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CNN Saturday Morning News

Boston Victims Remembered; 9/11 Plane Landing Gear Found

Aired April 27, 2013 - 09:00   ET

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

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone. You are watching our continuing coverage of the Boston Marathon bombings. We're coming to you live from Boston on this beautiful, beautiful spring day. We are on Boylston street. I just want to set the scene for our viewers.

As you see behind me, people are coming out on their morning walk with their dogs, biking around, coming to visit this makeshift memorial that has grown by the day, by the hour here. People coming writing messages of support, of strength. I saw one man just a bit ago, Dan, write on the message board, "team Brookline" and "Boston Strong" and that's what you hear over and over again, families coming to honor all of the victims of the horrific attack, bringing flowers, messages of support.

One woman this morning, Janice, telling me she's from Boston. She didn't have the strength to come here to the memorial until today, as this city slowly begins to heal and it is appropriately just a lovely day, shining down here on this memorial.

To the investigation now, it has moved about an hour from here to a landfill, that is where investigators are conducting a search for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's laptop, it is near the campus of the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, that is where Dzhokhar was seen in the days after the attacks, where he went to school. It is believed that laptop could have important information on the planning of the bombing and in Washington, a warning that more arrests could be coming.

That warning coming from Congressman Mike Rogers, a Republican chairman of the House intelligence committee. In an interview with "The Boston Herald" Rogers said, "There are clearly more persons of interest and they're not 100 percent sure if there aren't other explosives." Very important.

Now let's go to the prison hospital where the suspect is waking up this morning, that is about 40 miles from where he was receiving treatment in a Boston hospital. Our Pamela Brown has been live outside of the federal medical center in Devens all morning.

Good morning, Pamela. Let's talk about that laptop. At this point in time what do we know about that search?

PAMELA BROWN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Poppy, at this hour, investigators are still combing through that landfill looking for what's believed to be Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's laptop and we are told by sources that they were tipped off about this not only from the suspect himself but also from others who have been questioned in this investigation who may know his whereabouts or who may have actually played a role in disposing of the laptop after the April 15th bombing at the Boston Marathon.

But at this hour authorities are still searching for that laptop. Also, as part of this investigation, authorities are following up on leads about whether Tamerlan, the older brother, may have been involved in drug dealing. This is just the latest in an investigation that is ongoing. We've been told by sources that they are still following up on several leads, that this investigation is far from over, so we could still see more happening and Poppy, we are hearing reports that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is no longer talking with authorities after he was Mirandized on Monday, but we have been told that authorities were able to gather a lot of information last weekend during the interrogation.

HARLOW: Absolutely. Sources telling our Susan Candiotti that. Now Pamela, where you are at that prison hospital where Dzhokhar now is, what do we know about his condition?

BROWN: Well, we know that his condition has significantly improved, Poppy. If you think about it, a week from today, last weekend, he was still in serious condition. Now we're hearing he's in fair condition, we're hearing that he's able to sit up and write and the fact that he was transported to this federal medical center from a hospital in Boston I think says a lot. So it does seem like he is doing significantly better.

HARLOW: And I know that he has a cell by himself, if you would explain it a little slot where they can put food in for him. In terms of how long he's going to be there, when we might see him next in court, any information on that?

BROWN: Well, Poppy, it may not be long until we see him in court. Essentially, we have 30 days for the indictment with the grand jury from the day that he was officially charged which was last Sunday. So after that indictment, there will be an arraignment where he will make a court appearance and plead, so it really may not be long.

Also, there is a probable cause hearing that is scheduled for the end of May but we are told from sources and the Justice Department that there is a good chance he will waive that hearing which is common because so much evidence is typically released in those types of hearings. Poppy?

HARLOW: Pamela, thank you very much and folks, talking about Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the older suspect, it's important to know as much as possible about his wife, the wife of Tamerlan Tsarnaev. She has remained largely out of public sight since the tragedy. We've heard very little from her. Her name is Catherine Russell, but she did emerge from her family's home yesterday and our Erin McPike is outside of the home in North Kingstown, Rhode Island.

Erin, I know that you saw her, she emerged from the home yesterday. Any word from her? Did you hear anything from her or any other family members? ERIN MCPIKE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, today Poppy we've just seen her mother outside twice. We have not seen Katie Russell since yesterday. We saw her yesterday and Tuesday when she was having meetings with her attorneys but otherwise when any of the family members have left they've usually been trailed by a security vehicle. We've seen lots of security vehicles stationed outside the house this week.

But when the families want to get outside there's one child here, they want to get outside and play they go to the backyard. They're staying largely out of sight and the only time, like I said, we've seen Katie is when she's had to leave for meetings with her attorneys, Poppy.

HARLOW: And in terms of what we've heard, we've heard nothing from her. We've gotten that one statement from her attorneys a few days ago saying that she knew nothing about this. She was not involved at all, emphasizing that she really worked around the clock and wasn't even home that often and now that we know she's meeting with her attorneys, do we have any further indication from sources on what they're discussing at this point? How they're cooperating with authorities?

MCPIKE: Poppy, not at all. As you can imagine her attorneys aren't breathing a word. We got a little bit of detail from them earlier in the week, that as you said, she was cooperating with the FBI, but we don't yet know if she's actually sat down and spoken to the FBI. Hard to say, because the FBI won't confirm or deny that either.

It looks like she is still trying to inform her attorneys of what she might have known but nothing yet from the FBI other than to say that they want to get more information from her, Poppy.

HARLOW: And she's been described by some as an all-American girl. We know she worked, according to her lawyers, seven days a week as a home health care aide. We don't know that much about her. I know you've had a chance to talk to some of the neighbors there at her family home. That's not where she lived before but what have they been able to tell you?

MCPIKE: They said she was very normal. In high school she was very well liked, she was smart, she was dependable. I talked to her boss who was the owner of a doughnut shop down the street where she worked when she was in high school. He said she was like a daughter to him that she was very good with the money, very hard working.

I spoke yesterday with one guy who said he went to a high school dance with her when they were freshman. He just said that she was normal but Poppy, she hasn't lived here in six years so we don't know much of what it was like when she was with Tamerlan, what happened to her when she went to college and then dropped out. There's a big gap in what we know of her from the last six years because she doesn't remain very well connected to this community although people are saying that they really like the Russell family. It's a very good family. They like her younger sisters quite a bit, Poppy.

HARLOW: All right. Erin McPike live for us this morning. Erin, thank you. We'll return to our special coverage on the Boston bombings in a moment but first we'll take you to the site where a piece of a plane believed to be from the 9/11 attack has been discovered in New York City.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: Texas Governor Rick Perry wants an apology from the "Sacramento Bee" over this editorial cartoon. It shows an explosion with the caption reading "Business is booming in Texas." Perry says it is a mockery of last week's fertilizer explosion that killed 14 and injured many others. The cartoonist says the drawing is a statement about Perry's disregard for safety and his policies promoting fewer regulations for businesses.

Well, those long delays at the airport could soon be ending. Congress has sent President Obama a bill aimed at ending the furloughs that have caused a big headache for travelers this week. The plan gives the FAA more power to move around $253 million and to get 15,000 air traffic controllers back to work. The president is expected to sign that bill.

And nearly 12 years after the collapse of the World Trade Center and those horrific 9/11 attacks, police in New York think they may have found a piece of the landing gear from one of the planes that crashed into the towers. This was found wedged between two buildings. It has a Boeing identification number on it. That's what police Commissioner Ray Kelly says and officials are tracking an I.D. to see which hijacked plane it may be from. Officials are also looking at how it could have gotten there.

Our Alina Cho is live from New York this morning. Good morning to you, Alina. Can you talk to us about how exactly this was found?

ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Poppy, good morning to you. I mean, this discovery is amazing and incredible on so many different levels. Here's what happened basically. On Wednesday, surveyors were here at the building behind me here. They were looking to do some construction work, they went to the backyard of the building and started looking around and they discovered what they described as a mechanical part.

Upon closer inspection, they were able to actually see a serial number and the word "Boeing." That's when the FBI and the NTSB and other officials were called. They took a closer look at it and incredibly they've determined that it appears it is the landing gear from one of the planes that crashed into the Twin Towers on 9/11.

Now, this discovery is incredible on so many different levels. First, the sheer size of the piece, it is five feet by four feet by 17 inches of depth, and then when you look at where it was found. It was wedged between two buildings, just an 18 inch very narrow space and it was found there. So then the question becomes how did it get there? Well NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly has his theory.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) COMMISSIONER RAY KELLY, NEW YORK: The space between the two buildings is only 18 inches. Now the part has been measured to be five feet by four feet by 17 inches. So it's a big part and obviously very, very narrow confined area. Somehow the part gets down there. Could it have been lowered at some time? It's possible. There's a rope that's on, it looks like it's intertwined with that part. It would have had to fall down exactly you know, it hit at a certain angle make it go right down.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHO: As you can see behind me here there's a police officer on guard. This is technically a crime scene, starting on Monday, the chief medical examiner will be here on site to search for toxins and human remains. Family members we have spoken to of 9/11 are frankly outraged, Poppy. They say this is just the latest example of the fact that a proper search after 9/11 was not conducted.

Now, after the investigation, if you will, is concluded in this area, then the question is, how do you actually get that piece out? It's wedged between those two buildings in that narrow space and investigators have still not been able to figure out how they're going to do that. Poppy?

HARLOW: Just a shocking discovery. Alina, thank you very much.

Well, you can see we have been standing in front of this beautiful and growing memorial for the Boston bombing victims. We're going to give you a closer look at it and all the ways that people continue to pay tribute to those victims here in Boston.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: Good morning, everyone. We are joining you live this Saturday morning from Boston. We are here in the middle of just a beautiful memorial here on Boylston Street.

It's been an honor to be reporting here over the past few weeks surrounded by wonderful Bostonians, people from all over coming to pay tribute to those lives lost, victims injured. This city crippled but not broken from the attacks, flowers piled up, messages of hope. The guardrails around here are actually from the marathon, you see t- shirts, Red Sox t-shirts, messages written on them. You even see running shoes tied to this, right next to that American flag, all sending one message and that message is Boston Strong.

I want to tell you about some of the people that I met here this morning. I met a wonderful man named Dan who came to sign. We'll show you one of these posters that is up and he said "Be strong, team Brookline" and also on this side, a message from Janice Murray. Janice came this morning, just about an hour ago and she wrote "always in my thoughts and prayers, remember forever."

And you know, Janice told me, I'm a Bostonian but I couldn't come here until today I wasn't ready yet. And that's what we're hearing some people could come right away, others were not able until today. Meghan is going to join us now live. Meghan, I know you go to college not far from here. It's a beautiful day just like it was on that horrific day of the attack. Why are you here today? Why was it important for to you come right now?

MEGHAN: I think it's important to just come and pay your respects. I didn't directly know anyone that was injured but I did know a bunch of friends running in it and I think it's important that everyone who kind of lives in Boston, goes to school outside of Boston to just come and take a look at all the people who really care about what happened, all the people who had relationships with people who got injured or who were just running and to see the whole community of Boston coming together. I mean, there's so many people here.

HARLOW: I know it's amazing.

MEGHAN: You look at the flowers it's amazing how many there are and I think it's really important to come together as a community and kind of be there for one another.

HARLOW: Yes, what is Boston Strong mean to you? We hear it over and over again. I'm not a native Bostonian so what does it mean to you?

MEGHAN: Boston Strong, I mean I think the overarching theme is community, and I think it just is everyone coming together and kind of making sure that nothing like this happens again, making sure everyone's united, everyone is there for one another. I think that Boston being, I'm comparatively a small city I think it's a lot easier to kind of come together.

HARLOW: We can't be broken.

MEGHAN: Exactly.

HARLOW: Meghan, thank you for joining us. Enjoy it here. Appreciate you talking to us.

And folks, if you want to help any of the victims of the attack you can go to cnn.com/impact. There are so many ways where you can help the amputees or any of the other victims in this attack, go to cnn.com/impact. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHAD PREGRACKE, DEFENDING THE PLANET: 67,000 tires, 951 refrigerators, 233 stoves, it's crazy what you find in the rivers. I grew up right on the Mississippi River. Around the age of 17 I really started to focus on the problem.

18 million people get their daily drinking water from the river. I'm thinking this should not be like this. This stuff just collects here and it goes on for blocks like this. It's a bad deal.

I said you know what? If no one's going to do anything about it. I will. I'm Chad Pregracke, with the help of over 70,000 volunteers we've removed over seven million pounds of garbage over America's rivers.

Are you guys ready?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

PREGRACKE: Our primary focus is the Mississippi river.

You guys will be amazed in two hours of how much stuff we get.

In all we worked on 22 rivers in 18 states. We do everything in our power to get people excited about it. At the end of the day you're out there picking up garbage.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Is this a basketball?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Totally yours. Little by little we're getting it.

PREGRACKE: But you're having fun, they'll have fun.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I knew I was going to be sweating but I didn't think I'd be singing karaoke on a boat. Yes!

PREGRACKE: People want to see change and are stepping up to make change.

That was the last bag, come on, let's give it up, yes!

This is a problem that people created, but a problem that people can fix.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: And that is just part of a beautiful memorial here in Boston for the bombing victims. We are joining you live from Boylston Street.

At this hour, authorities are looking into the Boston bombing, they're searching a landfill about 40 miles from where I'm standing hoping to find a laptop computer used by bombing suspect, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.

It could have very important information about the attacks. Sources say police were actually tipped off to the landfall by Tsarnaev himself and others.

Things got a little emotional, very emotional last night at the garden because the Boston Celtics played their first home game since the bombings. Before the game, the team paid tribute to the victims and the first responders.

You see some of them walking there onto the court and this morning at this hour, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, that suspect is waking up in a prison hospital ward in Devens, Massachusetts, before being moved, authorities say he was able to sit up and to write but he has become a lot less forthcoming with information since being read his Miranda rights. Now some other stories making news that we are following this morning, President Obama promising a "vigorous investigation" into allegations Syria has used chemical weapons in its civil war against rebels. U.S. and British officials say there is evidence the Syrian regime has used the nerve gas Sarin on a small scale.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: To use potential weapons of mass destruction on civilian populations crosses another line with respect to international norms and international law and that is going to be a game changer.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: The president did not say what the United States would do if the allegations Syria has used chemical weapons prove to be true. Syria calls those allegations lies.

In Bangladesh, arrests were made in connection to the building collapse that has killed at least 334 people. According to the state- run news agency, eight people, including two factory owners, are in custody, with hundreds more still missing under that rubble. The death toll is expected to rise. What a horrific story. I will see you back here again at the top of the hour.

"YOUR BOTTOM LINE" with Christine Romans starts right now.