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Live From...
9/11 Commission Reports; Are America's Skies Safe? Inmates Make Beer Run
Aired July 22, 2004 - 15:00 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.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Now in the news, a crackdown on suspected insurgents turns into a street battle in central Baghdad. Iraq's Interior Ministry says that 270 suspects were arrested. Residents reported heavy fighting as Iraqi forces raided homes, seizing a large number of weapons. U.S. tanks, helicopters and fighter jets were also spotted. Five Iraqis were wounded.
Frantic rescue operations underway at the site of a deadly train crash in Turkey. These pictures just in to CNN. A high-speed train on its maiden voyage from Istanbul to Ankara derailed about two hours ago. A Turkish official says as many as 70 people are dead. There's no word on the cause.
Turning words into actions: Washington reacts to the 9/11 Commission report. Why was America blindsided on that terrifying day? We'll have the problems and the solutions outlined in the report straight ahead.
We're keeping you informed, CNN, the most trusted name in news.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Up first this hour, 9/11 by the book. That's 567 pages, 14 chapters, 1,500 footnotes from the independent panel that's been investigating the 9/11 nightmare since November 2002.
In the end, the panel blames institutions, not individuals for failures primarily of imagination. And it makes recommendations primarily for a Cabinet-level czar of intelligence.
We get details from CNN's Sean Callebs in Washington, who has been watching this for us in Washington -- hello, Sean.
SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Miles.
Here it is, the 9/11 Commission report, all 567 pages representing some 20 months of work. You're exactly right when you say the signs were missed and they led to disastrous results here in the United States. It was the mistakes that allowed the terrorists to come into the nation and then in essence blindside this nation, claiming more than 3,000 lives on that fateful day.
Also, the commission says that Osama bin Laden was allowed to operate in Afghanistan for years basically unimpeded. He built a large army, was able to generate a great deal of cash, all the while fostering hatred for the U.S. and its policies. The commission says plainly and simply they didn't grasp -- that the United States did not grasp the magnitude of the threat and simply could not imagine the attacks could happen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LEE HAMILTON, VICE-CHAIRMAN, 9/11 COMMISSION: The fact of the matter is, we just didn't get it in this country. We could not comprehend that people wanted to kill us, they wanted to hijack airplanes and fly them into big buildings.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CALLEBS: The recommendations, broad, among them, forming a national counter-terrorism center. Also, we've heard a great deal about this: a national intelligence director with three deputies. Each of these deputies: one would be in charge of foreign intelligence; one, defense intelligence; other, homeland intelligence.
Now, they also want to reform congressional oversight, pointing out there were major problems there that led to 9/11. These are significant changes in government organization.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BOB KERREY, FMR. U.S. SENATOR: These are significant changes we're recommending. John Diamond asked earlier, said -- described it as restructuring. This is not a private sector company we're talking about restructuring here. These are changes in law that we're asking for.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CALLEBS: And the commission vows to not let these recommendations just float out into space, be put on a shelf and never be acted upon. They say they are going to take their information on the road.
All the commissioners -- one Republican, one Democrat -- will fan out to various parts of the United States and say exactly what went into putting this book together, all their recommendations. For all the work they have done, Miles, it's now up to Congress.
Congress must act to approve these measures. Congressional leaders have made it clear they will not be rushed to judgment, that they don't want to make a knee-jerk reaction in an effort to overhaul the way the United States gathers and disseminates its intelligence information.
O'BRIEN: Sean, one thing about this report, it never clearly says anywhere there that I've seen so far that, if this had been done, the attacks would have been averted. Why didn't they make a clear statement like that?
CALLEBS: Well, you just have to look at all the interviews they've done, all the information that they collected. They said that their job is to find out exactly why this happened and to look forward. They made it very clear, they weren't out to cast blame on anyone. And you're exactly right. They do not find blame with either the Clinton or Bush administrations. But clearly, there were problems chiefly with intelligence that led to the disaster on September 11. They say that those were organizational problems, not people problems.
O'BRIEN: Of course, organizations are made up of people.
Sean Callebs in Washington, thank you very much -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: For all the bipartisanship, opinions and emotions are keenly felt among the 9/11 panelists, as you may have seen live here in their joint public appearance this morning.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JAMES THOMPSON, 9/11 COMMISSIONER: If I were the president of the United States, I would want sitting next to me in a Cabinet meeting a national director of intelligence, so that I could fix responsibility in one person for issues of this sort.
And I would want those counter-terrorism center people down the hallway. And if I were in the Congress of the United States, I would want to make sure that I was protected from the accusation that oversight funding, authorization and appropriations were not adequate.
Our reform recommendations are urgent. We have come together with the families to agree on that. If these reforms are not the best that can be done for the American people, then the Congress and the president need to tell us what's better.
TIMOTHY ROEMER, PRESIDENT, CENTER FOR NATIONAL POLICY: I believe the recommendations in this particular report will be different, not so much because of the stature of this commission, nor because of the Pew Trust polling data, but because of the perfect storm that is coming together politically. The eyes of history are on our backs. The claws of al Qaeda are on our shoulders and the grief of 9/11 is still in so many Americans' hearts.
RICHARD BEN-VENISTE, 9/11 COMMISSION: And I think the American public can feel that this was a creditable effort, led by extraordinary people, and an extraordinary staff, very talented, very dedicated and extraordinarily hardworking.
SLADE GORTON, FMR. U.S. SENATOR: In the report, we include all of the facts that we regard relevant to al Qaeda and the United States and Saudi Arabia and Iraq to the charge which we were given.
We do not spend a lot of time attempting to prove negatives. We lay out the evidence. We lay out the facts. By and large, the conclusions from those facts are left to the American people to make, except when they seemed to us to be obvious.
BEN-VENISTE: The amount of information we have collected from within the government is of extraordinary breadth and unique in many instances in the type of information which has been put forward and made available publicly. Heretofore, in various other contexts, reports of this nature have been restricted, have been subject to classification, and the public has not had the benefit of the knowledge which those who conducted the investigation were presented.
JAMIE GORELICK, 9/11 COMMISSION MEMBER: There are bad consequences to being in the middle of a political season and there are also good ones, because everyone who is running for office can be asked, do you support these recommendations?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: A couple's experience aboard a recent airline flight is raising some disturbing questions about the lessons learned from 9/11. They will share their story ahead on LIVE FROM.
And four jail escapees and a six-pack, it all adds up to trouble in Tennessee. The saga of the not-so-great escape after a break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Well, three years and countless hours of scrutiny later, are we any safer today than we were before 9/11?
CNN's Miguel Marquez talked with one couple who would strongly disagree after their experiences on a recent flight.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): There's no question something happened on Los Angeles-bound Flight 327.
KEVIN JACOBSEN, ABOARD NORTHWEST AIRLINES FLIGHT: I was uncomfortable when we started boarding when I saw how many Middle Eastern men there were.
MARQUEZ: Kevin Jacobsen and his wife, Annie, were on the Northwest flight, as was a team of federal marshals, who back up the Jacobsens story.
DAVE ADAMS, FEDERAL AIR MARSHAL SERVICE: They were acting suspicious. They were going in and out of the lavatories. They were standing up. They were going in the overhead bins. They were talking. They were congregating in the aisles.
MARQUEZ: So concerned, Kevin Jacobsen, during the flight, told attendants. They told him they too were watching the men, the cabin was aware and that marshals were on board. And then, on final approach, with downtown Los Angeles in sight, came the most frightening moment.
ANNIE JACOBSEN, ABOARD NORTHWEST AIRLINES FLIGHT: Suddenly, seven of these men are now standing. Four go to the forward bathroom. Three go to the back. And very slowly, very consecutively, they use the lavatory.
MARQUEZ: Annie Jacobsen, a financial writer, gave her firsthand account to a Web site. The reaction was an Internet phenomenon.
A. JACOBSEN: We had something like two million page views on the second or third day.
MARQUEZ: The Federal Air Marshal Service says the men never did anything criminal. They were questioned after the flight and their backgrounds checked against every available database. Its conclusion: The men were a 14-member Syrian band playing two gigs at a casino near Los Angeles.
ADAMS: The supervisor then went out to the casino, verified again that they were booked there, made sure they were playing at the casino.
MARQUEZ: But Jacobsen says terrorists could simply learn to play instruments, and sees a bigger story.
A. JACOBSEN: I would definitely be inclined to think it was a dry run, some kind of intelligence gathering.
MARQUEZ (on camera): Federal officials say everything about the Syrians' story checked out and they have no reason to believe they were anything other than musicians acting strangely.
Miguel Marquez, CNN, Los Angeles.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Well, last night, passenger Annie Jacobsen spoke with CNN's Aaron Brown. Although nothing ended up happening on her flight, she strongly believes the men she witnessed had sinister motives.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
A. JACOBSEN: They certainly learned how far they could test a situation without being arrested. It's my understanding that they were not arrested, that they were let go.
So, they got a lot of information about passengers. I'm sure they got information about air marshals. They got information about how flight attendants deal with them, when pilots come in and out of -- to go use the lavatory themselves.
I just had a terrific conversation with the Federal Air Marshals Association, who are really standing behind me on this. And they said an interesting thing, which is that, you know, this is not an isolated incident. It is going on. They can either be called dry runs or they can be called probes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: Dennis Kucinich, the Ohio Democrat who technically was still running for president is in the process right now, live pictures from Detroit, of throwing his support to the presumptive Democratic nominee, John Kerry, on the cusp of the convention in Boston. The Ohio Congressman waged his long shot anti-war bid longer than most of the other challengers, certainly and, at this moment, is throwing his support to John Kerry. More on this one of course, on "INSIDE POLITICS" with Judy Woodruff, which comes up right after our program here.
(FINANCIAL UPDATE)
O'BRIEN: Escaped inmates decide it's time to go back to jail.
PHILLIPS: The reason? Well, of course, the beer ran out. Their soggy saga just ahead.
O'BRIEN: And it's 5:00 somewhere, right? Singer Jimmy Buffett starting happy hour early to celebrate a career first. Find out what he's toasting ahead on LIVE FROM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Checking entertainment headlines this Thursday.
In today's better-than-late-than-never department, hey, Jimmy Buffett finally makes it to the top. His album "License to Chill" debuted at number one, the first time that has happened in this 30- year career.
And it's almost springtime for Mary-Kate Olsen. "People" magazine reports, the 18-year-old is due to be released from a treatment facility this weekend. It's been six weeks since she checked in for help with a reported eating disorder. Mary-Kate and sister Ashley plan to attend New York University this fall.
O'BRIEN: We don't want to drive ourselves crazy trying to predict when Britney Spears might actually get hitched to fiance Kevin Federline. But if it really happens, she automatically becomes stepmom to two children.
Kevin Federline's ex-girlfriend Shar Jackson gave birth to the couple's second child, a son, on Tuesday. The two, who split up during the pregnancy, already have a two-year-old daughter. Were it not for the money, they would be living in a trailer park, we think.
And finally, I'll take celebrity birthdays for 500. Today's answer in the form of a question, of course, just who is Alex Trebek? The modest maven of mental minutia hits three score years and four today. Kyra, that's 64.
PHILLIPS: Thank you so much.
O'BRIEN: Happy birthday, Alex.
All right, if you have to cool your heels in jail, why not do it with some cool ones?
PHILLIPS: The sheriff in Rogersville, Tennessee, has disclosed that four inmates broke out one night last night just long enough to make beer runs.
Reporter Harlow Summerfield (ph) of affiliate WCYB has the sobering details.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a first for me.
HARLOW SUMMERFIELD (ph), WCYB REPORTER (voice-over): It's probably one of the most unusual jailbreaks authorities have ever encountered. Four Hawkins County inmates actually broke out of jail to go on a beer run.
ALAN KIDD, HAWKINS COUNTY SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT: The whole block could have left and we would have had a major jailbreak on our hand. But they came back.
SUMMERFIELD: Only four men escaped, Ridgy Coleman, Jimmy Stapleton, David Blizzard and David Hopkins. It happened when a guard accidentally unlocked all cells in Block E. He quickly locked them back, but a computer malfunction left one door unsecure.
KIDD: They had placed a small Bible in the door to keep it from going shut. But our control panel in the office was showing that it was secure.
SUMMERFIELD: Two inmates then gained access to the exercise yard, slipped through a fence and headed for the nearest convenience store.
SHARON HURLEY, STORE MANAGER: Oh, they come down here. They got beer and walked back out and went back to jail, as far as I know.
SUMMERFIELD: They returned to the jail unnoticed. Later, two other inmates slipped out for more beer. However, they were captured on their way back to the jailhouse party.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm not going to say that they shouldn't be concerned about it. But the likelihood of it happening is very infrequent and that it's not -- it's not a matter that would cause a lot of anxiety, I don't think.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: I guess you could call it killer time. The partying prisoners have been charged with escape and bringing intoxicants into the jail.
And that wraps up this edition of LIVE FROM. I'm Miles O'Brien.
PHILLIPS: And I'm Kyra Phillips.
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 July 22, 2004 - 15:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Now in the news, a crackdown on suspected insurgents turns into a street battle in central Baghdad. Iraq's Interior Ministry says that 270 suspects were arrested. Residents reported heavy fighting as Iraqi forces raided homes, seizing a large number of weapons. U.S. tanks, helicopters and fighter jets were also spotted. Five Iraqis were wounded.
Frantic rescue operations underway at the site of a deadly train crash in Turkey. These pictures just in to CNN. A high-speed train on its maiden voyage from Istanbul to Ankara derailed about two hours ago. A Turkish official says as many as 70 people are dead. There's no word on the cause.
Turning words into actions: Washington reacts to the 9/11 Commission report. Why was America blindsided on that terrifying day? We'll have the problems and the solutions outlined in the report straight ahead.
We're keeping you informed, CNN, the most trusted name in news.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Up first this hour, 9/11 by the book. That's 567 pages, 14 chapters, 1,500 footnotes from the independent panel that's been investigating the 9/11 nightmare since November 2002.
In the end, the panel blames institutions, not individuals for failures primarily of imagination. And it makes recommendations primarily for a Cabinet-level czar of intelligence.
We get details from CNN's Sean Callebs in Washington, who has been watching this for us in Washington -- hello, Sean.
SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Miles.
Here it is, the 9/11 Commission report, all 567 pages representing some 20 months of work. You're exactly right when you say the signs were missed and they led to disastrous results here in the United States. It was the mistakes that allowed the terrorists to come into the nation and then in essence blindside this nation, claiming more than 3,000 lives on that fateful day.
Also, the commission says that Osama bin Laden was allowed to operate in Afghanistan for years basically unimpeded. He built a large army, was able to generate a great deal of cash, all the while fostering hatred for the U.S. and its policies. The commission says plainly and simply they didn't grasp -- that the United States did not grasp the magnitude of the threat and simply could not imagine the attacks could happen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LEE HAMILTON, VICE-CHAIRMAN, 9/11 COMMISSION: The fact of the matter is, we just didn't get it in this country. We could not comprehend that people wanted to kill us, they wanted to hijack airplanes and fly them into big buildings.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CALLEBS: The recommendations, broad, among them, forming a national counter-terrorism center. Also, we've heard a great deal about this: a national intelligence director with three deputies. Each of these deputies: one would be in charge of foreign intelligence; one, defense intelligence; other, homeland intelligence.
Now, they also want to reform congressional oversight, pointing out there were major problems there that led to 9/11. These are significant changes in government organization.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BOB KERREY, FMR. U.S. SENATOR: These are significant changes we're recommending. John Diamond asked earlier, said -- described it as restructuring. This is not a private sector company we're talking about restructuring here. These are changes in law that we're asking for.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CALLEBS: And the commission vows to not let these recommendations just float out into space, be put on a shelf and never be acted upon. They say they are going to take their information on the road.
All the commissioners -- one Republican, one Democrat -- will fan out to various parts of the United States and say exactly what went into putting this book together, all their recommendations. For all the work they have done, Miles, it's now up to Congress.
Congress must act to approve these measures. Congressional leaders have made it clear they will not be rushed to judgment, that they don't want to make a knee-jerk reaction in an effort to overhaul the way the United States gathers and disseminates its intelligence information.
O'BRIEN: Sean, one thing about this report, it never clearly says anywhere there that I've seen so far that, if this had been done, the attacks would have been averted. Why didn't they make a clear statement like that?
CALLEBS: Well, you just have to look at all the interviews they've done, all the information that they collected. They said that their job is to find out exactly why this happened and to look forward. They made it very clear, they weren't out to cast blame on anyone. And you're exactly right. They do not find blame with either the Clinton or Bush administrations. But clearly, there were problems chiefly with intelligence that led to the disaster on September 11. They say that those were organizational problems, not people problems.
O'BRIEN: Of course, organizations are made up of people.
Sean Callebs in Washington, thank you very much -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: For all the bipartisanship, opinions and emotions are keenly felt among the 9/11 panelists, as you may have seen live here in their joint public appearance this morning.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JAMES THOMPSON, 9/11 COMMISSIONER: If I were the president of the United States, I would want sitting next to me in a Cabinet meeting a national director of intelligence, so that I could fix responsibility in one person for issues of this sort.
And I would want those counter-terrorism center people down the hallway. And if I were in the Congress of the United States, I would want to make sure that I was protected from the accusation that oversight funding, authorization and appropriations were not adequate.
Our reform recommendations are urgent. We have come together with the families to agree on that. If these reforms are not the best that can be done for the American people, then the Congress and the president need to tell us what's better.
TIMOTHY ROEMER, PRESIDENT, CENTER FOR NATIONAL POLICY: I believe the recommendations in this particular report will be different, not so much because of the stature of this commission, nor because of the Pew Trust polling data, but because of the perfect storm that is coming together politically. The eyes of history are on our backs. The claws of al Qaeda are on our shoulders and the grief of 9/11 is still in so many Americans' hearts.
RICHARD BEN-VENISTE, 9/11 COMMISSION: And I think the American public can feel that this was a creditable effort, led by extraordinary people, and an extraordinary staff, very talented, very dedicated and extraordinarily hardworking.
SLADE GORTON, FMR. U.S. SENATOR: In the report, we include all of the facts that we regard relevant to al Qaeda and the United States and Saudi Arabia and Iraq to the charge which we were given.
We do not spend a lot of time attempting to prove negatives. We lay out the evidence. We lay out the facts. By and large, the conclusions from those facts are left to the American people to make, except when they seemed to us to be obvious.
BEN-VENISTE: The amount of information we have collected from within the government is of extraordinary breadth and unique in many instances in the type of information which has been put forward and made available publicly. Heretofore, in various other contexts, reports of this nature have been restricted, have been subject to classification, and the public has not had the benefit of the knowledge which those who conducted the investigation were presented.
JAMIE GORELICK, 9/11 COMMISSION MEMBER: There are bad consequences to being in the middle of a political season and there are also good ones, because everyone who is running for office can be asked, do you support these recommendations?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: A couple's experience aboard a recent airline flight is raising some disturbing questions about the lessons learned from 9/11. They will share their story ahead on LIVE FROM.
And four jail escapees and a six-pack, it all adds up to trouble in Tennessee. The saga of the not-so-great escape after a break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Well, three years and countless hours of scrutiny later, are we any safer today than we were before 9/11?
CNN's Miguel Marquez talked with one couple who would strongly disagree after their experiences on a recent flight.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): There's no question something happened on Los Angeles-bound Flight 327.
KEVIN JACOBSEN, ABOARD NORTHWEST AIRLINES FLIGHT: I was uncomfortable when we started boarding when I saw how many Middle Eastern men there were.
MARQUEZ: Kevin Jacobsen and his wife, Annie, were on the Northwest flight, as was a team of federal marshals, who back up the Jacobsens story.
DAVE ADAMS, FEDERAL AIR MARSHAL SERVICE: They were acting suspicious. They were going in and out of the lavatories. They were standing up. They were going in the overhead bins. They were talking. They were congregating in the aisles.
MARQUEZ: So concerned, Kevin Jacobsen, during the flight, told attendants. They told him they too were watching the men, the cabin was aware and that marshals were on board. And then, on final approach, with downtown Los Angeles in sight, came the most frightening moment.
ANNIE JACOBSEN, ABOARD NORTHWEST AIRLINES FLIGHT: Suddenly, seven of these men are now standing. Four go to the forward bathroom. Three go to the back. And very slowly, very consecutively, they use the lavatory.
MARQUEZ: Annie Jacobsen, a financial writer, gave her firsthand account to a Web site. The reaction was an Internet phenomenon.
A. JACOBSEN: We had something like two million page views on the second or third day.
MARQUEZ: The Federal Air Marshal Service says the men never did anything criminal. They were questioned after the flight and their backgrounds checked against every available database. Its conclusion: The men were a 14-member Syrian band playing two gigs at a casino near Los Angeles.
ADAMS: The supervisor then went out to the casino, verified again that they were booked there, made sure they were playing at the casino.
MARQUEZ: But Jacobsen says terrorists could simply learn to play instruments, and sees a bigger story.
A. JACOBSEN: I would definitely be inclined to think it was a dry run, some kind of intelligence gathering.
MARQUEZ (on camera): Federal officials say everything about the Syrians' story checked out and they have no reason to believe they were anything other than musicians acting strangely.
Miguel Marquez, CNN, Los Angeles.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Well, last night, passenger Annie Jacobsen spoke with CNN's Aaron Brown. Although nothing ended up happening on her flight, she strongly believes the men she witnessed had sinister motives.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
A. JACOBSEN: They certainly learned how far they could test a situation without being arrested. It's my understanding that they were not arrested, that they were let go.
So, they got a lot of information about passengers. I'm sure they got information about air marshals. They got information about how flight attendants deal with them, when pilots come in and out of -- to go use the lavatory themselves.
I just had a terrific conversation with the Federal Air Marshals Association, who are really standing behind me on this. And they said an interesting thing, which is that, you know, this is not an isolated incident. It is going on. They can either be called dry runs or they can be called probes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: Dennis Kucinich, the Ohio Democrat who technically was still running for president is in the process right now, live pictures from Detroit, of throwing his support to the presumptive Democratic nominee, John Kerry, on the cusp of the convention in Boston. The Ohio Congressman waged his long shot anti-war bid longer than most of the other challengers, certainly and, at this moment, is throwing his support to John Kerry. More on this one of course, on "INSIDE POLITICS" with Judy Woodruff, which comes up right after our program here.
(FINANCIAL UPDATE)
O'BRIEN: Escaped inmates decide it's time to go back to jail.
PHILLIPS: The reason? Well, of course, the beer ran out. Their soggy saga just ahead.
O'BRIEN: And it's 5:00 somewhere, right? Singer Jimmy Buffett starting happy hour early to celebrate a career first. Find out what he's toasting ahead on LIVE FROM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Checking entertainment headlines this Thursday.
In today's better-than-late-than-never department, hey, Jimmy Buffett finally makes it to the top. His album "License to Chill" debuted at number one, the first time that has happened in this 30- year career.
And it's almost springtime for Mary-Kate Olsen. "People" magazine reports, the 18-year-old is due to be released from a treatment facility this weekend. It's been six weeks since she checked in for help with a reported eating disorder. Mary-Kate and sister Ashley plan to attend New York University this fall.
O'BRIEN: We don't want to drive ourselves crazy trying to predict when Britney Spears might actually get hitched to fiance Kevin Federline. But if it really happens, she automatically becomes stepmom to two children.
Kevin Federline's ex-girlfriend Shar Jackson gave birth to the couple's second child, a son, on Tuesday. The two, who split up during the pregnancy, already have a two-year-old daughter. Were it not for the money, they would be living in a trailer park, we think.
And finally, I'll take celebrity birthdays for 500. Today's answer in the form of a question, of course, just who is Alex Trebek? The modest maven of mental minutia hits three score years and four today. Kyra, that's 64.
PHILLIPS: Thank you so much.
O'BRIEN: Happy birthday, Alex.
All right, if you have to cool your heels in jail, why not do it with some cool ones?
PHILLIPS: The sheriff in Rogersville, Tennessee, has disclosed that four inmates broke out one night last night just long enough to make beer runs.
Reporter Harlow Summerfield (ph) of affiliate WCYB has the sobering details.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a first for me.
HARLOW SUMMERFIELD (ph), WCYB REPORTER (voice-over): It's probably one of the most unusual jailbreaks authorities have ever encountered. Four Hawkins County inmates actually broke out of jail to go on a beer run.
ALAN KIDD, HAWKINS COUNTY SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT: The whole block could have left and we would have had a major jailbreak on our hand. But they came back.
SUMMERFIELD: Only four men escaped, Ridgy Coleman, Jimmy Stapleton, David Blizzard and David Hopkins. It happened when a guard accidentally unlocked all cells in Block E. He quickly locked them back, but a computer malfunction left one door unsecure.
KIDD: They had placed a small Bible in the door to keep it from going shut. But our control panel in the office was showing that it was secure.
SUMMERFIELD: Two inmates then gained access to the exercise yard, slipped through a fence and headed for the nearest convenience store.
SHARON HURLEY, STORE MANAGER: Oh, they come down here. They got beer and walked back out and went back to jail, as far as I know.
SUMMERFIELD: They returned to the jail unnoticed. Later, two other inmates slipped out for more beer. However, they were captured on their way back to the jailhouse party.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm not going to say that they shouldn't be concerned about it. But the likelihood of it happening is very infrequent and that it's not -- it's not a matter that would cause a lot of anxiety, I don't think.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: I guess you could call it killer time. The partying prisoners have been charged with escape and bringing intoxicants into the jail.
And that wraps up this edition of LIVE FROM. I'm Miles O'Brien.
PHILLIPS: And I'm Kyra Phillips.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
