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Egyptian Biochemist Detained in London Bombings Probe; CIA Leak Probe; Timeline of a Leak

Aired July 15, 2005 - 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: NASA says a Sunday shuttle launch is still possible, but unlikely. Engineers are working to find the cause of the fuel sensor problem that grounded the mission earlier this week. If the problems can't be fixed in time, it could force the launch to be delayed until next week or even until September.
In Washington, Chief Justice William Rehnquist wants to put an end to speculation about his plans. He released a statement last night saying he will stay on at the Supreme Court for as long as his health allows. Rehnquist returned home Thursday from a two-day hospital stay. The justice has thyroid cancer and was being treated for a fever.

Let's go ahead and check the time around the world. Good morning and welcome to CNN LIVE TODAY. 4:00 p.m. in Leeds, England; 5:00 p.m. in Paris; and 6:00 p.m. in Cairo, Egypt.

From CNN Center in Atlanta, I'm Daryn Kagan.

There are new developments to tell you about this morning in the London bombing investigation. The Egyptian interior ministry says Cairo police have detained a man wanted for questioning in connection with the case. The ministry identified the man as Magdy el-Nashar, a biochemist who earned a doctorate agree at Leeds University. One major question: is el-Nashar connected to these four men, all suspected of being the London suicide bombers?

For more on the investigation, we bring in John Vause. He is in Leeds, a center -- a city that is at the center of the investigation.

JOHN VAUSE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Daryn.

Police are not saying officially how Magdy el-Nashar fits in with the overall picture of things, but what we do know at this stage is that he was arrested by Egyptian authorities at Cairo International Airport. We do not know if he was leaving the country or if he was entering Egypt.

Now, on Tuesday, police searched his home. This is one of the six initial properties which is were searched on Tuesday. This is his apartment behind me.

Now, when police entered this apartment, they evacuated this area, 600 people forced to leave their homes. A bomb squad was called in. At the time, all police would say is that there was a substance inside which was harmful, which could be harmful to the public. A number of British newspapers, though, are going much further than that, saying in fact that chemicals were found inside this apartment. When mixed together, those chemicals could in fact make some kind of explosives. And also that traces of those chemicals were found in the bathtub of this apartment.

Officials also linked Magdy el-Nashar to the scene. They say they found his telephone number on a cell phone in the debris of the London bombings.

El-Nashar has already been dubbed "The Chemist" by the British media. That's because he studied chemistry at a university in North Carolina. But more recently, he earned a doctorate from here at Leeds University in biochemistry.

Now, officials say he has not been seen on campus since the beginning of this month -- Daryn.

KAGAN: John Vause live in London. Thank you.

Also want to tell you more about this U.S. connection to el- Nashar, the man detained in Egypt for questioning in that London terror case. We're told that the FBI has joined the investigation and that el-Nashar studied for a short time at North Carolina State University.

Well, not surprisingly, a poll finds many Americans are worried about terrorism in the U.S. It's an Associated Press poll. It shows a majority of Americans believe an attack on a U.S. mass transit system is inevitable.

Only 40 percent of respondents gave President Bush a favorable job rating. That's virtually unchanged from last month. And nearly 60 percent the country is headed in the wrong direction.

A new turn to tell you about in the CIA leak investigation. Top presidential adviser Karl Rove has said he didn't tell journalist the name of a CIA operative. CNN has learned it's the other way around, journalists told him. It's still not clear if the claim gets Rove off the hook with Democrats in Congress.

Our Congressional Correspondent Ed Henry joins me from Capitol Hill to sort this all out and explain it to people who aren't living inside the beltway there.

ED HENRY, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Daryn. In fact, Karl Rove, this morning, when our cameras caught up with him outside his home before he headed over to the White House for work, didn't have anything to say about the leak case. He did say he was looking forward to the Washington Nationals baseball games this weekend, however.

But while he's not talking, Senate Democrats can't stop talking about this case. In fact, yesterday, Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer brought Joe Wilson up to the Capitol for a press conference where Wilson, once again, charged that Karl Rove engineered a political dirty trick here against Wilson's wife, Valerie. Wilson then came on CNN and once again ripped into Rove.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOSEPH WILSON, FMR. U.S. AMBASSADOR: The president has said that he would fire and his White House spokesman has said that he would fire anybody who was involved in the leak. It's now clear that Mr. Rove had given Matt Cooper my wife's name four days before the Novak article appeared. In other words, before her identity was publicly compromised.

I find what he did then and afterwards to be an outrageous abuse of power. And I don't believe that the president should keep him in the White House. I think he should fire him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HENRY: Now, Republicans have distributed talking points, saying that it's Wilson and congressional Democrats who are the ones who are actually perpetrating a political smear here against Karl Rove. Those talking points insisting that Rove is not guilty of any wrongdoing in this case. And Republican lawmakers, like Congressman Peter King of New York, are also raising questions about Wilson's own credibility, and they're also taking after Wilson's wife.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. PETER KING (R), NEW YORK: Joe Wilson's report, everything he said was filled with lies. She was aware of that. And as a member of the United States government, she knows that her husband is spreading lies about the president of the United States in time of war.

She knew that she was involving -- she was involved in recommending him for a job, which he was denying. And to me, once that happens, it's hard for her morally to complain. I'm not even talking about the legalities. I'm talking almost like the legal principle of clean hands.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HENRY: Rove, meanwhile, got a public vote of confidence from President Bush, who took his top political aide along for that long walk from the Oval Office over to the presidential helicopter before they departed to Indianapolis for a trip. The Senate, meanwhile, rejected a Democratic attempt last night to revoke Rove's security clearance -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Ed Henry, question of the day goes to this: I'm not going to even get into all the finger pointing on either side, because, well, that's for another time. And I think you explained that really well. But one thing is clear, this is clouding what the agenda is on Capitol Hill. And it is a big distraction for the Bush administration and for senators and congressmen.

HENRY: Oh, sure. You know, yesterday morning started with the Gang of 14 moderates meeting again. They're the ones who averted that nuclear showdown about a month ago over lower court nominees.

They came out of their meeting yesterday morning. I was there, and they were falling all over themselves, talking about bipartisanship, what a wonderful atmosphere there is in the Senate right now as they get ready to kick off these confirmation hearings for whoever the president nominates to replace Sandra Day O'Connor for that seat on the high court.

And then within a few hours, you had these political attacks flying all around. So forget about whether it's the Supreme Court nomination, Social Security, almost any other issue. This Rove case right now is dominating the agenda -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Yes. If they're talking about how nice and rosy, you might want to sniff what's in their mocha latte or whatever they're drinking there in the morning.

HENRY: I will.

KAGAN: Ed, thank you.

Well, let's get to the ins and outs of the story. It's a CIA leak story. It seems to have more twists and players than an Agatha Christie mystery. Who said what, when, and to whom?

We're bringing in Wolf here. Wolf Blitzer takes us back to the beginning of the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In his January, 2003 State of Union speech, President Bush, building the case for war with Iraq, insinuated Saddam Hussein was trying to build nuclear weapons.

March 20, coalition forces invade Iraq. May 1, the president announces major operations over.

On July 6, 2003, Joe Wilson, the former U.S. ambassador to Gabon, wrote in a "New York Times" opinion piece that he had traveled to Africa in February, 2002, to investigate similar allegations for the CIA. His conclusion: It was -- quote -- "highly doubtful that such a transaction would have occurred."

On July 14, CNN political analyst Robert Novak wrote in his "Chicago Sun-Times" column: "Wilson never worked for the CIA. But his wife, Valerie Plame, is an agency operative on weapons of mass destruction. Two senior administration officials told me that Wilson's wife suggested sending him to Niger to investigate."

And that's where the possible criminal case begins. Under a 1982 law, it's a crime to reveal the name of an undercover CIA agent. But the burden of proof is high. Among other things, the disclosure must reveal the identity of a covert agent. It must be intentional. It must be made by someone with authorized access to classified information. And the source must be aware that the information disclosed will reveal the identity of the covert agent.

In September, 2003, nearly three months after Novak's column, the Justice Department opened an investigation.

There were early suspicions that the White House was behind the leak, perhaps the president's top adviser, Karl Rove. Press secretary Scott McClellan was dismissive.

SCOTT MCCLELLAN, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: It's totally ridiculous. I said it's totally ridiculous.

BLITZER: And the president said he welcomed an investigation and promised action.

BUSH: If there's a leak out of my administration, I want to know who it is. And if the person has violated the law, that person will be taken care of.

BLITZER: In December, 2003, special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald was appointed to find out who leaked Plame's identity. Over the course of the next 18 months, top administration officials were questioned, including Rove, Vice President Cheney, and even the president himself. In August, 2004, at the Republican National Convention, in an interview with CNN, Rove denied he was responsible.

KARL ROVE, PRESIDENTIAL ADVISER: I didn't know her name. I didn't leak her name.

BLITZER: Prosecutors also went after journalists, who had Plame's identity leaked to them.

"TIME" magazine's Matthew Cooper, who wrote an article on the story, and "The New York Times'" Judith Miller, who researched one but never published it.

But after the Supreme Court refused to hear the journalists' requests to shield them from prosecution, Cooper's employer, Time Inc., which is owned by CNN's parent company, cooperated with the prosecutor, turning over notes which revealed that Karl Rove was, in fact, Cooper's source, which Cooper himself later confirmed.

Miller is currently in jail for refusing to cooperate with the grand jury.

The White House immediately went into a no-comment mode, putting up a wall of silence that has yet to be broken.

BUSH: We're in the midst of an ongoing investigation, and I will be more than happy to comment further once the investigation is completed.

BLITZER: Wolf Blitzer, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: A different kind of storm to talk about. Emily already packing a powerful bunch in the Caribbean. So where is the storm headed? We will tell you what to expect.

And it's Jack Nicklaus' last major golf tournament. Meanwhile, Tiger Woods is in the hunt for the top prize. This year's British Open has history and excitement pinned to it. Details coming up later in the show.

And who will Harry do battle with this time around? "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" goes on sale tonight at midnight. We've got the latest news on the book's author and fans. Magic and fantasy are coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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KAGAN: Tracking Hurricane Emily. Here's Jill Brown.

(WEATHER REPORT)

KAGAN: Round two of the British Open at St. Andrews. Tiger Woods is leading the pack. An update on how play is going a little bit later in the program.

Plus, the new "Harry Potter" book goes on sale at midnight. Coming up, we're going to look at the rags to riches story of the woman behind the most famous boy wizard in the universe.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: Suicide car bombings in Baghdad claim more lives. Three blasts in separate areas of the city killed at least 15 Iraqi civilians and five Iraqi soldiers. Several others were wounded. The military also says two Marines were killed in combat in Anbar province.

The recent insurgent attacks have many wondering who was behind the violence and why it appears to be escalating. Our Senior International Correspondent Nic Robertson takes a closer look. This is a story you'll see only here on CNN.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Unpredictable and deadly, violence cuts a swathe across parts of Iraq, bloodying the U.S. The country is reeling under an insurgent onslaught. And the worst of these claimed by al Qaeda and Iraq and its leader, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. (on camera): It is the spectacular impact of the suicide attacks, often directed by non-Iraqi fighters, that can obscure the true nature of the insurgency, a homegrown Iraqi-based insurgency. To find out who they are and what they want, I've come here to Baghdad to meet them.

ABU OMAR, INSURGENT (through translator): We represent 20 percent of the Iraqi resistance, but we represent fully the Iraqi will. We can influence 80 percent of the Iraqi resistance, and we can say, stop. The question is when to stop.

ROBERTSON: He says, he is a former Iraqi general. He offers a picture of himself in uniform to bolster the claim. Says to call him "Abu Omar," but he won't reveal his true identity. This video, he says, shows insurgents, or "resistance fighters," as he calls them, under his command on the streets of Baghdad in April 2004.

OMAR (through translator): We have plenty of weapons, and money and men, and our belief in God is great.

ROBERTSON: He speaks with authority, welcomes me to Iraq and introduces a friend he calls "Abu Mohammed," tells me he is an insurgent commander, too.

ABU MOHAMMAD, INSURGENT: We refuse American, all American opinion. Their ideology -- election or freedom, we refuse anything from American.

ROBERTSON: Abu Mohammed tells me the pair met in military staff college, decades ago, now commanders in different insurgent groups, part of a larger network of nationalists, former regime officials, tribal leaders and Iraqi Islamists, most of whom lost out when Saddam Hussein fell from power.

Within weeks of Saddam Hussein's toppling April 9, 2003, intelligence sources say his deputy Izzat Ibrahim Al-Douri, met in a car in Baghdad with four of Saddam's top allies. They decided then to activate the insurgency.

Abu Mohammad and Abu Omar were more than ready to take up the call. Weeks after the U.S. invaded, it disbanded the Iraqi army, and they lost their jobs. But they already had training.

OMAR (through translator): Six months before the occupation, we started training and exercising, resisting the American Army in small groups.

ROBERTSON: Some U.S. intelligence sources say there are now as many as 200,000 insurgents. There are still 300 to 400 reported attacks a week. And that each U.S. offensive creates more recruits for the insurgents.

Abu Mohammad and Abu Omar refuse to put a figure on the insurgency. But claim, at the moment, its driving force is Iraqi nationalism. They warn, however, the time to cut a deal is now. OMAR (through translator): Those who like to inflict the most harm on the Americans prefer to join al Qaeda. The youth wants immediate results. Therefore, he will join al Qaeda to inflict most harm against the enemy.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: That was Senior International Correspondent Nic Robertson. "CNN PRESENTS" takes an in-depth look at how life has changed for Iraqis. Don't miss it Sunday night 8:00 Eastern.

We are back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: Let's take a look at what's happening "Now in the News."

The Egyptian interior ministry says police there have arrested a man sought in connection with London's terror bombings. Magdy el- Nashar studied chemical engineering in the U.S. and England. The U.S. officials says el-Nashar's number turned up in a cell phone police found in a raid near London.

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