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At Least 200 Dead in Brazil Plane Crash; All-Nighter on Iraq; Did Drugs Drive Chris Benoit to Kill?
Aired July 18, 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 I'm Heidi Collins.
Good morning, everybody.
Watch events com into the NEWSROOM live on Wednesday morning. It is July 18th.
Here's what's on the rundown now.
Two hundred people believed dead in a hellish scene. An airliner skids of a runway and into a building. Did shoddy construction play a role?
HARRIS: Sleep senators. Democrats trying to advance an Iraq troop withdrawal measure this morning. The vote after an all-nighter.
COLLINS: An alleged dog fighting ring, is it a career ender for a star quarterback?
Michael Vick indicted -- in the NEWSROOM.
Anguish and anger in Brazil right now. Rescue workers say at least 200 people are dead in a plane crash at the country's busiest airport.
This morning, questions about the airplane's location in the heart of a crowded Sao Paulo city about the condition of the runway, as well.
We want to go ahead and turn to Miles O'Brien, our chief technology and environment correspondent, and, of course, a licensed pilot as well.
Miles, nice to have you with us.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN CHIEF TECHNOLOGY AND ENVIRONMENT CORRESPONDENT: Good to be here, Heidi.
COLLINS: The first thing we should probably talk about, as we mentioned in the lead-in here, is the location of that airport. It is just surrounded by buildings and residential areas, and right in the heart of the city.
O'BRIEN: Well, this airport was built in 1919. Imagine...
COLLINS: Really?
O'BRIEN: ... what that was like then. First of all, airplanes did not need nearly as much space. Secondly, there was a lot of space available to them.
The city of Sao Paulo, 11 million people, the most populous city in the southern hemisphere, grew up around it and hemmed it in. Take a look at what we're looking at as we go down in our Google Map technology, and we'll show you about Congonhas Airport, which is kind of like, if you've been to Chicago, the Midway Airport of Sao Paulo.
COLLINS: Right.
O'BRIEN: Take a look at this runway and you'll get a sense of what I'm talking about.
Right at the very limits -- hopefully that Google map will resolve -- there you go. Right at the very limits of the capability.
This is the runway they were landing on. The distance down that runway is 6,300 feet.
Now, I've checked the charts, I factored in a rainy day, which it was. And that Airbus A320 had just enough space if everything went according to plan.
Things did not go according to plan, as we know, of course. And the crash site ended up right here in this location. Ironically, a building owned by that very same airline.
Now, take a look at what it's like to fly into this airport. We found a couple of videos posted on YouTube.
This is actually an Airbus A320 coming down to the same airport from the other direction. This is coming from the North, landing south. But take a look at all the skyscrapers. It's a city kind of like the New York of South America.
COLLINS: It looks like it.
O'BRIEN: Tons of skyscrapers. Very densely populated. And this airport kind of pops out almost like as if you put an airport in Central Park in New York City. And so, pilots there refer to it as the aircraft carrier, which gives you a sense of...
COLLINS: Sure. You've got to come in and flat.
O'BRIEN: Short. You want to get it down, get it down on time.
Take a look at what it would have been like yesterday. There's another YouTube video which shows a 737 coming in during bad weather conditions. Now, we had -- there was a low ceiling yesterday. There was a lot of rain. Take a look. You can see right here, that's actually rain on their radar inside the airplane there as they come in.
And as you look out, you can see with the low clouds there, they had -- sort of had visibility which was clearly very limited. And in the case of a rainy day, as we saw yesterday in Sao Paulo, you would have had a very slick runway.
Now normally, all these tables that they refer to, the pilots would refer to, would assume that the runway has grooves in it.
COLLINS: Which a lot of people probably don't know about.
O'BRIEN: Yes. I mean, you night notice them on the highway.
Take a look at this. These were designed by NASA in the '60s at Langley Field in Virginia.
What we are talking about are little grooves in the pavement that go this direction, perpendicular to the length of the runway, and it allows water to shed off and not pool as much. This runway had been recently resurfaced. They're waiting for it to cure enough to groove it.
And I saw -- there were no notifications that I saw on the notices to airmen which they have for all airports indicating that this was a problem. Now, these pilots might or might not have known about it, but nevertheless, it was a serious problem.
COLLINS: Yes. Well, I wonder whose responsibility that is, to make sure that the grooves are done? I mean, is that the airport themselves? You would think.
O'BRIEN: The airport should have notified pilots, at the very least, that this runway was a lot slicker than normal.
COLLINS: Yes, absolutely. Like hydroplaning.
O'BRIEN: Yes, exactly.
COLLINS: All right. Miles O'Brien, thanks so much for that. Appreciate it.
HARRIS: And new this morning, the U.S. military announces the arrest of a senior leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq. He is described as a key link between the terrorist group's Iraq network and senior al Qaeda leaders, including Osama bin Laden. He was arrested earlier this month in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRIG. GEN. KEVIN J. BERGNER, SPOKESMAN, MULTINATIONAL FORCE, IRAQ: On the Fourth of July, coalition forces captured a terrorist named Khalid Abdul Fatah Da'ud Mahmud Al Mashadani, also known as Abu Shahed (ph). Mashadani is believed to be the most senior Iraqi in the Al Qaeda in Iraq network. He is a close associate of Abu Ayyub al- Masri, the Egyptian-born head of Al Qaeda in Iraq.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: Officials say Al Mashadani has shed light on al Qaeda's operations in Iraq. He remains in coalition custody.
The Senate pulls an all-nighter over pulling troops from Iraq. In about two hours, a vote to end the debate. Democrats expected to come up short.
Live now to Capital Hill and Congressional Correspondent Dana Bash.
Dana, good morning to you.
What happened while most Americans were getting some -- getting their sleep on last night?
DANA BASH, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think maybe I can start answering that question by showing you some new video that we shot at early, early this morning, at about 5:00 in the morning, and that is video of cots, the much-talked-about cots that Democrats brought in. And there you see it, essentially for senators who were expected to be here all night to sleep.
You see a little bit of evidence that perhaps somebody was there. We understand that freshman senator Bob Casey was there. But look at the rest, not slept in. And there's probably -- part of the reason for that is that most senators, Tony, actually went home.
The Senate majority leader had threatened that he was going to hold roll call votes to keep attendance. Roll call votes at 2:00, 3:00, 4:00 in the morning, but he didn't do that, in part because he was asked not to by Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer, who said, please, just give us a few hours of sleep.
And instead, so what happened is there was a vote at about midnight, and then not another one until 5:00 in the morning. As the sun was coming up, there you see that's when we saw senators start to shuffle their way back into the Senate to, you know, again meet and to continue the debate.
But it is important to note, Tony, that despite the fact that there weren't votes, there was continuous debate. The lights were on all night long, and senators were speaking about Iraq. And star power did not dictate what kind of speaking slot they got.
John McCain was on the floor for quite some time. There you see him. That was probably around 4:00 this morning. He was followed, there you see, by kind of a bleary-eyed Senator Hillary Clinton, also speaking about Iraq. And it was quite substantive when you really listened to it, if anybody was up in the middle of the night to actually listen to what these senators were talking about when it comes to the pros and cons of staying or leaving Iraq.
HARRIS: You need to, I guess, TiVo some C-SPAN to catch it a little later.
So, Dana, I've got to ask you, the overnight drama, will it make any real difference? For example, what's going to happen later this morning with the Levin-Reed amendment?
BASH: No, it's not going to make a difference. Despite all of the theater, there really isn't a lot of drama, Tony. And what we're going to see in this vote, the goal the Democrats had with this all- night vote was to pressure Republicans who have been much more vocal about their opposition to the current strategy. But from what we hear, and what we're -- just from talking to Republican senators, it seems to maybe have backfired.
For example, one senator -- excuse me, our lights just went off. Listen to Senator Susan Collins of Maine from the Senate floor earlier today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. SUSAN COLLINS (R), MAINE: We are not moving forward, Madame President. We have got to put aside such a fractious political approach to such a grave crisis. We need to work together in a bipartisan way.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BASH: So it has been a long night, as you probably can hear and see here in the Capitol. But the lights are still on and the debate is continuing. But the long and the short answer to your question, Tony, is that when that vote takes place in a couple of hours on the Democrats' deadline for troops to come home, it is not expected to pass, despite everything that we saw overnight here.
HARRIS: And good work kicking in the generator. They used up all the juice last night.
BASH: Exactly.
HARRIS: Dana Bash.
Dana, thanks.
So what is a future of U.S. -- the U.S. troops, the U.S. role in Iraq? Insight from the co-chairman of the Iraq Study Group, Lee Hamilton, live next hour right here in the NEWSROOM.
COLLINS: A star football player facing federal charges and accusations of horrific brutality. NFL quarterback Michael Vick and three others accused of running a dog fighting operation out of his Virginia property.
Among the gruesome accusations, Vick took part in killing dogs that were not ferocious enough. Methods of execution: drowning, hanging, even electrocution. Vick could face prison and possibly an end to his record-shattering career. NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy had to this to say: "The activities alleged are cruel, degrading and illegal. Michael Vick's guilt has not yet been proven, and we believe that all concerned should allow the legal process to determine the facts."
HARRIS: Manhunt over. Suspect found dead.
The search for a military trained marksman ends in a rugged area of Wyoming. David Munis was wanted in the sniper shooting of his wife. Police say he shot her from the parking lot of a Cheyenne restaurant. She was singing with her band inside. Three days later, a tip led authorities to David Munis.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SHERIFF JIM POND, ALBANY COUNTY, WYOMING: A ranch hand had discovered him in a real small trailer house on a remote area of a ranch north of Laramie, called a sheriff's office. His officers responding to meet with him and arrest him, to get to him. Before they could get to him he had shot himself.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: David and Robin Munis had been separated for a few weeks. In addition to her music career, Robin Munis had started a program to help people with developmental disabilities and brain injuries. She leaves four children behind.
(WEATHER REPORT)
COLLINS: And meanwhile, some of those flood victims getting a place to stay now thanks to FEMA. Happening today in northeastern Oklahoma, those FEMA trailers just sitting there empty in Hope, Arkansas -- they were originally intended to house Hurricane Katrina victims -- some of them finally put to good use.
Flooding earlier this month forced hundreds of people out of their homes in Miami, Oklahoma. The City Council has suspended its restrictions on mobile home use. So now displaced residents have a place to stay while their homes are being fixed up.
HARRIS: And still to come in the NEWSROOM this morning, none of the above. It is the popular choice in a GOP presidential poll. Plenty of candidates. Why isn't someone catching fire?
COLLINS: Drug test results are in for wrestler Chris Benoit. Did investigators find out what drove Benoit to kill his family and himself?
HARRIS: Shot by police in the chaos of Hurricane Katrina.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It almost seems like he was standing right behind him when he fired. How could he be in the car and shoot somebody in the back? (END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: CNN's Drew Griffin investigates.
COLLINS: So, what's this contraption and this one? And check this doohickey on wheels. You'd think it was an alien invasion or something.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Some awkward stares. You know, not too many know what's going on. They've kind of wondered what the car was all about and what it is.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: That includes us. The great race if the sun shines.
We'll tell you about it coming up in the NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: Toxicology results are in for Chris Benoit. Did steroids play a role in the deaths of the pro-wrestler and his family? Probably don't quite have that answer yet, but we want to bring in CNN Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen now to ask some more questions about this.
They found a lot in those blood tests.
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: They did find a lot. It was amazing the list of drugs.
So sad. And while we'll never be able to say the drugs absolutely made this crime, this horrible event happen, it certainly gives one pause. Let's look first at testosterone.
Huge amounts found. Testosterone is expressed as a ratio -- testosterone, epitestosterone. The ratio that's normal is 6 to 1. In Benoit's body, what was found was 59 to 1.
That is a huge, huge difference.
Also found in his body, evidence that he had taken Xanax and Hydrocodone, which a lot of people know better as Vicodin, with have effects on the mood all their own, as if all that testosterone was not enough.
COLLINS: Good lord. I didn't realize it was that much. Unbelievable.
What about his wife and son? What was found there?
COHEN: They also found drugs in their body. Not testosterone, but they found other drugs in their body. In his wife Nancy's body, they found also evidence of Xanax and Hydrocodone. And in his son's body, this is perhaps the hardest to hear, they found that he had been given Xanax. And they believe that he was sedated shortly before he was killed.
COLLINS: I think that's what really draws people into this story, too, is that little boy. And you see the video of him kissing his daddy in the ring. It's just -- it's just heartbreaking. It really is.
COHEN: It's so hard to understand.
COLLINS: No question.
Is there any indication at this point, though, where Benoit may have gotten all these drugs?
COHEN: Well, certainly his doctor has been a person of interest...
COLLINS: Right.
COHEN: ... or even more for law enforcement officials, Dr. Phil Astin. Law enforcement officials say that he was illegally distributing drugs like Xanax and Hydrocodone -- again, a drug that many people know better as Vicodin. They also say that he was giving 10 months of testosterone to Benoit every three to four weeks. Ten months' worth every three to four weeks. So that's a lot of testosterone.
COLLINS: Yes. I think we're going to be following this one for a while.
COHEN: That's right. Absolutely.
COLLINS: And the effects of it, too.
All right. Elizabeth Cohen, thanks so much.
COHEN: Thanks.
HARRIS: Many candidates, little passion. Voters showing a bad case of apathy in new presidential polling.
CNN's Bill Schneider reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, CNN SR. POLITICAL ANALYST (voice over): What's happening in the Republican presidential race? The Associates Press and Ipsos just polled Republicans nationwide. The leading Republican contender? None of the above.
New Hampshire voters have front-row seats for this campaign. They have seen the candidates up close and more often than voters anywhere else. In the CNN-WMUR poll, only 15 percent of New Hampshire Republicans say they're very satisfied with their presidential field, compared with 32 percent of New Hampshire Democrats. Among Granite State Republicans, John McCain's support has dropped from 20 to 12 percent. Mitt Romney, who's well known in New Hampshire because he was the governor of neighboring Massachusetts, is now the frontrunner.
McCain won New Hampshire in 2000. And he's relying on New Hampshire to save him in 2008.
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R-AZ), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We'll win in the same way we almost won in 2000.
SCHNEIDER: But he's slipping in New Hampshire.
LORENZO MORRIS, HOWARD UNIVERSITY: The ideological position is the support for the war, the support for immigration reform, as well as a failure to have new financing initiatives, leaves him stuck in 2000 history.
SCHNEIDER: McCain hopes the immigration controversy is also history. "I think the immigration issue is off the front burner," he told "The Politico". "I lost. The other side won. It's over."
What's happening with New Hampshire Democrats? Hillary Clinton is still ahead, but Barack Obama's a strong second, followed by Bill Richardson and John Edwards.
Talk about the party of change, the top three Democrats in New Hampshire are a woman, an African-American, and a Latino.
Clinton has a big lead over Obama among registered Democrats in New Hampshire. Obama's support is coming from Independents, where he and Clinton are nearly tied.
Bill Schneider, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARRIS: And just another reminder. We are still accepting questions for next week's Democratic debate. Legitimate questions.
Some of you whack jobs out there are sending in -- well, anyway, just go to cnn.com/youtubedebates, and tonight join Paula Zahn with more of your video questions as we count down to the debate.
Again, that's tonight and every night this week, 8:00 p.m., right here on CNN.
COLLINS: Did you say whack jobs?
HARRIS: Whack jobs. You should see some of this, Heidi.
COLLINS: Well, he is facing serious criminal charges this morning. Will dog fighting allegations keep a star quarterback off the field this season? More about Michael Vick coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(WEATHER REPORT)
HARRIS: One of the NFL's biggest stars, wow, facing felony charges. This was a thunderbolt yesterday.
Michael Vick could go to prison if convicted in an alleged dog fighting ring.
Larry Smith of CNN Sports is with us now.
I mean, really, a thunderbolt when this news broke yesterday afternoon. And you look at some of the allegations -- why don't you talk people through if they're just getting this news, the serious charges Michael Vick is facing here after months of denials, by the way.
LARRY SMITH, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Well, keep in mind, too, that last April, when this first came out and they first began looking at his property, he was saying, well, this is -- you know, it's not me, it's my family. They're staying there. I'm trying to take care of them and I'm taking the brunt of this and it's not my fault.
And this is the first time that Michael Vick -- actually, our font's wrong -- not Vick Michael, but Michael Vick.
HARRIS: Yes.
SMITH: But it's -- yes. But hey, whatever. It doesn't matter. Trust me, the federal government, they know which one...
HARRIS: They know -- they know his name, yes.
SMITH: Yes, there's no question.
But, you know, he faces up to six years in prison if he is convicted. He and three other men convicted of basically running a dog fighting ring on property that he bought in Virginia. There's a picture of it there in 2001, which is the year of his rookie year in the NFL.
HARRIS: Wow. The accusations that Vick took part in killing dogs...
SMITH: Yes.
HARRIS: ... that weren't ferocious enough -- methods of execution: drowning, hanging, even electrocution. Back up half a step.
Michael Vick is claiming that this is a property that, yes, I purchased, but for family members, that I never really spent much time there. He's not saying that "I never was there."
SMITH: Well, what he was -- he saying he wasn't there when all of this was going on. That's what he said back in April, when all this first came to light. But what this now -- this 18-page indictment that has come now from the federal grand jury with these charges, is now saying that he was there.
There are three witnesses -- eyewitnesses giving accounts of him being there. One story in the indictment from March of 2003 that one of the other men also charged consulted with Vick after one of the dogs lost. After that consultation, the other man went and executed that dog after it lost.
That same night after another loss, Michael Vick -- again, according to the 18-page indictment -- went into his truck and pulled out a book bag with $23,000 to pay off his losses of that night. So, while he said he wasn't there, we now have this that he was there.
HARRIS: All allegations that have to be proven in court.
SMITH: Yes.
HARRIS: We understand that.
SMITH: Right.
HARRIS: How much does Michael Vick make a year as one of the marquee players in the National Football League?
SMITH: Well, in December of 2004, he signed a 10-year, $130 million contract that I believe only Peyton Manning of the Indianapolis Colts has a richer contract in the NFL. That's the issue.
If he is cut -- and certainly in paragraph 11 of the standard player's contract in the NFL, the Atlanta Falcons have a reason to cut him -- he would lose then about $70 million in additional money that he is still owed of the contract. However, that probably is not going to happen because of the salary cap ramifications. And very briefly...
HARRIS: Yes. Yes.
SMITH: ... it's $37 million.
HARRIS: Because I don't understand all of this -- OK. All right.
SMITH: Yes. And here's how it happens.
HARRIS: All right.
SMITH: The salary -- any money you get as a signing bonus in the NFL, it is prorated over the length of that deal.
HARRIS: Got you. SMITH: So I believe his was $37 million...
HARRIS: Right.
SMITH: ... which means over 10 years there's a $3.7 million hit on every year you've got to pay if you cut that player. All that money that has not been accounted for yet under the contract, then comes due.
HARRIS: Right.
Here's the only point I'm making. This is a -- this is a highly- compensated athlete, and you wonder if at the end of the day this is going to be a situation where Michael Vick could not separate himself from some of the -- some of the elements of his growing up years, of his youth, and those we're talking about -- I'm talking about, anyway -- friends, as well as family, perhaps.
Still to be determined down the road.
Larry, great to see you.
SMITH: Good seeing you.
HARRIS: It's a troubling story.
SMITH: Well, it's a difficult, complicated story.
HARRIS: But you have seen this pattern before with athletes, where they haven't been able to cut the associations to friends.
SMITH: That's happened -- it's happened before. And unfortunately for Michael Vick, this is not the first thing he has been involved in. It's just the most serious.
HARRIS: And then there's that side of the story.
SMITH: And that's another -- that's for next time we talk.
HARRIS: Exactly. Larry, great to see you.
SMITH: Good to see you.
HARRIS: Good to see you.
Coming up on the bottom of the hour.
Welcome back, everyone, to the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Tony Harris.
COLLINS: And I'm Heidi Collins.
Anguish and anger in Brazil right now. Rescue workers say at least 200 people are dead in a plane crash at that country's busiest airport. This morning, questions about the airport's location in the heart of crowded Sao Paulo and about the condition of the runway. Crews still pulling victims from the wreckage. Brazil's president calling for three days of mourning to honor those lost in the crash.
HARRIS: We missed the opening bell by just moments. I asked too many questions of Larry.
Oh, I hate when I do that. All right, because we love to hear the bell live. So let's get the business started. How high will the Dow go today?
Well, the Dow starts at 13,971 after picking up 20 points yesterday and setting a new intraday high above 14,000 and then falling back a bit.
Susan Lisovicz following all of the developments in business news in the NEWSROOM throughout the morning for us.
COLLINS: Japan's radioactive leak after earthquakes this week worse than first believed and raising the question, could it happen here?
FREDERICK PLEITGEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Frederick Pleitgen in Baghdad, where U.S. forces say they've arrested a senior member of Al Qaeda in Iraq.
More on that in the NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: A senior Al Qaeda in Iraq leader in custody. That announcement from the U.S. military this morning. The suspect described as a link between the top leaders of Al Qaeda and Al Qaeda in Iraq.
CNN's Frederik Pleitgen is joining us live from Baghdad -- Frederik, what else do we know about this individual?
PLEITGEN: You're absolutely right, Heidi, Khalid al-Mashadani is supposed to be, U.S. forces say, the most senior Iraqi inside Al Qaeda in Iraq.
Now, apparently this man was captured on July 4th in the town of Mosul, which is north of Iraq. And the U.S. forces say he is talking to them and apparently he's saying some very interesting things, saying that there are very strong ties between Al Qaeda in Iraq and Al Qaeda outside of Iraq. That's, of course, bin Laden's organization. They're saying that Al Qaeda outside of Iraq is providing strategic leadership, is providing message control and is also controlling the flow of foreign fighters into Iraq.
Now, here's what the U.S. forces had to say about that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He served as the Al Qaeda media leader for Baghdad and then was appointed the media amir for all of Iraq. He served as an intermediary between Al Qaeda leader Al-Masri, Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri. (END VIDEO CLIP)
PLEITGEN: Now, another very interesting thing that he's supposed to have said is that Al Qaeda in Iraq is very much an organization that is led almost completely by foreign fighters, by Egyptians and also by Saudis. And one of the things, apparently, that Al Qaeda in Iraq is doing to sort of cover it up, to sort of make it seem more like it is an Iraqi organization, is it created a fictitious figure, a man by the name of Omar al-Bagdadi. And this person simply doesn't exist. They apparently even hired an actor to make it look like this organization is more Iraqi than it actually is -- Heidi.
COLLINS: Frederik, any idea -- are the commanders saying anything about how this will change the structure, by getting someone so high up the chain as this man?
PLEITGEN: Well, certainly, it does disrupt Al Qaeda leadership here in Iraq. Apparently, this man was very, very close to the senior Al Qaeda leaders, to leaders like Abu Al-Masri, who is, of course, the leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq. So this is a very heavy blow to them.
Now, in the past, we have seen that Al Qaeda, when some of their leaders have been killed or captured, have been able to fill those gaps fairly quickly. But right now -- and this is also something that U.S. forces to have to say -- apparently the increased troop presence of U.S. troops in Baghdad and their increased operations has Al Qaeda somewhat on the run, has them somewhat off balance. And apparently this man -- this man who is detained now said that he had to flee Baghdad because U.S. troops are conducting those operations. He had to flee to Mosul, where then he was captured.
So it does appear that U.S. forces are disrupting Al Qaeda leadership in this country, at least somewhat -- Heidi.
COLLINS: All right.
CNN's Frederik Pleitgen from Baghdad this morning.
Thank you, Frederik.
HARRIS: Let's get another check of weather now.
Chad Myers in the Weather Center.
(WEATHER REPORT)
COLLINS: Word from Japan today -- a radiation leak at the world's biggest nuclear power plant worse than thought. Officials now saying 400 barrels of low level radioactive waste were knocked over in Monday's quake.
The company first said 100 barrels had overturned. Also, more radioactive water leaked into the Sea of Japan than first reported. The company says the leaks are still well below danger levels. The facility has been ordered to shut down until safety issues are resolved and the head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency is calling for a thorough probe.
HARRIS: So here's the question -- could a radioactive leak like the one in Japan happen U.S. earthquake zones?
CNN's Dan Simon takes a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: (voice-over): The images vivid enough to prompt fears across the ocean. Some in the U.S. now questioning whether nuclear facilities here could be this vulnerable to earthquakes.
MARYLIA KELLEY, TRI-VALLEY CARES: I can't overstate how concerned I am that there will be nuclear material in the environment in the event of a major earthquake.
SIMON: Just east of San Francisco lies the Lawrence Livermore National Lab. It stores more than 1,000 pounds of weapons grade plutonium. One watchdog group believes the site poses a deadly risk in the event of a large earthquake. Seven million people live within a 50 mile radius.
KELLEY: These finally divided particles of plutonium could drift on the wind. They would be available to be breathed in or respirated by the people around Livermore here in the Bay Area.
SIMON: A lab spokesperson dismissed those concerns saying, "Our facilities where we store nuclear materials meet or exceed current seismic standards. We have had no health or safety problems with our nuclear materials in the past during or after any earthquakes."
Similarly, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission says the nation's nuclear power plants are safe and even earthquake-proof. The Diablo Canyon and San Onofre plants in California both sit near active fault lines. Federal authorities say both were designed specifically to withstand severe earthquakes and would not have leaked like the one in Japan.
DALE KLEIN, NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION: In turns out, Dan, that the earthquake design includes both the reactor, as well as auxiliary components, such as the spent fuel pools. These are designed to handle situations exactly like those that occurred in Japan.
SIMON: (on camera): But officials concede nothing is absolutely 100 percent. As we saw in Japan, which was a U.S. designed facility, even the safeguards don't always hold up.
Dan Simon, CNN, Berkeley, California.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
COLLINS: What is that? Does anyone know?
HARRIS: Huh?
COLLINS: It's a funky sort of contraption.
HARRIS: (LAUGHTER).
COLLINS: And this one is sort of a doohickey, isn't it? Maybe it's an alien invasion.
HARRIS: It could be. It could be.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Some awkward stares, you know?
Not too many people know what's going on. And they've kind of wondered what the car was all about and what it is.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: Well, clearly it's solar power of some kind.
HARRIS: Yes.
COLLINS: And I love the glasses, too.
We'll you about this great race -- if the sun shines, of course, in just a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: Chaos after Katrina -- New Orleans' police kill a man outside the convention center. Police say it was self-defense. An autopsy raises questions this morning.
CNN's Drew Griffin reports.
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DREW GRIFFIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: (voice-over): Two years ago, Danny Brumfield's body was left lying in the street outside the New Orleans Convention Center, shot to death by police in the confusion and chaos after Hurricane Katrina. Police called it a justifiable shooting in self-defense.
But was it?
That week, Danny Brumfield had chopped a hole in his roof so his family could escape the rising floodwaters. On a highway overpass, he kept trying to stop patrol cars for help. He wound up at the convention center ...
UNIDENTIFIED NEW ORLEANS RESIDENT: We want help! We want help!
GRIFFIN: -- where thousands worried about food, water and their safety.
AFRICA BRUMFIELD, NIECE: We were listening to a lot of women yell for help. There was rumors of rapes taking place. And from the way the women were screaming, it sounded like those rumors were true.
GRIFFIN: Late at night, his family says, Brumfield stepped into the street to try to flag down a police car. But their version of what happened is different from the official version.
(on camera): According to the police report, a black man came out of nowhere from the convention center. He had something shiny in his right hand and was waving at the police as they approached in the patrol car. When they came up, the man actually jumped on the windshield and was trying to swing what turned out to be a pair of scissors in his right hand at the officer in this seat. That officer pulled out a shotgun and shot Danny Brumfield, killing him.
For two years now, that has been the only story we have gotten from the police.
CNN sued for the autopsy results of Danny Brumfield. And it turns out Danny Brumfield did die of a single gunshot wound -- to his back.
(voice-over): This is the autopsy report released under court order.
We showed it to the attorney for Brumfield's family.
ROBERT JENKINS, BRUMFIELD FAMILY LAWYER: This is absolutely amazing.
GRIFFIN: He had never seen it before.
JENKINS: It says the single shotgun wound to the left back.
GRIFFIN: (on camera): He was shot in the back.
JENKINS: Yes. Yes. It doesn't fit.
GRIFFIN: (voice-over): There is no dispute Brumfield had a pair of scissors. He had been cutting up cardboard boxes to sleep on outside. His daughter woke up at the final moment.
SHAUNTAN BRUMFIELD, DAUGHTER: Then I heard the screech of some tires. When I raised my head up, it was my dad on the car and then the gunshot and him laying on the ground.
GRIFFIN: Yet the autopsy report shows almost no downward trajectory when the police officer fired the fatal shot. And that troubles the Brumfield lawyer.
JENKINS: It almost seemed like he was right standing right behind him when he fired.
How could he be in the car and shoot somebody in the back?
GRIFFIN: We wanted to ask the officer, who since has been fired from the police force for unrelated reasons. He now works at this strip club, where we tried to contact him. He did not respond.
Keeping them honest, we did ask the district attorney, Eddie Jordan. He investigated this shooting and cleared the officer.
EDDIE JORDAN, DISTRICT ATTORNEY: We believe that in this instance that the police officers were truthful and credible and therefore this was a justifiable homicide.
GRIFFIN: Jordan said, in his view, there was no question Brumfield acted aggressively toward the two officers in the patrol car.
(on camera): But that doesn't seem to match, no matter how we could figure it out, a man laying on the hood of a car swinging with either hand and then being shot in the back.
JORDAN: I suspect that he was moving around as the car continued forward and he was shot in connection with the movement of the vehicle and his movement as he tried to get into the right hand side of the vehicle.
GRIFFIN: (voice-over): Brumfield was the first of two people shot in the back and killed by police that weekend after Hurricane Katrina. A grand jury has indicted seven policemen on murder and other charges after an apparent shootout at another location, the Danziger Bridge (ph) the next day.
Among the dead, Ronald Madison, an unarmed retarded man, who also was killed by a shotgun blast to the back, as shown in the first autopsy report uncovered by CNN in its lawsuit a year ago.
In Danny Brumfield's case at the convention center, the two police officers are the only known eyewitnesses to the actual shooting. District Attorney Jordan said he lacks the evidence to go further.
JORDAN: The only question that is raised here is -- is how Mr. Brumfield was shot in his back. And I don't believe that that autopsy alone is sufficient to create a situation where we would -- where we would be able to carry our burden of proof.
GRIFFIN: Unless some new witness is found, the death of Danny Brumfield, shot in the back, will remain a justifiable homicide.
Drew Griffin, CNN, New Orleans.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
HARRIS: Man, what a story.
Still to come in THE NEWSROOM this morning, the military says they can save soldiers' lives if -- a big if -- the Army can get them into Iraq. The battle to bring more blast-resistant vehicles to the front lines.
COLLINS: Solar cars -- high school teens charged up about saving energy and the environment.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Global warming, pollution and such, it's going to affect us later on. So we need to take a stand and -- and find alternative energy sources.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: One draw back -- your trip might depend on the weather forecast. We'll tell you about it in just a minute.
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HARRIS: So you know we're -- podcasting later today. We want you to be there. No excuses will be accepted. No notes, no ...
COLLINS: You're doing it today?
HARRIS: Yes, yes, we're doing it today. Absolutely. Aren't we? You're going to be here, aren't you?
COLLINS: Yes.
HARRIS: Well, I need you here. OK?
COLLINS: I'm going to play along.
HARRIS: So we will, of course, be covering the top stories of the day. The Michael Vick story -- we'll be talking about that one for weeks. And that high value Al Qaeda in Iraq operative captured by coalition forces. That's great news, of course.
And then we'll do some different things, maybe get in some of those whacky YouTube questions from you nut jobs out there just for a little fun. Those whacky ones will not be a part of the actual YouTube debate on Monday, just to let you know.
COLLINS: (INAUDIBLE).
HARRIS: So we're podcasting -- what, what, what, Heidi?
COLLINS: They were funny.
HARRIS: Yes, well, they were pretty funny. So be there, 24-7. Download it, cnn.com, today.
COLLINS: And now the solar challenge. High school students from around the country racing their hand built cars.
Tracy Walter reports.
She's with affiliate KLTV in Tyler, Texas.
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TRACY WALTER, KLTV CORRESPONDENT: (voice-over): It may look more like a spaceship than any car you see out on the road, but don't be fooled because this solar car may just be pulling up next to you. TOM RUGGIERO, JR. NEWBURGH, NY: They've got some awkward stares, you know?
Not too many people know what's going on and they've kind of wondered what the car was all about and what it is.
WALTER: It's a car that runs solely on the sun's rays.
LEIGH SPRINGER, HOUSTON, MISSISSIPPI: Whenever the sun hits the array, which is solar cells, it generates energy to run out motor. And then if it's kind of cloudy, then we just run off the energy stored in our battery bank.
WALTER: These high schoolers are competing in a nine day race, driving the solar cars more than 2,000 miles from Round Rock, Texas, to Newburgh, New York.
DR. LEHMAN MARKS, DELL-WINSTON SCHOOL SOLAR CAR CHALLENGE: And at the end of the nine days, the team that's able to acquire the most miles over those days is declared the winner.
WALTER: The team from Houston, Mississippi let me test theirs out. They told me this thing can go up to 78 miles per hour.
(on camera): Hello, KLTV.
(voice-over): But I didn't want to push my luck in a parking lot following a cop.
(on camera): OK. I don't want to wreck this thing.
(voice-over): All fun aside, the students say they do it to raise awareness about the importance of solar energy.
RUGGIERO: Our generation is becoming more and more aware of the effects of global warming, pollution and such, and it's going to affect us later on. So we need to take a stand and find alternative energy sources and put them to use.
WALTER: And if this car is the wave of the future, then a lot of these Texans I spoke with say they'll be looking out for it.
STAR LOCKE, ATTENDEE: That would be a lot cheaper to drive than having to pull over and get gas all the time.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
COLLINS: Yes. That's true.
HARRIS: Yes.
COLLINS: The teams plan to roll into New York next Tuesday. And, of course, a lot of cloudy days could possibly change that.
HARRIS: Yes.
COLLINS: We'll watch it.
HARRIS: Well, you know, they talked and talked about Iraq all night long. Now a bunch of sleepy Senators trying to advance another troop withdrawal measure.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
SHAUN SQUIRE: My first reaction was holy cow, how come I didn't hear about this?
ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: That's I-Reporter Shaun Squire (ph) documenting a powerful storm in Central Florida that damaged several homes and structures.
SQUIRE:. I heard a couple of loud noises on the back door and I opened my blinds and one of my trees was basically coming apart and slamming into my house. I got more damage from this storm than I got from the hurricane.
MARCIANO: The storm also caught visitors at Sea World by surprise. Alicia Dallah (ph) took these pictures after the storm flooded the amusement park.
High winds also damaged many homes in nearby neighborhoods.
And you can check out these and other I-Reports at our Web site, cnn.com.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
COLLINS:. Good morning, everybody.
I'm Heidi Collins.
HARRIS:. And I'm Tony Harris.
Stay informed all day in the CNN NEWSROOM.
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