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American Morning

Texas Panhandle on Alert; Child Porn Bust; Moussaoui Trial And Error

Aired March 16, 2006 - 09:00   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. I'm Soledad O'Brien.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Miles O'Brien.

Fire spreading in Texas again today. Six towns threatened. People are asked to get out of their homes.

A serial killer on the loose in Florida. Three women dead in three months. Spring break students on the way.

S. O'BRIEN: A million-dollar Ferrari crashes. An international mystery begins. The wealthy owner's bizarre claims could have him in big trouble with the law.

And the sleep-eating effects of Ambien. What causes it? Are there other drugs that make people do the same strange things?

We'll take a look.

M. O'BRIEN: And Simon Cowell of "American Idol," babe. He's got a new show that takes contestants from the drawing board to the TV screen, and he gives full details to Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Let's begin with those Texas wildfires this morning. Four days of fear in the Texas panhandle. Wind-driven fires swallowing up huge swathes of the plains. The fires are now bearing down on six towns and they're moving pretty fast. One has been clocked at 40 miles an hour.

Officials are urging people to get out. So far, more than 200 fires have burned 863,000 acres. This morning, officials are worried that the flames could cross over into Oklahoma.

Also today, Texas governor Rick Perry is going to be out assessing the damage.

CNN's Andy Flick has more for us.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANDY FLICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Authorities in Texas are calling in the cavalry, asking firefighters in neighboring states to help them battle destructive wildfires that already have blackened hundreds of thousands of acre. Residents are fleeing for their safety. AMY JUSTICE, EVACUEE. I knew I had the kids and they were safe. My husband is a volunteer firefighter, and he was out fighting the fire. And I was like, "I hope he's OK."

FLICK: A reporter with the Dallas TV station offered this perspective.

SCOTT SAYERS, REPORTER: Let's give you an idea of what those wildfires have done over the past couple of days. This building is basically melted. The fire melted down to it. It gutted everything inside.

FLICK: Besides the human toll and destruction of property, there's the livestock. It's believed thousands of cattle have died in the fires.

Andy Flick, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

S. O'BRIEN: Gusting winds are sweeping embers into Oklahoma. Firefighters are on alert today after battling at least 14 fires have burned more than 4,000 acres there.

At one point, residents near Moore and parts of southeast Oklahoma City were evacuated. They were able to go back to their home.

Parts of Interstate 240 also closed for a little while. No reports of any injuries or of any damaged or destroyed homes.

Two ingredients we know are feeding these wildfires, the winds and the humidity. Let's get the weather outlook for the area.

Chad Myers is with us this morning.

Hey, Chad. Good morning.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Hi, Soledad.

(WEATHER REPORT)

M. O'BRIEN: Thank you very much, Chad Myers.

Now the story of a child porn bust that probably sets a new low. Investigators say they've broken up a global Internet operation that was as tech savvy as it was brutal to young victims. One of the victims, an infant.

CNN's Kelli Arena with more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KELLI ARENA, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The acting Toronto police chief has seen a lot of pornography cases, but Tony Warr says, this is one of the worst he has ever seen. TONY WARR, ACTING TORONTO POLICE CHIEF: This is very disturbing. But they all are disturbing. It is children. You know, these are our children. And -- and anything that does -- anybody does to abuse or exploit them is disgusting.

ARENA: The global sting started with an arrest last year in the city of Edmonton in western Canada. Since then, 27 people have been charged in Canada, Australia, Britain, and 13 in the United States. The defendants allegedly used a chat room called "Kiddypics" and "Kiddyvids" to trade pornography.

ALBERTO GONZALES, ATTORNEY GENERAL: The behavior in these chat rooms and the images many of these defendants sent around the world through peer-to-peer file-sharing programs and private instant- messaging services are the worst imaginable forms of child pornography.

ARENA: One defendant from the Chicago suburb of Bartlett who went by the screen name Acidburn is accused in an indictment of molesting an infant live on the Internet.

Brian Annoreno's lawyer says he will plead not guilty.

MICHAEL FALCONER, ATTORNEY FOR BRIAN A. ANNORENO: He tells me that he has never and never would molest any infant.

ARENA: According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement investigators, who led the effort, the case illustrates some key new trends.

JULIE MYERS, ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF HOMELAND SECURITY FOR U.S. IMMIGRATION AND CUSTOMS ENFORCEMENT: At one time, about 85 percent of child pornography featured -- quote, unquote -- "known victims," shown in recycled images over and over again. That is starting to change. We're seeing more new material and more new victims.

ARENA: Investigators say those victims are younger. In this case, the youngest was less than 18 months old. And the molestation is becoming much more violent, including gang rape and torture with deadly weapons.

JAMES PLITT, DIRECTOR, IMMIGRATION & CUSTOMS ENFORCEMENT CYBER CRIMES CENTER: You want to find the -- the perpetrator. When you want to free that child, that child can't talk. That child can't tell you what happened. That child can't testify. That -- that child, in some cases, cannot even stand.

ARENA: Officials say child porn cases are becoming more difficult to crack as perpetrators become more technologically savvy.

(on camera): In this case, the chat room was protected by several security devices, including an encryption key, which was limited to members of the ring. It took nearly a year, but investigators were able to open up that chat room and track down the alleged pornographers. (voice-over): According to law enforcement officials, seven of the children who had been molested were identified and are now in safe hands.

Kelli Arena, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

M. O'BRIEN: And just to give you an idea of the scope of this case, charges in the U.S. were brought in nine states: Illinois, Tennessee, Michigan, Nevada, Florida, New York, Arizona, Hawaii and North Carolina.

More turmoil in that penalty trial of Zacarias Moussaoui. The lawyer at the center of the controversy now on paid administrative leave, accused of blowing the case. And prosecutors want the judge to reconsider her decision to exclude those key witnesses which have now been disqualified.

Homeland Security Correspondent Jeanne Meserve live now from our Washington bureau with more -- Jeanne.

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Miles, Carla Martin placed on administrative leave with pay yesterday, according to a Department of Homeland Security official. She is the Transportation Security Administration lawyer who provided potential witnesses with transcripts and commentary about the trial in violation of a court order. Tuesday, the judge ruled that all of those witnesses and all aviation evidence should be excluded from the trial because she feared they had been tainted.

Now, prosecutors have filed a motion calling that move disproportionate, terribly excessive, too severe, grossly punitive. In the motion, prosecutors refer to Martin as a miscreant who engaged in abhorrent and apparently criminal behavior. They argue she had little or no impact on the witnesses, who regarded her as engaging in appropriate and unwarranted rants and musings.

Prosecutors are asking the judge to reverse her ruling or modify it to allow some aviation evidence or alternative aviation witnesses into the trial. This is crucial for the Moussaoui prosecutors, whose case hinges on the argument that if Moussaoui had told investigators about al Qaeda's plans to fly planes into buildings, American security measures, aviation measures, would have been instituted to stop the 9/11 hijackers and 3,000 lives would have been saved -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Hey, Jeanne, I suspect that prosecutors at this point would almost prefer a mistrial, start over with a new jury.

MESERVE: I don't know what their preference is. Right now, their goal is to get this -- this evidence back into the trial if they possibly can.

They've said this constitutes half of their case. It's the core of their argument. Of course, what's going to happen now is the defense has a chance to reply, then the judge will take it under advisement and decide what to do. Whether she will have a hearing or just work off the paper motions we just don't know yet -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Jeanne Meserve in Washington.

Thank you very much.

Let's get to Carol Costello in the newsroom.

Carol, good morning.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning.

Good morning to all of you.

It's been nearly three years since U.S. troops took Baghdad. Iraq's parliament is just now holding its first session. Lawmakers met for about a half hour earlier today. They still need to decide on a leader and fill in all the key government posts.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says Iraq will be a success story but it will take time. Secretary Rice making the comments earlier today in Australia. She met with Prime Minister John Howard ahead of security talks there.

California police say a deadly crash on a sidewalk may have been caused by an argument. The vehicle jumped a curb, killing a teacher and wounding several students. The driver, a woman, has been arrested on suspicion of manslaughter and hit and run. She claims her boyfriend grabbed the steering wheel during an argument and that's how the accident happened.

An Alabama judge will decide today whether to release three students being held in connection with several church fires in that state. The three suspects are currently being held on bond. Court documents stated the fires started out as a joke, a joke that apparently got out of control. At least five churches were destroyed in the fires last month.

Of course, we'll keep you updated on that.

That's a look at the headlines this morning.

Back to you, Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Thank you very much, Carol.

Do you have any questions for us?

S. O'BRIEN: Us?

M. O'BRIEN: That's right, you're bailing on this.

S. O'BRIEN: Us, Kemo Sabe? You're on your own. M. O'BRIEN: How about me?

S. O'BRIEN: Forget about this one.

M. O'BRIEN: Miles cam will be spooled up 10:30 Eastern Time live from my office. You can see it on CNN.com/pipeline.

If you have a question for me, send it to me right now. We'll start...

S. O'BRIEN: I'm working on my questions for you.

M. O'BRIEN: I know your questions are coming. I will be discounting said questions -- AM@CNN.com is the location.

Still to come on the program, a serial killer apparently on the loose in spring break land, with spring break just about to happen. So we will get you updated on that.

S. O'BRIEN: Then this Ferrari split in half. Do you see these pictures? Split in half, literally, on the Pacific Coast Highway. Now there's a million-dollar question about who exactly was behind the wheel.

M. O'BRIEN: And we've been talking about those side-effects of the drug Ambien, sleepwalking, now we're telling you about sleep- eating. What about other drugs, though?

We talk to a sleep disorder specialist ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: As spring-breakers descend on Daytona Beach, Florida, police there are hunting for a serial killer who has murdered three women since December.

Saul Saenz is with the Daytona Beach bureau of our affiliate News 13. He joins us from Orlando.

Saul, good to have you with us.

SAUL SAENZ, CENTRAL FLORIDA NEWS 13: Good morning.

M. O'BRIEN: When did police there realize they had a potential serial killer on their hands?

SAENZ: Actually, just recently. What happened is that they hadn't linked the three murders. They knew about the three murders, obviously, which started happening around December 26. And it was just recently that a profiler was able to link all three murders to this one person.

M. O'BRIEN: All right. And so it's purely a profiler or was there some sort of forensic tie?

SAENZ: Well, there was a forensic tie. They were all shot. That's one of the things they had in common. And the profiler, as well as detectives, believe that all three women willingly got into a car with -- with this person.

M. O'BRIEN: Tell us about the victims.

SAENZ: Well, two of the victims are known to have prostituted out in the Daytona Beach area. The other one has not been confirmed or does not have a record as being a prostitute.

However, all three women did pretty much frequent the same area in Daytona Beach, which is Ridgewood Avenue, one of the more -- the major avenues in Daytona Beach. So that's another one of the things that they all had in common. But they were all shot to death, all three were shot to death.

M. O'BRIEN: Are authorities looking at any other older cases, unsolved cases, and perhaps linking them?

SAENZ: At one point in time they were looking at some cases to the county north of Volusia County, where Daytona Beach is at, but they were unable to find a link to those murders up in Flagler County, which happened back in the 1990s. But so far these are the only three cases that they say are linked.

M. O'BRIEN: Give us a sense of how the community has been reacting so far to all of this.

SAENZ: Well, I can tell you that the community, most especially the area where these three women frequented, well, they are scared. They are in fear by virtue of the fact that they -- the serial killer initially targeted prostitutes, then he shot and killed, obviously, this third woman, Aywana Paten (ph). And she was not known to have been a prostitute at any point in time.

So the sense is in that neighborhood is that, of course, he may be targeting other women. Daytona Beach police say that's not the case, but it's hard to convince people who are living in fear when they have a serial killer out on the loose in Daytona Beach.

M. O'BRIEN: All right. And the timing is particularly frightening given the fact that spring break is upon us. What are police doing to notify people who would be, you know, just visiting the area and may not be even aware of all this?

SAENZ: Actually, two major events. We just -- we just were done with one major event which is called Bike Week. We had more than 500,000 bikers in the area. And a group from the Halifax Ministries was going around passing flyers letting people know that a serial killer is out on the loose.

And, of course, police are warning people not to get into a car with someone that they don't know. So that's pretty much what's happening out here in Daytona Beach, or in the area over in Daytona Beach.

And then, of course, as you just mentioned, we have spring break, which actually has already started in Daytona Beach. We started having college students out in the area.

This year's spring break is not expected to be as big as in years past, but still, we do have females who will be coming to this area, and the Halifax Urban Ministries folks are warning these women not to get into a car, and, of course, be careful, buddy up, walk along with a friend if you're going to frequent that area, if you're going to be hanging out in Daytona Beach.

M. O'BRIEN: Saul Saenz, let's hope it's a safe spring break there in that part of the world. Thank you very much for your time.

SAENZ: Absolutely.

M. O'BRIEN: Saul is with our affiliate, Central Florida News 13, joining us from Orlando -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Ahead this morning, you've seen the headlines. A popular sleep drug causes people to unconsciously eat in their sleep. This morning we talk to a sleep specialist about that.

Then, this car crash and the bizarre international mystery that follows. The million-dollar Ferrari sliced in half. Nobody injured, but where's the driver?

The plot thickens ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: We want to get to a story this morning that everybody has been talking about, this popular sleeping pill Ambien. Instead of sleepwalking, some people say the drug is making them sleep-eat. Basically, getting up in the middle of the night, fast asleep, scarfing down food. They don't even realize it.

Are other sleep aids doing the same thing? Let's get right to Dr. Mark Mahowald. He is the director of the Minnesota Regional Sleep Disorders Center.

Nice to see you, doctor. Thanks for talking with us.

DR. MARK MAHOWALD, MINN. SLEEP DISORDERS CENTER: My pleasure.

S. O'BRIEN: The sleep-eating phenomenon, which really I think in the last couple of days we've learned more about, you know, because of the story about Ambien. Is it particular to Ambien, or there other sleep aids that can cause the same problem?

MAHOWALD: Well, for perspective, what sleep-eating represents is a mixed state of awake and asleep. The brain is half awake and half asleep. And we saw this long before sleeping medications were prescribed.

What we're seeing is that sleeping medications and/or alcohol tend to increase the likelihood of this happening. Now, it happens to be more common with Ambien, but we have to keep in mind that the Ambien is by far one of the most widely prescribed sleeping medications. So it could just reflect the fact that -- reflect the prescribing practices.

S. O'BRIEN: So you're saying it really could be that these are people who would sleep-eat anyway, and it's not necessarily being caused by the drug?

MAHOWALD: Oh, I think that there's no question of the fact that anything that can cause sleepiness -- and that can be alcohol and a number of different sleeping medications -- can make these behaviors much more apt to occur in people who are predisposed to have them. Clearly, we are seeing more of it now than we did before sleeping medications were widely prescribed.

S. O'BRIEN: Sanofi-Aventis, which makes Ambien, released a statement. I want to just read it to you.

It says, "It's difficult to determine with certainty whether a particular instance of sleepwalking is drug induced, spontaneous in origin, or the result of an underlying disorder."

What other kinds of things do you see in patients who are not just sleepwalking, which is what that statement talks about, but sleep-eating? Is there a typical patient?

MAHOWALD: No, there's not. Actually, importantly, this is not seen more frequently in people who have daytime or waking eating disorders. It's not a nighttime extension of a daytime personality trait. We see this in young people, old people, men, it's somewhat more common in women, but it doesn't seem to reflect any identifiable underlying psychiatric or psychological problem.

S. O'BRIEN: That's interesting.

You know, you hear some of these stories -- I mean, there was one woman who was quoted as saying she gained 100 pounds sort of inexplicably and then finally realized that she was sleep-eating. Are there other serious risks for these kinds of patients?

MAHOWALD: I think the major risks are very complex sleepwalking. They could end up having somebody walk outside the home or actually drive in their sleep without conscious awareness. And we and others have certainly heard instances of that sort of behavior.

S. O'BRIEN: Wow. What percentage of people experience this sleep-eating phenomenon? Is it a tiny, tiny percentage, but just because it's such an interesting phenomenon it's sort of gotten a lot of attention?

MAHOWALD: Well, we used to think it was extremely uncommon, but judging from the large number of e-mails we've gotten just in the last two days about this, it likely is more common than we used to think it is.

S. O'BRIEN: Interesting. Interesting. All right.

Dr. Mark Mahowald joining us. He's with the Minnesota Regional Sleep Disorders Center. Nice to talk to you.

MAHOWALD: Thank you.

S. O'BRIEN: Still to come this morning, a bizarre international mystery on the Pacific Coast Highway. Police want to know just who was driving this million-dollar Ferrari right before the crash that split it in half.

Then later, I talked to Simon Cowell of "American Idol." I'll tell you what he says about reports that he's even meaner this year than he was last year. Plus, we'll talk about his new project It's called "American Inventor."

Those stories ahead.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: Tomorrow on AMERICAN MORNING, it will be the top of the morning, won't it, Soledad O'Brien? Yes, Irish eyes will be a smilin' upon the all-O'Brien morning program. Won't they?

S. O'BRIEN: Well, you know, I'm looking online, because there is many -- many a Web site with the O'Brien history.

M. O'BRIEN: Yes, Dromoland Castle. Connor Miles O'Brien (ph), the lord (INAUDIBLE).

S. O'BRIEN: Brian Baru. We trace our roots -- you and I trace our roots. Oh my goodness.

M. O'BRIEN: You know, I could get on my high horse and say that's a bit stereotypical and tell you that that is not...

S. O'BRIEN: But you do really look like a leprechaun.

M. O'BRIEN: Ask yourself, is there any other classification of people who could be mocked this way anymore? I don't think so. But that's OK.

We're going to play along and have fun. And we'll be drinking green beer all morning and see how that goes for four hours. Right?

No. Actually, Soledad, you ran into another Soledad O'Brien.

S. O'BRIEN: Yes, I did. She was quite lovely.

M. O'BRIEN: She's not very happy about it, actually.

S. O'BRIEN: No, she wasn't. She was quite lovely for the first 10 seconds and then told me that...

M. O'BRIEN: You have ruined my life.

S. O'BRIEN: Pretty much said you've ruined my life. We'll tell you that story tomorrow. But she was quite lovely.

M. O'BRIEN: Yes. And there is a Miles O'Brien out there. I don't think I've ruined his life, but we'll talk to him, too.

S. O'BRIEN: Yet.

M. O'BRIEN: Yet. All right.

Back with more in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: Opening bell just about to ring there on Wall Street at the New York Stock Exchange.

(STOCK MARKET REPORT)

S. O'BRIEN: Welcome back, everybody.

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