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American Morning

America on Alert

Aired February 17, 2003 - 09:13   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: Back to the very latest on the nationwide alert against terror. Americans have been stocking up on duct tape and plastic sheeting to protect against a potential chemical or biological attack. It has been more than a week now since the Bush administration raised the threat level to orange.
Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge says the threat level is constantly being reevaluated.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TOM RIDGE, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: Because we review the information in our intelligence on a day-to-day basis, we've maintained it at the orange level, but that could change within 24 to 48 hours. It really is an information intelligence-driven system.

ZAHN: Joining us now from Washington to discuss the terror threat the country currently faces, our own security analyst, J. Kelly McCann.

Good morning -- Kelly.

J. KELLY MCCANN, CNN SECURITY ANALYST: Hi, Paula.

ZAHN: What would it do or what would it take to bring down the level of alert?

MCCANN: Well, I think that basically, we've got to see a significant drop-off in the -- quote/unquote -- "chatter." In other words, the level or volume of communications, and that's already started to occur.

A lot of back channels communications are also used just to talk, so the fact that it was a holiday and the hajj could have been an indicator for that level of volume.

And then I think you'll start to see the decision being made of whether we should maintain this as a segue into a potential war, or they'll let it fall off, and then if need be, start one up again as a, you know, pre-incident indicator for Iraq.

ZAHN: But part of the problem of maintaining this level of alert is it's very expensive to the local municipalities affected by this, particularly urban centers.

MCCANN: Absolutely. And it is a draw-down and it is a problem, especially when you start looking at some of the -- right now, the occurrences, the demonstrations, things that are going to have to draw a significant amount of security forces out for coverage. So, it is a problem.

ZAHN: What do you think is the No. 1 threat today to public safety and security?

MCCANN: I think that the most clear and present and imminent potential is a tactically complex attack with conventional weapons -- firearms and explosives. Because it's so available, and it's relatively much easier to do than use an unconventional weapon. So, I think that that continues to be the single greatest threat.

ZAHN: You also say there are possible wildcards. What would those be?

MCCANN: There are two significant wildcards that are being bandied about by people who are in the know, and one is, of course, whether in a post-Gulf war environment, Saddam Hussein was able to smuggle into the U.S. a weaponized version of some of the things we've been talking about for the last two weeks, either a chem or a bio weapon.

And then the other wildcard out there that -- and these are possibilities, not probabilities -- is that one of the 37 to 40 suitcase, 1-kiloton suitcase bombs has come to this country. There's no significant indicator to say that that's so, but it is a possibility. And of course, in that event, we're talking about significantly more casualties.

ZAHN: In the last 15 seconds we've got left, the "L.A. Times" is reporting this morning there's yet another threat to our homeland security, and that is the fact that a high percentage of the reservists who have been called to duty are, in fact, first responders. Is our safety being compromised by those deployments?

MCCANN: It's a draw-down, Paula, but it's more significant in the smaller communities, because they have less manpower. And in fact, those smaller communities are less likely to be attacked. So on balance, it does affect us overall, because there's less manpower, but not as much as you might think.

ZAHN: Kelly McCann, thanks so much. Hope you get home today.

MCCANN: You bet, Paula. You bet.

ZAHN: I hope there's a giant snow plow you get to follow around.

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 - 09:13   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Back to the very latest on the nationwide alert against terror. Americans have been stocking up on duct tape and plastic sheeting to protect against a potential chemical or biological attack. It has been more than a week now since the Bush administration raised the threat level to orange.
Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge says the threat level is constantly being reevaluated.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TOM RIDGE, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: Because we review the information in our intelligence on a day-to-day basis, we've maintained it at the orange level, but that could change within 24 to 48 hours. It really is an information intelligence-driven system.

ZAHN: Joining us now from Washington to discuss the terror threat the country currently faces, our own security analyst, J. Kelly McCann.

Good morning -- Kelly.

J. KELLY MCCANN, CNN SECURITY ANALYST: Hi, Paula.

ZAHN: What would it do or what would it take to bring down the level of alert?

MCCANN: Well, I think that basically, we've got to see a significant drop-off in the -- quote/unquote -- "chatter." In other words, the level or volume of communications, and that's already started to occur.

A lot of back channels communications are also used just to talk, so the fact that it was a holiday and the hajj could have been an indicator for that level of volume.

And then I think you'll start to see the decision being made of whether we should maintain this as a segue into a potential war, or they'll let it fall off, and then if need be, start one up again as a, you know, pre-incident indicator for Iraq.

ZAHN: But part of the problem of maintaining this level of alert is it's very expensive to the local municipalities affected by this, particularly urban centers.

MCCANN: Absolutely. And it is a draw-down and it is a problem, especially when you start looking at some of the -- right now, the occurrences, the demonstrations, things that are going to have to draw a significant amount of security forces out for coverage. So, it is a problem.

ZAHN: What do you think is the No. 1 threat today to public safety and security?

MCCANN: I think that the most clear and present and imminent potential is a tactically complex attack with conventional weapons -- firearms and explosives. Because it's so available, and it's relatively much easier to do than use an unconventional weapon. So, I think that that continues to be the single greatest threat.

ZAHN: You also say there are possible wildcards. What would those be?

MCCANN: There are two significant wildcards that are being bandied about by people who are in the know, and one is, of course, whether in a post-Gulf war environment, Saddam Hussein was able to smuggle into the U.S. a weaponized version of some of the things we've been talking about for the last two weeks, either a chem or a bio weapon.

And then the other wildcard out there that -- and these are possibilities, not probabilities -- is that one of the 37 to 40 suitcase, 1-kiloton suitcase bombs has come to this country. There's no significant indicator to say that that's so, but it is a possibility. And of course, in that event, we're talking about significantly more casualties.

ZAHN: In the last 15 seconds we've got left, the "L.A. Times" is reporting this morning there's yet another threat to our homeland security, and that is the fact that a high percentage of the reservists who have been called to duty are, in fact, first responders. Is our safety being compromised by those deployments?

MCCANN: It's a draw-down, Paula, but it's more significant in the smaller communities, because they have less manpower. And in fact, those smaller communities are less likely to be attacked. So on balance, it does affect us overall, because there's less manpower, but not as much as you might think.

ZAHN: Kelly McCann, thanks so much. Hope you get home today.

MCCANN: You bet, Paula. You bet.

ZAHN: I hope there's a giant snow plow you get to follow around.

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