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CNN Sunday Morning
What Does Higher Alert Status Really Mean?
Aired February 16, 2003 - 10:19 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.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Back in Washington now. It takes a lot more than heavy snow to stop our security analyst, Kelly McCann, from getting here. He's with us in the studio here to help us better understand this high alert that the nation is currently still under.
Kelly, good to see you.
KELLY MCCANN, CNN SECURITY ANALYST: Hi, Fred.
WHITFIELD: All right. Well, let's talk about what we're learning more now about the impetus of this high alert, this orange alert. Intelligence sources are -- have been learning more about al Qaeda operatives and their plans, perhaps, to use chemical or biological means in which to scare Americans, but how much more do we know about where these Americans would be targeted. Is it abroad or domestically?
MCCANN: Well, if you remember when that first -- when the first threat came out, the first alert raised, it was from the Department of State and it was a global threat warning, very specific and it said globally Americans could be targeted by -- and it had unconventional weapons. And then it was followed the next day by a raise to orange here. So I think that it is a global threat and it could be said that it would be no different here than overseas because it's much softer overseas if the security in a lot of places Americans travel through is much less than it is here in the United States.
WHITFIELD: And Kelly, I use the word "scare" because intelligence sources have said they have reason to believe that purchases have been made for these unmanned aircraft. But there is still some very important key components missing in order to disseminate any kind of chemical or biological agents, correct?
MCCANN: There are. There are some functional problems. If you remember, when the anthrax scare first went around, the problem was in non-weaponized grade anthrax, it clogged nozzles. So unless you have the ability, which takes a lot of time and experience and the machinery equipment, et cetera, to weaponize to that degree, it would be ineffective.
Similarly, you have to look at the volume of a container of say Ricin or Sarin that has been successfully produced and how much could it carry? How long could that downwind draft problem be created -- downwind draft a hazard? So I think that it's worth concern and also the concern, of course, of packing it with explosives. WHITFIELD: There have been some publicized concern that perhaps if there was going to be an attack it might happen after the five-day pilgrimage to Mecca, the end of Hajj. It didn't seem to have happened that way as some intelligence sources thought it would be, something like the 12th of February. Does it concern you, though, that with this heightened alert that perhaps Americans may be letting their guard down? This may be the case of, you know, cry wolf syndrome that some Americans might become complacent?
MCCANN: It's a very complex problem. One is of endurance. Do the American people have the endurance to endure a war on terrorism? I'm not sure that you win it. You kind of endure it, making sure that you promote more casualties than you sustain.
And the second issue is I think that the administration needs to let people than no country in the world can be terror proof. I mean it simply does not exist in any place that you can visit and we're no different. But they are doing everything that they can and that they think is reasonable.
And I think that the other thing is understanding that they are on their own schedule. Al Qaeda will attack when they believe they can get away with it because they don't want to lessen themselves in the status -- in stature of everyone who knows them. Right now, they're very powerful. So they're on their schedule. Dates are meaningful to us, meaning less to them.
WHITFIELD: And the Bush administration has made it very clear that it's important for the nation to be vigilant. Even Vice President Cheney, in a recent meeting, had made it clear to those attending that meeting that he and others want to make sure that everything possible is being done just so that Americans don't leave their guard down, but that they -- the administration is not quite saying put up tape and plastic just yet. Sort of mixed messages according to an awful lot of Americans who have been asked in recent days.
MCCANN: There are mixed messages. But you know, to put it in perspective, a lot has been talked about with the -- for instance, the radioactivity, the radiation sickness. In Chernobyl, there were 8,000 -- there were eight tons of radioactive material released in the atmosphere. The initial response to that was 20 people were immediately dead and the Ukrainians say that over time they believe that about 8,000 people died. Eight tons. How could somebody move eight tons of material? I mean we're talking about materials in such less volume than if you just logically look at it. The threat functionally is less than people have built it to be in their imagination.
WHITFIELD: And quickly, need Americans be concerned? Those who have expressed some concern about national security, domestic security with 160,000 plus U.S. forces overseas, is this country being left vulnerable?
MCCANN: Well, I think that there's still this Iraqi fifth column kind of concept, the unaccounted Iraqi agents that, you know, may be in this country and the idea that right prior to an attack there's a specific momentum that picks up through the signals intelligence environment, et cetera. It's not unreasonable to think that in his devious way he might deliver or try to deliver a stop pit to break the momentum, but again, that's just analysis. That's not fact and there are not significant indicators to point about it.
WHITFIELD: All right, Kelly McCann, thank you very much, always good to see you.
MCCANN: 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 February 16, 2003 - 10:19 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Back in Washington now. It takes a lot more than heavy snow to stop our security analyst, Kelly McCann, from getting here. He's with us in the studio here to help us better understand this high alert that the nation is currently still under.
Kelly, good to see you.
KELLY MCCANN, CNN SECURITY ANALYST: Hi, Fred.
WHITFIELD: All right. Well, let's talk about what we're learning more now about the impetus of this high alert, this orange alert. Intelligence sources are -- have been learning more about al Qaeda operatives and their plans, perhaps, to use chemical or biological means in which to scare Americans, but how much more do we know about where these Americans would be targeted. Is it abroad or domestically?
MCCANN: Well, if you remember when that first -- when the first threat came out, the first alert raised, it was from the Department of State and it was a global threat warning, very specific and it said globally Americans could be targeted by -- and it had unconventional weapons. And then it was followed the next day by a raise to orange here. So I think that it is a global threat and it could be said that it would be no different here than overseas because it's much softer overseas if the security in a lot of places Americans travel through is much less than it is here in the United States.
WHITFIELD: And Kelly, I use the word "scare" because intelligence sources have said they have reason to believe that purchases have been made for these unmanned aircraft. But there is still some very important key components missing in order to disseminate any kind of chemical or biological agents, correct?
MCCANN: There are. There are some functional problems. If you remember, when the anthrax scare first went around, the problem was in non-weaponized grade anthrax, it clogged nozzles. So unless you have the ability, which takes a lot of time and experience and the machinery equipment, et cetera, to weaponize to that degree, it would be ineffective.
Similarly, you have to look at the volume of a container of say Ricin or Sarin that has been successfully produced and how much could it carry? How long could that downwind draft problem be created -- downwind draft a hazard? So I think that it's worth concern and also the concern, of course, of packing it with explosives. WHITFIELD: There have been some publicized concern that perhaps if there was going to be an attack it might happen after the five-day pilgrimage to Mecca, the end of Hajj. It didn't seem to have happened that way as some intelligence sources thought it would be, something like the 12th of February. Does it concern you, though, that with this heightened alert that perhaps Americans may be letting their guard down? This may be the case of, you know, cry wolf syndrome that some Americans might become complacent?
MCCANN: It's a very complex problem. One is of endurance. Do the American people have the endurance to endure a war on terrorism? I'm not sure that you win it. You kind of endure it, making sure that you promote more casualties than you sustain.
And the second issue is I think that the administration needs to let people than no country in the world can be terror proof. I mean it simply does not exist in any place that you can visit and we're no different. But they are doing everything that they can and that they think is reasonable.
And I think that the other thing is understanding that they are on their own schedule. Al Qaeda will attack when they believe they can get away with it because they don't want to lessen themselves in the status -- in stature of everyone who knows them. Right now, they're very powerful. So they're on their schedule. Dates are meaningful to us, meaning less to them.
WHITFIELD: And the Bush administration has made it very clear that it's important for the nation to be vigilant. Even Vice President Cheney, in a recent meeting, had made it clear to those attending that meeting that he and others want to make sure that everything possible is being done just so that Americans don't leave their guard down, but that they -- the administration is not quite saying put up tape and plastic just yet. Sort of mixed messages according to an awful lot of Americans who have been asked in recent days.
MCCANN: There are mixed messages. But you know, to put it in perspective, a lot has been talked about with the -- for instance, the radioactivity, the radiation sickness. In Chernobyl, there were 8,000 -- there were eight tons of radioactive material released in the atmosphere. The initial response to that was 20 people were immediately dead and the Ukrainians say that over time they believe that about 8,000 people died. Eight tons. How could somebody move eight tons of material? I mean we're talking about materials in such less volume than if you just logically look at it. The threat functionally is less than people have built it to be in their imagination.
WHITFIELD: And quickly, need Americans be concerned? Those who have expressed some concern about national security, domestic security with 160,000 plus U.S. forces overseas, is this country being left vulnerable?
MCCANN: Well, I think that there's still this Iraqi fifth column kind of concept, the unaccounted Iraqi agents that, you know, may be in this country and the idea that right prior to an attack there's a specific momentum that picks up through the signals intelligence environment, et cetera. It's not unreasonable to think that in his devious way he might deliver or try to deliver a stop pit to break the momentum, but again, that's just analysis. That's not fact and there are not significant indicators to point about it.
WHITFIELD: All right, Kelly McCann, thank you very much, always good to see you.
MCCANN: 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
