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CNN Live At Daybreak
9/11 Commission Hearing Will Focus on Emergency Management Response to Attacks on WTC; Latest Developments in Prisoner Abuse Scandal
Aired May 18, 2004 - 05:00 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.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Reliving September 11 -- the 9/11 Commission meets this morning near ground zero.
It is Tuesday, May 18.
This is DAYBREAK.
And good morning to you.
From the CNN global headquarters in Atlanta, I'm Carol Costello.
Here are the latest headlines for you now.
The top U.S. official in Iraq says that moving forward with the hand over of power will honor the memory of Governing Council President Izzadine Saleem. He was killed in a suicide bomb attack near Baghdad yesterday. Paul Bremer spoke at Saleem's funeral today.
Lessons learned from the September 11 terror attacks -- that is the focus of two days of public hearings getting under way in New York. One key agenda item, the city's emergency response systems.
In money news, call it a crude awakening. Prices are on the rise again, with crude oil futures closing at a 21-year high of more than $41.50 a barrel.
In sports, a 2-2 tie. That sets the stage for tonight's face-off between the Philadelphia Flyers and the Tampa Bay Lightning. Game five of the Eastern Conference hockey finals being played in Tampa.
In culture, comedian Jimmy Fallon says he is leaving "Saturday Night Live" to focus on his movie career. He and Tina Fey have put their own comic spin on the show's long running weekend update segment.
In weather, the National Weather Service is warning Florida swimmers to watch out for rip tides. At least four people have died in riptides along the south Florida coast in recent days.
Let's bring in Rob Marciano. He's in for Chad this morning -- hello, Rob.
ROB MARCIANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Carol.
(WEATHER REPORT) COSTELLO: We begin this morning with the search for answers in the 9/11 terrorist attacks. For the first time, the commission investigating the attacks is meeting in New York City. Two days of hearings are scheduled. The first one begins at 8:45 Eastern this morning.
Our Deborah Feyerick has more for you.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The images remain clear. What remains unclear and what many still wonder is whether more people could have been saved if there was better communication, better coordination between police and firefighters. It's one thing the 9/11 Commission hopes to find out.
RUDY GIULIANI, FORMER NEW YORK CITY MAYOR: My impression was that they're going to conduct a very fact oriented and very objective study, the goal of which is to make recommendations about how things can be handled in the future.
FEYERICK: Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and others in charge that day will be questioned publicly under oath for the first time by an independent commission.
GIULIANI: Whatever the adequacies or inadequacies in New York, they're much -- the adequacies are much greater.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Watch your step!
FEYERICK: Since the attacks, response drills are commonplace. There's more counter-terrorism training.
RAY KELLY, NYPD COMMISSIONER: There is no exact blueprint to a terrorist attack, so our aim is to train for the greatest variety of circumstances possible.
FEYERICK: Fire Department radios, blamed for possibly failing to alert firefighters to evacuate, have been upgraded. But critics say the radios still don't work properly.
SALLY REGENHARD, SKYSCRAPER SAFETY CAMPAIGN: It's about time that we received the proper funding from the Department of Homeland Security that will support firefighters' radios that work not 95 percent of the time, 100 percent of the time.
FEYERICK: Firefighters and police remain on different frequencies. Sharing information is still a challenge. The city working to fix that.
STEVE KUHR, CRITERION STRATEGIES: We're talking about a system that allows all these agencies to fit into a single, comprehensive, unified organization to effectively manage the incident under a single command operation.
FEYERICK (on camera): The Commission hopes to provide what it calls the definitive account of 9/11 and ways to save even more lives if a terror attack should happen again.
Deborah Feyerick, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: And you can get a preview of the Commission's meeting on "American Morning" with Bill and Soledad. Their guest this morning, Commission members Thomas Kean and Lee Hamilton. That's, of course, in the 7:00 Eastern hour.
Families of the military police unit at the center of the Iraqi prison abuse scandal plan to pray together tonight at a vigil in Cumberland, Maryland. It comes one day before three of the soldiers implicated in the Abu Ghraib abuses will be arraigned. Staff Sergeant Ivan Fredericks, Sergeant Javal Davis and Specialist Charles Graner will face a military judge tomorrow in Iraq. They're being arraigned one day earlier than scheduled.
Now, the arraignments will take place on the same day their comrade goes before a military judge. That would be Specialist Jeremy Sivits. He's the first soldier to face court-martial proceedings.
Our senior international editor David Clinch here with more insight into these cases.
DAVID CLINCH, CNN INTERNATIONAL EDITOR: Yes, good morning, Carol.
COSTELLO: Tell us, first of all, how these -- how this will be set up, how it works.
CLINCH: Right. Well, we're in the midst of the preparations in Baghdad today. And we need to make a distinction. First of all, there will be one court-martial tomorrow around this time, Eastern time tomorrow, Specialist Sivits. We're told that that is what they call a special court-martial. We've talked about this before. On one level, that is a court-martial system which allows for lower sentences and lower punishment, although we have been told very recently by the Pentagon that the rules have changed somewhat, very recently, to allow for slightly higher sentences, up to a year for punishment under those special court-martials.
Sivits will face that. There is every indication that he will plead guilty. He has, we are told, acknowledged that abuse took place and that he took part in abuse. There is also the suggestion -- you can see it, he's charged with conspiracy, dereliction of duty, cruelty and maltreatment. The question mark is will he give specific information about what others have done. Will he also give specific information about where the orders came from, who was telling them this...
COSTELLO: Well, there are hints that he will.
CLINCH: Yes, there is a suggestion, certainly, that he will give information about what others at his level were doing. The question mark, whether he or any of the others who are being arraigned tomorrow may at some point give information about where the orders came from. The question, based on the initial investigation that has come forward from Taguba, which we've seen to this point, everything is being laid out based on what this group of soldiers did.
The question mark that is still being investigated is whether military intelligence people were ordering these soldiers to do this. There is a report in the "New York Times" today quoting a man who is featured in the Taguba investigation as saying that yes, military intelligence were giving orders and that there was no means for them within the prison to check how far those orders were being taken -- in other words, no checks or balances.
So we'll see how much information comes out.
COSTELLO: How much will we actually see of this hearing? Will the correspondents be allowed inside?
CLINCH: Yes, that's a good question. And remember, initially we were being told by General Kimmitt and others in Baghdad that there will be full media access. They stepped back from that the next day under questioning and said yes, reporters will be allowed, both Western and Arabic will be allowed inside, but no TV cameras. At least we will not be allowed to bring our TV cameras.
COSTELLO: What about audio?
CLINCH: That's a good question. We do know that there'll be closed circuit camera in there and that reporters will be able to sit outside, those that can't fit into the courtroom itself. The question of whether that will ever be released is unanswered at this point. We will be inside with pen and paper and taking notes. Others will be, as well.
You have to remember that a lot of this, even by the military's own admission, internally in Iraq, with a lot of Arab reporters going in, as well, is about convincing the Iraqi people and the people of the region that they are taking this seriously.
So, although, of course, with Sivits starting and pleading guilty, that's very different from others, whom we do not know. They'll be arraigned tomorrow, but we don't know what kind of court- martial they'll face and whether they will plead guilty or not.
COSTELLO: Well, I'm sure more information will come out in the days to come.
CLINCH: Yes, this process is going to take quite some time.
COSTELLO: All right, thank you, David.
CLINCH: OK.
COSTELLO: U.S. officials are conducting more tests on a device that exploded over the weekend at Baghdad Airport to see if it contained sarin gas. Military authorities say the artillery round was the kind Saddam Hussein's regime said it no longer had after the first Gulf War. But they stopped short of saying the munition if evidence of a stockpile of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
Sarin gas is a nerve agent, also known as G.B. It was originally developed as a pesticide. It's colorless, tasteless and odorless in its pure form. It's not found naturally in the environment and death can occur after exposure. Symptoms include runny nose, watery eyes, coughing and nausea.
Coming up in the next hour of DAYBREAK, we'll talk more about the implication of possibly finding sarin gas in Iraq with our military security analyst Ken Robinson.
Former Iraqi hostage Thomas Hamill is recovering at home from surgery to his injured arm. His wife says Hamill is doing just fine after undergoing a skin graft operation in Columbus, Mississippi. Hamill was wounded in his right arm and captured when his convoy was ambushed in Baghdad last month. He escaped earlier this month.
The gay marriage controversy is back on the front burner in the presidential race now that it's legal for gays and lesbians to marry in Massachusetts. John Kerry was asked about his position while campaigning with former rival Howard Dean in Portland, Oregon.
Here's what he had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOHN KERRY (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I don't believe in discrimination. I believe in letting people be who they are. And I believe you can respect the traditional value that people have attached to marriage as they've seen it, within a more religious connotation, and protect rights as people understand them under our constitution. I think 8u can achieve that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: As for President Bush, he's renewed his call for a constitutional amendment barring gay marriage. In a written statement, the president says: "The sacred institution of marriage should not be redefined by a few activist judges." He goes on to say: "I call on the Congress to pass and to send to the states for a ratification an amended to our constitution defining and protecting marriage as the union of a man and a woman as husband and wife."
Stories across America this Tuesday, an Indiana Air National Guard pilot was killed in a midair collision of F-16s. The two jets were flying a routine training mission when they collided. Both pilots ejected after the collision. The pilot of the other jet was treated and released from the hospital. Debris from the crash spread out over a five mile area on the Indiana-Illinois border.
State police in Colorado were warned that something was wrong with a bridge support girder an hour before it collapsed. Three people were killed when the 40 ton steel beam dropped onto the highway. A motorist called in with concerns over the condition of the girder, but recordings showed the police dispatcher misunderstood the problem. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JIM WOLFINBERGER, COLORADO STATE PATROL: The 9/11 call came in where a motorist had identified an I-beam that apparently had rolled. At that point in time, a miscommunication had occurred between the call taker at the Colorado State Patrol and she read back a sign, about a sign being hanging from an area of eastbound I-70 at Colorado 470.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: The dispatcher has been suspended with pay until an investigation is complete.
Updating you on a story we told you about yesterday, one climber and two rescue rangers remain near the summit of Mount Rainier in Washington State. They're waiting for better weather before they can be removed. A critically injured climber was airlifted out of the area after spending three days stranded on the mountain, but he died on the way to the hospital.
Well, we don't need to tell you this, gas prices are soaring to all time highs. But should President Bush dip into oil reserves to push down the price at the pump? We'll look at that sticky situation later this hour.
Plus, Israeli missiles and machine guns pound a Palestinian refugee camp, killing 13 and wounding nearly three dozen others. We take you live to that region for that massive assault.
Also ahead, the pope celebrates a birthday today and he's not slowing down. We'll tell you what the pontiff is planning in a live report.
And if you're cutting carbs to fight the fat, we got some more information for you to chew on.
All that and much more coming up in this hour of DAYBREAK.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Your news, money, weather and sports.
It is 5:15 Eastern.
Here's what's all new this morning.
The 9/11 Commission opens hearings today in New York City for the first time. Among the witnesses expected to testify is former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani.
Israeli helicopters fire rockets into the Rafah Refuge Camp in Gaza, killing at least 13 Palestinians. The missile strike was followed by columns of around 100 tanks and bulldozers sent into the area. Israel is demolishing some Palestinian homes to create a security buffer. In money news, Donald Trump looks to make more of it. His newest book, called "The Way To The Top," hits stores today.
And in sports, a first for professional basketball. The Nashville Rhythm of the ABA hired Ashley McElhiney as the franchise's first head coach. McElhiney also becomes the first ever female head coach of a men's pro team.
In culture, grab your straw hat because "Hee-Haw" is coming back. Full episodes of the show are being released on DVD. There are some 600 episodes of "Hee-Haw," which aired from 1969 way up until 1997 -- Rob.
MARCIANO: Getting back to some good old-fashioned TV -- happy faces popping out of corn fields.
(WEATHER REPORT)
COSTELLO: Those are the latest headlines.
With gas prices at an all time high, some people say President Bush should bring prices down by releasing some of the nation's emergency petroleum reserves. It was a step President Clinton took four years ago.
Allan Chernoff looks at the issue for you.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The strategic reserves lie more than 2,000 feet underground, in huge natural caverns along the Gulf Coast of Texas and Louisiana; 660 million barrels of oil. Every day, the government adds another 100,000 barrels, even as the price of oil, traded here in New York, has jumped to an all time record high.
RICHARD SCHAEFFER, ENERGY DIRECTOR, ABN-AMRO: The closer we get towards the election, with prices staying as high as they are, I think the likelihood of a release to some percentage is a high possibility.
CHERNOFF: With oil above $40 a barrel and gasoline topping $2 a gallon, some industry executives are calling for the government to help by releasing reserves. The petroleum reserve is supposed to be for emergencies, but President Clinton opened the oil tap in the fall of 2000, temporarily pushing prices down shortly before the presidential election.
BILL CLINTON, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: The overriding purpose for our action is to increase supply and help consumers make it through the cold winter. Families shouldn't have to drain their wallets to drive their cars or heat their homes.
CHERNOFF: The Bush campaign criticized the action. President Bush's Energy Department says the Strategic Petroleum Reserve is off limits. That's the way it should be, argues the energy lobby. JOHN FELMY, AMERICAN PETROLEUM INSTITUTE: There's no good argument for releasing oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. It's our insurance policy so that if we do have physical disruptions of supply, we can fill that void with oil from the SPR.
CHERNOFF (on camera): But traders say a change in policy from the Bush administration would give the oil markets an important psychological jolt, the kind of catalyst needed to pull prices down from their record highs.
Allan Chernoff, CNN Financial News, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: So who or what is to blame for the high price of gas? We'll let commentators Neal Boortz and Mike Malloy point the finger in the next hour of DAYBREAK. They look like a happy couple in that shot, don't they?
Time now to check the overseas markets to see what may be on tap for Wall Street.
For that, we head live to London and Todd Benjamin -- good morning, Todd.
TODD BENJAMIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.
After taking a drubbing yesterday, the markets still struggling today, both the FTSE in London, the CAC in Paris are flat; the DAX is up less than a half a percent.
The futures market in the U.S., though, is pointing to a higher open after falling yesterday, of course, a drop on Wall Street, one percent for the Dow, one and a half percent for the NASDAQ. High oil prices partly to blame for those falls. NYNEX crude was as high as $41.85 a barrel. It's, in electronic trading right now, it's off that level by about $0.60, at $41.17 a barrel on some profit taking.
But analysts say all the factors that have driven oil to record high prices still remain in place, including the summer driving season, strong demand in the U.S., strong demand from China, really, a lack of spare capacity in terms of oil producers, and, of course, continued fears of disruption from the Mideast. And that was heightened yesterday, of course, with the killing of the current president of the Iraqi Governing Council. And, of course, you had that recent attack on the pipeline out of Basra.
So still a lot of concerns and, of course, there's a lot of speculation. Some people say the terrorist premium on oil is as much as $5 to $10 a barrel, Carol. And just to make you feel better, unleaded premium is $0.52 higher at the pump than it was a year ago. Ouch -- back to you.
COSTELLO: That makes me feel bad. That makes me feel worse.
Todd Benjamin live from London this morning. Coming up next on DAYBREAK, a strange sighting may soon be explained. We've got our finger on the pulse of a celestial phenomenon ahead. Are those things UFOs? We'll tell you.
And paying homage to the pontiff. We'll tell you if the birthday boy has big plans.
This is DAYBREAK for Tuesday.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: We're talking about Chad. You know, Chad went to Hawaii for his vacation and we were wondering if he was in Poipu.
MARCIANO: Is that...
COSTELLO: That's his favorite city in...
MARCIANO: Oh, it is?
COSTELLO: Yes.
MARCIANO: I think it's -- is it on the Big Island? Because that's where he is, Poipu?
COSTELLO: Well, he's island hopping.
MARCIANO: Oh. Have you talked to him recently? You guys keep in touch.
COSTELLO: No. No, but of course I had to listen to his itinerary ad nauseum.
MARCIANO: Yes. All I know is it's like 10 days or better. So, you know, he'll be having a good time.
COSTELLO: Lucky you.
MARCIANO: Yes. Here I am with you.
COSTELLO: But we're glad you're here.
MARCIANO: Thanks for having me.
COSTELLO: Because you're going to explain a weird weather phenomenon to us. This is in Mexico City. Apparently some pilots up there in the plane detected those little light blobs on radar. But you could not see them with the naked eye. Those little blobs seemed to be following them. In fact, a lot of people thought they were UFOs. But it turned out it was a very rare atmospheric phenomenon, and that would be ball lightning?
MARCIANO: Right. Well, we don't know that for sure. This professor out of a university down there is thinking that may very well be the case. But we don't know much about ball lightning. I mean it's one of these things that we see it, but we can't really explain it. I mean 70 percent of lightning happens cloud to cloud. And ball lightning, when we do see it, doesn't really last that long. So I don't know...
COSTELLO: And it stays up in the air.
MARCIANO: It could still be a UFO. It could still be.
COSTELLO: You think it's a UFO, don't you?
MARCIANO: I want to think that, at least.
COSTELLO: It's ball lightning.
MARCIANO: OK, we'll go with that.
COSTELLO: Thank you, Rob.
MARCIANO: All right.
COSTELLO: Pope John Paul II celebrates his 84th birthday today with a new book and plans to begin traveling again.
Let's get more now from CNN's Allessio Vinci, who joins us live from London -- good morning, Alessio.
ALESSIO VINCI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.
COSTELLO: Any special celebrations planned?
VINCI: No celebrations at the Vatican or anywhere, nothing official planned by Vatican officials for the birthday of Pope John Paul II, basically because the Vatican does not celebrate the pope's birthdays, but does celebrate the date of his election, which for this pope falls back in the month of October in 1978. So that's what they're celebrating. You may remember last October huge celebrations in St. Peter's Square for the 25th anniversary of the pope's -- for the pope's election as the head of the Roman Catholic Church.
We do know, however, that some of the pope's closest aides inside the Apostolic Palace have cooked a small pie for him. His cook, Sister Germana, even perhaps with some candles for him to blow. But nothing really major planned at the Vatican today.
COSTELLO: Well, hopefully there won't be 84 candles on the pie.
You know, he is 84 years old...
VINCI: It's not big enough.
COSTELLO: No.
He is 84. He looks very frail, but he's certainly busy. He's releasing a new book and he's going to, at some point, meet with President Bush, isn't he?
VINCI: That is correct. He's just, his new book is hitting the bookstores around the country in Italy today. It will be released in other countries in the coming weeks and months. His new book, called "Get Up and Let Us Go." It is pretty much a trip down memory lane for this pope, going back 20 years between 1958, when he was made a bishop, to 1978, when he was elected pope; a book filled with recollections and reflections. One nice anecdote out of this book, when he first heard that he was going to be made a bishop back in 1958, he was on a camping trip in the polish countryside. He took a canoe then, then a ride on the back of a flour truck to reach Krakow -- sorry, to reach Warsaw, where he was told by the then cardinal there that he was going to become bishop.
He said, "Thank you very much. I'm going back to my camping trip now." And the cardinal was quite surprised at the pope, that a person who would become a bishop wanted to go on a camping trip.
Anyway, he went back. He was reading on his way back, riding the train back to the countryside, Ernest Hemingway's, "The Old Man At Sea." So he was, all these little anecdotes about this book, very interesting. Also, some spiritual reflections. He really, he defends the church, of course, rule of celibacy for the priests. He says that he doesn't understand why people would say the priests should be married because they feel lonely. He said he never felt lonely because he always felt that god was next to him.
And regarding his trips, he's going to Switzerland, another long trip, for a trip at the beginning of January, his 103rd trip, I believe. And, but before that, he meets with the U.S. president, George W. Bush, at the Vatican, who is coming for a three day visit to Italy.
COSTELLO: And you'll tell us more about that later.
Alessio Vinci live in London for us this morning.
Around the corner from ground zero, the search for answers goes on.
It is Tuesday, May 18.
This is DAYBREAK.
We'll be back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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Aired May 18, 2004 - 05:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Reliving September 11 -- the 9/11 Commission meets this morning near ground zero.
It is Tuesday, May 18.
This is DAYBREAK.
And good morning to you.
From the CNN global headquarters in Atlanta, I'm Carol Costello.
Here are the latest headlines for you now.
The top U.S. official in Iraq says that moving forward with the hand over of power will honor the memory of Governing Council President Izzadine Saleem. He was killed in a suicide bomb attack near Baghdad yesterday. Paul Bremer spoke at Saleem's funeral today.
Lessons learned from the September 11 terror attacks -- that is the focus of two days of public hearings getting under way in New York. One key agenda item, the city's emergency response systems.
In money news, call it a crude awakening. Prices are on the rise again, with crude oil futures closing at a 21-year high of more than $41.50 a barrel.
In sports, a 2-2 tie. That sets the stage for tonight's face-off between the Philadelphia Flyers and the Tampa Bay Lightning. Game five of the Eastern Conference hockey finals being played in Tampa.
In culture, comedian Jimmy Fallon says he is leaving "Saturday Night Live" to focus on his movie career. He and Tina Fey have put their own comic spin on the show's long running weekend update segment.
In weather, the National Weather Service is warning Florida swimmers to watch out for rip tides. At least four people have died in riptides along the south Florida coast in recent days.
Let's bring in Rob Marciano. He's in for Chad this morning -- hello, Rob.
ROB MARCIANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Carol.
(WEATHER REPORT) COSTELLO: We begin this morning with the search for answers in the 9/11 terrorist attacks. For the first time, the commission investigating the attacks is meeting in New York City. Two days of hearings are scheduled. The first one begins at 8:45 Eastern this morning.
Our Deborah Feyerick has more for you.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The images remain clear. What remains unclear and what many still wonder is whether more people could have been saved if there was better communication, better coordination between police and firefighters. It's one thing the 9/11 Commission hopes to find out.
RUDY GIULIANI, FORMER NEW YORK CITY MAYOR: My impression was that they're going to conduct a very fact oriented and very objective study, the goal of which is to make recommendations about how things can be handled in the future.
FEYERICK: Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and others in charge that day will be questioned publicly under oath for the first time by an independent commission.
GIULIANI: Whatever the adequacies or inadequacies in New York, they're much -- the adequacies are much greater.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Watch your step!
FEYERICK: Since the attacks, response drills are commonplace. There's more counter-terrorism training.
RAY KELLY, NYPD COMMISSIONER: There is no exact blueprint to a terrorist attack, so our aim is to train for the greatest variety of circumstances possible.
FEYERICK: Fire Department radios, blamed for possibly failing to alert firefighters to evacuate, have been upgraded. But critics say the radios still don't work properly.
SALLY REGENHARD, SKYSCRAPER SAFETY CAMPAIGN: It's about time that we received the proper funding from the Department of Homeland Security that will support firefighters' radios that work not 95 percent of the time, 100 percent of the time.
FEYERICK: Firefighters and police remain on different frequencies. Sharing information is still a challenge. The city working to fix that.
STEVE KUHR, CRITERION STRATEGIES: We're talking about a system that allows all these agencies to fit into a single, comprehensive, unified organization to effectively manage the incident under a single command operation.
FEYERICK (on camera): The Commission hopes to provide what it calls the definitive account of 9/11 and ways to save even more lives if a terror attack should happen again.
Deborah Feyerick, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: And you can get a preview of the Commission's meeting on "American Morning" with Bill and Soledad. Their guest this morning, Commission members Thomas Kean and Lee Hamilton. That's, of course, in the 7:00 Eastern hour.
Families of the military police unit at the center of the Iraqi prison abuse scandal plan to pray together tonight at a vigil in Cumberland, Maryland. It comes one day before three of the soldiers implicated in the Abu Ghraib abuses will be arraigned. Staff Sergeant Ivan Fredericks, Sergeant Javal Davis and Specialist Charles Graner will face a military judge tomorrow in Iraq. They're being arraigned one day earlier than scheduled.
Now, the arraignments will take place on the same day their comrade goes before a military judge. That would be Specialist Jeremy Sivits. He's the first soldier to face court-martial proceedings.
Our senior international editor David Clinch here with more insight into these cases.
DAVID CLINCH, CNN INTERNATIONAL EDITOR: Yes, good morning, Carol.
COSTELLO: Tell us, first of all, how these -- how this will be set up, how it works.
CLINCH: Right. Well, we're in the midst of the preparations in Baghdad today. And we need to make a distinction. First of all, there will be one court-martial tomorrow around this time, Eastern time tomorrow, Specialist Sivits. We're told that that is what they call a special court-martial. We've talked about this before. On one level, that is a court-martial system which allows for lower sentences and lower punishment, although we have been told very recently by the Pentagon that the rules have changed somewhat, very recently, to allow for slightly higher sentences, up to a year for punishment under those special court-martials.
Sivits will face that. There is every indication that he will plead guilty. He has, we are told, acknowledged that abuse took place and that he took part in abuse. There is also the suggestion -- you can see it, he's charged with conspiracy, dereliction of duty, cruelty and maltreatment. The question mark is will he give specific information about what others have done. Will he also give specific information about where the orders came from, who was telling them this...
COSTELLO: Well, there are hints that he will.
CLINCH: Yes, there is a suggestion, certainly, that he will give information about what others at his level were doing. The question mark, whether he or any of the others who are being arraigned tomorrow may at some point give information about where the orders came from. The question, based on the initial investigation that has come forward from Taguba, which we've seen to this point, everything is being laid out based on what this group of soldiers did.
The question mark that is still being investigated is whether military intelligence people were ordering these soldiers to do this. There is a report in the "New York Times" today quoting a man who is featured in the Taguba investigation as saying that yes, military intelligence were giving orders and that there was no means for them within the prison to check how far those orders were being taken -- in other words, no checks or balances.
So we'll see how much information comes out.
COSTELLO: How much will we actually see of this hearing? Will the correspondents be allowed inside?
CLINCH: Yes, that's a good question. And remember, initially we were being told by General Kimmitt and others in Baghdad that there will be full media access. They stepped back from that the next day under questioning and said yes, reporters will be allowed, both Western and Arabic will be allowed inside, but no TV cameras. At least we will not be allowed to bring our TV cameras.
COSTELLO: What about audio?
CLINCH: That's a good question. We do know that there'll be closed circuit camera in there and that reporters will be able to sit outside, those that can't fit into the courtroom itself. The question of whether that will ever be released is unanswered at this point. We will be inside with pen and paper and taking notes. Others will be, as well.
You have to remember that a lot of this, even by the military's own admission, internally in Iraq, with a lot of Arab reporters going in, as well, is about convincing the Iraqi people and the people of the region that they are taking this seriously.
So, although, of course, with Sivits starting and pleading guilty, that's very different from others, whom we do not know. They'll be arraigned tomorrow, but we don't know what kind of court- martial they'll face and whether they will plead guilty or not.
COSTELLO: Well, I'm sure more information will come out in the days to come.
CLINCH: Yes, this process is going to take quite some time.
COSTELLO: All right, thank you, David.
CLINCH: OK.
COSTELLO: U.S. officials are conducting more tests on a device that exploded over the weekend at Baghdad Airport to see if it contained sarin gas. Military authorities say the artillery round was the kind Saddam Hussein's regime said it no longer had after the first Gulf War. But they stopped short of saying the munition if evidence of a stockpile of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
Sarin gas is a nerve agent, also known as G.B. It was originally developed as a pesticide. It's colorless, tasteless and odorless in its pure form. It's not found naturally in the environment and death can occur after exposure. Symptoms include runny nose, watery eyes, coughing and nausea.
Coming up in the next hour of DAYBREAK, we'll talk more about the implication of possibly finding sarin gas in Iraq with our military security analyst Ken Robinson.
Former Iraqi hostage Thomas Hamill is recovering at home from surgery to his injured arm. His wife says Hamill is doing just fine after undergoing a skin graft operation in Columbus, Mississippi. Hamill was wounded in his right arm and captured when his convoy was ambushed in Baghdad last month. He escaped earlier this month.
The gay marriage controversy is back on the front burner in the presidential race now that it's legal for gays and lesbians to marry in Massachusetts. John Kerry was asked about his position while campaigning with former rival Howard Dean in Portland, Oregon.
Here's what he had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOHN KERRY (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I don't believe in discrimination. I believe in letting people be who they are. And I believe you can respect the traditional value that people have attached to marriage as they've seen it, within a more religious connotation, and protect rights as people understand them under our constitution. I think 8u can achieve that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: As for President Bush, he's renewed his call for a constitutional amendment barring gay marriage. In a written statement, the president says: "The sacred institution of marriage should not be redefined by a few activist judges." He goes on to say: "I call on the Congress to pass and to send to the states for a ratification an amended to our constitution defining and protecting marriage as the union of a man and a woman as husband and wife."
Stories across America this Tuesday, an Indiana Air National Guard pilot was killed in a midair collision of F-16s. The two jets were flying a routine training mission when they collided. Both pilots ejected after the collision. The pilot of the other jet was treated and released from the hospital. Debris from the crash spread out over a five mile area on the Indiana-Illinois border.
State police in Colorado were warned that something was wrong with a bridge support girder an hour before it collapsed. Three people were killed when the 40 ton steel beam dropped onto the highway. A motorist called in with concerns over the condition of the girder, but recordings showed the police dispatcher misunderstood the problem. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JIM WOLFINBERGER, COLORADO STATE PATROL: The 9/11 call came in where a motorist had identified an I-beam that apparently had rolled. At that point in time, a miscommunication had occurred between the call taker at the Colorado State Patrol and she read back a sign, about a sign being hanging from an area of eastbound I-70 at Colorado 470.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: The dispatcher has been suspended with pay until an investigation is complete.
Updating you on a story we told you about yesterday, one climber and two rescue rangers remain near the summit of Mount Rainier in Washington State. They're waiting for better weather before they can be removed. A critically injured climber was airlifted out of the area after spending three days stranded on the mountain, but he died on the way to the hospital.
Well, we don't need to tell you this, gas prices are soaring to all time highs. But should President Bush dip into oil reserves to push down the price at the pump? We'll look at that sticky situation later this hour.
Plus, Israeli missiles and machine guns pound a Palestinian refugee camp, killing 13 and wounding nearly three dozen others. We take you live to that region for that massive assault.
Also ahead, the pope celebrates a birthday today and he's not slowing down. We'll tell you what the pontiff is planning in a live report.
And if you're cutting carbs to fight the fat, we got some more information for you to chew on.
All that and much more coming up in this hour of DAYBREAK.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Your news, money, weather and sports.
It is 5:15 Eastern.
Here's what's all new this morning.
The 9/11 Commission opens hearings today in New York City for the first time. Among the witnesses expected to testify is former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani.
Israeli helicopters fire rockets into the Rafah Refuge Camp in Gaza, killing at least 13 Palestinians. The missile strike was followed by columns of around 100 tanks and bulldozers sent into the area. Israel is demolishing some Palestinian homes to create a security buffer. In money news, Donald Trump looks to make more of it. His newest book, called "The Way To The Top," hits stores today.
And in sports, a first for professional basketball. The Nashville Rhythm of the ABA hired Ashley McElhiney as the franchise's first head coach. McElhiney also becomes the first ever female head coach of a men's pro team.
In culture, grab your straw hat because "Hee-Haw" is coming back. Full episodes of the show are being released on DVD. There are some 600 episodes of "Hee-Haw," which aired from 1969 way up until 1997 -- Rob.
MARCIANO: Getting back to some good old-fashioned TV -- happy faces popping out of corn fields.
(WEATHER REPORT)
COSTELLO: Those are the latest headlines.
With gas prices at an all time high, some people say President Bush should bring prices down by releasing some of the nation's emergency petroleum reserves. It was a step President Clinton took four years ago.
Allan Chernoff looks at the issue for you.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The strategic reserves lie more than 2,000 feet underground, in huge natural caverns along the Gulf Coast of Texas and Louisiana; 660 million barrels of oil. Every day, the government adds another 100,000 barrels, even as the price of oil, traded here in New York, has jumped to an all time record high.
RICHARD SCHAEFFER, ENERGY DIRECTOR, ABN-AMRO: The closer we get towards the election, with prices staying as high as they are, I think the likelihood of a release to some percentage is a high possibility.
CHERNOFF: With oil above $40 a barrel and gasoline topping $2 a gallon, some industry executives are calling for the government to help by releasing reserves. The petroleum reserve is supposed to be for emergencies, but President Clinton opened the oil tap in the fall of 2000, temporarily pushing prices down shortly before the presidential election.
BILL CLINTON, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: The overriding purpose for our action is to increase supply and help consumers make it through the cold winter. Families shouldn't have to drain their wallets to drive their cars or heat their homes.
CHERNOFF: The Bush campaign criticized the action. President Bush's Energy Department says the Strategic Petroleum Reserve is off limits. That's the way it should be, argues the energy lobby. JOHN FELMY, AMERICAN PETROLEUM INSTITUTE: There's no good argument for releasing oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. It's our insurance policy so that if we do have physical disruptions of supply, we can fill that void with oil from the SPR.
CHERNOFF (on camera): But traders say a change in policy from the Bush administration would give the oil markets an important psychological jolt, the kind of catalyst needed to pull prices down from their record highs.
Allan Chernoff, CNN Financial News, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: So who or what is to blame for the high price of gas? We'll let commentators Neal Boortz and Mike Malloy point the finger in the next hour of DAYBREAK. They look like a happy couple in that shot, don't they?
Time now to check the overseas markets to see what may be on tap for Wall Street.
For that, we head live to London and Todd Benjamin -- good morning, Todd.
TODD BENJAMIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.
After taking a drubbing yesterday, the markets still struggling today, both the FTSE in London, the CAC in Paris are flat; the DAX is up less than a half a percent.
The futures market in the U.S., though, is pointing to a higher open after falling yesterday, of course, a drop on Wall Street, one percent for the Dow, one and a half percent for the NASDAQ. High oil prices partly to blame for those falls. NYNEX crude was as high as $41.85 a barrel. It's, in electronic trading right now, it's off that level by about $0.60, at $41.17 a barrel on some profit taking.
But analysts say all the factors that have driven oil to record high prices still remain in place, including the summer driving season, strong demand in the U.S., strong demand from China, really, a lack of spare capacity in terms of oil producers, and, of course, continued fears of disruption from the Mideast. And that was heightened yesterday, of course, with the killing of the current president of the Iraqi Governing Council. And, of course, you had that recent attack on the pipeline out of Basra.
So still a lot of concerns and, of course, there's a lot of speculation. Some people say the terrorist premium on oil is as much as $5 to $10 a barrel, Carol. And just to make you feel better, unleaded premium is $0.52 higher at the pump than it was a year ago. Ouch -- back to you.
COSTELLO: That makes me feel bad. That makes me feel worse.
Todd Benjamin live from London this morning. Coming up next on DAYBREAK, a strange sighting may soon be explained. We've got our finger on the pulse of a celestial phenomenon ahead. Are those things UFOs? We'll tell you.
And paying homage to the pontiff. We'll tell you if the birthday boy has big plans.
This is DAYBREAK for Tuesday.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: We're talking about Chad. You know, Chad went to Hawaii for his vacation and we were wondering if he was in Poipu.
MARCIANO: Is that...
COSTELLO: That's his favorite city in...
MARCIANO: Oh, it is?
COSTELLO: Yes.
MARCIANO: I think it's -- is it on the Big Island? Because that's where he is, Poipu?
COSTELLO: Well, he's island hopping.
MARCIANO: Oh. Have you talked to him recently? You guys keep in touch.
COSTELLO: No. No, but of course I had to listen to his itinerary ad nauseum.
MARCIANO: Yes. All I know is it's like 10 days or better. So, you know, he'll be having a good time.
COSTELLO: Lucky you.
MARCIANO: Yes. Here I am with you.
COSTELLO: But we're glad you're here.
MARCIANO: Thanks for having me.
COSTELLO: Because you're going to explain a weird weather phenomenon to us. This is in Mexico City. Apparently some pilots up there in the plane detected those little light blobs on radar. But you could not see them with the naked eye. Those little blobs seemed to be following them. In fact, a lot of people thought they were UFOs. But it turned out it was a very rare atmospheric phenomenon, and that would be ball lightning?
MARCIANO: Right. Well, we don't know that for sure. This professor out of a university down there is thinking that may very well be the case. But we don't know much about ball lightning. I mean it's one of these things that we see it, but we can't really explain it. I mean 70 percent of lightning happens cloud to cloud. And ball lightning, when we do see it, doesn't really last that long. So I don't know...
COSTELLO: And it stays up in the air.
MARCIANO: It could still be a UFO. It could still be.
COSTELLO: You think it's a UFO, don't you?
MARCIANO: I want to think that, at least.
COSTELLO: It's ball lightning.
MARCIANO: OK, we'll go with that.
COSTELLO: Thank you, Rob.
MARCIANO: All right.
COSTELLO: Pope John Paul II celebrates his 84th birthday today with a new book and plans to begin traveling again.
Let's get more now from CNN's Allessio Vinci, who joins us live from London -- good morning, Alessio.
ALESSIO VINCI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.
COSTELLO: Any special celebrations planned?
VINCI: No celebrations at the Vatican or anywhere, nothing official planned by Vatican officials for the birthday of Pope John Paul II, basically because the Vatican does not celebrate the pope's birthdays, but does celebrate the date of his election, which for this pope falls back in the month of October in 1978. So that's what they're celebrating. You may remember last October huge celebrations in St. Peter's Square for the 25th anniversary of the pope's -- for the pope's election as the head of the Roman Catholic Church.
We do know, however, that some of the pope's closest aides inside the Apostolic Palace have cooked a small pie for him. His cook, Sister Germana, even perhaps with some candles for him to blow. But nothing really major planned at the Vatican today.
COSTELLO: Well, hopefully there won't be 84 candles on the pie.
You know, he is 84 years old...
VINCI: It's not big enough.
COSTELLO: No.
He is 84. He looks very frail, but he's certainly busy. He's releasing a new book and he's going to, at some point, meet with President Bush, isn't he?
VINCI: That is correct. He's just, his new book is hitting the bookstores around the country in Italy today. It will be released in other countries in the coming weeks and months. His new book, called "Get Up and Let Us Go." It is pretty much a trip down memory lane for this pope, going back 20 years between 1958, when he was made a bishop, to 1978, when he was elected pope; a book filled with recollections and reflections. One nice anecdote out of this book, when he first heard that he was going to be made a bishop back in 1958, he was on a camping trip in the polish countryside. He took a canoe then, then a ride on the back of a flour truck to reach Krakow -- sorry, to reach Warsaw, where he was told by the then cardinal there that he was going to become bishop.
He said, "Thank you very much. I'm going back to my camping trip now." And the cardinal was quite surprised at the pope, that a person who would become a bishop wanted to go on a camping trip.
Anyway, he went back. He was reading on his way back, riding the train back to the countryside, Ernest Hemingway's, "The Old Man At Sea." So he was, all these little anecdotes about this book, very interesting. Also, some spiritual reflections. He really, he defends the church, of course, rule of celibacy for the priests. He says that he doesn't understand why people would say the priests should be married because they feel lonely. He said he never felt lonely because he always felt that god was next to him.
And regarding his trips, he's going to Switzerland, another long trip, for a trip at the beginning of January, his 103rd trip, I believe. And, but before that, he meets with the U.S. president, George W. Bush, at the Vatican, who is coming for a three day visit to Italy.
COSTELLO: And you'll tell us more about that later.
Alessio Vinci live in London for us this morning.
Around the corner from ground zero, the search for answers goes on.
It is Tuesday, May 18.
This is DAYBREAK.
We'll be back.
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