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American Morning
New York City Stands Vigilant in Threat of Terror
Aired August 03, 2004 - 07:00 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.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. How long will financial buildings in three U.S. cities stay on a terror lock down? A key meeting this morning may answer that very question.
Transcripts released in the Kobe Bryant case show a prosecution team worried about losing.
Heading off to a red hot spot by the sun -- after 30 years, NASA is going back to Mercury.
And the first hurricane of the 2004 season now lurking off the coast of North Carolina on this AMERICAN MORNING.
ANNOUNCER: From the CNN Broadcast Center in New York, this is AMERICAN MORNING with Bill Hemmer and Soledad O'Brien.
HEMMER: Off the coast of North Carolina, Chad Myers is there awaiting that storm Alex. We'll check in with Chad throughout the morning.
And good morning, everyone. Here in New York City, yet again. Good morning.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, welcome back.
HEMMER: Good to see you, too.
COLLINS: Nice to see you. Kind of crowded at this desk now, though.
HEMMER: Yes, it is a little bit. Elbow me over anytime you like.
Soledad continues to rest. The baby's getting closer. We'll keep you updated on that as she continues her time away from us here.
Meanwhile, another day of tight security in Washington, Manhattan and Newark, New Jersey. We'll look at what's happening today in the financial sectors, look at new reports concerning the age of this latest terror intelligence. We'll also talk with the mayor here in New York. Michael Bloomberg's our guest in the next 20 minutes as well.
COLLINS: Also, police in Salt Lake City have arrested Mark Hacking in the killing of his wife Lori. We're going to find out what the police think happened when we talk to Chief Rick Dinse. HEMMER: Also a bit later this hour, we'll lighten it up a little bit. "Political Pop" comes your way. Today we're looking at a new film that spoofs the war on terror.
Said to be due out about two weeks right before the election, it features puppets and apparently has a few folks in Washington down at the White House a bit upset about that. So we'll shake that down a bit later this hour also.
COLLINS: Meanwhile, Jack is here. Good morning.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: What was your name again?
HEMMER: Bill.
CAFFERTY: Nice to see you.
HEMMER: And you.
CAFFERTY: Stop by anytime. We're here every morning 7:00 to 10:00.
Terrorists have said that they would like to try to impact the democratic process in this country. If they try, how might it affect the outcome of the election? We'll take a look at that in just a few moments with what's his name there.
COLLINS: All right, Jack, thanks so much.
The latest now on the heightened terror alert. New reports this morning suggest the decision to elevate terror warnings in New York and Washington may have been based mostly on pre-9/11 intelligence.
According to both the "New York Times" and "Washington Post," intelligence officials say much of the information that prompted the raised warning was at least three years old.
The officials also say they have not yet found concrete evidence that a terrorist plot or surveillance operations are still under way. But the officials stressed that al Qaeda has often struck years after conducting surveillance of an intended target.
Meanwhile, Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge this morning meets with financial leaders in New York along with New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, New York Governor George Pataki and New Jersey Governor Jim McGreevey.
I spoke about it with Fran Townsend. She is the assistant to the president for homeland security.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FRAN TOWNSEND, ASST. TO PRES. FOR HOMELAND SECURITY: This is not new. We have said, and I said yesterday, these intelligence, the intelligence casing reports were done in 2000 and 2001, but some were updated as recently as January of this year. And what we know from the way al Qaeda does business, including on the 9/11 attacks, they do their homework well in advance and then they update it just before they launch an attack.
COLLINS: All right. Well, as you also know, there's been a lot of discussion about how much information to release to the public when these terror alerts come out. So given that, if the information is old, why release it to the public now?
TOWNSEND: Heidi, as you know, this has been a continuing intelligence stream. Several weeks ago, we told you about a pre- election threat. We got additional information recently from our very strong partners in Pakistan. We put all that together, and we got it out as quickly as we could so the American people could best protect themselves.
COLLINS: How valuable is it, though? Even though it is old, what are we learning from these documents?
TOWNSEND: What we learn is just how chilling and evil the enemy is, and how deliberate they are, and how committed they are to killing Americans. These reports are extraordinarily detailed.
These individuals clearly had access. They were inside this country, inside these targets, crawling all over them making sure they understood those buildings better than we did.
COLLINS: Will those who are fighting this terror, especially with this information now that they have about the culture, if you will, of al Qaeda, what will they do differently?
TOWNSEND: Heidi, I would hope that people would take a really close look at their security procedures, as Tom Ridge in the department of homeland security did earlier at the end of last week. We put out measures that we believe, protective measures that we think all businesses, but particularly financial institutions, need to look at.
Look Heidi, the good news here is that the financial institutions take security very seriously. Even before this, we suggested some additional measures they might keep in mind given the specificity of these casing reports.
COLLINS: All right, I want to turn quickly, if I could, to the 9/11 commission report. President Bush does not agree with the report's finding that the new national intelligence director should report directly to the president.
Let's listen to what he said for just a moment.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I don't think that the office ought to be in the White House, however. I think it ought to be a stand alone group to better coordinate, particularly between foreign intelligence and domestic intelligence matters. (END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: Wasn't the idea to have one person in charge of terrorism and then report directly to the president?
TOWNSEND: It's one person in charge of intelligence, the 15 -- coordinating the views of 15 intelligence agencies.
Heidi, you know what's interesting, if we had this position and put it in the White House, we would have been accused of politicizing the position. The fact is, the person will have, be the president's principal intelligence adviser, but will have the autonomy to sit outside and bring to the president all the views of the intelligence community, including dissent and alternative analyses.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COLLINS: Fran Townsend, assistant to the president for homeland security.
And just ahead, we will talk about the elevated terror warning with New York mayor, Michael Bloomberg.
HEMMER: Six minutes past the hour, now.
To the Kobe Bryant matter -- the judge reluctantly agreeing late yesterday to release some court documents, transcripts involving the sexual history of Bryant's accuser.
Gary Tuchman has more this morning on this.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In public, prosecutors in the Kobe Bryant case have always appeared confident, but in a closed-door hearing, those same prosecutors had less bravado.
Assistant District Attorney Ingrid Bakke, here on the left, walking with the alleged victim's mother, told Judge Terry Ruckriegle if he ruled the accusers sex life could be used as evidence in the trial, "I'm thinking the prosecution is going to sit down and re- evaluate the quality of its case and its chances of a successful prosecution."
A month after that comment, the judge allowed such testimony. The comment is from transcripts of a closed-door hearing in June reluctantly released by the judge after the news media fought a first amendment battle.
In the 94 pages, Bryant's attorneys called the defense forensics expert, who testified that when the accuser went for her rape examine the day after being with Bryant, a different man's DNA was found not only on her underwear but on a part of her body inside her underwear and on her upper thigh.
Dr. Elizabeth Johnson declared it was her opinion the sexual contact with that other man, "taking everything in totality, likely occurred after the accuser and Mr. Bryant were together."
Bryant's attorneys say injuries the woman had could have come from somebody else and that sex the day after a rape would not be logical to a jury. But the woman's personal attorney vehemently denies she had sex the day after.
There's no denial she had sex in the days before she was with Bryant. And the transcript shows that prosecutors believe the other man's DNA ended up on her body at the rape examine when it was transferred from a pair of underwear she had previously worn.
District Attorney Mark Hurlbert asked Bryant's witness if what she was saying was a hypothesis rather than a theory. Dr. Johnson answered, "It's an opinion based on examination of this evidence. It's based on a lot of scientific findings."
In the transcripts, which the judge regretfully points out as one-sided evidence, the attorneys for the basketball star also declared that tests of the woman's fingernails reveal her DNA but not Bryant's, a not so subtle way of trying to prove she didn't try to scratch her alleged attacker.
Gary Tuchman, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HEMMER: Still ahead, the judge will rule on the issue of cameras in the courtroom. More on all this next hour. Jeffrey Toobin stops by on the Kobe Bryant matter. Now Heidi, again.
COLLINS: The first hurricane of the season, hurricane Alex, is headed along North Carolina's Outer Banks. Preparations for the storm began yesterday, but Alex's winds didn't reach hurricane strength until overnight.
Chad Myers is standing by in Atlantic Beach, North Carolina.
As we were talking about yesterday, Chad, wow, hurricane Isabel -- these guys have been hammered before.
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Exactly -- a little bit of a different track. This is actually going to skirt the coast and go offshore. But remember, Isabel went right across North Carolina, right across Pamlico Sound, and then right even in to Richmond, Virginia and then in to D.C.
This one is kind of skirting it off to the right a little bit, but we are beginning to pick up the waves here, at least eight footers now. And what we're noticing is actually the wind beginning to take the tops of the waves off, picking up here to at least 45 m.p.h.. And there are many more squalls on radar just offshore for this.
And some of the waves now, some of the buoys out there, at eight to 10 feet. Here's why.
You can see the eye of the storm. You can actually see around those reds spinning around there just south of where I am right now in Atlantic Beach, North Carolina.
That storm is headed almost due north, or a little bit east of due north and is going to really probably make a direct hit on Cape Hatteras. They got hit last year, as well. Cape Hatteras even had a couple of extra bridges they had to put in because it washed away part of the island last year.
This storm, obviously, only 80 m.p.h., not a category 2, 3 or 4. Folks here not really all that concerned, although even with 75 m.p.h. winds, you have something to deal with. It's really hard to hold on to an umbrella.
Right now our winds are only 45. And if you remember, Bill, this umbrella I bought in Times Square for $3 last year's hurricane season when they sent me down to New Orleans. And it's still working.
HEMMER: What's the over, under on that thing holding up today?
MYERS: I would say less than two.
HEMMER: Yes, I'd say 30 minutes away.
MYERS: Less than two minutes.
HEMMER: All right. Thank you Chad for that.
10 minutes past hour. To Daryn Kagan again, with us this morning at the CNN Center with the news now.
Daryn, good morning there.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Bill, good morning to you.
Our headlines begin with a U.S. Marine and two soldiers who were killed in Iraq overnight. Some 918 American troops have now died there since the start of operation of Iraqi freedom.
Meanwhile, the U.S.-led coalition denies claims that its forces launched an operation against radical cleric Muqtada Al-Sadr. Possible sources say the clashes in Najaf killed at least one person and injured a dozen others.
The Army reserve unit caught up in the Abu Ghraib prison scandal is back from Iraq. Some 100 soldiers were reunited with their families yesterday at Fort Lee, Virginia.
Seven members of the unit have been connected with the abuse in Baghdad, among them Private First Class Lynndie England. She faces a military court-martial for the first time today. More on that hearing throughout the show.
Also, Army Captain James Yee will resign from the Army. He is asking to be discharged in January. Yee faced charges for mishandling classified documents while counseling detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. In March, the military dropped all charges against him, but Yee says the unfounded allegations damaged his personal and professional reputation.
A successful launch of the Messenger probe blasted off early this morning. It's going to explore Mercury, at least that's the idea. It's going to travel five billion miles during a six and a half year journey to the planet closest to the sun.
It starts orbiting, if everything works out, it'll start orbiting Mercury in 2011. Messenger will be blasted by up to 700-degree heat. It will also be protected by custom built ceramic fabric and a sun shade.
And Bill, isn't that the ultimate in, are we there yet, are we there yet, are we there yet? Six and a half years to get there.
HEMMER: And we're all in the back seat, too.
KAGAN: I'm telling you.
HEMMER: Thank you, Daryn.
COLLINS: I want to let you know, still coming up this morning, that we will have an update on the case of the missing woman in Salt Lake City, Utah. There has been an arrest made. That person is her husband Mark Hacking.
HEMMER: Also, the latest blow in the Mideast crisis from overseas. We'll get to that today.
And a deadly day in the conflict between Palestinians and Israelis. We'll look at that. And we'll update you after this.
COLLINS: Also ahead, with a huge event less than a month away, how is New York handling the latest terror warnings?
We'll talk to New York City Mayor, Michael Bloomberg ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: They're still searching for Lori Hacking's body, but Salt Lake City police say all evidence points to foul play and to Lori's husband, Mark Hacking.
Hacking was arrested yesterday on suspicion of aggravated murder. He is now in jail under a suicide watch.
Police Chief Rick Dinse joins us from Salt Lake City now to talk about the very latest in the case.
You say that Mark is still in the county lock up, but you haven't found Lori's body yet. Tell us about your efforts to find her at this point. CHIEF RICK DINSE, SALT LAKE CITY POLICE: Well, Heidi, we've put a considerable amount of effort into looking for her, obviously, from the minute she was reported missing.
We had a large search that was started by the police department and then carried on by the family. We also started that same week in looking at the landfill based on information that that we had developed during our investigation, and we continue to do that.
We still believe that the landfill is our best opportunity for locating her.
COLLINS: What exactly do you think happened to Lori Hacking?
DINSE: Well, beyond the fact that we believe she was murdered by her husband, I really can't comment on any of the other aspects of how that murder occurred or what kind of evidence we have that leads us in that direction.
COLLINS: Well there are some reports this morning that say investigators have identified a motive and a weapon. What more can you offer on those accounts?
DINSE: Well, I think we have ideas of the motive, and I think we also have knowledge of what the weapon is. When I say, I think, we do have some knowledge of what the weapon was that was used in this case, however, I'm not going to comment on that.
There's a lot of speculation, and I would say at this point that is speculation. And beyond that, I can't comment.
COLLINS: Do you expect more charges to be filed?
DINSE: Well, at this point, he has been booked under aggravated murder. That's the only charge we have on him. And as far as what other charges might come out of that, that's up to the district attorney, and we're talking to them now.
COLLINS: Chief, as we mentioned in the introduction to this now, Mark Hacking is under suicide watch. What can you tell us about his arrest in terms of his demeanor when he was taken in?
DINSE: Well, we arrested him at the hospital upon his release from the hospital. His attorney was present. His attorney was allowed to have private time with him before he was turned over to us.
We took him into custody. Beyond the fact that he did not talk to us while he was in our custody, I really can't comment on it other than I was told that he appeared nervous; but I think that probably would be expected.
COLLINS: Are both families, including Mark's family, are they still cooperating very well with police?
DINSE: Yes, both families have been very cooperative throughout this investigation. Obviously, we haven't had a lot of communications with them about what we have been determining in our investigation, in order to keep it rather quiet, but we have communicated to them.
I don't think this is a surprise to them. I think it's a sad thing for all of them, both sides of the family. And we know that they are taking this very, very hard.
COLLINS: I'm certain that they are. Chief Rick Dinse this morning from Salt Lake City.
Thanks so much for your time, sir, appreciate it.
DINSE: You'll welcome, Heidi.
HEMMER: 19 minutes past the hour now.
Back here in the New York, the mayor of this city will have a meeting today, in fact about an hour from now, to talk about the latest terror threat with homeland security secretary, Tom Ridge and financial executives in the region here.
With us this morning, outside the Citigroup building in midtown Manhattan, Mayor Michael Bloomberg is our guest now. And Mr. Mayor, thanks for your time. Good morning to you.
MAYOR MICHAEL BLOOMBERG (R), NEW YORK CITY: Good morning, Bill.
HEMMER: First things first, anything changed overnight that you need to let the citizens in your region know about?
BLOOMBERG: No, crime continues to be at a record low level, and we keep our surveillance as high as we possibly can. It's a dangerous world both on the streets of every city and internationally.
HEMMER: Knowing the headlines in the papers, "New York Times," "Washington Post" indicating that some of this intelligence information was actually years old. Does that change your level of concern?
BLOOMBERG: No, the information clearly is, some of it, is old. Some of it, however, there's a lot of evidence was updated reasonably recently.
This particular report was really done, it would appear, to look at potential targets. It was not a specific plan of action. We had said that from the beginning.
And I think we did point out on Sunday that some of the information was old and just because a building is mentioned as a target doesn't mean that anybody is going to attack it, nor does it mean that somebody wouldn't try to attack a building that is not mentioned.
But on Friday, when new information came out, homeland security really didn't have any choice but to look at it, share it with the other intelligence agencies, the New York City Police Department and then put it out.
The government has to tell people what's going on, and then people have to be able to evaluate for themselves.
HEMMER: You're about four weeks away, 27 days to be more precise, away from the Republican convention in your city. How long can the city maintain this security posture?
BLOOMBERG: Well, we will maintain what ever security posture is necessary forever, if that's what it takes.
Our first priority is to make sure that people are as safe is we can possibly be here in the city, and then we'll figure out a way to pay for it.
I do not think that the Republican convention is going to be a particular security problem. I think we're going to have a lot of protesters. That's what New York's about. They'll get a chance to say what they want to say.
I think the terrorists will stay far away, but you never know. There's a lot of uncertainties. And the ways to make sure that both the things that I said come true is to have the best trained police department deployed and out there and constantly changing their strategies, some visible, some not. That's what we're going to do.
HEMMER: You're always fighting for more money to help keep New York City safe. On July 23rd, 10 days ago, you told the "Daily News" here in New York, "It is nothing short of scandalous that New York City and New York state still rank almost at the bottom of the antiterrorism funding on a per capita basis."
Do alerts like these help your argument?
BLOOMBERG: Well, I don't know whether they help the argument. I don't think we need more evidence.
Whenever anybody talks about terrorism, they really talk about hitting the obvious targets, those things that would damage the economy if destroyed, and those places that are icons for America around the world.
That's not the Midwest. That's not other, smaller states. That's not American Samoa. That's New York City, first and foremost and Washington D.C., and then a handful of other cities, perhaps.
You don't need another lesson. What you need to do is to have the political courage to stand up and say, enough with the pork barrel. Let's give these monies out based on where the real threats are.
And I think in all fairness to the president and the secretary of homeland security, Tom Ridge, have both said that. It's up to Congress.
And we're trying to work as best we can with Congress, understanding the political realities of the world, but also trying to explain to them there's a reason why New York is threatened, and that's because if you hurt New York, you really would hurt the whole country.
HEMMER: Michael Bloomberg is the mayor of New York City. Mr. Mayor, thanks for your time.
BLOOMBERG: Thanks, glad to be here.
HEMMER: We'll talk again. You got it.
Heidi?
COLLINS: The new terror alert apparently did not shock Wall Street. Andy Serwer is here "Minding Your Business" now. Whoa, we kind of expected things to tank a little bit, didn't we?
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: That's right, I did and was a bit surprised. Stock markets shrugged off those terror alerts yesterday, Heidi.
A couple comments from Wall Street -- one person telling Wall Street's getting accustomed to this kind of thing. Well, we'll see.
Another one telling me the safest place on the planet was at the New York Stock Exchange yesterday. That's because of all that heightened security.
The reasons the market went up yesterday, manufacturing activity continues to climb. Procter and Gamble, nice report coming out of them.
The market up five days in a row, as you saw there.
And how about Tom Ridge yesterday talking yesterday saying, "I'd like to see the stock market go about so we could send a signal to bin Laden and his crew. You're smart, we're smarter. You're tough, we are tougher."
And I guess that actually came through.
Futures down this morning.
One group of stocks that did not fare well yesterday, Heidi, the for-profit education sector, in particular, Corinthian Colleges, which runs about 130 colleges around the country.
You can see here really tanking yesterday. They're saying that earnings not really coming through, but overall a very good day on Wall Street considering.
COLLINS: Yes, surprising.
SERWER: Yes.
COLLINS: All right. Andy Serwer, thanks so much for that.
SERWER: You're welcome. COLLINS: Still to come this morning, for the first time since 9/11, Lady Liberty is open for business. But some lawmakers think terrorists still scored a partial victory.
We'll explain ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HEMMER: Welcome, everyone. To Jack Cafferty now and the "Question of the Day."
CAFFERTY: Thank you, William.
Officials in New York say that heightened security in this city will stay in place now through the Republican national convention at the end of this month.
Intelligence surfacing at the beginning of July, you'll recall, suggesting that al Qaeda intends to disrupt elections and affect the democratic process in the United States by carrying out a large-scale attack.
And surveillance of potential targets in New York, Washington and New Jersey was so specific, that it left little doubt al Qaeda operatives are still working in this country.
President Bush warned yesterday, "We are a nation in danger."
And both candidates are vowing to be tough in the war on terror. So here's the question, kiddies -- How would a terrorist attack affect the outcome of the election?
Your thoughts on that at am@cnn.com. We'll read some of the letters later.
COLLINS: All right, Jack, thanks so much for that.
Still to come this morning, more on the heightened terror alert. We go live to the nation's capital and find out what could turn out to be a major headache for workers there.
Plus, the surf is rising. We'll have the latest on Hurricane Alex as it skirts along the East Coast. We'll tell you where it's headed here on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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Aired August 3, 2004 - 07:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. How long will financial buildings in three U.S. cities stay on a terror lock down? A key meeting this morning may answer that very question.
Transcripts released in the Kobe Bryant case show a prosecution team worried about losing.
Heading off to a red hot spot by the sun -- after 30 years, NASA is going back to Mercury.
And the first hurricane of the 2004 season now lurking off the coast of North Carolina on this AMERICAN MORNING.
ANNOUNCER: From the CNN Broadcast Center in New York, this is AMERICAN MORNING with Bill Hemmer and Soledad O'Brien.
HEMMER: Off the coast of North Carolina, Chad Myers is there awaiting that storm Alex. We'll check in with Chad throughout the morning.
And good morning, everyone. Here in New York City, yet again. Good morning.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, welcome back.
HEMMER: Good to see you, too.
COLLINS: Nice to see you. Kind of crowded at this desk now, though.
HEMMER: Yes, it is a little bit. Elbow me over anytime you like.
Soledad continues to rest. The baby's getting closer. We'll keep you updated on that as she continues her time away from us here.
Meanwhile, another day of tight security in Washington, Manhattan and Newark, New Jersey. We'll look at what's happening today in the financial sectors, look at new reports concerning the age of this latest terror intelligence. We'll also talk with the mayor here in New York. Michael Bloomberg's our guest in the next 20 minutes as well.
COLLINS: Also, police in Salt Lake City have arrested Mark Hacking in the killing of his wife Lori. We're going to find out what the police think happened when we talk to Chief Rick Dinse. HEMMER: Also a bit later this hour, we'll lighten it up a little bit. "Political Pop" comes your way. Today we're looking at a new film that spoofs the war on terror.
Said to be due out about two weeks right before the election, it features puppets and apparently has a few folks in Washington down at the White House a bit upset about that. So we'll shake that down a bit later this hour also.
COLLINS: Meanwhile, Jack is here. Good morning.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: What was your name again?
HEMMER: Bill.
CAFFERTY: Nice to see you.
HEMMER: And you.
CAFFERTY: Stop by anytime. We're here every morning 7:00 to 10:00.
Terrorists have said that they would like to try to impact the democratic process in this country. If they try, how might it affect the outcome of the election? We'll take a look at that in just a few moments with what's his name there.
COLLINS: All right, Jack, thanks so much.
The latest now on the heightened terror alert. New reports this morning suggest the decision to elevate terror warnings in New York and Washington may have been based mostly on pre-9/11 intelligence.
According to both the "New York Times" and "Washington Post," intelligence officials say much of the information that prompted the raised warning was at least three years old.
The officials also say they have not yet found concrete evidence that a terrorist plot or surveillance operations are still under way. But the officials stressed that al Qaeda has often struck years after conducting surveillance of an intended target.
Meanwhile, Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge this morning meets with financial leaders in New York along with New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, New York Governor George Pataki and New Jersey Governor Jim McGreevey.
I spoke about it with Fran Townsend. She is the assistant to the president for homeland security.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FRAN TOWNSEND, ASST. TO PRES. FOR HOMELAND SECURITY: This is not new. We have said, and I said yesterday, these intelligence, the intelligence casing reports were done in 2000 and 2001, but some were updated as recently as January of this year. And what we know from the way al Qaeda does business, including on the 9/11 attacks, they do their homework well in advance and then they update it just before they launch an attack.
COLLINS: All right. Well, as you also know, there's been a lot of discussion about how much information to release to the public when these terror alerts come out. So given that, if the information is old, why release it to the public now?
TOWNSEND: Heidi, as you know, this has been a continuing intelligence stream. Several weeks ago, we told you about a pre- election threat. We got additional information recently from our very strong partners in Pakistan. We put all that together, and we got it out as quickly as we could so the American people could best protect themselves.
COLLINS: How valuable is it, though? Even though it is old, what are we learning from these documents?
TOWNSEND: What we learn is just how chilling and evil the enemy is, and how deliberate they are, and how committed they are to killing Americans. These reports are extraordinarily detailed.
These individuals clearly had access. They were inside this country, inside these targets, crawling all over them making sure they understood those buildings better than we did.
COLLINS: Will those who are fighting this terror, especially with this information now that they have about the culture, if you will, of al Qaeda, what will they do differently?
TOWNSEND: Heidi, I would hope that people would take a really close look at their security procedures, as Tom Ridge in the department of homeland security did earlier at the end of last week. We put out measures that we believe, protective measures that we think all businesses, but particularly financial institutions, need to look at.
Look Heidi, the good news here is that the financial institutions take security very seriously. Even before this, we suggested some additional measures they might keep in mind given the specificity of these casing reports.
COLLINS: All right, I want to turn quickly, if I could, to the 9/11 commission report. President Bush does not agree with the report's finding that the new national intelligence director should report directly to the president.
Let's listen to what he said for just a moment.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I don't think that the office ought to be in the White House, however. I think it ought to be a stand alone group to better coordinate, particularly between foreign intelligence and domestic intelligence matters. (END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: Wasn't the idea to have one person in charge of terrorism and then report directly to the president?
TOWNSEND: It's one person in charge of intelligence, the 15 -- coordinating the views of 15 intelligence agencies.
Heidi, you know what's interesting, if we had this position and put it in the White House, we would have been accused of politicizing the position. The fact is, the person will have, be the president's principal intelligence adviser, but will have the autonomy to sit outside and bring to the president all the views of the intelligence community, including dissent and alternative analyses.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COLLINS: Fran Townsend, assistant to the president for homeland security.
And just ahead, we will talk about the elevated terror warning with New York mayor, Michael Bloomberg.
HEMMER: Six minutes past the hour, now.
To the Kobe Bryant matter -- the judge reluctantly agreeing late yesterday to release some court documents, transcripts involving the sexual history of Bryant's accuser.
Gary Tuchman has more this morning on this.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In public, prosecutors in the Kobe Bryant case have always appeared confident, but in a closed-door hearing, those same prosecutors had less bravado.
Assistant District Attorney Ingrid Bakke, here on the left, walking with the alleged victim's mother, told Judge Terry Ruckriegle if he ruled the accusers sex life could be used as evidence in the trial, "I'm thinking the prosecution is going to sit down and re- evaluate the quality of its case and its chances of a successful prosecution."
A month after that comment, the judge allowed such testimony. The comment is from transcripts of a closed-door hearing in June reluctantly released by the judge after the news media fought a first amendment battle.
In the 94 pages, Bryant's attorneys called the defense forensics expert, who testified that when the accuser went for her rape examine the day after being with Bryant, a different man's DNA was found not only on her underwear but on a part of her body inside her underwear and on her upper thigh.
Dr. Elizabeth Johnson declared it was her opinion the sexual contact with that other man, "taking everything in totality, likely occurred after the accuser and Mr. Bryant were together."
Bryant's attorneys say injuries the woman had could have come from somebody else and that sex the day after a rape would not be logical to a jury. But the woman's personal attorney vehemently denies she had sex the day after.
There's no denial she had sex in the days before she was with Bryant. And the transcript shows that prosecutors believe the other man's DNA ended up on her body at the rape examine when it was transferred from a pair of underwear she had previously worn.
District Attorney Mark Hurlbert asked Bryant's witness if what she was saying was a hypothesis rather than a theory. Dr. Johnson answered, "It's an opinion based on examination of this evidence. It's based on a lot of scientific findings."
In the transcripts, which the judge regretfully points out as one-sided evidence, the attorneys for the basketball star also declared that tests of the woman's fingernails reveal her DNA but not Bryant's, a not so subtle way of trying to prove she didn't try to scratch her alleged attacker.
Gary Tuchman, CNN, Atlanta.
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HEMMER: Still ahead, the judge will rule on the issue of cameras in the courtroom. More on all this next hour. Jeffrey Toobin stops by on the Kobe Bryant matter. Now Heidi, again.
COLLINS: The first hurricane of the season, hurricane Alex, is headed along North Carolina's Outer Banks. Preparations for the storm began yesterday, but Alex's winds didn't reach hurricane strength until overnight.
Chad Myers is standing by in Atlantic Beach, North Carolina.
As we were talking about yesterday, Chad, wow, hurricane Isabel -- these guys have been hammered before.
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Exactly -- a little bit of a different track. This is actually going to skirt the coast and go offshore. But remember, Isabel went right across North Carolina, right across Pamlico Sound, and then right even in to Richmond, Virginia and then in to D.C.
This one is kind of skirting it off to the right a little bit, but we are beginning to pick up the waves here, at least eight footers now. And what we're noticing is actually the wind beginning to take the tops of the waves off, picking up here to at least 45 m.p.h.. And there are many more squalls on radar just offshore for this.
And some of the waves now, some of the buoys out there, at eight to 10 feet. Here's why.
You can see the eye of the storm. You can actually see around those reds spinning around there just south of where I am right now in Atlantic Beach, North Carolina.
That storm is headed almost due north, or a little bit east of due north and is going to really probably make a direct hit on Cape Hatteras. They got hit last year, as well. Cape Hatteras even had a couple of extra bridges they had to put in because it washed away part of the island last year.
This storm, obviously, only 80 m.p.h., not a category 2, 3 or 4. Folks here not really all that concerned, although even with 75 m.p.h. winds, you have something to deal with. It's really hard to hold on to an umbrella.
Right now our winds are only 45. And if you remember, Bill, this umbrella I bought in Times Square for $3 last year's hurricane season when they sent me down to New Orleans. And it's still working.
HEMMER: What's the over, under on that thing holding up today?
MYERS: I would say less than two.
HEMMER: Yes, I'd say 30 minutes away.
MYERS: Less than two minutes.
HEMMER: All right. Thank you Chad for that.
10 minutes past hour. To Daryn Kagan again, with us this morning at the CNN Center with the news now.
Daryn, good morning there.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Bill, good morning to you.
Our headlines begin with a U.S. Marine and two soldiers who were killed in Iraq overnight. Some 918 American troops have now died there since the start of operation of Iraqi freedom.
Meanwhile, the U.S.-led coalition denies claims that its forces launched an operation against radical cleric Muqtada Al-Sadr. Possible sources say the clashes in Najaf killed at least one person and injured a dozen others.
The Army reserve unit caught up in the Abu Ghraib prison scandal is back from Iraq. Some 100 soldiers were reunited with their families yesterday at Fort Lee, Virginia.
Seven members of the unit have been connected with the abuse in Baghdad, among them Private First Class Lynndie England. She faces a military court-martial for the first time today. More on that hearing throughout the show.
Also, Army Captain James Yee will resign from the Army. He is asking to be discharged in January. Yee faced charges for mishandling classified documents while counseling detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. In March, the military dropped all charges against him, but Yee says the unfounded allegations damaged his personal and professional reputation.
A successful launch of the Messenger probe blasted off early this morning. It's going to explore Mercury, at least that's the idea. It's going to travel five billion miles during a six and a half year journey to the planet closest to the sun.
It starts orbiting, if everything works out, it'll start orbiting Mercury in 2011. Messenger will be blasted by up to 700-degree heat. It will also be protected by custom built ceramic fabric and a sun shade.
And Bill, isn't that the ultimate in, are we there yet, are we there yet, are we there yet? Six and a half years to get there.
HEMMER: And we're all in the back seat, too.
KAGAN: I'm telling you.
HEMMER: Thank you, Daryn.
COLLINS: I want to let you know, still coming up this morning, that we will have an update on the case of the missing woman in Salt Lake City, Utah. There has been an arrest made. That person is her husband Mark Hacking.
HEMMER: Also, the latest blow in the Mideast crisis from overseas. We'll get to that today.
And a deadly day in the conflict between Palestinians and Israelis. We'll look at that. And we'll update you after this.
COLLINS: Also ahead, with a huge event less than a month away, how is New York handling the latest terror warnings?
We'll talk to New York City Mayor, Michael Bloomberg ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
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COLLINS: They're still searching for Lori Hacking's body, but Salt Lake City police say all evidence points to foul play and to Lori's husband, Mark Hacking.
Hacking was arrested yesterday on suspicion of aggravated murder. He is now in jail under a suicide watch.
Police Chief Rick Dinse joins us from Salt Lake City now to talk about the very latest in the case.
You say that Mark is still in the county lock up, but you haven't found Lori's body yet. Tell us about your efforts to find her at this point. CHIEF RICK DINSE, SALT LAKE CITY POLICE: Well, Heidi, we've put a considerable amount of effort into looking for her, obviously, from the minute she was reported missing.
We had a large search that was started by the police department and then carried on by the family. We also started that same week in looking at the landfill based on information that that we had developed during our investigation, and we continue to do that.
We still believe that the landfill is our best opportunity for locating her.
COLLINS: What exactly do you think happened to Lori Hacking?
DINSE: Well, beyond the fact that we believe she was murdered by her husband, I really can't comment on any of the other aspects of how that murder occurred or what kind of evidence we have that leads us in that direction.
COLLINS: Well there are some reports this morning that say investigators have identified a motive and a weapon. What more can you offer on those accounts?
DINSE: Well, I think we have ideas of the motive, and I think we also have knowledge of what the weapon is. When I say, I think, we do have some knowledge of what the weapon was that was used in this case, however, I'm not going to comment on that.
There's a lot of speculation, and I would say at this point that is speculation. And beyond that, I can't comment.
COLLINS: Do you expect more charges to be filed?
DINSE: Well, at this point, he has been booked under aggravated murder. That's the only charge we have on him. And as far as what other charges might come out of that, that's up to the district attorney, and we're talking to them now.
COLLINS: Chief, as we mentioned in the introduction to this now, Mark Hacking is under suicide watch. What can you tell us about his arrest in terms of his demeanor when he was taken in?
DINSE: Well, we arrested him at the hospital upon his release from the hospital. His attorney was present. His attorney was allowed to have private time with him before he was turned over to us.
We took him into custody. Beyond the fact that he did not talk to us while he was in our custody, I really can't comment on it other than I was told that he appeared nervous; but I think that probably would be expected.
COLLINS: Are both families, including Mark's family, are they still cooperating very well with police?
DINSE: Yes, both families have been very cooperative throughout this investigation. Obviously, we haven't had a lot of communications with them about what we have been determining in our investigation, in order to keep it rather quiet, but we have communicated to them.
I don't think this is a surprise to them. I think it's a sad thing for all of them, both sides of the family. And we know that they are taking this very, very hard.
COLLINS: I'm certain that they are. Chief Rick Dinse this morning from Salt Lake City.
Thanks so much for your time, sir, appreciate it.
DINSE: You'll welcome, Heidi.
HEMMER: 19 minutes past the hour now.
Back here in the New York, the mayor of this city will have a meeting today, in fact about an hour from now, to talk about the latest terror threat with homeland security secretary, Tom Ridge and financial executives in the region here.
With us this morning, outside the Citigroup building in midtown Manhattan, Mayor Michael Bloomberg is our guest now. And Mr. Mayor, thanks for your time. Good morning to you.
MAYOR MICHAEL BLOOMBERG (R), NEW YORK CITY: Good morning, Bill.
HEMMER: First things first, anything changed overnight that you need to let the citizens in your region know about?
BLOOMBERG: No, crime continues to be at a record low level, and we keep our surveillance as high as we possibly can. It's a dangerous world both on the streets of every city and internationally.
HEMMER: Knowing the headlines in the papers, "New York Times," "Washington Post" indicating that some of this intelligence information was actually years old. Does that change your level of concern?
BLOOMBERG: No, the information clearly is, some of it, is old. Some of it, however, there's a lot of evidence was updated reasonably recently.
This particular report was really done, it would appear, to look at potential targets. It was not a specific plan of action. We had said that from the beginning.
And I think we did point out on Sunday that some of the information was old and just because a building is mentioned as a target doesn't mean that anybody is going to attack it, nor does it mean that somebody wouldn't try to attack a building that is not mentioned.
But on Friday, when new information came out, homeland security really didn't have any choice but to look at it, share it with the other intelligence agencies, the New York City Police Department and then put it out.
The government has to tell people what's going on, and then people have to be able to evaluate for themselves.
HEMMER: You're about four weeks away, 27 days to be more precise, away from the Republican convention in your city. How long can the city maintain this security posture?
BLOOMBERG: Well, we will maintain what ever security posture is necessary forever, if that's what it takes.
Our first priority is to make sure that people are as safe is we can possibly be here in the city, and then we'll figure out a way to pay for it.
I do not think that the Republican convention is going to be a particular security problem. I think we're going to have a lot of protesters. That's what New York's about. They'll get a chance to say what they want to say.
I think the terrorists will stay far away, but you never know. There's a lot of uncertainties. And the ways to make sure that both the things that I said come true is to have the best trained police department deployed and out there and constantly changing their strategies, some visible, some not. That's what we're going to do.
HEMMER: You're always fighting for more money to help keep New York City safe. On July 23rd, 10 days ago, you told the "Daily News" here in New York, "It is nothing short of scandalous that New York City and New York state still rank almost at the bottom of the antiterrorism funding on a per capita basis."
Do alerts like these help your argument?
BLOOMBERG: Well, I don't know whether they help the argument. I don't think we need more evidence.
Whenever anybody talks about terrorism, they really talk about hitting the obvious targets, those things that would damage the economy if destroyed, and those places that are icons for America around the world.
That's not the Midwest. That's not other, smaller states. That's not American Samoa. That's New York City, first and foremost and Washington D.C., and then a handful of other cities, perhaps.
You don't need another lesson. What you need to do is to have the political courage to stand up and say, enough with the pork barrel. Let's give these monies out based on where the real threats are.
And I think in all fairness to the president and the secretary of homeland security, Tom Ridge, have both said that. It's up to Congress.
And we're trying to work as best we can with Congress, understanding the political realities of the world, but also trying to explain to them there's a reason why New York is threatened, and that's because if you hurt New York, you really would hurt the whole country.
HEMMER: Michael Bloomberg is the mayor of New York City. Mr. Mayor, thanks for your time.
BLOOMBERG: Thanks, glad to be here.
HEMMER: We'll talk again. You got it.
Heidi?
COLLINS: The new terror alert apparently did not shock Wall Street. Andy Serwer is here "Minding Your Business" now. Whoa, we kind of expected things to tank a little bit, didn't we?
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: That's right, I did and was a bit surprised. Stock markets shrugged off those terror alerts yesterday, Heidi.
A couple comments from Wall Street -- one person telling Wall Street's getting accustomed to this kind of thing. Well, we'll see.
Another one telling me the safest place on the planet was at the New York Stock Exchange yesterday. That's because of all that heightened security.
The reasons the market went up yesterday, manufacturing activity continues to climb. Procter and Gamble, nice report coming out of them.
The market up five days in a row, as you saw there.
And how about Tom Ridge yesterday talking yesterday saying, "I'd like to see the stock market go about so we could send a signal to bin Laden and his crew. You're smart, we're smarter. You're tough, we are tougher."
And I guess that actually came through.
Futures down this morning.
One group of stocks that did not fare well yesterday, Heidi, the for-profit education sector, in particular, Corinthian Colleges, which runs about 130 colleges around the country.
You can see here really tanking yesterday. They're saying that earnings not really coming through, but overall a very good day on Wall Street considering.
COLLINS: Yes, surprising.
SERWER: Yes.
COLLINS: All right. Andy Serwer, thanks so much for that.
SERWER: You're welcome. COLLINS: Still to come this morning, for the first time since 9/11, Lady Liberty is open for business. But some lawmakers think terrorists still scored a partial victory.
We'll explain ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
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HEMMER: Welcome, everyone. To Jack Cafferty now and the "Question of the Day."
CAFFERTY: Thank you, William.
Officials in New York say that heightened security in this city will stay in place now through the Republican national convention at the end of this month.
Intelligence surfacing at the beginning of July, you'll recall, suggesting that al Qaeda intends to disrupt elections and affect the democratic process in the United States by carrying out a large-scale attack.
And surveillance of potential targets in New York, Washington and New Jersey was so specific, that it left little doubt al Qaeda operatives are still working in this country.
President Bush warned yesterday, "We are a nation in danger."
And both candidates are vowing to be tough in the war on terror. So here's the question, kiddies -- How would a terrorist attack affect the outcome of the election?
Your thoughts on that at am@cnn.com. We'll read some of the letters later.
COLLINS: All right, Jack, thanks so much for that.
Still to come this morning, more on the heightened terror alert. We go live to the nation's capital and find out what could turn out to be a major headache for workers there.
Plus, the surf is rising. We'll have the latest on Hurricane Alex as it skirts along the East Coast. We'll tell you where it's headed here on AMERICAN MORNING.
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