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Possible Suspect in JonBenet Ramsey Killing Arrested Last Night in Thailand; Agitated Passenger on United Airlines Flight Causes Fighter Jets to Scramble; In Devastated South Lebanon, Will Hezbollah Be Blamed For Devastation?; John Mark Carr Arrested in Connection with JonBenet Ramsey Case; Terminal at Port of Seattle Evacuated for Bomb Scare

Aired August 16, 2006 - 17:01   ET

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

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: And to our viewers, you're in THE SITUATION ROOM, where new pictures and information are arriving all the time.
Standing by, CNN reporters across the United States and around the world to bring you today's top stories.

Happening now, it's 4:00 a.m. in Thailand, where there's breaking news as authorities make an arrest in a very cold case, the 10-year- old murder of young JonBenet Ramsey.

It's 5:00 p.m. in Boston. And that's where a transatlantic fight was diverted with fighter escort after a midair confrontation after the recent bomb plot arrests. Was security all it should be?

And it's midnight here in the Middle East, where just hours from now, hours from now Lebanese army troops are due to start deploying in war-torn south Lebanon. But there's still no sign that Hezbollah will disarm as a special Israeli commission is asked to find out what went wrong with the war.

I'm Wolf Blitzer in Jerusalem. You're in THE SITUATION ROOM.

We begin with that breaking news we're following.

Her killing one day after Christmas almost 10 years ago sent chills to parents everywhere. Six-year-old beauty pageant contestant JonBenet Ramsey found beaten and strangled in the basement of her home in Colorado. Right now there is this breaking news we've been following, a possible arrest of a suspect in the case.

We have three reporters standing by.

Rusty Dornin is live at the CNN Center in Atlanta. She's following the story.

Tom Foreman is in Washington.

Kelli Arena, let's start with our justice correspondent, who's getting confirmation from her sources -- Kelli.

KELLI ARENA, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, law enforcement officials tell me that there was indeed an arrest of a male in Bangkok, Thailand. That arrest warrant was issued last night.

We are not hearing any identifiers on this person, nationality, age, or anything like that, but he is being described by officials, law enforcement officials, as a potential suspect in this case. And, you know, Wolf, there has not been a single person charged in 10 years in this investigation.

The investigation is being led by the Boulder, Colorado, District Attorney's Office, with some assistance from Immigrations and Customs Enforcement. I'm told that this individual will be removed from Thailand and brought to the United States. When that exactly happens is unclear at this time, but when it does, he's likely to be accompanied by ICE agents on that plane -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Is there any sense that U.S. authorities went there, that they got advance word? In other words, are we learning any details of how all of the sudden this possible suspect was picked up in connection? Was it -- in other words, was it the work of U.S. authorities helping Thai authorities, or vice versa?

ARENA: Wolf, the way (AUDIO GAP) is unclear at this point. I even tried to get a timeline for how long this person has been on the radar screen and was unable to do that just yet. So we are continuing to work our sources to find out, you know, everything we can, and we'll bring it to you as soon as we get it.

BLITZER: Kelli, thank you.

Rusty Dornin is also following this story for us. She's at the CNN Center.

What are you picking up, Rusty?

RUSTY DORNIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, as you know, there's always been an "umbrella of suspicion" around Ramsey family, around Patsy and John Ramsey. Patsy Ramsey, of course, the little girl's mother, died this last -- past summer after a bout with cancer. But just recently, within the past few days, the Boulder District Attorney's Office has said that indeed they believe that the family was not connected in any way with this murder, that it was some kind of an outside intruder.

Now, when CNN did call Patsy Ramsey's parents, who still live north of Atlanta -- the family moved here right after the murder -- they seemed very upset and did not want to talk about it. Whether they had been informed of the arrest or not, it's unclear. We do have a crew going there, hopefully to talk to them about this latest news.

So the Ramsey family did live here in Atlanta. John Ramsey moved up to Michigan and has been living up there since before his wife's death -- Wolf.

BLITZER: And tragically, she just died only a few weeks ago. And as you point out, living all these years with this cloud of suspicion hovering over them, the parents of JonBenet Ramsey.

Tom Foreman covered this story 10 years ago, knows a great deal about it.

Tom, we were talking earlier about some suspicion early on, at least from the Ramsey family, that perhaps an intruder came out -- came in, but there was -- it was a snowy night just before Christmas, December 1996, and I take it there were never any footprints that were found in the snow.

Is that right?

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It was actually Christmas night itself. And, yes, that was one of the issues.

There was no snow around there. There was no sign of any footprints anyone saw, no sign of forced entry. And look, this neighborhood in Boulder, Colorado, is like a lot of quiet neighborhoods on the edge of town where maybe everybody's asleep at 3:00 in the morning, but if a car comes through, if somebody makes a lot of noise, if somebody comes and goes, they might be noticed simply because the neighborhood is so quiet.

Never anybody who ever saw anything.

I do want to bring one thing up here, though, Wolf. There was a reference in this ransom note that was found to the Philippines. Now, whether that has any connection at all to any of this, I don't know, but it's worth mentioning.

It was one of the great puzzles of this long, rambling note that went on about John Ramsey and some sense of revenge from some long lost foe or enemy or something who knew him when he was in the Philippines way in the past. Many of the investigators at the time dismissed that. One FBI person actually told me that the crime scene itself and the ransom note, he said, looks like what is left by people who watch crimes on TV, not by regular professional criminals, or somebody who was actually trying to pull off a crime. It's by people who were trying to make something look like a crime.

Now, whether that all adds up to anything, I don't know. But, of course, that comes to mind when we talk about an arrest coming from at least vaguely that part of the world.

BLITZER: Quickly, that ransom note, which I remember we heard a great deal about it at the time, but was it ever made public, the actual note?

FOREMAN: You know, I believe it was. I know that I read it. And I know a lot of us got a chance to see it over time. But I don't -- I think the contents of it were all made public at one point. I'm almost certain they were.

And it was a long, rambling note that, again, suggested a lot of things that don't normally show up in a ransom note. A ransom note is usually fairly straightforward. It says, "Give us the money if you want to see this person again."

This one went on and on, it had an odd amount that was being requested that had some sort of numeric relationship to the bonuses that John Ramsey had received in his business. Again, that made investigators look at the family, because they were saying who would know this? Who other than a business associate or a family member would know these amounts of money? Who would know about his history of having been in the Philippines?

They were looking for someone even if it was an intruder, an intruder that had a lot of information about this family that you would not normally expect a stranger to have -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Tom, we're going to stay on top of this story, we're going to watch it, we're going to see if there are any briefings coming up, any news conferences. We're not going to go away from it, get more information as it comes in.

Huge interest. A mystery that has never been resolved. Who murdered JonBenet Ramsey almost 10 years ago in her home in Boulder, Colorado? The 6-year-old little girl found dead.

We're now getting word, confirmation from a multiple number of sources that an arrest has been made of a possible suspect in Bangkok, Thailand. We're getting more information and we'll bring it to you as soon as we get it.

Let's follow some other important news we're watching right now as well.

In our CNN "Security Watch," the fears, the jitters of a post- 9/11 world amid worries over an alleged plot to blow up airplanes. Now is not necessarily a good time for a passenger to get rowdy on a plane, but it appears that's exactly what happened today, causing fighter jets to scramble to this side of the transatlantic, a flight coming in from London, and for that flight to divert from its original destination in Washington, D.C., to Boston.

Let's bring in our Brian Todd. He's watching this story. He's on the scene in Boston -- Brian.

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, we have some new information on the case. We're told that the woman involved in the incident on this plane originated in Dubai.

She got on an Emirates Airlines flight in Dubai, flew from Dubai to London, where she connected on United Airlines Flight 923. That information comes to us from a United Airlines official.

We do not have the woman's name as of yet, but we can tell you this, she is in the custody of Massachusetts State Police. The case is being referred to the U.S. Attorney's Office, so the woman could face federal charges.

Essentially, the woman, by all accounts, witness accounts, people we talked to on the flight, and official accounts, got very agitated on the flight, got up and down, trying to get the attention of the flight crew, passed notes to be forwarded on to the cabin. Got very agitated, asking questions about what would happen when they landed. It took at least one confrontation with another person on the flight.

We're told by some people that these were passengers, and by one witness that said that these were air marshals. We're trying to drill down on that a little bit. But the woman is now in custody of Massachusetts State Police.

Just a few moments ago I spoke with a passenger named Warren Lewis (ph), who says he was sitting right behind the woman in question. Here is his description of the incident.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She was acting in a very, very odd way, starting to get a bit strange with everyone. She seemed to want everybody's attention all the time, including the pilot and the copilot.

She was actually sitting next to one of the emergency exits over the wing. And that was very strange, because she was -- it was a bit unnerving to be near that when she was close to all the handles, you know. You know, at 32,000 feet, you don't want someone to open the door at that height, do you?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TODD: Now, there's also a question circulating about what the woman was carrying in either a carry-on bag on or her person. Here's what we know.

One U.S. law enforcement official tells CNN that the woman had a lighter, a screwdriver and a note. We are not being told the contents of that note. TSA and British airport authority officials tell us that she had hand cream and matches.

Now, as for what is allowed on the plane, we're told that certain types of matches are allowed on these flights now, but as we all have been reporting over the past week, liquids, gels, and creams, and that would include hand cream, are not allowed on these flights, transatlantic.

Now, that takes us all the way back to the screening. It would probably then be a question of how she was screened at her origination point, which we are now told was in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates.

She boarded an Emirates Airlines flight in Dubai, connected in London, came here to Boston -- and that flight was diverted, as we know now, to Boston. We were also told that the flight that is going to connect to Dulles airport with the rest of the passengers on it should have left right about now and is headed toward Dulles airport -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Brian Todd, reporting for us.

We'll get back to you, Brian. Thank you very much.

There's another developing story we're following. Let's bring in Zain Verjee.

What are you picking up, Zain?

ZAIN VERJEE, CNN ANCHOR: Wolf, CNN confirms that officials are looking at a suspicious container in Seattle. The Port of Seattle's terminal 18 has been evacuated. Bomb-sniffing dogs appear to have picked up a scent and reacted to it.

They appear to have reacted to a container that was just unloaded off a ship. There's concern that there could be explosives in that container.

Police are on the scene. A bomb squad is on the scene as well investigating. Police have also set up about a half a mile perimeter around Terminal 18.

We're going to bring you more details, though, Wolf, as we get them.

BLITZER: Zain, thank you very much.

Let's get back to this murder mystery that we've been following now, I guess, for almost 10 years. Who killed little JonBenet Ramsey in her home in Boulder, Colorado?

There's now an apparent suspect that's been picked up, arrested in Bangkok, Thailand, in connection with this case. We're following all the developments.

Rusty Dornin is getting some additional information from the CNN Center -- Rusty.

DORNIN: Wolf, what we're hearing now, sources have told CBS News that it is a 41-year-old man who was being held on some unrelated sex charges in Thailand, and he's said to be a second grade school teacher. Now, that is coming from sources that have told CBS News that.

In the meantime, we do have a statement from a Ramsey family attorney, Hal Hadden (ph). And he is saying, "The diligent investigation of JonBenet Ramsey's murder by Boulder District Attorney Lacy and detectives working with her has been extraordinary. It is our hope that this arrest will bring some closure to the Ramsey family after a 10-year ordeal. We respect the legal process and will have no further comment about the case or the evidence until the process is concluded."

Now, that's coming from Hal Hadden, who is in Denver, Colorado. But we understand that another family attorney, Lin Wood, is going to be giving a press conference within the next hour or two about the recent developments in this case.

I also understand from one of our people that spoke to Patsy Ramsey's grandmother -- or JonBenet's grandmother, rather, Patsy Ramsey's mother, that she was told of the arrest, but she did not want to say who had called her and told her about that information. Hopefully, we will bringing you more about what the family is saying a little later -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Rusty, we'll stay on top of this story. Thank you very much. As you get more information, as Kelli Arena, our justice correspondent, gets more information, Tom Foreman -- we're working all of our sources -- we'll bring it to our viewers.

Jack Cafferty is in New York.

Jack, you remember this case. All of us remember 10 years ago the angst, the concern that we had watching this story unfold.

JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Well, and the out-and-out vilification of JonBenet's parents. I mean, the country was ready to lynch both of them.

They were convinced that the parents had killed this kid. And, you know, public opinion polls, the venom on behalf of the taxpayers against the family.

It's a shame that her mother, who died not so very long ago of ovarian cancer, if I recall, didn't live long enough to see the arrest of this -- this guy in Thailand, assuming he's the one who did it. It obviously would have, I would think, meant a great deal to her as the mother of the child.

Anyway, we all remember it well. I hope they've solved the case.

In other stuff we're doing in "The File," it didn't take Hezbollah very long to get out in front in post-war Lebanon. In a political master stroke, and within hours of the cease-fire, Hassan Nasrallah was on television promising to help the Lebanese people. He pledged people for people to buy furniture, pay their rent for up to a year. The money for this, yes, of course, will come from Iran, and it will buy tons of goodwill on the Arab street.

Hundreds of members of Hezbollah have already gone to villages all across southern Lebanon. They're cleaning, surveying the damage. They're using bulldozers to clear roads littered with debris from the war. Their ambulances are transporting bodies of fighters to graves.

It is brilliant. Hezbollah comes out looking like both the victim of Israeli aggression and the good Samaritans ready to jump in and help the Lebanese people.

It's an effective strategy for winning the hearts and minds of the Arab people. In the meantime, we stumble around in search of a clue of how to do this with little or no success.

Here's the question: What does it mean if Hezbollah is leading the reconstruction effort in Lebanon?

E-mail your thoughts to CaffertyFile@CNN.com or go to CNN.com/CaffertyFile.

I don't think Karl Rove could have done a better job with this -- Wolf. BLITZER: Jack Cafferty, thank you very much.

We're going to get back to our top story, the murder mystery, JonBenet Ramsey, the little 6-year-old girl killed nearly 10 years ago. A suspect has now been arrested in Bangkok, Thailand. The Associated Press now reporting that the district attorney in the case confirming this.

We're getting multiple confirmations. We're going to get right back to it right after this break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: There's been an arrest in connection with the murder of JonBenet Ramsey nearly 10 years ago at her home in Boulder, Colorado. A suspect has been picked up, arrested in Bangkok, Thailand. We're watching this story unfold. It's been a murder mystery unsolved for some 10 years.

Kelli Arena is our justice correspondent, getting additional information -- Kelli.

ARENA: Well, Wolf, what we can add to what we already know is that the man that was arrested in Bangkok, Thailand, is a middle-aged American. This person was not known to investigators years ago. This is not somebody who has resurfaced.

This is a new name to investigators and someone who I'm told popped up a little while ago. And one person put it maybe two months or so that they've been looking at this individual.

Again, arrest warrant was issued last night, Wolf. We are expecting this person to be transferred to the United States, accompanied by agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

And Wolf, we did get a confirmation, an official confirmation from ICE, that says that it's pleased to assist the Boulder, Colorado, district attorney and Thai authorities to help locate the suspect in the JonBenet Ramsey case. And it says additional details specific to the case will be shared by the Boulder, Colorado, District Attorney's Office.

And as you know, Wolf, they have been and remain the lead on this case.

BLITZER: It's been a cold case so far. We'll see what unfolds, but clearly a major, major development in the murder mystery, the murder of JonBenet Ramsey, unfolding only in the past hour, hour and a half.

Kelli, thank you for your good reporting.

Robert Shapiro is the famed criminal defense attorney. He's joining us on the phone right now.

Bob, what do you make of this development? ROBERT SHAPIRO, ATTORNEY: Well, first of all, I think it's got to be a big sigh of relief for Mr. Ramsey. Unfortunately, Mrs. Ramsey is not here to hear this news.

These people have been tarred and feathered by the media unmercifully for over 10 years with the idea that they are, in fact, responsible for the death of their daughter. And it's one of the things that is very, very bothersome, and that is, with very little information, the media sometimes jumps to conclusions that the public subscribes to and people's -- innocent people's lives are ruined.

We saw the same thing in -- in the Olympic bombings several years ago in Atlanta, where a person was painted as being the one involved. And when he was cleared, nobody reported it to any great extent.

So, for the Ramseys, and for Mr. Ramsey, who is surviving, a great sigh of relief. And we'll see how the case unfolds and whether or not, in fact, the suspect is somebody who will eventually be convicted of it.

BLITZER: But in fairness to the media, in both of these cases, Bob, the media were reporting what authorities, what law enforcement authorities were suspecting, what they were saying. They weren't just making it up. In the case of JonBenet Ramsey, the parents were held under a cloud, not so much by the media, but by authorities.

SHAPIRO: Well, I think it's both. I think certainly the authorities did release certain information that shouldn't have been released, but the media picks it up and goes with it, and goes with it for years and years. And, you know, the presumption of innocence in this country is something that is sacred and that we should all revisit on a regular basis.

BLITZER: Well, we assume -- we're going to assume this individual picked up in Bangkok, Thailand, is innocent, obviously, until proven guilty. We'll watch this story unfold.

But it does underscore the determination of the district attorney in Colorado, in Boulder, to pursue, pursue, pursue, because a lot of people basically over these past 10 years -- it's been almost a decade -- a lot of people just thought this case would remain unresolved. How unusual is it to resolve a case, if, in fact, this case is going to be resolved, so many years after the fact?

SHAPIRO: Well, it is -- it is -- in the high-profile situation, it's highly unusual, and much to the credit of the law enforcement officers and the prosecutors to keep abreast of this case and not let go. And also, not report what they are doing, because I think that is essential for law enforcement to be able to use all the tools available to them to try to solve sometimes very, very difficult cases where the evidence may -- may be circumstantial or may be very, very difficult to find and analyze.

BLITZER: Bob Shapiro, thanks very much.

Robert Shapiro, the famed criminal defense attorney, joining us. We're following this story, a possible break, a possible break in the case, the murder mystery, of JonBenet Ramsey. We'll stay on top of it.

There's another story we're following out of Seattle, Washington.

Zain Verjee is watching this security scare, I guess we can call it.

What's the latest, Zain?

VERJEE: Wolf, officials are investigating a suspicious container in a port in Seattle. Police and a bomb squad are on the scene.

We're receiving more information, details from the spokesman of the Port of Seattle. Now, this is what we're learning...

Between 11:00 and noon local time there were two containers that were unloaded at this port. A terminal operator was observing this and became suspicious of it, and specifically of the manifest. A gamma ray machine was brought in, and essentially that's something that can tell you what the contents are inside a container.

They then brought in some bomb-sniffing dogs who reacted to the container. They became alarmed.

Now, officials there on the scene, as you see, are focussing on one of the two containers. The terminal has been shut down. That's Terminal 18. And police there have set up a 2,000-foot perimeter around that container. A bomb disposal unit is going to check the contents of the container.

We'll bring you more details when we get them, Wolf, but the Port of Seattle Police, U.S. Customs, the Coast Guard, the Seattle Police Department, the Seattle Fire Department are all there on the scene trying to figure out what's going on -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Zain, thank you. We'll watch that story in Seattle.

We'll watch the latest developments, the arrest of a possible suspect in the murder of JonBenet Ramsey nearly 10 years after the fact. We're watching that as well.

We're also watching all the dramatic developments unfolding right here in the Middle East. And there are new developments today in the effort to try to keep the fragile peace between Israel and Hezbollah.

In Beirut, the cabinet agreed to deploy 15,000 Lebanese army troops south of the Litani River, beginning just hours from now. The cabinet decision does not require Hezbollah to give up its weapons, and Hezbollah officials suggest those arms will merely be kept out of sight.

As Israelis ask what went wrong, Israel's defense minister has appointed a commission of inquiry to investigate the planning and the execution of the war against Hezbollah. It will be headed by a former IDF chief of staff, and initial conclusions are expected within weeks. The current army chief said today Israeli troops won't leave Lebanon completely until a U.N.-led multinational force arrives, even if that takes months.

Let's continue our analysis.

In much of the Arab world, Hezbollah is hailed as the winner in its war with Israel, but in devastated south Lebanon, will Hezbollah be blamed for bringing on the destruction or will it benefit?

Joining us now from Beirut is Jon Lee Anderson of "The New Yorker" magazine. He's had an inside look at Hezbollah and done some excellent reporting on this very subject in recent weeks and years.

Take us inside, Jon Lee, and give us a sense of what's happening inside Hezbollah right now.

JON LEE ANDERSON, "THE NEW YORKER": Well, I wish I could take you on a full look. I can't do that. But what I am hearing is that the state -- that is, Prime Minister Siniora and the government here -- which has called upon to implement the resolution, i.e., sending the troops down -- was caught in pretty much deadlock with the Hezbollah ministers over the last hours. And we're told when they asked, would you at least take your missiles north of the Litani River, we're told, frankly, no.

The state is inevitably engaged in a kind of diplomatic fiction, whereby it's sending its troops south into relatively uncertain waters. But Hezbollah -- as someone described it to me, Hezbollah is not a guerrilla army in the sense that we tend to know them. They're mechanic in the morning, they get a phone call, go fire a missile, they go fire the missile, and they go home and watch on TV to see where the missile landed.

That was the kind of anecdote that was relayed to me today by someone who knows the organization quite well, a little bit of a pithy anecdote, but nonetheless, one that gets the point across. That is, this is a kind of citizen's militia.

And, you know, there's -- as someone close to the leadership here explained to me as well, we're not expecting to see a straggling army of Hezbollah fighters streaming north with their weapons. They will simply melt away. And that's the very uncomfortable truth about this cease-fire and the uncertain days ahead.

It's possible that there might be some face-saving measures extended to the government by Sheikh Nasrallah, but at the moment, none seem to be on offer. The army will undoubtedly be welcomed in, the Hezbollah men will melt into the woodwork pretty much as they did during the prosecution of their side of this war.

Very few of us who are on the ground in the south or here in Beirut during the bombing campaign ever saw a Hezbollah fighter with his finger on the trigger, and yet we always saw many men we assumed and pretty much knew were Hezbollah. They're a very effective invisible army, and I think they will remain so for the time being. BLITZER: Is it fair so say, Jon Lee Anderson, that the war between Israel and Hezbollah may be on hold right now, but it's only a matter of time, and probably sooner rather than later, before this war resumes full speed ahead on both sides?

ANDERSON: You know, I try not to gaze into the crystal ball too much. This is a very unpredictable part of the world, and Lebanon is a very complex place. But that's the perception of a lot of people here is that this was not a good ending, that it's unresolved, and worst of all, that the state of Lebanon -- which as we'll recall, President Bush said he wanted to protect, and it was kind of an admonishment to Israel and its bombing campaign not to weaken the state of Lebanon -- has effectively been atomized in the course of this conflict.

It's now much weaker than it was three or four weeks ago. If Prime Minister Siniora had a difficult time in trying to reel Hezbollah in, in June, in this so-called national dialogue where they were trying to get them to stand down from being a militia and join the political process, that's really changed. I mean, they really don't have a leg to stand on right now with Sheik Nasrallah and Hezbollah who are seen to be preeminent in this country.

BLITZER: Jon Lee Anderson, thanks very much. Jon Lee Anderson writes for the "New Yorker" magazine, joining us from Beirut. Always good to get your insight.

We're going to pick up our top story right now. We've been following the breaking news. An arrest has been made in connection with the murder of JonBenet Ramsey nearly 10 years after she was found dead in her home in Boulder, Colorado.

You'll remember who she was, that little 6-year-old girl. She had been a beauty pageant contestant. There had always been some level of suspicion involving her parents, but now an arrest has been made.

Kelli Arena, our justice correspondent, saying an American citizen arrested in Bangkok, Thailand, someone 41 years old, getting additional information from the district attorney in Boulder, Colorado.

Our senior legal analyst Jeff Toobin is joining us on the phone. Jeff, you did a lot of work on this story 10 years ago, and if, in fact, this case has been solved, it would bring a lot of ease on the minds of a lot of people.

JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SR. LEGAL ANALYST: It certainly would. In addition to just the family that was obviously tormented with the loss of the daughter and then living under suspicion themselves. Boulder itself was quite traumatized by this experience because one of the theories was that this was pedophile stalker out there and that is, of course, a terrifying thought. So it is only a good end to this tragedy if this case can be solved once and for all.

BLITZER: The district attorney out in Boulder is not providing a whole lot of information other than that someone has been arrested and apparently this individual had been under suspicion or as part of the developing information that was coming in for sometime now. How surprised are you as someone who covered this story 10 years ago in the years that followed, Jeff, about this latest development?

TOOBIN: Well, I am totally flabbergasted. I thought it was over, but I do think there was a turning point in 2003 that a lot of people missed, frankly, because not many people were following this case at that point. But in 2003 the Boulder, Colorado authorities, as well as the FBI, conducted DNA analysis on the underwear of JonBenet Ramsey, and there was DNA evidence associated with an unknown male found on that underwear.

That has never been tied to anyone. It really did exclude, it seems, the parents as legitimate suspects at that point because, obviously, if there had been a DNA match to anyone in the family, they would have known it.

You know, the question that we, of course, need to know now is whether this suspect who's been arrested matches this DNA, but I think that DNA test in 2003 was certainly a turning point in the investigation, and we'll see if it closes the case now.

BLITZER: And I suppose it wouldn't take long to get a DNA sample out of this suspect in Bangkok, Thailand, to see if there's a match.

TOOBIN: Not at all, especially since there was no media attention, there was no rush, there was no reason to act precipitously at this point, and, again, I don't want to get too far in front here. I don't know whether this has been done, but I would be surprised if the Boulder authorities made an arrest at this late date without a DNA match, so I anticipate that the DNA testing has already been done.

BLITZER: Jeff Toobin is a former prosecutor himself. Jeff, I want you to stand by.

Kelli Arena, our justice correspondent, is getting additional information -- Kelli.

KELLI ARENA, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, we have an identity on the American who is being held in Bangkok. We're told by law enforcement officials that his name is John Mark Carr. He is a 41-year-old school teacher.

We actually had this name earlier, Wolf. We're holding off for sensitivity reasons. We're waiting for officials to come out with this name. Unfortunately, they haven't, but some other news organizations have, and so we are coming forward with the name as well.

This is a person who has not been on investigators' radar screens for a very long time, I'm told, just a couple of months, that he surfaced, so this isn't somebody who they were looking at and then didn't look at again. And, as I said, he's expected to be returned to the United States, but we're not getting any details yet on when that flight will be, Wolf. BLITZER: 41-year-old John Mark Carr. Do we know, Kelli, if this individual was a resident of Bangkok, Thailand, may have just been a tourist there or was living in the United States?

ARENA: One of the investigators that I spoke to, Wolf, said that he was visiting the area, that -- you know, as you know, Wolf, there's a large sex trade in Thailand, that -- there are reports, and we have spoken to several investigators who suggest that he was there for that reason. He is -- but he's not being held, you know, because of that. He's being held in connection with the JonBenet Ramsey case.

BLITZER: Major development in this case, Kelli. Thanks very much. I know you're going to stay on top of it and give us more information as it becomes available. We'll take a quick break, but we're following this story. We'll get more information, among other things.

I'll speak with a former FBI profiler who's worked as a private investigator for the Ramsey family. Much more coming up. The arrest of a possible suspect in connection with the murder of JonBenet Ramsey, that's coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Welcome back. We're following the breaking news coming out of Bangkok, Thailand, the arrest of a possible suspect in connection with the murder of little six-year-old JonBenet Ramsey nearly ten years ago in her home in Boulder, Colorado.

Joining us is now on the phone John Douglas. He is a former FBI profiler. Early on he was a private investigator working for the Ramsey family. John, thanks very much for joining us. As I recall, you were pretty much vilified early on because you insisted that the Ramseys, Patsy Ramsey, the mother, John Ramsey, the father, they had nothing to do with the murder of their little girl, but there was a lot of suspicion out there by authorities as well as out in the media.

JOHN DOUGLAS, FORMER PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR FOR RAMSEY FAMILY: Yes, I was highly criticized, Wolf, by police and FBI. I went into the case about ten days after the homicide. I was brought in by the investigators and the, working for the Ramseys and principally the attorneys. And the first thing I had to tell them was that look, I'm working for the victim here, JonBenet Ramsey. I'm not working for you, and you can't buy my opinion here.

I'll analyze it the way I see it. And within four days I realized the police and FBI, they're barking up the wrong tree, and I ended up public and I was on CNN, and said that the Ramseys were not responsible for this homicide. And it's just simply was a lack of experience on the part of the investigators and when I saw subsequent shows where detective Thomas, who was assigned the case, and he was a former narcotics officer, who, the brain wiring in a narcotics officer is totally different than a homicide investigator, where a homicide investigator lets the clues, the leads, lead them to a suspect.

You put a narcotics officer on a homicide case and in his mind me already has made up his mind who the bad guy is and what they do, and what he did was he took information that would support his case and threw away information that would not support his case.

BLITZER: What convinced you early John, what convinced you early on that the Ramseys, the parents, had nothing to do with the murder of their little girl?

DOUGLAS: The way the child was assaulted, she was sexually assaulted with a, probably a paint brush handle that was broken off, digitally assaulted with that. We found wood fiber in her vagina. After she was dead, on her last breath she was struck in the head, you couldn't see it by looking at her on the floor, but once the autopsy was conducted, her skull was cracked eight and a half inches.

That means afterwards, after the child was either on her last breath or had already died the killer still had this animus about him to strike her in the head with some object, crushing her skull eight and a half inches across the base of her skull.

Parents are killers. I've worked hundreds of cases where family members will kill their children. This did not have the look of it. And later on they brought me before the, actually secretly brought me out before the grand jury and I testified before the grand jury, and told them what my reasoning was and apparently it had some impact because they did not return a true bill, and then they later brought me with Detective Smith, they wanted me to talk with Detective Smith.

If you recall, Wolf, he was brought in by Alex Hunter. He was the investigator who was brought in because he was a experienced homicide detective out of Colorado Springs, and after ten months he decided that the Ramseys didn't do it. So I met him after I testified before the grand jury and he said John, I don't know how you did it in four days.

It took me ten months, but they didn't do it. I want to show you now a power point presentation, which I saw and it just reinforced in my mind that the Ramseys were not responsible. And I did hear Jeff Toobin mention the DNA.

The DNA was ten years ago. We had DNA. And the rationale behind the DNA, Wolf, was, when I was, I was brought out by the new district attorney who will be giving a press conference tomorrow. She brought me out to assist in the investigation about five years ago. And I thought how can they explain the DNA? The DNA doesn't match the family. And she said what you're saying, John, is that the underwear that JonBenet was wearing, was packaged over in some Asian country and they have a tendency to spit when they package the underwear.

So I said, you're telling me that they were saying that the DNA came from spit from some packager in some unknown Asian country? And she said yes, John, as ludicrous as that sounds, that's what they're saying, but then they're using DNA to eliminate suspects, but the DNA never matched the Ramseys, I mean never eliminated the Ramseys.

BLITZER: John, we've got to leave it there, but we're going to continue this coverage. John Douglas, a former FBI profiler, private investigator, worked for the Ramsey family almost ten years ago, shortly after that little girl was killed. We'll stay on top of this story, John. Thanks very much.

Let's check in with Lou Dobbs. He's getting ready for his program that begins right at the top of the hour. Lou, what are you working on?

LOU DOBBS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, thank you. Coming up at 6:00 p.m. eastern here on CNN, we'll be reporting on a deadly day of violence in Iraq. July, the worst month of violence in the history of this conflict. And Lebanese troops on the move, trying to replace Israeli forces in southern Lebanon. Will those Lebanese troops disarm Hezbollah? We'll have live reports from both Lebanon and Israel tonight.

There's outrage tonight after a top illegal alien activist has defied immigration officials for years, now taking refuge in a church in Chicago, trying to avoid deportation back to Mexico. A leader of the church that's giving her sanctuary is among our guests.

And we'll continue our exclusive reports on the case of two U.S. border patrol agents who have been prosecuted and convicted and face 20 years in jail while the Mexican drug smuggler they were pursuing has been given immunity by the U.S. attorney. A juror in the case giving "LOU DOBBS TONIGHT" her first television interview on the case. We hope you'll be with us for that and a great deal more at the top of the hour, here on CNN. Wolf, back to you.

BLITZER: Thank you, Lou. We'll be watching. We're following two breaking stories right now. Perhaps the resolution, perhaps the resolution, of the JonBenet murder mystery. There's been a suspect arrested in Bangkok, Thailand. We're following that story.

Also there's a major security scare out in the Port of Seattle, Washington, right now. We're watching that. Much more of our coverage right after this.

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BLITZER: There's been an arrest made in connection with the murder case of JonBenet Ramsey, a suspect arrested, a U.S. citizen, 41-year-old former school teacher, a man by the name of John Mark Carr, C-A-R-R, John Mark Carr, arrested in Bangkok, Thailand, apparently on suspicion of murdering JonBenet Ramsey. We're expecting more details to come in. We'll bring them to you. A nearly 10-year- old murder mystery perhaps, perhaps resolved. We're watching this story.

We're also watching a breaking story in the port of Seattle, Washington. Let's bring in Zain Verjee. What's the latest on this security scare out there, Zain?

VERJEE: Wolf, officials in Seattle are investigating a suspicious container. U.S. customs and border protection officials are saying that a ship -- that the ship that the container that they're looking at came from is actually from Pakistan. We're working to get you more details on that.

Bomb squad is on the scene, bomb sniffing dogs a little earlier reacted to a container that came in that was unloaded between 11:00 and noon local time. The terminal operator, Wolf, had also become suspicious of the manifest as the ship had come in. The terminal that this is happening at, which is terminal 18 in Seattle, has been evacuated. All the nonessential staff has left, and there is a perimeter of nearly half a mile around terminal 18 right now.

We'll bring you more details when we get it, but what we've just learned is that U.S. customs and border protection are saying that that ship that this container came off of was from Pakistan.

BLITZER: Zain, we'll watch this story together with you. Thanks very much. We'll take a quick break. When we come back, more on the arrest of a possible suspect in connection with the murder of JonBenet Ramsey. They're holding a U.S. citizen, a man by the name of John Mark Carr, 41-year-old school teacher in Bangkok, Thailand. We're expecting that he'll be brought back to the United States. Much more of this story coming up right after this.

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BLITZER: A 41-year-old American in Bangkok, Thailand on suspicion of the murder of JonBenet Ramsey, that little 6-year-old girl killed nearly 10 years ago. Our Internet reporter Abbi Tatton is getting more information -- Abbi.

ABBI TATTON, CNN INTERNET REPORTER: We've just seen uploaded to the Web site of KUSA, that is the NBC affiliate in Colorado, an interview that an investigative reporter has just done with John Ramsey. I'm going to play you a little bit of this now. Let's hear what he had to say.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

PAULA WOODWARD, KUSA CORRESPONDENT: This is Paula Woodward of nine news and I'm talking with John Ramsey, the father of JonBenet Ramsey, who was murdered in December of 1996. Mr. Ramsey, what do you know about what's happened today with regard to an arrest in the case?

JOHN RAMSEY, FATHER OF JONBENET RAMSEY: Well, I know that to be true, and I was notified this morning that an arrest had been made, and I'm just...

(END AUDIO CLIP)

TATTON: John Ramsey, the father there of JonBenet Ramsey going on to say that he was impressed with the efforts of the authorities in this country and also in Thailand and all over the world, many people he's saying working on this.

He does go on, he's asked about what he thinks will happen next. He says that justice has to take its course. He criticizes the media saying that in this process, the justice process was turned over to the media. He was also asked about whether he knew the identity of this 41-year-old that has been arrested. He said he didn't want to comment on that right now, but he did say to the best of his knowledge he did not know who this person was -- Wolf.

BLITZER: I take it the Internet must be buzzing with this story all around lots of Web sites reporting, coming up with information. Is that fair?

TATTON: I think it's something that people are going to start looking at a lot. We've certainly been looking around. There are documents from the case, from 10 years ago, posted around the Internet. We found the ransom note that is online there. I'm sure that this is going to cause a lot of interest in the story online -- Wolf.

BLITZER: It's a 10-year-old murder mystery. Thanks very much, Abbi, for that. Let's check in with Jack Cafferty. He's got "The Cafferty File." Jack?

CAFFERTY: Wolf, the question this hour is what does it mean if Hezbollah is leading the reconstruction effort in southern Lebanon, and they are? A lot of mail.

Paula, Albuquerque, New Mexico: "First, it means that Halliburton and Brown & Root have been aced out of prime construction projects, for a change. Second, in the war to win the hearts and minds of the people, there is no better ploy than a humanitarian gesture aimed at restoring the ill fortunes of the disposed."

Ross, Paradise, California: "Let Hezbollah put money into rebuilding Beirut. At least the American taxpayer doesn't have to contribute to that cause. I would venture to say the majority of people support Hezbollah, so Hezbollah should fork over the money. After all, they're the ones that started this mess. Let them pay."

Maria in Mcallen, Texas: "If Hezbollah is leading the reconstruction effort in Lebanon, it simply means that Lebanon is controlled by Hezbollah. Where did President Bush ever get the idea that Lebanon is a democratic state? Just because the government was democratically elected doesn't mean Lebanon is a democracy."

Steve in Pennsylvania: "It means Hezbollah will overwhelmingly win the hearts and minds of the majority of Lebanese citizens. No matter how many leaflets the Israelis drop claiming that Hezbollah was responsible for the Israeli targeting of civilian dwellings, Hezbollah wins this P.R. campaign. You can expect every Lebanese citizen whose house was turned into rubble by the bombing campaign to swear lifelong allegiance to Hezbollah."

Richard in Calgary, Alberta: "Simply put, Lebanon will soon become another in the long line of Arab states that sympathize with terrorist militias masquerading as agents of peace."

And Mark in Chatham, New Jersey: "After Hezbollah is done repairing and restoring the damage in Lebanon, do you think that we could get them to come here and clean up the damage from Hurricane Katrina?" If you didn't see your e-mail here, and we got hundreds and hundreds of them on this question, you can go to CNN.com/CaffertyFile on the Internet and read more of them online.

A masterful P.R. coup by the leader of Hezbollah stepping into the void and helping the citizens to rebuild, get furniture, pay their rent, master stroke, Wolf?

BLITZER: Jack Cafferty, thanks very much, we'll see you back here in one hour in THE SITUATION ROOM. We're on again at 7 p.m. Eastern. Much more coming up on the murder mystery, JonBenet Ramsey. A suspect arrested in Bangkok, Thailand, today a U.S. citizen. Until then, thanks very much for joining us. Let's go to New York. Lou Dobbs standing by -- Lou.

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