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CNN Live At Daybreak

Discovery Astronauts Go Where They've Never Gone Before; A Grim Story Out of Iraq

Aired August 03, 2005 - 06:00   ET

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

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: It is Wednesday, August 3.
Discovery astronauts go where they've never gone before. It's like a high flying mission like never before, one that requires a very steady hand. You're looking at live pictures from mission control.

A grim story out of Iraq. An American journalist is shot -- shot multiple times after being abducted. We'll tell you his story from Baghdad. There he is, Steven Vincent. We'll tell you his story.

Also, amazing stories of survival as more than 300 people aboard survived this fiery crash. You'll hear from some of them.

ANNOUNCER: From the Time Warner Center in New York, this is DAYBREAK with Carol Costello and Chad Myers.

COSTELLO: And good morning to you.

We'll have more on the shuttle mission in just a minute.

Also ahead, it's every moviegoers dream, getting your money back after seeing a lousy flick. Now Sony could make that a reality.

And don't know much about biology? Well, then you might want to try intelligent design.

But first, now in the news, an American journalist has been found in Basra dead. A Western official says Steven Vincent had been abducted by unknown gunmen. Vincent had written articles for various newspapers, including the "New York Times," and was working on a book about the history of Basra.

Just within the last hour, officials in Zambia announced they've ordered the extradition of suspected al Qaeda operative Harron Rashid Aswat to Britain. Authorities in London believe he helped or recruited the July 7th London transit bombers.

Iran says it will resume its nuclear activities, possibly as early as today. A national security spokesman says one plant will start doing uranium conversion but not uranium enrichment. Early this morning, Iran inaugurated a new president, who is seen as a hard-line conservative.

To the Forecast Center now and Chad -- good morning.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Oh, good morning. (WEATHER REPORT)

COSTELLO: let's head into space. We start this morning with the latest on Discovery. Two astronauts are already outside the shuttle as they prepare for an unprecedented repair mission. That's expected to get underway in just a couple of hours.

Right now, we're joined by CNN space correspondent Miles O'Brien.

He's in New York.

He's going to take us through what is happening up there now -- good morning, Miles.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.

A great picture of the space shuttle's robotic arm. Take a look at this thing. This is normally, up until this mission, is a 50-foot long arm. But they have this extension on here which adds another 50 feet to it. That was designed in order for the crew to get a good comprehensive look at the underside of the space shuttle, the leading edge of the wings and so forth.

This is not the arm that Steve Robinson will be affixed to as he does his precarious repair work later. Because it's so long, it's considered to have too much flex in it and it wouldn't be a stable enough platform. And, as a result, he will be using the arm which is attached to the International Space Station.

Now, what's he going to be doing? Well, first of all, we've been showing you the tiles. This is an example tile, not unlike what the tiles are where Steve Robinson will be working. And this is the so- called gap-filler, which goes between the tiles. It's there to -- on ascent, as it goes to space, to keep the tiles from chattering into each other. And it does provide an extra thermal protection on reentry.

Now, pulling it out is the goal. NASA says that the amount of heat that's allowed to get inside between the tiles as a result of the gap-filler being missing is nothing to worry about for one reentry.

Now, what's he going to do? Well, he's going to try to pull on it. If he can't pull on it just with his gloved hand, he's got a set of forceps which he might use. And then if it's stuck, he's not going to yank on it, because what would be really bad is if the tile came off. That would be a big problem. So he's got a hacksaw. And we purchased these items. The hacksaw was $12. The forceps was $9. I suppose that given the fact that it is the space program, it probably cost them a few more bucks for their items.

Nevertheless, we -- before Steve Robinson got suited up for this -- he's been underway now for about an hour on this space walk -- yesterday, he spoke a little bit about the risks and the concerns involved in this space walk.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) STEVE ROBINSON, DISCOVERY ASTRONAUT: Like most kinds of repairs, it's conceptually very simple, but it has to be done very, very carefully. The tiles, as we all know, are fragile and an EDA crew member out there is a pretty large mass. So I'll have to be very, very careful. But the task is extremely simple and we predict that it won't be too complex.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: Now, right now, you may ask, what are the astronauts doing? We're not seeing them there. We're seeing that picture of that arm. They have another task which comes ahead of this repair effort, and that is to install a -- it's kind of a combination of a porch and a garage, an external tool stowage platform on the space station. That'll take up the first three hours of this space walk -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Interesting.

Tell us more about the astronaut who's going to be doing the repair work, Steve Robinson.

O'BRIEN: Steve Robinson. You may remember him, space fans would remember him from the John Glenn mission back in October of 1988. Sacramento, California. He built his own glider and jumped off a cliff at the age of 15 to see if it would work. You might say there's a risk taker. He started work at NASA. He's a Stanford graduate. He's an expert in fluid dynamics and all kinds of stuff that I barely understand.

Selected as an astronaut in '95. Flew his first shuttle mission in '97. As we said, flew with John Glenn in '98. And he's the lead guitarist, Carol, in the band called Max Q. And Max Q is the term that engineers use to describe the moment during a launch when a spaceship encounters its -- the most forces against it. That's right around when it goes supersonic, Max Q.

COSTELLO: Very cool. I'm more concerned with his finger dexterity, and if he plays the guitar, he must have good finger dexterity.

O'BRIEN: I guess so. Yes. That's good.

COSTELLO: To fix that thing on the shuttle.

O'BRIEN: Long fingers are good in this case, yes.

COSTELLO: Yes.

Thank you, Miles.

We'll get back to you.

We'll be keeping an eye on the shuttle all morning, so be sure to stay tuned.

Coming up in about 40 minutes, we'll talk to another astronaut who has plenty of experience walking in space.

Now for an incredible story of survival. It started when an Air France plane skidded off the runway at Pearson International Airport in Toronto. All 309 passengers and crew escaped this fiery plane crash.

For more on this, we're joined by CNN national correspondent Jeanne Meserve.

She's in Toronto this morning -- hello, Jeanne.

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Carol.

This is the headline in the Toronto paper this morning: "The Great Escape." It certainly seems appropriate. Anybody who saw those first pictures out of Toronto yesterday would have assumed this was a catastrophe. It turns out to be a miracle.

Yesterday, there was very severe weather here at the Toronto airport, so severe that a lot of air traffic had been suspended. But an Air France flight coming from Paris did make a landing here. According to some eyewitnesses, the aircraft might have been hit by landing as it was coming in. According to some of the passengers, there did appear to be a power loss as it was coming in for landing.

It came down onto that runway. It careened off the end, went about 200 meters into a ditch and there it burst into flames. Remarkably, all 309 passengers and crew on board that aircraft managed to get off safely. According to authorities, only 43 people were taken to local hospitals. They have minor injuries. Yet every passenger who was on the aircraft had a story to tell.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROEL BRAMAR, CRASH SURVIVOR: We had come to a complete stop so it's not like you, you think anything else is about to happen. I mean, even though we had a hell of a roller coaster going down the ravine. But as soon as there was some smoke and fire outside -- and I can't tell how the other people reacted, because I was in the very, very end of the plane, the absolute last seat of the plane. And so, you know, all I could think of was get off.

Even though I don't know what was happening on -- and really we think the stewardess and all the crew were -- was actually trying, as we were, that we were -- we had to make an emergency landing. And everybody was really panicked.

The plane took a nosedive to the front and started swerving to the right. And he had a problem stopping it because it was just shaking all the time.

So what's going -- OK, this happens. What are you, what's going through your mind?

Well, first of all, you cannot do the duck down, the emergency duck down thing, until basically the plane came to a stop, to a halt. And that's when we started seeing the engine on fire, the left side engine. And the crew opened the gates to the inflating thing and then we started jumping out of the plane.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MESERVE: And we're going to take a look at some still pictures which give you a different perspective on exactly what was happening as people were trying to get off of that aircraft.

The question now, of course, what caused this? The weather the first thing they will be looking at because it was so severe in the area at the time. Of course, they'll also be taking a look at the aircraft and at the crew. Air France says that this was a very experienced pilot, 57 years old, something like 15,000 hours of flying time under his belt, many of it on this aircraft.

Right now, at least, the air crew is being heaped with praise because they were so successful in getting those 309 people off of that aircraft onto safe ground within 90 seconds to two minutes -- Carol, back to you.

COSTELLO: Kudos to them.

Jeanne Meserve live in Toronto this morning.

Steven Vincent, one said he feared being abducted in Iraq as an American journalist. That fear came true. And this morning Vincent's body was discovered in Basra. He just published an opinion piece on Iraq in this weekend's "New York Times."

But he's not the only American casualty in Iraq.

CNN's Aneesh Raman joins us live from Baghdad with that -- good morning, Aneesh.

ANEESH RAMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Carol, good morning.

Horrific news that journalists in Iraq, if not throughout the world, are waking to today. We are now piecing together what exactly happened to Steven Vincent in the southern Iraqi city of Basra. Police officials there say he was abducted along with his translator early this morning, just after midnight local time Wednesday in Iraq.

The U.S. Embassy confirmed a few hours ago that his dead body was found in Basra, giving no other information than that his family had been notified. But Western officials went a little further. They said that he died from multiple gunshot wounds. His translator, we know, was injured, as well, and is being treated in the hospital.

Now, Vincent is a well known freelance journalist. As you say, most recently writing an op-ed in the "New York Times." Also writing for the "Christian Science Monitor," as well. He most recently wrote a book, just last year, called "The Red Zone." It chronicled his journeys in post-war -- in post-Saddam Iraq.

He traveled the country, inspired by the events of 9/11, to come and trace the war on terror and see the impact it was having here on the ground.

In the buildup to that book, he was interviewed by "Front Page" magazine and they asked him about traveling Iraq as he did, without security, an incredibly dangerous place, and how he felt about that. And this is what he said in December of last year: "I managed to stay safe by slipping below the radar screen, so to speak, blending in with the Iraqi people. Nowadays, I'm afraid that even that incognito approach would prove impossible with terrorists paying criminals to find and kidnap foreigners."

Chilling words as we now look at the aftermath of the incident in Basra. And it will raise questions both for security of journalists, but once again the vulnerability that they have as they travel in Iraq. We haven't seen a Western journalist killed in quite some time. This, though, reinjects a need for security among all the journalists here trying to cover this incredibly difficult story -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Including you, Aneesh.

I want to bring up this op-ed piece that Steven Vincent just wrote in the "New York Times." He wrote it on July 1, 2005. This is part of it. He said: "Police salaries are up in Basra. Officers have shiny new patrol cars. Many sport snazzy new uniforms. Better yet, many of these new Iraqi officers seem switched on themselves. 'We want to serve our country' is the repeated refrain."

That part of this op-ed piece sounds optimistic. But all of that op-ed piece wasn't so optimistic, was it?

RAMAN: Exactly, Carol. And given the location, given that Basra, Iraq's second city, is thought to be the prime example of security in Iraq -- it's an oasis of security in a country riddle with violence -- he talked about the police really making progress, as they are elsewhere in Iraq, but also described a disturbing trend that is happening, a push toward fundamentalist Shia Islam by the residents there, something that is surprising in Basra.

In both today's incident as well as a few days ago, where a roadside bomb killed two private security guards working for the British embassy, shows that that city is no longer as safe as it might have thought to have been.

And so he raised in that article both the notion that the police are moving forward but also the very real fear that exists within the police force that people, insurgents are perhaps infiltrating the ranks.

You'll recall a report just out last week by the Pentagon and the State Department saying that that did take placer, insurgents did enter the police force. And these are the people, Carol, that the U.S. is entirely dependent upon, the police and security forces in Iraq, if any reduction in U.S. troops is going to take place.

So everything here entirely complex, duality existing. And now another victim of violence in Iraq -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Aneesh Raman live in Baghdad this morning.

Still to come on DAYBREAK, I want my money back. How many times have you said that after a bad movie? Well, now you might get your chance thanks to Sony this time.

Also, it's not something you learn about in biology class, but a lot of people believe in it, including President Bush.

And you're seeing live pictures of one of the most crucial space walks ever taken. A NASA astronaut joins us live to explain the nuts and bolts.

But first, here's what else is making news this Wednesday.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(STOCK MARKET REPORT)

COSTELLO: Oh, another steamy day in New York City and elsewhere. But Chad will tell you about that in just a minute.

Your news, money, weather and sports.

It's 6:15 Eastern.

Here's what's all new this morning.

American freelance journalist Steven Vincent was abducted early Wednesday in Basra. His bullet-riddled body was found later, about a 10 minute drive from where he was abducted. Vincent was writing a book about the history of Basra.

In money news, what's the best part of waking up? Lower prices in your cup. Procter & Gamble cutting the price of its Folger's coffee by 5 percent. That's an average of $0.13 a can.

In culture, he writes the songs that make the whole world sing, and Barry Manilow will keep singing them at the Las Vegas Hilton all the way into 2007. The hotel casino has added 150 shows to Manilow's current contract.

In sports, the Miami Heat has resigned the NBA's most dominant big man. The "Miami Herald" says Shaquille O'Neal has signed on to a five year contract worth a whopping -- and when is say whopping, I mean whopping -- $100 million.

MYERS: And that's a lot of popcorn, or whatever you're going to buy there when you go through the booth.

(WEATHER REPORT)

COSTELLO: Still to come on DAYBREAK this hour, Adidas and Reebok together? It's a big deal and it looks like a shoe-in.

Also, a key shuttle space walk is now underway. You're seeing it -- well, you're not seeing it live, but I promise you will. A NASA astronaut will give us the low down on a high flying fix.

But first, good morning Atlanta, at the airport there, and everyone in the airport waiting for their flights to take off.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: It's time now for a little "Business Buzz."

The settlement of a class action suit against Sony Pictures means some disgruntled moviegoers will get $5 each. The lawsuit accused the studio of putting out positive reviews by a movie critic who did not exist. Sony is paying out $1.5 million, but again, that only means $5 per person.

And baby, baby got back is back. Sir Mix A Lot's early '90s hip- hop hit is now being used by Target for its back to school promotion. Of course, it's a cleaned up version. The original, you will remember, was all about women with what you might call well rounded derrieres. Baby got back.

Two big sportswear makers joining forces this morning.

Carrie Lee is here to tell us all about that -- good morning.

CARRIE LEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Sneaker companies of the world are uniting.

COSTELLO: United.

LEE: Yes, that's right. We're talking about Adidas and Reebok coming together. Adidas actually buying Reebok for $3.8 billion. And this deal is going to give the new company about a 20 percent share of the U.S. athletic foot wear market. This according to Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association, the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association.

Now, that would help it better compete with Nike, which holds a 36 percent market share here. Outside of the U.S., though, Adidas, based in Germany, competes evenly with Nike. So this deal would give Adidas the advantage worldwide.

About $33 billion a year is spent on athletic shoes. Half of that is in the U.S. Adidas says it doesn't expect significant job cuts as a result of this deal. Reebok, by the way, will continue to operate under the Reebok name, it will maintain its Massachusetts headquarters.

Not a done deal yet, though. It still has to pass through regulators both in the U.S. and in Europe. Reebok's shareholders, though, are probably hoping this deal goes through because it would pay about $59 a share for Reebok compared to that company's closing price of $44 yesterday. So a 34 percent premium.

COSTELLO: That would be a tidy profit, wouldn't it?

LEE: Yes, it would. Yes, it would.

COSTELLO: A quick look at the futures?

LEE: Yes, things looking a little bit weak for this morning's session.

One stock that is going to be in focus today, Time Warner, our parent company. Out with profits this morning. When you factor in...

COSTELLO: Uh.

LEE: Yes, uh is kind of right because when you factor in all the legal costs, one time charges, they actually lost money in the recent quarter. So that's the latest there.

COSTELLO: OK.

Thank you, Carrie.

LEE: OK.

COSTELLO: Now for some stories making "News Across America" this morning.

A 19-month-old girl was shot twice by police in Los Angeles during a stand-off with her father last month, was the police. An autopsy showed Suzie Marie Lopez was shot in the head by a high powered rifle. She was also shot in the leg. Police say she was being used by her father as a human shield.

Iraq war vet Paul Hackett has failed in his bid to win a House race in Ohio. Hackett, a Democrat, lost by a narrow margin to Republican Jean Schmidt in a special election. Hackett's run gained national attention because of his criticism of President Bush and the handling of the war in Iraq.

Alabama is set to restrict eminent domain. Governor Bob Riley will sign a bill today that prohibits the government from taking over existing homes for commercial or industrial use. The Supreme Court approved the practice earlier this year, but states were given the option of making their own laws.

Still to come on DAYBREAK, it's a new take on some old theories and President Bush just happens to believe in it. What is it? And will it now be taught to your kids in school? We'll tell you after a break.

And NASA tries a landmark repair job way up high. We'll get an astronaut's take on this morning's shuttle space walk.

You're watching DAYBREAK.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: From the Time Warner Center in New York, this is DAYBREAK with Carol Costello and Chad Myers.

COSTELLO: And good morning to you.

Thank you for waking up with us this morning.

Chad will have your forecast in just a minute.

Also coming up this half hour, President Bush says there is an intelligent design to life on Earth. But what exactly does that mean and how could it change the way your children learn in school?

And the shuttle astronauts are trying a tricky fix in space. We'll talk to one space walk veteran about what they're going through up there.

But first, now in the news, an American journalist has been found dead in Basra, Iraq. A Western official says Steven Vincent had been abducted by unknown gunmen. Vincent had written articles for various newspapers, including the "New York Times." He was working on a book about the history of Basra.

Officials in Zambia have ordered the extradition of suspected al Qaeda operative Harron Rashid Aswat to Britain. Authorities in London believe he helped or recruited the July 7th London transit bombers.

Saudi Arabia officially gets a new king this morning. You're looking at live pictures of King Abdullah greeting dignitaries coming to the ceremony. As you know, he is the replacement for King Fahd, who died on Monday. World leaders, including Vice President Dick Cheney, will meet with the new king today.

To the Forecast Center now and Chad -- good morning.

MYERS: Good morning, Carol.

(WEATHER REPORT)

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