Al Qaeda Plans Found Hidden in Porn; May Day Protests; Al Qaeda's Killing Machine
ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, New York. As the clock strikes 5:00 on the East Coast, welcome to EARLY START. I'm Ashleigh Banfield.</s>CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Christine Romans for you this morning. Zoraida is off again today. It's 5:00 a.m. in the East. Let's get started. Al Qaeda's attack plans found hidden in porn. Police uncovering embedded files on a memory card meant only for senior leadership to see. We have exclusive details of future plots, including taking over a cruise ship.</s>BANFIELD: May Day protests all around the world. Occupy Wall Street trying to regroup and calling for a day without the 99 percent -- no work, no shopping, no banking. Hoping for a nationwide disruption.</s>ROMANS: And rescue 411. A 4'11" firefighter just the right size to save a little baby who fell 20 feet down a drain pipe. We'll be talking to the hero.</s>BANFIELD: Up first, though, this morning, pure gold. It's how intelligence officials are describing over 100 internal al Qaeda documents that detailed past attacks and future terror targets. And here is something incredible: the information was embedded in a porn movie. It was uncovered by German authorities after they arrested an al Qaeda operative last year and that operative was searched. And that's when police found his underwear and inside his underwear, a memory card. The microchip had a pornographic video on it. But when the authorities went further and dug deeper with be, they found a treasure trove of information embedded in the film. Our Nic Robertson is live in London this morning. Nic, you had so many exclusive breaks because of this veritable trove of information. Talk to me first, if you will, about this very frightening situation, detailing how cruise ships could end up being targets.</s>NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, there were 141 secret al Qaeda documents and some of those documents, according to U.S. and German counterterrorism officials, they believe, were written by very senior al Qaeda members. And one of those documents was al Qaeda's future plans. And part of the future plans, according to a journalist who has also seen and had direct information about those documents, indicate that al Qaeda want to start targeting cruise ships.</s>YASSIN MURSHARBSH, DIE ZEIT NEWSPAPER: It says that we could hijack a passenger ship on the sea. And then use it to pressure -- to pressurize the public. And what he most likely means is that they, you know, would then start executing passengers.</s>ROBERTSON: And that they would dress these passengers in orange jump suits, similar to the prisons in Gitmo, and they upload those executions to the Internet. That is just one type of attack al Qaeda wants to move to. They want to move to Mumbai, shoot 'em up style attacks like we saw in India, 2008, 164 people killed by 10 gunmen. A twin track strategy to have big operations like 9/11 if they can, but because they can't pull those off, they have lots smaller, low-cost operations as well, Ashleigh.</s>BANFIELD: So, Nic, these are the things they may want to do but we all know that many of the missions that this country has been involved in in the last decade has made things difficult for al Qaeda. So, do they have the capability anymore?</s>ROBERTSON: Well, even they are concerned about that. In this sort of range of 141 documents, there are documents that detail some of the past attacks, the 7/7, 7/21 liquid airlines plots, which all emanated or happened here in London. They provide a valuable insight. But what al Qaeda is saying in the future works document is they are concerned morale is slipping because they are losing key operators to drone strikes. They recognize the counterterrorism officials are able to spy on them better, know better what they are doing. So, even, they say, some of their own operatives are not even plotting or planning to do anything because they're so concerned about being caught. But what we have seen is, laid out in these future plans documents, over the past couple of years, al Qaeda continues to try to achieve those same goals they stated, Ashleigh.</s>BANFIELD: All right. Nic Robertson, live for us in London -- thank you for that. And just a reminder to our viewers as well, over the next two hours, of course, in this program, we're going to bring a lot more information to you, courtesy of the material that Nic Robinson has been poring through, just remarkable stuff from that treasure trove of intelligence.</s>ROMANS: Yes, it sure is. OK. One year ago today, President Obama made a heart-stopping announcement that changed the world.</s>BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Tonight, I can report to the American people and to the world that the United States has conducted an operation that killed Osama bin Laden, the leader of al Qaeda.</s>ROMANS: Fast forward one year, and Osama bin Laden is still influencing U.S. politics. In fact, the raid that killed him is fast becoming the number one topic on the campaign trail. The president touting his role in the operation and questioning whether his rival Mitt Romney would have achieved the same result.</s>REPORTER: Would you have gone after bin Laden?</s>MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Of course.</s>REPORTER: Would have given the order, Governor?</s>ROMNEY: Well, of course. Even Jimmy Carter would have given that order.</s>OBAMA: I said I'll go after bin Laden if we had a clear shot at him and I did. If there are others two have said one thing and now suggest they'd do something else, then I'd go ahead and let them explain it.</s>ROMANS: Romney may -- Romney may get a chance to do just that when he visits a New York city firehouse to mark the one-year anniversary of bin Laden's death. He'll be joined by former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani.</s>BANFIELD: May Day protests kicking off right now all over the world. Today is International Workers Day. Labor groups are protesting for better working conditions, more jobs and higher wages. Several thousand workers marched in Japan earlier this morning and tens of thousands in Russia. President-elect Vladimir Putin and President Dmitry Medvedev are taking parts in demonstrations there. And here in the United States, mass protests are expected in more than 100 cities. The Golden Gate ferry will shut down this morning because of a strike by workers. Officials say the service will restart at 02:15 this afternoon. And Occupy activists called off a plan to take over the Golden Gate Bridge. The groups are planning other demonstrations and calling for a nationwide strike, a day without the 99 percent.</s>ROMANS: Remember the night when lions, tigers and cheetahs ran wild in Ohio? Well, now, a widow is get back five of the exotic animals her husband set free before he allegedly committed suicide on that night. Husband Terry Thompson released more than 50 animals back in October, remember including wolves, lions and bears. Most of them were killed by authorities, but five survived -- two leopards, two monkeys and a bear. They had been kept in quarantine but now, state officials have cleared the animals of dangerous or contagious disease. Thompson's widow plans to keep them on her farm. Ahead at 6:30 this morning, we're talking to the man who took care of those animals while they were in quarantine. Find out why he says it's not a good idea for them to return to their old conditions.</s>BANFIELD: Chris Christie is insisting that he is not exactly vice presidential material. Yet he is not ruling it out, either. The New Jersey governor was speaking to a group of high school students yesterday when one of them, very brave, asked if he would consider being Mitt Romney's running mate?</s>GOV. CHRIS CHRISTIE (R), NEW JERSEY: What I said before is I really have no interest in being vice president, but if Governor Romney calls and asks me to sit down and talk to him about it, I'd listen because I think you owe the nominee of your party that level of respect and who knows what he's going to say. And he might be able to convince me. He's a convincing guy.</s>BANFIED: That cameraman knew to zoom in right away on that answer. Chris Christie has consistently been mentioned as a top candidate for the number two job, along with Ohio Senator Rob Portman, Florida Senator Marco Rubio and Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan.</s>ROMANS: He's heard that question before. He'll hear it again.</s>BANFIELD: Yes.</s>ROMANS: A gut-wrenching day on the witness stand for Cheri Young, the wife for former John Edwards' aide Andrew Young. She broke down in tears as she testified how the former senator asked her family to hide his affair for the good of the country. After taking a break, the judge then dismissed the jury early. Cheri Young is expected back on the stand this morning.</s>BANFIELD: In Georgia, a 1-year-old boy falls 20 feet down this storm drain.</s>ROMANS: Wow.</s>BANFIELD: Firefighters are called into the scene. But they're just too darn big to fit down that drain. So they called in their special weapon. That's her in the middle. Look at the size of her. She's 4'11". Her name is Rosa Tullis. She's a firefighter. She just got rid of her gear and she squeezed down into that one-foot opening and she rescued the boy.</s>ROSA TULLIS, EAST POINT FIRE DEPT.: It was kind of hard to manipulate him. He was afraid and just grabbing. I couldn't bring him up. I had to push him up over my head. I have boys. So it's kind of personal and it just makes it all worth coming to work and being dropped down a hole to hand them their baby back.</s>BANFIELD: Ms. Tullis, you are a hero. Little Darnell Brown is OK today. Look at that 1-year-old. He escaped with just minor scrapes and a couple of bruises and one heck of a story to tell. And we should let you know, too, lucky us, firefighter Rosa Tullis is going to be one of our guests. She's going to join us at 5:30 this morning Eastern to tell us just what it was like to do what she did, squeeze down into a one-foot opening and rescue that little baby boy.</s>ROMANS: It was hard</s>ROMANS: Gas prices, they keep going down. The new national average stands at $3.81 a gallon, down about 10 cents over the past couple of weeks. Gas prices affect everything, particularly airlines. We're going to have a good story for you in 15 minutes about Delta Airlines and what it's doing to make sure it keeps its jet fuel flowing, no matter what happens to prices or supplies in the Northeast.</s>BANFIELD: And here's a hint. This one on her way home from work just doesn't go pick up milk, she stops by a refinery to see what's going on.</s>ROMANS: I was hearing something could happen, so I went to the refinery.</s>BANFIELD: It's 10 minutes past the hour right now. And ahead on</s>EARLY START: the White House is defending drone strikes to take out suspected terrorists -- and get this -- even if they're U.S. citizens.</s>BANFIELD: And decides to get high and comes crushing down. Horrified concertgoers thinking they witnessed a fatal fall. You're watching EARLY START.