Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Live Today

U.S. Coast Guard Intercepts Cubans Off Florida Keys

Aired May 15, 2003 - 10:49   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: We have Coast Guard on line, a captain on the phone with us. He is on shore, not on one of those boats.
But, captain, if you could tell bus the situation taking place off the coast of Florida right now.

CAPT. JOSEPH NIMMICH, U.S. COAST GUARD: I certainly can. About an hour and a half ago, we received a report of a small boat with six Cuban migrants approaching U.S. shore. As is our policy, we sent Coast Guard assets out to interdict them at sea. On arrival, the migrants took a threatening position with oars and a -- threatening position. They -- then when our vessel did not back away, they entered the water, six of them -- five of them. The six one remained on board and was without force removed from the boat. They voluntarily came on board the Coast Guard boat. The other five were in the water. Three have been removed from the water. They are currently on Coast Guard small boats in the area, and we are monitoring the other two now, and when an appropriate opportunity where won't create any difficulty or injure any migrants, we will intend to remove them from the water.

KAGAN: So how does this work? You let them wear themselves out in the water? And it looks like your boats are trying to do everything they can to get between the swimmer and shore.

NIMMICH: Well, that is -- what we do is continue to monitor the situation. First and foremost we don't want the migrant to lose control or to become so tired so that they risk drowning, so our first and paramount is life at sea, protecting life at sea, and then secondarily, we are trying to enforce U.S. law and when they are in a position where we can easily remove them without risking more injury to themselves, we'll remove them from the water.

LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Captain, this is Leon Harris here.

I'm curious about a couple of things. What is it you were -- your Coast Guard colleagues were talking to these men about. We saw them talking to these men and communicating. It appears they are talking right now, according to the pictures we're watching. I don't know if you are seeing these pictures. They are talking to each other. Can you tell us what they are talking about?

NIMMICH: Sure. They are trying to encourage the Cuban migrant to come out water, indicating he won't be successful, that he is risking becoming fatigued, and that he's putting himself at risk, and we'd like to him to come out of water so we can take care of him and process him. KAGAN: What happens if this man goes back to Cuba? Does he know what happens? Do you know what happens?

NIMMICH: There is a U.S. policy that has been worked out with the Cuban government through the Immigration Service of how they are processed. and the follow-up action that is taken when they get into Cuba.

HARRIS: Explain one more thing to me, because this is one that I'm having a hard time visualizing. How does a man like that threaten you with an oar? You say that he -- they assumed a threatening posture or threatening position with the oars, and that was the reason why they were moved upon. Can you explain how that works out?

NIMMICH: Certainly. As our small boat approaches, and an oar that would be either used as a spearlike approach or swung puts risk at the boarding officer as he approaches the boat, so it has the potential a weapon, just as any long object that you could swing at someone might have.

HARRIS: That is perceived as a threat to the Coast Guard?

NIMMICH: Certainly, initially it is perceived as a threat. That is correct.

HARRIS: How close are they to shore? Are they moving closer and closer to shore, or are they still staying in the same position?

NIMMICH: They have a slow drift toward shore, but they are still three and a half miles from shore.

KAGAN: They are three and a half miles. I guess the camera doesn't give us a good perspective when we look at that. Now I don't know if you are to see our picture right, coming from WFOR, of what is taking place, looks like the Coast Guard raft kind of going back and forth. Can you explain that maneuver to us?

NIMMICH: He is attempting to continue to become between the shore ant migrant, keeping him at bay, and close enough that he is prepared at the right moment, if he can, to physically remove the individual, but also close enough that if the individual does become fatigued and slips under water, that he's close enough to take a response action to save his life.

KAGAN: If this drifting continues, how long before they actually do reach shore?

NIMMICH: There is environmental issues with that, as well as our ability to keep him off shore. It changes from time to time, so I can't give you a projected time of when they would reach shore, if he could maintain that, or when the appropriate time to remove him from the water might be.

HARRIS: And what about the temperatures of the waters right now.

NIMMICH: Not a factor, in the low 80s. HARRIS: And how deep is it?

NIMMICH: It's significantly deep at that point in time, significantly well over above his head.

KAGAN: Is there is a point where you would send even more boats out there, or that is not necessary?

NIMMICH: We'll continue to evaluate the situation, and have the appropriate assets on scene that we need to enforce U.S. law.

HARRIS: We just saw another rushing, where the boat tried to rush upon the man real quickly, and just he did a backstroke or two away, got away.

Can you -- we talked with our correspondent there in Miami about this a little while ago, but maybe you can give us a better perspective of this. Has this sort of activity been picking up in recent weeks? Because we know this hasn't really been in the national news quite a bit in last couple of months because of all the other things that we've been covering, but is this evidence of an uptick in this kind of activity? Or is this more of the same, or what?

NIMMICH: There is an almost constant flow of Cubans trying to leave Cuba, and illegally migrate to the United States.

HARRIS: About how many a day, or how many a week, or how many a month would you say?

NIMMICH: It is seasonal, and it's weather dependent. When a cold front comes through and weather's fairly rough, it will go down. When we have nice weather it will see a surge, and a lot of that is seasonally dependent when get better weather of the summer. I can't tell you that this is extraordinarily high or extraordinarily low; it's been in the averages that we tend to see.

HARRIS: I notice here, we're watching in live pictures, and we just saw this boat execute a maneuver that washed a bit of water over the swimmer. Have you ever lost one of these migrants because of the activities of your boats there causing someone to drown?

NIMMICH: No, we have not, and that is our first and foremost concern, that we are on scene, we have offered life jackets, and our intent is to make sure they are as well taken care of as possible, continuing to try to enforce U.S. law, while being -- using the ultimate of restraint that we can in order not to injure them.

HARRIS: This has been going on for how long now?

NIMMICH: We're coming up on two hours.

KAGAN: You mentioned the life vest, captain. We saw something a little bit earlier. They threw the life vest, and the man seemed to take it, and then he gave it back.

NIMMICH: And we'll take it out, and when it looks he may be fatigued or in need of a life jacket, we will offer it again.

HARRIS: Is that is tactic to get him close enough to the boat, where you can be grabbed.

NIMMICH: I'm not going to talk about tactics on an ongoing case. But it's mostly our concern is that his well-being. As you've indicated, we have not lost a migrant in trying to remove from the water before, and we don't intend to lose a migrant...

KAGAN: But that's not attached to anything?

NIMMICH: It is not attached to anything. It is not attached to anything.

KAGAN: And people you picked up, the other five of these six, are we talking all men? Or are there some women?

NIMMICH: There are all men. There are four of six. There are still two in the water, and three of those four that are onboard Coast Guard cutters were physically removed from the water.

KAGAN: So there is two in the water right now.

NIMMICH: That is correct.

KAGAN: We're only able to see one. Is the other one far away from the scene that we're watching right now?

NIMMICH: They are about a mile apart, based on swimming abilities of the two individuals. We have boats on scene with both individuals that are on the water.

KAGAN: And how far part are those?

NIMMICH: They are half a mile apart.

KAGAN: Captain, if could you stay on the phone for just a minute, we need to fit in a quick break here, but we will a couple more questions here, if you are able to stay with us. We'll take a quick break and get back to the story just after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: Welcome back. We're going to continue our coverage here about what is taking place off the coast of the Florida Keys. If you are just joining us, this is one of six Cubans who tried to go from a boat to land on shore with Florida, at Florida, and it is not working out. Most of the Cubans have been taken onboard with the Coast Guard.

Do we have the Captain still with us? We have Captain Joseph Nimmich of the U.S. Coast Guard. He is -- I believe, captain, you are in Florida.

NIMMICH: I am the group commander in the area that this action is taking place. KAGAN: And so he's been with us explaining exactly what's taking place. And so, captain, for our viewers that are just joining us, why don't you bring us up to date about we know and about what the Coast Guard is trying to do here.

NIMMICH: Again, about two hours ago, we had received a report of six Cuban migrants in a small boat. We, as we always do, responded with assets to interdict them at sea, as is U.S. policy. When we came on scene, one migrant came off the raft of his own volition. The other five jumped in the water. Three have been removed from the water, and we're currently monitoring the condition of the other two, and we intend to remove them from the water when we can do it without injuring them or injuring Coast Guard personnel.

HARRIS: All right, captain, Leon Harris here once again for the folks who are just joining us at home.

Who made the initial report, and how was it discovered these men were in the small boat? We saw the small boat a little while ago that was empty and floating and bobbing about there. We believe that must have been the boat that they were in. It seemed to be a rather small one. Who spotted it? And who reported it?

NIMMICH: This particular boat was reported by what we call a good samaritan, who happened to be an individual who was going out to either fish or recreational boating, and happened to come across them, reported it on his way out, and we had Coast Guard aircraft in the area that was then able to come on scene to monitor the situation until Coast Guard vessels could get out.

HARRIS: Has there been any change in the directives given to the Coast Guard about how to enforce this wet foot/dry foot policy. And for those who don't know what that is, that is a policy by which any Cuban migrants who make it to the shore and actually put foot on soil, that is in Florida or anywhere else in the U.S., they will be allowed to stay. Captain, has there been any changes in the directives to the Coast Guard in how to enforce that directive?

NIMMICH: No, there have been no changes. Our policy is to interdict at sea and then process for the repatriation guidance that exists between Cuba and the United States.

HARRIS: And therefore, once these people are apprehended, how soon before they'll be sent back to Cuba?

NIMMICH: They may or may not be. They'll be receiving an interview with an INS agent, an immigrations agent, to determine their status, and based upon their status, we will make arrangements to either repatriate them, or follow other Immigration service guidelines.

KAGAN: Captain, stay with us just a second. We want to bring our viewers up to date on another story we're following. Of course we'll continue to follow the situation off the coast of Florida with the two Cuban migrants who are still in the water. But also, we want to show our viewers, from FBI headquarters in Washington D.C., we're expecting a news conference with Attorney General John Ashcroft, also FBI director Robert Mueller. They are expected to announce the indictment of two people suspected for the bombing of the USS Cole, two people who have escaped custody. They are not in custody right now, but that is the development on the case that took place in October of 2000.

So when the news conference happens with Ashcroft and Mueller in D.C., we will go to that live. Meantime, we continue our coverage here off the coast of Florida.

HARRIS: Captain, give us an idea, without giving too many of the details away, I suppose, at least none of the privileged details, but I'm watching this, and it occurs to me that you must have, what, about 20 people out there trying to apprehend two at this particular point? How much manpower is required to actually do something like this?

NIMMICH: It varies from case to case. But as any law enforcement agency will tell you, we put the appropriate level of manpower to the situation as it warrants. And in this particular case, there are two individuals that have become fairly separated, and in order to ensure that they don't succumb to exhaustion and that we're able to save them, or when the appropriate time comes, to remove them from the water, they'll do what's required of them.

HARRIS: At this point, though, you only have the ships out there, these smaller boats out there. You don't have anything in the air?

NIMMICH: We do have a helicopter standing by, should we need it, and we have -- it is fairly shallow water. It's only 25 feet where they are, so we don't have any larger cutters in the area at this point.

HARRIS: Well, if that's the case, then let me ask you a devil's advocate kind of question -- twenty-five feet of water, if one of these men were to suddenly dive and hit the bottom, does that mean they get to stay?

NIMMICH: No, that is not feet dry. That land underneath is still not dry territory. It's not the lineation, the legal delineation, of where the shoreline begins. That's called the Menlow (ph) waterline, and certainly this particular piece of -- if they dove down, that particular piece of sand they touch would never have been dry, so it's not a feet dry issue.

KAGAN: Very interesting. I'm sure people have thought of that before, which is why it's very clear in the minds of the Coast Guard, the U.S. government.

KAGAN: As we are saying, we've been watching this one man who is trying to stay afloat there off the coast.

You have pointed out, captain, there are actually two, and they're about a half mile apart. Is that by design? I guess we don't have the captain.

NIMMICH: I'm still here.

KAGAN: Is it by design of the Coast Guard that they are half a mile apart, or has it worked out that way with the tides and such and how they were swimming? Captain?

HARRIS: I believe we have lost the captain.

Our thanks to Captain Joseph Nimmich of the Coast Guard, who's been talking to us for quite a bit now.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired May 15, 2003 - 10:49   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: We have Coast Guard on line, a captain on the phone with us. He is on shore, not on one of those boats.
But, captain, if you could tell bus the situation taking place off the coast of Florida right now.

CAPT. JOSEPH NIMMICH, U.S. COAST GUARD: I certainly can. About an hour and a half ago, we received a report of a small boat with six Cuban migrants approaching U.S. shore. As is our policy, we sent Coast Guard assets out to interdict them at sea. On arrival, the migrants took a threatening position with oars and a -- threatening position. They -- then when our vessel did not back away, they entered the water, six of them -- five of them. The six one remained on board and was without force removed from the boat. They voluntarily came on board the Coast Guard boat. The other five were in the water. Three have been removed from the water. They are currently on Coast Guard small boats in the area, and we are monitoring the other two now, and when an appropriate opportunity where won't create any difficulty or injure any migrants, we will intend to remove them from the water.

KAGAN: So how does this work? You let them wear themselves out in the water? And it looks like your boats are trying to do everything they can to get between the swimmer and shore.

NIMMICH: Well, that is -- what we do is continue to monitor the situation. First and foremost we don't want the migrant to lose control or to become so tired so that they risk drowning, so our first and paramount is life at sea, protecting life at sea, and then secondarily, we are trying to enforce U.S. law and when they are in a position where we can easily remove them without risking more injury to themselves, we'll remove them from the water.

LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Captain, this is Leon Harris here.

I'm curious about a couple of things. What is it you were -- your Coast Guard colleagues were talking to these men about. We saw them talking to these men and communicating. It appears they are talking right now, according to the pictures we're watching. I don't know if you are seeing these pictures. They are talking to each other. Can you tell us what they are talking about?

NIMMICH: Sure. They are trying to encourage the Cuban migrant to come out water, indicating he won't be successful, that he is risking becoming fatigued, and that he's putting himself at risk, and we'd like to him to come out of water so we can take care of him and process him. KAGAN: What happens if this man goes back to Cuba? Does he know what happens? Do you know what happens?

NIMMICH: There is a U.S. policy that has been worked out with the Cuban government through the Immigration Service of how they are processed. and the follow-up action that is taken when they get into Cuba.

HARRIS: Explain one more thing to me, because this is one that I'm having a hard time visualizing. How does a man like that threaten you with an oar? You say that he -- they assumed a threatening posture or threatening position with the oars, and that was the reason why they were moved upon. Can you explain how that works out?

NIMMICH: Certainly. As our small boat approaches, and an oar that would be either used as a spearlike approach or swung puts risk at the boarding officer as he approaches the boat, so it has the potential a weapon, just as any long object that you could swing at someone might have.

HARRIS: That is perceived as a threat to the Coast Guard?

NIMMICH: Certainly, initially it is perceived as a threat. That is correct.

HARRIS: How close are they to shore? Are they moving closer and closer to shore, or are they still staying in the same position?

NIMMICH: They have a slow drift toward shore, but they are still three and a half miles from shore.

KAGAN: They are three and a half miles. I guess the camera doesn't give us a good perspective when we look at that. Now I don't know if you are to see our picture right, coming from WFOR, of what is taking place, looks like the Coast Guard raft kind of going back and forth. Can you explain that maneuver to us?

NIMMICH: He is attempting to continue to become between the shore ant migrant, keeping him at bay, and close enough that he is prepared at the right moment, if he can, to physically remove the individual, but also close enough that if the individual does become fatigued and slips under water, that he's close enough to take a response action to save his life.

KAGAN: If this drifting continues, how long before they actually do reach shore?

NIMMICH: There is environmental issues with that, as well as our ability to keep him off shore. It changes from time to time, so I can't give you a projected time of when they would reach shore, if he could maintain that, or when the appropriate time to remove him from the water might be.

HARRIS: And what about the temperatures of the waters right now.

NIMMICH: Not a factor, in the low 80s. HARRIS: And how deep is it?

NIMMICH: It's significantly deep at that point in time, significantly well over above his head.

KAGAN: Is there is a point where you would send even more boats out there, or that is not necessary?

NIMMICH: We'll continue to evaluate the situation, and have the appropriate assets on scene that we need to enforce U.S. law.

HARRIS: We just saw another rushing, where the boat tried to rush upon the man real quickly, and just he did a backstroke or two away, got away.

Can you -- we talked with our correspondent there in Miami about this a little while ago, but maybe you can give us a better perspective of this. Has this sort of activity been picking up in recent weeks? Because we know this hasn't really been in the national news quite a bit in last couple of months because of all the other things that we've been covering, but is this evidence of an uptick in this kind of activity? Or is this more of the same, or what?

NIMMICH: There is an almost constant flow of Cubans trying to leave Cuba, and illegally migrate to the United States.

HARRIS: About how many a day, or how many a week, or how many a month would you say?

NIMMICH: It is seasonal, and it's weather dependent. When a cold front comes through and weather's fairly rough, it will go down. When we have nice weather it will see a surge, and a lot of that is seasonally dependent when get better weather of the summer. I can't tell you that this is extraordinarily high or extraordinarily low; it's been in the averages that we tend to see.

HARRIS: I notice here, we're watching in live pictures, and we just saw this boat execute a maneuver that washed a bit of water over the swimmer. Have you ever lost one of these migrants because of the activities of your boats there causing someone to drown?

NIMMICH: No, we have not, and that is our first and foremost concern, that we are on scene, we have offered life jackets, and our intent is to make sure they are as well taken care of as possible, continuing to try to enforce U.S. law, while being -- using the ultimate of restraint that we can in order not to injure them.

HARRIS: This has been going on for how long now?

NIMMICH: We're coming up on two hours.

KAGAN: You mentioned the life vest, captain. We saw something a little bit earlier. They threw the life vest, and the man seemed to take it, and then he gave it back.

NIMMICH: And we'll take it out, and when it looks he may be fatigued or in need of a life jacket, we will offer it again.

HARRIS: Is that is tactic to get him close enough to the boat, where you can be grabbed.

NIMMICH: I'm not going to talk about tactics on an ongoing case. But it's mostly our concern is that his well-being. As you've indicated, we have not lost a migrant in trying to remove from the water before, and we don't intend to lose a migrant...

KAGAN: But that's not attached to anything?

NIMMICH: It is not attached to anything. It is not attached to anything.

KAGAN: And people you picked up, the other five of these six, are we talking all men? Or are there some women?

NIMMICH: There are all men. There are four of six. There are still two in the water, and three of those four that are onboard Coast Guard cutters were physically removed from the water.

KAGAN: So there is two in the water right now.

NIMMICH: That is correct.

KAGAN: We're only able to see one. Is the other one far away from the scene that we're watching right now?

NIMMICH: They are about a mile apart, based on swimming abilities of the two individuals. We have boats on scene with both individuals that are on the water.

KAGAN: And how far part are those?

NIMMICH: They are half a mile apart.

KAGAN: Captain, if could you stay on the phone for just a minute, we need to fit in a quick break here, but we will a couple more questions here, if you are able to stay with us. We'll take a quick break and get back to the story just after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: Welcome back. We're going to continue our coverage here about what is taking place off the coast of the Florida Keys. If you are just joining us, this is one of six Cubans who tried to go from a boat to land on shore with Florida, at Florida, and it is not working out. Most of the Cubans have been taken onboard with the Coast Guard.

Do we have the Captain still with us? We have Captain Joseph Nimmich of the U.S. Coast Guard. He is -- I believe, captain, you are in Florida.

NIMMICH: I am the group commander in the area that this action is taking place. KAGAN: And so he's been with us explaining exactly what's taking place. And so, captain, for our viewers that are just joining us, why don't you bring us up to date about we know and about what the Coast Guard is trying to do here.

NIMMICH: Again, about two hours ago, we had received a report of six Cuban migrants in a small boat. We, as we always do, responded with assets to interdict them at sea, as is U.S. policy. When we came on scene, one migrant came off the raft of his own volition. The other five jumped in the water. Three have been removed from the water, and we're currently monitoring the condition of the other two, and we intend to remove them from the water when we can do it without injuring them or injuring Coast Guard personnel.

HARRIS: All right, captain, Leon Harris here once again for the folks who are just joining us at home.

Who made the initial report, and how was it discovered these men were in the small boat? We saw the small boat a little while ago that was empty and floating and bobbing about there. We believe that must have been the boat that they were in. It seemed to be a rather small one. Who spotted it? And who reported it?

NIMMICH: This particular boat was reported by what we call a good samaritan, who happened to be an individual who was going out to either fish or recreational boating, and happened to come across them, reported it on his way out, and we had Coast Guard aircraft in the area that was then able to come on scene to monitor the situation until Coast Guard vessels could get out.

HARRIS: Has there been any change in the directives given to the Coast Guard about how to enforce this wet foot/dry foot policy. And for those who don't know what that is, that is a policy by which any Cuban migrants who make it to the shore and actually put foot on soil, that is in Florida or anywhere else in the U.S., they will be allowed to stay. Captain, has there been any changes in the directives to the Coast Guard in how to enforce that directive?

NIMMICH: No, there have been no changes. Our policy is to interdict at sea and then process for the repatriation guidance that exists between Cuba and the United States.

HARRIS: And therefore, once these people are apprehended, how soon before they'll be sent back to Cuba?

NIMMICH: They may or may not be. They'll be receiving an interview with an INS agent, an immigrations agent, to determine their status, and based upon their status, we will make arrangements to either repatriate them, or follow other Immigration service guidelines.

KAGAN: Captain, stay with us just a second. We want to bring our viewers up to date on another story we're following. Of course we'll continue to follow the situation off the coast of Florida with the two Cuban migrants who are still in the water. But also, we want to show our viewers, from FBI headquarters in Washington D.C., we're expecting a news conference with Attorney General John Ashcroft, also FBI director Robert Mueller. They are expected to announce the indictment of two people suspected for the bombing of the USS Cole, two people who have escaped custody. They are not in custody right now, but that is the development on the case that took place in October of 2000.

So when the news conference happens with Ashcroft and Mueller in D.C., we will go to that live. Meantime, we continue our coverage here off the coast of Florida.

HARRIS: Captain, give us an idea, without giving too many of the details away, I suppose, at least none of the privileged details, but I'm watching this, and it occurs to me that you must have, what, about 20 people out there trying to apprehend two at this particular point? How much manpower is required to actually do something like this?

NIMMICH: It varies from case to case. But as any law enforcement agency will tell you, we put the appropriate level of manpower to the situation as it warrants. And in this particular case, there are two individuals that have become fairly separated, and in order to ensure that they don't succumb to exhaustion and that we're able to save them, or when the appropriate time comes, to remove them from the water, they'll do what's required of them.

HARRIS: At this point, though, you only have the ships out there, these smaller boats out there. You don't have anything in the air?

NIMMICH: We do have a helicopter standing by, should we need it, and we have -- it is fairly shallow water. It's only 25 feet where they are, so we don't have any larger cutters in the area at this point.

HARRIS: Well, if that's the case, then let me ask you a devil's advocate kind of question -- twenty-five feet of water, if one of these men were to suddenly dive and hit the bottom, does that mean they get to stay?

NIMMICH: No, that is not feet dry. That land underneath is still not dry territory. It's not the lineation, the legal delineation, of where the shoreline begins. That's called the Menlow (ph) waterline, and certainly this particular piece of -- if they dove down, that particular piece of sand they touch would never have been dry, so it's not a feet dry issue.

KAGAN: Very interesting. I'm sure people have thought of that before, which is why it's very clear in the minds of the Coast Guard, the U.S. government.

KAGAN: As we are saying, we've been watching this one man who is trying to stay afloat there off the coast.

You have pointed out, captain, there are actually two, and they're about a half mile apart. Is that by design? I guess we don't have the captain.

NIMMICH: I'm still here.

KAGAN: Is it by design of the Coast Guard that they are half a mile apart, or has it worked out that way with the tides and such and how they were swimming? Captain?

HARRIS: I believe we have lost the captain.

Our thanks to Captain Joseph Nimmich of the Coast Guard, who's been talking to us for quite a bit now.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com