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Catastrophe in the Gulf; Van Der Sloot Captured

Aired June 06, 2010 - 16:00   ET

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

RICHARD LUI, CNN ANCHOR: A terror probe nabs two New Jersey men at JFK Airport. Investigators say they were on their way to Somalia to wage violent jihad.

And BP is pumping more oil out of the Gulf of Mexico. But a government official says it's too early to claim success there. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM where the news unfolds live on this Sunday, June 6th. I'm Richard Lui sitting in for Fredricka Whitfield.

First off for you, the fed says it's been watching two terror suspects for years. Both are U.S. citizens from New Jersey. CNN's Homeland Security correspondent Jeanne Meserve and Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr are both following developments on this story.

Let's start with Jeanne Meserve. Jeanne, how did authorities learn about these men? It was some time they were watching them, wasn't it?

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: That's right. They were arrested on Saturday night just before boarding separate flights to Egypt. War-torn Somalia, their intended destinations according to U.S. officials who claim their mission was to engage violent jihad on behalf of Al Shabab, an Islamist group affiliated with Al Qaeda.

Their hope officials say was to kill U.S. troops who might eventually be deployed there. Mohamed Alessa, 20 of North Bergen and Carlos Almonte, 24 of Elmwood Park are charged with conspiring to kill, maim and kidnap people overseas. But New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly is among those expressing concern that they couldn't eventually re-enter the U.S. under American passports.

LUI: We think of this case - we think of home-grown terrorism and U.S. citizens against the United States. How prevalent is this at the moment?

MESERVE: Well, in fact, Richard, there are about 14 U.S. citizens who have had terrorism charges brought against them within the past year. But let me tell you that search warrants were executed at the suspects' New Jersey's homes. Alessa's landlord says he was the only child in a religious family. He is surprised by the charges against his tenant. Neighbors of Almonte expressed similar shock. Once again, here's Ray Kelly.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You heard what happened - MESERVE: I'm sorry. Apparently we don't have that sound. According to the court documents, authorities were tipped off about this pair in 2006. In 2007 they allegedly traveled to Jordan, were rebuffed when they tried to enlist with Mujahadin. Eventually their attention turned to Somalia. There were a lot of recordings made by an undercover police officer in which Alessa allegedly discusses shootings and beheadings saying we'll start doing killing here if we can't do it over there. Richard.

LUI: Jeanne Meserve on the very latest on that. Thank you.

On that element that Jeanne brought up which is Al Shabab and Somalia, the United States listing Somalia as a haven for terrorists. Let's go to Barbara Starr, CNN's Pentagon correspondent who draw more of those dots together for us. The mention of Al Shabab and Somalia, what's the significance here?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Richard, everyone has talked about Somalia as being a safe haven for terrorists for years now. But as Jeanne says the concern about this case, the concern about the trend here is that foreign fighters are going to Somalia, getting trained and getting trained to come back to Europe or the United States and possibly wage attacks in the west.

The U.S. intelligence community now estimates there may be as many as 200 foreign fighters in Somalia. People from Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen. The real traditional jihadi homeland. And the concern is they go to this very remote, very rugged African country. U.S. intelligence loses track of them. They get trained in these camps there and then re-emerge somewhere in the west ready to conduct attacks. Richard.

LUI: Barbara, what's the link with Al Shabab and Al Qaeda? What do we know about that?

STARR: Right. Well, you know, Osama Bin Laden has been talking to some time in his taped messages urging his jihadi followers to go to Somalia and support the movement there. The Al Shabab is basically Al Qaeda in Somalia, if you want to think about it that way. It's an affiliate organization who has sworn its allegiance to Al Qaeda. It has been fighting in Somalia now for some time. A very lawless country trying to basically take it over.

The people there are inflicting the most misery and death are the poor Somalis of that country. Many refugees displaced starving having nowhere to go. Thousands have been displaced by the fighting. Mogadishu has seen repeated bombings at the hands of the Al Shabab and now they have this backing from foreign fighters who have been trained in Iraq and Afghanistan to do things like suicide bombings to IEDs. The fighting is only to get worse, U.S. officials fear and they've already updated plans, Richard, to send U.S. commandos into on secret missions into Somalia to try and get after some of these top-line Al Qaeda fighters. Richard?

LUI: Great background. Barbara Starr, our Pentagon correspondent. Of course this on the story of two U.S. citizens arrested yesterday. We continue to follow that story for you right here on CNN. Thank you, Barbara.

We're also watching, well, the Midwest. Still picking up the pieces after a night of severe weather. It was tough times going. Tornadoes. We've got severe thunderstorms killing at least five people there. Michigan, we've got high winds ripping siding off the wall.

The nuclear power plant triggering an automatic shutdown there. Then we've got a tornado touching down in northwest Ohio, right next door damaging dozens of homes. The storm killing five people including a four-year-old child and then now there's some more of that severe weather bearing down on the mid-Atlantic states.

Let's get right to Jacqui Jeras in the CNN weather center and what she's seeing on the maps. What do you got?

JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, that storm system on the move now and causing some problems across the northeast and mid- Atlantic states. We got tornado watches in effect that cover the entire megalopolis. No tornado warnings in effect right now but we have been getting reports of wind damage in places like Washington, D.C. and central parts of Massachusetts as those strong thunderstorm winds in excess of 60 miles per hour are blowing down those trees and those power lines.

Now, take a look at some of the other damage. This is some video that we have for you out of Streeter, Illinois. This was an EF-2 tornado that touched down injuring 17 people here and 30 homes were damaged or destroyed. We also just got word by the way of that Michigan video that we saw earlier in Dundee that also was also an EF- 2 tornado. Winds were estimated here between about 100 and 135 miles per hour and the tornado-damaged path was about 13 1/2 miles long.

Look at that all just strewn all over the place. This is a very potent storm system and it's going to continue to be a problem through the evening hours. Maybe by the time you go to bed tonight, say 10:00-ish or so, depending on how late you like to stay up is when these are finally going to blow out of here.

Boston, you're not under a warning right now but I want to warn you. Look at all the lightning associated with this storm. You're going to see some really have heavy downpours and you probably are going to have some ponding on the area roadways and perhaps some wind damage with that storm as well. Look at New York City, we got a thunderstorm moving through your neck of the woods right now, just getting started. That lasts at least half an hour for you.

And then Washington, D.C., we've got some spotted reports of trees down and power lines down. We got a real thunderstorm to the south of the city. So we'll continue to track this. Now, in terms of who has got the greatest potential of seeing the rotation for it today at this dark highlighted area that you can see right here. So that is parts of New Jersey, including New York City up towards Springfield, Massachusetts. So we'll be monitoring that area very closely throughout the afternoon and evening.

LUI: So for our traveling friends, Monday looks a little better than I guess.

JERAS: Monday does look a little better. I think these storms are going to be out of here, hopefully by midnight at the latest and looks a little bit better -

(CROSSTALK)

LUI: Oh, we hope so, especially in the northeast. Appreciate it. Thank you, Jacqui.

The massive and growing oil spill, we're watching that. But CNN's Ed Lavandera is on the ground. He has the latest developments from New Orleans.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Richard, when we come back here, we'll have the latest updates, numbers BP says that they're improving the amount of oil that is being captured coming out of that oil leak. We'll get into the details on that coming up after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LUI: BP says the amount of oil captured from that gushing wellhead in the gulf has doubled since the containment cap was first placed on the leak. More than 440,000 gallons were funneled out yesterday but that's still just about half of what the government's latest estimates that's leaking out into the waters every day.

Today President Obama's point man on the spill called the disaster "an insidious enemy holding the gulf coast hostage." On CNN's "State of the Union," Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen took issue with BP's comment that the company was "pleased with the efforts to contain the leak."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ADM. THAD ALLEN, NATIONAL INCIDENT COMMANDER: They're making the right progress. I don't think anybody should be pleased as long as there's oil in the water. One thing they've been able to do is put a containment cap over the leak site, started to bring oil to the surface and produce it and slowly start turning off those vents that have been in the oil. So I think progress has been made but no one should be pleased until the relief well is done.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LUI: Well, CNN's Ed Lavandera is live in New Orleans following the story for us. Ed, you know, this morning, you were telling us how new numbers released, it seems like some progress. What do you make of it?

LAVANDERA: Well, you know, this progress is really hard to measure, Richard. When you take a look at those live pictures still coming to us from the bottom of the ocean floor, it's really hard to kind of get a gauge of just how successful this containment effort is going. BP says they have been able to siphon off about 440,000 gallons. That's about 10,500 barrels or so. That's quite an increase from the day before. But really when you don't know exactly for sure how much oil is spilling into the Gulf of Mexico - the estimates have ranged anywhere between 12,000 and 19,000 barrels a day, it's really hard to kind of get a gauge.

But we do know that BP says that they are taking this process very slowly. They are trying to slowly siphon off as much as they can. The concern is that that cap is being put in place over the blowout preventer. They need to make sure that that is a tight seal. They say that if they rush that, that you run the risk of getting water into it which would form hydrates, essentially clog everything up and if that happens they're essentially sent back to square one.

So they say that over the next few days they will slowly try to close off the valves there on that containment cap to allow them to capture more oil. They've been saying they think they can capture up to 90 percent of what's coming out of that blowout preventer. But you know, there's really no way to be able to judge for sure as whether or not that can happen until it does.

LUI: Ed, a question for you. We've been watching the progress of the containment cap. Are they working on any other mitigative steps? Because you've been very clear in telling us there's lots of solutions they're looking at, not one home run, shall we say.

LAVANDERA: Right, the home run they're hoping is going to be those two relief wells that are currently being drilled alongside where this oil leak is. That in their eyes is the home run that they say will essentially kill off this well for good. Everything else that is in the works has to do with containing the amount of oil, capturing it before it gets too widespread into the Gulf of Mexico.

They say there's another containment effort that they want to have in place within a week or so and that they will introduce that in conjunction with this containment cap that is already there and that there are several other ideas also in the works. They say that there are teams simultaneously working on all these different ideas, kind of based on what they're learning.

So a lot of trial and error here. But everything up until that August deadline, Richard, really focused on capturing and containing. There's very little talk of being able to kill it off before August.

LUI: Ed Lavandera telling us the very latest. Again, this morning hearing that they have moved up some of the oil containment to the level of about 50 percent and as Ed has been telling us it's hard to really say what is progress and what is not. Ed, thanks again so much.

You know, after reviewing new images and data on the spill, federal officials are reopening more than 16,000 square miles of ocean off of Florida that were closed previously for fishing. But other areas are closing, including a stretch of water off the Florida panhandle. Just a week after the spill happened, I talked to an Alabama fisherman who feared his fishing areas would soon shut down for a long time to come. He became emotional as he talked about the impact of the disaster. Take a listen to what he said then.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BOB ABRUSCATO, FISHERMAN: You know, I never took any fish that I ever caught for granted or tried not to. But these last couple of days, I've - you know, just - just have to enjoy every one of them now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LUI: All right. That was fisherman Bob Abruscato who joins us now live. Bob, that was an emotional moment for you. You and I talked about it several times after that. Can you tell me what were you thinking at that time?

ABRUSCATO: It just felt like I was saying good-bye to an old friend and I still kind of feel that way. We had a - we probably had a few week kind of reprieve. I thought when I ran into you down there and we talked, I thought that was going to be it.

We have had a few week reprieve, you know, but some people haven't. And it's been kind of tough on us. It's been tough on a lot of people just the not knowing, Richard. That's kind of what's been tough about it.

LUI: So with that month, what have you been thinking each and every day as the days have gone by because that's a long time. 30 days when you were telling me you thought the next day was be it, the oil was going to be hitting the shores.

ABRUSCATO: Yes and it's kind of been that way up until just this past week. And it was the first time in Alabama that we've actually - that I've actually seen oil. We fished in it earlier this week, in some open waters. But they closed off some waters, some state waters. That's when it kind of started hitting home a little bit when it actually started making it here. So it's just -

(CROSSTALK)

LUI: When they closed down the waters is what you're saying?

ABRUSCATO: Like starting - yes. They closed down some of the state waters that we normally fish. And so it's kind of hitting home a little bit now that we're actually getting some of that here in the state waters here in Alabama.

LUI: You know, and Bob, you and I were talking a couple of days ago and you sent in some pictures that you had taken that very morning. In fact, we've got them right now to show our viewers. And in it, you talk - you show us some of the things that you saw including oil. Tell us what you saw. ABRUSCATO: Well, it was kind of different. I was running. I had a charter and we were running down the beach. And all of a sudden the water went from chopped up to real slick and I realized what we were in. And after we started fishing a little bit, I realized what we were in.

And that was the first time I had seen it. So I said - we were catching fish. Fortunately, I was busy, so I didn't have a chance to - when you're busy as a fishing guide, that's a good thing. But we - as we - after we started catching the fish, I took some pictures of it because I have some friends and family and they wanted to see what it looked like. So that's what we saw down there.

And it was - there were porpoises swimming through it and everything. It wasn't that nasty kind of thick oil that I had imagined. It was more of like a thick sheen.

LUI: Yes, the pictures that you sent us sounded like there were small patties, little bits like that.

ABRUSCATO: Right, exactly. That's what it was. And little pieces of it floating through. And hopefully I sent you some of the pictures of the porpoises kind of swimming through it too. So it's kind of different - a little different than what I thought I was going to see.

LUI: A different reality. An interesting part about this - I asked you a month ago, do you still support offshore drilling and I asked you again three days ago. You gave me the same answer. What was that?

ABRUSCATO: I do. I just think it's - that's what we need to do and I think we're going to learn - and I hope - matter of fact, I know that we're going to learn a real expensive lesson from this, but I think it's something that we need to be doing. We need to get better at what's going to happen when things like this happen.

But it's something that we need to do. I think that we need to be doing domestically and in the gulf. It's obviously a terrible thing that's going on right now. I think that some people are going to really suffer obviously. But hopefully the lesson that we're going to learn is going to get it where we're doing it better and it won't happen again.

LUI: We've got to go. I want to sneak one last one in here for you, Bob. You told me this is a way of life that's going to be ending. You've been doing this for decades. What's your new way of life going to be?

ABRUSCATO: Say that again? I'm sorry.

LUI: You told me this is your way of life, fishing. You've been doing it for many decades. What's your new way of life going to be if things change?

ABRUSCATO: You know, I don't know. And I think that's probably the thing that's upsetting to me and confusing to me and my family and the people that I know that are being impacted by this. You just don't really know. You don't know exactly what's going to happen and you know, what the future holds for it. We've dealt with uncertainty from mother nature but we've lived through them. And something like this, you don't know what's going to happen. I think that's the bothersome thing about it.

LUI: That certainly hasn't changed from our conversation a month ago. Bobby, thank you so much for stopping by. And I hope that you and I can continue to talk about what is happening down the coast. You've been so helpful in letting us understand what it's like to be a fisherman and to grow up in that area and have that way of life. Thanks again, Bob Abruscato.

Joran Van Der Sloot under arrest in Peru paraded past the media. That's ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LUI: Joran Van Der Sloot is in custody in Peru. The man accused in the disappearance of Natalee Holloway in Aruba is now facing charges in a Peruvian woman's death. CNN's Rafael Romo has more on this case against Van Der Sloot.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN SENIOR LATIN AMERICAN EDITOR (voice-over): Joran Van Der Sloot appeared unemotional as he was paraded in front of the cameras Lima, the capital of Peru. After being expelled from Chile, he was returned to Peru as the only suspect in the death of 21-year-old Stephany Flores, who was beaten to death.

OCTAVIO SALAZAR, PERUVIAN INTERIOR MINISTER (through translator): The most important thing was how the Chilean government and its president rapidly responded and the coordination that happened between police agencies.

ROMO: Peruvian police released the hotel surveillance video that shows Joran Van Der Sloot and Stephany Flores entering on Sunday, May 30th at 5:20 in the morning. A second camera shows both entering the room moments later. Three hours and 20 minutes later he leaves the hotel by himself carrying a backpack. He tells hotel staff that he's coming back and asks them not to bother Flores who he calls, my girl, according to police.

Authorities say this is one of several pieces of incriminating evidence they have against Van Der Sloot as well as bloody clothes he was carrying with him when he was caught in Chile.

(on camera): Police say they have the testimonies of staff at both the hotel and the casino where the victim and suspect met positively identifying Joran Van Der Sloot. They also say they're analyzing forensic evidence that may link the suspect to the murder.

(voice-over): Enrique Flores, the victim's brother, says his family is very grateful for authorities in both Chile and Peru for catching Van der Sloot so quickly.

ENRIQUE FLORES, VICTIM'S BROTHER: I cannot say that I was happy or - I feel a little relieved in this big pain that I have and my family have. This pain won't go away.

ROMO: The trip by land in Peruvian territory took more than 12 hours. A 16-vehicle police convoy traveled more than 1,000 kilometers to transport Joran Van Der Sloot from the border to Lima, the capital, followed at all times by more than 20 media vehicles. The interior minister Octavio Salazar explained the decision to transport the suspect by land.

SALAZAR (through translator): National police aircraft were being used in events relating to the OAS summit and we decided not to use commercial aviation because passengers would probably have had objections under the circumstances.

ROMO: Police say Van der Sloot has asked to see his mother while he was being shown to the press inside the criminal investigations building, a spectacle unveiled outside. Peruvians shamans performed a ritual calling for supernatural punishment for the 23-year-old Dutchman.

Rafael Romo, CNN, Peru.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LUI: The oil spill is getting bigger and it is headed east. Find out which beaches are getting hit right now. We'll have that for you.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LUI: The oil spill in the Gulf is now hitting as far east as the Florida Panhandle. Tar balls have washed up on the pristine beaches of Pensacola for instance. The beaches remain open but the number of visitors is going down. Governor Charlie Crist says 250,000 feet of boom has been laid out so far and another 250,000 is ready to go. Lawmakers from the state are expressing outrage at Bp at the moment and government regulators too.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BILL NELSON, (D) FLORIDA: We're in this position because of the cozy incestuous relationship that's been there for the last decade between the oil industry and the government regulators. And that ought to be cut off.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LUI: Meteorologist Jacqui Jeras is in the CNN Weather Center, Jacqui is looking at where the oil is going and she has some estimates for us. What are you seeing?

JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, well it's going to continue to spread further to the east unfortunately we think here Richard. This is a forecast now for tomorrow. And you mentioned Pensacola Beach. Here's Ft. Walton Beach, here's Destin, Florida, over towards Freeport. These are all areas that we're expecting to see tar balls by tomorrow if they haven't already seen it. And one area of uncertainty is right over here and that is right around Panama City Beach. This also is one of those very popular touristy area.

Now there are a couple of reasons why we think this is going to continue to move in those directions. One of the things is the wind profile. We have high pressure setting up in the eastern parts of the Gulf of Mexico and basically what I want you to see here, this is a computer model forecast from right weather. These are wind vectors that you can see and notice how they all push it into this direction. So in addition to favorable ocean currents and the wind is going to continue to push it that way.

And we think it's going to stick that way at least probably until the middle of the week. Now we do have a disturbance which is in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico too. Take a look at this. This is all pushing into the oil spill area. So we could start to have problems here with some of those skimmers and the other vessels that have been in there doing the clean-up jobs. One other thing that we're watching is that loop current. Remember that Eddy which cut off here. We're starting to see the loop current the southern track of it here becomes a little bit more amplified and a little stronger. We'll have to watch that if it heads northward in the up coming weeks and months.

Richard.

LUI: And again Jacqui those were estimates as you've been very clear to tell us and those can change very quickly. So we don't want to overreact or under react when it comes to those. Thank you so much.

We'll take it from that bird's-eye view and we will drill down now to some of the pictures which we often do see. Sometimes here Josh Levs we don't know what we're looking at. That's why Josh is here right now because there's been an update in terms of what we're seeing in numbers.

JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Big update.

LUI: Over 400,000 gallons.

LEVS: More than 400,000 gallons that's now being captured. You hear all these numbers and you keep seeing images. We want to take the next couple minutes of your life to help you understand what you're actually seeing here and how well things are really going. By the way a reminder at the top Richard worked for five years in oil spill management before he joined our world in journalism. He is an expertise as well to talk us through this. But let's go to the live pictures first. This is the blowout preventer down here and the whole idea. What we want to see obviously is as little of this as possible.

LUI: You can see still all of this happening.

LEVS: The reason is that they said from the beginning the seal that they put on top was not designed to be 100 percent so at the base of this seal you still have some oil coming out and they also have these vents that are open. So -- and there's a reason for that. The vents had to be open because of the pressure as they put it on. So the question for us all along has been, OK how much is not doing this? How much is actually going up to the surface?

We're going back to late May, May 25th. Let's go to this video that we pulled out for you. So we're jumping back in time to May 25 and the reason for that what we want to see is what it looked like at the time and how it compares. Now you might take a look at it from the outside and say wait a second it doesn't look that much better or maybe it's even worse right now. What we're seeing -- you can tell us too. This is the base at the time, the pipe that was on the ground.

LUI: That's right. There was some leakage at that point where you had 75 percent of the oil coming out of the top of the riser. Go forward now they were putting on that cap, in that video which we also have for you. It shows in that situation just the amount of oil coming out. Here's that picture right here.

LEVS: So that was May 25th at the base of the ocean you had oil coming out of pipe. Then we're skipping ahead a little bit here. Again these pictures get so grainy -- very grainier than we expected. This is when they came along with those shears and they were doing a cut and said OK we need to make a cut so we can get the top on.

Again this was one of the key steps that got us to where we are today. Now let's come back to today because the key question all along. I have some numbers for you now. They have been saying as of Friday they think this new system funneled 250,000 gallons on Friday. Today 441,000 gallons to the surface, so that's the good news, that despite what you're seeing in these pictures according to Bp and the experts seeing it there they are getting more and more and more up here. In our calculations and you can go over this with me it might be around --

LUI: Fifty percent.

LEVS: Which is huge. If this turns out to be right, then we might be talking about half the oil not doing this. Half of it instead working its way up to the drill ship at the top which would be -- as things go in this horrendous crisis, a massive step so far.

LUI: More on these live pictures for our viewers. This looks like this is the bottom of that cap they put on. That means the cap is from here upwards and this oil that's coming out most likely is coming out around that lip. That's where you're seeing this sort of looping action coming out like this which is different from the pictures below. So we just wanted to break it down so you understand when we go to the live pictures what is happening and Josh giving us of course the update of that increase to over 400,000 gallons.

LEVS: And we're hoping to see less of this, more oil making it to the surface. That's the goal.

LUI: Josh thank you so much for that.

A $70 million primary challenge, it's defying the California governor's race. A closer look just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LUI: All right. Checking our top stories for you. Two New Jersey men will be in court Monday to face terror-related charges. They were arrested at New York's JFK International Airport it happened yesterday. Prosecutors say they were planning to travel to Somalia to quote rage violent Jihad. Authorities also say they were willing to carry out attacks here in the United States.

Well Bp says they are collecting more oil now from the broken well in the Gulf of Mexico. Nearly half of the oil spewing out is being sucked up to a surface ship at the moment with the government's point man in the Gulf Admiral Thad Allen says it's still way too early to call the containment operation a success.

Passengers and crew from an Irish aid ship are being deported from Israel today. Their ship was seized by Israeli forces yesterday when they tried to pass through the Gaza blockade. There were 19 people on board that ship and no one was injured in that.

There is another big political primary day that is on tap on Tuesday coming up. Ten states have critical primaries including California, South Carolina and Nevada, plus two other states have runoffs scheduled too. But it's one of those California races we want to focus on right now. CNN deputy political director Paul Steinhauser is live in Los Angeles this morning. Paul, we have to look at a former dotcom billionaire, shall we say. We talk about Meg Whitman, the former CEO of eBay she is in the running and she is doing pretty well I hear.

PAUL STEINHAUSER, CNN DEPUTY POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Yes. She's up if you believe the most recent polls she is leading by a 2-1 margin. And you are right she's a billionaire and Richard she spent already about $70 million of her own money on this campaign. She says if she wins the primary on Tuesday she could spend up to $150 million in the general election. She'll most likely battle Jerry Brown. People out here remember him very well. He was a two-term governor in the 1970s, the attorney general right now. He's running on the Democratic side.

The race to succeed term limit Arnold Schwarzenegger. Richard also a very interesting race on the Senate side here, a battle on the Republican side. Carly Fiorina seems to be leading, she is also a dotcom millionaire as well and she would face off against Barbara Boxer in November. And one other thing, voters out here may scrap the traditional two-party Democratic Republican primary system. There's a referendum if it passes would basically have the top two people in the primary regardless of the party go on to the general election. Richard.

LUI: And would affect it this year is what you are saying? This year's election.

STEINHAUSER: No. It would not take effect this year but in years to come but it would definitely be a change of business. LUI: Oh, no doubt. Paul Steinhauser. We also have to talk about Nevada. Harry Reid the Senate majority leader Tea Party candidate might come into the discussion here you think?

STEINHAUSER: There is a lot of action next door in Nevada. It's a fascinating race. It's the battle for the Republican Senate nomination there. The primary is also Tuesday Richard. And yes right now a woman named Sharon Angle, former state lawmaker out there; she has the backing of the Tea Party Express and National Tea Party organization and some other conservative groups. They poured a lot of money in to help her out. She's leading most the recent polls suggest. Regardless who wins the Republican will take on Harry Reid, the Senate majority leader he is battling for a fifth term. Polls suggest he has a very tough road to re-election. Richard.

LUI: OK. Let's round this out with Arkansas. There's a runoff going on.

STEINHAUSER: Yes, runoff on Tuesday. This one is fascinating as well. We keep talking about that anti-incumbent feeling out there. Two Senators have already gone down in the primaries, Senator Bennet of Utah and Senator Specter of Pennsylvania. Well Blanche Lincoln, the two term Democrat Senator from Arkansas be next, she faces a very tough runoff on Tuesday against Bill Halter, and he is the lieutenant governor. He has a lot of backing by the unions who are upset with Blanch Lincoln's votes on health care and on a major union issue. We're going to keep our eyes on Blanche Lincoln on Tuesday. Richard.

LUI: Paul Steinhauser in California watching the important races there as well as across the country. Thank you so much Paul.

A college student is getting sued for $750,000 for criticizing a company on Facebook.

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LUI: All right. The next time you think of taking to the Internet to vent, stop and think of Justin Kurtz story. Justin created this Facebook page to express his rage about a Michigan towing company. That company is now suing him for three quarters of a million dollars. The towing company saying that the Facebook rant cost them business and damaged its reputation. The lawsuit is an example of what's called SLAPP which stands for strategic lawsuits against public participation. A strategy that is used to try to quiet people basically.

Justin Kurtz is on the phone from Michigan, he is the gentleman with the car and we also have Mark Goldwitz who joins us from San Francisco, too. He is a director of a group aimed at stopping these SLAPP lawsuits.

I want to start with Justin, Justin you are on the phone. You are the one that had the car that was parked in this parking lot. And just for more background, you said you had a permit to park there. You were still received a ticket of over $100. You did not like to have to pay that amount of money so you went on to Facebook and you posted something. Describe to us what you posted.

JUSTIN KURTZ, FACEBOOK USER (via telephone): Actually, I posted just -- I made a group and posted on there anyone that's had any problems with T & J Towing post what has happened to you here because what I believe happened to me was I was parked in my apartment complex. My vehicle was towed, they broke into my vehicle, took the parking sticker out, that way they can charge me $118 to get my car out of impound.

LUI: Now, I was looking at your page a little earlier. You have 13,000 members. What are you seeing in terms of the reaction so far?

KURTZ: At first, it was reactions about, you know, similar accounts to what happened to people in the area and now it has grown to something much larger. It is more of a freedom of speech issue and a lot of support and, you know, support for, like, anti-SLAPP and first amendment rights and everything like that.

LUI: That's a good segue. Move over to Mark, Mark this SLAPP issue, and describe to us what that is, Justin mentioned that slightly.

MARK GOLDWITZ, DIRECTOR, ANTI-SLAPP PROJECT: It's an acronym for strategic lawsuits against public participation. It's when people are sued because they have exercised their right to petition the government or to speak out on public issues. Like Justin was raising criticisms of a local towing company and set up a website so that other people could share concerns that they had. So it's essentially was a consumer protection service that he was providing and instead of honoring that service, this company is trying to shut him up by a lawsuit. That's a SLAPP.

LUI: So is this a SLAPP lawsuit? Is this considering --

GOLDWITZ: I believe so. I believe so. Under the test that would be applied under the California anti-SLAPP statute, under the proposed federal bill HR 4364 it would be a SLAPP because it's about a matter of public interest and the fact that there are 13,000 members of Justin Kurtz's Facebook page shows that it touched a nerve. The fact that it was on the front page of "The New York Times" earlier this week shows this it's touched a national nerve.

And it appears to me that the lawsuit is - I mean, in "The New York Times" article, the lawyer for the towing company admitted that he didn't know whether Justin's statements had caused damage so he's admitting he doesn't know whether he has a valid lawsuit and yet he has filed it, the purpose is apparently to shut Justin up.

LUI: Mark and Justin we did asked the towing company to join us in this conversation today. They did issue a response and we have that for you right here on your screen. Coming from the towing company and what they are saying is, "We absolutely deny that we did anything wrong. Hauling cars makes people mad and now he has recruited thousands of people that are calling us names and causing financial harm and he has done this with what I believe are false statements." That's comes from Richard Burnham representing T & J Towing. They wish they could join us today. Justin, when you hear the response from the towing company, how do you react that to that?

KURTZ: It's the same response that they have issued every time. Any response to someone saying that they were towed wrongfully their response is, oh, it is just angry college students who don't want to spend their beer money or any response to action employees who came out on a local news station and said, yes, we do take passes out of cars to tow them, his response was, oh, it must be an angry ex- employees who are unhappy about their -- about losing their job or whatever.

LUI: Are you going to fight this, Justin? You are in college and you are 21 years old. What is your plan?

KURTZ: Oh, absolutely. I mean, it's -- I haven't done anything wrong. I posted what happened to me. And they're just trying to shut me up now by a lawsuit and, I mean, I'm not backing down. In fact, you know, now I'm more inclined than ever to participate and, you know, like, getting legislation like this passed. You know, it's really important issue and I never really knew about it until I started the group and now I'm going to try to work to get this legislation passed federally and at least in Michigan.

LUI: Mark, we have 20 seconds here. Doesn't the towing company have an argument here if this is online and other people are looking for towing companies? This could be absolutely harmful to their business.

GOLDWITZ: Well, the American way is if you don't like what someone has said, you have the right to free speech and you can go and put up a website and say T & J Towing against residents against T & J Towing but instead of fighting speech with speech they're trying to shut up the speech by filing a SLAPP and that's why we need federally legislation to protect against that so that people in Michigan and in Texas have the same protections as people in California have and that would be --

LUI: Mark Goldwitz, thank you so much. We have to gold now. Mark Goldwitz giving us his perspective on Justin Kurtz who is involved in this with his own car. Thank you both for this discussion, very, very interesting there.

Islamic groups want to build a mosque in the shadow of ground zero. We will have both sides of that just ahead for you.

And first, we have a look back at some of the big stories defining this week in history.

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LUI (voice over): One year ago in 2009, 88-year-old white supremacist James von Brunn shot and killed a security guard at the U.S. Holocaust Museum in Washington. Von Brunn died earlier this year before he could stand trial.

Twenty five years ago in 1985, socialite Von Bulow was acquitted of charges he tried to kill his heiress wife, Sunny.

Thirty years ago in 1980, comedienne Richard Pryor suffered severe burns while free basing cocaine and almost died.

Ninety years ago in 1920, Republicans nominated Warren G. Harding for president. He promised a return to normalcy after the upheaval of World War I. He was elected the following November.

Two hundred forty years ago, 1770, Captain James Cook discovered Australia's Great Barrier Reef by running into it.

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LUI: Demonstrators staged a rally in New York today to protest plans to build a mosque near ground zero there. Two Islamic groups have announced plans for a 13 story community center including a mosque, a performing arts center and other public spaces. Critics are saying it would be an insult to build a mosque so close to the site of the World Trade Center destroyed by Islamic terrorists on 9/11.

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PAMELA GELLER, CONSERVATIVE BLOGGER: My question is, why there? How could it possibly be seen as outreach to build a mosque at the war memorial that is ground zero? How? It is a kick in the head. I don't understand how it can be turned into this idea of outreach when it is the opposite. It is a triumph. We know that Islamic pattern is to build giant mosques on the cherished sites of conquered lands. We know from research done by sane that four out of five mosques preach hate and preach incitement of violence. We know this.

As I said, it is part of the Koranic text and I think it is in -- it is deeply offensive to build a mosque on the sacred ground of 9/11. There is a piece of the plane in that building. And I think what we need to do; we're going to file a suit with the federal government to designate that building as a war memorial. As a historic landmark like Gettysburg, like Pearl Harbor. There's a piece of plane in that building a to pray next to that is repugnant.

AHMED SOLIMAN, JOURNALIST: A lot of family members of the victims of 9/11 as well as public officials and regular Americans who understand American ideals support this initiative because they understand two crucial points. Fringe groups like Pamela's, what they are doing is number one, spreading the erroneous misinterpretation that the terrorists like al Qaeda want to spread about Islam. And number two, simultaneously feeding the propaganda that al Qaeda uses to recruit which is that America is anti-Muslim. Now, Ms. Geller and her group may be anti-Muslim, but the rest of America, for the most part, is not.

This mosque is a symbol of the 1.5 billion Muslims who respect peace. I mean, remember that people go around in the Muslim world saying peace be unto you as hello and good-bye, let alone the millions of Muslim-Americans, including myself, including my brother-in-law, who's an officer in the air force stationed in Iraq right now, teachers, doctors. These are peace-loving American people. Their relatives overseas are peace-loving American-Muslims.

This mosque provides a place to pray, just like several other mosques in New York City does. For her to say that it's offensive is what's offensive to us.

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LUI: Well, last month, a number of New York political leaders turned out at a demonstration in favor of the mosque.

A three and a half year investigation ends in the arrest of two terror suspects in New York. BP also in the news, of course, today, saying it's pumping more oil out of the Gulf of Mexico but a top government official saying it's too early to declare success there. And veteran journalist Helen Thomas apologizes for controversial remarks about Israel.