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Gas Prices Skyrocketing; Two Men Indicted on Terrorism Charges

Aired April 21, 2006 - 15:00   ET

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

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: It's the top of the hour.
Meeting, talking, planning, all of it alleged, have two men facing some heavy federal charges in the war on terror.

CNN's Rusty Dornin is carefully following this case right here in Atlanta.

It has been developing throughout the day.

RUSTY DORNIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It has -- well, actually throughout the week. And the FBI, apparently, had wanted to keep this very low-key. But, then, earlier this week, things began leaking out. And they just couldn't stop it.

PHILLIPS: So, they have received attorneys right now, right?

DORNIN: Yes.

PHILLIPS: Do they have attorneys?

DORNIN: They have attorneys.

One of them is giving no comment on the case. He's a well-known Atlanta area attorney. And he is saying that he has no comment. The other one is saying, it's very out of character.

But let's take a look at the story of these two young men who are caught in a very complicated case.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DORNIN (voice-over): Syed Ahmed, shown here, was a student at Georgia Tech, until he was arrested by the FBI last month.

Ehsanul Sadequee, who was living in this house in suburban Atlanta, was arrested earlier this week in Bangladesh, where he had gone to get married.

The FBI says the two young men, who met at this Atlanta area mosque, traveled to Canada last year and met there with three others who were already subjects of an FBI international terrorism investigation.

According to a court document, Ahmed further explained that, during some of these meetings, he, Sadequee and the others discussed strategic locations in the United States suitable for a terrorist strike, including oil refineries and military bases.

DAVID NAHMIAS, U.S. ATTORNEY: The charge against Mr. Ahmed is serious, and it involves national security. And this case is going to be prosecuted with that in mind.

DORNIN: Neither man is being charged with planning a terrorist act. Ahmed is being charged with providing material support for terrorists, while Sadequee is being charged with making false statements.

GREG JONES, FBI SPECIAL AGENT: Let me assure you that, at no time, were there any instances where there was immediate danger to the Atlanta area or here in the United States.

DORNIN: Ahmed's mother and sister told a reporter from CNN affiliate WAGA that he was being targeted because of his religion.

FICA AHMED, SISTER OF SYED AHMED: I think he is being accused of something he didn't do. You know, he's innocent. And -- and they are putting him in jail for nothing.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

DORNIN: They are putting him in jail for nothing, but, of course, the FBI is saying that they -- there were things going on.

It looks like Ahmed did plead not guilty to those charges so far. And, as I said, Ahmed's attorney didn't have any comment, but Sadequee's attorney says, you know, this is -- there's no indication that this young man -- it's very out of character that he had anything to do with this.

PHILLIPS: I know you were telling me that authorities had been looking at one of the boys' homes. They also looked at the suitcase of one of these young men. Did they find anything yet? Can you talk about any evidence?

DORNIN: Well, Sadequee, when he was leaving the country to go Bangladesh, before his arrest, they talked to him at JFK. And, in his suitcase, they found a porno tape. But they also found maps of Washington, D.C., and the Alexandria, Virginia, area.

Also, Ahmed did tell the FBI, according to these court papers, that, not only were they looking at, you know, the oil refineries and military bases, but they were talking about trying to disrupt GPS systems, both military and civil, to try to break down communications.

PHILLIPS: And some have said, well, they don't understand GPS systems; they don't know how to disrupt those.

However...

DORNIN: However...

PHILLIPS: ... which student was the electrical...

DORNIN: It was -- Syed Ahmed is the electrical engineering...

PHILLIPS: Electrical engineering.

DORNIN: ... students at Georgia Tech, one of the nation's foremost schools in technology. So, of course, we don't know if he was involved in it or if he did have that kind of know-how, or anything like that.

Now, remember, they have not been charged with any kind of terrorist act. But he was only charged with supporting terrorists so far.

PHILLIPS: Rusty Dornin on the story -- thanks so much, Rusty.

Well, five teens in custody in Kansas, an alleged copycat murder plot interrupted. Classes are going on as scheduled today at Riverton High School, but security has been stepped up, in light of allegations the suspects planned a mass shooting on the seventh anniversary of the Columbine attacks in Colorado.

The teens, arrested late Wednesday and yesterday, could make their first court appearance this afternoon. We may also learn more about the alleged plot and the Internet messages that investigators say gave it away.

Now, earlier, I asked the superintendent of schools in Riverton about the students' access to the Internet.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID WALTERS, SUPERINTENDENT, RIVERTON SCHOOL DISTRICT: We do monitoring. We are required to filter our Internet. Like any tool, the Internet has -- is a very positive force in education. And something with that kind of power can be used negatively. And it's hard to make sure that line from good to bad is not crossed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: For now, four of the suspects are in a juvenile detention center. The lone 18-year-old is in the county jail.

A police officer attacked -- the dashboard camera stands witness. It happened in McKinley, Texas -- McKinney, Texas, rather -- just near Dallas. The attacker is an escaped convict from Colorado. The officer called for help on his radio while being beaten in the head. The person down the street ran to his aid. And the two eventually got the best of the suspect.

What is going on in Las Vegas? Well, a half-dozen times in the past week, groups of attackers, young people, jumping, beating and robbing, mob-style. Some of the attacks were captured on security camera. This video, just released, comes from a Wal-Mart parking lot, another vicious beating, this one near a Vegas Strip hotel. The victim has a broken jaw and a collarbone. Police say they have the names of most of the attackers from this crime scene. So far, one teenager has been arrested. A nun is murdered. A priest is on trial. A cold case gets red hot 26 years after the fact.

CNN's Keith Oppenheim reports from Toledo, Ohio.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KEITH OPPENHEIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The stage was set for a trial today that sets a challenging task for prosecutors and raises the question, can they convince a jury that a priest killed a nun 26 years ago?

Father Gerald Robinson came into court around 9:00 this morning. He was wearing his priest uniform, his priest collar. It was in 1980 that Sister Margaret Ann Pahl, a 71-year-old nun, was found strangled and stabbed in a hospital chapel in Toledo, a place where both she and Father Robinson worked.

At the time, the priest was questioned, but never charged. Then, in 2003, 2004, about 24 years later, cold-case investigators reopened the murder investigation and felt they had a match between a bloodstain at the crime scene and a dagger-shaped letter opener that police say is the murder weapon and belongs to the priest.

In a moment, we're going to hear from the defense attorney, who tries to cast some doubt on the expert testimony that connects the priest to the crime scene.

But, first, we hear from lead prosecutor Dean Mandros, who describes how sister Margaret Ann Pahl was murdered.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN MANDROS, LUCAS COUNTY ASSISTANT PROSECUTOR: The killer laid her upon the floor. And, after laying her on the floor, he covered her with a white altar cloth. And, after doing that, he stabbed her over the heart nine times, nine piercings of her flesh, in the shape of an upside-down cross.

ALAN KONOP, ATTORNEY FOR REVEREND GERALD ROBINSON: During the course of the trial, the evidence will show, and Mr. Thebes will cross-examine a number of expert witnesses, and you will see that the quality of that testimony still leaves us in this position of reasonable doubt. The pieces do not fit.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

OPPENHEIM: Father Robinson is 68 years old. The case against him is based largely on circumstantial evidence.

Prosecutors will try to show that he was near the crime scene, that the murder weapon belonged to him, while defense attorneys will try to show that the link between him and the crime scene is too weak for conviction.

Keith Oppenheim, CNN, Toledo. (END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Well, they have called off the search. It's disheartening news about an American scientist whose colleagues believe fell off a research ship at the bottom of the world. Joshua Spillane was last seen two days ago in a voyage on the Antarctic Ocean. That was Monday.

The crew decided Wednesday night they had done all they could. Spillane and his crewmates were about halfway from Antarctica to Chile when they apparently went overboard. It is considered one of the fiercest bodies in the world, temperatures just above freezing. There's no way someone could survive in it for very long.

It's an American mantra: Gas prices are too high. Or are they? We are going to look at the cause for the high cost of gas.

The news keeps coming. We will keep bringing it to you -- more LIVE FROM next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: We all know there's no real love without pain, and so it is with Americans, cars and gas. The pain cuts deeper than ever. AAA reports now, the nationwide average cost of self-serve regular, $2.85 a gallon.

It's over $3 in California, Washington, and New York. No shortages are expected, but supplies are tight in parts of the Northeast. That's because refineries are switching over to the cleaner burning blend sold in the summertime. We are going to talk about more about that in a minute.

Now, Americans aren't the only ones thirsting for oil. China's thirst is huge, and growing by the day.

As part of this weekend's "CNN PRESENTS," Frank Sesno looks at how China's oil-based economy threatens the whole world's future supplies.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FRANK SESNO, CNN CONTRIBUTING CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): China, with its 1.3 billion people and beast of an economy, is shopping the world for oil. It's now the world's second largest consumer of oil, behind the U.S., and its aspirations are as big as its population.

Lee (ph) and Jong (ph) are a tiny but telling slice of that. The young couple live in a modest studio apartment in Beijing. They both work, and they themselves as the future.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): We saw people around us getting richer. So, we feel the things that people have in other countries, we can have them, too.

SESNO: To begin with, they want a car. Only about one household in 70 has one in China. And while a car costs more than what Jong and Lee earn combined, they are luck, because Jong's family has offered to chip in.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): I'm really excited. I'm really looking forward to the moment of taking the picture of the car license.

SESNO: Today, they get their piece of China's boom, the first in their families with their own wheels. It's a 10-hour ordeal, an inspection, paperwork, the keys, and, finally, the license plate with an 8, a lucky number in China. It means, to get rich.

Repeat Lee and Jong's story maybe 75 million times over the next 15 years, and you get a picture of China's energy-intensive economic explosion. See it here, too, on China's highways, jammed with trucks. They consumer more than half the country's fuel.

China may be forced into a more energy-efficient future, but its oil imports are projected to double in just 10 years. So, to fill its tanks, China has been striking deals wherever it can, with Canada, in volatile places like Venezuela and Nigeria, with rogue regimes like Sudan and Iran, but, principally, with oil-rich countries in the Middle East, Saudi Arabia first among them.

Saudi Arabia is still the world's oil superpower, producing nearly 10 million barrels a day. It has promised to increase production to keep up with global demand, but Matthew Simmons' research leads him to believe the Saudis won't be able to deliver.

MATTHEW SIMMONS, AUTHOR, "TWILIGHT IN THE DESERT": We have been living in -- on an illusion for half a century.

SESNO (on camera): What's the illusion?

SIMMONS: That the Middle East had unlimited amounts of oil.

SESNO: What is the reality?

SIMMONS: The reality is, is there is twilight in the unlimited amounts of oil. We are probably right on top of the highest oil that will ever come out of the Middle East.

SESNO (voice-over): The state oil company, Saudi Aramco, says there is plenty of oil in the ground.

ABDALLAH S. JUM'AH, PRESIDENT & CEO, SAUDI ARAMCO: There is no one, I believe, with all due respect to my friends in the oil industry, who is able to bring large increments, if needed by the world economy, cheaper or faster than we are.

SESNO: But, for the Saudis, oil and everything about it is a state secret. No one really knows how much they have.

For China, for people like Lee and Jong, for the world, it's an enormous gamble.

SIMMONS: What we should be doing is helping China figure out how they basically create a society beyond oil.

SESNO (on camera): They are not building a society beyond oil. They are building a society on oil.

SIMMONS: Copied after us.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: More about the looming oil crisis, as well as the debate over global warming this weekend on "CNN PRESENTS."

Tomorrow is Earth Day. And, at 7:00 Eastern, be sure to watch "Melting Point," which covers all sides of the global warming debate. And, at 8:00 Eastern, more of "We Were Warned: Tomorrow's Oil Crisis." You can watch them on Sunday night as well.

America's problem isn't just the oil it consumes, but where it all comes from.

Here is a CNN fact check.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TONY HARRIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The United States is the world's largest importer of other country's oil. In February, the U.S. imported an average of 9.86 million barrels a day, an increase from January of nearly 2 percent.

Mexico and Canada are the two largest suppliers, followed by Saudi Arabia -- among the top ten, Iraq and Nigeria, two countries driven by political strife, and Venezuela, a country's whose president, Hugo Chavez, is a vocal critic of Washington. He once accused President Bush of plotting to have him killed.

With all the oil the U.S. buys from other countries, we wondered whether the U.S. exports oil. Believe it or not, yes, but only about 20,000 barrels a day, a figure dwarfed by America's import habit. All exported oil goes to Canada. And most is refined and then sent back here as gasoline.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: All right. I'm just getting word of some developing news.

Let's bring in justice correspondent Kelli Arena. And I'm hearing this within the past couple of seconds. Someone within the CIA leaking some information has now been fired.

KELLI ARENA, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Kyra.

The CIA has confirmed that an officer has been fired for leaking classified information to the media. Now, the agency will not say what type of information was leaked and wouldn't identify the person involved. But we do know that there are several ongoing Justice Department investigations related to the leaking of classified information.

Officials won't say whether this is linked to any of those probes. And Justice Department officials had no immediate comment on that firing. Federal law enforcement officials indicate that no criminal charges related to any CIA leak investigation are imminent.

Now, those investigations include a leak to "The Washington Post" about the CIA operating secret prisons overseas for terrorism detainees. You remember that, Kyra. Bush administration officials, including CIA Director Porter Goss, have been strongly criticizing the leaking of classified information in recent months.

Goss has even said that he hoped journalists would be brought before grand juries.

So, we are working this story, Kyra. When we get more information, we will get it to you -- but, right now, CIA confirming that an officer has been fired for leaking information, classified information, to an unauthorized person in the media.

PHILLIPS: All right. We will be on standby, waiting for more info. Thanks, Kelli.

ARENA: You're welcome, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Coming up: $3 gas is bad, but it could be worse. How does $6 a gallon sound? That's what drivers are paying in parts of Europe and Asia. Ali Velshi does some comparison shopping straight ahead on LIVE FROM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: All right. We have heard all the reasons for high gas prices, supply and demand, China, regulations, you name it. It doesn't make it any easier to fill up or, if you're in the Northeast, to find a station that still has gas to sell.

Ali Velshi did some first-person reporting. On the road to D.C., he purposely drove his car, so he could just see how much it was going to cost, how much he could bill the company.

ALI VELSHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: If I -- if I...

(LAUGHTER)

VELSHI: ... was in to paying $3 or more for gas, I would live in California, where it would be nice and sunny.

(LAUGHTER)

VELSHI: It's ridiculous. I live in the Northeast, and I paid $3.32 today for gasoline. Why? I mean, it was just coincidental. I'm not going to set out like I actually went to do this. I was in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, yesterday.

And I needed to get to D.C. And it was a little complicated to do it any other way. So, I drove. And I hear reports this morning that all over sort of Pennsylvania and New Jersey, there's some gas stations out of gas.

So, I start checking around. Lo and behold, two stations I found in Philadelphia, two stations in Camden, New Jersey, no gasoline at all. So, I'm getting a little panic, so I end up filling up, like other people do. And I paid $3.32 a gallon a gas. It's crazy.

PHILLIPS: Why are you panicking?

VELSHI: You know, I got to say, because it's -- first of all, I needed to get to D.C. But I think, when people think that there's gas running out, and the gas station owner of one of them told me this, you know, they now think, all right, well, I don't really need to get gas now.

But if we're going to run out of gas, I better get gas. There's no gas shortage in the country. And I know that. But I need gas where I need to get it. And so I thought, if I get to the next station and they are out of gas, after seeing two or three of these, so, I paid a premium for gas.

So, what that means is, it brings the price of gas up. So, I paid a premium for gas? Why? Because there has been some miscalculation on the part of the gasoline distributors in the Northeast about the complication involved with switching from the old formulation of gasoline to the new formulation of gasoline. There was an additive that they used to put in, which now, as of May 6, you can't put in. So, you put ethanol in instead.

Well, that's just a whole more complicated. The tanks that you store the gas in before it goes to the gas station, they all have to be emptied and cleaned out. And, as a result, all the gas that has to go to the gas stations is not getting there.

I repeat, no shortage, but I did end up paying 60 cents a gallon more than I did a week ago.

PHILLIPS: And what's the -- and explain to me this summertime gas vs. gas in the wintertime. This is what you're talking about, the way it...

(CROSSTALK)

VELSHI: Typically, every year, yes, around springtime, we change from -- the formulation of gas, because of the way it burns, is different in winter to summer. So, they switch over.

But it's the additive that they usually use in summer, it has been proven to be a pollutant. So, the government has mandated that, this year, you don't put that additive in -- additive in. You put ethanol in.

PHILLIPS: Hmm.

VELSHI: Well, ethanol is a whole different thing. You can't send it through the pipelines. You have to ship in on -- in trucks or in barges. It -- you have to clean out everything in the tanks, the storage tanks, before you put it in. So, that slowed the whole process down.

Now, these companies that own the distribution centers, they have had almost a year to figure this out. They didn't. They dropped the ball. Sure, things happen. And that's what they have been telling us all day. Even AAA has been saying that. And I got to tell you, it's not AAA's job to defend the oil industry.

Everybody has been making excuses. The bottom line is, companies that make a lot of money dropped the ball. And consumers are paying more for gas because somebody didn't plan it properly.

PHILLIPS: All right. Tell me about this Web site where you can actually go on -- I think it's a Web site, right?

VELSHI: Yes.

PHILLIPS: Where you can go on and see who has got the highest gas prices, who has the lowest gas prices.

VELSHI: There's actually a bunch of them. And if you -- if you go into a search engine and you look for gas prices, it will tell you.

There are a few different sites where you can put in your location, and it is sort of a user-supported thing. People write in and submit on the Web sites where gas is cheapest in your area.

And, in a case like this, where the fluctuations are very, very dramatic, I have today seen gas range from $2.99 a gallon in the Northeast, all the way to $3.40 a gallon, on one corridor. So, you can actually save a lot of money. If you're putting a lot of -- a lot of gas in your truck, go to these sites and figure out where in your area...

PHILLIPS: What is a good Web site?

VELSHI: You know, I know -- I know GasBuddy is one of them. I don't want to vouch for them, because I don't actually -- I mean, people send this information in.

PHILLIPS: I think people are curious, sure. They want to go on and they want to see...

(CROSSTALK)

VELSHI: Yes. And GasBuddy is one of them.

(CROSSTALK)

VELSHI: But there are others, so if you -- if you actually type in, if you go to Google or Yahoo! and you type in "gas prices," or "gas prices in my area," it will give you -- they will -- they will pop up, and there are a bunch of them. And, you know, use a few of them, so that you can see which the good gas stations are in your area. And I really have -- I saw $3.10 at one and $2.95, right across the road from each other. It has got to do with where the gas stations are getting their gas, who the distributors are. Do those distributors have the new gas or the old gas?

This is a purely logistical problem. But it doesn't matter, because the consumer -- why is the consumer holding the bag on a logistical problem?

PHILLIPS: Well, how long do you think this is going to last?

VELSHI: Well, this problem will have to be over by May 6.

I spoke to a guy in Camden, New Jersey, who said his distributor said he can't get him gas until Saturday. We have heard of reports from Virginia, Maryland. You know, the AAA says it's eight gas stations. The Association of Gas Stations, or whatever it's called, says they have got no reports. I saw them. I have got the reports. It's more than eight gas stations. It's not a lot. But it's more than eight. And it might go on for a couple weeks in some cases.

PHILLIPS: Side note, too: renting a car -- one of our producers brought this up today.

VELSHI: Yes.

PHILLIPS: You know, when you don't fill up the tank...

(CROSSTALK)

VELSHI: Be very careful.

PHILLIPS: Seven bucks a gallon.

VELSHI: Well...

PHILLIPS: So, if you take it back to the rent-a-car and you don't fill up the tank...

VELSHI: Yes.

(LAUGHTER)

PHILLIPS: ... they're going to charge you their price.

VELSHI: Be prepared.

PHILLIPS: Yes. Be prepared.

VELSHI: You will think you're in Europe.

PHILLIPS: OK, Thomas Lehrer.

(LAUGHTER) VELSHI: Now, take a look at where -- what price sites.

I want to give everybody a little bit of perspective.

PHILLIPS: OK.

VELSHI: Take a look what you're paying for gas in some other places.

In Oslo -- this is a U.S. dollar equivalent -- $6.62. Hong Kong, $6.25, which is meant to discourage people from driving around Hong Kong. Brussels, $6.16, London $5.96, Rome, $5.80.

It's remarkable. Well, now, the other side of it, by the way -- Caracas, where it's subsidized, 12 cents. Kuwait, well, it stands to reason, a couple of those Middle Eastern cities, cheap oil. Buenos Aires, $2.09. And Mexico City, $2.22.

So, that's where we are in the grand scheme of things.

I should tell you, Kyra, it is tightly connected to the price of oil, and oil has settled on the New York Mercantile Exchange at higher than $75 for the first time ever.

PHILLIPS: Wow. Ali Velshi, thanks.

(CROSSTALK)

VELSHI: Do I seem a little hot under the collar about this?

PHILLIPS: Yes. I can tell you're very energetic. And I was checking the time, thinking, we're probably going to talk about this around closing bell as well, right?

VELSHI: Yes, we will.

PHILLIPS: We will get the -- OK.

VELSHI: Yes.

PHILLIPS: Good.

(LAUGHTER)

VELSHI: OK.

PHILLIPS: Thanks, Ali. We love your passion.

All right, straight ahead -- results from a search, recollections from a potential witness. The other woman paid to be at the party is speaking up -- the latest pieces of the Duke rape investigation straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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