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Suspected Terrorists Arrested for JFK Airport Plot; Insurgents Release Video of Personal Items from Missing Troops; TB Traveler Not Contagious; Democrat Candidates Debate Issues; Rep. Jefferson Set to Be Indicted on Bribery Charges
Aired June 04, 2007 - 13:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CO-HOST: Hello, everyone. I'm Kyra Phillips.
T.J. HOLMES, CO-HOST: And I'm T.J. Holmes here at the CNN headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia.
PHILLIPS: A story developing right now. You'll remember money was found in his freezer. The investigations began. Now we're being told indictments have been issued against Congressman William Jefferson of Louisiana.
Our Kelli Arena is working the story right now. Kelli, what do we know?
KELLI ARENA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's right, Kyra. Our sources are telling us that that indictment should be announced later today. More than a dozen counts involving public corruption.
As you said, Kyra, this is an investigation that has been going on for some time. Law enforcement allegedly found $90,000 in cash in the congressman's freezer.
There was a big controversy, as you know, over the searching of his congressional office. There have been several people that have pled guilty in this probe already.
The congressman himself has maintained his innocence all along.
What this involved is an alleged kickback scheme involving a telecommunications company in Kentucky. You know, we have not -- we have not reached out to the congressman's office at this point. We're just get thing word in, Kyra. And we'll continue to follow it for you.
PHILLIPS: You mentioned the controversy over the investigation into his office. And there was a lot of back and forth on whether it was legal to do so.
ARENA: That's right.
PHILLIPS: And that ended up being cleared. Did something come out of that search initially in the office? Or were they able to go back legally?
ARENA: They haven't been able to go through that evidence yet, Kyra. It is still -- it's still being sort of set aside because that battle actually is still going on. And the issue is a constitutional one, whether the judicial branch had the right to go in and search a congressional office.
So you had a constitutional clash there. And -- and so that is still being battled out in court.
But apparently, investigators were able to move ahead with what they already had to come up with an indictment.
PHILLIPS: Now even with all this controversy swirling around him, wasn't he voted back into office? I'm going out on a limb here. I'm trying to remember. He's still garnered so much support from his constituents, even with this...
ARENA: He continues to have support from his constituents, yes.
And let's not forget that this man has claimed, you know, that he is not guilty. He has said he's innocent all along. And these are charges. So, you know, we'll have to see how it plays out.
And we are, I know that our producers are trying to reach, you know, someone representing him. We'll let you know what we get.
PHILLIPS: All right. Kelli Arena from Washington. We'll keep checking in. Thanks.
ARENA: You're welcome.
HOLMES: Another developing story to take you to now and another bizarre twist in the case of that globetrotting TV patient. Andrew Speaker caused international outrage by traveling overseas with a dangerous form of tuberculosis. Well, now doctors treating him in Denver say he is not contagious.
Meanwhile, he's trying to prove that his big fat Greek wedding is not a big fat lie. He's defending it, says he was legally wed in Greece.
Speaker's family gave CNN this photo as proof of the couple's marriage. The photo appears to contradict the mayor of Santorini, Greece, who says the couple didn't have the paperwork to exchange vows.
Speaker's family and his in-laws appeared on national television together to defend his actions.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TED SPEAKER, FATHER OF THE PATIENT: I think the best way to explain it for myself and my family, my friends, we're in hell. And we want to get out of hell.
DIANE SAWYER, ABC NEWS: So was this reckless?
CHERYL SPEAKER, MOTHER OF THE PATIENT: No. T. SPEAKER: I don't feel it was reckless at all.
C. SPEAKER: No. We would not have allowed -- we are not people of reckless behavior.
T. SPEAKER: Nor is Andrew.
C. SPEAKER: Nor is Andrew.
BETSY COOKSEY, MOTHER-IN-LAW OF TB PATIENT: We all went to Greece without worries of any kind of contagious situation.
C. SPEAKER: And do you think that this man who is an expert in TB, do you think that this man, if he had thought that there was any danger whatsoever to his only child and his only grandchild that he would have allowed this to happen?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: The CDC says more than half the passengers who traveled with Speaker on transatlantic flights have been tested for TB. And so far preliminary tests show no one is infected.
PHILLIPS: When you think terror hotbeds, Trinidad and Guyana don't come to mind right away. But both of those countries figure into the alleged plot to blow up JFK airport, and we're learning more all the time.
CNN's Jim Acosta is in New York. What do we know at this point, Jim?
JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kyra, investigators say the lone U.S. citizen in the group, Russell Defreitas, traveled back and forth from New York to Guyana and Trinidad to plan the airport attack.
And while authorities say the plot never got past the planning stage, it did highlight what could be a new threat in terrorism, in the Caribbean.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ACOSTA (voice-over): Suspects Abdul Kadir, Russell Defreitas, Kareem Ibrahim and Abdel Nur are described by relatives and friends as not the types to execute a terrorist attack on New York's JFK Airport. A friend of Defreitas says the man a law enforcement source accused of being the plot's ringleader just isn't smart enough.
TREVOR WATTS, FRIEND OF RUSSELL DEFREITAS: No. No. Not the Russell I -- not the Russell I knew, you know. You know, he -- talked a lot of garbage sometimes, but now, he's not that type of person.
ACOSTA: The wife of suspect Abdul Kadir, a one-time politician in the Caribbean nation of Guyana, says her husband is a devoted father and grandfather.
ISHA KADIR, WIFE OF ABDUL KADIR: No way at no time we were ever involved in anything of plots of bombing, or any plots against America. We are not -- we are not a part of that. We have family, both of us, family in America.
ACOSTA: But what does impress authorities, they say, is the group's ability to formulate a plot that stretched from New York to the Caribbean to South America.
While Defreitas is a U.S. citizen, he's originally from the South American nation of Guyana, as is one of the other suspects. The other two hail from Trinidad just off the South American coast.
According to investigators, the suspects met in Trinidad to discuss their plans with members of a radical Muslim group called the Jammat al Muslimeen. Also known as JAM, the extremist organization launched an unsuccessful coup attempt in Trinidad in 1990, leaving 24 people dead.
New York police commissioner Ray Kelly says that JFK plot presents a new kind of threat: Caribbean based terrorism.
RAY KELLY, NEW YORK POLICE COMMISSIONER: This particular plot is both similar and different to ones that we've seen in the past. It is different in that it has ties to the Caribbean. And this is an area in which we have growing concern and I think requires a lot more focus.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ACOSTA: And that alleged ringleader, Russell Defreitas, is due back in court on Wednesday. That will happen here in New York, and that will be for a bail hearing -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: All right. Jim Acosta from New York. Thanks, Jim.
ACOSTA: Sure.
HOLMES: And two of those alleged plotters are in custody, in the Caribbean island Trinidad. And CNN's Susan Candiotti is there.
Hello, Susan.
SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, T.J.
The courtroom was absolutely packed shoulder to shoulder this morning for a very brief hearing that lasted less than a half-hour for two of the defendants that are being held on provisional warrants here in Trinidad.
These two suspects, Kareem Ibrahim. He's an imam of a mosque outside of Trinidad. And Abdul Kadir, who is another imam. He hails from Guyana.
Neither man had much to say in court this day. The charges were read in court by the chief magistrate here in Trinidad. And both men were mostly silent, except for the fact one of them at one point answered the judge "Yeah" and was told by the magistrate to have some respect and to reply, "Yes, sir." So that was the tone of the very brief hearing this day.
Attorneys for both men insist that they are innocent; as they put it, far removed from the charges filed here in Trinidad and by U.S. authorities in New York.
According to U.S. court documents, however, these men are very much involved in an alleged terror plot to blow up those fuel lines at JFK. And they had meetings here in Trinidad, according to the criminal complaint that's under file. Meetings in which they were allegedly seeking support by people here, including those that might belong to a mosque that is known for its extreme -- reportedly for its extremist views.
The -- it is called the Tamal al-Musmamim (ph), and it was involved in a 1990 attempted bloody coup here in Trinidad many, many years ago.
At the hearing this date, two dates were set, one for next week. It will be a bail hearing. And then after that, the attorney general here, which is where -- on behalf of the U.S. government must provide additional evidence as to why these men should be extradited to the United States. They have until august 2nd to file that probable cause information which the attorney general here says has a low burden of proof.
Meantime, these men are being held on provisional charges and they were whisked away under tight security. A fourth suspect, Abdel Nur, remains in hiding. FBI agents are on the ground assisting local authorities to try to find him.
Back to you, T.J.
HOLMES: All right. Susan Candiotti for us in Trinidad. Thank you so much, Susan.
PHILLIPS: New words and pictures in the case of two missing U.S. soldiers in Iraq. Insurgents today released a video that appears to show the soldiers' military I.D. cards. An audio track in Arabic makes a grim but unproven reference to the troops' fate.
For more, let's get to CNN's Hala Gorani. She's in Baghdad -- Hala.
HALA GORANI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, hello, Kyra. It is the Islamic State of Iraq, an umbrella group that includes al Qaeda in Iraq, that released this video. CNN has no way of confirming the authenticity of this material at this point.
And as you mentioned, what it shows are still photos of some of the personnel effects and the I.D.s, first of Specialist Alex Jimenez, who's 25 years old, and 19-year-old Private Byron Fouty.
Other personal effects shown in still images in this video. A Visa and Mastercard, $50 in U.S. dollars in cash, as well as Iraqi money. Now, these two soldiers have been missing since their unit was ambushed on May 12, an ambush that killed other soldiers at this point. At this point, though -- this is important to note -- this does not prove whether or not these soldiers are dead or alive. There's no proof of that in the video.
Now, some of those ominous messages that were printed in Arabic over the images of those two soldiers, or their I.D.s, rather. "Bush is the reason for the loss of your prisoners," says one. "And this is the reason why we have decided to announce the death of the soldiers."
Again, this does not prove anything. It just shows, and according to U.S. military officials who have spoken to our Pentagon correspondent, Barbara Starr, that these I.D.s seem to be genuine. It just shows that these items, these personal effects, are in possession of a group that put out this video, Kyra.
PHILLIPS: So Hala, is this going to affect the U.S. military's search in any way for these men?
GORANI: We haven't heard directly on this particular development from the U.S. military. But in previous developments they said this will not affect the search. The search will continue to -- will continue in Iraq, so long as we have not found our two missing soldiers.
And we are awaiting a statement from the military in Baghdad on this latest development. Of course, as soon as that becomes available, we will bring it to you -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Hala Gorani, live from Baghdad. Thanks, Hala.
Fourteen U.S. troops were killed in Iraq over the weekend. An explosion northwest of Baghdad claimed the most lives. Four soldiers died when their vehicle hit a roadside bomb.
A total of 3,493 U.S. military personnel have been killed in Iraq since this war began.
HOLMES: Back to one of our top stories now, that other bizarre twist, one more in the case of the globetrotting TB patient, Andrew Speaker. Of course, caused that international uproar after traveling overseas while infected with a drug resistant form of tuberculosis.
Now a spokesperson at the hospital that's treating Speaker tells CNN Speaker is not contagious. Again, he is not contagious.
And our Ed Lavandera live in Denver with details on this turnabout.
Ed, after all of that, the man is not contagious.
ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, from a public relations standpoint, you have to imagine that Andrew Speaker and his family are very interested to get this news and very -- upbeat about it, considering all of the attacks that they have withstood over the past four or five days because of that trip in May to Europe.
The tests coming back over the weekend, actually the final confirmation expected later today. But Andrew Speaker here has, over the last three days, has undergone a series of what they call sputum tests, which essentially requires him to drink salt water and then cough into a tube and then take samples from inside that tube and look for that TB infection. That's how that works.
Those have come back consecutively negative. In fact, the wording today from the hospital is that he appears to indicate the patient is relatively noncontagious. So that's probably as secure of a wording you're probably going to get from doctors who are treating him.
So what happens to him now, essentially, is the question. We're told by hospital officials here that Andrew Speaker is telling him that he will remain here at this hospital to continue out his treatment here, which doctors have said could take weeks, possibly months to do as he has been put on a series of antibiotics and very strong antibiotics that he will have to be monitored closely to see how his body reacts to them.
So Andrew Speaker telling them, or at leas according to hospital officials here, that he will stay here. But the federally ordered quarantine order was lifted over the weekend. So there isn't as much of the -- there isn't any rules in place that say he has to remain in that room.
And right now hospital officials here in Denver also tell us that they're trying to work out a way of perhaps letting Andrew Speaker either out of his room or even walk the grounds around here, if he feels so compelled to do so. So there -- nothing set in stone just yet.
That's one of things they're trying to figure out, if this news of the contiguousness or the lack of contiguousness, and the federally ordered quarantine order being lifted over the weekend, if that will allow him to leave the room he has been in since he arrived here Thursday morning -- T.J.
HOLMES: All right, Ed. And I want to make sure we got the language there that they released. Relatively noncontagious. Is that the same as not contagious?
LAVANDERA: Yes, probably. I mean, they seem very -- you know, very -- kind of what we've been hearing from these medical types here for several days. So I think it's as strong a language as you're probably going to get in that case. And you know, obviously from his family's standpoint this is probably what they took to mean not contagious in the first place.
HOLMES: All right. Ed Lavandera, breaking down the English for us. Thank you so much, Ed.
And we do want to let people know that our Larry King is going to be speaking with Andrew Speaker and his family coming up on Wednesday evening. We just got that word. Larry King landing that interview now with the Speakers and the whole family there. So make sure you're going to tune in for that on Wednesday night.
PHILLIPS: And we're following developments in the case of those three men in custody in the alleged Kennedy Airport bombing plot. One suspect still on the lam. We're going to get the latest on the search from Trinidad's police commissioner.
HOLMES: Also, we've got this. Spring for a new pair of those hot shoes and you may end up footing the bill from the E.R. The trouble with the heelies.
PHILLIPS: And she's a Hilton, but her latest address is no hotel. You're watching CNN, the most trusted name in news.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Coming up on 1:20 here in the CNN NEWSROOM. Here are three of the stories we are working on.
We're waiting to hear from police in Trinidad at the top of the hour on the urgent search for a terror suspect. Abdul Nur is one of four men accused of plotting to attack New York's JFK Airport by blowing up its fuel supplies.
Three others are in custody, one of those in the U.S., the other in Trinidad. Those two in Trinidad plan to fight extradition.
He sparked worldwide health alert last week, and now a hospital confirms tuberculosis patients Andrew Speaker is not contagious. Relatively noncontagious is what they call it. That's bound to be some welcome news to those people on the two international flights that Speaker traveled on last month.
Also a short time ago, a military judge dropped charges against Canadian Omar Kadir who was one of the youngest detainees at Guantanamo Bay. Kadir was just 15 when he was captured in a 2002 Afghan firefight in which he allegedly killed a U.S. soldier. The judge says he wasn't formally classified as an unlawful enemy combatant under new rules for trying GITMO detainees.
PHILLIPS: More on the indictment now sought after Congressman William Jefferson of Louisiana. You may remember we told you about this story months ago, about finding $90,000 of cash in his freezer. You remember the FBI going into his home.
We are being told now that we are expecting an indictment today against him in this longstanding FBI corruption probe. It actually centered around allegations that he took bribes to promote a high-tech business venture in Africa.
We will let you know as soon as we find out more, possibly an indictment being issued today. We will keep you updated on this case.
HOLMES: Well, they oppose the Iraq war. But do they oppose it strongly enough, loudly enough or consistently enough? That was a big issue in last night's Democratic presidential debate in New Hampshire co-sponsored by CNN. John Edwards accused his rivals of not putting up much of a fight against the recent war funding bill. But his rivals quickly reminded Edwards, saying, "Hey, you voted to authorize the war in 2002."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN EDWARDS (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: They went quietly to the floor of the Senate, cast the right vote. But there is a difference between leadership and legislate.
SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D-IL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think, John, the fact is that I opposed this war there the start. So you're about 4 1/2 years late on leadership on this issue. And I think it's important not to play politics on something that is as critical and as difficult as this.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Well, CNN's Mary Snow and Dana Bash, part of the best political team on television. There they are. We're going to start with Mary in Manchester, New Hampshire.
Of course, Mary, we see the major candidates all the time in the media. Some folks are probably getting sick of seeing them. But we know many of their views. We know some of their plans.
But this debate really marked by some of the second tier candidates, if will you, trying to break out of the pack. Was somebody able to do that?
MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, T.J., yes, it is especially challenging for some of these so-called second-tier candidates to really get noticed.
And one moment being talked about that stood out was when Senator Joe Biden talked about the genocide in Darfur. He was the only candidate on stage last night at the debate to say that he supported military intervention in the form of NATO peacekeepers and also a no- fly zone. And he grew very passionate.
Let's take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOE BIDEN (D-DE), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The reason we have no moral authority is we're not acting. I heard the same argument on Milosevic. I went over there, found out there was genocide going on, came to your husband. I said, "We must act."
Now look, we acted. Not an American was killed. We saved hundreds of thousands of lives. By the time all these guys talk, 50,000 more people are going to be dead. They're going to be dead.
And I'm telling you, I guarantee you, we have the capacity, by setting up a no-fly zone, to shut down the Janjaweed. That's our moral exercise. OBAMA: All of us are doing our part. No one disagrees with the no-fly zone.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SNOW: And New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson also had some forceful answers to some of the questions last night. At one point one of his answers that got noticed was when he was asked about the don't ask, don't tell policy of gays in the military.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. BILL RICHARDSON (D-NM), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I love all this parsing and senatorial courtesy on the one hand. On the other hand, I would get rid of don't ask, don't tell. I voted against it as a congressman. A president has to show leadership.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SNOW: But in talking with several political observers, they say that overall, there was disappointment with Bill Richardson's performance last night, saying that some of his answers were disappointing and that they were not clear enough -- T.J.
HOLMES: All right. Thank you so much. Mary Snow for us today.
And also, politics and faith. Pretty much too hot-button topics that are almost inseparable these days. Three of the Democratic hopefuls are hoping to reach the faithful tonight in a special forum you'll only see on CNN. It's at George Washington University in the nation's capital.
And CNN's Dana Bash is there.
Hello there, Dana.
DANA BASH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, T.J.
And what you're going to see on this stage in Washington tonight is very, very different from what you just heard Mary reporting on, on the debate in New Hampshire last night.
What you're going to hear from Democratic candidates sitting at this table, one after the other, John Edwards, Hillary Clinton, and Barack Obama, is what is behind them on that banner, faith. They are going to be talking about their faith. They're going to be talking about their religion and morality. Something we have -- we really don't hear from Democrats, especially those running for president, in a major event like what we're going to see today.
Now, this is going to be hosted by our own Soledad O'Brien. But it's in conjunction with the Sojourners organization. That was started by a man named Rev. Jim Wallace. He is what he calls -- he calls himself a liberal evangelical.
And his whole purpose, politically, is trying -- to try to get Democrats to talk about their issues, like hunger, like human rights, even the environment, through the prism of religion and faith and values.
Now, this is something that Democrats admit that they have made a political mistake, in not talking enough about this over the past several cycles.
And check out some numbers that show how much they've been hurt with so-called values voters. In 1992 President Bush, first President Bush, got 48 percent of the vote from people who say that they go to religious services about once a week. Bill Clinton got 36 percent.
In 2004, George W. Bush, the current president, of course, got 60 percent of the vote, a lot more than before. While John Kerry just got 38 percent.
So that is something that really -- one of the many pieces of evidence, Democrats look at, and say you know, we really, if we want to expand how well we do, especially in the South, especially in the West, we've got to start talking about our faith and talking about our policies through the prism of our faith and our religion -- T.J.
HOLMES: And Dana, you said thirdly, agree, admitting, yes, this is somewhere we dropped the ball a little bit by not talking about our faith. So how are they going about it now? How are they going about getting that message out without making it look like just politics?
BASH: Well, it's interesting. You know, all of the candidates, at least who are going to be here -- John Edwards, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama -- they all have hired aides within their campaigns to specifically reach out on these issues, on so-called values issues.
What we're going to hear from John Edwards probably tonight is his talk about the fact that he found religion again, if you will, again as a Southern Baptist after his son died in 1996.
And he's going to be talking about his signature issue, which is poverty, again, through the idea of morality and religion. He even has -- will probably repeat what he said to a religious web site, that he believes that Jesus, for example, would be unhappy, appalled at what he sees as selfishness in America.
Now, in terms of Hillary Clinton, we do hear her talking more and more about her faith on the stump. Her husband did it. She's certainly following in his footsteps.
She has talked in interviews, will likely do so tonight, about a reverend who she was close with as a youngster and really kept in touch with and guided her spiritually and politically.
She'll probably talking about teaching religious school and even attending prayer groups on Capitol Hill.
And lastly, Barack Obama perhaps is the most interesting. He is somebody who had schooling in a Muslim and Catholic faith, but he came upon religion in Christianity, through politics and religion, in a church, a well-known church in Chicago.
And he is somebody who probably has been the most outspoken about Democrats dropping the ball and not talking enough about faith in terms of really trying to get voters who Democrats have lost over the past several cycles -- T.J.
HOLMES: And Dana, before we let you go, for folks out there listening to this, I saw the debate last night. Everybody was on stage. Big forum tonight. We've only got three. And these are certainly the top three. Certainly been doing -- coming in one, two, and three, pretty much in a lot of polls.
Why are these the only three we're hearing from tonight on this?
BASH: You know, that's a good question. I actually am not sure if the other candidates were invited. At this point, I know that the top three, like you said, John Edwards, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, were invited.
They have been -- at least I know for sure in the case of Barack Obama and John Edwards -- they have actually been working most closely with the founder of Sojourners, Reverend Jim Wallace. And they've been working, really, for years on these issues.
So this is going to be a chance for them to talk to an audience here and, of course, an audience -- a CNN audience about something that we don't really hear very much from these candidates.
HOLMES: All right. Dana Bash for us. She's got her ticket. She was invited. Good to see you, Dana.
BASH: Thank you.
HOLMES: And again, CNN is your political headquarters. Live tonight Hillary Clinton, John Edwards and Barack Obama taking part in a faith and politics forum there in D.C. That's at 7 Eastern, exclusively on CNN.
And then from New Hampshire the Republican presidential contenders hold debate. That's tomorrow night at 7 Eastern on CNN, home of the best political team on TV.
PHILLIPS: Straight ahead, the alleged plot to attack JFK Airport. Fuel tanks the main target. Could it have really worked? We're going to take a look, straight ahead from the CNN NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR, NEWSROOM: Hello everyone. I'm Kyra Phillips at CNN world headquarters in Atlanta.
TJ HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR, NEWSROOM: And I'm TJ Holmes sitting in today for Don Lemon. The Feds say it was an explosive plot. What kind of damage could these suspects actually have done?
PHILLIPS: We've got details on the plan and the target, JFK international airport. You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.
First, let's get back to Kelli Arena. She's in Washington. She's following this indictment that is supposed to be issued against Congressman William Jefferson of Louisiana. What do we know Kelli?
KELLI ARENA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kyra, what we know is that our sources are telling us that there will be an indictment announced later on today, that we will hear some formal announcement later this afternoon. As you know Kyra, there has been a long running bribery investigation. The allegations are that the congressman was accepting kickbacks from a telecommunications company in Kentucky. Several people have already pled guilty in this investigation. The congressman all along has contended that he's innocent. We do know that there was a search warrant. You are seeing pictures of here in his office and his home. Allegedly law enforcement found $90,000 in cash in the congressman's freezer. No explanation for that this date. We have tried to reach out to the congressman's lawyer, to his staff both here in Washington and in Louisiana. We have not been able to get a comment from either the congressman or his lawyer to this point Kyra. We keep on trying. But we do expect as I said a formal announcement and some more details later on today. That indictment, I'm told, will involve at least a dozen counts, all public corruption counts Kyra.
PHILLIPS: All right, we will check in with you once we hear more. Kelli Arena, thanks.
HOLMES: We have the 411 now on the next big thing from Apple, the release date of the iPhone. Susan Lisovicz at the New York Stock Exchange with all of the digits and the retail price. Susan I'm disappointed because you can't keep up anymore. You got buy a $200, $300 iPod. They keep updating things. You cannot stay current so here we go again.
SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I think there is no coincidence in that, right. A lot of electronics, the price comes down so you just got to keep getting the upgrade. For a lot of people that is the ticket. Apple's combination cell phone, media player and web surfing device will hit shelves on June 29th in case you got to have it. The announcement came in TV commercials the company started running last night. The iPhone unveiled great fanfare back in January by Apple CEO Steve Jobs. Unlike most other cell phones and unlike the iPod, the iPhone will feature a touch sensitive screen with a menu that changes depending on which application is in use and it will set you back a few bucks, $499 for a four gigabyte model and $599 for the eight gig version. You yeah, you probably have to use your plastic on getting this particular version of the new Apple phone.
HOLMES: $600? I just bought the X-box 360 and all that stuff. No, I'm kidding, but $600, that's a lot but it looks cool. Also they probably feeling pretty good about that over at Apple with that launch. But they may not be feeling so good about the results of a new study about online music.
LISOVICZ: This was interesting TJ, doing a search for online tunes might be riskier than searching for pornography at least for your computer. That's according to a study done by computer security firm McAfee. In searches using key words like free music downloads. (INAUDIBLE) and iTunes, 19 percent of sites that came up had spam, spy ware and ad ware associated with them. The second riskiest category was one McAfee called to do online which includes key words like chat and wallpaper. Searching for porn didn't even make the top 10. Only 9 percent of adult websites turned up in those searches were considered risky for the computer.
Turning to the market, shares of Apple up more than 1 percent. Palm is up more than 8 percent. Two formal Apple executives are going there and the company, which has struggled with its trio phone is selling a 25 percent stake to a private equity group. Overall stocks aren't doing much at all. That's just a cautious - the Chinese stock market posted its biggest loss since February. Even bigger tumble, that sell-off sparked a 400 point slide in the Dow industrials, reaction here not nearly as bad. The Dow right now still under a little pressure, just a little, down 13 points. Nasdaq Composite is down just one. In the next hour of NEWSROOM, two big upgrades for business travelers. We will tell you about new ideas from Avis and Virgin Group to travel in style. So even if you don't have the iPhone, you can still travel in style TJ if you want to hear about that.
HOLMES: I'm sure that's going to cost me more, too Susan.
LISOVICZ: Yes it will (INAUDIBLE).
HOLMES: We'll see you again here shortly.
PHILLIPS: They apparently had high hopes for mayhem. What were the chances of success? We are going to take you inside the alleged plot to destroy JFK airport next in the CNN NEWSROOM.
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HOLMES: The alleged plot is foiled. The prosecution begins. Here is what we know right now about the scheme that supposedly targeted JFK in New York. Two suspects, Abdul Kadir and Kareem Ibrahim, plan to fight extradition to the U.S. and apply for bail. They are in custody in the Caribbean island of Trinidad now. Another suspect is in custody in New York and has a bail hearing later this week. Authorities are still looking for number four. They say an informant helped blow the lid off before things got past the planning stages.
PHILLIPS: Target JFK. The allegations are shocking but are they plausible? Could a group described by one official as al Qaeda wannabes turn a major American airport into a fireball? CNN homeland security correspondent Jeanne Meserve takes a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is a fuel tank fire at Denver's airport in 1990. It is spectacular but confined. If the plotters hoped to cause a chain reaction of massive explosions and destroy JFK international airport, expert opinion is split on whether the scenario would succeed. Breaching the thick steel side of a tank would take several pounds of plastic explosives, experts say. According to the criminal complaint, the plotters talked about dynamite.
VOICE OF JAKE MAGISH, SIGAM ENGINEERING: Even if they are successful in making a tank fail, and you get 100,000 gallons of jet fuel gushing out, and you're about to ignite it, it is emotional. It's dramatic, but the tank next to the tank that's gushing and spilling fuel isn't going to fail.
MESERVE: This schematic shows a system of underground pipes which carries fuel directly to gates and to aircraft like the one at JFK but much smaller. One government aviation official says at JFK, those pipes sometimes contain vapor and an explosion at a fuel tank could trigger other explosions in the pipes spreading destruction throughout the airport, perhaps even to aircraft at the gate. John Goglia disagrees.
JOHN GOGLIA, FMR NTSB MEMBER: To have that happen would be extremely, extremely unlikely.
MESERVE: Goglia investigated the crash of TWA flight 800 which was brought down by an explosion in its fuel tank. Investigators found it very hard to find a mix of jet fuel, heat, vapor and oxygen that would explode. So Goglia is skeptical the plot was viable.
GOGLIA: You couldn't control or count on having vapor in those pipes from the tank, the supply tanks, the fuel farm (ph), to the gates. Just no way you could get that done.
MESERVE: So opinion about the feasibility of the plot could not be more split. On one hand a government aviation official says it could have shut down JFK for some time. On the other, an expert calls it a mission impossible scenario. Jeanne Meserve, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: Coming up, new developments on that TB patient Andrew Speaker. Why is the hospital treating him now say he's not contagious or relatively not contagious or something. You confused? Join the club. That's straight ahead. You're watching the NEWSROOM.
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PHILLIPS: How does someone infected with TB, especially the virulent kind, become relatively non-contagious? Medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen here with some answers. We asked you to come up here because there has been this back and forth on whether Andrew Speaker is contagious or not. There is a little bit of language barrier going on here.
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Language barrier between Denver and Atlanta. I don't know.
PHILLIPS: Where's the problem? COHEN: I just got off the phone with the personal physician moments ago. He explained this to me. This is Dr. Charles Daly (ph) at Nat. Jewish hospital in Denver. He said look, there's a continuum of contiguousness. You can be extremely contagious or not at all contagious. Andrew Speaker is neither one of those. He is, on the spectrum, he has a very, very low level of risk that he is going to get someone else sick. His level of contiguousness is very, very low, but it is not zero. Again, his doctor made it very clear, his level of contiguousness is very, very low but it is not zero.
I said, doctor, if a patient like Andrew Speaker with extremely drug resistant TB walked into your hospital today and had the same test results as Andrew Speaker, would you let him get on an airplane and he said absolutely not. Again, the risk of him getting anyone sick is very low. But you wouldn't want to put someone with extensively drug resistant tuberculosis on an airplane to Europe. There is a small but real risk that he could get someone sick.
PHILLIPS: Meanwhile, they are still trying to figure out what antibiotics are the right ones for him. There's still the question that he might have to have surgery and have part of his lung taken out. Correct? They still don't know exactly how his treatment is going to be or how it -- or if it's going to be effective.
COHEN: Correct. The way you try to treat TB is that someone is diagnosed as he was in January and you give them a set of antibiotics that all TB patients get and you hope that they work. When they don't work, you have drug resistant tuberculosis. When another set of drugs don't work and sometimes another set of drugs don't work, you have what's called extensively drug resistant tuberculosis which is what Andrew speaker has. And that's why they are so nervous about him. He's not very contagious. The chances he's going to give to it someone else are very low. But still he has got a big, bad, horrible disease. So you don't want to put him next to someone on an airplane.
PHILLIPS: We will continue to follow up on his treatment and condition. Thanks, Elizabeth.
Wednesday night Andrew speaker, his wife, and family are going to join Larry King, 9:00 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN.
HOLMES: Eighteen years after the fall of the Berlin wall, there is a distinct chill in the air between Russia and the U.S. Details on a relationship that's in a bit of trouble. That's next in the NEWSROOM.
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HOLMES: The remnants of tropical system that was Barry have brought a mess of rain up and down the east coast. Thunderstorms forecast across the country today. Jacqui Jeras all over for us. Hello there.
JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Hey, TJ, yeah a really raw day across the northeast because of what's left of Barry. It is bringing in the rain and the temperatures are really cool, only like 58 degrees right now in Boston so kind of dreary, tough for traveling around, kind of a good day to stay inside. There you can see the rain continuing to come down. Some of the rainfall totals have been kind of on the hefty side, a couple of inches. We had some flash flooding issues in New York City earlier this morning, that rain now pulling out of there but becoming very heavy right now and into the Boston area. So we are going to see some good downpours, could see a good half an inch plus per hour as this heavier band starts to lift that up to the north and we will watch for some improving conditions, we think here.
Really by the evening hour even, if you are trying to travel through the airport, it is going to be rough here. We've got some pretty hefty delays. Chicago O'Hare right now, you got some thunderstorms, too. You've got ground stops. Nobody is moving around until 1:30 local time. Boston, Logan, more than an hour here, also more an hour at JFK, la Guardia and down towards Newark and hour and 20 minutes, so pack in that patience along with you. How much rain have we seen from the remnants of Barry, thus far New York City, 3 3/4 inches. Wakefield, Virginia, just over 2 1/2 inches, 2 1/2 also in Newark, DC at pushing two there and about 1 1/2 in Philadelphia and of course some of that rain is still coming down.
On top of what you already have in the next 48 hours, everywhere you see this green, that's where we are expecting to see an additional inch of rain. So parts of upstate New York and you head up into New Hampshire on up into parts of Maine, we are looking at an additional two inches on top of what you already have. You guys are just kind of getting started here. Elsewhere across the country, we are kind of warm and sticky across parts of the southeast. A few pop-up showers and thunderstorms here along the Gulf coast. We are watching an area now between Houston and New Orleans for the potential of a watch being issued here. Some isolated super cell thunderstorms are possible here, some few tornadoes and maybe some damaging winds. Also central parts of Texas will be worried about some severe weather.
Now later in the week, we're real concerned guys about a system pulling in the Pacific Northwest right now. This is going to be gaining some strength and it's heading towards the nation's midsection. We think we can have a very significant outbreak of severe weather across much of the upper Midwest Wednesday and then spreading eastward through the great lakes on Thursday and Friday.
HOLMES: We got a busy week. You got a busy week.
JERAS: Trying to relax today.
HOLMES: All right, Jacqui. Thank you so much.
PHILLIPS: We have been telling you this morning about Federal prosecutors seeking an indictment on Congressman William Jefferson. We are being told now that they got it. You may remember the long standing FBI corruption probe that centered on allegations that the congressman had taken bribes to promote a high-tech business venture in Africa and you remember when they raided his home here, they found $90,000 in the freezer. And it has been an ongoing investigation. We are told now the Federal prosecutors got the indictment just moments ago. Our Kelli Arena will bring us more on this. We are expecting a Justice Department news conference about 3:30 Eastern time. We will take it as soon as it happens.
And the man known to some as Dr. Death is out of prison and talking about what he might do next. Tonight he will be Larry King's guest right here on CNN. Dr. Jack Kevorkian got out prison Friday after spending eight years behind bars. He was convicted for helping a terminally ill man die in 1998. On Friday I spoke with his former attorney about whether he thought Kevorkian would kill again.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: You helped him with his legal circle and talked to his attorneys. You have communication with him. You truly believe and has he said to you, I'm out of jail, I am going to be on parole, but if a patient comes to me and says Dr. Kevorkian, I need your help, I want to die, he's going to say yes to that patient. That's what you are telling me?
GEOFFREY FEIGER, FMR. KEVORKIAN ATTORNEY: By the way, all of the people around him are people that I put around him, his attorney, his -- people he lives with, his physician. It is not a question of him telling me that. It is a question of me knowing him as well or better than anybody else. He's committed. He's not a liar. He said he wouldn't do it. He's going to keep his promise, I imagine, during the next two years. But he's absolutely committed to his patients. I know Jack Kevorkian. He's not going to let the opposition forces beat him. He just isn't going to let him do it.
PHILLIPS: So you're saying, while on parole, he has been told not to do it, you say on parole he's not going to do it, but after that he will go forward and help whatever patient wants or comes to him for help?
FEIGER: Not whatever patient. He has a strict criteria. If he's still the same Jack Kevorkian that I knew for 10 years before he went to prison, nobody was going to tell him what to do.
PHILLIPS: He will help them die.
FEIGER: Of course if he's still the same Jack Kevorkian and I don't think he changed after age 70.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: What are Kevorkian's plans? You are going to find out tonight as he appears on "Larry King Live." That's 9:00 Eastern only on CNN and Larry has another interview this week that you won't want to miss, TB patient Andrew speaker and his family live on Larry King's show, Wednesday night 9:00 Eastern time.
HOLMES: Doing time. Paris Hilton behind bars.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PARIS HILTON: I'm really scared. I'm ready to do this. I hope that I'm an example to other young when they make decisions.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: She is changing her life. She wants --
PHILLIPS: That's who I want to be a role model for my daughter.
HOLMES: She is changing and she is trying to set a good example now from her not so simple life.
PHILLIPS: Her upgraded self.
HOLMES: That is ahead in the NEWSROOM Kyra.
PHILLIPS: All right, but first as we head to break, let's take something a little more seriously here. Look at the big board stock market right now, Dow industrials down 14 points. We'll have more in a moment. You're watching CNN, the most trusted name in news.
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