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Terror Suspect in "Secure Location"; FBI Shuts Down Online Drug Market; Record Rain Hits Kentucky; Markets Slide on Debt Ceiling Fears; Arrests in SUV-Biker Clash
Aired October 07, 2013 - 10:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for being with me this morning.
We are learning more about suspected al Qaeda operative Abu Anas al Libi, who was captured in a daring special OPS raid on Libya's capitol. He's accused of playing a role in a 1980 bombing of the U.S. embassies in Africa, 220 people were killed. His wife though says those charges are bogus. Remarkably though she does not deny his connections to Osama bin Laden.
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UMM ABDUL RAHMAN, WIFE OF ABU ANAS AL LIBI (through translator): I'm sure of what I'm saying. He did not take part in any bombing anywhere in the world. He participated in the jihad in Afghanistan. He was a member of al Qaeda and he was personal security for Osama bin Laden. That's true. But he did not take part in any operation.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: So the question is what happens to him now. CNN's Joe Johns is in Washington to tell us. Good morning Joe.
JOE JOHNS, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning Carol. Abu Anas al Libi is being held on board a U.S. Navy vessel in the Mediterranean. He's expected to be interrogated for anywhere from several days, to several weeks by what's called the high value detainee interrogation group. This is FBI agents, there are intelligence community officials and there are obviously military people. It's led by the National Security Council.
This is a situation where the target doesn't get read his rights. He's not treated with the protections of a civilian defendant at that time. And basically pressed for any and all information he might have about future attacks, names, whereabouts of known associates, details on past plots and attacks. Basically, anything and everything he knows. After that period of several days to several weeks, he'll be taken on to a federal court in New York and that's where he'll stand trial -- Carol.
COSTELLO: So -- so what are they hoping to learn from this man? Osama bin Laden is dead? I mean these attacks happened in 1998. JOHNS: Right. Yes. But there are obviously questions about any other plots that might be planned, for example, in Libya, or anywhere else. And there's hope that he might know people who might be doing things even if he's not doing them himself. It's difficult in this sort of regime, because authorities are not supposed to use physical force. They're supposed to use established guidelines of interrogation.
At the end of the day I think this case is going to bring up that question we've heard so many times whether it's better to try terrorism suspects at Gitmo in Cuba as opposed to a civilian court in New York. The government, both the Attorney General and the President had said it's their preference to try to take these individuals to federal court using the federal rules of criminal procedure and so on as opposed to military tribunals.
So the biggest question, of course, right now is the timeline. And that's something I don't think anybody knows.
COSTELLO: Joe Johns is reporting live in Washington this morning thank you.
Still to come in the NEWSROOM -- buying illegal drugs with the click of a mouse.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Things I've bought are generally psychedelics, namely LSD, because that's the hardest one to find on the street.
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COSTELLO: Next, the big bust that shut down one of the largest online marketplaces for peddling drugs, guns, and more.
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COSTELLO: One of the Internet's biggest sites for buying and selling drugs is offline, shut down by the FBI. The Web site was known as Silk Road was part Craigslist, part eBay, part Amazon. Agents arrested the site's alleged kingpin last week, 29-year-old Ross Ulbricht is accused of running a $1.2 billion online criminal marketplace.
CNN Money correspondent Laurie Segall has more for you.
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LAURIE SEGALL, TECH CORRESPONDENT, CNNMONEY (voice-over): Peter is picking up mail from the post office. It's not your typical package. Inside -- drugs.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That one is going to be LSD and that is going to be methadone.
SEGALL: Welcome to the growing dark side of the Internet -- in a couple of clicks, drugs on your doorstep. Peter, whose name has been changed, asked us to obscure his identity.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's basically powdered mushrooms and you just go here and you say, hey, I want to buy 250 milligrams of this and you click the "buy now" thing. Like any other place you're buying something online then you end up in a shopping cart and you click the "checkout" button.
SEGALL: But the feds are cracking down. This week online drug market Silk Road was blocked and its alleged leader arrested. Peter is familiar with the site.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Things I've bought are generally psychedelics, namely LSD, because that's the hardest one to find on the street.
SEGALL: Users sign on through Tor. It's an anonymous network where the only payment accepted is bitcoin, a virtual currency worth it's real money.
(on camera): The idea is that it's just not traceable.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's not traceable if you do it correctly but if you do things like buy bitcoins on the street or things like that it basically becomes untraceable and (inaudible).
SEGALL: Silk Road specialized in drugs, but as Peter shows us, the Internet gets even darker. There are other sites that haven't been shut down. Here is one.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's the same kind of thing, there is a drug category. And you can (inaudible) different things. If you're interested in looking for LSD you go and you select the LSD thing.
Apparently on this site you can literally buy guns -- AK-47, AR-15.
SEGALL: We were also shown screen shots of sites advertising hit men. They promised to kill for bitcoin compensation. Peter has never given that one a test drive. He only used Tor to buy drugs often on Silk Road.
Now that it's gone, are you bummed?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I mean, yes.
SEGALL: It's not necessarily an end game.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They killed a server. They didn't take down, you know, the technology that's used to make this happen.
SEGALL: A game of whack-a-mole in the dark corners of the Web.
(on camera): What do you think the outcome will be of Silk Road officially being taken over by the government? Being taken down.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think people are going to be pretty fearful of using those kinds of services for a while. I imagine there will be discussions on what happened, what went wrong and how to improve on this and later on newer versions that have improved in some way will pop up and regain the trust that's probably dissipating right now.
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COSTELLO: Laurie Segall joins me now. So the one that really got me, you can shop online for a hit man?
SEGALL: Pretty unbelievable. Now we can't confirm this but the idea that there's just this whole dark net out there that you can do anything from try to look for a hit man to buy drugs to buy grenades. I mean we are looking at some of this and I was just and I couldn't believe it -- Carol.
COSTELLO: So -- so why can't, you know investigators shut more of these sites down?
SEGALL: It's difficult. I mean for the FBI it took about two years to shut down Silk Road. And it's not that they didn't know it existed. And we read that you know they were in there and they were undercover.
But all of this is accessible through the Tor network. And what the Tor network does is it completely encrypts your Internet traffic. So you can sign in to the Tor Network and people have used this for safe types of communication, journalists have used it to connect anonymously with sources. But now other folks are using it. Then you also add the fact that people are paying with bitcoin and bitcoins is a digital currency.
So you know it's not associated with a certain banking institution. So all of these factors Carol they just give you a certain level of anonymity that you might not have had before.
COSTELLO: Really, really scary. Laurie Segall thanks for enlightening us this morning, I think.
SEGALL: Thanks Carol.
COSTELLO: We'll be right back.
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COSTELLO: Checking our top stories at 44 minutes past the hour.
Shocking video out of Mexico -- and I have to warn you, it is hard to watch so you might want to look away. Here it is. At least eight people are dead, four of them children, after a monster truck plowed into a crowd at an event in Mexico on Saturday. You'll see this truck it goes over a ramp before it veers into the crowd.
Officials say the driver might have been intoxicated. 28 people in the hospital. At least a dozen more are listed in critical condition.
The 2014 winter Olympics in Sochi are just four months away; on Sunday Russian president, Vladimir Putin, lit the ceremonial Olympic torch in Moscow but the ceremony got off to a rough start when the flame -- you'll see here -- that poor man is running and the flame goes. After that the torchbearer, he went into that long passageway, officials had to relight the torch with a lighter. I hope you see it, because it's actually pretty funny, I hate to admit it. He's getting to -- anyway, a man with a lighter pops out and he relights -- there it is, yes, finally. And the torch went on.
A zoo worker in Oklahoma is recovering this morning after being mauled by a tiger on Saturday. Officials say the woman violated safety rules by sticking her arm through the tiger's cage. Some are raising questions about the park's safety. The owner insists though, his zoo is safe.
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JOE SCHREIBVOGEL, GAROLD WAYNE INTERACTIVE ZOOLOGICAL PARK: This is something that we have stringent protocols for and we do as extensive training as possible. If it wasn't for our professional protocols, the emergency medical staff probably are the reason why we're dealing with just an injury instead of a death.
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COSTELLO: Well, the good news here, doctors were able to save the woman's arm. Officials say the 500-pound tiger will not be euthanized.
Remember how the Grinch stole Christmas? This year Congress might be to blame. Every November, the forest service cuts down a tree for the Capitol Christmas Tree lighting. But the shutdown could put all of that on hold. You see the tree is usually selected from a forest in Newport, Washington. The town's spokesman says he's still waiting to hear from someone in Washington because somebody connected with the government has to chop down the tree.
Authorities in Louisville, Kentucky are surveying damage this morning following devastating floods. At least 80 people were forced to evacuate their homes over the weekend. Flashfloods left many drivers stranded on the road and forced police to rescue some people by boat. No injuries reported. But it's still pretty nasty.
Here is Karen Maginnis, our meteorologist. What's up for the folks in Kentucky?
KAREN MAGINNIS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well Carol, it looks like most of the rain has moved out. It's moved across the Eastern Seaboard. But we did see between four and six inches of rainfall. Some isolated amounts of as much as nine inches. Big storms rumbled there even on Sunday afternoon.
Now they saw the bulk of that rainfall -- that was on Saturday. But a line of storms moved through and over six inches right across this Ohio River Valley.
We're not finished with the wet weather yet. This frontal system makes its way towards the east and there is a severe thunderstorm -- there is a tornado watch, rather, that goes until 5:00 p.m. this evening that encompasses the area from Washington, Baltimore, all the way to New York City. The potential for severe weather exists. You could see heavy downpours and the possibility of isolated tornadoes. We're seeing some pretty strong storms right around that Washington, D.C. area. So watch out for that -- delays at the airports there.
Carol -- back to you.
COSTELLO: Keep an eye on things. Thank you Karen.
Let's head to New York now and check out what's happening on the Dow because it's been an up and down morning already. The market's only been open for what-- an hour and a half almost?
ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Exactly -- a little over an hour and a half. You know you look at what happened at the opening bell, Carol, stocks tanked 150 points within the first couple of minutes. You know what that kind of was? That was kind of a warning shot being fired from Wall Street all the way to Washington, saying, hey, this is a taste of what could happen if you don't get your act together there in Washington, D.C.
You're seeing stocks now have recovered quite a bit the Dow only down 78 points. But the fear is still there. We know that by something called the VIX which measures the fear in the marketplace. It's up 8 percent and that's significant especially when you consider everything that's going on.
So the weekend came and went. No deal on the shutdown. No solution on the debt ceiling. These are the kind of things that are making this volatility really come out on Wall Street. Because the big fear, Carol, is that if this debt ceiling if there's no solution on the debt ceiling, that we could wind up seeing interest rates spike and we can see stocks tank even in the days leading up to October 17th when the -- when the U.S. government is expected to run out of money.
COSTELLO: All right. Alison Kosik, I hope they heard you in Washington. I'm sure they're watching.
Thank you, Alison. We'll be right back.
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COSTELLO: Miley Cyrus made it very clear her character "Hannah Montana" is long gone. She hosted "Saturday Night Live" over the weekend and, of course, she spoofed her VMA performance and she even addressed it head-on in her monologue. It was pretty funny.
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MILEY CYRUS, SINGER: Now, I know a lot of you saw me perform recently at the VMAs. And in case anybody missed it, here was one of the more low-key moments.
I got a lot of letters from angry mothers, turned on fathers. And this is true. I actually got a complaint from the inventor of the giant foam finger. But it's ok, I gave him tickets to tonight's show, so we're all good, right, Jeff?
Now, I don't apologize for my VMA performance. If I owe anybody an apology, it's the people who make the bottom halves of shirts. But there are a few subjects we're not going to get into tonight. I'm not going to do Hannah Montana. But I can give you an update on what she's been up to. She was murdered. And also we went back and forth on this, but guys I just don't think we should do that wrecking ball sketch.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What? Miley, come on. My mom is here.
CYRUS: Sorry Bobby.
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COSTELLO: That guy sitting on the wrecking ball, I'm still laughing. Anyway I watched it. I watched SNL on Saturday night and she was pretty darn good. And the reviews are pretty good so far. Cast member Seth Meyers tweeted "Miley Cyrus was game and has game."
We'll be back after a break.
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COSTELLO: The latest on an attack on that SUV driver by a pack of motorcycle riders: two of the bikers were caught on camera setting the events in motion, but one of them now says he didn't actually beat the driver.
CNN's Margaret Conley has more for you.
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MARGARET CONLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Reginald Chance seen here pounding his helmet on an SUV car window made his first appearance in court Sunday, defiant as he flipped off reporters in court. He faces charges including gang assault and assault in the first degree and criminal possession of a weapon.
His attorney says the charges are too severe. He says his client wasn't even there when Alexian Lien was pulled out of his car and beaten. And a witness says the bikers went after his wife as well.
GREGORY WATTS, ATTORNEY FOR CHRISTOPHER CRUZ: My client obviously overreacted in smashing the window. But beyond that he was not a participant in any assault on that victim.
CONLEY: Another biker Robert Sims, seen here trying to open the door to the SUV as he drove away appeared in court on Saturday and faces some of the same charges.
We're now hearing the story of this biker, Christopher Cruz, who appears to be slowing down in front of the SUV when he was struck allegedly triggering the mayhem. He defended himself to ABC News yesterday.
CHRISTOPHER CRUZ, BIKER: I think the media is being unfair with me.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How so?
CRUZ: Because they don't know who I am. They don't know what actually happened.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What should we know about you?
CRUZ: That I'm a family man of two kids. I have a two-year-old and a six-year-old. I try to stay away from trouble as much as possible.
CONLEY: And his attorney weighed in as well. He told CNN Cruz wasn't slowing down saying, quote, "there was no intention on Christopher's part to slow this 3.5 ton vehicle with his motor vehicle. He also said Cruz was injured by the SUV driver when he suddenly pulled away.
Edwin Mieses was critically injured. His family says he's paralyzed. Now police are asking for the public's help to identify these two people who they believe were present at the assault -- all in an effort to further piece together this puzzle that's far from complete.
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COSTELLO: That was Margaret Conley reporting.
Thank you so much for joining me today. I'm Carol Costello.
"LEGAL VIEW" with Ashleigh Banfield starts now.
ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN HOST: Wanted in two U.S. embassy bombings, on the run for 15 years, and captured in less than a minute by U.S. Special Forces in Libya in one of two weekend raids on global terror suspects.
The second one however, did not go so well.
