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American Morning

Three Years in Iraq; Moussaoui Trial

Aired March 20, 2006 - 09:34   ET

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

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Three years since the start of the Iraq war. Back then, the Pentagon expected a short conflict. Today about 133,000 U.S. troops are still there. Still, the administration contends the strategy is working.
Let's get to senior CNN Pentagon correspondent Jamie McIntyre. He's live for us at the Pentagon this morning.

Hey, Jamie, good morning.

JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SR. PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning, Soledad.

You know Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other top officials here have been careful to never be pinned down on how many U.S. troops would stay in Iraq for how long, but I think it's safe to say that few, if any, senior officials here expected that there would be the number of troops still in Iraq that are there today, and the level of violence would be as high as it is now.

Still, senior military officials are arguing that these attacks against the U.S. troops, the attacks against the Iraqis, are an attempt to spark a civil war, and that they are evidence that the insurgents are losing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEN. GEORGE CASEY, COMMANDING GEN. IN IRAQ: The terrorists, and the foreign fighters and the insurgents are attempting yet again to unrail this political process. They have failed to stop in the January '05 elections, in the October referendum, and in the December '05 elections. They are having one more go at it, and they're not succeeding.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCINTYRE: Despite the rising violence, General George Casey, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, insists that troop reductions in Iraq may be possible later this year. He insists that the Iraqi military is becoming increasingly capable of taking over operations, and says by the end of the year, as much as 75 percent of the territory in Iraq may in fact be controlled by Iraqi forces, not the U.S. Of course the U.S. would still be in some of the toughest areas -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Jamie, let's talk about this call for the resignation of Secretary Rumsfeld, coming this time from a retired Army general. What do you know about it? MCINTYRE: Interesting perspective. Major General Paul Eaton, who at one point in charge of training Iraqi troops is pretty much disillusioned. He wrote in a "New York Times" op-ed piece over the weekend that Defense Secretary Rumsfeld, his leadership is failing, and should step down. He said, quote, "In sum he has shown himself incompetent, strategically, operationally and tactically, and is far more than anyone else responsible for what has happened to our important mission in Iraq. Mr. Rumsfeld must step down."

General Eaton writes that he's seen what he called a climate of groupthink in the military, and a failure of some experienced military men and civilians to challenge the notions of the senior leadership, in particular, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. As for his opinion, a senior aide to Secretary Rumsfeld said the general is certainly entitled to it, but pointed out that Defense Secretary Rumsfeld serves at the pleasure of President Bush. Rumsfeld has, by its own admission, offered his resignation at least twice. Mr. Bush has not accepted it -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Jamie McIntyre for thus morning. Jamie, thanks -- John.

JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: The death penalty trial of Zacarias Moussaoui is just getting started right now. It's the first test for prosecutors since the judge threw out some of their most important witnesses last week.

AMERICAN MORNING's Bob Franken is live at the federal courthouse in Alexandria, Virginia for us this morning.

Bob, what's ahead today?

BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATL. CORRESPONDENT: Well, for the first time in a week, the jury will be hearing more testimony about this, and a tumultuous week it has been, thanks to what occurred at the hands of Carla Martin, who's a Transportation Safety Administration attorney. She stands accused of contacting witnesses, where the orders had been, to have no contact with them. They were aviation security witnesses, considered critical to the prosecution case, that they could have taken action had Zacarias Moussaoui only told the FBI and investigators after he was arrested about the September 11th plot.

Well, originally, the judge pondered whether this should be entirely thrown out, but she has finally said that, although these witnesses cannot testify because they're tainted, others in the same field can. The defense argues they would be tainted, too, because surely they have read newspaper accounts and the like. And, oh, by the way, the trial of Zacarias Moussaoui continues with cross- examination this morning -- John.

ROBERTS: Who;s on the witness stand today then, Bob?

FRANKEN: Harry Sammett (ph). He's the FBI agent who arrested Moussaoui back before the September 11th attacks, who has been testifying he did not get information that Moussaoui possessed. The cross-examination will come from defense attorneys. They're trying to establish that the government did have indications something was in the works but was not able to stop the September 11th attacks. And of course, at stake here, is the life or death of Zacarias Moussaoui.

ROBERTS: All right, Bob Franken for us live outside the courthouse in Alexandria, Virginia. We'll check back with you throughout the day.

Thanks, Bob.

O'BRIEN: Still to come this morning, we're going to meet a photographer who risked her life to uncover the dangers in Iraq. We've got her story and her incredible photographs, too.

ROBERTS: Plus, how Hollywood is lending a helping hand in the recovery of New Orleans.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(MARKET REPORT)

ROBERTS: Another side of new life in New Orleans, cameras are finally rolling on a Hollywood murder mystery. The plot is fiction, but the movie setting is very real.

We get more now from CNN's Susan Roesgen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SUSAN ROESGEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is a movie that almost didn't get made here at all. Production was scheduled to start last October. Then the hurricane hit, and the filmmakers began looking for another location. In the end, they decided they wanted the Mississippi river to be part of the plot.

(on camera): Now in this scene there's an explosion on the ferry and Denzel Washington comes looking for a suspect. Denzel Washington is the big name for this movie, but in many ways, the real star of the movie is the city itself.

(voice-over): The movie is called deja vu, and Washington plays an ATF agent chasing a killer. It's a plot that could work anywhere, but New Orleans has become especially attractive to moviemakers.

Over the last few years, New Orleans had begun to market itself as Hollywood south. the state legislature passed a series of tax breaks for the film industry, and it worked. Last year, movies produced in Louisiana had a combined total budget of $550 million.

Malcolm Petal heads a local production company.

MALCOLM PETAL, CEO, LIFT PRODUCTIONS: We experienced three and a half solid years of record growth, and we're nipping at the heels of California and New York, and if we could have another record growth quarter, despite the hurricane and the displacement, we could weather through any storm.

ROESGEN: And when "Deja Vu" movie opens next fall, New Orleans audiences may feel like they've seen it before.

BARRY WALDMAN, EXEC. PRODUCER: They'll see boarded-up windows. They'll see signs down. Most of our movies shot on the ferry in the Mississippi, so there's not a lot that you can see from there. But here in the French Quarter, if it's there and it's existing, we've left it.

ROESGEN: A case of life imitating art imitating life.

Susan Roesgen, CNN, New Orleans.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: "CNN LIVE TODAY" is coming up next.

Hey, Daryn, good morning.

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Soledad, happy Monday to you.

Coming up at the top of the hour, it is 50 years later. And Alabama is on the verge of something you probably didn't even know was necessary. They're on the verge of pardoning segregation-era lawbreakers, and that includes Rosa Parks. But is it too little too late? We'll hear from a state civil rights leader.

Also ahead, kindergarteners learning about HIV along with their ABCs. It's a new curriculum that launches today in New York City. We'll talk about the changes. We also want to know what you think. HIV education in the schools, when should it start? E-mail us your thoughts, CNNLIVETODAY@cnn.com. And we will see you in a few minutes.

Soledad, back to you.

O'BRIEN: Daryn, thanks.

Straight ahead on AMERICAN MORNING, Iraq seen through the camera's lens. One photographer talks about why it is nearly impossible for journalists to get out the truth about Iraq.

First, though, a quick message from our troops there.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALES: Hello from Iraq, this is AMERICAN MORNING, Bravo 810 Cab Bandits, hu-wah!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: Murder, not war, is now the leading killer of journalists in Iraq. That's according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. During the past two weeks alone, three Iraqi journalists and one media support worker have been killed by suspected insurgents.

And since the war began, 67 journalists and 24 media support workers have been killed, according to the committee. And that makes it the deadliest conflict for journalists in recent history.

How is this danger affecting the work of journalists in Iraq? AMERICAN MORNING's Kelly Wallace has that story. Good morning.

KELLY WALLACE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning again, Soledad.

And as we were saying, the danger definitely affecting the work of journalists like the one you're about to meet, an American war photographer who really risked her life traveling around Iraq. But she now feels that the danger is so great that she and many of her American colleagues can no longer travel the country to show what life is really like, the good and the bad.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WALLACE (voice-over): Images of war. Behind the lens, 34-year- old freelance photographer Kael Alford.

(on camera): Does it still, when you look at that photograph, kind of hit you emotionally?

KAEL ALFORD, FREELANCE PHOTOGRAPHER: Yes, that was a difficult thing to see. I mean, there are so many things like that in Iraq that are difficult to see. But you know, I felt they were important to bring home.

WALLACE (voice-over): The Middletown, New York, native spent a total of eight months in Iraq, between 2003 and 2004, trying to capture images of daily life, from smiling women on their way to a bridal shower, to a father carrying his son across the front line between U.S. forces and a militant group in Najaf.

ALFORD: It's just difficult to capture that terror, you know, and I think kids probably express it better than anyone else, because they don't -- they can't hide it.

WALLACE: Her work is included in a new exhibit, surrounding the release of the book "Unembedded," which features photographs from Alford and three other journalists. They all traveled around Iraq without the U.S. military, and without any security.

ALFORD: The general level of anxiety is so high when you're working in situations like that. Every time you get in the car and go outside, you know, something bad can happen to you.

WALLACE: Like the kidnapping of freelance journalist Jill Carroll in January, who was on assignment for "The Christian Science Monitor." Her status is unknown. Alford also worked for "The Monitor" and traveled around, like Carroll, with just an Iraqi translator and driver.

ALFORD: I think about her every day and I've never met her. All of us, I think -- yes, I mean, it could just as easily have been me or a close friend of mine.

WALLACE: She says Iraq has gotten much more dangerous for journalists, which means there are fewer photographers traveling throughout the war-torn country, and therefore, she says, there is limited coverage of what is actually happening.

ALFORD: It's sort of this odd paradox, where on the story -- just as the story really needs to be told, it isn't physically possible to tell it in the depth that the news media usually has access to.

WALLACE: It hasn't been easy since she left Iraq.

ALFORD: It makes hard to come home then, and live a normal life because you've acclimated to sort of an anxious existence.

WALLACE: Still, she would like to return to tell more stories, but the violence holds her back.

ALFORD: Although you might feel protected a little by your status as a journalist and your resources and your equipment and even sometimes the camera in front of your face, you know, but we're just as mortal as everyone around us and that's chilling when it comes home.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WALLACE: And Alford's work is on display at the Photographic Gallery here in New York City through the end of April. The exhibit then traveling to other cities. And Alford spent a lot of her time, Soledad, trying to focus on members of the Shia and Sunni resistance, members of the insurgency. And I was sort of struck by that.

I said, why did you want to do that? And she said if you don't really know why they're fighting, what their motivations are, how, then, can the U.S. defeat them in the end?

O'BRIEN: Yes, how do you tell you story? This book is so beautiful. You know, a lot of pictures of children.

WALLACE: A lot of children and also Kael Alford spent a lot of time with the children and she was so struck by that. She said that's one of the things she sees in conflict, the impact on children.

She showed us one photo -- picture that we didn't include in the peace. These kids at a madrassa, a religious school. And this is about a year and a half ago, before the insurgency had its full momentum. And they were already acting out scenes, anti-Americanism, anti-U.S. occupation. And she said, if these kids, these young children are already doing this, think about how that's going to propel their philosophies throughout their years and throughout further generations?

O'BRIEN: It's a beautiful book. It's called "Unembedded." Kelly, thank you very much.

WALLACE: Thank you, Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Short break. We're back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: That's it. We're out of time. Day one down.

ROBERTS: Day one down. Four more for me to go. How many more for you?

O'BRIEN: Oh, it just keeps on going, keeps on ticking. Thank you gain. We love having you in the morning.

ROBERTS: It was a real pleasure. I've been watching you for years and it's great to be able to sit beside you and actually...

O'BRIEN: You're very nice. You're lying, but very nice to have you first thing in the morning.

ROBERTS: I just know how sleep-deprived you really are.

Let's get right to Daryn Kagan. She's going to take you through the rest of the day.

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