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Community Shocked by London Terror Suspects; Chief Justice Released from Hospital; Investigation Reveals Police Bullet Killed Baby; Ambassador Wilson Speaks Out on Rove Controversy

Aired July 14, 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: Now in the news, Discovery remains grounded. NASA says just minutes ago engineers are troubleshooting -- are in troubleshooting mode, rather, trying to figure out what went wrong. The launch was aborted yesterday after a fuel sensor failed to work. Officials now say it's possible that Discovery could lift off on Sunday but that appears pretty unlikely.
Suicide bombers strike twice in Baghdad, killing one person, injuring five others, two of them police officers. According to police, a third potential bomber is among the wounded. The attacks took place at a checkpoint of the heavily fortified Green Zone.

An appeals court in Aruba rules that 17 Joran Van Der Sloot must remain in custody in the Natalee Holloway case. The court also ruled that there was not enough evidence to detain two brothers who had been released. Prosecutors had appealed for them to be rearrested. Holloway disappeared May 30 while on a graduation trip.

The shock has worn off, more or less, and life more or less has gone on, one week after four British nationals apparently killed dozens of their countrymen and themselves on three London subway trains and a bus. Police know more than they did yesterday but less, much less, than they want to know.

In particular, they want to know where this man, suspected bomber Hasib Hussain, went between his arrival in London at King's Cross Station and the boarding of the Number 30 bus, which blew up in Tavistock Square.

They also want to know whether any other potential suspects were with him.

Most everything investigators have learned so far has taken them 200 miles from the bomb sites to heavily Muslim Leeds in west Yorkshire. CNN's Nic Robertson is there.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): On the front page of Britain's "Daily Mirror" newspaper, pictures of the men suspected in last week's bombings. In "The Independent" newspaper, a very young Hasib Hussain, suspected of blowing up the bus in last week's attack.

Eighteen-year-old Hasib Hussain's house is being shrouded in plastic sheeting, his life, in particular the days before the bombing, still a mystery the police are trying to uncover.

PETER CLARKE, SCOTLAND YARD ANTI-TERRORIST BRANCH: Some of his property was found on the Route 30 bus in Tavistock Square.

ROBERTSON: At the family house of Shahzad Tanweer, another of the four bombing suspects, just a few streets away, forensic experts are sifting through his life. Neighbors saw a computer taken away.

But no one, least of all his uncle, saw this day coming.

BASHIR AHMED, TANWEER'S UNCLE: What drove him to it, who pushed him to it, I don't know. I wish I could find out.

ROBERTSON (on camera): And that's what his neighbors are saying. How could this young man, a young man they saw on their streets every day, have been one of the bombers? Everyone in this mixed community is struggling with shock, searching for answers.

IRSHAD HUSSEIN, SUSPECT'S FRIEND: I think I've seen him in the first year (ph).

ROBERTSON: When he was a student? (ph)

HUSSEIN: Yes, yes, yes.

ROBERTSON (voice-over): Irshad Hussein knew Shahzad Tanweer's father, knew Shahzad well.

Shahzad was born in Britain in 1982, had a younger brother and two sisters, liked to play cricket and soccer. In fact, he was so good at soccer, at school he played three years above his age group. And some friends said he could have played professionally.

HUSSEIN: He worked very hard to bring his children up properly. And like I said, his father is a law-abiding citizen.

ROBERTSON: Shahzad worked here at his father's fast food store, and attended but dropped out of Leeds University. His father took him to Pakistan last year. Pakistani authorities are investigating what he did while there.

AHMED: That's the end of this year. That's the end of his life, by the look at it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you see any change in him when he came back?

AHMED: No.

ROBERTSON: The third suspect, Mohammed Sidique Khan, seen getting married in this picture in "The Mirror" newspaper. The caption reads, "He was a schoolteacher."

He was older than the other suspects and had an 8-month-old baby. He lived here, about 10 miles, 15 kilometers, from Shahzad, in a more upscale and Muslim neighborhood. But facts remain scarce. Police are only now questioning neighbors and have yet to say how the four men first met, how well they knew each other, how they stayed in contact and built their bombs.

The fourth suspected bomber has not been named. When he is, it will likely shock his friends as much as it has Shahzad's.

(on camera) But the hunt is not stopping here. Police raided a house outside of London overnight. The target, perhaps a fifth person who many here believe was the mastermind behind the attacks.

Nic Robertson, CNN, Leeds.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: And at noon today, one week after London's deadliest day since World War II, the city stood still.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(BELL RINGING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Similar observances took place all across Europe, as well as New York, D.C., Bali and Indonesia. A tribute later in Trafalgar Square included condolence books of for mourners, many of whom knew the victims or narrowly avoided being killed or hurt themselves.

Back here Chief Justice William Rehnquist was released today from a hospital outside Washington. There was no specifics on Rehnquist's condition and still no word when if he'll retire, creating a second vacancy on the Supreme Court.

More now from Washington, Joe Johns -- Joe.

JOE JOHNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, it was a stay at the hospital which accounted for fewer than 48 hours, the chief justice of the United States showing up there Tuesday night complaining of a fever. We're told now back at his house in Virginia.

No word, of course, from the chief justice. No word, also, from his office. The court confirming he's at home. We haven't seen him outside his house over the last few minutes, at least since he got there.

Now, this has, of course, created a lot of speculation in Washington, as you know. Speculation about the future of Chief Justice William Rehnquist. Will he retire? Will he stay on the court? These are questions, of course, that simply have not been answered as yet.

What we do know, of course, is that the chief justice has, in fact, been to the hospital before, once before, this year to have a breathing tube readjusted in his throat. Of course, he suffers from thyroid cancer, but continues to work here at the court. And also, as we said yesterday, it was just the fact that he did not show up here for work that tipped us off to the fact that something else might had been going on.

Again, Chief Justice Rehnquist back at his home in Virginia and waiting for more word from the court. But we don't necessarily expect that today.

Back to you, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right, Joe, thank you.

And whether Rehnquist stays on the bench or retires, President Bush will soon face a decision that President Clinton made twice, whom to nominate for a lifetime position on the highest court in the land. In an interview you'll see only on CNN, Clinton reflected on his successor's situation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL CLINTON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You want it pick someone who is quite a bit more conservative than I would pick, because he's the most conservative president we've had since the 1920s.

But I would say pick someone who's broadminded and can think and can -- and has a heart, as well as a mind, because you can never predict what decisions the Supreme Court's going to have to face. And if you get too political, you're liable to be disappointed anyway, because the issues you think should dominate your selection might not be the issue that dominates the court's calendar within three years, much less five, 10 or 20 years.

So I would urge him to just think about somebody he would have been proud to have appointed 10 or 15 years from now. That's what I tried to do. And I went through this twice.

There are always lots of good qualified people, and the people that are your political opponent opponents will politicize anybody you appoint anyway. So you need to stay out of that. And besides, I think he ought to do something that, you know, when he goes to the bed the night after he announces it, he'll be really -- he'll sleep well. He'll feel good.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Los Angeles police officers dealing with some pretty tough emotions today. It was a bullet from an LAPD officer's rifle that took the life of a toddler held by her father as a shield during a gunfight with police. That shooting has traumatized officers and relatives of the victims, some of whom may never recover.

CNN's Peter Viles has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) PETER VILES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Susie Lopez was not yet 2 when she died in a hail of gunfire in this small corner of her father's office. Now, the coroner says the very same police who were trying to save her fired the fatal shot.

CHIEF WILLIAM BRATTON, LOS ANGELES POLICE: It is with great regret as it relates to the death of this young child that it appears our officers, while engaged in their lawful duties, may have, in fact, taken her life.

VILES: Authorities tell CNN the girl was killed by a single bullet to the head, fired from a police rifle.

Police say, ultimately, Susie's father, Raul Pena, is to blame. He's the one who held her hostage inside his garage, used her as a shield, police say, threatened to kill her, fired 40 rounds from a 9mm handgun at police and even shot at his other daughter, a teenager, when she escaped.

After nearly three hours, SWAT officers decided to storm the garage to save the little girl, but in a shootout, they killed both the father and the toddler.

ASST. CHIEF GEORGE GASCON, LOS ANGELES POLICE: We have SWAT officers that are having tremendous emotional problems that they are going through therapy. We have some people that we don't know whether they'll be able to come back, to be honest with you, because of the emotional distress.

VILES: The little girl's family has been critical of police tactics.

LUIS CARRILLO, LOPEZ FAMILY ATTORNEY: That is the real tragedy here. A little angel, an innocent baby, a good baby was killed by police bullets.

VILES: L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, on the job less than two weeks now, is appealing for patience.

But the emotional impact of this episode is already being felt by members of the LAPD. This is the first time in nearly 40 years and nearly 4,000 hostage standoffs that an LAPD SWAT team has ever shot and killed a hostage.

Peter Viles for CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Joe Wilson talking to reporters right now. We want to take it. He's talking about, of course, among other things, the fact that his wife, Valerie Plame, working as a CIA agent, her name leaked to the press. It's the ongoing Karl Rove controversy that we've been covering.

Let's listen in and see what he has to say. JOE WILSON, FORMER AMBASSADOR: And I've said this repeatedly, that the smear campaign launched from the west wing of the White House is just ethically unsupportable. Thank you. And thank you, Senator Schumer.

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D), NEW YORK: Questions?

OK, thank you very much.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE)

WILSON: I have -- (UNINTELLIGIBLE) smear. I don't have any specific information other than what has been reported to me from people who have followed this far more closely than I have, and those names I've put in my book.

But, specifically, what I have heard was the meetings were held in March of 2003, which was three months before I wrote an opinion piece in the White House, and those meetings consisted of or led to a decision to do a, quote, "work up on Wilson." A work up is an intelligence operation to find out everything that you can about Wilson and his family, and I'm told that at least one of the participants in that meeting was -- was Scooter Libby.

Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) The actions of Karl Rove could well be a crime.

SCHUMER: It could. We don't know.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If we don't know why -- why should his security claims be left?

SCHUMER: Because the standard for staying in office is not simply you don't commit criminal law, and the standard for having security clearance is not simply that you don't commit criminal law. It's a much higher standard.

And I think Karl Rove has violated that standard simply by doing what is reported and telling a reporter that Karl Rove -- that Joe Wilson's wife was a member of the CIA.

Now, does that mean that we can prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the intent in his head was to leak? No, I'd say it's likely. That's not probable cause. So it doesn't meet the criminal standard. But again, the standard for keeping -- for gaining and keeping security clearance is a lot different than the standard for criminal prosecution.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Could address some of the questions about your own credibility? The Republicans are saying that you changed your story. Originally, the vice -- you said the vice president had sent you on this mission. That turned out to not be true. Do you address those questions, not just but about your wife but about yourself? WILSON: Well, let me begin by saying that I regret what the RNC has been putting out, because in actual fact, this is not a partisan issue. This is a national security issue. And for the RNC to try and turn this into a partisan fight, I think is unfortunate. I also think that it's ultimately not going to be successful.

I will tell you this: I would urge you to go back and read the record. And you can go back and you can begin with my opinion piece of July 6th of 2003. You can also read the text of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence report. The letters, the additional views that were addressed by senators Roberts, Hatch and Bond, as well as my own rebuttal to that letter, which was dated July 15th of 2004.

You can also take a look at some of the things that have been said by some of my friends at the RNC and, as they say, you can run the tape. And indeed, your organization has some tapes that would clarify very quickly who was telling the truth and who wasn't.

But again, this is not a fight between Joe Wilson and the Republican Party. This is a question of whether the national security of our country was violated.

And, certainly, the CIA felt that a crime, a possible crime had been committed and, as a consequence, referred the matter to the Justice Department for investigation. The attorney general, after accusing himself, appointed a special counsel to look into it, and that special counsel has been working diligently for two years.

It has not been easy for him, despite the fact that the president instructed all of his employees to cooperate fully with the Justice Department investigation. Despite that fact, the issues related to who the sources were had to be litigated up to the Supreme Court, had to put one of your colleagues through sheer agony and put another one languishing in jail for eight days, and that part of it has still not been resolved.

SCHUMER: I just want to say one thing.

PHILLIPS: Former Ambassador Joe Wilson and side by side there with Senator Chuck Schumer. Sticking to what he has said in the past, believing that this whole controversy surrounding Karl Rove, the president's closest advisor, is a smear campaign, from his perspective, because of what he knew about pre-war intelligence.

Of course, Karl Rove coming forward, saying he didn't do anything wrong. He did talk to a "TIME" magazine reporter, but he didn't leak the name of a CIA covert operative.

So we're continuing to follow this story. Everybody coming forward and talking about their side to this controversy.

However, still not hearing from President Bush. He's deflected questions. He did it again yesterday in a press conference, that -- saying it's just too soon to pass judgment and that he has instructed every member of his staff to fully cooperate with the investigation that's going on to if a crime was even committed. We're on the story. We're going to take a quick break. We'll be right back.

ANNOUNCER: You're watching LIVE FROM on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Hurricane Emily is building fast. In just the past few hours its winds speed have topped 115 miles per hour, transforming it into a Category 2 hurricane and nearing the threshold for a level three. In the next 48 hours, Emily could become even more powerful. Let's get to our meteorologist, Jill Brown, for the latest -- Jill.

JILL BROWN, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Hello, Kyra.

Yes, we've seen the pressure dropping on this hurricane throughout the day. Plenty of open water, warm water. That's the fuel for tropical systems, and this one expected to gain some strength.

Our next update from the hurricane center comes at 5 p.m. Will it be Category 3 at that time? It's definitely possible; it is on the verge.

You can see, as we move in a little bit closer, you can now see the eye of the hurricane. It doesn't look that impressive on satellite, but -- and it moves away from these islands, so some of the heavier rain over the windward (ph) island should be diminishing or over at this point.

We do have tropical storm warnings all the way down through Aruba, but it is expected to stay over open water for the next couple of days, come close to the island of Jamaica with stronger winds, 125, a major hurricane at this point forecast for Saturday morning. Over towards Cozumel (ph) and Cancun, it looks like late Sunday into early Monday.

And then back out over the Gulf waters. It should weaken as it goes over the Yucatan Peninsula. It will get a chance to strengthen again. Right now the forecast takes it into Mexico.

Will it ever make landfall in the U.S.? Well, not with this forecast, but so many days out into the future, obviously, there's a pretty large margin of error in here. And we'll just have to watch it pretty closely.

So this is not a major hurricane yet, but again, it's getting close.

This is the forecast for the season from Dr. Gray. And we're getting there, Kyra, very early in the season. More to come on Hurricane Emily.

PHILLIPS: All right, Jill, thank you.

We're going to take a quick break. We'll be right back. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: This week in history, July 10, 1991, Boris Yeltsin took office as he became the Russian republic's first ever democratically elected president. Yeltsin went on to serve eight years.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've lost power.

ANNOUNCER: Hurricane Bertha slammed into the North Carolina coast near Wilmington, leaving damages estimated at $270 million. The hurricane made landfall as a Category 2 storm.

And in 1999, John F. Kennedy, Jr., along with his wife and her sister, were killed in a plane crash off Martha's Vineyard.

And that is this week in history.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: He was a pioneer of the American civil rights movement, but you'll know Arthur Fletcher best by the phrase that he coined: "A mind is a terrible thing to waste."

Arthur Fletcher has died of natural causes at his Washington home. He was a passionate speaker and an advocate for affirmative action, heading the U.S. Civil Rights Mission -- Civil Rights Commission, rather.

He organized his first protest against racial discrimination while in junior high, protesting the fact that black students' photos were put at the back of the yearbook.

He advised presidents Nixon, Ford, Reagan and the first President Bush, and he broke the color barrier for the Baltimore Colts, becoming the first African-American to play for the team.

Arthur Fletcher, pioneer and passionate advocate, dead at the age of 80.

That wraps up this Thursday edition of LIVE FROM. Now John King with a preview of what's ahead on "INSIDE POLITICS."

Hi, John.

JOHN KING, HOST, "INSIDE POLITICS": Hello to you, Kyra, and have a great day.

PHILLIPS: Thank you.

KING: And to you. See you later.

The Democrats continue to press on, loudly, but President Bush stands by his man. I'll have the latest twists and turns in the battle over Karl Rove.

Plus, Mr. Bush gets some Supreme Court advice from his predecessor. We'll tell you what Bill Clinton had to say about that high court vacancy.

All this and much, much more when I go "INSIDE POLITICS" in two minutes.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Now in the news, London falls silent to honor the victims of the terror bombings. The moment also observed across much of Europe. Police now say at least 53 people died in the suicide attacks, and they've now named two of the suspected bombers. Meanwhile, in the town of Leeds, police erect barricades and evacuate residents in a search for more clues.

As the Shuttle Discovery sits idle, troubleshooters huddle at the Kennedy Space Center to figure out what to do next. It's theoretically possible the launch could come Sunday if that faulty fuel sensor is corrected, but a NASA spokesperson said that today that's very optimistic. The current launch window closes July 31. If the shuttle isn't ready to go by then, the next window opens up in September.

A would-be sniper thwarted. Vermont police say they arrested a man after a tip from his mom. The mother of 41-year-old Christopher Greene called New Jersey police, reporting that her son had threatened to shoot people from bridges on Interstate 91. New Jersey police then contacted their Vermont counterparts, who found and arrested Greene in Brattleboro.

Now, stay tuned, John King and "INSIDE POLITICS."

END

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