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American Morning

Interview with Governor of Nevada

Aired December 31, 2003 - 09:07   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; Across the country, meanwhile, in Las Vegas, huge crowds expected there, as well. Nevada Governor Kenny Guinn is in Vegas today to talk about preparations.
Governor, good morning to you. Thanks for your time here AMERICAN MORNING.

Tell me about the restrictions on your airspace.

GOV. KENNY GUINN (R), NEVADA: Well, primarily we're really just doing about a six-hour time standstill (ph). And we just felt with about 300 plus thousand people in less than two-mile stretch in a very narrow area we thought that was a prudent thing to do just to provide the ability for our well-organized team of first line responders, metropolitan police, and other staff members that's been assigned.

HEMMER: The restrictions on air space, ever done that before?

GUINN: No, we haven't. This is the first time. But, in our planning we kind of feel like that America has certainly changed, and the world has changed, and we have to change with that. And so we're prepared to have controls on airline, and not necessarily the commercial, but certainly on all of the individual, private helicopters, tourism, and just individual planes. But we will have some controls on the commercial for a period of time.

HEMMER: You're leading me into an obvious question here -- why this year?

GUINN: Well, Las Vegas has been certainly mentioned in the chatter from the intelligence that we receive from homeland security in Washington D.C., and they've had a special team here visiting with us, and we've been coordinated, because Las Vegas something known worldwide. And we're certainly a very popular place to come to for New Year's Eve. And we just want to make sure that we've done everything we can to promote safety, and have a good time on New Year's Eve.

HEMMER: Let me try and nail this down if I could, is this just speculation? Or is there a specific threat targeting your city?

GUINN: No, the only thing that's come about through this entire process has been that we have been named in the chatter along with six or seven other cities throughout America that have large group attending celebrations. But by the same time, if we have some specifics, we wouldn't be doing any more today, than what we're doing right now. We're just prepared because we don't think this will be the last time in the history of this great country of ours that we have to prepare ourselves for terrorism.

HEMMER: Now, governor, the airspace is one thing. What else will be different, though, this year as opposed to a year ago or two years ago?

GUINN: Well, we've certainly maximized the law enforcement, and it's much more coordinated, it's much more planned out, and we're trying to be proactive, and certainly we have the latest technology in terms of machinery, and the equipment that we have brought in to the country. We will have helicopters flying throughout the night, over the space, from the military. And so I think we're just much more organized and being more prudent and vigilant, and we've asked all the people just to keep their eyes and ears open.

And the hotel industry, you know, it's very large here. We have four or five of the largest hotels in the world within just a stone's throw of each other. And we're asking them, and they've been really terrific in helping us with their quite a few hundreds of security people. So we're all organized and ready to have a great time for New Year's Eve.

HEMMER: Good luck to you.

GUINN: Thank you very much, Bill.

HEMMER: Mayor Guinn there in Las Vegas.

GUINN: 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 December 31, 2003 - 09:07   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR; Across the country, meanwhile, in Las Vegas, huge crowds expected there, as well. Nevada Governor Kenny Guinn is in Vegas today to talk about preparations.
Governor, good morning to you. Thanks for your time here AMERICAN MORNING.

Tell me about the restrictions on your airspace.

GOV. KENNY GUINN (R), NEVADA: Well, primarily we're really just doing about a six-hour time standstill (ph). And we just felt with about 300 plus thousand people in less than two-mile stretch in a very narrow area we thought that was a prudent thing to do just to provide the ability for our well-organized team of first line responders, metropolitan police, and other staff members that's been assigned.

HEMMER: The restrictions on air space, ever done that before?

GUINN: No, we haven't. This is the first time. But, in our planning we kind of feel like that America has certainly changed, and the world has changed, and we have to change with that. And so we're prepared to have controls on airline, and not necessarily the commercial, but certainly on all of the individual, private helicopters, tourism, and just individual planes. But we will have some controls on the commercial for a period of time.

HEMMER: You're leading me into an obvious question here -- why this year?

GUINN: Well, Las Vegas has been certainly mentioned in the chatter from the intelligence that we receive from homeland security in Washington D.C., and they've had a special team here visiting with us, and we've been coordinated, because Las Vegas something known worldwide. And we're certainly a very popular place to come to for New Year's Eve. And we just want to make sure that we've done everything we can to promote safety, and have a good time on New Year's Eve.

HEMMER: Let me try and nail this down if I could, is this just speculation? Or is there a specific threat targeting your city?

GUINN: No, the only thing that's come about through this entire process has been that we have been named in the chatter along with six or seven other cities throughout America that have large group attending celebrations. But by the same time, if we have some specifics, we wouldn't be doing any more today, than what we're doing right now. We're just prepared because we don't think this will be the last time in the history of this great country of ours that we have to prepare ourselves for terrorism.

HEMMER: Now, governor, the airspace is one thing. What else will be different, though, this year as opposed to a year ago or two years ago?

GUINN: Well, we've certainly maximized the law enforcement, and it's much more coordinated, it's much more planned out, and we're trying to be proactive, and certainly we have the latest technology in terms of machinery, and the equipment that we have brought in to the country. We will have helicopters flying throughout the night, over the space, from the military. And so I think we're just much more organized and being more prudent and vigilant, and we've asked all the people just to keep their eyes and ears open.

And the hotel industry, you know, it's very large here. We have four or five of the largest hotels in the world within just a stone's throw of each other. And we're asking them, and they've been really terrific in helping us with their quite a few hundreds of security people. So we're all organized and ready to have a great time for New Year's Eve.

HEMMER: Good luck to you.

GUINN: Thank you very much, Bill.

HEMMER: Mayor Guinn there in Las Vegas.

GUINN: 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