Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Saturday Morning News

Reporter's Notebook

Aired June 08, 2002 - 09:34   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, the president pushed homeland security into the forefront this week with his proposal for a new terrorism-fighting department. We're talking security and taking your e-mails and your calls now, 404-221-1855.

Joining us now from Washington, CNN White House correspondent Kelly Wallace, and CNN security analyst Kelly McCann. Kelly squared, the Kelly show. Hi, guys.

KELLY WALLACE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: The Kelly show, hello.

PHILLIPS: Yes, that's right.

All right, he, we got a lot of e-mails, we're going to get right down to it, OK?

This one comes from Cynthia. "Where will the experiment be headquartered? A new building? What will it ultimately add to an already wildly out-of-control budget that seems to be more of a desperate measure to make up for intelligence errors in the past?"

Kelly Wallace, why don't you take that one? It makes a very good point about all the money that would be involved.

WALLACE: Well, a very good point indeed, and one that is a concern, of course, to many conservatives in the president's own party. And that is why the White House was stressing that this will not, not cost any more money.

What they are saying it will be is shifting resources, taking money and personnel from existing agencies and moving them to this new department. The budget will be $37 billion, 170,000 employees.

As for a new building, right now U.S. officials are saying that all these employees might not work in the same building. You might take the Coast Guard, the INS, FBI, CIA, some of those personnel will remain in their current buildings. But down the road, the hope is to have a new building at some point in time, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right, talking about the agencies, this one just coming off the computer. Kelly McCann, I'll take this one to you. Joe Visella (ph) wants to know, "The Coast Guard is one of the five armed forces in the United States, the only armed force not under the Department of Defense. With the move to the Department of Homeland Security, will the U.S. Coast Guard and other agencies like Customs and INS keep their identities and work together, or will they all be combined into one organization?"

KELLY MCCANN, CNN SECURITY ANALYST: Well, I think they'll probably keep their own identity, if for nothing more than historical purposes. However, as Kelly Wallace was just saying, that whole idea of decentralizing could have to do with security by keeping people in their own locations. The Coast Guard, for instance, may have an apportionment of their existing spaces that will be relegated to homeland security.

So I think all the agencies will probably retain, at least for the very near future, some identity with their previous institutions.

PHILLIPS: Lynn from North Carolina, Kelly Wallace, you can take this one. "The FBI can't communicate internally, and the CIA and FBI won't communicate. How can adding another layer of bureaucracy help stop another terrorist attack?" People seem to be quite cynical in a number of these e-mails, Kelly, since the situation that surfaced, as you know, a couple of weeks ago, this story about the FBI and CIA not talking.

WALLACE: Right. And Kyra, Lynne is really touching on a major criticism of the plan. Just what she's saying, one of the biggest intelligence lapses that came to light, that the FBI and the CIA perhaps were not sharing information before September 11.

And now what you're going to have is the FBI and the CIA largely remaining intact. But what they're going to be required to do is send their intelligence information they gather to this new agency, this new clearinghouse, which will analyze it. So some questions being raised, what is going to guarantee that those agencies will send that information there?

President Bush is saying that the FBI and the CIA have already made some reforms. They're communicating better. They will be required to send this information there. But that is one issue a lot of lawmakers are raising, and it seems to be one issue that should get a lot more attention in the months ahead as this issue is debated, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Kelly McCann, Daniel Cole from Michigan wants to know, "What is being done about the simple and cheap forms of terrorist attacks on our food supply? An example would be contaminating milk with poison. All it would take is a hypodermic needle containing a poisonous substance injected into a container. Remember the Tylenol scare?"

MCCANN: Daniel, you're thinking too much. This -- listen, (UNINTELLIGIBLE)...

PHILLIPS: He should be a part of this Homeland Security Department, huh?

MCCANN: I think so, you know. What I think is, is that in fact everyone in the United States has to remember that attacks are only limited by the imagination of the person who plans to conduct them. And, I mean, there's -- you would spin yourself right into the ground if you started thinking about the what-ifs that could occur.

So in broad strokes, the action to be taken is like a domestic intelligence unit they're talking about, where the best chance of avoiding one of these things is early warning, to the point where the action is being planned or spoken about could be intercepted, those people put under surveillance and then grabbed up so that, you know, for that value.

So certainly all those attacks could happen. They won't, but -- thank God, but, you know, there's certainly a lot of things that we need to address.

PHILLIPS: Another specific...

WALLACE: Yes, and Kyra, I (UNINTELLIGIBLE)...

PHILLIPS: Go ahead, Kelly.

WALLACE: ... I was just going to throw in there, you know, when we were being briefed on Thursday about this new idea, senior administration officials stressing that there's no way this White House, this government, will be able to protect against a surprise attack or against all potential acts of terrorism. But the message is, by trying to bring all these agencies together under one kind of overhead, under one roof, under one organization, they would really be better served...

MCCANN: Absolutely.

WALLACE: ... the American people would be better protected, that's the message.

PHILLIPS: All right, point well made.

Evan -- or Ivan wants to know, Kelly McCann, you can take this, "Will homeland security by using facial recognition biometrics at border crossings and airports?"

MCCANN: Oh, I think so. I think that facial recognition is becoming a better tool. Right now, it's a little bit still in its infancy, and in fact some users have turned back the initial product because the percentages weren't acceptable.

But as that technology starts to increase, so will other technologies, bomb-sniffing devices, et cetera. It will become smaller, more reasonably priced, et cetera. So I think you're going to see a lot of very neat technological advances here in the next couple of years.

PHILLIPS: All right, Bob on the line from Virginia. Bob...

CALLER: Hey, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: ... (UNINTELLIGIBLE) question go. Hello.

CALLER: How are you? Why did you kick Miles out up on the shuttle? Shame on you.

PHILLIPS: Hey, someone's got to get the exclusive coverage, come on, Bob.

CALLER: Oh, come on! Anyway, my question is for both Kelly and Kelly. With this new agency coming into effect, how is this really going to work? And how is this going to help us with privacy issues, with the FBI role changing, and isn't this sort of profiling people from other countries when they have to get fingerprinted and photographed? Isn't that issue going to be raised at all? And how will it be addressed and dealt with?

WALLACE: Well, I guess I'll start there, Bob. You know, you raise a lot of good points. Certainly one big concern is, will this new agency change the culture of two other agencies that are not under it, the FBI and the CIA?

So that will continue to be a big message, making sure that the culture within those agencies is changing, that they are sharing information with each other, and also with this new clearinghouse. And I guess we could say will be held accountable very much by this new secretary of homeland security, if we have one, if those agencies are not sharing information.

And you touch on something else. Certainly in the past weeks, as there's been more criticism of the FBI and the CIA, more reforms coming to light, and the fact that now you're going to have all these foreigners from certain countries who will be fingerprinted. That has raised a lot of concerns about the FBI also being able to kind of go into online chats and take a look at lots of activities going on.

So there's a lot of concern there about civil rights, civil liberties issues. That will be addressed in the weeks to come.

MCCANN: You know, Kyra, a direct analogy that can be made on this whole intelligence thing is this actual, the business of the media. Can you imagine, out of all the stories CNN could run, they have to pick very few that will, you know, actually be newsworthy. And that's on events that have already happened.

Imagine what it would be like to try to predict what will be newsworthy next week based on what we know today. I mean, that's really what intelligence is all about. It's a very difficult job.

So as Kelly Wallace pointed out, having a central, all-source fusion spot and a parental figure, the director of homeland security that can break rice bowls and say, You be quiet, I want to hear what you say, et cetera, the idea is that the operator in the field that makes the report, has the sightings, or hooks the bad guys up will be able to send that information to a place that there's a common understanding, not disparate understandings, but a common understanding that can do a credible analysis and then put out homeland security intelligence. PHILLIPS: All right, Kelly McCann, Kelly Wallace, thank you both so much. Lots of great e-mails on homeland security. No doubt we'll be talking about this again. Thanks, you two.

WALLACE: Sure.

MCCANN: See you, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right. See you later.

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