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CNN Live Sunday
Riots Continue In France; Tornado Tears Through Evansville Indiana
Aired November 06, 2005 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: More rioting in France. This is the 11th consecutive night. Why can't the French government get control?
ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Ed Lavandera in Evansville, Indiana, where search-and-rescue efforts continue right now, even 16 hours after a deadly tornado rips through this town in the middle of the night.
LIN: And a daring rescue after an SUV plunges into Tampa Bay.
It is November 6, and you're watching CNN LIVE SUNDAY.
From the CNN Center in Atlanta, I'm Carol Lin.
To our top story in just a moment.
But first, these are the stories making news right now.
U.S. and Iraqi forces are seizing insurgents and weapons in a massive sweep in western Iraq. Dozens of insurgents have been killed in Operation Steel Curtain, now in its second day.
A U.S. Marine also died today. We are going to have the very latest ahead.
President Bush is due to arrive in Panama about an hour from now, following a visit to Brazil. Mr. Bush met with his Brazilian counterparts but left short of his goal of persuading him to support a proposed free trade zone of the Americas.
Gasoline prices are dropping. The Lundberg Survey finds the price for all three grades of gas plunged an average of 23 cents in the past two weeks. Prices are now at levels found before Hurricane Katrina.
Our top story now, the search for more victims of the vicious tornado in the Midwest. Twenty-two people are confirmed dead after the twister struck southern Indiana early this morning. At least 230 are hurt.
But more dead and injured may be trapped in the debris. The storm reduced many homes to rubble. The National Guard is helping now with search and recovery.
The tornado formed in Kentucky, but it did the worst damage across the border in Indiana. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ASST. CHIEF CHAD BENNETT, NEWBURGH, INDIANA, FIRE DEPARTMENT: It was just a very eerie feeling when the tornado sirens went off, and then the very still, quiet calm outside. And then the hail, and then the freight-train sound. So, I mean, it was personally very scary for me and my family...
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LIN: And this video just in to the CNN Center. You are looking at a rescue operation that happened overnight in the hours after this tornado hit. You can see what the odds are as rescuers are going through the debris, just picking up one board at a time. And look, a woman, right now, emerging, alive. That's what's been going on all night long. And right now, the rescue operation is continuing as rescue workers we saw in the last hour bringing in lights and vehicles and still searching for people who may still be alive.
They still believe that this is a rescue operation, that there are people still trapped beneath the rubble, this tornado striking in the middle of the night, 2:00 in the morning, when people were fast asleep. The sirens had sounded, but some people only had 10 minutes to get out or get to their storm cellars.
But again, a miracle, as people are being pulled out of the rubble of a mobile home park.
Now, we are covering every angle of this story for you. Our Ed Lavandera is in Evansville, Indiana, where the tornado devastated that mobile home park. And CNN meteorologist Chad Myers is tracking the storm system that spawned the twister.
So let's start with you, Ed, in Evansville. What's happening right now?
LAVANDERA: Hi, Carol.
Well, just a few moments ago, we saw a team of search-and-rescue teams go into this area. They've been bringing in heavy machinery, and we presume they will be working well into the night here, as you've mentioned just off the top here, that this is still a search- and-rescue mission. Clearly, there are the officials believe that there is still more work to be done, perhaps the chance that there are more people will be find, hope... be found, hopefully alive, in this rubble.
This mobile home park is the home of about 350 homes. About 150 of them were completely destroyed, another 100 suffered damage. Seventeen people here were killed. Just a few hours ago in -- before the sunset here, there is a young child that was rescued, found alive in a ditch, covered up in a lot of debris. But the good news is, is, that that young child was found alive. But there are 17 others killed in this particular area that we're standing in right now, that were killed as this storm ravaged through here in the middle of the night, 2:00 in the morning. The tornado sirens had started going off about 1:30, but clearly, not loud enough to wake people up and the -- to get people moving to any kind of safety. And this particular area, it wasn't even clear if there would have been any safe places for them to retreat so quickly anyway.
But throughout the region, 22 people in all dead. But the search-and-rescue missions will continue here well into the night. Many of the residents say that they're at this point, they feel lucky to be alive.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When it all started, it was five after two, and we heard, like they said, the trains coming.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This tornado is much worse than the storm we had a year and a half ago. The storm a year and a half ago was only an F-2. This is definitely going to be way more. We've got a lot more damage.
(END VIDEO CLIPS)
LAVANDERA: Of course, not only strange that the storm hit in the middle of the night, 2:00 in the morning, but this also comes months after what is considered to be tornado season. And there have been hospitals here have been swamped throughout the day, some 250 people getting treatment, many of those people suffering head and chest trauma. So those people continue to get the care. Many of them, a dozen or so, we've been told, are still in critical condition, Carol.
LIN: Ed, what can you tell us about the rescue operation tonight? What sort of equipment are they using? We saw this in the video from overnight that people were using their bare hands to slowly weed through this debris to find people.
LAVANDERA: Well, to give you an idea, we just saw, like, two 18- wheelers bringing some heavy machinery, some four-wheelers that will help them get in through these areas. We also saw the search-and- rescue teams that you -- bringing in dogs to sniff through the debris. And hopefully, they, you know, they think that will be a help.
But the heavy machinery that we understand have been brought in from Indianapolis, arriving here just a moments -- just moments ago, and actually headed down just down this road here. So they just getting started.
LIN: Any idea on numbers? How many people are still unaccounted-for in that mobile home park?
LAVANDERA: We haven't gotten any indication about that so far. But they do say that they have reason to believe that there still might be, as we've mentioned, that there still might be people in there, and that that's why they're bringing in all this equipment and people to continue that search.
LIN: All right. Ed Lavandera, on the scene, watching this and reporting this throughout the night.
Now, our severe weather expert, Chad Myers, is keeping track of the storm system from our Weather Center. Chad, this was a powerful wallop.
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Certainly was, a big line, I mean, 218 severe reports yesterday, 170 already today, basically wind damage today, but clearly the tornadoes yesterday. I'm backing up the radar till midnight last night. And now, there's Evansville, Indiana. There's the storm. This is Kentucky.
The storm actually developed just to the south of Evansville in Kentucky. But right there, actually because the river has changed position, the tornado was actually north of the river, and then it moved right through and south of Evansville, and then into Newburgh. And the storm, as it broke away, you never like to see these storms break away and become supercells, and that's what that storm did, F-3 tornado damage. That's the preliminary damage right now, but, you know, from what I've seen, that looks like an F-3 storm, absolutely, wind speeds over 150 miles per hour.
Here you go, back to 1:00 a.m., right through Evansville, and then it keeps right on going.
Now there's a problem. It really did keep right on going. And now it's in New York state, not so much with tornadoes, but with wind damage. I'll slip a little bit closer to it here. Capital district, Albany, Schenectady, you are in for some damage here in the next one hour or so.
Just had damage from Harvey's lake and from Binghamton right on down through into Scranton, and all the way down, for that matter, almost to the Delaware Water Gap. And this weather is charging to the east. There's Newburgh, there's Poughkeepsie, there's Peakesville (ph). And there's White Plains.
This is going to be an ugly evening for folks here. It's still nighttime, I know, and you don't expect severe weather at night. Didn't expect it last night either. You need to be on guard. There'll be a half a million people without power by tomorrow morning.
LIN: Wow, big story there. Chad, thank you very much.
MYERS: (INAUDIBLE).
LIN: Well, that's one of the big stories here in our country.
Overseas, the big story is what French police are doing to deal with an 11th night of rioting. And the violence appears to be escalating. At least 10 police officers were injured in clashes with rioters south of Paris. And some were firing shotguns at police.
French authorities vow to stop the chaos with arrests and trials and punishment.
Our Chris Burns has more from Paris. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHRIS BURNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The violence crept closer to the showpieces of Paris. A half-dozen cars were set on fire for the first time in the capital's upscale 17th District that stretches west from Montmartre to the Arc de Triomphe. President Jacques Chirac held an emergency security meeting Sunday with key members of his cabinet.
PRES. JACQUES CHIRAC, FRANCE (through translator): Today, the absolute priority is to reestablish security and public order. The law should have the final say, and the republic is determined to be stronger than those who want to spread violence and fear.
BURNS: In eastern Paris, at Place de la Republique, youths torched several cars and damaged shops. Altogether, authorities say, rioters burned some 1,300 vehicles across the country overnight Saturday, by far the highest figure since the violence began more than a week ago.
NICOLAS SARKOZY, FRENCH INTERIOR MINISTER (through translator): It was a difficult night. Even if the police displayed a lot of presence on the ground, they worked with a degree of control and allowed us to avoid many incidents. There were more than 300 arrests.
BURNS: The rioting exploded among France's poor immigrant neighborhoods, plagued by high unemployment and discrimination. And frustration was growing among rioters' victims too.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): We're at war. We need to send the army. There's no other solution.
BURNS: The list of cities attacked was growing, from Lille (ph) in the north to Rouen and Orleans in the west, from Nice and Cannes in the south, to Strasbourg in the east. Among the targets, schools, shops, another police station. Firefighters were attacked by youths with baseball bats in one Paris suburb.
(on camera): With the cost of the rioting rising into the millions, and the violence getting closer to tourist areas like this one, the government is under increasing pressure to take more action. But it faces a dilemma, how much of an iron fist to use, and how much more aid to promise to poor neighborhoods without making it look like they're rewarding the rioters.
(voice-over): Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin has held crisis talks in recent days with community leaders, with youths, teachers, and police. His government aims to complete an urban renewal plan by the end of the month.
In the meantime, there's the task of restoring order to areas where renegade youths are difficult to control.
Chris Burns, CNN, Paris.
(END VIDEOTAPE) LIN: Well, the tension and the violence across France is taking a toll on nerves and the country's image. Since October 27, get this, some 3,300 vehicles have been burned, set ablaze by angry youths. French police are tracking them down. They've made some 800 arrests since the riots began.
Now, back in this country, a nationwide manhunt is under way to find this man, Charles Victor Thompson. The convicted killer boldly walked out of a Texas county jail Thursday, and Texas authorities believe he may have had help making his getaway.
Our Keith Oppenheim is in Houston now with the very latest. Keith, what are they doing to find him?
KEITH OPPENHEIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, they are looking not just in Texas but really throughout the country, notifying Border Patrol, airports. I'll get into that a little bit more in just a moment.
But one of the reasons why authorities believe that he might have had some help is that on Friday, they found some clothes just outside this jail. There's another jail building across the street and behind it. That is where a deputy came across the clothes, as well as the prisoner ID that Charles Victor Thompson used.
Police say that he kind of rigged up that ID to look different as he was posing as an investigator for the attorney general's office. So one of the questions that they're asking is, who might have helped him to get his next outfit?
We spoke to one of our law enforcement experts, Don Clark, and asked him whether he thought that in this escape, Thompson might have had some luck, or whether this was possibly quite well planned.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DON CLARK, FORMER FBI SPECIAL AGENT: I think it's unacceptable, that you just -- it's unbelievable, I should say, that one would say, Oh, he was just lucky. You know, it was just a brief thing. He wasn't just lucky. He was lucky, because people lapsed in what they were supposed to do. But he certainly had a plan. He knew when he woke up that morning what his plan was.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
OPPENHEIM: Carol, it was back in 1998 that Thompson was convicted of killing his ex-girlfriend and her boyfriend. He was originally condemned to death row, and then he was brought back to this prison, to this jail, rather, this year, because he was granted a resentencing hearing. Once again he is condemned to death row. But before he is sent back to state prison, that's when he makes his escape.
As you indicated, this is a nationwide manhunt, and the U.S. Marshals are offering $10,000 for information that would lead to Charles Victor Thompson's capture. Back to you.
LIN: All right, thanks very much, Keith.
Now, Texas authorities are asking for your help. You can make a difference in catching this guy. If you've seen him, or you have any information at all, please call this number, 1-800-336-0102. That is the U.S. Marshals' hotline.
Now, you know that he was convicted of killing his former girlfriend, Dennise Hayslip, and her boyfriend. Tonight at 10:00 Eastern, I'm going to be talking with her brother. Police fear that he and other family members could now be targets of Thompson, and many of these people are in hiding. But the brother is speaking out tonight.
Our top story this hour, a tornado rips through the Midwest, tearing homes and lives apart. I'm going to talk with the sheriff of Worra (ph) County, Indiana, in just a few minutes as the nighttime rescue gets under way.
And the words of Osama bin Laden, a new book out has chronicled the al Qaeda leader's messages in their entirety. But do we want his statements to be in worldwide release?
Plus, an incredible water rescue after an SUV goes off a bridge. You are going to hear from the family who was in this car. It's straight ahead in this hour of CNN LIVE SUNDAY.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LIN: New developments today in the brazen piracy attempt on the high seas. A day after the luxury cruise liner, the "Seabourne (ph) Spirit," fled from an attack by pirates, the cruise is returning to normal. The ship has now reached the Seychelles Islands. Tomorrow passengers plan to go sightseeing.
Now, the pirates were operating off the dangerous coast of Somalia. Maritime officials now believe the same pirates may be behind the hijacking of a U.N. chartered vessel back in June.
Now, to Florida, where a family is undoubtedly counting their blessings tonight after a harrowing accident. It started when their SUV blew a tire and flipped off a bridge. What happened next, some are calling a miraculous rescue.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LIN (voice-over): Amira Jakupovic and her husband haven't even met the good Samaritans who dove off a highway bridge to save her family Saturday.
AMIRA JAKUPOVIC, ACCIDENT SURVIVOR: And I want to thank them. I owe them my life.
LIN: The couple and their two sons were traveling on an interstate bridge over Tampa Bay when their tire blew out.
LT. ALLAN CARTER, FLORIDA HIGHWAY PATROL: They lost control, hit the outer -- or hit the inside wall, then spun across the highway, hit the outside wall, went over the wall, went into the water.
LIN: The SUV flipped over as it plunged, the roof of the vehicle hitting the water first. Amira described being overcome by total darkness and sinking quickly to the bottom of the bay. She was able to grab her 13-year-old son and pull him to the surface. But her husband was trapped, and she could not see their 7-year-old son, Amar.
The captain of a small fishing boat came to help. From the bridge, passer-by Kerry Reardon (ph) stopped his car and jumped in.
JAKUPOVIC: Next thing I remember (INAUDIBLE) was a guy who jumped from the bridge. And -- And 30 seconds later, he got my boy.
LIN: Reardon swam down nine feet and unhooked Amar's seat belt. Seconds later, an off-duty nurse, Kelly Earle (ph), followed Reardon into the water, administering CPR once the boy was pulled into the boat.
JAKUPOVIC: The other girl, she was jumping from the bridge to (INAUDIBLE), I guess she was a nurse, that's what they told me.
LIN: The family is recovering at a nearby hospital. Doctors say they're alive today because of the quick thinking of strangers, and because they were wearing their seat belts.
JAKUPOVIC: I would give them my life because they saved my sons' lives.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LIN: Our hearts just go out to her, but thank God her family is alive.
For the words of Osama bin Laden, for the first time, a new book chronicles every statement the terrorist leader has ever made. I'm going to talk to the man who put it together.
Plus, right now, in Iraq, U.S. and Iraqi troops battling the insurgents along the Syrian border. Details on Operation Steel Curtain straight ahead.
And don't forget, this time tomorrow, it's THE SITUATION ROOM WITH WOLF BLITZER. You will not want to miss it.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LIN: You know that when Osama bin Laden speaks, his comments make headlines worldwide. But we here at CNN edit those comments, because we know he uses these statements to deliver messages to his followers. We have an entire team of people who comb through what he says to make sure that we are not falling into his media trap. Duke University professor, though, Bruce Lawrence, has translated the full text of many bin Laden speeches in the new book, "Messages to the World: The Statements of Osama bin Laden."
Bruce Lawrence joins me now from Raleigh, North Carolina.
Bruce, you were the editor of this project, but it was actually a San Diego civil rights attorney who (INAUDIBLE) whose project it was to collect these works and get them translated and analyzed, right?
PROF. BRUCE LAWRENCE, DUKE UNIVERSITY: Well, no, it was an independent project from Randy Hamoud (ph), and I respect what he did. But what Randy did was independent of what we did from Verso Publications. They were the ones who contacted me from London...
LIN: I see.
LAWRENCE: ... and I worked for Verso, not for Randy Hamoud.
LIN: All right. Well, you understand how cautious respected media is in giving and delivering anything that Osama bin Laden has to say, because he uses these speeches to deliver messages to his followers. Why compile these speeches?
LAWRENCE: Well, I think you just said it, because he's using these to deliver messages to his followers, and he's got different kinds of followers, doesn't he? He has those people who are close to him, the hardcore terrorists like himself, who have only one method and one hope of death and destruction for the enemy. There are others who support them but don't follow the means. And the third group are the people who might like to hate America and want to see anybody who can defeat America.
So I think it's that third group of people that he's targeting that I'd also like to target in this book and say, You know what? We don't have to follow those messages. There's another way.
LIN: Well, but aren't these messages dangerous? I mean, you are essentially making Osama bin Laden the possibility of a bestseller and author.
LAWRENCE: If he's a bestseller, I hope it's going to be to defeat him, because the framing of the messages, each case I take the message, and I put in a headnote and I put in footnotes and I put an apparatus that says, He's distorting what the real picture is. And the distortion comes out in time, time again, in every one of his speeches. He's wanting to say that it's all a religious war, the only thing that counts is whether you're Jewish, Christian, or Muslim. And people who are Jewish and Christian fight people who are Muslim.
I don't think the world is that simple, and I don't think everybody lines up as enemies because they're Jewish or Christian, and I don't think the enemies of Jewish and Christian folks happen to be Muslims.
LIN: Well, let's share some of Osama bin Laden's words and passages. I think we've created a graphic here. And what I have noted is that it's filled with hate. For example, "We are continuing to make America bleed to the point of bankruptcy by God's will." I see such an incredible sense of arrogance there.
LAWRENCE: Oh, yes, and he's failed, hasn't he? And one of the things that's really interesting, when you put that particular phrase in context, is, it comes at a place when he's saying in 2004 that he thinks that the war on terror has failed, and that his war on terror, which is to prevent us from doing what has been American foreign policy in Afghanistan and Iraq, he says that we've simply failed because we don't have enough means and don't have enough money.
I think he's completely underestimated the will, resolve, and the hopes of the American people, as well as this American government.
LIN: I hope so. What's the government reaction? Have you gotten any to the publication?
LAWRENCE: Yes, actually I've gotten reaction from people in the military and people in the State Department, both of whom are very appreciative, for one simple reason. They're glad to have these statements between two covers, as it were, because you can actually read from 1994 to 2004 in this book, which I'm showing you. You can read the statements of Osama bin Laden. And yes, you're right, it's toxic. It may be poisonous. But it is presented in such a way that I think we have a chance to confront him, which we did not have by looking at him piecemeal.
LIN: Because what is the one thing that you learned about him that might make him vulnerable, then?
LAWRENCE: One thing that you learn time and again when you read his statement is that he's appealing to people's, as you said, the motives of vengeance, of opposition, of hatred, of death and destruction. What he doesn't do is to go beyond that and say what kind of society can be a whole world, where people of different religions, different races, different backgrounds, and certainly from different countries, can cooperate to face the real enemies of the world, which are nuclear weapons...
LIN: All right.
LAWRENCE: ... and mass destruction and...
LIN: Well, that's clearly not what, not what he's trying to do. He's not out for the betterment of the greater good, he's out for himself.
LAWRENCE: And you, and you, and you get that. When you read the messages, you see that he's lacking...
LIN: OK.
LAWRENCE: ... what I call a social plan.
LIN: All right, Bruce Lawrence, thank you very much. LAWRENCE: You're welcome.
LIN: All right, we talked about some of the passages. And this book is out there, a compilation of speeches by the most famous terrorist in the world, a man hunted down by the U.S. government with a $20 million bounty on his head.
All right. I want to talk with Jim Walsh. He's a terrorism analyst with the Belfor (ph) Center at Harvard University.
Jim, your name was at the top of the mind when I heard about this, because I just couldn't imagine what your reaction would be. Is it helpful to have a book about Osama bin Laden, all his speeches, his public statements? Does it really help America fight terror?
JIM WALSH, HARVARD UNIVERSITY: Carol, I think it does. I think this is an important project. Now, I think Bruce is going to get a lot of unfair criticism here. But ever since Sun Tzu, you know, back in the sixth century B.C., wrote about military strategy, the number one lesson is, know your enemy.
We can only defeat bin Laden if we understand bin Laden. If we write him off and close our ears and don't pay attention to what he's saying, we're not going to be able to wage an effective campaign against him.
And it's not only a campaign that's a military campaign, this is a war of ideas. This is something that Secretary Rumsfeld has said again and again. If we're going to engage those ideas and win the hearts and minds of the moderate Muslims and Arabs around the world, then we need to know what he's saying.
LIN: But Jim...
WALSH: And so I think it's important.
LIN: But the intelligence community knows what he's saying. They have the full text and translations of these tapes that he releases. What's the point of releasing it to the public? Isn't it potentially a recruiting tool?
WALSH: You know, I don't think so. You know, back in -- during World War II, Alan Cranston, who later became a distinguished U.S. senator from the state of California, he was the first American to translate Hitler's "Mein Kampf." And that was an important work, where Americans could understand the real threat of what was going on here.
I don't think there are many people who became Nazis in the U.S. because we had a translation of "Mein Kampf." I think the danger is that we stick our heads in the ground, and we fail to understand the true character of the adversary we're up against.
Also, this is a democracy. How do democracies work? It's when citizens have information. And the final thing I would say, Carol, is that it's important for journalists, it's for scholars, for nongovernmental actors. You know, the government isn't known for innovation. It does a lot of good things well, but innovation and creativity is not one of those things.
I think we learned from the war in Iraq, you need to have independent voices who can look at information, come up with their own ideas, and come up with their own critiques.
So I think it's important for journalists, scholars like myself, and others to be able to look at these speeches, as well as just average citizens.
LIN: Jim Walsh, I hope you learn something from the text, as I know that Bruce Lawrence wants most of America and the government to do.
WALSH: Thank you, Carol.
LIN: Jim Walsh, thank you.
Now, right now in Iraq -- There you're seeing it. U.S. and Iraqi troops are battling the insurgency. But why have they launched Operation Steel Curtain right next to the Syrian border?
And they lost their houses, but not their spirit. Meet some Katrina victims who ran the New York Marathon today, and why they did it.
You're watching CNN LIVE SUNDAY.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LIN: Welcome back.
And here's a quick look at what's happening right now in the news.
French President Jacques Chirac is vowing to arrest and punish those responsible for spreading violence across the country. In 11 nights of rioting, demonstrators have torched cars, businesses, schools, and other symbols of French authority. Ethnic minorities, frustrated over unemployment, started the violence.
A nationwide manhunt is under way for fugitive Charles Victor Thompson. The convicted killer escaped from a jail in Houston after showing deputies a fake ID. The U.S. Marshals Service is offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to the capture of Thompson. His attorney says he doubts Thompson would kill again, that is, unless he's cornered.
President Bush is due in Panama later tonight after a summit in Brazil. Mr. Bush met with Brazilian President Lula da Silva today, but failed to win Brazil's endorsement of free trade zones stretching from Canada to Argentina. Da Silva is one of five South American leaders who opposed the president's plan.
Also, search-and-rescue efforts are continuing in southwestern Indiana after a tornado ripped through the region, killing at least 22 people. The twister struck in the darkness overnight. Officials say it cut a 20-mile path of destruction, leveling dozens of homes.
Our meteorologist, Chad Myers, keeping track of the storm system from our Weather Center. Chad, trouble ahead for the East Coast?
MYERS: Absolutely, trouble ahead for Schenectady, Albany, and Troy, and even Saratoga Springs, maybe even to New York City in a few minutes.
I want to take you right here to our Google Earth. I want to take you to the map here. We've been talking about all these areas, Evansville and Henderson. This is Kentucky, this is Indiana. I'm going to get very close to where this tornado touched down originally. We talked about this race track, the senator in the area saying about $7 million worth of damage right there at the race track.
Going to zoom you back out, Evansville, on the top, the storm actually traveled to the east-northeast and through the town of Newburgh, which is here, so it really missed most of Evansville. But still, a 20-mile track across that area.
We do believe that this was probably an F-3.
Now we're going to go right on over to the severe prediction center home page to NOAA. I want to talk about this F-scale. Light damage on an F-0, couple of trees down. An F-1 would look more like a roof off. Now an F-2. And this is how we do it. It's not a wind speed, it's a damage assessment. A mobile home completely gone.
And now to an F-3,s severe damage, but some walls on strong structures still standing. F-4, only a very few walls still standing. And an F-5, incredible damage. You can't even find the home.
Right now, the assessment does look like the preliminary of an F- 3, wind speeds possibly as many as 150 or more miles per hour. And from the looks of some of the damage on some of those strong structures, not only the mobile homes, I concur with at least an F-3, Carol.
LIN: Chad, but what would slow this storm down or weaken it?
MYERS: What's going to slow it down is basically the East Coast. We'll slide over here. I only have a couple of seconds left, Carol. But this storm is going to be very, very close to some big cities here in a quick time. Here's Albany, Troy, and Schenectady, very strong cells with wind damage there. And also just down to the south, from Pottstown through Allentown over to the Delaware Water Gap, all severe thunderstorm warnings, all areas now having damage being reported with winds in excess of about 70 miles per hour in the entire line.
LIN: All right. Chad, good to have you with us tonight.
MYERS: (INAUDIBLE).
LIN: I know you're going to be with us through the evening...
MYERS: Absolutely.
LIN: ... tracking this storm.
All right. I want to share with people what we're about to do. There are 3,500 troops, most of them U.S. troops, along the Syrian border in an intense operation. Take a look at this. This is just a fraction of Operation Steel Curtain. So much is at stake, we want to go in depth and explain to you what is happening and why.
U.S. and Iraqi forces are continuing their assault on insurgents in western Iraq. This operation is now in its second day, and it has killed dozens of enemy forces and netted more than 50 others. U.S. forces suffered, though, their first death today. A U.S. Marine was shot dead while raiding a house.
CNN's Aneesh Raman has the very latest.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANEESH RAMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The intent is in the name. Launched over the weekend, Operation Steel Curtain is meant as a final push against insurgents in the volatile al-Anbar Province, stemming the flow of foreign fighters, weapons, and cash from coming across the nearby Syrian border.
LT. COL. DALE ALFORD, U.S. MARINE CORPS: We're expecting a lot of IEDs, vehicles that were rigged for suicide bomb cars, houses that were rigged, doors that when you opened them, they were booby-trapped, pockets of resistance anywhere from eight to 10 to 12 size elements that are really dying in place.
RAMAN: Three thousand American and 550 Iraqi troops started sweeping through the town of Husayba (ph) at dawn Saturday, finding and destroying car bombs, conducting air strikes on insurgent command posts, confiscating weapons caches, and killing dozens of suspected terrorists, all the frequent hallmarks of continued operations in the western part of the country.
Over the past several weeks, from Iron Fist to Steel Curtain, the military has worked to cripple al Qaeda in Iraq in its strongest-held province, and unlike before, is now staying after operations are complete.
BRIG. GEN. DONALD ALSON, U.S. MILITARY SPOKESPERSON: What remains is a permanent Iraqi security force presence. We are building, the Iraqi army is building permanent locations in these areas.
RAMAN: A step possible only with larger numbers of trained and equipped Iraqi security forces, which the military says now stands at 211,000. But equally important is the number of operations Iraqis can conduct independent of U.S. support, a number the military says has gone from 13 to 25 percent since May.
(on camera): While Iraqi forces are increasing, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld recently suggested the number of U.S. troops in Iraq could also rise ahead of the December 15 elections, which is why, with just weeks to go, the timing of Operation Steel Curtain is deliberate.
Aneesh Raman, CNN, Baghdad.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LIN: So take a look at the region where these troops are stationed and fighting, under constant firefights, we are told. That yellow line on the map is the 370-mile-long border between Iraq and Syria. And U.S. coalition forces are convinced that the insurgents are using this as a gateway, these foreign fighters, into Iraq.
You kill the insurgency and the supply of foreign fighters, and perhaps you kill the opposition to the democratic movement inside that country.
Some 3,000 U.S. troops there with 550 Iraq troops involved, a battalion of Iraq troops. This is the largest operation since the attack on Falluja.
Now, why is this important? Well, Syria's response to the U.S. criticism is that it's ridiculous. In an exclusive interview with our very own Christiane Amanpour, President Bashar Assad told her that they are doing everything they can to guard that border, but similarly to the border here in the United States, the United States cannot prevent people from crossing the Mexican border or, in some cases, crossing the Canadian border, neither can Syria control the entire 370 miles.
That is what he told our Christiane Amanpour a couple of months ago.
Now, Syria denies helping militants who are trying to cross into Iraq, and witnesses say Syrian border guards have increased their presence at the border since the U.S.-led assault on Husayba began.
Now, did you happen to miss the newsmakers on the morning talk shows today? Because you were busy. Well, look, this is what we're going to do for you. We are going to show you the news that was made in case you missed it. That's straight ahead.
Plus, Katrina may have torn up their lives, but it didn't dampen their spirit. Meet two New Orleans runners who today ran the New York Marathon. There they are, the pretty good state, and pretty good spirit, when CNN LIVE SUNDAY returns.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) LIN: Now, in case you missed it, let's check some of the highlights from the Sunday morning talk shows, generating a lot of talk.
Newly declassified portions of an intelligence document that suggests the U.S. was warned that an al Qaeda member probably lied about links between the terror network and Iraq. On CNN's "LATE EDITION," Senator Jay Rockefeller admitted he too was deceived.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JAY ROCKEFELLER (D), INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: And as soon as we -- since I am on the Intelligence Committee, and we, soon as we did our report on weapons of mass destruction, and before we completed it, I realized that I had just been living off this information, this false information, intelligence. We blasted the folks who created the intelligence.
And I went down to the floor of the Senate, and I said, Look, I'm wrong. I would never vote for a war knowing what I know now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LIN: And on CBS's "Face the Nation," the Republican chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Pat Roberts, disputed Democrats' claims that he was stalling the next phase of an investigation into prewar intelligence on Iraq.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "FACE THE NATION," CBS)
SEN. PAT ROBERTS (R), CHAIR, INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: I've got tennis shoes and track shoes on on phase two. We have been doing this, are doing this, had it scheduled for next week. They knew it was scheduled for next week. And then...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But, of course, (INAUDIBLE)...
ROBERTS: ... and then closed down the Senate and said, You're going to have an investigation. When I walked on the Senate floor, I said, What's this all about? And they said, Well, it's an independent investigation. I said, What it's about? Said, You and phase two. I said, We're doing phase two.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LIN: On NBC's "Meet the Press," Democratic Senator Edward Kennedy defended his party's forcing a closed Senate session over the matter.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "MEET THE PRESS," NBC)
SEN. EDWARD KENNEDY (D), MASSACHUSETTS: This had been kicked along by the Intelligence Committee, by Pat Roberts, for over two years. And Harry Reid did more in two hours than that Intelligence Committee has done in two years. And the American people are going to get this information, and it's important that they get this information about how the intelligence was misused, because of the current situation.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LIN: Remember, every Sunday at 7:00 Eastern, I'm going to be bringing you the best headlines from the Sunday talk show circuit. And that way, you're going to hear it here before you read it in tomorrow's paper.
Now, look at this. Would you be willing to run 26.2 miles just to prove a point? My next guests did, all in the name of Katrina, Hurricane Katrina, that is. I'm going to explain, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LIN: After more than two hours of running today, Paul Tergat, a Kenyan, crossed the finish line first to win the New York Marathon. And among his competitors was a group of men from New Orleans.
As J.J. Ramberg reports, they had to be in the marathon despite tremendous losses suffered two months ago in Hurricane Katrina.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
J.J. RAMBERG, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): On August 29, as Katrina's winds lashed New Orleans and waters flooded the city, Brandon Wingate was running for his life.
BRANDON WINGATE, CATCH 22 TRACK CLUB: Seen death. Seen a, you know, heard a lot of people just trying to get out of these houses. So it was pretty terrifying. I mean, not knowing what was going to be the next step, not knowing what was going to be the next thing that you were going to do.
RAMBERG: Ten weeks later, Wingate and 23 of his friends from the New Orleans Catch 22 Track Club are running a different path, the New York City Marathon. Wearing shirts sporting the phrase "Proud to Call It Home," they want to show the world they're not only tough enough to handle the 26.2 miles through New York, but also the long road that lies ahead for their own city.
WINGATE: We're just proud to be down here and represent New Orleans, and we're here to kind of make a stand and say, We're just going to rebuild...
RAMBERG: Before the storm hit, the running club was training for the marathon twice a week. But after homes like Wingate's were destroyed and members were scattered around the country, the prospect of coming to New York seemed like a dream from another time, until organizer Andrew Lily (ph) brought those who had returned home back together.
WINGATE: You know, we're not sheet rockers or roofers, and so, so far, we really haven't contributed to rebuilding. And maybe this is our way. One or two people seeing it gives them some hope, you know, that we've accomplished something. RAMBERG: With running tracks washed away in New Orleans, their training over the past few weeks has been replaced by dinner together and swapping stories of harrowing experiences.
But, they said, the prospect of crossing that finish all together was enough to get them through the grueling race.
WINGATE: It's a great feeling to be able to just run again, just to come here and run. Not only the marathon, but just get out and be alive and do normal things, get back to normalcy.
RAMBERG: J.J. Ramberg, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LIN: Marathon runners Brandon Wingate and Daniel Simpson now join me live from New York. Both had homes damaged by Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, and both ran in today's New York Marathon.
Good to see both of you. You look like in, you're in pretty good shape after all that running. How are you feeling?
DANIEL SIMPSON, CATCH 22 TRACK CLUB: Pretty good.
LIN: Pretty good? You look good, Daniel.
WINGATE: Pretty good.
LIN: Brandon, you were talking in the piece about wanting to prove this point. I mean, where do you go from here?
WINGATE: Oh, we're just going to try to get back to New Orleans and get to some, get back to some normalcy, and this is going to be a good start to, good start to get back running and life in general, to get back on track.
LIN: Hey, Daniel, as you watch the news coverage, you know, of what's happening in New Orleans, what do you think the message is to the public about the state of the town and the city? And what do you want to tell us about it?
SIMPSON: Well, New Orleans is, you know, trying to get back on its feet and trying to rebuild and trying to get back to, you know, being life as normal again. And that's why we wanted to come up here and show the world that us New Orleaneans, you know, that we went through a terrible experience, but we're trying to get back on our feet. And I think we showed everybody that today...
LIN: You bet.
SIMPSON: ... by running the marathon.
LIN: You bet. Brandon, I want to show our audience and you a picture, all right? And I think this is going to bring in some emotions. We want to share what's left, I think, of your home. Is that it? WINGATE: Actually, that's the place across the street from mine, but it pretty much looked that -- the same way, it was pretty much that -- that had the characteristics of the same place. But it brings back some...
LIN: (INAUDIBLE)...
WINGATE: ... serious, serious memories.
LIN: Yes. Where are you living now?
WINGATE: Actually, it's on the other side of the town, by the river. It's across town by the river.
LIN: Do you think you'll be able to rebuild?
WINGATE: Actually, I was just renting a town, town home. But I've gotten my car back and my motor bike, and my other essentials. It's just the memories that were pretty rough for me...
LIN: Yes.
WINGATE: ... because I stayed for the storm.
LIN: Oh, my goodness, you rode it out. Daniel, what about you? Are you going to be able to rebuild?
SIMPSON: There's too many unanswered questions that really decide if I can rebuild right now. I'm currently residing in Houston, Texas, due to my employment. But I hope to return back to New Orleans soon and try to return back to life there.
LIN: Yes.
SIMPSON: I'd like to rebuild at some point. But really, until we can be -- until we can really know if the levees would be rebuilt, and then we'd have...
LIN: Right.
SIMPSON: ... better protection, it really...
LIN: Right.
SIMPSON: ... (INAUDIBLE) now.
LIN: Daniel, Brandon, you've given everybody a gift, you know, your hope and your optimism and your strength out there today in this marathon. Good luck to both of you.
WINGATE: Thank you.
SIMPSON: Thank you.
LIN: All right. Great to have you guys. There is still much more head tonight. Coming up next, "CNN 25" takes a look at "Entertainment Weekly"'s list of the 25 most important pop culture moments of the past quarter-century.
At 9:00 Eastern, Robert Shapiro, the attorney who was part of O.J. Simpson's dream team, talks to Larry King about the shocking death of his son from an apparent drug overdose.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERT SHAPIRO, ATTORNEY: Sunday morning, at 7:00, I got a call from his fiancee, Brent's not breathing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LIN: Then at 10:00 Eastern, his sister was killed by a man who escaped from Texas's death row three days ago. Now police fear he could be the killer's next target.
The hour's headlines when I come back, and then "CNN 25."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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