Brooklyn Bridge Shut Down; New Arrest In Terror Case
BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: OUTFRONT next, the latest from the terror attack in London the investigation there. Now 10 people have been arrested in connection with the brutal meat cleaver murder of a soldier there in broad daylight. Also, here we go again. The cruise industry takes yet another hit. A fire breaks out onboard a ship. We're going to show you some pictures today. Also, a Kentucky police officer gunned down in what authorities believe was a pre-planned ambush. Who is targeting our law enforcement agents? Let's go OUTFRONT. We begin with breaking news tonight. I'm Brooke Baldwin sitting in for Erin Burnett. You're looking at live pictures of the Brooklyn Bridge as New York police have shut down this bridge in both directions, as you can see on this Memorial Day evening, no cars going either way into the city or into Brooklyn. The issue has been this vehicle that we've seen some bomb squads responding to with protective gear because it was curious the fact that it didn't have license plate nor did it have a vehicle identification number. The bomb squad as I mentioned searching the vehicle at this hour. And CNN producer, Ross Levitt, is joining me now on the phone. Ross, I still see no traffic. Tell me the latest.</s>ROSS LEVITT, CNN PRODUCER (via telephone): Yes, that's right. Traffic is still shut down in both directions on the Brooklyn Bridge and so as pedestrian traffic, and also, not allowed to cross over the bridge right now. We are seeing some signs that this thing may be coming to a close, some of the vehicles leaving the scene. But apparently the NYPD not ready to open things up for traffic. So they must have a few items they still want to check out. It's tough to know how long that will be. But on this Memorial Day whether people, you know, generally like to cross over the Brooklyn Bridge. It's one of the fun New York things to do, not able to do that right now because of this suspicious vehicle that apparently had no VIN number on it, no license plate on it and so that raised a lot of suspicions. It was abandoned right on the bridge.</s>BALDWIN: We're looking at pictures right now. This was earlier tonight. I mentioned someone in a protective suit. This is the bomb squad. You saw the NYPD officers as well. Here he is very, very carefully going through this vehicle to try to figure out if there might be something possibly nefarious inside. Bottom line, Ross, as you say, maybe it will be clearing out. How long is the car been sitting there?</s>LEVITT: We got this within the hour. So it hasn't been very long at this point. And from our experience in covering these things, generally as it goes past an hour, that's when you start to think gee maybe there really is something nefarious going on. But we're under that mark at this point. And so if at some point we do get an all clear here, you know, it will be a sign that things are OK.</s>BALDWIN: Ross, let me interrupt you.</s>LEVITT: Traffic has backed off here. Folks trying to get on to the bridge are unable to pedestrians and vehicles so --</s>BALDWIN: Ross, I just got in my ear that the NYPD has now officially said all clear, all clear tonight. So soon enough we will start seeing traffic back and forth on this Memorial Day evening there on the Brooklyn Bridge. Ross Levitt, thank you so much. Also OUTFRONT tonight, a new terror arrest, number 10 here. Officers investigating the brutal killing of British soldier, Lee Rigby, have arrested another man for conspiracy to commit murder. So far, authorities have arrested 10 people in this case including one of the alleged killers who was captured on this incredibly gruesome video here. You see his two bloody hands in his left hand a meat cleaver and a knife. The murder has caused all kinds of backlash against Muslims in London, which is where we have our Atika Shubert tonight with the very latest on the investigation. Atika, tell me about this arrest, number 10.</s>ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, he is the 10th person to be arrested. He is a 50-year-old man. He was arrested on the street by armed police. Now he didn't put up a fight. He was brought in like many of the others on suspicion of conspiracy to murder. Now we don't know the exact connection he had with the two main suspects. In fact, we don't know from most of these young men that have been arrested, most of them are between the ages of 29 and 28 what their connections are. Are they acquaintances, close friends or family? We just don't know. What we do know is that the two main suspects Michael Adebolajo and Michael (inaudible) remain inside the separate hospitals where they are recuperating from their gunshot wounds. They were shot and severely injured immediately after the attack, but we do understand that police have not been able to fully question them yet -- Brooke.</s>BALDWIN: OK, Atika Shubert tonight for us in London. I want to continue the conversation and bring in Phil Mudd. He is a former CIA deputy director of Counterterrorism, an FBI senior intelligence adviser. Also tonight, we have Fran Townsend. She is CNN's national security analyst, President Bush's Homeland Security adviser, formerly and a member of the CIA External Advisory Board. So welcome to both of you. And Phil, let me just begin with you because one of the suspects that Atika was mentioning, we know that who is in custody for the killing of this soldier in London, we know that he was arrested by Kenyan authorities back in 2010 for suspected ties to terrorist organizations in Somalia possibly Al Shabab. Also interestingly we've learned according to reports he was even approached by British intelligence. So this tells me he was known. What does that tell you?</s>PHILIP MUDD, FORMER CIA DEPUTY DIRECTOR COUNTERTERRORISM: It tells me a little bit, not as much as you might think. The quantity of threat that the British sit on is substantial. It's a lot greater than the amount of threat I saw in the United States with the FBI. Communities in places like Leads, London, Birmingham, they are fermenting with Islamic extremism so the Brits have a big problem.</s>BALDWIN: What about, Fran, when I look at you I also think of -- recently talking to you when I was in Boston covering the marathon bombings and specifically when you think of the Tsarnaev brothers and Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the elder brother, we know he was on terror watch lists. Sometimes there is a concern that one could get lost on such a tremendous list. But it sounds like that this individual, what was somewhat known, how do -- in terms of information sharing, how do we make sure that information is shared with the most important people in cases like this, i.e. local police?</s>FRANCES TOWNSEND, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: You know, Brooke that is the confounding thing about this. Look, the Tsarnaev brother lead came from the Russian government. The Russian government may or may not have passed it for its own reasons. And the FBI looked at it and developed -- couldn't develop very much about it. The interesting difference here is in the case of the London murderer of -- murderers of Lee Rigby, this was somebody -- this was their own information, the own domestic service, their version of the FBI, MI-5, had this information and we understand from other reports actually approached him because of his access in extremist circles. He was a known quantity to them and as you say, the question really becomes did they share it with Scotland Yard? If not, why not? What was the reason behind that and were they working together with Scotland Yard?</s>BALDWIN: So it's what did they know and now, Phil, it's the look at the demonstrations. You have the EDL, the English Defense League, you know, demonstrating this huge, huge backlash on the Muslim community. You have a mosque that was set on fire over the weekend. How concerning is that for you?</s>MUDD: I think it is the most disconcerting thing about the entire case. Aside from the tragedy of the murder, you go back to 12 years to 911, what you have is revolutionaries that is al Qaeda and it's sympathizers trying to create a clash of civilizations between the Muslim world, the United States and others. To my mind, the concern is that they're going to succeed. Society can't sit still and say look, let's not give them what they want. Let's sit still.</s>BALDWIN: So, Fran, what are your thoughts on that? I mean, this is a huge, huge part of the story.</s>TOWNSEND: It is a huge part of the story and I don't think we've seen the end of it, Brooke, unfortunately. I mean, we've heard today that there were then counter sort of protests and defacing of war memorials in Great Britain. I think that we're just beginning to see this and it's an ongoing problem as Phil rightly points out. The extremist population and problem that the level of threat in London is tremendous and so I think you're going to see this over a period of -- a protracted period of time, which will be a real challenge for security officials in London.</s>BALDWIN: We'll continue following that, of course. Again, we're reporting the 10th arrest here in this case. Phil Mudd and Fran Townsend, thanks to you both tonight. Still to come, a fire erupts on a luxury liner forcing passengers to scramble to safety. How will the cruise ship industry respond to this latest PR nightmare? Plus, George Zimmerman's trial, set to begin in a matter of weeks. What his lawyers are doing to get it delays. And this is horrible, this couple murdered in their Alaskan home and their great granddaughter, 2 years old, sexually assaulted. An officer working the case joins us OUTFRONT tonight with an update. The latest into the investigation into this Washington Bridge collapse, what authorities say caused the bridge to fall.