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CNN Live At Daybreak
Soldier's Eye View; Arafat's Interment; Muslim Burial Customs
Aired November 12, 2004 - 06:27 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.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: On day five of the massive assault on Falluja, Iraq, U.S. and Iraqi troops have essentially taken the southern sector of the city.
Brian Todd helps illustrate what they're up against from even small cells of insurgents in the street-to-street battles.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRIAN TODD (voice-over): A wall is no cover if you are on the wrong side of it. In seconds, everything can change, from taking a defensive position to looking for an enemy who's disappeared or the lure he's left behind.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Check it for booby traps.
TODD: Don't tell these guys the most dangerous insurgents have left Falluja. Here, every corner, pile of rubble, dark room or rooftop could be the last thing you see.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Watch out. Watch out. Let me get a shot.
TODD: In one sequence, a cameraman is in the middle of an American unit taking fire in an alleyway. It's a tight cluster of buildings. The Americans at first can't tell if they are being targeted from eye level or above.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Where is he?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, you got him?
TODD: With the help of a spotter on an adjacent rooftop, the Americans think they have got a read on him.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, he's in that garage!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This one right here?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's in there?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's on the roof!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everybody, frog out. Frog out!
TODD: The Americans open up. More confusion. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, is that friendlies on the roof?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: On the roof!
TODD: Whoever they are looking for escapes the camera's eye in this sequence. The combat team keeps firing from behind walls and backed up against them. Then a break, maybe.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, he's wounded in between these two houses. I don't know how far down third squad is.
TODD: They blast into doorways and run in. We don't know if they found their attacker. We know they found weapons. In other quadrants of the city, the fighting is only slightly more distant, weapons stashes found everywhere.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've got one RPG round, two mortar tubes, numerous AK-47 magazines.
TODD: A captain relays his group's immediate orders, but might as well be speaking for all coalition units.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This area right here was templated to be an enemy stronghold, this whole industrial area. So we knew we were going to have to clear it building by building, street by street.
TODD: Or inch by inch.
Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: Here at the bottom of the hour, we want to get you updated on the latest headlines.
The body of Yasser Arafat is being taken to Ramallah in the West Bank for burial at his compound there. Arafat died on Thursday. Earlier today, a military funeral took place in Cairo, and it was attended by several Middle East leaders.
Street-to-street, alley-to-alley, building-to-building, U.S. soldiers are fighting small cells of insurgents in southern Falluja. So far, 18 Americans and more than 500 insurgents have been killed.
In the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, one American soldier has been killed by small-arms fire. Few details are available. The soldier was assigned to Task Force Olympia.
And New Yorkers remember those killed three years ago today when American Airlines Flight 587 crashed in Queens. Memorial services will be held in the Bell Harbor neighborhood for the 265 victims.
The world says good-bye to Yasser Arafat. Straight ahead, we're live from Ramallah, where the Palestinian leader will be interred.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) WHITFIELD: The coffin of Yasser Arafat is on its way to Ramallah, its final resting place, where thousands already had gathered. Yasser Arafat's body will lie in state briefly in Ramallah.
And CNN's Michael Holmes joins us live from the site of Arafat's tomb, where, as you describe, thousands more people seem to be coming by the minute -- Michael.
MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's an unbelievable extraordinary scene here, Fredricka. I've never seen anything quite like this.
Now, Yasser Arafat's body is meant to be arriving here any minute. There are two helicopters that are meant to land back there. But let's just take a look. I'll get out of the way and take a look.
All of those people there that are inside the compound area that you can see there, that sea of people, they are not meant to be in there. The walls have been breached, as it were. Just an example of the outpouring of emotion here in Ramallah at the Palestinian Authority headquarters. People have climbed up onto the roof of Yasser Arafat's own office building and on the rubble of a building that was knocked down by Israeli forces a couple of years ago.
People are just perched everywhere here. They're all along the outside wall. But the concern for security here has been those who have managed to just pull their way into the actual compound itself. And there must be 5,000. It's very difficult to estimate.
And the difficulty is that security officers are now calling on the people in Arabic, we've been listening, "Please, please, for out of respect for President Arafat, step back, step back." But what we can see here, they've really got nowhere to go.
Let's bring Hanan Ashrawi in. She is a senior Palestinian legislator, been with us for the last few hours.
Hanan, this is an extraordinary scene.
HANAN ASHRAWI, PALESTINIAN LEGISLATOR: Yes, it is. It's sort of a spontaneous outburst of emotion. People just want to be there. People want to pay their last respects. It's very difficult to contain that. The security are not just outnumbered, they are helpless because of the determination. The people want -- they have a sense of ownership. They have a sense of ownership.
HOLMES: Yes. It is an extraordinary scene. I've got to tell you that, Fredricka, it's an amazing sight. These people, as I've said, are just simply not meant to be in there.
Now, whether this is going to impact on whether the helicopters can actually land, we don't know. They're at the moment trying to push these people back. The helicopter is due in perhaps 20 minutes or so or even earlier. And they're going to have to get some of these people out of there, or at least a little bit further back for those helicopters to land safely. There are meant to be two military helicopters, Jordanian helicopters. They took Yasser Arafat's body and also picked up Palestinian dignitaries, including Mahmoud Abbas, the new head of the PLO, also the new interim president, who had been in Cairo for the funeral, then went to the Sinai. They got off that C-130 transport and got on those helicopters. They are on route. They should be here any minute.
But as you can see, it's a bit of a losing battle going on there. The people initially came to about the level they were now. They were pushed back probably 30 meters or so. They've now come forward again. So this is a very fluid situation here -- Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: Now, Michael, over your right shoulder is what appears to be some space. Is that where the helicopters would conceivably try to land?
HOLMES: Yes. Well, see, I'll just move a little bit out of the way. We'll wing this as we go, Fredricka. Scotty the cameraman, I'll get you to show the helicopter landing pad.
There are three there. There was initially meant to be three helicopters. There are now two. The one that's closest to the people, obviously no helicopter is going to land there. There's another one just below us as you can see there. And there's another one a little bit further to the left of the screen. That area is open enough at the moment to accept two helicopters. But if this crowd or they decide that this crowd cannot be controlled, then they're going to have some real issues.
I should point out that on these helicopters, too, the Jordanian foreign minister, the Turkish foreign minister, the Egyptian foreign minister, the European Union international policy advisor, Habia Salana (ph), they're meant to be here, too. And their security people are obviously going to have concerns about this scene here.
It's not a dangerous crowd. It's a very emotional crowd, however. So this is just going to unfold in the minutes ahead -- Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: All right. And as it does, we'll be going back to you live. Michael Holmes in Ramallah, as they are awaiting those two helicopters to arrive with dignitaries on board, as well as the body of Yasser Arafat, the late Palestinian leader.
Well, according to Muslim tradition, death is accompanied by important rituals. Well, here with me to talk about some of the rituals we're likely to see in Ramallah and how they were put in place for Yasser Arafat is Octavia Nasr, our senior editor of Arab affairs.
And what makes this difficult is this is no ordinary funeral or burial. So we might see some rituals that may not ordinary be accustomed to the Muslim tradition?
OCTAVIA NASR, CNN SENIOR EDITOR, ARAB AFFAIRS: Right, right. And we've been asking -- you know, we've been trying to figure out what the plan is for the funeral. The only thing that we could gather at this point is that he will be buried in a cement burial place.
And the reason for that is that the Palestinians hope to be able to one day remove the body and have him buried in Jerusalem, where he's always wanted to be buried and where it symbolizes the Palestinian struggle and the Palestinian desires to have Jerusalem back.
This is the only thing we could get out of the Palestinians at this point. You have to understand, this is not -- as you said, this is not a usual funeral. This is the first time the Palestinians are faced with such a big story. It's now they're dealing with the loss of their leader. This is the only leader -- they even call him "father" -- they've ever had.
This is a time where they're going through an emotional rollercoaster. You know, they worried about him, then he was taken to France, and then he died. And then he was taken to Cairo for a military funeral. Now he's coming home sort of.
So everybody is anticipating his coming home. It seems that they are not really ready for the actual burial, the actual funeral. Not many people know what the plan is, where the ceremony is.
WHITFIELD: And already officials have made it clear there, by way of Michael's report, that they did not anticipate to see this many thousands of people who had come to the compound. And it looks from this live picture they're starting to try to move the crowd a bit, because in the background some of our folks on the ground are saying they're hearing helicopters. And that's what they're awaiting is two helicopters to arrive there and then land to remove the body.
One thing you mentioned, you talked about the stone burial setting and what makes that very unusual, because ordinarily during Muslim burials there would be no coffin, right? The body would be placed...
NASR: Right.
WHITFIELD: ... in a certain position and facing Mecca.
NASR: Right. The body is supposed to be wrapped in a white shroud and buried in a very modest and very simple way. No coffin, no cement, no nothing. Just dig the grave and the body is buried, and then you cover the grave, and you make sure that you don't -- that the surface is not flat so that no one walks on it, no one sits on it, that you know for sure, and you need to have a headstone. Basically a very, very simple burial tradition.
WHITFIELD: Is it true usually no flowers or anything like that...
NASR: Nothing.
WHITFIELD: ... would be placed at that location?
NASR: Very simple, very modest. WHITFIELD: How are they going to be able to avoid that now if this ends up being a shrine, you know, for the father, as you said, the leader, the only leader that many Palestinians have ever known?
NASR: See, they can't. That's the thing. I mean, now we're talking about a mausoleum. You know, they're going to build, you know, a stately burial place for him. No one is expecting it to be a simple affair. It is expected to be -- to end up being a shrine, where Palestinians can come and visit as they please, and again, with the hope that one day he will be taken to Jerusalem.
So basically they will keep the hope alive through this mausoleum that they plan to build there. So, no, we are not expecting -- I don't think anyone is expecting a simple burial place just like an ordinary person. This is their leader, and it seems -- even from looking at the crowd, it seems that they want to make sure that he's treated this way.
Now, when you talk about the crowd, it was expected that thousands of Palestinians were going to pour into the Muqataa, the headquarters, where Arafat lived there for the last couple of years.
Israelis also have intensified their security, because they were expecting violence. They were expecting thousands of people to pour in. They were expecting things to get out of hand.
So this was expected. But the Palestinians don't have an infrastructure. They are not ready for this kind of outpour. And to be honest with you, we were hearing reports yesterday they were expecting the crowds to be there yesterday. But the crowds didn't show up.
I was listening to Arab media reporting on the story yesterday, people were shocked. People were not sure what to do at that moment. The crowds started pouring in at night yesterday when the digging of the burial place started, and people wanted to participate in that. So they were going in...
WHITFIELD: So I guess maybe when Michael was describing maybe what wasn't expected is a scene just like this, people climbing the walls, people finding perches in which to try to get the best position to witness this piece of history.
NASR: Yes. I mean, this is common in the Arab world. As a matter of fact, someone was pointing out to me earlier, someone from the region, he's worried about this wall in particular. He says, you know, all of these people sitting on that wall, that's not good.
WHITFIELD: Yes.
NASR: This happens a lot in the Middle East, where people, you know, get curious and they want to be there, and they end up sitting on walls or balconies...
WHITFIELD: Yes.
NASR: ... in a lot of cases. And these walls, you know, tend to collapse after a while, because of all of the pressure.
WHITFIELD: Oh, we're hoping that's not going to happen.
NASR: So this is common in the Middle East...
WHITFIELD: Yes.
NASR: ... in the Arab world, especially when the story is that big and everybody wants to be there and participate.
WHITFIELD: Well, Octavia, I'm going to hold you for a minute. We're just going to for a brief second go up to New York and check in with Bill and Soledad to see what's on tap for them, obviously going to continue looking at the situation in Ramallah as the folks there, thousands of people, are awaiting for the arrival of the body of Yasser Arafat. And actually it's going to be Rick and Soledad, isn't it, today?
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: That's right. Hey.
WHITFIELD: Hello to you.
RICK SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, Fred.
O'BRIEN: How are you, Fred? Good morning.
WHITFIELD: Good morning to you.
SANCHEZ: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) to come up to New York.
O'BRIEN: I got him.
SANCHEZ: Yes.
O'BRIEN: Billy has a couple of days off.
WHITFIELD: All right, very good.
O'BRIEN: So Rick was kind enough to fill in for him. Some of the headlines that we're checking out this morning, coverage, as you've been talking about, of Yasser Arafat's funeral, including the interment ceremony later this morning. Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright is going to join us to talk about the statehood plan that Arafat turned down, and also, maybe even more importantly, what the future could hold for the Palestinian people.
SANCHEZ: And then the story that we've been following for the better part of the last several days now. U.S. forces are fighting house-to-house now in Falluja. We often hear that expression. A former Delta Force soldier will help us try and get a true picture of what that really means, also a critique of the nuts and bolts of this operation thus far.
O'BRIEN: And we're going to talk to a doctor who says you can take 10 years off your age in just 28 days. That would make me 14.
SANCHEZ: Which is what you look like right now.
O'BRIEN: He paused just three beats too long before that came back. You work on that, Rick. We're going to talk about that. It's a three-step plan. No surgery involved, even better. All that and -- I'm not sure I believe it actually, Fred, but we'll see. All that and much more ahead on "AMERICAN MORNING."
SANCHEZ: And I promise to jump faster on the setup line.
O'BRIEN: Thank you. I surely would appreciate it. I've trained Bill Hemmer so well.
WHITFIELD: Well, I am intrigued. I'm intrigued. I'll be listening intently and taking copious notes.
SANCHEZ: Thanks, Fred.
O'BRIEN: Thanks, Fred.
WHITFIELD: All right, thanks a lot.
And we'll be right back with more of DAYBREAK in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: Back now live here on DAYBREAK. I want to show you some live pictures outside of Ramallah there, the compound, where Yasser Arafat lived for the last two and a half years before his death on Thursday. And thousands of people have gathered.
And Octavia Nasr is with me now to give us a sense as to this is a very difficult funeral and burial which to predict, because you said there are so many factions that want to be satisfied. We're seeing groups of people coming in now, many of whom are representing various factions. And they are there to make sure, to almost police, in effect, Octavia, that this burial takes place and respects all of these factions and respects the statehood of a ceremony of this level.
NASR: Yes. I mean, listening to experts on Arab media -- this is what I was doing right before the segment -- they're describing the thousands of people pouring into Ramallah at this point, saying they represent, you know, different militant factions within the Palestinian society, a lot of opposition groups, which suggests that all of these people are pulling together in order to answer the skeptics that were predicting division, immediate division among the Palestinians.
Now, what's going to happen, though, is what we're looking at, people are pushing their way in, and they're going to be a problem for the helicopters to land, carrying the body of Yasser Arafat for burial.
WHITFIELD: So what's the contingency plan, you wonder.
NASR: There is no contingency plan. That's what these guys are saying. They're saying, look at it, it's a bit of chaos at this point. People everywhere, a lot of them armed, as you can see. And it is traditional in Arab burials, it is a tradition to shoot in the air. But, you know, I mean, if you can imagine, these people starting to shoot...
WHITFIELD: Yes, what goes up comes down.
NASR: Right. It might turn out into a mess.
So at this point, it doesn't seem like the situation is under control. Arab media is describing it as it's an outpour of emotions, but it's a bit unorganized. And that's a bit worrisome at this point. I mean, they're saying that there's a chance that the helicopters won't be able to land.
WHITFIELD: Wow!
NASR: They're saying that the police on the ground are pushing the crowds out of the way, but people keep pushing their way in instead.
WHITFIELD: Wow!
NASR: That's going to be a problem for the burial.
WHITFIELD: Well, getting a firsthand look of things right there on the ground from Ramallah is our Michael Holmes, who is joining us again live.
And, Michael, do you know what the contingency plan is if those helicopters are unable to land in the area that was once a space, now crowded with people?
HOLMES: You know, I could venture a guess and say that they actually don't have one at this stage. This was not meant to happen. This space behind me was meant to be empty, and it was empty until probably 45 minutes ago. And then thousands of people poured in over the walls, through the rubble of the compound here and have just forced their way in. And every minute more people are pouring in and pushing the line further forward.
I'd have to agree with those other reports. At the moment, you would be very lucky to get one helicopter in here, let alone two.
This is a very emotional crowd. It's not a violent crowd, but it is very loud, very emotional. They are wanting to be part of this funeral, of this burial.
Now, the plan was that this burial would take place under more controlled conditions with this area that's behind me, the compound empty. And then from this evening there would be three nights where Palestinians themselves could come along and visit the tomb themselves in an orderly fashion. This seems to have just fallen apart to a degree.
At the moment, the police and security officers are not just outnumbered, they are overwhelmed. The people that have been sitting on the walls are now starting to jump down into the compound proper and are being forced back against the walls. Quite an extraordinary scene. People are on rooftops all around, including buildings of the Palestinian Authority. Now, their buildings they should not have access to. They are perched on the rubble of one building in particular that I saw destroyed here in April, 2002.
Flags are everywhere. Posters are everywhere. The military band continues to walk around playing music. But I'm sure that there are very serious discussions going on about whether the helicopter can indeed land.
We've got to remember that on the other helicopter, it's bringing in the head of the PLO. It's bringing in the interim president of the Palestinian people, Rawhi Fattuh. And also there are other dignitaries, the Jordanian foreign minister, the Turkish foreign minister, Egyptian foreign minister, the EU foreign policy chief, Habia Salana (ph). They were meant to attend this ceremony. Now, their security people would be having kittens right now thinking about this situation.
As I say, (AUDIO GAP) dangerous crowd, but if you landed the body of Yasser Arafat here right now, there's no telling what this crowd would do.
Back to you.
WHITFIELD: Well, Michael, Octavia Nasr is still with me here now, and she has some questions for you as well.
NASR: Hey, Michael, great job there. I'm just wondering if you were able to get an answer from the Palestinian Authority, who is organizing this funeral? I mean, we're seeing a lot of police in the ground. But I'm wondering from the authority itself, who is organizing? Who's in charge of coordinating security with these dignitaries and their security bodies?
HOLMES: All right, Octavia, you're very lucky. I happen to have with me here Hanan Ashrawi, a senior Palestinian legislator. I bet you didn't know that Hanan was standing by.
We just called you in because Octavia Nasr had a specific question. Who is organizing security here?
ASHRAWI: Well, there is a committee, of course. There is Taya Dahim (ph), who is in charge of the overall committee on organizations and he was the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) of President Arafat. But all of the heads of security organized the committee. They met together and they all decided as to how to coordinate this, along with the political committee and technical committee. So you have these three committees that have been working ever since President Arafat was seriously ill and went to France to make sure that these things would proceed smoothly.
But obviously they're incapable of doing anything it, because you can't get all of the security people in here, No. 1. No. 2, many of them are in different places, and they don't have freedom to move. So they have to rely on the forces that they have in Ramallah and in the Muqataa, the president's guard and different security forces or systems that are on location.
HOLMES: Now, what Hanan is referring to there is the closure of the West Bank. Israeli security forces were concerned that things could get out of control from their perspective. And so they sealed off the West Bank, and, in fact, have sealed off cities and towns within the West Bank, and that includes Ramallah.
So what Hanan Ashrawi is saying there is that a lot of security people who could have come from other places to help out haven't been able to get here physically. Certainly the security here is woefully inadequate to stop this sort of size of crowd.
And with the battered condition of the compound, people have been basically coming in through the holes.
Back to you.
WHITFIELD: All right, Michael Holmes from Ramallah, thanks so much. We're going to let you go so you can continue to do some more reporting there as the crowd just seems to grow and grow and grow, Octavia. However, it's a remarkable scene there at the compound. At the same time, you say this is also a rather common scene when something like this is to occur.
NASR: Right. We heard Hanan Ashrawi say that they all met and discussed how they're going to handle this, but they didn't expect this to happen. I mean, this is something that, as Michael Holmes said, the Israelis expected to happen. So they made their own plans.
But, again, you have to understand that the Palestinians do not have the infrastructure. They are not ready for something of this magnitude.
We're looking here at an awkward scene here. It looks like people are fighting, and this is, again, the kind of stuff that you expect in this case. And I wonder how the Palestinian security officers on the ground are going to be able to handle this situation.
These are the kinds of questions we need to put forth to them, but, of course, they're not available to answer us. And I would doubt very seriously that they have answers. At this point, things are going to continue to get out of hand until, you know, unfortunately something might unfortunately happen, or hopefully they have a contingency plan that we just don't know about.
WHITFIELD: And you wonder how potentially vulnerable this could escalate into, particularly when we saw earlier some pictures of various factions walking in. You said it's customary that they might want to unleash those weapons, the firearms particularly, in honor of a person who has died; in this case, Yasser Arafat. And with that comes more potential trouble.
NASR: Right. I mean, we don't want to speculate here on trouble. Of course, that's not the intention. The idea is that in Arab culture, in Arab society, you know, people are very emotional, especially -- I mean, you have to look at this situation and understand that these are people who had no other leader than Yasser Arafat. They call him their father. Whether you agree with him or disagree with him, whether you like him or dislike him, in Arab culture there is no dignity in death.
WHITFIELD: Right.
NASR: When someone dies, everybody pulls together and then show a lot of emotion. And a lot of emotion we're going to be seeing, and we are seeing, as a matter of fact.
WHITFIELD: Right.
NASR: And you're right, you know, the idea of having weapons on hand is not a good one at this point.
WHITFIELD: Well, we're going to continue to watch this. Octavia Nasr, thanks so much. I'm Fredricka Whitfield here in Atlanta. And, of course, we're going to continue our programming here as the funeral proceedings are to take place, the burial proceedings particularly are going to take place right here in Ramallah, crowded with thousands of people. This was the home of the late Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat.
"AMERICAN MORNING" begins right now.
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Aired November 12, 2004 - 06:27 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: On day five of the massive assault on Falluja, Iraq, U.S. and Iraqi troops have essentially taken the southern sector of the city.
Brian Todd helps illustrate what they're up against from even small cells of insurgents in the street-to-street battles.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRIAN TODD (voice-over): A wall is no cover if you are on the wrong side of it. In seconds, everything can change, from taking a defensive position to looking for an enemy who's disappeared or the lure he's left behind.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Check it for booby traps.
TODD: Don't tell these guys the most dangerous insurgents have left Falluja. Here, every corner, pile of rubble, dark room or rooftop could be the last thing you see.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Watch out. Watch out. Let me get a shot.
TODD: In one sequence, a cameraman is in the middle of an American unit taking fire in an alleyway. It's a tight cluster of buildings. The Americans at first can't tell if they are being targeted from eye level or above.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Where is he?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, you got him?
TODD: With the help of a spotter on an adjacent rooftop, the Americans think they have got a read on him.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, he's in that garage!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This one right here?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's in there?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's on the roof!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everybody, frog out. Frog out!
TODD: The Americans open up. More confusion. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, is that friendlies on the roof?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: On the roof!
TODD: Whoever they are looking for escapes the camera's eye in this sequence. The combat team keeps firing from behind walls and backed up against them. Then a break, maybe.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, he's wounded in between these two houses. I don't know how far down third squad is.
TODD: They blast into doorways and run in. We don't know if they found their attacker. We know they found weapons. In other quadrants of the city, the fighting is only slightly more distant, weapons stashes found everywhere.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've got one RPG round, two mortar tubes, numerous AK-47 magazines.
TODD: A captain relays his group's immediate orders, but might as well be speaking for all coalition units.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This area right here was templated to be an enemy stronghold, this whole industrial area. So we knew we were going to have to clear it building by building, street by street.
TODD: Or inch by inch.
Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: Here at the bottom of the hour, we want to get you updated on the latest headlines.
The body of Yasser Arafat is being taken to Ramallah in the West Bank for burial at his compound there. Arafat died on Thursday. Earlier today, a military funeral took place in Cairo, and it was attended by several Middle East leaders.
Street-to-street, alley-to-alley, building-to-building, U.S. soldiers are fighting small cells of insurgents in southern Falluja. So far, 18 Americans and more than 500 insurgents have been killed.
In the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, one American soldier has been killed by small-arms fire. Few details are available. The soldier was assigned to Task Force Olympia.
And New Yorkers remember those killed three years ago today when American Airlines Flight 587 crashed in Queens. Memorial services will be held in the Bell Harbor neighborhood for the 265 victims.
The world says good-bye to Yasser Arafat. Straight ahead, we're live from Ramallah, where the Palestinian leader will be interred.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) WHITFIELD: The coffin of Yasser Arafat is on its way to Ramallah, its final resting place, where thousands already had gathered. Yasser Arafat's body will lie in state briefly in Ramallah.
And CNN's Michael Holmes joins us live from the site of Arafat's tomb, where, as you describe, thousands more people seem to be coming by the minute -- Michael.
MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's an unbelievable extraordinary scene here, Fredricka. I've never seen anything quite like this.
Now, Yasser Arafat's body is meant to be arriving here any minute. There are two helicopters that are meant to land back there. But let's just take a look. I'll get out of the way and take a look.
All of those people there that are inside the compound area that you can see there, that sea of people, they are not meant to be in there. The walls have been breached, as it were. Just an example of the outpouring of emotion here in Ramallah at the Palestinian Authority headquarters. People have climbed up onto the roof of Yasser Arafat's own office building and on the rubble of a building that was knocked down by Israeli forces a couple of years ago.
People are just perched everywhere here. They're all along the outside wall. But the concern for security here has been those who have managed to just pull their way into the actual compound itself. And there must be 5,000. It's very difficult to estimate.
And the difficulty is that security officers are now calling on the people in Arabic, we've been listening, "Please, please, for out of respect for President Arafat, step back, step back." But what we can see here, they've really got nowhere to go.
Let's bring Hanan Ashrawi in. She is a senior Palestinian legislator, been with us for the last few hours.
Hanan, this is an extraordinary scene.
HANAN ASHRAWI, PALESTINIAN LEGISLATOR: Yes, it is. It's sort of a spontaneous outburst of emotion. People just want to be there. People want to pay their last respects. It's very difficult to contain that. The security are not just outnumbered, they are helpless because of the determination. The people want -- they have a sense of ownership. They have a sense of ownership.
HOLMES: Yes. It is an extraordinary scene. I've got to tell you that, Fredricka, it's an amazing sight. These people, as I've said, are just simply not meant to be in there.
Now, whether this is going to impact on whether the helicopters can actually land, we don't know. They're at the moment trying to push these people back. The helicopter is due in perhaps 20 minutes or so or even earlier. And they're going to have to get some of these people out of there, or at least a little bit further back for those helicopters to land safely. There are meant to be two military helicopters, Jordanian helicopters. They took Yasser Arafat's body and also picked up Palestinian dignitaries, including Mahmoud Abbas, the new head of the PLO, also the new interim president, who had been in Cairo for the funeral, then went to the Sinai. They got off that C-130 transport and got on those helicopters. They are on route. They should be here any minute.
But as you can see, it's a bit of a losing battle going on there. The people initially came to about the level they were now. They were pushed back probably 30 meters or so. They've now come forward again. So this is a very fluid situation here -- Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: Now, Michael, over your right shoulder is what appears to be some space. Is that where the helicopters would conceivably try to land?
HOLMES: Yes. Well, see, I'll just move a little bit out of the way. We'll wing this as we go, Fredricka. Scotty the cameraman, I'll get you to show the helicopter landing pad.
There are three there. There was initially meant to be three helicopters. There are now two. The one that's closest to the people, obviously no helicopter is going to land there. There's another one just below us as you can see there. And there's another one a little bit further to the left of the screen. That area is open enough at the moment to accept two helicopters. But if this crowd or they decide that this crowd cannot be controlled, then they're going to have some real issues.
I should point out that on these helicopters, too, the Jordanian foreign minister, the Turkish foreign minister, the Egyptian foreign minister, the European Union international policy advisor, Habia Salana (ph), they're meant to be here, too. And their security people are obviously going to have concerns about this scene here.
It's not a dangerous crowd. It's a very emotional crowd, however. So this is just going to unfold in the minutes ahead -- Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: All right. And as it does, we'll be going back to you live. Michael Holmes in Ramallah, as they are awaiting those two helicopters to arrive with dignitaries on board, as well as the body of Yasser Arafat, the late Palestinian leader.
Well, according to Muslim tradition, death is accompanied by important rituals. Well, here with me to talk about some of the rituals we're likely to see in Ramallah and how they were put in place for Yasser Arafat is Octavia Nasr, our senior editor of Arab affairs.
And what makes this difficult is this is no ordinary funeral or burial. So we might see some rituals that may not ordinary be accustomed to the Muslim tradition?
OCTAVIA NASR, CNN SENIOR EDITOR, ARAB AFFAIRS: Right, right. And we've been asking -- you know, we've been trying to figure out what the plan is for the funeral. The only thing that we could gather at this point is that he will be buried in a cement burial place.
And the reason for that is that the Palestinians hope to be able to one day remove the body and have him buried in Jerusalem, where he's always wanted to be buried and where it symbolizes the Palestinian struggle and the Palestinian desires to have Jerusalem back.
This is the only thing we could get out of the Palestinians at this point. You have to understand, this is not -- as you said, this is not a usual funeral. This is the first time the Palestinians are faced with such a big story. It's now they're dealing with the loss of their leader. This is the only leader -- they even call him "father" -- they've ever had.
This is a time where they're going through an emotional rollercoaster. You know, they worried about him, then he was taken to France, and then he died. And then he was taken to Cairo for a military funeral. Now he's coming home sort of.
So everybody is anticipating his coming home. It seems that they are not really ready for the actual burial, the actual funeral. Not many people know what the plan is, where the ceremony is.
WHITFIELD: And already officials have made it clear there, by way of Michael's report, that they did not anticipate to see this many thousands of people who had come to the compound. And it looks from this live picture they're starting to try to move the crowd a bit, because in the background some of our folks on the ground are saying they're hearing helicopters. And that's what they're awaiting is two helicopters to arrive there and then land to remove the body.
One thing you mentioned, you talked about the stone burial setting and what makes that very unusual, because ordinarily during Muslim burials there would be no coffin, right? The body would be placed...
NASR: Right.
WHITFIELD: ... in a certain position and facing Mecca.
NASR: Right. The body is supposed to be wrapped in a white shroud and buried in a very modest and very simple way. No coffin, no cement, no nothing. Just dig the grave and the body is buried, and then you cover the grave, and you make sure that you don't -- that the surface is not flat so that no one walks on it, no one sits on it, that you know for sure, and you need to have a headstone. Basically a very, very simple burial tradition.
WHITFIELD: Is it true usually no flowers or anything like that...
NASR: Nothing.
WHITFIELD: ... would be placed at that location?
NASR: Very simple, very modest. WHITFIELD: How are they going to be able to avoid that now if this ends up being a shrine, you know, for the father, as you said, the leader, the only leader that many Palestinians have ever known?
NASR: See, they can't. That's the thing. I mean, now we're talking about a mausoleum. You know, they're going to build, you know, a stately burial place for him. No one is expecting it to be a simple affair. It is expected to be -- to end up being a shrine, where Palestinians can come and visit as they please, and again, with the hope that one day he will be taken to Jerusalem.
So basically they will keep the hope alive through this mausoleum that they plan to build there. So, no, we are not expecting -- I don't think anyone is expecting a simple burial place just like an ordinary person. This is their leader, and it seems -- even from looking at the crowd, it seems that they want to make sure that he's treated this way.
Now, when you talk about the crowd, it was expected that thousands of Palestinians were going to pour into the Muqataa, the headquarters, where Arafat lived there for the last couple of years.
Israelis also have intensified their security, because they were expecting violence. They were expecting thousands of people to pour in. They were expecting things to get out of hand.
So this was expected. But the Palestinians don't have an infrastructure. They are not ready for this kind of outpour. And to be honest with you, we were hearing reports yesterday they were expecting the crowds to be there yesterday. But the crowds didn't show up.
I was listening to Arab media reporting on the story yesterday, people were shocked. People were not sure what to do at that moment. The crowds started pouring in at night yesterday when the digging of the burial place started, and people wanted to participate in that. So they were going in...
WHITFIELD: So I guess maybe when Michael was describing maybe what wasn't expected is a scene just like this, people climbing the walls, people finding perches in which to try to get the best position to witness this piece of history.
NASR: Yes. I mean, this is common in the Arab world. As a matter of fact, someone was pointing out to me earlier, someone from the region, he's worried about this wall in particular. He says, you know, all of these people sitting on that wall, that's not good.
WHITFIELD: Yes.
NASR: This happens a lot in the Middle East, where people, you know, get curious and they want to be there, and they end up sitting on walls or balconies...
WHITFIELD: Yes.
NASR: ... in a lot of cases. And these walls, you know, tend to collapse after a while, because of all of the pressure.
WHITFIELD: Oh, we're hoping that's not going to happen.
NASR: So this is common in the Middle East...
WHITFIELD: Yes.
NASR: ... in the Arab world, especially when the story is that big and everybody wants to be there and participate.
WHITFIELD: Well, Octavia, I'm going to hold you for a minute. We're just going to for a brief second go up to New York and check in with Bill and Soledad to see what's on tap for them, obviously going to continue looking at the situation in Ramallah as the folks there, thousands of people, are awaiting for the arrival of the body of Yasser Arafat. And actually it's going to be Rick and Soledad, isn't it, today?
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: That's right. Hey.
WHITFIELD: Hello to you.
RICK SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, Fred.
O'BRIEN: How are you, Fred? Good morning.
WHITFIELD: Good morning to you.
SANCHEZ: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) to come up to New York.
O'BRIEN: I got him.
SANCHEZ: Yes.
O'BRIEN: Billy has a couple of days off.
WHITFIELD: All right, very good.
O'BRIEN: So Rick was kind enough to fill in for him. Some of the headlines that we're checking out this morning, coverage, as you've been talking about, of Yasser Arafat's funeral, including the interment ceremony later this morning. Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright is going to join us to talk about the statehood plan that Arafat turned down, and also, maybe even more importantly, what the future could hold for the Palestinian people.
SANCHEZ: And then the story that we've been following for the better part of the last several days now. U.S. forces are fighting house-to-house now in Falluja. We often hear that expression. A former Delta Force soldier will help us try and get a true picture of what that really means, also a critique of the nuts and bolts of this operation thus far.
O'BRIEN: And we're going to talk to a doctor who says you can take 10 years off your age in just 28 days. That would make me 14.
SANCHEZ: Which is what you look like right now.
O'BRIEN: He paused just three beats too long before that came back. You work on that, Rick. We're going to talk about that. It's a three-step plan. No surgery involved, even better. All that and -- I'm not sure I believe it actually, Fred, but we'll see. All that and much more ahead on "AMERICAN MORNING."
SANCHEZ: And I promise to jump faster on the setup line.
O'BRIEN: Thank you. I surely would appreciate it. I've trained Bill Hemmer so well.
WHITFIELD: Well, I am intrigued. I'm intrigued. I'll be listening intently and taking copious notes.
SANCHEZ: Thanks, Fred.
O'BRIEN: Thanks, Fred.
WHITFIELD: All right, thanks a lot.
And we'll be right back with more of DAYBREAK in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: Back now live here on DAYBREAK. I want to show you some live pictures outside of Ramallah there, the compound, where Yasser Arafat lived for the last two and a half years before his death on Thursday. And thousands of people have gathered.
And Octavia Nasr is with me now to give us a sense as to this is a very difficult funeral and burial which to predict, because you said there are so many factions that want to be satisfied. We're seeing groups of people coming in now, many of whom are representing various factions. And they are there to make sure, to almost police, in effect, Octavia, that this burial takes place and respects all of these factions and respects the statehood of a ceremony of this level.
NASR: Yes. I mean, listening to experts on Arab media -- this is what I was doing right before the segment -- they're describing the thousands of people pouring into Ramallah at this point, saying they represent, you know, different militant factions within the Palestinian society, a lot of opposition groups, which suggests that all of these people are pulling together in order to answer the skeptics that were predicting division, immediate division among the Palestinians.
Now, what's going to happen, though, is what we're looking at, people are pushing their way in, and they're going to be a problem for the helicopters to land, carrying the body of Yasser Arafat for burial.
WHITFIELD: So what's the contingency plan, you wonder.
NASR: There is no contingency plan. That's what these guys are saying. They're saying, look at it, it's a bit of chaos at this point. People everywhere, a lot of them armed, as you can see. And it is traditional in Arab burials, it is a tradition to shoot in the air. But, you know, I mean, if you can imagine, these people starting to shoot...
WHITFIELD: Yes, what goes up comes down.
NASR: Right. It might turn out into a mess.
So at this point, it doesn't seem like the situation is under control. Arab media is describing it as it's an outpour of emotions, but it's a bit unorganized. And that's a bit worrisome at this point. I mean, they're saying that there's a chance that the helicopters won't be able to land.
WHITFIELD: Wow!
NASR: They're saying that the police on the ground are pushing the crowds out of the way, but people keep pushing their way in instead.
WHITFIELD: Wow!
NASR: That's going to be a problem for the burial.
WHITFIELD: Well, getting a firsthand look of things right there on the ground from Ramallah is our Michael Holmes, who is joining us again live.
And, Michael, do you know what the contingency plan is if those helicopters are unable to land in the area that was once a space, now crowded with people?
HOLMES: You know, I could venture a guess and say that they actually don't have one at this stage. This was not meant to happen. This space behind me was meant to be empty, and it was empty until probably 45 minutes ago. And then thousands of people poured in over the walls, through the rubble of the compound here and have just forced their way in. And every minute more people are pouring in and pushing the line further forward.
I'd have to agree with those other reports. At the moment, you would be very lucky to get one helicopter in here, let alone two.
This is a very emotional crowd. It's not a violent crowd, but it is very loud, very emotional. They are wanting to be part of this funeral, of this burial.
Now, the plan was that this burial would take place under more controlled conditions with this area that's behind me, the compound empty. And then from this evening there would be three nights where Palestinians themselves could come along and visit the tomb themselves in an orderly fashion. This seems to have just fallen apart to a degree.
At the moment, the police and security officers are not just outnumbered, they are overwhelmed. The people that have been sitting on the walls are now starting to jump down into the compound proper and are being forced back against the walls. Quite an extraordinary scene. People are on rooftops all around, including buildings of the Palestinian Authority. Now, their buildings they should not have access to. They are perched on the rubble of one building in particular that I saw destroyed here in April, 2002.
Flags are everywhere. Posters are everywhere. The military band continues to walk around playing music. But I'm sure that there are very serious discussions going on about whether the helicopter can indeed land.
We've got to remember that on the other helicopter, it's bringing in the head of the PLO. It's bringing in the interim president of the Palestinian people, Rawhi Fattuh. And also there are other dignitaries, the Jordanian foreign minister, the Turkish foreign minister, Egyptian foreign minister, the EU foreign policy chief, Habia Salana (ph). They were meant to attend this ceremony. Now, their security people would be having kittens right now thinking about this situation.
As I say, (AUDIO GAP) dangerous crowd, but if you landed the body of Yasser Arafat here right now, there's no telling what this crowd would do.
Back to you.
WHITFIELD: Well, Michael, Octavia Nasr is still with me here now, and she has some questions for you as well.
NASR: Hey, Michael, great job there. I'm just wondering if you were able to get an answer from the Palestinian Authority, who is organizing this funeral? I mean, we're seeing a lot of police in the ground. But I'm wondering from the authority itself, who is organizing? Who's in charge of coordinating security with these dignitaries and their security bodies?
HOLMES: All right, Octavia, you're very lucky. I happen to have with me here Hanan Ashrawi, a senior Palestinian legislator. I bet you didn't know that Hanan was standing by.
We just called you in because Octavia Nasr had a specific question. Who is organizing security here?
ASHRAWI: Well, there is a committee, of course. There is Taya Dahim (ph), who is in charge of the overall committee on organizations and he was the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) of President Arafat. But all of the heads of security organized the committee. They met together and they all decided as to how to coordinate this, along with the political committee and technical committee. So you have these three committees that have been working ever since President Arafat was seriously ill and went to France to make sure that these things would proceed smoothly.
But obviously they're incapable of doing anything it, because you can't get all of the security people in here, No. 1. No. 2, many of them are in different places, and they don't have freedom to move. So they have to rely on the forces that they have in Ramallah and in the Muqataa, the president's guard and different security forces or systems that are on location.
HOLMES: Now, what Hanan is referring to there is the closure of the West Bank. Israeli security forces were concerned that things could get out of control from their perspective. And so they sealed off the West Bank, and, in fact, have sealed off cities and towns within the West Bank, and that includes Ramallah.
So what Hanan Ashrawi is saying there is that a lot of security people who could have come from other places to help out haven't been able to get here physically. Certainly the security here is woefully inadequate to stop this sort of size of crowd.
And with the battered condition of the compound, people have been basically coming in through the holes.
Back to you.
WHITFIELD: All right, Michael Holmes from Ramallah, thanks so much. We're going to let you go so you can continue to do some more reporting there as the crowd just seems to grow and grow and grow, Octavia. However, it's a remarkable scene there at the compound. At the same time, you say this is also a rather common scene when something like this is to occur.
NASR: Right. We heard Hanan Ashrawi say that they all met and discussed how they're going to handle this, but they didn't expect this to happen. I mean, this is something that, as Michael Holmes said, the Israelis expected to happen. So they made their own plans.
But, again, you have to understand that the Palestinians do not have the infrastructure. They are not ready for something of this magnitude.
We're looking here at an awkward scene here. It looks like people are fighting, and this is, again, the kind of stuff that you expect in this case. And I wonder how the Palestinian security officers on the ground are going to be able to handle this situation.
These are the kinds of questions we need to put forth to them, but, of course, they're not available to answer us. And I would doubt very seriously that they have answers. At this point, things are going to continue to get out of hand until, you know, unfortunately something might unfortunately happen, or hopefully they have a contingency plan that we just don't know about.
WHITFIELD: And you wonder how potentially vulnerable this could escalate into, particularly when we saw earlier some pictures of various factions walking in. You said it's customary that they might want to unleash those weapons, the firearms particularly, in honor of a person who has died; in this case, Yasser Arafat. And with that comes more potential trouble.
NASR: Right. I mean, we don't want to speculate here on trouble. Of course, that's not the intention. The idea is that in Arab culture, in Arab society, you know, people are very emotional, especially -- I mean, you have to look at this situation and understand that these are people who had no other leader than Yasser Arafat. They call him their father. Whether you agree with him or disagree with him, whether you like him or dislike him, in Arab culture there is no dignity in death.
WHITFIELD: Right.
NASR: When someone dies, everybody pulls together and then show a lot of emotion. And a lot of emotion we're going to be seeing, and we are seeing, as a matter of fact.
WHITFIELD: Right.
NASR: And you're right, you know, the idea of having weapons on hand is not a good one at this point.
WHITFIELD: Well, we're going to continue to watch this. Octavia Nasr, thanks so much. I'm Fredricka Whitfield here in Atlanta. And, of course, we're going to continue our programming here as the funeral proceedings are to take place, the burial proceedings particularly are going to take place right here in Ramallah, crowded with thousands of people. This was the home of the late Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat.
"AMERICAN MORNING" begins right now.
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