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FAA Steps In: Delays At Chicago O'Hare Trigger Delays Nationwide

Aired August 04, 2004 - 11:00   ET

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

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


DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: From CNN Center in Atlanta, good morning, once again. I'm Daryn Kagan.
Up first this hour on CNN, we're learning more today about the intelligence that the government used to raise the terror threat level for financial institutions.

Law enforcement sources tell CNN that there are about 20 potential financial targets, not just the five that were reported earlier. The potential targets are said to be broken down in to three categories there is the order of priority depending upon how much and how detailed the information is.

Officials in the U.S. and Pakistan say that suspected al Qaeda computer expert Mohammad Naeem Noor Khan is the key link in this chain of intelligence. However, Pakistan said security forces there have captured other people who have provided what they call valuable information.

For more on the story, we're joined now by our Pentagon correspondent, Barbara Starr.

Barbara, good morning.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Daryn.

Well, intelligence officials now saying it was more than just the information on Mr. Khan's computer that led them to raise the level to orange over the weekend in Washington, New York and Newark, New Jersey, where these financial targets, these buildings, are of such concern.

The information on that computer -- 500 computer files or images, if you will -- some of it was quite old, some of it dating to before the 9/11 attacks. But what officials are saying today, and they have continued to insist, is that there has been additional corroborating information, multiple streams of other intelligence that has come in and corroborated some of the information on that computer. That those other streams of intelligence are quite new, within the last weeks or days.

And once the U.S. intelligence community had that additional information, although they are not saying exactly where it came from, but once they had it, that they simply had no choice but to go to orange for these areas of particular concern. Part of this, Daryn, addressing what has been raised in the last few days, criticism by some people that the orange level was based on this old information. But intelligence sources saying, no. They did have corroborating information, and it led to the concern that al Qaeda might be putting the pieces in to place for an attack in the United States.

But still, they say, no specific time line, no idea what, when al Qaeda was planning whatever they were planning -- Daryn?

KAGAN: Well speaking of al Qaeda, another question I want to ask you about here, Barbara. Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi from within Iraq, word that he actually was trying to reach out to Osama bin Laden. What can you tell us about that?

STARR: Indeed another piece of mystery, if you will. Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian terrorist operative operating inside Iraq responsible, it is believed, for many of the insurgency attacks.

U.S. officials say that within the last few weeks there is credible intelligence that he tried, or at least his network tried, to make contact with Osama bin Laden to discuss the insurgency in Iraq.

Not clear, of course, whether that contact was ever made because, of course, nobody exactly has a street address for Osama bin Laden. So it's not really clear what happened with all of that, but U.S. intelligence also keeping a very close eye on those reports -- Daryn?

KAGAN: Can't exactly call 411 and ask a listing for Osama bin Laden, not that easy.

Barbara Starr at the Pentagon, thank you for that.

Other news today, British authorities are questioning 12 men who were arrested in the anti-terrorism sweep. And Pakistani officials say there is a link between the raids in Britain and information gathered by Pakistani intelligence.

Authorities are searching homes in four locations around England. The 12 men are being held at a central London police station. A 13th person picked up in the raids was released.

Pakistani intelligence officials say that the arrests were the result of information from a suspected al Qaeda computer expert.

Well back here in the states, getting on a plane? Got a lot more time-consuming after 9/11. You know that. Now frustration is growing because of flight delays.

The FAA is holding a meeting this morning to deal with that problem. It's especially bad at Chicago's O'Hare, a major hub that impact fliers at hundreds of other airports.

Our Kathleen Koch is in Washington on time, we might say, no delay there.

Good morning.

KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Daryn.

Well, if you have flown anywhere lately in Chicago or elsewhere, you may have noticed the planes and airports are packed because traffic is nearly back to pre-9/11 levels. So needless to say, the delays are returning, as well.

What the federal government is focusing on today is Chicago specifically because it's delays just keep worsening. It had a record 58,600 this year alone.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARION BLAKELY, FAA ADMINISTRATOR: People are flying again. And judging by the schedules, a great many of them are flying with tickets stamped Chicago O'Hare.

But the on-time performance at O'Hare is unacceptably low. And as Chicago goes, so goes the system.

Delays in Chicago trigger delays throughout the system. The fact of the matter is, we can't let scheduling at O'Hare hold the whole system hostage.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOCH: The FAA already tried earlier this year to get the two major airlines at O'Hare, American American and United to reduce their schedules by 7.5 percent, but the delays have not improved. So the Transportation Department today is holding this meeting with some 15 airlines to force them help come up with a solution.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NORMAN MINETA, TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY: We'll look at it in terms of operations not in terms of the bottom-dollar line impact. They have to look at that, once we figure out how many operations are going to be allowed, as to how they're going to have their flights utilized.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOCH: What the FAA and the government specifically is proposing is limiting arrivals as Chicago O'Hare to 86 per hour. Right now some 78 to 101 flights land there every hour.

Federal officials hope to get all the airlines to sign on to that by roughly August 11th with that schedule cut going into place by November. Now, Daryn, it's important to point out that this would be temporary just for six months to see whether or not it helps or whether or not more drastic steps will be needed.

KAGAN: So, if you're going to cut back on flights, it sounds like, well, the flights will leave on-time, but it might be harder to get a flight. KOCH: Correct. Fewer flights, flights might be more expensive. Other solutions they are looking at, Chicago has a $15 million expansion proposal out there to increase capacity. And then there are the air traffic controllers there. They say that they are understaffed. They say if you put more controllers in the tower, you can handle more flights.

KAGAN: Kathleen Koch in Washington, thank you.

And now on to Iraq and the fierce fighting between Iraqi police and insurgents in the northern city of Mosul. Our John Vause is following the latest developments, and he joins us live from Baghdad.

John, hello.

JOHN VAUSE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Daryn.

A dozen people are dead, at least 26 our wounded according to Iraqi police and hospital officials in the northern city of Mosul.

According to witnesses, masked men were on the streets carrying rocket propelled grenades and assault rifles. They say the fighting began when those masked men attacked and Iraqi police patrol.

In the fighting which followed, loud explosions could be heard across Mosul. The U.S. military says a police station in the eastern part of the city was also attacked by rocket propelled grenades as well as small arms fire. It has been a violent day in Mosul.

Before this most recent flare up, earlier today a rocket propelled grenade hit a house. And a car bomb which was meant for a U.S. convoy exploded, killing two Iraqi civilians. There were no U.S. casualties.

Now a curfew has been put in place in Mosul -- 1.75 million people have been ordered indoors until some time tomorrow morning. A spokesperson for the provincial government out there says that right now the situation is tense but it is relatively calm -- Daryn?

KAGAN: John, what can you tell us about the story of some Jordanian hostages being released?

VAUSE: We've spoken with a relative of one of those truck drivers. Four truck drivers were held for five days by this so-called debt group. In fact, they had threatened to start beheading some of those truck drivers if their demands weren't met.

They were demanding that all Jordanian interests withdraw from Iraq. But this relative of one of those truck drivers says that tribal leaders in Fallujah actually negotiated the release of these truck drivers earlier today.

There were some reports that they were, in fact, released by a raid of some kind by local Iraqis in Fallujah. We have no confirmation of that, but we have been told that it was a negotiated release, that at some stage there was some demand for a ransom. But this relative of one of the truck drivers says, in fact, no money was paid; and all these men have now been released -- Daryn?

KAGAN: John Vause in Baghdad, thank you.

Back here in the states -- she had a habit of not staying away from a certain boy. But now he's a man. She is now out of jail. What is next for Mary Kay Letourneau now? We'll talk to one author who says he may know.

Also she reportedly says it was just all in fun, but the military isn't laughing. The latest from a hearing that is putting private Lynndie England on the hot seat.

And later, another controversy with the Bush girls, a diverted flight and a whole lot of annoyed passengers.

CNN LIVE TODAY is back after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MARY SNOW, CNN FINANCIAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm Mary Snow at the New York Stock Exchange where stocks are stuck in the red for a second straight day. This on concerns about oil.

Oil prices have eased a bit this morning but still are near yesterday's record high. Investors today are brushing aside some better than expected economic news on factory orders and growth in the services sector.

Checking the numbers -- right now the Dow Jones industrials are down 28 points. The Nasdaq composite is falling three quarters of 1 percent. There are about two stocks losing ground for every one gaining here at the New York Stock Exchange.

And that is the latest from Wall Street.

CNN's LIVE TODAY will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: Convicted child rapist Mary Kay Letourneau is out of prison this morning. She has served her seven years for carrying on a sexual relationship with a sixth grade student in Washington state. She had two children with the boy, who was 12 when the affair began. He is now 21.

Gregg Olsen wrote a book about the Letourneau case. It's called "If Loving You Is Wrong." And he joins us in Seattle this morning.

Gregg, good morning, thanks for being here with us.

GREGG OLSEN, AUTHOR, "IF LOVING YOU IS WRONG": Good morning, Daryn.

KAGAN: Part of the terms of her release, she is not to have any contact with Vili Fualaau the father of her children. You say in your book, though, that she actually -- there have been ongoing contact even while she was in prison.

OLSEN: Yes, there was. That was a very difficult thing for Mary to abide by, that no contact order. She used every way that she could to get messages out him, primarily to get him to go to the judge and get that no contact order lifted. She sent letters, tapes, everything.

KAGAN: And that's something he has not done.

OLSEN: That's right. It's very curious in a lot of ways that he's waited this long in order to do so. Although we're hearing here in Seattle that he does have a lawyer and that somebody is helping him finally get that done.

KAGAN: Now, what about these means of communication that you say she used from prison, tapes, letters. What are some of the things that were contained in those?

OLSEN: Mostly what she was doing was she was really pushing him to, you know, I'm here in prison, I need you to come and get me. I need you to tell the world that you were a part of this, that it wasn't just me wanting to be with you, that you were in love with me and this was a consensual relationship.

She threatened. She cajoled. She did everything. She promised, you know, when I get out, we'll be married and we'll have a mansion and we'll have all these things. Everything that was probably very appealing to a young kid.

KAGAN: Have you had any contact with Mary Kate Letourneau or with Vili Fualaau?

OLSEN: I saw Vili Fualaau maybe three weeks ago. And I haven't talked to Mary in probably two years or a year and a half.

KAGAN: And so, did anybody within the family show you these tapes or these letters?

OLSEN: Yes, I saw the letters. They were part of a court file. And I've listened to the tapes.

KAGAN: And do you think it's different with this case, just even how society looks at it because we're talking about an older woman and a boy rather than the reverse?

OLSEN: Yes, we're talking about really a very appealing woman. That's one of the interesting things here. She comes from a very privileged background, you know. She was the daughter of a U.S. congressman.

She was pretty, and she was kind. Everybody loved her. So that's part of the fascination. I mean, it's not just that she was a woman, but it was that this particular woman was the one. KAGAN: But also we saw the teenagers outside the prison today holding up signs -- I'm 18, I'm available. I think if it was a male sex offender who was being released, I don't think you would see young girls holding signs like that outside.

OLSEN: No, of course not. I mean, this is really, Daryn, this has passed in to the ridiculous. I was there last night. It was about midnight. And there was a swarm of people. It was like a party atmosphere. It wasn't like a sex offender was coming out of prison. It was really like a celebrity was about to make her debut.

KAGAN: And meanwhile, what happens to her now? Where does she go? How does she restart her life?

OLSEN: Yes, it's going to be very difficult. She will register of course, today, we believe, as a sex offender. She'll have to make notification of where she is living.

She will have to start over and pick up the pieces. It's going to be tough. But she is a strong woman, in a lot of ways. She has a great resolve. She has some talents and some abilities that have been overshadowed by the scandal of this affair.

KAGAN: Well, understandably. As I understand it, she has been able to see her six children while she is in prison.

OLSEN: That's right. She sees the little girls. She has seen them regularly every two weeks or so. The older children that now live in Alaska, they see her maybe once or twice a year. It has not been that frequent.

KAGAN: And if there's one thing that she does understand or appears to understand that her actions have had incredible impact on the children.

OLSEN: That is something new. You know, Daryn, that's really something new. In the past, she pretty much focused on herself and on Vili Fualaau, and really was thinking that the rest of us should just but out of it and that it was really none of our concern, and it really had no impact on anyone else.

Now she is thinking about her kids and thinking about, you know, what her actions have done. And that's a very good sign. I think that will help her a lot.

KAGAN: Gregg Olsen, thanks for joining us from Seattle.

An investigator says that a female soldier accused in the Iraq prisoner abuse scandal told him it was just for fun. But Lynndie England's lawyer says the government is trying to make her a scapegoat.

National correspondent Bob Franken is covering that hearing for us in Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

Bob, good morning. BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning. It is about to start. The schedule is for it to begin in about 10 minutes.

Now, we're expecting to hear telephone testimony today from members of the 372 military police unit. That is the one that Lynndie England was a member of and the one that is so implicated in all of this controversy over the treatment of prisoners in Iraq.

We're also waiting to see when Lynndie England shows up, if she does, after a hard day for her yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FRANKEN (voice-over): "It was just fun," an investigator says she told him, but now Private First Class Lynndie England, who is late in her pregnancy, faces 19 charges, a potential 38 years in prison for her alleged role in the treatment of inmates held in the hellhole that was Abu Ghraib prison.

Among the most notorious pictures that caused worldwide outrage is the one that shows England holding a detainee on a leash. She told investigators she did so at the behest of Corporal Charles Graner, accused of being a leader of the prisoner mistreatment and identified as her attorney as the father of England's baby.

After attending the morning session, England failed to show up in the afternoon.

LT. COL. GREG WOODS, MILITARY ATTORNEY: During the lunch break PFC England called her doctor, and her doctor requested that she come in to see him. And so that is why she was not present during this afternoon's hearing.

FRANKEN: But before she left, an investigator described sexually explicit pictures of England which became the basis for several of the indecency charges against her. As he described them, she looked down at the table.

RICHARD HERNANDEZ, LYNNDIE ENGLAND'S ATTORNEY: She's as stressed as anyone else would be if you were a 20-year-old, 21-year-old young lady who is facing 30 years for pictures, intimate photographs that are -- you would see at Mardi Gras or on spring break. But not in this case, she is facing 30 years.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FRANKEN: But the substantively controversial pictures are the ones that show alleged mistreatment of the prisoners in Iraq, pictures that have brought major embarrassment to the United States -- Daryn?

KAGAN: Bob Franken at Fort Bragg. Thank you, Bob.

It isn't the worst hurricane ever to hit the Carolina coast, but it probably is not the best either. Folks trying to power up and dry off after the run in with Alex.

And later, playing politics, literally. How a new computer game puts you at the center of the campaign coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: Hurricane Alex is spinning out to sea this morning after brushing North Carolina's Outer Banks. The storm flooded highways and cut power to thousands. Alex's 100 mile-an-hour winds stayed well offshore.

Rob Marciano keeping an eye on things. What is that? Oh, that's just a hurricane graphic behind you.

ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, that's it. Just a little schmancy hurricane graphic.

KAGAN: You've got the fancy graphics. What about the fancy map?

MARCIANO: Well, let's show it to you. We'll go over the totals or at least the reported wind gusts from yesterday.

(WEATHER BREAK)

MARCIANO: Back to you in the studio.

KAGAN: Remember what Mark Twain said about San Francisco.

MARCIANO: Coolest summer, coolest winter.

KAGAN: Coldest winter I ever spent was summer in San Francisco.

MARCIANO: That's right. Couldn't be more true.

KAGAN: Absolutely. Good morning to San Francisco.

Thank you, Rob.

MARCIANO: You bet.

KAGAN: It is arrivederci Americans. Get this, the U.S. men's basketball team is getting a wake-up call before the Athens Olympics.

In exhibition play in Europe, the U.S. team got trounced -- not just beat -- trounced by Italy, not previously known as a hoop powerhouse. The final 95-78. The U.S. is unbeaten at the summer games and Olympic qualifyings since NBA players were allowed on the team in 1992.

The team is younger than in years past. We do have to point that out.

Well, they both want the same thing. Now they are both in the same town. Up next, Davenport, Iowa, the center of the political nation today, the scene of a swing state showdown between Kerry and Bush.

We're back after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: I'm Daryn Kagan in Atlanta. Let's check what's happening now in the news, Wednesday, August 4th.

President Bush and John Kerry are campaigning in Iowa today. They are holding events 90 minutes and three blocks apart in a state considered a toss up for 2004.

Al Gore won Iowa four years ago by fewer than 5,000 votes.

Police and insurgents battled in the northern Iraqi city of Mogul today. At least 12 people were killed. The provincial governor has imposed a curfew to give police time to regain full control.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com


Aired August 4, 2004 - 11:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: From CNN Center in Atlanta, good morning, once again. I'm Daryn Kagan.
Up first this hour on CNN, we're learning more today about the intelligence that the government used to raise the terror threat level for financial institutions.

Law enforcement sources tell CNN that there are about 20 potential financial targets, not just the five that were reported earlier. The potential targets are said to be broken down in to three categories there is the order of priority depending upon how much and how detailed the information is.

Officials in the U.S. and Pakistan say that suspected al Qaeda computer expert Mohammad Naeem Noor Khan is the key link in this chain of intelligence. However, Pakistan said security forces there have captured other people who have provided what they call valuable information.

For more on the story, we're joined now by our Pentagon correspondent, Barbara Starr.

Barbara, good morning.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Daryn.

Well, intelligence officials now saying it was more than just the information on Mr. Khan's computer that led them to raise the level to orange over the weekend in Washington, New York and Newark, New Jersey, where these financial targets, these buildings, are of such concern.

The information on that computer -- 500 computer files or images, if you will -- some of it was quite old, some of it dating to before the 9/11 attacks. But what officials are saying today, and they have continued to insist, is that there has been additional corroborating information, multiple streams of other intelligence that has come in and corroborated some of the information on that computer. That those other streams of intelligence are quite new, within the last weeks or days.

And once the U.S. intelligence community had that additional information, although they are not saying exactly where it came from, but once they had it, that they simply had no choice but to go to orange for these areas of particular concern. Part of this, Daryn, addressing what has been raised in the last few days, criticism by some people that the orange level was based on this old information. But intelligence sources saying, no. They did have corroborating information, and it led to the concern that al Qaeda might be putting the pieces in to place for an attack in the United States.

But still, they say, no specific time line, no idea what, when al Qaeda was planning whatever they were planning -- Daryn?

KAGAN: Well speaking of al Qaeda, another question I want to ask you about here, Barbara. Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi from within Iraq, word that he actually was trying to reach out to Osama bin Laden. What can you tell us about that?

STARR: Indeed another piece of mystery, if you will. Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian terrorist operative operating inside Iraq responsible, it is believed, for many of the insurgency attacks.

U.S. officials say that within the last few weeks there is credible intelligence that he tried, or at least his network tried, to make contact with Osama bin Laden to discuss the insurgency in Iraq.

Not clear, of course, whether that contact was ever made because, of course, nobody exactly has a street address for Osama bin Laden. So it's not really clear what happened with all of that, but U.S. intelligence also keeping a very close eye on those reports -- Daryn?

KAGAN: Can't exactly call 411 and ask a listing for Osama bin Laden, not that easy.

Barbara Starr at the Pentagon, thank you for that.

Other news today, British authorities are questioning 12 men who were arrested in the anti-terrorism sweep. And Pakistani officials say there is a link between the raids in Britain and information gathered by Pakistani intelligence.

Authorities are searching homes in four locations around England. The 12 men are being held at a central London police station. A 13th person picked up in the raids was released.

Pakistani intelligence officials say that the arrests were the result of information from a suspected al Qaeda computer expert.

Well back here in the states, getting on a plane? Got a lot more time-consuming after 9/11. You know that. Now frustration is growing because of flight delays.

The FAA is holding a meeting this morning to deal with that problem. It's especially bad at Chicago's O'Hare, a major hub that impact fliers at hundreds of other airports.

Our Kathleen Koch is in Washington on time, we might say, no delay there.

Good morning.

KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Daryn.

Well, if you have flown anywhere lately in Chicago or elsewhere, you may have noticed the planes and airports are packed because traffic is nearly back to pre-9/11 levels. So needless to say, the delays are returning, as well.

What the federal government is focusing on today is Chicago specifically because it's delays just keep worsening. It had a record 58,600 this year alone.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARION BLAKELY, FAA ADMINISTRATOR: People are flying again. And judging by the schedules, a great many of them are flying with tickets stamped Chicago O'Hare.

But the on-time performance at O'Hare is unacceptably low. And as Chicago goes, so goes the system.

Delays in Chicago trigger delays throughout the system. The fact of the matter is, we can't let scheduling at O'Hare hold the whole system hostage.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOCH: The FAA already tried earlier this year to get the two major airlines at O'Hare, American American and United to reduce their schedules by 7.5 percent, but the delays have not improved. So the Transportation Department today is holding this meeting with some 15 airlines to force them help come up with a solution.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NORMAN MINETA, TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY: We'll look at it in terms of operations not in terms of the bottom-dollar line impact. They have to look at that, once we figure out how many operations are going to be allowed, as to how they're going to have their flights utilized.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOCH: What the FAA and the government specifically is proposing is limiting arrivals as Chicago O'Hare to 86 per hour. Right now some 78 to 101 flights land there every hour.

Federal officials hope to get all the airlines to sign on to that by roughly August 11th with that schedule cut going into place by November. Now, Daryn, it's important to point out that this would be temporary just for six months to see whether or not it helps or whether or not more drastic steps will be needed.

KAGAN: So, if you're going to cut back on flights, it sounds like, well, the flights will leave on-time, but it might be harder to get a flight. KOCH: Correct. Fewer flights, flights might be more expensive. Other solutions they are looking at, Chicago has a $15 million expansion proposal out there to increase capacity. And then there are the air traffic controllers there. They say that they are understaffed. They say if you put more controllers in the tower, you can handle more flights.

KAGAN: Kathleen Koch in Washington, thank you.

And now on to Iraq and the fierce fighting between Iraqi police and insurgents in the northern city of Mosul. Our John Vause is following the latest developments, and he joins us live from Baghdad.

John, hello.

JOHN VAUSE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Daryn.

A dozen people are dead, at least 26 our wounded according to Iraqi police and hospital officials in the northern city of Mosul.

According to witnesses, masked men were on the streets carrying rocket propelled grenades and assault rifles. They say the fighting began when those masked men attacked and Iraqi police patrol.

In the fighting which followed, loud explosions could be heard across Mosul. The U.S. military says a police station in the eastern part of the city was also attacked by rocket propelled grenades as well as small arms fire. It has been a violent day in Mosul.

Before this most recent flare up, earlier today a rocket propelled grenade hit a house. And a car bomb which was meant for a U.S. convoy exploded, killing two Iraqi civilians. There were no U.S. casualties.

Now a curfew has been put in place in Mosul -- 1.75 million people have been ordered indoors until some time tomorrow morning. A spokesperson for the provincial government out there says that right now the situation is tense but it is relatively calm -- Daryn?

KAGAN: John, what can you tell us about the story of some Jordanian hostages being released?

VAUSE: We've spoken with a relative of one of those truck drivers. Four truck drivers were held for five days by this so-called debt group. In fact, they had threatened to start beheading some of those truck drivers if their demands weren't met.

They were demanding that all Jordanian interests withdraw from Iraq. But this relative of one of those truck drivers says that tribal leaders in Fallujah actually negotiated the release of these truck drivers earlier today.

There were some reports that they were, in fact, released by a raid of some kind by local Iraqis in Fallujah. We have no confirmation of that, but we have been told that it was a negotiated release, that at some stage there was some demand for a ransom. But this relative of one of the truck drivers says, in fact, no money was paid; and all these men have now been released -- Daryn?

KAGAN: John Vause in Baghdad, thank you.

Back here in the states -- she had a habit of not staying away from a certain boy. But now he's a man. She is now out of jail. What is next for Mary Kay Letourneau now? We'll talk to one author who says he may know.

Also she reportedly says it was just all in fun, but the military isn't laughing. The latest from a hearing that is putting private Lynndie England on the hot seat.

And later, another controversy with the Bush girls, a diverted flight and a whole lot of annoyed passengers.

CNN LIVE TODAY is back after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MARY SNOW, CNN FINANCIAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm Mary Snow at the New York Stock Exchange where stocks are stuck in the red for a second straight day. This on concerns about oil.

Oil prices have eased a bit this morning but still are near yesterday's record high. Investors today are brushing aside some better than expected economic news on factory orders and growth in the services sector.

Checking the numbers -- right now the Dow Jones industrials are down 28 points. The Nasdaq composite is falling three quarters of 1 percent. There are about two stocks losing ground for every one gaining here at the New York Stock Exchange.

And that is the latest from Wall Street.

CNN's LIVE TODAY will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: Convicted child rapist Mary Kay Letourneau is out of prison this morning. She has served her seven years for carrying on a sexual relationship with a sixth grade student in Washington state. She had two children with the boy, who was 12 when the affair began. He is now 21.

Gregg Olsen wrote a book about the Letourneau case. It's called "If Loving You Is Wrong." And he joins us in Seattle this morning.

Gregg, good morning, thanks for being here with us.

GREGG OLSEN, AUTHOR, "IF LOVING YOU IS WRONG": Good morning, Daryn.

KAGAN: Part of the terms of her release, she is not to have any contact with Vili Fualaau the father of her children. You say in your book, though, that she actually -- there have been ongoing contact even while she was in prison.

OLSEN: Yes, there was. That was a very difficult thing for Mary to abide by, that no contact order. She used every way that she could to get messages out him, primarily to get him to go to the judge and get that no contact order lifted. She sent letters, tapes, everything.

KAGAN: And that's something he has not done.

OLSEN: That's right. It's very curious in a lot of ways that he's waited this long in order to do so. Although we're hearing here in Seattle that he does have a lawyer and that somebody is helping him finally get that done.

KAGAN: Now, what about these means of communication that you say she used from prison, tapes, letters. What are some of the things that were contained in those?

OLSEN: Mostly what she was doing was she was really pushing him to, you know, I'm here in prison, I need you to come and get me. I need you to tell the world that you were a part of this, that it wasn't just me wanting to be with you, that you were in love with me and this was a consensual relationship.

She threatened. She cajoled. She did everything. She promised, you know, when I get out, we'll be married and we'll have a mansion and we'll have all these things. Everything that was probably very appealing to a young kid.

KAGAN: Have you had any contact with Mary Kate Letourneau or with Vili Fualaau?

OLSEN: I saw Vili Fualaau maybe three weeks ago. And I haven't talked to Mary in probably two years or a year and a half.

KAGAN: And so, did anybody within the family show you these tapes or these letters?

OLSEN: Yes, I saw the letters. They were part of a court file. And I've listened to the tapes.

KAGAN: And do you think it's different with this case, just even how society looks at it because we're talking about an older woman and a boy rather than the reverse?

OLSEN: Yes, we're talking about really a very appealing woman. That's one of the interesting things here. She comes from a very privileged background, you know. She was the daughter of a U.S. congressman.

She was pretty, and she was kind. Everybody loved her. So that's part of the fascination. I mean, it's not just that she was a woman, but it was that this particular woman was the one. KAGAN: But also we saw the teenagers outside the prison today holding up signs -- I'm 18, I'm available. I think if it was a male sex offender who was being released, I don't think you would see young girls holding signs like that outside.

OLSEN: No, of course not. I mean, this is really, Daryn, this has passed in to the ridiculous. I was there last night. It was about midnight. And there was a swarm of people. It was like a party atmosphere. It wasn't like a sex offender was coming out of prison. It was really like a celebrity was about to make her debut.

KAGAN: And meanwhile, what happens to her now? Where does she go? How does she restart her life?

OLSEN: Yes, it's going to be very difficult. She will register of course, today, we believe, as a sex offender. She'll have to make notification of where she is living.

She will have to start over and pick up the pieces. It's going to be tough. But she is a strong woman, in a lot of ways. She has a great resolve. She has some talents and some abilities that have been overshadowed by the scandal of this affair.

KAGAN: Well, understandably. As I understand it, she has been able to see her six children while she is in prison.

OLSEN: That's right. She sees the little girls. She has seen them regularly every two weeks or so. The older children that now live in Alaska, they see her maybe once or twice a year. It has not been that frequent.

KAGAN: And if there's one thing that she does understand or appears to understand that her actions have had incredible impact on the children.

OLSEN: That is something new. You know, Daryn, that's really something new. In the past, she pretty much focused on herself and on Vili Fualaau, and really was thinking that the rest of us should just but out of it and that it was really none of our concern, and it really had no impact on anyone else.

Now she is thinking about her kids and thinking about, you know, what her actions have done. And that's a very good sign. I think that will help her a lot.

KAGAN: Gregg Olsen, thanks for joining us from Seattle.

An investigator says that a female soldier accused in the Iraq prisoner abuse scandal told him it was just for fun. But Lynndie England's lawyer says the government is trying to make her a scapegoat.

National correspondent Bob Franken is covering that hearing for us in Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

Bob, good morning. BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning. It is about to start. The schedule is for it to begin in about 10 minutes.

Now, we're expecting to hear telephone testimony today from members of the 372 military police unit. That is the one that Lynndie England was a member of and the one that is so implicated in all of this controversy over the treatment of prisoners in Iraq.

We're also waiting to see when Lynndie England shows up, if she does, after a hard day for her yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FRANKEN (voice-over): "It was just fun," an investigator says she told him, but now Private First Class Lynndie England, who is late in her pregnancy, faces 19 charges, a potential 38 years in prison for her alleged role in the treatment of inmates held in the hellhole that was Abu Ghraib prison.

Among the most notorious pictures that caused worldwide outrage is the one that shows England holding a detainee on a leash. She told investigators she did so at the behest of Corporal Charles Graner, accused of being a leader of the prisoner mistreatment and identified as her attorney as the father of England's baby.

After attending the morning session, England failed to show up in the afternoon.

LT. COL. GREG WOODS, MILITARY ATTORNEY: During the lunch break PFC England called her doctor, and her doctor requested that she come in to see him. And so that is why she was not present during this afternoon's hearing.

FRANKEN: But before she left, an investigator described sexually explicit pictures of England which became the basis for several of the indecency charges against her. As he described them, she looked down at the table.

RICHARD HERNANDEZ, LYNNDIE ENGLAND'S ATTORNEY: She's as stressed as anyone else would be if you were a 20-year-old, 21-year-old young lady who is facing 30 years for pictures, intimate photographs that are -- you would see at Mardi Gras or on spring break. But not in this case, she is facing 30 years.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FRANKEN: But the substantively controversial pictures are the ones that show alleged mistreatment of the prisoners in Iraq, pictures that have brought major embarrassment to the United States -- Daryn?

KAGAN: Bob Franken at Fort Bragg. Thank you, Bob.

It isn't the worst hurricane ever to hit the Carolina coast, but it probably is not the best either. Folks trying to power up and dry off after the run in with Alex.

And later, playing politics, literally. How a new computer game puts you at the center of the campaign coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: Hurricane Alex is spinning out to sea this morning after brushing North Carolina's Outer Banks. The storm flooded highways and cut power to thousands. Alex's 100 mile-an-hour winds stayed well offshore.

Rob Marciano keeping an eye on things. What is that? Oh, that's just a hurricane graphic behind you.

ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, that's it. Just a little schmancy hurricane graphic.

KAGAN: You've got the fancy graphics. What about the fancy map?

MARCIANO: Well, let's show it to you. We'll go over the totals or at least the reported wind gusts from yesterday.

(WEATHER BREAK)

MARCIANO: Back to you in the studio.

KAGAN: Remember what Mark Twain said about San Francisco.

MARCIANO: Coolest summer, coolest winter.

KAGAN: Coldest winter I ever spent was summer in San Francisco.

MARCIANO: That's right. Couldn't be more true.

KAGAN: Absolutely. Good morning to San Francisco.

Thank you, Rob.

MARCIANO: You bet.

KAGAN: It is arrivederci Americans. Get this, the U.S. men's basketball team is getting a wake-up call before the Athens Olympics.

In exhibition play in Europe, the U.S. team got trounced -- not just beat -- trounced by Italy, not previously known as a hoop powerhouse. The final 95-78. The U.S. is unbeaten at the summer games and Olympic qualifyings since NBA players were allowed on the team in 1992.

The team is younger than in years past. We do have to point that out.

Well, they both want the same thing. Now they are both in the same town. Up next, Davenport, Iowa, the center of the political nation today, the scene of a swing state showdown between Kerry and Bush.

We're back after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: I'm Daryn Kagan in Atlanta. Let's check what's happening now in the news, Wednesday, August 4th.

President Bush and John Kerry are campaigning in Iowa today. They are holding events 90 minutes and three blocks apart in a state considered a toss up for 2004.

Al Gore won Iowa four years ago by fewer than 5,000 votes.

Police and insurgents battled in the northern Iraqi city of Mogul today. At least 12 people were killed. The provincial governor has imposed a curfew to give police time to regain full control.

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