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Central Texas Iced Over; Conflicting Reports About Fidel Castro's Health; Cracking the Missouri Kidnapping Case; In London Jurors In Trial Of Six Alleged Suicide Bombers See Chilling Video; Donald Trump Gets Star on Hollywood Walk of Fame
Aired January 16, 2007 - 14:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks for staying with us. It's the top of the hour.
I'm Kyra Phillips, live at the CNN world headquarters in Atlanta.
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Don Lemon.
Multiple attacks, mass casualties, another bloody day in Iraq marked by especially brutal violence at a prominent university.
We've got the latest on that.
PHILLIPS: Winter weather lays waste to much of the U.S. Dozens of people are dead, hundreds of thousands of people left without power.
We're going to check in with our severe weather center.
LEMON: And you know how much Donald Trump likes real estate? Well, today's big deal involves just a few square feet in Hollywood. But you know the old adage: location, location, location.
And you're in the right location, right here in the CNN NEWSROOM.
And this is truly the feel-good story of the day. We are awaiting a press conference from St. Tammany Parish in Louisiana -- Covington, to be exact.
We're talking about Baby Katrina. This is the first baby born. It's one of 1,400 embryos frozen in canisters of liquid nitrogen at a hospital in eastern New Orleans.
That hospital was affected by the hurricane. They salvaged that -- those babies, or at least the fetuses from those babies, and now this is the first baby to be born.
And we're awaiting a press conference to come from all of this. You're going to meet a little baby called Noah. How appropriate.
Coming up, a live news conference right here in the CNN NEWSROOM.
PHILLIPS: No doubt about it anymore. Winter is here. Much of the country in the grips of an arctic blast. Among the worst today, central Texas, where sheets of ice have basically shut down everything in and around Austin. Even the governor's inaugural parade had to be canceled.
Both Oklahoma and Missouri, slammed over the weekend, have been declared federal disaster areas. The ice is four inches thick in places and likely to stay that way with temperatures well below freezing.
California's citrus crop is also feeling the chill. Farmers say about a billion dollars worth of oranges, lemons, tangerines and other fruit could be lost.
About 500,000 people don't have power from Missouri to Maine.
At least 42 deaths in seven states are blamed on the ice and cold. And there's more to come, maybe even here in Atlanta.
Bonnie Schneider in our weather center.
(WEATHER REPORT)
LEMON: Why don't we go now to central Texas. Much of it iced over and shut down. Let's head out to reporter Jennifer Dodd (ph) of CNN Affiliate KSAT. She joins us from the city of Boerne.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi there. I don't know what you would call this actually right now. It's sort of a mixture of sleet and rain.
For the last three hours it has been sleeting. It's left a sheet of white along the ground here. And you can see ice also on the ground.
The streets are in very bad condition. That's why you see this line of traffic. They are being forced off of the highway because they are shutting down the highway west of where we are right now.
So anyone headed westbound, you can't get past the city of Boerne. They are being turned around, and for good reason. The streets are very dangerous.
Some video we showed earlier today I want to show you. That is our drive from San Antonio to Boerne.
You can see the cars spinning out. You can see cars in ditches. It's because the roads really are treacherous. And trying to drive is just not a good option right now.
Now, the city of Boerne is getting very, very busy, because a lot of people are staying here when they are stopped here because they really need to go west of here. So the hotels are filling up quickly. The restaurants are very busy. And we're really trying to get the message out here out that you can't drive 10 west and you can't go past Boerne.
Again, the weather condition, sleeting all day. Right now we have a little rain mixed with that. We haven't seen any snow, but it is expected to get worse out here.
Back to you guys.
LEMON: Yes, more to come, Jennifer Dodd. Thank you so much, reporting from Boerne, Texas.
PHILLIPS: New clues today about Fidel Castro's mysterious illness. A Spanish newspaper reports an intestinal infection has left the Cuban leader in very bad shape, but a doctor who examined him last month disagrees.
CNN is the only network with a bureau in Havana, and our Morgan Neill is there with more -- Morgan.
MORGAN NEILL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Kyra.
That's right, the Spanish newspaper "El Pais" is citing two sources at a hospital in Madrid who say that Cuban president Fidel Castro remains in serious condition following three failed attempts to deal with an intestinal infection. But as you say, Dr. Jose Luis Garcia Sabrido, who traveled from Madrid to Havana in late December to examine President Castro, says he's not the story for this -- he's not the source for this "El Pais" story, and he says any reports like this that don't come from President Castro's own medical team here in Cuba are without foundation.
Now, there hasn't been any comment from the Cuban government, nor do we particularly expect a comment on this. They regard details of the president's health as a state secret, and they tend not to comment on reports like this that they often dismiss as speculation.
Now, since he handed over power to his brother at the end of July following surgery, President Castro hasn't been seen in public. He has come out in videos. In the most recent video, he was seen wearing a tracksuit. And although he walked, he did so with some difficulty, some awkwardness, and he certainly looked thinner than we were accustomed to seeing him before.
Now, the last message that he sent to the Cuban people came through "Granma." That is, the official government newspaper here, just before the new year. In it, he said his health condition was far from being a lost battle. And he said he had warned them all along that this was going to be a prolonged process -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Well, all this back and forth, and is it true, is it not true, what's the continued reaction from the Cuban people? Are they believing that his health is failing or not?
NEILL: Well, no immediate reaction to this report in "El Pais" for the simple reason that you can't get "El Pais" or other foreign newspapers here in Cuba. Generally stories like this will filter through because there are people who have access to cable television, channels like CNN. And after a few days, people will have some version of the story, although, as you know, once this story goes from one person to another, to another, who knows how it will wind up. What I can say is that in the five and a half months since President Castro handed over power, we've seen a great deal of growth in the amount of speculation. At first, everyone was very unwilling to speculate, but now it's hard to find someone who doesn't have their own theory about just what's going on with their president -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: All right. Morgan Neill from Havana.
Thank you.
LEMON: A window into the ways of a suspected kidnapper. Investigators say Michael Devlin threatened to kill Shawn Hornbeck and his entire family if the boy tried to flee. Devlin was arrested Friday after Hornbeck and another missing boy, Ben Ownby, were found in his Missouri apartment.
As the teens get settled back into their families, authorities are poring over computer equipment and videotapes seized from Devlin's place. They also plan to ask him about other missing children.
Police have also disclosed a connection between Devlin and the area where Hornbeck disappeared. Devlin apparently owned some vacant property about 20 minutes from the town of Richwoods.
In an interview this morning, Ben Ownby thanked his friend Mitchell Holtz (ph) for his bang-on description of Devlin's truck. Nothing more from Shawn Hornbeck yet, and authorities say they are leaving him alone to give him time to readjust.
A tip from a witness, a warrant from somebody else, and some enterprising police all played a role in Michael Devlin's arrest. CNN's Soledad O'Brien revisits the place where the case was cracked with the cops who cracked it.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You came here to serve a warrant on somebody else in this apartment complex. What happened?
OFFICER GARY WAGSTER, CITY OF KIRKWOOD POLICE: Yes, ma'am. We walked up to this apartment to serve a warrant...
O'BRIEN: On the top floor.
WAGSTER: Exactly. And we couldn't make contact, so we came down the stairs over to the left here. As we were coming down the stairs, we noticed a white in color truck sitting right about where this van's at.
O'BRIEN: So where that van is where that truck was.
What surprised you or what struck you about that truck?
WAGSTER: Well, just the fact that it was a Nissan pickup truck with the camper shell on it originally. And then me and Chris put our heads together, and with the information given by the 15-year-old individual, we -- you know, there was a lot of variables that matched that vehicle.
O'BRIEN: So you thought with that vehicle, that, of course, was a vehicle that was named as potentially having a role in the kidnapping of Ben Ownby.
WAGSTER: Exactly. We checked the vehicle for any kind of warrants and to make sure it wasn't wanted by any other department, and the registration checked out. At which time we did an area canvas. We did a canvas of the area. I went over to the balcony over here...
O'BRIEN: OK. So when you came this way -- and let's hike down this way a little bit. I know you ran into a bunch of kids here. What were they able to tell you?
WAGSTER: Well, there was a couple gentlemen up on the balcony, and they were the ones who actually told me that the truck belonged to Mr. Devlin.
O'BRIEN: And you knew Mr. Devlin, didn't you?
WAGSTER: Yes, from Imos Pizza. We had contacts with him in the past.
O'BRIEN: How did he strike you? I mean, some people said friendly, some people said not friendly.
What did you think?
WAGSTER: Just a very quiet, laid back, real polite guy.
We came back after the canvas, came back down to the van. I met Chris back here. We exchanged information about what we found about the canvas.
O'BRIEN: OK. Now, the truck, of course, is gone now, somebody's parked a van in the spot. But the truck was here.
WAGSTER: Exactly. Exactly. At which time, Mr. Devlin walked out here and walked to this dumpster.
O'BRIEN: Right here.
So he comes out with the garbage and you recognized him from the pizza place. What did you say?
OFFICER CHRIS NELSON, CITY OF KIRKWOOD POLICE: Well, Gary approached him, introduced himself and told him, "Hey, do you know who's pickup truck this is?" And he goes, "Yes, it's mine."
And from there we started asking him questions. You know, "Have you seen the news?" and other things. The exact questions we asked him, you know, we can't get real specific on them right now.
O'BRIEN: What were the ones that seemed to throw him? I know you can't give me the specifics, but were they questions sort of about the disappearance or were they questions like, "We want an entrance to your apartment?"
NELSON: Well, I mean, that's -- we can't get too, too specific, but I mean, common sense, we were here for a purpose. So, and we had an objective that we did want to do.
After we talked to him for a little bit and got real specific, he became just a different person.
O'BRIEN: What do you mean?
NELSON: His whole demeanor changed. He started clinching his fists. His posture changed. He wouldn't make eye contact with us anymore.
O'BRIEN: And what did you think?
NELSON: Immediately, it sent red flags off to myself and Gary. I mean, it was a different person that was standing there talking to us.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: All right. We're going to take you back live to Louisiana. Look at that.
Can you believe she just had a baby?
PHILLIPS: Oh, look, he's kissing his...
LEMON: Oh!
PHILLIPS: Oh! That is classic.
LEMON: He's kissing his newborn baby brother. And that is baby Noah, and he was 8 pounds, 6.5 ounces.
Let's see. I think their mic is up. Let's listen.
(JOINED IN PROGRESS)
REBEKAH MARKHAM, MOTHER: ... guys in Illinois are watching this, and I hope the state troopers are watching this, and the doctors at the fertility clinic and everybody involved, and Governor Blanco -- who -- everybody that was involved, and thank them for helping me bring home a miracle. And this is what it's all about right here. So I just want to thank them for that.
QUESTION: Tell us again why...
MARKHAM: Well, Noah -- actually, we were having a little trouble coming up with names, and I prayed about it, because, you know, we wanted something special. And when Glen's -- when his sister saw the newspaper article, she thought of Noah. And when she told me, it sounded so good because, you know, I looked it up, and God had put on his heart (ph) to build the ark and, you know, save the family and the animals and the generations. And it just seemed to fit. It fit so good. So I'm glad that my sister-in-law came up with that name.
QUESTION: Obviously, big brother is curious.
MARKHAM: Yes.
QUESTION: What has been his reaction all day?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's been wanting to pet him. "I want to pet him," all day.
MARKHAM: Yes. He seems to be real interested in his eyes and in his cheeks. And he's all boy.
You know, if you watch the tractors and everything else he plays with, he's all boy. But he seems to understand that the baby's a little gentle -- a little fragile, and he has to be sweet to it. So -- I mean, that -- it's wonderful to see him do this right here.
QUESTION: Rebekah, Witt and Noah are technically fraternal twins. Could you explain that?
MARKHAM: We are -- when we did in vitro fertilization for Witt in 2003, they were all fertilized. Seven of my eggs were fertilized at the same time, and we used two -- we used two for Witt, of which he was the only one that took. And the five that -- we had five extra ones, and they were frozen.
I mean, that's the ones that were rescued from Katrina. So they were all conceived at the same time, fertilized at the same time, but little Noah here just happened to be stowed away for two and a half before he had a different birth date than Witt, two and a half years later.
LEMON: That is -- you are looking at a press conference happening right now at St. Tammany Hospital in Covington, Louisiana -- Rebekah and Glen Markham.
Of course they had some frozen embryos there that they had stored they said back in -- she had in vitro back in 2003. The little guy -- the bigger of the little there -- his name is Witt. And he was actually rescued with his mom. They had to go for shelter during the hurricane.
So they saved those embryos, and then now this baby is born. It's actually the third baby to be born from 1,400 embryos that were rescued from Hurricane Katrina.
So you are looking at a press conference.
Unbelievable that this woman just had a baby a short while ago and she's having this press conference in Louisiana there. But there you go. Some good news from Hurricane Katrina besides all the bad stuff that we see. And we certainly wish them luck.
PHILLIPS: She's still on painkillers. That will wear off.
LEMON: That will wear off.
PHILLIPS: And then she'll be like, get the cameras out of here. Exactly.
LEMON: Get out.
PHILLIPS: Let's -- on a much more serious note, let's get to the NEWSROOM. T.J. Holmes working a developing story out of Afghanistan right now -- T.J.
T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, a serious story here. Had a good outcome, though.
A terrorist attack was averted at a U.S. base in Kabul, Afghanistan. It was stopped by not coalition soldiers, not U.S. soldiers, but by two Afghan citizens.
We want to get more on what happened here from Colonel Tom Collins, who's a coalition forces spokesman.
Sir, thank you for giving us a moment here. And just describe for us what happened here at Camp Phoenix, the U.S. base there in Kabul.
COL. TOM COLLINS, COALITION FORCES SPOKESMAN: Well, I think it's a pretty amazing and heroic event. About 9:15 this morning, a vehicle with a driver in it, you know, carrying explosives, crashed his vehicle into the U.S. base known as Camp Phoenix. Amazingly, a couple Afghans who just happened to be on the scene there realized what was happening.
They saw this guy, like, trying to pull a cord or something, trying to detonate the bomb, because it should have gone off when he hit the thing. But it didn't. So they dragged this guy from the vehicle and prevented him from detonating the bomb.
I mean, anybody's natural inclination would have been to run away. But these guys are genuine heroes.
HOLMES: And you said they just happened to be there. They don't have anything to do with the coalition or anything? Essentially just passersby?
COLLINS: Well, I mean, they are outside the base. I mean, they work there.
One's an interpreter. One was a security guard...
HOLMES: OK.
COLLINS: ... who happened to be out there at the time that it hit. But certainly the interpreter, I mean, he's not used to doing something like that. You know, you would expect a security guard to have some awareness, and that's why he was able to act so quickly and jump on this guy.
HOLMES: And tell us again -- I know this is probably pretty -- sadly, maybe, even easy. You can't stop somebody from taking a car and just hitting the gas and ramming into it. It this one of these incidents where -- where you can't really prevent somebody from hopping into a car and just trying to ram into a base like that?
COLLINS: Well, you know, we're in a very large city here in the country of Afghanistan. There's lots of people driving around. This guy just happened to get his vehicle right up against the entry control point and tried to ram it. But fortunately it didn't go off and fortunately he was subdued before he was able to, you know, reconnect this wire or whatever he was obviously trying to do.
HOLMES: Now, how much have you been able to determine -- how many -- how much explosive did he have in that vehicle and how damaging could it have been if it had gone off?
COLLINS: Well, I mean, we don't know exactly what his explosive charge was. It's still being investigated.
I mean, we've had past incidences, like this pat summer, where a suicide bomber unfortunately killed two American soldiers. And that was a bomb of over 300 pounds. And we know there are cells operating in Kabul who are trying to conduct these attacks.
We have a pretty high level of awareness. And again, that's why these guys were able to act so quickly.
HOLMES: How many soldiers did you have on base at the time?
COLLINS: Well, Camp Phoenix is basically a base that we work out of to train the Afghan national army and police. I'm not sure the number that are assigned there, but it's certainly a considerable amount.
HOLMES: And how far away were coalition soldiers, U.S. soldiers? The two Afghan citizens got there before the U.S. soldiers did. Were soldiers a little way away?
COLLINS: They were relatively close. I mean, the U.S. security force descended upon -- I mean, they saw what happened, the crash. This all happened so quickly. These guys dragged the bomber out of the vehicle, and then shortly thereafter, the U.S. forces formed a cordon around the area to block anybody from trying to enter the area or preventing anybody else from being injured.
HOLMES: What happens now to these two Afghan citizens? Any plans for honoring these two?
COLLINS: Well, I tell you, we'll certainly recognize them for their heroism. We'll have to see exactly what that entails, but we are eternally grateful to them and thankful that they happened to be there at that time and that they did what was right.
HOLMES: And are you seeing attempts like this to attack a coalition base like this fairly often, or are these -- are attacks like this becoming a little more rare, or what?
COLLINS: Well, it's rare that an attack on, you know, a big base here in the city, that's for sure. But our soldiers are out there fighting every day. I mean, there's a lot of enemy activity in the southern and southeastern part of Afghanistan. And that's where we see most of the fighting.
But our soldiers are out there at the tip of the spear doing great work. And, you know, they are facing dangers every day.
HOLMES: All right. Well, Colonel Tom Collins, coalition forces spokesperson there in Kabul, Afghanistan, a nice ending to this story. Nice to see a couple of Afghan citizens coming to the aid of -- just reacting, is what we're hearing.
So, sir, thank you for your time. Glad this one worked out for you.
That's the latest here. Just wanted to bring you kind of a nice story of some heroism on the part of a couple of Afghan citizens helping out U.S. forces -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: That is good to hear, especially in light of hearing that the Taliban is becoming stronger and there should be a lot of violence in the spring.
HOLMES: Absolutely.
PHILLIPS: That's good news. Thanks, T.J.
LEMON: Held captive by fear, but daring to send online clues/ New theories emerge in the four-year kidnap ordeal of Shawn Hornbeck.
We're looking into the latest right here in the CNN NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Well, the Internet offers community and anonymity, depending on what you're looking for. It's hard to know which was sought in the case of these missing boys from Missouri by a person who posted some interesting comments and profiles online.
CNN's Jacki Schechner joins us now with more on the Web's role in this kidnap investigation.
And I saw you doing this, this morning, Jacki, and found it very interesting. Still wondering if, indeed, it was the kidnapped boy that was developing this information online or was it his kidnapper?
JACKI SCHECHNER, CNN INTERNET REPORTER: Well, it's a great question, Kyra. And there's just so much sleuthing that we can do. I think at some point it's going to be up to Michael Devlin and Shawn Hornbeck to let the investigators or the media know who was doing these postings online.
Let me let you know what we know so far. It turns out there were some profiles online under the name of "Shawn Devlin." Now, again, we don't know if these were posted by Shawn Hornbeck or if they were posted by Michael Devlin, using Shawn's picture and information.
Those Yahoo! profiles have since been taken down. We spoke to Yahoo! yesterday and they wouldn't give us any specifics about these profiles. What they did let us know is that when profiles are in violation of their terms, they do reserve the right to take them down, although they wouldn't specify what terms these profiles were possibly in violation of.
It's about as much information as we could get from Yahoo!
There's another social networking site called MindViz. Now, this is a much smaller site. It's probably the first you've heard of it.
It's about 380,000 people strong. And we spoke to the man who created this site, and he told us he didn't even know this profile was on there until the news started to break.
But there's about 15 pages of comments on this site, people who are wishing Shawn well and other people asking the creator of the site to take this profile down. "Enough is enough already," they say, it's really just not worth having it up. Again, don't know if Shawn Hornbeck posted this information under the name "Shawn Devlin" or if Michael Devlin put this information online himself using Shawn's identity.
Also, another thing that's sort of creepy, for lack of a better word, is there was a Web site that Shawn Hornbeck's parents put up called shawnhornbeck.com, which was a site they created to help other families cope with missing children and, of course, to help find their son. And in December of 2005, there were two postings, one from a "Shawn Devlin" and then a follow-up by Shawn.
The first one saying, "How long your planning to look for your son?" The second one apologizing for the first one and then asking if he could perhaps write a poem.
Of course, there was no follow-up on that poem. Just those two postings. And we just don't know. It's impossible to trace back at this point where those postings came from.
So some clues turning up online that either Shawn had access to a computer or Michael had access to a computer and was perhaps using Shawn's identity to use the Internet to, who knows, get some information out, find some information, or maybe even get in touch with other young boys. It's just too soon to tell at this point, and it's really tough for CNN to confirm this information because, after all, it is the Internet.
PHILLIPS: Well, and since these Web sites -- you were saying they were closed down or they were taken off. Does that mean that investigators hopefully have some solid information or even pictures possibly that could lead to a stronger case against this suspected kidnapper?
SCHECHNER: Well, Kyra, it's really difficult. A lot of these social networking sites and community sites are very elusive when it comes to talking to us about their policies and procedures.
A lot of them have a basic comment that they'll hand out which says that they will work with law enforcement, whether it's local, state or federal law enforcement, in coordination with investigating possible crimes. So that's the kind of thing that Yahoo! gave us, that they have a terms of service, and if there's possible violation of the terms of service, that they will act accordingly, they reserve the right to remove a profile.
And that's what you get from sites like YouTube or MySpace or any of these social networking sites, that they do cooperate with law enforcement. But it's really difficult to get much more from them at this state. They don't like to give out any more information other than just the basic blanket terms of violation statements or things like that.
PHILLIPS: Well, I know you'll be tracking it.
SCHECHNER: Of course.
PHILLIPS: Jacki Schechner, appreciate it.
SCHECHNER: Sure.
LEMON: The attackers failed, but British prosecutors don't plan to follow suit. Explosive evidence in a London terror trial.
That's ahead in the CNN NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Hello, everyone. I'm Kyra Phillips live at the CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta.
LEMON: And I'm Don Lemon.
Her job in a war zone took a lot out of her, but gave her so much back. The list Dr. Heidi Kraft made in Iraq will touch your heart right here in the CNN NEWSROOM.
Bottom of the hour, we begin with this. Deliberate hoax or bungled massacre? In London today, jurors in the trial of six alleged would-be suicide bombers saw chilling video that prosecutors say was meant to be a lot worse.
It's day two of opening statements, and CNN's senior international correspondent Nic Robertson is following developments for us live -- Nic.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Don, the jury was shown that very dramatic video from inside a train carriage when one of the alleged bombers tried to detonate his explosives.
They didn't go off, but the chief prosecutor here says that the six men who are accused in this case are supporters of al Qaeda. They follow the views of Osama bin Laden. And, for that reason, security around this court has been very, very tight.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTSON (voice-over): Outside the court, police patrols carried automatic weapons, evidence of the security for this trial. Inside, the six accused, Muktar Said Ibrahim, Manfu Kuaka Asiedu (ph), Hussain Osman, Yassin Omar, Ramzi Mohamed and Adel Yahya, all of African origin, sat in a row facing the judge, all accused of conspiracy to commit murder and conspiracy to cause explosion likely to endanger life.
Chief prosecutor Nigel Sweeney told the nine women and three men of the jury that the accused had attempted an extremist Muslim plot of suicide bombings targeting London's underground train and bus network on July 21st, 2005, a plot that failed.
With a dramatic flourish, Sweeney held up a large plastic tub with trailing wires saying this is what the bomb looked like, swiftly adding in a reassuring tone, this is a replica. He said the bombs were wrapped with screws and tacks, carefully hidden in backpacks worn by the defendants with the intention of causing maximum injury, saying they could set the bomb off without victims having any warning.
Sweeney said an apartment in north London discovered by the police days after the failed attack was a bomb factory used by several defendants. They bought over 250 bottles of hydrogen peroxide but had failed to use the right concentrate in their bombs, rendering them useless.
But he showed a video of what the explosion would have looked like if they got the formula right saying, "imagine that in a tube train or a bus." Laying out his opening argument, Sweeney said it was simply the good fortune of the traveling public that day that they were spared.
Unemotional through the testimony, the defendants did follow the proceedings, leafing through large files of evidence, Asiedu paying particular attention. Osman and Omar shared documents. Sweeney outlined evidence of gruesome jihadi videos found at some of their addresses saying they supported al Qaeda and the views of Osama bin Laden.
Indeed, Sweeney claimed Ibrahim had been to a jihadi training camp in Sudan in 2003, and to another in Pakistan in December 2004. He said it was in March 2005 when Ibrahim came back to Britain that the bomb plot began.
The conspiracy had been in existence long before the events of July 7th, referring to the suicide bombings in London that killed 52 people two weeks earlier. It was not a copycat, he said.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTSON: And one of the suicide bombers left a suicide note -- the alleged bombers -- and that was read in the court by the chief prosecutor. And in that note, the bomber had said to his children, obey your mother. Say your prayers. And he told them that he'd meet them in paradise -- Don.
LEMON: Nic, what are prosecutors trying to prove here?
ROBERTSON: Well, one of the accused, when he was arrested in Rome, after fleeing Britain using his brother's passport, told the investigators there that really they were just trying to scare people. They weren't really trying to kill anyone.
And what the prosecutor is doing is going through absolutely step by step, minute detail showing exactly that they did intend to kill people. He said look at the way that they made that tub of explosives, the nails and tacks around it designed to kill people.
The wires that came out of the tub of explosives came -- they made a small hole in the backpack and had a small hole in their clothing so they could pass the wires invisibly next to their bodies so they could detonate the explosives with no one seeing.
So what he is very carefully doing is showing that absolutely this was no hoax. This was no scare tactic. This was designed to kill -- Don.
LEMON: Nic Robertson reporting for us in London live. Thank you so much.
PHILLIPS: Straight ahead, a coach makes a comeback. Mike Sutton went from diagramming plays to relearning the basics. And we mean basics. Lifting a fork, for instance, even giving a hug. His story straight ahead from the NEWSROOM.
LEMON: Oh, and take a look at this. The guy, the hair. He's not standing there, but that's his wife and his baby. We're talking -- the money, the property -- there he is. Donald Trump. He's getting something new. You won't believe what it is. A new piece of property and, boy, it just might be the one he likes the most. We'll check in live in Hollywood when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: At the top of his game one minute, sidelined for real the next. Mike Sutton is a basketball coach who is trying to win the fight of his life.
CNN chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta has this report from his series "Saving your Life."
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GUPTA (voice-over): Mike Sutton was an energetic basketball coach with Tennessee Tech when his health took a stunning turn for the worse.
MIKE SUTTON, TENNESSEE TECH BASKETBALL COACH: My hands and feet ached and I was really tired, and collapsed in the parking lot, fell down on my suitcase.
GUPTA: With no warning, Sutton was struck with Guillain-Barre Syndrome or GBS. GBS causes the body's immune system to mistakenly attack and destroy the insulation protecting the nerves in your body. So in just a matter of days, Mike was paralyzed. He could barely move a muscle.
SUTTON: The thumb and index finger I could move just ever so slightly.
GUPTA: He needed a tracheotomy to breathe. He couldn't talk. He could just blink.
SUTTON: You have no way to communicate, and that's probably the most frustrating thing, is you have no way to tell people if there's pain.
GUPTA: That was almost two years ago. Today, coach Sutton is making a slow, and what many consider, an unbelievable comeback.
SUTTON: Talk your way through, it talk your way through it. Talk, Francis, talk Francis.
GUPTA: Sutton is helped a specially designed wheelchair, a walker, and support from his staff, as well as lots of hard work.
SUTTON: Last year, my hands were limp like this. I couldn't hold my hands up at all.
GUPTA: Three times a week, for two hours a session, he undergoes physical and occupational therapy, trying to train new nerves to do the job of the old ones destroyed by the disease.
SUTTON: These are things that, you know, work on to develop the finger dexterity.
GUPTA: He's having to relearn everything, from grasping a fork to eat to exercising leg muscles to walk. He says he couldn't have done this without his immediate and extended families who cheered him on.
JONATHAN JONES, TENNESSEE TECH BASKETBALL PLAYER: Strong guy. He's always been our leader. He's always going to be our leader, and I know that disease isn't going to stop him at all.
SUTTON: Even though something unfortunate happened to me, I'm still blessed, you know, with my family and my lovely wife and I have a great group of kids on the basketball team, a wonderful staff and I work at a wonderful university.
CROWD: One, two, three. TCU!
GUPTA: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Live to Hollywood. Our own Larry King talking about one of his good buddies, Donald Trump, about to get a special piece of property there on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Let's take a listen.
(JOINED IN PROGRESS)
JOHNNY GRANT, HONORARY MAYOR OF HOLLYWOOD: OK, photographers. I want to make sure you're ready because I'm going to tell you one thing. This will be the only time you will ever see Donald Trump on his knees on Hollywood Boulevard.
And I want to be the first to say today, Donald Trump, you are hired. Ladies and gentlemen, Donald Trump.
DONALD TRUMP, DEVELOPER: Johnny, thank you very much. What a great job you do. I really have to thank certain people. First of all, Mark, who has just been up, but Mark and his whole team, Jay Beanstock and Conrad Riggs and everybody else. They've been absolutely fantastic.
It's true, Mark did ask me to do it. He did say you are the only one that's going to do it, and it became the number one show and we were really, we've just had a lot of fun. To this day we're having a lot of fun.
Most importantly, I've made a great friend in Mark. He's a really talented, visionary guy. So Mark Burnett, I want to thank you -- where are you Mark? And Jay, thank you very much.
I also want to thank NBC because Craig Pleasut (ph) and Jeff Zucker and Bob Wright and Kevin Riley, they have been fantastic. And without NBC, who knows what happens. Maybe the same show goes on another network. Maybe it doesn't work. Who really knows. But the whole group over at NBC has been absolutely fantastic.
Johnny Grant and Jeff Stafford, I have to thank you. Steve Smook, I have to thank you. You know, Jeff and Steve lobbied for so long, even before I did "The Apprentice." And I said, how can I get a star without having done a show. And they said, well, you've done a lot of other things.
But I really appreciate Jeff and Steve and Johnny and everybody. Now, Larry King and Jay Leno. The bad news is they both said now you have to do our show tonight. So, I don't know, maybe we're going to do that. Maybe we'll have to do it.
But, Jay has been a friend of mine for a long time. Larry has been a friend of mine for a long time. And I just appreciate, they really are big stars. I assume they have their stars. But for them to come out is for me, a really great honor.
My son Donald is here. Donald Jr. who has done an amazing job in the real estate business. And now he's a star of "The Apprentice" and he's right here. Where is he? Right here and his beautiful pregnant wife. Great. Thanks, Vanessa. So Don is here. Ivanka is looking at real estate. Tiffany is here and my boy Barron is here and Eric is at home watching this on CNN and Fox and all of the other networks that we're very happy to have.
But it really has been a special moment in my life. And to have Melania here with Barron -- where is Barron? Come on Barron, get up here. See, that's Barron. He's strong. He's smart. He's tough. He's vicious. He's violent. All of the ingredients you need to be an entrepreneur.
And most importantly, hopefully, he's smart because smart is really the ingredient. So, Barron, good luck. You have a long way to go. Uh-oh. He won't give up the mic. OK. There we go.
So again, thank you all. The experience of "The Apprentice" has been absolutely amazing. We have another show that became pretty hot, in fact, Mark was telling me before, Miss USA. We've taken this beauty pageant. It's become sort of a hot thing. But this is "The Apprentice" and this is "The Apprentice" day and I want to thank everybody for being here. This has been so much fun.
So, Johnny, let's do whatever we have to do. Here's Pat, my friend Pat. Tameka, my friend Tameka. Who the hell is that Pat? Look at that, CNN, wow. OK. Good. Let's do it, Johnny.
GRANT: All right. Let's go this way.
Donald, right in the middle. Don't let me fall.
TRUMP: Where is Mark? Come on, Mark, get over here.
(CROSSTALK)
GRANT: I do the talking. Ladies and gentlemen. OK.
Ladies and gentlemen, we proudly welcome to the Hollywood Walk of Fame Donald Trump.
There you are, Donald.
TRUMP: Beautiful.
GRANT: Is that good? We're going to do it. We have to do it. We go all the way around.
TRUMP: What do I do?
GRANT: You can do that. Don't cover up your name.
Right over here.
PHILLIPS: Well, we definitely love all the plugs for CNN. I think Donald Trump might have mentioned that three times, probably because he's not only going to appear with us in the next hour, but also on "LARRY KING LIVE". You can actually see Larry King, one of his good friends, right behind him there.
Donald Trump, given the -- let's see -- 2,327th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. You see him right there side by side with the Honorary Mayor of Hollywood, Johnny Grant. His little son Barron with the exact comb-over. We're going to talk about this more and that special piece of property, probably his most favorite piece of property now because it's all about Donald trump. We're going to talk about it more in the 3:00 Eastern hour.
More of CNN straight ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: We're seeing lots of freezing rain, snow and ice falling over much of our nation. Bonnie Schneider, tracking it all from the Severe Weather Center -- Bonnie.
(WEATHER REPORT)
PHILLIPS: And a posthumous tribute from the Navy to a former sailor who became commander in chief. America's next aircraft carrier will be named the USS Gerald R. Ford. It's the first in a new line of carriers and will carry a crew of more than 4,600 sailors. On hand for the unveiling, his daughter Susan Ford Bales, who said there is nothing that would have made her father prouder.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SUSAN FORD BALES, GERALD FORD'S DAUGHTER: A few weeks before his death -- excuse me -- Dad wrote a letter to our friend Greg Willard (ph) regarding the CVN-78. And in that letter, he described how much the tribute then under consideration by Secretary Winter meant to him.
And Dad wrote, quote, "In closing, please permit me a personal reflection. In my life I received countless honors. But none was greater than the opportunity to wear the uniform of lieutenant commander of the United States Navy."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: The USS Gerald Ford is expected to be commissioned in seven to eight years.
LEMON: Well, Katrina's tiniest survivor finally arrives and takes on a significant moniker. It's a boy, and we here in the NEWSROOM couldn't be prouder.
Don't go away.
PHILLIPS: Also, you won't want to miss the man of the hour. Besides Don Lemon, of course...
LEMON: And that baby. That baby is a man of the hour.
PHILLIPS: ... Donald Trump. Donald Trump, going to step up to the mic. Yes, he got a piece of the Hollywood Walk of Fame. I thought we'd call Rosie and see what she thinks about that. Maybe we can get her comments.
We'll be right back.
LEMON: ... instigator...
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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