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American Morning

Jewish Settlers in Gaza Have Less Than 48 Hours to Get Out; A Crucial Day for Future of Iraq

Aired August 15, 2005 - 07:00   ET

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


SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Soledad O'Brien. Jewish settlers in Gaza have less than 48 hours to get out as Israeli soldiers hand out eviction notices. The historic but highly controversial pullout is under way, but not everybody is willing ready to leave. We've got live coverage from Gaza, straight ahead.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Carol Costello. A crucial day for the future of Iraq. Leaders there scramble to make a deadline for the new constitution. Iraqi oil and women's rights key issues with just hours to go. Will they get it done on time? We are live in Iraq this morning.

And heavy thunderstorms wash across the Northeast, roadways flooded, trees and power lines down, thousands still without power. Now the cleanup, on this AMERICAN MORNING.

O'BRIEN: Good morning. Welcome, everybody. Miles O'Brien still off. Remember last week when I said he's going to be back on Monday? No. He has a long vacation, and he certainly deserves it. Carol, though, helping us out again. Thank you very much.

COSTELLO: I certainly am. Good morning to you.

Jewish settlers have less than two days to go to clear out of the Gaza Strip for good, bringing an end to nearly 40 years of occupation.

O'BRIEN: And in fact we begin in Gaza this morning where Israeli soldiers are meeting some resistance as they try to enforce a historic withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. They began handing out eviction notices today to the 8,500 settlers. Some have already left. Remaining residents have until midnight on Tuesday to get out.

We're watching the situation unfold in several settlements this morning. Guy Raz is in Neve Dekalim. It's the largest Jewish settlement in Gaza.

Guy, good morning to you.

How are the evictions going so far?

GUY RAZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Soledad, they're going with some mixed success. It should be said this is the largest Israeli military operation now in some two decades, involving at least 60,000 Israeli soldiers and police. Now the formal period of evacuation doesn't begin for two more days, but it's becoming very clear just how difficult the process will be to remove the most recalcitrant settlers.

Now, behind us, you can see some of the demonstrators here in this settlement. Police on the other side of the main fence leading into the settlement, they've been there all morning, since about 8:30 local time. And hundreds of protesters, many of them young people, have gathered at the gates to make sure that nobody comes in. Now, the Israeli army had planned to come into this settlement and begin handing out eviction notices. They decided not to do that.

But in other settlements, they did, in fact, just that. They went from house to house, door to door, and informed the residents they have 48 hours to leave or else they will be forcibly evacuated.

Now those who do not leave within that period of time stand to lose up to one third of their government compensation packages. Now the army says this process is expected to take about three weeks to clear out all of the Jewish settlers from this strip of land Israel first occupied it in 1967. The first time that Israel is removing its citizens from land on which the Palestinians hope to establish a future state.

But as you can see behind us, the protests have been happening here with quite -- throughout the day. But even though many of the protests have been quite loud, you can see some of the moving trucks -- we've seen several moving trucks coming into the settlements throughout the day, an indication perhaps that many of the residents are resigned to their fate -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Guy, what else can happen to the settlers who refuse to leave, in addition to losing that one-third of the compensation?

RAZ: Well, ultimately, they will be removed by force. Now the Israeli army says for each individual who remains in the settlements, they'll be sending in a team of four soldiers to remove that one individual. The ratio of soldiers to those who have remained in the settlements is something like 10 to one. So the Israeli army says it's prepared for all eventualities. Those who resist those perhaps who or use force could face jailtime as well. It is illegal now for Israeli citizens to remain in the Gaza Strip, and now they've got 48 hours to clear out. The non-residents do stand jailtime if, in fact, they are arrested by the Israeli police -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Guy Raz for us this morning in Gaza. Guy, thanks.

Iraqi leaders are scrambling to meet today's deadline for a draft constitution. If negotiators don't finish in the next few hours, it could mean a major breakdown in the fledgling government.

Aneesh Raman is live at the convention center in Baghdad, where national assembly members are trying to finish the negotiations.

Aneesh, good morning to you.

Really no surprise, considering how much you and I have spoken about this, that it's really down to the wire now.

ANEESH RAMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is, Soledad. Good morning.

Frenzied talks are taking place behind me at the convention center. No deal has yet been announced with, but as you say, just a few hours to go until the national assembly is set to convene, presumably to receive a draft constitution.

The key issue emerging, one we talked about on Friday, Soledad, federalism. The Shia and the Kurds want explicit mention in the constitution of autonomous regions they can have in the north and in the south, where they have majority populations respectively. The Sunnis, though, really coming out strongly, saying they want this entire conversation sidelined until a new government comes into power at end of the year. We don't know to what degree they'll be able to compromise here, amidst all of the politicians. It's sort one of those "it depends on who you speak to" situations.

But the stakes are incredibly high. If no draft goes to the national assembly today, this government is essentially dissolved unless it creates a new law that allows an extension. So the stakes being so high, everyone trying to make sure they don't demand too little, or concede too much, Soledad.

O'BRIEN: When you consider, Aneesh, the stakes then, is there a sense the draft has been rushed or pushed through to meet the deadline?

RAMAN: Well, there are two schools of thought, those that see this as a near-impossible task. This document, of course, with permanent implications, and all of these groups have volatile histories, reasons both to trust and distrust each other.

But the other camp, which includes very vocal suggestions from the U.S. ambassador here and the international community, is that this is the essence of democracy. Compromise must be reached. And six months later, it will be no easier. And they point to the daily violence as a reason that this time line must go forward -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Aneesh Raman for us this morning in Baghdad. Aneesh, thanks.

The Bush administration has been outwardly confident that a deal could be struck on an Iraqi constitution. Suzanne Malveaux live at the White House for us this morning.

Suzanne, good morning.

What's the president said, in fact, about the deadline?

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the president says it's very important to stick to that deadline. The president, as well as his top policy advisers, are watching very closely this morning about developments in Iraq. It was just last week that he met with his foreign policy and defense team at the Crawford ranch, essentially to talk about strategy, to talk about ways of making sure that that deadline is actually met. Now he's getting updates throughout the morning, throughout the day. He has cleared his schedule of all public appearances.

And really drafting this constitution is not just a critical test for the Iraqis, but also for the bush administration, a credibility test, if you will. The president has argued to Americans making the case this is not just a military track, but a political track. And that if the Iraqis are successful, if they make progress on that track, that the Iraq war, of course, will be all worth it. We heard yesterday from the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, who hit the Sunday talk shows, essentially reiterating that point.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ZALMAY KHALILZAD, U.S. AMB. TO IRAQ: We have a lot at stake here, a lot of American blood and American treasure has been spent here. Our goal is to have a successful Iraq, an Iraq in which the human rights of all Iraqis without discrimination, with regard to gender, or color, religion is practiced.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: The president has also argued that the sooner the Iraqis can govern themselves, the sooner U.S. troops can come home. It was just this weekend on the Sunday talk shows, however, that top lawmakers, including Republican John McCain and Democrat Joe Biden, both said they believe that U.S. troops, of course, that will be likely they'll have to increase, that they won't come home anytime soon because of the growing insurgency -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Suzanne Malveaux at the White House for us this morning. Suzanne, thanks -- Carol.

COSTELLO: While the president remains at his Texas ranch, the growing crowd of demonstrators in the tiny town of Crawford is getting on the nerves of at least one resident, a neighbor of Mr. Bush.

And as Dana Bash reports, he finally got so angry on Sunday, he fired off a gun.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Where did he go?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think he walked up to the house.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's up to his house. I called the police at ten after 10:00.

DANA BASH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Secret Service raced to the scene. Two gunshots heard near the vigil outside the president's ranch.

LARRY MATTLAGE, CRAWFORD, TEXAS: I ain't threatening nobody. I ain't pointing a gun at nobody. This is Texas.

BASH: On his own land across the road, Larry Mattlage had shot his gun in the air.

MATTLAGE: I'm getting ready for dove season, and if y'all are still going to be here, I'm practicing.

QUESTION: There wasn't another message involved in the gunshots?

MATTLAGE: Figure it out for yourself.

BASH: The doves that are really bothering him, anti-war protesters parking at the edge of his property, growing throngs of supporters for Cindy Sheehan, whose son died in Iraq and wants to tell Mr. Bush troops should come home.

MATTLAGE: When they first came out here, I was sympathetic to their cause, right? They as American citizens have a right to march to protest. But it's like company. If you had your brother-in-law in your house for five days, wouldn't it start stinking after a while?

BASH: Mattlage may be expressing the frustration of some locals. In the nearly five years Mr. Bush has been coming here, this is the first extended demonstration, an unprecedented number of people and cars descending on tiny Crawford. Now both for and against Cindy Sheehan's cause.

(on camera): In fact, this is something we've never seen. Police put up a sign warning about heavy traffic in Crawford, a town with 705 people and one blinking light.

MATTLAGE: They move one port-a-potty, and now we got two port-a- potties, and now we got three. And if this keeps up, they'll be all the way at the end of the road.

BASH (voice-over): Mattlage has benefited from living near the president. One TV network pays him to use his property to get footage of the Bush ranch. The local sheriff says no law has been broken. Both sides are within his rights. Cindy Sheehan has a solution.

CINDY SHEEHAN, WAR PROTESTER: He should talk to his other neighbor, George Bush, and ask George Bush to come out and meet with me, and then we'll leave.

BASH: Mattlage doesn't know his presidential neighbor, but says he's skeptical that would make the protesters leave.

MATTLAGE: That's all I got to say about that.

BASH: Dana bash, CNN, Crawford, Texas.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: If you're wondering what the White House thinks, well, it's not commenting on the incident.

O'BRIEN: If there was ever a time to say no comment, that would be one.

COSTELLO: This would be it.

O'BRIEN: Another story -- and a bizarre one, isn't it? Officials now are working to identify the bodies of those 121 people who were killed onboard a Cypriot plane. It crashed on Sunday in Greece. Helios Airways flight 522 was on its way from Larnaca in Cyprus to Prague in the Czech Republic. The plane crashed near Grammatiko in Greece. That's about 25 miles east of Athens, where it was scheduled to make a stop.

The flight recorders and all but two bodies have been recovered. The plane was at 35,000 feet on autopilot. That's where officials think there may have been for some reason a loss of cabin pressure. Fighter pilots scrambled to investigate. They report seeing oxygen masks hanging in the cabin and one of the pilots slumped over in the cockpit. Forty-two of the dead are children. This is a bizarre and terrible story.

COSTELLO: Let's talk about the weather. The light show isn't over yet for some of us in the Northeast, as more thunderstorms are expected this week across certain areas today. The storms hit Massachusetts particularly hard on Sunday, flooding roads, downing trees and power lines. More than 40,000 people lost power in Massachusetts during the height of those thunderstorms. Now that number stands at about 5,000.

The situation was worse in Connecticut. I can attest to that. More than 16,000 still without power there.

O'BRIEN: Was that you in the yellow boots?

COSTELLO: I think that was me. It was a terrible scary storm, but it was beautiful to watch.

(WEATHER REPORT)

COSTELLO: Nasty weather for the PGA Championship yesterday. Well, it will start up again this morning after severe lightning in New Jersey forced the intense final round to be suspend. Twelve golfers were still on the course when the thunderstorms rolled in, with Phil Mickelson holding a slim one-stroke advantage. And you know you don't want to be on the golf course, Soledad, when it's lightning.

O'BRIEN: yes.

COSTELLO: Fast greens, strong winds led to a tightening up of the leaderboard on Sunday. Take a look. Five players within two strokes of the lead. Play will resume at 10:05 this morning, weather permitting.

O'BRIEN: Good luck for them. Wasn't it Mickelson who said, even god can't hit a two iron with lightning. I thought that was a pretty funny joke. That's what I heard when I was on the golf course taking my lame lesson this weekend.

COSTELLO: I'm sure you're very good.

O'BRIEN: Uh-huh.

In fact, of course, it's been one hot summer, the nation's power grid stretched to the limit. You know, yesterday, of course, the anniversary of the blackout two years ago. Remember that? Were you celebrating? probably not. We're going to take a closer look at what could lie ahead for us coming up.

COSTELLO: I'd rather forget about that.

Also, we'll listen to some of those dramatic new 9/11 audio tapes. Four years later, are firefighters now better prepared to handle another attack?

O'BRIEN: And more on Iraq's scramble to finish its constitution. Inside some of the key issues that could hold it up.

That's all up next on AMERICAN MORNING. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: Less than three hours from now, Iraqi negotiators are supposed to present a draft constitution to the parliament. Will they make the deadline? And what will be in and left out of the draft? Qubad Talabany is the son Iraq's president, Jalal Talabany. He's also the Kurdistan regional representative to the United States. He's in Washington D.C. this morning.

It's nice to see you, Mr. Talibany. Thank you for talking with us.

We've been talking about the deadline for a while now, and now it's really looming, less than three hours away. You've been talking to negotiators. Can they make the deadline, you think?

QUBAD TALABANY, SON OF IRAQ'S PRESIDENT: There is a sense of very cautious optimism in Baghdad. Negotiators are feeling that they can hammer out the differences in the few hours that we have remaining. It is a tall order. There are still key issues that have not been resolved. But there is a meeting at the national assembly around 11:00 a.m. Eastern Time, 6:00 p.m. Baghdad time, where we'll find out whether the draft has been completed and submitted or not.

O'BRIEN: Let's talk about the key issues. The first, federalism is a biggie, and it's sort of deciding whether the government is going to be a big centralized government, or if basically individual regional states will have the power. Another key issue is going to be, of course, the role of Islam in the government. If these are issues that have been debated for months literally now, what makes you think this can be wrapped up.

TALABANY: Well, the issue of federalism is almost complete. I think all sides that party to the negotiations understand that the Kurdistan region, for example, in the north is a specific case, and there aren't anybody, anymore opposing federalism or decentralization to Kurdistan, per se.

The question lies whether other parts of the country can set up federal regions similar to those in Kurdistan.

The religion issue is probably the biggest issue, and one that is likely to cause the most problems. And if we are to miss the deadline, it will be because of the differences in opinion as to the role of religion in governance.

O'BRIEN: And, in fact, while Kurds, as you point out, support the federalism, you have huge issues about the revenues, I mean, especially the oil revenues, who gets what overall. Are you saying that they could solve this by tabling the issue, not for the Kurds, of course, but for the others, who are still debating this pretty hotly?

TALABANY: I don't think tabling the issue is a viable solution. I think all members of the drafting committee, and any one party to the negotiations really wants to hammer out these differences before the draft is submitted.

I mean, if it's going to get delayed 72 hours, it'll have to get delayed 72 hours. There are a few proposals being submitted to the national assembly today as to how to proceed forward. But the critical thing is for here to -- for all groups to address the issues of federalism, to address the issues of natural resources, which is a sticking point. How much does the central government have to say over distributing Iraq's oil wealth and how much do the regions -- and how much of a say will the regions have. That hasn't been resolved yet.

O'BRIEN: You say that sharia, the Islamic law, and the role of it in the law, is going to be the bigger sticking point. What's the compromise there? We've heard that maybe it'll be a primary source, put that way. And what's the difference between it being a primary source of the law and being the actual law?

TALABANY: Well, it's all in the interpretation and the implementation, and people fear that, if it has -- if the constitution has a vague language on this particular subject, then we're only pushing the battle further down the road when the constitutional court is formed. And the threat here is, if the constitutional court is really -- has a predominantly Islamic nature, then this could mean trouble for anyone that wants to live in a secular and free and open society.

O'BRIEN: Some huge obstacles and only about two-and-a-half hours in which to resolve them, and meet the deadline at the same time. Qubad Talabany, thank you for talking with us.

TALABANY: Thank you.

O'BRIEN: He's of course the Kurdistan regional government's representative to the United States -- Carol.

COSTELLO: And still to come on AMERICAN MORNING, we are "Minding Your Business." Need I tell you this? Gas prices have jumped 20 cents a gallon in just three weeks. Now there's word on how much longer the surge could last.

Stay with us. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: We've done it again. Gas prices at an all-time high again. So will the cost go down any time soon?

Ali Velshi in for Andy Serwer this morning. He's "Minding Your Business."

And the answer is?

ALI VELSHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, I don't know what's going to make gas prices go down. Nothing obvious is making gas prices go down. Typically, they don't in the summer. Labor Day, you might start seeing an easing because of the end of the summer driving season. Gas does go up typically in summer, but look at the prices we're seeing; $2.50 is the average price per gallon for regular self serve across the country; $1.86 was the average price a year ago. Now $1.38 was sort of the high. That's what we think of as the all-time high. It was in March of 1981 during the Iran hostage crisis, but when you filter inflation into that, that's $3.03. That would be the all time high by any standard, and someone is paying that right now.

COSTELLO: Those poor Californians.

VELSHI: Yes, Californians are getting it in the neck. Around San Francisco, that's the picture we got, $3.09 9/10, so they are paying a lot for gas.

COSTELLO: There are other things besides, you know, the normal things we think of that are driving gas prices up. What are they?

VELSHI: Well, we know the first and the biggest one is the price of oil; $66.86 is what it closed on Friday, probably a little lower this morning. But refineries. About 12 refineries in the U.S. have been off line are various during, you know, the last several weeks. And we use so much gas that we need all of our refineries to be online all the time during the summer to give us enough of a gas supply.

COSTELLO: Exxon is making lots and lots of money during this gas boom. So why doesn't it fix the refinery problem?

VELSHI: Well, it's hard to build new refineries. I don't want to be here defending Exxon. We don't build any more refineries. We haven't in about 30 years. So we have a bottleneck for a long time in the refinery system. But you know, it's not elastic. We will buy gas. We just keep on buying gas. We don't cut it out of our menu when the prices get to that point.

COSTELLO: Because we love our cars.

VELSHI: We love our cars.

COSTELLO: All right. Thank you, Ali -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Still to come this morning, the audio tapes of emergency workers and what they saw on 9/11. Now newly released. Have any lessons been learned and implemented since that tragic day? A look at that ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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