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American Morning
President Bush Telling Americans to Go About Routines
Aired December 23, 2003 - 07:32 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: President Bush is telling Americans to go about their routines despite the nation's elevated threat level. Yesterday, the president assured Americans that the government is doing everything it can to protect the country. At Pentagon this morning, steps will be taken in reaction to the move to the highest threat level.
Kathleen Koch is there now.
She has got details on that for us this morning -- Kathleen, good morning.
KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.
CNN has learned that an unusual continuity of government exercise will take place some time this morning here at the Pentagon and we are told that it is a direct result of the high alert terrorism stance that the U.S. adopted on Sunday.
What will happen is that key Pentagon officials will be told that they need to move immediately to one of several secret locations in and around the Washington, D.C. area where they will be able to operate with communications, basically be able to operate the Pentagon, the U.S. military, remotely.
It is not clear whether those officials will be moving by plane -- I mean by helicopter, by car, how many of them will end up participating. We were told the defense secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, himself, at one point on Monday, was considering joining today's exercise but that those plans have now changed.
This is actually a version of an exercise the Pentagon staffers have participated in on a regular basis since the 9/11 attack on the Pentagon. That made it very, very apparent the U.S. military had to find a way to keep functioning even if the Pentagon essentially, the nerve center of the operation, was crippled.
So since that time, staffers have, for a week at a time, been detailed to work at one of these secret secure facilities. Again, where they have the ability basically to run the Pentagon remotely.
Again, all this just a precaution, but a very prudent one, say officials here.
O'BRIEN: Kathleen Koch for us this morning.
Kathleen, thanks for that. Appreciate it.
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 23, 2003 - 07:32 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: President Bush is telling Americans to go about their routines despite the nation's elevated threat level. Yesterday, the president assured Americans that the government is doing everything it can to protect the country. At Pentagon this morning, steps will be taken in reaction to the move to the highest threat level.
Kathleen Koch is there now.
She has got details on that for us this morning -- Kathleen, good morning.
KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.
CNN has learned that an unusual continuity of government exercise will take place some time this morning here at the Pentagon and we are told that it is a direct result of the high alert terrorism stance that the U.S. adopted on Sunday.
What will happen is that key Pentagon officials will be told that they need to move immediately to one of several secret locations in and around the Washington, D.C. area where they will be able to operate with communications, basically be able to operate the Pentagon, the U.S. military, remotely.
It is not clear whether those officials will be moving by plane -- I mean by helicopter, by car, how many of them will end up participating. We were told the defense secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, himself, at one point on Monday, was considering joining today's exercise but that those plans have now changed.
This is actually a version of an exercise the Pentagon staffers have participated in on a regular basis since the 9/11 attack on the Pentagon. That made it very, very apparent the U.S. military had to find a way to keep functioning even if the Pentagon essentially, the nerve center of the operation, was crippled.
So since that time, staffers have, for a week at a time, been detailed to work at one of these secret secure facilities. Again, where they have the ability basically to run the Pentagon remotely.
Again, all this just a precaution, but a very prudent one, say officials here.
O'BRIEN: Kathleen Koch for us this morning.
Kathleen, thanks for that. Appreciate it.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
