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American Morning
Zarqawi Message; U.S. Terror Suspects; O.J. Simpson Trial
Aired May 31, 2005 - 09:00 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. Has the most wanted man in Iraq recovered from his wounds? We'll look at a new recording said to be from Zarqawi in a live report from Iraq ahead. Also, the vice president on the Iraq war.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RICHARD CHENEY, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think they're in the last throws, if you will, of the insurgency.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HEMMER: Is the Iraq insurgency now in decline? The vice president making a bold prediction to CNN's Larry King.
And hurricane season just a day away. Forecasters now say it could be worse than first thought.
All those stories straight ahead this hour on AMERICAN MORNING.
ANNOUNCER: From the CNN Broadcast Center in New York, this is AMERICAN MORNING with Bill Hemmer and Soledad O'Brien.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Welcome, everybody.
Also ahead this morning, a big announcement we're expecting from London this morning.
HEMMER: In a moment here, plans being announced for Live Aid. This is a live picture there, and that is Elton John.
Sir Bob Geldof will make the announcement. He'll make it official. There's Sir Bob.
A huge concert to help African nations and a sequel to Live Aid from 1985. We'll talk to Dave Matthews. He is state side for this announcement, but he's part of Live Eight, as they're calling it. It precedes the G-8 summit by a few days. That's how they got the title. So we'll check back throughout the hour here.
O'BRIEN: Mr. Cafferty is with us also.
Good morning, again.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning.
"The Question of the Day" has to do with President Bush's political capital. This -- this summer, first summer of his second term, and already you can hear grumblings about lame duck in the corridors in Washington, D.C.
Do you think President Bush has spent his political capital? AM@CNN.com is the e-mail address.
HEMMER: And Jack, we'll get back to that.
Also, back to the headlines for Carol Costello with those now.
Hello.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Hello. Good morning, everyone.
"Now in the News," President Bush is hosting astronauts in the Oval Office right now. The president is set to meet any moment now with the recent crew members of the International Space Station and their families. The meeting comes as the White House is preparing a new space policy, one that could bring the U.S. closer to sending weapons into space.
The threat of a strike is looming over United Airlines. Today is the deadline for the airline to hammer out a new five-year contract with its largest union. About 20,000 ground workers are threatening to walk if there's no agreement. One sticking point, the pension plan.
The company favors a 401(k) savings plan. The union wants funds to go into its own pension fund.
Two Florida teenagers face possible first-degree murder charges in the killing of a homeless man. Police say the suspects, one 14 years old and the other 18, confessed to kicking and beating the man to death because they were bored and they wanted something to do. Investigators say more arrests are possible.
And the jurors in the Michael Jackson trial could get the case this week. The prosecution finished its rebuttal case Friday with a videotape of the accuser's 2003 police interview. The judge and lawyers will hammer out jury instructions today, and closing arguments could begin as soon as tomorrow.
So it's almost over.
HEMMER: Almost.
COSTELLO: Almost.
HEMMER: Thank you, Carol.
There have been two deadly air crashes in Iraq in the past 22 hours. Keeping a very close eye on this is Ryan Chilcote, live from Baghdad.
What do we know about the cause for these crashes, Ryan? RYAN CHILCOTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Bill, well, military officials say they know something about the circumstances of these crashes, but they don't know the causes of either of them yet. If they were accidents, that's of course tragic. But what the U.S. military would be particularly concerned about is if either of these aircraft were brought down by hostile fire. No sign of that yet.
Now, we go to the first aircraft, most recent aircraft to go down. That was in southern Iraq. It was an Italian helicopter, had some four Italian servicemen on board. It went down south of Nasiriyah in southern Iraq, about 13 miles south of there. The Italians say that they have secured the site and that all four Italian servicemen on board were killed in that crash.
And then just about 24 hours before that, Bill, another Iraqi reconnaissance plane went down. This was north of Baquba. The U.S. military says it has secured that site. It says that all five individuals on board, four Americans and one Iraqi, were killed in that crash -- Bill.
HEMMER: Ryan, also back to this audiotape, and it's gone back and forth as to whether or not this is truly the voice of Zarqawi on that tape. But whoever it is talks about a minor wound in combat. What's the significance of making a statement such as that?
CHILCOTE: Well, if it's confirmed that it is indeed from Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, then the significance is that that would seem to confirm what we've been hearing for the last two or three weeks. We have heard repeatedly reports that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was wounded in combat here in Iraq.
Having said that, there's also a claim on this audio message that he's back in Iraq and that he's still directing extremist attacks here. So he's still someone that the U.S. military is going to have to deal with if they want to beat the insurgency here.
There's another interesting aspect, I think, to that audio message, which is that it purportedly was addressed to Osama bin Laden. Now, there's been a lot of talk about coordination between Osama bin Laden and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. This would seem to confirm that that coordination continues to this day -- Bill.
HEMMER: Ryan Chilcote from Baghdad -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Operation Lightning in its third day now in Baghdad. It's a joint Iraqi-U.S. offensive to crack down on insurgents that are operating inside the capital city. Earlier this morning I asked Major General William Webster, the American commander of Operation Lightning, if the mission was making any progress.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAJ. GEN. WILLIAM WEBSTER, COMMANDER, 3RD INFANTRY DIVISION: Things have gone well so far. We still have seen periodic spikes in enemy activity, but we have been able to see signs of success. And this operation will continue until we're able to beat down the insurgency.
O'BRIEN: What kind of signs of success are you seeing?
WEBSTER: Well, we're now -- we're now finding as many of these IEDs, these explosive devices on the side of the road, as are exploding. And half of those that are exploding are not causing any damage. We're doing that by conducting disruption operations and denying the enemy the time to be able to emplace these things regularly.
The number of car bombs, or VBIDs (ph), as we call them, has gone down significantly. And we're finding about 20, 25 percent of those before they are able to explode. And none of them apparently are able to, in the last several weeks, have been able to reach their target.
So our portion of this is showing significant success. And as we talk to the Iraqi people here in Baghdad, they are appreciative for the increased security. They're proud to see their own Iraqi security forces out here leading this fight. And they're looking forward to the future.
O'BRIEN: There are some reports from U.S. military that indicate that U.S. troops are in fact out there in bigger numbers, they make up the bulk of Operation Lightning at this stage. Are those reports accurate? Is that true?
WEBSTER: No. In fact, from day to day we have probably 13,000 police and army forces from the Iraqi government troops who are participating in this. And while we still have other missions to accomplish here in Baghdad, we're applying probably half of that against day-to-day operations. So it's clear at this point that we've worked hard to train these Iraqi security forces, and they are now in the throws of taking the lead.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: Major General William Webster is leading the U.S. forces in Operation Lightning -- Bill.
HEMMER: Meanwhile, the vice president, Dick Cheney, talking about Iraq here on CNN last night. He talked with Larry King here.
The vice president saying he believes the insurgency is in "the last throws." All this coming though, despite an extremely violent and deadly month for coalition troops and civilians in Iraq. The vice president believes the war could end before he and President Bush leave office.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHENEY: We'll leave as soon as the task is over with. We haven't set a deadline or a date. It depends upon conditions.
We have to achieve our objectives, complete the mission. And the two main requirements are the Iraqis in a position to be able to govern themselves -- and they're well on their way to doing that. LARRY KING, HOST, "LARRY KING LIVE": Do you expect it in your administration?
CHENEY: I do.
KING: To be -- it's not going to be -- it's not going to be a 10-year event?
CHENEY: No. I think we may well have some kind of presence there over a period of time. I think the level of activity that we see today from a military standpoint I think will clearly decline. I think they're in the last throws, if you will, of the insurgency.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HEMMER: The vice president also saying he is convinced the United States did the right thing in going to war in Iraq -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: In a CNN "Security Watch," two terrorism suspects will be in federal court this morning. They're accused of pledging to help al Qaeda. One man is being held in Florida. The other in New York.
And Mary Snow is live from the federal courthouse in New York this morning.
Mary, good morning to you. Give us a sense of what these guys are accused of doing.
MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Soledad, at the heart of the charge, both men are accused of pledging support for al Qaeda first to a government informant and then allegedly to an undercover FBI agent posing as a recruiter for Osama bin Laden's terror network.
Now, charged, Rafiq Sabir. He is a doctor who was arrested in Boca Raton, Florida. Prosecutors say that he was scheduled to leave for Saudi Arabia this week. They say he intended or spoke about treating wounded members of the jihad there.
Also arrested and charged, Tariq Shah. He is a musician and a self-described martial arts expert.
In a criminal complaint, it alleges that he intended to provide training for al Qaeda members. That complaint also suggests that he checked out a Long Island warehouse for a possible training site.
Each of these men are charged with one count of conspiring to provide material support to al Qaeda. The complaint also states that on May 20 both men were in a Bronx apartment with an FBI agent going undercover, and it is there it is alleged that they pledged their loyalty to Osama bin Laden. They were arrested over the weekend.
Yesterday, New York's Mayor Michael Bloomberg indicated that in cases like these you can't take any chances.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) MAYOR MICHAEL BLOOMBERG (R), NEW YORK: They clearly have said that they wanted to destroy our way of life and hurt the people of America. And if that's your definition of terrorism, I guess that certainly qualifies. How serious it was, whether it's just two misguided people who are -- or whether they really had infrastructure, whether they really had ties to al Qaeda, that we'll have to see as the investigation goes forward.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SNOW: Now, Shah is expected to be in court here this morning, if federal court here in New York. Sabir is expected to be in court in Fort Pierce, Florida. Repeated calls to both their families and lawyers went unanswered -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Each face, Mary, one charge. What's the possible penalty then?
SNOW: That charge, if convicted, carries a possible penalty of up to 15 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
O'BRIEN: Mary Snow for us this morning at the federal courthouse. Mary, thanks.
You want to stay tuned to CNN day and night for the most reliable news about your security -- Bill.
HEMMER: Now a brutal story out of Ohio. The motive behind six killings in Bellefontaine remains a mystery today.
Authorities do believe that preliminary evidence in the case, this was a murder-suicide. They think 18-year-old Scott Moody killed five people, then killed himself on the day he was to graduate from high school. The dead include his mother, two teenage friends and two of the boy's grandparents.
The grandparents had recently placed an ad in the local newspaper congratulating Moody on his graduation. That incident was first reported by the stepsister of one victim in an anguished call to 911. Listen here.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
CALLER: Oh my God! God! The son is (INAUDIBLE)!
OPERATOR: What?
CALLER: Oh my God! I found the son, too. He's been killed...
OPERATOR: What's the matter?
CALLER: ... his girlfriend... Oh my God!
OPERATOR: What's going on, honey?
CALLER: The son and the girlfriend are beat up, too. OPERATOR: I need the address, honey.
CALLER: (INAUDIBLE). She's the only one that's awake.
OPERATOR: She's -- there's only one awake?
CALLER: Yes.
OPERATOR: How many people -- how many people have been beat up?
CALLER: Four. Four. (INAUDIBLE). There's five. There's another one. Oh my God. There's one in the living room, too.
OPERATOR: OK. What's going on right now, honey?
CALLER: She's telling me that there's five dead. There's another one on the couch.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
HEMMER: Wow. Bellefontaine is about 40 miles northwest of Columbus, Ohio. The caller had been alerted by Moody's sister, who survived the rampage. She is still in critical condition at a hospital in Columbus -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: At 12 minutes after the hour, it's time to take a look at the weather this morning. Hurricane season starts tomorrow, and forecasters at Colorado State University are predicting a period of wicked storms, even busier than what they predicted only two months ago.
Last year, four major storms hit the U.S. It caused more than $40 billion in damage. Well, now researchers are expecting 15 named tropical storms to hit the Atlantic coast in 2005. That's two more than they predicted in early April.
Of those, eight are more likely to develop into hurricanes. And four could become major hurricanes. Hurricane season officially runs from June 1 to the end of November.
All this brings us to Chad, who's at the CNN center this morning.
(WEATHER REPORT)
HEMMER: A few moments ago, watching this live picture from London. Sir Bob Geldof announcing details to his follow-up to 1985's Live Aid. We'll talk to one of the artists participating this time around. That's Dave Matthews. He's our guest in a moment.
O'BRIEN: And before the Michael Jackson trial there was the O.J. Simpson trial. We'll take a look back at one of the biggest stories of CNN's 25 years on the air. That's up next on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HEMMER: Just getting word from the White House now the president will hold a news conference in the Rose Garden about 90 minutes from now. That's 10:45 a.m. Eastern Time. We'll carry it for you live when it happens down there in D.C.
In the meantime, though, if you see this thing on your screen, it says CNN 25, right? Tomorrow officially we turn 25 here. June 1 the official date. And this week we're looking back at the history-making events of the past 25 years you may have seen live here on CNN.
Long before there was Martha Stewart and Michael Jackson and Scott Peterson, there was the trial known as the trial of the century, and O.J. Simpson's trial in California.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SR. LEGAL ANALYST: The Simpson case combined everything that obsesses the American people. There was sex, race, sports, Hollywood, violence, and the only eyewitness was a dog.
HEMMER (voice-over): It was called the trial of the century. And live television coverage made it feel like a made-for-TV movie.
KING: I understand we're going to go to a live picture in Los Angeles. Is that correct? OK.
This is Interstate 5, and this is courtesy of KCAL, one of our L.A. affiliates. Police believe that -- that O.J. Simpson is in that car.
TRACI TAMURA, CNN FIELD PRODUCER: You didn't know what was going to happen. Was he going to do something, you know, kill himself in the vehicle? You know, would they make another turn and head south?
HEMMER: From the images of O.J. Simpson's white Bronco chase, to Simpson's arrest on charges of killing his ex-wife, Nicole Simpson, and her friend Ron Goldman, the story only got more dramatic when the case went to trial.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How do you plead to counts one and two?
O.J. SIMPSON, DEFENDANT: Absolutely 100 percent not guilty.
HEMMER: The massive media onslaught then brought worldwide attention.
TAMURA: We set up the whole Camp O.J. And it was a very elaborate deal. It had your mobile home sitting there, all the satellite city (ph) of all the trucks lined up.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Prosecutors have said they'll decide by the end of the month whether to seek the death penalty in the Simpson case.
TOOBIN: We all thought, well, interest can't be sustained at this level. And we were wrong.
HEMMER: And O.J.'s defense dream team knew how to fuel the fire. JOHNNIE COCHRAN, SIMPSON DEFENSE ATTORNEY: It's no disguise. It's no disguise. It makes no sense. It doesn't fit. If it doesn't fit, you must acquit.
TOOBIN: The only person in the Simpson trial who I thought was really larger than life was Johnnie Cochran. When he walked into that courtroom, you couldn't take your eyes off him. And he was really good at his work.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We the jury in the above entitled action find the defendant, Orenthal James Simpson, not guilty of the crime of murder.
HEMMER: Approximately 150 million people watched live coverage of the O.J. Simpson verdict. When it was read October 3, 1995, the public reaction was swift and intense.
TOOBIN: Fifty years from now, the most important thing about the Simpson case, it will be about the public reaction to the trial and how black people and white people saw exactly the same pictures on television and came to dramatically different conclusions about what was right and what was wrong.
Some cases are interesting. Some cases are important. The Simpson case turned out to be both.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HEMMER: The jury in the civil case later found Simpson liable, awarded the plaintiffs $8.5 million in damages.
And tomorrow, June 1, the day of CNN's 25th anniversary, a very special guest is back with us. Former anchor and colleague Bernie Shaw will be here on AMERICAN MORNING, reflecting on the past 25 years of history, too. And he has seen so much.
Also, tomorrow night a prime-time special, "Defining Moments: 25 Stories That Touched our Lives." Tomorrow night at 8:00, 5:00 on the West Coast here on CNN -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Looking forward to that.
Ahead this morning, in the documentary "Super Size Me," filmmaker Morgan Spurlock took on fast food. Well, now he's super-sizing his message about what we eat, and he's already got his next target, too. We're going to talk with him ahead.
Stay with us. You're watching AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: Welcome back, everybody. Let's get right to Jack.
Good morning.
CAFFERTY: President Bush, Soledad, facing the lowest poll numbers of his presidency, few significant legislative victories to point to so far. Rumblings of those dreaded words "lame duck" can be heard around Washington, if you're listening.
A "Washington Post" analysis today cites a number of domestic and foreign setbacks. But when President Bush won re-election, remember he said he had earned plenty of "political capital." The question this morning is, has President Bush lost that political capital?
Elizabeth in Los Angeles, "Bush is a political capitalist only in his own mind. He has the House, the Senate, a conservative-packed judiciary and a right-leaning population all telling him he's wrong. He cannot hear any of them."
Jack in Louisiana, "Even his most ardent supporters no longer trust what he and the members of his administration say. The remaining problem is that his most ardent supporters don't care if he's telling the truth or not as long as he continues to thump the bible when he says it."
Steve in Palmetto, Florida, writes, "Bush is losing favor with average voters who can see their jobs, health care and savings being sent to third world workers."
And Jerry in Georgia writes, "Political capital is gained through effective, consistent demonstrations of leadership. One cannot move effectively forward when most of one's energy is used creating spin. Republican politicians will be politically forced to separate themselves from the vacuum in the White House."
O'BRIEN: Interesting feedback this morning, I'd say.
All right, Jack. Thanks a lot.
Well, sometimes the television pictures say it all. Sometimes those pictures just don't say enough.
Let's show you the pictures now. Yes, that is an eight-pound roll of cheese these folks are chasing. It's an annual contest in England.
HEMMER: Oh!
O'BRIEN: The racers pretty much hurl themselves down a big old steep hill. They're trying to be the very first to cross the finish line in pursuit of said cheese. Twenty people were injured in this one. They had fractures and cuts and breezes.
Apparently that's a good thing. Officials say many more than that get hurt.
HEMMER: I'm telling you. Watch this. How do you not get hurt falling down this hill?
O'BRIEN: Ooh. Ouch.
HEMMER: Look at this cat. Yes, does he think that's smart? Does he go home and watch this on TV and think, yeah, man, I got passed that line?
O'BRIEN: Maybe he does.
(CROSSTALK)
HEMMER: She says they are.
O'BRIEN: Under the category strange but true.
HEMMER: That came from...
O'BRIEN: ... we've got the tape.
HEMMER: That came from England, too.
We're getting this off the news ticker here, too, about they're announcing all this Live Eight material right now. London's got a great show coming: Coldplay, Madonna, Paul McCartney, REM and U2.
Down in Philly, they're going to have, what, Will Smith, Stevie Wonder, P. Diddy and the Dave Matthews Band, too. So 20 years after Live Aid rocked the world, a sequel is on the way.
Dave Matthews, we're going to link up with him in the next 30 minutes here live on AMERICAN MORNING.
Back in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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Aired May 31, 2005 - 09:00 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. Has the most wanted man in Iraq recovered from his wounds? We'll look at a new recording said to be from Zarqawi in a live report from Iraq ahead. Also, the vice president on the Iraq war.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RICHARD CHENEY, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think they're in the last throws, if you will, of the insurgency.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HEMMER: Is the Iraq insurgency now in decline? The vice president making a bold prediction to CNN's Larry King.
And hurricane season just a day away. Forecasters now say it could be worse than first thought.
All those stories straight ahead this hour on AMERICAN MORNING.
ANNOUNCER: From the CNN Broadcast Center in New York, this is AMERICAN MORNING with Bill Hemmer and Soledad O'Brien.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Welcome, everybody.
Also ahead this morning, a big announcement we're expecting from London this morning.
HEMMER: In a moment here, plans being announced for Live Aid. This is a live picture there, and that is Elton John.
Sir Bob Geldof will make the announcement. He'll make it official. There's Sir Bob.
A huge concert to help African nations and a sequel to Live Aid from 1985. We'll talk to Dave Matthews. He is state side for this announcement, but he's part of Live Eight, as they're calling it. It precedes the G-8 summit by a few days. That's how they got the title. So we'll check back throughout the hour here.
O'BRIEN: Mr. Cafferty is with us also.
Good morning, again.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning.
"The Question of the Day" has to do with President Bush's political capital. This -- this summer, first summer of his second term, and already you can hear grumblings about lame duck in the corridors in Washington, D.C.
Do you think President Bush has spent his political capital? AM@CNN.com is the e-mail address.
HEMMER: And Jack, we'll get back to that.
Also, back to the headlines for Carol Costello with those now.
Hello.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Hello. Good morning, everyone.
"Now in the News," President Bush is hosting astronauts in the Oval Office right now. The president is set to meet any moment now with the recent crew members of the International Space Station and their families. The meeting comes as the White House is preparing a new space policy, one that could bring the U.S. closer to sending weapons into space.
The threat of a strike is looming over United Airlines. Today is the deadline for the airline to hammer out a new five-year contract with its largest union. About 20,000 ground workers are threatening to walk if there's no agreement. One sticking point, the pension plan.
The company favors a 401(k) savings plan. The union wants funds to go into its own pension fund.
Two Florida teenagers face possible first-degree murder charges in the killing of a homeless man. Police say the suspects, one 14 years old and the other 18, confessed to kicking and beating the man to death because they were bored and they wanted something to do. Investigators say more arrests are possible.
And the jurors in the Michael Jackson trial could get the case this week. The prosecution finished its rebuttal case Friday with a videotape of the accuser's 2003 police interview. The judge and lawyers will hammer out jury instructions today, and closing arguments could begin as soon as tomorrow.
So it's almost over.
HEMMER: Almost.
COSTELLO: Almost.
HEMMER: Thank you, Carol.
There have been two deadly air crashes in Iraq in the past 22 hours. Keeping a very close eye on this is Ryan Chilcote, live from Baghdad.
What do we know about the cause for these crashes, Ryan? RYAN CHILCOTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Bill, well, military officials say they know something about the circumstances of these crashes, but they don't know the causes of either of them yet. If they were accidents, that's of course tragic. But what the U.S. military would be particularly concerned about is if either of these aircraft were brought down by hostile fire. No sign of that yet.
Now, we go to the first aircraft, most recent aircraft to go down. That was in southern Iraq. It was an Italian helicopter, had some four Italian servicemen on board. It went down south of Nasiriyah in southern Iraq, about 13 miles south of there. The Italians say that they have secured the site and that all four Italian servicemen on board were killed in that crash.
And then just about 24 hours before that, Bill, another Iraqi reconnaissance plane went down. This was north of Baquba. The U.S. military says it has secured that site. It says that all five individuals on board, four Americans and one Iraqi, were killed in that crash -- Bill.
HEMMER: Ryan, also back to this audiotape, and it's gone back and forth as to whether or not this is truly the voice of Zarqawi on that tape. But whoever it is talks about a minor wound in combat. What's the significance of making a statement such as that?
CHILCOTE: Well, if it's confirmed that it is indeed from Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, then the significance is that that would seem to confirm what we've been hearing for the last two or three weeks. We have heard repeatedly reports that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was wounded in combat here in Iraq.
Having said that, there's also a claim on this audio message that he's back in Iraq and that he's still directing extremist attacks here. So he's still someone that the U.S. military is going to have to deal with if they want to beat the insurgency here.
There's another interesting aspect, I think, to that audio message, which is that it purportedly was addressed to Osama bin Laden. Now, there's been a lot of talk about coordination between Osama bin Laden and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. This would seem to confirm that that coordination continues to this day -- Bill.
HEMMER: Ryan Chilcote from Baghdad -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Operation Lightning in its third day now in Baghdad. It's a joint Iraqi-U.S. offensive to crack down on insurgents that are operating inside the capital city. Earlier this morning I asked Major General William Webster, the American commander of Operation Lightning, if the mission was making any progress.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAJ. GEN. WILLIAM WEBSTER, COMMANDER, 3RD INFANTRY DIVISION: Things have gone well so far. We still have seen periodic spikes in enemy activity, but we have been able to see signs of success. And this operation will continue until we're able to beat down the insurgency.
O'BRIEN: What kind of signs of success are you seeing?
WEBSTER: Well, we're now -- we're now finding as many of these IEDs, these explosive devices on the side of the road, as are exploding. And half of those that are exploding are not causing any damage. We're doing that by conducting disruption operations and denying the enemy the time to be able to emplace these things regularly.
The number of car bombs, or VBIDs (ph), as we call them, has gone down significantly. And we're finding about 20, 25 percent of those before they are able to explode. And none of them apparently are able to, in the last several weeks, have been able to reach their target.
So our portion of this is showing significant success. And as we talk to the Iraqi people here in Baghdad, they are appreciative for the increased security. They're proud to see their own Iraqi security forces out here leading this fight. And they're looking forward to the future.
O'BRIEN: There are some reports from U.S. military that indicate that U.S. troops are in fact out there in bigger numbers, they make up the bulk of Operation Lightning at this stage. Are those reports accurate? Is that true?
WEBSTER: No. In fact, from day to day we have probably 13,000 police and army forces from the Iraqi government troops who are participating in this. And while we still have other missions to accomplish here in Baghdad, we're applying probably half of that against day-to-day operations. So it's clear at this point that we've worked hard to train these Iraqi security forces, and they are now in the throws of taking the lead.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: Major General William Webster is leading the U.S. forces in Operation Lightning -- Bill.
HEMMER: Meanwhile, the vice president, Dick Cheney, talking about Iraq here on CNN last night. He talked with Larry King here.
The vice president saying he believes the insurgency is in "the last throws." All this coming though, despite an extremely violent and deadly month for coalition troops and civilians in Iraq. The vice president believes the war could end before he and President Bush leave office.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHENEY: We'll leave as soon as the task is over with. We haven't set a deadline or a date. It depends upon conditions.
We have to achieve our objectives, complete the mission. And the two main requirements are the Iraqis in a position to be able to govern themselves -- and they're well on their way to doing that. LARRY KING, HOST, "LARRY KING LIVE": Do you expect it in your administration?
CHENEY: I do.
KING: To be -- it's not going to be -- it's not going to be a 10-year event?
CHENEY: No. I think we may well have some kind of presence there over a period of time. I think the level of activity that we see today from a military standpoint I think will clearly decline. I think they're in the last throws, if you will, of the insurgency.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HEMMER: The vice president also saying he is convinced the United States did the right thing in going to war in Iraq -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: In a CNN "Security Watch," two terrorism suspects will be in federal court this morning. They're accused of pledging to help al Qaeda. One man is being held in Florida. The other in New York.
And Mary Snow is live from the federal courthouse in New York this morning.
Mary, good morning to you. Give us a sense of what these guys are accused of doing.
MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Soledad, at the heart of the charge, both men are accused of pledging support for al Qaeda first to a government informant and then allegedly to an undercover FBI agent posing as a recruiter for Osama bin Laden's terror network.
Now, charged, Rafiq Sabir. He is a doctor who was arrested in Boca Raton, Florida. Prosecutors say that he was scheduled to leave for Saudi Arabia this week. They say he intended or spoke about treating wounded members of the jihad there.
Also arrested and charged, Tariq Shah. He is a musician and a self-described martial arts expert.
In a criminal complaint, it alleges that he intended to provide training for al Qaeda members. That complaint also suggests that he checked out a Long Island warehouse for a possible training site.
Each of these men are charged with one count of conspiring to provide material support to al Qaeda. The complaint also states that on May 20 both men were in a Bronx apartment with an FBI agent going undercover, and it is there it is alleged that they pledged their loyalty to Osama bin Laden. They were arrested over the weekend.
Yesterday, New York's Mayor Michael Bloomberg indicated that in cases like these you can't take any chances.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) MAYOR MICHAEL BLOOMBERG (R), NEW YORK: They clearly have said that they wanted to destroy our way of life and hurt the people of America. And if that's your definition of terrorism, I guess that certainly qualifies. How serious it was, whether it's just two misguided people who are -- or whether they really had infrastructure, whether they really had ties to al Qaeda, that we'll have to see as the investigation goes forward.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SNOW: Now, Shah is expected to be in court here this morning, if federal court here in New York. Sabir is expected to be in court in Fort Pierce, Florida. Repeated calls to both their families and lawyers went unanswered -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Each face, Mary, one charge. What's the possible penalty then?
SNOW: That charge, if convicted, carries a possible penalty of up to 15 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
O'BRIEN: Mary Snow for us this morning at the federal courthouse. Mary, thanks.
You want to stay tuned to CNN day and night for the most reliable news about your security -- Bill.
HEMMER: Now a brutal story out of Ohio. The motive behind six killings in Bellefontaine remains a mystery today.
Authorities do believe that preliminary evidence in the case, this was a murder-suicide. They think 18-year-old Scott Moody killed five people, then killed himself on the day he was to graduate from high school. The dead include his mother, two teenage friends and two of the boy's grandparents.
The grandparents had recently placed an ad in the local newspaper congratulating Moody on his graduation. That incident was first reported by the stepsister of one victim in an anguished call to 911. Listen here.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
CALLER: Oh my God! God! The son is (INAUDIBLE)!
OPERATOR: What?
CALLER: Oh my God! I found the son, too. He's been killed...
OPERATOR: What's the matter?
CALLER: ... his girlfriend... Oh my God!
OPERATOR: What's going on, honey?
CALLER: The son and the girlfriend are beat up, too. OPERATOR: I need the address, honey.
CALLER: (INAUDIBLE). She's the only one that's awake.
OPERATOR: She's -- there's only one awake?
CALLER: Yes.
OPERATOR: How many people -- how many people have been beat up?
CALLER: Four. Four. (INAUDIBLE). There's five. There's another one. Oh my God. There's one in the living room, too.
OPERATOR: OK. What's going on right now, honey?
CALLER: She's telling me that there's five dead. There's another one on the couch.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
HEMMER: Wow. Bellefontaine is about 40 miles northwest of Columbus, Ohio. The caller had been alerted by Moody's sister, who survived the rampage. She is still in critical condition at a hospital in Columbus -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: At 12 minutes after the hour, it's time to take a look at the weather this morning. Hurricane season starts tomorrow, and forecasters at Colorado State University are predicting a period of wicked storms, even busier than what they predicted only two months ago.
Last year, four major storms hit the U.S. It caused more than $40 billion in damage. Well, now researchers are expecting 15 named tropical storms to hit the Atlantic coast in 2005. That's two more than they predicted in early April.
Of those, eight are more likely to develop into hurricanes. And four could become major hurricanes. Hurricane season officially runs from June 1 to the end of November.
All this brings us to Chad, who's at the CNN center this morning.
(WEATHER REPORT)
HEMMER: A few moments ago, watching this live picture from London. Sir Bob Geldof announcing details to his follow-up to 1985's Live Aid. We'll talk to one of the artists participating this time around. That's Dave Matthews. He's our guest in a moment.
O'BRIEN: And before the Michael Jackson trial there was the O.J. Simpson trial. We'll take a look back at one of the biggest stories of CNN's 25 years on the air. That's up next on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HEMMER: Just getting word from the White House now the president will hold a news conference in the Rose Garden about 90 minutes from now. That's 10:45 a.m. Eastern Time. We'll carry it for you live when it happens down there in D.C.
In the meantime, though, if you see this thing on your screen, it says CNN 25, right? Tomorrow officially we turn 25 here. June 1 the official date. And this week we're looking back at the history-making events of the past 25 years you may have seen live here on CNN.
Long before there was Martha Stewart and Michael Jackson and Scott Peterson, there was the trial known as the trial of the century, and O.J. Simpson's trial in California.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SR. LEGAL ANALYST: The Simpson case combined everything that obsesses the American people. There was sex, race, sports, Hollywood, violence, and the only eyewitness was a dog.
HEMMER (voice-over): It was called the trial of the century. And live television coverage made it feel like a made-for-TV movie.
KING: I understand we're going to go to a live picture in Los Angeles. Is that correct? OK.
This is Interstate 5, and this is courtesy of KCAL, one of our L.A. affiliates. Police believe that -- that O.J. Simpson is in that car.
TRACI TAMURA, CNN FIELD PRODUCER: You didn't know what was going to happen. Was he going to do something, you know, kill himself in the vehicle? You know, would they make another turn and head south?
HEMMER: From the images of O.J. Simpson's white Bronco chase, to Simpson's arrest on charges of killing his ex-wife, Nicole Simpson, and her friend Ron Goldman, the story only got more dramatic when the case went to trial.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How do you plead to counts one and two?
O.J. SIMPSON, DEFENDANT: Absolutely 100 percent not guilty.
HEMMER: The massive media onslaught then brought worldwide attention.
TAMURA: We set up the whole Camp O.J. And it was a very elaborate deal. It had your mobile home sitting there, all the satellite city (ph) of all the trucks lined up.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Prosecutors have said they'll decide by the end of the month whether to seek the death penalty in the Simpson case.
TOOBIN: We all thought, well, interest can't be sustained at this level. And we were wrong.
HEMMER: And O.J.'s defense dream team knew how to fuel the fire. JOHNNIE COCHRAN, SIMPSON DEFENSE ATTORNEY: It's no disguise. It's no disguise. It makes no sense. It doesn't fit. If it doesn't fit, you must acquit.
TOOBIN: The only person in the Simpson trial who I thought was really larger than life was Johnnie Cochran. When he walked into that courtroom, you couldn't take your eyes off him. And he was really good at his work.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We the jury in the above entitled action find the defendant, Orenthal James Simpson, not guilty of the crime of murder.
HEMMER: Approximately 150 million people watched live coverage of the O.J. Simpson verdict. When it was read October 3, 1995, the public reaction was swift and intense.
TOOBIN: Fifty years from now, the most important thing about the Simpson case, it will be about the public reaction to the trial and how black people and white people saw exactly the same pictures on television and came to dramatically different conclusions about what was right and what was wrong.
Some cases are interesting. Some cases are important. The Simpson case turned out to be both.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HEMMER: The jury in the civil case later found Simpson liable, awarded the plaintiffs $8.5 million in damages.
And tomorrow, June 1, the day of CNN's 25th anniversary, a very special guest is back with us. Former anchor and colleague Bernie Shaw will be here on AMERICAN MORNING, reflecting on the past 25 years of history, too. And he has seen so much.
Also, tomorrow night a prime-time special, "Defining Moments: 25 Stories That Touched our Lives." Tomorrow night at 8:00, 5:00 on the West Coast here on CNN -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Looking forward to that.
Ahead this morning, in the documentary "Super Size Me," filmmaker Morgan Spurlock took on fast food. Well, now he's super-sizing his message about what we eat, and he's already got his next target, too. We're going to talk with him ahead.
Stay with us. You're watching AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: Welcome back, everybody. Let's get right to Jack.
Good morning.
CAFFERTY: President Bush, Soledad, facing the lowest poll numbers of his presidency, few significant legislative victories to point to so far. Rumblings of those dreaded words "lame duck" can be heard around Washington, if you're listening.
A "Washington Post" analysis today cites a number of domestic and foreign setbacks. But when President Bush won re-election, remember he said he had earned plenty of "political capital." The question this morning is, has President Bush lost that political capital?
Elizabeth in Los Angeles, "Bush is a political capitalist only in his own mind. He has the House, the Senate, a conservative-packed judiciary and a right-leaning population all telling him he's wrong. He cannot hear any of them."
Jack in Louisiana, "Even his most ardent supporters no longer trust what he and the members of his administration say. The remaining problem is that his most ardent supporters don't care if he's telling the truth or not as long as he continues to thump the bible when he says it."
Steve in Palmetto, Florida, writes, "Bush is losing favor with average voters who can see their jobs, health care and savings being sent to third world workers."
And Jerry in Georgia writes, "Political capital is gained through effective, consistent demonstrations of leadership. One cannot move effectively forward when most of one's energy is used creating spin. Republican politicians will be politically forced to separate themselves from the vacuum in the White House."
O'BRIEN: Interesting feedback this morning, I'd say.
All right, Jack. Thanks a lot.
Well, sometimes the television pictures say it all. Sometimes those pictures just don't say enough.
Let's show you the pictures now. Yes, that is an eight-pound roll of cheese these folks are chasing. It's an annual contest in England.
HEMMER: Oh!
O'BRIEN: The racers pretty much hurl themselves down a big old steep hill. They're trying to be the very first to cross the finish line in pursuit of said cheese. Twenty people were injured in this one. They had fractures and cuts and breezes.
Apparently that's a good thing. Officials say many more than that get hurt.
HEMMER: I'm telling you. Watch this. How do you not get hurt falling down this hill?
O'BRIEN: Ooh. Ouch.
HEMMER: Look at this cat. Yes, does he think that's smart? Does he go home and watch this on TV and think, yeah, man, I got passed that line?
O'BRIEN: Maybe he does.
(CROSSTALK)
HEMMER: She says they are.
O'BRIEN: Under the category strange but true.
HEMMER: That came from...
O'BRIEN: ... we've got the tape.
HEMMER: That came from England, too.
We're getting this off the news ticker here, too, about they're announcing all this Live Eight material right now. London's got a great show coming: Coldplay, Madonna, Paul McCartney, REM and U2.
Down in Philly, they're going to have, what, Will Smith, Stevie Wonder, P. Diddy and the Dave Matthews Band, too. So 20 years after Live Aid rocked the world, a sequel is on the way.
Dave Matthews, we're going to link up with him in the next 30 minutes here live on AMERICAN MORNING.
Back in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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