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American Morning

ABC News Anchorman and Cameraman Hit by Roadside Bomb in Iraq; Corporate Corruption on Trial

Aired January 30, 2006 - 07:00   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.
ABC News anchorman Bob Woodruff and his cameraman, Doug Vogt, hit by a roadside bomb in Iraq. They're now in intensive care in Germany. We'll take you there live to update their condition.

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

Dozens of miners survive a potential tragedy. How were they able to escape an underground fire? We'll explain.

M. O'BRIEN: And corporate corruption on trial. Former top bosses at Enron head to federal court. Jury selection today. We'll take you there live, on this AMERICAN MORNING.

S. O'BRIEN: Welcome back, everybody. Lots to get to.

Let's begin, in fact, with developments in the condition of ABC co-anchor Bob Woodruff and his cameraman, Doug Vogt. The two have arrived in a U.S. military hospital in Landstuhl, Germany overnight. This is after, of course, being badly wounded by a roadside bomb in Iraq.

Let's get right to CNN's Chris Burns. He's at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center.

Chris, good morning.

What are we hearing from the hospital?

CHRIS BURNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.

Well, I spoke with the commander of the hospital who himself has had a lot of experience in reconstruction surgery in the First Gulf War, and he says he believes that both Woodruff and Vogt will go back to the states in stable condition, but it's going to take a while, and they're going through a number of tests, including CT scans, this morning. They may go through more surgery here to clean up some of the wounds.

At least one of the families is here, we believe the Woodruff family has arrived this morning. And the other family,the Vogt family, should arrive later this afternoon. So we might get some word from the families later today. The doctors do want to talk to the families first before they give a lot more details -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: I got word that, Lee, Bob's wife, was heading out there to be there for him.

Let's talk about what happened? I mean, do we know details about what was going on at the time the bomb exploded?

BURNS: Well, Soledad, what we do know is that they were travelling with, or embedded with the U.S. 4th Infantry Division at the time, which was also traveling on patrol with Iraqi and Iraqi units, and that is where Woodruff and Vogt were. They were in an Iraqi military vehicle. They were very well protected. They had armor on, body armor on, they had helmets on, but they were also standing in the turret, or the hatch of this vehicle, doing as journalists do, and that is when the bomb went off. And that is one reason why the injuries were so serious.

S. O'BRIEN: Gosh. Well, our hearts go out to the family members on all fronts. Chris Burns with an update for us from Landstuhl this morning. We're going to obviously keep monitoring this story as we wait for good word from there.

Thanks, Chris -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: The biggest bankruptcy in U.S. history now leading to a showstopper of a trial in Houston. We're bug about Enron, the energy trading company once known for innovation, now a buzzword for corporate malfeasance and greed.

The trial of the two men at the top begins this morning, Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling, accused of stealing billions from stockholders and employees. Chris Huntington joining us live from Houston.

Chris, give us a preview for what's going to happen this morning.

CHRIS HUNTINGTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Miles, this morning begins jury selection. This of course -- the trial itself of Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling is the big event, the main event that the government has been working towards now for more than four years. Keep in mind that with the wave of corporate scandals, there were huge pledges by the Bush administration and The Justice department to crack down on white-collar crime. The Enron task force has been going now, as I say, for four years. This is a big deal for the Justice Department.

It's also a huge deal for the tens of thousands of former Enron employees, and even many more shareholders who got burned by the company. And for them, the start of the trial is something of a bit of a payback.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HUNTINGTON (voice-over): Angie Chappell lost her job and her life savings when Enron imploded five years ago.

ANGIE CHAPPELL, FMR. ENRON EMPLOYEE: It was my retirement. It was my kids' college fund, you know. I put a lot of money into my 401k. It made a big impact on all of us. I mean, we lived a very comfortable life, and then we didn't. HUNTINGTON: Chappell and her family are still trying to work their way out of that financial hole. And she blames the two Enron executives about to go on trial for running her family's future into the ground.

CHAPPELL: Jeff Skilling and Ken Lay have so much more than the rest of the Enron employees. While they were telling us to buy stock, they were selling theirs.

HUNTINGTON: Ken Lay insists he is innocent.

KEN LAY, FMR. ENRON CHAIRMAN; We're going to have a long trial and a tough trial, but we're going to be fine.

HUNTINGTON: Last month, Lay told a group in Houston that the government had falsely charged him with misleading investors and regulators about Enron's financial problems.

LAY: Most of what was and is still being said, heard or read was, and still is, is either grossly exaggerated, distorted or just flat false.

HUNTINGTON: Lay's main defense will be that he was out of the loop when chief executive Jeff Skilling and chief financial officer Andrew Fastow created improper off-the-book deals to hide Enron's debt and pump up its appearance of profitability. Fastow has pleaded guilty to two counts and expected to be the government's key witness against Lay and Skilling, who also insist he is innocent.

JEFF SKILLING, FMR. ENRON CEO: I have no knowledge of -- and had no knowledge of any wrong wrongdoing.

HUNTINGTON: Whistle-blower Sherron Watkins. the former Enron vice president, who correctly warned that the company would, quote, "implode in a wave of accounting scandals" is also likely to testify.

SHERRON WATKINS, FMR. ENRON VP: I certainly would like to see Jeff Skilling charged, because I think he's the one that drove us over the cliff. Ken Lay, you know, idiot or criminal, those are his two choices. Neither one's very positive.

HUNTINGTON: Another former Enron employee agrees.

CHAPPEL:: Jeff Skilling and Ken Lay, if they're guilty of anything, it's of not knowing what their company was up to, but they're responsible for it. They're responsible for whatever goes on, and they should pay the price.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HUNTINGTON: Now, Angie Chappell was one of more than 20,000 Enron employees who lost a collective billion dollars in retirement funds, and so far, Miles, they haven't seen a cent.

M. O'BRIEN: How is Angie doing financially now? Is she doing OK? HUNTINGTON: They're doing OK, but she told us, Miles, at one point she and her family were basically just eating cereal to try and hold back on the bills.

M. O'BRIEN: Wow.

And what about jury selection, right there in Houston, a lot of know people know people, or just like Angie, have direct links to it. It's going to be difficult to find a jury quickly?

HUNTINGTON: Yes. The judge wants to try to find a jury within a day or a day and a half. And all of the lawyers around here are saying they've never seen anything like that in a trial of this magnitude. We'll have to see.

As you know, as you just pointed out, Houston is very charged up about this. It's going to be very difficult to find a completely objective jury from a pool from this town.

M. O'BRIEN: The judge is hoping for a day or day and a half? That'll be interesting to see.

HUNTINGTON: He's shooting for midday tomorrow, wants opening arguments tomorrow, so...

M. O'BRIEN: That would be some news, Chris Huntington. All right, well, I guess you're there for a while. So we'll be seeing you.

Good to have you there -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: The Senate is set to vote today on whether to close debate on Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito. That will be the biggest test for a filibuster called for by Senators John Kerry and Ted Kennedy. The filibuster is expected to fail.

CNN's Ed Henry is live for us on Capitol Hill this morning.

Ed, good morning.

ED HENRY, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.

That's right. In democrats really just going through the motions here. It's very clear that Judge Samuel Alito is poised to become the next justice on Supreme Court. Senator John Kerry leading this effort, as you mentioned, with Ted Kennedy, and Kerry was briefly on the Hill Friday after the long flight back from Switzerland, trying desperately to pump some life into this quixotic filibuster. It may actually help Kerry's prospects in 2008, reaching out to the liberal wing of the Democratic Party. They're pretty fired up about the Alito nomination, but there are other Democrats who are quite concerned that this could backfire on Democrats, particularly in those red states that President Bush won in 2000 and 2004, and that's why enough moderate Democrats have come out against this filibuster and in support of Judge Alito that it's destined to fail tonight, late this afternoon, 4:30 Eastern Time.

In fact, even as Senators Hillary Clinton and Harry Reid came out Friday and said that they would symbolically support the Kerry-Kennedy filibuster, even Reid, the Democratic leader, acknowledged the votes are not there to stop Alito.

The same notion was also mentioned yesterday by Democratic Senator Joe Biden, a key member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, who was appearing on CNN's "LATE EDITION."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOSEPH BIDEN (D), DELAWARE: With a number of Democrats who have announced for him, a number of Democrats have announced they will not support -- that they will vote for cloture. I think this is an exercise we could have done without. If I thought it would work, if I thought it would keep Judge Alito off the bench, there was that kind of consensus, then I would support it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HENRY: So Senator Biden saying what a lot of his fellow Democrats are saying, they will symbolically support this, really in symbol only, they realize it's going fail, but the bottom line is they feel it may have been a mistake to push this so far. And Judge Alito is going to pass the filibuster test tonight, and they will be a final vote on his actual confirmation, a straight up or down, simple majority vote, Tuesday morning -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Ed Henry on Capital Hill for us this morning. Ed, thank you.

You can hear all the newsmakers on CNN's "LATE EDITION." It airs Sunday morning's at 11:00 a.m. Eastern, 8:00 a.m. Pacific Time -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: And now to Saskatchewan, Canada and a fire in a mine and what appears to be a more hopeful scenario; 70 miners safe and sound. Within the last hour, many of them emerged from the mine, more than 24 hours after they were trapped underground by a fire. The American-owned Pot Ash Mine is in southeastern Saskatchewan. That's about 125 miles north of the North Dakota border.

Now when the miners first smelled smoke deep inside the mine, they headed for safe rooms set up in that mine. Those rooms have supplies of food, water and, most importantly, oxygen. Good safety precautions there.

(WEATHER REPORT)

S. O'BRIEN: Reese Witherspoon and Phillip Seymour Hoffman on a hot streak. In case you missed the Screen Actors Guild Awards, the SAG Awards, Reese Witherspoon won for her role as June Carter in "Walk the Line." It's the story of Johnny Cash and his wife. Philip Seymour Hoffman's portrayal of the author Truman Capote in "Capote" won him the best actor award. Witherspoon and Hoffman each won a Golden Globe earlier this month. And in what might some call a pretty big upset, the drama "Crash" beat "Brokeback Mountain" for the overall cast award. It's kind of the SAG equivalent of best picture. The Hollywood award season is now in its final stretch.

The much-awaited Academy Award nominations are going to be announced tomorrow morning. We're going to bring those to you live when they happen.

Still to come this morning, a preview of tomorrow night's State of the Union Address. Just how much is at stake for President Bush? We're going to take a look this morning.

M. O'BRIEN: Also when FEMA turned down outside help after Katrina, red tape got the blame. So how does FEMA explain turning down help from inside the federal government? That's ahead.

S. O'BRIEN: And later this morning, we'll have much more on wounded ABC co-anchor Bob Woodruff, and take a look at why journalists are becoming targets in Iraq. That's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING. We're back in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: ABC's Bob Woodruff, his cameraman Doug Vogt, both now in a U.S. military hospital in Germany. Their serious injuries from a roadside bomb truly underscores the dangers of covering the story in Iraq. There have been 79 journalists killed in Iraq since the war began, 66 were killed in Vietnam, 68 in World War Ii.

Michael Ware is Baghdad bureau chief for "Time" magazine. CNN's Nic Robertson is in Atlanta this morning. Both men, of course, very familiar of dangerous assignments. Thanks for being with us to both of you.

Let's begin with you, Michael, first.

The area where this attack took place on bob woodruff and his cameraman Doug Vogt, can you tell us about it?

MICHAEL WARE, "TIME" BAGHDAD BUREAU CHIEF: It is an area just north of the capital, Baghdad, a place called Taji. Now under Saddam's regime, it was part of the heart of Saddam's munitions-making industry, so there's vast plants and bunker complexes that were there after the invasion, full of bombs and weapons. Many of which have leaked out and are now in the hands of the insurgents. That means it's a particularly deadly area for IEDs, or improvised explosive devices.

I mean, I know an American unit that I'm very close to, and one of their Bradley Fighting Vehicles was torn apart like a tuna can. And six men died inside from one IED. Let alone something that's hit a vehicle like bombs, armored personnel carrier.

S. O'BRIEN: Is there a sense that the insurgents are targeting journalists? I mean, would they know in that area that this is a journalist who is traveling with the U.S. military and the Iraqi military, or do they just blow up any convoy that looks like it's U.S. military and Iraqi military?

WARE: Look, in this instance, I suspect it's extremely unlikely that they knew that this as a journalist, or they knew that this was Bob who is in that vehicle. This is, I suspect, just a preplanned attack on a U.S. or Iraqi army convoy.

However, journalists are being targeted in this conflict in a way that we really haven't seen in previous conflicts. We are seen as legitimate targets, as part of the problem rather than the solution, according to the insurgents.

S. O'BRIEN: Nic, do you agree with that? And if you do, why do you think that is?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SR. INTL. CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. The journalists in this conflict have been put in the crosshairs, as opposed being caught up in the crossfire in previous conflicts.

I think perhaps when you look at what the insurgents are targeting -- they are targeting Iraqi police, they are targeting Iraqi army, they are targeting the U.S. military far more than they're targeting journalists. They're targeting people working in the Iraqi government. So I think if they were to put journalists at the top of their target list, we would see far more casualties in the journalists ranks.

But absolutely, Michael is right, that journalists are now a legitimate target in this conflict in a way they haven't been before, and that's because we're associated with Western ideals and values, and that's what they are opposed to at this time.

S. O'BRIEN: We are looking at pictures a moment ago, Nic, and I remember that live shot, where as you were doing your live shot, you were sort of ducking out of the way because there was small arms fire around you. And at one point, finally, you just duck down and you say, I got to get out of here, they're calling us back in. For those of watching, so scary, because we don't really know what's going on, and obviously for you, too.

Michael, let met ask you another question. You must travel, working for "Time" magazine, with these big security details, armed guys, lots of vehicles. Does that help, or does sometimes it make you more noticeable?

WARE: Well, that in fact is the case. I mean, this is a matter of great debate among the press corps, and it becomes a matter of personnel choice, either for the individual journalists or the news organization. We, for example, like to move about in beat-up looking Iraqi vehicles. They're soft skinned. They're not armored. We don't have Western security forwards. We have Iraqis. Our weapons are never seen.

So as much as possible, we try to go under the radar and blend. But should the situation arise, we're able to defend ourselves. This is the way journalists have to work. It's such a dire situation. It's very hard to express. S. O'BRIEN: Nic, we've talked about this, you and I together, in person, a couple of times. Why do you cover this story? I mean, you got a family. It's so dangerous. And I know you, and I know Michael, and I know Bob and I know everybody who is there understands how risky it really is.

ROBERTSON: Absolutely, and the risks go through your mind, particularly when you go to a dangerous location. Some areas are slightly safer than others, but when you're in there, you're very aware of that. You're very aware that every time you go out of a safe building or out of a military base, then the potential is very much there to be attacked. And it goes through your mind.

The reason we do it is we believe with a passion that this is a story that is very important, that it has huge and long-reaching implications, and we're interested in the human dynamic as well of what what';s happening to the people in Iraq, what's happening to the U.S. troops who are serving there.

Without us, in a way, people would not hear what's happening. I know when we're embedded with U.S. troops, they say they are so thankful that their families back home can see what they're doing, can see what's happening. There's a disconnect between them and Iraq and their families back home. So in many ways, we're providing a bridge of information for people.

S. O'BRIEN: Nic Robertson and Michael Ware, gentlemen, thank you for illuminating some of these issues. And of course I know you join me in wishing the very best to Bob Woodruff and Doug Vogt as well, and their families, as we wait for some more information on their conditions this morning.

Ahead this morning, another black eye for FEMA. After Katrina, it was offered hundreds of boats, and trucks, and planes and officers from the federal government. So why didn't FEMA take them? We'll take a look at ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

We're back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(MARKET REPORT)

M. O'BRIEN: A little bit later on AMERICAN MORNING, we will speak with the maker of the documentary film, "Enron, The Smartest Guys in the Room," and we'll give you a little inside look at the personalities of these two guys at the top -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Ahead this morning, President Bush's approval ratings low, so what's he going to say in tomorrow's State of the Union Address to turn things around? We'll have a preview for you just ahead.

And then later, a tough question for FEMA: After Katrina, why did it turn down help from inside the federal government? That story is ahead on AMERICAN MORNING. We're back in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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