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CNN Saturday Morning News

Interview With Harvey Kushner

Aired April 20, 2002 - 07:04   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.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Well as we reported, this new terror warning against financial institutions is in -- in the northeast is unsubstantiated, but does it matter if this threat is credible or not?

For answers, we turn to terrorism analyst Harvey Kushner who has trained numerous government agencies on that subject.

Hello, Harvey.

HARVEY KUSHNER, TERRORISM EXPERT: Good morning.

PHILLIPS: Well from what you know about al Qaeda, what do you think, is this -- is this for real?

KUSHNER: It doesn't seem like it. It's not what they generally do. They're into the big bang. They're not into hitting people at their ATM machines. Maybe they're giving out misinformation to try to disrupt the banking system. You know the other day when a plane went into the Pirelli building, the market dumped a hundred points until it recovered so it could be something like that.

But this really is not what they do. It's not blowing up the USS Cole, it's not targeting troops in barracks, it's not flying into buildings, it's not blowing up embassies, they're not into this. And I don't think they have the capabilities, quite frankly, nor do I think they have the will to hit us in cyberspace and disrupt the electronic banking function in the northeast. Let's face it, the only place al Qaeda has to communicate safely these days is on the Internet in cyberspace. They're not going to take that out.

PHILLIPS: If something were to happen, obviously, wouldn't the impact be felt if something happened to the New York Stock Exchange, the Federal Reserve Bank, the Mint?

KUSHNER: That -- that's it. You know possibly what you just mentioned but not the banking system itself in terms of, you know, the banks where people go into throughout the northeast to an ATM machine and stand on line inside a bank. I don't see 40, 50 suicide bombers getting ready to blow up these types of institutions.

But you're right, the Federal Reserve, the Treasury, Wall Street, some building, some institution which is a symbol of the West, symbol of the United States, the economy, that's something that al Qaeda would want to do. But again, I must warn the public, you know, in the opposite of what Ashcroft, these are unsubstantiated threats, they're not specific. Take it from whence it comes. These guys are astute liars. Zubaydah probably could be giving us stuff that really doesn't even exist.

PHILLIPS: So why even come out and make this warning then?

KUSHNER: Your guess is as good as mine. It seems -- it seems to me, quite frankly, inconsistent with what we're saying. At the same time we're cutting back on our -- on our flights, F-15s and 16s, over our cities, we're telling the public that we're going to scale back on that because of money, but on the other hand, we're letting out unspecific information about the banking industry and telling people to be alert. So what are we saying? We don't want our military to be alert 24/7, we want our public to do? You know we're going to need a better ad campaign in terms of these levels. I'm afraid at this point in time these types of warnings are going to make the public alert weary and there's a danger in that.

PHILLIPS: A point well made. How safe are our banks?

KUSHNER: Oh let's face it, our banks are not necessarily very safe in terms of money. They've been, you know, hit before by domestic terrorists as well as people trying to embezzle. But the structure -- the infrastructure is just as vulnerable as our airports as, you know, the general, you know, nuclear plants, the 103 nuclear facilities throughout the United States.

And I think it's what the government is telling us is simply this, look, we're going to tell you everything that we have a whiff of information about because we don't want to be caught off guard. If something should happen, we don't want anybody to say, hey listen, why didn't you tell us? So I think this is the situation we faced yesterday and this weekend with this high alert.

PHILLIPS: Harvey Kushner, Long Island University, thank you so much. You always put it in perspective.

KUSHNER: You're welcome.

PHILLIPS: You give it right to us. Thanks, Harvey.

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