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Reaction to Terror Arrests in London's Muslim Community; Blowing Up Airliners Has Been Plotted Before; Cardinal Theodore McCarrick Discusses Catholic Relief Services

Aired August 11, 2006 - 14:30   ET

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

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Dots connected, plot foiled. So far, police in Britain have arrested 24 people in the alleged scheme to blow up trans-Atlantic jets, 19 of them have been named. Here is one more unnerving detail. According to Britain's Channel 4, one of the jailed suspects worked at Heathrow Airport and had an all-area access pass. As the investigation continues, many in London's Muslim community are reacting with disbelief, even anger.
CNN's Jason Carroll has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Here at Waheed Zaman's home, There is still police, as well as media activity. He is one of 13 people arrested in east London, now in custody, and like most of the suspects in custody, he is of Pakistani decent.

Throughout the day, we have been out in the community trying to get a sense of how they feel about what has happened here. Many we spoke to simply do not believe in this terrorist plot. In fact, many of the people that we spoke to, we get really a sense of anger, a sense of resentment and concern that because of what's happened, the entire Pakistani community will be seen as terrorists.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Check my passport! Check my underpants! Check what you want! Don't associate me to terrorism later on. They're not working you to do that! You can't go around knocking around on people's houses, smashing their doors down, you know, causing friction, upsetting people's families! It's not right. It's not right.

CARROLL: Do most of you not believe what has happened in terms of the arrests off this block...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What do you believe?

CARROLL: Well, I'm try to find out; I'm trying to learn. What do you believe?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Seriously, I'm asking you, do you believe what's happening? You answer the question, do you believe what's happening, from a non-Muslim perspective?

CARROLL: From a non-Muslim perspective? UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Innocent until proven guilty. The thing is, right, they'll name all the people, they'll name that we caught them. And then three weeks later, you'll find out they're all innocent, and yet we get a bad name. It's about reputation as well. Twenty-one people, they'll mention their names; suddenly every Muslim in the community is, you know, assumed guilty as well.

CARROLL: The last young man that you heard there, his name is Ali. Ali told me that he actually knows two of the suspects. He says he knows Ibrahim Savant -- that is the man who converted to Islam, he says, a few years ago. He said he played football with him, and he also says he knows Waheed Zaman, who, again, lives here. He says he studied biochemistry with him at university for about three years.

He says in talking to both of these men, he said both were men of peace. He said he never sensed any anger from them so that's why it's so hard for him to understand how these two could have been two of those who were arrested. He said at this point he wants to wait for more facts to come in to try to guide him in terms of what to believe.

But in terms of what he believes now, he says he simply cannot believe that these two men or any of these men could have been involved in this type of terrorist plot.

Jason Carroll, CNN, East London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: It's audacious, outrageous, evil in the extreme. But one thing the airline terror plot is not is original. More than a decade ago, al Qaeda plotted simultaneous explosions on airliners bound for the U.S. from Asia.

CNN's Brian Todd looks back.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Terrorists tried it before, and failed, January 1995, the plot code-named Bojinka, aimed to simultaneously blow up 12 U.S.-flagged carriers flying from Asia to the United States.

PAUL CRUICKSHANK, TERRORISM EXPERT: The liquid explosive was put into a bottle which would normally contain -- which would normally contain the liquid for a contact lens solution.

TODD: The men behind Bojinka are familiar faces, Ramzi Ahmed Yousef, convicted for engineering the first attack on the World Trade Center in 1993, and his uncle, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the architect of 9/11 -- first up, a test run.

One passenger is killed on a Philippines Airlines flight bound for Tokyo. But, nearly a month later, a major mistake -- terrorists, apparently mixing chemicals, accidentally set a Manila apartment on fire. They're caught -- an estimated 4,000 lives spared. Their inspiration? Experts say look to seven years earlier, November 1987. Korean Air Flight 858 blows up over South Asia. All 115 on board are killed. The methodology? Liquid and plastic explosives concealed in liquor bottles smuggled into the cabin, detonated by remote. This time, a former CIA official says, it was government-sponsored.

ROBERT GRENIER, FMR. HEAD, CIA COUNTERTERRORISM: Two individuals who were North Korean agents -- they were actually North Korean nationals, although, of course, they were traveling on false documentation -- and they were highly trained.

TODD: One method, one deadly success, but two high-profile failures. Why do the attackers keep coming back to the same M.O.?

GEORGE BAURIES, FMR. FBI COUNTERTERROR AGENT: To continually go back after an area to show that they are on that mission to bring the aircraft down, to have that splash effect.

TODD (on camera): For that reason, experts say, terrorists will almost certainly try this method and this type of target again. Failure only hardens their resolve. Both World Trade Center attacks, they say, are evidence of that.

Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Brian Todd is part of the team covering the world for "THE SITUATION ROOM." Join Wolf Blitzer each weekday at 4:00 p.m. Eastern and again in primetime at 7:00 Eastern.

Sectarian violence spills over in southern Iraq. The offices of president Jalal Talabani's Kurdish party are ransacked and burned in at least two cities. Shiites are demanding the Kurds apologize for criticizing one of their top clerics in print. The article accused him of inflaming the war between the two factions.

A three-day search ends for two U.S. soldiers in Iraq. Their bodies have been found in the wreckage of the Blackhawk helicopter that went down west of Baghdad. Four other coalition troops rescued from the crash site remain in stable condition. Military investigators have ruled out enemy action as the cause.

Iran has been a hot button issue for Washington for decades, generations even, but it's been sometime since an Iranian leader has kept the world on the edge of its seat like Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. He may or may not be developing nuclear weapons, and may or may not be willing to cut a deal with the U.N. He may not give many interviews, but he just gave a big one to Mike Wallace who claims he is retired from CBS News. Here's a clip.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE WALLACE, CBS NEWS: They claim they have 52,000 trained suicide bombers ready to attack American and British targets if America should attack Iran.

PRES. MAHMOUD AHMADINEJAD, IRAN (through translator): This is unfortunate. You're thinking about the bomb as well.

WALLACE: I'm thinking about reality. I've asked the question do you have ...

AHMADINEJAD: Well, yes, I'm talking about the reality as well, and your thoughts have been put on paper, as I say.

WALLACE: Oh, of course.

AHMADINEJAD: So are you expecting the Americans to threaten us as we sit idly by and watch them?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Well, you can watch the whole interview and Mike in action on "60 Minutes" this weekend, and you can hear from Mike himself in the next hour of LIVE FROM. He and I have a lot to talk about. You don't want to miss it.

Well, up next, as we wait for word on a resolution at the U.N., we're going to talk about helping those most affected by the Middle East conflict, the challenges and the success stories. I'm going to talk with Cardinal Theodore McCarrick of Catholic Relief Services straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Well, let's focus now on the people caught trapped, terrified in the Mideast fighting. They're very much on the mind of Cardinal Theodore McCarrick. He's a former archbishop of Washington and also a board member of Catholic Relief Services. He joins me from Beirut, where CRS is on the job and in big form.

Cardinal McCarrick, I never realized Lebanon has such a large Catholic population.

CARDINAL THEODORE MCCARRICK, FMR. ARCHBISHOP OF WASHINGTON: Yes, Kyra. It is actually probably the nation of the Middle East with the largest Catholic population, largest Catholic and largest Christian population.

They've been there for hundreds of years and they're still there and, so we are -- that's one of the reasons why we're so concerned, although we'd be concerned hopefully anyway because they're our brothers and sisters.

PHILLIPS: Well, tell me how many Catholics are being affected by the fighting.

MCCARRICK: Well, of course, it's hard to tell. The fighting has been an indiscriminate thing. You don't find just one group or the other. All we know is that there are about 750,000 people have been displaced from southern Lebanon, and if you have a population of maybe four, 4.5 million people, if you have that many, three-quarters of a million displaced, that is an enormous burden on the rest of the people.

They've been fleeing that area that and they've been trying to find place with relatives, with friends, in schools and different gatherings. It's really been a -- as you said at the beginning, it's really been a frightening time in the lives of so many people in Lebanon.

PHILLIPS: Well, tell me what has left the biggest impression on your heart. What is the toughest thing for you to witness right now?

MCCARRICK: I think the toughest thing is the frustration of the people. They've lost control. They can't do what they would want to do. They know they need a cease-fire and they can't get it.

They're longing to stop the violence. They're longing to stop the war. And, yet, it's not possible to do it. The situation is out of their hands. It's in the hands of the nations of the world. And they, can't affect what is happening there.

And they find out that things get worse and worse and they -- there are people beginning to go without food, without water, without medicine. There's hospitals going without gasoline, petrol to keep the generators going. It's really a tough situation and they can't do anything about it. And this is what really touches your heart.

PHILLIPS: Well, and I know that you have met with a number of leaders trying to ask them for a cease-fire, even those locally. With whom did you meet and is anybody listening to what you have to say?

MCCARRICK: Well, I've met with the president, with President Lahoud. I've met with the prime minister, Mr. Siniora. I've met with the president of the Congress, Mr. Beri. I've met with the leader of the Sunni community, the leader of the Shiite community. I've met with many of the Catholic bishops, with some of the orthodox bishops, with some of the Protestant leaders.

I've met with a number of people on the street. I've met people with young people, with the wonderful volunteers that are helping the Catholic Relief services, which is the reason I'm basically here, except that I also love Lebanon and feel so bad for the poor people.

Catholic Relief Services is here in already good numbers. There are 10 people here working already and we've only been going through this about two, three weeks. But they are working with what we call their Caritas Lebanon, their opposite number here, which is a huge operation and well-respected throughout the area.

And they have about -- they have several thousand young people who are volunteers, take care of the old people, take care of the children, bring hospital equipment, try to do everything they can. And talking to them, you know, everyone knows that we're saying the same thing. We're saying, please, stop the fighting. You know, please bring peace here. PHILLIPS: Well, Cardinal, have you met with any members of Hezbollah? Would you want to do that? Would they be open to meeting with you?

MCCARRICK: I'm not sure they would. I think that -- I'm always willing to talk to anybody, but I think that on that level there already should be conversations on a national level, should be conversations on an international level.

The United Nations should be involved, the United States government should be involved and I'm sure they are and I'm sure that they're the ones who are going to find the right answer diplomatically to bring this about.

It's complicated and I'm not saying anyone's to blame. You look at Israel, going through a terrible situation where rockets come over and no one should have to live with that. No one, in a country at peace, should have to live in the fear that a rocket is going to come indiscriminately and overwhelm them so that they, certainly, have a right to be upset by this and a right to respond.

On the other hand, you have the people of Lebanon, who are almost like third parties. They just happen to live in that country where a group like Hezbollah is empowered because of many reasons and is launching attacks today. But the people of Lebanon have just come out of 15 years after a very difficult civil war. They've just begun now to realize a growth in their economy. They've just gotten everything under control and now this happens again.

So, it puts them back into the dark ages. It's been a terrible war. More children have been killed in this war than soldiers have. And that's an awful thing to realize. And I think that's one of the things that breaks your heart and that makes you say, let the nations of the world find a way to a cease-fire.

Holy father has spoken so often on this and I know it's so close to his heart, but Pope Benedict has asked for a cease-fire constantly and has called on the nations of the world to take their responsibility to find a way to bring peace to this part of the world.

PHILLIPS: Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, we'll follow your efforts, thanks for your time.

MCCARRICK: Thanks very much. Thanks for giving me your time to talk to so many people about something very important, a tragedy going on right before us that we all have to help.

PHILLIPS: Pleasure to have you, Cardinal.

Straight ahead, singer, sailor, star-maker, Mike Douglas was all of that and more. After his service in World War II he joined the big band of Kay Kyser, but his real fame came as one of the first afternoon talk show hosts on that new medium, television.

His guests included everyone from Tiny Tim to Tyre Woods, Richard Nixon to the Rolling Stones. Friend and family who had planned to celebrate Douglas' 81st birthday, well they're morning his death instead. Among them CNN's own legendary talk show host Larry King.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LARRY KING, CNN ANCHOR: First thing you think of and anyone would say this about Mike Douglas is, nice guy. He was a genuine nice guy. You didn't see a mean bone in his body. And he was a heck of a singer. And he had a major hit record once called "The Men in My Little Girl's Life."

It was impossible to listen to that record and not cry. He had a geniality about him. He was easy to be around him. He wasn't the world's most incisive interviewer, but he a relaxed measure about him and he also had an incredible ability to get great guests.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Remembering entertainer Mike Douglas, dead at the age of 81.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Coming up next hour on LIVE FROM, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff going to hold a news conference in the 3:00 p.m. Eastern hour at Reagan National Airport in Washington. We're going to bring that event to you live as soon as it happens. Right now he's meeting with TSA agents and as soon as he steps up to the podium we'll dip in.

Well while we wait for that event to begin, we want do to ask you this, do the new security headaches at the airport have you laughing or crying? Our Jeanne Moos makes the most of the new rules.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Remember when you first had to surrender scissors and then you had to take off your shoes and, now ...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Lotion, mouth wash.

MOOS: The scope has widened.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hair gel, cologne, perfume.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Soda pops are not allowed.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No liquid items are allowed on the plane today.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Put it in your check in bag, otherwise it will be confiscated and you have been warned.

MOOS: At times it was like putting the intimate items from your medicine cabinet on display.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hair stray they took from me. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I know I'm safe when you're bald and you don't need a whole lot of soap it doesn't matter.

MOOS: Some items left passengers puzzled.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Deodorant, I don't know, it is kind of a half liquid, half solid.

MOOS: This lady at Newark Airport figured she dumped $50 worth of stuff.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I feel terrible, but it's for my safety.

MOOS: While in Phoenix ...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Eighty bucks worth of makeup. That hurt.

MOOS: There's nothing liquid about foot powder.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think that's OK. Wait a moment, that's a spray.

MOOS: Passengers giveth ...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I had some expensive cologne.

MOOS: Airport security taketh away.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The thing that I've gotten is some olive oil.

MOOS: The emblematic item, the new nail clipper, if you will.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Lip gloss has to go.

MOOS: That's right, liquid lip gloss from Atlanta to Newark, women surrendered their lip gloss but not before applying a new coat and offering some to security. Some dumping toiletries and makeup couldn't make up their mind about whether it was really necessary.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You know, you'd like to think that somebody knows what they're doing and that this must be necessary but I don't think you can blow up a plane with blush.

MOOS: Still, we heard very few really angry complaints.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE You're happy complying with everything, especially liquids?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Who wants to die?

MOOS: When you put it like that, it's easy to kiss your lip gloss good-bye.

Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: LIVE FROM continues right after this break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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