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G8 Protests in Germany; Florida Braces for Severe Weather; Is Tampa the Next New Orleans?; Terror Plot Targets JFK Airport

Aired June 02, 2007 - 11:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's going to be a really good practice storm. I hope it gives everybody an opportunity to prepare.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: Tracking Barry's wet arrival in Florida. You are seconds away for an update on the system's movement.

T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Didn't know that was coming, did you, Betty?

NGUYEN: I was not prepared.

HOLMES: Some Londoners chanting in their underwear. What does that have to do with this?

NGUYEN: Yeah, that's a lot different scene. Coming up, why thousands are taking to the streets in Germany and what it has to do with President Bush's impending trip.

HOLMES: You are in the CNN NEWSROOM, where everybody is fully clothed. The news is unfolding live on this Saturday, June 2nd. Hello, I'm T.J. Holmes.

NGUYEN: And I'm Betty Nguyen.

HOLMES: Some of the stuff we're following, here. Just one day after the start of the hurricane season, Florida bracing for a taste of what's to come.

NGUYEN: Tropical Storm Barry is now a depression, but it's still expected to hit Florida's west coast this afternoon. The latest storm advisory is just out. Let's take you over to CNN's Bonnie Schneider, who joins us from the Severe Weather Center. So, what does it say, Bonnie?

(WEATHER REPORT)

HOLMES: A lot to keep track of. We'll stay on top of it. And we do want to check in on the preparations in Florida. CNN's Susan Roesgen is in Steinhatchee, near the top of Florida's west coast. Oh, you can hear the rain coming down already, Susan.

SUSAN ROESGEN, CNN GULF COAST CORRESPONDENT: You can feel it, and actually we've had more wind in the last half an hour than we had earlier this morning. And you know Betty, Bonnie talked about the weather conditions and how this is so if to have this rain for the fire conditions up in Georgia. It's also good for this area.

Steinhatchee is a little fishing community. Certainly, boaters will go out in this kind of weather. Most other people don't. But I have to tell you, Betty, that this area's about 90 miles south of Tallahassee.

In this area, people have been asked this weekend not to water their yards because there's been such a drought. They're hoping for actually about three times as much rain as they're going to get today. They think perhaps between 13 and 17 inches of rain with this tropical depression now, that they need between 30 and 40 inches, Betty, to catch up, because of the drought.

So a bad day. But it doesn't work as if it's going to cause any severe flooding or anything like that in this area.

NGUYEN: Yes, and you don't need sprinklers out today either, which is a good thing.

ROESGEN: Not today.

NGUYEN: There in Steinhatchee, near the top of Florida's west coast. Susan Roesgen, we appreciate that.

Well, just days ahead of the G8 summit, a contrast of styles, shall we say, as protesters gather across Europe. Let's take a look in London there. Some of the demonstrators marched in their underwear. See that? The bottom of the screen.

But in northern Germany, a very different scene. Protesters and riot police battled it out in the streets of Rostock. Now the summit of the world's leading economic powers, that gets under way Wednesday at a German resort near Rostock.

HOLMES: CNN'S Frederik Pleitgen is at the scene of those G8 protests in Rostock. He's with us now with the latest there. You've been keeping an eye on things. It got rowdy for a little while, so things look fairly calm behind you now.

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, they are fairly calm behind me right now, T.J. But what we are seeing is that the edge of this square, where this protest is taking place, there are still scuffles going on, especially -- in fact, just a minute ago, I saw people throwing rocks and bottles at police officers again.

This is nothing compared to what we saw about one and a half hours ago, of course, when protesters here pelted police with bottles, with rocks, basically with anything they could find. We could see wooden planks fly all over the place.

And I've just been informed that the local police chief of this area -- he was telling me that at least 18 police officers have been injured in those scuffles. That several of these police officers have been severely injured and are actually being taken to hospital right now.

Having said that, what we've also seen, we've seen demonstrators coming out of the scuffles with bloody heads, we've seen a lot of people trying to wash tear gas out of their eyes, so basically this has cost a lot of carnage on both sides, T.J.

HOLMES: All right, Frederik Pleitgen for us there at those protests there in Rostock. Frederik, thank you so much.

NGUYEN: Well, President Bush looks ahead to the G8 summit in his weekly radio address. Among other things, he is highlighting his announcement of new sanctions against Sudan to try to stop the genocide in Darfur. New funding for the fight against AIDS and a call for new talks on global warming.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Next week, I will travel to Europe to attend the G8 summit. At this meeting, the leaders of industrialized nations will discuss ways we can work together to advance trade, fight disease, promote development that works, increase access to education and address the long-term challenge of global climate change. It is in America's interests to help these efforts succeed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NGUYEN: The G8 summit takes place on Wednesday through Friday.

HOLMES: The Atlanta lawyer whose isolated with a dangerous strain of tuberculosis is speaking out about his transatlantic trip. A Greek official says Andrew Speaker did not get married in Greece. Speaker says he did and they provided this picture to us to prove it.

Doctors say Speaker will likely spend up to two months at a Denver hospital while he's undergoing treatment. Authorities are testing those he came into contact with aboard those planes. During this interview with ABC News, Speaker said the doctors and the Centers for Disease Control knew he had the drug resistant strain of TB before he flew to Europe.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDREW SPEAKER, TB PATIENT: I said what's changed? When I left, I wasn't a threat to anyone. When I left, I was told I wasn't contagious, what's changed? Why are you abandoning me like this and expecting me to turn myself over for an indefinite time, what has changed? And they didn't have an answer to that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Well, tuberculosis, not really as rare as you might think. We'll find out more about the disease in the U.S. That's straight ahead here in the NEWSROOM.

NGUYEN: Well, let's take you to Somalia. There is word of an attack by the U.S. military on a suspected terrorist. Sources confirm to CNN that a U.S. navy destroyer off the coast of Somalia fired on a suspected al Qaeda operative believed to be hiding in a remote village. The sources say the suspect is believed to have been involved in the 1998 attacks on U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

Well in northern Lebanon, more intense fighting as the Lebanese army tries to drive Islamic militants from a Palestinian refugee camp. At least four Lebanese soldiers have been killed in the latest fighting. The violence flared again after more than a week of relative calm. The militant group is believed to have ties to al Qaeda.

HOLMES: As the presidential -- presidential, that's how you say it.

NGUYEN: That's how you say it.

HOLMES: They're presidential. My speech isn't quite so presidential. As these candidates gear up for crucial debates set to air here on CNN, what should you be looking for? The primaries are changing the game. We'll explain in our CNN "Reality Check."

NGUYEN: And butterflies are beautiful. Especially to smugglers? Yep. We'll get the behind the scenes story of how one smuggler was pinned down by authorities.

HOLMES: And there is disharmony over one of matchmaker eHarmony's central rules, no gays. What do those who run the service have to say about it?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: We want to take you back to live pictures, this breaking story we've been watching here for the last couple of hours here in the NEWSROOM.

This is in Rostock, Germany, this is where protesters have gathered ahead of the G8 summit, the group of eight summit of industrialized nations. It's going to be taking place right outside of Rostock here and this is what we've been eyeing. It's been kind of sporadic. It's been calm at sometimes and then it flares up like this again.

We've been watching these pictures and what you're seeing is protesters. They expect up to 100,000 in this town to protect that G8 summit. At times we see it turn to this. We've seen some of the protesters throwing. We've seen flags, rocks, bottle, paint bombs even.

One of our reporters there talk about seeing shopping carts. All kind of things that the protesters can get their hands on and just hurling them at some of the riot police.

We understand from our reporter that the police are outnumbered, some 10 to one right now, because they have about 13,000 police officers from all over the area, not just there in Rostock who have come to try to help out during these protests.

And really, it's been up and down. This hasn't been the case all morning. We do see at times where things get a little hectic, get a little rowdy and get a little violent here in Rostock, Germany.

We've been keeping an eye on this situation. Also understand from our reporter there on the ground, Frederik Pleitgen, that yes, reports of 20, at least 18, police officers have been injured.

Other injuries as well we've seen in some of the video people being bandaged, people being bloodied. But it happens at times. It goes back, for the most part it has been calm. When it does kick up, we certainly want to dip in and keep an eye on it. So we're going to keep an eye on this and again, monitor the situation, bring you the updates as we get them.

NGUYEN: Well in other news, back here as home, Republican Fred Thompson is looking more and more like a presidential candidate. The senator turned actor has filed paperwork in his home state of Tennessee creating a fund-raising committee. Sources tell CNN that Thompson is ready to enter the testing waters and will determine how much support he'd have if he entered the race.

Well, a Republican who's already an official presidential candidate will be on Thompson's home turf tonight and that is Mitt Romney. He'll be the key-note speaker at an annual Republican get- together in Nashville called the Statesmen's Dinner.

HOLMES: Well, many of the Democratic presidential candidates will gather in Iowa tonight. Senators Hillary Clinton and Chris Dodd, former Senator John Edwards and Governor Bill Richardson will be in Cedar Rapids for the state Democratic Party's hall of fame dinner. One no-show there in Iowa tonight: Barack Obama. He was in Iowa earlier this week, but today, he's on the west coast with appearances scheduled in Seattle and four California communities.

NGUYEN: Tomorrow night, the weekend's big event, eight Democratic presidential candidates debate in New Hampshire. And you can see it right here on CNN at 7:00 p.m. Eastern. Mark your calendars. But here's the question, as you watch, what should you be looking for? CNN's Joshua Levs is here with a "Reality Check." These debates are becoming more and more important as we still have a long ways to go.

JOSHUA LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They are. You know what? And viewers have more power. We're not just saying this. Viewers have more power at this stage of the game than you have ever had in the presidential debate ever in the history of television, in America.

Here's what's going on. You may have heard that primaries in a lot of states have become earlier. That's changing the political landscape for everybody. Here's what it's doing. It's squeezing the candidates into a shorter time frame.

But it's making them spread out all their financial resources. And that means there's some things to watch out for in the upcoming debates.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LEVS (voice-over): While the candidates have been slugging it out, the states in which they stump have been in a battle of their own. A race for relevance. And the winner is, a date. February 5, now one of the most important days in next year's political calendar.

All these states moved primaries or caucuses for at least one political party up to February 5th. And all these states are considering doing so, which is how it got the extremely official sounding nickname Super Duper Tuesday.

Florida moved its primary for both parties even earlier, January 29th. The goal for each date is to get candidates chasing voters by making promises to help the states and by spending precious campaign cash. They can't possibly campaign hard in person everywhere so expect a ton of TV ads.

JOHN EDWARDS, DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm John Edwards, and I approved this message.

LEVS: But debates are an inexpensive way to reach people all over the country. And given the new calendar, the candidates need to reach you, fast.

So, expect more push and pull than you'd otherwise see, concise messaging and an intense effort by candidates to set themselves apart. While avoiding something like this from 2003, when Howard Dean was defending his remarks about reaching out to people with confederate flags on their cars.

HOWARD DEAN, DNC CHAIRMAN: I make no apologies for reaching out to poor, white people.

LEVS: One brief remark that plays badly politically could have seismic repercussions and in the shortened campaign season, there's less time to overcome it.

So expect these folks to duke it out while watching out for political landmines.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEVS: Keep in mind that while this is happening in New Hampshire, which is a key early battleground state, but the fact is they will fight hard for your votes everywhere in America. And Betty, I'm telling you, they are going to fight harder than they ever have before at this stage in the game.

NGUYEN: Well, yeah, and plus this is an historic open election, right?

LEVS: Exactly. This is the most open election in 80 years. This is what's cool, both sides of the aisle, the Republicans and Democrats, you have no incumbents, president or vice president, which means both sides are completely open.

It's anybody's game. That means really when you're watching the Republicans debate and the Democrats debate, it's been decades since anybody could have seen debates on both sides of the aisle go that far out. Again like we're saying here, anybody can win this thing.

NGUYEN: That's why you have to watch to decide. Thank you, Josh, we appreciate that. And more on tomorrow night's debate, that is coming up in just 15 minutes. CNN's senior political analyst Bill Schneider will join us with a look at what's changed since the last Democratic debate.

HOLMES: All right. Here's the rundown for tomorrow. You can join the best political team on television as always beginning at 5:00 p.m. Eastern. It's going to be the pre-game lineup. See who's expected to do well and maybe not so well.

Then at 7:00 p.m. Eastern, Democratic candidates square off and for the first time they are taking questions from the voters. Right after that, who scored who stumbled. Join Larry King, Wolf Blitzer, Anderson Cooper and John Roberts and all the Democratic candidates themselves for "Raw Politics." That's going to be a post-debate breakdown. It all starts right here Sunday night at 5 Eastern.

NGUYEN: Well today, T.J., all eyes are along the gulf. They're on tropical depression Barry. But what if later this hurricane season, a more powerful storm were to take aim at, say, Tampa Bay? Well, we're going to show you what could happen.

HOLMES: Also, the traveler with tuberculosis sent shockwaves of fear around the world. If you're just walking down the street of a big city in the U.S., how big of a threat is TB to you? We'll get into that.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Get you up to date on tropical depression Barry. Barry made landfall just north of Tampa and is now expected to produce 3-to- 5 inches or more of rain along its path. That could help crews battling wildfires in Florida.

NGUYEN: Barry, of course, is not a hurricane. But it is a reminder that Tampa could face a major hurricane at any time. And CNN meteorologist Rob Marciano reports that Tampa emergency officials have contingency plans in place.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LARRY GISPERT, EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT DIRECTOR: I can't guarantee it's going to be this year. It may be next year. It may be five years from now, but it's going to happen. It has to happen.

ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Larry Gispert is a lifelong resident of Tampa and the city's emergency operations director. He has spent much of his career planning for a hurricane-related disaster. GISPERT: You want to know who the guy is in the fox holes with you and you want to know if he tells you he's going to do something, he's going to do it.

MARCIANO: Gispert and his team are conducting an annual exercise, what to do if a monster storm tracks their way. It hasn't happened since 1921.

This time of year, coastal cities like Tampa plan for the worst. So if the big one hits, they'll be ready. During a storm, emergency managers will be right back here at the operations center, well above sea level, high and dry. But if Tampa takes a direct hit from a hurricane, much of the city will be under water.

BOB WEISBERG, UNIV. OF SOUTH FLORIDA: If the wrong storm comes here from the wrong direction at the wrong speed and makes landfall in the wrong place, there could be a disaster here.

MARCIANO: Local professor Bob Weisberg has developed sophisticated computer models to simulate what a direct hit would do. From the gulf, hurricane winds would push a surge of water up the long, shallow bay. And at the northern most point where the water is piled highest, lies the city of Tampa.

WEISBERG: If we look now at a uniform 20-foot rise of sea level, we see that there is a lot of land that's inundated.

MARCIANO: Back downtown, Gispert brings the model to life. How far up the hospital is that water going to get?

GISPERT: Up to the third set of windows. They could have 24, 22 feet of water, and as you can see over here, these two spans of bridges are even lower than that.

MARCIANO: So the hospital could be stranded for months?

GISPERT: That hospital could be stranded for months.

MARCIANO: Worst case, most of downtown will be flooded. Neighborhoods near the bay wiped clean like southern Mississippi after Katrina. And like New Orleans, there are only three long low roads for evacuation.

GISPERT: The water's going to overcap the road and cut it off. That's why if the people in Pine Ellis wait too late and the onset of those winds come, they're not going to have a way out.

MARCIANO: If a major hurricane were to come here, as many as a million people may have to flee their homes. The question is whether the storm and their own free will give them the time to get out. Rob Marciano, CNN, Tampa.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: Well, just ahead, the latest on the progress of tropical depression Barry. NGUYEN: Also, what has changed for the Democratic presidential candidates since their last debate? Well, we're going to find out from our own Bill Schneider.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: Happening right now, Florida's West Coast dealing with tropical depression Barry. Now one benefit from the system, heavy rain is falling in drought parched areas in Georgia and Florida.

I want to take you to Lebanon now, because a new round of fighting between the Lebanese army and Islamic militants is taking place. The Lebanese troops are trying to drive militants from a Palestinian refugee camp. The militants are believed to have ties to al Qaeda.

And in northern Germany, violent confrontations between protesters and riot police. The protesters have gathered four days ahead of the G8 summit.

HOLMES: We want to turn back to the weather now, and turn back to our Bonnie Schneider, who has been awfully busy this morning. A tropical depression now, that's a good thing. But still they're not quite out of the woods there in Florida.

(WEATHER REPORT)

NGUYEN: Democratic presidential candidates are gearing up for tomorrow night's big debate in New Hampshire. CNN will bring it live to you beginning at 7:00 p.m. Eastern. Right now senior political analyst Bill Schneider is already in the granite state and he joins us from Manchester. A lot of energy taking place today as everyone is getting ready for the big debate.

BILL SCHNEIDER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Certainly is. Since the last Democratic debate, lots of things have happened, but not that much has changed.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SCHNEIDER (voice-over): In the month since the Democrats last debated, Congress voted to continue funding the troops in Iraq without a time line for withdrawal. Senate leaders announced the bipartisan compromise on immigration. Two new biographies of Hillary Clinton have appeared. Barack Obama has offered a health care plan. Stories have come out about John Edwards' investments. All of those subjects are likely to come up in Sunday's debate. But one issue continues to dominate the Democratic race -- Iraq. Democrats in Congress split over the Iraq funding bill. Seven of the eight Democrats running for president oppose the bill, including the front-runners. Clinton and Obama voted against it.

SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I understand why my colleagues had a tough time on it, but I couldn't in good conscience say we are just going to continue on a course that is not working. SEN. HILLARY CLINTON (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: -- because the president will not change course and so we are doing everything we can to persuade him to do that.

SCHNEIDER: Edwards denounced it.

JOHN EDWARDS (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: They shouldn't have backed down on this one.

SCHNEIDER: No Democrat wants to appear less anti-war than the others, not even the one who voted to continue funding.

SEN. JOE BIDEN (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Do you think by us cutting off funding he's going to withdraw troops?

SCHNEIDER: Has anything changed in the Democratic race? In five national polls of Democrats taken in April before the last debate, Clinton led the field. Obama was running second and Edwards third. The other declared candidates were all in single digits. In five national polls taken since the debate, the standings were unchanged. Clinton first by a slightly wider margin, Obama second, Edwards third, others in single digits. A lot's happened, but nothing changed.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SCHNEIDER: The Democratic race looks pretty stable. Hillary Clinton wants to keep it that way. The other Democrats hope this debate will shake things up a little. Betty.

NGUYEN: With all the primaries moving up, how relevant are the early states like New Hampshire and Iowa in actually picking a candidate?

SCHNEIDER: As long as they come first, they're going to be relevant because they will have a spillover impact on big states like California where the candidates really can't campaign face-to-face. If you do well in New Hampshire, that news story will propel your momentum forward into those other big states. But New Hampshire's big function, it always has been, is to separate the starters from the non-starters. That's what happens here. Usually it doesn't come up with the winner, but it does tell the voters who's likely to be a serious contender and who isn't.

NGUYEN: Well, we will be watching to see how it shakes out. Bill Schneider, we appreciate your time today and your insight.

SCHNEIDER: Sure.

NGUYEN: Thank you.

HOLMES: That thing gets me every time, Veronica. I was over here talking, Veronica this, and then bam the big graphic.

VERONICA DE LA CRUZ, CNN.COM: Hope you like it.

HOLMES: I do like it, I do like it. It woke me up. Veronica De La Cruz, helping us prepare for the debates online. What's available on cnn.com?

DE LA CRUZ: We're still about 17 months away from election time. CNN.com has compiled everything you need to know about the candidates, the debates and politics in general in one easy to use place. It's going to help you make a well informed decision before you cast your vote in '08. So head on over to cnn.com/politics. There you'll find a political ticker, which provides you with up to the minute news from the campaign trail, as well as all things politics.

The top story on the ticker today, Barack Obama in sin city. The Democratic senator from Illinois took a trip to Las Vegas and told casino workers there that he will join them on the picket line if their contract negotiations break down. The union workers gave him a standing ovation. We've also launched a special report at cnn.com/election. This special section is the mother lode of all candidate information. There you'll find candidate bios and see where each person stands on the issues, supporters and money for fund- raising. You can even compare the candidates by matching up various Democrats and Republicans. And T.J., for a quick diversion, if you've got a little extra time on your hands, you want to try this out. This is the "presidential pong" game on the CNN election page. You want to pick your favorite candidate and test your skills, just a slight warning. It is a little harder than it looks. Obama there, he's got skills. And don't forget that CNN pipeline will be free during the debates and into Tuesday. You'll find the debates in pipe one and then a live analysis with Arianna Huffington and Mike Murphy in pipe two. T.J..

HOLMES: Veronica de la Cruz, checking out the political scene and finding us neat games to play online as well. Veronica, thank you very much.

NGUYEN: Just how wide spread is the threat of tuberculosis here in the United States? We'll have some hard numbers for you ahead in the NEWSROOM.

HOLMES: And for some, the lure of a beautiful butterfly leads them to break the law. Later, a look inside an undercover sting that brought down one such operation.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: Breaking news, taking you back to Rostock, Germany. Look at this. They are spraying water on the crowds there. The protesters who have formed as the G-8 summit takes place next week. They are protesting what is really going to be said there at the summit. They want more in the form of HIV/AIDS, African poverty, climate change. They just really are also questioning the legitimacy of the existence of the group of eight industrialized nations. This morning, you see the tens of thousands.

We heard a little bit earlier from CNN's Frederik Pleitgen that there were upwards of 50,000. Some were even expecting 100,000 protesters today. It's been violent throughout the day at many different times. It hasn't been constant. Looking at this right now, the crowds are being sprayed down by water and earlier we saw them using tear gas to try to bring some calm to the protesters there.

Here's the reason, because protesters have been throwing rocks. They've been throwing all sorts of things, flags. At one point, we heard from Frederik Pleitgen that they were actually throwing shopping carts. Here's some more live pictures. You can see right there they are throwing these rocks at the officers there in riot gear trying to calm this crowd down. As far as those officers go, they're in full riot uniform. We understand that they are outnumbered at this point. Some possibly even 10 to 1 when it comes to protesters on the ground. We'll be watching as the violence erupts intermittently throughout the protests that have started as the G-8 summit kicks off next week.

HOLMES: And also as we've been reporting, the Atlanta lawyer who's isolated with a dangerous strain of tuberculosis is speaking out about his trans-Atlantic trip. Andrew Speaker traveled to Greece in May, but now authorities are testing people he came into contact with while flying to Europe and back. In an interview with ABC News, Speaker apologized to those he may have exposed.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDREW SPEAKER, TB PATIENT: I don't expect those people to ever forgive me. I just hope they understand that I truly never meant to put them at harm. I never meant to hurt their families or them. And I just hope they can find a way to forgive me for putting them in harm because I didn't mean to.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: During that interview, Speaker said his doctors and the Centers for Disease Control knew he had the drug resistant strain of TB before he flew to Europe.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NGUYEN: all right. Tuberculosis, the very word can spread fear and TB. It's not as rare as you may think. In fact, thousands of cases diagnosed every year right here in the United States. CNN's Randi Kaye reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Andrew Speaker's got company. The Centers for Disease Control says he and 13,767 others in the U.S. were diagnosed with tuberculosis last year, 1,000 people in New York City alone, says health commissioner Thomas Frieden.

DR. THOMAS FRIEDEN, NYC HEALTH COMMISSIONER: Tuberculosis is not so rare. In New York City, every week on average, we do one investigation of someone with active tuberculosis who is working in a work site, in a financial institution, in a business in a school.

KAYE: TB is here coast to coast. And it's been here for a while. 1998, Norfolk, Virginia, 2,100 sailors aboard a Navy warship underwent TB tests after two crew members got sick.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Very anxiously waiting. Hopefully, he doesn't have it.

KAYE: 2005, Broken Bow, Oklahoma, 220 people were tested after it was confirmed an employee at a Tyson chicken plant had the disease. And just this year, at New York City's St. Barnabas hospital, hundreds of patients, including more than 200 newborns were screened, after contact with an infected employee. In America, the CDC has recorded 49 other cases of extremely drug resistant TB like Speaker has in the last 13 years. How many other Andrew Speakers might be out there?

FRIEDEN: It's really pretty rare. People with TB feel sick. They seek care. Once they're in care, they're effectively treated.

KAYE: So you don't expect there are a lot of globe-trotting TB patients out there?

FRIEDEN: It happens. We see this and when it happens, you have to take appropriate measures.

KAYE: TB is often considered a poor man's disease because of its roots in poverty-stricken countries. Why is it that a country as advanced as the United States is battling a disease more commonly found in developing countries?

FRIEDEN: Tuberculosis is a global epidemic. Most of our cases in New York City and nationally are among people who were born overseas. We can't hermetically seal our borders even if we wanted to.

KAYE: Globally, the CDC estimates one-third of the world's population is infected with the bacteria that causes TB. Last year, the rate among foreign-born people was nearly 10 times greater than among American born. Ethnic minorities in the U.S. are at a disadvantage too. Asians, for example are 21 times more likely to have TB as Caucasians.

With thousands of cases in the U.S. every year, how are you supposed to know if the person walking next to you is one of them? Frieden says there really is no way to know, no obvious signs. That's pretty alarming to some people since we're connected by the air we breathe.

FRIEDEN: It's in our best interest to help the countries of the world control tuberculosis better.

KAYE: Another reason the U.S. is suffering? Outdated tools.

FRIEDEN: The tests we have is for the sputum test is 100 years old. The test, the skin test that you may have had, that's about 90 years old. We haven't had a good, new first-line drug for tuberculosis in nearly 50 years.

KAYE: Weak tools. No match for a terrible epidemic. Randi Kaye, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NGUYEN: They have been called living jewels. Butterflies are at the center, though, of a multi-billion dollar industry. And where there's money, there is crime. We'll explain, just ahead.

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HOLMES: Just continuing to follow these live pictures out of Rostock, Germany, where people are protesting the G-8 summit ahead of the G-8. We've seen a lot and now we see a fire going here. We don't exactly know what's on fire, how this fire started. But part of the - it's kind of been hectic and chaotic, indeed, violent protests at times where up to 100,000 protesters expected here in this town to protest the G-8 summit. Right now those protesters according to police are outnumbering the police in a major way. Some 13,000 police expected.

We've seen plenty of them in full riot gear trying to control the crowd, pushing them back, using tear gas. Also saw big vehicle a short time ago spraying water on the crowds, trying to get them under control that way. We've also seen this at times where it does calm down, where it is not a violent protest, but the violence breaks out a time or two. And we've seen several incidents of that this morning. Certainly going to be following this throughout the day, throughout the weekend, of course. The G-8, which gets going in the middle of next week for a couple days. So we don't expect the protests to die down anytime soon over the next several days. Just wanted to bring you some of the latest pictures we're getting out of Rostock, Germany.

NGUYEN: From that violence to, of all things, butterflies. Yes they are beautiful to look at but believe it or not, some of them are also targets of an underground smuggling network. Kara Finnstrom takes us into that world through one of the undercover agents who's helped bring it all down.

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KARA FINNSTROM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Brilliant butterflies. They're living jewels that command cold cash in the underground world of wildlife smuggling.

SPECIAL AGENT ED NEWCOMER, U.S. FISH & WILDLIFE: This particular pair, I paid $8,500 for.

FINNSTROM: But he is no criminal. Fish and Wildlife agent Ed Newcomer works undercover, bringing down the kingpins in wildlife smuggling. We're blurring his features to protect his identity. How big of a problem is this? I mean I've never heard of smuggling butterflies.

NEWCOMER: Wildlife crime is a huge, huge business. It is ranked immediately behind drug smuggling as one of the most lucrative illegal activities in the world.

FINNSTROM: Newcomer says smuggling everything from insects to tigers generates $10 billion a year for criminals. He's taking us inside this covert trade, revealing the three-year sting that netted one of the world's most notorious butterfly smugglers, Japan's Yoshii Cajema (ph).

NEWCOMER: The word we had heard was that Yoshii Cajema could get his hands on insects nobody else in the world could get.

FINNSTROM: This is somewhere it all started.

NEWCOMER: Right, the museum of natural history is the first place I met Yoshii.

FINNSTROM: The occasion, the museum's 2003 bug festival. Cajema had set up booths at past festivals and even the museum's bug expert was suspicious.

BRENT KARNER, ENTOMOLOGIST: I know some of the butterflies that most collectors tell you you can't get very easy anymore. Yet he'd have a specimen of those, sometimes two or three.

FINNSTROM: Newcomer introduced himself to Cajema as a rookie collector.

NEWCOMER: He brought me a box of butterflies that he wanted to give me to start my collection.

FINNSTROM: It also started the relationship critical to this sting, the trust-building that led to this, bag after bag of legal dried butterflies.

NEWCOMER: These are the decoys on the top.

FINNSTROM: With the true jewels hidden in their midst.

NEWCOMER: This is about an $800 butterfly right there.

FINNSTROM: Newcomer says all this shows the scope of Cajema's business. Check out the ultimate evidence, Internet video conferences from Japan.

NEWCOMER: He actually showed me endangered butterflies and offered to sell them to me.

FINNSTROM: Newcomer secured an arrest warrant and in a surprise twist, this married man set up a date in the U.S.

NEWCOMER: There was some type of sexual attraction to me on his part. That always makes undercover work difficult, but ultimately it worked out as a lure.

FINNSTROM: Cajema pled guilty to multiple felonies, including smuggling and is serving 21 months behind bars. Agent Newcomer's new focus, busting Cajema's real clients.

(on-camera): The whole point of these investigations , to protect butterflies like these and to keep those that are endangered from becoming extinct.

(voice-over): Newcomer's fear, with the natural habitat of butterflies shrinking and the black market thriving, smugglers like Cajema could help make glass boxes the only place to find many winged wonders. Kara Finnstrom for CNN, Los Angeles. (END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: We have a breaking story we want to get to involving a terror plot allegedly targeting a New York City airport. We do want to get to our Kathleen Koch, who's standing by for us. Please give us this update.

KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right now, what we have learned in this -- from one law enforcement official and another very highly placed government source is that a press conference is going to be held in New York City very shortly to announce the arrest and the indictment of at least one suspect in this, in an alleged plot against JFK airport. According to our sources this was aimed not at aircraft at JFK but at ground ops. The sources telling us that it's unclear right now what these alleged terrorists wanted to do. We're told at this point that there is not a belief that they were linked to al Qaeda, described, instead, as al Qaeda wannabes. Apparently, at least one person who is going to be arrested is in New York City. The rest of the people involved apparently are in the Caribbean though our sources at this point couldn't tell us exactly where. And according to one of our sources, one of those to be arrested is indeed a former airport worker. And my source, who I spoke with about 15 minutes ago, said that this case has been developing for quite a long time. Back to you.

HOLMES: All right. So a lot of questions here we are going to have. We appreciate you getting that information as quickly as possible. A lot more, expecting a press conference coming up any time shortly. Thank you so much, Kathleen. Of course, Tony Harris is coming up at the top of the hour, going to continue with the CNN NEWSROOM and they're going to be covering of course this story from top to bottom. So please stay tuned for that. Certainly going to have that press conference live when it comes to you. Scary and developing story there. Tune in for that.

NGUYEN: We'll have much more on it. In the meantime though, we're going to take a quick break. We'll be right back. Stay with CNN. You are in the NEWSROOM.

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TONY HARRIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Thank you, everyone, for joining us in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Tony Harris in for Fredricka Whitfield. At the top this hour, alleged terror plots disrupted. Let's get you quickly now to Kathleen Koch in Washington, D. Kathleen, good to see you. My understanding is that this is an alleged terror plot to target one of the major airports in New York City.

KOCH: Exactly, Tony and this was JFK airport. A press conference is going to be held at 1:00 p.m. Eastern time by the FBI and the joint terrorism task force in New York City to announce, and this according to one law enforcement official in a high-level government official, who tells CNN that several people have been arrested in this alleged terror plot. One them in New York City, several in the Caribbean. And according to our sources, the plot was not targeting aircraft, but ground operations. So we don't have more specifics ... TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.voxant.com