Return to Transcripts main page

American Morning

Crisis in the Middle East; Staying in Custody?; Iraq Violence; Off-Line Search

Aired August 16, 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: Good morning to you. It is Wednesday, August 16, and I'm Miles O'Brien.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Carol Costello in for Soledad.

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

O'BRIEN: The fragile cease-fire in the Middle East is holding and now diplomats from France and other countries headed to Beirut. They'll work out details of an international peacekeeping force.

COSTELLO: In Britain today, a hearing for the 22 people arrested in that alleged plot to blow up the flights to the United States. Investigators will explain to a judge why they think the men should be kept in custody without being charged.

O'BRIEN: In central Baghdad, another car bombing. At least 7 killed, 18 others wounded. It happened in a street market just before midday local time.

COSTELLO: Later today, the city of New York is expected to release more than 1,600 emergency calls from September 11. The tapes include calls from firefighters who died during the attack.

O'BRIEN: Former President Gerald Ford hospitalized in the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota this morning. His office says it's for tests, but no details offered. Mr. Ford, who is 93, has made four trips to the hospital just this year.

COSTELLO: A state of emergency in Wyoming. Winds have pushed a fast-burning wildfire toward hundreds of evacuated homes just south of Casper. So far the fire has burned about 7,000 acres.

So let's head to Atlanta to see if there's a change in the wind.

Good morning, -- Chad.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, and more wind today in fact there for the firefighters.

Good morning, Carol. Good morning, Miles.

(WEATHER REPORT)

Back to you guys.

O'BRIEN: Thank you very much, Chad. See you in just a bit.

In the Middle East today, the search for answers, the cease-fire in its third day now, Israeli troops withdrawing. The big question, can a combined Lebanese and international force keep the peace in southern Lebanon? That is at the top of the agenda as foreign ministers of four nations meet today in Beirut.

And that is where we find Anthony Mills this morning.

Anthony, hello.

ANTHONY MILLS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Miles.

That's right, the foreign ministers of France, Turkey, Pakistan and Malaysia are in Lebanon today for meetings as of 1:00 local time, right about now, actually, with Lebanon's prime minister. And they'll be discussing precisely that, the make up of a multinational United Nations force that will effectively -- is designed to take control of the south of the country from Hezbollah.

There are, of course, though, questions that remain. It's a sensitive topic. The last time there was a multinational force in Lebanon, Shia militants back in the '80s turned against it because it was perceived to be bias. And the United States and France, for example, which had troops in those -- in that multinational force, withdrew them after bombings of barracks and dozens and dozens of deaths. So those are mistakes, or at least circumstances, that they want to be very careful not to have repeated -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: Anthony, let's talk about the Lebanese government, a fledgling democracy. The notion of putting troops in southern Lebanon right up against Hezbollah, how is that playing and how will that really play out on the ground?

MILLS: Well, Miles, the government has in public adopted a unified stance. But we understand from high-ranking government sources that behind the scenes there are certain disagreements about the implementation of this resolution. Indeed, just a few days ago, the Hezbollah Chief, Hassan Nasrallah, in a speech said that he accepted the resolution but with reservations. Now key among those reservations is no doubt how exactly that international force will act down in the south.

And then there is a fundamental question as well which is will Hezbollah, which spent years liberating the territory down in the south, south of that Litani River, about 15 miles deep into Lebanon, up from the Lebanese-Israeli border, Hezbollah spent years fighting to liberate that. Will it really, Miles, give that territory up? Or will it simply, as a guerrilla army, blend back into the civilian population, keep those weapons out of sight for awhile while those U.N. forces are down there, but possibly, at some point, surface, resurface to fight another day and then find itself really at odds with not just the international force, Miles, but also possibly the Lebanese Army as well -- Miles?

O'BRIEN: Anthony Mills in Beirut, thank you -- Carol. COSTELLO: We will know more today about the alleged plane bomb plot. Attorneys will present evidence in a London courtroom today. They'll do that so a judge can decide whether police can keep holding the suspects without charge.

CNN's Deborah Feyerick live in London.

What might we find out today?

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Carol, what we do know is that a British government source tells CNN that in fact they haven't found a bomb, per se, but they have found household chemicals which could be mixed together to form some sort of explosive. So that is all undergoing forensic testing.

Also, we are told that investigators do have conversations, both on audio and on video. Now we understand that prosecutors do not necessarily need to present this evidence in court. What they do need to tell the judge is that in fact they do have enough relevant details, relevant evidence to justify it continuing to hold these people for continued questioning.

Now we spoke to experts yesterday. They say that even if Osama bin Laden were to be taken out of the equation, the threat now of terrorism, both overseas, but also homegrown, is so serious that it's almost as if you tried to put a Jeannie back in the bottle.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FEYERICK (voice-over): It's the face of the enemy, a face that has come to symbolize the threat against America. The terrorism did not start with Osama bin Laden and experts say it will not end once he's gone.

(on camera): Some people think get rid of Osama bin Laden and you get rid of terror.

SAJJAN GOHEL, TERRORISM EXPERT: Terrorism has gone beyond one individual. It doesn't actually now matter whether bin Laden is captured or killed.

FEYERICK: The reason it doesn't matter, says security analyst Sajjan Gohel, is because al Qaeda is just one of dozens of groups determined to attack the United States. The State Department has identified some 40 known foreign terrorist organizations that have targeted U.S. interests in the last five years.

Steven Emerson is an authority on Islamic extremism.

STEVEN EMERSON, TERROR INVESTIGATOR: There is no doubt that bin Laden was ultimately responsible for 9/11 and therefore it needed to be villain number one. But we did this at the expense of ignoring other terrorist groups.

FEYERICK: Indeed, in this latest threat, the jetliner plot, intelligence sources on both sides of the Atlantic pointed to potential al Qaeda connections. Those sources telling CNN two of the British suspects traveled to Pakistan to meet with a suspected al Qaeda explosives expert. Another appears to have trained at an al Qaeda camp.

EMERSON: After every attack, the U.S. government tries to find out whether it was al Qaeda or not, somehow believing that if it was not al Qaeda, there's a certain sigh of relief that they can breathe. This is a false distinction. If it's not al Qaeda, it's another group with the same ideology.

FEYERICK: Officials believe as many as 20,000 men from around the world visited al Qaeda camps but only very few took bin Laden's loyalty oath. That may explain why, as in the alleged airliner plot in Britain, officials believe America's biggest threat is likely from within, what Gohel calls "do it yourself terrorism."

GOHEL: You have groups that act independently that will sometimes try and adopt their own type of mass casualty spectacular attack.

FEYERICK: In the last year, U.S. authorities have uncovered plots in Illinois, Florida and California, all allegedly conceived by men born in the USA.

GOHEL: We're now witnessing stage two of what Osama bin Laden has envisioned, groups throughout the world that have their own capability of launching an attack.

FEYERICK: The face of the enemy perhaps even more dangerous now because authorities are no longer sure what it looks like.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

And those images of the men there just now, you may have recognized American Taliban John Walker Lindh. The other men you may not have recognized. Adam Gadahn, born in California. Authorities believe that he is actually the one who is producing those videos that we get from Osama bin Laden and his lieutenant -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Deborah Feyerick live in London this morning, thanks.

O'BRIEN: In Iraq, more bloodshed today, a car bombing in central Baghdad, right in the middle of a crowd of day laborers looking for work. At least seven killed.

Harris Whitbeck is there, -- Harris.

HARRIS WHITBECK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Miles, those numbers are changing and might continue to change as the hours pass. We now understand that the bombing occurred near a very busy marketplace which is the place where many day laborers congregate to look for work. The latest information we have is that 9 people were killed and some 24 were wounded. This happened on -- as the Iraqi Ministry of Health released new figures on intakes at the Baghdad City Morgue. That number has increased from 1,350 in June to 1,650 in -- 1,850, excuse me, in the month of July. And all this happens as the U.S. military accompanies Iraqi forces on the streets of Baghdad going neighborhood by neighborhood to some of the most violent parts of the city to try to increase security and diminish the amount of violence that is occurring here. Many people in Baghdad, in particular, say that the violence is a fact of life day in and day out and not many are sure that this phase two is actually showing the results that people would hope for -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: Harris, is there any sense that this latest car bombing has some sort of sectarian motive?

WHITBECK: At this point there isn't, but most of the attacks that we have seen have happened in either predominantly Shia neighborhoods or predominantly Sunni neighborhoods, which would indicate that there is a sectarian factor to the attacks.

But the Iraqi government and the U.S. military on the ground in particular point out there are several different types of violence in Iraq, that the sectarian violence is just one. They also say there's a lot of organized crime. A lot of the kidnappings that we've seen they say are more a result of organized crime than sectarian differences.

O'BRIEN: Harris Whitbeck in Baghdad, thank you -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Happening in America.

A Virginia teenager's battle to skip conventional cancer treatment is expected in court today. Sixteen-year-old Abraham Cherrix has tried chemotherapy but he says it makes him ill so he stopped taking chemo and began herbal treatment. Juvenile court stepped in and required the teenager to continue chemo.

In Tennessee, the woman accused of killing her minister husband back in March is free. Mary Winkler was released on $750,000 bond. The 32-year-old plans to live with a friend and work at a dry cleaner until her murder trial in October.

Up to 10,000 fans are expected to visit Graceland today to remember Elvis. The King died 29 years ago today. Thousands were already there last night. They held a candlelight vigil. The White House even sent a letter which was read to those in the crowd.

A flashflood watch is in effect for much of New Mexico right now. These are pictures from Hatch, New Mexico, where neighborhoods are simply flooded out. Residents waking up this morning in evacuation centers and schools are closed through Thursday.

It is the House that Ruth Built, but three years from now the New York Yankees will no longer call Yankee Stadium their home. The Yankees break ground on their new ballpark today. Actually, construction begins tomorrow. Yesterday a state judge struck down an environmental challenge, saying trees don't have legal protection.

And in Oregon, all it apparently takes to recreate a masterpiece is a blowtorch and some grass. A mystery artist burned this reproduction of the Mona Lisa into a hillside a few miles outside of Toledo. Do you see it? This is a few miles outside of Toledo, Oregon. People who pull over to see it are calling it -- quote -- "breathtaking" and "huge."

O'BRIEN: So I guess the aliens have moved on from crop circles, they're doing Mona Lisa now, more intelligent. Good for them.

COSTELLO: Exactly.

O'BRIEN: And with a smile ever so faintly at that.

Still to come in the program, a court ruling goes against Katrina victims and for an insurance company. It's a precedent that could mean billions of dollars in damages won't be covered.

COSTELLO: AOL was once a goldmine in cyberspace. Now it's digging for gold in Massachusetts. It's a strange story. It's a lawsuit we're going to explain in just a minute.

O'BRIEN: No doctor, no problem. A Louisiana congressman helps deliver his own baby.

COSTELLO: It's a pretty amazing story.

O'BRIEN: He's a friend of the show. You know him, Bobby Jindal.

COSTELLO: He's pretty cool.

O'BRIEN: Yes, yes.

COSTELLO: And he's a pretty good deliverer of babies as well.

O'BRIEN: I guess so.

COSTELLO: Carrie Lee is here with business headlines.

CARRIE LEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Thank you.

Good morning, everyone.

Is inflation under control? Wall Street seems to think so, and we'll see if this morning's pricing data supports that claim. That story and more coming up on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Happening this morning.

The Mideast cease-fire is holding and now diplomats from four countries are heading to Beirut. They'll work out the details of an international peacekeeping force.

In Britain, a hearing for 22 people arrested in that alleged plot to blow up flights to the United States, investigators will tell a judge why they think the men should be kept in custody without being charged. And former President Gerald Ford has been admitted to Minnesota's Mayo Clinic. His office says he's there for tests.

AOL wants to dig for gold. The Internet provider, a sister company to CNN, sued a spammer; but he won't pay, so they're asking a court to let them dig for gold bars they think this spammer buried.

Sean Kelly of affiliate station WCVB has more for you.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SEAN KELLY, WCVB-TV REPORTER (voice-over): AOL will need a search engine powered by fuel to look for gold and platinum at this house.

(on camera): Do you feel like AOL is just coming after the wrong people here?

HYMAN GREENBAUM, SPAMMER'S FATHER: They're just fishing.

KELLY (voice-over): Hyman Greenbaum says the popular online company is an intruder and should be blocked.

GREENBAUM: So unless they get a court order, it won't be done.

KELLY: AOL won almost a $13 million judgment last year against Greenbaum's son who changed his name to Davis Wolfgang Hawke. The company accused him of violating federal and state anti-spam laws by sending unwanted e-mails to its subscribers.

GREENBAUM: I think he probably did some spamming, I don't know that for sure, but I think he probably did, certainly nowhere near $13 million.

KELLY: AOL's attorneys say they can't find Hawke to collect his assets. The company thinks he buried half a million dollar's worth of gold in his parents' Medfield yard.

"This is not blue's clues," a spokesman said, "this is a court- supported, legally-protected effort to collect assets due to us."

GREENBAUM: If they find something on my property and they can't prove that it belongs to my son, then it by default belongs to me. So say if they hit oil, I'll put up a gas station or something.

KELLY: Hawke never lived in the house, according to his father. He says his 27-year-old son left for college, began supporting white supremacist beliefs and started spamming until AOL caught up to him.

GREENBAUM: He told us he was going to hide his assets and disappear, and he appears to have done that.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: A spokesperson for AOL defended the company's action saying -- quote -- "This is just a case of a company working on behalf of its customers. We have tried to contact the defendant but to no avail. We have tried every legal avenue possible." So now AOL will dig for gold.

O'BRIEN: And apparently it's all part -- there's a contest involved that AOL users can actually participate in the proceeds in all this.

COSTELLO: So AOL gets even more out of it.

O'BRIEN: But of course the irony of that is that they're using pop-ups and spams to promote it.

COSTELLO: Only in America.

O'BRIEN: So it's a strange world...

COSTELLO: That's right.

O'BRIEN: ... the Internet is, isn't it? Matter of fact, it's a lot like our world.

How is our world this morning, -- Chad Myers?

MYERS: Wonder if Jimmy Hoffa is there? I mean now you've got something.

O'BRIEN: Now that would be a story.

MYERS: Wow!

Good morning.

(WEATHER REPORT)

O'BRIEN: It's all about Chad's schedule.

COSTELLO: Yes, that's right.

O'BRIEN: You'll be up with the kid or something, something.

MYERS: Yes.

O'BRIEN: We'll get even with you. We'll call you if you want.

MYERS: All right.

O'BRIEN: All right.

Still to come in the program, the search for suspects in that alleged British terror plot, another person behind bars. We'll take you to London. We'll have the latest in a probe that has rattled airline travel for a whole lot of people.

COSTELLO: Plus, is he a chip off the old block? The son of a former president taking one more step toward the U.S. Senate.

Stay with us on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Some of the most popular stories on CNN.com.

New Jersey's attorney general has quit. Zulima Farber agreed to resign after a special prosecutor concluded she did violate state ethics laws by intervening in a traffic stop involving her boyfriend. She still denies that claim.

Character actor Bruno Kirby has died from complications related to leukemia. Kirby is best known for his roles in "When Harry Met Sally" and "City Slickers." He was just 57 years old.

And astronomers will vote next week on a proposal that says the solar system has 12 planets instead of 9. Miles is jumping up and down beside me.

You're excited about this story, aren't you?

O'BRIEN: Well it's very controversial. We're going to get into it. We're going to get into this whole thing in a little bit...

COSTELLO: Told you.

O'BRIEN: ... with the guy -- one of the guys who started the whole kafuffle over Pluto.

COSTELLO: Kafuffle.

O'BRIEN: Yes. Neil DeGrasse Tyson will be here a little bit later to discuss. He thinks there really should be -- really could be hundreds of planets, which just would confuse every schoolchild everywhere.

COSTELLO: Confuse every adult, too.

O'BRIEN: Yes.

Hi, Carrie Lee. How are you?

LEE: Doing well.

O'BRIEN: I just want to -- I know you got other things going, but I just want to point out, yesterday we had no battery in our Dell computers.

LEE: I know. I know.

O'BRIEN: The battery has returned, so apparently we have passed muster with the...

LEE: It was taken out yesterday as a precaution, we believe.

O'BRIEN: ... battery guys.

LEE: Right?

O'BRIEN: Apparently so. They were concerned. And the fire marshal was in here, potentially. So I don't know. Let's talk -- we can talk about that in a minute, but what else is going on?

LEE: We'll talk about Dell in a minute.

First of all, let's do a quick market recap, because yesterday we got a look at inflation, a reading on inflation, wholesale prices, prices for goods before they hit store shelves, much lower than expected. And take a look at the market reaction, really soaring, Dow up well over 100 points. People thinking well maybe the inflation is under control, maybe the Fed got it right, you raised interest rates enough to combat rising prices without slowing the economy.

Now this morning we'll get another look at consumer prices. And if the results are similar, well we could see more green arrows, but that report comes an hour before trading. So far it's looking like a pretty flat start on Wall Street.

Now on to Dell, onto the laptops we were just referring to. Dell customers want their new batteries for their laptops. Remember yesterday, Dell announcing that they are putting together a recall for some batteries. Twenty-three million hits on the Dell Web site.

COSTELLO: Whoa!

LEE: This is dellbatteryprogram.com. And they received 100,000 phone calls, 77,000 orders for new batteries. Of course the chance here of Dell's batteries, there were Sony batteries in some Dell machines, a couple of them chances of catching on fire. So obviously we didn't want that to happen on air.

COSTELLO: Yes, but they have no choice. They have no choice, they have to replace the batteries.

LEE: They have to do this. And this is a huge recall, 4.1 million laptops. A couple of Dell brands, including the Inspiron, Precision, a couple of others, but it looks like we got our battery situation under control.

O'BRIEN: We're OK. Our battery passed muster.

LEE: See, I think that would have made for really good television all of a sudden the laptop.

O'BRIEN: You bet. You bet. If we could have arranged that, we would have done that. But, no, obviously they didn't want to take any chances.

LEE: But playing it safe there.

O'BRIEN: But interesting, only this has happened, what, a half dozen times total?

LEE: Six times. O'BRIEN: OK.

LEE: Six times out of 4.1 million laptops.

O'BRIEN: Let's keep that in perspective.

LEE: Exactly, but still.

COSTELLO: Yes, you can keep that in perspective, but if my laptop bursts into flames, I'm not going to be happy.

O'BRIEN: No, you don't want to be the one.

COSTELLO: I don't care if I'm the seventh person.

LEE: We have the video yesterday and pictures to prove it, right, not pretty.

O'BRIEN: Yes, all right.

LEE: OK.

Finally, Ford fighting slowing sales by cutting the number of car dealerships in this country in 18 cities most east of the Mississippi River. They have 4,300 dealerships in the U.S., but dealer profits are down 10 percent in the first half of this year. No details on exactly which dealers are going to be cut. But market share for Ford has declined from around 26 percent in the 1990s to 17 percent at the end of July. So more trouble for Ford and this is the way they're trying to fight those problems.

O'BRIEN: All right, Carrie, we'll see you in just a little bit.

LEE: OK. All right.

O'BRIEN: Thank you very much.

The morning's top stories are straight ahead, including the first verdict in a Katrina damage lawsuit and why both sides say they won.

And an overnight delivery, a Louisiana congressman adds to his resume, so to speak, and his family. He doesn't need a doctor. He knows all about this stuff.

Stay with us for more AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com