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CNN Sunday Morning
Bomb-Making Materials Found in Times Square
Aired May 02, 2010 - 07:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: But either way, terrorism nonetheless, and the picture you're seeing now was a short time ago, and a welcome site to a lot of people -- and a lot of tourists quite frankly -- that this vehicle was being taken away because that means that New York Times Square -- a place that hosts some 40 million visitors every single year, a lot of tourists. No matter what time of day or night, the place is always busy, Times Square, but it was empty a short time ago.
And kind of a pleasant sight to see this. There goes a city bus, it appears, or some kind of bus going through. Vehicles starting to go through again, a few more people on the sidewalks.
Yes, it's still early, but usually you see more people than this down there on Times Square. So maybe things are starting to get back to normal as this investigation continues.
Our Kate Bolduan has been keeping an eye on the things at the White House, where the president was informed of this last night at the Correspondents' Dinner, certain a celebratory event, a fun event, a comedic event, but an event last night that kind of wrapped up with a serious note as people were starting to leave and get information that something was going on in New York City.
KATE BOLDUAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, instead of kind of doing what we call a postpartum review of the president's remarks. People were talking about something very different, T.J., as we started getting -- those were admittedly very early reports. People very interested in exactly what this all meant, and now we know it meant something very serious.
I think Mayor Bloomberg, who was at this event and very quickly went back to New York, he summed it up very well by saying, "We have avoided what could have been a very deadly event." And that is the good news, it was avoided. Now a major investigation is under way to answer all of the big questions.
But the last word from the White House that we've had since last night is that President Obama was updated, as you mentioned, T.J., at 10:45 last night. That's really right around when that dinner was ending, and he is praising the quick response of the NYPD. The White House Press Office adding that John Brennan, the president's homeland security adviser, he is working with the NYPD and others to continue to keep the president up to date on the situation.
We're waiting to see if there's any change in the schedule and if President Obama could be making any remarks today. But just to kind of give you kind of the lead-up of what we were hearing right now from federal officials, they are being very careful in their characterizations, as they really always are in the early stages of such an investigation and a sensitive issue. Officials have told CNN it's too early to make any links to any terror networks and that there are no clear indicators that this could be international terrorism. If there is or if there isn't, they say it's just to early to make a definitive answer.
The investigation is being led by the NYPD, and it's just getting started, really. But this does underscore -- I think it's very interesting -- something that we hear from Homeland Security officials quite often, even Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, the idea of really -- some people say it's called, "See it, say it," T.J.
They emphasize really how individual citizens are key in helping to stop people when they want to target Americans on American soil, that it's not just law enforcement, it's everyone involved, including the "ordinary citizens" keeping an eye out on their own -- in their own neighborhoods, in their own stomping grounds, where they are all the time, where they can see if there's something irregular or suspicious. And it seems like this really underscores that today.
HOLMES: Once again, this kind of proves that point, there's only so much law enforcement can do, and it's up to, quite frankly, citizens to be vigilant and pay attention to what's going on around you.
Kate Bolduan, we're going to continue to check in with you --
BOLDUAN: Of course.
HOLMES: -- as you continue to get information from the White House about what's happening.
We've been getting so much of our information this morning from our Susan Candiotti and Allan Chernoff, who have been down there at Times Square, who have been on the scene for quite some time.
Guys, I was looking at these live pictures a short time ago, and I guess I'm certainly in a hurry to see Times Square back to normal. So you guys give me the update and make sure I'm not pushing it too much.
Not quite back to normal yet, or what?
ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN SR. CORRESPONDENT: Well, T.J., actually, the street behind us is, honestly, the only street in the neighborhood that's not yet back to normal, because this is the street where the vehicle was parked, this is the street where the explosion actually did occur. The streets surrounding, north/south, east/west, all open. So Times Square definitely coming back to life, although that's a slow process on a Sunday morning.
Let's review what's happened over the past few hours.
The vehicle, a Nissan Pathfinder, was put on a flatbed truck a little over an hour ago, wrapped in a yellow tarp and taken away. Earlier in the morning, the bomb squad of the NYPD took out the material that found in the back of the vehicle. That includes propane tanks, three of them; two gasoline containers, filled up; fireworks; electrical wire; and two clocks with batteries. The mayor said that the wiring was amateurish.
Anyway, that was taking up to the facility that the bomb squad has up in the Bronx, New York. So, things have been cleared away.
Now, what exactly happened? The mayor and the police commissioner, earlier today, or maybe even was late last night -- hard to remember at this point. But they basically described a situation where we did have the material in the vehicle, and they said there was smoke, and that T-shirt vendor notified a mounted policeman. The police came over, cleared out Times Square.
We spoke with several eyewitnesses. In fact, I spoke with two hot dog vendors who were literally across the street, down the block, across the street, stationed, as they are every single night, in front of the Marriott Marquis Hotel. And they described explosions to us inside of the vehicle.
They said, yes, there was white smoke in the vehicle, coming out of the vehicle. And they said that there were -- one of them told me there was a very large explosion. The other one said there was a series of explosions over several minutes.
According to what they said, frankly, it sounds as if the firecrackers, at least some of the firecrackers in the vehicles, actually went off, but the propane, the gasoline, well, it seems, appears, nothing happened to that. Perhaps the intent of the perpetrator here was that all of it would blow. And clearly, that would have created a far larger explosion.
Anyway, in any event, according to the eyewitnesses, it seems that's actually what transpired, which, again, the mayor and the police commissioner did not give us that full detail.
SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: So, that part was new, of course. And now the question becomes, where did that vehicle come from?
And we know, Allan, don't we? Because they have told us that the vehicle was seen on a videotape at about, what, 6:38 or so, just about --
CHERNOFF: 6:28, six minutes --
CANDIOTTI: 6:28, that's right.
CHERNOFF: -- before that call.
CANDIOTTI: Before that call came in.
So, they were able to establish that by looking at some surveillance cameras. And you can imagine, there are thousands of these around the city. I'm going to walk a little bit to show you the kind of thing that we're talking about.
These cameras, again, placed all over the city. Some are operated by the New York City Police Department, some of these cameras are operated by private companies and buildings, this kind of thing.
If you look right across the street, this is the kind of thing that we're talking about -- surveillance cameras that are mounted on buildings or, in this case, on a light post. Some of them are marked "NYPD," some of them are not. Some of these are hidden cameras, et cetera.
But they are monitored either by the buildings where these operate, or in the case of the police video cameras, these are monitored at all times by investigators who do this around the clock. And so, these cameras are recorded, usually kept on for a limited period of time, but they can go back and look at these.
So, this is one of the things they're going to be doing, looking at all the cameras in that surrounding area to see what activity they see, how far back it might go, to see whether they can tell whether someone got out of the car after they parked it and walked away. One, two, who knows how many individuals might be involved?
And one of the other key things that they're looking at as well is to trace that vehicle, of course, to see whether there are any fingerprints on it or the explosives, figuratively or physically as well. One thing they're doing is looking at the plate.
They know that it was a Connecticut license plate that was on the vehicle, but they know it didn't match the vehicle. They've traced this plate, according to a source, tells CNN, to a junkyard near Bridgeport, Connecticut. And what's odd about that, we are being told, is that if a car is being junked there, the plate is not supposed to be.
It is not supposed to be left at the scene. Under state law, it is to be turned over either to a state police officer or to the Department of Motor Vehicles. And that's the case in most states, as a matter of fact. It certainly is the case, we are told, in Connecticut as well.
So, they've got to trace, where did that vehicle come from? They have talked to -- it belonged apparently to a Ford -- or rather to a pickup truck, we've confirmed, according to police. And so now they want to find out, and they've spoken to that individual. That's how they found out that it wound up at that junkyard.
So, a lot of things to do -- Allan.
CHERNOFF: Plenty of clues, absolutely.
So, T.J., certainly a lot of work for the police to do. And hopefully some of those leads are going to pan out.
HOLMES: All right. A couple of quick things, guys, that came up in what you just said, so I just wanted to follow up.
One, on the plate in particular, you're supposed to hand it in according to law. You're not supposed to leave it at a junkyard. You're supposed to hand it back over..
The first thing --
CANDIOTTI: That's right. They want to know if the car is to be scrapped.
HOLMES: If the car is to be scrapped.
Now, I want to ask, first of all -- I guess I'll ask that to you, Susan. Is that a common thing? Could that be an easy mistake that somebody makes, or should somebody have known better?
The other question, Allan, I'll ask to you, which is -- and I have an FBI investigator we've been sitting here talking to, and we're trying to piece together the timeline for when this bomb went off -- or when the sparks flew, or whatever happened inside that vehicle. We saw it on surveillance at 6:28. I believe a call went in at 6:34.
Do we know, was the smoke just coming from the car around 6:34? When did that "pop" actually happen?
So, Susan, you take the fist question.
And then, Allan, you follow up.
CANDIOTTI: Well, it's a quick answer to mine. I think it's far too early in the investigation to know precisely how that all came about. That's something that, of course, they'll be following up on as they conduct their investigation and talk to any witnesses, talk to the junkyard, talk to the person who scrapped that car.
A quick answer to that one. Now over to this timeline.
CHERNOFF: Right.
T.J., you asked about the timeline there, and that's a great question.
6:28 p.m. last night, one of the surveillance cameras in the area caught that vehicle actually traveling west. And the street that we're on is a westward street. That was clearly just before the car stopped, because by the time 6:34, the call went into the police, there already was smoke in the vehicle, smoke coming out of the vehicle. And there had been that "pop."
So, that really is the timeline that we're talking about here. It happened pretty quickly.
BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: So, just to confirm, though, Allan, following up with you, we have not -- since it happened so quickly, there is still no reports of anyone running from that car.
CANDIOTTI: You know, initially, there was an unconfirmed report that someone was seen running from the vehicle. We started reporting that as an unconfirmed report in the early part of last night, Saturday night.
However, we have been told overnight and the early morning hours that, so far, they have found -- they were not able to confirm any report of anyone running from the vehicle. Obviously, they're going to be looking at all surveillance cameras to see whether they saw anyone leaving.
CHERNOFF: Right.
There is another factor to consider -- 45th Street at that time --
CANDIOTTI: Yes, that's right.
CHERNOFF: -- does not look like this. Times Square on a Saturday night, it is packed. So, it would not be easy, necessarily, to see somebody darting down or moving very quickly. I mean, the street is real busy. You've got theatergoers going to the restaurants, trying to get a meal in before getting to their 8:00 show.
That's the situation here in Times Square.
BALDWIN: It would be very easy, I guess, for someone to just fade on in to the crowd there on a busy Saturday night in Times Square.
Thanks to you both, Allan Chernoff and Susan Candiotti.
And we will not be going too far from this, this breaking story this early Sunday morning. We have Josh Levs standing by with some of your iReports.
Let's take a quick break and we'll continue our coverage right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: Want to welcome you back to our breaking news this morning. We've been following this story, really ever since it broke right around 6:30 Eastern last night. You're looking at four different pictures of New York, and Times Square specifically.
It all started with some smoke coming out of a car in Times Square, 45th and 7th Streets, around 6:30. Some reports of some sort of explosion.
That car and those pieces of this potential bomb -- propane tanks, gasoline, batteries fireworks -- have all been removed and now taken to another section of New York. We know this investigation is very much so under way, trying to figure out who did this, why they would have done this, get to the bottom of who owned the car. What about the VIN? Why didn't the plates match?
A whole lot of questions this morning. We're going to continue to follow this story throughout the day. HOLMES: We want to turn now to Bonnie Schneider. Bonnie has been keeping an eye, and all of our meteorologists have, on some deadly severe weather over the past couple of days, even weeks. And we were once again looking at another area that's under the gun.
(WEATHER REPORT)
BALDWIN: Want to turn over to Josh Levs, because we thank you. We've been hearing from you as well. It's a great way for us to get information and some amazing video of this ongoing story here out of Times Square in New York.
And Josh, you have some iReports.
JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. We're following the iReports. We're following all the videos that come in online.
And, you know, this is incredibly unusual. We were seeing images just before the break of a stretch of Times Square there that is completely empty. That's something you never see.
And I'm going to tell our viewers in this country and all over the world, it's an area that you know if you ever see the New Year's Eve celebrations and the images of New York you ever see. Every year, millions of people go in and out of New York. Most of them go to this area, and huge numbers see Broadway shows, which is right there at Times Square.
So, what we were seeing behind our two reporters just minutes ago, this empty stretch of road in Times Square, is something you absolutely never see. It's very striking.
And what I have for you now is a video that was originally put on YouTube. And it shows an evacuation that took place in a McDonald's at Times Square several hours ago.
Our Don Lemon spoke with the woman who put this there. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We were just sitting in there eating and looking out on the square, and noticed that the cops were moving people towards 47th Street, and putting up a barricade and pushing them towards 47th Street. A woman came upstairs who had been in the square, and she seem flustered, and she said that she had heard noises and people started running. And they said that it was a gun, and she was concerned.
So, we just waited. We weren't sure what to do. We thought we were safer in McDonald's. And we just waited and watched, and then we started hearing the cops talking very loudly and telling us that we were to pick up our food and our drinks and we were to leave.
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Are you staying in Times Square?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sorry? LEMON: Are you staying in Times Square?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. I'm very close to it. I'm just a few blocks away. But I wasn't in one of the hotels. So, I've noticed that the people, when I was going home, that people in the Marriott Marquis that's on 45th Street, they still can't get into their hotel.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEVS: Now, there's been some more movement in the areas around there, but I want to point out something that she told us as well which continues to be true every time we see any kind of major incident in New York. I remember when there was a small plane crash there months ago.
What we heard from her and what we hear from people in New York so often is that in the midst of these things, people, as a rule, who live in New York stay calm and collected and organized, and go where they're supposed to go. You're not hearing stories of crazy things happening or fights breaking out.
What we are hearing is relative organization, and that's something I want you to see in these pictures here. I want to bring you inside Times Square over the past 12 hours, what it's been like in this area that's bustling at all hours to the point that you usually think it's daytime even if it's 2:00 in the morning, because it's so bright and so busy.
Look at this empty stretch right there. This is what it's been like in Times Square throughout the night here. And we have more pictures here.
You can see everyone that was gathered over here. And if you look way back there, empty. So, you've got Broadway shows along here, you have a lot of things that are always really busy and bustling. People gathered in this section where they had been evacuated to, to be kept away.
You never see empty chairs like this in this area of Times Square. A lot of you know this area if you've been there for shows, you stand in line for tickets. This is what it's like now.
Let me bring you inside to just help you understand where this is. If you know New York at all, I've got a map of exactly where this happened for you.
This right here is Broadway. This is 45th Street. This is where the car was. And this is the one area that we're hearing about that still continues to be shut down, this little section here.
We're hearing from our Allan Chernoff about a westbound road. It's that. It's 45th Street, right along here. So, this is Broadway, that's 45th.
The big picture, for those who don't know New York all that intimately, basically Central Park is right here, Times Square is just south of it. So that is what you're seeing right there.
I'm also going to mention to you something that I found here this morning, very interesting. And this gets at a really crucial point about all these security cameras. We're going to be hearing a lot about all these images that security cameras have picked up.
Keep in mind, other times of a year when this isn't the news story, you're hearing people concerned about security cameras, about what it knows about you, how it follows you, how it tracks you. And right now what we're hearing about is how great it is that we've got these images.
And this is the constant back and forth you have in protecting a society, right? You have the freedom and democracy. You also have the concerns about security.
Here's what you're seeing here. This is from "The New York Times" in 2002.
They had a story going that says, "You Are Really Being Watched," and they were showing at the time, all of these -- or each circle, each dot, represents a security camera just in Times Square. All this is just in Times Square, just in 2002. And a lot more have been added over the past eight years.
So, these images that are coming from these security cameras are so important and so significant today, and will continue to be. But we're also going to keep hearing -- you know this conversation -- how many security cameras should there be in general? All that back and forth.
What we're looking for now is that little stretch of road that's still blocked off -- or not that little, actually. It's a major, major area -- for traffic to pick up again there. Our Susan Candiotti and Allan Chernoff saying that's the one area where there's still basically nothing going on yet, where it's still been blocked off.
Other than that, we are seeing more and more movement in Manhattan. It looks like -- and I'm not there right now -- I wish I was -- but it looks like it's starting to feel a little bit more like Manhattan again in that general section of Times Square.
So, Brooke and T.J., what I'm going to be looking for over the next couple of hours -- we're following Twitter, Facebook, and also all the latest images coming in -- is as things pick back up, are we seeing fewer people coming into that area today, or are they doing what the mayor said, which is remembering that it's a beautiful day in New York, getting out, doing your thing, authorities have this under control, or will security concerns be keeping people away?
We'll be following all of this, plus any and all images picked up by security cameras that might help tell another piece of this story. We know some of them are already there.
So, Brooke, T.J., back to you. We'll watch out for that today.
BALDWIN: Josh, thank you.
LEVS: You got it.
BALDWIN: And as things, it appears, are returning to normal in Times Square, it is not a normal situation for a lot of these authorities who are now going through the components of this bomb, taking a very close look at this car, going to this junkyard.
We want to continue examining just different pieces of this story, and we'll continue to do so on the other side of this break.
Stay here.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Coming up on the bottom of the hour. And what you're seeing on the right side of your screen is maybe Times Square getting back to normal. But on the left side of your screen, you're seeing what caused it to be an abnormal night in Times Square.
That vehicle that that tarp is going over -- we saw this play out about an hour ago -- that vehicle caused a shutdown of Times Square last night because of bomb-making materials that were found inside. According to the mayor -- this is a direct quote -- he says, "It appears to be a car bomb." The police commissioner saying, "Tragedy was averted last night."
And last night, around 6:30 Eastern Time here in the U.S., a citizen, a vendor there in New York, saw a vehicle they found suspicious, and reported that to a police officer. And at that point, the investigation started and they found what appeared to be bomb-making materials.
Reportedly from several witnesses, there was a loud "pop." So it appears that something inside that vehicle did trigger, did go off. Some even reported seeing flames inside the vehicle, but it could have been a lot worse given that there were three propane tanks, two five- gallon tanks of gasoline, clocks, wires, also fireworks that were sound inside that vehicle.
So, this could have been a lot worse than it was, but fortunately, citizens pointed this out and the investigation started, and they cleared out. For 12 hours, Times Square was empty. Yes, Times Square, that sees some 40 million visitors every single year, a place that never seems like it's shut down, no matter what time of day or night it is, it is always a busy place.
And if we can, we'll go ahead and take that picture full on the right of the screen now, the live picture of New York's Times Square now, which looked a whole lot different from this. Still not a whole lot going on down there, but a short time ago you did not see a single soul walking on the street and you did not see a single vehicle driving down the street if it did not have sirens on top of it, and bright lights, and it was a police vehicle. But that was all we were seeing. But now the investigation starts. No one in custody, no claim of responsibility, but the investigation is under way. And there is a treasure trove of evidence right now for police to look at because the vehicle, of course, did not detonate. So they can try to trace back where that vehicle came from.
We do know the plates on that vehicle did not match the vehicle. So, apparently, the plates were taken from somewhere else. A Connecticut junkyard is what they've been traced back to, but the investigation is ongoing.
We will not go too far from this story at all, our breaking news of the morning that continues to update itself. We'll continue to bring you those updates this morning.
BALDWIN: Right. And we also know that the president was briefed on the situation last night. He, as well as many of our own colleagues, were at the White House Correspondents' Dinner in Washington, D.C. He was briefed because New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg was down there. We have since seen him do a pretty quick turnaround and head back to New York.
But the priority this morning, the immediate priority for the president, is this massive oil spill. Let we not forget what's going on along the Gulf Coast, four different states of emergency down there.
And that is where our own Reynolds Wolf has been there for days now, covering the situation.
As we know, the Coast Guard now concedes they don't know how much oil has entered the water since that massive explosion back April 20th.
Right, Reynolds?
REYNOLDS WOLF, CNN METEOROLOGIST: I know it's hard to believe. And I mean we've gone back and forth from these -- these guesstimates that they have as to how much oil has -- has actually come out. I mean there's no way to -- to really specifically measure the amount that's been venting from the -- very close to the ocean floor. We're talking about 5,000 feet below the surface.
And speaking of 5,000, 5,000 barrels per day is the guesstimate that they're going with for the time being.
You mentioned President Barack Obama's busy schedule. Yesterday, he was at the University of Michigan. Then, of course, he was at the Correspondents Dinner in Washington, DC. He's expected to make a trip here today. At some point, he's going to come here, look around and he's also going to meet some of the first responders and talk to them about the efforts. And what efforts they're making have just been heroic. It's been very tough conditions they've been dealing with here.
I can tell you that in terms of -- of the oil slick, as you mentioned, it is ever expanding. Conditions on the water are -- are just hellish, to say the very least. They've been very rough in terms of -- of the water. We're talking very big waves, very tough for crews to get out there and really do some work.
The large Coast Guard cutters can really have a -- a much easier time. But the small boats and the skimmers have a very -- very difficult time in this rough, choppy seas.
The wind, as you can imagine -- as some of you viewers that are tuning in from across America can tell -- kind of strong. Photojournalist Steve Surge (ph) is the man behind the camera. And, Steve, don't bother zooming in, because I know it's too much of a -- it's a little bit of a quick thing.
But, well, if you can see, there's an American flag. It's kind of hard to see because everything is pushing right in this direction. You might see some of the -- the stripes flapping there. That's been basically the -- the prevailing breeze due south over the last couple of days. And that's been one of the elements that's been pushing everything closer to shore.
Now, Governor Bobby Jindal mentioned that we're getting a little trace of that sheen that has been coming to some of the barrier islands and parts of the Mississippi Delta.
When I say barrier islands, I'm talking about islands, period. We're not talking about something like the size of -- of, say, like the Florida Keys. We're talking about islands that had some -- at some locations are just a couple of feet wide, some of them maybe a few yards. And a few of the bigger ones happen to be, say, maybe 100 yards or so. Many of these really just marshland -- area that has been protected. We're talking about really just wetlands -- pristine wetlands where you have so many species of animal that call it home.
The grasses are protected. Of course, you've got all kinds of -- some 400 different species of birds, all kinds of water foul that happen to be there, some deer, you name it. All these things are going to be vulnerable as the sheen -- as this oil gets closer.
And as it gets closer, guys, one of the problems is it has the potential of killing some of the grasses. When the grasses die out, the root systems die out and then, of course, those islands no longer exist because, well, the -- the roots are what really holds things together. And again, when those things die, they don't come back.
So to protect this, what they've been doing is putting up those protective barriers. And it's been an amazing thing to watch them load those barriers, those protective booms on many of the ships. Like here in Venice, Louisiana, we've seen most of them boarded on these ships. They send them out. They deploy them not only here in Louisiana, but across the region -- 275,000 feet, to be exact. And then they've got another 300,000 that are on back order. Then, on top of that, even more -- maybe up to a half a million more.
So when all is said and done, one million feet of protective barrier possibly spread out along the coast, not just in Louisiana, but across parts of Mississippi, Alabama, even parts of Florida. And it was interesting, some of the places farther west, because of the wind, because of the breeze, because of the sheer size of this oil slick, they haven't just been, you know, hearing about it, they've been smelling it. They've been smelling some of the oil as the -- you know, the little particles in the air have been traveling a bit farther to the east.
Some of the good news is that the oily sheen that we have on the water, some of that, Mother Nature is going to take care of. The sun's radiant energy will burn some of that off. But when it comes to sheer crude -- about 3 percent of the makeup of that spill, that's the stuff that's going to have to be skimmed off. And as soon as the weather cooperates, we may see a variety of methods in taking care of that.
One, skimming it off, isolating it, burning it. They've had one controlled burn fairly successful. It burned anywhere from about 50 to 90 percent of it off. They could see more on that, possibly, in days to come, if the weather conditions are right. Maybe they'll improve as we get into next week.
But as Bonnie has been telling you, we've had horrible conditions in terms of tornadoes across Arkansas. Bonnie has been showing you guys pictures of all the flooding in parts of Nashville. The weather is not cooperating. Anyplace, especially here, in parts of Southern Louisiana.
Well, that's the stuff happening here. And, of course, the story is going to keep going for some time to come. It could be a -- obviously, one of the biggest environmental disasters, economically, too, in American history in terms of this oil spill.
Let's send it back to you in the studio.
ANDERSON: And, Reynolds, just to button this up and remind viewers, also, it is not cheap to contain this thing. And the costs -- we're hearing $6 million a day. And according to the Oil Pollution Act, passed in 1990 after that massive Exxon Valdez spill, it is up to the oil company, in this case, BP, to pay up.
Reynolds, thank you.
WOLF: Absolutely.
You bet.
HOLMES: All right, we want to turn to Boston now, where they are without clean water. A state of emergency has been declared in Boston because of what you are seeing there. There has been a major break in a water pipeline -- a major pipeline break that has cut off clean drinking water to the Boston area. Again, two million people affected here. And he's -- the governor there, who's declared the state of emergency for the area, has told people -- has ordered them, you need to boil your water.
Crews are working right now, but wow, what an amazing picture we are getting in this morning from Boston. This is some -- this is a 10 foot pipe. This is not some regular pipe you -- you see around your house. This is a major pipe that supplies water to the Boston area.
Now, there are some backup reservoirs available for some firefighting and some sanitation. But for the most part, we are talking about two million people are without clean water in the Boston area.
Now, adding to this whole emergency and the urgency of getting this fixed, it's supposed to be about 90 degrees today in Boston. So a kind of a sweltering, unseasonably hot day in Boston today. So water is going to be critical for a lot of folks, for young folks, for, certainly, older folks, as well, and maybe people who can't just get out and try to go buy some bottles of water from -- from a store or something.
But -- but a major break. We're not exactly sure what caused it, but the issue right now is just getting that sucker fixed. But that is the picture we are seeing from right outside of Boston. This break is about 10 miles west of Boston, but affecting the entire area. Two million people being told to boil their water because of this break.
We are all over this story. And, of course, we have breaking news when it comes to weather today. We have watches and warnings that are going on in certain areas. More places could be seeing a whole lot of rain, also, some severe weather, possibly tornadoes. Also, we're keeping an eye on the Gulf Coast, where the president is going to Louisiana today, to keep an eye and get an update on that oil slick that's happening there. And, of course, the story out of New York City, where Times Square was shut down for some 12 hours after an apparent car bomb was found.
Live pictures from Times Square right now, possibly getting back to normal.
Stay with us here on this CNN Sunday morning.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANDERSON: And good morning once again here from CNN in Atlanta.
Check the time. It is 7:40 a.m. East Coast. It's the same time in Times Square.
Take a look at the some of these pictures. The bottom right hand corner looks to be more or less back to normal in Times Square. But you can see all the other pictures -- you can see kind of what's unfolded overnight here.
The call came in right around 6:00 -- 6:30 yesterday evening, reporting some kind of smoke emanating from a -- some sort of green Pathfinder that was parked in the middle of Times Square.
Fast forward and police and investigators have determined and pulled out pieces of what would have been a bomb. It did not go off. But let me tell you what was inside this car -- three propane tanks, two five gallon gasoline containers, clocks, batteries, fireworks. We've heard from the mayor. We've heard from the governor. They're now -- they've removed the components of that bomb. They have also taken that car to another location in New York where they'll be looking at those pieces to try to -- to trace some of those pieces back, perhaps, to an origin to determine who put this thing together and who left this car parked in the middle of Times Square.
They're also looking at surveillance video -- all kinds of cameras perched throughout Times Square. They're talking to people who were on the scene, people who were evacuated, to try to get a sense of what they might have seen to determine who did this and why. So far, we do not know of anyone who has claimed responsibility and so we cannot yet connect this to any kind of homegrown terrorist, we can't connect it to any kind of international terrorist organization.
But that's pretty much the latest from what we have in New York at this point in time.
HOLMES: And like we've mentioned, we are certainly on top of what's happening in New York City; hopefully, getting back to normal, but also there's certainly nothing normal about the weather we've been seeing in some parts of the country over the past several days and weeks even. And another tough day for parts of -- of the South, the mid-South in particular.
(WEATHER REPORT)
HOLMES: Also, to our viewers, you know, we haven't been far away from this breaking news about what's happening in New York City, trying to possibly get back to normal now after what appears to be a car bomb, according to the mayor, found on the streets of New York's Times Square last night. There was some kind of reaction and explosion inside that vehicle, at least according to many witnesses, who heard a pop. And some even reported seeing a flame of some kind inside that vehicle.
But still, it didn't do the damage that some believe was intended. The police commissioner saying that, in fact, tragedy was averted last night.
But the investigation now goes on. You're looking at video from last night, that green SUV, that Nissan Pathfinder, as several investigators were starting to check it out last night.
I want to bring in Jeff Beady (ph) now, a security consultant, formerly with the FBI, also a CIA -- a former CIA operations officer with the Counterterrorism Center.
Sir, thank you for hopping on and lending your expertise this morning.
When you heard three propane tanks, two five gallon tanks of gasoline, clocks, electrical wires and some consumer grade fireworks, your immediate reaction was what?
JEFF BEADY: Well, good morning, TJ.
My -- my immediate reaction was that this is a newbie. This is somebody new. It doesn't mean they're not dangerous. But a lot of new terrorists, if you will, fail in their first attempts. About one out of three terrorist devices fail to function when newbies put them together.
So that makes me think this is somebody who's new to this. Also, it makes me see that they did not conduct a rehearsal. You know, you had people like Timothy McVeigh and Eric Robert Rudolph, they all went out and rehearsed their detonation sequences to make sure that they worked.
So I think we're dealing with somebody who is new to this. However, they will learn from their mistakes and it now becomes a race against time with the investigation to try to find this person before they perfect their device and get it right next time.
HOLMES: Well, this newbie, as you affectionately put it, for this alleged or assumed terrorist of some kind, you say a newbie in that, sure, they didn't get it to work correctly.
Did they -- even if they didn't get the execution right, did they have, for the most part, the components and the construction right?
Did they at least have -- were they on the right track, if you will?
BEADY: Well, there certainly can be a lot of damage done, TJ, with these propane canisters. Those, to me, are the most dangerous elements of -- of what you described. So, yes, a lot of danger there. A lot of people could have been hurt. And I don't want to denigrate this individual, because tactically, in terms of the timing and all, it was very much like McVeigh. I mean the timing of this surveillance imagery that was seen, about 6:28 p.m. on an adjacent street and then 6:34, the police call comes in.
Well, that tells me it's just like McVeigh. He had just about four minutes between the time he lit the fuse and got out of his vehicle and left the area.
So it seems that this -- although it may be a newbie, that this person appreciated the fact that there was an opportunity to escape in the ensuing confusion and panic. So I'm not trying to denigrate this person's intent, intelligence or anything like that. I'm just saying that, you know, dangerous? Yes.
Are the materials dangerous?
Yes.
The mechanical application, he'll improve upon that or she'll improve upon that. But tactically in terms of the timing, it was what we saw with other successful attacks.
HOLMES: And back on that point, because the timing has been so important this morning. And it would -- we were talking to a -- to a -- to another FBI investigator about, it doesn't seem like you gave them much time to get away. But as you say, that had kind of been a part of the plan -- the confusion. And he would get lost in the confusion, quite frankly, after the thing exploded.
BEADY: Absolutely. There would be hundreds of people fleeing that area. You know, somebody who's fleeing when nobody else is fleeing, looks like somebody which's very suspicious. But if he's only a few hundred feet away from this when it goes off, has hard cover, maybe by going around the corner provided by those large buildings there, and then is -- is rapidly leaving the area, he would only be one of hundreds -- or she would only be one of hundreds that are rapidly leaving the area.
So they would have an increased ability to escape and not be stopped if they did so along with hundreds of others.
HOLMES: And tell us just how big of a deal it is to catch this person and catch this person soon. We understand that some of these folks, he made a mistake possibly here, but they learn quickly.
BEADY: Well, they absolutely do. But the good news for the people in New York City is that there is no finer law enforcement organization than the NYPD. They have a tremendous anti-terrorism and counter- terrorism capability. They will have access to hundreds of surveillance videos. They will exploit the forensics that are on site very, very quickly. I know that they welcome phone calls from alert citizenry who may be aware of something to do with this green Pathfinder. I understand that some of the leads pointed toward Connecticut.
So the public can also render an assistance here, TJ, by calling in if -- if they have some information that they saw, that they thought it was suspicious and they -- and they asses it as such, they should be reporting it and helping the investigation.
HOLMES: And, Jeff, we -- we know and I guess we -- we're certainly happy that the -- a bigger disaster was averted.
But how much damage also being done just by the fact that this story is now out there?
Of course, you can find on the Internet how to put one of these things together, quite frankly. That's maybe not too hard to -- to figure out. But for someone else sitting out there on a couch, thinking about doing something silly, how -- how much damage will this do in, quite frankly, encouraging some copycats?
BEADY: Well, it will encourage some copycats. You know, you have an obligation to report upon it. It's unavoidable. But some copycats will be encouraged by the fact that oh, look at this, you know, I may be able to draw attention to myself, I may be able to draw attention to my cause. Even something that didn't function is getting a lot of attention.
So there is always a risk that -- that there will be people motivated to try to copy such acts and -- but that's just -- that goes with the territory and what we really count upon, if I can say here, TJ, is half of public safety is the public's responsibility.
You know, I'm involved with a program called First Observer with -- that is a DHS program -- a TSA program that asks transportation professionals to observe, assess and report things that look out of the ordinary. Well, that goes for the general citizenry. The mayor said that again last night. If you see something suspicious, call it in. Half of that is the public's responsibility. The police can't be everywhere all the time.
So we need to shoulder some responsibility and if we see something that's just not right, we should be calling it in. And if we do that, coupled with the great work that the NYPD will do, I'm confident that they'll be able to find this individual and they'll be able to, in fact, had off copycat attacks with the public's help.
HOLMES: And the last thing here. You kind of hit on not wanting to insult this person's intelligence, whoever this might have been.
However, do -- would we be certainly making a mistake -- I doubt if law enforcement would do it, but maybe just the citizenry out there might think this was just some rinky dink attempt, it didn't work, maybe the guy didn't know what he was doing. But -- but, again, given what he went through, some planning that went into it, the materials that went into it, we would be making a mistake to think this person wasn't in some way, form or fashion a bit sophisticated and a bit determined in trying to do what they were trying to do.
BEADY: And you're absolutely right. And, you know, we only need to go back to your home city there of Atlanta and look at what happened with the Atlanta Olympic bomb. That bomb did not function as fully as Eric Robert Rudolph had intended it to do. But then the subsequent attacks at the clinic in Sandy Springs and at The Other Side Lounge, all the more sophisticated. Rudolph learned from each attack. So will this person. So they need to be treated gingerly, as people who are extremely dangerous.
And I know that NYPD is doing that.
HOLMES: And again, you said it again there. You said they would learn from it.
You have -- you're gut would tell you this person would give it a try again instead of trying to just cut their losses and moving on?
BEADY: I believe that the odds say that they will try it again.
HOLMES: All right, Jeff Beady, we appreciate your expertise this morning and we appreciate your -- your frankness this morning, as well.
We appreciate you hopping on.
Thanks so much.
You enjoy the rest of your day.
BEADY: Thank you, TJ.
HOLMES: And if we could go back, as we go to break here, go back to that live picture of New York. We are starting to see possibly more -- more business as usual there in Times Square. This was not the case for 12 hours, from about 6:30 Eastern time to 6:30 a.m. Eastern time, where Times Square was shut down because of this scare, that bomb alert in Times Square.
We are following this and other breaking news this morning.
Stay with us on this Sunday morning.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANDERSON: Well, welcome back.
We're talking about New York City this morning. You know, it's a city that never sleeps. It got quite a wake up call by what appears to be a thwarted terror attack -- some sort of attack in Times Square.
Take a look at the pictures on the right hand side of your screen is what's happening right now, daylight, Times Square -- cars, traffic, moving, growing this morning. But on the left-hand side -- this was a couple of hours ago -- you see that robot kind of attached to a car. It was all because of this bomb scare, this suspicious car and many different components that were found inside this car had to be removed by a robot -- components that presumably would have led to some sort of massive bomb in the middle of Times Square, right around 6:30 p.m. Saturday evening.
We're still watching, waiting to determine who did this and why. Again, the car was a Nissan Pathfinder. It was loaded down a explosives. We're talking about fireworks, batteries, clocks, wiring. The car was right around the corner of 45th Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenues. Police -- you heard it, NYPD is one of the best in the business. They responded quickly to the vehicle. They found, as I said, something smoking from within that SUV that, of course, prompted the bomb squad to the scene. Or you saw the robot. Investigators were determining that the vehicle component, as I said, propane tanks, five gallon cans of gasoline, commercial fireworks, two clocks with batteries and a locked metal box described as appearing like a gun locker.
So far, no suspects were in custody here, as police are combing through all kinds of surveillance video and pictures from tourists on the scene to try to determine who parked the vehicle.
(WEATHER REPORT)
HOLMES: OK, we are keeping an eye, as well, on what's happening in New York City, where there might be a sense of normalcy returning to New York's Times Square after an interesting, interesting night.
Let me walk you through last night.
At 6:28 p.m. Eastern time, Saturday night, a Nissan Pathfinder is captured driving west on 45th Street. It was captured by a New York Police Department camera.
Then, just two minutes later, 6:30, a t-shirt vendor who is also a -- a Vietnam veteran, he actually notices smoke coming from that Pathfinder on the street and he goes to alert a police officer.
