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American Morning
Police in Aruba Questioning Three New Suspects; Interview With Attorney General Albert Gonzales
Aired June 10, 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: In Kansas.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tornado on the ground west! Tornado on the ground east!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HEMMER: They are tracking twisters. The tornado hunters in the middle of it all.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Wow.
I'm Carol Costello, in for Soledad this morning.
The investigation in Aruba heating up after the latest three arrests, and some new questions about one of the men. He may have met Natalee Holloway even earlier in her trip.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Jack Cafferty. Times are good for America's wealthy; 200,000 new millionaires created last year, one in every 110 of us. We'll take a look at how the rich are getting richer.
HEMMER: Also today, we're on the Michael Jackson verdict watch on a Friday. Court watchers a decision say could come today. This as the scene outside the courthouse grows more tense and more outrageous, on this AMERICAN MORNING.
We have made it to Friday. Congratulations and good morning.
COSTELLO: Good morning to you.
Tropical Storm Arlene is on the way.
HEMMER: That she is, and that's where we start this morning, too, with the first named storm of the hurricane season bearing down on the Gulf Coast, Tropical Storm Arlene. And only a few hours ago, the National Hurricane Center posted a tropical storm watch from Louisiana to the Florida panhandle.
Arlene expected to hit sometime tomorrow, on Saturday. People along the Gulf Coast hit hard last year by Ivan. Now they have to get ready once again, buying plywood for windows and other emergency supplies along the Gulf Coast. Right now Arlene is centered near the western tip of Cuba, drenching the island with heavy rain and 40-mile- an-hour winds.
(WEATHER REPORT)
HEMMER: In Kansas now, more stormy weather lies ahead for the weekend after some recent tornadoes. Videotaped now, A giant twister caught on tape Thursday. This is north central Kansas, near the town of Stockton. Take a listen to how the guys who shot this videotape reacted when they were there.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tornado on the ground east! Tornado on the ground west! Tornado on the ground east! Whoo!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HEMMER: Some folks live for this. Just one of several twisters reported in Kansas on Thursday. No injuries luckily, but high winds further south blew over a truck there and also damaged the roof of a school. That from Kansas -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Police in Aruba have been questioning three new suspects in the disappearance of Natalee Holloway. The 18-year-old disappeared 11 days ago now from the Dutch protectorate off Venezuela. Police say the suspect, Juron Van Der Sloot, pictured here on his own Web site, met Holloway the night before she went missing. Five men have been arrested in the case so far. No charges have been filed against any of them, though.
Karl Penhaul is live from Palm Beach, Aruba.
Karl, give us the latest information.
KARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Carol, police are telling us that Juron Van Der Sloot, who's 17 years old, met Natalee Holloway in the casino of the Holiday Inn the night before she disappeared. What police are trying to do now is analyze if there are any links between the three suspects arrested yesterday, and two suspects arrested over the weekend.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PENHAUL (voice-over): In handcuffs, a towel draped over his head, this is one of three new suspects police arrested in the hunt for Natalee Holloway. In total, five men are now in custody, but there's no sign of the missing teenager, no clue whether she's alive or dead.
KARIN JANSSEN, CHIEF PROSECUTOR: At this stage, we can't say what we are presuming at this moment. We have too little details to say. All options are open.
PENHAUL: Natalee drove away from Carlos & Charlie's Bar in the weather hours of May 30 with the three teenagers now held in police cells, according to their own statements. Police said she had met 17- year-old Joran Van Der Sloot, the son of an island justice official, at the Holiday Inn where Natalee was staying a day before she disappeared.
JAN VAN DER STRATEN, CHIEF POLICE COMMISSIONER: And they meet each other in the casino.
QUESTION: That day or...
(CROSSTALK)
VAN DER STRATEN: The day before.
PENHAUL: The two other men detained Thursday are brothers, Satish and Deepak Kaploe. There's been no statement yet on their behalf. The other suspects, detained at the weekend, are security guards. Their defense attorneys insist they had nothing to do with Natalee's disappearance. Police previously interviewed the teenagers, but waited until Thursday, 11 days after Natalee's disappearance, to arrest them. They confiscated property, including a car and a computer.
JANSSEN: It is because of tactical reasons we didn't do that at another moment.
PENHAUL: Relative to the first two suspects fear wealth and race issues may cloud the investigation.
ALVIN CORNET, COUSIN OF SUSPECT: And it's on something about money wise who is rich and who is poor.
PENHAUL: That's Mickey John, one of the first two suspects detained, from a black immigrant family from the poorer East End of Aruba. That's Van Der Sloot, from an influential family from the richer West End.
Prosecutors say evidence, not prejudice, will be the key.
JANSSEN: Suspicion of a suspect has nothing to do with the color of his skin. It has to do with the results of the investigation, if there are grounds for suspicion.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PENHAUL: The entire island is absorbed by the disappearance of Natalee, and the prime minister himself has pledged to take full responsibility for the outcome of this investigation -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Karl, south America is very, very -- Venezuela is very, very close, and I understand investigators in Aruba have contacted police, South American police. Why are they cooperating in this? What's the connection?
PENHAUL: Indeed, because of the proximity of Venezuela, it's just a few miles away by boat. And yesterday prosecutors have said that they've been talking to their colleagues, police and investigators, in South America to see if there's any possible connection there, to see if there's any chance that Natalee either voluntarily or against her will may have been taken to the South American continent, if she's still alive, of course -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Karl Penhaul, live in Aruba this morning.
As you heard Karl say, police are giving this family very little information about their investigation.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: Dave Holloway is Natalee's father. He is in Palm Beach this morning.
Good morning, Dave.
DAVE HOLLOWAY, MISSING GIRL'S FATHER: Good morning.
COSTELLO: Police have made three more arrests. This brings the number of arrests to five. What are the police telling you?
HOLLOWAY: Well, the police is doing their investigation, and one of the things that they're real careful about is not getting any information out to the public, to compromise any of their investigative efforts.
COSTELLO: That must be...
HOLLOWAY: So...
COSTELLO: That must be frustrating for you.
HOLLOWAY: Well, it is in one way, but in the other way, I'm -- I don't want to compromise any of their investigative efforts by learning what the details are.
COSTELLO: This Dutch student that your daughter supposedly met in the casino, what do you know about him? Because friends have described him as different, being different.
HOLLOWAY: Carol, to be honest with you, I don't know any of the details about any of these individuals. In fact, I don't even know their names. I came down here for one purpose and that purpose was to find my daughter. And when I got here, our efforts were concentrated on search and rescue. And this is day 12, and that's where my efforts are continuing to be concentrated to. I have purposely not gotten involved in any of the details, because I have basically been out searching.
COSTELLO: So you haven't talked to any of Natalee's friends about what she was doing the night previous to the night she disappeared or anything like that?
HOLLOWAY: No, I have not.
I got very few details on what transpired prior to her disappearance, and basically, all I knew was approximately where she disappeared, and we've concentrated the search efforts, obviously, in the areas where she was last seen. This island is only approximately 100 square miles, and we had the thought that, you know, coming in here, that, hey, we would find her easy. And we've learned that, just through our efforts in ground searching, thousands of people walking the beaches inland, riding three-wheelers, four-wheelers. I even spent approximately four to five hours in a helicopter crisscrossing the island, looking in most of the obvious areas, and still nothing.
COSTELLO: The three men most recently arrested claim that your daughter was under the influence of alcohol when they dropped her off at the hotel. Does this sound like your daughter?
HOLLOWAY: It does not. But, you know, you've got to think that here all of these individuals were here for their graduation, and Natalee was a straight-A student, had a full scholarship to the University of Alabama, and, you know, had her future ahead of her. And you know, and I was proud of her as a parent. And, again, as I said, my efforts here was to find my daughter. And if you're a parent, you could probably understand that -- you know, as a parent, you've got to find your children and you'll do everything you can to find your child. And that's what I'm here for.
And the details and everything else, we can get those later. My concern is to find Natalee.
COSTELLO: Well, we wish you luck. Dave Holloway, thank you for joining AMERICAN MORNING this morning.
HOLLOWAY: Thank you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HEMMER: Eleven minutes now past the hour. I want to move to our other story now. Carol, thanks for that.
President Bush wants Congress to renew key provisions of the Patriot Act that will expire soon. That law, passed after 9/11, gives authorities enhanced powers to catch terrorists.
The president was on the road Thursday pressing this issue again.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: My message to Congress is clear: The terrorist threats against us will not expire at the end of the year, and neither should the protections of the Patriot Act.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HEMMER: Attorney General Alberto Gonzales was with the president yesterday in Columbus, Ohio. He's my guest now back in D.C. -- Justice Department.
Good morning, sir. Thanks for coming back here.
ALBERTO GONZALES, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: Good morning, Bill.
HEMMER: Of these key provisions, two of them -- so our viewers know -- one involves roving wiretaps on multiple telephones; that's one of them. Another one is the so-called library records provision. This allows the government to secretly get information from a suspect's employer or doctor or maybe even a local library.
Why do you believe it's necessary to make part of these provisions permanent?
GONZALES: Because the provisions have shown themselves to be effective, not only effective in fighting terrorism but effective in dealing with other kinds of crimes.
And I think if you look at the record these past three and a half years, you'll see that the act reflects a careful balance between protecting the country and protecting the civil liberties and privacy rights.
I think the Department of Justice has a very strong record in utilizing these authorities in a way that does not infringe upon the civil liberties and privacy rights of Americans.
HEMMER: There are signals from Capitol Hill that indicate Congress wants to make these provisions extended anyway, perhaps not permanent by some but extended, so that would indicate, anyway, that you're not losing any crime-fighting ability, does it not?
GONZALES: Absolutely. And, you know, that'll be a debate we'll have with members of Congress as to whether or not if these provisions are reauthorized, will they be subject to additional sunsets? And we'll work with Congress to see what is the appropriate way to move forward.
But we believe these tools have been effective. We don't believe that sunsets are necessary. Congress has the ability, under its oversight capacity, to look at the way the department exercise these tools. But we'll continue having this discussion.
HEMMER: You mentioned civil liberties in your answer there. Critics say this is another sign of a paranoid federal government; that if you sacrifice more civil liberties, the terrorists are winning anyway.
How do you respond to those critics?
GONZALES: I believe the protection of civil liberties and our privacy rights is extremely important. That is one of my priorities at the Department of Justice.
Protection of our country is an equal priority. I do not believe that they are exclusive. I believe that we can have both, and I think the Patriot Act shows that we can have both.
HEMMER: There's a report out today on a different topic that goes back to 9/11. Pre-9/11 intelligence indicating today that the FBI had five chances to catch two of the terrorists months before the attacks of September 11th.
How do you react to this latest report as we look back at history in hindsight?
GONZALES: We didn't have the ability to share information. The FBI would have information, other agencies would have information, and that information was not shared because everyone was operating without perfect knowledge.
As a result of provisions like the Patriot Act, we can now share information. We're in a much better position to connect the dots, and I think we're in a much better place to defend America.
HEMMER: Are you suggesting that if the Patriot Act were in place in 2001 that 9/11 would not have happened?
GONZALES: What I'm suggesting is we would have been in a better position then, as we are today, to protect America.
HEMMER: Alberto Gonzales is the attorney general at the Department of Justice.
Thanks for your time again. And we will speak again down the road. Thank you, sir.
GONZALES: Thanks, Bill.
COSTELLO: Still to come, the circus surrounding the Michael Jackson trial getting out of hand. We'll tell you why one Jackson fan was hit with a restraining order.
HEMMER: Also today, torn between two loves. Meet a firefighter who could lose his job when he takes a wife next Saturday. We'll talk to both of them next hour.
COSTELLO: That's a romantic love story.
And a red tide rising. A natural phenomenon leads to economic disaster for one of the New England's most famous industries. That's next on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HEMMER: You can blame it on red tide of all things. The Massachusetts governor, Mitt Romney, declaring a state of emergency Thursday. This algae known as red tide devastating that state's shellfish industry. And the governor now wants federal money for some of his state's fishermen.
Dan Lothian has the story this morning in Massachusetts.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAN LOTHIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Molly Benjamin points to her two-acre farm on a mudflat off of Cape Cod...
MOLLY BENJAMIN, SHELL FISHERWOMAN: It's kind of in that area.
LOTHIAN: ... where she grows oysters and little-neck clams.
BENJAMIN: And you can walk at low tide.
LOTHIAN: A half-million shellfish are ready to be harvested.
(on camera): Why can't you pull them out of the ground now?
BENJAMIN: Because there's nowhere to sell them.
LOTHIAN (voice-over): She's losing thousands of dollars each week.
BENJAMIN: This is unprecedented. The economic impact is phenomenal.
LOTHIAN: She's a victim of red tide, the warning signs are posted everywhere: No shell fishing.
DENNIS MCGILLICUDDY, WOODS HOLE OCEANOGRAPHIC INST.: The particular red tide we're dealing with here in New England waters is a natural phenomenon. This is an algae that's been around for a long time.
LOTHIAN (on camera): You can't see red tide in the water. The cells are invisible to the naked eye. But the toxins in the meat of a shellfish can be extremely dangerous. Experts say, if eaten, it can lead to numbness, paralysis, or even death.
(voice-over): Benjamin, who has been shellfishing for more than 20 years, can only show us what she would normally be doing on this sunny day.
(on camera): And then you just put them in your basket?
BENJAMIN: Then I put them in the basket.
LOTHIAN: But your rake is empty and your baskets are empty.
BENJAMIN: That's right.
LOTHIAN: Her boat is docked, her engine is silent and her bank account is drying up.
BENJAMIN: And the bills still keep coming. I can't tell the credit card company sorry, you know. This is like a real sock in the stomach.
LOTHIAN: The algae bloom is the most severe outbreak in 30 years, stretching from Maine to Massachusetts.
Scientists at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution on Cape Cod are trying to determine why it's so bad and how long it will last. The governor of Massachusetts has declared a state of emergency and is seeking federal relief. And a state senator whose district is heavily impacted says the shellfishing industry needs help now.
ROBERT O'LEARY, MASSACHUSETTS STATE SENATE: Clearly, the incomes of people who dig them and the restaurants who serve them are suffering.
LOTHIAN: Shellfish will eventually purge the toxin, but for Benjamin and others, it's time and money already lost.
BENJAMIN: You never get that back.
LOTHIAN: During the peak season.
Dan Lothian, CNN, Welfley (ph), Massachusetts.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HEMMER: Also, the governor, Governor Romney, says the red tide is costing his state $3 million a week at this point.
In a moment here, money-troubled GM reaching out to one of its unions. The question is today, will the union budge or snub the auto maker? Andy has an answer, "Minding Your Business."
Back after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
Welcome back, everyone.
GM turning to its union for help, and the union says forget about it. Big thumbs down there. And there may be new trouble brewing for pension plans. And this is not the kind of news we want to hear. Andy Serwer is "Minding Your Business."
Good morning.
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Good morning to you. Sorry to start you out with this stuff.
Further developments in the GM situation. They have asked the United Auto Workers for help, asking them to reopen their contract, which expires in September of '07. The union has politely declined to do that, but says it will work with GM on health care costs. Gm says it spends $5.2 billion covering 1.1 million employees. That's about $4,700 per employee for health care costs. And GM is also saying the UAW gets a pretty good deal, That the hourly workers pay seven percent of their total health care costs; salaried employees pay 27 percent. The average U.S. corporate employee pays 32 percent. GM obviously saying there's room to move there.
In other employee news this morning, the director of the Congressional Budget Office has said that the agency that guarantees pensions, troubled pensions, the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corp., the gap there will be growing immensely over the next decade. You can see here. Right now, it faces a $23.3 billion gap, but could go up to $71 billion over the next 10 years. The gap between the assets and the benefits they pay out to employees. You remember recently, Bill, they took over the pension plan of United Airlines, so that's included.
HEMMER: Where do you get the money to make up for that?
SERWER: The companies have to pay these premiums, but employees will be facing cuts. That's how they're going to make it up. Bet on it. Bet on that.
COSTELLO: Always the bottom line.
HEMMER: Same story. Thanks, Andy.
SERWER: You're welcome.
COSTELLO: Time for the "Cafferty File."
CAFFERTY: Thank you, Carol.
Two-hundred thousand new millionaires were created last year in the United States. That means one in every 110 of us is now worth a million bucks. According to a world wealth report by Cap Gemini and Merrill Lynch, 2.5 million Americans have more than $1 million in assets. That's almost a 10 percent increase over the past year.
"The New York Times" has been doing an interesting series on class in America, and they found that the hyper-rich are just getting richer. The top 1/10 of one percent of Americans -- that's 145,000 taxpayers -- have seen their incomes more than double since 1980 to an average annual income of $3 million. The question this morning, is what's behind the surge in America's millionaires? AM@CNN.com.
HEMMER: Can we blame it on real estate?
CAFFERTY: I don't know if there's anything to blame it on. But isn't that good news, that Americans are getting wealthier?
HEMMER: When I heard about this, I thought sure it makes sense, because the real estate prices across the company.
SERWER: Well, they're talking about incomes, though.
HEMMER: Exactly. Real estate is outside this equation.
CAFFERTY: Well, a big portion of it comes from Mr. Bush's tax cuts.
SERWER: I see.
CAFFERTY: Which are proportionately overweighted in favor of those who make the big bucks.
SERWER: Does that mean you're for increasing taxes, Jack?
CAFFERTY: You could be behind this, Hemmer. You alone could be the driving force behind this.
SERWER: Is he for increasing taxes?
CAFFERTY: Did I say that?
COSTELLO: Stop. We can not get into this argument. The argument has to come later.
(CROSSTALK)
COSTELLO: There's still more to come on American morning.
SERWER: Peaceful easy feeling, yes.
COSTELLO: Ahead on "90-Second Pop."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRAD PITT, ACTOR: You think this story's going to have a happy ending?
ANGELINA JOLIE, ACTRESS: Happy endings are stories that haven't finished yet.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Brad and Angelina are rumored to be hot and heavy off screen, but what about their chemistry on screen? We'll preview "Mr. and Mrs. Smith." Plus, one-hit wonders rule the airwaves. What's behind the success of ABC's "Hit Me Baby One More Time?" That's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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Aired June 10, 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: In Kansas.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tornado on the ground west! Tornado on the ground east!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HEMMER: They are tracking twisters. The tornado hunters in the middle of it all.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Wow.
I'm Carol Costello, in for Soledad this morning.
The investigation in Aruba heating up after the latest three arrests, and some new questions about one of the men. He may have met Natalee Holloway even earlier in her trip.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Jack Cafferty. Times are good for America's wealthy; 200,000 new millionaires created last year, one in every 110 of us. We'll take a look at how the rich are getting richer.
HEMMER: Also today, we're on the Michael Jackson verdict watch on a Friday. Court watchers a decision say could come today. This as the scene outside the courthouse grows more tense and more outrageous, on this AMERICAN MORNING.
We have made it to Friday. Congratulations and good morning.
COSTELLO: Good morning to you.
Tropical Storm Arlene is on the way.
HEMMER: That she is, and that's where we start this morning, too, with the first named storm of the hurricane season bearing down on the Gulf Coast, Tropical Storm Arlene. And only a few hours ago, the National Hurricane Center posted a tropical storm watch from Louisiana to the Florida panhandle.
Arlene expected to hit sometime tomorrow, on Saturday. People along the Gulf Coast hit hard last year by Ivan. Now they have to get ready once again, buying plywood for windows and other emergency supplies along the Gulf Coast. Right now Arlene is centered near the western tip of Cuba, drenching the island with heavy rain and 40-mile- an-hour winds.
(WEATHER REPORT)
HEMMER: In Kansas now, more stormy weather lies ahead for the weekend after some recent tornadoes. Videotaped now, A giant twister caught on tape Thursday. This is north central Kansas, near the town of Stockton. Take a listen to how the guys who shot this videotape reacted when they were there.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tornado on the ground east! Tornado on the ground west! Tornado on the ground east! Whoo!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HEMMER: Some folks live for this. Just one of several twisters reported in Kansas on Thursday. No injuries luckily, but high winds further south blew over a truck there and also damaged the roof of a school. That from Kansas -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Police in Aruba have been questioning three new suspects in the disappearance of Natalee Holloway. The 18-year-old disappeared 11 days ago now from the Dutch protectorate off Venezuela. Police say the suspect, Juron Van Der Sloot, pictured here on his own Web site, met Holloway the night before she went missing. Five men have been arrested in the case so far. No charges have been filed against any of them, though.
Karl Penhaul is live from Palm Beach, Aruba.
Karl, give us the latest information.
KARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Carol, police are telling us that Juron Van Der Sloot, who's 17 years old, met Natalee Holloway in the casino of the Holiday Inn the night before she disappeared. What police are trying to do now is analyze if there are any links between the three suspects arrested yesterday, and two suspects arrested over the weekend.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PENHAUL (voice-over): In handcuffs, a towel draped over his head, this is one of three new suspects police arrested in the hunt for Natalee Holloway. In total, five men are now in custody, but there's no sign of the missing teenager, no clue whether she's alive or dead.
KARIN JANSSEN, CHIEF PROSECUTOR: At this stage, we can't say what we are presuming at this moment. We have too little details to say. All options are open.
PENHAUL: Natalee drove away from Carlos & Charlie's Bar in the weather hours of May 30 with the three teenagers now held in police cells, according to their own statements. Police said she had met 17- year-old Joran Van Der Sloot, the son of an island justice official, at the Holiday Inn where Natalee was staying a day before she disappeared.
JAN VAN DER STRATEN, CHIEF POLICE COMMISSIONER: And they meet each other in the casino.
QUESTION: That day or...
(CROSSTALK)
VAN DER STRATEN: The day before.
PENHAUL: The two other men detained Thursday are brothers, Satish and Deepak Kaploe. There's been no statement yet on their behalf. The other suspects, detained at the weekend, are security guards. Their defense attorneys insist they had nothing to do with Natalee's disappearance. Police previously interviewed the teenagers, but waited until Thursday, 11 days after Natalee's disappearance, to arrest them. They confiscated property, including a car and a computer.
JANSSEN: It is because of tactical reasons we didn't do that at another moment.
PENHAUL: Relative to the first two suspects fear wealth and race issues may cloud the investigation.
ALVIN CORNET, COUSIN OF SUSPECT: And it's on something about money wise who is rich and who is poor.
PENHAUL: That's Mickey John, one of the first two suspects detained, from a black immigrant family from the poorer East End of Aruba. That's Van Der Sloot, from an influential family from the richer West End.
Prosecutors say evidence, not prejudice, will be the key.
JANSSEN: Suspicion of a suspect has nothing to do with the color of his skin. It has to do with the results of the investigation, if there are grounds for suspicion.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PENHAUL: The entire island is absorbed by the disappearance of Natalee, and the prime minister himself has pledged to take full responsibility for the outcome of this investigation -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Karl, south America is very, very -- Venezuela is very, very close, and I understand investigators in Aruba have contacted police, South American police. Why are they cooperating in this? What's the connection?
PENHAUL: Indeed, because of the proximity of Venezuela, it's just a few miles away by boat. And yesterday prosecutors have said that they've been talking to their colleagues, police and investigators, in South America to see if there's any possible connection there, to see if there's any chance that Natalee either voluntarily or against her will may have been taken to the South American continent, if she's still alive, of course -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Karl Penhaul, live in Aruba this morning.
As you heard Karl say, police are giving this family very little information about their investigation.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: Dave Holloway is Natalee's father. He is in Palm Beach this morning.
Good morning, Dave.
DAVE HOLLOWAY, MISSING GIRL'S FATHER: Good morning.
COSTELLO: Police have made three more arrests. This brings the number of arrests to five. What are the police telling you?
HOLLOWAY: Well, the police is doing their investigation, and one of the things that they're real careful about is not getting any information out to the public, to compromise any of their investigative efforts.
COSTELLO: That must be...
HOLLOWAY: So...
COSTELLO: That must be frustrating for you.
HOLLOWAY: Well, it is in one way, but in the other way, I'm -- I don't want to compromise any of their investigative efforts by learning what the details are.
COSTELLO: This Dutch student that your daughter supposedly met in the casino, what do you know about him? Because friends have described him as different, being different.
HOLLOWAY: Carol, to be honest with you, I don't know any of the details about any of these individuals. In fact, I don't even know their names. I came down here for one purpose and that purpose was to find my daughter. And when I got here, our efforts were concentrated on search and rescue. And this is day 12, and that's where my efforts are continuing to be concentrated to. I have purposely not gotten involved in any of the details, because I have basically been out searching.
COSTELLO: So you haven't talked to any of Natalee's friends about what she was doing the night previous to the night she disappeared or anything like that?
HOLLOWAY: No, I have not.
I got very few details on what transpired prior to her disappearance, and basically, all I knew was approximately where she disappeared, and we've concentrated the search efforts, obviously, in the areas where she was last seen. This island is only approximately 100 square miles, and we had the thought that, you know, coming in here, that, hey, we would find her easy. And we've learned that, just through our efforts in ground searching, thousands of people walking the beaches inland, riding three-wheelers, four-wheelers. I even spent approximately four to five hours in a helicopter crisscrossing the island, looking in most of the obvious areas, and still nothing.
COSTELLO: The three men most recently arrested claim that your daughter was under the influence of alcohol when they dropped her off at the hotel. Does this sound like your daughter?
HOLLOWAY: It does not. But, you know, you've got to think that here all of these individuals were here for their graduation, and Natalee was a straight-A student, had a full scholarship to the University of Alabama, and, you know, had her future ahead of her. And you know, and I was proud of her as a parent. And, again, as I said, my efforts here was to find my daughter. And if you're a parent, you could probably understand that -- you know, as a parent, you've got to find your children and you'll do everything you can to find your child. And that's what I'm here for.
And the details and everything else, we can get those later. My concern is to find Natalee.
COSTELLO: Well, we wish you luck. Dave Holloway, thank you for joining AMERICAN MORNING this morning.
HOLLOWAY: Thank you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HEMMER: Eleven minutes now past the hour. I want to move to our other story now. Carol, thanks for that.
President Bush wants Congress to renew key provisions of the Patriot Act that will expire soon. That law, passed after 9/11, gives authorities enhanced powers to catch terrorists.
The president was on the road Thursday pressing this issue again.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: My message to Congress is clear: The terrorist threats against us will not expire at the end of the year, and neither should the protections of the Patriot Act.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HEMMER: Attorney General Alberto Gonzales was with the president yesterday in Columbus, Ohio. He's my guest now back in D.C. -- Justice Department.
Good morning, sir. Thanks for coming back here.
ALBERTO GONZALES, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: Good morning, Bill.
HEMMER: Of these key provisions, two of them -- so our viewers know -- one involves roving wiretaps on multiple telephones; that's one of them. Another one is the so-called library records provision. This allows the government to secretly get information from a suspect's employer or doctor or maybe even a local library.
Why do you believe it's necessary to make part of these provisions permanent?
GONZALES: Because the provisions have shown themselves to be effective, not only effective in fighting terrorism but effective in dealing with other kinds of crimes.
And I think if you look at the record these past three and a half years, you'll see that the act reflects a careful balance between protecting the country and protecting the civil liberties and privacy rights.
I think the Department of Justice has a very strong record in utilizing these authorities in a way that does not infringe upon the civil liberties and privacy rights of Americans.
HEMMER: There are signals from Capitol Hill that indicate Congress wants to make these provisions extended anyway, perhaps not permanent by some but extended, so that would indicate, anyway, that you're not losing any crime-fighting ability, does it not?
GONZALES: Absolutely. And, you know, that'll be a debate we'll have with members of Congress as to whether or not if these provisions are reauthorized, will they be subject to additional sunsets? And we'll work with Congress to see what is the appropriate way to move forward.
But we believe these tools have been effective. We don't believe that sunsets are necessary. Congress has the ability, under its oversight capacity, to look at the way the department exercise these tools. But we'll continue having this discussion.
HEMMER: You mentioned civil liberties in your answer there. Critics say this is another sign of a paranoid federal government; that if you sacrifice more civil liberties, the terrorists are winning anyway.
How do you respond to those critics?
GONZALES: I believe the protection of civil liberties and our privacy rights is extremely important. That is one of my priorities at the Department of Justice.
Protection of our country is an equal priority. I do not believe that they are exclusive. I believe that we can have both, and I think the Patriot Act shows that we can have both.
HEMMER: There's a report out today on a different topic that goes back to 9/11. Pre-9/11 intelligence indicating today that the FBI had five chances to catch two of the terrorists months before the attacks of September 11th.
How do you react to this latest report as we look back at history in hindsight?
GONZALES: We didn't have the ability to share information. The FBI would have information, other agencies would have information, and that information was not shared because everyone was operating without perfect knowledge.
As a result of provisions like the Patriot Act, we can now share information. We're in a much better position to connect the dots, and I think we're in a much better place to defend America.
HEMMER: Are you suggesting that if the Patriot Act were in place in 2001 that 9/11 would not have happened?
GONZALES: What I'm suggesting is we would have been in a better position then, as we are today, to protect America.
HEMMER: Alberto Gonzales is the attorney general at the Department of Justice.
Thanks for your time again. And we will speak again down the road. Thank you, sir.
GONZALES: Thanks, Bill.
COSTELLO: Still to come, the circus surrounding the Michael Jackson trial getting out of hand. We'll tell you why one Jackson fan was hit with a restraining order.
HEMMER: Also today, torn between two loves. Meet a firefighter who could lose his job when he takes a wife next Saturday. We'll talk to both of them next hour.
COSTELLO: That's a romantic love story.
And a red tide rising. A natural phenomenon leads to economic disaster for one of the New England's most famous industries. That's next on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HEMMER: You can blame it on red tide of all things. The Massachusetts governor, Mitt Romney, declaring a state of emergency Thursday. This algae known as red tide devastating that state's shellfish industry. And the governor now wants federal money for some of his state's fishermen.
Dan Lothian has the story this morning in Massachusetts.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAN LOTHIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Molly Benjamin points to her two-acre farm on a mudflat off of Cape Cod...
MOLLY BENJAMIN, SHELL FISHERWOMAN: It's kind of in that area.
LOTHIAN: ... where she grows oysters and little-neck clams.
BENJAMIN: And you can walk at low tide.
LOTHIAN: A half-million shellfish are ready to be harvested.
(on camera): Why can't you pull them out of the ground now?
BENJAMIN: Because there's nowhere to sell them.
LOTHIAN (voice-over): She's losing thousands of dollars each week.
BENJAMIN: This is unprecedented. The economic impact is phenomenal.
LOTHIAN: She's a victim of red tide, the warning signs are posted everywhere: No shell fishing.
DENNIS MCGILLICUDDY, WOODS HOLE OCEANOGRAPHIC INST.: The particular red tide we're dealing with here in New England waters is a natural phenomenon. This is an algae that's been around for a long time.
LOTHIAN (on camera): You can't see red tide in the water. The cells are invisible to the naked eye. But the toxins in the meat of a shellfish can be extremely dangerous. Experts say, if eaten, it can lead to numbness, paralysis, or even death.
(voice-over): Benjamin, who has been shellfishing for more than 20 years, can only show us what she would normally be doing on this sunny day.
(on camera): And then you just put them in your basket?
BENJAMIN: Then I put them in the basket.
LOTHIAN: But your rake is empty and your baskets are empty.
BENJAMIN: That's right.
LOTHIAN: Her boat is docked, her engine is silent and her bank account is drying up.
BENJAMIN: And the bills still keep coming. I can't tell the credit card company sorry, you know. This is like a real sock in the stomach.
LOTHIAN: The algae bloom is the most severe outbreak in 30 years, stretching from Maine to Massachusetts.
Scientists at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution on Cape Cod are trying to determine why it's so bad and how long it will last. The governor of Massachusetts has declared a state of emergency and is seeking federal relief. And a state senator whose district is heavily impacted says the shellfishing industry needs help now.
ROBERT O'LEARY, MASSACHUSETTS STATE SENATE: Clearly, the incomes of people who dig them and the restaurants who serve them are suffering.
LOTHIAN: Shellfish will eventually purge the toxin, but for Benjamin and others, it's time and money already lost.
BENJAMIN: You never get that back.
LOTHIAN: During the peak season.
Dan Lothian, CNN, Welfley (ph), Massachusetts.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HEMMER: Also, the governor, Governor Romney, says the red tide is costing his state $3 million a week at this point.
In a moment here, money-troubled GM reaching out to one of its unions. The question is today, will the union budge or snub the auto maker? Andy has an answer, "Minding Your Business."
Back after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
Welcome back, everyone.
GM turning to its union for help, and the union says forget about it. Big thumbs down there. And there may be new trouble brewing for pension plans. And this is not the kind of news we want to hear. Andy Serwer is "Minding Your Business."
Good morning.
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Good morning to you. Sorry to start you out with this stuff.
Further developments in the GM situation. They have asked the United Auto Workers for help, asking them to reopen their contract, which expires in September of '07. The union has politely declined to do that, but says it will work with GM on health care costs. Gm says it spends $5.2 billion covering 1.1 million employees. That's about $4,700 per employee for health care costs. And GM is also saying the UAW gets a pretty good deal, That the hourly workers pay seven percent of their total health care costs; salaried employees pay 27 percent. The average U.S. corporate employee pays 32 percent. GM obviously saying there's room to move there.
In other employee news this morning, the director of the Congressional Budget Office has said that the agency that guarantees pensions, troubled pensions, the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corp., the gap there will be growing immensely over the next decade. You can see here. Right now, it faces a $23.3 billion gap, but could go up to $71 billion over the next 10 years. The gap between the assets and the benefits they pay out to employees. You remember recently, Bill, they took over the pension plan of United Airlines, so that's included.
HEMMER: Where do you get the money to make up for that?
SERWER: The companies have to pay these premiums, but employees will be facing cuts. That's how they're going to make it up. Bet on it. Bet on that.
COSTELLO: Always the bottom line.
HEMMER: Same story. Thanks, Andy.
SERWER: You're welcome.
COSTELLO: Time for the "Cafferty File."
CAFFERTY: Thank you, Carol.
Two-hundred thousand new millionaires were created last year in the United States. That means one in every 110 of us is now worth a million bucks. According to a world wealth report by Cap Gemini and Merrill Lynch, 2.5 million Americans have more than $1 million in assets. That's almost a 10 percent increase over the past year.
"The New York Times" has been doing an interesting series on class in America, and they found that the hyper-rich are just getting richer. The top 1/10 of one percent of Americans -- that's 145,000 taxpayers -- have seen their incomes more than double since 1980 to an average annual income of $3 million. The question this morning, is what's behind the surge in America's millionaires? AM@CNN.com.
HEMMER: Can we blame it on real estate?
CAFFERTY: I don't know if there's anything to blame it on. But isn't that good news, that Americans are getting wealthier?
HEMMER: When I heard about this, I thought sure it makes sense, because the real estate prices across the company.
SERWER: Well, they're talking about incomes, though.
HEMMER: Exactly. Real estate is outside this equation.
CAFFERTY: Well, a big portion of it comes from Mr. Bush's tax cuts.
SERWER: I see.
CAFFERTY: Which are proportionately overweighted in favor of those who make the big bucks.
SERWER: Does that mean you're for increasing taxes, Jack?
CAFFERTY: You could be behind this, Hemmer. You alone could be the driving force behind this.
SERWER: Is he for increasing taxes?
CAFFERTY: Did I say that?
COSTELLO: Stop. We can not get into this argument. The argument has to come later.
(CROSSTALK)
COSTELLO: There's still more to come on American morning.
SERWER: Peaceful easy feeling, yes.
COSTELLO: Ahead on "90-Second Pop."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRAD PITT, ACTOR: You think this story's going to have a happy ending?
ANGELINA JOLIE, ACTRESS: Happy endings are stories that haven't finished yet.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Brad and Angelina are rumored to be hot and heavy off screen, but what about their chemistry on screen? We'll preview "Mr. and Mrs. Smith." Plus, one-hit wonders rule the airwaves. What's behind the success of ABC's "Hit Me Baby One More Time?" That's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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