Threats Against NFL Stadiums; Condoleezza Rice Willing to Talk to North Korea; Spike in Violence in Iraq
TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: You're with CNN. You're informed. Good morning, everyone. I'm Tony Harris.</s>HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Heidi Collins. Developments just keep coming into the NEWSROOM on this Thursday, October 19th. Here's what's on the rundown now. A security refocus in Iraq. A brutally violent month prompts the U.S. military to take another look at their strategy.</s>HARRIS: The secretary of state in Seoul, all smiles, pressing South Korea to stand tough with sanctions against the nuclear North.</s>COLLINS: And this priest -- CNN sources and a newspaper report identify him as the man who allegedly molested former congressman Mark Foley when he was a teenager. The Capitol e-mail scandal merging with the priest abuse scandal in the</s>NEWSROOM. HARRIS: And we continue to follow developments in the story of the threats against NFL stadiums for this weekend that was posted on a Web site. Jonathan Freed is on the phone with us from Milwaukee -- Jonathan.</s>JONATHAN FREED, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Tony. I can tell you that a law enforcement official is telling CNN that a young adult who they will only say is from Wisconsin is being interviewed in Milwaukee by the FBI. They say that person came forward with information regarding the threats that were posted -- that was posted, and that this person is further believed responsible for posting the threat on the Internet. Remember, we're talking about seven stadiums here in Miami, New York, Atlanta, Seattle, Houston, Oakland and Cleveland. Now, the FBI is continuing to say and authorities are continuing to say that they do not believe and they have not believed from the beginning that this threat was credible. They say that they informed the NFL after a point because they felt that they needed to err on the side of caution, and they have been emphasizing throughout that the public needs to go about its normal plans and does not need to avoid stadiums -- Tony.</s>HARRIS: And Jonathan, what was the nature of the threat? What was the person promising would happen at these stadiums?</s>FREED: Well, what we've been hearing and what has been posted is that dirty bombs, so-called dirty bombs would be delivered by truck. And a dirty bomb is a combination of a conventional explosive with some kind of radioactive material. This would not be a nuclear explosion by any means. But it is a means of dispersing radioactive material in a way to perhaps contaminate an area and try to affect individuals in that area.</s>HARRIS: So, Jonathan, are we, in essence, waiting for some kind of a statement from the FBI? Because the FBI's involvement certainly seems to ratchet this thing up another level. I'm thinking about folks with tickets to ball games this weekend.</s>FREED: Well, I don't know if it's necessarily ratcheting it up another level, because when you have somebody came forward and when they are trying in a case like this to investigate this kind of a threat, they use all their resources at their disposal.</s>HARRIS: Got you.</s>FREED: The statement that did come out this morning suggested that -- that the threat is still believed not to be credible, and the official statement only went so far, using the traditional phrase that we're so used to hearing in case like this, Tony, that "the investigation is ongoing." But, again, a source is telling CNN -- law enforcement sources telling CNN that the person being interviewed is a young adult from Wisconsin, being interviewed in Milwaukee by the FBI, who came forward and who is believed to be responsible for posting this threat on the Internet. That's the latest we have.</s>HARRIS: All right, Jonathan. Appreciate it. Thank you.</s>FREED: Thanks, Tony.</s>HARRIS: CNN's Jonathan Freed for us.</s>COLLINS: Condoleezza Rice on the road. Washington's top diplomat in Seoul today, just across the border from North Korea and its defiant nuclear program. Rice won more support for international sanctions, but will it curb the crisis or escalate things? CNN's Zain Verjee is the only TV journalist accompanying Rice on her travels. Here she is now.</s>ZAIN VERJEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says the U.S. is still willing to talk to North Korea. She says that North Korea has to give up its nuclear program and return to six-party talks.</s>CONDOLEEZZA RICE, SECRETARY OF STATE: We want to leave open the path of negotiation. We don't want the crisis to escalate. And the sooner that North Korea would choose to unconditionally come back to the table and take up the very good -- very good statement or very good agreement that is their framework agreement that is there as of September, it would be to the betterment of everyone.</s>VERJEE: She says that she's hoping that a senior Chinese official that's been dispatched to Pyongyang is going to be able to convince North Korea to do just that. On the way over here, a senior administration official also added that that Chinese official is carrying a very strong message to Pyongyang. It's not clear exactly what that message is. Secretary Rice also wants South Korea to implement the U.N. Security Council resolution that hit North Korea with sanctions. Specifically, also, she wants South Korea to carry out inspections of North Korean cargo ships coming in and out of the country that may be carrying nuclear materials. Secretary Rice also said that she wasn't in South Korea to dictate to the South Koreans exactly what they needed to do. The question now, though, is, what will the South Koreans do? How tough will they be on North Korea? Will they squeeze North Korea hard? One of the analysts we spoke to here said that South Korea would be nervous if North Korea was pushed too hard for fear that it may collapse and destabilize the region. Zain Verjee, CNN, Seoul.</s>HARRIS: More bombs and bullets across Iraq today killing dozens of people. The surge in attacks is now prompting the U.S. military to announce a refocus of security measures in Baghdad. CNN Pentagon Correspondent Barbara Starr joins us with details. Barbara, good morning.</s>BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Tony. It was a surprising briefing in Baghdad today, to say the least, when the top U.S. military spokesman, General Bill Caldwell, got up in front of reporters and said that the violence is, in his words, "disheartening." There is some progress, he says, but there is a good deal of concern about the continuing violence in Baghdad. For the last two months, there has been something called the Baghdad security plan. That is the effort by military forces and police forces to try and get a handle on the situation in the capital. It is one of the lynchpins of the U.S. effort there. General Caldwell today saying it's all being looked at. Once again, it does not appear, by all accounts, that the plan is working as intended. Have a listen.</s>MAJ. GEN. WILLIAM CALDWELL, SPOKESMAN, MULTINATIONAL FORCE, IRAQ: We're obviously very concerned about what we're seeing in the city. We're taking a lot of time to go back and look at the whole Baghdad security plan. We're asking ourselves if the conditions under which it was first devised and planned still exist today or have the conditions changed and, therefore, a modification to the plan needs to be made.</s>STARR: A lot of bureaucratic words there, Tony, but make no mistake, the U.S. and the Iraqi forces now looking at the entire situation in Baghdad, once again trying to figure out what they can change, what they can do different to try and get a handle on this. What is the level of violence? Attacks up 20 percent in recent weeks, Iraqi civilians now literally dying by the dozens each day. Seventy-three U.S. troops killed in action so far this month. One of the deadliest months on record -- Tony.</s>HARRIS: Barbara, I've got a couple of questions that I want to ask you very quickly here. We really like General Caldwell. He answers your questions directly. And he used that word "disheartening" to describe what's going on in and around Baghdad. Did he give any suggestion that perhaps the coalition might be losing Baghdad?</s>STARR: No. I don't think that that's anything that one can expect a military officer to say or that the U.S. military or the Iraqis believe. It is very critical right now, but they are going to, in General Caldwell's words, refocus their efforts, look at the whole Baghdad security plan, and figure out what they can do about it. One of the critical things that they know they must do is get a handle on the police forces, the militias, the death squads. That is a lot of the focus right now -- Tony.</s>HARRIS: And Barbara, talk to us about the release of a cleric who we believe is tied to actual death squads.</s>STARR: That's -- this underscores the problem, the challenge, the very difficult situation. U.S. forces conducted a raid a day or so ago and captured a Shia cleric that they believed was involved in death squad activity that is tied to this man, Muqtada al-Sadr, leader of one of the strongest militias, the Mehdi Army, in Iraq. Let's be clear. U.S. forces went after him, U.S. troops put their own lives at risk. What has happened? Well, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has called up the United States coalition in Baghdad and said he wants this man released. And this man now has been released. Not a lot of explanation why. General Caldwell saying that U.S. troops, of course, are in Iraq at the behest of the sovereign government of Iraq now and have to do what the Iraqi government tells them to do. But here's one of the challenges, Tony. They get this guy and now they've released him because the Iraqis want him released.</s>HARRIS: OK. What a story that is. Barbara Starr for us at the Pentagon. Barbara, thank you.</s>STARR: Sure.</s>COLLINS: Chad Myers joining us now with an update on the weather situation, which we continue to keep people abreast of, the southeast area.</s>CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Baton Rouge just getting hammered right now.</s>COLLINS: Yes.</s>MYERS: Just that line, a squall line just has pushed right into the city now of Baton Rouge. And I was just looking at a bunch of the tower cams and a bunch of the traffic cams around Baton Rouge, and a lot of them are just obscured with rain coming down in buckets there now. A little bit farther to the north, though, we're also watching this tornado warning, although it's almost moved out of the county that we're really worried about. It's almost moved up into the county that's just southwest of Jackson, Mississippi. Here's the cell that has been rotating for a while. And the warning is still down here for the Crystal Springs area. But the storm has now and it still continues to move up toward the Jackson, Mississippi, region. It is still rotating, although fairly slowly at this point. Any storm that rotates at all we're concerned about because a rotating storm can bring down its rotation into one point, which could be a tornado. We'll keep watching it. And the warning is issued for Jackson. That will certainly get on the air right away for you. Atlanta, an hour delay now because of some low visibility. LaGuardia and also Philadelphia, 30-minute departure delays. Other than that, for today severe weather will build up all the way from really Chattanooga through Atlanta, down into the Gulf Coat region. Tomorrow it pushes off shore. There will be some rain in New York late, late tonight, probably after midnight, probably after the end of the game, I hope. And then for Saturday, a cool day. For the Colorado Rockies, more snow expected. Summit County and the ski resorts just going, come on, bring it on.</s>COLLINS: I think that's an invitation directly from Colorado.</s>HARRIS: That's what that is.</s>COLLINS: Chad, thank you.</s>MYERS: You're welcome.</s>COLLINS: We quickly want to get to Thomas Roberts now. He's standing by in the newsroom to give us an update on a happy ending to a story in Washington State which turned out to be first a car-jacking and then a possible kidnapping.</s>THOMAS ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: You're exactly right, Heidi. So this is really showing the success of the Amber Alert program, also the hard work of police there in Washington State, in Arlington and Marysville, Washington. Now, here's the back story. A mom was driving with her two kids in the backseat last night in Arlington when a guy jumped in her car showing a knife, saying, "Hey, I want you to drive me to a nearby town." Well, once they got to that nearby town, he forced the mom oust the vehicle and took off with the two kids in the backseat, Abigail Sobiniya (ph), who is 4; Calleb Sobiniya (ph), just 2 years old. And they went off with this guy. The mom notifying authorities. Well, that was last night. And then by this morning, roughly by 5:30 a.m., there was a patrol officer that found the two children in this minivan, safe and sound. However, the guy, he is still on the loose. Just to give you a quick description, he was described in his 30s, about 5'6, shaved head, also a slight goatee. He was wearing jeans and a navy jacket, kind of sweatshirt thing as well underneath. But the success here is great that the two kids were found OK. So a mom and her two kids have been reunited, but the search for the guy of the car-jacking goes on. Back to you guys.</s>COLLINS: All right. I hope they find him. Boy, what a relief for her.</s>ROBERTS: Absolutely.</s>COLLINS: All right, Thomas. Thank you.</s>HARRIS: How about this freak accident out of Florida? An 81- year-old Florida man in critical condition this morning. A stingray jumped into his boat yesterday, striking him in the chest with its stinger.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We did not feel the bar in the heart. It may still be in the heart or it may have gone out through a major artery to a different part of the body. He has a reasonable chance of recovering, but it's not guaranteed. It's a very serious and a freaky injury. I've never seen anything like this. And I don't think many people have.</s>HARRIS: Yes, that's for sure. But you may recall, "Crocodile Hunter" Steve Irwin died last month when a stingray hit him in the chest with its barb off of Australia's northern coast. Do we have these live pictures? Let's take a look. OK. There's a news conference that should be starting pretty soon. There it is, live pictures out of the hospital where this man is being treated in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. We are going to maybe dip in a little bit and maybe just sort of monitor it for you and see if we can get an update on this man's condition.</s>COLLINS: A mother, her boyfriend and baby on the run. A social worker killed. A detective will update us on a Kentucky manhunt coming up in just a few moments.</s>HARRIS: And betting on oil and losing big time. Hedge funds take a hit. What about your funds? Where's Ali Velshi? He is in the NEWSROOM and with us when we come back.