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Americans Charged in Terror Case; Testing the Gulf Seafood; Scandal in Japan as Many of Tokyo's Centenarians Found Dead or Missing; Storms in the DC Area Cause Power Outages But Bring Relief from Heat; Buffalo College Professor Claims He Was Fired for Being Straight; Job Losses Greater Than Expected Causing Stocks to Fall
Aired August 06, 2010 - 09:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
RANDI KAYE, CNN ANCHOR: "CNN NEWSROOM" with Kyra Phillips starts right now.
(CROSSTALK)
KAYE: Kyra, you look lovely even though you're not wearing red.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: John, you better keep your hands off that Randi Kaye.
(LAUGHTER)
ROBERTS: Totally. I'm over here on my side of the desk.
KAYE: He's behaving, don't you worry.
PHILLIPS: And change your shirt, please. Thank you very much. Have a great weekend. Bye, guys.
We're going to make a hard turn here because our top story is a killer's chilling last words. Take a listen.
(BEGIN AUDIO, 911 CALL)
UNIDENTIFIED 911 DISPATCHER: We don't want any more-- any more, you know, people to lose their life here.
OMAR THORNTON, GUNMAN: I'm not going to kill nobody else.
UNIDENTIFIED 911 DISPATCHER: OK.
(END OF AUDIO)
PHILLIPS: The dispatcher is calm, remarkable. Maybe saving more lives.
People who are 100 years old and older are missing. The Japanese not wanting to give up their dead or the government checks either.
And a college professor can't. Why? Because he's not gay.
It's 9:00 a.m. on the East Coast, 6:00 a.m. out West. I'm Kyra Phillips. And you're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.
And we begin with the breaking news this morning on a broken economy. We have new evidence of just how feeble the recovery is and how many Americans have nothing to show for it.
The nation's unemployment rate has remained flat at a disheartening 9.5 percent. Just last month, 60,000 jobs vanished. The news is bad but not quite as bad as we expected.
Well, if you have tickets on an Amtrak train going south from Washington, you'll have to change your plans. A CSX Coltrane has derailed in Quantico, Virginia, blocking all tracks.
And that's caused Amtrak to cancel all or parts of the following services. Washington to Newport News, Virginia, New York City to Miami, Charlotte, North Carolina to Savannah, Georgia, and Lorton, Virginia to Sanford, Florida.
Amtrak says that limited alternate transportation will be available on some routes. Amtrak is making calls to passengers with confirmed reservations on the shutdown trains. People's whose trains were stopped in the middle of their trips were pretty frustrated.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I will never ride it again.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Amtrak, never again.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Well, Amtrak is asking passengers who want to know about a specific train to call this number, 1-800-USA-RAIL.
Just when you thought the Lockerbie bomber outrage couldn't be hotter, this comes out today in "The Wall Street Journal."
Remember Scotland let Abdelbaset al-Megrahi go to Libya last year because a doctor said that the prostate cancer that he had would kill him within three months? Well, as you know he's still very much alive.
Now here's the latest outrage. Sources tell "The Journal" that there was no consensus among all those specialists who actually treated Megrahi. Instead the Justice minister went with one doctor's opinion and granted the compassionate release.
Al-Megrahi killed 270 people on that Pan Am flight 22 years ago. We're going to have some venting to do on this issue just a little bit later in the hour.
Americans tied to terror. A man raised as a Baptist in Alabama and now known as a jihadist rock star. A former California resident believed to fight alongside the so-called star in Somalia and listen to this. Two Minnesota women are accused of raising money for terrorists by just asking donors to give to a fund for the poor and needy.
Fourteen people in all have been charged with aiding an al Qaeda linked group.
So who are these people? And how did the feds even track them down?
Let's bring in CNN's Jeanne Meserve to talk about the case -- Jeanne.
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, a new State Department report describes al-Shabaab as one of al Qaeda's most active affiliates. And indictments were unsealed against 14 people who the government alleges are part of a pipeline to that Somali group, funneling funds and fighters.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MESERVE (on camera): Al-Shabaab, a U.S. designated terror group, on the battlefield in Somalia. Among its commanders, U.S. officials say, two of the indicted men -- jihad's Serwan Mostafa and Omar Hammami. Both U.S. citizens.
Hammami has alleged become a propagandist as well. Appearing in jihadi videos.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OMAR HAMMAMI, AL-SHABAAB MEMBER: So the only reason we're staying here, away from our families, away from the cities, away from, you know, ice, candy bars, all these other things, is because we're waiting to meet with the enemy.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
MESERVE: An expert on radicalization calls Hammami a jihadi rock star. A bridge between two cultures.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HAMMAMI: Mortar by mortar, shell by shell. I'm going to stop when I send them to hell.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
FRANK CILLUFFO, HOMELAND SECURITY POLICY INSTITUTE: Someone who has feet in both worlds, fuses his jihadi narrative with the American culture and rap music.
This isn't just someone reciting dusty old texts. This is someone Americans see glimmers of themselves in.
MESERVE: Born and raised in Alabama, Hammami was raised a Baptist but converted to Islam as a young man. His mother tells CNN she hasn't talked to him since 2007 and she doesn't know if he is guilty as accused.
Also unsealed, indictments of 10 men from Minnesota's Somali community. All are believed to be overseas training or fighting with al-Shabaab.
The government hopes the indictments send a message.
ERIC HOLDER, ATTORNEY GENERAL: If you choose this group, you can expect to find yourself in the United States jail cell or to be a casualty on a Somali battlefield.
MESERVE: But the indictments don't reflect the breadth of the homegrown terror problem. Recently four young men from New Jersey, Virginia, and Chicago have been arrested for allegedly trying to travel to Somali to fight.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MESERVE: Also announced the arrest in Minnesota of two women who the government alleged raised money for al-Shabaab. Sometimes through teleconferences. In some instances the government says they misled donors telling them their money would help the poor in Somalia, not wage war.
Kyra, back to you.
PHILLIPS: Jeanne Meserve live in Washington. Jeanne, thanks.
And coming up this hour, Americans disappearing and winding up in a terror war half a world away. We have the heartbreaking story of the family who lost a son then later found a picture of him dead.
Now the chilling call a killer made to 911 just after his rampage at a beer distributor in Connecticut. Omar Thornton shot and killed eight people when he made that call. The dispatcher trying to convince him that he must relax and stop the killing.
(BEGIN AUDIO, 911 CALL)
UNIDENTIFIED 911 DISPATCHER: Now you're going to make the troopers and the people come in and catch you? You're not going to surrender yourself?
THORNTON: Well, I guess. I guess, maybe I'll surrender. Nah, they come and get me. Have them come get me.
UNIDENTIFIED 911 DISPATCHER: Yes, we wouldn't want to do it like that, Omar.
THORNTON: OK. Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED 911 DISPATCHER: You know, it's already been a bad enough scene here this morning. We want you to relax.
THORNTON: I'm relaxed. I'm done.
UNIDENTIFIED 911 DISPATCHER: Yes, we don't want any more -- any more, you know, people to lose their life there.
THORNTON: I'm not going to kill nobody else. UNIDENTIFIED 911 DISPATCHER: OK.
(END OF AUDIO)
PHILLIPS: Thornton eventually killed himself. But did you notice how calm the dispatcher was? Next hour, we're going to talk with the SWAT negotiator about what an amazing job that dispatcher did and how he might have saved even more lives.
It's day 109 of the Gulf oil disaster. And this could well be the beginning of the end. Crews have wrapped up their static kill operation and the cement that they poured into the ruptured well is hardening.
But the work is not over. Crews will continue to drill two relief wells once they reached that pipeline. Within the next week or two they'll pump more cement in through the bottom. The bottom kill operation will serve as an insurance policy.
But even then the disaster will be far from resolved. One federal official warns that tar balls could actually wash ashore for years to come.
Other issue that will decide the recovery of the Gulf is the seafood. How much is tainted? And how willing are Americans to buy it? We're about to share some answers as we go behind the scenes of the government's extensive testing process.
Here's the story now from reporter Chad Petri. He's with our CNN affiliate WKRG out of Mobile, Alabama.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHAD PETRI, WKRG REPORTER (voice-over): What used to be known as the catch of the day is now the scientific sample of the day. This is one of more than a dozen boats bringing seafood for NOAA to test. With a Chain of Custody form in hand, these fish are data, not dinner.
LISA DESFOSSE, NOAA: We need the Chain of Custody form because all the fish are treated as evidence. This is -- this is part of the process that's used for any of the oil spill data that's collected.
PETRI: From there the fish are taken to the lab to be processed into samples. Shrimp are peeled and fish are filleted. Information on where fish was caught is carefully logged. These samples will be sent to Seattle for chemical testing.
This Pascagoula facility focuses on sensory or smell tests. Sniffing for oil in fish is a lot like trying a fine wine.
STEVEN WILSON, CHIEF QUALITY OFFICER: You let the head space build up, you raise it up. And fan it through. Take a little slight sniff. Put it down again. And then let it register before you write that.
It's not just training your senses. It is training your mind to -- to react the same way every time you get that sense. PETRI: With more than 2500 samples gathered since late April, NOAA officials had only one stink of oil. These tests are vital in determining whether or not additional sections of the Gulf can reopen to fishing.
WILSON: Three out of seven fail it. That fish fails. That station fails and most probably that area of water will fail. We will no reopen.
JOHN STEIN, DEPUTY SCIENCE DIRECTOR, NOAA: We hope that we could have the areas open early in September.
PETRI: Fish are also cooked and tasted for oil. NOAA officials say their program is comprehensive and want people to be confident in what they buy.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Well, as the commercial fishermen wait to see how many of the closed fishing areas will be reopened, they know the rebound of the industry depends on something much less scientific. Confidence of the American people.
They say if shoppers and diners remain skittish and don't buy the seafood, the future of their industry will be bleak.
Just after 10:00 p.m. in Tokyo. Do you know where your great grandparents are? Japan is checking on people who are 100 years old or older. For some reason they are disappearing left and right. But their government pensions are not.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Well, we're going to stamp your morning passport now starting in Brazil then Pakistan and Japan. Let's begin in Iran where a woman faces an ancient capital punishment. Death by stoning for committing adultery.
She and her son visited for 10 minutes yesterday. He says that his mother would accept Brazil's offer of asylum if it happens. Iran doesn't seem willing to consider it and Brazil's president apparently hasn't even made the offer official.
Word from Iran is the high court will decide within a week if she'll be stoned or executed some other way.
In Brazil one of the country's most popular soccer players is accused of orchestrating an incredibly grizzly murder plot. Bruno Souza, his wife, an alleged mistress and six others are charged with the murder of Souza's ex-girlfriend who is reportedly trying to prove his paternity of a child before she disappeared back in June.
Her body has never been found. Souza denies any involvement. But his 17-year-old cousin says Souza witnessed her murder and her remains being fed to dogs to conceal that killing. And next stop, Karachi, Pakistan. The death toll there is now 81 from violence linked to a politician's death. One hundred and seventy- eight people have been wounded. The political party leader was shot while attending a funeral Monday. Mobs took the streets after that killing, setting car shops and gas stations on fires.
Now to Japan where people live a long time, where seniors are revered and where the government is frantically trying to find everyone 100 years and older. It's a senior citizen scandal that began when the country learned about a slight problem with Tokyo's oldest man.
Here's CNN's Kyung Lah.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Behind these doors lives Tokyo's oldest man, 111-year-old Sogen Kato. Or so his neighbors thought.
"Even now, I can't believe it," says this man. His 111-year-old neighbor had actually been dead in his house for 30 years. His mummified remains found in a bedroom while his family lived in the rest of the home. City worker Manabu Hajikano helped discover the man's remains.
"The family was hiding the body," he says. "It's outrageous, beyond my imagination."
That case sparked a surge for Tokyo's oldest woman, 113-year-old Fusa Furuya. Investigators traced her to this address, which turned out to be an empty lot.
Her daughter, who was interviewed on numerous Japanese television stations, and remains anonymous says, "I sometimes wonder how she's doing." But she also told reporters she doesn't know where her mother is.
LAH (on camera): The truth now known about Tokyo's oldest man and the mystery surrounding the city's oldest woman have struck a particular nerve in the world's fastest aging population. A country also known for its longevity. The latest government figures show more than 40,000 centenarians live in the country. But now that the government is checking every single one of them, so far 70 are unaccounted for.
LAH (voice-over): The sensational cases have also shown the government's inability to track its seniors. Workers were dispatched at this ward office and nationwide to conduct welfare checks of the eldest citizens.
Police suspect fraud in the case of the mummified remains of Tokyo's oldest man, because the man collected 30 years of his government pension, amounting to tens of thousands of dollars. But in many of the cases of the missing centenarians, the cause may simply be neglect.
"Yes, Japan has changed," says Kazuo Nakajima. He says, "It used to be that children and neighbors cared for the elderly. In Tokyo," he says, "even if you're neighbors, you don't know each other anymore. It's not natural."
A sign after changing social order that comes with new social ills. Kyung Lah, CNN, Tokyo.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: A big cleanup effort under way in the Washington, DC, area. WJLA is reporting a severe thunderstorm pounded that area, knocking out power to thousands of customers. And dozens of trees were down. Some hit houses, cars, some people even suffered minor injuries. Crews are working to clear those roads and get the power back up right now.
From storms to heat, Jacqui Jeras, any relief from the triple digit temps from across the country?
JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes. Some people are getting relief. Thanks to the thunderstorms, really, as the cold front went through.
The mayor of Alexandria, Virginia, outside of the DC area, says that this storm was worse for his city than Snowmageddon. Can you believe that?
PHILLIPS. Wow.
JERAS: Wow.
PHILLIPS: That's a big statement.
JERAS: Yes. That's a lot of trees down. Let me tell that. That cold front is on the move, and that's a little bit of good news. Bringing in some of that heat relief, and it's also triggering some storms across parts of the mid and deep South. And although it's not fun to have some of these thunderstorms, it will drop your temperature by maybe 5, 10 degrees. Even a little bit more, depending what time of the day that hits. And we've been seeing that pushing through the Nashville area as well as across parts of northern Louisiana where some of the worst of it has been.
Let's talk a little bit more about this heat. You know, we've seen some big drops in the temperatures. But advisories remain across parts of the deep South. And one of the reasons why you need to use so much caution is this.
Let me tell you about this story -- and we'll show you a little video of what happened in Kentucky this week. This was in Rowan County. Six football players were at practice. And this was at 10:00 in the morning. They were overcome by the heat and had to be taken to the hospital. Everybody's OK right now, but this is something to keep in mind, that you really need to take breaks, you need to drink a lot of water. It is dangerous situation. Especially when the morning temperatures start out in the 80s. That's what we have been seeing. So, heat advisories from Oklahoma City down towards Dallas, stretching all the way over towards Charleston, South Carolina. It's going to feel like 100 to 110 degrees.
There is some heat relief. Who's getting it? Oh, my gosh. Gorgeous day in Chicago, 81 degrees, 83 in Minneapolis, 80s across the northeast. A couple of comparisons and contrasts for you. One of the best cities that's going to feel the drop today, Kyra, 105 yesterday in Little Rock, Arkansas. How about 91 for today? We'll take that.
PHILLIPS: That's true. Compared to 100 plus, right?
JERAS: Oh, yes.
PHILLIPS: Thanks, Jacqui. A College professor gets the boot from his job. His offense, he says, he was a closet heterosexual. Yes, he says he was a straight man living in a gay world.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Quick check of top stories. No change in the jobless rate. It stayed at 9.5 percent for July. The government lost jobs, mostly laid-off census workers. The private sector added positions.
Admiral Thad Allen calling the completion of static kill a significant milestone. BP has finished pouring cement down the broken well on the way to permanently sealing it.
And the Justice Department has indicted 14 people on charges of helping terrorists in Somalia, including two women seen right here. They are accused of acting as charity solicitors that funded the group through fraud.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Time now to buckle up and hit the road. Here's some of the stories from across the country.
First stop, Louisville, Kentucky. A jury there has found a local woman guilty of extortion. Louisville basketball coach Rick Pitino said that Karen Sypher had demanded millions of dollars to keep their one-night affair a secret. The jury agreed. She faces up to 26 years in prison.
We're staying in the world of academia and lawsuit that claims discrimination. A professor at Trocaire College in Buffalo says that he was fired because of his sexual orientation. He's straight. His colleagues and competitors are gay. He says that made him the odd-man out, so to speak. And a target of discrimination and ultimately dismissed. The state board says there's enough evidence to investigate it.
Jobless in America. Millions of Americans will do anything to get hired, and that includes taking a big pay cut. Some job -- same job, rather, lower pay. It's a new reality that could affect all of us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: The US economy lost more than 130,000 jobs last month, while the unemployment rate held steady at 9.5 percent. So how's Wall Street reacting to the numbers? Let's check in with Felicia Taylor. She's got that for us. Hey, Felicia.
FELICIA TAYLOR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Kyra. You know, we've got a couple of minutes before the opening bell, but futures immediately sank on word that this was a worse number than had been expected. So, naturally, the market doesn't like it. Futures had been trading higher in anticipation that the number was going to pretty much come in line with expectations, that's not what we heard.
The good news is, though, the unemployment rate did hold steady at 9.5 percent. But the number of jobs lost in June was also revised to the downside and considerably so, down about 220,000. That means the employment picture remains pretty dismal across the United States.
On the plus side, though, 71,000 private sector jobs were added. That isn't enough, though, to keep up with population growth. Investors want to see more of this. One of the other things that we're seeing that's a trend is that people are working longer hours for the same amount of pay. There are also plenty of Americans out that are expected to take furloughs, take a day off, without extra pay or without -- and getting docked for that pay, obviously.
But many traders were expecting the jobs number to miss estimates. That could temper selling, as it's already factored in today's trading. We'll find out in just a minute or so.
Away from the news about jobs, we've got some earnings today from AIG. The insurance company posted a second-quarter loss of more than $2.5 billion. That includes a massive charge related to assets that it's selling in order to pay back the huge taxpayer bailout from about two years ago.
The company still owes more than $100 billion. AIG's CEO says that the company is preparing for an exit from the US government control. Investors on word of this pretty much are in favor of that. AIG shares are poised to open higher.
Let's take a look at where the markers are now. As I mentioned, AIG shares are up about one and two thirds percent. The NADSAQ -- excuse me, the Dow right now is off 15 points. The NASDAQ and the S&P are also trading to the downside but not as bad as one might have expected -- Kyra.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: All right, Felicia, thanks. Now when the jobs do start coming back, they may not pay as much. Alison Kosik live in New York. Now that's not such a great news, Alison.
ALISON KOSIK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It really isn't. You know what, Kyra, say good-bye to those fat paychecks and those big promotions. The economists are saying that salary growth has really dramatically slowed since the recession. In fact, over the past year, average hourly earnings have only gone up less than 2 percent and let's face it, with unemployment sitting at 9.5 percent, workers lose their bargaining power.
There's really little incentive for employers to pay more when they've got five people lined up outside the door for every job opening at their company. With so many people out of work right now, prospective employees are really willing to go ahead and take that pay cut just to get back into the work force, to get that job.
Now, we've already seen salaries getting squeezed. Look at this from salary.com, 15 percent of the more than 300 companies that it surveyed have cut wages for employees and half of those have frozen those salaries.
Overall, the government says that salaries have fallen by more than $5 billion in June. We're seeing a trend. Employers are also bringing back temporary or contract workers instead of taking on full-time workers that they have to pay benefits to.
Experts are saying that in the next few years, 40 percent of the work force could be made up of freelancers because here you know there's a lot of uncertainty as to what's going to happen with health care especially. So, you know, companies are less willing to hire people on full time -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: All right, so what's the impact on the economy if this becomes as you basically said the new normal?
KOSIK: Well, I mean, it's the common sense that, you know, people are getting paid less than they are going to spend less. So, if someone was making, let's say, 40,000 bucks before they got cut, and then they found a new job, but it pays $10,000 less that could wind up really hurting the recovery.
And that's because consumer spending drives two-thirds of economic activity and if jobs are paying less, then the spending power of Americans as a whole, it goes down and economists say this trend is going to be with us for while.
The Congressional Budget Office predicts we are not going to get back to 5 percent unemployment until 2016 that's six years from now.
And in this kind of market, experts say that jobs seekers really need to be aware of how marketable they are and their value of pushing that, and be prepared to be flexible to take maybe a lower salary for a good job opportunity -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Alison Kosik, thanks. One of President Obama's top economic advisers is stepping down. Christina Romer was a big supporter of two of the president's most costly initiatives, the controversial stimulus plan and his health care reform.
Romer's resignation takes effect early in the month. She will return to her teaching job at the University of California Berkeley. After serving 2-1/2 year prison sentence for a fatal car crash, he was trying to avoid a Minnesota man is finally free. Lee was driving a Toyota Camry when his brakes went out causing him to crash and kill a family of three in 2006.
The case had been reopened in the wake of Toyota's sudden acceleration programs. Yesterday a judge granted a new trial. Prosecutors decided not to charge Lee. An emotional Lee was thankful to be free, but said living in prison away from his wife and children was a nightmare.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sometimes I dream I wake up still in the little room, but now my dream come true.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Relatives of the three victims had supported Lee's effort for a new trial.
Checking our political ticker, it's official. Gramming-winning hip- hop star Wyclef Jean has formally submitted his paperwork to run for president of Haiti.
He announced his candidacy for the first time on CNN's "Larry King Live." Wolf Blitzer who was filling in for Larry last night. Let's listen in to part of that conversation.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WOLF BLITZER, ANCHOR, "LARRY KING LIVE": What qualifies you to be president of Haiti?
WYCLEF JEAN, HIP-HOP ARTIST: Well, what qualifies me to be president of Haiti, when I look at the past 200 years with what our people have suffered, Wolf, political instability, coup after coup d'etats, I feel that me running, it brings a new tool to the situation.
Meaning that Wyclef is not consent with any political party, have a conversation. I'm coming in neutral. I think 200 years we have suffered the exact same thing and what I'm saying is when you vote for Wyclef Jean, you basically try something new. I represent the voice of the youth, which is 50 over 50 percent of the population.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Jean was born in Haiti, but he left the country as a child and grew up in Brooklyn. He's been active in raising money and awareness to a number of problems facing Haiti including earthquake relief through his charity, Yelle Haiti Foundation.
Back home, Republican Party Chief Michael Steele steps to the podium to deliver a speech today at the party's meeting in Kansas City. He has been under fire lately from fellow Republicans accused of lavish overspending and inadequate fund-raising and numerous verbal gaffes. Somebody even called for him to resign, but Steele says he's staying put.
Congresswoman Maxine Waters pushing for a speedy ethics trial. California Democrat is accused of violating House rules by seeking federal assistance for a bank with financial ties to her husband. During a radio interview, Waters says that she wants the charges against her made public and she wants the ethics panel to hold her trial before the November elections.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REPRESENTATIVE MAXINE WATERS, (D) CALIFORNIA (via telephone): I think it is a due process question. I don't think that you -- you know, allow information to come out from the OCE, the first committee that listens to this or hears this.
They -- this is a committee that's recently formed in Congress. Where they can take complaints from anybody, the newspapers, what have you and they can only hold that report for a year. And I don't think you sit there and let them hold it for a year.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Democratic Representative Charlie Rangel also faces ethics charges in the House.
They say that clothes make the man, but is there one particular color for all those Romeos out there? The one hue that gets women thinking maybe a little more romantically? We'll have it in about 90 seconds.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: What makes him so fine? It could be that clad wardrobe because a new multicultural study out of the University of Rochester shows red is no longer just a sexy color for women.
Women around the world actually say they found men pictured wearing red, they found them more sexually attractive. The study suggests that women consider men in red as higher in status and according to the study's lead author, if that perception that leads to the sexual attraction.
Let's check out the top stories now, Admiral Thad Allen calling the completion of static kill a significant milestone. BP has finished pouring cement down the broken well on the way to permanently sealing it.
If you have tickets today on an Amtrak train going south from Washington, you'll have to change your plans. The CSX Coltrane has railed in Quantico, Virginia, blocking all the tracks. That's caused Amtrak to cancel all or parts of its service.
The Justice Department has indicted 14 people on charges of helping terrorists in Somalia. Two of the accused, these Minnesota women acting as charity solicitors, to fund the group and then also after this video -- the video of the women. There's also video that's out there of the man accused of leading that group originally from Alabama.
From living the American dream to dying in a lawless third world nation as a foot soldier for terrorists. We take a hard look into America's deadly pipeline of exporting home-grown terrorists. My one state is the unlikely breeding ground for extremism.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: For now on Minnesota's apparent pipeline to terrorism. This is a picture of the late Jamal Bana. The 20-year-old Somali American was living in Minneapolis apparently striving to live the American dream.
But something soured Bana who would soon drop from sight until he turns up dead in the streets of Mogadishu, the capital of the anarchy state of Somalia. Thousands of miles away from Minnesota.
His case sadly is not the exception. So what happened to Bana and why? As CNN's Brian Todd reports, U.S, authorities say they are witnessing a disturbing and deadly trend of American citizens seemingly falling prey to extremist ideology.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Jamal Bana was the kind of son a modest immigrant family pins its hopes on, 20 years old, the oldest of seven. A college student studying engineering and preparing to live the American dream.
Then in the fall of 2008, his family says, suddenly with no warning, Jamal disappeared. A few days later, the phone rang. A local community activist who's now with Somalia's office at the U.N. translated for the family.
Somalia violent and deeply horror was the place Jamal's family had fled in hopes of building a better life. Now, he was mysteriously back there. Why?
Through short communications in which Jamal always sounded guarded, the family came to believe this is what he was caught up in. A vicious, chaotic civil war between the Somalia's government and a terrorist group called al-Shabaab, linked to al Qaeda.
Family and friends believed Jamal was recruited to fight with al Shabaab, but that wasn't the worst of it. Omar (Bolay), a close family friend says then came another contact in July of last year and the shock they never dreamed possible.
TODD (on camera): So his father wakes up Saturday morning and someone has told him that there is a picture of his son. What happened?
OMAR BOLAY, BANA FAMILY FRIEND: Yes, through the internet. He was really upset when he saw -
TODD: Jamal Bana.
BOLAY: That's Jamal Bana, yes.
TODD (voice-over): Pictures posted on the internet show a man with a fatal bullet wound to the head. The same man being carried through the streets of Mogadishu.
The parents believe that this is Jamal. The circumstances of his death are unclear. His mother was barely unable to talk about it.
OMAR JAMAL, TRANSLATING FOR ABAYTE AHMED, BANA'S MOTHER: That somebody must have put something in his mind. He must have been somewhat the solution. He didn't have any clue about Somalia at all.
TODD: Who convinced Jamal Bana to go to Somalia?
(on camera): The latest indictment mention as substantial recruiting effort by the terrorist group al Shabaab in immigrant communities across the U.S. More than a dozen young men of Somali descent disappeared from the Minneapolis area alone in recent years.
(voice-over): At least three, including Jamal Bana have wound up dead in Somalia. There was also (Sherwa Akhmed) who blew up himself and 29 others, the first ever suicide bombing by a naturalized U.S. citizen. Minneapolis community activist (Abdirizak Bihi) lost his 17-year-old nephew (Berhan Hasan).
(on camera): Do you know about their methods? How do they do this? Do they come in and talk to these young men inside the mosque, outside? Do they call them on cell phones? Do they kidnap them?
ABDIRIZAK BIHI, NEPHEW KILLED IN SOMALIA: They kidnap them in the sense of mental kidnapping, not physically. But they play a role of a mentor.
TODD (voice-over): The latest indictments hold comfort for families who fled violence and terrorism only to find it followed them.
(on camera): How do you think this family will do from here? He was the oldest.
BOLEY: Last time he was with me, we went home. She doesn't want to hear this story again because she told me whenever I see someone who is talking about my son, I feel bad. I cannot sleep. I get sick. So this happened. Nothing I can do. We pray for him. That's what she says.
TODD (voice-over): Federal officials have told CNN, they can't rule out the possibility that some of the young men involved in this case could be trained to carry out terrorist attacks on U.S. soil. Brian Todd, CNN, Minneapolis.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, just when you thought the Lockerbie bomber's release couldn't be more infuriating, a new twist comes out in "The Wall Street Journal". A new twist of the knife in the backs of his victims' loved ones. How many more times can their hearts be broken?
Sixty five years ago today, the world as we know it would be forever changed as the United States used the first atomic weapon of war, dropping a nuclear bomb on Hiroshima, Japan and for all intents and purposes ending World War II.
Today an annual memorial ceremony in Hiroshima will be attended by a U.S. Ambassador for the very first time in a seeming act of contrition.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Well, here's more proof that the Lockerbie Bomber should never have been released in the first place. That he should have left prison in a body bag. That Scotland's justice minister blew it.
This new twist is a total outrage and it breaks my heart for the victims' families yet again. Remember Scotland let Abdelbaset Ali al- Megrahi go to Libya last year to die because the doctors said he was at death's door?
Well, it turns out al-Megrahi was nowhere near death's door. Matter of fact, he could live another ten years or more. One of the few times people were rooting for cancer to win.
Now sources tell "The Wall Street Journal" that Scotland's Justice Minister Kenny McCaskill went with one doctor's opinion and granted the compassionate release. Could this story get any more infuriating? The minister didn't follow one of the most basic rules for patients, a second opinion.
As a result, a mass killer who is supposed to be dead and in the ground months ago is living the good life in Libya with his family. Just imagine what the victim's families here in the U.S. and the U.K. would give for just one more day, even one more hour, with the loved ones whose lives this terrorist stole.
Yes, the compassion that totally backfired, tell me what you think about it. Are you as livid as many people are? Share your thoughts at CNN.com/kyra.
Now, let's talk about a textbook example of calm during the storm, the storm in this case, a workplace massacre. The killer actually calls 911 and threatens to gun down more people.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
911 OPERATOR: We don't want any more -- any more, you know, people to lose their life here.
OMAR THORNTON, KILLED 8 IN CONNECTICUT: I'm not going to kill nobody else.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ok.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: The dispatcher's words during that madness as calming as the killer's words are chilling.
Next hour we're going to talk with a SWAT negotiator about what an amazing job that dispatcher did and how he might have saved even more lives.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Well, let's talk about Naomi Campbell. You might know her as the supermodel with a bad temper, but did you know this week she was the star witness in a war crimes trial? Campbell testified yesterday in the trial of Charles Taylor.
Let's talk about him. Taylor is the former ruler of Libya (SIC) and is accused of stirring up a civil war across the border in Sierra Leone. This war raged on from 1991 to 2002 and it was brutal. About 50,000 people murdered; civilians, men, women, and children killed, their arms and legs hacked off and tortured in so many other ways. And a lot of the attackers, teenagers forced to kill, rape and plunder and given drugs to make them even more violent.
Charles Taylor believed to be a major player behind all of it. So how did he pay for it? With the region's precious natural resource, diamonds; that's what prosecutors claim.
Ok, so where does Naomi Campbell fit in to all of this? Let's connect the dots or the diamonds in this case. Naomi says that two mystery men gave her rough dirty diamonds back in 1997 in the middle of the night during that war. Campbell assumes they came from Taylor.
Here is why her story is so important. If prosecutors can link Taylor to those diamonds, they could link him to the atrocities. It would help prove that Taylor had contact with the currency that paid for the death and chaos. Taylor has always denied he handled diamonds during that war.
Let's take a closer look now at Campbell's testimony. One of the stars in the courtroom, too, a photograph from that night in 1997.
Here's CNN's Phil Black.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PHIL BLACK, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Naomi Campbell was a reluctant witness.
NAOMI CAMPBELL, SUPER MODEL: Well, I didn't really want to be here, so I was made to be here. So obviously I'm just like wanting to get this over with and then get on with my life. This is a big inconvenience for me.
BLACK: She had been called before the special court for Sierra Leone to explain what happened during and after this get-together 13 years ago. In the middle is the host, then South African President Nelson Mandela. That's music producer Quincy Jones, actress Mia Farrow, and Pakistani cricketer and politician Imran Khan were also there.
Campbell is standing next to the man now facing 11 charges for war crimes and crimes against humanity, former Liberian President, Charles Taylor. Campbell says she sat next to Mandela and didn't talk directly to Taylor.
CAMPBELL: when I'm in Mr. Mandela's presence, Mr. Mandela is my focus.
BLACK: Campbell says she went to bed and was woken in the night.
CAMPBELL: When I was sleeping, I had a knock at my door, and I opened my door, and two men were there and gave me a pouch and said, "A gift for you."
BLACK (on camera): Naomi Campbell told the court she didn't open the gift until morning when she saw some small, dirty looking stones. She didn't know they were diamonds because they are usually shiny and come in a box.
She says her breakfast companions, her agent, Carole White, and the actress Mia Farrow first said they must be diamonds and they must be from Charles Taylor.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What did you think?
CAMPBEL: I just assumed it was.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why?
CAMPBELL: I don't know. I don't know anything about Charles Taylor, I never heard of him before, I never heard of the country Liberia before. I never heard of the term blood diamonds before.
BLACK (voice-over): Charles Taylor watched quietly, but Campbell's evidence didn't satisfy the prosecutor who had called her as a witness.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Isn't it correct that your account today is not entirely truthful because of your fear of Charles Taylor?
CAMPBELL: No, that's not correct.
BLACK: And Campbell's version will be challenged further when her former agent Carole White gives evidence. She's already told prosecutors Campbell flirted with Taylor over dinner, knew the diamonds were coming and was disappointed by the way they looked.
Phil Black, CNN, The Hague.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Amtrak travelers are stuck in stations today. Service south of Washington is canceled after a CSX coal train derailed in Quantico, Virginia. That accident led to a bunch of cancellations. Here are the affected routes if you're waking up this morning and want to head this way: Washington and Newport News, Virginia; New York City to Miami; Charlotte, North Carolina, to Savannah, Georgia; and Lorton, Virginia to Sanford, Florida all canceled.
Amtrak says limited alternate transportation will be available on some routes. Amtrak is making calls to passengers with confirmed reservations on those shut-down trains, but people who were already on other trains when the accident happened had no warning.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sitting on the train for like four or five hours and we had to take the bus. It was delayed a long time, and we're waiting to get on. Hopefully we'll get on.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Miserable. It was horrible. Information was little. They tell you one thing and then they switched it up.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Amtrak is asking passengers who want to know about a specific train to call this number, 1-800-USA-RAIL.
