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Tornado Warnings in New Orleans; Ex-Brother-in-Law Thinks Tsarneav Brothers Had Help; Tracking Tamerlan Tsarneav; Boston Police Commissioner Wants Drone At Next Marathon; U.S. Delegation Questions Suspects' Parents in Dagestan; Texas Plant Explosion Leaves Crater; Interview with Ricin-Laced Letter Suspect.

Aired April 24, 2013 - 13:26   ET

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


CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Really beautiful moment there, James Taylor singing, the MIT a cappella group behind him. The song, of course, "Shower the People" and the message beautiful as well, "Shower the people you love with love, show them the way that you feel."

Sean Collier's memorial brought out the sun today here in Boston and certainly brought people together.

We're going to take a quick break. When we come back, we have a lot of news for you. We're monitoring a situation in New Orleans, potential tornado damage. We'll look at that.

We also have the latest on the investigation here as well as the latest on the ricin letter scare and what's going on with that. We'll take a break, first leaving you with the memorial.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As you gather for this memorial service, please (inaudible) --

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CUOMO: Welcome back. We've had reports of severe weather right now in the New Orleans area where we've had tornado warnings.

So let's get straight to CNN Meteorologist Chad Myers.

Chad, any confirmed touchdowns, damage? What's the situation?

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: We have had damage but no confirmed touchdowns, that is tornado damage. Certainly, wind damage. The winds at the airport 60 miles per hour. Over 30,000 people without power at this hour. The storm came over the lake, across into Kenner and down into New Orleans proper and it's still moving down almost to about Gretna right now. Storm moving to the southeast about 30 miles per hour.

Kind of a confusing map here, but let me explain it to you. Here's Shalmet (ph), here's Gretna. Right there is the rotation as it travels on eventually toward the northern parts of Plaquemines parish. If you are in New Orleans or points to the east, you need to be taking cover right now. Damage has been reported but most wind damage, power lines down, trees down, At least 30,000 without poor -- Chris? CUOMO: Chad, give us that time window again. For folks down there, when does the risk pass?

MYERS: The risk passes for New Orleans probably in the next 10 or 15 minutes. It's past you. It's to the South. It's Bell Chase. It's Gretna. Moving away. This continues to push into Plaquemines Parish. For you, northern Plaquemines Parish, still to worry for another 15 to 20 minutes. Take cover there now.

CUOMO: All right. Chad, thank you.

Everybody, heed the warning, stay safe. We'll monitor the situation afterwards.

We'll take a break. Next up, why wasn't this -- the bombing suspects on the radar of U.S. investigators? Or was the suspect on the radar? We have new information from Washington on the investigation when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CUOMO: Welcome back to Boston.

Just because investigators think they know who pulled off the Boston bombings does not mean this case is closed. Months, if not years, will be spent trying to learn how, and why, and who else may have played even the smallest part in the alleged crimes of these two suspects.

Earlier today, CNN's Wolf Blitzer spoke by phone with the former husband of one of the suspects' sisters. He is convinced the brothers had help, if not with the plot itself, at least with the mind mindset. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ELMIRZA KHOZHGOV, FORMER HUSBAND OF SUSPECTS' SISTER (voice- over): I believe that there are other people involved.

(CROSSTALK)

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: When you say other people involved, what does that mean?

KHOXHGOV: Some movement. I mean some extremists, terrorists, not terrorists, but like extremely radical people. I don't want to point out the religion itself, because it's a peaceful religion, but there are people are who preaching it the wrong way probably. So I believe, yes, there are some people involved. I don't blame the special -- the Secret Services. I don't blame the FBI. I don't believe in framing. But I do believe that someone preached them -- preached Tamerlan so much, and this has come in from the mosques or religious groups in Boston. I don't believe Dagestan is involved in it.

(END VIDEO CLIP) CUOMO: Again, that was one of the suspects' ex-brothers-in-laws speaking by phone to Wolf Blitzer from Kazakhstan.

We know one of the suspects, the older suspect came to the attention of the U.S. government long before the events of last week.

I want to bring in CNN's Barbara Starr now because she has new information on that. It is critically important.

Barbara, thank you for joining us.

The feds keep more than one list of people they may need to watch, right? So where did this suspect's name turn up?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Chris, what we now know from sources that we've spoken to here in Washington and government officials, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the older brother, was on two government databases, but that's an important word, "databases." These were law enforcement and terrorism databases, not watch lists. What does this all mean? What it means is when the Russians came to the U.S. back in 2011, said we have concerns about this guy, look into him, his name was entered into these databases. It becomes a place, a central clearinghouse, if you will, where law enforcement, the intelligence community can go and look and see what is known.

What we now know is tht the FBI was not able, they say, to come up with any derogatory information about him, so his name never went to the next step, which would be a watch list. A watch list might keep you from being able to fly, to get on an airplane. It would be something that would lead to much more monitoring. What U.S. officials are saying is, still, they never got enough specific information from the Russians about what their concerns were about this man. And they were never able to develop any information on their own.

To this day, it's our understanding that this person's name remains on those databases. The case was essentially closed because they didn't have anything on him, but his name is still on there.

A lot of questions in Congress about how all of this works, of course, and whether some of this system needs to be changed -- Chris?

CUOMO: All right. Barbara, thank you very much. Is there any other information for us to understand about the investigation right now? Any other new developments?

STARR: Well, I'm glad you asked. There is a very interesting development. Boston, being Boston, we wanted to take note of the fact that the police commissioner, Ed Davis, in a radio interview this morning, talked about already looking ahead to next year's marathon. Made a very interesting comment that they are going to look at the possibility, maybe, of using drones to survey the race route. You know, we saw that infrared video of helicopters being used in the final moments of being able to catch Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the wounded younger brother. Some really compelling pictures of that infrared video we're showing you again now. The police commissioner saying maybe he'll consider using drones over the race route. It would give the police a real ability to look at a very wide area, put a lot more eyes on the race next year. Something Boston, I think, is already looking forward to -- Chris?

CUOMO: All right, Barbara, thank you very much. I know you're going to stay on the investigation because it's so critically important we understand what could have been done differently. Just like with using drones going forward, we want to be better.

Thank you for staying on this. Appreciate it.

Now, as we try to get through the investigation of what the FBI could have known, but did not, at the same time, officials are very much trying to figure out what else is out there in term of information. So we do know that a U.S. delegation has gone to the Dagestan region of Russia where they've just wrapped up a long day of Q&A with the parents of the suspects.

Our own Nic Robertson is there as well.

Nic, you're monitoring the situation. We have to assume they didn't go up there to hear about their two boys being setup. So what do we know about the context for these conversations?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, we know -- the mother went into the meeting with the FBI. The father was supposed to go in last night. Both of them went into the SFB, the Russian headquarters, for the meeting. This is a building, a five- story building in the center --

(AUDIO PROBLEM)

CUOMO: All right. We're going to come back to Nic. Obviously, he's having some issues over there.

The point of that story will be to find out what the U.S. delegation is thinking they can get out of the family to try and move things forward. As we know, there's been a lot of curiosity about what family members may have known about what's being explained as a radical change in the older of the two suspects. We'll get back to Nic when we can.

Right now, we'll go to break. When we come back, a close-up look at the unbelievable destruction in a massive crater left behind in West, Texas. You'll remember that fertilizer plant explosion, the concerns about deadly gas. We're going to go live to Texas next and find out what the situation is.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CUOMO: All right. We want to check-in on West, Texas, now. A massive crater ten feet deep, nearly 100 feet wide, that's what marks ground zero of last week's blast at the Texas fertilizer plant that killed 14 people, leveled parts of a small town and now the search for answers is on as investigators try to figure out how it happened. Reality of course is setting in for residents. Remember, it's a very small place, 3,000 about in the city. And they had to evacuate almost half of that. 50 to 60 of their homes were totally decimated by this. So the investigation, very important to find out what caused that fertilizer blast. More important is how these people get back on their feet. Nearby Waco, Texas, has been helping out. But as we show you a picture there of the blast site and we're waiting for our correspondent shot to get up so we can talk to Ed Lavandera on the ground there about what's going on, keep them in your hearts and minds, because these are people who are going to need our help.

For now, we're going to leave West, Texas, this live shot, and come back to Boston, which is also a city in recovery from a very different type of trauma. But it is recovering. "Boston Strong," as we say here. And Boylston Street, where the explosions happened, now open, so people are able to literally start to see through what's going on as this city starts to reopen.

CNN's Miguel Marquez is going to give us a look at the site of the bombing nine days later.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is the finish line of the Boston Marathon. This is where the world saw the events of nine days ago unfold. This is where, amazingly enough, it's very, very close to the finish line, the first bomb exploded. You can see that they've come in today and replaced the cement and the brickwork here so that all the damage from that bomb is now gone.

(on camera): This is the store, right, 671 Boylston Street, where that first bomb went off. This would have been Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who set this bomb. And on this store today, "Boston Strong."

This is the site of the second bombing, 755 Boylston Street. Police are still sensitive about allowing any video to be shot of that site. This is where police say, 12 seconds after the first bomb, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev left his bomb.

(voice-over): Killed that day was 29-year-old Krystle Campbell, a restaurant manager; Lu Lingzi, a Chinese national graduate student at Boston University; and Martin Richard, an 8-year-old boy from the Dorchester neighborhood here in Boston.

(on camera): This is a memorial set up here in Copley Square. Everything here from the crosses to the teddy bears to the flowers were all gathered up from other parts of Boylston Street that were closed along the way. This may be the most touching part of all this, the shoes hung along the barrier everywhere along this little memorial here, and it's growing. People keep coming by. And it doesn't look like it's going to stop any time soon.

Miguel Marquez, CNN, Boston.

(END VIDEOTAPE) CUOMO: All right. Thanks to Miguel for that.

Obviously, sneakers the symbol of the marathon. That memorial just over our shoulder there.

You see on our screen, our Ed Lavandera. He's got a shot up now from West, Texas.

Ed, thank you very much for joining us. Tell us about the situation.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Chris. Well, we just returned from our first close-up look at the blast site at that fertilizer center here in the town of West, Texas, so where investigators have been working for a week now trying to piece together exactly what happened. We were given an up close tour. We got to see that crater, the blast site, where this happened. That crater site is about ten feet deep and almost more than 90 feet wide.

What is interesting in speaking with investigators from the Texas Fire Marshal's Office and also investigators with the Department of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, ATF, they say they are still trying to figure out what exactly caused the fire that then led to the explosions here that killed 14 people, mostly firefighters and EMS officials that raced to the scene there to put out that fire, that they're still trying to figure out what caused that fire. And from there they can begin piecing together what might have caused that explosion.

But really, when you walked up onto this site, Chris, the dramatic and powerful nature, you could tell just how powerful this blast was. The explosion happened in one of the buildings there that was on the ground. And to give you a sense of just how powerful this blast was, that building had a foundation that was about three to four feet of concrete above the ground. All of that was blown apart. And that crater still went 10 feet below the ground there. In fact, as we pulled up, Chris, we saw chunks of that concrete foundation blown about 100 to 150 yards to the west toward that apartment complex where several people were killed.

But inside that crater, investigators are going through and trying to create a 3D image of that blast site so they can figure out the blast field, the debris field, and start piecing together what might have caused this explosion. So far, investigators say they still don't know with certainty what kind of chemicals or materials were inside that building.

We got to interview one of the investigators, the ATF investigator in charge of this investigation, as well as the Texas Fire Marshal investigator in charge of trying to figure out what happened here. Listen to a little bit of what they just told us a short while ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERT CHAMPION, ATF SPECIAL AGENT IN CHARGE: That's the focus of the investigation right now is the fire. We're trying to find out what caused the fire. That caused the explosion itself. So it's like Kelly said earlier, like putting puzzle pieces together, reenacting that fire to see what transpired to cause the explosion.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAVANDERA: And, Chris, really the most poignant and powerful and sad part of all of this is that the fire trucks that were -- the firefighters and EMS officers used to race to this scene, some of them were still there. Three firefighters -- fire trucks and an ambulance. Two of them were so mangled that it was hard to even make out that they were fire trucks. It was in that area just of maybe 30 feet away from where the explosion happened where the majority of the victim's bodies were found.

This morning, before we got to work there, the investigators all got together, marking a week since this tragedy happened. But the day started off for these investigators with an honor guard from the Texas Department of Public Safety playing taps there at the site. They unfurled an American flag and Texas flag in honor of the 14 people who died because of this explosion -- Chris?

CUOMO: Ed, you know, those first responders giving their lives before that fire would take so many more. Such sacrifice there. And just a bullet point the headlines, that blast was so powerful, we'll remember it registered as an earthquake. And that they were intelligence early on down there in treating it as a crime scene. And now investigators are going to benefit from that early preparation as they figure it out.

But, Ed, here's the last thing for you. What do the people down there need? Are you able to figure out what kind of resource communities there are so we can put it on the web site so people can donate and help folks there get back on their feet?

LAVANDERA: Well, they're rather overwhelmed with donations, like clothing and water and that sort of thing. They're asking essentially for cash donations at this point. A lot of the neighborhoods leading up to that blast site have been reopened and people are able to kind of go in and out and begin piecing together what they can. We spent some time yesterday with one family that was going through and cleaning up their belongings, and they were probably about 300, 400 yards away from the blast site. But there is still a significant chunk of the neighborhood just to the west of the blast site. That is the area that took the brunt of this explosion that is still cordoned off. Those people are still not able to go back and check on their belongings. A lot of people are going through the process of figuring out housing for the foreseeable future. Many of the homes will have to be torn down and rebuilt. The damage is extensive.

CUOMO: All right, Ed, thanks. Anything you can figure out about trustworthy organizations taking in money for people? Let's figure it out and put it on the web site. We'll check in with you soon.

We're going to take a break now. When we come back, the big ricin letter scare investigation. You remember it, letters to the president, to other members of Congress, the investigation. They had their man. He was an Elvis impersonator. Now, he's free, the case dismissed. The question is, why. A lot of unanswered questions. Only one man can answer them, and he's standing by at CNN right now waiting to be interviewed. When we come back, you'll talk to the man who was known as the ricin-letter bomber. Now, he is free. You'll talk to Mr. Curtis when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CUOMO: Well, this has turned into such a bizarre case. A major turn in the investigation of those ricin-laced letters sent to President Obama and other officials. The Mississippi Elvis impersonator arrested, now free, and on the air with us live right now. His first on-camera interview, Paul Curtis says he never even heard of ricin. He thought it was rice they were talking about. He says, I don't even eat rice. Mr. Curtis is joined by his attorney, Christi McCoy.

Thank you to both of you for being here.

Mr. Curtis, can you both hear me well?

KEVIN CURTIS, ACCUSED IN RICIN-LACED LETTERS INVESTIGATION: Yes, sir.

CHRISTI MCCOY, ATTORNEY FOR KEVIN CURTIS: Yes, Chris.

CUOMO: You're good? All right.

(CROSSTALK)

CUOMO: So let's begin with a big question here. Great. As far as we know right now, is there any connection between you and what was done with these ricin letters? Any at all?

CURTIS: None whatsoever, sir.

CUOMO: In your understanding, Christie McCoy, are investigators completely free of your client as someone implicated in this situation because they have not given clear word. What is your understanding?

MCCOY: That's absolutely my understanding, Chris. We are, in fact, I suspect with someone this morning involved in the investigation with the prosecutors and actually had made arrangements, I haven't even had a chance to speak with Kevin about it yet that we are actually ready to assist them in as far as what we know what Kevin knows, if there's anything that might help them. But I do believe that they have absolutely, even though they may not have publicly said that, that they'd realize what we have known all along is that Kevin was absolutely in no way connected with these letters.

CUOMO: OK. So let's go to the beginning. When they came to you, what was the explanation for why they believed that you were the man? Why did investigators believe it was you?

CURTIS: Well, when they came to me and I was arrested, it was like a scene out of the movie. They didn't explain anything. They just kept saying you know what you've done and don't move, don't resist. And I had to set my coat down. They allowed me to do that. But you're talking about Homeland Security, Secret Service, FBI, so many vehicles in my neighborhood. I've never seen anything like it. I was in a state of shock, the best way I can explain it. And I was trying to catch my breath, and how am I going to get over -- my ex- wife and kids are expecting to me at dinner, I've got to take my son to church. And they're like, no, no, you're not going to church, you're going down to the federal building where you'll be asked questions, but you know exactly what this is about. Now, if we go in that house, are we going to find anything connected to ricin? And I go, well, I said, I don't eat rice and I don't have any rice in the house. And they say, no, you know what we mean, ricin, a deadly chemical. I said, here's my key, you look all you want. You won't find anything in there but a goldfish and music equipment and awards and things and a couch. And he's like, yeah, whatever, turn around, put your hands on your car.

They took my phone, my wallet, which I still haven't gotten my phone back. I haven't been able to call anybody. And never saw them enter my house. They started taping it off and interrogating all my neighbors. And I just begun to meet over the last couple of weeks my neighbors and get to know them. So they were probably in a state of shock.

But to answer your question, I knew nothing. I still don't know a lot about it. It's some type of bean and you maybe heat it up, boil it, cook it somehow and vaporize it and it becomes more deadly. And I learned this from youtube.com at 4:00 this morning.

CUOMO: All right. Well, don't worry about investigating that anymore. That'll be taken care of by the government.

So you get introduced by your neighbors as someone who is a letter-bomb suspect, which is never great for relations around the community. And you wind up being taken into custody. And how intense did it get in there with investigators? What were the stakes? What were they doing to you and saying to you?

CURTIS: They were nice, the Homeland Security officer, the capital police lady from Washington, and a gentleman from the FBI -- do I mention any names?

MCCOY: Uh-huh.

CURTIS: I think it was Officer Grant, Agent Grant, very respectful. There was only one individual in that room that was agitated with me. And he was shaking and very nervous. I think he knew that, we don't have enough on this guy. Guys, I don't want to compromise my job. I've got a job to do. But I think he'd been in it long enough over the years he felt some form of uncertainty because I'm an impersonator. I've impersonated thousands of cartoon characters and people. So I'm studying his human behavior and picking up on the shakiness and the nervousness and the friction in his voice and how he can't look me in the eye. And he wanted me to sign papers to release medical records for my whole life and mental records to him. And I said, "Sir, my ex-wife is in criminal justice, she wants to be a lawyer, and we were just talking the other night over dinner, and she told me don't ever sign anything if you're ever in a situation, unless your lawyer's there." I said, "Sir, can I have an attorney here present"? And he said, absolutely not. "Then I'm not signing." He grabbed those papas and jerked them back and said well, that's just fine. And then it became a good guy, bad guy. Officer Grant, he was good guy, and this guy's a bad guy. And the lady in the back, wonderful, she was so polite, from Washington. And they treated me like gold, but they intensely interrogated me for hours and it was nerve wracking. I can't even express -- my inside nerves were like going to come out of my ears. It's like nothing I've -- I've been incarcerated throughout this whole conspiracy that started years ago and it's been a roller coaster. I always tell my kids, I'm leaving, I'm going here, call at this point, because I may be arrested on the way. But don't worry, I'll get out, I always do. And it's just become a --

(CROSSTALK)

CUOMO: Let me stop you there for a second.

(CROSSTALK)

CURTIS: -- has dad been arrested yet?

CUOMO: Mr. Curtis, let me stop you for a second because I want to get a little context from your attorney.