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American Morning

Yemen Escapees Include al Qaeda Members; Moussaoui Trial Begins Today

Aired February 06, 2006 - 08:00   ET

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

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.
I'm Miles O'Brien.

ZAIN VERJEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And I'm Zain Verjee in for Soledad.

O'BRIEN: A clear and present danger to the world. A global alert put out on 13 escaped al Qaeda terrorists. One of them is linked to the deadly attack on the USS Cole.

VERJEE: Muslims angry about offensive cartoons getting more violent. Embassies attacked. Now it's Muslim against Christian.

O'BRIEN: Wiretaps without warrants -- are they legal?

Today, the White House will answer the Senate on that.

VERJEE: And from France today...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): Now I can open my mouth and I can eat. And I can feel my lips and my nose.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VERJEE: The only face transplant recipient shows her new face to the world and tells us how it feels.

O'BRIEN: The Pittsburgh Steelers win the big one. But who are the biggest winners among the brand new TV commercials you saw?

On the loose and dangerous -- so dangerous that Interpol, the international placing agency, has put out an urgent global Security Council alert. We're talking about the escape of 23 inmates from a Yemeni prison, 13 of them al Qaeda terrorists.

CNN's Barbara Starr live at the Pentagon with our "Security Watch."

Barbara was in Yemen just a little while ago -- Barbara, good morning.

BARBARA STARR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Miles. Well, now, as a result of that Interpol notice, 184 countries around the world on notice, on the lookout for these 23 escaped prisoners from Yemen, including 13 men said to be linked to al Qaeda. One of them is said to have been involved in the 2000 attack on the USS Cole Navy warship in Yemen. That is this man, Jamal Badawi.

We are told by sources in Yemen that now, on the streets, on the capital -- in the capital city of Sanaa and across the country, security forces are deployed.

You see some pictures here that we shot on our trip to Yemen just two weeks ago of the capital city. It was very calm, a very friendly, peaceful place. Security forces now said to be fanning out across the country, urgently looking for these men. The Yemenis are certainly hoping they can round them up still inside Yemen, that they have not escaped the country.

But, of course, no one, at this point, knows where they are -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: Barbara, tell us a little bit more about your trip. You had a chance to talk to a lot of people there and see a lot.

Do you get any sense that there was a perception there that the al Qaeda threat was higher than normal?

STARR: Indeed, no. It was almost remarkably the opposite. We interviewed the minister of internal affairs, minister of the interior in Yemen. We interviewed the U.S. ambassador. And both Yemeni and U.S. officials were in agreement that they felt the network of al Qaeda had been broken, the back had been broken, there were still members but there was no organized al Qaeda element.

And then the new Yemeni Coast Guard took us out in the harbor. You see some of these pictures here. A remarkable day. They took us out into Aden Harbor. They took us exactly to the spot where the Cole was attacked back in October of 2000. They wanted to show us their new Coast Guard. They wanted to take us out and show us that, in their view, the harbor was safe, that they now had a handle on the security situation in Aden, in particular.

And this is all because the U.S. government was in the planning stages of bringing a Navy warship back into Aden for the first time since the Cole attack.

No one can say at this point what has happened to those plans -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: Interesting. Those plans probably clouded right now and interesting that as you were having these conversations, that tunneling was probably going on even as you spoke. Very, very ironic.

Barbara Starr at the Pentagon, thank you.

STARR: Thanks. O'BRIEN: Just about a half an hour from now, we will ask a former U.S. ambassador to Yemen how this effects U.S.-Yemen relations, including that issue of placing U.S. warships there. Plus, just how much of a threat are these al Qaeda linked men on a global basis? We'll ask our terrorism analyst, Peter Bergen, about that -- Zane.

VERJEE: Miles, continuing our "Security Watch," death or life in prison without parole?

A jury is going to decide the fate of admitted 9/11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui. His sentencing trial begins this morning with jury selection.

Jeanne Meserve is live at the federal courthouse in Alexandria, Virginia -- Jeanne, good morning.

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Zane.

Approximately 500 potential jurors summoned here to this courthouse this morning. Amongst them, the 12 who will ultimately decide whether Zacarias Moussaoui lives or dies.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

MESERVE (voice-over): Zacarias Moussaoui was arrested a month before 9/11 when he raised suspicions at the Minnesota flight school he was attending to learn how to fly large planes. Moussaoui was arrested for being in the U.S. illegally. Questioned by the FBI, he said nothing about belonging to al Qaeda.

But investigators eventually discovered Moussaoui had attended an Al Qaeda training camp and received money from the same men who funded the 9/11 hijackers. And late in 2001, he was charged with terror conspiracy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN ASHCROFT, ATTORNEY GENERAL: Moussaoui engaged in the same preparation for murder as the 19 co-conspirators who carried out the September 11th hijackings.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MESERVE: That was more than four years ago. The case got bogged down by defense efforts to allow testimony from high level al Qaeda detainees that Moussaoui claimed could clear him and by Moussaoui's erratic behavior, which eventually led the judge to stop him from representing himself anymore.

Last April, Moussaoui unexpectedly pleaded guilty to all charges, but vowed to fight every inch against the death penalty, which the Justice Department is seeking.

ANDREW MCBRIDE, FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR: Will he be executed? And, you know, I think, I think that's a fairly debatable question, based on the evidence we know to date. MESERVE: During the trial, more than 40 people who lost family members on 9/11 will testify.

Others, like Debra Burlingame, will be watching closely. Her brother was the pilot of the plane the hijackers steered into the Pentagon.

DEBRA BURLINGAME, 9/11 FAMILY MEMBER: This man was not a bystander. He was an active participant in this. He was over in Afghanistan training. He knew these people. He was one of them. He's responsible.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

MESERVE: Today, prospective jurors will fill out an extensive questionnaire examining their views on 9/11, terrorism, religion and the death penalty. The large size of this jury pool one indication of how difficult the judge thinks it may be to seat an impartial jury. At this courthouse, just a few short miles from where the 9/11 hijackers hit the Pentagon -- Zane, back to you.

VERJEE: Jeanne Meserve live at the federal courthouse in Alexandria.

Thanks, Jeanne -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: Spying on Americans to protect Americans.

Or is it an invasion of privacy?

It's a CNN "Security Watch" and it's a hot subject on Capitol Hill this morning, to say the least.

CNN national security correspondent David Ensor live now from our Washington bureau -- David, give us a preview of what we can expect today.

DAVID ENSOR, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Right, Miles.

Well, in prepared testimony for today, the attorney general will call on the surveillance program -- he will call the program reasonable and lawful.

But members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, including the Republican chairman, apparently disagree.

So the stage is set for fireworks this morning.

The administration's case for legality rests on two basic pillars -- the president's inherent constitutional right to choose measures like eavesdropping against an enemy like al Qaeda and the argument that when Congress approved the use of force after 9/11, it, in effect, authorized eavesdropping, too.

Chairman Arlen Specter finds that second pillar weak.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. ARLEN SPECTER (R-PA), JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: The authorization for the use of force doesn't say anything about electronic surveillance. The issue was never raised with the Congress and there is a specific statute on the books, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which says flatly that you can't undertake that kind of surveillance without a court order.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ENSOR: A critical part of the debate is how targeted is the program?

Over the weekend, the "Washington Post" reported that the domestic surveillance program, the terrorist surveillance program, as the administration calls it, has eavesdropped on thousands of Americans using computers to sift through vast quantities of communications between this country and abroad.

In an op-ed piece today, the attorney general says, "That the NSA's terror surveillance program is narrowly focused on the international communications of persons believed to be members or agents of al Qaeda or affiliated terrorist organizations. The terrorist surveillance program," he says, "protects both the security of the nation and the rights and liberties we cherish."

But that is a critical question, Miles -- how narrowly targeted is it? Are thousands of Americans getting caught up in the net of this?

And that will be probably the theme of many of the questions this morning.

O'BRIEN: It should be fascinating viewing.

David Ensor, thank you very much.

Be sure to stay with CNN day and night for the most reliable news about your security.

Let's check some headlines now.

Kelly Wallace with more on that -- hello, Kelly.

KELLY WALLACE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Miles.

For the first time today, we are getting a look at a woman who was given a brand new face. Isabelle Dinoire is the first person to have a partial face transplant. She spoke to reporters earlier in France about how she's recovering. Dinoire said she was able to eat within a week after her surgery and that surgery giving her a new nose, lips and chin. Dinoire's face was disfigured after she was mauled by a dog last year. And we're going to hear from one of the doctors caring for her just ahead.

We're getting some new information in. After a bus collision in Fairfax County, Virginia -- and that is in suburban Washington -- fire department officials now say at least three people are hurt. And these are some new pictures from the scene there. The accident a head-on collision involving a school bus and a metro bus. The accident apparently taking place on a sharp curve of a two lane road.

In Afghanistan now, deaths reported for the first time in connection with that cartoon controversy. Today, hundreds of protesters clashing with security forces near the Danish embassy in Kabul. Two people were apparently killed. It's the latest round of violent protests over the depictions of the Muslim Prophet Muhammad in Western newspapers.

President Bush is turning in his 2007 budget to Congress. The president is proposing a 5 percent spending hike for defense and homeland security, but recommending cuts to Medicare and domestic progress.

And later this morning, a public swearing in ceremony for the new federal chairman, Ben Bernanke. He's replacing Alan Greenspan, who stepped down after 18 years at the helm.

And Steelers fans are waking up with a big smile and possibly a hangover. That's right. That's because the team took home its first Super Bowl title in 26 years by beating the Seattle Seahawks. The final score 21-10. As expected, the fans took to the streets in Pittsburgh. At least two cars were turned over and some fires were set, but otherwise the celebrations have been mostly peaceful.

And we have learned that there will be a victory celebration in Pittsburgh. And that is set for tomorrow.

And Miles and Zane, we also learned, thanks to our fabulous Paulina, telling us that Iron City beer is still -- they're still drinking it.

O'BRIEN: I have received e-mails from people who are Iron City fans. Apparently they're still imbibing, as we speak, in Pittsburgh.

WALLACE: I bet they are.

O'BRIEN: Telling us to hoist a few Iron Cities ourself.

VERJEE: I was looking at the pictures of the celebrations there, Miles. Do you know that there are actually more parties during the Super Bowl than New Year's Eve?

O'BRIEN: I do believe that.

VERJEE: Yes, there are.

O'BRIEN: More pizzas ordered, more parties.

VERJEE: More pizzas, more wings.

Let's check in with Chad -- there are more hangovers, too -- who is very responsible and doesn't have a hangover. CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: No.

VERJEE: Came into work on time.

MYERS: That's right.

VERJEE: And is on top of the weather -- Chad.

MYERS: I listened to the second Rolling Stones song and I then I was out of it. But I did see the Domino's Pizza Hut guy go by my house about 35 times yesterday. So I don't know where he was going, but maybe he was having his own party. Certainly a lot of deliveries out there yesterday.

(WEATHER REPORT)

O'BRIEN: Coming up on the program, earlier this morning, we finally heard from the woman who had the first ever face transplant. And now her doctor will join us to talk about the surgery itself. She looks remarkably good, in my opinion.

What do you think?

VERJEE: She does. She's made an...

O'BRIEN: I mean that's a brand new nose.

VERJEE: ... amazing, you know, she's out on the streets. People don't even recognize there's anything significantly wrong, is what a lot of the reports say.

O'BRIEN: Yah.

VERJEE: But you can tell, you know, that she probably does struggle a little.

O'BRIEN: With the pain.

VERJEE: I know the smoking doesn't help.

O'BRIEN: Well, there are many issues that are beneath the surface here. But we'll take it one step at a time. In just a little bit, we'll talk to one of her doctors.

VERJEE: Do you have trouble in finding your keys? What about your car keys? At the last minute, you need to leave the house and you just can't find them. It could mean you need to see your doctor. Our doctor, Sanjay Gupta, has some helpful hints to help you deal with memory loss.

O'BRIEN: Oh, it's my turn to talk?

VERJEE: Yes.

O'BRIEN: Oh. I've got some issues myself.

VERJEE: You're all right.

O'BRIEN: And it's almost as anticipated as the Super Bowl itself. This is one of my -- I'm kind of schmaltzy. I like this one with the young Clydesdale and he pulls the cart and he's helped by the big Clydesdales and he doesn't know it. I just -- it makes me want to weep and have a Budweiser at the same time.

VERJEE: Oh, pull yourself together.

O'BRIEN: Anyway, we're going to check -- we're doing the typical Monday morning commercial backing and figure our which were hits and which were not.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: It's a big day on Capitol Hill. The attorney general, Alberto Gonzales, who, of course, prior to becoming attorney general, was the White House counselor and advised the president and the Bush administration in general on the whole issue of wiretaps, warrantless wiretap involving U.S. citizens who, it is believed, were having conversations with al Qaeda operatives.

This, of course, is a big controversy. And on both sides of the aisle, senators, congressmen, are concerned that this may overstep bounds and may be a violation of civil liberties.

Kelly Wallace is here to explain, though, how it may not be as simple as this.

We keep talking about wiretapping, but it might be as simple as e-mailing a picture embedded with code.

Why don't you tell us all about this?

WALLACE: Exactly.

Well, you know, what we wanted to do here, while the debate is raging about is it legal or not, we really wanted to understand what the NSA is doing.

The problem, Miles, as you well know, top secret program, classified. Even those are in the know say they can't talk about it.

So what we tried to do is talk to people who focus on bad guys for a living. They try to monitor the Internet and look into phone calls. We tried to get some answers about what the NSA might be doing, how it could be monitoring terrorists' communications and what are some of the obstacles the National Security Agency could be facing.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP FORM "E-RING," COURTESY WARNER BROTHERS/NBC)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What did NSA get for us?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They intercepted a call to Dima (ph) from an American.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get out of town!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The problem is, we can't listen to it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Says who?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALLACE (voice-over): Hollywood's take on super sensitive spying by the National Security Agency on American citizens, a program so secret, no one in the know will talk about it. So, we had to rely on experts like Ira Winkler, a former NSA analyst turned computer security guru who wrote the book "Spies Among Us: How To Stop Spies, Terrorists, Hackers & Criminals You Don't Even Know You Encounter Everyday."

Winkler says to avoid detection, bad guys might scramble data before it's transmitted.

IRA WINKLER, FORMER NSA ANALYST: A nice simple file like this looks like that.

WALLACE: Other ways would-be terrorists try to fly below the radar online -- hiding data inside a picture, setting up free e-mail accounts -- numerous providers offer these -- and using codes to communicate.

WINKLER: There's just so much data out there that it's almost impossible to find the right people that you're looking for just randomly.

WALLACE: Like Winkler, Rebecca Givner-Forbes spends her days monitoring the Internet. She's an analyst with the Terrorism Research Center. Her specialty? Jihadist Web sites and chat rooms.

REBECCA GIVNER-FORBES, TERRORISM RESEARCH CENTER: This particular discussion thread has an amateur aspiring jihadist asking for help with his explosives recipe.

WALLACE: She says it's hard to know if a posting is coming from inside or outside the United States.

FORBES: The software that they use, these message forums, allows for private messaging between members through the Web site. So then they never even have to do so much as give out an e-mail address.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP FROM "SNEAKERS," COURTESY UNIVERSAL)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm going to bounce this call through nine different relay stations throughout the world and off two satellites.

(END VIDEO CLIP) WALLACE: Hackers in the movie "Sneakers" show just what the NSA may be up against when it comes to monitoring phone calls. Adding to the challenge, Winkler says, terrorists taking advantage of disposable cell phones and specialized telephone cards that can't be easily traced.

WINKLER: I could walk into any store and buy a card like this. And then I could plug it into this phone that I bring with me all over the place and that card is basically good anywhere in the world.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP FORM "E-RING," COURTESY WARNER BROTHERS/NBC)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Find out where the phone was when it received the signal.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALLACE: But as we see in "E-Ring," NBC's drama set inside the Pentagon, surveillance is just one part of the mission. Figuring out what it all means may be even more difficult.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

WALLACE: And that is the tremendous real life challenge for the National Security Agency, Miles. This challenge remains no matter how the debate over the legality of this domestic spying program ends up.

O'BRIEN: You know, it is going you should mention that because before 9/11, they knew about some of the players. They just couldn't put it together. That's a key point. It's not as if the eavesdropping is a panacea. You have to be able to put the information together somehow and make it all a narrative.

WALLACE: Exactly. Well, certainly. And that's what people like, you know, the U.S. attorney general, Alberto Gonzales, they'll be pointing to to say if only, you know, they were doing more of this domestic spying, perhaps, perhaps an attack like September 11 could have been prevented.

But here's the thing. As it was reported over the weekend, they're taking in probably thousands and thousands of communications, e-mails and phone calls going through that, looking for the codes, looking for the clues. I mean that really is the tremendous challenge they face.

O'BRIEN: It's like drinking from the fire hose.

All right, Kelly Wallace, thank you very much.

WALLACE: Sure.

O'BRIEN: Stay with CNN day and night for the most reliable news about your security -- Zane.

VERJEE: Miles, still to come on AMERICAN MORNING, they say age is a state of mind. So what really happens to your memory when you get older? We're going to look at that in part one of our special series with Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

And speaking of memorable, which Super Bowl ads made the grade? Our report card is just ahead. We're going to take a look at the winners and the losers.

Stay with us on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VERJEE: Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING.

Now, wait a second. We -- we -- we -- we -- we were going to talk about -- oh, yes, memory.

As we get a little bit older, you know, there's no denying that our memory starts to go, well, the way of memories. But what can you do to keep your brain sharp in your 30s, 40s and 50s? Anything?

Well, Dr. Sanjay Gupta shows us how in part one of a new series we're calling "30/40/50."

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

LINDA JENKINS, SALESWOMAN: Hi, James.

It's Linda.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Who doesn't forget a word here and there?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There was a -- a big...

GUPTA: Or occasionally the name of a person they just met?

WOODY PHILHOWER, ENTREPRENEUR: Like hey, guy, how are you doing, instead of saying hey, Joe, how are you doing?

GUPTA: But lately, 54-year-old Linda Jenkins (ph), a busy saleswoman, and 65-year-old entrepreneur Woody Fillhower are experiencing those memory lapses a lot more often.

JENKINS: What's his name? Doctor who? What? Huh? Where? What school?

GUPTA: Starting in your 30s, some memory loss can be expected.

DR. DEVANGERE P. DEVANAND, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY: One of the first symptoms that people have is forgetting names -- names of people, names of movies, names of books they read.

GUPTA: But how do you keep your mind sharp through the years? Juggling fast track careers and growing families means serious multi- tasking and serious stress. Under this sort of pressure, your memory could be improved by sleeping at least eight hours each night, getting regular exercise and forcing yourself to remember phone numbers without having to look at your cell phone or your Blackberry. Some people in their 40s are turning to memory courses or memory boot camps. Boot camps teach mind benders, like puzzles, to keep the brain active. Other suggestions include stocking up on brain healthy foods rich in anti-oxidants and omega-3 fatty acids, which may keep brain cells from dying. And, again, exercising, cutting down on stress.

DEVANGERE: The one problem is that if one stops doing that over a period of time, your memory will gradually decline back to where it was.

GUPTA: At 50, just forgetting names is no big cause for concern. But there are warning signs to watch out for.

DEVANGERE: They lost track of things, start missing appointments, which they were in the habit of keeping regularly, lose their way when driving to a familiar place.

GUPTA: If this is happening to you, seek out a specialist, a neurologist or a psychotherapist. If your memory problems are serious, a brain scan may be in order.

Regardless of age, there is no specific formula for staving off memory loss. But Dr. Davanan (ph) believes...

DEVANGERE: What's good for the heart is good for the brain.

GUPTA: So watch your weight, exercise, don't smoke -- all good tips for keeping your brain fit.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

VERJEE: And tomorrow in our continuing series looking at your 30s, 40s and 50s, what medical tests should men get at each decade? Sanjay Gupta will take a look -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: Still to come on the program, she's got a new face and now she's using it to tell her story. The woman who got the first face transplant ever speaking out for the first time publicly. We'll tell you about that.

Also, everybody hates spam, right? We're not talking about the food, you know, Spam, Spam, Spam. No, not that. The clogger of e- mails, of course. But now help may be on the way and it starts with charging the source.

Stay with us.

We'll explain.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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