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32,000 Jobs Added In June, Smallest Net Gain Since Dec.; Violence In Iraq Raises Concerns About Stability; Mass Killer Search in Fla.; No Bail For Brit Accused Of Internet Terrorism Recruitment
Aired August 06, 2004 - 12:59 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 (voice-over): Economic cold feet? Poor job numbers? The impact on you and the politics behind them.
Bloody uprising in Iraq. Hundreds of people dead. U.S. forces still battling insurgents.
Terror arrests in the United States and around the world. This hour, a progress report on the war on terror.
Pill pushers. Do commercials for prescription drugs help or hurt your health?
(on camera): From the CNN Center in Atlanta, hello, everyone. I'm Kyra Phillips. Miles is off. CNN's LIVE FROM starts right now.
We begin this hour with great expectations, miscalculations, and political ramifications of jobs. We learned today the U.S. economy added 32,000 jobs last month, the 11th straight monthly net gain, but it's smallest net gain since December -- less than one-sixth of what economists expected.
After disappointing numbers for June, economists were looking for more than 2,000 or 200,000 new jobs in July. In their absence, investors are selling, the presidential campaigns are spinning, and CNN's Lisa Sylvester is explaining from Washington -- Lisa?
LISA SYLVESTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Kyra. To say that people were caught off guard by this jobs report is clearly an understatement. Economists had widely believed that the economy was humming along and that hundreds of thousands of jobs would soon follow.
But in July, only 32,000 jobs were created. Now, to put that into perspective, economists were hoping to create 235,000 jobs. The unemployment rate edged down from 5.6 percent to 5.5 percent.
Now, tracking the job growth in the last year, you can see this is the weakest jobs report since last December. Now, also to point out here the June jobs report was revised downward from 112,000 jobs to 78,000 jobs.
The economy and the lack of jobs are themes that are resonating on the campaign trail.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) AIDA ALVAREZ, KERRY ECONOMIC ADVISOR: I think it is bad news for the American people. And it is bad news for the Bush administration. This is an administration that promised six million new jobs at the beginning of the administration, and there are now seven million jobs in the hole.
GREGORY MANKIW, COUNCIL OF ECONOMIC ADVISERS: Yes, we're not satisfied with the level of job creation that came out today. The economy is creating jobs; it's moving forward, but not at a rapid enough pace. The president has said many times that he won't be satisfied until every American who wants a job can find a job.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SYLVESTER: Two sides of the story there. Now, the Federal Reserve will meet on Tuesday, and it had been expected that the Fed would raise the short-term interest rate a quarter percentage point. Now, the big question is will today's report change the Fed's thinking -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Lisa Sylvester, thank you so much. We'll talk more about those numbers later on in the half hour.
Iraq has taken a back seat to the economy in terms of issues ahead of the November election, but the surging violence, especially in Najaf, is raising concerns about stability in the war-torn nation.
CNN's Matthew Chance wraps up the developments now from Baghdad.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, fierce fighting is continuing between U.S.-led forces and the Mehdi Army, the militia group led by the firebrand Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
Much of the fighting has been centered in the holy city of Najaf, south of the Iraqi capitol. There, U.S. tanks and armored vehicles backed by helicopters, gunships have been rolling into the center of Najaf.
They're being confronted, though, by rocket-propelled grenades wielded by members of the Mehdi Army militia and much of the fighting has been taking place around the old center of the city -- the location of the Imam Ali shrine, one of the holiest building in Shia Islam.
Now we've been getting some extremely high estimates of casualties from the U.S. military on the ground there. A spokesman for the 11th Marine Expeditionary Force, which is doing a lot of the fighting down in Najaf -- they're estimating that some 300 Mehdi Army fighters have been killed in the past two days -- or factions with the U.S. Marines and the Mehdi Army. That's being denied by the Mehdi Army itself, who say their count of casualties is 36 dead through the last two days.
Nevertheless, extremely serious violence that has spread elsewhere in Iraq, as well. In Sadr City, a district of the Iraqi capitol of Baghdad, fierce fighting overnight, the whole area of the city engulfed with clashes between U.S. forces, again, and members of the Mehdi Army. According to the Iraqi Health Ministry, at least 20 people killed in fighting since Thursday there, and much of that fighting overnight.
I've also had pictures from the southern town of Amarah just north of Basra, which is under the security control of British forces. Not reporting any clashes at this stage, but a quite angry demonstrations by supporters of the Mehdi Army against the Iraqi interim government, against the U.S.-led coalition forces for British, in this case, in the area.
So, very extreme violence, in fact the worst certainly in Najaf since we've seen -- we've seen there since June, when a cease fire was broken with Muqtada al-Sadr. Big concerns now that this may fuel a second Shia insurgency across the country.
Matthew Chance, CNN, Baghdad.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Other news across America now: Attorneys for Mark Hacking are considering mental illness as a defense strategy.
Hacking's attorney tells a Utah television station that he may also challenge Hacking's alleged confession to relatives that he killed his wife Lori. Her body has not yet been found.
Charged and on suicide watch: Two suburban Atlanta teenagers accused of killing one of the girl's grandparents appeared in court yesterday. Prosecutors allege that one of the girls recruited her lesbian lover to lie in wait under her grandparent's bed while she lured them in for the attack.
Transportation officials are at the scene of a deadly Greyhound bus crash in Tennessee. That bus and a tractor-trailer collided on Interstate 40 near Jackson earlier today. Three people were killed; at least 25 others were injured.
A search is underway in central Florida now for a possible mass killer. This after a man checking on a co-worker who never showed up at work today. He discovered a grisly scene. Reporter Tim Stockman from CNN affiliate WFTV is live in Deltona, Florida with more.
TIM STOCKMAN, WFTV REPORTER: Yes, Kyra, no doubt investigators are going to be here on the scene for some time trying to sort out this gruesome, gruesome murder scene. If you look behind me you can see the large amount of investigators and equipment that have moved into the area.
Six bodies, four men and two women, were found inside the house at the end of the street around 6:30. According to the sheriff, one of the people who rents the house did not show up for work, at least one of -- or four of -- the victims worked at the local Burger King here. A co-worker at that Burger King became concerned and called a neighbor to check in on the house. The neighbor found the bodies inside. All six inside were found brutally murdered.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SHERIFF BEN JOHNSON, VOLUSIA COUNTY, FLORIDA: You have a major crime scene. It's -- you have multiple deaths. And we want to make sure everything is covered and we needed more crime scene investigators than what we had.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
STOCKMAN: To help out, the Florida Department of Investigation has brought in their crime scene unit investigators to try to sort through this mess. The names of the victims have not been released to us; they're still trying to notify the next of kin.
We are told, however, the victims range in age from 18 to their mid-30s and that the sheriff's department is not said yet if they're looking for any suspects. They will only tell me at this time that they are going through every lead. It's very early in the investigation.
We will continue to monitor this situation; stay right here on the scene. We have the very latest; we will pass it on to you. For now, reporting live in Deltona, Tim Stockman. Kyra, back to you.
PHILLIPS: Tim, thanks so much. Live there from Deltona, Florida.
We take you now live to John Kerry as he and his vice presidential candidate partner John Edwards travel through battle ground state rallying with supporters there.
We're going to Smithfield, Missouri and listen in for a little bit.
(LIVE NEWS EVENT)
PHILLIPS: John Kerry, his partner John Edwards, stumping for votes there in Smithfield, Missouri.
Of course talking about jobs, talking about the economy. The U.S. has lost 1.1 million jobs since January of 2001 and time's running out to regain them before the election. We all know that.
Joining me now with her two cents, Jennifer Openshaw, founder and vice-chair of the Women's Financial Network. Hi, Jennifer, good to see you.
JENNIFER OPENSHAW, WOMEN'S FINANCIAL NETWORK: Great to be here.
PHILLIPS: All right, we've talked about the disappointing numbers for June. Economists were looking for more than 200,000 new jobs in July. President Bush had been talking about new jobs for a number of years now. That didn't happen.
Now you've got John Kerry coming forward with John Edwards talking about hey, we can create jobs. He's laying out some numbers.
How can we -- who do we believe and how do we know that we can believe that numbers even exist and that you can achieve those numbers?
OPENSHAW: Well, I think the question is did we create the jobs did we create the jobs that we intended over the last four years? Remember that President Bush's tax stimulus package was really designed to create jobs, and he himself said that he expected payrolls to average $132 million in this year.
Well, we've heard that we -- he has created 1.5 million under this new package but net-net, Kyra, we are down. In fact, he said that we would have to create about a million a year -- a million a month over the next five months and we're still quite a ways off from that.
PHILLIPS: How are companies reacting, employers reacting -- there's not a lot of faith going on right now among these -- among these business owners?
OPENSHAW: Well, you're right about that. In fact, a new survey was just released by H.R. executives, and what they said was that 43 percent of them said that the election was going to have some impact on their companies.
And so, we're seeing companies remain cautious. You know a lot of people are speculating that the reason for the slowed job market is perhaps high oil prices, or terrorism. I think that's part of it. But I think the bottom line is that companies still don't feel safe and secure and economists are surprised that we don't have the growth that we expected and so we're all expecting it to be slower for the coming months.
PHILLIPS: Let's take a listen to what Greg Mankiw the chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers had to say about these job numbers.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MANKIW: Since last summer when the president's jobs and growth bill went into effect, the economy has created about 1.5 million jobs and according to the payroll survey and more than two million jobs according to the household survey. That's progress. But we still need more progress ahead.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: The president's jobs and growths bill. What happened to that?
OPENSHAW: Well, I think they're really disappointed. You know, it's hard to shake a weak economy. We know that. But there's some other facts that I think are really startling and folks may have forgotten about those.
In July, we had an increase in layoffs by eight percent. Consumer spending is down. Our personal income is down.
Recruitment by companies -- Monster, for example -- has reported that their recruitment requests are down. And so, all of this suggests that jobs are now where we expected them and I don't think President Bush thinks that they are where he expected them, either.
PHILLIPS: So, how do we get it to where we all expect where they should be?
OPENSHAW: Well, I think that's what -- that is why we have an election isn't it? And that's why it's -- it's obviously absolutely the biggest issue in the campaign other than terrorism and I think clearly the Bush administration is trying to put a positive spin but at the same time, I think they are admitting its not where it should be.
In fact, officials have said that and he has said that he is not going to stop until every American has a job. But I say to folks look around. Because I have to admit that I'm surprised when I see the number of people who are out of jobs, people working two jobs.
A lot of those figures aren't reported in the numbers, and the bottom line is that we need a stronger economic policy and folks should ask are they better off now than they were over the last four years?
PHILLIPS: Jennifer Openshaw, founder and vice-chair of the Women's Financial Network. Thanks so much, Jennifer.
We're going to go back to John Kerry. He's talking more about what we've just been talking about.
(LIVE NEWS EVENT)
PHILLIPS: Live in Smithfield, Missouri, John Kerry, John Edwards continue to stump for votes there, talking about the economy.
Straight ahead, we're going to be talking about arrests in Pakistan. A raid in Britain netting alleged terrorists. What are they revealing about the al Qaeda movement? That's ahead.
A private caught in a public scandal. Lynndie England hears from the military policeman who blew the whistle on the abuse at Abu Ghraib Prison. We're live from Fort Bragg.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: No bail for a Brit accused of trying to drum up money and manpower via the Internet from Taliban and Chechen Mujahideen. The latest high-profile arrests in the war on terror occurred in London at the request of U.S. officials.
CNN's Alina Cho now connects the dots in New Haven, Connecticut -- Alina.
ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, yes, the very complicated case but essentially here is what happened today. The U.S. attorney in New Haven outlined what was inside a 31-page criminal complaint against 30-year-old Babar Ahmad.
Really a treasure-trove of information. Here are the highlights among the allegations that Ahmad operated several Web sites with Internet service providers based in Connecticut, Nevada, and elsewhere outside the United States with a goal of providing material support to terrorists, including the Taliban and the Chechen Mujahideen.
Among the allegations that he tried to solicit money, also recruit fighters, even send supplies in support of a holy war or Jihad. Another significant development found in these documents.
The complaint also alleged that authorities found a floppy disc with detailed drawings, planned movements, even vulnerabilities of a U.S. battle group that was conducting operations against al Qaeda and enforcing sanctions against Iraq in April of 2001.
Naval officials according to this complaint confirm that those plans were accurate and classified.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KEVIN O'CONNOR, U.S. ATTORNEY: Most important, documents specifically described the battle groups' vulnerability to terrorist attack including how to stop, quote, "a small craft with rocket- propelled grenades" -- excuse me -- that these ships might be attacked since they, quote, "have nothing to stop a small craft with rocket- propelled grenades except their sealed stinger missiles."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHO: Ahmed, who is a 30-year-old British citizen of Middle Eastern descent, appeared in court in London earlier today. He was read the charges against him, and when asked if he understood them, he was quoted as saying "Not really, it's a bit confusing."
He was denied bail until another hearing is held next week on August 13.
Important to note as well that he was arrested last night following a raid at his home in London. This was the result of a lengthy investigation following what the U.S. attorney here called a post-9/11 tip.
Also, Kyra, we should mention that the Internet service providers based in Connecticut and Nevada are not under investigation, according to the U.S. attorney here in Connecticut. People are under investigation, though the identify is not known -- U.S. citizens who made donations to these Web sites of course, that all part of an ongoing investigation -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Alina Cho, thank you so much. Well, the week began with a code orange alert in three U.S. cities. Almost every hour since has brought new developments in the war on terror.
It's a busy time for our military Intel expert Ken Robinson. Ken, is there any way to connect the dots when we look at what happened starting with the arrest of the al Qaeda computer expert in Pakistan to these arrests in London to what happened in Albany yesterday?
KEN ROBINSON, MILITARY INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: Yes, there is. And you know, this really does hurt your head to try to track it and follow it for a living, and so for viewers what I wanted to do is just talk at a macro level.
The arrests that occurred in Pakistan led to arrests in London. Earlier arrests in Pakistan months ago led to the specific arrests that they were able to do that -- then opened the door to this command control communications operational information-sharing network.
Now, the arrests in Albany appear to be a sting operation that is not related to these other arrests, but is rather an FBI sting operation, which enabled them to identify some mosque leaders who had a propensity for supporting money laundering.
Now, they are saying that those mosque leaders are associated with a group called Ansar al-Islam, which, you may recall was operating in Northern Iraq and is alleged to be associated with Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who is the Jordanian al Qaeda guy who has been doing all the bombings, the major bombings in Iraq.
PHILLIPS: So, when you look at what -- as you connect these dots and you see that there is a connection, is it fair to say soon, very soon, maybe within a couple of months that we might see some major arrests made?
ROBINSON: I think we may see them in a few days. They are very rapidly going to have to go after all the perishable information that is on these CD-ROMs and on these computers because as soon as it was disclosed that these individuals were arrested, the information is very perishable.
So, if that's why they hold it for a few days, that's why they try to wait before they disclose it for the opportunity to roll up other cells. If they don't do that, then what happens is they all go to ground and you can't find them and you lose the opportunity.
PHILLIPS: Ken, what does this say about international relations, particularly the relationship between the U.S. and Pakistan and -- also -- let's say there is an administration change come November and Bush is no longer in office. Musharraf could possibly no longer be in office. Of course we know there's been assassination attempts on him.
So, looking at how far it appears how far the relationship has come now and then sort of looking to the future and what if we're missing these leaders, how can that effect how far I guess Intel has come?
ROBINSON: Well, there's an enormous amount of intelligence cooperation between the United States and its allies and between the United States and its non-NATO allies.
I really don't see that changing, no matter who the next president of the United States is, because there's a big distinction between the fact that everyone understands this terrorist threat is global and it effects everyone and the -- the fact that certain of our allies have a problem with current U.S. policy.
I think the two areas are going to be distinctly different. The intelligence cooperation is dynamic and it is getting better every day as they make more raids, more arrests and find more actionable intelligence.
PHILLIPS: Speaking of actionable intelligence, what about the al Qaeda training camps? This came across yesterday. I don't know if this intelligence came by ground or recon by air, but what do you make of this, do you think that these camps are popping up more or is this possibly just one camp? What's your take and what do sources tell you about this?
ROBINSON: Well, you bet. It signals intelligence and its satellite imagery intelligence, which led government officials to disclose that they saw this reemergence.
The problem there is that President Musharraf can control his urban areas, but this area in Waziristan -- southern Waziristan and along the border between Afghanistan has been a lawless area since 1947 and the creation of the state of Pakistan.
It's very hard for them to move into that area now and try to assert authority and so the pressure is coming by this disclosure to try to prod the Pakistani military into moving in there.
But if you recall, in March when we were in Pakistan -- several of us from CNN -- there was a major fight in Waana (ph), this area where these terrorists have been harbored and the Pakistani army was summarily defeated is not the right word but they were humbled completely by the amount of casualties they took.
PHILLIPS: Former special ops now our military intelligence expert Ken Robinson -- thanks, Ken.
ROBINSON: Thank you.
PHILLIPS: More details on the new threats on the war on terror you can hit our Web site of course. Go to cnn.com and our special report on fighting terrorism.
The search for signs of intelligent life in the universe. Our own Miles O'Brien is in the hunt with scientists asking the big question about the cosmos. We ask Miles this, too: Is anybody out there? Drug awareness, advertisers have us talking like pharmacists, but is it a prescription for trouble? We're going to open up the medicine cabinet later on LIVE FROM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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Aired August 6, 2004 - 12:59 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Economic cold feet? Poor job numbers? The impact on you and the politics behind them.
Bloody uprising in Iraq. Hundreds of people dead. U.S. forces still battling insurgents.
Terror arrests in the United States and around the world. This hour, a progress report on the war on terror.
Pill pushers. Do commercials for prescription drugs help or hurt your health?
(on camera): From the CNN Center in Atlanta, hello, everyone. I'm Kyra Phillips. Miles is off. CNN's LIVE FROM starts right now.
We begin this hour with great expectations, miscalculations, and political ramifications of jobs. We learned today the U.S. economy added 32,000 jobs last month, the 11th straight monthly net gain, but it's smallest net gain since December -- less than one-sixth of what economists expected.
After disappointing numbers for June, economists were looking for more than 2,000 or 200,000 new jobs in July. In their absence, investors are selling, the presidential campaigns are spinning, and CNN's Lisa Sylvester is explaining from Washington -- Lisa?
LISA SYLVESTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Kyra. To say that people were caught off guard by this jobs report is clearly an understatement. Economists had widely believed that the economy was humming along and that hundreds of thousands of jobs would soon follow.
But in July, only 32,000 jobs were created. Now, to put that into perspective, economists were hoping to create 235,000 jobs. The unemployment rate edged down from 5.6 percent to 5.5 percent.
Now, tracking the job growth in the last year, you can see this is the weakest jobs report since last December. Now, also to point out here the June jobs report was revised downward from 112,000 jobs to 78,000 jobs.
The economy and the lack of jobs are themes that are resonating on the campaign trail.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) AIDA ALVAREZ, KERRY ECONOMIC ADVISOR: I think it is bad news for the American people. And it is bad news for the Bush administration. This is an administration that promised six million new jobs at the beginning of the administration, and there are now seven million jobs in the hole.
GREGORY MANKIW, COUNCIL OF ECONOMIC ADVISERS: Yes, we're not satisfied with the level of job creation that came out today. The economy is creating jobs; it's moving forward, but not at a rapid enough pace. The president has said many times that he won't be satisfied until every American who wants a job can find a job.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SYLVESTER: Two sides of the story there. Now, the Federal Reserve will meet on Tuesday, and it had been expected that the Fed would raise the short-term interest rate a quarter percentage point. Now, the big question is will today's report change the Fed's thinking -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Lisa Sylvester, thank you so much. We'll talk more about those numbers later on in the half hour.
Iraq has taken a back seat to the economy in terms of issues ahead of the November election, but the surging violence, especially in Najaf, is raising concerns about stability in the war-torn nation.
CNN's Matthew Chance wraps up the developments now from Baghdad.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, fierce fighting is continuing between U.S.-led forces and the Mehdi Army, the militia group led by the firebrand Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
Much of the fighting has been centered in the holy city of Najaf, south of the Iraqi capitol. There, U.S. tanks and armored vehicles backed by helicopters, gunships have been rolling into the center of Najaf.
They're being confronted, though, by rocket-propelled grenades wielded by members of the Mehdi Army militia and much of the fighting has been taking place around the old center of the city -- the location of the Imam Ali shrine, one of the holiest building in Shia Islam.
Now we've been getting some extremely high estimates of casualties from the U.S. military on the ground there. A spokesman for the 11th Marine Expeditionary Force, which is doing a lot of the fighting down in Najaf -- they're estimating that some 300 Mehdi Army fighters have been killed in the past two days -- or factions with the U.S. Marines and the Mehdi Army. That's being denied by the Mehdi Army itself, who say their count of casualties is 36 dead through the last two days.
Nevertheless, extremely serious violence that has spread elsewhere in Iraq, as well. In Sadr City, a district of the Iraqi capitol of Baghdad, fierce fighting overnight, the whole area of the city engulfed with clashes between U.S. forces, again, and members of the Mehdi Army. According to the Iraqi Health Ministry, at least 20 people killed in fighting since Thursday there, and much of that fighting overnight.
I've also had pictures from the southern town of Amarah just north of Basra, which is under the security control of British forces. Not reporting any clashes at this stage, but a quite angry demonstrations by supporters of the Mehdi Army against the Iraqi interim government, against the U.S.-led coalition forces for British, in this case, in the area.
So, very extreme violence, in fact the worst certainly in Najaf since we've seen -- we've seen there since June, when a cease fire was broken with Muqtada al-Sadr. Big concerns now that this may fuel a second Shia insurgency across the country.
Matthew Chance, CNN, Baghdad.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Other news across America now: Attorneys for Mark Hacking are considering mental illness as a defense strategy.
Hacking's attorney tells a Utah television station that he may also challenge Hacking's alleged confession to relatives that he killed his wife Lori. Her body has not yet been found.
Charged and on suicide watch: Two suburban Atlanta teenagers accused of killing one of the girl's grandparents appeared in court yesterday. Prosecutors allege that one of the girls recruited her lesbian lover to lie in wait under her grandparent's bed while she lured them in for the attack.
Transportation officials are at the scene of a deadly Greyhound bus crash in Tennessee. That bus and a tractor-trailer collided on Interstate 40 near Jackson earlier today. Three people were killed; at least 25 others were injured.
A search is underway in central Florida now for a possible mass killer. This after a man checking on a co-worker who never showed up at work today. He discovered a grisly scene. Reporter Tim Stockman from CNN affiliate WFTV is live in Deltona, Florida with more.
TIM STOCKMAN, WFTV REPORTER: Yes, Kyra, no doubt investigators are going to be here on the scene for some time trying to sort out this gruesome, gruesome murder scene. If you look behind me you can see the large amount of investigators and equipment that have moved into the area.
Six bodies, four men and two women, were found inside the house at the end of the street around 6:30. According to the sheriff, one of the people who rents the house did not show up for work, at least one of -- or four of -- the victims worked at the local Burger King here. A co-worker at that Burger King became concerned and called a neighbor to check in on the house. The neighbor found the bodies inside. All six inside were found brutally murdered.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SHERIFF BEN JOHNSON, VOLUSIA COUNTY, FLORIDA: You have a major crime scene. It's -- you have multiple deaths. And we want to make sure everything is covered and we needed more crime scene investigators than what we had.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
STOCKMAN: To help out, the Florida Department of Investigation has brought in their crime scene unit investigators to try to sort through this mess. The names of the victims have not been released to us; they're still trying to notify the next of kin.
We are told, however, the victims range in age from 18 to their mid-30s and that the sheriff's department is not said yet if they're looking for any suspects. They will only tell me at this time that they are going through every lead. It's very early in the investigation.
We will continue to monitor this situation; stay right here on the scene. We have the very latest; we will pass it on to you. For now, reporting live in Deltona, Tim Stockman. Kyra, back to you.
PHILLIPS: Tim, thanks so much. Live there from Deltona, Florida.
We take you now live to John Kerry as he and his vice presidential candidate partner John Edwards travel through battle ground state rallying with supporters there.
We're going to Smithfield, Missouri and listen in for a little bit.
(LIVE NEWS EVENT)
PHILLIPS: John Kerry, his partner John Edwards, stumping for votes there in Smithfield, Missouri.
Of course talking about jobs, talking about the economy. The U.S. has lost 1.1 million jobs since January of 2001 and time's running out to regain them before the election. We all know that.
Joining me now with her two cents, Jennifer Openshaw, founder and vice-chair of the Women's Financial Network. Hi, Jennifer, good to see you.
JENNIFER OPENSHAW, WOMEN'S FINANCIAL NETWORK: Great to be here.
PHILLIPS: All right, we've talked about the disappointing numbers for June. Economists were looking for more than 200,000 new jobs in July. President Bush had been talking about new jobs for a number of years now. That didn't happen.
Now you've got John Kerry coming forward with John Edwards talking about hey, we can create jobs. He's laying out some numbers.
How can we -- who do we believe and how do we know that we can believe that numbers even exist and that you can achieve those numbers?
OPENSHAW: Well, I think the question is did we create the jobs did we create the jobs that we intended over the last four years? Remember that President Bush's tax stimulus package was really designed to create jobs, and he himself said that he expected payrolls to average $132 million in this year.
Well, we've heard that we -- he has created 1.5 million under this new package but net-net, Kyra, we are down. In fact, he said that we would have to create about a million a year -- a million a month over the next five months and we're still quite a ways off from that.
PHILLIPS: How are companies reacting, employers reacting -- there's not a lot of faith going on right now among these -- among these business owners?
OPENSHAW: Well, you're right about that. In fact, a new survey was just released by H.R. executives, and what they said was that 43 percent of them said that the election was going to have some impact on their companies.
And so, we're seeing companies remain cautious. You know a lot of people are speculating that the reason for the slowed job market is perhaps high oil prices, or terrorism. I think that's part of it. But I think the bottom line is that companies still don't feel safe and secure and economists are surprised that we don't have the growth that we expected and so we're all expecting it to be slower for the coming months.
PHILLIPS: Let's take a listen to what Greg Mankiw the chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers had to say about these job numbers.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MANKIW: Since last summer when the president's jobs and growth bill went into effect, the economy has created about 1.5 million jobs and according to the payroll survey and more than two million jobs according to the household survey. That's progress. But we still need more progress ahead.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: The president's jobs and growths bill. What happened to that?
OPENSHAW: Well, I think they're really disappointed. You know, it's hard to shake a weak economy. We know that. But there's some other facts that I think are really startling and folks may have forgotten about those.
In July, we had an increase in layoffs by eight percent. Consumer spending is down. Our personal income is down.
Recruitment by companies -- Monster, for example -- has reported that their recruitment requests are down. And so, all of this suggests that jobs are now where we expected them and I don't think President Bush thinks that they are where he expected them, either.
PHILLIPS: So, how do we get it to where we all expect where they should be?
OPENSHAW: Well, I think that's what -- that is why we have an election isn't it? And that's why it's -- it's obviously absolutely the biggest issue in the campaign other than terrorism and I think clearly the Bush administration is trying to put a positive spin but at the same time, I think they are admitting its not where it should be.
In fact, officials have said that and he has said that he is not going to stop until every American has a job. But I say to folks look around. Because I have to admit that I'm surprised when I see the number of people who are out of jobs, people working two jobs.
A lot of those figures aren't reported in the numbers, and the bottom line is that we need a stronger economic policy and folks should ask are they better off now than they were over the last four years?
PHILLIPS: Jennifer Openshaw, founder and vice-chair of the Women's Financial Network. Thanks so much, Jennifer.
We're going to go back to John Kerry. He's talking more about what we've just been talking about.
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PHILLIPS: Live in Smithfield, Missouri, John Kerry, John Edwards continue to stump for votes there, talking about the economy.
Straight ahead, we're going to be talking about arrests in Pakistan. A raid in Britain netting alleged terrorists. What are they revealing about the al Qaeda movement? That's ahead.
A private caught in a public scandal. Lynndie England hears from the military policeman who blew the whistle on the abuse at Abu Ghraib Prison. We're live from Fort Bragg.
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PHILLIPS: No bail for a Brit accused of trying to drum up money and manpower via the Internet from Taliban and Chechen Mujahideen. The latest high-profile arrests in the war on terror occurred in London at the request of U.S. officials.
CNN's Alina Cho now connects the dots in New Haven, Connecticut -- Alina.
ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, yes, the very complicated case but essentially here is what happened today. The U.S. attorney in New Haven outlined what was inside a 31-page criminal complaint against 30-year-old Babar Ahmad.
Really a treasure-trove of information. Here are the highlights among the allegations that Ahmad operated several Web sites with Internet service providers based in Connecticut, Nevada, and elsewhere outside the United States with a goal of providing material support to terrorists, including the Taliban and the Chechen Mujahideen.
Among the allegations that he tried to solicit money, also recruit fighters, even send supplies in support of a holy war or Jihad. Another significant development found in these documents.
The complaint also alleged that authorities found a floppy disc with detailed drawings, planned movements, even vulnerabilities of a U.S. battle group that was conducting operations against al Qaeda and enforcing sanctions against Iraq in April of 2001.
Naval officials according to this complaint confirm that those plans were accurate and classified.
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KEVIN O'CONNOR, U.S. ATTORNEY: Most important, documents specifically described the battle groups' vulnerability to terrorist attack including how to stop, quote, "a small craft with rocket- propelled grenades" -- excuse me -- that these ships might be attacked since they, quote, "have nothing to stop a small craft with rocket- propelled grenades except their sealed stinger missiles."
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CHO: Ahmed, who is a 30-year-old British citizen of Middle Eastern descent, appeared in court in London earlier today. He was read the charges against him, and when asked if he understood them, he was quoted as saying "Not really, it's a bit confusing."
He was denied bail until another hearing is held next week on August 13.
Important to note as well that he was arrested last night following a raid at his home in London. This was the result of a lengthy investigation following what the U.S. attorney here called a post-9/11 tip.
Also, Kyra, we should mention that the Internet service providers based in Connecticut and Nevada are not under investigation, according to the U.S. attorney here in Connecticut. People are under investigation, though the identify is not known -- U.S. citizens who made donations to these Web sites of course, that all part of an ongoing investigation -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Alina Cho, thank you so much. Well, the week began with a code orange alert in three U.S. cities. Almost every hour since has brought new developments in the war on terror.
It's a busy time for our military Intel expert Ken Robinson. Ken, is there any way to connect the dots when we look at what happened starting with the arrest of the al Qaeda computer expert in Pakistan to these arrests in London to what happened in Albany yesterday?
KEN ROBINSON, MILITARY INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: Yes, there is. And you know, this really does hurt your head to try to track it and follow it for a living, and so for viewers what I wanted to do is just talk at a macro level.
The arrests that occurred in Pakistan led to arrests in London. Earlier arrests in Pakistan months ago led to the specific arrests that they were able to do that -- then opened the door to this command control communications operational information-sharing network.
Now, the arrests in Albany appear to be a sting operation that is not related to these other arrests, but is rather an FBI sting operation, which enabled them to identify some mosque leaders who had a propensity for supporting money laundering.
Now, they are saying that those mosque leaders are associated with a group called Ansar al-Islam, which, you may recall was operating in Northern Iraq and is alleged to be associated with Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who is the Jordanian al Qaeda guy who has been doing all the bombings, the major bombings in Iraq.
PHILLIPS: So, when you look at what -- as you connect these dots and you see that there is a connection, is it fair to say soon, very soon, maybe within a couple of months that we might see some major arrests made?
ROBINSON: I think we may see them in a few days. They are very rapidly going to have to go after all the perishable information that is on these CD-ROMs and on these computers because as soon as it was disclosed that these individuals were arrested, the information is very perishable.
So, if that's why they hold it for a few days, that's why they try to wait before they disclose it for the opportunity to roll up other cells. If they don't do that, then what happens is they all go to ground and you can't find them and you lose the opportunity.
PHILLIPS: Ken, what does this say about international relations, particularly the relationship between the U.S. and Pakistan and -- also -- let's say there is an administration change come November and Bush is no longer in office. Musharraf could possibly no longer be in office. Of course we know there's been assassination attempts on him.
So, looking at how far it appears how far the relationship has come now and then sort of looking to the future and what if we're missing these leaders, how can that effect how far I guess Intel has come?
ROBINSON: Well, there's an enormous amount of intelligence cooperation between the United States and its allies and between the United States and its non-NATO allies.
I really don't see that changing, no matter who the next president of the United States is, because there's a big distinction between the fact that everyone understands this terrorist threat is global and it effects everyone and the -- the fact that certain of our allies have a problem with current U.S. policy.
I think the two areas are going to be distinctly different. The intelligence cooperation is dynamic and it is getting better every day as they make more raids, more arrests and find more actionable intelligence.
PHILLIPS: Speaking of actionable intelligence, what about the al Qaeda training camps? This came across yesterday. I don't know if this intelligence came by ground or recon by air, but what do you make of this, do you think that these camps are popping up more or is this possibly just one camp? What's your take and what do sources tell you about this?
ROBINSON: Well, you bet. It signals intelligence and its satellite imagery intelligence, which led government officials to disclose that they saw this reemergence.
The problem there is that President Musharraf can control his urban areas, but this area in Waziristan -- southern Waziristan and along the border between Afghanistan has been a lawless area since 1947 and the creation of the state of Pakistan.
It's very hard for them to move into that area now and try to assert authority and so the pressure is coming by this disclosure to try to prod the Pakistani military into moving in there.
But if you recall, in March when we were in Pakistan -- several of us from CNN -- there was a major fight in Waana (ph), this area where these terrorists have been harbored and the Pakistani army was summarily defeated is not the right word but they were humbled completely by the amount of casualties they took.
PHILLIPS: Former special ops now our military intelligence expert Ken Robinson -- thanks, Ken.
ROBINSON: Thank you.
PHILLIPS: More details on the new threats on the war on terror you can hit our Web site of course. Go to cnn.com and our special report on fighting terrorism.
The search for signs of intelligent life in the universe. Our own Miles O'Brien is in the hunt with scientists asking the big question about the cosmos. We ask Miles this, too: Is anybody out there? Drug awareness, advertisers have us talking like pharmacists, but is it a prescription for trouble? We're going to open up the medicine cabinet later on LIVE FROM.
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