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American Morning

New Government Set to Take Office in Iraq; Woman Who Became Face of Prisoner Abuse Scandal Faces Sentencing

Aired May 03, 2005 - 07:00   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.


BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. A new government is set to take office in Iraq in two hours as the fight for control of Iraq intensifies again today.
The woman who became the face of the prisoner abuse scandal faces sentencing after admitting it was wrong.

And while a possible criminal case is building against the runaway bride, the court of public opinion is calling for punishment, on this AMERICAN MORNING.

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

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everybody.

Also ahead this morning, not much sympathy out there for that runaway bride, Jennifer Wilbanks. You're not going to hear it, though, from the man she left at the altar. We're going to get the story this morning from the fiance's father. That's ahead.

HEMMER: They're both talking today.

Also, the newest identity security case hitting rather close to home. Our parent company, Time Warner, announcing that personal information of its employees, including Social Security numbers for half a million, now lost. And that's not the end of the story either. It's not the first time it's happened, too.

JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Isn't that comforting?

HEMMER: How you doing?

CAFFERTY: Oh, great. Better since I heard that.

Circle the date on your calendar. Congress is actually on the verge of doing something that makes some sense. They are about to pass a piece of legislation that will standardize the requirements to get a driver's license in this country. And one of the things you will have to prove is that you belong in this country. Otherwise, no license. We'll take a look.

HEMMER: Imagine that. Thank you, Jack.

Let's get to Iraq straightaway now. Insurgents putting pressure on Iraqi and coalition troops all around that country, and members of the country's newly chosen cabinet expected to be sworn in, in two hours.

Ryan Chilcote starts our coverage live in Baghdad.

Ryan, has the full cabinet been picked, or are there still last- minute decisions being made there in the Iraqi capital?

RYAN CHILCOTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Bill, the answer to that is no, the complete cabinet hasn't been picked. An aide to the prime minister, Ibrahim Al Jafari, told us that six of the last seven jobs that need to be filled had been decided and that there were still negotiations underway over the seventh position. That's the most important one, perhaps, of all of them, the job of defense minister here in Iraq. But we have not seen any results from that. We haven't seen any announcements yet. So far, still seven jobs unoccupied.

Should the prime minister make the final decisions on who will get the jobs? That then has to go to what's called the Presidency Council here, then it goes to Iraq's legislative body, which is called the National Assembly, and they have to vote on it. And the prime minister, Ibrahim Al Jafari's hope was that all this could be done by the swearing-in ceremony. But that of course was supposed to take place, as you mentioned earlier, in just two hours. So the time is short here.

The aide to the prime minister is telling us that the swearing-in ceremony for the partial cabinet that we have right now, however, will go forward, even if those last seven jobs are not filled.

Meanwhile, lots of violence to talk about. In western Iraq, just next to the Syrian border, the U.S. military reporting a clash there that took place yesterday. They say they saw some insurgents loading up weapons into a truck out at a remote camp. They tried to stop the truck. That's when a firefight ensued. They say they killed in that firefight 12 insurgents suspected of ties to Abu Musab Al Zarqawi's terrorist network here in Iraq. They're also reporting that six coalition members were wounded, and also a small Iraqi girl, although they are saying her injuries are not life threatening -- Bill.

HEMMER: Ryan, thanks. Ryan Chilcote in Baghdad.

Also, the body of an American fighter pilot recovered overnight in Iraq. Meanwhile, the search continues for a second pilot. Navy officials say they believe their two FA-18s collided on Monday during bad weather in a routine mission. The Boeing-built Hornet is known as an all-weather fighter jet. The military saying there is no indication of hostile fire at the time of the accident.

O'BRIEN: A military jury will convene today in Fort Hood, Texas, to consider a sentence for Private Lynndie England. The Army Reservist pleaded guilty on Monday to abusing inmates at Iraq's Abu Ghraib Prison.

More now from CNN's Susan Candiotti.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For someone seen in so many notorious photos from Abu Ghraib Prison, Private First Class Lynndie England seemed unusually camera shy as she came to court. Her legal staff running interference like blocking backs. England pleaded guilty to seven counts, all involving photos that show her with naked Iraqi detainees who are being deliberately humiliated. She said her then-boyfriend, Guard Charles Graner, told her to pose for pictures like this.

"I knew it was wrong," she said.

The judge, "Then why did you do it?"

"Because he asked me to."

England said it was Graner and another guard who staged these scenes of humiliation and degradation.

"Why?" asked the judge.

"For their own amusement," she said.

The judge, "Did you get any amusement out of it?"

"Not really," England said.

England said she gave in under peer pressure, but conceded, "I could have said no and left."

At the end of the day, England and her lawyers walked away without saying a word. A jury is to be seated for the penalty phase on Tuesday.

(on camera): Technically, the young army reservist could face up to 11 years in prison. But under a behind-the-scenes plea deal, one source says her sentence could be limited to a little more than two years. If so, the public won't know until later in the week.

Susan Candiotti, CNN, Fort Hood, Texas.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: A panel of nine officers and enlisted men will be chosen to decide Lynndie England's fate -- Bill.

HEMMER: Now to Georgia and the runaway bride. Apparently, she's talking with investigators in that state. They say Jennifer Wilbanks does not feel like she did anything wrong. Meanwhile, authorities say it was a crime for Wilbanks to report that she'd been abducted. But so far, she has not been charged.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HEMMER: Danny Porter is the D.A. in Gwinnett County.

Good morning to you. DANNY PORTER, GWINNETT CO. D.A.: Good morning, Bill. How are you doing?

HEMMER: I'm doing fine. The chief is saying she committed a crime. Will you charge her?

PORTER: I think I'm going to have to wait till all the reports are in. I want to take a look at all the facts. Right now, there's not a lot that's in dispute. There's no question that the statements she made wasn't true, that she made to it a law enforcement officer. So the real tricky part is I want to look over all the facts to try and determine what her state of mind was so that I can select the appropriate charge.

HEMMER: It is your call to bring charges, right?

PORTER: Well, it's my call to draw the charging documents. Eventually, the grand jury will make the ultimate decision as to whether or not she's indicted, but I begin that process.

HEMMER: Let me try and clear up two things you said last night. You say some things don't make sense. At this point today, what else doesn't make sense to you?

PORTER: Well, I guess the thing that really doesn't make sense to me about the whole thing, from beginning to end, is this idea that she said I didn't really think anybody would look for me or I didn't think the police would look for me, which is just really not -- it doesn't make that -- it just flies in the face of common sense.

HEMMER: The other thing you say, there has to be some consequence. What is that? Is that jailtime? Is that a fine. Is it community service? Is it all three?

PORTER: It could be all three. It could be one. I mean, I think there's got to be some consequence, and that could be something that ranges from a sincere apology and restitution, to some period of confinement. Well, that's the one good thing about the criminal system, is we have a multitude of options to do what -- to try and solve a problem.

HEMMER: There's a billboard hanging up in your town right now.

PORTER: I haven't seen it.

HEMMER: It says "Case Solved: Cold Feet." What is the sense in your community with the story here?

PORTER: Within the community, within Gwinnett County, there is a lot of frustration and there's a lot of people expressing anger at almost the waste of it. Nationwide from the e-mail traffic that I've been getting, it's pretty much in favor of prosecution. And there's a lot of people that are saying she's had enough. And so -- but it's pretty overwhelmingly in favor of some consequence, prosecution or otherwise.

HEMMER: Danny Porter is the D.A. in Gwinnett County. Thanks for your time, as always.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HEMMER: And we'll talk to the father of Jennifer Wilbanks. He's our guest in about 30 minutes. Check that, the father of the fiance right, Soledad?

O'BRIEN: That's right. Coming up in just a little bit.

(WEATHER REPORT)

O'BRIEN: Well, Michael Jackson's defense gets ready to make its case. But first, prosecutors are going to focus on a flurry of phone calls and some big checks cashed by a Jackson adviser. We'll explain ahead.

HEMMER: Also, it could lead to one of the largest cases of I.D. theft ever, by one of the world's biggest companies, our own parent company, hitting rather close to home today.

O'BRIEN: And just in time for Mother's Day, can you put a price on all the work that stay-at-home moms do? Salary.com did. We'll tell you what they found, just ahead.

Stay with us. You're watching AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: More trouble for General Motors. Federal authorities are investigating brakes on more than one million GM trucks and SUVs. The focus is on vehicles in 21 Salt Belt states. The vehicles affected are models from 1999 to 2002. They include the GMC Sierra, the Chevrolet Suburban and Silverado. The Cadillac Escalade and the GMC Tahoe and the Yukon Denali also. Investigators say that corrosion may build up on GM antilock brake systems. It's not a recall, just an investigation for right now. You'll recall that GM last week announced a recall of more than two million vehicles because of problems with the seatbelts -- Bill.

HEMMER: Time Warner, the parent company of CNN, announcing on Monday that a box of computer backup tapes is now missing. The tapes contain personal information, about 600,000 past and present Time Warner employees going back almost 20 years. It's not the first time it's happened either.

Chris Huntington is with me now in the studio.

Good morning, Chris.

CHRIS HUNTINGTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Bill, good morning.

This would be funny if it weren't so potentially serious. If this material has fallen into the wrong hands, we are talking about something here that could be an ongoing cottage industry for some serious identity thieves. Let's go over what is known about the lost material. As Bill mentioned, this is a single box, described to be about a cooler-size box of 40 computer backup tapes that was lost March 22nd in a transfer from the Time Warner Center to a supposedly secure truck run by a company called Iron Mountain. This data, indeed, controls information on about 600,000 current and former employees. This is employees, timing going back to 1986, so before the Time Warner merger, before the Turner Broadcasting merger, before AOL, and including all nearly 85,000 current employees of the company, both here in the United States and abroad.

There is no customer data. So folks who are subscribers to any publications of Time Warner or Time Warner Cable customers, your material is not in there. But backing up to 600,000 individuals, the material includes Social Security numbers, information on dependents and beneficiaries. So there is some financial data in there. The U.S. Secret Service is now part of the investigation. Again, this material was discovered lost more than a month ago. So there's been a month of investigation, and they still don't know where this stuff is.

Here's what Time Warner is saying. I spoke with Larry Cochel (ph), who is the chief of security for Time Warner, and he said to me, among other things, last night, that the investigation has not found any evidence that the tapes or their contents have been accessed or misused.

Now the company that handled the data, the cooler-sized box of tapes, called Iron Mountain, also issued a statement, as you might imagine, saying that -- quote -- "We believe it was the result of human error. There was no evidence to suggest any foul play."

But right now, that's about all they're telling us, and really, about all they know about where this stuff is.

HEMMER: Help me understand human error. They go into a building, right? The truck's parked on the curb. You have guys watching the truck. They carry this cooler-sized container out, they put it in the truck and they lock it up, right, and they drive to where?

HUNTINGTON: They drive to what we're being told is an undisclosed location in New Jersey, where Iron Mountain keeps backup material for scores and scores of Fortune 500 companies. This begs the question, you know, we've seen movies where these kind of things get flipped around. And the notion that a box like this, that is sealed, bar coded, handled by an individual, put into a secure truck, supposedly driven to a secure location, somehow bounces out en route and is sitting by the side of the New Jersey Turnpike is hard to...

HEMMER: Couple more things here. If they fall into the wrong hands, how do they get the information and possibly abuse a former employee?

HUNTINGTON: We're told the information is not encrypted. However, we're also told that it is very difficult to access. You certainly would have to have the right type of apparatus, perhaps an IBM mainframe computer, to even read the tapes, and then you'd have to know how to operate and know what you're doing. But frankly, if we're talking about a motivated I.D. thief, who either has the ability or certainly would, if motivated, would know how to get the ability to read this stuff...

HEMMER: It's not the first time, though, right?

HUNTINGTON: No. This is becoming a frightening pattern, quite frankly. Let's take a look at just some of the -- this isn't even the biggest one. Bank of America lost data on more than a million credit card customers just back in February. And guess what? Exactly the same situation. A box -- a physical box of material handled by Iron Mountain that has been lost. Time Warner of course with 600,000. Choicepoint lost data on 145,000 customers. Now in the case of Choicepoint and also Lexis-Nexis, the concern is the material was hacked into. So that was believed to be outright theft.

HEMMER: Is there any thinking this was an inside job. It's happened before and it's happened again a month ago.

HUNTINGTON: They are certainly not saying that right now. We are free to look at the circumstances and begin to draw some conclusions. And this will be all the water-cooler chat here today.

HEMMER: Thanks, Chris. Chris Huntington, working that story for us -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Well, prosecutors in Michael Jackson's child- molestation trial are about to rest their case against the pop star. As they prepare to finish, they're trying to shore up the state's conspiracy theory.

We've got more now from CNN's Rusty Dornin.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RUSTY DORNIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For Michael Jackson, the time to go on the offense draws near. For the prosecution, it was a day of who talked to whom and when, all designed to convince the jury that Jackson conspired to hold the accuser's family hostage. The jury heard hours of testimony regarding a flurry of phone activity by Jackson's team in California and Florida in February and march of 2003. There were 64 calls on February 6th. That's the same day that the now infamous Martin Bashir documentary aired in the United States. There were another 83 calls on the day the accuser's family allegedly fled the Neverland Ranch. There was another spike in calls the day the accuser's family taped a rebuttal video that portrayed Jackson in a positive light.

JIM MORET, LEGAL ANALYST: If the prosecution is trying to show that Jackson's involved in a conspiracy in order to make the rebuttal video, then essentially everybody in Hollywood is guilty of a conspiracy when they make a P.R. type of video too. So they really haven't shown any sinister motive. The fact that there's a lot of activity doesn't, in and of itself, prove that there's a criminal conspiracy.

DORNIN: The defense argued that no one could prove that Michael Jackson himself was involved in any of those calls. The jury also learned that one of Jackson's advisers, Mark Shafle (ph), cashed two checks for a million-and-a-half dollars. Jurors were never told what the money was used for.

Yet to come, a financial expert expected to testify Michael Jackson was in dire financial straits. Prosecutors say that was his motive to keep the family captive, because Jackson couldn't afford any more bad publicity. Sources tell CNN the prosecution's final witness is likely to be Rudy Provencio. He is a business associate of Jackson's close adviser, Mark Schafle (ph). Prosecutors hope that Provencio can implicate Jackson directly in the alleged conspiracy.

Rusty Dornin, CNN, Santa Maria, California.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: The prosecution could rest its case as early as today -- Bill.

HEMMER: Another courtroom now, Soledad. The witness stand turns into the hot seat for an ex-CEO trying to explain a $3,000 set of hangers, and a $5,000 bed skirt. Andy tries to explain too, "Minding Your Business" after this on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: Oh, that $6,000 shower curtain could come back to bite Tyco's former chief.

Andy Serwer's "Minding Your Business" this morning. Good morning.

ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE": Good morning, Soledad.

Things turned contentious yesterday at the trial of Dennis Kozlowski. And yes, at issue, the $6,000 shower curtain. You remember this, this $30 million -- there's the Koz. The $30 million apartment in New York City on Fifth Avenue. Prosecutors grilled him yesterday about this. And, in fact, Dennis Kozlowski acknowledged that the interior design of this apartment was -- quote, "godawful" is how he described it, godawful, he said. A lot of this -- there's the shower curtain, $6,000.

O'BRIEN: Beautiful.

SERWER: And he said a lot of the stuff I simply stuffed into a closet. One scene that was pretty funny, he was complaining he couldn't move a Monet and a Renoir in his mansion in Boca Raton because he was concerned about the security there, and the prosecutor says doesn't Tyco own ADT, the security alarm company? And he said, well, you know, sometimes thieves can get around that. Kind of makes you feel secure as a customer of ADT.

Big question is, of course, did Kozlowski get authorization to spend Tyco's money on this apartment? He said he absolutely did. The prosecutors said you never did. And of course the person who authorized it has passed away at Tyco, and so the trial continues today.

CAFFERTY: They should put him in jail just for being a jerk.

SERWER: Yes, well, I mean...

CAFFERTY: There should be a statute, we can't convict you of anything else, but we've come to a conclusion you're a jerk, and we're going to put you in a jail.

SERWER: Or if you bought a $6,000 shower curtain, you should go to jail.

CAFFERTY: Right, that would qualify you. You immediately qualify as being a jerk the day you buy that shower curtain.

O'BRIEN: Thanks, Andy.

HEMMER: Question of the day.

CAFFERTY: Yes, why did it take 30 days for them to tell us our stuff is missing? That would be one question.

HEMMER: I couldn't agree with you more.

CAFFERTY: That's one question, but that's not the Question of the Day, because I got a kid in college and I need the tuition money. Congress is set to approve legislation that would, for the first time, set national standards for state driver's licenses. Known as the "Real I.D." measure, it's being included in a supplemental appropriations bill for Iraq, which means it's almost certain to pass. The main provision requires states to verify that every applicant for a driver's license is a legal resident of the United States. You would have to show a birth certificate, photo I.D., proof of an address and Social Security number.

Now 11 states currently issue driver's licenses to non-citizens, both legal and illegal. This bill would stop that. State officials complain the new requirements would be complicated and costly. Civil rights groups, privacy groups say that a standardized driver's license amounts to little more than a national I.D. card.

The question this morning is this, will standardizing driver's licenses improve our security? Am@CNN.com.

HEMMER: How is it that states can issue a driver's license to an illegal alien?

CAFFERTY: They can do whatever they want. It's, you know, state laws.

O'BRIEN: Because they're not asked for certain I.D., but you know...

SERWER: I guess they've got to drive.

(CROSSTALK)

O'BRIEN: What happens to people who are in the country legally who need a driver's license.

CAFFERTY: It they're in the country legally, then they should approve of that.

O'BRIEN: But they're not a citizen. But they're not in a citizen, but they're in the country legally.

(CROSSTALK)

CAFFERTY: I guess you take public transportation.

SERWER: Hitchhike.

HEMMER: Taxi!

Authorities could press charges against that runaway bride maybe today. Maybe not. But her fiance's a bit surprised right now that a lot of people are surprised by how forgiving he has been. We'll talk to his father live down in Duluth, Georgia, ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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Aired May 3, 2005 - 07:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. A new government is set to take office in Iraq in two hours as the fight for control of Iraq intensifies again today.
The woman who became the face of the prisoner abuse scandal faces sentencing after admitting it was wrong.

And while a possible criminal case is building against the runaway bride, the court of public opinion is calling for punishment, on this AMERICAN MORNING.

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

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everybody.

Also ahead this morning, not much sympathy out there for that runaway bride, Jennifer Wilbanks. You're not going to hear it, though, from the man she left at the altar. We're going to get the story this morning from the fiance's father. That's ahead.

HEMMER: They're both talking today.

Also, the newest identity security case hitting rather close to home. Our parent company, Time Warner, announcing that personal information of its employees, including Social Security numbers for half a million, now lost. And that's not the end of the story either. It's not the first time it's happened, too.

JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Isn't that comforting?

HEMMER: How you doing?

CAFFERTY: Oh, great. Better since I heard that.

Circle the date on your calendar. Congress is actually on the verge of doing something that makes some sense. They are about to pass a piece of legislation that will standardize the requirements to get a driver's license in this country. And one of the things you will have to prove is that you belong in this country. Otherwise, no license. We'll take a look.

HEMMER: Imagine that. Thank you, Jack.

Let's get to Iraq straightaway now. Insurgents putting pressure on Iraqi and coalition troops all around that country, and members of the country's newly chosen cabinet expected to be sworn in, in two hours.

Ryan Chilcote starts our coverage live in Baghdad.

Ryan, has the full cabinet been picked, or are there still last- minute decisions being made there in the Iraqi capital?

RYAN CHILCOTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Bill, the answer to that is no, the complete cabinet hasn't been picked. An aide to the prime minister, Ibrahim Al Jafari, told us that six of the last seven jobs that need to be filled had been decided and that there were still negotiations underway over the seventh position. That's the most important one, perhaps, of all of them, the job of defense minister here in Iraq. But we have not seen any results from that. We haven't seen any announcements yet. So far, still seven jobs unoccupied.

Should the prime minister make the final decisions on who will get the jobs? That then has to go to what's called the Presidency Council here, then it goes to Iraq's legislative body, which is called the National Assembly, and they have to vote on it. And the prime minister, Ibrahim Al Jafari's hope was that all this could be done by the swearing-in ceremony. But that of course was supposed to take place, as you mentioned earlier, in just two hours. So the time is short here.

The aide to the prime minister is telling us that the swearing-in ceremony for the partial cabinet that we have right now, however, will go forward, even if those last seven jobs are not filled.

Meanwhile, lots of violence to talk about. In western Iraq, just next to the Syrian border, the U.S. military reporting a clash there that took place yesterday. They say they saw some insurgents loading up weapons into a truck out at a remote camp. They tried to stop the truck. That's when a firefight ensued. They say they killed in that firefight 12 insurgents suspected of ties to Abu Musab Al Zarqawi's terrorist network here in Iraq. They're also reporting that six coalition members were wounded, and also a small Iraqi girl, although they are saying her injuries are not life threatening -- Bill.

HEMMER: Ryan, thanks. Ryan Chilcote in Baghdad.

Also, the body of an American fighter pilot recovered overnight in Iraq. Meanwhile, the search continues for a second pilot. Navy officials say they believe their two FA-18s collided on Monday during bad weather in a routine mission. The Boeing-built Hornet is known as an all-weather fighter jet. The military saying there is no indication of hostile fire at the time of the accident.

O'BRIEN: A military jury will convene today in Fort Hood, Texas, to consider a sentence for Private Lynndie England. The Army Reservist pleaded guilty on Monday to abusing inmates at Iraq's Abu Ghraib Prison.

More now from CNN's Susan Candiotti.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For someone seen in so many notorious photos from Abu Ghraib Prison, Private First Class Lynndie England seemed unusually camera shy as she came to court. Her legal staff running interference like blocking backs. England pleaded guilty to seven counts, all involving photos that show her with naked Iraqi detainees who are being deliberately humiliated. She said her then-boyfriend, Guard Charles Graner, told her to pose for pictures like this.

"I knew it was wrong," she said.

The judge, "Then why did you do it?"

"Because he asked me to."

England said it was Graner and another guard who staged these scenes of humiliation and degradation.

"Why?" asked the judge.

"For their own amusement," she said.

The judge, "Did you get any amusement out of it?"

"Not really," England said.

England said she gave in under peer pressure, but conceded, "I could have said no and left."

At the end of the day, England and her lawyers walked away without saying a word. A jury is to be seated for the penalty phase on Tuesday.

(on camera): Technically, the young army reservist could face up to 11 years in prison. But under a behind-the-scenes plea deal, one source says her sentence could be limited to a little more than two years. If so, the public won't know until later in the week.

Susan Candiotti, CNN, Fort Hood, Texas.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: A panel of nine officers and enlisted men will be chosen to decide Lynndie England's fate -- Bill.

HEMMER: Now to Georgia and the runaway bride. Apparently, she's talking with investigators in that state. They say Jennifer Wilbanks does not feel like she did anything wrong. Meanwhile, authorities say it was a crime for Wilbanks to report that she'd been abducted. But so far, she has not been charged.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HEMMER: Danny Porter is the D.A. in Gwinnett County.

Good morning to you. DANNY PORTER, GWINNETT CO. D.A.: Good morning, Bill. How are you doing?

HEMMER: I'm doing fine. The chief is saying she committed a crime. Will you charge her?

PORTER: I think I'm going to have to wait till all the reports are in. I want to take a look at all the facts. Right now, there's not a lot that's in dispute. There's no question that the statements she made wasn't true, that she made to it a law enforcement officer. So the real tricky part is I want to look over all the facts to try and determine what her state of mind was so that I can select the appropriate charge.

HEMMER: It is your call to bring charges, right?

PORTER: Well, it's my call to draw the charging documents. Eventually, the grand jury will make the ultimate decision as to whether or not she's indicted, but I begin that process.

HEMMER: Let me try and clear up two things you said last night. You say some things don't make sense. At this point today, what else doesn't make sense to you?

PORTER: Well, I guess the thing that really doesn't make sense to me about the whole thing, from beginning to end, is this idea that she said I didn't really think anybody would look for me or I didn't think the police would look for me, which is just really not -- it doesn't make that -- it just flies in the face of common sense.

HEMMER: The other thing you say, there has to be some consequence. What is that? Is that jailtime? Is that a fine. Is it community service? Is it all three?

PORTER: It could be all three. It could be one. I mean, I think there's got to be some consequence, and that could be something that ranges from a sincere apology and restitution, to some period of confinement. Well, that's the one good thing about the criminal system, is we have a multitude of options to do what -- to try and solve a problem.

HEMMER: There's a billboard hanging up in your town right now.

PORTER: I haven't seen it.

HEMMER: It says "Case Solved: Cold Feet." What is the sense in your community with the story here?

PORTER: Within the community, within Gwinnett County, there is a lot of frustration and there's a lot of people expressing anger at almost the waste of it. Nationwide from the e-mail traffic that I've been getting, it's pretty much in favor of prosecution. And there's a lot of people that are saying she's had enough. And so -- but it's pretty overwhelmingly in favor of some consequence, prosecution or otherwise.

HEMMER: Danny Porter is the D.A. in Gwinnett County. Thanks for your time, as always.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HEMMER: And we'll talk to the father of Jennifer Wilbanks. He's our guest in about 30 minutes. Check that, the father of the fiance right, Soledad?

O'BRIEN: That's right. Coming up in just a little bit.

(WEATHER REPORT)

O'BRIEN: Well, Michael Jackson's defense gets ready to make its case. But first, prosecutors are going to focus on a flurry of phone calls and some big checks cashed by a Jackson adviser. We'll explain ahead.

HEMMER: Also, it could lead to one of the largest cases of I.D. theft ever, by one of the world's biggest companies, our own parent company, hitting rather close to home today.

O'BRIEN: And just in time for Mother's Day, can you put a price on all the work that stay-at-home moms do? Salary.com did. We'll tell you what they found, just ahead.

Stay with us. You're watching AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: More trouble for General Motors. Federal authorities are investigating brakes on more than one million GM trucks and SUVs. The focus is on vehicles in 21 Salt Belt states. The vehicles affected are models from 1999 to 2002. They include the GMC Sierra, the Chevrolet Suburban and Silverado. The Cadillac Escalade and the GMC Tahoe and the Yukon Denali also. Investigators say that corrosion may build up on GM antilock brake systems. It's not a recall, just an investigation for right now. You'll recall that GM last week announced a recall of more than two million vehicles because of problems with the seatbelts -- Bill.

HEMMER: Time Warner, the parent company of CNN, announcing on Monday that a box of computer backup tapes is now missing. The tapes contain personal information, about 600,000 past and present Time Warner employees going back almost 20 years. It's not the first time it's happened either.

Chris Huntington is with me now in the studio.

Good morning, Chris.

CHRIS HUNTINGTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Bill, good morning.

This would be funny if it weren't so potentially serious. If this material has fallen into the wrong hands, we are talking about something here that could be an ongoing cottage industry for some serious identity thieves. Let's go over what is known about the lost material. As Bill mentioned, this is a single box, described to be about a cooler-size box of 40 computer backup tapes that was lost March 22nd in a transfer from the Time Warner Center to a supposedly secure truck run by a company called Iron Mountain. This data, indeed, controls information on about 600,000 current and former employees. This is employees, timing going back to 1986, so before the Time Warner merger, before the Turner Broadcasting merger, before AOL, and including all nearly 85,000 current employees of the company, both here in the United States and abroad.

There is no customer data. So folks who are subscribers to any publications of Time Warner or Time Warner Cable customers, your material is not in there. But backing up to 600,000 individuals, the material includes Social Security numbers, information on dependents and beneficiaries. So there is some financial data in there. The U.S. Secret Service is now part of the investigation. Again, this material was discovered lost more than a month ago. So there's been a month of investigation, and they still don't know where this stuff is.

Here's what Time Warner is saying. I spoke with Larry Cochel (ph), who is the chief of security for Time Warner, and he said to me, among other things, last night, that the investigation has not found any evidence that the tapes or their contents have been accessed or misused.

Now the company that handled the data, the cooler-sized box of tapes, called Iron Mountain, also issued a statement, as you might imagine, saying that -- quote -- "We believe it was the result of human error. There was no evidence to suggest any foul play."

But right now, that's about all they're telling us, and really, about all they know about where this stuff is.

HEMMER: Help me understand human error. They go into a building, right? The truck's parked on the curb. You have guys watching the truck. They carry this cooler-sized container out, they put it in the truck and they lock it up, right, and they drive to where?

HUNTINGTON: They drive to what we're being told is an undisclosed location in New Jersey, where Iron Mountain keeps backup material for scores and scores of Fortune 500 companies. This begs the question, you know, we've seen movies where these kind of things get flipped around. And the notion that a box like this, that is sealed, bar coded, handled by an individual, put into a secure truck, supposedly driven to a secure location, somehow bounces out en route and is sitting by the side of the New Jersey Turnpike is hard to...

HEMMER: Couple more things here. If they fall into the wrong hands, how do they get the information and possibly abuse a former employee?

HUNTINGTON: We're told the information is not encrypted. However, we're also told that it is very difficult to access. You certainly would have to have the right type of apparatus, perhaps an IBM mainframe computer, to even read the tapes, and then you'd have to know how to operate and know what you're doing. But frankly, if we're talking about a motivated I.D. thief, who either has the ability or certainly would, if motivated, would know how to get the ability to read this stuff...

HEMMER: It's not the first time, though, right?

HUNTINGTON: No. This is becoming a frightening pattern, quite frankly. Let's take a look at just some of the -- this isn't even the biggest one. Bank of America lost data on more than a million credit card customers just back in February. And guess what? Exactly the same situation. A box -- a physical box of material handled by Iron Mountain that has been lost. Time Warner of course with 600,000. Choicepoint lost data on 145,000 customers. Now in the case of Choicepoint and also Lexis-Nexis, the concern is the material was hacked into. So that was believed to be outright theft.

HEMMER: Is there any thinking this was an inside job. It's happened before and it's happened again a month ago.

HUNTINGTON: They are certainly not saying that right now. We are free to look at the circumstances and begin to draw some conclusions. And this will be all the water-cooler chat here today.

HEMMER: Thanks, Chris. Chris Huntington, working that story for us -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Well, prosecutors in Michael Jackson's child- molestation trial are about to rest their case against the pop star. As they prepare to finish, they're trying to shore up the state's conspiracy theory.

We've got more now from CNN's Rusty Dornin.

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RUSTY DORNIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For Michael Jackson, the time to go on the offense draws near. For the prosecution, it was a day of who talked to whom and when, all designed to convince the jury that Jackson conspired to hold the accuser's family hostage. The jury heard hours of testimony regarding a flurry of phone activity by Jackson's team in California and Florida in February and march of 2003. There were 64 calls on February 6th. That's the same day that the now infamous Martin Bashir documentary aired in the United States. There were another 83 calls on the day the accuser's family allegedly fled the Neverland Ranch. There was another spike in calls the day the accuser's family taped a rebuttal video that portrayed Jackson in a positive light.

JIM MORET, LEGAL ANALYST: If the prosecution is trying to show that Jackson's involved in a conspiracy in order to make the rebuttal video, then essentially everybody in Hollywood is guilty of a conspiracy when they make a P.R. type of video too. So they really haven't shown any sinister motive. The fact that there's a lot of activity doesn't, in and of itself, prove that there's a criminal conspiracy.

DORNIN: The defense argued that no one could prove that Michael Jackson himself was involved in any of those calls. The jury also learned that one of Jackson's advisers, Mark Shafle (ph), cashed two checks for a million-and-a-half dollars. Jurors were never told what the money was used for.

Yet to come, a financial expert expected to testify Michael Jackson was in dire financial straits. Prosecutors say that was his motive to keep the family captive, because Jackson couldn't afford any more bad publicity. Sources tell CNN the prosecution's final witness is likely to be Rudy Provencio. He is a business associate of Jackson's close adviser, Mark Schafle (ph). Prosecutors hope that Provencio can implicate Jackson directly in the alleged conspiracy.

Rusty Dornin, CNN, Santa Maria, California.

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O'BRIEN: The prosecution could rest its case as early as today -- Bill.

HEMMER: Another courtroom now, Soledad. The witness stand turns into the hot seat for an ex-CEO trying to explain a $3,000 set of hangers, and a $5,000 bed skirt. Andy tries to explain too, "Minding Your Business" after this on AMERICAN MORNING.

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O'BRIEN: Oh, that $6,000 shower curtain could come back to bite Tyco's former chief.

Andy Serwer's "Minding Your Business" this morning. Good morning.

ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE": Good morning, Soledad.

Things turned contentious yesterday at the trial of Dennis Kozlowski. And yes, at issue, the $6,000 shower curtain. You remember this, this $30 million -- there's the Koz. The $30 million apartment in New York City on Fifth Avenue. Prosecutors grilled him yesterday about this. And, in fact, Dennis Kozlowski acknowledged that the interior design of this apartment was -- quote, "godawful" is how he described it, godawful, he said. A lot of this -- there's the shower curtain, $6,000.

O'BRIEN: Beautiful.

SERWER: And he said a lot of the stuff I simply stuffed into a closet. One scene that was pretty funny, he was complaining he couldn't move a Monet and a Renoir in his mansion in Boca Raton because he was concerned about the security there, and the prosecutor says doesn't Tyco own ADT, the security alarm company? And he said, well, you know, sometimes thieves can get around that. Kind of makes you feel secure as a customer of ADT.

Big question is, of course, did Kozlowski get authorization to spend Tyco's money on this apartment? He said he absolutely did. The prosecutors said you never did. And of course the person who authorized it has passed away at Tyco, and so the trial continues today.

CAFFERTY: They should put him in jail just for being a jerk.

SERWER: Yes, well, I mean...

CAFFERTY: There should be a statute, we can't convict you of anything else, but we've come to a conclusion you're a jerk, and we're going to put you in a jail.

SERWER: Or if you bought a $6,000 shower curtain, you should go to jail.

CAFFERTY: Right, that would qualify you. You immediately qualify as being a jerk the day you buy that shower curtain.

O'BRIEN: Thanks, Andy.

HEMMER: Question of the day.

CAFFERTY: Yes, why did it take 30 days for them to tell us our stuff is missing? That would be one question.

HEMMER: I couldn't agree with you more.

CAFFERTY: That's one question, but that's not the Question of the Day, because I got a kid in college and I need the tuition money. Congress is set to approve legislation that would, for the first time, set national standards for state driver's licenses. Known as the "Real I.D." measure, it's being included in a supplemental appropriations bill for Iraq, which means it's almost certain to pass. The main provision requires states to verify that every applicant for a driver's license is a legal resident of the United States. You would have to show a birth certificate, photo I.D., proof of an address and Social Security number.

Now 11 states currently issue driver's licenses to non-citizens, both legal and illegal. This bill would stop that. State officials complain the new requirements would be complicated and costly. Civil rights groups, privacy groups say that a standardized driver's license amounts to little more than a national I.D. card.

The question this morning is this, will standardizing driver's licenses improve our security? Am@CNN.com.

HEMMER: How is it that states can issue a driver's license to an illegal alien?

CAFFERTY: They can do whatever they want. It's, you know, state laws.

O'BRIEN: Because they're not asked for certain I.D., but you know...

SERWER: I guess they've got to drive.

(CROSSTALK)

O'BRIEN: What happens to people who are in the country legally who need a driver's license.

CAFFERTY: It they're in the country legally, then they should approve of that.

O'BRIEN: But they're not a citizen. But they're not in a citizen, but they're in the country legally.

(CROSSTALK)

CAFFERTY: I guess you take public transportation.

SERWER: Hitchhike.

HEMMER: Taxi!

Authorities could press charges against that runaway bride maybe today. Maybe not. But her fiance's a bit surprised right now that a lot of people are surprised by how forgiving he has been. We'll talk to his father live down in Duluth, Georgia, ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

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