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American Morning

Gay Bar Attack; Shock & Suspicion; Minding Your Business; Barkley Speaks Out

Aired February 03, 2006 - 07:30   ET

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

ANNOUNCER: You're watching AMERICAN MORNING with Soledad O'Brien and Miles O'Brien.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Welcome back, everybody, on kind of a rainy Friday. Great news that it's Friday, isn't it?

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: That's good. We were hoping to do a little skiing. Don't think so.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Yes, it's not going to happen according to Chad.

MILES O'BRIEN: It's not (INAUDIBLE) right here.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: It's going to be rain and now snow.

MILES O'BRIEN: Water-skiing. All right.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: We'll get some more on the weather ahead this morning.

Carol's got the day off. Kelly Wallace is in for her in the newsroom watching the headlines for us.

Hey, Kel, good morning.

KELLY WALLACE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello. Good morning to you.

And hello, everyone.

We want to continue to update you on a developing story that we're following this morning. A passenger ship carrying about 1,400 people sinks in the Red Sea. And again, a breaking news story we are keeping a close eye on. You are taking a look now at the picture of the ship in question. We're just getting reports from the Associated Press that about a dozen people have been rescued and at least 15 bodies have been found. Ben Wedeman is in Cairo and he'll have the latest just about 30 minutes from now.

Growing anger to tell you about in the Muslim community over cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad. Thousands taking to the streets thought Iraq today. Some Muslim clerics spoke out against the cartoons during prayers on this day. Meanwhile, about 200 demonstrators gathered outside the Danish embassy in Indonesia, the most populous Muslim country in the world. And the cartoons were first printed in a Danish newspaper.

President Bush is expected to sign off on The Patriot Act. Both the House and the Senate voted to extend the measure but just for five weeks. Lawmakers say they will use the time to try to hammer out an agreement concerning new civil liberty protections.

And staying in Washington, House Republicans have a new leader. Ohio Congressman John Boehner will replace Tom DeLay, who has been indicted in an ethics scandal. Boehner won over a candidate who had close ties to DeLay and Boehner says this is a sign that lawmakers are ready for reform.

And doctors working side-by-side to save two little lives. It's called a domino transplant and it is pretty rare. Here's how it worked. Surgeons took the heart and lungs from an infant who had died and put both in a four-month-old infant. They then took the boy's healthy heart and gave it to a three-month-old girl. The parents and the doctors joining us next hour to tell us how the little patients are doing. And I have seen, Soledad and Miles, some of the interviews from those folks and they say they feel more like family now, drawn together by this incredible story.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: They were all near each other in the hospital, isn't that strange, before they knew that they were going to be sharing, really at one point, this heart of this little boy. They were all just rooms away from each other in the hospital. Now they're really the best of friends attached by a bond you really can't describe.

WALLACE: An incredible story. I look forward to that interview coming up.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Yes, that will be ahead this morning. Kelly, thanks.

WALLACE: Sure.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: He was dressed in black. Police say he was armed with a hatchet, a gun and a knife and apparently a hatred for gays. The biggest problem of all this morning, he's still on the loose. Investigators in New Bedford, Massachusetts, say they are looking for an 18-year-old allegedly behind a violent rampage inside a gay bar. Let's go right to Dan Lothian. He's live from New Bedford with the very latest for us.

Hey, Dan, good morning.

DAN LOTHIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.

Well, police are indeed searching for 18-year-old Jacob Robida, more than 24-hours after he allegedly committed the crimes at this gay bar behind me. It is a popular bar in the city of New Bedford. Here is how police say it all unfolded.

Late Wednesday night, he came to the bar, showed what appeared to be a fake I.D. and asked if it was a gay bar. He was told yes. And a few minutes later allegedly began his attack. Wielding a hatchet and also firing his gun. Police said that two people were shot. One person was injured from that hatchet attack.

Now, police, as I mentioned, still searching for this young man. At this point, it is unclear whether he has any past criminal record. What we do know, he was part of the police junior -- sort of a junior league that police have junior officers that they work with, kids, some of them troubled kids, to get them on the right track, to teach them new skills. So he was known to police. But in terms of, had he been involved in any crimes in the past, that is unclear at this point.

Also some other information. Police have been to his house. They have been able to gather some evidence from his house as well. And what we understand, based from his website, is that there was a lot of hate speech on that website. A lot of hate symbols. So that's certainly something that police will be looking at. Right now he faces charges of attempted murder, assault and also civil rights violations.

Soledad.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Dan Lothian for us this morning.

Dan, before I let you go, a quick question for you about the town. What's the reaction been? It must just be horrified.

LOTHIAN: Well, this is a town that certainly has its share of crime. But to this extent, this violence, people are shocked. Last night there was a candlelight vigil here. People clearly upset by this and certainly some concern now as well that this young man remains on the loose.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: I would be. Dan Lothian for us this morning. Dan, thank you.

Miles.

MILES O'BRIEN: Now to another shocking crime. Same part of the world. It's getting attention actually on both sides of the Atlantic, however. A mother and her baby daughter shot and killed outside of Boston. The husband missing from sight. We're talking about the mysterious case of Neil Entwistle and the crime that shattered the image of a perfectly happy family.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MILES O'BRIEN, (voice over): For several days, no one's heard a peep from Neil Entwistle. At least not publically. He was last seen on Tuesday at his family's house north of London with his parents. Thousands of miles away in Massachusetts, he missed the funeral for his wife, Rachel, and his nine-month-old daughter Lillian, laid to rest on Wednesday. Their bodies discovered on January 22nd in their suburban Boston home shot to death.

MARTHA CROAKLEY, MIDDLESEX, MASS., DA: We believe that the death occurred -- the deaths occurred sometime between Thursday night and possibly Saturday morning.

MILES O'BRIEN: Those dates may be important. Police say Neil Entwistle left the United States and flew back to his native England more than likely late Friday night, January 20th, or the following morning. Witnesses say he looked nervous when he arrived. And he didn't say much to U.S. investigators when they briefly questioned him. Neighbors in London say they're surprised by the headlines.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You know, a lovely family.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was nasty, just how nasty it is for them. You know, that's the thing.

MILES O'BRIEN: Neil, Rachel and Lillian seemed the picture of a lovely family. But now questions are being raised about Neil's involvement in a pyramid Internet scheme and Internet porn sites. Rachel's distraught family is staying quite.

JOE FLAHERTY, FAMILY SPOKESPERSON: They're a very private family and they do not wish to share their opinion at this point with anyone other than the people that are investigating the case.

MILES O'BRIEN: Back in the states, police have impounded his car and they're calling Neil Entwistle a person of interest.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MILES O'BRIEN: Let's talk a little bit more about this. Joining us from Boston, Joe Dwinell. He is associate editor of "The Boston Herald."

Joe, good to have you with us.

Lots of holes in the time line here. What sorts of clues are police working on right now?

JOE DWINELL, "BOSTON HERALD": Well, their DA has said they're looking on every piece of the puzzle trying to take a look at it. But basically the time line, when did he fly out of Logan to England, when did he get the ticket, what kind of a ticket was it? They're looking at his car. They're looking at the home. They're just doing the full murder investigation, Miles.

MILES O'BRIEN: You know it's interesting. His behavior, on the one hand, is incredibly suspicious to have this crime have occurred and then him suddenly disappear and not be there. But, on the other hand, it's so incredibly suspicious that maybe it's kind of proof that he isn't culpable. In other words, a smart person would try to cover his tracks better and would try to act the part of a grieving husband who lost his family.

DWINELL: Well, defense attorneys are saying he's doing what he should do, just be quiet, don't say a word. But that just is adding to this case. It's just another mystery. You know, everyone wants Neil to say something. I thought it spoke volumes that he didn't come to the funeral, didn't come to the wake and the family, the Matterazzo family of -- they're leaving him out of every kind of, you know, public comment. He's been left out of the obituary. It's just -- it's interesting. MILES O'BRIEN: Oh, very interesting to say the least. What about extradition treaties with Great Britain? Can the police just summon him back to the United States?

DWINELL: No, they can't. The way I understand it, it may take up to three years, but you need to indict him. There needs to be a charge. Everybody is waiting for that decision to be made by the DA here in Massachusetts. Once that happens, the extradition treaty, you know, process, excuse me, the extradition process could take up to three years.

MILES O'BRIEN: In the meantime, there's nothing restraining him from traveling elsewhere if he chose to do so?

DWINELL: Correct. He can go where he wants. But we report today in "The Herald" that British authorities are tracking his every move. The DA in Massachusetts said that the other day. They say they know where he is, they know what he's doing and they're going to keep an eye on him.

MILES O'BRIEN: You know, looking at these pictures, it's just so tragic. What do we know about -- as we said, we're talking about the image of this seemingly happy, successful family. But as you sort of peel away the onion here, what you're finding out is about pyramid schemes on the Internet, eBay businesses gone awry. What do we know about all that was really going on in this family?

DWINELL: We know a lot. I mean, I think that's one of the reasons this story is so big. First of all, these pictures you're seeing are off of a website that RachelandNeil.org that's what it was called. It was shut down yesterday. All of these photos have now gone away. It's either -- the site was either overloaded or Neil himself possibly could have pulled the plug.

Secondly, once we started looking at that site, we found that he was an eBay trader. People were not happy with him and a lot of the complaints on eBay suddenly shot up in the past couple weeks before the murders took place.

MILES O'BRIEN: What was he selling on eBay?

DWINELL: Get rich schemes, software. And then one scheme that we looked at, he was going to offer help to try to set up your own adult pornography site. One of those sites opened up and there were a few, you know, troubling photos and he was going to -- and he may possibly was stated I can help you for a fee jump into this lucrative business.

MILES O'BRIEN: And so he was an entrepreneur, a computer entrepreneur? We just didn't know the full extent of what he was involved in?

DWINELL: No. He was an entrepreneur. We reported that a week ago. He was into this, trying to make a buck on the Internet. MILES O'BRIEN: Very interesting. Joe Dwinell of "The Boston Herald. A good place to go, check out their website if you want to stay up-to-speed on this particular story which has implications on both sides of the Atlantic.

And as a reminder, you can also watch "Larry King Live" every night here, 9:00 p.m. Eastern Time, Larry's watching this story as well.

Soledad.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Oh, what a bizarre story.

It's 41 minutes past the hour. Let's take another look at the weather. Chad's got that for us.

Hey, Chad.

(WEATHER REPORT)

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Andy's "Minding Your Business."

What do you have coming up?

ANDY SERWER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Soledad, is it a scandal, the Watergate complex is going condo. Plus, Mickey Mouse mania in Hong Kong. You want to check this out. Stay tuned to AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Happy birthday!

MILES O'BRIEN: Happy birthday to them all.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Gwyneth's mom.

SERWER: Yes, Gwyneth's mom and the Temps and everything going on.

MILES O'BRIEN: All right, word association game for you. I say Watergate. You say?

SERWER: Burglary.

MILES O'BRIEN: There you go. There you go.

SERWER: But it's also a hotel and office complex.

MILES O'BRIEN: IT's a hotel. It's a whole thing there.

SERWER: Yes, it is. And this is part of a big trend. Hotels, upscale ones that is, going condo. And the reason is, the math just works better that way. The Watergate Hotel, part of the famed Watergate complex in Washington, yes, where the burglary took place back in the Nixon administration.

MILES O'BRIEN: That might be the office there.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: That's would be it right there.

MILES O'BRIEN: That's the office there.

SERWER: Yes, that's it. Is going to be going condo. This is like the Plaza here in New York City. Other hotels in New York city going as well. The Mark (ph), the Stanhope (ph), and the Drake (ph). And here's how the numbers work. For instance, a one bedroom room in one of these upscale places say goes for $500 a night. That's $82,000 a year before expenses. The Watergate people say they're looking to sell the same room for $750,000. And the suites, the penthouses, will go for $7 million or $8 million. So this just makes sense for the owners of these places.

MILES O'BRIEN: Right but that's a onetime . . .

SERWER: Right, but then you can reinvest the money and you're still going to come out way ahead.

MILES O'BRIEN: Yes.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Makes sense. It's a great location. I mean . . .

SERWER: Beautiful spot, right?

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: It's beautiful.

SERWER: And the history.

MILES O'BRIEN: So what this means though is hotel rooms will shrink in some of these cities, hotel prices will go up.

SERWER: Yes.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Probably.

SERWER: On the upside, though. I mean, on the upscale properties.

MILES O'BRIEN: Right.

SERWER: Not those low-end ones. Remember, we talked about that.

MILES O'BRIEN: Yes, the Red Roof Inns.

SERWER: Right. Exactly.

Now I want to talk about Mickey Mouse. Disneyland in Hong Kong opened up in September of last year and demand, as you might expect, has been brisk.

Now here's what's going on. They sold to many tickets. They stopped people from coming in. A lot of visitors from mainland China wanted to get in to celebrate the lunar new year. They visited and they had valid tickets and they were banned from the park. Thirty thousand people allowed in here.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Hot, angry little kids in the car who wanted to see Mickey Mouse.

SERWER: This is the problem. They had a system called Flex Tickets (ph) where you were buying a ticket that was good for any six- month period. Any day in the six-month period. Well, guess what, everyone wanted to go the same day. They didn't figure it out.

MILES O'BRIEN: Sounds like a airline executive is running this theme park, you know?

SERWER: Exactly. You know, we over booked here.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Yes, they did.

SERWER: Yes.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: I can understand the parents' hostility. I mean . . .

SERWER: Oh, that is nightmare.

MILES O'BRIEN: You don't want to disappoint the kids.

SERWER: Nope.

MILES O'BRIEN: Never, ever.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: All right, Andy, thank you.

MILES O'BRIEN: Thank you Andy Serwer.

SERWER: Thank you.

MILES O'BRIEN: Coming up, the weather system known as La Nina is back and back with a vengeance. How much trouble will it stir up come hurricane season, among other things? Stay with us.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Plus, Charles Barkley's going to join us in the studio. A new edition of his best selling book, "Who's Afraid of a Large Black Man," raises big questions about race and poverty in America. We're going to chat with Sir Charles about that just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Sir Charles Barkley has a few thoughts on race in America. He actually put it all together in a book which is called "Who's Afraid of a Large Black Man?" It became a best seller. Well now, in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the new, soft cover edition is out and he's added his thoughts about Hurricane Katrina. We had a chance to sit down and talk about the new book.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Why did you feel you had to add when the book was coming out in paperback?

CHARLES BARKLEY, "WHO'S AFRAID OF A LARGE BLACK MAN": Well, when we were discussing, did we want to leave the book the same when the hurricane hit. And one of the things I talk about in the book, America really is, obviously, there's race. It always has existed. But really now it's about economics and class, because all the bad neighborhoods, whether they were white, black, or Hispanic, you know, they're poor people. They have the worst crime. They have the worst schools and I just wanted to address it. Because the thing with Hurricane Katrina disturbed me greatly to see all of those, number one, black people, but also really America just discriminates against poor people.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: What was it like for you? I mean you write about this a little bit in the new section, when you watch the coverage, as we all were watching sort of the pictures of people waving and saying help me, help me.

BARKLEY: Yes, it disturbed me greatly, because in America, you don't see people begging for food and water. You know you hear about . . .

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: From a major city.

BARKLEY: Yes. You hear about that in third world countries. But to actually see people begging for -- I mean, something simple like food and water over a 24, 48-hour period, I just found that hard to fathom. All of the bad neighborhoods in America are really about poverty.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Poor people might say, yes, I'd love to focus on my kids' education, but I'm working three jobs and I live in a terrible, crack infested neighborhood. My kid can't walk to school. So how am I supposed to, from the position that I'm in, take control of my neighborhood? I mean, why doesn't -- you know, we need money in this neighborhood. We need people to, you know, give us books in our schools.

BARKLEY: Well, the people have to take control of their own neighborhood because, you know, the government is not going to stop the crack. They're probably not going to get the same level of quality of education as kids who live in great neighborhoods or go to private school. So they have to band together. That's what I would really like. Poor people say, you know what, America has really put us in an awkward situation. We have to find a way to make our neighborhoods better. America has already dictated they're not going to stop crime in their neighborhood and they're not going to get the best schooling. So the people have to say, you know what, we've got to do better. We've got to stop killing each other. We've got to stop having kids we cannot afford.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: You sound a lot like Bill Cosby, as you know.

BARKLEY: I think Bill Cosby is fantastic.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: And he has a lot of critics. People said, you know, said, yes, easy to pick on a welfare mom, easy to pick on somebody who does not have.

BARKLEY: Actually, that's not fair. It's actually the opposite. First of all, if a white guy had to say what Bill Cosby said, they'd give him awards. OK. And secondly, Bill Cosby doesn't have to do that. I think it's awesome that a guy in his situation really concerned about poor people. You know, he doesn't have to do that. He's Bill Cosby. He got more money than he could ever spend. He doesn't have to try to make a difference. But, today, you know, we don't have great black leaders.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: So what did you do about that? I mean, with the passing of Coretta Scott King, it kind of ends an era to some . . .

BARKLEY: Well, I think you have to say, number one, that Dr. King has always been a hero of mine and it's unfortunate Miss King passed away, but now at least she can go see Dr. King. But, you know, Dr. King, if he were alive today and all the advances that we as black people have made, I think he would still be saying this, I'm really disappointed we have become our own worst enemies.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Hurricane Katrina a big wake-up call?

BARKLEY: Hurricane Katrina was a wake-up call for all poor people to ask themselves, number one, it doesn't take a hurricane, it doesn't take a tornado. If I had a serious family situation, am I going to be able to feed my family? It's a wake-up call for all poor people.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Charles Barkley, nice to see you. Thanks for talking with us.

BARKLEY: Thank you.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: "Who's Afraid of a Large Black Man," is the name of the book, now out in paperback with a new section on Hurricane Katrina. It's a terrific book, as I raved about it the last time.

BARKLEY: Thank you.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: And I know it did great. Thanks for talking with us. It's always nice to see you.

BARKLEY: You're very - thanks for having me.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: My pleasure.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MILES O'BRIEN: Such a gentleman. Outspoken guy, but a gentleman too.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Great book. I've got to tell you, a great, great book.

MILES O'BRIEN: In a moment, today's top stories, including some breaking news. Mystery in the Red Sea. A passenger ship, 1,400 people aboard, sinks. We'll have a live report with the latest on that one.

Plus, the power of the pen. A cartoon ignites a firestorm. Is it really blasphemy? That's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Coming up this morning, well, we had a little contest. Make a movie on your cell phone. You've got 30 seconds to do it in. Miles has submitted a true winner. We're going to share it with you coming up in our next hour.

MILES O'BRIEN: You, doughnut.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Nothing.

MILES O'BRIEN: Doughnut. A big doughnut!

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: I had a good excuse. That's ahead. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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