CNN Paula Zahn Now - Transcript

CNN PAULA ZAHN NOW - Transcript

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ZAHN: Which they seem to be doing all the time. Drew Griffin, thanks so much.

Republican Congressman John Mica has been warning about the potential threats from liquid explosives since 2001. And he chairs the House Aviation Committee and he joins us now. Thanks so much for joining us. So, if we have known about this threat for ten years now, how is it possible that we have no reliable system in place to detect them in American airports?

REP. JOHN MICA (R), FLORIDA: Well, unfortunately most of the systems we have in place are the results of some bad incident, whether it was 9/11, where they took over the plane, we secured cockpit doors, we put air marshals on board, we trained pilots. Whether it was Richard Reid, now we take off our shoes, or we do some examination, or the puffers that we now have because of the explosives, where we had two Chechen women get on board and simultaneously take down, with explosives, two airplanes. Now, we're in the gel and liquid explosive business.

ZAHN: But whose fault is it that we don't have more reliable equipment in place? Is it because, as Drew Griffin just explained, the technology is changing so fast or we simply can't afford to blanket the country with these machines?

MICA: Well, part of it is, again, Congress took action, they created a 45,000 screener force. Now what do you do with them? Changing that out to a high tech system is very difficult. I've called for some of those changes based on testing the system for some of the things we've seen just in the last few days. Some of those changes are under way. For example, now last couple of weeks I've been visiting airports. We're starting some behavior analysis, it's a form of, I hate to say it, but profiling, but we need something to stop people when they get there, if we don't have the technology in place. It may be a while before we get some of the things you just heard about. Those technologies that are advanced to detect the types of threats that we have right now.

ZAHN: You talk about an awful lot of deficiencies and need a really close and quick answer to this one. From an A to an F what kind of grade would you give us on our preparedness now almost five years from September 11?

MICA: We're probably somewhere about between a C and a B, but this is a difficult process. You just heard some of the developing technologies. They're expensive getting them in place, putting in place some interim measures, which we're trying to do. We switched out with much criticism last Fall, you may recall, looking for scissors and needles, things of that sort, that didn't pose threats. We started looking for components, bombs or clean bombs, which are part of the threat that we now face. So we've started that. We'll have other measures in place. Some of which I said I've seen just in the last two weeks before this latest incident.

ZAHN: Well, some tremendous challenges ahead for our country. Congressman Mica, thank you so much for joining us and helping us better understand exactly what it is we're up against here. Appreciate it.

MICA: We're getting there. It's a slow process.

ZAHN: All right. That's what a lot of people are saying. Thanks so much.

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