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New York City Terror Plot Uncovered; Horror of London Bombings Summed Up in Single Photograph

Aired July 07, 2006 - 15:30   ET

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

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: New York City again the target of a planned terror attack. This one, though, quashed before any damage, any death or any real turmoil.
Here's what we know. The FBI says a group they describe as al Qaeda followers planed to blow up one or more commuter rail lines under the Hudson River. The time for the planned attack, October or November of this year, the group allegedly thought the explosion or explosions would flood lower Manhattan, but given the geography they almost certainly would not.

We're also learning more about the main suspect. At least eight of them, all overseas, three are in custody, should New Yorkers be worried? the feds say no there is no specific or credible threat to facilities or transportation in New York City or anywhere else for that matter.

So how does this latest scheme fit into the overall war on terror? The targets, once again, New York and word of the plot was, again, leaked to the media, angering law enforcement agents who fear their methods have been compromised.

With me to talk more about this is Joe Cirincione. He is with the Center for American Progress. Good to see you.

JOE CIRINCIONE, CTR. FOR AMERICAN PROGRESS: Nice to be here.

WHITFIELD: So, how much do you think leaking of this plot may have compromised any further potential arrest?

CIRINCIONE: While the politicians will undoubtedly take stands on this, it really cuts both ways. On the one hand you like letting terrorists know that their every move a being watched. It increases the paranoia within the groups and it makes them very suspect of individuals in the group and it makes it more difficult for them to conduct their operations.

On the other hand, you don't like leaking news like this prematurely. We don't know, yet, whether the authorities were planning a wider series of arrests, or were hoping that these suspects might lead them to others up the terrorist chain. It's 50-50.

WHITFIELD: So is it at all potentially harmful that authorities would come out in full force the way they did today, almost like full disclosure. OK, this is all we know and this is what we are willing to tell you. CIRINCIONE: We have to wait for more details. But personally, I am a little suspicious of the kinds of terrorist arrests we have seen in the last couple of weeks.

WHITFIELD: In what way?

CIRINCIONE: This one over in Lebanon and then down in Miami. These appear to be very low-level individuals, no organizational connection really to al Qaeda, no operational plans. In both cases just a lot of talk.

WHITFIELD: Except in this case, allegedly Assem Hammoud, who is a 31-year-old Lebanese who is allegedly the mastermind, apparently says he got orders directly from Osama bin Laden.

CIRINCIONE: Well, we will have to follow that up. We will have to find out if that's really true. As you know, these stories have a way of twisting and turning over the next couple of days. But still here there were no explosives, no actual operation of plan yet. It was still at the stage of talking. If this was a genuine plot, it's good we disrupted it.

WHITFIELD: Now, Michael Chertoff said earlier, the homeland security chief, said we don't wait until the fuse is lit, we want to dismantle an operation like this early on, so what do you say about the timing, you know, doing this now, making these arrests now, revealing what we know about it now, as opposed to waiting until the stages are much more advanced?

CIRINCIONE: If this is a genuine plot, there's nothing wrong with that, but we do have to keep in mind that the Department of Homeland Security in particular is under a lot of pressure to show some results, they have been heavily criticized.

In a survey of 100 top terrorism experts that we just conducted with "Foreign Policy Magazine," they gave the Homeland Security Department an extremely poor rating, rating at only two out of 10 on a scale of good to excellent.

And the president himself is under a lot of pressure to show some results in the war on terror as things in Iraq continue to deteriorate and our policies with Iran and North Korea seem to be spiraling out of control. So I am a little suspicious of some of the political motivation in leaking this news and announcing these arrests at this point.

WHITFIELD: Are you suspicious of the timing too, given that this announcement is coming on the day of the one-year mark for the London terror bombing.

CIRINCIONE: Yes, this is a particularly important anniversary. It's a little too convenient to have this news break today. It's particularly true because most of the experts we surveyed actually are very worried about an attack on the scale of the London bombing occurring in the United States, perhaps by the end of this year, 57 percent of the experts we surveyed thought it was likely we would see such attack by the end of this year.

If you project our five years ahead, about 84 percent of the experts say it's likely we would see a London-type bombing in the United States. And most of the experts believe that's the kind of attack we will see. As in the alleged plot, most of the experts fear a bombing attack on a critical infrastructure such as a bridge or tunnel.

WHITFIELD: All right, but certainly no one disappointed that a plot like this would be foiled? Joe Cirincione, thanks so much.

CIRINCIONE: Pleasure to be here.

WHITFIELD: Well, Feds won't say how they uncovered the New York terror plot, but sources point to the Internet. It's the latest example of how would-be terrorists are going on-line to spread their messages and attract recruits. Earlier I spoke with an expert in the field, Laura Mansfield.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LAURA MANSFIELD, COUNTERTERRORISM EXPERT: When you go on the Internet, you can be anyone. Many of these people go on the Internet. Some of them speak English, some of them speak Arabic, some speak both languages.

They cloak their identity and their real location with a proxy server, with a special kind of software that can make them look like, for example in Malaysia when, in fact they are sitting in Beirut. That gives them a sense of anonymity that makes them feel safe to discuss these things quite openly.

WHITFIELD: And we are looking at video of some on-line activity that you helped supply to us and what was interesting about this information that you thought that this kind of open conversation of plotting attacks, of getting together in some way was transpiring right on-line just this way?

MANSFIELD: Absolutely.

WHITFIELD: What kind of information was transferred?

MANSFIELD: In some cases, I mean, we have seen, we saw one gentleman back I guess two or three years ago, planning, announcing that he was going to martyr himself and he gave specific details as to where he was going to martyr himself in Basra. We turned the information over to military intelligence. We were fortunate we were on the boards as soon as it was posted. And the next day we heard that basically a bombing had been stopped.

There's serious stuff going on, on the Internet. It's not just a bunch of kids out there running their mouths. It's the people that develop the track record that we have to watch. For example, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi actually had a spokesperson on the Internet for several years by the name of Abu Musab al Iraqi. We knew whenever something came from Abu Musab al Iraqi, the posting was legitimate. WHITFIELD: So now having heard this public press conference, involving these various entities, New York Ports Authority, police commission, FBI, et cetera, I imagine the chat activity is going to be really busy.

People are going to be talking about, whether they are planners or not, about what they learned and what they heard. Does it strike you as any particular information that might kind of lend a, I guess, ammo to some of these planners?

MANSFIELD: Well, first of all, several of the major chat boards went down about 12 hours ago and they have not come back up. That's kind of interesting and I think it probably ties into this investigation being made public.

Secondly, what you will see is probably an influx of a lot of, you want to call them Jihadi wannabes, people that want to join the Jihad. They will be flooding the boards, talking about things, and again it could very well prove in some ways to be almost a recruiting bonanza.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff talked about the importance of intercepting terrorist communications. The FBI will say only that the tunnel investigation began with intelligence gathering.

We know in this business, images speak louder than words, and one year ago it was the image of this woman, a victim of terror being helped by a medic in London. A follow-up on the people affected by those terror attacks when LIVE FROM continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: A year ago today since the London terror attacks, a horrible day summed up in a single picture that's etched in our memory.

CNN's Paula Newton follows up with one victim and the people who helped her.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAULA NEWTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Could just one picture capture the events of that day in London, express the sheer terror of it? There are many that come close, images that are now infamous, but there is only one that has become so unforgettable. It has been dubbed, "The Mask."

PAUL DADGE, ASSISTED 7/7 VICTIM: And I just grabbed her and I said we need to go, we need to go now. And we literally ran from the store, and got to the road and just this line of photographs were there. What I remember vividly was that there in the middle of a major incident it was deadly silence. All you could hear was the sch- sch-sch, of the shutters going off. JANE MINGAY, PHOTOGRAPHER: You just click and that's what we did. Suddenly I looked over and I saw this lady, with this sort of mask, and him holding her. And there was no one else like that. They just stood out, from the fact that he was cradling her, looking after -- also, mainly the fact that she had this mask.

NEWTON: The mask was meant to help soothe and heal this woman's burns, but it also made the victim faceless. And the year on, she's chosen to stay that way.

DADGE: She was actually on at train that was attacked by a bomb blast, whereas I wasn't. And I think that gets forgotten sometimes. And she wants her privacy. She back at work and just carrying on a normal life and, obviously, wants some kind of closure on the event.

NEWTON: Paul Dadge may not have been on the train that was hit by a bomb, but on that day, just like now, he was right in the thick of it. Dadge is a trained firefighter, but for years he's worked as an IT specialist. That's still his day job, but now you can also call him the conscience of 7/7.

He's out learning more about his local ambulance service in Staffordshire, north of London. They have the fastest response time in the country and Dadge wants to know why. Dadge has been honored as a hero for his acts on 7/7, directing hundreds to safety, administering first aid, and getting a burn victim to safety.

MINGAY: It was quite dramatic, and also the way that he was holding her -- it was a vision, you know, all of a sudden. It was really the strongest thing that I saw that day.

NEWTON: The image may have made Dadge a celebrity, but he's not complaining. Instead, he's using his notoriety to make a statement.

DADGE: For somebody who was actually there on the day to stand up and say I was there, that's me in the picture, and to say you won't affect us here in London, or Madrid, or New York, or wherever these bomb blasts may be and we'll carry on as normal is quite a powerful thing to do.

NEWTON: With powerful portrait to match, one that, in Dadge's words, lives up to what he calls Brit grit.

Paula Newton, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: New York police say they have arrested the man who terrorized subway riders and critically wounded one man yesterday. Tareyton Williams is now facing attempted murder charges. Police say Williams grabbed two cordless power saws from a subway workstation and threatened at least one other rider before assaulting Michael Steinberg.

The 64-year-old Steinberg says his attacker just kept stabbing him with a motorized saw. Police say they caught up with Williams several hours later when he punched someone on the street in another random attack.

Even the Brothers Grimm would be horrified. A tiny brother and sister allegedly poisoned by their own father in a get rich quick scheme. Federal investigators say 40-year-old William Allen Cunningham of Stockbridge, Georgia deliberately fed poison soup to his 3-year-old son and 18-month-old daughter on three separate occasions.

The children made multiple trips to the hospital emergency rooms earlier this year. Investigators say Cunningham hoped to get money from the Campbell Soup Company by claiming its products made his kids sick. On Thursday, a federal grand jury indicted Cunningham on multiple charges including reckless disregard for another person. He faces up to 75 years in prison and $1.5 million in fines. The children are now with their mother who has not been charged in the case.

A car crash outside San Francisco is causing grief in an island nation thousands of miles away. The collision killed a prince and princess of Tonga, the last monarchy in the Pacific Ocean. The couple's driver also was killed, allegedly by a teenager who may have been drag racing.

She is being held on a charge of vehicular manslaughter. The prince was a nephew of Tonga's king, and a force for Democratic reform in his country. Tonga is about one-third of the way between New Zealand and Hawaii.

The odds are good that Atlantic City casinos may reopen tonight. New Jersey lawmakers are expected to vote this afternoon on a compromise plan to end the state's budget crisis. The deal, announced yesterday, combines a sales tax hike with a property tax cut, ending a standoff that shut down non-essential state services.

If everything goes as expected, Governor Jon Corzine will sign an executive order sending state employees, including casino inspectors, back to work.

When we come back, a check of the Discovery crew in space. We'll see what progress they are making in zero gravity. More LIVE FROM next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: A great milestone in Plains, Georgia, the place of their meeting and where Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter are celebrating 60 years of marriage. Among U.S. presidents and first ladies, the Carters have the second most durable marriage. Only George and Barbara Bush have been married longer, at 61 years.

After their first date, President Carter, then a Navy Academy cadet, told his mother he had met the woman with whom he was going to spend the rest of his life. The photo he autographed for her back then says it all. We quote now, "Darling, I love you with all of my heart for all of my life." Congratulations, Mr. President and Mrs. Carter, on a wonderful milestone. President Bush says he doesn't chase poll numbers, doesn't worry about poll numbers and doesn't make decisions based on poll numbers. The president talked Iraq, North Korea and being presidential. Here's part of his interview with CNN's Larry King.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I look at life as a series of opportunities to make this world a better place. One reason there's problems is because we've confronted them. In other words, the status quo was unacceptable to me. And therefore, it's important to deal with problems before they become acute.

Let me say something about polls. If you have a president who worries about polls, it means you could have a president who makes decisions based upon the polls. You cannot achieve big goals and accomplish hard things if you're worried about opinion polls. The president that chases the opinion poll is the president that will have failed policy, in my judgment. I like to tell people I would rather be -- when history looks back, I would rather be judged as solving problems and being correct rather than being popular.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: See Larry's entire conversation with the president and first lady. We'll repeat that hour of "LARRY KING LIVE" Sunday night at 9:00 p.m. Eastern.

What a sight. These spectacular views of Earth courtesy of the International Space Station. The shuttlenauts are busy unloading thousands of pounds of supplies and cargo they brought with them. It is slow going. After all, they're working in zero gravity 220 miles above Earth. They're also relaying more pictures of the shuttle, the Shuttle Discovery, back to mission control. Flight directors call them focused inspections of six areas in particular.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TONY CECCACCI, SHUTTLE FLIGHT DIRECTOR: The initial report on the one on the nose cap is that it may look like bird droppings. But they want to take a check, of course. Today they're going to use a digital camera, a new sensor that we put on the boom sensor system for this flight. We're taking photos with that, and it will give it a really good resolution to determine if it's the bird stuff or actual possible damage. And the same for all the other areas.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: The flight director told Discovery's crew to expect an extra day in space. Nasa managers should be finalizing that decision later on today. Also later today, hear from the astronauts themselves. They'll be talking to CNN's John King in "THE SITUATION ROOM" at the top of the other.

Meantime, more LIVE FROM next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: And they're off! Bulls on a mission, clearing the streets of Pamplona, Spain. Thousands arrived for the annual running of the bulls, but it's not all fun and games, you know. At least seven people were hurt today, two seriously. The last death occurred in 1995.

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