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American Morning

Tracking Tropical Storm Katrina; Iraq Deadline; Armstrong Accused

Aired August 25, 2005 - 8:59   ET

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

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Tracking Tropical Storm Katrina. Now less than 60 miles from Florida, and it could hit sooner than expected. The forecast is straight ahead.
Iraq just hours from another deadline to agree on the country's constitution, and no deal in sight. We're live in Baghdad with the very latest.

And the survivors.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Now I really trust that. And I still believe that God still exists.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: Faith would change forever. An entire family of six from Brooklyn, New York, survives the Peruvian plane crash. We've got their story on this AMERICAN MORNING.

I feel like we should sing the theme song just in case people are a little thrown off by that.

Good morning. Welcome, everybody.

Miles has the day off. I wonder if we're allowed to say -- oh, let's say it anyway. He's moving his family up. Officially, the O'Briens, that side of the desk, are arriving here in New York.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Oh, he's been missing them, too.

O'BRIEN: Oh.

COSTELLO: So good for him.

O'BRIEN: Oh, please, yes, a ton. A ton.

COSTELLO: Good morning to you. I'm Carol Costello, filling in.

South Florida has not seen a hurricane yet this season. But that could soon change.

O'BRIEN: Yes. That's why we're talking about Katrina. It's where we begin this hour. Millions of residents in south Florida getting ready for her. A hurricane warning is now in effect from Vero Beach to Florida City, 170-mile long stretch along Florida's Atlantic coast.

Katrina is still a tropical storm. She's gaining strength, though. She could be a Category 1 hurricane by the time she hits the Florida coast.

Suzanne Candiotti is live in Hollywood for us this morning. It's just north of Miami.

Susan, give us a sense of the current conditions. It doesn't look so bad yet where you are.

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It doesn't. In fact, I was able to take the rain jacket off. We haven't had one of those squalls for the past couple of hours, but certainly those outer bands will be hitting us from time to time throughout the day.

It's balmy, it's overcast, and people are still out for their morning jogs and morning strolls. But there is some activity going on.

If you go to area stores, where people should already be prepared but are not, but they are buying last-minute supplies, including bottled water, including batteries, flashlights, the kinds of food that you want to have on hand in case you don't want to make it out to the store because of all the rain that's coming this way. Also, gas stations are getting busier and busier. Some are reported to be even closing because they've run out of gas as people are topping off their tanks.

And you do see some people boarding up their homes from time to time. But quite frankly, we have not seen a lot of that.

This is considered to be more of a rain event at this time, although if it does turn into a Category 1 storm, there could be some heavy winds and there could be some flying debris. So people do have to watch out for that.

Now, some evacuation orders are taking effect as we speak. People are being asked to get out of barrier islands, low-lying areas, mobile homes. But there is not a mandatory order at this time. Schools also are closed, both in Miami-Dade and Broward County, as are government offices in Broward County, Florida.

So, again, by now, south Floridians who are used to hurricanes should already be well prepared. For those who are not, this is the time to get outside and get some work done -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Susan Candiotti for us.

Those who are not need to get their act together, and pretty darn fast.

Let's get right to Chad Myers. He's watching Katrina's path from the CNN Center in Atlanta.

Hey, Chad. Good morning.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, Soledad.

Probably one thing that people don't realize is that a lot of damage is done because stuff gets picked up that's in the yard and thrown into your house or into a window. I mean, you just can't have a piece of plywood laying on the ground. You don't need to put it on the window, but you need to get it and stop it so it doesn't fly around either into your yard or someone else's yard.

The storm is developing. It is, as Susan said, a major rainmaker. The threat of the rain here could be five to 15 inches, depending on where you are. Less here, much more across the Alligator Alley and the Everglades.

There is the storm itself. I will zoom into it.

It has been moving this morning, moving to the west at about eight miles per hour. Possibly a slight drift to the south, but I haven't seen too much of that yet.

The storm stalled for a little while about three or four hours ago, but it's certainly moving now somewhere toward the Boca region, or all the way back down, even into Ft. Lauderdale. Much farther north probably on the northern eye wall than where Susan is, but from Boca, right up I-95, we're seeing the first outer band squalls coming through there, all of the way up to Palm Beach.

Some of the squalls could contain some little -- we'll call them waterspouts. But as they come on shore, obviously they turn into hurricanes. They will be small, but they still could do damage themselves.

There is the storm. It is getting stronger. The colors are getting brighter.

It is gaining strength, probably in the 55 or 60-mile-per-hour range. That's what some of the Doppler estimates are now, although the official hurricane center still has it at 50. That will be updated in about an hour or so.

There it is. Those are the numbers: 26.2, 79.0, if you're keeping track at home -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: And we are. Chad, thanks.

MYERS: All right.

O'BRIEN: Let's get right to the headlines this morning with Kelly Wallace.

Hey, Kelly. Good morning again.

KELLY WALLACE, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks, Soledad. And good morning, everyone. Here are some of those other stories "Now in the News."

More American troops heading to Iraq. The Pentagon says it is sending 1,500 more paratroopers ahead of fall elections there. They will be from the 82nd Airborne Division out of Ft. Bragg in North Carolina. Those troops are expected to deploy in mid September.

Palestinian militants are threatening violence after Israel carried out a raid in the West Bank. The Israeli army said five Palestinian militants were killed in that raid. It is the first outbreak of violence since Israel's withdrawal from Gaza and parts of the West Bank.

Christian broadcaster Pat Robertson is saying he's sorry. Robertson apologized Wednesday for calling for the assassination of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, but he also compared Chavez to Saddam Hussein and Adolf Hitler and suggested that assassination is not always immoral.

Central Europe preparing for more flash flooding. Torrential rains leaving entire towns under water, wiping out roads and prompting some evacuations by helicopters. AT least 24 people have reportedly been killed. The hardest hit appears to be Romania, where officials estimate more than 20,000 homes have been effected. Those floods have caused some $400 million worth of damage.

And the pain at the pump. Hawaii has become the first U.S. state to put a cap on gas prices. The state Public Utilities Commission says wholesalers cannot charge more than a total of about $2.67 for a gallon of regular gasoline in Honolulu. Wednesday's average price there was $2.76, a record high.

The interesting thing is, the goal here to keep prices from soaring, but the state's refiners can actually charge a little bit more, so motorists could end up paying a little bit more than they do now.

COSTELLO: But you do wonder why other states don't follow Hawaii's lead, don't you?

O'BRIEN: Or will they?

WALLACE: And they just might, especially -- you know, one story we didn't talk about, theft of gasoline around the country.

COSTELLO: Up.

WALLACE: So maybe they are going to do something.

O'BRIEN: It costs $70 to fill up a big car. I mean, so that, for some sickos (ph), becomes worthwhile ripping off. I mean, that's a lot of money.

COSTELLO: Or desperate people who can't afford to fill their gas tanks. WALLACE: Right.

O'BRIEN: Well, then don't drive the big -- I mean...

WALLACE: I know. It's incredible, though. Hard to believe.

O'BRIEN: Thanks, Kelly.

COSTELLO: Thanks, Kelly.

We are only hours away from a new deadline for Iraqi negotiators working on the draft constitution, so let's check in with Aneesh Raman. He's live at the convention center in Baghdad.

Aneesh, what are you hearing?

ANEESH RAMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Carol, good morning.

We just heard from the office of the speaker of the National Assembly that they are postponing the meeting that was set for today. It is unclear, though, how this affects their self-imposed deadline for compromise.

It could be that they simply issue a statement saying that the period for drafting the constitution ends at midnight tonight, and the document stands as is. Or it could be that they extend this period even further to try and find that compromise with the Sunni delegation.

All day it has remained unclear whether a vote is necessary in the National Assembly. The government itself has not decided whether that is the case. So if they do decide they don't need to vote on this document in the National Assembly, it could be that we simply hear a statement from the speaker, Hachim al-Hasani, saying the process is over, the drafting is done, or, again, as I say, they could extend the process.

Now, all of this matters, of course, because the political benchmarks that Iraq goes through are seen as pivotal to curbing the insurgency. The U.S. military just had a press conference where they spoke about expecting a spike in violence around these political events.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAJ. GEN. RICK LYNCH, U.S. ARMY: We believe that, as a result of the pending release of the constitution, as a result of the upcoming referendum on the 15th of October, and the elections in December, there will be surges of insurgent activity.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAMAN: Now, the U.S. military just announced, Carol, of course, that they will be sending additional troops to Iraq to help the Iraqi security forces around these events. And that is why keeping this process on track is seen as essential. If they do, though, put forth a constitution that does not enjoy the Sunni support, it could get rejected in the referendum and this whole process starts again. So that is a difficult position. Do we delay for the sake of bringing the Sunnis in, or do we go forward without the Sunnis? Both, of course, has the potential to strengthen the insurgency -- Carol.

COSTELLO: While all this going on, and you talk about the insurgency, we're just getting word that 36 bodies were found in a small river. What else do you know about that, Aneesh?

RAMAN: We're told by Iraqi police that these bodies were found near the Iranian border in, as you say, a small river. Thirty-six bodies, all of them shot to the head, execution style.

The police tell us it's a result of an incident that took place some five days ago. But no other details are being provided. It remains unclear whether this is an insurgent attack or simply domestic violence in that area.

We often see in parts of Baghdad, in parts of Iraq, vigilante justice being carried out. It's part and parcel with the security void that this country is facing -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Yes. I just have a little more information. Six of the bodies cuffed with metal cuffs, the other 30 bodies with plastic bands. And police sources said that all of the men were between the ages of 25 and 35 years old.

Of course when we get more information, we'll pass it along to you.

Thanks to Aneesh Raman, live in Baghdad this morning.

O'BRIEN: Now let's get back to Tropical Storm Katrina. The storm is slowly swirling toward the Miami area. It could make landfall along Florida's east coast as a hurricane maybe early tomorrow.

Let's get right to Ed Rappaport. He's the deputy director at the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

Hey, Ed. Nice to see you. Thanks for being with us.

Where do you think and when do you think this is going to hit?

ED RAPPAPORT, DEPUTY DIRECTOR, NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER: At this point, we're looking at a tropical storm with winds of about 50 miles per hour. It's moving slowly to the west towards the southern Florida peninsula. And we'll switch from a satellite animation over to one of the radar.

You can see where the center is located now between the northwestern Bahamas and the southeast coast of Florida. This entire area will be moving slowly to the west. And that's where the problem is. By moving slowly, it has time to strengthen. We think it will become a Category 1 hurricane before landfall.

The other problem with it moving slowly is it's going to prolong the impact over the southern part of Florida. And that's going to increase the risk of heavy rains and perhaps floods.

O'BRIEN: With that model that you're looking at behind you, then, where are you concerned most that's going to be sort of ground zero for the impact, even if it's not necessarily a devastating hurricane, a Category 1 hurricane?

RAPPAPORT: Well, there are two significant impacts we're concerned about. One is, if it does become a hurricane, then the hurricane-force winds, which can cause some damage, bring tree limbs down and so forth, it also will build up the waves and storm surge to perhaps three or four feet along the coast. For that reason, there is a hurricane warning in effect from Vero Beach, southward to Florida City, with hurricane-force winds likely to occur near the center where it comes ashore.

The other issue, though, is for the entire area, southern to central part of the peninsula of Florida, is this risk of flooding from the rains, perhaps in excess of 10 inches of rain.

O'BRIEN: You know, when we heard from Susan Candiotti just a few moments ago, she was talking about some people are not yet prepared, that they were actually out shopping this morning trying to get things together at the last minute. How much time do those folks have? When does this hit?

RAPPAPORT: Well, it's not going to hit all at once. There's going to be a deterioration of the weather in the southern part of Florida today.

There are a few more hours for most of the folks to complete their preparations. But by later in the afternoon, and particularly tonight and most of the day tomorrow, the weather's going to be rough in the southern part of Florida.

O'BRIEN: Ed Rappaport is the deputy director at the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

Ed, as always, thanks a lot. We're going to obviously continue to check in with you throughout the day.

Still to come this morning, we are waiting on another round of proposed base closings today. We're going to take you live to the Pentagon to see which ones are on the chopping block.

COSTELLO: Plus, new doping allegations against cycling champ Lance Armstrong. Are these accusations credible? Not everyone agrees. We'll take a closer look, next on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) COSTELLO: Another round of doping accusations for seven-time Tour de France winner and newly retired Lance Armstrong. The cycling star has faced similar allegations before, but this time the claims may have convinced one of his supporters.

CNN's Larry Smith has more for you.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LARRY SMITH, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT (voice over): After winning a record seventh consecutive tour, Lance Armstrong was riding high. He was welcomed back to the United States as a hero, was invited to go riding with the president at his ranch in Crawford, Texas. But Armstrong's retirement was suddenly disrupted by another allegation of doping.

On Tuesday, a French newspaper, "L'Equipe," claimed that during the 1999 tour, Armstrong tested positive for EPO, an illegal performance-enhancing drug. That was the year Armstrong won the first of his seven consecutive victories.

EPO, which helps an athlete's endurance, has banned from cycling since 1990. But a urine test for it wasn't certified by the cycling union until the 2001 tour. The head of France's anti-doping laboratory, which developed the test, confirms there were positive samples from '99, but they could not be matched to a particular rider because the samples were anonymous.

But the French newspaper claims it has been able to connect Armstrong to the positive samples, which prompted Jean-Marie LeBlanc, the direct ef of the Tour de France, to say, "These are no longer rumors or insinuations. These are proven scientific facts. Armstrong owes explanations to us and everyone who follows the tour. We were all fooled."

Armstrong's been accused of doping before. The French media has often implied that Armstrong's dominance in the sport must have been achieved with the help of drugs. Armstrong has vehemently denied such allegations and met the latest claim by releasing a statement on his Web site saying, "I will simply restate what I have said many times: I have never taken performance-enhancing drugs."

Armstrong hopes this latest controversy won't overshadow his legacy of battling back from cancer to become the winningest rider in Tour de France history.

Larry Smith, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: Suzanne Halliburton is a sportswriter for the "Austin American-Statesman." She has known Armstrong for nine years and has covered all seven of his Tour de France races. And she joins us this morning from Austin.

Good morning. SUZANNE HALLIBURTON, "AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN": Good morning.

COSTELLO: So, they say this is scientific, but explain this to me. This is a urine sample from 1999. It's been frozen for all that time. It was retested in 2004.

I mean, might we suspect there would be a breakdown in the sample?

HALLIBURTON: I was talking to a doctor, a well-known doctor about that last night late. And he said, "What you can't tell, because this test is so new, is that EPO-1 is produced in the body. And two, athletes who want to cheat can inject it."

He said, "By this time you don't know how either one of those things break down." So there's no way of knowing whether this is a naturally-produced EPO or whether it's something that Lance could have injected or somebody -- an athlete could have injected.

COSTELLO: Well, so why did someone keep this old urine sample in the first place?

HALLIBURTON: Well, from what I understand, all this was for is some scientists sitting around trying to perfect the test. It was just all for their research.

They only see vials. They have no idea that this is Lance Armstrong's urine or anybody else's. There were no controls on whether they were labeling properly or who even had the numbers to match up the samples. And they were just trying to perfect a test.

And apparently they went back over 1999 and 1998 and gradually got all of these things done. And then on Monday, turned them into the World Anti-Doping Agency, that some people called WADA as an acronym. And so that -- I have no idea and nobody knows who leaked this to "L'Equipe," because it's been a big breakdown in protocol.

COSTELLO: Boy, you're not kidding. And Lance Armstrong, of course, has come out and said this is preposterous. But you have the director of the Tour de France saying he owes everybody an explanation.

What will come to this?

HALLIBURTON: Well, when I was talking to Lance last night -- I talked to him several times for the past two days. And he doesn't know what he's going to do, because basically it's going to cost, you know, $1.5 million to fight it in legal fees. It's going to cost two years of his life.

And I guess for somebody who has been a survivor of cancer, and just wanted to blend into the -- you know, the background and play with his kids for the next year, he doesn't know if he's -- if it's worth it to, because basically there's no way you can clear your name because there's nothing left to test. And so it's his word against theirs. COSTELLO: And...

HALLIBURTON: I and, you know, so what do you do? And you have a newspaper that's owned by the same company that owns the Tour de France.

COSTELLO: Well, maybe as far as his image in America is concerned, you don't have to do anything, because, you know, people really like him.

HALLIBURTON: Yes.

COSTELLO: They admire him. And a lot of Americans feel this is just French jealousy and there's nothing do this other than that.

HALLIBURTON: Yes. Well, you know, there is that. And as I was telling one of your producers last night, you can tell by the headline, by the attitude in France, an American newspaper that printed that would have put, "Documents State Armstrong Tested Positive." Their headline was "Armstrong Lied."

And so that is kind of their flamboyant, tabloidish way of, you know, showing, hey, here's what we got, we got you. And there is -- it's pervasive over there with some of the European journalists that the whole thing that they do is devote their time to finding something on him to disprove that -- you know, that he's this grand champion.

And I was talking to a friend of mine today and she reminded me the French love the guy who comes in second. And they really do. If you ask them who their favorite cyclist is, it's the guy who finished second six times back in the '60s. And that's the honest to god truth.

COSTELLO: Oh, my. OK.

HALLIBURTON: Yes.

COSTELLO: Suzanne Halliburton, thanks for clearing things up, or at last trying to for us.

HALLIBURTON: Yes.

COSTELLO: She's a sportswriter for the "Austin American- Statesman."

Thanks.

Also, Lance Armstrong will talk about the allegations live with Larry King and Bob Costas tonight. A CNN exclusive, Larry King, tonight at 9:00 p.m. Eastern.

O'BRIEN: Still to come this morning, an incredible story of survival. A Brooklyn family defying the odds, living through a jet crash in the Peruvian jungle. We've got their story ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: A U.N. team is in Sudan today. They're meeting with leaders of refugee camps to try to assess needs in Darfur. Darfur is in the western part of Sudan. The chief of the U.N.'s High Commission for Refugees is on a 10-day tour of camps for millions of Sudanese refugees who have been displaced by years of fighting in the region.

Now, it is in incredibly rare to get a live look inside of Sudan. That's why, in spite of some of the incredible technical challenges, we're going to get right to CNN's Ryan Chilcote, who is joining us by videophone in Darfur.

Ryan, thanks. A desperate situation on the ground there, clearly.

RYAN CHILCOTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, Soledad. We are in the Riyadh camp for internally displaced people, who are also known as IDPs. Effectively, refugee in their own native country.

These people fled to this camp about two years ago when the Arab nomads in this area were armed by the government, many observers say, to try and put down a rebellion here. Now, there are about 15,000 people, 15,000 refugees in this camp. We're going to show you -- try to show you some of it.

You can see that...

O'BRIEN: You're obviously looking at pictures from Darfur. Let's see if we can dip in again at get Ryan.

Ryan, we've been having a little bit of audio difficulty, although we can see the pictures of the camp. I'm going to ask you, if you can hear me, just start again and describe what you're seeing as far as what we're looking at through the camera, the people in the camp.

CHILCOTE: Sure thing. It is not easy to broadcast from here, and if you can just stay with us, we'll be a little bit more still and maybe our equipment will work for us.

This camp has 15,000 refugees. And that is just a mere fraction of the number of refugees here in Darfur and the surrounding region. There's a total of an estimated two million refugees from the conflict in Darfur, another 180,000 killed.

Now, we've come here with the high commissioner for refugees from the U.N. He believes that the conditions may be near in time where these people can return home.

He says that both the Sudanese government and the rebel group in this area appear to be ready to sign a peace deal. Part of this whole goal in being here is to try and force all of the parties involved in that conflict to reach that peace -- reach that peace agreement, to create the conditions for these people to return to their home.

He also says that means the international community, who he says has largely forgotten Darfur, needs to refocus its attention on here to keep that pressure up on the parties involved in the conflict. And also put some money back into the problems of Darfur.

All the U.N. programs here are underfunded. So these people really, even if they -- all the conditions were set for them to go back home, there really isn't the money right now for the international community to assist them in doing that -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Ryan, as is the case often in these dire situations, it's really the women who are often the most vulnerable, isn't it?

CHILCOTE: Yes, that's exactly right. Remember that I said that these people are effectively refugees in their own native land. They're almost like imprisoned in this camp, in this internally displaced prison camp.

It's not good to move around too much with this videophone, but as you can see, there's a green hill over my shoulder here. That is just outside of the camp. And in order to get the firewood to fuel their stoves in this camp, the women have to venture out there.

The Janjaweed, the Arab militia, are still out there that have been causing this terror, have been launching these attacks. And very frequently the women are actually raped when they go to get firewood.

We spoke with one woman yesterday who told us that she had been attacked just one week ago. She said she was able to get away. However, two months before that she was raped.

There have been many documented cases of rapes here. And it is a very serious issue. The men themselves really don't go outside the camp at all -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: A really devastating issue across all of Africa. Ryan Chilcote, thanks. And Ryan, thank you.

And to our viewers, too, thanks for sticking with us as we try to show you some pretty remarkable pictures inside of this camp. Of course, sometimes that means the technology doesn't quite stick with us. We appreciate it -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Still to come on AMERICAN MORNING, Wednesday was Army and Navy bases. Today it's Air Force bases. Which ones will be spared? We're live at the Pentagon with the latest just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)