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Two Miners Trapped in West Virginia Mine; What Threat Does bin Laden Pose?

Aired January 20, 2006 - 10:30   ET

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

(NEWSBREAK)
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: At the White House this morning, they're wrapping up the daily meeting of reporters they call the gaggle. And out of that, information on the NSA wiretapping scandal.

Our White House correspondent Elaine Quijano joins us no with more on that. Elaine, good morning.

ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Daryn.

And we just found out a short time ago the White House will, in fact, be stepping up its efforts to explain, essentially, to the American people its thinking behind the authorization of that controversial government surveillance program.

The White House announcing that President Bush will be traveling to the National Security Agency next week on Wednesday. And also the administration putting out some top officials to discuss this program, as well. General Michael Hayden, who was head of the NSA at the time that this program was authorized, also the Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, said to make comments next week, as well, about this program.

Now, the White House feels that to call it a domestic surveillance program is simply misleading. They argue -- and I want to make this point next week, as well -- that it is only those people who are inside the United States who are contacting terrorists outside the United States who are subject to this kind of monitoring.

Now, we heard Vice President Dick Cheney yesterday, when asked about the bin Laden tape that was surfaced yesterday -- whether perhaps that might change some minds in Congress, not only about the NSA program but also about the Patriot Act, which is set to expire in a couple of weeks -- and the vice president said he hoped so. The administration really believes that this is an essential tool in their arsenal of weapons, really, in the war on terrorism, that it's vital for them to have. They say it's very limited.

And we can look for the president and these other officials within the Bush administration to make those arguments next week. And this coming, Daryn, ahead of those February 6th Senate Judiciary Committee hearings, in which we know that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales is going to testify, as well. So the White House, Daryn, clearly laying the groundwork ahead of that hearing. KAGAN: Elaine Quijano live at the White House. Thank you. Thanks for the heads up on that story for next week.

Let's get back to a story that we talked a lot about yesterday. The U.S. not planning to raise the security threat level in the wake of the new Osama bin Laden audio tape. But local and state law enforcement are being urged to maintain vigilance.

Joining us now from London to talk about bin Laden's latest message is a Sajjan Gohel. He is director of the International Security for Asia-Pacific Foundation.

Sajjan, good morning. Thanks for being with us. Or good afternoon to you there in London.

SAJJAN GOHEL, TERRORISM EXPERT: Good morning.

KAGAN: What do you make out of the tape, from what you've been able to listen to and look at the transcript?

GOHEL: Well, I think it serves two important purposes. One, it's -- bin Laden is trying to convey that he's very much alive, that despite the fact that some of his key senior people have either been captured or killed that he's still able to purport his propaganda, his message.

And, of course, it's also there to show that al Qaeda still has the intention of launching attacks, particularly against the United States, that 9/11 was not a one-off. And they will want to try to execute some kind of atrocity in the near future.

KAGAN: Yes, the way the tape was directed toward Americans and very specify to say there are already plans in the works about future attacks here in America. That certainly got some attention here. I'm wondering on an international perspective what people are thinking?

GOHEL: Well, it was a very chilling message. And I think one has to remind ourselves that despite the fact that successes are taking place in the war on terrorism, that there are still groups out there that have the means and capability of carrying out attacks.

Internationally, the problem is we know that terrorists will want to launch attacks wherever it is convenient against Western interests. 2005 we witnessed devastating atrocities in London, in Bali and in Amman, Jordan. And the problem is that al Qaeda has altered from being an organization; it's an ideological movement. You don't need bin Laden to give the green light. There are other groups that have the means and capability of doing it themselves.

KAGAN: So do you think it's kind of a Western perspective many Americans have on it? You get the top guy and the whole thing falls apart. It's just not just that simple.

GOHEL: Correct. I think we've been looking at it in very conventional means. And yes, certainly in the past there was an organization and that it was important to try to dismantle. But it has altered. Bin Laden has become the figurehead now for what is in effect a global jihad movement.

There are groups throughout the world that have their own leaderships, their own cell structure, their own financing. But they are bonded by the same ideology, which is anti-Western, which is to hate Western interests. And of course, let's look at the fact that bin Laden is conspiring these people. He provides that ideological inspiration and he is very important in that way.

KAGAN: As a terrorism expert, when you look at the announcement from the U.S. government that they are not going to raise the terror level here, that basically this is not news that Osama bin Laden would want to attack the United States, do you think that's appropriate or do you think the terror level here should have been raised?

GOHEL: Well, the intelligence agencies are every day monitoring electronic chatter information through the Internet, through mobile phones communications and other intercepts. They will act if they feel that there is a possible attack taking place. The bin Laden message doesn't mean an atrocity is imminent.

I think what he is doing is he is warning that they will want to do something in the future. Look at the attacks that have taken place against the U.S. interests, the '93 World Trade Center, Khobar Towers in '96, '98 were the embassy bombings and USS Cole in '99. They took over some time. There was always a gap. This could take place maybe in a year or two. And that is the challenge is, we don't know when they want to strike. If they hold the agenda, they have the cards.

KAGAN: And that brings the fear. Sajjan Gohel, live from London, thank you for your perspective this morning.

We're coming back here to the states, focusing on West Virginia. Another mining emergency. Two miners trapped. We're expecting a news conference to begin any minute live from West Virginia. We'll go there live when it begins. Right now, a quick break.

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KAGAN: And we're going live now to Logan, West Virginia, for the latest on the two trapped miners.

Let's listen.

DOUG CONAWAY, W.VA OFC. MINER'S SAFETY: We're working in some pretty tough environment with smoke, and working on lifelines and it was just really hard. Visibility was poor. So that told us our drive in that effort is hampered by the conditions of the mine. So as we can back, we were checking entries and looking and searching (INAUDIBLE), traveling and traversing the one entry.

But we checked all the entries on the way back. And where we're at now is we moved -- or concentrated our efforts on fighting the fire. We feel it's necessary at this point to try to contain the fire. And then, once we do that, maybe the conditions will clear a little bit better smoke and make traveling much easier on up -- on through this section. So right now that's what we're doing, is we're making an effort here to contain the fire. We don't know. We have seen it from a couple different places, but we really don't know the extent of it. We're not sure how far it may have come this way or how far it may have burnt this way. So the teams are in the process now of attempting to fight that fir and get it under control.

QUESTION: I thought you said there was a concern about that because it would change the complexity of the air inside the mine.

CONAWAY: OK, that was when we had teams of people in by here, working under those conditions. People are back here now and we're working -- our efforts are dealing with the fire.

QUESTION: Is it fair to describe the condition in there as deteriorating?

CONAWAY: No, I think -- as I said, we're making -- with conditions we find, we're making adjustments. And at this point, we weren't sure -- when we started up here, we weren't sure how far we were going to be able to go anyway. We went as far as we could go and we were hoping that we could go maybe all the way. But the conditions dictate the changes. We need to come back, we need to get the fire under control and that's where we're at right now.

QUESTION: With your expertise, do you know anything more now as opposed to 12, 18 hours ago as to where the miners might be?

CONAWAY: No. I know some areas where they're not now that we examine. But there's still a lot of this mine that we haven't been able to examine and hopefully will be able to as soon as we can get that fire under control.

QUESTION: Doug, is it possible that this mine is so big and there are so many of those passageways (INAUDIBLE), I mean, is it possible that they could be in an area where smoke has not reached? Is that possible, too?

CONAWAY: I don't know. I wouldn't want to speculate on where smoke is or smoke isn't. It's just -- we just can't do that.

QUESTION: About how many people do you have fighting the fire?

CONAWAY: We have the five teams still back -- we switched out our teams. We have five teams. We have three in the area of the fire concentrating on that. You can only put so many people in that area. It's confined, as you know. So we've got three there. We've got a couple teams down here in reserve as backup for those individuals.

QUESTION: How many are in a team?

CONAWAY: Five.

QUESTION: Using foam?

CONAWAY: There's using foam and water. Yes. QUESTION: Doug, how goes the drilling for the G.O. (ph) phones?

CONAWAY: I -- to be honest with you, I -- when I come down, I hadn't heard where that's at. I could check on that.

QUESTION: All right, thank you, sir.

QUESTION: You said you'd eliminated some possibilities, but tell me more about that, where they could have been (INAUDIBLE).

CONAWAY: Well, I'm just saying, we -- one of the first places we wanted to look was near the man trip because that was the last place they were seen by the other crew members. And we went that area and we found that man trip. So that's one area that we've eliminated. But there's a lot of other places that we...

QUESTION: Have you seen any kind of trail? Have they -- does it look like they may have left some clues about where they've been?

CONAWAY: No, not at this point. It's just -- as I said earlier, in the area where the man trip was in the entry, the mine rescue team members were having a very difficult time with their own visibility. Two or three feet of visibility in front of them. So kind of hard to see if there's a trail or that kind of...

QUESTION: Can you tell how large this fire is?

CONAWAY: No, at this point we don't -- we've just seen it through a couple doors and openings and felt some stoppings which are hot so we've get a general idea. But, you know, we have an idea of how far it's extended here. But this area we haven't seen and this area we know our teams feeling a little bit of heat from that area.

QUESTION: I hope this hasn't been asked before. How large is each rescue team, how many people?

CONAWAY: Five. Five members, but we also have some state and federal inspectors that are mine rescue team members that will be traveling from time to time with different teams.

QUESTION: So at any given time, you have 25 to 30 people in there?

CONAWAY: Yes, there's 20. Yes, 20, 25.

QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE)

CONAWAY: I believe there was three or four blocks that were in by the man trip. They went up to another set of doors and were looking through.

QUESTION: How far is a block? Are they two and a half miles in? What do you...

CONAWAY: Well, there's -- this is...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Two miles.

CONAWAY: Yes, two miles. It's roughly 10,000 feet to this point. A block is usually 100 foot center. It's 100 foot square.

QUESTION: Had all five teams been switched out or just a few of them?

CONAWAY: No, they've been switched out. We need to get back up to the mine site.

QUESTION: Is there spare air in that part of mine? Like canisters or breathing apparatus?

CONAWAY: On the section, I don'T know that. I think these individuals had -- the breathing apparatuses were on them.

QUESTION: How long do those breathing apparatus last?

CONAWAY: They're one hour -- they're rated for one hour.

QUESTION: Are they the same ones from Sago?

CONAWAY: The exact same ones.

QUESTION: Sir, I've heard some rumors that (INAUDIBLE) rescue workers were trying to enter the mine through the back. Is that true?

CONAWAY: Through the back?

QUESTION: I've heard a rumor from two or three people that rescue mine worker teams were trying to enter the mine through the back entrance of the mine. Is that a rumor?

CONAWAY: No. The mine rescue teams operate only at the direction of the command center. And that's state, federal, and the company individuals that are setting there and they're in agreement on each move that the team makes. So some teams that's on the back or somewhere we're not sure of, we're not going there. Our efforts are up here right now on the fire.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Doug's got to get back.

GOV. JOE MANCHIN, WEST VIRGINIA: Let me say before we both have to leave here that West Virginia, our little state, has been through a lot of tragedy in a very short period of time. But if you know West Virginia families, we're strong. And with the grace of God, we're going to get through this.

And we want to thank everyone for their prayers and their support and all of our efforts are going to be towards the rescue and towards the support of the family now. So with that, we want to say -- I want to say thank you and I'm going to go and work with the families and.../

QUESTION: Can you describe the mood of the families over the past couple of hours? Has that changed? MANCHIN: Strong people. Strong.

QUESTION: Are they getting more anxious, though, because the time goes by?

MANCHIN: These are miners -- mining families who understand what we're dealing with. And they are very prayerful and they're very strong. That's who West Virginia -- that's who we are.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you guys (INAUDIBLE). From this point forward, we're not going to have a schedule in terms of two hours that we've been operating on.

KAGAN: Those final words from West Virginia governor Joe Manchin. Getting an update on this latest mining emergency, this one on the other side of the state in West Virginia, in Logan County, West Virginia. The Aracoma mine in Logan County. Two miners trapped underground. At about 5:30 yesterday, a fire broke out in that mine. Other miners did make it out.

At this point, they're not even exactly sure where these two miners are within the mine. There is a fire that is burning and they're trying to figure out even just the extent of it. But because of the fire and the smoke, their rescue efforts are hampered at this time. The rescuers saying that they know where the miners aren't, but not exactly sure where the miners are. We'll continue to follow that story out of West Virginia.

Also, other news of the day. Weather and business, as well, after this.

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KAGAN: Let's take a look at other stories making news coast to coast on this Friday morning.

Signs of recovery from Mississippi's gambling industry. In Biloxi, three casinos have reopened since Hurricane Katrina hit. They are reporting revenues of more than $14 million in the first ten days of business. That's a payout of $1.7 million in tax money for the magnolia state. Four more casinos are set to open by the end of the year.

In Wisconsin, security cameras captured this, a high speed and top dollar heist. Milwaukee police say that these quick-working burglars swiped nearly a million dollars worth of jewelry in a little more than two minutes. There's still no word the fleet-footed thieves have been captured. Oh, they are fast.

How does three quarters of a million dollars sounds for spending 21 years in prison for a crime you did not commit, by the way? California says it will pay Kenneth Marsh $756,000 for his troubles. Marsh was wrongly convicted in the 1983 death of a child. The state's compensation equates to $100 for each day Marsh spent behind bars.

Legendary soul singer Wilson Pickett has died. He was best known for the classics such as "In the Midnight Hour" and "Mustang Sally." He died from a heart attack Thursday in Virginia. The Alabama native was 64 years old.

And in Jefferson County, Arkansas, native son Buster Smith celebrated a birthday. We're not just talking any birthday. How about happy 112th birthday. That's right, Buster is 112 years young. Just to give you some perspective, when Buster was born back in 1894, Grover Cleveland was president for the second time. Happy birthday to you.

The story of John Smith and Pochahantas. It makes it leap from the history books to big screen and Mr. Moviefone -- ha, I get choked up when I just think about him. Mr. Moviefone, Russ Leatherman, will join us to talk about whether or not it's a good movie.

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KAGAN: Vampires, werewolves and a journey to the new world highlight our movie reviews for the weekend. Let's head to Los Angeles and check in with our favorite reviewer, Mr. Moviefone, Russ Leatherman.

Russ, happy Friday.

RUSS LEATHERMAN, MR. MOVIEFONE: Happy Friday to you, Daryn. Now I know you're looking forward to this werewolf movie, aren't you?

KAGAN: Yes, you know, you were in -- we were just in a drought of these bad dream movies that you love to bring us.

LEATHERMAN: Well, we only have one wide release this weekend, so there's one big movie. It's about your only choice. It is "Underworld: Evolution."

KAGAN: I'm telling you now, I'm not going.

LEATHERMAN: Come on. The werewolves, the vampires. They're at war, see, and Kate Beckinsale is a vampire. But this time, she falls in love with Scott Speedman, who happens to be a werewolf. So that's a forbidden love situation. It's sort of "The Brokeback Mountain" of vampire movies, is what it is.

KAGAN: Get out of here.

LEATHERMAN: I got to tell you, this is one of those movies the studio wouldn't screen for us. So apparently they even think that their vampire movie sucks. But, you know -- so I have to say I'm out simply because they wouldn't show it to us. But you know what, it's your $10.50, you do what you want.

KAGAN: Yes, I'm not doing that. I don't know what creeps me out more, vampires or the idea of Colin Farrell kissing a 14-year-old girl in this other movie, "The New World."

LEATHERMAN: It's really weird. It's a little bit strange.

KAGAN: It's illegal is what it is!

LEATHERMAN: When they made this movie she was 14. And the thing about this movie is everybody knows the plot. It's about the settlers coming over. He plays John Smith, who gets in a relationship with Pochahantas, who was -- the actress was 14 when they made this movie.

This is a Terrence Malick film. He makes a film about one every 27 years.

KAGAN: Yes, that's good.

LEATHERMAN: A lot of people really love his work. I have to tell you, I thought this movie was tedious and slow, boring and slow and slow. It was just -- for the parts of the movie I was awake, Daryn, it was beautiful to look at. But if you're looking for a good snooze, I suggest you go see "The New World."

KAGAN: And you got the biggest womanizer in Hollywood kissing a 14-year-old girl. Pass and pass.

LEATHERMAN: You are angry.

KAGAN: I'm angry about that. Thank you for that, though, Russ. Thank you. Have a great weekend.

LEATHERMAN: You, too.

KAGAN: Mr. Moviefone, Russ Leatherman.

Well, ahead in our next hour, a unique production. One of the Holocaust's most well known stories, Anne Frank. But now her story comes to the world of puppetry. The second hour of CNN LIVE TODAY begins after a quick break.

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