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CNN Live At Daybreak

On Alert; Terror in Egypt; Lucky to be Alive

Aired July 25, 2005 - 5:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: It is Monday, July 25. New attacks rock the Iraqi capital this morning. Debris litters the streets of Baghdad. We'll show you more of the aftermath.
Plus...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LANCE ARMSTRONG, TOUR DE FRANCE WINNER: This is a hard sporting event and hard work wins it. So viva le tour forever. Thank you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Is he not Superman? Lance Armstrong in seventh heaven. After years of rough riding, he's looking forward to some smooth sailing.

And did you visit "The Island" this weekend? We'll see if the action-packed blockbuster was any match for Willy Wonka.

ANNOUNCER: From the Time Warner Center in New York, this is DAYBREAK with Carol Costello and Chad Myers.

COSTELLO: Good morning to you. We'll have more on the deadly blast in Baghdad in just a minute.

Also, the London subway is struggling to get back to normal this Monday morning. We'll bring you a report on the terror investigation from Scotland Yard.

And an incredible story of survival. After six days, a Texas hiker is found alive in a Hawaiian lava field. It's an amazing story still ahead.

But first, "Now in the News."

Eight Iraqis are dead, nearly 30 wounded after two suicide car bombings in Baghdad this morning. The first bomb went off near a checkpoint at a hotel. The second went off at an Iraqi police commando checkpoint. Police officers and hotel guards are among the victims.

Back to the negotiating table. U.S. and North Korean delegates have begun a rare one-on-one meeting. They're in Beijing this morning for six-nation talks on North Korea's nuclear program. The stalled talks are resuming after 13 months. If you plan to ride a bus or a train in New Jersey this morning you will see some beefed-up security. Transit police will start making random searches of bags and packages.

And imagine this: a cloud of dust nearly the size of the United States, it's here. The massive cloud from the Sahara Desert in Africa is called Habub. It's now moving over Florida. People with serious respiratory problems should be very careful.

Now to our expert Habub, Chad.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Thank you, Carol. I resemble that remark.

COSTELLO: I know. I couldn't resist.

MYERS: You can either call me the -- get rid of the H-A and then you've got one, or you just call me the dust storm, one or the other. Actually, at times I do look like Pigpen, you know, as he walks around, just dust kind of flies off me.

COSTELLO: I wasn't going to say it.

(WEATHER REPORT)

COSTELLO: We'll get back to you, Chad, so you can talk more about that big dust storm, because it's pretty darn amazing.

Let's talk about this now: more subway service for London commuters and more questions for police. That's what's happening today in the wake of the London terror attacks. Service resumes on the major metropolitan line, and Aldgate Station, targeted in the July 7 bombings, is reopening.

Also, the prime ministers of Britain and France are meeting now in London. They'll talk about ways to fight acts of terror.

And a formal inquiry begins into the fatal police shooting of that Brazilian national at London's Stockwell Station. Police now say the man was not linked to the attacks.

In the meantime, London police are walking a fine line these days. They're trying to reach out to the Muslim community. And at the same time, they're defending their shoot-to-kill orders.

CNN's Mallika Kapur joins us now from Scotland Yard to bring us up to date.

Good morning.

MALLIKA KAPUR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.

It has been a very fast-moving investigation, and we have had several developments over the weekend. I want to bring you up to date with some of those developments. Scotland Yard has confirmed that they have arrested a third man in connection with the botched bombings of July the 21st. That arrest took place on Saturday night, and they arrested a man in the Tulse Hill area of south London. That's about two miles south of the Stockwell area, which is where police had arrested two men on the day before. They did arrest two men on Friday evening, also in connection with the bus bombings of July 21, and they say they are going to be holding these men in custody until at least Wednesday of this week as they continue with the investigation and their questioning procedures.

Over the weekend, Scotland Yard and police authorities have also confirmed that they will be sticking with their shoot-to-kill policy. As you know, that policy has been very controversial of late. It has come up for a lot of questioning over the weekend because they did use this policy on Friday when they chased a suspected suicide bomber, chased him into one of the underground subway stations, and then shot him five times in the head.

Since then, they of course have confirmed that the person they shot is a Brazilian national. He was not a terrorist. He was not a suicide bomber. And he was not even affiliated with the recent terror activities in London at all -- Carol.

COSTELLO: You know, I want to talk some more about perhaps what is the strangest twist in this investigation, this whitewater rafting link between the two groups of bombers from July 7 and July 21.

KAPUR: That's right, Carol. In fact, police think that that might be the one link they have.

They had been looking to see if there are any links between the July 7 bombers and then the would-be bombers of July 21. And over the weekend, British media reports have splashed pictures of two of the July 7 bombers attending this whitewater rafting center in north Wales. And there have also been reports suggesting that there was evidence in the rock (ph) sacks left behind by the would-be bombers of July 21 which said that they might have attended the same whitewater rafting center as well. In fact, many reports suggesting that the whitewater rafting center could have been used as a bonding experience between these men.

Now, the officials at the whitewater rafting center have confirmed that the July 7 -- two of the July 7 bombers did attend the center on June the 4th. They have not said any word about whether the would-be bombers did attend that same day as well or not, but they said that when these people did attend the center, it appeared to be a very normal trip. But it could be the one link that police have been looking for -- Carol.

COSTELLO: And a very strange look it is. Thank you, Mallika Kapur.

I want to show -- I want to show my viewers this picture once again. This is in the "New York Post" this morning.

This is the picture of this whitewater rafting trip, and you can see they're just having fun. The man giving the peace sign, that's one of the alleged bombers. And then this other man in front. They just look like they're having a wonderful, fun time. And then a short time later they allegedly go onto a subway train and blow themselves up.

Hopefully we'll know much more about this a little bit later. But a strange link.

Ever since the London bombings there have been calls for more surveillance cameras to keep watch over the nation's cities, especially in vulnerable spots like subway stations and terminals. Thousands of cameras are already up and running in many U.S. cities like Chicago, Baltimore, Philadelphia. But in most cases, street crime, not terrorism, is the driving force behind the cameras. Security experts point out, despite London's huge network of cameras, the bombings were not prevented there.

And of course that brings us to our DAYBREAK e-mail question today.

MYERS: Will more surveillance cameras stop terrorists, Carol? I was still very impressed that the Scotland Yard, or London police, whoever actually came up with all those pictures of those potential terrorists or those alleged terrorists in the subways, those -- they found all of those pictures so quickly. That was just amazing to me.

Go to CNN.com/DAYBREAK or DAYBREAK@CNN.com, either one. The e- mails work both ways. And let us know what you think.

What do you think about these surveillance cameras? Do you want more of them or not?

COSTELLO: Well, and I'd like to add one more thing, because think of this: it didn't prevent any suicide bombings.

MYERS: No.

COSTELLO: So you can put up all the cameras you want. That's not going to stop a guy who wants to blow himself up, because what does he care if he's like recorded by some video camera somewhere?

MYERS: Of course. But now they have a lot more information from these guys that didn't end up killing themselves that are still alive.

COSTELLO: Right, but it's -- but it's after the fact. It doesn't really prevent anything. Or does it?

MYERS: Well...

COSTELLO: That's why we want to know what you think this morning -- DAYBREAK...

MYERS: ... obviously there are still more guys out there.

COSTELLO: Well, hopefully this will lead them to the entire group of people, if there is an entire group of people. We'll see. DAYBREAK@CNN.com.

Coming up in the next hour, should the U.S. beef up its use of surveillance cameras? That's what we're talking about this morning. We'll also talk about it with our security analyst, Clark Kent Ervin.

Less than two hours ago we got new information about the investigation into those deadly explosions at the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh. Authorities are now looking for several Pakistanis.

Chris Burns is in the resort city.

Chris, what more can you tell us.

CHRIS BURNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Carol, let's be really careful about this. The Interior Ministry here in Egypt is saying that they had been looking for a number of Pakistanis even before these bombings.

Now, there are -- there's competition with other news agencies, which suggest that they -- the Pakistanis are -- that there are six Pakistanis with six passports, that they left a hotel, and that authorities are looking for those six people and they're showing their pictures. We do not have that information officially yet, but the Egyptians do confirm that they have been looking for Pakistanis, so there could possibly be a Pakistani connection.

There are also roundups of Bedouins in the Sinai because there has been established by Egyptian authorities a possible link with the Taba bombings back in October near the Israeli border when a hotel was hit over there. Some three dozen people were killed. They believe there could be a link there.

There's a trial going on, in fact, of two people, plus one in absentia, related to those attacks. That has been put on hold as they continue that investigation. So there could be some links there.

Now, there's a human rights group in Egypt that is saying, watch out, don't torture and abuse, as some people had been, abused during those previous arrests, be careful about what you do. Some 3,000 people were rounded up after the Taba bombings, and hundreds remain in jail right now. So they say be careful about how much you go into this investigation.

COSTELLO: You know, Chris, what's really kind of striking to me, it's like directly after the bombings at Sharm el-Sheikh they round up 93 people. In Britain they round up three.

How is it that you can just round up 93 people all at once after something like this goes down in Egypt?

BURNS: Well, Carol, there has been an emergency law in effect ever since Hosni Mubarak took power 24 years ago. There's -- it's essentially a state of emergency that allows you to arrest on virtually no charges, just on suspicion, and hold them almost indefinitely, or for a number of months. And that is -- that is what allows authorities to cast such a wide net, and that is what some human rights groups are saying be careful about, what you do, be a bit more judicious in your arrests.

COSTELLO: Chris Burns, reporting live from Egypt this morning.

Thank you.

Still to come on DAYBREAK...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GILBERT DEWEY GAEDCKE, SURVIVED LAVA FIELD: I had to write off the hope of being rescued because it was killing my survival.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Lost in one of the harshest places on Earth. We will tell you one amazing story of survival.

Plus, Sir Lance wins a lot. Get it, Sir Lance a lot? We're so clever so early in the morning.

And the American anthem rings out once again over Paris.

And who's pulling the strings? Is al Qaeda behind the recent wave of terror? We'll talk to an expert.

But first, here's a look at what else is making news this Monday morning.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Time now for our market report.

The international markets mixed this morning. Japan's Nikkei up nearly 70 points. Britain's FTSE up 12. The German DAX is down almost 12 points.

Your news, money, weather and sports. It's 5:15 Eastern. Here's what's all new this morning.

U.S. and North Korean officials held a rare one-on-one meeting in China within the last hour. In the meantime, six-nation talks on North Korea's nuclear program are resuming after more than a year.

It is still a go, at least for now. NASA does plan to launch Space Shuttle Discovery tomorrow morning. That's despite a failure to find the cause of a fuel gauge problem that scrubbed an earlier launch.

In money news, filling up will cost you a bit less this morning. And when we say "bit," we mean bit. Gas prices have dipped from their all-time high by about a half-cent. The average price for a gallon of regular, $2.30.

In culture, a sweet showing at the weekend box office for "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory." The Johnny Depp film is number one for a second week. The raunchy comedy "Wedding Crashers" kept its number two spot.

In sports, yellow is the color of victory. Lance Armstrong pedaled into the record books this weekend, winning his seventh straight Tour de France. Armstrong says this is his last race.

At least his last Tour de France, Chad.

MYERS: Oh, of course. I'm sure he's like never going to get on a bike again.

COSTELLO: Yes, right.

MYERS: Good morning.

(WEATHER REPORT)

COSTELLO: OK, Chad. A question for you.

MYERS: Yes?

COSTELLO: Would you know to squeeze moss to get water?

MYERS: Well, of course there's water in it, right?

COSTELLO: Right. I would have never thought that.

MYERS: I wouldn't think it was ever known to be drinkable, you know?

COSTELLO: But a Texas...

MYERS: I mean, so many things out there you just kind of go "ooh."

COSTELLO: Well, supposedly it's green, but it works. That's what a Texas hiker says. He had a brush with death, and he lived to tell about it. Talk about a story. He was found safe after being missing for almost a week in a volcano lava field in Hawaii.

MYERS: Yes. He said every time he tried to walk, because it was so shallow, the layer of lava was so thin, he would just crush through it and fall back down, and then cut himself even more. It was so hard for him to move.

COSTELLO: Just an unbelievable story.

Gina Mangieri of our Honolulu affiliate KHON has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GINA MANGIERI, REPORTER, KHON (voice-over): When most people think of spending six days on the big island, they don't mean in the middle of an unforgiving lava field. But that's what happened to Dewey Gaedcke, lost for six days and five nights. He had ventured out to get a nighttime glimpse of the lava flow. GAEDCKE: These rocks that are like -- they're like four-foot glass rocks that are hollow in the middle, and they break when you step on them. And you fall through, and it's just the most vicious terrain I've ever seen in my life.

MANGIERI: Gaedcke rested at the Waimea home of a family friend before heading back to Houston. It's a trip he lost hope of making at least a few times during his ordeal.

GAEDCKE: There was two points at which I really came to terms with my own death.

MANGIERI: Forty-five county personnel and 15 National Park Service workers conducted a four-day search. It was called off Friday afternoon. But only 15 minutes later, a teenager on a Blue Hawaiian helicopter tour noticed something shiny. It was the camera lens Gaedcke had broken off to use as a reflector.

As many as 10 tour helicopters passed above him each day before. But getting rescued wasn't so simple.

GAEDCKE: I had to write off the hope of being rescued because it was killing my survival.

MANGIERI: That's because it was too difficult to walk or even crawl on the glasslike lava to position himself in sight of a helicopter. Instead, he focused on finding one thing, water, ringing it out of spongy green moss. Food was even more sparse.

GAEDCKE: I found some berries. A worm nearly escaped me.

MANGIERI: He's an adventurer at heart, snowboarding, rock climbing, wake boarding. In time he says this, too, may seem an adventure, and he says he'll return to Hawaii. Right now, though, he can't wait to see his two daughters ages five and seven.

GAEDCKE: A fatal mistake on my part had cost them their father so early in their lives, and that was hard.

MANGIERI: And soon a family that just days ago thought it lost so much, a son, a brother, a father, all in one, will be reunited.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: Good for him. That was reporter Gina Mangieri of our Honolulu affiliate KHON. Gaedcke flew to Houston to be reunited with his family.

Still to come this morning, I've heard of fish soup, but never this. Up next, what you may be drinking with your next meal. And I apologize that we're doing that story so early in the morning.

You're watching DAYBREAK for Monday, July 25.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) COSTELLO: This is an amazing thing, too. People in Florida are getting a real treat this week. Sunrises and sunsets are spectacular enough, and now they are about to get better.

So take it away, Dr. Habub.

(WEATHER REPORT)

COSTELLO: Time now for our DAYBREAK "Eye Opener."

Now you can have a smile just like a celebrity. A dentist in New York has come up with inserts that can make your teeth look like they came right out of Julia Roberts' mouth. A Gwyneth Paltrow smile is another one of their best sellers. But the price is enough to make you frown: a thousand bucks a set.

Now this may require some convincing. For less than $6 a bottle, you can get fish wine. Yes, fish wine.

A Chinese company uses several different fish to make the wine, including yellow croaker and squid. They also have special vintages of shrimp or tuna. The company motto is "Drink Like a Fish."

These musicians may have had fun playing Belgium's national anthem, but they fell far short of their primary goal. They were trying to break a world record for biggest brass band, but they were several thousand instruments short of topping Japan's 11,000-member band. The event is part of Belgium's 175th anniversary of independence.

Here's what's all new in the next half-hour of DAYBREAK. He's the president's first pick to replace Justice O'Connor on the Supreme Court, but will Democrats agree?

Plus, we hear a lot about terrorists and the so-called hallmarks of an al Qaeda attacks. But what exactly are they? And does that really mean a link to al Qaeda? We'll take a look.

That's still ahead on DAYBREAK.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: From the Time Warner Center in New York, this is DAYBREAK with Carol Costello and Chad Myers.

COSTELLO: Good morning to you. Coming up in the next 30 minutes, what an incredible feat. For seven years in a row, this man has won the Tour de France. So what comes next? We'll take a look.

And it opened this weekend, but could "The Island" beat out Willy Wonka? We'll have that story.

But first, "Now in the News."

A rare meeting going on in Beijing. U.S. and North Korean envoys are meeting one-one-one. The envoys are discussing North Korea's nuclear program. Six-nation talks over the controversial program resume tomorrow.

Protesters have gathered outside the Philippine congress. Riot police are there as well.

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