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American Morning

Will Alert Level Change Anytime Soon?

Aired February 17, 2003 - 08:12   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: The nation's terror alert level has been at orange since February 7 and despite reports that led to the elevation of the threat level that they are suspect, administration sources say the chatter that prompted the alert is still high.
So will the alert level change any time soon?

Let's check in with Bob Franken, who joins us from Washington with more -- good morning, Bob.

BOB FRANKEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula.

And we've seen a weekend where, on the local television stations, we've seen such things as this class canceled, this sewing circle canceled and there might have been one up that said terrorist attack postponed.

No official is saying that the danger is over. There is quite a bit of criticism, of course, that perhaps officials over reacted and rattled people before they really needed to. Well, the homeland security chief, Tom Ridge, deflects that criticism, but he said he is considering a revisit of the issue.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TOM RIDGE, HOMELAND SECURITY DIRECTOR: Because we review the information and our intelligence on a day to day basis. We maintain it at the orange level, but that could change within 24 to 48 hours. It really is an information intelligence driven system and the lines of plot that we saw, the communications that we saw, although some may have faded in terms of accuracy or relevance, there's still enough out there for, today, for us to remain at an orange level.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FRANKEN: Well, the critics are saying that this is a very gentle way of stepping back after over reacting. But the officials who, Paula, are charged with keeping track of these things say that one of their problems is second guessing -- Paula.

ZAHN: Help us understand the volume of information these intelligence officials have to sort through, because I know Tom Ridge made reference to the detainee giving the government bad information, but he said that wasn't the only thing they had that led to the increase in this alert.

FRANKEN: Well, it's a number of things. Some of it instinct. Some of it is based on what they're not getting. We are now aware of the fact that sometimes the chatter, that is to say, the amount of information they're getting from electronic eavesdropping, the cell phone conversations, suddenly drops off, that chatter drops off, leading them to worry that once again, like it had right before the September 11 attacks, that means that something is imminent.

The end of Hajj contributed to some concerns. There was a predisposition to say we'd better be careful, something might be happening here. They were also having their chains yanked a little bit by some of the people they're interrogating. The fact of the matter is that a lot of them have been trained in disinformation and probably get quite a chuckle out of it.

But, again, this is guess work and this is something that we have to realize, that the intelligence community is making educated guesses. What is so frustrating for everybody and so rattling is the fact that really there is very little power to do very much about it. The whole thing about plastic wrap and duct tape just really reinforced the fact that there isn't a lot that you can do.

ZAHN: Yes, in fact, I think one of our previous guests was explaining that there will be a great sense of relief, if there is another terrorist attack, that we've done everything we can because no one can predict what's going to happen next.

Bob Franken, thanks so much.

Bob reporting from our Washington bureau this morning.

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






Aired February 17, 2003 - 08:12   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: The nation's terror alert level has been at orange since February 7 and despite reports that led to the elevation of the threat level that they are suspect, administration sources say the chatter that prompted the alert is still high.
So will the alert level change any time soon?

Let's check in with Bob Franken, who joins us from Washington with more -- good morning, Bob.

BOB FRANKEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula.

And we've seen a weekend where, on the local television stations, we've seen such things as this class canceled, this sewing circle canceled and there might have been one up that said terrorist attack postponed.

No official is saying that the danger is over. There is quite a bit of criticism, of course, that perhaps officials over reacted and rattled people before they really needed to. Well, the homeland security chief, Tom Ridge, deflects that criticism, but he said he is considering a revisit of the issue.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TOM RIDGE, HOMELAND SECURITY DIRECTOR: Because we review the information and our intelligence on a day to day basis. We maintain it at the orange level, but that could change within 24 to 48 hours. It really is an information intelligence driven system and the lines of plot that we saw, the communications that we saw, although some may have faded in terms of accuracy or relevance, there's still enough out there for, today, for us to remain at an orange level.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FRANKEN: Well, the critics are saying that this is a very gentle way of stepping back after over reacting. But the officials who, Paula, are charged with keeping track of these things say that one of their problems is second guessing -- Paula.

ZAHN: Help us understand the volume of information these intelligence officials have to sort through, because I know Tom Ridge made reference to the detainee giving the government bad information, but he said that wasn't the only thing they had that led to the increase in this alert.

FRANKEN: Well, it's a number of things. Some of it instinct. Some of it is based on what they're not getting. We are now aware of the fact that sometimes the chatter, that is to say, the amount of information they're getting from electronic eavesdropping, the cell phone conversations, suddenly drops off, that chatter drops off, leading them to worry that once again, like it had right before the September 11 attacks, that means that something is imminent.

The end of Hajj contributed to some concerns. There was a predisposition to say we'd better be careful, something might be happening here. They were also having their chains yanked a little bit by some of the people they're interrogating. The fact of the matter is that a lot of them have been trained in disinformation and probably get quite a chuckle out of it.

But, again, this is guess work and this is something that we have to realize, that the intelligence community is making educated guesses. What is so frustrating for everybody and so rattling is the fact that really there is very little power to do very much about it. The whole thing about plastic wrap and duct tape just really reinforced the fact that there isn't a lot that you can do.

ZAHN: Yes, in fact, I think one of our previous guests was explaining that there will be a great sense of relief, if there is another terrorist attack, that we've done everything we can because no one can predict what's going to happen next.

Bob Franken, thanks so much.

Bob reporting from our Washington bureau this morning.

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