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CNN Live Saturday
E. Pierce Marshall has Died; Aaron Spelling has Died Patsy Ramsey has Died; Homegrown Terrorists; Wildfire near Fort Garland, Colorado; Wildfire near Sedona, Arizona; Martin Luther King Jr.'s Documents Headed for Morehouse College; "Uncle Tom's Cabin" Opens to the Public; Man Accused of Killing his Wife and Wounding the judge surrendered; Privates First Class Kristian Manchaca and Thomas Tucker; The Film "The Road to Guantanamo"
Aired June 24, 2006 - 12:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN NEWS ANCHOR: Now in the news, the FBI says an alleged plan to employee up the Sears Tower and other buildings was more aspiration than operational. Seven men allegedly involved in the plot are in custody. Officials say the men had no explosives and little money. A live report on the investigation straight ahead
President Bush is urging Congress to give him more power to shape the budget. In his weekly radio address, Mr. Bush said the way to do it is for Congress to pass a line-item VETO law. He says the measure would enable him to insist on greater discipline in the budget.
Patsy Ramsey, the mother of Jonbenet Ramsey, died today in Atlanta. Her lawyer says he died of ovarian cancer. Ramsey was 49. In 1996 her daughter Jon Benet was found beaten and strangled to death in the family's Boulder, Colorado home, Jonbenet's death remains unsolved.
The man who battled normer playmate Anna Nicole Smith over his father's estate has died. The family says E. Pierce Marshall died from a brief and extremely aggressive infection. He was 67.
And the force behind TV shows like "Dynasty" and "Charlie's Angel," Aaron Spelling has died. Spelling, who was 83, died in his Los Angeles mansion yesterday, he suffered a stroke last weekend.
We update the top stories every 15 minutes on CNN LIVE SATURDAY.
Ahead this hour, ordinary lives turned upside-down in the war on terror. My talk with the maker of a controversial new movie "The Road to Guantanamo."
And later, making sure your nest egg is golden. We'll tell you how to do it straight ahead in this hour.
From the CNN Center in Atlanta, I'm Fredericka Whitfield, welcome to CNN LIVE SATURDAY.
Homegrown terrorists, the words of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales describing seven men arrested in an alleged plot to blow up Chicago's Sears Tower and other buildings. Authorities say the men didn't have any explosives or money but officials felt it was the right time to take action.
CNN's Kyung Lau is in Washington with the latest developments, Kyung.
KYUNG LAH, CNN NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Fredricka, a terrorist cell preparing to bomb the Sears Tower or an inept disorganized group of big talkers, those are the two portraits being painted by defense and prosecution. Now, authorities say they broke up this cell before it could act.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ALEXANDER ACOSTA, U.S. ATTORNEY: Their stated objective was to form and tp train an army of soldiers to wage this war with the initial objective being the destruction of the Sears Tower in Chicago.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LAH: The government says they made the bust of the seven suspects just in time. The indictment says they tried to acquire weapons and bombs and wanted to blow up the Sears Tower in Chicago and government offices in five cities. The attorney general says the men came to view their home country as the enemy. Federal agents made the bust on a Miami warehouse in an impoverished neighborhood o f the city on Thursday. Agents did not find weapons or any bomb making materials at the warehouse. Five of the suspects appeared in the U.S. District Court in Miami. They said they had no money, not even enough to pay for an attorney. Many did no have jobs, one did work part-time at Abercrombie and Fitch, the men called their group the "Seas of David," a regimented group that avoids meat and alcohol and tries to better themselves. Families say the government has it wrong.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JIMMY HARDY, PUBLIC DEFENDER: Those are only charges, it's up to the government to prove that he's guilty of it. We have to find that out after the government put up their evidence. Right now, we have an innocent man who the government alleges attending a meeting where evidently the only person connected with al-Qaeda was the informant for the FBI.
CHARLENE LEMORIN, WIFE: UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE) all the allegation -- allegations going towards him is false. That's all I have to say.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LAU: A federal officials do describe the group's plans as aspiration rather than operational, but the attorney general says that is precisely the time to break up terror cells -- Fredericka.
WHITFIELD: All right, Kyung Lau in Washington, thank you so much.
Enemies at home, authorities say the Miami arrests are part of an ominous new trend. They say al-Qaeda terrorist ideology is being exported to the U.S. He's CNN Homeland Security correspondent Jeanne Meserve.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN NEWS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Sears Tower, a landmark, a symbol, on the list of potential terrorist targets since 9/11, but the threat against it, once believed to come from abroad, came in this instance from within.
ROBERT MUELLER, FBI DIRECTOR: They were persons who, for whatever reason, came to view their home country as the enemy.
MESERVE: It is a product of the war on terror, officials say, unexpected and unwelcome. With al-Qaeda disrupted the seeds of jihadist ideology have dispersed, germinate and grown into small local terror cells.
MUELLER: These extremists are self-recruited, self-trained and self-executing. They may not have any connection at all to al-Qaeda or other terrorist groups. They share ideas and information in the shadows of the internet.
MESERVE: The bombers who attacked a London transit system a year ago are said to have no direct al-Qaeda link. Likewise the alleged Toronto terrorists arrested earlier this month were said to have want to blow up the Canadian parliament and behead the prime minister. And now there are the purported plotters in Florida who were caught because someone who knew them grew suspicious.
JOHN PISTOLE, FBI DEPUTY DIRECTOR: Let's just say that they were doing things that came to our attention through people who were alert in the community.
MESERVE: Members of local cells plot and plan where they live and work. They belong there. They do not stand out, they are, in short, hard to find. A homegrown cell that originated in this California prison was only stopped after some members were caught robbing gas stations and investigators stumbled onto evidence of terrorism. The absence of a larger organizational hierarchy decreases the likelihood of communications intercepts or unusual travel that might raise alarm bells. The keys, say experts, is old-fashioned police work.
GEORGE BAURIES, FORMER FBI AGENT: You have to have a constant surveillance of what's going on within the community. And that means that agents have to be out there working with their informants.
MESERVE: Officials make it clear finding and stopping these homegrown cells must be a priority.
ALBERTO GONZALES, ATTORNEY GENERAL: And left unchecked, these homegrown terrorists may prove to be as dangerous as groups like al- Qaeda.
MESERVE (on camera): No one has a real handle on the number of homegrown terrorists in the United States but officials are worried that their number could be multiplying and their danger growing. Jeanne Meserve, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: And stay tuned day and night for the most reliable news about your security.
Meantime, firefighters in Arizona say they're making some progress in their battle against a 4,000 acre wildfire in the Sedona area. At least 20 percent of the blaze is contained, but officials warn it's not a done deal. They say they're created a good protective barrier against the fire in part of Oak Creek Canyon where about 430 homes and 30 businesses have been evacuated.
Crews are also reporting progress in the fight to contain a 13,000 acre wildfire near Fort Garland, Colorado. Officials say the fire is about 35 percent contained. About a dozen families returned to their homes in one subdivision yesterday. Residents in other areas aren't so lucky. They don't know when they'll be able to return to their homes.
Our Reynolds Wolf is in the Weather Center. It's awfully dry out there in the West, any relief in sight?
REYNOLDS WOLF, CNN METEOROLOGIST: You know, not much. And you know, it really is a whole, just a frustrating thing when you look at the different things we have around the country. Out to the West, it has just been dry as can be then need the rain. Out to the East, entirely different situation, flash flood watches in effect for many places in the Appalachians, they have plenty of rain and don't need anymore.
(WEATHER REPORT)
WHITFIELD: All right, thanks so much, Reynolds.
WOLF: You bet.
WHITFIELD: Well checking some stories making headlines "Across America," a collection of Martin Luther King Jr.'s documents will not be sold to the highest bidder after all. They're heading to the late civil rights leaders' alma mater, Morehouse College, here in Atlanta. A coalition is buying them the King family and giving those items to the school. The documents were scheduled to be sold at auction next Friday.
And dramatic rescue pictures from Idaho. It took hours, but rescuers were able to pull these three men off the top of a vehicle. The van they were riding in careened into a river and the driver was ejected from the vehicle and then swam to shore.
Don't look for any more National Guard troops from California to help patrol the Mexican border. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has already agreed to send 1,000 troops to the border, but officials say he turned down a request from the White House for an additional 1,500 troops. And in and in suburban Washington at this hours, a rare piece of history opens to the public for the first time. The log structure attached to this house in Montgomery County, Maryland was the basis for the novel "Uncle Tom's Cabin." The county bought the private home and property for $1 million back in January.
And some say it was a textbook sting operation, but does the government have a strong case against the seven arrested in that alleged terror plot? We'll take a look later on this hour. Plus:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Don't let him look. Don't let him look. You're now the property of the U.S. Marine Corps! This is your final destination!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: "On the Road to Guantanamo," my talk with a director of a controversial new movie about the U.S. military prison in Cuba.
And later, we hear from "The Boss," Bruce Springsteen on his new album, "The Seeger Sessions." All that is straight ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: A quarter past the hour now. Here's what's happening "Now in the News." Family and friends say seven men indicted in a terrorist plot are not homegrown terrorists. The FBI disagrees. A federal indictment says they aspire to wage war against the government. The indictment says the suspects had no weapons, money, or supplies to support their alleged plan.
A former pawnshop owner is charged with murdering his wife is expected to arrive in Reno, Nevada today. Darren Mack arrived in Dallas yesterday after surrendering to officials in Mexico. Mack also accused of shooting wounding the judge who had been handling the couple's divorce.
Patsy Ramsey died this morning of ovarian cancer. Back in 1996 it was her 6-year-old daughter Jonbenet found in the basement of the family home in Boulder, Colorado. The Jonbenet Ramsey murder case is still unsolved, 10 years after the crime.
The man who created such television hits as "Dynasty" and "Charlie's Angels" and "Melrose Place" has died. Aaron Spelling died last night of complications from a stroke. Spelling's 1990 series "Beverly Hills 90210" launched the acting career of his daughter, Tori.
We update the top stories every 15 minutes on CNN LIVE SATURDAY.
In Iraq, the U.S. military says an American soldier was killed today by a bomb during a foot patrol south of Baghdad. He was the seventh U.S. soldier to die in Iraq this week. Four were killed yesterday including one in a noncombat incident. Two soldiers died Wednesday, one in a road side bomb attack, the other from a noncombat incident as well. And with the latest deaths now, 2,518 U.S. troops in all have died in the Iraq war.
And as you'll recall, the mutilated bodies of two other American soldiers were found south of Baghdad this week. Privates First Class Thomas Tucker and Kristian Manchaca were captured and killed by insurgents after coming under attack just south of Baghdad last Friday. Another U.S. soldier was killed in that attack. A vigil for Tucker was held in his hometown of Madras, Oregon yesterday, the governor has also ordered that flags at all public places be flown at half staff Monday in Tucker's memory.
More now on Tucker, his life and why he decided to join the Army. CNN's Brianna Kieler reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MEG TUCKER, MOTHER: I'm going to wake up and it's all going to be a bad dream.
BRIANNA KIELER, CNN NEWS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For Wes and Meg and Tucker, parents of Private First Class Tom Tucker and his older sister, Tava, the pain of losing the youngest member of their family is unimaginable. Tom was just 25, he loved music, played the guitar, piano, and the trombone. After high school he worked in construction, but as he got older, he yearned for something more, he wanted to do something for himself and his country.
M. TUCKER: And I said, but Tom, the Army, this is a poor time. He said mom, I want to do this. And there was no talking him out of it. He said, mom, I'm 24 years old and I still live at home. Again, he said I've been in and out, I've been in and out, and he said, I just, I need a purpose in my life, I need to do something, fulfill something, I want to travel.
KIELER: A year ago, Tom enlisted in the Army, he left for Iraq in February.
M. TUCKER: Well, we could see him turning the corner.
KIELER: Hs parents say Tom's sense of purpose was buoyed even though he knew his assignment was dangerous.
WES TUCKER, FATHER: The eight months before he joined the Army was the most trying, but the most enjoyable time we have ever had with our son.
KIELER (on camera): The Tucker's live in a small central Oregon community of Madras, less than 6,000 people live here, but the support they've received, evident in the signs and ribbons that line the main street is immense.
W. TUCKER: We have more food than we can eat in a year from people we don't know.
KIELER (voice-over): The Tucker's say they are grateful for their countless visitors, the kind words, even donation of money. They find comfort in these touching moments as they wait for Tom to make his final trip.
W. TUCKER: The only thing I want is I want him home, so that we can have a place to go and talk to him at. And that'll help.
KIELER: Brianna Kieler, CNN, Madras, Oregon.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: The remains of Private Tucker are due to arrive in Madras, Oregon on Monday. His funeral is scheduled for July 1.
Private Kristina Manchaca's remains are to arrive in Brownsville, Texas on Monday. A funeral mass is scheduled for Wednesday.
It may be the most infamous prison in the world, Guantanamo. We'll show what you it looks like from former prisoners' points of view. Coming up, my interview with the director of a controversial new documentary.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Don't let him look. Don't let him look. You're now the property of the U.S. Marine Corps! This is your final destination!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: Art imitating life in a scene from "The Road to Guantanamo," a controversial new documentary. In the movie, three British Muslim men describe how they were held at Guantanamo for more than two years without charges against them. The filmmaker Michael Winterbottom retrace their footsteps as their trip to Pakistan for a wedding ends at the desolate military outpost in Cuba. I talked to Winterbottom about his film and his strong views about Guantanamo, earlier this week.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MICHAEL WINTERBOTTOM, DIRECTOR: Well, I think all the images you see of Guantanamo, all the images I'd seen of Guantanamo were of anonymous prisoner, people, you know, people in orange jumpsuits seen in the distance with hoods over their heads, covers over their head, and you didn't really know who any of the individuals were. So reading their story just seemed this would be a good chance to see three individuals let them tell their story, let them say what happened to them.
WHITFIELD: And what did they say happened to them?
WINTERBOTTOM: They went to Pakistan for Britain for Atta's (ph) wedding. He was going to get married in Pakistan. And once they were there, they went to a mosque in Karachi and the preacher was saying, it's the duty of Muslims, good Muslims to help their Muslim brothers in Afghanistan, and naively, foolishly, whatever, they decided to go with a bus (INAUDIBLE) to Afghanistan. Once they got there of course, they didn't speak (INAUDIBLE) they the speak (INAUDIBLE), they were like 18, 19 years old, very young British guys in a country that was at war, you know, it was the middle of war. So from that point on, two days later they were in Kabul, from that point on, they really wanted to get out, but of course if you're in the middle of a war, you're very naive and young, you can't speak the language, it's very hard and they got caught up in the war.
WHITFIELD: And then while in Guantanamo, they describe their time there as how?
WINTERBOTTOM: Well, you know, we spent sort of -- we had hundreds of hours of transcripts of their descriptions so it's very hard to boil down, but basically, you know, I would say when we show the film to people who'd been to Guantanamo, like (INAUDIBLE), their lawyer who represents a lot of detainees, he said that A. the film is accurate, but also B. that their experience were actually some of the luckiest experiences. You know, so what they described as sort interrogation techniques that are very normal of short shackling, stress position, strobe light, loud music, all of these things are part of the normal repartee of interrogation techniques. And you know, they were lucky, they had a specific charge alleged against them, which they could prove was wrong. And because they were British, they could speak to the guards, they had better communication than most people and also, of course in the end they were released because the British government made a deal with the American government. So they had a relatively lucky experience at Guantanamo. But even so, I think if you watch the film and you imagine yourself being caught up in that system, it's pretty horrific.
WHITFIELD: Did they feel, based on the number of people they got a chance to know, there are 450 detainees there, I don't imagine they got to know all of them, but of the ones they did get to know, there in Guantanamo, did they get a sense that these were all combatants, they were of the Taliban or even had any links to al-Qaeda or were a good number of the detainees in situations just like them?
WINTERBOTTOM: I think they feel that a lot of people were like them. And also, you have to make a big distinction between, on the one hand the Taliban and on the other hand al-Qaeda, you know, if you're an Afghan citizen, the Taliban was effectively your. If you were fighting for the Taliban, you were fighting for you government. You know, so that doesn't really make you a terrorist. Similarly, you know, even for outsider, if you're supporting the Afghan people, you're supporting the Taliban. That's a big distinction from being a member of al-Qaeda wan wanting to blow up the rest of the world. I think, you know, on of the justifications (INAUDIBLE), these are the most dangerous people in the world, these are the worst of the worst, these people will destroy our civilization unless we put them in this prison.
I thin if you talk to (INAUDIBLE), one thing is clear, they are not dangerous, you know, they were teenagers from Britain who got caught up in the war maybe stupidly, but they're certainly not the most dangerous people in the world and they're certainly not people who threaten our civilizations.
WHITFIELD: There are lots of twists and turns that you convey in "The Road to Guantanamo," but if there's one particular message that you hope viewers, those moviegoers, walk away with, what are you hoping it is.
WINTERBOTTOM: Well, Guantanamo should be closed. You know, Guantanamo should never have been invented and Guantanamo should close. You know, you can't have a prison which is outside the law. And the reason it's in Cuba is that it's trying to be outside international law and outside American law. And if these people need to be held, then they should be brought to court and they should be in America, they should -- they should have to protection of the American judicial system.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: And the three men profiled in the movie, Shafiq Razul (ph), Ruhel Ahmed (ph), and Asif Iqbal were released from Guantanamo in March of 2004. They have filed lawsuits against the United States seeking $10 million each in damages. "The Road to Guantanamo" is now playing in movie theaters across the country.
Seven suspects are being held in connection with an alleged plot against the United States. Up next, we take a closer look at the charges and arrest.
And later, whether your retirement is down the road or perhaps just around the corner, you'll need to be repaired. We'll tell you the best way to save for your golden years straight ahead.
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