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American Morning

Katrina Six Months Later; Bomb Suspects Killed; Port Compromise; The Fight for Iraq

Aired February 27, 2006 - 06:00   ET

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

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Welcome, everybody.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning.

S. O'BRIEN: I'm Soledad O'Brien reporting to you from downtown New Orleans this morning.

Hey, Miles, good morning.

M. O'BRIEN: Good morning. I'm Miles O'Brien from Slidell, Louisiana, about 30 miles away. We are live from New Orleans and Slidell, a special edition of AMERICAN MORNING -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Well, Miles, let's tell you a little bit about where we are. We are at the Ernest Morial Convention Center. And anybody of course who followed the story of Hurricane Katrina knows the story of the convention center. It's where we saw some of the most devastating pictures in fact early on in the wake of the storm. It's in downtown New Orleans, not very far from the French Quarter, in fact.

But the scene here on Saturday night quite a difference, of course, they're holding some of the big balls from Mardi Gras here. Mardi Gras, a tradition, which was the Endymion Ball, filled the hall here. We're talking about 5,000, 6,000 people, quite an extravaganza. And it's being -- used to be held at the Superdome, actually. But of course since the Superdome is still being reconstructed, that building probably won't be ready for months, they have moved a lot of things here to the convention center.

The convention center looked like a disaster area. We had the opportunity to walk through in the days after the storm. It was dirty. It was filthy. It was disgusting. To go back inside now is truly something remarkable. Three of the halls are now reopened. They have eight more expected to be open by sometime in the summer. But at the time, it was a symbol of despair of a city where people were looking for water and food and just any kind of hope.

Now it's taken, of course, months to clean it up, clean it out. They refurbished the bathrooms, et cetera. After the celebrations for Mardi Gras, because Bacchus was here and Endymion was here celebrating, they're setting up for the Orpheus Ball as well. After that, though, they've got a boat show as well and an international car show. And many people are looking to the revitalization of this area and this particular building, per se, as maybe a sign that this city is well on its way to recovery. Miles, Bacchus might ring a little bell with you. I know you had a little experience with Bacchus yesterday.

M. O'BRIEN: Yes. What a way to spend my first Mardi Gras. I was a rider, a masker on one of the Bacchus floats. It was really quite a treat. And it made me understand immediately you know all this discussion about whether or not to have a Mardi brouhaha celebration. Just looking at the people there, their reaction and the fact the way the city came to life made it quit obvious that psychologically this was the boost this place needed. Not to mention, as you referred to there, Soledad, the economic boost, a tremendous driver of course of the tourism-based economy here.

I'm standing on a street in Slidell, Louisiana. As you can see, I've got trailers behind me. This is broad -- a street that really is an area that is broad and deep with a lot of destruction. Ten thousand homes in the city of Slidell total, 4,000 of them remain destroyed and uninhabitable to this point. And people here would tell you with all the focus on New Orleans, they feel, 30 miles to the north, as if they are a forgotten city.

We'll talk to the mayor of Slidell, as well as a few people who live inside these trailers. For a while they wanted them to come. Now they are wondering if they might be here perhaps a little bit too long.

Also, I had an opportunity the other day to get an aerial tour of the frenetic efforts on the part of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to try to patch the levee system, which was so heavily compromised during Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita in the city of New Orleans. Fascinating how much work lies ahead. Corps of Engineers says they'll get it done in time for the hurricane season June 1. We'll give you an update on that.

Before we get to all of our special coverage related to this six- month milestone, post Katrina, Mardi Gras week, let's get to Carol Costello in New York with some headlines.

Good morning -- Carol.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, Miles, and good morning to all of you.

We start with a gun battle on the streets of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Security forces killed five suspects who they think are connected to Friday's attempt to blow up the world's biggest oil processing plant.

CNN's Caroline Faraj is on the phone from Dubai in the United Arab Emirates with more.

Good morning -- Caroline.

CAROLINE FARAJ, CNNARABIC.COM EDITOR: Good morning, Carol.

Yes, indeed the attack took place today about 9:30 p.m. Eastern and it lasted for two hours. And apparently this is something that started to appear and to surface on the surface -- actually it started to appear in Saudi Arabia.

Now the time the attackers, five of them, were killed in a residential area in the eastern side of the capital of (INAUDIBLE) Riyadh. And the attacks, the exchange of fire actually took place around, as I said, at 5:30 local time, which was very early morning in Saudi Arabia. And the shooting between the police and the attackers lasted for two hours and then finally they killed the five.

And then an hour after that, Saudi officials told us that they managed to capture another person, a sixth person in a different location. And they -- at the beginning, they were not sure whether it's linked with what happened on Friday in the refinery area, but they said that they are linked to the same group, which means that they are linked to al Qaeda -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Caroline Faraj reporting live from the phone from Dubai in United Arab Emirates this morning, thank you.

A 45-day hold, that's the compromise reached with the United Emirates-owned company over its management of six major U.S. ports. The delay will give lawmakers time to review the deal and its impact on national security.

CNN White House correspondent Elaine Quijano has more for you.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (on camera): A 45- day review is not what President Bush wanted. Nevertheless, White House officials are saying they are pleased by the compromise between Dubai Ports World and Republican congressional leaders over the controversial ports deal.

Now as CNN first reported on Saturday, the agreement crafted over the weekend was aimed at heading off a confrontation between Capitol Hill and the White House. The compromise gives concerned lawmakers the 45-day national security review they wanted. At the same time, it's also meant to save face for a White House that had threatened to veto any legislation to block the deal.

Now the government panel that examines such transactions, the Committee on Foreign Investment, says that once it receives all the necessary paperwork from the company itself that it will promptly begin the review process and fulfill DPW's request for a full investigation.

Elaine Quijano, CNN, the White House.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: A deadly border attack this morning in Baghdad, this after a deadly Sunday in Iraq.

CNN's Aneesh Raman live in Baghdad for us now. Aneesh, tell us what happened.

ANEESH RAMAN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Carol, good morning.

Three mortar rounds landing just a few hours ago in a Shiite neighborhood of Baghdad, two hitting a gas station and one a high school, at least 4 people were killed, some 17 others wounded. It comes, as you say, after a spade (ph) of attacks in the country yesterday left upwards of 20 people killed, 15 of them in the capital from a similar mortar attack. Also, south of Baghdad, in the city of Hilla, a car bomb detonating near a busy bus station there. At least five people were wounded.

Also yesterday, Carol, an important voice adding his call for unity. Shia radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr back in Iraq after travels abroad in the southern Shia city of Basra calling for unity between Shia and Sunnis. He also, as well though, called for continued demonstrations after that Wednesday attack on the Shia mosque. He emphasized though demonstrations should be peaceful.

So as the curfew, the extraordinary 34-hour curfew, is lifted in the capital, the hope is that calm can remain, that tensions have cooled, but they do remain high. And everyone knows any small incident by any number of extreme groups could trigger an uptick in the violence again -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Aneesh, I know that Saddam Hussein's trial is supposed to start up again tomorrow. Are there any new developments that we should know about? I know he's been on a hunger strike.

RAMAN: Yes, he's been on a hunger strike. According to his lawyers, he has ended that strike at their behest. Also, you'll recall Saddam's defense team was kicked out of the courtroom. Well they are set to be back tomorrow. The court, essentially, reversing its decision. And likely all the events over the past week will work its way back into the courtroom as well -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Aneesh Raman live for us in Baghdad this morning, thanks.

Let's head to Atlanta now to check in with Chad.

It's cold and it's cold -- Chad.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: It is.

(WEATHER REPORT)

S. O'BRIEN: No, that sounds bad.

All right, Chad, we'll check in with you for more on that later.

We continue our reports this morning. We're coming to you of course live from the convention center here in New Orleans. Lots of progress has been made. We're going to talk a little bit more about that this morning.

Also, Mardi Gras celebrations, we're going to take you to a town that was absolutely devastated in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. But because of the force of some very special women, the celebrations will go on.

That's ahead this morning.

M. O'BRIEN: And speaking of places devastated by the storm, St. Bernard Parish, we've told you so many things about how difficult life is there. Take a look at that graffiti. That's another sign of trouble there. Are violent street gangs moving in and taking advantage of a desperate situation? We'll have the story for you when AMERICAN MORNING continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: We're back at the convention center this morning six months after Hurricane Katrina absolutely walloped this area. And of course this place itself became essentially notorious. It's where we saw tens of thousands of people begging for water and for food and for help. And the garbage was piled so high you'll remember from some of our reports.

Well you can see a little garbage, different garbage this time, and just a little bit, that's because they have been celebrating here. Some of the big balls from Mardi Gras being held here. A little later this morning, we're going to go inside and take a look at how they have really redone big parts of the convention center and now are hosting some big events.

Of course when you talk Mardi Gras, you need to talk about security. The crowds are smaller this year, but still the police have to be on high alert.

This morning, Chris Lawrence with a report talking to the man in charge of NOLA's security.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It doesn't matter if it's the middle of the day or after midnight, the New Orleans Police Department says it's ready for any trouble during this year's Mardi Gras celebrations.

(on camera): How prepared are you right now?

SUPERINTENDENT WARREN RILEY, NEW ORLEANS POLICE: Well, we're prepared.

LAWRENCE (voice-over): I spoke with Police Superintendent Warren Riley as we walked through the Lower Ninth Ward, an area of the city heavily damaged by Hurricane Katrina and a place where residents still have not been able to return home.

(on camera): Are you doing anything to keep tourists from wandering into areas like this?

RILEY: No, we have officers on patrol. We're really focused more on looting. Obviously this area won't be looted very much because it's so devastated.

LAWRENCE (voice-over): The city of New Orleans recently banned guided tours that had been taking people through neighborhoods like this one. Riley admits the police department has about 200 fewer officers than it did before the storm, but he's getting help from 200 state troopers and federal agents. Riley also says shortening the celebration to eight days saved the city millions of dollars.

RILEY: We normally run the Mardi Gras off $3.1 million and overtime expenses for -- just for police. This year we're doing that off $1.2 million.

LAWRENCE: Pre-Katrina, the prison system could house 7,000 inmates. Now it can only hold 1,100. To help, officials built this temporary facility just to process people arrested during Mardi Gras.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Processing the inmates may be a little slow at first, but they're going to be revolving straight in, straight out. And the people arrested on serious charges, they're going to -- obviously they're going to stay.

LAWRENCE: A bigger problem could be people who need to see a doctor. Only two hospitals in New Orleans have reopened with fully functioning emergency rooms.

RILEY: You know our biggest concern actually has been a medical situation, the ability to handle a number of emergencies.

LAWRENCE: So far there have not been any major incidents. And officials say if they can avoid them for two more days, Mardi Gras 2006 will end on a safe note.

Chris Lawrence, CNN, New Orleans.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

S. O'BRIEN: No big surprise there, really, that the number of incidents are down, because the truth is the crowds are significantly smaller than in years past. No big surprise there.

A reminder, we're going to be here tomorrow as well for Mardi Gras for Fat Tuesday, the big celebrations. We'll be covering that for you, all day coverage, 6:00 a.m. going to 1:00 p.m., that's Eastern Times of course.

One of our guests tomorrow as well is going to be Mayor Ray Nagin to talk about the city's progress, or lack of, as some people might say, in certain circumstances. Again, that's tomorrow starting at 6:00 a.m. Eastern Time taking you straight through to 1:00 in the afternoon.

Much more to talk about, let's get right back to Carol Costello in New York.

Hey, Carol, good morning.

COSTELLO: Good morning. It looks chilly there. Soledad has that big heavy coat on.

Soledad, is it warm?

S. O'BRIEN: Warm isn't a word I'd use. It's in the 40s. We're hoping as the sun comes up I can start taking off my heavy coat, because I have one on and then I have another one underneath and a turtleneck.

COSTELLO: I can tell. It's always good to dress in layers.

(CROSSTALK)

S. O'BRIEN: Exactly. Exactly.

COSTELLO: All right, Soledad, we'll get back to you.

We'll let...

CARRIE LEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You see some stragglers who are still up from the night before sort of running in the background.

COSTELLO: Not so unusual in New Orleans.

Carrie Lee, as you can see, is here with business news. There's a new plan for mobile entertainment and Delta is taking another step back?

LEE: Yes, a lot of news happening this Monday morning.

Let's start with the mobile segment. We're talking about a new mobile entertainment site called Mobizzo.com. News Corporation, the big entertainment company, the big news company, behind this. This is a mobile entertainment store. They're making their debut today. And this is a different offering than what's already out there because they're offering things like ring tones, screen savers, and even eventually movies, directly to consumers.

So what makes this different, anyone with a mobile phone will eventually be able to download these things. Starting with Cingular and T-Mobile customers today. And we're talking about individual offerings for maybe $2, $3 or a monthly service for $6. As I said, Carol, starting small.

Videos not available to download yet, because most phones don't have that technology. But News Corporation basically has very big plans here. They expect that the number of mobile phone content that can come directly to consumers will increase 50 percent by 2008.

COSTELLO: Wow!

LEE: So big ambitions here. COSTELLO: More...

LEE: Exactly.

COSTELLO: Now tell us about Delta.

LEE: Delta is cutting the capacity on its New York to Florida routes primarily. This is involving their Song flights. Now Song is going to be folded in May. But they say that May is -- from now until May if there's not a lot of business for flights to Florida, so they're cutting flights by 13 per day, 25 percent capacity. Bottom line, they just can't compete with JetBlue. And this news sent JetBlue shares higher by 6 percent on Friday.

COSTELLO: From now until May there aren't many flights to Florida...

LEE: Well...

COSTELLO: No way.

LEE: Coming up maybe April, May. Maybe now it's still busy, but then as the weather gets warmer, so.

COSTELLO: Got you.

LEE: Yes.

COSTELLO: OK.

LEE: All right.

COSTELLO: Thank you, Carrie Lee.

Let's head to Slidell, Louisiana, that's where Miles is this morning.

M. O'BRIEN: Thank you very much, Carol.

Coming up on the program, we're going to take you to St. Bernard Parish, a terribly hard hit place just outside of the city proper of New Orleans, and we're going to tell you about a new worry there. Imagine all the devastation they have had to contend with and now they face a frightening new threat, street gangs. Gangs that may be taking advantage of the situation.

Plus, we'll also tell you about a very determined crew of Mardi Gras revelers who, despite tremendous damage, pulled it together and celebrated in spite of all they have been through.

Stay with us for more AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) BARBARA, IDENTITY THEFT VICTIM: It was worse than if somebody had just taken money from my purse, because it made me feel that they were taking me. For me, the cost of being a victim of identity theft was more than monetary.

I'd always been pretty trusting and felt that everything was under control and suddenly I started to suspect all the people with whom I normally do business. I mean those people have all kinds of information about you, you know.

The technological fixes that I've heard of don't completely reassure me that my privacy wouldn't be invaded far more than I would be willing to have it invaded.

M. O'BRIEN (on camera): Barbara is not alone. In fact, American consumers lost nearly $57 billion last year to identity theft. When it comes to protecting our personal security, what hope can technology offer?

REID GOUGH, DEAN OF TECHNOLOGY, DAVENPORT UNIVERSITY: This device is a smart card reader.

M. O'BRIEN (voice-over): Meet Reid Gough, Dean of Technology at Davenport University in Michigan.

GOUGH: Biometric security is one way to stop identity theft. Physical characteristics that identity who you are is a lot harder to steal than is a credit card number.

M. O'BRIEN: Technologies already in place include iris scans, palm geometry readers, facial recognition and finger printing tools.

GOUGH: The next line of defense is trying to identify those unique physical characteristics of an individual that are very hard to replicate, veins in your hands, looking at the inner ear.

M. O'BRIEN: But are we all ready to divulge that much personal information?

GOUGH: If we think that we live in a private world, we don't. What we need to do now is just make sure that the information we do have is secure.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Standby.

S. O'BRIEN: Here at the convention center we've been showing you, you know, some of the cleanup. Now, obviously this kind of stuff, these plastic bags full of beads, and this is what they put on the floats as they get ready to chuck them to the people who come to the parades.

But this here, these trucks, this kind of work is actually the work that's being done to help rebuild the convention center. As we mentioned, three of the halls are now completed. They're hoping to have eight done by sometime in the early summer. But a lot of work to be done here, and this is not an uncommon sight right here.

Another big problem to talk about, though, in a different parish, St. Bernard Parish, where the sheriff has been telling us about a potential infiltration by Latin gangs.

Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's not something that we're accustomed to here where again we've had a hardcore criminal element but nothing organized like that and nothing, frankly, as dangerous.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

S. O'BRIEN: We got that story coming up for you ahead on AMERICAN MORNING. We're back in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: Welcome back to a special edition of AMERICAN MORNING. Coming up, CNN's Kathleen Koch, who has roots in the Gulf region, has spent a lot of time here since Hurricane Katrina, has the fascinating story of some people who just wouldn't give up and their desire to have a moment of celebration, to have a Mardi Gras to remember. They took the shambles of what was their Mardi Gras celebration and made it something special. We'll tell you their story, a very special crew, as they call them here, ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Go.

S. O'BRIEN: Who? What?

M. O'BRIEN: St. Bernard Parish battered, beaten and vulnerable and now violent criminals might be moving in. Also, Mardi Gras, it's not just New Orleans, of course, another community had to pick up the pieces so they could think about something else other than recovering from Hurricane Katrina.

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