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CNN Live At Daybreak

Tropical Storm Wilma Growing in Caribbean; Saddam Hussein's Trial; White House Aides Face Possible Legal Trouble

Aired October 17, 2005 - 05:00   ET

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

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. It is Monday, October 17. This is DAYBREAK, and we are following this news just coming into us. It's happened so quickly.
A tropical depression in the Caribbean just last night has now blown up into tropical storm status. The depression was upgraded to tropical storm status within the last half-hour. Let's go right to Chad, for him to explain more about Wilma.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: It is Wilma. Good morning, Carol. And happy Monday to you.

Wilma now the 21st named storm of the year. That ties the record for tropical storms from 1933, the old record. We'd have to get to Tropical Storm Alpha, the "A" later of the Greek alphabet, to break it. But we're now in a tie.

This may be the hurricane watchers' nightmare storm, because it's not going to move literally 500 miles in seven days. It's going to try to try to travel on to Belize, into Honduras, and then kind of make a right-hand turn, and on up into the Yucatan.

The storm isn't moving at all right now. And you can just begin to see a little bit of a flare-up. And if you've noticed, some of these flare-ups are actually drifting to the south. There's enough of a push to the south that for a while today the storm may actually go to the southwest before it makes the turn.

Here's the turn that I'm talking about. The turn does take it on up to at least close to the Gulf of Mexico by Saturday, late Friday night, Saturday night, 2:00 in the morning, and then possibly somewhere into the Gulf of Mexico after that. And you see that that's a Category 1 hurricane, Category 2 hurricane as it crosses Cancun and Cozumel, and then on up into the Gulf of Mexico.

Now, remember, there are computer models that are predicting everything from Cuba -- most of them, though, were actually predicting a westward track into the heart of the Yucatan, and then possibly straight into Mexico. That's the way the current forecasts have been going in the overnight. Remember, now, that's still five days away. That cone as we talked about, Carol, gets mighty big at five days.

COSTELLO: Or it could go away. At least we hope so.

MYERS: It absolutely could go away, but the water is pretty warm right there, right now. COSTELLO: All right, Chad. We'll get back to you. Thank you.

MYERS: You're welcome.

COSTELLO: It is now in the hands of election officials. The ballots from the weekend's voting for a new constitution in Iraq are being counted right now. We expect preliminary results tomorrow. The next big step for Iraq is the trial of ousted leader Saddam Hussein.

Our Chief International Correspondent Christiane Amanpour in Baghdad with more on preparations for that trial.

Good morning.

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.

The issue of when exactly Saddam Hussein will stand trial has been really bubbling for months ever since he was captured back in December a year or so ago. He has had his first hearing. We were witness to that in January -- rather July of 2004. And this Wednesday he is scheduled to go back into court inside what's known as the Green Zone here in Baghdad and start trial for one of many, many charges that have been logged against him.

We understand the first trial is going to be one around the so- called Dujail massacre. This is Saddam Hussein and seven other of his regime accused of massacring more than 140 Shiite Muslim men from the Dujail area after they tried to ambush a motorcade that was passing through there in July of 1992. The retribution from Saddam is alleged to have accused -- alleged to have included jailing of women and children for many, many years in that village, and also the complete destruction of, for instance, the date palms which formed the economy of that area.

This is some of the major and banal charges and things that Saddam is alleged to have done during his rule. And even now people are still finding mass graves over the last several weeks. Another one was found not far from where we are, and apparently some 270 or so have been uncovered since the fall of this regime back in April of 2003 -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Will this trial be televised, Christiane?

AMANPOUR: You know, it's extremely hard. It's been very, very difficult for the press and the military working together to try to figure out the exact logistics for broadcasting and for covering this trial.

It's been going back and forth. We're still in negotiations, the various heads of the news organizations here, as to how it's going to be broadcast. Will it be broadcast live, will it be broadcast at all? Will there be a delay? How is it going to go?

We also, I can tell you, have been getting extreme security clearances. I had to go today to the U.S. military here and be asked a series of personal questions, have a retina scan, finger -- well, not a fingerprint, because the computer wasn't working, but very Draconian security measures, unusual measures and security clearances, if you like, screening, to cover a news event of this type.

So they're taking the security quite seriously. And we have yet to know exactly how the whole thing is going to be broadcast.

COSTELLO: Christiane Amanpour, reporting live from Baghdad this morning.

President Bush calls the weekend vote in Iraq very positive. He says indications suggest voter turnout was larger than last January's election for a parliament and interim government. But he's not saying whether he believes the constitutional referendum passed.

But amid the voting, more violence against U.S. troops in Iraq. Six were killed in two attacks on Saturday, and that brings the total U.S. death toll in Iraq to 1,980.

After more than a week of drenching rains, the Northeast is beginning to dry out this morning. But high winds were a problem over the weekend, knocking out power to thousands.

In New Jersey, the water is still high in some parts of the state. But in this sign that the worst is over, the governor did lift the state of emergency.

The Massachusetts governor has lifted its state of emergency. He did so on Sunday. The governor said driving rains flooded roads, bridges and homes, and about 75 towns and cities.

In Connecticut, authorities are keeping an eye on swollen rivers and streams. A woman's body was discovered yesterday. Authorities say she fell into the rapids of a river.

And in New Hampshire, things are getting better, too. But the rivers are still high, and many roads are still closed. All together, the storm killed at least 12 people from Pennsylvania to Maine.

Two top White House aides are under a legal magnifying glass today. One of them, Karl Rove, made another appearance before a grand jury days ago. Jurors are investigating the leak of an undercover CIA operative's identity, but time is running out.

Our National Correspondent Bob Franken has more for you.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The president, along with so many others, is waiting. Will the man who for so long has accompanied him on his political ride soon have to cope with legal difficulties? Does Karl Rove's fourth appearance before the grand jury Friday portend a high-level indictment or not at Rove's level, or that of the vice president's chief of staff, Lewis "Scooter" Libby?

Speculation about what might happen is running rampant.

JOSEPH DIGENOVA, FMR. U.S. ATTORNEY: If they are indicted, well then obviously they're going to have to resign from the White House, because a sitting president cannot have indicted individuals working on his staff.

FRANKEN: In her long-awaited article, "New York Times" reporter Judith Miller, who spent 85 days in jail, writes about speaking to Libby in the days before the public exposure of CIA operative Valerie Plame. Plame is the wife of harsh administration critic Joseph Wilson. "Special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald," she writes, questioned her closely about Libby.

ROBERT BENNETT, JUDITH MILLER'S ATTORNEY: Mr. Fitzgerald is putting together a big puzzle, and Judy may very well have provided him a piece of the puzzle which is not obvious to me.

FRANKEN: In her article, Miller on the one hand says, "Mr. Libby told me that Mr. Wilson's wife may have worked on unconventional weapons at the CIA." But then she goes on to write, "My notes do not show that Mr. Libby identified Mr. Wilson's wife by name."

(on camera): The article gave little insight into Fitzgerald's intentions. The grand jury's terms is almost over. And perhaps it's closer to letting its intentions be known.

Bob Franken, CNN, the White House.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: And as Bob mentioned, "New York Times" reporter Judith Miller has been a key part of this investigation, but what did she know, when did she know it, and who told her? The answer are still not clear. Miller has written about her latest testimony before the grand jury, where she was questioned about her notes and her conversations with top Cheney aide Louis "Scooter" Libby.

She says on page one of "The New York Times," "I wrote the name 'Valerie Flame.' I simply could not recall where that came from when I wrote it or why the name was misspelled."

She goes on to write, "I testified that I did not believe the name came from Mr. Libby. In part because the notation does not appear in the same part of my notebook as the interview notes from him."

Miller says Libby did complain that the CIA was trying to shift blame to the White House over the failure to find weapons of mass destruction.

Much more on this in the 6:00 hour of DAYBREAK.

The White House is bringing in some big legal guns to back up Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers. Two former Texas Supreme Court chief justices are coming to Washington today. John Hill and Thomas Phillips are bringing testimonials about Miers based on their dealings with her as a Texas trial lawyer. Conservatives have criticized Miers' qualifications because she never served as a judge.

Texas Congressman Tom DeLay is in the middle of a legal war, but his war chest is looking pretty good. The cash in his campaign coffers rose to more than $1 million over the past three months. An aide says that's a new record for DeLay.

Much of the money came before the former White House (sic) majority leader was indicted in an alleged campaign finance scheme.

Still to come on DAYBREAK, as if powerful earthquakes weren't enough, now heavy rains deluge parts of Pakistan. A report from the region later this hour.

And the search for oysters in the Gulf after the one-two punch of Katrina and Rita.

And on a lighter note, a welcome home after an out-of-this-world trip.

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Oh, the international markets mixed this morning. Tokyo's Nikkei is down 20. The London FTSE is up only four points. The German DAX adding five.

And, you know, with Tropical Storm Wilma now swirling near the Gulf, crude oil futures trading much higher this morning, up $1.25. It's $63.88 a barrel.

Your news, money, weather and sports. It's 5:13 Eastern. Here's what's all new this morning.

One Romanian town is under a three-week quarantine this morning after it was confirmed that the deadly bird flu was found there. Officials are destroying all birds in the area and say they will disinfect the entire town.

Two Chinese astronauts back on solid ground. Actually, over there they're called taikonauts. They landed safely in the Gobi Desert after spending five days in orbit. The so-called Divine Vessel is China's second manned space mission.

In money news, call it Barbie for big girls. Doll Maker Mattel is expanding the brand into a line of designer clothing for adults. It includes everything from jeans and shirts to jewelry and handbags. So you, too, can dress like Barbie.

In culture, Mary-Kate Olsen is taking a break from culture -- or from college, rather. "People" magazine reports the 19-year-old is taking some time off from New York University to focus on the business empire she owns with her sister Ashley. Ashley, by the way, is staying at NYU.

In sports, take a look. Michelle Wie making a drop near the seventh green Saturday at the Samsung World Championship. But on Sunday, rules officials said she dropped it too close to the hole, and they disqualified her. It was Wie's first tournament as a pro. The disqualification cost her more than $53,000.

And oh, by the way, Annika Sorenstam won the Samsung by eight strokes -- Chad.

MYERS: I'm trying to see what she did incorrect there, and I can't quite figure it out.

COSTELLO: She dropped it closer to the hole.

MYERS: Well, she picked it up twice, so it wouldn't stay where she needed it to stay. And then it looked like maybe she placed it. I'm not sure. Yes, I'll have to -- I'll read that.

Getting too close to the hole. You have to be a little bit farther away, or right at where you are if you have to take a drop.

Good morning, Carol.

Yes, this is the breaking news of the morning. This is Wilma. Good morning, Wilma. Yes, from "The Flinstones," believe it or not.

The same now. The storm moves on up into the Gulf of Mexico possibly by Saturday, although a lot of computer models now actually take it to the left into Belize, maybe northern Honduras. That would be the best news for the Gulf Coast, but obviously the worst news for folks down there.

We'll keep you up to date. This storm is a slow mover, right now moving two miles per hour. The winds, in fact, are going 40, but the storm is only moving ahead at two -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Thank you, Chad.

That's a look at the latest headlines this morning.

In news "Across America," a prominent attorney at TV legal analyst finds himself in a different kind of spotlight. Daniel Horowitz's wife was found dead at their San Francisco-area home. Police are calling it a murder. They say they have no suspects, no motives, and they have not released the cause of death.

Horowitz recently appeared on CNN to discuss his client, Susan Polk, who's accused of killing her husband.

A fiery setback for a Houston oil refinery which is trying to get back to full capacity after Hurricane Rita. An explosion and fire at the refinery sent one worker to the hospital with minor burns. It all happened has workers were trying to restart some machinery. The place was shut down when Rita threatened the Houston area.

Some disappointed high-schoolers on Long Island. The head of the Catholic school there has canceled the spring prom. Brother Kenneth Hoblin (ph) says kids are spending way too much money on the prom and, as he puts it, "flaunting their wealth." Hoblin (ph) says he's heard stories of sex and booze on prom night, but it's the money angle that's really got him fed up.

Still to come this morning, we'll take you to the waters off New Orleans for a look at yet another industry struggling to survive the wrath of Katrina.

And bucket for Bigfoot. We'll show you how the enthusiasts get charged up.

You're watching DAYBREAK for Monday.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Heavy rains aren't just plaguing parts of the United States. They've also drenched Pakistan more than a week after a deadly earthquake. After two days of downpours, relief workers are just now scrambling to reach thousands of desperate quake survivors.

Chakala Air Base outside Islamabad is a hub for relief sites. CNN's Paula Hancocks is there.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, you can see the weather has certainly improved here, and that does mean that the relief operation is very much back on track. You can see one of the U.S. Chinooks being loaded up here. It's going to take about five or six tons of food, water and blankets just a bit north of Muzaffrabad. It should take about 45 minutes in all to get the aid up to this area.

Now, they say that if the area is inaccessible to be able to land, then they can just drop this aid on the side of the mountain so at least the people in these villages will get the first wave of aid here.

Now, this will take about another 20 minutes. Then this particular helicopter will be taking off.

You can see the amount of lorries here as well. The fact is that the helicopter takes only 45 minutes, an hour to get some where, where the lorries themselves could take up to eight or nine hours.

So the fact that the weather has improved, and the fact that these helicopters can start to take off again, is going to be invaluable for this relief operation. Many of these helicopters going to places lorries cannot get to.

Speaking to the spokesperson for the military on Sunday, he said that maybe up to about 20 percent of villages have not yet been accessed. And these helicopters are the way that they can access and bring that first wave of aid to these people.

Now, you can see just down here the long line of helicopters that is just waiting to take off. We do expect these helicopters to, once they've actually given the aid, to bring back casualties. One of the soldiers I was speaking to was saying that last -- on Sunday and on Monday, he was expecting to bring back about 50 casualties on each trip. And they expected about two or three trips a day. So when you consider how many aircraft there are here, how many helicopters, that's going to make a big difference.

Now, they have about 57 helicopters or so on this particular air base, the Chakala Air Base, just outside of Islamabad. And all these helicopters will be flying today to try to make up for lost time.

On Sunday, of course, we didn't have any helicopters taking off, just one or two because the weather was so bad. And you can see just over there some of the pallets that have been left there.

Now, this is aid that's been brought in by the big cargo planes behind from all across the world. But, of course, on Sunday, they couldn't be moved. They couldn't move from this air base, and they couldn't be taken to the places where they're really needed.

So we are expecting a few more helicopter trips on top of what they normally do today to try and clear this backlog so that they can get exactly what they need to get to the people in the more remote areas of Pakistan-controlled Kashmir.

Paula Hancocks, CNN, Chakala Airport, Islamabad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: From the Time Warner Center in New York, this is DAYBREAK with Carol Costello and Chad Myers.

COSTELLO: And good morning to you. Thank you for waking up with us. Welcome to the second half-hour of DAYBREAK.

Wilma's not wasting any time. We've just gotten word within the past hour that the tropical depression has now grown into a tropical storm.

Chad, how strong is it going to get?

MYERS: Well, some of the computer models now at 109 knots. Do the multiplication, that's 125 miles per hour, Carol. It could be a major hurricane before it finally stops somewhere.

Here is Wilma now. I just read the discussion from the hurricane center. And they're really not very impressed with the storm. But there is convection here southeast of the Cayman Islands, and also southwest of Jamaica.

That convection has been sliding to the south and to the southwest overnight, a couple miles per hour. But enough to say that the storm, the center is right about there. Actually, it's not even under where you see the big, bright red here. And it is going to be traveling to the west, possibly to the southwest for a while, and then turning up toward the northwest, toward the -- then even maybe toward the northeast. We don't know yet.

Remember, this, from here to here, not very far, 600 miles, five days, 120 hours away. And that 120-hour forecast can go left or it can go right. It could even go straight to the west, as many computer models this morning are suggesting. All weekend long the models have been going farther left, farther west, farther west, farther west.

(WEATHER REPORT)

COSTELLO: Thank you, Chad.

MYERS: You're welcome.

COSTELLO: Other stories "Now in the News" this morning.

Six members of the U.S. military have been killed in two attacks in Iraq. Also, an Iraqi election official says 10 election workers were kidnapped during voting for a new constitution on Saturday. Those abductions occurred west of Baghdad.

Israel has suspended security efforts with the Palestinians this morning. The move follows the shooting death of three Israeli settlers in the West Bank. Israel has also slapped tough travel restrictions on the region.

A moderate earthquake has rocked some of the Greek islands. In western Turkey, the magnitude 5.2 quake struck underneath the Aegean Sea this morning. So far, no reports of casualties.

The constant rain in the Northeast is finally over, and now the cleanup has begun. Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney lifted the state of emergency there. That means the National Guard is now deactivated. Residents in about 30 communities across the state were forced to evacuate during heavy flooding.

It was pretty much the same story in Connecticut. Two deaths in that state are being blamed on floods.

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