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CNN Live At Daybreak

Terror Arrests; Grounded Shuttles; Diverted Flights

Aired July 28, 2005 - 06:32   ET

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

ANNOUNCER: From the Time Warner Center in New York, this is DAYBREAK with Carol Costello and Chad Myers.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning to you. Thank you for waking up with us. Chad will have your forecast in just a minute.

Also coming up this half-hour, the shuttle crew is back at work, checking for damage. But it's the remaining shuttle fleet that's really in question this morning. We'll have a live report for you.

And has the fear over terrorism become more of a paranoia? We'll examine some of the recent episodes in the air.

But first, "Now in the News."

Nine more people were arrested just hours ago in connection with the July 21 bombings in London, but police say none of the men are the prime suspects in the case. A live report from Scotland Yard straight ahead.

A bomb on train tracks in southern Baghdad this morning killed two people. Four other people were injured by the blast. The train fuel tanker car was headed to a refinery plant.

Excessive heat is being blamed for at least 40 deaths nationwide. Two of those were children who were left in a car in Oklahoma. The blistering temperatures are also being blamed for killing 1,200 head of cattle in Nebraska alone.

But for much of the country, Chad, it is getting better.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: It is.

(WEATHER REPORT)

COSTELLO: Thank you, Chad.

MYERS: You're welcome.

COSTELLO: The London terror investigations are in high gear this morning. Nine men taken into custody during raids in the Tooting section of south London. They're wanted in connection to the July 21 attacks, but police say none of them are thought to be the actual bombers.

Now, these arrests come after three women were detained for allegedly harboring offenders. Two of those women were taken to a central London police station.

One of the main suspects in the July 1 attacks was arrested during raids yesterday. That's the July 21 attacks, I should say. Police hope Yasin Hassan Omar will provide information that leads them to the other three suspects.

Let's head live to London now and CNN's Mallika Kapur.

Mallika, you have more details? Tell us.

MALLIKA KAPUR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Carol.

Police have confirmed those nine arrests that you were talking about earlier this morning. They said that they did arrest nine men in the Tooting area of south London. All men were detained under the Terrorism Act of 2000.

Police are remaining very tight-lipped about the identity of these nine people that they have -- that they are retaining in police custody, but they did confirm that none of the suspects that they are holding at the moment include the three would-be bombers that police are still chasing. Those would-be bombers do remain at large.

And just a short while ago, the Metropolitan Police commissioner, Sir Ian Blair, spoke about the importance of nabbing these three would-be bombers behind the July 21 bus bomb attack. Let's listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

IAN BLAIR, POLICE COMMISSIONER: I'm confident that we will identify and find the bombers responsible and those that back them. But it does remain possible -- we are at a somber moment -- it does remain possible that those at large will strike again, and it does also remain possible that there are other cells who are capable and intent on striking again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAPUR: He also said there was no reason to believe that if these people do strike again that they will once again target simply or just the underground network and the bus system in London. The police did say that it was a somber reminder these people could strike again as long as they're out there and they have access to explosives. They could strike again, and they could strike anywhere and anytime.

COSTELLO: And Mallika, we have some new pictures in. These pictures will show unexploded parts of the bombs that the police found after the July 7 attacks, not the -- the bombs that didn't go off. But these were found after the July 7 attacks in which some 50 people were killed.

What can you tell us about these pictures?

KAPUR: You're right, these pictures were taken about five days after the July 7 attacks. The pictures show unexploded devices which were found in the back of a car near Luton Airport. Luton Airport is in a suburb of London, a little bit north of London. And it is at Luton Airport where we believe that four suicide bombers ditched a rented car and then took a train from there to come into central London, where they were together at King's Cross and they went their separate ways and exploded the bombs.

But the pictures we are seeing is unexploded devices, 16 bombs packed into the back of this rented car, which it is believed that one of the suicide bombers by the name of Shehzad Tanweer had rented. Sixteen bombs, some of them packed flat, one on top of the -- on top of each other like pancakes. Some of them stacked with near (ph) bombs that perhaps the bombers were planning on using again.

COSTELLO: Yes. And just fascinating pictures. I couldn't determine what one of the pictures was of, but most of the pictures were taken from inside of this rental car? Or did we see another picture from a different location as well?

KAPUR: Most of the pictures are from the rented car. Those are the pictures of the explosives. But we also have had some fresh pictures today released. Pictures are emerging of the extent of the devastation and the carnage at two of the sites where the bombs exploded.

We are seeing pictures of the devastation at the Edgware Road tube station where a bomb went off and killed many people. And we've also seen other pictures emerging of the extent of the carnage and the devastation of the train station -- on the train that ran between King's Cross and the Russell Square tube station this morning.

COSTELLO: OK. That explains further. Mallika Kapur, live in London this morning.

Now let's take a look at what the shuttle crew is up to today. They flipped the shuttle to get a better view of possible damage. The crew set the shuttle up so the cameras on the International Space Station could get a good look. In less than an hour, the shuttle will dock with the space station.

Now, the debris events during Discovery's liftoff have led NASA to ground all future shuttles.

This is an amazing live picture, isn't it? But let's get back to the controversy, shall we?

The fleet that's on the ground will stay grounded until NASA can figure out how to solve this falling foam problem.

CNN Space Correspondent Miles O'Brien joins us now from New York to explain what this all means.

Miles, this is really disturbing.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN SPACE CORRESPONDENT: It is disturbing, Carol. It's a scary near-miss kind of situation.

Take a look at that live picture, though, for just one moment, if we could. That...

COSTELLO: It looks fake.

O'BRIEN: Now, I know a few moments ago you were a little confused as to where this picture was coming from, right? You know now, right?

COSTELLO: From the International Space Station.

O'BRIEN: There you go.

COSTELLO: Shooting down.

O'BRIEN: Three hundred feet away, the International Space Station. Cameras affixed to it, capturing this shot of Discovery, now about 300 feet away.

The really poignant and sad question on a lot of people's minds this morning, is the last time we'll see this? It is quite possible that the events of yesterday, the grounding of the fleet after two- and-a-half years of work, NASA unable to stop a huge piece of foam from falling off that external fuel tank for Discovery as it rocketed towards space.

It didn't cause any harm to the orbiter. I just want to make this as clear as we can. Looking at the orbiter there, NASA has already done a fairly significant survey of the exterior, and they have every reason to believe the crew if fine, safe and sound, will return home just fine. But there was a piece the size of foam that hit Columbia's wing two-and-a-half years ago, causing that hole about the size of a dinner plate, which was ultimately a lethal breach 16 days later when the crew came back in.

The fact that they weren't able to stop that from happening has led NASA now to ground the shuttle fleet. So when Discovery lands, hopefully safe and sound in 11 days or so, there won't be shuttle flights for a while.

And the real question is, will they be able to fix it, will there be shuttle flights again? Because as we've been telling you, the idea is to retire the shuttle fleet by 2010. And this might not be an easy fix. It might be a situation where they -- they say it cannot be fixed safely.

So these are all questions on our mind this morning. So it's a bit of a bittersweet arrival at the International Space Station right now.

COSTELLO: Boy, you're not kidding. And I know you're going to ask some experts those very questions on "AMERICAN MORNING," and we look forward to that. Thank you, Miles.

O'BRIEN: Thanks.

COSTELLO: What does it take for a crew to divert a flight in the name of safety? We're just talking about airplanes now. You might be surprised to hear the answer, what little it takes to divert a flight.

And later, can bag searches stop a determined terrorist? We'll look at one tool in the arsenal for law enforcement.

But first, here's a look at what else is making news this Thursday.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: International markets looking up this morning. Tokyo's Nikkei up 23 points. The London FTSE up nearly 14. The German DAX up 23.

CNN "Security Watch" time.

Next week, Homeland Security plans to begin using wireless technology at five border crossings with Canada and Mexico. Border guards will give drivers a radio frequency chip to put on their dashboards. The technology will provide information about entries and exits across the border.

We are very intrigued by this story. Remember this? A terrorism scare earlier this week, well, it points up to how airline travel can be impacted by heightened alerts, security checks and airline screenings.

Remember, a Los Angeles flight to London was diverted early Tuesday after flight attendants became alarmed at the behavior of three men on board. The FBI questioned these men after the plane made an unplanned stop in Boston. And then they released the men without filing charges. In fact, the men were able to get back on a plane.

So do efforts to keep people safe and secure take precedence over your plans?

Ben Mutzabaugh is the airline industry reporter for "USA Today." He's also a contributor to CNN.

Ben, good morning.

BEN MUTZABAUGH, "USA TODAY": Good morning, Carol.

COSTELLO: This is -- this is just strange. We wanted to know who makes the decision to divert an airplane, to stop the flight.

MUTZABAUGH: Right. It's -- you know, I talked to someone at the Transportation Security administration yesterday, and they tell me that it's a combination of communications between the airlines, the TSA and any possible law agency, such as the FBI or CIA, that might be involved in...

COSTELLO: But on this particular United Airlines flight, the decision was made by the captain piloting the plane.

MUTZABAUGH: That's right. In a situation like this, the captain, who heard from the flight attendants who became concerned, as you had just said, about the suspicious activity, the captain's alerted. He becomes concerned.

Then he calls his airline's corporate communications -- or corporate security office, who immediately gets in touch with the TSA. They discuss what they've seen on board the flight, and then people at the TSA can say, hey, we've been on alert to watch out for this type of behavior, or this is -- or they might say this is probably not something to worry about.

Now, in the case of this flight, this United flight, what likely happened is something on that flight happened that they've been told to watch for. And instead of taking a chance, they decided to divert that plane to Boston.

COSTELLO: Well, let's talk about what supposedly happened on board this flight. Three Pakistani businessmen, they were walking from coach class to first class, because apparently they had some friends in first class. But they kept walking up and down the aisle.

And somehow, that disturbed flight attendants, although other people say they were doing something more. But they're not releasing those details.

Do you know anything more about that?

MUTZABAUGH: You know, I don't. But that's one of the interesting things that tends to come out of these stories. You hear one story -- one version of the story from one source, but then there always seems to be a passenger or two that says, well, we saw something more than that.

And I think that's the interesting question that we're going to have to deal with here, especially with jittery nerves after September 11, is something more really happening on these flights, or are these simply people who are spooked and remember what happened on 9/11 and are looking more into things that are going on? And I think we're going to continue to see that going forward in these types of incidents.

COSTELLO: Oh, I think you're right. And, you know, I can understand that and how you might feel that way.

But these men were questioned on the ground. They were not detained. And they were let back on board a plane. So apparently that says to me that there was, in the end, nothing suspicious about these men, except for the fact that they were Pakistani.

MUTZABAUGH: Right. And presumably, it doesn't even sound like they were detained very long. And like you said, they were put right back on a plane. So whatever alert was issued, these men seem to have posed a very little -- a very small threat, no threat at all. So...

COSTELLO: Interesting. All right. Ben Mutzabaugh, thanks so much for your insight this morning. We appreciate it.

MUTZABAUGH: You're welcome.

COSTELLO: CNN's Soledad O'Brien joins us now for a look at what's coming up on "AMERICAN MORNING."

Good morning.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Hey, Carol. Good morning to you.

Coming up on "AMERICAN MORNING," we're talking with Republican Senator Rick Santorum. He's got a new book out. It's called "It Takes a Family: Conservatism and the Common Good." Well, in it he takes on some pretty controversial stands. Some on working mothers, also some on single moms, some poor ones he says shouldn't go to college to try to move up the economic ladder.

We'll ask him about some of those stands and much, much more ahead this morning.

Also, GM now dropping its employee discount for all program. The incredibly popular deal copied by other carmakers, it gave the auto industry a much-needed sales boost. We're going to take a look at why it worked so well and what it means if you're in the market for a new car.

That's all ahead on this "AMERICAN MORNING." We're coming to you right at the top of the hour -- Carol.

COSTELLO: We'll be there. Thank you, Soledad.

Do you think law enforcement is doing enough to prevent terrorism on mass transit? You know, on trains? Just ahead, we'll look at some of the tools police are now using to keep you safe.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Washington officials are on their way to New York this morning to talk about safety on trains, subways. They want to know if random searches of bags can stop terrorists. There is confusion, too, as to how transit workers are dealing with left bags in trains.

Joining us now from Washington, Caitlin Harrington, homeland security reporter for "The Congressional Quarterly."

Good morning.

CAITLIN HARRINGTON, "CONGRESSIONAL QUARTERLY": Good morning, Carol.

COSTELLO: So Washington right now, they're not doing random checks on bags. But they're coming here to New York to see if it's working.

What do you think they'll find?

HARRINGTON: I think what they'll find is that doing these random bag checks has largely served as a deterrent. I think a lot of security experts have come to the conclusion that what these checks do, while we may not actually find explosives inside people's bags, what we are able to do is just sort of keep the terrorists guessing, wondering whether or not their bag will be searched. And I think that's at least the philosophy behind doing these random checks.

COSTELLO: But isn't this for some sort of comfort level for passengers as well?

HARRINGTON: Yes, absolutely. There's just a feeling when you can see an increased security presence at the metro stop, perhaps that will lead to making the passengers feel more comfortable.

D.C. actually has a pretty active awareness campaign to get actual metro passengers involved in reporting suspicious activity. They hand out small cards that say "See it, say it," so you'll report any bag left on the train. They're also training just local passengers that are interested and active to help out other passengers to evacuate during an emergency.

COSTELLO: OK. Well, let's continue on that tact, because in "The Washington Post" there was a very disturbing story. Apparently, somebody left a backpack on one of the subway trains, the metro cars in Washington, and it just sat there. Passengers reported it; it just sat there.

The train's engineer went back to check it out. She didn't see anything suspicious, but she left it there. People were running from that train car because they didn't know anything about this backpack.

HARRINGTON: Right. I mean, and that's why I think what you're seeing, there was a hearing in Congress the other day in the House Homeland Security Committee, and one of the big themes of the hearing was just surveillance and awareness, and getting people to understand that they do need to report the suspicious activity.

COSTELLO: Yes, but do you know what I found really strange? I mean if there's a knapsack left over, and I'm an employee of the subway, I don't want to go check inside the knapsack to see if it contains a bomb.

HARRINGTON: Absolutely. That's another problem.

There's just going to be lots of obstacles when you talk about transit security because these systems are so open. Fourteen million riders travel on public transit every single day, and it's just very hard for us to do any kind of detection or inspections of every single passenger.

So, inevitably, you're going to have those suspicious bags, and you're going to just have to rely on the public to try to report them. Maybe some sort of education campaign: hey, if you see a suspicious bag, move away from it, report it. Things like that.

COSTELLO: But, see, I don't think the education needs to be given to us because, you know, if I see a suspicious bag, of course I'm going to report it. But I'm not going to check it out. And there aren't enough police officers or bomb squad members to check out every single bag that's been left behind.

HARRINGTON: Right. One of the major problems -- and you'll hear local -- state and local public transit systems say this all the time -- is that they need the manpower and the resources to get out there and have a very active police presence in the metro stops. And that's one of the ongoing debates between the federal government and the state and local level, is how much funding should be provided to the state and local so that they can beef up their police forces and have a more visible presence in the metro stop.

COSTELLO: Well, we'll see what this meeting entails, or what comes of this meeting between New York officials and Washington officials today.

Caitlin Harrington, homeland security reporter for "The Congressional Quarterly." Thank you for joining us this morning.

HARRINGTON: Thanks, Carol.

COSTELLO: All right.

Are we going to take a break? Or are we going to get our mug? We're going to get to our mug. We're going to talk about something happy.

MYERS: Oh. All right.

The question is from yesterday, and the answer is what song played for the Discovery crew's wakeup call yesterday? That was "I Got You Babe," Sonny and Cher.

And what TV producer has a new series about U.S. forces in Iraq? That was Steven Bochco.

And the winner, Mrs. Mueller. Mrs. Mueller, congratulations, from Oklahoma City.

COSTELLO: Oh, Mrs. Mueller.

MYERS: You win today's favorite coffee mug.

And today's questions: what does CAFTA stand for, C-A-F-T-A? And under British law, how long can police detain terror suspects?

CNN.com/DAYBREAK. Go there, and there's a link. Click on it and send us your answers.

COSTELLO: Tough questions this morning.

MYERS: Yes.

COSTELLO: Thank you, Chad.

MYERS: You're welcome.

COSTELLO: We're going to take a short break. We'll be back with the travel forecast right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) COSTELLO: As promised, here is your travel update.

MYERS: Good morning, Carol.

(WEATHER REPORT)

COSTELLO: Thank you, Chad.

That does it for us, at least for now. From the Time Warner Center in New York, I'm Carol Costello, along with Chad Myers.

"AMERICAN MORNING" starts right now.

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