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CNN Live Today

More Than 100 Iraqis Killed in Bombings

Aired March 02, 2004 - 10:00   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, ANCHOR: Has condemned the attacks. Coming up, we'll go live to Iraq.
Divided Senate votes on gun legislation today. Live pictures there. There's California senator Dianne Feinstein on the floor of the Senate.

The Democrats, like Feinstein, want to renew a ten-year ban on military style assault rifles. They want to add that amendment to a Republican bill that would limit lawsuits against gun makers and dealers.

But GOP lawmakers don't want to combine those two bills.

And it's the biggest day in the Democratic nominating process, Super Tuesday. From Connecticut to California, voters in ten states choose their nominee. At stake, 1,151 delegates. Polls show Senator John Kerry ahead of Senator John Edwards in all ten states.

Sources tell CNN that Attorney General John Ashcroft will announce criminal charges today against Bernie Ebbers, the former chief of WorldCom. The federal charges will include securities fraud and conspiracy.

The telecommunications giant WorldCom later changed its name to MCI, and then it declared bankruptcy amid an $11 billion accounting scandal.

Here is what we are watching live this hour.

President Bush will be delivering remarks on this, the first anniversary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. You can see there the secretary, Tom Ridge about to introduce the president.

That speech is taking place at Washington's Ronald Reagan Federal Building and International Trade Center. It is due to get under way momentarily. We will go to that live as the president begins to speak.

Meanwhile, let's get in some news from Iraq.

A holy day of reverence and revelry is shattered by simultaneous explosions in Baghdad and Karbala. At least 143 people are dead, hundreds more injured in attacks in and around Shiite mosques. Thousands were celebrating the Shiite holy day for the first time in 30 years.

Our Baghdad bureau chief, Jane Arraf, is in the capital with more on the violence and the casualties.

Jane, hello.

JANE ARRAF, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Daryn.

This was a day to commemorate the grief and mourning over an event that is key to Shiite Muslims, the death of Imam Hussein 14 centuries ago. Instead, it's turned into a different kind of grief, with what appeared to be coordinated suicide bombs in Baghdad and in the holy city of Karbala.

Now, in Baghdad they took place inside the third holiest site for the Shiite Muslims, the Kazimiya Mosque (ph), where according to military officials, three suicide bombers detonated explosive belts.

As we went into that courtyard, there were horrific scenes, Daryn, pools of blood, human remains. The imam was in tears that such a thing could happen.

And that explosion, at least 58 people dead and 200 more wounded.

At the same time in Karbala, 85 people killed and more than 230 wounded, according to officials, when another suicide bomber blew himself up.

Now, some of the scenes are really quite disturbing. They're the aftermath of the explosions in Karbala and they show the impact. They show, also why the death toll is continuing to rise. Explosions going off in such close quarters leave people so critically wounded that that death toll is rising.

Iraqis have declared three days of mourning and there's intense anger. Anger has led some people in Karbala, for instance, to throw stones at U.S. soldiers. They did the same thing in Baghdad. They're angry at everyone, and they're blaming everyone except other Iraqis -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Well, in terms of blame or perhaps credit, is anybody speaking out and taking credit for these attacks, Jane?

ARRAF: No one has taken responsibility, Daryn. And that's a very interesting thing, because hardly anyone ever takes responsibility for these horrific attacks, particularly the suicide bombs.

Now, some fingers are pointing at Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian national who has been linked to al Qaeda. But there is absolutely no proof that he did this.

The only thing we do know, going by past events, is that the suicide bombers do tend to be foreign groups. So far Iraqis haven't really gotten into that method of attack yet -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Jane Arraf with the latest on the violence and casualties from Baghdad. Thank you for that. Elsewhere today, also in Baghdad, a U.S. soldier was killed, another wounded when someone tossed a homemade bomb into their military vehicle. Both victims were attached to the U.S. Army's 1st Armored Division.

The incident pushes the U.S. military death toll in Iraq to 548.

And now the latest on the crisis in Haiti. The Bush administration is dismissing as nonsense claims that the ousted leader Jean-Bertrand Aristide was forced out of office and out of the country by an over-anxious White House.

Those claims come from Aristide himself as he begins as new life in exile.

Our national security correspondent, David Ensor, has more.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID ENSOR, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In a bitter phone call with CNN from exile in Africa, the former Haitian president claimed he was hustled out of his country as part of what he called a coup d'etat, involving, he said, American officials who lied to him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: And we'll have more on what's taking place in Haiti and Mr. Aristide.

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 March 2, 2004 - 10:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, ANCHOR: Has condemned the attacks. Coming up, we'll go live to Iraq.
Divided Senate votes on gun legislation today. Live pictures there. There's California senator Dianne Feinstein on the floor of the Senate.

The Democrats, like Feinstein, want to renew a ten-year ban on military style assault rifles. They want to add that amendment to a Republican bill that would limit lawsuits against gun makers and dealers.

But GOP lawmakers don't want to combine those two bills.

And it's the biggest day in the Democratic nominating process, Super Tuesday. From Connecticut to California, voters in ten states choose their nominee. At stake, 1,151 delegates. Polls show Senator John Kerry ahead of Senator John Edwards in all ten states.

Sources tell CNN that Attorney General John Ashcroft will announce criminal charges today against Bernie Ebbers, the former chief of WorldCom. The federal charges will include securities fraud and conspiracy.

The telecommunications giant WorldCom later changed its name to MCI, and then it declared bankruptcy amid an $11 billion accounting scandal.

Here is what we are watching live this hour.

President Bush will be delivering remarks on this, the first anniversary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. You can see there the secretary, Tom Ridge about to introduce the president.

That speech is taking place at Washington's Ronald Reagan Federal Building and International Trade Center. It is due to get under way momentarily. We will go to that live as the president begins to speak.

Meanwhile, let's get in some news from Iraq.

A holy day of reverence and revelry is shattered by simultaneous explosions in Baghdad and Karbala. At least 143 people are dead, hundreds more injured in attacks in and around Shiite mosques. Thousands were celebrating the Shiite holy day for the first time in 30 years.

Our Baghdad bureau chief, Jane Arraf, is in the capital with more on the violence and the casualties.

Jane, hello.

JANE ARRAF, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Daryn.

This was a day to commemorate the grief and mourning over an event that is key to Shiite Muslims, the death of Imam Hussein 14 centuries ago. Instead, it's turned into a different kind of grief, with what appeared to be coordinated suicide bombs in Baghdad and in the holy city of Karbala.

Now, in Baghdad they took place inside the third holiest site for the Shiite Muslims, the Kazimiya Mosque (ph), where according to military officials, three suicide bombers detonated explosive belts.

As we went into that courtyard, there were horrific scenes, Daryn, pools of blood, human remains. The imam was in tears that such a thing could happen.

And that explosion, at least 58 people dead and 200 more wounded.

At the same time in Karbala, 85 people killed and more than 230 wounded, according to officials, when another suicide bomber blew himself up.

Now, some of the scenes are really quite disturbing. They're the aftermath of the explosions in Karbala and they show the impact. They show, also why the death toll is continuing to rise. Explosions going off in such close quarters leave people so critically wounded that that death toll is rising.

Iraqis have declared three days of mourning and there's intense anger. Anger has led some people in Karbala, for instance, to throw stones at U.S. soldiers. They did the same thing in Baghdad. They're angry at everyone, and they're blaming everyone except other Iraqis -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Well, in terms of blame or perhaps credit, is anybody speaking out and taking credit for these attacks, Jane?

ARRAF: No one has taken responsibility, Daryn. And that's a very interesting thing, because hardly anyone ever takes responsibility for these horrific attacks, particularly the suicide bombs.

Now, some fingers are pointing at Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian national who has been linked to al Qaeda. But there is absolutely no proof that he did this.

The only thing we do know, going by past events, is that the suicide bombers do tend to be foreign groups. So far Iraqis haven't really gotten into that method of attack yet -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Jane Arraf with the latest on the violence and casualties from Baghdad. Thank you for that. Elsewhere today, also in Baghdad, a U.S. soldier was killed, another wounded when someone tossed a homemade bomb into their military vehicle. Both victims were attached to the U.S. Army's 1st Armored Division.

The incident pushes the U.S. military death toll in Iraq to 548.

And now the latest on the crisis in Haiti. The Bush administration is dismissing as nonsense claims that the ousted leader Jean-Bertrand Aristide was forced out of office and out of the country by an over-anxious White House.

Those claims come from Aristide himself as he begins as new life in exile.

Our national security correspondent, David Ensor, has more.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID ENSOR, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In a bitter phone call with CNN from exile in Africa, the former Haitian president claimed he was hustled out of his country as part of what he called a coup d'etat, involving, he said, American officials who lied to him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: And we'll have more on what's taking place in Haiti and Mr. Aristide.

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