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CNN Saturday Morning News

Interview With Ruth Davis

Aired October 13, 2001 - 09:08   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.
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN ANCHOR: More now on national security in the face of America's war on terrorism. We're joined by a former CIA deputy director for science and technology. Ruth David is president of ANSER, a nonprofit organization which looks at national security issues. She also serves on a number of government advisory boards.

Thanks a lot for joining us today.

RUTH DAVID, PRESIDENT, ANSER INC.: Thank you.

MESERVE: We're looking at mail being distributed, used as a mechanism for distributing anthrax. Guidelines have gone out to the American public on what to look for, but can something be done at a different level, let's say at the Postal Service level, to look for something?

DAVID: I actually think in the general case, that would be very difficult. One of the guidelines that the FBI has put out is to look for return addresses from people unknown to you, or to mailing addresses to positions rather than individuals. For a postal worker to make that kind of decision would be very, very difficult.

Now, there are some aspects that a postal worker certainly could look for. That's the traditional leakage from a package, stains, those sorts of things. But I think in the general case of a -- just an unknown return address, that's going to rely on the recipient to be alert.

MESERVE: Now, as someone who's been in the intelligence community, do you think there's a link between the exposures in Florida and the one in New York?

DAVID: I think at this stage, although nothing has certainly been identified, I think it's probable. The proximity in time, the similarity of the -- what I've heard about the attacks, at least, would suggest that there is some correlation between those two.

MESERVE: And what about a link to September 11?

DAVID: I think that's more tenuous. I heard Vice President Cheney say it's suspicious. I agree. We are clearly under attack. Whether it's a sympathizer, whether it's a direct link, or whether it's a different terrorist group completely unrelated, I think is yet to be determined. MESERVE: Now, you look at homeland security and have for some time. Has our readiness improved markedly, remarkably, since September 11?

DAVID: I think since September 11, it has improved remarkably. I still am troubled by certainly the latest anthrax incident and the lack of alertness, perhaps, late in September that led to that. But I think today certainly our public health care system is on alert. I think individuals are more alert, looking for suspicious activity. I think our airports are far more alert in terms of transportation.

MESERVE: Now we have Tom Ridge stepping in as the director of the Office of Homeland Security. If you were to prioritize for him what he should look at first, what he should do first, what would be the top couple of items on the agenda?

DAVID: I think Tom Ridge has a very difficult job, as many have said. In essence, he's been asked to develop and implement a strategy to defend against the war that has already started. And that's tough. I mean, that's very difficult.

So I think his top priority must be to develop the national strategy. The executive order says a lot about coordinating the activities of the various agencies and departments, activities that are already under way and would be operational against this ongoing war.

I personally believe there's a difference between coordination, which is the executive order as written, and what needs to happen, which I would cast as synergism. And by that, I mean we need a whole that's greater than the sum of the parts. And to do that effectively, I think you really have to step back, define the top-level strategy, the umbrella strategy that then will drive the actions of the individual departments, agencies, in executing their missions.

So to get caught up in today's operations, the ongoing war, I think, is the greatest danger that I see, because I think it will impede progress toward development of the national strategy.

MESERVE: Ruth David, thanks so much for joining us today here in Atlanta.

DAVID: Thank you.

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