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American Morning
Interview With Matthew Brzezinski
Aired February 25, 2003 - 09:35 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: While the government takes steps to keep Americans safe here at home, one journalist says there is a price to be paid for securing the homeland. Matthew Brzezinski has written about the effects of increased surveillance and diminished privacy.
His latest piece, title "Fortress America" was the cover story in Sunday's "New York Times Magazine."
Matthew is our guest this morning in D.C. Good morning to you, Matt.
MATTHEW BRZEZINSKI, "FORTRESS AMERICA": Good morning.
HEMMER: Tell us -- you essentially take a commuter path, say through Washington, D.C. on any typical day, from the point you hit the subway to the point you walk into your home. What sort of surveillance items are there right now, in public, say in the D.C. area that may track a commuter?
BRZEZINSKI: The technology is already all in place. There are cameras in the subway. There are cameras on the streets. I visited an experimental facility called the Joint Operations Command Center, which is run by the Washington, D.C. police department in conjunction with the FBI, the Secret Service, the DIA, which is the Defense Intelligence Agency, and it's a hub where -- from there you -- all the cameras feed into this one place.
And just for fun, I asked them to put up an aerial map of the city and then start zooming closer and closer and closer, and I got to the point where I could see right into my backyard. I could see garden furniture, the trees that I had planted, and it was a little bit eerie. Especially given how quickly this technology is moving.
During the sniper siege, the Pentagon dispatched RC-7s, which are some of its most advanced surveillance craft. These are equipped with cameras that can zoom in right -- right at you from as far as 20 miles away, and special lenses that actually can see through walls, and see through roofs so people can look right into your basement if they want.
HEMMER: A couple questions here -- who is watching on these monitors, by the way?
BRZEZINSKI: The D.C. police chief, Chief Ramsey, who made a point to say that while we're not really using the technology right now, most of the time it's off line, but clearly the capability is there if they do want to start monitoring people. And in other countries, in Europe, it's done all the time, and in Asia as well.
HEMMER: In D.C., are they doing anything with the information? I know the police chief talked to you about it, but are they taking it and analyzing it for any value?
BRZEZINSKI: At the moment, I don't think they are. That is something that the Defense Department wanted to launch a program called the TIA, the Total Information Awareness program, which was going to be run by Rear Admiral John Poindexter, and this would allow, actually, electronic sort of surveillance of everything, of our e-mail communications, of medical bills, credit card calls, everything. Congress said that that -- the dangers of this sort of electronic snooping for now outweighed the benefits, and said that this was going too far.
HEMMER: It is changing world, is it not?
BRZEZINSKI: Absolutely.
HEMMER: Matthew Brzezinski, thank you for talking and sharing your story with us.
BRZEZINSKI: Thank you.
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 25, 2003 - 09:35 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: While the government takes steps to keep Americans safe here at home, one journalist says there is a price to be paid for securing the homeland. Matthew Brzezinski has written about the effects of increased surveillance and diminished privacy.
His latest piece, title "Fortress America" was the cover story in Sunday's "New York Times Magazine."
Matthew is our guest this morning in D.C. Good morning to you, Matt.
MATTHEW BRZEZINSKI, "FORTRESS AMERICA": Good morning.
HEMMER: Tell us -- you essentially take a commuter path, say through Washington, D.C. on any typical day, from the point you hit the subway to the point you walk into your home. What sort of surveillance items are there right now, in public, say in the D.C. area that may track a commuter?
BRZEZINSKI: The technology is already all in place. There are cameras in the subway. There are cameras on the streets. I visited an experimental facility called the Joint Operations Command Center, which is run by the Washington, D.C. police department in conjunction with the FBI, the Secret Service, the DIA, which is the Defense Intelligence Agency, and it's a hub where -- from there you -- all the cameras feed into this one place.
And just for fun, I asked them to put up an aerial map of the city and then start zooming closer and closer and closer, and I got to the point where I could see right into my backyard. I could see garden furniture, the trees that I had planted, and it was a little bit eerie. Especially given how quickly this technology is moving.
During the sniper siege, the Pentagon dispatched RC-7s, which are some of its most advanced surveillance craft. These are equipped with cameras that can zoom in right -- right at you from as far as 20 miles away, and special lenses that actually can see through walls, and see through roofs so people can look right into your basement if they want.
HEMMER: A couple questions here -- who is watching on these monitors, by the way?
BRZEZINSKI: The D.C. police chief, Chief Ramsey, who made a point to say that while we're not really using the technology right now, most of the time it's off line, but clearly the capability is there if they do want to start monitoring people. And in other countries, in Europe, it's done all the time, and in Asia as well.
HEMMER: In D.C., are they doing anything with the information? I know the police chief talked to you about it, but are they taking it and analyzing it for any value?
BRZEZINSKI: At the moment, I don't think they are. That is something that the Defense Department wanted to launch a program called the TIA, the Total Information Awareness program, which was going to be run by Rear Admiral John Poindexter, and this would allow, actually, electronic sort of surveillance of everything, of our e-mail communications, of medical bills, credit card calls, everything. Congress said that that -- the dangers of this sort of electronic snooping for now outweighed the benefits, and said that this was going too far.
HEMMER: It is changing world, is it not?
BRZEZINSKI: Absolutely.
HEMMER: Matthew Brzezinski, thank you for talking and sharing your story with us.
BRZEZINSKI: Thank you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
