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New Jersey Terror Arrests; Midwest Flooding; Toxic Cough Syrup

Aired May 08, 2007 - 08:59   ET

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

TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning, everyone. You are in the CNN NEWSROOM.
I'm Tony Harris.

HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning. I'm Heidi Collins.

Watch events come in to the NEWSROOM live on this Tuesday Morning, May 8th.

Here's what's on the rundown.

Fort Dix attack plot. Federal authorities say six men wanted to kill as many soldiers as possible with automatic weapons. The suspects under arrest and in court today.

HARRIS: High water. Days of heavy downpours prompt floods for Missouri and neighboring states. Forecasters already comparing the looming disaster to the historic 1993 flood.

COLLINS: Cough syrup that can kill. The FDA says it's contaminated with a chemical found in anti-freeze and brake fluid.

Made in China, in the CNN NEWSROOM.

We begin this morning with breaking news. Sources tell CNN six men have been arrested in an alleged plot to attack Fort Dix in New Jersey.

CNN's Brianna Keilar is joining us now from Washington with more on this.

Brianna, what do we know about these arrests so far?

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Heidi, the six men are accused of plotting this attack against Fort Dix in New Jersey, as you said. Sources tell CNN the men were planning to use automatic weapons to shoot soldiers at the Army post. They had been doing surveillance of Fort Dix and planning for a while, and they had trained in the Poconos.

Sources also telling us they played paintball and test-fired weapons. And apparently there is videotape of some of this training.

So, the question here is, how significant was this threat? Of course, it's important to keep in mind sources are questioning the capability of these suspects. The sense being that these suspects are not alleged to be as big of a threat as some other terrorist suspects. And here's what we know about the suspects at this point.

A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney's Office in New Jersey says they are former -- they are from former Yugoslavia, some of them are related to each other. That information from a federal law enforcement source. And we are expecting, Heidi, for charges to be filed against the men today -- Heidi.

COLLINS: Yes, Brianna, when you mentioned, you know, how significant this threat was, obviously that's the first thing that authorities try to assess. When you think about people going on to an Army post with weapons, and you think about all of the military police are there and the security that already exists, what are they saying about the significance of that?

KEILAR: Well, of course the question is, as you said, how serious of a threat is this? Obviously, what we're hearing from sources is there was mal-intent here. But how big of a deal was it?

We're being told that it's not as big of a deal, as big of a threat as it could have been. So, we're going to have to stay tuned and see. We expecting charges to be filed today. And as more information comes out, that question will also be answered -- Heidi.

COLLINS: Yes. I think we also are looking forward to a possible news conference coming our way about 2:30 or so today I'm reading here, so we will stay on top of this one.

Thanks so much.

Brianna Keilar.

HARRIS: Misery across the Midwest. Spring storms hammer the region with a vicious one-two punch.

Greensburg, Kansas, a town in ruins, families there in limbo. Cadaver-sniffing dogs scouring the rubble for those still missing from the deadly tornadoes. President Bush will tour the damage tomorrow.

Meanwhile, flooding has forced hundreds of people from their homes in Kansas and Missouri. Weather experts are already making comparisons to the floods of 1993, some of the costliest in U.S. history.

Sean Callebs is covering the flooding. Rob Marciano the tornado recovery. And meteorologist Reynolds Wolf with the larger weather picture for us today.

Let us start with you, Sean.

You are along the banks of the swollen Missouri River, where there are real concerns today.

SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, exactly, Tony.

You can see just how great the concerns are. The river jumped its banks here near St. Joseph. We have a second camera set up. I want to show you just how rapidly this current is moving out there, and all the debris that is flowing down the middle of the river.

We know police were out here yesterday with radar guns. The river is moving at a clip at about 14 miles an hour. Usually it flows somewhere between four and six miles per hour. The big concern -- how high will this river get?

Now, if we use this tree as a benchmark back here, it's right now about 25 feet. They tell us it's going to crest somewhere around 28 feet. That would put it somewhere up in here. That's expected in a matter of hours. But it has been a very tense 24 hours throughout this area.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CALLEBS (voice over): Flooding from weekend storms stranded residents of Topeka, Kansas, and surrounding communities in their homes. Authorities and volunteers used rafts to rescue some 500 people. Here, neighbors cheer as a wheelchair-bound woman was saved from rising floodwaters.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It had been raining and raining and raining and raining, I just kept thinking, well, it can't last forever. But it did.

CALLEBS: Nearly seven inches of rain has pounded parts of Kansas and Missouri since Sunday.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was very scary having it coming in our houses and having everything floating by our houses, and there's cars and trucks under water.

CALLEBS: In Jackson County, Missouri, two teenagers had to be rescued from a tree after losing their paddleboat in a neighborhood that was overrun by floodwaters.

Storms that ravaged Oklahoma City for days caused heavy flooding that wiped out roads and bridges.

And in southwestern Iowa, residents in the town of Red Oak headed for higher ground as water rose to more than seven feet above flood stage.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The roar was horrendous.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was asleep, and the police car went by with its lights and sirens, going -- saying that it was mandatory for us to leave.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CALLEBS: Yes. And people along this river have been evacuated. There are just a handful of houses here. If we can pan over real quickly, you can see these people obviously told to get out for clearly safety reasons.

Now, how bad will it get? Will it get as bad as '93? Well, the experts say, no, it's not going to happen. Not here at least. Because of the flash flooding north of here, the water coming down, Tony, yesterday afternoon officials thought this river was going to crest at 31 feet. Back in '93, it crested at 32 feet.

HARRIS: Wow.

CALLEBS: But right now it looks like it's going to be significantly less than that. So great news for this area -- Tony.

HARRIS: Lessons, lessons, lessons, Sean. This was one of the areas that was hit hard in 1993. What lessons were learned back then that are being applied today?

CALLEBS: You know, it's a good question. There is a water plant that was located in the 100-year flood plain zone. It got washed out back in '93.

Well, the city learned. They moved it to higher ground. This year it's not threatened at all.

However, I talked to a resident this morning. He said there was a scare going around, a rumor going around yesterday, that the town was running out of water. So there was a run on bottled water at the grocery stores. But right now everything looks like it's going to be OK. We hope this fog burns off, this eerie day turns into a nice sunny one, something this area needs.

HARRIS: CNN's Sean Callebs for us along the banks of the Missouri River.

Sean, thank you.

Flood waters rising, cities and towns across the Midwest now threatened by high water. We will hear from the mayor of Pleasant Hill, Missouri, coming up in minutes right here in the NEWSROOM.

COLLINS: Greensburg, Kansas, nearly all of it obliterated by a ferocious weekend tornado. The federal government now dispatching trailers to house the homeless. President Bush will see the damage for himself.

And CNN meteorologist Rob Marciano is there now with what is happening today.

Good morning to you, Rob.

ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, Heidi.

David Paulison was here yesterday. The president, as you mentioned, comes tomorrow. The governor has been on site for a couple of days now. And residents for the second day this morning, they will be on site to go through what's left of their homes. It happens, well, right now, 8:00 local time.

Behind me you see the scene is the same. I mean, they haven't really brought in heavy equipment just yet because search and rescue is still ongoing. So, sites that you have seen in the past couple of days remain the same. Cars tossed like toys, trees -- mature oak trees completely splintered and debarked and defoliated, if not completely uprooted. And long, well-established, well-built homes either demolished completely, or at least damaged to the point where they certainly can't be lived in.

I mentioned that search and rescue is ongoing. Just last night, a Nebraska search and rescue team highly trained in urban areas like this has been brought in to continue the search and rescue operation.

There are cadaver dogs on site. In some cases, though, the debris is so tall that those dogs actually can't pick up a scent. So, they are just going to have to work through it all.

On the northern end of this town, we're looking now at the grain elevators that remain standing. About 10 stories high, re-enforced concrete. And one of the few things that remain standing in this town. Maybe a symbol of hope for this town.

We hear time and time again they are going to rebuild even though the infrastructure is completely wiped out. There already are plans in the works to get this town back on their feet.

What do they do here, or at least around the area? Well, as you imagine, farming is a huge business. Wheat, soybean, and right in through here, some of the grain in that silo, and the grain elevators, good old-fashioned corn.

So, here in the Corn Belt, or in the Wheat Belt, they vow, Heidi, that they are going to rebuild. But it's a slow-go, as you can imagine. Residents will be in here -- well, in the next few minutes they'll start filtering in to go through what's left of their homes again today.

Back to you

COLLINS: And, you know, we kind of forget about that part of it. I mean, we talk about rebuilding. You think of their homes, and maybe even some of the, you know, silos like that. But what about the crops and what about everything that they were actually making a living off of?

MARCIANO: Well, the crops, you know, you go outside -- what's so unique about this situation, Heidi, is that the town, you know, about a mile, a square mile, a mile wide, completely wiped out by this 1.7- mile-wide twister. The crops, you know, at least what we've seen on either side of town, are still OK.

The winter wheat is coming in nicely. And so at least that part of it they should be all right.

COLLINS: Good.

MARCIANO: But we haven't been out too much to assess any sort of farm damage. But hopefully they will be able to recoup some of the crops. COLLINS: Boy, I hope so.

All right. Rob Marciano for us.

Thanks so much, Rob.

HARRIS: Let's get to Reynolds Wolf now in the severe weather center.

(WEATHER REPORT)

COLLINS: Off the air, but on with their mission. An independent radio station in Baghdad is hit, but its workers vow to come back.

Their stories ahead in the NEWSROOM.

HARRIS: Also, Las Vegas explosion. Federal agents now on the case looking for clues in a homemade bomb attack.

COLLINS: Plus, cough syrup warning. Word of harmful ingredients has parents afraid.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta ahead with the story in the NEWSROOM.

HARRIS: Can we move some of the rain around, please? Racing the flames. Yes, look at these pictures. Hundreds of wildfires erupt around the country. Residents running for cover, firefighters running in.

See it for yourself in the NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: And welcome back, everyone, to the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Tony Harris.

Flooding, plenty of it, in the heartland. Wildfires to the west and south. Go figure.

First, Florida residents in at least three areas of the state ordered to evacuate. Hundreds more on alert. More than 260 wildfires in Florida have burned more than 19,000 acres.

Smaller scale but concerns just as big in southern California. A brushfire in Orange County forced evacuation of campers from a park. Officials warning dry conditions raise the threats of more wildfires.

COLLINS: The FDA is telling drug makers to look out for bad medicine, contaminated cough syrup, in fact. There are concerns it could contain a chemical used in anti-freeze. It's been found in cold medications in other countries, and it can be deadly.

Our chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, joining us now from New York this morning.

Sanjay, what exactly is the chemical? How did it get in cough syrup to begin with?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF. MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it's an amazing story, really. It's called DEG, Diethylene Glycol, and it's a chemical solvent that's used in anti-freeze, it's used in brake fluid. It's terrible, terrible stuff.

The reason it's attractive to counterfeiters is that it has the same consistency of glycerin, which is something that's used in a lot of cough syrup. It's hard to tell the difference when people are manufacturing it and sending it around. They manufacture it as counterfeit because they can make money on it.

What happens is, it crystallizes in your bloodstream, actually forms these crystals. Those crystals can get into your kidney, and they can be fatal. There were about over 300 deaths in Panama recently as a result of counterfeit cough syrup with this DEG. There have been deaths in Haiti before as well.

There have been deaths in the United States. There was about 100 deaths in the United States 70 years ago. That actually prompted the beginning of the FDA, Heidi. So this has been something that's been around for some time.

DEG used instead of glycerin.

COLLINS: So, just to be clear, whoever is doing this is not necessarily trying to hurt people, they are just trying to make a buck because it's cheaper to put in the medicines.

GUPTA: Yes, I think that's probably a rather generous way of looking at it. I mean, I think a lot of people know that DEG is very harmful and knows it can kill people.

COLLINS: Yes.

GUPTA: You know, some of the symptoms, incidentally, can be fever, nausea. You can vomiting, headaches and dizziness. Part of the problem, though, Heidi, in tracking this back is that people take medicines because they are sick in the first place. And it's hard to know, do they have these symptoms, or was it a result of the poisoning?

So, sometimes it can be difficult to track. Kidney failure is one of the hallmarks of this. The kidneys fail, and that's one of the first precursors to death which can happen here.

COLLINS: Yes. I mean, I guess in this day and age, you know, we're looking at possible terrorism, so that's what I was trying to get at there. But you also have to wonder, obviously, we're hearing about it in China in particular. How much danger are we in the United States?

GUPTA: Well, it's a good question. We asked the same question. A couple of things.

One, the CDC toxicologists say most of the glycerin that's actually made for cough syrup and other medications is actually manufactured in this country. The way the FDA sort of put it to us when we asked them about it specifically, is they said that the -- let's see here. "There is no reason to believe that the U.S. supply of glycerin is contaminated with DEG."

We would have liked a little bit more adamant a statement than that.

COLLINS: Yes.

GUPTA: But still, there it is for you. But remember, most of the medications are tested in this country before manufactured into medicines.

That's not the case in a lot of other places, including China, including Panama, including Haiti, where you see a lot of these things take place. So safer here.

You know, I have a small child, as you know, Heidi. And I would feel comfortable giving her cough syrup.

COLLINS: OK. People probably glad to hear that. But no extra testing going on, even though authorities know about this?

GUPTA: The FDA has asked people to be more vigilant about it. Again, really a real parsing of the words there.

COLLINS: Yes.

GUPTA: But asking to be more vigilant about testing some of these ingredients before manufacturing some of the medications.

COLLINS: OK. All right.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta, we will be more vigilant ourselves.

Thanks so much.

GUPTA: Thank you. All right.

HARRIS: He could hear them, he just didn't know what they were until doctors evicted them. Spiders.

Heidi, you OK? Should we get you some cough syrup?

Living in a boy's ear.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was like this weird popping noise.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He called it snap, crackle, pop like Rice Krispies.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: In the NEWSROOM.

ALI VELSHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And if you're hearing a popping noise on Wall Street, it might be people who are wondering whether that stock market balloon is going to burst. I'm wearing shades because it is sunny on Wall Street. But is this the way it's going to be for a while?

I'll be back in the NEWSROOM with more on that.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: Updating a story we first told you about yesterday in the NEWSROOM. A pretty crazy one, too.

Federal agents now joining the investigation into an explosion on the Las Vegas Strip. One man was killed by a homemade bomb in a parking garage at the Luxor hotel and casino yesterday. He had worked at a hot dog stand in the hotel. Police say it was murder. Investigators are examining pieces of the bomb now and reviewing security camera footage.

HARRIS: The Dow is on its longest bull run in 80 years, so does the stock market's hot streak mean more money for Heidi?

COLLINS: Yes. Yes, right.

HARRIS: But the future is so bright, you've got to wear shades. Or will you need an umbrella?

There's another side of this, of course, you know.

COLLINS: He looks hot.

HARRIS: To protect yourself from -- you like this look on Ali?

COLLINS: I like it.

VELSHI: I like this look. I'm thinking about doing it all the time.

HARRIS: Are those the "Top Gun"...

VELSHI: I need something to set me apart. Having a good, smooth head isn't enough on this channel.

(LAUGHTER)

HARRIS: Because I'm in hot pursuit. OK?

(STOCK MARKET REPORT)

COLLINS: Moving on now. Rain on the plains. Look at that. And that means very high water. Hundreds of people flee the flooding.

We'll go live to Missouri coming up in the NEWSROOM.

HARRIS: Off the air, on with their mission. An independent radio station in Baghdad is struck, but its workers vow to come back.

That story straight ahead for you in the NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Bottom of the hour. Welcome back to the CNN NEWSROOM. Good morning.

I'm Tony Harris.

COLLINS: Good morning, everybody. I'm Heidi Collins.

We want to go straight to this. Cue the bell.

HARRIS: Quickly.

COLLINS: It might have already gone. Think it already went?

HARRIS: There we go.

COLLINS: Oh. Excellent ad libbing until the bell comes.

(STOCK MARKET REPORT)

TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Among our top stories this morning unfolding this hour, alleged terror plot in New Jersey foiled. Sources tell CNN six men will be charged later today with planning to attack Fort Dix. Sources say the men had been planning to shoot soldiers at the Army post with automatic weapons. They had allegedly been training in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania. Sources describe the suspects as being from the former Yugoslavia, with some of them related to one another.

HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Where do they go from here?

Will things ever be the same?

Serious questions for the people of Greensburg, Kansas as they survey the damage and look to the future.

The town still in shock from a massive tornado that left homes, businesses, churches and schools in shambles. But already signs of recovery.

FEMA trailers for displaced families starting to roll into town and tomorrow President Bush arrives to tour the damage and offer some comfort to tornado victims.

The true scope of the damage in Greensburg, though, hard to believe, unless you are there on the ground.

CNN's Don Lemon is with us now from Greensburg -- Don, tell us a little bit about what you're seeing around you today, maybe in comparison to yesterday, when you first got there.

DON LEMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, good morning to you, Heidi. And I heard you say, when you were leading up to me, where do you go from here?

I mean, who knows?

I mean when you have this much of the city obliterated by a tornado, no one knows where to go.

But as you said, they're starting to get those FEMA trailers here. But I mean that -- those, we know, just from Hurricane Katrina, those FEMA trailers and -- and those things, they don't really make up for a home.

This is the second day that I've been here, the third or fourth day for the people here. The second day, really, that they're going to see their homes. They're just starting to trickle in now, 8:00 Central time is when they're being allowed to get into their homes.

But, again, they're coming back to this -- a town that has been completely demolished and flattened by a tornado.

There has been some news in this -- some good news and some bad, as we've been reporting tonight. There was a bit of a discrepancy about the number of people who died in the tornado and last night, when -- about 9:30 Eastern time, the city manager, Steve Hewitt, held a press conference and talked to us about the number of people who died and sort of the discrepancy they had with that.

Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEVE HEWITT, GREENSBURG CITY MANAGER: We want to confirm there has been nine fatalities from this storm from Greensburg, OK?

That includes one fatality that was located at the lake today and one that actually was transferred -- transported from this location to Ford County at Dodge City the first night of the storm. So that makes it a total of nine.

Then you can add another incident that happened at Pratt County.

So the total of this storm we have is 10.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: OK. And, also, remember we told you yesterday about they had given us some good news about a person being found in the rubble. They found a person. They wouldn't give us any information about that person.

As it turns out, that was not the correct information that they gave us. They -- it turns out it was a city commissioner who had gone back into his basement, into his home, to retrieve some papers. And the rescuers, who were looking for people, came upon him in his basement and thought that he was a new rescue and he was not. So that clears that up.

But people are just starting to arrive, as I said, about 8:00 a.m. A lot of people got back late last night, as well, or late yesterday, just before that curfew where they had to leave. They got back and they got to survey their homes.

One person is Kent Trummel, we spoke to, and he talked to us about being here for 25 years and living in this home for 15 years. And this is what he came home to.

Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KENT TRUMMEL, STORM VICTIM: Fifteen years of my life is right there. The money payments every month and it's paid for. And it's gone in 15, 20 seconds. And you start over now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Start over now. These are the buildings. You can see the air conditioning units on top of this building gone. Everything here. This was a giant, giant retaining wall here, Heidi, that, again, has been completely flattened.

But, you know, we've been showing you this damage. We've been showing you this devastation. This is happening all over this town. And this has happened to towns before and it would be good to sort of look back in history to see how they recovered. But it's going to be a long time before this place recovers again.

The president is scheduled to come here tomorrow and no doubt he's going to be hammered with questions about the National Guard and about equipment and about getting more people on the ground to get this city back up and running soon, if that's even possible -- Heidi.

COLLINS: Yes, Don, so what is the deal on that?

Have you seen National Guard troops in the area? Anybody around yet?

LEMON: We have seen -- we've seen tons of National Guard troops in the area. As a matter of fact, we're going try to go out with some of them today and talk to them about that, to see how they're strapped.

We saw the -- the guy who is in the charge of the National Guard here. He agrees with the governor -- yes, they are strapped; yes, they could use more equipment; and, yes, their equipment, lots of equipment that they need is over in Iraq.

So we want to go out and see how they're doing and see what sort of challenges they face, as well, as we talk to the people here in Greensburg -- Heidi.

COLLINS: All right, CNN's Don Lemon for us there on the scene in Greensburg, Kansas.

Don, thank you.

HARRIS: And after a weekend of tornadoes and other weather worry, in parts of the Midwest, floodwaters on the rise. The situation is especially acute in Missouri, where there's concern the high water could reach record levels.

On the phone with us right now, Mayor Terry Wilson of Pleasant Hill, Missouri.

Mr. Mayor, thanks for your time this morning.

MAYOR TERRY WILSON, PLEASANT HILL, MISSOURI: Thank you.

HARRIS: Hey, I just got word just a couple of moments ago that instead of a scary story for your town, this is actually a good news story. It is not the concern that it might have been, that you were probably looking at, oh, just about 24 hours ago.

WILSON: That is correct. We had received about seven inches of rain over a 48 hour period and with forecasts of heavy rains to come, we were -- we were all sitting on the edge of our chair because our historic downtown area was -- is the area that does go underwater when we have a lot of rain. And then we had some sandbagging and things like that.

But overnight, luckily, the rain went south of us. It missed us. So the waters have receded and we have, actually, no problems this morning and we're very pleased with that.

HARRIS: Wow!

Well, that's -- that's great news, Mayor Wilson.

But take me back to 24 hours or so ago. You mentioned seven inches of rain in a 48-hour period.

Did it force you to order some evacuations?

WILSON: Actually, we were lucky with the fact that on evacuations, most of the lower lying areas in our community are not inhabited. So we didn't really have an evacuation problem.

We did have water over highways and we did have some people that they were trying to go through it and we had to rescue them out of the water. Luckily there were no -- no real problems with it.

HARRIS: Yes.

WILSON: We got them out of the water and that -- and their vehicles out of the water and there was no real problems with that.

And like I said, we were -- there was some sandbagging going on in the lower section of -- of the community. And then a lot of our recreational facilities and things like that went underwater because, again, they're in the lower sections of town.

HARRIS: Right.

Yes, yes.

Well, what are you expecting over the next couple of days? What are forecasters telling you?

WILSON: Well, the forecast, obviously, is thanks for that there are possible -- some more heavy rains coming through the community. But luckily they come through just with enough time between the heavy rains...

HARRIS: Yes.

WILSON: ... that it gives the water time to -- to recede. So we don't have -- we're far enough away from the Missouri River and things like that that we -- we don't see a problem with that. And with the normal rains coming up, we don't really see a major problem for our community.

HARRIS: That's a great new story this morning. A great new story.

WILSON: It really is. And we're really...

HARRIS: Yes.

WILSON: ... like I said, we're lucky.

HARRIS: Mayor Wilson, thanks for your time this morning.

WILSON: Well, thank you.

COLLINS: It's probably time now to check in with Reynolds Wolf to get an overall picture of everything that's going on...

HARRIS: Yes.

COLLINS: ... because we've got some real, real trouble spots, obviously, with this flooding now -- Reynolds.

REYNOLDS WOLF, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Absolutely.

(WEATHER REPORT)

COLLINS: Talk about a political fight. Well, take a look at this. Lawmakers in Taiwan go to the mat over and election battle.

HARRIS: Whoa!

COLLINS: The pictures and the story coming up right here in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) COLLINS: In the fight for Iraq, today violence on the streets and a coming together behind closed doors. A car bomb exploded in a crowded market in the Shiite holy city of Kufa in Southern Iraq. Authorities say at least 16 people were killed and dozens were wounded. The blast went off in an area near a mosque and restaurants popular with Shiite pilgrims.

Meanwhile, at least eight people were killed in other attacks across Iraq.

In Baghdad, an effort to ease tensions over a possible split in the government. Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki met with Tariq Al- Hashimi, the head of Iraq's most powerful Sunni bloc. In a recent interview with CNN, Al-Hashimi threatened to pull his group out of parliament unless key amendments are made to Iraq's constitution by next week. The Iraqi prime minister said there was no talk today of the Sunni group leaving the government.

HARRIS: A war on talk radio. But this isn't about ratings. Lives, not jobs, are on the line when a Baghdad station is attacked.

CNN's Nic Robertson reports.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Barely recognizable as a radio station -- a burnt out computer, a twisted chair, all that remains of one of Iraq's most popular and fiercely independent broadcasters, Radio Dijla.

When it first took to the airwaves three years ago, its ground- breaking cross-community talk radio show offered hope.

AHMAD RIKABY, RADIO DIJLA DIRECTOR: Iraqis have many things to say. They want to complain. They want to cry. They want to shout.

ROBERTSON: Then came country-wide violence. Two of its journalists were killed, several kidnapped. But it kept on broadcasting. A civil war took hold. Radio Dijla's call-in shows became rare beacons of unity amid airwaves polarized by stations with sectarian agendas -- until last week, when insurgents burst in.

Staff grabbed guns. Even now, they're afraid to show their faces.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... into shooting them, because our friends are -- are killed or -- I don't know what happened.

ROBERTSON (on camera): Do you think they're going to kill you?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. That's why they come, to kill us.

ROBERTSON (voice-over): The station director, Rikaby, was in London. Staff called him for help.

RIKABY: I heard all the shoutings. I heard the bullets. I heard how my guys -- actually, seven or eight people -- were fighting 80 members of al Qaeda inside the station.

ROBERTSON: The chief guard, who vowed to lay his life down for the journalists, was killed almost immediately. They were outmanned, outgunned. Their only hope -- to call the Iraqi Army.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They tell us later, later.

ROBERTSON (on camera): Call back later?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Call back later.

OK.

I said to him -- to the man who was on the phone with me, when later?

They come to kill us. These -- we want your -- we want you to help us.

ROBERTSON (voice-over): Desperate, they called again. To their horror, the Army told them it was too dangerous. "They told me the area was not secure. They wouldn't sacrifice their soldiers to come help us," the station's acting director tells me.

In an hour-long gun battle, the eight men on the radio staff held off the 80 Al Qaeda fighters, saving themselves, as well as women and children in the newsroom.

Soldiers finally showed up and drove them all to safety.

(on camera): Iraqi Army spokesmen say they've been warning Radio Dijla for months that al Qaeda had been moving into their neighborhood and that it was becoming so dangerous, the Army couldn't protect them. Rikaby watched the transformation.

(voice-over): He says Sunnis forced out of their homes in Shia areas had moved into the Jai Al-Jamai'a (ph) area, close to Radio Dijla. Al Qaeda wanted to dominate the new, pure Sunni neighborhood and took over a mosque close to the radio station.

The religious leader began threatening staff.

RIKABY: He made threats. He said Hai Al-Jamai'a is part of the Islamic state and he -- he meant the Islamic state imposed by al Qaeda. And we shouldn't -- we don't accept to have such a radio station in our state.

ROBERTSON: A map of West Baghdad shows neighborhoods that many residents consider under al Qaeda control. Often, they're run from radical mosques.

Rikaby has a message for them.

RIKABY: Well, I hope they're watching us now. They should know that they have destroyed only walls and some computers, and maybe a mixer. But they definitely didn't destroy our will. ROBERTSON: Their Web site is still up, although silent. That's where they plan to relaunch their message of unity.

Nic Robertson, CNN, Baghdad.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

COLLINS: Changed by 9/11 -- a commodities trader trades in his job for a mission -- from ground zero to boots on the ground. You are in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: You know, I know we tell you this everyday. It's because we want you to watch it because there's a little incentive. No, no, no, no.

No, no, no, no, no, no.

This is good stuff.

You can watch us every morning right here, 9:00 a.m. until 12:00 Eastern. But now you can take us with you anywhere on your iPod. Watch the CNN NEWSROOM pod cast. It is great. It is available to you 24-7. Make it a part of your daily life, right on your iPod.

COLLINS: A historic day in Northern Ireland. Protestant and Catholic leaders coming together, forming a joint government and ending decades of bitter sectarian fighting.

CNN's Robin Oakley explains.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

ROBIN OAKLEY, CNN EUROPEAN POLITICAL EDITOR (voice-over): Many people thought it could never happen -- Ian Paisley, a staunch unionist, and Gerry Adams, leader of the political wing of the IRA, have spent decades hurling insults at each other across the sectarian divide.

Now, they sit down together to negotiate.

Dr. Paisley, leader of the Democratic Unionists, and Martin McGuinness, Sinn Fein's number two, even joked together last week as they hosted the European Commission president.

They've been a long time getting here -- 3,600 people died in Northern Ireland over three decades in attacks by rival paramilitary groups -- Catholic and Protestant. Atrocities like the Omagh killing of 29 people in August, 1998 by the so-called "real IRA" will forever stain Northern Ireland's history.

Others died in mainland bombings by the IRA; the bid to kill Margaret Thatcher and her cabinet in Brighton in 1984; bombings in London throughout the 1980s and 1990s. But as the military stalemate deepened, so a political alternative began to emerge. Go-betweens established contacts between paramilitaries the British government. The IRA declared a cease-fire, rescinded it, then revived it.

At Christmas, 1993, then British and Irish prime ministers, John Major and Albert Reynolds, signed the Downing Street Declaration, pledging any future constitutional change in Northern Ireland would only be by consent of all the people.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... to end violence for good in Northern Ireland.

OAKLEY: Outsiders helped the healing process, including two prominent Americans.

BILL CLINTON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Thank you.

OAKLEY: And in April, 1998, the Good Friday Agreement provided for a hand over of powers from Westminster to a power sharing assembly in Belfast.

TONY BLAIR, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: I feel the hand of history upon our shoulder in respect to this.

OAKLEY: This long and tortured peace process has often stumbled. Unionists demanded proof of IRA promises to scarp its weapons. But a crucial moment was the IRA's declaration in July, 2005, that it had once and for all turned its back on violence.

BLAIR: This may be the day when, finally, after all the false dawns and dashed hopes, peace replaced war, politics replaces terror on the island of Ireland.

OAKLEY: Ian Paisley and his DUP, who had long refused to negotiate with a party they saw as agent of violence, came under new pressure.

GERRY ADAMS, SINN FEIN PRESIDENT: Unionists who are for the Good Friday Agreement must end their ambivalence. And it's a direct challenge to the DUP to just say that they want to put the past behind them and make peace with the rest of the people on this island.

OAKLEY: But even after elections to the Northern Ireland assembly in March of this year, Dr. Paisley was still Dr. No when asked if he would engage in talks with Mr. Adams.

DR. IAN PAISLEY, DEMOCRATIC UNIONIST PARTY: No. No. Sinn Fein are not entitled to be at the table until they declare themselves for democracy.

OAKLEY: So how could his opponents qualify?

PAISLEY: They need to repent and turn from their evil ways.

ADAMS: All of the initiatives we have taken in recent times... OAKLEY: Maybe Sinn Fein have repented. Maybe Dr. Paisley has decided Tony Blair's threat to reintroduce direct rule was serious. Maybe a little of both.

Nobody pretends it will be an administration without tensions. But at least Northern Ireland is taking another big step own the road to lasting peace.

Robin Oakley, CNN, Belfast.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

HARRIS: An Army base said to be a terror target. Six men arrested, accused in a plot to gun down soldiers. A developing story and we're on top of it, of course, right here in THE NEWSROOM.

COLLINS: Also, drivers paying out the wazoo for gas.

How high will prices go?

What Americans see down the road in THE NEWSROOM.

HARRIS: And talk about a political fight -- lawmakers in Taiwan go to the mat over an election bill.

COLLINS: Just look at it.

HARRIS: Lawmakers breaking the law?

See it here in THE NEWSROOM.

Ouch.

COLLINS: Ooh.

HARRIS: Oh.

COLLINS: Ah.

HARRIS: That was...

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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