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American Morning
American Hostage; Targeting Al Qaeda; Military's Concerns; Power Outages; One of Their Own
Aired January 19, 2006 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Welcome to a split edition of AMERICAN MORNING. I'm Miles O'Brien in New York.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Soledad O'Brien reporting from suburban Washington today.
Holding out hope for American journalist Jill Carroll. She's being held hostage in Iraq. Her family this morning with a plea for her captors. Coming up, we'll have my exclusive interview with Jill Carroll's mother -- Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: Straight talk from the former FEMA Director Mike Brown.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAEL BROWN, FORMER FEMA DIRECTOR: I made two mistakes, two very -- I made lots of mistakes, but I want to focus on two mistakes today.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
M. O'BRIEN: A look at what he says he did wrong during Hurricane Katrina.
Violent storms leave tens of thousands in the northeast without power. It could be days before the lights are back on in some places.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CALLER: I'm in a car and I can't open the door and the water is coming in and we're sinking.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
M. O'BRIEN: And a desperate 911 call from a young girl stuck in a sinking car.
S. O'BRIEN: Good morning. Welcome, everybody.
I'm in suburban Washington, D.C., this morning to talk about Jill Carroll, the American journalist kidnapped in Iraq. In an AMERICAN MORNING exclusive, I'll be talking live with Jill's mother. And as the kidnappers' deadline gets closer, Mary Beth Carroll has a special message for her daughter's captors. Jill Carroll, of course, was taken hostage two weeks ago, and there has been very little word until this videotape appeared on Al- Jazeera television on Tuesday. And there was a demand as well, that all female prisoners in Iraq be released.
Michael Holmes is following this story for us this morning from Baghdad.
Michael, good morning.
MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Soledad.
I can tell you a bit of an update. And just really, literally, in the last few minutes, we have seen some more footage from that tape aired on Al-Jazeera, the Arabic language network. It shows Jill Carroll sitting on the floor in a bare room. She's surrounded by three armed men and they are masked, of course. One man appeared to be reading from a statement in that material.
We're not showing the video at this stage, because we don't like to show a video of armed men if we have other video, which we do, of course.
Meanwhile, the efforts are continuing behind the scenes to have her released more than halfway into the 72-hour deadline set by the kidnappers. Among those of course leading this is her employer. And here's what the Washington bureau chief for "The Christian Science Monitor" had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAVID COOK, "CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR": "The Monitor" is undertaking strenuous efforts on Jill's behalf, taking advantage of every opportunity we have at our disposal.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Just -- not just among the media community here in Baghdad, but among Iraqis, Jill was very well regarded. And I've got to tell you, Soledad, a lot of Iraqi groups, religious and secular, have been joining the chorus of calls to release her, both in the international media and also in the Arabic language media. Also, the Washington-based council on Islamic relations is en route here to Baghdad to plead for her release.
And really interesting, too, the man she was going to interview that day that she was taken, Senior Sunni Politician Adnan Al-Dulaimi, has now come out, too, and called for her release, saying that -- in his words -- "this is against us as well, not only against the foreigners. We will try our best. We will do as much as possible to release Jill" -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: Well hopefully all those efforts will be successful.
Michael Holmes for us this morning.
Michael, thanks for the update.
And as the kidnappers' deadline gets closer, Jill Carroll's mother is ready to speak out. I'm going to have an exclusive, extended interview with Mary Beth this morning. And that's coming up at 7:00 a.m. Eastern Time right here on AMERICAN MORNING.
New developments to tell you about from that U.S. airstrike in Pakistan. We have gotten word that a key al Qaeda chief may have been taken out in the attack.
National security correspondent David Ensor has details for us this morning.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAVID ENSOR, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (on camera): U.S. counterterrorism officials say al Qaeda's chemical weapons and explosives expert Midhat Mursi was -- quote -- "in the vicinity" Friday when CIA airstrikes hit a gathering, including terrorists, in a remote Pakistani village, and that he could have been killed. The officials stress though, at this point they absolutely cannot confirm whether he really was killed.
Known by his nom de gar (ph), Abu Khabab al-Masri, the 52-year- old Egyptian has a price on his head from the U.S. government, $5 million for information leading to his killing or capture.
Officials say Abu Khabab ran the notorious Derunta training camp for al Qaeda, teaching chemical weapons and bomb-making techniques to would-be terrorists and testing chemicals on animals on this tape obtained by CNN. Some reports say Abu Khabab's students included Richard Reid, the shoe bomber, and Zacarias Moussaoui.
U.S. officials do say that between four and eight al Qaeda affiliated foreigners were killed in the attack, including some Egyptians. They still do not know whether their main target, al Qaeda's number two man Ayman al-Zawahiri, was killed, though Pakistani officials say he was not. Knowledgeable sources say the bodies of the foreigners, plus several more, were quickly removed by comrades and buried elsewhere.
David Ensor, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
M. O'BRIEN: The nuclear standoff with Iran continues. That country continues to insist it is perusing nuclear technology for peaceful purposes and the country thumbing its nose at the West knowing full well the U.S. military is stretched thin. Are American commanders concerned?
Barbara Starr is in the capital of Bahrain. She joins us live via videophone.
Barbara, what are military commanders there saying to you? BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Miles, we came out to the region to talk to U.S. military commanders about the war on terror, the hunt for Osama bin Laden and a number of other issues in this region.
First, the hunt for Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri does remain a top priority in this region. That issue has been in the headlines in local papers out here every morning. They are talking here about not just the global war on terror, but really what they're calling the long war, the war against jihadist ideologies, the use of Internet Web sites in this region for those dissident voices.
But we spoke to a senior U.S. military commander, a face familiar to many Americans, who talked very bluntly about just how much Iran is a concern in this region.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRIG. GEN. MARK KIMMITT, U.S. ARMY: It has been over the past six months that it seems to be a growing concern among these nations and their militaries what are Iran's intentions, what are its nuclear ambitions, what is it really seeking in the long run? And it gives them reason for concern. And it gives us reason for concern as well.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
STARR: And General Kimmitt making it very clear that Iran, as much as it is a diplomatic issue for governments to resolve, is something that the U.S. military is hearing an awful lot about now in this region from its Arab counterparts. It is a major concern here -- Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: Tell us a little bit more about your travels, Barbara, where are you headed next?
STARR: Well what we're going to do is leave Bahrain and we're going to head with the U.S. military over to the horn of Africa. We're going to travel with military troops to Ethiopia, Djibouti, Yemen, which is a nation of grave concern for terrorism. But a lot of Americans may not realize there are about 1,400 U.S. military troops in Africa fulltime now engaging in a number of humanitarian projects trying to help in some of the poorest regions in the world so terrorism does not take hold.
We expect to hear an awful lot about Somalia. There is a lot of concern. Even General Kimmitt says that Somalia has reemerged as a possible terrorist refuge -- Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: All right, that one is back on our radar screen now.
Thank you, Barbara Starr, lots to keep track of these days in the war on terror.
Well, as it turns out, Brownie didn't do a heck of a job. Former FEMA Director Mike Brown, you remember him, is now admitting he messed up. He spoke yesterday to a gathering of broadcast and National Weather Service meteorologists in California.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: What happened in Katrina? I made two mistakes, two very -- I made lots of mistakes, but I want to focus on two mistakes today.
The first is I failed in media communications and the second is I failed as a manager to delegate appropriately to the teams around me. And what I should have done was painted a picture for the American public of exactly how bad that disaster was and how incapable it rendered the state and local governments of responding appropriately to the disaster.
Which leads to Mike Brown's second mistake and that has all to do with delegation. I should have asked for the military sooner. I should have demanded the military sooner.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
M. O'BRIEN: Now Brown and FEMA, of course, were criticized for the slow response to the Hurricane Katrina. Brown added that he should have called President Bush and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to get them to call out the troops.
It's a dark, though not as stormy, morning in some parts of Connecticut today. That's because very strong winds swept through the state yesterday. Tens of thousands of people still without power.
Eric Parker of our affiliate WFSB in East Hartford, Connecticut this morning.
Eric, what's going on there this morning?
ERIC PARKER, WFSB-TV REPORTER: Well, Miles, I'll show you. Right behind me you can certainly get an idea of what we're talking about. This is the kind of situation we're seeing all around the state of Connecticut this morning. Here we have just one power line down, taken down maybe by a tree limb that fell here in East Hartford.
The problem is this wouldn't be a big problem if it was just one power line down. Unfortunately, we have dozens, even hundreds, of power lines, just like this, down across the state of Connecticut.
The latest numbers that we are getting from the power folks here in the state, somewhere around 35,000, 36,000 people without power. And in -- a lot of it in different incidents like this where they have to actually get around and fix individual wires that are down. And they say that takes three, four hours at each shot. And so they really are looking at several days to get everybody back up on-line.
We had a very serious storm come through yesterday morning, and it really wiped out a lot of trees, a lot of power in many places. It was sort of a mix of ice and snow and rain, and it all really took a big toll on the power lines. At one point yesterday, we had about 100,000 people who were without power in the state. They have made a good dent. And now we're getting word that there are power crews coming to us from Virginia, North Carolina, even some coming down from Canada, who will be helping out the folks here in Connecticut to try to get that power on-line. And like we said, they are hoping to get that done within the next few days.
Miles, back to you.
M. O'BRIEN: Eric Parker of our affiliate WFSB, thank you very much. He is in East Hartford, Connecticut this morning.
Which brings us to Chad Myers in the Weather Center.
Chad, I think the gusts were flirting with hurricane force levels yesterday, right?
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Pretty close.
M. O'BRIEN: It was pretty close, wasn't it?
MYERS: Yes.
M. O'BRIEN: It was something.
(WEATHER REPORT)
M. O'BRIEN: All right, thank you very much, Chad -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: Well still to come, Miles, we'll have much more on that kidnapped American journalist Jill Carroll facing a Friday deadline. We'll have the very latest on the efforts to save her.
We're also going to take a look this morning at the dangers reporters face in Iraq. Two journalists who know about those dangers firsthand are going to join us.
Then later, we're going to have an exclusive interview with Jill Carroll's mother. We're going to ask her how she's coping with this ordeal. All that at the top of the hour.
Stay with us. You're watching the split edition of AMERICAN MORNING. And we're back in just a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
S. O'BRIEN: Welcome back, everybody.
We're reporting live this morning from suburban Washington, D.C., bringing you the very latest on American hostage Jill Carroll. This morning, more pleas for her release. Her kidnappers are threatening to kill her unless the U.S. releases all female Iraqi prisoners by Friday. "The Christian Science Monitor," where Jill works, says it's doing everything it can to save her.
Coming up on AMERICAN MORNING, my exclusive interview with Jill's mother, Mary Beth Carroll, and we'll have her special message for Jill's captors. That's coming up this morning at 7:00 a.m. Eastern Time.
Other stories making news to tell you about as well. Carol Costello has those back in New York.
Good morning -- Carol.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, Soledad. Good morning to all of you.
We are learning more about that airstrike by the CIA on a village in Pakistan last week. Counterterrorism officials say al Qaeda's chemical weapons expert was in the vicinity when the airstrikes were carried out. They say Midhat Mursi, also known as Abu Khabab, could have been killed in the attack, but that cannot be confirmed. The U.S. has a $5 million reward for his capture or death.
In Massachusetts, a possible change in the condition of Haleigh Poutre, the girl at the center of a bizarre right-to-die battle. We've been following this story for you. The state's highest court ruled that she could be taken off life support.
Well now the 11-year-old is apparently having some responses. And "The Boston Globe" is quoting a spokeswoman for the Department of Social Services who says the girl is now breathing on her own. Doctors are expected to do more tests today. Her stepfather, Jason Strickland, is charged in her beating. If she dies, he could face a murder charge.
In Alabama, a train accident, a fire and an evacuation. Firefighters lifting the fire on a train burn -- are letting the fire, rather, burn itself out on this train. The fire started after a train carrying some toxic chemicals rear-ended another train near Lincoln in Talladega County. About 500 residents were evacuated as a precaution. Officials could close some schools in the area today or change bus routes. It's not clear yet if any chemicals leaked into the air.
A Nevada couple won't be pointing the finger at Wendy's anymore. Anna Ayala and her husband, Jaime Plascencia, have been sentenced to prison for planting a severed finger in a bowl of Wendy's chili. It was all part of a plot to extort money from the fast food chain. The woman initially claimed finding the finger at a Wendy's in San Jose, California. They will each serve nine years in prison for the scam. The husband got more time on top of that for unrelated charges. And get this, the couple was ordered to pay $21 million in restitution to Wendy's.
A chilling phone call from a teenager trapped in a sinking car. Hawaii police say the teenager's grandfather was backing out of a parking spot at the Waikiki Yacht Club. He hit two parked cars and then plunged into the harbor. As the car fills up with water, the 15- year-old makes a frantic 911 call.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
911 OPERATOR: Fire department.
CALLER: I'm in Waikiki Yacht Club and we're sinking in the car and I can't open the door.
911 OPERATOR: I'm sorry. What is your problem? What is happening?
CALLER: I'm in the car and I can't open the door and the water is coming in and we're sinking. No, I don't want to drown.
911 OPERATOR: Waikiki Yacht Club.
CALLER: Yes.
911 OPERATOR: OK, we're sending some trucks.
CALLER: Please hurry.
911 OPERATOR: Can you open the window? Hello? Hello?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Police say a passerby jumped into the water and pulled the teenager to safety. Her grandfather, though, didn't make it.
Let's head to Atlanta now to check on the forecast.
Good morning -- Chad.
MYERS: Good morning, Carol.
(WEATHER REPORT)
M. O'BRIEN: So we hope.
MYERS: Yes.
M. O'BRIEN: I hear good news from the Cape this morning.
Thank you very much, Chad.
No scrubs yet.
Carrie Lee is here to tell us about a little bit of a rebound on the Nikkei. We told you yesterday about that terrible, well, it began with a bit of a scandal.
CARRIE LEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It did.
M. O'BRIEN: Turned into a selloff. And now the plot thickens today.
LEE: The plot thickens in a lot of ways.
M. O'BRIEN: Yes.
LEE: First of all, the rebound. We're talking about Tokyo's Nikkei, the big stock exchange there, finished higher by 2.3 percent today. This, after falling 3 percent in the prior day. Take a look at this chart here. You can see the daily action. Today, up 2.3 percent. That's the stock exchange's biggest percentage gain in three months. Extremely heavy trading, trading close to being suspended again.
What's happened over the past couple of days, they can only handle so many exchanges, so many shares being traded, so now the stock exchange is aiming to increase the number of orders it can safely handle to 8 million from 4.5 million. Today orders processed four million, so pretty close to that level. By comparison, the NYSE can process five million shares a day. So that's the latest on the exchange.
Meanwhile, Livedoor, this is the company, it's an Internet portal in Japan, the cause of all of these problems, the cause of all of the selling. Investigators in Japan raided the company's office. The company has been accused of violating Japanese security laws, basically cooking the books.
And, Miles, an executive with the company, not with Livedoor, but with an affiliate bank, was found dead. Looks like he committed suicide as a result of this big investigation, 38-year-old bank executive there.
M. O'BRIEN: I suspect we haven't heard the last of this one, this Livedoor thing.
LEE: No, no, absolutely not.
M. O'BRIEN: Yes.
LEE: And the company's founder, a real bad boy in Japan, you know the kind of guy who likes to drive around in his Ferrari with his bikini-clad girlfriend.
M. O'BRIEN: Right.
LEE: She's a bikini model. And really giving the top brass in Japan a run for their money, so.
M. O'BRIEN: More like Silicon Valley to me (ph), the workers of Japan.
In the meanwhile, though, it was good as far as the New York markets were concerned. They took it in stride, pretty much.
LEE: Well yesterday not too bad.
M. O'BRIEN: Yes.
LEE: We did see the Nasdaq down about 1 percent. But this morning, futures are looking up a little bit. You can see yesterday's closing action there. However, Apple and eBay both giving disappointing forward-looking forecast and both of those stocks lower, Apple down 3 percent, eBay down 2.5 last night. So we could see some tech selling this Thursday here...
M. O'BRIEN: Could the iPod be running out of gas? No.
LEE: Well you know it was a great quarter.
M. O'BRIEN: Yes.
LEE: But again, it's always about forward-looking expectations...
M. O'BRIEN: Yes.
LEE: ... almost really (ph).
M. O'BRIEN: Carrie Lee, thanks for dropping by.
LEE: OK.
M. O'BRIEN: Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: Miles, thanks.
Ahead this morning, we're going to have the very latest on those efforts to save kidnapped American journalist Jill Carroll. We're also going to talk to two veteran reporters about the dangers of working in Iraq. And then later this morning, I'll have my exclusive interview with Jill Carroll's mother, Mary Beth.
Stay with us. You're watching a split edition of AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
S. O'BRIEN: Welcome back, everybody.
In just about 30 minutes, we're going to have my exclusive interview with the mother of kidnapped journalist Jill Carroll. In addition to her family members, her return is a priority for the White House, as well as "The Christian Science Monitor." That's the paper that Jill Carroll works for.
AMERICAN MORNING's Dan Lothian has that part of the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAN LOTHIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Ever since freelance journalist Jill Carroll was snatched off the dangerous streets of Baghdad almost two weeks ago, "The Christian Science Monitor," where she has been working for the past year, has been fighting for her release.
COOK: The people at "The Monitor" are working on this night and day in a variety of cities around the world.
LOTHIAN: At first, officials at the Boston-based paper worked quietly behind the scenes to keep a lid on the story and asked other news organizations to do the same. They only released vague descriptions of their efforts to win her release. Last week, the paper began writing about the kidnapping. After insurgents released this video on Tuesday, "The Monitor" made a much more public appeal.
COOK: It would be wrong to murder someone who has devoted herself unselfishly to promoting understanding of the Iraqi people.
LOTHIAN: Now "The Monitor" is calling on captors to -- quote -- "exercise justice and mercy and allow Carroll to be reunited with her family."
And while they say there have been no negotiations with the group calling itself the Brigades of Vengeance...
COOK: "The Monitor" is undertaking strenuous efforts on Jill's behalf, taking advantage of every opportunity we have at our disposal.
LOTHIAN (on camera): When Carroll was kidnapped, her translator was killed. "The Christian Science Monitor" says it is caring for his family and will continue to assist them even as the paper works to have its freelance reporter released.
Dan Lothian, CNN, Boston.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
S. O'BRIEN: You want to stay with us for my exclusive, extended interview with Jill's mother, Mary Beth Carroll. She's got a special message for her daughter's captors. That's coming up at 7:00 a.m. Eastern right here on AMERICAN MORNING.
We're back in just a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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