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Serial Killer Mum on Plea; Classified Report: U.S. Military Being Stretched Thin; North Carolina Improving Driver's Licensing Procedure

Aired May 03, 2005 - 13:00   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, CO-HOST: Alleged serial killer in court. Ten killings over a span of 30 years. He enters one plea. We're live from Wichita, Kansas.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHERIFF TERRY JOHNSON, ALAMANCE COUNTY, NORTH CAROLINA: We arrested one guy, had six different North Carolina driver's license in six different names. That's tells you how easy it is.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MILES O'BRIEN, CO-HOST: License loophole. Will stricter rules keep illegal I.D.s out of the hands of terrorists?

PHILLIPS: Costco calamity caught on tape. Robbers decide to just back their truck up and help themselves. We've got the rest of the story.

M. O'BRIEN: And an amazing comeback. A decorated firefighter injured on the job starts talking after nearly 10 years of silence.

From the CNN Center in Atlanta, I'm Miles O'Brien.

PHILLIPS: And I'm Kyra Phillips. CNN's LIVE FROM starts right now.

M. O'BRIEN: The district attorney says he was BTK. A victim's relative warns he won't last long in prison. But the suspect was soft-spoken at his arraignment this morning in Kansas, leaving it to the judge to enter a plea of not guilty on 10 counts of murder.

The details now from CNN's Jonathan Freed in Wichita -- Jonathan.

JONATHAN FREED, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good afternoon, Miles.

For the last two weeks, since Dennis Rader's preliminary hearing, his defense attorneys have been telegraphing about what would be coming today, what they expected to come from him, would be a not guilty plea. And that is, in fact, what happened. There is some question as to whether or not there might be something going on behind the scenes. But the district attorney made it very clear today that there will be no plea bargaining whatsoever in this case.

So let's listen to what happened at 9 a.m. Wichita time this morning in the courtroom here at the Sedgwick County courthouse.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Very well. On the defendant's standing mute, court will enter a plea of not guilty. I'll set this matter for jury trial on June 27, 9 in the morning. Thank you very much.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Your honor, at this time, the state has a motion...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FREED: Miles, later in the day, I had a chance to talk to district attorney Nola Foulston, and I asked her why it was important to her that this case ultimately go before a jury. And let's listen to what she had to say about that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NOLA FOULSTON, SEDGWICK COUNTY, KANSAS, DISTRICT ATTORNEY: I think that whenever the facts are brought to the attention of the public, it is a very appropriate for the public to be able to see, to listen, to hear the facts of the case. I think that is the most important thing that can bring the closure that we need on this case.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FREED: Now, Miles, the trial date at this point has been set for the 27th of June, but the D.A. and everybody else here are saying, don't set your watch by that. Given the magnitude of this case, the fact that it spans three decades, they're expecting this will not go to trial at least until the fall. They're saying October at the outside, but it could even be much later than that -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Jonathan, just to clarify a point for us, on the issue of the death penalty, so far what we've heard is because these crimes happen before the death penalty was enacted in Kansas, it may not apply in this case. It seems like a bit of a technicality, and I assume a lot of the victims' families are upset about that.

FREED: Well, I think that people at this point have had a few months to digest that, Miles. And you're right bout that. It is because of the date that the death penalty was put into effect here in Kansas, why none of these crimes will qualify for the death penalty.

But one thing that the D.A. tried to address today, the 1991 count of first degree murder does qualify for what's called a hard 40 year sentence with no parole, and that motion was entered today. Ultimately, will be up to the jury to decide that. But at least the D.A. is pushing that far.

M. O'BRIEN: All right, and hard 40 in this case certainly would be life. Jonathan, thank you very much -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: So how many wars are too many? When it comes to the U.S. military, the matter of capabilities above and beyond current obligations depends on whom you ask. This is President Bush at last week's prime-time news conference.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: ... I asked to at least, is to the chairman of the joint chiefs. My top military adviser. I said, "Do you feel that we've limited our capacity to deal with other problems because of our troop levels in Iraq?" And the answer is no. He doesn't feel we're limited.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: But in a new report to Congress, that very same chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, General Richard Myers, says just the opposite. A senior official tells CNN that Myers warns that other conflicts, should they arise, would likely last longer and cost more U.S. casualties because of all the resources tied up in Iraq and Afghanistan.

CNN's Kathleen Koch has more now from the Pentagon -- Kathleen.

KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, some are calling this a sober assessment. Others are saying it's simply the U.S. military acknowledging the obvious, that you can't do everything and do it equally well.

This classified report from General Richard Myers, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, went up to Capitol Hill, to Congress, yesterday. And a senior Pentagon official tells CNN that, because of the continuing U.S. deployments in both Iraq and Afghanistan, the report concludes that other armed conflicts would basically be messier, more difficult. They would last longer and produce higher casualties.

The report, however, does still find that the U.S. would still have the ability to win another military face-off. But you wouldn't see the swift build-up that occurred just before the Iraq war. Official saying, quote, "It would be harder to sprint that fast."

Now Pentagon spokesman Brian Whitman remained upbeat about the report's findings, saying, quote, "What is certain is the U.S. military remains capable of executing every mission it is assigned."

The report does cite some particularly stressed areas. They include stockpiles of precision weapon, the availability of prepositioned -- prepositioned equipment necessary for battle, such as vehicles and supplies, and then manpower, specifically, reserve units, which are right now providing much of the combat support in Iraq.

And there's also concern that active duty numbers could become stressed, as well. The Army announcing that for the third month in a row, Kyra, it has failed to meet its recruiting goals.

Back to you.

PHILLIPS: Kathleen, do you know anything about this seized letter, possibly addressed to Osama bin Laden's No. 1, al-Zarqawi, in Iraq?

KATHLEEN: It was last week, Kyra, April 28, on Thursday, that the U.S. military says during a raid, that U.S. soldiers found a letter from an insurgent leader that the Pentagon believes was bound for Jordanian-born terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. The note refers to low morale and weakening support for the insurgency, sort of a laundry list of complaints.

Pentagon officials, when I asked them about this, they really refused to characterize the letter, saying simply it is what it is. Though spokesman Brian Whitman did add, quote, "It does reflect a certain amount of proof that Zarqawi's influence and effectiveness is deteriorating" -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right, Kathleen Koch, live from the Pentagon, thanks.

M. O'BRIEN: Just in to us here at the CNN newsroom, about 200 people evacuated from a U.S. immigration building in Garden City, New York. New York's Long Island is the location.

We have some pictures which just got fed to us from our affiliate, News 12 Long Island just a little while ago. And there you see hazardous material response team there.

Apparently, what was discovered was some sort of white powder in an envelope in the mailroom. North Shore University Hospital, Nassau County Police have responded to the call. They're meticulously going through and analyzing this powder for, as they put it, testing for everything.

Of course, the concern here would be the possibility of anthrax, hearkening back to those attacks in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, those anthrax attacks.

Just to recap, Garden City, New York, is the location, Long Island, about 200 people, employees at a U.S. immigration office, evacuated from the facility there after white powder discovered in an envelope in the mailroom. Testing is ongoing. We're watching it for you.

Now, bring lot of I.D. to the DMV if the U.S. Congress green lights a measure that critics believe takes too much license with civil liberties and state responsibilities.

It requires the state to require applicants for driver's licenses to bring extensive documentation to prove they're U.S. citizens or are in the U.S. legally. It's on the congressional fast-track, though opponents in both parties have called the measure unworkably rigid.

Right now, the system is a patchwork of regs and requirements. And CNN's Jeanne Meserve reports many feel that's not working either.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHNSON: And you can see somebody's been in to that plastic and it's taped over. That's not a legit consular card. That's been handwritten.

This picture's been replaced. No stamp whatsoever on this passport. Printed off of a computer. No, not the real deal.

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Fake and altered documents, all used to try to obtain North Carolina's driver's licenses, often successfully.

JOHNSON: That is the key to the kingdom. That will also be the key that will bring the kingdom down if we don't do something.

MESERVE: Alamance County, North Carolina, Sheriff Terry Johnson has been fighting crime for 30 years. He says a license, once issued, gives a legitimate identity to a criminal or worse.

JOHNSON: You can get an airplane ticket, and they'll be able to get on an airplane, show them the driver's license. They could even get a pilot's license like some of those individuals in 9/11 did, crashed into our Twin Towers.

MESERVE: In the past year, at this one small North Carolina motor vehicle office, Johnson and deputies have caught more than 125 people trying to use fraudulent documents to get licenses.

(on camera) Now, do you believe that any of these people have come to this DMV and gotten a license, are terrorists?

JOHNSON: I don't know. And that's the problem.

MESERVE (voice-over): Johnson says people come from as far away as New York to exploit North Carolina's licensing procedures. We watched one man present a Mexican passport as identification.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is expired. OK? It's 2004. And you have no -- no visa, no INS Stamp. I've got to have something that's -- it can go -- along with this that I can check it off and use. This is mandatory. But I've got to have something else. Do you have a utility bill or anything like that?

MESERVE: The sheriff checks his identification and finds it is authentic. Though the man admits to being in the United States illegally, North Carolina had already given him one license.

JOHNSON: Have you ever had a driver's license?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My driver's license is suspended.

JOHNSON: Suspended?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

JOHNSON: A North Carolina driver's license?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

JOHNSON: And why are they suspended? UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I had one DUI.

JOHNSON: One DUI. But yet you drove here anyway.

MESERVE: The stringency of licensing requirements varies. Though 40 states require a driver's license applicant to prove he is in the country legally, North Carolina does not. To establish identity and North Carolina residency, the Department of Motor Vehicles accepts some documents that have been rejected by other states as unreliable and some that are easily forged or falsified.

The DMV says it is tightening up with new technology and anti- fraud training for employees.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We feel like we are on the right road to providing a very secure system in North Carolina in the issuance of driver's license.

MESERVE: Sheriff Johnson hasn't seen the impact yet.

JOHNSON: We arrested one guy, had six different North Carolina driver's licenses in six different names. That tells you how easy it is.

MESERVE: Johnson believes homeland security is only as strong as its weakest link, and as he sees it, one of the weak links is right here in North Carolina.

JOHNSON: The government has got to open its eyes.

MESERVE: Jeanne Meserve, CNN, Alamance County, North Carolina.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

M. O'BRIEN: CNN is committed to providing the most reliable coverage of news that affects your security. Stay tuned to CNN for the latest information day and night.

PHILLIPS: Getting word now of a tornado warning in Florida. Jacqui Jeras in with more from Broward County. What do we know, Jacqui?

(WEATHER REPORT)

PHILLIPS: Jacqui Jeras, thanks so much. We'll continue to check in with you -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Happened again, this time to us. The parent company of CNN, information about hundreds of thousands of people is out there, could fall into the wrong hands. Little bit worried about that here.

What could you do to protect yourself against identity theft? Got some tips.

And check this one out, our video of the day. A quick-thinking surfer manages to hang 10 while ducking danger. Wow. Whoa. Holy cow.

And a firefighter injured on the job, enable to communicate for nearly 10 years. Now he's talking. We'll find out what he's saying a little later on LIVE FROM.

ANNOUNCER: You're watching LIVE FROM on CNN, the most trusted name in news.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: It is still unclear whether the bride who got cold feet will have to pay back all the cold, hard cash expended searching for her. Authorities in Georgia still considering pressing charges against 32-year-old Jennifer Wilbanks.

Despite everything, the wedding still appears to be on. Wilbanks' would have been father-in-law talked to CNN's Soledad O'Brien today about how the couple is holding up and what's in store for them.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CO-HOST, "AMERICAN MORNING": There are reports that Jennifer may have bought a ticket on the Greyhound bus a week in advance of the wedding. Any indications in your mind that, in fact, well before the wedding, she was having some serious second thoughts?

CLAUDE MASON, JOHN MASON'S FATHER: No, I haven't really thought about it that much. I just have gotten all those details recently myself, so I can't assess it one way or the other as to what was in her mind. I can only hope -- can only guess that she might have thought about it, whether she actually was going to be able to go through with it or not at the time she bought the ticket, may have been different.

S. O'BRIEN: There are reports this is not the first engagement, in fact, that she's bolted on. Is that correct, that she's been engaged before?

MASON: I do not know that. I heard -- I heard a little bit that she may have been, but I don't know for sure.

S. O'BRIEN: Is the wedding still on, right now as it stands?

MASON: According to John, it is. As far as a date, that's not been determined yet. But he's committed to her and, as it stands now, he -- he thinks there will be a wedding.

S. O'BRIEN: Has she apologized, not only to your son but to you and your family, as well?

MASON: We have not spoken with Jennifer since her return.

S. O'BRIEN: The D.A. says that she has not apologized to him. In fact, here's how he describes her: self-centered, self-absorbed no sense of what she put people through. Why would your son want to marry a girl who clearly does not want to be married to him, or at least at that time did not?

MASON: I don't know whether it was a fact that she did not want to be married to him. I think it was just all of -- the rush of the moment, so to speak, got to her, as far as -- is what I can tell from this point in my discussions with John. I don't think it's a matter of her not wanting to marry him. I think it was just all the -- all the stuff leading up to it, just got to her.

S. O'BRIEN: In fact in an interview, your son talked a little bit about some of the problems that Jennifer's been having leading up to the wedding date. Can you be more specific? What kind of issues is he talking about that she may have had?

MASON: I'm not real sure what he's referring to. I just know Jennifer was a perfectionist. She wanted everything to be just right. And as far as I know, everything was moving in that direction.

S. O'BRIEN: The D.A., as you well know, is considering charging her. He says that she needs to face some kind of consequences. Do you agree with that, that she has to face some kind of consequences, maybe -- maybe jail time, maybe financial consequences, for what she pulled off?

MASON: Mr. Porter is just doing the job he was elected to do. I don't have any problems with that. As far as what her punishment should be, I haven't really thought that one through. I don't -- I definitely do not think there should be any jail time. There's no question in my mind about that.

S. O'BRIEN: Are you looking forward to her joining your family as a future daughter-in-law?

MASON: I was looking very much forward to it, before this all happened. And if John it still in love with her and still wants to marry her, I would welcome her into the family.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Other news across America now, this jewelry thief, giving new meaning to the phrase smash and grab. Police in Durham, North Carolina, say a man backed a stolen pickup truck right up to the jewelry counter at a Costco store, grabbed the loot and took off. Police have yet to catch him.

And speaking of catches, take a look at this, Seattle's Ichiro Suzuki made an incredible catch during a home game last night. Wow. He climbed the right-field fence to catch a fly ball hit by Los Angeles Angels' Garrett Anderson. The Mariners lost the game, but the catch earned Ichiro a standing ovation.

New York City is getting a new ditty. The Big Apple plans to unveil a new song tomorrow as part of a P.R. blitz intended to boost tourism. The song is entitled "New York, For the Time of Your Life."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) PHILLIPS (voice-over): Next on LIVE FROM, courageous comeback. A former firefighter, brain damaged in a roof collapse, speaks his first words in almost 10 years.

Later on LIVE FROM...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm probably the first guy to change his foot, you know, in combat.

PHILLIPS: ... an amputee's unique challenges serving his country in Iraq.

Tomorrow on LIVE FROM, "American Idol" chatter, trash talk about the talent, accusations about one of the judges, and a network news expose. Will the show survive?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: A box carrying some computer tape with all kinds of personal information about me and about 600,000 others on the payroll of Time Warner missing today. Who knows what mischief that might lead to.

Joining us with details, a fellow victim and CNN technical correspondent Daniel Sieberg.

DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We're right in the middle of all this.

M. O'BRIEN: We should be paying attention to charges on our credit card, I think?

SIEBERG: Absolutely. Beyond other things, too. I mean, this is something that is really becoming a recurring theme. And you do wonder if it's happening more or if we're hearing about it more. We're talking about identity theft.

In this case, the computer backup tapes that Miles mentioned were lost during a shipment on March 22 to a storage facility called Iron Mountain. They work with Time Warner. But we're just hearing about it this week.

This latest incident involves, as Miles pointed out, about 600,000, current and former employees from Time Warner companies, not Time Warner customers. The data includes names, Social Security numbers, addresses and more on employee and dependents dating back to about 1986.

So what do these tapes look like? We're talking about tapes and boxes of tapes. Here's an example of what theses tapes might look like. Each of the tapes you see on these shelves contain thousands of records on people, which is very tempting for identity thieves. It allows them to create a profile of somebody else and steal your information. Time Warner and other companies often have been so many employee records that they need to be stored off site, and during the shipment is when the security breach may have happened.

The company Iron Mountain is saying it's likely human error. They have actually fired the driver of that truck. However, a thief would at least need a way to read the tapes you can see here to get the information off them.

Time Warner has notified its employees, like us, and issued a response, saying it started a web site and toll free numbers you can see there to keep employees in the loop. Inside the U.S., the number is 800-435-2285. They've also alerted the big three credit bureaus, and employees will get about a year's worth of free credit monitoring on their report.

So, you know, something we all have to pay attention to. It does hit home.

M. O'BRIEN: I should say. Now just -- you say you have to be able to read the tape.

SIEBERG: Right.

M. O'BRIEN: Without giving away anything, how much expertise is required to read these tapes?

SIEBERG: A fairly high level of expertise. But not just expertise, but the right type of equipment to read the tapes, to read the data. It's not as simple as seeing a printout and reading the names off them or sort of holding it up to the light. So we're talking about a little bit of sophistication.

M. O'BRIEN: But there are people out there with that expertise, so we need to be on guard.

SIEBERG: Exactly.

M. O'BRIEN: What should we all be doing about this kind of thing?

SIEBERG: Right. This is for Time Warner employees and everybody else who might need to protect themselves. There are all kind of tips we can give you for what you need to do.

First of all, check your bank and credit card statement. That's something you need to do on a regular basis anyway.

Request a credit report. That's something you want to do just to check to see if there's any sort of irregular activity or strange things going on.

Call Equifax, Experion, and TransUnion. Those are the big three. Get this fraud alert. They basically monitor your credit to see if there's anything strange going on. You can also subscribe to these credit monitoring services. Some of them do cost about $10 a month. Others, as you can see there, are free.

But this is not the first time, obviously, that this has happened. Miles, it doesn't seem like -- just a few weeks ago that you and I were talking about other cases where this has happened.

M. O'BRIEN: There are a bunch of them. All right. This one hits close to home. Thank you, Daniel Sieberg.

SIEBERG: All right.

O'BRIEN: Wait until you hear this, folks. CNN's parent company, Time Warner, declined our request for an on-camera interview on the missing employee data. Come on, guys, talk to us -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: We'll have the exclusive, I'm sure.

O'BRIEN: Yes.

PHILLIPS: We'll take a quick check of the big board as we head to break. Right now, Dow Jones -- Dow Jones Industrials up by a smidge.

We're going to take a quick break. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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Aired May 3, 2005 - 13:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CO-HOST: Alleged serial killer in court. Ten killings over a span of 30 years. He enters one plea. We're live from Wichita, Kansas.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHERIFF TERRY JOHNSON, ALAMANCE COUNTY, NORTH CAROLINA: We arrested one guy, had six different North Carolina driver's license in six different names. That's tells you how easy it is.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MILES O'BRIEN, CO-HOST: License loophole. Will stricter rules keep illegal I.D.s out of the hands of terrorists?

PHILLIPS: Costco calamity caught on tape. Robbers decide to just back their truck up and help themselves. We've got the rest of the story.

M. O'BRIEN: And an amazing comeback. A decorated firefighter injured on the job starts talking after nearly 10 years of silence.

From the CNN Center in Atlanta, I'm Miles O'Brien.

PHILLIPS: And I'm Kyra Phillips. CNN's LIVE FROM starts right now.

M. O'BRIEN: The district attorney says he was BTK. A victim's relative warns he won't last long in prison. But the suspect was soft-spoken at his arraignment this morning in Kansas, leaving it to the judge to enter a plea of not guilty on 10 counts of murder.

The details now from CNN's Jonathan Freed in Wichita -- Jonathan.

JONATHAN FREED, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good afternoon, Miles.

For the last two weeks, since Dennis Rader's preliminary hearing, his defense attorneys have been telegraphing about what would be coming today, what they expected to come from him, would be a not guilty plea. And that is, in fact, what happened. There is some question as to whether or not there might be something going on behind the scenes. But the district attorney made it very clear today that there will be no plea bargaining whatsoever in this case.

So let's listen to what happened at 9 a.m. Wichita time this morning in the courtroom here at the Sedgwick County courthouse.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Very well. On the defendant's standing mute, court will enter a plea of not guilty. I'll set this matter for jury trial on June 27, 9 in the morning. Thank you very much.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Your honor, at this time, the state has a motion...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FREED: Miles, later in the day, I had a chance to talk to district attorney Nola Foulston, and I asked her why it was important to her that this case ultimately go before a jury. And let's listen to what she had to say about that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NOLA FOULSTON, SEDGWICK COUNTY, KANSAS, DISTRICT ATTORNEY: I think that whenever the facts are brought to the attention of the public, it is a very appropriate for the public to be able to see, to listen, to hear the facts of the case. I think that is the most important thing that can bring the closure that we need on this case.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FREED: Now, Miles, the trial date at this point has been set for the 27th of June, but the D.A. and everybody else here are saying, don't set your watch by that. Given the magnitude of this case, the fact that it spans three decades, they're expecting this will not go to trial at least until the fall. They're saying October at the outside, but it could even be much later than that -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Jonathan, just to clarify a point for us, on the issue of the death penalty, so far what we've heard is because these crimes happen before the death penalty was enacted in Kansas, it may not apply in this case. It seems like a bit of a technicality, and I assume a lot of the victims' families are upset about that.

FREED: Well, I think that people at this point have had a few months to digest that, Miles. And you're right bout that. It is because of the date that the death penalty was put into effect here in Kansas, why none of these crimes will qualify for the death penalty.

But one thing that the D.A. tried to address today, the 1991 count of first degree murder does qualify for what's called a hard 40 year sentence with no parole, and that motion was entered today. Ultimately, will be up to the jury to decide that. But at least the D.A. is pushing that far.

M. O'BRIEN: All right, and hard 40 in this case certainly would be life. Jonathan, thank you very much -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: So how many wars are too many? When it comes to the U.S. military, the matter of capabilities above and beyond current obligations depends on whom you ask. This is President Bush at last week's prime-time news conference.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: ... I asked to at least, is to the chairman of the joint chiefs. My top military adviser. I said, "Do you feel that we've limited our capacity to deal with other problems because of our troop levels in Iraq?" And the answer is no. He doesn't feel we're limited.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: But in a new report to Congress, that very same chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, General Richard Myers, says just the opposite. A senior official tells CNN that Myers warns that other conflicts, should they arise, would likely last longer and cost more U.S. casualties because of all the resources tied up in Iraq and Afghanistan.

CNN's Kathleen Koch has more now from the Pentagon -- Kathleen.

KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, some are calling this a sober assessment. Others are saying it's simply the U.S. military acknowledging the obvious, that you can't do everything and do it equally well.

This classified report from General Richard Myers, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, went up to Capitol Hill, to Congress, yesterday. And a senior Pentagon official tells CNN that, because of the continuing U.S. deployments in both Iraq and Afghanistan, the report concludes that other armed conflicts would basically be messier, more difficult. They would last longer and produce higher casualties.

The report, however, does still find that the U.S. would still have the ability to win another military face-off. But you wouldn't see the swift build-up that occurred just before the Iraq war. Official saying, quote, "It would be harder to sprint that fast."

Now Pentagon spokesman Brian Whitman remained upbeat about the report's findings, saying, quote, "What is certain is the U.S. military remains capable of executing every mission it is assigned."

The report does cite some particularly stressed areas. They include stockpiles of precision weapon, the availability of prepositioned -- prepositioned equipment necessary for battle, such as vehicles and supplies, and then manpower, specifically, reserve units, which are right now providing much of the combat support in Iraq.

And there's also concern that active duty numbers could become stressed, as well. The Army announcing that for the third month in a row, Kyra, it has failed to meet its recruiting goals.

Back to you.

PHILLIPS: Kathleen, do you know anything about this seized letter, possibly addressed to Osama bin Laden's No. 1, al-Zarqawi, in Iraq?

KATHLEEN: It was last week, Kyra, April 28, on Thursday, that the U.S. military says during a raid, that U.S. soldiers found a letter from an insurgent leader that the Pentagon believes was bound for Jordanian-born terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. The note refers to low morale and weakening support for the insurgency, sort of a laundry list of complaints.

Pentagon officials, when I asked them about this, they really refused to characterize the letter, saying simply it is what it is. Though spokesman Brian Whitman did add, quote, "It does reflect a certain amount of proof that Zarqawi's influence and effectiveness is deteriorating" -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right, Kathleen Koch, live from the Pentagon, thanks.

M. O'BRIEN: Just in to us here at the CNN newsroom, about 200 people evacuated from a U.S. immigration building in Garden City, New York. New York's Long Island is the location.

We have some pictures which just got fed to us from our affiliate, News 12 Long Island just a little while ago. And there you see hazardous material response team there.

Apparently, what was discovered was some sort of white powder in an envelope in the mailroom. North Shore University Hospital, Nassau County Police have responded to the call. They're meticulously going through and analyzing this powder for, as they put it, testing for everything.

Of course, the concern here would be the possibility of anthrax, hearkening back to those attacks in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, those anthrax attacks.

Just to recap, Garden City, New York, is the location, Long Island, about 200 people, employees at a U.S. immigration office, evacuated from the facility there after white powder discovered in an envelope in the mailroom. Testing is ongoing. We're watching it for you.

Now, bring lot of I.D. to the DMV if the U.S. Congress green lights a measure that critics believe takes too much license with civil liberties and state responsibilities.

It requires the state to require applicants for driver's licenses to bring extensive documentation to prove they're U.S. citizens or are in the U.S. legally. It's on the congressional fast-track, though opponents in both parties have called the measure unworkably rigid.

Right now, the system is a patchwork of regs and requirements. And CNN's Jeanne Meserve reports many feel that's not working either.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHNSON: And you can see somebody's been in to that plastic and it's taped over. That's not a legit consular card. That's been handwritten.

This picture's been replaced. No stamp whatsoever on this passport. Printed off of a computer. No, not the real deal.

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Fake and altered documents, all used to try to obtain North Carolina's driver's licenses, often successfully.

JOHNSON: That is the key to the kingdom. That will also be the key that will bring the kingdom down if we don't do something.

MESERVE: Alamance County, North Carolina, Sheriff Terry Johnson has been fighting crime for 30 years. He says a license, once issued, gives a legitimate identity to a criminal or worse.

JOHNSON: You can get an airplane ticket, and they'll be able to get on an airplane, show them the driver's license. They could even get a pilot's license like some of those individuals in 9/11 did, crashed into our Twin Towers.

MESERVE: In the past year, at this one small North Carolina motor vehicle office, Johnson and deputies have caught more than 125 people trying to use fraudulent documents to get licenses.

(on camera) Now, do you believe that any of these people have come to this DMV and gotten a license, are terrorists?

JOHNSON: I don't know. And that's the problem.

MESERVE (voice-over): Johnson says people come from as far away as New York to exploit North Carolina's licensing procedures. We watched one man present a Mexican passport as identification.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is expired. OK? It's 2004. And you have no -- no visa, no INS Stamp. I've got to have something that's -- it can go -- along with this that I can check it off and use. This is mandatory. But I've got to have something else. Do you have a utility bill or anything like that?

MESERVE: The sheriff checks his identification and finds it is authentic. Though the man admits to being in the United States illegally, North Carolina had already given him one license.

JOHNSON: Have you ever had a driver's license?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My driver's license is suspended.

JOHNSON: Suspended?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

JOHNSON: A North Carolina driver's license?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

JOHNSON: And why are they suspended? UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I had one DUI.

JOHNSON: One DUI. But yet you drove here anyway.

MESERVE: The stringency of licensing requirements varies. Though 40 states require a driver's license applicant to prove he is in the country legally, North Carolina does not. To establish identity and North Carolina residency, the Department of Motor Vehicles accepts some documents that have been rejected by other states as unreliable and some that are easily forged or falsified.

The DMV says it is tightening up with new technology and anti- fraud training for employees.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We feel like we are on the right road to providing a very secure system in North Carolina in the issuance of driver's license.

MESERVE: Sheriff Johnson hasn't seen the impact yet.

JOHNSON: We arrested one guy, had six different North Carolina driver's licenses in six different names. That tells you how easy it is.

MESERVE: Johnson believes homeland security is only as strong as its weakest link, and as he sees it, one of the weak links is right here in North Carolina.

JOHNSON: The government has got to open its eyes.

MESERVE: Jeanne Meserve, CNN, Alamance County, North Carolina.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

M. O'BRIEN: CNN is committed to providing the most reliable coverage of news that affects your security. Stay tuned to CNN for the latest information day and night.

PHILLIPS: Getting word now of a tornado warning in Florida. Jacqui Jeras in with more from Broward County. What do we know, Jacqui?

(WEATHER REPORT)

PHILLIPS: Jacqui Jeras, thanks so much. We'll continue to check in with you -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Happened again, this time to us. The parent company of CNN, information about hundreds of thousands of people is out there, could fall into the wrong hands. Little bit worried about that here.

What could you do to protect yourself against identity theft? Got some tips.

And check this one out, our video of the day. A quick-thinking surfer manages to hang 10 while ducking danger. Wow. Whoa. Holy cow.

And a firefighter injured on the job, enable to communicate for nearly 10 years. Now he's talking. We'll find out what he's saying a little later on LIVE FROM.

ANNOUNCER: You're watching LIVE FROM on CNN, the most trusted name in news.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: It is still unclear whether the bride who got cold feet will have to pay back all the cold, hard cash expended searching for her. Authorities in Georgia still considering pressing charges against 32-year-old Jennifer Wilbanks.

Despite everything, the wedding still appears to be on. Wilbanks' would have been father-in-law talked to CNN's Soledad O'Brien today about how the couple is holding up and what's in store for them.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CO-HOST, "AMERICAN MORNING": There are reports that Jennifer may have bought a ticket on the Greyhound bus a week in advance of the wedding. Any indications in your mind that, in fact, well before the wedding, she was having some serious second thoughts?

CLAUDE MASON, JOHN MASON'S FATHER: No, I haven't really thought about it that much. I just have gotten all those details recently myself, so I can't assess it one way or the other as to what was in her mind. I can only hope -- can only guess that she might have thought about it, whether she actually was going to be able to go through with it or not at the time she bought the ticket, may have been different.

S. O'BRIEN: There are reports this is not the first engagement, in fact, that she's bolted on. Is that correct, that she's been engaged before?

MASON: I do not know that. I heard -- I heard a little bit that she may have been, but I don't know for sure.

S. O'BRIEN: Is the wedding still on, right now as it stands?

MASON: According to John, it is. As far as a date, that's not been determined yet. But he's committed to her and, as it stands now, he -- he thinks there will be a wedding.

S. O'BRIEN: Has she apologized, not only to your son but to you and your family, as well?

MASON: We have not spoken with Jennifer since her return.

S. O'BRIEN: The D.A. says that she has not apologized to him. In fact, here's how he describes her: self-centered, self-absorbed no sense of what she put people through. Why would your son want to marry a girl who clearly does not want to be married to him, or at least at that time did not?

MASON: I don't know whether it was a fact that she did not want to be married to him. I think it was just all of -- the rush of the moment, so to speak, got to her, as far as -- is what I can tell from this point in my discussions with John. I don't think it's a matter of her not wanting to marry him. I think it was just all the -- all the stuff leading up to it, just got to her.

S. O'BRIEN: In fact in an interview, your son talked a little bit about some of the problems that Jennifer's been having leading up to the wedding date. Can you be more specific? What kind of issues is he talking about that she may have had?

MASON: I'm not real sure what he's referring to. I just know Jennifer was a perfectionist. She wanted everything to be just right. And as far as I know, everything was moving in that direction.

S. O'BRIEN: The D.A., as you well know, is considering charging her. He says that she needs to face some kind of consequences. Do you agree with that, that she has to face some kind of consequences, maybe -- maybe jail time, maybe financial consequences, for what she pulled off?

MASON: Mr. Porter is just doing the job he was elected to do. I don't have any problems with that. As far as what her punishment should be, I haven't really thought that one through. I don't -- I definitely do not think there should be any jail time. There's no question in my mind about that.

S. O'BRIEN: Are you looking forward to her joining your family as a future daughter-in-law?

MASON: I was looking very much forward to it, before this all happened. And if John it still in love with her and still wants to marry her, I would welcome her into the family.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Other news across America now, this jewelry thief, giving new meaning to the phrase smash and grab. Police in Durham, North Carolina, say a man backed a stolen pickup truck right up to the jewelry counter at a Costco store, grabbed the loot and took off. Police have yet to catch him.

And speaking of catches, take a look at this, Seattle's Ichiro Suzuki made an incredible catch during a home game last night. Wow. He climbed the right-field fence to catch a fly ball hit by Los Angeles Angels' Garrett Anderson. The Mariners lost the game, but the catch earned Ichiro a standing ovation.

New York City is getting a new ditty. The Big Apple plans to unveil a new song tomorrow as part of a P.R. blitz intended to boost tourism. The song is entitled "New York, For the Time of Your Life."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) PHILLIPS (voice-over): Next on LIVE FROM, courageous comeback. A former firefighter, brain damaged in a roof collapse, speaks his first words in almost 10 years.

Later on LIVE FROM...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm probably the first guy to change his foot, you know, in combat.

PHILLIPS: ... an amputee's unique challenges serving his country in Iraq.

Tomorrow on LIVE FROM, "American Idol" chatter, trash talk about the talent, accusations about one of the judges, and a network news expose. Will the show survive?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: A box carrying some computer tape with all kinds of personal information about me and about 600,000 others on the payroll of Time Warner missing today. Who knows what mischief that might lead to.

Joining us with details, a fellow victim and CNN technical correspondent Daniel Sieberg.

DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We're right in the middle of all this.

M. O'BRIEN: We should be paying attention to charges on our credit card, I think?

SIEBERG: Absolutely. Beyond other things, too. I mean, this is something that is really becoming a recurring theme. And you do wonder if it's happening more or if we're hearing about it more. We're talking about identity theft.

In this case, the computer backup tapes that Miles mentioned were lost during a shipment on March 22 to a storage facility called Iron Mountain. They work with Time Warner. But we're just hearing about it this week.

This latest incident involves, as Miles pointed out, about 600,000, current and former employees from Time Warner companies, not Time Warner customers. The data includes names, Social Security numbers, addresses and more on employee and dependents dating back to about 1986.

So what do these tapes look like? We're talking about tapes and boxes of tapes. Here's an example of what theses tapes might look like. Each of the tapes you see on these shelves contain thousands of records on people, which is very tempting for identity thieves. It allows them to create a profile of somebody else and steal your information. Time Warner and other companies often have been so many employee records that they need to be stored off site, and during the shipment is when the security breach may have happened.

The company Iron Mountain is saying it's likely human error. They have actually fired the driver of that truck. However, a thief would at least need a way to read the tapes you can see here to get the information off them.

Time Warner has notified its employees, like us, and issued a response, saying it started a web site and toll free numbers you can see there to keep employees in the loop. Inside the U.S., the number is 800-435-2285. They've also alerted the big three credit bureaus, and employees will get about a year's worth of free credit monitoring on their report.

So, you know, something we all have to pay attention to. It does hit home.

M. O'BRIEN: I should say. Now just -- you say you have to be able to read the tape.

SIEBERG: Right.

M. O'BRIEN: Without giving away anything, how much expertise is required to read these tapes?

SIEBERG: A fairly high level of expertise. But not just expertise, but the right type of equipment to read the tapes, to read the data. It's not as simple as seeing a printout and reading the names off them or sort of holding it up to the light. So we're talking about a little bit of sophistication.

M. O'BRIEN: But there are people out there with that expertise, so we need to be on guard.

SIEBERG: Exactly.

M. O'BRIEN: What should we all be doing about this kind of thing?

SIEBERG: Right. This is for Time Warner employees and everybody else who might need to protect themselves. There are all kind of tips we can give you for what you need to do.

First of all, check your bank and credit card statement. That's something you need to do on a regular basis anyway.

Request a credit report. That's something you want to do just to check to see if there's any sort of irregular activity or strange things going on.

Call Equifax, Experion, and TransUnion. Those are the big three. Get this fraud alert. They basically monitor your credit to see if there's anything strange going on. You can also subscribe to these credit monitoring services. Some of them do cost about $10 a month. Others, as you can see there, are free.

But this is not the first time, obviously, that this has happened. Miles, it doesn't seem like -- just a few weeks ago that you and I were talking about other cases where this has happened.

M. O'BRIEN: There are a bunch of them. All right. This one hits close to home. Thank you, Daniel Sieberg.

SIEBERG: All right.

O'BRIEN: Wait until you hear this, folks. CNN's parent company, Time Warner, declined our request for an on-camera interview on the missing employee data. Come on, guys, talk to us -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: We'll have the exclusive, I'm sure.

O'BRIEN: Yes.

PHILLIPS: We'll take a quick check of the big board as we head to break. Right now, Dow Jones -- Dow Jones Industrials up by a smidge.

We're going to take a quick break. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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