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Tropical Storm Alberto; Revenge Threat; Marine Massacre?; Myspace Runaway

Aired June 12, 2006 - 06:00   ET

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

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: It is Monday, June 12. Good morning to you. I'm Miles O'Brien.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Soledad O'Brien.

Here's a look at what's happening this morning.

We could learn more about the exact cause of the death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. U.S. military officials are expected to release autopsy results this morning. Zarqawi initially survived the U.S. airstrike last week, then died, we're told, a short time later.

President Bush opens a two-day summit on Iraq today at Camp David. He's going to meet with top defense and Cabinet officials. The White House is playing down any talk of troop cutbacks, though.

M. O'BRIEN: The trial of Saddam Hussein has resumed in Iraq this morning. An American lawyer for Hussein's defense lashed out at the court. He says the court has intimidated its witnesses and not given the defense enough time to present its case.

Fourteen of the 17 suspects in that Canadian terror case set to appear in court today for bail hearings. The group is accused of planning an attack on high-profile buildings in the Toronto area.

There's a court hearing in Detroit this morning over whether the government's domestic wiretapping program is constitutional. Lawyers for the ACLU say the program violates the rights of free speech, of privacy and they want the program stopped immediately.

And more talks today between Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and leaders from several Palestinian groups. Negotiators are hoping to find ways for Abbas' Fatah Party and Hamas to cooperate. Abbas has lost much of his power ever since Hamas took control of Parliament.

M. O'BRIEN: In Germany, Team USA gearing up for the first match of the World Cup. For that team, the Americans kick off against the Czech Republic today, noon Eastern.

And the first named storm of the 2006 hurricane season. Tropical Storm Alberto is picking up strength this morning. It's churning through the Gulf of Mexico. Top winds right now at about 50 miles an hour. The storm is expected to bring lots of rain to parts of Florida.

Severe weather expert Chad Myers is at the CNN Center with the latest track of Alberto.

Hey, Chad, good morning.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, Soledad.

And this is much needed rainfall coming down in Florida today. So a lot of the rain that Florida will get in the summertime is tropical in nature. You never like the winds to get above about 50 miles per hour or so. And there were some reports of wind damage with some of the storms yesterday across parts of Florida. Some trees down, some power lines down, minor damage, because the storm is still way off shore, at least earlier today.

And last night we said how disorganized this storm is. Well today it's getting more organized. And what does that mean? The storms are getting closer to the center. For awhile, all the storms were off to the east and the center was way back there with no storms around it.

But now watch, watch in the past couple of hours, more storms are getting around the center, and that's going to increase the chance of a storm getting stronger. Right now the winds are at 50 miles per hour. There still is a westerly sheer kind of breaking some of those storms apart.

But by 2:00 tomorrow afternoon, this storm will be somewhere up here around the Steinhatchee River, maybe to St. Marks. Some of the computer models taking it all the way over to Panama City, but only as a tropical storm, never getting this up to a hurricane. So that is the good news, I guess, never getting above those hurricane winds.

Now it is still possible to get to a small Category 1 hurricane. But right now it looks like there is enough westerly wind to blow the tops off of some of the storms, that we're not going to get enough strengthening before the storm actually hits land. Yes, the water is warm here, 85, 87 degrees, so that's plenty of heat for this storm to get stronger.

From Tampa right on down to Fort Myers seeing the rain showers this morning. Take the rain when you can get it. We'll try to keep the wind away, but it looks like somebody in northwestern Florida is going to get that -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Yes, it was kind of windy yesterday. I was in Miami yesterday afternoon watching the wind and a little bit of rain, too, but they were clearly going to dodge that.

Chad, thanks.

MYERS: You're welcome.

S. O'BRIEN: We're going to check in with you all morning on this topic.

Thanks, Chad.

CNN of course your hurricane headquarters.

Let's get right to Sumi Das. She's in Clearwater, Florida this morning with the latest on preparations there for this storm and other storms. First of the season.

Hey, Sumi, good morning.

SUMI DAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Soledad.

Well, it's only a tropical storm, right, but we are already starting to see the effects of the first named storm of the 2006 season. Tropical Storm Alberto has sustained winds of 50 miles per hour. And it, late last night, began moving to the northeast. That is not good news for the people who live here in Florida, a state that has already seen its fair share of storms.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SUMI DAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's unlikely to reach hurricane strength, but as this year's first named storm, Alberto is kicking off the 2006 season. Described as disorganized by forecasters, the tropical storm is slowly making its way towards Florida's west coast where it's predicted to drop 5 to 10 inches of rain. The forecast hasn't prevented beachgoers from enjoying the sun and surf at Clearwater Beach on central Florida's western edge.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Not overly concerned at this point. It's only going to be a tropical storm. It could give us a lot of winds, but we're sort of used to that.

DAS: Still, many are more prepared than they have been in years past.

JEAN HAGAN, CLEARWATER, FLORIDA RESIDENT: Made sure my roof doesn't leak anymore. I've got -- we made sure everything is inside so the wind doesn't get us. We have the wood cut for the windows if we have to put it up. And that's what you've got to do.

DAS: The Floridians we talked to say they learned at least one valuable lesson from the record-breaking 2005 season, they plan to fully cooperate if and when evacuations are issued this season.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're not going to do the Rambo thing and stick it out.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I mean we're definitely going to probably leave, but probably not really doing anything and assess whatever.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Watch the weather probably more than we would have.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, see what the professionals are saying.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Trust the weatherman. (END VIDEOTAPE)

DAS: Clearwater Beach lies on a stretch of Florida's west coast that is under a tropical storm warning. Like I said, we're already starting to see the rain. It's most likely going to pick up and will continue through Tuesday -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: And you need the rain, Sumi Das.

Thanks, Sumi.

And as we mentioned, CNN your hurricane headquarters. We've got the very latest forecast and up-to-date information as well -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Planning for the next steps in Iraq begins today. Over the next two days, President Bush and his senior military and civilian advisers will hold strategy sessions at Camp David. The goal is to help Iraq's new government get control of the country so U.S. troops can start coming home.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEN. GEORGE CASEY, U.S. COMMANDER IN IRAQ: As long as the Iraqi security forces continue to progress and as long as this national unity government continues to operate that way and move the country forward, I think we're going to be able to see continued gradual reductions of coalition forces over the coming months and into next year.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

M. O'BRIEN: Presidents often use the isolation of Camp David to get results.

The potential successors to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi are threatening revenge. An Islamic Web site claims to have details of what went on at a meeting between the surviving members of al Qaeda in Iraq.

John Vause live now from Baghdad with more.

Hello, -- John.

JOHN VAUSE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Miles.

According to this message, which was posted on an Islamic Web site, al Qaeda in Iraq has vowed to carry out an attack which will -- in their words -- "shake the enemy." Now in general terms, these threats are being taken seriously by the Iraqi government. Extra security has been ordered for Baghdad and also to the north around the city of Baquba.

The death of Zarqawi has been described as a blow to his terrorist organization, but not a knockout punch. And so both U.S. and Iraqi officials expect al Qaeda in Iraq to carry out some kind of attack to prove that it's still relevant here. But Iraq's national security adviser, talking on CNN, said talk of some kind of massive operation is really just an empty threat.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MOWAFFAK AL-RUBAIE, IRAQI NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: This is, I believe, it's a propaganda ploy. They're trying to make up for the huge loss and the disorientation they are suffering from, because there's a huge vacuum of power now within al Qaeda.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Also, within a few hours from now, we're expecting the official results to be released from the autopsy which was carried out on Zarqawi's body over the weekend. And once it was revealed that Zarqawi survived the initial blast, if only for a few moments, a lot of speculation as to how he died.

There was some suggestion that he may have been shot either by Iraqi or by U.S. soldiers. We spoke with General Caldwell, the spokesperson for the multi-national forces in Iraq, over the weekend. He said there is no evidence of gunshot wounds.

Also, we're waiting to hear from the Iraqi government if and when Zarqawi's remains will be handed back to his family in Jordan -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: John, you were among the few reporters who have actually been to the site, that hideout that was bombed where Zarqawi died. What were you able to glean from that location? Were you, once you saw the rubble, surprised he survived at all?

VAUSE: Yes, it was amazing to see it. Just flying in there, we were taken up by a U.S. military helicopter on Saturday, we didn't even really know that we were over the site of this house until we were right on top of it. That's how isolated it was in this thick grove of date palms.

And once we got down there and we saw the crater that was left behind by these two 500-pound bombs, which we've now learned were fired by one F-16. The crater was originally, we're told, about 45- feet deep. It had been filled in a bit by the time we got in there. By the time we got there, it was still about 20-feet deep. And to think anyone survived, whether inside the house or in that immediate area, was incredible.

Also, walking around there, there wasn't a lot to suggest that this was a house where anybody actually lived for any length of time. There was a thin foam mattress, a blanket, a woman's dress, that kind of thing. But you would never suspect that there was a top-level al Qaeda meeting under way in this house at the time that it was destroyed by these two bombs -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: John Vause in Baghdad, thank you very much.

He mentioned that autopsy and the results of it of Abu Musab al- Zarqawi. Those results should be released 8:00 a.m. Eastern Time. The U.S. military holding a briefing out of Baghdad. We'll bring it to you live -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: One of the Marines at the center of the Haditha investigation says that he and his men did nothing wrong. His invest -- his attorney, rather, tells CNN that the Marines followed standard operating procedure on the day that 24 Iraq civilians were killed.

CNN's senior Pentagon correspondent Jamie McIntyre has more for us this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SENIOR PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Neal Puckett represents then sergeant now Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich, the leader of a four-man team that killed the occupants of two houses that day.

He's told his attorney several Marines witnessed hostile fire coming from inside the house. He led a four-man team that kicked in the door and then another Marine went in gun blazing and shot everyone inside. Then thinking the insurgents fled to a nearby house, they did the same thing there.

NEAL PUCKETT, ATTY. FOR STAFF SGT. FRANK WUTERICH: Sgt. Wuterich notices that the backdoor was wide open. He presumes that the guys who were firing had escaped out the back. So they went back out the front door, stealthily went around the house and the most likely house that they could possibly be in, their fallback position, was cleared the same way.

MCINTYRE: Puckett says if anything was to blame for the deaths, it was the rules of engagement that didn't provide enough protection for innocent civilians. He's hopeful his client, a 26-year-old father of two, won't be charged with anything as serious as murder once the investigation wraps up later this summer.

Jamie McIntyre, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

S. O'BRIEN: There is a new report out that says that U.S. troops in Iraq are facing an increased risk from the thousands of pounds of armor that's been added to military Humvees. According to an Ohio newspaper, the added armor makes the vehicles more likely to rollover, which could injure or kill the soldiers. An Army spokesman says the military is taking the issue very seriously and is providing additional training to troops on armored Humvees -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Outrage around the world over the deaths of three inmates at Guantanamo. World governments, once again, criticizing the Bush administration's treatment of suspected terrorists at Guantanamo in Cuba. And now, after three detainees were found hanged on Saturday, some American leaders are joining the call to close the prison.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SEN. JACK REED (D), RHODE ISLAND: As long as Guantanamo exists, it's a source of international attention and concern. And that these types of incidents, these suicides, not only will provoke further condemnation around the world.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

M. O'BRIEN: Coming up in our next hour, a fact check on Guantanamo, who is there and why the conditions, suicides and suicide attempts. And then in our 9:00 Eastern Hour, a former Muslim chaplain at the prison, what he knows about conditions there and the detainees.

Happening in America right now.

A statewide Amber Alert issued in California for a 1-year-old girl police believe was abducted by a man who murdered her mother. Alejandra Gomez disappeared from her San Diego home over the weekend.

Cleaning up in New Hampshire's north country. The Mohawk River overflowed in Colebrook, plugging up streets, tree limbs, other debris in the area. Cleanup begins today.

Jennifer Lopez and Marc Antony -- Anthony or Antony?

S. O'BRIEN: Anthony.

M. O'BRIEN: Anthony. I was thinking of somebody else I guess. Leading the annual Puerto Rican Day Parade in New York. Hundreds of thousands of parade-goers covered Fifth Avenue in a sea of red, white and blue, the colors of the Puerto Rican flag. The parade began in 1958. It's now one of the city's largest.

S. O'BRIEN: It sure is. Traffic during the...

M. O'BRIEN: Yes.

S. O'BRIEN: But I love the Puerto Rican Day Parade. Impossible to get across the city.

M. O'BRIEN: Yes.

S. O'BRIEN: But it's so much fun. And they had good weather this year. Often it rains. I'll have that (ph) parade.

Still to come this morning, everybody, the mysterious disappearance of a prominent diplomat and publisher. His sailboat was found deserted in the Chesapeake Bay. We'll bring you up to speed on the investigation there.

M. O'BRIEN: Then a myspace nightmare. A 16-year-old Michigan girl meets a man online and then runs off to meet him in the West Bank.

S. O'BRIEN: Her parents must be relieved today.

M. O'BRIEN: Not happy. S. O'BRIEN: And last night, the Tony Awards. We'll tell you which shows took the top honors.

Plus, Carrie Lee has got some business headlines for us.

Hey, -- Carrie.

CARRIE LEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good Monday morning to both of you, Soledad and Miles.

Wall Street coming off of its worst week of the year so far. Major market indices all down about 3 percent or more. We look at some key inflation data this week and Fed Chief Ben Bernanke speaking in Washington today. What does that mean for stocks? We will tell you coming up on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: Happening this morning.

President Bush kicking off a two-day summit on Iraq at Camp David. He'll meet with top defense and Cabinet officials. The White House playing down talk of troop cutbacks.

How did Abu Musab al-Zarqawi briefly survive the bombing of his hideout? The U.S. military expected to release autopsy results this morning.

And Tropical Storm Alberto is picking up strength as it moves from the Gulf of Mexico. Alberto's top winds now about 50 miles an hour. It's expected to be a major rainmaker for parts of Florida. And in many place, they would welcome that.

Let's get the forecast now. Chad Myers is back.

Chad, welcome. We missed you.

MYERS: Thank you.

M. O'BRIEN: I hope you had a good break?

MYERS: I did. I was all the way down there to the tip of Mexico.

M. O'BRIEN: How was it?

MYERS: I went on the cub (ph). I would definitely go back.

M. O'BRIEN: Yes.

MYERS: Yes, no question about that. They don't have as many hurricanes, though, as we do up here, so that's kind of why I took a little short break down there. Now I'm -- it's five months of confinement, solitary confinement, up here, no leaving.

(WEATHER REPORT) We do have hurricane advisories now going on here. This is the new tropical storm warning. Yesterday this was a tropical storm watch from Indian Pass all the way down to Englewood. Now it's a tropical storm warning. So things have been upgraded. They do expect tropical storm effects from this system in the next 24 hours in that area -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: All right, Chad, thanks for watching it. We'll watch it with you.

MYERS: OK.

S. O'BRIEN: Some pretty tense days for the family of a Michigan teenager after the 16-year-old took a dangerous trip to the Middle East to see a stranger she met on the Internet.

Carol Costello is with us this morning.

Well, I guess you know it's one of those parents must be relieved and furious.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know we hear about this all the time. But to think that this girl went to these extreme measures to meet this guy is something else indeed.

They spent months chatting on the popular Web site myspace.com. And then that teenage girl turned runaway going halfway around the world to meet the man behind a profile. The FBI finally tracked her down at Amman, Jordan, and put her on a flight back home.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Sixteen-year-old Katherine Lester is back on U.S. soil after secretly flying to the Middle East to see a man she met online. Authorities say last Monday the teenager left home and took a plane from New York to Tel Aviv, Israel.

MARY LESTER, KATHERINE'S SISTER: How a 16-year-old can hop on a plane out of the country within a few days is beyond me.

COSTELLO: Katherine's mother says the family had no idea where she had gone or who she was with until a relative went looking for clues on the girl's computer.

SHAWN LESTER, KATHERINE'S MOTHER: She got on the myspace and found out that she had been talking to a guy from Tel Aviv.

COSTELLO: Lester was detained at a stop in Amman, Jordan. Police say she planned to meet a 25-year-old man from Jericho on the West Bank. For at least three months, she had been chatting with him on the social networking site myspace.com. The family says the man went by the name Abdulla. Sometimes he posted on myspace as a 14- year-old, sometimes as a 25-year-old.

S. LESTER: He could take a young girl that's never even had a date and talk her into something, or you know right now I don't know if she went on her own or she was forced.

COSTELLO: The myspace Web site, with more than 72 million members, has raised concerns for parents and police about teens being targeted by sexual predators.

M. LESTER: I'm just glad that they caught her when she -- when they did, because the Lord knows what would have happened.

COSTELLO: Investigators have confiscated Lester's computer from her home, trying to determine if a crime has been committed. The FBI is assisting with the investigation. On Friday, Katherine arrived back in the United States.

S. LESTER: You always think it can't happen to you, you know. We've all went through this, it doesn't seem real. You know I wound have never dreamt, but now I will not have a computer in my home. I'm just glad she's alive.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: Katherine's family says the dangerous trip is totally out of character. Her father says Katherine is a straight A student, a good girl and they have never had a problem with her.

You know one of the things the mother said, you've heard in the story that the girl never had a date, never had a boyfriend, and maybe that sort of played into why she was persuaded by this man to get on a plane, to fool her parents into getting her a passport. She told them she was going to go to Canada and visit some friends and that's how she got the passport. And instead, of course, she flew on to Israel.

S. O'BRIEN: So the investigation is trying to figure out if there was some kind of crime involved?

COSTELLO: Right, because the age of consent in Michigan is 17. She's 16. But if this guy never asked for sex in any of the e-mails, there's no crime.

S. O'BRIEN: Strange story.

All right, Carol, thanks -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Up next on the program, prominent diplomat and publisher lost at sea. His sailboat discovered empty in the middle of Chesapeake Bay.

And why thousands of pounds of armor intended to reinforce military Humvees could be making them more dangerous. We'll explain when we return.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: Welcome back, everybody. Here's a look at some of the most popular stories on CNN.com right now.

You're looking at pictures. Maryland search crews combing the Chesapeake Bay begin again this morning. They are looking for a former government official, an avid sailor. Philip Merrill disappeared on Saturday. Merrill is now a magazine and newspaper publisher.

Also on dot-com, the extra armor on Humvees in Iraq could be causing some serious accidents. "The Dayton Daily News" reports the heavy armor makes them more likely than other Humvees to rollover. Dozens of troops have died in rollovers over the past two years.

And the "Jersey Boys" won best musical at last night's Tony Awards. The show about Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons won four awards. "The History Boys" topped all shows with six Tony Awards.

M. O'BRIEN: Well I found the key to lower gas prices.

LEE: You have.

M. O'BRIEN: Drive to Georgia. It's a little bit far, and it can...

LEE: Kansas not bad either.

M. O'BRIEN: Yes. It's kind of far to go get a tank of gas, but it's cheap there, anyway.

Good morning.

LEE: Crunch the numbers.

M. O'BRIEN: Yes.

LEE: See if it works, right?

M. O'BRIEN: Yes.

Carrie Lee, good morning to you.

LEE: Gas prices not rising as much as we have seen in prior weeks. Gas prices have actually been flat since then. The average $2.93 a gallon. This according to the Lundberg Survey. So fractionally lower than the number we saw last week. The cheapest place in the country, Kansas $2.66 a gallon. The highest, Hawaii, we see this quite often, $3.27 a gallon.

OK, turning to H&R Block, the company wants its competitors to stop selling what the industry calls pay stub loans to customers. This is when a company gives cash payments to a person before they have even filed their taxes, before they've even received their W2s.

Now H&R Block is still going to offer refund anticipation loans. These are different, because the loan is made after the customer's taxes are done and made against an expected refund. But H&R Block wants the competition to change its business practices a little bit. A lot of people go for those loans.

And then finally a rough week for stocks last week. The worst week so far in terms of selling this year. The Dow down 356 points, more than 3 percent. Nasdaq, you can see, down almost 4 percent. So far looking like a flat to slightly higher open. We'll get some key inflation numbers and Fed Chief Ben Bernanke giving three speeches this week. You know so far Wall Street has been hanging on his every word.

M. O'BRIEN: And the markets move, don't they?

LEE: Yes, and we just showed that chart which way they are moving to.

M. O'BRIEN: Yes.

S. O'BRIEN: Can you give three speeches and not say anything at all?

LEE: We'll see. As soon as we hear that I word, inflation, right. Well that's the way it's been so far.

M. O'BRIEN: If you're a speech writer, that's your job, three speeches, don't say anything.

LEE: That's about right.

S. O'BRIEN: Hey, Carrie, like our new set?

LEE: I love it. I love it. I love this big desk. It's so luxurious.

S. O'BRIEN: Thank you. Thanks.

M. O'BRIEN: It's not a desk, its' an apartment in New York. Look at this thing, it really is, yes.

S. O'BRIEN: Right.

LEE: That's right.

M. O'BRIEN: All right.

S. O'BRIEN: Thanks, Carrie.

M. O'BRIEN: Thanks, Carrie, we'll see you in a bit.

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