VICE PRESIDENT CHENEY
October 12, 2001

In the first part of his interview, the vice president discusses possible links between the anthrax cases and Sept. 11, the scope of other potential terrorist attacks and what Americans can do to protect themselves.

 

Online NewsHour Special Report: The Reponse: After the September 11 Terrorist Attacks July 18, 2001: Vice President Cheney examines U.S. energy consumption and conservation. July 2, 2001: Vice President Cheney has a pacemaker implanted. March 12, 2001: Discussion of the ways that Vice President Cheney could redefine the vice president's role. March 5, 2001: Vice President Cheney is hospitalized for chest pains. Aug. 2, 2000: A Newsmaker interview with Dick Cheney. July 26, 2000: A look at Cheney's political voting record Browse past NewsHour coverage of: Congress Military Terrorism   White House Federal Bureau of Investigation Central Intelligence Agency U.S. State Department Justice Department Department of Defense	JIM LEHRER: Mr. Vice President, welcome. DICK CHENEY: Thank you.
	A potential link between anthrax and Sept. 11?
	JIM LEHRER: Have there been any developments today concerning the FBI's warning - terrorist warning of yesterday? VICE PRESIDENT DICK CHENEY: We've got continued reporting that really led us to believe that the threat level had gone up - that is to say it's fairly precise in terms of time, although not location or anything like that. And all of that's obviously of concern. We've had this ongoing disclosure now of anthrax problems, now extending to NBC in New York, and nobody's made a direct link yet but at this stage you have to be concerned about that sort of thing, the possibility. Are they related? We don't know. We don't have enough evidence to be able to pin down that kind of connection. But, on the other hand, these kinds of activities that we saw in Florida, now perhaps in New York, we have to be suspicious. JIM LEHRER: Do the anthrax things fit the warning that came out yesterday? VICE PRESIDENT DICK CHENEY: It's not that precise. JIM LEHRER: It's not -- VICE PRESIDENT DICK CHENEY: No. What we do know - we know a number of things. We know that Osama bin Laden and the al-Qaida Organization clearly have already launched an attack that killed thousands of Americans. We know that for years he's been the source of terrorist attacks against the United States overseas, our embassies in East Africa in '98 -- the USS Cole last year, probably, in Yemen. We know that he has over the years tried to acquire weapons of mass destruction, both biological and chemical weapons. We know that he's trained people in his camps in Afghanistan, for example; we have copies of the manuals that they've actually used to train people with respect to how to deploy and use these kinds of substances. So, you start to piece it altogether. Again, we have not completed the investigation and maybe it's coincidence, but I must say I'm a skeptic. JIM LEHRER: A skeptic. VICE PRESIDENT DICK CHENEY: I think the only responsible thing for us to do is proceed on the basis that they could be linked. And obviously that means you've got to spend time as well, as we've known now for some time, focusing on other types of attacks besides the one that we experienced on September 11.
	Assessing the magnitude of the new threat
	JIM LEHRER: These warnings that - the information - the intelligence information that you all got that resulted in this warning - did it -- was it of a magnitude that would be comparable to September 11? Is it that kind of thing that you think that we may be facing and other things similar to that in magnitude? I don't mean four airplanes flying into buildings or anything -- VICE PRESIDENT DICK CHENEY: Sometimes it actually will take that form; it will reference what happened on September 11 to talk about another event. It may not be any more precise than that. But the point is that we've tried to make to everybody - the events of September 11 marked a watershed in American history. It's a time when the U.S. homeland now is open to attack in ways that we've only speculated about before. And we know that there are threats out there. We know that there's is an organization with a lot of well-trained people in it, a lot of financing of cells all over the world. And there's no reason for us to operate on the assumption that that was a one-off event -- that's never going to happen again. In fact, we have to assume it will happen again, and that's the only safe way for us to proceed. JIM LEHRER: Do we know for a fact that there are al-Qaida agents still at large here in the United States? VICE PRESIDENT DICK CHENEY: We're doing everything we can to wrap them up as quickly as possible, but I think the only safe assumption is that there may well be others here. There's been speculation, for example, that one of the individuals - one of the crews that they put on the airplanes only had four men on instead of five. We think we may have that individual in custody, but we don't know for sure. It's one of the individuals who were arrested up in Minnesota earlier this year in August. And so it's reasonable to expect - we had some of those hijackers who were involved in the U.S. and been here over a two or three year period of time, traveled back and forth freely. Again, the only safe assumption for us is to proceed on the basis that there are probably other cells here in the U.S. who have planned or trained to carry out various kinds of operations, and we need to do everything we can to wrap them up. That's exactly what we are doing, especially with the FBI and all of the efforts that are underway there now. JIM LEHRER: Is there any way - I realize that these threats are not specific - but is there any way for you to share with us the range of the possibilities? We know what they've already done. We know now that at least there's a possibility of anthrax. What else is there in-between those two? VICE PRESIDENT DICK CHENEY: You know, it varies in terms of locale. Sometimes the threats involve U.S. forces deployed overseas or Americans overseas, or friends and allies of the United States. There had been a pattern of terrorist attacks over the years. Marine barracks in Beirut in 1983 - I mean, there's a long history here to look at. An awful lot of the reporting turns out to be false. Lots of times we disrupt their organizations enough so that we're able to preempt or head off or destroy their ability to move forward on these operations, so a lot of operations have in fact been forestalled. But the scope of it is greater than it's been before, and we know for a fact - especially given the attacks of September 11 - that they have the capacity to inflict great damage on the United States. And so we are in fact at war.
	What can Americans do to protect themselves?
	JIM LEHRER: As you know, several of the questions last night for the president at the news conference had to do, okay, we've heard the warning. We've heard about the threats. Now what should the average American do about them now? For instance, in the context of today's news - the new development, the fourth case of confirmed anthrax - there's all kinds of people who say, oh, don't open your mail; be careful when you open your mail. If you see powder somewhere -- what would you advise the American people to do specifically about the anthrax threat? VICE PRESIDENT DICK CHENEY: If I received a letter that I didn't know where it came from, didn't recognize the sender, it wasn't sort of part of my regular mail flow -- bills and those kinds of things - I'd be suspicious of it. I'd want to have it checked. JIM LEHRER: Everybody should do that? VICE PRESIDENT DICK CHENEY: I think anybody who has a reason to be suspicious of a package or a letter that they're receiving ought to contact their local law enforcement officials and it's the responsible thing to do. JIM LEHRER: What else? VICE PRESIDENT DICK CHENEY: Well, I think it's partly a question of - several things that need to happen. We need to improve our - some of our law enforcement procedures, and we've got legislation pending before the Congress, for example; it's important we get that through. Every day that goes by when we don't have all the tools we think we need to find out who these people are and to run them to ground is one more day when we could conceivably suffer the consequences of undue delay. Call your congressman and senator, tell them that's important legislation, you'd like to see it passed. We need to be more alert just as a society, not take for granted that everything's okay, but when you see something out of the ordinary, you see something unusual, to go ahead and report it to the authorities; let them check it out. We just need to be more sensitive that there are in fact people in our midst who wish us ill and when we see something that doesn't quite fit and doesn't make sense, a candidate at a flight school who only wants to learn how to steer the aircraft, not land it, that's probably something that we ought to be suspicious of. JIM LEHRER: That's one part of the warning -- the alertness, which is to be looking for suspicious activity. VICE PRESIDENT DICK CHENEY: And that's of course the warnings especially go to local law enforcement officers and their field officers of the FBI, so that they're on an extra state of alert. JIM LEHRER: Sure. But much of the questioning last night had to do with what the American should do to protect him- or herself from the possibility of a terrorist attack, which the government of the United States now says is likely in the next several days. VICE PRESIDENT DICK CHENEY: We put out as much information as we can. Obviously, if we knew exactly what it was going to be and where it was going to occur and when was going to occur, we'd go forestall that. A lot of what needs to be done needs to be done collectively as a society. As individuals it's difficult for us to guard against, for example, something like happened in the World Trade Center. So we need to be cognizant of the fact that we do have to change our way of doing things. We're probably going to have to be stiffer on immigration and do a better job for example managing the INS. We've got to be more aggressive in terms of how we prepare ourselves to deal with these kinds of contingencies. We've got to be willing to tolerate a procedure that puts a 40-block area around the Capitol Building that we're not going to allow trucks into for the time being. We've got to be able to accommodate Pennsylvania Avenue being closed right here in front of the White House. There's good reason why it's closed. It was closed because of the car bomb threat, and it ought to stay closed. And now we had a big debate in this town about who's going to open up Pennsylvania Avenue. Well, Pennsylvania Avenue ought to stay closed because, as a fact, if somebody were to detonate a truck bomb in front of the White House, it would probably level the White House, and that is unacceptable.
	Mixed messages from the government
	JIM LEHRER: What about the mixed messages problem? We had a couple of days ago the Centers for Disease Control said to the average American don't worry about anthrax and don't stockpile antibiotics, don't go get a gas mask or whatever. Within an hour the State Department issued an order to every embassy, every U.S. embassy in the world, to stockpile antibiotics, and then we find out every member of Congress has a gas mask. VICE PRESIDENT DICK CHENEY: Well, I'm not sure I know where the gas mask -- JIM LEHRER: No, no, no. This is not related - not related - but they've been given gas masks in the past. Would you have some sympathy for the guy -- VICE PRESIDENT DICK CHENEY: Sure. JIM LEHRER: -- in - you know -- in Wyoming, who's saying what's going on here? VICE PRESIDENT DICK CHENEY: That's right. It's bound to be a confusing time for people. We try to do everything we can to have one coherent message out there. We have different departments and agencies with different responsibilities. The State Department clearly has to worry about embassies overseas. The threat traditionally has been greater for our embassies overseas than it has been here at home. Now that may have changed as of September 11, but an awful lot of the terrorist attacks that have occurred in the past have been aimed at embassies because they're more vulnerable. It's out there. They're a symbol of America in East Africa, for example, and a relatively easy target. So they've got obligations and responsibilities to do that. By the same token, I think what the CDC has tried to do and needs to do is we need to keep all of this in perspective in terms of the kind of problem we're having to deal with here. And the terrorist wins if they shut down the society, just as much as they would win if they launched another major attack. So we're looking for balance and reasonableness. And I know it's difficult -- I've talked to my own family - what should they be worried about, how should they operate? We find ourselves under a much higher level of security now than ever before. It's necessary, and we have to adapt to that but the - again, all I can ask for people is to use their good judgment - their good sense -- work together and - but be alert. More of the Interview...