Return to Transcripts main page
Live From...
Two Children Sought After Mother, Son Found Murdered; British Official Under Fire Over Oil-for-Food; Extremists Prevented from Attacking Jerusalem Holy Site; Cuban Accused of Plane Explosion Arrested in U.S.
Aired May 17, 2005 - 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, HOST: At this hour, an amber alert remains in effect across the state of Idaho. A small-town police in -- as small- town, rather, in the north of the state continue to work a multiple homicide scene. Reporter Kirk Hawkins has the latest for us. He's from our CNN affiliates KXLY.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's going to be long and tedious, and a lot of waiting for us, and just a very tedious time for investigators.
KIRK HAWKINS, KXLY REPORTER (voice-over): Authorities began what they call a challenging investigation outside this home near Coeur D'Alene. It all comes after a neighbor called 911 on Monday night about suspicious circumstances around the home.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Deputies responded. They found the bodies in the residence, backed off, sealed it off, called investigations in. That's where we're at today.
HAWKINS: Three bodies were found inside. Kootenai County sheriff's deputies say one of the bodies has not been identified. A mother and son are the other two people deputies believe they found.
Deputies say two children, eight-year-old Shasta Groene, and nine-year-old Dillon Groene are related to them and have been missing since they didn't show up on school on Monday.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We don't. That's the problem. We don't know where the children were. They should have been at the house.
HAWKINS: Now authorities have issued an Amber Alert in an effort to track down the children.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Children are children. They're going to have to stop, get out, use rest rooms. And if somebody's got them, traveling with them, we hope someone sees these children and recognizes them.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Again, Kirk Hawkins with our affiliate KXLY.
Well, Amber Alerts are going high-tech. The wireless industry announced today that the look out for missing children is expanding all the way to your cell phones. In a service free of charge, cellular users now will be able to scan for potential Amber Alerts by entering zip codes. Also, subscribers can receive notification of alerts in their state or metropolitan area.
The State Department is telling American embassies to spread the word that the United States respects all religious faiths. It's an effort to undo the damage from a "Newsweek" magazine article alleging that U.S. desecration of the Quran. Newsweek retracted that report yesterday, after the U.S. government criticized its use of an anonymous source.
Deadly riots broke out in Kabul, Afghanistan in response to that article. It claimed that interrogators flushed the Quran down a toilet at the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DANIEL KLAIDMAN, "NEWSWEEK" WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF: Precisely because it was a sensitive story, we ran it by and provided it to a Pentagon -- a Department of Defense official.
You know, if -- obviously if we'd known what kind of fallout there would have been in terms of the violence in Pakistan, that's something that, in some ways, was unknowable, and we feel terrible about the role that we played in sparking the violence.
There were a lot of different forces, and it's hard to know exactly what caused the violence. There are underlying issues there, including a lot of pent-up and not so pent-up rage against the United States for its policies.
But clearly, as we continue to report the news, we are going to be as sensitive as we possibly can to the power of our words, which have consequences.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Last year, former British prisoners claimed that U.S. guards at Gitmo threw their Qurans into the toilet.
Well, a massive demonstration in Havana today. Hundreds of thousands of Cubans took to the streets at the urging of President Fidel Castro. They're demanding the U.S. arrest of Luis Posada Carriles in Miami, Florida. He's accused of blowing up a Cuban airliner in 1976. Some call him a freedom fighter. Others call him a terrorist.
The Cuban exile has been in hiding since he entered the U.S. last month. Posada was seeking asylum, but the uproar has changed his mind.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LUIS POSADA CARRILES, CUBAN EXILE (through translator): I have lived for 30 years in the clandestine world. If my petition for asylum causes the United States problems, I will withdraw it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: One senior State Department official admits that Posada is a bad guy but newly declassified documents show that he was also a former CIA operative.
Checking other news around the world now.
Comments, misinterpreted. That's the word from aides to Mexican President Vicente Fox. In a speech Friday, he praised the work ethic of Mexicans in the United States, adding that they take jobs, quote, "not even blacks want to do." He has since apologized for any hurt feelings or offense to African-Americans.
Terri Schiavo's family is visiting the Vatican. Schiavo's mother thanked the Catholic hierarchy for supporting her unsuccessful legal battle to keep their brain-damaged daughter alive. The family plans to attend Pope Benedict's audience tomorrow.
In Washington, former South African president, Nelson Mandela, says democracy in Africa must be home grown, not imposed. Mandela has opposed the U.S.-led war in Iraq, but he played down differences at the U.S. before meeting with President Bush at the White House.
Making huge waves on Capitol Hill. A British politician went before American lawmakers today to deny accusations that he secretly profited from the U.N. oil-for-food program.
British lawmaker George Galloway told a Senate subcommittee, he never made a penny on the sale of Iraqi oil. Committee chairman, Republican Norm Coleman, later said that Galloway was not a credible witness.
After the hearing, our senior U.N. Correspondent Richard Roth sat down with Galloway for this interview.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RICHARD ROTH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: George Galloway, minister of parliament in Britain who testified today at that Senate subcommittee.
You were a little shy.
GEORGE GALLOWAY, MINISTER OF PARLIAMENT, GREAT BRITAIN: Well, this was a clash of the British parliamentary tradition with the rather more sedate senatorial one. And it's up to you who won. Most of the traffic I'm getting in my ear is that -- is that the British parliamentary tradition won.
ROTH: What do you think your appearance accomplished for a committee which has accused you of oil-for-food corruption?
GALLOWAY: Well, frankly, I wasn't here to melt the hearts of the two members of the committee that turned up for the hearing. I was speaking beyond these walls to the watching television audience at home. And I came not as the accused, but as the accuser.
So I don't suppose I did much beyond embarrassing the Senator Coleman with the absurd thinness of what he had to put on the table. But I hope that I reached a broader public, with my broader case, against the war, against the sanctions, and against the mother of all smoke screens, which is what this Senate committee on investigations is engaged in.
ROTH: Now they say they talked to a senior Iraqi official, I believe, yesterday, saying that indeed you were on the take?
GALLOWAY: Yes, although they wouldn't say who the official was, whether the official's in Abu Ghraib prison, like the rest of the prisoners of the United States, or whether he's received some inducement or other. We don't know, because they won't name him.
And I think the era of secret evidence -- now that we know what we know about the secret evidence that led us into the war on Iraq -- is over. The public don't want to know about secret evidence that leaders can know that other people don't know.
The bottom line is this: if I had ever bought or sold a drop of Iraqi oil, you'd know about it. The man what gave me the money would be in front of this camera now. He'd have been in front of that Senate now. There would have been evidence.
"Show me the money," I challenged the Senate chairman. And he can't show me the money because no money ever, ever reached my hands. Our campaign against sanctions and war was funded by the king of the United Arab Emirates, the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, two of the most important friends in the Middle East of the United States.
ROTH: Are you -- are you worried about Paul Volcker's investigation, which is U.N.-approved? You praised Kofi Annan today and the U.N. effort to stop the war. But what of -- that report is also looking at businesses for journalists, companies.
GALLOWAY: Sure. Now I have nothing to fear from that because I have never done any business with Iraq, none at all. Not so much as a drop of oil, not so much as a loaf of bread, not so much as a piece of cake. I've never bought or sold anything to or from Iraq.
I did what I did for Iraq for the reasons I've been doing what I've been doing all my political life: because I believe in it.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Once again that's our Richard Roth that was able to get that interview.
Well, straight ahead, one of the world's most sacred spots, a prime target for terrorists. Ahead on LIVE FROM, uncovering a disturbing plot at Jerusalem's Temple Mount.
And the world's largest retailer makes some changes to please its Amish customers. We're hitching up our wagon, later on LIVE FROM. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Israeli police are questioning several men in connection to the possible attack on a site holy to both Muslims and Jews. The Temple Mount, known as Noble Sanctuary to Muslims, is one of the most contentious spots in the world.
CNN's Guy Raz has the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GUY RAZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Jerusalem -- Jerusalemites likes to joke forecast next world war, if it comes, will start right here. As the third holiest for Muslims. But jokes are sometimes tinged with truth. Brought it an uncomfortable level recently after Jerusalem police uncovered a plot by Jewish extremists to attack the site.
(on camera) The men allegedly planned to acquire an anti-tank missile, haul it up it a Jerusalem rooftop like this, and then launch it toward the mosque. Once police arrived on the scene, the plotters would then lob grenades in one final act of suicide.
Israeli security officials believe plots like these are just the tip of the iceberg. Protecting the site from religious extremists has become a top priority.
In a statement, police said they are particularly sensitive about this issue and determined to uncover any intention to harm the Temple Mount. They will act strongly and aggressively to prevent any such intention.
To Muslims around the world, the site is known as the Noble Sanctuary, home to two important Islamic shrines. Tensions high in the area these days with regular standoffs between police and religious demonstrators.
(on camera) If somebody was able to do any kind of attack here, what would you imagine might happen?
ADNAN HUSSEINI, DIRECTOR, ISLAMIC TRUST: I imagine that it is a disaster. And I wish that we should not see this day. And the Israeli governor should understand that it will hold the maximum responsibility.
RAZ: Israeli intelligence officials believe a small ban of Jewish extremists seeks to attack the site to fulfill a dream of rebuilding the ancient Jewish temple, remnants of which lie underneath the Islamic Dome of the Rock.
Yehuda Glick, who runs a museum that depicts life during the ancient temple period, says religious prophecy suggests the temple will one day be rebuilt. But he condemns any attempts to attack the site.
YEHUDA GLICK, DIRECTOR, TEMPLE INSTITUTE: Anybody who wants to use the holy temple for a -- for a means of political or for a means of religious even for religious reasons, he's missing the whole thing.
RAZ: Missing, he says, the goal of maintaining peace in the area. But either way, Israeli security officials are worried enough about the threats to make securing the site their top priority.
Guy Raz, CNN, Jerusalem.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Well, a fast food chain may change to its famous fries. Serving that one up on LIVE FROM, straight ahead.
And a new Wal-Mart features hitching posts and spots to park your wagon. That story right after the break.
(WEATHER REPORT)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Well, a new Wal-Mart opens this week in a traditionally Amish area, and the discount store held an open house for the Amish yesterday in Middlefield, Ohio. It's about 30 miles east of Cleveland.
While this Wal-mart offers the usual array of clothes, snacks and gadgets, well, it is also catering to this local clientele. Store shelves feature Amish-friendly fabrics and non-electric appliances, and yes, there's a hitching post and designated buggy parking area.
Well, McDonald's may be making good on a three-year-old promise to make its french fries healthier. Susan Lisovicz has the skinny, live from the New York Stock Exchange.
But, Susan, will they still taste so good?
(STOCK REPORT)
PHILLIPS: Susan Lisovicz, thank you very much.
This just into CNN. Of course, it's the story that we've been following all throughout the day. You've seen the pictures live from Havana, Cuba, with all of demonstrators in the square. And of course, it's been over the Cuban exile, Luis Posada Carriles, that we've been telling you about, legendary for his attempts to kill leader Fidel Castro.
He had come out on camera and said that he may withdraw his request for political asylum in the United States because of all of the furor surrounding his presence in Miami.
Now, Posada, who's been in hiding since he was smuggled into the U.S. via Mexico, says that his goal is a free Cuba and he has denied that he is a terrorist. Fidel Castro has claimed over and over again that he is a terrorist, that he is -- he was behind the Cuban airliner that was blown up back in 1976. You remember that attack killed 73 people. Well, Posada was never convicted, but he was jailed for nine years. However, Posada has adamantly denied being involved in that attack. And he said today, he is not a terrorist.
Now, we're getting word from our Susan Candiotti, who actually had a chance to interview Posada today, that he has been picked up by the Department of Homeland Security.
What all do we know, Susan?
SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Not much more than that, Kyra, except to say that apparently he was picked up not long after we did our initial live report with you at about 1:15 or so this afternoon.
Not long after that, we received word through two sources, one of them a law enforcement source, one of them a longtime friend and ally of Posada Carriles, that in fact, he was picked up by and taken into custody by the Department of Homeland Security.
The precise details of why he was picked up or whether he has technically charged with anything. We are still waiting to hear the details on that.
However, we can tell you that shortly after the news conference ended, Luis Posada Carriles' handlers indicated to us that he already, in fact, made his decision to withdraw his petition for asylum, political asylum in the United States and was preparing to leave the country.
Now the question is, whether he in fact did that on his own. The question is whether someone might have whispered into his ear that perhaps it would be better for him to leave on his own or whether, as he indicates, he would make this decision solely by himself.
And as he said at his press conference, if he left, it would be because he didn't want to draw undo attention to himself or bring trouble, more trouble than perhaps he already had, some might argue, to the United States. Because of the efforts to extradite him back to Venezuela, where he was acquitted. Yet there are still court proceedings going on as to whether he had any role in the downing by explosion of an Air Cabana airliner back in 1976, killing 73 people -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Susan, just for the viewers just tuning in, refresh their minds, a little bit of background on Posada. Former CIA operative. Also somebody that -- well, I'll let you answer the question, about the Bush administration and how it feels about this man.
CANDIOTTI: Well, it's been hard to get a reading from the Bush administration. They have been actually mum on what has transpired since he came into the country recently.
Posada Carriles did work for the CIA back in the '60s, was involved in the planning of the Bay of Pigs, for example. And then set up on his own, by his own account, as sort of a one-man band effort to fly to take down Fidel Castro to rid Cuba of its president. And he has made that his lifelong dream and ambition.
He has worked for the secret Contra supply network in the 1980s. He has been involved in other efforts to try to remove Castro from power. In fact, he was, as we said, arrested and brought to trial back in 1976, some years after that brought to trial for a role, which he denies, in bringing down that air Cabana airliner, that killed 73 people.
And then he also denying having any role after -- then claiming he did have a role, in some bombings at some tourist hotels in Havana in the year 2000. Again, he claimed to have played a role but then later took it back.
In the year 2000, he was convicted for an assassination plot in Panama, a plot to take down, to kill Cuba's president during a visit to Panama, but later received a presidential pardon in Panama.
And again, he illegally entered the United States very recently, by his own account. And so it's been a question as to why U.S. authorities have not picked him up. They said they didn't know where he was and that there was no warrant out for him.
But now we learn from Department of Homeland Security that, in fact, he, a suspected terrorist, has been taken into custody. Does this have anything to do with the efforts by the Venezuelan government to extradite him to that country? We don't know yet.
PHILLIPS: OK. Susan Candiotti, working the story for us all day. Sure appreciate it. Great job, Susan, thank you so much. We'll continue to follow up on what happens to Posada, as he has now been picked up by the Department of Homeland Security.
All right, to Judy Woodruff now for a preview of "INSIDE POLITICS."
JUDY WOODRUFF, HOST, "INSIDE POLITICS": Hi, Kyra, thanks very much.
Today on "INSIDE POLITICS," we're going to look at whether an 11th-hour compromise over the president's judicial nominees is feasible.
Also today, harsh words for Congress from a member of the British Parliament. We'll look at what his angry comments were about.
Plus, the race is on in Los Angeles. Our west coast expert, Bill Schneider, is live in L.A., as voters there go to the polls to elect their next mayor.
"INSIDE POLITICS" begins in just a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
END 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 May 17, 2005 - 15:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, HOST: At this hour, an amber alert remains in effect across the state of Idaho. A small-town police in -- as small- town, rather, in the north of the state continue to work a multiple homicide scene. Reporter Kirk Hawkins has the latest for us. He's from our CNN affiliates KXLY.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's going to be long and tedious, and a lot of waiting for us, and just a very tedious time for investigators.
KIRK HAWKINS, KXLY REPORTER (voice-over): Authorities began what they call a challenging investigation outside this home near Coeur D'Alene. It all comes after a neighbor called 911 on Monday night about suspicious circumstances around the home.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Deputies responded. They found the bodies in the residence, backed off, sealed it off, called investigations in. That's where we're at today.
HAWKINS: Three bodies were found inside. Kootenai County sheriff's deputies say one of the bodies has not been identified. A mother and son are the other two people deputies believe they found.
Deputies say two children, eight-year-old Shasta Groene, and nine-year-old Dillon Groene are related to them and have been missing since they didn't show up on school on Monday.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We don't. That's the problem. We don't know where the children were. They should have been at the house.
HAWKINS: Now authorities have issued an Amber Alert in an effort to track down the children.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Children are children. They're going to have to stop, get out, use rest rooms. And if somebody's got them, traveling with them, we hope someone sees these children and recognizes them.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Again, Kirk Hawkins with our affiliate KXLY.
Well, Amber Alerts are going high-tech. The wireless industry announced today that the look out for missing children is expanding all the way to your cell phones. In a service free of charge, cellular users now will be able to scan for potential Amber Alerts by entering zip codes. Also, subscribers can receive notification of alerts in their state or metropolitan area.
The State Department is telling American embassies to spread the word that the United States respects all religious faiths. It's an effort to undo the damage from a "Newsweek" magazine article alleging that U.S. desecration of the Quran. Newsweek retracted that report yesterday, after the U.S. government criticized its use of an anonymous source.
Deadly riots broke out in Kabul, Afghanistan in response to that article. It claimed that interrogators flushed the Quran down a toilet at the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DANIEL KLAIDMAN, "NEWSWEEK" WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF: Precisely because it was a sensitive story, we ran it by and provided it to a Pentagon -- a Department of Defense official.
You know, if -- obviously if we'd known what kind of fallout there would have been in terms of the violence in Pakistan, that's something that, in some ways, was unknowable, and we feel terrible about the role that we played in sparking the violence.
There were a lot of different forces, and it's hard to know exactly what caused the violence. There are underlying issues there, including a lot of pent-up and not so pent-up rage against the United States for its policies.
But clearly, as we continue to report the news, we are going to be as sensitive as we possibly can to the power of our words, which have consequences.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Last year, former British prisoners claimed that U.S. guards at Gitmo threw their Qurans into the toilet.
Well, a massive demonstration in Havana today. Hundreds of thousands of Cubans took to the streets at the urging of President Fidel Castro. They're demanding the U.S. arrest of Luis Posada Carriles in Miami, Florida. He's accused of blowing up a Cuban airliner in 1976. Some call him a freedom fighter. Others call him a terrorist.
The Cuban exile has been in hiding since he entered the U.S. last month. Posada was seeking asylum, but the uproar has changed his mind.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LUIS POSADA CARRILES, CUBAN EXILE (through translator): I have lived for 30 years in the clandestine world. If my petition for asylum causes the United States problems, I will withdraw it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: One senior State Department official admits that Posada is a bad guy but newly declassified documents show that he was also a former CIA operative.
Checking other news around the world now.
Comments, misinterpreted. That's the word from aides to Mexican President Vicente Fox. In a speech Friday, he praised the work ethic of Mexicans in the United States, adding that they take jobs, quote, "not even blacks want to do." He has since apologized for any hurt feelings or offense to African-Americans.
Terri Schiavo's family is visiting the Vatican. Schiavo's mother thanked the Catholic hierarchy for supporting her unsuccessful legal battle to keep their brain-damaged daughter alive. The family plans to attend Pope Benedict's audience tomorrow.
In Washington, former South African president, Nelson Mandela, says democracy in Africa must be home grown, not imposed. Mandela has opposed the U.S.-led war in Iraq, but he played down differences at the U.S. before meeting with President Bush at the White House.
Making huge waves on Capitol Hill. A British politician went before American lawmakers today to deny accusations that he secretly profited from the U.N. oil-for-food program.
British lawmaker George Galloway told a Senate subcommittee, he never made a penny on the sale of Iraqi oil. Committee chairman, Republican Norm Coleman, later said that Galloway was not a credible witness.
After the hearing, our senior U.N. Correspondent Richard Roth sat down with Galloway for this interview.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RICHARD ROTH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: George Galloway, minister of parliament in Britain who testified today at that Senate subcommittee.
You were a little shy.
GEORGE GALLOWAY, MINISTER OF PARLIAMENT, GREAT BRITAIN: Well, this was a clash of the British parliamentary tradition with the rather more sedate senatorial one. And it's up to you who won. Most of the traffic I'm getting in my ear is that -- is that the British parliamentary tradition won.
ROTH: What do you think your appearance accomplished for a committee which has accused you of oil-for-food corruption?
GALLOWAY: Well, frankly, I wasn't here to melt the hearts of the two members of the committee that turned up for the hearing. I was speaking beyond these walls to the watching television audience at home. And I came not as the accused, but as the accuser.
So I don't suppose I did much beyond embarrassing the Senator Coleman with the absurd thinness of what he had to put on the table. But I hope that I reached a broader public, with my broader case, against the war, against the sanctions, and against the mother of all smoke screens, which is what this Senate committee on investigations is engaged in.
ROTH: Now they say they talked to a senior Iraqi official, I believe, yesterday, saying that indeed you were on the take?
GALLOWAY: Yes, although they wouldn't say who the official was, whether the official's in Abu Ghraib prison, like the rest of the prisoners of the United States, or whether he's received some inducement or other. We don't know, because they won't name him.
And I think the era of secret evidence -- now that we know what we know about the secret evidence that led us into the war on Iraq -- is over. The public don't want to know about secret evidence that leaders can know that other people don't know.
The bottom line is this: if I had ever bought or sold a drop of Iraqi oil, you'd know about it. The man what gave me the money would be in front of this camera now. He'd have been in front of that Senate now. There would have been evidence.
"Show me the money," I challenged the Senate chairman. And he can't show me the money because no money ever, ever reached my hands. Our campaign against sanctions and war was funded by the king of the United Arab Emirates, the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, two of the most important friends in the Middle East of the United States.
ROTH: Are you -- are you worried about Paul Volcker's investigation, which is U.N.-approved? You praised Kofi Annan today and the U.N. effort to stop the war. But what of -- that report is also looking at businesses for journalists, companies.
GALLOWAY: Sure. Now I have nothing to fear from that because I have never done any business with Iraq, none at all. Not so much as a drop of oil, not so much as a loaf of bread, not so much as a piece of cake. I've never bought or sold anything to or from Iraq.
I did what I did for Iraq for the reasons I've been doing what I've been doing all my political life: because I believe in it.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Once again that's our Richard Roth that was able to get that interview.
Well, straight ahead, one of the world's most sacred spots, a prime target for terrorists. Ahead on LIVE FROM, uncovering a disturbing plot at Jerusalem's Temple Mount.
And the world's largest retailer makes some changes to please its Amish customers. We're hitching up our wagon, later on LIVE FROM. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Israeli police are questioning several men in connection to the possible attack on a site holy to both Muslims and Jews. The Temple Mount, known as Noble Sanctuary to Muslims, is one of the most contentious spots in the world.
CNN's Guy Raz has the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GUY RAZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Jerusalem -- Jerusalemites likes to joke forecast next world war, if it comes, will start right here. As the third holiest for Muslims. But jokes are sometimes tinged with truth. Brought it an uncomfortable level recently after Jerusalem police uncovered a plot by Jewish extremists to attack the site.
(on camera) The men allegedly planned to acquire an anti-tank missile, haul it up it a Jerusalem rooftop like this, and then launch it toward the mosque. Once police arrived on the scene, the plotters would then lob grenades in one final act of suicide.
Israeli security officials believe plots like these are just the tip of the iceberg. Protecting the site from religious extremists has become a top priority.
In a statement, police said they are particularly sensitive about this issue and determined to uncover any intention to harm the Temple Mount. They will act strongly and aggressively to prevent any such intention.
To Muslims around the world, the site is known as the Noble Sanctuary, home to two important Islamic shrines. Tensions high in the area these days with regular standoffs between police and religious demonstrators.
(on camera) If somebody was able to do any kind of attack here, what would you imagine might happen?
ADNAN HUSSEINI, DIRECTOR, ISLAMIC TRUST: I imagine that it is a disaster. And I wish that we should not see this day. And the Israeli governor should understand that it will hold the maximum responsibility.
RAZ: Israeli intelligence officials believe a small ban of Jewish extremists seeks to attack the site to fulfill a dream of rebuilding the ancient Jewish temple, remnants of which lie underneath the Islamic Dome of the Rock.
Yehuda Glick, who runs a museum that depicts life during the ancient temple period, says religious prophecy suggests the temple will one day be rebuilt. But he condemns any attempts to attack the site.
YEHUDA GLICK, DIRECTOR, TEMPLE INSTITUTE: Anybody who wants to use the holy temple for a -- for a means of political or for a means of religious even for religious reasons, he's missing the whole thing.
RAZ: Missing, he says, the goal of maintaining peace in the area. But either way, Israeli security officials are worried enough about the threats to make securing the site their top priority.
Guy Raz, CNN, Jerusalem.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Well, a fast food chain may change to its famous fries. Serving that one up on LIVE FROM, straight ahead.
And a new Wal-Mart features hitching posts and spots to park your wagon. That story right after the break.
(WEATHER REPORT)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Well, a new Wal-Mart opens this week in a traditionally Amish area, and the discount store held an open house for the Amish yesterday in Middlefield, Ohio. It's about 30 miles east of Cleveland.
While this Wal-mart offers the usual array of clothes, snacks and gadgets, well, it is also catering to this local clientele. Store shelves feature Amish-friendly fabrics and non-electric appliances, and yes, there's a hitching post and designated buggy parking area.
Well, McDonald's may be making good on a three-year-old promise to make its french fries healthier. Susan Lisovicz has the skinny, live from the New York Stock Exchange.
But, Susan, will they still taste so good?
(STOCK REPORT)
PHILLIPS: Susan Lisovicz, thank you very much.
This just into CNN. Of course, it's the story that we've been following all throughout the day. You've seen the pictures live from Havana, Cuba, with all of demonstrators in the square. And of course, it's been over the Cuban exile, Luis Posada Carriles, that we've been telling you about, legendary for his attempts to kill leader Fidel Castro.
He had come out on camera and said that he may withdraw his request for political asylum in the United States because of all of the furor surrounding his presence in Miami.
Now, Posada, who's been in hiding since he was smuggled into the U.S. via Mexico, says that his goal is a free Cuba and he has denied that he is a terrorist. Fidel Castro has claimed over and over again that he is a terrorist, that he is -- he was behind the Cuban airliner that was blown up back in 1976. You remember that attack killed 73 people. Well, Posada was never convicted, but he was jailed for nine years. However, Posada has adamantly denied being involved in that attack. And he said today, he is not a terrorist.
Now, we're getting word from our Susan Candiotti, who actually had a chance to interview Posada today, that he has been picked up by the Department of Homeland Security.
What all do we know, Susan?
SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Not much more than that, Kyra, except to say that apparently he was picked up not long after we did our initial live report with you at about 1:15 or so this afternoon.
Not long after that, we received word through two sources, one of them a law enforcement source, one of them a longtime friend and ally of Posada Carriles, that in fact, he was picked up by and taken into custody by the Department of Homeland Security.
The precise details of why he was picked up or whether he has technically charged with anything. We are still waiting to hear the details on that.
However, we can tell you that shortly after the news conference ended, Luis Posada Carriles' handlers indicated to us that he already, in fact, made his decision to withdraw his petition for asylum, political asylum in the United States and was preparing to leave the country.
Now the question is, whether he in fact did that on his own. The question is whether someone might have whispered into his ear that perhaps it would be better for him to leave on his own or whether, as he indicates, he would make this decision solely by himself.
And as he said at his press conference, if he left, it would be because he didn't want to draw undo attention to himself or bring trouble, more trouble than perhaps he already had, some might argue, to the United States. Because of the efforts to extradite him back to Venezuela, where he was acquitted. Yet there are still court proceedings going on as to whether he had any role in the downing by explosion of an Air Cabana airliner back in 1976, killing 73 people -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Susan, just for the viewers just tuning in, refresh their minds, a little bit of background on Posada. Former CIA operative. Also somebody that -- well, I'll let you answer the question, about the Bush administration and how it feels about this man.
CANDIOTTI: Well, it's been hard to get a reading from the Bush administration. They have been actually mum on what has transpired since he came into the country recently.
Posada Carriles did work for the CIA back in the '60s, was involved in the planning of the Bay of Pigs, for example. And then set up on his own, by his own account, as sort of a one-man band effort to fly to take down Fidel Castro to rid Cuba of its president. And he has made that his lifelong dream and ambition.
He has worked for the secret Contra supply network in the 1980s. He has been involved in other efforts to try to remove Castro from power. In fact, he was, as we said, arrested and brought to trial back in 1976, some years after that brought to trial for a role, which he denies, in bringing down that air Cabana airliner, that killed 73 people.
And then he also denying having any role after -- then claiming he did have a role, in some bombings at some tourist hotels in Havana in the year 2000. Again, he claimed to have played a role but then later took it back.
In the year 2000, he was convicted for an assassination plot in Panama, a plot to take down, to kill Cuba's president during a visit to Panama, but later received a presidential pardon in Panama.
And again, he illegally entered the United States very recently, by his own account. And so it's been a question as to why U.S. authorities have not picked him up. They said they didn't know where he was and that there was no warrant out for him.
But now we learn from Department of Homeland Security that, in fact, he, a suspected terrorist, has been taken into custody. Does this have anything to do with the efforts by the Venezuelan government to extradite him to that country? We don't know yet.
PHILLIPS: OK. Susan Candiotti, working the story for us all day. Sure appreciate it. Great job, Susan, thank you so much. We'll continue to follow up on what happens to Posada, as he has now been picked up by the Department of Homeland Security.
All right, to Judy Woodruff now for a preview of "INSIDE POLITICS."
JUDY WOODRUFF, HOST, "INSIDE POLITICS": Hi, Kyra, thanks very much.
Today on "INSIDE POLITICS," we're going to look at whether an 11th-hour compromise over the president's judicial nominees is feasible.
Also today, harsh words for Congress from a member of the British Parliament. We'll look at what his angry comments were about.
Plus, the race is on in Los Angeles. Our west coast expert, Bill Schneider, is live in L.A., as voters there go to the polls to elect their next mayor.
"INSIDE POLITICS" begins in just a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
END TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
