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American Morning

FBI Arrest Seven Men for Alleged Plan to Bomb Sears Tower; Casey Points to Iran's Growing Role Training Iraqi Insurgents, Supplying IEDs

Aired June 23, 2006 - 07:30   ET

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

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Happening this morning, Baghdad is under an extended curfew. Iraqi officials say they want to keep all cars and people off the streets after a morning gun battle.
After years of shortages, flu vaccine makers say this year there may be a surplus, that's the latest from the National Influenza Vaccine summit that's under way in Chicago.

Firefighters say they are making progress against that wildfire in Sedona, in Arizona, it has grown to more than 3,000 acres, but they're hoping it will be fully contained by next week.

Time for a check of the forecast. Chad Myers is at the CNN Center this morning.

(WEATHER REPORT)

ROBERTS: Coming up on 32 minutes after the hour.

The FBI is rounding up suspects of what they say is a homegrown terror ring. Seven men under arrest, the suspects' base allegedly was this Miami warehouse, described as radical Muslims, five are Americans, one is from Haiti, and one is a resident alien.

It's believed they were working with an Al Qaeda operative, but he really was an FBI informant. CNN Security Analyst Pat D'Amuro is here now.

Pat, what do you think is really going on here? Was this a legitimate homegrown terrorist group that was about to launch a series of attacks allegedly against the Sears Tower and FBI headquarters in Miami?

PAT D'AMURO, CNN SECURITY ANALYST: Well, John, absolutely it has to be legitimate. There's a court that has heard evidence, that the FBI has presented, they've issued arrest warrants, they issued search warrants. This is a valid threat.

Now, how much of a plan was underway? What was going to be conducted, is what we'll find out as this develops and we'll learn more today when there's an arraignment.

ROBERTS: But as we saw, they searched that warehouse, they tried to break through one door, tried to cut through one door, couldn't. Broke down another door, got inside, but there were no explosives, no weapons inside. Very little was brought out of the warehouse. Could it be, as you said, you don't know how far down the road this plan was. That there wasn't a plan, but they were just in the talking stages of it?

D'AMURO: I think the FBI has been very cautious from the comments that I've heard to make sure that they've told the American public that there were no explosives. And we saw yesterday there were no bomb squads no, bomb trucks, no devices that they were looking for. So they've been cautious in saying there is no eminent threat here.

We'll probably find that there will be discussions whether or not these individuals could have actually carried out these attacks. But it's important to note that if you are involved in a conspiracy and talk about committing a crime of violence or an act of terrorism, that's a crime in itself.

ROBERTS: So, it is just the fact that they were talking, even if they weren't actually plotting, if they were just talking. As you said, they were conspiring to something, and there was an FBI informant on the inside, as it's alleged that there was, that could be reason to try to roll this up group?

D'AMURO: That's right. An FBI is not going to let an investigation go to a point where these individuals would start disappearing into the fold of the American society, maybe leaving the state. They're not going to take that rising. They're going to take that down and charge these individuals.

ROBERTS: I was listening to one of our security analysts late last night, who said if indeed this was a homegrown terrorist group, there's bad news that we've got homegrown terrorist groups. But there is potentially good news as well. They were probably novices, if they were a homegrown terrorist group. They didn't come through some training camp in Afghanistan. Is there potentially some good news in this as well?

D'AMURO: Well, it doesn't appear as this was the most qualified team of individuals to conduct a terrorist attack, from what we know so far. However, there's a valid threat there when we talk about blowing up the Sears Tower or other FBI buildings.

ROBERTS: As we saw with Tim McVeigh, even novices can be terribly and tragically effective.

D'AMURO: That's right.

ROBERTS: So what do you expect is going to happen from here? Are there comparisons to the Lackawanna group here? Might they be held for awhile and released? Do you think this is actually going to through prosecution?

D'AMURO: There are some comparisons. However, they did not travel to the training camps, as you said earlier. There's no evidence they've gone over to the training camps in Afghanistan or wherever the Buffalo six went to training camps. Now, I think it is important to note that they are homegrown, there'll a little bit harder to identify because they haven't conducted that type of travel. They may not come up on the scope.

ROBERTS: Although, apparently they were sort of hiding in plain sight here with their dress and standing guard out in front of this warehouse and all that.

D'AMURO: Well, I think it is pretty obvious that somebody saw something and contacted the FBI and talked about what was taking place down there.

ROBERTS: All right. Pat D'Amuro, as always, thanks very much.

Soledad.

O'BRIEN: We can expect more details later this morning.

Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez and top FBI officials are expected to discuss the plot and the arrests, as well, at a news conference in Washington, D.C. this morning. Also at 11:30 a.m. the U.S. attorney's office in Miami will hold its own news conference and then at Noon Eastern Time, FBI Director Robert Mueller will talk about threats of homegrown terrorism.

Be sure to stay CNN for live coverage of those three events and also the most reliable news about your security.

In this morning's "Wall Street Journal", an editorial from former FBI Director Louis Freeh suggesting the U.S. government hasn't been tough enough with Iran. He cites two occasions where senior members of the Iranian government authorized attacks on Americans, this follows word yesterday from senior U.S. general that Iran is now increasing support for terrorist attacks in southern Iraq. Let's get to Pentagon Correspondent Barbara Starr, this morning.

Hey, Barbara, good morning.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Soledad.

An all of lot of tough talk here yesterday about Iran's involvement in Iraq's insurgency.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

STARR (voice over): Military officials say IED attacks in Iraq have risen in recent months and one reason is -- Iran.

GEN. GEORGE CASEY, U.S. COMMANDER IN IRAQ: We are quite confident that the Iranians, through their covert special operations forces are providing weapons, IED technology and training in the to Shia extremist groups in Iraq. The training being conducted in Iran.

STARR: It's not the first time the Pentagon has pointed the finger at Tehran, but the general says Iran's meddling is growing worse.

CASEY: It is continuing. I think it is a noticeable increase since January.

STARR: He says Ian is now a major element in the violence that continues to tear much of Iraq apart. Casey believes some of the deadliest advanced IEDs, that are killing U.S. troops and Iraqis, are now being shipped across the border.

CASEY: We are seeing the explosive projectile attacks against us, increase, those primarily come from Iran.

STARR: He also says Shia militia groups inside Iraq are now tied right to the central government in Tehran.

CASEY: What we see, though, their CSO (ph) force, their covert special operations forces are the ones that are directing this. Now you would assume that they're not doing that independently, there is some central direction from somebody in Tehran.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

STARR: But Soledad, I have to tell you, General Casey and Secretary Rumsfeld didn't offer any solution to this Iranian problem, other than to say they are sure the Iranians are listening to what they are saying here at the Pentagon -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Interesting, Barbara Starr, at the Pentagon this morning.

Barbara, thank you.

John.

ROBERTS: They are portraits of sacrifice. A young man from Illinois is using his artistic talent to honor the memory of soldiers who is have died in Iraq and Afghanistan. CNN's Jonathan Freed has that story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JONATHAN FREED, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): These are the hands of a 22-year-old college student, sketching the portrait of a soldier killed in Iraq. Cameron Schilling has made it his mission to draw every fallen soldier from his home state of Illinois. It's a mission motivated by a sense of duty and a measure of guilt.

CAMERON SCHILLING, ARTIST: These are guys that could be doing exactly what I'm doing. They could be going to class. They could be living a normal live in their hometowns, but they're in a foreign country, sacrificing a lot.

FREED: So Cameron is sacrificing his time and giving his sketches to the soldiers' families.

SCHILLING: I started posting on different websites that this is what I want to do. I just got some responses back. They'd send me a picture and I'd draw the picture and send it to them in the mail. That's how the first six of them got done.

FREED: But the project grew from six to 126, at last count. Once Illinois' lieutenant governor discovered Cameron's work and invited him to sketch all of the state's fallen soldiers. Cameron had to post the soldier's names on his wall to keep track of his work.

(On camera): Is it difficult for to you come in here and look at that list?

SCHILLING: It's difficult to see it grow.

FREED (voice over): The state displayed the portraits at a Memorial Day event in Chicago. More than 30 families were there.

Marine Lance Corporal Sean Maher was killed in an ambush in February, 2005.

(on camera): When you look at the sketch, is it giving you something from your son that you didn't have before?

DANIEL MAHER, FATHER OF FALLENS SOLDIER: Comfort. The fact that you could see his eyes, the fact that he was looking at you, even though it was a sketch and it wasn't in color, it was a warm feeling, the sketch itself. And --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: For someone who didn't know him.

SCHILLING: His eyes are covered a little bit by his hat. I kind of moved him up a little to show more of his eyes, because that is the most important part of the sketch.

MAHER: He's staring right at me. Telling me not to worry about him.

SCHILLING: He was just, I think, a couple years younger than I was, so it's kind of just hard to, you know, grasp that.

FREED: Cameron feels his sketches highlight what he calls the definition of sacrifice. Jonathan Freed, CNN, Charleston, Illinois.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROBERTS: Cameron's sketches will be on display at the Illinois State Capital for the Fourth of July.

We're back in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: The Boss is back on tour and with a new sound. And, well, that new sound is sort of an old sound. Is he performing almost exclusively from his new album "We Shall Overcome", the Seiger Sessions, it's folk music. It grew from a 1997 project where he was looking for a song as a tribute to the anti-war folk hero, Pete Seiger.

I spoke with Springsteen exclusively last night, right before he went on stage last night at Madison Square Garden.

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN, SINGER/SONGWRITER: In search of the one song, we cut about seven or eight, trying to see what would work out. And it was just done quickly in the afternoon at my farmhouse. We cut about seven or eight things of which I think "Jessie James", "Old Dan Tucker" a few other things survived from the very first session. I kept going back -- I put it away, because it seemed so left field for me.

O'BRIEN: Is it a political album? Are you sending a political message with this album?

SPRINGSTEEN: I like that to be an organic part of what I'm doing, I think because I'd always searched those, in trying to explain the world and the times to myself, I searched those elements out in the music that I like, and so, you know, a Pete Seiger record without politics in it -- wouldn't feel right, you know?

O'BRIEN: In 2004 you came out very strongly in support of John Kerry. And performing with him, you're fellow guitarists.

SPRINGSTEEN: Yes.

O'BRIEN: I think that is how you introduced him to the crowd. And some people gave you a lot of flack for being a musician who took a political stand.

SPRINGSTEEN: They should let Ann Coulter do it instead.

O'BRIEN: There is a whole school of thought, as you well know, that says with musicians -- you see it with the Dixie Chicks, you know, that "go play your music and stop it."

SPRINGSTEEN: If you turned on to -- present company included -- the idiots rambling on, on cable television on any given night of the week. You are saying the musicians shouldn't speak up? You know, it's insane. You know, it's funny.

O'BRIEN: As a musician, though, I'd be curious to know if there is a concern that you start talking about politics, you came out at one point and said, I think it was in "USA Today", listen, the country would be better off if George Bush were replaced as president. You know is there a worry that you start getting political and you could alienate --

SPRINGSTEEN: That's called common sense. I don't even see that as politics at this point. So, I mean that's -- you know, if you get me started, I'll be glad to go.

You don't take a country like the United States into a major war on circumstantial evidence. You lose your job for that. That's my opinion. And I have no problem voicing it. Some people like it, and some people boo you, you know. O'BRIEN: It always seems to me, that as you get as an older musician, do you feel like -- Listen, I'm older, I've been doing this awhile, I can take more risks?

SPRINGSTEEN: It's always been a part of what I've done. I don't necessarily lead with it. As the night goes on I occasionally have a public service announcement. But at that -- I own that speaker and about two and a half hours in, by that time I've earned a minute or two where I can either, enliven you, or bore you, or make you angry. And the audience is sort of -- they respond as they will, you know. We -- my record's busted up and sent to me sometimes.

O'BRIEN: Really?

SPRINGSTEEN: Oh, yeah.

O'BRIEN: They mail them back to you?

SPRINGSTEEN: Yeah.

O'BRIEN: "We Shall Overcome" is such a beautiful song. I was listening to it at home and I was terrible because I started -- I was all upset I started to cry, I'm trying to feed my kids. It is a beautiful, incredibly moving -- and it's you know, we've heard it a million times, a song that you hear a million times. Why that song? Why did you pick that song?

SPRINGSTEEN: If you lived through the '60s, you know the importance of that song. And it's one of those things that that hasn't chained in America, and to the point of where you saw the shock of the country, when they saw who got left in New Orleans, President Bush, himself, had to come out and sound like Lyndon Banes Johnson, a few days later, to actually address the subject of American poverty, which goes unaddressed, entirely, to this day, to the shame of all of us.

Unaddressed, 'til people saw it on the news. That was the only time they see those folks on the news not in handcuffs, and not, you know, being exploited in some other way. And it shocked the country to the degree where he had to say something. He wasn't going to do anything about it, but he had to say something about it. That song is at the core of that struggle, and that goes on round, and round and round, still to this day.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: Bruce Springsteen wraps up the 18-day U.S. tour Monday night in Homeville (ph), New Jersey, not too far from his very beloved Asbury Park. CNN Pipeline will be running my interview with The Boss all day, if you want to catch more of it throughout the morning, at your desktop you can go right to cnn.com/pipeline.

ROBERTS: That's great. Very chatty guy, always interesting to hear what he has to say, because he doesn't say it enough. For years and years he never did interviews. O'BRIEN: He talked a lot about celebrity, and how you have to both -- he doesn't like celebrity, but he understands you have to buy into celebrity at some point; had a lot of advice for young aspiring musicians. Really interesting, interesting guy.

ROBERTS: Agree or disagree with his politics, he's interesting to listen to.

O'BRIEN: Yes.

ROBERTS: Coming up next, Andy, is "Mind Your Business". What you got for us?

ANDY SERWER, CNN ANCHOR, AMERICAN MORNING: A hot potato issue, John. Nuclear power plants, they'll be building one coming soon, and the big question is, where is that going to be located? We will tell you, coming up.

ROBERTS: Thanks, Andy.

Also ahead, two Democratic proposals for bring U.S. troops home from Iraq and two big losses in the Senate. Did the Democrats risk looking soft on Iraq now? Democratic strategist James Carville joins us live, ahead, on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: High gasoline prices are helping nuclear energy make a comeback. President Bush is certainly behind it, but this one is going to be full of controversy. Andy Serwer here "Minding Your Business" this morning.

Good morning, Andy.

SERWER: Good morning, John.

We knew this was coming with high energy prices, nuclear power plants. There's been talk of them coming back. And now it appears that it is coming to fruition. Hitachi and General Electric are slated to build two nuclear reactors at one site outside of Houston, Texas, a $5-billion project.

The final contracts slated to be signed next year, the facility will not be operational until 2014. And as you mentioned, John, it's all about higher energy costs, this is an alternative, no nukes have been constructed since the 1970s.

Of course, 1979 was Three Mile Island, in Pennsylvania, that partial meltdown there that really put an end to all nuclear power plant construction in the U.S. And, of course, Chernobyl after that put a further damper on this business.

ROBERTS: You know what's interesting about this debate is that you actually have some environmental groups saying better nuclear power than to keep on burning fossil fuels, but then you have other environmental groups that say, never again, don't ever go back there. SERWER: That's right, because of coal is greenhouse gases, we've been talking about global warming now for several years. That's another hot button issue. So, basically you have a war of hot button issues. Of course, nuclear power, you've got to dispose of the fuel. And you have to dispose of the used fuel, and that is the problem with that particular source of power.

ROBERTS: What else have you got for us morning?

SERWER: Later on we'll talk about a very different topic, fluff, and Fluffernutter sandwiches in school. A lot of fans here, huh?

O'BRIEN: I love that stuff! It's awesome!

SERWER: Well, you know, of course, it's got to be linked to obesity.

O'BRIEN: It's not the healthy -- I said awesome, not healthy.

SERWER: It's really not.

ROBERTS: They're serving Fluffernutter in Massachusetts schools, right?

SERWER: Yes, that's right. I think that's true. And some school districts looking to ban it, maybe not a bad idea, but we'll talk about it.

ROBERTS: How could you ban a Fluffernutter? Can't do that.

SERWER: Something's wrong, isn't it?

O'BRIEN: Yeah. It's so not good for you, but its so delicious. It's so good. I could eat it by the jarful.

SERWER: You don't serve it to your kids, though, that's the question?

O'BRIEN: Never! No, no, no, Mommy eats it with a spoon.

SERWER: Yeah, Mommy -- right in front of the kids, right?

O'BRIEN: Oh, never, that would be cruel.

We'll take a look at that. Also ahead this morning, top stories including the FBI operation to bust an alleged terror plot targeting the Sears Tower and FBI offices in Miami. Iraqi officials extending a Baghdad curfew after a gun battle near a mosque.

DNA tests confirmed the identity of those two soldiers killed in Iraq last week.

The Senate votes down two Democratic proposals to withdraw from Iraq. And weather worries on the fire lines in Arizona. Forecasters are calling for strong winds, possible lightning, too. And that could add fuel to already hot and dry conditions. Those stories head. Stay with us. You're watching AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm John Zarrella in Miami. Who are the Seas of David and why were they the focus of a terror raid at this warehouse behind me? I'll tell you, coming up.

O'BRIEN: In clamping down on violence in Baghdad, the new government hoping to keep things quiet with an extended curfew.

ROBERTS: Strong winds expected in Arizona today. That could be very bad news for firefighters battling major wildfires there.

A massive wall of dust in West Texas; zero visibility being blamed for a series of accidents and injuries there.

O'BRIEN: And diagnosing a broken heart. A look at a very real medical emergency, ahead on this AMERICAN MORNING.

Welcome back, everybody, I'm Soledad O'Brien.

ROBERTS: And I'm John Roberts in for Miles O'Brien. It's the top of the hour and it's the end of the week. Two great things.

O'BRIEN: Yes, it is.

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