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Suspicious Package Found on Plane; Exiles Return to Southern Lebanon Homes; Travel Restrictions Loosened out of U.K.; Police Divers Check Security of Cruise Ships; Is Home Grown Terror a Threat in Canada?

Aired August 14, 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 at the CNN world headquarters in Atlanta.
Cease-fire in progress. Will it hold? Refugees return home, but are they safe? Will Israel and Hezbollah live by their word?

Security watch, the threat that lies below. You go through security, but what about the cargo beneath your feet? Our CNN investigation.

And target USA, America's ports, do terrorists troll our waterways? Where are the biggest gaps in U.S. security? Hit send and tell us where you feel most vulnerable.

LIVE FROM starts right now.

Let's get straight to the news room. Betty Nguyen working details on a developing story right at the top of the hour -- Betty.

BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, Kyra. The LAPD bomb squad and the FBI are searching a plane that has landed at LAX after reports of a suspicious package on board.

Here's what we know about the plane. It was coming in today to LAX from Guadalajara, Mexico, when there were reports of a suspicious package on board. All 125 passengers have been evacuated.

There is a look at the plane. It's an Alaska Airlines plane. At this point we understand no one is being detained, but the search is on inside this plane to determine exactly what is the suspicious package.

At this point, though, no flights have been interrupted because of it, but the plane is in a remote location. And as mentioned, the L.A. bomb squad and the FBI are searching to determine exactly what this suspicious package is. As soon as we get more information, Kyra, we'll bring it straight to you.

PHILLIPS: We begin now with the Middle East crisis. The big news today, the cease-fire agreement that produced such doubt appears to be holding, more or less. It's 12 hours old. Let's get to the region quickly. We'll start with CNN's Matthew Chance in Northern Israel -- Matthew. MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Thanks very much, Kyra. The artillery battery in Northern Israel which has been pounding the Hezbollah positions over the course of the past several weeks have been silent for 12 hours.

Since that cease-fire came into force, according to Israeli police, the Israeli police are reporting that there's been no Katyusha rockets fired by Hezbollah into Israeli territory either. So in that sense it does seem the ceasefire is indeed holding.

There has been some -- some clashes between Hezbollah forces, suspected Hezbollah forces and Israeli troops on the ground in Southern Lebanon. At least four inidents, Israeli forces opening fire on Hezbollah suspects as they approach them on the ground.

The ingredients for the cease-fire falling to pieces. Further conflict is very much in place. Got 30,000 Israeli troops still on the ground in Southern Lebanon. Hezbollah says it will continue to fight until the last Israeli troops is out of Lebanon.

And so a great deal of concern tonight on both sides. Israel and I expect in Lebanon, as well, about how long this cease-fire will last -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right. Matthew Chance, thanks so much.

Let's go to Lebanon now where thousands of people are returning to homes that were ruined in the fighting. The Lebanese government says it may speed troops to the former war zone as early as Wednesday.

CNN's Anthony Mills is live for us in Beirut -- Anthony.

ANTHONY MILLS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, the Lebanese have indeed been returning to their homes in the southern suburbs, homes they had to leave because of the pounding of those southern suburbs, the Hezbollah stronghold part of the city. They've also been returning in their thousands to homes in the south of the country, log-jamming, really, the highways southward. That despite a travel ban of vehicles still in place by the Israeli Defense Forces. That was issued a few days ago. So they really are streaming back to their homes.

In the south of the city they're finding widespread destruction, whole buildings, multistory buildings that have been pancaked, rubble everywhere. And in terms of victories and defeats, Hezbollah has been distributing flyers in those southern suburbs, saying that they have -- they're proclaiming divine victory and really saying this is a victory for them.

But there is skepticism among many sections of Lebanese society about the durability of this peace. As my colleague Matthew Chance was saying, there is a sense that this is really a tenuous ceasefire. And indeed flyers were dropped this morning on Lebanon from Israeli forces, warning that if Hezbollah initiates any form of activity, rocket activity, then the Israeli Defense Forces will be back and also saying that Iran and Syria, which were called Hezbollah's backers in those flyers, had brought the Lebanese people to the brink of the abyss.

So a sense that this cease-fire is tenuous at best here in Lebanon -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: So are you in a state of carry on confusion because of the heightened terror alert? Well, you're not alone. Here is what you can and can't bring on airliners. You are allowed to bring as much as four ounces of liquid nonprescription medicine, also solid lipstick and baby food. Banned items include aerosols, mascara, baby feeders with gel or liquid, kids' toys and gel and even gel candies.

Also get ready to take your shoes off again. All passengers' shoes have to clear x-ray machines.

Colors have changed but the caution remains. The U.S. lowered its terror alert level from severe to high for inbound flights from the U.K. Britain also took its alert status down a notch, days after arrested suspects in an alleged plot to blow up Transatlantic planes.

Our John Vause has the latest from London's Heathrow Airport.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN VAUSE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The downgrading of the terror alert level, some of the top security measures which have been in place for the last four days have been eased a little at almost all airports across Britain. Most passengers will be allowed one piece of hand luggage, a small bag much smaller than before, no bigger than this bag here.

They'll also be allowed laptops and other electronics, but what is not allowed: lotions and creams and liquids and also toiletries and cosmetics.

DOUGLAS ALEXANDER, BRITISH TRANSPORT SECRETARY: There is going to be a degree of confusion, and I accept that. However, I think it was imperative that we get these new measures in place as quickly as we could reasonably have done so, given our responsibilities for public safety.

And I would urge passengers who are at the point of leaving for the airport obviously to look at the web sites, the government web site or own airline web sites to get the best information as to the advice being received. And what will be understandable confusion but with a very short transitional period as both passengers, airport operators and airlines come to understand and operate the new regime that was announced this morning.

VAUSE: And here at Heathrow Airport it will be another day of clear plastic bags, flight cancellations and delays. Passengers will be allowed to take hand luggage onto planes tomorrow.

TONY DOUGLAS, CEO, HEATHROW AIRPORT: BAA Heathrow recommends that passengers traveling from Heathrow today should still continue do the following. Check with their airline before leaving for the airport, arrive with no hand luggage. Bring only those items into the cabin in a clear plastic bag and still being prepared for delays.

VAUSE: Airport officials stress this is not a return to the security measures before Wednesday, before the alleged terror plot was uncovered and warned this could become standard procedure for some time to come.

John Vause, CNN, Heathrow Airport, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Screeners, metal detectors, bomb sniffing dogs. Security has never been tighter at U.S. airports. But they're not the only entry points vulnerable to terrorists. So what's being done to keep the nation's other ports safe?

CNN's John Zarrella in Miami with the details -- John.

Well, you can tell that we could hear John just for a second there. But I think there's a short in his mic. OK. So we'll work on that.

Meanwhile, let's just go straight to his piece and see if we can get it worked out.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): they wear wet suits not spacesuits. Unassuming guys with the right stuff who defend America from below.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've got Lupo Muniz (ph) on No. 4. Paul Toy, No. 5 at the crease.

ZARRELLA: These Miami-Dade County police divers are helping to protect the port of Miami, the largest container port in Florida and home to 18 cruise ships carrying four million passengers a year.

PAUL TOY, MIAMI-DADE POLICE DIVER: Since 9/11 it has become very critical. Got the terrorists out there. They want to try and disrupt something. A cruise ship is a good target.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What we do is -- I'll go in the water. Paul goes in the water. Paul goes down to the bottom.

ZARRELLA: Paul Toy has been diving since he was a teenager. He's been a police diver since the '80s. Today Toy and nine others search beneath the 881-foot cruise ship Majesty of the Seas.

It is called a hull search. The team is not acting on any tips or information. It's just an unannounced peek beneath the water line. That's the way they want it: no schedule for terrorists to track.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We can be here two or three days in a row and not come for a week and then come back for two weeks in a row.

ZARRELLA: The divers line up along the entire length of the ship, eyeballing every inch.

Because visibility is about five feet, flashlights look like life sabers in the green tinted water.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We learn what's supposed to be on the ship. When there is something that appears that is not supposed to be there we can recognize it.

ZARRELLA: While the divers scour the hull, other police officers are in the engine room and on the bridge, making sure a propeller or one of these giant thrusters is not accidentally turned on. That would shred the divers in an instant.

Much of what they do goes unnoticed but not unappreciated.

TOY: The people see you. The people on the ship and they love you, you know, because it gives them a good feeling, like our ship is OK, you know. These guys are down there checking it out.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZARRELLA: Now, that same ship the Majesty of the Seas is behind me here today, preparing to leave this afternoon about 4:30 on its cruise, and the divers have told us, Kyra, that over the course of time when there's heightened states of security that's when they are more likely to be out here in the water. But you just don't know.

Now the U.S. government has spent a lot of money since 2001 on port security. In 2001, here's the numbers: $259 million was spent on port security nationwide. In 2005 the number was $1.6 billion.

There are 360 commercial ports in the United States. Ninety-five percent of all international cargo comes through the seaports. Eleven million containers, containerized cargo, 11 million pieces arrive ever year here. But only about five or six percent of those are actually physically checked or eyeballed -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: John, we know there are so many ships going back and forth in and out of the United States. I remember the Coast Guard carrying on operations in the Persian Gulf.

With regard to the ships here, when do they board and not board? Is it sort of a gut reaction that something might be wrong with a vessel and where it's going? Therefore, they get on the ship and check out the cargo and the paperwork?

ZARRELLA: Well, they do exactly what you're saying. It's exactly what they'll do. They'll board a ship. But what they're doing is acting on intelligence and background information and suspicious cargo, any kind of tips that they might have.

But they get the manifests. They get the crew manifest, the cargo manifest some four days in advance before, for example, a ship might arrive here at the port of Miami.

The Coast Guard will go over that manifest, go over that crew list. If there's anything that's out of order or anything that seems suspicious then it's very likely that they might board that ship.

And the idea, the Coast Guard tells us, is to keep any kind of a potential threat out, away from the seaport. Stop it before it actually gets here -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Well, as part of our special coverage today LIVE FROM wants you to hit send. E-mail us your thoughts. Where do you think the U.S. is most vulnerable? Do you see a solution? The address is LiveFrom@CNN.com. We'll read your responses throughout the program.

Target USA. Does a serious threat exist north of the border? Our Zain Verjee is in Toronto -- Zain.

ZAIN VERJEE, CNN ANCHOR: Kyra, Muslims here are saying that they are utterly shocked and dismayed that there had could be terrorists lurking among them. How serious is homegrown terrorism in Canada? We take a look when LIVE FROM continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Head to the newsroom, Betty Nguyen working details on a developing story we're been talking about -- Debbie -- Betty.

NGUYEN: That's all right. Hi, Kyra.

Yes, we're continuing to follow that story out of Los Angeles where a flight has landed after a suspicious package was reported on board. Let's get straight to CNN's Ted Rowlands in our Los Angeles bureau.

Ted, you've been following this, as well. What have you learned?

TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Betty, at about 8:20 Pacific Time a flight attendant on board an Alaska Airlines coming from Guadalajara, Mexico, to Los Angeles informed the Los Angeles International Airport that there was a suspicious item on board. The plane landed without incident about 9 a.m. Pacific Time and at that point the 125 passengers on board were brought off the plane, put into buses and moved away from the plane.

Now at this point there is a two-fold investigation going on. On the plane itself, all the carry-on items are still there, and dogs are going through, making sure that there are no explosives.

What they're trying to figure out is what is this suspicious item. And then the other thing is how did it get on the plane? Assuming nobody has claimed ownership to it, the passengers have been detained, if you will, until they can be interviewed. That is going on at LAX.

At this point, they do not know what this suspicious package is. As we said, the plane did land without incident about 9 a.m. It is on a western remote area at LAX and being kept away from the terminal, obviously -- Betty.

NGUYEN: Yes, we're looking at live pictures right now. The plane landed in LAX from Guadalajara, Mexico. My question to you: the passengers have been detained, but is any one person in particular being questioned at this point? Do you know?

ROWLANDS: We don't know. All we know according to the airport is that the bags are still on board. They're being looked at by dogs and that the passengers have been brought back to the terminal, according to an LAX spokesperson, via buses and that they are being questioned one by one.

Obviously, what they don't want to do is just let everybody go and then find out that indeed there was a problem with this device and then they don't have anybody who was held responsible.

So how long these passengers will be detained, I would assume, depends on what this suspicious item is and if, indeed, it is dangerous. If it is significant, those folks will be detained until the authorities can get to the bottom of it.

NGUYEN: Very true. As we have been watching, this plane is in a remote area. And the investigation is still under way. Ted Rowlands, thank you for that update.

Kyra, we're going to stay on top of it and bring you the latest.

PHILLIPS: 9/11 terrorists came from outside the U.S. But many people worry the next attack could be homegrown. One such alleged plot is still sending shockwaves north of the border.

CNN's Zain Verjee joins me now live from Toronto -- Zain.

VERJEE: Kyra, the Muslim community here has always been moderate, but they were shocked and dismayed to learn that there could be terrorists among them.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

VERJEE (voice-over): Music and maize, tourist and tailors, a popular stroll on one of the liveliest streets in Toronto. It's one of the most multicultural cities in the world, where tolerance is practiced and preached.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We have been brought up to respect. We have been told that respect everybody like as a human being. Don't look at the person as a Christian or as a Muslim or as a Hindu.

VERJEE: But the colorful and delicate fabric that weaves together this unique city is being tested after an alleged homegrown terrorist plot was exposed. Seventeen Canadian men arrested this summer, accused of plans to behead the prime minister, attack the parliament and blow up buildings.

TAREK FATAH, CANADIAN MUSLIM: We've got terrorism from the foothills of Tora Bora come down to the doorsteps of Toronto.

VERJEE: But some terror experts in Canada say the threat is exaggerated. ERIC MARGOLIS, TERRORISM EXPERT: I think these are a bunch of kids, little young Muslim would-be Rambos who were adolescents shooting off their mouths. But I don't think this was in any way construed as a hotbed of terrorism.

VERJEE: But the alleged plot made many Canadian Muslims feel under scrutiny, under fire, and under siege.

FATAH: Most Muslims in the words of Khali Khali (ph), the British writer, consider themselves being caught between the American hammer and Islamist anvil.

VERJEE (on camera): Toronto's Muslim community is as vibrant as it is diverse. There are groups from dozens of different countries. They speak different languages. They have different cultures, and so they have different perspectives. There is no one Muslim point of view.

(voice-over) Alnoor Sayani (ph) is from Uganda. For the last 10 years, he's been running Lahore Tikka House and has a message for Americans.

ALNOOR SAYANI, OWNER, LAHORE TIKKA HOUSE: We're your northern cousins, and we want to be, you know, embraced rather than looked and viewed that, you know, we're nothing.

VERJEE: Most of his customers didn't want to go on camera, because they're afraid getting on TV could get them in trouble. But a few people were eager to tell their story. Even a 10-year-old weighed in.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're just people, too.

VERJEE: The adults criticized Islamic extremists.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE; They should be caught, and if they are doing something wrong they should be punished.

VERJEE: Muslims in Canada say they've always felt at home here, but a lurking threat of terror could unravel the threads that bind this nation together.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VERJEE: And Kyra, many of the Muslims that we spoke to said, look, they believe that this is really an isolated alleged plot, that the idea of homegrown terrorism in Canada is certainly not a widespread phenomenon -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Zain Verjee, appreciate your report so much.

We've got to get straight to the leader of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, with a taped message now claiming Hezbollah victory. Let's listen in.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) HASSAN NASRALLAH, HEZBOLLAH LEADER (through translator): The martyrs of the civil defense and the security forces and the martyrs of the media, to the men and women, the civilians who were killed, particularly the murders of the massacres, beginning with Marwa Heen (ph) of the beginning of the days and lastly yesterday and in Aspire (ph) and Reis (ph) and the Imam Hassan conflicts in the southern district of Beirut.

Because to speak in this area and to speak about their resistance and their sacrifices, their steadfastness, their resolution, and about the people and the friends and the beloved ones and patience through us an endurance. But loyal ones who stood by us in Lebanon and outside Lebanon, throughout this war.

I don't think that I am qualified and -- to speak and to express what's going on in my heart and my mind. And my feelings and to speak in details about this and sitting in a chair before the camera.

But the suitable place is the near meeting with the people with the beloved ones, with the Mujahideen and to speak with them directly. Therefore what has to do with this issue I will leave for the near occasion, God willing, to speak about all these issues. About the prisoners. About the rest of the occupied land. About Gaza and the suffering of its people, about Palestinian and the sacrifices, about their oppression, about their historical responsibility, about this historic period.

The second issue that I would like to speak about, this has to do with evacuees and their return to their homes and what going to happen after this returns.

PHILLIPS: We apologize -- We got it back. We apologize.

NASRALLAH: To all of those who withstood and the battlefield and endured what was impossible because the level of the bombardment from the sea and air it was unprecedented in the history of Lebanon and the level of destruction that the enemy has inflicted on the homes and in addition to the infrastructure but of the homes because they are directly try to harm the families. It was unprecedented in any Israeli war against Lebanon.

And there are destruction, huge destruction left by this enemy to suppress their vengeance and their savagery and their failure. Only in past few days they have destroyed thousands of homes in the south. In the southern district and in Bekaa and many other Lebanese areas but there was a huge concentration on the southern parts of Lebanon and on the southern district of Beirut.

The goal was, of course, to harm the people and to punish them for their stand and for their honor and to punish them for their faith and their humanity and their self-esteem.

PHILLIPS: Will the cease-fire last? That's what's being asked right now as we continue to hear from both sides, as the cease-fire is put into place in the Middle East. You're hearing now from the leader of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, actually declaring a historic victory in the Israeli conflict. He said his militia's 34-day-old conflict with Israel was a strategic and historic victory for Lebanon.

This is a taped message that he has just recently released via the LBC, the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation. We'll continue to follow his statement. If you want to listen to it right now it is on CNN.com/Pipeline.

Well, when you fly, do you know what's flying with you? You get screened, but what about the tons of cargo that gets loaded into passenger planes every day? The answers -- answers, rather, might surprise you. Take a look at the cargo crunch coming up on LIVE FROM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: It doesn't matter how old, how young or how unsuspicious you look. Every bag you carry gets opened or X-rayed at the airport, and you get scrutinized right down to your shoes. But while you're waiting in line a lot of stuff gets onto your plane and it's barely getting a glance.

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