CNN The Situation Room - Transcript

CNN The Situation Room - Transcript
Wednesday, December 7, 2005

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BLITZER: An apparent bomb threat, the first shooting by a Federal Air Marshal since 9/11 and a passenger is now dead. It all raises many new questions tonight about the state of homeland security.

A top Democrat is on the House Homeland Security Committee is Congressman Ed Markey, Democrat of Massachusetts. He's here in THE SITUATION ROOM with us. Congressman, thanks very much for joining us.

REP. ED MARKEY (D-MA), HOMELAND SECURITY COMMITTEE: Thank you.

BLITZER: What do you make of what happened today?

MARKEY: Well, obviously, these air marshals have to make near instantaneous decisions. A backpack that hasn't been surrendered, a threat of a bomb -- it only took one pound of explosives to bring down the Pan-Am 103 over Lockerbie.

So, obviously, these air marshals are put in situations where difficult decisions are needed, and whether it be a terrorist or a troubled person, which this looks like it was, these air marshals are the last line of defense for all the passengers on the plane.

BLITZER: You are going have to -- presumably, and your colleagues in the house, investigate, do a little oversight to see what happened and make sure everything happened the way it was supposed to happen. How do you go about doing that without interfering in the internal investigations that I assume the air marshals and the other federal law enforcement authorities will have?

MARKEY: Well, again, this is a chance for us to review the effectiveness of the air marshal program.

BLITZER: Has it been effective?

MARKEY: Well, again, it's underfunded. They're not on every plane. We are fortunate that they were on this plane. Let's hope that it was necessary force. It looks like it was. But that said and done, on most flights, it's just the flight attendants who will be the protection for passengers if an incident like this developed.

And that's still a very scary thought, I think, for many passengers, especially as the Bush administration is now going to allow scissors like this to be brought back into the passenger cabins.

If that's the case, knowing that the -- Mohamed Atta and the other 18 terrorists used devices like this, then there is a real reason for us to reexamine this whole issue and to determine whether or not airline passenger safety is up to snuff.

BLITZER: Because, those who argue that these kinds of scissors should be allowed say that the screeners, the TSA screeners, should be focusing all of their attention on more significant threats like explosives as opposed to threats from scissors.

MARKEY: Well, I don't think any passenger would think that if they were sitting next to someone who was holding scissors like this ...

BLITZER: They may be threats to the passengers and to the flight attendants, but the pilots are now bolted in. Those cockpit doors are shut tight.

MARKEY: Well, then why is the Bush administration continuing to ban box cutters and knives if they say it's so safe? They're making a distinction between a knife and a pair of scissors. They're not allowing knives or box cutters in.

They can't have it both ways. And, similarly, they can't still oppose -- which they do -- the screening of the six billion pounds of cargo which is placed on passenger planes every single year in our country.

BLITZER: Let's get back to the air marshals. As you know, before, 9/11, there were what, only 30 or 40 Federal Air Marshals in the entire country, which was a tiny, tiny number. Immediately after 9/11, the federal government started hiring thousands of these air marshals, and there was concern that some of them who were hired didn't have the necessary background checks, there were problems. Has that been cleared up based on what you know?

MARKEY: Based upon what I know, yes, it has. These are mostly people that have a trained professional police background of some manner, shape or form. It's not easy work, though. They travel the airlines of our country on a daily basis. It's tedious.

Thankfully, we don't have that many incidents. And there aren't enough of them. But the program, as it stands, in its shrunken form, is a good program. And, of course, no terrorist would know which fight an air marshal was on, which in and of itself is a deterrent.

BLITZER: An important one at that. Thanks very much, Congressman Markey for joining us.

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