Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Live Today

Judge Brings Moussaoui Trial to Halt; Storms Shut Down University of Kansas Campus; Bush's War Strategy

Aired March 13, 2006 - 10:59   ET

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

TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: And here's a look at what's happening "Now in the News."
An outbreak of severe storms is blamed for at least 10 deaths in the Midwest. And today the threat of more violent weather stretches from the South to the Great Lakes.

We've got extensive coverage coming up.

Two days after the death of Slobodan Milosevic questions still swirl around the cause of death. Preliminary autopsy results indicate he died of a heart attack. The former Yugoslav president was found dead in his prison cell at The Hague, where he was being tried on war crimes charges. Russia's foreign minister says his government does not fully trust the autopsy performed in the Netherlands.

A move is under way in Congress to try to censure President Bush over his administration's domestic wiretapping program. Democratic Senator Russ Feingold is pushing for the censure. While President Bush calls the warrantless program vital in the war on terror, Feingold calls it illegal.

Good morning, and welcome to CNN LIVE TODAY.

From the CNN Center in Atlanta, I'm Tony Harris, in today for Daryn Kagan.

First, a developing story. An angry judge brings the trial of an admitted al Qaeda conspirator to a halt this morning.

Homeland Security Correspondent Jeanne Meserve has details on the federal case in turmoil.

Jeanne, good morning.

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Tony, real questions about where the trial of Zacarias Moussaoui goes from here. Just one week into the trial, an abrupt halt to the proceedings. The judge called a recess in the case this morning after learning that a court order prohibiting witness from talking to one another had been violated.

The prosecution revealed to the judge and defense on Friday that an attorney involved in preparing Federal Aviation Administration witnesses had shown them transcripts of the prosecution and defense opening statements, as well as testimony of Michael Anticeb (ph), an FBI expert on al Qaeda who testified last week. This morning, the defense is asking that, as a result of this, the death penalty be dropped as a possible penalty, though several other less drastic approaches were discussed in open court before the recess was called by Judge Leoni Brinkema.

Just last Thursday, during the testimony of an -- a Minnesota FBI agent who had questioned Moussaoui in August of 2001, the prosecution asked what was ruled to be an improper question. The judge denied the defense request for a mistrial at that time, but she advised the prosecution then that it was on thin ice. Then this morning's developments.

Moussaoui, of course, the only man charged in connection with the 9/11 attacks. He was under arrest at the time, but prosecutors contend that if he had told investigators what he knew about al Qaeda's plans to fly planes into buildings, the 9/11 plot might have been foiled.

Moussaoui has pled guilty to terrorism conspiracy, though he says he had nothing to do with 9/11. The trial will determine if he spends the rest of his life in prison or is sentenced to death. We'll see where it goes from here -- Tony.

HARRIS: That's for sure.

CNN's Jeanne Meserve for us in Washington.

Jeanne, thank you.

MESERVE: You bet.

HARRIS: And let's go now to CNN Senior Legal Analyst Jeffrey Toobin, who is on the line with us.

Jeffrey, I've got to ask you, why would the government even get close to the line here?

JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SR. LEGAL ANALYST: Well, it sounds like there was miscommunication in the bureaucracy. As I understand what happened, the Justice Department lawyers understood the rule about no contact with the trial testimony for future witnesses. What apparently happened is that lawyers from the FAA gave these transcripts to FAA witnesses, and that was just a shocking error because, Tony, I mean, as you know, as most people know, witnesses in a trial are not supposed to be in the courtroom except during their own testimony, because that way they could hear what other witnesses are saying and they can shape their testimony so there's no contradiction.

Here, the lawyers gave the transcripts, so it was as if the lawyers -- it was as if these witnesses were listening to the testimony of other witnesses. It's just totally inappropriate.

And the only question is, how can it be cured? How can this problem be solved?

HARRIS: Yes.

TOOBIN: The prosecutors are saying, well, just let them be cross-examined about this fact. Let this be shown to the jury and just air it out and show that this mistake was made, but don't short- circuit the whole trial.

HARRIS: Got you -- yes. And do you see that as the remedy?

TOOBIN: Well, I don't know. It just depends how uncomfortable Judge Brinkema is with the whole case. I think the biggest problem is that she is uncomfortable with the government's entire theory here.

HARRIS: Right.

TOOBIN: Because the death penalty traditionally has been given in the United States, certainly in recent years under Supreme Court precedent, to people who kill, to people who shoot the gun, who wield the knife. And the theory here is very different.

The theory is that Moussaoui, who was, after all, in prison on September 11, by his failure to tell the truth to the FBI, his failure to act, that caused the FBI to miss the 9/11 plot and thus 3,000 people died. That idea of giving someone the death penalty for a failure to act makes the judge uncomfortable, and these mistakes raise more problems, and the judge may simply say this is too much.

HARRIS: OK. And just to keep it all in context, we're not talking about Moussaoui walking out of -- out of prison here and out of that courtroom a free man. We're still talking about life in prison.

TOOBIN: That's exactly right, Tony. Ad I think that may push Judge Brinkema to be even a little more willing to short-circuit the trial, because sometimes when judges call mistrials, they are really looking at the prospect of sending a guilty person out to walk out on the street. That's not even a possibility here. The only issue is death penalty or life without parole.

So, Judge Brinkema can be confident that Zacarias Moussaoui is certainly not going to commit any other horrible crimes the rest of his life.

HARRIS: OK. CNN Senior Legal Analyst Jeffrey Toobin.

Jeffrey, as always, thanks for the insight.

In Lawrence, Kansas, classes are canceled today at the University of Kansas after the violent weather damaged more than half of the buildings on campus.

On the phone with us right now is the school's chancellor, Robert Hemenway.

Mr. Chancellor, Mr. Hemenway, good morning to you.

ROBERT HEMENWAY, CHANCELLOR, UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS: Thank you. HARRIS: Oh, boy, give us on the ground a bird's eye view of your campus. Paint that in pictures if you could for us.

HEMENWAY: Well, our -- our campus is historically a beautiful campus. And actually, it exists right on a ridge that we call Jayhawk Boulevard. And we had a microburst that went along, that basically went along that ridge -- along that ridge and did quite a bit of damage.

About 60 percent of our buildings are affected. We have a lot of trees that have been uprooted and torn down. And it looks like the damage is going to be somewhere in the range of $5 million or $6 million.

HARRIS: Wow. And you canceled -- obviously, you canceled classes today.

HEMENWAY: Yes, we did, because we wanted to make sure that it was a safety factor for students. We had a lot of those -- a lot of the red roofs on our building are made with red tile, and those tiles, when they're loose, could fall off and hit people in the head. We wanted to protect students from that.

HARRIS: Any injuries?

HEMENWAY: No, there were no injuries and there weren't any deaths. We really feel that god was looking over us. We didn't -- it could have been much worse. It occurred on a Sunday morning very early, and there were relatively few people out on the campus.

HARRIS: And how long before you think you can open the doors again to classes?

HEMENWAY: Oh, we'll -- I think we'll have -- unless we discover something that is worse than we discovered so far, we'll be -- we'll be -- have classes up and running tomorrow morning.

HARRIS: Oh, great. All right.

Chancellor, we appreciate your time. Thanks for giving us that update on the ground there in Lawrence, Kansas, at the University of Kansas.

Let's bring in Chad Myers now, our severe weather expert.

And Chad, the chancellor was talking about microbursts. What's a microburst?

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: It's when a storm literally collapses on top of itself. All of the air rushes to the ground. And, like, if you pour a bucket of water on the ground, well, when the bucket hits the ground the water can't go any farther. It spreads out.

And so when all of this air is being pushed down by the storm, by the rain, probably by hail, because the storm was full of hail as well, it hits the ground and pushes itself out, sometimes in all directions, so you get a circle. Other times, in just one direction, where all of that energy goes away from the storm along the ground, and that's what they had there in Kansas.

(WEATHER REPORT)

HARRIS: Chad, don't go anywhere. This is -- this is a young man you know. Jeff Piotrowski is on the line with us. He's a storm chaser.

Jeff, good morning.

JEFF PIOTROWSKI, TORNADO CHASER: Good morning.

HARRIS: Hey, did you get out in any of this? Did you see some of this?

PIOTROWSKI: Yes, (INAUDIBLE) yesterday across Missouri was a pretty tremendous tornado outbreak yesterday.

HARRIS: Wow. Describe what you saw. And when did you get on the road? And give us some details, please.

PIOTROWSKI: Well, I left early yesterday morning when the warm front was looking north up toward Kansas City. And the Storm Prediction Center had a high risk for large and damaging tornadoes across, you know, eastern Kansas and northeast Oklahoma, on up into Missouri. And yesterday the warm front started -- you know, the storm started developing early afternoon on the draw line in eastern Kansas, and they rapidly become big super cells, moving at 50 to 60 miles an hour, producing some (INAUDIBLE) tornadoes and tremendous damage across Missouri as we experienced (INAUDIBLE) outbreak yesterday afternoon.

HARRIS: Were you able to get some pictures? Did you video?

PIOTROWSKI: Well, we filmed tornadoes just southeast of Kansas City. And the tornadoes rocketed up towards Sedalia area, where we encountered baseball-size hail with the tornado going just south of town.

HARRIS: Wow.

PIOTROWSKI: The tornado did cross I-70 and caused a couple of 18-wheelers and some cars to get overturned on I-70 late yesterday afternoon. And then the return had a second wave and a third wave of tornadoes move over the same area during the evening hours. And the traffic was backed up on I-70 about 20 to 30 miles in the Sedalia area, and that second wave of tornadoes actually crossed the same area while the cars were stuck on I-70.

HARRIS: Oh, wow.

PIOTROWSKI: They actually had a tornado hit a line of cars and 18-wheelers, and those cars -- 18-wheelers were flipped on top of the cars. And that happened about five miles in front of me. And we know the trails were coming in. Basically, people were trapped on the interstate.

HARRIS: Hey, Chad. Jump in here.

MYERS: A terrible place to be, Jeff, in your car during a tornado. I know you'll get close to them, but you know how to get away.

If you have an interstate that's completely blocked by other traffic, you have nowhere to go. It's kind of the same situation why you don't drive on dirt roads, because dirt roads become mud roads. And you don't want to be stuck in your car on a mud road.

What are your plans for today? Are you still chasing or are you going home?

PIOTROWSKI: No, I'm already home -- I'm already back in Tulsa. And no, no chasing today.

It looks like severe weather's pretty far east, but it looks like it will calm down here for about five or six days, and then it looks like by next weekend it starts gearing up again for potentially another severe weather outbreak across Texas and maybe Oklahoma as we get into next weekend.

MYERS: Those storms were really moving quickly yesterday. Some reports, 85 miles per hour on the western periphery.

Could you keep up with them, or were they just outrunning you?

PIOTROWSKI: Well, Chad, they were actually outrunning me. When they came out of eastern Kansas, I had a tornado on the ground as it left eastern Kansas, and it literally passed me. And it would pass me probably at about 65 to 70. And the same situation last night.

After dark, I saw four tornadoes that were over a half-mile wide, probably moving in excess of 60 miles an hour. It was one of the most scariest scenes I've ever seen in 30 year of storm chasing.

HARRIS: Oh boy.

MYERS: We don't have any assessments yet, Jeff, from the weather service back. Would you think there were F-3s, F-4s out there?

PIOTROWSKI: Absolutely.

MYERS: Really?

PIOTROWSKI: Absolutely. Yes, especially the southwest, Missouri. Some of the early reports, I'm talking to people in southwest Missouri and northern -- the extreme northwest Arkansas. There were very violent tornadoes last night all across the state of Missouri, but the ones in southwest Missouri were especially violent, from what I understand.

HARRIS: Boy.

MYERS: Thank you very much, Jeff. Stay safe out there.

HARRIS: Man. Jeff, thank you.

PIOTROWSKI: Thank you.

HARRIS: Chad, thank you.

And still ahead, from stormy weather to a firestorm in Texas. The Associated Press says more than 600,000 acres have been scorched along the panhandle and south plains. Smoke is being blamed for a chain reaction crash that killed four people on Interstate 40, east of Groom.

At least two other deaths were also reported in the state. The fires forced evacuations, highway closures and destroyed several buildings in around the cities of Groom and Borger.

Well, buckle up and hold on tight. It looks like gas prices are taking off again. We'll tell you why in just a moment.

Also ahead, an NFL veteran talks about why he's decided to join the Marines.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Now war strategy. Three years after he ordered U.S. troops into Iraq, once again President Bush is trying to convince Americans it was right thing to do. In about two hours, the president hits the stump to try and rebuild support for the war. The pep talk follows particularly bloody days and weeks in Iraq, and it comes just as the media focus on the war's third anniversary.

Let's get a preview now of what the president will say. Our White House correspondent, Suzanne Malveaux, checks in with us this morning.

Suzanne, good morning to you.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hey. Good morning, Tony.

HARRIS: You know, and I know these speeches, Suzanne, are geared to a number of audiences. But I'm just sort of curious, who is going to actually be in that audience at George Washington University this morning?

MALVEAUX: Well, actually, it's an interesting group. It's called the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. It was established after the 9/11 attacks. And what they say they do is nonpartisan organization that trains professors on how to teach about terrorism and promoting democracy.

It's a group that was founded by the former communications head of the RNC, Cliff May, who is also a CNN contributor. And their advisers are a very diverse group of people here. You've got Gary Bauer, Joe Lieberman and Donna Brazile, all in this board of advisers for this particular group. But we expect it's going to be a friendly audience.

HARRIS: Yes. Yes.

Let's talk about this now. What can the president say that he hasn't already said about the way he's prosecuting this war that is different, Suzanne, from what he says?

MALVEAUX: That's a very good question, Tony. I mean, here's what we expect that he is going to say. The purpose of this is to essentially convince Americans he gets it. So he is going to talk about the bad news, as well as the good news.

He's going to say that you hear a lot of these daily reports about kidnappings, about these brutal killings, and that a lot of Americans do not believe that this mission is worth it. He's going to acknowledge that.

He is also going to talk specifically about challenges of these improvised explosive devices that have been devastating to U.S. troops. The good news is he's going to say that it's all worth it, essentially because there are two things happening.

On the military front, they're changing their tactics to deal with these IEDs, and then on the political front, he is saying that essentially -- you'll remember that attack that happened last month against that Shiite mosque, the Golden Temple. Everybody thought it was going to be civil war. Civil war did not break out. That is because he is going to argue that those political groups came together -- Tony.

HARRIS: Yes.

Hey, Suzanne, let me ask the fatigue question. Maybe two ways.

First of all, does the president -- when you say he's going to say he gets it, does he recognize that there is fatigue in the country on this war three years now? And for a lot of folks it feels like we've been there a lot longer.

And is there fatigue in the White House? This is -- this is your beat. Fatigue in the White House over this war and the toll it's taken?

MALVEAUX: Well, certainly I think that the White House recognizes, the president recognizes that this country is -- you see the poll numbers.

HARRIS: Yes.

MALVEAUX: Essentially, it's plummeted in term of support for the Iraq war, that a lot of people, he's going to acknowledge, really don't think that it's worth it at this point because you look at the death toll, you look at the bad news on television. I do think that they understand that.

I think, however, that the president still strongly believes that this is something that he wants and needs the American people behind him on this. He's got three more years, and of course he staked his legacy on the Iraq war and bringing democracy to that part of the world.

HARRIS: Yes, well said. All right.

Suzanne Malveaux at White House for us this morning.

Suzanne, thank you.

MALVEAUX: Sure.

HARRIS: And you can see the president's talk on Iraq live on CNN. Kyra Phillips will have it for you on "LIVE FROM" at 1:15 Eastern.

And this just in to CNN. There is a search going on right now. The Coast Guard is searching an area from the west passage of Narragansett Bay to Wickford, Rhode Island, for three missing University of Rhode Island students.

Chief Petty Officer Kelly Turner is on the line with us.

And Kelly, good morning to you.

KELLY TURNER, U.S. COAST GUARD: Hi. How are you doing?

HARRIS: Well. But let me ask you, tell us about the search that is ongoing now, and take us back in time. When did you first receive a call that there was a problem?

TURNER: We received a call around 4:00 this morning, around 4:15 from a security guard at the university saying that he could hear yelling and screaming off of the pier. Right after that, we sent out an (INAUDIBLE) from Station Castle Hill, a 41-foot utility boat, and they began the search, and our other vessels have followed. We have -- we have a 27-foot rescue boat from Station Point Judith, a 47-foot vessel, as well as we've conducted four helicopter searches throughout the morning.

HARRIS: And what have you found?

TURNER: So far, we have actually just located the rowboat that they were supposed to have been in. We've located an oar, a sandal, some articles of clothing that are supposedly the clothing that they were wearing.

HARRIS: Do we know -- what are we talking about? Are we talking about three guys, girls, a mix? Do you know?

TURNER: There was two guys and one female.

HARRIS: OK. And what are your thoughts at this point? Are you thinking foul play?

TURNER: I don't think that we -- I know that it will be under investigation. But currently, we're just searching in hopes that we'll find them and they'll be safe and sound.

HARRIS: OK. Anything you can tell us about that area, the waters this that area, swift current, anything in particular?

TURNER: All I have for the on-scene weather, it's three-mile visibility. It's actually good conditions for searching. A little misty. And it's about 45 degrees out there.

HARRIS: OK. And so weather conditions favorable for this kind of a search?

TURNER: It is. They are favorable for this kind of search.

HARRIS: OK. Chief Petty Officer Kelly Turner.

Thanks for your time, Kelly. And keep us posted if there are further developments in this story.

TURNER: Sure will.

HARRIS: All right. Let's get a business update now. Susan Lisovicz is standing by at the New York Stock Exchange for us this morning.

(STOCK MARKET REPORT)

HARRIS: Still ahead, more evidence testing over the weekend. And New York police say it pins down a bouncer in the brutal murder of a New York grad student. We'll have a live report on where the case goes from here.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: New York police say they have cracked the case involving the gruesome killing of a grad student found naked and bound in a Brooklyn lot. They say DNA evidence links the killing to a bouncer at a bar. And now authorities plan to take the evidence to a grand jury.

Let's go live now to CNN's Allan Chernoff.

Allan, good morning.

ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN SR. CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Tony.

Brooklyn's district attorney will be presenting evidence to a grand jury as early today and asking the grand jury to hand up an indictment against Darryl Littlejohn in the rape and murder of Imette St. Guillen. Littlejohn is the bouncer at the Manhattan bar where Imette St. Guillen was last seen. Now, St. Guillen's body was found two weeks ago in an isolated Brooklyn lot. Her body was covered in a bedspread, her face was taped up from forehead down to the chin, and her hands and her legs, as well, were tied with plastic binders.

Now, blood was found on some of those plastic ties. And after DNA analysis, the police have determined that blood belongs to Littlejohn.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RAY KELLY, NEW YORK POLICE COMMISSIONER: Well, this is very significant development. When you talk about DNA here, we're talking about the certainty of one in a trillion. So it is a -- you know, a very important piece of evidence for us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHERNOFF: The investigation is continuing, and we understand that there is more DNA analysis being conducted this week.

Now, Mr. Littlejohn is being held at Rikers Island jail. That's actually on a parole violation. He had served time for armed robbery, and he was not permitted to work as a bouncer at a Manhattan bar.

We have calls in to an attorney who represented Mr. Littlejohn last week in a separate case. He was brought into a police precinct for a lineup as a potential suspect in another rape case, but the victim there did not identify Littlejohn.

So we have calls in, but we have not heard back from his attorney, who potentially could be representing Mr. Littlejohn. But again, formal charges have not yet been filed -- Tony.

HARRIS: CNN's Allan Chernoff for us in New York.

Allan, thank you.

And still to come on LIVE TODAY, a new medical innovation that's got some people's blood boiling. We'll explain the controversy when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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