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American Morning

Lawyers Today Will Ask For Two Suspects to be Released in Natalee Holloway Case; Suicide Car Bombing Targets Iraqi Police on Patrol

Aired June 13, 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.


ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Ali Velshi, in for Bill Hemmer. The U.S. death toll climbs in Iraq, and now pressure from a Republican in Congress, saying it's time to set a date for getting Americans out of Iraq.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: And storms blowing from north to south in a weekend of severe weather. Now checking the damage, on this AMERICAN MORNING.

O'BRIEN: Good morning. Welcome, everybody. Bill Hemmer is taking an extra day of his weekend. He's got the day off. But Ali Velshi is helping us out this morning. Good morning.

VELSHI: Nice to see you. Good morning to you.

O'BRIEN: Let's get right to our top story this morning. We begin in Aruba, where lawyers today will ask for two suspects to be released in the Natalee Holloway case. Five men are being held, but none were charged formally with the disappearance of the 18-year-old from Alabama. She was last seen on May 30th. Two security guards were arrested on June 5th. Their lawyers say they deny any connection to Holloway. Three other men admit to being with her on the night she disappeared. They were arrested on Thursday.

Over the weekend, a police official told the Associated Press that one man confessed, quote, "something bad happened to Holloway." Prosecutors won't confirm or deny that story. Natalee's mother told the Associated Press on Sunday, "All three of those boys know what happened to her. They all know what they did with her that night. And I'm not getting any answers. I don't feel any further along than the day I got here. I will not be satisfied until they give me back my daughter. I want her, and I want her now."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

Ruben Trapenberg is a spokesperson for the government of Aruba. He's in Palm Beach in Aruba. (INAUDIBLE), Mr Trapenberg. Thanks for talking with us.

RUBEN TRAPENBERG, ARUBA GOVT. SPOKESMAN: Good morning, Soledad.

O'BRIEN: An official (INAUDIBLE) this. Something bad (INAUDIBLE). Was that a confession from one of those three (INAUDIBLE)?

TRAPENBERG: It was not, Soledad. (INAUDIBLE) probably a local official (INAUDIBLE) that a confession was made.

(INAUDIBLE) version (INAUDIBLE). That (INAUDIBLE)...

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: Obviously, we're having some technical difficulties with that. We're going to get right back to that interview in just a few moments once we fix them -- Ali.

VELSHI: Well, the White House is under new pressure this week from members of Congress to make a major shift in policy on Iraq. Now a Republican in the House Armed Services Committee says he'll submit legislation calling for a definite timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. troops.

Well, the administration contends that setting that withdrawal date would serve to encourage the insurgents. Meanwhile, four more Americans were killed in Iraq over the weekend, and that brings the total number of U.S. troops who have died since the war began to 1,698.

Now, in Iraq, a suicide car bombing this morning targets Iraqi police on patrol, killing two officers.

Jennifer Eccleston is in Baghdad with the latest on the violence there -- Jennifer.

JENNIFER ECCLESTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, hello, Ali.

That's right, that car bombing this morning in western Baghdad, a further indication that Iraq's burgeoning police force continue to bear the brunt of insurgents' attack. This day, a suicide car bomber killed two Iraqi policemen this morning in Samarra. That's northwest of Baghdad. Five policemen were also wounded in the attack. And as they led a joint U.S.-Iraqi patrol, and approximately one hour later, further north, in the town of Tikrit, a suicide car bomber targeted another Iraqi police patrol. Three people were killed, including two policemen, and 11 were wounded. Four of those wounded were also police.

And now to Baghdad, where Iraqi police made a series of grisly discoveries this weekend. The bodies of 28 men, all showing signs of torture, were found. They were bound. They were shot. They were hastily buried. Police have not been able to identify all the bodies because they were in various stages of decomposition. But a few of those have been ID'd, and those that were identified were today buried.

Now also this weekend, as you mentioned earlier, the U.S. death toll continued to rise. Four Marines were killed in two separate incidents. Both involved the detonation of improvised explosive devices near their convoys -- Ali.

VELSHI: Jennifer, hard to find bright news in there. But if you were looking for it, it might be that a French hostage was freed after five months in captivity. A lot of secrecy surrounding that situation. What do we know about it?

ECCLESTON: Well, that's right. Well, the French newspaper journalist, Florence Aubenas and her Iraqi translator were freed yesterday after some five months in captivity. She was flown back to France yesterday. We know that. We've seen the pictures, where she was greeted not only by her family, but also by the French president Jacques Chirac. And her translator also had a very emotional reunion with his family here in Iraq.

But as you mentioned, there's a lot of secrecy involving the terms of her release, if there were any terms, and the background of her captors. And the ordeal, the exact nature of the ordeal, have yet to be released. We understand she'll be speaking with French authorities to make a more proper assessment of the nature of her captivity over the last five months -- Ali.

VELSHI: Jennifer, thanks so much. Jennifer Eccleston in Iraq.

In Afghanistan, four U.S. military support personnel were injured by a roadside bomb near Kandahar this morning. Military officials say one person was seriously injured. All four were evacuated to a nearby air field. They are members of a reconstruction team, and they were traveling to Kandahar when they were hit. A coalition team is investigating the explosion -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Let's get back to the top story this morning. More on the latest in the Natalee Holloway case. The girl's been missing since May 30th in Aruba, when she disappeared.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: Ruben Trapenberg is a spokesman for the government of Aruba. He's in Palm Beach in Aruba this morning.

Nice to see you, Mr. Trapenberg. Thanks for talking with us.

RUBEN TRAPENBERG, ARUBA GOVT. SPOKESMAN: Good morning, Soledad.

O'BRIEN: An official over the weekend was quoted as saying this: "Something bad happened to Natalee Holloway." Was that a confession from one of those three men?

TRAPENBERG: It was not, Soledad. What we have there is probably a local official probably thinking that a confession was made, and giving his version, his spin on things. That happens on a local level a lot. But then when you have the international press, everybody can quote you. And once they found that out, they retracted what they had said, or at least they thought they had been misunderstood. And from the officials leading the investigation, they came out a few minutes later, saying there was no confession, and everything was just ongoing in the investigation.

But I guess that did cause a lot of problems for the family and then for the whole island, because it started with one media saying this, and then it went on. Everybody's trying to get the scoop, but nothing of such kind has been announced. O'BRIEN: So no confession, no retraction of the confession, only a retraction of what the official had to say. Let's move on. Natalee's mother, as you well know now, looked at some videotape, and she says on that videotape you never see the three men dropping her daughter back off at her hotel. She says these three suspects know what happened to her little girl. Do you agree?

TRAPENBERG: I first have to go back to the first question, Soledad. This is not a senior official. We're not saying that. We're not acknowledging that. We're just saying they have to check their sources. It was not a reliable source. We have the official channels.

Now, if the mother is saying it was not on video, that is the understanding that we have also from the chief of police and spokesmen there, that there is nothing on video that indicates that Miss Holloway ever got into the hotel.

O'BRIEN: These three suspects, have they been charged formally yet?

TRAPENBERG: They're not charged formally. That's also a slight difference that we have. The official -- the formal charging process takes a little bit later. First, they are held and then considered suspects while information is gathered from the prosecutorial side. So that's the way it goes here. It's a little different, but it does work.

O'BRIEN: What about the two suspects that we were talking about last week? They were being held. It looked as if they were going to be formally charge. So far, they have not been. Do you believe that they are still connected to this case or not?

TRAPENBERG: We don't get the details from the investigation. From what we think may be the case, that these three gentlemen are pointing the finger to these two guys. So if they have an alibi, they can substantiate where they've been, they may be released at some point. But that's still ongoing. Today their lawyer, I've heard, may come with a special appeal so that their case can be considered.

O'BRIEN: Do you believe that Natalee Holloway is alive?

TRAPENBERG: It's not so important what we believe? It's important that we focus on the search and also the investigation. Those are the two things that have to go right, and the search is ongoing. Any tip we get is acted upon. So we're not giving up hope, Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Ruben Trapenberg is the Aruba government spokesperson. Thanks for talking with us. We certainly appreciate your time.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VELSHI: In Mississippi, the murder trial of Edgar Ray Killen begins with jury selection today. Now this case dates back to 1964, when three civil rights workers were murdered in Neshoba County. The crime was the subject of the movie "Mississippi Burning."

CNN's Ed Lavandera joins us live from Philadelphia, Mississippi.

Ed, this case reopened after decades. What's going on?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Ali, this has been a long process. In one -- in the latest of cases of civil rights era cases that have been reopened in the last 10 years or so. But in this specific case, there have been scores of civil rights activists, local politicians, and national politicians, as well as journalists, who have refused to accept what has happened in this case.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LAVANDERA: It's a chapter of the civil rights struggle that remains incomplete and still haunts Philadelphia, Mississippi. It was the 1964 Summer of Freedom. Idealistic young people from around the country had come to the South to register black voters. At the center of command among those freedom writers, as they were called, were three young men. Two white, Andrew Goodman, Michael Schwerner, and one black, James Chaney. It was June 21st. The three men were heading down the Mississippi back roads to investigate a recently torched church. The FBI says, after beating several church members, Ku Klux Klan members set fire to the church, leaving it a charred ruin.

But before they reached the church, the group was pulled off the road by local police. Arrested for speeding, they were tossed into the Neshoba County jail. Prosecutors say, while the three sat in jail, a gang of about 20 Klan members put a plan in motion to kill them. Accused of leading the effort, part time Baptist preacher Edgar Ray Killen. Some hours later, the three young civil rights workers were released from jail and drove away in their station wagon. Right behind them were two carloads of Klan members.

After a long chase, the mob forced them off the road. Taken from their cars, the three were killed, shot dead at close range, Schwerner, then Goodman, then Chaney. A bulldozer was brought in to bury them. The bodies disappeared. The state of Mississippi never charged any of the culprits with murder. There was no federal murder charge back then. So instead, the men were brought up on civil rights violations, with only seven serving minimal prison sentences.

The man considered to be one of the key instigators, Edgar Ray Killen, walked free, an 11-1 hung jury verdict. Although the jury was all white, there was one holdout, who said at the time she could never convict a preacher.

Killen left the courtroom that day a free man, but for more than 30 years, groups of civil rights activists, politicians and journalists refused to accept that ruling as the last word. Killen's murder case is the latest in a series of civil rights cases that have been rekindled, looking to right the wrongs of the past.

(END VIDEOTAPE) LAVANDERA: Edgar Ray Killen is now 80 years old. Many of his friends and supporters consider him to be weak and frail. Now this is a case that many people around here do not want to talk about, but like it or not, journalists from around the world have converged here on Philadelphia, Mississippi to cover this murder trial.

Ali, back to you.

VELSHI: Ed, thanks very much. We'll catch up with you later, Ed Lavandera.

And coming up later in the show, we'll speak with the district attorney prosecuting the case, as well as Edgar Ray Killen's attorney -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Well, residents in parts of Oklahoma are cleaning up this morning after a line of severe storms hit the state on Sunday. High winds knocked down power lines, blew over at least two tractor- trailer trucks near Clinton, Oklahoma. Many homes and buildings were damaged by the heavy rain and lightning, too, while crews worked to clear the roads of uprooted trees and other debris as well. A tornado tore a 100-foot wide, five-mile long path through fields near Hammond, Wisconsin. Dozens of buildings were damaged, with the twister blowing away garages and roofs on Saturday. No injuries reported there. Officials are waiting until possible gas leaks are contained before they start the cleanup there.

And residents are breathing a little bit of a sigh of relief on the Gulf Coast after Tropical Storm Arlene moves on with minimal damage. Arlene came ashore on Saturday afternoon, hitting parts of Florida and Alabama with massive rain and winds of up to 70 miles an hour. Power lines and trees were toppled, causing scattered outages, affecting nearly 30,000 people on Saturday. Officials say much of the power has been restored in Florida, though Alabama could take a little bit longer.

(WEATHER REPORT)

Still to come this morning, new revelations about the treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. Did the U.S. military cross the line with a detainee who may have been part of the September 11th plot?

VELSHI: And could this be the week that Michael Jackson learns his fate? Jury deliberations are set to resume today. We're live at the California courthouse, ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: There are new revelations about the treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. A report in "Time" magazine traces interrogation tactics used against one detainee who officials believe planned to be the 20th hijacker for the 9/11 attacks. Just who is this man? Has his interrogation crossed the line? That's the focus of our secuirty watch this morning.

Adam Zagorin is one of the writers of the article. He's live from our Washington bureau this morning.

Adam, nice to see you. Thanks for talking with us.

ADAM ZAGORIN, "TIME" MAGAZINE: Glad to be with you.

O'BRIEN: The suspect in question is Mohammad Al-Kahtani. Who is he exactly? Why is he important?

ZAGORIN: Well, he, on August 4th, 2001, shortly before 9/11, he had tried to land -- he did land and tried to enter the United States, at Orlando Airport. He was sent back. He was deported. His story about why he was coming to the country didn't make sense to an alert immigration official.

But waiting in the airport to pick him up, according to the Pentagon, was Mohamed Atta, the leader of the 9/11 plot, or leader of the hijackers, anyway, who he himself went down in one of the planes that was used to attack the United States that day.

O'BRIEN: The "Time" magazine report looks specifically at 50 days between 2002 and 2003, the winter there. What exactly was done to try to get information out of the suspect?

ZAGORIN: Well, they tried a variety of standard tactics up to a point, and then they felt that that wasn't getting them where they needed to go in terms of extracting information. And so on December 2nd, 2002, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld authorized a ratcheting up of the harshness of the tactics, and then he later, on January 12th, 2003, rescinded that ratcheting up on the advice of some military lawyers. And specifically, what they did, they employed sleep deprivation, various techniques of humiliation.

What do I mean by that? We have the log saying he was asked to bark like a dog. A female interrogator violated his personal space to the point where he threatened to commit suicide at one point. Again, according to the log. They showed him videos of the 9/11 attacks. They showed him pictures of the victims. They asked him to write letters of apology to the victims' families. They had -- he was supposed to be -- or requested to fast during a lot of the interrogation, because it was the month of Ramadan, which is a month of fasting during daylight hours for Muslims. They tried to get him to drink water, because they said they were concerned that he would become dehydrated if he didn't drink, then they wouldn't let him pray. And it goes on like this with these various techniques. And apparently, some of them did manage to get information out of him.

O'BRIEN: What's the Pentagon said in defense of their treatment of him?

ZAGORIN: Well, they, first of all, say that the treatment he was given is consistent with the Geneva Convention as specified by President Bush, and that nothing illegal was done. And they also point out -- and they're certainly accurate in this regard -- is that there was a great deal going on at the time of this interrogation and before it, terrorist episodes of one kind or another around the world, and they and many others were afraid that there could be another attack on the United States. And I guess the interrogators believed that this man might possess information which could shed light on that, and so they wanted to be sure to interrogate him very, very fully, and they did employ some quite harsh tactics.

O'BRIEN: Adam Zagorin from "Time" magazine joining us. Nice to see you. Thank you very much.

ZAGORIN: Thank you.

O'BRIEN: You want to stay tuned to CNN day and night for the most reliable news about your security -- Ali.

VELSHI: Thanks, Soledad.

Still to come, is the housing bubble about to burst? We'll look at a new study in "Minding Your Business," next on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: If you think the housing bubble is about to burst, some Harvard economists say, think again. With that and a preview of the day's action on Wall Street. Gerri Willis is in. She's in for Andy Serwer, who's got the day off, and she's "Minding Your Business."

Nice to see you. Good morning.

GERRI WILLIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good to see you, Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Bubble bursting?

GERRI WILLIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: No way. The people at Harvard, they're saying that the bubble will not burst. There's plenty of room left to run. So if you own your own house, you can say, thanks to the people at Harvard today. Check out, though some of the numbers they're describing right now. Prices up 13 years in a row. 2004, the biggest jump in 25 years in prices. Some 15 percent. And of course now ownership, 69 percent of American households now own their own home.

There is a downside to this. Affordability much tougher for homeowners now, much more difficult to buy that house if you're locked out of the housing market. So that's one issue that they're taking a look at now.

O'BRIEN: Yes, a huge issue as well. Let's talk about the market. What are you thinking about this morning?

WILLIS: Looks like we're going to open a little higher here. Should be a happier day on Wall Street today. It was mixed last week. As you can see, the Dow was up, the Nasdaq was down. We're going to look at some important economic numbers this week, especially looking at inflation. We'll be paying a lot of attention to that. And we have some interesting earnings out as well from Wall Street.

O'BRIEN: All right, we'll watch all of that. Gerri, thank you very much. WILLIS: You're welcome.

O'BRIEN: And there is much more AMERICAN MORNING still to come.

Ahead in "90-Second Pop," Iron Mike Tyson is giving up boxing again. We've got the skinny on the heavyweight's latest and last fight.

Also, "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" fight it out with each other in the movie, but together, did they knock out the competition at the box office? That's later on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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Aired June 13, 2005 - 07:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Ali Velshi, in for Bill Hemmer. The U.S. death toll climbs in Iraq, and now pressure from a Republican in Congress, saying it's time to set a date for getting Americans out of Iraq.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: And storms blowing from north to south in a weekend of severe weather. Now checking the damage, on this AMERICAN MORNING.

O'BRIEN: Good morning. Welcome, everybody. Bill Hemmer is taking an extra day of his weekend. He's got the day off. But Ali Velshi is helping us out this morning. Good morning.

VELSHI: Nice to see you. Good morning to you.

O'BRIEN: Let's get right to our top story this morning. We begin in Aruba, where lawyers today will ask for two suspects to be released in the Natalee Holloway case. Five men are being held, but none were charged formally with the disappearance of the 18-year-old from Alabama. She was last seen on May 30th. Two security guards were arrested on June 5th. Their lawyers say they deny any connection to Holloway. Three other men admit to being with her on the night she disappeared. They were arrested on Thursday.

Over the weekend, a police official told the Associated Press that one man confessed, quote, "something bad happened to Holloway." Prosecutors won't confirm or deny that story. Natalee's mother told the Associated Press on Sunday, "All three of those boys know what happened to her. They all know what they did with her that night. And I'm not getting any answers. I don't feel any further along than the day I got here. I will not be satisfied until they give me back my daughter. I want her, and I want her now."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

Ruben Trapenberg is a spokesperson for the government of Aruba. He's in Palm Beach in Aruba. (INAUDIBLE), Mr Trapenberg. Thanks for talking with us.

RUBEN TRAPENBERG, ARUBA GOVT. SPOKESMAN: Good morning, Soledad.

O'BRIEN: An official (INAUDIBLE) this. Something bad (INAUDIBLE). Was that a confession from one of those three (INAUDIBLE)?

TRAPENBERG: It was not, Soledad. (INAUDIBLE) probably a local official (INAUDIBLE) that a confession was made.

(INAUDIBLE) version (INAUDIBLE). That (INAUDIBLE)...

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: Obviously, we're having some technical difficulties with that. We're going to get right back to that interview in just a few moments once we fix them -- Ali.

VELSHI: Well, the White House is under new pressure this week from members of Congress to make a major shift in policy on Iraq. Now a Republican in the House Armed Services Committee says he'll submit legislation calling for a definite timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. troops.

Well, the administration contends that setting that withdrawal date would serve to encourage the insurgents. Meanwhile, four more Americans were killed in Iraq over the weekend, and that brings the total number of U.S. troops who have died since the war began to 1,698.

Now, in Iraq, a suicide car bombing this morning targets Iraqi police on patrol, killing two officers.

Jennifer Eccleston is in Baghdad with the latest on the violence there -- Jennifer.

JENNIFER ECCLESTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, hello, Ali.

That's right, that car bombing this morning in western Baghdad, a further indication that Iraq's burgeoning police force continue to bear the brunt of insurgents' attack. This day, a suicide car bomber killed two Iraqi policemen this morning in Samarra. That's northwest of Baghdad. Five policemen were also wounded in the attack. And as they led a joint U.S.-Iraqi patrol, and approximately one hour later, further north, in the town of Tikrit, a suicide car bomber targeted another Iraqi police patrol. Three people were killed, including two policemen, and 11 were wounded. Four of those wounded were also police.

And now to Baghdad, where Iraqi police made a series of grisly discoveries this weekend. The bodies of 28 men, all showing signs of torture, were found. They were bound. They were shot. They were hastily buried. Police have not been able to identify all the bodies because they were in various stages of decomposition. But a few of those have been ID'd, and those that were identified were today buried.

Now also this weekend, as you mentioned earlier, the U.S. death toll continued to rise. Four Marines were killed in two separate incidents. Both involved the detonation of improvised explosive devices near their convoys -- Ali.

VELSHI: Jennifer, hard to find bright news in there. But if you were looking for it, it might be that a French hostage was freed after five months in captivity. A lot of secrecy surrounding that situation. What do we know about it?

ECCLESTON: Well, that's right. Well, the French newspaper journalist, Florence Aubenas and her Iraqi translator were freed yesterday after some five months in captivity. She was flown back to France yesterday. We know that. We've seen the pictures, where she was greeted not only by her family, but also by the French president Jacques Chirac. And her translator also had a very emotional reunion with his family here in Iraq.

But as you mentioned, there's a lot of secrecy involving the terms of her release, if there were any terms, and the background of her captors. And the ordeal, the exact nature of the ordeal, have yet to be released. We understand she'll be speaking with French authorities to make a more proper assessment of the nature of her captivity over the last five months -- Ali.

VELSHI: Jennifer, thanks so much. Jennifer Eccleston in Iraq.

In Afghanistan, four U.S. military support personnel were injured by a roadside bomb near Kandahar this morning. Military officials say one person was seriously injured. All four were evacuated to a nearby air field. They are members of a reconstruction team, and they were traveling to Kandahar when they were hit. A coalition team is investigating the explosion -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Let's get back to the top story this morning. More on the latest in the Natalee Holloway case. The girl's been missing since May 30th in Aruba, when she disappeared.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: Ruben Trapenberg is a spokesman for the government of Aruba. He's in Palm Beach in Aruba this morning.

Nice to see you, Mr. Trapenberg. Thanks for talking with us.

RUBEN TRAPENBERG, ARUBA GOVT. SPOKESMAN: Good morning, Soledad.

O'BRIEN: An official over the weekend was quoted as saying this: "Something bad happened to Natalee Holloway." Was that a confession from one of those three men?

TRAPENBERG: It was not, Soledad. What we have there is probably a local official probably thinking that a confession was made, and giving his version, his spin on things. That happens on a local level a lot. But then when you have the international press, everybody can quote you. And once they found that out, they retracted what they had said, or at least they thought they had been misunderstood. And from the officials leading the investigation, they came out a few minutes later, saying there was no confession, and everything was just ongoing in the investigation.

But I guess that did cause a lot of problems for the family and then for the whole island, because it started with one media saying this, and then it went on. Everybody's trying to get the scoop, but nothing of such kind has been announced. O'BRIEN: So no confession, no retraction of the confession, only a retraction of what the official had to say. Let's move on. Natalee's mother, as you well know now, looked at some videotape, and she says on that videotape you never see the three men dropping her daughter back off at her hotel. She says these three suspects know what happened to her little girl. Do you agree?

TRAPENBERG: I first have to go back to the first question, Soledad. This is not a senior official. We're not saying that. We're not acknowledging that. We're just saying they have to check their sources. It was not a reliable source. We have the official channels.

Now, if the mother is saying it was not on video, that is the understanding that we have also from the chief of police and spokesmen there, that there is nothing on video that indicates that Miss Holloway ever got into the hotel.

O'BRIEN: These three suspects, have they been charged formally yet?

TRAPENBERG: They're not charged formally. That's also a slight difference that we have. The official -- the formal charging process takes a little bit later. First, they are held and then considered suspects while information is gathered from the prosecutorial side. So that's the way it goes here. It's a little different, but it does work.

O'BRIEN: What about the two suspects that we were talking about last week? They were being held. It looked as if they were going to be formally charge. So far, they have not been. Do you believe that they are still connected to this case or not?

TRAPENBERG: We don't get the details from the investigation. From what we think may be the case, that these three gentlemen are pointing the finger to these two guys. So if they have an alibi, they can substantiate where they've been, they may be released at some point. But that's still ongoing. Today their lawyer, I've heard, may come with a special appeal so that their case can be considered.

O'BRIEN: Do you believe that Natalee Holloway is alive?

TRAPENBERG: It's not so important what we believe? It's important that we focus on the search and also the investigation. Those are the two things that have to go right, and the search is ongoing. Any tip we get is acted upon. So we're not giving up hope, Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Ruben Trapenberg is the Aruba government spokesperson. Thanks for talking with us. We certainly appreciate your time.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VELSHI: In Mississippi, the murder trial of Edgar Ray Killen begins with jury selection today. Now this case dates back to 1964, when three civil rights workers were murdered in Neshoba County. The crime was the subject of the movie "Mississippi Burning."

CNN's Ed Lavandera joins us live from Philadelphia, Mississippi.

Ed, this case reopened after decades. What's going on?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Ali, this has been a long process. In one -- in the latest of cases of civil rights era cases that have been reopened in the last 10 years or so. But in this specific case, there have been scores of civil rights activists, local politicians, and national politicians, as well as journalists, who have refused to accept what has happened in this case.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LAVANDERA: It's a chapter of the civil rights struggle that remains incomplete and still haunts Philadelphia, Mississippi. It was the 1964 Summer of Freedom. Idealistic young people from around the country had come to the South to register black voters. At the center of command among those freedom writers, as they were called, were three young men. Two white, Andrew Goodman, Michael Schwerner, and one black, James Chaney. It was June 21st. The three men were heading down the Mississippi back roads to investigate a recently torched church. The FBI says, after beating several church members, Ku Klux Klan members set fire to the church, leaving it a charred ruin.

But before they reached the church, the group was pulled off the road by local police. Arrested for speeding, they were tossed into the Neshoba County jail. Prosecutors say, while the three sat in jail, a gang of about 20 Klan members put a plan in motion to kill them. Accused of leading the effort, part time Baptist preacher Edgar Ray Killen. Some hours later, the three young civil rights workers were released from jail and drove away in their station wagon. Right behind them were two carloads of Klan members.

After a long chase, the mob forced them off the road. Taken from their cars, the three were killed, shot dead at close range, Schwerner, then Goodman, then Chaney. A bulldozer was brought in to bury them. The bodies disappeared. The state of Mississippi never charged any of the culprits with murder. There was no federal murder charge back then. So instead, the men were brought up on civil rights violations, with only seven serving minimal prison sentences.

The man considered to be one of the key instigators, Edgar Ray Killen, walked free, an 11-1 hung jury verdict. Although the jury was all white, there was one holdout, who said at the time she could never convict a preacher.

Killen left the courtroom that day a free man, but for more than 30 years, groups of civil rights activists, politicians and journalists refused to accept that ruling as the last word. Killen's murder case is the latest in a series of civil rights cases that have been rekindled, looking to right the wrongs of the past.

(END VIDEOTAPE) LAVANDERA: Edgar Ray Killen is now 80 years old. Many of his friends and supporters consider him to be weak and frail. Now this is a case that many people around here do not want to talk about, but like it or not, journalists from around the world have converged here on Philadelphia, Mississippi to cover this murder trial.

Ali, back to you.

VELSHI: Ed, thanks very much. We'll catch up with you later, Ed Lavandera.

And coming up later in the show, we'll speak with the district attorney prosecuting the case, as well as Edgar Ray Killen's attorney -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Well, residents in parts of Oklahoma are cleaning up this morning after a line of severe storms hit the state on Sunday. High winds knocked down power lines, blew over at least two tractor- trailer trucks near Clinton, Oklahoma. Many homes and buildings were damaged by the heavy rain and lightning, too, while crews worked to clear the roads of uprooted trees and other debris as well. A tornado tore a 100-foot wide, five-mile long path through fields near Hammond, Wisconsin. Dozens of buildings were damaged, with the twister blowing away garages and roofs on Saturday. No injuries reported there. Officials are waiting until possible gas leaks are contained before they start the cleanup there.

And residents are breathing a little bit of a sigh of relief on the Gulf Coast after Tropical Storm Arlene moves on with minimal damage. Arlene came ashore on Saturday afternoon, hitting parts of Florida and Alabama with massive rain and winds of up to 70 miles an hour. Power lines and trees were toppled, causing scattered outages, affecting nearly 30,000 people on Saturday. Officials say much of the power has been restored in Florida, though Alabama could take a little bit longer.

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Still to come this morning, new revelations about the treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. Did the U.S. military cross the line with a detainee who may have been part of the September 11th plot?

VELSHI: And could this be the week that Michael Jackson learns his fate? Jury deliberations are set to resume today. We're live at the California courthouse, ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

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O'BRIEN: There are new revelations about the treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. A report in "Time" magazine traces interrogation tactics used against one detainee who officials believe planned to be the 20th hijacker for the 9/11 attacks. Just who is this man? Has his interrogation crossed the line? That's the focus of our secuirty watch this morning.

Adam Zagorin is one of the writers of the article. He's live from our Washington bureau this morning.

Adam, nice to see you. Thanks for talking with us.

ADAM ZAGORIN, "TIME" MAGAZINE: Glad to be with you.

O'BRIEN: The suspect in question is Mohammad Al-Kahtani. Who is he exactly? Why is he important?

ZAGORIN: Well, he, on August 4th, 2001, shortly before 9/11, he had tried to land -- he did land and tried to enter the United States, at Orlando Airport. He was sent back. He was deported. His story about why he was coming to the country didn't make sense to an alert immigration official.

But waiting in the airport to pick him up, according to the Pentagon, was Mohamed Atta, the leader of the 9/11 plot, or leader of the hijackers, anyway, who he himself went down in one of the planes that was used to attack the United States that day.

O'BRIEN: The "Time" magazine report looks specifically at 50 days between 2002 and 2003, the winter there. What exactly was done to try to get information out of the suspect?

ZAGORIN: Well, they tried a variety of standard tactics up to a point, and then they felt that that wasn't getting them where they needed to go in terms of extracting information. And so on December 2nd, 2002, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld authorized a ratcheting up of the harshness of the tactics, and then he later, on January 12th, 2003, rescinded that ratcheting up on the advice of some military lawyers. And specifically, what they did, they employed sleep deprivation, various techniques of humiliation.

What do I mean by that? We have the log saying he was asked to bark like a dog. A female interrogator violated his personal space to the point where he threatened to commit suicide at one point. Again, according to the log. They showed him videos of the 9/11 attacks. They showed him pictures of the victims. They asked him to write letters of apology to the victims' families. They had -- he was supposed to be -- or requested to fast during a lot of the interrogation, because it was the month of Ramadan, which is a month of fasting during daylight hours for Muslims. They tried to get him to drink water, because they said they were concerned that he would become dehydrated if he didn't drink, then they wouldn't let him pray. And it goes on like this with these various techniques. And apparently, some of them did manage to get information out of him.

O'BRIEN: What's the Pentagon said in defense of their treatment of him?

ZAGORIN: Well, they, first of all, say that the treatment he was given is consistent with the Geneva Convention as specified by President Bush, and that nothing illegal was done. And they also point out -- and they're certainly accurate in this regard -- is that there was a great deal going on at the time of this interrogation and before it, terrorist episodes of one kind or another around the world, and they and many others were afraid that there could be another attack on the United States. And I guess the interrogators believed that this man might possess information which could shed light on that, and so they wanted to be sure to interrogate him very, very fully, and they did employ some quite harsh tactics.

O'BRIEN: Adam Zagorin from "Time" magazine joining us. Nice to see you. Thank you very much.

ZAGORIN: Thank you.

O'BRIEN: You want to stay tuned to CNN day and night for the most reliable news about your security -- Ali.

VELSHI: Thanks, Soledad.

Still to come, is the housing bubble about to burst? We'll look at a new study in "Minding Your Business," next on AMERICAN MORNING.

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O'BRIEN: If you think the housing bubble is about to burst, some Harvard economists say, think again. With that and a preview of the day's action on Wall Street. Gerri Willis is in. She's in for Andy Serwer, who's got the day off, and she's "Minding Your Business."

Nice to see you. Good morning.

GERRI WILLIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good to see you, Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Bubble bursting?

GERRI WILLIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: No way. The people at Harvard, they're saying that the bubble will not burst. There's plenty of room left to run. So if you own your own house, you can say, thanks to the people at Harvard today. Check out, though some of the numbers they're describing right now. Prices up 13 years in a row. 2004, the biggest jump in 25 years in prices. Some 15 percent. And of course now ownership, 69 percent of American households now own their own home.

There is a downside to this. Affordability much tougher for homeowners now, much more difficult to buy that house if you're locked out of the housing market. So that's one issue that they're taking a look at now.

O'BRIEN: Yes, a huge issue as well. Let's talk about the market. What are you thinking about this morning?

WILLIS: Looks like we're going to open a little higher here. Should be a happier day on Wall Street today. It was mixed last week. As you can see, the Dow was up, the Nasdaq was down. We're going to look at some important economic numbers this week, especially looking at inflation. We'll be paying a lot of attention to that. And we have some interesting earnings out as well from Wall Street.

O'BRIEN: All right, we'll watch all of that. Gerri, thank you very much. WILLIS: You're welcome.

O'BRIEN: And there is much more AMERICAN MORNING still to come.

Ahead in "90-Second Pop," Iron Mike Tyson is giving up boxing again. We've got the skinny on the heavyweight's latest and last fight.

Also, "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" fight it out with each other in the movie, but together, did they knock out the competition at the box office? That's later on AMERICAN MORNING.

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