Cease-Fire in Middle East Holding for Now
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: The cease-fire in the Middle East holding for now. Eight hours into it, despite two skirmishes in Southern Lebanon to tell you about. Israel is keeping its air-and-sea blockade however. Thousands of Lebanese who fled Southern Lebanon are trying to return. Lots of moving parts to this story. Who better to sort it all out for us than CNN's Wolf Blitzer who has brought "THE SITUATION ROOM" to Jerusalem. And, Wolf, there's a whole political dimension as well on this. Let's talk about that first. Have we heard from the Israeli prime minister yet what he is saying about it and whether he's going to face a lot of criticism there the way this is all shaping up?</s>WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: He's addressing the Knesset, Israel's parliament, Miles, right now, delivering a very passionate speech, and declaring right near the top of the speech and I've been listening to it that he takes full responsibility for this decision, this Israeli decision to go to war. He's the prime minister of Israel, and he says it was his decision. He is not apologizing for it by any means. He knows there's an outrage, there's a lot of criticism coming from the left, from the right. It's being undermined to a certain degree even as he speaks in the parliament. You see some members of the parliament, 120 members of the parliament, some are heckling him, are some are even being escorted out of the chamber as he's speaking, registering their protests. They have some strict protocol requirements there. They have to be warned once, twice, and then the third time they're basically told they have to leave. There've been some of those incidents already. But he's making the case that this cease-fire deal that went into effect a few hours ago is good for Israel, and he says Israel will abide by it, but it's up to Hezbollah right now to follow the terms that were laid out by the U.N. Security Council. And as you know this whole issue of disarming Hezbollah, Miles, below the Litani River and the southern part of Lebanon, it's a hugely complicated, explosive issue and one which could trigger a resumption of fighting if they don't disarm.</s>M. O'BRIEN: So many people then in Israel, I gather, view this cease-fire as, in essence, a defeat, and could that lead to a political defeat ultimately for the prime minister, who really the first prime minister in recent memory without a strong military background, and that makes him a little vulnerable, doesn't it?</s>BLITZER: Right, he was not a former chief of state of the Israeli army, not a general. He served in the Israeli army, as all men and women do have to have their service, but he didn't have a career in the military. And so there has been a lot of criticism that his lack of military experience, lack of military experience on the part of the defense minister, Amir Peretz, got Israel into a situation that they shouldn't necessarily have gotten themselves into, that these 33 or 34 days of warfare did not produce the breaking, the destruction of Hezbollah that had been promised at the start, once those two Israeli soldiers were kidnapped, eight other Israeli soldiers killed in the initial skirmish along the border between Israel and Lebanon. So the defense minister and in his speech to the Knesset earlier today, he already said he will call for a commission of inquiry to look into some of the decisions that were made and draw the appropriate conclusions. Given the parliamentary nature of this system here, there could be a collapse of the government, could be early elections. Anyone's guess. We do know that in the next few hours, the opposition leader, the former Benjamin Netanyahu, the leader of the Likud Party, will be addressing the Knesset, and he's already made it clear that he's going on the offensive in lashing out against this government for some of the decisions that were made. A lot of unhappy people in short, Miles, here in Israel right now.</s>M. O'BRIEN: This will be very interesting to see how it unfolds and how it affects events on the battlefield in Southern Lebanon. Wolf Blitzer, with "THE SITUATION ROOM" in Jerusalem today. 4:00 p.m. Eastern, 7:00 p.m. Eastern, as well. He'll be there, I think, all week. And if you want to stay clear on what is going on in the Middle East no better place to go. Stay with CNN -- Soledad.</s>S. O'BRIEN: Target: USA now. The terror-threat level in Britain is down from critical to severe today, after an alleged terror plot to blow up planes was stopped. Another alleged terror plot was broken up in Canada just two months ago. Is there a serious threat just across the northern border? Let's get right to CNN's Zain Verjee. She's in Toronto for us this morning. Hey, Zain. Good morning.</s>ZAIN VERJEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Soledad, from Toronto. You know, the Muslim community here in Canada has always been very moderate. They were utterly shocked and dismayed to learn that there could be terrorists among them. We spoke to one Muslim leader who said this:</s>TAREK FATAH, FMR. SPOKESMAN. CANADIAN MUSLIM CONG.: Considering the fact that 17 young men have been arrested and more are being arrested, we do know that there is a problem here. These men may not be guilty of terrorism, but we do know that they are guilty of holding extreme views which are quite hateful of a Western civilization.</s>VERJEE: Many people that we spoke to here, Soledad, say that they don't think the threat is serious. They say, look, something like this is just an isolated incident, and it's not a case of a wider phenomenon here in Canada of home-grown terrorism. One of the questions that we did ask numerous experts was this, what is fueling any anger that exists here, more radical sentiments? And what they said basically is that you have young men. They turn on the TV. They see Muslims being killed in Iraq, in Afghanistan, in Gaza, in Lebanon, and they get angry, they get frustrated, they get resentful; they direct their anger to the United States and toward the Canadian government, whose policies they view as backing Washington. Also, another aspect is that a lot of people look at the Canadian government and say, look, they are sending their troops over to fight in Afghanistan. That's a bone of contention. And they also say the Canadian government backs Israel in its fight against Hezbollah, and they feel that that creates a scenario that is breeding ground for homegrown terrorists here in Canada, where predator imams can exploit them -- Soledad.</s>S. O'BRIEN: Zain Verjee in Toronto for us this morning. Zain, thanks -- Miles.</s>M. O'BRIEN: Well, if you fly you know the drill, shoes off, laptop on the conveyor belt, and now prove your bag is as dry as a bone. But when you go in the subway or bus, nothing like that, of course, and there is a risk involved in all of that. AMERICAN MORNING's Alina Cho joining us live now from Grand Central Terminal here in New York City. Hello there, Alina.</s>ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey there, Miles. Good morning to you. Yes, you are absolutely right. If you talk to security experts, they will tell you the major problem with mass transit is that there are no formal screening systems in place, unlike the airports,and that makes public transportation an attractive target for terrorists.</s>ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The usual suspects, the subways, the buses, even the ferry. We took a ride with transportation security expert Don Rondeau. He told us the alleged terror plot exposed in London last week is a reminder the U.S. remains vulnerable, and mass transit used by millions each day is a prime target.</s>DON RONDEAU, TRANSPORTATION SECURITY EXPERT: The passenger underground would hamper rescue efforts. Some of the tactics used by terrorists take advantage of the fact there is not ventilation, that there is not substantial exits to evacuate people.</s>CHO: Rondeau says there's little that would stop a terrorist from getting on a subway and launching an attack. A briefcase like this one could easily hide a bomb.</s>RONDEAU: So it doesn't require a great deal of skill or the ability to obtain hard-to-obtain chemical. They can go in their five- and-dime and get what they need to get the job done.</s>CHO: The same line of thinking can be applied to buses -- lots of people, too little security.</s>RONDEAU: Here we have a place moving, contained, that would make rescue difficult, where people are virtually unscreened.</s>CHO: Look no further than London, July of last year. Suicide bombers killed more than 50 commuters in bus and subway attacks. The ferries are also exposed. Rondo says a strike there would leave people stranded at sea.</s>RONDEAU: It's at a distance from you. So your time to react to it is impacted., your ability to control the environment impacted, then the event that something we're to occur, well, it makes a rescue much more difficult.</s>CHO: So how can mass transit be secure? Rondeau says blast- proof seating made with Kevlar, new ventilation systems that would suck out contaminated air and inject clean air in its place. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg says there's a lot of security measures in place we don't see.</s>MYR. MICHAEL BLOOMBERG (R), NEW YORK: Sometimes we have people, sometimes we have cameras, sometimes we have both. We're constantly changing our strategies so that they are not predictable.</s>CHO: Rondeau says nothing can replace vigilance.</s>RONDEAU: We're a busy country, we're a busy people, and I believe that somehow we've been sidetracked. We have yet to realize that we are a nation at war. There are people out there who've declared that they want to destroy America. They are showing that they mean business.</s>CHO: And yet, the reality is, millions of people will continue riding the subways, the buses and the ferries each and every day. Our security expert says the important thing to remember is to remain vigilant, always be on the lookout, and try to fight creativity with creativity. Miles, what that means is try to think like a terrorist and that may keep you one step ahead of the game -- Miles.</s>M. O'BRIEN: Help me through this map. Because you spoke to that expert, I'm curious what he thinks about this. There are about two million people every day in this country who fly on airplanes. Tens of millions, 30 billion plus, who use mass transit. The percentage of money spent on planes is many billions of dollars for security there. Hundreds of millions at the federal level on mass transit. Is he concerned about that gap?</s>CHO: Well, certainly. He is concerned. But again, he doesn't want to create a panic. I mean, listen, the major problem, he says, is that there are not screening procedures. You don't go through a checkpoint like you do at an airport. And so what he says is there's really little</s>M. O'BRIEN: All right. She's only a few blocks away, but we had some problems with that transmission. We're sorry about that. Alina Cho. We'll have her back a little bit later -- Soledad.</s>S. O'BRIEN: Ahead this morning, it's been five years since 9/11. Are we any safer now when we fly? We're going to take a closer look at that and much more, ahead right here on AMERICAN MORNING.