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American Morning

New Bin Laden Tape Released; A Second Look at the Miami Terror Arrests; Buffett's Benevolence

Aired June 30, 2006 - 09:30   ET

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

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING. I'm Miles O'Brien.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Soledad O'Brien.

There is a new message now. It's believed to be from Osama bin Laden. This would be the first time that we have heard from the al Qaeda leader since the death of his top lieutenant in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. And again, this time, you can only hear bin Laden. So why is he not in front of the camera?

CNN senior international correspondent Nic Robertson, live in Baghdad for us. Nic, good morning.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad. Well, perhaps he doesn't go in front of the camera because he's changed the way that he looks from that picture we've seen of him from a couple of years ago, which was the last time we saw him. Perhaps he's cut his beard. It's not known. Perhaps it's just security and he really doesn't want to give away what he looks like, and he looks exactly the same.

The message, the content, praise for Zarqawi, calling him a hero, saying that President Bush should not rejoice that another lion will replace Zarqawi in Iraq. And also saying that the jihad will continue in Iraq and Afghanistan, Somalia and Sudan. Really giving us bin Laden's insights on where he wants to push the fight. Now he's talked about Sudan in recent messages, as well. Seems to be clear that he's looking at Africa at this time -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Let me ask you a question. Why do you think we've seen now four -- four tapes in just one month from senior al Qaeda leadership?

ROBERTSON: They've had a lot to talk about this month. Number one, we really did expect them to respond to the death of Zarqawi. He was their man in Iraq. They wanted to validate him, they wanted to say that the fight will continue. They wanted to praise him.

The other message is really perhaps we wouldn't have heard from them just now if Zarqawi hadn't have died. But what they're trying to do, it appears -- and this is how analysts certainly view it at the moment -- is that they want to stay relevant. That they don't have an operational role, but they are the figureheads of al Qaeda. Where else does one look for al Qaeda? It is an ideology now. It is something that people follow. Apart from the war in Iraq, where does one hear of al Qaeda other than Osama bin Laden, other than his deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri? So really they're trying to keep the name out there, stay relevant and show that they're perhaps still in the leadership. And a point of reference for all those people who believe in that ideology -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Nic Robertson for us this morning. Nic, thank you -- Miles.

(NEWSBREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: Those suspected terrorist wannabes will be in a Miami courtroom today. Six of the seven accused of taking a pledge to al Qaeda, promised to help bomb the Sears Tower in Chicago, FBI offices all across the country, will be there for a bond hearing. We might get some more details about their alleged plot. Seven suspects, who happened to be arrested in Atlanta, will be sent back to Florida for trial. He was -- appeared in an Atlanta courtroom yesterday.

The big question we have on our mind today is was this as big a deal as was first reported or was it in many respects a big waste of time for investigators?

George Bauries is a former FBI agent who focuses on the issue of counterterrorism. He joins us once again. George, good to have you back with us.

No explosives, no money. By every definition and every characterization here, aspirational terrorists. Not operational. That implies to me that maybe they really weren't for real. What do you think?

GEORGE BAURIES, FORMER FBI AGENT: Well, I think we're definitely seeing that it's a very basic group just at the plotting phase and not the large scale group that we were thinking -- that the initial press releases and the focus and the attention was at a high level. And it turns out to be a very basic group that they were involved with.

M. O'BRIEN: Well, you know, one week, it's been, so hey, we're nipping things in the bud. The other way you could look at it is precious resources, valuable investigative time. Is this the way to focus those precious resources?

BAURIES: Well, speaking with former colleagues, they do get frustrated when they get involved with, you know, kind of lower level investigations. But, unfortunately, unlike pre-9/11, the bureau has a historical record of prolonged, detailed investigations. And now post-9/11, they need to intercept plots at an early stage, take them out of the picture, and many times just go with charges such as conspiracy and other related issues, at -- which are, you know, low level investigations.

M. O'BRIEN: I mean, they got Al Capone on tax evasion. I guess you could make a case that sometimes this is the way things go down. Two hundred and fifty terror convictions since 9/11, give or take. The average sentence on these is about a year. What is going on there? Does that imply that a lot of these are these so-called aspirational types and they're getting light sentences as a result? And what does it mean when these people walk on the streets again?

BAURIES: Right. You're putting them back on the street. They've demonstrated they have concern for the country, and they want to do damage. And but unfortunately now we have to intercept earlier. We don't have the luxury of waiting until the plots develop to be, you know, more detailed and possibly more damaging. But I do know agents are very frustrated, and they -- you know, they prefer to be on the complex cases, the cases that come from information like intercept from NSA and the detailed cases that are usually more complex.

M. O'BRIEN: Are we missing the big stuff by focusing on the little things?

BAURIES: Well, I don't think we're missing, but we use precious resources. You have to allocate agents on surveillances, whether it's a simple group or a very advanced group that was used, say, for 9/11. So we to be very careful. But we do need to address these before these groups become larger and then do actually execute a mission.

M. O'BRIEN: What you hear from the government is these arrests sending a message that we're watching it, we're watching at an early stage. Is that the message, you think? And does that really have an impact among people like this who are bent on the destruction of the United States?

BAURIES; I think it does have an impact maybe for another group that's planning or thinking about planning to do an event that you will be charged, even if it's just with a conspiracy charge. But it's just a precious, precious resource to lose. And we have to be careful about how we allocate those resources on the federal level.

M. O'BRIEN: Final thought. I want to get your thoughts on a piece in the "Wall Street Journal" today. It says, in essence, that there is an intelligence breakdown in the flow of information from the Department of Homeland Security down to the local levels, to police departments. It's dysfunctional at best, according to this piece. And in many cases, localities, police departments, where the rubber really meets the road, they're getting their information from watching CNN instead of from the Department of Homeland Security. How real that problem and what can be done to address it?

BAURIES: It is a real problem. Immediately post-9/11, there was funds allocated to get security clearances. And that has slowed down somewhat. And that really is unacceptable. The federal government needs to share this information with police officers, including chiefs, all the way down to the officers doing the investigations. And there needs to be a better effort, because it does cause problems when cases start to develop and there's not a sharing of information.

M. O'BRIEN: Would you point the finger then at the Department of Homeland Security?

BAURIES: Yes, I would. I think more money needs to be allocated to doing background checks.

M. O'BRIEN: To get people those clearances.

They can be on the receiving end of this.

BAURIES: Exactly.

M. O'BRIEN: All right, George Bauries, thanks for dropping by.

BAURIES: Thank you.

M. O'BRIEN: He -- stay tuned to CNN by the way, day and night, for the most reliable news about your security.

(WEATHER REPORT)

S. O'BRIEN: Well, summer movie season is in full swing. How do you tell, though, if a blockbuster is going to be a big old hit, or a big old bomb? Some of the industry's best directors tell us why some movies make it and others don't.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: I can answer that.

S. O'BRIEN: Me, too, some days.

COSTELLO: I'm Carol Costello.

If you look back at this week, who made their mark and left a lasting impact on the world. Our mystery honoree on this AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: This news just into CNN. It's pretty surprising. John Couey, the 47-year-old convicted sex offender who apparently confessed to police detectives that he killed 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford -- remember the story back in February of 2005? -- well apparently a judge has tossed his confession -- tossed his confession in the case.

Susan Candiotti covered this story for us all the time back then. Let's get right to Susan for an update on this.

Susan, this is a guy who's got a 30-year criminal history. What happened? Why would the judge throw this out?

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, certainly, Soledad, this a stunning legal development, but not totally unexpected. And here is why. Early on, the defense raised questions about Couey's alleged confession to authorities. That is because during the course of hits confession to police, time and again, at least five times, if I recall correctly, Couey, who was being videotaped and audio taped at the time, asked police investigators to stop -- well, he didn't ask them to stop, but he asked them for a lawyer, said he wanted a lawyer, wanted to talk to a lawyer several times during the course of that questioning. So the defense said right then and there, police should have stopped the questioning and given him an attorney as is his right.

However, prosecutors have argued that it was unclear to the investigators whether Couey meant he wanted to speak it a lawyer right then and there or whether he wanted an attorney before they were to administer to him a lie-detector test at the end of that alleged confession. And so this has been a legal argument that's been going on for quite some time, as recently as last week. And just now the judge has made his decision.

Now what does this mean to the case, of course? Well prosecutors have said time and again, they feel their case is strong with or without the confession. They do have, as we've learned during the discovery process, forensic evidence that puts Couey's fingerprints and Jessica Lunsford's fingerprints in that trailer where the little girl was allegedly kidnapped by Couey when he took her from her home in the middle of the night. So we do know at least that much.

I spoke just a couple of days ago with Mark Lunsford, Jessica's father, about the possibility of this confession being thrown out. He told me that he has faith in the prosecutors that their case is strong and he didn't care one way or the other about this upcoming decision -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Goodness, the details of this case are just horrifying, honestly. There's no other way to put it. This little girl's body was found kneeling. She was clutching a stuffed animal. Her hands had been tied, with her fingers poking through garbage bags, because she was buried alive in March of 2005. Is the sense among experts that in fact that is enough to put John Couey away for good? And that actually the confession would be just yet another element in a pretty airtight case?

CANDIOTTI: It's possible, of course, Soledad. And all of this is coming on practically the eve of the trial, which is scheduled to begin with jury selection on July 10th.

And remember this, prosecutors have also argued in these pretrial motions that they felt that even without the confession, that they would have found little Jessica's body because, remember, it was Couey who told them where she was located. But authorities are now saying that even know they had been looking for the little girl for several weeks, and were unsuccessful in locating her, they now say in arguments that there was some dirt, a pile of dirt behind that trailer and a shovel, and eventually they would have gotten around to finding that little girl's body.

But remember, they were looking, they were looking, they had dogs back there searching for her, and they were unsuccessful in finding her. So of course we don't know what impact it will have until the trial begins.

S. O'BRIEN: Gosh, wow. That is certainly a shocking development, I think that is fair to say.

Susan Candiotti on this story, and she's doing double duty for us really today.

Thanks, Susan. Appreciate the update -- Miles.

CANDIOTTI: You're welcome.

M. O'BRIEN: "CNN LIVE TODAY" is coming up next. Daryn Kagan is here with a preview.

Hello, Daryn.

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, Miles.

Hey, it's the interview everyone's talking. CNN's "LIVE TODAY," we're going to replay Larry King's entire interview with Star Jones, her messy departure from daytime TV. We're going to do that at 11:00 a.m. Eastern, so tune in for that.

Also, we have this.

All right. Maybe we don't have that.

Well, I'll just tell you about it. Miami terror suspects are in court today. Their lawyers claim the men are just bunglers; they're not al Qaeda material. We'll have that. So we're going to get to a lot news in the 10:00 a.m., and then 11:00 a.m. Eastern, the whole shebang, Larry's talk with Star Jones.

M. O'BRIEN: All right, Daryn. You know, really we need nothing more than you, anyway so...

KAGAN: Oh, well, thank you. Thank you.

M. O'BRIEN: So, yes. Thanks for dropping by. And you have a good morning.

Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: So of course you might take this holiday weekend, Miles and Carol, to take in a blockbuster movie you wanted to catch up. Yes, a little time? I'm on vacation, actually, so I'm going to see a lot of movies. Summer's in full swing for movies. That is the time for movies. But as we all know, all big budget flicks are not created equal. Some are great and some are just horrible. Just horrible. Shocking, really.

SIBILA VARGAS, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT: They think.

S. O'BRIEN: They think. Sibila Vargas this morning has a thought or two on what makes a movie a hit and what makes it a big miss.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SIBILA VARGAS, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For movies that click with fans....

SHARON STONE, ACTRESS: Is this where we're going to do it?

VARGAS: ... to instincts that were way off.

Why do some movies make it while others bomb? The new HBO documentary "Boffo" examines that very question.

PETER BART, WRITER AND PRODUCER, "BOFFO": To make a successful movie or TV show, you have to capture lightning in the bottle.

VARGAS: "Boffo" writer and producer Peter Bart admits even when things seem perfect, a sure bet in Hollywood doesn't exist.

BART: It is always better to be lucky than smart.

VARGAS: "Pirates of the Caribbean" producer Jerry Bruckheimer, whose movies have grossed billions, agrees.

JERRY BRUCKHEIMER, PRODUCER, "PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN": There's no recipe for success. You just go with your gut and hope you're right.

VARGAS: Director Bryan Singer believes the time is right for Superman.

BRYAN SINGER, DIRECTOR, "SUPERMAN RETURNS": There's general goodness in his power and abilities are a breath of fresh air, particularly right now.

VARGAS: "Titanic" director James Cameron, whose movie is the biggest Boffo of them all, agrees it's all about timing.

JAMES CAMERON, DIRECTOR, "TITANIC": You need a script, you need a good cast, you need a great cast, and you need to be the right movie at the right time that somehow keys into what the audience wants even before they know they want it.

GORE VERBINSKI, DIRECTOR, "PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN": People don't want to go to a movie and see what they think they want to see, because everybody imagines that. They want to go to a movie and be surprised by what's being thrown at them.

VARGAS: Director Gore Verbinski also believes you have to be fearless, take risks, and be willing to fail.

VERBINKSKI: The number one thing you have to look at is you have to operate in a place where failure is a high probability.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Failure is always there. It's around the corner. It's there to bite you when you have your biggest hit.

BRUCKHEIMER: We can't think for the audience. We think for ourselves. And hopefully we're right more than we're wrong.

VARGAS (on camera): It's a notion that reaffirms the Hollywood mantra that the only rule seems to be there are no rules.

Sibila Vargas, CNN, Hollywood.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

S. O'BRIEN: So how do you think the new "Superman Returns" movie is going to do? "Superman" opened up with a superhero-like $21 million take on the first day, eighth best ever. And if opening day is any indication, five of those first seven grossed more than $300 million apiece. That's a lot of dough. Some of them weren't that's good, but I won't name names. That's just super, isn't it?

Short break. We're back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: Special hour with Star Jones Reynolds. She's on "LARRY KING." We're going to repeat that hour at 11:00 a.m. Eastern time. Very exciting. A lot of drama going on at ABC.

M. O'BRIEN: No comment.

S. O'BRIEN: There's a lot to talk about with Star Jones.

M. O'BRIEN: I've heard more than I need to hear about Star Jones.

S. O'BRIEN: Oh, there's a lot of drama going on there. An hour may not be enough.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Exactly.

S. O'BRIEN: Talk about missing your mark. One man has been looked up to by American investors for years. Just this week, though, he did something that could have the whole world looking up to him. I think I know who this special person of the week who's making their mark is, Carol.

COSTELLO: I know, it was a cinch this week, wasn't it? Who made their mark?

S. O'BRIEN: Star Jones Reynolds.

COSTELLO: No, no, no, we didn't sink that low. No offense. Anyway. As I was saying, it was a cinch this week who made their mark...

M. O'BRIEN: Can you say anything bad and then say no offense and that inoculates you?

COSTELLO: I can, because I did it so charmingly.

S. O'BRIEN: Moving on, who is it, Carol? Let us know.

COSTELLO: It's Warren Buffett. It's Warren Buffett!

S. O'BRIEN: Yay, that's nice. COSTELLO: An incredibly wealthy man who taught us about generosity and responsibility instead of other things that are sometimes associated with people with too much money. And he hired another very generous rich guy to do it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WARREN BUFFETT, MADE MASSIVE DONATION: ... accumulate. And all the way along, I felt that it should go back to society.

COSTELLO (voice-over): Warren Buffett is referring to his massive fortune. This week, the billionaire investment wizard donated $37 billion to charity. Specifically, Buffett gave 10 million shares of stock in his company, Berkshire Hathaway, to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

MELINDA GATES, GATES FOUNDATION: Bill and I are absolutely honored and humbled by Warren's gift. It's really unprecedented in terms of what we can do to do good in the world.

BILL GATES, GATES FOUNDATION: It's a big challenge for to us make sure that this money gets used in the right way, but one that we're thrilled about.

COSTELLO: Just two weeks ago, Bill Gates announced that he would give up control of Microsoft to concentrate solely on his philanthropic work. Buffett says the Gates Foundation is the perfect catalyst for distributing his billions.

BUFFETT: I am not an enthusiast for dynastic wealth, particularly when the alternative is six billion people having that much poorer hands in life than we have, having a chance to benefit from the money.

COSTELLO: The gift was so large, it was almost hard to put it in into perspective.

STEPHEN COLBERT, "THE COLBERT REPORT": Warren Buffet is so rich, he has hired Bill Gates to spend his money.

COSTELLO: But the good that Buffett's money will do is serious. The Gates Foundation is dedicated to education here at home and helping fight poverty and disease in developing countries. Buffett's also giving one million shares of his stock to a foundation set up in the name of his late wife, and 350,000 shares to each of the foundations led by his three children, which begs a question...

ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN SR. CORRESPONDENT: What did they do wrong? Did they break curfew? Tell us a little bit please about your philosophy about handing down billions to children.

BUFFETT: I do not believe in inheriting your position in society based on what womb you come from.

COSTELLO: Buffett's children still won't be strapped for cash, but thanks to their father's billions, millions of the world's children may soon see their own lives improve.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: That's pretty awesome, isn't it? Melinda Gates says one thing that Buffett's donation could immediately go to is to fight against infectious diseases in developing countries, specifically what she called the big three: AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.

S. O'BRIEN: That's improving. A little bit of money actually goes a very long way in those countries. So you're right. He deserves a shoutout.

COSTELLO: He made his mark this week.

S. O'BRIEN: Excellent pick.

M. O'BRIEN: You bet.

S. O'BRIEN: Got a short break. We're back in just a moment. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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