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American Morning
Extreme Violence in Iraq; U.S. Military Struggles to Restore Goodwill in Afghanistan
Aired May 16, 2005 - 08:00 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: Extreme violence in Iraq. And now the death toll is mounting. At least five more Iraqis killed today, after dozens of bodies found this weekend.
The U.S. military struggles to restore goodwill in Afghanistan after an article in "Newsweek" sparks riots. This morning, the Pentagon's reaction to that magazine's apology.
And Mexico's president tries to compliment workers from his country and insults black Americans in the process. The fallout on this AMERICAN MORNING.
ANNOUNCER: From the CNN broadcast center in New York, this is AMERICAN MORNING with Soledad O'Brien and Bill Hemmer.
S. O'BRIEN: Good morning.
Welcome back, everybody.
Bill Hemmer has got the day off.
Miles O'Brien is helping us out.
Thank you very much -- good morning.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.
Bill has a golf tournament, is that it?
S. O'BRIEN: Yes, in his grandfather's name.
M. O'BRIEN: Is it the Bill Hemmer Pro Win?
S. O'BRIEN: They do it every single year and it's really great.
M. O'BRIEN: Yes, well, that's great.
S. O'BRIEN: I don't think Bill ever wins, but he gets out there and tries.
M. O'BRIEN: I guess that's half the idea, right?
All right, good morning to you all.
Also ahead, a life or death situation with no room for error. We'll talk to an air traffic controller who was able to help a passenger land an airplane after the pilot collapsed in mid-flight.
S. O'BRIEN: Also this morning, Mr. Cafferty -- good morning to you.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.
Coming up in "The Cafferty File," an update on how Saddam is spending his time in jail.
Coming soon to an airport near you, an x-ray machine that can look at your birthday suit.
And some United Airlines flight attendants get stripped of more than just their pensions.
S. O'BRIEN: Ooh, it sounds like a good "File" today.
Thank you, Jack.
Let's get right to Carol Costello.
She's got a look at the headlines this morning -- hey, Carol.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning.
Good morning to all of you.
Now in the news, a roadside bombing kills at least five people in Iraq this morning. Police say it was targeting an Iraqi military convoy passing through Ba'qubah. The attack comes after the bodies of 55 men were found shot in six locations across the country. It's just the latest violence aimed at derailing Iraq's new government.
More names in the U.N. Oil For Food scandal. A Senate report out this morning accuses top Russian politicians of taking part, including the Russian deputy speaker of the parliament. He has denied similar accusations in the past. The Senate investigators say there is no evidence Russian President Vladimir Putin knew about the deals.
Reverend Jesse Jackson is calling it a hate crime and he wants the FBI to investigate. Jackson met last night with Winston Hayes, the unarmed man who was shot at 120 times after a chase with sheriff's deputies. The incident was caught on videotape. The deputies are expected to be back on active duty this week. Hayes was hit four times. He is now recovering.
And emergency workers in the Southeast are bracing for what is expected to be another active hurricane season. Last year's record storms killed at least 130 people and caused more than $22 billion worth of damage. In about four hours, officials at the Hurricane Center in Miami will announce their predictions for this year. The hurricane season begins on June 1.
And that report not expected to be very good.
S. O'BRIEN: Yes. M. O'BRIEN: So says Chad on his birthday. This was his birthday gift, apparently, from the Hurricane Center.
COSTELLO: Not a great gift, but, hey...
M. O'BRIEN: Right.
S. O'BRIEN: Hey, great. Nice gift.
M. O'BRIEN: For him it is. It's a big deal, you know?
S. O'BRIEN: I hope someone got him something more meaningful than that.
COSTELLO: It's not a great gift for all of us, though.
M. O'BRIEN: Chad, that's a good gift.
S. O'BRIEN: All right, Carol, thanks.
Well, "Newsweek" magazine today is apologizing for its story that U.S. troops desecrated the Koran. That story incited deadly anti- American riots in Afghanistan and is drawing considerable fire from the Pentagon.
Barbara Starr live for us at the Pentagon this morning -- Barbara, good morning to you.
What's the Pentagon saying today?
BARBARA STARR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Soledad, this morning they are continuing to express what one could only describe as their dismay here about this entire incident because, of course, now, "Newsweek" has apologized and said its original story is wrong.
"Newsweek" had said that the U.S. military was investigating incidents in which military personnel at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba were alleged to have desecrated the Koran. That now is not correct.
What "Newsweek" is saying is its original source that gave them that story, they went back to when the Pentagon told them the story was wrong, and that source could not remember where he had exactly heard that information.
So "Newsweek" issuing its apology and the Pentagon saying it is very dismayed, especially because they now feel, here at the Pentagon, that it sparked some of those deadly riots in eastern Afghanistan -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: So then there was definitely a link between those riots in Afghanistan and this whole controversy over the Koran allegations? Is that right?
STARR: Well, not exactly. That really -- it's going to wind up being a very key question. U.S. military officials last week, when these riots unfolded, these very violent riots, said they did not think it was related to the Koran incident. That they said they just couldn't fathom how it could be.
Several officials said directly they didn't think it was related. But of course now, the Pentagon is saying, now that it knows the "Newsweek" article is wrong, it is saying that it was responsible for the violence.
So what really appears to be going on here is much of this violence was sparked by some political instability in Afghanistan. Maybe all of this shows some of the fragility of the Afghan government there, officials say, and the Koran incident just added a bit of extra fuel to all of that, if you will.
S. O'BRIEN: At the very least, of course, Barbara, there are concerns that for U.S. troops the information could put them at even greater risk than they are already at.
How do the troops go about sort of repairing the relationship with the Afghani people? Is that even possible?
STARR: Well, there's two things going on. What U.S. military officials in Afghanistan have said over the weekend is that they will work more closely with Afghan military personnel, training them on how to handle this type of civil unrest when it breaks out so it doesn't get to the point of being deadly. But, also, there are additional new procedures for handling the Koran by U.S. military personnel at Guantanamo Bay, some very strict procedures involving gloves, involving only Muslim military personnel handling the Koran, so none of these incidents get out of control.
And it's important, Soledad, Pentagon officials have also said that they do know of some incidents where there have been problems. For example, during a routine inspection of a detainee's cell, a Koran fell off a bag that was hanging on the wall, hit the floor and the detainee involved became very agitated that his Koran, of course, had touched the floor.
So that type of thing has led to some much stricter procedures by U.S. military personnel when they come in contact with the Koran -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: Barbara Starr at the Pentagon for us this morning.
Barbara, thanks -- Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: Time for a "Security Watch," focusing this morning on reports that a key al Qaeda operative is dead, apparently killed in Pakistan by a missile fired from a CIA Predator drone.
National security correspondent David Ensor in Washington with us now -- David, this was an important one, wasn't it?
DAVID ENSOR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, there's some debate about how important he was in the al Qaeda leadership lines. But it was clearly important, Miles, yes, in the sense that it occurred in the area of Pakistan near the Afghan border, where U.S. intelligence still believes Osama bin Laden and his top deputy are hiding. What apparently happened was that the CIA was following this man, Haitham al-Yemeni, with a Predator drone, hoping that he might lead them to bin Laden or one of the other top leaders. Then, when they caught -- when the Pakistanis caught another top al Qaeda person, Abu Farraj al Libbi, the CIA started to worry that Haitham al-Yemeni might, at this point, try to go to ground, try to escape, try to hide. And it was decided that Haitham al-Yemeni was -- it was safer to kill him than to try to continue to follow him when they were afraid they might lost him. So, that is what my knowledgeable sources say that went down.
Now, of course, the Pakistani government is denying this. It's very sensitive there, that they cooperate with the United States on some of this, and officially the CIA has absolutely no comment -- Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: Naturally.
Of course, in a perfect world, the CIA and others in the intelligence community would like to interview these guys, if they could. Of course, we don't know -- since we don't know how important he was in the organization, we don't know what information might have been lost.
ENSOR: Well, that's right. There have been some reports suggesting that he was in line to become the number three person, the operations chief, after al Libbi was captured. But I've talked to other officials who say they don't believe that, that the was nowhere near that level.
But clearly he was in the area where the top leaders are and there was the belief that he might be in touch with them and could lead U.S. intelligence to them.
M. O'BRIEN: So...
ENSOR: And he was an important target.
M. O'BRIEN: Is there much thinking that bin Laden himself would have been nearby, possibly?
ENSOR: It's still believed by U.S. intelligence that he's in that northwest border area near Pakistan where this happened. So, yes.
M. O'BRIEN: David Ensor in Washington.
Thanks very much.
Stay with CNN, as always, day and night, for the most reliable news about your security -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: Well, Mexican President Vicente Fox is in some international hot water this morning over remarks that he made on Friday to a group of Texas businessmen meeting in Mexico.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PRES. VICENTE FOX, MEXICO (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): There's no doubt that Mexicans, filled with dignity, willingness and ability to work, are doing jobs that not even blacks want to do there in the United States.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
S. O'BRIEN: Well, a Mexican official says the comment was not meant as an insult. But the Reverend Jesse Jackson says it has ominous racial overtones.
As for any political fallout, let's get right to CNN's political analyst, Carlos Watson -- good morning.
Nice to see you.
CARLOS WATSON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Good morning.
S. O'BRIEN: What people obviously are taking exception to is the "not even" -- "jobs that not even blacks would be willing to do."
What's been the reaction overall, including Reverend Jackson?
WATSON: You've heard from Reverend Jackson and from Al Sharpton, and I suspect this week you'll hear from members of the Congressional Black Caucus, among others. I wouldn't be surprised, also, to hear from members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, as well.
S. O'BRIEN: He's certainly not, though, the only foreign leader who's made statements, or even come to this country, but made statements about the country that were, at the very least, racially insensitive, some that are just bordering on bizarre and inaccurate.
WATSON: You recall, Soledad, that in the late '80s, in 1986, the prime minister, then prime minister of Japan, made some fairly racially insensitive comments. We heard more from Japanese officials in 1988 and 1990.
Since then, though, you haven't heard a lot. And so I suspect that we won't hear a lot in the future from other Mexican officials, or at least this will be a major incident that will serve as a warning point going forward.
S. O'BRIEN: There was a follow-up statement that said this, that the president has ..".enormous respect to minorities, whatever their racial, ethnic or religious origins may be." Also, it tried to make it very clear that he didn't mean to be racist.
What do you think the political fallout could be in this country? Any?
WATSON: Here in the United States there are two things to watch. You know, there's a mayoral race in our second largest city, Los Angeles. One of the challengers there, Antonio Villaraigosa, a Mexican-American, was putting together a fairly unusual coalition, at least unusual in Los Angeles terms, of African-Americans and Latinos. The last time around when he ran, he only got 20 percent of the black vote. This time around he's running dead even, and that seems to have helped propel him into a lead. It will be interesting to see whether or not there's any fallout in this race tomorrow, Tuesday.
The other place to look is, remember, Soledad, that on Capitol Hill right now, there's major immigration legislation being discussed. Senator Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts, Senator John McCain of Arizona have proposed a new bill in the Senate. The real struggle, though, is in the House. And there, there are approximately 40 African-American members of the Congressional Black Caucus. Will some of them take umbrage on this and review the issue? Who knows. But certainly it'll be something that'll be discussed.
S. O'BRIEN: What do you think? Staying power or not, this comment?
WATSON: You know, I think that this will pass quickly, to the extent that there continue to be additional apologies. But I'll tell you where it could have an impact, in Mexican politics. Right now, Vicente Fox's approval ratings are low. He's on his way out of office next year. He was hoping to anoint his successor. He's struggled in doing that. And this may be, if you will, kind of the nail in the coffin.
S. O'BRIEN: I guess we will wait and see, as we say.
Carlos, thanks very much.
WATSON: You've got it.
Good to see you.
S. O'BRIEN: Carlos is CNN's political analyst -- Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: Let's check back on the weather.
Chad Myers at the CNN Center with the birthday boy forecast -- hello, Chad.
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, the hurricane boy forecast.
Good morning, everybody.
Atlantic names this year -- it is now hurricane, well, not season, but Hurricane Awareness Week. So get that in mind for you. Arlene, Bret, Cindy, Dennis, Emily, Franklin, Gert, all the way down to Harvey and Irene. The names, maybe you recognize them. In fact, the names are recycled every six years, except for the ones that are retired. And on this list, Floyd was retired from 1999 and Lenny was retired. So now we have Lee instead of Lenny. Hopefully, we don't get all the way down to the Tammys and Vinces, but we'll see. Hopefully not.
If you do want to have more information here about the hurricane season, go to this Web address -- www.nhc.noah.gov. Their Hurricane Preparedness Week is this week. Try to get prepared, if you can.
Now, what does that mean? Maybe if you just moved to an area, know if you are now in an evacuation area. If you're in Tampa, St. Pete, all those areas, there are different letters for every little place you live. You need to know where you live and you need to know if an evacuation is ever taking place, whether it's you or not, have a written plan to go.
(WEATHER REPORT)
S. O'BRIEN: All right, Chad, thanks.
M. O'BRIEN: All right, thank you.
Chad, it's important to know where you live. You'll always need to know where you live.
S. O'BRIEN: Chad, I'm happy to hit him for you if you want me to, because I'm right next to him.
MYERS: Right.
S. O'BRIEN: Still to come this morning, a heroic air traffic controller. We're going to talk to a man whose cool-headed coaching helped a frightened airplane passenger make a pretty unlikely landing.
M. O'BRIEN: It helps he was a flight instructor, too, I think.
And in the Michael Jackson trial, why one of the best witnesses for the defense is the ultimate insider in the case.
S. O'BRIEN: And Sanjay is ahead with a new link between your personality and your health.
Those stories all ahead, as we continue, right here on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
M. O'BRIEN: Well, they are truly unsung heroes. But today at a ceremony in Washington, the National Air Traffic Controllers Association pays tribute to members who have excelled in the line of duty. Among the honorees, a New England area controller who last summer got the call no one wants to receive.
Here's CNN's Dan Lothian.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
KEN HOPF, AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER: You can just leave it open.
DAN LOTHIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Ken Hopf is a veteran pilot and flight instructor who has plenty of experience keeping his students calm and focused. And those skills came in handy last August at his day job as an FAA air traffic controller in New Hampshire, when a distress call came in. JENNIFER TRUMAN: And the pilot of the plane is now out. And we have to go back to Laconia. Please help me.
HOPF: They came out of this Laconia airport.
LOTHIAN: The six seater plane was flying more than 4,000 feet above New Hampshire, 15 miles from the airport. The woman's father had suddenly become incapacitated on their way to Utica, New York, and she was forced to take the controls.
TRUMAN: I've never flown a Malibu.
HOPF: Do you know where the gear selector knob is?
TRUMAN: Gear selector knob? No.
HOPF: Well, we're going to do the best we can to help you right now.
LOTHIAN: Now, for the first time, Jennifer Truman talks publicly about that frightening day.
TRUMAN: My only thought was get this plane on the ground.
LOTHIAN (on camera): Truman had taken flying lessons, but was not a licensed pilot. She did know how to turn the plane to the right heading and make a gradual descent. Everything seemed OK. But that was about to change.
(voice-over): As Hopf sat at a radar station like this one, Truman issued one more distress call. Another passenger, her mother, was also in trouble.
TRUMAN: She's flopping over like a doll now.
HOPF: We all became very concerned that this was maybe carbon monoxide was leaking into the airplane.
LOTHIAN: The controller asked her to open vents, ordered a more direct route and quicker descent. Within minutes, it was over.
TRUMAN: On the ground. There's the fire department. Thank you very much.
LOTHIAN: Emergency crews assisted Truman's parents, but they both would later die. Amazingly, each had suffered a stroke. A sad ending, but a potential air disaster averted with the help of a controller with unique skills who answered the call.
TRUMAN: With Ken on the other end it just -- it was a calming voice.
LOTHIAN: Dan Lothian, CNN, Laconia, New Hampshire.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
M. O'BRIEN: Ken Hopf is one of a dozen air traffic controllers being honored today for action in a critical situation.
He joins us now from Washington.
Ken, congratulations. Great work, first of all.
HOPF: Thank you very much, Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: Do you think you could have done that had you not been a flight instructor?
HOPF: It would have been extremely difficult without my experience as a flight instructor and my familiar -- being familiar with the area certainly was of great help.
M. O'BRIEN: Now, was it just a coincidence that you happened to be talking to them or did somebody call you and say look, you know, you're a flight instructor, help her out?
HOPF: No, she actually called on the frequency that I was working on. So, no, I was -- just happened to be there and it was the right time.
M. O'BRIEN: All right, well, she gets a lot of credit, too, because this airplane, this Piper Malibu, that's a high performance single engine airplane, retractable gear, it can fly at very high altitudes. It's not your Cessna 150, which everybody knows about now, right?
HOPF: That's for sure. She deserves a lot of credit. And very soon into the -- into this event, I was able to feel very confident in her ability to fly the airplane. She had expressed that she did have some experience and that was of great value.
M. O'BRIEN: You know, this is the kind of stuff right out of movies.
When you were faced with this, what went through your mind? This is the kind of thing, in a sense, you train for, right, or not?
HOPF: Well, you train for dealing with it, but as far as this particular situation, it was very unique in the fact that it was a flight assist. But typically we assist pilots in distress. And this was a case where I had to assist somebody who was not a pilot.
M. O'BRIEN: And at any point during this whole process -- and you were talking to her for quite some time...
HOPF: Yes.
M. O'BRIEN: ... did you think it wasn't going to work out? Or were you confident?
HOPF: No, I felt very confident. I mean she instilled a lot of confidence in me with her ability to stay focused and do what she was asked to do. And I felt very confident. M. O'BRIEN: And, you know, that whole process, I think probably the most critical thing you can do through this whole thing is to calm somebody down.
How were you able to do that?
HOPF: Well, you know, that, of course, was the first thing that popped into my mind, because the initial call, she was very distressed. And I just figured I'd ask her how she was doing. And it seemed to work very well because she responded very nicely to it and then after that, as I gave her instructions or asked her questions, it seemed to be calming. And that's what did the trick, I think.
M. O'BRIEN: It must have given you a great deal of gratitude when you heard that plane made it safely to the ground.
HOPF: Definitely. Myself and all my coworkers were quite happy that it had come to a successful conclusion.
M. O'BRIEN: All right, that's what movies are made of.
Ken Hopf, a great story.
Congratulations to you, distinguished air traffic controller.
And we wish you well at the ceremony today.
HOPF: Thank you very much, Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: All right -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: Good for him.
M. O'BRIEN: Yes.
S. O'BRIEN: Well, will the U.N.'s Oil For Food scandal lead all the way to the president of one of the world's most powerful nations? Kamber and May weigh in ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
S. O'BRIEN: Welcome back, everybody.
Jack is taking a look at the media in the Question of the Day -- good morning.
CAFFERTY: Good morning.
"Newsweek" is backpedaling on a story that U.S. interrogators at Guantanamo Bay flushed a copy of the Koran down the toilet while interrogating Muslim terror suspects. The magazine now says the report, which is being blamed for riots and deaths in Afghanistan, may have been wrong. Coincidentally, a survey out today by the University of Connecticut Department of Public Policy shows the public has serious issues when it comes to the news media. Only 40 percent of the people surveyed think the media is accurate. Sixty percent think the media show bias. Twenty-two percent think the government should censor the press.
The question is does the press have too much freedom?
Here is some of what you've written.
Steve in Tampa, Florida writes: ""Newsweek" made a mistake and it was a bad one. But let the government control the media? Might as well flush the U.S. constitution down the toilet."
John in New York writes: "On the contrary, the media is not free. The media is compromised as a result of corporate control. Only when these conflicts of interest are eliminated will today's advocacy once again become journalism."
Jack in Louisiana: "There's on such thing as too much freedom of the press. The problem with reporting on stories that involve detainees and their treatment is that Bush administration has thrown up a wall of secrecy around everything that involves these prisoners."
And Ginger in Oklahoma: "Of course the press does not have too much freedom and it is not biased. Jack, you are equally offensive to everyone."
Thank you, Ginger.
Good to be with her, you know.
M. O'BRIEN: Nice of her to think of you.
S. O'BRIEN: Well, Mark Geragos takes the stand in the Michael Jackson trial. Was he as helpful to Michael Jackson as a witness as he was when he was his attorney? A look at that is ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
S. O'BRIEN: Good morning.
Welcome back, everybody.
Just about half past the hour on this AMERICAN MORNING.
Bill Hemmer has got the day off.
Miles O'Brien is helping us out today -- good morning.
M. O'BRIEN: Good morning to everyone.
Coming up, the Michael Jackson trial. Jurors hear testimony from a lawyer to the stars and many other stars may be about to take the stand. They've got a red carpet there.
S. O'BRIEN: Yes.
M. O'BRIEN: Yes.
S. O'BRIEN: Much more on that this morning.
M. O'BRIEN: Right.
S. O'BRIEN: First, though, a look at the headlines with Carol Costello -- good morning, Carol.
COSTELLO: Good morning.
Good morning to all of you.
South Korea is apparently trying to kick start nuclear talks with North Korea. Senior officials from both countries are meeting this morning, their first direct contact in 10 months. There's word South Korea may have made an offer to entice North Korea to negotiations, but no details are available at this hour.
In Texas, Specialist Sabrina Harman begins her defense today in a trial stemming from the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal. Harman is the second service member to face a military judge in the case. The first, Charles Graner, was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Harman faces six-and-a-half years if she is convicted.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired May 16, 2005 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Extreme violence in Iraq. And now the death toll is mounting. At least five more Iraqis killed today, after dozens of bodies found this weekend.
The U.S. military struggles to restore goodwill in Afghanistan after an article in "Newsweek" sparks riots. This morning, the Pentagon's reaction to that magazine's apology.
And Mexico's president tries to compliment workers from his country and insults black Americans in the process. The fallout on this AMERICAN MORNING.
ANNOUNCER: From the CNN broadcast center in New York, this is AMERICAN MORNING with Soledad O'Brien and Bill Hemmer.
S. O'BRIEN: Good morning.
Welcome back, everybody.
Bill Hemmer has got the day off.
Miles O'Brien is helping us out.
Thank you very much -- good morning.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.
Bill has a golf tournament, is that it?
S. O'BRIEN: Yes, in his grandfather's name.
M. O'BRIEN: Is it the Bill Hemmer Pro Win?
S. O'BRIEN: They do it every single year and it's really great.
M. O'BRIEN: Yes, well, that's great.
S. O'BRIEN: I don't think Bill ever wins, but he gets out there and tries.
M. O'BRIEN: I guess that's half the idea, right?
All right, good morning to you all.
Also ahead, a life or death situation with no room for error. We'll talk to an air traffic controller who was able to help a passenger land an airplane after the pilot collapsed in mid-flight.
S. O'BRIEN: Also this morning, Mr. Cafferty -- good morning to you.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.
Coming up in "The Cafferty File," an update on how Saddam is spending his time in jail.
Coming soon to an airport near you, an x-ray machine that can look at your birthday suit.
And some United Airlines flight attendants get stripped of more than just their pensions.
S. O'BRIEN: Ooh, it sounds like a good "File" today.
Thank you, Jack.
Let's get right to Carol Costello.
She's got a look at the headlines this morning -- hey, Carol.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning.
Good morning to all of you.
Now in the news, a roadside bombing kills at least five people in Iraq this morning. Police say it was targeting an Iraqi military convoy passing through Ba'qubah. The attack comes after the bodies of 55 men were found shot in six locations across the country. It's just the latest violence aimed at derailing Iraq's new government.
More names in the U.N. Oil For Food scandal. A Senate report out this morning accuses top Russian politicians of taking part, including the Russian deputy speaker of the parliament. He has denied similar accusations in the past. The Senate investigators say there is no evidence Russian President Vladimir Putin knew about the deals.
Reverend Jesse Jackson is calling it a hate crime and he wants the FBI to investigate. Jackson met last night with Winston Hayes, the unarmed man who was shot at 120 times after a chase with sheriff's deputies. The incident was caught on videotape. The deputies are expected to be back on active duty this week. Hayes was hit four times. He is now recovering.
And emergency workers in the Southeast are bracing for what is expected to be another active hurricane season. Last year's record storms killed at least 130 people and caused more than $22 billion worth of damage. In about four hours, officials at the Hurricane Center in Miami will announce their predictions for this year. The hurricane season begins on June 1.
And that report not expected to be very good.
S. O'BRIEN: Yes. M. O'BRIEN: So says Chad on his birthday. This was his birthday gift, apparently, from the Hurricane Center.
COSTELLO: Not a great gift, but, hey...
M. O'BRIEN: Right.
S. O'BRIEN: Hey, great. Nice gift.
M. O'BRIEN: For him it is. It's a big deal, you know?
S. O'BRIEN: I hope someone got him something more meaningful than that.
COSTELLO: It's not a great gift for all of us, though.
M. O'BRIEN: Chad, that's a good gift.
S. O'BRIEN: All right, Carol, thanks.
Well, "Newsweek" magazine today is apologizing for its story that U.S. troops desecrated the Koran. That story incited deadly anti- American riots in Afghanistan and is drawing considerable fire from the Pentagon.
Barbara Starr live for us at the Pentagon this morning -- Barbara, good morning to you.
What's the Pentagon saying today?
BARBARA STARR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Soledad, this morning they are continuing to express what one could only describe as their dismay here about this entire incident because, of course, now, "Newsweek" has apologized and said its original story is wrong.
"Newsweek" had said that the U.S. military was investigating incidents in which military personnel at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba were alleged to have desecrated the Koran. That now is not correct.
What "Newsweek" is saying is its original source that gave them that story, they went back to when the Pentagon told them the story was wrong, and that source could not remember where he had exactly heard that information.
So "Newsweek" issuing its apology and the Pentagon saying it is very dismayed, especially because they now feel, here at the Pentagon, that it sparked some of those deadly riots in eastern Afghanistan -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: So then there was definitely a link between those riots in Afghanistan and this whole controversy over the Koran allegations? Is that right?
STARR: Well, not exactly. That really -- it's going to wind up being a very key question. U.S. military officials last week, when these riots unfolded, these very violent riots, said they did not think it was related to the Koran incident. That they said they just couldn't fathom how it could be.
Several officials said directly they didn't think it was related. But of course now, the Pentagon is saying, now that it knows the "Newsweek" article is wrong, it is saying that it was responsible for the violence.
So what really appears to be going on here is much of this violence was sparked by some political instability in Afghanistan. Maybe all of this shows some of the fragility of the Afghan government there, officials say, and the Koran incident just added a bit of extra fuel to all of that, if you will.
S. O'BRIEN: At the very least, of course, Barbara, there are concerns that for U.S. troops the information could put them at even greater risk than they are already at.
How do the troops go about sort of repairing the relationship with the Afghani people? Is that even possible?
STARR: Well, there's two things going on. What U.S. military officials in Afghanistan have said over the weekend is that they will work more closely with Afghan military personnel, training them on how to handle this type of civil unrest when it breaks out so it doesn't get to the point of being deadly. But, also, there are additional new procedures for handling the Koran by U.S. military personnel at Guantanamo Bay, some very strict procedures involving gloves, involving only Muslim military personnel handling the Koran, so none of these incidents get out of control.
And it's important, Soledad, Pentagon officials have also said that they do know of some incidents where there have been problems. For example, during a routine inspection of a detainee's cell, a Koran fell off a bag that was hanging on the wall, hit the floor and the detainee involved became very agitated that his Koran, of course, had touched the floor.
So that type of thing has led to some much stricter procedures by U.S. military personnel when they come in contact with the Koran -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: Barbara Starr at the Pentagon for us this morning.
Barbara, thanks -- Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: Time for a "Security Watch," focusing this morning on reports that a key al Qaeda operative is dead, apparently killed in Pakistan by a missile fired from a CIA Predator drone.
National security correspondent David Ensor in Washington with us now -- David, this was an important one, wasn't it?
DAVID ENSOR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, there's some debate about how important he was in the al Qaeda leadership lines. But it was clearly important, Miles, yes, in the sense that it occurred in the area of Pakistan near the Afghan border, where U.S. intelligence still believes Osama bin Laden and his top deputy are hiding. What apparently happened was that the CIA was following this man, Haitham al-Yemeni, with a Predator drone, hoping that he might lead them to bin Laden or one of the other top leaders. Then, when they caught -- when the Pakistanis caught another top al Qaeda person, Abu Farraj al Libbi, the CIA started to worry that Haitham al-Yemeni might, at this point, try to go to ground, try to escape, try to hide. And it was decided that Haitham al-Yemeni was -- it was safer to kill him than to try to continue to follow him when they were afraid they might lost him. So, that is what my knowledgeable sources say that went down.
Now, of course, the Pakistani government is denying this. It's very sensitive there, that they cooperate with the United States on some of this, and officially the CIA has absolutely no comment -- Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: Naturally.
Of course, in a perfect world, the CIA and others in the intelligence community would like to interview these guys, if they could. Of course, we don't know -- since we don't know how important he was in the organization, we don't know what information might have been lost.
ENSOR: Well, that's right. There have been some reports suggesting that he was in line to become the number three person, the operations chief, after al Libbi was captured. But I've talked to other officials who say they don't believe that, that the was nowhere near that level.
But clearly he was in the area where the top leaders are and there was the belief that he might be in touch with them and could lead U.S. intelligence to them.
M. O'BRIEN: So...
ENSOR: And he was an important target.
M. O'BRIEN: Is there much thinking that bin Laden himself would have been nearby, possibly?
ENSOR: It's still believed by U.S. intelligence that he's in that northwest border area near Pakistan where this happened. So, yes.
M. O'BRIEN: David Ensor in Washington.
Thanks very much.
Stay with CNN, as always, day and night, for the most reliable news about your security -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: Well, Mexican President Vicente Fox is in some international hot water this morning over remarks that he made on Friday to a group of Texas businessmen meeting in Mexico.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PRES. VICENTE FOX, MEXICO (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): There's no doubt that Mexicans, filled with dignity, willingness and ability to work, are doing jobs that not even blacks want to do there in the United States.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
S. O'BRIEN: Well, a Mexican official says the comment was not meant as an insult. But the Reverend Jesse Jackson says it has ominous racial overtones.
As for any political fallout, let's get right to CNN's political analyst, Carlos Watson -- good morning.
Nice to see you.
CARLOS WATSON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Good morning.
S. O'BRIEN: What people obviously are taking exception to is the "not even" -- "jobs that not even blacks would be willing to do."
What's been the reaction overall, including Reverend Jackson?
WATSON: You've heard from Reverend Jackson and from Al Sharpton, and I suspect this week you'll hear from members of the Congressional Black Caucus, among others. I wouldn't be surprised, also, to hear from members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, as well.
S. O'BRIEN: He's certainly not, though, the only foreign leader who's made statements, or even come to this country, but made statements about the country that were, at the very least, racially insensitive, some that are just bordering on bizarre and inaccurate.
WATSON: You recall, Soledad, that in the late '80s, in 1986, the prime minister, then prime minister of Japan, made some fairly racially insensitive comments. We heard more from Japanese officials in 1988 and 1990.
Since then, though, you haven't heard a lot. And so I suspect that we won't hear a lot in the future from other Mexican officials, or at least this will be a major incident that will serve as a warning point going forward.
S. O'BRIEN: There was a follow-up statement that said this, that the president has ..".enormous respect to minorities, whatever their racial, ethnic or religious origins may be." Also, it tried to make it very clear that he didn't mean to be racist.
What do you think the political fallout could be in this country? Any?
WATSON: Here in the United States there are two things to watch. You know, there's a mayoral race in our second largest city, Los Angeles. One of the challengers there, Antonio Villaraigosa, a Mexican-American, was putting together a fairly unusual coalition, at least unusual in Los Angeles terms, of African-Americans and Latinos. The last time around when he ran, he only got 20 percent of the black vote. This time around he's running dead even, and that seems to have helped propel him into a lead. It will be interesting to see whether or not there's any fallout in this race tomorrow, Tuesday.
The other place to look is, remember, Soledad, that on Capitol Hill right now, there's major immigration legislation being discussed. Senator Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts, Senator John McCain of Arizona have proposed a new bill in the Senate. The real struggle, though, is in the House. And there, there are approximately 40 African-American members of the Congressional Black Caucus. Will some of them take umbrage on this and review the issue? Who knows. But certainly it'll be something that'll be discussed.
S. O'BRIEN: What do you think? Staying power or not, this comment?
WATSON: You know, I think that this will pass quickly, to the extent that there continue to be additional apologies. But I'll tell you where it could have an impact, in Mexican politics. Right now, Vicente Fox's approval ratings are low. He's on his way out of office next year. He was hoping to anoint his successor. He's struggled in doing that. And this may be, if you will, kind of the nail in the coffin.
S. O'BRIEN: I guess we will wait and see, as we say.
Carlos, thanks very much.
WATSON: You've got it.
Good to see you.
S. O'BRIEN: Carlos is CNN's political analyst -- Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: Let's check back on the weather.
Chad Myers at the CNN Center with the birthday boy forecast -- hello, Chad.
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, the hurricane boy forecast.
Good morning, everybody.
Atlantic names this year -- it is now hurricane, well, not season, but Hurricane Awareness Week. So get that in mind for you. Arlene, Bret, Cindy, Dennis, Emily, Franklin, Gert, all the way down to Harvey and Irene. The names, maybe you recognize them. In fact, the names are recycled every six years, except for the ones that are retired. And on this list, Floyd was retired from 1999 and Lenny was retired. So now we have Lee instead of Lenny. Hopefully, we don't get all the way down to the Tammys and Vinces, but we'll see. Hopefully not.
If you do want to have more information here about the hurricane season, go to this Web address -- www.nhc.noah.gov. Their Hurricane Preparedness Week is this week. Try to get prepared, if you can.
Now, what does that mean? Maybe if you just moved to an area, know if you are now in an evacuation area. If you're in Tampa, St. Pete, all those areas, there are different letters for every little place you live. You need to know where you live and you need to know if an evacuation is ever taking place, whether it's you or not, have a written plan to go.
(WEATHER REPORT)
S. O'BRIEN: All right, Chad, thanks.
M. O'BRIEN: All right, thank you.
Chad, it's important to know where you live. You'll always need to know where you live.
S. O'BRIEN: Chad, I'm happy to hit him for you if you want me to, because I'm right next to him.
MYERS: Right.
S. O'BRIEN: Still to come this morning, a heroic air traffic controller. We're going to talk to a man whose cool-headed coaching helped a frightened airplane passenger make a pretty unlikely landing.
M. O'BRIEN: It helps he was a flight instructor, too, I think.
And in the Michael Jackson trial, why one of the best witnesses for the defense is the ultimate insider in the case.
S. O'BRIEN: And Sanjay is ahead with a new link between your personality and your health.
Those stories all ahead, as we continue, right here on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
M. O'BRIEN: Well, they are truly unsung heroes. But today at a ceremony in Washington, the National Air Traffic Controllers Association pays tribute to members who have excelled in the line of duty. Among the honorees, a New England area controller who last summer got the call no one wants to receive.
Here's CNN's Dan Lothian.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
KEN HOPF, AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER: You can just leave it open.
DAN LOTHIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Ken Hopf is a veteran pilot and flight instructor who has plenty of experience keeping his students calm and focused. And those skills came in handy last August at his day job as an FAA air traffic controller in New Hampshire, when a distress call came in. JENNIFER TRUMAN: And the pilot of the plane is now out. And we have to go back to Laconia. Please help me.
HOPF: They came out of this Laconia airport.
LOTHIAN: The six seater plane was flying more than 4,000 feet above New Hampshire, 15 miles from the airport. The woman's father had suddenly become incapacitated on their way to Utica, New York, and she was forced to take the controls.
TRUMAN: I've never flown a Malibu.
HOPF: Do you know where the gear selector knob is?
TRUMAN: Gear selector knob? No.
HOPF: Well, we're going to do the best we can to help you right now.
LOTHIAN: Now, for the first time, Jennifer Truman talks publicly about that frightening day.
TRUMAN: My only thought was get this plane on the ground.
LOTHIAN (on camera): Truman had taken flying lessons, but was not a licensed pilot. She did know how to turn the plane to the right heading and make a gradual descent. Everything seemed OK. But that was about to change.
(voice-over): As Hopf sat at a radar station like this one, Truman issued one more distress call. Another passenger, her mother, was also in trouble.
TRUMAN: She's flopping over like a doll now.
HOPF: We all became very concerned that this was maybe carbon monoxide was leaking into the airplane.
LOTHIAN: The controller asked her to open vents, ordered a more direct route and quicker descent. Within minutes, it was over.
TRUMAN: On the ground. There's the fire department. Thank you very much.
LOTHIAN: Emergency crews assisted Truman's parents, but they both would later die. Amazingly, each had suffered a stroke. A sad ending, but a potential air disaster averted with the help of a controller with unique skills who answered the call.
TRUMAN: With Ken on the other end it just -- it was a calming voice.
LOTHIAN: Dan Lothian, CNN, Laconia, New Hampshire.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
M. O'BRIEN: Ken Hopf is one of a dozen air traffic controllers being honored today for action in a critical situation.
He joins us now from Washington.
Ken, congratulations. Great work, first of all.
HOPF: Thank you very much, Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: Do you think you could have done that had you not been a flight instructor?
HOPF: It would have been extremely difficult without my experience as a flight instructor and my familiar -- being familiar with the area certainly was of great help.
M. O'BRIEN: Now, was it just a coincidence that you happened to be talking to them or did somebody call you and say look, you know, you're a flight instructor, help her out?
HOPF: No, she actually called on the frequency that I was working on. So, no, I was -- just happened to be there and it was the right time.
M. O'BRIEN: All right, well, she gets a lot of credit, too, because this airplane, this Piper Malibu, that's a high performance single engine airplane, retractable gear, it can fly at very high altitudes. It's not your Cessna 150, which everybody knows about now, right?
HOPF: That's for sure. She deserves a lot of credit. And very soon into the -- into this event, I was able to feel very confident in her ability to fly the airplane. She had expressed that she did have some experience and that was of great value.
M. O'BRIEN: You know, this is the kind of stuff right out of movies.
When you were faced with this, what went through your mind? This is the kind of thing, in a sense, you train for, right, or not?
HOPF: Well, you train for dealing with it, but as far as this particular situation, it was very unique in the fact that it was a flight assist. But typically we assist pilots in distress. And this was a case where I had to assist somebody who was not a pilot.
M. O'BRIEN: And at any point during this whole process -- and you were talking to her for quite some time...
HOPF: Yes.
M. O'BRIEN: ... did you think it wasn't going to work out? Or were you confident?
HOPF: No, I felt very confident. I mean she instilled a lot of confidence in me with her ability to stay focused and do what she was asked to do. And I felt very confident. M. O'BRIEN: And, you know, that whole process, I think probably the most critical thing you can do through this whole thing is to calm somebody down.
How were you able to do that?
HOPF: Well, you know, that, of course, was the first thing that popped into my mind, because the initial call, she was very distressed. And I just figured I'd ask her how she was doing. And it seemed to work very well because she responded very nicely to it and then after that, as I gave her instructions or asked her questions, it seemed to be calming. And that's what did the trick, I think.
M. O'BRIEN: It must have given you a great deal of gratitude when you heard that plane made it safely to the ground.
HOPF: Definitely. Myself and all my coworkers were quite happy that it had come to a successful conclusion.
M. O'BRIEN: All right, that's what movies are made of.
Ken Hopf, a great story.
Congratulations to you, distinguished air traffic controller.
And we wish you well at the ceremony today.
HOPF: Thank you very much, Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: All right -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: Good for him.
M. O'BRIEN: Yes.
S. O'BRIEN: Well, will the U.N.'s Oil For Food scandal lead all the way to the president of one of the world's most powerful nations? Kamber and May weigh in ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
S. O'BRIEN: Welcome back, everybody.
Jack is taking a look at the media in the Question of the Day -- good morning.
CAFFERTY: Good morning.
"Newsweek" is backpedaling on a story that U.S. interrogators at Guantanamo Bay flushed a copy of the Koran down the toilet while interrogating Muslim terror suspects. The magazine now says the report, which is being blamed for riots and deaths in Afghanistan, may have been wrong. Coincidentally, a survey out today by the University of Connecticut Department of Public Policy shows the public has serious issues when it comes to the news media. Only 40 percent of the people surveyed think the media is accurate. Sixty percent think the media show bias. Twenty-two percent think the government should censor the press.
The question is does the press have too much freedom?
Here is some of what you've written.
Steve in Tampa, Florida writes: ""Newsweek" made a mistake and it was a bad one. But let the government control the media? Might as well flush the U.S. constitution down the toilet."
John in New York writes: "On the contrary, the media is not free. The media is compromised as a result of corporate control. Only when these conflicts of interest are eliminated will today's advocacy once again become journalism."
Jack in Louisiana: "There's on such thing as too much freedom of the press. The problem with reporting on stories that involve detainees and their treatment is that Bush administration has thrown up a wall of secrecy around everything that involves these prisoners."
And Ginger in Oklahoma: "Of course the press does not have too much freedom and it is not biased. Jack, you are equally offensive to everyone."
Thank you, Ginger.
Good to be with her, you know.
M. O'BRIEN: Nice of her to think of you.
S. O'BRIEN: Well, Mark Geragos takes the stand in the Michael Jackson trial. Was he as helpful to Michael Jackson as a witness as he was when he was his attorney? A look at that is ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
S. O'BRIEN: Good morning.
Welcome back, everybody.
Just about half past the hour on this AMERICAN MORNING.
Bill Hemmer has got the day off.
Miles O'Brien is helping us out today -- good morning.
M. O'BRIEN: Good morning to everyone.
Coming up, the Michael Jackson trial. Jurors hear testimony from a lawyer to the stars and many other stars may be about to take the stand. They've got a red carpet there.
S. O'BRIEN: Yes.
M. O'BRIEN: Yes.
S. O'BRIEN: Much more on that this morning.
M. O'BRIEN: Right.
S. O'BRIEN: First, though, a look at the headlines with Carol Costello -- good morning, Carol.
COSTELLO: Good morning.
Good morning to all of you.
South Korea is apparently trying to kick start nuclear talks with North Korea. Senior officials from both countries are meeting this morning, their first direct contact in 10 months. There's word South Korea may have made an offer to entice North Korea to negotiations, but no details are available at this hour.
In Texas, Specialist Sabrina Harman begins her defense today in a trial stemming from the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal. Harman is the second service member to face a military judge in the case. The first, Charles Graner, was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Harman faces six-and-a-half years if she is convicted.
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