Return to Transcripts main page
Campbell Brown
Tea Party Comes Up Short; Bomb Suspect Tied to Taliban; Oil Spill "Dome" Launched
Aired May 05, 2010 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAMPBELL BROWN: Hi there, everybody. Major new developments today in the Times Square bomb plot. The suspect, Faisal Shahzad, continues being questioned by the country's top intelligence experts at this hour. Tonight, the trail already leading directly to Pakistan. One Pakistani official telling CNN that Shahzad met with the senior Taliban leader nearly a year ago in Waziristan.
So, that does mean he was taking orders from the Taliban? And are they now targeting Americans on our own soil? One of the most disturbing aspects of this story is just how close Shahzad came to escaping. The TSA moved pretty quickly plugging some of the holes in the no-fly list. And I'll ask Michael Chertoff, former homeland security chief what else needs to be done.
Also tonight, the oil spill cleanup off the Gulf Coast. We have the very latest pictures of that four-storey dome on the way out to the rig, but will it get there in time to actually make a difference.
And then also, the massive recall of Children's Tylenol. What you should do right now to protect your kids. We'll talk about that as well. Lots to get through (ph), so, let's go right to our cheat sheet for all of today's top stories, the Mash-Up.
The gulf oil spill is, of course, one of the biggest stories in the country right now. Network correspondents have been all along the shoreline all day trying to get a good look at what amounts to a giant funnel meant to cap the damaged oil rig. And these are live pictures. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This containment dome that you've been watching these live pictures, the big white thing, four-storey high, 70 tons, is making its way to that big leak.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Tomorrow, BP plans to send down the containment dome to cover one of the two remaining leaks. By Monday, a pipe could carry oil from the dome to a vessel on the surface, but this has never been tried before at 5,000 feet under the sea.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The fishermen believe this is chemical dispersant. Now, today, BP announced it's no longer going to use chemical dispersants undersea because they don't know its impact on the ecology, on the environment, on the sea animal, so they're going to stop. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is endless.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is bad as it looked, it was about to get worse.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is something we didn't expect to see. It's a sea turtle.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: We're going to keep watching the story and bring you new details coming up a little bit later in the hour.
Our top international story tonight comes from Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The president of Iran has said some pretty outrageous things over the years but take a listen to what he told George Stephanopoulos on ABC today about the whereabouts of Osama Bin Laden.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you did know that Osama Bin Laden was in Tehran, would you show him hospitality? Would you expel him? Would you arrest him?
MAHMOUD AHMADINEJAD, PRESIDENT OF IRAN: I heard that Osama Bin Laden is in Washington, D.C.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, you didn't.
AHMADINEJAD: Yes, I did. He's there.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But you deny categorically that he's in Tehran today? Osama Bin Laden is not in Tehran today?
AHMADINEJAD: Rest assured that he's in Washington. I think there's a high chance he's there.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't agree, but thank you for your time, Mr. President.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: Ahmadinejad also insisted that Iran will not back down on its nuclear program saying quote, "we know how to defend ourselves."
And our top political story tonight, signs that tea party candidates may not quite be the voters' cup of tea. Two of three hard fought Senate primaries yesterday in Indiana and Ohio went to mainstream Republican candidates. Ohio's race yet to be decided, but the Republican establishment not breathing a sigh of relief just yet. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Three big states held primaries last night, and those allegedly angry voters could have stormed the polls in droves and thrown out the bums. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And the key Republican races, there were two in Indiana, especially. The incumbents won. Now, their margin of victory was more narrow, but the tea party movement did not throw the bums out as you said. You got to ask how much muscle are they going to have come November when they say they're going to take down some Democrats. It seems they're more successful at forcing retirements than getting voters to the ballot box.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A big name on Capitol Hill announcing his retirement today. David Obey, Democrat from Wisconsin, chairman of the formidable House Appropriations Committee, leaving after 41 years in the House of Representatives.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: And a sign of just how tough things are for incumbents, the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, Texas senator John Cornyn said today quote, "thank goodness I'm not running this time."
The story people buzzing about tonight comes out of the heading out of the mouths of babes. The muse, Elisabeth Hasselbeck took some very good advice from her 5-year-old daughter and apologized today for tasteless joke she made at the expense of ESPN's Erin Andrews who is competing on "Dancing with the Stars." Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ELISABETH HASSELBECK, HOST: I'm sitting there with Grace, my 5-year- old, and she said mommy, why do you look so sad? And I said, well, Grace, today, mommy hurt someone's feelings. Even though I must focus on the detestable criminal who's behind bars, thankfully, who's really made her life a living hell and is in jail, I ended up hurting her.
I mean, in some way, if I'm him, I'm like man, I just could have waited 12 weeks and seen this a little bit less without the prison time.
Thankfully, she's five and so cute. She said to me, mommy, why don't you just call Erin and tell her you're sorry.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: And you'll recall Andrews was the victim of a peeping tom who made nude videos of her. He is now serving a 30-month sentence. And that brings us to the Punch Line tonight. It's from Jimmy Kimmel. He had some fun with Laura Bush showing her to Rasta woman's side on Oprah Winfrey's show the other day.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JIMMY KIMMEL, HOST: The bush twins showed up too. Jenna Bush provided maybe the most candid moment of the interview when she talked about what kind of music her mom likes to listen to.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If you came to our ranch which you should, if my parents turn on music, old country usually or some of my mom is a secret Rastafarian, Bob Marley.
OPRAH WINFREY, HOST: My kind of place.
(LAUGHING)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: Jimmy Kimmel, everybody. And that is the Mash-Up tonight.
Next, what we are learning about tonight's big news. A terror suspect, Faisal Shahzad's alleged Taliban connection. CNN has been talking to officials in Pakistan. We have that when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Breaking news right now as Times Square terror suspect, Faisal Shahzad, continues to talk willingly with U.S. interrogators. CNN is learning new information that could establish that link between Shahzad and the Pakistani Taliban. We've also just learned about the possible motive for the attempted attack. Also, tonight, the fed's tightening security at the nation's airport after Shahzad nearly slipped through the cracks and escaped to the Middle East.
We're going to talk in a moment with former homeland security chief, Michael Chertoff. But first, CNN homeland security correspondent, Jeanne Meserve, brings us up to speed on the investigation. Jeanne, I understand you've --
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A photograph from Dawn News of Faisal Shahzad as he went through immigration in Karachi, Pakistan on July 3, 2009. According to a senior Pakistani official, a few days later on July 7th, he was driven to Peshawar and eventually on to the tribal area of Waziristan where he is believed to have met with one or more Pakistani Taliban leaders.
With Shahzad, Mohammed Rehan, a man believed to have strong ties to Jaish-e-Mohammed. The militant group has strong ties to the Pakistani Taliban and al Qaeda. Rehan was taken into custody on Karachi on Tuesday. But U.S. officials say at this point, there is nothing definitive connecting Shahzad to any extremist group.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There are international implications to what it occurred in Times Square. We are investigating those, but as to where that investigation takes us, it's still too early to make that judgment.
MESERVE: A federal law enforcement official says there is no indication that Shahzad had any associates here in the United States, but he appears to have prepared and placed the bomb in Times Square on his own. One component, M-88 fire works were purchased from the Phantom Fireworks store in Northeastern Pennsylvania, according to a federal law enforcement source. He spent about $100 eight weeks ago.
WILLIAM REIMER, PHANTOM FIREWORKS: Nothing that we sell that would make any kind of impact. The only thing remotely connected would be a fuse, but our fuse, the safety fuse burns so slowly that it would not be very effective. So, honestly, I think this fellow is just barking up the wrong tree when he thought these fire crackers would do something.
MESERVE: Just how close were authorities to losing him? According to an administration official, Shahzad was added to the no-fly list 12:30 Monday afternoon. Nine minutes later, an automated message went out to air carriers advising them there was a special add to the list, but Shahzad's name was not caught by Emirates Airlines at 6:30 when he made his reservation while driving to the airport or at 7:35 when he showed up at the counter and bought his ticket with cash because the airline had not yet updated its no-fly list.
To close that loophole, the TSA is now requiring that airlines update no-fly lists within two hours of getting a special notification from TSA.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: And Jeanne Meserve is with us now live. Jeanne, I know, you received some new information about a possible motive for Shahzad. Give us your sense of what you're hearing right now
MESERVE (on-camera): This is something that will sound very familiar to everyone. I just talked to someone who's familiar with this investigation who says that Shahzad felt that Islam was under attack and that was his motivation -- Campbell.
BROWN: You are also learning, I know, there was a specific reason that the TSA didn't call the airlines to alert them about Shahzad. What was it?
MESERVE: Well, an administration official tells me that this is something they've done in the past, that in addition to putting out an alert saying we have an addition to the no-fly list, they have picked up the phone and say be on the lookout for this individual. But, according to this administration official, the TSA did not notify all airlines at the request of the FBI for investigative reasons. I did reach out to the FBI for a response. And Richard Colco (ph), a spokesman for the FBI, says we do not comment on specific operations or investigative techniques.
But one can surmise, Campbell, that this was very tightly held information. They did not want this name leaking out and so they were being quite careful about who they distributed it to. In the end, of course, there was another trap in the system that did catch this individual.
BROWN: All right. Jeanne Meserve for us tonight. Jeanne, thanks very much.
Just a short time ago, I spoke with former homeland security secretary, Michael Chertoff who served in the Bush administration and asked him about whether these new no-fly rules announced today perhaps would have stopped Faisal Shahzad from getting aboard that airplane. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MICHAEL CHERTOFF, FMR. HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: The problem in this case is that the no-fly list is still operated by the airlines and not by TSA. There's a program called secure flight which re- launched a few years ago, although it was delayed frankly by the airlines, that will, when it is fully implemented, eliminate this problem, because it will no longer be up to the airlines to deny boarding but it will be up to TSA.
But I should point out, Campbell that there was a backup here which did work, which is customs and border protection's ability to look at the manifest before the plane leaves. It's that backup that's a very important part of the entire system.
BROWN: It was a crucial part in this case, certainly.
CHERTOFF: Right.
BROWN: We also learned today that a high value interrogation group is handling the interrogation. What does that mean, exactly? What additional powers or skills does that group have?
CHERTOFF: Well, I think the purpose of this is to make sure that when decisions are made about how to interrogate somebody and what kind of techniques to use, or frankly, whether someone should be mirandized or not, you're getting input from people who are skilled representing all the agencies that have relevant information to bear. That means the intelligence community as well as the law enforcement community.
That avoids the problem where the law enforcement people do their own thing without considering the possible impact on intelligence gathering. So, that's a good thing.
BROWN: So, give me your take, based on what we know and we don't know that much, but we do know some about how he's been interrogated so far. How do you think it's being handled?
CHERTOFF: We don't know much. I can tell you generally, though, here's what you want to be able to do. You want to be able to question the person and then check what they are telling you against other information you're getting. And then if there are discrepancies, you go back and you challenge the person. The issue here isn't is somebody talking. It's whether they're giving you the whole story or whether they're minimizing or concealing certain facts.
And that's why you can't treat interrogation as a fast thing. It's got to be something that takes place over a period of time so you can do the cross-checking that's a critical element in evaluating the truthfulness of what you're getting.
BROWN: So, let me go through some of the stuff with you that we solve a lot of questions about. Investigators right now looking into a theory that would link this attack to the Pakistani Taliban. If that were the case, this would be the first time that this group has struck against the United States. Do you believe that they are behind this given what we know?
CHERTOFF: Let me say, first of all, I think there's a tendency to treat these groups as if there's a meaningful difference among them. In fact, they do work together and there's an awful lot of interrelationship between the Taliban and al Qaeda, for example. They've lived together in the frontier area. They've fought together. What is important, this is yet another example of a Westener, someone with U.S. citizenship, going back to Pakistan, getting some training, and then being launched against their home country. And that is really part of the new set of tactics that al Qaeda has been working on over the last couple of years.
BROWN: So, how do you protect against that?
CHERTOFF: This is very difficult, because they are deliberately selecting people who have no criminal record. They're picking people who are citizens or permanent residence so they have free access to the United States and they know how to work in the United States, and presumably, they're minimizing communications. That means we've got to be looking for other kinds of intelligence indicators. Some of that is the awareness of the ordinary citizen, like in this case, who sees something anomalous and reports to the police.
It's the ability of the police to react quickly. It's the presence of all kinds of additional tools that can be used in order to conduct surveillance or to intercept communications. All of these are part of a total strategy that is designed to minimize the risk but also frankly recognized that you cannot guarantee that some of these attacks will not work.
BROWN: So, let me go back to the point you made earlier about his possible connection to the Taliban, because there's sort of conflicting reports I guess about whether he was kind of a want to be who inflated his ties to the Taliban or to al Qaeda or whether he was trained in a camp in Waziristan by known extremists. And, I guess, the question is, does it, in the end matter either way? What is the significance of this given that they can obviously both achieve a very similar result?
CHERTOFF: I look at it this way, Campbell. I'd say there are really three types of operatives that we look at. One is the hard core, well trained operative that would be used in a major attack, the kind of thing which happened on 9/11 or which they tried to pull off with the airline plot in 2006. The next level is the person who's brought in. They're not necessarily given access to the core al Qaeda, but they are giving some basic training and trade craft and then launched back to use their western passport. That is perhaps this case, the Zazi case, the Vinias (ph) case.
And in the third category is the person who just gets on the internet and gets radicalized. They're not really trained, but they go off and do whatever they can accomplish on their own, and that was, of course, the Ft. Hood shooting.
BROWN: Right. CHERTOFF: So, we're going to have to build a capability to anticipate each of these different kinds of operations in putting together our intelligence program.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: And that was, of course, former homeland security secretary Michael Chertoff.
When we come back, should investigators be skeptical of just how much this guy is talking? We're going to talk about that right after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: As we track the breaking news of a possible Pakistani Taliban connection and a motive in the Times Square bomb plot, this much is clear. Faisal Shahzad is accused of stumbling and bungling his way through an attempt to blow up part of New York City. But as amateur as it may have been, the case has clearly exposed some gaping holes in homeland security, more than eight years after 9/11.\
Jack Rice joining us right now, a former CIA special agent. He's joining us along with CNN national security contributor and former homeland security adviser, Fran Townsend. Welcome to both of you.
Fran, we're learning more and more about this guy's Pakistani connections today. He is sworn in as a U.S. citizen. He quits his job. He flies off to Pakistan. He may have met with at least one Taliban leader that they at least think at this point. Should any of that laid out from what we know have raised red flags in your view?
FRANCES FRAGOS TOWNSEND, FMR. BUSH HOMELAND SEC. ADVISER: You know. this is always easier looking back after an event. I think we ought to be fair about that, but I think this is a real opportunity. You know, there are tens of thousands of citizens, foreigners who are naturalized U.S. citizens. We have to see now, looking backwards, what kinds of things we should have been looking for. As you say, one of them that pops out at me is this is a man who is married with two small children, a mortgage, a home. He leaves for five months.
Now, there may be perfectly innocent reason, but he stays away. The house goes into foreclosure. His family is on their own and the guy didn't come back. Should the length of that stay triggered our attention? All these things now are things I think we have to go back and try to understand and put in context as we search for others who may be out there having taken advantage of the naturalization process.
BROWN: So, Jack, what do you think? Is our government up to this? Are investigators up to this given to sort of what Fran laid out here on the challenges they're facing?
JACK RICE, FORMER CIA SPECIAL AGENT: I think about what Michael Chertoff said and what the secretary talked about were these different levels of operatives who may be out there. And he really does highlight a problem. I mean, you go after the sort of hard liners. Those are the guys who are the most dangerous in many ways, but it's the low hanging fruit sometimes that are the most difficult because they don't have connections that one would expect either on the intelligence or even on the criminal sort of domestic or international side.
So, you don't have that either. And the problem is is that number of people can be so shockingly large, but if we take it even one step further, you think about what's going on in Britain right now with first generation British citizens of Pakistani descent who have problems of their own. These were born in country. So, now, all of a sudden, you start broadening this net so wide that it's very, very difficult to keep your eyes on all of those potential targets.
BROWN: And Chertoff also said, Fran, that terror groups are deliberately looking for people like this, with clean records, with Western passports, with jobs in the. U.S., and then they're minimizing communication with them. So, I mean, that makes it incredibly hard for intelligence.
TOWNSEND: And that's exactly right. What we've seen in the eight years, Campbell, is with al Qaeda has gone from their goal of strategic, multiple simultaneous, multiple casualty events to be smaller. You ask yourself why. They got people like Adam Gadahn, an al Qaeda operative who's born in California and Anwar Al Awlaki, the man in creature who's also from the United States. These guys understand they can have a tremendous impact, have muck less likely to get caught if they have these, what Michael Chertoff used to call, clean scans.
That is no reason to really trigger the law enforcement or intelligent system. So, it makes it much more difficult. What you do need, though, community policing, local police departments and involved citizens like we saw in the vendor, in this case, is what you need is the sort of court of last resort who can catch them just before an attempt.
BROWN: And Jack, does it scare you, I guess, more or less that as Jeanne Meserve was explaied to us tonight that he didn't have any associates working with him inside the U.S.?
RICE: Both. It's better in the sense that this may not be a very, very large, very, very elaborate, and therefore, very, very extensive operation which could kill a lot of people. I mean, that's a positive. The negative for the very same operation is it's very, very difficult. If you have a lone wolf who's absolutely clean, how do you track that guy? Do you now simply say, OK, it's anybody who's a naturalized citizen?
How many of those do we have? OK. Do you narrow it down from there and how do you narrow this down? And remember, every time you make a mistake and you start going after people who you shouldn't, you may actually create more problems for yourself than you had before. And that is also sort of a part of this conversation.
BROWN: Let me finally ask both of you, what do you think about how much he appears to be talking and telling them? To what degree should we be skeptical of the information that's coming from him right now.?
TOWNSEND: You know, it's interesting, one of the first things he was reported to have said was that he was working alone. And initially, I think investigators were very skeptical. Now, they seem to be coming around to the idea that he may be telling the truth, but the whole idea, I think we all should be skeptical about his statements. The question is can we corroborate this in anyway?
The other one, Campbell, is he said he was trained in Waziristan. We believe he had contacts in Pakistan, but no one has been able to corroborate that yet. And so, I think when you approach it skeptically and you look for corroboration.
BROWN: Jack?
RICE: As a former CIA officer, if you're going to do an interrogation like this, you assume that everything he says isn't true. I mean, you have to, because you have to verify everything. That does take time. And it really is about tying this to some other independent source. The same time, it's important, when you're doing an interrogation like this, you're going to have the NYPD involved, but you have to bring in the intelligence community because there may be something that's relevant that's actually being said by this man or anybody else that may seem irrelevant to the NYPD but may be very, very important to NSA, CIA, DOD, or whatever alphabet soup you want to use.
BROWN: All right. Go ahead quickly.
TOWNSEND: Dave Cohen, the deputy commissioner of intelligence for the NYPD is a former CIA officer and former leader of the intelligence division of the CIA so he understands this very well.
BROWN: All right. And makes the huge difference. Fran Townsend and Jack Rice, thanks to both of you. Appreciate it.
Coming up, a massive containment dome is right now at sea headed for the spewing oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico. BP says this could be the best hope to finally try to get this disaster under control, but will it work? We'll talk about that after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CAMPBELL BROWN, HOST: Authorities are pinning their hopes tonight on a giant 100-ton steel box now headed to stop the oil, to try to stop the oil that is spewing into the Gulf of Mexico. BP says that even if successful, the contraption is at best a short term solution to this massive disaster. Brooke Baldwin has been watching the recovery effort unfold from Mississippi.
Brooke, we know the dome is on its way. I believe that's a live picture we're looking at. Give us a sense of when it's supposed to get there and explain what it's to do. Explain that to people.
BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Sure. Well, at least some good news, Campbell. We have confirmed that this dome that you're looking at is officially out at open sea. It left the port earlier today. It's supposed to take, we're hearing in the neighborhood of 12 to 13 hours just to reach the leak location and then once it does that, the process of actually sealing this thing on top of the well head will take another two days. So we're hearing earliest Saturday maybe when they start containing the leak - Campbell.
BROWN: That's about what you said containing it, but talk to us about the cleanup efforts that are under way right now. How it's going?
BALDWIN: In terms of cleanup efforts, we have just learned from BP that they're stopping or at least, I should say temporarily stopping the use of those dispersants, you know, those chemicals that they're using both underwater and the surface level to break up some of the oil. They're saying hang on. We need to assess both the effectiveness and the environmental impact of that.
And number two, we heard this morning from the coast guard that they're giving the burning another go. They haven't been able to burn the oil, you know, coral it and then light it on fire simply because that the weather hasn't been cooperative. It has been windy and the water has been rough. So today, they're giving it another go in terms of burning.
BROWN: Brooke, I know you're not seeing any oil where you are, but there is enormous concern for wildlife in the area. Explain that as well?
BALDWIN: Absolutely, huge concern. We're hearing somewhere like 400 different species of wildlife. A lot of that is about 15 miles south of us at the massive barrier islands where it's the heart of the marshland. You have the turtles, birds, dolphins. In fact, they hopped up in a helicopter. I took this amazing aerial tour and was able to sea dolphins and their babies. It's birthing season right now.
So one of the huge concerns is this is the most populace area of dolphins off the coast of Mississippi and Louisiana. Concern about dolphins. Also, the National Wildlife Foundation found two oily birds including one brown pelican which was just off the endangered species list. They found those offshore. Another concern, the lauger head turtle, they found one gasping for air amidst the oily slick. So, Campbell, just because the water kind of looks clear, like you said offshore here, that's not necessarily the case way out there.
BROWN: Yes, absolutely. Brooke Baldwin, of course, tonight. Brooke, thanks very much.
Many experts believe that this oil spill could end up being as devastating as the Exxon Valdez disaster. So we did actually want to find out how communities are coping today, 21 years later, so we sent Dan Simon to Corduva, Alaska, which was one of the hardest hit areas. He's on special assignment, of course. We're going to bring you his report tomorrow night.
Coming up, death, destruction and crippling debt in Greece. Athens is literally on fire. Violent protesters torching the city over the government's deep spending cuts. The country is broke and its fiscal problems dragging down the world's economy. That when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Coming up, what is in your medicine cabinet? The very latest on the recall of children's pain relievers. What you can do immediately to protect your kids?
But, first Tom Foreman has tonight's download. Hey, Tom.
TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Campbell. Tonight, three people are dead as violent antigovernment protests spread across Greece. The victims were killed in a fire bomb attack against an Athens bank. Riot police tried to keep protesters from throwing bottles and rocks. Demonstrators are curios over government spending cuts, which they say are taking money out of their pockets. The Greek government says, it is struggling to avoid bankruptcy.
The number of fatalities is climbing in the wake of that ferocious flooding in Tennessee, where now 28 people have died. The water is neck deep in some areas of the battered state. Flooding has destroyed homes, washed away roads and displaced thousands of people. Tennessee got a break today from the heavy storms that have battered the state. The rivers remain dangerously high.
Tomorrow, Anderson Cooper reports live from Nashville on "AC360" including a tour of a national treasure ravaged by flood waters. Some of country music's biggest stars, Tim McGraw and Faith Hill too. Make sure you don't miss that.
The controversy over Arizona's new immigration law take center court tonight. Members of the Phoenix Suns plan to wear jerseys called "Los Suns" in tonight's playoff game. The Suns on the jerseys would be covered over in black to show the players opposition to the new law.
Speaking at a Cinco de Mayo celebration at the White House this evening, President Obama again criticized the Arizona law. The president says he wants Congress to work on comprehensive immigration reform this year.
And finally, the Holly Woops walk of fame. Julia Louis Dreyfus had the honor this week of getting her own star except her name was misspelled. The spelling omitted an "O" and a hypen. A long time CNN copy editor noticed this error on his way to work and he alerted the folks at the Hollywood walk of fame. They've corrected the typo and now she's going the get wrongly chiseled name as a souvenir.
BROWN: Well, what does he get?
FOREMAN: I guess, he gets a pat on the back, I don't know. Maybe she'll call him and say thanks.
BROWN: Tom Foreman for us tonight. Tom, thanks very much. Coming up, we're going to talk about the potential danger that may be lurking in your medicine cabinet. A massive recall of the most commonly used medications for kids. Tylenol, Motrin, Benadryl, how dangerous is this situation? We'll tell you after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
If you went through your medicine cabinet at home tonight, there's a good chance that a lot of you would be looking at bottles of children's Tylenol, Motrin and Benadryl. Parents, you may have heard, beware right now. The government telling people to stop using the products immediately and slammed conditions at the Johnson and Johnson factory where the popular over-the-counter drugs are made. Kate Bolduan looked into what caused the massive recall.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KATE BOLDUAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Days after a voluntary recall of over-the-counter infant and children's liquid medications, a scathing report from the Food and Drug Administration.
Seventeen pages of findings described by regulators as serious. Page 1, raw material used to make children's Tylenol drug products had "known contamination with gram negative organisms" bacteria. Page 4, no corrective action was initiated despite 46 consumer complaints regarding foreign materials, black or dark specs found in medicine."
Dr. Sidney Wolfe is a long time critic of the drug industry. Wolf says, this isn't an isolated incident. This is the McNeil Consumer Health Care's fourth recall in the past seven months.
DR. SIDNEY WOLFE, PUBLIC CITIZEN: This is a company that sells billions of dollars of products. It's inexcusable that such a company would be so sloppy.
BOLDUAN: The McNeil plant is now shutdown indefinitely. The FDA maintains that the potential is remote for serious health problems, but federal officials continue to warn parents to stop using the drugs immediately. Not so easy says pediatrician, Dr. Jennifer Shu.
DR. JENNIFER SHU, PEDIATRICIAN: Many of my patients have already gone through their medicine cabinets and checked the lot numbers, expiration dates to see if their medicines fall under the recall. A recall of this size is definitely affecting pretty much every parent that I know.
BOLDUAN: In a statement, McNeil apologized to consumers, saying the quality issues that the FDA has observed are unacceptable to us and not indicative of how McNeil Consumer Health Care intends to operate.
BOLDUAN: Who is dropping the ball here?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The primary dropper of the ball are the companies. Secondarily, in some cases, the FDA was a little slow or late to get to this.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BOLDUAN: Some big questions remain. Right now, the FDA isn't saying what type of bacteria is involved in this contamination and McNeil has he declined to tell us how many individual packages we're actually talking about, essentially how big is this recall?
BROWN: And we have just learned tonight that a congressional committee has opened an investigation into the drug recall. You can expect hearings on that in the coming weeks. "Larry King Live" coming up in just a few minutes.
Larry, what do you have tonight?
LARRY KING, HOST "LARRY KING LIVE": Campbell, we've got breaking news about the Times Square terror case and the suspect's possible motivation. Pretty good guest too. Rudy Guiliani and John McCain are here to talk about terrorism, what they think about of the local and federal government's response and who deserves credit for nabbing the alleged would be bomber.
They'll tell us and a former leader in an Islamic extremist group has fascinating things to say about how people are recruited and radicalized. You don't want to miss this next on "Larry King Live" - Campbell.
BROWN: All right, Larry, we'll see you in just a few minutes.
Coming up next, the debate dividing the country, the new battle overe reading Miranda rights to a terror suspect. Here to duke it out, Mary Matalin and Roland Martin. Right after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
Time now for Mary Matalin and Roland Martin to square off on some of the hot topics people talking about tonight. Guys, what do you got?
ROLAND MARTIN: Campbell, thanks a bunch. Everybody continues to talk about the car bomber from the Times Square in New York. The politicians are now weighing in. Here's Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina in a Senate hearing today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM (R) SOUTH CAROLINA: What I want to know more about this guy is not how he committed the crime but what led him to commit the crime and who he worked with, and Miranda warnings are counterproductive in my view.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MARTIN: I don't understand, Mary, why politicians who are not in law enforcement are weighing in on Miranda rights when you haven't even ascertained if it was terrorism yet?
MARY MATALIN: You don't think from everything you've read after these days that a Pakistani, who even the press is reporting said he got training in terrorist camps in Pakistan?
MARTIN: And you just prove my point. They are criticizing the Miranda rights the moment he was arrested. You don't know all of that when you stop someone, when you arrest someone. He's an American citizen, so how do you say he's an American citizen so we're going to assume it was terrorism. The moment he was arrested, we didn't know.
MATALIN: The conflict between civil liberties and personal security always comes into play at a time of conflict like this. In our history, great presidents from Abraham Lincoln to FDR have suspended civil liberties. They shouldn't be mutually exclusive. They don't need to be.
But in this case, people, today's citizens choose personal security over civil liberties. When you Mirandize somebody, you shut them down and you potentially let other terrorist activities go forward.
Now, moving on because it goes to the same point, this week, the governor of Arizona who signed into the law that we discussed so rapidly last week received in her office an envelope of white powdery substance. I don't know how much coverage there was on this incident of real terrorism or real law or whatever you want to call this, this is dangerous stuff.
I'm not talking about the histrionics of the liberals or the media or anything like this, but this is what I think is fueling the fury of the electorate out there. Events that didn't happen like spitting on a congressman or the calling -- using the n word, those events didn't happen.
MARTIN: You're saying it didn't happen. There is no proof it didn't happen. You can't say it didn't happen. That's not true.
MATALIN: The congress persons involved said it didn't happen. They said it didn't happen.
MARTIN: No, they didn't. They didn't say that. Look, this whole notion of the white powder stuff, we have seen nut cases do this when health care came up. We saw them do it when it came to the Iraq war. We have people out there who want to square folks with this nonsense. It happens with crazies, whether they're on the left or right. It is ridiculous. I'm not going to sit there and act as if it's one side. There are nutty people who love to do this.
MATALIN: No, no.
MARTIN: They're not?
MATALIN: You completely missed my point. In a typical male fashion, you completely missed my point.
MARTIN: Now it's a male thing.
MATALIN: On your side of the aisle -- yes, because men don't listen.
MARTIN: No, we do listen. But when it's nonsense, we brush it away. MATALIN: You call it nonsense. I'm going to criticize being a liberal. I wasn't saying it only happened on one side. I said when it happens on the right side, these people are racist and they're not Nazis. When it happens on the other side, it just disappears. Nobody talks about it. That's my point.
MARTIN: I have no idea what the heck you're talking about. It has nothing to do with a man or female. There are crazy people out there. I'm not on one side. I'm not on the side of crazies. Liberal or conservatives. Now, here's what's very interesting out here.
MATALIN: We agree.
MARTIN: There's a story in the "New York Times," 32 African-American who are Republicans running. The fact that it is a story that black people are running as Republicans shows to me Republicans is a black problem. It's an actual story. I think the real issue is not that they're running. Can they win?
MATALIN: That they're running on conservative principles in this year when people are so anti the liberal principles as personified and glorified by President Obama, of course they are. I love they are running on their credentials and not the color of their skin.
MARTIN: If you run, you're running on a platform. In previous years, we saw 25 Republicans running before they didn't win. We've had other years, the year of the black Republican, it didn't turn out. We'll see what happens. I don't think there's a story they're running. The story is going to be if they actually win.
MATALIN: All right. Campbell, back to you.
BROWN: Mary and Roland. Thanks guys. "Larry King Live" starts in just a few moments.
Coming up, the Morning Yeardley Love. You're looking right now at a campus vigil, which just ended on the campus of the University of Virginia. We are learning a lot more about the night this young woman died and the ex-boyfriend who police say beat her to death.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
Students at the University of Virginia are mourning a 22-year-old Lacrosse player, Yeardley Love who police say was brutally murdered by George Huguely, her ex-boyfriend who played on the men's team. Investigators today, retrieved her computer and are looking for threatening e-mails after Huguely admitted to slamming her head against the wall and leaving her in a pool of blood. Sarah Lee right now has more on the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SARAH LEE (voice-over): This campus nestled in the foothills of Virginia's Blue Ridge mountains, and we're learning more about what happened at this off-campus student apartment early Monday morning before an urgent call went out to police. A roommate found 22-year- old University of Virginia senior women's Lacrosse player, Yeardley Love unresponsive in her room.
CHIEF TIMOTHY LONGO, SR. CHARLOTTESVILLE POLICE: Patrol officers arrived on the scene. It was quickly apparent to them that this young lady was the victim of something far worse. There were obvious physical injuries to her body.
LEE: According to police documents, there was a pool of blood on her pillow. Love had a large bruise on the right side of her face which appears to have been caused by blunt force trauma. Love's right eye had been swollen shut and there were bruises to her chin."
Authorities have charged 22 year old, George Huguely, a player on the UVA men's Lacrosse team with first degree murder in her death. A police affidavit says Huguely admitted to having fought with Love in the early morning hours Monday and told investigators he shook Love and her head repeatedly hit the wall.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are confident that Ms. Love's death was not intended but an accident with a tragic outcome.
LEE: His parents, stepfather and lawyers were at the Charlottesville Courthouse for a hearing Huguely attended by video conference. Ironically in 2006, the suspect's father, George Huguely Sr. spoke to the Washington Post about conversations he had with his son about rape charges against Duke university Lacrosse players that were eventually dropped.
Five of the 46 Lacrosse players that year graduated from Huguely's suburban Washington prep school. George Huguely Sr told his son, you always have to remember and can't let yourself be in a situation where something like this could happen. At UVA, grief counselors are helping students, staff and faculty cope.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's kind of sad. Kind of a little bit shocked what actually happened here.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It feels safe a lot of the time, but when something like this happens, it leaves you reeling.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEE (on camera): According to police papers, Huguely told investigators he took Love's computer from her apartment and tried to get rid of it. He eventually told police where it was and has been cooperating with authorities. Sarah Lee, CNN, Washington.
BROWN: And today, the university announced that both women's and men's Lacrosse teams will play in the NCAA tournament in honor of Love. That's it for us. "Larry King Live" starts right now.
