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American Morning

Representative Porter Goss Will be Named New CIA Director; Ramsey Discusses Security Measures Taken in Nation's Capital

Aired August 10, 2004 - 08:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking news now -- President Bush picks his man to run the CIA. Congressman Porter Goss to replace George Tenet.
Al Qaeda operatives reportedly casing the Vegas Strip. Now, there's controversy over why the public was never warned.

And how many trees can fall in a forest before it's impossible to ignore, on this AMERICAN MORNING.

ANNOUNCER: From the CNN broadcast center in New York, this is AMERICAN MORNING with Soledad O'Brien and Bill Hemmer.

BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning.

Eight o'clock here in New York.

Soledad is home resting and awaiting the arrivals.

How are you doing, Heidi?

COLLINS: I'm doing great.

HEMMER: Yes? All right.

As we start another hour this morning, a developing story out of Washington to talk about. Moments ago, we found out President Bush has picked Florida Congressman Peter Goss to replace George Tenet as director of the CIA.

Live to the White House in a moment.

We do anticipate an announcement from the White House in about 30 minutes in the Rose Garden. So stay tuned for more on that.

COLLINS: Also, more details coming out now in the Lori Hacking case. There's a bit of surprise regarding the weapon authorities say Mark Hacking used to kill his wife. We'll talk to a Salt Lake City talk show host who's been covering the case very well for us.

HEMMER: Also, think spam is the worst of your computer problem? Think again. A whole lot else you need to worry about. We'll talk to somebody today from "Consumer Reports," and some tips for you, as well.

Jack Cafferty is on vacation. Day two. He'll be out all week. Andy Borowitz is here to help us along, huh?

COLLINS: Yes. Indeed, he is.

HEMMER: All right, back to Andy in a moment.

Whether the hour, though, first, this hour, President Bush expected to announce his choice for a new director of the CIA -- Representative Porter Goss, currently head of House Intelligence Committee.

Jill Dougherty is live on the front lawn there this morning at the White House -- Jill, good morning.

JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Bill.

Well, we can confirm that. A senior administration official telling CNN that we expect to hear the president himself announce that Porter Goss, Republican, the head of the, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, is tapped as the new head of the CIA. This, of course, replacing George Tenet, who stepped down after criticism of how the CIA and other intelligence agencies had handled the 9/11 attacks.

A little background, Bill, on Porter Goss. He's a Republican, as we said, from Florida. He already was on the short list for this post. And one of the reasons was that he has a background in intelligence. He was actually a former CIA case officer for 12 years, going back to the late '50s and up until the 1970s. He's a very strong Bush supporter. Also, was selected by the Bush campaign to critique a security speech by Senator John Kerry, the Democratic challenger, of course.

He's a Yale grad. The president, as well, is a Yale grad. And he also defended the CIA's performance on 9/11, re in concerning that faulty intelligence on weapons of mass destruction.

So the way people are analyzing it right now is that he has a very good chance of being confirmed, but there are positive things and negative things. One, of course, would be his background and also his perception of being a reformer when it comes to intelligence. But the other thing would be that up to that point before 9/11 he was very much involved in the intelligence, which turned out to be quite faulty, as we all know.

HEMMER: All right, Jill, thanks for that.

Jill Dougherty live from the front lawn.

Again, we anticipate that announcement in about 29 minutes from now in the Rose Garden live. We'll take you there when it happens -- Heidi.

COLLINS: Newly obtained tapes seized after 9/11 reportedly show that al Qaeda terrorists may have been casing three Las Vegas casinos. According to the Associated Press, federal officials say they made local officials aware of the tapes, but the public was not alerted, perhaps out of fears it might hurt tourism.

The mayor of Las Vegas says he was never told about the tapes by the federal government.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) MAYOR OSCAR GOODMAN, LAS VEGAS: And if there's anything that the federal government has that would reflect on the wellbeing and the public safety of folks who live here and folks who visit here and they have not shared it with me and allowed me to go out and tell the world that we're the safest place, they're derelict and they're guilty of malfeasance, misfeasance and they should be imprisoned.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: The tapes in question were uncovered in Detroit and Spain in 2002. Both contain footage of the MGM Grand, Excalibur and New York, New York casinos.

In Washington, more than a dozen security checkpoints have been set up and the main street running between two Senate office buildings has been closed indefinitely. But some D.C. city officials think the federal government is over reacting.

Among them, D.C. Metropolitan Police Chief Charles Ramsey.

He is live in Washington this morning.

Chief Ramsey, thanks for being with us on AMERICAN MORNING.

CHIEF CHARLES RAMSEY, METROPOLITAN POLICE DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D.C.: Thank you for having me.

COLLINS: Appreciate your time.

We want to ask you about this, that word, over reacting.

Do you think that's true? And, if so, what's your solution to this?

RAMSEY: Well, I think that word is too strong. There are legitimate security concerns at the Capitol. There's absolutely no question about that. We met around those issues just yesterday and obviously we've done that in the past, to talk about them.

I think the biggest issue that presented itself last week was just a lack of overall coordination with the city.

COLLINS: All right, let's talk about "Time" magazine's article for just a moment in discussing the information that was found from the al Qaeda computer expert who was arrested in July, saying that there were design plans, construction and layout information on the IMF and also, of course, the World Bank.

Tell us a little bit about what exactly is being done to protect those buildings now. RAMSEY: Well, first of all, the IMF and the World Bank have excellent private security. In fact, that was mentioned in the report, that the security was so tight it would make it a difficult target. But we have enhanced that security even further with our own officers. We have security checkpoints set up for trucks and other large vehicles and we're coordinating very well with both the IMF and the World Bank.

So I think we've got that situation pretty much under control.

We also extended that to the Federal Reserve.

COLLINS: All right, I know you also met with other federal officials yesterday, trying to coordinate with them, as well. Particularly they are saying that they are going to allow city officials a little bit more say as to what roads will be closed, what areas will be blocked off, if you will.

What are those additional security measures now that are going to be taken?

RAMSEY: Well, one of the things that we're talking about now are what are some of the permanent solutions that need to go into place here in Washington, D.C. I mean this terror threat is going to be with us for a very long period of time. Washington is always going to be a major target of terrorists. So we need to be thinking now about what it is we can do to properly secure Washington, D.C. so that we don't have the kind of reactions that we have right now whenever the terror alert goes up.

COLLINS: And Chief Ramsey, I also want to get to this FBI bulletin concerning helicopters, which I'm sure you're aware of.

RAMSEY: Right.

COLLINS: Obviously D.C. is restricted air space. But we would like to get your opinion on what you think about tourist choppers and whether or not they should be allowed to fly over cities like New York or even Miami, perhaps.

Unnecessary risk?

RAMSEY: Well, I mean there's a certain amount of risk that we're going to have to accept. I don't think you can just shut down everything in light of the threat of terrorism. I think we have to be reasonable. Obviously, there needs to be checks in place to make sure that those vehicles are safe. But in the meantime, I think we should continue to fly, continue to do as much as we normally do, but put in place those security checks to make sure that it's safe.

COLLINS: All right, the last question for you, sir.

A lot of talk this morning about the story coming out of Las Vegas and whether or not -- well, first of all, video suggesting that alleged terrorists could have been casing those three casinos that we've been talking about. The mayor is saying that he never got information from the federal government that, in fact, there was a threat.

The question being, as always, how much information do you put out there to the public and how much you keep private.

RAMSEY: Well, I mean, there's always a judgment call when it comes to notifying the public. But the mayor definitely should be informed. The elected leadership of any city, and the police and fire, should be informed whenever there is a threat to that city. We're fortunate here in Washington where we have good lines of communication with the FBI and homeland security. So getting information is not an issue.

And, of course, the decision as to how much to release has to be made by those people who bear that responsibility.

COLLINS: And to be clear, federal officials do say they tried to hold some meetings to let those people know about it. But we will learn more about that as the story unfolds.

Thanks so much to you, Chief Charles Ramsey.

Appreciate your time.

RAMSEY: Thank you.

HEMMER: Another reminder for you, bottom of the hour, waiting on the president at the White House, 8:30 a.m. Eastern time, the expected announcement for Porter Goss, the Republican from Florida, a congressman on the House Intelligence Committee, to be selected as the man to succeed George Tenet at the CIA. We will follow that for you. About 23 minutes away and waiting on that.

In the meantime, seven minutes past the hour.

Back to Carol Costello and the other news.

And breaking news again from overseas -- Carol, good morning.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, Bill.

Thank you.

Two people killed in Turkey today in what authorities say was an apparent terrorist attack. Near simultaneous explosions rocked two hotels in Istanbul, injuring at least seven people. Attackers also targeted a fuel storage plant on the city's outskirts. The explosives caused damages, but no reported injuries.

Mark Hacking faces formal charges today in the killing of his wife Lori. Prosecutors say Hacking had confessed to shooting Lori while she slept on July 19.

KSL radio host, Doug Wright, talks to us about the case from Salt Lake City. That's coming up on AMERICAN MORNING.

A new poll is suggesting that more high school students believe the government will reinstate a military draft. Some 55 percent of the surveyed teens say young Americans will be required to serve in the military within their lifetimes. That's up from 45 percent last year. The survey was done by the Horatio Alger Association.

Former Enron Chairman Kenneth Lay is asking a federal judge to separate his case from other defendants facing charges related to the downfall of the energy giant. Lay filed court papers asking for a September 14 trial date. He's also offered to forego a jury trial and face a judge directly. Lay faces up to 175 years if convicted on all charges in his indictment.

Back to you -- Bill.

HEMMER: All right, Carol, thanks for that.

Word this morning of this landslide in Japan that Carol talked about last hour. Look at this videotape here. A huge landslide caught on camera in Japan's central Nara region after heavy rains there. The landslide recorded as it happened by staff from the Japanese Ministry of Land. They were on site. They had to inspect the region for stability or lack thereof. And as you see from the videotape, more instability than the other. So that report out of central Japan we're getting. Wow.

COLLINS: It looks like a bad old movie, you know? God.

HEMMER: That's one respect, yes.

COLLINS: We want to check on the weather now. Hopefully none of that will be going on anywhere near anybody in this country.

(WEATHER REPORT)

HEMMER: In a moment here now, formally charged in the death of his wife Lori, Mark Hacking makes his first appearance today. He won't be in court physically, but we'll tell you what's happening there in Salt Lake in a moment.

COLLINS: Also, Scott Peterson's former mistress, Amber Frey, expected to take the stand today. What will it mean for the prosecution? We're going to talk about that.

HEMMER: Also, minutes from now, President Bush expected to announce his choice for the new director of the CIA, Florida Republican Porter Goss. We'll bring it to you live from the Rose Garden when that happens.

Back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: We are awaiting this announcement, coming to us at 8:30, just about 15 or minutes or so, from the Rose Garden. President Bush is going to be announcing the new CIA director, who we are learning could be Porter Goss, Republican from Florida, replacing George Tenet, who left, yes, one month ago. So we're going to get to that just as soon as it becomes available.

Meanwhile, this could be one of the more significant days in the Scott Peterson trial. His former mistress, Amber Frey, expected to take the stand today.

CNN's Rusty Dornin is live in Redwood City now with more on the case -- Rusty, good morning.

RUSTY DORNIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.

Well, you know, one month after Laci Peterson disappeared, Amber Frey stepped in front of the spotlights and told the world about her affair with Scott Peterson. That announcement, of course, catapulted this story into the headlines, where it's remained ever since.

She's only spoken publicly twice. She's never granted an interview or answered questions from reporters. And while there's been a lot of empty seats in this courtroom during this trial over the last few weeks, there won't be any today, as Amber Frey tells the story of her affair with Scott Peterson.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

DORNIN (voice-over): A full scale Amber alert here in Redwood City. Amber Frey, Scott Peterson's former mistress, is expected to finally take the stand today. Her father says she's ready.

RON FREY, AMBER FREY'S FATHER: She's 100 percent prepared and she'll be able to deal with questions from the defense attorney, Mr. Geragos. Not a problem.

DORNIN: She's billed as the prosecution's star witness. Some legal experts say her testimony, along with tapes of her phone conversations with Peterson, in which he tells lie after lie, will be powerful evidence.

GLORIA ALLRED, AMBER FREY'S ATTORNEY: The prosecution can argue that there is a motive for murder. And we will see how Scott Peterson wormed his way into her life and into her heart.

DORNIN: But others caution Frey's testimony could fall flat and simply pinpoint Scott Peterson as a cad, something the defense has already admitted to the jury.

Frey's scheduled appearance has nearly overshadowed the defense claim that it's found new evidence that could potential exonerate Peterson. The court suspended the trial abruptly last Thursday after Mark Geragos announced the discovery. A source close to the case says the discovery relates to a plastic tarp found near Laci Peterson's body. Local police said the tarp smelled like there had been a decomposing body inside. It's now being tested. No word on whether the court will discuss the results of tests conducted on that tarp.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

DORNIN: At least not in open court. There may be some closed door sessions first thing this morning, talking about that evidence. Meantime, Amber Frey will be kept under tight wraps, under tight security. She's going to be brought in underneath the courthouse, through the garage and come up. And we may never see her except in court today when she testifies -- Heidi.

COLLINS: All right, Rusty Dornin, thanks so much -- Bill.

HEMMER: Now to Salt Lake, where Mark Hacking, now an accused murderer, makes his first court appearance today in Salt Lake, formally charged in the death of his wife Lori. Authorities say Hacking confessed to two of his brothers.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID YOCOM, SALT LAKE COUNTY D.A.: The defendant stated that in the early morning hours of July 19, he walked into the bedroom where his wife slept and shot her in the head with a .22 caliber rifle.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HEMMER: Lori Hacking's body still has not been found.

KSL radio host Doug Wright is in Salt Lake City.

Good morning there, Doug, and thanks for your time here.

DOUG WRIGHT, KSL RADIO HOST: Good morning.

HEMMER: When did this gun issue come up? Was this a statement that Mark Hacking made that led authorities to make that statement yesterday?

WRIGHT: The first we heard of it was yesterday, yes, and apparently that was something that he made to his brothers, Lance and Scott, when he made the confession on July 24. But, boy, it caught all of us off guard. That's the first we have ever heard of a gun. We had all assumed it was the infamous bloody knife.

HEMMER: Yes. Where did the knife fit into this argument now?

WRIGHT: Well, apparently the knife, according to David Yocom, who is the district attorney, it was used to cut up the mattress, to cut out any portions of the mattress that had blood or any kind of perhaps evidence on it. And then apparently Lori's body was wrapped in the bed sheets and maybe even the top of the mattress.

So the knife was used for that. Thus, we have blood on the knife and even some of Lori's hair.

HEMMER: So what is the D.A. now saying about this argument that took place late in the evening, when Lori went to bed and apparently Mark went to play some video game? What happened then?

WRIGHT: Well, apparently they did have some kind of a discussion and argument. He was basically busted and she confronted him with his lies. And at that point she went to bed angry. Mark apparently just decided he was going to play Nintendo. And then apparently he started to continue packing, ran across his .22 rifle, went in while she shot and -- while she slept, rather -- and shot her in the head.

HEMMER: And that's the story officials are relaying now to reporters in Salt Lake City.

WRIGHT: Right. Right.

HEMMER: Also on this issue of a court appearance today, I understand physically he will not be in court, but there is some sort of video link that will happen?

WRIGHT: Right. He'll be at the Salt Lake County Jail and he will appear in 3rd District Court via video. Yes, he won't be there.

HEMMER: And why is that, Doug?

WRIGHT: You know, I don't know exactly. I would speculate that they're trying to hold down on the media circus that would surround it and just keep things kind of as neat and clean as possible.

HEMMER: And are investigators saying, or is the D.A. saying about why it's been so difficult to locate Lori's body? And if they do not find her body, have they said how difficult it may be or may not be to prosecute this case?

WRIGHT: Well, the police and the district attorney are saying that they're very confident that with or without a body, they have an excellent case. However, the search for this body has been rather amazing. It's an area two and a half times the size of a football field, varying in depth from about 30 feet to 45 feet, and apparently very compacted.

And we're getting news this morning that there may be the potential of actually moving all of that trash somewhere else, in other words, excavating it and going through it all again. The police are beginning to feel that they may have missed the body now.

HEMMER: It is a tough, tough story for the family and the people of Salt Lake.

WRIGHT: Yes.

HEMMER: Doug Wright, thanks, KSL Radio there in Salt Lake City.

WRIGHT: Thank you.

HEMMER: Heidi.

COLLINS: Still to come, we'll go live to the Rose Garden for the announcement of the president's choice for CIA director, Porter Goss.

Plus, last year the government banned Internet spam, but is it worse than ever?

That's ahead. Stay with us here on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: Just a reminder now. Coming up at 8:30, just a few minutes from now, we are going to go straight to the Rose Garden, where President Bush will be announcing the new CIA director, who will be replacing George Tenet. That person, Porter Goss. Learn more about that again in just a few minutes.

Meanwhile, though, despite a federal law regulating junk e-mail, spam continues to spread. And if that's not enough of an online annoyance, two more are emerging -- Spyware and fishing.

"Consumer Reports" magazine looks at cyber security in its September issue. You see it there.

And Jim Guest is president of "Consumer Reports."

He's joining us with some important advice.

OK, so everybody is incredibly annoyed about this, still.

JIM GUEST, "CONSUMER REPORTS": Right.

COLLINS: But, you know, there was the federal government who stepped in January and said we're going to get rid of spam. The Canned Spam Act.

GUEST: Yes.

COLLINS: Well, did it work?

GUEST: They passed a law. No, it didn't work. In fact, "Consumer Reports" did a survey that shows that, first of all, seven out of 10 e-mail users now say that more than half their e-mail is spam. And about half of the e-mail users say they're getting more since the federal law passed rather than less.

COLLINS: How can that be?

GUEST: Well, we think the law is not strong enough. But the other thing that's happening is that these Internet thieves and spammers and scammers, they're very ingenious, they're very tenacious. They're finding new ways to basically invade our computers.

COLLINS: All right, so we want to go ahead and talk a little bit about how to protect yourself.

GUEST: Sure.

COLLINS: We've got a little bit of a list here for everyone to look at. The first one, don't buy anything offered.

GUEST: That's right. The reason that people keep spamming is that the spammers' spam is we buy stuff. If nobody bought products offered by spam, they'd be out of business.

COLLINS: All right. Don't reply or unsubscribe.

GUEST: That's right. In fact, what happens, if you tell, if you click on that little connection that says don't send us any more e- mail, any more spam, it does one of two things. It goes to a dead address that doesn't even exist. Or it tells the spammer they've got a real live address and you go on their A-list and they send you more spam.

COLLINS: Oh, that's awful.

All right, disable your preview pane.

GUEST: That's right...

COLLINS: Is that P-A-I-N or P-A-N-E?

GUEST: P-A-N-E. Well, it is a P-A-I-N, isn't it? But it's where they list all your, your in box, all your messages that are waiting. If it also shows the first couple of lines in one of the messages, that means your preview pane is on. That means you're confirming to the spammer that this address works. Disable the preview pane.

COLLINS: All right, and speaking of address, you want to use a complicated address.

GUEST: Yes, what the spammers do, they do something called dictionary attacks. They make up e-mail addresses using common names and combinations of letters and things like that. And they can get through to you. But if you have a complicated address with letters, numbers, symbols in it, then they're not going to catch you in these dictionary attacks.

COLLINS: OK, and you also want to keep more than one e-mail address and the last one here, report spam to your ISP. This sounds important.

GUEST: Yes. When you get spam or any of these other things that are coming after you, let the federal regulatory authorities who are trying to stop this stuff, let them know. So the e-mail address to forward it to is spam@ace.gov.

COLLINS: OK, good idea.

Also, 52 million Americans have received fishing e-mail in the last year.

Quickly, what is it?

GUEST: That's a new thing where scammers or Internet thieves will send you an e-mail that looks like it comes from your bank or your credit card company, it has the logo and everything. It's a fake thing. They ask you for confidential information and your password, your PIN number. Don't ever respond to stuff like this. Always get in touch directly with your institution, but don't get scammed -- and spammed and scammed by this new thing called fishing.

COLLINS: Exactly.

All right, interesting.

OK, the last one for you.

GUEST: Yes?

COLLINS: What is Spyware? I've seen this thing all over the place.

GUEST: Spyware is another thing where you download programs, maybe music or other programs, from the Internet, and basically the Internet thieves or spies will get some software that downloads, gets into your machine and sends messages out to them about what you're doing and what your personal information is. And that's where you get these pop-up ads.

So what you ought to get is the anti-Spyware, anti-spam and things like that that we review in the current issue of "Consumer Reports."

COLLINS: Either that or a very big hammer. I'm not sure.

All right, Jim Guest with "Consumer Reports."

GUEST: Yes.

COLLINS: Thanks so much for those great tips.

GUEST: OK.

Good luck. Good luck.

COLLINS: All right.

Bill, back to you.

HEMMER: All right, Heidi, thanks for that.

Jack continues on vacation, but Andy Borowitz here to fill that void, and what a void it is.

Good morning, Drew.

How are you?

ANDY BOROWITZ, BOROWITZREPORT.COM: Good morning. I'm great.

And here's the question. Some people have said they're not happy with either presidential candidate. Now, actor Will Smith has told a Swedish newspaper that he could be president if he wanted to and he wouldn't be the first celebrity to do that, that Arnold Schwarzenegger getting into politics, Jesse Ventura, Sonny Bono, to name a few.

So our question to you is which celebrity would you like to see run for president?

And boy, do we have answers.

Ernesta from Virginia Beach, Virginia writes: "Regis Philbin for president would be a great idea. He's a man of integrity and great sense of humor."

OK.

Grace from Carmel, Indiana says: "Bill Clinton. Some of us wish that this Elvis was still in the building."

OK.

Jared from Fairfax, Virginia says: "Why not put Nick Leshay in the White House? That way we could see Jessica Simpson as first lady."

OK.

And, finally, Mel on Cornwall-On-Hudson from New York says: "Jack Cafferty. Only he takes almost as many vacations as Bush."

HEMMER: Those are fighting words.

There you go.

BOROWITZ: Jack, we love you.

HEMMER: Thank you, Andy.

See you a bit later.

Waiting for the president to arrive in the Rose Garden. It should happen any minute now. We'll get you there live for the announcement of Porter Goss to succeed George Tenet, possibly, as director of the CIA. We'll get to that after a break here on AMERICAN MORNING.

And live to the Rose Garden after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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Aired August 10, 2004 - 08:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking news now -- President Bush picks his man to run the CIA. Congressman Porter Goss to replace George Tenet.
Al Qaeda operatives reportedly casing the Vegas Strip. Now, there's controversy over why the public was never warned.

And how many trees can fall in a forest before it's impossible to ignore, on this AMERICAN MORNING.

ANNOUNCER: From the CNN broadcast center in New York, this is AMERICAN MORNING with Soledad O'Brien and Bill Hemmer.

BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning.

Eight o'clock here in New York.

Soledad is home resting and awaiting the arrivals.

How are you doing, Heidi?

COLLINS: I'm doing great.

HEMMER: Yes? All right.

As we start another hour this morning, a developing story out of Washington to talk about. Moments ago, we found out President Bush has picked Florida Congressman Peter Goss to replace George Tenet as director of the CIA.

Live to the White House in a moment.

We do anticipate an announcement from the White House in about 30 minutes in the Rose Garden. So stay tuned for more on that.

COLLINS: Also, more details coming out now in the Lori Hacking case. There's a bit of surprise regarding the weapon authorities say Mark Hacking used to kill his wife. We'll talk to a Salt Lake City talk show host who's been covering the case very well for us.

HEMMER: Also, think spam is the worst of your computer problem? Think again. A whole lot else you need to worry about. We'll talk to somebody today from "Consumer Reports," and some tips for you, as well.

Jack Cafferty is on vacation. Day two. He'll be out all week. Andy Borowitz is here to help us along, huh?

COLLINS: Yes. Indeed, he is.

HEMMER: All right, back to Andy in a moment.

Whether the hour, though, first, this hour, President Bush expected to announce his choice for a new director of the CIA -- Representative Porter Goss, currently head of House Intelligence Committee.

Jill Dougherty is live on the front lawn there this morning at the White House -- Jill, good morning.

JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Bill.

Well, we can confirm that. A senior administration official telling CNN that we expect to hear the president himself announce that Porter Goss, Republican, the head of the, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, is tapped as the new head of the CIA. This, of course, replacing George Tenet, who stepped down after criticism of how the CIA and other intelligence agencies had handled the 9/11 attacks.

A little background, Bill, on Porter Goss. He's a Republican, as we said, from Florida. He already was on the short list for this post. And one of the reasons was that he has a background in intelligence. He was actually a former CIA case officer for 12 years, going back to the late '50s and up until the 1970s. He's a very strong Bush supporter. Also, was selected by the Bush campaign to critique a security speech by Senator John Kerry, the Democratic challenger, of course.

He's a Yale grad. The president, as well, is a Yale grad. And he also defended the CIA's performance on 9/11, re in concerning that faulty intelligence on weapons of mass destruction.

So the way people are analyzing it right now is that he has a very good chance of being confirmed, but there are positive things and negative things. One, of course, would be his background and also his perception of being a reformer when it comes to intelligence. But the other thing would be that up to that point before 9/11 he was very much involved in the intelligence, which turned out to be quite faulty, as we all know.

HEMMER: All right, Jill, thanks for that.

Jill Dougherty live from the front lawn.

Again, we anticipate that announcement in about 29 minutes from now in the Rose Garden live. We'll take you there when it happens -- Heidi.

COLLINS: Newly obtained tapes seized after 9/11 reportedly show that al Qaeda terrorists may have been casing three Las Vegas casinos. According to the Associated Press, federal officials say they made local officials aware of the tapes, but the public was not alerted, perhaps out of fears it might hurt tourism.

The mayor of Las Vegas says he was never told about the tapes by the federal government.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) MAYOR OSCAR GOODMAN, LAS VEGAS: And if there's anything that the federal government has that would reflect on the wellbeing and the public safety of folks who live here and folks who visit here and they have not shared it with me and allowed me to go out and tell the world that we're the safest place, they're derelict and they're guilty of malfeasance, misfeasance and they should be imprisoned.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: The tapes in question were uncovered in Detroit and Spain in 2002. Both contain footage of the MGM Grand, Excalibur and New York, New York casinos.

In Washington, more than a dozen security checkpoints have been set up and the main street running between two Senate office buildings has been closed indefinitely. But some D.C. city officials think the federal government is over reacting.

Among them, D.C. Metropolitan Police Chief Charles Ramsey.

He is live in Washington this morning.

Chief Ramsey, thanks for being with us on AMERICAN MORNING.

CHIEF CHARLES RAMSEY, METROPOLITAN POLICE DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D.C.: Thank you for having me.

COLLINS: Appreciate your time.

We want to ask you about this, that word, over reacting.

Do you think that's true? And, if so, what's your solution to this?

RAMSEY: Well, I think that word is too strong. There are legitimate security concerns at the Capitol. There's absolutely no question about that. We met around those issues just yesterday and obviously we've done that in the past, to talk about them.

I think the biggest issue that presented itself last week was just a lack of overall coordination with the city.

COLLINS: All right, let's talk about "Time" magazine's article for just a moment in discussing the information that was found from the al Qaeda computer expert who was arrested in July, saying that there were design plans, construction and layout information on the IMF and also, of course, the World Bank.

Tell us a little bit about what exactly is being done to protect those buildings now. RAMSEY: Well, first of all, the IMF and the World Bank have excellent private security. In fact, that was mentioned in the report, that the security was so tight it would make it a difficult target. But we have enhanced that security even further with our own officers. We have security checkpoints set up for trucks and other large vehicles and we're coordinating very well with both the IMF and the World Bank.

So I think we've got that situation pretty much under control.

We also extended that to the Federal Reserve.

COLLINS: All right, I know you also met with other federal officials yesterday, trying to coordinate with them, as well. Particularly they are saying that they are going to allow city officials a little bit more say as to what roads will be closed, what areas will be blocked off, if you will.

What are those additional security measures now that are going to be taken?

RAMSEY: Well, one of the things that we're talking about now are what are some of the permanent solutions that need to go into place here in Washington, D.C. I mean this terror threat is going to be with us for a very long period of time. Washington is always going to be a major target of terrorists. So we need to be thinking now about what it is we can do to properly secure Washington, D.C. so that we don't have the kind of reactions that we have right now whenever the terror alert goes up.

COLLINS: And Chief Ramsey, I also want to get to this FBI bulletin concerning helicopters, which I'm sure you're aware of.

RAMSEY: Right.

COLLINS: Obviously D.C. is restricted air space. But we would like to get your opinion on what you think about tourist choppers and whether or not they should be allowed to fly over cities like New York or even Miami, perhaps.

Unnecessary risk?

RAMSEY: Well, I mean there's a certain amount of risk that we're going to have to accept. I don't think you can just shut down everything in light of the threat of terrorism. I think we have to be reasonable. Obviously, there needs to be checks in place to make sure that those vehicles are safe. But in the meantime, I think we should continue to fly, continue to do as much as we normally do, but put in place those security checks to make sure that it's safe.

COLLINS: All right, the last question for you, sir.

A lot of talk this morning about the story coming out of Las Vegas and whether or not -- well, first of all, video suggesting that alleged terrorists could have been casing those three casinos that we've been talking about. The mayor is saying that he never got information from the federal government that, in fact, there was a threat.

The question being, as always, how much information do you put out there to the public and how much you keep private.

RAMSEY: Well, I mean, there's always a judgment call when it comes to notifying the public. But the mayor definitely should be informed. The elected leadership of any city, and the police and fire, should be informed whenever there is a threat to that city. We're fortunate here in Washington where we have good lines of communication with the FBI and homeland security. So getting information is not an issue.

And, of course, the decision as to how much to release has to be made by those people who bear that responsibility.

COLLINS: And to be clear, federal officials do say they tried to hold some meetings to let those people know about it. But we will learn more about that as the story unfolds.

Thanks so much to you, Chief Charles Ramsey.

Appreciate your time.

RAMSEY: Thank you.

HEMMER: Another reminder for you, bottom of the hour, waiting on the president at the White House, 8:30 a.m. Eastern time, the expected announcement for Porter Goss, the Republican from Florida, a congressman on the House Intelligence Committee, to be selected as the man to succeed George Tenet at the CIA. We will follow that for you. About 23 minutes away and waiting on that.

In the meantime, seven minutes past the hour.

Back to Carol Costello and the other news.

And breaking news again from overseas -- Carol, good morning.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, Bill.

Thank you.

Two people killed in Turkey today in what authorities say was an apparent terrorist attack. Near simultaneous explosions rocked two hotels in Istanbul, injuring at least seven people. Attackers also targeted a fuel storage plant on the city's outskirts. The explosives caused damages, but no reported injuries.

Mark Hacking faces formal charges today in the killing of his wife Lori. Prosecutors say Hacking had confessed to shooting Lori while she slept on July 19.

KSL radio host, Doug Wright, talks to us about the case from Salt Lake City. That's coming up on AMERICAN MORNING.

A new poll is suggesting that more high school students believe the government will reinstate a military draft. Some 55 percent of the surveyed teens say young Americans will be required to serve in the military within their lifetimes. That's up from 45 percent last year. The survey was done by the Horatio Alger Association.

Former Enron Chairman Kenneth Lay is asking a federal judge to separate his case from other defendants facing charges related to the downfall of the energy giant. Lay filed court papers asking for a September 14 trial date. He's also offered to forego a jury trial and face a judge directly. Lay faces up to 175 years if convicted on all charges in his indictment.

Back to you -- Bill.

HEMMER: All right, Carol, thanks for that.

Word this morning of this landslide in Japan that Carol talked about last hour. Look at this videotape here. A huge landslide caught on camera in Japan's central Nara region after heavy rains there. The landslide recorded as it happened by staff from the Japanese Ministry of Land. They were on site. They had to inspect the region for stability or lack thereof. And as you see from the videotape, more instability than the other. So that report out of central Japan we're getting. Wow.

COLLINS: It looks like a bad old movie, you know? God.

HEMMER: That's one respect, yes.

COLLINS: We want to check on the weather now. Hopefully none of that will be going on anywhere near anybody in this country.

(WEATHER REPORT)

HEMMER: In a moment here now, formally charged in the death of his wife Lori, Mark Hacking makes his first appearance today. He won't be in court physically, but we'll tell you what's happening there in Salt Lake in a moment.

COLLINS: Also, Scott Peterson's former mistress, Amber Frey, expected to take the stand today. What will it mean for the prosecution? We're going to talk about that.

HEMMER: Also, minutes from now, President Bush expected to announce his choice for the new director of the CIA, Florida Republican Porter Goss. We'll bring it to you live from the Rose Garden when that happens.

Back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: We are awaiting this announcement, coming to us at 8:30, just about 15 or minutes or so, from the Rose Garden. President Bush is going to be announcing the new CIA director, who we are learning could be Porter Goss, Republican from Florida, replacing George Tenet, who left, yes, one month ago. So we're going to get to that just as soon as it becomes available.

Meanwhile, this could be one of the more significant days in the Scott Peterson trial. His former mistress, Amber Frey, expected to take the stand today.

CNN's Rusty Dornin is live in Redwood City now with more on the case -- Rusty, good morning.

RUSTY DORNIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.

Well, you know, one month after Laci Peterson disappeared, Amber Frey stepped in front of the spotlights and told the world about her affair with Scott Peterson. That announcement, of course, catapulted this story into the headlines, where it's remained ever since.

She's only spoken publicly twice. She's never granted an interview or answered questions from reporters. And while there's been a lot of empty seats in this courtroom during this trial over the last few weeks, there won't be any today, as Amber Frey tells the story of her affair with Scott Peterson.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

DORNIN (voice-over): A full scale Amber alert here in Redwood City. Amber Frey, Scott Peterson's former mistress, is expected to finally take the stand today. Her father says she's ready.

RON FREY, AMBER FREY'S FATHER: She's 100 percent prepared and she'll be able to deal with questions from the defense attorney, Mr. Geragos. Not a problem.

DORNIN: She's billed as the prosecution's star witness. Some legal experts say her testimony, along with tapes of her phone conversations with Peterson, in which he tells lie after lie, will be powerful evidence.

GLORIA ALLRED, AMBER FREY'S ATTORNEY: The prosecution can argue that there is a motive for murder. And we will see how Scott Peterson wormed his way into her life and into her heart.

DORNIN: But others caution Frey's testimony could fall flat and simply pinpoint Scott Peterson as a cad, something the defense has already admitted to the jury.

Frey's scheduled appearance has nearly overshadowed the defense claim that it's found new evidence that could potential exonerate Peterson. The court suspended the trial abruptly last Thursday after Mark Geragos announced the discovery. A source close to the case says the discovery relates to a plastic tarp found near Laci Peterson's body. Local police said the tarp smelled like there had been a decomposing body inside. It's now being tested. No word on whether the court will discuss the results of tests conducted on that tarp.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

DORNIN: At least not in open court. There may be some closed door sessions first thing this morning, talking about that evidence. Meantime, Amber Frey will be kept under tight wraps, under tight security. She's going to be brought in underneath the courthouse, through the garage and come up. And we may never see her except in court today when she testifies -- Heidi.

COLLINS: All right, Rusty Dornin, thanks so much -- Bill.

HEMMER: Now to Salt Lake, where Mark Hacking, now an accused murderer, makes his first court appearance today in Salt Lake, formally charged in the death of his wife Lori. Authorities say Hacking confessed to two of his brothers.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID YOCOM, SALT LAKE COUNTY D.A.: The defendant stated that in the early morning hours of July 19, he walked into the bedroom where his wife slept and shot her in the head with a .22 caliber rifle.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HEMMER: Lori Hacking's body still has not been found.

KSL radio host Doug Wright is in Salt Lake City.

Good morning there, Doug, and thanks for your time here.

DOUG WRIGHT, KSL RADIO HOST: Good morning.

HEMMER: When did this gun issue come up? Was this a statement that Mark Hacking made that led authorities to make that statement yesterday?

WRIGHT: The first we heard of it was yesterday, yes, and apparently that was something that he made to his brothers, Lance and Scott, when he made the confession on July 24. But, boy, it caught all of us off guard. That's the first we have ever heard of a gun. We had all assumed it was the infamous bloody knife.

HEMMER: Yes. Where did the knife fit into this argument now?

WRIGHT: Well, apparently the knife, according to David Yocom, who is the district attorney, it was used to cut up the mattress, to cut out any portions of the mattress that had blood or any kind of perhaps evidence on it. And then apparently Lori's body was wrapped in the bed sheets and maybe even the top of the mattress.

So the knife was used for that. Thus, we have blood on the knife and even some of Lori's hair.

HEMMER: So what is the D.A. now saying about this argument that took place late in the evening, when Lori went to bed and apparently Mark went to play some video game? What happened then?

WRIGHT: Well, apparently they did have some kind of a discussion and argument. He was basically busted and she confronted him with his lies. And at that point she went to bed angry. Mark apparently just decided he was going to play Nintendo. And then apparently he started to continue packing, ran across his .22 rifle, went in while she shot and -- while she slept, rather -- and shot her in the head.

HEMMER: And that's the story officials are relaying now to reporters in Salt Lake City.

WRIGHT: Right. Right.

HEMMER: Also on this issue of a court appearance today, I understand physically he will not be in court, but there is some sort of video link that will happen?

WRIGHT: Right. He'll be at the Salt Lake County Jail and he will appear in 3rd District Court via video. Yes, he won't be there.

HEMMER: And why is that, Doug?

WRIGHT: You know, I don't know exactly. I would speculate that they're trying to hold down on the media circus that would surround it and just keep things kind of as neat and clean as possible.

HEMMER: And are investigators saying, or is the D.A. saying about why it's been so difficult to locate Lori's body? And if they do not find her body, have they said how difficult it may be or may not be to prosecute this case?

WRIGHT: Well, the police and the district attorney are saying that they're very confident that with or without a body, they have an excellent case. However, the search for this body has been rather amazing. It's an area two and a half times the size of a football field, varying in depth from about 30 feet to 45 feet, and apparently very compacted.

And we're getting news this morning that there may be the potential of actually moving all of that trash somewhere else, in other words, excavating it and going through it all again. The police are beginning to feel that they may have missed the body now.

HEMMER: It is a tough, tough story for the family and the people of Salt Lake.

WRIGHT: Yes.

HEMMER: Doug Wright, thanks, KSL Radio there in Salt Lake City.

WRIGHT: Thank you.

HEMMER: Heidi.

COLLINS: Still to come, we'll go live to the Rose Garden for the announcement of the president's choice for CIA director, Porter Goss.

Plus, last year the government banned Internet spam, but is it worse than ever?

That's ahead. Stay with us here on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: Just a reminder now. Coming up at 8:30, just a few minutes from now, we are going to go straight to the Rose Garden, where President Bush will be announcing the new CIA director, who will be replacing George Tenet. That person, Porter Goss. Learn more about that again in just a few minutes.

Meanwhile, though, despite a federal law regulating junk e-mail, spam continues to spread. And if that's not enough of an online annoyance, two more are emerging -- Spyware and fishing.

"Consumer Reports" magazine looks at cyber security in its September issue. You see it there.

And Jim Guest is president of "Consumer Reports."

He's joining us with some important advice.

OK, so everybody is incredibly annoyed about this, still.

JIM GUEST, "CONSUMER REPORTS": Right.

COLLINS: But, you know, there was the federal government who stepped in January and said we're going to get rid of spam. The Canned Spam Act.

GUEST: Yes.

COLLINS: Well, did it work?

GUEST: They passed a law. No, it didn't work. In fact, "Consumer Reports" did a survey that shows that, first of all, seven out of 10 e-mail users now say that more than half their e-mail is spam. And about half of the e-mail users say they're getting more since the federal law passed rather than less.

COLLINS: How can that be?

GUEST: Well, we think the law is not strong enough. But the other thing that's happening is that these Internet thieves and spammers and scammers, they're very ingenious, they're very tenacious. They're finding new ways to basically invade our computers.

COLLINS: All right, so we want to go ahead and talk a little bit about how to protect yourself.

GUEST: Sure.

COLLINS: We've got a little bit of a list here for everyone to look at. The first one, don't buy anything offered.

GUEST: That's right. The reason that people keep spamming is that the spammers' spam is we buy stuff. If nobody bought products offered by spam, they'd be out of business.

COLLINS: All right. Don't reply or unsubscribe.

GUEST: That's right. In fact, what happens, if you tell, if you click on that little connection that says don't send us any more e- mail, any more spam, it does one of two things. It goes to a dead address that doesn't even exist. Or it tells the spammer they've got a real live address and you go on their A-list and they send you more spam.

COLLINS: Oh, that's awful.

All right, disable your preview pane.

GUEST: That's right...

COLLINS: Is that P-A-I-N or P-A-N-E?

GUEST: P-A-N-E. Well, it is a P-A-I-N, isn't it? But it's where they list all your, your in box, all your messages that are waiting. If it also shows the first couple of lines in one of the messages, that means your preview pane is on. That means you're confirming to the spammer that this address works. Disable the preview pane.

COLLINS: All right, and speaking of address, you want to use a complicated address.

GUEST: Yes, what the spammers do, they do something called dictionary attacks. They make up e-mail addresses using common names and combinations of letters and things like that. And they can get through to you. But if you have a complicated address with letters, numbers, symbols in it, then they're not going to catch you in these dictionary attacks.

COLLINS: OK, and you also want to keep more than one e-mail address and the last one here, report spam to your ISP. This sounds important.

GUEST: Yes. When you get spam or any of these other things that are coming after you, let the federal regulatory authorities who are trying to stop this stuff, let them know. So the e-mail address to forward it to is spam@ace.gov.

COLLINS: OK, good idea.

Also, 52 million Americans have received fishing e-mail in the last year.

Quickly, what is it?

GUEST: That's a new thing where scammers or Internet thieves will send you an e-mail that looks like it comes from your bank or your credit card company, it has the logo and everything. It's a fake thing. They ask you for confidential information and your password, your PIN number. Don't ever respond to stuff like this. Always get in touch directly with your institution, but don't get scammed -- and spammed and scammed by this new thing called fishing.

COLLINS: Exactly.

All right, interesting.

OK, the last one for you.

GUEST: Yes?

COLLINS: What is Spyware? I've seen this thing all over the place.

GUEST: Spyware is another thing where you download programs, maybe music or other programs, from the Internet, and basically the Internet thieves or spies will get some software that downloads, gets into your machine and sends messages out to them about what you're doing and what your personal information is. And that's where you get these pop-up ads.

So what you ought to get is the anti-Spyware, anti-spam and things like that that we review in the current issue of "Consumer Reports."

COLLINS: Either that or a very big hammer. I'm not sure.

All right, Jim Guest with "Consumer Reports."

GUEST: Yes.

COLLINS: Thanks so much for those great tips.

GUEST: OK.

Good luck. Good luck.

COLLINS: All right.

Bill, back to you.

HEMMER: All right, Heidi, thanks for that.

Jack continues on vacation, but Andy Borowitz here to fill that void, and what a void it is.

Good morning, Drew.

How are you?

ANDY BOROWITZ, BOROWITZREPORT.COM: Good morning. I'm great.

And here's the question. Some people have said they're not happy with either presidential candidate. Now, actor Will Smith has told a Swedish newspaper that he could be president if he wanted to and he wouldn't be the first celebrity to do that, that Arnold Schwarzenegger getting into politics, Jesse Ventura, Sonny Bono, to name a few.

So our question to you is which celebrity would you like to see run for president?

And boy, do we have answers.

Ernesta from Virginia Beach, Virginia writes: "Regis Philbin for president would be a great idea. He's a man of integrity and great sense of humor."

OK.

Grace from Carmel, Indiana says: "Bill Clinton. Some of us wish that this Elvis was still in the building."

OK.

Jared from Fairfax, Virginia says: "Why not put Nick Leshay in the White House? That way we could see Jessica Simpson as first lady."

OK.

And, finally, Mel on Cornwall-On-Hudson from New York says: "Jack Cafferty. Only he takes almost as many vacations as Bush."

HEMMER: Those are fighting words.

There you go.

BOROWITZ: Jack, we love you.

HEMMER: Thank you, Andy.

See you a bit later.

Waiting for the president to arrive in the Rose Garden. It should happen any minute now. We'll get you there live for the announcement of Porter Goss to succeed George Tenet, possibly, as director of the CIA. We'll get to that after a break here on AMERICAN MORNING.

And live to the Rose Garden after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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