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American Morning

Former Hostage Hamill is Free; Iraqi Prisoner Abuse Allegations

Aired May 03, 2004 - 07:30   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.


SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: He slipped away from the captors who held him hostage for more than three weeks in Iraq this morning. We're going to hear her story, and his as well.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Also, what makes "Mean Girls" so good? There is a question for you.

S. O'BRIEN: The movie.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: The movie, "Mean Girls." And the real reason, Christina Aguilera canceled her summer concert tour. All of it in the "90-Second Pop" segment. They'll answer those questions and much more undoubtedly.

S. O'BRIEN: We got the scoop on everything.

M. O'BRIEN: We got it all. We got it all here, absolutely.

S. O'BRIEN: Let's get started with our top stories this morning, though.

First, the U.S. Army is rolling out tanks in Najaf in response to mortar attacks there. No casualties being reported, but military officials say some 20 mortars hit a U.S. Army base overnight. Followers of the radical Shiite cleric, Muqtada al-Sadr, are believed to be behind those attacks. Meanwhile, 11 U.S. soldiers were killed in attacks over the weekend.

Top U.S. civilian administrator in Iraq, Paul Bremer, says he regrets criticizing President Bush's anti-terrorism policies before the September 11 attacks. In a speech given about six months before 9/11, Ambassador Bremer had said the administration was not paying enough attention to terrorism. In a statement yesterday, Bremer said that his comments were unfair.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon says he will continue to consult with his cabinet and other lawmakers on how to proceed after his own party voted down his Gaza pullout plan. Despite the defeat, Sharon says he will not resign. The Bush administration is expected to consult with Prime Minister Sharon on how to forge ahead with that plan.

Today is the first day that senior citizens can sign up for Medicare's new drug discount cards. The Bush administration says the cards will save seniors money. It could slash prices up to 17 percent from name brand drugs and up to 30 percent for generics. Some critics say seniors can still get better prices through online pharmacies and also by purchasing their prescriptions from Canadian pharmacies.

In southern California, the spring scorcher stretches on with temperatures set to go on above 100 degrees. The National Weather Service reported 16 areas in southern California that were experiencing new record highs yesterday. In Los Angeles, dozens of people attending a Cinco de Mayo celebration suffered heat-related ailments, including dizziness and dehydration, and had to be taken to local hospitals, because it was hot there.

M. O'BRIEN: That is unusual for southern California to get that hot.

(WEATHER BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: Thomas Hamill, the American who escaped captivity in Iraq, may soon be reunited with his wife. Military officials say Hamill left Baghdad today and is now at the Ramstein Air Base in Germany. He freed himself over the weekend after three weeks in captivity.

Now, last night in Macon, Mississippi, about 200 people gathered to celebrate Hamill's freedom. Relatives of Tommy Hamill's wife say she is flying to Houston and then ultimately on to Germany to meet her husband. Kellie Hamill spoke with CNN's Bob Franken last night, was asked how she felt after hearing the news.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KELLIE HAMILL, WIFE OF FORMER HOSTAGE: It was a wonderful feeling. You know, you're happy. You're excited. But you still have feelings for the other ones that are over there still being held. You know, I just really can't put it into words. I'm happy for us, but also still worried and praying for the others as well.

BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: But you went from deep sadness, in one instance, concern, fear...

HAMILL: Yes.

FRANKEN: ... to this absolute happiness. Describe how your mind -- the process your mind went through.

HAMILL: I didn't have time to think about it. I mean, it was just good to hear him, good to know that he was safe. And I can't explain it.

FRANKEN: Tell me what happened when he called.

HAMILL: I cried. You know, and I just wanted to find out how he was. He wanted to find out about us, and that's the way it kept going.

FRANKEN: Did he tell you at all what he had been through?

HAMILL: No, sir.

FRANKEN: Not at all?

HAMILL: No. The main concern was the family, and our concern was him.

FRANKEN: And when you picked up the phone, what did you hear?

HAMILL: I heard, "Hi, honey, how are you?" And I asked how he was, but we just kept going back and forth.

FRANKEN: It must have been profound to you. Then what did you do?

HAMILL: We really didn't get a chance to do much. I mean, he had to go. I just told him I didn't want to let him go, but I had to.

FRANKEN: So, you're going to Germany now, right?

HAMILL: I'm going to Houston first. We'll know more when we get there.

FRANKEN: Are you planning to meet up with him?

HAMILL: Yes, sir. Somewhere. You know, depending on how long they keep him over there. We're going to go over to there.

FRANKEN: So, how do you feel now?

HAMILL: I'm excited. I want to go see my husband.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

M. O'BRIEN: Friends and family of Tommy Hamill will talk to Larry King tonight on "LARRY KING LIVE." That's tonight at 9:00 Eastern on CNN.

S. O'BRIEN: Well, U.S. Army troops have begun a tank assault in Najaf, Iraq. Military officials say a U.S. Army there was attacked overnight from suspected followers of the radical Shiite cleric, Muqtada al-Sadr. You're looking at live pictures there now of U.S. soldiers. Many of them are based on the rooftops there, and they're fighting back against a barrage of insurgent mortars that have been lobbed to the base. In addition to the mortars as well, there are RPGs and small-arms fire taking place as well.

Officials say that attacks on that base are not unusual. And, in fact, overnight insurgents launched three rounds of four to six mortars each at the base. At this point, there are no casualties being reported to us. And we will keep you up-to-date on what is happening in Najaf this morning. You're looking at live pictures from a videophone that is set up right there.

Moving on now, the U.S. military is denying reports about widespread abuse of Iraqi prisoners, but an article in this week's "New Yorker" magazine cites an Army report describing sadistic and blatant criminal abuses of inmates at the Abu Ghraib prison. Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Seymour Hersh is the author of "The New Yorker" piece, and he joins us this morning from us Washington.

Nice to see you, Mr. Hersh. Thanks for being with us.

SEYMOUR HERSH, "NEW YORKER" MAGAZINE: Glad to be here.

S. O'BRIEN: Thank you very much. Let's talk about this internal Army report that you obtained. And you base a lot of your reporting, in fact, on this General Taguba's report. He described it as "sadistic, blatant and wanton criminal abuses" at this specific prison. That's a quote there. Give us some of the specifics that you talk about in your report.

HERSH: Well, one of the -- the big thing that the general did is he said the photographs you saw of the Iraqi men being humiliated are one element, but even before those photographs, there was a consistent pattern of very sadistic treatment being done, not by the kids that you saw, mostly done by the interrogators at the prison.

Every prison has an interrogation section with military intelligence officers, CIA people and private contractors. And in that side of the facility, there were beatings, regular beatings, threats, threatened rape, sodomy. I mean, it's just the usual list of torture stuff that I guess we went to Iraq to stop in the prisons there.

S. O'BRIEN: You describe it as almost routine. You say it's a fact of Army life, that the soldiers felt no need to hide anything. How do you know that it's routine when everything we have heard from military officials at this point is sort of more of a description of a few bad apples?

HERSH: You know, that's a funny description, the bad seed description. What you see is a prison that was out of control, according to the Taguba report. That's Major General Antonio Taguba wrote the report, and a quite brilliant 53-page report, devastating report, turned in, in February, in which he said the problems were systemic, endemic throughout the command structure.

Since last fall, the Army, the high level in Iraq and certainly in Washington, knew there were problems in the prison system. His was the third major study done of the prison system. And he just was, I have to tell you, to the credit of the general, very straightforward. He criticized some of the earlier reports that had been done, said they missed it. They didn't get the story.

And so -- and I also had the advantage of reading some of the trial transcripts in which GIs do describe the fact that they could do this stuff and photograph it and just walk around. In some photographs, for example, you see as many as 12 or 13 different pairs of feet. And so, only six have been named. Clearly, a lot of other people were aware of what's going on and were doing it. It sounds awful, but it is true. S. O'BRIEN: You talk about the prison system. A lot of what we heard is only specifically this particular prison, the Abu Ghraib prison. Are you saying then it's not only widespread within this prison, it's widespread systematically across Iraq?

HERSH: Well, the woman in charge, General Karpinski, Janis Karpinski who is saying that she didn't know much about what happened with the photographs, General's Taguba's report was very, very critical of her for the way she ran the prison system. She was in charge of the three main prisons in Iraq. There are three larges ones and many smaller detention centers. And he made it clear in his report that the abuses were widespread. Of course, they weren't photographing other places like they did at Abu Ghraib.

S. O'BRIEN: Brigadier General Kimmitt, who I spoke to this morning, General Myers over the weekend, both of them said that they had not read General Taguba's report. Again, and you do a lot of your reporting based on this report, which is a fairly detailed report that he came back with. That has struck me as a little bit odd. As you say, it was done in February. It was released, I think, officially in March. Who was supposed to read this report? I mean, who was it made for?

HERSH: You know, he said that yesterday a couple of times on television, General Myers, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. And here, you have the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, talking -- and we know he was involved. CBS initially broke the story of the photographs. And he was involved in holding up the story there in direct contact with the people at the network.

So, here is an issue they knew as deadly. Here he is, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs; the same with Donald Rumsfeld, the secretary of defense. This is a report written by a two-star general in the Army about a very serious issue. I take them at their word they didn't read it, but I really think that's an incredible example of very bad leadership. If you want to be a leader, you have to be on top of issues like that. You could almost say the fact that they hadn't read it indicates how low down the totem pole these issues were for them until, of course, it hit the press.

S. O'BRIEN: You talked about the CIA doing interrogations in this particular prison; also these civilian contractors who are brought in to do interrogations as well. Is that typical? I mean, is that the standard way of doing interrogations, of having to some degree from what it sounds like, these civilian interrogators essentially in charge to a large degree of certain type of prisoners within the prison?

HERSH: Well, that's what the Taguba report says. And one of the findings he makes is not only that were the civilians in charge -- and he makes it clear, as awful and dumb as the kids were, the six or seven kids that are going to be charged for photographing it -- they were not -- they were being directed. They were being told what do and told it was OK.

He also says in the report that this problem originated in prison system in Afghanistan. So, the Army has known since the Afghanistan war in late '91 and early 2001 or 2002, they've known that the prisons, which are supposed to be run by the military police -- and by the way, let me just say, prison is a funny word. The people in this -- these facilities, they are prisons, are civilians. And according to the Taguba report, more than 60 percent of them had no -- nothing to do with the insurgency or any trouble against Americans. They were just people picked up in sweeps.

And Taguba is really very incensed that the inability of the Army's system to weed out those who are dangerous from those who are not. They just simply weren't doing it. So, people would get into the system, picked up at a roadblock for example, thrown in there.

They had a separate wing for women -- the juveniles and children and women. It's just an amazing sort of collapse of an institution. That is the Army prison system. And it goes far beyond these six children who have been charged.

S. O'BRIEN: Seymour Hersh from "The New Yorker" joining us this morning. A fascinating read, his article is. Thanks for being with us. I appreciate it.

HERSH: Thank you.

S. O'BRIEN: Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Still to come on AMERICAN MORNING, what might it have been like for Tommy Hamill during his captivity? We'll hear from an Army pilot held by Iraqis for three weeks after his helicopter went down.

S. O'BRIEN: And that movie, "Mean Girls," turns out that they're at the top of the box office competition, too. We'll explain just ahead as AMERICAN MORNING continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: All right, we're rocking out on "90-Second Pop" this morning. Cool! Who's got a lighter to do? Good morning. Welcome, everybody.

(CROSSTALK)

S. O'BRIEN: In today's episode, pipe down, everybody. Today's episode of "90-Second Pop, " girls behaving badly, a sweep-style disaster, and a pop star's bad pipes.

Here this morning, I'll introduce to you to our culture vultures. Do you like that, culture vultures?

(CROSSTALK)

S. O'BRIEN: It's hard to say, actually. We may not use that again. I can't get that out.

Andy Borowitz, the author of "Governor Arnold," "New Yorker" magazine contributing editor Sarah Bernard, and Toure, a contributing editor for "Rolling Stone."

Nice to see you, guys. Good morning. Good morning. Toure, let's begin with you. You know, and Sarah was saying off camera, you're like a teenage girl. You're loving "Mean Girls."

SARAH BERNARD, CONTRIBUTING EDITOR, "NEW YORKER" MAGAZINE: Yes, how knew?

(CROSSTALK)

TOURE, CONTRIBUTING EDITOR, "ROLLING STONE": Off camera, hello!

ANDY BOROWITZ, HUMORIST: The comparison doesn't end there.

S. O'BRIEN: Nothing is sacred here at "90-Second Pop." So, this is Tina Fey, the writer for SNL.

TOURE: Yes.

S. O'BRIEN: And the previews -- or the early word was that it was fantastic. Tell me about the movie.

TOURE: Yes, it's fantastic. I mean, Lindsay Lohan moves from Africa and joins the normal vulturous (ph) jungle high school, and violating the normal rules of high school movies, she gets to be a popular girl and sort of an outsider looking down on the popular girls as well. But it's just so much fun, so hilarious.

S. O'BRIEN: Is Tina Fey describing her own life? I mean...

TOURE: Maybe. I don't know. I mean, the thing is that Tina Fey is, like, our age. She's, like, grown. So, I mean, I don't want to sound like, you know, it was so much better in our day, but the teen movies we had were so much deeper. I mean, this is fun.

BERNARD: Well, Heather Buchanan, talk about "Mean Girls" (UNINTELLIGIBLE) talking about Heather.

TOURE: Heather, "Some Kind of Wonderful, "16 Candles." I mean, they were so much deeper. But "Mean Girls" is fun.

S. O'BRIEN: You think "16 Candles" was so much deeper.

BERNARD: So deep.

S. O'BRIEN: OK.

TOURE: No, no, it was better. It was better. But she's just mean.

BERNARD: She is a girl.

BOROWITZ: This movie has been compared a lot to Heather, but I thought it was closer in spirit to "Gladiator," actually. It reminded me of it a little more, the epic (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

S. O'BRIEN: High school generally is closer to "Gladiator."

BOROWITZ: Yes.

TOURE: Exactly. The shock of the weekend, though, for me was that "Envy" was terrible.

S. O'BRIEN: I've got to tell you, I hadn't even heard about this movie. Ben Stiller, Jack Black.

TOURE: Jack Black.

S. O'BRIEN: And you would think it would be hysterical.

TOURE: Christopher Walken, Barry Levinson directed it.

S. O'BRIEN: What's it about?

BERNARD: I think anything Jack Black does for years has just been golden. I mean, from "School of Rock," which is...

TOURE: Right.

S. O'BRIEN: What's it about?

TOURE: Well, Jack Black is the neighbor of Ben Stiller. Jack Black makes Vapor Rogue (ph), which makes dog poo go away.

S. O'BRIEN: Oh, right, right.

TOURE: He becomes, you know, the new Bill Gates, and Ben Stiller is not. So, he's envious. But it's just...

BERNARD: But it's not funny.

BOROWITZ: Where would you rate it, like, on a scale of 1 to Charlie's Angels 2?

TOURE: Well, better than "Ishtar," but...

BERNARD: Less than "Charlie's Angels."

S. O'BRIEN: All right, Sarah, let's talk about earthquake, the miniseries, again.

BERNARD: I don't even know what to tell you. This -- I was worried, honestly, about watching this, because we've seen enough destruction of our own city. I was thinking the people in California would just be traumatized. But then it was so bad and so campy that you couldn't even be upset about it. I mean, the graphics were terrible. There was the scene where the Golden Gate Bridge is falling apart. But it's like the cheapest animation you could possibly see.

BOROWITZ: But in fairness, though...

S. O'BRIEN: But these movies are all about the special effects. BERNARD: I think these are about the special effects. And then all of these scientists have come out saying, you know, this is not accurate. Of course it's not accurate! It's the silliest thing ever. It's a miniseries.

TOURE: It's TV.

BOROWITZ: It is like the cheapest looking earthquake ever, but, you know, California is having, like, a budget crisis. So, maybe that's what the earthquake would look like.

BERNARD: It's all they can afford.

BOROWITZ: I mean, it is possible.

BERNARD: That is true.

S. O'BRIEN: They just can't afford a big expensive earthquake.

BOROWITZ: Right. This is what it's going to be, though.

TOURE: I just don't find nature that scary anymore.

(CROSSTALK)

S. O'BRIEN: You need to live out in California for a while.

Let's talk about Christina Aguilera. Oh, my goodness. What am I going to do? She's canceled the rest of her tour.

BOROWITZ: Yes.

BERNARD: My summer plans are...

S. O'BRIEN: Ruined!

BERNARD: ... really ruined.

TOURE: Here is someone (UNINTELLIGIBLE) plans are changed.

S. O'BRIEN: See, I like her.

BOROWITZ: Christina has canceled her 28-city tour because of sore, strained vocal chords. I've got to tread kind of lightly because Christina and I are very close, as you know. But this is actually true. She apparently strained her vocal chords shouting at her agent saying, why have I not sold any tickets for my tour, which will strain your vocal chords.

S. O'BRIEN: Is that true that she has not...

BOROWITZ: They have not sold a lot of tickets.

BERNARD: Yes, pretty much that's true. And she's been doing a lot of things for money recently.

BOROWITZ: Yes.

BERNARD: She's been doing Mac ads. She's been doing cell phone commercials. So, she is really trying to make some dough.

BOROWITZ: I think she should go on with the tour, because it seems to me that when you're on tour, the way you put strain on your vocal chords is if you have to be heard over your screaming fans. But if there is no one in the audience, I don't see the problem.

S. O'BRIEN: It's a hard sell.

BOROWITZ: I'd just go for it.

TOURE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE), because if you want to go see a show, this is the best summer concert lineup we've had in years. Beyonce is out with Alicia Keys. Madonna is on tour. Prince is on tour. I'm excited.

BERNARD: Yes.

S. O'BRIEN: Unless you want to see Christina Aguilera.

BERNARD: But, you know...

TOUR: But nobody does!

BOROWITZ: Also Cher's farewell tour from last year is still going on.

BERNARD: It's still going. She's still saying goodbye.

BOROWITZ: You've still got that option.

TOURE: Still saying goodbye.

S. O'BRIEN: Oh, and that will be the final word this morning as we say goodbye. You guys, as always, thank you very much.

TOURE: Thank you.

S. O'BRIEN: Andy and Sarah and Toure, thank you -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: I'm going to miss Cher so much. Gosh, you know.

All right, still to come, Washington's A-list gathered over the weekend for some laughs at their own expense. I'm obviously not on the A-list. Anyway, stay with us, and those on the B and C lists will get a glimpse.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: Jack is back with the question of the day.

Good morning again.

JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, Soledad. Thank you. With the death toll of U.S. soldiers rising, pictures of tortured Iraqi prisoners making the rounds now, the United States is recruiting between 1,000 and 2,000 officers from Saddam Hussein's Baath Party. One former general wearing his old uniform is now leading a 1,000- member Iraqi force, which is entering Fallujah, while U.S. Marines retreat to the edges of the city.

The question is this: Are things really so bad in Iraq that Saddam's former generals should be put back in charge?

Michael in Heron, South Dakota, says: "I see a parallel. In Europe just after World War II, wasn't General Patton willing to put some of Mussolini's people back to work because at least the trains ran on time while they controlled Italy?"

Jean in New Hampshire says: "As long as they are kept on a short leash and under constant observance, the old Iraqi generals are the best people to bring order to Iraq.?

And Eric, who is a Marine stationed in Japan, says: "It almost seems like we're so afraid of more casualties that we're willing to do almost anything to not have to go into Fallujah. We're turning down a path that we won't like the end of. Bringing in a general from the Republican Guard is ridiculous. After all of the tough talk over the last few weeks about the enemy in Fallujah, we walk away without much action. Pathetic. We'll pay for this apparent weakness."

AM@CNN.com if you want to weigh in. And I find it unbelievably ironic that we're now putting these old Saddam generals back in charge of stuff.

S. O'BRIEN: It sounds like the viewers agree with you on that one.

CAFFERTY: Well, we're getting some that say, you know, we shouldn't be second-guessing the administration and that they really do know what they're doing. We're not getting a lot of those, but...

M. O'BRIEN: Well, it sounds like a lot of these decisions are being made on the ground by the Marines there. So, it's hard to sort through it all from here.

CAFFERTY: Well, my guess is that you don't make a decision to put one of Saddam's generals in charge of the security force in Fallujah without running it through Rumsfeld and some of the guys here in the United States, you know.

M. O'BRIEN: A little betting would be good.

CAFFERTY: Well, I'm not sure nobody there is doing that autonomously.

M. O'BRIEN: Yes.

All right, hard-nosed journalists and heavyweight politicians shared some laughs Saturday night at the old annual White House correspondents' dinner. A veritable laugh fest. Good humor and swipes were made all around. Comedian Jay Leno, and the president with some equal time.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAY LENO, HOST, "THE TONIGHT SHOW: John Kerry stands by his claim that some foreign leaders have told him they hope he wins. Of course, President Bush said, yes, well certain Supreme Court justices have told me I'm going to win. So there. So there have you it.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Or take that one about Cheney and me answering questions together. That was a toughie. So from now on, Dick and I will be holding joint press conferences.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

M. O'BRIEN: All right. You know, it's a little forced this year.

CAFFERTY: Yes.

M. O'BRIEN: Sometimes it's hard to make things funny.

S. O'BRIEN: The people who were there said if you were actually there, it was actually pretty funny.

M. O'BRIEN: Yes, and...

S. O'BRIEN: And you've had a lot to drink.

M. O'BRIEN: And all of that other stuff. There is one more clip we want to show you. We'll see if this is funny. No, we don't have it. No.

S. O'BRIEN: Trust us, it was hysterical.

M. O'BRIEN: Imagine how funny it was.

CAFFERTY: You know what the problem with that stuff is if it was really funny, it would seem funnier.

M. O'BRIEN: Yes.

S. O'BRIEN: What?

CAFFERTY: Think about it.

M. O'BRIEN: I think I got it, man.

S. O'BRIEN: Like 96 percent of everything else we talk about.

M. O'BRIEN: You're a deep man, Jack Cafferty. Deep thoughts, Jack Cafferty.

S. O'BRIEN: You're a deep man, Jack Cafferty.

CAFFERTY: Oh, yes.

S. O'BRIEN: Still to come this morning, after weeks as an Iraqi prisoner, Thomas Hamill is now heading home. In the next hour, we expect to hear from the U.S. soldiers who helped him to freedom. Their stories ahead right here on AMERICAN MORNING.

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 3, 2004 - 07:30   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: He slipped away from the captors who held him hostage for more than three weeks in Iraq this morning. We're going to hear her story, and his as well.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Also, what makes "Mean Girls" so good? There is a question for you.

S. O'BRIEN: The movie.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: The movie, "Mean Girls." And the real reason, Christina Aguilera canceled her summer concert tour. All of it in the "90-Second Pop" segment. They'll answer those questions and much more undoubtedly.

S. O'BRIEN: We got the scoop on everything.

M. O'BRIEN: We got it all. We got it all here, absolutely.

S. O'BRIEN: Let's get started with our top stories this morning, though.

First, the U.S. Army is rolling out tanks in Najaf in response to mortar attacks there. No casualties being reported, but military officials say some 20 mortars hit a U.S. Army base overnight. Followers of the radical Shiite cleric, Muqtada al-Sadr, are believed to be behind those attacks. Meanwhile, 11 U.S. soldiers were killed in attacks over the weekend.

Top U.S. civilian administrator in Iraq, Paul Bremer, says he regrets criticizing President Bush's anti-terrorism policies before the September 11 attacks. In a speech given about six months before 9/11, Ambassador Bremer had said the administration was not paying enough attention to terrorism. In a statement yesterday, Bremer said that his comments were unfair.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon says he will continue to consult with his cabinet and other lawmakers on how to proceed after his own party voted down his Gaza pullout plan. Despite the defeat, Sharon says he will not resign. The Bush administration is expected to consult with Prime Minister Sharon on how to forge ahead with that plan.

Today is the first day that senior citizens can sign up for Medicare's new drug discount cards. The Bush administration says the cards will save seniors money. It could slash prices up to 17 percent from name brand drugs and up to 30 percent for generics. Some critics say seniors can still get better prices through online pharmacies and also by purchasing their prescriptions from Canadian pharmacies.

In southern California, the spring scorcher stretches on with temperatures set to go on above 100 degrees. The National Weather Service reported 16 areas in southern California that were experiencing new record highs yesterday. In Los Angeles, dozens of people attending a Cinco de Mayo celebration suffered heat-related ailments, including dizziness and dehydration, and had to be taken to local hospitals, because it was hot there.

M. O'BRIEN: That is unusual for southern California to get that hot.

(WEATHER BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: Thomas Hamill, the American who escaped captivity in Iraq, may soon be reunited with his wife. Military officials say Hamill left Baghdad today and is now at the Ramstein Air Base in Germany. He freed himself over the weekend after three weeks in captivity.

Now, last night in Macon, Mississippi, about 200 people gathered to celebrate Hamill's freedom. Relatives of Tommy Hamill's wife say she is flying to Houston and then ultimately on to Germany to meet her husband. Kellie Hamill spoke with CNN's Bob Franken last night, was asked how she felt after hearing the news.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KELLIE HAMILL, WIFE OF FORMER HOSTAGE: It was a wonderful feeling. You know, you're happy. You're excited. But you still have feelings for the other ones that are over there still being held. You know, I just really can't put it into words. I'm happy for us, but also still worried and praying for the others as well.

BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: But you went from deep sadness, in one instance, concern, fear...

HAMILL: Yes.

FRANKEN: ... to this absolute happiness. Describe how your mind -- the process your mind went through.

HAMILL: I didn't have time to think about it. I mean, it was just good to hear him, good to know that he was safe. And I can't explain it.

FRANKEN: Tell me what happened when he called.

HAMILL: I cried. You know, and I just wanted to find out how he was. He wanted to find out about us, and that's the way it kept going.

FRANKEN: Did he tell you at all what he had been through?

HAMILL: No, sir.

FRANKEN: Not at all?

HAMILL: No. The main concern was the family, and our concern was him.

FRANKEN: And when you picked up the phone, what did you hear?

HAMILL: I heard, "Hi, honey, how are you?" And I asked how he was, but we just kept going back and forth.

FRANKEN: It must have been profound to you. Then what did you do?

HAMILL: We really didn't get a chance to do much. I mean, he had to go. I just told him I didn't want to let him go, but I had to.

FRANKEN: So, you're going to Germany now, right?

HAMILL: I'm going to Houston first. We'll know more when we get there.

FRANKEN: Are you planning to meet up with him?

HAMILL: Yes, sir. Somewhere. You know, depending on how long they keep him over there. We're going to go over to there.

FRANKEN: So, how do you feel now?

HAMILL: I'm excited. I want to go see my husband.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

M. O'BRIEN: Friends and family of Tommy Hamill will talk to Larry King tonight on "LARRY KING LIVE." That's tonight at 9:00 Eastern on CNN.

S. O'BRIEN: Well, U.S. Army troops have begun a tank assault in Najaf, Iraq. Military officials say a U.S. Army there was attacked overnight from suspected followers of the radical Shiite cleric, Muqtada al-Sadr. You're looking at live pictures there now of U.S. soldiers. Many of them are based on the rooftops there, and they're fighting back against a barrage of insurgent mortars that have been lobbed to the base. In addition to the mortars as well, there are RPGs and small-arms fire taking place as well.

Officials say that attacks on that base are not unusual. And, in fact, overnight insurgents launched three rounds of four to six mortars each at the base. At this point, there are no casualties being reported to us. And we will keep you up-to-date on what is happening in Najaf this morning. You're looking at live pictures from a videophone that is set up right there.

Moving on now, the U.S. military is denying reports about widespread abuse of Iraqi prisoners, but an article in this week's "New Yorker" magazine cites an Army report describing sadistic and blatant criminal abuses of inmates at the Abu Ghraib prison. Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Seymour Hersh is the author of "The New Yorker" piece, and he joins us this morning from us Washington.

Nice to see you, Mr. Hersh. Thanks for being with us.

SEYMOUR HERSH, "NEW YORKER" MAGAZINE: Glad to be here.

S. O'BRIEN: Thank you very much. Let's talk about this internal Army report that you obtained. And you base a lot of your reporting, in fact, on this General Taguba's report. He described it as "sadistic, blatant and wanton criminal abuses" at this specific prison. That's a quote there. Give us some of the specifics that you talk about in your report.

HERSH: Well, one of the -- the big thing that the general did is he said the photographs you saw of the Iraqi men being humiliated are one element, but even before those photographs, there was a consistent pattern of very sadistic treatment being done, not by the kids that you saw, mostly done by the interrogators at the prison.

Every prison has an interrogation section with military intelligence officers, CIA people and private contractors. And in that side of the facility, there were beatings, regular beatings, threats, threatened rape, sodomy. I mean, it's just the usual list of torture stuff that I guess we went to Iraq to stop in the prisons there.

S. O'BRIEN: You describe it as almost routine. You say it's a fact of Army life, that the soldiers felt no need to hide anything. How do you know that it's routine when everything we have heard from military officials at this point is sort of more of a description of a few bad apples?

HERSH: You know, that's a funny description, the bad seed description. What you see is a prison that was out of control, according to the Taguba report. That's Major General Antonio Taguba wrote the report, and a quite brilliant 53-page report, devastating report, turned in, in February, in which he said the problems were systemic, endemic throughout the command structure.

Since last fall, the Army, the high level in Iraq and certainly in Washington, knew there were problems in the prison system. His was the third major study done of the prison system. And he just was, I have to tell you, to the credit of the general, very straightforward. He criticized some of the earlier reports that had been done, said they missed it. They didn't get the story.

And so -- and I also had the advantage of reading some of the trial transcripts in which GIs do describe the fact that they could do this stuff and photograph it and just walk around. In some photographs, for example, you see as many as 12 or 13 different pairs of feet. And so, only six have been named. Clearly, a lot of other people were aware of what's going on and were doing it. It sounds awful, but it is true. S. O'BRIEN: You talk about the prison system. A lot of what we heard is only specifically this particular prison, the Abu Ghraib prison. Are you saying then it's not only widespread within this prison, it's widespread systematically across Iraq?

HERSH: Well, the woman in charge, General Karpinski, Janis Karpinski who is saying that she didn't know much about what happened with the photographs, General's Taguba's report was very, very critical of her for the way she ran the prison system. She was in charge of the three main prisons in Iraq. There are three larges ones and many smaller detention centers. And he made it clear in his report that the abuses were widespread. Of course, they weren't photographing other places like they did at Abu Ghraib.

S. O'BRIEN: Brigadier General Kimmitt, who I spoke to this morning, General Myers over the weekend, both of them said that they had not read General Taguba's report. Again, and you do a lot of your reporting based on this report, which is a fairly detailed report that he came back with. That has struck me as a little bit odd. As you say, it was done in February. It was released, I think, officially in March. Who was supposed to read this report? I mean, who was it made for?

HERSH: You know, he said that yesterday a couple of times on television, General Myers, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. And here, you have the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, talking -- and we know he was involved. CBS initially broke the story of the photographs. And he was involved in holding up the story there in direct contact with the people at the network.

So, here is an issue they knew as deadly. Here he is, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs; the same with Donald Rumsfeld, the secretary of defense. This is a report written by a two-star general in the Army about a very serious issue. I take them at their word they didn't read it, but I really think that's an incredible example of very bad leadership. If you want to be a leader, you have to be on top of issues like that. You could almost say the fact that they hadn't read it indicates how low down the totem pole these issues were for them until, of course, it hit the press.

S. O'BRIEN: You talked about the CIA doing interrogations in this particular prison; also these civilian contractors who are brought in to do interrogations as well. Is that typical? I mean, is that the standard way of doing interrogations, of having to some degree from what it sounds like, these civilian interrogators essentially in charge to a large degree of certain type of prisoners within the prison?

HERSH: Well, that's what the Taguba report says. And one of the findings he makes is not only that were the civilians in charge -- and he makes it clear, as awful and dumb as the kids were, the six or seven kids that are going to be charged for photographing it -- they were not -- they were being directed. They were being told what do and told it was OK.

He also says in the report that this problem originated in prison system in Afghanistan. So, the Army has known since the Afghanistan war in late '91 and early 2001 or 2002, they've known that the prisons, which are supposed to be run by the military police -- and by the way, let me just say, prison is a funny word. The people in this -- these facilities, they are prisons, are civilians. And according to the Taguba report, more than 60 percent of them had no -- nothing to do with the insurgency or any trouble against Americans. They were just people picked up in sweeps.

And Taguba is really very incensed that the inability of the Army's system to weed out those who are dangerous from those who are not. They just simply weren't doing it. So, people would get into the system, picked up at a roadblock for example, thrown in there.

They had a separate wing for women -- the juveniles and children and women. It's just an amazing sort of collapse of an institution. That is the Army prison system. And it goes far beyond these six children who have been charged.

S. O'BRIEN: Seymour Hersh from "The New Yorker" joining us this morning. A fascinating read, his article is. Thanks for being with us. I appreciate it.

HERSH: Thank you.

S. O'BRIEN: Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Still to come on AMERICAN MORNING, what might it have been like for Tommy Hamill during his captivity? We'll hear from an Army pilot held by Iraqis for three weeks after his helicopter went down.

S. O'BRIEN: And that movie, "Mean Girls," turns out that they're at the top of the box office competition, too. We'll explain just ahead as AMERICAN MORNING continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: All right, we're rocking out on "90-Second Pop" this morning. Cool! Who's got a lighter to do? Good morning. Welcome, everybody.

(CROSSTALK)

S. O'BRIEN: In today's episode, pipe down, everybody. Today's episode of "90-Second Pop, " girls behaving badly, a sweep-style disaster, and a pop star's bad pipes.

Here this morning, I'll introduce to you to our culture vultures. Do you like that, culture vultures?

(CROSSTALK)

S. O'BRIEN: It's hard to say, actually. We may not use that again. I can't get that out.

Andy Borowitz, the author of "Governor Arnold," "New Yorker" magazine contributing editor Sarah Bernard, and Toure, a contributing editor for "Rolling Stone."

Nice to see you, guys. Good morning. Good morning. Toure, let's begin with you. You know, and Sarah was saying off camera, you're like a teenage girl. You're loving "Mean Girls."

SARAH BERNARD, CONTRIBUTING EDITOR, "NEW YORKER" MAGAZINE: Yes, how knew?

(CROSSTALK)

TOURE, CONTRIBUTING EDITOR, "ROLLING STONE": Off camera, hello!

ANDY BOROWITZ, HUMORIST: The comparison doesn't end there.

S. O'BRIEN: Nothing is sacred here at "90-Second Pop." So, this is Tina Fey, the writer for SNL.

TOURE: Yes.

S. O'BRIEN: And the previews -- or the early word was that it was fantastic. Tell me about the movie.

TOURE: Yes, it's fantastic. I mean, Lindsay Lohan moves from Africa and joins the normal vulturous (ph) jungle high school, and violating the normal rules of high school movies, she gets to be a popular girl and sort of an outsider looking down on the popular girls as well. But it's just so much fun, so hilarious.

S. O'BRIEN: Is Tina Fey describing her own life? I mean...

TOURE: Maybe. I don't know. I mean, the thing is that Tina Fey is, like, our age. She's, like, grown. So, I mean, I don't want to sound like, you know, it was so much better in our day, but the teen movies we had were so much deeper. I mean, this is fun.

BERNARD: Well, Heather Buchanan, talk about "Mean Girls" (UNINTELLIGIBLE) talking about Heather.

TOURE: Heather, "Some Kind of Wonderful, "16 Candles." I mean, they were so much deeper. But "Mean Girls" is fun.

S. O'BRIEN: You think "16 Candles" was so much deeper.

BERNARD: So deep.

S. O'BRIEN: OK.

TOURE: No, no, it was better. It was better. But she's just mean.

BERNARD: She is a girl.

BOROWITZ: This movie has been compared a lot to Heather, but I thought it was closer in spirit to "Gladiator," actually. It reminded me of it a little more, the epic (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

S. O'BRIEN: High school generally is closer to "Gladiator."

BOROWITZ: Yes.

TOURE: Exactly. The shock of the weekend, though, for me was that "Envy" was terrible.

S. O'BRIEN: I've got to tell you, I hadn't even heard about this movie. Ben Stiller, Jack Black.

TOURE: Jack Black.

S. O'BRIEN: And you would think it would be hysterical.

TOURE: Christopher Walken, Barry Levinson directed it.

S. O'BRIEN: What's it about?

BERNARD: I think anything Jack Black does for years has just been golden. I mean, from "School of Rock," which is...

TOURE: Right.

S. O'BRIEN: What's it about?

TOURE: Well, Jack Black is the neighbor of Ben Stiller. Jack Black makes Vapor Rogue (ph), which makes dog poo go away.

S. O'BRIEN: Oh, right, right.

TOURE: He becomes, you know, the new Bill Gates, and Ben Stiller is not. So, he's envious. But it's just...

BERNARD: But it's not funny.

BOROWITZ: Where would you rate it, like, on a scale of 1 to Charlie's Angels 2?

TOURE: Well, better than "Ishtar," but...

BERNARD: Less than "Charlie's Angels."

S. O'BRIEN: All right, Sarah, let's talk about earthquake, the miniseries, again.

BERNARD: I don't even know what to tell you. This -- I was worried, honestly, about watching this, because we've seen enough destruction of our own city. I was thinking the people in California would just be traumatized. But then it was so bad and so campy that you couldn't even be upset about it. I mean, the graphics were terrible. There was the scene where the Golden Gate Bridge is falling apart. But it's like the cheapest animation you could possibly see.

BOROWITZ: But in fairness, though...

S. O'BRIEN: But these movies are all about the special effects. BERNARD: I think these are about the special effects. And then all of these scientists have come out saying, you know, this is not accurate. Of course it's not accurate! It's the silliest thing ever. It's a miniseries.

TOURE: It's TV.

BOROWITZ: It is like the cheapest looking earthquake ever, but, you know, California is having, like, a budget crisis. So, maybe that's what the earthquake would look like.

BERNARD: It's all they can afford.

BOROWITZ: I mean, it is possible.

BERNARD: That is true.

S. O'BRIEN: They just can't afford a big expensive earthquake.

BOROWITZ: Right. This is what it's going to be, though.

TOURE: I just don't find nature that scary anymore.

(CROSSTALK)

S. O'BRIEN: You need to live out in California for a while.

Let's talk about Christina Aguilera. Oh, my goodness. What am I going to do? She's canceled the rest of her tour.

BOROWITZ: Yes.

BERNARD: My summer plans are...

S. O'BRIEN: Ruined!

BERNARD: ... really ruined.

TOURE: Here is someone (UNINTELLIGIBLE) plans are changed.

S. O'BRIEN: See, I like her.

BOROWITZ: Christina has canceled her 28-city tour because of sore, strained vocal chords. I've got to tread kind of lightly because Christina and I are very close, as you know. But this is actually true. She apparently strained her vocal chords shouting at her agent saying, why have I not sold any tickets for my tour, which will strain your vocal chords.

S. O'BRIEN: Is that true that she has not...

BOROWITZ: They have not sold a lot of tickets.

BERNARD: Yes, pretty much that's true. And she's been doing a lot of things for money recently.

BOROWITZ: Yes.

BERNARD: She's been doing Mac ads. She's been doing cell phone commercials. So, she is really trying to make some dough.

BOROWITZ: I think she should go on with the tour, because it seems to me that when you're on tour, the way you put strain on your vocal chords is if you have to be heard over your screaming fans. But if there is no one in the audience, I don't see the problem.

S. O'BRIEN: It's a hard sell.

BOROWITZ: I'd just go for it.

TOURE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE), because if you want to go see a show, this is the best summer concert lineup we've had in years. Beyonce is out with Alicia Keys. Madonna is on tour. Prince is on tour. I'm excited.

BERNARD: Yes.

S. O'BRIEN: Unless you want to see Christina Aguilera.

BERNARD: But, you know...

TOUR: But nobody does!

BOROWITZ: Also Cher's farewell tour from last year is still going on.

BERNARD: It's still going. She's still saying goodbye.

BOROWITZ: You've still got that option.

TOURE: Still saying goodbye.

S. O'BRIEN: Oh, and that will be the final word this morning as we say goodbye. You guys, as always, thank you very much.

TOURE: Thank you.

S. O'BRIEN: Andy and Sarah and Toure, thank you -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: I'm going to miss Cher so much. Gosh, you know.

All right, still to come, Washington's A-list gathered over the weekend for some laughs at their own expense. I'm obviously not on the A-list. Anyway, stay with us, and those on the B and C lists will get a glimpse.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: Jack is back with the question of the day.

Good morning again.

JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, Soledad. Thank you. With the death toll of U.S. soldiers rising, pictures of tortured Iraqi prisoners making the rounds now, the United States is recruiting between 1,000 and 2,000 officers from Saddam Hussein's Baath Party. One former general wearing his old uniform is now leading a 1,000- member Iraqi force, which is entering Fallujah, while U.S. Marines retreat to the edges of the city.

The question is this: Are things really so bad in Iraq that Saddam's former generals should be put back in charge?

Michael in Heron, South Dakota, says: "I see a parallel. In Europe just after World War II, wasn't General Patton willing to put some of Mussolini's people back to work because at least the trains ran on time while they controlled Italy?"

Jean in New Hampshire says: "As long as they are kept on a short leash and under constant observance, the old Iraqi generals are the best people to bring order to Iraq.?

And Eric, who is a Marine stationed in Japan, says: "It almost seems like we're so afraid of more casualties that we're willing to do almost anything to not have to go into Fallujah. We're turning down a path that we won't like the end of. Bringing in a general from the Republican Guard is ridiculous. After all of the tough talk over the last few weeks about the enemy in Fallujah, we walk away without much action. Pathetic. We'll pay for this apparent weakness."

AM@CNN.com if you want to weigh in. And I find it unbelievably ironic that we're now putting these old Saddam generals back in charge of stuff.

S. O'BRIEN: It sounds like the viewers agree with you on that one.

CAFFERTY: Well, we're getting some that say, you know, we shouldn't be second-guessing the administration and that they really do know what they're doing. We're not getting a lot of those, but...

M. O'BRIEN: Well, it sounds like a lot of these decisions are being made on the ground by the Marines there. So, it's hard to sort through it all from here.

CAFFERTY: Well, my guess is that you don't make a decision to put one of Saddam's generals in charge of the security force in Fallujah without running it through Rumsfeld and some of the guys here in the United States, you know.

M. O'BRIEN: A little betting would be good.

CAFFERTY: Well, I'm not sure nobody there is doing that autonomously.

M. O'BRIEN: Yes.

All right, hard-nosed journalists and heavyweight politicians shared some laughs Saturday night at the old annual White House correspondents' dinner. A veritable laugh fest. Good humor and swipes were made all around. Comedian Jay Leno, and the president with some equal time.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAY LENO, HOST, "THE TONIGHT SHOW: John Kerry stands by his claim that some foreign leaders have told him they hope he wins. Of course, President Bush said, yes, well certain Supreme Court justices have told me I'm going to win. So there. So there have you it.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Or take that one about Cheney and me answering questions together. That was a toughie. So from now on, Dick and I will be holding joint press conferences.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

M. O'BRIEN: All right. You know, it's a little forced this year.

CAFFERTY: Yes.

M. O'BRIEN: Sometimes it's hard to make things funny.

S. O'BRIEN: The people who were there said if you were actually there, it was actually pretty funny.

M. O'BRIEN: Yes, and...

S. O'BRIEN: And you've had a lot to drink.

M. O'BRIEN: And all of that other stuff. There is one more clip we want to show you. We'll see if this is funny. No, we don't have it. No.

S. O'BRIEN: Trust us, it was hysterical.

M. O'BRIEN: Imagine how funny it was.

CAFFERTY: You know what the problem with that stuff is if it was really funny, it would seem funnier.

M. O'BRIEN: Yes.

S. O'BRIEN: What?

CAFFERTY: Think about it.

M. O'BRIEN: I think I got it, man.

S. O'BRIEN: Like 96 percent of everything else we talk about.

M. O'BRIEN: You're a deep man, Jack Cafferty. Deep thoughts, Jack Cafferty.

S. O'BRIEN: You're a deep man, Jack Cafferty.

CAFFERTY: Oh, yes.

S. O'BRIEN: Still to come this morning, after weeks as an Iraqi prisoner, Thomas Hamill is now heading home. In the next hour, we expect to hear from the U.S. soldiers who helped him to freedom. Their stories ahead right here on AMERICAN MORNING.

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