Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Live At Daybreak

Did Some New Orleans Cops Move to Wrong Side of Law?; Judith Miller Out of Jail, Ready to Talk to Grand Jury

Aired September 30, 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, September 30.
Did some New Orleans cops move to the wrong side of the law after Katrina roared ashore? They pledged to serve and protect the people of New Orleans, but in the city's hour of need, were they among the looters? Our Drew Griffin reports.

Judith Miller out of jail and ready to talk to the grand jury investigating the CIA leak. Among her sources, the vice president's chief of staff.

And Bill Bennett, a former education secretary and drug czar on the hot seat for comments about crime, race and abortion.

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

I'm Kelly Wallace in today for Carol Costello.

Good morning, everyone, and thanks so much for starting your day with us.

We will have much more on New Orleans cops under investigation in just a moment.

Also ahead, is it too much of a good thing? Thousands of volunteers flood the storm damaged Gulf Coast to help with the cleanup.

Also, the dog flu and you -- researchers are seeing more and more cases of this potentially fatal virus. Are humans at risk?

But first, these stories now in the news.

Less than six hours ago, a bomb goes off at a vegetable market in the mostly Shia city of Hillah, 60 miles south of Baghdad. Seven people are dead, another 42 hurt, including many women and children. We'll have a live report from Baghdad at the bottom of the hour.

General Richard Myers steps down as chairman of the joint chiefs of staff today. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld will host a farewell tribute this morning. President Bush plans to attend.

Firefighters in southern California are battling wildfires that already have scorched about 17,000 acres. Hundreds of people have evacuated. Firefighters are counting on the weather to give them a hand. To Bonnie Schneider now, in for Chad Myers -- and, Bonnie, they're going to get a little help today, aren't they?

BONNIE SCHNEIDER, ATS METEOROLOGIST: Absolutely. The forecast does look better, better than yesterday, more onshore flow coming and lighter winds. Lighter winds are so the key there when forecasting weather for firefighters, because not only are we still going to have the hot temperatures, but with the winds a little bit lighter, we'll see less of the debris being blown about. Remember, California has so much brush because it had such a strong rainy season this past year that there's a lot of tools for the fires to work with.

The gusts will also be milder, about 20 miles per hour at their strongest. We saw wind gusts on Wednesday as high as 50 miles per hour. So things could be a lot worse.

(WEATHER REPORT)

WALLACE: We want to now take a look at the latest news from the Gulf Coast.

One of the first assessments of damage in Louisiana is looking pretty bleak. At least 140,000 homes must be torn down because they're uninhabitable. State officials say there are hundreds of thousands of destroyed cars lumped in with the 22 million tons of debris.

Rebuilding and restoring the coastal areas of Louisiana could take years. That's the word of hurricane task force commander General Honore. He points to damaged levees and farmland ruined by saltwater as major problems.

And to FEMA. It is facing questions about one of its temporary housing programs. It's paying more than $230 million to rent three cruise ships for six months. But the ships are mostly empty.

Well, Florida Governor Jeb Bush says as bad as the federal government's response to Katrina was, it could have been much worse if Washington was in charge from top to bottom. In an editorial for the "Washington Post" he writes: "Just as all politics are local, so are all disasters. The most effective response is one that starts at the local level and grows with the support of surrounding communities, the state and then the federal government."

He goes on to say: "The bottom up approach yields the best and quickest results, saving lives, protecting property and getting life bottom as soon as possible."

That is the president's brother, Florida Governor Jeb Bush.

Well, police problems are in the spotlight in New Orleans and that is because two investigations are underway into misconduct, which includes allegations of looting by officers in the aftermath of hurricane Katrina.

More now from CNN's Drew Griffin in New Orleans. (BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For a week the New Orleans Police Department called allegations of looting by its officers a misunderstanding. Now the new acting superintendent calls it an active investigation.

WARREN RILEY, ACTING NEW ORLEANS POLICE SUPERINTENDENT: That I have ordered an immediate internal investigation by the Department's Public Integrity Bureau, which will focus on at least 12 police officers who are being accused of misconduct.

GRIFFIN: Four officers have been suspended. One has been reassigned. And interim chief Warren Riley insisted all allegations will be thoroughly checked.

RILEY: I want to reaffirm my position that there is zero tolerance for misconduct or un-professionalism by any member of this department.

GRIFFIN: Among the allegations under investigation, claims that eight officers holed up on the 10th floor of this Canal Street hotel were drinking and eating by day and looting by night. Police confirmed this is one of their officers caught on tape, holding a gun as he appears to be blocking a photographer from entering the 10th floor through this door.

This generator is one of the items at the hotel that witnesses say was stolen by police.

(on camera): And they stole this from a hospital?

OSMAN KHAN, HOTEL MANAGER: They stole it from Tulane Hospital, correct.

GRIFFIN (voice-over): Hotel manager Osman Khan says the generator was stolen from Tulane Hospital and used by officers, he says, to keep beer cold. Tulane Hospital confirms the generator is owned by Tulane, and during the hurricane's aftermath was being used to evacuate patients.

(on camera): Those evacuations were taking place on this parking deck. The generator was being used to light up the deck, to keep the communications, the radios going, so they could communicate with the helicopters. Tulane was finished with its evacuations, but left the generator and all the communications and gas in place so that Charity Hospital could continue its evacuations. That is when the generator, now down there, on the second floor of this hotel, was looted.

GEORGE JAMISON, TULANE HOSPITAL: It was left on the parking deck specifically fueled up with fuel for Charity Hospital because we thought they still had people. And we thought that they were going to continue with an exercise to evacuate them.

GRIFFIN (voice-over): Tulane security officer George Jamison says he has no proof the taking of the generator cost any lives or even inconvenience. But as for who took it and why...

(on camera): ... Jamison, would it surprise you to know that it was taken by officers of the New Orleans Police to cool their beer?

JAMISON: Well, since I'm not running for political office, I can say no, it wouldn't surprise me.

GRIFFIN (voice-over): In addition to the looting allegations, in the last few days, Police Chief Eddie Compass suddenly resigned and another investigation was launched into why or if 249 police officers deserted their posts. The new chief said this when asked if his department is too dysfunctional or disorganized to keep the city safe.

RILEY: No. First of all, this department is not dysfunctional. The more than 2,000 men and women of this agency stand united in not letting a very small segment of members tarnish the great reputation of this department.

GRIFFIN: The truth is the New Orleans P.D. Has a reputation, but not a good one. Two of its former officers are on death row. There have been multiple investigations of corruption. Atlanta Police Chief Richard Pennington tried to clean up the New Orleans Police Department when he was chief in this city from 1994 until 2002. Today, he, too, says he's not surprised New Orleans police officers are under investigation.

RICHARD PENNINGTON, ATLANTA POLICE CHIEF: I, you know, was involved in arresting many officers in that department during my tenure. And I know for a fact I probably did not get all the officers that were corrupt. And so I wasn't surprised at all when I heard it.

GRIFFIN: Pennington says the question now -- is the New Orleans Police Department capable of investigating itself, while also trying to recover from the worst disaster in the city's history? The city's newest chief of police says wait and see for yourself.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

WALLACE: And that was our Drew Griffin reporting from New Orleans.

Turning to another top story this morning, after spending 12 weeks in jail for refusing to testify about a confidential source, "New York Times" reporter Judith Miller is free and expected to testify this morning before a grand jury about the disclosure of an undercover CIA officer's identity. Miller was released from a Virginia detention center yesterday, after reaching an agreement with the federal prosecutor. The grand jury, you'll recall, is investigating who leaked CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity and whether any laws were violated.

Miller was jailed even though she never even wrote an article about Plame.

Miller issued this statement. She says: "I went to jail to preserve the time honored principle that a journalist must respect a promise not to reveal the identity of a confidential source. I chose to take the consequences, 85 days in prison, rather than violate that promise. The principle was more important to uphold than my personal freedom."

And she continues saying: "I am leaving jail today because my source has now voluntarily and personally released me from my promise of confidentiality regarding our conversations relating to the Wilson- Plame matter."

Well, Miller's source is apparently Lewis "Scooter" Libby. That's Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff. And this is according to Libby's attorney and also the "New York Times."

It's a complicated story here, so we want to give you a little bit of background.

Valerie Plame is the wife of former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, who is an outspoken critic of the Bush administration's policy in Iraq. In a "New York Times" op-ed piece back in July of 2003, Wilson accused the Bush administration of manipulating intelligence about Iraq's weapons programs to justify going to war in the first place. The leak of Plame's name as a CIA operative was first reported a few days later by newspaper columnist and CNN contributor Robert Novak. Wilson then accused the Bush administration of leaking his wife's name as payback for his criticism.

And just about 20 minutes from now, we will talk with "Newsweek's" senior editor, Michael Isikoff, about the implications of all of this for the news media, the Bush administration and the special prosecutor's investigation.

Shifting gears now, have you heard what Bill Bennett said? The former education secretary, radio talk show host and self-styled moralist is under attack. He made a comment linking the crime rate to abortions of African-American babies on his radio show.

Bennett says he takes issue with an argument in the book "Freakonomics" that crime rates have fallen in the years since abortion was legalized.

Here's what he said.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP FROM MORNING IN AMERICA RADIO SHOW)

WILLIAM BENNETT, FORMER EDUCATION SECRETARY: I do know that it's true that if you wanted to reduce crime, you could, if that were your sole purpose, you could abort every black baby in this country and your crime rate would go down. That would be an impossible, ridiculous and morally reprehensible thing to do, but your crime rate would go down.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALLACE: Now, Bennett says his comments have been mischaracterized and taken completely out of context.

Here's his response.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BENNETT: I was putting forward a hypothetical proposition. I put that forward, examined it and then said about it that it's morally reprehensible to recommended abortion of an entire group of people in order to lower your crime rate. It's morally reprehensible.

But this is what happens when you argue that the ends can justify the means.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALLACE: Still, some congressional Democrats are not satisfied. They are attacking Bennett for his remarks and demanding that he apologize. House minority leader Nancy Pelosi is calling on President Bush to condemn the remarks, which she says are entirely inappropriate. Other Democrats say the Republicans should step up and denounce Bennett's comments. One congressman says the House should pass a resolution condemning the remarks as "outrageous racism."

Well, still to come here on a very busy Friday morning, the flu and you -- fears of a bird flu epidemic prompt the Senate to set aside big bucks to fight that disease. This, as dog owners learn more about the dog flu. Is there a health risk to you and me?

But first, here's a look at what else is making news this Friday morning, September 30, the last day of September.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WALLACE: And welcome back to DAYBREAK.

Coming off a one-two punch by hurricanes, how prepared are we for a potential worldwide epidemic?

The avian flu virus is spread by chickens, ducks and other birds. To be correct, bird flu has killed only 65 people in Asia in the past two years. But avian flu has been found in birds in Russia and Europe and a U.N. public health expert is warning that a bird flu pandemic could kill five to 150 million people.

Right now there is no vaccine to stop avian flu. The Senate has approved spending $4 billion on anti-viral medications, including one intended to fight avian flu.

Turning now from birds to dogs, or should we say from horses to dogs, an outbreak of dog flu has been discovered at Greyhound race tracks in several states. Pets in three states, including New York, have also been infected. But it's a strain of flu that was previously only seen in horses.

Here to talk about all of this is Professor Cynda Crawford from the University of Florida's School of Veterinary Medicine.

Dr. Crawford, thanks for being with us. We're hearing a little feedback. Hopefully the viewers not minding that.

My first question to you, just give us a sense of what is dog flu?

DR. CYNDA CRAWFORD, UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA: Dog flu is really what we call canine influenza virus infection. This is a newly emergency management respiratory pathogen to dogs in North America and it causes a syndrome characterized by coughing and maybe runny nose and fever, similar to what we experience as humans when we become infected with influenza virus.

WALLACE: And I know you were one of the first to study this. But it's very unusual, isn't it, for something like this to be passed from horses to dogs?

CRAWFORD: Yes, it is. It actually is a very rare event in the history of influenza virus and it has only occurred very few times in the past. And we do not know when this transfer of equine influenza virus from the horse to the dog occurred or under what conditions. We just think it's been in the very recent past.

WALLACE: So, of course, some people might be asking if it can go from horses to dogs, how likely that it could go from dogs to humans? How much danger is there for all of us out there right now?

CRAWFORD: We think that the danger is very remote or that the possibility is minimal. We can never say never. After all, this is influenza virus. However, the CDC has put together a surveillance method to keep track of people who report that they -- both their experience with flu syndrome at the same time that their dogs are sick with what they think is the flu.

WALLACE: And very quite clearly, what would be a symptoms that someone should look out for, a pet owner looking out for when they are checking out their dogs?

CRAWFORD: Most pet owners are very familiar with the term kennel cough. The canine influenza virus causes a respiratory infection with signs similar to kennel cough. The most common sign is a cough that can persist from one to four weeks. Some dogs do get a runny nose and a fever. And then a very few dogs can progress to a pneumonia that can be very serious unless the dog receives supervised hospitalization and treatment from a veterinarian.

WALLACE: All right, important information.

Dr. Cynda Crawford from the University of Florida.

Thanks for joining us here on this Friday edition of DAYBREAK.

Well, getting back to business -- in the hard hit Gulf region, that will be a full-time job in and of itself, as the numbers of those unemployed continues to rise. We'll talk about that.

And later, we'll go live to the fire lines in southern California to see how firefighters are doing out there.

But first, we want to say good morning to Boston. Big baseball games there this weekend.

DAYBREAK will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WALLACE: And time now for a little "Business Buzz."

Machinists are going back to work at Boeing Aircraft. A four week strike shut down Boeing's commercial airplane assembly plants. About 80 percent of union members who cast ballots approved a new three year contract.

A government report fingers NASA for wasting millions of taxpayer dollars. The GAO found that NASA spent about $20 million during the past two years using its own planes for routine travel. The General Accounting Office says that's at least five times more than flying employees on commercial flights.

Well, continuing with "Business Buzz," hurricane related job losses continue to rise.

Carrie Lee joining us now with a look at the impact of all of this.

This is going to be tough to deal with, isn't it?

CARRIE LEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is for a few quarters, probably, Kelly.

The Labor Department now saying Katrina related job losses total 279,000. The Congressional Budget Office expects that number to end up somewhere between 280,000 and 400,000. But they expect losses from hurricane Rita to be minimal.

Now, analysts say we might see an increase in the unemployment rate when the government's monthly labor report is released next Friday. But the CBO says that by early next year, hiring from reconstruction projects will cancel out most of these losses.

Now, still, some are expecting an economic hit. Numbers released yesterday showed the economy was growing nicely before the hurricanes, but now estimates for third and fourth quarter gross domestic product are being scaled back, anticipating a slowdown.

So, we'll see what happens in the future quarters. But basically, Kelly, the consensus, things might slow down for the third and fourth quarter, but then the rebuilding will kick in and things will pick up, making up at least some of the difference early next year.

WALLACE: Right. More people getting to work for that rebuilding.

LEE: Exactly.

WALLACE: How are the markets reacting to all these job losses?

LEE: Well, today is the final day of the third quarter. So futures are looking up. A lot of portfolio managers buy stocks, make their portfolios look better. And that was the same case yesterday. We did see nice gains yesterday.

So the job losses not having a big impact yesterday. In fact, stocks ended higher.

WALLACE: Just yet. Yes, it is, like you said, the last day of the third quarter and October 1st is tomorrow.

LEE: Exactly.

WALLACE: Hard to believe.

LEE: Yes. October, though, usually not such a great month for stocks. So we'll see.

WALLACE: Not at all. That's right, Carrie.

LEE: Yes.

WALLACE: OK, Carrie Lee, great to see you.

LEE: You, too.

WALLACE: Have a wonderful weekend.

Still ahead here on DAYBREAK, the reporter, the source and the story behind the story. We'll check in with "Newsweek's" Michael Isikoff, talking about Judith Miller's decision to talk.

And another deadly day in Iraq. We'll go to Baghdad live for the very latest.

DAYBREAK continues in just a moment.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WALLACE: From the Time Warner Center in New York, this is DAYBREAK.

I'm Kelly Wallace in today for Carol Costello.

Good morning, everyone, and thanks so much for waking with us.

Ahead this half hour, Judith Miller is out of jail and she is talking, to the grand jury, that is. We've got all the details.

And live from the front lines of a fast moving wildfire in southern California. Those stories coming up.

But first, these stories now in the news.

Former Education Secretary William Bennett is under fire for statements he made about blacks and crime. He told a caller on his syndicated radio show if you want to reduce crime, you could abort every black baby in this country. Bennett says his comment was misrepresented, saying he was putting forward a hypothetical proposition.

After being indicted on conspiracy charges, former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay says he is not worried and he insists the charges will not stick. DeLay was charged with conspiring to evade campaign finance laws in his home state of Texas. He accuses the Texas prosecutor who pushed for the indictment of playing politics.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. TOM DELAY (R), TEXAS: He drags your name through the mud, then he indicts you, if he indicts u. And in this case, he made sure I was indicted because he knew that I had to step aside as majority leader. And that is what's going on here. It is a political witch- hunt, trying to do political damage.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALLACE: More residents of New Orleans are going home today. It's part of the mayor's zip code by zip code return plan. However, in some areas residents can go in and retrieve belongings, but must still be out by 7:00 p.m. this evening.

To the Forecast Center now and Bonnie Schneider in for Chad Myers -- Bonnie, how are you today?

SCHNEIDER: I'm doing well, thank you.

(WEATHER REPORT)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com