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American Morning

British Officials Arrest Four More Men; Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld Visits Baghdad

Aired July 27, 2005 - 07:00   ET

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

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Soledad O'Brien. New developments in Britain this hour. Police raid two locations in Birmingham, England overnight. Four men arrested in connection with the attempted bombings last week. Suspicious materials seized from one scene. We're live with the very latest.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Miles O'Brien. An extremely important job for the crew of the space shuttle. Astronauts inspecting discovery for signs of serious damage after two mysterious pieces of debris are spotted during takeoff.

S. O'BRIEN: And a developing story in Aruba. Working on a tip investigators are now draining a pond near the spot where Natalee Holloway was reportedly last seen. They are searching for a break in this case, on this AMERICAN MORNING.

Good morning, and welcome, everybody. Welcome back from Florida.

M. O'BRIEN: Welcome back from London. We're all home now.

S. O'BRIEN: We're running around, aren't we?

M. O'BRIEN: Busy day.

S. O'BRIEN: Yes, very busy day, in fact, lots to report out of London and great Britain this morning.

British officials arresting four more men in connection with last week's bomb attacks in London. Let's get right to Mallika Kapur at Scotland Yard.

Mallika, good morning to you. What do we knows know about these four?

MALLIKA KAPUR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We don't know very much about these four, Soledad. Police have not talked about who they are. They have not talked about their identities. But the British media are widely reporting this morning that one of the men the police have arrested this morning could be one of the suspects the police have identified behind the July 21st attempted bombing attacks. But this is just a media report at the moment. And police themselves have not confirmed the identities of these four men.

But I want to bring you quickly up to date what the police authorities have confirmed. They have confirmed that four men were arrested this morning under the Terrorism Act of 2000. All four arrests taking place in and around the Birmingham area of Central Britain around 4:30 a.m. local time this morning.

One arrest taking place in the Haymills area. Again, that taking place about 4:30 a.m. this morning. Police say that the man they arrested there did offer some resistance, so they were forces to use a taser gun to control him before they could arrest him. A taser gun is something like a stun gun, and they did have to use that. They said no other firearms were used in the process.

They've also said that while they were arresting him, they found a suspicious looking package at the scene of the arrest. And as a precautionary measure, they did evacuate the area around the scene of the arrest.

The man they arrested in Birmingham at 4:30 this morning has been brought down here to Central London, where he is being held at the Paddington Green station for further questioning -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Mallika, are police now saying there is a definite link between the deadly bombings of July 7th and the attempted bombings of the 21st and those attackers?

KAPUR: They're not saying there's a definite link. In fact, Ian Blair, the Metropolitan Police commissioner, has emphatically said there is no direct link, but he has said there are very similar patterns between the actual bombings of July 7th and the attempted bombings of July 21st. He said if you look at where they attempted to place the bombs, both attacks were on London's transport system. Both attacks tried to explode bombs on three subway stations, on three underground railway lines and one bus. And he also said that the bombs were very similar in nature, and that the bombs that could have gone off in the attempted bombers of July 21st were just as powerful as the bombs used in the July 7th bombings. So these are the similarities.

But what is the dissimilarity, if you may, is that the suspects are of different origins. The people in the first set of bombings were of Pakistani origin, and now we know that the suspects behind the July 21st bombings were East African immigrants -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Well, Mallika, maybe with the arrest they'll have even more information to determine if they are actually linked. Mallika Kapur for us in London this morning. Thanks, Mallika -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: U.S. troops in Iraq have a surprise visitor this morning. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld flew into Baghdad late last night. He's meeting with Iraqi leaders and U.S. military commanders.

Aneesh Raman live now in Baghdad telling us what the secretary is doing there -- Aneesh.

ANEESH RAMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Miles, good morning. Two main points being stressed by the secretary of defense in his talks with Iraq's political leadership. He wrapped up meetings with Prime Minister Ibrahim Al Jaafari just a short time ago. In that, he first stressed that Iraq needs to be more aggressive in its dealings with both Iran and Syria, saying that both of those countries can and should do more to secure the borders and prevent the ongoing flow of foreign fighters here into Iraq. He's also calling on this government to meet the constitutional deadline, now looming just weeks away, August 15th, the date by which they have to have the Constitution written.

Of course, Miles, that is the first of a number of steps that, if met, could lead to the election of the first constitutionally based government in Iraq by the end of the year. Now of course wherever the secretary goes, so follow questions about troop size here in Iraq and any sort of troop reduction. General George Casey, the top American commander in Iraq, speaking alongside the secretary, today said that we could see troop reductions by spring of next year. I spoke with Iraq's national security, Muffwak Rabai (ph), last week. He said we'd see sizable reductions in Iraq troops by mid next year. All of this, though, incumbent upon the Iraqi security really forces stepping up to the challenge -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Aneesh Raman in Baghdad, thank you very much -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: All right, well, the stage may be set for the first battle on Capitol Hill over Supreme Court nominee John Roberts. The White House is refusing to release documents that Roberts prepared when he was the deputy solicitor general. But boxes containing about 12,000 pages of other documents were delivered to the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, and there may be more to come today.

Correspondent Dana Bash live at the White House for us.

Hey, Dana, good morning to you.

Of these documents, massive number really, what exactly is being released?

DANA BASH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, what's being released, Soledad, are documents from when John Roberts was a young lawyer in the early '80s during the Reagan administration. In truth, what the White House is doing is essentially expediting some papers, some documents that probably would have been released in the end anyway. This is essentially a preemptive public-relations strike. Trumpet the release, as you said, of tens of thousands of documents even before the Senate Judiciary Committee actually requests them.

But what Democrats want to see are papers from the time when Roberts was in the solicitor's general's office during the first Bush administration, when he wrote a brief arguing against Roe V. Wade. The White House refuses. They cite attorney-client privilege.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCOTT MCCLELLAN, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECY.: It would stifle the candid, honest and thorough advice that solicitor generals depend on from their attorneys if that privilege was not protected.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Democrats say that argument is essentially disingenuous, because there is precedent for releasing documents from when a nominees were in the solicitor general's office. They call, essentially, what they saw yesterday a stunt and largely symbolic -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Interesting. Well, you've had a chance to go through some of the documents. What exactly do they say about Roberts?

BASH: Well, there are tens of thousands of documents, and we had a crack research team really, essentially, up all night looking over some of them. And essentially what they do is give a raw insight into the views of a John Roberts at 26, 27 years old, trying to craft arguments for his bosses on a host of hot-button issues. For example, he called affirmative action a failure, because it recruited, quote, "inadequately prepared candidates."

But, Soledad, one remarkable memo actually, a couple of them, show that actually in 1981 John Roberts was helping prepare Sandra Day O'Connor, whom he is actually nominated to replace, of course, for her confirmation hearings. Interestingly, he talked about the fact that he prepared questions and answers for her, and also said that questions specifically about cases before the court should be rejected. So it shows that he certainly is a Washington insider, a reminder of that.

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

M. O'BRIEN: Temperatures today dangerously hot and uncomfortable. From the Southwest to the Northeast, residents will have to sweat it out again today as America's heatwave sizzles on. As many as 24 heat-related deaths now reported in Arizona, two in Las Vegas, possibly 12 others in that area, three reported in Missouri. Heat advisories and warnings are already in effect in the Carolinas where the so-called real feel temperature is expected to top 110 degrees. Same story in the Northeast. Power grids everywhere are beginning to be pushed to the max.

(WEATHER REPORT)

M. O'BRIEN: Now let's go to Brandi Davis from our affiliate News 14 Carolina. She's outside a heat shelter in Fayetteville.

Brandi, what's the latest from there?

BRANDI DAVIS, NEWS 14 CAROLINA REPORTER: Here in Fayetteville, the city's recreation centers and the Department of the Social Services are open today for people who need help cooling down. Now, here in Fayetteville, the temperatures have been some of the hottest from around this part of the state. Because of the forecast today, the shelters here will open at noon and close at 7:00.

The elderly, disabled, mothers of children, and people who don't have access to the air condition are welcome at these shelters. Fayetteville Mayor Marshall Pitts is urging everyone to seek shelter from the heat. He's also asking people to check on the elderly or anyone they know who lives alone just to make sure they're OK. Miles, back to you.

M. O'BRIEN: All right, Brandi Davis from Raleigh and our affiliate News 14 Carolina. Thank you very much.

Let's go into space, shall we, where temperatures are always consistent, consistently hot or consistently cold. As the space shuttle crew. they've been up now for six hours plus now and in the process of a very important survey of the outer skin of the Space Shuttle Discovery. Let's take a look at some live pictures now. Well, we just lost the live picture. of the live picture.

There's an animation. We'll show you what they're doing. They're taking the normally 50-foot long boom and have a 50-foot extender, which has a camera and lasers attached to it, and methodically going over the leading edge of the wing. Which, of course, you'll recall, two-and-a-half years ago, a breach in that leading edge led to the loss of the Columbia and her crew of seven. As well as the nose cone.

Now a little later in the mission, they'll get to a couple of other areas that raise some concern for us as we watch the launch yesterday. Take a look at some of the debris strikes that we saw as Discovery rocketed towards space. Upper right part of your screen highlighted there. That's a little piece of tile, about an inch-and- a-half ding taken out of it. Lots of questions about how deep that would be. No one ever said there wouldn't be -- it would be completely free and clear of debris. The question is, how deep, how big a ding?

In addition, another piece of debris flew off just as the solid rocket boosters left. Clearly was harmless, didn't cause any problems to it. The point is, NASA has taken great pains to remove big pieces of debris that would cause a fatal breach in the heat shield. But nevertheless, there still will be pieces that will fall off that tank.

Now they had 100 cameras on the ground, as well as two that were in the air. This picture comes from an aircraft. It's 60,000 feet, which tracked the shuttle like it has never been tracked before. I'm afraid this picture doesn't do it real justice, because it is a high definition image that engineers are using right now, poring over all that image, creating really, in some sense, another sort of quandary for them.

They'll have much more information than they ever had about debris strikes on a shuttle launch, which happened since day one. The question is how do they respond or not respond to those debris strikes? So we'll be following that very closely all throughout the mission.

A little later, I'll talk to a former astronaut about today's launch. We'll get his take on the fallen debris. S. O'BRIEN: Yes, I wonder if at some point you have too much information, you know, because now you can see everything so clearly you sort of get a lot more feedback.

M. O'BRIEN: Yes, I suppose as an engineer you say you never have too much. But you could clearly be bogged down. You have to have very clear rules and a good sense of what's bad and what's acceptable.

S. O'BRIEN: We'll see, all right.

Also in this hour, the man who's accused of kidnapping Elizabeth Smart, now declared unfit to stand trial. We're going to talk with Elizabeth's father and see why he's relieved.

M. O'BRIEN: And new developments in the search for Natalee Holloway. Authorities draining a pond near the beach where she was last seen. Could this lead to a break in the case? That's next on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: Now to Aruba and the search for Natalee Holloway. Aruban firefighters right now are in the process of draining a pond. That's one near the hotel and beach where the Alabama teenager was last seen. Holloway has been missing now for nearly two months.

Vinda De Sousa is the attorney for Natalee's parents. She joins us now from Palm Beach, Aruba. Vinda, what are they looking for?

VINDA DE SOUSA, HOLLOWAY/TWITTY ATTORNEY: They're looking for anything. Obviously, first of all, they're looking for Natalee or any other piece of evidence, a shred of evidence or anything that can help them find Natalee.

M. O'BRIEN: This pond filled up after the hurricane, correct? And so it is possible that whatever evidence is there might be buried beneath the muck?

DE SOUSA: That's correct, yes.

M. O'BRIEN: So this whole process could take some time?

DE SOUSA: It could take some time. They expect to drain the pond, I think, within 24 hours or a little bit more than that. But they are in the process of draining it and then continue their search.

M. O'BRIEN: Tell us about the new witnesses and new information that led to this location.

DE SOUSA: Well, as I think you already know, there was a witness heard by the authorities on Friday who could place -- who claims to have seen a gray car, which later appeared to be Deepak Kalpoe's car, with the three boys, both Deepak and Satish and Joran Van Der Sloot, around 3:00 in the morning. And that would be at the time that they all three claimed to have been home. Joran claimed to have been home, and Deepak and Satish claimed to have been home as well, sleeping. M. O'BRIEN: Well, it's just amazing to me that two months later this is just now coming to light. Why?

DE SOUSA: Well, the witness was afraid to come forward.

M. O'BRIEN: Why?

DE SOUSA: For his reasons. That's information that I'm not allowed to divulge. It's privileged. But they were able to find him, and they were able to talk to him. And they do believe that it's a very credible witness.

M. O'BRIEN: I mean, does the witness have reason to believe he might become a suspect or something?

DE SOUSA: No, there were other reasons for the witness not to come forward. People in Aruba -- it's a small community. They don't like to become involved in any sort of possible crime, even being a witness. They don't want to say anything about anybody. They just want to be left alone. But they were able to convince him and -- to come forward.

M. O'BRIEN: There's now a million dollar reward linked to the discovery and finding Natalee Holloway. Is that perhaps what is leading to some new information here?

DE SOUSA: Well, you the $1 million is only for her safe return. In this case, if Natalee was found there, obviously, that would not be the case -- that would not be a case of a safe return. The reward would then be $100,000. But I don't think that in the case of this witness, that that was his motive to come forward right now, no.

M. O'BRIEN: There are apparently rumors going around somewhere that Natalee might be alive somewhere. Where are those rumors coming from, and what do you make of them?

DE SOUSA: Well, it's because -- the rumors have been quite persistent. I think the rumors are fueled because of the fact that the island was searched extensively. The F-16s flew over, and they had no -- they found in trace of any body being buried on the -- beneath the ground -- the soil in Aruba. I think that that's fueled the speculation that, if she's not on the island, she must be alive somewhere else. And that's why the reward was increased for a safe return to $1 million, as $1 million. And that would be like, an incentive for anybody who knows where she is to provide that lead.

M. O'BRIEN: Do you believe she's alive?

DE SOUSA: I'm not speculating. I'll wait and see what the investigation sort of comes up with.

M. O'BRIEN: Vinda De Sousa, attorney for Natalee Holloway's parents. Thanks for being with us -- Soledad.

DE SOUSA: Thank you. Ahead this morning, some business news. One carmaker dropping its popular employee discount-for-all program. Andy's going to tell us why. That's coming up next on AMERICAN MORNING. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: If you're looking to buy a new car, don't go looking for those big discounts from GM. Andy Serwer's got that story as he "Minds Your Business" this morning. I thought we were getting great discounts from GM, right?

ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: We were, but it was working too well. We're talking about GM's wildly successful employee discounts for everyone. "The Wall Street Journal" is reporting this morning that the giant automaker will be ending this program as of August 1st. Why? Because it worked too well. The company is literally running out of cars. Inventories at record low levels. It looks like July auto sales will be the highest since October '01, right after 9/11, when automakers rolled out 0 percent financing.

This is quite a turnabout for GM because, in the first half of the year, they lost $2.5 billion. June and July very strong. And now comes a critical time for GM though, because the '06s are going to start to appear this fall, and it looks like they're going to be lowering auto prices to keep consumers coming in to showrooms. For instance, a Cadillac might be $6,000 less for the '06 than it was for the '05, which is going to be really interesting. So maybe no reason to rush out to a GM showroom to get this program before it ends August 1st.

S. O'BRIEN: So good news.

SERWER: Right. It is good news.

S. O'BRIEN: More discounts.

SERWER: That's right, and the interesting thing here also is that Ford and Chrysler, which had followed suit, no word from them about what they're going to do. You best believe executives there are scrambling. I think they're going to.

S. O'BRIEN: Yes, I would think so, too.

All right, Andy, thanks.

Coming up on AMERICAN MORNING, "90-Second Pop." Jane Fonda says she can hold her tongue no longer. She plans to tour the country speaking out against the war in Iraq. We'll get into that when AMERICAN MORNING continues.

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