CNN Paula Zahn Now - Transcript
CNN Paula Zahn Now - Transcript
Wednesday, November 16, 2005
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ZAHN: That was Drew Griffin reporting.
One more thing: Here is what the TSA says in response tonight -- quote -- "In the last year alone, TSA has required passenger air carriers to triple random inspections of cargo, hired an additional 100 cargo inspectors to ensure compliance, launched a risk-based approach to provide additional vetting of indirect air carriers, and is testing new technologies to more efficiently inspect the full spectrum of cargo.
In English, I think that means they are saying they have made some progress. Joining me now, though, a frequent critic of the Transportation Security Administration, Democratic Congressman Ed Markey of Massachusetts, who serves on the Homeland Security Committee.
Welcome back to our show.
First off, you just heard this inspector say that there are certain carriers that are so bad with the issue of inspection of cargo, he simply wouldn't fly them. Are there certain carriers that we should avoid altogether?
REP. EDWARD MARKEY (D), MASSACHUSETTS: Honestly, I think that the GAO report is a blistering, scalding indictment of the industry in its entirety.
You don't have to single out any individual airline. The reality is that six billion pounds of cargo are placed upon passenger planes every single year in the United States, and only a very small fraction of it is ever screened. So, it's industry-wide.
ZAHN: We know you have been very critical of the Bush administration on this issue. And, yet, do you concede that Congress should bear some of the blame?
It was, in fact, Congress, after all, that passed the intelligence reform bill last year. And, in it, it failed to give the TSA funds to install some of this high-tech security equipment that would allow the inspectors to do more than simple pat-downs for explosions and -- and use dogs to look for explosives.
MARKEY: Three years ago, I made an amendment on the House floor. I made it with Republican Congressman Chris Shays. We won that amendment with over 270 votes. That was before, however, the airline industry, the cargo industry and, sad to say, the Bush administration moved in to kill the amendment, which required full screening of all cargo.
But the Bush administration sided with the industry that doesn't want the responsibility to put in place a screening system that matches the screening system for passengers and their bags on the very same planes.
ZAHN: But you aren't saying Congress has nothing to do with this?
MARKEY: No, I'm not at all.
But, unfortunately in the Republican-led Congress, in the House and the Senate, when the White House says they want something killed, it's killed. I mean, there's no way around it. And -- and that's the sad fact of the matter right now, that the Republicans are listening to the airline and the cargo industry, and they are not listening to the passengers in our country, who are putting family members on these planes for Thanksgiving and Christmas season.
ZAHN: We have got 10 seconds left. Congressman Markey, are you afraid of what's under your feet when you fly commercially?
MARKEY: I think about it every time.
I take off my shoes, my bag. You put your computer through. You are on the plane with all of the other passengers. And then I, like every other passenger, looks out the window. And over is coming a cargo truck filled with hundreds of pounds of cargo that has not been screened at all. And it's been put on the plane by someone who is not flying on that plane. That is scary.
This is a wakeup call for America and, hopefully, for the Bush administration. This is absolutely wrong, for each one of your viewers to have to take off their shoes and put their bags through, but the cargo industry puts cargo on the very same plane that could have an -- an event that could only be matched by what happened on 9/11.
ZAHN: Frightening to think about.
Congressman Markey, thank you so much for your time.
MARKEY: Thank you.
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