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Haditha's Fallen Marine

Aired May 31, 2006 - 13:33   ET

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

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Reporting for duty. Four-star Air Force General Michael Hayden is being publicly sworn in as director of the CIA. Hayden actually took the oath of his new office yesterday in a private meeting with National Intelligence Director John Negroponte. And today, there's a public ceremony at CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia with President Bush taking part. We will bring that to you live later this hour.
There's no question the critical events in Haditha, Iraq, began with the death of one Marine, 20-year-old Lance Corporal Miguel Terrazas. CNN's Keith Oppenheim travelled to El Paso to find out more about Miguel's short life and sudden death. It's a story that first aired on "ANDERSON COOPER 360."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KEITH OPPENHEIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: At Fort Bliss National Cemetery in El Paso, the grave of Lance Corporal Miguel Terrazas shows signs of Memorial Day visitors. Flowers frame the inscription, a devoted son, brother and grandson who loved his country.

Miguel Terrazas was 20 years old when he was killed last November on his second tour of duty in Iraq.

MARTIN TERRAZAS, MIGUEL'S BROTHER: He was a motivated person. He liked everybody to be happy.

OPPENHEIM: His older brother, Martin, told us about Miguel and showed us the church where Miguel had his first communion and his funeral.

We saw the parks where Miguel played games, the high school where he played football. And we went to the taco shop where once both brothers worked.

What were you told about how he died?

TERRAZAS: I just was told that it was a roadside bomb.

OPPENHEIM: Martin says the family is now learning, in the wake of that bombing, that Miguel's fellow Marines are being investigated for the alleged killing of as many as 24 Iraqi civilians.

Martin says he is offended that members of his brother's unit are being investigated because he says insurgents used civilians as cover.

TERRAZAS: My brother told me, when he came back from his first tour, that these people hide behind their own families, you know? And they hide with explosives. They would sleep with them, you know?

JORGE TERRAZAS, MIGUEL'S GRANDFATHER: this is where my grandson used to sleep here when he comes down here and he was staying here on leave.

OPPENHEIM: You associated this room with your grandson?

T. TERRAZAS: Absolutely. It was his bedroom.

OPPENHEIM: Jorge Terrazas, Miguel's grandfather, has made something of an indoor memorial for his grandson, including a display of his Marine uniform.

J. TERRAZAS: One thing that really hurts is, you know, 1:00, 2:00 o'clock in the morning, get up, and I find my wife crying right there.

OPPENHEIM: Your wife was here, in tears, in the middle of the night?

Jorge believes there needs to be an investigation into what happened, but there are some things he simply can't believe.

(On camera): Does the idea that Marines could have acted criminally after your grandson died, does that sound impossible to you?

J. TERRAZAS: Not to me. It sounds absolutely impossible.

OPPENHEIM (voice-over): Since the news of the investigation emerged, Miguel's large and close family has been struggling.

J. TERRAZAS: Every time we see that on television, you know, it comes on, there comes my grandson's likeness on the television screen, his name, and it's like it happened yesterday.

OPPENHEIM: It brings all the pain back?

J. TERRAZAS: All the pain back.

OPPENHEIM: And that is making it hard for the family of a fallen Marine to grieve.

Keith Oppenheim, CNN, El Paso.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: And you can see more of Keith's reporting on "ANDERSON COOPER 360." Watch "AC 360" weeknights at 10:00 Eastern.

As Katrina closed in on the Gulf, hundreds of thousands of pets were abandoned, left to fend for themselves. Coming up, we'll hear from a member of Congress who wants to change the rules. This is LIVE FROM on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) PHILLIPS: They're still waiting for the official swearing in ceremony of the new CIA director, Air Force General Michael Hayden. Once that begins, we'll take it live.

Orphans of the storm, pets left behind when their owners flee natural disasters. The U.S. Humane Society is holding a conference near Washington today to discuss the lessons learned from Hurricanes Rita and Katrina. There's also legislation making its way through Congress.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS (voice-over): When Bernard Williams (ph) left New Orleans before Hurricane Katrina, he took his puppy Max, but he wasn't able to bring Max's mother Missy or his brother Champ. Twelve days later, he didn't know what to expect.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's both my dogs. That's his mother and his brother, from another litter.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Your dog's mother and brother, I think they know we're coming.

PHILLIPS: Not all stories ended this happily, though. An estimated 600,000 animals were left without shelter after Katrina. Many of them died, and Capitol Hill took notice.

REP. CHRISTOPHER SHAYS (R), CONNECTICUT: Hurricane Katrina was a storm of biblical proportion.

PHILLIPS: It said that during the original storm of biblical proportions, Noah took animals aboard an arc. Congressman Christopher Shays doesn't want to go that far, but he does think evacuation plans should include provisions for pets.

SHAYS: We should evacuate humans first and we should never put pets animals and pets in front of humans. But there were cases when you have people get on a bus and evacuate and if a bus isn't full, allow them to bring their pets with them.

PHILLIPS: Last week, the House passed a bill that would require state and local officials to take pets into account when they create evacuation plans.

SHAYS: There are these stories of young children, literally who lost their homes, lost everything in their homes. The one thing they could hold on to, the one thing that gave them comfort was their friend, their family member, their pet.

PHILLIPS: Who could be against a law to save Lassie? This man, among others.

REP. LYNN WESTMORELAND (R), GEORGIA: I'm a pet lover. I love pets. I rescued a dog from the side of the road.

PHILLIPS: Pet lover or not, Representative Lynn Westmoreland was one of 24 House members to vote against the pet rescue bill.

WESTMORELAND: We had enough trouble during this last hurricane season evacuating people.

PHILLIPS: Westmoreland says if individual states want to include pets in the evacuation plans, fine. But he says the federal government shouldn't be ordering them to do it.

WESTMORELAND: What are we to do if we send a helicopter in to pick some people up and, you know, they've got a Shetland pony on the ground?

PHILLIPS: Just about everyone agrees that people should come before pets, but supporters of the pet evacuation bill argue that a law protecting animals would protect people as well.

In a poll conducted for the Humane Society, about half of all pet owners said they would refuse to evacuate if they couldn't take their pets. Congressman Shays says that's what happened before Katrina.

SHAYS: There were a lot of pet owners who simply refused to leave their pets and died with their pets in the storm.

PHILLIPS: Escape the storm or protect your pets? If this bill is signed into law, pet owners may be able to avoid that painful decision.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Well, the pet evacuation bill now goes to the Senate where a similar measure has already been introduced.

And now storm warnings. Hurricane season starts tomorrow, and after what happened last year, we're all paying more attention than usual to the forecast. One of the nation's top forecasters has taken a new look at his predictions. CNN's meteorologist Reynolds Wolf has that in our Weather center. Any surprises, Reynolds?

(WEATHER REPORT)

PHILLIPS: Sounds good, Reynolds, thanks.

Well, live this ever -- live this hour, rather, General Michael Hayden officially reporting for duty as chief of the CIA. The ceremony is going to begin in just a few minutes. We'll take it live. Stay with CNN, the most trusted name in news.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KYRA: General Michael Hayden officially takes the helm at the CIA today. A public swearing-in ceremony with President Bush is about to begin.

CNN's David Ensor joins me from Washington with more on this man, who says he wants to emphasize the "central" in Central Intelligence. He definately has a different mind set from previous leaders of that department.

DAVID ENSOR, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Kyra, he wants to bring the CIA into the 21st century by making it very critical to U.S. intelligence. But, he, having been the deputy director under John Negroponte of this new director of national intelligence structure, he wants to help the CIA fit into the new structure, get used to the idea that it no longer runs the intelligence agency, but be proud, still, of what it does. The human intelligence gathering it does, the analysis it does, all-source analysis that no other agency in the U.S. government can put together in the way the CIA does. What you're looking at here is the front hall of the Central Intelligence Agency. The statue is "Wild Bill" Donovan, who was the head of the OSS, which is the precursor organization during World War II of the Central Intelligence Agency, which of course was founded shortly after World War II when the Cold War was getting under way. So, General Hayden, General Michael Hayden is a four-star Air Force General. He was for some years the head of the National Security Agency. He will be George W. Bush's third director of the CIA. And there have been some morale problems there over the last couple of years. A lot of key people have left.

You'll notice that -- I don't know who these people are in the picture here. They all look rather young. I don't know whether they're the children and family of CIA personnel or whether they are some of the new recruits. But one of the issues Hayden will be dealing with, there are a lot of new, young people pouring into the CIA. The president has said he wants 50 percent more people doing intelligence. And many of them don't have much experience, much seasoning. And an awful lot of the seasoned people have left in the last couple years. So this is going to be one of the key challenges for General Hayden at the CIA -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: There was that talk about experience -- there was a lot of chitchat at the beginning that, hey, Hayden knows a lot about satellite intelligence, but not so much about human intelligence. Do you agree with that, and is this going to be a challenge for him?

ENSOR: It'll be a challenge. He's a signals intelligence guy, not a human intelligence expert. But he is an extremely bright and seasoned intelligence officer. There was a time years ago when he, in fact, himself did a little spying in Bulgaria. So he has some idea how human intelligence is collected.

The big challenge now is going to be going up against the al Qaedas of the world. So much harder than spying on the soviet union, which was a static target. How do you infiltrate people in or agents into terrorist groups? This is going to be a very, very difficult challenge for this new CIA director -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Think that will be the number one priority, with regard to dealing with this war on terror? If you go back to 9/11 and all the talk about the CIA, the FBI, other law enforcement entities not communicating, not tracking intelligence and sharing information in an effective way. Do you think that will be the first thing that he takes on, is, OK, talking with John Negroponte about how do we bring all these agencies together and make sure everyone's on the same page?

ENSOR: That's a critical part of it, putting everyone on the same page. But the CIA is about stealing secrets. It's about stealing intelligence and terrorist groups, others around the world who might wish to do us harm. And he wants to get the sharp end of the spear sharpened, shall we say.

There's, as I said, a lot of young people coming into the Central Intelligence Agency, tremendous number of new applicants. They get the best and the brightest. But there just isn't enough experience among the job force, because so many people have left. And there's this new very difficult challenge of infiltrating non-state actors, people like al Qaeda.

So the whole business of human intelligence is in a period of dramatic change and expansion and tumult, and what they need is a good pair of hands at the top. They do have a very intelligent and seasoned director coming in now in General Hayden.

PHILLIPS: All right, as soon as the swearing in ceremony begins, we'll take it live. Stay with us, David Ensor. We're going to get a quick break in before it begins. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: General Michael Hayden will officially take the helm of the CIA today once he's sworn in. We'll take it live, as soon as he and President Bush step up to the podium.

Well, the term "showbiz legend" was probably invented for Elizabeth Taylor. She was just 12 years old when the movie "National Velvet" made her a star back in 1944. She's been in the public eye ever since, for better or worse. Lately, it's been mostly worse, thanks to tabloid reports that she was near death. So Liz visited CNN's Larry King to stomp the notion and to update fans on the current state of Taylor.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ELIZABETH TAYLOR: I think they're trying to sell magazines, and the only way they can do it is by being dirty. They've never sold -- those dirty magazines have never sold a clean story. They don't -- some audience out there -- and don't ask me who they are, but there are millions, like scandal. They like filth. And if they want to hear that I'm dead, sorry, folks, I'm not. And I don't plan on it.

I'm happy. I'm too busy to be content, just sort of sit back. I'm not laid back. I could have gone through a phase of being a couch potato, and just watching TV. But now that I'm designing jewelry, I am so happy, and it's so rewarding, and it's such fun.

People sat around at dinner parties, discussing it. And saying, it's just awful. You know, nobody's doing anything, and the government isn't doing anything. And I just don't know what we're going to do. We're just going to have to -- maybe it's God's way of punishing those people. And I heard things like this, and got more and more furious. Until I felt, wait a minute, here I am, furious, and what am I doing? Nothing. So I moved and co-founded the first AIDS foundation, AmFAR, in America, in the world.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: And, tonight, Larry talks music and politics with the Dixie Chicks. That's "LARRY KING LIVE" at 9:00 p.m. Eastern, only on CNN.

Reporting for duty. Four-star Air Force General Michael Hayden is being publicly sworn in as director of the CIA today. Hayden actually took the oath of office in his new office, in a private meeting with National Intelligence Director John Negroponte. Today, there's going to be a public ceremony right here at CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia. This is right in front of the lobby. President Bush will be taking part. We'll bring it to you live, as soon as it begins.

What happened in Haditha, Iraq. Why are there so many different accounts and why did it take months for details to surface? All questions the president promises he will answer.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The Marine Corps is full of men and women who are honorable people, who understand the rule of the war. If, in fact, these allegations are true, the Marine Corps will work hard to make sure that that culture, that proud culture, will be reinforced and that those who violated the law, if they did, will be punished.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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