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CNN Live Sunday
Seven Trapped Russian Submariners Pulled to Safety; All Systems Go for Shuttle's Return to Earth
Aired August 07, 2005 - 11:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
GERRI WILLIS, CNN ANCHOR: This hour, a dramatic rescue at the bottom of the ocean. Seven Russian sailors trapped for hours in a mini sub are pulled to safety. We're live on how the rescue unfolded.
And in Iraq, more U.S. deaths just days before Iraqis are set to draft a constitution. We'll have a report.
And from space, all systems appear to be go for the return to Earth of the shuttle Discovery. We are live on the last-minute preparations. Welcome to CNN LIVE SUNDAY. I'm Gerri Willis. Those story ahead, but first, now in the news.
In Israel, some political fallout over the upcoming withdrawal from Gaza and parts of the west bank. Finance minister and former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is quitting his job. His resignation takes effect two days from now. Netanyahu is an outspoken critic of the withdrawal plan. As word of his resignation was made public, Israel's cabinet gave its final approval to the first stage of the pullout from Gaza.
Talks aimed at getting North Korea to dismantle its nuclear program are now in recess. The six-nation talks set to resume about three weeks from now are being held in China's capital. American envoy Christopher Hill says the 13 days of discussions produced a lot of consensus, but no breakthrough.
And former British Foreign Minister Robin Cook is being remembered today for his political skills. Cook, who was 59, died yesterday after collapsing on a Scottish mountainside. He resigned from the cabinet two years ago after clashing with Prime Minister Tony Blair over British support for the war in Iraq. Blair calls Cook a man of outstanding and extraordinary talent.
It was touch and go for a while, but seven Russian sailors are back on dry land today after a harrowing ordeal, trapped inside a mini sub at the bottom of the motion. CNN's Matthew Chance has been following the details of their dramatic rescue and he joins me now. Matthew?
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Gerri, thank you very much. Indeed, an extremely dramatic turn of events that led to the rescue of the seven Russian sailors that had been trapped beneath the ocean, the Pacific Ocean on the seabed there, 190 meters, 600 feet or so down from the surface after a dramatic rescue operation by a British undersea robot which freed the submarine three days after it became marooned on that seabed. It was very much, as you mentioned a race against time. Touch and go, oxygen supplies in the Russian sub were running dangerously low, according to Russian officials at one point during the end before the submarine was actually rescued.
The submarine snagged apparently on disused fishing net and on a mesh of antennae which were part of a monitoring system around that very sensitive area of the Russian coastline in its far east. Russian naval commanders praising the international teams from the United States and from Japan for answering their call to give help, but singling out the British team, which arrived on the scene earliest of all and actually completed the rescue operation. Mr. Fedorov, Igor Fedorov (sic) is the commander of the Russian Pacific fleet.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ADM. VICTOR FEDOROV, CMDR, RUSSIAN PACIFIC FLEET (through translator): I would like to stress that the help of the Royal Navy of Great Britain was crucial in this rescue operation. We admire their experience, highest professionalism and technical capability. Their apparatus placed a full stop in this story and released our mini submarine from these shackles. An enormous job was done during that three and a half hours.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHANCE: It was actually Victor Fedorov there, the commander of the Russian Pacific fleet. But this, an outcome that many Russians had feared even to hope for, given the experience of Russian submarine crises in the past, bringing back painful memories for many Russians of the Kursk tragedy in the year 2000, five years ago, when 119 Russian sailors were killed as a result of a botched rescue attempt in the Arctic seas in the north of Russia. Back then, the Russian government very tight-lipped about the circumstances surrounding the incident, very reluctant to allow international assistance in, an extremely different stance on this occasion, indicating, perhaps that lesson have been learned, certainly the outcome, the happiest of all possibilities. Back to you Gerri.
WILLIS: A much happier ending. Matthew Chance, thank you for that.
Well, the search has resumed for at least two missing passengers of a downed Tunis airplane in the waters off the coast of Sicily. Crews are also looking for the flight data recorder. Thirteen people were killed, 23 others survived when the pilot ditched the plane Saturday in the Mediterranean Sea. He had reported engine problems shortly before the accident.
And investigators are calling it miraculous. Look at these pictures. This is what remains of Air France flight 358. They say only four of eight emergency exits opened when the plane crashed in Toronto Tuesday. Worse, emergency chutes only worked at two of the exits. Still, all 309 people onboard were evacuated in less than two minutes.
And in Iraq, the bombings and shootings continue and the American death toll continues to climb. Two U.S. soldiers were killed and three others were wounded by a roadside bomb near the city of Samarra. CNN's Aneesh Raman has the latest now from the Iraqi capital. Aneesh?
ANEESH RAMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Gerri, good morning. That Samarra attack that left as you say, two U.S. soldiers killed, three others wounded took place yesterday. Video today though of the aftermath, what followed a roadside bomb that detonated alongside the vehicle. Samarra of course, north of the Iraqi capital in that volatile Sunni triangle, one of the many areas in Iraq where the insurgents have a sustained presence. It brings, Gerri, to 30 the total number of U.S. military personnel killed in Iraq just since Monday, a number that underscores how dangerous this country remains and how very much still at war the situation is for U.S. troops that are still in operations like operation quick strike, of course, which launched on Wednesday in the volatile northern western al Anbar province.
Now also today, Gerri, south of the Iraqi capital in the town of Samarra, a relatively quiet town today erupted. Some 1,000 people turned out to protest. Iraqis say that they aren't getting their basic services, no electricity, no water. They began throwing stones at the police. Police according to the reports from the ground fired back. Some 50 people have been wounded, 10 of them Iraqi police. One person is confirmed dead. All of this shows the brewing point that many different communities are facing in terms of the basic services and Gerri, the basic need for stability.
WILLIS: What about progress on the constitution? I know the deadline is fast approaching. There's still a lot of work to be done. Do you think they can meet it?
RAMAN: Well, they're trying. A week from tomorrow is the day by which the draft has to be completed. In just a matter of hours, leaders from the various political factions will be meeting at the president's, Jalal Talabani's residence to try and hammer out many of those key remaining issues, federalism, how autonomous should regions be, also role of Islam. Should it be a source or the source? It's not just wording. It has huge implications specifically for women's rights which has sparked a huge debate here in the Iraqi capital. So they're trying to push ahead in the political sense and then be able to bring it in terms of a draft to the Iraqi people and then October 15th Gerri, by that date the Iraqi people will vote in a referendum.
WILLIS: That is very soon indeed. Aneesh, thank you so much for that report.
In Ohio, mourners gathered yesterday for the funeral of Lance Corporal Andre Williams. The 23-year-old was among more than a dozen Marines from Ohio who lost their lives in recent attacks in Iraq. His funeral was the first in the string of services for the fallen soldiers from the Buckeye State. More than 300 people attended yesterday's services for Williams.
And President Bush continuing his working vacation this weekend in Crawford, Texas. Not far away, a handful of protesters who are expressing their opposition to the war in Iraq. CNN's Elaine Quijano joins us now from Crawford with an update, Elaine?
ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello to you, Gerri. That's right and the woman who is leading these demonstrators is a woman named Cindy Sheehan. Her son was killed in Iraq last year and Sheehan says that she not only vehemently opposes the Iraq war, but she rejects the president's past statements that her son and other U.S. troops died for a noble cause.
She is vowing to remain there in place until she gets a chance to see President Bush. Her son, Casey, was 24 years old when he was killed in Sadr City, Iraq, in April of last year. Yesterday two top White House officials came out and met with her for about 45 minutes, but she insists she wasn't satisfied by what she heard and she plans still to stay put.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CINDY SHEEHAN, SON KILLED IN IRAQ: I told them what I was doing here, what I just told you, what I wanted to ask the president. They told me the party line about the story, this week about what the occupation is about. I disagreed with them. They disagreed with me and I said, you know, they tried to tell me, you know, it was because of terrorism. It was making the world safer and I said, you know what? Just because I'm a grieving mother doesn't mean I'm stupid and you guys aren't stupid either. I don't think you even believe what you're saying.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
QUIJANO: The two people that Sheehan met with were the president's national security adviser Stephen Hadley and his deputy chief of staff Joe Hagin. Yesterday, Sheehan led a group of about 50 demonstrators to Crawford and she says the bottom line is that she wants to ask President Bush why her son died. She also believes that U.S. forces should be brought home immediately, but of course, that is something the Bush administration has rejected, saying that the president wants to bring home American troops as soon as possible, yet at the same time does not want the U.S. to cut and run from terrorists. Now the White House is noting that Mrs. Sheehan did meet privately with President Bush last year, but Mrs. Sheehan says at the time it was only several months after her son's death. She says that she was in a state of shock and she says she now has questions that she didn't have at that time. Gerri?
WILLIS: Elaine Quijano, thank you for that report.
Just ahead, we'll get an update on the weekend weather and conditions for tomorrow morning's planned shuttle landing. We'll get a live report from the Johnson Space Center on the final preparations for Discovery's return to earth. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WILLIS: Welcome back. Now we're going to have a weather report from Jacqui Jeras. Jacqui, you've got to tell us is that shuttle going to get off OK or get down OK? JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: It looks that way, at least for weather-related reasons anyway. There is a chance of rain in the forecast. Florida today getting some very wet weather as well. We are expecting the best chances of rain to come in later in the day. There's maybe a 20 percent shot that these showers and thunderstorms could affect the landing, but we think they're going to be over here offshore, but we need a 30-mile buffer. Are we going to get it? It looks more than likely. So we'll say a 20 percent of a shower or thunderstorm interrupting things there and temperatures will be certainly on the toasty side as well.
Today, it's the wet weather and it's the tropical weather. This just in at the top of the hour, tropical depression number nine has now turned into tropical storm Irene. And there you see it on satellite imagery. It's packing winds around 40 miles per hour right now, moving west northwesterly, a little bit of sheer taking place. That means winds kind of preventing this from getting too much stronger. So still forecast to stay at tropical storm strength through the middle of the week and the good news is at least for now what looks like it's going to be staying in the Atlantic, however it's really too soon to say whether or not this will be affecting the U.S. We will be keeping a good eye on it.
We were a little bit worried about an area of low pressure that came in from the Gulf, but it's now made its way on land. So that's good news this will not turn into a tropical system. However, it's bringing in some very heavy rainfall all across the southeast. Also scattered showers, low-level clouds for the mid-Atlantic. If you have flights anywhere in this part of the country for today, make sure you call ahead. No delays right now but we could see them later on for today.
Across the west, some widely scattered showers and thunderstorms across the four corners. Cold front's going to help to bring some heat relief across the inner mountain west and then into the Midwest eventually. However this monsoonal moisture pretty limited in this area so the thunderstorms that will develop will likely be dry. It is just too dry in the lower level of the atmosphere. That means lightning strikes, but not a lot of moisture and that could trigger some more wildfires and unfortunately, too many of those already burning into the west, 99 in Billings, 91 in Salt Lake City, 102 in Phoenix. In the east, temperatures are going to be warm across the northeast, but the southeast, we're going to be limited a little bit here because of the wet weather and unfortunately that low will be very slow to move. Expect more wet weather over the next couple of days. Gerri?
WILLIS: Tropical Storm Irene. They just keep coming. Thank you for that report.
The shuttle astronauts have been preparing for tomorrow morning's planned return to earth. CNN's John Zarrella is following the preparations at mission control at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. John?
JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Gerri. That's right. They're preparing by getting ready to go to sleep, actually. They only have one more sleep period before, in less than 24 hours now, they should be back home on earth landing at the Kennedy Space Center at 4:47 a.m. Eastern time. When the astronauts get up this evening, they've got several things on their agenda, the first in eastern times at 1:00 a.m. They're going to be closing the cargo bay doors. About an hour and 40 minutes later at 2:40 a.m., they'll get into their seats and strap themselves in and then an hour after that at 3:40 a.m. Eastern time begins the de-orbit burn. That's the critical phase where they go through those temperatures exceeding 2500 degrees as they enter the earth's atmosphere.
As they approach the United States landing, they'll be flying over -- first over Central America near Costa Rica. From Costa Rica, they'll fly over western Cuba, very close to Havana, then offshore of Key West and coming across Florida around the Naples Fort Myers area, then heading almost due north into the Kennedy Space Center, make a big 224-degree turn and then come down for a landing at that landing strip at the Kennedy Space Center.
Now, of course, this mission has been highlighted by three pretty incredible spacewalks. And during that first spacewalk which is about eight days ago now, the astronauts practiced techniques for what future astronauts might do if they had to repair shuttle tiles in orbit. They brought up some samples of damaged tiles and practices with new materials and new procedures for how to actually repair the tiles in space. You can see some of that activity going on right there as they were working with those materials.
On the second mission, spacewalk they actually changed out a orbiter, changed out a gyroscope. But the big one, the third one was the defining spacewalk where astronaut Steve Robinson rode on the space station's arm, underneath the space shuttle Discovery and pulled out two gap fillers. You can see there where he's pulling out. That was actually the second one that he pulled out and those are literally what they're are called, gap fillers which fill gaps between the shuttle's thermal tiles and it was very successful. He did it without any problems. NASA was concerned if those gap fillers had stayed in and they were protruding, that more heat could have built up from behind where those gap fillers were located on the tiles.
But right now the vehicle is in excellent shape for a return to earth, NASA says. As you heard from Jacqui Jeras, the weather at the Kennedy Space Center is expected to cooperate tomorrow morning. They have two landing opportunities on orbit 201 and then it would be an hour and a half later on orbit 202 to come back to the Kennedy Space Center. Gerri?
WILLIS: John, I never get tired of seeing that video of their re-entry into the atmosphere. That must be some ride. Quick question, though, did these guys, did they get done what they intended to do when they set out on this mission in the first place?
ZARRELLA: Yes, they did, actually. This was considered an experimental flight and they actually went up there. They did the three spacewalks. They accomplished everything they intended to do on the spacewalks with the practicing of the new materials, changing out the gyroscope on the international space station. The transfer of lots of supplies to the ISS because remember, a shuttle hadn't been up there in two and a half years. So there were lots of stuff that had to be brought up to the space station, lots of junk that had to be brought back on the shuttle which is now loaded in the cargo bay and ready for the return to earth, but yes, they got a lot done and more than they expected having to deal with those gap fillers. Gerri?
WILLIS: John Zarrella, thank you for that report. And of course, we invite you to watch our special coverage. That's tomorrow, the shuttle landing tomorrow morning. Our early edition of "Daybreak" with Carol Costello gets underway at 4:00 Eastern, 1:00 Pacific right here on CNN.
And some dramatic news now out of Iraq about the fight against insurgents. I'll speak with one of the U.S. commanders live from Mosul. That's when CNN SUNDAY continues.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WILLIS: A letter from a rebel leader in Iraq to terrorist mastermind Abu Musab al Zarqawi has raised some eyebrows. The U.S. military says the letter was seized in July after a raid on an insurgent safe house. The letter cites incompetence and other flaws in the insurgency's leadership in Mosul. What are we to make of this? Let's ask U.S. Army Colonel Charles Brown. He's with us now. We've had a few technical issues. Hopefully we'll be able to keep you here. Colonel Brown, are you there?
COL. ROBERT BROWN, U.S. ARMY: Yeah, Gerri, I am. It's Colonel Robert Brown from Mosul commanding the Stryker Brigade here in northern Iraq.
WILLIS: We're glad to have you with us, Colonel Robert Brown, thank you so much. Tell us about this letter. You've obviously had it for a little while. Exactly what does it is say?
BROWN: Well, the letter talks -- first of all, we believe it was a actual captured before getting to Zarqawi, the only copy of this letter, but it talks about the terrorist morale was very low in northern Iraq and in Mosul in particular and we knew this from sources we've had inside the terrorist organization, but this was a pretty --
WILLIS: We seem to be having some trouble with that feed right now. In essence, though, what we are hearing about this letter today, some questions, obviously, about how this letter was brought to the attention of authorities saying that the leadership there incompetent. We may actually have the colonel here now, Robert Brown. Colonel, are you there?
BROWN: I'm here. I can still hear you. Can you hear me?
WILLIS: I can hear you. So you're explaining to us how you got a hold of it and what it said specifically. Please continue.
BROWN: Sure. We captured... WILLIS: All right. Our apologies. We're having some technical issues today. Thanks so much to Colonel Robert Brown for being with us and we may try to get him back in just a moment.
CNN's "RELIABLE SOURCES" is just ahead. Let's check in now with Howard Kurtz in Washington for a look at what's coming up on today's program.
HOWARD KURTZ, HOST, RELIABLE SOURCES: Thanks Gerri. Coming up in his first national television interview since being fired, former "Miami Herald" columnist Jim DeFede talks about his illegal taping of a call from a politician about to commit suicide and why the paper fired him.
Plus the shuttle Discovery less than 24 hours away from its return to earth, a look at whether the media are too easy on the beleaguered space program.
And Robert Novak losing his cool on the air. We'll look at what happened. All of that and more ahead on "Reliable Sources".
WILLIS: Elvis Presley fans all shook up over some news coming out of Memphis. It involves the singer's beloved Graceland mansion. We'll have the details right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WILLIS: Some Elvis fans are all shook up. The famous singer's daughter, Lisa Marie Presley has sold the business side of her father's estate and she has turned over his famous white columned mansion in Memphis to CKX Incorporated. Now that's the entertainment company that owns the American idol TV franchise. The Elvis business brings in about $40 million a year. Graceland managers say it's now poised to grow even more. Lisa Marie Presley got $50 million from the sale. Her mother Priscilla got more than $6 million.
And on the football field, it might be a wise move to keep New York Giants and Jets at a safe distance. Check this out. During a joint practice in Albany yesterday, the intensity level was sky high. After just two plays, the practice turned into a slugfest as you can see.
That's it for CNN LIVE SUNDAY. Up next, "Reliable Sources." Has the media been too easy on America's space program?
Then on "LATE EDITION," Wolf Blitzer will talk to the U.S. general in charge of Iraq's military forces and at 2:00 Eastern, "PEOPLE IN THE News" profiles singer and reality television star Jessica Simpson. But first, a check of the headlines now in the news.
Here are the headlines now in the news. A dramatic rescue in the Pacific Ocean. Seven sailors trapped on a Russian mini-sub for 76 hours, well, they're now on dry land. The submarine surfaced this morning with help from Britain's Royal Navy. The sailors are feeling the effects of hypothermia, but otherwise they are said to be OK. And crews are combing the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Sicily for two passengers still missing from yesterday's Tunis Air crash. They're also searching for the flight's data recorder. The plane's pilot had reported engine trouble before ditching the plane. Twenty-three people survived the crash; at least 13 died.
And Israeli Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has resigned from his cabinet position. A spokesman tells CNN the one-time prime minister is leaving because he is opposed to Israel's planned withdrawal from Gaza.
Earlier, Israel's cabinet approved the first phase of the pullout plan with just five opposing votes.
More news at the top of the hour on "LATE EDITION." "RELIABLE SOURCES" begins right now. Keeping you informed, CNN, the most trusted name in news.
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