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American Morning
Life Or Death?; Deadly Bear Attack; Abandoned?; Around the World; Minding Your Business; Online Tax Scams
Aired April 14, 2006 - 07:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Filing your 2005 taxes, 4868, four numbers you need to know if you can't get it together.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Extension.
M. O'BRIEN: That's the extension.
Good morning to you. I'm Miles O'Brien.
S. O'BRIEN: And I'm Soledad O'Brien.
For family members of 9/11 victims, the trial of al Qaeda conspirator Zacarias Moussauoi has been just brutal. Absolutely horrible words to have to hear. But while those family members all share a common pain, they're disagreeing on whether Moussauoi should be put to death.
AMERICAN MORNING's Bob Franken is live for us in Washington this morning.
Hey, Bob, good morning.
BOB FRANKEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.
Moussaoui was only apparently peripheral to the 9/11 attacks, but still the debate involves how to best seek retribution.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FRANKEN, (voice over): For the members of the Moussaoui jury, the choice is his life or death. But for the families of the 9/11 victims, their loved ones had no choice.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I believe the appropriate sentence here is death, but that's for the jury to determine.
FRANKEN: The families have had their searing pain rekindled as they've watching the trial and shared their worst nightmares.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) to breaking windows. Oh God! Oh!
FRANKEN: They have a mutual bond of pain but different opinions about what should happen to Zacarias Moussauoi.
CARIE LEMACK, 9/11 VICTIM'S DAUGHTER: I think that this man wants to be a martyr and I think he might be enjoying hearing all these devastating stories and that's not what I would want to give him. I say give him life in prison. Let him rot in jail.
ABRAHAM SCOTT, WIDOWER OF FLT. 77 VICTIM: I have no pity for him. I can't and I don't know whether I'm contradicting myself. I don't hate him, but I do believe that he needs to be punished. Punished to the fullest.
FRANKEN: A belief in the jury system has been a constant with the families.
ROSEMARY DILLARD, WIDOW OF FLT. 77 VICTIM: Whatever decision they make, I don't want them to think that the families will be angry. Because if some of the families want the death penalty, some of the families don't. So we want what the jury will decide.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FRANKEN: There is one consistent theme, the families want this ordeal to be over as quickly as possible and to result in the triumph of justice over terrorism.
Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: Bob, a quick question for you. For those who think he should get life in prison, you know, the theory behind that is he'll be more miserable if he has to sort of live out every day of his life. What kind of life would he have, in fact, if he's sentenced to prison?
FRANKEN: Well, one of those who testified was a top prison official who says he'd live basically a life in solitude. He would be in a security shell, just completely surrounded in a cone with almost no human contact. And one of the family member suggested that even in that case he'd be surrounded by the people he says he despises, other Americans. Prisoners but still people from the United States.
S. O'BRIEN: All right. I can see where the argument is from both sides there. Bob Franken for us this morning. Thanks, Bob.
We're going to have much more on the Moussaoui trial later this morning. Coming up in our next hour, in fact, we're going to hear from a man who's been inside the courtroom throughout the trial. Courtroom sketch artist Bill Hennessy. That's coming up at 8:15 a.m. Eastern Time.
Got an Amber Alert to tell you about out of Oklahoma. Authorities say 10-year-old Jamie Bolin has been missing for more than 24 hours now. They believe she might be with somebody she met on the Internet. She's 10 years old. She was last seen on her green bicycle. She's about 4 feet tall, weighs 100 pounds, has red hair, blue eyes and freckles, as you can see there. Police are searching for a white male who's somewhere between 20 and 30 years old who's driving a dark blue Chevy Tahoe with Texas plates.
Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: A killer bear is on the loose in the woods of Tennessee. The black bear attacked a family in the Cherokee National Forest yesterday killing a six-year-old girl and critically injuring her mother and two-year-old brother. A horrifying story. Anne Thompson of our affiliate WTVC joining us now from Chattanooga with more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANNE THOMPSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm in front of Erlanger Medical Center in Chattanooga, Tennessee, where a mother and her two- year-old son are both in critical condition this morning.
Dan Hicks is a public information officer for the Tennessee Wildlife Resource Agency. He told us just this morning that crews are resting. They're going to resume their search at daylight for this bear that has mauled and killed one member of a family of three.
It was a family of three visiting the Tennessee Valley from Ohio. A six-year-old girl and her two- year-old brother were on a trail near Benton Falls in the Cherokee National Forest when campers spotted the bear and told the children. They ran back towards their family but the bear pursued them. The bear picked up the two-year-old boy in its mouth, mauled it and then dropped it to the ground. The mother tried to step in to save her son and she was then hurt herself.
The six-year-old girl, at that point, took off away from her family on the trail but the bear then pursued her. When wildlife crews arrived on the scene, they found the six-year-old girl's body 100 yards away from where her brother had been mauled and mother and the bear was standing over that six-year-old girl. The bear was shot but it retreated into the woods. It has not yet been caught this morning. Again, wildlife crews expect to set more traps at daylight if the bear has not been caught overnight.
So the latest this morning from Erlanger Medical Center in Chattanooga, a mother and her two- year-old son both in critical condition and a six-year-old girl dead. Obviously a very sad story out of Polk County, Tennessee.
Reporting in Chattanooga, Tennessee, I'm Anne Thompson for WTVC.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
M. O'BRIEN: Thank you, Anne Thompson and thank you WTVC.
Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: It's been called a matter of priorities but other people say it's really a decision that essentially sacrifices a parish just south of New Orleans by not protecting their levees. CNN's Susan Roesgen has our report this morning.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SUSAN ROESGEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT, (voice over): This is lower Plaquemine Parish, part of Louisiana's beautiful coastline. It's a narrow peninsula that carries the Mississippi River from New Orleans into the Gulf of Mexico. It was hard hit by Hurricane Katrina, but now the federal government is not willing to commit about $2 billion to protect the southern part of the parish from another hurricane, essentially abandoning 70 miles of coastline and the 14,000 people who live there.
ACY COOPER, FISHERMAN: We have equal rights to and we want our rights. We pay our taxes. And we want help just like everybody else.
ROESGEN: Fisherman Acy Cooper is trying to come back from Katrina, fixing up his restaurant that got nine feet of water, eager to welcome friends and family back home. But there's another issue here as well. Without federally funded levee improvements, this coastline could be lost.
People here can raise their own houses to protect their own property, but they say if the government won't protect this land, who will?
If another big hurricane hits, this parish is the last buffer between the Gulf of Mexico and New Orleans.
BENNY ROUSSELLE, PARISH PRESIDENT: If you sacrifice Plaquemine's today, who do you sacrifice tomorrow? Will it be the Florida Keys? Will it be the California coast? There's got to be some realization that if you start retreating and start cutting communities off, you know, it won't stop just in Plaquemine Parish.
ROESGEN: Federal officials insist it's a matter of priorities. But that explanation doesn't satisfy the people who live here.
COOPER: I fly a flag out here just to show my support for the United States. And now they're going to turn around and forget about me. It's totally wrong. I'm showing my support. I want my country from my country.
ROESGEN: Susan Roesgen, CNN, Plaquemine Parish, Louisiana.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
M. O'BRIEN: Happening in America this morning, a horrible crash in Colorado. Six dead after their SUV is hit by a train. The car full of migrant workers on their way to Denver. The 15- year-old driver is the sole survivor in critical condition. No one on board the train hurt. There are signs at that railroad crossing but no lights or gates.
Police in Baltimore had to surround one of their own precincts after a suspect took a clerical worker hostage. The suspect had overpowered an officer and locked himself and his female hostage in a room for three hours before finally surrendering. The hostage unhurt.
In New Mexico, a fast-moving wildfire has forced the evacuation of several small towns. Two state parks northeast of Santa Fe also closed.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) GOV. BILL RICHARDSON, NEW MEXICO: I'm asking all New Mexicans, please be careful. This one was caused by human error. And we've already got a drought that is serious and it's going to be a bad year for fires.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
M. O'BRIEN: The fire has destroyed more than 12,000 acres and a couple of buildings so far. Authorities say they are still burning out of control.
Let's check back on the weather now. Chad Myers in the Weather Center.
Good morning, Chad.
(WEATHER REPORT)
S. O'BRIEN: Andy's "Minding Your Business" just ahead.
What do you got for us?
ANDY SERWER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Soledad, how about this, a new movie that smells. Actually, it's -- the movie theater has scents in it. This is pretty unbelievable. The latest from Japan coming up next on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
M. O'BRIEN: All right. Here's a story you want to see. Take a look at these. That's a baby eagle. All right. Bruce, can you go over there and highlight what we're talking about? The bald eagle is back in a big way after DDT nearly wiped it out in the '70s. Nice job, Bruce. There's that baby and there's the mommy taking care of the baby.
S. O'BRIEN: Cute.
M. O'BRIEN: I wonder what they feed them. They don't do worms. Eagles do like, you know, rodents, right? I mean they're ...
SERWER: Yes, cuts of ...
S. O'BRIEN: Whatever it is, it's all chomped up in their mouths and it's regurged.
SERWER: Yes, right. Yes.
M. O'BRIEN: Regurged and all that.
Anyway, hatched on Santa Cruz Island off of southern California somewhere. And as we tell you, DDT. Do you know how DDT affected the bald eagles? Do you know what happened?
SERWER: The egg shells. M. O'BRIEN: Bingo. Thin egg shells and they couldn't have babies. So seeing this is really -- you know, it's amazing. That is a great example of how ...
S. O'BRIEN: Intervention.
M. O'BRIEN: A little bit of pollution control goes a long way. DDT was so in the system. By the time it's worked its way out, the bald eagle is flourishing.
SERWER: Those birds of prey have really come back. I know in Maine there were none of them when I was a kid and now they're all over the place up there.
S. O'BRIEN: And what a cute little eagle. A little fuzzy thing.
M. O'BRIEN: Just adorable.
S. O'BRIEN: Yes.
SERWER: Yes.
M. O'BRIEN: And not a turkey as we pointed out. Could have been a turkey if Ben Franklin had his way. We're glad he didn't do it.
S. O'BRIEN: Yes, me too.
Some of the stories that we're covering "Around the World" for you this morning. Threat of violence in Germany during soccer's World Cup. We begin in London's Abbey Road where The Beatles are finally, finally getting online.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PAULA NEWTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Paula Newton on Abbey Road in London. And The Beatles are joining the 21st century and finally going digital. Yes, you will be able to download The Beatles' tunes on the Internet. The Beatles have been resisting that move for quite sometime. But now that the Internet is thriving and that many of the younger generation get their tunes from the Internet, they're hoping that their Beatles song book will be introduced to a whole new set of fans.
CHRIS BURNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Chris Burns at Berlin's Olympic Stadium, site of the World Cup final. We'll take a look at how cup organizers, police, rescue workers have been getting ready. What kind of drills they've been staging. They say they can take on any kind of hooligans or disaster or terror scenario. But can they really? There are questions about that. The government is getting thousands of troops ready to step in. But what kind of image of modern Germany would that send out? There's debate over that, too.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
M. O'BRIEN: Andy Serwer is here and we're talking about movie that is smell. SERWER: Yes.
S. O'BRIEN: Smell good or smell bad?
M. O'BRIEN: There's some senses which should be left in Hollywood, I guess. The spending thing, I don't know.
SERWER: Yes. Well, you know, you see movies, you hear movies and they've experimented with this before and now you can smell movies. You know this film "The New World" starring Colin Farrell, released in the United States back in December, tells the story of John Smith and Pocahontas. I think it did OK. Anyway, it's now playing in Japan and a company there, NTT Communications, has a deal with theaters whereby scents, smells emanate from the theater at various points during the film to reflect the mood of the movie.
M. O'BRIEN: Does it reflect the hygiene?
SERWER: We'll see.
S. O'BRIEN: I hope not because that was a time period with not a lot of hot showers.
SERWER: A floral scent. Right.
M. O'BRIEN: Not a lot of showers.
SERWER: Deer meat. A flower scent accompanies a love scene. A mix of peppermint and rosemary emanate during a tear jerker scene. Joy is a citrus mix. Anger, herb like concoction with a hint of eucalyptus and tea tree.
S. O'BRIEN: It smells like aroma therapy.
M. O'BRIEN: So this is not exactly the scent that would be accurate to the scene?
S. O'BRIEN: No.
M. O'BRIEN: It's just to -- I mean a subtle way metaphorically, blah, blah, blah, blah.
SERWER: A metaphor. A sense of metaphor. But it sort of reminds me of that 1981 film "Polyester" by John Waters. Do you remember that?
M. O'BRIEN: Loved it. Loved that movie. I remember it well.
SERWER: Where they had Odorama. I'm so glad we have some footage. There's Divine playing Francine Fishpaw, you may remember. And there was this -- what is it, Odorama card.
M. O'BRIEN: Scratch and sniff. Scratch and sniff deal.
SERWER: Scratch and sniff card where you would actually, during the film, you were directed to smell, you know, scratch and then smell the card. And, you know, it had some pretty wild smells.
M. O'BRIEN: There it is. There's the card right there.
SERWER: That's the actual card, which is for sale on eBay, of course.
M. O'BRIEN: Oh, I suspect we should have hung on to our card.
SERWER: The scent of flowers, pizza, glue, grass and other disgusting things at various points ... M. O'BRIEN: I remember the dirty sneaker.
SERWER: The dirty sneaker?
M. O'BRIEN: Oh, bad.
S. O'BRIEN: I wonder what that's going for on eBay.
SERWER: I wasn't that much. I was really surprised and disappointed.
S. O'BRIEN: Maybe now.
SERWER: Well, you know, it's only about $5. And, you know, I think it's probably a pretty good investment. It mean I could see that doubling over the next 40 or 50 years, don't you?
S. O'BRIEN: Yes.
M. O'BRIEN: Investment advice from Andy Serwer.
S. O'BRIEN: Now you're scaring me.
As you both know, there are only a couple of days left to finish your taxes. There is, believe it or not, time to do it. You can do it. We've got some tips for all you procrastinators out there this morning.
Also, we've got some details about an online scam that's sort of mimicking an e-mail from the IRS. We're going to tell you what to look for, how you can avoid being a victim. That's coming up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
M. O'BRIEN: It's the last weekend for most Americans to get their taxes done. But beware, tax time is also phishing season. That's p-h-I-s-h-I- g. In other words, scammers looking to rip off innocent taxpayers. Technology Correspondent Daniel Sieberg is gong to arm you for that possible eventuality.
Daniel, if you get an e-mail from the IRS, be very wary, right?
DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Be very wary. In fact, with all due respect to Ben Franklin, there may be three certainties, death, taxes and people who want to steal your money. Here's how to avoid being hooked by online criminal this tax season and stick around because we're going to quiz you afterwards.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SIEBERG, (voice over): It's tax time and that means deadlines, refunds, and scams. And you may have already fallen victim.
ANDREW: About a month ago I was checking my e-mail at my desk, my government office, and I saw an e-mail from the outfit called taxrefunds@irs.gov.
SIEBERG: This is an example of the message Andrew Arostoff (ph) received, complete with the right logos and language.
ANDREW: All I needed to do was to give them my credit card information and my Social Security number so it would verify my identify and I'd get my refund.
SIEBERG: But fortunately Andrew knew enough not to click on it. That's because ...
ANDREW: I'm commissioner of the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance. Here the are targeting a tax administrator with a tax refund scam. Unbelievable.
SIEBERG: By now you may have heard about phishing. It's a insidious, online scam that starts with a cyber criminal sending bulk e-mail, some promising money, some demanding a response. The e-mails appear to be from places like the IRS, Paypal and eBay. They often contain a link to a site that also looks real requesting personal information. At this time of year, those claiming to be from the IRS are in full swing.
MARK EVERSON, IRS COMMISSIONER: The phishing scheme, if you will, this is exploding. All I can say is that we do not reach out and communicate with taxpayers by e-mail.
SIEBERG: More than 17,000 unique phishing attacks were reported to the anti-phishing working group in February of this year. So perhaps you think your scam radar can filter out the bad stuff. Well, professors at Harvard and U.C.-Berkeley recently conducted a study of why phishing scams work.
RACHNA DHAMIJA, HARVARD UNIVERSITY: Some of our most educated users and most cautious users were also very surprised at their inability to detect a legitimate versus phishing website.
SIEBERG: The 22 participants were wrong 40 percent of the time. This phishing site fooled 90 percent of its participants, nearly identical to the actual Bank of the West site but for one small detail.
DHAMIJA: It used BankoftheVVest.com in the URL. So the w was replaced by two v's and that's really hard for users to spot. It's very trivial for phishers to create websites. For example, the website that fooled the most of our users took about 10 minutes to make. (END VIDEOTAPE)
SIEBERG: All right. Now it's your turn at home to play along and, Miles, we're going to quiz you as well. We have a couple of sites from the Harvard/U.C.-Berkeley study to show you. The first one we can pull up appears to be from online payment site Paypal. Looks legitimate, right, Miles? What do you think so far?
M. O'BRIEN: You know, I got to tell you, this is unfair because I got one of these. That looks legitimate, yes. But I'm very wary already.
SIEBERG: Right. Well it actually is fake. And what we're talking about here is the web address in the address bar up there. You see that https right there?
M. O'BRIEN: Yes.
SIEBERG: That's actually fake. They managed to fake that it looks like a secure site using some of the coding. So they did a good job fooling people on that one.
M. O'BRIEN: Wow, that's pretty good.
SIEBERG: Fooled 80 percent of the people in the study.
M. O'BRIEN: So that -- it says Paypal. I can't see it so well, but it says paypal.com with an https. How did they get that site?
SIEBERG: You know, they're very clever and they've got ways to fake how it looks.
M. O'BRIEN: Wow.
SIEBERG: So the next one, OK, the next one we've got appears to be a Capital One site.
M. O'BRIEN: Right.
SIEBERG: Miles, again, I'm going to let you try and figure this one out.
M. O'BRIEN: Well, I can already tell you that URL up there looks very, very phony.
SIEBERG: It looks really dodgey (ph), doesn't it? You see this really long string of characters.
M. O'BRIEN: Yes, it's just to -- any time I see an ampersand in there and all that other stuff ...
SIEBERG: Right. It's also got the https. This actually is a legitimate website.
M. O'BRIEN: It is? Wow.
SIEBERG: It is the Capital One log-in website.
M. O'BRIEN: Wow. And was that sent to somebody, though? Because, see, my theory is always, people have my information. Nobody's going to send me the e-mail asking me for my pins or Social Security numbers, right?
SIEBERG: Well, they're going to send an e-mail that says you need to maybe update your information. So maybe it comes from Paypal or looks like it's coming from Paypal and they say, Miles, your subscription information's out of date, you need to log in and change that. And when you even click on that link, they could be stealing your information.
M. O'BRIEN: All right. So you really have to watch because it will gives you a link, which looks like a legitimate address, and you put your pointer over it, it will reveal some other thing in Bulgaria or something, right?
SIEBERG: Right. Right. If you're really clever you can sort of see through their fake link and see that it's actually steering you to a fake site.
M. O'BRIEN: Oh, baby.
SIEBERG: But bottom line is, do not click on a link within an e- mail message. Type it in from scratch in the web address bar.
M. O'BRIEN: Right. Or, you know, if you're a customer, you should have another way of getting to that site and doing it that way.
SIEBERG: Right. Exactly.
M. O'BRIEN: All right, Daniel Sieberg, thank you. Good stuff. And beware out there, folks. There's a lot of clever ways they will part you with your money.
SIEBERG: Yes.
M. O'BRIEN: Part you from your money.
Coming up in the next hour, have you put off you -- have you done -- yes, you know, I'm there. She's there.
S. O'BRIEN: You did yours?
M. O'BRIEN: No, I haven't finished.
S. O'BRIEN: Oh. And in spite of your bragging, you're going to have to file an extension.
M. O'BRIEN: No, I was just bragging.
S. O'BRIEN: I'm just going to go file the extension.
M. O'BRIEN: 4868. Already did it. Anyway, but I'm still going for it this weekend. I'm going to just do it anyway and pretend like I didn't. So we're going to have some tips for you, though, if you still want to grind it out and have it in on Monday by midnight in most places.
In a moment, top stories, including new evidence in that Duke rape investigation.
Barry Bonds facing possible indictment for lying under oath about steroid use.
A pilot strike looming at Delta.
A killer black bear on the loose in Tennessee.
And people are fleeing their homes in New Mexico. A fast-moving wildfire has already scorched thousands of acres. We'll have a live report. Stay with us for more AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm David Mattingly in Durham, North Carolina, with the latest in the Duke University rape scandal. I'll have that story.
S. O'BRIEN: Also, more trouble off the field for baseball star Barry Bonds. A grand jury right now is looking into possible perjury during his steroids testimony.
A rare black bear attack leaves a child dead in Tennessee. And within the last two hours rangers are back on the hunt for that bear. We're live with the very latest from there as well.
M. O'BRIEN: Another night of wild storms. Iowa hit by devastating tornados and now more strong storms are moving in.
