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American Morning

Deadly Texas Wildfires; Bush's Approval Ratings Dips; Judge Considers Mistrial in Moussaoui Case

Aired March 14, 2006 - 08:59   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, everybody. I'm Soledad O'Brien.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Miles O'Brien.

No letup in Texas. Wildfires burning up enough ground to nearly cover the state of Rhode Island.

S. O'BRIEN: The spiraling death count in Iraq. More than 80 bodies are found in just 30 hours.

M. O'BRIEN: And the Moussaoui trial, an al Qaeda trial, could be thrown out because one lawyer is accused of breaking the rules.

S. O'BRIEN: We start our last hour this morning with those deadly wildfires in the Texas panhandle. At one point smoke could be seen more than 100 miles away. The fires have burned nearly 700,000 acres and they're being blamed for at last 11 deaths. They're about 50 percent contained.

Strong winds, though. are going to make it a difficult fight. That's what's predicted.

CNN's Ed Lavandera is live for us in Groom in north Texas.

Hey, Ed. Good morning.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Soledad.

Well, the suffocating smell of this charred land is really what's sitting heavy over the Texas panhandle this morning. You can see behind me kind of the contrast you see as the charred ground butts up against land that hasn't burned.

And when you go up above the aerial shots of this region, you can really get a sense of exactly what this ground looks like here, almost like a jigsaw puzzle between what has burned and what has not burned. But these have been deadly fires that firefighters have been dealing with here since Sunday afternoon.

Eleven people have died in fire-related incidents. The last four coming -- found yesterday near the town of Miami, Texas. Four people found near a car that had been burned. Authorities suspect those people were trying to get away from these fast-moving fires but were unable to do so. Three others died in traffic -- in a traffic-related accident where people were trying to do the same thing here. There were almost 2,000 people from seven counties in this region that had to be evacuated Sunday. Many of those people have been allowed back home, so that is -- that is good news for them.

Authorities here suspect that they have the worst of this fire under control at this point, even though only about 50 percent of it is contained. Remember, this is wide open space out here, so much of these fires, they suspect, will just have to burn themselves out as they kind of go over this land. And the key point here is to try to protect many of these small towns in the panhandle from burning up -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: A big task ahead for firefighters.

Ed Lavandera for us this morning in Groom, Texas.

Ed, thank you.

LAVANDERA: Sure.

S. O'BRIEN: And we're following a developing story out of Iraq this morning. More victims of apparent sectarian violence.

Bodies discovered around Baghdad today, 15 in a pickup truck in the western part of the city. Twenty-nine bodies found in a shallow grave. Two other bodies found in other parts of the city.

Police say the victims are a mix of Sunnis and Shiites. Since Sunday, more than 130 bodies have been found in Baghdad.

The events in Baghdad and Iraq are having an impact in the United States. The latest public opinion poll shows a new low for President Bush. Apparently Iraq is the reason why.

Let's get right to White House Correspondent Suzanne Malveaux.

Suzanne, good morning.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.

Well, today, President Bush is going to focus on his prescription drug plan. He's traveling to upstate New York. It's caused a lot of confusion among seniors, also considered really an administrative headache for some people who are trying to implement it. But that is his push today.

But, of course, it seems to me, as the president is losing traction, having a difficult time of gaining traction when it comes to his agenda, just take a look at this latest CNN-"USA-Today"-Gallup poll. Thirty-six percent approve of how Mr. Bush is doing his job. That is compared to 60 percent who disapprove. And that number has a lot to do with what is happening on the situation in Iraq.

Thirty-two percent say he has a clear plan for Iraq. Sixty-seven percent say that he does not. This public relations campaign series of speeches meant to, the administration says, give a fuller picture for Americans. But clearly, also, Soledad, to turn the numbers around -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: A long way for the president to go when you look at the lowest numbers ever on that front. But, there's some good news, too, especially when you talk about and look at the economy.

Tell us about those numbers, Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: Certainly, Soledad. And that's the number that the administration really wants to you focus on here.

This is a number are where 59 percent of the people believe that the economic conditions today are good. Forty-one percent believe that they are poor. Of course, they are good economic numbers here, very strong. But this is not what Americans are judging this president on.

When asked, "What will Mr. Bush be remembered for?" Sixty-four percent say Iraq. That is higher than Katrina, than the war on terrorism, tax cuts, Supreme Court picks, everything else. The president very much aware that his legacy is going to stand on what happens in Iraq -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: All right. Very interesting.

Suzanne Malveaux at the White House for us.

Suzanne, thanks.

MALVEAUX: Sure.

S. O'BRIEN: Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: The al Qaeda trial is in big trouble. The judge fuming, calling a sudden recess after some e-mails surfaced showing a government lawyer coached witnesses, something that was expressly prohibited. So now what happens to Zacarias Moussaoui and a vowed al Qaeda operative who was hoping to fly a plane into the White House, perhaps?

CNN's Jeanne Meserve covering the trial for us from Alexandria, Virginia -- Jeanne.

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Miles, the defendant, admitted al Qaeda member Zacarias Moussaoui, has arrived here at the federal courthouse for what could turn out to be a pivotal day in these proceedings.

Judge Leoni Brinkema will be talking to several witnesses who were to appear in this trial to determine if their testimony was tainted by transcripts and e-mails sent to them by a government lawyer in direct violation of a court order, saying that witnesses in this trial should not be coached. Yesterday, Judge Brinkema, clearly angry, said this was the most egregious violation of a court rule she had seen in all her years on the bench.

She has several options available to her. They include possibly limiting the testimony from these witnesses to exclude those portions she considers to have been tainted.

She could exclude the witnesses all together. This would be a major blow to the government case.

Or third, she could take the death penalty off the table all together. This was a possibility that stunned a 9/11 family member who was in the courtroom yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

EDDIE BRACKEN, SISTER KILLED ON SEPT. 11: I was in awe. I was -- I was like dumbfounded. My jaw dropped.

I thought that that meant that they were just going to dismiss it and have a new trial in regards to everything. I didn't know that that was just two choices. I thought there was other choices, but I found out today there wasn't.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MESERVE: Because Moussaoui has already pled guilty, if the death penalty is thrown out he would, nonetheless, spend the rest of his life in prison. However, the government badly wanted the death penalty in this case, the only prosecution to grow out of the 9/11 hijackings.

Back to you, Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Jeanne, the prosecution has acted a little bit like Keystone Cops here. There have been other missteps.

Tell us about them.

MESERVE: Well, last Thursday, there was an incident where there was a question to someone on the stand which the judge (AUDIO GAP) violated the defendant's constitutional rights. She told him at this point in time, told the prosecution they were on thin ice. But I should point out, Miles, that the prosecution was not involved, apparently, in this latest incident.

This was a government lawyer from the Transportation Security Administration who was acting as a liaison to witnesses for both the defense and the prosecution. The prosecution only found out about this on Friday and immediately sent a letter to the judge, informing her in that letter -- they said that they were found -- they couldn't fathom what she'd done. They found her actions reprehensible -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Jeanne Meserve in Alexandria.

Thank you very much.

Let's get right to the news room. Carol Costello watching some other stories for us.

Good morning, Carol.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: I am, indeed. Thanks, Miles.

Good morning to all of you.

A developing story out of the Middle East to tell you about. Tense clashes at a Jericho jail today. Israeli forces want six prisoners who have been kept in that jail to surrender to them. They say they're linked to the killing of an Israeli cabinet member.

Those prisoners are refusing. They remain inside. Other prisoners have come out, turning themselves over to authorities. At least one Palestinian was killed in the raid.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice meeting with Indonesia's president today. The two discussed a partnership in the global war on terror. It is Rice's first visit to the Muslim nation as secretary of state. She heads next to Australia.

Democratic Senator Russ Feingold is not backing down from a resolution to censure President Bush over his domestic wire tapping program. But Senator Feingold is not getting much support from members of his own party. The proposal will be debated before the Senate Judiciary Committee. The White House maintains the program is necessary for fighting the war on terror.

Senators also tackling the issue of gas prices this morning. They will debate whether consolidation in the oil and gas industry would lead to higher prices at the pump. A recent survey found prices have climbed 11 cents in the past two weeks.

And rock 'n' roll's new class inducted into the Rock 'n' Hall of Fame last night in New York City. Debbie Harry from Blondie was there. You can see here there.

And tension with some former band mates were pretty obvious. In fact, two former band members who are suing the band wanted to perform. Debbie Harry kicked them off the stage. They were not allowed.

Ozzy Osbourne, who's been sort of the Susan Lucci of the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame -- of course he was with Black Sabbath -- he was also there. And he was honored and inducted.

Miles Davis, the Sex Pistols and Lynyrd Skynyrd also joined rock's greatest performers.

Back to you, Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: What is the name that doesn't fit in that picture? Miles Davis. I just don't quite -- rocker, Miles Davis?

COSTELLO: Yes, but he had so -- so much influence on other artists. M. O'BRIEN: Yes.

COSTELLO: I mean, he was very influential in the way -- with the way music is put together in the rock 'n' roll world.

M. O'BRIEN: All right.

S. O'BRIEN: Why did it take Black Sabbath so long? I mean, you know...

M. O'BRIEN: All that...

S. O'BRIEN: ... they broke up too many times?

M. O'BRIEN: All the chicken head biting that they did maybe kind of put them off.

S. O'BRIEN: People hated that.

M. O'BRIEN: They didn't like that. They didn't like that.

S. O'BRIEN: Thanks, Carol.

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

Let's get the forecast in. Chad Myers with that.

Good morning, Chad.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: What do you think Miles Davis would be thinking when he got inducted with Black Sabbath and Ozzy Osbourne?

(LAUGHTER)

M. O'BRIEN: I know.

MYERS: What?

M. O'BRIEN: It's an odd juxtaposition, isn't it?

MYERS: You couldn't get me a better year?

Good morning, everybody.

(WEATHER REPORT)

S. O'BRIEN: All right, Chad. Thank you very much.

MYERS: You're welcome.

S. O'BRIEN: Let's talk about Howard Stern. He's taking his battle with CBS straight to the heart of the network. He went on "David Letterman" last night talking about CBS chief Les Moonves and the lawsuit that charges Stern with using his broadcast radio show for CBS to promote his satellite radio show for Sirius. Stern's criticism of Moonves gets very personal.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HOWARD STERN, RADIO HOST: He tells you one thing, that you're doing a great job. He talks out of both sides of his mouth.

What he likes to do is tell you you're doing a great job, and he said to me in a meeting -- he sat with me, and, you know, he's got the big caps, and he's got a great tan, and he's got a great suit, and he sat there and he went, you know, I left you -- and he's picking crap out of his teeth -- and he goes -- real twitchy this guy -- and he goes -- he goes, you know, the reason I left you on the air and told you were doing a good job, because I knew I could sue you later.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

S. O'BRIEN: Well, I guess it kind of worked.

M. O'BRIEN: I guess, yes.

S. O'BRIEN: CBS is calling Stern's appearance a desperate attempt to distract attention from the facts of the case.

M. O'BRIEN: But seen on CBS, which is...

S. O'BRIEN: That was just weird.

M. O'BRIEN: Well, interesting.

Still to come on the program, mad cow resurfaces again in the U.S., in Alabama. How concerned should we be? We will ask an expert.

S. O'BRIEN: And a little bit later this morning, a secret program that could help save troop lives ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

We're back in a moment

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: Do you remember the story? It's about a driver and a dummy and a carpool lane. Way back in January, in fact, we shared this story with you.

Greg Pringle -- there he is on the right -- he had that mannequin right there, Tilly, riding shotgun in his car because he wanted to use the HOV lane. Well, guess what? Can't do that.

The cops nabbed him. His punishment includes standing by a Colorado highway with a sign that says, "HOV lane is not for dummies."

Greg Pringle is serving day one of the unusual sentence. He's in Westminster, Colorado, along with police officer Mark Watters.

Nice to see you guys. Thanks for being with us.

Can we -- can you get those guys to pull the shot out? I want to see what your sign says. What does above Tilly's head -- there we go. Let's see, "Stay alive at 25."

That's the program, I know. And that "HOV line is not for dummies." That's part of your sentence.

All right. Well, you know, let's talk, Greg.

First, did you really believe that -- that you could stick a dummy in your car and get away with it for a long time?

GREG PRINGLE, USED DUMMY TO DRIVE IN HOV LANE: Well, I didn't believe I'd get -- well, yes, I did. I did believe I would get away with it for a long time, otherwise I wouldn't have done it.

(LAUGHTER)

S. O'BRIEN: Oh, my goodness. You know, he does not seem, Officer, to be the most repentant convicted criminal I've ever heard of. Look at him. He's kind of laughing.

Give me -- what did you notice? He drives by with -- he's at the wheel, the dummy next to him, right past you, and this is how he got nabbed eventually.

What did -- what did you see? What did you think?

OFFICER MARK WATTERS, WESTMINSTER, COLORADO, POLICE: Well, I saw him coming up behind me that particular morning and I saw the dummy kind of leaning over a little bit. And it looked a little too narrow to be a person. So I said, "OK, let me look at this a little closer" as he rode up behind me.

And as he got alongside me, I looked over, and sure enough it was a mannequin dummy. And I said, "I've got to contact him." So we rode on down the road to a safe spot and contacted him, and sure enough, I pulled, as he affectionately calls it, Tilly (ph) out of the car and gave him a summons for being solo in the HOV lane.

S. O'BRIEN: Which apparently Greg had been doing not for a day, not for a week, not for a month, but about a year.

Right, Greg? You were breaking the law for a year?

PRINGLE: Yes, I did -- I did admit to that, yes.

S. O'BRIEN: Did it surprise you that you were able to pull this off for an entire year? With all due respect to Tilly (ph), not that convincing.

PRINGLE: Well, Tilly (ph) evolved over the course of the year. I had a summer outfit and a winter outfit. And I had legs -- I added legs later so that the truckers wouldn't look down and see that I had a person with no legs.

So, you know, it was -- it was kind of scary. I knew I was breaking the law. And -- but the law won. My microphone fell out.

S. O'BRIEN: Yes, the law won. I'm going to have you put your sign behind your face because I'm losing...

PRINGLE: My microphone fell out.

S. O'BRIEN: Oh, your microphone? Well, then put your sign down while I talk to the officer for a second.

PRINGLE: But I'm doing my time...

S. O'BRIEN: Yes?

PRINGLE: ... paying my sentence.

S. O'BRIEN: Yes, he is.

PRINGLE: And I'll go about my life very shortly.

S. O'BRIEN: All right.

While we get the microphone on, Officer Watters, let me ask you a question.

WATTERS: Sure.

S. O'BRIEN: He was -- in the end, he got a $115 fine. I guess there's no points on your license for driving in the HOV lane. Did you think that punishment was -- was severe enough? Because they kind of went a step further in the sentencing, didn't they?

WATTERS: Yes. I mean, being a traffic infraction, it's, you know, rather a minor offense. But it's more the -- like he's talked originally as people really get upset at other drivers when they're solo out there, so that's why Tilly (ph) evolved as what he said initially. So just, you know, hopefully with all of the media attention to this, it will, you know, reinforce the folks to get more occupants in their cars when they're out in the HOV and treat it the way it's supposed to be.

S. O'BRIEN: With a little bit of respect, as opposed to mocking it, which, honestly, I think Tilly (ph) was doing.

Now, I know that part of the sentence is, in fact, standing out on the side of the highway with the sign that says the "HOV lane is not for dummies," and I think Greg's sign says, "I'm no dummy," as well, on his T-shirt.

Greg, do you feel like you're reformed now, you're never going to do this again?

PRINGLE: Never going to do it again, unless I have a real person in the -- in the lane with me. So this first time, you know, it's kind of -- kind of funny. Everybody's laughing, having a good time with it. The second time, I don't think it would be so funny, and I probably would be doing some serious time.

S. O'BRIEN: Yes, maybe not just you, but maybe somebody else who thinks that this is a brilliant idea. Greg Pringle, thank you for talking with us. And you're right, it's funny, but it's sort of not, too.

Officer Mark Watters, as well, we appreciate you chatting with us.

Tilly (ph) -- forgive me, Tilly (ph). Also, thank you so much for your participation.

Miles, back to you.

M. O'BRIEN: I've found myself with some dummies in my car sometimes, too, but I guess it's OK if they can breathe.

Still to come, a new case of mad cow disease discovered here in the U.S. We'll have some words for consumers from an expert.

And Israeli troops rolling the tanks, seizing a prison in the West Bank. We're live on the scene with the latest.

Stay with us for more AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: At an Alabama cattle farm, a worrisome discovery. A case of mad cow disease, the third such discovery in the U.S. It was discovered early on, diagnosed by a vet. The animal was killed and buried before any of the meat could enter the food chain.

That's the good news.

Now, there's no reason for consumers to panic at all who are buying meat, but there are big concerns for cattle exporters in this country.

Dr. Andrea Morgan is with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. She joins us now from Washington.

Dr. Morgan, this is the third such case in the U.S. -- 2003, in Washington, 2005, in Texas, and now this. Should -- how much concern should we all have that perhaps there's something larger afoot?

DR. ANDREA MORGAN, USDA: Miles, consumers should not be concerned. In fact, it shows that the system is working that we found this third case.

We have developed our enhanced surveillance program to detect the disease in animals that we would consider to be most at risk, and all indications are that this animal was older, and so potentially this animal was born before the feed ban of 1997. This animal also meets the profile of what we would call an animal most likely to have the disease because it was not ambulatory.

It was unable to walk. It was a downer cow. And as you mentioned just a moment ago, the animal did not enter either the human or the animal food chain. And so it just shows that the system is working.

M. O'BRIEN: All right. Let's back up, because there are a couple of terms there that I'm not sure people are familiar with.

MORGAN: OK.

M. O'BRIEN: First of all, the feed ban, what we're talking about here is providing feed to cattle and cows and so forth. It actually has ground up pieces of cattle in it, including the portions of the brain, for example, which can transmit the disease. That is banned, so any -- any cattle that would be born after 1998, if it developed mad cow, that would be of great concern, wouldn't it?

MORGAN: That would be something that we would have more concern about, but as I said, the indications with regard to this particular animal is that this was an older animal, and that it was born before the feed ban. And so as we conduct our investigation, that's one of the things, Miles, we're going to want to do, is to verify the age of that animal.

M. O'BRIEN: And is that something that is well-documented, or should be, at least, by cattle ranchers, cattle farmers?

MORGAN: That would be something that -- the Food and Drug Administration works at the implementation of that feed ban. And so with regard to that, and then looking at the records that would be available on this animal, that's how we would begin to put the pieces together with regard to this investigation.

M. O'BRIEN: All right. There's a business component to this, exports, in particular, to Japan, a lot of exports headed that way. And the Japanese would understandably be skittish in this case. There's some other reasons why exports aren't occurring now, but separate from that, do you think this could derail efforts to continue exporting U.S. beef to Japan?

MORGAN: Miles, we're confident that because our system is working, because we are conducting surveillance, the testing system that we have -- are conducting far exceeds international standards. Because we've been following the science of this disease, because we've been following the international standards with regard to the type of safeguards that we would have in place, the effect of feed ban, making certain that risky material does not go into the human animal food chain, we're confident that our trading partners, including Japan, who have acknowledged that we've been meeting international standards, will continue to acknowledge that and remain confident as we expect the American public to remain confident in the consumption of U.S. Beef and, therefore, the trade of U.S. beef.

So we're looking forward to resumption of these markets.

M. O'BRIEN: And a final thought here. Those so-called downer cows, the ones that are unable to walk, unsteady on their legs, they're not -- are they -- all the way along the line, are people looking out for that and not allowing them in the food chain? MORGAN: They are prohibited from entering the human food chain. And as I mentioned a moment ago, Miles, they are an animal that meets what we would call the profile of an animal that would be most likely to have the disease. And so, consequently, these are the kind of animals that we would target for the testing in this program.

M. O'BRIEN: Dr. Andrea Morgan from the United States Department of Agriculture.

Thank you for the information.

MORGAN: Thank you so much. And you have a great day.

M. O'BRIEN: You, too -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: A mysterious disappearance to tell you about in Rhode Island. Three college students are missing on the Narragansett Bay.

Plus, a brutal murder that's captivated not only New Yorkers but the nation, too. Up next, AMERICAN MORNING'S Kelly Wallace takes a look at just what is so intriguing about the case of Imette St. Guillen.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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