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Prosecution Rests Case in Moussaoui Sentencing; Prayer Service Held at Duke University; International Community Losing Patience with Iran; Father Who Lost Son on 9/11 Shares View of Moussaoui Trial

Aired April 12, 2006 - 13:00   ET

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

KYRA PHILLIPS, HOST: Hello everyone. I'm Kyra Phillips.
As the government rests, the defendant shouts God curse you all. But for jurors and spectators at the Zacarias Moussaoui trial, other words and sounds will linger in their thoughts. Today, the first public airing of cockpit voice recordings recovered from the wreckage of United Flight 93.

CNN's Jeanne Meserve was in the courtroom.

I'm sure a lot of people felt the chills, Jeanne.

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, it was dramatic; it was horrific. The tape was 31 minutes long. As it played on the screens in the courtroom, there was a display, including transcript and translation when it was need, a representation of the course the plane and a representation of the plane itself as well as some of its instrumentation. So you could get some sense of where the plane was and what was happening with the plane as you heard the sounds on the flight.

It started with a struggle to take over the cockpit. You could hear the hijackers say repeatedly, "Shut up, sit down, shut up, sit down."

And then you heard a male voice in the cockpit saying, "Don't hurt me. I don't want to die. I don't want to die." You also heard a woman struggling in the cockpit.

After those struggles there was a long period of relative silence on the tape. As you watched on the display, the plane turning around, then heading back towards Washington, D.C., and what we believe to be its intended target, the Capitol building.

And then towards the end of the flight, you hear another struggle. This time, it's the passengers who were revolting, and trying to get back into that cockpit. And you could hear a male voice say, "Let's go, guys, in the cockpit. If we don't, we'll die. You could hear the struggle."

You could hear the struggle. You could hear the hijackers praising Allah, as they took the controls and headed that plane down into the ground in that field in Pennsylvania.

As dramatic and horrible as it was, one family member who was in the courtroom said it was much worse when the families heard the tape over amplified headsets.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HAMILTON PETERSON, RELATIVE OF TWO FLIGHT 93 VICTIMS: What I heard was at least two people in what are likely there final moments pleading for their lives, recognizing they were going to die.

Later on in the tape, you can hear an individual of a foreign language being attacked or killed by the passenger and crew. I surmise that he was guarding the cockpit door from the outside.

What was also clear, having heard it on headsets, was that at least two terrorists inside the cockpit had foolishly and mistakenly believed that by holding the ax, the fire ax up to the inside peephole that it might intimidate, quote, "all of those guys" who were charging the cockpit from the outside.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MESERVE: We also heard a message, a phone message, left by Cece Lyles. Lyles was a flight attendant on Flight 93. She left this message for her husband. He did not receive it until a week after her death.

On this message, she says, "I hope to see your face again, baby. I love you, good-bye," her voice cracking as that call ends.

It was a double whammy, but the prosecution did not get to deliver its grand finale. It had hoped to do a scroll of all the names and pictures of the 2,973 who died on September 11. The judge did not allow it, although it has been submitted into evidence. The government has now rested its case against Moussaoui -- Kyra.

PHILLIP: Jeanne, when everyone listened to these tapes, did Moussaoui react to these tapes? And what about the jury?

MESERVE: Moussaoui sat playing with his beard, his hands, gazing around the courtroom with a small smile on his face as this was played.

Jurors were watching small screens by the jury box, clearly, intent on what they were looking at, and what they were listening to. After it was over, I did see at least one juror rubbing his eyes. It was very difficult to listen to -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Jeanne, when do we expect the jury -- to hear from the jury with regard to life or death?

MESERVE: Well, first we have to hear the defense case, and that will start tomorrow. It is possible that Moussaoui himself will take the stand again. They also will put on evidence about his mental health, also about his childhood.

They have also asked that Richard Reid, the so-called shoe bomber, be brought here to testify for the defense. It's unclear at this point whether or not that is going to happen -- Kyra. PHILLIPS: Jeanne Meserve, thanks so much.

Our other top story, coming together in a time of division, trying to heal in a time of pain. You're going to see live pictures right now of a vigil taking place at Duke University. It's aimed at helping the community cope with an ongoing rape case. CNN's Amanda Rosseter joins me now live from Durham, North Carolina.

I apologize, we don't have those live pictures. But I -- it's taking place right behind you, right?

AMANDA ROSSETER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's correct, Kyra, and I'm going to speak a little bit softly because this prayer service is continuing. Want to be respectful of that.

This prayer service is being led by the dean of the Duke University chapel here. It's an effort intended to help in the healing process as this case continues here in Durham.

And of course, this prayer service today at Duke follows the healing forum that was held yesterday on the campus of NCCU. That's North Carolina Central University. That is across town where the alleged victim in this case is a student.

And of course, it was at that forum that local district attorney Mike Nifong announced that, despite the lack of a DNA match in this case, he is going to pursue this case. He says he can and he will pursue this case the old-fashioned way. He does not need DNA evidence to do that.

And because of that, they are trying to mend any kind of strained relations now between these two schools.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHAWN CUNNINGHAM, STUDENT, NCCU: I think there's more tension on our campus, yes, because there hasn't been a forum or hasn't been an area for dialogue until yesterday. And so there was a lot of pent-up emotions.

There were a lot of students who just wanted to get a release and wanted to make sure that the investigation was continuing. I think the district attorney spoke to that, and the fact that he came out and said, "Look, this investigation is going to continue" allayed some suspicion and some fears that there would not be a complete investigation.

JESSE LONGORIA, DUKE SGA PRESIDENT: I really feel like it's just more dialogue, trying to use yesterday's forum as a starting point for that conversation between our campuses, you know, maybe take away some of the media tension and some of the administration overseeing it all and have just student to student conversation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROSSETER: And again, Kyra, those were discussions that I had this morning with student leaders from both NCCU and Duke University here, talking about how they can mend some of the relations, the strained relations, if you will, that made this between the two schools. Again, the grand jury meets next week, and D.A. Mike Nifong is expected to take his case to it -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Let me ask you just quickly about the D.A., because this came up in conversation yesterday. He is up for re-election in May, and he's really standing by this case, that he's not going to let it go. Is anybody talking about the political motivation for Nifong?

ROSSETER: Plenty of people are talking about possible political motivation. He is running for re-election this year. Many people are wondering whether or not he is playing a political card here, using this case, possibly stringing it out. That came from defense attorneys yesterday.

And because of that, there is a candidate's forum this afternoon that was scheduled with the three candidates in the race for district attorney here. All three candidates will be in attendance, and it is open to the public. Many people are expected to attend. And you can bet that this case will be one of the key issues, one of the key questions that are put to him tonight -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Amanda Rosseter, thanks so much.

Iran versus the diplomatic community and vice versa, and one side is losing both patience and optimism. The U.N.'s nuclear chief is in Tehran today, again urging leaders to stop a nuclear program they say is yielding low-grade enriched uranium.

American diplomats say if those talks fail, more negotiation would be a waste of time.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CONDOLEEZZA RICE, SECRETARY OF STATE: Iran has been offered many opportunities to negotiate in good faith by the Europeans, by the Russians. They've never taken those opportunities. They are -- we've had a presidential statement that made numerous -- that reinforced those requirements. The Iranians have acquiesced (ph) to that. And so yes, the -- when we -- we're consulting now. And when the Security Council reconvenes, I think it will be time for action.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Condoleezza Rice didn't elaborate on her plans, should Iran continue to defy the Security Council. CNN's Brian Todd reports how mixed signals from a country claiming no interest in nuclear weapons.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Dancers chanting, "God is great," holding two canisters of uranium. Is this patriotic show a prelude to Iran's first nuclear weapon? Standing by a banner that reads in English, "Using atomic energy is our certain right," Iran's president makes an announcement watched around the world.

MAHMOUD AHMADINEJAD, PRESIDENT OF IRAN (through translator): The nuclear fuel cycle at the laboratory level has been completed, and uranium with the desired enrichment for nuclear power plants was achieved.

TODD: Experts tell CNN this means Iran has enriched uranium to the quality needed for nuclear power plants, but it's not enough in volume to run those plants or produce a nuclear weapon.

DAVID ALBRIGHT, FORMER U.N. WEAPONS INSPECTOR: That's going to take them at least three years before they can have a nuclear weapon.

TODD: And possibly longer, because of technical problems in nuclear development.

But Iran has successfully tested a new missile that can evade radar and hit multiple targets at the same time. And in going ahead with uranium enrichment, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is denying calls for Iran to give up nuclear activity.

And he's backed by his own people: 85 percent support the nuclear program.

SEAN MCCORMACK, STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESMAN: If Iran continues the -- down this pathway of defiance, you will see the -- a parallel increase in pressure on Iran from the international community.

TODD: Pressure that might include U.N. sanctions or even U.S. military action. But the U.S. defense secretary had this response to reports the U.S. is considering a preemptive nuclear strike.

DONALD RUMSFELD, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: The president has indicated his concern about the country. But it is just simply not useful to get into fantasyland.

TODD (on camera): Iran again insists it is not developing uranium for weapons and claims U.N. nuclear monitors have seen its whole program. But it's not clear if those inspectors witnessed the recent enrichment. And experts are worried that Iran might decide to accelerate its nuclear program to the point of being on the verge of a weapon ahead of all the predictions.

Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: What happens next depends largely on the IAEA. Here's the facts.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS (voice-over): The International Atomic Energy Agency, more commonly known as the IAEA, has been called the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog.

Established in 1957 as an autonomous organization under the United Nations, President Dwight Eisenhower actually proposed the creation of the agency in 1953 to monitor the spread of nuclear technology.

The IAEA is headquartered in Vienna, Austria. It has 139 member states who meet annually.

The IAEA currently has safeguard agreements with more than 145 countries around the world. Under these agreement, inspectors are sent out to monitor nuclear reactors to make sure nuclear material is not being made into weapons. More than 900 facilities around the world are under IAEA safeguards.

Since 1997, Mohamed ElBaradei has been the director general of the IAEA. Along with the agency, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize last year for his efforts to limit the spread of atomic weapons.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Straight ahead, re-living the pain of September 11. As jurors hear evidence in the Zacarias Moussaoui trial, it's another cruel day for the families of the victims. We're going to talk about today's gripping testimony with a man who lost his son on Flight 93 when LIVE FROM returns.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Weapons labs or empty claims? The U.S. government reportedly learned early on that trailers discovered in Iraq back in 2003 were not part of a bioweapons program. Still, for months after their discovery, top officials, including President Bush publicly argued the opposite.

Well, "The Washington Post" quotes unnamed experts now who concluded that those trailers had nothing to do with biological weapons and sent those findings to Washington two days before President Bush declared the trailers evidence of WMDs.

Right now, Scott McClellan, White House spokesman, weighed in. He says that the president -- the president was relying on that information from the CIA and the FBI. Let's listen in.

SCOTT MCCLELLAN, WHITE HOUSE SPOKESMAN: ... deal with the threats that face this country and face this world, and that's very important.

We appointed the director of national intelligence to restructure the intelligence community. We've taken a number of other steps to make sure that the intelligence gathering process is better and that it's the best possible intelligence that is coming to the White House and coming to the Congress so that they can make decisions.

CARL CAMERON, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Insofar as in May, there was 122-page report filed by DIA that said that these trailers were not bioweapons but it was -- or bioweapons labs. And then we heard from the vice president and Colin Powell after that period, suggesting that they still were. That information has...

MCCLELLAN: First of all, intelligence is -- when an assessment is made, it looks at a lot of different intelligence. And it takes time to vet that intelligence, go through it, debate it, discuss it within the intelligence community, look at all the different intelligence coming in, whether it's human intelligence, or signals intelligence, or open source intelligence, and they pull that all together. And the intelligence community makes the assessment. The White House is not the intelligence gathering agency.

And the assessment that the CIA and the Defense Intelligence Agency, which is the arm of the Pentagon, made, initially, was that those biological -- in this report that was released on May 28, 2003, was that the labs that were found were for producing biological weapons. And that assessment remained in place for quite some time, as you just pointed out.

Now, I will point out that the reporting I saw this morning was simply reckless, and it was irresponsible. The lead in "The Washington Post" left this impression for the reader that the president was saying something he knew at the time not to be true. That is absolutely false, and it is irresponsible. And I don't know how "The Washington Post" can defend something so irresponsible.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Two questions. One on Iran -- as far as diplomacy is concerned, it has been going on for a long time. And second, according to the State Department, now we know that A.Q. Khan was the one who helped Iran at this point. But at the same time, so far, the international community never had any access to A.Q. Khan, and A.Q. Khan cannot run this...

PHILLIPS: We're going to continue to follow that White House briefing. You can also go to CNN.com/Pipeline. But we wanted to get response, of course, the response from the White House to that "Washington Post" article that did come out about these weapons labs -- weapons labs.

Apparently labs that were producing weapons of mass destruction, but then another separate weapons search team came in, concluding that these trailers were used to make hydrogen for weather balloons that, indeed, the labs were not being used for WMD.

You heard McClellan saying that that article by "The Washington Post" is, quote, "reckless and irresponsible" journalism.

We'll stay on story, of course, and continue to listen into that briefing and see if he says anything further about that and also Iran.

Meanwhile, we want to talk about our other top story of the day. And it's about a loss that definitely can't be measured, a pain that never ends. And we're talking about those who lost wives, husbands, sons, and daughters on 9/11.

The Zacarias Moussaoui trial just the latest replay of a deeply personal nightmare.

David Beamer lost his son Todd on Flight 93. He joins me live from Jacksonville, Florida.

It's nice to see you, David.

DAVID BEAMER, LOST SON ON 9/11: Good afternoon, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: No doubt, you have been monitoring this trial. I just want to get your overall thoughts about the way Moussaoui has been behaving, how the case has been going, and even more specifically about all the tape recordings and the testimony and just the re-living of 9/11 that's been taking place inside that courtroom.

BEAMER: Well, Kyra, as you might imagine, the recount and the recalling the events of that day is difficult for all of us, I think, for all Americans.

However, I am -- I am assured and believe that Moussaoui has been -- is being given a fair trial. He has been found to be guilty. I know we're in the last stages of that event. And, although many of the proceedings and the documentation and the dialogue and the communication is very difficult, I think it is also important that it really helps us remember the enemy, the enemy's objective, and what they planned, did, and -- or that was still striving to plan and do to all of us in the future.

There's a certain, I think, danger, in a passage of time that this war can become impersonal. We can talk about national defense and national security. And perhaps forget that this war and our enemies want to make it very personal. They want to take away our freedoms. And they'll stop short of nothing to do so.

So if these proceedings and ongoing dialogue about the reality of that day helps assure us that we maintain our vigilance, that we apply our resources, that we battle the enemy where he is, then those things are positive.

PHILLIPS: You make a tremendous point. And I think that this is the perfect segue to talk about your son. I want to talk about his heroic efforts in just a moment.

But if we could just backtrack to the day your son was born and just growing up with him and watching him become such an incredible young man. What do you miss the most about Todd, David?

BEAMER: Well, I miss -- I miss his smile. I miss his sense of humor. I miss the camaraderie. And I miss seeing him as a husband and a father, a provider, a protector, an encourager. We miss him a lot.

PHILLIPS: That tape recording was played in the courtroom today, that tape recording that we can never forget. From what I understand, you did not listen to it. And the tape recording I'm talking about is the GTE operator talking with your son when he made that phone call, and you could hear in the background, "Are you ready?" A fellow passenger asked Beamer toward the end of the call. "Let's roll," Beamer replied.

Why do you not want to hear that?

BEAMER: Well, we've -- we know what happened. We know what he said. We know what he did. And maybe some day, I'll have a listen.

I re-live the events of that day and the actions every day. And it's, it's so reassuring, although certainly Todd's family, Peggy, his mom and I, we've all said that we all, we all knew what the passengers and crew did to successfully wage our first counterattack in this -- in this war.

It's very assuring to know from the record, from an impartial, if you will, ear witness, Lisa Jefferson, of the account, to have it all verified. And we're just proud of all of them, the passengers and the crew, because, indeed, they came together as a team. They had a collective experience, and they were real people, a real battle, a real war. And in the case of United 93, a real victory.

PHILLIPS: David, I'll never forget being on the USS Abraham Lincoln and walking up to the strike fighters and seeing "Let's roll." No matter what kind of aircraft it was, what part of the military. We're actually look at pictures now of Air Force aircraft with the "Let's roll" quote and signal. But they were on almost all the jets.

Your son continues to be an incredible inspiration. And I bet it didn't surprise you when you heard what he did and what he said.

BEAMER: It wasn't a surprise. As I said, it was just an affirming affirmation to know what they all did. And I guess a great source of, also, comfort and confidence, is, you know, in the history of our free country, hundreds of thousands of Americans have sacrificed for the freedoms that we enjoy.

And I'm also confident there are millions more, like Todd, like the others on that flight that, if necessary, are willing to continue to sacrifice, to preserve our freedoms. Just as we are all enjoying today.

You know, my -- my creator, God, created me with a free will, to accept him, reject him, to live my life as I please, and in all manners of religion and speech and what we decide to do with our families. Those precious freedoms came at a great cost.

And certainly, we grieve every time we hear that another American has made the ultimate sacrifice for us. But I'm -- I'm confident that we'll continue to do whatever it takes to preserve our way of life.

Because our enemy does not have -- does not have the word "surrender" in his dictionary. And we must not have the word "retreat" in ours.

PHILLIPS: David Beamer, father of Todd Beamer. I can see why your son was so brave and so strong, just listening to you and talking to you. He was very lucky to have you as a father.

Thank you so much for your time, David.

BEAMER: Kyra, I can tell you, his mom, Peggy, had a whole lot to do with it.

PHILLIPS: No doubt. Behind those incredible men, as always, an even stronger women -- woman. The old saying goes, right, David?

BEAMER: Indeed, indeed.

PHILLIPS: All right, well, we're thinking of you and Peggy and the entire family, and of course Todd's family, as well, as this trial come to an end.

BEAMER: Thank you very much.

PHILLIPS: I thank you, David, very much.

Straight ahead, general discontent. Retired generals discontented with the Iraq war in general and Donald Rumsfeld in particular. We're going to talk about it straight ahead on LIVE FROM.

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