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CNN LIVE AT DAYBREAK

Return to Space; What's the Issue?; London Terror Probe Focuses on Four Men

Aired July 13, 2005 - 5:00   ET

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


FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: It is Wednesday, July 13, and NASA says it's a go. Shuttle Discovery heads for the final countdown as NASA heads for an historic return to space.
Plus, there's a lot of road rage out there. We'll take a closer look at why some people want to ax the architect.

And we'll show you the latest in reality TV. Here's a hint: it's a real zoo.

ANNOUNCER: From the CNN Center in Atlanta, this is DAYBREAK with Fredricka Whitfield.

WHITFIELD: Good morning, everyone. I'm Fredricka Whitfield, in today for Carol Costello.

We'll have more on today's planned shuttle launch in a moment.

Also ahead, raids in Leeds, England, gives some clues about who may have caused the London terror attacks last week. We'll go there live for the latest.

And what's it like to work in the middle of a hurricane? Our Chad Myers is back from the Florida Panhandle with his firsthand account.

But first, here are the top stories.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is heading back to Washington this hour after wrapping up a visit to East Asia. In South Korea, Rice praised the nation for getting North Korea to agree on resuming nuclear talks.

At least 150 people are dead and 800 more injured after a train collision in southern Pakistan this morning. Three packed passenger trains collided after one of them missed signals at a station. Seventeen train cars were destroyed.

Memories of the victims recorded for all time. A recording booth has been opened at the World Trade Center site. Relatives of 9/11 victims can now tape their memories of their loved ones.

Let's check in this morning with Chad Myers, back from the ravaged Panhandle of Florida from Hurricane Dennis.

How are you? CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, from a couple places. I was in Panama City. The winds there got to about 82, 84 miles per hour. That was our big peak gust.

And then we went on up into the Apalachicola, Apalachee Bay area, all the way up to St. Marks, where the flooding was just amazing. And we talked about the flooding even here in Atlanta.

WHITFIELD: Yes, it's remarkable.

MYERS: Yes. The scope of that storm was really huge. And it still is. It's still raining in a lot of areas because of what was Dennis.

(WEATHER REPORT)

WHITFIELD: All right. Thanks so much, Chad.

Well, the shuttle crew gets its wakeup call in less than 45 minutes. Today is set to be the first time in more than two years that a shuttle crew will head into space. But today's planned launch isn't without problems.

A plastic cockpit window fell off and damaged two tiles on the shuttle's orbital thrusters. This animation shows what happened right there. Two years ago it was a problem with heat tiles that led to the Columbia disaster, killing all seven astronauts.

Well, NASA technicians repaired the problem and have given the go-ahead for today's return to space. CNN's Space Correspondent Miles O'Brien has more on NASA's long wait for the next chapter of the shuttle program.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN SPACE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Over the past two-and-a-half years, NASA has spent more than $1.5 billion looking for answers to what brought Columbia down.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Booster ignition and liftoff at...

O'BRIEN: The crew's fate was sealed about a minute after launch when a two-pound piece of insulating foam careened off the external fuel tank, piercing a lethal hole in the heat shield on the left wing. The orbiter disintegrated 16 days later in the blast furnace of reentry.

NASA has redesigned the fuel tank, changed the way it applies the foam, and removed it from some places to reduce the risk of a big piece breaking loose.

ANDREW THOMAS, DISCOVERY MISSION SPECIALIST: I don't think our vehicle is going to be plagued by problems of foam coming off. Now, there will be some small pieces of foam that come off. That always happens. We know from the flight history that happens. I don't think they're going to be serious, though. O'BRIEN: They will launch during daylight hours, under the gaze of a more sophisticated network of tracking cameras to spot trouble. Heat shields on the rigs will be rigged with sensors to detect a debris strike.

And then once in space the crew will conduct a painstaking survey of the orbiter with cameras mounted at the end of a newly designed boom. And they will approach the space station belly first, giving the station crew a chance to shoot yet another ream of photos.

There is good reason for all this checking and rechecking of the orbiter's wing protection.

CHARLES CAMAROA, DISCOVERY MISSION SPECIALIST: We thought we could survive a quarter inch hole in some cases, an inch hole on the upper surface. Right now, we believe that we cannot survive, if we see, like, a thumbnail sized piece of coating lost from the outside surface in a critical region on the leading edge.

O'BRIEN: The astronauts will try some new ideas for patching holes in the heat shield in space. But right now NASA does not have a lot of confidence in the techniques. So as a last resort, if the orbiter is damaged, the crew will simply stay on the space station, a safe harbor, waiting for rescue.

But all this attention on avoiding what happened to Columbia's crew leaves a nagging concern: that other lurking problems might be overlooked.

STEVE ROBINSON, DISCOVERY MISSION SPECIALIST: It's the thing that we haven't thought of yet that will be the next thing that will surprise us. And but there are a whole bunch of people who are out there worrying about that. It's just not as visible to the rest of us.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And liftoff of Discovery...

O'BRIEN: For the astronauts of Discovery and their families, this will be a long, hard mission. Before Columbia, shuttle crews and their families all breathed a sigh of relief once the rocket engine stopped and the orbiter was in space.

JIM KELLY, DISCOVERY PILOT: Well, this time they're going to be sitting on the ground for two weeks, you know, watching the clock tick and going, "Well, I'm still waiting for the event that killed the last crew."

So psychologically for the families, for NASA, for all the managers down there, for everybody, it's psychologically going to be a completely different thing.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: And Miles O'Brien hosts our special coverage from the Kennedy Space Center beginning at 3:00 p.m. Eastern. Tune into CNN for Discovery's launch. But before that, we have more shuttle coverage here on DAYBREAK. Coming up next hour, we'll talk to NASA deputy program manager Mike Suffredini about NASA's next missions.

And turning now to CNN "Security Watch."

An overhaul is in the works at the Homeland Security Department. The new chief, Michael Chertoff, will announce today that he's resetting top priorities following a top to bottom review of the agency. Chertoff plans to create an intelligence director to centralize terrorism analysis and a chief medical officer to focus on bioterrorism. Transportation and border security are among Chertoff's top priorities.

Military officials have announced the capture of a top operative to terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. The suspect is believed to be the leader of al-Zarqawi's group in Baghdad. Authorities say he was captured there Monday, but they're not giving any other details.

Stay tuned to CNN day and night for the most reliable news about your security.

"TIME" magazine reporter Matthew Cooper is scheduled to appear before a grand jury today. The jury is looking into who leaked the name of a CIA operative to reporters. E-mails from Cooper that "TIME" magazine handed over to the court indicate President Bush's top political adviser, Karl Rove, played a role. Intentionally exposing the identity of a covert operative is a felony.

For a second day, White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan refused to comment on the new information about Karl Rove's alleged involvement in the leak. And then there was this pointed exchange between McClellan and CNN's Bob Franken. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Does Karl Rove, with all the attention being paid to him now, become a liability of the president, an impediment to him pushing his agenda?

SCOTT MCCLELLAN, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: See, you're asking all these context -- all these questions in the context of the news reports.

FRANKEN: I'm talking about in the larger sense of Rove being the deputy chief of staff...

MCCLELLAN: We're continuing to move forward on our agenda, and the agenda -- we're on the verge of accomplishing some very big things when it comes to the agenda.

FRANKEN: But is Karl Rove now an impediment now, with all this attention distracting from that -- that push on your agenda?

MCCLELLAN: Everybody who is working here is helping us to advance the agenda, and that includes Karl in a very big way. (END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: The controversy swirling around Karl Rove goes back to January of 2003. Two months before the Iraq war, President Bush made a statement in his State of the Union Address that Saddam Hussein was trying to get uranium from Africa. Former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, who had been sent to Africa before this speech to check out that claim, wrote an article refuting the president. A war of words started. CNN's own Robert Novak got involved, exposing Wilson's wife as a CIA agent.

Christine Romans picks up the story from there.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Two years ago there were suspicions immediately that Karl Rove was somehow involved in an attempt to discredit White House critics. Ambassador Joe Wilson made that claim within days of the Novak article. But the White House adamantly denied any involvement.

September 16, 2003...

MCCLELLAN: I said it's totally ridiculous.

ROMANS: September 29...

MCCLELLAN: I made it very clear from the beginning that it is totally ridiculous. I've known Karl -- I've known -- I've known Karl for a long time, and I didn't even need to go ask Karl because I know the kind of person that he is. And he is someone that is committed to the highest standards of conduct.

ROMANS: And September 30...

BUSH: If there's a leak out of my administration, I want to know who it is.

ROMANS: As the White House pledged to fire any leaker, the Justice Department opened its investigation, naming U.S. attorney Patrick Fitzgerald as special prosecutor to investigate the leak. Rove defended himself last summer with words that now appear carefully constructed.

KARL ROVE, WHITE HOUSE ADVISER: I didn't know her name and didn't leak her name.

ROMANS: Now Rove's attorney says his client discussed Valerie Plame's position, her affiliation with the CIA, but not her name. After almost two years of futile investigation by the special prosecutor, now rapid developments.

"New York Times" reporter Judy Miller is in prison for refusing to reveal her source even though she never wrote a story about it. "TIME" magazine turned reported Matthew Cooper's notes and e-mails to investigators. On July 1, political analyst Lawrence O'Donnell claimed Rove was Cooper's source. It was the next day that Rove's lawyer acknowledged that Rove had talked to Cooper. And now a White House that is vigorous in its defense and notorious for staying on message is suddenly all but mute.

MCCLELLAN: I don't want to get into commenting on things in the context of an ongoing investigation.

ROMANS: Christine Romans, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Well, turning now to the massive police probe into last week's London terror bombings. It's focusing on four men.

Authorities say they were seen on closed circuit television shortly before a string of deadly explosions rocked the city's transit system. Police are converging on the city of Leeds, about 200 miles north of London.

CNN's John Vause is there and joins us live now -- John.

JOHN VAUSE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Fredricka, police continue to search the six homes in West Yorkshire. A short time ago, forensic detectives arrived at the house behind me. Now, according to neighbors, that is the house of Shahzad Tanweer, a 22-year-old man.

We've been speaking with neighbors. They say by all accounts he is a quiet young man, he was a practicing Muslim. He lived with his parents. They came from Pakistan.

He went to the mosque sometimes to pray five times a day. He was an avid sports fan, they say. He liked to play cricket.

Not far from here, another search is ongoing. That is the home of 19-year-old Hasib Hussain.

Now, police say the families of both those men contacted a special hotline about 12 hours after the blast. That hotline was established by police to help find missing relatives and friends.

Police say three men traveled from West Yorkshire. They met up with a fourth man along the way. They gathered at the platform of King's Cross station.

They know this because they've seen it on that security camera videotape. They were there around 8:30 on Thursday morning, and that's about 20 minutes before the first of the three explosions.

Now, police are not officially connecting -- the search is ongoing here in West Yorkshire with those four men on the platform at King's Cross Station. But for many here in this community, there is now that growing realization that the men who may have been responsible for the first suicide bombings ever in Britain were living among them. Now, for -- for many people here, of course, there is this growing fear that there will be a backlash against the Muslim community.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ARSHAD HANIF, LEEDS ISLAMIC CENTER: Members of various -- various communities become criminals -- various communities, all communities, in fact. That does not label the community as criminal. If, in fact, these people you say are fundamental Muslims, were they praying five times a day? Were they following the pillars of Islam?

These are things that you have to look at to make them a fundamental Muslim, not somebody that's created -- somebody that has done a crime and then claimed a sanctuary within Islam. I'm sorry. You know, Islam does not offer that sanctuary.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Now, the focus of this investigation now moves on to who else was involved, who recruited these four bombers, who provided the explosives, who helped them build the bomb. Police saying this is indeed now a fast-moving investigation. But they say, Fredricka, there is still a long way to go.

WHITFIELD: And so, John, what made police so suspicious about these passengers that then brought them to their residence? Just because they were in the closed-circuit television?

VAUSE: Well, there were a lot of issues here. There was the phone call from the relatives reporting these two men missing. There was also forensic evidence from the scene.

They found identification papers from some of the men, identifying them as being on the underground train, as also being on bus number 30. And then you mix that in with the closed-circuit television camera footage, and then a number of questions and tip-offs form the community, and police say all that added up to lead them here to the city of Leeds yesterday morning -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right. John Vause in Leeds, England. Thanks so much.

Still to come, we'll meet a big-city mayor who has to wear flak jacket to work. It's a job few want, but we'll meet the man who's taking it on.

Our own Chad Myers braves the storm to bring you the latest from Hurricane Dennis. We'll show you some of the more harrowing moments he had to endure.

And if you're hoping for a picture of a very small miracle, well, you're going to have to go online in order to see it. Either that, or stick with CNN.

But first, here's a look at what else is making news this Wednesday morning.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: The international markets are mixed this morning. Tokyo's Nikkei is down by 32 points. The London FTSE is up 28. And the German DAX is higher by nearly 9.

Your news, money, weather and sports. It is now 18 minutes after the hour. Here's what's all new this morning.

This afternoon's scheduled launch of Space Shuttle Discovery is still on schedule despite a bit of a glitch. NASA had to replace two tiles after a cockpit window cover fell off.

"TIME" magazine reporter Matthew Cooper goes before a grand jury today. The jury is looking into who leaked the identity of an undercover CIA operative. E-mails from Cooper suggest that President Bush's longtime adviser Karl Rove played a role.

In money, it's a merger that would create the world's biggest consumer products company, and it's a step closer to happening. Shareholders have OK'd a plan for Procter and Gamble to buy Gillette for more than $52 billion.

And in culture, actor Brad Pitt checked himself into a Los Angeles area hospital for flu-like symptoms. Pitt had just returned from a trip to Africa, where he watched current co-star Angelina Jolie adopt a baby girl. It's unknown if the Africa trip has anything to do with his illness.

In sports, the American League used a long ball to once again win the Major League Baseball All-Star Game. They beat the National League 7-5. The 8th straight American League victory means they'll once again have home field advantage for this year's World Series.

And in weather, let's check in again with Chad.

(WEATHER REPORT)

WHITFIELD: All right. Thanks, Chad.

MYERS: You're welcome.

WHITFIELD: Well, still to come, Cuba refuses a helping hand despite massive damage from Hurricane Dennis. We'll explain right after the break.

You're watching DAYBREAK for Wednesday, July 13.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Here now is just a taste of the damage done by Hurricane Dennis as it plowed across the Gulf of Mexico this weekend. This BP oil rig is probably pumping out more water than oil this week. Dennis ravaged the massive rig and left it listing in the Gulf. Now oil companies are getting their rigs up and running again after evacuating dozens of them.

Well, that gives us the chance to look back at what Hurricane Dennis did.

And let's reflect a little bit more, Chad, because you were all over it and in it.

MYERS: I was there. I was in Panama City. Then we actually moved over toward where the flooding was in Apalachee Bay.

In Panama City, we had wind gusts to 84 miles per hour, measured by our instruments there. Some of those were probably induced by the tall buildings. Huge condos lined the seawall there, and those condos act like wind tunnels in some spots.

Here's a -- here's a couple of those big wind gusts as we walked toward the seawall.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MYERS: It's obvious we don't have pictures from there yet, but we will. What we're experiencing here now is the storm surge coming up and coming over onto the seawall, and every once in a while splashing over the top. Ah, now I can talk because I'm in the shadow of a big building.

It's so different from one side of a building to the next, and that's what we're seeing here. In fact, the winds coming different directions, as you say, as well. They're now coming more on shore.

As they come on shore, we're losing some roofs across the street. And as that happens, those pieces now, they become projectiles.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MYERS: My friend said I looked like Elmer J. Fudd there as my hat kept getting fluffier and fluffier. But the reason I had that hat on...

WHITFIELD: I'm glad you had protective eye gear on as well.

MYERS: I did. The reason why I had that hat on was because it was so loud. I really had forgotten how loud a hurricane is.

It sounds like a freight train, I guess, although it doesn't -- I didn't hear any whistles and bells. It just sounds like a roar the entire time, and you can't hear the anchors.

You have your hand over your ear piece. It's in your ear. You're shoving it in as far in as you can so you can actually hear their questions. But I had that hat on because that stops the roar on the other side.

Then, later on that night, we actually drove over to Tallahassee, and the next morning drove down to a small community called St. Marks, Florida. They had water in the streets to about eight feet deep. WHITFIELD: Oh my god.

MYERS: And that was Bolin's (ph) grocery store, the first one. And the owner was Joy Brown. We called her Miss Joy -- everyone did. There it is right there.

This was the most heartwarming story I literally have ever covered. This woman owned this store 40 years, 30 years she's ran it by herself now.

WHITFIELD: Oh my.

MYERS: She keeps track of what people buy on a piece of paper with a pencil. And if they can't afford to pay for it because they're out of a job, she'll let them pay for it later when they do get money.

WHITFIELD: Oh.

MYERS: She's got a stack of paper like that, where she knows some of those bills are never going to get paid because either the people just don't have money...

WHITFIELD: Oh. The name's so appropriate, Miss Joy.

MYERS: Miss Joy. And everyone that she's ever helped came back to help her out. By the time we left that town...

WHITFIELD: Oh, nice.

MYERS: ... Miss Joy had a generator. She was up and running. Her refrigerators and freezers were obviously too damaged to run.

WHITFIELD: Yes.

MYERS: But they had her back open in less than 12 hours.

WHITFIELD: Oh.

MYERS: There was an army of people. At times, I would say there were 50 people there. And half the town showed up at one point or another.

And the funny part of all this is that she was the town's only notary republic.

WHITFIELD: Oh.

MYERS: She got to marry half the town's couples.

WHITFIELD: Oh my goodness.

MYERS: So all the couples would come back and give her a hug...

WHITFIELD: Oh.

MYERS: ... and then grab something else out. And they had power washers in there cleaning it out for her. It was...

WHITFIELD: Well, no one could possibly have forgotten her.

MYERS: It was -- it was just...

WHITFIELD: They needed to all help her.

MYERS: ... friends making friends and friends helping friends.

WHITFIELD: Oh.

MYERS: It was a heartwarming piece.

WHITFIELD: What a beautiful story.

MYERS: Thanks.

WHITFIELD: All right. Thanks so much, Chad.

MYERS: You're welcome.

WHITFIELD: All new in the next half-hour, who knew what and when? And why is the top presidential adviser under fire? We'll walk you through the Rove CIA leak controversy from the start.

Plus, what it takes to run the city of Baghdad as told my the mayor himself.

You're watching DAYBREAK for Wednesday, July 13.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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