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CNN Live Sunday
Hole in Homeland Defense?
Aired June 29, 2003 - 16:13 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: On now to a highly reputed think-tank which says the U.S. government is risking a terror disaster worse than September 11 by underspending on local emergency response services. The Council on Foreign Relations, led by former Senator Warren Rudman, issued the report today. The Rudman Report says the U.S. remains dangerously unprepared for a catastrophic attack on American soil. It warns that without immediate changes, the next incident could be worse than 9/11. It calls for spending an additional $98.4 billion on emergency responders over the next five years.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WARREN RUDMAN, Council on Foreign Relations: And if we were to be attacked by biological or a chemical weapon in the near future, we would not be prepared in most American cities to save tens of thousands of American lives.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: In response, the Department of Homeland Security insists that the Bush administration is working on these matters.
Now joining us on the telephone to talk a little bit more about what all of this means, our own security analyst, Kelly McCann. He's on the telephone with us now.
Kelly, this report is asking for a tripling in the budget devoted to local emergency response teams. Is this alarmist, or is this something that the American people need to hear at this point?
KELLY MCCANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I think what it is, Fred, is the sudden dawning of reality, and that goes mainly to man-hours. I mean, people have to remember, every time there's an elevated alert, really it's not like more equipment is purchased or anything like that. It goes to man-hours, the salaries, and the overtime being the biggest part of what eats up anybody's budget.
Add to that just the plans that have to be written to be in accordance with the Homeland Security directives, the annexes that have to be prepared in the event of. All of that has to be written by someone who's on the payroll. That leaves little time or money, actually, to buy equipment, the things that the first responders will need should an event occur. And now we're just starting to feel the effects. WHITFIELD: And Kelly, you know, it was only in 2001, right after 9/11, and about the time of the anthrax investigations, that we heard so many municipalities say they needed more resources, they needed more money because of the heightened state of alert, as well as because of a lot of false alarms. So now, for the first time, we're seeing some hard and fast numbers, numbers that are apparently being reflected by the requests from some of those municipalities, according to those who conducted the reports.
MCCANN: Absolutely. Fredricka, all governments have to run off a spreadsheet. And you know, the bottom line is what the bottom line is. A lot of the money that has filtered down to the state and local jurisdictions is only money to support federal exercises. A good example is top-off 2 that we had a couple of weeks ago.
There was a lot of money that was given to the local communities so that they could be part of that exercise, but there weren't any leave behinds. It was a federal exercise to check coordination and levels of readiness, but it didn't necessarily do anything for the local emergency responder. And that's what I think this bill is all about -- this report is all about.
WHITFIELD: And I imagine, Kelly, there are certain cities that are in greater need of resources than others, those that are more populated, right?
MCCANN: Absolutely. I mean, it's skewed. You know, I mean, I don't think that anybody in Bangor, Maine, is going to be as vehement about what they need in the budget, as, say, Detroit or Boston or Chicago. So you have got population issues, you have precedence issues, you have intelligence issues. But suffice to say, you know, if you're looking at not being able to pinpoint the threat, as people have not been able to, Fred, then across the board, security has to be raised somehow. And unfortunately, that means money.
WHITFIELD: And when we say 98.4 million, or at least that's the suggestion from this Rudman Report, are we talking about money devoted specifically to municipalities or will this be divided up along the federal law enforcement agencies as well?
MCCANN: Well, I'm sure it's going to be divided up on a variety of different factors, population nodes, where there's been significant intelligence saying, like, for instance, Seattle. Seattle keeps coming to the surface on signals, intelligence, and other indicators, yet no one has been able to pinpoint why. They may be earmarked for more money than, say, Des Moines, Iowa, that has not routinely come up on anybody's scope. So I'm sure it will be a catfight when money becomes available. We've seen it before.
WHITFIELD: Kelly McCann, thanks very much for joining us on the telephone.
MCCANN: My pleasure, Fred.
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 June 29, 2003 - 16:13 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: On now to a highly reputed think-tank which says the U.S. government is risking a terror disaster worse than September 11 by underspending on local emergency response services. The Council on Foreign Relations, led by former Senator Warren Rudman, issued the report today. The Rudman Report says the U.S. remains dangerously unprepared for a catastrophic attack on American soil. It warns that without immediate changes, the next incident could be worse than 9/11. It calls for spending an additional $98.4 billion on emergency responders over the next five years.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WARREN RUDMAN, Council on Foreign Relations: And if we were to be attacked by biological or a chemical weapon in the near future, we would not be prepared in most American cities to save tens of thousands of American lives.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: In response, the Department of Homeland Security insists that the Bush administration is working on these matters.
Now joining us on the telephone to talk a little bit more about what all of this means, our own security analyst, Kelly McCann. He's on the telephone with us now.
Kelly, this report is asking for a tripling in the budget devoted to local emergency response teams. Is this alarmist, or is this something that the American people need to hear at this point?
KELLY MCCANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I think what it is, Fred, is the sudden dawning of reality, and that goes mainly to man-hours. I mean, people have to remember, every time there's an elevated alert, really it's not like more equipment is purchased or anything like that. It goes to man-hours, the salaries, and the overtime being the biggest part of what eats up anybody's budget.
Add to that just the plans that have to be written to be in accordance with the Homeland Security directives, the annexes that have to be prepared in the event of. All of that has to be written by someone who's on the payroll. That leaves little time or money, actually, to buy equipment, the things that the first responders will need should an event occur. And now we're just starting to feel the effects. WHITFIELD: And Kelly, you know, it was only in 2001, right after 9/11, and about the time of the anthrax investigations, that we heard so many municipalities say they needed more resources, they needed more money because of the heightened state of alert, as well as because of a lot of false alarms. So now, for the first time, we're seeing some hard and fast numbers, numbers that are apparently being reflected by the requests from some of those municipalities, according to those who conducted the reports.
MCCANN: Absolutely. Fredricka, all governments have to run off a spreadsheet. And you know, the bottom line is what the bottom line is. A lot of the money that has filtered down to the state and local jurisdictions is only money to support federal exercises. A good example is top-off 2 that we had a couple of weeks ago.
There was a lot of money that was given to the local communities so that they could be part of that exercise, but there weren't any leave behinds. It was a federal exercise to check coordination and levels of readiness, but it didn't necessarily do anything for the local emergency responder. And that's what I think this bill is all about -- this report is all about.
WHITFIELD: And I imagine, Kelly, there are certain cities that are in greater need of resources than others, those that are more populated, right?
MCCANN: Absolutely. I mean, it's skewed. You know, I mean, I don't think that anybody in Bangor, Maine, is going to be as vehement about what they need in the budget, as, say, Detroit or Boston or Chicago. So you have got population issues, you have precedence issues, you have intelligence issues. But suffice to say, you know, if you're looking at not being able to pinpoint the threat, as people have not been able to, Fred, then across the board, security has to be raised somehow. And unfortunately, that means money.
WHITFIELD: And when we say 98.4 million, or at least that's the suggestion from this Rudman Report, are we talking about money devoted specifically to municipalities or will this be divided up along the federal law enforcement agencies as well?
MCCANN: Well, I'm sure it's going to be divided up on a variety of different factors, population nodes, where there's been significant intelligence saying, like, for instance, Seattle. Seattle keeps coming to the surface on signals, intelligence, and other indicators, yet no one has been able to pinpoint why. They may be earmarked for more money than, say, Des Moines, Iowa, that has not routinely come up on anybody's scope. So I'm sure it will be a catfight when money becomes available. We've seen it before.
WHITFIELD: Kelly McCann, thanks very much for joining us on the telephone.
MCCANN: My pleasure, Fred.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
