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September 11, 2003

Host: Michael Grant
Topics:
·Arizona's Homeland Security Department
·Ballet Arizona
In-Studio Guests:
·Frank Navarrete, director of the Arizona homeland security office;
·Ib Andersen, director of Ballet Arizona

>> Michael: Tonight on "Horizon," it is the second anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Are we safer? We'll talk about efforts to make us safer in the air and on the ground. And ballet Arizona will soon be opening its new season. We'll tell you about that and how the company is doing financially. Good evening, I'm Michael Grant. It was a horrible sight two years you a, the jets flying into the World Trade Center towers and their eventual collapse, but are we safer now? That is a question we will ask our Arizona homeland security director. First, producer Mike Sauceda tells us more about efforts to make us safer when we fly.

>> Reporter: Buster the explosive sniffing dog is searching for an odor cone. When he passes through one that contains threat levels of explosives he will react.

>>Rick Ramos: It's all odor recognition that we've trained him to recognize odor and to respond and he responds in what we call a passive response as opposed to drug dogs who do aggressive response waseer dealing with explosives. His passive response would be to sit down at the source and he will not leave until he gets his reward.

>> Reporter: Buster, part labrador is one of three dogs who constantly patrol the airport searching for explosives. He says buster is a transportation security administration dog and will soon be joined by three others.

>>Rick: Right now we have another canine in school. He will be graduating October 10th, which will bring us up to four dogs. The TSA canine program will pay up to six dogs for major airports, and we're planning by March of next year to have two more canines and be up to six canines like all the other major airports across the country.

>> Reporter: Besides more explosive sniffing dogs there have been many changes at airports since terrorist boarded four planes two years ago with box cutters and smashed two jets into the World Trade Center towers. One of the basic has been the formation of the TSA itself. Paul Armes is director for the TSA. He says another big change has been security screeners who have been federalized since 9/11.

>>Paul Armes: Before 9/11 we did not have the level of training of today. All of those regulatory requirements that have been enacted by the patriot act or caused by the patriot act in some respects have given us opportunity to build a first-class, world-class operation. We think from a customer service standpoint and a security standpoint.

>> Reporter: Robert Brown is deputy director for airport operations at Sky Harbor. The TSA, the aport and carriers all share responsibility for security. He says there have been change on the airport's end as well.

>>Robert Brown: Let's talk about some of the changes that have occurred now that we can talk about. Obviously I can't tell you about any specific things we're doing in our airport security program, but you will see a lot more presence of uniformed enforcement folks out at the airport. That's through the help of the Phoenix Police Department. That's through the help of our own airport operations security staff that's here 24/7. We strongly believe on visibility for a deterrence factor, and we're applying that. The public should see that, that we do have this type of a component here at the airport, and we have deployed some of the staff in that regard. So that's something you'll see right off the bat.

>> Reporter: Before 9/11, those without tickets could go behind security checkpoints to greet those arriving. That's what practice that is no longer allowed. Improvements have been made to the technology used for checking baggage and people. Cockpit doors have been strengthened on planes. Pilots are being allowed to carry guns and the number of air marshals has been dramatically increased and and, of course, now you might have to take off your shoes. That's not mandatory, but TR Johnson says doing so will save you the Haas you will of a secondary screening.

>>TR Johnson: It's not a requirement. We recommend you take off your shoes to speed up the process. We find most people have metal in their shoes they are not aware of and if you take it off on this side of the checkpoint it speeds the process up so much faster.

>> Reporter: Checked baggage is being looked at more closely. Don Beardsley, another security screener says there are several items you don't want to put in checked baggage.

>>Don Beardsley: There is a certain 16 to 20 ounce cans of hairspray can't go in --

>>Reporter: Because it's flammable.

>>Don: Any type of bleach, fireworks, anything like that. Firearms are permitted as long as they're checked in at the desk for the particular airline they're flying. Jellies they sell here, peanut butter, food items shoes will be a subject item. A lot of books. Glassware, mirrors, anything like that that will -- it will just project on the screen it is a prohibited item and we actually have to physically go in and look in the bag and make sure what it is.

>>Reporter: Why peanut butter?

>>Don: The density. You can imagine a jar of peanut butter how dense it looks. Obviously you can't see it through but the density of the item.

>> Reporter: Have all these changes made flying safer from a potential terrorist attack?

>>Paul: Absolutely. Any number of reasons why, but much safer today than it was pre-9/11.

>> Reporter: However, weapons are still slipping through.

>>Paul: And that's something that's regrettable but we're finding several hundred a month, and in many cases there's always one of these, I didn't know it was in there, and we're trying to make people aware of that, divest up front, and we're still finding too many things, though, and again it's just a general awareness thing, I think for the public.

>> Reporter: Security screener Theresa Burns has personally found some.

>>Theresa Burns: One day running the x-ray machine and a meat cleaver and a butcher knife came through the x-ray machine. It was pulled aside. A police officer was called.

>> Reporter: One area still in need of improvement is the screening of cargo which can be carried on cargo and passenger jets. The problem was highlighted when a man shipped himself in a crate from New York to Texas as cargo.

>>Paul: We do have a process for that. It's not as extensive as it perhaps -- some think it could be but we do have a process for checking cargo. In this particular case, for some reason, that system failed.

>> Reporter: There is an effort to further improve passenger screening. It's called caps II, the computer assist touchdown pre-screening II program. Passengers would have color coded information to indicate a level of threat posed by passengers. The risk is based on a variety every factors. Armes says it's still under development.

>>Paul: The program is to try to make it transparent to the general public as to who is being identified as perhaps a risk, and that whole process is being developed through a lot of different legal requirements. Obviously there's a lot of concern about. But there's also a lot of concern about the continued threat out there. So as this threat is assessed and we're able to build these databases that may be helpful in preventing the risk that we foresee, we hope we'll have the opportunity to exercise some of that.

>> Reporter: Brown says the airport itself is working time prove its security over the next few years.

>>Robert: What will we see in the future? This airport is developing a security master plan for the facility. That includes also the general aviation airports that we have, Goodyear and Deer Valley airport within the Phoenix airport system. And we've hired a consulting group to come in and help us analyze our vulnerabilities at this facility and to help us develop an action plan of how to enhance those and eliminate and minimize those vulnerabilities and put together an action plan for the next five to seven years in order for us to be a lot stronger, if you will, from a security side on this airport.

>> Reporter: In the meantime, buster will be on duty making sure the airport is free from explosives and flies.

>> Michael: Earlier this evening I talked to Frank Navarrete. He is the director of the Arizona homeland security office. Here is that interview. Frank, two years later, is air travel safer?

>>Frank Naverrete: I think it is safer. No doubt in my mind. And I don't feel a bit apprehensive about flying. As a matter of fact, I'm flying tonight on the anniversary, if you will. So it is. And a lot of it is obvious. The things you see with screeners, the TSA screeners and so forth. And a lot of it is behind scenes that the average person doesn't see. On the other hand, there are some vulnerabilities. As demonstrated by the gentleman that shipped himself across the nation last week --

>> Michael: That was bizarre.

>>Frank: I mean, that kind of points out a vulnerability. Are we there yet? No. Have we made a lot inroads? Yeah. The hijack Inc.ing, I think an actual hijacking would be a tough thing to pull off. Now, we've got these other things we have to deal with such as the cargo planes and that sort of thing.

>> Michael: Do we sometimes go too far? Are we starting to color code people, are we giving up too much freedom for some security?

>>Frank: Well, I think we're going to have to have a tradeoff. I do. I don't want to speak to that particular program itself but there are going to be trade- offs that have to be made. We have to look at other countries that have gone through this. I think we're going to reach a point where we're going -- we will as a nation accept a certain level of threat and say, okay, we have to live with this because we can't eliminate 100% of threat. And once we get to that point, I'm sure that we're going to probably give up some potential liberties that we took for granted and we used to take life for granted. We're not doing that anymore. We're giving that one. How about the -- excuse me -- the invasion at the airports, i.e, I'm sorry, sir, you have to take off your shoes. Is that a liberty? Yeah, I would like to wear my shoes through the airport. It's a minor form of losing liberties but I suspect we will have to do some.

>> Michael: Disturbing report out of the FBI about the ability to get driver's licenses in Arizona and not necessarily be yourself. You figured that one out yet?

>>Frank: First of all, I'm not sure that you can -- well, you're talking about just the driver's license program with fake I.D.

>> Michael: That's right.

>>Frank: Have I figured it out? No, but I know that the department of motor vehicles is taking a very hard look at and that trying to come up with -- and they have come one some programs to try to minimize that, if not eliminate it. Again, I mean, I could probably walk out here on a campus and if I had the right connections, buy a set of I.D.s tonight that looks pretty darn good. So, you know, how do we put -- how do we put plans and processes in place to prevent people from doing that, if you will, with fake I.D.s?

>> Michael: It seemed like we were making strides in that area. I mean, I know for example the driver's licenses recently -- at least from their face, seem to be, you know, much more secure. You've got the signature on there, those kinds of things. Is it just that there is nothing that can't be cracked?

>>Frank: Well, I think -- any improvement presents a challenge to people. I mean, you have software challenges that people -- I mean, you harden your software situation and pretty soon some kid 18 years old coming out of college thinks, thanks, good challenge. Same thing with driver's licenses or any other form of I.D. I think our driver's licenses the way they're constructed and presented I think are pretty safe in the sense of altering them. The issue at this point in time is the I.D. associated with applying for the license.

>> Michael: Right. Was it your comment that I heard shortly after that story broke that said we need to standardize the kind of I.D. from state to state that you use to get the driver's license, or was it someone else?

>>Frank: No, I wish I could take credit for that one, but it's true. I think because it's very easy -- I can get a driver's license here under false pretenses, go to Virginia, turn my driver's license in there as I.D., which they'll confiscate and get a Frank Navarrete driver's license which I may have appropriated with false I.D.

>> Michael: What do I have to show here to get a driver's license?

>>Frank: I don't know.

>> Michael: I don't either.

>>Frank: I just came here. When I came here, I had to show my Arizona driver's license and they took it and I knew they were going to take it and that was my I.D.

>> Michael: Obviously you and I originally applied for our driver's license a long time ago but we don't need to get into that.

>>Frank: Thanks.

>> Michael: Listen, when I talked to your predecessor, Chuck Blanchard, early on, I know one of the concerns that he had was getting better communication coordination among various agencies, state and local, that kind of thing. Have we made progress on that?

>>Frank: Not only have Chuck and -- did Chuck and I listen to what they had to say about what we call interoperability, which is the ability to communicate, not only did we listen it to, but we heard and it we're doing something about that today and I'm very pleased about that that.

>> Michael: We got some federal funds for that if --

>>Frank: We've applied some federal funds and as a matter of fact, we are installing equipment in Santa Cruz county as of this week to give that county interoperability. They will be able to speak with the police -- the police department can speak with the county, can speak with the sheriff, they can speak with border patrol, customs, speak with their Mexican counterparts if need be on an emergency basis. Because we have very strong mutual aid agreements with Mexico. Oftentimes it's not uncommon for their resources to come over to the U.S. and for our resources to go over to Mexico. That's a very critical area forness terms of communication. The next step is to finish off the border, do all four counties along the border and then move north into the rest of Arizona. So we have some movement on that.

>> Michael: One of the other concerns that popped up earlier this year was the possibility of a shift to the so-called soft targets, not the Palo Verdes, maybe not the airports, but the commercial office buildings, those kinds of things. How real is that threat, what if anything can you do about it? There's a lot of those things.

>>Frank: Well, I don't have to define a soft target. I think you just did. How do you defend against that? Let me say this, Mike. Here's my view on this. We have people out there that are acknowledged terrorists, and they've acknowledged that, and they've told us, and they've demonstrated to us that they hate us and want to kill us more than they love their own life. How do you protect against that? I'm not avoiding the question, but how do you do that?

>> Michael: No, I understand. Let's hope that that's the extreme and that maybe people by a few, but let's say there's more that are not quite that extreme that want to make a hit but they also want to get away. Is that more defensible or not?

>>Frank: Sure, but, again, you cannot defend 100%. We never will. First of all, there's not enough manpower, not enough money, not enough resources. And I'm not sure you can ever define every nook and cranny of vulnerability. I think you have to reach a point in time where you say, "okay, from a nation, national point of view, this is the level of risk that we as citizens of the United States are going to be willing to live with," and just deal with it and go on with our lives. At that point in time you'll have processes and plans in place where you'll just live that way. For example, today we think nothing of the screening that we get at the airport. I think nothing of taking my shoes off. I think nothing of trying to get there earlier.

>> Michael: Two years you asking?

>>Frank: Two years ago, when I was flying to Europe a lot, I would be upset because -- no, I wouldn't be, I would accept the fact I had to be there at least two hours early, a dog would come around and sniff my shoes and everything else he wanted to and a guy was carrying the machine gun handling the dog and I just accepted that, and I'd come back here and if I'd get to the airport more than 30 minutes before flight type I was upset because I was conditioned. I see that as happening here.

>> Michael: What about the harder targets, what about the ones that we thought about immediately, Palo Verde, Hoover dam? There's a lot of others. Are those better protected?

>>Frank: Yes.

>> Michael: Than they were two years you aking?

>>Frank: No question about it. Overall I believe as a nation, and certainly in Arizona, we are more secure at yellow today than we were at orange the first time. And, again, a lot of that has to do with the way we've conditioned ourselves. We had a very nice lengthy conversation with secretary ridge last week about this whole -- earlier this week about this whole upcoming event, and sent out a bunch of information to us which I distributed to all the appropriate public safety people, first responders, and I'm going to tell you, our people today do not react to this. They just act, and you know why? Because there's a plan in place. They practiced it. So it's not a reactive type thing. It's okay, it's time for us to do this, here's the plan and the guys do it.

>> Michael: Is that the major advancement we've made, that we have done contingency planning and thinking we haven't done before?

>>Frank: It's a big one, sure, but there's others. Number one, we're standardizing training for first responders. We're in the process of standardizing equipment. So when the guy, the fire guy, the EMS guy on the street, has to go to a hospital to help in an emergency because of some catastrophic event that has happened, he can be dealing with the same equipment that the hospital is using and vice versa. If you have a triage in the field, decontamination units, for example, they need to be standardized, so when guys use them they know exactly what to do.

>> Michael: Frank Navarrete, thank you for the information.

>>Frank: Quite welcome. It is it was my pleasure.

>> Michael: it is Arizona's professional ballet company and Palais Arizona is preparing to open its new season. We'll talk to the ballet's director but first Mike Sauceda tells us more about the upcoming season.

>> Reporter: Dancers at ballet Arizona, the southwest's premier professional ballet company, getting ready for their upcoming season. It starts November 6, which swan lake at symphony hall. Dancer Alan Rath says it's the first time in years the company will be accompanied by the Phoenix symphony orchestra and she says it enhances the dance.

>>Ellen Rath: Because the orchestra and the dancers sort of feed off each other's energy and it feels like a more live arts collaboration whereas when you're dancing to record music it can still be great music but it just doesn't have the energy that live music does. I think it will make a big difference. It's really great that we have that this year.

>> Reporter: Rath will play a swan.

>>Ellen: In swan lake I do one of the four little swans, which is maybe the most famous part of swan lake. Everybody knows it. It's very in sync, four girls that are hooked arm in arm and do this little thing together. I'm one of the four little swans and I also do the MEZERKA in the third act.

>> Reporter: The company will also perform the nut cracker, valentine's winter, an original piece by ballet Arizona director Ib Andersen and a BA- LLACINE festival.

>>Ellen: He was a choreographer, the head of New York City ballet for many years and created hundreds of ballets and his work is very famous. It's very challenging for dancers. He always used beautiful classical music, and so it's actually Ib's background. He danced with New York City background. So Ib has the tie to it, and we're fortunate to get to do them. There's -- BALLANCINE trust which allows companies to do or not do the pieces and so to get the rights to do them is kind of a big deal and for us to get to do that many of them together in a show is a really big deal.

>> Reporter: But before the season opens, ballet Arizona will take their art to 35,000 students Valley-wide, with five free performants at parks across the Metro area. Some of the kids will even get to perform with the dancers on stage.

>>Ellen: We go into the schools, and we work with the students for usually two or three days and we help them sort of choreograph a little piece, and then they get to perform it on the stage. I love it. Yeah, I think it's really fun. I love to work with students like that and, you know, share our art form and it's also -- helps to build the audience of the future.

>> Michael: Here now to tell us more about the season and the financial condition of Ballet Arizona is its director Ib Andersen. Ib, it's good to see you again. You were telling me a couple of the women dancers there are 6'4"?

>>Ib Andersen: Well, on point. So, no -- I have two girls that are that height, and I just love them because they're so beautiful, both of them. So it's very extraordinary to have those Amazons --

>> Michael: Yeah. And I would think if they don't do well at ballet they could try out for the NFL.

>>Ib: Possible. Possible.

>> Michael: Ballet doing better financially?

>>Ib: Yes, we just got a challenge grant, the biggest individual gift ever for Ballet Arizona, of $250,000. So that's something. But I mean in the arts forum or the arts world of performing arts, it always is a struggle, you know. But that's how it is. So it's not nothing unusual. I mean, we're surviving. We're still here.

>> Michael: In fact, you've been thriving the past couple of years. The ballet came very close to extinction a couple, three years ago. Any particular things that turned it around -- from a financial standpoint?

>>Ib: I hope that it just is a reflection of what we do, that people actually want to come and see it. No, that sort -- that crisis three years ago, that's long over. Now it's just, you know, day-to-day survival, which is a normal thing for any company if you're successful or not.

>> Michael: Is this a particularly big week for ticket sales?

>>Ib: Yeah, we just opened -- we actually had our biggest single day for single tickets day, so we had a huge sale. So everything looks positive, and it is an exciting season this year. We're doing one more program which is five different represent programs, plus we're having Phoenix symphony plane for swan lake and nutcracker. They haven't played for nutcracker since '99. So that's really, I think, what -- I hope would help people to come and see nutcracker.

>> Michael: Absolutely. It's obviously a nice merger of forums. I hadn't thought about the fact, but I'm sure for the artists as well, the comment was made, that dancing with the full orchestra is also an uplifting experience --

>>Ib: Well, it becomes more alive show because you actually don't really know how they're going to play. So that kind of added spontaneity gives something different that you can't have with taped music.

>> Michael: Now, you also have planned an Ib Andersen original. Tell us more about that.

>>Ib: Yeah, that's not that much to tell, except I started it -- choreographing it -- it's a full-length piece, not necessarily about something specific, like a story thing. I've done 15 minutes so far. What is it about? Don't know. Have a clue. Sort of it's taking shape. It's like you -- the clay is the dancers, and you choose certain music, and how I do is I have sort of an idea about it, but it's vague, and it takes shape, you know. So it's -- to me it's very exciting.

>> Michael: How much of that, when you're putting together -- how much of that can you do up here and how much do you really have to do where you say I want to really see the dancers doing this? Is it a combination of the two?

>>Ib: I mean, I never prepare steps before going to the studio. I really work on the dancers because that's the way I do it. I'm not sitting at a desk. But -- but the idea and the concept of things are there before I go in.

>> Michael: Now --

>>Ib: So that's a huge amount of preparation before I actually start.

>> Michael: And the Ballet Arizona also is doing some things for students? We mentioned. Those are -- out in the open, I understand?

>>Ib: Students?

>> Michael: The shows that you're taking on the road, I think there's five of them or so?

>>Ib: We're doing under the stars. This is here in the beginning of October. We're performing in five different parks for free and it's sort of like an hour and 20 minutes of excerpts of the ballets we're going to do throughout the season. So it's something to see.

>> Michael: All right. Ib Andersen, thank you very much. Best of luck on the season.

>>Ib: Thank you.

>> Michael: You can find out more about Ballet Arizona by visiting the Channel 8 website. You can find that at www.kaet.asu.edu. When you get there, position the pointer over the word "Horizon" and click on that, and that will lead you to a link to Ballet Arizona, while you're there you can also check out a transcript of tonight's show, find out more about upcoming shows, and speaking of that, here is what is coming up tomorrow on "Horizon."

>>Reporter: Phoenix elects a new Mayor and one city council race goes down to the wire. California gives the green light to illegal immigrants getting driver's licenses. What does Arizona's governor think of it? And a Corporation Commissioner may quit before impeachment proceedings begin. These stories on "Horizon"'s Journalists Roundtable Friday at 7:00.

>> Michael: Thanks very much for joining us on this Thursday evening. I'm Michael Grant. Have a great one. Good night.

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