Northwest Airlines Flight Turned Back to Amsterdam; State Department: Iran's Response 'Falls Short'; Kidnapped Journalists
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: It's the top of the hour. We want to update you on that diverted plane and 12 arrests after passengers create security concerns. Let's get straight to Homeland Security correspondent Jeanne Meserve, working this developing story. What happened, Jeanne?</s>JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kyra, we now know more about exactly why that plane was turned around. It was a Northwest Airlines flight en route from Amsterdam to Mumbai, India, when it was turned around. According to a U.S. government official, some of the passengers on that flight pulled out cell phones during takeoff. In addition, some passengers appeared to be trying to pass their cell phones around. And this U.S. government official says that some of the passengers on board took off their seat belts, unfastened them before the seat belt light had gone out. All of that, according to the U.S. government official, enough to make the U.S. air marshals who were on board this flight break their cover and come out. The flight attendants, we're told, told the passengers to pay attention to the air marshals and the plane was turned around and taken back to Amsterdam. According to a Dutch police spokesman, 12 people have been charged preliminary. We do not know what nation or nations they are from, and we do not yet know how serious a threat they might have posed -- Kyra.</s>PHILLIPS: Jeanne Meserve, thanks so much. Well, time flies when you're investigating an airline terror plot. So Scotland Yard is reportedly asking a judge in London for a few more days to build cases against 11 suspects who have been held for two weeks but still not formally charged. Eleven suspects who have been charged were in court yesterday and a new British law allows terror suspects to be held without charge for 28 days pending judge's approval. Ready to talk or trying to stall? Tehran is offering to negotiate just days before a U.N. deadline to mothball its nuclear program or face economic sanctions, but Washington, for one, is not impressed. The State Department says Iran's answer to a package of incentives falls far short of U.N. demands. CNN's Aneesh Raman is the only U.S. television network reporter working in Tehran right now. He joins me live via broadband. Aneesh, bring us up to date.</s>ANEESH RAMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kyra, good afternoon. Iran essentially will not lose any sleep over the U.S. reaction. Here's the situation. Iran has been forced to contemplate whether it will suspend its nuclear program by the end of the month, as mandated by the U.N. Up to today, Iran has said no. In a likely response yesterday, it said, look, we can talk again, we can talk with everything on the table, let's have dialogue, let's not have this deadline. That now seems to be falling far too short for a number of U.N. countries. But what Iran is doing is planning for the next stage. When that U.N. deadline comes and passes, it doesn't automatically trigger sanctions. Instead, it says something should happen, and then the U.N. debates what that would be. We've already heard from Russia, who has been keen to try and open new negotiations with Iran, so Iran has given fodder now to countries like Russia, countries like China, that are very uneasy about putting sanctions onto Iran. Iran has maintained from the start this is a peaceful civilian nuclear program. And now facing that deadline, facing its decision to not suspend that program, it is trying to mitigate whatever might come from the U.N. -- Kyra.</s>PHILLIPS: But can the Iranian government ever suspend its nuclear program?</s>RAMAN: Well, that's the other threat in all of this, is that Iran has, from the start, not only maintained it's a peaceful civilian nuclear program, but Iran's government, Kyra, has convinced the people that this is not only their essential right, but an essential need for Iran to survive, nuclear power. And that has been the drumbeat that has been going on at rallies across the country with Iran's president. There are big domestic issues here. The economy is not in the greatest of shape, the youth who make up the majority are largely unemployed. Inflation keeps going up. The government hasn't delivered much on economic progress. So, it has turned the focus of the country to this nuclear program. Because of that, it will be very difficult for Iran's leader to suspend the program because it will have to back away from its continued statements and rallied support here in Iran -- Kyra.</s>PHILLIPS: Aneesh Raman, live from Tehran. Thanks, Aneesh. Hope and concern out of Gaza. Video released just hours ago shows two Fox journalists who were kidnapped last week. We also know for the first time who claims to be holding them and what the kidnappers want. CNN's Chris Lawrence is following developments from Jerusalem -- Chris.</s>CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kyra, we didn't actually see the kidnappers in this video, but they did release a statement written in Arabic, and translated if partly reads, "We will release our prisoners if you release Muslim prisoners from the jails of America." Basically, this statement goes on to say that this applies to everyone, no exception. It gives 72 hours for apparently the United States to comply. It doesn't specify which jails, but, speculating, you could assume it means not only prisons in the United States, but American- controlled prisons outside, such as Guantanamo. It also says that if our -- "If your conditions are fulfilled, then our conditions will be fulfilled. But if you do not meet our demands, then you could wait and we could wait, too." It does never get -- specifically say what would happen if those demands are not met. We also heard from the two journalists, Steve Centanni and Olaf Wiig. This is the first time we have heard from them since they were captured 10 days ago. They talked about being fairly treated, having showers, clean clothes, being able to eat, being able to get something fresh to drink. And they also sounded very disturbed about missing their families. And, in fact, they made a very direct plea to say -- Olaf Wiig made a very direct plea to say, "Don't worry, I will do all the worrying." Steve Centanni said, you know, "Please do all you can to get us out of here." Olaf Wiig added to that, "Please, use what you can do to put pressure on the local government here in Gaza and in the West Bank," apparently referring to some of these demands, again, by the kidnappers to have some Muslim prisoners released from the jails of America -- Kyra.</s>PHILLIPS: Now, Chris, this has totally changed the way you operate, right? There are certain areas you just don't go into now and other journalists are pulling out, right?</s>LAWRENCE: Yes, Gaza was always -- it's always been a place where there have been kidnappings, 26 kidnappings in the last two years, nine of them journalists. But all of these ended within a day, maximum. Usually within hours. It was usually just to exchange some prisoners, perhaps some money or a job. They were all released peacefully. By the length of time, the fact that we never heard anything from these kidnappers, most of the news organizations pulled out of Gaza. I know for a fact that CNN, we stopped going into Gaza several days ago and, as of yet, have not changed the policy. Most especially not only because of this one kidnapping, but because we also got word that an unnamed group, which may be this group, this Holy Jihad Brigades, had put out word that it planned to kidnap any foreign journalist that was caught in Gaza.</s>PHILLIPS: Chris Lawrence, it's a tough time in Jerusalem right now. All throughout the Middle East. Appreciate it. Well, in Lebanon the shelling has stopped, the rebuilding starts. It's a daunting task some Lebanese have been through once, twice, three times before. CNN's Jim Clancy reports they're tired but determined.</s>JIM CLANCY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Another victim of war. A young woman weeps at the casket of her grandmother. The destruction and civilian casualties all across south Lebanon stir her anger at Israel.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You don't see the children and the families. And why? This is my country. You know? And if you have a country and you have Israel at the same time, you make what Hezbollah</s>CLANCY: It's another traffic jam at another bombed bridge on the Litani River. Madeline (ph) is forced to get out and walk. The rain hardly matters, not to the children, of course, flashing victory signs from their windows, or the man finally driving his family home. A journey through the south takes you past billboards of martyrs. Two villages pounded to rubble from the air. Cities that must finish the destruction before struggling to stand once again. "It's the fourth time," says the dressmaker in Nabatiyah. "First, the Israeli invasion in 1982, twice during the occupation, and now this, the worst." His factory opposite the government offices is destroyed. As he throws away his inventory of women's clothes, he says everyone will rebuild and public sentiment, he warns, shifts to Hezbollah. Down the street, a merchant sorts and cleans shoe boxes on the sidewalk in front of his store. Yellow flags of Hezbollah flutter from the lampposts. In Qana, a new memorial is being built for civilians, not soldiers. Twenty-nine in all. More children than adults. Qana became a symbol. Its losses made the world take notice. Now all the world seems to come to stare. Journalists or tourists, it's hard to tell at times, but residents will keep vigil long after everyone else has gone. High above the graves, an old man looks down on his a lifetime come to this. Salim Amr (ph) tells us this was the home he built for his children and grandchildren. "Thank god," he says, "they fled before the bombs." "Stones," he says, " can be restored, but not a life." And what of peace? "If there are good intentions from Israel," he says, "then there can be peace." But Salim (ph) isn't counting on it. Here and across south Lebanon, hope is another casualty of war. (on camera): Literally just footsteps from this incredible devastation in Qana we're reminded, after all, that all of this area is the holy land. Historians say it's where Christ performed his first miracle turning water into wine. Turning conflict into peace in this area may take another miracle. Jim Clancy, CNN, Qana.</s>PHILLIPS: Well, a shaky truce in Lebanon, nuclear tensions with Iran. U.N. chief Kofi Annan has a lot to think about these days, and he won't be doing it at home. Annan plans a major Middle East trip this week. Ten different stops, including Lebanon, Israel, Syria and Iran. A lot of things are different in the second trial of Saddam Hussein, especially the charges. But only three days in, one thing already seems familiar, delays. CNN's Michael Holmes has the latest from Baghdad.</s>MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: More dramatic testimony in the trial of Saddam Hussein and six others in Baghdad today. Also a little bit of a surprise, the fact that this trial has now been adjourned until September 11th. There's been a lot of concern about how long this trial will go on for. The best estimate was at least until the end of the year. We did see delays like this during the Dujail trial, the first trial of Saddam Hussein, and it looks like there's already been another bit of a delay a couple weeks until we're going to see this court reconvene. What we heard today was more chilling testimony, however. More witnesses getting up before the court and telling about how warplanes bombed their village, troops moving in, razing the communities to the ground and moving out anyone who survived. One of these witnesses, a woman, was giving really chilling testimony about how her and her children became sick, vomiting, their skin burning, how they ran to a cave to take shelter, and then how they were moved into detention centers. She said that at one point during her detention a bus with blacked-out windows arrived and took away 29 men. She said she never saw them again. She says that she and her children to this day suffer long-term health effects, respiratory trouble and visible problems from chemical weapons that were dropped on her village. She describes her children as handicapped these days. At one point, pointing at Saddam Hussein and saying, "I lost everything." The defense still saying that this was about bombing Kurdish peshmergas who were fighting against Iraq and Iranian troops who were helping them. As I say, the trial has now been adjourned until September 11th. Michael Holmes, CNN, Baghdad.</s>PHILLIPS: Refugees in their own country. More than 200,000 Iraqis have fled to different parts of Iraq since the worst of the so- called sectarian fighting started six months ago. Those numbers from the Iraqi government counting from late February when a bomb leveled a major Shiite mosque in Samarra. The government says that most of the displaced people lived in and around Baghdad. Straight ahead, John Karr's troubled past. Classmates and teachers talk about the man they knew straight ahead on CNN. Our David Mattingly joins us live.