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American Morning
Deadly Bombings; Motive for Murder?; Bush Security
Aired May 11, 2005 - 8:59 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.
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. Nine o'clock here in New York City.
Good morning to you.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: And you.
HEMMER: Sanjay's coming back in a moment here, part three in his series of "Crime Scene Investigators."
O'BRIEN: Also, today Sanjay's talking about the TV show "CSI Miami." It goes behind the scenes, kind of showing off how art imitates life.
HEMMER: It's been an interesting series, too, to figure out how they all get that stuff together.
Jack's back, too, talking about United.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, United Airlines. A judge yesterday allowed the airline to default on its pension plan, $3.2 billion owed to 134,000 employees. The obligation will now be turned over to the taxpayers in the form of the federal government.
Could it start a trend, and is it a good idea? AM@CNN.com is the e-mail address.
HEMMER: A big issue, too. To the headlines. Kelly's working for Carol today.
Good morning.
KELLY WALLACE, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks, Bill. Good morning again, everyone.
"Now in the News," President Bush says he will sign an $82 billion spending package for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The measure brings the total price tag for fighting the war on terrorism to more than $300 billion. It also includes funding for tsunami relief and a measure to prevent states from issuing driver's licenses to illegal immigrants.
Protests in Afghanistan, following a report that U.S. interrogators in Guantanamo Bay desecrated the Koran. The demonstrations which began Tuesday turning violent. There are reports that at least two people have been killed.
The protests apparently sparked by a "Newsweek" magazine report that interrogators at Guantanamo Bay prison camp placed copies of the Koran on toilets to intimidate suspects. In at least one case, the magazine says a copy of the Koran was flushed down the toilet.
Back here in the United States, jurors in the Michael Jackson trial could hear defense testimony as early as today from the first of the so-called star witnesses. Actor Macaulay Culkin is expected to refute claims anything inappropriate happened between himself and the entertainer, but first, Jackson's Neverland ranch manager heads back to the stand. He is countering claims that the accuser's family was kept prisoner at the ranch.
And King Tut getting a new look thanks to modern technology. Forensic teams put his mummified remains through a CAT scan. Take a look at that.
They say the boy pharaoh had a pointy head, chubby cheeks and large eyes. The teams also believe Tut was 19 years old when he died, most likely of an infected leg wound. Apparently theories that he was murdered or died in an accident, but they think it was through an infection.
HEMMER: That's just flat out freaky.
O'BRIEN: He doesn't look like he has a pointy head.
WALLACE: And chubby cheeks.
O'BRIEN: He looks like a normal 19-year-old.
WALLACE: Pretty bizarre.
O'BRIEN: Yes.
WALLACE: Taking mummified remains, doing...
HEMMER: How do they know?
Thanks, Kelly.
WALLACE: It's a mystery.
HEMMER: Talk to you later.
WALLACE: Sure.
HEMMER: We want to get back to the news out of Iraq today. It's been an especially deadly day, too. We're just learning of an attack in the oil ministry. That is on top of six bombings that killed more than 50 people today.
Ryan Chilcote starts our coverage this hour in Baghdad.
What were the targets today, Ryan? RYAN CHILCOTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It was another very violent day. The targets this time, Iraqi security forces. Again, recruitment centers and individuals who, at least in the insurgents' minds, appear to have been working with the U.S. military.
We start off in the north of the country in the city of Hawija. There, a suicide bomber with explosives strapped to him targeted an army recruitment center. We've seen it before. It happened again today in this northern Iraqi city of Hawija. This suicide bomber somehow getting -- able to get close enough to these army recruits to cause deadly damage when he blew himself up, killing at least 20 of these recruits, wounding 30 more.
Then just south of there, in the city of Tikrit -- that's Saddam's home town -- another suicide bomber, only this time the suicide bomber was in a car targeting day laborers. These day laborers were standing at a busy intersection in Tikrit hoping that people would hire them for the day. The Iraqi police say they may have been targeted because the U.S. military sometimes uses their services for things like base construction.
That suicide bomber, according to Iraqi police, killing at least 30, wounding 40 more.
And then here in the Iraqi capital, at least four more bombings, killing at least four Iraqis, wounding more than 12. And as you said, just a short while ago, a mortar attack, one mortar round hitting the oil ministry. No reported casualties -- Bill.
HEMMER: On a different -- on a different front, Ryan, Operation Matador continues in northwestern Iraq, right near the border with Syria. The U.S. military saying that they're encountering a better- trained opposition.
How is that operation going based on the information we know so far?
CHILCOTE: Well, the U.S. military says it's going well. They say that they're encountering -- they're having some success.
The whole idea of the operation out there in the Anbar province is to try and stop the kind of violence we're seeing here in Baghdad and in other Iraqi cities. The U.S. military believes that that area in the west of Iraq, right along the Syrian border, is really a transit point for weapons coming into the big cities and foreign fighters.
They say in the first 48 hours -- first 72 hours of this operation, that they've already killed some 100 insurgents. Among them some -- some suspected foreign fighters.
However, there have been setbacks. They're also saying that at least three Marines were killed in the fighting there. And just last night the governor of the Anbar province --that's where this operation is taking place -- was abducted, and his captors are reportedly demanding that the U.S. military cease its operations there -- Bill. HEMMER: An awful lot to report. Quite active today in Iraq. Ryan, thanks for that in Baghdad.
A bit later this hour, we'll hear from Marine Colonel Steven Davis (ph). He was on the ground in Anbar province with the offensive going on there. That's a bit later here on AMERICAN MORNING -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: In this country, we may hear some more details in just about two hours about the brutal killings of those two little girls in Illinois. That is when the fathers of one of the girls is due in court. Police arrested Jerry Hobbs on Tuesday.
About 200 people attended a prayer vigil for 8-year-old Laura Hobbs and 9-year-old Krystal Tobias last night in Zion.
Chris Lawrence joins us now from the courthouse which is in nearby Waukegan, Illinois.
Good morning.
CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.
Jerry Hobbs is expected in the courtroom right behind me in about two hours from now. Prosecutors say they may present more evidence against him, but his family says he didn't do it, that he's being railroaded because of his criminal history.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Police and prosecutors believe they can answer the question of who killed these little girls, but not why.
MICHAEL WALLER, LAKE COUNTY STATE'S ATTORNEY: 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 the 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: Our kids aren't even going outside our home until they find 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: Now, we mentioned that conviction for aggravated assault. Well, we checked court records in Texas and talked to the D.A. there. It appears that 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 be looking at criminal history like that when they decide whether to pursue the death penalty -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: All right. Chris Lawrence. We'll hear more, of course, in a couple of hours in court. Thanks, Chris -- Bill.
HEMMER: Soledad, we have new information on the story about a grenade found in the area where the president gave a speech on Tuesday overseas in the country of Georgia. Georgian officials are now saying it was a non-explosive training grenade. Mr. Bush apparently in no danger from the device itself. But still, there is concern over how it got so close to the president.
"Standing Next to History" is the memoir of Secret Service agent Joseph Petro. He has spent 20 years of experience in protecting presidents. He's my guest this morning.
Nice to see you, Joe. Good morning.
JOSEPH PETRO, FMR. SECRET SERVICE AGENT: Good morning, Bill. Good to be here.
HEMMER: Before I get to my questions here, you hear a story like this, and based on what we know and what we don't know, what questions do you have?
PETRO: Well, I think there are several question. One, what -- what really did happen? I mean, we're getting very conflicting reports. And I think there's a concern we may never know exactly what happened.
I think the second concern or question I would have is why the Georgian officials didn't notify the Secret Service immediately when it happened while the president was still there.
HEMMER: Why would they not inform the U.S.?
PETRO: Well, I think...
HEMMER: They didn't want to cause attention or draw attention to it?
PETRO: Well, I could tell you what the Secret Service would have done had they been told. They would have evacuated the president immediately. I mean, that would be the -- the instinctive response would be to get him out of there.
HEMMER: You mean this speech is over, the events closed down...
PETRO: In a van (ph), and head to the airport. I mean, that would be a normal response to something of that level of seriousness.
HEMMER: Based on what you know about the location where the speech took place, how long would it have taken him to get on that plane and leave?
PETRO: Not long. I don't know the distance to the airport...
HEMMER: Minutes?
PETRO: ... but minutes, yes.
HEMMER: Here's the question I have. At one point the report said this device apparently an old Soviet device, a non-combative grenade, had not been turned over or had not been seen by the Secret Service of the U.S. Why would that be?
PETRO: I don't know. That's a good -- that's a question. We don't know why that is.
HEMMER: Is it possible it doesn't exist?
PETRO: Well, I guess anything is possible. I just -- we just can't answer that.
HEMMER: What is a non-combative grenade, anyway?
PETRO: Well, I'm not sure how they define that. A non-combative grenade would be an inert grenade. It would be either an empty grenade, there's no -- there's no powder in it to explode, there's no firing pin. I mean, it's just an inert -- it could be anything from that to a plastic grenade or a toy grenade.
HEMMER: Something you can make at home?
PETRO: That you could buy at a toy store.
HEMMER: You wrote in one of your books, you said Georgia -- with regard to Georgia, this is one of the countries where the Secret Service holds its breath on security. Why is that?
PETRO: Well, yes, I think when the Secret Service leaves the country, they -- although they still have responsibility, they lose jurisdiction and authority. They don't have any jurisdiction and they don't have any resources. So we really do depend on the local countries to provide that kind of resource, extra police to really protect the perimeters, the outer perimeters of an event. And I think when you go to a country that is -- that doesn't have the training and the experience and the discipline of law enforcement, you often have to hold your breath, hoping that it's all holding together because you have very little control outside your immediate perimeter.
HEMMER: I think that's an excellent point. Thanks for coming in. Nice to see you.
PETRO: Good to be here. Thank you.
HEMMER: Joe Petro. All right -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Well, people in central Nebraska surveying the damage from a string of tornadoes. At least a dozen twisters touched down throughout the area on Tuesday night. Eastern Nebraska and western Iowa remained under a tornado watch until early this morning. There are reports of some damage, but no major injuries.
That takes us right to the weather this morning. Rob Marciano at the CNN center.
(WEATHER REPORT)
HEMMER: In a moment here, Dr. Gupta goes behind the scenes of "CSI Miami." Meet the real investigator who inspired some of the hit show's story lines. That's in "House Call" this hour.
O'BRIEN: Plus, we'll tell you about the firefighter who lost a winning Kentucky Derby ticket. It was worth more than $800,000. But thanks to an eagle-eyed cashier, his story has a happy ending.
HEMMER: Also, an unusual way to fight global warming: putting a blank on a glacier. That's next after the break on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: Swiss scientists are so alarmed by what global warming is doing to glaciers that they've decided to cover part of one. Workers laid a high-tech polyester blanket over a small section of a ski resort's glacier or Tuesday. Researchers admit it's not a practical way to solve the rapid melting problem.
Science Correspondent Miles O'Brien at the CNN center with more on this for us.
Hey, Miles. Good morning to you.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN SCIENCE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: How unusual is it for a glacier to be melting? The resort says the rate is 20 meters in the last 15 years.
M. O'BRIEN: It's not unusual at all. First of all, let's get you down onto the scene there, the center part of Switzerland. We'll use our Keyhole technology just to show you the lay of the land, so to speak.
These are peeks that are at about 10,000, not unlike a series of glaciers all throughout the Swiss Alps, which scientists say are melting at a rate of about one percent per year. Now, if you do the math on that, when what it will take to get to 100 percent? About a hundred years. And all of these glaciers, if nothing accelerates, will be gone.
This one in the foreground is the glacier we're talking about. It's the Gurschen Glacier, above the town of Andermatt. And this is a serious concern for many ski resorts.
S. O'BRIEN: It's about that, but it's kind of a small-looking blanket. Is -- is there any evidence that covering it with a blanket is going to work?
M. O'BRIEN: Well, yes, it will work, but it's a very small fix, if you will. First of all, let's listen to one of the scientists who is involved in this operation.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The objective, basically, is to provide shade for the glacier, and to shield it from the sun, especially during summer, so that the volume of ice remains more or less constant.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
M. O'BRIEN: All right. So the blanket is made by a thing called optiforce (ph) by a company called Fritz Landolt (ph). It's polyester. It's about a tenth of an inch thick, costs about $83,000.
But you bring up a good point, Soledad. It would only cover, if stretched out, about half a U.S. football field.
S. O'BRIEN: The environmentalists, as you well know, say this is a Band-Aid. In fact, they're protesting the blanket. Is there something of more significance that they could be doing at this point?
M. O'BRIEN: Well, yes, there's a lot more things that we could all be doing, but let's put it into some perspective. The globe is covered with glaciers, about 15 square miles of glaciers.
Just take a look at Antarctica, where most of the ice is massed, about five million square miles, 14,000 feet thick. This is time lapse over 20,000 years.
That's the ice age as you see it growing along there. And then as time goes on it begins to shrink. And what has happened is the acceleration of that shrinking, over the past 50 years in particular, we've seen climate change that has not been recorded in the past. And most scientist are led to the inescapable conclusion that human beings are making matters worse.
There you see right now as you look at Antarctica what is happening over this past century. So I guess the concern of environmentalists is, is that this would give people the wrong impression that we can come up with Band-Aid solutions instead of getting out of our SUVs.
S. O'BRIEN: So, that videotape there, and really what's happening on the glacier, is definitive proof that there's global warming.
M. O'BRIEN: Yes, but it's just one more little piece. There's a big stack of evidence now. And even the most incredibly well-funded by the oil company critics of global warming theories now admit it's happening and that humans are making it worse.
The real question is, what are we all going to do about it? Are we going to stop using our SUVs? It's something that maybe will be dictated by oil prices.
There you see Glacier National Park in Montana. Anybody who's visited there knows that global warming must be real -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: Miles O'Brien. Yes, and you're right, that is the real question. Thanks, Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: You're welcome.
HEMMER: Federal transportation officials now investigating a plane collision at the Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport. A Northwest Airlines jet apparently lost steering control and hit a Northwest Airbus backing away from the gate.
The jet's cockpit got sliced by the other plane's wing -- there you see it -- and the escape slide on the airbus deployed. Six crew members slightly injured, no passengers hurt.
Airport officials say the jet had reported hydraulic problems before that landing. That story out of Minnesota.
In a moment, Dr. Gupta has your behind-the-scenes pass to "CSI Miami." Secrets from the hit show revealed in Sanjay's "House Call." That's ahead this hour on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HEMMER: Welcome back. Here's Jack, "Question of the Day."
CAFFERTY: Yes. United Airlines was given permission by a judge yesterday to default on its pension plans. Walk away from $3.2 billion in obligations that it owes to 134,000 employees, turn the whole thing over to the government. That's you and me.
There is a fear that this could start a trend. All of the airlines might want to do this. And maybe all of the car companies and all of the big manufacturing companies. Who knows where it's going to end.
So we want to know whether you think United Airlines should be allowed to default on its pension obligations. Ed in Massachusetts, "Flying is no longer a privilege. It's a necessity. Without airline travel our economy will be destroyed. The government must support the airlines even if it involves using taxpayer money."
Gloria in Virginia, "Why should United Airlines be saved? Management can't run the company. I say use the remaining assets to play the employees their long-worked for pensions and let the company shut down."
Sharon in New York, "Absolutely not. I'm sure United executives will not feel much of a difference in their pension benefits. Why should I help pay for their fiscal mismanagement? As a small business owner, I struggle every day to provide for my own retirement."
And Michael in New York writes, "If they can defer pension payouts, then I want to defer my taxes."
O'BRIEN: You know, I would be curious to know about the employer -- employee compensation for the high-level...
(CROSSTALK)
CAFFERTY: Oh, well, you can just about bet that those guys -- yes.
O'BRIEN: And also all the bonus issues.
CAFFERTY: Yes.
O'BRIEN: You know, were those things paid? That would be very interesting.
CAFFERTY: You know, if -- typically in large corporations, if the executives fail they get some huge golden parachute...
O'BRIEN: Right, a giant amount of money.
CAFFERTY: ... and then some other struggling company can't wait to hire them at some inflated -- you can bet they're not going to suffer, not like the employees will.
O'BRIEN: I'd be curious to know that.
HEMMER: Ed's on it, though. It's a necessity right now for this economy. Flying, air travel, can't live without it. Got to get business done.
CAFFERTY: Well, but this is also a free market economy that we're supposed to be engaged in here, and there are a number of start- up airlines out there that are doing quite well.
HEMMER: What -- if this goes through, and those folks who are relying on this pension from United, what do they lose? Is there a percentage?
O'BRIEN: Well, but...
CAFFERTY: Anywhere -- anywhere from 15 to 65 percent reduction in pension benefits.
O'BRIEN: Can you imagine?
(CROSSTALK)
CAFFERTY: And that's until five more corporations do this, and then maybe the whole number goes down even more. I mean, it's a -- it's a -- it's just wrong. It's just wrong.
HEMMER: Jack, thanks for that.
In a moment here, going -- a much lighter note, and a happy ending, too, for that matter. An Arizona firefighter sees almost $800,000 go down the tubes. Luckily, he got some help from an eagle- eyed cashier. And the story behind the biggest winner on Saturday and the Kentucky Derby in a moment here.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(STOCK MARKET REPORT)
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Aired May 11, 2005 - 8:59 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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. Nine o'clock here in New York City.
Good morning to you.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: And you.
HEMMER: Sanjay's coming back in a moment here, part three in his series of "Crime Scene Investigators."
O'BRIEN: Also, today Sanjay's talking about the TV show "CSI Miami." It goes behind the scenes, kind of showing off how art imitates life.
HEMMER: It's been an interesting series, too, to figure out how they all get that stuff together.
Jack's back, too, talking about United.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, United Airlines. A judge yesterday allowed the airline to default on its pension plan, $3.2 billion owed to 134,000 employees. The obligation will now be turned over to the taxpayers in the form of the federal government.
Could it start a trend, and is it a good idea? AM@CNN.com is the e-mail address.
HEMMER: A big issue, too. To the headlines. Kelly's working for Carol today.
Good morning.
KELLY WALLACE, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks, Bill. Good morning again, everyone.
"Now in the News," President Bush says he will sign an $82 billion spending package for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The measure brings the total price tag for fighting the war on terrorism to more than $300 billion. It also includes funding for tsunami relief and a measure to prevent states from issuing driver's licenses to illegal immigrants.
Protests in Afghanistan, following a report that U.S. interrogators in Guantanamo Bay desecrated the Koran. The demonstrations which began Tuesday turning violent. There are reports that at least two people have been killed.
The protests apparently sparked by a "Newsweek" magazine report that interrogators at Guantanamo Bay prison camp placed copies of the Koran on toilets to intimidate suspects. In at least one case, the magazine says a copy of the Koran was flushed down the toilet.
Back here in the United States, jurors in the Michael Jackson trial could hear defense testimony as early as today from the first of the so-called star witnesses. Actor Macaulay Culkin is expected to refute claims anything inappropriate happened between himself and the entertainer, but first, Jackson's Neverland ranch manager heads back to the stand. He is countering claims that the accuser's family was kept prisoner at the ranch.
And King Tut getting a new look thanks to modern technology. Forensic teams put his mummified remains through a CAT scan. Take a look at that.
They say the boy pharaoh had a pointy head, chubby cheeks and large eyes. The teams also believe Tut was 19 years old when he died, most likely of an infected leg wound. Apparently theories that he was murdered or died in an accident, but they think it was through an infection.
HEMMER: That's just flat out freaky.
O'BRIEN: He doesn't look like he has a pointy head.
WALLACE: And chubby cheeks.
O'BRIEN: He looks like a normal 19-year-old.
WALLACE: Pretty bizarre.
O'BRIEN: Yes.
WALLACE: Taking mummified remains, doing...
HEMMER: How do they know?
Thanks, Kelly.
WALLACE: It's a mystery.
HEMMER: Talk to you later.
WALLACE: Sure.
HEMMER: We want to get back to the news out of Iraq today. It's been an especially deadly day, too. We're just learning of an attack in the oil ministry. That is on top of six bombings that killed more than 50 people today.
Ryan Chilcote starts our coverage this hour in Baghdad.
What were the targets today, Ryan? RYAN CHILCOTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It was another very violent day. The targets this time, Iraqi security forces. Again, recruitment centers and individuals who, at least in the insurgents' minds, appear to have been working with the U.S. military.
We start off in the north of the country in the city of Hawija. There, a suicide bomber with explosives strapped to him targeted an army recruitment center. We've seen it before. It happened again today in this northern Iraqi city of Hawija. This suicide bomber somehow getting -- able to get close enough to these army recruits to cause deadly damage when he blew himself up, killing at least 20 of these recruits, wounding 30 more.
Then just south of there, in the city of Tikrit -- that's Saddam's home town -- another suicide bomber, only this time the suicide bomber was in a car targeting day laborers. These day laborers were standing at a busy intersection in Tikrit hoping that people would hire them for the day. The Iraqi police say they may have been targeted because the U.S. military sometimes uses their services for things like base construction.
That suicide bomber, according to Iraqi police, killing at least 30, wounding 40 more.
And then here in the Iraqi capital, at least four more bombings, killing at least four Iraqis, wounding more than 12. And as you said, just a short while ago, a mortar attack, one mortar round hitting the oil ministry. No reported casualties -- Bill.
HEMMER: On a different -- on a different front, Ryan, Operation Matador continues in northwestern Iraq, right near the border with Syria. The U.S. military saying that they're encountering a better- trained opposition.
How is that operation going based on the information we know so far?
CHILCOTE: Well, the U.S. military says it's going well. They say that they're encountering -- they're having some success.
The whole idea of the operation out there in the Anbar province is to try and stop the kind of violence we're seeing here in Baghdad and in other Iraqi cities. The U.S. military believes that that area in the west of Iraq, right along the Syrian border, is really a transit point for weapons coming into the big cities and foreign fighters.
They say in the first 48 hours -- first 72 hours of this operation, that they've already killed some 100 insurgents. Among them some -- some suspected foreign fighters.
However, there have been setbacks. They're also saying that at least three Marines were killed in the fighting there. And just last night the governor of the Anbar province --that's where this operation is taking place -- was abducted, and his captors are reportedly demanding that the U.S. military cease its operations there -- Bill. HEMMER: An awful lot to report. Quite active today in Iraq. Ryan, thanks for that in Baghdad.
A bit later this hour, we'll hear from Marine Colonel Steven Davis (ph). He was on the ground in Anbar province with the offensive going on there. That's a bit later here on AMERICAN MORNING -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: In this country, we may hear some more details in just about two hours about the brutal killings of those two little girls in Illinois. That is when the fathers of one of the girls is due in court. Police arrested Jerry Hobbs on Tuesday.
About 200 people attended a prayer vigil for 8-year-old Laura Hobbs and 9-year-old Krystal Tobias last night in Zion.
Chris Lawrence joins us now from the courthouse which is in nearby Waukegan, Illinois.
Good morning.
CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.
Jerry Hobbs is expected in the courtroom right behind me in about two hours from now. Prosecutors say they may present more evidence against him, but his family says he didn't do it, that he's being railroaded because of his criminal history.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Police and prosecutors believe they can answer the question of who killed these little girls, but not why.
MICHAEL WALLER, LAKE COUNTY STATE'S ATTORNEY: 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 the 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: Our kids aren't even going outside our home until they find 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: Now, we mentioned that conviction for aggravated assault. Well, we checked court records in Texas and talked to the D.A. there. It appears that 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 be looking at criminal history like that when they decide whether to pursue the death penalty -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: All right. Chris Lawrence. We'll hear more, of course, in a couple of hours in court. Thanks, Chris -- Bill.
HEMMER: Soledad, we have new information on the story about a grenade found in the area where the president gave a speech on Tuesday overseas in the country of Georgia. Georgian officials are now saying it was a non-explosive training grenade. Mr. Bush apparently in no danger from the device itself. But still, there is concern over how it got so close to the president.
"Standing Next to History" is the memoir of Secret Service agent Joseph Petro. He has spent 20 years of experience in protecting presidents. He's my guest this morning.
Nice to see you, Joe. Good morning.
JOSEPH PETRO, FMR. SECRET SERVICE AGENT: Good morning, Bill. Good to be here.
HEMMER: Before I get to my questions here, you hear a story like this, and based on what we know and what we don't know, what questions do you have?
PETRO: Well, I think there are several question. One, what -- what really did happen? I mean, we're getting very conflicting reports. And I think there's a concern we may never know exactly what happened.
I think the second concern or question I would have is why the Georgian officials didn't notify the Secret Service immediately when it happened while the president was still there.
HEMMER: Why would they not inform the U.S.?
PETRO: Well, I think...
HEMMER: They didn't want to cause attention or draw attention to it?
PETRO: Well, I could tell you what the Secret Service would have done had they been told. They would have evacuated the president immediately. I mean, that would be the -- the instinctive response would be to get him out of there.
HEMMER: You mean this speech is over, the events closed down...
PETRO: In a van (ph), and head to the airport. I mean, that would be a normal response to something of that level of seriousness.
HEMMER: Based on what you know about the location where the speech took place, how long would it have taken him to get on that plane and leave?
PETRO: Not long. I don't know the distance to the airport...
HEMMER: Minutes?
PETRO: ... but minutes, yes.
HEMMER: Here's the question I have. At one point the report said this device apparently an old Soviet device, a non-combative grenade, had not been turned over or had not been seen by the Secret Service of the U.S. Why would that be?
PETRO: I don't know. That's a good -- that's a question. We don't know why that is.
HEMMER: Is it possible it doesn't exist?
PETRO: Well, I guess anything is possible. I just -- we just can't answer that.
HEMMER: What is a non-combative grenade, anyway?
PETRO: Well, I'm not sure how they define that. A non-combative grenade would be an inert grenade. It would be either an empty grenade, there's no -- there's no powder in it to explode, there's no firing pin. I mean, it's just an inert -- it could be anything from that to a plastic grenade or a toy grenade.
HEMMER: Something you can make at home?
PETRO: That you could buy at a toy store.
HEMMER: You wrote in one of your books, you said Georgia -- with regard to Georgia, this is one of the countries where the Secret Service holds its breath on security. Why is that?
PETRO: Well, yes, I think when the Secret Service leaves the country, they -- although they still have responsibility, they lose jurisdiction and authority. They don't have any jurisdiction and they don't have any resources. So we really do depend on the local countries to provide that kind of resource, extra police to really protect the perimeters, the outer perimeters of an event. And I think when you go to a country that is -- that doesn't have the training and the experience and the discipline of law enforcement, you often have to hold your breath, hoping that it's all holding together because you have very little control outside your immediate perimeter.
HEMMER: I think that's an excellent point. Thanks for coming in. Nice to see you.
PETRO: Good to be here. Thank you.
HEMMER: Joe Petro. All right -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Well, people in central Nebraska surveying the damage from a string of tornadoes. At least a dozen twisters touched down throughout the area on Tuesday night. Eastern Nebraska and western Iowa remained under a tornado watch until early this morning. There are reports of some damage, but no major injuries.
That takes us right to the weather this morning. Rob Marciano at the CNN center.
(WEATHER REPORT)
HEMMER: In a moment here, Dr. Gupta goes behind the scenes of "CSI Miami." Meet the real investigator who inspired some of the hit show's story lines. That's in "House Call" this hour.
O'BRIEN: Plus, we'll tell you about the firefighter who lost a winning Kentucky Derby ticket. It was worth more than $800,000. But thanks to an eagle-eyed cashier, his story has a happy ending.
HEMMER: Also, an unusual way to fight global warming: putting a blank on a glacier. That's next after the break on AMERICAN MORNING.
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O'BRIEN: Swiss scientists are so alarmed by what global warming is doing to glaciers that they've decided to cover part of one. Workers laid a high-tech polyester blanket over a small section of a ski resort's glacier or Tuesday. Researchers admit it's not a practical way to solve the rapid melting problem.
Science Correspondent Miles O'Brien at the CNN center with more on this for us.
Hey, Miles. Good morning to you.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN SCIENCE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: How unusual is it for a glacier to be melting? The resort says the rate is 20 meters in the last 15 years.
M. O'BRIEN: It's not unusual at all. First of all, let's get you down onto the scene there, the center part of Switzerland. We'll use our Keyhole technology just to show you the lay of the land, so to speak.
These are peeks that are at about 10,000, not unlike a series of glaciers all throughout the Swiss Alps, which scientists say are melting at a rate of about one percent per year. Now, if you do the math on that, when what it will take to get to 100 percent? About a hundred years. And all of these glaciers, if nothing accelerates, will be gone.
This one in the foreground is the glacier we're talking about. It's the Gurschen Glacier, above the town of Andermatt. And this is a serious concern for many ski resorts.
S. O'BRIEN: It's about that, but it's kind of a small-looking blanket. Is -- is there any evidence that covering it with a blanket is going to work?
M. O'BRIEN: Well, yes, it will work, but it's a very small fix, if you will. First of all, let's listen to one of the scientists who is involved in this operation.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The objective, basically, is to provide shade for the glacier, and to shield it from the sun, especially during summer, so that the volume of ice remains more or less constant.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
M. O'BRIEN: All right. So the blanket is made by a thing called optiforce (ph) by a company called Fritz Landolt (ph). It's polyester. It's about a tenth of an inch thick, costs about $83,000.
But you bring up a good point, Soledad. It would only cover, if stretched out, about half a U.S. football field.
S. O'BRIEN: The environmentalists, as you well know, say this is a Band-Aid. In fact, they're protesting the blanket. Is there something of more significance that they could be doing at this point?
M. O'BRIEN: Well, yes, there's a lot more things that we could all be doing, but let's put it into some perspective. The globe is covered with glaciers, about 15 square miles of glaciers.
Just take a look at Antarctica, where most of the ice is massed, about five million square miles, 14,000 feet thick. This is time lapse over 20,000 years.
That's the ice age as you see it growing along there. And then as time goes on it begins to shrink. And what has happened is the acceleration of that shrinking, over the past 50 years in particular, we've seen climate change that has not been recorded in the past. And most scientist are led to the inescapable conclusion that human beings are making matters worse.
There you see right now as you look at Antarctica what is happening over this past century. So I guess the concern of environmentalists is, is that this would give people the wrong impression that we can come up with Band-Aid solutions instead of getting out of our SUVs.
S. O'BRIEN: So, that videotape there, and really what's happening on the glacier, is definitive proof that there's global warming.
M. O'BRIEN: Yes, but it's just one more little piece. There's a big stack of evidence now. And even the most incredibly well-funded by the oil company critics of global warming theories now admit it's happening and that humans are making it worse.
The real question is, what are we all going to do about it? Are we going to stop using our SUVs? It's something that maybe will be dictated by oil prices.
There you see Glacier National Park in Montana. Anybody who's visited there knows that global warming must be real -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: Miles O'Brien. Yes, and you're right, that is the real question. Thanks, Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: You're welcome.
HEMMER: Federal transportation officials now investigating a plane collision at the Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport. A Northwest Airlines jet apparently lost steering control and hit a Northwest Airbus backing away from the gate.
The jet's cockpit got sliced by the other plane's wing -- there you see it -- and the escape slide on the airbus deployed. Six crew members slightly injured, no passengers hurt.
Airport officials say the jet had reported hydraulic problems before that landing. That story out of Minnesota.
In a moment, Dr. Gupta has your behind-the-scenes pass to "CSI Miami." Secrets from the hit show revealed in Sanjay's "House Call." That's ahead this hour on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HEMMER: Welcome back. Here's Jack, "Question of the Day."
CAFFERTY: Yes. United Airlines was given permission by a judge yesterday to default on its pension plans. Walk away from $3.2 billion in obligations that it owes to 134,000 employees, turn the whole thing over to the government. That's you and me.
There is a fear that this could start a trend. All of the airlines might want to do this. And maybe all of the car companies and all of the big manufacturing companies. Who knows where it's going to end.
So we want to know whether you think United Airlines should be allowed to default on its pension obligations. Ed in Massachusetts, "Flying is no longer a privilege. It's a necessity. Without airline travel our economy will be destroyed. The government must support the airlines even if it involves using taxpayer money."
Gloria in Virginia, "Why should United Airlines be saved? Management can't run the company. I say use the remaining assets to play the employees their long-worked for pensions and let the company shut down."
Sharon in New York, "Absolutely not. I'm sure United executives will not feel much of a difference in their pension benefits. Why should I help pay for their fiscal mismanagement? As a small business owner, I struggle every day to provide for my own retirement."
And Michael in New York writes, "If they can defer pension payouts, then I want to defer my taxes."
O'BRIEN: You know, I would be curious to know about the employer -- employee compensation for the high-level...
(CROSSTALK)
CAFFERTY: Oh, well, you can just about bet that those guys -- yes.
O'BRIEN: And also all the bonus issues.
CAFFERTY: Yes.
O'BRIEN: You know, were those things paid? That would be very interesting.
CAFFERTY: You know, if -- typically in large corporations, if the executives fail they get some huge golden parachute...
O'BRIEN: Right, a giant amount of money.
CAFFERTY: ... and then some other struggling company can't wait to hire them at some inflated -- you can bet they're not going to suffer, not like the employees will.
O'BRIEN: I'd be curious to know that.
HEMMER: Ed's on it, though. It's a necessity right now for this economy. Flying, air travel, can't live without it. Got to get business done.
CAFFERTY: Well, but this is also a free market economy that we're supposed to be engaged in here, and there are a number of start- up airlines out there that are doing quite well.
HEMMER: What -- if this goes through, and those folks who are relying on this pension from United, what do they lose? Is there a percentage?
O'BRIEN: Well, but...
CAFFERTY: Anywhere -- anywhere from 15 to 65 percent reduction in pension benefits.
O'BRIEN: Can you imagine?
(CROSSTALK)
CAFFERTY: And that's until five more corporations do this, and then maybe the whole number goes down even more. I mean, it's a -- it's a -- it's just wrong. It's just wrong.
HEMMER: Jack, thanks for that.
In a moment here, going -- a much lighter note, and a happy ending, too, for that matter. An Arizona firefighter sees almost $800,000 go down the tubes. Luckily, he got some help from an eagle- eyed cashier. And the story behind the biggest winner on Saturday and the Kentucky Derby in a moment here.
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