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9/11 Intelligence Gap?; Killer Buried With Honor; Preventing Lung Cancer; Singer Shot

Aired August 10, 2005 - 07:29   ET

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

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Welcome back, everybody. It is just about half past the hour on this AMERICAN MORNING.
Coming up, how long before September 11 Attacks did U.S. intelligence know that Mohammed Atta and three other hijackers were linked to al Qaeda? The question is causing a big debate, and now the 9/11 Commission, once again, is getting involved. We'll have a look at that ahead.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: We certainly will. And if you're wondering, Miles O'Brien, he's taking a much needed rest.

O'BRIEN: I guess I should have mentioned that.

COSTELLO: He's exhausted. He collapsed yesterday.

O'BRIEN: This is not Miles. Miles is taking the day off, yes.

COSTELLO: Actually this is Miles.

O'BRIEN: The shuttle is up, the shuttle is down. Miles is gone.

COSTELLO: Exactly. But he'll be back on Monday.

Let's check in with Fredricka Whitfield. She's at the CNN center.

Good morning -- Fredricka.

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: I think he deserves a break.

COSTELLO: He does.

WHITFIELD: Yes. All right. Well, "Now in the News."

A statewide man hunt in Tennessee for an escaped convict and his wife. The prisoner, George Hyatte, was being escorted from a courthouse by armed guards when, according to authorities, his wife drove up and opened fire. The shooting left one guard dead. Police are now pursuing leads to find the pair. They believe one or both may be wounded.

Turning to Iraq, a suicide car bombing has left three Iraqi police officers dead in northwestern Baghdad. And four U.S. soldiers have been killed after an overnight attack near Baiji. Six others are wounded. Forty-two American troops have died in Iraq this month alone.

A fiery explosion at a chemical plant forced hundreds from their homes in suburban Detroit. Check out these flames. The fire broke out late last night, and it's still burning. The fire department says it will allow the fire to burn itself out, but there were some concern over what might be in the air. The Environmental Protection Agency is doing some testing in the area as a precaution.

Texas Rangers pitcher Kenny Rogers is heading back to the mound for tonight's game against the Boston Red Sox. Rogers' 20-game suspension for shoving two cameramen in June was cut short to 13 games on Tuesday. That means he will play tonight. Rogers has also been ordered to pay a $50,000 fine. That will be given to a charity. Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig, who imposed the initial suspension, said he strongly disagrees with the ruling, saying it sends the wrong message to the fans, the media and the players.

And a New York teenager could face some charges after a scary incident at last night's Yankees game. The 18-year-old fell, or maybe even jumped, from an upper deck and landed in the net behind home plate. New York City police say the teenager fell after allegedly being dared by his friends. By the way, the Yankees lost to the Chicago White Sox 2-1. Scary stuff -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Not the smartest thing to do, right? All right, Fred, thanks a lot.

A CNN "Security Watch" now. New questions about when U.S. intelligence first knew about some of the men who would become 9/11 hijackers. Congressman Curt Weldon claims military intelligence was watching Mohammed Atta and three others in an al Qaeda cell more than a year before 9/11. But that information was not passed on to the FBI.

Pennsylvania Representative Curt Weldon in Philadelphia this morning.

Nice to see you, sir. Thank you for being with us.

REP. CURT WELDON (R-PA), ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE: Good to be with you, Soledad.

O'BRIEN: The classified military intelligence group called Able Danger is really the focus of what you're talking about. And you say they identified this al Qaeda cell, called "Brooklyn" apparently. Did they know before 9/11 that that particular cell included Mohammed Atta and the three other hijackers?

WELDON: Yes. In fact, the military intelligence officers who worked this process, which was a cutting-edge technology using massive data mining, actually identified the Mohammed Atta cell in late 1999. In September of 2000, they became convinced that this cell needed to have follow-up, and they wanted to bring the FBI in. On three separate occasions in September of 2000, they asked their superior lawyers if they, in fact, could bring the FBI in for consultation, so the FBI domestically could monitor this cell and eventually, if necessary, take it out. Three separate times they were turned down. They were...

O'BRIEN: So let me just stop you there. The attorneys who turned them down, you're saying the lawyers, the FBI lawyers who...

WELDON: No, not FBI lawyers. No, these were lawyers either with DOD or within the White House. We don't know...

O'BRIEN: OK. So the word never got from the Pentagon to the FBI.

WELDON: That's right.

O'BRIEN: So who are these lawyers? And are you saying that these lawyers, who stopped the passage of the information that these specific people were part of an al Qaeda cell, aren't they essentially responsible for not preventing 9/11?

WELDON: Well, there certainly is some serious accountability there. We don't know whether these lawyers were DOD lawyers or whether they were actually from the Justice Department or the White House.

O'BRIEN: So you don't know who the lawyers are?

WELDON: No. I know the immediate lawyers were in Special Forces command, who told the folks, you can't proceed here. Mohammed Atta is here legally. He either has a visa or a green card. They actually had them put these stickies, these paste-its on top of the faces of Mohammed Atta and said, you can't know about them because they're here legally.

O'BRIEN: Why wouldn't they be able to know about them just because they're here legally? They were on visas we now know.

WELDON: Because...

O'BRIEN: But why wouldn't be the FBI be able to monitor someone who's here legally?

WELDON: Well, the FBI would be able to. But it was the question of passing the data that had been assembled by Special Forces command, which is a military operation. And so, there's a question about that when it's classified information. But the bulk of the information that was being used by the military intelligence was open-source information, because the technology, this massive data mining, was not using classified intelligence primarily.

O'BRIEN: So why didn't they pass the information on?

WELDON: Well, that's a question that needs to be answered. And the question that needs to be answered is: Why did the 9/11 Commission not include this in their final report? And why did 9/11 commissioners, why did they not receive a briefing about Able Danger?

O'BRIEN: What is your take on why the 9/11 Commission...

WELDON: Well, I don't know.

O'BRIEN: You seem to know certainly about Able Danger, this classified military unit, but not any sort of connection to Mohammed Atta. Do you think someone withheld this information from the 9/11 commissioners?

WELDON: Well, I don't know whether -- I don't think it was any of the commissioners. What I'm wondering is whether or not any of the staff knew where this would lead and perhaps wanted to divert the staff's attention, and therefore the commissioners' attention, away from focusing in on what Able Danger was doing, because there were attempts within the administration back then. We're talking about the Clinton administration. Very sensitive concerns that were also expressed by the lawyers of the political fallout that occurred after the attack on the Branch Davidians at Waco. These questions need to be answered.

O'BRIEN: In an interview with "The New York Times" that's running today, you say that you knew this information pretty much right after 9/11. Why is it only coming out now?

WELDON: Well, I didn't know the information of Able Danger. What I was supporting as the chairman of the Defense Research Committee was the funding for the process, this massive data mining process. In fact, I had been pushing the CIA to take this and use it at a higher level, and they refused.

Two weeks after 9/11, I was given a chart that Able Danger had produced, and I took that down to the White House and gave it to Stephen Hadley. But I didn't know the details of what they were doing until two months ago.

O'BRIEN: So I guess the question is, two months ago is when your book came out. And for many people, that's kind of an interesting link that it...

WELDON: Well, that's why I found the information out. In fact, as I was finishing the book, I called the folks at the military intelligence to have them recreate the chart that I had handed to Hadley. And they came in and said, let me tell you the rest of the story. And they told me the rest of the story.

And I immediately -- in fact, in June of this year -- did a floor speech. Unfortunately, the mainstream media didn't pay attention. Only recently did "The New York Times" decide to run a front-page story. This information didn't come out yesterday. This information was given in a floor speech by me for 45 minutes in June of this year. That's two months ago.

O'BRIEN: And you think either the 9/11 commissioners or their staffers in the Pentagon have all basically blocked that information. Well, we'll see what their reaction is. They said they're going to look into it. Congressman Curt Weldon, nice to see you.

WELDON: Thank you.

O'BRIEN: Thank you for talking with us.

WELDON: My pleasure. Thank you.

O'BRIEN: Be sure to stay with CNN day and night for the most reliable news about your security -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Arlington National Cemetery, the final resting place for hundreds of thousands of military veterans and American heroes. Now it is also the final resting place of a convicted killer.

Correspondent Kimberly Osias explains.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KIMBERLY OSIAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Wilda and Daniel Davis had been married for 63 years. Their lives were suddenly cut short on Valentine's Day, 1994, when they were stabbed to death in their own home by this man, Russell Wayne Wagner.

VERNON DAVIS, VICTIMS' SON: We was devastated.

OSIAS: Wagner managed to walk after his first trial ended in a hung jury in 1996. Six years later, DNA from a single strand of hair helped to convict him. Wagner was sentenced to two consecutive life prison terms. This past February, he was found dead in his cell from a heroin overdose.

What happened next started a new controversy.

(on camera): Wagner served in the Army and was honorably discharged. He qualified to have his funeral here at Arlington Cemetery.

(voice over): His ashes were placed in a vault above ground. Cemetery officials told us they didn't know about Wagner's background. According to federal law, any veteran, including a convicted killer, would be eligible for burial, provided the sentence included the possibility of parole. Wagner would have been eligible after 15 years.

And one Army veteran, the victim's son, is outraged. He says the law needs to be changed.

Vernon Davis served in the 1960s and was part of the Honor Guard at President Kennedy's funeral.

(on camera): In some ways, is this a slap in the face?

DAVIS: It's more than a slap in the face. It's just -- it's just completely uncalled for. Uncalled for. There is no honor there.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, he took my mother and daddy's life.

OSIAS (voice over): An act Vernon Davis considers unforgivable.

DAVIS: Well, for a guy that was in the service and fought for his country, for our freedom, and then he come home and took freedom away from two people that he had no right to do.

OSIAS: But Wagner's ashes are being kept in a place of honor, along with the remains of nearly 300,000 others who sacrificed for their country.

Kimberly Osias, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: Now, we did speak to someone at Arlington National Cemetery. She said she first heard about Wagner's criminal past just last week, and now she says Army officials are gathering details about the case and would decide whether Wagner's burial was appropriate. So we will keep you posted -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: And nearly 20 minutes before the hour. It's time to check the weather.

(WEATHER REPORT)

O'BRIEN: Well, you remember the runaway bride, Jennifer Wilbanks? "The Tonight Show" host, Jay Leno...

COSTELLO: Who?

O'BRIEN: Yes. Maybe we could put it this way: Could you ever forget the runaway bride, Jennifer Wilbanks?

COSTELLO: Exactly.

O'BRIEN: Because we mashed it into your head each and every day.

COSTELLO: We did.

O'BRIEN: Anyway, Jay Leno, did you see this? He had some fun with the reports. I guess she's getting married this Friday, the report said. The report said.

COSTELLO: Oh, that gives me a headache.

O'BRIEN: I know. It's back.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAY LENO, HOST, "THE TONIGHT SHOW WITH JAY LENO": They are also reporting that runaway bride Jennifer Wilbanks -- remember this woman? She's now rescheduled her wedding for this Friday. The last time she ran away because of all of the pressure from all of those people showing up. Yes, I don't think that's going to be a problem this time. I think you'll be OK. If you haven't gotten her a gift you can't go wrong with a low jack. That might be something.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: Oh, I wonder when that story is ever going to go away. Probably not anytime soon. COSTELLO: No. There's a picture of her in "The Post."

O'BRIEN: Yes.

COSTELLO: And she's mowing the lawn, and she has a cap on. And they managed to get her eyes under there.

O'BRIEN: I know.

COSTELLO: It's so unfortunate.

O'BRIEN: And they rolled tape on it. This poor woman is going to have people following her around forever. She's working off her court-ordered community service. She's cutting grass at a government building. She said to the reporters who asked her that she's doing well. And that, as you can see from her abilities with the lawn mower, it's been a while since she's mowed a lawn. She also has to scrub the toilets, pick up the trash and wash the cars.

COSTELLO: Well, I'm sure when married life hits her she'll probably be doing pretty much the same thing.

O'BRIEN: Pretty much your court-ordered community service, kind of like being married.

COSTELLO: Exactly.

O'BRIEN: Just kidding, honey. It's my anniversary.

COSTELLO: OK.

O'BRIEN: Just joking, sweetie.

COSTELLO: I'm sure your husband does his share.

O'BRIEN: Uh-huh.

COSTELLO: I'm sure he does actually.

O'BRIEN: Uh-huh. Moving on.

COSTELLO: The Fed -- the Fed raises interest rates yet again.

O'BRIEN: The 10th time.

COSTELLO: Yes. And there may be more to come. Andy is "Minding Your Business" this morning.

O'BRIEN: And also this morning, a serious story, Dana Reeve's diagnosis and Peter Jennings' death. What do you need to know about lung cancer? We've got answers from a leading expert up next on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Just two days after the death of ABC News anchor Peter Jennings, Dana Reeve, the widow of actor Christopher Reeve, announced she has lung cancer. The American Cancer Society estimates 163,000 people will die from lung cancer in the United States this year alone. More people die of this disease than of colon, breast and prostate cancers combined.

Dr. Bruce Johnson is the director of thoracic oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. He's here in New York this morning.

Thank you for joining us.

DR. BRUCE JOHNSON, DANA-FARBER CANCER INSTITUTE: It's a pleasure to be here.

COSTELLO: People have so many questions about this. And, of course, what most upsets them is Dana Reeve never smoked, looked like she took care of herself, exercised, kept her weight down, and yet she gets lung cancer.

JOHNSON: So, one of the things that happens is although lung cancer is most common in people who smoke cigarettes, it does affect people even who have never been exposed to cigarette smoke. As an example, of women who get lung cancer, 20 percent of them have never smoked.

COSTELLO: And that's double the amount for male nonsmokers.

JOHNSON: That's correct. And we don't quite understand why it's more common in women than men, other not that the fact the smoking prevalence in men tends to be higher, so there are more women who are exposed to cigarette smoke in the house.

COSTELLO: So, is there some genetic trigger that you're born with that would predispose you to getting lung cancer?

JOHNSON: Well, one of the things that has happened is our understanding that perhaps something different was happening in women and men who don't smoke and get lung cancer came just about two or three years ago when we delved into biological insight. The studies to find out why nonsmokers get lung cancer have just begun to get started.

COSTELLO: Why, though? I mean, if it's so prevalent, why are the studies just going on now?

JOHNSON: Well, one of the things that happened and one of the clues that we got is that we began discovering that the behavior of lung cancer was quite different in people who didn't smoke than people who did smoke. We used to lump them all together and treat them in the same way. Then starting about two years ago, we found out that people who get treated with new pills that we've designed for treatment of lung cancer, that is giving either Tarceva or Arisa (ph) which are ones that are just pills you take once a day. And we found out people who didn't smoke are twice as likely to have their tumors shrink than people who didn't smoke. COSTELLO: Interesting. I want to go down the symptoms, because part of the problem with this is that you really don't know you have lung cancer until it's too late to effectively fight it. So let's run down the symptoms. Chronic cough is one of the symptoms.

JOHNSON: So, chronic cough, one of the things that causes a chronic cough is you have something that's irritating the lining of your lungs. That is the airways. And that tends to take place relatively late. Most of the lung cancers arise in the distal part, meaning the airways are spread. So in order for it to get big enough to irritate the airways, it has to be relatively large and tend to be in relatively late state.

COSTELLO: OK. Other symptoms. Hoarseness. If you're coughing up blood, that's always a problem. Weight loss and loss of appetite and shortness of breath. If you have any or all of these symptoms, you should probably visit your doctor.

JOHNSON: That's right. One of the other problems is when you have hoarseness is that's gone far enough that it affects one of the nerves that makes your voice box work. And that is relatively advanced when it gets to that particular point.

COSTELLO: So, when we heard Peter Jennings talking and he was so hoarse, you knew that his cancer probably had progressed pretty far along.

JOHNSON: Yes. Hoarseness is one of the signs that you usually can't remove it surgically. One of the things that is encouraging, if you can pick up lung cancer at an early stage -- that is, before it spreads to lymph nodes -- surgical resection or removing it surgically is an effective treatment. The people who have it confined to just their lungs are able to be cured about 50 percent of the time.

COSTELLO: And, hopefully, Dana Reeve has that kind, although we don't know. And I know you can't comment on that. We also know you probably have a lot more questions for Dr. Johnson. So we want you to e-mail us this morning with your questions. Dr. Johnson is going to stick around, and he's going to answer your questions. And the e-mail address is am@cnn.com. That's am@cnn.com. Any question you have regarding lung cancer or any kind of cancer, send them in. And we'll answer your questions live in our 9:00 hour of AMERICAN MORNING.

Thank you, Dr. Johnson, for sticking around.

JOHNSON: Thank you.

COSTELLO: Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Still to come this morning, Andy is "Minding Your Business." After another Fed hike, how high will interest rates go? A look at that up next on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: The Fed raises interest rates for the 10th time in a row. So how high could the rates go? Andy Serwer is "Minding Your Business" this morning.

We expected this.

ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: We did. And the markets shrugged it off, Soledad. Some people are talking about short-term rates going up to 5 percent from 3.5 percent now. That would take months and months. And a long way from 1 percent, which is where the Fed funds rate was in last June of '04, I should say.

The markets did not pay attention to this move by the Fed. Did pay attention to lower oil prices, which boosted shares in all three major indexes. And, I'm happy to say, that futures are up this morning.

I want to tell you a little bit about a juicy Hollywood trial that ended yesterday after 10 years, a resolution to the trial between a shareholder group and the Walt Disney Company. A law firm that claimed to represent shareholders sued Disney over the $130 million pay package the company meted out to former super-agent Michael Ovitz, who was the president of Disney.

O'BRIEN: But not for very long.

SERWER: No. Only for about 14 months, as a matter of fact, Soledad. And the testimony revealed just incredibly bitter in- fighting between Ovitz and Disney's CEO, Michael Eisner, and it was really very, very ugly stuff that did neither of them any good at all. This case really exonerates both Eisner and Ovitz, and it ended up being great material for a book by Jim Stewart, "Disney Wars," if you care to read all about it.

O'BRIEN: A great book. And also many, many interesting articles revealing what's going on inside that company.

SERWER: Absolutely, yes.

O'BRIEN: All right, Andy, thanks.

SERWER: You're welcome.

O'BRIEN: Carol.

COSTELLO: A second person has been arrested in the shooting of singer Marc Cohn. He's the guy that made the song "Walking In Memphis" famous. A 23-year-old woman and a 26-year-old man are being held on suspicion of attempted first-degree murder and aggravated robbery. Cohn and his driver are recovering from gunshots during an attempted carjacking in Denver.

Brooke Anderson has more for you.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARC COHN, SINGER (singing): When I was walking in Memphis.

BROOKE ANDERSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Singer/songwriter Marc Cohn is probably best known for this hit tune, "Walking in Memphis."

COHN (singing): But do you really feel the way I feel?

ANDERSON: The Grammy-winning Cohn is married to ABC News correspondent Elizabeth Vargas, and together, they have a 2-year-old son.

ELIZABETH VARGAS, ABC NEWS: It's Zachary. He's two.

ANDERSON: By all appearances, a happy and successful life that took a nearly tragic turn Sunday night in Denver, when Cohn was shot in the head during an attempted carjacking as he was leaving a performance.

SONNY JACKSON, DENVER POLICE DEPT. SPOKESMAN: The driver of the van tried to avoid him and go around him. At that point in time, Yacteen fired into the van, striking the driver, grazing his chin, and also causing some glass injury, and striking singer Marc Cohn in the temple.

ANDERSON: Miraculously, both Cohn and the driver of the vehicle survived, with only minor injuries. Cohn was treated at Denver Health Medical Center, where the bullet was removed from above his right temple.

So how did Cohn survive a gunshot to the head? Dr. Maurizio Miglietta, director of trauma surgery at NYU's Bellevue Medical Center, explains.

DR. MAURIZIO MIGLIETTA: The more things the bullet hits or passes through, the lower the velocity, the speed of the bullet. And therefore, the less it will penetrate whatever it's hitting.

Luckily in this case, it seemed to go through various things, such as glass, and then grazed off of another person, enough so that it just basically superficially entered the skin.

ANDERSON: Police arrested this man, 26-year-old Joseph Yacteen, Monday night after a five-and-a-half-hour standoff. Yacteen is being held on suspicion of attempted murder and robbery.

Vargas, who rushed to Denver to be by Cohn's side, released this statement to CNN before returning to New York: "While he's obviously shaken by this experience, he is looking forward to returning home and eventually getting back to life as usual."

Vargas also said Cohn is expected to make a full recovery.

Brooke Anderson, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: And in just a moment, a huge explosion lights up the night and rocks suburban Detroit. A look at what could have caused it. That's just ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

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