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First Suspects Face Charges in London for Alleged Terror Plot; Remembering the Anfal Campaign; Bush's Lighter Side
Aired August 22, 2006 - 13:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BUSINESS HEADLINES)
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, a week ago the world had never heard the name John Mark Karr. But a whirlwind of events that started in Thailand brought him to a Los Angeles courtroom for an extradition hearing today. Just the latest stop in a very bizarre journey.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You know, Mr. Karr has stated that he would like a officer or a public defendant appointed on this matter and we're available for appointment.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right, you're so appointed. A demand has been made for your surrender by the state of Colorado, county of Boulder, Mr. Karr. The complaint alleges that you're a fugitive from justice and that you're charged with five counts. You are charged with one count of first degree murder after deliberation, one count of first degree felony murder, one count of first degree kidnapping, one count of second degree kidnapping, one count of sexual assault on a child.
You have the right to demand and procure counsel and the court has appointed the public defender. If you deny that you're the same person charged with a crime in Colorado, you have the right to have an identity hearing within 10 days. You also have the right to the issuance and service of a governor's warrant. You also have the right to waive the issuance and service of a governor's warrant. What is it you'd like to do?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Your honor, Mr. Karr has elected to waiver extradition and he's signed the paperwork.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He has? Can I review it, please? Mr. Karr, I'm holding up a waiver of extradition. Can you see that?
JOHN MARK KARR, SUSPECT IN MURDER OF JONBENET RAMSEY: Yes, your honor.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you read and understand the form?
KARR: Yes, your honor.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You understand that by signing this form, your agreement to be extradited to Colorado?
KARR: Yes, your honor.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right. The court finds that the defendant knowingly and intelligently waived his right to the issuance and service of a governor's warrant. He is remanded to custody without bail and the defendant shall be returned to the state of Colorado. Thank you very much.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And I just want to put thing on the record, that I previously asked for Mr. Karr to be dressed in civilian clothing because I believe that there's a potentially taint of a potential jury pool in this matter and I'd just like to say that request was made on the record.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, you made that request at sidebar and the court denied the request. Thank you very much.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, I'm going to talk to him. Your honor, is there another date set with the court in regard to this matter?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, we will set it for a pickup date in about 10 days, September 6th, 2006. That will be a report date to determine whether or not Mr. Karr has been picked up by the state of Colorado. Thank you very much.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (OFF-MIKE)
KARR: Clothing.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did you want to talk to him some more?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Now, could John Mark Karr's penmanship earn him a stretch in the pen? Well we'll compare a yearbook entry written by Mark Karr to the ransom note found at the home of JonBenet Ramsey. Nancy Grace of CNN's Headline News and Court T.V. will join us to check out the evidence next hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Well the courtroom was packed, security was paramount and all eyes are fixed on the first suspects facing charges in the alleged plot to blow up airliners over the Atlantic. The 11 appeared before a judge in London today. CNN's Robin Oakley was there -- Robin?
ROBIN OAKLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Kyra. Well this was the most significant development since the British nation heard with horror on August the 10th of that plot to blow as many as 10 airliners out of the sky. This was the first 11 suspects to come into court to face charges.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
OAKLEY (voice-over): There was massive security when the 11 suspects arrived in the city of Westminster magistrate's court in London, split into groups in a number of police vehicles. They face accusations of a terrorist conspiracy to murder, which one top policeman has described as planned killing on an unimaginable scale.
Eight face the murder conspiracy charge, specifically that they planned to smuggle component parts of improvised explosive devices onto aircraft, and to assemble them and detonate them in mid flight. They also faced a charge under laws only introduced after last year's London subway bombings of preparing acts of terrorism.
Appearing in court dressed in white sweat tops and gray pants, the eight, all British born Muslim men in their 20s, were remanded in custody until a further court hearing on September 4. Three others faced lesser charges. Cossar Ali, a woman married to one the eight was accused with one other suspect of failing to provide information which could prevent a terrorist act.
And a 17-year-old youth who cannot be named was charged with having materiels of use to terrorists. They, too, have been remanded in custody. Anti-terrorist police say the evidence to be produced in court will include surveillance videos, martyrdom tapes and bomb making equipment, including hydrogen peroxide, electrical components and explosives instructions. A senior officer has urged the public to remain on their guard.
PETER CLARKE, METROPOLITAN POLICE: I would like to reassure the public that we are doing everything we can to keep you safe, for you to live your lives without being in constant fear. However, we must be realistic. The threat from terrorism is real. It is here. It is deadly. And it is enduring.
OAKLEY: Police say searches of nearly 70 premises have led to the seizure of more than 400 computers, 200 mobile phones and 8,000 data storage devices.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
OAKLEY: Nothing in this case will happen very fast. Police say it will take months to sift through all the evidence. In the meantime, the authorities have to decide whether to apply to the courts for more time to question the 11 suspects they are still holding without charge -- Kyra?
PHILLIPS: Now Robin, the police seem to have given a lot more information about this case than they usually do. Why would they do that?
OAKLEY: Well, we've heard a lot more about the evidence, certainly, in terms of the martyrdom videos, the bomb making devices and so on. This, I think, is the police trying to reassure the public that they've not been hyping up the terrorism threat, because there was a case a couple of months ago where they raided a house in London, arrested two men, shot one of them, took the house apart and then had to release them both for lack of evidence without charge.
So this is the police showing that they really do feel they've got some solid evidence to make the case this time and to put the public very much on their guard, warning them that there's a lot more of this kind of thing happening there in the background, Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Robin Oakley, thanks so much. And join us tomorrow night for a special "CNN PRESENTS: In the Footsteps of bin Laden." Our team traveled to four continents in ten countries to discover the real Osama bin Laden. That's Wednesday night, 9:00 Eastern, only on CNN.
Atrocities aimed at genocide or hostilities aimed at legitimate threat? Saddam Hussein claims the latter, as the former Iraqi dictator and six others stand trial for killing as many 100,000 people in Kurdish northern Iraq in 1988, many of them civilians. Hussein's forces allegedly used chemical weapons.
Here's a witness for the prosecution.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ALI MUSTAFA HAMA, WITNESS (through translator): We could smell something strange. It was something like rotten apples or garlic. A few minutes later, people started feeling sick and their eyes were burning. Then it was dark.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
Well, two of the defendants testified that Iraqi forces were fighting Iranian troops and Kurdish rebels. Testimony resumes tomorrow.
The so-called Anfal campaign ran from February to September 1988. In 2006, in and around the killing fields, death and loss and grief are still in the air, as is a longing for justice.
CNN's Harris Whitbeck has that.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HARRIS WHITBECK, CNN CORRESPONDENT, (voice over): The cemetery near the village of Swasnan in Iraqi Kurdistan is a peaceful place. Grave markers carved from local stone are shaded by old, leafy trees. For the last 16 years, Gabian Mahid (ph) has visited the cemetery every two weeks. Six of her relatives are buried here.
GABIAN MAHID, (through translator): This is my husband Abdula's (ph) grave. This is my daughter Asla's (ph) grave. This is my other daughter Gajal's (ph) grave. This is my son-in's law grave, and the other two graves are his parents.
WHITBECK: They all died the same date March 22, 1988, killed by the mustard gas and sarin which prosecutors say Saddam Hussein ordered unleashed on some 2,000 villages in Kurdistan. Part of a campaign of ethnic cleansing code named Al Anfal, the spoils.
Just down the road in Swasnan, Mohammed Abdullah keeps the photos of the 13 members of his family he lost on that day. He remembers the attack as if it were yesterday. MOHAMMED ABDULLAH, FAMILY KILLED IN ATTACK (through translator): Two hours before sunset, a plane came over this town and it hovered around the village for 30 minutes. During dinnertime, this village was attacked by rockets. I was at my sister's house at the time. I still remember how women and children were horrified and how they were screaming.
WHITBECK: Mohammed was saved that day because he was upwind of the area where the gas was dropped. But he was condemned to relive time and again the nightmare of what he saw.
As Saddam Hussein and his top Baath Party officials and military commanders face trial for the al Anfal campaign, some of the survivors will testify. And Mohammed hopes the trial will somehow bring him peace.
ABDULLAH: I'm happy with the trial. Not only me, but all Kurdish people are happy to see Saddam go through this trial. We're all ready to be witnesses against Saddam in this trial.
WHITBECK: The group Human Rights Watch says over 100,000 people died during the attacks, which lasted several weeks. Saddam Hussein and his officers are accused of being the first government ever to use chemical weapons against its own people.
The Kurdish survivors say they think this second trial for Saddam Hussein is a luxury he doesn't deserve.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): He should have been executed the day he was captured because he did many horrible things in his life.
WHITBECK: Saddam Hussein already faces a death sentence if he's convicted of crimes against humanity in his first trial. He faces the same penalty if found guilty in this one.
Harris Whitbeck, CNN, Baghdad.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Tuesday or doomsday? It's August 22, and so far, all's well. But ahead on LIVE FROM, we'll tell you why some people believe today is the beginning of the end.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Back to normal and back to class. We're talking about students at Virginia Tech now, starting their semester just one day late, having spent yesterday in lockdown over a manhunt. Police caught Charles Morva late in the afternoon. He'd escaped police custody as a robbery suspect, but now is accused of killing a security guard and a sheriff's deputy while on the run. Morva is being held in a regional jail.
A courthouse shootout in Georgia. A prisoner in Jackson grabbed a deputy's gun, shot the deputy and tried to get away in a sheriff's van. Police say the inmate was shot by other deputies and later died. The wounded deputy is in the hospital. He's said to be in good condition right now.
Also in Georgia, a major backyard drug bust. Feds stormed the house in the Atlanta suburb of Buford, seizing almost 190 pounds of crystal meth buried in trash cans in the backyard. They're calling it one of the largest methamphetamine busts on the East Coast. Drug enforcement agents also seized 90 pounds of cocaine and arrested four men.
(WEATHER REPORT)
PHILLIPS: The president delivers the punch lines.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Stretch. Who you working for, Stretch?
QUESTION: The "Washington Examiner."
BUSH: Glad you found work.
QUESTION: Thank you very much.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: President Bush shows his lighter side. See it on CNN, right here on LIVE FROM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: He may never host the Oscars, or sit in for Jon Stewart. But as he nears the second half of his second term, President Bush is proving he can get a few laughs from a sometimes adversarial audience.
CNN's Jeanne Moos has been watching from the wings.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): He's coming.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Two-minute warning.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: About two minute warning.
MOOS: Two minutes until the jokes start. One of the president's favorite weapons to deflect and disarm is humor, which is why seersucker was the star at Monday's presidential press conference.
BUSH: By the way, seersucker is coming back. I hope everybody gets it.
KEN HERMAN, COX NEWSPAPER: I think he insulted my suit no less than three times, but who's counting. BUSH: Yes, Herman.
MOOS: Ken Herman has reported on President Bush for more than a dozen years. He's used to the Bush brand of humor.
BUSH: Let me finish my question, please. His hand's going up and I'm kind of getting old and, you know, just getting into my peroration, look it up.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Peroration.
MOOS (on camera): Peroration, the concluding part of a discourse.
(voice-over): But even in the beginning part of his discourse ...
BUSH: Helen. What's so funny about me saying Helen?
MOOS: There was a little ripple in the room because the president stopped calling on Helen Thomas for a couple of years.
BUSH: Let me finish.
MOOS: And when he had finished...
BUSH: It's kind of like dancing together, isn't it?
MOOS: Though Helen later joked, "I don't waltz with this man."
BUSH: Stretch. Who are you working for, Stretch?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The "Washington Examiner."
BUSH: Oh good, I'm glad you found work.
MOOS: Actually Stretch's full nickname is Super Stretch, since he's six foot seven. There's also Little Stretch and Plain Old Stretch. Sometimes the president stretches his luck.
BUSH: Peter, are you going to ask that question with those shades on?
PETER WALLSTEN, "LOS ANGELES TIMES": I can take them off if you want.
BUSH: No, I'm interested in the shade look, seriously.
WALLSTEN: All right, I'll keep it.
MOOS: Turns out "Los Angeles Time's" reporter Peter Wallsten has an eye disease. The president later called him to apologize. Monday's Q&A took place in the new temporary press briefing room. The old one is being remodeled. Reporters fear they'll never get back inside the actual White House.
QUESTION: Are we coming back?
QUESTION: Ever?
BUSH: Absolutely you're coming back. You're coming back to the bosom of the White House.
MOOS: But being bosom buddies doesn't guarantee the question asked will be a soft ball. The president talked about 9/11 and Iraq in the same breath. Ken "Seersucker" Herman interjected.
BUSH: What did Iraq have to do with that?
HERMAN: The attack on the World Trade Center.
BUSH: Nothing.
MOOS: Another media bloodsucker disguised in seersucker.
HERMAN: If I can make the leader of the free world happy with what I'm wearing, so be it.
BUSH: Ridiculous looking outfit.
MOOS: Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: You can catch more of Jeanne Moos's stories in THE SITUATION ROOM this afternoon, 4:00 p.m. Eastern, and the live, prime- time edition at 7:00 p.m.
Well, could his penmanship earn him a stretch in the pen? We're going to compare a yearbook entry written by John Mark Karr to the ransom note found at the home of JonBenet Ramsey. Nancy Grace of CNN Headline News and Court TV join us to check out the evidence. The second hour of LIVE FROM is straight ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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