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CNN Live At Daybreak

Blasts Rock the Middle East; Recapping Yesterday's Sentencing Hearing for So-Called BTK Killer

Aired August 19, 2005 - 06:00   ET

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


KELLY WALLACE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is Friday, August 19.
Blasts rock the Middle East, one happening dangerously close to an American ship. Blasts in Israel and Jordan this morning. When we go live to the region in a moment. And we are looking right now at some of the first pictures coming into CNN of the Israeli tourist city of Eilat. And this is where one of the incidents occurred. A rocket fired from Jordan, very close to the airport there in Eilat. Apparently no injuries in that incident.

Also, as we were mentioning, another rocket, this one missing, very closely missing, a U.S. Navy ship in the Jordanian Red Sea port city of Aqaba.

Much more on this story as we get it.

Also on DAYBREAK today, loved ones of the BTK's victims get their chance to meet him face to face in court.

And one airline's extreme money saving measures.

From the Time Warner Center in New York, this is DAYBREAK for Friday.

I'm Kelly Wallace in today for Carol Costello.

Good morning, everyone.

Thanks for waking up with us.

Chad Myers will have your forecast in just a moment.

Also ahead, another mother heads to Texas, this one to support the president.

And once a luxury and now a necessity -- how can you save money on all the phone, cable and Internet bills in your house? That coming up.

But first, these stories now in the news.

And we have much more on the breaking news we've been following this morning out of the Middle East. A U.S. military official says no sailors or Marines were injured when two missiles were fired at a U.S. Navy ship today. It happened in the Jordanian Red Sea port city of Aqaba. Israeli officials say that about the same time, another rocket was fired at the Israeli resort of Eilat.

Another Israeli settlement in Gaza is being emptied today. Our John Vause tells us that military officials reached agreement with demonstrators in Gadid. The Israeli government says it should complete it's pullout from Gaza by early next week.

Pope Benedict XVI is taking a cue from his predecessor. The pontiff is visiting a synagogue in Cologne, Germany on the second day of his trip, his first foreign trip as pope. You're looking at some live pictures right now there of the pope. This is only going to be the second time that a pope will be visiting a synagogue. The first was by the pope's predecessor, John Paul II. More information here on DAYBREAK with that story as we get it.

A computer problem stranded thousands of airline passengers around the country. A virus shut down customers computers at several airports, including those in Los Angeles, New York and Miami. The problem kept international passengers from being cleared to enter the country.

To Chad Myers now -- and, Chad, it's Friday, so we're all looking for some good news from you for the weekend.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes.

This was the longest week of all time.

WALLACE: I agree with you there.

MYERS: It seems like it should be...

WALLACE: It's time.

MYERS: ... it should be next Thursday already.

WALLACE: Yes.

MYERS: Good morning, Williamsport.

(WEATHER REPORT)

WALLACE: And as we've been mentioning, a very busy morning, indeed.

We have been following a breaking news story out of the Middle East all morning long. Two rockets narrowly missed a U.S. Navy ship in a port off Jordan, while another rocket landed in an Israeli resort town.

For all the latest details, we're going live to CNN's Paula Hancocks, who's joining us from Jerusalem -- Paula, what's the latest from there?

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kelly, the latest we know is that at least two missiles, probably three, were fired from Jordan just about four hours ago this Friday morning. One, as you say, hit Aqaba, a port in Jordan where there were two U.S. Navy ships. It was thought the target was one of those U.S. Navy ships. And then also in southern Israel, just on the Red Sea resort of Eilat.

Now, let's start off with Eilat. We have pictures in showing damage from that particular rocket. Not extensive damage. We're being told by the Army that the rocket only partially exploded.

Now, it came from Jordan, as I say. It hit just about 15 yards away from the perimeter fence of the airport. Now, the airport is very close to the town center of Eilat. It's a holiday resort. It's a bustling town. It will be particularly busy at this time of year. It has hundreds of hotels. And I'm being told that it's only about five minutes away from the center of town, this, the airport itself.

We're being told that there are no casualties, as the rocket only partially exploded. But it is a very busy area in southern Israel here and it's very close to Aqaba in Jordan. It's just, Eilat just on the border, and, as is Jordan, it's probably only about five miles away as you cross over the border. You could probably see Aqaba from where you are in Eilat.

Now, to focus on the Aqaba attack, this, we're being told by the Jordanian interior minister, through Reuters, that they say at least two missiles were fired at the U.S. Navy ship. Now, the two U.S. Navy ships that were docked there left the port immediately after those attacks. They were there for training purposes. They were training with the Jordanian Navy. We're being told by the U.S. commanders that there were no reports of any injuries. No U.S. personnel were injured in that attack. It actually missed the ship and hit a warehouse nearby, a warehouse that's used for storing for the normal cargo missiles.

So that's the latest information we have at the moment -- Kelly.

WALLACE: And, Paula, while you were talking, we were showing our viewers a satellite image to sort of set the scene, just as you've been describing all morning, about how from a lot you could see the port of Aqaba, if you were sitting there and just sort of looking out over the water there.

Paula, I wanted to just ask you this question again that we've been continuing to talk about, obviously, is any information right now to suggest that these attacks were coordinated in any way? I know it's early. Any more coming in to point the finger that it is -- these are coordinated attacks?

HANCOCKS: Well, the Israeli defense minister, Shaul Mofaz, gave a press conference. It was in the middle of a press conference on the settlers being moved out of Gaza when this happened and he was asked about it. And he did say that -- he did insinuate that they were coordinated. I mean, we can draw our own conclusions. They are five miles away from each other. Both these rockets came from Jordan. Reuters quoting the interior minister of Jordan saying that they were fired from an industrial warehouse area at the entrance of the city of Aqaba. We don't have confirmation of that, but that's what Reuters is reporting at the moment.

And Shaul Mofaz saying that the incident today appeared to want to target Israeli and Jordanian targets. They are very close to each other, as I was saying. The two attacks came shortly one after the other.

So you can draw your own conclusions. No official confirmation that they were coordinated. They did come from the same area. But Shaul Mofaz saying that obviously they were trying to target both areas. They say the Jordanians and the Israelis are working very closely at the moment to try and find out exactly where these rockets came from -- Kelly.

WALLACE: And, Paula, another interesting and important thing, I think, to put the context out there for our viewers is these kinds of attacks, where they are, very unusual. We talked to a Navy commander on the air earlier today who says it's very unusual for a U.S. Navy ship to be targeted by a rocket in that port of the region, the port city of Aqaba.

HANCOCKS: That's right, yes. There have been attacks in the past in the Red Sea area, nearby these resorts, but there haven't been, in that area there haven't been, to the best of my knowledge, in Eilat itself.

If you -- if you are sitting, just to give you an idea of the geography around there, if you're sitting on the seafront at Eilat, if you look to the left hand side, there you can see Jordan and you can just about see Aqaba on a good day, I should imagine. And then if you look to the right, you can see Egypt. And you can see the seaside resort of Taba.

Now, this particular area was targeted back in October of last year. Up to about 34 people were killed in that blast. That was a very large attack. And that's incredibly close to Eilat. If you -- you can just walk across the border from Eilat to Taba and it would take you a matter of a minute, two minutes.

So there have been attacks in the area of these Red Sea resorts in the past, but not, to the best of my knowledge, in Eilat itself -- Kelly.

WALLACE: OK, Paula, we're going to be checking in with you throughout the day and the morning here on CNN.

Paula Hancocks reporting from Jerusalem.

We appreciate it.

Turning now to the BTK sentencing. One hundred seventy-five years for 10 murders. That's what Dennis Rader will have to serve before he's eligible for parole. But the sentence became secondary to the stories of pain from the victims' family members and the sometimes bizarre ramblings of the confessed BTK killer himself.

CNN's Chris Lawrence is in Wichita, Kansas this morning -- and, Chris, all of us were watching this unfold on television. You were there.

What was the situation like as you watched it from your vantage point?

CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it was just amazing to finally get a chance to hear from some of these families. Some of them have been waiting 10, 20, even 30 years to look this man in the eye and tell him hop they feel. They did not hold back once they had a chance to do so.

Now, some of them did leave the courtroom before Dennis Rader himself stood up to speak. But when they looked at him, you saw a different Dennis Rader than we had seen in court up to this point. He got choked up at times. He took off his glasses. He wiped his eyes.

But there was no one in that courtroom who felt the least bit sorry for him, least of all a man named Jeff Davis, whose mother was murdered by BTK.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEFF DAVIS, SON OF VICTIM: Sitting here before us is a deprived predator, a rabid animal that has murdered people, poisoned countless lives and terrorized this community for 30 years, all the while relishing every minute of it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAWRENCE: Now, the families had to sit there and listen to some very gruesome testimony during these last few days, including the description in detail of how Dennis Rader murdered a woman named Nancy Fox. Detectives say he enjoyed torturing her. And on Thursday, Nancy's sister said no punishment could ever be enough.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BEVERLY PLAPP, SISTER OF VICTIM: On the day he dies, Nancy and all of his victims will be waiting with god and watching him as he burns in hell.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAWRENCE: Now, at times, Rader just rambled through his speech, thanking the police, his defense team, people who came to see him in prison. He sounded, at times, like a man standing there accepting an Academy Award. He also compared his own life and that of his family's to the lives of his victims. And he said a lot of people won't think that I am a Christian, but I still feel that I am.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DENNIS RADER, CONFESSED BTK KILLER: And, finally, I want to apologize to the victims' families. There's no way that I can ever repay them. (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

(END VIDEO CLIP) LAWRENCE: Rader was sentenced to 10 life sentences. He won't be eligible for parole until he's 100 years old, which basically means he's never going to walk out of prison again. He will be transferred to a holding -- a processing facility, where they will decide which maximum security prison he'll live out his sentence -- Kelly.

WALLACE: Chris, were you able to get any sense from the family members about their reaction to some of the comments coming from Dennis Rader?

Watching it, you couldn't imagine being a family member who lost a loved one and listening to him in that courtroom without feeling outraged.

LAWRENCE: Well, there was a point where he started comparing his victims to his own family. Like he said Josephine, you know, she -- my own little -- my daughter would have been about that age and they both played with Barbies. And you could see, if you looked at some of the family members, you could see them rolling their eyes, just really tensing up. You could tell it was infuriating to them to have him compare his life to that of his victims. And you could tell if they had the chance, they'd almost just jump out of their seats to interrupt him at that point.

WALLACE: Chris, a heart wrenching story, indeed.

Thanks for bringing it all to us.

Chris Lawrence reporting from Wichita, Kansas this morning.

And we will have much more on the very emotional testimony coming from family members. That's coming up on CNN. Two surviving children, Danny Otero and Carmen Montoya, tell their stories on "AMERICAN MORNING." That comes your way at 7:00 a.m. Eastern.

Turning to news about NASA, the shuttle Discovery is expected to take one more flight, this one back to Florida, today. And it may be there for quite a while. More on that in a moment.

But first, look at these pictures from space. The crew of the International Space Station went outside to work on science experiments. NASA saying it will not be launching another shuttle until next March at the earliest. Safety questions led to that scheduled change, but time is running out for any future flights.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL GRIFFIN, NASA ADMINISTRATOR: I've changed the game on shuttle thinking. We are not trying to get a specific number of flights out of the shuttle system. We are working toward an orderly, an expeditious but an orderly retirement of the shuttle system over the next five years. And the president has said that and I have echoed that NASA wishes to and will plan its program to comply with that.

(END VIDEO CLIP) WALLACE: NASA originally had three more shuttle launches scheduled before the end of this year.

Well, still to come on this Friday edition of DAYBREAK, we'll look at some fallout the penny pinching airlines are doing to try and make up for the high cost of fuel.

On the silver screen, we'll review a new movie that looks at the love life of a mature guy.

And we'll meet some guys who took their time with some sightseeing.

But first, here's a look at what else is making news this Friday morning.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WALLACE: Time now for a little "Business Buzz."

Northwest Airlines vowing to keep flying despite the threat of a strike. There's apparently no progress in talks with the aircraft mechanics union. Mechanics vow to walk off the job at midnight tonight if negotiators cannot reach an agreement today. Despite that, Northwest's stock is up 38 percent since Monday.

Harvard is knocked off as the nation's top business school. "Forbes" magazine looked at the return on investment, if you will, in getting an MBA. "Forbes" ranks Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business as number one. Rounding out the top five are the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, Columbia and Yale.

Well, the urge to conserve is hitting everyone and that is because gas prices are inching higher nearly every day. But it's not just drivers who are feeling the pinch.

CNN's Allan Chernoff looks at what one airline is doing to try and stretch its gas mileage.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Don't flush too often to be sure there's water to wash your hands. American Airlines is filling water tanks only part way to lighten the load. Fuel tanks, too; no longer topped off because a lighter aircraft is more fuel- efficient. Taking 50 pounds off every flight, American calculates, will add up to a savings of $1 million a year. So American is unloading whatever it can. Only in-house magazines are on board flights. Ovens are gone from the galley in coach. American is even asking passengers to help conserve.

CAPT. STEVE CHEALANDER, AMERICAN AIRLINES: As we're taxing up to the gate, we'll ask the passengers to reach over and pull down the window shades, so that while the airplane sits there at the gate, it doesn't heat up as readily. CHERNOFF: The airline is using less paint, hardly any for these au naturelle planes that are lighter than fully painted aircraft. Airplanes now taxi using only one engine. And at the gate, pilots try to plug in rather than using an onboard generator.

American's energy efficiency plan calls for annual savings of $150 million. But unless the cost of fuel takes a nosedive, the airline still expects to lose hundreds of millions of dollars this year.

Allan Chernoff, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

WALLACE: Nike, you can say, likes it big. And the company cannot lie.

Carrie Lee tells us that Nike is not the only one. Other advertisers are also celebrating real women. And I say right on, it's about time.

CARRIE LEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's definitely a step in the right direction. We've seen those thin, wafer-like models for so long. So Nike's new print and online ad campaign is focusing on women's body parts that have rarely been celebrated in ads before.

Now, one Nike ad -- and here's a look -- says "my butt is big."

WALLACE: I like that one.

LEE: Yes. Others refer to "thunder thighs," "shoulders that aren't dainty." Nike's campaign focusing on athletic, muscular women. The attempt here to portray what is real.

Now, clearly, this isn't the average person either. This is a look at somebody who works out a lot, is very muscular. But, still, it is a change from the type of thing we've seen before.

And this comes after Dove introduced what it calls a campaign for real women. These ads show real women, not just models, in their underwear. The ad campaign attracted a lot of attention.

Now, some advertising experts, though, don't think this trend is going to continue. Of course, advertising often about trends and companies will search for a new direction when consumers lose interest. But still, look at these women, Kelly. They are more average looking than most.

So, a step in the right direction.

WALLACE: They still look great, though.

LEE: They still look great.

WALLACE: That's what we said, they still look great. LEE: They still do look great. And, you know, regarding Dove, it's for a cellulite cream. Of course, the age old question -- do these creams really work? But at least advertisers are loosening the reigns.

WALLACE: It's hard to see, though, that this wouldn't do well with consumers, though...

LEE: We'll see.

WALLACE: ... that this wouldn't be a trend that continue.

We'll have to see, though.

LEE: We will see. And we'll see if the products sell better. They are relatively new, so it'll take a little time.

WALLACE: All right, a Friday look at markets and futures for the day?

LEE: Things looking up today. Yes, we did see a mixed season yesterday. Oil prices settled out a bit after three days of declines, but looking up for today's session for stocks at the 9:30 bell.

WALLACE: All right, Carrie, great to see you.

LEE: You, too.

WALLACE: Have a wonderful weekend.

LEE: You, too.

OK.

WALLACE: Still to come here on DAYBREAK, more scary moments on board. But these are purely fictional. We'll take a look at the movies coming out this weekend.

But first, we want to say good morning, Miami.

Good morning, Miami.

DAYBREAK will be right back.

Don't go away.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP FROM "THE 40 YEAR OLD VIRGIN," COURTESY UNIVERSAL PICTURES)

CATHERINE KEENER, ACTOR: I'm so tired.

STEVE CARELL, ACTOR: Hey! Hey! Whoa! Whoa! No, stop! No, wait! Oh!

KEENER: Get off the wheel. Let's get some French toast.

OK, here we are.

CARELL: Oh, god.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALLACE: A guy who's just too shy and a thriller in the sky. We couldn't resist the urge to rhyme. Those are some of the movies this weekend. And our movie guy, Tom O'Neil, from "In Touch Weekly," is here with his take on all of it.

Tom, great to see you.

TOM O'NEIL, "IN TOUCH WEEKLY": Same here, Kelly.

WALLACE: Let's talk about the first one. We were just watching a clip, "The 40 Year Old Virgin."

Tell us about it.

Is it going to be a success?

I like the title.

O'NEIL: The title is fantastic and it's actually, for a raunchy sex comedy, a very good movie, with a wonderful heart and a great payoff here. What we just saw there was Steve Carell, who works in this, you know, menial job, is deciding he's -- his buddies tell him you can't possibly be a virgin. We're going to help you solve this issue. And they first turn him onto drunk chicks. That's the scene we saw there. And he goes through a progression of women until he finds Catherine Keener, a 40-year-old mother who doesn't want to have sex. She just wants a romantic relationship.

And what ends up happening here, what's so great is that you've got the three stooges, his buddies, egging him on for issues of the flesh and his heart is taking him in another direction.

WALLACE: It's so interesting. Also, now, Steve Carell, our viewers will know him from "The Daley Show" with Jon Stewart; also from other movies, including "Anchorman" and the U.S. version of the British series, "The Office." But he's always sort of a sidekick.

Can he be a leading man? Is this his breakout role?

O'NEIL: I think it is. Remember that he wrote this film and I think it's going to do very well. The projections are $20 million for this weekend. I think it even could hit $30 million. People who don't go out this weekend and discover it over the next few weeks are going to see a major talent finally coming into his own.

WALLACE: You've got to tell us about "Red Eye," because I saw the coming attractions.

O'NEIL: Scary, huh? WALLACE: So scary.

O'NEIL: Yes.

WALLACE: I can't even believe it.

Tell our viewers a little bit, people who haven't seen the coming attractions yet.

O'NEIL: It's a terrific top thriller from Wes Craven, who gave us "Nightmare On Elm Street" and "Scream." And the premise of this is wonderful. It features Rachel McAdams as a gal who meets a charming, handsome guy on a plane. They sit there, then she finds out that he's a terrorist who is blackmailing her to help him in his plot to kill a businessman, or her father's going down. He's going to kill daddy. What you end up having here is a great setup of she can't go anywhere off this plane. So you've got this wonderful set of tensions going on while the outside world thanks, oh, look at this handsome, sweet couple. And between them, it's wonderful, thrilling energy.

WALLACE: Tell us about the actor, the star of this, because I understand, I was reading some of the notes saying that he wanted to be in this movie so much that he took a red eye flight from London to California, met at the terminal and went back the day before he was married. So that seems like dedication. He wanted this part.

O'NEIL: It really is. This is Cillian Murphy, who we saw play the scarecrow in "Batman Begins." And he has that wonderful mix of charm, that twinkle in the eye. And in the other eye this sinister glare. This could be a breakout movie for him, but really for Rachel McAdams.

What, this is so great. We have seen her excel as a romantic lead in "The Notebook." We've seen her in wonderful comedies like "Wedding Crashers" and "Mean Girls." And now she's pulled off this masterful thriller.

WALLACE: Were they -- was McAdams -- was Murphy in "The Notebook," too?

O'NEIL: No, no, no.

WALLACE: No, he was not.

O'NEIL: Rachel McAdams.

WALLACE: Yes, but Murphy was in "Batman Begins"...

O'NEIL: Right.

WALLACE: ... where he played that same kind of sinister role. I don't know if I can take it.

O'NEIL: Good movies, Kelly.

WALLACE: I'll see. O'NEIL: You've got to go out and see them.

WALLACE: Good movies. Well, the -- Hollywood needs it, right, needs a good weekend?

O'NEIL: They really do.

WALLACE: All right, Tom O'Neil, great to see you.

O'NEIL: The same.

WALLACE: Have a wonderful weekend.

Thanks so much.

Well, another story in the entertainment world. The rapper's in rehab. Eminem has been hospitalized for dependency on sleeping pills. This coming two days after he canceled a European tour because of "exhaustion and other medical issues."

Well, much more to come on this Friday edition of DAYBREAK.

Americans are used to going 10 miles per hour over the speed limit. How about just going 10 miles per hour period? Meet the two guys who crept cross country, all the way from Seattle to Boston.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

WALLACE: And we are keeping an eye on breaking news out of the Middle East this morning.

Two rockets narrowly missed a U.S. Navy ship in a port off Jordan, while another rocket landed in an Israeli resort town.

We're going to get the latest details now from CNN's Paula Hancocks in Jerusalem -- and, Paula, I understand you have some new information.

What can you tell us?

HANCOCKS: That's right, Kelly.

As we're hearing from Jordanian sources, that they believe these two rockets, in fact, three rockets, two that hit Aqaba, but the two rockets -- the three rockets were fired from a warehouse in Aqaba, in the industrial area, which is just at the entrance of the city.

Now, they also say that four individuals of Iraqi and Egyptian nationality had rented that warehouse just recently. Now, we don't have much more information on that, but we are expecting a Jordanian official statement very soon. Also, according to Reuters, who is quoting one of the Jordanian military sources, says that one Jordanian soldier was killed in these attacks and one was severely injured.

Now, just to recap what we know, those two that landed near the air -- the U.S. Navy ship in Aqaba missed the Navy ship and hit a warehouse, which was destroyed. And then another one hit near a hospital, we're being told. We don't know whether or not the Jordanian soldier was killed near the hospital or near the actual port itself. And then there was a third one, which was fired from the same warehouse, which hit the southern Israeli town of Eilat. Now, this is another Red Sea resort. It hit about 15 yards away from the actual perimeter fence of the airport itself.

Now, the airport is very close to the center of town in Eilat. It's probably only about five minutes away. There are hundreds of hotels there. It would be a very busy place at the moment in the school holidays. But we are hearing that there are no casualties from that third rocket attack -- Kelly.

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