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London Bombing Survivor Sisters Speak Out; The Motivations of Homegrown Terrorists; Lance Armstrong's Journey

Aired July 22, 2005 - 14:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: "Now in the News."
What were you thinking? That's what the judge said when he sentenced two America West pilots convicted of operating an aircraft while drunk. Pilot Thomas Cloyd got five years in prison, and co- pilot Christopher Hughes was ordered to serve two-and-half years behind bars.

Discovery's astronauts arrived at the Kennedy Space Center earlier today, aboard several training jets. NASA says it will try to launch the shuttle on Tuesday. Crews are still trying to fix a glitch in the shuttles' external fuel tank sensor that scrubbed last week's lift-off.

President Bush is in Atlanta, pushing his Social Security reform plan. In a noon-time speech, Mr. Bush said that the people of Great Britain should understand how strongly America stands with them right now. He said he's certain, quote, "Britons won't be intimidated by thugs and assassins."

I'm Kyra Phillips, live in Washington, D.C. LIVE FROM continues right now with a recap of the latest events in London.

British police arrest a man in Stockwell in South London linked to yesterday's attempted bombings. Authorities continue search a house in that same area in connection with that arrest. Earlier, police released these pictures of four men that they're looking for in connection with yesterday's attempted attacks. The pictures were obtained from police surveillance tapes. They come from four different places, corresponding to the four sites of the attempted attacked.

A man was shot dead by police as he tried to enter a train at Stockwell subway station. London Metropolitan Police Commissioner Ian Blair gave details at a news conference.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COMMISSIONER IAN BLAIR, METROPOLITAN POLICE: As part of the operations linked to yesterday's incidents, Metropolitan Police have shot a man inside Stockwell Underground Station. That happened at approximately 10:00 this morning. Both London Ambulance Service and the air ambulance attended, and the man was pronounced dead at the scene.

(END VIDEO CLIP) PHILLIPS: Tennessee sisters injured in the July 7th London bombings are talking about their harrowing ordeal now. Emily and Katie Benton are being released today from Duke University Medical Center. They were riding in one of the subway cars ripped apart by the terrorist's bombs. Amazingly, they say that they don't hold any hatred for their attackers.

Here's CNN's Carol Costello.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How does it feel to be going home?

KATIE BENTON, SURVIVED LONDON ATTACKS: Oh, my gosh. I can't wait to get home.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Home for Katie Benton and her sister Emily is Knoxville, Tennessee, a world away from London, where they were injured two weeks ago in the London terror attacks. Now being treated at Duke University Medical Center in North Carolina, they were stunned to hear about more chaos in London on Thursday.

EMILY BENTON, SURVIVED LONDON ATTACKS: I guess I just kind of shocked, you know, that it happened again this soon after. And it was just sad to see. You notice everyone in a state of panic, once again.

K. BENTON: Lightning did strike twice. But I just -- yes, I really do feel like, please, please give London a break. Just let them get back to life as normal.

COSTELLO: On July 7th, the 20 and 21-year-old sisters were sightseeing in London and were just ten feet away from the bomb that exploded in the Edgware Road tube station attack.

E. BENTON: We were only on the train for just half a minute. It wasn't -- we had just sat down. The train had just taken off. We didn't have time to look around at what other people looked like or who was on there or anything. And then the explosions went off.

I felt like I went into, like, the fetal position and just, like, crouched down and I felt like I was being electrocuted. And I felt like I was on fire and I was burning. I could feel my skin like, peeling off. Everything had just been, you know, ripped. The windows had been blown out. You know, the chairs, some of the chairs, the seats had been, you know -- come off. And there were poles and debris everywhere.

K. BENTON: There was a wide range of injury level. The person next to me who had been seated close to me was lying on the floor and they were dead. And then there was another man that was like completely piled in rubble. And then there were Emily and I that kind of had, like, the middle of the range -- like, I guess we were on the lesser side of the more seriously injured. But then there were people that had, like, a cut on their forehead.

E. BENTON: Yes.

K. BENTON: So, I mean, there was a huge range of injuries on the car. And I think that's because it was a fairly small bomb.

COSTELLO: The sisters know they're lucky to be alive, but they say they're not angry at their attackers.

K. BENTON: I found out on the train that it was a bombing. I did not know whether -- I did not know it was a suicide bombing. I just knew it was a bombing. And honestly, my heart just broke for the bombers and the bombers' families. And I actually sat there and prayed for them. Just that -- it's just so horrendous. And for anybody to be so mislead to think that that could possibly be positive. Like, that's just -- it just saddens me so much, for their sake.

E. BENTON: It's so sad, you know, that that many people have been injured for just something that, you know, was meaningless. Nothing was accomplished by that.

COSTELLO: Now, after treatment, first in London, and then North Carolina, these sister survivors are eager to move on with their lives.

K. BENTON: Emotionally, physically, doing surprisingly well for the situation.

E. BENTON: I feel great. And emotionally, I feel great. I'm so excited to be going home. I can't wait.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Well, here's a chilling quote for you, and I read it. "If four men take explosives and rock the whole of Britain, imagine what more could do?" Believe it or not, those are actual words that were written in an article that I was reading, reported by "The Christian Science Monitor" and reporter James Brandon in the wake of July 7th.

We now have James Brandon joining us live from London. He actually combed London's streets and found a new generation of homegrown jihadists, and wrote another article, "The Sidewalk Where Terror Breeds."

James, I read your article. It was amazing, the quotes that you got from some of these youth or these young folks in London. What do you think shocked you the most after talking to these young Muslims?

JAMES BRANDON, "CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR": I think the thing that really shocked me was that there was no kind of anger, in a way. There was no passion. In the Middle East, you get used to people talking about taking action, you know, grabbing a gun and shooting people. And it's all spoken in the heat of the moment. It doesn't really mean anything.

The really shocking thing about this, I thought, was how calm they were. They were kind of rationally weighing up whether or not they should go on to a bus, grab kind of a bag full of explosives and go and blow up innocent people.

They were discussing, for instance, how their families would cope if they blew themselves up. The scariest thing was they were kind of -- they were rationally considering whether or not to commit murder on a grand scale, I suppose. That was the scariest thing.

PHILLIPS: I pulled out two quotes here from your article. One, one of the man says, "When reality hits you, you come back to Islam. If you read the Koran, you see Allah gave us the right to terrorize the enemy."

Here's another quote. "'Some of the people tell you Islam is a religion of peace because they think that then you'll want to convert,' says Dublin-born covert Khalid Kelly. 'But you cannot possibly say Islam is a religion of peace; jihad is not an internal struggle."

Who -- I mean, you read these quotes, James, and you wonder, who is distorting the Koran? Who's teaching them this?

BRANDON: Well, that's -- this is kind of exactly the point. No one's teaching them this. These are some young guys. They picked up a copy of the Koran, in English even. They don't speak Arabic, the language of the Koran. And they read it, they picked out a few quotes, and they're taking them out of context. And they're not turning to religious scholars or people who have studied this for years to help them understand how to interpret the Koran.

They're finding a passage which says we must resist, say the (INAUDIBLE), however we can, we must kill them, this kind of stuff. And they're basically creating their own interpretation of Islam. They're deciding, you know, radical, radical views, which the mainstream majority of Muslims would find utterly, utterly repugnant.

PHILLIPS: So James, I was reading that a lot of these kids you talk to are battling drugs and alcohol. And they found a connection by becoming an Islamic jihadist. Is that what you see the majority of these kids, that they're struggling with that and they're just turning to this for a sense of connection?

BRANDON: Well, yes, this is it. Between -- we spoke to about five people whose live story very closely mirrors that of the Leeds bombers, the bombers from Leeds of the other week. And what they've done is -- basically, they've tried to become part of the West. They've tried really hard to take on the kind of values of Britain. And they've gone too far. They got into drugs, they got into crime. And as a kind of reaction to the West, to Western values, which they see as drugs and crime and so on, they have gone completely in the opposite direction.

They have gone to Islam, and they've gone to the hardest, strongest branch of Islam. And in doing so, they've basically developed a hatred of Western society and people living in Western societies, which they desperately, desperately, desperately, want to lash out at. It's very much a kind of emotional reaction as much as a kind of reasoned political one, if you want.

PHILLIPS: So you didn't get a sense that these are passionately religious or spiritual people in any way?

BRANDON: No, I mean, that was the other thing. They were using Islam basically as a means to express basically their discontentment with life, with their place in society. These -- the bombers from Leeds, for instance, who blew up buses and tubes two weeks ago and killed 56 people, they were really people who had failed at school. They really, you know, hadn't made many friends.

And this was a way to kind of connect into a global struggle, a struggle they could see going on in Kashmir, Palestine and Iraq. And they wanted to be part of this. By killing themselves and killing other people, it gave them a sense of purpose, a sense of being part of something greater. And they wanted to get their names in the history books, to be remembered. And in that, at least, I think they have succeeded.

PHILLIPS: James, you got -- you were kidnapped, actually, in Basra. When this happened, there was some -- a lot of attention paid to it. I haven't had a chance to talk to you about in-depth. Will you share with us that experience and tell us what happened?

BRANDON: Well, I was basically -- briefly, I was down in Basra reporting for a day. I had spent a year in Iraq reporting for various newspapers. I went to Basra and got kidnapped. I was held hostage for a day. And the interesting thing about that experience was -- I mean, if you want to link it to the London bombings, was this -- you felt this same intense hatred. Not against American decisions as regards Iraq or Afghanistan or Israel, which a lot of Muslims really feel, but instead, there was just a kind of blind, unreasoning hatred, just a hatred against you and against everything you stood for. And again, this kind of emotional desire just to destroy and kill, essentially.

PHILLIPS: Here you were -- and of course we've seen a lot of videotape like this, James. And, unfortunately, many individuals that have been on that type videotape and help by insurgents have not survived. You did. As a journalist, I'm just curious if you had a chance to talk to your hostage takers, in any way different than, say, an intelligence officer or somebody in the military. Were you able to reach them in any way or somehow develop a connection with them? I mean, obviously, you're with us and you're alive.

BRANDON: Yes, that wasn't thanks to me really connecting with them. Of course, when you're in the situation, you realize your life, your entire kind of destiny, is in the hands of five kind of maniacs with guns. That's how they felt. And you try to make a connection with them, to get on their good side, to, you know, try and make them laugh, smile, show you're human, talk about your family, this kind of stuff.

But ultimately, I was released not because of this, but because their commanded, their leader, Maktada Sada (ph), the head of the Shia kind of militia they were part of, decided he didn't want to be associated with kind of kidnapping and killing journalists. And so he ordered my release. I was released in that way, rather than because I made any connection with the kidnappers.

PHILLIPS: I ask so many military generals and intelligence types and interrogators, how do you diffuse the anger? There you were, being held captive. You've talked to these kids on the streets of London. You've had some incredible first-hand experience with these individuals. Do you get a sense that there's a way to diffuse the anger?

BRANDON: Well, this kind of goes back to my belief that they're not angry because of Western and American and British policies in Afghanistan or Iraq. There's something deeper, some great kind of resentment. In particular, they -- these people, they're in touch with the West all the time. They watch Western films, Western music. They watch Western music videos. And this is, in a way, part of the problem.

They see this tremendous wealth, this opportunity in the West, which they desperately, desperately want to be a part of. But instead, they're stuck in, you know, Basra. They have no jobs. The electricity doesn't work, the water doesn't run. And there's kind of this huge emotional hatred. They feel they've been denied their rightful kind of place in life, if you want. And that's the question. How do you tackle this? It's not policy decisions. It's something far, far deeper.

PHILLIPS: James Brandon with "The Christian Science Monitor." I enjoy your work. Thank you so much for spending time with me today.

BRANDON: Thank you.

PHILLIPS: Well, earlier this week, CNN aired a photograph of a man that Pakistani intelligence and immigration officials had confirmed was one of suspected London bombers, Hasib Hussain. Well, we obtained that photograph, which has been broadcast on Pakistani television, from our CNN affiliate in Pakistan and from Reuter's News Agency. We have now information the passport photo may be of another man also named Hasib Hussain who is not a suspect and is not in any way connected to the bombings. CNN truly regrets this error.

Straight ahead, Lance Armstrong's inspirational story is about to become even more amazing. The cyclist and cancer survivor, just days away from setting a new Tour de France record. We're going to take a look back at his miraculous recovery, coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: And still ahead, an Oscar-winning director takes on "Vanity Fair" and wins. We're going to tell you what it's going to cost the magazine.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: You're watching LIVE FROM. Live from Washington, D.C. today. But we're going to take you to see Lance Armstrong now, cycling today the 19th stage of the Tour de France. Only two more stages until the sprint to the finish in Paris on Sunday. Armstrong has won the last six races, and has built a commanding lead in this one. Armstong plans to retire after this race. So far, he says, it's gone smoother than expected.

Seven Tour de France titles in seven years. That's what Lance Armstrong is on the brink of accomplishing this weekend. But sustained success can sometimes be taken for granted, and as each victory goes by, it becomes easy to forget what Armstong had to endure to get to where he is now.

CNN Sports' Mark McKay takes a look back.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARK MCKAY, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Before all the Tour de France titles, before the eight-figure income, and before superstardom, there was cancer.

LANCE ARMSTRONG, 6-time TOURE DE FRANCE CHAMPION: On Thursday, October the 3rd, I underwent surgery at St. David's Hospital here in Austin to have the malignant testicle removed, and the surgery was successful. A CATscan was also performed the same day. The CATscan revealed that my condition has spread into my abdomen.

MCKAY: In October of 1996, Lance Armstrong announced to the world that he had cancer. It would move into his lung and his brain. He was given a 50/50 chance to live. The fight to beat the disease was harder than he would ever imagined.

ARMSTRONG: I would chose ten Tour de Frances and climb any mountain or any -- whatever. It doesn't compare to cancer, to the anguish, the depression, to the confusion, to the torture of 12 weeks of chemotherapy.

MCKAY: In 1998, less than two years after his diagnosis, Armstrong was back on a bike competing. In 1999, his streak of Tour de France victories began. His comeback from cancer and rise to cycling immortality has inspired millions.

JOE MANTENGA, ACTOR: You couldn't write a storybook better than what the life this guy has lived. It would have been phenomenal, even without the, you know, medical problems that this guy's gone through in his life. So you add that to it, just goes that sometimes fact is more incredible than fiction.

JAMES DENTON, ACTOR: It's just awesome. And, you know, I don't use that word very often. But it really does -- it just makes your mouth hang open and just -- it's really unbelievable.

MCKAY: Armstrong took his story and turned it into a bracelet with a motto: "Live strong." The sale of the bracelets has raised more than $38 million for the Lance Armstrong Foundation, which helps fund cancer research and support programs.

DANIEL COYLE, AUTHOR, "LANCE ARMSTRONG'S WAR": Cancer went from something you whispered about to being something cool, in a way. I mean, fighting cancer is fighting death. And he made that very plain in his life. And he's made that very plain in his commitment to the cancer cause.

MCKAY: It's a cause that Armstrong plans to champion to an even greater extent, when his pro-cycling career comes to an end this weekend in Paris.

Mark McKay, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Straight ahead, from Washington lessons learned from the sounds of science. We're going to let you hear how last year's earthquake sounded just before it spawned south Asia's deadly tsumani. Plus, find out how it one day help protect coastal communities from tsunamis in the future.

SIBILA VARGAS, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT: And I'm Sibila Vargas in Hollywood. Roman Polanski, Michael Jackson and Cameron Diaz, I have got the latest on some of the biggest legal cases facing of Hollywood's A-list when LIVE FROM returns.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: In entertainment news, film director Roman Polanski scores a legal victory against "Vanity Fair" magazine. With more on that story and other celebrity court cases making headlines, CNN entertainment correspondent Sibila Vargas in Los Angeles. Hi Sibila.

VARGAS: Hey, Kyra.

That's right, for those keeping score, it's Roman Polanski one, "Vanity Fair," zero. The Oscar winning director has won his libel suit against the popular magazine. The battle was over an article that accused the filmmaker of propositioning a woman while on the way to the funeral of his murdered wife Sharon Tate.

It alleged that Polanski put his hand on the woman's thigh and promised her, quote, "I will make another Sharon Tate out of you."

"Vanity Fair" maintains the article was mostly true, but did admit the incident actually happened about two weeks after the funeral. The courts have ordered publishers to pay $87,000 in damages.

And making some legal progress of his own is pop star Michael Jackson. A judge has ordered prosecutors to return hundreds of the singers personal items. The items including books, computers and adult magazines were gathered as evidence during Jackson's recent child molestation case which he was acquitted of last month. Evidence that was actually introduced in court will also be returned to Jackson after the news media had been given time to review them.

And having a little less luck in court is Grammy winner Ashanti. The singer has been ordered to pay a former producer more than $500,000 for breach of contract.

Producer Gernard Parker says he agreed to release the singer from a contract when she was 16 to sign with a major record label as long as he could produce two songs on her first album. The jury agreed he never got the chance. And awarded him $630,000. Ashanti and her lawyers plan to appeal the case.

And finally, in other legal news, the defense has rested in the Cameron Diaz topless photos case. The film star is accusing a photographer of forging her signature in order to sell topless pictures of her for $3.5 million. John Rutter says he thought the signature was real when he attempted to sell the images. Rutter faces six years in prison if found quality. Closing arguments are expected to happen today.

Kyra, back to you.

PHILLIPS: All right Sibila, thank you so much.

Well, straight ahead, an arrest and a shooting and the search for these four men in the latest London terror attack. We got more details straight ahead on LIVE FROM.

And the undersea rumble that led to one of the worst disasters in history. We're going to listen in to the sounds of the tsunami.

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