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Muslims Mark Ashura Amid More Demonstrations Over Danish Cartoon Controversy; Bird Flu Threat; Senate Hearings on Military Response to Hurricane Katrina; Interview with Syrian Ambassador

Aired February 09, 2006 - 11:59   ET

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

ANNOUNCER: Live from CNN Center, this is YOUR WORLD TODAY.
HALA GORANI, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Religion and outrage. Muslims mark Ashura amid more demonstrations over the Danish cartoon controversy.

JIM CLANCY, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Africa and bird flu. Health experts head to Nigeria amid fresh alarms over new cases in that country.

GORANI: Australia and the abortion debate. Supporters of a controversial pill win a significant vote in the Senate.

CLANCY: Plus, Torino and the winter Olympics. Preparations now in full swing as the start down to the games begins.

GORANI: It's 7:00 p.m. in Beirut, Lebanon; 6:00 p.m. in Torino, Italy.

I'm Hala Gorani.

CLANCY: I'm Jim Clancy. And this is YOUR WORLD TODAY.

One of the holiest days in the Muslim calendar for Shia Muslims taking place in the time of worldwide religion controversy.

GORANI: The day of Ashura, as it's called, is particularly significant for Shia Muslims. It marks the death of Imam Hussein, Mohammed's grandson who Shiites consider the prophet's rightful spiritual heir.

CLANCY: Now, Ashura observances in Afghanistan were marred by violence. At least five people died there when Sunnis clashed with some of the Shia marchers in the western city of Herat.

GORANI: There was also violence in northwestern Pakistan. At least 15 people died there when a suicide bomber attacked an Ashura procession.

CLANCY: Some two million pilgrims flooding into Karbala. Now, that is the Iraq city where the prophet's grandson was killed in battle more than 1,300 years ago. It is Ashura precisely because many of his follows fled him and left him in the hands of the mercy of his enemies.

GORANI: Now, Iran -- the majority Shia Iran -- also observing Ashura, of course, with the traditional self-flagellation for some.

CLANCY: But in Beirut, Muslim leaders transformed the Ashura commemoration into an emotional but entirely peaceful protest against the controversial cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed. The leader of Hezbollah taking that opportunity to lash out against the U.S. and make demands of Europe.

Beirut Bureau Chief Brent Sadler joins us now live -- Brent.

BRENT SADLER, CNN BEIRUT BUREAU CHIEF: Thanks, Jim.

With the United States accusing Syria of stoking hatred, inciting violence, attention focused on the southern suburbs of Beirut this day, Hezbollah's stronghold. The armed militant Islamic organization held a religious rally that turned political.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SADLER (voice over): Shia Muslims in Beirut turn a religious day into a protest day. Lebanese supporters of Hezbollah mourn a bloody episode from their Islamic past, the slaughter of Imam Hussein, grandson of the Prophet Mohammed, 1,300 years ago.

Defiance, too, condemning international calls to stop worldwide demonstrations, supporting Muslim anger at Western values towards Islam.

The turnout is massive.

KHALIL EL-ZEIN, BUSINESSMAN: See how we're going to act over here. In a very respectful way we're going to protect all of the people around here. We're not going to attack anything, because this is what Islam called for us. Islam doesn't call for violence, no.

SADLER: A peaceful counterweight, say demonstrators, to claims that hard-core extremists have a hijacked Muslim fury to promote anti- Western violence.

AMMAR NOUREDDINE, SUPERMARKET OWNER: Everybody must know that bin Laden, this is not Islam. Prophet Mohammed doesn't agree with what he's doing.

SADLER: Batoul Nehmeh is a cashier at an American fast-food outlet here on Hezbollah's turf. There's no excuse for violence," she explains, but understands why it breaks out.

BATOUL NEHMEH, CARTOON PROTESTER: They are very angry. They are very, very angry. For that -- sometimes when you're angry, you don't know what to do.

SADLER: Top U.S. officials accuse Syria and Iran, labeled terror-sponsoring nations, for inciting violence. Dismissed by many here as a big lie.

(on camera): A reliable ally of Syria and Iran, Lebanon's Hezbollah is a sworn enemy of Israel and an implacable opponent of U.S. policy in the Middle East.

(voice over): Hezbollah's leader, Hassan Neshrelah (ph), urges Muslims to protest more. "Let Condoleezza Rice shut up," he says, "as well as Bush and all world tyrants. We're a nation that won't forgive or stay silent."

And no compromised stand from a militant Muslim leader from an influential voice setting his own conditions, Europe to change its laws on press freedom and Denmark for apologizing for insulting the prophet.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SADLER: And those demands were broadcast internationally, Jim, through Hezbollah's its own television station that's based here in the Lebanese capital. The kind of demands that offer -- or rather the kind of broadcast that often encourage Muslims in the Middle East what to think, and more importantly, perhaps in this case, how to behave -- Jim.

CLANCY: Brent Sadler reporting there live from Beirut with a good panoramic look of what was happening today in the capital.

GORANI: Well, Jim, U.N. Security-General Kofi Annan is weighing in on the cartoon controversy. He had strong words for newspapers that continued to print the caricatures.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KOFI ANNAN, U.N. SECRETARY-GENERAL: I do not understand why any newspaper will publish the cartoons today. It is insensitive. It is offensive. It is provocative. And they should see what has happened around the world.

This does not mean that I'm against freedom of speech or freedom of the press. Yes, I am for that, but as I have indicated in the past, freedom of speech is not a license. It does entail exercising responsibility and judgment. And quite honestly, I don't understand why any editor would publish the cartoon at this time, which inflames and pours oil on the fire.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GORANI: Kofi Annan.

Meanwhile, the European Union is trying to diffuse the controversy by calling for a voluntary media code of conduct.

CLANCY: Annan says he has seen no evidence that Iran and Syria are fueling the controversy. On Wednesday, the U.S. secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, accused both countries of trying to fuel Muslim anger over these controversial cartoons. Iran, for its part, said that's not true.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) ISFANDIAR RAHIM MASHALEE, IRANIAN VICE PRESIDENT (through translator): The accusation by Condoleezza Rice is 100 percent a lie and baseless, because if Iran didn't protest against the cartoons, other Muslim countries would have done the same. There is no link whatsoever between Iran's nuclear problem and Muslims' response to Western humiliation of the Prophet Mohammed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CLANCY: Syria also denying the accusations. It says the anti- Western sentiments aren't being fueled by Damascus, they're being fueled by the war in Iraq and the Middle East conflict.

Later this hour we'll be talking with Syria's ambassador to the U.S. -- Hala.

GORANI: Now, the Jewish community is adding its voice to the controversy. For years, Jews in Israel have been lampooned by cartoons in the Arab media who cited freedom of the press. And as one prominent Jewish leader in Europe says, "While Jews condemn prejudices to any faith, people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones."

John Vause reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN VAUSE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Is this cartoon offensive? Does this one attack a religion? Could this be considered malicious?

For Israelis and Jews the answer is most certainly yes. But for years, Arabic and Islamic newspapers, many government-owned and run, have rarely held back when it comes to cartoons that are blatantly anti-Semitic, despite official protests from the Israeli government.

DORE GOLD, JERUSALEM CENTER FOR PUBLIC AFFAIRS: The usual response of various Arab governments has been, "Well, we don't control them." They'll in fact use Western concepts like "freedom of the press." But we know very well that these are official newspapers whose editors are appointed by presidents or kings in various Arab governments.

VAUSE: Amar Akasha (ph) has drawn many cartoons for one of Egypt's biggest-selling newspapers. He has no problem depicting Jews, especially Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, with the worst anti-Semitic stereotype: ugly, blood-thirsty killers with hook noses and curls.

"I can draw Sharon and say he's a killer," he explains. "But I would not draw his prophet and say that his prophet is a killer."

Many of the Arab and Islamic cartoons are similar to those drawn by the Nazis. Robert Rozett, an historian with Jerusalem's Holocaust Memorial, says that's more than coincidence.

ROBERT ROZETT, HOLOCAUST HISTORIAN: Well, it can't but bring up the associations of the Nazi period. And since the Nazi period is the bleakest period in Jewish history in which six million Jews were murdered by this horrible machine that was set up, it brings all of those associations with it.

VAUSE: But Islamic leaders say mocking the Prophet Mohammed is the ultimate insult to Muslims everywhere and cannot be compared to what they call political cartoons attacking Israel.

"If those cartoons deal with the Israeli occupation, then they're not anti-Semitic. We're against the Israeli occupation," he told me, "not Semitic people."

(on camera): For years, Israeli and Jewish groups have tried to bring the world's attention to the anti-Semitic cartoons and statements in the Arabic and Islamic media. Right now, though, the Israeli government is steering clear from this controversy, only saying it highlights the need to show respect for all religions and people of all faith.

John Vause, CNN, Jerusalem.

GORANI: Now, as this cartoon controversy continues to unfold, this leads us to our question of the day.

CLANCY: You're chance to weigh in. We're asking you: Should insulting anyone's religion be outlawed?

GORANI: E-mail us your thoughts at YWT@CNN.com. Include your name, include where you're writing from. We'll read a selection a bit later on the show.

A diplomat from one of the Palestinians' strongest allies have been kidnapped in Gaza. Gunmen abducted Egypt's military attache in broad daylight, highlighting the chaos in some parts of the Palestinian territories. There's also been a recent flare-up in violence with Israel.

Guy Raz is covering all of this from Jerusalem and joins us now live.

Hi, Guy.

GUY RAZ, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Hala.

In less than 10 days, the next Palestinian legislature is schedule to convene for the very first time. And still, there is no Palestinian government. This, Hala, more than two weeks after the Palestinians went to the polls to elect a new parliament. And with the absence of government comes uncertainty as well.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RAZ (voice over): Erez Crossing on the Gaza-Israel border. A predawn raid launched by two armed Palestinian groups here left two of their gunmen dead. One of the groups behind the attack, the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, the armed wing of Fatah, the movement recently defeated by Hamas in the Palestinian elections and a movement whose militants may be trying to reclaim lost support.

AHARON ZEEVI FARKASH (RET.), FORMER IDF INTEL CHIEF: They tried to learn the lessons from the Hamas by saying, if we will lead terror activities against Israel, this will make us more popular for the street.

RAZ: Earlier Thursday, another Gaza kidnapping. An Egyptian diplomat taken by unidentified gunmen. All taking place against a backdrop of Israeli airstrikes targeting militants. Nine militants assassinated by Israel in the past week. Retaliation, Israel says, for an ongoing barrage of rockets launched into the country, one of which left an infant badly injured.

Meanwhile, in Hebron, Palestinians angry over publication of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed attacked a building used by European peacekeepers. The state of political flux in the Palestinian territories also adding to the uncertainty.

Hamas's exiled leader, Khaled Mashal, visited Cairo where he warned the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, or Abu Mazen, not to make any political appointments without his approval.

KHALED MASHAL, HAMAS POLITICAL LEADER (through translator): I take this opportunity to tell brother Abu Mazen not to make any new moves, changes or appointments.

RAZ: Abbas's position seeming more tenuous than ever, squeezed by Hamas and under international pressure not to appoint a Hamas-led government until the movement renounces violence.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

RAZ: And Hala, the question now is how long the political standoff between Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas will last and whether Mahmoud Abbas will survive this politically -- Hala.

GORANI: Now, we understand Vladimir Putin has extended an invitation to Hamas representatives to come to Moscow.

Tell us more about that -- Guy.

RAZ: That's right. And this will ease pressure on Mahmoud Abbas just very slightly. Vladimir Putin extending that invitation in a briefing to reporters in Spain earlier today.

Now, Israeli officials haven't not reacted officially, but privately they are concerned about it. The Israeli government has launched a diplomatic initiative to try and isolate a Hamas-led Palestinian Authority from the international community.

The United States has already said that if Russia invites Hamas officials to Moscow to meet with them, that Russia as a member of the quartet -- that is, Russia, the United States, the European Union and the U.N. -- must abide by conditions that were laid out by the quartet for Hamas to take part in negotiations. That is, of course, Hamas must renounce violence and it must recognize the state of Israel right to exist -- Hala.

GORANI: Guy Raz live in Jerusalem.

CLANCY: Well, the fears are coming true. Bird flu surfacing now in Africa.

GORANI: Ahead on YOUR WORLD TODAY, we'll travel to Nigeria, where authorities are struggling to contain a potential epidemic.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GORANI: A very warm welcome back. You're with YOUR WORLD TODAY.

International health experts will travel to Nigeria on Friday where the dangerous H5N1 strain of bird flu has just been found. These first cases in poultry in Africa have renewed fears that the virus might mutate to be easily spread between humans.

Julian Rush reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JULIAN RUSH, REPORTER, ITN (voice over): The spread of bird flu to Africa had always been feared. More so than Asia, few countries in Africa have either the human nor veterinary surveillance networks necessary to monitor the spread of the disease, nor the resources to respond quickly. This outbreak, for example, suspected on January 10.

ALEX THIERMANN, WORLD ORGANIZATION FOR ANIMAL HEALTH: (INAUDIBLE) Has been saying for a while that, were the disease get to Africa, it is a continent where most countries have very weak veterinary infrastructures. And we know from our experience in Eastern Europe and in Southeast Asia that the rapidity to which the disease can be fought and how quickly we can eliminate it has to do very directly related to the quality of the veterinary infrastructures. And Nigeria certainly needs a lot of help right now.

RUSH: The outbreak is in the poor north of Nigeria, making containing the disease more difficult. Forty thousand birds dead on a battery farm which also housed geese and ostriches. The Nigerian authority is reporting they're doing what they can.

THIERMANN: The official report that came in this morning indicated that the farm -- the infected farm has been depopulated and is being disinfected. And that they're taking quarantine action. In other words, restraining the movement of people and restraining the movement of animals within the country.

JIDE IDRIS, NIGERIAN HEALTH MINISTER: We have (INAUDIBLE) for infectious disease (INAUDIBLE) quarantined or to be isolated.

RUSH: Nigeria's agriculture minister blamed illegally imported chickens. He may be right. Bird flu has been spreading inexorably. The number of countries where H5N1 has been found is now 20. Migrating wild birds are suspected of having a key role. But although Nigeria is at the end of the Black Sea, Mediterranean flyways, the migration there was last autumn. And until now, there's been no sign of the disease.

But now it is there. It could be carried up to Europe, up the East Atlantic flyway in the spring migration north, which starts in less than a month.

Fortunately, most of the birds at winter in Africa are not species known to carry bird flu, like swallows and swifts. Nor are the million of migrating waders (ph), even though they share winter wetlands with the main carriers, ducks. Which means humans are the more likely route into Europe.

JOSEPH DAMENECH, CHIEF VETERINARY OFFICER, U.N. FOOD & AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION: Well, (INAUDIBLE) the risk, of course, not only because of migrating birds, but also because of constant flow of people, of products, control -- controlled. You find many movements between western Africa and Europe.

RUSH: An international team leaves for Nigeria to investigate the outbreak and to help stop its spread. But enforcing culling in poor areas where backyard chickens are crucial sources of food will be difficult.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GORANI: Well, just so you know, since Julian Rush filed this report, Nigerian authorities say they have found bird flu instances in two more Nigerian states.

We'll continue to follow this for you, of course, as more information comes in.

CLANCY: Just ahead right here on YOUR WORLD TODAY, a foiled terror plot in the U.S.

GORANI: President Bush reveals the startling details of a planned attack in Los Angeles.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Daryn Kagan at CNN Center in Atlanta. More of YOUR WORLD TODAY in just a few minutes. First, though, a check on stories making headlines in the U.S.

A story making news on both sides of the Atlantic.

London police today arrested Neil Entwistle in the murders of his wife and baby daughter. Entwistle is in court now. The bodies of Rachel and Lilian Entwistle were found in the family's suburban Boston home last month. Prosecutors say Entwistle killed them with a gun owned by his father-in-law, returned the gun and then took a flight to his native England. Prosecutors believe Entwistle had money problems.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARTHA COAKLEY, MIDDLESEX COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY: Some of the background to this may be that, Neil Entwistle, having entered into some debt obligations in England, having moved to this country with his new wife and child, attempting to start businesses which, as many of you know, were not effective on the Internet, on eBay, and also undertaking a lease and other financial obligations, may have found himself in financial difficulty.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: Massachusetts authorities believe Entwistle intended to kill himself after the murders. Anderson Cooper has been following the case. He'll have the latest developments on CNN's "ANDERSON COOPER 360" tonight at 10:00 p.m. Eastern.

The commander of the military response to Hurricane Katrina is speaking before a Senate committee right now. The panel is looking into the Defense Department's role in the aftermath of the storm.

Lieutenant General Russel Honore is one of the key witnesses. He is not testifying now, but we're still going to go ahead and listen in.

MAJ. GEN. BENNETT LANDRENEAU, LOUISIANA NATIONAL GUARD: As far as the Louisiana National Guard's response plan, we have standing agreements with parishes in the greater New Orleans area to provide personnel and equipment. In accordance with our plan, high-water vehicles and soldiers were assigned to each NOPD district, Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office, St. Bernard and Plaquemine Parish, along with each of the 13 parishes in southeast Louisiana where we assigned Louisiana National Guards liaison teams to coordinate the Guard's communication and the Guard's engineer assessment to help as we made the assessments.

These teams were moved in as soon as Katrina (INAUDIBLE) were able to provide early assessment of damage in areas surrounding New Orleans. Personnel and equipment are assigned to specific Louisiana State Police troops, and our agreement with the city of New Orleans is to provide medical and security personnel for the Louisiana Superdome, as it is designated a special needs shelter.

And the Superdome was later designated as a shelter of last resort. The Louisiana Guard responded.

Our guardsmen, in support of NOPD, organized and implemented an entrance plan that ensured that the personnel coming in were searched and that safety was implemented.

On Monday, when we learned of the multiple failures in the levees, we recognized we were coping with a catastrophic incident. Louisiana's five levels of redundancy within this communication system were either down or had reached capacity. So our ability to receive timely and accurate information was degraded.

As soon as it was possible, National Guard soldiers and airmen launched search and rescue boats that had been pre-positioned at Jackson barracks and our aviation resources, along with the United States Coast Guard soon followed as gale-force winds subsided.

By Tuesday, the Louisiana National Guard had every resource committed. We had no Reserves. All engaged in Governor Blanco's number one priority, search and rescue, saving lives.

On Tuesday morning, I received the call from General Honore, when he informed that he was taskforce commander for Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana.

KAGAN: We have been listening in to these Katrina hearings. We're expecting to hear Lieutenant General Russel Honore. He is there, but the part we were listening to that was Lieutenant General Bennett Landreneau.

If you'd like to keep listening in, just go to CNN.com and Pipeline and you'll have continuous live feed video there.

We expect to hear from the family of Rachel Entwistle in the next hour. Live coverage on "LIVE FROM" with Kyra Phillips.

Meanwhile, YOUR WORLD TODAY continues after a quick break.

I'm Daryn Kagan.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GORANI: Welcome back to YOUR WORLD TODAY on CNN International. I'm Hala Gorani.

CLANCY: I'm Jim Clancy, and these are some of the stories that are making headlines around the world.

GORANI: Shia Muslims are marking the Day of Ashura, which commemorates the death of the Prophet Muhammed's grandson, Iman Hussein 1,300 years ago. The biggest is in Karbala, Iraq, where the imam is believed buried. But some ceremonies turned deadly. In Pakistan, for instance, at least 22 people were killed and dozens injured in a suicide bombing during a Shiite procession.

CLANCY: Violence also rattling parts of Afghanistan. Three people were killed -- at least three, more than 81 wounded, as Shia and Sunni demonstrators clashed in the western city of Herat. Five hundred troops have been deployed to the city.

GORANI: In Ashura ceremonies in Beirut, the leader of Hezbollah led a peaceful march by hundreds of thousands of Shiites. Muslim leaders called for Denmark to apologize for the publishing of the controversial cartoons of Muhammed, which have caused an international uproar for days. They also called on Europe to change their laws on freedom of press.

CLANCY: Although the controversy is raging now, the cartoons in question were originally published all of the way back in September.

CNN international correspondent Nic Robertson explains how in five months we got from there to the current situation.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Though the protests and violence ignited and then spread from Gaza 10 days ago, the truth is the story really begins early last fall in Denmark.

(on camera): Incredibly, all this violence was sparked when a Danish author writing a children's book about the Muslim faith discovered he couldn't find an artist to draw a picture of the Prophet Mohammed, Islam's founder. He realized they were afraid of offending Muslims who consider such depiction sacrilegious.

FLEMMING ROSE, "JYLLANDS-POSTEN" CULTURE EDITOR: We had five, six cases in Denmark in the course of two weeks, all speaking to the problem of self censorship and freedom of speech in terms of dealing and covering Islam.

ROBERTSON: So in a competition, Rose's paper asked artists to draw Prophet Mohammed. On September 30, they printed 12. Two weeks lapsed before Muslim demonstrators took to Denmark streets.

It was another week before ambassadors from Muslim nations complained to Denmark's prime minister. He ignored them.

Next, a delegation of Muslim leaders from Denmark carried a file full of the offensive cartoons to Cairo to plead for support from Muslim clerics there. But it wasn't until after mid-January -- in fact, after the Hajj...

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: I'm Daryn Kagan at CNN Center. We're going to interrupt our international coverage to go to Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. Lieutenant General Russel Honore testifying before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee about the military intervention in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

Let's listen in.

SEN. SUSAN COLLINS (R-MN), COMMITTEE CHAIRWOMAN: ... are very helpful to the committee. recommendation that you made was to establish pre-event unified command and control organizational structure. And as you know with the previous panel, we've had a lot of discussion about that issue.

Four times recently, prior to the event -- whether it was the Democratic and national conventions and the international summit and there was one other -- there was pre-event planning that led to a dual-headed commander being placed in charge. I believe in each case, General Landreneau, it was a National Guards official who was given the dual-headed responsibility. Is that the kind of planning that you're talking about, General?

LT. GEN. RUSSEL HONORE, CMDR., KATRINA MILITARY RESPONSE: To some degree, ma'am. Those operations takes months to plan and prepare. We don't have that luxury in hurricanes and some of the other disturbances that might happen on Earth, whether it's weather, earthquakes or WMD.

So the concept and -- I was the part of the NorthCom staffing with the department when we staffed that concept. And the idea was you would use that dual hat when we had a deliberate plan for a known event. We deliberately, at that time, never considered it as crisis response. It's that in the middle of the crisis, you would determine who's going to do the command. And I think the secretary spoke to that earlier.

COLLINS: Well, what are you suggesting be done with regard to command and control?

HONORE: That, for this hurricane season -- again, we don't ever want to fight the last hurricane -- but we learned lessons from it. That prior to this hurricane season, that we do establish, by bringing people together -- we don't want people to meet and exchange business cards at the scene. We want to do quickly, we want to do it better, we want to do it -- we hope obligation to our citizens that it does not appear that they're waiting for us to come rescue. We owe true to our oath that we will support and defend them, and when that doesn't happen, it hurt us to our heart.

And to go into New Orleans under that circumstances, and in the Gulf Coast of Mississippi. And the reason we're here today is to figure out how we might do that quicker. And one of things that could do that is a pre-arrangement. And I think that's in the works, in talking to some of my colleagues. And that will happen prior to the next hurricane season.

COLLINS: General, as far as your other ten recommendations, do you know if any of them are being implemented?

HONORE: We have shared them with our headquarters in Northern Command, as well as the Admiral Alen. Of course, he was a part of the discussion. And General Landreneau.

COLLINS: General Landreneau, one of the lessons of Katrina is clearly that there has to be a better system in place, better planning and the execution of that plan, to evacuate people with special needs, nursing homes, hospitals, prior to the landfall. We heard truly tragic testimony on over the last week of nursing home patients who were not evacuated because the nursing homes failed to execute their plans, but also, calls for help that went unanswered until too late.

Are you aware of any planning underway in Louisiana to improve the evacuation of the most vulnerable citizens of the area, those who cannot evacuate themselves, either because they're in nursing homes or hospitals or they're too old or infirm or sick to do so?

MAJ. GEN. BENNETT LANDRENEAU, LOUISIANA NATIONAL GUARD: Absolutely. Thank you. The governor has directed a thorough after- action review and identification of any corrective measures that need to be taken to ensure that the next hurricane season, we're in a position to support whatever evacuation needs there are.

But I must state to you, that as you, in your preamble to the questions, spoke to the very difficult time that we had with the evacuation. The resources of the local (INAUDIBLE) government were exhausted. The resources, all of the resources of the state, were focused on taking care of lives and taking care of people. The governor had all of the agencies and all of focused on that. We were totally committed and overwhelmed. FEMA was overwhelmed.

We had, I think, it's very clear, Madame Chairman, that this incident, a catastrophic incident, such as we had with Katrina, required the execution of the identification of a catastrophic event and the implementation of catastrophic index as part of the national response plan. This was not done.

It was only the second day after the hurricane, that the secretary of Homeland Security identified Katrina as an incident of national significance. But the Hurricane Katrina was never identified as a catastrophic event, as outlined in the GAO report. That would have given more rapid opportunity for federal forces to flow into the state to be able to assist us with the evacuation. It would have also influenced the ability to move DoD forces in quickly.

COLLINS: I realize, general, hindsight it's always 20/20, but I'm sure you're familiar with the testimony of the New Orleans Police Department in which we were told that there was a specific request to the National Guard to preposition five high-water vehicles and boats at each police stations around New Orleans, and that that request was denied prior to Hurricane Katrina, despite the in fact it had been approved for previous hurricanes, such as Ivan. And as a result, when the National Guard barracks flooded, access and the use of some of those vehicles was lost. In retrospect, should the national guard have prepositioned high-water vehicles at the police departments?

LANDRENEAU: Thank you, Madame Chairman, for allowing me to comment on that. Because you're absolutely correct, that was what we should do, and that's what we did.

I realize that the superintendent made comments regarding this to the committee. Superintendent Riley, in all respect to him, was not the superintendent at the time. The National Guard had a prearranged agreement to preposition some 20 high-water vehicles and over 100 soldiers with the New Orleans Police Department prior to the storm, and that was executed.

I have submitted documentation to Colonel Ebberd (ph), who is superintendent Riley's supervisor, and I have those documents to enter into the record, where we actually did preposition that equipment and personnel with New Orleans Police Department. I have entered as well some testimony from soldiers on how they worked with NOPD. And one particular case, where a soldier tells of some 500 rescues that they were able to make with those high-water vehicles.

And in comment, if you would allow me to comment about Jackson barracks, and it is true that Jackson barracks flooded. It is the headquarters for Louisiana National Guard.

However, prior to Katrina, in our history, since the levees in the Mississippi have been constructed in the early 1900s, we have not flooded at our headquarters. For Hurricane Betsy in the early '60s, where St. Bernard Parish and the Ninth Ward did flood, the headquarters to the Louisiana National Guard did not flood. And we were able to immediately move out with equipment and personnel to do search and rescue. But I have to tell you, ma'am, that even with the flooding that occurred at Jackson Barracks, the soldiers and the leaders were very resourceful. They protected the boats. We had 20 boats that were preserved with high-water vehicles that did flood.

But on the second day after the hurricane, they were able to get four of those high-water vehicles back online. And as a result, of that on the second day, with those four vehicles, they were able to rescue 90 personnel from a retirement home in the Villa St. Marise (ph) in the Ninth Ward. They rescued over 500 people during the week. That's just those high-water vehicles. And a lot more with the boats.

COLLINS: General, my time has expired, so I'm going to yield to...

KAGAN: We have been listening in to military leaders as they testify before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee -- among those testifying, Lieutenant General Russel Honore -- about the military response following Hurricane Katrina. If you'd like to keep listening in, just go to the Internet, CNN.com and Pipeline will continue to have live video coverage for you.

We'll take a break. We're back after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: So while we're listening into the general's testifying on Capitol Hill, you missed something on CNN International that we think you might find interesting.

Our Jim Clancy had a chance to interview the Syrian ambassador to the United States about all of this cartoon rage about Muslim cartoons, specifically allegations that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice made, that some countries like Syria might be trying to stoke the flames of anger.

Let's listen in to that interview that we missed just a few minutes ago.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CLANCY: Your response to the secretary of state?

IMAD MOUSTAPHA, SYRIAN AMB. TO THE U.S.: Well, Of course, I mean, it's almost like a witch hunt against Syria. So they are ignoring the big elephant in the room, and they are looking for minor detail. And suddenly, you know, the anger across whole Islamic world, from Indonesia to Morocco has nothing to do with anybody except for Syria, which is fueling anti-Western sentiments in the Islamic world.

We think that the problem is not with Syria. Syria has nothing to do at all with this problem. There is a problem that should be addressed, that should be dealt with, and by evading the core issue, and by just blaming Syria for obvious political reasons, I don't think this is being helpful at all.

CLANCY: But, you know, there aren't many places where Danish embassies or embassy buildings housing them have been set ablaze except in Damascus, in Beirut, where Syria still has quite a bit of influence, and in Tehran. And people then say, well, point a finger at them because it didn't happen unless the government said it, you know, was OK to happen.

MOUSTAPHA: Well, let me first emphasize the fact that we feel terribly bad about what has happened in Damascus, certain elements that -- I think those were rogue elements that went out of control, and it's so unfair to accuse Syria of being behind this.

First we apologized and we expressed our profound sorrow for what has happened in Damascus. Second, we will recompensate and we'll pay for all the damages that took place. We're very unhappy about this.

What is being ignored is while these people were doing what they did in Damascus, the Syrian cabinet minister in charge of religious affairs was there among the police forces, shouting on the loudspeakers, telling these people this isn't our religion, this is not our ethics, this is not our tradition heritage. Don't do this. But what can we do? Those were rouge elements that went out of control.

CLANCY: How many were arrested? Did you figure out who was behind it?

MOUSTAPHA: We arrested too many people, and today if you look at Damascus, security forces are tenfold the usual number surrounding embassies, particularly the French and the American embassies. We think it's just being, you know -- trying to benefit from one particularly bad and sad incident that we were very upset about. In Syria, we are upset about this.

Having said this, this is not issue. The issue is look across the whole Islamic world. People are very angry, very frustrated. And this is becoming like a catch-22 situation. More western newspapers are publishing those pictures, those caricature pictures, and the more and the more people in the Islamic world are becoming upset and frustrated about this.

CLANCY: All right. You know, maybe we can have time to get back to that because there's some important things to talk to you about. We have heard from Ehud Olmert, the acting Israeli prime minister.

He has laid out a plan where he's going to seize large amounts of territories, all of Jerusalem, moving ahead unilaterally ahead in the Middle East and no mention -- no mention of all -- of the Golan Heights here. It would appear that Israel has set a unilateral course and the future of the peace process just simply isn't there. What's the view of Damascus?

MOUSTAPHA: Well, of view is where is this peace process? We have heard much ado about nothing. We have been hearing and hearing about this peace process -- talk, talk, talk -- while Israel was building a wall deep into the Palestinian territories, building new settlements here and here in the occupied territories, unilaterally deciding what they want to do and what they do not want to do on the Palestinian side.

Of course, the same applies to the occupied Syrian territories. I think this is just revealing the true face of the Israeli politics. Israel is a country that's absolutely not interested in reaching a peaceful settlement over this ongoing conflict.

CLANCY: Iran and its nuclear program, causing a lot of concern among people around the world. It says it's purely for peaceful purposes. But there are indications by the -- coming from the International Atomic Energy Agency that say otherwise.

MOUSTAPHA: Look, we in Syria, we have part of our national territory occupied by Israel. We have 128,000 Syrians living under occupation in Israel, in the Golan -- occupied Golan. And we have 250,000 Syrian refugees waiting for the day they can go back to their towns and villages.

Israel happens to have the world's largest per capita nuclear arsenal; this is a non fact. Nobody disputes this. Yet, we're supposed to worry about potential nuclear program in Iran that Iran is adamant saying it's for peaceful purposes.

And we are supposed, in Syria, to ignore the actual fact that Israel, that occupies a part of Syria, has the world's largest per capita nuclear arsenal. I think this is a very unfair world, and this is actually fueling more and more anti-Western sentiments in our part of the world, not what the Syrian government is doing. So please, I hope you will communicate this to the American administration.

CLANCY: Well, I think you just have, but I have to follow that up, and just, you know, really ask you. The issue though, is Iran. It is the proliferation of weapons. It is Iran's relationships with groups like Hezbollah, with other groups around the world.

And there's a fear -- a real fear by the West, and including by Israel, that Iran will destabilize the world if it gets nuclear weapons. Where does Syria stand on this?

MOUSTAPHA: Look, if you're saying destabilizing forces shouldn't have nuclear power, this is fair enough. If we look at the Middle East, there are two major hot spots in the Middle East: Iraq and the Palestinian territories.

And there are two parties that are causing all the destabilization in those two parts of the world: the United States that happens to occupy Iraq, and Israel that happens to occupy the Palestinian territories.

I -- to my knowledge, at least -- correct me if I'm wrong -- Hezbollah does not occupy somebody else's land or territory. They are not fighting against another nation. They're not suppressing and causing great misery to another nation.

What I'm trying to say is yes, I agree with you. If there are some countries with known bad behavior like Israel, then they should not be allowed to have nuclear weapons. I agree with you on this.

CLANCY: We're going to have to leave it there. Ambassador Imad Moustapha, I want to thank you for being with us.

MOUSTAPHA: You're welcome.

KAGAN: And this just in to CNN. We have learned that Neil Entwistle, the British man, now accused of killing his wife -- his American wife -- and baby daughter Rachel back in the suburbs of Boston last month. He has been remanded into custody in London.

That is following an extradition hearing in a London court. Americans authorities now trying to get him back here to the U.S. to face two murder charges along with other charges as well.

That's going to wrap it up for me, Daryn Kagan. More on this story just ahead on LIVE FROM at the top of the hour with Kyra Phillips. And I will see you tomorrow morning.

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