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American Morning
Interview With Congressman Christopher Cox
Aired January 13, 2004 - 07:16 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: CNN has learned that while an Air France flight from Paris to L.A. was canceled on Christmas Eve because of a potential terrorist threat, intelligence officials were mainly concerned about al Qaeda targeting the airliner actually on Christmas Day.
Congressman Christopher Cox is chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security. He's in Washington now to talk about this and other matters.
Nice to see you. Good morning. Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING.
REP. CHRISTOPHER COX (R), CALIFORNIA: Good morning.
HEMMER: What can you tell us about Christmas Day and the warnings that went on there?
COX: Well, in fact, this was part of a many day and many week pattern of activity -- a very heightened pattern of activity. "USA Today" had a front-page story yesterday that recounted some of the stepped-up pace of activity that occurred. But the Christmas holidays, the New Year's holidays as well, were the focus of a fair amount of responsive activity by the United States and our allies because of the intelligence reporting that the secretary of homeland security very publicly referred to.
HEMMER: Maybe you can shed a bit more light on this. The article and CNN has been talking about this high-tech surveillance, not human intel. What could that mean or entail?
COX: Well, you can imagine that precise descriptions of sources and methods of intelligence are the area where I can't go, but you are certainly right to infer that the intelligence gathering that we are relying upon includes all sources, not just people reporting to us from inside al Qaeda's operations, but also electronic interceptions.
HEMMER: Let me try it from a different angle then, without giving anything away here obviously. Would you consider this a breakthrough with the intelligence that was gathered in late December?
COX: Well, it is, if not a breakthrough, then it is steady progress in gaining and insight in advance into al Qaeda's operations. We are aware for perhaps the first time not just of strategic intelligence, but tactical intelligence as well of where they're going to strike, which targets.
HEMMER: Can you say definitively if Americans are safer today because of it?
COX: Oh, there is no question. In fact, prior to September 11, there was not anything like the global intelligence cooperation that has put together this information.
HEMMER: Let's talk about the terror alert system. You're a critic. You say one size fits all does not work. What do you recommend that could be better?
COX: Well, we're seeing some progress on that front. Recently, we stepped down from the orange level of alert for the whole nation, but kept that high level for critical infrastructure sectors, including airports, ports and so on. We know that transportation is a focus of al Qaeda, and we know that they continue to want to use airplanes as weapons. We know that they're interested in some other particular kinds of targets, and at those targets, at those sites and those places in the country, we are maintaining our high level of alert.
But it's enormously and unnecessarily intrusive and expensive vis-a-vis American life to have this heightened state of alert when we know that certain parts of the country simply aren't threatened.
HEMMER: So, if the new color-coded system goes into effect the way it's planned, if you were essentially given a red card, you can't board a plane. What would prohibit someone from boarding a plane? What would entail a red card at an airport?
COX: Well, you know, this is an area of passenger screening where we really need some improvement. The current system is screening about 15 percent of all passengers. We can cut that down by two-thirds. We could get about 5 percent of passengers screened with much better information.
The current system, the so-called cap system, is relying upon some fairly basic indicators: Did you buy your ticket at the lat minute? Is it a short haul? Did you pay with cash and so on? But we have much better information available to us, including consolidated criminal and terror watch lists, information from passenger records about...
HEMMER: Is going to...
COX: ... whether or not they really are who they say the are, that we could rely upon so that passengers that are now being stopped could simply go ahead board the plane.
HEMMER: And quickly in the few short seconds we have left, is this going to be a violation of anyone's rights out there as they're traveling through airports in this country?
COX: Well, it sure as hell better not be, because the privacy concerns have to be foremost. In fact, that's one of the reasons that the system that we have right now, flawed as it is, remains in place, because we want to make sure that improvements are really that -- that privacy remains uppermost in the intent and minds of people at the Department of Homeland Security and throughout the U.S. government.
HEMMER: Thanks for your time. Christopher Cox in D.C., we'll talk again.
COX: You bet.
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 13, 2004 - 07:16 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: CNN has learned that while an Air France flight from Paris to L.A. was canceled on Christmas Eve because of a potential terrorist threat, intelligence officials were mainly concerned about al Qaeda targeting the airliner actually on Christmas Day.
Congressman Christopher Cox is chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security. He's in Washington now to talk about this and other matters.
Nice to see you. Good morning. Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING.
REP. CHRISTOPHER COX (R), CALIFORNIA: Good morning.
HEMMER: What can you tell us about Christmas Day and the warnings that went on there?
COX: Well, in fact, this was part of a many day and many week pattern of activity -- a very heightened pattern of activity. "USA Today" had a front-page story yesterday that recounted some of the stepped-up pace of activity that occurred. But the Christmas holidays, the New Year's holidays as well, were the focus of a fair amount of responsive activity by the United States and our allies because of the intelligence reporting that the secretary of homeland security very publicly referred to.
HEMMER: Maybe you can shed a bit more light on this. The article and CNN has been talking about this high-tech surveillance, not human intel. What could that mean or entail?
COX: Well, you can imagine that precise descriptions of sources and methods of intelligence are the area where I can't go, but you are certainly right to infer that the intelligence gathering that we are relying upon includes all sources, not just people reporting to us from inside al Qaeda's operations, but also electronic interceptions.
HEMMER: Let me try it from a different angle then, without giving anything away here obviously. Would you consider this a breakthrough with the intelligence that was gathered in late December?
COX: Well, it is, if not a breakthrough, then it is steady progress in gaining and insight in advance into al Qaeda's operations. We are aware for perhaps the first time not just of strategic intelligence, but tactical intelligence as well of where they're going to strike, which targets.
HEMMER: Can you say definitively if Americans are safer today because of it?
COX: Oh, there is no question. In fact, prior to September 11, there was not anything like the global intelligence cooperation that has put together this information.
HEMMER: Let's talk about the terror alert system. You're a critic. You say one size fits all does not work. What do you recommend that could be better?
COX: Well, we're seeing some progress on that front. Recently, we stepped down from the orange level of alert for the whole nation, but kept that high level for critical infrastructure sectors, including airports, ports and so on. We know that transportation is a focus of al Qaeda, and we know that they continue to want to use airplanes as weapons. We know that they're interested in some other particular kinds of targets, and at those targets, at those sites and those places in the country, we are maintaining our high level of alert.
But it's enormously and unnecessarily intrusive and expensive vis-a-vis American life to have this heightened state of alert when we know that certain parts of the country simply aren't threatened.
HEMMER: So, if the new color-coded system goes into effect the way it's planned, if you were essentially given a red card, you can't board a plane. What would prohibit someone from boarding a plane? What would entail a red card at an airport?
COX: Well, you know, this is an area of passenger screening where we really need some improvement. The current system is screening about 15 percent of all passengers. We can cut that down by two-thirds. We could get about 5 percent of passengers screened with much better information.
The current system, the so-called cap system, is relying upon some fairly basic indicators: Did you buy your ticket at the lat minute? Is it a short haul? Did you pay with cash and so on? But we have much better information available to us, including consolidated criminal and terror watch lists, information from passenger records about...
HEMMER: Is going to...
COX: ... whether or not they really are who they say the are, that we could rely upon so that passengers that are now being stopped could simply go ahead board the plane.
HEMMER: And quickly in the few short seconds we have left, is this going to be a violation of anyone's rights out there as they're traveling through airports in this country?
COX: Well, it sure as hell better not be, because the privacy concerns have to be foremost. In fact, that's one of the reasons that the system that we have right now, flawed as it is, remains in place, because we want to make sure that improvements are really that -- that privacy remains uppermost in the intent and minds of people at the Department of Homeland Security and throughout the U.S. government.
HEMMER: Thanks for your time. Christopher Cox in D.C., we'll talk again.
COX: You bet.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
