Return to Transcripts main page
American Morning
Casualty List Grows of Americans Lost in Tsunami; Search on For Someone Trying to Buy Large Quantity of Explosive Material
Aired January 06, 2005 - 07:00 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.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Money pouring in for tsunami relief includes a big pledge overnight. Is it enough to meet what the U.N. called unimaginable trauma?
Americans lost in the tsunami. A casualty list grows, while families wonder how they'll ever get answers.
In the U.S., a powerful winter storm creates havoc from the plains to New England, and it's possibly getting worse in some states today.
And is this our nation's next attorney general? He'll be grilled about his controversial stand, on torture this AMERICAN MORNING.
O'BRIEN: Good morning. On this 11th day after the tsunami struck, more amazing pictures coming to us from Banda Aceh in Indonesia, where the devastation just boggles the imagination. Hundreds of homes and buildings just leveled. Pictures like this showing how difficult it will be to come back.
Here in Phuket, Thailand, though, night is beginning to fall. We can update on you situation following the tsunami right here in Phuket. This morning we're going to talk to Thailand's minister of the interior. He has now been named by the prime minister to be the director of tsunami operations. Also this morning, the gruesome, but crucial task of identifying bodies that are impossible virtually to recognize. It is critical, though, for family members who need to know the fate of their loved ones. This morning, we're going to find out how the process works. Also, what about questions of mass graves? We heard about that early after the tsunami struck. That's ahead this morning.
Bill, back to you.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: All right, Soledad. Good morning from New York, everybody. 7:01 as we start our program this morning. We will get back to the tsunami coverage in a moment. A CNN security watch to start our day here though, a story coming to us from the Department of Homeland Security, that department now finishing a massive national response plan, said to be a 426-page document set to be released later this afternoon, laying out a coordinated government response to so-called incidents of national significance. That's the title for this response plan. It would bring all federal agencies together under a single action plan. And the response would not just be for acts of terrorism, but also cover industrial accidents, hurricanes, tornadoes, tsunamis. Stay tuned to CNN day and night for the most reliable news about your security.
Tom Ridge saying this is one of his highest priorities. Again, more on this story, still developing out of Washington as we go throughout the morning here.
Meanwhile, CNN has reporters all over the tsunami-hit region bringing you the latest on the rescue and the aid efforts. The new developments, as we have them now, world leaders pledging to work together at a summit in Jakarta today. U.N. chief Kofi Annan says nearly a billion dollars will be needed immediately to get through the next six months. And leaders also called for implementing the tsunami warning system. The E.U. -- the European Union -- just adding $132 million to the nearly 4 billion pledged so far. Secretary of State Colin Powell has disbanded the four-nation core group originally formed by the U.S. That has been folded into the overall U.N. effort. That;s as a result of what happened in Jakarta today.
And the World Health Organization says $60 million is needed right now for 150,000 people who are considered to be at extreme risk. And there are also positive signs today from Indonesia. Organizations now proving and improving with the U.N. feeling confident now that the relief could reach 800,000 people. That is good news as well as we track all the developments now from Southeast Asia. That summit in Jakarta breaking up about an hour and a half ago.
Want to start our coverage in Sri Lanka. That's where CNN's chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour is there. And, Christiane, hello to you. We know that country needs so much.
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTL. CORRESPONDENT: Indeed it does, Bill. Standing here on the West Coast of Sri Lanka, we're told that officials have found the bodies of two more foreign tourists. That bringing the number of foreign tourists killed here in Sri Lanka to 117. At the same time, the overall number of Sri Lankans dead has crept up beyond the 30,000 mark. And at the same time aid is coming in. Officials say the most unprecedentedly big airlift in Sri Lanka's history starting to come into Colombo.
But like in so many parts of this affected area. It is not only slow because of infrastructure problems, but also bureaucratic problems. But to get back to the big story of the day in terms of aid, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, who is headed here to Sri Lanka, just wrapped up a donor relief conference in Jakarta, Indonesia, along with his counterparts from China, Japan, Australia and other regional powers, and with the U.N., saying now that the U.N. will coordinate the relief effort as it goes forward. Originally the U.S. and what they call the core group was in charge. Now it's up to the U.N. As such, Kofi Annan calling on the countries to put their money down on the table now. They have pledged more than $4 billion as a whole, a huge and unprecedented outpouring of humanitarian promise. But they really need that money, they say. It's a race against time.
Many, many thousands, hundreds of thousands of people could face the risk of death from disease, and not just the immediate injury and trauma they have already suffered. So this is an urgent, urgent moment that they want the money to comfort.
And people are concerned because, for instance, they say, last year at exactly this time when there was that devastating earthquake in Iran, $1 billion was pledged. Iranians say only 19 million has been delivered so far. So this is a concern to the countries in this region, and certainly to the U.N. chief as well -- Bill.
HEMMER: Well, they need time and they need money. Thanks, Christiane Amanpour reporting there in Sri Lanka. Back here in New York with Jack Cafferty, similar topic again today.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Indeed. The outpouring of relief $5 billion and counting from the world to the tragedy as a result of tsunami. But the U.N. begins directing the relief effort under a dark shadow that emanates from the oil-for-food program; $64 billion turned into one of the most corrupt programs ever, and that was all under the United Nations. So we're going to take a look at whether or not this is the right organization to run this operation, or whether or not maybe the coalition that started it out may have been the best way to go. We're going to take a look at that in our Question of the Day, coming up in a few minutes.
HEMMER: Originally, the U.S., Australia, Japan and India is that core group of countries, and now...
CAFFERTY: And they're dissolving that and handing the thing over to Kofi Annan.
HEMMER: Thank you, Jack.
Want to get back to Phuket, Thailand now, and here's my partner again -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Bill, thanks.
Let's begin with what was going on at the International Victims Coordination Center today, where tourists can register information about people who are missing. Today the visits slowing really to a trickle at times with more volunteers than actual visitors. The group creates files on each missing person with lots of salient facts about jewelry, or tattoos, or rings, or photos, and it's kept in a database, and that database is going to be accessible by the forensic teams that are doing work on the bodies. That center usually open between 8:30 in the morning and 9:00 at night.
Well, with the few people there, they are considering now shutting down there operations possibly at the end of the week. That coming to us from one worker there. The work fixing up and cleaning up along Patong (ph) Beach, are these pictures here, the waterfront there. After the tsunami struck, it took out a tremendous number of homes and businesses there. The goal is of course to rebuild very rapidly, to try to bring those tourists back to the area. Five million tourists came to this region alone last year and every year. It's $10 billion to $12 billion of tourist money that's really at risk. And over at the U.S. State Department, lots of unanswered questions about the fate of what would be thousands of missing Americans. And some big changes in the numbers that are now reported dead.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN (voice-over): The number of Americans who are believed to have died in the tsunami disaster has more than doubled. Firsthand accounts from survivors has led the statement department to conclude that another 20 U.S. citizens are presumed dead on top of the 16 already confirmed dead.
ADAM ERELI, STATE DEPT. SPOKESMAN: In each of these cases, there is a specific reason to believe that the individual was in harm's way at the time of the tsunamis.
O'BRIEN: Officials say they've received some 24,000 inquiries about Americans since the disaster. About 3,500 of those remain unsolved. Secretary Powell, who's touring the region, is apparently growing frustrated by the slow process.
COLIN POWELL, SECY. OF STATE: We are working as hard as we can to get that list down. With each passing day, we're removing hundreds of names from the list.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm calling from the Department of State Tsunami Task Force.
O'BRIEN: Powell's State Department has come under sharp criticism for its lack of concrete information on missing Americans. Yesterday the department tried to address some of that criticism.
ERELI: Nobody has 100 percent degree of clarity on exactly where all their citizens are, including these other countries.
Now, they might have a clearer picture than we do, but there's still doubts, there's still gray areas, there's still unanswered questions.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: Some have pointed to the Swedish operation here, fairly organized in helping its citizens in contrast.
Bill, back to you.
HEMMER: All right, Soledad.
The State Department's hotline for family members of missing Americans ringing off the hook, we're told. And in recent days, the number of missing Americans has been decreasing due to the detective work of people like Maura Harty. She's the assistant secretary of state for consular affairs, and I talked to her a short time ago about getting that number down more.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAURA HARTY, ASST. SECY. OF STATE/CONSULAR AFFAIRS: Over the course of the days since the tsunami occurred, we have implored American citizens who called us once to express concern about an American to call us back if they in fact heard about their loved one and their welfare, so that we can close those cases and devote those resources to the cases that are still open and about which we had less information. That has resulted in a tremendous outpouring of phone calls, for which we are very grateful.
While those calls have been taking place, we have been doing a number of things as well, both at the embassies abroad and here in Washington. We've worked with Thai and Sri Lankan immigration. We've worked with airline authorities. We're working with the Department of Homeland Security, to check records of who traveled where and when they did that, so that we can continue to grind that number down from high of over 12,000 right to just a little over 2,600.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HEMMER: So 2,600 is the number we start off the morning with now. With so many Americans still unaccounted for, family members are desperate for answers. Among the missing, Nicole Weissberg, a 27- year-old graduate student. She was traveling in Southeast Asia. She planned to meet her boyfriend in Phuket, Thailand, at the airport, on the 27th, a day after the tsunami hit. She has not been heard from since the day before the disaster struck there. That would have been Christmas Day.
Her cousin, Lindsay Weissberg, is my guest now here in New York.
Lindsey, good morning to you.
LINDSEY WEISSBERG, SEARCHING FOR MISSING COUSIN: Good morning.
HEMMER: I know this has got to be an extremely tough time. You heard what the State Department just said. Have you contacted them?
WEISSBERG: We have.
HEMMER: What kind of help and support have you gotten in return?
WEISSBERG: Not a lot. My uncle contacted and as soon as he got word she was among the missing, and they assured us they would let us know if they had any information about her. Unfortunately, they have not been able to provide any information.
After we went on CNN two nights ago, we got an e-mail about 10 minutes later in the consulate in Thailand saying that they saw our program, that they had contacts for us they were going to put us in touch with, some people that had gone diving with my cousin Nicole who may have had information about her, and so they passed that information on. But that's pretty much all...
HEMMER: Did they come back to you telephone calls? Do they come back with e-mails? How do they work? WEISSBERG: I think my uncle spoke to them a few times on the phone and made some contacts at the State Department.
HEMMER: Can you understand possibly, if you get this big rush of 24,000 inquiries, why there could be a backlog? Can you accept that?
WEISSBERG: Absolutely. I mean, they were saying that multiple people were calling in on the same person, they have to whittle those numbers down. I read this morning that they are discovering 300 bodies a day in Thailand. There's a lot of work to be done, and we are trying to be patient but we are obviously very frustrated.
HEMMER: Well, I am certain now, with day 11 coming today. What was Nicole doing in Southeast Asia?
WEISSBERG: She had been traveling for five weeks. She was a student at the University of Denver Business School, and she was on vacation, and she was traveling all over Southeast Asia. Thailand was one of her last stops. She was going to meet up with her boyfriend Morgan, who as you mentioned had come down to meet her on the 27th. So she was just probably on the beach reading a book.
HEMMER: Wow. There is a wonderful story that Morgan, her boyfriend, told the other night. He is back home in the U.S., after staying there about six or seven days in Phuket, and also in Bangkok. He says a construction worker contacted him, and his crew is carrying a picture of your cousin.
WEISSBERG: That's right. We had an article in "USA Today" that had a great picture of her, and they saw that article, they saw us on CNN, they said they would tear out the article and bring it around with them. So we thank them for that.
HEMMER: I wish you the absolutely best of luck.
WEISSBERG: Thank you very much.
HEMMER: My thoughts are with you, OK.
WEISSBERG: Thank you.
HEMMER: Thanks for coming in, Lindsay.
The state department also asking American families with new or updated information to call the 24-hour hotline, 888-407-4747. We want to find out, too, about your efforts to locate friends or relatives missing in the area. You can call us here at CNN at 404- 878-1500. Also send an e-mail at CNN.com/tsunami.
We're on line for you right now, in fact.
Later tonight, 10:00 Eastern, do not miss our primetime special, "Saving The Children," 10:00 Eastern, 7:00 on the West Coast.
Want to turn now to Heidi Collins, looking at the other headlines this morning. Heidi, good morning to you.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you, Bill. And good morning to you, everyone.
Now in the news this morning, Alberto Gonzales, President Bush's choice for attorney general, is preparing to face tough questions at his confirmation hearing. In less than three hours the Senate is expected to ask Gonzales about his apparent legal role in the mistreatment of prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan. Also today, the Senate considers nominations of Michael Johanns for secretary of agriculture and Margaret Spellings as secretary of education.
There is word a U.S. marine has been killed in Iraq. Military sources the American was conducting security and stability operations in Iraq's al-Anbar province. That is west of Baghdad.
A new report out this morning about the possible abuse of an Australian prisoner in U.S. custody. According to court papers cited by "The Washington Post," the man was detained in Pakistan in late 2001. He claims U.S. authorities transferred him to Egypt where he was tortured for six months before being flown to the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. No reaction yet from the administration.
And another twist in the bizarre story of accused deserter Wassef Ali Hassoun. Pentagon officials say Hassoun failed to return Tuesday from an authorized leave. Investigators say they have evidence that the Marine may have fled to Lebanon, where he turned up after he disappeared from a base in Iraq in December of 2003. We are going to have a live report from the Pentagon on this, coming up in the next half hour.
(WEATHER REPORT)
HEMMER: Our coverage of the tsunami continues. One expert saying the relief effort could rehab America's image. But will terrorists swoop in before that can happen? We'll get to that story.
COLLINS: Also the daunting task ahead for medical investigators. What happens to the victims who are never identified?
HEMMER: Also our CNN security watch this hour. Who would want to buy a thousand tons of the same chemical that was behind the Oklahoma City bombing? That story's next as well, as AMERICAN MORNING continues after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: The search is on for someone who is trying to buy a large quantity of explosive material. Federal authorities say a man using a Middle Eastern name raised red flags when he began asking about ammonium nitrate, a fertilizer chemical.
In our CNN Security Watch this morning, should Americans be concerned about a bomb plot? Former FBI agent Bill Daly joins me to talk about this a little bit more. So we know it's a fertilizer. But tell us a little bit more about what ammonium nitrate is. What can it do?
BILL DALY, FMR. FBI INVESTIGATOR: Well, actually it can be a component of fertilizer, and not all fertilizers are made alike. So people think just bags of fertilizer will do it. That's not necessarily the case.
Ammonium nitrate is one of the key components that was used in the Oklahoma City Bombing.
COLLINS: Of course.
DALY: It was used in the World Trade Center bombing. It's something that needs to be activated also, usually with some type of diesel fuel or some other activator, and then needs to be hit with some type of charge, something to actually kick it off. So in and of itself, no. Add it with a few other ingredients that are rarely available, and it's something real terrible.
COLLINS: Not tough to do, being the point.
And also this man attempted to use 500 to 1,000 metric tons of that stuff. Put that in perspective for us. A lot? Not very much?
DALY: Well, it certainly is a lot. It's a lot more than was used in Oklahoma City by several fold, and it's something that we don't know whether this person is intending to -- what their intent is. It's of concern to the ATF, they're hot on the trail, because this could then be broken up and sent to other people. It could be used in several different devices.
In fact, just last month, ETA, the Basque separatist group over in Spain, had about four different bombs go off early last month, and those were all the same type of material, the ammonium nitrate in small quantities. So it can be divided up and create smaller packages.
COLLINS: Pretty easily? I mean, can terrorists get a hold of that easily, or is it disguised easily?
DALY: It is readily available. Elsewhere in the world, people are coming to recognize it. Last month, the Australian government passed legislation that would allow the government to prohibit people or at least allow the government to be able to monitor who buys ammonium nitrate, and also just recently last month again, there seems in the past month, a lot of activity in this area.
In the Philippines, they seized bags of ammonium nitrate which the authorities thought might be used for some bombs which had recently gone off in and around the Philippines.
COLLINS: But can you put it in something else, though, to keep it disguised though, conceal it, so that you can go on about your business before, you know, creating some horrible explosion? DALY: Well, I mean, it can be concealed in a variety of -- you can change the bags, and you can make it look differently so people don't realize what it is. But with some of the detection equipment we have today, with the bomb-detection dogs, those are the types of things they're looking for; they're looking for traces of ammonium nitrate.
COLLINS: All right. What is interesting about this is the tip that came to the ATF was actually part of America's Security Begins With You Campaign. Tell us just a little bit about that.
DALY: Well, that's something that was started up after the Oklahoma City bombing, before 9/11, and it was a campaign to alert those people, whether it was people in the agri business, chemical business, construction business, who use some of these components to be on the alert for people who are looking to buy it in quantities, stockpile that type of material, because they may know who these people -- who don't fit into the profile, the normal customer, who may not be able to answer the questions they want answered when they go to buy it.
COLLINS: All right, well, they'll be keeping an eye on that, that is for sure. Bill Daly, we appreciate your time here this morning.
DALY: Thank you.
COLLINS: Thank you -- Bill.
Well, I want to let everybody know before we go back to Bill, we're going to stay tuned to CNN day and night for the most reliable news about your security. We'll stay on top of it for you.
HEMMER: All right, Heidi, thanks. Twenty-two 22 minutes past the hour. Much of the country getting hit with whammy of a winter storm this week. Could it get even worse out there? That's ahead after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HEMMER: All right, Delta started it, will other airlines follow its lead? Andy Serwer has a first check, "Minding Your Business" this morning with us.
Good morning to you. A lot of airline news.
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: That's right. A bunch of news coming out of the troubled airline industry this morning, Bill. First of all, yes, indeed, other airlines appear to be following delta's suit and cutting fares, analysts saying that Northwest and U.S. Air are beginning to match Delta's fare cuts that we talked about just the other day.
Airline stocks plunged on the news, down 7 percent, 11 percent. And the reason why is because this is no ordinary fare war where one airline chickens out and raises fares and they all follow suit. What Delta is doing is very likely a permanent fixture.
Meanwhile, more news about U.S. Air, and this airline is very much on the brink. Today going to court, a federal judge will rule whether the airline can throw out a contract with the machinists union. And this since what they have to do is throw this out and that will help save the airline. That's what the executives are saying. The machinists are saying, how can you tear up a contract?
And finally, U.S. Air -- and some analysts are calling this a nail in the coffin -- Southwest Airlines, their archrival in Philadelphia, is moving into Pittsburgh, long a stronghold of U.S. air. And you just wonder how much longer this airline can continue going with all these troubles it has.
HEMMER: And we've seen Southwest in a different area now, doing well when you compare it to Delta, when you compare it to U.S. Airways, the trouble we've seen with American, United.
SERWER: They've been very successful in Philadelphia, moving in there.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: New regulations working pretty well, isn't it, in the airline industry? You've got united defaulting on the pilot's pension. You've got -- this outfit wanting to tear up a contract with the machinists union. What the hell is going on? That's crazy.
SERWER: It's a big, big mess.
CAFFERTY: Unbelievable.
COLLINS: I want to check in with Jack now and "The Cafferty File," Question of the Day.
CAFFERTY: That's not even my topic; I have a different topic.
COLLINS: Good morning to you.
CAFFERTY: Secretary of State Colin Powell announced that the initial coalition force for tsunami relief being headed by United States being dissolved. The United Nations is going to run this thing now. By giving control to the U.N., officials help there will be less confusion in coordinating relief efforts among various international and humanitarian aid agencies, but is the U.N. the right choice for this task? They're being given billions dollars worth of humanitarian aid to distribute to at least six different countries.
The United Nations is currently being investigated for the mismanagement of the $64 billion oil-for-food program in Iraq. Early indications are that oil-for-food became one of the most corrupt enterprises ever. Kickbacks, surcharges, bribes, out and out theft, all the good stuff.
Here's the question, should the U.N. be leading the tsunami relief effort amid investigations into the mismanagement of other humanitarian aid programs? Get your little typewriters out and get busy. I already got people calling me names from that little thing I did with you 20 seconds ago.
SERWER: Yes, doesn't take long, does it?
HEMMER: I went to bed last night, there was $3 billion pledged, I got up this morning, there was $4 billion pledged.
CAFFERTY: One of the papers is saying it's more than five billion.
SERWER: And pretty soon it becomes real money.
CAFFERTY: It will be enough to steal after a while.
SERWER: Give them another chance, Jack; you know, they need some more chances.
HEMMER: Thank you, gentleman.
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 January 6, 2005 - 07:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Money pouring in for tsunami relief includes a big pledge overnight. Is it enough to meet what the U.N. called unimaginable trauma?
Americans lost in the tsunami. A casualty list grows, while families wonder how they'll ever get answers.
In the U.S., a powerful winter storm creates havoc from the plains to New England, and it's possibly getting worse in some states today.
And is this our nation's next attorney general? He'll be grilled about his controversial stand, on torture this AMERICAN MORNING.
O'BRIEN: Good morning. On this 11th day after the tsunami struck, more amazing pictures coming to us from Banda Aceh in Indonesia, where the devastation just boggles the imagination. Hundreds of homes and buildings just leveled. Pictures like this showing how difficult it will be to come back.
Here in Phuket, Thailand, though, night is beginning to fall. We can update on you situation following the tsunami right here in Phuket. This morning we're going to talk to Thailand's minister of the interior. He has now been named by the prime minister to be the director of tsunami operations. Also this morning, the gruesome, but crucial task of identifying bodies that are impossible virtually to recognize. It is critical, though, for family members who need to know the fate of their loved ones. This morning, we're going to find out how the process works. Also, what about questions of mass graves? We heard about that early after the tsunami struck. That's ahead this morning.
Bill, back to you.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: All right, Soledad. Good morning from New York, everybody. 7:01 as we start our program this morning. We will get back to the tsunami coverage in a moment. A CNN security watch to start our day here though, a story coming to us from the Department of Homeland Security, that department now finishing a massive national response plan, said to be a 426-page document set to be released later this afternoon, laying out a coordinated government response to so-called incidents of national significance. That's the title for this response plan. It would bring all federal agencies together under a single action plan. And the response would not just be for acts of terrorism, but also cover industrial accidents, hurricanes, tornadoes, tsunamis. Stay tuned to CNN day and night for the most reliable news about your security.
Tom Ridge saying this is one of his highest priorities. Again, more on this story, still developing out of Washington as we go throughout the morning here.
Meanwhile, CNN has reporters all over the tsunami-hit region bringing you the latest on the rescue and the aid efforts. The new developments, as we have them now, world leaders pledging to work together at a summit in Jakarta today. U.N. chief Kofi Annan says nearly a billion dollars will be needed immediately to get through the next six months. And leaders also called for implementing the tsunami warning system. The E.U. -- the European Union -- just adding $132 million to the nearly 4 billion pledged so far. Secretary of State Colin Powell has disbanded the four-nation core group originally formed by the U.S. That has been folded into the overall U.N. effort. That;s as a result of what happened in Jakarta today.
And the World Health Organization says $60 million is needed right now for 150,000 people who are considered to be at extreme risk. And there are also positive signs today from Indonesia. Organizations now proving and improving with the U.N. feeling confident now that the relief could reach 800,000 people. That is good news as well as we track all the developments now from Southeast Asia. That summit in Jakarta breaking up about an hour and a half ago.
Want to start our coverage in Sri Lanka. That's where CNN's chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour is there. And, Christiane, hello to you. We know that country needs so much.
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTL. CORRESPONDENT: Indeed it does, Bill. Standing here on the West Coast of Sri Lanka, we're told that officials have found the bodies of two more foreign tourists. That bringing the number of foreign tourists killed here in Sri Lanka to 117. At the same time, the overall number of Sri Lankans dead has crept up beyond the 30,000 mark. And at the same time aid is coming in. Officials say the most unprecedentedly big airlift in Sri Lanka's history starting to come into Colombo.
But like in so many parts of this affected area. It is not only slow because of infrastructure problems, but also bureaucratic problems. But to get back to the big story of the day in terms of aid, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, who is headed here to Sri Lanka, just wrapped up a donor relief conference in Jakarta, Indonesia, along with his counterparts from China, Japan, Australia and other regional powers, and with the U.N., saying now that the U.N. will coordinate the relief effort as it goes forward. Originally the U.S. and what they call the core group was in charge. Now it's up to the U.N. As such, Kofi Annan calling on the countries to put their money down on the table now. They have pledged more than $4 billion as a whole, a huge and unprecedented outpouring of humanitarian promise. But they really need that money, they say. It's a race against time.
Many, many thousands, hundreds of thousands of people could face the risk of death from disease, and not just the immediate injury and trauma they have already suffered. So this is an urgent, urgent moment that they want the money to comfort.
And people are concerned because, for instance, they say, last year at exactly this time when there was that devastating earthquake in Iran, $1 billion was pledged. Iranians say only 19 million has been delivered so far. So this is a concern to the countries in this region, and certainly to the U.N. chief as well -- Bill.
HEMMER: Well, they need time and they need money. Thanks, Christiane Amanpour reporting there in Sri Lanka. Back here in New York with Jack Cafferty, similar topic again today.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Indeed. The outpouring of relief $5 billion and counting from the world to the tragedy as a result of tsunami. But the U.N. begins directing the relief effort under a dark shadow that emanates from the oil-for-food program; $64 billion turned into one of the most corrupt programs ever, and that was all under the United Nations. So we're going to take a look at whether or not this is the right organization to run this operation, or whether or not maybe the coalition that started it out may have been the best way to go. We're going to take a look at that in our Question of the Day, coming up in a few minutes.
HEMMER: Originally, the U.S., Australia, Japan and India is that core group of countries, and now...
CAFFERTY: And they're dissolving that and handing the thing over to Kofi Annan.
HEMMER: Thank you, Jack.
Want to get back to Phuket, Thailand now, and here's my partner again -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Bill, thanks.
Let's begin with what was going on at the International Victims Coordination Center today, where tourists can register information about people who are missing. Today the visits slowing really to a trickle at times with more volunteers than actual visitors. The group creates files on each missing person with lots of salient facts about jewelry, or tattoos, or rings, or photos, and it's kept in a database, and that database is going to be accessible by the forensic teams that are doing work on the bodies. That center usually open between 8:30 in the morning and 9:00 at night.
Well, with the few people there, they are considering now shutting down there operations possibly at the end of the week. That coming to us from one worker there. The work fixing up and cleaning up along Patong (ph) Beach, are these pictures here, the waterfront there. After the tsunami struck, it took out a tremendous number of homes and businesses there. The goal is of course to rebuild very rapidly, to try to bring those tourists back to the area. Five million tourists came to this region alone last year and every year. It's $10 billion to $12 billion of tourist money that's really at risk. And over at the U.S. State Department, lots of unanswered questions about the fate of what would be thousands of missing Americans. And some big changes in the numbers that are now reported dead.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN (voice-over): The number of Americans who are believed to have died in the tsunami disaster has more than doubled. Firsthand accounts from survivors has led the statement department to conclude that another 20 U.S. citizens are presumed dead on top of the 16 already confirmed dead.
ADAM ERELI, STATE DEPT. SPOKESMAN: In each of these cases, there is a specific reason to believe that the individual was in harm's way at the time of the tsunamis.
O'BRIEN: Officials say they've received some 24,000 inquiries about Americans since the disaster. About 3,500 of those remain unsolved. Secretary Powell, who's touring the region, is apparently growing frustrated by the slow process.
COLIN POWELL, SECY. OF STATE: We are working as hard as we can to get that list down. With each passing day, we're removing hundreds of names from the list.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm calling from the Department of State Tsunami Task Force.
O'BRIEN: Powell's State Department has come under sharp criticism for its lack of concrete information on missing Americans. Yesterday the department tried to address some of that criticism.
ERELI: Nobody has 100 percent degree of clarity on exactly where all their citizens are, including these other countries.
Now, they might have a clearer picture than we do, but there's still doubts, there's still gray areas, there's still unanswered questions.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: Some have pointed to the Swedish operation here, fairly organized in helping its citizens in contrast.
Bill, back to you.
HEMMER: All right, Soledad.
The State Department's hotline for family members of missing Americans ringing off the hook, we're told. And in recent days, the number of missing Americans has been decreasing due to the detective work of people like Maura Harty. She's the assistant secretary of state for consular affairs, and I talked to her a short time ago about getting that number down more.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAURA HARTY, ASST. SECY. OF STATE/CONSULAR AFFAIRS: Over the course of the days since the tsunami occurred, we have implored American citizens who called us once to express concern about an American to call us back if they in fact heard about their loved one and their welfare, so that we can close those cases and devote those resources to the cases that are still open and about which we had less information. That has resulted in a tremendous outpouring of phone calls, for which we are very grateful.
While those calls have been taking place, we have been doing a number of things as well, both at the embassies abroad and here in Washington. We've worked with Thai and Sri Lankan immigration. We've worked with airline authorities. We're working with the Department of Homeland Security, to check records of who traveled where and when they did that, so that we can continue to grind that number down from high of over 12,000 right to just a little over 2,600.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HEMMER: So 2,600 is the number we start off the morning with now. With so many Americans still unaccounted for, family members are desperate for answers. Among the missing, Nicole Weissberg, a 27- year-old graduate student. She was traveling in Southeast Asia. She planned to meet her boyfriend in Phuket, Thailand, at the airport, on the 27th, a day after the tsunami hit. She has not been heard from since the day before the disaster struck there. That would have been Christmas Day.
Her cousin, Lindsay Weissberg, is my guest now here in New York.
Lindsey, good morning to you.
LINDSEY WEISSBERG, SEARCHING FOR MISSING COUSIN: Good morning.
HEMMER: I know this has got to be an extremely tough time. You heard what the State Department just said. Have you contacted them?
WEISSBERG: We have.
HEMMER: What kind of help and support have you gotten in return?
WEISSBERG: Not a lot. My uncle contacted and as soon as he got word she was among the missing, and they assured us they would let us know if they had any information about her. Unfortunately, they have not been able to provide any information.
After we went on CNN two nights ago, we got an e-mail about 10 minutes later in the consulate in Thailand saying that they saw our program, that they had contacts for us they were going to put us in touch with, some people that had gone diving with my cousin Nicole who may have had information about her, and so they passed that information on. But that's pretty much all...
HEMMER: Did they come back to you telephone calls? Do they come back with e-mails? How do they work? WEISSBERG: I think my uncle spoke to them a few times on the phone and made some contacts at the State Department.
HEMMER: Can you understand possibly, if you get this big rush of 24,000 inquiries, why there could be a backlog? Can you accept that?
WEISSBERG: Absolutely. I mean, they were saying that multiple people were calling in on the same person, they have to whittle those numbers down. I read this morning that they are discovering 300 bodies a day in Thailand. There's a lot of work to be done, and we are trying to be patient but we are obviously very frustrated.
HEMMER: Well, I am certain now, with day 11 coming today. What was Nicole doing in Southeast Asia?
WEISSBERG: She had been traveling for five weeks. She was a student at the University of Denver Business School, and she was on vacation, and she was traveling all over Southeast Asia. Thailand was one of her last stops. She was going to meet up with her boyfriend Morgan, who as you mentioned had come down to meet her on the 27th. So she was just probably on the beach reading a book.
HEMMER: Wow. There is a wonderful story that Morgan, her boyfriend, told the other night. He is back home in the U.S., after staying there about six or seven days in Phuket, and also in Bangkok. He says a construction worker contacted him, and his crew is carrying a picture of your cousin.
WEISSBERG: That's right. We had an article in "USA Today" that had a great picture of her, and they saw that article, they saw us on CNN, they said they would tear out the article and bring it around with them. So we thank them for that.
HEMMER: I wish you the absolutely best of luck.
WEISSBERG: Thank you very much.
HEMMER: My thoughts are with you, OK.
WEISSBERG: Thank you.
HEMMER: Thanks for coming in, Lindsay.
The state department also asking American families with new or updated information to call the 24-hour hotline, 888-407-4747. We want to find out, too, about your efforts to locate friends or relatives missing in the area. You can call us here at CNN at 404- 878-1500. Also send an e-mail at CNN.com/tsunami.
We're on line for you right now, in fact.
Later tonight, 10:00 Eastern, do not miss our primetime special, "Saving The Children," 10:00 Eastern, 7:00 on the West Coast.
Want to turn now to Heidi Collins, looking at the other headlines this morning. Heidi, good morning to you.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you, Bill. And good morning to you, everyone.
Now in the news this morning, Alberto Gonzales, President Bush's choice for attorney general, is preparing to face tough questions at his confirmation hearing. In less than three hours the Senate is expected to ask Gonzales about his apparent legal role in the mistreatment of prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan. Also today, the Senate considers nominations of Michael Johanns for secretary of agriculture and Margaret Spellings as secretary of education.
There is word a U.S. marine has been killed in Iraq. Military sources the American was conducting security and stability operations in Iraq's al-Anbar province. That is west of Baghdad.
A new report out this morning about the possible abuse of an Australian prisoner in U.S. custody. According to court papers cited by "The Washington Post," the man was detained in Pakistan in late 2001. He claims U.S. authorities transferred him to Egypt where he was tortured for six months before being flown to the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. No reaction yet from the administration.
And another twist in the bizarre story of accused deserter Wassef Ali Hassoun. Pentagon officials say Hassoun failed to return Tuesday from an authorized leave. Investigators say they have evidence that the Marine may have fled to Lebanon, where he turned up after he disappeared from a base in Iraq in December of 2003. We are going to have a live report from the Pentagon on this, coming up in the next half hour.
(WEATHER REPORT)
HEMMER: Our coverage of the tsunami continues. One expert saying the relief effort could rehab America's image. But will terrorists swoop in before that can happen? We'll get to that story.
COLLINS: Also the daunting task ahead for medical investigators. What happens to the victims who are never identified?
HEMMER: Also our CNN security watch this hour. Who would want to buy a thousand tons of the same chemical that was behind the Oklahoma City bombing? That story's next as well, as AMERICAN MORNING continues after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: The search is on for someone who is trying to buy a large quantity of explosive material. Federal authorities say a man using a Middle Eastern name raised red flags when he began asking about ammonium nitrate, a fertilizer chemical.
In our CNN Security Watch this morning, should Americans be concerned about a bomb plot? Former FBI agent Bill Daly joins me to talk about this a little bit more. So we know it's a fertilizer. But tell us a little bit more about what ammonium nitrate is. What can it do?
BILL DALY, FMR. FBI INVESTIGATOR: Well, actually it can be a component of fertilizer, and not all fertilizers are made alike. So people think just bags of fertilizer will do it. That's not necessarily the case.
Ammonium nitrate is one of the key components that was used in the Oklahoma City Bombing.
COLLINS: Of course.
DALY: It was used in the World Trade Center bombing. It's something that needs to be activated also, usually with some type of diesel fuel or some other activator, and then needs to be hit with some type of charge, something to actually kick it off. So in and of itself, no. Add it with a few other ingredients that are rarely available, and it's something real terrible.
COLLINS: Not tough to do, being the point.
And also this man attempted to use 500 to 1,000 metric tons of that stuff. Put that in perspective for us. A lot? Not very much?
DALY: Well, it certainly is a lot. It's a lot more than was used in Oklahoma City by several fold, and it's something that we don't know whether this person is intending to -- what their intent is. It's of concern to the ATF, they're hot on the trail, because this could then be broken up and sent to other people. It could be used in several different devices.
In fact, just last month, ETA, the Basque separatist group over in Spain, had about four different bombs go off early last month, and those were all the same type of material, the ammonium nitrate in small quantities. So it can be divided up and create smaller packages.
COLLINS: Pretty easily? I mean, can terrorists get a hold of that easily, or is it disguised easily?
DALY: It is readily available. Elsewhere in the world, people are coming to recognize it. Last month, the Australian government passed legislation that would allow the government to prohibit people or at least allow the government to be able to monitor who buys ammonium nitrate, and also just recently last month again, there seems in the past month, a lot of activity in this area.
In the Philippines, they seized bags of ammonium nitrate which the authorities thought might be used for some bombs which had recently gone off in and around the Philippines.
COLLINS: But can you put it in something else, though, to keep it disguised though, conceal it, so that you can go on about your business before, you know, creating some horrible explosion? DALY: Well, I mean, it can be concealed in a variety of -- you can change the bags, and you can make it look differently so people don't realize what it is. But with some of the detection equipment we have today, with the bomb-detection dogs, those are the types of things they're looking for; they're looking for traces of ammonium nitrate.
COLLINS: All right. What is interesting about this is the tip that came to the ATF was actually part of America's Security Begins With You Campaign. Tell us just a little bit about that.
DALY: Well, that's something that was started up after the Oklahoma City bombing, before 9/11, and it was a campaign to alert those people, whether it was people in the agri business, chemical business, construction business, who use some of these components to be on the alert for people who are looking to buy it in quantities, stockpile that type of material, because they may know who these people -- who don't fit into the profile, the normal customer, who may not be able to answer the questions they want answered when they go to buy it.
COLLINS: All right, well, they'll be keeping an eye on that, that is for sure. Bill Daly, we appreciate your time here this morning.
DALY: Thank you.
COLLINS: Thank you -- Bill.
Well, I want to let everybody know before we go back to Bill, we're going to stay tuned to CNN day and night for the most reliable news about your security. We'll stay on top of it for you.
HEMMER: All right, Heidi, thanks. Twenty-two 22 minutes past the hour. Much of the country getting hit with whammy of a winter storm this week. Could it get even worse out there? That's ahead after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HEMMER: All right, Delta started it, will other airlines follow its lead? Andy Serwer has a first check, "Minding Your Business" this morning with us.
Good morning to you. A lot of airline news.
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: That's right. A bunch of news coming out of the troubled airline industry this morning, Bill. First of all, yes, indeed, other airlines appear to be following delta's suit and cutting fares, analysts saying that Northwest and U.S. Air are beginning to match Delta's fare cuts that we talked about just the other day.
Airline stocks plunged on the news, down 7 percent, 11 percent. And the reason why is because this is no ordinary fare war where one airline chickens out and raises fares and they all follow suit. What Delta is doing is very likely a permanent fixture.
Meanwhile, more news about U.S. Air, and this airline is very much on the brink. Today going to court, a federal judge will rule whether the airline can throw out a contract with the machinists union. And this since what they have to do is throw this out and that will help save the airline. That's what the executives are saying. The machinists are saying, how can you tear up a contract?
And finally, U.S. Air -- and some analysts are calling this a nail in the coffin -- Southwest Airlines, their archrival in Philadelphia, is moving into Pittsburgh, long a stronghold of U.S. air. And you just wonder how much longer this airline can continue going with all these troubles it has.
HEMMER: And we've seen Southwest in a different area now, doing well when you compare it to Delta, when you compare it to U.S. Airways, the trouble we've seen with American, United.
SERWER: They've been very successful in Philadelphia, moving in there.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: New regulations working pretty well, isn't it, in the airline industry? You've got united defaulting on the pilot's pension. You've got -- this outfit wanting to tear up a contract with the machinists union. What the hell is going on? That's crazy.
SERWER: It's a big, big mess.
CAFFERTY: Unbelievable.
COLLINS: I want to check in with Jack now and "The Cafferty File," Question of the Day.
CAFFERTY: That's not even my topic; I have a different topic.
COLLINS: Good morning to you.
CAFFERTY: Secretary of State Colin Powell announced that the initial coalition force for tsunami relief being headed by United States being dissolved. The United Nations is going to run this thing now. By giving control to the U.N., officials help there will be less confusion in coordinating relief efforts among various international and humanitarian aid agencies, but is the U.N. the right choice for this task? They're being given billions dollars worth of humanitarian aid to distribute to at least six different countries.
The United Nations is currently being investigated for the mismanagement of the $64 billion oil-for-food program in Iraq. Early indications are that oil-for-food became one of the most corrupt enterprises ever. Kickbacks, surcharges, bribes, out and out theft, all the good stuff.
Here's the question, should the U.N. be leading the tsunami relief effort amid investigations into the mismanagement of other humanitarian aid programs? Get your little typewriters out and get busy. I already got people calling me names from that little thing I did with you 20 seconds ago.
SERWER: Yes, doesn't take long, does it?
HEMMER: I went to bed last night, there was $3 billion pledged, I got up this morning, there was $4 billion pledged.
CAFFERTY: One of the papers is saying it's more than five billion.
SERWER: And pretty soon it becomes real money.
CAFFERTY: It will be enough to steal after a while.
SERWER: Give them another chance, Jack; you know, they need some more chances.
HEMMER: Thank you, gentleman.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
