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CNN Sunday Morning

The War on Terror: Terror Scare Grounds Flights

Aired February 01, 2004 - 08:01   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.


MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN ANCHOR: Now to the war on terror. Several airline flights heading to the U.S. have been canceled. U.S. officials say that they have credible evidence that al Qaeda may be targeting specific flights from overseas.
British Airways canceled Flight 223 to Washington and Flight 207 to Miami. Air France Flight 26 from Parish to Washington canceled today and tomorrow. And Continental has grounded Flight 17 from Scotland to Newark and Los Angeles. Despite the threat, the U.S. is not raising the terror alert level.

For more on the flight concerns, we turn to CNN security analyst Kelly McCann. And he is joining us from Washington.

Good morning, Kelly.

KELLY MCCANN, CNN SECURITY ANALYST: Good morning, Marty.

SAVIDGE: What is the specific information? I mean, what are you hearing about why now and why these flights?

MCCANN: Interestingly, the first threat that came out during the Christmas break was reported there was specific intelligence pointing to an attack. And, in fact, it was reported that way. Subsequently, I spoke to some very senior intelligence officials that said that, in fact, the information that led to that was not necessarily persuasive, but the fact is, the atmosphere today doesn't lend itself to people dissenting.

This is much the same case. From what I've heard, people are not willing to go against or dissent from people's analysis or reading into the information and then promoting it as intelligence. It's a very difficult situation in post-9/11 environment -- Marty.

SAVIDGE: And why are international flights of such a concern? You would think that security, especially for these kinds of flights, would be so high that it would thwart any plans to use aircraft.

MCCANN: Well, partly because of the way that terrorist could get to that originating flight -- where that originates. In other words, here in the United States, we've got a fair amount of control on people, their identity, where they're coming, much more so than we did in a pre-9/11 environment. However, there are countries that could be used as a stepping stone to get to a point of origination and then coordinate an attack. Now, this particular attack had to do with the release or potential release or carrying of chemical or biological weapon, perhaps, aboard a plane. And if you think about how concealable a device like that could be, you can see that it's a very, very difficult problem to try to get inside of. If it was a chemical attack, that would be the immediate result. In other words, the result -- or the release of this agent could actually create a situation where it crashes.

A biological situation would mean that you would then create vectors so that when the passengers got off the plane they would go forward and make the problem even worse. So it is it a difficult situation -- Marty.

SAVIDGE: Well, the fact that this intel is always so widely publicized during events like this, is it possible that these terror organizations may be purposefully putting out misinformation in the hopes of, one, redirecting security sources away from their true target, or if they just want to test the system to see how we respond?

MCCANN: It's possible, but those I spoke to said it's not probable. They've got other problems.

Of course, we know that Hassan Ghul was just captured, one of the last of the 13 must-gets. They've got other issues right now. There probably is a misinformation campaign. But more particularly, they want to focus on things that they know they can do or have a high percentage of success. That would go to the real operations.

You know, in a post-9/11 environment, again, nobody wants to dissent and find out later that they were wrong. And so you're seeing things that would not have initially been given credibility at all pre-9/11 being given the same status as A-1 sources. So it's a little bit confusing.

SAVIDGE: Kelly, I know we've got to say goodbye, but let me ask real quick, Super Bowl play in at all on these terror concerns?

MCCANN: Actually, I asked that question specifically to two senior officials, Marty, and the answer is no.

SAVIDGE: OK. Kelly McCann, security analyst for CNN.

Thank you very much. Always good to see you, but not always a good topic. We appreciate it.

MCCANN: Pleasure, Marty.

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 1, 2004 - 08:01   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN ANCHOR: Now to the war on terror. Several airline flights heading to the U.S. have been canceled. U.S. officials say that they have credible evidence that al Qaeda may be targeting specific flights from overseas.
British Airways canceled Flight 223 to Washington and Flight 207 to Miami. Air France Flight 26 from Parish to Washington canceled today and tomorrow. And Continental has grounded Flight 17 from Scotland to Newark and Los Angeles. Despite the threat, the U.S. is not raising the terror alert level.

For more on the flight concerns, we turn to CNN security analyst Kelly McCann. And he is joining us from Washington.

Good morning, Kelly.

KELLY MCCANN, CNN SECURITY ANALYST: Good morning, Marty.

SAVIDGE: What is the specific information? I mean, what are you hearing about why now and why these flights?

MCCANN: Interestingly, the first threat that came out during the Christmas break was reported there was specific intelligence pointing to an attack. And, in fact, it was reported that way. Subsequently, I spoke to some very senior intelligence officials that said that, in fact, the information that led to that was not necessarily persuasive, but the fact is, the atmosphere today doesn't lend itself to people dissenting.

This is much the same case. From what I've heard, people are not willing to go against or dissent from people's analysis or reading into the information and then promoting it as intelligence. It's a very difficult situation in post-9/11 environment -- Marty.

SAVIDGE: And why are international flights of such a concern? You would think that security, especially for these kinds of flights, would be so high that it would thwart any plans to use aircraft.

MCCANN: Well, partly because of the way that terrorist could get to that originating flight -- where that originates. In other words, here in the United States, we've got a fair amount of control on people, their identity, where they're coming, much more so than we did in a pre-9/11 environment. However, there are countries that could be used as a stepping stone to get to a point of origination and then coordinate an attack. Now, this particular attack had to do with the release or potential release or carrying of chemical or biological weapon, perhaps, aboard a plane. And if you think about how concealable a device like that could be, you can see that it's a very, very difficult problem to try to get inside of. If it was a chemical attack, that would be the immediate result. In other words, the result -- or the release of this agent could actually create a situation where it crashes.

A biological situation would mean that you would then create vectors so that when the passengers got off the plane they would go forward and make the problem even worse. So it is it a difficult situation -- Marty.

SAVIDGE: Well, the fact that this intel is always so widely publicized during events like this, is it possible that these terror organizations may be purposefully putting out misinformation in the hopes of, one, redirecting security sources away from their true target, or if they just want to test the system to see how we respond?

MCCANN: It's possible, but those I spoke to said it's not probable. They've got other problems.

Of course, we know that Hassan Ghul was just captured, one of the last of the 13 must-gets. They've got other issues right now. There probably is a misinformation campaign. But more particularly, they want to focus on things that they know they can do or have a high percentage of success. That would go to the real operations.

You know, in a post-9/11 environment, again, nobody wants to dissent and find out later that they were wrong. And so you're seeing things that would not have initially been given credibility at all pre-9/11 being given the same status as A-1 sources. So it's a little bit confusing.

SAVIDGE: Kelly, I know we've got to say goodbye, but let me ask real quick, Super Bowl play in at all on these terror concerns?

MCCANN: Actually, I asked that question specifically to two senior officials, Marty, and the answer is no.

SAVIDGE: OK. Kelly McCann, security analyst for CNN.

Thank you very much. Always good to see you, but not always a good topic. We appreciate it.

MCCANN: Pleasure, Marty.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com