Terror Plot Arrests; Craig May Not Resign; Search For Steve Fossett; Craig Not Resigning?
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Sex sting.</s>TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: A report that tests show severe brain damage from his time in the wrestling ring didn't lead to WWE's Chris Benoit to murder/suicide. A news conference live this hour. It is Wednesday, September 5th and you are in the</s>NEWSROOM. COLLINS: Unfolding this morning, an alleged terrorist plot disrupted. Three suspects arrested. They are accused of planning imminent and massive attacks against American targets in Germany. Want to get to Frankfurt now and CNN's Frederik Pleitgen.</s>FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: German authorities are on high alert after they say they have thwarted what they call a massive and imminent terrorist attack here in Germany. German authorities say they have arrested three individuals, two of them are German nationals who apparently converted to Islam and visited terrorist training camps in Pakistan that were run by al Qaeda. The third individual was a Turkish national. Now the German interior minister says he believes that the orders for these attacks came directly from al Qaeda leadership in Pakistan. Now the method that these terrorists were going to use, authorities say, was that they acquired 1,500 pounds of highly potent hydrogen peroxide that they were going to turn into bomb-making material. The reason German authorities say they did this now, they arrested these people now is that they believe they were on the verge of turning this hydrogen peroxide into explosives. And also with the anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks coming up in only a few days, German authorities say they felt they had to make these arrests now. Frederik Pleitgen, CNN, Frankfort, Germany.</s>HARRIS: Senator Larry Craig in that men's room sex scandal. He may not resign after all. A spokesman says Craig will fight his own guilty plea. Congressional correspondent Dana Bash is with us on Capitol Hill. Dana, good morning to you. What is the react to this new twist from Republicans on Capitol Hill?</s>DANA BASH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, there's certainly a sense of shock here. People are very surprised. Especially people inside the Republican leadership. Senator Craig's very own leadership that was instrumental in forcing Senator Craig to announce his intention to resign on Saturday. They thought that this was behind them, this political nightmare that they have had over a sex scandal and it turns out that it may not be. And it is because the senator's office is changing their tune a little bit. What they are saying is that he may -- may, and they emphasize the word may, not resign if the senator is successful in his legal battle, trying to overturn the guilty plea he signed admitting to misconduct in a men's room in the Minneapolis Airport just last month. Now this whole idea of pulling back from resigning appears to have been prompted from -- by his colleague here, one of his colleagues, the only colleague who has come out and supported Senator Craig, that is Senator Arlen Specter, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee. Now the newspaper that covers Capitol Hill, "Roll Call," obtained a voice mail from Senator Craig apparently trying to reach his attorney and Senator Craig talked about the call that he got from Arlen Specter. Let's listen.</s>SEN. LARRY CRAIG, (R) IDAHO: Yes, billy, this is Larry Craig calling. You can reach me on my cell. Arlen Specter is now willing to come out in my defense, arguing that it appears by all that he knows I've been railroad and all of that. Having all of that, we've reshaped my statement a little bit to say, it is my intent to resign on September 30.</s>BASH: Now the very next day, on Sunday, Senator Specter did go on television and make the case that he does believe that Senator Craig has a legal case in trying to overturn his guilty plea. Today he is not adding anything to that. Simply saying that his public words stand for themselves. Now, CNN has been told that Senator Craig is calling around here to Capitol Hill, to his other Republican colleagues, trying to see if there is other support beyond Senator Specter. Unclear what he's been hearing. But what is clear, Tony, is that the Republican leadership, as I mentioned, is not happy about this. They made clear yesterday, the Republican leader himself said that this episode is over and that's how they view it. Wouldn't be surprised if we heard similar words later today.</s>HARRIS: Yes. Our congressional correspondent Dana Bash for us. Dana, appreciate it. Thank you.</s>COLLINS: Startling news from the military this morning. A B-52 bomber, like this one, mistakenly loaded with six nuclear warheads and flown across country. It happened last Thursday. The mistake not discovered until after the flight. The bomber was flying from Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota, to Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana. A three and a half hour flight. It was during that time the nuclear warheads on advanced cruise missiles were unaccounted for. Air Force officials are now investigating how it happened. But important here, they say the nuclear bombs could not have detonated because of redundant safeguards.</s>HARRIS: Felix weaker this morning, but still very much a threat. The storm slammed ashore yesterday in Central America as a fierce category five. It is now a tropical depression. The concern now, heavy rain and massive flooding in Nicaragua, El Salvador and Honduras. It is reported that at least four people may have died as the storm made landfall. In the Pacific, Hurricane Henriette is a category one storm with winds near 75 miles per hour. It made landfall along the southern tip of the Baja Peninsula yesterday and is still on the move.</s>COLLINS: It's just coming from all directions it seems like. Rob Marciano joining us now for the very latest on everything that's happening.</s>HARRIS: Here's a question for you. What drove wrestler Chris Benoit to kill his wife, son and himself? A doctor who examined Benoit's brain offers a possible explanation this morning. He told ABC's "Good Morning America" the wrestler suffered brain damage from multiple concussions. Doctor Julian Bailes says it could have been a leading cause of the tragedy. He says the damage is similar to that found in Alzheimer's patients.</s>COLLINS: Crews in Nevada searching for adventurer Steve Fossett this morning. His plane vanished Monday. CNN's Ted Rowlands is in Minden, Nevada, for us now this morning. And, Ted, conditions, I heard you say a little bit earlier, are at least better this morning in the search for Steve Fossett.</s>TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Much better. And pilots are arriving here. We just got a little bit of an update. They expect to start flying in about 20 minutes. That's 7:30 Pacific Time here. And they expect to exploit these weather conditions and use this day to try to find Fossett, who has been missing since Monday morning. He took off in a single engine plane by himself. The plan had about three to four hours' worth of fuel in it. They have expanding the search area to about a 600-square mile area. A huge area. About half the size of Rhode Island. They're using a grid search technique through this. Yesterday they accomplished some work but the conditions were very difficult. They're hoping to get back up there and accomplish more and hopefully find him. There are some discouraging things. There's a beacon on the plane that if he were to land this thing safely, he would able to manually activate it. And they haven't heard anything from that. On the upside, if there was a crash, it would have gone off automatically. They haven't heard anything on that side either. So there's some good news and some bad news. Time is a factor here. They're very concerned. But this is a guy who has done it all in his lifetime. He not only is an aviator, a sailor, he set world records in sailing, he's even set cross-country ski records, swam the English Channel, been in the Ironman competition, the Iditarod. He is a survivalist. His friend, Richard Branson, another adventurer, said this about Steve Fossett earlier this morning on CNN.</s>RICHARD BRANSON, CHAIRMAN, VIRGIN GROUP: If he's landed and he's not too badly hurt, he's the one person in the world who will, you know, who will be mentally and physically equipped to get out of this. So, you know, so if anyone's going to end up, you know, walking back up the ranch and apologizing for</s>ROWLANDS: A reference to the Hilton's plane. He took off from a ranch nearby here owned by the Hilton family and was using their plane when he left. And that is where we understand his wife Peggy of some 30 years is with family members. A lot of people around the world very concerned about Steve Fossett, hoping today, Heidi, that they will be able to get some answers. And you hear the aircraft in the background. They're about ready to go up and resume this search. And hopefully today it will be fruitful.</s>COLLINS: Hey, Ted, just curious. I know there's Nellis Air Force Base out there. Very, very active Air Force base. Just wondering if there's any possibility that someone from there or people from there might also help in this search.</s>ROWLANDS: Well, the Civil Air Patrol is coordinating this. And they're basically an auxiliary of the Air Force. They handle search and rescue in this area. So they're coordinating it, but they're getting help from other agencies and they're trying to get every asset available to take part in this search. They have to control it, though, because they don't want independent searches going on and they need to control every movement of these planes. But they say they are exploiting the weather and the resources in this area and they're doing everything humanly possible to find Steve Fossett.</s>COLLINS: All right, Ted, we know you're on top of it for us. We'll check back later. Thanks so much. And an update on the search for Steve Fossett scheduled for 1:00 p.m. Eastern. We will carry this for you live right here on</s>CNN. HARRIS: OK, parents, time to check the toy box again. Another big recall to tell you about.</s>COLLINS: A senator's sex scandal, a new legal challenge. Can the lawmaker stay in office despite his guilty plea? We'll talk with our legal expert, Jeffrey Toobin.</s>HARRIS: She's getting a lot of attention on the presidential campaign trail, but she's not the candidate. Michelle Obama makes the cover of "Jet" magazine. We will hear from "Jet's" associate editor coming up.</s>COLLINS: And U.S. service families in Germany feeling like sitting ducks?</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The extremists or the terrorists that would like to make a statement against Americans would, of course, like to get a hold of Americans' children and American families.</s>COLLINS: We'll check out security at the U.S. base in Wiesbaden (ph). You are in the CNN NEWSROOM.