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Did Police Miss Chance to Arrest Bombing Suspect?; Terrorists Use Internet to Communicate; President to Sign Bill to Prevent Medical Mistakes

Aired July 29, 2005 - 07:30   ET

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

MILES O'BRIEN, CO-HOST: Just about half past the hour on this AMERICAN MORNING. Coming up: hundreds of thousands of Americans die each year from mistakes made by doctors and nurses. But the president's about to sign a new law hoping to lower those numbers.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CO-HOST: Yes. The number is like 250 people a day in a study they did back in 1999 is what they figured out.

M. O'BRIEN: Really?

S. O'BRIEN: And so that brought about this bill. It's called the Patient Safety Bill. Some people say, though, it doesn't have any teeth to change things. We're going to talk this morning to the secretary of health and human services about whether or not he thinks it's going to work.

First, though, a look at the headlines with Carol Costello.

Good morning.

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

Now in the news, the Space Shuttle Discovery undergoing more checks this morning after NASA says a small piece of foam may have hit the shuttle shuttle's wing, but officials stress it's not a major cause for concern. In the meantime, the crew is preparing for the missions' first space walk. That will happen tomorrow.

Story this morning that Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist is breaking ranks with President Bush. Aides say Senator Frist will now publicly back more government funding for embryonic stem cell research, just one month after saying he did not support such legislation. Frist is expected to explain why he's changed his stance on this issue in more detail during remarks later this morning.

Get this. A California man behind bars this morning accused of making a false police report about a missing child. Police say the man told them his 4-year-old niece was in his car when it got stolen. The report triggered an Amber Alert, which was later called off. The car was actually stolen. The theft caught by security cameras. But authorities say the kidnapping story was made up, because the man thought police would recover his car more quickly if they thought a child was in the backseat.

M. O'BRIEN: Really, really bad idea. Did he get the car back, though? Just out of curiosity.

COSTELLO: He got the car back.

M. O'BRIEN: But he's not driving it.

COSTELLO: But he's been charged with filing a false police report. So he's in a little bit of trouble.

M. O'BRIEN: Yes.

S. O'BRIEN: Good news, bad news. Good news, your car's back. Bad news, big fine.

COSTELLO: Bad news, you got caught for being stupid.

S. O'BRIEN: Thanks, Carol.

One of the London stations targeted in the July 7 bombings reopened today. Underground employees opened the gets at the Edgware Road station earlier. Seven people were killed, if you recall, in the attack.

Well, the funeral is scheduled today in Brazil for Jean Charles de Menezes. He is the 27-year-old electrician who was shot dead by police in London who thought, mistakenly, that he was a suicide bomber.

And new developments in the investigation to tell you about. Just weeks before the deadly attacks, it seems the U.S. nearly apprehended a man who may have lent support to the bombers.

Kelli Arena has a report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KELLI ARENA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): While he is now in custody in Zambia, was there a missed opportunity to arrest Haroon Rashid Aswat weeks ago before the London bombings? Bombings in which police believe Aswat may have played a role.

It all started here in Bly, Oregon, where U.S. officials say Aswat allegedly scouted this ranch for use as a jihad training camp, met with potential recruits and even conducted firearms training.

Fast forward to early this summer. Sources tell CNN Aswat was traced to South Africa. The U.S. wanted to capture him and bring him back to New York. But multiple U.S. sources with knowledge of the case say British authorities balked, because Aswat's a British citizen. While the two sides were negotiating. Aswat slipped away.

PAT D'AMURO, FORMER FBI ASSISTANT DIRECTOR, NEW YORK: We have an extradition treaty with the U.K., and they do become concerned when you're talking about rendering a citizen back to any particular country.

ARENA: Sources say there is an arrest warrant for Aswat under seal in New York. It's unclear whether U.S. investigators will get a chance to question him. And counterterrorism experts say it's also not clear whether having him in custody before the bombings would have changed anything.

D'AMURO: We don't know if this individual, one, is involved. Two, if he was involved, would he have cooperated and provided that information, which might have led to stopping a terrorist attack?

ARENA: Officials say there are very high level negotiations underway with Zambia over who will get access to Aswat and when.

Kelli Arena, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

S. O'BRIEN: British investigators also continue to interrogate Yasin Hassan Omar, a Somalian man who was arrested on Thursday in connection with the attacks last week -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Well, you could call it the Terror Connection, a worldwide web of jihadists using the Internet to attract new recruits and raise money to finance their operations. But the U.S. military is on the virtual front lines.

Correspondent Barbara Starr at the Pentagon for us this morning.

Good morning, Barbara.

BARBARA STARR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Miles.

Well, in the wake of the London attacks, we went to U.S. Central Command headquarters to talk to the top intelligence officer there about the threat. We found there is a lot more to worry about than just Osama bin Laden.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

STARR (voice-over): Web sites, chat rooms, and blogs. Terrorists now have unprecedented access to these sophisticated Internet tools and are using them to communicate about their plans, to gather new recruits, to get more money.

BRIG. GEN. JOHN CUSTER, CENTRAL COMMAND INTELLIGENCE CHIEF: The Internet today is the single most important item in the radicalization of young Muslims.

STARR: In the wake of recent attacks, Brigadier General John Custer, Central Command's intelligence chief, warns of what he calls the terrorist class of 2005.

CUSTER: This class, becoming tactically efficient in Iraq, in Egypt, in any -- in England, will be the long war enemy, the opponent that we will face over the next 30 years.

STARR: No one is saying the London bombers used the Internet to plan their attacks, but here at Central Command's highly classified operations center, the focus is on what the military believes is the virtual world terrorists have turned into their Islamic empire, one that cannot be defeated with fire power.

CUSTER: What they have been able to do is build a virtual kalafi (ph), an entity that exerts state-like powers in the Internet, in the ethereal world.

STARR: Cyberspace terrorists don't have to protect leaders, have no capital city. But Custer warns their deadly reach is global.

CUSTER: We know of over 4,000 jihadist terrorist sites connected to chat rooms that you can move to and discuss tactics. You can discuss resources. You can actually talk to people who claim that they have perpetrated attacks.

STARR: Custer says Osama bin Laden is now super empowered by the information revolution. He issues statements from hiding. He doesn't have to personally order attacks.

CUSTER: The franchises around the world can see what they need to do. You attack economic targets. You attack England in the middle of the summer, when the height of their tourist season.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

STARR: And to fund these types of attacks, experts say some of these terrorist jihadist web sites even accept credit cards -- Miles/

M. O'BRIEN: Wow. Barbara Starr at the Pentagon. Thank you -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: This morning President Bush is going to sign legislation aimed at reducing the number of patient injuries and deaths caused by medical mistakes.

According to the most recent complete study, which was done back in 1999, as many as 260 people each day die from a hospital medical error, as many as 98,000 deaths each year. And more deaths occur from medical mistakes than from motor vehicle accidents, breast cancer, cervical cancer, or AIDS.

Mike Leavitt is the secretary of health and human services -- health and human services. Easy for me to say, Mr. Secretary. He joins us from Washington this morning.

Nice to talk to you. Thanks for being with us.

Let's first talk about these shocking numbers. I mean, more people die from a car accident or breast cancer -- die from accidents than a car accident or breast cancer? I find that incredibly shocking. So how does this bill then go to change and reduce these numbers?

MIKE LEAVITT, HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES SECRETARY: Well, they are shocking. And they need to be reduced. And the first step is to make sure certain that fewer of them occur. In order to do that, we need to learn from those that do occur. Occasionally, mistakes are made, and we need to have an atmosphere where doctors can come forward and say, this was a mistake. Let's learn from it. So that we can begin to develop best practices and discipline our medical practice to ensure that fewer mistakes do occur.

The legislation that the president will sign today will create such an atmosphere and help us reduce the number of mistakes that actually happen.

S. O'BRIEN: But those doctors and nurses are encouraged to come forward confidentially. But why no fines? Why no penalties if, indeed, they're involved in a mistake that killed one of their patients?

LEAVITT: It certainly would not eliminate that as an alternative. What it does is it provides protection so that we can begin to learn from mistakes that occur as they occur to create best practices so that discipline can be developed with respect to that practice.

S. O'BRIEN: Some people might say, but it sounds like you're trying to protect the medical field, the doctors and the nurses, more than you're trying to protect the patients?

LEAVITT: Well, this is called the Patient Protection Act, and it's the purpose of being able to protect us all. With the advent of information technology, we have the capacity to learn from these by looking at a wide area if we have the information. Congress concluded, and the president agrees, that the first step to reducing medical mistakes is to learn from the ones that occur and eliminate them.

S. O'BRIEN: What do you think would encourage a doctor or a nurse to come forward? I mean, why -- why would they be motivated to step forward?

LEAVITT: The important thing is to eliminate the reasons they don't so that we can get the information, learn from it and teach doctors and physicians and create practice environments where future medical mistakes aren't repeated from the past.

S. O'BRIEN: I know on another topic -- I want to talk a little bit about the Medicare prescription drug benefit. You've been touring, talking a lot about it, trying to make people aware of their opportunity here. It's the 40th anniversary of Medicare.

But, you know, it's a very complicated system, frankly. Even as I was just researching it, you get these premium and deductibles and Medicare will pay some of it and up to a point and ten you have to pay some up to another point, and Medicare steps back in and pays up to another point.

People are now hearing about it, but do you really think that they're actually getting the message? LEAVITT: I've been touring the country in the bus that you can see behind me, and I can tell you people see this as very good news. For the first time, Medicare recipients are going to have access to prescription drug benefits.

For 40 years, we have been paying for heart operations at $100,000 or $200,000 apiece but been unable to pay $1,000 in prescription drugs to prevent it.

This really goes back to the discussion we had about medical mistakes. This is about learning that health care isn't simply treating a disease or a mistake after it's occurred. This is about preventing illness or mistakes before they happen.

S. O'BRIEN: We'll see if everyone is able to get it, because it is kind of a complicated system. Mike Leavitt is the secretary...

LEAVITT: I feel quite optimistic they will. Thank you.

S. O'BRIEN: Good. I'm glad to hear that. Mike Leavitt is the secretary of health and human services. Thanks for talking with us this morning. Appreciate it -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Clean-up operation is underway in England after a tornado tore through the town of Birmingham. At least 18 were injured. Winds reported up to 130 miles an hour. You can see it knocked this cameraman over, tree branch hitting his legs as he lays on the ground there.

Witnesses say the storm came out of nowhere.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We ran across to the mini-bus. Took as many kids in there as we could. Next minute, all hell let loose. There was trees flying past and debris everywhere. Frightening to think that we had the kids stood here seconds ago, and now it's all still and calm again. Just destruction in seconds really.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

M. O'BRIEN: It ripped roofs off buildings, lifted cars and uprooted trees. British weather forecasters say they do get tornadoes in the U.K. every now and again but very rarely and very rarely this severe, which brings us to Chad.

Chad, you never hear about this.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: You don't.

M. O'BRIEN: That must make it rare there, therefore.

MYERS: It's not really a Tornado Alley in England. Obviously, though, you get a big enough storm and the storm rotates. It can rotate anywhere as long as you're not close to the equator, where there's not much rotation down there. But sure, that absolutely was a tornado. In fact, by that damage, it was an F-2 or an F-3, somewhere around 150 to 175 miles per hour there.

They don't have a lot of experience going out and surveying the damage. But the Fujita, the F scale I was just talking about is not really a winds scale. It's a damage scale.

And the roofs are gone. That probably means F-3 damage. When the walls are knocked down, that's an F-4. And when the walls are knocked down and missing, when you can't find the walls, that's when it gets to be an F-5. It's more of a damage scale than it is a speed scale, if you will.

(WEATHER REPORT)

S. O'BRIEN: That map you just showed, out of control. The one before, which is red. The red map.

M. O'BRIEN: Ugly color. Sort of a burnt rusty red thing.

MYERS: The burnt rusty red map.

S. O'BRIEN: That doesn't look good for the whole middle part of the country.

MYERS: If you're out too long, that's how your skin looks.

M. O'BRIEN: And they're not your good colors, by the way.

Anyway, all right. Thanks, Chad. Thank to you later.

Still to come, worries on Wall Street after another big oil refinery fire. Andy is "Minding Your Business" on that.

S. O'BRIEN: And then later, with changes in store at the security line and the airlines facing strikes, are travelers in for more headaches at the airport? A look at that's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: Stock market rally continues. But there is some news for one oil company. Andy's "Minding Your Business" this morning.

Hello.

ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Hello, Soledad.

Another situation for B.P. down at their Texas City, Texas, refinery. A huge fire yesterday. And you may remember this is the same facility that had a giant explosion back in March that killed 15 workers and injured 170. So this place really apparently snake bit right now. Another fire yesterday, too, at a Murphy Oil refinery in Louisiana. Not surprisingly, the price of crude over $60 a barrel with those kinds of worries.

At 8:30 Eastern this morning, we get first read of how fast the economy grew in the second quarter, looking at 3.5 percent annual growth, down a little bit from the previous quarter, but nothing to worry about there.

Let's talk about the markets yesterday. Soledad, as you said, the rally continues. And we're liking that. Stocks like Starbucks, Daimler Chrysler and oil stocks continue to rally.

One stock bucking the trend, moving to the down side, though, Prestige Brands. They make a number of household cleaners like Comet, also make Compound-W wart remover.

S. O'BRIEN: Why would...

SERWER: Maybe Americans aren't getting as many warts.

S. O'BRIEN: Maybe.

SERWER: Maybe. We'll have to check that out.

S. O'BRIEN: Is that on the "ask a stupid question" segment?

SERWER: Yes, I guess so.

Let's talk a little bit about the market in the month of July, because it's been a wonderful month for investors. So far up 4.2 percent. Should be the best month since July of '97, when the market was up 9 point -- 7.2 percent, I should say.

Today's the last trading day of the month. And so barring a collapse, we will have a very, very good month, and futures are up this morning.

S. O'BRIEN: Some very good news.

SERWER: Indeed.

S. O'BRIEN: What's coming up?

SERWER: Coming up this weekend, lots of people complain about huge CEO pay packages, but no one seems to be doing anything about it except for one congressman, who's been trying to put a lid on outrageous corporate salaries for 14 years. Jack Cafferty and I will talk to him tomorrow at 1 and Sunday at 3on that program called "IN THE MONEY."

S. O'BRIEN: "IN THE MONEY." Attendance is taken.

SERWER: Tiny little business program, right?

S. O'BRIEN: Andy, thanks. SERWER: Good luck.

S. O'BRIEN: Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: No warts there. That's for sure.

Still to come, why the TSA is cutting the number of security screeners at some of America's biggest and busiest airports. How might that affect you? I'll give you two guesses on that one. The first one doesn't count.

Stay with us on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: We've got this information just in to CNN at this hour. There is a major operation that is currently under way in west London. It is connected to the recent terror attacks there.

Sources close to the inquiry apparently are saying that it may be one or may be two of the men that they are looking for in connection with the failed attacks on July 21 may have been arrested. They already, of course, have one person in custody after an operation that took place on Wednesday.

The current operation is taking place near Notting Hill in west London. At this hill, there is a police helicopter that is hovering over the area. Just until a few minutes ago, Scotland Yard had asked for a news blackout. But now it is being revealed to the press that there is a major anti-terror operation under way.

You're looking at some live pictures of this operation. Of course, as soon as we get an update and as soon as we get more information about just who has been arrested, we're going to bring that to you right away -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Another busy summer travel weekend is upon us. There's word the Transportation Security Administration plans to increase the number of security screeners at some airport. Good news. But major cuts being made at others. Bad news.

Barbara Peterson, senior aviation correspondent for "Conde Nast Traveler," is at New York's La Guardia Airport this morning to talk about that and some other concerns for airline passengers. How are the lines there this morning?

BARBARA PETERSON, SENIOR AVIATION CORRESPONDENT, "CONDE NAST TRAVELER": Well, I just looked around the corner, and there is a very long line of people just standing on line to wait to get their I.D.s checked so then they can enter the security checkpoint, where they will stand on another line. So yes, we are seeing the effects of this already.

M. O'BRIEN: The glamour -- the glamour of air travel. Isn't it wonderful? Let's -- let's talk about who's getting personnel and who's losing personnel. All right. Airports that will see an increase in the number of screeners: Houston, Las Vegas -- I don't know which airport in Houston. But Los Angeles, Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach in Florida.

And then those that will experience big reductions are JFK Airport here in New York, Pittsburgh, and Portland, Oregon.

How did they come up with the decisions here? Was there some statistical analysis, or is this a guess?

PETERSON: No. Well, they will say that what they're trying to do is match the screener work force with demand. Now, that's a very tough thing to do in this business, because it just ebbs and flows all day long.

So while they say that they're basing this on what they've seen for the last few years, I think what's happening now is all bets are off. You know, this is a record travel season this summer. And what's happening is it's really hard to keep up with what's going on. And if you've been flying recently, you've seen it. It's very difficult.

M. O'BRIEN: You know, I do fly a little bit. And over the past year, I flew through an airport, small airport in Montana, and it was as if there was an individual security guard for each and every passenger. And to me, that is an allocation problem. What about some of these really tiny airports? That's a big issue, too, isn't it?

PETERSON: Yes, but they all have to have security. That's the law. Now, one solution that is being talked about is having some airports opt out of the federal screening system and hire their own private contractors.

M. O'BRIEN: Wait a minute. I thought the -- I thought the TSA was established to improve security after 9/11. And one of the big issues that came up is these private firms were -- some were good and some weren't.

PETERSON: Well, absolutely. And of course, those private screeners, you know, were paid minimum wage. Now it would be a different system. Now any airport choosing to hire its own screening firm would still have to meet those same standards and still pay roughly the same salaries. But they presumably would have more flexibility in their staffing. And that's why it's looking like an attractive alternative.

M. O'BRIEN: I hope it's safe. All right. Let's talk a little bit about delays. July 13 was a very bad day if you were flying, right?

PETERSON: Yes. That day hit an all time record for daily flight delays. It beat the previous record, which was set in the summer of 2001. So that is clearly another sign that air travel is back. And it's also a sign that the system really hasn't kept up with it. M. O'BRIEN: Was it bad weather, or is it the system not responding or the airlines not getting their act together? What's going on?

PETERSON: Well, it's all of the above. Of course, there's always bad weather in the summer, but we've known that for a long time. Right?

The only thing that's different now is the scheduling has gotten back to pre-9/11 levels at some airports. And clearly, at some places, there are more flights scheduled to take off than the airport can cope with. So that's something that the airlines and the airports have to sit down and work out if they can.

M. O'BRIEN: All right. A couple of airlines -- shifting gears one more time. A couple of airlines -- sorry to do this grab bag to you, but what the heck? United and Northwest, potential strikes on the horizon there. Should air travelers be concerned?

PETERSON: Oh, yes. You know, this, again, adds another potential, you know, factor into your travel plans this summer. Yes, there are some threats of an actual walk out, but what might be a little more of a problem for travelers is maybe these periodic job actions, which don't necessarily have to be announced.

At United Airlines, they have a great acronym for it, CHAOS, which stands for Create Havoc Around Our System. So let's just hope we don't have too much havoc around airports.

M. O'BRIEN: They've tried that before with some degree of success. Barbara Peterson, who's the senior aviation correspondent for "Conde Nast Traveler." Happy travels to you.

PETERSON: Thanks.

M. O'BRIEN: Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Ahead this morning, we've been telling you about this major operation that is now going on. It's underway in London in the Notting Hill area.

Coming up in just a few moments, we're going to bring you an update of this operation, apparently in connection with the failed bombing attacks of last week. We've got a live report just ahead. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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