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American Morning

New Arrests in London; Summer Sizzler; Filmmaker Jailed in Iraq

Aired July 27, 2005 - 08:59   ET

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

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: New developments in that London terror investigation. Police arrest four more men in connection with last week's attempted bombings. A live report on what authorities are learning now.
In Aruba, officials are draining a pond which is located near the spot where missing Alabama teenager Natalee Holloway was reportedly last seen. Investigators are desperate to catch a break in this case.

And mercury rising. A nasty heat wave continues to grip much of the nation, promising record high temperatures on this AMERICAN MORNING.

ANNOUNCER: From the CNN Center in New York, this is AMERICAN MORNING with Soledad O'Brien and Miles O'Brien.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you. Glad you're with us.

Also ahead, a very unconventional proposal in Washington that, if it passes, would use federal money to reward people if they get married.

S. O'BRIEN: It's kind of an interesting idea. It's to create so-called marriage development accounts. The money would be given to low-income couples, available to them if they tie the knot.

And it's terrific because the amount that they would -- they are matching, I should say, with a terrific amount of money. Three to one. If you put in a dollar, you get three for every dollar you put in. But, of course, there are many questions about how exactly it would work. And why is it based on marriage?

M. O'BRIEN: And do you have to stay happily married to get the money, or just any old marriage?

S. O'BRIEN: I don't even -- or married at all?

M. O'BRIEN: Would any marriage do? Yes.

S. O'BRIEN: Yes, tons and tons of questions out of this. But it's kind of an interesting idea.

M. O'BRIEN: It is.

All right, let's check the headlines first, though. Carol Costello here with that.

Good morning, Carol.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Good morning to all of you.

"Now in the News," the top American commander in Iraq is giving a timeline for possible troop withdrawal as Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld visits the region.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEN. GEORGE CASEY, U.S. COMMANDER IN IRAQ: We have built a readiness assessment that we've been doing now for the last several months. We have transition teams embedded with the divisions. And so when we get these reports, we know they're solidly based.

And I do believe that if the political process continues to go positively, and if the development of these security forces continues to go, as it is going, I do believe we'll still be able to take some fairly substantial reductions after these elections in the spring and summer of next year.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: He's talking about spring of 2006, as we just told you. That announcement coming as Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is making a surprise visit to Iraq. Secretary Rumsfeld is calling on Iraqi leaders to stand strong against interference from its neighbors and is urging Iraqi officials to finish drafting that constitution.

There will be tight security today for the sentencing of the so- called millennium bomber. Thirty-eight-year-old Ahmed Ressam was convicted of plotting to blow up the Los Angeles Airport on the eve of the new millennium. Sentencing had been delayed because Ressam was giving information to anti-terror investigators. But he apparently has stopped cooperating. Prosecutors are asking for 35-year sentence.

The Los Angeles Police Department calling on outside experts to look into the shooting death of a toddler. The 19-month-old girl was killed by a police bullet during a standoff with her father who was armed. L.A.'s police chief says he believe the officers acted appropriately, but has called in the experts to make sure the investigation is fair and thorough.

The wife of BTK killer Dennis Rader is being granted a divorce. A judge waived the usual 60-day waiting period, agreeing that her mental health was in danger. Rader told a judge last month that sexual fantasies drove him to kill 10 people in Wichita. The couple had been married for over 30 years.

And President Bush is set to address the Boy Scout jamboree in Virginia. The White House says that President Bush will mention four scout leaders killed on Monday. That speech is set later tonight. And then the jamboree will carry on, even though the sons of those scout leaders who were killed are going back home to Alaska. S. O'BRIEN: Oh, what a horrible story, isn't it?

COSTELLO: Really awful.

MYERS: Such a horrible story. It really is.

S. O'BRIEN: Oh, it breaks your heart. All right, Carol. Thanks.

Well, new developments to tell you about out of England this morning. Four more men are now under arrest in connection with last week's attempted attacks in London. The new arrests taking place just hours ago in central England in the town of Birmingham. And that is where we find Nic Robertson.

Nic, first, the latest on the arrests. Who are these guys?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We just don't know yet, Soledad. And that's really of great media speculation here at the moment. Are any of these four men among the four most wanted men, the four bombers from last week in London?

There is intense speculation that one of them may be. Now, the police went to two addresses here in Birmingham. One address on the street right behind me.

When they went in there, they tasered the man before arresting him. He has been taken to a police station in the center of London, a high security police station where he is undergoing questioning at this time.

The other three men were arrested in a different area of Birmingham, just a few miles from here. They are now being held at a police station in Birmingham. That's an indication that perhaps they're not so central to the police inquiry into those bombings last week. So all the speculation is about the man who was picked up, arrested on this street.

Now, residents around here say that when the police went in, there was a lot of bangs, a lot of shouting. The door may have got ripped off of the house. The police say they tasered the man. They also say that they discovered a suspicious package.

Bomb disposal experts were called into the house. Residents in the area, about 200 families, have been evacuated.

I've talked to some of those residents. I talked to a lady who lives just a few doors from the man who was arrested. We asked her, "Could you tell from the people you know at that address, from this man, was he -- was he one of the men whose photographs have been so heavily publicized, one of the four bombers from last week?" Said she didn't know for sure.

I asked another young man. He didn't know for sure. But this lady said that very suspiciously, very strangely, she said, that over the last two weeks, a car, an old car, had been coming and going at odd hours to the house that was at the center of the raid this morning. She said four men have been in that car every time it had come and gone. There had been four men in it.

And she said that had been very strange. Hadn't really associated it with the ongoing developments with the bombing, but now she can see that connection -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Nic Robertson. We're following all these connections, and, of course, all these developments as well. Nic, thank you -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Now to Aruba and the search for Natalee Holloway. Aruban firefighters as we speak draining a pond near the beach where the Kalpoe brothers say they dropped off Holloway and Joran van der Sloot. That's two months ago now practically.

Pumping began last night. It may take days to fully drain that pond. A lawyer for Holloway's parents say a new witness led them to this location.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VINDA DE SOUSA, HOLLOWAY TWITTY ATTORNEY: 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 claim to have been home as well, sleeping.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

M. O'BRIEN: The family has now put together a $1 million reward for her safe return -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Well, temperatures today are going to be dangerous and uncomfortably hot from the Southwest to the Northeast. Residents are going to have to sweat it out again today as America's heat wave just pretty much sizzles on. Look, it's hot in under that umbrella there.

As many as 24 heat-related deaths now being reported in Arizona. Two in Las Vegas. Possibly 12 others in that area of Nevada. Three reported deaths 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. And it's the same story here in the Northeast. Power grids everywhere are pretty much being pushed to the max.

It brings us right to Chad Myers. He's got the latest weather update for us.

(WEATHER REPORT)

S. O'BRIEN: Brandi Davis from our affiliate News 14 Carolina is outside a heat shelter in Fayetteville with the very latest on how residents there are trying to stay cool.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRANDI DAVIS, REPORTER, NEWS 14 CAROLINA: Here in Fayetteville, the city's recreation centers and the Department of Social Services are open today for people who need help cooling off. Now, Fayetteville has seen some of the hottest temperatures in this part of the state. Because of today's forecast, the shelters will be open from noon to 7:00.

Now, the elderly, disabled, mothers with children, and people who don't have access to air-conditioning are welcome. Fayetteville Mayor Marshall Pitts is urging everyone to seek shelter from the heat. Also, he's urging people to check on the elderly or anyone you know who lives alone, just to make sure they're OK.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

S. O'BRIEN: That was Brandi Davis of our Raleigh affiliate News 14 Carolina -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Busy first day, first full day in space for the crew of the Space Shuttle Discovery. They have been hard at work, trying to get as good a look at their vehicle as they can, making sure it is safe and sound.

Take a look at this picture which comes from the end of a boom that is extended now for the first time 100-foot full length, in order to give them a comprehensive survey, photographic, of the heat shield, the tiles, the panels which protect the leading edge of the wing of the space shuttle, the reinforced carbon-carbon, as it is called. I'll just show you a quick animation to give you a sense of how this all works.

It's the normal 50-foot boom which comes with every shuttle, attached to yet another boom of the same length. There you see that. And it can extend beneath the belly area and the nose cone and all the areas that the Columbia astronauts could not see two-and-a-half years ago. You'll recall it was a piece of foam striking the leading edge of the wing which caused the fatal breach, which caused the disintegration of Columbia 16 days after the launch.

We'll just give you a sense of some of the pictures they're seeing. They're using lasers and a special grouping of cameras to get a sense of what's going on. So far we haven't seen any clear signs of any serious damage.

There you see it. It's kind of like watching paint dry if you're not a shuttle engineer, but essentially what you're looking at is portions of the leading edge of the wing there. That flicker has to do with the laser system that they employee, which, if they find a ding, would give them some precise indications on its size and depth. Take a look at the launch yesterday. There are a few things that are of curious nature and will be looked at further downstream in the mission here.

Upper right-hand corner portion of your screen you'll see what appears to be a little ding appear in the tiles. Very difficult to say what this means. It's about an inch, inch and a half in size.

How deep is it? How critical a location? It appears to be near the nose wheel landing gear door. And that is a critical spot, but nevertheless, NASA never promised a debris-free launch or ding-free belly. So we'll just have to see how that goes.

And then this one falls harmlessly, but just shows you that they have a tremendous amount of capability to pick up debris that they hadn't seen before, and that in and of itself creates their own set of decisions which we'll be tracking all throughout the mission.

S. O'BRIEN: Really remarkable pictures, even though, as you point out, you know, if you're not a scientist, you really don't necessarily know what you're looking at. But the idea that they can see that and monitor it the whole time is pretty amazing.

M. O'BRIEN: Yes. It's spectacular and it's -- in a way, it's overwhelming. It's like so much information is coming at them from a fire hose, so they need to sort through it all.

S. O'BRIEN: Right. Right. Interesting. All right. Miles, thanks.

Still to come, should federal money be used to promote marriage? We're going to talk to a senator who's behind this new proposal.

M. O'BRIEN: Also, political chaos on the California coast. A look at why some reporters are now calling San Diego Enron. That's Enron by the sea.

S. O'BRIEN: And Dr. Sanjay Gupta makes a "House Call" with some truth about summer heat. For example, here's a question for you: can wearing a hat really protect you from dehydration? Or a towel on your head, too?

A look at that is ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: A first on Capitol Hill. A proposal for a marriage bonus for low-income couples who are living in the District of Columbia. Republican Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas is the sponsor of the plan. He join us from Washington.

Nice to see you. Thanks for talking with us, Senator

SEN. SAM BROWNBACK (R-KA), APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE: Happy to do it.

S. O'BRIEN: Thanks.

Let's walk through exactly what the plan would propose. It would be an account that would only be used to buy a home or pay for job training or education, start a new business. And those savings would be matched three to one by federal fund. All sounds great.

So my question is, why the marriage part of it? Why would you have to be married to get access to this plan?

BROWNBACK: Well, because of the benefits of marriage and because of the benefits of children that married couples provide to children. We look in the District of Columbia, and that's where this is put in, and that's where it's being tested, and it's part of the D.C. Appropriations Bill.

Fifty-seven percent of the children in the District of Columbia are born to a single mom. And single moms can raise great children. But we know statistically the best place to raise children is with a bonded marriage, a man and woman bonded together for life.

And so what we want to do is try to encourage that, build that up. And it also is just for low-income couples, couples with less than $10,000 of savings. So we're trying to also build savings and really build that family unit, which is the best environment for a child.

S. O'BRIEN: So how exactly does it work? A single mom comes to you and says, OK, I want to put down $1 and have it match with $3, and I want to save money over the next couple of years. She has to get married within a three-year period?

BROWNBACK: Well, we have individual development accounts as well that are already operating in the District of Columbia. So if an individual decides, I want to do this savings program, we have a proposal for that.

S. O'BRIEN: But less aggressive. I mean, they don't get as much money at the end of the day if they're really aggressive about saving. The people who get married get more money. So how does it work?

BROWNBACK: Well, now the individual account is basically as aggressive. It's a three to one match as well, and we've had it operated on a longer period basis. But this would be for either couples that are plan on getting married or who are married.

And we do know statistically as well one of the best ways out of poverty is a good, solid marriage. And so we want to encourage those things together. And it's all on a volunteer basis. If people don't want to do that, that's fine, it's their choice.

S. O'BRIEN: They have a time frame, right, where you have to get married? Is that correct?

BROWNBACK: Well, if you're on the account that's development of a pre-marriage situation, you have to go through both counseling and get married. It can be for couples that are already married, too. S. O'BRIEN: So for the couples who are thinking about getting married, it would be like -- I think it's a three-year window between which they'd have to get married. Do you lose the money if at the end of the time your boyfriend breaks up with you?

BROWNBACK: Yes, you do. This is a marriage development account. As I said, there's a different program for individual development accounts. But this is a marriage development account.

S. O'BRIEN: There are some people who would say, why are we using federal money to do this, to encourage people to get married?

BROWNBACK: Well, because of the benefits to the country and the benefit to the government of children being raised in a situation where there's a solid marriage. You can raise good children in other settings. But we do know, statistically, the best place to raise that child is in a -- is in a loving marriage.

And I think that's also just something we know in our hearts, that that's the best place. It's not the only place, but it's the best place. And we're trying to encourage that because that's the best place for kid to get a good education, stay out of crime.

They can do it in other settings. But we know this is the best environment.

S. O'BRIEN: What kind of support are you getting? Are you finding that you have bipartisan support for this?

BROWNBACK: Broad bipartisan support. I've talked with the mayor and the community. We've talked about the issue of the number of children born to single moms here in D.C. being 40 percent higher than the national average. He strongly supports it.

Eleanor Holmes Norton is a Democrat, delegate from the District of Columbia. She's strongly supporting it. So we're getting broad bipartisan support for this proposal.

S. O'BRIEN: We'll see if there's big picture support, too. Senator Sam Brownback joining us.

Nice to see you, sir. Thanks for talking with us.

BROWNBACK: Thank you, Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: My pleasure -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Still to come on the program, an American filmmaker mistaken for an insurgent and detained in Iraq for almost two months. He'll talk about his ordeal. That's next on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: An American filmmaker is suing the federal government for violating his civil rights. Cyrus Kar says he went to Iraq to make a documentary, but instead spent 55 days in a U.S. military prison.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

M. O'BRIEN (voice-over): Cyrus Kar is an aspiring filmmaker who traveled to Iraq to pursue a dream. He's now back home in Los Angeles, after the trip turned into a two-month nightmare.

SHAHRZAD FOLGER, JAILED FILMMAKER'S COUSIN: I think it's a shame now they're trying to say that the release is just because their system is working

M. O'BRIEN: That's Kar's cousin. She helped draw media attention to his plight.

Kar is an Iranian-American who had been filming a documentary about Cyrus the Great, an emperor who conquered Babylonia, which is now modern day Iraq, roughly 2,500 years ago. He was heading to the ancient city of Babylon on May 17 when U.S. forces pulled over his taxi at a checkpoint.

The soldiers found three dozen washing machine timers in the trunk, timers that could be used to make bombs. Suspected of being insurgents, Kar and his Iranian cameraman were detained by the U.S. military for 55 days. That's even though his taxi driver admitted the timers belonged to him.

A spokesman for U.S. forces in Iraq said, "This case has been resolved appropriately. We understand this has been difficult for Mr. Kar and his family; however, we owe the coalition forces, Iraqi security forces and Iraqi civilians a thorough investigation."

(END VIDEOTAPE)

M. O'BRIEN: Joining me now from Los Angeles, Cyrus Kar and his attorney, Mark Rosenbaum, who is also legal director for the ACLU of southern California.

Cyrus, you saw the military statement. That's all they're saying about this. How do you respond to that?

They have a point. It is a war zone. There are insurgents that are blowing people up.

CYRUS KAR, FILMMAKER JAILED IN IRAQ: Yes, well, if being deprived of your civil rights and the rights that are afforded every citizen under the U.S. Constitution is appropriate, then they're absolutely right, it was handled appropriately. And some people may at this time in our history believe that it is appropriate. They believed the Joe McCarthy hearings were appropriate.

M. O'BRIEN: Well, wait a minute, though. We're talking about a person in a war zone here. You clearly knew you were getting into a risky place to be.

KAR: Well, technically it wasn't a war zone. The war had been declared over. Mission had been declared accomplished. I knew I was going into a volatile area. But, you know, there are hundreds of foreign filmmakers in Iraq.

In fact, the hotel that we stayed in, we were basically -- in the mornings, as we went to work, our tripods were banging against each other as we were getting out the door. So it's not like there are no foreign filmmakers in Iraq.

M. O'BRIEN: Did -- but as...

KAR: We had all the appropriate documents. We had proper visas. We had permission to film. Yet -- we had every right to be there.

Plus, we had permission from the CPA. They told us that Iraq is a free country, you're free to come and go as you please.

M. O'BRIEN: And -- but when you were stopped, you were told something different.

KAR: Well, we weren't told that we weren't allowed to be there. We were just -- we were told that we were enemy combatants and that I was the next John Walker Lindh, and I'm in big, big trouble.

M. O'BRIEN: Mr. Rosenbaum, let's talk about what the lawsuit might entail here. On what grounds would you be suing?

MARK ROSENBAUM, JAILED FILMMAKER'S ATTORNEY: Well, the issue first was to get Cyrus released, because he was in indefinite detention. But the problem was that no one -- no one says you can't investigate when you find these devices in a cab.

The problem was that Cyrus was denied access to attorneys. He was denied access to the United States embassy. He was held indefinitely.

He had his head slammed against a concrete slab. He was kept in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day for 55 days. Yet he fully cooperated with any investigation.

He said, "Look, I'm a veteran of the Navy. I served for three years. Go to my place. Check me out. I'm willing to take a lie detector test."

All of that took place. All that was done within seven or eight days, yet he remained for 45 days -- 55 days, being held virtually incommunicado.

And that's really the problem. We don't hold people without giving them access to their most basic rights, even in a war zone, even in a volatile area like that.

The investigation was completed early on, yet he was maintaining if it hadn't been for front-page stories in "The New York Times" and "Los Angeles Times," our filing a lawsuit, and the federal judge saying to the United States government, come forward, he'd still there be. M. O'BRIEN: All right.

But Cyrus, just to turn this around just a little bit, isn't it -- isn't it the responsibility of the military in a situation like this to conduct a very thorough investigation given the stakes? We are talking about the lives in many cases of U.S. soldiers, as well as Iraqi civilians that are on the line here.

KAR: Absolutely. I think that's only fair to say. And I wouldn't have it any other way.

But the point here is that after you've been cleared, after they know that you are not in any way a terrorist -- in fact, that you're a patriot in every respect -- that they still hold you. And there's absolutely no doubt, because I was told several times throughout my incarceration that I had been cleared. And the resident psychologist there even told me that the earliest she's ever seen anyone released from -- from that camp, from detention, was four months, whether they were innocent or not.

So there's a -- there's a policy, a policy that I believe gets people killed, of detaining people once they've been cleared and once they've known -- once they're rendered innocent, declared innocent.

M. O'BRIEN: Right.

KAR: And the reason I say it's a policy that gets Americans killed is because when -- in a -- you know, when you have a sloppy arrest policy and the reckless violence that followed that arrest policy, and then people who know that intelligence, whether it be the FBI or military intelligence, knows that they're innocent, and they're kept anyway, once these innocent Iraqis, whether they're -- whether they came in neutral or some even pro-American are released, they're looking for retribution.

M. O'BRIEN: All right. We've got to...

KAR: And they're going to join the first insurgency group that they can find.

M. O'BRIEN: All right. Thank you, Cyrus Kar. We've got to leave it there. Thank you very much.

Filmmaker Cyrus Kar, his attorney, Mark Rosenbaum.

Thanks for being with us -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: All right. A short break, and we are back in just a moment.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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