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American Morning

Blame Game; Rita: The Aftermath; War on Terror; Political Fallout

Aired September 28, 2005 - 06:59   ET

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

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: And then when it comes to paying for Katrina, who's doing the math? Those cruise ships that were booked for $230 million, well there are reports today that it would have been cheaper to send those 7,000 evacuees on a six-month luxury vacation. We're tracking the money on this AMERICAN MORNING.
Good morning, and welcome, everybody.

We are back in St. Bernard Parish today. We are in Lexington Place. It's a relatively new subdivision. And let me tell you why we've come back. As people come home to try to grab whatever they can, and there is not a whole heck of a lot to grab, they've been asking questions about to what degree was the disaster that happened here, and they call this ground zero, to what degree was that caused by man? Did man-made efforts really exacerbate what happened when Hurricane Katrina struck?

You could see behind me a little bit of the damage. The scope, truly, Miles, we're going to show you as the sun comes up just how bad it is and how it goes on for miles. You'll get a better sense of it this morning as we show you a little bit at what happened here at what they call ground zero at St. Bernard Parish.

First, though, let's get you some news, Miles, out of New Orleans. As you know, the police chief, Eddie Compass, resigned suddenly. It was quite a surprise, really. We're going to bring you up to speed on what happened there this morning as well -- Miles.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Thank you very much, Soledad, back with you just in a few moments.

No apologies, lots of finger pointing, meanwhile, from former FEMA Chief Mike Brown. Brown says local agencies, state agencies deserve the blame for the Hurricane Katrina chaos. Today on Capitol Hill, Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco will get a chance to respond to Brown's claims that her state is dysfunctional.

Ed Henry is live on Capitol Hill.

Lots of finger pointing, Ed, but, in the end, will this lead to something constructive?

ED HENRY, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's the big question, Miles. As you know, for weeks, critics have been hitting Michael Brown like a political pinata. Yesterday, he finally started swinging back. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ED HENRY, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Michael Brown was grilled for over six hours and spent most of the time shifting blame.

MICHAEL BROWN, FORMER. FEMA DIRECTOR: My biggest mistake was not recognizing by Saturday that Louisiana was dysfunctional.

HENRY: Brown was referring to the weekend before Katrina hit when Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco and New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin were slow to call for a mandatory evacuation. The former FEMA director charged that delay was a tipping point for everything that went wrong.

MAYOR RAY NAGIN, NEW ORLEANS: I think it's unfortunate. I think that for a FEMA director to be, you know, in Washington and trying to deflect attention off of, you know, his performance is unbelievable to me.

HENRY: The reaction was just as rough in the hearing room, especially when Brown claimed he was merely a coordinator during the crisis.

REP. CHRISTOPHER SHAYS (R), CONNECTICUT: And that's why I'm happy you left, because that kind of, you know, look in the lights like a deer tells me that you weren't capable to do the job. I would have liked you to do a lot of things.

BROWN: I take great umbrage to that comment -- congressman.

SHAYS: Why?

BROWN: Because FEMA did -- what people are missing in this entire conversation is the fact that FEMA did more in Hurricane Katrina than it did in Charley in Florida and the others.

SHAYS: Why is that relevant?

BROWN: We moved all of those in there. We did all of those things.

SHAYS: Why is that relevant?

BROWN: And things were working in Mississippi and things were working in Alabama.

SHAYS: No, but see, why I don't...

BROWN: And so, I guess you want me to be this super hero that is going to step in there and suddenly take everybody out of New Orleans.

SHAYS: No. No, what I wanted you to do was do your job of coordinating.

HENRY: Brown claimed that before the storm he privately warned the Bush administration and unnamed lawmakers that FEMA was not getting enough funding. This led a Republican to charge the reason Brown is still on the federal payroll for another month is that he's being paid back for not going public with the budget problems.

SHAYS: And so I'm left with the feeling like the administration feels they have to protect you because you warned them. But you didn't warn us.

BROWN: Well, you should come over here and sit in this chair and see how protected you feel, feel how it feels to be yanked out of where you were trying to do your damnedest to make something work, and told to go back home, and make the decision that you're going to quit because you're no longer effective, and you're no longer effective because the media is spreading lies about a resume.

SHAYS: No, because you didn't do a good job is why you were let go, because you were clueless about what was happening.

HENRY: Only two Democrats showed up for the hearing, with most boycotting because they say the Republican-led probe will let the White House off the hook. They want an investigation by an independent commission instead.

But Republicans did press Brown when he tried to dodge a question about his conversations with President Bush and top aides about Katrina.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. Brown, excuse me, Mr. Brown, you discussed it with "The New York Times."

BROWN: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So I think you released what you shared with "The New York Times," I think you could share with this committee.

BROWN: I told them we needed help.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HENRY: Governor Blanco was blistering in her response, saying that these falsehoods show that Michael Brown is either out of touch with reality or the truth. But as you mentioned, Miles, later this morning, Governor Blanco will also be able to respond right here on Capitol Hill -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: All right, Ed Henry, we look forward to that -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: All right, Miles, thanks.

As we mentioned a little bit early, New Orleans has a new acting police superintendent or police chief. They're kind of the same thing. Eddie Compass, you'll recall him, he was seen a lot on television in the weeks and the days following the disaster. Well, he has stepped down. Mayor Ray Nagin said it was a sad day for the city. He also emphasized that it was the Chief Compass' decision to step down.

Now the assistant superintendent, Warren Riley, is going to step in as the temporary chief. Eddie Compass asked the media to respect his decision and respect his privacy as well. He's been on the force for 26 years, worked his way up. He said only that he planned to pursue some new opportunities.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SUPT. EDDIE COMPASS, NEW ORLEANS POLICE: Every man in leadership positions must know when it's time to hand over the reins to someone else. And, at this time, within the next 30 to 45 days during the transition period, I will be retiring as superintendent of police, and I will be going on in another direction God has for me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

S. O'BRIEN: Lots of people, of course, are questioning the timing.

They just announced, in fact, that they are going to be investigating about 250 police officers, about 15 percent of the force, that were unaccounted for during Hurricane Katrina, some of them who just quit their jobs or walked off the job or didn't show up for work. That is just beginning. So we will continue to figure out what's exactly happening with the story and why Chief Compass is leaving right now -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: All right, much more on that all throughout the program. We'll be back with Soledad in just a little bit. Thank you.

In the wake of Hurricane Rita, meanwhile, folks along the Gulf Coast are returning home and they are weighing the extent of Rita's damage. The Rita death toll now stands at nine, eight in Texas, one in Mississippi.

The president surveyed the devastated areas of Texas and Louisiana yesterday. He announced FEMA has pledged $2,000 per household in emergency aid. Obviously, a lot of folks will need a lot more than that.

Meanwhile, Texas towns are struggling to stretch their resources for thousands of evacuees still needing shelter. The National Guard says southwest Louisiana "pretty much just smacked."

CNN's Ed Lavandera is in Vermilion Parish, Louisiana, where area residents are finally seeing what's left of their homes.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MONA HAYNES (ph), HURRICANE SURVIVOR: This is my kitchen.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Mona Haynes expected to come back to her home near Henry, Louisiana, and see it just as she had left it.

HAYNES: Come see the mud on this side.

LAVANDERA: After all, she has lived here 50 years and the home has withstood it all.

HAYNES: They had told me had a little bit water in the house. I didn't think anything like this at all.

LAVANDERA: Almost two feet of water. And now her daughter and friends are helping clean up.

BOBBY DOUCET, HOME DAMAGED BY HURRICANE: It was my favorite tree. It sure was. It was beautiful, beautiful tree.

LAVANDERA: Bobby Doucet likes to joke that he is the unluckiest man in Welsh, Louisiana. In a town where most homes escaped serious structural damage, a 100-foot Water Oak tree crashed into the dream home he built with his own hands.

DOUCET: Sure. You know you don't feel good about it, you know, but it's wood and drywall and paint that can be redone, you know.

LAVANDERA (on camera): What Mona Haynes and Bobby Doucet are going through will continue to play out all over south Louisiana and the days ahead. As towns open up and more residents are allowed to return home, they'll learn that seeing the destruction with their own eyes isn't the same as watching it on television.

HAYNES: I don't know if you can say it's consoling to know that others are in the same position as you are, but in a sense it is, you're not the only one. And we're lucky, very lucky.

LAVANDERA (voice-over): That kind of optimism and perseverance are easy to find all over south Louisiana. But 69-year-old Mona Haynes wants her neighbors to remember something else, too.

HAYNES: Enjoy life while you can.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

M. O'BRIEN: Good words to remember.

Ed Lavandera.

Nearly 600,000 customers still without power across the region this morning.

After many days of focusing on the hurricane disasters, President Bush turning his attention, once again, to the war on terror.

Dana Bash live at the White House with more on that.

Dana, what's on the president's schedule today?

DANA BASH, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Miles.

Well, you know as much as the White House wants the president to continue to focus on all of the different elements of recovery and relief with regard to the hurricanes, they also understand, they are well aware that Americans are more sour than ever on the war in Iraq. And it's something that they really want him to keep his public focus on.

And today, top U.S. military commanders from Iraq will be here at the White House giving the president a briefing in person. And then the president will come out to the Rose Garden and give what aides are describing as an update on the war in Iraq.

But it was Rita, of course, that took up the president's day yesterday. It was his seventh trip to survey hurricane recovery from his helicopter, Marine One, you see there. He surveyed decimated homes and communities along the Texas-Louisiana border.

On the ground, the president urged residents to heed the advice of local leaders. He said there is no water, there is no power and people should stay away for now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I understand there's a lot of frustrations with the people who left this part of the country. People who are scattered around want to come back and see their homes and they want to come back to the communities they love. But it's very important for them to understand that now is not the time to come back.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: And, Miles, one of the big open-ended questions still is how much of this recovery effort, this massive recovery effort that the president promises, is going to cost the American taxpayer. Is it going to cost $100 billion, $200 billion? Well the White House says that they hope to have an estimate very soon -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Dana Bash at the White House, thank you.

Stay tuned to CNN for live coverage of the president's remarks on the war on terror. That's right here, CNN, 10:20 Eastern Time, 7:20 on the West Coast.

Time now to check the forecast, Chad Myers in the Weather Center.

Good morning -- Chad.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, Miles.

(WEATHER REPORT)

Back to you.

S. O'BRIEN: All right, Chad, thanks.

MYERS: Sure. S. O'BRIEN: Coming up this morning, a look at rebuilding the Ninth Ward. Will the city's poorest residents, in fact, be squeezed out when they decide to redo the Ninth Ward? We'll take a look at that ahead this morning -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Thank you, Soledad.

Also, more on former FEMA Chief Mike Brown's heated testimony before Congress. We'll ask one Louisiana senator whether Brown's remarks were out of line.

Stay with us for more AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: During six hours of grilling by lawmakers, former FEMA Chief Mike Brown shifted the blame to local and state officials in Louisiana. Lawmakers would hear none of it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHAYS: Why would you argue privately that your department is being eviscerated and not argue publicly to Congress that that's happening?

BROWN: Because I want to see the change occur. And...

SHAYS: It didn't happen.

BROWN: It's beginning to happen.

SHAYS: No, it didn't happen.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

M. O'BRIEN: Joining me now to weigh in is Louisiana Senator David Vitter in Washington.

SEN. DAVID VITTER (R), LOUISIANA: Good morning -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Senator Vitter, good to have you with us.

VITTER: Great to be here.

M. O'BRIEN: After Mike Brown testified, or even in the midst of that, the police chief of New Orleans, Eddie Compass, announced his resignation. Whether that was voluntary or not, we don't know for sure yet.

But he was a guy who said you know I'm going to stay on the battlefield right to the end. I'll be the last person there. All kinds of other inconsistent statements. There are some hyperbolic statements about crime in the Superdome, very erratic behavior. He was missing in action for a little bit in the midst of Katrina.

I guess what you could say is that the Compass affair is case in point on what Mike Brown was saying about Louisiana's leadership being dysfunctional?

VITTER: Well, Miles, I wouldn't read too much into Eddie Compass' resignation. I mean I think it's hard for any of us to understand everything he went through personally. He went to hell and back probably two or three times.

I got just a little taste of that the Tuesday morning after the storm when I was with him and the mayor right near the Superdome. So I would be cautious about reading too much into that. I think it's much more a personal situation that was very, very difficult. Would have been difficult for anyone.

M. O'BRIEN: Well, but what about the leadership, though, locally, the governor, the mayor? Do you feel as if folks there have not been well served by their local and state leaders?

VITTER: Well, I've been critical about the response at all levels, certainly including the state level and certainly including the reticence and the delay in calling up the National Guard, and even more so, the active duty. So I share those concerns...

M. O'BRIEN: Which is the responsibility of the governor, right, to call up the active and Guard (ph), right?

VITTER: Sure, absolutely. And you know for Mike Brown...

M. O'BRIEN: Why the reticence? Do you have any idea...

VITTER: For Mike Brown...

M. O'BRIEN: Do you have any idea why...

VITTER: For Mike Brown to make those criticisms is, quite frankly, pretty laughable. That's sort of like the head of Enron criticizing another company on corporate ethics. So, that, just on its face, is sort of laughable.

M. O'BRIEN: Well I think that's true. I think that's true. I just wanted to get that point across here.

I don't understand why there was reticence at the local level. I don't understand why Mike Brown was more concerned about Nagin and Blanco kind of kissing and making up, as opposed to saying, you know pounding his fist on the table and saying you have got to evacuate people now.

VITTER: Correct. Well, and there were problems at all levels. I said that from the very beginning, from week one. Hopefully we're going to have these hearings and other forums where we can fix these problems into the future, not just focus on personalities, although they're at issue, but I think there are more underlying problems at stake that we need to fix.

M. O'BRIEN: It seems to me when you look at the way FEMA is structured, it's, what, 2,600 employees. It's kind of -- it's one of those organizations that doesn't really have a standing army. It's kind of a connective tissue-type organization, really relies. It's very important to have somebody with strong leadership skills in that job.

VITTER: Absolutely.

M. O'BRIEN: And I didn't see any evidence of that in that hearing that there is any leadership qualities there in Mike Brown.

VITTER: Well, I didn't see any evidence of it at the hearing. More importantly, I didn't see any, no evidence of it for the 10 days or so I was with Mike Brown almost daily. I mean he was clearly, clearly in over his head.

M. O'BRIEN: And do you have some examples?

VITTER: Well, you know, I don't want to go into private conversations, but he was just very clearly in over his head. I think that was clear by the third or fourth day to everybody involved.

M. O'BRIEN: You know there are a lot of people in Washington who say there should be an independent commission on this to look into this. And I don't know that you need a commission to realize that what you have here is just terrible leadership. What do you think? Is there...

VITTER: Well I think there...

M. O'BRIEN: Shouldn't there be an independent view of this?

VITTER: I think there are at least two levels of problems. One is a leadership problem, some of the individuals involved, and that is significant. But I'm at least as concerned about some underlying systemic problems. You know I think FEMA is a completely broken bureaucracy. And the solution to a completely dysfunctional, broken bureaucracy is not just a new head bureaucrat. So I hope we go deeper than that.

I applaud the president's call for a greater role of the military, at least in situations this big, maybe not every tornado event, every hurricane event. But everything this big, I believe some other military agency should take the lead.

M. O'BRIEN: All right, but there's some concern about that, because you know the states cherish their prerogatives in these situations. Should the default position be the feds will assume to be involved unless the state calls them off?

VITTER: Well, it should be something like that. Because I can tell you in this situation it took way too long to work through those issues. And we wasted four or five days in the process in terms of the governor asking or not asking for active duty military help. So I do think it should be a lot clearer and more automatic.

M. O'BRIEN: Louisiana Senator David Vitter, thanks for your time.

VITTER: Thank you -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: See you again soon.

Still to come on the program, a government contract to house Katrina evacuees coming under fire. Find out why lawmakers say Carnival Cruise Lines got a sweetheart deal from FEMA. Andy, "Minding Your Business," next on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: Well it seemed like a good idea. You have a bunch of evacuees, bring in some cruise ships and there they stay.

Andy Serwer is here to do a little bit of bottom line work on that.

ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Yes, this was a deal that was born with good intentions, Miles. Now it's looking pretty foolish.

Just three days after Hurricane Katrina struck, FEMA called up Carnival Cruise Lines and asked to lease three large cruise ships for six months to house evacuees. The price tag, a total of $236 million. The three ships, which is the Sensation, the Ecstasy and the Holiday, were to hold 7,100 evacuees.

The problem is a lot of evacuees didn't want anything to do with cruise ships. They didn't want to get near the water, get on the water and so these ships are not at all filled. It's unclear exactly how many evacuees are on these cruise ships right now.

But Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn, Republican, has done some number crunching. And here is what he got. Even if 7,100 evacuees were on the ship. In other words, even if they were filled to capacity, the price would be over $1,200 a week.

And here is the rub. If you wanted to book a cruise, you could do it for about 600 bucks a week. So here is the government at work overpaying. It certainly looks as if they are overpaying.

Now Carnival Cruise responds by saying they're going to lose money on this deal. That they had to cancel 100,000 trips on the ships and they won't even break even. But it's hard to see why.

M. O'BRIEN: Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, they're losing money on -- how much did you say the total cost was?

SERWER: The total is $236 million.

M. O'BRIEN: And they're losing dough?

SERWER: They say they're losing money. Hard to figure.

O'BRIEN: And they don't even have to -- and they're just sitting there in dock?

SERWER: Yes. M. O'BRIEN: They're not even moving them around?

SERWER: Yes. Yes.

M. O'BRIEN: I don't get that.

SERWER: No, it's hard to figure, but this is just another deal that FEMA is going to have to do more explaining about.

M. O'BRIEN: Well, yes. And the names of the ships just seemed a little congruent.

SERWER: You mean the Sensation, the Holiday and the Ecstasy?

M. O'BRIEN: The Sensation and the Holiday, these poor people there on the Holiday.

SERWER: Yes, it's sad.

M. O'BRIEN: OK, Andy Serwer, thank you very much.

SERWER: You're welcome.

M. O'BRIEN: The outraged moment of the morning so far.

SERWER: Yes.

M. O'BRIEN: Back to you -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: (INAUDIBLE).

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: And we are -- it's just about half past the hour. And coming up, more on the retirement of New Orleans Police Superintendent Eddie Compass. What's the real story behind the surprise announcement? A closer look is ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: Good morning. Welcome back, everybody, at the half- hour now on AMERICAN MORNING.

We're coming to you this morning from St. Bernard Parish. This is actually one of the newer subdivisions there. It's called Lexington Place. And I can give a look at, a better look, really, at what Lexington Place looks like today. As you can see, they suffered massive, massive damage in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. At one point, the estimates we got were that 99 to 100 percent of the parish was devastated.

Take a look at the force of the water as it took out literally brick walls. You can get a shot of that, Jay (ph), and also just show -- I mean this house is -- this is a foundation up here. I don't know if you can really get a good look at this. This is a house. This is the foundation of someone's house.

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