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American Morning
In Iraq, Insurgents Launch Two Suicide Bomb Attacks; After Earthquake, Death Toll Climbs
Aired October 11, 2005 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A developing story out of Iraq. Insurgents launch two suicide bomb attacks, killing dozens. We're live with the latest.
As the death toll climbs, poor weather conditions in Pakistan hampering earthquake aid efforts there. A countless number of people still missing. Millions, millions are homeless.
And that brutal beating by the New Orleans Police Department. Police say the man was drunk. But the man told us he hasn't had a drink in 25 years. We'll hear from the president of the police association on this AMERICAN MORNING.
ANNOUNCER: From the CNN broadcast center in New York, this is AMERICAN MORNING with Soledad O'Brien and Miles O'Brien.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: It kind of looks like a nice picture out of Central Park, but Chad promises rain, rain, rain and more rain for us.
M. O'BRIEN: He's such a gloomy guy these days.
S. O'BRIEN: He really has been, hasn't he?
Welcome back, everybody.
M. O'BRIEN: Good morning.
S. O'BRIEN: Also ahead this morning, rain here, but how about in Colorado? Snow, snow -- look at that, 19 inches in some parts. The highways shut down, people stranded. We're going to bring you a live report on that just ahead this morning.
M. O'BRIEN: Let's begin, though, this morning in Iraq.
With that election coming up, the violence appears to be escalating. Dozens of people have been killed in two suicide car bombings today. Observers expect violence to increase, and continue to do so, as that constitutional referendum lies ahead on Saturday.
Aneesh Raman is live now in Baghdad -- Aneesh, what do we know about these latest bombings?
ANEESH RAMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Miles, after a period of relative calm, two, as you mentioned, suicide car bombs striking Iraq just in the past few hours. The deadliest incident in the northwestern town of Tal Afar, just near the Syrian border. The suicide bomber detonating there at a marketplace. At least 30 people now are confirmed dead, upwards of 45 others wounded. It was clearly busy on those streets when this explosion took place.
A short time later, in the western part of the capital, a Sunni dominated neighborhood called Amariyah, a suicide car bomb detonating alongside a convoy of Iraqi Army vehicles. A huge plume of smoke could be seen rising from the neighborhood as ambulance and emergency vehicles rushed to the scene to aid the injured. Iraqi police put the death toll there at just about four. But initial reports had suggested the death toll was about four times higher than that.
So these are initial casualty numbers. We're waiting for clarification.
The timing, though, of course, Miles, as you mentioned, cannot be ignored. We are just days away from Saturday's constitutional referendum. And these two attacks took place in Sunni-dominated areas, and that is the fear. If Sunnis stay away out of fear of attacks such as these, if they stay away from the polls, if they do not vote, they will be further alienated from a political process that is essentially the only way to stability in Iraq.
And bringing Sunnis into that fold is of critical concern -- Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: And that's where the violence comes in. There's a message in all of this. And do you have a sense, when you talk to Sunnis in general, that they feel they made a mistake last time by not participating and perhaps this time they might show up?
RAMAN: They definitely do. All the Sunni politicians I've spoken to say that in January they stayed away, they say, out of security concerns. But this time they are planning to vote Some 15 1/2 million registered voters, Miles, up significantly from what we saw in January, because of Sunni involvement.
The key concern, though, is that the Sunnis are out to vote this constitution down. They see it as a document that will lead Iraq toward civil war. If they do not have the votes, though, to reject the constitution and the document passes by a slim majority, the Sunnis could feel that they entered the political process but that they didn't get what they wanted and they could then leave it again and give emboldened rationale to the insurgency.
But it will be a huge success, Miles, if we see the Sunnis turn out to the polls on Saturday despite attacks such as we're seeing this morning.
M. O'BRIEN: Aneesh Raman, thank you very much.
Back with you in a little while -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: International relief aid is making its way to earthquake victims in Central Asia. Local authorities say the death toll in Pakistan, in India and Afghanistan has topped 42,000. More than 41,000 of them dying in Pakistan alone. As many as five million people now are homeless. They're living in harsh and frigid conditions.
CNN's Satinder Bindra reports from that hard hit town of Muzaffrabad, the capital of Pakistan in its Pakistani-controlled Kashmir.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
SATINDER BINDRA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Almost every helicopter in this country is flying in supplies -- medicine, food and blankets -- to some of the worst affected areas of this country. Also helping out now is the United States. Just one day after the Pakistani president, General Pervez Musharraf, appealed for help, eight U.S. helicopters and arrived here. There's five Chinooks and three Black Hawks.
Every day they're now bringing in materials from Islamabad to Pakistani-controlled Kashmir. From here, this material will be distributed to an estimated two-and-a-half million homeless people. These people are still living out in the open. Sometimes the temperature in the day gets very hot, and at night it's getting very cold here.
So far, the United States has already pledged $50 million to help Pakistan rebuild. Several other countries are also helping out. And now international rescue teams have arrived in some of the worst affected areas. They say they're still confident of finding survivors in the rubble.
Satinder Bindra, CNN, Muzaffrabad, Pakistani-controlled Kashmir.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
S. O'BRIEN: We're going to keep following this story, obviously, throughout the morning and the afternoon, as well.
We want to get to the headlines now.
Carol has those -- good morning.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, Soledad.
Good morning to all of you.
Now in the news, President Bush focusing on rebuilding efforts in parts of the Gulf Coast region hit had by hurricanes Rita and Katrina. The president and the first lady are taking part in a project at Habitat for Humanity. It's part of the president's eighth trip down to the hurricane ravaged Gulf Coast. The president arrived in New Orleans on Monday.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says she might make a stop in the earthquake damaged Kashmir region of Pakistan. Secretary Rice is already on a whirlwind tour of Central Asia and Afghanistan. She arrived at a U.S. military base in the capital earlier today. She is now meeting with officials to discuss closer cooperation in the war on terror.
U.S. scientist turned businessman Gregory Olsen is spending his first day back on Earth after his $20 million trip into space. Olsen and a Russian-American crew landed in Kazakhstan earlier this morning. Images from a video phone captured the 60-year-old smiling. And he was eating a pear. He and the crew are said to be in very good condition. Olsen is the third non-astronaut to travel to the international space station.
And in sports, the American League playoffs begin tonight with the Los Angeles Angels facing off against the Chicago White Sox. The Angels stomping out any hope of a Yankee title last night. They beat the Yankees 5-3. L.A. rookie Irving Santana, making his play-off debut, pitched a little more than five innings to get the win. Tonight's game is in Chicago. And you know the White Sox haven't made it to the World Series since 1917.
M. O'BRIEN: The curse of shoeless Joe Jackson or whatever it is.
COSTELLO: That's right, the black socks scandal.
M. O'BRIEN: If I said how sorry I am to the Yankee nation this morning...
S. O'BRIEN: You so have no sympathy for Yankee fans.
M. O'BRIEN: So sorry. What's that payroll?
S. O'BRIEN: And we all recognize it.
M. O'BRIEN: $293 billion?
S. O'BRIEN: A lot.
COSTELLO: I think...
S. O'BRIEN: A wicked lot is what it is.
COSTELLO: I think you should be careful. I hear a gang like gathering at the door already.
M. O'BRIEN: I know...
S. O'BRIEN: Nom, they're not gathering, they're right here, actually.
COSTELLO: They're right here.
S. O'BRIEN: These guys.
M. O'BRIEN: The crew is out to get me now.
All right, so sorry Yankees fans.
S. O'BRIEN: And they will, right after the show.
M. O'BRIEN: All right. Let's talk about Colorado now, where it isn't even autumn yet and yet 20 inches of snow. How does that suit you? Not so well.
Take a look at these pictures. It knocked out power to thousands. Three deaths blamed on it.
Let's check in with a reporter from one of our Denver affiliates, KDVR in Watkins, Colorado.
Ron Zwerin is there -- Ron, this is, even by Colorado standards -- and, you know, you can get some fluky storms there. This may take the cake.
RON ZWERIN, KDVR CORRESPONDENT: Yes, you know, they say if you don't like the weather here, wait five minutes, it'll change. And so that certainly is the case out here.
You know, the weather came in fast and furious. And we're just right outside of Denver, about 15 or 20 miles outside of Denver in a little town called Watkins. We're at a truck stop here. And, in fact, the trucks that are just over my shoulder are pretty much going in a convoy to nowhere.
They've closed I-70, which is a main artery here in Colorado that gets you all the way through the state, whether you're going west or east. And in this case, they have closed it east, from Denver all the way out to the Kansas border, primarily because of all of the snow we've had.
We've had drifts, as you mentioned, in some cases, as high as two feet. So they've been dealing with that along the way.
Now, we also can tell you that a couple of people have died because of this storm. Two people were involved in car accidents and they unfortunately died. And then one woman yesterday was just in the process of clearing some of the heavy snow that had fallen on her trees, and it was snapping tree limbs left and right. And so she went outside to move some of those tree limbs and unfortunately one of those tree limbs fell on top of her and killed her instantly here in Colorado.
So the situation is this, they have closed I-70 east all the way to the Kansas border and they are going to keep it closed until about 8:00 our time, 10:00 East Coast time. And that's when they're going to reassess the situation and see if they can open up the roads and get some of these truckers moving on -- Miles, back inside to you.
M. O'BRIEN: All right.
I guess when that's happening, a good idea to stay inside.
Ron Zwerin with KDVR.
Thank you very much. Let's get right to Chad -- Chad, I was just talking about, you know, fluky Colorado weather.
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes?
M. O'BRIEN: And it's kind of, you know, it's part of the local folklore there. But this one, this is something.
MYERS: Yes, it's going to be 72, Miles, on Friday. Talk about fluky.
M. O'BRIEN: That's the definition of fluky.
MYERS: That's fluke right there.
M. O'BRIEN: Yes, that is fluke.
MYERS: The air comes down the hill, down the mountain on Thursday and Friday, and the temperatures get up into the 70s.
Here's Colorado. And, in fact, I actually have the radar turned on. There's nothing at all to see. A reporter right here along I-70, one more spot, though, just to the southeast of there. He said he was in Watkins. If you get eight miles southeast of Watkins, that's the highest number in the state. Twenty-two inches of snow there. Deer Trail, Colorado had about 20 inches. This is all Arapahoe County. And then from Bennett, back in even into Denver International Airport at 10.
And there were slowdowns at the airport yesterday, an airport that can really take care of a lot of snow. When they have trouble, you know it's coming down so hard.
They closed I-70 for a while, and it still is, because of whiteout conditions. The guy that reported that Bennett snow, the same weather reporter, said almost every tree is destroyed because the limbs are torn off because of the heavy snow that got caught on the leaves. You know, if the branches are bare, the snow falls through. If you get trees that have leaves on them, those leaves come down, those branches come down, and that's what happened out there into parts of eastern and central Colorado.
(WEATHER REPORT)
S. O'BRIEN: Still to come this morning, a controversial gun law goes into effect in Florida. Well, now the law's opponents have some state officials up in arms. We're going to tell you why.
M. O'BRIEN: So to speak, up in arms.
Plus, is the prosecutor in the CIA leak probe going to expand his investigation? Jeff Toobin is here. He'll give us the latest on that.
S. O'BRIEN: And coming up next, the update on that videotaped beating in New Orleans. We'll take a look at whether the city's police officers are cracking under the stress.
Stay with us.
You're watching AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
M. O'BRIEN: All right, we've all been watching that tape, that police beating tape out of New Orleans. Gosh, we all -- it takes us all back to Rodney King, of all things. But we just spoke -- Soledad, just a little while ago, spoke to the man who was the focus of that beating.
Let's listen for just a moment.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERT DAVIS, BEATEN BY OFFICERS: I'm not well. I haven't slept all night. I've been up all night. My back is hurting. I have a problem with my shoulder. I may have to have an operation on my eye...
S. O'BRIEN: Your eye looks a little swollen, yes.
DAVIS: ... on my eye. But I hold no animosity against anyone. I want to thank our new police chief for his quick action. I really do. I mean that's the first time I've known it to happen. But I also want to have the officer who was on that horse, who was black, by the way, I'd like to have him suspended because I feel that he had some complicity in this situation.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
M. O'BRIEN: Interesting.
I hadn't heard that. You know, you saw that shot of the horse mounted officer trying to block the photographer as he was doing his job.
Let's bring in Lieutenant David Benelli.
He is president of the Police Association of New Orleans.
Lieutenant, good to have you with us.
I just want to pick up on that one point. That's the first time I've heard anybody suggest that the officer on the horse be in any way implicated in this.
What are your thoughts on that?
LT. DAVID BENELLI, POLICE ASSOCIATION OF NEW ORLEANS: Well, the mounted division is the crowd control. And if you have a situation where you have an incident where there is a resisting arrest and a...
M. O'BRIEN: Well, there's, no, no, no... BENELLI: ... police actions...
M. O'BRIEN: Well, there was no crowd there. He was blocking the camera. There's no doubt what he was doing.
BENELLI: Well, we don't know -- we don't know what was behind the camera. We have to, you know, the whole deal about the camera incident and -- I think we have to understand that this -- the video is extremely troubling. The first time I saw it, I think I had the same reaction as everybody else.
But after 30 years in police work, one thing I do know is that the video camera only shows you one angle of one portion of an entire incident.
M. O'BRIEN: All right...
BENELLI: And before you can make any judgments about the case, I think you have to look at all...
M. O'BRIEN: All right, well, hang on.
Hang on...
BENELLI: ... of it, the situation in totality.
M. O'BRIEN: I want to ask you about that. But just -- I want to get you on record here on the officer on the horse.
Should he be part of this investigation? Should he be implicated?
BENELLI: Well, first of all, as to being part of the investigation, the one thing I do know, that in any investigation of this nature, any police officer, any police official, any outside agent, any federal agent that was on the scene at the time of this incident will be subject to an investigation.
M. O'BRIEN: All right, let's -- I want to -- this whole notion of things happened before and after the camera on and the camera kind of distorts things, I've been trying to think of what could have happened before that camera was there that could have justified what I saw, and I can't think of anything.
Can you?
BENELLI: Well, we don't know. And that's the thing is that we don't know what kind of...
M. O'BRIEN: Well, what would justify that kind of beating, Lieutenant?
What would justify that sort of beating?
BENELLI: Well, I don't know...
M. O'BRIEN: Anything? Is there anything?
BENELLI: ... if anything would justify it.
M. O'BRIEN: OK.
BENELLI: I don't know. Now, this is what I'm saying is that we're not condoning, you know, misconduct from a police officer. Now, after the investigation, if it shows that the officers acted inappropriately, I guarantee you action will be taken.
But before you can rush to judgment and even though it looks damaging, it looks really damaging, before -- these officers and the other officers on the scene deserve due process. They deserve to be investigated.
M. O'BRIEN: No one...
BENELLI: And after a full investigation, then they can make a decision on if the actions were appropriate or not.
M. O'BRIEN: I understand. And I'm sure there is a back story. There always is a back story.
But I still cannot come up with a scenario, because I see what I see. And you see it, too, Lieutenant. And I'm not saying this is your entire department, because, you know, every department is filled with human beings and human beings in stress can act inappropriately.
BENELLI: Well, there's no doubt that the men and women in the New Orleans Police Department is under a heavy stress right now. You know, we just witnessed the most devastating hurricane and flooding in this city's history. Eighty percent of our police officers, 80 percent don't have any homes anymore. They happen to live in the very areas that were most devastated by floods.
If you look at the difference between this and, say, 9/11, you know, as horrible as 9/11 was, and the unbelievable work those firefighters and police officers did at ground zero, at the end of that day, those emergency workers had homes to go to and families to visit...
M. O'BRIEN: You know, your point is...
BENELLI: Our officers don't have that.
M. O'BRIEN: Your point is so well taken. And they've worked hours that are astounding. They've slept in their squad cars. They've only recently been moved to a cruise ship. They're separated from their families. On and on it goes.
My feeling is we're simply asking the officers too much. And is there a fundamental problem with the way New Orleans is being policed right now?
You've got to give them better hours. You've got to spell them somehow, don't you think? Because there is too much being asked of these human beings.
BENELLI: Well, you know, in a way I agree with you. But we have 1,500 police officers out there working long hours, but they're doing the job. They're protecting and serving the city. The vast majority of men and women in the New Orleans Police Department have done unbelievable work. They kept this city together under unbelievable conditions. And they haven't succumbed to the stress.
Now, there are -- they're working hard. They are stressed out, considering at all the levels of stress -- losing their homes, losing their families, you know, the long hours. But, you know, these are things that most police officers are actually coping with.
And I'm not ready to -- until we talk to these officers, until we know as far as the incident on Bourbon Street, we don't know yet if stress is a factor in this.
M. O'BRIEN: Well, it's got to be.
BENELLI: And before we just want to just, you know...
M. O'BRIEN: I mean I think it's, you know, I think it's almost a given, Lieutenant, that stress has something to do with this.
Are you ashamed right now of your police department?
BENELLI: I lost him.
M. O'BRIEN: Are you there still?
Lieutenant, can you hear me?
BENELLI: I just lost what you were saying.
M. O'BRIEN: Are you ashamed of your police department or are you proud of your department?
BENELLI: Oh, let me tell you something. I've been on this job for 30 years. I've never been more proud of the men and women of this New Orleans Police Department. The conditions that we had to work with during the course of the hurricane and then the aftermath of the flood, keeping this city together when, you know, federal assistance was slow in coming, you know, having to deal with hardly no communication whatsoever, you know. And the countless thousands of lives the men and women of the New Orleans Police Department saved by going out into that horrified waters and rescuing people off their homes and -- it's just amazing what these men and women did during the most catastrophic event in the City of New Orleans' history.
M. O'BRIEN: Thanks for your time, Lieutenant.
That's Lieutenant David Benelli.
He's president of the Police Association of New Orleans -- Soledad. S. O'BRIEN: Still to come this morning, critics respond to a controversial new gun law in Florida. Some state officials, though, say they're using scare tactics to get their point across. Find out why on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
S. O'BRIEN: A controversial new Florida gun law allows citizens to defend themselves when they are confronted with violence.
As CNN's John Zarrella tells us, the response from gun control advocates has the state's tourism board up in arms.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP FROM FLORIDA TOURISM AD)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Florida is tough to beat.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is the Florida tourism officials want you to see.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP FROM FLORIDA TOURISM AD)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Seafood, night life.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ZARRELLA: But this flyer conjures up a different image.
KEN ELLIS, MIAMI VISITOR: I'm wondering whether we're, you know, moving back to the Old West, and I don't mean west Florida. I mean the old west.
ZARRELLA: The Brady Campaign, a gun control group, has taken aim at the state's new no-retreat law, called common sense by Governor Jeb Bush.
(on camera): It says any person can stand their ground, meet force with force if he or she believes it's necessary to prevent death or bodily harm. There is no longer any obligation to try to retreat first, whether in your house, your car or on the street.
(voice-over): Supporters say law-abiding citizens can now protect themselves without fear of prosecution. The Brady Campaign says the law may lead to the reckless use of guns. The group is handing out its flyer at Florida airports.
ZACK RAGBOURN, BRADY CAMPAIGN: The people who are most at risk of being in one of these tragic misunderstandings are the people who don't know that deadly force can now be used more often in Florida. Those are the people who don't live in Florida.
ZARRELLA: State tourism officials fire back -- it's scare tactics.
VANESSA WELTER, FLORIDA TOURISM BOARD: They're picking on Florida. That's because we're a top tourism destination. We're a global tourism destination.
ZARRELLA: The flyer warns tourists to take precautions, saying: "Do not argue unnecessarily with local people."
At Miami airport, Dana Brooks agrees with tourism officials.
DANA BROOKS, MIAMI VISITOR: Why else would you distribute these at an airport, knowing people are flying in for vacation or other reasons, if you're not handing this out to scare people?
ZARRELLA: The Brady Campaign says it's not trying to scare visitors, just inform them. State tourism officials charge the campaign is trying to leverage tourism dollars to make a political point.
ZARRELLA: John Zarrella, CNN, Miami.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
S. O'BRIEN: Florida Governor Jeb Bush has denounced the Brady Campaign's efforts to advise tourists of the state's new gun law, calling it pure unadulterated politics -- Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: Still to come on the program, the latest on the U.S. earthquake relief effort in Pakistan and how it could affect the search for Osama bin Laden. We'll go live to the Pentagon for more on that on AMERICAN MORNING.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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