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American Morning
Thompson Ready To Race; Business Update; Extreme Weather; Bomb Threat Scam; Terror Plot Foiled
Aired September 06, 2007 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: The passing of a legend. Remembering Luciano Pavarotti.
Plus, no debate about it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FRED THOMPSON, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: My friends, I come to you today to tell you that I intend to run for president.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Skipping the debate to announce in late night. Can Fred Thompson live up to the hype as he hits the trail in Iowa today, on this AMERICAN MORNING.
That's right. There's a new man in the game this morning.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: What a surprise.
CHETRY: Not much of a shock, but he did make it official.
It's Thursday, September 6th. Glad you're with us. I'm Kiran Chetry.
ROBERTS: And good morning to you. I'm John Roberts.
So Fred Thompson is in the game now. Last night he made the announcement on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno." Take a quick listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
THOMPSON: And that's one of the things I wanted to talk to you about.
JAY LENO, "THE TONIGHT SHOW WITH JAY LENO": All right. All right.
THOMPSON: I'm running for president of the United States.
LENO: All right. There you have it, ladies and gentlemen!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Shortly after he made that announcement, the full announcement came out on Fred Thompson's website. Here's what that looked like.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
THOMPSON: Friends, I come to you today to tell you that I intend to run for president. I feel deeply that I'm doing it for the right reasons. I love my country and I'm concerned about its future.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Joining me now to talk more about this is CNN political analyst John Dickerson. He's in Des Moines, Iowa, this morning where Fred Thompson begins campaigning today.
As we said, John, what a shock that Fred Thompson jumped in. But we should point out that last night at the Republican debate in New Hampshire the first question to the candidates was all about Fred Thompson. Let's take a quick listen to how they responded.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The people of New Hampshire expect to see you. They expect to see you a lot. And they expect to see you at town hall meetings and at places all over this great state.
MITT ROMNEY, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: He's going to bring more entertainment and vigor and ideas to the Republican platform. So I welcome him into this.
RUDY GIULIANI, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This is not a time that the United States should be electing someone who's going to get on-the-job training.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: So, John, he got knocked around a little bit last night, not only for coming in late, but also because he skipped that debate last night. These guys just out to show it's a tough neighborhood out there, you better be ready for it?
JOHN DICKERSON, SLATE.COM: That's right. The debate started with each one of them getting a shot to whip up on him. And Rudy Giuliani, I thought, made the sort of most powerful critique, which was, after making fun of him for being an actor who played the job Giuliani used to have, he said, you know, this isn't a job for on-the- job training. And then he made the point that basically most of the Democrats running don't have that executive experience and why would Republicans want to select somebody who give away that competitive advantage.
ROBERTS: Is he a target such as he is because he jumps right into the top tier. And in skipping that New Hampshire debate last night, did he hurt himself among New Hampshire voters?
DICKERSON: Well, who knows. New Hampshire voters are a little miffed, but, you know, they'll probably get over it. But, you're right, he's a target because he's jumped in. He hasn't had to do the of that ugly, grueling work of campaigning and he's already in second and some places in first in the polls. So the other candidates know a threat when they see it.
ROBERTS: Right.
So last night on "The Tonight Show," Jay Leno actually raised the question of was it too late to get this. Let's listen to that and to Fred Thompson's response.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LENO: A lot of pundits say, oh, well, you waited too long.
THOMPSON: No, I don't think so. Of course, you know, we'll find out. But I don't think people are going to say, you know, that guy would make a very good president, but he just didn't get in soon enough. I don't think.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: John, Fred Thompson very glib about that whole thing and certainly he does have a tremendous amount of name recognition, as you said. He polls very well. But in waiting so long, does he miss out on having the ground operation in places like Iowa and New Hampshire that he has to have if he wants to do well there? And a lot of the money people are already locked up as well.
DICKERSON: Yes. And that's a problem. And to get the ground organization, he has to keep his momentum. He has to continue being a candidate at the top of the field. And that's tough to do once you're in the race.
Thompson essentially, in giving that glib answer and in his other answers, is trying to basically say, hey, I'm a person who knows my own mind, I'm doing it my own way and that's what voters are supposed to find appealing about him.
ROBERTS: We'll I guess we find out very quickly if he's a viable candidate or just a good idea.
John Dickerson for us this morning in Des Moines, Iowa. We'll be following Fred Thompson today and we'll get you back to hear how it went.
Thanks, John.
CHETRY: Yes, and talking about last night's debate, really arguably one of the most passionate moments from last night's debate happened over the war in Iraq. It was the other Republican solidly behind the president's policy, except for Texas Congressman Ron Paul, always the wildcard in these debates, who wants to withdraw the troops. Well that led to this fiery exchange with former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) REP. RON PAUL, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We dug a hole for ourselves and we dug a hole for our party. We're losing elections and we're going down next year if we don't change it. And it has all to do with foreign policy. And we have to wake up to this fact.
MIKE HUCKABEE, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Even if we lose elections, we should not lose our honor. And that is more important to the Republican Party.
PAUL: We're losing -- we've lost over -- we have lost . . .
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: So there were cheers on both sides. Both of them really passionate about their viewpoint, going back and forth with each other. We're going to go live to New Hampshire and to our senior political correspondent Candy Crowley, coming up in the next hour.
We also woke up to the sad news today that a legendary voice has been silenced. Overnight, Luciano Pavarotti lost his long battle well pa pancreatic cancer. For more than five decades the Italian tenner thrilled audiences with his astonishing voice and larger than life personality. He's credited with almost single-handedly bringing opera to the masses. Pavarotti died in his home in Modena, Italy, surrounded by his family. He was 71 years old.
ROBERTS: Dozens of people are reported dead in two huge storms south of the border. Hurricane Felix's death toll climbed to at least 18 people. The storm has triggered lethal mudslides in Nicaragua after hitting the country's Caribbean coast as a category five storm. Sixty people are still missing in Nicaragua.
And Hurricane Henriette is being blamed for killing at least seven people in Mexico. It was downgraded to a tropical storm after hitting the country a second time. But forecasters say it could still bring some flooding rain to New Mexico and to Texas as well, where, as you know, they don't need any more water.
Deadly high water in some already saturated parts of north Texas. As much as eight inches of rain triggered floods in the Dallas and Waco areas. You can see the pictures there. Police say they found the body of one woman after flood waters picked up her car and swept her away.
He has cheated death time and time again and search teams are hoping that multimillionaire adventurer Steve Fossett has one more left in him. The search for his plane will pick up again later on this morning in the Nevada desert. The 63-year-old thrill seeker disappeared after takeoff on Monday. Crews from three states have been searching the Sierra Nevada Mountains by air and land over an area about the size of Connecticut. They say the region is notorious for powerful wind gusts that can whip up without any warning and toss an airplane around like a leaf.
Kiran. CHETRY: Also new this morning, a setback in Senator Larry Craig's fight to hold on to his seat at Capitol Hill. The Senate Ethics Committee is going ahead with its investigation of Craig. Craig, meantime, has a legal team trying to reverse his guilty plea for disorderly conduct in a sting at a men's room in an airport in Minneapolis. If they're successful, he says he will stay in office.
Former President Clinton showing some compassion for Craig. Here's what he said on "Larry King" last night.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BILL CLINTON, FORMER PRESIDENT: I think we ought to recognize that this is a very traumatic time for him and his family. And whatever happens or doesn't, most of his political career was behind him. So whatever your party, we should be hoping that he and his family can work through this in a way that leaves them as whole as possible.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: And Craig is staying in Idaho while the legal and ethics fights go on in Minnesota and in Washington.
John.
ROBERTS: A security breach at the APEC Summit in Australia. Police in Sydney retooling the security around President Bush this morning after a group of comedians got past thousands of police and high fences. Eleven people were arrested for setting up a fake motorcade and driving it right through two checkpoints.
The vehicles were marked with Canada signs, Canada one and Canada two, and decorated with Canadian flags. The team tried to get inside the restricted zone near the hotel where President Bush is staying. Security and the secret service finally realized that there was something wrong when a Osama bin Laden lookalike got out of the back of one of the vehicles.
Now the comedians are part of a show -- a television show called "The Chasers War on Everything." The producers of the program were warned earlier this week not to perform any stunts during the meeting, but looks like they ignored the advice.
After Mattel announced its third recall in five weeks effecting almost a million more toys from China, that country's president is weighing in. President Hu Jintao says the government is cracking down on product safety and taking international opinion seriously. He says China has set up a quality and safety agency and guilty officials are being held accountable. In July, China executed its former food and drug administration chief for taking bribes.
And a fight between two roommates at the University of Arizona leaves one person died, another behind bars. Campus police say they responded to a 911 call early yesterday morning. Both women had stab wounds. Police say freshman Mia Henderson (ph) had filed a theft report against her roommate just prior to the attack. Eighteen-year- old Gallerica Harrison (ph) is now under arrest and charged with first degree murder. The girls were part of a new scholars program for Native Americans.
CHETRY: Well, it's time now to check in with our AMERICAN MORNING team of correspondents for other stories new this morning.
A record drop in pending home sales. The housing market at its lowest since the 9/11 attacks six years ago. Ali Velshi has been following that for us from the business update desk.
Good morning, Ali.
ALI VELSHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Kiran.
Do you ever wonder how many different ways we can measure this housing slowdown? This is the pending homes index. It means those homes that are under contract, they're not closed yet. Well that number has reached its lowest level since before September 11, 2001. This is all part of this whole mortgage meltdown and credit crisis that we are seeing play out. These are numbers for July and July wasn't the worst of it, which indicates that there's more to come. It's just one more piece of evidence about this housing slowdown and how serious it could be.
There's another piece of news I want to tell you about. We've been talking about airline delays all summer. Well, there might be relief in sight for some people in the Northeast.
The Federal Aviation Administration has decided upon a plan to reorganize the air space over five northeastern states -- New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Connecticut. Thirty-one thousand miles, 29 million people live in that space. They're going to reorganize this space so that the 21 airports in there are sort of reassigned different thing and air traffic arrival and takeoff patterns change a little bit.
The FAA says this will save 12 million minutes annually in delays, particularly at JFK, LaGuardia, Newark and Philadelphia airports. It's just one of the components that have been coming into play in terms of all of the delays, the arrival and air traffic control and takeoff system at the airports. So no word on how fast that's going to take place, but they just made that decision and we should start to see that being implemented in the near future.
Kiran.
CHETRY: I thought they were saying like maybe 2011 until it's fully up and running?
VELSHI: Yes, it's going to take a while because there's a lot of other pieces involved in the puzzle. But it is one of the things that we've been talking about that is causing these increased delays. They're just trying to make that air space more efficient. They're going to fly planes in and out at different altitudes. Just, you know, in keeping with the extra traffic that we've got now to deal with.
CHETRY: All right. Well, we'll talk more about that when we see you again a little bit later. Ali, thanks so much.
Rob Marciano at the CNN weather desk, tracking extreme weather for us.
Henriette, in hurricane over there in the Pacific, we could feel that now on the U.S. mainland.
ROB MARCIANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, we're going to start to see some rainfall out of this out of the Southwest. It made its second landfall in Mexico last night as a category one storm and now moving towards the U.S., albeit a weaker one now. Just a tropical depression with winds of about 35 miles an hour.
There's the center of it heading towards the U.S. border. It's about 250 miles south, west, southwest of El Paso, Texas. And you can already start to see the cloud canopy and, yes, some of the rainfall spreading into way into parts of extreme southeast Arizona, southern New Mexico and extreme western parts of Texas. There are flash flood watches that are up for that area as we go out through the afternoon. So be aware of that.
Remember yesterday we talked about this developing area of low pressure right about there across the Atlantic? Well, it doesn't look nearly as impressive today. Well, they sent American hurricane hunter aircraft into it to check it out yesterday and it's just not developing. And it doesn't have that warm core that we look for, for development. That's good news.
The bad news is that the National Hurricane Center says, well, we still have to watch it. It could develop into something. And still a lot of our computer models, Kiran, are saying this thing will develop into something. And some even say it's going to develop into a hurricane and bring it at least close to the U.S. So we'll still watch it. But right now, so far so good.
We'll talk more about Dallas flooding. Some of that moisture has moved into the center part of the country. That's coming up in about a half an hour.
CHETRY: Sounds good. Rob Marciano, thanks.
MARCIANO: You bet.
CHETRY: John.
ROBERTS: Now to our terror watch this Thursday morning. Law enforcement officials say the man they believe is behind a bomb threat scam has been linked to other crimes in the United States. He is suspected of targeting at least two dozen banks and businesses in an explosive extortion scheme across 15 states. The team. The suspect is a Portuguese citizen. CNN's Jeanne Meserve is live in Washington for us with details.
And, Jeanne, authorities thought that they had this guy over the weekend. It turns out they didn't.
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: No, they didn't, but at least they think they know who it is. As you mentioned, a Portuguese citizen identified by two federal officials as 27-year-old Allan Sharif. As you mentioned, they believe he's responsible for this wave of recent bomb and extortion threats that hit at least 24 banks in 15 states.
In each case a caller said a bomb would be detonated if money wasn't electronically moved to an account. Businesses were disrupted by lockdowns and evacuations and sometimes bizarre requests. Like one that customers take off their clothes. And, in some cases, businesses paid out the money the caller demanded.
Law enforcement sources tell CNN they believe Sharif is responsible for other crimes, including a Miami Beach bank robbery last March. In that instance, authorities say, Sharif telephoned from Portugal demanding that tellers give an on the scene associate $20,000. The alleged accomplice was arrested. Sharif was also indicted on wire fraud charges in New York in 2005. The authorities know this guy.
John.
ROBERTS: So, Jeanne, in terms of these hoaxes, have people caught on to this idea now? Are they still reacting to this fellow? And I'm wondering, you know, it's like the old boy who cried wolf thing that, you know, maybe there would be a real one that might get ignored because they think it might be this hoax.
MESERVE: Well, we haven't heard any recent reports. The numbers seem to have stayed relatively stable over the last couple of days on the number of these incidents that they've been in and the number of states they've seen them. There have been some copycat incidents, however. Authorities have been worried about those.
ROBERTS: All right. Jeanne Meserve for us this morning on the terror watch.
Jeanne, thanks.
MESERVE: You bet.
CHETRY: And still ahead, a hot comedian gets the cold shoulder. Why Eddie Griffith was pulled off stage while speaking to a crowd of black journalists. We have the answer to that coming up.
Also, authorities say they had enough explosives to kill a massive number of American citizens and that there may be more attackers out there. What we're learning from three terror suspects arrested in Germany and the danger that could remain.
All of that ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Seventeen minutes after the hour now. Some of the most incredible shots of the morning in your "Quick Hits" now.
Violent flames in the windy bay area. Not a good combination for firefighters. They say the Lick (ph) Fire, as it's known, started three days ago. So far it's burned 14,000 acres. Thick smoke is blowing over the south and east bay and you can smell it as far away as downtown San Francisco. Investigators say an illegal debris burn was responsible for that blaze.
Sparks, smoke and red hot lava shooting out of Europe's tallest and most active volcano. It's flowing from Mt. Etna in Sicily into the uninhabited valleys below. Officials say there is no danger to villages lower down in the slopes, but one airport closed down because of wind-blown volcanic ash.
And Hurricane Henriette being blamed for killing at least seven people in Mexico. It was downgraded to a tropical storm after hitting the country a second time. But forecasters say it could still bring some flooding rain to New Mexico and Texas.
Kiran.
CHETRY: Well, to our terror watch now and they had more fire power than the attackers who hit London and Madrid. Today we're learning more and some brand new details this morning about the three suspected terrorists that were arrested in Germany and how they planned to do their killing. According to one U.S. official, the attack was "the real deal." Frederik Pleitgen is live at the Ramstein Airbase in Germany, and that was one of the suspected targets.
Hi, Frederik.
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Kiran.
You're absolutely right. This was one of the suspected targets of that terrorist plot. And the investigation here now has broadened. There's some interesting new development this morning. German authorities are telling us that they are investigating up to 10 further possible suspects.
Now, none of these suspects are in custody yet. And what the Germans are also saying is that not all of these suspects are Germans or are in Germany. So certainly this investigation has gotten a whole lot broader.
And one other very, very interesting piece of information that we've been able to get from German authorities, with the many raids that they had yesterday in the many buildings here in Germany, they found several military detonators that they say that the firepower that you were talking about before, those very heavy explosives, they could have brought those to detonation in a very precise way. And that would have made those even more lethal.
Kiran.
CHETRY: SO I think the big question for investigators is, where they would have gotten their hands on those complex detonators as well.
PLEITGEN: That's a very good question. And one of the things that the German authorities are saying, and they're not being very specific about it, they say that these detonators were smuggled into this country and they were very surprised by the fact that these are military detonators. So certainly there is some form of smuggling that was going on there.
On the whole, the German investigators say they are very surprised at the sophistication of this plot. They say they do know that all of these suspects, the two German and the Turkish nationals, were all in Pakistani training camps that were influenced by al Qaeda and they were trained there. But certainly, they say, they were very surprised at the fact that this plot was very sophisticated. They had these sophisticated detonators and they also had this massive amount of hydrogen peroxide that they were going to turn into bomb-making material.
Kiran.
CHETRY: All right, Frederik Pleitgen following the latest in this investigation outside of Ramstein Airbase for us this morning. Thank you.
ROBERTS: Jude Law's run in with the law tops your "Quick Hits" now. The actor was arrested for alleging attacking a paparazzi outside his London home on Tuesday. The photographer claims Law tried to grab his camera during a scuffle. Law denies the allegations. Police are investigating.
Halle Berry is confirming she's pregnant. The father is her latest squeeze, model Gabriel Aubry. This will be the Oscar winners very first child. Congratulations to her.
He spent 15 years on the run, now a disgraced Democratic fundraiser is a fugitive once again after he stood up another judge. The manhunt for Norman Hsu, take two, coming up.
And a setback for Senator Larry Craig as he tries to hold on to his seat in Washington. We're live on Capitol Hill ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Welcome back to the most news in the morning. Some "Quick Hits" now.
A Seattle woman who managed to register her dog to vote agreeing to community service and a fine to avoid being prosecuted under election laws. The woman registered her dog, Duncan, to vote as a protest. She says she did it to show how easy it is for non-citizens to register. I guess that was his fingerprint there.
Two students at Northeastern University in Boston in big trouble this morning for being a little too vocal about their business. Undercover cops say they heard one of the boys yell from his dorm window that he had pot for sale. He was screaming it to some girls in a dorm right across the way. Well, police say that they searched the room and, sure enough, they did find marijuana. They were arrested and charged. They were also kicked out of school.
And a huge pot bust in California. Police finding $15 million worth of marijuana off of a highway in Riverside County. Helicopters had to be called in to airlift the drugs back to a storage warehouse.
ROBERTS: Well, a story coming up in the next half hour here on AMERICAN MORNING that you just can't miss. You know, in the wake of Michael Richards' meltdown at that comedy club in Los Angeles, then Don Imus being fired for things he said, there's a whole movement out there to curtail language that's being used by some of these comedians and other folks.
CHETRY: That's right. Specifically the "n" word. And very popular comedian Eddie Griffin's standup routine repeatedly used it. And there was an unexpected outcome from some of the words that he said during that standup routine. We're going to tell you what happened -- a revolt of sorts -- when AMERICAN MORNING comes right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Well, there you go. Still dark in Atlanta this morning. It shows you that you start to get into September, the sun comes up just a little bit later on every day. It would have been almost sunny by now just a month ago.
CHETRY: Right.
ROBERTS: It's currently 70 degrees there. Fairly humid. Eighty-three percent humidity. Going to be 91 today and cloudy. So even as we get into September, Atlanta still Hotlanta.
CHETRY: So a pretty skyline, but a bad hair day.
ROBERTS: It's always a bad hair day in Atlanta.
And welcome back. It's Thursday, the 6th of September. I'm John Roberts.
CHETRY: And I'm Kiran Chetry. Glad you're with us. New this morning.
Not much of a shock, but at least it's official. Fred Thompson in Des Moines, Iowa, today. And this is the first time he's officially campaigning for president after he made his long-expected announcement last night on "The Tonight Show."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FRED THOMPSON, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: And that's one of things I wanted to talk to you about.
JAY LENO, "THE TONIGHT SHOW WITH JAY LENO": All right. All right.
THOMPSON: I'm running for the president of the United States.
LENO: All right. There you have it, ladies and gentlemen.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: So there we go. So after all that time, he sort of understated it, didn't he? He's very quiet about it.
Well, Thompson doesn't think that the months he waited before declaring will hurt him with voters. He even made a joke about it to Leno saying, I doubt people are going to say, hey, he'd make a good president, but he just waited too long to get in, so I'm not going to vote for him.
Also some lighter moments at last night's Republican debate as the other candidates joked about Thompson getting in the race. Let's listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: That's a decision that Fred should make. Maybe we're up past his bedtime, but the point is I think that...
MIKE HUCKABEE, (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I was scheduled to be on Jay Leno tonight. But I gave up my slot for somebody else because I'd rather be in New Hampshire with these fine people.
RUDY GIULIANI, (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I like Fred a lot. Fred is a really good man. I think he's done a pretty good job of playing my part on "Law and Order."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: There you go. They were all ready. How about McCain with the bedtime gig? Thompson jumps ahead of most of them in the race, so maybe he gets the last laugh. The national polls have him running either first or second.
We're going to have much more live from New Hampshire with our CNN senior political correspondent, Candy Crowley, coming up.
Also Senator Barack Obama in Iowa taking a shot at two of his rivals addressing questions about his experience. Take a listen to what he had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. BARACK OBAMA, (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I find it amusing, this whole experience argument, because I've been in public service for over two decades now. I've been in elected office longer than John Edwards or Hillary Clinton. I passed more bills, I'm sure, than either of them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Barack Obama has said that he thinks this is his only shot at running for president. He says he doesn't think that his wife would allow him to run next time if this doesn't work out.
Is he at it again? Fugitive Democratic fund-raiser Norman Hsu skipped a court appearance in California, leaving behind $2 million in bail money and now he's a wanted man all over again. He turned himself in after spending 15 years on the lam from a felony conviction. The reason we're even talking about him is because top Democrats including, Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, have accepted donations from him. They've now pledged to give the thousands that he donated to charity.
Overnight, Luciano Pavarotti lost his long battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 71 years old. As far as Italy is concerned, it's lost an icon. Pavarotti will lie in state beginning tomorrow with the funeral to be held on Saturday.
CNN's Jennifer Eccelston is live in Pavarotti's hometown, Modena, Italy.
Good morning, Jennifer.
JENNIFER ECCELSTON, CNN NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Kiran. It's a loss for Italy, a loss for the music world and a loss of a man with unwavering zest for life. That is some of the reaction from Luciano Pavarotti's hometown after hearing their very own opera sensation died earlier this morning here in Modena.
His manager broke the news that the tenor lost his battle with a virulent form of cancer, but his adoring fans had some preparation for this day. Last night the 71-year-old's condition was reported as grave. He had lost consciousness and his kidneys were failing. The opera legend was also hospitalized in August for respiratory problems associated with pancreatic cancer that was diagnosed and treated last year in the United States. The beloved singer underwent five chemotherapy treatments. At the time, his wife vowed he beat the disease and resume his farewell tour that began in 2004, but the illness forced him to cancel a tour and he has not been seen in public since last year.
We learned from the mayor's office today that the body will actually lie in-state this afternoon. That will give an opportunity for people of Modena and across the region to come and pay their respects and we also expect that the funeral will take place on Saturday -- Kiran?
CHETRY: Jennifer Eccelston live for us in Italy, thanks.
ROBERTS: Senator Larry Craig is still vowing to fight to hang onto his Senate seat, declaring that if he manages to reverse his guilty plea, it is his intention to serve out the rest of his term.
How is that playing with Republicans in Congress? CNN congressional correspondent Dana Bash is live on Capitol Hill. I saw that press conference is Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell gave yesterday and he did not look happy, Dana.
DANA BASH, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I think that's an understatement, John. Republican leaders thought this was over and done with. They thought they had succeeded in forcing Senator Craig to resign. You're right, Senator McConnell, the Republican leader, picked up the phone and it was Senator Larry Craig telling him, well, I am going to resign but only if I don't get the charges cleared. This is something that Senator McConnell made clear, before the cameras and talking to reporters, he is not happy with. In fact, he still thinks that Senator Craig should resign.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL, (R), MINORITY LEADER: Remains what I said last Saturday. I thought he made the correct decision, the difficult, but correct decision to resign. That would still be my view today.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BASH: As CNN has learned, there was a passionate and spirited debate inside a closed-door luncheon yesterday of Senate Republicans. Some stood up and chastised the Republican leadership for rushing to judgment and really pushing out so fast and so forcefully one of their own but many, we are told, John, applauded the Republican leadership's decision because they felt that politically and, maybe even ethically, they did the right thing in pushing Senator Craig out.
ROBERTS: I'm sure a lot of seen this, on Larry Craig's part, as bait and switch as well. He did suffer a bit of a setback yesterday in his determination to hang onto that Senate seat.
BASH: He did. This has to do with the Senate Ethics Committee. His attorney, Stan Brand, wrote the Ethics Committee and said I don't think you have jurisdiction over this. There's no precedent for the Ethics Committee investigating something like a misdemeanor that has nothing to do with the Senator's real official duties here. But the Ethics Committee shot back and made it clear that they do think they have a right and a responsibility to investigate this. And they said they're going to continue to do so because they say, even if this doesn't directly affect his responsibilities in the Senate, that the ethics manual, if you will, the rules say that if it reflects poorly on the Senate, then the Ethics Committee is going to investigate. And they're going to continue to do so.
ROBERTS: At the same time, Idaho Governor Butch Otter said he's going to proceed -- he told Craig he's going to proceed as if he resigned. He floated the names of possible replacements. In some people's eyes, he's on the way out.
Dana Bash on Capital Hill for us this morning. Dana, thanks.
BASH: Thank you.
ROBERTS: Comedian Eddie Griffin found out the hard way that "N" stands for not a chance or not on this stage. He was asked to sit down after using profanity and "the N word," during a speech to the members of "Black Enterprise" magazine in Miami. A spokesman says his material was inappropriate. There's been increasing pressure on black comedians and rappers to stop using the "N" word since Michael Richards and Don Imus scandals of the past year.
Kiran?
CHETRY: John thanks.
They had a profound hatred of U.S. citizens. That's what federal authorities in Germany are saying about these three terror suspects we first talked to about this yesterday on our show. They were arrested for planning a massive attack on a U.S. airbase, a major airport, possibly even scouting locations to attack bars and night clubs, where American tourists were known to go in Germany.
How close were they to pulling it off? Joining us now to talk about it, a former CIA covert operations officer, Mike Baker.
Good to see you this morning, Mike.
MIKE BAKER, FORMER CIA COVERT OPERATIONS OFFICER: Thank you.
CHETRY: We are getting more details about this plot and we may find, as the investigation continues, it's wider than we thought. At this point, it's thought they had 1,500 pounds of hydrogen peroxide. What type of damage could that do?
BAKER: As an example, people can go back to the London bombings in '05. The device used there for those various explosions, hydrogen peroxide, and they used nowhere near the amount that we're talking about here. But the 1,500 pounds of the hydrogen peroxide solution, we have to remember, it would be divided up. And it looked like they had multiple targets they were going after. It's highly unlikely they were thinking about using that entire amount for one detonation. That would be a problem in a sense just from logistics.
CHETRY: They were also talking about investigators finding complex detonators, possibly military issue. Where would these suspects get their hands on that?
BAKER: Speculation to some degree, at this point, but unfortunately, there's a fairly robust arms and military surplus gray market out there. So the likelihood is they could have been brought in from outside of Germany, acquired who knows where, the former Soviet Union as an example, a lot of material floating out there in the underground market.
CHETRY: So we have the arrest and we have the disrupted plot in Denmark as well and the thwarted bombings in London in July. Is Europe the new central front for extremists and al Qaeda?
BAKER: Very good question. I think that it's not, in a sense. The operational front remains, unfortunately, Pakistan. The border area with Afghanistans is an example, but Europe does have a very unique problem and they've had this problem for some time. We can go back to pre-9/11, and several of the key hijackers in the 9/11 attack had spent time, considerable time in Germany.
CHETRY: The converts in Germany.
BAKER: Exactly. But Europe has had a tendency, overall these years, to not necessarily be inclusive to the communities. And they have large Muslim communities, and to some degree this percentage that's radicalized obviously.
Here in the U.S., there tends to be a feeling like okay, people that come into the country that move in, they're Americans in a way.
Over in Britain, over in Germany, et cetera, they don't necessarily feel that. They feel separate and that has created this problem.
CHETRY: As we get a week away from six years since 9/11, where do we stand in the U.S. in terms of our vulnerabilities?
BAKER: Well, again, good point. We're coming up on the 9/11 anniversary. Al Qaeda has always shown a tendency to like the anniversaries and to try to target operations for that. In terms of where we stand, we are definitely safer than we were, even a year ago, two years ago, three years ago, four years ago. It's nonsense and naive to say that we're not. Our processes, our efforts, our ability to share information amongst ourselves and with our liaison partners, like the Germans, continuously improves. We've got a terrific amount of work that goes on that people just never see.
Occasionally, you get one of these plots, such as this in Germany, that gets disrupted and then it comes to the forefront again. But this work is going on all the time off the radar screen. So I think the public can be somewhat comforted by the fact that we are safer than we were, but you never get to a point in counterterrorism where it's a zero sum game. You never reduce the risk down to zero.
CHETRY: Mike Baker, former CIA covert officer, thanks for being with us. BAKER: Thank you.
John?
ROBERTS: Coming up now to 41 minutes after the area. A new area of concern off the coast of Florida. Will it be a weather maker? Rob Marciano tracking all the extreme weather, next on "AMERICAN MORNING."
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CHETRY: An assault rifle will go up for raffle in one Wisconsin store. The owner says he's giving away an AK-47 to benefit wounded veterans. Tickets for the drawing are $10 and it will take place on October 1st. Gun control advocates are slamming it despite the good cause. They are saying there should not be another weapon on the streets. A Miami Beach synagogue selling two front-row seats on eBay. That's right. The description says it's a great view of the rabbi. It guarantees you prime real estate for all the big ones, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Passover, all Shabbat services and they throw in free parking. And you can pass the tickets down when you pass on. The bidding starts at the value price of just $1.8 million.
It's 44 minutes past the hour. We head over to Rob Marciano. Prime real estate there as well, standing in front of the weather wall in Atlanta.
Hi, Rob.
ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Shalom. There you go. This is what's left of Henriette. It is a tropical depression now. Made its second landfall last night. First of all, Cabo san Lucas and, second of all, mainland Mexico as a Category 1 storm, now just a T.D. But it's bringing some rain fall and already the cloud canopy getting into the southwest parts of the U.S.
We talked about this yesterday and it looks like we'll start to see a little bit of action as far as the rainfall is concerned with this system. Here is the flash flood watches out for parts of Arizona, New Mexico and extreme western parts of Texas and we're already starting to see that moisture work its way in through the southern part of number. You could see as much as one to four inches of rainfall in this area and already seeing some rainfall from the Texas flooding moving into the mid Mississippi Valley today.
And then this system -- John, you mentioned this -- it has not developed. It is off the coast of Florida but we're watching it for development. It looks like any anticipation of getting close to land is delayed for a day or two. We'll keep you posted on that -- John?
ROBERTS: Rob, I know you will. Thanks very much.
An iPhone without the phone. Apple revamps the iPod, but is it worth the big bucks? Ali Velshi takes a look ahead on "AMERICAN MORNING."
And after the storm comes the relief. Hurricane Felix pounded Nicaragua. Now the challenge is to get supplies to some of the most remote areas of the country. Monita Rajpal has the latest from our World Desk, coming up next on "AMERICAN MORNING."
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CHETRY: Welcome back to the most news in the morning. And your "Quick Hits" now. The outcry over the Utah mine collapse that killed nine miners, a union official just told Congress that government inspectors should have known that the Crandall Canyon Mine was too dangerous to operate. The head of the Mine Safety and Health Administration disputes that, saying experts could never have foreseen any safety threats.
A possible settlement in the 2003 Rhode Island nightclub fire, the country's fourth deadliest fire ever. Survivors and relatives of the 100 people killed have tentatively agreed to a nearly $14 million payout. The money would come from companies at the center of the lawsuit, including the one that supplied pyrotechnics that sparked the inferno.
Also environmentalists taking the government to court. The advocacy group Earth Justice is suing the EPA over pollution in communities near West Coast shipping ports. The group claims the EPA hasn't done enough to limit the chemicals that ships spew into the air.
ROBERTS: A shipment of relief supplies is on its way to one of the areas hardest hit by Hurricane Felix. For that story and more, let's go to our World Update Desk in London. CNN's Monita Rajpal is monitoring the situation.
Good morning, Monita.
MONITA RAJPAL, CNN NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, John. Moments from now, CNN's Harris Whitbeck will be on a U.S. command relief flight from Honduras to Nicaragua. He will survey the damage done by Hurricane Felix.
As you remember, Hurricane Felix made landfall in Nicaragua on Tuesday as a Category 5 storm. Coastal villages that are already so remote have been cut off from food and relief emergency supplies. And, of course, the flight will dropping food and relief supplies to the coastal villages.
Meanwhile, in Honduras, there are flood warnings and rivers are threatening to overflow. Crops and food supplies that had been brought in before the storm had hit have been destroyed. They will benefit from this relief flight as well. We hope to bring you the pictures as soon as Harris gets back from this flight.
Meanwhile, in Iraq, Wednesday night, a new operation began in the northern city of Tikrit. Lightning Hammer II, as the operation is called, brings together some 26,000 coalition and Iraqi troops to root out al Qaeda in Iraq militants. The troops are saying it's an attempt at keeping the pressure on the militants and denying them safe haven. Our Baghdad Bureau is monitoring the operation and, of course, will bring us any of the latest developments that come out of that. Lightning Hammer II is an extension of an earlier operation in Diyala Province that ended on September 1st.
Meanwhile, overnight, just a few hours ago, a U.S. air strike in western Baghdad killed 14 Iraqis -- John?
ROBERTS: Monita, thanks very much. We'll check back in with you soon.
A final salute is a fallen hero tops your "Quick Hits". Firefighters from across the country will be in Boston this morning for the funeral of fireman Paul Cahill. Cahill died fighting a restaurant fire last week. Funeral services for another fireman killed will be held tomorrow. Fresh fallout after a B-52 bomber takes off with nuclear warheads on board. The commander in charge of munitions at Minot Air Force Base was just taken off the job. It follows a plane like this when flying to Louisiana Barksdale Air Force Base, without anyone realizing that six nuclear warheads were on board. They weren't supposed to be there. Our Barbara Starr will have more on this story coming up for you in a few minutes' time.
Still ahead, hoping a man who lived on the edge is still alive. The desperate search for adventurer Steve Fossett.
Remember the buzz about the iPhone? What if you just want the device's cool capabilities without the phone? Apple, with a new solution for you and some more money for them, ahead on "AMERICAN MORNING."
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CHETRY: An expensive push to help America's war vets topping your "Quick Hits" now. The Senate is getting ready to vote on a bill that would provide major increases in medical care for veterans of Iraq, as well as other wars. It's expected to pass that measure, which would bust the president's budget by $4 billion.
And a battle over bridge repairs on Capital Hill as well. House Democrats and Republicans holding a hearing on the best way to maintain America's bridges after last month's deadly I-35 collapse in Minneapolis. The chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee is pushing to increase the federal gas tax from 18 cents a gallon to 23 cents a gallon, saying additional money raised would then go to a bridge trust fund. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters says the money is already there, it just needs to be better used.
ROBERTS: It's four minutes to the top of the hour. Ali Velshi is here. It just wouldn't be "Minding Your Business" if we didn't have news about Apple, the iPod and the iPhone.
ALI VELSHI, CNN SENIOR BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: I don't know. I'm mad about the fact that somehow this has become such a big part of popular culture that I have to report on things that Apple should pay public relations for.
CHETRY: Are you mad about that or mad because you still, after all this time, can't get your hands on the real thing? We have a fake cardboard iPhone.
VELSHI: Let me tell you, this fake cardboard iPhone is the best thing that ever happened to me because this launched, as you recall, at the end of June and this is the eight-gig iPhone. It was 600 bucks. Guess what? It's now 400 bucks. Steve Jobs announced a $200 price cut two months into the product cycle of this thing. The six- gig iPhone is completely discontinued.
In other news, he announced -- that's the iPhone you're looking at. See the fancy touch screen? They announced something called the I-Touch, which is an iPod with a web browser and wireless Internet and you can download YouTube videos.
CHETRY: Everything but the phone.
VELSHI: Everything but the phone. It will be $300 or $400 to buy that. The video iPod, which is what I have, which we all call an iPod, is now being renamed iPod Classic. There are now four iPods. There's the new one, the I-Touch, the Nana, the Shuffle and iPod Classic. Steve Jobs also announced they've sold 100 million iPods. It took Sony 13 years to sell 100 million Walkmans and then, of course, that fell off the cliff.
CHETRY: Ali -- he still hasn't gotten over paying $200,000 for a Beta Mac. And now this.
VELSHI: This is the thing. I really am an early guy.
ROBERTS: My wife just reminded me, did they do the Blue Tooth for the headsets on the new one?
VELSHI: They did not. You still have to get that as a separate unit. There are a lot of changes and there are people who are mad. First of all, the investors are mad. The stock is down because they're saying that's a bad sign if you've got to cut the price so quickly into the product cycle. And a whole lot of people who bought the early ones, the most loyal Apple customers are mad about this.
CHETRY: I wonder if our producer, Brian, is mad. He had a shiny new one.
ROBERTS: It was expensive though.
VELSHI: It was a little rich, yeah.
CHETRY: Cardboard one for 60 cents.
VELSHI: Downloaded that from the Internet.
ROBERTS: Thanks very much.
VELSHI: All right.
ROBERTS: Here's a story coming up in the next half hour that you just can't miss. Security at these global summits, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperations summit going on in Sidney right now, G-8, all those things, deadly serious, unless you're a comedy troupe.
CHETRY: That's right. No laughing matter or is it because comedians from this Australian TV show managed to get past thousands of police. One of the guys even dressed as Osama bin Laden, getting uncomfortably close to our president. How did it happen?
ROBERTS: Blame Canada.
CHETRY: We're going to tell you all about it and have details and see what happened to these clowns, coming up.
Next hour of "AMERICAN MORNING" starts right now.
High expectations.
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FRED THOMPSON, (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm running for president of the United States.
JAY LENO, HOST, "THE TONIGHT SHOW": All right.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Fred Thompson hits the campaign trail in Iowa today, finally an official candidate. But already under fire for skipping a debate to announce in late night.
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MCCAIN: Maybe we're up past his dead time.
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CHETRY: And the war of words over the war in Iraq.
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REP. RON PAUL, (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: But we've dug a hole for ourselves and we've dug a hole for our party. We're losing elections and we're going down next year if we don't change it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Live from Iowa and New Hampshire on this "AMERICAN MORNING."
Wow, and there it went, the big heated war of words between Ron Paul and Governor Huckabee.
ROBERTS: They've had so many debates you'd think there would be nothing to say. But they manage to come up with something every time.
CHETRY: That's right. And now they have a lot to say since they have a new candidate officially throwing his hat into the ring, Fred Thompson. We'll talk about that as well.
It is Thursday, September 6th. Glad you're with us. I'm Kiran Chetry.
ROBERTS: Good morning to you. I'm John Roberts.
We begin with the presidential race heating up. Fred Thompson is in Iowa for his first official day on the campaign trail. He launched his campaign message on his website at 12:01 this morning and made the announcement last night on Jay Leno's "The Tonight Show." Here's what he said.
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