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American Morning

A Mardi Gras to Remember; Baghdad Explosions; Saddam Hussein on Trial; Katrina Six Months Later

Aired February 28, 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. Welcome to a special Fat Tuesday edition of AMERICAN MORNING.
I'm Soledad O'Brien coming to you live from the Royal Sonesta Hotel on Bourbon Street, obviously right here in the French Quarter.

Good morning to you -- Miles.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, Soledad.

I'm Miles O'Brien. I'm about a mile away from you live along the Mardi Gras parade route. St. Charles Avenue is our location, uptown. There you see the map.

Take a look at the scene here, it is 5:00 in the morning local time, 6:00 Eastern, and what you and I would call a median, and what they call here in New Orleans neutral ground, is becoming parade ground already. People getting their stepladders up and getting ready to watch the parades as two of the so-called super krewes will come through here very shortly, Zulu and Rex. So we will be watching that all along.

Amid all the talk about whether they should have a Mardi Gras or not, we'll give you some history of the whole Mardi Gras celebrations. We'll give you a sense of the mood of the city.

And meanwhile, Soledad is keeping an eye on things in the French Quarter where it's a bit bawdy, even at this hour in the morning. It's interesting, Soledad, going to work and being sort of assaulted by folks who have had a long night already, huh?

S. O'BRIEN: Miles, it's a little bit strange, no question, but you can see the live pictures behind me, a lot of people still out here on Bourbon Street. And you keep in mind that it's 5:00 in the morning local time, and the streets, the party really hasn't slowed down at all.

Now Bourbon Street, for those of you who don't know, it's full of clubs and bars and restaurants and cabarets. And people are, you know they drink and they come out in the street and they drink and they move onto another bar and they drink a little bit more. So it's a little bit of a raucous party.

We're on a balcony, so we're able to overlook all that's happening. And what's more, people during the day will stand up here and chuck their beads down to the folks who are below. If you're not suspecting, you can kind of get wompped (ph) in the face a little bit with a bead.

No parade will come through here, it's a pedestrian walkway, but it has a parade atmosphere 24 hours a day. We're going to take a closer look at what happens right here in Bourbon Street, Mardi Gras, the big day today, of course, and also some of the places that are not quite in the celebratory mood. All those stories are ahead this morning.

First, though, want to get back to Carol Costello. She is in New York this morning.

Hey, Carol, good morning.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, Soledad.

Good morning to all of you.

A developing story out of Baghdad to tell you about this morning, three bombs, including two car bombs, exploded there. At least 13 are dead and there are reports many more are dead.

CNN's Arwa Damon live in Baghdad. She brings us up to date.

What's happening there -- Arwa?

ARWA DAMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning, Carol.

Actually, that death toll has risen, according to Iraqi emergency police, from those three car bombs that detonated at noon, at least 35 have been killed and 81 wounded. Now the deadliest of those attacks coming when a suicide bomber detonated his vest at a gas station in eastern Baghdad. At least 23 were killed in that attack.

The other two incidences, one a car bomb detonating in Karada, six were wounded -- six were killed, sorry, in that attack. The images from the scene quite striking, burning vehicles, bodies being carried away.

And then the final attack in eastern Baghdad, four were killed just there.

Now all of this is highlighting just how difficult it is for Iraqi civilians to go about their daily lives in today's environment in Baghdad, in the capital. In this instance today, people just going to a gas station ended up being the victims of this war here -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Just awful. I know they lifted a curfew recently. Who knows, maybe they'll reinforce it. We don't know.

You know we're also hearing about bodies found in Baquba. What can you tell us about that?

DAMON: That's right, Carol, nine bodies were found just south of Baquba. Apparently they were all believed to be Shia traveling in two vehicles to the city of Nahrawan. Police found the bodies this morning and took them to the Baquba morgue where family members showed up trying to identify their loves ones. And from there also quite tragic pictures of family members mourning over those that they have lost.

Now the head of Baghdad's morgue tells CNN that since violence erupted on Wednesday following the attack on the Al-Askariya Mosque, in Baghdad alone, at least 246 bodies have showed up at the morgue -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Arwa Damon reporting live for us from Baghdad.

We'll get back to you. Thanks so much.

After a bit of a delay, the Saddam Hussein trial has just resumed in Baghdad.

CNN's Aneesh Raman on the phone from the courthouse.

Aneesh, I know it took Saddam Hussein a little while to get to the courtroom. What do you know about that?

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

The trial got under way about 20 minutes ago. It took a good two hours delay from when it usually starts. Saddam Hussein the first of the eight defendants to walk in. For the first time he said nothing as he took his seat, quietly sitting down, wearing the suit that he has characteristically known to wear in the courtroom.

Within 10 minutes of the proceedings getting under way though, Saddam's defense lawyers, who were back in court, they had reached an agreement with the chief judge, walked out again. They submitted a motion to have the chief judge and the chief prosecutor replaced.

The court announced that that motion was rejected. The lawyers for Saddam Hussein then said they wanted to appeal that decision and wanted the proceedings delayed until that process was done. The court said that would not take place, the proceedings would go forward. At that point, they walked out.

So again, we're in a tense moment right now. Barzan Hassan al- Tikriti, Saddam's half-brother, is engaged in a yelling match with the chief judge who has told him repeatedly now to -- quote -- "shut up" as he says that he rejects the court-appointed defense lawyer. So drama, again, inside the courtroom in the trial of Saddam Hussein -- Carol.

COSTELLO: OK, so it's tense inside the courtroom. It's tense outside of the courtroom in Baghdad. We've just talked about the violence there. I know there was another explosion at a mosque named after Saddam Hussein's father. So does he know about it? Is it expected to affect the court proceedings at all?

RAMAN: Well that was the question we had going into today's session, the attack on the mosque where his father is buried in his hometown of Tikrit. It does not appear that he is aware yet of the incident, otherwise, likely he would have began screaming at the start of this session as he's done before. A very subdued Saddam Hussein.

We also understand he has ended his 11-day hunger strike, that according to his lawyers, but he is not visibly thinner. He does look a little weak. He does not seem as defiant as he usually does. Again, saying nothing as he entered the courtroom -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Aneesh Raman reporting to us live from inside the courtroom.

Saddam Hussein is on trial again. He just made it to the courtroom, as you heard, two hours late; but the trial is ongoing, although it is a little tense.

Let's head back to New Orleans, though, to talk about something good. I hear Miles.

Miles, is that you coughing? What is wrong?

M. O'BRIEN: I'm sorry. Did they -- they tracked my mike a little early there. Sorry, Carol, good morning.

COSTELLO: Good morning.

M. O'BRIEN: I'm practicing to be an old man. How am I doing?

COSTELLO: You're doing a great job.

M. O'BRIEN: All right. Thank you.

You know the official name of this one of the krewes you're going to see today is the Zulu Social Aid and Pleasure Club. This year that name may be more apt than ever as the krewe offers pleasure to the people of New Orleans so in need of a smile, and maybe that's where the social aid comes in.

Take a look at the parade route. They will be coming right by us a little bit later. But they begin way up on Jackson Street, actually (INAUDIBLE) begin at the Superdome, wind their way down all the way, make their way to St. Charles, where we are, and then straight into the edge of the French Quarter. You know these big krewes with their huge floats don't go into the Quarter anymore because the streets are so narrow and the floats are so big that it -- they just don't fit.

CNN's Chris Lawrence is going to be with Zulu every step of the way.

And, Chris, this is going to be quite a treat for you. Are you going to be able to hand out a few beads along the way or are you going to be working the whole time?

CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: No, no, no, we've got a big bag of CNN beads and all that we're going to be throwing them as we get a chance to. And hopefully we'll get our hands on one of the golden nuggets, the Zulu coconuts, which are one of the most prized throws. You know we're standing here. I know not a lot to see right here, but we're standing here, you know, at the viewing stand where the Zulus will make their first stop just a few blocks into their run on their parade.

It's interesting, because you know back in 1909 when the Zulus started, well, black people were not allowed to parade down St. Charles. They weren't allowed to make their traditional toast at Gallier, where you know some of the other krewes did. So this is where they did it. They paraded through the black neighborhoods. This is where they make their traditional toast here at this funeral home.

And that was one thing the people who run Zulu said they wouldn't compromise on. They made some compromises because of the shortened parade schedule and everything, but they said, just historically, they had to have their toast here because this is where Zulu began. And they wanted to keep it here in neighborhoods like this one.

You can take a look at what Zulu means, what you will see a little bit later in just a couple hours when the parade gets going, colorful costumes, just a lot of fun. Zulu is known to be the most fun krewe out there. Incredible characters, like the witchdoctor, the governor, the ambassador. All of them will be riding floats. Not as many this year, they probably got about half. Normally 1,200 riders, more than 50 floats, you're going to see about half of that this year.

But you will see something we haven't seen before in any parade, any Mardi Gras, up until now, and that's authentic Zulu warriors that the krewe has flown in from Africa. They will be part of that parade leading the way down St. Charles later today -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Chris, they have the throw that everybody wants, which is the golden coconut.

LAWRENCE: I know.

M. O'BRIEN: Which you don't -- they don't throw anymore, because apparently somebody got conked and sued. But do you have one? Have you seen one yet? Are you going to be able to get a hold of one?

LAWRENCE: I don't have one yet, but we have been promised to get one. The only problem is everybody at CNN has been asking for one, so I don't think one is going to be enough. I think I need a bag to carry about 10 or 20 back with me.

M. O'BRIEN: Let me just tell you this, Chris, don't come back from this assignment empty handed, all right?

LAWRENCE: Yes, I know, I know.

M. O'BRIEN: All right.

Let's get a check of the forecast.

Chad, it's a very pleasant morning here. It seems a little warmer.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: It is.

M. O'BRIEN: As a matter of fact, it is definitely a lot warmer than it was yesterday. Looks like we're going to have a picture perfect day here.

MYERS: Absolutely, 50 degrees right now, headed to 74. UV index around an 8.5 to a 9. So if you're standing out there the whole day, I mean literally this is going to be one of those sunburn days. You're not thinking about that because it's been winter for so long, but the sun is getting stronger now.

(WEATHER REPORT)

M. O'BRIEN: All right, let's savor it. Enjoy it while we can. We'll certainly enjoy today here in New Orleans.

More of our special Mardi Gras coverage in just a moment. Obviously we're not overstating it when we say it's a big day for the city of New Orleans. It just so happens we're at the six-month mark post-Katrina, Mardi Gras happening at the same time. We're going to take a look at the mood of the city right now. It's really a tale of two cities.

Also, you're going to see a lot of masks today on the revelers. We'll meet two women using them as a way to escape some harsh realities -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Miles, also ahead this morning, we're going to take another tour of St. Bernard Parish with our old friend right there, Sheriff Jack Stephens. Lots of devastation, lots to be done, not much cleaned up, but we do have some very small signs of progress to report. Tell you about those just ahead. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A lot of people where I'm staying at have come back just to go to Mardi Gras, people who have been displaced. And they just wanted to come back, you know, to go to, more or less to say, OK, well even though I've lost everything, I'm still going to make this Mardi Gras this time, or whatever it is. You know to show some support for it. And I think it's great.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

M. O'BRIEN: Put him in the pro Mardi Gras camp.

A lot of talk this week about whether it is respectful, appropriate, or, for that matter, fiscally sound to hold this big street party they call Mardi Gras. The questions come almost exactly six months after Katrina devastated New Orleans, and thus it has us wondering how people here are doing in general. Well, as you might suspect it depends on whom you ask and where. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

M. O'BRIEN (voice-over): In the heart of the old city, they gathered to embrace and smile and tell harrowing tales.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: An 18-wheeler caught the power line and ripped the side of the house off.

M. O'BRIEN: Mood, as these movers and shakers met for a traditional Lundi Gras lunch, upbeat, almost defiantly so.

EDWIN MURRAY, LOUISIANA STATE SENATE: When 9/11 took place, they still had New Years Eve in New York. So I mean, you know, so nobody -- they didn't stop their life and we shouldn't be forced to stop ours either.

WALTER BOASSO, LOUISIANA STATE SENATE: For the most part, you know the mourning is over with and we're moving on now. And you know it's time to forget the past and let's just go ahead and try and do the best that we can do.

BENNIE RAYFORD, RESIDENT: Yes, this is all, look.

M. O'BRIEN: A few miles away in the decimated Lower Ninth Ward, Bennie Rayford is doing the best he can do to rebuild his home where he rode out Katrina in a dark, dank attic. The mood here is somber.

RAYFORD: Well I used to get excited, bring the kids there. But, like I said, this year here, it's just like any other day.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think that this city needs as much celebrating as you can get.

M. O'BRIEN: That's the feeling along the parade routes and on the elaborate floats.

OWEN "PIP" BRENNAN, KREWE OF BACCHUS CAPTAIN: We had to show the country and the rest of the world that, yes, we're on our knees, but we're not dead and buried.

M. O'BRIEN: Perhaps the joy of Mardi Gras is magnified by the death of the loss.

MAUREEN DETWEILER, NEW ORLEANS RESIDENT: I met people on the parade route that I hadn't seen since the floods and it was so wonderful. I cannot explain how wonderful it was. It seemed that they were enjoying something that they thought they may have lost, but they got it back.

M. O'BRIEN: But so much here is not back, probably never will be, in fact. And that is why people like Bennie Rayford are just not in the mood to join in.

RAYFORD: Just while they're shouting (ph) help these people get their lives together, you know, while they're having a big party, it's not -- go away -- it's not -- you know it' not (ph). M. O'BRIEN: One thing about New Orleans, it has always been a city of extremes.

CLANCY DUBOS, EDITOR/PUBLISHER "GAMBIT WEEKLY": We have hurricanes and floods and tornadoes, but we also have jazz and great food and it's a zest for life. So it's important that we go on (ph) and show that zest because it's part of maintaining our balance.

M. O'BRIEN: And even those who disagree will frequently remind you of one thing, they may be down, but they are not out.

RAYFORD (?): Yes, I'm not walking away. You know I love my city and I love New Orleans. I'm not going anywhere.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

M. O'BRIEN: A good number of tourists have come to New Orleans for this Mardi Gras. We don't have a firm number on that just yet. But we do know it's not as many as in years past, as you might suspect. But this year any number of tourists with their dollars from outside, well, that's a good sign for businesses here -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Well you know, Miles, you said it best, I think, depends on who you ask and where they are. Because if you talk about a place like St. Bernard Parish, no one is going there to spend their tourist dollars. There's no business there. There are virtually no homes there. Only a handful are now habitable once again. It sits right outside, of course, the city of New Orleans, one of the most devastated areas. And we had a chance to visit the parish really right after the storm struck, saw the destruction firsthand.

On Monday, I caught up with Sheriff Jack Stephens to see just how they are faring the six months out.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

S. O'BRIEN (voice-over): St. Bernard Sheriff Jack Stephens gives us another tour, this time further out than we've ever been in the parish, to Shell Beach, where virtually everything is a total loss.

SHERIFF JACK STEPHENS, ST. BERNARD PARISH: You see all of those places over there, that was all homes. They're all gone.

S. O'BRIEN (on camera): All those pylons are homes?

STEPHENS: Right.

S. O'BRIEN: My God! And those would all be fishermen.

(voice-over): Even what's left of the million-dollar homes isn't much.

(on camera): These were houses on top of pylons?

STEPHENS: Yes, absolutely. Yes.

S. O'BRIEN: Million-dollar homes?

STEPHENS: Yes. There, there, over there.

S. O'BRIEN (voice-over): It's an area known for its history in fishing and shrimping. But the industry here, where the earliest settlers to St. Bernard Parish in the 1700s landed, is now wiped out.

STEPHENS: But the places that we used to go and hang out after high school football games and you know things like that are gone. It's like the entire history has been wiped out.

S. O'BRIEN: There has been virtually no rebuilding. A big exception is the Dynegy plant. It pumps about 10 percent of the gas in the United States. It's not up and running yet. But for Sheriff Stephens, it's not just business, it's personal.

STEPHENS: This is where I grew up, I mean this area down here. I worked on trawl boats when I was a kid. I worked on oyster boats. Enjoyed it. This was a good place to grow up.

S. O'BRIEN: We drive to see if there has been any progress at Lexington Place, that subdivision we profiled on our last trip. There has been one improvement, the streets are cleaner, but that's about it.

STEPHENS: The debris cleanup has to accelerate for people to really keep their head in the game.

S. O'BRIEN: Blue tarps dot some homes. They seem to be rebuilding. Others are selling what's clearly just wreckage. Unfortunately, it's all too familiar in St. Bernard Parish.

(on camera): Our very first time in St. Bernard Parish...

STEPHENS: Right.

S. O'BRIEN: ... we did our report from this house. And I remember we climbed right through this window after...

STEPHENS: Yes.

S. O'BRIEN: ... it, you know, because it was kind of a window. And it was a mess.

STEPHENS: It was a mess.

S. O'BRIEN: But look.

STEPHENS: And if you look at it now, you think well maybe there is some potential for this.

S. O'BRIEN (voice-over): Potential the sheriff hopes will bring people back into the parish.

STEPHENS: If you could get in some of these subdivisions and clean out the houses that needed to be demolished and it would look like a new subdivision.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

S. O'BRIEN: So he says there is a lot of progress that needs to be made on a lot of different fronts. First, if they could just cleanup the debris, cleanup the houses, there would give this sense that there is progress. That might bring people back into the parish.

He also says there are a lot of elderly people who are leaving. And, as a gentleman who grew up in the parish, he's very worried that the traditions and the stories and the history -- this is a place steeped in history, I mean, as we said, from the 1700s -- all that could be lost as well. Some very big concerns, and they continue for the folks in St. Bernard Parish.

Bittersweet, I think it's fair to say, for a lot of people, not only there, but here in New Orleans as well. This morning we're going to meet two sisters who have been forced out of the French Quarter by Hurricane Katrina. But we're going to find out how their beautiful Mardi Gras masks are kind of helping them through these tough times. Their story is just ahead. Stay with us, everybody, we're back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Before we get back to New Orleans, a little bit of business news. Nonprofit organizations are squaring off against AOL.

Carrie Lee is here to tell us how.

CARRIE LEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: AOL and Yahoo!, Carol, both of these companies are working with another firm called Goodwill. And the plan, starting later this month for AOL, starting in a few months for Yahoo!, is to start charging companies to send e-mail, somewhere between a quarter cent and one penny per e-mail.

Now we're not talking about everyone, not individual users, but companies that send huge bulk e-mails. Companies like Moveon.org. That's the name of the company that's actually putting together a protest campaign against these companies. They have three million e- mail customers in their base. They try to raise money. It's a liberal advocacy group. Well three million times a penny apiece, that means they would have to pay $30,000 to get their message out.

Yahoo! says they are only going to charge for messages related to purchases or financial transactions.

What are you paying for? Well, an AOL certified e-mail. Direct links to the company, basically making it easier and a more quality e- mail.

COSTELLO: An AOL certified e-mail.

LEE: Exactly. You can go and get a -- you can easily click on a link that goes directly to the company. People like us will still be able to e-mail for free but a lower quality message, if you will. COSTELLO: I just find it interesting that the program is called Goodwill.

LEE: Yes, I know, exactly, right, pretty ironic.

Quickly, NYSE is set to complete its takeover of Archipelago Holdings. This is the electronic trading network. And then the NYSE is going to go public starting next Wednesday. Ticker symbol NYX. Start trading next Wednesday. And that is the latest there. We'll see if they do as well as the Nasdaq, which was up 244 percent last year.

COSTELLO: We'll keep an eye on it.

LEE: OK.

COSTELLO: Thank you, Carrie Lee.

Let's head back to New Orleans. Miles, I couldn't help but notice you have beads beside you.

M. O'BRIEN: Yes, well of course, this is New Orleans.

Hey, I got a quick question for Carrie. NYSE hasn't been public before, why not?

LEE: Well, it's just taken them awhile. They wanted to come together with Archipelago. They want that electronic component. So it's taken them awhile to get that deal in place. But Nasdaq has done very well. Everyone else, Philadelphia, Chicago, they've all gone public. So NYSE, after 213 years, will be doing the same.

M. O'BRIEN: All right, I think you need to go public, Carrie.

COSTELLO: I think she has.

LEE: A penny stock, right?

M. O'BRIEN: Yes, you do.

(CROSSTALK)

M. O'BRIEN: Yes. All right. No, no, no, we would definitely not sell you short, ever.

All right, we'll have more of our special Mardi Gras coverage. Coming up, we're going to talk to one of the krewe members from the legendary Zulu Krewe. They've had an incredibly rough year, to say the least, they lost several members in the wake of Katrina and Rita. We'll tell -- we'll ask them how they're doing. And what's interesting this year, they actually have real Zulus from Africa as part of the krewe this year. Just adding to the whole rich tapestry of their history. We'll talk to them in just a bit.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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