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American Morning

L.A. Reaction to Raised Threat Level

Aired December 22, 2003 - 09:34   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.


SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: To find out just how the Los Angeles area is reacting to the raised threat level, we're joined from there by John Miller. He is a commanding officer of the city's newly formed counterterrorism bureau.
John, good morning. Nice to see you. Thanks for being with us this morning.

JOHN MILLER, COMMANDING OFFICER, LAPD COUNTERTERRORISM BUREAU: Good to be here. Thanks, Soledad.

O'BRIEN: You're welcome.

You were on the conference call with Secretary Ridge as he was making the announcement about the increased threat level. Is there anything specific in what's been heard in this chatter that would make people believe that Los Angeles is a target of terrorists?

MILLER: There was nothing that came out of that conference call yesterday that was a new piece of information. I think when you're in a city like Los Angeles, New York, Washington, to be candid, you hear the name of your city come up in the intelligence fairly often.

I think the difference here is the totality of the intelligence, and in this regard I'm not referring specifically to Los Angeles, but the totality of the intelligence they've been getting beyond the chatter is, as the secretary said, a lot of sourcing that's coming from places that they consider extremely credible. So that's what we're relying on. And we're very comfortable with the government's judgment to go to orange. We're on our kind of matching level four.

O'BRIEN: So, as the head of counterterrorism for the city of Los Angeles then, what's your advice for the people in your city? What are you telling them specifically to do?

MILLER: Well, you know, there's been a lot of discussion, particularly on CNN over the last year, talking about what the value of this program with the color codes is. I'm actually a fan of it, which makes me slightly rare in local law enforcement, because I think it works for me, in this way: When we go to orange, we ask the public to be more alert. That means we get more calls on our terrorism hotline. That means the quality of the calls goes up. People are actually making very sharp observations. That's what we ask them to do, and we know from experience, because this is our fourth time around, that is what they do. So, we're really asking them to be more vigilant. Beyond that, not very much. The rest of it is for us to do. O'BRIEN: At the same time, there are people who are not big fans of the color-coded system, who will say, on one hand, you tell people we're raising the threat level, it's elevated now from -- elevated to high rather, and yet, just go about your daily lives, enjoy the Christmas shopping season. So on one hand, you scare them, but on the other hand, you tell them to sort of relax and enjoy the holiday. And I think for a lot of people, that's sort of a strange place to figure out how to respond and what to do.

MILLER: Well, I think it's very much, as you said a moment ago, people say, what do you want me to do? We say, be alert, record anything you see that you think could be an indicator of terrorism. There's been a fair amount of education for the public on what those things are. And then basically, leave the rest to us. You know, there is no such thing as total security. But we also know from having gone orange four times and not having had an event on U.S. soil, that we can't all shut down our lives every time, cancel our plans and our trips, cancel our events, not show up in New Year's Eve on Times Square and so on. It's part of the social contract that police, and the federal government's security apparatus is supposed to protect people. And they're supposed to have some confidence in that. I think they do.

O'BRIEN: As a former journalist, you certainly covered terrorism to a large degree. To what degree, do you think that this increased chatter, which then triggers the elevated warning system, is put out there by al Qaeda, just to play on people's fears.

MILLER: Well, I think there are different brands of the so- called chatter. When I think people in the intelligence community refer to chatter, they're talking about Internet traffic, which is hard to verify, occasional intercepts of coded conversations, which is often hard to glean the meaning of. I think what the secretary is talking about here is, they have sources that they have cultivated, since September 11, who have given them some reporting that has been proven to be reliable in the past, and that they're giving them new reporting that's given them great concern, and I think that is what you see as probably the element that has pushed this over the edge back to orange.

O'BRIEN: John Miller is a Los Angeles counterterrorism bureau chief. Thanks for joining us this morning. It's nice to see you.

MILLER: You, too.

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 December 22, 2003 - 09:34   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: To find out just how the Los Angeles area is reacting to the raised threat level, we're joined from there by John Miller. He is a commanding officer of the city's newly formed counterterrorism bureau.
John, good morning. Nice to see you. Thanks for being with us this morning.

JOHN MILLER, COMMANDING OFFICER, LAPD COUNTERTERRORISM BUREAU: Good to be here. Thanks, Soledad.

O'BRIEN: You're welcome.

You were on the conference call with Secretary Ridge as he was making the announcement about the increased threat level. Is there anything specific in what's been heard in this chatter that would make people believe that Los Angeles is a target of terrorists?

MILLER: There was nothing that came out of that conference call yesterday that was a new piece of information. I think when you're in a city like Los Angeles, New York, Washington, to be candid, you hear the name of your city come up in the intelligence fairly often.

I think the difference here is the totality of the intelligence, and in this regard I'm not referring specifically to Los Angeles, but the totality of the intelligence they've been getting beyond the chatter is, as the secretary said, a lot of sourcing that's coming from places that they consider extremely credible. So that's what we're relying on. And we're very comfortable with the government's judgment to go to orange. We're on our kind of matching level four.

O'BRIEN: So, as the head of counterterrorism for the city of Los Angeles then, what's your advice for the people in your city? What are you telling them specifically to do?

MILLER: Well, you know, there's been a lot of discussion, particularly on CNN over the last year, talking about what the value of this program with the color codes is. I'm actually a fan of it, which makes me slightly rare in local law enforcement, because I think it works for me, in this way: When we go to orange, we ask the public to be more alert. That means we get more calls on our terrorism hotline. That means the quality of the calls goes up. People are actually making very sharp observations. That's what we ask them to do, and we know from experience, because this is our fourth time around, that is what they do. So, we're really asking them to be more vigilant. Beyond that, not very much. The rest of it is for us to do. O'BRIEN: At the same time, there are people who are not big fans of the color-coded system, who will say, on one hand, you tell people we're raising the threat level, it's elevated now from -- elevated to high rather, and yet, just go about your daily lives, enjoy the Christmas shopping season. So on one hand, you scare them, but on the other hand, you tell them to sort of relax and enjoy the holiday. And I think for a lot of people, that's sort of a strange place to figure out how to respond and what to do.

MILLER: Well, I think it's very much, as you said a moment ago, people say, what do you want me to do? We say, be alert, record anything you see that you think could be an indicator of terrorism. There's been a fair amount of education for the public on what those things are. And then basically, leave the rest to us. You know, there is no such thing as total security. But we also know from having gone orange four times and not having had an event on U.S. soil, that we can't all shut down our lives every time, cancel our plans and our trips, cancel our events, not show up in New Year's Eve on Times Square and so on. It's part of the social contract that police, and the federal government's security apparatus is supposed to protect people. And they're supposed to have some confidence in that. I think they do.

O'BRIEN: As a former journalist, you certainly covered terrorism to a large degree. To what degree, do you think that this increased chatter, which then triggers the elevated warning system, is put out there by al Qaeda, just to play on people's fears.

MILLER: Well, I think there are different brands of the so- called chatter. When I think people in the intelligence community refer to chatter, they're talking about Internet traffic, which is hard to verify, occasional intercepts of coded conversations, which is often hard to glean the meaning of. I think what the secretary is talking about here is, they have sources that they have cultivated, since September 11, who have given them some reporting that has been proven to be reliable in the past, and that they're giving them new reporting that's given them great concern, and I think that is what you see as probably the element that has pushed this over the edge back to orange.

O'BRIEN: John Miller is a Los Angeles counterterrorism bureau chief. Thanks for joining us this morning. It's nice to see you.

MILLER: You, too.

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