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American Morning

Voters in Iraq Choosing a Parliament; Major Ice Storm Moving Up Eastern Seaboard

Aired December 15, 2005 - 07:00   ET

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

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Welcome, everybody.
Let's get right to our top story this morning. We are talking about Iraq and voters there right now are choosing a parliament. If it succeeds, Iraqis may see a real drop in violence. For Americans, it means U.S. troops could start playing a smaller role in Iraq.

Chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour live at a polling station in Baghdad this morning.

Christiane, good morning. What are you seeing there?

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTL. CORRESPONDENT: Well, Soledad, we are at a school not far from our office here in Baghdad, which has been turned into a polling station. There are police outside. There are Iraqi army outside. These people have been maintaining the security. In fact they've been sleeping at these polling stations for several days before the election. We're just going to go inside here, because this is the entrance to the little school, the school room in there where people have voted. Frankly, there's a bit of a lull right now, but all day it's been quite a steady stream of people coming to vote.

In Baghdad we're not so surprised because we've seen this, particularly in the Shiite and mixed areas over the last two elections. There was January, and again the referendum in October. But what really surprised me was the turnout in the sunny mop population. We went to a place called Dura (ph) in Southern Baghdad. It's a violent place, it's quite a poor place, it's mostly Sunni, but the turnout was high there, and they said that they had made a mistake basically by sitting out the last election. They wanted their voice heard, they wanted to be counted, and so they're going to the polls today. A lot at stake, and nothing less really than the final fate of this country. Whether it will stay together unified, whether it will split apart, whether they'll have a stable, competent government. A lot of political wrangling ahead after the election in order to make a government.

And the one thing most people say is that they don't want a religious state here or a religious-dominated government -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Christiane, I know it's early yet, because obviously the polls still open, but when do you start hearing election results?

AMANPOUR: Well, officially not for several days. It could even be a week or more. But initial, you know, initial unofficial results do trickle in fairly early. All the different parties have their own workers, their own election workers, who are at the polls, many of them. When we go to the polling centers, you can see that it's not just the election staff, the neutral staff, but also party staff there monitoring. So they will all have their own evidence and anecdotal results, whether they be partial, fairly soon, I'd say.

But a final result not for a while. But then the final government, probably not for many weeks, if not months.

S. O'BRIEN: Christiane Amanpour watching things at a school that's now been turned into a polling station in Baghdad. Christiane, thanks -- Miles.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Of course for the president, a lot riding on today's election. The vote comes at the end of a two-week drive to win support for the war here at home. Suzanne Malveaux live now at the White House.

Suzanne, they are obviously watching this very closely there.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, obviously, Miles. And of course President Bush calling this a watershed event. This is something that he's going to mark the occasion later today in the Oval Office. He's going to be meeting with a group of Iraqi-Americans who have actually cast their ballots. He'll offer words of encouragement and support. But we also expect the president is going to talk about patience and also warning people, that listen, he believes that this is going to be a dangerous time. We heard him just yesterday saying that the days following this polling, it will be a time of uncertainty, and possibly an increase in violence.

But Mr. Bush continues to defend his campaign and defend his decision to go to war in Iraq, even a thousand days after the beginning of that war, and yesterday, he defended his broader policy of preemptive strike.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRES. OF THE UNITED STATES: It is true that much of the intelligence turned out to be wrong. As president, I am responsible for the decision to go into Iraq. And I'm also responsible for fixing what went wrong by reforming our intelligence capabilities, and we're doing just that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: And, Miles, of course, it's rather telling that president still continuing to try to make the case, defend his decision to go to war. Obviously the White House, the administration very much invested in trying to win American support about that decision, but the president still expressing a great deal of confidence about this. At the same time, they know there are a lot of things out of their control, namely the violence on the ground in Iraq, short-term strategy, of course, Miles, is to continue to deliver their message to the American people. Long-term strategy, of course, it's all about legacy -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Suzanne Malveaux at the White House, thank you.

And CNN has a continued special coverage of all of this. "TURNING POINT IN IRAQ?" On "ANDERSON COOPER 360" tonight. Anderson is live from Iraq all week, 10:00 p.m. Eastern Time -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Major ice storm to tell you about, moving up the eastern seaboard today. Snow, and sleet and rain going to make a big mess. The worst of it, though, the ice, building up on the roads and the trees and of course the power lines, too. Drivers from northern Georgia to western Virginia have to be careful.

Let's get to Steve Adamson. He's with our affiliate station WXIA in. He's in Cumming, Georgia this morning.

Hey, Steve, good morning to you. How's it looking where you are?

STEVE ADAMSON, WXIA REPORTER: Soledad, an icy buildup on the trees, not so much on the roads. But about a quarter-inch glaze. It's been enough to cause power lines to come down in areas. Again, this is pretty much the story across the north Atlanta suburbs. We're about 35 miles north of the city. But even in town, there's been reports of at least some icing, but the heaviest is on the north side of the city, extending further up into the western Carolinas.

So eventually, we think the problem here this morning will come to an end as the temperatures slowly rise. But any way you slice it this morning, it is not a nice day, even here in the South, as winter weather has come just a little bit early to portions of Georgia this morning -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Wow. And, Steve, I've got to tell you, your camera is all fogged up, because of the cold weather. It looks bad. I can hardly see it, and what I can see looks pretty bad.

Thank you.

ADAMSON: How's that?

S. O'BRIEN: That wasn't me trying to get your photographer to clean the camera, just feeling very sympathetic this morning.

Thanks, Steve. Thanks for the update.

(WEATHER REPORT)

M. O'BRIEN: Strap hangers in New York bracing for the worst. That's because a transit strike could be here in time for tomorrow's rush hour. Not only that, there's supposed to be some bad weather, as Jacqui has been telling us.

CNN's Allan Chernoff is at Penn Station here in New York City, where the trains are still running this morning at least.

Allan, where do the negotiations stand? ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Miles, it looks like another very tough situation for the strap-hangers here. Could be a real cliffhanger, because the talks broke off last night with no substantial progress. They are scheduled to begin once again just about now across town, and still, they are saying that the two sides very much far apart. The exact same thing happened three years ago, the talks went right down to the wire, so many New Yorkers think that they'll somehow hammer out a deal before midnight tonight, the strike deadline. But the mayor is saying that New Yorkers have to be ready for a strike.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MYR. MICHAEL BLOOMBERG, NEW YORK CITY: If the TWU decides to walk out on New Yorkers, I have no doubt that New Yorkers will pull together and pull through. This would not be a good strike. Let me repeat, there would not be any winners here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHERNOFF: There are still plenty of issues on the table, Miles, including wages, benefits, and especially health benefits -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Allen, it's illegal for them to strike, right?

CHERNOFF: That's exactly the case. There is a New York state law, the Taylor Law, that forbids civil employees from striking, and the city is even suing the union saying that they want to charge the union a million dollars for the very first day of the strike, and each employee $25,000, and just consider the average wage for the transit worker is $55,000 a year, including overtime. So obviously they can't afford anything like that.

M. O'BRIEN: And I read somewhere, I mean, when you consider the economic impact of a strike like this, it's hundreds of millions of dollars per day.

CHERNOFF: The city is saying it would be a minimum of $400 million a day. Some estimates go well over $600 million. Of course, this is all happening during the holiday shopping period. People need to get to those stores, in addition to the need to get to employment as well. So very tough time for this to all happen.

M. O'BRIEN: No customers, no workers at the stores. That's not a good thing for retailers.

All right, Allen Chernoff, thanks very much.

Coming up, the elections in Iraq, some say it's civil war, and it's time to go home. Senator Joe Biden, who's in Iraq right now, says it isn't over yet, but he says it is the eighth inning.

S. O'BRIEN: Also ahead this morning, thousands of Katrina victims are counting on federal loans to rebuild their lives, red tape those standing in the way. Andy is "Minding Your Business" just ahead. M. O'BRIEN: And later, a disturbing story out of New York, doctors and funeral homes accused of selling body parts for profit. We have a CNN investigation for you ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: Back it our top story now, the elections in Iraq. One of the biggest concerns is violence, and that that violence could potentially scare off any voters. Ramadi is a key insurgent stronghold, and there was a roadside bombing a little bit earlier there.

Listen to Nic Robertson. He was live on the air with Anderson Cooper when a bomb went off.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SR. INTL. CORRESPONDENT: ... by tribal militias. That was one of the first big explosions in this city. That's what we're talking about here.

Anderson, we have to go in.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

S. O'BRIEN: They were quickly ushered inside, Nic and his team. Nic Robertson joins us live.

Nic, good morning. Glad to see that everybody is OK. You're in an area that even U.S. troops won't go into in some cases because it's not that secure. Give me a description of what it's like today?

ROBERTSON: Very quiet. There really is virtually no traffic on the streets at all. This road here is known as "IED Alley," because so many roadside bombs go off there on a regular basis.

Today there was a roadside bomb that went off just a few hundred yards down the street, when we were broadcasting live. We have seen people, just a few people, going across the street here, going it appears to vote at a polling station just down the road here, but this is a very, very violent neighborhood. The area to the south has a lot of insurgent activity. A policeman was beheaded down this road a couple weeks ago, and it's against that backdrop of fear here that people are actually turning out to vote here -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: And so, Nic, as people turn out to vote, what's the turnout look like to you? Is it sporadic? Is it crowds? And what's their -- how do they seem? Do they seem anxious and nervous? Do they seem excited as we've heard reports in other parts of the country?

ROBERTSON: What we're seeing from here, first thing in the morning. We began to see one or two people sort of running across the road behind some of the damage there, then we saw smaller groups of people going out to vote. Some of them were waving white flags, not wanting to be mistaken for insurgents in this particularly dangerous area. The polling station that I can see just down across the road there, one person voted there two months ago in the referendum in October. This time we understand over 100 people have voted.

In the west of the city, many hundreds have turned out to vote. We're being told when they get to the polling stations, there's sort of an atmosphere of celebration, people handing out candies, very much like for the rest the country when they went to the polls in big numbers back in January. It's happening here for the first time, Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Yes, good news, and clearly progress there on that front. Nic Robertson joining us this morning live from Ramadi where there has been sporadic violence.

Thanks, Nic, for your updates.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): There are two competing images in Iraq that we're trying to sort out this morning, the images of those ink-stained fingers raised high in pride by Iraqis, determined to set a course toward a better future, and there is the continued bloodshed, as insurgents do what they can to derail the process. Who will win this battle. We asked Senator Joseph Biden, the Delaware Democrat, who's there.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

M. O'BRIEN: Thanks for being with us, senator. You -- this is now your sixth trip to Iraq. You've had a chance to talk to a lot of the military leaders. I know you've only been there a short time. But what's the biggest difference you've seen on this trip?

SEN. JOSEPH BIDEN (D), DELAWARE: The biggest difference I've seen is I think there's going to be a big turnout of the vote. The Sunnis are going to participate, unlike last time, and that's going to lay out the possibility -- possibility -- that we can actually have a government here, bulls it's going to require an awful lot of compromise, and that's going to be the hard part.

M. O'BRIEN: These three groups, though, the Sunnis, the Shias, the Kurds, compromise is not something they're used to is it?

BIDEN: That's exactly right. They're not at all. This is the first time the Shias have had the whip hand. You can understand why they don't want to give up anything. And it's the first time the Sunnis have not been in control. They know they're not going to be in control.

So the question is, what kind of compromises are necessary to get all the major constituent groups to buy in to think their future is best in a political process, rather than with bullets, and as the ambassador said today as we went out in a place called Hillah, which is south of here in the Shia territory, to observe an election, and you know, do the -- you know, dip our fingers in the ink, was that the question here is this is the first step from a transition from bullets to the ballots, but this isn't going to do it. This is necessary, but not sufficient to bring about a government here. That's going to be the hard slogging. That's why we've got to get the international community involved, like we did in the Balkans, like we did in Afghanistan, in order to put pressure on each of the parties to, in fact, make some concessions so this constitution becomes a unifying document, not a document of division that causes a civil war.

M. O'BRIEN: Senator, I think it's hard for a lot of us in the U.S. to figure this all out. There's such crosscurrents. You've got the purple-stained fingers and the optimism that goes along with all that, and then all the bloodshed. On the half-empty side of things, I guess, if you will would be Congressman John Murtha. Let's listen to what he had to say the other day.

REP. JOHN MURTHA (D), PENNSYLVANIA: There's a civil war right now. There's a civil war in Iraq right now, and we're caught in between that civil war, and we're the targets. Our United States service people are the targets of that civil war, and we have inadequate forces for -- to control that.

M. O'BRIEN: Are U.S. forces the target? Are the forces inadequate?

BIDEN: The forces had been inadequate. I've been calling with others for increasing forces for the last thousand days we've been here, but now to add forces is probably counterproductive.

The truth of the matter is, there's a simmering civil war here, but we have two major events, this election and the constitution, that may be able to avoid that from totally exploding.

I think we have to stay for the next six months in order to see whether they make the compromises necessary.

But the difference between Jack Murtha and me, he thinks it's the bottom of the ninth, and we're at the bottom of our order and we're losing. I think it's the bottom of the eighth, we've still have a 50/50 chance if we make some serious changes.

M. O'BRIEN: How much time does the U.S. have, and what should the president be doing that he isn't?

BIDEN: Six months. Moving our contracts that are low, or small contracts, not these megacontracts, to change the lives of the people here, train up the Iraqi army more rapidly and take the help of other nations that have offered to train them, and most importantly, get the international community in.

It's not just Joe Biden calling for this, it's Henry Kissinger. It's former Secretary Schultz. There's a lot of interest here to keep this thing from blowing up, and now is the time that various nations around the world, from Japan to France, should be bringing pressure on those groups within Iraq that they can influence to say, you've got to compromise, you got to compromise in order to get yourself a constitution everybody buys into. If we don't, we haven't seen anything like the civil war you'll see then, and I'm afraid that will develop into a regional war. M. O'BRIEN: All right, we have to leave it there. Senator Joe Biden, Democrat of Delaware, thanks very much.

BIDEN: Thanks.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

S. O'BRIEN: Ahead this morning, FEMA told thousands of Katrina victims to apply for federal loans, so then why are four out of every five applications being rejected? Andy is "Minding Your Business" up next on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: That's something you don't see every day. You don't see that at Yankees Stadium, do you? Those are the people in the bleachers there. This little piggy got loose during the game, and went wee wee wee all the way across the field in the Mexican Winter League.

S. O'BRIEN: And then they clock him.

M. O'BRIEN: Ouch.

S. O'BRIEN: The mascot, poor mascot. He's got...

ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: There's a pig under that man.

M. O'BRIEN: I guess you could say he brought home the bacon.

SERWER: Yes.

M. O'BRIEN: It's kind of hard to run with those mascot uniforms on. Anyway, they cut him up and threw his...

SERWER: You go. I'm rooting for the pig.

M. O'BRIEN: I should tell you, by the ninth inning, he was hot dogs. They took care of it, and that's it.

S. O'BRIEN: That is so not true. And now all the animal lovers are going to e-mail us. That's not true at all.

SERWER: He's a little piglet.

M. O'BRIEN: Please, don't call me, PETA, OK?

S. O'BRIEN: It was some promotion at this Mexican baseball game, and it kind of got out of hand, because they thought they could catch the pig, and obviously, having grown up with pigs, believe it or not...

M. O'BRIEN: You grew up with pigs?

S. O'BRIEN: I did. We had pigs. They're hard to catch when they escape, yes? M. O'BRIEN: They are? That greased pig thing is real.

S. O'BRIEN: No, not even greased, just regular old pigs. They're fast. They're smart and they're fast.

SERWER: I fought the pig and the pig won.

S. O'BRIEN: yes, almost every time.

M. O'BRIEN: Did you have like an Arnold the Pig, one of those real smart pigs?

S. O'BRIEN: Yes, I had smart pigs. They didn't talk. You mean Wilbur the Pig?

M. O'BRIEN: No, Arnold from "Green Acres."

SERWER: Arnold, yes.

S. O'BRIEN:: Oh, Arnold. No, we did not.

Anyway, business news now. Some really disturbing news for people who wanted loans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, a Huge number of rejections.

SERWER: That's right, Soledad.

That old line, we're from the government and here to help you, remember that one. Here we go again with the SBA, the Small Business Administration. We've been telling you about this for weeks. They have not been on the ball at all. Now "The New York Times" is reporting a very, very large rate of rejections for people trying to get loans from the SBA, victims of Hurricane Katrina.

Look at this: applications received, 276,000. Loans processed, only 33 percent. And then of that 33 percent, 82 percent are rejected, meaning only about 17,000 have actually received relief.

Look at this. Why? Well, these are low-income people, that's why. That's why they've been rejected. Also they don't have the proper tax returns and paper work. I mean, thank goodness the SBA wasn't processing relief for the tsunami victims.

S. O'BRIEN: But in all fairness, if you give a loan you want the money back, and you're talking about people who have nothing. And I understand that's the argument. At the same time, you have to give a loan to someone you believe in good faith is going pay you back, or you're going to bankrupt the agency.

M. O'BRIEN: But these people are so on the ropes.

S. O'BRIEN: Right, but maybe a loan is not the answer.

SERWER: Well, I think that's a go ahead point. I mean, we really need to maybe rewrite the rules here.

S. O'BRIEN: We'd be doing a story on how they bankrupted the loan department, right?

SERWER: That's right. So maybe just grants, maybe just outright money should go to these people.

M. O'BRIEN: Let's do that then.

S. O'BRIEN: Yes, I'd vote for that.

If only we ran the world.

SERWER: Right.

S. O'BRIEN: But yes, those numbers, they should be processing more than that.

SERWER: Absolutely.

S. O'BRIEN: Very slow.

Andy, thank you very much.

SERWER: You're welcome.

S. O'BRIEN: Ahead this morning, take a look at some of this videotape that we were showing you a little bit earlier this morning. They're waiting under this window, because they're about to catch a baby. That's a baby. In fact, it's a baby that's not breathing.

We're going to tell you what happened after the mom threw her baby from a third-floor apartment building. That's just ahead on AMERICAN MORNING. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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