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American Morning

New Warning From Al Qaeda; Internet Quickly Becoming Popular Form for Civilians Caught in Middle East War

Aired July 28, 2005 - 07:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Welcome back. You're watching a special edition of AMERICAN MORNING. I'm Soledad O'Brien in New York.
Hey, Miles, good morning.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, Soledad. Miles O'Brien reporting from the tip of the Galilee Panhandle, as they call it here, Metula, Israel, far northernmost point in this country. We'll be back with more from here in just a moment -- Soledad.

M. O'BRIEN: All right, Miles, thanks.

New warning to tell you about. It's just in this morning from Osama bin Laden's top deputy. Al Jazeera is airing a tape, just over an hour ago. It's Ayman al-Zawahiri with a not so veiled threat, promising action by al Qaeda in response to attacks in Lebanon and Gaza.

Here's part of he said: "The al Qaeda organization will not stay silent regarding what the Muslims in Palestine and Lebanon are facing."

Octavia Nasr is looking at this tape. She's going to join with some analysis right at the top of the hour.

There are Americans who are fighting with the Israeli Defense Forces during this new Middle East crisis. AMERICAN MORNING's Alina Cho spent some time with a suburban family in New York, which has, I was surprised to hear, a long family tradition of this very thing.

ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, three generations, Soledad. It is unbelievable. You know, many people may not realize there are indeed American citizens serving in the Israeli army. American Jews who, in many cases, were born and raised in the United States and have such a special connection to Israel, they are willing to leave the United States and fight for Israel. In that way, it is their American dream.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHO (voice-over): For 21-year-old American Matt Bielski, fighting in the Israeli army is family tradition. So when Matt told his parents he wanted to join the Israeli Defense Forces, or IDF, they were not surprised. JAY BIELSKI, FATHER OF AMERICAN IN IDF: I kind of expected it. I didn't want it to happen. I promised him a Corvette call every year if he would stay here and go to graduate school, but I knew it wouldn't work. And I did the same thing to my parents.

CHO: Matt's father, Jay, was first a U.S. Marine. He left to join the Israeli army in 1973, just in time for the Yom Kippur War. Then there's his father. Zeus Bielski and his two brothers led what historians call the largest armed rescue of Jews by Jews from the Nazis during World War II.

The Bielski brothers, the subject of a book and a documentary, saved more than 1,200 Jews, as many as Oscar Schindler.

BIELSKI: What I did and what Matthew is doing is a piece of cake compared to what they did.

CHO: Matt was born in the U.S., but also holds an Israeli passport.

MARGO BIELSKI, MOTHER OF AMERICAN IN IDF: Matthew went not knowing there was going to be a war. They went planning to join the IDF, and you know, be in the army and feel what it's like to help defend the country, but they really didn't anticipate a war.

CHO: The Bielskis keep a close eye on the news from their home in Valley Stream, New York, more than 5,000 miles away, and it can be grim.

Matt told his mother by phone the Israeli soldiers killed in Lebanon Wednesday were part of his unit. His parents try to talk to Matt a few times a week, like the day we were there.

M. BIELSKI: How are you, honey?

All right, is everything okay?

J. BIELSKI: How's the war?

MATT BIELSKI: Good.

J. BIELSKI: It's good?

MATT BIELSKI: All right.

J. BIELSKI: Stay safe. Don't be a hero.

M. BIELSKI: Do you need anything?

CHO: Matt's mom, Margo, admits she worries a lot about her son, but she's certain he's exactly where he wants to be.

M. BIELSKI: He followed his dream to do what he wanted to do. You know, some people they say talk the talk. Well he walked the walk. He went.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHO: Now, Matt will serve a total of two years in the Israeli army. After that, his parents say he plans to, or at least they hope, he comes home to the United States, where he plans to get his MBA, maybe even stay here for a while.

Soledad, he was last here in June for his twin sister's wedding, and at the time, his mom joked to him, you know, I have a couple safehouses where I could hide you; you don't have to go back. And he said he wasn't having any of that. And she said the toughest thing for her was to take him back to the airport. You can imagine as a parent having to do that.

S. O'BRIEN: Is this a familiar story here in America? I mean, are there lots of Americans serving?

CHO: It's hard to say. We do hear about it, certainly. We were able to find several families in the United States. And you know, we asked the IDF about this, and they said the numbers are classified in terms of how many Americans are serving. So we asked them, can you tell us what the percentages of the total force? And they said, well, we might be able to get back to you on that, and sure enough, we didn't hear back, but I can tell you anecdotally that Matt's mother told me he went to Israel with 30 other Americans, and that there's another batch going at the end of the summer. And so certainly this is something, she said, kids from all over the country are signing up to do.

S. O'BRIEN: Huh, that's interesting, that's interesting. And interesting they wouldn't give you the number or the percentage either.

Alina, thanks.

CHO: Sure.

S. O'BRIEN: Let's get right back to Miles this morning. Hey, Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Thank you very much, Soledad.

North of the border in Lebanon, the war appears to be expanding and widening. The Israeli Defense Forces, the Israeli Air Force, says it is not targeting the Lebanese army per se, but it continues to strike at targets, such as radar installations and communications capabilities. Inevitably, you could call the collateral damage, or not, but inevitably, a wider group beyond Hezbollah is affected.

Joining me now to talk about this and how this widening war is affecting the economy of Lebanon, which had just come to a rebound after a long civil war, is Sami Haddad. He is the Lebanese minister for economy and trade.

Mr. Haddad, we heard about the Israeli Air Force striking this radar site. The Israelis say they're not targeting Lebanese army installations, per se. What is your perception, though? Do you think the Israelis are casting too wide a net and targeting beyond Hezbollah targets?

SAMI HADDAD, LEBANESE ECONOMY/TRADE MINISTER: The fact of the matter is that Israel is targeting the civilian population. Eighty percent of the casualties or more are civilians. Half of them are children. And the war is destroying Lebanon and its economy completely. And what I would like to say is that this war is certainly not in the interests of the American people or the U.S. government, because this war is achieving one certain thing. It's undermining the government of Lebanon and destroying my country. So...

M. O'BRIEN: Mr. Haddad, you could make an argument that Hezbollah is undermining your government. And to the extent that the Israelis might eliminate Hezbollah, that could help your government. What do you say to that?

HADDAD: Yes. I say to that, that I don't think Israel wants to eliminate militarily Hezbollah. I don't think it can be done easily and within a short period of time. And therefore, the solution is a political and diplomatic solution. Let's stop the war, because the war is certainly destroying my country and undermining a moderate democratically elected government, and let's get on with the Democratic and political solution.

M. O'BRIEN: Mr. Haddad, though, if that is the course of action and if Hezbollah remains armed to the teeth post cease-fire, won't Hezbollah continue to be a problem that undermines the government in Beirut?

HADDAD: Look. Hezbollah has two cabinet ministers in the government. But if we achieve what we are asking, which is something very reasonable, i.e., a prisoner exchange and a map for all the land mines that Israel has planted in the south. We have been asking for these maps for the past 10 years and we haven't gotten them, and returning a small strip of territory called the Shebaa Farms, then there is no reason for Hezbollah to have an armed wing, and then the story will be over.

We want to extend the full authority of the Lebanese government on all Lebanon's territory, but we also want to be protected from Israel's military might. Israel has waged several wars. This is the seventh war in the past 25 years. It has destroyed Lebanon several times, and we have rebuilt, and we can not build a country, a stable democracy and a prosperous economy if Israel, for whatever reason...

M. O'BRIEN: Mr. Haddad...

HADDAD: ... attacks us and destroys our civilian population and our economy.

M. O'BRIEN: Mr. Haddad, though, to the extent that the response is widening here. First of all, is the Lebanese army firing back in any way, shape or form, at the Israelis? And secondly, the reports that another Shiite group, Amal, led by the speaker of parliament there, Nabih Berri, has joined the fight. What can you say about those two developments? HADDAD: Look, first of all, the Lebanese army is no match for the Israeli army. The Lebanese army has already suffered more than 20 soldiers and officers dead, and the Lebanese army will obviously defend Lebanon's territory, but the Lebanese army is no match for the Israeli army.

Number two, the only significant fighting is that of Hezbollah. I mean, with all due respect, other groups that you have just mentioned don't weigh heavily in the military balance. We need to be protected against the Israeli wars that has been waged, and the only way to do that is to have an immediate cease-fire and have an international force that will stand between the Israeli army, and the Lebanese border and the civilian population.

M. O'BRIEN: Sami Haddad is the Lebanese minister for economy and trade. Thank you for your time, sir.

HADDAD: Thank you.

M. O'BRIEN: Soledad?

S. O'BRIEN: Miles, thanks.

The Mideast crisis is giving President Bush a bit of a boost in the polls. Forty-seven percent of those responding to a "New York Times"/CBS News poll approve of the way that the president is handling the Israeli/Hezbollah conflict. Twenty-seven percent say they disapprove. Twenty-six percent say they don't know. When asked if this latest crisis could trigger a larger war, 61 percent said yes, 28 percent said no. Six in 10 respondents said Mr. Bush is not respected by world leaders in another question in that poll.

(WEATHER REPORT)

S. O'BRIEN: Ahead this morning, still no cease-fire in the Middle East. We'll take a look at how that could be part of President Bush's plan for spreading democracy.

Also, a military expert explains exactly how much damage Hezbollah's rockets can do.

DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN TECHNOLOGY CORRESPONDENT: I'm technology correspondent Daniel Sieberg in Atlanta. Are cell phones changing the way we report a war? I'll tell you about a rather revolutionary new idea when AMERICAN MORNING continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: Look at that. The Saddam Hussein trial has now adjourned, as they consider the verdict in the case. We've been watching this trial. These are pictures from Baghdad this morning. We're going to continue, obviously, to update you on the progress in this case. They've adjourned now until October 16th.

The Internet is quickly becoming a popular form for civilians who are caught in the Middle East war. It's also been suggested that new technology could help end the conflict.

Technology correspondent Daniel Sieberg joins us from the CNN Center in Atlanta. Good morning.

SIEBERG: Good morning, Soledad.

We have to preface this segment with our Web warning, as it were, that is that CNN cannot verify the authenticity of any of the video or blogs we're going to be talking about. That said, we're going to switch on YouTube. Again, this is a site where everybody can post a video and share with anybody else around the world. In this case, it's a video from a French national. He titles it "Escape From Lebanon." It basically chronicles his trip out of Lebanon as he tries to get into Syria, and it's quite an amazing little movie clip that he's basically put together and posted here on YouTube.

And you can hear what he says about the trip right here for a second.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: First tape of my trip out of this country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIEBERG: He says that's his first tape of the trip out of Lebanon. He also comments a little bit later about the high cost of some of the taxis.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Syrian border, from the Syrian border, it's two hours and it's $6 (INAUDIBLE), while taxis used to charge from $100 to $1,000.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIEBERG: I don't know if you heard, but he said they cost from $100 to $1,000. He goes on to basically show just about everything he goes through to get across the Syrian border. And as we understand it, he did safely get back into Leon, France -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: It's a remarkable story, even that, you know, small snippet, and I guess it's kind of a new way that people are reporting on the war, isn't it?

SIEBERG: It absolutely is. And in fact, we came across a very interesting idea, rather revolutionary in its nature. You know, everybody these days seems to have a cell phone in their hands, even folks in the Middle East, and a big part of cell phones is text messaging. That means sending a very short, rather instant message, to anybody else around the world, typically to another phone, though. It's usually sent phone to phone, not to a Web site.

Well, that was the seed for an idea by a fellow at Stanford University. He decided to create an aggregate Web site, where people could post their observations, their personal thoughts on this Web site during this conflict. Rather realtime stuff that he's able to post up there fairly quickly, and he's just started this site fairly recently.

We had a chance to talk to Erik Sundelof of Stanford University about this and how he says that this type of technology is empowering the average person.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ERIK SUNDELOF, INTHEFIELDONLINE.NET: What this is really creating is a way for normal people to tell their perspective. You're looking at a journalist. He's telling the professional description of an event. But if you're looking in the blogosphere, it is very personal notes, and very personal pictures and videos that they are showing us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIEBERG: Speaking of those personal messages, we have a couple examples from that Web site, just to give you an idea what people are posting.

The first one: "This war is madness. Why can't it stop?"

The second, "At last, a tool for reporting."

So some pretty interesting stuff coming from this particular Web site operating out of Stanford.

And we want to end on just a quick positive note. This is another blog. A lot going on in the blogosphere. In this case, it's a frontiers blog. It's called Israel, Lebanon, Palestine: Reaching Out Across the Frontiers. It's meant to bring everybody together in the region, which is a pretty positive sentiment.

I just want To read you an example from this site -- it says, "I see these kind of communities as the only solution for peace. We can go behind the backs of our governments and work on personal relationships with each other."

So really speaks to the ability of technology to communicate between people anywhere in the world, Soledad, almost in realtime, which is what we're seeing in this particular case. And video and photos, especially video, adding a whole new component to this conflict.

S. O'BRIEN: Technology correspondent Daniel Sieberg. Daniel, thanks.

We're going to have much more on the Mideast in just a moment. The White House refusing to call for an immediate cease-fire. What exactly is behind the president's strategy? A special edition of AMERICAN MORNING continues right after this short break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) M. O'BRIEN: Welcome back live from Metula, Israel, the very northernmost part of Israel. Lebanon all around us. Let's take off the blinders here for a minute and show you a little bit about how we do our work.

That's Pelin Sidki right there. She's our other photographer. She's checking email, and she's calling a friend, saying you'd better turn on CNN right now. Lights, tripods, lots of cable.

Justin Dial never has the BlackBerry too far away, always in contact, producer here.

Tracy Sabo, another producer, doing some cable pulling today.

There's a farmer who has his nectarines. He wants to get through here.

I just want to show you, this is what we travel in. Notice the "TV" thing. You've got to have that for safety.

And here, I'm going to take the camera away here for a minute. That's Dave Albritton (ph) there. He's our photographer.

All right, let me just give you a sense. We've got a lot of gear and need a lot of space for this crew. This is all to prop me up. Let's face it, I need a lot of gear and a lot of people. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

M. O'BRIEN (voice-over): It's 8:20 Sunday morning, and welcome to our world. We certainly don't travel light. About 40 pieces of luggage, some of it pretty big. Look at what it takes to keep me on the air -- two producers, Justin and Tracy, and two cameramen -- well, one is actually a camerawoman, Pelin, and Dave.

Our driver is Yaniv (ph), his English -- metsa metsa (ph).

Now Dave is my kind of guy. He likes gadgets a lot. Watch what happens as he and Pelin play with some new walkie-talkies there.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One, two, testing, one, two, one, two, one, two. Can you hear me?

TRACY SABO, PRODUCER: I can just hear you. There's a problem. Let me try...

M. O'BRIEN (on camera): That's because he's sitting right next to you. I have complete faith in this team.

(voice-over): We're on our way to meet Shlomo (ph) Yosefberg's family. They lives in Haifa. And they're living in fear right now. Pelin met his brother, Elan on the plane coming in, and we're going to meet him first south of Haifa, out of harm's way.

ILAN YOSEFBERG, ISRAELI RESIDENT: When you hear the siren, actually you have about 45 seconds to go to shelter. So it's like lottery. We don't know where it's going to fall, it's going to fall on your head, on your neighbors, or any other place, and just wait, see it and hear.

M. O'BRIEN: Now as we drive nearer to Haifa, Ilan calls with word there's trouble ahead.

SABO: John Roberts is on the ground in Haifa from the hotel overlook, and he said from their location they could hear nine explosions in the neighborhood.

JUSTIN DIAL, PRODUCER: Ilan said that when his brothers called, when they bombed -- when the air-raid sirens were going off and while they were on the phone with them in the shelter, they could hear the explosion.

M. O'BRIEN: So let's go right there.

DIAL: So maybe that doesn't make sense they we're driving directly there.

M. O'BRIEN: Not long after getting to Shlomo's house, we heard our first air-raid siren.

(on camera): Justin! Justin! Justin?

OK, so we're inside the house. We're headed up to the safe place. Where is it? Over here? I don't know where Justin is. Do you know?

(voice-over): Justin was on his own. The closer we got to Haifa, the more we heard the sirens. Several times we heard them. Several times we had to stop and take cover.

Now, for Pelin, these were moments worth recording in her journal.

PELIN SIDKI, PHOTOJOURNALIST: You have to get the dialogue, you know. The dialogue's real. When it's right there, that's when it's most open, and that's when it's most believable.

M. O'BRIEN: Real is what we're all about.

(on camera): It's now 5:23 Eastern Time, which means it is 12:23 here, and now we're going to go out and do about four hours of live television, AMERICAN MORNING, which over here is Israeli afternoon. Wouldn't be bad living here in this time zone. Would get a lot more sleep, that's for sure.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

M. O'BRIEN: All right, as that story was playing, we just got word we have to go to the shelters. That's what we're going to do.

By the way, 10:30 a.m. Eastern Time, I'll be on pipeline. If you have any questions about how we're doing the job here or about the war in general, feel free to send them along. Come on, Dave, let's go, let's go.

Back to you, Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: All right, Miles, thanks. Interesting perspective there.

I want to update you on a story just in to CNN now. It looks as if there has been an earthquake, an Indonesian earthquake, the USGS is putting it at 6.0. It has rocked Western Indonesia. Some of these words coming from the Jakarta Meteorology Agency. You'll recall that is was back on July 17th, in fact, that there was an earthquake in Java, in Indonesia's Java island. The death toll there, 527,273 people missing and 35,000 people at least -- some put that number higher -- up to 50,000 people displaced. So obviously, some terrible news coming to us out of Indonesia.

We're going to continue to monitor the story, bring you updates as soon as we get them.

(NEWSBREAK)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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