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American Morning

New Twists in Natalee Holloway Case; Wild Scene in Phoenix

Aired July 01, 2005 - 07:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Miles O'Brien. New twists in the Natalee Holloway case, as we show you exclusive pictures of the two suspects being held in her disappearance. Top officials now say they can now prosecute for murder, even without a body. A live report from Aruba, coming up.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Soledad O'Brien. A wild scene in Phoenix to tell you about. A high-speed police chase involving gunfire on an airport runway, and it's not the first time. A closer look at airport insecurity is straight ahead.

And Brooke Shields fires back at Tom Cruise, speaking out on postpartum depression and what she calls Mr. Cruise's ridiculous rant. The war of the words heating up, on this AMERICAN MORNING.

S. O'BRIEN: Good morning. Welcome, everybody.

M. O'BRIEN: Hello to you. Those stories ahead.

But we begin with news about that U.S. helicopter that crashed in Afghanistan.

S. O'BRIEN: Yes, it's breaking news we have this morning.

Barbara Starr live at the Pentagon for us. Barbara, good morning to you.

What's the latest information you're hearing?

BARBARA STARR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Soledad, there is new information coming out this morning. It is extraordinarily sensitive. We want to tell you that we have spoken to a number of military officials, and we are going to be extraordinarily cautious in what we are about to say.

However, military officials are now openly confirming that there is a small number of U.S. military reconnaissance members missing on the ground in Afghanistan since Tuesday at the place where the aircraft crashed.

Here is what apparently has happened. This is the team that was on the ground, engaged in a firefight that called for support, that called for those helicopter reinforcements.

What military officials know is that as that helicopter crashed on Tuesday, they have reason to believe the team, which was going to be reinforced and then taken out, was there, but the helicopter crashed, and then a lot of confusion broke out when U.S. forces finally got to the helicopter site. That small reconnaissance team was not there.

U.S. military officials say there was no sign of blood. There was no sign of immediate combat. There was no sign that any of those reconnaissance team members that are missing were killed. But since Tuesday, Soledad, they are now saying they have been unable to be in contact with them. What does that mean? Well, special forces are highly trained in evasion. It may well be that these missing team members are simply laying low, staying out of sight, staying off their radios, until they can make their way to safety. It may well be, we are told this morning, that they are continuing their mission high up in those mountains.

There is, however, we are told from a very senior official in Afghanistan, there is growing concern, of course, about their fate, because no one has been able to make contact with them since Tuesday.

No one is hitting the panic button yet, we have to tell you. These are men who are highly, highly trained in evasion, in keeping low, in staying out of sight. There is great hope that that is what they are doing, and, again, we want to tell you, it's a small number of U.S. special forces. We're not able to tell you much more in the way of specifics because, of course, we, like everyone else, want to be extraordinarily careful. Lives may be at stake. What we have said here this morning is the information, however, that we are assured is suitable to report -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Barbara Starr, of course you're going to continue to keep us updated on this information and any changes.

Barbara, thank you -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Aruba's attorney general says the Natalee Holloway case could be prosecuted without a body. Investigators have no evidence that the missing teenager is dead. In fact, after a month of searching, not a single trace has been found.

Chris Lawrence, live once again for us in Aruba with the latest -- Chris.

CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Miles, this kind of backtracks off what they said earlier. We were told it was almost unheard of for prosecutors to go ahead and prosecute a case like this without a body or a confession. Now prosecutors seem to be saying maybe that's not the case, and it all relates back to something that they heard under interrogation from the suspects. One of them told police, no body, no case, apparently referring to something that was told to him by the father of one of the other suspects. Basically, prosecutors say that Paul Van Der Sloot, the father of Joran Van Der Sloot, and the man who is also a judge and he knows the law here, told the suspects and coached them as to what could happen down the road, if, in fact, they were arrested.

Now, right now everything in this case is pointing to Monday, when all three will be back in court, and prosecutors will have to prove why they can detain them up to another 60 days.

If you look here, it's at exclusive video from CNN of Joran Van Der Sloot and Depak Kalpoe being led out of a police station together, they are handcuffed together.

Now the police commissioner says they were interrogated separately, and they've been interrogated almost every day. But when you look at some of those interrogations, the family of Natalee Holloway says, there's a lot more that these three are not telling.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVE HOLLOWAY, NATALEE HOLLOWAY'S FATHER: ... three kids, you know, if they were involved in foul play, could have disposed of Natalee in such a way that we couldn't find her. So that leads me to believe that possibly there's other people involved in the case, and until you prove or until somebody proves to me otherwise, I just got that feeling.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAWRENCE: Again, prosecutors and police have at least the next couple of days to keep interrogating these three men. But after Monday, a judge will decide whether they can stay or they might just walk free -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Chris Lawrence in Palm Beach, Aruba, thank you -- Soledad.

LAWRENCE: The White House is investigating claims that the president-elect of Iran was one of the 1979 embassy hostage-takers. Some of the former hostages say that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, seen on the left here in this photo in 1979, is the same man who's also seen on the right in a photo from the embassy siege.

Dana Bash is at the White House for us this morning.

Dana Bash, what word are you hearing from the White House on this?

DANA BASH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, what we're hearing, Soledad, is that from the president on down, they're saying that they do take these allegations very seriously, but they insist that they do not know whether or not they're true, but officials here and throughout the government have been ordered to get to the bottom of it. That means comparing photographs looking at old footage and sifting through old intelligence.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEPHEN HADLEY, NATL. SECURITY ADVISER: We're looking into this report. Obviously, one of the things you do when you get a report like this is look back and see what you have in the files, and that's the process that's going on now.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BASH: That was National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley, who said that the U.S. government has been following the Iranian president since he was mayor of Tehran, so it does seem odd they would not have this information at the ready, Soledad, but they are being very careful to say they do not yet have all the facts.

S. O'BRIEN: Dana Bash is at the White House for us. Dana, thanks -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Well, security being questioned at Phoenix, Arizona's Sky Harbor International Airport after a wild police chase in which a man crashed a stolen truck through barriers, and on to a tarmac.

Rusty Dornin with our story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This vehicle has made its way on to I-17.

RUSTY DORNIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): By the time we see suspect Damian Holmes driving what police say was a stolen pick-up, Phoenix Police had backed off chasing him by car. They said they were trying to prevent a dangerous accident. That didn't stop the suspect from erratic driving.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE; Running every red light throughout the city limits. At some point, almost hitting a pedestrian.

DORNIN: A police helicopter chased him to the airport where he disappeared for a time inside the parking structure.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just got to wait and see if he comes out the other end.

DORNIN: He did and headed out on the runway, at one point, veering around a jet on the tarmac. That's when you see the motorcycle officer crash. That officer and another fired at the fleeing suspect.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The decision was made to stop that vehicle through any means necessary. Two Phoenix police officers fired upon that vehicle with their service weapons after it crashed through the gate.

DORNIN: That didn't stop Holmes. He kept going, fence and all. It took two police cars as battering rams to bring the truck to a stop. Holmes was slightly injured in the final crash, but not by police gunfire.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The shots did not stop the vehicle. They did not strike the driver. Fortunately, our motor officer did not sustain a serious injury.

DORNIN: Airport runways were shut down for less than ten minutes. This was not the first time a police chase ended up on the Sky Harbor Airport runway. In November of 2003, a suspect also crashed through a fence at the airfield.

Airport officials claim since that September 11, 2001, perimeter fences and barriers have been beefed up for security. But the spokesperson added, quote, "in this case, it was a very large truck."

They say they will investigate this incident to see if more improvements should be made.

Rusty Dornin, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(WEATHER REPORT)

S. O'BRIEN: Actress Brooke Shields is firing back at Tom Cruise for his comments about postpartum depression. Cruise, a Scientologist, launched into an attack on psychiatry while he was talking to "Today" show host Matt Lauer last week. He also Shields was only masking her problem by taking drugs for depression.

Well, in an op-ed piece in "The New York Times" today, Brooke Shields writes this, quote, "While Mr. Cruise says that Mr. Lauer and I do not understand the history of psychiatry, I'm going to take a wild guess and say that Mr. Cruise has never suffered from postpartum depression." Shields goes on to say that she hopes Cruise's, quote, "ridiculous rant" will give much needed attention to a serious disease. She's angry.

M. O'BRIEN: She is. And one thing's for certain, she said Tom Cruise has never had this. That is probably the only thing that is not debatable at this point for sure. He's never had postpartum. We know that to be a fact.

But anyway, all right, still to come in the program, we'll back to the Natalee Holloway case. We'll talk with an expert on Aruban law. Is it common practice to handcuff two suspects together? Seen there in our exclusive tape. And can the prosecution file charges without a body?

S. O'BRIEN: Also ahead, a community on edge. Allegations of a hate crime at a New York City neighborhood torn apart by racial tension nearly two decades ago.

M. O'BRIEN: And the stamp of disapproval. A postage stamp brings new charges of racism against the Mexican government. That's ahead as well on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: Aruba's attorney general has come out and said that the Natalee Holloway can be prosecuted without a body, but investigators have not said they have any evidence that the Alabama teenager is dead. Ted Simon is a criminal defense attorney with extensive experience in international law. He's in Woodbury, New York this morning.

Nice to see you. Thanks for talking with us.

Before we get to the specifics of the case the prosecution may or may not have, I want to show you some videotape that's exclusive to CNN. It shows that two of the suspects in this case, Joran Van Der Sloot and one of the other suspects, well, they're handcuffed together, and you can see the two young men right there. They get in the car together. We've been told several times in this case, that they've actually kept them in separate locations as they interview them and question them. Why would they possibly put them together in handcuffs and take them on a car ride together to move them?

THEODORE SIMON, INTL. LAW EXPERT: Yes, I think there's been a lot of speculation and second guessing of the conduct of law- enforcement officials in Aruba, and I wouldn't do that. I would expect they're going to be professional and merely because these two young men together, I would expect that it's a purposeful reason, perhaps a tactical reason, and not an accidental reason. So if they're together, they're probably aware they're together, they're probably aware they're speaking to each other, and I wouldn't view it as some kind of mistake or error, and I would give them the benefit of the doubt on that.

S. O'BRIEN: OK. The first time we really heard from the prosecution about some kind of strategy, the first thing we heard is that, she said, you can prosecute a case without a body. That was, of course, as you know, advice given allegedly from one of the suspect's fathers to another young man, and how unusual do you think it is, then, that she's coming out and starting for the first time, I think, to give specifics about the case? They've been very careful not to. And how strategically interesting is it that she's giving out this information, we don't have any evidence?

SIMON: I believe you make a very good point. I think it was both startling and revealing that the attorney general came out in this public interview. It's not only what she said, but the fact that she said it, because in Aruba, unlike the United States, they are even more secretive and more protective about their information and their leads.

And let's review what she said. She said, there were no facts, there were no circumstances. And let me even quote, she said there were no traces of a crime. And if that's the case, it seemed like she was basically, in some attempt, providing public relations to the United States or to the American public that she was trying to calm the concerns of the U.S. but in doing that, she may have calmed the concerns of the suspects in letting them know that, in fact, to date, they have not developed very much information. She said, in fact, as I said, there were no traces of a crime.

So you have to wonder whether wittingly or unwittingly she may have perhaps provided some comfort to the suspects. Now that may very well be comforting to someone who was wholly innocent, because you would want to the hear that, but even someone who is not, it's similarly comforting.

S. O'BRIEN: We are told Joran Van Der Sloot's father, who is a judge, obstructed, she believes, the investigation by asking one suspect what he told police, kind of getting in the way of the investigation. But also at the same time we're told when he was detained it was because he was a suspect in the disappearance, not in the obstruction. Those two things seem completely contradictory. Are they?

SIMON: Well, yes, it was revealing that she indicated that not only was he held on suspicion of complicity, but suspicion on the actual alleged murder, and kidnapping, but, again, what is, I think, very significant, he was released from custody and in Aruba, unlike the U.S., you can be held on reasonable suspicion, a much lower threshold of proof than required here, and the judge must have had that information, that purported legal advice, as you put it, that without a body, there is no case. So he had that information, and yet under that lesser standard of proof, he still was released.

So, however you characterize it, and Mr. Van Der Sloot has characterized it as not legal advice; he's characterized it as just explaining criminal procedure, and, of course, we weren't present for the dialogue between he and the others. So we don't know if it was hypothetical, if it was a discussion, or what prompted that reply. We're only hearing one side of the conversation.

In any event, he was released. It appears the judge had that information. So it cannot be considered that significant. And as you mentioned, you can prosecute a case successfully in Aruba without a body, but you need substantial information. You either need confessions, or reliable statements or significant forensic evidence, and it seems to date, at least as far as what the attorney general says, it's absent.

S. O'BRIEN: You started by saying, don't second guess the system there, but I got to tell you, it's obviously very frustrating for the parents of this young woman who's missing still.

SIMON: Yes. It's...

S. O'BRIEN: Go ahead. I'm sorry.

SIMON: I was going to say, true, it's dueling nightmares. The Holloway/Twitty family, as anyone would be, as any parent would be, it's heart wrenching, it's heartbreaking. But on the other hand, for the Van Der Sloots, it's a continuing nightmare. First, the son is arrested, and then the husband arrested. Of course, he's been released, and their nightmare is perhaps disappearing. But for the Holloway/Twittys, it's a nightmare of what has happened and for the Van Der Sloots is what is yet to come. So it's terrible for both sides.

S. O'BRIEN: Yes, no question about that. All right, Ted Simon, international law expert. Thanks for talking with us -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Howard Beach -- in the mid-80s, the Queens neighborhood became synonymous across the country with racism and violence after the vicious beating of two black men at the hands of white residents. And now a New York man is in critical, but stable condition after a brutal beating with a baseball bat in Howard Beach, and many see parallels to two decades ago, as Mary Snow reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Police say 23-year- old Glenn Moore seen here in his military uniform had his skull fractured after a white man beat him with an aluminum bat. They've charged 21-year-old Nicholas Minucci with assault and robbery as a hate crime.

MAYOR MICHAEL BLOOMBERG, NEW YORK: This is a city that has learned that we are here together and we are going to live together. We have zero tolerance for anybody that engages in this kind of conduct, period.

SNOW: Police say Moore was with two friends who later admitted they were in the neighborhood looking to steal a car. The criminal complaint alleges Minucci confronted them. It says Moore's two friends fled. And Minucci was then joined by another man who said, this is what you get when you try to rob white boys. And then used a racial slur.

REV. AL SHARPTON, ACTIVIST: There was no reason for racial language and racist attacks to be used. This was a hate crime.

SNOW: New York activist the Reverend Al Sharpton visited the victim at the hospital and condemned the attack, an attack that evokes reminders of an ugly chapter in this city's history, but under very different circumstances.

In 1986, Michael Griffith, a 23-year-old black man, was chased out of a pizzeria by a group of white men, and he was killed by a passing car. It sparked racial tensions.

Nearly two decades later at that same pizzeria, most residents of this predominantly white neighborhood did not want to talk on camera, resentful of being back in the spotlight.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I thought things have, like, changed over here, you know. So I'm kind of surprised, actually, that something like that happened, you know, honestly, because I'm over here all the time and I've never had anyone approach me, I never had a problem at all.

SNOW: Others, like this 21-year-old man who only wanted to use his first name, says the neighborhood is not racially biased.

JOHN, HOWARD BEACH RESIDENT: No one goes around looking to beat up black people. These kids were wrong. They were robbing cars, they were bad kids.

SNOW: In a city that is known for being a melting pot, some say that doesn't necessarily mean everyone lives side by side.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: New York City is still by and large a segregated city. The housing patterns are segregated. For example, on Howard Beach, you have very few black folk living in Howard Beach, which is an overwhelmingly Caucasian community.

SNOW: And for a man who's worked to prevent hate crimes in neighborhoods like Howard Beach, this kind of attack is a big concern.

Mary Snow, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

M. O'BRIEN: Police said Manucci is no stranger to violence. They say he was arrested and prosecuted for beating Sikhs on 9/11, and as charged in the stabbing of another teenager, a classmate, a year later.

S. O'BRIEN: Still to come this morning, a look at what you can expect to pay at the pump if you were taking a road trip on this July 4th weekend.

Also ahead, will flight attendants at one of the nation's largest airlines walk off the job? What does it mean for holiday travelers? We're "Minding Your Business" on those stories, ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: Welcome back, everybody. We're coming up, obviously, on a major holiday travel weekend with motorists facing a big tab at the pump and air travelers worried about a possible strike.

Andy Serwer is minding your business, kind of a bad news/bad news story for us this morning.

ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Well, yes. We'll talk about gas prices, first of all, Soledad. About 40 million Americans are said to be traveling 50 miles or more away from home on this holiday weekend. Gas prices not going to slow them down; 28 cents higher at the pump this year than a year ago, so make sure to bring your wallet.

What about air travelers? We told you yesterday that United Airlines flight attendants were set to go on strike today after the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, that government entity, took over the airlines' retirement plan. Now it appears the flight attendants union has backed off, though. It does not look like they will go on strike. Obviously, that's good news for travelers at O'Hare and other airports.

Still, the rhetoric from union officials and at their Web site remains heated and confrontational. Let's check this out at the flight attendants Web site.

CHAOS there stands for create havoc around our system. Yes, this is real. Looks like something out of a James Bond movie, doesn't it? United, divided. The still say they may go on strike. The question is, can they legally strike? And that's not clear, because usually an airline union cannot strike unless their negotiations are at an impasse. That will be declared by a federal mediator. That hasn't happened. But the union people say they can because this takeover voids their contract. So a lot of controversy there.

So it's not over, but for now, things look good.

S. O'BRIEN: Andy, thanks -- Miles.

SERWER: You're welcome.

M. O'BRIEN: Well, NASA says it's ready to return to flight. Still to come, the space agency sets a date for the space shuttle discovery launch, despite concerns that it may not be safe. Of course, safe is a relative word when you're talking about space flight. We'll talk with a NASA administrator about potential risks, just ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

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