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American Morning
A Day of Staggering Violence in Iraq; In Illinois, Man Accused of Killing 8-Year-Old Daughter, Her Best Friend Expected in Court
Aired May 11, 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.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: A day of staggering violence in Iraq. More than 50 people killed, 100 more wounded in six separate attacks. A live report ahead.
In Illinois, the man accused of killing his 8-year-old daughter and her best friend expected in court this morning.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've been this business for over 30 years. This is probably the most horrific crime I've ever seen.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: The motive, the evidence, some answers in the shocking crime could come very soon.
And a terrifying night of tornadoes in the heartland. Now surveying the damage, 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, everybody. Good to have you along with us today. 7:00 here in New York.
Good morning to you as well.
O'BRIEN: And you. Thank you.
HEMMER: We are looking into these new developments on this reported security breach. It happened during the president's speech yesterday in Georgia. Officials there now say a nonexplosive grenade was, indeed, found in that area.
O'BRIEN: The secret service is looking into it. CNN's Dana Bash is traveling with the president. She's going to have more on that this morning.
HEMMER: More questions this morning. We'll get to them.
Also Jack Cafferty with us.
Good morning.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. United Airlines got permission from a court yesterday to walk away from its pension obligations to 134,000 employees. Not only will those people get a smaller pension as a result, guess who's going to pay them now? You and me, kiddo, the federal government, the taxpayers. It could set a dangerous precedent. We'll take a look.
O'BRIEN: Thanks, Jack.
Top stories this morning, more than 50 people killed in Iraq today by six bombs in three cities, including a suicide bomb in Hawija. Three car cars and a roadside attack in Baghdad and a very deadly car bomb in Tikrit.
Ryan Chilcote live for us in Baghdad this morning. Ryan, good morning.
First, what are the targets of the attacks today?
RYAN CHILCOTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the targets, in some cases, appear to be Iraqi security forces. In other cases, they appear to be people that collaborate, or cooperate or work for the U.S. military. We start in the city of Hawija. That;s where a suicide bomber there with explosives strapped to himself attacked an army-recruitment center, one of the posts for the Iraqi security force. Somehow, this suicide bomber -- this should sound familiar -- was able to get close enough to those army recruits that when he blew himself up, he caused massive damage, killing at least 20 Iraqi recruits, wounding 30 more.
And then just south of there, in the city of Tikrit, that's Saddam's hometown, another attack. This one, again, a suicide bomber. This time, though, in a car, attacking day laborers. Iraqi police say that the day laborers may have been a target because some of these day laborers are used by the U.S. military in things like base construction. That suicide bomber killing some 30, wounding another 40.
And then in the Iraqi capital, four more bombings, killing at least four Iraqis, wounding more than a dozen. All in all, at least 54 Iraqis killed, according to the Iraqi police, nearly 100 of them wounded -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Ryan, it's day four now of Operation Matador. How is it going?
CHILCOTE: Well, the U.S. military says they're having some success. It's taking place in the Anbar province. It's a massive province in the west of the country. As you said, this is now day four.
The whole idea of this operation, the U.S. military says, is to try and stop, try and prevent the kind of violence that we've seen today. They say that this is a transit point for foreign fighters and for weapons, a staging area, if you will, from fighters coming over the border, according to the U.S. military, primarily from Syria. So far, in the first three days, they are saying that they've already killed some 100 insurgents. We have no way of verifying that, but that is what the U.S. military is saying. They're also saying that there have been setbacks. They say that at least three Marines have been killed at this point.
And then just late yesterday evening, we learned that the governor of that Anbar province was abducted. His captors reportedly demanding that the U.S. military cease its operations there -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Ryan Chilcote for us in Baghdad this morning. Ryan, thanks -- Bill.
HEMMER: Back to this story about this grenade found in the area where President Bush was giving a speech on Tuesday. That device apparently a non-explosive training grenade.
Our White House correspondent Dana Bash was at the event. She's back at the White House this morning.
Dana, good morning there. What do we know as fact about the grenade?
DANA BASH, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Bill, I can tell you, what you've reported so far and what we understand so far is essentially still from Georgian officials. What Secret Service is telling us is that they were told by Georgian officials hours after the president left Tiblisi, that there was a possible -- in their words, possible hand grenade thrown within 100 feet of the president, but did not go off.
And Secret Service spokeswoman Lori Lewis (ph) said, quote, "It was reported that a Georgian security officer picked up the device when it did not detonate. And at this time, she said, "we have not seen the reported device."
Now, Bill, it that is particular quote, "not seen the reported device," that makes the secret service, frankly, a little bit skeptical. What they are saying is they do have people on the ground working on this, the FBI, certainly along with the Secret Service, and they are trying to figure out exactly what happened.
But I can tell you From our perspective, we were there, reporters, producers, there on the balcony surrounding Freedom Square, and even the photojournalists who are shooting this live right now, Bill Albeter (ph) and Mike Bannigan (ph), they say that they were within 100 feet of the president, and they saw absolutely, Bill, no disturbance.
HEMMER: Dana, you reported yesterday, along with John King, about the problems on the perimeter, that at one point A number of people apparently rushed through a checkpoint unscreened. Did it feel to you as if security was not as tight as it should have been for the event? BASH: Well, I can tell you there certainly was concern, and there was a lot of precaution taken for security at this event. You mentioned that perimeter issue. We were told yesterday, before the president showed up as the crowd was gathering, that there was concern because one of the barriers that created the perimeter was broken down because the crowd was so big, and they were concerned because they couldn't account for everybody in the crowd and to make sure that everybody had been checked out.
But certainly, we saw sharpshooters on all of the buildings, as it is really standard operating procedure, and we saw bulletproof glass around the president. So we definitely saw intense security. And even as reporters, Bill, we had additional screening before we could go on the balcony overlooking the president.
HEMMER: Dana, you've been some working monster hours. Thanks for that this morning. Dana Bash, welcome home, at the White House today -- Soledad.
BASH: Thank you.
O'BRIEN: We may soon hear some more details about the deaths of those two young girls in Illinois. Police arrested the farther of one of the girls on Tuesday, and a bond hearing is scheduled for later this morning. Last night in Zion, about 200 people attended a prayer vigil for 8-year-old Laura Hobbs and 9-year-old Krystal Tobias.
Chris Lawrence is at the courthouse in nearby Waukegan, Illinois.
Chris, good morning.
CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.
We're getting some pretty heavy thunderstorms right here, but it's not going to affect what happens inside that courtroom in about four hours, when Jerry Hobbs' bond hearing gets started. Prosecutors say they plan to present even more evidence against him, but his family says he didn't do it, and he's getting railroaded because of his criminal record.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LAWRENCE (voice-over): Police and prosecutors believe they can answer the question of who killed these little girls, but not why.
MICHAEL WALLER, LAKE CO. STATE'S ATTY.: There's no rational explanation or reasonable motive that can be ascribed to an act of horror like this.
LAWRENCE: The accused is the father of one of the victims, and the man who reported finding their bodies. Jerry Hobbs has a criminal record going back 15 years in Texas. Most recently, he was convicted of aggravated assault and spent several years in prison. He was released about four weeks ago and moved here, to Illinois.
WALLER: He's charged with the stabbing and beating death of both girls, which occurred on Mother's Day.
LAWRENCE: Hobbs' daughter disappeared on Mother's Day while she was playing with her best friend. On Monday morning, the bodies of Laura Hobbs and Krystal Tobias were discovered in a nearby park. The second-graders had been stabbed to death, and left in thick woods, well off the bike path.
Zion is a small town north of Chicago. Parents here were stunned and scared, thinking some sort of random killer could be loose in their neighborhood.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My kids ain't even going outside their home until they found out who did it.
LAWRENCE: The murders changed everything here. With the school assigning escorts to students and parents literally walking their kids to the front door.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LAWRENCE: And we mentioned that conviction for aggravated assault. Well, we checked court records and spoke with the Texas D.A. That involved Jerry Hobbs getting into an argument with Laura's mom, and then chasing other people around with a running chainsaw. Prosecutors are going to look at that kind of criminal history when deciding whether to pursue the death penalty -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Chris Lawrence for us this morning. Chris, thanks for the update.
In just a few minutes, we're going to speak with the Illinois state's attorney who is prosecuting the case -- Bill.
HEMMER: There's a county investigator among six people, including three children, found shot to death in a home in California. That house in Riverside, owned by David McGowan. He's an investigator for the Riverside County D.A.'s office. Also dead, a teenage boy, two girls, ages 8 and 10, and two women, all found with gunshot wounds to the head. Authorities say there were no signs of a break-in or a struggle.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SHERIFF BOB DOYLE, RIVERSIDE CO.: This investigation is in its infancy, and it is being processed and handled as a homicide at this time. That does not rule out that it could be a homicide/suicide.
But I do want to stress that we are not concerned about the safety of the community at this time. We do not feel that there is a suspect at large.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HEMMER: Some of the other information we do know, a handgun apparently was found near McGowan's body. O'BRIEN: Federal transportation officials are investigating a plane collision at the Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport. A Northwest Airlines jet apparently lost steering control and hit a Northwest Airbus, which was backing away from the gate. The jet's cockpit got sliced by the other plane's wing, and the escape slide on the Airbus also deployed. Six members of the crew were slightly injured. No passengers are reported hurt. Airport officials say the jet had reported hydraulic problems before landing.
HEMMER: There's weather news also, Soledad, this morning here. Folks in central Nebraska surveying the damage after a string of tornadoes. About a dozen twisters touching down throughout the area late on Tuesday. Eastern Nebraska, western Iowa remained under a tornado watch until earlier this morning. There are reports of some damage, but luckily no injuries there. Continues to be a hotspot today.
(WEATHER REPORT)
O'BRIEN: Coming up in just a moment, a closer look at the murder of those two little girls in Zion, Illinois. Just how strong is the case against ex-convict Jerry Hobbs? Seen right there. We're going to ask the prosecutor this morning.
HEMMER: Also, the feds seizing hundreds of counterfeit law- enforcement badges for the FBI, New York Police Department. Authorities worry some may have ended up in the hands of terrorists. It's a CNN Security Watch and we'll get to it right after the break, on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HEMMER: As part of our continuing CNN Security Watch today, we're focusing on congressional approval, what critics call a nationwide I.D. system, part of an $82 billion spending bill passed unanimously overnight by the Senate, 100-0. That bill provides $76 billion more for Iraq and Afghanistan, also $4 billion-plus more dollars for other international projects like tsunami relief. The bill also tightens state driver's-license requirements, with a provision to prevent issuing licenses to illegal immigrants. Critics say that provision, referred to as the Real I.D. Act, opens the door to a national I.D. card for all citizens. The bill goes to the president now for his signature.
Continuing our security watch now this morning, counterfeit law- enforcement badges in our focus. In New York City, there's a Russian man charged with planning to sell 1,300 bogus badges from 35 agencies, the FBI, the CIA, New York City Police. The fake badges, made overseas, raising concern about them being used to skirt homeland security. Are there more phony badges on the street?
John Clark is deputy assistant secretary for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency, and he's my guest now.
John, good morning to you.
JOHN CLARK, DEP. ASST. SECY., ICE: Good morning, Bill.
HEMMER: Pretty sophisticated deal you did here with the sting operation that began in Taiwan; it went to San Francisco. How did you get the guy in New York?
CLARK: Well, actually our alert customs-and-border-protection inspectors started the case in San Francisco, intercepting the package of counterfeit badges. Our office in San Francisco then for immigration and customs enforcement, our agents, worked in coordination with our New York office, and actually the U.S. Marshall Service, who actually the first 100 badges that we discovered belonged to, or were reflective of. So we went ahead in New York and did the controlled delivery and went actually into the apartment on Monday and discovered the cache of other counterfeit badges, the -- quite a large assortment, about 1,300 reflective of almost 20 to 25 law enforcement organizations, as well as about another 10 that were sort of miscellaneous commemorative-type badges.
HEMMER: These were pretty good, weren't they?
CLARK: They're actually excellent replicas, a lot of them. Some of them are a little phony looking. But unfortunately, some of them are very accurate. So we quickly have been reaching out to our various law enforcement counterparts to notify them of the vulnerability here, and ICE, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, is working domestically on that front to plug up that vulnerability, and we're working with our foreign offices to go to the source of the manufacturer of the badges as well.
HEMMER: How many people are walking around New York with a badge for the FBI, a badge for the DEA or the New York City Police Department that is not real?
CLARK: I wouldn't have a guess. Hopefully none, but I honestly wouldn't know if there are counterfeit ones that are in circulation.
HEMMER: How much does that concern you, then?
CLARK: It concerns us a lot, and I'm sure it concerns the FBI, and DEA and all the others who had the counterfeit badges in the apartment, or organizations reflective of those badges. And it's a very, very serious homeland security problem.
And I think part of the reason to come out this morning is to let the public know a badge is not, in and of itself, pure identification of a law-enforcement officer. And all law-enforcement officers have badges, but they also have photo I.D.s with credentials from their organizations. And it's certainly within the scope of a public citizen's meeting, encountering with a law-enforcement officer to ask for that identification, to verify when they're with a police officer or federal agent, or whomever, that they are, in fact who the badge reflects they are.
HEMMER: I think that is a very important point to emphasize this morning. Couple more things here. Any evidence of a terror plot? CLARK: No, none yet. We have worked closely with the JTTF as soon as we found the badges, and we have been working through the variety of ICE databases, and there's been no link whatsoever. We are going ahead and now working. We've done a computer-forensics analysis that we found in the apartment of his computer, and we're working on sales lists. So we're working names feverishly to make sure there's no terror connection.
HEMMER: So a lawyer for this man, who apparently is a U.S. citizen, although Russian-born, his lawyer telling us that he was just using this for collection purposes. Could that be a possibility, or is there something more sinister here?
CLARK: We don't know really the ultimate goal, you know, sale, profit, but the array of items also found in his apartment just raised our alertness level. Between guns, and narcotics and weapons, it's just not a good combination.
HEMMER: The imagination runs wild on a story like this, too. John Clark, thanks, deputy assistant secretary of the Immigration and Customs Service Agency, also known as ICE.
CLARK: Thank you.
HEMMER: Thank you, sir.
Stay with CNN day and night for the most reliable news about your security -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Still to come on AMERICAN MORNING, a company accused of overcharging the U.S. Army for work in Iraq is getting a $72 million bonus. Andy explains why. He's "Minding Your Business," up next on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: The company once accused of overcharging the military for work in Iraq is getting millions of dollars in bonuses.
Andy Serwer is "Minding Your Business" this morning.
Why?
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Ironic perhaps. A couple of items here about the cost of war, Soledad. Halliburton has been awarded a $72 million bonus by the U.S. Army. This happened yesterday. The Army rated the company excellent to very good in six tasks.
Now, some might find this ironic, because there have been disputes over bills Halliburton has sent the government, billing for meals served to troops, billing for gasoline supplied to the Army. The Army responded by saying actually it denied the company an additional $10 million that it could have awarded Halliburton. It said it had to think of the taxpayers first. Well, OK. You know, while we criticize this company, we should remember that 65 Halliburton employees have died in Iraq over the past several years.
The Senate approved $82 billion more in war spending, as we just mentioned. I want to break this down a little more for you: $351 billion has gone towards the war on terror since 9/11. That includes Iraq, Afghanistan and domestic spending. Of that $82 billion, $76 billion goes to Iraq alone, bringing the total of the cost of war in Iraq to $200 billion. That's right, almost a quarter of a trillion dollars.
And I think here's some more irony, is that last year during the presidential campaign, the Bush team criticized John Kerry for suggesting the war would cost $200 billion. And, in fact, is costing $200 billion to date.
O'BRIEN: You're right, and it will probably cost more.
Andy, thanks.
HEMMER: If you work for United Airlines, heads up here, what a story that broke yesterday. Jack's looking at that today.
Good morning.
CAFFERTY: Hi, Bill. Thank you.
United Airlines got permission from a court yesterday to default on four employee pension plans, $3.2 billion in pension obligations that will now be handed over to the federal government to pay. That would be you and me. It's the largest pension default in this country in 30 years; 134,000 employees will now likely face reduced pensions.
The ruling also sets a potentially dangerous precedent. If United's allowed to simply walk away from pension obligations, how long before other airlines do the same thing? U.S. Air has already defaulted, Delta's threatening to. It could create a domino effect that might spread to other industries, like the automakers. In case you hadn't noticed, GM and Ford are in big trouble. Eventually this could all overwhelm the Federal Pension Agency.
The question is this, should United Airlines be allowed to default on its pension obligations? Pardon me. AM@CNN.com.
HEMMER: It is a Pandora's box.
O'BRIEN: What was the judge's rationale for allowing that?
SERWER: He said it was the lesser of two evils basically. That was the language that he said.
O'BRIEN: The other evil being the company going under?
SERWER: Going under. That's right. And not flying, not operating at all. CAFFERTY: Why is that such a bad idea?
SERWER: Maybe the people should learn a lesson.
CAFFERTY: Liquidate the airlines, sell off all the airplanes and the rest of the assets, give the money to the employees, and you know, let the market take care of filling the hole.
HEMMER: Is there a chance, though, if United improves its bottom line, makes the records look better, improves its own business, maybe it attracts better investors to give the airline...
(CROSSTALK)
SERWER: And the current employees also are going to get their pensions cut.
CAFFERTY: It's operating under bankruptcy protection now. What's likely to happen is with rulings like this, they will eventually get their financial house in order and will reemerge as a new and healthy airline, and perhaps the next time around, perhaps the next time around, will offer their employee as 401(k)-type plan, as opposed to a pension plan.
HEMMER: How would you like to be 61 years old working at that company for 30 years and now getting this news.
CAFFERTY: U.S. air, which has already done this, their employees are getting between 15 percent and 65 percent less on their pensions than they would have if the airline had met its obligations.
SERWER: And as you said, American Airlines is eying this, and saying, hey, why don't we declare bankruptcy perhaps? And Delta is, too.
O'BRIEN: The bigger question, everybody else is looking at this.
SERWER: Right, why can't we do this? Because it makes them more competitive.
O'BRIEN: Obviously lots to talk about this morning.
SERWER: Yes.
O'BRIEN: Thank you, Jack.
Much more AMERICAN MORNING still to come.
Ahead on "90-Second Pop," Bridget Jones ties the knot. Our panel weighs in on Renee Zellweger's surprise wedding to a country superstar.
Plus, the Stones hit the road for a new tour. Is it their last? That's later on AMERICAN MORNING.
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Aired May 11, 2005 - 07:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: A day of staggering violence in Iraq. More than 50 people killed, 100 more wounded in six separate attacks. A live report ahead.
In Illinois, the man accused of killing his 8-year-old daughter and her best friend expected in court this morning.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've been this business for over 30 years. This is probably the most horrific crime I've ever seen.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: The motive, the evidence, some answers in the shocking crime could come very soon.
And a terrifying night of tornadoes in the heartland. Now surveying the damage, 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, everybody. Good to have you along with us today. 7:00 here in New York.
Good morning to you as well.
O'BRIEN: And you. Thank you.
HEMMER: We are looking into these new developments on this reported security breach. It happened during the president's speech yesterday in Georgia. Officials there now say a nonexplosive grenade was, indeed, found in that area.
O'BRIEN: The secret service is looking into it. CNN's Dana Bash is traveling with the president. She's going to have more on that this morning.
HEMMER: More questions this morning. We'll get to them.
Also Jack Cafferty with us.
Good morning.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. United Airlines got permission from a court yesterday to walk away from its pension obligations to 134,000 employees. Not only will those people get a smaller pension as a result, guess who's going to pay them now? You and me, kiddo, the federal government, the taxpayers. It could set a dangerous precedent. We'll take a look.
O'BRIEN: Thanks, Jack.
Top stories this morning, more than 50 people killed in Iraq today by six bombs in three cities, including a suicide bomb in Hawija. Three car cars and a roadside attack in Baghdad and a very deadly car bomb in Tikrit.
Ryan Chilcote live for us in Baghdad this morning. Ryan, good morning.
First, what are the targets of the attacks today?
RYAN CHILCOTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the targets, in some cases, appear to be Iraqi security forces. In other cases, they appear to be people that collaborate, or cooperate or work for the U.S. military. We start in the city of Hawija. That;s where a suicide bomber there with explosives strapped to himself attacked an army-recruitment center, one of the posts for the Iraqi security force. Somehow, this suicide bomber -- this should sound familiar -- was able to get close enough to those army recruits that when he blew himself up, he caused massive damage, killing at least 20 Iraqi recruits, wounding 30 more.
And then just south of there, in the city of Tikrit, that's Saddam's hometown, another attack. This one, again, a suicide bomber. This time, though, in a car, attacking day laborers. Iraqi police say that the day laborers may have been a target because some of these day laborers are used by the U.S. military in things like base construction. That suicide bomber killing some 30, wounding another 40.
And then in the Iraqi capital, four more bombings, killing at least four Iraqis, wounding more than a dozen. All in all, at least 54 Iraqis killed, according to the Iraqi police, nearly 100 of them wounded -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Ryan, it's day four now of Operation Matador. How is it going?
CHILCOTE: Well, the U.S. military says they're having some success. It's taking place in the Anbar province. It's a massive province in the west of the country. As you said, this is now day four.
The whole idea of this operation, the U.S. military says, is to try and stop, try and prevent the kind of violence that we've seen today. They say that this is a transit point for foreign fighters and for weapons, a staging area, if you will, from fighters coming over the border, according to the U.S. military, primarily from Syria. So far, in the first three days, they are saying that they've already killed some 100 insurgents. We have no way of verifying that, but that is what the U.S. military is saying. They're also saying that there have been setbacks. They say that at least three Marines have been killed at this point.
And then just late yesterday evening, we learned that the governor of that Anbar province was abducted. His captors reportedly demanding that the U.S. military cease its operations there -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Ryan Chilcote for us in Baghdad this morning. Ryan, thanks -- Bill.
HEMMER: Back to this story about this grenade found in the area where President Bush was giving a speech on Tuesday. That device apparently a non-explosive training grenade.
Our White House correspondent Dana Bash was at the event. She's back at the White House this morning.
Dana, good morning there. What do we know as fact about the grenade?
DANA BASH, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Bill, I can tell you, what you've reported so far and what we understand so far is essentially still from Georgian officials. What Secret Service is telling us is that they were told by Georgian officials hours after the president left Tiblisi, that there was a possible -- in their words, possible hand grenade thrown within 100 feet of the president, but did not go off.
And Secret Service spokeswoman Lori Lewis (ph) said, quote, "It was reported that a Georgian security officer picked up the device when it did not detonate. And at this time, she said, "we have not seen the reported device."
Now, Bill, it that is particular quote, "not seen the reported device," that makes the secret service, frankly, a little bit skeptical. What they are saying is they do have people on the ground working on this, the FBI, certainly along with the Secret Service, and they are trying to figure out exactly what happened.
But I can tell you From our perspective, we were there, reporters, producers, there on the balcony surrounding Freedom Square, and even the photojournalists who are shooting this live right now, Bill Albeter (ph) and Mike Bannigan (ph), they say that they were within 100 feet of the president, and they saw absolutely, Bill, no disturbance.
HEMMER: Dana, you reported yesterday, along with John King, about the problems on the perimeter, that at one point A number of people apparently rushed through a checkpoint unscreened. Did it feel to you as if security was not as tight as it should have been for the event? BASH: Well, I can tell you there certainly was concern, and there was a lot of precaution taken for security at this event. You mentioned that perimeter issue. We were told yesterday, before the president showed up as the crowd was gathering, that there was concern because one of the barriers that created the perimeter was broken down because the crowd was so big, and they were concerned because they couldn't account for everybody in the crowd and to make sure that everybody had been checked out.
But certainly, we saw sharpshooters on all of the buildings, as it is really standard operating procedure, and we saw bulletproof glass around the president. So we definitely saw intense security. And even as reporters, Bill, we had additional screening before we could go on the balcony overlooking the president.
HEMMER: Dana, you've been some working monster hours. Thanks for that this morning. Dana Bash, welcome home, at the White House today -- Soledad.
BASH: Thank you.
O'BRIEN: We may soon hear some more details about the deaths of those two young girls in Illinois. Police arrested the farther of one of the girls on Tuesday, and a bond hearing is scheduled for later this morning. Last night in Zion, about 200 people attended a prayer vigil for 8-year-old Laura Hobbs and 9-year-old Krystal Tobias.
Chris Lawrence is at the courthouse in nearby Waukegan, Illinois.
Chris, good morning.
CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.
We're getting some pretty heavy thunderstorms right here, but it's not going to affect what happens inside that courtroom in about four hours, when Jerry Hobbs' bond hearing gets started. Prosecutors say they plan to present even more evidence against him, but his family says he didn't do it, and he's getting railroaded because of his criminal record.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LAWRENCE (voice-over): Police and prosecutors believe they can answer the question of who killed these little girls, but not why.
MICHAEL WALLER, LAKE CO. STATE'S ATTY.: There's no rational explanation or reasonable motive that can be ascribed to an act of horror like this.
LAWRENCE: The accused is the father of one of the victims, and the man who reported finding their bodies. Jerry Hobbs has a criminal record going back 15 years in Texas. Most recently, he was convicted of aggravated assault and spent several years in prison. He was released about four weeks ago and moved here, to Illinois.
WALLER: He's charged with the stabbing and beating death of both girls, which occurred on Mother's Day.
LAWRENCE: Hobbs' daughter disappeared on Mother's Day while she was playing with her best friend. On Monday morning, the bodies of Laura Hobbs and Krystal Tobias were discovered in a nearby park. The second-graders had been stabbed to death, and left in thick woods, well off the bike path.
Zion is a small town north of Chicago. Parents here were stunned and scared, thinking some sort of random killer could be loose in their neighborhood.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My kids ain't even going outside their home until they found out who did it.
LAWRENCE: The murders changed everything here. With the school assigning escorts to students and parents literally walking their kids to the front door.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LAWRENCE: And we mentioned that conviction for aggravated assault. Well, we checked court records and spoke with the Texas D.A. That involved Jerry Hobbs getting into an argument with Laura's mom, and then chasing other people around with a running chainsaw. Prosecutors are going to look at that kind of criminal history when deciding whether to pursue the death penalty -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Chris Lawrence for us this morning. Chris, thanks for the update.
In just a few minutes, we're going to speak with the Illinois state's attorney who is prosecuting the case -- Bill.
HEMMER: There's a county investigator among six people, including three children, found shot to death in a home in California. That house in Riverside, owned by David McGowan. He's an investigator for the Riverside County D.A.'s office. Also dead, a teenage boy, two girls, ages 8 and 10, and two women, all found with gunshot wounds to the head. Authorities say there were no signs of a break-in or a struggle.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SHERIFF BOB DOYLE, RIVERSIDE CO.: This investigation is in its infancy, and it is being processed and handled as a homicide at this time. That does not rule out that it could be a homicide/suicide.
But I do want to stress that we are not concerned about the safety of the community at this time. We do not feel that there is a suspect at large.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HEMMER: Some of the other information we do know, a handgun apparently was found near McGowan's body. O'BRIEN: Federal transportation officials are investigating a plane collision at the Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport. A Northwest Airlines jet apparently lost steering control and hit a Northwest Airbus, which was backing away from the gate. The jet's cockpit got sliced by the other plane's wing, and the escape slide on the Airbus also deployed. Six members of the crew were slightly injured. No passengers are reported hurt. Airport officials say the jet had reported hydraulic problems before landing.
HEMMER: There's weather news also, Soledad, this morning here. Folks in central Nebraska surveying the damage after a string of tornadoes. About a dozen twisters touching down throughout the area late on Tuesday. Eastern Nebraska, western Iowa remained under a tornado watch until earlier this morning. There are reports of some damage, but luckily no injuries there. Continues to be a hotspot today.
(WEATHER REPORT)
O'BRIEN: Coming up in just a moment, a closer look at the murder of those two little girls in Zion, Illinois. Just how strong is the case against ex-convict Jerry Hobbs? Seen right there. We're going to ask the prosecutor this morning.
HEMMER: Also, the feds seizing hundreds of counterfeit law- enforcement badges for the FBI, New York Police Department. Authorities worry some may have ended up in the hands of terrorists. It's a CNN Security Watch and we'll get to it right after the break, on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HEMMER: As part of our continuing CNN Security Watch today, we're focusing on congressional approval, what critics call a nationwide I.D. system, part of an $82 billion spending bill passed unanimously overnight by the Senate, 100-0. That bill provides $76 billion more for Iraq and Afghanistan, also $4 billion-plus more dollars for other international projects like tsunami relief. The bill also tightens state driver's-license requirements, with a provision to prevent issuing licenses to illegal immigrants. Critics say that provision, referred to as the Real I.D. Act, opens the door to a national I.D. card for all citizens. The bill goes to the president now for his signature.
Continuing our security watch now this morning, counterfeit law- enforcement badges in our focus. In New York City, there's a Russian man charged with planning to sell 1,300 bogus badges from 35 agencies, the FBI, the CIA, New York City Police. The fake badges, made overseas, raising concern about them being used to skirt homeland security. Are there more phony badges on the street?
John Clark is deputy assistant secretary for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency, and he's my guest now.
John, good morning to you.
JOHN CLARK, DEP. ASST. SECY., ICE: Good morning, Bill.
HEMMER: Pretty sophisticated deal you did here with the sting operation that began in Taiwan; it went to San Francisco. How did you get the guy in New York?
CLARK: Well, actually our alert customs-and-border-protection inspectors started the case in San Francisco, intercepting the package of counterfeit badges. Our office in San Francisco then for immigration and customs enforcement, our agents, worked in coordination with our New York office, and actually the U.S. Marshall Service, who actually the first 100 badges that we discovered belonged to, or were reflective of. So we went ahead in New York and did the controlled delivery and went actually into the apartment on Monday and discovered the cache of other counterfeit badges, the -- quite a large assortment, about 1,300 reflective of almost 20 to 25 law enforcement organizations, as well as about another 10 that were sort of miscellaneous commemorative-type badges.
HEMMER: These were pretty good, weren't they?
CLARK: They're actually excellent replicas, a lot of them. Some of them are a little phony looking. But unfortunately, some of them are very accurate. So we quickly have been reaching out to our various law enforcement counterparts to notify them of the vulnerability here, and ICE, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, is working domestically on that front to plug up that vulnerability, and we're working with our foreign offices to go to the source of the manufacturer of the badges as well.
HEMMER: How many people are walking around New York with a badge for the FBI, a badge for the DEA or the New York City Police Department that is not real?
CLARK: I wouldn't have a guess. Hopefully none, but I honestly wouldn't know if there are counterfeit ones that are in circulation.
HEMMER: How much does that concern you, then?
CLARK: It concerns us a lot, and I'm sure it concerns the FBI, and DEA and all the others who had the counterfeit badges in the apartment, or organizations reflective of those badges. And it's a very, very serious homeland security problem.
And I think part of the reason to come out this morning is to let the public know a badge is not, in and of itself, pure identification of a law-enforcement officer. And all law-enforcement officers have badges, but they also have photo I.D.s with credentials from their organizations. And it's certainly within the scope of a public citizen's meeting, encountering with a law-enforcement officer to ask for that identification, to verify when they're with a police officer or federal agent, or whomever, that they are, in fact who the badge reflects they are.
HEMMER: I think that is a very important point to emphasize this morning. Couple more things here. Any evidence of a terror plot? CLARK: No, none yet. We have worked closely with the JTTF as soon as we found the badges, and we have been working through the variety of ICE databases, and there's been no link whatsoever. We are going ahead and now working. We've done a computer-forensics analysis that we found in the apartment of his computer, and we're working on sales lists. So we're working names feverishly to make sure there's no terror connection.
HEMMER: So a lawyer for this man, who apparently is a U.S. citizen, although Russian-born, his lawyer telling us that he was just using this for collection purposes. Could that be a possibility, or is there something more sinister here?
CLARK: We don't know really the ultimate goal, you know, sale, profit, but the array of items also found in his apartment just raised our alertness level. Between guns, and narcotics and weapons, it's just not a good combination.
HEMMER: The imagination runs wild on a story like this, too. John Clark, thanks, deputy assistant secretary of the Immigration and Customs Service Agency, also known as ICE.
CLARK: Thank you.
HEMMER: Thank you, sir.
Stay with CNN day and night for the most reliable news about your security -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Still to come on AMERICAN MORNING, a company accused of overcharging the U.S. Army for work in Iraq is getting a $72 million bonus. Andy explains why. He's "Minding Your Business," up next on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: The company once accused of overcharging the military for work in Iraq is getting millions of dollars in bonuses.
Andy Serwer is "Minding Your Business" this morning.
Why?
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Ironic perhaps. A couple of items here about the cost of war, Soledad. Halliburton has been awarded a $72 million bonus by the U.S. Army. This happened yesterday. The Army rated the company excellent to very good in six tasks.
Now, some might find this ironic, because there have been disputes over bills Halliburton has sent the government, billing for meals served to troops, billing for gasoline supplied to the Army. The Army responded by saying actually it denied the company an additional $10 million that it could have awarded Halliburton. It said it had to think of the taxpayers first. Well, OK. You know, while we criticize this company, we should remember that 65 Halliburton employees have died in Iraq over the past several years.
The Senate approved $82 billion more in war spending, as we just mentioned. I want to break this down a little more for you: $351 billion has gone towards the war on terror since 9/11. That includes Iraq, Afghanistan and domestic spending. Of that $82 billion, $76 billion goes to Iraq alone, bringing the total of the cost of war in Iraq to $200 billion. That's right, almost a quarter of a trillion dollars.
And I think here's some more irony, is that last year during the presidential campaign, the Bush team criticized John Kerry for suggesting the war would cost $200 billion. And, in fact, is costing $200 billion to date.
O'BRIEN: You're right, and it will probably cost more.
Andy, thanks.
HEMMER: If you work for United Airlines, heads up here, what a story that broke yesterday. Jack's looking at that today.
Good morning.
CAFFERTY: Hi, Bill. Thank you.
United Airlines got permission from a court yesterday to default on four employee pension plans, $3.2 billion in pension obligations that will now be handed over to the federal government to pay. That would be you and me. It's the largest pension default in this country in 30 years; 134,000 employees will now likely face reduced pensions.
The ruling also sets a potentially dangerous precedent. If United's allowed to simply walk away from pension obligations, how long before other airlines do the same thing? U.S. Air has already defaulted, Delta's threatening to. It could create a domino effect that might spread to other industries, like the automakers. In case you hadn't noticed, GM and Ford are in big trouble. Eventually this could all overwhelm the Federal Pension Agency.
The question is this, should United Airlines be allowed to default on its pension obligations? Pardon me. AM@CNN.com.
HEMMER: It is a Pandora's box.
O'BRIEN: What was the judge's rationale for allowing that?
SERWER: He said it was the lesser of two evils basically. That was the language that he said.
O'BRIEN: The other evil being the company going under?
SERWER: Going under. That's right. And not flying, not operating at all. CAFFERTY: Why is that such a bad idea?
SERWER: Maybe the people should learn a lesson.
CAFFERTY: Liquidate the airlines, sell off all the airplanes and the rest of the assets, give the money to the employees, and you know, let the market take care of filling the hole.
HEMMER: Is there a chance, though, if United improves its bottom line, makes the records look better, improves its own business, maybe it attracts better investors to give the airline...
(CROSSTALK)
SERWER: And the current employees also are going to get their pensions cut.
CAFFERTY: It's operating under bankruptcy protection now. What's likely to happen is with rulings like this, they will eventually get their financial house in order and will reemerge as a new and healthy airline, and perhaps the next time around, perhaps the next time around, will offer their employee as 401(k)-type plan, as opposed to a pension plan.
HEMMER: How would you like to be 61 years old working at that company for 30 years and now getting this news.
CAFFERTY: U.S. air, which has already done this, their employees are getting between 15 percent and 65 percent less on their pensions than they would have if the airline had met its obligations.
SERWER: And as you said, American Airlines is eying this, and saying, hey, why don't we declare bankruptcy perhaps? And Delta is, too.
O'BRIEN: The bigger question, everybody else is looking at this.
SERWER: Right, why can't we do this? Because it makes them more competitive.
O'BRIEN: Obviously lots to talk about this morning.
SERWER: Yes.
O'BRIEN: Thank you, Jack.
Much more AMERICAN MORNING still to come.
Ahead on "90-Second Pop," Bridget Jones ties the knot. Our panel weighs in on Renee Zellweger's surprise wedding to a country superstar.
Plus, the Stones hit the road for a new tour. Is it their last? That's later on AMERICAN MORNING.
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