Return to Transcripts main page
American Morning
Homeland Security Officials Raise Alert to Orange From Yellow
Aired May 21, 2003 - 08:05 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.
SOPHIA CHOI, CNN ANCHOR: Well, as we've been telling you, homeland security officials raised the alert to orange from yellow yesterday, citing intelligence that al Qaeda may be planning an attack in the U.S.
Jeanne Meserve reports now from Capitol Hill -- Jeanne.
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Sophia, a knowledgeable government official says some e-mails were intercepted, one of those indicated the possibility of attacks on Boston or New York City. Now, this government official says that the reliability of these e-mails is somewhat suspect and he says they were not a major factor in the decision to raise the threat level.
Washington, D.C., of course, always viewed as a potential threat. You see behind me the U.S. Capitol. U.S. Capitol police saying that they are not raising their threat level, although officials say there will be some minor upgrades in security, including more uniformed officers, canine units and SWAT teams on the grounds.
Also, you see up there that big white tent in front of the Capitol. That it set up for a concert which is going to be taking place on Sunday night. It's a salute to American veterans this Memorial Day. It's a free concert put on by the National Symphony Orchestra. It is expected to draw a fairly large crowd, especially if the weather does cooperate.
It's exactly this sort of gathering which has officials concerned at this time of orange terror alert, particularly when there's talk of possible targeting of so-called soft targets.
Senator Richard Shelby addressed that this morning, appearing earlier on AMERICAN MORNING.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. RICHARD SHELBY (R-AL), VICE CHAIRMAN, SENATE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: There are all kinds of indications, suspicious behavior, things that don't put together, don't jive. The American people are very much on alert now. The police are on alert and should be. And we should never ignore these kind of signals that have indicated before that there will be terrorist attacks. And what we've got to work against and protect, work for and protect are the soft targets.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MESERVE: Now, here in Washington, D.C., they have upgraded the threat level and the city has operated its joint operations command center, which features closed-circuit cameras which can zero in not just on the big buildings like the U.S. Capitol and some of the monuments, but also some of the other government buildings you see behind me, the offices of the Department of Health and Human Services. It's exactly those kinds of kinds of buildings that are of concern to officials.
A couple of different reasons they raised the threat level. One, an increase in intelligence chatter, also some of those intercepted communications, some of which indicated the possibility of multiple attacks against targets here in the U.S. -- Sophia, back to you.
CHOI: All right, Jeanne Meserve, thanks for keeping us up to date on this still developing story.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Yellow>
Aired May 21, 2003 - 08:05 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOPHIA CHOI, CNN ANCHOR: Well, as we've been telling you, homeland security officials raised the alert to orange from yellow yesterday, citing intelligence that al Qaeda may be planning an attack in the U.S.
Jeanne Meserve reports now from Capitol Hill -- Jeanne.
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Sophia, a knowledgeable government official says some e-mails were intercepted, one of those indicated the possibility of attacks on Boston or New York City. Now, this government official says that the reliability of these e-mails is somewhat suspect and he says they were not a major factor in the decision to raise the threat level.
Washington, D.C., of course, always viewed as a potential threat. You see behind me the U.S. Capitol. U.S. Capitol police saying that they are not raising their threat level, although officials say there will be some minor upgrades in security, including more uniformed officers, canine units and SWAT teams on the grounds.
Also, you see up there that big white tent in front of the Capitol. That it set up for a concert which is going to be taking place on Sunday night. It's a salute to American veterans this Memorial Day. It's a free concert put on by the National Symphony Orchestra. It is expected to draw a fairly large crowd, especially if the weather does cooperate.
It's exactly this sort of gathering which has officials concerned at this time of orange terror alert, particularly when there's talk of possible targeting of so-called soft targets.
Senator Richard Shelby addressed that this morning, appearing earlier on AMERICAN MORNING.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. RICHARD SHELBY (R-AL), VICE CHAIRMAN, SENATE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: There are all kinds of indications, suspicious behavior, things that don't put together, don't jive. The American people are very much on alert now. The police are on alert and should be. And we should never ignore these kind of signals that have indicated before that there will be terrorist attacks. And what we've got to work against and protect, work for and protect are the soft targets.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MESERVE: Now, here in Washington, D.C., they have upgraded the threat level and the city has operated its joint operations command center, which features closed-circuit cameras which can zero in not just on the big buildings like the U.S. Capitol and some of the monuments, but also some of the other government buildings you see behind me, the offices of the Department of Health and Human Services. It's exactly those kinds of kinds of buildings that are of concern to officials.
A couple of different reasons they raised the threat level. One, an increase in intelligence chatter, also some of those intercepted communications, some of which indicated the possibility of multiple attacks against targets here in the U.S. -- Sophia, back to you.
CHOI: All right, Jeanne Meserve, thanks for keeping us up to date on this still developing story.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Yellow>
