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Nine Years After 9/11; Four Dead in San Bruno Gas Fire; The Hunt for Bin Laden
Aired September 11, 2010 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: And right now on CNN: nine years after the 9/11 terror attacks, where is the self-professed mastermind? Are we any closer to capturing him? CNN's Nic Robertson investigates the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden.
Their homes blew up around them, shattering lives and possessions. They're looking for some answers now. And tonight, the death toll could rise from the devastating gas explosion in California. We're live at the neighborhood that looks really like a war zone.
And the city of Juarez, Mexico, is a real war zone and the children are not immune. Tonight, the drastic measures being taken to keep children alive in the murder capital of the world.
(MUSIC)
LEMON: Good evening, everyone. I'm Don Lemon.
"9/11: Nine Years Later." At Ground Zero in New York, at the Pentagon and at a quiet field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, solemn ceremonies marked the day hijackers took control of four airliners and took aim at America's political and financial capitals. The nation has changed in so many ways, some of the changes obvious, and others, more subtle.
And today's speakers reminded all of us of what hasn't changed and what will never change: America's commitment to freedom and its founding ideals.
It started as always in New York, a gathering of loved ones, moments of silence and words of comfort and hope. Plus, the readings of the names of those who are lost in the attacks on the World Trade Center towers.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mukul Kumar Agarwala.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Joseph Agnello.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: David --
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: More than 2,700 people died at the site. We would come to know as Ground Zero. Vice President Joe Biden took part today and turned -- he turned to poetry to put the day in perspective.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOSEPH BIDEN, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We come not to mourn, but to remember and rebuild. In the words of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem "The Builders": "All are architects of fate, working in these walls of time; some with massive deeds and great, some with ornaments of rhyme. Nothing useless is, or low; each thing in its place is best. And what seems but idle show, strengthens and supports the rest."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: And New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg took office not long after the 9/11 attacks. Today, he offered words of comfort and a promise for the future.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAYOR MICHAEL BLOOMBERG, NEW YORK: We have returned to this sacred site to join our hearts together with the names of those we loved and lost. No other public tragedy has cut our city so deeply. No other place is as filled with our compassion, our love and our solidarity. It is with the strength of these emotions, as well as the concrete, glass and steel that is brought in day by day, that we will build on the footprints of the past, the foundation of the future.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: The thousands of friends, families and others who turned out for today's event in New York remembered their loved ones in a variety of ways, some even taking note of the military's role in the events that followed the attacks.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: For myself, I ask that god bless all who share this sorrow, for now you and our troops are the victims.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: And President Barack Obama took part in today's ceremonies at the Pentagon. He laid a wreath at the site where American Airlines Flight 77 struck the building and killed 184 people. He talked about the reasons for today's ceremonies and why it's so important to remember.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We gather to remember this sacred hour on hallowed ground. Places where we feel such grief and where our healing goes on. We gather here at the Pentagon, where the names of the lost are forever etched in stone. We gather in a gentle Pennsylvania field, where a plane went down and a tower of voices will rise and echo through the ages. And we gather where the Twin Towers fell, a site where the work goes on so that next year, on the 10th anniversary, the waters will flow in steady tribute to the nearly 3,000 innocent lives.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: At the Pentagon's memorial, family members got a chance to remember their loved ones and to share their feelings on this anniversary.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARY KOMONGNAN, SISTER DIED IN THE PENTAGON ATTACK: My feelings are warm, it's sad, but yet it's honoring to know that she gave her life for a time or for our country. And to know that the person that she was -- loving and caring -- that we stand here today to memorialize her.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: In Shanksville, Pennsylvania, first ladies, Michelle Obama and Laura Bush, were among those that gathered at the site of a future memorial to the passengers and crew of United Flight 93. Forty passengers and crew died in Shanksville and their names were read aloud at today's ceremony. The current and former first ladies talked about courage and how the passengers who boarded as strangers came together to battle the hijackers.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)
MICHELLE OBAMA, U.S. FIRST LADY: For them, putting others before themselves was nothing new, because they were veterans and coaches and volunteers of all sorts of causes. And to this day, they remind us not just by how that he gave their lives, but by how they lived their lives. That being a hero is not just a matter of fate. It's a matter of choice.
LAURA BUSH, FORMER FIRST LADY: This peaceful place was not chosen by the terrorists. They had other targets for their violence and hate. This spot was chosen by the passengers of Flight 93, who spared our country from even greater horrors.
(END VIDEO CLIPS)
LEMON: Mrs. Obama and Mrs. Bush also met privately with families of those who died at the Shanksville site.
You know, it's not just a day of mourning for some, but also a day of protest. At the center of the controversy, the mosque and community center proposed two blocks from Ground Zero. Opponents held a rally demanding the project be moved out of respect. Some family members of 9/11 victims were on hand for that event.
Earlier in the day, mosque supporters held their own rally, defending the religious freedom of Muslims to worship at the site. The police keep the rallies separated and say there were no incidents reported. Today's anniversary was supposed to be a day a Florida pastor burned the Koran as a statement against Muslim radicals. But Pastor Terry Jones announced this morning he won't burn the Koran now or in the future. Jones says he changed his mind after going to New York to meet with the imam behind the proposed Islamic center near Ground Zero. It is not clear if that meeting happened. We'll follow-up.
A relentless search is underway in San Bruno, California, right now for two people missing after the neighborhood was burn to the ground. Four people were killed when an underground gas pipe ruptured and ignited. Residents want to know whether PG&E could have prevented this especially since residents say they smelled gas for days before that blast. A meeting for neighbors was held this afternoon.
California's acting governor expressed his frustration after touring the scorched neighborhood today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LT. GOV. ABEL MALDONADO (R), CALIFORNIA: Here at the incident, everything seems to be moving slow and I'm trying to expedite it because we do want to hear what happened.
If there was odor and people reported it, I want to know to who. Was it the fire chief? Was it the state of California? Was it PG&E? And if they did report it, why wasn't there any action?
So, those are the questions that I'm asking on a daily basis and I hope that real soon, I have some answers to the public.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Governor Schwarzenegger is out of town.
Seen from overhead, the fires' impact is clear. Homes incinerated and left in ashes.
Our Ted Rowlands joins us now from San Francisco, that suburb in San Francisco with the very latest.
They want some answers there, Ted?
TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, Don. They want answers. And this meeting is answering some of those questions.
But a lot of residents are frustrated because there's a sense of uneasiness. How did the explosion take place?
And with all of these reports of people smelling gas, it's just fueling the speculation that things might not be safe in the future, either here or in other places. And quite frankly, there aren't a lot of answers at this point and the investigation is moving along.
We do have some new video that we just received. It really gives you a sense of how much impact this blast had. It is from inside a grocery store, Lunardi's grocery store, which is about a quarter mile away from the blast site.
And if you watch this video, you can see -- although you don't see the actual explosion, you see the reaction of the customers and the staff inside this grocery store. First, they don't seem to know what's going on and then the impact of the blast clearly hits them. People are running towards the exits, some people are hitting the ground.
It is real chaos inside that store. It really does give you a perspective of this blast.
We also got another perspective of the area where the blast took place. Today they took us in and we got a better look at the actual pipe and the actual area that was impacted by this explosion. And you can see, these homes just completely flattened -- some of them in a matter of minutes, just completely gone because of the impact of all of this.
We heard from the Lieutenant Governor Abel Maldonado and his frustrations echoing the people's frustrations here.
Senator Barbara Boxer was also on site here. And after she took a tour, she had some of the same types of comments that Maldonado had. Take a listen to her.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. BARBARA BOXER (D), CALIFORNIA: Many questions must be answered by all of us whose job it is to protect our people. What was the cause of the blast? Of course, first and foremost. Were there reports that there were odors escaping from the pipeline? If there were those reports, what actions took place in response to those complaints?
Were emergency systems such as water supply up to the task? Was the gas flow shut down as quickly as possible? Does danger lie in similar pipelines in populated areas? Is there enough monitoring going on?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROWLANDS: Well, PG&E is -- says they're very transparent and they have been accessible, but they just don't have a lot of answers right now. Part of the problem, Don, is they haven't been given full access to this pipe until the last few hours because the scene has been declared a crime scene and the investigation into the fact that there are still some missing folks there is going on.
So, people's frustration is coming out but PG&E says they will get to all of this. They haven't gone back and look at the records and they say, in the month of September, the nine days that they've looked at so far -- the first nine days -- they haven't -- they didn't have any reports of people reporting this odor.
LEMON: Yes. So, listen, I want to ask you this.
ROWLANDS: Yes. LEMON: I spoke to you earlier and there was a neighborhood meeting that was about to happen. What did you hear about that meeting -- happened at the meeting, Ted?
ROWLANDS: Basically, people were given a chance to ask questions. We heard basically the same questions that have been asked. When are we going to find out if the neighborhood is safe? When are we going to get back into the homes?
PG&E had somebody there. There were local politicians. And we didn't get any more answers. We just got the same basic questions so far.
In the coming days, they will be able to get back into their homes and PG&E says, in the coming days, they'll have more answers. But, clearly, some residents are frustrated at the speed of all of this -- because really, it is so unclear how this could have happened.
LEMON: What exactly happened? They want -- as we've been saying over and over, they want some answers and understandably so.
Ted Rowlands, thank you very much.
We're going to get back to our top story right now because it's the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks and we're going to take a look at the search for Osama bin Laden. Our Nic Robertson will tell us if the trail has gone cold for the man behind the September 11th attacks.
And you've heard all the controversy over the Grand Zero mosque. But did you -- did you know there's another church near the site that's having trouble rebuilding?
Don't just sit there. We want you to be part of this newscast, part of the conversation tonight. Make sure you join us on Twitter and Facebook. And check out or blog, CNN.com/Don. Also, check us out on Foursquare as well.
We're back in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: Nine years to the day, the man behind the attacks on September 11th remains free. Osama bin Laden, today, has a $27 million bounty on his head.
CNN's Nic Robertson shows us how the head of al Qaeda has eluded capture and assassination through the years.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Late in 2001, U.S. bombs fell on Tora Bora in Afghanistan, al Qaeda's last holdout. Osama bin Laden escaped. His whereabouts, until now, thought to be a mystery.
PAUL CRUICKSHANK, CNN TERRORISM ANALYST: There was an ability in western intelligence to track his movements for a number of years to identify the people that he was meeting, to identify his role in certain plots.
ROBERTSON: CNN terrorism analyst, Paul Cruickshank, has new information on bin Laden's movements from a former senior European intelligence official who had an informant close to the al Qaeda leader.
CRUICKSHANK: Western intelligence was able to actually draw up a map between 2003 and 2004 of where bin Laden was moving around.
ROBERTSON: The new information reveals this video would have been no surprise for intelligence agencies. The informant was telling them bin Laden was quickly regrouping al Qaeda leaders -- even meeting with the 9/11 mastermind, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed before his arrest in 2003.
CRUICKSHANK: He starts to communicate again with some of his top al Qaeda lieutenants. He meets with Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in the period after 9/11. He meets frequently with Ayman al-Zawahiri.
ROBERTSON: But despite the flow of information from the Pakistan- Afghan border, there were immense frustrations. The source was unable to obtain actionable information on bin Laden's movement and the al Qaeda leader kept on the move constantly.
CRUICKSHANK: The closest they got was a sort of a week away from where he was. So, they were never able to call in a strike.
ROBERTSON: By 2006, bin Laden seemed to be settling down. His video and audio messages were more frequent and he was clearly more comfortable. And for reasons unknown, the informant's intelligence dried up.
But contrary to conventional wisdom that bin Laden's trail is dead, Cruickshank's source says otherwise.
CRUICKSHANK: It's unclear what the quality of the intelligence that's coming in. But there is intelligence on his movements which continues to come in and being analyzed all the time.
ROBERTSON: Indeed, the source says the evidence suggests that all these years later, bin Laden and Zawahiri are still in close communication, directing al Qaeda, and often, not far apart. The trail has not gone entirely cold.
Nic Robertson, CNN, London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: A new generation of leaders to follow Osama bin Laden. Tonight, a CNN special report shows us who they are. Stay tuned for "Bin Laden's New Jihadists." Tonight at 8:00 Eastern, only here on CNN.
We're going to get right back to the Ground Zero story in just a moment after -- marking today's ceremonies in just a bit.
And children being trained to survive armed attacks on a school -- you'll see where it's happening.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: We want to check our top stories right now on CNN.
America remembers 9/11 nine years later. At New York's Ground Zero, at the Pentagon and in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, people gathered to honor the almost 3,000 people who died in the terrorist attacks. At the Pentagon, President Obama urged Americans not to succumb to fear and to remain true to the nation's values.
The camera on the dashboard of a police car gives a front row view to a bus hijacking. Officers in Kansas City, Kansas, say the hijacker forced the driver off the city bus Friday morning. Our affiliate, KSHB, reports another six people escaped before the man took of alone. Officers arrested him about 30 minutes later when a tire on the bus caught fire ending that chase.
Pakistan is bracing for more rain as a monsoon retreats for the country. And despite the new downpours, at least one river's expected to fall from high to medium-flood level. The floods have left 10 million people without shelter. The United Nations calls the disaster the worst it has ever faced.
Every child has been through one during the school year, the fire drill. Remember that? But at one school in Mexico, students are practicing gunfire drills. That's right. They're learning what to do when bullets start flying. It's just another disturbing signs for Juarez, labeled "the American murder capital of the world," because of the war among drug cartels.
CNN's Rafael Romo has that story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RAFAEL ROMO, CNN SR. LATIN AMERICAN AFFAIRS EDITOR (voice-over): At the blow of a whistle, children immediately drop to the ground and cover their heads. This is not a physical education exercise. For these children in Juarez, the most violent city in Mexico, it's a lesson that may save their lives.
"We teach them not to run," says this police officer in charge of the training, who adds that the most important thing is for kids not to panic and start running in all directions.
The security program was created earlier this year after a man was shot to death just outside a school. The school now looks like a military (AUDIO BREAK) bars all around it and barbed wire over its walls.
This father of a student at that school says that the shooting happened during recess, when some parents bring snacks to their children and students get out to the playground. "Somebody could have been killed by a stray bullet."
The school principal is grateful that, so far, no child has been killed or wounded in spite of the frequent violence around schools.
"It is very unfortunate that our children nowadays have to live in this environment," says this school principal who fully supports the security training program.
(on camera): There was some controversy surrounding the program when the governor of the state of Chihuahua where Juarez is located said it sent the wrong message. But school officials say their priority is to keep children safe and this program may do just that, if shooting erupts just outside the classroom.
Rafael Romo, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: All right. Rafael, thank you.
You've heard the controversy over the threats to burn the Muslim holy book. Well, ahead, two men, one Muslim and one Christian, talk about the debate and what it means to people of both faiths.
And the church destroyed on 9/11 fights to rebuild. Why the congregants say they're not getting enough help.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: You know, there's no ignoring the debate over the proposed Ground Zero mosque, but there is a fight that's been going much longer over another place of worship, one that once stood in the shadow of the towers.
Our Mary Snow looks in to why the reconstruction project is still in limbo.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is the last known image of St. Nicolas, moments before the South Tower of the World Trade Center collapsed, crushing the church. Leaders of the tiny Greek Orthodox Church were able to salvage only a few items.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is a place for St. Nicolas, and it is no more.
SNOW: Along with prayer came a vow to rebuild the small church that was home to about 70 families, but nothing's happened.
(on camera): Nine years later, you look around and see all this construction, and St. Nicolas is nowhere to be found. How hard of a struggle has this been?
PETER DRAKOULIAS, ST. NICOLAS CHURCH EXECUTIVE BOARD: It's been trying to say the least. There's no doubt about that. I think from day one, we recognized we were a very small piece of a very large puzzle. We still have hope that we'll be rebuilt, on the original site, but to be honest, at this point in time, it's probably the most frustrating it's been.
SNOW (voice-over): Frustrating, says Peter Drakoulias, a board member from St. Nicolas, because the church's location is at the Ground Zero site and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is overseeing construction there.
Rebuilding includes using public money. Years of negotiations have gone nowhere. And with so much focus on the proposed Islamic site near Ground Zero, the plight of St. Nicolas has gone virtually unnoticed.
(on camera): Does it bother you that Christians have come out against that community center but not in support of your church?
DRAKOULIAS: No. The Cordoba House and St. Nicolas are two entirely separate issues.
SNOW (voice-over): Separate issues, yes. But church leaders recently stood with politicians opposed to the Islamic center to draw attention to the stalemate, saying the Port Authority stopped negotiating.
BISHOP ANDONIOS OF PHASIANE, CHANCELLOR, GREEK ORTHODOX ARCHDIOCESE OF AMERICA: It's unfortunate that it took a controversy over a mosque to bring attention to the St. Nicolas Church.
SNOW: But the Port Authority has a very different version of events, saying it was St. Nicolas that rejected its offer of a new site.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What the question always was, was whether tens of millions of public dollars should be spent to move the site to a different location on the World Trade Center site to build a church six times the size of the original church, and to make sure that any arrangement for that did not further delay the World Trade Center site.
SNOW: The church says it wasn't demanding so much space.
(on camera): There are some people who say this is all about money, that you want more money. What do you say to them?
DRAKOULIAS: If it's all about money, and we wanted money, we would have taken deals offered to us decades ago for St. Nicolas to move somewhere else. It's never been about money.
SNOW: What is it about?
DRAKOULIAS: It's about building honor near our original site, the birth right that St. Nicholas has to go back to that site where it was for 85 years prior to 9/11. Plain and simple.
SNOW (voice-over): The Port Authority says the church has always retained the right to rebuild on the original site but at this point, work would have to begin in 2013, after construction is complete at the site. The church says its holding out hope something can be worked out before then.
Mary Snow, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: This just in to CNN. As we told you at the top of this broadcast, the death toll in that San Bruno gas explosion on Thursday could be go. We're being told now by San Bruno Police that it's gone up from four to six people. Four people to six people. Two people were found amid the debris just moments ago.
Again, the San Bruno Police saying death toll in that gas explosion in that suburb of San Francisco, gone up to six now. We're awaiting a news conference with the NTSB to get more information on this. So make sure you stay tuned here to CNN.
In the meantime, it looks like an American woman with cancer may now be staying behind bars. We've got the latest on what the Iranian government is saying about Sarah Shourd's possible release.
And President Obama went back to school today to do his part on this national day of service.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: Let's talk more about something that's been causing a lot of controversy. The Florida pastor. His name is Terry Jones, he created an uproar really when he announced that he planned to burn the Koran. Well, this morning he said he was canceling those plans to the relief of many.
While the act itself would be despicable, the reaction to it was what word President Obama and also military leaders, what is it that nearly guarantees Muslim radicals will commit violence if they see someone burning the Koran? And is it the same as burning the Bible?
And to talk about all this, we have the Reverend Jim Wallis. He is the president and CEO of Sojourners, the largest network of social justice Christians in the United States. And also Imam Plemon El- Amin, who leads the Atlanta Masjid of Al-Islam and he is also a campus imam, Emory University. Thank you very much for joining us.
Listen, we have some developing news and I want to talk to Reverend Wallis about. I understand that the reverend behind this controversy met with some religious leaders today in New York. Can you tell us who he met with and what went on?
REV. JIM WALLIS, CEO SOJOURNERS: Well, first of all, Don, I'm feeling very hopeful tonight because here was this very fringe character, a pastor in Florida that frankly, I don't know anyone who knows him. A very small congregation and he made a very shameful threat and it rocketed around the world. But the faith community mobilized and united to try to stop this from happening, as did politicians on both sides.
And it was stopped. And today a phone conversation occurred between a number of Christian leaders, many evangelical leaders and this pastor, a very constructive conversation, again re-affirming the commitment that the Koran will not be burned by this pastor and really causing some real reflection, I think, on both sides.
So I'm pleased that a real unified response occurred. This was not Christian faith. This was a shame of Christian faith. Jesus would never do things like this.
(CROSSTALK)
LEMON: Did he meet with the imam behind this? Did he meet with Feisal Abdul Rauf?
WALLIS: No, no. There would be no reason that Terry Jones should meet with Imam Feisal Rauf. I mean, there's no connection between what Pastor Jones said he would do and Feisal Rauf. I spoke with Feisal Rauf and many of us, he's spending his whole life talking to Christian leaders, Jewish, Muslims - he's a bridge-builder as opposed to a Koran burner.
LEMON: And reverend, I want the imam here in Atlanta to get in on this. What do you make of this meeting that he has talked about this reverend meeting with the leaders in New York?
IMAM PLEMON EL-AMIN, ATLANTA MASJID OF AL-ISLAM: Well, I agree with Reverend Jim Wallis that there was no need. I mean it's two different things. And Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, as Jim has mentioned, has been always a moderate and a bridge-builder. And he would have met with him but they'll really are on two totally different levels. So it wasn't necessary for them to meet. But - and it shouldn't have been connected whether he burns the Koran or not. It shouldn't be connected with the New York part, the situation.
LEMON: Here's what I want to ask you. Explain about the burning of Koran, why that would have led to such violence that leaders of our country believe that.
EL-AMIN: Well, it's not necessarily violence. But it is - it would be a sacrilegious move and Muslims - over a billion Muslims around the world regards the Koran as being the sacred word of god and it's such a total disrespect that it really puts America in that position, just as when people here extremists in Islam, chanting "death to America." They think that all Muslims are like that. And when Muslims hear of a preacher getting ready to burn the Koran, then they begin to think that all Americans or all Christian are like that.
LEMON: It's not the same reaction as someone burns a bible or burns a flag?
EL-AMIN: Yes.
LEMON: It's not the same violent reaction?
EL-AMIN: Muslims, we regard the Koran as the word of god. Not something that was written by the Prophet Mohammed or written by anyone else, but revealed by god and the sacred scriptures in there, if the reverend had read the Koran before he said he never touched it he hadn't read it, he would see some of the most beautiful scripture about Jesus Christ. LEMON: I understand what you're saying but how does that explain the violence. What happens by burning what is essentially -
(CROSSTALK)
LEMON: It's a book but you believe -
EL-AMIN: Here's the theological connection which you know, I don't know if everybody is ready for theologians to understand this that as Christians look at Christ, Jesus as being a word from god, Muslims look at the Koran as being a word from god. So I'm not talking about burning a crucifix. I'm talking about what you burn, Christ Jesus and Muslims regard it on the same level as you burning the Koran. That you're burning the word of god.
WALLIS: Don, Don -
LEMON: Go ahead, Reverend.
WALLIS: This pastor said, "I wanted to send a message." And the message was one of hate, hatred. And so Christian said, "No. This is not our faith. It doesn't resemble our faith. Shame on you for doing this." I'll tell you, Don, Christians would be upset if people burned the Bible. But I think this pastor was, in effect, burning our Bibles, too, because he was burning the teachings of Jesus. He was disregarding what Jesus said and did.
And so the Koran-burning was like a Bible burning at the same time but he was an extreme marginal figure and the good news is the center came together across the boundaries and said, "this is not faith. This isn't our faith." This is what I'd like. I'd like CNN to cover the thousands of interfaith conversations and service projects that I see all the time, that don't get much attention. What gets attention is a marginal figure, threatening a hate crime and that gets attention.
The extremes from caves of Afghanistan or Florida pastors are the ones that get the attention. But in the middle a lot of people are coming together in very hopeful ways.
LEMON: And there is some truth to that. I'm sure a lot of people would like to see many things covered. But we do have to cover here in the news what people are talking about and people are interested in this and it has created a controversy as we're talking about from the mosque situation to this. So you cannot deny its news value.
But the interesting thing is what I haven't gotten and what I don't understand and maybe it's just me and my thick head of why religion is supposed to be about peace, right? Let's say some knucklehead wants to burn a Bible or burn a Koran, then why would that spark violence? Why wouldn't it be a peaceful, say, turn the other cheek in a sense? I'm going to let you, Reverend, respond to that and I'm going to let you, imam, respond to it.
WALLIS: You know, again, what I'm saying, in the middle of the country, in the middle of our hearts and our faith, people are responding in just that way. But as you say, it's what people are talking about. People talk about things they hear on TV. I mean, six months ago the mosque was not a controversy.
LEMON: OK. Go ahead.
(CROSSTALK)
WALLIS: It was a cultural center. Daisy Kan (ph), his wife, said her concern a few months ago is whether there would be enough stroller space in the cultural center.
LEMON: Yes, I heard that interview was from Christiane Amanpour (INAUDIBLE)
(CROSSTALK)
LEMON: Hang on. You got to be respectful of the time here reverend because we got someone else who needs to - go ahead, imam.
EL-AMIN: I agree with Reverend Jim Wallis in that what has - the response has been Muslims, Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, (INAUDIBLE) all people coming together and saying this is just not an act that any of us can support and we can't stand by and let it be done. But the other point though, Don, that you might register with you is that freedom of speech. We understand it. And you can do this - the freedom of expression. You can be free to be ignorant here in America.
But you still don't holler out "fire" in a theater. OK. Now, here's the world theater that this man is saying he would burn a Koran and to the rest of the world, the Muslim world, one billion strong, it's like hollering "fire" in a world theater. And so, people are responding by running over each other and those kinds of things.
LEMON: Very good response. And I think what we all need to do, if I may insert my opinion here for a bit, we need to step back. And for people who have some question about it, not about the burning the Koran, but also about the proposed cultural center, not say that people who have some question about it are anti-Islam or anti-Muslim and the same thing on the other end.
EL-AMIN: The question can be there but would it be there if it was a church or a Jewish -
LEMON: We need to have that conversation.
EL-AMIN: The Muslim world really appreciates people like Reverend Jim Wallis to come forward and take such a strong stand on what's right.
LEMON: Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you. I love having this conversation. I wish we could go longer. And thank you, Reverend. We appreciate you joining us.
WALLIS: Time to take a breath, Don. You're right. Time to take a breath on all these.
(CROSSTALK)
LEMON: Thank you very much.
I want to check our top stories right here on CNN.
This one is just in to CNN. We're talking about San Bruno, the police say they've found two more bodies after that gas line fire, south of San Francisco. The latest discoveries bring the death toll from the fire to six people killed.
Earlier, President Barack Obama called California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to express his condolences for the tragic loss of life in San Bruno.
Iran calls off the release of one of the three American hikers it is holding. At first the Iranian officials said they would let Sarah Shourd go this weekend. But then prosecutors stopped it saying she hasn't gone through the complete court process needed to release her. Iran detained Shourd and two other Americans for allegedly straying over the border from Iraq more than a year ago. Iran accuses them of spying.
Six people are dead after a man in Mount Carmel, Kentucky killed five people before turning the gun on himself. Among the dead are the gunman's wife and stepson. Police say the shooting followed a domestic dispute in a mobile home in rural eastern Kentucky near Jackson. The victims names and ages have not been disclosed.
Army Staff Sergeant Salvatore Giunta is going to receive the nation's highest award for valor. Giunta is the first living recipient from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to earn the Medal of Honor. He helped to save one soldier during a Taliban attack in Afghanistan and saved another as two Taliban fighters were capturing him. About 3,400 Medals of Honor have been awarded since the civil war.
Time for a CNN "Equals Politics" update. Here's tracking the headlines on the CNN.com political ticker and here's what's crossing right now.
President Obama today commemorated the national day of service and remembrance of the 9/11 attacks with a visit to a D.C. area middle school. He even picked up a paint roller, helping out with a repainting project.
A new poll finds Republican nomination for New York governor is extremely tight. The Sienna College survey gives former congressman, Rick Lazio, a one-point lead over businessman Carl Paladino, 43 percent to 42 percent. The primary is Tuesday. And as a result, finally, in the months since Democratic primary in Vermont, CNN has confirmed tonight that Peter Shumlin has won the nomination. The former lieutenant governor Doug Racine conceded the race on yesterday. And unofficial recount results show that Shumlin defeated Racine by just 203 votes.
And for all the latest political news, make sure you logon to CNN politics.com.
At the top of the hour, a special report here on CNN. We investigate "Bin Laden's New Jihadists." We'll look at new Al Qaeda leaders who have emerged. Who are these men? Any why do they preach this message of hate?
Our Drew Griffin investigates, coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: He's still the world's most wanted man, we're talking about Osama Bin Laden. He is the man who is behind the 9/11 attacks. We're looking at a live picture now of New York City and Ground Zero and you see those lights going up where those towers used to be. The Freedom Towers as they call them now.
A beautiful shot of New York City on this somber and solemn occasion, the ninth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. You know, the Al Qaeda network supposedly carried out the attacks on 9/11, yet Osama Bin Laden, has slipped through the fingers of authorities time and time again, free to spread his message of terror and now a new generation of radicals following him, following in his footsteps.
Our Drew Griffin is taking a look at Bin Laden's legacy. It's a special tonight called at 8:00 p.m. Eastern. It's called "Bin Laden's New Jihadist." And Drew joins us with some details. It's going to be a very interesting hour especially on this anniversary. Why haven't we caught him?
DREW GRIFFIN, CNN SPECIAL INVESTIGATIONS UNIT: You know, that's going to be the number-one question. When and if we ever find out what happened to Osama Bin Laden. And I speak of that not knowing whether he is dead or alive. Basically, this guy has disappeared. He was villain number one in the world after 9/11. We almost had him. He got away and now he's slipped somewhere into the hills, we believe, of Pakistan.
But he's just not found, Don, and the question we're asking is, does he even matter anymore? Is he relevant?
LEMON: Well, real quickly, let's talk about this. He has to have a lot of friends if he is alive. To have the full force of the U.S. military looking for him in other countries and not be found, he has got a lot of friends over there and that says something about the war that we're fighting.
GRIFFIN: Yes, I think he does. He's a very sympathetic figure to a lot of people. He has got a $25 million bounty on his head in one of the poorest parts of the world. People who could use that money. So obviously he has such loyalty that no one is turning him in. He must be being helped and hidden.
LEMON: I have to ask you real quickly because I have to run, Drew, do people think that he will ever be caught?
GRIFFIN: Not likely. We have a new CNN poll out that shows that 67 percent of Americans now believe Osama Bin Laden will never be captured or killed. This has gone up every year since 9/11, up 10 points in just the last year that he will not be captured. LEMON: And at the top of the hour, Drew, good to see you. Thanks for coming in here. I can't wait to see this. "Bin Laden's New Jihadists" airing in just a few minutes, that's 8:00 p.m. Eastern, right here on CNN, at the top of the hour. Make sure you stay tuned.
You know, nine years after 9/11, America remembers the horror of that day and the men and women who died. Ahead some of the ceremonies at Ground Zero, at the Pentagon, and at Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: Returning now to the story that changed the nation nine years ago today. What happened on September 11th, 2001, was on the minds of Americans from coast to coast today.
CNN's Sandra Endo shows us how the victims and the heroes were honored.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SANDRA ENDO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The sound of the bell marks 8:46 a.m. when American Airlines Flight 11 hit the north tower of the World Trade Center. And the nation was changed forever.
At ground zero where work continues on a permanent memorial, mourners gathered Saturday to pay tribute to the nearly 3,000 lives lost on September 11th, 2001, when 19 hijackers took over four commercial airliners and those planes crashed into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
In Washington, President Obama laid a wreath for the 184 victims who died at the Pentagon.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This is a day of remembrance, a day of reflection.
ENDO: And in Shanksville, first lady Michelle Obama and former first lady Laura Bush prayed in remembrance for the 40 victims who perished aboard United flight 93.
(on camera): This open field is where the plane crashed here in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Construction is under way for a permanent memorial and they hope the first phase will be completed by the 10th anniversary of this tragic day.
(voice-over): Meanwhile, a Florida pastor announced his church will definitely not mark the anniversary by burning copies of the Koran. The Reverend Terry Jones has traveled to New York in the hopes of convincing the developers of a planned Islamic center to move their project away from its current location blocks from Ground Zero.
In Shanksville, I'm Sandra Endo.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: "Bin Laden's New Jihadists" airing in just a few minutes at 8:00 p.m. Eastern here on CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: Now for a little news you might have missed throughout the week. Remember Rodney King, the man whose 1992 beating at the hands of Los Angeles Police got nationwide attention? Well, he is marrying a juror from his civil trial against the city. Reports say that King is engaged to Cynthia Kelly, who was on the jury when King successfully sued the city two years after he was beaten. The jury awarded king $3.8 million. The two reportedly met for pizza shortly after the trial but only got back together just a few months ago.
I'm Don Lemon at the CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta. I'll see you back here at 10:00 p.m. Eastern. In the meantime, "Bin Laden's New Jihadists" begins right now.
