FOX "Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace" - Transcript: Sochi Olympics Safety

Interview

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WALLACE: The Winter Olympics are under way now in Sochi, Russia, but along with the competition is a serious threat of terrorism.

For more, we turn to key lawmakers, Michael McCaul, chair of the House Homeland Security Committee, who's in Austin, Texas. And from Los Angeles, Congressman Adam Schiff, member of the House Intelligence Committee.

Well, the director of our National Counterterrorism Center talked this week and gave a threat assessment of the situation in Sochi. Let's listen.

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MATTHEW OLSEN, NATIONAL COUNTERTERRORISM CENTER: The greater danger from a terrorist perspective is in potential for attacks to occur outside of the actual venues for the games themselves, in the area surrounding Sochi or outside of Sochi in the region.

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WALLACE: And TSA banned all aerosols, gels and powders from carry-ons on flights between the U.S. and Russia.

Chairman McCaul, you're just back from Sochi. And you say that the threat there is very specific and credible.

REP. MICHAEL MCCAUL, R-TEXAS: Well, it is specific and credible. But let me, first, I was watching the Olympics last night. We're rooting for Team USA to bring home the gold. But we also want them to be safe and secure while they're over there.

My experience was that this "Ring of Steel" as Putin calls it, the perimeter, very fortified, hundred thousand security officers, military special forces. So, there's a lot going on there including our FBI, our Homeland Security people over there, diplomatic security.

But, Chris, there are two major threat vectors as I see it. One is to the aviation sector externally into Russia, into Sochi, and at that airport, which isn't in the "Ring of Steel". And the second threat as I see it is the threat of suicide bombers, these so-called "black widows" who are widows of Chechen rebels who have been killed by the Russians.

MCCAUL: As we saw, you know, "the most wanted" pictures down there. Potentially blowing themselves up or detonating explosives in transportation modes. And so that's what we have to be very concerned with. The Russians so far I think have been cooperative when it comes to external operations outside of Russia, when it comes to internal operations, I think less so. That's what we would like to work more closely with them.

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WALLACE: Chairman McCaul, let me ask you a bigger question. Because after your tour of Sochi, you said that the Olympic village, and this was your quote, "is very well fortified." Is that what we've come to that what was originally designed to be an exhibition of international unity now needs to be very well fortified? And if that's the case, what's the point?

MCCAUL: Well, I think any Olympics is going to have a certain risk to it. I think this particular Olympics I've never seen a greater threat. Certainly in my lifetime. We had the 1972 Olympics when the Israeli team was taken hostage. We didn't have the threats, warnings in advance. Remember, we've already had two suicide bombers that have gone off outside the Olympic village in recent -- in December. You had the train station and the bus blown up. And I think as Adam pointed out, it's the soft targets outside the perimeter. I would caution people to stay in the village if they're there.

I think what really poses the greatest damage or threat, if you will, Chris, in my judgment is the proximity and the location of where these games are being held. They're being held right dead center in the middle of what has been a historic battleground between Russia and the Chechen rebels that have now spun off into an Islamic or radical militant group. And so you have the leader of the Chechen rebels Umarov calling for attacks on the Olympics, calling for attacks on civilians including women and children and then Zawahiri, the al Qaeda leader, who was (INAUDIBLE) to bin Laden, you know, reinforcing that threat. And so that's a whole new ball game that makes I think these Olympics very, very different.

I think there is a higher degree probability that something is going to -- something will detonate. Something will go off. But I do think it's probably most likely to happen outside of the ring of steel and the Olympic village.

WALLACE: I've got to pick you up on this. You're saying as the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, you think that there is a high probability that there will be some explosion outside the ring of steel?

MCCAUL: Well, I hope I'm wrong in this assessment. But you're talking about an area of the world where suicide bombers go off all the time. And the fact is right now, Chris, the eyes of the world are upon these Olympics. And the Chechen extremists know this. And they want to make a global statement. They want to make a jihad statement. And what better time to do it than right now? And that is I think the biggest threat to these Olympics. They don't have to hit in the ring of steel at the Olympic village as long as they hit somewhere in Russia. To them, that's a victory.

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WALLACE: We're beginning to run out of time. And I want to get to one more subject. But very briefly, congressman, how concerned are you about this attack?

MCCAUL: Well, any time you have a power station under attack, both physical or by cyberattack we just passed a cyber bill on my committee last week, very, very grave concern. Because if the power grid is shut down, it takes a long time to restore that capability. And that would mean turning off power to large regions of the United States. So -- and we have to be better fortified from a physical attack, but also just my bill demonstrates from a cybersecurity attack, which could take down due far greater damage than Sandy did, for instance, in the northeast shutting down power grids over regions of the United States. So this is -- I don't want to, you know, engage in hyperbole, but this is a very -- the critical infrastructures in the United States, both power, both oil and gas, both financial sectors are all under attack in the cyber world and there are physical attacks like you saw in California that we need to do a better job protecting the nation.

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WALLACE: Chairman McCaul, how big a threat Americans and other Westerners being trained in Syria and coming home to carry out jihad?

MCCAUL: You know, I had this conversation with the Secretary Jeh Johnson just last week before this speech. And we both agreed that Syria is probably the largest and most significant threat to the homeland security of the United States today. And the reason being is that we have so many jihadists pouring into Syria every day training. They have training camps, military training camps. This is far surpassing the FATA in Pakistan. This is becoming the worldwide training ground for terrorists. So concerned about Westerners, European, but also Americans. If you travel there with legitimate travel documents, you can come back into the United States or in Western Europe with this kind of expertise, with this kind of training and pull off, you know, a terrorist attack and let's not forget the external operations they have. Right now their goal is Syria. But after Syria, externally they want to hit the West and the United States of America.

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