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American Morning

Al Qaeda Video Warns of More Attacks on Britain; DNA Clears Man of Rape 26 Years Later

Aired August 04, 2005 - 08:32   ET

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

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: A little past half past the hour on this AMERICAN MORNING. Coming up, we're going to look at a case in Florida of a convicted serial rapist freed after 26 years in prison through DNA testing.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: And believe it or not, he says he is not bitter, even for being in prison for all that time.

M. O'BRIEN: You hear them say that sometimes, and they come out -- it just amazes me.

S. O'BRIEN: Well, maybe they're just overwhelmed by finally being released, as well.

M. O'BRIEN: Maybe.

S. O'BRIEN: What's particularly interesting, though, about this case is the timing. The Florida legislature right now is refusing to extend this deadline that would allow other inmates sort of a similar opportunity to have a DNA test that could reopen their case and could, as in this case...

M. O'BRIEN: Why a deadline, though?

S. O'BRIEN: Well, the way it was written originally is the deadline, but they won't change it, they won't change what's happened. Jeff Toobin actually has a lot to the say on this. He's going to weigh in about the fairness of this for potential, I guess, victims of it, ahead this morning.

First, though, let's get a check of the headlines with Carol Costello. Good morning again.

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

We're just getting word of this now. Another terror tape to show you. This is airing on Al Jazeera and it has what it says is a videotape of al Qaeda deputy leader Iman al Zawahiri. You see him here. He's blaming Britain's prime minister Tony Blair for the London terror attacks, and threatens more destruction.

Now, the reason you can't hear this, we're still working on the translation. But this is what we have so far, and I'm quoting from CNN wires right now. He supposedly says: "To the British, I am telling you that Blair brought you destruction in the middle of London and more will come, God willing." Again, this videotape released to Al Jazeera. We're translating it right now. When we get more, of course, we'll bring it to you.

Another update from authorities is expected this morning about the troubled landing of an Air France jet in Toronto. Officials says it's too early to know if bad weather was to blame for the plane skidding into a ravine before bursting into flames. Everyone on board survived. Airport officials say the plane had enough fuel to land at another airport with better weather.

If you drive a Honda, listen up. The automaker is recalling thousands of 2005 Odyssey minivans. Honda is concerned about faulty sensors for the front air bags that might keep a warning light on unnecessarily. The company says no problems or injuries have been reported, but owners will be contacted later this month to get that problem fixed.

And Tropical Storm Harvey is moving past Bermuda and sparing residents from another hurricane. The storm is currently about 55 miles southeast of Bermuda. It's expected to dump up to two inches of rain on the island before moving out over the Atlantic later today.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: All right. Let's get to this new tape we've been telling you about, a tape that recently aired on Al Jazeera television, apparently from Osama bin Laden's number two man. That is, of course, Iman al Zawahiri.

Nic Robertson's live for us in London this morning. Nic, we're waiting for a full, complete translation, but have heard a little snippet. What do we know about these tapes?

ROBERTSON: Well, I think one thing we can say for sure, this is Iman al Zawahiri. It looks like him, it sounds like him. The message is in -- exactly the same as previous messages. He does blame British Prime Minister Tony Blair for the attacks in London. What's very interesting when we look at this, however, is that he is not claiming responsibility for al Qaeda perpetrating these attacks.

And the other thing we can -- when analyzing what we have been able to hear so far -- is it's not clear when this was recorded. Was it recorded after those bombings a month ago that killed 52 people? Or was it recorded after the failed bombings, as well, just two weeks ago? There's no real time reference there for us to be able to make that analysis.

And also, what we have seen in the past, as well, is that when Al Jazeera receives a video message from Iman al Zawahiri or even indeed Osama bin Laden, they don't necessarily broadcast the whole of the message, just extracts from it. And that one extract, or the couple of extracts we've heard so far, one of them quite specifically saying that, God willing, there will be more attacks in London.

And he also warns the United States and reminds people, as well -- particularly Great Britain -- reminds them of Osama bin Laden's warning back in spring 2004, where he says -- Osama bin Laden said -- you will never rest in peace, you will never have security as long as the situation in Palestine continues.

So it's not clear if he's just weighing in after the fact on the bombings in London or, perhaps, buried deeper in that, there might be some effort to claim responsibility. But at this time, it just appears to be a statement after the fact, if you will -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Of course, the people who look at these tapes, Nic, look at the tapes for the specifics, literally what he's saying, what Zawahiri's saying. In addition to that, then they look to see how he looks, what's behind him. Sort of a second-level reading of this tape. Is it too early to determine any more information about how he looks and the scene behind him?

ROBERTSON: Apart from a slight graying of the beard -- and I think in previous scenes we have seen perhaps a slightly darker wall behind him, but that sort of motif of battle is still there. The automatic weapon at his side. Quite a short -- I believe AK-47 type, short-barrelled AK-47 type weapon, the same type of weapon that Osama bin Laden has behind him in video messages he delivers.

What we've noticed about Iman al Zawahiri, it's only the last year or so, year-and-a-half, that he has taken to putting that weapon behind him. In previous messages, he would not have the weapon. Now, he has it, it's still there now. I think the message or the inference here is for his followers, at least, they are still on the war- footing, they are still at war -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Nic Robertson for us with an update. Obviously, we're going to wait for some kind of translation to get in. We can bring you the full story as soon as we get it. Nic, thanks -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: It has been a particularly deadly period for U.S. troops in Iraq. Twenty-seven troops killed by insurgent attacks just since Sunday. The toll is perhaps felt most deeply in the state of Ohio. A battalion base there lost 19 of its members.

Keith Oppenheim is in Brook Park, a suburb of Cleveland. Keith, a tremendous amount of anguish there, I assume?

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KEITH OPPENHEIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Yes, and that anguish, Miles, is reflected at this Marine service center behind me. And you can see there's a makeshift memorial, made in part by families who lost their sons, their troops who died in Iraq this week, and that they've been contributing to this memorial at the Marine service center.

The sense of grieving here is both communal and raw, and last night I got a chance to talk to a father of a troop who died, and he talked about the loss of his 25-year-old son.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) JIM BOSCOVITCH, DEAD MARINE'S FATHER: I was at work Monday evening and was notified by my wife that two Marines were at our house.

KEITH OPPENHEIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): On Monday evening, Jim Boscovitch would find out his 25-year-old son, Jeffrey, was missing in action. On Tuesday, he would learn his son was killed, one of six Marines who died from sniper fire near the city of Haditha, one of 20 Marines who died in Iraq this week.

BOSCOVITCH: And this is Jeff on a gunboat. He was on the Euphrates River.

OPPENHEIM: Jim Boscovitch showed us pictures. And he talked about who Jeff was and who he was to be. In the past, the son had convinced the father that the war in Iraq was worth fighting.

BOSCOVITCH: Months ago, my son -- and he's done this more than -- on one occasion, has corrected me and straightened me out about why he's over there.

OPPENHEIM: And in the future, Jim told us, his son was to be a police officer. He planned to get married this fall to his girlfriend Shelly. And Jim said his son was due back home in September.

BOSCOVITCH: But there isn't a minute that I don't stop thinking about him -- when he was growing up, before he left for Iraq, his -- what we were going to do when he got back, looking forward to a wedding, you know, being a part of his life.

OPPENHEIM (on camera): All that's in the past?

BOSCOVITCH: Yes.

OPPENHEIM (voice-over): As much as he is sad, Jim Boscovitch says he's angry, too, especially at reports his son may have suffered a violent death. And he is mindful there are other families in Ohio going through the same emotions.

(on camera): Is it harder that more have died? Does it change your emotions?

BOSCOVITCH: Of course. Of course. I wouldn't wish what I'm going through on anybody.

OPPENHEIM (voice-over): It may be several days before Jeff Boscovitch's body is returned to his family. Jim Boscovitch says it will only be then he will feel the weight of his oldest son's death.

BOSCOVITCH: You have to try to work through it. And that's what we're trying to do as a family right now.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

OPPENHEIM: As you heard in that story, Miles, Jim Boscovitch, Jeffrey Boscovitch's father, has been supportive over the presence of U.S. troops in Iraq, but some of the other families that we're talking to around here, families who have lost sons from what's happened in Iraq this week, they are pressing a very different opinion, and are saying, in part because of what's happened this week, that it's time for the United States to pull its troops out.

Miles, back to you.

M. O'BRIEN: Keith Oppenheim, thank you -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Just heartbreaking to hear from these families, just utterly heartbreaking.

Still to come this morning, after 26 years in prison, a Florida man is cleared of rape by DNA evidence. Time is running out for other inmates to get the same opportunity.

Jeff Toobin tells us why. That's up next on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: DNA testing is used in countless trials these days to prove somebody's guilt or innocence. But for some inmates, jailed before the technology was available, DNA evidence can hold the key to their freedom. DNA cleared 67-year-old Luis Diaz of rape more than 25 years after his conviction.

CNN's Susan Candiotti has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You are free to go.

(APPLAUSE)

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Cheers for a man who spent 26 years in prison as a convicted serial rapist, until DNA tests proved conclusively that Luis Diaz, now 67, wasn't the attacker in at least two cases.

Later, Diaz, clean shaven and wearing street clothes for the first time in two decades, celebrated with family and friend.

JOSE DIAZ, LUIS' SON: Can you please pinch me? Am I having a dream? Because we're finally here.

LUIS DIAZ, RELEASED FROM PRISON: I feel free. I feel free.

(APPLAUSE)

CANDIOTTI: Diaz speaks only a few words in English, one reason his trial attorneys in 1980 argued he could not have been the attacker of up to 25 women in the late '70s. Witnesses described an English- speaking, heavier, taller man. Yet the night shift cook was convicted in seven cases.

In 1993, two victims recanted, and those convictions were vacated. Two years ago, the Innocence Project push for DNA testing that cleared the way for Diaz to walk out of prison. Prosecutors did not oppose the challenge, yet stopped short of admitting a mistake.

DON HORN, CHIEF ASST. STATE ATTY.: We've still got victims who reaffirmed that this is the person who assaulted them a number of years ago, but as we indicated there in court, when there is a doubt in our mind, that benefit has to go to the defendant.

CANDIOTTI: Attorney Barry Scheck, who heads the DNA Innocence Project, insists when eight witnesses get it wrong, there's a need to reform the way eyewitnesses identify suspects.

BARRY SCHECK, INNOCENCE PROJECT: And if one thing comes out of Luis Diaz' case, it ought to be that the nation says, wow. We really want to catch serial rapists, and we don't wanted wrong people locked up.

CANDIOTTI: Since Diaz went behind bars, his three children have grown up, married and give didn't him three grandchildren. His wife of 19 years remarried, but was at his side this day.

J. DIAZ: Not only have the women be a victim, we feel sorry for the women, but dad has been a victim.

CANDIOTTI: At an age when most men are ready to retire, Diaz says he's ready to start new life, free of anger, free of bitterness.

Susan Candiotti, CNN, Miami.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

S. O'BRIEN: Luis Diaz is not the only American to be exonerated after his conviction. The Innocence Project says that more than 160 prisoners have been found innocent through DNA testing. October 1st, though, when that date comes it might be too late for some inmates in Florida. That's the date, starting then, authorities are going to be allowed to destroy DNA evidence in all cases. It's very confusing. We've got legal analyst Jeff Toobin here to help us out.

Why is this date, October 1st, going to be the date where things expire? How did that come about?

JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Because in 2003 in Florida, prosecutors there got sick of being asked to reopen old cases. They said, you know, we want to be able to get rid of evidence and have some finality in these cases. So they went to the legislature, and the legislature said, OK, you folks have two years, you have until October 1st, 2005, you prisoners, to challenge your old convictions, before 2001. If you don't do it by 2005, in October, doors close, the prosecutors and police are free to get rid of the evidence, can't do it anymore.

S. O'BRIEN: OK, so was the argument that essentially anybody who has being arrested now has the DNA evidence that there would be no reason to go back and test cases? TOOBIN: Well, it's much more common to use it now, and DNA evidence is used by both prosecutors and defense lawyers, if they think it's helpful, in current cases much more often. So the focus of this law was the old cases.

S. O'BRIEN: So the Florida legislature has been called by many people absolutely monstrous, and worse things, frankly. Why did they allow this to happen?

TOOBIN: Well, I think, frankly, it is pretty outrageous what Florida has done, because you know, these people who were challenging their convictions, if they have the DNA evidence and can prove that they're innocent, I mean, they really are innocent. And the idea that there's this arbitrary cutoff seems terribly unfair to a lot of people, because just out of a sort of vague concern for administrative convenience and this sort of arbitrary date, people can no longer challenge their convictions, and evidence that might free people is being thrown in the garbage.

S. O'BRIEN: Is it sort of weighing kind of like the costs? I mean, if you look at number, you've got two million people in prison, you've got 161 people whose lives have been utterly changed because the DNA evidence freed them. And are they essentially saying, well, you know, that's not enough people to make it worthwhile?

TOOBIN: Right, but what you have to remember is that the vast majority of prisoners don't have the resources. They don't have a lawyer. They don't have the knowledge. The evidence in many cases is simply gone, even before this deadline.

So 160, to me, is not a small number. It's actually a large number, when you think about it. I have no doubt that the vast majority of people in prison are guilty and are there, but this arbitrary cutoff is really sort of a shocking thing. And Florida was going to change it, but they haven't yet.

S. O'BRIEN: They could still.

TOOBIN: They could still.

S. O'BRIEN: Well, we'll see. Maybe with a little pressure, they will. Jeff Toobin, thanks.

TOOBIN: All righty.

S. O'BRIEN: Miles?

M. O'BRIEN: Still to come on the program, we're "Minding Your Business." If you think you were ever fooled into seeing a bad movie, a refund could be coming your way. That's next on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: I don't know about you, but if a critic tells me to go to a movie, I go. Right? Is it just like that for you? ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" COLUMNIST: I guess it is. And -- but you have to be careful who the critic is. And Sony Pictures just found that out. They just settled a lawsuit. This goes back to 2001, when the movie studio faked a critic. They had this gentleman named David Manning suggest that several of the movies they released were excellent, were great, the best movie of the year. The only problem is, David Manning didn't exist. He wasn't a critic.

Now, the movie studio has settled with a group of plaintiffs for $1.5 million. There's a Web site that you can go to to collect $5 per person if you saw one of these movies. It includes "A Knight's Tale," "The Patriot," "Vertical Limit." You know, some of these are not -- I didn't see any of these movies. I mean, these are not A-list movies, are they? "The Patriot" was a real movie. The rest of them -- for instance, "The Animal" was a Rob Schneider movie. Did you remember that movie? Did you see that?

M. O'BRIEN: Oh yeah!

SERWER: Soledad saw it.

M. O'BRIEN: Saw it about three or four times.

SERWER: Yes, I bet.

M. O'BRIEN: Because of what Manning said. Hey, wait a minute. I have a case.

SERWER: See, now that's -- this is what gets me about this particular lawsuit. I think that you should only go to this site to collect the $5 in good conscious, A, if you saw the movie. I mean, you don't even really have to prove you saw it. B, if you saw the movie because of the review. And, C, if you saw the movie because of the review and then didn't like the movie. Otherwise...

M. O'BRIEN: You don't deserve the five bucks.

SERWER: You don't, and you're contributing to the overlitigation of society and all the rest. And, of course, the real trick is here is that the lawyers are going to collect hundreds of thousands of dollars. That's what this is really all about.

M. O'BRIEN: All right, well, here's the thing. What if people come up with fictitious identities to get the $5? Wouldn't that be justice, in a sense?

SERWER: Then we could have another set of litigation. And, by the way, I think we should mention that a new Rob Schneider movie is coming out, the European gigolo film. Are you going to see that?

M. O'BRIEN: I laughed, I cried, I hurled.

SERWER: "Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo." Soledad, what about them? You going to see that one?

S. O'BRIEN: No. I want my money back already! "The Patriot" was good.

SERWER: Yes, that was actually a pretty good movie.

S. O'BRIEN: "Knight's Tale" was good.

M. O'BRIEN: That was a good movie.

SERWER: You see a lot of movies, Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: I used to. That's pre-twins.

M. O'BRIEN: So much for the movies.

All right, all this week is part of CNN's 25th anniversary celebration. We are counting down the top sports characters for the past quarter century.

Here's Larry Smith.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LARRY SMITH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The top sports characters of CNN's first 25 years. We asked the editors at "Sports Illustrated" magazine to come up with a list.

A showman at number ten, Andre Agassi brought style and substance to the tennis court.

At number nine, baseball great Pete Rose gambled his way to three strikes from his field of dreams.

A two-sport master at number eight, Bo Jackson knows football and baseball.

WALTER ROOSS, JR., PHOTOGRAPHER, S.I.: I think Bo not only had this great physical ability and this body of Zeus, but the advertising that went along with Bo from Nike made him even a bigger star.

SMITH: At number seven, biker Lance Armstrong survived cancer, then pedaled to seven consecutive victories in the growing Tour de France.

Grip it and rip it. At number six, golfer John Daly drives long on the links, despite hard knocks in life.

Stay tuned as we count down to number one.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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