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American Morning
BP Seals Oil Well in Gulf of Mexico; Pan Am Bomber Still Alive; Pentagon Demanding WikiLeaks Take Down Leaked Documents From Web Site; Testing Used to Examine Seafood in Gulf; Is Gulf Seafood Safe?; Careful with Facebook Friends Like This; Cleaner, Greener Grand Isle; Homegrown Terror Threat; My Toughest Opponent; Pan-Am Bomber's Flawed Release
Aired August 06, 2010 - 07:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Thanks so much for joining us on the Most News in the Morning. It's Friday. It's the 6th of August. I'm John Roberts. Thanks for being with us.
RANDI KAYE, CNN ANCHOR: You're celebrating it is Friday.
ROBERTS: Well, that was a good feeling. You know, there's a certain effort of essence to the day.
KAYE: It's a busy Friday. Lots to talk about this morning on this Friday.
When he was released, we were told he was going home to die. Twelve months later. convicted Pan-Am bomber Abdelbaset Al Megrahi is still alive with his family in Libya.
This morning, a new report says the team of specialists treating him never said he only had three months to live and there was just one doctor making the diagnosis behind the decision that has outraged America.
ROBERTS: The military wants its secret files back. The Pentagon is demanding Wikileaks turn over all the documents it has in its possession on the war in Afghanistan.
Top military brass have suggested that people responsible for the leak are already guilty of murder. We're live at the Pentagon with the latest on the investigation.
KAYE: And cemented shut. Big news on the Gulf Coast this morning, 205 million gallons later, the source of the Gulf oil leak appears to be dead this morning.
BP says static kill is a success and ahead of schedule. But we could be looking at many years before all the evidence of this disaster is actually gone.
ROBERTS: Up first this morning, though, an explosive report on the controversial release of Pan Am bomber Abdulbasset al Megrahi, sources telling the "Wall Street Journal" that there was no consensus among the specialists who were treating his prostate cancer that he only had three months to live.
Instead, that determination came from one doctor running Scotland's prison health service. One doctor is apparently all it took to get al Megrahi freed on humanitarian grounds last August. The convicted terrorist killed 270 people on that Pan Am flight 103 22 years ago.
Right now al Megrahi is home in Libya with his family still alive 12 months after that prison doctor concluded that he had hree months or less left to live.
KAYE: Our homeland security correspondent Jeanne Meserve is tracking these new developments for us and joins us live from D.C. this morning. Good morning, Jeanne.
JEANNE MERSERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: This is undoubtedly going to fan the flames of what has become quite a controversy over al Megrahi's release. He was of course the only person convicted in connection with the Lockerbie bombing, a horrific act of terrorism which claimed many lives, many of them American lives.
At the time of his release last summer on compassionate grounds by the Scottish government, there was displeasure, strong displeasure, announced by the U.S. government and the families of victims.
Since that time, the name BP has cropped up. There are members of the Senate who want to investigation whether or not the decision to free him might have had some tie to an oil exploration deal that BP wanted to execute with Libya. BP, the Scottish government, and the British government have all denied any connection, but the Senate wants to know a lot more about that.
Undoubtedly this report will fuel their anger and in addition to the fact that this man is still alive, although projections were he's going to be dead in three months. Back to you, Randi.
ROBERTS: Another story you're following this morning, a major terror arrest here in the United States and ties to Somalia. What's it all about, Jeanne?
MESERVE: Right -- 14 people were named yesterday when indictments were unsealed by the Department of Justice, 12 of them are individuals who are alleged to be in Somalia fighting for al Shabab, which a U.S.-designated terrorist group.
The most interesting amongst them probably Omar Hamami. Omar Hamami was born and raised in Alabama, a Baptist. He converted, his father was Syrian and was a Muslim. And he converted to Islam, went over to Somalia and allegedly has become a propagandist for al Shabab, trying to recruit others from the U.S. to come and fight.
But two people were arrested in Minnesota, they were women. The government alleges they were trying to raise money for al Shabab, sometimes in face-to-face meetings, but also through teleconferences. And the government says that these women sometimes misled their donors, telling them the money would be used to help the poor rather than to fund al Shabab.
ROBERTS: Jeanne Meserve in Washington this morning, thanks.
Now to the latest developments in the Gulf of Mexico, and the words that millions living and working along the Gulf coast have waited 109 days to hear -- the well is finally cemented shut. BP says it finished pouring cement down the well yesterday afternoon on top of 2,300 barrels of heavy drilling mud to force the oil back down into the formations deep beneath the ocean floor.
The man overseeing operations in the Gulf, Admiral Thad Allen, called it, quote, "a significant milestone."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ADM. THAD ALLEN, NATIONAL INCIDENT COMMANDER: This is not the end, but it will virtually assure us that there will be no chance of oil leaking into the environment.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Allen says BP is still drilling two relief wells to make sure that this thing stays dead. But the long-term clean-up effort, the effects of the oil that ran on unchecked for months, are another story. The federal government's on-scene coordinator says tar balls may be washing ashore for years.
The oil has stopped. A lot of what did leak out is gone, but still so many boats are tied down. In 15 minutes we'll talk to John Stein of NOAA's food inspection program about how safe it is to eat gulf seafood.
(WEATHER BREAK)
ROBERTS: The military waiting to hear from WikiLeaks this morning after demanding the group turn over all the documents it has on the war in Afghanistan.
KAYE: The website released over 90,000 secret military files online, secrets the military has said that could get people killed. Barbara Starr is live for us at the Pentagon this morning. Good morning, Barbara.
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Randi and John. Think of it this way -- the Pentagon is saying give it back, it's ours. Prosecuting spokesman Jeff Morrell making the demand right from the podium. Have a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JEFF MORRELL, PENTAGON SPOKESMAN: I think we've made very clear and explicit demands. There wasn't any offer of anything exchanged. We are asking them to do the right thing. We are asking them to return stolen property and to no longer publish stolen property.
(END VIDEO CLIP) STARR: They want -- the Pentagon wants WikiLeaks to return all of the tens of thousands of documents they have posted on their Web site. Take it down from the website, erase it. But is this really feasible in once something's on the Internet around the world? Can it really be reined back in?
We've talked to a lot of legal experts who say this could be very problematic for the Pentagon that there are there are few legal options that the U.S. government can really pursue because WikiLeaks, to a large extent, is located -- its capability, its site, its people located outside of the United States.
But here's what's really going on. Behind the scenes, there are these other 15,000 documents that have not yet appeared. That's what the Pentagon is really going after. They don't want those to appear anywhere on the Internet, especially on WikiLeaks.
The concern is growing about security that there are names on these documents, tactics, techniques, procedures that the military uses in Afghanistan, that this will be a deadly roadmap for insurgents to follow. John, Randi?
KAYE: It really is amazing, though, how differently the two sides see this, because WikiLeaks has said, we looked at these, we edited them, we made sure that we didn't put anybody at risk. But that's certainly not how the government sees it and the Pentagon sees it.
STARR: Absolutely. They couldn't be further apart. Of course the government's position is -- and remains that this is stolen property and WikiLeaks is in no position, they would tell you, to decide what's safe to put on the internet about the U.S. military and what is not.
ROBERTS: Barbara Starr for us this morning, thanks so much.
So seafood from the Gulf of Mexico, is it really safe? Does it pass the smell test? We'll talk with the man who should know from NOAA coming right up. It's nine minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: It's 11 minutes after the hour. By nearly all accounts, the biggest oil spill is in history is winding down, the well now cemented shut. The government says nearly all of the oil is gone, collected, dissolved, or dispersed. About 26 percent of it is left out there somewhere.
BP as you can see, a large area of the Gulf is still closed to fishing and there are lingering concerns about the impact the oil and dispersants that were put on top of it have on the fish that we eat.
Here to help us understand what's being done to protect us, live from Pascagoula, Mississippi, is John Stein, deputy science director with NOAA's Food Inspection Program. John, great to see you this morning.
So some government experts and other experts told a Senate panel on Wednesday that the dispersants and concentrations they were being used in the Gulf are not affecting shrimp and fish but can we be certain that as these things make their way up the food chain and they tend to -- chemicals tend to concentrate as the life cycle goes further up the food chain, can we be guaranteed that these are not going to get into concentrations that might be toxic to humans?
JOHN STEIN, DEPUTY SCIENCE DIRECTOR, NOAA: Yes, we can. We have NOAA, FDA, the Gulf states and EPA have worked together to set up a very comprehensive program to do some very intense testing of seafood here in the Gulf to ensure that no tainted seafood will get into the marketplace.
ROBERTS: One of the things that you're doing is called the sensory test. You might call it the sniff test or the smell test. Can you explain what that is and why people should be assured that the seafood is safe through this process?
STEIN: That test is something -- to start out with, it is a test that's used broadly in the food industry to detect odors or tainted product. And we're using it here in the Gulf as a very sensitive test to detect the presence of oil and dispersant mixtures that could be in fish or shellfish.
And the test can detect oil down to one part per million, a very low level. And it involves a three-tiered approach. The individual smells the uncooked seafood. The seafood is then cooked and it is smelled again. And then they take a small taste, they don't swallow it, to ensure that there's no odor in any form.
And if there is any odor that is related to petroleum, then that sample will fail and if it fails, then we're not able to reopen an area.
ROBERTS: OK, so you've got a group of people who have very sensitive noses, very attuned to this stuff smelling the seafood products, but you still don't have a chemical test to detect dispersants in the tissue. When will that be ready, and without that test, can people really be confident?
STEIN: First, I'd like to say that the program has three tiers. First the oil must -- cannot be present in the environment where seafood is harvested. Then we conduct a sensory test and seafood must pass that sensory test. And then we conduct a chemical test for hydrocarbons, key constituents in oil that are of health concern to human health. So those tests -- and it must pass that chemistry test as well.
On the dispersant side, what NOAA has done and EPA has been monitoring waters of the Gulf, we collected nearly 2,200 samples, and only in two samples have we detected dispersant, and it was very close to the wellhead. So dispersant has not been found in any area that we're considering for re-opening seafood. So we have that piece of information. We also know from the chemical properties that dispersants do not accumulate to significant levels into the (INAUDIBLE) of seafood. Therefore the exposure risk for humans to dispersants is low.
Nonetheless, out of an abundance of caution we are developing and working on a test to detect chemically dispersants in tissues. It's under way, and we're making good progress.
ROBERTS: Right. And how soon do you think that that test will be ready?
STEIN: We hope in the very near future it could be -- it will be ready.
ROBERTS: Now there's an issue of trust, John, that's involved here. People remember well after 9/11 and the twin towers came crashing down that the EPA, government agency in charge of the environment, came out and said the air at Ground Zero is safe.
And it wasn't until years later that we found that we'd been intentionally misled about that. So when people look to the government for assurances that things are safe, how do we know that you're really telling the truth and that it's just not spin?
STEIN: I think because we're constantly out there testing, we're working with people, we're trying to get the message out and I think a real key part is that we won't go in to open an area until the oil is gone.
The oil has to be gone. It cannot be present. There cannot be any risk that it could get re-oiled. And if that did happen we have to go back. So I think -- and the level of testing is unprecedented to ensure that seafood does not get into the marketplace because we know what an impact it has been on the fishing community in this area.
And we want to make sure that the seafood they are still harvesting right now outside those closed areas we are confident it's safe and that they -- that the public will know it's safe and not -- and buy the seafood that's real healthy for all of us.
ROBERTS: But there's an interesting disconnect in all of this. The other day we had Carol Browner from the White House on saying, I'm looking forward to going down to the Gulf of Mexico and eating seafood from some of the areas that are re-opened.
But at the same time we have people who work the waters, fishermen, in Louisiana who are saying, I'm not so sure I'd eat it. So what's responsible for that disconnect?
STEIN: There's always public concern. This has been a very big event and it's difficult to always get all the information out to everyone. In another interview I did, I had one person that was very concerned.
And another person mentioned that she was buying all the seafood she could because she thought that the government was being more vigilant now than at any time to inspect the seafood.
And we do have a very comprehensive program in there and I'm confident that it will catch any seafood that would be tainted and will not allow it to get into the marketplace.
ROBERTS: All right, well, we're counting on you, John Stein from NOAA. Good to talk to you this morning. Thanks so much for joining us.
STEIN: Thank you.
ROBERTS: Randi?
KAYE: County officials in Portland, Oregon cracking down on one undocumented business selling to the public. A little girl's lemonade stand. Yes, it's true. You're going to have to see this one to believe it. It is 18 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KAYE: It's 7:21. Welcome back to the "Most News in the Morning." "Minding Your Business" now.
Target says it's sorry. The retail giant is apologizing for donating money backing a candidate who opposes same-sex marriage. Target turns out contributed $150,000 to the group MN Forward which supports Minnesota's Tom Emmer in the state's Republican gubernatorial primary.
Target's CEO says the company remains, quote, "fully committed to fostering an environment that supports and respects the rights and beliefs of all individuals."
ROBERTS: And here is one of those stories that's going to leave you shaking your head. County health inspectors in Portland, Oregon shut down one entrepreneur's new business because she didn't apply for the necessary permit. The entrepreneur was a 7-year-old girl selling lemonade.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARIA FIFE, DAUGHTER'S LEMONADE STAND SHUT DOWN: We didn't have a vending license. And apparently it costs $120 and I didn't -- didn't know about that. So $120 to sell 50-cent cups of lemonade.
They're going to look into changing it so that, you know, little 7- and 8-year-old kids can have their lemonade stands and don't have to worry about being shut down by the government.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: As the little girl's mom said, county officials are looking into fixing this problem. The county chair also telephoned the family to apologize.
KAYE: A vending license to sell lemonade? Really? ROBERTS: Do you ever read Phillip K. Howard's book "The Death of Common Sense"?
(LAUGHTER)
ROBERTS: That could be a whole chapter.
KAYE: That could be -- the first chapter in it. That really is something. That poor little girl, though. She learned a big lesson, I bet.
ROBERTS: Bureaucracy gone mad.
KAYE: She's going to go into politics, change it all.
(LAUGHTER)
KAYE: No more vending licenses, ever.
ROBERTS: I sure hope this hasn't killed her entrepreneurial spirit.
KAYE: Yes, I hope not. But I mean, if you think about it, $110 for the vending license, those aren't very good odds for making any profit there.
ROBERTS: Hopefully she'll say -- and go out there and really make a name for herself.
KAYE: Yes. You bet. It's good advertising anyway for her little lemonade stand.
Well, you may think you're just updating your Facebook status but you may be telling a crook, I'm not home. Rob mania, a cautionary tale coming up next. It is 23 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Country music is just the perfect thing to launch you into the weekend, is it?
KAYE: Great (INAUDIBLE).
ROBERTS: Top stories just minutes away here. But first, an "AM Original," a story that may make you think twice before you send that next tweet or update your Facebook status.
KAYE: It sure will. When you go on vacation or head out with friends on a Saturday and share that info online with your friends and family, telling them all where you're going and when you're going, you could also be telling someone, hey, I'm not home.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KAYE (on camera): You're watching a burglary in progress. What the bad guys don't know is that a security camera inside this Indiana home is recording their every move. Even when they get this close. The camera's blinking red light goes unnoticed.
On the night of the break-in, Keri McMullen did what she'd done hundreds of times before. She posted a Facebook status update from her cell phone. She and her fiance, Kurt Pendleton, were going out for the night to see a band.
"Heading to the Hill with Kurt to see Fire Department." She wrote at 5:46 p.m. Within hours, Keri's sense of security would be shattered.
KERI MCMULLEN, ROBBED BECAUSE OF FACEBOOK STATUS UPDATE: You never think it's going to happen to you. And when it does, you know anything can happen to you.
KAYE: At about 8:45 p.m., March 20th, about 45 minutes after Kurt locked the doors that night, these guys busted in.
(On camera): In a stroke of luck, Keri and Kurt had just set up security cameras in their home six days before the break-in. One outside and one right here in the living room. In fact, the very same camera recording me right now captured the bad guys on videotape, too.
(Voice-over): When they returned home that night, what they saw on their security camera tape stunned them. They watched as the burglars tore their 50-inch plasma TV right off the wall.
KURT PENDLETON, KERI'S FIANCE: You can see him just manhandle it, just rip it right off the wall with all the drywall falling down.
KAYE (on camera): And that night did you watch this together?
PENDLETON: Yes. Several times.
(CROSSTALK)
KAYE: Were you stunned?
MCMULLEN: It's violating.
KAYE (on camera): Keri and Kurt reported the break-in but did their own police work, too. They posted snapshots of the suspects from the video on Keri's Facebook page. Within hours another Facebook friend recognized one of the suspects.
PENDLETON: Someone contacted Keri and said, I know who that is and so do you. He's on one of your friends.
KAYE: That's right. One of the men on the tape, Keri says, is her Facebook friend, Sean South. Police have charged him and the other suspect with a felony. Both are still on the run.
Keri says she and South were childhood friends. She's known him since she was 7.
(On camera): You didn't recognize him. Or did you? MCMULLEN: I did not. I've not seen him in 15 -- 15 to 20 years. Once I went into his page and office pictures, I started looking, then I mean it's the same posture that -- it's definitely him.
KAYE: Floyd County Sheriff Darryl Mills says South faces criminal charges in at least 25 other cases in his county, including burglary, battery, and stolen property. He says people need to be more cautious.
SHERIFF DARRELL MILLS, FLOYD COUNTY, INDIANA: You don't know who all is looking at your private information there because it's really not private if you're on Facebook. You're posting it for everyone.
KAYE (on camera): One Internet security expert told me updating your status on any social networking site before you go out for the night or on vacation is as good as leaving a key behind for the burglars.
In Keri and Kurt's case, all the suspect had to do was call the bar she said she was going to and find out what time the band was coming on. Then police say they knew what time would be safe to break in.
MCMULLEN: It was kind of sad that someone I trusted enough to put on my page, you know, would take advantage of me like that.
KAYE (voice-over): Before it was over, the burglars had stolen about $11,000 worth of goods. Keri would have de-friended Sean South she says, but after the burglary he deleted his Facebook profile.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KAYE: No surprise there, right? He took himself right off Facebook. But Keri actually says she doesn't -- she doesn't blame Facebook. She thinks it was her own --
ROBERTS: I just -- I don't --
KAYE: -- naivete that caused it.
ROBERTS: I don't understand the desire from some people to share so much about their lives.
KAYE: This right here can cause a lot of problems, whether you do it on the computer. Just don't do it.
ROBERTS: Maybe can you turn it to your advantage, though. If you're going away for the weekend, loving my own pet Bengal Tiger, I gave it its own room.
KAYE: Well, now when she posts any status updates, she posts it when she gets back out from a night out or a vacation. That's when she does it. So --
ROBERTS: Why do you even have to do that?
KAYE: People want to know, John.
ROBERTS: That's just kind of TMI, don't you think?
KAYE: It's what's happening. It's what we do now.
ROBERTS: All right.
KAYE: You just befriended a bunch of people. What hundreds, probably. You don't even know who they are.
ROBERTS: Well, just because there was a whole list of them. I want to get rid of the list.
KAYE: Right but then you don't do the status update.
ROBERTS: No. I never tell people my status.
KAYE: Right now, they know where you are.
ROBERTS: Damn. I got to figure out how to get around that.
KAYE: See? They know where you are every day, Monday through Friday. Right here.
ROBERTS: Half past the hour. Time for this morning's top stories.
Federal prosecutors call it a deadly pipeline. 14 people, half of them Americans, accused of giving aid to the enemy. The Somali- based militant group, Al Shabab, which has strong ties to Al Qaeda. In just a few minuets, we'll talk with two terror experts about the significance of the indictments.
KAYE: The Pentagon ordering WikiLeaks to give back stolen property. It is demanding the web site return leaked documents on the war in Afghanistan and delete any copies. Earlier on AMERICAN MORNING, we spoke to Tony Blankley, Newt Gingrich's former press secretary who says WikiLeaks may be guilty of a crime punishable by death.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TONY BLANKLEY, CONSERVATIVE COLUMNIST: During World War II, we prosecuted and executed people for espionage. This is as serious a crime as can be committed against a government. American troops either have or are going to be killed. Our young men and women who volunteered to defend the country are going to be killed because of secrets that were released by this man.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KAYE: WikiLeaks' founder, Julian Assange, has said his web site has another 15,000 documents that it wants to publish but is redacting information that could put lives in danger.
ROBERTS: Grammy winner Wyclef Jean made it official last night on "Larry King Live," he is going to run for the presidency of Haiti.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WYCLEF JEAN, HAITIAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, after January 12th, I would say over 50 percent of the population is the youth population. And we suffered for over 200 years. Now that our country has toppled, it is a chance to rebuild from the bottom on up and I don't even say I'm trying to be president. I'm being drafted by the youth of Haiti.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Wyclef moved to the United States from Haiti when he was just nine years old. In the aftermath of the devastating earthquake there, Jean helped collect bodies from the streets and also raised money for the relief effort.
KAYE: This morning, along the Gulf coast it looks like the worst may be behind folks there. BP says the well that leaked 205 million gallons of oil is cemented shut.
ROBERTS: Finally. And while the clean-up effort could take years, some areas are rebounding a lot more quickly than first expected. And they may have some really, really small clean-up workers to thank for it.
David Mattingly takes us on a trip over the marshlands this morning.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Barataria Bay was among the first and worst hit areas in Louisiana when the oil started coming ashore. You'd never know it looking at it now.
(on camera): I'm only seeing an occasional piece of sheen out here. Is that all there is now?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is it.
MATTINGLY (voice-over): This is my second trip over the Gulf in less than two weeks with federal clean-up coordinator Rear Admiral Paul Zukunft. He says the Gulf's oil eating microbes are working twice as fast as predicted. Oil that was expected to linger for a month is gone in half the time.
REAR ADMIRAL PAUL ZUKUNFT, FEDERAL CLEAN-UP COORDINATOR: So what we are seeing is a very rapid biodegradation of this oil. Faster than what you expected. Certainly, we were prepared and of course, we are prepared for the worst. But now in three weeks when the NOAA trajectory shows little to no oil in the surface, we were expecting to see more than what we see right now.
MATTINGLY: What we do see are marshes growing back fresh green grass and flocks of feeding pelicans, all signs of an ecosystem on the rebound. (on camera): Did you ever think you would fly out over this bay again and see this water this clean?
CHIEF AUBREY "T. BLACK" CHAISSON, GRAND ISLE FIRE CHIEF: No. I thought we would have problems for years. But actually --
MATTINGLY: I'm amazed. This is the first time I've seen it in probably over a month. I can't believe it.
(voice-over): Getting the public to believe it is a challenge for the Coast Guard and local officials like Grand Isle fire chief T. Black Chaisson.
(on camera): Are you still struggling with that question though, where did the oil go?
CHAISSON: Yes, we have a lot of people that ask that question. And I think our next challenge is to educate the public. We just need to educate them.
MATTINGLY: Where do you think it went?
CHAISSON: I actually believe that, you know, when you disperse it, mother nature takes its course. Microorganisms eat it up. It breaks down. Mother nature takes care of itself.
Mattingly (voice-over): But no one is prepared to drop their guard. Federal reports indicate there's still potentially over a million barrels of oil still unseen and in the environment. Its long- term effect on these seemingly resilient ecosystems is unknown.
David Mattingly, CNN, Grand Isle, Louisiana.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: All right. So they're not finding a lot of oil there in Barataria Bay. So where is it? Because we hear from the government that some 26 percent of it is still out there somewhere. Right?
KAYE: Yes, that's what they're saying but some people can find it and some people can't apparently.
ROBERTS: Well, Ed Lavandera goes on a fact finding mission to see if it truly is all gone.
KAYE: We're also going to talk terror. The U.S. government arrested 14 linked to the Somali terror group Al Shabab yesterday and we want to know how much of a threat they were to not only folks in Somalia, but also here in the U.S. as well. So we'll talk about that with the experts.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KAYE: 39 minutes after the hour now. It is the new face of terror. The Justice Department bringing charges against 14 people, most of them U.S. citizens, for allegedly providing money and recruits to Al Shabab, a terrorist group based in Somalia.
Joining us now to talk about the home grown terror threat from Washington, CNN national security contributor Fran Townsend and Daveed Gartenstein-Ross. He is the director for the Center for the Study of Radicalization at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. Good to see you both.
Fran, let's start with you. Big picture here. Looking at the war on terror, how significant would you say these charges are?
FRAN TOWNSEND, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CONTRIBUTOR: Well, what we're seeing now, Randi, is remember after the Christmas day bombing when John Brennan, the president's Homeland Security advisor, came out and said, you know, we thought Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula just had local ambitions. Well, that's what we would have said about Al Shabab. But clearly the president, John Brennan from statements they've made have been really worried about Somalis here in America traveling over to Somalia to fight.
Of course, that represents a threat here at home because once they have fought in one of these conflicts, you run the risk that they're going to come back especially if they're young with no prior history of connections to terrorism or Al Qaeda, that they'll more freely be able to cross our borders.
KAYE: Absolutely. And Daveed, really when you think about that they're going there to train and support Al Shabab, how much of a threat was this group of 14 who were just indicted and how worried should we be about them?
DAVEED GARTENSTEIN-ROSS, DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF TERRORIST RADICALIZATION: How much of a threat this group was I think we don't really have a good handle on that. We know that some people had gone over to Somalia and had trained there. A couple of guys I think are clearly threats. Those are the two individuals who were indicted who right now are playing a combat role within Somalia, including (INAUDIBLE) from Alabama.
I agree with Fran Townsend that Al Shabab is a threat to the United States, not only because people are receiving training but also because Al Shabab, some of its key leaders have expressed their sympathy and allegiance to Al Qaeda's global jihadist vision, including its opposition to the United States. But people who are part of the Al Shabab fund-raising network, there are people who should be arrested but they don't necessarily pose an immediate threat to carrying out attacks inside the homeland.
KAYE: And Fran, it certainly seems as though Al Shabab is looking to grow. Last month was the first time Al Shabab claimed responsibility for bombings outside the borders of Somalia. That was of course the World Cup bombings in Uganda where 76 people were killed. I mean, is an attack on U.S. soil coming?
TOWNSEND: Well, I think that there is certainly the likelihood of an attack on U.S. soil. It is not clear if that will be from Al Shabab or another Al Qaeda affiliate, but we've seen, you know, the Times Square attempt, the Christmas day attempt. We see Al Awlaki recruiting people like the Ft. Hood shooter to conduct attacks inside the U.S..
And so clearly big Al Qaeda is determined to try and launch an attack here inside the United States. Al Shabab just represents one of the many arms that they may use to do that.
KAYE: And Daveed, Minnesota has seen at least 20 young Somalian men disappear. They've gone over to Somalia to support Al Shabab. Help me get inside their head. What are they looking for? Why would they leave the United States to go and support this terrorist group?
GARTENSTEIN-ROSS: One of the things that's at the top of the list when people talk about the Somalis who have gone over, it is not just a U.S. phenomenon. You have this happening in Canada, Britain, European countries, Australia as well, is nationalist sentiments.
A lot of the people who end up going over, they might have been born in Somalia but they don't have much of a memory of Somalia. Other than a mythologized sense of homeland. They don't necessarily fit well in the western counties where they grew up. And so there is an identity crisis, something which is a big factor in radicalization in a number of different cases. Coupled with this nationalist sentiment at Ethiopia going into Somalia.
These are all important factors. But also one factor that always has to be in the mix given what Al Shabab spokesman are saying, given what we know what the recruiters have been saying is the religious- political ideology that is represented by groups like Al Qaeda and I think we make a mistake if we ignore that ideology.
KAYE: Fran, obviously, we're seeing a disturbing recruiting trend, targeting U.S. residents. How would you grade the handling of this investigation and what can be done to stop this pipeline from the U.S. to Somalia?
TOWNSEND: Randi, I actually think of the many things to focus on here. That's the good news part of this story. You know, we often say people who have no history, no known connections to terrorism are the most difficult to identify which is why they're a recruiting priority for Al Qaeda.
Here you have a group of young folks, clearly the FBI was able to identify them. They work with individuals inside the community and I think this is an indication of the growing sophistication of the investigative capability of the FBI. And so working with state and locals and communities. And so I think from that perspective, is a very positive development.
KAYE: And Daveed, just very quickly, do you think we will continue to see a rise in recruitment for Al Shabab?
GARTENSTEIN-ROSS: I think we'll definitely continue to see recruitment. You've had so many people end up going over there and you have such an established transnational recruiting network that this is not a problem that's going to go away over night. KAYE: All right. Fran Townsend, Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, thank you both so much for your insight on this.
ROBERTS: Well, a little bit of relief from the heat in some areas of the country. However, not for long and not everybody is getting the relief. Our Jacqui Jeras is tracking the weather for you. She's got the travel forecast coming right up. 45 minutes after the hour.
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ROBERTS: Well, if you like the heat, Dallas is the place to be today. Partly cloudy and 84 degrees right now, later on today, isolated storms and the raw temperature before you factor in the humidity, 102 today.
KAYE: Ouch.
Where else is it going to be hot, hot, hot? That's what we want to know. Jacqui Jeras is in the Extreme Weather Center. Hey there, Jacqui.
JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Hey, guys.
Well, it's good to know that today, even though there is some hot out there, there's some not out there as well. So we've seen some big changes with a cold front that's made its way across the northeast and mid-Atlantic states, and the temperatures have dropped as much as 10 to 15 degrees for a few of you.
So we wanted to point out some of the big differences, and the biggest one I could find was Little Rock, Arkansas. You were 105 yesterday. Today, how does 91 sound? Oh, yes, so much better. You know it.
Jonesboro was 96 yesterday, today 91. Look at Memphis. This is much better for you too, 101 yesterday, today 93. Jackson, 92, you were 98. And Nashville, looking for 91 degrees today after a high of 98. So we are getting some little bit of relief. I think at this point we'll take anything we can get.
Heat advisories are still in effect. We saw that picture from Dallas-Ft. Worth. Well, today, heat advisories for you today. It's going to be feeling like probably 110 at times this afternoon. Those advisories go up towards Oklahoma City, across parts of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and to Georgia as well as South Carolina. In fact, you had a record high low temperature yesterday in Charleston, 82 degrees. That's it.
So, you know, when you get overnight lows like this, it's really particularly brutal because there's just no recovery. When you wake up in the 80s, that's really miserable, unfortunately, for a whole lot of people. So use a lot of caution today, and this will be the big focus then of the heat across the country.
Chicago, pick city of the day. How good is that, 82 degrees and sunshine. I'm crying. If I could have 82 -- I'm just saying. Eighty-three degrees in Minneapolis, 87 in Boston. Not bad.
Here's where a cold front is going to be sitting for today, and that's going to be the focus of some thunderstorms. A few could be severe, and the same areas that get the heat but at least those storms will bring you a little bit of cloud cover and drop your temperatures. And they could drop them as much as ten-plus degrees after a thunderstorm goes through. So maybe a little bit of a break today.
In the northeast, high pressure settling in after those wicked thunderstorms in D.C. last night. Well, we'll see some breezy conditions, and while that's going to feel good for you, and it's going to last through the weekend, it means you might have some headaches if you're planning on getting in or out of town. So delays in Boston, New York City metros, D.C. metros and Philadelphia, looking at probably 30 to 60 minutes overall here.
Atlanta and Houston should have some delays because of the thunderstorms, 30 to 60. San Francisco, Salt Lake City, some wind delays are possible. Temperatures across parts of the west, by the way, 10 degrees below average, only 58 degrees in San Francisco today. So if you're looking for a place to cool off, that's going to be the place.
And, last but not least, let's check in on tropical storm Colin. Not expected to strengthen a whole lot, guys, but it's heading near Bermuda and that's going to happen on Saturday night.
ROBERTS: Who would have ever thought you'd go to California to cool off? Wow. Wild weather.
JERAS: Fifty-eight?
ROBERTS: Jacqui, thanks so much.
KAYE: This morning's top stories just minutes away, including an explosive new report about the release of the Pan Am bomber said to be on death's door. Well, he's still alive. Why the decision to send him home may have been terribly flawed.
ROBERTS: Also, a gray area on gay marriage. The president released a statement saying that he's glad that Prop 8 was overturned. He thought it was discriminatory, but he's against same-sex marriage. It's a tough political line to walk in prime political time.
Candy Crowley weighs in this morning. We want Candy. We're going to get it.
Those stories and more coming your way at the top of the hour.
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KAYE: Welcome back. 7:55 right now, and welcome back to the Most News in the Morning.
She was a fierce competitor on the court, and over the past year, Martina Navratilova has refused to lose to her toughest opponent, and that's breast cancer.
ROBERTS: CNN was granted rare access to document Navratilova's treatment. She decided to tell her story because she wants women to take better care of themselves and get regular mammograms, not to put it off, like she did.
Here's a preview.
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MARTINA NAVRATILOVA, 18-TIME GRAND SLAM CHAMPION: When I first was diagnosed with DCIS, I thought for sure I would keep it private, keep it quiet. Nobody needs to know. It's -- it's a very personal issue, of course, and -- and I wanted to save my energy for fighting it.
And then I talked to some friends, oh, you want me (ph) to go for a mammogram. And I realized how many women put it off. And I thought I would use this as a platform to encourage women and remind them to take care of themselves and go for that yearly checkup.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: So don't miss "MARTINA, MY TOUGHEST OPPONENT". The half hour special debuts on CNN International tomorrow at 12:30 P.M. Eastern and will replay it throughout the weekend.
KAYE: Top stories are coming your way right after this break.
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