Suspicious Objects Found in U.S. Airports; How Should U.S. Presidents Deal With Dictators?
WOLF BLITZER, HOST: And to our viewers, you're in THE SITUATION ROOM. Happening now, suspicious objects meant to mimic bombs are found in U.S. airports. Is it part of a dry run for a terror attack? Why authorities across America are being warned to keep their eyes open right now. And should a U.S. president deal with dictators? Candidates Clinton and Obama dueling over whether to talk with some of the less savory characters on the world stage. And it's not just a matter of diet -- exercise. There is a stunning new study that's being released this hour. It shows if a friend becomes overweight, your own risk of obesity rises dramatically. And get this -- that friend could actually live a thousand miles away. I'm Wolf Blitzer. You're in THE SITUATION ROOM. Well, we begin this hour with some suspicious material seized at the nation's airports and they're raising new terror concerns. Federal authorities have warned local police across the country to be on the alert for possible practice runs by terrorists training to strike at America. Let's begin with our correspondent Brian Todd -- Brian, tell our viewers what's raising the alarm bells right now.</s>BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, four incidents over the past year turning up some dangerous looking objects, which security experts say could have been designed to test the detection and response capability at America's airports.</s>TODD (voice-over): U.S. officials say these items, blocks of cheese inside bags, two found with an electrical switch, wires and batteries, may be a dry run for a terrorist attack. The objects discovered in checked or carry-on bags at four U.S. airports this past year.</s>RAFI RON, AIRPORT SECURITY CONSULTANT: I think that they were testing our detectors' capability.</s>TODD: CNN has learned investigations are ongoing, but at this time...</s>CHARLES ALLEN, DHS ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR INTEL: At this time, there's no -- we cannot attribute a terrorist intent to this.</s>TODD: Which raises questions about the timing. The leak of the security alert comes hours after President Bush's speech mentioning Al Qaeda 95 times.</s>GEORGE BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Al Qaeda, Al Qaeda, Al Qaeda.</s>TODD: And two weeks after this warning from the homeland security secretary.</s>MICHAEL CHERTOFF, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: All these things give me kind of a gut feeling that we are in a period of increased vulnerability.</s>TODD: But behind the scenes, the Transportation Security Administration is said to be furious with this leak, which was meant for law enforcement ears only. Aviation security expert Peter Goelz says this isn't about political cover but...</s>PETER GOELZ, AVIATION SECURITY CONSULTANT: You don't want to be accused of not connecting the dots and at the same time you've got to keep a certain level of confidentiality so that your intelligence is -- is useful and effective.</s>TODD: In fact, just posing the question of political cover got us an emotional response from a homeland security spokesman, who says the suggestion is totally off base -- Wolf.</s>BLITZER: The people who were seized in connection with these suspicious items, Brian, were they U.S. citizens?</s>TODD: In three of the four cases, they were citizens. And the government is being tight-lipped about the fourth case. TSA officials say their explanations for these items were questionable, but so far no arrests.</s>BLITZER: Brian Todd watching this story. Thanks very much. Before past attacks, terrorists have gone on dry runs, as they're called. U.S. authorities say that in June 2005, operatives practiced a mock attack while riding the London subway shortly before the July 7th bombings, which killed 52 people. A decade earlier, in 1994, convicted terrorist Ramsey Yousef carried out a dry run for Operation Bojinka -- the simultaneous bombing of airliners over the Pacific. The plot was foiled, but in a practice run, Yousef planted a time bomb under an airline seat that exploded on a later flight, killing one person. And in 2001, months before the 9/11 attacks, the hijackers rehearsed their plan aboard airliners. During these dry runs, the ringleader, Mohamed Atta, found he could bring box cutters on board and decided the best time to storm the cockpit. Let's go back to Carol Costello. She's watching a developing story -- a little worrisome -- here in Washington on Capitol Hill -- Carol, what are you picking up.</s>CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, whenever you hear these kinds of stories, Wolf, you always get a little worried. Not far from the Capitol, which you are you're looking at right now, two Senate Office Buildings have been evacuated, the Dirksen and the Hart. Now, we don't know exactly why, but everyone has been taken out of those buildings. We believe it might be because of a fire alarm going off. But that's really the limited information that I have to share with you right now. All I know is those two buildings have been evacuated. There are lots of fire trucks around those buildings. We're trying to get down there to see for ourselves what's going on. And, of course, as I get more information I'll pass it along. Back to you -- Wolf.</s>BLITZER: All right, Carol, thanks for that. You'll update us in a few moments. Nearly six years after the 9/11 attacks, an outburst of anger today in Congress over the U.S. failure to hunt down Osama bin Laden and his top lieutenants. That comes amid word of an Al Qaeda comeback. Let's go to our Pentagon correspondent, Barbara Starr. She's watching this -- what's behind the flash of tempers, Barbara, on Capitol Hill, today?</s>BARBARA STARR, PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, it was just pure outrage. How is it that Al Qaeda appears so safe and secure inside Pakistan?</s>REP. ELLEN TAUSCHER (D), CALIFORNIA: What is it that has caused us to not find and kill Osama bin Laden?</s>STARR (voice-over): Congressional fury that Al Qaeda leaders appear to operate freely in Pakistan's remote tribal mountains, along the Afghan border.</s>TAUSCHER: We have watched them hop, skip and jump pretty much with the freedom and ability to reconstitute, from Afghanistan to Pakistan urban areas, to South Waziristan, to North Waziristan. They can move pretty much where they want in that whole entire area.</s>STARR: Intelligence estimates show Al Qaeda is not on the run. Rather, leaders feel safe enough in their mountain hideouts to plan more attacks.</s>REP. MIKE THOMPSON (D), CALIFORNIA: We took our eye off of them and allowed them to relocate, regroup and now replenish.</s>EDWARD GISTARO, NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE OFFICER: Sir, I think an alternative way to look at that is we took away the safe haven in Afghanistan. They went to urban areas in Pakistan. With -- working with the Pakistanis, we pushed them out of the urban areas of Pakistan.</s>STARR: Across the border in Afghanistan, the U.S. is trying to catch the growing number of Al Qaeda foreign fighters.</s>MAJ. GEN. DAVID RODRIGUEZ, U.S. ARMY: It's increased probably 50 to 60 percent over what it was last year.</s>STARR: The number of attacks on the Afghan side has been running double what they were last year. The hope is the new Pakistani military crackdown in the tribal region will bring the violence down throughout the mountains.</s>STARR: Wolf, just how determined are some of the fighters? Well, U.S. soldiers tell CNN that they have come across dead fighters on the Afghan side of the border with syringes and bottles of epinephrine -- adrenaline. These fighters are shooting up with drugs before they go into battle -- Wolf.</s>BLITZER: Barbara Starr, thank you for that. What a story. Along with the rise in foreign fighters, a sharp increase in suicide attacks. Suicide bombings were once very rare in Afghanistan. Two -- only two reported in 2003. There were six a year later. The number jumped to 21 in 2005 and Human Rights Watch says that last year, there were 136 suicide bombings, in which more than 800 Afghan civilians were killed or wounded. U.S. military commanders expect the number of suicide attacks to rise once again this year. Let's go back to Jack Cafferty in New York for The Cafferty File -- Jack, that's pretty worrisome stuff.</s>CAFFERTY: Yes, that whole situation over there is bad. We talked about it the other day. We've got 160,000 or so troops in Iraq. We've spent $500 billion plus. If we had committed that kind of money and that kind of manpower to Afghanistan and the hunt for Osama bin Laden, I wonder if we'd even be talking about him today. Two senior White House aides, one current, one former, have now been cited for contempt of Congress for failing to cooperate in the investigation into the firing of several U.S. attorneys. The House Judiciary Committee voted the contempt citations against White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten and President Bush's former lawyer, Harriet Miers. These two failed to comply with subpoenas for documents and testimony. They were instructed not to cooperate by President Bush. Yesterday, during Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' testimony before a Senate committee, Republican Arlen Specter told Gonzales to consider getting a special prosecutor to investigate the firings of those U.S. attorneys and then recuse himself from the case. It's not likely to happen. "The Washington Post" reports that House Democrats have put out a report suggesting that administration officials may have broken several laws during the firings of those U.S. attorneys, including obstruction of justice. They cite evidence that some of the U.S. attorneys were picked because of how they handled vote fraud allegations or other cases that could affect the outcome of close elections. The report also says Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and top Justice Department aides appear to have made false or misleading statements to Congress. So the question then is this -- is it now time to appoint a special prosecutor to look into the role of the White House and Justice Department officials in the firings of the U.S. attorneys? E-mail caffertyfile@CNN.com or go to CNN.com/caffertyfile. It's getting good on this U.S. attorneys thing -- Wolf.</s>BLITZER: Yes. It's going to get a little bit more intense, I suspect, in the next few weeks.</s>CAFFERTY: Yes.</s>BLITZER: Thanks, Jack, for that. Up ahead, a brief moment of rare joy in Baghdad as Iraqis celebrate a spectacular soccer victory. Then the bombers strike. A new inquiry into the friendly fire death, it's called, in Afghanistan of former football star Pat Tillman. Why a powerful Congressman wants to question White House aides. And in baseball, Barry Bonds closes in on a record. Critics closing in on his alleged use of steroids. Stay with us. You're in THE SITUATION ROOM.