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American Morning
Airline Security
Aired January 05, 2004 - 07:07 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.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: British Airways Flight 223 from London to Washington may face tough security checks again today. That flight was delayed on Saturday and on Sunday after several days of cancellations and delays.
More now from CNN's national security correspondent David Ensor.
David -- good morning. And I guess we should start with the holidays now past us. Do you expect more of these delays, or do you expect that the threat level, as has been promised to some degree, is actually going to be lowered?
DAVID ENSOR, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: It will be lowered eventually, but officials are thus far not willing to indicate when. And they say that we are still in the period of some risk.
The intelligence that they have that suggested there might be an al Qaeda plot to attack targets in the United States suggested that the time period goes on a little bit beyond where we are now. So, we do not expect to see the thing lifted right away, but clearly it's something they are looking at closely.
Now, as you mentioned, a number of flights, more than a dozen flights, have been canceled, delayed, one or two even escorted into American airports with fighter jets. So, there has been a lot of change and ferment on the flights coming into the United States. British Airways Flight 223 was not only delayed Saturday and Sunday, it was canceled Friday and Thursday. And, of course, on Wednesday it was escorted in.
The U.S. is focusing particularly on flights into Washington, D.C. and to Los Angeles, but, as you mentioned, there are concerns about all 48 of the airports around the United States that take in international flights.
So, continuing concern. Orange stays for the moment, but they are reviewing it very closely each day.
O'BRIEN: What about, David, concerns about hotels in Las Vegas over the holidays? There were reports that the FBI wanted the guest lists from certain hotels. Can you elaborate on that for us?
ENSOR: Well, U.S. officials do confirm to CNN that they did, in fact, request that all hotels in Las Vegas give them the list of those guests who had made bookings for the New Year's Eve period. There were -- there was one hotel, at least, that had some difficulty doing that or didn't want to do that, but in the end all did. And, again, this was based on intelligence that suggested there might be a threat, and that it was important to U.S. law enforcement officials to get those names, which they did.
So, we're in a new atmosphere, and officials are saying it may continue for some time.
O'BRIEN: Yes, clearly, obviously. All right, David Ensor for us this morning. David, thanks.
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 January 5, 2004 - 07:07 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: British Airways Flight 223 from London to Washington may face tough security checks again today. That flight was delayed on Saturday and on Sunday after several days of cancellations and delays.
More now from CNN's national security correspondent David Ensor.
David -- good morning. And I guess we should start with the holidays now past us. Do you expect more of these delays, or do you expect that the threat level, as has been promised to some degree, is actually going to be lowered?
DAVID ENSOR, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: It will be lowered eventually, but officials are thus far not willing to indicate when. And they say that we are still in the period of some risk.
The intelligence that they have that suggested there might be an al Qaeda plot to attack targets in the United States suggested that the time period goes on a little bit beyond where we are now. So, we do not expect to see the thing lifted right away, but clearly it's something they are looking at closely.
Now, as you mentioned, a number of flights, more than a dozen flights, have been canceled, delayed, one or two even escorted into American airports with fighter jets. So, there has been a lot of change and ferment on the flights coming into the United States. British Airways Flight 223 was not only delayed Saturday and Sunday, it was canceled Friday and Thursday. And, of course, on Wednesday it was escorted in.
The U.S. is focusing particularly on flights into Washington, D.C. and to Los Angeles, but, as you mentioned, there are concerns about all 48 of the airports around the United States that take in international flights.
So, continuing concern. Orange stays for the moment, but they are reviewing it very closely each day.
O'BRIEN: What about, David, concerns about hotels in Las Vegas over the holidays? There were reports that the FBI wanted the guest lists from certain hotels. Can you elaborate on that for us?
ENSOR: Well, U.S. officials do confirm to CNN that they did, in fact, request that all hotels in Las Vegas give them the list of those guests who had made bookings for the New Year's Eve period. There were -- there was one hotel, at least, that had some difficulty doing that or didn't want to do that, but in the end all did. And, again, this was based on intelligence that suggested there might be a threat, and that it was important to U.S. law enforcement officials to get those names, which they did.
So, we're in a new atmosphere, and officials are saying it may continue for some time.
O'BRIEN: Yes, clearly, obviously. All right, David Ensor for us this morning. David, thanks.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
