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American Morning

Escalating Violence in Iraq; President Bush Unveils New Plan for Handling Future Disasters

Aired February 23, 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.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Soledad O'Brien. Escalating violence to tell you about in Iraq. More attacks now in response to the bombing of that historic mosque. We're live in Baghdad with the very latest on that story.

Also, a developing story out of Moscow. More than 30 people have been killed when a roof collapses at a busy marketplace. We're going to take you live to Moscow. There's still a desperate search on for survivors. It's looking very grim, though.

M. O'BRIEN: The President Bush this morning unveils a new plan for handling future disasters. Many people may be paying more attention to what is not in the report, however.

A massive manhunt under way in England. They're looking for thieves who pulled off one of the biggest robberies in the country's history. It's right out of the movies, and we're live at the scene.

S. O'BRIEN: And she was sensational, utterly sensational with the short program. Now pressure is on, though, for American Sasha Cohen. That story is head on AMERICAN MORNING.

Two developing stories to start with this morning out of Iraq. Turmoil, repercussions from an attack on a Shiite holy site shaking that country. Security forces now on high alert. Curfews in place for Baghdad. This of course after attacks on 50 Sunni mosques; 59 people reported killed.

Let's get to Aneesh Raman. He's Baghdad for us this morning.

Aneesh, good morning.

ANEESH RAMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Soledad, good morning.

A critical situation here, as Iraq now moves unnervingly close to the brink of civil war.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RAMAN (voice-over): A dawn attack striking one of Shia Islam's most sacred shrines. Reduced to rubble, the iconic Askirya (ph) mosque in Samarra now without the golden dome that for a century proclaimed its importance, destroyed after men dressed as Iraqi police commandos bound the guards on duty, and once inside detonated a series of bombs.

The attack ignited immediate fury among majority Iraq's Shia community, pouring onto the streets in thousands, in Samarra, in the Katamiya (ph) area of Baghdad, in neighboring Sadr City, where Mehdi militia, loyal to the Shia cleric Muqtada Al Sadr, armed themselves, threatening to descend on Samarra.

"We are prepared to strongly defend our shrine," says this man. "And we swear by God we will battle all those who do not defend the holy shrines of our imams".

So devastating was this assault that Iraq's highest Shia spiritual authority, the Grand Ayatollah Ali Al Sistani, who has not been seen in public in a year and a half, made a television appearance surrounded by senior Shia clerics, urging in a separate statement, peaceful protests. In line with the words of Iraq's prime minister, announcing a three-day period of mourning, condemning the attack, calling for calm. But that's been a hard sell to an enraged people.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

RAMAN: And the reprisal attacks have continues as well. At least 53 Sunnis have been killed in the ensuing aftermath. At least 50 Sunni mosques coming under fire.

And now, Soledad, late word that the largest Sunni political bloc is suspending participation in the talks to form a new government, cutting any hope for the moment of a unified political front -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: I think the repercussions of this we're just beginning to see, Aneesh.

I want to ask you a question about these reports of gunmen killing 47 factory workers just north of Baghdad. What do you know about that story?

RAMAN: Yes, we're getting scant details from Iraqi police officials. The attack happened north of the capital just a short time ago. Four vehicles opened fire on civilians. At least 47 people have been killed. Their identities at the moment unknown. Also unknown is whether this is linked to the reprisal attacks and the sectarian violence we have seen on arise erupting after yesterday's attacks -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Aneesh Raman for us this morning. Aneesh, thank you for the update on both of those fronts -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: A desperate search for survivors at a Moscow market this morning. The roof of the market collapsed under heavy snow. At least 33 are dead. Several shoppers remained trapped. Rescue workers have cut holes in the roof, trying to reach the victims.

CNN's Matthew Chance reports from the scene.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SR. INTL. CORRESPONDENT (on camera): It's the kind of tragedy that many across Russia have become accustomed to, the roof of a marketplace collapsing on the traders down below. Over the course of the past several hours, as we've been watching this story developing, the casualty figures have been slowly creeping upwards. They're now being counted in their dozens. Workers from the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry that's overseeing the search and rescue operation here say they're still operating, and will be for several hours to come, to try and find any survivors beneath that rubble.

Let me just step out of the way of the camera for a moment so you can get a better picture of the kind of scene here. More than 150 rescue workers are on the scene, trying to cut parts into the wreckage to reach survivors as best they can. Teams of sniffer dogs are also at work to try and find anybody who may have survived beneath that rubble. It's a delicate operation indeed. They're not using heavy equipment at the moment, for fear it may disturb the wreckage and therefore cause any casualties.

They're also blowing hot air into the cavities of the wreckage, to try to provide warmth for any of the survivors in these freezing conditions.

As for what caused this collapse, well, that's not altogether clear at the moment. The authorities at this stage have ruled terrorism, but they say they're looking into three possible causes. The first one, core maintenance of this building that caused this collapse. The second, as you mentioned, heavy snowfall overnight. That may have put additional strain on the roof structure. The final issue they're looking into is a possible design fault in the building itself. And so these are questions that will be answered hopefully by the investigation team. But the fact is that the state of Russia's infrastructure, and this is another illustration of that. The likelihood is it's a combination of perhaps all of those factors.

Matthew Chance, CNN, Moscow.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

S. O'BRIEN: Condoleezza Rice making a surprise visit to Beirut, Lebanon this hour. She isn't exactly calling for the removal of the pro-Syrian president, but you can read between the lines. "Lebanon," she says, "needs a president that looks forward, not backward." A visit briefly. (INAUDIBLE) planned stops in the United Arab Emirates amid controversy over that Muslim country's role in managing U.S. ports.

Let's get right to CNN's Beirut bureau chief Brent Sadler with more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRENT SADLER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): A strong show of U.S. support for efforts in Lebanon to shake off decades of Syrian control. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice backing the founders of Lebanon's so-called Cedar Revolution, that peaked about this time last year when a people's uprising helped drive Syrian troops from Lebanon.

From Beirut, Secretary Rice flies tonight to the United Arab Emirates, tackling head on strong U.S. opposition by lawmakers to the management of those six U.S. ports by state-owned Dubai Ports World.

To many in the UAE, a booming financial center, the American backlash smacks heavily of Arab phobia. Secretary Rice's visit is aimed at reassuring Dubai's rulers that the White House aims to stick with the deal. She's certain, though, to face tough questions in Dubai, especially as a rejection of the deal, say analysts here, would not only tarnish relations between the UAE and Washington, but also set the wider Arab world, including other moderate countries like the kingdom of Jordan, on edge.

Brent Sadler, CNN, Beirut.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

M. O'BRIEN: The bush administration playing defense on two fronts today, first a report due out on how the White House handled Hurricane Katrina, and administration officials expected to get a grilling from the Senate Armed Service Committee about how the port management deal was approved. President Bush says he'll veto any attempt to void the deal letting an Arab-owned company manage major U.S. seaports. The company, for its parts, is promising to deploy security measures that are necessary to ensure the deal goes through.

Now to the White House and a report on how Hurricane Katrina was handled. The report includes 125 recommendations.

White House correspondent Elaine Quijano joining us live now with more.

Good morning, Elaine.

ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Miles.

Well, those 125 recommendations have to do with a breakdown of about 17 different categories, including communications, logistics and evacuation.

Now one key point will be having to do with the role of the United States military. Senior administration officials say that the report will call for the U.S. military to take on a more robust role in catastrophic disasters.

There will also be a call to restructure how the federal government deals with national emergencies, and that means having each department take a more proactive role in its response.

Now, Hurricane Katrina left some 1,300 Americans dead. It forced hundreds of thousands of people from their homes and caused billions of dollars in damage.

President Bush has, of course, taken responsibility for the sluggish federal response to the disaster, and expect him once again, Miles, this morning to talk about the role of accountability when he sits down with his cabinet later this morning.

Also later this morning, we're expecting to hear from the president's Homeland Security Adviser Fran Townsend, who conducted this internal review. All of this, Miles, coming just about three months before the start of the next hurricane season -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Elaine, let's talk about the man at the top of Homeland Security, Michael Chertoff. There's a lot of blame laid on his doorstep in this report. What does it say about his role specifically? What is the administration going to say?

QUIJANO: Well, administration officials are saying that this was not the failure of any one person, that really this was a systematic failure. And because of that, there are no calls in this report for the resignation of Michael Chertoff, or any other senior officials, because of their performance in dealing with Hurricane Katrina -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: All right, Elaine Quijano at the White House, thank you very much.

White House security adviser Fran Townsend had a big part in preparing this report. In just a few moments, Soledad will ask her about the administration will do to act on its recommendations.

And next week, AMERICAN MORNING will be in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast in general for the first Mardi Gras since Katrina, but we're not just going to be covering the parades of course. We'll tackle some of the big issues facing the entire region post-Katrina, now six months since the storm, live from the Gulf Coast starting on Monday. We hope you'll join us.

(WEATHER REPORT)

M. O'BRIEN: Here's a feel good story right out of that "Rudy" 00 remember the movie, "Rudy?"

S. O'BRIEN: Yes, feel good, tugs on your heart.

M. O'BRIEN: This is for real. It's for real.

S. O'BRIEN: I love this.

M. O'BRIEN: Jason Mcelwein, student assistant for the basketball team at New York's Greece Athena High School. Rochester is the locations. he happens to be autistic, and now he's a real life basketball star. His coach put him in...

S. O'BRIEN: Kind of a reward, because he'd been working hard as an assistant.

M. O'BRIEN: Yes, he'd been working hard, so they put him in.

Look what he did. Now they're calling him J-Mac. The school is wild. He went nuts. He had an incredible, incredible run of three- pointers.

Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JASON MCELWEIN, BASKETBALL STAR: The team was excited. Everybody else is excited. I was on fire. I was hotter than a pistol.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

S. O'BRIEN: I was on fire. I was hotter on a pistol. Go, J- Mac!

M. O'BRIEN: They had the little face cards and everything. There he is. There he is, J-Mac. He tied a school record, six three- pointers, 20 points on the night in a four-minute run, and we have to ask the question, what was the coach thinking all season?

S. O'BRIEN: What was wrong with the coach?

M. O'BRIEN: What was the coach thinking all season here?

S. O'BRIEN: He should be playing all the time, that kid.

M. O'BRIEN: I think he should be starting coach. That's just our opinion right now here. And we generally have consensus on this, J-Mac should be starting.

S. O'BRIEN: That was cute.

Ahead this morning, we're going to tell you about one of the biggest police investigations -- bank heists in history. Crooks have gotten away with $43.5 million. We're going to get the latest on the manhunt, now massive. That's just ahead.

M. O'BRIEN: They do big heists in England, don't they?

S. O'BRIEN: Also the most incriminating testimony yet in the Enron case. Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling in some big trouble.

S. O'BRIEN: Plus key findings in the new Katrina report. The White House homeland security adviser is going to join us live. That's coming up next on AMERICAN MORNING.

We're back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: Hurricane Katrina six months later, the pain, the reaction, the uproar and now the proposed solution. The president briefing cabinet members in the next hour on a new White House report about the lessons learned. Fran Townsend is the president's homeland security adviser. She had a big hand in preparing the report.

Nice to see you. Thanks for being with us this morning. FRAN TOWNSEND, HOMELAND SECURITY ADVISER: Good morning, Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Let me ask you a question about -- because of course the report doesn't come out until 9:00 a.m. Eastern Time. What's the number-one take-away, do you think, out of the report?

TOWNSEND: Well there's 125 specific recommendations broken down into 17 different issue areas, and it covers the gamut, from improving our support for evacuations, our logistics capability.

Most important, I think, is the communications capability. That is, understanding accurate, timely facts on the ground to support good decision and timely decision making, and the deployment of federal assets.

The president is very much about looking forward. How can we strengthen our response and ensure the safety and security of the American people?

S. O'BRIEN: And I know a lot of the report looks forward, but at the same time there's a big investigation essentially into what went wrong. To wrote my colleague, Jack Cafferty, isn't that sort of like Bonnie interviewing Clyde, to some degree, when the White House investigates something that it had a big hand in? Would you support -- or would the president support an independent investigation to find out really what happened?

TOWNSEND: Well, I think we need to make the report public and have people look at it. I think what you're going to find is it was the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management Agency that had operational responsibility for the response, for the preparation and the response, along with other federal departments and agencies.

And the president's real question was, how can we improve that response? And I think you'll find that the report addresses that very specifically.

S. O'BRIEN: The House committee found that Michael Chertoff waited two days, two days before he activated a national response plan, which some people found just utterly unacceptable. How come the new report that's coming out, the early word that we're getting, doesn't call for him to, one, take major responsibility, or, two, be ousted?

TOWNSEND: Well, Secretary Chertoff testified he has taken responsibility. And I would say, Soledad in terms of that, designating an incident of national significance, what the report -- the report does address that, and what it says was the national response plan was not clear about how that should be triggered, and arguably, as Secretary Chertoff has said, it was triggered by the president's emergency declaration. And even once it was triggered, it was not clear because of the way the report was written, it was very ambiguous, what the consequences of that was -- were to be.

We need to fix that. It calls for a quick 90-day review of the national response plan, and a clarification so that it is not at all ambiguous when you have to declare that and what the consequences of a declaration are.

S. O'BRIEN: I know, again, one part of the plan is that the military will be really more closely involved in any kind of emergency response to a national crisis. And I thought, well, isn't that what we have the National Guard for? Is the problem that right now 30 percent of our National Guard is in Iraq and Afghanistan?

TOWNSEND: Absolutely not. In fact, I talked to the head of the National Guard bureau during the course of my review. There are over 50,000 National Guardsmen from around the country, and he could have deployed even more. When we talk about an integrated use of the military, we're talking about not active duty forces, but really, by and large, the state National Guards, Guardsmen who did a phenomenal job.

We may also need active duty military forces. The report recognizes they have a solemn responsibility overseas, but working with the United States Northern Command, which has homeland security and defense responsibilities, we can integrate both active duty and National Guard troops.

S. O'BRIEN: Fran Townsend is the White House homeland security adviser. Nice to see you. Thanks for talking with us morning. We look forward to getting an official copy of that report at 9:00 a.m. Eastern Time.

TOWNSEND: Thank you.

S. O'BRIEN: Reminder, AMERICAN MORNING, we're in New Orleans next week. Really, we're In the Gulf area. It's the first Mardi Gras since Hurricane Katrina. Six months after the historic storm, we're going to talk about the recovery. We'll talk a little bit about what Ms. Townsend was looking toward, looking forward. AMERICAN MORNING coming to you live from the Gulf Coast, and that begins on Monday -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Former Enron execs Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling might be sweating under the collar today. That's because jurors in the Enron trial just heard the most incriminating testimony yet. We're "Minding Your Business" and keeping you informed on that front.

And later, some speculation this morning about figure skater Sasha Cohen. Her coach answering some questions about her practice habits. She took a day off. Is that a big deal? We'll let you decide.

Stay with us for more AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: Tomorrow on AMERICAN MORNING, we are bringing you a special hour on our medical series, "30, 40, 50" or a combined 120. They didn't like that idea, so 30, 40, 50 is what we're going to. Our medical team Dr. Sanjay Gupta and Elizabeth Cohen will be here looking at what you need to know about a key medical issue, whether you're in your 30s, or 40s or 50s, and they will be taking your questions. So here's what we'd like you to do. Go to our Web site, leave us a message there, or just send us an e-mail directly to AM@CNN.com. Either way it gets to us. And we will do our best to incorporate your questions in that special segment, 30, 40 and 50, and we all know who we're talking about, don't we?

(MARKET REPORT)

S. O'BRIEN: Did you hear this story, crooks in the U.K, have pulled off one of the biggest heists in history. The plot itself sounds right out of Hollywood.

Plus, this morning, we're going to tell you about some potentially big developments in the debate over abortion. New laws in two states could have an impact nationwide. We'll talk about that ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

We're back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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