Two Islamic Clerics Not Allowed on American Flight By Pilot; Storms and Tornadoes Devastate Southern States
T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Hey, there, everybody. From the CNN Center in Atlanta, Georgia, this is your Saturday morning. It is 10:00 a.m. here in Atlanta, but it's 9:00 a.m. in Memphis, Tennessee. That is where people are on alert. Take a look at that. They are waiting to see if their homes are going to withstand the flood waters. We could be talking about historic levels of flooding there and in other places along the Mississippi river. We will have a live update. Also, more and more new details continue to trickle out about exactly what happened in Pakistan before a U.S. team moved in on Osama bin Laden. Also, a school trip to the zoo ends with a trip to the hospital for a 7-year-old boy who is mauled by a leopard after he tried to get a little too close. The witness will share how quick-thinking visitors may have saved the day. But first, I want to get to some more details and more reaction about the removal of two Muslim clerics from a commercial airplane. This happened yesterday aboard an Atlantic southeast airlines flight. The flight was headed from Memphis to charlotte. Earlier I spoke with Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations which was contacted by the two Muslim men.</s>IBRAHIM HOOPER, COUNCIL ON AMERICAN-ISLAMIC RELATIONS (via telephone): They said they were taking a flight to a religious conference in Charlotte from Memphis. They went through security, even went through secondary security, and got on the plane, were taxiing out. They were taxied back. TSA came on and pulled them off and said the pilot was refusing to fly with them because passengers were uncomfortable with them. Now, the Delta officials on site rescreened them and assured they were no threat and trying to get the pilot to put them back on the plane, and the pilot absolutely refused and, ultimately, took off.</s>HOLMES: Sir, was there anything, at least these men say, I assume maybe they have flown before and they might fly all the time for all we know, but was there anything in particular looking back that they think they did to cause any kind of alarm to their fellow passengers?</s>HOOPER: No. They weren't told that any passenger made any accusation against them. All that was mentioned was that some passengers were uncomfortable with them. And I'm assuming that would stem from what you could regard as Islamic attire, a robe and a skull cap, that kind of thing. I think what you've got here is kind of one of these Juan William scenarios where people are just uncomfortable being on a plane with somebody that looks like they're Muslim.</s>HOLMES: I do want to share. I just want to share for our viewers. These two were on an Atlantic southeast airlines flight. They did put out a statement. I'll read it to you and share it with our viewers. And they say "We take security and safety very seriously, and the event is currently under investigation." They go on to say, "We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience that this may have caused." Ibrahim, from what you understand - go ahead.</s>HOOPER: The imams actually praised Delta. Delta is the governing body of that airline. They praised the delta officials on the scene for trying to negotiate with the pilot to get them back on the plane. But it seemed to be the pilot's problem.</s>HOLMES: Any passenger, they weren't told the passengers were uncomfortable, but as they were on that plane did anyone say anything to them that made it seem that they were uncomfortable?</s>HOOPER: No. They said no one said anything and delta officials went on the plane and actually asked people if they were uncomfortable and offered to put them on another flight, if they were uncomfortable, and nobody raised their hand.</s>HOLMES: All right, we do want to note here that both men were bound for a conference where the subject was prejudice against Muslims. It's also worth noting, this is not the first such incident we have seen. Five years ago six imams kicked off a flight on a different airline after they were returning from that same conference. We do want to turn now to some weather and devastating weather, in particular, flooding. Look at this, folks. This is happening all along the Mississippi River. It's spilling over its banks. It's forced its tribute airs to flood streets and backyards, some areas under evacuation orders. Not everyone is leaving even though maybe they should. Look at this map, the affected states there. The Mississippi river, of course, cuts right through the center of this country and you can see all those places along Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, they're seeing flooding. Levees are being counted on to save communities. Most of this is being caused by rain in some places up to 20 inches. Coming up at the bottom of the hour, we are talking to the office of emergency preparedness in Memphis. We'll hear exactly how things are going there. Stick with us for that. Now, the rising waters flowing towards the Gulf of Mexico putting a lot of major cities in danger over the next few days and also even weeks. Alexandra Steele meteorologist is here with us on this CNN Saturday morning. You and I have been talking about this all morning. How people have time. They are getting a heads up. They know a disaster is coming in two weeks. Kind of odd to say it that way, but that is literally what we're talking about, is it not?</s>ALEXANDRA STEELE, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Absolutely. It's not a flash flood that happens in seconds. What residents are seeing is a slow water rise and it's just unbelievable. What we've seen here along the Mississippi, maybe in some of these areas we've seen a foot rise a day, and that's what we're going to see until it crests. So we're talking about a crest of 50 feet in some areas. This is where we have the record flooding and all these flood warnings. So right now we're watching, I think we all kind of began to talk about it and see it when we saw and heard from Caro, Illinois, with, of course, the towns being evacuated. That's what we're beginning to see as the Mississippi heads south and so does the slow wall of water that continues to move. The problem is we'll see in the next five days, not the 15 to 20 inches of rain that we have seen, an incredible amount of rain for so much of the central portion of this country from Illinois down to Louisiana and Mississippi and western Texas and western areas of Kentucky, so much rain, 300 percent of average for the most part. A few more inches is possible in the next five days, but, certainly, nothing like what we've seen. And, of course, this is the Mississippi flooding down to Memphis. And Memphis, unfortunately, is really the biggest city and next in line, expected in just four days to crest at 48 feet. Major flooding just to give you a little perspective is 46 feet. To give you even more perspective, six inches, that's it, of flowing water can drown a person, six inches. Look what we're talking about here -- 48 feet. We talk about it being historic and record breaking and it most certainly is, a lot of these records back to 1937 and the floods of 1927 and even a 1915 number. So, it is quite dramatic. Moving farther south, Memphis is up next and as we move through the next couple days. Vicksburg you'll see 14.5 feet above flood stage and the important note with this, this is the Mississippi river and just to show you, the communities and the casinos along these rivers. So, incredibly dramatic and you can see by the time we get to Baton Rouge, we're going to see the cresting the 23rd of May, just in a few days. Back to you,</s>T.J. HOLMES: Alexandra Steele with us this weekend. There's another severe weather story we need to tell you about. This took place last week. It seems like a lot has happened since then and a lot has happened, but, remember, we just saw last week one of the largest outbreaks of tornadoes in this country's history. It was also one of the deadliest in this country's history. We bring in Reynolds Wolf who is in there in the south at a Red Cross relief center in Tuscaloosa. I have been hitting on this this morning that last week we woke up to these tornados and then a lot of royal wedding coverage and then Osama bin Laden was killed and that took so much of the headlines all week. It seems like, you know, remind our viewers here just how historic of a week we saw last week even though, unfortunately, this story seems to moved away from the headlines.</s>REYNOLDS WOLF, CNN METEOROLOGIST: No question about it, T.J. I mean, certainly, it was the worst natural disaster in the state of Alabama's history, maybe in the nation. It's something that will take the region a very long time to recover. I can tell you right now at this particular relief disaster, it is one of 11 here in the state of Alabama, over 50 nationwide. And people have been coming in here and doing everything from showers to hot meals and something to drink and anything from dental care, regular health care, it's amazing. It's a one-stop shop for people who have lost everything and amazing thing to see people volunteering and helping out fellow Americans. But, I would be remiss to say this is not the only place affected. We have really focused on a great place of Tuscaloosa, but there are many smaller communities across the southeast that have just been ripped apart by these tornadoes. There are places like Webster's Chapel. Another place ravaged by the tornadoes is Pratt City just to the northwest of Alabama, northwest of Birmingham, rather. The mayor of Birmingham was actually there yesterday. If you check out this video, you can see a bit of it. Mayor William Bell was there and he also had a special visitor with him, that's the comedian Bill Cosby. He is the speaker at Miles College and the two were able to walk around and see the damage first hand and, again, they were both mesmerized by what they found.</s>BILL COSBY, ENTERTAINER: What I've seen of trucks and maintenance things coming to clear up, as long as that's happening. And I think people have learned from Katrina that this is reality. And your mayor to make sure so quickly, so fast, this is turning people into believers. And we need them to believe that they can help each other.</s>MAYOR WILLIAM BELL, BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA: While this storm was devastating, it has brought out the best of our city and I'm grateful to be the mayor of a city that has such wonderful people in it.</s>WOLF: I can tell you that the cleanup has really begun in many places, including Pratt City and here in Tuscaloosa bit by bit. You have to remember, again, this is a tornado of historic proportions, just incredibly large, at times over a mile wide in spots. So, T.J., certainly going to take a very, very long time before we recover. Let's send it back to you in the studio.</s>HOLMES: Reynolds there for us in Alabama. We appreciate you, as always, talk to you soon. For our viewers, if you're looking for ways to help out the disaster victims in the south, go to CNN.com/impact to find information on charities and help with both flood and tornado victims. An American born radical cleric linked to Al Qaeda appears to have escaped an American military attempt to kill him. A drone fired a missile into an area of southern Yemen where Anwar al-Awlaki he is known to spend time. Al-Awlaki was born in New Mexico and is accused of recruiting the so-called "underwear bomber" who tried to blow up a plane in Detroit back in 2009. Meanwhile, the Taliban in Afghanistan acknowledging the death of Osama bin Laden. This comes on the heels of acknowledgment from Al Qaeda that its leader was killed from American commandos. The Taliban statement issued yesterday said bin Laden, quote, "embraced martyrdom," and that his death will reinvigorate the holy war against the United States and its allies. Officials at the zoo in Wichita, Kansas, say there are no plans to euthanize a leopard that attacked a first-grader yesterday. Witnesses say the boy climbed over a barrier and got too close to the exhibit.</s>NAOMI ROBINSON, EYEWITNESS: The cat just really reached out and grabbed him by his head and then a man and woman jumped up there and kicked him in his head. And he released the child and they just grabbed him and put pressure on the side of his face where he clawed him.</s>HOLMES: A zoo spokesman says the incident is a first in the 40 years since the zoo has been open. The child's condition has been upgraded from critical to fair. Before the special operations team moved in, U.S. intelligence was keeping a close eye on the compound where Osama bin Laden was living. We'll take you inside this high-tech surveillance operation. That is next.