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High-Rise Crash; North Korea Threat; Iraq Attacks
Aired October 12, 2006 - 10:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: High-rise in Manhattan. Send us your questions right now. Milescam@cnn.com is the place. The place to watch it is on Pipeline in about 30 minutes. For now, I'm Miles O'Brien in the east side of Manhattan. Thanks for being with us this morning.
Back to you, Betty.
BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, that's it for AMERICAN MORNING on this Thursday. CNN NEWSROOM with Tony Harris and Heidi Collins begins right now.
TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: You are in the NEWSROOM. Good morning, everyone, I'm Tony Harris.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Heidi Collins. Watch the news happen live this Thursday, the 12th of October. Here's what's on the rundown now this hour.
A small plane slams into a New York high-rise. Today, searching for answers and mourning a Yankees pitcher.
HARRIS: Sanctions against the North Korean regime. Diplomats tinker with the U.N. resolution, hoping for a Friday vote.
COLLINS: And carnage uninterrupted. Four hundred people. Tortured and mutilated bodies dumped this month alone in Baghdad. We go live to the capital in the NEWSROOM.
HARRIS: So, what went wrong? Investigators trying to figure that out this morning after a plane crash in and a pro baseball player's death. Here's what we know now about the accident that killed New York Yankee's picture Cory Lidle and his flight instructor.
Investigators are searching for clues today at the Manhattan high-rise hit by Lidle's plane. The NTSB says so far no indication of a distress call. Family, fans and teammates are mourning Lidle's death. The Yankees say the tragedy has stunned the entire organization.
The crash briefly raised fears of another terrorist attack. This morning it's raising questions about air space restrictions and the potential threat from small planes. First, a look at how the accident unfolded. Here's Anderson Cooper.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN CORRESPONDENT, (voice over): Moments after the crash, there was fire and there was fear.
: Everybody started running. When I looked up, I seen a small plane crash into the building. And it looked like he was like having a malfunction. And it was like he was trying to swerve away from the building, like land in the water, but he was already too close already. And then he turned down and just hit the building and everybody started running up the block.
COOPER: The small plane had taken off from a New Jersey airport about 2:30 p.m. On board, a flight instructor and a pilot, Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle. Twelve minutes later, the plane crashed into the 39th and 40th floors of the Bellaire Condominiums, a high-rise apartment building on Manhattan's upper east side. Two people were in one of the apartments the plane struck, but managed to escape. This man was inside the building when the plane hit.
It was a plane?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was another plane. Like two engines. Something like that. A small plane. It was coming towards us, actually. I just stood there. I couldn't move.
COOPER: It took about 45 minutes to control the flames shooting out of the building. Everyone, however, was evacuated safely. Police units and more than 160 firefighters responded to the scene. Five years after the 9/11 attacks, the images of Manhattan's skyline ablaze seemed frighteningly familiar.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You know, I was just running in the street and screaming to everybody, call police, call police, because that's, you know, what else you can do. I thought it terrorism.
COOPER: But officials quickly said the crash was not terror related.
MAYOR MICHAEL BLOOMBERG, NEW YORK: It was ascertained pretty quickly that this was unlikely to be anything more than what it appears to be, a small plane going into a mixed use building.
COOPER: Still, the FAA put flight restrictions around the building and the military scrambled fighter jets over several unnamed U.S. cities. At least 21 people were taken to the hospital for injuries. Most of them firefighters. Two people died. The flight instructor and Cory Lidle. Their bodies and Lidle's passports were found in the street amid the wreckage
BLOOMBERG: They were human beings. Lives were snuffed out. But we also should say a prayer to say thank you that it wasn't anything more serious than this.
COOPER: Anderson Cooper, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COLLINS: Lt's get straight out to the scene now. Our Miles O'Brien is an experienced pilot who flies a plane similar to the one that crashed, the SR-22. And Miles joining us now live from New York.
You know, I know that these smaller planes are not required to have the flight data recorders or the cockpit voice recorders, but they are in contact with tower, right?
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, in this case, not necessarily, Heidi. Believe it or not, as crowded as the air space is around where I stand on the east side of Manhattan, there are corridors that are carved out, sort of canyons with a roof on them in the sky, where the restricted air space, the big airliners are above the small airplanes, where small airplanes can fly without having a direct conversation with air traffic control in either in a control tower or a radar room. This is primarily designed for helicopter traffic up and down the East River and the Hudson River, but is also used by small, light aircraft to navigate through the restricted air space, which is around New York and also for an opportunity to fly and see the sights of the city, the Statute of Liberty and then on up into the East River.
Now, we do know this. That in the final moments before this crash, Cory Lidle and his instructor were flying, had gone down to the Statue of Liberty, were flying their way up the East River, which is a very narrow corridor, with an 1,100-foot ceiling on it, which requires at the end of it, when you run into LaGuardia's air space, about where I'm standing, LaGuardia Airport's air space, a very tight turn in order to come back and go down to the south unless you want to call the controllers at LaGuardia and go into their air space. They didn't do that. So they weren't in contact with controllers.
Now, the National Transportation Safety Board says they have listened to the tapes of the frequency which people broadcast their position on for the East River and the Hudson River to see if there was any sort of distress call or anything of that like. I spoke with a National Transportation Safety Board member just a little while ago about this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DEBBIE HERSMAN, NTSB: The information that we have from the air traffic control tapes was between Teterboro tower and the aircraft. They asked if the aircraft wanted to be handed off to New York Trekon (ph). They declined. They said they were going to fly the VFR corridor (ph) up and down the East River. That was what their radar information is going to show us. We're reviewing all of that right now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: So, the radar information is going to be crucial. Was there any communication with other traffic in any way, shape or form on that common traffic frequency for the East River? Was there potentially a near miss with another aircraft. A very, very busy piece of air space.
Was there some sort of mechanical failure or did they simply get into a very step turn required for that narrow corridor there and got blown by the wind, which was coming out of the east-northeast, and would have blown them right toward that building while they were in the midst of that turn, didn't see the building until they rolled out and got pointed in that direction.
All of these will be on the list of possibilities. There will be a few others as well as federal investigators continue this investigation.
Heidi.
COLLINS: Miles, you tell us. I mean you have flown this plane for quite awhile now, at least a version of it, a little bit newer version, I believe. Tell us what the main issue is here. Now we know that this plane has a very unique parachute system that deploys when a pilot feel that they are in a catastrophic event where they need to use it. Is that the issue that we would be talking about, why wasn't that deployed? Or is it more about this corridor, this very narrow corridor that you talk about, for general aviation? Should planes be flying in an area like Manhattan with such a narrow margin of error, if you will?
O'BRIEN: Well, I can tell you this. That is a very tight piece of air space. And it is not for the faint of heart to be flying up the East River. Cory Lidle, according to his logbook, had 88 hours, a total of 88 hours of time flying in his flying career. Forty-seven of those hours as a pilot in command. Unclear how many hours he was actually alone in an airplane. He had an instructor with him, but typically what happens with an instructor is the student does the flying, the instructor hangs back and intervenes only when he feels he has to, allowing the student to learn.
The question is, what was the dynamic between the two of those people in the midst of that flight? Did the instructor wait too long to correct something or was there not a clear pre-flight briefing as to who's the real boss of this airplane when things get into trouble? Or were they both completely unaware of the fact that a steep turn was leading them right toward a tall building? All those things will be brought up.
And then the question of the plane. Why didn't that chute get pulled? Whatever happened to them, happened to them very quickly because, clearly, if they knew that parachute could help them, they would have pulled that lever.
Heidi.
COLLINS: All right. Miles O'Brien, thanks so much. I'm sure we'll check back with you a little bit later on. Thanks.
HARRIS: Cory Lidle's flight lasted less than 15 minutes. CNN's Tom Foreman offers a virtual view of what it would have looked like from the cockpit.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT, (voice over): As he took off from the oldest airport serving New York, Cory Lidle's view would have been spectacular. A panorama of sky scrapers rising ahead, surrounded east, west and south by water. Manhattan is only six miles east of Teterboro Airport. But as Lidle climbed, he had to be alert with three major airports and several small airfields nearby. Ben Berman is a former investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board
BEN BERMAN, FORMER NTSB INVESTIGATOR: Well, normally, when you fly around the area, if you're not landing at an airport nearby there, you're above all the buildings. You can't go too much above them, because if you go too high, then you're in the air space that's reserved for the airliners.
FOREMAN: That would put Lidle's plane somewhere around 1,100 or 1,200 feet in the air as it approached the city, an estimated six minutes into the flight. But regulations forbid passing directly over the buildings without special clearance, so Lidle's plane was working its way south, following the Hudson River, according to the mayor
MAYOR MICHAEL BLOOMBERG, (R) NEW YORK: They have it on radar circling the Statue of Liberty and then heading up the East River.
FOREMAN: It is unclear whether Lidle had any idea that he was in trouble at this point, but he did continue up the east side of the island on this sight-seeing trip, passing over the Brooklyn Bridge. He passed the United Nations. And a little further on, the 59th Street bridge. Actually headed toward Yankee Stadium when witnesses say his plane suddenly turned and catastrophically dropped into the city.
Why did it happen? There are only theories now.
BERMAN: If you lose control of the airplane, the whole story can end very, very quickly. An airplane can descend at thousands of feet per minute in a loss of control and you could hit the ground in less than a minute.
FOREMAN: The flight took 12 minutes to reach its fatal end. And now the investigation begins.
Tom Foreman, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COLLINS: It appears Cory Lidle's twin brother was still in shock when he spoke with Larry King about the crash. Kevin talked about his brother's love of flying and baseball. Last night, he told Larry he was still coming to grips with what happened.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KEVIN LIDLE, CORY LIDLE'S TWIN BROTHER: I've had a lot of calls from friends and family. You know, people calling and crying and they've release some emotions. And I haven't done that yet. I don't know. I guess I'm in some kind of state of shock. I just got home about a half hour ago and saw TV for the first time. And it was kind of weird that the first thing that really hit me hard was -- I saw picture of him and underneath it said 1972-2006. And that was the first thing that I looked at and I was like, that does not look right.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: Well, he played baseball, but he was also passionate about flying. Cory Lidle in the cockpit. See it ahead this hour.
COLLINS: The high-rise plane crash, an accident, but one that shows the Achilles heel of aviation security. We'll take a closer look at that.
HARRIS: And diplomacy on display. The U.S. trying to win support for sanctions against North Korea. Live to the U.N. next in the NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: And this just in to CNN. A British man has pleaded guilty to conspiring to bomb high profile targets in the United States, including -- and this is quite a list -- the International Monetary Fund headquarters in Washington and the New York Stock Exchange back in 2004. Thirty-two-year-old Dhiren Barot entered that plea this morning. Some of the other targets in the plot, the World Bank headquarters in Washington, the Citigroup building in New York and the Prudential building in Newark, New Jersey.
Details of the plan now. He was to carry out explosions by using gas cylinders that would have been packed into limousines and then set off in underground garages. Again, 32-year-old Dhiren Barot has entered a guilty plea in London this morning to conspiring to bomb high profile targets in the United States.
COLLINS: Delicate diplomacy. The U.S. is trying to win approval for a new plan to punish North Korea. Our senior U.N. correspondent, Richard Roth, is tracking developments here.
Richard, first tell us, you know, what these new regulations will be, if you will. And then how on earth the members of the Security Council would come to agreement when they seem to have so many differences?
RICHARD ROTH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, quickly, after North Korea detonated whatever it tested underground earlier in the week, the United Nations Security Council members have been working on a resolution. They've all said they need to respond quickly. The United States this morning is saying it wants a vote tomorrow on a resolution that would punish North Korea with sanctions. The concern as the week as gone on, not surprisingly, countries such as China very worried about the impact of sanctions on neighboring North Korea. China could face a flood of millions of refugees with any type of economic collapse. They've adjusted various terms in this resolution. China, though, is still worried about any threat of military force that is wrapped around the diplomatic language.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LIU JIANCHAO, CHINESE FOREIGN MINISTRY, (through translator): You talk about military measures. China is firmly opposed to any military measures.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROTH: Here at the United Nations, China and the other countries are likely to see -- they've already seen this new draft resolution from the United States. It has dropped some of the most severest terms that the U.S. and Japan put in earlier in the week, such as stopping all ships going in or out of North Korea, the barring of any takeoffs or landings inside North Korean territories. There's still a lot of sanctions on banning of travel by some officials or anyone connected to North Korea's missile and nuclear program. The banning of luxury goods and the like.
Heidi.
COLLINS: So the $64,000 question has obviously got to be, Richard, is North Korea going to comply?
ROTH: Well, they've already threatened overnight our time that there would be a severe reaction against Japan. Japan is threatening its own sanctions. It certainly could possibly lash out. It hasn't ruled out other tests. The U.S. and others on the Security Council are not worried. They think that there should be punishment for a nuclear test carried out by North Korea.
COLLINS: Senior U.N. correspondent Richard Roth. Thank you, Richard.
HARRIS: More blood spilled in Baghdad, deadly shootings, bombings, more tortured bodies turn up. Live to CNN's Cal Perry in the Iraqi capital.
And, Cal, fill in some of the details on all of this extreme violence.
CAL PERRY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Tony, it's shaping up to be a very bloody month for Iraqi security forces, the Iraqi civilian population and U.S. troops. Insurgent attacks today alone in city of Baghdad killing at least 17, wounding dozen others.
It started very early this morning at about 7:30 a.m. A group of gunmen in six cars swept through an Iraqi satellite television station. They went through that compound, killing nine people. About an hour later, an Iraqi police patrol targeted by two simultaneous bombs. Five dead there. And in a separate incident, about an hour following that one, another police patrol in a separate section of the city, a bomb on a motorcycle killing three people.
As you said, the sectarian violence continues. Iraqi police logging in with their daily, grizzly discovery, 40 bodies found in the past 24 hours. All of them, police believe, show the signs of sectarian torture. Four hundred this month alone discovered.
And U.S. troops also paying a heavy price for the violence. Yesterday we heard from the U.S. military, a U.S. soldier was killed, two other wounded in enemy action in the north. That brings the total this month alone, in the first 12 days of October, to 39 U.S. troops killed.
Tony.
HARRIS: Cal, can you help us understand why the uptick in violence against U.S. military personnel?
PERRY: Well, I think it's a combination of two things, really. You have the holy month of Ramadan. Insurgents have always been promising to go through with spectacular attacks. We saw that mortar round hitting that ammunition dump on Camp Falcon. We saw a car bomb attack at a separate forward operating base in Baghdad about two weeks ago. Ramadan, coupled with this major, major security operation in and around Baghdad, tens of thousands of U.S. troops on the street in what they call Operation Together Forward. The more U.S. troops you have exposed on the streets of Baghdad, the more casualties you're going to take.
Tony.
HARRIS: So, Cal, when we see you at 11:00, can you bring us up to speed on what's happening on the political front?
PERRY: Well, there's been an amazing political development here yesterday. The Iraqi parliament basically saying that in 18 months all of the provinces here in Iraq will be able to vote on a referendum deciding whether or not they want to create autonomous states. That is, secure themselves and govern themselves. We'll hear more about that at 11:00.
Tony.
HARRIS: OK. Cal Perry for us in Baghdad. Cal, appreciate it. Thank you.
COLLINS: You can lose an awful lot of money if you don't protect yourself from mortgage fraud. Gerri Willis standing by to tell us more.
Gerri, we're seeing more and more of this.
GERRI WILLIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You bet, Heidi. Good to see you.
Look, if you're buying a house or refinancing, we'll tell you how to protect yourself from one of the fastest growing white collar crimes. That's next on "Top Tips."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: OK. Let's take a look at the big board. Just about an hour into the trading day. The Dow up 64. Very nice. And the Nasdaq up 17 points. Time to turbo charge that 401(k). Thank you, Gerri Willis. We'll check all of the business news of the day with Susan Lisovicz a little later in the hour.
COLLINS: First time home buyers and seniors shopping for a house, two words of warning -- mortgage fraud. You could be target and it could cost you big. Here to help to avoid those scams, Gerri Willis now, our personal finance editor.
Hello, Gerri.
This is kind of scary.
WILLIS: Hey, Heidi. No kidding. You know, these scams are frightening. And, in fact, they've quadrupled since 2001, so a lot of fraud out there. And you need to understand how it works. In most cases, mortgage fraud involves inflating the value of a property for more than it's worth and then the scammer pockets the difference.
It takes a whole lot of people to commit mortgage fraud. You've got to have an appraiser or a bank official who validates that inflated property price. Now, look, when the buyer unknowingly pays this higher price, the scammers' profits are locked in. And all along the lender either must not be aware of or they must turn a blind eye to the scam.
Heidi.
COLLINS: Well, nobody likes a scam, that's for sure. But, boy, I really hate the ones where seniors are the target.
WILLIS: And I'm telling you, mom and dad are in the cross hairs here. Maybe you're to sophisticated for this, but you should check out your parents. Older folks and first time home buyers can be easy prey here. Here's also a look at some of the states where mortgage fraud is most common. Check it out. Some retirement states here -- Florida, California, Nevada, also Illinois. So you know where the hot spots are.
COLLINS: All right, Gerri, do us a favor and point out the red flags to look out for here.
WILLIS: Well, to weed out the bad guys, you need to know the red flags to look for. Here's one of them. Your broker insists you use a specific lender. They shouldn't. You should be able to use any lender you want. Another red flag, lenders who encourage you to borrow more than you can afford. You should also sound the alarm if you're not given copies of loan documents to sign. And finally, don't be rushed. If your agent or your broker or your lender wants you to rifle through those papers, don't do it. It could be a sign of a problem.
COLLINS: Bypass the scammers, too. I mean, we never want to buy a property sight unseen.
WILLIS: But people do it, Heidi. And you've got to make sure you actually see these properties so that you know what you're buying and that it's actually worth what they say it is. Hire your own appraiser. It's key. And, of course, if you have questions, if right now you're thinking, oh, my goodness, am I being ripped off, call the U.S. Housing and Urban Development Agency. Their toll free number, 800-569-4287 or go to hud.gov. Heidi, they actually have people in towns all over the country who can give you some good advice on whether you're being ripped off or not.
And I just want to mention "Open House." We're going to be talking more about mortgage fraud in "Open House" this weekend, 9:30 a.m. Eastern right here on CNN. And 5:30 p.m. on Headline News Saturday and Sunday. We'll be talking about mortgage fraud and also population sprawl. And, Heidi, you're going to love this. We have a gothic makeover for your house if you're decorating for Halloween.
COLLINS: OK. We will be checking that out, that's for sure.
WILLIS: It's about more than pumpkins and silly string.
COLLINS: I bet it is. All right. Excellent tease. All right, Gerri Willis, thank you.
WILLIS: You're welcome.
HARRIS: At least it is around our home, that's for sure.
He sounded alarms about invading Iraq. Now he's warning about the Bush administration's Iran policy. Former U.N. weapon inspector Scott Ritter live in the NEWSROOM.
The high-rise plane crash, an accident, but one that shows the Achilles heel of aviation security. We take a closer look.
And he played baseball, but he was passionate about flying. Cory Lidle in the cockpit. See it after the break in the NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: Well, let's bring in our Pentagon correspondent now, Barbara Starr. And Barbara, I understand that you have some new information about the 14 high value detainees being held at Guantanamo Bay.
STARR: That's right, Tony. CNN, in the last few minutes, has been able to confirm that those 14 high-value detainees, including some of the most high-value al Qaeda members at Guantanamo Bay, now this week have been visited by the International Committee of the Red Cross at Guantanamo Bay, for the first time. This includes Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, one of the masterminds of the September 11th attacks, as well as several other high-value, high-ranking al Qaeda members involved in terrorism attacks around the world.
These 14 al Qaeda members, you will recall, had been held for some time in undisclosed locations around the world, essentially secret prisons. It had been extremely controversial. And last month, President Bush announced these 14 were finally being sent to Guantanamo Bay.
Now, the International Committee of the Red Cross has seen them. We can confirm they have all been seen in private by the ICRC. They have all, -- including Ramzi Bin al Shibh that you see here -- they have all been registered. They have all now been given the means of communicating with their family members, although the U.S. military will censor any letters or communications. But now, in private, they have been seen by the ICRC.
There will be no discussion by the committee of the condition of these men or what their conversations have been with them. The -- they are very reluctant to talk about this, but we have been able to confirm it from our own sources. These men have now been seen for the first time outside of being in those secret prisons now at Guantanamo Bay -- Tony.
HARRIS: Our Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr. Barbara, thank you.
COLLINS: Here's what we know right now about the plane crash in New York. It was an accident, not terrorism. Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle and his flight instructor were killed. No one inside the condominium building was killed. Twenty-one people, mostly firefighters, were treated at the hospital. Lidle's plane was equipped with an emergency parachute system. It did not deploy. Not sure at this time whether there was ever an attempt to deploy it. Witnesses say the plane may have been flying erratically just before the crash. Investigators, of course, now trying to figure out exactly what went wrong.
The crash raising questions about aviation security, the gaps big enough to fly a small plane through. CNN's Deborah Feyerick explains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Imagine if the crash had not been an accident but a deliberate terror attack on a high-value target, like the United Nations, the Brooklyn Bridge, even a packed stadium. It takes only seconds for a small plane to veer off course, with fatal consequences.
Pat D'Amuro ran the FBI's counterterrorism unit.
PAT D'AMURO, SECURITY ANALYST: One small aircraft is not going to create the type of havoc that al Qaeda would like. But it still is a concern for the lone wolf that may be sympathetic to a radical fundamentalist cause or any type of cause across the globe that may want to commit suicide to conduct this type of attack.
FEYERICK: Counterterrorism officials talk about the possibility someone could load a plane with explosives or use the plane itself as a flying bomb, as happened in 9/11. Commercial planes have much tighter security than private planes and corporate jets that take off from small airports across the country.
At places like Teterboro Airport, where Cory Lidle began his flight, pilots and passengers are supposed to show identification. But experts say there are many small airports where essentially no one is overseeing who's really on those planes. No one is screening bags or cargo, and the pilot doesn't even have to file a flight plan.
Air space over Manhattan is restricted to commercial planes. But private aircraft can fly along the city's rivers. D'AMURO: I'm sure there's going to be review of what happened in this situation, and does there need to be a further review of what small aircraft can access what air space around the city? And will they continue to allow some of these corridors to be accessed by this particular type of aircraft?
FEYERICK: An aviation security official tells CNN the country faces threats every day, and it would be a stretch to suggest rules governing general aviation are the problem. Even so, small planes are not allowed to land at Reagan National in Washington, D.C., for fear a terrorist could slam into the White House or other high-value targets. A plot first conceived by the 1993 World Trade Center bomber, Ramzi Yousef.
Though fighter planes were scrambled following the crash, a counterterrorism official tells CNN even if those planes were in the air, it takes only seconds for a small plane to change course, with deadly results. Asked, "Are we safe?" One counterterror expert replied, "When it comes to smaller planes, the door remains wide open."
Deborah Feyerick, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARRIS: Cory Lidle, at home on the mound, at home in his plane. Here's Cory Lidle at the controls last April.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CORY LIDLE: Make sure that the fuel's full in each tank. Good to jump in. Clear. As you can see, we're second in line. On the take-off, I think we're going to get up to about 55, 60 knots, and just start pulling back. Nice and slow. We're not going to get too high today, but we're going to try to stay under 1,500 so when we go over towards the city we won't be in Philadelphia's air space.
Right now we're heading right towards Pine Valley. There's Pine Valley, world's best golf course right there. I played that course about two weeks ago.
It's a good feeling. No matter what is going on in the ground in your life, you can go up in the air and everything is gone. You know, you don't think about baseball. You don't think about anything. It's just -- something that takes you away from everyday life.
I love being in a plane and looking down, you see the traffic on the freeway.
I found out that I love it. You know, one thing I'm not going to do is beg anyone to go with me. If they don't want to go, if they're scared or they don't trust me, that's fine. It's not going to hurt my feelings. But I love it. I'm going to continue to do it.
I wish we could go over by the field.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That would be cool.
LIDLE: I don't want to get my license taken away, though.
It's the first time that I've actually flew over the city. It can put things into perspective, but it's really hard to -- unless it's like a stadium, it's really hard to pick out landmarks from the air.
It's almost like you're 16, getting the license, you can go to the mall whenever you want. This is pretty much that same feeling, maybe times 100, because you can go just about anywhere you want. And just, you know, to be up in the air, looking down on everything on the ground is pretty cool. Pretty cool feeling.
That's the airport right there. Cross breeze, Cessna, (INAUDIBLE) on final (INAUDIBLE). And we're done.
Yes, stick the landing, walk away, it's a good day.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COLLINS: Incredible to watch that now, isn't it?
Moving on now. He sounded alarms about invading Iraq and now he is warning about the Bush administration's Iran policy. Former U.N. weapons inspector Scott Ritter live in the NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: He was the U.N.'s top weapons inspector in Iraq. Later, Scott Ritter became a lightning rod, warning that Iraq did not seem to have weapons of mass destruction. Warning that the U.S. was on the verge of a historic mistake. Today, Ritter's new warning is out with a new book, "Target Iran," the truth about the White House's plan for regime change. Scott Ritter joins us from New York.
Scott, good to see you. Good morning.
SCOTT RITTER, AUTHOR, "TARGET IRAN": Good morning.
HARRIS: Hey, Scott, before we talk about the new book, let's have you respond to Secretary of State Rice's comments to Wolf Blitzer earlier this week, that Iran is actually confusing the nuclear issue.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CONDOLEEZZA RICE, SECY. OF STATE: When they say that the United States and the allies are trying to deny them civil nuclear energy, that's simply not right. This is about whether they can have enrichment and reprocessing capability which is the technology that allows you to make a bomb.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: Scott, what do you think? RITTER: Well, first of all, she's correct, it's technology that is part of a weapons-making process, should you choose to go down that path. But what she's failing to tell you is that it's technology that's permitted under article IV of the Non-Proliferation Treaty, which Iran is a signatory to, and which they are permitted to have. So, why doesn't she say that? Why doesn't she say simply the United States does not want Iran to have the same rights and -- the same rights under the Non-Proliferation Treaty that all other signatory nations enjoy?
HARRIS: So what is essentially being said here is that we do not trust Iran with dual-use technology that can be turned from peaceful, civilian purposes into something more, and we'll never trust Iran with that kind of technology, without an intrusive inspections program, on the ground.
RITTER: It's not even without an intrusive inspections program on the ground. We will demand an intrusive inspection program on the ground.
But look, the U.S. policy is simple -- not one spinning centrifuge. Iran is not permitted any aspect of a nuclear or uranium- enrichment program. That's the policy. That's the policy that we've pushed onto the European Union, and that's the policy that Iran rejects.
HARRIS: Help a lot of us out here. Do you need to have the capacity to -- the ability to enrich uranium for a civilian nuclear program?
RITTER: Well, of course you don't need to have that, if you have a reliable source of commercially enriched uranium that can be uninterrupted. Iran's concerns -- and these are concerns that date back to the Ford administration in 1970s, is that if they embark on this massive civilian energy program on nuclear power, and their entire economy is dependent upon that, what happens if you have economic sanctions imposed, for instance, by the United States, and suddenly your supply of enriched uranium is cut off.
Iran says that not only they have a right to have nuclear power, but they have a right to have the full indigenous capacity to produce the fuel that's used. And, again, their right, legally speaking, they are absolutely correct.
HARRIS: The IAEA board of governance has put down the marker here, basically saying that Iran has to suspend its enrichment program. Do you have a problem with that?
RITTER: Again, suspend or terminate. I mean, we have a -- we have a problem with --
HARRIS: So semantics here, OK.
RITTER: Because the United States government keeps throwing out suspension. You hear Condoleezza Rice say suspension. Since 2003, Iran has suspended enrichment several times, but what Iran says is we will suspend in an effort to create an environment where we can have, you know, good, diplomatic-based negotiations. But what the United States says is you must terminate. We use suspension, but what they are saying is Iran must cease and desist in perpetuity any enrichment. And Iran says, we're not going to do that, we'll suspend until we can put in place the checks and balances that the international community deems necessary, but we are going to terminate.
HARRIS: And it's not just the United States, as you know. Javier Solana, the European Union's top foreign policy official has said in the past that Iran must prove -- must prove -- it is not pursuing nuclear weapons a weapons. As a former chief weapons inspector, wouldn't that be easy to do?
RITTER: Well, technically speaking, they already have. You see, the International Atomic Agency has gone in and done an exhaustive survey, inspections of these sights. And while they say we can't disprove the rumors, the allegations that Iran is pursuing secret programs, we have no evidence to sustain any allegation or speculation that Iran is -- how do you prove a negative? I mean, what does Iran need to do? Where do the inspectors need to go? And the concern of Iran is that when you look at the Iraq model, the United States pressured the Security Council of the United Nations to make the same demands on Saddam Hussein. Saddam must prove he does not have weapons of mass destruction programs. It turns out that Saddam had terminated them in 1991, and there were no programs there, but nothing the Iraqi regime could do would satisfy the American demands, because the American demands were not based upon disarmament, but on regime change, and that's the same model that we're following with Iran today.
This isn't about Iran's nuclear program; this is a smoke screen to put in place conditions that facilitate the ultimate U.S. policy objective of Iran, which is removing the theocracy from power.
HARRIS: And you can read it for yourself. Let's show everyone the book again, "Target Iran: The Truth About the White House's Plan for Regime Change." Scott Ritter, thanks for your time. Appreciate it.
RITTER: Thanks for having me.
(BUSINESS HEADLINES)
COLLINS: So, who knew what and when exactly did they know it? These are the questions at the heart of the Mark Foley e-mail scandal still. Today the House Ethics Committee is looking for answers from former congressional aid Kirk Fordham. Fordham expected to testify under oath. He warned GOP congressional officials about Foley's inappropriate behavior with pages, and he did so much earlier than Republican leaders have stated. When asked this morning, Fordham, though, declined to give a preview of his testimony.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KIRK FORDHAM, FMR. CONGRESSIONAL AIDE: I'm going to tell the truth. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What is that? What are you going to tell them?
FORDHAM: That will become apparent once the report is issued. But I'm pretty comfortable with what I'm going to say today.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: It should be noted that the House speaker's office has denied Fordham's account, insisting that Fordham did not issue a warning years ago. Coming up in the NEWSROOM next hour, a live report on that from Capitol Hill.
HARRIS: A hard-working intrepid CNN meteorologist, our own Chad Myers, joins in the makeover of a warrior. The big unveiling, straight ahead in the NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: OK, Michael, Let's see some of this video. This is kind of cool. A new look for a war veteran. CNN's crews use this special Hummer during the early days of the Iraq war. There we go. Here we go.
COLLINS: There, all right. That looks better. Now Warrior One sporting a new look, thanks to the experts at TLC's "Overhaulin" show.
Let's go to Chad Myers. He's been following this. And you're with the "Overhaulin" gang, actually, in our brand new looking Hummer?
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: You know, this thing looks so bad six weeks ago. Warrior One. They took it apart. A.J and Chris Jacobs, the hosts, the stars of the show. This is a totally different thing for you guys. It's Tuesday nights on TLC. But you usually steal a car and then you prank them a little bit. What was this like to do?
ADRIENNE "A.J." JANIC, CO-HOST, "OVERHAULIN": This particular episode was a lot of fun to do because it took us out of our usual formula. And just to overhaul this vehicle, to pay tribute to all the journalists who do put their lives on the line, was a true honor for us.
MYERS: Now this is -- I want to say something that CNN holds close to its heart, but also, this is going to be auctioned off to an awful lot of money to go for a great cause called the Fisher House. Chris, how did you handle from start to finish how the whole truck was going to mean so much to so many people across the country?
CHRIS JACOBS, CO-HOST, "OVERHAULIN": Well, it is going to mean so much to so many, as well, because hopefully we're going to get a large price for this at Barrett-Jackson in January, and the proceeds will go to Fisher House.
But it was handled pretty much the way any "Overhaulin" is handled. The body was taken off the frame, it was then put on a rotisserie and sent to the paint shop. That was worked on there. And then the frame, the motor, the suspension, that was all worked on at the main shop. And then the two came together.
MYERS: Let's take a walk around here, because there's an awful lot more to see over here. We've got a couple other cameras. The suspension all redone.
JACOBS: Yes.
MYERS: You guys do this on all the new cars, all the old cars?
JACOBS: Absolutely. Every single "Overhaulin'" project is completely done, top to bottom. As you can see, everything has been repainted and reconditioned, brand new motor, Crate 454 (ph)...
MYERS: Nice.
JACOBS: Changed it from a diesel to a gas pump engine, so it's very nice.
MYERS: A.J., tell me about some of these -- the paintings. I know you saw this happening. I wasn't there for the painting. I was only there for the deconstruction. Tell me about some of these.
JACOBS: Well, the airbrush artists that came in are the best in the world. Mickey Harris, Drew Blair (ph), Mike LaValley (ph). And they had a very limited time. And we overhauled this vehicle in seven days. They had literally five days to prep, two days total to do all this artwork.
MYERS: Mickey comes in -- Slick Mick. Mickey Harris, one of the artists. Tell me a little bit about this painting here. One of our photographers, right there, Scotty (ph) and a marine and an RPG went through between those guys.
MICKEY HARRIS, ARTIST: That's correct. We got this from an interview because there is no photograph of this particular incident. And by his description, we rendered this because we thought it was a great image to show the kind of harm's way that these guys go into, just like the soldiers. These guys got their life on the line every day, just like those guys do. And I think it's nice for people to see the -- the effort that they put into -- and the risk they put in to do this.
MYERS: You called it the Rowing (ph) Memorial, because not all journalists came back from this.
M. HARRIS: That's correct.
MYERS: That's right, Mickey, thank you very much. A.J., thank you so much for coming.
JANIC: Oh, thank you.
MYERS: Chris, I'll see you, I'll bet, on a another vehicle, I promise. JACOBS: Definitely.
JANIC: Oh, and this episode in particular will air Tuesday, November 14th, if you want to see all the details and all the work that went into Warrior One.
MYERS: It was going to be November 7th, but, you know what?
JANIC: It's election day.
JACOBS: So you're watching CNN on that night.
JANIC: Yes, but November 14th on TLC.
MYERS: November 14th. Guys, back to you.
HARRIS: All right. Chad, thank you. Thanks, everyone. It looks great.
COLLINS: It does, doesn't it?
Meanwhile, one border, two towns; one modern and one seemingly frozen in time. It's sort of a tale of two cities. We'll talk about that ahead in the NEWSROOM.
HARRIS: And a fiery plane crash now the search for answers. An update on the accident that killed a Yankees player, the latest from the scene, straight ahead in the NEWSROOM.
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