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CNN Live Saturday
Pirates Foiled in Cruise Ship Attempt; Search on for Death Row Inmate; Results of Summit of Americans Unclear; U.S. Offense Launched Near Syria; Study Links Air Pollution to Stroke; Paris Riots Continue Into Second Week; Royals Visit California; Protecting Your Wireless Network; Sam Alito Nomination and Libby Indictment Discussed; Elmo Arrested
Aired November 05, 2005 - 14:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Pirates target a luxury cruise liner off the African coast. We'll tell you how the crew and passengers got away.
KEITH OPPENHEIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: He was supposed to be sent back to state prison, to Death Row. Instead, he walked out the front door of the jail behind me. How did it happen? I'm Keith Oppenheim in Houston. I'll talk about that, coming up.
WHITFIELD: And under way right now, a major offensive in Iraq leaves dozens of insurgents dead. We'll bring you a live update from the front lines.
Welcome to CNN LIVE SATURDAY. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. Those stories in a moment, but first, other headlines right now.
Following what some would say contentious and, at least we know, a free trade summit that was overshadowed by violent protests in Mar del Plata, Argentina, you're now looking at Air Force One taking off from Argentina. President Bush now on his way to Brasilia, Brazil, carrying on with his tour of South America. From Brazil, he heads to Panama later on on Sunday and then back to the U.S. late Monday.
Two people are dead following a private jet crash at Houston's Hobby Airport. Airport officials say they had ordered the jet to make way with an incoming 737 with cobbles (ph). The Cessna Citation crashed while trying to land. The 737 was diverted to Bush Intercontinental Airport without incident.
Authorities are asking whether three men arrested on charges of planning terrorism in Britain had any designs on Washington. One of the alleged Jihadists had computer photos of various locations and a counterterrorism vehicle in the capital. U.S. Capitol police say there is no reason for Americans to worry.
Activists in the fight against AIDS have converged on Washington, D.C. They are beginning what they're calling four days of action to draw attention to efforts to fight the deadly disease. The highlight of today's events included a rally in Washington's Anacostia Park.
A tale of villainy and heroic response, reminiscent of a bygone era, an act of piracy against a luxury cruise ship off the African coast of Somalia.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD (voice-over): The Seabourn Spirit was sailing from Alexandria, Egypt, to Mombasa, Kenya, on a routine pleasure cruise. Early Saturday, after 70 miles off the coast of Somalis, Seabourn's president says at least two small pirate boats raced toward the ship with guns blazing. A passenger explained what happened next.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The captain tried to run one of boats over, but they were small boats, about 25 feet long. Each one had four or five people on it. And he said he was going to do anything to stop them getting on board.
WHITFIELD: The president of the cruise line spoke about the incident with CNN.
DEBORAH NATANSOHN, PRESIDENT, SEABOURN CRUISE LINE: There was a rocket-propelled grenade and as well as machine guns. But our captains did a terrific job taking responsive action. The occupants of those vessels were armed, did not succeed in boarding our ship and eventually turned away.
WHITFIELD: A violent attack on a cruise liner is rare, but piracy is not. The Indiana Ocean off the Africa coast is among the most dangerous. Maritime officials in London report more than two dozen pirate attacks off Somalia since March, including attacks against two ships used by the World Food Program. Just days ago, the United Nations lamented that piracy had jeopardized emergency food shipments to a half million people in the region.
This time, however, the pirates failed. Spirit eventually outran the pirates, and no one on board was hurt. Spirit is now headed to the Seychelles Islands.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: And Deborah Natansohn is the president of Seabourn Cruise Line. She joins us again by phone.
And Ms. Seabourn -- Ms. Natansohn, rather, how are the passengers and crew doing right now?
NATANSOHN: The passengers and crew are doing very well. They're steaming on their way to the beautiful Seychelles Islands. And naturally, they were a bit shaken by the incident, but I think they're pretty much back in the cruising mode at this point.
WHITFIELD: So the United Nations had apparently put out a warning last week that this sort of thing just might happen. So knowing that, why is your cruise line in that area?
NATANSOHN: Well, this is a highly unusual incident. We don't know of any other time where a cruise ship has been attacked by pirates.
WHITFIELD: Well, is it unusual when we talk about two dozen such piracy acts along the coast there? Just since March?
NATANSOHN: They rarely do cruise ships. They generally tend to go after tankers and freighters that have very small number of crew on board. We -- we do know, of course, that the Indian Ocean is an area that we have to be more alert, and we were traveling through the area in a high state of alert.
WHITFIELD: So what do you suppose these pirates were after, specifically?
NATANSOHN: We don't know who they were and who was responsible. I would imagine that they were after money and jewelry and goods, but we really have no idea.
WHITFIELD: So your crew apparently had a plan in place that they activated. So they were well aware of the propensity of this kind of possibility, right?
NATANSOHN: Well, we train for all kinds of emergencies on board cruise ships so that we're prepared for any incidents. And most people know that cruising is one of the safest way of travel. And one of the reasons is because we're prepared for most emergencies.
WHITFIELD: Will your cruise line continue to cruise this area?
NATANSOHN: Well, we're obviously evaluating the situation now, and we'll take that decision at a later point.
WHITFIELD: All right. Deborah Natansohn of Seabourn Cruise Lines. Thank you so much, joining us from Miami.
NATANSOHN: Thank you for having me.
WHITFIELD: Well, coming up at the half hour, we'll talk about the dangers off Somalia's coastline. One analyst doesn't rule out a possible link between piracy and terrorism. Stay with us. You don't want to miss that. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: A massive manhunt continues this hour in Texas. Death Row inmate Charles Victor Thompson walked out of a Houston jail Thursday after slipping out of his prison jump suit and into civilian clothes. Thompson, convicted of a double murder, is considered extremely dangerous.
CNN's Keith Oppenheim is keeping track of the latest developments in Houston.
Are they getting any clues?
OPPENHEIM: Well, to some extent they are. And first of all, I should say, Fredricka, that officials from the jail behind me, from the Harris County Sheriff's Department, are truly mortified that they are dealing with this situation. This is a three-year-old facility. They've never had an escape from here before. And now they say they do have some credible leads and some possible sightings in his recapture. But when you hear the background of this story, you can really start to understand why a lot of folks here won't rest easy until that happens.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
OPPENHEIM (voice-over): Charles Victor Thompson is a 35-year-old convicted killer. Prosecutors describe him as a pretty boy, someone who looked appealing but was, in fact, deadly. On Thursday afternoon, at the Harris County Jail in Houston, police say Thompson found a way to transform himself and con his way out through these doors to freedom.
CHIEF DEPUTY DANNY BILLINGSLY, HARRIS COUNTY SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT: There's a series of mistakes here. It's like a lot of catastrophic events that happened.
OPPENHEIM: Investigators believe Thompson smuggled street clothes that he wore for a court appearance back to his jail cell and then found a way to change in a booth like this one, a booth used for meetings between attorneys and inmates.
LT. JOHN MARTIN, HARRIS COUNTY SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT: He got out of his inmate jump suit, the orange clothing they commonly wear, changed into civilian clothing. He was handcuffed when he was taken into the attorney booth and apparently was able to get out of the handcuffs. We do not know if he had a key or if he just slipped the cuffs off.
OPPENHEIM: It was in April of 1998 that prosecutors say Charles Victor Thompson stormed into the apartment of his ex-girlfriend, Denise Hayslip, shot her and her new boyfriend, Darren Keith Cain. Both victims died. Thompson was found guilty and sent to Death Row.
On appeal, Texas courts upheld the conviction but ruled during the trial Thompson's right to counsel had been violated. He was granted a new sentencing hearing, but once again, received the death penalty.
Officials say within 45 days, he would have been transferred back to state prison and Death Row. Now he's a killer on the loose.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
OPPENHEIM: Fredricka, Harris County officials say there is no evidence yet that Thompson got any direct help from either the attorney that he was meeting or from staff employees here at the jail. But they haven't ruled that out.
And of course, one of the strange things about all this is that he had some sort of fake I.D. that he was flashing while he was posing as an investigator for the attorney general's office. So really, the question is, did he just get a little bit lucky and find a loophole in the system or did he get some help in order to be able to get out of this building?
Back to you.
WHITFIELD: All right. Thanks so much, Keith Oppenheim in Houston.
In Argentina now, leaders from the western hemisphere have wrapped up their Summit of Americas. Those talks were marred by violent street protests. Just a short time ago, President Bush and other summit leaders finished their meeting and posed for a photograph. And right now, Mr. Bush is already in the air on Air Force One, heading for Brazil.
We check in now with CNN White House correspondent Dana Bash in Mar del Plata, Argentina.
And Dana, does the president consider this mission successful, despite the fact that there were all these violent protests?
DANA BASH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, that is a big open question. And not so much about the protests but really, at this point, from the White House point of view, a big open question about whether or not it was successful in terms what have they were trying to achieve at this Summit.
As a matter of fact, as we speak, somebody from the White House is briefing reporters to talk about what, if anything, the 34 leaders here discussed or even concluded about a host of issues on the agenda. But from the U.S. perspective, the main focus is restarting trade talks.
The genesis of the Summit of Americas in 1994 was to talk about and eventually get to a massive free trade agreement, going from Canada all the way to Chile, really almost the entire western hemisphere. That has been stalled.
And what the White House was hoping for, although the president did admit that it was stalled even before coming here, was perhaps a commitment, however worded to at least get to a place where they can start talking about it.
But meanwhile, what the White House has been focusing on with regard to trade while here has been discussions with some of the regional leaders, not so much a big, massive trade agreement but discussions with Panama, which is going to be another stop for the president and some of the other Andean countries for free trade agreements between the U.S. and those nations.
But you mentioned the rioters and really the demonstrators, Fredricka. Of course, you mentioned that yesterday we saw about two hours of some violence. Today, the only anger on the street has been from the local residents trying to clean up their mess: residents trying to clean up the shattered glass from the storefronts, even a burned out bank.
Today, not only did we not see peaceful demonstrators; we didn't see any riots at all. That was something that occurred yesterday. And again, yesterday it wasn't just the riots; there were thousands of demonstrators marching the streets of Mar del Plata, and also in a nearby stadium. And they were being egged on by one of the leaders here at the summit, and that is the Venezuelan leader, Hugo Chavez -- Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: And, Dana, if the president wasn't districted at all by these protests, perhaps could he have been preoccupied by the turmoil that's taking place in Washington involving the suspicion around his top advisers?
BASH: You know, there is -- there is never a lack of distractions for a president, especially this president, given, as you said, the troubled times that he is facing back home.
While he was here, he saw a couple of polls show that his already sinking public approval is -- are at new lows. And as you mentioned, there's also the leaks investigation. Mr. Bush would not talk about that at all, even though he was asked several questions about it yesterday.
But there is evidence that the White House is certainly trying to take heed to the concept of classified information. And that evidence is in a memo that CNN obtained from the president's chief counsel to all staff at the White House, saying that they must participate in ethics seminars next week. That's about 3,000 members of the White House staff and those who have security clearances must also take specific seminars.
The memo to aides says the president wants staff to, quote, "adhere to the spirit as well as the letter of all rules." And it goes on to say, "Those obligations include strict compliance with the procedures for handling classified and otherwise protected information."
So clearly here, Fredricka, the president is not saying anything about the ongoing investigation but they want to try to send the signal that at least he understands and dismisses the idea of anybody in his staff talking to reporters or anyone else if they're not authorized to, if they're talking about classified, top secret information.
WHITFIELD: All right. Dana Bash, thanks so much from Argentina.
Another major coalition offensive under way in Iraq to track down and oust insurgents near the Syrian border. This time, the U.S. military says insurgents from inside and outside Iraq have taken over the town of Husaybah. And they're engaging in firefights.
CNN's Arwa Damon is embedded with U.S. troops in Husaybah. She joins us now on the phone from the heart of the battle, which is dubbed Operation Steel Curtain.
And Arwa, last time we spoke, you talked about the obstacles that these troops are encountering from the booby traps to the car bombs to the suicide bombers. How are these troops able to locate them or at least avert this kind of danger?
ARWA DAMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Fredricka, they're very well trained in this. You have to realize that this entire area that these Marines, mainly the Marines, because this is their area of operation -- they've brought in soldiers from other battalions -- that these Marines and sailors and soldiers who are operating here right now, this entire area is essentially one great big IED.
They're used to spotting these things on the road all the time. And there are telltale signs that they can look for: there's wires that are sticking out in certain places. Or they're so well trained and so in tune as to how the routes should look. If there's a can that's out of place, if there's a pile of garbage that looks like it's not where it's meant to be there, they stop, they take caution and they examine it. They don't take any risks at all whatsoever -- Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: Arwa Damon, thanks so much. Embedded there with U.S. troops along with Iraqi forces there in Husaybah. Be safe.
Another night of mayhem in France. More cars torched. Buildings damaged after another night of rioting. A live update from Paris straight ahead when CNN LIVE SATURDAY returns.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: We all know air pollution is bad: bad for the planet, bad for our lungs. But new research says the ugly haze that hangs over many cities could increase your risk for a certain type of stroke. In today's look at "Our Planet," Elizabeth Cohen explains how what's in the air could be bad for your brain.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Just how harmful is air pollution? Researchers are finding pollution not only makes it hard to breathe; dirty air can also raise your risk of stroke, the third leading cause of death among Americans.
In a study of over 150,000 cases of stroke, Harvard scientists identified a one percent higher risk for the most common type of stroke on days with high air pollution. One percent may not sound like a lot, but 700,000 cases of stroke are expected this year in the U.S. That one percent can contribute to thousands of additional life- threatening incidents.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have confirmatory evidence of what we thought, that air pollution does, in fact, have severe long-term health affects on the population across the United States.
COHEN: Researchers are not sure yet how pollution contributes to stroke. They suspect that inhaling solid particles in the air changes blood clotting patterns and increases heart rate and blood pressure. Those are the same cardiovascular effects for another known risk factor linked to air pollution, heart disease. Recent studies show that high levels of air pollution can raise the risk of heart attacks by up to 50 percent.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The thing about air pollution is that it's so pervasive and that people really don't have any choice but to breathe the air.
COHEN: So what can you do to protect yourself from the noxious air out there? Here are some tips: No. 1, reduce your exposure. Stay indoors as much as possible on days when it's hot and humid, especially when the EPA's air quality index indicates unhealthy levels of air pollution in your area.
If you do have to venture out, avoid early morning and late afternoon rush hours. That's when air particle concentrations are at their peak.
When you exercise outdoors, stay away from workout locations close to heavy traffic. At home, turn on your air conditioning unit and keep the windows closed.
And finally, consider using an air purification machine with a HEPA filter in your bedroom when you sleep at night.
These tips are especially important when people have existing cardiovascular or respiratory problems. But they can help every one of us breathe a little easier.
Elizabeth Cohen, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: A new Supreme Court nominee but what are Judge Samuel Alito's chances of actually being confirmed? It's on docket for our legal eagles, straight ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: News from across America now.
People cheered as police raided a New York funeral home authorities say doubled as a crack house. Several people inside the house were reportedly tossing crack into caskets as officers entered. Neighbors, who had complained of seeing partially nude corpses in plain view, sang the theme song from the show "Cops" as suspects were led away.
Abercrombie and Fitch is pulling some controversial T-shirts from its shelves. An outraged group of teenage girls in Pennsylvania had organized a "girl-cott" at a store in Ohio over the T-shirts, which carried such sayings as "Who needs brains when you have these?" and "I had a nightmare I was a brunette."
And the Video iPod is creating booming -- a booming new industry: portable porn. Adult entertainment web sites are creating short and full-length films especially for use on the Video iPod and other portable media players. Back now to our top story. Off the coast of Africa, when we come back, a cruise is attacked by pirates. It may sound odd, but modern- day pirate attacks are more common than you might think.
Plus this...
KAREEN WYNTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Kareen Wynter, live at a rural farming community in California, where the locals here have rolled out the welcome mat for a royal couple. Details, coming up next.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As president for almost 20 years, Steven Wasser has been playing all the right notes of success at 78-year-old Powell Flutes.
STEVEN WASSER, PRESIDENT, POWELL FLUTES: We first have to take care of what I call the golden goose. There is some key element in a business that has made it successful in the past. Protect it and nurture it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Regarded by many as the Stradivarius of flutes, Powell Flutes is not only staying on top but is moving forward with Wasser's out of the box ideas. This year, he launched The Recording Studio, a digital music service featuring a wide variety of flute recordings.
WASSER: You really listen and observe what's going on in the marketplace. Creative vision. Start at A and conceptualize Z. And don't worry about whether or not you have the resources. That will all come later.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: Checking stories now in the news, two deaths are reported in the crash of a private jet at Hobby Airport in Houston, Texas. The crash involved a Citation aircraft that had been ordered by air traffic controllers to move off the runway to make room for an incoming 737.
The bigger aircraft was experiencing some type of difficulty. The small jet took off, circled the airport and then crashed while trying to land again. The 737 was diverted to Bush Intercontinental Airport without incident.
President Bush continues his visit to South America. He's heading to Brazil after attending the two-day Summit of the Americas in Argentina. It's main focus was on trade issues. The summit was marred by violent anti-U.S. protests, however. Several stores were damaged and more than 60 people arrested.
A big AIDS awareness event currently underway, you're looking at live pictures right now, in Anacostia Park in Southeast Washington. Caravans of people from across the country have traveled to that city for a rally called Four Days of Action. They're calling for more federal funding to help battle the illness. Similar rallies are taking place in dozens of other cities across the country.
The situation in France remains tense after more than a week of violence in the streets. Riots continue in some suburbs around Paris and they've spread to other major French cities. CNN's Chris Burns is on the phone with us now from the French Capital -- Chris.
CHRIS BURNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Fredricka, 900 cars torched across France overnight last night. And that's what authorities are worried about, how much more it could stretch beyond the cities it already has. More than two dozen cities from the suburbs of Paris to Lille, Rouen, Nice, Rhennes, Toulouse (ph), Bordeaux -- it just goes on and on in the Marseilles area over the last few days.
And this is what the authorities want to stop with two things: one, more police. They've deployed thousands more police in some areas to try to stop this. They've increased arrests, arrested some 250 some people, mostly youths, overnight last night. And also soft power -- they're meeting with community groups right now.
They've also had a crisis meeting of the cabinet today to talk about speeding up urban renewal. A lot of this is based -- there are a lot of frustration in these poor, immigrant communities -- for the most part immigrants -- and the youth unemployment in those areas is over 50 percent.
And that's what they have to attack in the long run. In the short run, though, they say they're going to keep an iron fist and try to stop this, but up to now, that hasn't quite worked very well.
WHITFIELD: And, Chris, it's nightfall right now. What kind of precautions, if any, do the police forces have in certain communities to try to gauge whether they'll have another night of violence?
BURNS: Well, there are plenty of police out there, posted, watching what's going on. They also have community mediators that we talked to on the ground out there who are -- have been busy in the evening trying to talk to some of these youths telling them, look, you don't need to riot.
We're talking about trying to improve your situations, improving the job situation, the education situation. So they're saying they're having some success but, again, every night is a test.
WHITFIELD: Chris Burns in Paris. Thank you so much.
BURNS: Thank you.
WHITFIELD: Earlier this hour we told you about today's pirate attack on a Seabourn Cruise Ship off the coast of Somalia. And right now, we're going to get some insight into what the World Food Program calls one of the most dangerous coastlines on earth, right there on the horn of Africa. Pirates have hijacked at least two of its relief ships there this year. We're talking about the World Food Program. Anne Korin is co- director of the Institution for the Analysis of Global Security. Good to see you, Ms. Korin. Already there have been a couple of reports of attacks on World Food Program ships. And then we know since March, there have been, in all, some two dozen attacks on ships along the coastline there in the Indian Ocean. What's going on?
ANNE KORIN, INST. FOR ANALYSIS OF GLOBAL SEC.: You know, we are really seeing an epidemic of pirate attacks, not just in that area off the horn of Africa but really worldwide in areas where you have failed states or states that are simply incapable of policing their own waters.
And Somalia definitely qualifies. You have Islamists separatist activity there, you have a lot of terrorist -- potential terrorist cells, radical Muslims, a lot of poverty. And you have rampant pirate activity there, such activity in fact that the International Maritime Bureau as far as a year ago basically issued a warning that said, if you are a ship off the coast of Somalia, take into account there's a very, very high risk that you will be hijacked.
WHITFIELD: And most recently it was done again by the U.N., just this past Thursday. Yet, we're hearing from the president of this cruise line. They continue to be there along the Indian Coast because this is a big tourist attraction. Is it worth taking this kind of risk?
KORIN: I would say, you know, if you're a tourist, you should -- you have nothing to look for in those areas. If you're a humanitarian aid ship you have no choice but to go there. You know, but people who are going there just for the kicks, I really don't understand it. And it really, the brunt of the cost ends up being borne by, you know, insurance companies and by, frankly by First World navies that are going to kick in and try and deal with this issue.
WHITFIELD: So what is being labeled as pirate attacks? Is that one in the same as a terrorist attack? Do you see them any differently or are they really one in the same?
KORIN: You know, they're -- it's very, very difficult to draw the line. When you look at this particular attack, people should not have a vision of pirates as people with a knife clutched in between their teeth. You have folks on very fast boats. This was a coordinated attack with several boats with machine guns, with rocket propelled grenade launchers, sometimes very sophisticated attacks.
And the question is, where do you draw the line between this and piracy -- between this and terrorism? You know, if these people belong to Islamist radical groups, if these people kidnap crew members or passengers or else steal cargo if we're talking about a cargo and then sell that and finance terrorist groups, where do you draw the line?
And keep in mind, that, you know, if we have these kind of folks engaged in activity for gain, it's not very hard to infiltrate those groups and have somebody carry out an attack like we had 20 years ago against the Achilli Lauro, the Italian cruise liner which was hijacked in 1985.
WHITFIELD: Well, dangerous and very threatening state of affairs there, at least off the African coast there in the Indian Ocean. Ann Korin, co-director of the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security, thanks so much.
KORIN: Sure thing.
WHITFIELD: Britain's Prince Charles and his wife, Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, are in San Francisco today. The royal couple arrived in California after a day in New Orleans, where they toured the devastation left by Hurricane Katrina. San Francisco is the final stop on their first U.S. tour since their marriage.
KAREEN WYNTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Fredricka, and if you're lucky, you may get a glimpse of the royal couple. Right now they're in a farmer's market behind me, touring some of the vendors, some of the products in there. And so you may see them.
But first of all, we wanted to show you the sheer number of people who are here at this town, Point Reyes Station, California, just about 40 minutes outside of San Francisco. Prince Charles is an organic farmer himself, so it was only natural that he would make this one of his stops on his U.S. tour.
The couple arrived about 40 minutes ago, a grand affair. You can see people perhaps cheering, waving in the background. The prince and his wife came out, waved briefly and then headed inside. And all morning long, as I mentioned, the excitement here was just building. People were lined up early, they wanted to get their spots in line. Many people admit they don't know much about the couple but just the curiosity factor and the sheer excitement, that is what brought them out.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NICOLAS GIACOMINA, ORGANIC FARMER: I thought it was really cool that Prince Charles was into organic gardening. I thought that was awesome, and honestly, I don't know too much about him. I don't follow the royal family but I'm just grateful to have him here. I think it's an awesome opportunity.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NORM SOLOMAN, ANTIWAR ACTIVIST: To welcome, without question, I think the representative of a government that's part of this war, I think it would be a mistake. So people are opposed to this war. And I think this is a way to raise the issue.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WYNTER: You heard that gentleman protesting this visit. We saw some other protesters out here as well, some members of PETA protesting the bear skin caps that the palace guards wear. But by and large, a vast majority out here, they support this visit, the attention that it's bringing to the environment.
Now, it's not over. The couple will be headed to an organic farm, Fredricka, which is about 15 minutes from here. They'll be having lunch. And so it's just really beginning, the four-day stop on this tour -- Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: And Kareen, when we've seen the royals over the past couple of days making their rounds in other parts of the country, there's been some hand-shaking with the public. Did we see any of that there today?
WYNTER: We actually did. Prince Charles and Camilla came out a short time ago, and they walked across the street, shook a few hands. They were quite intimate with the crowd. They were chatting a bit, and the members, the audience here on this side, they feel a little slighted. They were, you know, encouraging them to come over. They went back inside. So we'll have to see if they make their way behind me.
WHITFIELD: Oh, maybe there's a second shot at it. All right. Kareen Wynter, thanks so much.
Scooter Libby faces the judge, and our legal eagles weigh in on the CIA leak scandal. That's straight ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: A big week for the White House as President Bush announced a new nominee to the Supreme Court. The Senate will begin confirmation hearings on Samuel Alito January 9th.
And the vice president's former chief of staff went to court to answer indictments on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice. Lewis Scooter Libby pleaded not guilty. Where's the burden of proof?
These stories, rather, headline our "Legal Briefs" this hour. With us again is law professor and civil rights attorney, Avery Friedman. Good to see you, Avery.
AVERY FRIEDMAN, CIVIL RIGHTS ATTORNEY: Hi, Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: And New York criminal defense attorney, Richard Herman. Good to see you as well, Richard.
RICHARD HERMAN, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Good afternoon, Fred.
WHITFIELD: All right. Well, some senators say -- let's begin with Alito, Samuel Alito. Some senators have said that they want to explore his ideological background because it's very clear what his legal and judicial backgrounds are. So, Richard, what are the means that they will -- these senators will go about in order to uncover his ideological points of view? HERMAN: Fredricka, this is just posturing here. This guy will be a shoo-in. There's no way he's not going to get approved. He is so overly qualified and competent for this job and the Senate twice unanimously approved him for his judgeship.
He's got a conservative agenda. He's going to bring the swing vote to the bench and it's exactly what the American people wanted because President Bush promised in his campaign that he would hire a strict -- he would appoint a strict constructionist, a conservative judge and this is it.
WHITFIELD: Avery, do you see him as a shoo-in?
FRIEDMAN: Well, you know, Richard forgot one thing. It's called advice and consent of the Senate. And it strikes me that no one's going to challenge his integrity. Nobody's going to challenge his experience. But you know what? When you find out that his mother is volunteering his belief on abortion, you can count on the fact that there's going to be vigorous inquiry during the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Now, ultimately, it may be right. He may be confirmed. But the fact is, this is not going to be a cake walk. He has a lot of questions to answer to. And, you know, he has written 700 opinions, Fredricka, so there's a lot to look at and much remains to be seen.
WHITFIELD: So January 9th is a long way away, or at least it seems like that would give his opponents a lot of time to dig up something or find some real salvo, you know, to try to go against Samuel Alito or, Richard, do you see it would be to his advantage if there was this much time, so that people will really get a chance to know him?
HERMAN: You know, Fredricka, one of the biggest issues with Harriet Miers was her competence. Here, Alito is so overwhelmingly competent and proven for this task, and these Democratic senators, they better be careful questioning him because this is a true scholar. He's a brilliant lawyer and a brilliant judge. And he's absolutely going to get confirmed.
WHITFIELD: Avery?
FRIEDMAN: Well, I think we're glossing over the issue. The fact is, that the function of the Senate under the American Constitution is to find out what those beliefs are. To the extent they can do it, they have to make that inquiry. No one is challenging integrity, nobody's challenging experience. But we need to understand ...
WHITFIELD: Not in this case at least for him.
HERMAN: Right.
FRIEDMAN: We have to understand that.
HERMAN: Well, we know his beliefs. He's a strict constructionist and extremely conservative. And he will be the swing vote and this bench will be a conservative bench with him and Roberts.
WHITFIELD: All right, gentlemen. Let's move on to Lewis Scooter Libby having his day in court, facing those charges. His attorney came out strong, Ted Wells, after the fact, saying Avery, we want a jury trial.
FRIEDMAN: Yes.
WHITFIELD: Didn't that the seem like a great risk to take for his client given that it almost certainly means the vice president would be subpoenaed and would be asked to testify as would a number of other top administration officials? Why would Ted Wells say that?
FRIEDMAN: Yes. Well, I mean, what would you expect him to say? I mean, the other thing that he said that I thought was really interesting, is he actually foreshadowed what the defense is going to be, if in fact it goes to trial.
And it was that he's basically going to say, the old Steve Martin routine from the 1970s, I forgot. And actually it may actually work in a case like this given the amount of information that he had to process as chief of staff for the vice president.
HERMAN: Hey, Fredricka, this guy is a graduate magna cum laude from Yale, graduate from Columbia Law School, brilliant, the right- hand man to the president -- I mean Vice President Cheney. There's no way this case is going to trial. No way, Jose.
FRIEDMAN: Well, and you know ...
WHITFIELD: Which is why I would wonder, why wouldn't Ted Wells just come out and say, you know, I'm standing behind this client. He is innocent and forget the whole notion of whether it is going to be a jury trial or not. Why even get that specific?
Because we know that given the amount of time there's going to be before they have to go back in court, wouldn't there be negotiations on both sides to see if they can settle this out of court?
FRIEDMAN: There will always be negotiations. That will be ongoing. But the fact is, the federal district judge set the next pretrial, Fredricka, for February '06. There's a substantial amount of work that needs to be done.
WHITFIELD: That's an incredible amount of time.
FRIEDMAN: And to me, I think what that means is that two things are going to be done. They're going to continue to develop the case, but I have no doubt in my mind that the idea of Scooter Libby flipping on the vice president is something that is unpalatable for a guy like that despite where he went to law school, which I don't think has anything to do with anything.
WHITFIELD: Yes, and it's hard to imagine, especially since there are going to be a number of classified documents that would be requested. And I cannot imagine given the loyalty that Scooter Libby has to the White House or the vice president, that anyone wants to relinquish that.
HERMAN: And you know, Fred, it's not just he said/she said or he said/he said situation here, there's three people who contradict him. So it could be overwhelming. You're absolutely right. He's not going to subject himself to an open-door cross-examination.
WHITFIELD: So in other words, you really do see there's going to be a plea deal.
HERMAN: There's absolutely going to be a plea deal.
FRIEDMAN: And is he going to flip?
HERMAN: He's not going to flip. He cannot flip against President -- I mean Vice President Cheney.
FRIEDMAN: Well, then how do you know he can get a deal from Patrick Fitzgerald?
HERMAN: He'll absolutely have a deal and we'll have dinner on that one, Avery.
FRIEDMAN: That sounds OK to me.
WHITFIELD: OK, this is going to be interesting. We have a lot of time to discuss this, you know, gentlemen.
HERMAN: We sure do.
WHITFIELD: A lot can happen in the next few months. All Right. Avery Friedman, Richard Herman, always good to see you, gentlemen.
HERMAN: Nice to see you. Take care.
FRIEDMAN: Have a good day.
All right, on to Los Angeles. Problems in Elmo's world. Why the furry character was taken to the slammer.
And coming up at 4:00 p.m. Eastern, how to live longer. Some cultures say they have the secret, straight ahead on CNN LIVE SATURDAY.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: If you use a laptop to surf the web, you probably already know about wireless access. It lets you go online from practically anywhere but if you don't protect your network, you might not be the only one using your connection. In today's edition of the "Technofile," Daniel Sieberg has some easy advice on keeping your online time to yourself.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wi-fi? Well, why not. It seems everybody is setting up a wireless network at their home these days, but you can't forget the security features that come with it. And joining us right now to talk about them are Brian Cooley from CNET.com. And Brian, there are quite a few of them that come with the software, but people tend to skip over those sometimes.
BRIAN COOLEY, CNET EDITOR AT LARGE: The key part here is this router. This is what you buy to put a wireless network in your home, Daniel. And when you do put that in, usually the security is turned off by default when it ships. That's the problem.
I want people to turn the security on, and I'm going to show you exactly how they do it. You logon to the setup screen on your router. And the instructions show you how to do that very simply. It's done through your browser. Now, I'm accessing my router right here. The first step is, change the name of the router. It comes with a name, usually it's a default name, usually the maker of equipment. Dead giveaway.
SIEBERG: Dead giveaway, because if you see the network or you're next door, you know probably someone has done nothing to their system
COOLEY: If they have a default name, so I'm going to change that to a unique name. I'm going to call that, you know, my network. That's fine. It's something different. Then I'm going to call off SSID broadcast. That means in common language, I'm going to stop the router from telling everybody here I am and here's my name. Doesn't mean I can't use it, it just means it's not going to tell everybody.
SIEBERG: OK, it's like a stealth mode.
COOLEY: Exactly, kind of a stealth mode. Now, I go to wireless security and choose either WPA or WEP. There's two kinds of security in the wireless world. WPA is stronger, WEP might be more compatible with the other wireless gear you have.
SIEBERG: But, again, better than nothing.
COOLEY: Much better than nothing.
SIEBERG: OK.
COOLEY: To make it easy, I'm going to select WEP, the slightly weaker version. I'm going to go in here and generate by own pass phrase.
SIEBERG: So just a code of some kind.
COOLEY: A password basically.
SIEBERG: A password, yes.
COOLEY: And that turns into the keys. Those keys have to be entered into all my wireless devices that want to reach the router. And then the last thing I want to do here, is I want to create what's called a mac list. Every piece of equipment that is wireless has a mac address. It's not Macintosh, it's just mac address for its wireless ability. So on the bottom of my laptop, I look up the mac address right there.
SIEBERG: Totally unique is it knows who the visitor is to this particular network.
COOLEY: Exactly. It's a credential. I type that in, and I permit only machines that have known mac addresses to my router to access my router. You see, we have several redundant layers here. This is what creates a multilevel approach to security. Now, it's really unlikely anyone is ever going to access my router who I don't want to.
SIEBERG: And no free Internet for your neighbors.
COOLEY: That's right, and no criminal activity being carried out on your network, more seriously, that could put you in a bad spot.
SIEBERG: Good point. Brian Cooley from CNET, thanks so much.
COOLEY: You bet.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: Well, no doubt the city of Los Angeles is full of characters. You know that, actual comic book characters specifically and TV show characters walking the streets, getting in people's faces and their wallets. If you've ever been shaken down by a muppet, you know this is no joke. CNN's Ted Rowlands reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Two weeks after Elmo's world was rocked, he is out on bail, back working Hollywood Boulevard. Elmo, whose real name is Donn Harper, was handcuffed, his head on the hood of a squad car. Along with Mr. Incredible, Elmo was arrested and taken away for something called aggressive begging. They were nabbed as part of an undercover sting operation.
CAPT. RON SANCHEZ, LOS ANGELES POLICE: We've had an extensive amount of complaints from people visiting Hollywood that they've been harassed and the victims of aggressive panhandling, of really aggressive begging that's reached almost points of the victims feeling like they're almost robbed.
ROWLANDS: Harper and dozens of other impersonators, dressed up as super heroes and movie stars, parked themselves along Hollywood's Walk of Fame, making cash by posing with tourists.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We do for tips guys.
DONN HARPER, "ELMO": Elmo is not out there snatching purses or robbing people or anything bad like that. All he's guilty of is loving people and trying to communicate with some foreign tourists.
ROWLANDS: Tourists we talked to said they didn't mind paying a buck or two for a photograph.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We get a great a favor out of it for the families. So it's OK by me.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: La-la-la-la, it's Elmo's world.
ROWLANDS: Elmo is free on $100 bail. He says a lawyer is helping him with his legal troubles. Police, meanwhile, say until the complaints stop, they'll continue to keep a close eye on the big red muppet and his friends.
Ted Rowlands, CNN, Hollywood.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: Still much more ahead on CNN Saturday. At the top of the hour, "CNN PRESENTS: REASONABLE DOUBT." Can crime labs be trusted? CNN looks at serious flaws at crime labs that could raise doubts about the validity of some evidence.
At 4:00 Eastern on CNN LIVE SATURDAY, the aftermath of Katrina, how the large amount of trash left from the storm could endanger the environment.
And at 5:00 eastern, did three terror suspects now in British custody have plans for attacking the U.S.?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: Checking the headlines now in the news, U.S. and Iraqi forces are facing booby traps and armed rebels as they try to drive insurgents out of their hangouts near the Syrian border. Military officials say dozens of insurgents have already been killed in Operation Steel Curtain which began this morning in Husaybah.
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