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American Morning

Intel Fact-Check; Iraq Violence; Minding Your Business; Katrina's Marine; Wild About Harry

Aired November 18, 2005 - 07:30   ET

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

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Gets Thanksgiving week off.
KELLY WALLACE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And one ...

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Take a guess who it is, Kel!

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Table two for dinner ...

WALLACE: I'll be here with you, Soledad.

MILES O'BRIEN: Table two for dinner over here!

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Thank you (INAUDIBLE).

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Yes, yes, I am!

MILES O'BRIEN: Maybe we should just get to the news right now.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: We really should. And actually we started there ...

MILES O'BRIEN: Before the circles are drained completely ...

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: We started a very serious note, which is lots of violence to talk about out of Iraq.

WALLACE: Another very deadly day, Soledad and Miles. And we begin, everyone, in Iraq.

Suicide bombers in the eastern part of the country shattering Friday prayers. The U.S. military says suicide bombers blew up near two Shia mosques killing dozens of people. A search now underway for a third possible bomber.

And in Central Baghdad, a security camera captured the scene of a double suicide bombing. You're taking a look at those unbelievable pictures now. Police say at least six were killed in those attacks, including two children. Some 40 others are wounded.

President Bush, for his part, taking part in trade talks in South Korea this morning, meeting more than 20 other leaders in Busan. Representatives also pledging unity to combat bird flu and terrorism. But outside on the streets, thousands of protesters clashing with police, throwing rocks, things getting a bit violent. Police had to use some water hoses to control some crowds. There's also word today that South Korea may be planning to pull a third of its troops from Iraq by next year.

In Florida now. A father of three has been convicted in the rape and murder of 11-year-old Carlie Bruscia. Joseph Smith showed no emotions as the verdict was read on Thursday but the victim's mother spoke out saying Smith deserves the death penalty.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SUSAN SCHORPEN, VICTIM'S MOTHER: I lost one of the most precious things to me in my life because of an animal. A disgusting, perverted animal, you know. And the fact that I can never hold her again and I can never speak to her again. I mean, I am so broken.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALLACE: So hard to hear the mother's grief there. As you might call, Bruscia's abduction nearly two years ago was caught on tape by a security camera outside a car wash. Sentencing for Smith set for November 28th.

And eleventh hour agreement for lawmakers on Capitol Hill. In the wee hours of this morning, the House narrowly passing a bill, trimming about $50 billion from the budget over five years. Critics say most of the cuts are from anti-poverty and other social programs. The House will have to discuss a final version of the bill with the Senate.

And a front row seat for a belly landing. The plane, trying to land at Charlie Brown Airport in Fulton County, Georgia, was forced to circle for hours after the pilot discovered problems with the landing gear. The plane ended up, as you see there, making a belly landing on the runway. Thankfully, no reports of any injuries.

And I know, Miles, you were on the air quite a lot yesterday talking about that. A scary situation. MILES O'BRIEN: Yes, I sort of like to think I talked him down but I don't think he could hear me. But I was with him.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: It's a perfect landing except for the landing gear. I mean, it really was a beautiful landing that he finally was able to do.

MILES O'BRIEN: You know, when you have a good landing and you're a pilot, you say you greased it. I guess in this case, he creased it. But it still was really well done.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Yes, it really was.

MILES O'BRIEN: He was quite a hero. He really was. He did a great job.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Gary (INAUDIBLE).

WALLACE: Absolutely.

MILES O'BRIEN: Textbook. Textbook. SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Thanks, Kelly.

WALLACE: Sure.

MILES O'BRIEN: As the violence continues in Iraq, the debate over the decisions that led to the war has grown more shrill. The subject of pre-war intelligence has been our mind a lot this week. You've got Democratic accusations the president mislead the country. The Republican countered, Democrats trying to rewrite history. So what really happened? National Security Correspondent David Ensor with a fact check.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID ENSOR, CNN CORRESPONDENT, (voice over): The president and his aides have counter attacked against critics with two major arguments. The key one, Congress and the administration had access to the same intelligence.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And members of the United States Congress, from both political parties, looked at the same intelligence on Iraq and reached the same conclusion, Saddam Hussein was a threat.

ENSOR: In a general sense, that is true. U.S. intelligence believed Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction and said so in a national intelligence estimate Congress had access to before the war. But it is not accurate to say Congress and the administration looked at all the same intelligence. The White House had access to far more than lawmakers did. Presidential daily briefs on intelligence are never given to Congress.

Some intelligence available to the White House, but not to Congress, gave reason to doubt some of the president's blunt pre-war assertions. For example, that Iraq had helped al Qaeda on weapons.

BUSH: We've learned that Iraq has trained al Qaeda members in bomb making and poisons and deadly gases.

ENSOR: The president said that in October 2002. Yet eight months earlier, the Defense Intelligence Agency questioned the reliability of the captured al Qaeda operative who was the source of that assertion in a document delivered to the White House. It was recently declassified at the insistence of Democratic Senator Carl Levin.

Speaking of Iban Alshak Alibi (ph), the DIA said, "it is more likely this individual is intentionally misleading the debriefers." Pentagon spokesman called the release of the DIA document, "irresponsible" and "out of context."

The next major argument from the White House, independent reviews have already determined that the administration did not misrepresent the intelligence before the war.

STEPHEN HADLEY, NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: They were looked at by the Silberman-Rob Commission. They were looked at by the Senate Intelligence Committee. Both of them concluded that there was no manipulation of intelligence.

ENSOR: But, in fact, no commission or committee has yet spoken on whether the White House misrepresented pre-war intelligence. The Senate Intelligence Committee, under pressure from Democrats, is working on it. The orders to the Silverman Commission from the White House specifically left it out.

LAURENCE SILBERMAN, FORMER CHAIRMAN, IRAQ WMD COMMISSION: Our executive order did not direct us to deal with the use of intelligence by policy makers and all of us were agreed that that was not part of our inquiry.

ENSOR: There is, however, plenty of blame to go around. Congress may have voted on Iraq without doing its homework. Members could read the 92-page national intelligence estimate by signing in at a reading room to do so. "The Washington Post" reported that no more than six senators and a handful of house members took time to read beyond the five-page executive summary.

David Ensor, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MILES O'BRIEN: Well, that's the run-up to war. Let's talk about what's going on in Iraq this morning. A pair of suicide bombs at two Shiite mosques. Fifty-two dead there. Take a look at this videotape. This is Baghdad this morning. Explosion. That's the first of a pair of suicide car bombs there. At least a half dozen dead there. The violence continues seemingly unabated. Joining us from our London bureau to talk about all this is Jamie Ruben, former assistant secretary of state.

Jamie, good to have you with us.

JAMES RUBIN, FORMER ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF STATE: Good morning to you.

MILES O'BRIEN: It sure looks like -- -it kind of looks like civil war to me. What do you think?

RUBIN: Well, I'm not been one who wanted to say that Iraq was destined to have civil war fighting between the Sunnis and the Shiites. For a couple of years now, it seemed that the Shiite leaders -- -and this crucial -- -Iatola (ph), Sustani (ph) and others were holding the Shiites back from retaliating every time the Sunni insurgents attacked mosques, attacked funerals, attacked the innocent Shiite civilians.

But what's really changed in the last week is these reports that the Shiite government has allowed some militias to run around and pick up Sunnis, to imprison them secretly and possibly even to torture them I think has done real, real damage to months and months of effort by the administration and others to try to get the Sunnis back in the political game. So with today's attacks, I think the specter of civil war looms ever larger for Iraq.

MILES O'BRIEN: It's difficult to undo that perception, whether the torture claims are true or not.

RUBIN: Well, that's exactly right. You had a very, very public press conference. You had pictures. All the Sunnis all over Iraq saw this information. Now the administration is correctly so worried about it, they've demanded a country-wide investigation to see whether there are any more secret prisons. This is the first time that Sunnis have been able to say, look, we're being discriminated against, attacked, imprisoned secretly, possibly tortured. So all this talk about joining the political process is not of interest to us. And that's the real danger right now.

MILES O'BRIEN: All right. Let's factor in Congressman John Murtha's comments. Jack Murtha is a well-respected Democratic hawk. A man who served in two wars. A former Marine colonel. Said to really reflect, in many cases, the real feelings of military leadership. Not what they say publicly, necessarily. So when he says, when he stands up to the microphone and in a very impassioned way say, bring the troops home now, people listen.

RUBIN: Well, that's exactly right. I think the last time I was in Washington, I got the sense that at the colonel and one star general level, the military was beginning to consider how to escape this morass, rather than a year ago or two years ago they thought they could still win it. I think there is a feeling now that, among many, that it's unwinnable.

On the other hand, I don't think this will matter in the end. As important as John Murtha is and the Democrats are in this process, I do not believe President Bush is going to prematurely withdrawal American forces. His whole presidency is wrapped up in this operation and for him to withdrawal early...

MILES O'BRIEN: Well, I don't think many people would suggest the president is in a mode to withdrawal early. But what about the notion when John Murtha says, let's leave now? Republicans say that, hey, that's like sending up the white flag.

RUBIN: Well, we've been there for two and a half years now and the idea that any time somebody disagrees with the president, they're accused of being either a coward or a surrender or a Neville Chamberlain or aiding and abetting the enemy. That's what's happened over the last week.

On Veterans Day, President Bush said, if you disagree with him, if you make your arguments against the war or for withdrawal, that you're aiding and abetting the enemy. He said this on Veterans Day. It was a very unusual time to use rhetoric that I personally remember from the 2004 campaign, used by Republicans against Democrats. The campaign is over, Mr. President. It's time to just debate the issues and not accuse your critics of being wimps or unpatriotic or somehow aiding and abetting the enemy. That's where this started a week ago.

MILES O'BRIEN: Jamie Rubin, former State Department official. Thanks for being with us.

RUBIN: Thank you.

MILES O'BRIEN: Soledad.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Twenty minutes before the hour. It's time to check, once again, on the weather for the day ahead. And Jacqui Jeras has a look at that.

Hey, Jacqui, good morning again.

(WEATHER REPORT)

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Ahead this morning on AMERICAN MORNING, a tour with a guy who's got a pretty big job, rebuilding hard-hit St. Bernard Parish in New Orleans and how his Marine background's going to come in handy as he attempts to do that.

MILES O'BRIEN: And Andy's here.

ANDY SERWER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, indeed. We're going to be talking about Delta Airlines. More fireworks in court for the troubled carrier, but good news for those who plan to flying Delta over the Thanksgiving holidays, coming up next on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Well, you know, we've been telling you about this standoff between Delta and the pilots. Well, it is really coming to a head with the judge kind of at the center of the three-ring circus, right?

SERWER: Yes, she's an interesting lady, Judge Prudence Carter Beatty, and we're going to talk to you about some of the things that she said in court yesterday. Really interesting stuff. First of all, though, the important news is, she told the two sides, this is the pilots and the company, to go back to the negotiating table, not to come back into her courtroom until November 28th. That's the Monday after Thanksgiving. In other words, Delta will be flying and that's some good news for all of us.

Now ...

MILES O'BRIEN: I guess you could call that jurisprudence, right?

SERWER: Yes, very good.

MILES O'BRIEN: (INAUDIBLE).

SERWER: Vera Prudence (ph).

Now some very interesting comments. First of all, one executive is quoted in "The Wall Street Journal" as saying, "going into her courtroom is like going into the Grand Canyon. You've got to go there once and it's worth the price of admission." Listen to this. Here's what she had to say yesterday. She was talking about how to save money. She was flying on an air carrier in Latin America. She said, "the stewardesses start down the beginning of the flight uncorking three or four bottles of liquor and they go down the aisle until it runs out. You can save a lot of money that way. It's much faster than dealing with all these little bottles." That was the advice she gave to the airline.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Thank you for that side bar.

SERWER: Thank you.

MILES O'BRIEN: Get rid of the little nips.

SERWER: This is a good one too. Listen to this. There was one Delta attorney asking the chief financial officer of the airline what they did when they found the company was behind in its financial targets. The judge said, "they did what everyone else did, engage in creating accounting." Amid laughter the judge continued, "it's what Enron and WorldCom did." The executive replied, "that's absolutely not the case." I mean it's just amazing the things this person is saying.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Kind of weighing in before it's quite (INAUDIBLE).

SERWER: Yes, she's just going out there on a limb and having a little fun, too.

MILES O'BRIEN: At which time she said, try the meal, right? I mean, you know, I'm here all week. I don't know. I mean it's ...

SERWER: Yes, it's like sand (ph) out there, isn't it?

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: A little bit, yes. Kind of strange.

MILES O'BRIEN: All right.

SERWER: We'll have to follow her.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: It certainly makes you follow the case a little more closely, doesn't it?

SERWER: Absolutely.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Andy, thanks.

MILES O'BRIEN: Jurisprudence with Andy Serwer.

SERWER: (INAUDIBLE).

MILES O'BRIEN: In Louisiana they're calling in the Marines to make St. Bernard Parish livable again. What a job they have, though. But maybe not the Marines. One Marine who has the kind of experience needed for the job. AMERICAN MORNING's Alina Cho with our story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT, (voice over): Nearly three months after Hurricane Katrina, St. Bernard Parish looks a lot like it did the day after the storm.

LT. COL. DAVID DYSART, DIR. RECOVERY, ST. BERNARD PARISH: That's one of the shrimping boats that came from Lake Pontchartrain about six miles to the north.

CHO: Lieutenant Coronel Dave Dysart is the man the Parish has hired as its director of recovery. He's done this type of job before on the other side of the world. Dysart, a U.S. Marine reservist, helped rebuild Fallujah, the Iraqi city that also suffered a flood. That experience got him this job.

When you first walked around this parish and you saw the devastation, did you immediately think Fallujah?

DYSART: Oh, ma'am, I had chills going up and down my spine. The streets were under water. I was actually riding in my vehicle and I reached for my weapon and it wasn't there!

CHO: Katrina damaged half of the homes in St. Bernard Parish beyond repair. The same was true in Fallujah.

DYSART: We actually went in and cleared out every single home and put markings on the buildings and those indicated that the Marines had gone into that house and assured that there was no weapons or insurgents in the house. Now these are marked to make sure that there was no one dead found inside the building.

CHO: In terms of strategy, how is the strategy similar?

DYSART: Well, when I was in Fallujah, I was working with an incredible officer named Colonel Schepp (ph). And he said that extreme times call for extreme measures. And the first thing that he did he in the rebuilding of that particular city was we removed all of the debris.

CHO: Dysart says, when that's complete, residents will have a reason to come back. So will the businesses.

DYSART: We're looking at setting up a couple of factories here in the parish that are going to be able to produce 10 homes a day on a conveyor belt time assembly. So we'll be able to drop these into the community.

CHO: For now, the 500 or so residents who have returned are living in trailers. Dysart says by Christmas he hopes thousands more will be back. But he admits, it's going to take time.

Alina Cho, CNN, St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: I've got to tell you, when you see the devastation, which you have, of course, St. Bernard Parish, I mean, nothing is standing there.

MILES O'BRIEN: Yes.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: In some ways, those picture do no justice to how bad is really is. Because when you see a structure you think, well at least there's a building. Nothing is livable.

MILES O'BRIEN: Yes.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Nothing is standing. It is a completely devastated region. So to have one person charged with trying to turn around a region where I think it's fair to say 99.9 percent of every structure there has been damaged, that's a huge task he's got ahead of him.

MILES O'BRIEN: He will draw upon his Marine experience, I suspect. And we will be watching as St. Bernard tries to pick itself back up.

"Week of Giving" is coming up. Next week, as a matter of fact. If you were affected by this season's hurricanes and want to thank someone who helped you, please send us your story. Just go to cnn.com/am and we're going to post some of those responses. And some of you will be selected to share your stories in person right here on AMERICAN MORNING.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Also ahead this morning, "Harry Potter" fans are already lining up for the newest movie. It opens today. And not like the other ones. There's something a little bit different this time. We're going to take a look, show you just ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: The magic is back on the big screen. The fourth "Harry Potter" movie comes out today. But watch Brooke Anderson's report before you decide whether or not you're going to bring your kids to the movie.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BROOKE ANDERSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT, (voice over): Death, destruction, and a little sexual tension. By all accounts, this Harry is heavy. "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" is the fourth movie in the magical series and it's the first film to receive a PG-13 rating. The previous three were PG.

DANIEL RADCLIFFE, "HARRY POTTER": It's supposed to be scary (INAUDIBLE) this one. I mean the book is terrifying. At the end, the book is really dark and scary. And, you know, a 16-year-old kid dies. You can't do that and make it light and fluffy.

ANDERSON: Some parents worry it's too dark for their kids to see.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm concerned sometimes about the amount of violence or the scariness for young kids.

MICHELLE BRAMM, CONCERNED PARENT: I think it's a little too dark for their age group. So, yes, it does concerns me.

ANDERSON: But will "The Goblet of Fire" set the box office aflame? The first three movies have made more than $2.5 billion worldwide. Mike Speier, managing editor of "Daily Variety," believes Warner Brothers is banking on the fact that "Potter" fans have grown up along side the maturing themes of the books and the films.

MIKE SPEIER, "DAILY VARIETY": Warner Brothers knows that its audience of the first one is now of a certain age and they're going to just keep, of course, aging. And they're capturing this audience as it ages so it doesn't lose anybody.

ANDERSON: The film's director, Mike Newell, believes the stricter rating is appropriate.

MIKE NEWELL, DIRECTOR: Most of these people would of read the book many times and they will know that the biggest, badest villain in the world is going to hit Harry in this. And if that doesn't get a PG-13, then they'll say there's something wrong. And they're right.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: End of story. Good-bye. The end. Any questions?

ANDERSON: Brooke Anderson, CNN, Hollywood.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: I love that line. I want to end our show like that. The end of story. Good-bye. The end. And then we just go to the next (INAUDIBLE).

MILES O'BRIEN: And that's the way it is. It's not quite the same as that, but it works. It works.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: And it's not courage, certainly.

MILES O'BRIEN: Good night and good luck. That's going to (INAUDIBLE).

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Good-bye.

MILES O'BRIEN: OK. We're going to take a break. When we come back, what's the best age to get married?

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Shortly after you get asked, I would imagine. I don't know!

MILES O'BRIEN: Get asked, say yes. That's Soledad's advice to you no matter what the age. Don't -- -you know, your daughter should not -- -don't give her that advice. That's bad. Look at this new study coming up on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) MILES O'BRIEN: A stunning attack in Baghdad this morning. Cameras capturing a suicide bombing in a hotel. Also attacks at a mosque. More than 60 are reported killed just this day. We'll have a live report is ahead.

One of the most consistent pro-military voices in Congress calling for U.S. troops in Iraq to come home now. Blind-siding Republicans and they're firing back and hard.

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