Plane Crash Probe; What's Next for Iran?; 'Welcome to the Future'
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Morning. Welcome, everybody. It is Wednesday, August 23. I'm Soledad O'Brien.</s>RICK SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Rick Sanchez filling in for Miles this morning.</s>S. O'BRIEN: Let's take a look at what's happening this morning. In the Ukraine, investigators have found that flight recorders in the wreckage of that Russian passenger jet that crashed yesterday. Early indications are that the plane may have been struck by lightning. All 170 people on board that flight were killed.</s>SANCHEZ: Most Americans think Osama bin Laden is planning another attack on the U.S. There's a new CNN poll just released moments ago, it shows 74 percent think an attack is being planned. However, most feel that al Qaeda leader will not succeed.</s>S. O'BRIEN: The Marines are ordering thousands of reservists back to active duty. It is the biggest recall since the early days of the Iraq war. Twenty-five hundred troops, in fact, will be called up next spring and next summer.</s>SANCHEZ: Paramount Pictures is cutting its ties with Tom Cruise's production company. The head of the studio reportedly says Cruise's off-screen behavior is to blame for it. However, Cruise's production company says it was their decision to leave and that it's setting up an independent operation. We'll try and sort that one out for you throughout this newscast.</s>S. O'BRIEN: The fourth named storm of the year has formed in the eastern Atlantic. Forecasts have Tropical Storm Debby closing in on Bermuda in about a week. Too early to say, though, if it's going to hit land. Let's check in with Chad Myers with a look. Hey, Chad, good morning.</s>CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, Soledad. Of the 15...</s>S. O'BRIEN: Debby.</s>MYERS: Debbies -- Debby, right, and then the next one could be Ernesto. Of the 15 computer models that we talk about, only one even approaches the U.S. at all. So 14 of them have a different opinion than that. There is Debby right there, the Cape Rhode Islands here. Here's the British Virgin Islands, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico over there, so a long, long way from any land mass whatsoever; in fact, a lot closer to Africa than anything in the western part here of the Atlantic Ocean. There is another threat, though, of this down here beginning to develop into something, moving through the Windward Islands. The showers and storms we were watching around Cancun did not develop overnight, just kind of made a cloud mass there, so no real development in the Gulf of Mexico expected for the next few days, maybe even a week or so.</s>S. O'BRIEN: Sounds good. All right, Chad, thank you.</s>MYERS: You're welcome.</s>S. O'BRIEN: New details now coming to light about the JonBenet murder case. The suspect, John Mark Karr, apparently opened up to authorities during his transfer to an L.A. county jail. Let's get right to CNN's Ed Lavandera. He's in Boulder, Colorado for us this morning. Ed, good morning.</s>ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad. Well we're outside the jail where we expect John Mark Karr to be brought at some point. He waived extradition yesterday at a court hearing in Los Angeles. That gives Boulder authorities up to 10 days to pick him up there and bring him back here, we presume to file charges of murder against him. That officially hasn't been done here yet. So right now there is no word exactly as to when John Mark Karr is going to be brought here. In fact, in the words of the sheriff, he says, "we will be told as soon as he is booked and his mug shot has been taken here but not before that" -- Soledad.</s>S. O'BRIEN: Give us some of the details that obviously he has spoken a little bit more about the case. What is he saying?</s>LAVANDERA: There's a couple things to update you on in terms of that. A source in Los Angeles, a law enforcement source, says that when John Mark Karr was in custody there that he had expressed some sort of disbelief that people couldn't understand how he had gotten into the Ramsey house. He's saying that he had been in the house at 5:00 p.m. Christmas night and hid in the house while the Ramseys were away at the Christmas party. Also there's a comment from a Thai police source in Thailand who says that while he was in custody there, John Mark Karr had admitted to having sex with her. But what exactly he meant by that was unclear when this Thai police officer was questioned further. And then the last thing we should tell you about is this question of the pictures. A lot of people might remember that last week the family was saying -- his family was saying that we had picture proof that he was with his family that Christmas season. Unfortunately, the family says they've only been able to find pictures of the three -- his three children together, not a picture of him with the family that he appears in. But the family continues to maintain that it would have been extremely out of the ordinary for them not to be together and that they don't remember them not being together during the Christmas season.</s>S. O'BRIEN: The case is just weirder and weirder every day. All right, Ed Lavandera for us this morning. He's in Boulder. Thanks, Ed -- Rick.</s>SANCHEZ: Here's a follow on a story that we first told you about right here yesterday on AMERICAN MORNING. Investigators are hoping the flight recorders recovered from the scene of that deadly plane crash in the Ukraine will somehow help shed some light on what caused the plane to actually go down. Now it was a passenger jet. It crashed near the Russian border yesterday. It killed 170 people. All people on board, we should say. Early indications suggest that lightning may have been to blame. CNN's senior international correspondent Matthew Chance is joining us now live from Moscow to bring us up to date on what details he's been able to garner at this point. What do you know, -- Matthew?</s>MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, we know that within the last few hours Russian and Ukrainian emergency workers at the scene of the crash site have managed to recover the two black box flight recorders to try and take those away for analysis to try and get to the bottom of what it was that caused this crash. There are a number of theories being circulated. You mentioned there the severe weather conditions, the lightning strike that's being looked into. It seems that the plane, when it was en route from the Black Sea resort town of Anapa, en route to St. Petersburg, encountered these severe weather conditions. It requested to change course somewhat, perhaps to gain altitude, perhaps to change direction slightly, to avoid those very severe thunderstorms. It was given permission to do that. But the latest theory that's being looked at is that the pilot took the plane too high over the ceiling, the operational ceiling of the engines, causing the engines to stall. The plane then plunged downwards, having run out of power, and went through that very turbulent weather. So that may have been the point at which the lightning struck. So it seems to have been a whole combination of factors, Rick, that led to this particular crash.</s>SANCHEZ: It sounds like the type of thing that's less apt to happen over here because was he not in touch with the tower? Was he not being diverted or told which way to head around that storm?</s>CHANCE: You know it's not clear yet because the Russian authorities and the Ukrainian authorities, who are both jointly dealing with this, haven't released the transcripts of the conversations that were had with air traffic control. But certainly there are big issues, big systemic problems when it comes to Russian traffic in the air and all the traffic in the former Soviet Union. There are big issues when it comes to safety. It's not clear whether these planes are rigorously checked in the same way planes in the U.S. are. It's not clear whether the pilot had sufficient training to achieve this. And there are all sorts of issues, particularly to the age of these aircraft. They're often very decrepit and therefore subject to mechanical failure -- Rick.</s>SANCHEZ: Yes, and I'm glad you pointed up that distinction, because I can almost hear a lot of our viewers right now asking themselves, boy, is that the kind of thing that can happen here? That's why we had that discussion. Matthew Chance, thank you so much for bringing us up to date on that. We'll be touching base with you from time to time. Meanwhile, let's go over to Soledad.</s>S. O'BRIEN: All right, thanks, Rick. Iran is now saying that it is open to serious talks about its nuclear program. Several Western nations, including the U.S., are going to meet today to talk about what is next. CNN's Aneesh Raman, the only U.S. television correspondent who is reporting from Tehran, he's with us this morning. Hey, Aneesh, good morning.</s>ANEESH RAMAN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Soledad, good morning. We're getting a better sense of what Iran actually said in that response. This is the "Teflon Times (ph)," a government-leading newspaper and it presents this choice that the world now faces. Iran is unwilling to suspend its nuclear program just because the U.N. says it must by the end of the month. But what Iran is willing to do is talk about suspension, along with everything else, if a new round of negotiations takes place. The other point that was interestingly mentioned in this paper is that Iran is willing to slow down the pace of its nuclear program to appease international concerns. Now of course there have been any numbers of rounds of negotiations up until this point. And the U.N. is now faced with a stark choice, does it want more talk in the pursuit of bringing about some diplomatic solution that includes Iran or does it want action? Iran is saying it's not going to provide the action the U.N. wanted, so should the U.N. then take action after this deadline? We'll have to see what the Western countries do. And another hitch in all of this is that Iran's president will have a press conference next week. He could change their response, there are multiple power centers in Iran, and we could be -- he's talking about a whole new response at that point -- Soledad.</s>S. O'BRIEN: Could be, and you'll be there covering it for us. Aneesh Raman is reporting from Tehran this morning. Aneesh, thanks -- Rick.</s>SANCHEZ: Nearly five years after 9/11, Americans say they're still concerned another major terror attack may be in the works. There's a new CNN poll out. It's coming out just minutes ago. It shows 74 percent believe Osama bin Laden is planning another attack, while only 21 percent say they do not believe he's planning another attack. Now 58 percent of those said they think Osama bin Laden will be captured or killed. Forty percent are saying, no, that he won't. Here's another one, 47 percent say that bin Laden would have been captured by now if there had been no war in Iraq. Fifty-one percent disagree. We should point out the Opinion Research Corporation conducted the poll on behalf of CNN. Don't miss "In The Footsteps of Bin Laden." It's going to be a "CNN PRESENTS" special. Two-hour investigation with host Christiane Amanpour and it's tonight, 9:00 p.m. Eastern, only right here on</s>CNN. S. O'BRIEN: Still to come this morning, nearly two weeks since two television journalists kidnapped in Gaza, is there a chance they're still alive? We're going to have the latest on the efforts to find them.</s>SANCHEZ: Also, the Marine Corp trying to beef up their numbers in Iraq, but it means they'll have to do something they haven't done since the early days of the war.</s>S. O'BRIEN: And tracking a tropical storm. We're keeping an eye on Debby and looking at the prospects she could become a major hurricane. Plus, Carrie Lee has got business headlines for us. Good morning.</s>CARRIE LEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you. Thank you. After a long-running criminal case, a former high-flying investment banker is a free man. We'll have that story and more coming up on AMERICAN MORNING.