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CNN Live At Daybreak
Saboteurs Damage Key Iraqi Oil Pipeline
Aired July 05, 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: And good morning to you. From the CNN global headquarters in Atlanta, I'm Carol Costello.
Here are the latest headlines for you now:
Insurgents are stepping up their attacks on Iraq's oil industry. The oil money is needed to pay for the cost of war reconstruction and recovery efforts. We'll have a live report from Baghdad for you in just about three minutes.
In the meantime, a deal is in the works this morning for Iraqi insurgents. The new government is working on an amnesty offer for what they call "low-level insurgents." A spokesman for the new Iraqi government says no hard-core criminals will be eligible for the deal.
In money news, a huge international scandal: Russia's biggest oil export, Yukos Oil, has been notified of a default in a $1 billion credit. A company spokesman says lenders may seize part of the company's export revenue.
In culture, Afghan leader Hamid Karzai is the newest recipient of the Philadelphia Medal. The non-political Philadelphia Foundation presents this award each year to recognize leadership in the pursuit of freedom.
And in sports, Roger Federer wins his second straight Wimbledon title. The 22-year-old Swiss star beat American Andy Roddick in four sets - Chad.
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOLOGIST: Good morning, Carol. See that ace for the win? Championship point was the ace. Look at that - 145 miles an hour. That's ridiculous. That's like an Indy car.
(WEATHER REPORT)
COSTELLO: It's one week and counting since the handover of power in Iraq, and the new government is facing a major challenge: dealing with the insurgency. Iraqi police say insurgents targeted a British military camp in Basra today, but their mortars instead hit six nearby homes, killing one Iraqi citizen and wounding two others.
In the meantime, radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr - remember him? Well, he claims the new Iraqi government is illegitimate and says he and his militia will fight on - quote - "to our last drop of blood." That contradicts his earlier, conciliatory moves toward the new prime minister. And in a move to combat the insurgency, the government is working on an amnesty offer for low-level insurgents. They're still figuring out the details, but a spokesman for the prime minister says no hard- core criminals, like those accused of murder, will be eligible for the deal.
So who is behind the anti-U.S. insurgency in Iraq? U.S. officials and a former member of the Iraqi Governing Council says it's relatives of none other than Saddam Hussein. The New York Times reports some of Hussein's cousins are smuggling people, money and guns into Iraq. The paper says the group is operating out of Syria, Jordan and Europe. Recent classified intelligence reports detail the suspicious movement of money and goods into Iraq, but military officials also say other elements of the resistance have no ties to the former Iraqi dictator.
Insurgents are hitting hard at Iraq's oil industry. It's a constant battle to secure the sites.
Our Brent Sadler joins us live from Baghdad with more on these attacks.
Hello.
BRENT SADLER, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hello. Good morning, Carol.
Well, there's been no let up in insurgent attacks on this country's vital oil distribution network, both in the north and south of the country. Saboteurs are again reported to have struck a pipeline south of Baghdad. This is a secondary pipeline that supplies crude oil to Iraq's refinery for production inside this country.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SADLER (voice-over): Giant ships fill their tanks with Iraqi crude oil, exporting up to $3 million worth of oil an hour, if all works well.
But all is not well. Crude oozes from a gaping hole after recent attacks on strategic pipelines near Basra in southern Iraq, sapping oil revenues.
AYAD ALLAWI, IRAQI PRIME MINISTER: Anyone involved in these attacks is nothing more than traitor to the cause of Iraq's freedom and the freedom of its people.
SADLER: Oil protection is supposed to be a top priority, on land and at sea since last year's invasion of Iraq. But Iraqi officials claim it's been hit and miss, exposing a worrying shortfall in coalition planning.
JABBAR AL-LEABY, DIRECTOR GENERAL, SOUTH OIL COMPANY: So they need security everywhere, and security and - security and manned (ph) security and equipment and security in every aspect. SALDER (on camera): The vast and often remote network of pipelines is vulnerable to attack. No oil means no money to pay for the cost of war, reconstruction and recovery.
(voice-over): As recently as two months ago, would-be suicide bombers tried but failed to hit these vital off-shore terminals, now guarded by a fleet of coalition warships.
The U.S. soldiers help enforce a new exclusion zone, patrolled by the American and British navies. Nothing is full proof though.
ADMIRAL ALLAN WEST, BRITISH FIRSTSEAL LORD: Everything is always vulnerable if you get the right thing at the right time and you're lucky. But they are now much harder to crack.
SADLER: But on land, where saboteurs are getting through, a 15,000-strong Iraqi protection force, privately trained with coalition money, is paper thin, with more than 7,000 miles of pipeline and 2560 facilities to guard.
KEVIN THOMAS, OIL ADVISER, CPA SOUTH: Our patrols can now only walk through. Any determined enemy can monitor the patrol patterns and attack when the patrol has moved on.
SADLER: The oil network has so far more been hit more than 130 times in the past seven months alone, including a six-day shutdown of all crude exports in June, losing money Iraq and its coalition allies can ill afford.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SADLER: Well, that 15,000-strong oil-protection force is manned by Iraqis and is still undergoing training. But without surveillance aircraft and without high-tech security equipment, complain Iraqi officials, it's not up to meeting the threat - Carol.
COSTELLO: Brent Sadler live from Baghdad this morning, thank you.
A Utah family whose Marine son is missing in Iraq - well, they must be on an emotional roller coaster as they wait to learn if their son is dead or alive. Three Islamic Web sites posted a message on Saturday saying Marine Corporal Wassef Hassoun had been beheaded. And then yesterday, a militant group said to be holding Hassoun hostage posted a message on its Web site saying reports of his death were not true. Hassoun, who is of Lebanese heritage, was reported missing in Iraq on June 20.
Hundreds of American soldiers have had a brief vacation from the war. They've spent two weeks at home with friends and family as part of the military's leave rotation. But now, time's up. And as CNN's David Mattingly reports, the troops are returning to a very different Iraq.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Next person.
DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They've been home for the shortest two weeks of their lives, but leave is over. For these soldiers, it's time for the long flight back - back to an Iraq that is now run by Iraqis.
TANYA SIMMONS, WIFE OF SOLDIER: Hopefully now it will take the emphasis off the American soldiers and put it back on the Iraqis.
MATTINGLY: Many of these soldiers watched the handover with their families on television, a reminder of the job waiting for them as they tried to lose themselves in the comforts of home.
(on camera): What do you expect to see when you get back?
(voice-over): They now return talking of mixed emotions, hopeful that the worst is over, mindful of possible dangers ahead.
SPEC. STEPEHN GRENOA, U.S. ARMY: Hopefully, they'll step up and start taking (UNINTELLIGIBLE) responsibility for their own country, their own people in their country.
SPEC. CHAD WEBSTER, U.S. ARMY: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) wait and see. I mean, we don't know what to expect going back. We don't know what the changes are going to be.
MATTINGLY (on camera): When these soldiers get back to Iraq, they'll be returning more experienced than last time. They're smarter, more seasoned.
But with that experience, they say, has come an important lesson: to always prepared for anything.
(voice-over): Daily episodes of violence since the handover drive the point home that the bloodshed they left behind will be waiting, a certainty that makes a new round of farewells tough for any soldier.
(on camera): Is it harder saying goodbye the second time than it was the first time?
SGT. BONNIE COLLINS, U.S. ARMY: Yes.
MATTINGLY: In what way?
COLLINS: Because he (ph) has to leave me a second time.
MATTINGLY (voice-over): Sergeant Bonnie Collins holds her two young daughters closely, trying to make the most of their last hours together before mom goes back to Baghdad.
COLLINS: Getting through this, getting on the plane will be hard. But once it's done, it's done. I'll be OK.
MATTINGLY: A 14-hour flight that begins with heartache. Destination: the now familiar but dangerous nation of Iraq. David Mattingly, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COLLINS: Sergeant Clarence Kugler, thought to be the oldest enlisted man serving in Iraq, will be a guest this morning in the 8:00 Eastern hour of "AMERICAN MORNING."
Coming up on DAYBREAK, the injustice of a defective gun. A Saturday night special leaves a 7-year-old boy paralyzed for life. Now that injustice may be continued in a San Francisco court.
A block of granite becomes the symbol of rebirth at Ground Zero. A family member calls it "closure and a new beginning."
And nothing else but this should happen on the Fourth of July.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Welcome back to DAYBREAK.
In San Francisco, a teenager is trying to buy a company that changed his life. But his intention may not be what you think.
CNN's Miguel Marquez has more for you.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRANDON MAXFIELD, ACCIDENTAL SHOOTING VICTIM: I used to play baseball all the time. I wanted to be a baseball when I grew up.
MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A little more than 10 years ago, a bullet accidentally fired turned then-7-year-old Brandon Maxfield from an aspiring ball player into a quadriplegic.
MAXFIELD: What happened to me is the past. There's nothing I can do about that. What matters is the future.
MARQUEZ: The future, says Maxfield, is to buy the now-defunct Bryco Arms and turn it into Brandon Arms. Maxfield would become the order of the company that made the very pistol, 1 .380 semi-automatic, that discharged a bullet into his chin. Last year, in a suit against Bryco and its owner, Bruce Jennings, a jury found the design of the gun's safety device was defective and partially responsible for his injuries.
MAXFIELD: By the time I'm done, I want this - that whole company to be leveled.
MARQUEZ: Maxfield says he wants to take the remaining 75,600 gun frames and parts in Bryco's Southern California warehouse and destroy them all.
MAXFIELD: Buy the company and melt down the guns, get them off the street. MARQUEZ: The problem, says Maxfield's lawyer, is that everything is tied up in the courts. Bryco went bankrupt the day after it lost a $24 million lawsuit. Less than $9 million has been paid, and Maxfield's lawyer estimates his client's lifetime medical bills will be around $11 million.
So Brandon Maxfield is now raising money to buy Bryco in bankruptcy court, hoping to outbid Bryco's former plant manager's offer of $150,000.
RICHARD RUGGIER, MAXFIELD'S LAWYER: Our intention is to bid for the assets, to have the - the machinery and other assets that can be put into useful production sold off.
MARQUEZ (on camera): The court is only deciding who will buy the company, not whether it will manufacture guns. Ruggier says if Bryco's former plant manager wins the bid, the company will be back in the gun-making business. The plant manager didn't return our calls, and the company's former owner says he's contesting the award to the 17-year-old high school senior.
Miguel Marquez, CNN, San Francisco.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: Your news, money, weather and sports. It is 5:14 Eastern. Here's what's all-new this morning:
Indonesians are voting today in their first-ever direct presidential election. None of the three candidates at the top of the polls is - are expected to carry a majority. If that's the case, the two top vote-getters will square off in a run-off election in September.
Israel has fired rockets at suspected weapons factories in Gaza. Five Palestinians were slightly wounded in those attacks. Palestinian sources say the targets were metal workshops.
In money news, Wal-Mart is planning to revamp one of its women's clothing lines. It's an effort to boost sagging sales. The George lines is now going to be redone to target younger shoppers.
In culture, Disney is being sued over the song "The Lion Sleeps Tonight." It was featured in "The Lion King." The South African family of the song's composer is seeking royalties of at least $1.6 million.
And in sports, Barry Bonds has set a record for not hitting home runs. Actually, he sets a record for most walks in a career with 2,191.
(LAUGTER)
COSTELLO: The old record was held by Ricky Henderson - Chad.
MYERS: How many of those were intentional I wonder? COSTELLO: I bet a lot of them were intentional walks.
MYERS: Batting around him and pitching around him.
(WEATHER REPORT)
COSTELLO: Those are the latest headlines for you.
U.S. markets are closed for the Independence Day holiday, but let's check on the markets overseas. For that, we head to London and Todd Benjamin.
Hello, Todd.
TODD BENJAMIN: Good morning, Carol. You and I working, but you're right, Wall Street has the day off.
Not a bad day considering what's been going on in Europe. Europe was down four days in a row last week. Of course, on Friday it fell on those disappointing employment numbers out of the U.S. Employment rose only 112,000 in June. The expectation was 250,000 new jobs being created.
But we're seeing a little buying today. The FTSE is up a third of 1 percent, the DAX up about a quarter percent in Frankfurt and the CAC is up almost a half of 1 percent.
I do want to mention oil because of that attack on an Iraqi pipeline we had on Saturday. Oil trading here in London is up 43 cents. And in terms of currency markets today, if you're planning a trip to Europe this summer, the euro right now is about $1.23 to the dollar. And if you're coming to Britain, the pound - because, of course, the pound is not part of the euro-zone currency clan - it's at $1.83. So quite expensive coming to London these days.
In terms of what we can expect from the U.S. markets this week, the economic calendar is very light. You're going to get a report on services. You're going to get the latest jobless claims numbers. But the big focus is we're just starting to ease into the second-quarter earnings season. Some big names reporting this week: Alcoa, Yahoo! and General Electric. But the real flurry will come about mid-July.
That's how it looks from here. Carol, back to you. Have a great day.
COSTELLO: You too. Todd Benjamin, live from London this morning.
An American holiday actually spans the globe. Coming up, how troops in Iraq celebrated Independence Day.
Plus, people will go to great lengths for the perfect wedding. Just ahead, we'll explain why this wedding party is washing cars.
This is DAYBREAK.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Far from home, but eager to celebrate Independence Day. U.S. troops in Iraq marked July Fourth with an all-American meal in the mess hall, and then later this fireworks display. Music, food and games all part of the party, which was held at one of Saddam Hussein's former palaces in his hometown of Tikrit. There were other celebrations for troops throughout Iraq.
That would be surreal, wouldn't it?
MYERS: It really would be.
COSTELLO: You're sitting in one of Saddam Hussein's palaces, watching fireworks and celebrating the Fourth of July.
MYERS: And they had a 10K run. So they're really feeling pretty good about Tikrit. They really are. Considering what that was like a year ago - you know, there - obviously, they feel good enough about it and had no problems with it to have all those fireworks.
COSTELLO: Well, the nicest part, they were watching the fireworks with members of the Iraqi national guard.
MYERS: (UNINTELLIGIBLE)?
COSTELLO: Yes.
MYERS: Yes.
COSTELLO: Eating hamburgers and french fries.
MYERS: You know what? Bring over the hot dogs, right?
COSTELLO: Exactly.
MYERS: The all-beefers (ph).
COSTELLO: You know who I really felt sorry for, are the people of Washington D.C., because there was a huge rainstorm and it washed out the fireworks display.
MYERS: Yes. Yes, it did. Baltimore really got hit hard too.
Did you sleep last night?
COSTELLO: I did. I have - you know, I cannot get rid of his cold.
What do you mean did I sleep last night?
MYERS: Well, the fireworks were going off until about midnight in my neighborhood.
COSTELLO: I can't hear anything because of my cold.
MYERS: Perfect. COSTELLO: I slept like a baby.
MYERS: All right.
COSTELLO: All right. Time for our DAYBREAK "Eyeopeners" right now.
Isn't it romantic? A Seattle couple held a fund-raising car wash to help pay for their upcoming wedding.
(LAUGHTER)
COSTELLO: In fact, the entire wedding party grabbed sponges and buckets to help raise money for the wedding. But I hope it's going to be a small affair, since they only raised $400.
(LAUGHTER)
MYERS: They should have - if they were in tuxedos, they might have got a little more.
COSTELLO: Or in bathing suits.
MYERS: Well...
COSTELLO: The Tsumani strikes again. One hundred thirty-two pound Japanese eating sensation Takaru Kobayashi once again won the annual Nathan's July 4th Hot Dog Eating Contest. He won his fourth straight competition by finishing off 53 and a half hot dogs.
MYERS: Yes, but that little Miss Thomas right there had like 33 or something like that. She was doing awesome.
COSTELLO: Well, she lost. This guy did all of that in 12 minutes. And that beat his previous world record by three.
MYERS: Yes.
COSTELLO: Second-place finisher only ate 38 hot dogs, like you said. Kobayashi also owns the world record for eating rice bowls and cow brains.
MYERS: Yum.
COSTELLO: Thousands gathered in Southern California for once of the nation's oldest fireworks celebrations. Pasadena's 78th annual Americafest is also one of the country's biggest fireworks displays.
You know, fireworks on TV just don't translate.
MYERS: Yes, it doesn't cut it.
COSTELLO: It's just, I hear the helicopter noise but I don't hear the sound of fireworks.
MYERS: Boom, boom, boom, boom... (CROSSTALK)
COSTELLO: OK, that was good enough.
Here's what's all-new in the next half-hour of DAYBREAK:
The spotlight is on Florida's voter rolls again. This time, a huge error could cost some the right to vote.
And here's a name you haven't heard in awhile: Slobodan Milosevic. The former Yugoslav president prepares to defend himself against war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Also, allegations of a Guantanamo Bay prisoner swap involving the U.S., Britain and Saudi Arabia. We'll explain ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Good morning to you. Welcome to the second half hour of DAYBREAK. From the CNN global headquarters in Atlanta, I'm Carol Costello.
Here are the latest headlines for you now:
U.S. and Saudi officials deny a published report that the U.S., Britain and Saudi Arabia were involved in a swap last year of prisoners suspected of being involved in terrorist attacks. The story is published in Sunday's New York Times.
Former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic was supposed to launch his defense today at his war-crimes trial. His lawyer says Milosevic was checked out by a doctor today, and his court appearance is now in doubt.
In money news, it'll be a quiet day on Wall Street. Markets are closed in honor of Independence Day. Stocks are expected to stay flat this week as investors react to mixed economic news, including higher consumer confidence, but the creation of fewer jobs figures.
In culture, a tribute to Pat Tillman. His parents look on as the former soldier and NFL player is honored with the - with the Audie Murphy Patriotism Award in Tennessee. Tillman gave up a lucrative pro-football career and sacrificed his life on the battlefield in Afghanistan.
In sports, Lance Armstrong is playing it safe so far in the Tour De France. The five-time winner finished 48th in the latest leg, but is third overall. He's pacing himself for the grueling three-week race - Chad.
MYERS: I was watching ESPN yesterday, and they go, And there's Lance Armstrong, and I go, Where? He's in the green -- the green - you always see him in the yellow jersey. You never see him wearing green. So, sorry to pick him out there.
Yes, well (UNINTELLIGIBLE) seconds behind the yellow jersey, so no problem.
(WEATHER REPORT)
COSTELLO: And we will. Thank you -- Chad.
MYERS: You're welcome.
COSTELLO: Was there a secret deal in place to swap Saudi detainees at Guantanamo Bay with British citizens held in Saudi Arabia? That is the scenario that some officials have called pure fantasy.
White House correspondent Suzanne Malveaux takes a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Les Walker was held in Saudi Arabia for allegedly carrying out terrorist attacks there, but now he's a free man. The British citizen says he, along with six other Western prisoners, had been tortured by Saudi security officials into confessing to crimes they did not commit.
LES WALKER, FORMER PRISONER: We pleaded innocent until they tortured us or myself. They tortured me to confess to bombings.
MALVEAUX: Walker and the others were freed nearly a year ago, but the circumstances surrounding their release are raising questions now about a possible secret international prison swap. According to senior American and British officials cited in "The New York Times," the U.S., Britain and Saudi Arabia were involved in months of intense negotiations beginning in July of 2002 to win the detainees' release.
The deal was last May the U.S. freed five Saudi detainees in U.S. custody at Guantanamo Bay, returning them to the Saudi government. Three months later, Saudi Arabia released the Western detainees. Was it quid pro quo? British Embassy spokesman Steve Atkins said "we were extremely relieved to win their release and get them out of Saudi Arabia. We worked ceaselessly for their return." But also said, "I am not able to comment further on any diplomatic discussions."
U.S. National Security Council spokesman Sean McCormack denied any trade saying "there is no recollection here of any linkage between these two actions." The Saudis release was "part of the normal policy of transferring detainees from Guantanamo for prosecution or continued detention."
And while officials do not dispute the timeline of the detainees' release, some political analysts see the timing around the Iraq war as more than coincidence.
CHARLES KUPCHAN, GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY: I think the Bush administration was hard pressed to put the coalition and to keep it together once the war was over. And the one thing that they could do to provide political payback was to facilitate a deal on these detainees, and Bush appears to have exercised that option. MALVEAUX: Walker says he was never told of the circumstances of his release, but he had his suspicions.
WALKER: We were pawns in a big game. That was a fear once we were in prison and it's a thought that I have held since I came out.
MALVEAUX (on camera): A senior Saudi official called the notion of prisoner trade pure fantasy, a case of connecting dots that don't.
Suzanne Malveaux, CNN, the White House.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: And right now we want to talk about an American hostage, an American Marine supposedly held hostage in Iraq. There was a Web site that came out that said that American had been beheaded, but then there was a conflicting message.
So we want to bring in our international editor Eli Flournoy to sort this all out for us.
So which is true, which is not?
ELI FLOURNOY, CNN INTERNATIONAL EDITOR: Well that's exactly the point, that's what we have to go through every day on these -- on these reports of beheading. The group that said they had captured him, yesterday then came out with a -- with a statement saying yes, we do have him, but we didn't behead him. We haven't -- we haven't killed him. And that was following, as you said, reports from other al Qaeda related Web sites that said that that group had, in fact, beheaded him and then, in fact, was going to come up with a -- come out with a video soon. So the reports were back and forth all over the place.
COSTELLO: Of course we're talking about Wassef Ali Hassoun. He's of Lebanese descent. He speaks Arabic. The funny thing was is this Web site that denied that you know the previous message -- well that denied the previous message, I mean there were angry words in that message. They were really angry that someone else could have taken responsibility or what?
FLOURNOY: Right. And it's -- and that's one of the very difficult parts of trying to sort out these stories is who exactly is behind the messages that are on these Web sites? Who has access to the Web sites and who really speaks for these groups and are they directly connected to those who in fact physically are carrying out these acts -- these hostage taking or attacks? And those are very, very difficult things to get a handle on.
The Internet is -- you know it's easy to access the Internet. People can get on to -- get on to different Web sites. And so we have to kind of sort through and try and judge, based on past experience, how reliable information from a certain Web site is.
And in fact, of course, go through the whole process of yesterday we spoke with Hassoun's brother who was in Lebanon. He said he hadn't heard anything one way or another but had not -- certainly not heard that he was dead and of course is still holding out hope very much that he is alive. And in fact we spoke directly with the Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri who also said these were just rumors that he was dead and that there was no confirmation. But that's at the same time that there were reports all over the place from the Lebanese Foreign Ministry and from Lebanese officials in Baghdad saying that in fact he was dead.
So these rumors and these reports that spin around, they come off the Internet, people pick them up and it becomes very difficult to sort through them. But we're thinking right now with it appears from the group's Web site, they say we have him, we haven't killed him, so his fate is still very much in doubt.
COSTELLO: And let's touch a little bit before you go on the -- on the elections that are going on right now.
FLOURNOY: Yes, in Indonesia we've got a very important election right now, the first direct presidential election in Indonesia's history. It's coming down to a race between the current President Megawati, who has suffered in popularity and is behind in most exit polling to one of her top generals, Yudhoyono. And he is -- he is leading.
But a very interesting and kind of odd development has come up, which is -- reminds us of the whole Florida situation. The ballot looked kind of like this comic here. They're about this -- they're about this size. And one of the rules in the election is that you can only have one hole, you can only punch one hole. This is just for the president this election.
But the ballots were given out folded and so people were punching through the middle and making two holes in them. So now millions of ballots are having to be recounted. So some of the early results that were showing General Yudhoyono ahead, in fact there may be a very different result. So that's very Floridian, as one analyst has said, so.
COSTELLO: And that's a lot of votes to recount.
FLOURNOY: Exactly. Exactly.
COSTELLO: Yes. Eli, thank you very much.
Former Yugoslavian President Slobodan Milosevic was to begin his own defense today in front of a U.N. war crimes tribunal but his health is questionable. The charges against him include genocide. Milosevic says he wants to call more than 1,500 witnesses, including former President Clinton.
CNN's Guy Raz joins us now live from London with the latest on that.
So what's wrong with him?
GUY RAZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well good morning, Carol. Milosevic has been prone to illness several times over the past two years and it's one of the reasons why this trial has taken so long. Now this has been called the most important war crimes trial in Europe since the Nuremberg Hearings after the Second World War. Milosevic faces more than 60 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity all stemming from the Balkan wars of the 1990s.
Now just a short time ago, Milosevic did enter the courtroom. He did begin to make his opening statement and that will last several hours. It's expected to be defiant. He's expected to blast the international criminal tribunal and question its legitimacy.
Now the most serious charge he faces, Carol, is a charge of genocide stemming from the Bosnian war that lasted from 1995 -- sorry, 1992 to 1995 and left more than 200,000 people dead.
Now it's been exactly three years since Milosevic was extradited from Belgrade to The Hague. And as I say, this trial has lasted more than two years, in part, critics say, because the prosecution has focused far too much on recounting details of the history of the Balkan wars rather than offering a dispassionate forensic case against the former Serb leader.
Now for his part, Milosevic has tried to make a mockery out of this court case of one and the same time refusing to recognize its legitimacy but then cross-examining witnesses and playing his own defense lawyer.
Now, as you mentioned earlier, he has 150 days now to mount his defense. And he is expected to try and call former U.S. President Bill Clinton and current British Prime Minister Tony Blair to the stand to answer what Milosevic calls war crimes charges of his own for the mounting of the 1999 bombing campaign against Serbia in 1999 -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Well will those witnesses be allowed to be called along with the other, what, 1,400 or so?
RAZ: (INAUDIBLE) well, Carol, we understand that both former President Clinton and Tony Blair do not have to appear. There have been other high profile witnesses at this case in the past two years. Patty Ashdown (ph), who was a former politician in Britain, now the high commissioner in Bosnia, was a witness. Wesley Clark was a witness. Of course he was the supreme ally commander of NATO during that 1999 bombing campaign. It's voluntary. Clinton and Blair do not have to appear and it's not clear whether they will. But of course Milosevic will do everything he can to try and bring them to the court -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Guy Raz reporting live from London for us. Thank you.
Here are some stories making news 'Across America' this Monday.
A newspaper in Lexington, Kentucky has published this clarification. Listen to this. "It has come to the editor's attention that 'The Herald Leader' neglected to cover the Civil Rights Movement. We regret the omission." The apology is part of a series of articles entitled "Front Page News, Back Page Coverage." The paper now admits it intentionally didn't print stories on civil rights actions such as sit-ins or marches back in the 1960s.
In Alaska, hundreds of people remain out of their homes due to a huge wildfire. Firefighters still battling the 306,000-acre boundary fire just north of Fairbanks. Cooler weather has helped crews gain some control over the spread of the wildfire.
Vice President Dick Cheney has fired one of his physicians after stories of prescription drug abuse surfaced. "The New Yorker" magazine published an article about numerous drug purchases made by Dr. Gary Malakoff. The vice president's office says Malakoff was just one of many doctors on the medical team.
On the campaign trail, President Bush takes his message of support for the troops to a key battleground state and that would be West Virginia. The president worked the crowd in Charleston on Sunday, praising those he says are sacrificing to keep this country safe. Polls show President Bush and Senator John Kerry are in a tight race for West Virginia's five electoral votes.
And in the perfect 4th of July setting, John Kerry shook quite a few hands at a barbecue in Independence, Iowa. He also paid tribute to the sacrifice and courage of American troops but criticized the president for what he calls misleading the American people into war.
Florida is trying to clear up yet another controversy before voters go to the polls in November. The state has come out with a list of almost 48,000 felons who could potentially be yanked from the voting list. The problem is, the list is riddled with mistakes.
CNN's Susan Candiotti has more for you.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DARREN JONES, FLORIDA VOTER: They went ahead and removed me. It's like guilty until proven innocent.
SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Darren Jones was stunned when he opened a letter last month from the Miami-Dade Elections Office.
JONES: The court system has notified the elections department of your recent felony conviction, which is not true.
CANDIOTTI: True, Jones is a convicted felon who served six months of house arrest, but that was in 1998.
JONES: So I know this couldn't be right.
CANDIOTTI: Like all Florida felons are required to do, Jones applied for and got his voting rights back in 2003, and says he proudly used his card to cast a vote in last spring's Democratic primary.
Dade elections officials admit they goofed this time, but can't explain it.
(on camera): What happened to Darren Jones is happening to others. CNN successfully sued Florida election officials to get a list and this is just a part of it, of 47,000 suspected felons who could be dumped from voter rolls. And like the case of Darren Jones, we found mistake after mistake.
(voice-over): At 22, Sam Heyward was convicted of buying stolen furniture, in 1986, he won back his voting rights and says he hasn't missed an election, only to discover he's on the new suspected felons list.
SAM HEYWARD, VOTER: To find that my name was still on the list and said it may have some effect on your voting privileges, and I'm like, well I don't see how, I've been voting for the last 15 years.
CANDIOTTI: "The Miami Herald" reports that it documented more than 2,100 errors.
Of the 47,000 named, 39 percent reportedly are black Democrats, 20 percent are white Democrats, 16 percent white Republicans.
With only about four months to go before the presidential election, 67 county supervisors now find themselves under orders from the capitol to confirm the new so-called suspected felons list. Few, if any are happy about it.
ION SANCHO, LEON CO. ELECTION SUPERVISOR: As an elections official, asking me to conduct criminal background checks, and spend most of my time in the criminal justice system would be analogous to asking doctors to do tax returns. And this simply is not our job.
CANDIOTTI: A spokesman for Governor Jeb Bush says the list is only a tool and insists election officials will have enough time to check each name before the next election. The NAACP and ACLU settled a lawsuit against Florida two years ago. It called for improving the state's voter database.
HOWARD SIMON, FLORIDA ACLU: State officials placed an eligible voter on the list of people to be purged, that is negligence on the part of state officials.
CANDIOTTI: For Darren Jones and others, the mix-ups make them wonder what will happen in November.
JONES: It's going to happen again. Trust me, it's going to happen again.
CANDIOTTI: Susan Candiotti, CNN, Miami.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: The airline industry has taken a beating since 9/11. If United Airlines folds, what affect will that have on the other carriers and on us? The story later in the next hour of DAYBREAK.
And coming up, the start of a new day in New York as the cornerstone is laid for a new symbol of strength and resolve.
This is DAYBREAK for Monday, July 5.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Your news, money, weather and sports. It is 5:47 Eastern. Here is what's all new this morning.
Insurgents are stepping up their attacks on Iraq's oil industry. That oil money is needed to pay for the cost of war reconstruction and recovery efforts.
Israel has fired rockets at suspected weapons factories in Gaza. Five Palestinians were slightly wounded in those attacks. Palestinian sources say the targets were metal workshops.
In money news, have you noticed you're paying less for CDs? Sales and marketing analysts say music downloading and competition with other forms of entertainment are driving down the prices of compact discs.
In culture, thousands of people will converge on Memphis, Tennessee today. It is the 50th anniversary of the day Elvis Presley recorded his first single "That's All Right." Elvis fans claim it's the record that launched rock 'n' roll.
And in sports, Greece is the word. Greece is the winner of the European championship and one of soccer's biggest upsets in history. Greece beat host Portugal one to zero. They look very happy -- Chad.
MYERS: They sure do. And they always are. They really enjoy that sport.
Hey, good morning, everybody.
(WEATHER REPORT)
COSTELLO: Thank you, Chad.
Those are the latest headlines for you.
In New York, relatives of some of the victims of the September 11 attacks watched as a 20-ton block of granite is laid at Ground Zero. It is the cornerstone of the new skyscraper that will replace the destroyed World Trade Center towers.
CNN's Alina Cho was among those watching the ceremony.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(SINGING)
ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): What the curtain revealed was breathtaking, a 20 ton piece of New York granite, now the cornerstone of the Freedom Tower, the first and tallest building to be built at Ground Zero. MICHAEL BLOOMBERG, MAYOR OF NEW YORK: Today, as we lay this cornerstone, we remember the liberties that are the bedrock of our nation, the foundation that can never be shaken by violence or hate.
CHO: Along with the music, there was symbolism this Fourth of July, the son of a port authority police officer who died on 9/11 read the Declaration of Independence.
JULIAN DAVIS, SON OF 9/11 VICTIM: We hold these truths to be self-evident.
CHO: The height of the tower is symbolic, 1776 feet, to mark the year that America declared its independence. A spire that echoes the profile of the statue of liberty, all the vision of master planner Daniel Libeskind.
DANIEL LIBESKIND, ARCHITECT: One thinks of how incredible to resurrect and rebuild New York in a way that is inspiring, that is meaningful and that is not just founded on height, but on the liberties and freedoms that this country was founded on.
CHO: Families members who lost loved ones on 9/11 were on hand. John Foy lost his mother-in-law.
JOHN FOY, 9/11 FAMILY MEMBER: It feels good. This is like a closure and it's a new beginning.
CHO: Some touched the inscription, others want construction to wait for a memorial to be built first at what they regard as sacred ground.
WILLIAM HEALY, 9/11 FAMILY MEMBER: This is a gravesite. Today would have been much more appropriate had it been the cornerstone for the memorial.
CHO: A memorial is set to open around the same time as the tower.
GOV. GEORGE PATAKI, NEW YORK: What our enemies sought to destroy, or democracy, our freedom, our way of life, stands taller than ever before.
CHO (on camera): What is clear about the ceremony is that it marks the first step in rebuilding at ground zero. What the final landscape will look like, or when that will happen is still an open question.
Alina Cho, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: When you vacation, do you really vacation or do you carry your laptop, your cell phone and your Blackberry? In our next hour, a closer look at wired vacations.
And ahead, if you missed the sparks last night, we will take you across the United States for Independence Day celebrations.
Stay with DAYBREAK.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: As you well know, across the country America celebrated its 228 birthday with parades and cookouts and of course incendiary displays lighting up the nighttime sky. In case you missed it, though, here's a look. Enjoy.
(VIDEOTAPE OF 4TH OF JULY CELEBRATIONS)
COSTELLO: So happy 4th of July once again.
Let's talk about patriotism. Are you willing to die for your country? Ahead on DAYBREAK, a look at some new numbers that see just how patriotic Americans claim to be.
This is DAYBREAK.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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 July 5, 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: And good morning to you. From the CNN global headquarters in Atlanta, I'm Carol Costello.
Here are the latest headlines for you now:
Insurgents are stepping up their attacks on Iraq's oil industry. The oil money is needed to pay for the cost of war reconstruction and recovery efforts. We'll have a live report from Baghdad for you in just about three minutes.
In the meantime, a deal is in the works this morning for Iraqi insurgents. The new government is working on an amnesty offer for what they call "low-level insurgents." A spokesman for the new Iraqi government says no hard-core criminals will be eligible for the deal.
In money news, a huge international scandal: Russia's biggest oil export, Yukos Oil, has been notified of a default in a $1 billion credit. A company spokesman says lenders may seize part of the company's export revenue.
In culture, Afghan leader Hamid Karzai is the newest recipient of the Philadelphia Medal. The non-political Philadelphia Foundation presents this award each year to recognize leadership in the pursuit of freedom.
And in sports, Roger Federer wins his second straight Wimbledon title. The 22-year-old Swiss star beat American Andy Roddick in four sets - Chad.
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOLOGIST: Good morning, Carol. See that ace for the win? Championship point was the ace. Look at that - 145 miles an hour. That's ridiculous. That's like an Indy car.
(WEATHER REPORT)
COSTELLO: It's one week and counting since the handover of power in Iraq, and the new government is facing a major challenge: dealing with the insurgency. Iraqi police say insurgents targeted a British military camp in Basra today, but their mortars instead hit six nearby homes, killing one Iraqi citizen and wounding two others.
In the meantime, radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr - remember him? Well, he claims the new Iraqi government is illegitimate and says he and his militia will fight on - quote - "to our last drop of blood." That contradicts his earlier, conciliatory moves toward the new prime minister. And in a move to combat the insurgency, the government is working on an amnesty offer for low-level insurgents. They're still figuring out the details, but a spokesman for the prime minister says no hard- core criminals, like those accused of murder, will be eligible for the deal.
So who is behind the anti-U.S. insurgency in Iraq? U.S. officials and a former member of the Iraqi Governing Council says it's relatives of none other than Saddam Hussein. The New York Times reports some of Hussein's cousins are smuggling people, money and guns into Iraq. The paper says the group is operating out of Syria, Jordan and Europe. Recent classified intelligence reports detail the suspicious movement of money and goods into Iraq, but military officials also say other elements of the resistance have no ties to the former Iraqi dictator.
Insurgents are hitting hard at Iraq's oil industry. It's a constant battle to secure the sites.
Our Brent Sadler joins us live from Baghdad with more on these attacks.
Hello.
BRENT SADLER, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hello. Good morning, Carol.
Well, there's been no let up in insurgent attacks on this country's vital oil distribution network, both in the north and south of the country. Saboteurs are again reported to have struck a pipeline south of Baghdad. This is a secondary pipeline that supplies crude oil to Iraq's refinery for production inside this country.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SADLER (voice-over): Giant ships fill their tanks with Iraqi crude oil, exporting up to $3 million worth of oil an hour, if all works well.
But all is not well. Crude oozes from a gaping hole after recent attacks on strategic pipelines near Basra in southern Iraq, sapping oil revenues.
AYAD ALLAWI, IRAQI PRIME MINISTER: Anyone involved in these attacks is nothing more than traitor to the cause of Iraq's freedom and the freedom of its people.
SADLER: Oil protection is supposed to be a top priority, on land and at sea since last year's invasion of Iraq. But Iraqi officials claim it's been hit and miss, exposing a worrying shortfall in coalition planning.
JABBAR AL-LEABY, DIRECTOR GENERAL, SOUTH OIL COMPANY: So they need security everywhere, and security and - security and manned (ph) security and equipment and security in every aspect. SALDER (on camera): The vast and often remote network of pipelines is vulnerable to attack. No oil means no money to pay for the cost of war, reconstruction and recovery.
(voice-over): As recently as two months ago, would-be suicide bombers tried but failed to hit these vital off-shore terminals, now guarded by a fleet of coalition warships.
The U.S. soldiers help enforce a new exclusion zone, patrolled by the American and British navies. Nothing is full proof though.
ADMIRAL ALLAN WEST, BRITISH FIRSTSEAL LORD: Everything is always vulnerable if you get the right thing at the right time and you're lucky. But they are now much harder to crack.
SADLER: But on land, where saboteurs are getting through, a 15,000-strong Iraqi protection force, privately trained with coalition money, is paper thin, with more than 7,000 miles of pipeline and 2560 facilities to guard.
KEVIN THOMAS, OIL ADVISER, CPA SOUTH: Our patrols can now only walk through. Any determined enemy can monitor the patrol patterns and attack when the patrol has moved on.
SADLER: The oil network has so far more been hit more than 130 times in the past seven months alone, including a six-day shutdown of all crude exports in June, losing money Iraq and its coalition allies can ill afford.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SADLER: Well, that 15,000-strong oil-protection force is manned by Iraqis and is still undergoing training. But without surveillance aircraft and without high-tech security equipment, complain Iraqi officials, it's not up to meeting the threat - Carol.
COSTELLO: Brent Sadler live from Baghdad this morning, thank you.
A Utah family whose Marine son is missing in Iraq - well, they must be on an emotional roller coaster as they wait to learn if their son is dead or alive. Three Islamic Web sites posted a message on Saturday saying Marine Corporal Wassef Hassoun had been beheaded. And then yesterday, a militant group said to be holding Hassoun hostage posted a message on its Web site saying reports of his death were not true. Hassoun, who is of Lebanese heritage, was reported missing in Iraq on June 20.
Hundreds of American soldiers have had a brief vacation from the war. They've spent two weeks at home with friends and family as part of the military's leave rotation. But now, time's up. And as CNN's David Mattingly reports, the troops are returning to a very different Iraq.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Next person.
DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They've been home for the shortest two weeks of their lives, but leave is over. For these soldiers, it's time for the long flight back - back to an Iraq that is now run by Iraqis.
TANYA SIMMONS, WIFE OF SOLDIER: Hopefully now it will take the emphasis off the American soldiers and put it back on the Iraqis.
MATTINGLY: Many of these soldiers watched the handover with their families on television, a reminder of the job waiting for them as they tried to lose themselves in the comforts of home.
(on camera): What do you expect to see when you get back?
(voice-over): They now return talking of mixed emotions, hopeful that the worst is over, mindful of possible dangers ahead.
SPEC. STEPEHN GRENOA, U.S. ARMY: Hopefully, they'll step up and start taking (UNINTELLIGIBLE) responsibility for their own country, their own people in their country.
SPEC. CHAD WEBSTER, U.S. ARMY: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) wait and see. I mean, we don't know what to expect going back. We don't know what the changes are going to be.
MATTINGLY (on camera): When these soldiers get back to Iraq, they'll be returning more experienced than last time. They're smarter, more seasoned.
But with that experience, they say, has come an important lesson: to always prepared for anything.
(voice-over): Daily episodes of violence since the handover drive the point home that the bloodshed they left behind will be waiting, a certainty that makes a new round of farewells tough for any soldier.
(on camera): Is it harder saying goodbye the second time than it was the first time?
SGT. BONNIE COLLINS, U.S. ARMY: Yes.
MATTINGLY: In what way?
COLLINS: Because he (ph) has to leave me a second time.
MATTINGLY (voice-over): Sergeant Bonnie Collins holds her two young daughters closely, trying to make the most of their last hours together before mom goes back to Baghdad.
COLLINS: Getting through this, getting on the plane will be hard. But once it's done, it's done. I'll be OK.
MATTINGLY: A 14-hour flight that begins with heartache. Destination: the now familiar but dangerous nation of Iraq. David Mattingly, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COLLINS: Sergeant Clarence Kugler, thought to be the oldest enlisted man serving in Iraq, will be a guest this morning in the 8:00 Eastern hour of "AMERICAN MORNING."
Coming up on DAYBREAK, the injustice of a defective gun. A Saturday night special leaves a 7-year-old boy paralyzed for life. Now that injustice may be continued in a San Francisco court.
A block of granite becomes the symbol of rebirth at Ground Zero. A family member calls it "closure and a new beginning."
And nothing else but this should happen on the Fourth of July.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Welcome back to DAYBREAK.
In San Francisco, a teenager is trying to buy a company that changed his life. But his intention may not be what you think.
CNN's Miguel Marquez has more for you.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRANDON MAXFIELD, ACCIDENTAL SHOOTING VICTIM: I used to play baseball all the time. I wanted to be a baseball when I grew up.
MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A little more than 10 years ago, a bullet accidentally fired turned then-7-year-old Brandon Maxfield from an aspiring ball player into a quadriplegic.
MAXFIELD: What happened to me is the past. There's nothing I can do about that. What matters is the future.
MARQUEZ: The future, says Maxfield, is to buy the now-defunct Bryco Arms and turn it into Brandon Arms. Maxfield would become the order of the company that made the very pistol, 1 .380 semi-automatic, that discharged a bullet into his chin. Last year, in a suit against Bryco and its owner, Bruce Jennings, a jury found the design of the gun's safety device was defective and partially responsible for his injuries.
MAXFIELD: By the time I'm done, I want this - that whole company to be leveled.
MARQUEZ: Maxfield says he wants to take the remaining 75,600 gun frames and parts in Bryco's Southern California warehouse and destroy them all.
MAXFIELD: Buy the company and melt down the guns, get them off the street. MARQUEZ: The problem, says Maxfield's lawyer, is that everything is tied up in the courts. Bryco went bankrupt the day after it lost a $24 million lawsuit. Less than $9 million has been paid, and Maxfield's lawyer estimates his client's lifetime medical bills will be around $11 million.
So Brandon Maxfield is now raising money to buy Bryco in bankruptcy court, hoping to outbid Bryco's former plant manager's offer of $150,000.
RICHARD RUGGIER, MAXFIELD'S LAWYER: Our intention is to bid for the assets, to have the - the machinery and other assets that can be put into useful production sold off.
MARQUEZ (on camera): The court is only deciding who will buy the company, not whether it will manufacture guns. Ruggier says if Bryco's former plant manager wins the bid, the company will be back in the gun-making business. The plant manager didn't return our calls, and the company's former owner says he's contesting the award to the 17-year-old high school senior.
Miguel Marquez, CNN, San Francisco.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: Your news, money, weather and sports. It is 5:14 Eastern. Here's what's all-new this morning:
Indonesians are voting today in their first-ever direct presidential election. None of the three candidates at the top of the polls is - are expected to carry a majority. If that's the case, the two top vote-getters will square off in a run-off election in September.
Israel has fired rockets at suspected weapons factories in Gaza. Five Palestinians were slightly wounded in those attacks. Palestinian sources say the targets were metal workshops.
In money news, Wal-Mart is planning to revamp one of its women's clothing lines. It's an effort to boost sagging sales. The George lines is now going to be redone to target younger shoppers.
In culture, Disney is being sued over the song "The Lion Sleeps Tonight." It was featured in "The Lion King." The South African family of the song's composer is seeking royalties of at least $1.6 million.
And in sports, Barry Bonds has set a record for not hitting home runs. Actually, he sets a record for most walks in a career with 2,191.
(LAUGTER)
COSTELLO: The old record was held by Ricky Henderson - Chad.
MYERS: How many of those were intentional I wonder? COSTELLO: I bet a lot of them were intentional walks.
MYERS: Batting around him and pitching around him.
(WEATHER REPORT)
COSTELLO: Those are the latest headlines for you.
U.S. markets are closed for the Independence Day holiday, but let's check on the markets overseas. For that, we head to London and Todd Benjamin.
Hello, Todd.
TODD BENJAMIN: Good morning, Carol. You and I working, but you're right, Wall Street has the day off.
Not a bad day considering what's been going on in Europe. Europe was down four days in a row last week. Of course, on Friday it fell on those disappointing employment numbers out of the U.S. Employment rose only 112,000 in June. The expectation was 250,000 new jobs being created.
But we're seeing a little buying today. The FTSE is up a third of 1 percent, the DAX up about a quarter percent in Frankfurt and the CAC is up almost a half of 1 percent.
I do want to mention oil because of that attack on an Iraqi pipeline we had on Saturday. Oil trading here in London is up 43 cents. And in terms of currency markets today, if you're planning a trip to Europe this summer, the euro right now is about $1.23 to the dollar. And if you're coming to Britain, the pound - because, of course, the pound is not part of the euro-zone currency clan - it's at $1.83. So quite expensive coming to London these days.
In terms of what we can expect from the U.S. markets this week, the economic calendar is very light. You're going to get a report on services. You're going to get the latest jobless claims numbers. But the big focus is we're just starting to ease into the second-quarter earnings season. Some big names reporting this week: Alcoa, Yahoo! and General Electric. But the real flurry will come about mid-July.
That's how it looks from here. Carol, back to you. Have a great day.
COSTELLO: You too. Todd Benjamin, live from London this morning.
An American holiday actually spans the globe. Coming up, how troops in Iraq celebrated Independence Day.
Plus, people will go to great lengths for the perfect wedding. Just ahead, we'll explain why this wedding party is washing cars.
This is DAYBREAK.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Far from home, but eager to celebrate Independence Day. U.S. troops in Iraq marked July Fourth with an all-American meal in the mess hall, and then later this fireworks display. Music, food and games all part of the party, which was held at one of Saddam Hussein's former palaces in his hometown of Tikrit. There were other celebrations for troops throughout Iraq.
That would be surreal, wouldn't it?
MYERS: It really would be.
COSTELLO: You're sitting in one of Saddam Hussein's palaces, watching fireworks and celebrating the Fourth of July.
MYERS: And they had a 10K run. So they're really feeling pretty good about Tikrit. They really are. Considering what that was like a year ago - you know, there - obviously, they feel good enough about it and had no problems with it to have all those fireworks.
COSTELLO: Well, the nicest part, they were watching the fireworks with members of the Iraqi national guard.
MYERS: (UNINTELLIGIBLE)?
COSTELLO: Yes.
MYERS: Yes.
COSTELLO: Eating hamburgers and french fries.
MYERS: You know what? Bring over the hot dogs, right?
COSTELLO: Exactly.
MYERS: The all-beefers (ph).
COSTELLO: You know who I really felt sorry for, are the people of Washington D.C., because there was a huge rainstorm and it washed out the fireworks display.
MYERS: Yes. Yes, it did. Baltimore really got hit hard too.
Did you sleep last night?
COSTELLO: I did. I have - you know, I cannot get rid of his cold.
What do you mean did I sleep last night?
MYERS: Well, the fireworks were going off until about midnight in my neighborhood.
COSTELLO: I can't hear anything because of my cold.
MYERS: Perfect. COSTELLO: I slept like a baby.
MYERS: All right.
COSTELLO: All right. Time for our DAYBREAK "Eyeopeners" right now.
Isn't it romantic? A Seattle couple held a fund-raising car wash to help pay for their upcoming wedding.
(LAUGHTER)
COSTELLO: In fact, the entire wedding party grabbed sponges and buckets to help raise money for the wedding. But I hope it's going to be a small affair, since they only raised $400.
(LAUGHTER)
MYERS: They should have - if they were in tuxedos, they might have got a little more.
COSTELLO: Or in bathing suits.
MYERS: Well...
COSTELLO: The Tsumani strikes again. One hundred thirty-two pound Japanese eating sensation Takaru Kobayashi once again won the annual Nathan's July 4th Hot Dog Eating Contest. He won his fourth straight competition by finishing off 53 and a half hot dogs.
MYERS: Yes, but that little Miss Thomas right there had like 33 or something like that. She was doing awesome.
COSTELLO: Well, she lost. This guy did all of that in 12 minutes. And that beat his previous world record by three.
MYERS: Yes.
COSTELLO: Second-place finisher only ate 38 hot dogs, like you said. Kobayashi also owns the world record for eating rice bowls and cow brains.
MYERS: Yum.
COSTELLO: Thousands gathered in Southern California for once of the nation's oldest fireworks celebrations. Pasadena's 78th annual Americafest is also one of the country's biggest fireworks displays.
You know, fireworks on TV just don't translate.
MYERS: Yes, it doesn't cut it.
COSTELLO: It's just, I hear the helicopter noise but I don't hear the sound of fireworks.
MYERS: Boom, boom, boom, boom... (CROSSTALK)
COSTELLO: OK, that was good enough.
Here's what's all-new in the next half-hour of DAYBREAK:
The spotlight is on Florida's voter rolls again. This time, a huge error could cost some the right to vote.
And here's a name you haven't heard in awhile: Slobodan Milosevic. The former Yugoslav president prepares to defend himself against war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Also, allegations of a Guantanamo Bay prisoner swap involving the U.S., Britain and Saudi Arabia. We'll explain ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Good morning to you. Welcome to the second half hour of DAYBREAK. From the CNN global headquarters in Atlanta, I'm Carol Costello.
Here are the latest headlines for you now:
U.S. and Saudi officials deny a published report that the U.S., Britain and Saudi Arabia were involved in a swap last year of prisoners suspected of being involved in terrorist attacks. The story is published in Sunday's New York Times.
Former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic was supposed to launch his defense today at his war-crimes trial. His lawyer says Milosevic was checked out by a doctor today, and his court appearance is now in doubt.
In money news, it'll be a quiet day on Wall Street. Markets are closed in honor of Independence Day. Stocks are expected to stay flat this week as investors react to mixed economic news, including higher consumer confidence, but the creation of fewer jobs figures.
In culture, a tribute to Pat Tillman. His parents look on as the former soldier and NFL player is honored with the - with the Audie Murphy Patriotism Award in Tennessee. Tillman gave up a lucrative pro-football career and sacrificed his life on the battlefield in Afghanistan.
In sports, Lance Armstrong is playing it safe so far in the Tour De France. The five-time winner finished 48th in the latest leg, but is third overall. He's pacing himself for the grueling three-week race - Chad.
MYERS: I was watching ESPN yesterday, and they go, And there's Lance Armstrong, and I go, Where? He's in the green -- the green - you always see him in the yellow jersey. You never see him wearing green. So, sorry to pick him out there.
Yes, well (UNINTELLIGIBLE) seconds behind the yellow jersey, so no problem.
(WEATHER REPORT)
COSTELLO: And we will. Thank you -- Chad.
MYERS: You're welcome.
COSTELLO: Was there a secret deal in place to swap Saudi detainees at Guantanamo Bay with British citizens held in Saudi Arabia? That is the scenario that some officials have called pure fantasy.
White House correspondent Suzanne Malveaux takes a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Les Walker was held in Saudi Arabia for allegedly carrying out terrorist attacks there, but now he's a free man. The British citizen says he, along with six other Western prisoners, had been tortured by Saudi security officials into confessing to crimes they did not commit.
LES WALKER, FORMER PRISONER: We pleaded innocent until they tortured us or myself. They tortured me to confess to bombings.
MALVEAUX: Walker and the others were freed nearly a year ago, but the circumstances surrounding their release are raising questions now about a possible secret international prison swap. According to senior American and British officials cited in "The New York Times," the U.S., Britain and Saudi Arabia were involved in months of intense negotiations beginning in July of 2002 to win the detainees' release.
The deal was last May the U.S. freed five Saudi detainees in U.S. custody at Guantanamo Bay, returning them to the Saudi government. Three months later, Saudi Arabia released the Western detainees. Was it quid pro quo? British Embassy spokesman Steve Atkins said "we were extremely relieved to win their release and get them out of Saudi Arabia. We worked ceaselessly for their return." But also said, "I am not able to comment further on any diplomatic discussions."
U.S. National Security Council spokesman Sean McCormack denied any trade saying "there is no recollection here of any linkage between these two actions." The Saudis release was "part of the normal policy of transferring detainees from Guantanamo for prosecution or continued detention."
And while officials do not dispute the timeline of the detainees' release, some political analysts see the timing around the Iraq war as more than coincidence.
CHARLES KUPCHAN, GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY: I think the Bush administration was hard pressed to put the coalition and to keep it together once the war was over. And the one thing that they could do to provide political payback was to facilitate a deal on these detainees, and Bush appears to have exercised that option. MALVEAUX: Walker says he was never told of the circumstances of his release, but he had his suspicions.
WALKER: We were pawns in a big game. That was a fear once we were in prison and it's a thought that I have held since I came out.
MALVEAUX (on camera): A senior Saudi official called the notion of prisoner trade pure fantasy, a case of connecting dots that don't.
Suzanne Malveaux, CNN, the White House.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: And right now we want to talk about an American hostage, an American Marine supposedly held hostage in Iraq. There was a Web site that came out that said that American had been beheaded, but then there was a conflicting message.
So we want to bring in our international editor Eli Flournoy to sort this all out for us.
So which is true, which is not?
ELI FLOURNOY, CNN INTERNATIONAL EDITOR: Well that's exactly the point, that's what we have to go through every day on these -- on these reports of beheading. The group that said they had captured him, yesterday then came out with a -- with a statement saying yes, we do have him, but we didn't behead him. We haven't -- we haven't killed him. And that was following, as you said, reports from other al Qaeda related Web sites that said that that group had, in fact, beheaded him and then, in fact, was going to come up with a -- come out with a video soon. So the reports were back and forth all over the place.
COSTELLO: Of course we're talking about Wassef Ali Hassoun. He's of Lebanese descent. He speaks Arabic. The funny thing was is this Web site that denied that you know the previous message -- well that denied the previous message, I mean there were angry words in that message. They were really angry that someone else could have taken responsibility or what?
FLOURNOY: Right. And it's -- and that's one of the very difficult parts of trying to sort out these stories is who exactly is behind the messages that are on these Web sites? Who has access to the Web sites and who really speaks for these groups and are they directly connected to those who in fact physically are carrying out these acts -- these hostage taking or attacks? And those are very, very difficult things to get a handle on.
The Internet is -- you know it's easy to access the Internet. People can get on to -- get on to different Web sites. And so we have to kind of sort through and try and judge, based on past experience, how reliable information from a certain Web site is.
And in fact, of course, go through the whole process of yesterday we spoke with Hassoun's brother who was in Lebanon. He said he hadn't heard anything one way or another but had not -- certainly not heard that he was dead and of course is still holding out hope very much that he is alive. And in fact we spoke directly with the Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri who also said these were just rumors that he was dead and that there was no confirmation. But that's at the same time that there were reports all over the place from the Lebanese Foreign Ministry and from Lebanese officials in Baghdad saying that in fact he was dead.
So these rumors and these reports that spin around, they come off the Internet, people pick them up and it becomes very difficult to sort through them. But we're thinking right now with it appears from the group's Web site, they say we have him, we haven't killed him, so his fate is still very much in doubt.
COSTELLO: And let's touch a little bit before you go on the -- on the elections that are going on right now.
FLOURNOY: Yes, in Indonesia we've got a very important election right now, the first direct presidential election in Indonesia's history. It's coming down to a race between the current President Megawati, who has suffered in popularity and is behind in most exit polling to one of her top generals, Yudhoyono. And he is -- he is leading.
But a very interesting and kind of odd development has come up, which is -- reminds us of the whole Florida situation. The ballot looked kind of like this comic here. They're about this -- they're about this size. And one of the rules in the election is that you can only have one hole, you can only punch one hole. This is just for the president this election.
But the ballots were given out folded and so people were punching through the middle and making two holes in them. So now millions of ballots are having to be recounted. So some of the early results that were showing General Yudhoyono ahead, in fact there may be a very different result. So that's very Floridian, as one analyst has said, so.
COSTELLO: And that's a lot of votes to recount.
FLOURNOY: Exactly. Exactly.
COSTELLO: Yes. Eli, thank you very much.
Former Yugoslavian President Slobodan Milosevic was to begin his own defense today in front of a U.N. war crimes tribunal but his health is questionable. The charges against him include genocide. Milosevic says he wants to call more than 1,500 witnesses, including former President Clinton.
CNN's Guy Raz joins us now live from London with the latest on that.
So what's wrong with him?
GUY RAZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well good morning, Carol. Milosevic has been prone to illness several times over the past two years and it's one of the reasons why this trial has taken so long. Now this has been called the most important war crimes trial in Europe since the Nuremberg Hearings after the Second World War. Milosevic faces more than 60 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity all stemming from the Balkan wars of the 1990s.
Now just a short time ago, Milosevic did enter the courtroom. He did begin to make his opening statement and that will last several hours. It's expected to be defiant. He's expected to blast the international criminal tribunal and question its legitimacy.
Now the most serious charge he faces, Carol, is a charge of genocide stemming from the Bosnian war that lasted from 1995 -- sorry, 1992 to 1995 and left more than 200,000 people dead.
Now it's been exactly three years since Milosevic was extradited from Belgrade to The Hague. And as I say, this trial has lasted more than two years, in part, critics say, because the prosecution has focused far too much on recounting details of the history of the Balkan wars rather than offering a dispassionate forensic case against the former Serb leader.
Now for his part, Milosevic has tried to make a mockery out of this court case of one and the same time refusing to recognize its legitimacy but then cross-examining witnesses and playing his own defense lawyer.
Now, as you mentioned earlier, he has 150 days now to mount his defense. And he is expected to try and call former U.S. President Bill Clinton and current British Prime Minister Tony Blair to the stand to answer what Milosevic calls war crimes charges of his own for the mounting of the 1999 bombing campaign against Serbia in 1999 -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Well will those witnesses be allowed to be called along with the other, what, 1,400 or so?
RAZ: (INAUDIBLE) well, Carol, we understand that both former President Clinton and Tony Blair do not have to appear. There have been other high profile witnesses at this case in the past two years. Patty Ashdown (ph), who was a former politician in Britain, now the high commissioner in Bosnia, was a witness. Wesley Clark was a witness. Of course he was the supreme ally commander of NATO during that 1999 bombing campaign. It's voluntary. Clinton and Blair do not have to appear and it's not clear whether they will. But of course Milosevic will do everything he can to try and bring them to the court -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Guy Raz reporting live from London for us. Thank you.
Here are some stories making news 'Across America' this Monday.
A newspaper in Lexington, Kentucky has published this clarification. Listen to this. "It has come to the editor's attention that 'The Herald Leader' neglected to cover the Civil Rights Movement. We regret the omission." The apology is part of a series of articles entitled "Front Page News, Back Page Coverage." The paper now admits it intentionally didn't print stories on civil rights actions such as sit-ins or marches back in the 1960s.
In Alaska, hundreds of people remain out of their homes due to a huge wildfire. Firefighters still battling the 306,000-acre boundary fire just north of Fairbanks. Cooler weather has helped crews gain some control over the spread of the wildfire.
Vice President Dick Cheney has fired one of his physicians after stories of prescription drug abuse surfaced. "The New Yorker" magazine published an article about numerous drug purchases made by Dr. Gary Malakoff. The vice president's office says Malakoff was just one of many doctors on the medical team.
On the campaign trail, President Bush takes his message of support for the troops to a key battleground state and that would be West Virginia. The president worked the crowd in Charleston on Sunday, praising those he says are sacrificing to keep this country safe. Polls show President Bush and Senator John Kerry are in a tight race for West Virginia's five electoral votes.
And in the perfect 4th of July setting, John Kerry shook quite a few hands at a barbecue in Independence, Iowa. He also paid tribute to the sacrifice and courage of American troops but criticized the president for what he calls misleading the American people into war.
Florida is trying to clear up yet another controversy before voters go to the polls in November. The state has come out with a list of almost 48,000 felons who could potentially be yanked from the voting list. The problem is, the list is riddled with mistakes.
CNN's Susan Candiotti has more for you.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DARREN JONES, FLORIDA VOTER: They went ahead and removed me. It's like guilty until proven innocent.
SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Darren Jones was stunned when he opened a letter last month from the Miami-Dade Elections Office.
JONES: The court system has notified the elections department of your recent felony conviction, which is not true.
CANDIOTTI: True, Jones is a convicted felon who served six months of house arrest, but that was in 1998.
JONES: So I know this couldn't be right.
CANDIOTTI: Like all Florida felons are required to do, Jones applied for and got his voting rights back in 2003, and says he proudly used his card to cast a vote in last spring's Democratic primary.
Dade elections officials admit they goofed this time, but can't explain it.
(on camera): What happened to Darren Jones is happening to others. CNN successfully sued Florida election officials to get a list and this is just a part of it, of 47,000 suspected felons who could be dumped from voter rolls. And like the case of Darren Jones, we found mistake after mistake.
(voice-over): At 22, Sam Heyward was convicted of buying stolen furniture, in 1986, he won back his voting rights and says he hasn't missed an election, only to discover he's on the new suspected felons list.
SAM HEYWARD, VOTER: To find that my name was still on the list and said it may have some effect on your voting privileges, and I'm like, well I don't see how, I've been voting for the last 15 years.
CANDIOTTI: "The Miami Herald" reports that it documented more than 2,100 errors.
Of the 47,000 named, 39 percent reportedly are black Democrats, 20 percent are white Democrats, 16 percent white Republicans.
With only about four months to go before the presidential election, 67 county supervisors now find themselves under orders from the capitol to confirm the new so-called suspected felons list. Few, if any are happy about it.
ION SANCHO, LEON CO. ELECTION SUPERVISOR: As an elections official, asking me to conduct criminal background checks, and spend most of my time in the criminal justice system would be analogous to asking doctors to do tax returns. And this simply is not our job.
CANDIOTTI: A spokesman for Governor Jeb Bush says the list is only a tool and insists election officials will have enough time to check each name before the next election. The NAACP and ACLU settled a lawsuit against Florida two years ago. It called for improving the state's voter database.
HOWARD SIMON, FLORIDA ACLU: State officials placed an eligible voter on the list of people to be purged, that is negligence on the part of state officials.
CANDIOTTI: For Darren Jones and others, the mix-ups make them wonder what will happen in November.
JONES: It's going to happen again. Trust me, it's going to happen again.
CANDIOTTI: Susan Candiotti, CNN, Miami.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: The airline industry has taken a beating since 9/11. If United Airlines folds, what affect will that have on the other carriers and on us? The story later in the next hour of DAYBREAK.
And coming up, the start of a new day in New York as the cornerstone is laid for a new symbol of strength and resolve.
This is DAYBREAK for Monday, July 5.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Your news, money, weather and sports. It is 5:47 Eastern. Here is what's all new this morning.
Insurgents are stepping up their attacks on Iraq's oil industry. That oil money is needed to pay for the cost of war reconstruction and recovery efforts.
Israel has fired rockets at suspected weapons factories in Gaza. Five Palestinians were slightly wounded in those attacks. Palestinian sources say the targets were metal workshops.
In money news, have you noticed you're paying less for CDs? Sales and marketing analysts say music downloading and competition with other forms of entertainment are driving down the prices of compact discs.
In culture, thousands of people will converge on Memphis, Tennessee today. It is the 50th anniversary of the day Elvis Presley recorded his first single "That's All Right." Elvis fans claim it's the record that launched rock 'n' roll.
And in sports, Greece is the word. Greece is the winner of the European championship and one of soccer's biggest upsets in history. Greece beat host Portugal one to zero. They look very happy -- Chad.
MYERS: They sure do. And they always are. They really enjoy that sport.
Hey, good morning, everybody.
(WEATHER REPORT)
COSTELLO: Thank you, Chad.
Those are the latest headlines for you.
In New York, relatives of some of the victims of the September 11 attacks watched as a 20-ton block of granite is laid at Ground Zero. It is the cornerstone of the new skyscraper that will replace the destroyed World Trade Center towers.
CNN's Alina Cho was among those watching the ceremony.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(SINGING)
ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): What the curtain revealed was breathtaking, a 20 ton piece of New York granite, now the cornerstone of the Freedom Tower, the first and tallest building to be built at Ground Zero. MICHAEL BLOOMBERG, MAYOR OF NEW YORK: Today, as we lay this cornerstone, we remember the liberties that are the bedrock of our nation, the foundation that can never be shaken by violence or hate.
CHO: Along with the music, there was symbolism this Fourth of July, the son of a port authority police officer who died on 9/11 read the Declaration of Independence.
JULIAN DAVIS, SON OF 9/11 VICTIM: We hold these truths to be self-evident.
CHO: The height of the tower is symbolic, 1776 feet, to mark the year that America declared its independence. A spire that echoes the profile of the statue of liberty, all the vision of master planner Daniel Libeskind.
DANIEL LIBESKIND, ARCHITECT: One thinks of how incredible to resurrect and rebuild New York in a way that is inspiring, that is meaningful and that is not just founded on height, but on the liberties and freedoms that this country was founded on.
CHO: Families members who lost loved ones on 9/11 were on hand. John Foy lost his mother-in-law.
JOHN FOY, 9/11 FAMILY MEMBER: It feels good. This is like a closure and it's a new beginning.
CHO: Some touched the inscription, others want construction to wait for a memorial to be built first at what they regard as sacred ground.
WILLIAM HEALY, 9/11 FAMILY MEMBER: This is a gravesite. Today would have been much more appropriate had it been the cornerstone for the memorial.
CHO: A memorial is set to open around the same time as the tower.
GOV. GEORGE PATAKI, NEW YORK: What our enemies sought to destroy, or democracy, our freedom, our way of life, stands taller than ever before.
CHO (on camera): What is clear about the ceremony is that it marks the first step in rebuilding at ground zero. What the final landscape will look like, or when that will happen is still an open question.
Alina Cho, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: When you vacation, do you really vacation or do you carry your laptop, your cell phone and your Blackberry? In our next hour, a closer look at wired vacations.
And ahead, if you missed the sparks last night, we will take you across the United States for Independence Day celebrations.
Stay with DAYBREAK.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: As you well know, across the country America celebrated its 228 birthday with parades and cookouts and of course incendiary displays lighting up the nighttime sky. In case you missed it, though, here's a look. Enjoy.
(VIDEOTAPE OF 4TH OF JULY CELEBRATIONS)
COSTELLO: So happy 4th of July once again.
Let's talk about patriotism. Are you willing to die for your country? Ahead on DAYBREAK, a look at some new numbers that see just how patriotic Americans claim to be.
This is DAYBREAK.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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