Iran In Iraq; Glasgow Terror Plot; Kansas Flooding; U.K. Terror Plot; America Votes 2008; Airport Security
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: On the hunt.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're all learning a great deal about the people who were involved.</s>ROBERTS: Reports this morning that two doctors are among five people in custody for the U.K. terror plot.</s>MICHAEL CHERTOFF, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: Reasonable possibility that it's either al Qaeda or people who are associated with al Qaeda.</s>ROBERTS: Beefed up security at airports around the world. Live from London and New York, on this AMERICAN MORNING. And good morning to you. It is Monday, the second of July. Thanks very much for joining us. I'm John Roberts in London.</s>KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Kiran Chetry in New York. We have a lot of new developments this morning in the U.K. terror plot, which is why John is in London for us. We're also following the latest on the impact here in America. I'll be talking to the chief of Homeland Security, as well as New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, coming up throughout the three hours. John.</s>ROBERTS: Just to sort of set the scene for you here today, Kiran. London authorities, British authorities have five people in custody. All suspected to have some sort of connection with two bombs here in London and then that attack on the Glasgow air terminal on Saturday. A couple of these people are said to be doctors, which would really put them sort of outside of the realm of the normal type of extremists that they see here in Britain. Police are gathering all kinds of evidence because they've got two bombs intact. They've got that third vehicle as well from Glasgow. And that attack in Glasgow provided some incredible pictures. Take a look at this. This is the person who was believed to be the driver of that vehicle. Sets himself on fire. Apparently also went around to the back of the vehicle trying perhaps to uncork some propane tanks in were in the back of the vehicle, try to make them explode. Along came a fireman and put him out with a hose. That man is in the hospital. He is in serious, serious condition. We don't know if officials have been able to interview him yet, but certainly they've been able to interview other people that they have detained. Londoners woke up this morning to new restrictions on tube and train travel here, but they don't seem to let it get in the way of their daily business. The streets of London are crowded again today. People just really sort of standing up to this idea that terrorism is not going to get them down. Where we're going to be for the next three hours is here on Abingdon Green. It's just on the other side of the street from the houses of parliament. That's where the new British prime minister, Gordon Brown, will be today. He'll be addressing members of parliament and the House of Commons, as well as the home secretary. And we hope to have the deputy home secretary for national security here with us in just a little while as well. Kiran, we've got all of our terrific CNN correspondent. A real well-rounded look at what's going on here in Britain and what this means for the future. First, Kiran, back to you.</s>CHETRY: Thanks, John. And the developments are breaking this morning fast and furious as well. In fact, we got word, speaking of the airport bomb suspects in Glasgow, that police were actually on their tail just moments before that attack took place. This according to a house rental agency. They were possibly able to track some cell phone calls that were made from those to failed car bomb attempts in London, to a home that possibly these suspects were renting, in the moments before the Glasgow attack. So we will have much more on that as well. But first, a CNN exclusive this morning. Evidence that Iran is arming and training Shiite militias fighting American troops in Iraq. The military this morning confirmed a CNN report on the involvement of Iran's elite Quds force and the Iranian backed Hezbollah from Lebanon.</s>BRIG. GEN. KEVIN J. BERGNER, U.S. MILITARY SPOKESMAN: Quds force, along with Hezbollah instructors, trained approximately 20 to 60 Iraqis at a time, sending them back to Iraq organized into these special groups. They're being taught how to use EFPs, mortars, rockets, as well as intelligence, sniper and kidnapping operations.</s>CHETRY: CNN's Michael Ware broke this story and he is with us from Baghdad with exclusive details on it. Michael, how does the U.S. know that Hezbollah is involved?</s>MICHAEL WARE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning, Kiran. Yes, the U.S. military knows that Hezbollah is involved in Iraq principally through the arrest of one of Hezbollah's own Lebanese top special operations commanders here in this country. He was caught with the Iraqi commanders who plan and executed the attempt to kidnap five American soldiers, which unfortunately ended in the execution of those poor G.I.s. Now, once they got this guy, they didn't know they had him for weeks. He played a deaf mute, not wanting to give away his Lebanese accent. Eventually, some of the Iraqis started to roll on him. They started to identify him. Finally he confessed. Then the Americans went off using electronic intelligence that intercepting communications. They got other corroborating material. As the general this morning said, we know it's him. This is a senior Lebanese-Hezbollah operative. Kiran.</s>CHETRY: And the question also, why would the Quds force depend on Hezbollah in Iraq when they, as we've seen before with being able to cross over the border quite easily, could do it themselves?</s>WARE: Well, there's a number of reasons for this, Kiran. I mean this is an extraordinarily glimpse that we were able to obtain into the proxy war, one of the four wars being fought here in Iraq. This is the war between America and Iran. And Iran is fighting with it proxies. Precisely like Lebanese/Hezbollah this advisor. Now it's long been established that Iran is funding, training and equipping Shia militia forces both involved in the government and on the streets who are attacking U.S. forces to serve Iranian interests. Now the reason they use a Lebanese Hezbollah as a guy to go in there and get his hands dirty, is that this protects the Iranian officers. We saw seven of them arrested over Christmas here in Iraq. That was a bit bruising to the Iranians. So they like to use others to do the work so they can maintain plausible deniability. Don't forget, Iranians are Persians. They speak Farsi. Lebanese Hezbollah, that's Arab. So this guy was able to mix in much better and still give the Iranians room to deny his existence if ever he was killed or captured, just like this. Kiran.</s>CHETRY: You know, it will be interesting to see your reporting on this and what the implications now are for about a broader war with Iran or whether or not the war on terror would end up heading in that direction given this news.</s>WARE: Yes. Well, I mean, it's the scary thing, that what triggered last summer's war in Lebanon, between Lebanese Hezbollah and the Israeli defense force, is the kidnap of Israel soldiers. Now this is precisely what this Lebanese Hezbollah guy came to Iraq with, a specialist skilled in kidnapping soldiers. So it could trigger anything. Kiran.</s>CHETRY: Yes, it really -- the implications seem like they are very vast. Great reporting. CNN's Michael Ware breaking this story from Baghdad. Thank you.</s>ROBERTS: Now we want to go back to the latest on the British terror investigation and up to Glasgow where our senior international correspondent, Nic Robertson, is following the investigation. And, Nic, you have some new information this morning about the house where two of the suspects had taken up residence?</s>NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Certainly, that's the assumption being made here, that two of the suspects did live at the house that's being investigated by the police here. What we have learned this morning from the rental agency that rented it to the two people is that 15 minutes before the attack at Glasgow Airport, the police called somebody at the rental agency and asked, how do you call this mobile phone number? And the person said, well I call lots of mobile phone numbers, so I don't know. Two hours after the attack, the police called back the same person at the rental agency and said, OK, we talked to you about that mobile phone number. Here are a couple of names. Do you know these names? And the person at the rental agency says, yes, we rented a property to these people. That's the property right behind me here in this quiet village. The police then, within a few hours of that, began their investigations at the rental property here. The rental agencies say that the people who rented this property, one of them was a professional man. They say that he recently paid his rental for the property, about $1,000, paid that about a week ago. Now the lady that actually owns the property says that the man renting the property was a doctor. We've heard a lot about doctors being arrested by police. At least two of the suspects arrested by police so far we know to be doctors. We also understand as well that the investigation of the people of this property here is linked to these arrests further south in England, with at least one doctor arrested further south of there. We also understand as well that one of those men that was arrested at Glasgow Airport, believed to have been living here, was taken to a local Glasgow hospital. It is now understood, by at least the lady that owns the property here, that the man at that hospital is where the doctor who rented this property actually worked. So it does seem that at least one of those people under investigation for that attack at Glasgow Airport being treated for critical burns at a local Glasgow hospital. The same hospital that the doctor here lived at as well. John.</s>ROBERTS: And are they putting out any names at this point, Nic?</s>ROBERTSON: John, we don't have any names given to us here publicly at the moment by the police. The police tend to keep these details very closely guarded. So we're not aware of those names at this time. John.</s>ROBERTS: All right. Well I'm sure that that's going to come out very soon. Nic Robertson up there in Glasgow for us. Nic, thanks very much. We'll get back to you. We want to go now to CNN's international security correspondent Paula Newton. She is following developments from Scotland Yard this morning. And yesterday, Paula, Scotland Yard was saying that the connections between Glasgow and London were becoming clearer by the moment. They have made a significant connection now, have they not?</s>PAULA NEWTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, CNN learned last night, in fact, from police and security sources close to the investigation, that the reason -- Nic was talking about the reason that it is so significant about this house being so close to the airport and the fact that police had already called the letting agency, the people who rent out that house before the attack in Glasgow, is that they are now connecting the two London car bomb incidents to these same two men who basically tried to attack that airport in Glasgow. So again, they're now looking down a line of inquiry, John, which would tell you that the same two people that planted those car bombs in central London are the same two people that attempted to attack the airport in Glasgow. And that is what has really unhinged this entire investigation, in terms of really trying to get to their motivations. What were they trying to do? We know, in fact, from police already that those two car bombs in London were set to go off remotely. We learned that they used two mobile phones. The mobile phones were called. They failed to detonate. After that, police now suspect that those same two suspects drove north, about five or six hours north, and then tried to launch this suicide attack in the airport. That is the live in inquiry right now that they're investigating. And we're waiting for police -- I just want to say again, John, that we're not going to get very much information from police really for quite a while. And the reason is they won't want to prejudice any court proceedings going forward. John.</s>ROBERTS: Right. And as they get closer to charges, they tighten the information flow down even more. But let me ask you this question, Paula. Is there a sense that the Glasgow attack was out of frustration for the bombs here in London not going on or was the plan to set bombs off here in London and then, as well, conduct the Glasgow operation?</s>NEWTON: This is key. And this is what they're trying to figure out. Let me points something out again. These two people, we know them to be intelligent, educated. They would have known that CCTV cameras were basically spying on them the whole time that they were trying to plant those car bombs in central London. They would have to know that within at least 24 to 48 hours the police would have had a positive ID on them. This may be why they decided months ago to try and rent this property just five minutes, John, from the airport in Glasgow. They're trying to determine if they rented that house close to the airport so that they could flee the country perhaps very quickly after an attack, or if they had attempted all along to try and stage some type of an attack on the airport the day after a suicide attack, thereby being able to actually have two car bomb go off in central London and then end it with a suicide attack on that airport. John.</s>ROBERTS: Wow. Well, a significant, new development for us. Paula Newton at Scotland Yard, thanks very much. We'll be back here from London with more on this continuing story. This news continuing to break even this morning. But, Kiran, right now, back to you in New York.</s>CHETRY: Right. And we're following another threat, not terror, but really severe weather and a state of emergency declared now in 12 counties in Kansas as folks in that state are dealing with record flooding. On the Oklahoma border, due north of Tulsa, much of Coffeyville under water at this hour. Oil from a local refinery is leaking into the flood waters, swirling down streets in that city. CNN's Reggie Aqui is live in Coffeyville for us with more.</s>REGGIE AQUI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Kiran. It's a nasty site right there because of that oil that you're talking about. The governor is going to come here later today and survey some of this damage. What we're talking about is a third of the population, usually living over there, can't. They're in hotel, they're with friends. Twenty-five hundred people not exactly sure when they're going to be able to go back home. When they're going to be able to see just how much water is creeping into their homes. Take a look at this aerial video that we have and we'll show you the problem. We're talking about a local refinery that also makes fertilizer. And apparently, some time very early yesterday morning, some of the oil in that refinery leaked out into this water. How much? The plant doesn't even know. That's because the water apparently is keeping employees out of the area where they can measure the gauges to show just how much oil was lost. I can tell you this. I was in this water yesterday and my clothes stink of oil. So people are very concerned about the environmental impact and the health impact. We're told that Kansas health officials are in the area right now trying to figure out what sort of threat this poses to the residents. There are some other threats too, today. We're told there's a 40 percent chance of rain. There's also going to be a survey done by the Army Corps of Engineers. The Verdegrus (ph) River is the river that is now 10 feet above flood stage in this area. And we're told the Army Corps of Engineers may have to release some of the flood gates. And, Kiran, of course, that means more water coming into the streets. And just overnight I can tell you that about five hours ago I was about that far out into the water and it was only up to my knees. Right now it would be much further up. One man told me his house is completely submerged. All he could save were his houseplants. Back to you.</s>CHETRY: Oh, what a mess there. Reggie Aqui reporting for us in Coffeyville, Kansas, this morning. Thank you. Traffic now is moving again on New York's Tappan Zee Bridge. It reopened early this morning after a deadly three car crash had it shut down all night. Police say that a car rammed a tractor-trailer. The truck then hit another car and burst into flames, killing the truck driver. Engineers say there are no structural problems to the bridge. And there are funerals today for four of the five teenagers killed in a car crash last week in upstate New York. More than 1,000 mourners crowded into the Fairport High School gym where the victims were once cheerleaders. I talked with their close friends over the weekend, including some who actually witnessed the crash that took the lives of their best friends. We're going to have their personal memories and how they're coping coming up in our next hour. And a deadly wildfire topping your "Quick Hits." It's burning right now about 100 miles east of Salt Lake City and spreading fast. Forty-six square miles wiped out. Three people working in a hayfield were killed in this fire Friday. And in southern California, firefighters gaining ground on a wildfire burning along rugged canyon walls. That's in Santa Barbara. Four hundred eighty-two acres of brush wiped out near some popular campsites and swimming holes. Right now that fire is just 60 percent contained. Senator Barack Obama setting a fund-raising record. What $31 million means for his presidential hopes and the hopes of his competitors. That's next on AMERICAN MORNING.