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American Morning

New Rules for Airline Travelers; Jewel Thieves Making a Run at the Malls

Aired December 02, 2005 - 07:00   ET

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

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Miles O'Brien. Are these real battle scenes from Iraq, or are insurgents actually running a very sophisticated propaganda war? We'll go live to Baghdad.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Soledad O'Brien. New rules for airline travelers are less than two hours away from being announced. We'll take you live to Reagan National Airport to hear what effect those changes could have on your travel plans.

M. O'BRIEN: Jewel thieves making a run at the malls. We'll talk about this with the FBI, about what they're doing and how they're trying to stop this crime spree, on this AMERICAN MORNING.

S. O'BRIEN: Good morning. Welcome, everybody. It's just a few seconds after 7:00 a.m. here on the East Coast. We started an hour ago. We begin at 6:00 a.m. It's our new time. We hope you're join us then.

M. O'BRIEN: We've now done five successful 6:00 a.m. hours.

S. O'BRIEN: We haven't made it through this show yet.

M. O'BRIEN: We did the 6:00 a.m. hour at least, OK. But thanks for being with us bright and early.

Up front this morning, the war in Iraq and propaganda. The main battle right now is over Ramadi, where insurgents have a lot of support. Conventional fighting is going on there, but both sides now believe that winning over the people is the key to victory.

Senior international correspondent Nic Robertson Live in Baghdad.

Nic, we've seen this newly released video of insurgents in Ramadi, and there's all kinds of questions whether it's real or propaganda, or some combination of both.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SR. INTL. CORRESPONDENT: That's exactly it, Miles. And that's what makes U.S. commanders here very angry, because they believe that if this material gets into the public domain and is just played as the insurgents claim it is on this videotape, that they're in control of Ramadi, they're able to walk the streets freely, then it doesn't show the reality of the city.

Now, take this video, it came out yesterday. The insurgents claimed to be on the streets, claimed to be firing weapons. The U.S. military says, yesterday in Ramadi, only one rocket-propelled grenade was fired. They believe Abu Musab Zarqawi and his followers are close to Ramadi, but they say he is very skilled about lying.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAJ. GEN. RICK LYNCH, COALITION SPOKESMAN: What Zarqawi is doing continuously is lying to the Iraqi people, lying to the international community, conducting these kidnappings, these beheadings, these explosions, so that he gets international coverage to look like he has more capability than he truly has.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTSON: So this video itself doesn't prove one way or another what the insurgents are capable of, but what it attempts to show is that they have much more power, more influence than perhaps they really do.

M. O'BRIEN: Of course this propaganda story kind of cuts both ways. And propaganda is always a part of any sort of war. This comes amid reports that the U.S. is actually paying reporters to put favorable stories in newspapers there in Baghdad. How does that play out?

ROBERTSON: Well, this report indicates that certain military writers, or writers working for the military or getting their stories from the military, are getting Iraqi journalists paying Iraqi journalists sympathetic to the situation -- to the U.S. situation here to put in articles that are favorable, that talk very positively about the U.S. role in Iraq. Of course, the U.S. is also conducting programs here in Iraq to help -- and in the region to help train journalists in the very journalistic ethics that that kind of notion seems to break, that you don't get paid to put stories in the newspaper.

And if you talk to Iraqis here about this issue, they will tell you when they see these what they might see as overly positive articles, they tend not to believe them -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Nic Robertson in Baghdad, thanks much -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Back here in the U.S. Deep concern over security on airplanes. In just about two hours, new rules for what you can carry onto a plane are going to be announced. Homeland security correspondent Jeanne Meserve has some details for us this morning.

Jeanne, good morning to you. Jeanne, we should mention, is live at Reagan National Airport in Washington.

What are we going to hear this morning, Jeanne?

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, Soledad, you fly a lot. You know what it's like. When you go to screening, you know what to expect. You take off your coat. You take out your computer. It's all very predictable. Authorities want to change that, they want to shake it up and make it more difficult for terrorists to circumvent screenings, so they are making these changes. The TSA briefed airport representatives on these changes yesterday. CNN has obtained a copy of a summary of that meeting.

According to this document, the TSA is going to be doing more random pat-downs of passengers. When they pull people out of line, they're not just going to be patting the back and the abdomen, which is what they're doing now. They'll also going to pat down the arms and the legs below mid thigh. What they'll be looking for primarily is explosives. Authorities say this is what they now consider to be the greatest threat to aviation.

Now at the same time, they are changing the rules on what you can bring onto aircraft. They are now saying that some scissors, under four inches in length, will be allowed, as will some tools under seven inches of length, although certain tools, like saws, and hammers and drills will be banned. Knives will still be banned. Now flight attendants are not at all happy with this, neither are some members of Congress, including Congressman Ed Markey of Massachusetts.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. EDWARD MARKEY (D), MASSACHUSETTS: Mohammed Atta and the other 9/11 hijackers used box cutters as a weapons to launch their deadly attack against our country. TSA should not make it easier for future Mohammed Attas to arm themselves with razor-sharp objects and bring down a passenger plane.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MESERVE: TSA administrator Kip Hawley will be announcing these changes in just a couple of hours time. The hope is that they will be implemented around December 20th, just as the holiday travel season is getting into full swing -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: You know, I guess the question would be would make it faster through the lines would be not having to take away the scissors and the knives and all of those things from people. At the same time, if you have those new pat-down rules, that could add to the weight. So I can't decide if this is going to speed people through or slow people down now.

MESERVE: Well, according to this document, which CNN obtained, the TSA has done studies at three different airports, pilot procedures, testing all of this. And they do not think it will have a big impact on screening times, and for exactly the reasons you cite. Screeners will be spending less time searching for those little objects. They will be doing more searches, but they won't be searching every passenger, so they hope it all balances out.

O'BRIEN: What they really need to do is figure out a way that you don't have to take off your shoes. That would speed things up to.

Jeanne Meserve for us at Reagan National Airport. Thanks, Jeanne.

We'll wait for that live report. As you mentioned, CNN, you want to stay tuned to us day and night for the most reliable news about your security -- Miles. M. O'BRIEN: In Florida, a mother's pleas are being answered. A jury is recommending the death penalty for Joseph Smith. He is convicted, of course, of killing 11-year-old Carlie Brucia.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SUSAN SCHORPEN, CARLIE BRUCIA'S MOTHER: He couldn't be dead fast enough for me. I want him dead. I want him dead now. My daughter is not breathing. She'll never breathe again. I can never hold her again. I've got to wait for appeals?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

M. O'BRIEN: Here's that videotape. You've seen this many times. It's horrifying every time you see it. Smith kidnapping an 11-year- old girl last year beside a car wash. A judge is expected to decide Smith's fate as early as next month. Highly unlikely, almost never happens, that a judge rejects a jury recommendation.

A lemonade pitcher doesn't seem like a significant object, but for one woman who lost her home in New Orleans, it's all she has left to represent three generations of her family.

Daniel Sieberg follows her on her return to the Lower Ninth Ward, the last New Orleans neighborhood to finally reopen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANETTE TRASK, 9TH WARD RESIDENT: Shock. It's confusion. It's hurt. It's anger. It's everything. This just hurts so bad.

DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Jeanette Trask anxiously awaited three months for a journey home, a trip to uncertainty. Jeanette and her neighbors in the flooded-out Lower Ninth Ward had been kept away.

TRASK: I just had to see it. As soon as they let me in, I say I'm going.

SIEBERG: Unlike many others in New Orleans, the residents in this devastated neighborhood have not been allowed back home because of safety concerns. Jeanette didn't know what she'd find.

Her day started early, at a military checkpoint where residents had to sign in. We drove with her to the home she lived in from the time she was six years old. Three generations have lived here, starting with her grandmother.

TRASK: Everybody knew 2323 Caffeine (ph) Avenue. This is where everybody liked to come.

SIEBERG: At 61, Jeanette is now a grandmother herself. She's been living in Texas, waiting for three months, living out of a suitcase.

TRASK: Oh, Lord. This is the living room. SIEBERG (on camera): Do you remember some of the moments you had in this living room? There must have been a lot of good times.

TRASK: Oh, yes. Good moments. Fun times.

SIEBERG (voice-over): Decades of memories ruined.

(on camera): Does it help to come back today? Does this help?

TRASK: Yes. Yes. I needed this. Because it's been on my mind, and I just wanted to see for myself.

SIEBERG (voice-over): Then in the darkness in the muck, she finds a few of her favorite things.

TRASK: This is my grandmother's pitcher!

SIEBERG (on camera): Wow.

TRASK: This is her pitcher she had!

SIEBERG: What would she of used that for?

TRASK: Lemonade.

SIEBERG: Lemonade?

(voice-over): Sentimental treasures unearthed from the mire, but no time to linger. Residents here must look and leave, and only during daylight hours. If the city eventually allows her to live her again, Jeanette wants to rebuild.

TRASK: Things are going to be better.

SIEBERG (on camera): As hard as it is right now?

TRASK: As hard as it is right now, I have the fate that things are going to be better. God didn't bring me this far to drop me off yet.

SIEBERG (voice-over): Daniel Sieberg, CNN, New Orleans.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

M. O'BRIEN: Just breaks your heart, doesn't it? It really does.

S. O'BRIEN: Oh, yes. And you know, to think that that scene is repeated house to house to house to house in the Lower Ninth Ward, then house to house to house to house in St. Bernard Parrish, and house to house to house to house in Lakeview. And house -- I mean, it's just the number I think really just boggles your mind.

M. O'BRIEN: You'll hear more from Jeanette and her emotional return home when she joins us. She'll be here in the 9:00 hour right here on AMERICAN MORNING. And Jeanette Trask is among thousands displaced throughout the nation. In the Atlanta area alone, there are 100,000 people from New Orleans. Tomorrow New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin will host a townhall meeting in Atlanta to discuss the situation. It will be held at the Martin Luther King International Chapel at Morehouse College from noon until 2:00 p.m. local time. And CNN will have special coverage of that meeting for you.

(WEATHER REPORT)

M. O'BRIEN: Here is a common complaint. Is the media focusing too much on bad news in Iraq? We'll meet a couple of Marines who say, sir, yes, sir, to that one. We'll talk about the progress they've seen firsthand.

S. O'BRIEN: And a gang of thieves ripping off jewelry stores up and down the East Coast. Millions of dollars they've stolen so far. The FBI says you can help catch them. We'll tell you how.

M. O'BRIEN: Plus, more pink slips on the way for thousands of American autoworkers. Happy holidays, guys. Andy will tell you us who is affected, next on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: All right, this is not good news. Not just for the autoworkers who are directly affected, but the country. When you've got the auto industry in this kind of situation. You've got "The Wall Street Journal" saying Ford is about to do some big cutting. Andy Serwer here with that.

ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: All right, Miles. Dire straits really for this business. Just a week after GM announced massive layoffs, "The Wall Street Journal" is suggesting that Ford is poised to do the same; 7,500 jobs may be getting the ax, according to the newspaper, and plant closings as well around the country. You can see here, unfortunately, this plant closing map is something that we've been doing recently. You can see St. Louis, Atlanta, St. Paul, Windsor and a city in Mexico. I'm calling that a city in Mexico, because my pronunciation is not so great.

M. O'BRIEN: We'll just leave it at that.

SERWER: Ford announced they were going to be cutting 4,000 white-collar jobs earlier this month as well. The company has lost $1.7 billion in its worldwide auto manufacturing so far through the month of September. Meanwhile...

M. O'BRIEN: Those are like delta losses.

SERWER: Yes.

M. O'BRIEN: These are big losses.

SERWER: Bigtime. And let's talk about what is going on in this business. Obviously auto sales for the big three not doing well at all. This is the month of November, compared to the previous year's month of November. You can see down, down and down. And obviously, SUV's and trucks are really taking the brunt of it here, and of course it has everything to do with higher gas prices. So it's very tough. They're kind of really boxed in. You got higher fuel prices. The U.S. market is very saturated right now. And plus, they're not making cars that people really want to buy.

M. O'BRIEN: In a nutshell, why were the Japanese so much more nimble in responding to this and having smaller cars out there?

SERWER: I think you could say the mindset is entrenched in Detroit. I just leave it at that. I mean, you really have to say that.

M. O'BRIEN: OK, Andy Serwer, thank you very much -- Soledad.

SERWER: You're welcome.

S. O'BRIEN: Still to come this morning, it seems like something straight out of the movies. Multimillion-dollar jewel heists taking place at your local mall. We're going to talk to an FBI agent about catching these guys, straight ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: The FBI needs your help in tracking down a gang of brazen jewelry thieves who clean out mall stores with incredible efficiency. So far, they've been impossible to catch.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRIS SWECKER, FBI ASST. DIR.: These individuals do know what they're doing. This isn't luck. You don't do 56 robberies without getting caught, without having a pretty good M.O.

S. O'BRIEN: The FBI says over the past two years, this daring gang of thieves has made off with more than $5 million in jewelry.

SWECKER: They're just operating with impunity up and down the East Coast.

S. O'BRIEN: They've burglarize jewelry stores in malls from New Hampshire to North Carolina, and may have struck in Florida and Illinois, too. The FBI is releasing surveillance video showing the crew, dubbed the Gate Cutters, at work. Cutting through store security gates, they pass up the high-end merchandise and clean out display cases filled with men's jewelry, especially Movado watches. They're usually in and out in less than four minutes.

SWECKER: They know the malls, they know the security procedures, they know the security apparatus in the malls. They seem to be very knowledgeable and very tactical in how they operate.

S. O'BRIEN: Now authorities are asking the public to be their eyes and ears to catch the sophisticated and highly elusive thieves.

PHIL GELIEBTER, ABINGTON, PA. DETECTIVE: There's been a vast amount of information sharing, but we cannot do it alone, and we are really looking for the general public to be partners in helping to apprehend these criminals.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

S. O'BRIEN: The FBI wants your help. FBI assistant director Chris Swecker is in Washington, D.C. It's nice to see you, Chris.

Thank you for talking with us.

SWECKER: Good morning.

S. O'BRIEN: Let's begin by throwing the map up for folks, because I want to show you kind of the range where it looks like the guys are operating, 10 states. And if you put the map up, you'll see kind of light green color. Can we show that, you guys? You'll see the sort of light green color is -- there it goes, from New Hampshire all the way down to Georgia, they've been ripping off malls. And then in the lighter yellow color, you can see Florida and Illinois. And those are the states where you think there's been some activity.

Overall, how many malls have been knocked off, sir?

SWECKER: Well, we know of at least 56 jewelry stores that they have hit in these malls up and down the East Coast. It may be as many as 12 states.

S. O'BRIEN: You said that it doesn't look like it's luck. It's the first soundbite we heard in that piece. You said, 56, it can't just be good luck. What do you think's going on here? Do you think these are inside jobs? What's happening?

SWECKER: Well, this crew knows its way around security. They know their way around malls. They know how to get in after hours. They operate very tactically, as I mentioned early. You can tell that this is a very well-disciplined trained crew here.

S. O'BRIEN: What do you know outside of the fact you think they are well disciplined and well trained, what do you know about these guys? What kind of band do they operate in?

SWECKER: Well, they're very tactically sound. And you don't see that too often with robbery/burglary crews like this. They know how to disable security cars. They know how to disable alarms. They only take certain types of jewelry. They know jewelry is not easily identifiable, and we have not recovered any of the jewelry, which show some measure of discipline in terms of how they get rid of it.

S. O'BRIEN: So they're not wasting their time either. I read that they're making their way in and out in sometimes under four minutes. They're not trying to get into the safe, are they?

SWECKER: No, they're not. They know that there's no sense in trying to get into the safe. They just try to take what's available in the display cases.

S. O'BRIEN: You asked yesterday in the press conference for the public's help. what do you want the public to do?

SWECKER: Well, two things. One, we'd like for them to pull up the FBI Web site, which is www.fbi.gov, where the pictures, and they can look at them at their leisure. And also, if they see anything unusual, anything suspicious in the malls before it opens or after it closes, and there are people in the malls during those time periods, that they should call the 1-800-CALL-FBI number or get the nearest security guard to call. But we're asking for them just to be alert and just be alert to anything that's suspicious during those time periods.

S. O'BRIEN: Why do you think they're targeting stores inside an enclosed mall? I mean, that seems -- not that I'm a burglar in any way, shape or form, but that seems incredibly risky. I mean, you're sort of stuck inside once you get into the store.

SWECKER: You would think so. We're not sure why they operate only in malls, but we do know that those are the only jewelry stores that this crew has hit, so they must have some reason. They may have some experience in getting around malls, knowing how to get in after hours, and that sort of thing.

S. O'BRIEN: Do you have any clue to who you're dealing with?

SWECKER: At this point, no. That's why we're asking for help from the general public. I mean, we have some evidence, some forensics. We have some other avenues of investigation that we're pursuing, but we are asking for help from the public. We think this is a time of year where we would like to make sure that nothing violent happens during the holiday season when people are in these malls.

S. O'BRIEN: Oh, gosh. Chris Swecker is the FBI assistant director. Mr. Swecker, thank you for talking with us. We certainly appreciate your time -- Miles.

SWECKER: Thank you.

M. O'BRIEN: Thanks very much, Soledad.

Coming up, is the situation in Iraq as bad as we have been hearing? Well, maybe not. We'll talk to a couple of Marines who say there's been plenty of progress, and they've seen it firsthand. Their story ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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