particularly those who are deeply affected by what happened there last year, a year ago tomorrow, about how they're reacting to some of these new threats.
I know in New York, there is great concern about protecting very public buildings, the subway system, because there is an unspecified threat that people are concerned about.
STARR: I think people here in the Pentagon certainly don't let it get in their way. This is a community of people, a profession of people, that come to work under the most dire circumstances in their regular lives. So I think they're just going to move ahead tomorrow with business as usual.
ZAHN: OK, Barbara Starr, thanks so much.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
