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American Morning

Severe Weather; Iraq on the Brink?; Gotti Mistrial; Wayward Whippet

Aired March 13, 2006 - 08:30   ET

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

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Live pictures, Springfield, Illinois, as first light breaks and you know you really get a sense looking at this, Soledad, of the capricious nature of these storms. One house completely destroyed, next door, just fine, as a couple of tornadoes went through there. Several injured.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, just across the street. I mean Keith a little while ago just showed us, literally, across the street the homes are absolutely fine, a couple of shingles seem to be in the driveway and that's about it.

M. O'BRIEN: Yes.

S. O'BRIEN: What a complete mess.

M. O'BRIEN: Yes, and that's just part of the picture here, these storms, the violent weather, the tornadoes went all through a three- state region. And really this morning it continues to be difficult for a lot of people in the Midwest.

Chad Myers is watching it for us.

Chad, good morning.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: And good morning.

Yes, the line continues and even these red boxes, guys, now a yellow box, which is a severe thunderstorm watch box, maybe some of the tornadoes watches will be replaced by these severe thunderstorm watch boxes, because there's not the volatility in the morning that you have in the afternoon. That's when most of that weather happened yesterday was in the afternoon and evening after the heating of the day.

(WEATHER REPORT)

Back to you.

S. O'BRIEN: Bad news there.

All right, Chad, thanks.

MYERS: Yes. You're welcome.

M. O'BRIEN: Thank you, Chad.

Let's get to Carol Costello in the newsroom now, check some headlines.

Carol, good morning.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, Miles.

Yes, we have more on the severe weather for you now. The death toll on the rise in that string of tornadoes you just talked about in the Midwest. Authorities in Missouri say at least nine people have been killed, hundreds of homes have been destroyed throughout Missouri and southern Illinois. Actually, these are new pictures just in to CNN. You're going to see it right now. Officials are fanning out now across the area to try to assess the damage here. There you see the new video we have. We'll show you more as the morning progresses, so stay with us.

On to other news now, the Saddam Hussein trial has been adjourned until Wednesday. Hussein was not in court today, but the proceedings went forward in Baghdad. A former judge under Saddam Hussein's regime said he gave death penalty orders for more than 140 Shiites back in the 1980s but insists they were given a fair trial.

It's been nearly three years since the war in Iraq began and today President Bush will try to convince people that we are making progress there. He is set to begin the first in a series of speeches today. It's set to take place at George Washington University in Washington. CNN will have live coverage for you of the president's address. It's set to begin at 1:15 p.m. Eastern.

Democratic Senator Russ Feingold says he will introduce a resolution today calling for the censure of President Bush. Now translated, that means a sanction scolding. Senator Feingold is unhappy with the domestic wiretapping program. He says it's illegal. The White House says the president was within his rights. And by the way, the last time the Senate censured a president, Andrew Jackson, 1834.

The body of former Yugoslavia leader Slobodan Milosevic has been released to his relatives. He will be buried in Belgrade. Preliminary autopsy results indicate the 64-year-old Milosevic died of a heart attack, but there are still those rumors running around of a possible poisoning. A toxicology report is expected next week.

The bouncer working at a New York City bar where a graduate student was last seen alive is now considered a prime suspect in her killing. Darryl Littlejohn is being held on a parole violation. Investigators have linked his DNA to blood stains found with Imette St. Guillen's body. Actually, the blood was on some improvised handcuff bindings around her wrists. Littlejohn's lawyer says police have the wrong man, however.

And the author of the "Da Vinci Code," Dan Brown, says he was shocked by accusations that he lifted ideas for his best seller. Brown testified before the High Court in Britain earlier today. Two historians are suing Brown's publisher, Random House, which also published their 1982 work, "The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail." There could be a verdict by the end of the week. And of course we'll be following that.

Back to you, Miles.

S. O'BRIEN: Yes, it's a movie.

M. O'BRIEN: Yes.

S. O'BRIEN: It's all getting very dramatic.

M. O'BRIEN: Yes, it -- interesting how the timing goes on these things.

S. O'BRIEN: I bet everyone will run out and see the movie now.

M. O'BRIEN: Suddenly I'm in the grassy knoll again, here I am. All right.

Three years now since U.S. tanks first began their blitz kreeg (ph) across the Iraqi desert. Clearly the invasion went better than the occupation by anybody's estimation. Now whether the country of Iraq is on the brink of civil war or not the nature of the insurgency and the conflict in general has changed fundamentally.

Our Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr joining us live now with more on all this.

Barbara, civil war or not, it's different now, isn't it?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: It certainly is, Miles, by all accounts, look at just yesterday in Baghdad's Shia neighborhood of Sadr City, six car bombs detonating nearly simultaneously, 46 people killed, over 200 Iraqis wounded.

Now the administration says no, it is not civil war. As formerly defined, a breakdown of society, a breakdown of security and political control. But the situation is increasingly very serious. Most sober- minded military commanders say that the nature of the war certainly has changed in the last two weeks. Marked as much by sectarian violence as that insurgency.

Here in Washington on this third anniversary week both Republicans and Democrats making it very clear really applying the pressure that the Iraqis must form a new government to take control of the situation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOSEPH BIDEN (D), FOREIGN RELATIONS COMMITTEE: If they don't have a constitution in place by this summer that is viewed as a uniting document where everybody signs on to it, it's game over. Now how you pull them out, where you pull them to, whether you have them over the horizon, whether you have a containment policy that secures the region in a different way, that's a whole different question. But status quo, the way it is now, is over.

(END VIDEO CLIP) STARR: Miles, what Senator Biden is saying is what so many are now saying in Washington on Capitol Hill that the pressure point in Iraq is to convince the Iraqis to form this new national unity government and get it in place and take over security control, essentially. And that if they don't there is a risk of civil war. And if that were to happen, the only option might be for U.S. troops to pull out, actually. They certainly will stay on the sidelines. They will not get involved in a civil war -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: I'm curious, Barbara, what are the folks at the Pentagon saying perhaps privately about the number of troops there? A lot of people would tell you there weren't enough on the outset post invasion. Is there any talk at this point about actually escalating, sending more troops in or is that just absolutely off the agenda right now?

STARR: Well you know it's a peculiar thing that you ask actually. There are more troops going in. There is a slight increase at the moment because they are sending in more troops to try to train these Iraqi forces, especially the Iraqi police forces under the control of the Interior Ministry. That is priority number one.

The belief is those police forces are perhaps in many cases more loyal to their militia groups than they are to a central government. So some U.S. forces increasingly going in to do that, but no increase in combat forces, Miles. All signs, all efforts are pointed to trying to reduce the number of U.S. combat troops there with over 200,000 Iraqi security forces, the administration's view is it's their job to take control of it now.

M. O'BRIEN: Barbara Starr at the Pentagon, thank you very much -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Here in New York federal prosecutors hope the third time is a charm when they retry John Gotti Jr. on federal racketeering charges. They are expected to set a new trial date today following the decision of yet another hung jury.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN GOTTI JR., DEFENDANT: Go home and see my children. I'm going to sleep in my bed tonight.

S. O'BRIEN (voice-over): John Gotti Jr., walking out of a New York courtroom on Friday after his second mob racketeering trial ended the same way as the first, in a mistrial.

GOTTI: Listen, you'd have to accept that I'm John A. Gotti. John J. Gotti is tomb 451, St. John's.

S. O'BRIEN: The son of the infamous Dapper Don is facing several racketeering counts. In particular, he's accused of trying to silence radio talk show host and Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa.

In court, Gotti Jr.'s defense was that he'd quit the Gambino crime family in 1999 and that a five-year statute limitations on racketeering charges had expired. After an hour and a half of deliberations on Friday, the jury of eight men and four women told the judge they were completely deadlocked and wanted to leave, ASAP.

VICTORIA GOTTI, GOTTI'S SISTER: We're not thrilled. You know? It would have been better for an acquittal.

S. O'BRIEN: Now federal prosecutors are ready to try Gotti for a third time.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They intend to railroad him and they are just going to keep going until they get their peace of meat.

S. O'BRIEN: Curtis Sliwa, meanwhile, hopes a third jury will see what the other two couldn't.

CURTIS SLIWA, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: There's only one way to withdraw from the mob and that is to be room temperature. Six feet in a pine box and they'll all come to your funeral and they will buy you the best flowers and they'll say the first prayer that they ever said in their degenerate lives, but that's the only way you withdraw from organized crime. Anyone with common sense knows that.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

S. O'BRIEN: It was kind of a crazy case.

Let's get right to Tom Zambito. He's a reporter for the "New York Daily News," covered the second Gotti trial.

Nice to see you. Thanks for talking with us.

TOM ZAMBITO, "NEW YORK DAILY NEWS": Good morning.

S. O'BRIEN: I'm not exaggerating when I said I mean highlights and lowlights all over the place in this case. Let's first talk about the third time, because prosecutors have made it clear they're going to go again.

ZAMBITO: Right.

S. O'BRIEN: Different how this time?

ZAMBITO: Well I think you're going to see a lot of the same witnesses, if they do go to a trial the third time, but you have to understand, too, that there's a great incentive now for a plea deal to be reached. I mean, both sides publicly say that that's not going to happen. But clearly I think both sides are exhausted by it.

S. O'BRIEN: How big of a problem was the statute of limitations? This idea that 1999, John Gotti Jr. left the mob?

ZAMBITO: That was really what the case turned on. The defense team was able to play a snippet of a conversation that John Jr. had with his father in prison in 1999 in which he sort of tells his dad that I'm getting out, I'm getting out of the life. The father doesn't take it well. That was really what it turned on. There wasn't a lot that he did between 1999 and 2004 which is the last piece of the conspiracy. Prosecutors had alleged that he had continued to take mob money, but the horrific crimes, the shooting of Curtis Sliwa occurred in 1992.

S. O'BRIEN: There was a guy named Ron Kuby who testified. People know him also as a radio host as well. How did he help the defense?

ZAMBITO: Well he came in and said that in 1998 John had come to him when he was facing racketeering charges in a separate case and said, you know, I'm sick of this life, I'd like you to go over to the prosecutors and say that I want a plea deal. So he came in and testified for...

S. O'BRIEN: Giving greater...

ZAMBITO: Yes.

S. O'BRIEN: ... credence to what the tape that we heard?

ZAMBITO: Correct.

S. O'BRIEN: That the jurors heard as well?

ZAMBITO: Right. And Curtis...

S. O'BRIEN: And tell me about this jury. I mean there were reports that you could hear the jurors screaming at each other. Is that right?

ZAMBITO: On the first day, yes, we could -- we were all sitting in the courtroom and you could sort of hear pretty heated arguments in there. It seemed to have calmed down the second day. I think they sort of were resolved to the fact that no one was going to change their mind, but...

S. O'BRIEN: Ninety minutes that -- was all that they spent really, if you think about it. And apparently -- I mean I've never heard this from a jury, we want to go -- it's not going to go and we want to get out of here ASAP.

ZAMBITO: Right.

S. O'BRIEN: I mean that's a quote.

ZAMBITO: Yes, it was...

S. O'BRIEN: It's kind of weird.

ZAMBITO: Yes, it was a very strongly worded letter. That's why I think that the judge didn't force them back in to continue their deliberations. I think she was fairly convinced that they were done with it.

S. O'BRIEN: Deal or do you think it's going to go to trial?

ZAMBITO: I think it may go to trial.

S. O'BRIEN: Tom Zambito, nice to see you, from the "New York Daily News." Something to watch. I bet the third one will be something to watch as well.

ZAMBITO: Yes, it sure will.

S. O'BRIEN: Andy is "Minding Your Business" just ahead on AMERICAN MORNING. Let's get right to him.

What is coming up, -- sir?

ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: I am, Soledad.

How would you rate the state of American journalism? Plus, a big newspaper deal to tell you about. What does that mean for your hometown paper? Stay tuned to AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: The business of news is your focus this morning.

Andy, good morning.

SERWER: Good morning, Soledad.

Yes, there's a new survey out that says there's more news out there but less depth. Ready for the next story? No. This is a survey out by...

M. O'BRIEN: Very nicely done.

SERWER: That was good.

Survey out by Columbia University and it says there are more and more outlets out there but covering less stuff. They looked at one day, May 11, 2005, John Bolton looking to get confirmed, Macaulay Culkin at the M.J. trail, car bombing in Iraq. And you can see where most of the news coverage was, yes, the M.J. trial.

Google news, blogs, more stuff out there all the time, but...

S. O'BRIEN: Was that the day he wore his pajamas?

SERWER: So we had to cover that.

M. O'BRIEN: Hey, that was depth.

SERWER: And then they said that cable news -- right. They said there's more of this stuff out there, Google news and blogs, but not necessarily original reporting. They said that cable news was the shallowest and most ephemeral. How do I look?

S. O'BRIEN: Hey.

SERWER: And then let's go, there's another news story out there, a big merger in the works. Apparently Knight-Ridder has been looking to sell itself for awhile. Found a buyer, McClatchy newspapers, which is a chain that's half as big as Knight-Ridder.

Knight-Ridder owns the "Miami Herald," "Philadelphia Enquirer," "San Jose Merc (ph)." And McClatchy owns the "Saxby (ph)" and the "Star Tribune" in Minneapolis. There may be some overlap because Knight-Ridder owns the paper in St. Paul and the "Star Trib," you know there might be problems there from an anti-trust standpoint. But you know newspapers under the gun because of the Internet and cable news and cable news taking people away from reading the daily paper.

S. O'BRIEN: All right.

M. O'BRIEN: In a shallow kind of way.

S. O'BRIEN: You covered that very well.

SERWER: Thank you.

S. O'BRIEN: Eleven (ph).

SERWER: A lot of depth.

S. O'BRIEN: A lot of depth.

M. O'BRIEN: Well you may be shallow but you're our shallow guy.

SERWER: But ephemeral.

M. O'BRIEN: We love you.

SERWER: Thank you.

M. O'BRIEN: Ethereal, too.

SERWER: Yes.

S. O'BRIEN: Andy, thank you.

M. O'BRIEN: Still to come, do you think your neighbor might be a spy? Well, we'll show you how easy it is to find out who is in the CIA just by surfing the Web. And would that it were that easy to find Vivi. She's been on the lamb now for more than a month, disappeared off a tarmac at JFK Airport here in New York. Her owner has not given up. And as a matter of fact, a pet detective and two, as I like to call them, gumpaws are on the case.

S. O'BRIEN: Don't laugh at that, please.

M. O'BRIEN: He's encouraging me. He's shallow.

SERWER: I like that.

M. O'BRIEN: Coming up on AMERICAN MORNING.

SERWER: Gumpaws. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: I'm sure you'll recall the search for that missing Whippet Vivi here in New York City. Vivi got out of her cage at Kennedy Airport just after she had made her appearance at the prestigious Westminster Dog Show. That was about a month ago. And now we have word of a sighting. Actually, a sniffing as well.

Let's get an update on the situation. Pet Detective Karin -- or excuse me -- Karin Chockley-Goin and Vivi's -- OK, apparently they can't hear us. Can you hear us, folks? They can't hear us.

PAUL LEPIANE, VIVI'S CO-OWNER: Yes. Yes, now we can.

KARIN CHOCKLEY-GOIN, PET DETECTIVE: Yes, now we can.

M. O'BRIEN: OK. And Vivi's co-owner, Paul Lepiane, are near the airport where Vivi went missing, in the midst of the search.

Paul, first of all, give us a sense of what clues you have right now, the recent sightings that might indicate that Vivi is out and about in Queens of all places.

LEPIANE: Well we've had basically three sightings off the airport over a span of about three weeks. And we've followed up on all of them.

We actually had four and three of them we think are legitimate because the search dogs picked up her scent and were very interested in that. And tracked around where she might have been. And at the fourth place they didn't pick up anything and they were not interested.

The most recent sighting was just two days ago in Flushing and we went there immediately. And both dogs picked up very strong scent and were following it strongly and led us to a residential area and someone's garage where she -- they independently led us there. And so we think she maybe spent the night in this garage or spent some time there.

M. O'BRIEN: Do you, Paul, do you feel fairly confident that they are in fact on the trail of Vivi or could it be another animal?

LEPIANE: Well that's why we brought Karin in all the way from Oklahoma because these dogs that's their job. And they are trained to follow the scents of one dog. And you can even take them to a dog park where maybe 200 dogs are running around and they will pick up the scent of one dog and follow it over all the other scents to the one they are looking for. So they know what they are looking for and so I'm confident about that.

M. O'BRIEN: That is pretty impressive.

Karin, let's talk about this we have Caid (ph) and Boone with you there, as I've been calling them gumpaws.

CHOCKLEY-GOIN: Yes.

M. O'BRIEN: But how are they able to do their job?

CHOCKLEY-GOIN: Well basically I mean dogs know about scent from the time they are born. And a scent for a dog is pretty much like we recognize a face. Well they recognize scent in the same way. And each scent is completely different and where a dog -- where we would smell spaghetti, they smell tomato sauce, spices, hamburger meat. They're much more definitive in their scent than we are. So they are trained...

M. O'BRIEN: Which one is that right there? The little one is which one?

CHOCKLEY-GOIN: This is Boone. Our Daniel Boone.

M. O'BRIEN: Boone is on the -- Boone is digging for something right there. I think there might be a bone there from somebody.

Karin, ...

CHOCKLEY-GOIN: No, they've been standing.

M. O'BRIEN: ... as a pet detective, of course using a dog to find a dog makes a lot of good sense to me. What other strategies are you going to employ to try to track down Vivi?

CHOCKLEY-GOIN: Well actually we have used surveillance. We are using a bating technique whereby hoping that because Vivi is acting in a nomadic way, she's not necessarily creating a circuit which most other breeds would do in terms of their food and water source. We're actually having to use a lot of different things.

But it's -- there's surveillance, there's bating. And of course it's other people's eyes and ears. Ninety percent of all pets are returned that way even when we're tracking them, especially when it's been missing for a month as Vivi has.

M. O'BRIEN: And there's something about this breed, the Whippet, that makes it particularly difficult to catch them. They kind of go into survival almost call of the wild mode very quickly. I think he wants to get going there. But it's a difficult animal to capture, isn't it?

CHOCKLEY-GOIN: Yes, the sight hounds are probably among the most difficult when they do -- when they are at large. They travel greater territories. They tend to be a little bit nomadic, like I said, where other dogs will create a food circuit, you know a water source and they are among the most difficult to find when they're at large and capture.

M. O'BRIEN: All right, so, Paul, what's the plan for today and in the immediate future? I know this -- Karin doesn't come cheap. She's about a thousand dollars a day. How long are you going to continue? LEPIANE: Well Karin actually has some other things she has to go home to later today. So last night I just spent all night doing surveillance in the area where we think she is. And I sat in my car hoping she'd you know make tracks there. And I will do the same tonight because she' probably moving at night. So I'll just park there about 9:00 at night and sit there all night and see if she comes back to that garage. We left some attractive bate for her and some of her bedding, so hopefully she'll be attracted tot hat.

M. O'BRIEN: And quickly, if someone should see her, what should they do?

LEPIANE: They can call animal control here in Queens. They know all about her and they can get in touch with us.

M. O'BRIEN: We wish you well. Good luck in the hunt and I think they want to get to work, so we'll let them get to work.

LEPIANE: Yes.

CHOCKLEY-GOIN: Yes, they do.

M. O'BRIEN: Paul Lepiane, Karin Chockley-Goin, Caid and Boone...

CHOCKLEY-GOIN: Thank you.

M. O'BRIEN: ... thanks for participating as well. Best of luck to you all.

LEPIANE: Thank you.

CHOCKLEY-GOIN: Thank you.

M. O'BRIEN: Top stories after a break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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