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Moussaoui Jurors to Hear Flight 93 Recordings; What U.S. Intelligence Knows About Iran's Nuclear Program

Aired April 12, 2006 - 08:00   ET

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

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Jeanne Meserve at the courthouse in Alexandria, Virginia, where today the Moussaoui jurors will hear the Flight Number 93.
That story coming up.

DAVID ENSOR, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: I'm David Ensor in Washington.

What U.S. intelligence knows about Iran's nuclear program.

That story coming up.

PAULA NEWTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Paula Newton at the Royal Military Academy near London, where Prince Harry has just graduated. Will his next stop be Iraq?

I'll have that story coming up.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRANDON SHAFER, FOURTH GRADER: If I get hit in the stomach it might -- it will be bad and stuff.

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SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Also ahead this morning, this little boy is just in fourth grade. He needs a new kidney. Well, guess who is a perfect match? We're going to tell you just ahead.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: And gentlemen and ladies, start your engines. There's the BMW 651. That's a nice looking one. And that one needs a hood. We're live at the New York Auto Show on this AMERICAN MORNING.

S. O'BRIEN: Good morning, everybody.

Welcome back.

I'm Soledad O'Brien.

M. O'BRIEN: Good morning.

I'm Miles O'Brien.

We're glad you're with us. We begin this morning with the life and death struggle aboard United Airlines Flight 93 on September 11. The chilling final words from the cockpit of that doomed plane will be played for a federal jury today. Prosecutors will use them to wrap up their death penalty case against the al Qaeda operative, Zacarias Moussaoui.

Homeland security correspondent Jeanne Meserve live now from the courthouse in Alexandria, Virginia -- Jeanne, it's already been so emotional, so gripping, it's just hard to imagine what it's going to be like when those recordings are played today.

MESERVE: It will likely be one of the most harrowing, if not the most harrowing day of this trial. Jurors will be hearing that cockpit voice recorder from Flight Number 93. It is the first time it's been played publicly. It has been played for some family members. They have said it's about 31 minutes long. Large portions of it are inaudible, but, they say, at the beginning u can make out the struggle as the hijackers take over the cockpit of the plane. They call that excruciating.

They also say that at the end, you can hear the passengers in revolt, trying to get into that cockpit to take control of the plane back from those hijackers.

Likely to be very difficult for everyone in the courtroom to hear that today.

The jury is also expected to hear some more victim testimony today and the prosecution will wrap up its case by scrolling the names of all of those who died on September 11 -- that's 2,973 names. And with that, the prosecution will wrap, hoping that it has persuaded this jury to give Zacarias Moussaoui the death penalty -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Jeanne, will that cockpit voice recording be made public?

MESERVE: No, it will not. A transcript will be let out to the public. There was some discussion about making the tape public, but some of the 9/11 family members objected to that. The judge ruled earlier this week that she would only release a transcript. I spoke to one family member yesterday who wanted to see the entire tape released. He is afraid that only releasing the transcript will miss an opportunity to educate the American public to what he says is the lesson of this tape, which is, he says, that good can triumph over evil -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Well, if nothing else, it recorded tremendous acts of heroism.

What happens after the prosecution wraps up? The defense gets an opportunity to state its case.

How long do you expect that to go?

MESERVE: Much shorter than the prosecution, we're advised. It will start tomorrow. It is likely that Moussaoui will again take the stand, as he has. We also do expect to hear testimony about his mental state. The defense expected to put on some witnesses who say he suffers from paranoid schizophrenia. Also, we'll hear some -- some testimony about his difficult youth as a Moroccan in France.

Back to you -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Jeanne Meserve at the very noisy courtroom there in Alexandria, as they continue some construction there.

We apologize for that.

Stay tuned to CNN day and night for the most reliable news about your security -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Iran today ratcheting up concerns over its nuclear program. Tehran says it's moving toward large scale uranium enrichment, which is a possible step toward nuclear weapons development.

Let's get live now to Washington and national security correspondent David Ensor -- David, good morning to you.

ENSOR: Good morning.

S. O'BRIEN: When you give -- when you're given what happened in Iraq, how -- how confident is the intelligence community in knowing what's really going on in Iran?

ENSOR: You know, intelligence officers are a little like us journalists, they're never happy. They always want to know more and they'd always like to have more and better sources.

But that said, intelligence officers that I've spoken to just in recent days, including some senior ones, express high confidence in the key judgment of U.S. intelligence about all this. And that is that Iran is not just seeking nuclear power, it's also seeking a nuclear bomb -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Let me ask you a question about what makes it so hard to gather intelligence in Iran. I mean, obviously, there are some obvious things. But I'm curios, do they -- are there just not enough intelligence officials who are able to make their way into Iran and get a good sense of what's happening there?

ENSOR: Well, you know, this is not the hermit kingdom. This is not North Korea. So, in fact, there are quite a few people coming and going from Iran, and that does open up opportunities for gathering human intelligence in Iran.

Now, they don't talk about how they do this, but I think we can ex -- we can have some confidence that the U.S. has human intelligence sources inside Iran, given the number of people who speak Farsi in this country, just for one example.

And, of course, there are the overhead imagery. There's signals intelligence, listening to -- to any kind of communications that are going on.

So this has been a targeting that U.S. intelligence has been going after for many years now, Soledad, and they -- they're fairly good at it.

That said, they'd always like -- they don't know what they don't know and they'd always like more.

S. O'BRIEN: David Ensor for us this morning.

David, thanks -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: In America this morning, we're watching a few stories.

The prosecutor in Durham, North Carolina vowing to press on. That's despite lacking DNA evidence linking members of the Duke University lacrosse team to an alleged sexual assault. So say the defense team. The prosecutor said the absence of a DNA link "doesn't mean nothing happened. It means nothing was left behind." That is a quote.

A victim of 9/11 four years later. The January death of the New York City police detective James Zadroga is being blamed on his work at ground zero. He was there for the cleanup just after the attacks for many hours. A New Jersey medical examiner says exposure to the toxic fumes and dust in the remnants of that attack led to his death from respiratory failure four years later.

The most controversial part of an immigration reform bill will probably be changed. Top Republicans now say they don't support the part of the House bill that would make illegal immigration a felony. That provision has led to the lion's share of the protests we've been seeing this past week or so.

In Northern California, rain continues to pour this morning, breaking rainfall records left and right. At least one city has gotten over 74 inches -- 74 inches since July. That's more than six feet of rain, for those of you who are keeping score at home. All that rain increases the chance of mudslides, of course, like this one in Brisbane just south of San Francisco. No one hurt there, but at least three homes had to be evacuated.

Which brings us to Chad Myers -- Chad, any relief in sight there?

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Not today, no.

M. O'BRIEN: No?

MYERS: The rain is still here still coming down. The area that was so hard hit just south of San Francisco, between San Francisco and Monterey, really, yesterday, three inch bull's eyes of rainfall there and there'll be more rain, Sacramento, right up to Reading, Eureka. That's what the area is -- Crescent City -- those are the areas that have picked up 60 and 70 inches of rain over the past nine months or so. (WEATHER REPORT)

M. O'BRIEN: Coming up, ex-FEMA chief Mike Brown may soon have a new job. This will surprise you, as to who might be interested in hiring him. That's ahead.

S. O'BRIEN: Also, an in depth look at the link between hormone replacement therapy and breast cancer. We're going to tell you why a new study could be good news for lots of women. We'll walk you through the confusing and sometimes contradictory studies this morning.

M. O'BRIEN: And more on the latest twist in that Duke lacrosse rape allegations investigation. No DNA evidence linking players to the alleged victim. We're going to check in and get some campus reaction from both schools involved in this.

That's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

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M. O'BRIEN: The district attorney in Durham, North Carolina says he is pressing on with the investigation of those allegations of rape leveled at the Duke University lacrosse team even though, apparently, there is no DNA link to the woman who is making those accusations.

Meantime, it has opened up a discussion which far transcends the alleged crime in question, of race and class and relationships between two campuses about five miles apart.

Jesse Longoria is Duke's study body president.

Shawn Cunningham is a senior at North Carolina Central University, where the alleged victim is a student.

They join us now from Durham, North Carolina.

Good to have you both with us.

Jesse, let's begin with you.

You know those -- some of those lacrosse players. This -- how has it been going for them on campus? How -- what is the mood on the campus of Duke?

JESSE LONGORIA, DUKE UNIVERSITY STUDENT: Well, the mood on campus is very conflicted. There's not one view which I can really represent. There's people on every side of the fence, a true mixed bag of emotions.

People are really trying to step back and just allow the officials to find the truth is one of the overriding themes.

M. O'BRIEN: Has it -- is it accurate to say that it has divided your campus?

LONGORIA: I would say it's only divided it upon the lines of dialogue and communication. It hasn't dissected our campus.

M. O'BRIEN: OK.

And is it -- has it led to a discussion of other issues that -- for example, racial issues?

LONGORIA: It -- the microscope is definitely on our campus right now and a lot of the issues which exist here exist nationally, but when you're under that extreme microscope, things get magnified. And so it offers -- it opens up the opportunity to talk about those things. And so that is part of the conversation.

M. O'BRIEN: Shawn, would you characterize it that way? Is it -- was it -- has it been sort of an opportunity to discuss some things that have been lying dormant there at your campus?

SHAWN CUNNINGHAM, NCCU STUDENT: It certainly has. I mean sexual assault has always been something that's been swept under the rug at college campuses. Most universities don't report the statistics and so it's given us a chance to dialogue about that and find the ways to help not only victims, but also accusers -- I mean, offenders of sexual assault. It gives us a chance for dialogue.

M. O'BRIEN: Give us a sense of what the mood is there. Is -- the way Jesse describes the campus at Duke, there -- people are really divided there.

What about at your campus?

CUNNINGHAM: We're pretty much unified and we're unified under the auspice that we would like just the investigation to continue, for it to be thorough, that it -- for it to be meticulous, for it to be tedious and that the district attorney takes his time to find out the truth. And once he finds out the truth to either level charges or let this go away. And that way so that Duke and NCCU can heal.

LONGORIA: Exactly.

M. O'BRIEN: Tell me about the general feeling about the way this has all been characterized, Shawn. I know you had some difficulties with the way the media has been portraying this.

Explain that.

CUNNINGHAM: That's pretty much where my -- my discontent comes from. Each time I've read newspaper articles or have watched CNN, watched Fox News, we continuously see that she's referred to as a stripper and as an exotic dancer. We understand that's her occupation. But that actually reduces her to just, you know, a devalued person. And we -- we feel that contributes to future sexual assaults.

We feel she should be listed as either a student or as a mother or as a woman. And we think any time you continually reduce her to just an exotic dancer or a stripper, it actually, you know, allows it to be continued in a sexual assault manner. And we don't find that fair or justified.

M. O'BRIEN: Yes, I mean, I know shorthand labels are often excuses to mischaracterize things.

CUNNINGHAM: Exactly.

M. O'BRIEN: But the fact is we call the other people just lacrosse players and that probably doesn't reflect everything about them, as well.

CUNNINGHAM: It doesn't. I mean they're students. They're human beings just like everyone else. They're innocent until proven guilty. And one thing that we want to lay to rest, Jesse and I both, is that there's been no rivalry nor animosity between Duke and NCCU.

We have great relationships. Our students take classes on both campuses. Our faculty continuously do research together.

So this university and this -- these universities and this community, we work very well together. This is just an isolated incident that, you know, we would like to heal and put to rest as soon as possible.

M. O'BRIEN: So there isn't anything simmering there.

Jesse, would you view it that way? I mean are the divisions more internal than external between Duke, a nationally known college, versus a much smaller, not as well known, North Carolina Central University?

LONGORIA: I would definitely agree with what was just said, in fact, that they are more internal than external, that this is an issue that is brought -- creating, again, dialogue, creating the conversation between our campuses. But conversation doesn't always have to be destructive.

CUNNINGHAM: Exactly.

LONGORIA: We can find the ways to come together as a community and build the relations which need to exist between our campuses.

M. O'BRIEN: What do you want to see happen here, Jesse?

We just heard Shawn talk about how it's really important, from his perspective, that this investigation continue.

Given what we know right now about no DNA link being there, do you think it's appropriate for the prosecutor, perhaps, to drop this case now?

LONGORIA: Well, I really don't want to speculate on specifics of the case. All I'll say is I agree that everybody here at Duke wants to find the truth, and give the officials the room to find that truth.

And kind of stepping away from the case, one thing I'd like to see is just the awareness level raised for all sexual assault. CUNNINGHAM: Sure. Definitely.

LONGORIA: I believe that'll happen in the future.

M. O'BRIEN: This is a problem on college campuses that is often not reported.

CUNNINGHAM: Exactly. And one of the reasons I feel that it's not reported as much is because the way you destroy the victim -- I mean, generally, you know, it's so hard for them to report. Like the district attorney said yesterday, there's DNA evidence rarely found in most sexual assault or rape cases. And, also, only 65 to 70 percent of those victims report. And one of the reasons they don't report is for the fear -- the fear of humiliation, the fear of victimization, the fear that they're going to be put on a pedestal and just shot at from, whether it's the press or defense attorneys.

And so, you know, we have to make an open venue so that those that are victims of sexual assault and rape can report and so that we can get offenders off the street.

M. O'BRIEN: Jesse Langoria, Shawn Cunningham, thanks for being with us this morning.

CUNNINGHAM: Thank you so much.

LONGORIA: Thank you.

M. O'BRIEN: Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Well, Prince Harry is now technically Second Lieutenant Harry Wales. The 21-year-old has just graduated from the Sandhurst Military Academy. The royal family was there and our own Paula Newton was there, too.

NEWTON: Prince Harry truly came of age today, passing out at his graduation ceremony here at Sandhurst. He will graduate as a second lieutenant, and that means that on a light armored division, he will be leading about seven soldiers. He has decided to join a reconnaissance unit. That means he will be an advanced team that is what they call the eyes and ears of the military.

His grandmother was on hand today and gave a speech in which she indicated that to lead is to serve.

She also pointed out that within weeks or months, these cadets, now officers, could be in some very dangerous conflict zones -- Afghanistan, Iraq -- and that includes Prince Harry. It will be unprecedented and very complicated to have the third in line to the throne serve in these conflict zones. But Prince Harry himself says he's determined to do it.

Right now, the Ministry of Defense here in Britain does have plans on the table to have him protected in zones like Afghanistan and Iraq if it's warranted, if they determine that they have intelligence that he is the target for insurgents or terrorists. At this point, though, he doesn't have any immediate plans to go into conflict zones. He must finish his training in the fall and then wait for any deployments.

Paula Newton, CNN, at the Sandhurst Royal Military Academy in England.

S. O'BRIEN: Ahead this morning, does hormone replacement therapy increase the risk of breast cancer? There's some good news to report this morning.

Plus, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is under fire. Critics are calling for his resignation again. We're going to talk with one retired general about whether or not it's time for Rumsfeld to go.

Those stories are ahead.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: A major new study provides good news for women who are taking estrogen only hormone replacement therapy to relieve some of the symptoms of menopause.

Dr. Barbara Howard led the study for the Women's Health Initiative and she joins us from our Washington bureau this morning.

Nice to see you, Dr. Howard.

Thanks for talking with us.

DR. BARBARA HOWARD, WOMEN'S HEALTH INITIATIVE: Good morning.

S. O'BRIEN: These studies are so confusing. So let's walk through them very slowly and very clearly.

First, what were researchers hoping to get from the study -- this study we're talking about today?

HOWARD: Well, this is part of the overall study that we started 10 years ago to ask about the effect of hormone use on overall health and the prevention of chronic diseases. And this doesn't tell us anything new about that, because we still know that the overall risk outweighs the benefits.

But this does give us some more details about the effects on breast cancer so that women who have to take these hormones for individual health reasons can have a little more informed opinion about their risks.

S. O'BRIEN: OK. So you looked at 10,739 women ages 50 to 79, all post-menopausal. All had a hysterectomy. Some of the women in the study got estrogen. Some got a placebo.

What did you find in the women who were taking estrogen? HOWARD: Well, the women who were taking estrogen, there was no increase in their risk of breast cancer for the six years of the analysis, six to seven years of the analysis. But if we -- what we tried to do is to look a little more closely at the data to see if we could learn more about which women might be affected more or less.

We found that women who have more increased risk for breast cancer, those who have a family history or other risks as measured by what we call a Gale score, actually were at risk with the estrogen. But those women whose family history was low and had other positive factors were not affected by the estrogen.

S. O'BRIEN: So the study only lasted about seven years and it was stopped because it showed an increased risk of stroke in the women who were taking estrogen.

HOWARD: Yes.

S. O'BRIEN: So two questions.

First of all, can you extrapolate out? If you say OK, no increased risk for women who don't have a family history, no increased risk seven years out. Can you extrapolate out and then say 20 years out, 30 years out, 40 years out?

And, the second part of that is the stroke thing.

How serious a risk is that?

HOWARD: That's right.

That's the problem, that it's hard to extrapolate. Everything we know about longer-term use of estrogen suggests that it has a negative effect on breast cancer. In other words, it increases your risk as you use it longer and longer. It may be that you have a window here of six, seven, eight years when that affect doesn't happen with estrogen alone.

But most women in this country die of cardiovascular diseases, things like strokes, things caused by blood clots. So we know that the estrogen, even in the short-term, increases the risk for strokes, blood clots and also some other adverse effects like gallbladder disease and incontinence and memory problems.

S. O'BRIEN: OK, so then it's good news, sort of, on the breast cancer front.

HOWARD: That's right.

S. O'BRIEN: But it's bad news on the stroke front, which you say is the leading cause of death that way.

HOWARD: That's right.

S. O'BRIEN: So what's the takeaway? If I am a post-menopausal woman, 50 to 79, the kind of woman who would be in this study, who'd had a hysterectomy, should I take estrogen or not take estrogen?

HOWARD: You would have to talk to your doctor and discuss your own particular health problems. Definitely shouldn't be taking it if you want to prolong your life and reduce chronic diseases. But if there's some immediate reason why you might need to take it for post- menopausal symptoms, then you need to talk with your doctor to see what your personal risk of breast cancer and strokes and other chronic diseases are, to see whether the estrogen could be used for a short time.

S. O'BRIEN: The information is just so confusing for women...

HOWARD: Yes.

S. O'BRIEN: ... who are trying to make a decision about their health.

HOWARD: Yes.

S. O'BRIEN: Dr. Howard, I appreciate you trying to clarify some of it for us this morning.

HOWARD: Thanks.

S. O'BRIEN: Thanks so much.

HOWARD: You're welcome.

S. O'BRIEN: Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Ex-FEMA Chief Mike Brown looking for a new job. And it looks like he might have found one. But in the last place you might suspect. We'll explain.

Plus, a 10-year-old boy gets a lesson in sharing he'll never forget. The lifesaving bond between teacher and student ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

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