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CNN Live At Daybreak
Action by Congress, Bush Administration on Recommendations of 9/11 Commission; Discussing Latest Terror Threat Alert
Aired August 03, 2004 - 05:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: A hurricane just barely. Alex prepares to brush the Outer Banks of North Carolina.
It is Tuesday, August 3.
This is DAYBREAK.
And good morning to you.
From the CNN Global Headquarters in Atlanta, I'm Carol Costello.
Now in the news, the 9/11 Commission report is front and center again on Capitol Hill. The Senate Governmental Affairs Committee will hold its second hearing on the panel's recommendations. It begins five hours from now.
Lady Liberty will start receiving guests this morning. The landmark Statue of Liberty reopens for the first time since September 11. The reopening ceremonies are set for 11:00 Eastern.
Another space walk under way at the international space station. It began, oh, just about two hours ago. The two man crew is making repairs, preparing to receive more cargo and performing scientific assignments. It's a busy day, indeed.
Back here on Earth, just three hours ago, tropical storm Alex was upgraded to a hurricane with sustained winds at 75 miles per hour. North Carolina's Outer Banks is under a hurricane warning.
Now to the forecast center and Rob Marciano. Chad is somewhere in North Carolina.
ROB MARCIANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes.
COSTELLO: We don't know where yet, but we'll find him.
MARCIANO: I can tell you this, he's not in the mountains. He's definitely heading toward the beach and we hope to hear from him, if not this hour, next hour, and hopefully soon after that Chad will be reporting live from there.
Good morning, Carol, this is our first hurricane of the season. It got off to a very slow start. Almost two months, or actually two months before we had any sort of development, and now we have a hurricane. Our first name is hurricane Alex. Right now winds are 80 miles an hour. These, this the coastline of South Carolina and then North Carolina, back to Georgia. We're not looking at any sort of action.
So it's pretty much just North Carolina that's going to be under the gun here. It's 75 miles east-southeast of Wilmington. And you can generally see the movement of this thing. It's going to parallel the coastline, moving northeast at 10 miles an hour. So it'll give it a glancing blow as far as the Outer Banks are concerned.
Here is the radar, the brighter images indicating the heaviest amounts of rain. And this thing just paralleling the coastline. So it's not like an Isabel, which really pretty much slammed right in. It's going to scoot just along the Outer Banks.
But it is a hurricane and we have hurricane warnings out for much of the North Carolina coastline throughout the rest of today. This the next route of radar site. You really get an indication most of the heavy action is going to remain offshore. But certainly folks along the Outer Banks, Carol, used to hurricanes, yes, and they're getting their first one of the season and Chad is chasing it down.
COSTELLO: Well, hopefully it'll only be a glancing blow in the end.
MARCIANO: Yes.
COSTELLO: Rob, thank you.
MARCIANO: OK. COSTELLO: The heightened terror alert has created a new sense of urgency on Capitol Hill to reform intelligence agencies sooner rather than later. President Bush and Congress are scrambling to address recommendations from the 9/11 Commission against a backdrop of election year politics and a chilling al Qaeda plot.
Here's more for you from CNN's Ed Henry.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
ED HENRY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): 9/11 commissioners believe President Bush took a strong first step, but they urged Congress to act quickly, especially in the wake of the latest warnings of terrorist attacks.
TIMOTHY ROEMER, PRESIDENT, CENTER FOR NATIONAL POLICY: I can't think of a higher priority than implementing some of these reforms quickly and smartly and efficiently. Al Qaeda is not on a vacation schedule.
HENRY: Even before the threat level was raised, 9/11 Commission Chairman Thomas Kean spoke of the imminent danger. He testified Friday at the first of a slew of rare summer hearings on Capitol Hill.
THOMAS KEAN, CHAIRMAN, 9/11 COMMISSION: It is an emergency. There's an enemy out there who is planning as we meet here to attack us.
HENRY: Commissioners will start hitting the road nationwide Tuesday to whip up support for their proposals. Since it's an election year, they want to keep the heat on lawmakers.
ROEMER: Well, I would strongly encourage the Congress to work in a bipartisan way to try to get a number of these recommendations, many of which are not new, implemented and protect this country so that when they run for reelection in November, they can run with a good conscience, fulfilling their job description and job responsibilities to defend and protect this great country.
HENRY: Democratic nominee John Kerry wants Congress called back for a special session to follow up hearings with legislative action this month. The president disagrees.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Congress has been thinking about some of these ideas. They can think about them over August and come back and act on them in September.
HENRY: The president prodded Congress to improve its own handling of intelligence, rather than simply shaking up the executive branch.
BUSH: There are too many committees with overlapping jurisdiction, which wastes time and makes it difficult for meaningful oversight and reform.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
COSTELLO: So, what do you think? Does the idea of creating the position of a national intelligence director make you feel safer? E- mail us. We'll read some of your responses on air. The address: daybreak@cnn.com, daybreak@cnn.com.
Again, does the idea of creating the position of a national intelligence director make you feel safer?
And while Congress works on legislation creating a new intelligence director post, President Bush still has to pick a new CIA chief. Acting director John McLaughlin has been warming the seat since George Tenet resigned back in June. The White House says we can expect to hear more on a permanent replacement soon.
And it may be a commuter's nightmare in the nation's capital this morning. As part of increased security, police are inspecting every car that drives by the Capitol and its office buildings. Plus, all traffic around the perimeter of the Capitol complex is being funneled through about 10 checkpoints. That includes heavily traveled Constitution and Independence Avenues.
And we're learning more this morning about the terror threats that triggered all of this heightened security.
Kelli Arena has more details for you.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
KELLI ARENA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): With enhanced security in place around named targets, senior government sources tell CNN there are unnamed ones as well. Sources describe them as financial targets like the rest. A homeland security official acknowledges there are a number of what he called minute mentions without any detail but would not elaborate.
TOM RIDGE, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: It certainly indicates that they've taken a long, hard look at several sites.
ARENA: Counterterrorism officials believe al Qaeda conducted surveillance inside the target buildings. They say there are indications the intelligence was updated in the last few months but they do not know if that means the recent surveillance was done in person.
Sources say there are event and date references in the material confiscated in Pakistan along with about 500 computer images, including photographs, drawings and layouts. These are helping investigators determine precisely when the surveillance was conducted.
RAY KELLY, NEW YORK POLICE COMMISSIONER: This is an intelligence report by the enemy you might say but not tied at this moment in time to any operational plan that we're aware of.
ARENA: Investigators are also trying to find out who carried out the surveillance and whether they are still in the United States. Investigators are scanning employee and visitor records from the various sites and officials say the FBI has several investigations underway stemming from the new intelligence.
The level of surveillance was extremely detailed, including information about parking garages, security personnel and cameras and pedestrian traffic but officials say no information suggesting the timing of a possible attack.
CHIEF CHARLES RAMSEY, METROPOLITAN D.C. POLICE: We don't have any real concrete information around how long this is going to last.
ARENA: Officials say it was the arrest of an alleged al Qaeda computer expert that led investigators to the new information and ultimately to accused terrorist Ahmed Ghailani.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
COSTELLO: And you can learn a little more about how New York City is handling this terrorism threat on "AMERICAN MORNING." Mayor Michael Bloomberg is the guest in the 7:00 Eastern hour.
We want to talk more now about the link between the arrest in Pakistan and the raised threat level.
Our senior international editor, David Clinch, joins us with some new information this morning.
DAVID CLINCH, CNN INTERNATIONAL EDITOR: Good morning, Carol.
Well, we have our eyes very, very focused on these arrests in Pakistan. There were at least three key arrests, we're now told, one back in June, a low level al Qaeda operative. That led then to another arrest in mid-July and then finally to Ghailani at the end of July. The cumulative sequence of events, those arrests and the information obtained, was key in setting this new terror level alert. We know that.
We also know that a lot of the information that's been obtained is old. But in many ways, intelligence officials are telling us that's a distraction. Don't worry about the fact that it's old information. I mean just imagine if we were in August 2001 and somebody found information dating from 1998 showing how to get box cutters on planes, how to fly a plane and a plan for the World Trade Center and nothing was done about it.
COSTELLO: Well, plans for the World Trade Centers were years in the works, too.
CLINCH: Absolutely.
So the intelligence officials saying it may be old intelligence, but the key question, as Kelli Arena and others, of course, emphasizing, is is that old information part of any current plan? They have at least three al Qaeda operatives in detention in Pakistan. The U.S. is involved in the interrogation of those individuals. The U.S. is also involved in looking at the information that's on the computers and the documents that have been recovered.
And that's really the key, because information gathered from interrogation in Pakistan may not be reliable. But information recovered from computers, and especially anything that might indicate current communication to anybody in one direction outside Pakistan, perhaps even inside the U.S., that would be something they'd be interested in. And in the other direction, from al Qaeda leadership, Osama bin Laden or others in Pakistan or Afghanistan, that would be important.
They are looking at everything they have and they are -- we are watching everything that they're reporting.
COSTELLO: Well, you know, I guess the bottom line here is is how afraid should we be, because some people are taking this terror threat as they take pretty much every other terror threat.
CLINCH: Oh, I understand. And officially the word, of course, is that there is no information relating to a current plan. But they're still looking at the information and that's the important thing. We need to stay tuned. We need to listen to what we're hearing from Pakistan, what's on those computers.
COSTELLO: David Clinch, many thanks to you.
CLINCH: All right.
COSTELLO: Here are some of the stories making news across America this Tuesday.
Mark Hacking has been arrested on suspicion of aggravated murder after being released from a Salt Lake City psychiatric hospital. His wife Lori Hacking has been missing for more than two weeks. Police say they've been building their case against Mark Hacking since day one of their investigation.
The husband of convicted killer Andrea Yates has filed for divorce. Yates, you'll remember, drowned the couple's five children in the bathtub three years ago. She spent nine days in a hospital last month after refusing to eat or drink.
No charges will be filed against the Japanese man who forced the landing and evacuation of a plane at Chicago's O'Hare Airport. The man had written the words "suicide bomb" on a piece of paper, which led another passenger to alert the crew. Police released the man after he explained he wrote down the words so he could look up their meaning in the dictionary.
Another chapter in the Iraq prisoner abuse scandal is about to begin. When we come back, find out what's next for the woman photographed in many of those disturbing pictures.
Plus, Kobe Bryant's court case, newly released transcripts show potential problems for the prosecution. We'll take a closer look.
And hurricane Alex is stirring up possible problems for people in the Carolinas. We'll have a live report for you from Nags Head later this hour.
And it's a big day for Lady Liberty. We'll take you live to New York for all the planning details as the massive statue makes another debut.
This is DAYBREAK for a Tuesday morning.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Your news, money, weather and sports.
It is 5:14 Eastern.
Here's what's all new this morning.
President Bush is acting on the 9/11 Commission's recommendations. The president asked Congress to create the position of national intelligence chief.
Some potentially damaging evidence has come to light in the newly released transcripts from the Kobe Bryant case. Included is a prosecution statement that their case may be in jeopardy. We'll have details for you later this hour.
In money news, the days of screaming stock traders may be numbered. The New York Stock Exchange is planning changes that could make computer trading easier and more prevalent. In culture, Barack Obama is now a best selling author. Pre- orders of his 9-year-old biography have hit the big time since his high profile appearance at the Democratic national convention. The Illinois Senate hopeful's biography release is set for August 10.
In sports, Smarty Jones is heading to stud. The Kentucky Derby winning horse entered early retirement due to an ankle problem. Don't despair, though. The horse's owners can expect stud fees of about $100,000 per mare -- Rob.
MARCIANO: Not bad. And not a bad life for Smarty, actually.
COSTELLO: Not at all.
MARCIANO: Hey, Carol, hurricane Alex is our top weather story. You see it on the right hand side of your screen there. Winds of 80 miles an hour. It is 75 miles east-southeast of Wilmington, North Carolina. A glancing blow expected for the Outer Banks, with rain inland. Thunderstorms expected across parts of Iowa, possibly some strong winds. Cooler air making its way into the northern plains. Eighty-one in Minneapolis. It'll be 84 degrees in Chicago; 95, kind of steamy in St. Louis. Also rather warm in D.C. and New York, with highs right around 90 degrees.
Back over to you -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Thank you, Rob.
Those are the latest headlines for you this morning.
Private First Class Lynndie England is getting the first of what may be several days in court today. She's easily the most recognizable soldier at the center of the Iraqi prisoner abuse scandal. But abuse isn't the only charge she's facing. England is also accused of personal sexual misconduct.
CNN's Susan Candiotti has the story from Fort Bragg, North Carolina.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
RICHARD HERNANDEZ, LYNNDIE ENGLAND'S LAWYER: She's very scared.
SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Her own lawyer calls PFC Lynndie England the poster child of the Abu Ghraib Prison scandal. Tuesday in a Fort Bragg courtroom, she faces a twice delayed military hearing likely to lead to a full court martial. She told Denver station KCNC others had her pose for the photos.
PFC LYNNDIE ENGLAND: I didn't really, I mean, want to be in any pictures.
CANDIOTTI: She named no names but said: "I was told to stand here, point thumbs up, look at the camera and take the picture. They were for psy-op reasons and the reasons worked. I mean so to us, we were doing our job, which meant we were doing what we were told and the outcome was what they wanted. They just told us hey, you're doing great. Keep it up."
Her lawyer blames higher-ups.
HERNANDEZ: PFC England is not the end of the black mark on the Army that comes out of the Abu Ghraib Prison prisoner abuse scandal.
CANDIOTTI: Yet the defense already is dangling the thought of a plea bargain.
HERNANDEZ: A plea is always a possibility, if for nothing else to avoid the possibility of a court martial and a longer sentence.
CANDIOTTI: England, only 21, is an Army clerk from rural West Virginia. She's more than six months pregnant. Her boyfriend, guard Charles Graner, is awaiting trial in Iraq. Prison could keep them apart for years.
HERNANDEZ: It's hard for Lynndie to see beyond the future, not knowing whether she'll even be around to raise her child if she's facing a 15-year prison sentence.
CANDIOTTI (on camera): Recent new charges of personal sexual misconduct with other guards in Iraq could push the maximum sentence to 38 years. If England is ordered to stand trial, that may have to wait until in the fall, after her baby is due.
Susan Candiotti, CNN, Fort Bragg, North Carolina.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
COSTELLO: And the unit Private England serve with -- you're looking at them right now -- the one at the center of the Abu Ghraib scandal, returned home Monday to a rousing welcome after more than 16 months in Iraq. More than 100 members of the 372nd Military Police Company were met by family and friends. Seven soldiers from the unit were charged as part of the abuse scandal. The unit was originally supposed to come home in April, but their tour was extended an extra three months.
And here's a reminder for you to let us know what you think. Our question this morning is does the idea of creating the position of a national intelligence director make you feel safer? Send us an e-mail and we'll get to them later on DAYBREAK.
Wall Street opens up this morning. Monday's Dow closed at 10179. That's up 39.45 points. The tech heavy Nasdaq closed at 1892, gaining 4.73 points. And the S&P 500 closed at just over 1,000.
Let's see how those figures are affecting the overseas financial markets now.
For that, we head live to London and Jim Boulden -- good morning, Jim.
JIM BOULDEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. Yes, I'll tell you, all the action today, this morning, has been in the oil markets. You see the number behind me. It is unprecedented. U.S. oil, this is delivery into September, is 4420. Now, the record was hit this morning at $44.24. That is unprecedented. It is the highest it's ever been since 1983, when this market was created, the NYMEX Futures Market was created, trading electronically, 4420.
Also, Brent crude, this is U.K. oil, $40.18. Now, we have not seen that since October of 1990, the highest then when the beginning of the first Gulf War. So we are really seeing a sharp rise in oil prices in the last 24 hours. The reason, OPEC has said this morning there is nothing they can do, Carol, about these high oil prices. The head of OPEC says there is no more oil to pump. They cannot increase supply to go with the very strong demand we're seeing in the markets. So the markets have jumped considerably because OPEC says, again, there is nothing they can do to bring these oil prices back down.
Let's have a quick look at the stock markets. Really very little action, despite the fact of the positive close on Wall Street. We are really waiting for some good corporate results out of the U.K. and Europe later this week. We have seen some good bank numbers out today. We have seen some numbers at Ryan there, the big discount airline, which says that it's very cautious this year. But passenger numbers are up.
But so far, Carol, very little action in the European markets. Again, all of the action in oil.
That's it -- back to you.
COSTELLO: All right, Jim Boulden live in London.
Thank you.
Coming up next on DAYBREAK, newly released transcripts in the Kobe Bryant case could spell disaster for the prosecution. We'll tell you why.
Plus...
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP FROM "GROWING UP GOTTI," COURTESY A&E)
VICTORIA GOTTI, "GROWING UP GOTTI": So what are you saying, if I dated a man, you'd move out?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Because I don't want to be around the guy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Well, "Growing Up Gotti," a new reality TV show gives a look inside the life of a mobster's daughter.
This is DAYBREAK for Tuesday, August 3.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) COSTELLO: A very vivid picture has been painted by the transcripts released in the Kobe Bryant case. Included are details about the accuser's sexual activity in the days before and after the alleged Bryant attack.
CNN national correspondent Gary Tuchman has more for you.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In public, prosecutors in the Kobe Bryant case have always appeared confident. But in a closed door hearing, those same prosecutors had less bravado. Assistant District Attorney Ingrid Bakke, here on the left, walking with the alleged victim's mother, told Judge Terry Ruckriegle if he ruled the accuser's sex life could be used as evidence in the trial, "I'm thinking the prosecution is going to sit down and reevaluate the quality of its case and its chances of a successful prosecution."
A month after that comment, the judge allowed such testimony. The comment is from transcripts of a closed door hearing in June, reluctantly released by the judge after the news media fought a first amendment battle. In the 94 pages, Bryant's attorneys called the defense forensics expert, who testified that when the accuser went for her rape exam the day after being with Bryant, a different man's DNA was found not only on her underwear, but on a part of her body inside her underwear and on her upper thigh.
Dr. Elizabeth Johnson declared it was her opinion the sexual contact with that other man "taking everything in totality, likely occurred after the accuser and Mr. Bryant were together."
Bryant's attorneys say injuries the woman had could have come from somebody else and that sex the day after a rape would not be logical to a jury. But the woman's personal attorney vehemently denies she had sex the day after. There's no denial she had sex in the days before she was with Bryant. And the transcript shows that prosecutors believe the other man's DNA ended up on her body at the rape exam when it was transferred from a pair of underwear she had previously worn.
District attorney Mark asked Bryant's witness if what she was saying was a hypothesis rather than a theory. Dr. Johnson answered: "It's an opinion based on examination of this evidence. It's based on a lot of scientific findings."
In the transcripts, which the judge regretfully points out as one-sided evidence, the attorneys for the basketball star also declared that tests of the woman's fingernails reveal her DNA, but not Bryant's, a not so subtle way of trying to prove she didn't try to scratch her alleged attacker.
Gary Tuchman, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
COSTELLO: Time for our DAYBREAK "Eye Openers" now. The Messenger is in the way. Just a few hours ago, NASA launched its Messenger mission to Mercury. It'll take the craft about seven years to reach the planet closest to the sun. NASA is hoping that Mercury can provide a look back into Earth's early history.
One Colorado Springs neighborhood has a new resident. This young bear has been foraging through back yards and trash cans looking for scarps of food. Wildlife officials tell residents to steer clear.
We're all doomed -- at least that's what retailers are hoping. The third version of the popular Doom video game hits stores today. Game experts liken the release of Doom 3 to the opening of a new Star Wars movie.
Did you ever want to go inside the life of a mob boss's daughter as she struggles to raise her three teenaged boys on a huge Long Island estate? Oh, sure you did. Reality TV's latest offering, "Growing Up Gotti," tells Victoria Gotti's story.
And here's what she told our Anderson Cooper about her family's name and notoriety.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOTTI: Hurt me? Yes, sometimes it did. It could hurt. It could hinder. It could help. It depends on who looks at it and how you look at it. What I'm trying to say is people cannot sit there and say, you know, well, you profited from that. I did not profit from it. I'm working since I'm 15 years old. Everything I own, that nice big white house, is mine, because I built it and I bought it, every little brick. And not from any ill gotten gains. And they say well, the career, the celebrity and now with this show, would you have gotten this show? I think I paid my dues.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP FROM "GROWING UP GOTTI," COURTESY A&E)
GOTTI: You're saying if I dated a man, you'd move out?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: "Growing Up Gotti" premiered on the A&E Network. We don't know what the ratings were yet.
Here's what's all new in the next half hour of DAYBREAK.
It's been closed since the 9/11 attacks, but today is the day that the public once again gets up close and personal with Lady Liberty. We'll have a live report for you out of New York.
And officials say the new terror alert in New York, Newark and Washington is largely based on information from Pakistan. We'll get more pieces to that puzzle ahead.
This is DAYBREAK for Tuesday. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired August 3, 2004 - 05:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: A hurricane just barely. Alex prepares to brush the Outer Banks of North Carolina.
It is Tuesday, August 3.
This is DAYBREAK.
And good morning to you.
From the CNN Global Headquarters in Atlanta, I'm Carol Costello.
Now in the news, the 9/11 Commission report is front and center again on Capitol Hill. The Senate Governmental Affairs Committee will hold its second hearing on the panel's recommendations. It begins five hours from now.
Lady Liberty will start receiving guests this morning. The landmark Statue of Liberty reopens for the first time since September 11. The reopening ceremonies are set for 11:00 Eastern.
Another space walk under way at the international space station. It began, oh, just about two hours ago. The two man crew is making repairs, preparing to receive more cargo and performing scientific assignments. It's a busy day, indeed.
Back here on Earth, just three hours ago, tropical storm Alex was upgraded to a hurricane with sustained winds at 75 miles per hour. North Carolina's Outer Banks is under a hurricane warning.
Now to the forecast center and Rob Marciano. Chad is somewhere in North Carolina.
ROB MARCIANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes.
COSTELLO: We don't know where yet, but we'll find him.
MARCIANO: I can tell you this, he's not in the mountains. He's definitely heading toward the beach and we hope to hear from him, if not this hour, next hour, and hopefully soon after that Chad will be reporting live from there.
Good morning, Carol, this is our first hurricane of the season. It got off to a very slow start. Almost two months, or actually two months before we had any sort of development, and now we have a hurricane. Our first name is hurricane Alex. Right now winds are 80 miles an hour. These, this the coastline of South Carolina and then North Carolina, back to Georgia. We're not looking at any sort of action.
So it's pretty much just North Carolina that's going to be under the gun here. It's 75 miles east-southeast of Wilmington. And you can generally see the movement of this thing. It's going to parallel the coastline, moving northeast at 10 miles an hour. So it'll give it a glancing blow as far as the Outer Banks are concerned.
Here is the radar, the brighter images indicating the heaviest amounts of rain. And this thing just paralleling the coastline. So it's not like an Isabel, which really pretty much slammed right in. It's going to scoot just along the Outer Banks.
But it is a hurricane and we have hurricane warnings out for much of the North Carolina coastline throughout the rest of today. This the next route of radar site. You really get an indication most of the heavy action is going to remain offshore. But certainly folks along the Outer Banks, Carol, used to hurricanes, yes, and they're getting their first one of the season and Chad is chasing it down.
COSTELLO: Well, hopefully it'll only be a glancing blow in the end.
MARCIANO: Yes.
COSTELLO: Rob, thank you.
MARCIANO: OK. COSTELLO: The heightened terror alert has created a new sense of urgency on Capitol Hill to reform intelligence agencies sooner rather than later. President Bush and Congress are scrambling to address recommendations from the 9/11 Commission against a backdrop of election year politics and a chilling al Qaeda plot.
Here's more for you from CNN's Ed Henry.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
ED HENRY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): 9/11 commissioners believe President Bush took a strong first step, but they urged Congress to act quickly, especially in the wake of the latest warnings of terrorist attacks.
TIMOTHY ROEMER, PRESIDENT, CENTER FOR NATIONAL POLICY: I can't think of a higher priority than implementing some of these reforms quickly and smartly and efficiently. Al Qaeda is not on a vacation schedule.
HENRY: Even before the threat level was raised, 9/11 Commission Chairman Thomas Kean spoke of the imminent danger. He testified Friday at the first of a slew of rare summer hearings on Capitol Hill.
THOMAS KEAN, CHAIRMAN, 9/11 COMMISSION: It is an emergency. There's an enemy out there who is planning as we meet here to attack us.
HENRY: Commissioners will start hitting the road nationwide Tuesday to whip up support for their proposals. Since it's an election year, they want to keep the heat on lawmakers.
ROEMER: Well, I would strongly encourage the Congress to work in a bipartisan way to try to get a number of these recommendations, many of which are not new, implemented and protect this country so that when they run for reelection in November, they can run with a good conscience, fulfilling their job description and job responsibilities to defend and protect this great country.
HENRY: Democratic nominee John Kerry wants Congress called back for a special session to follow up hearings with legislative action this month. The president disagrees.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Congress has been thinking about some of these ideas. They can think about them over August and come back and act on them in September.
HENRY: The president prodded Congress to improve its own handling of intelligence, rather than simply shaking up the executive branch.
BUSH: There are too many committees with overlapping jurisdiction, which wastes time and makes it difficult for meaningful oversight and reform.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
COSTELLO: So, what do you think? Does the idea of creating the position of a national intelligence director make you feel safer? E- mail us. We'll read some of your responses on air. The address: daybreak@cnn.com, daybreak@cnn.com.
Again, does the idea of creating the position of a national intelligence director make you feel safer?
And while Congress works on legislation creating a new intelligence director post, President Bush still has to pick a new CIA chief. Acting director John McLaughlin has been warming the seat since George Tenet resigned back in June. The White House says we can expect to hear more on a permanent replacement soon.
And it may be a commuter's nightmare in the nation's capital this morning. As part of increased security, police are inspecting every car that drives by the Capitol and its office buildings. Plus, all traffic around the perimeter of the Capitol complex is being funneled through about 10 checkpoints. That includes heavily traveled Constitution and Independence Avenues.
And we're learning more this morning about the terror threats that triggered all of this heightened security.
Kelli Arena has more details for you.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
KELLI ARENA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): With enhanced security in place around named targets, senior government sources tell CNN there are unnamed ones as well. Sources describe them as financial targets like the rest. A homeland security official acknowledges there are a number of what he called minute mentions without any detail but would not elaborate.
TOM RIDGE, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: It certainly indicates that they've taken a long, hard look at several sites.
ARENA: Counterterrorism officials believe al Qaeda conducted surveillance inside the target buildings. They say there are indications the intelligence was updated in the last few months but they do not know if that means the recent surveillance was done in person.
Sources say there are event and date references in the material confiscated in Pakistan along with about 500 computer images, including photographs, drawings and layouts. These are helping investigators determine precisely when the surveillance was conducted.
RAY KELLY, NEW YORK POLICE COMMISSIONER: This is an intelligence report by the enemy you might say but not tied at this moment in time to any operational plan that we're aware of.
ARENA: Investigators are also trying to find out who carried out the surveillance and whether they are still in the United States. Investigators are scanning employee and visitor records from the various sites and officials say the FBI has several investigations underway stemming from the new intelligence.
The level of surveillance was extremely detailed, including information about parking garages, security personnel and cameras and pedestrian traffic but officials say no information suggesting the timing of a possible attack.
CHIEF CHARLES RAMSEY, METROPOLITAN D.C. POLICE: We don't have any real concrete information around how long this is going to last.
ARENA: Officials say it was the arrest of an alleged al Qaeda computer expert that led investigators to the new information and ultimately to accused terrorist Ahmed Ghailani.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
COSTELLO: And you can learn a little more about how New York City is handling this terrorism threat on "AMERICAN MORNING." Mayor Michael Bloomberg is the guest in the 7:00 Eastern hour.
We want to talk more now about the link between the arrest in Pakistan and the raised threat level.
Our senior international editor, David Clinch, joins us with some new information this morning.
DAVID CLINCH, CNN INTERNATIONAL EDITOR: Good morning, Carol.
Well, we have our eyes very, very focused on these arrests in Pakistan. There were at least three key arrests, we're now told, one back in June, a low level al Qaeda operative. That led then to another arrest in mid-July and then finally to Ghailani at the end of July. The cumulative sequence of events, those arrests and the information obtained, was key in setting this new terror level alert. We know that.
We also know that a lot of the information that's been obtained is old. But in many ways, intelligence officials are telling us that's a distraction. Don't worry about the fact that it's old information. I mean just imagine if we were in August 2001 and somebody found information dating from 1998 showing how to get box cutters on planes, how to fly a plane and a plan for the World Trade Center and nothing was done about it.
COSTELLO: Well, plans for the World Trade Centers were years in the works, too.
CLINCH: Absolutely.
So the intelligence officials saying it may be old intelligence, but the key question, as Kelli Arena and others, of course, emphasizing, is is that old information part of any current plan? They have at least three al Qaeda operatives in detention in Pakistan. The U.S. is involved in the interrogation of those individuals. The U.S. is also involved in looking at the information that's on the computers and the documents that have been recovered.
And that's really the key, because information gathered from interrogation in Pakistan may not be reliable. But information recovered from computers, and especially anything that might indicate current communication to anybody in one direction outside Pakistan, perhaps even inside the U.S., that would be something they'd be interested in. And in the other direction, from al Qaeda leadership, Osama bin Laden or others in Pakistan or Afghanistan, that would be important.
They are looking at everything they have and they are -- we are watching everything that they're reporting.
COSTELLO: Well, you know, I guess the bottom line here is is how afraid should we be, because some people are taking this terror threat as they take pretty much every other terror threat.
CLINCH: Oh, I understand. And officially the word, of course, is that there is no information relating to a current plan. But they're still looking at the information and that's the important thing. We need to stay tuned. We need to listen to what we're hearing from Pakistan, what's on those computers.
COSTELLO: David Clinch, many thanks to you.
CLINCH: All right.
COSTELLO: Here are some of the stories making news across America this Tuesday.
Mark Hacking has been arrested on suspicion of aggravated murder after being released from a Salt Lake City psychiatric hospital. His wife Lori Hacking has been missing for more than two weeks. Police say they've been building their case against Mark Hacking since day one of their investigation.
The husband of convicted killer Andrea Yates has filed for divorce. Yates, you'll remember, drowned the couple's five children in the bathtub three years ago. She spent nine days in a hospital last month after refusing to eat or drink.
No charges will be filed against the Japanese man who forced the landing and evacuation of a plane at Chicago's O'Hare Airport. The man had written the words "suicide bomb" on a piece of paper, which led another passenger to alert the crew. Police released the man after he explained he wrote down the words so he could look up their meaning in the dictionary.
Another chapter in the Iraq prisoner abuse scandal is about to begin. When we come back, find out what's next for the woman photographed in many of those disturbing pictures.
Plus, Kobe Bryant's court case, newly released transcripts show potential problems for the prosecution. We'll take a closer look.
And hurricane Alex is stirring up possible problems for people in the Carolinas. We'll have a live report for you from Nags Head later this hour.
And it's a big day for Lady Liberty. We'll take you live to New York for all the planning details as the massive statue makes another debut.
This is DAYBREAK for a Tuesday morning.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Your news, money, weather and sports.
It is 5:14 Eastern.
Here's what's all new this morning.
President Bush is acting on the 9/11 Commission's recommendations. The president asked Congress to create the position of national intelligence chief.
Some potentially damaging evidence has come to light in the newly released transcripts from the Kobe Bryant case. Included is a prosecution statement that their case may be in jeopardy. We'll have details for you later this hour.
In money news, the days of screaming stock traders may be numbered. The New York Stock Exchange is planning changes that could make computer trading easier and more prevalent. In culture, Barack Obama is now a best selling author. Pre- orders of his 9-year-old biography have hit the big time since his high profile appearance at the Democratic national convention. The Illinois Senate hopeful's biography release is set for August 10.
In sports, Smarty Jones is heading to stud. The Kentucky Derby winning horse entered early retirement due to an ankle problem. Don't despair, though. The horse's owners can expect stud fees of about $100,000 per mare -- Rob.
MARCIANO: Not bad. And not a bad life for Smarty, actually.
COSTELLO: Not at all.
MARCIANO: Hey, Carol, hurricane Alex is our top weather story. You see it on the right hand side of your screen there. Winds of 80 miles an hour. It is 75 miles east-southeast of Wilmington, North Carolina. A glancing blow expected for the Outer Banks, with rain inland. Thunderstorms expected across parts of Iowa, possibly some strong winds. Cooler air making its way into the northern plains. Eighty-one in Minneapolis. It'll be 84 degrees in Chicago; 95, kind of steamy in St. Louis. Also rather warm in D.C. and New York, with highs right around 90 degrees.
Back over to you -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Thank you, Rob.
Those are the latest headlines for you this morning.
Private First Class Lynndie England is getting the first of what may be several days in court today. She's easily the most recognizable soldier at the center of the Iraqi prisoner abuse scandal. But abuse isn't the only charge she's facing. England is also accused of personal sexual misconduct.
CNN's Susan Candiotti has the story from Fort Bragg, North Carolina.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
RICHARD HERNANDEZ, LYNNDIE ENGLAND'S LAWYER: She's very scared.
SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Her own lawyer calls PFC Lynndie England the poster child of the Abu Ghraib Prison scandal. Tuesday in a Fort Bragg courtroom, she faces a twice delayed military hearing likely to lead to a full court martial. She told Denver station KCNC others had her pose for the photos.
PFC LYNNDIE ENGLAND: I didn't really, I mean, want to be in any pictures.
CANDIOTTI: She named no names but said: "I was told to stand here, point thumbs up, look at the camera and take the picture. They were for psy-op reasons and the reasons worked. I mean so to us, we were doing our job, which meant we were doing what we were told and the outcome was what they wanted. They just told us hey, you're doing great. Keep it up."
Her lawyer blames higher-ups.
HERNANDEZ: PFC England is not the end of the black mark on the Army that comes out of the Abu Ghraib Prison prisoner abuse scandal.
CANDIOTTI: Yet the defense already is dangling the thought of a plea bargain.
HERNANDEZ: A plea is always a possibility, if for nothing else to avoid the possibility of a court martial and a longer sentence.
CANDIOTTI: England, only 21, is an Army clerk from rural West Virginia. She's more than six months pregnant. Her boyfriend, guard Charles Graner, is awaiting trial in Iraq. Prison could keep them apart for years.
HERNANDEZ: It's hard for Lynndie to see beyond the future, not knowing whether she'll even be around to raise her child if she's facing a 15-year prison sentence.
CANDIOTTI (on camera): Recent new charges of personal sexual misconduct with other guards in Iraq could push the maximum sentence to 38 years. If England is ordered to stand trial, that may have to wait until in the fall, after her baby is due.
Susan Candiotti, CNN, Fort Bragg, North Carolina.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
COSTELLO: And the unit Private England serve with -- you're looking at them right now -- the one at the center of the Abu Ghraib scandal, returned home Monday to a rousing welcome after more than 16 months in Iraq. More than 100 members of the 372nd Military Police Company were met by family and friends. Seven soldiers from the unit were charged as part of the abuse scandal. The unit was originally supposed to come home in April, but their tour was extended an extra three months.
And here's a reminder for you to let us know what you think. Our question this morning is does the idea of creating the position of a national intelligence director make you feel safer? Send us an e-mail and we'll get to them later on DAYBREAK.
Wall Street opens up this morning. Monday's Dow closed at 10179. That's up 39.45 points. The tech heavy Nasdaq closed at 1892, gaining 4.73 points. And the S&P 500 closed at just over 1,000.
Let's see how those figures are affecting the overseas financial markets now.
For that, we head live to London and Jim Boulden -- good morning, Jim.
JIM BOULDEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. Yes, I'll tell you, all the action today, this morning, has been in the oil markets. You see the number behind me. It is unprecedented. U.S. oil, this is delivery into September, is 4420. Now, the record was hit this morning at $44.24. That is unprecedented. It is the highest it's ever been since 1983, when this market was created, the NYMEX Futures Market was created, trading electronically, 4420.
Also, Brent crude, this is U.K. oil, $40.18. Now, we have not seen that since October of 1990, the highest then when the beginning of the first Gulf War. So we are really seeing a sharp rise in oil prices in the last 24 hours. The reason, OPEC has said this morning there is nothing they can do, Carol, about these high oil prices. The head of OPEC says there is no more oil to pump. They cannot increase supply to go with the very strong demand we're seeing in the markets. So the markets have jumped considerably because OPEC says, again, there is nothing they can do to bring these oil prices back down.
Let's have a quick look at the stock markets. Really very little action, despite the fact of the positive close on Wall Street. We are really waiting for some good corporate results out of the U.K. and Europe later this week. We have seen some good bank numbers out today. We have seen some numbers at Ryan there, the big discount airline, which says that it's very cautious this year. But passenger numbers are up.
But so far, Carol, very little action in the European markets. Again, all of the action in oil.
That's it -- back to you.
COSTELLO: All right, Jim Boulden live in London.
Thank you.
Coming up next on DAYBREAK, newly released transcripts in the Kobe Bryant case could spell disaster for the prosecution. We'll tell you why.
Plus...
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP FROM "GROWING UP GOTTI," COURTESY A&E)
VICTORIA GOTTI, "GROWING UP GOTTI": So what are you saying, if I dated a man, you'd move out?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Because I don't want to be around the guy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Well, "Growing Up Gotti," a new reality TV show gives a look inside the life of a mobster's daughter.
This is DAYBREAK for Tuesday, August 3.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) COSTELLO: A very vivid picture has been painted by the transcripts released in the Kobe Bryant case. Included are details about the accuser's sexual activity in the days before and after the alleged Bryant attack.
CNN national correspondent Gary Tuchman has more for you.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In public, prosecutors in the Kobe Bryant case have always appeared confident. But in a closed door hearing, those same prosecutors had less bravado. Assistant District Attorney Ingrid Bakke, here on the left, walking with the alleged victim's mother, told Judge Terry Ruckriegle if he ruled the accuser's sex life could be used as evidence in the trial, "I'm thinking the prosecution is going to sit down and reevaluate the quality of its case and its chances of a successful prosecution."
A month after that comment, the judge allowed such testimony. The comment is from transcripts of a closed door hearing in June, reluctantly released by the judge after the news media fought a first amendment battle. In the 94 pages, Bryant's attorneys called the defense forensics expert, who testified that when the accuser went for her rape exam the day after being with Bryant, a different man's DNA was found not only on her underwear, but on a part of her body inside her underwear and on her upper thigh.
Dr. Elizabeth Johnson declared it was her opinion the sexual contact with that other man "taking everything in totality, likely occurred after the accuser and Mr. Bryant were together."
Bryant's attorneys say injuries the woman had could have come from somebody else and that sex the day after a rape would not be logical to a jury. But the woman's personal attorney vehemently denies she had sex the day after. There's no denial she had sex in the days before she was with Bryant. And the transcript shows that prosecutors believe the other man's DNA ended up on her body at the rape exam when it was transferred from a pair of underwear she had previously worn.
District attorney Mark asked Bryant's witness if what she was saying was a hypothesis rather than a theory. Dr. Johnson answered: "It's an opinion based on examination of this evidence. It's based on a lot of scientific findings."
In the transcripts, which the judge regretfully points out as one-sided evidence, the attorneys for the basketball star also declared that tests of the woman's fingernails reveal her DNA, but not Bryant's, a not so subtle way of trying to prove she didn't try to scratch her alleged attacker.
Gary Tuchman, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
COSTELLO: Time for our DAYBREAK "Eye Openers" now. The Messenger is in the way. Just a few hours ago, NASA launched its Messenger mission to Mercury. It'll take the craft about seven years to reach the planet closest to the sun. NASA is hoping that Mercury can provide a look back into Earth's early history.
One Colorado Springs neighborhood has a new resident. This young bear has been foraging through back yards and trash cans looking for scarps of food. Wildlife officials tell residents to steer clear.
We're all doomed -- at least that's what retailers are hoping. The third version of the popular Doom video game hits stores today. Game experts liken the release of Doom 3 to the opening of a new Star Wars movie.
Did you ever want to go inside the life of a mob boss's daughter as she struggles to raise her three teenaged boys on a huge Long Island estate? Oh, sure you did. Reality TV's latest offering, "Growing Up Gotti," tells Victoria Gotti's story.
And here's what she told our Anderson Cooper about her family's name and notoriety.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOTTI: Hurt me? Yes, sometimes it did. It could hurt. It could hinder. It could help. It depends on who looks at it and how you look at it. What I'm trying to say is people cannot sit there and say, you know, well, you profited from that. I did not profit from it. I'm working since I'm 15 years old. Everything I own, that nice big white house, is mine, because I built it and I bought it, every little brick. And not from any ill gotten gains. And they say well, the career, the celebrity and now with this show, would you have gotten this show? I think I paid my dues.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP FROM "GROWING UP GOTTI," COURTESY A&E)
GOTTI: You're saying if I dated a man, you'd move out?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: "Growing Up Gotti" premiered on the A&E Network. We don't know what the ratings were yet.
Here's what's all new in the next half hour of DAYBREAK.
It's been closed since the 9/11 attacks, but today is the day that the public once again gets up close and personal with Lady Liberty. We'll have a live report for you out of New York.
And officials say the new terror alert in New York, Newark and Washington is largely based on information from Pakistan. We'll get more pieces to that puzzle ahead.
This is DAYBREAK for Tuesday. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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