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American Morning

Soldiers Stretched Too Thin in Iraq?; Palestinians Vote; Katrina Probe

Aired January 25, 2006 - 09:00   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. I'm Miles O'Brien.
We're watching a hostage standoff near Atlanta. Reports say the hostage is a 14-month-old child. We'll have more on a developing story for you in just a bit.

Can the military handle the mission in Iraq? A new Pentagon report says soldiers may be stretched too thin.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Soledad O'Brien.

Illegal immigrants are getting a helping hand to get across the border. It's coming from the Mexican government. We've got details on this story just ahead.

And a controversial British politician might have pushed things a little too far. And this stunt might not even be his worst.

Got more ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

M. O'BRIEN: Good morning to you. Welcome. Glad you're with us.

S. O'BRIEN: Lots to talk about this morning. Let's get right to it.

The Army might be stretched too thin to win the war in Iraq. That's the conclusion of a new report on the state of the Army.

Let's get right to Jamie McIntyre this morning. He's live for us at the Pentagon.

Jamie, good morning. What else is in this report?

JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SR. PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning, Soledad.

You know, it's an -- it's an old argument that's been going on for years now, but there is a pair of new reports out this morning suggesting that the U.S. Army really is in danger of becoming a broken force. One of them is by the respected military analyst and retired Army officer Andrew Krepinevich, who entitled one of the chapters in his report "The Thin Green Line," implying that the Army is at the breaking point.

He said, "The Army is in a race against time to adjust to the demands of war or risk breaking the force in the form of a catastrophic decline."

That's just one voice this morning. Also this morning, we're going to hear later from some Democrats, including the former defense secretary, William Perry. They're issuing their own report also echoing the same sentiment, that the U.S. Army is at the risk of breaking because it is strained so much by the requirements of the war in Iraq, plus deployments in Afghanistan and around the world.

Now, almost as if they knew these reports were coming, just last week the Army secretary, the civilian head of the Army, disputed that the force was broken. He said that the U.S. Army today is the best- equipped, best-trained force, and he said that a lot of the trends and strains of the last year are beginning to turn around. He cited the success in training Iraqi forces and the ability to bring some of those U.S. troops home from Iraq.

And just to top it all off, today the defense secretary and the Joint Chiefs chairman will be briefing in this briefing room later today. I'm going to guess that the readiness of the Army is going to be topic A.

S. O'BRIEN: Yes, I would imagine, too.

Do any of these reports offer any kinds of solutions? I mean, obviously we've talked a long time about the recruitment troubles that the military as a whole has had. What's being done?

MCINTYRE: Well, you know, the Army missed its recruiting goal last year by almost 7,000 troops. That's one of the things that's cited in these reports as a danger signal. But the Army says that that -- they've seen a turnaround in the last year.

In fact, they claim they're on track to make their goal this year of 80,000 new recruits. And they cite the fact that the highest reenlistment rates come on the combat units who are actually deployed in Iraq, the 3rd Infantry Division, which just has done several tours there, has one of the highest reenlistment rates of all. So they think the trend is up.

S. O'BRIEN: Jamie McIntyre at the Pentagon for us this morning.

Jamie, thank you.

M. O'BRIEN: Palestinians are voting in Gaza and the West Bank today. And the future of the Middle East peace process may be hanging in the balance.

John Vause is in Ramallah in the West Bank.

John, tell us about the turnout.

JOHN VAUSE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Miles.

It's been a very strong turnout. Latest figures we have, about 500,000 Palestinians, possibly a lot more by now, have actually cast their ballot -- 1.3 million are eligible to vote. A slightly stronger turnout in Gaza than the West Bank, but still, it seems Palestinians are eager to have their say in this new Palestinian parliament.

It's been a three-week-long campaign. And in Palestinian towns and cities it is difficult to find a piece of wall that hasn't been plastered with these kind of campaign ads.

This one is for Fatah, the ruling party, the party founded by the late Yasser Arafat. Now, right now, Fatah, which has dominated politics here for a generation, is facing its first-ever real political challenge.

It's coming from Hamas, the militant Islamic group. Their campaign poster is being put up here. They are all over the West Bank, all over Gaza. This one, though, reads "Change and Reform."

That's essentially their campaign platform. They are campaigning on this ticket of open, honest and accountable government. A direct challenge to Fatah.

Many Palestinians are disillusioned with Fatah, fed up with Fatah, believing that it's become ineffective and corrupt after more than a decade of running the Palestinian Authority -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Well, John, the problem is, when you mention Hamas, there are all kinds of links to terror with that name. Is this a political wing that's separate? And to what extent will a Hamas government in Palestine and in the Palestinian territories be able to negotiate with Israel?

VAUSE: Well, Hamas, there's of course -- there's the political wing and the military wing. But most people don't differentiate between the two. And Hamas has been responsible for a wave of suicide bombings and other attacks on Israelis over the last couple of years.

Now, the problem is that if Hamas gets in power, and if they do run the Palestinian Authority, Hamas is refusing to recognize Israel's right to exist, refusing to negotiate with the Israelis. And the Israelis are saying they won't talk to Hamas either. So if Hamas is running things, effectively, this peace process goes into the freezer for a couple of years -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: John Vause in Ramallah. Thank you very much.

We have some breaking news coming out of Atlanta. Carol with that.

S. O'BRIEN: That's right. Let's get a look at that story and many more as well -- Carol.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning.

We are following a developing story out of Norcross, Georgia, a suburb of Atlanta. It's a hostage situation.

Police in Gwinnett County say they are negotiating with an armed man who is holed up inside of an apartment. They believe there is a 14-month-old baby also inside of that apartment. The standoff began just about three and a half hours ago. Police say the man assaulted a woman in the apartment, then she left. Police are talking to the man with a bullhorn because there is no telephone inside the apartment.

We'll keep you updated on this story.

President Bush is defending his domestic surveillance program today, and he'll be doing that to a friendly crowd. He is heading to Fort Meade, Maryland, and the headquarters of the National Security Agency. The NSA operates the spying program.

Don't expect any speech excerpts though. No media is being allowed in.

Samuel Alito could be wearing a big smile come the end of this week or early next week. The Senate today will begin debating his nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Alito got the backing of the Republican majority Senate Judiciary Committee. The vote went along party lines. He's expected to get the full Senate approval as well.

Actor Chris Penn was found dead in his Santa Monica home. And police hope an autopsy today will help them determine how he died.

You might remember Penn from movies like "Reservoir Dogs," "At Close Range," or "Mulholland Falls." Chris Penn is the brother of actor Sean Penn. His latest film, "The Darwin Awards," was scheduled to debut today at the Sundance Film Festival.

Chris Penn was just 40 years old.

Basketball great and president of the New York Knicks Isiah Thomas is accused of sexual harassment and discrimination. A lawsuit has now been filed in federal court in Manhattan by one of the team's former front office executives. Anuka Brown Sanders (ph) claims she was propositioned by Thomas and fired last week as senior vice president of marketing and business operations as a result of the complaining.

Back to you.

S. O'BRIEN: All right, Carol. Thank you.

M. O'BRIEN: Let's check the forecast now. Chad with that.

(WEATHER REPORT)

S. O'BRIEN: Ahead this morning, we're talking to Senator Joe Lieberman. He says the White House is stonewalling his Katrina investigation. We're going to ask him whether the probe has just hit a dead end.

M. O'BRIEN: Also, a follow-up to that shooting at a Maryland daycare center we first told you about yesterday. What parents can do to keep their kids from getting access to guns and bringing them into school. We'll ask an expert.

S. O'BRIEN: And in our "House Call" this morning, the fatty acids around fish might be good for your heart. New information, though, on whether they prevent cancer as well.

Those stories all ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

We're back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: The Bush administration will not buy damaged homes in New Orleans. "USA Today" is reporting that a proposal from the Louisiana Congressional Delegation has been rejected. The proposal called for a new government agency to buy out homeowners in the Gulf Coast.

Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu says it's just more evidence that the White House doesn't understand the size of the task at hand.

What the White House knew and when they knew it is front and center on Capitol Hill. Newly released documents say the White House was warned about Katrina's devastating capacity days before the storm hit the Gulf Coast.

Connecticut Senator Joseph Lieberman is on the committee that released those documents, and he joins us this morning from Capitol Hill.

Nice to see you, Senator, as always.

SEN. JOSEPH LIEBERMAN (D), CONNECTICUT: You, too, Soledad. Good to be with you.

S. O'BRIEN: Thanks for talking -- thank you very much.

You've said the White House is not cooperating. What exactly do you need from them that you are not getting?

LIEBERMAN: Well, we're getting just about nothing that the committee is asking for that we need to do the investigation we want to do to make sure that the federal government next time there's a natural disaster, or god forbid a terrorist attack, does better than we did during Katrina. I mean, basically since October, we've been asking for documents. They sent us some boxes, but it mostly had stuff that was public or from other agencies.

We've asked to talk to some of the key decision-makers at the White House. They won't let us do that. And most irritatingly, a number of witnesses from other federal agencies who we've asked questions about conversations they had with the White House in the critical days leading up to Hurricane Katrina and afterward tell us they've been told by the White House not to answer.

I don't get it. The president himself has said that the federal government's response to Katrina was unacceptable. We need that information to tell a story of the ways in which it was unacceptable so we can make sure it doesn't happen again.

S. O'BRIEN: White House spokesman Scott McClellan would say, no, we are cooperating. Let's listen to a little bit of what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCOTT MCCLELLAN, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: We're also working with congressional committees. They're moving forward on hearings and looking at these issues, and the comprehensive review that we've undertaken is nearing completion. And we'll be talking more about it soon.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

S. O'BRIEN: Are you saying then he's lying?

LIEBERMAN: No, I'm not saying he is lying. This is all part of a typical congressional executive branch tension that goes on forever. But this is a little worse, particularly the fact that we all ought to be in this together.

It ought not be the White House investigation and our investigation. We all have an interest, a shared interest, in finding out exactly what happened.

Look, the committee, as you said, Soledad, released some documents that our investigation has uncovered that showed specific e- mail warnings of the overwhelming nature of Katrina, the expectation that the levees would be busted and the city would be flooded and remain submerged under water for weeks and months. They went to the White House Situation Room.

We want to know who got it. And look, we all know three days later the president made a comment on television that nobody expected the levees in New Orleans would be broken. How was it possible that the president was not informed of the information that came to the White House earlier? And I think not only the American people deserve that information, the president deserves that information.

So that's -- we need White House cooperation that we aren't getting to be able to tell the story and answer those questions.

S. O'BRIEN: Let's fully explore -- or more fully explore some of these reports that you are talking about. Earlier this morning Miles was talking to Ivor van Heerden. He's with LSU's Hurricane Center. And he said, in fact, that they got -- they gave lots of notice. I mean, Saturday, 10:00 p.m., they sent over their first report.

Listen to what he had to tell Miles.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

IVOR VAN HEERDEN, BRIEFED WHITE HOUSE: At 10:00 on Saturday night before the storm, some 36 hours early, we put out a surge simulation that showed New Orleans flooding. And we sent out an e- mail that said, "New Orleans will flood." And sent that very, very wide list, including Department of Homeland Security and FEMA officials.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

S. O'BRIEN: OK. So that's Saturday, 10:00 p.m. The storm, we should remind everybody, was on Monday morning.

Now, then also, as you talk about this e-mail memo to the White House Situation Room, this is at 1:47 a.m., the morning that Katrina hit, Monday morning.

LIEBERMAN: Right.

S. O'BRIEN: And this is what this memo said, just to bring everybody up to speed here. "Any storm rated Category 4 or greater will likely lead to severe flooding and/or levee breaching. This could leave the New Orleans metro area submerged for weeks or for months."

What are these two things -- and there is a list of more, I know -- what do they say to you?

LIEBERMAN: Well, they say that not only did everybody in the Gulf Coast area know the danger of a big hurricane flooding New Orleans was real, and they knew it for years -- yesterday our hearing focused on a fictional hurricane exercise a year before Katrina hit that showed exactly what would happen based on the lack of preparedness of federal, state and local officials. In fact, it projected that if a hurricane like Katrina hit New Orleans directly -- which thank god it didn't -- it went 15 miles to the east -- that as many as 67,000 people might have been killed.

So there was a general notice and all those specific warnings from Dr. Mayfield at the National Hurricane Center, the LSU folks, the Department of Homeland Security, all sending e-mails to each other, but yet the federal government response was pathetically slow in the critical days immediately before and after the hurricane hit landfall on Monday. And, you know, we've got to find out why so we're ready the next time. That's the bottom line.

There is nothing -- there is nothing political about this. This is just to fix a problem that we saw painfully last year.

S. O'BRIEN: You mentioned the president's remarks to Diane Sawyer in their interview a couple of days after the hurricane hit where he said no one anticipated that the levees would breach. Scott McClellan has said, in an attempt to clarify those remarks, that the president was trying to express that everybody felt that they dodged a bullet with a head-on hit. That's what the president really meant.

Do you think that's a fair explanation?

LIEBERMAN: Maybe. I mean, look, what I'm -- I'd just cite the quote to wonder whether the president received the detailed warnings about this monster storm Katrina that was heading toward New Orleans and the impact that people predicted exactly accurately. And if the president didn't receive those warnings, that was a terrible failure of responsibility to him.

And of course what we want to know, was that part of why FEMA, the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Defense, didn't get into New Orleans as quickly as they might have to take over for the state and local governments, which, as people had predicted, would be overwhelmed in the case of a hurricane like Katrina? So, you know, we all remember the pictures. We all remember the suffering.

I was there last week with our committee, and the devastation remains unbelievable. And the challenge to us all is to get together, not conceal anything, cooperate so that we can set in place a system that the next time it happens, the government -- federal government will be there to protect the American people, as they have a right to expect us to do.

S. O'BRIEN: Senator Joe Lieberman is part of these hearings.

Thanks for joining us, Senator. Sure appreciate it.

LIEBERMAN: Thanks, Soledad. Have a good day.

S. O'BRIEN: Thank you. Likewise -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Coming up, the fatty acids found in fish oil might make for a healthy heart, but they can prevent cancer, too? Maybe. "House Call" is straight ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: Well, we know they're good for your heart, but those omega-3 fatty acids may not be all they're cracked up to be.

Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen joins us from CNN Center in this morning's "House Call."

Hello, Elizabeth.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Miles.

This is sort of a disappointing study for many, because many had hoped that by taking those fish oil supplements that give you omega-3 fatty acids that they would be preventing not just hard disease, but also cancer. But now a large study coming out in the "Journal of the American Medical Association" says it does not look like that's true, does not look like omega-3 fatty acids will help reduce your chance of getting cancer.

Let's take a look at this study. It was, as I said, a large study.

It was actually a report that looked at 38 different studies. It examined people with 11 different kinds of cancers. It encompassed 700,000 patients.

That's obviously a huge number done between 1966 and 2005. And again, what they found is that taking these supplements or eating foods rich in omega-3 fatty acids did not help reduce the chance of getting cancer.

Now, Omega-3 fatty acids are found in fish, especially salmon, trout, mackerel, those oily fishes, and can also be found in certain vegetable products. For example, you'll find it in canola oil and soybeans.

Now, you need omega-3 fatty acids. They're what's called an essential acid. And the reason for that is because your body needs them for normal growth and development and just to live. But your body doesn't make them, so you do need to get them either in the food form or in the supplement form -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: So what are we to do then? We need it, but we don't need it as much as we thought, I guess. Should we be eating as much fish? Should we throw away the fish oil?

COHEN: No, you definitely don't want to throw away the fish. And you might want to take the fish oil supplements, if that's something you and your doctor decide is a good thing to do.

As I said, you need them for normal growth and development. Also, they definitely do. Getting a lot of this supplement, but not too much, but a lot of this supplement means that you're reducing your risk of getting heart disease.

M. O'BRIEN: When you say not too much, are there some risks with too much?

COHEN: There are. If you take way too much there can be risks to your heart, to your health. And so you want to be careful.

You want to read the labels if you're taking supplements and make sure that you abide by what those labels say. It would be extremely difficult to get too much in the form of food. So that's not so much of a worry.

M. O'BRIEN: Elizabeth Cohen with our "House Call."

Thank you very much. Good to have you with us.

In the sleepy little South Carolina town of Graniteville, people are living a nightmare. A little more than a year ago, a terrible train accident set a deadly cloud of chlorine gas spreading through neighborhoods and into people's homes.

Tonight on "ANDERSON COOPER 360," David Mattingly looks at this invisible danger that simply will not go away.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBIN ANDERSON, HOME EXPOSED TO CHLORINE: Sinus, headache, coughing. Recently I started to cough to the point where every once in a while I may throw up a little bit.

DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Robin Anderson lives just a few blocks from the crash site and is among those who claim to have continuing health problems after exposure to the chlorine spill. And she says there is property damage as well.

ANDERSON: When you press one of buttons, it would change -- the volume button, it would change the channel, or vice versa.

MATTINGLY: Anderson says almost all her home electronics have developed problems after chlorine invaded her home. And she says her roof also corroded, she believes, by chlorine led to leaks down her kitchen wall.

Some residents say after a rain there is a faint smell in the air similar to bleach. Studies by the South Carolina Department of Health, however, determined there was no long-term chlorine contamination in the water, the soil or the air.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

M. O'BRIEN: But that may not be the last word. The Department of Health is still on this, and we'll see what this story is all about if you watch "ANDERSON COOPER 360," 10:00 Eastern. And you'll find out what happens next as this town tries to put a disaster behind it -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Ahead this morning, the U.S. has a hard enough time keeping illegal immigrants out of the country. Wait until you hear this, though. The Mexican government offering maps to people who are trying to come to this country illegally.

We've got that story ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: Get the latest every morning in your e-mail. Sign up for AMERICAN MORNING Quick News at cnn.com/am.

Coming up in just a little bit, we're going to talk to a gun safety expert. Kids, guns, schools, bad combination under any circumstances.

Twenty-four hours ago we were talking about a situation at a daycare center, suburban D.C. It turns out the gun was readily available at home.

Part of the problem is at home, part of the problem is at school. We'll ask an expert how to solve it.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(STOCK MARKET REPORT)

M. O'BRIEN: Let's get to Carol and some headlines.

Hello, Carol.

COSTELLO: Hello. Good morning to all of you.

We're following a developing story out of a suburb of Atlanta. It's a hostage situation involving a baby.

Police in Gwinnett County say they're negotiating with an armed man who's holed up in an apartment. They believe he has his 14-month- old baby with him.

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