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American Morning

More Details Trickle Out About Jill Carroll's Release; Tornadoes Roar Through Kansas, Touching Off Fires Amid Destruction; Bush Meets With Mexican And Canadian Leaders On Border, Economic, Security Issues

Aired March 31, 2006 - 07:00   ET

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

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR, AMERICAN MORNING: Good morning, everybody. I'm Soledad O'Brien.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR, AMERICAN MORNING: And I'm Miles O'Brien. Safe and sound but still in Iraq for now, waiting now for Jill Carroll to come home. We're live in Baghdad with the latest on the developing story.

S. O'BRIEN: Iran shaken by deadly earthquakes, entire towns torn down. Dozens of people dead, many more injured. That story is ahead.

And the voices of 9/11.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hi, I'm on the 106th floor of the World Trade Center. We just had an explosion up here.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

S. O'BRIEN: That's a call for help from the 106th floor. The chilling 911 calls have now been released. More on that.

M. O'BRIEN: Still a Tennessee mystery. A preacher's wife, not forthcoming about the death of her of her husband, as a community waits to hear what really happened.

S. O'BRIEN: Picking up the pieces, now after a strong storms leave a path of destruction across the Midwest. We're live with the very latest on all these stories on AMERICAN MORNING.

We're waiting on any news on when American journalists Jill Carroll is going to be back in the United States. Jill Carroll released by her Iraqi captors a little over 24 hours ago, following nearly three months in captivity. Let's get right to Senior International Correspondent Nic Robertson, he's live for us in Baghdad.

Nic, good morning.

NIC ROBERTSON, SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.

Well, Jill is still here in Baghdad. She has had medical tests, we know about that. Her family have made it an absolute top priority to get her back home, get her reunited. I think very likely when she does leave the country we're not really going to find out about it until she has actually gone wheels up. And I believe that will be for security reasons. Very much what we've seen with other released hostages, Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: What about that videotape? I mean, it was amazing to see it on Thursday where she looked so calm. She was in the head scarf and the traditional dress of Iraqi women. There are some reports that what we thought was an interview to be aired to the public really wasn't meant to be that from her perspective, right?

ROBERTSON: That's right. "The Christian Science Monitor", for whom she was working, said that she was told that this was just for an internal party use. She had been released into the hands of the Iraqi Islamic Party here, and they told her apparently this interview was for their internal party use. Within minutes though it was on Baghdad television, which was a television station run and owned by this political party.

And it does appear at this stage, I think we'll learn more from Carroll when she does -- from Jill when she does speak freely about this, that she was -- this day, she hadn't been turned over to safe custody to U.S. officials. So perhaps at this stage really for her only a halfway house between being released from her captors and being in real safety. And probably some degree of uncertainty where she was going to end up after this, Soledad?

S. O'BRIEN: It will be interesting to get all the details on that. Nic Robertson, for us in Baghdad this morning. Nic, thank.

Richard Bergenheim is the editor of the "Christian Science Monitor", the newspaper that Jill was working for in Iraq. He's going to be talking with us in about 20 minutes or so.

The Sago mine survivor Randal McCloy is enjoying his first full day back at home. He stunned everybody, really. Listen to the cheering there, when he walked into a news conference on Thursday. These pictures we carried live here on AMERICAN MORNING. McCloy spent the afternoon then hanging out with his two kids. His wife, Anna, says she is getting him a red Ford Mustang, which is on April 14, she says she wants him to have something for him to work toward in his recovery. A nice gift.

M. O'BRIEN: Such the moment of the morning, just to see him, to walk in there. All he said was.

S. O'BRIEN: When he started speaking, it was so brief. It was terrific.

M. O'BRIEN: Yes. We wish him the best.

Let's check the damage. You know, Chad, you never say I told you so but you could, this morning because you predicted the weather situation. We will go to Chad in just a moment, in the meantime, severe weather, including a possible tornado, which I was referring to, sparked several tornadoes. And, in this case, fires, either by lightning or downed power lines. Hutchinson, Kansas, about 40 miles northwest of Wichita where a lot of this occurred. CNN National Correspondent Gary Tuchman is joining us live from there.

Gary, give us the latest.

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Miles, good morning to you.

The arrival of a twister here in south central Kansas came with a twist. That twist was, what you see behind me, fire. There were at least 14 fires in this county, Reno County, yesterday after a tornado came through. Why did the fires start? We're not exactly sure. You just alluded to it, Miles. It was either downed power lines or lightning but imagine this. People going to their houses, they're used to tornadoes. They went into their basements, they heard the tornado come through, and then they smelled fire and they go out and this is what they see.

This is a shed for the house that you see right behind it. It's been burning now for 17 hours! The Morgan family, that lives inside that house has been spraying their lawn with water to keep it away from the house.

The fire went within 10 feet of the house yesterday. The fire is still burning despite the fact the fire trucks tried to put it out. They're hoping the winds won't pick up. They feel their house is still in danger and they are inside house carefully watching the fire right here.

Fortunately, in this county, Reno County, Kansas, nobody was hurt. That's the big news. Other parts of Kansas, though, there was at least two injuries in Montgomery County, which is in the southeastern portion of the state, a twister came through, damaged a house, injured two people. The northeastern corner of the state, there were several tornadoes also. But, there, there were no serious injuries.

Miles, back to you.

M. O'BRIEN: Gary Tuchman in Hutchinson, Kansas. Now to Chad in the Weather Center.

(WEATHER FORECAST)

M. O'BRIEN: It is a time honored tradition. Every year on the first weekend of April, actually they moved it haven't they? It used to be like, later.

S. O'BRIEN: Yeah, it moved.

M. O'BRIEN: Now it's a little earlier.

S. O'BRIEN: Every year, recently --

M. O'BRIEN: Every year! Something like that.

S. O'BRIEN: But lately.

M. O'BRIEN: Enough with our April fool's kind of things here. This is for real, folks. We spring forward one hour to usher in Daylight Saving Time. Or as I like to call it, daylight shifting time. Don't forget to push your clocks ahead at the 2:00 a.m. mark. Make sure you wake up at 2, and do it, because you have to do it then. And then you can enjoy the extra hour of daylight in the evening and you'll lose an extra hour of sleep on Sunday night. But who cares about that if you're not working.

(LAUGHTER)

If you're working on Sunday, you got issues.

For the first time, Indiana, in its entirety, in toto will spring forward because various counties have their very own way of doing it at their own time.

S. O'BRIEN: Now it makes much more sense I think.

M. O'BRIEN: Now they will be on their own unified EST.

S. O'BRIEN: I feel brought up-to-speed on Daylight Savings Time.

M. O'BRIEN: More than you needed to know really. Isn't it, yeah. Sorry, I belabored it.

S. O'BRIEN: Oh, that's all right.

Let's talk about immigration battle heating up, obviously, here in the United States. The president is feeling the heat, too. South of the border where he is meeting with the presidents of Mexico and Canada. Elaine Quijano is in Cancun, which is the site of the summit.

Elaine, good morning.

ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Soledad.

On the agenda today for the tri-lateral meetings trade and economic issues. Canada and Mexico are the United States' largest trading partners and these meetings are really a chance for President Bush to emphasize the importance of those relationships.

But Thursday, as you mentioned, it was all about immigration. The day started with the three leaders taking a tour of the nearby Mayan ruins at Chichen Itza. Followed by some bi-lateral meetings and a private dinner after that.

But of course, the big issue between the United States and Mexico is this issue of what to do about illegal immigration. With Congress taking up this very heated issue, President Bush reiterated yesterday he wants to see an immigration bill on his desk that includes three things, border security, interior enforcement, but also that controversial temporary guest worker program.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I don't believe somebody should be allowed to come into our country and get ahead of the line, the citizenship line. So I told President Fox that I think a program that will work is somebody working on a temporary basis, with a tamper proof I.D. card and if they want to become a citizen, they get in line, but not the head of the line.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

QUIJANO: Still the fact the president is supporting the idea of the illegal immigrants, some of them getting into the line at all, is not sitting well with some of the president's fellow Republicans. Conservatives who see a temporary worker program as amnesty -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: They're having, obviously, discussions about all of these issues. Do you expect there will be any formal agreements coming out of the summit, Elaine?

QUIJANO: We're not expecting any major announcements out of this, Soledad. On the agenda today, trade and economic issues, as I mentioned. But also they'll be talking about things like a avian flu, what to do about that. Also border security is also another issue on the agenda today. But again, nothing major expected out of this. They will basically be talking about how they can better improve cooperation among the three countries -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Elaine Quijano, thank you. She is traveling with the president.

For all the news coming out of the Cancun Summit, be sure to watch "Lou Dobbs Tonight", he's anchoring live from Mexico, with a "Broken Borders" special report, at 6:00 p.m. Eastern Time.

Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Fifty-seven are dead in a cruise ship tragedy in the Persian Gulf. A boat with 137 on board, capsized off the northern coast of Bahrain. Rescuers pulled 67 from the water, at least a dozen folks injured in the water there. And 13 people remain missing as we speak. The boat was carrying employees of the consortium Mass, Murray & Roberts. They were attending a dinner party celebrating the end of a construction project. Among the dead, at least one American and citizens from 15 other nations as well.

Three earthquakes reported in western Iran. The worst a magnitude 6.0 quake about 210 miles southwest of Tehran. The governor of one province telling Iranian TV the moderate quake killed about 50, injured at least a 800. A number of homes and other buildings were flattened. All three of the quakes struck during a nine-hour period -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Outrage in New York City over a plan that would charge admission at ground zero. Planners say the memorial would be free, but because of operating costs, they need to charge admission to the museum. But they add the victims' immediate family members and 9/11 first responders would always get in free. Critics say the federal government should cover all of the costs.

Meanwhile, four and a half years after the attacks, we're hearing the first time the 9/11 calls from inside the World Trade Center, including the voice of one victim who calls to ask for help.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROBERT HANLEY, 9/11 VICTIM: Hi, I'm on the 106th floor of the World Trade Center. We just had an explosion like on the 105th floor.

9/11 OPERATOR: The 106th floor?

HANLEY: Yes.

S. O'BRIEN (voice over): A calm call for help just minutes after the first airplane strikes the North Tower of the World Trade Center. It's September 11th. And Chris Hanley was one of the first to get through to 9/11.

HANLEY: We have a conference up here, there's about 100 people up here.

9/11 OPERATOR: What is your last name?

HANLEY: Hanley, H-A-N-L-E-Y.

9/11 OPERATOR: H-A-N-

HANLEY: We have smoke and it's pretty bad.

S. O'BRIEN: The police dispatcher then connects him to the fire department. After six rings and 44 seconds, the call finally goes through.

FDNY: Fire Department, 408. Where's the fire?

HANLEY: Hi, I'm on the 106th floor of the World Trade Center. We just had an explosion up here.

FDNY: What building are you in, sir? One or Two?

HANLEY: That's One World Trade.

FDNY: Sit tight. Do not leave, OK? If there is a fire or explosion or something in the building, all right. I want you to stay where you are.

HANLEY: Yes.

FDNY: We're coming up to get you.

HANLEY: I can see the smoke coming up from outside the windows, down...

FDNY: All right. We're on the way...

HANLEY: Please hurry...

FDNY: Just keep the windows open, if you can open up windows, just sit tight. It's going to be a while, because there is a fire going on downstairs.

HANLEY: We can't open the windows unless we break them.

FDNY: OK, just sit tight. Just sit tight, we're on the way.

HANLEY: All right. Please hurry.

S. O'BRIEN: New York City notified the families of 27 other victims about 911 calls. Those tapes are released today without the voices of the victims. Chris Hanley's parents released his entire 911 recording to "The New York Times." They say hearing their son's voice again was difficult.

MARIE HANLEY, MOTHER OF 9/11 VICTIM: The memories, the sadness. And just quite amazed that he was so -- had-- so much grace under pressure.

JOE FATHER OF 9/11 VICTIM: It's been a long time. And he's been in our hearts right along. It's kind of a painful to hear it again, to hear him, you know, live like that. But I thought he distinguished himself very nicely under a great deal of pressure. I'm proud of him for that.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

S. O'BRIEN: Chris Hanley's remains were never recovered. Miles?

M. O'BRIEN: Jill Carroll's nearly three-month ordeal is finally over. You saw it all unfold here yesterday about this time. We're still not sure what led to her release, though, 24 hours later, we'll talk to Carroll's editor at the "Christian Science Monitor" and get a sense of how this all transpired.

S. O'BRIEN: Also, as you know, those immigration protests have been huge, but is Washington, D.C. even listening? CNN's Jeff Greenfield is going to join us with a little historical perspective this morning.

M. O'BRIEN: And later, from catwalk to perk walk. A super model accused of not so model behavior. A look at why the cops busted Naomi Campbell ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: Oh, that's beautiful. To be in Cancun, Mexico. That, of course, is where President Bush is; he's meeting with the Mexican president and the Canadian prime minister today. It's going to be beautiful. I'm no weather man, but I can tell it's going to be a beautiful day there.

ANDY SERWER, CNN ANCHOR, AMERICAN MORNING: Why didn't we get that assignment?

S. O'BRIEN: You're not traveling with the president and neither am I. But we're talking business news, what do you have for us this morning?

SERWER: Soledad, of course, the Enron trial is going on in Houston. Top executives facing the music there. But there's all sorts of other litigation that has been going on revolving around this bankrupt energy giant.

We got one to tell you about. Yesterday, a federal judge released a Merrill Lynch executive, William Foos, pending appeal. He's been in jail since November of '04. You may remember this one. This concerned a Nigerian barge transaction. They were putting floating power plants on barges in Nigeria. The whole thing was fraudulent.

This gentleman served time in jail and now he is going to appeal his sentence and he is out, but he did do some hard time. And we still wait to see what's going to happen to Mr. Lay and Mr. Skilling.

Another story in "The Boston Globe," this morning. This one is fascinating and disturbing; $467 million, that's how much the sexual abuse crises cost the Catholic Church in 2005 alone. This, according to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and Georgetown University. Settlement costs, legal expenses, therapy, training, $1.2 billion in toto since the crises began. And 783 new allegations of sexual abuse last year, so the crisis actually still continues, versus a 1,000 plus in 2004.

S. O'BRIEN: I can imagine, if you look at the contributions to the Church, they got to be diminishing because there were times people said forget it. I'm not going to give them money.

SERWER: They're throwing their hands up. This is a serious strain of cash.

S. O'BRIEN: Yes, wow. It is. Andy, thank you.

SERWER: Thanks.

S. O'BRIEN: Miles?

M. O'BRIEN: American journalist Jill Carroll is finally free after three months in captivity, but led to her release? What is the back story? What's the untold story? We'll talk to her editor at the "Christian Science Monitor" and try to find out.

Plus, the latest on the Tennessee woman accused of murdering her preacher husband. We still don't know why. We'll take a closer look at that case ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

Jill Carroll is free. Still in Baghdad, as far as we know, but making her way toward an emotional reunion with her family after nearly three months held hostage. Not a dry eye in the "Christian Science Monitor" in Boston as the news broke this time yesterday. We're told they were glued to CNN and we're glad to hear that. Richard Bergenheim is the editor of the "Christian Science Monitor". He joins us now from Boston, from the headquarters there.

Richard, good to have you with us. Walk us through the emotions of yesterday morning.

RICHARD BERGENHEIM, EDITOR, "CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR": Oh, Miles, I received a call probably around 6:00 a.m. And it was just hard to believe that it was true. I think it took a half an hour before it really sank in, and then ask stop smiling. It's one of the most exciting mornings I've had. You can imagine as news spread, as people were coming in for work in the morning, there was a good mixture of tears and joy. It just was wonderful.

M. O'BRIEN: When we finally got a chance to hear from Jill immediately subsequent to her release, we were all kind of struck by her composure. Let's listen to a brief excerpt, then I want to ask you a question about it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We got the call this morning. I got the call a little before 6:00. Jill called me directly.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

M. O'BRIEN: That, obviously, wasn't Jill Carroll. That's her dad talking about it. Just to set the scene -- Oh, here, let's try it now. Let's try and see if we can get the right sound bite up.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JILL CARROLL, FREED HOSTAGE: All I can say right now is that I'm just happy to be free. I was treated very well. That's important people to know that. I was not harmed. They never said they would hit me. Never threatened me way and I'm happy to be free. I want to be with my family.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

M. O'BRIEN: So really, in way, going out of her way to make a positive statement, if you can make a positive statement, about her captors. Tell us a little bit about the circumstances she was in at that point.

BERGENHEIM: Well, to the best of our knowledge, you know, she had been dropped off on the street, someone pointed, said go into that building. And, you know, from the little that I've heard, Miles, she really wasn't sure what was going on and what her circumstances were. She had been told that if she spoke to Americans, entered into the green zone that, you know, anything of that sort, that her life would be in danger. I think it's very likely that she was still in a very careful measured frame of mind, very careful of what she said.

M. O'BRIEN: Really, she wasn't certain she was free at that point, probably?

BERGENHEIM: I think -- you know, if it took me half an hour to realize she really was free, I think if I was Jill Carroll, you know, just suddenly dropped off and said, you know, you're free, it would be really hard to adjust quickly to what's going on.

M. O'BRIEN: Particularly--

BERGENHEIM : Thank goodness she looks so well.

M. O'BRIEN: Oh, yes. Her physical -- and just her general composure all good news. But, of course, she is in the office of a civic political leader.

BERGENHEIM : It is possible, Miles, that -- it is possible, Miles, that during this last month or since that last videotape where she did look better, especially after that terribly distressing one where she clearly, you know, was under great distress, you know, it may be that during these last weeks, she was being treated better.

M. O'BRIEN: Right. Let's talk about what we haven't been talking about over these past three months.

BERGENHEIM: Sure.

M. O'BRIEN: Tell us about the untold story of -- to the extent there was a dialogue, or any sort of negotiation, if that's the proper term, communication, whatever, with the hostage-takers?

BERGENHEIM: Oh, I wish that was a story I could tell. Heaven knows, it's not because I don't want to. But the fact is we don't think we I were ever in contact with the hostage-takers. There were a couple of people that did come forth and claimed they had Jill, or could facilitate her release. But not one of them was able to provide any proof that they had her. When that was demanded, they simply faded into the woodwork. I have to say there were literally no active negotiations that we know of.

M. O'BRIEN: Interesting. That must have been kind of frustrating. I know one attempt to extract ransom, that turned out to be a hoax. The fact you didn't have a dialogue, that must have caused you a lot of concern throughout all of this.

BERGENHEIM: I can't think of anything more frustrating. You can imagine the parents. The only way that you can try to, you know, make contact was through their public statements. In Iraq itself we had quite a media campaign, providing information on how, you know, we could be reached, how there is a hotline in Iraq for hostages. But as far as we know, there never was any contact and that is one of the most difficult things.

M. O'BRIEN: In the categories of lessons learned here, what's at the top of the list?

BERGENHEIM: Well, in the category of lessons learned, I think that, you know, every news organization is having to take even more stringent measures in Baghdad for security. It's become far more dangerous. It's something we deal with day in, day out in just assessing what the situation is.

And I think that, too, there is far more awareness of this hostage-taking activity, both with foreigners working there, and the terrible toll it's taken on Iraqis. As you know, we hear maybe 30 or 40 Iraqis are being kidnapped for ransom daily. It's hard to imagine living in that. I think it's important this be brought to the surface.

As I mentioned yesterday in our statement, it's our hope that this attention that's been given to Jill and the enormous condemnation of this activity by Iraqi officials, by Iraqi clerics and Muslim leaders from some of the most radical organizations, will sort of pull the plug on this activity as being something viable, something acceptable. And that, hopefully, Iraqi and Muslim opinion is just turning against it, so it will not be tolerated.

M. O'BRIEN: We can only hope. Richard Bergenheim is the editor of the "Christian Science Monitor". The best read of the morning on Jill Carroll, and the events that lead to her release is at their website.

Thanks for being with us, Mr. Bergenheim.

Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Ahead this morning, we're talking about immigration. People came out in huge numbers to protest some controversial immigration reforms. It doesn't mean, though, that their voices are going to be heard in Congress. Coming up, Jeff Greenfield will take a look at the impact protest may or maybe may not have in Washington.

Then the woman accused of murdering her preacher husband. Why did she do it? We'll find out what was said in court ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)