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American Morning

Haditha Investigation; Reporter Kimberly Dozier's Condition; Politics of a Search

Aired May 31, 2006 - 06:31   ET

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

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Happening this morning, the U.S. is giving $5 million in earthquake relief to Indonesia. The quake has killed more than 5,800 and left upwards of a half-million homeless.
Pension officials in two states protesting soaring high gas prices and high executive pay. Officials from New York State and North Carolina say they'll withhold their votes for five nominees for ExxonMobil's board of directors today. Two states had billions of dollars in retirement funds invested in Exxon.

And there's a study out that says Americans are sicker than Canadians. Researchers at Harvard finding Americans have higher rates of diabetes, high blood pressure and arthritis. They say Canada's nationalized health care may help explain the difference.

A guarantee of full disclosure from the White House on the Haditha investigation. Press Secretary Tony Snow saying details of the military's investigation will be made public when it's over. Sources tell CNN several Marines could face murder charges in that alleged massacre of at least two dozen Iraqi civilians last November.

CNN's Kyung Lah now live from Washington with more.

Kyung, good morning.

KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Miles.

You're absolutely right, the investigation is continuing, according to sources at the Pentagon. And what we have heard now from Iraq's ambassador to the United States speaking on "THE SITUATION ROOM" yesterday is that he says that he had initially heard about this incident in Haditha in November and that he had dismissed the charges as simply "unbelievable." Those are his words, "unbelievable."

He says the ramifications of this are profound if they indeed are substantiated. It certainly detracts from the overall mission in Iraq.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SAMIR AL-SUMAIDAIE, IRAQI AMBASSADOR TO U.S.: They are a betrayal to the American people. They are a betrayal to what the Marines are doing and what the American Army is doing.

(END VIDEO CLIP) LAH: Now, the ambassador does say that the United States military told him that -- that he does believe the United States military is doing overall an honorable job in Iraq -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: All right. Kyung Lah in Washington, thank you very much. I appreciate that.

Let's move on here. And we now have a rare glimpse into the minds of the soldiers who are in Haditha. The killing of as many as 24 men, women and children was triggered by a roadside bombing.

Corporal James Crossan (ph) was wounded in that attack. He talks about what may have pushed his group over the edge.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We did have a lot of new, like, (INAUDIBLE), new -- the first team leader was new. And we had -- our corpsman was new, and we also had two new -- two new other guys in squad. So they probably got scared, or I don't know what happened. But they might have got scared or they were just pissed -- really pissed off and did it.

But, like, just the person, it just depends on the person. Like, after seeing so much death and destruction, pretty soon you just become numb and you really don't think about it anymore.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

M. O'BRIEN: The Pentagon is investigating the incident. The White House says a full report will be released, as we just told you.

Happening now "In America," the search for a man who jumped overboard during a Carnival cruise returning from the British Virgin Islands, that search now over. Officials say they exhausted all resources and do not suspect foul play. The man apparently jumped from the ship in front of his two children after an argument with his wife.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: In Los Angeles, the chase is on. Highway patrol troopers try to stop a Los Angeles Fire Department ambulance stolen from a San Fernando hospital. The driver led troopers into Santa Clarita before he was stopped and then arrested.

Four people are injured in the crash of this medical helicopter in Washington, D.C. The chopper went down at a golf course. One of the four injured was a patient. An emergency services worker says the four have serious injuries. No word yet though on the cause of the crash.

And no injuries, but a bit of a scare in Patterson, New Jersey, last night. Take a look at this. Seven cars of a freight train came right off the tracks, hit and then damaged a building and a natural gas line. Some residents near the accident site were evacuated while crews repaired that gas line -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: A check of the forecast. Chad Myers in the weather center.

Good morning, Chad.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Good morning.

(WEATHER REPORT)

S. O'BRIEN: Thanks, Chad.

MYERS: You're welcome.

S. O'BRIEN: Still to come this morning, an update on the condition of CBS reporter Kimberly Dozier. Her family arriving in Germany. We're live in Landstuhl for you this morning.

M. O'BRIEN: And then CNN's Barbara Starr visits the site of those massive riots in Afghanistan.

S. O'BRIEN: And aid pouring into Indonesia. Is it making though to the quake victims? We've got some big questions this morning. That's ahead.

First, though, a look what else is making news on this Wednesday morning.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: The latest word on reporter Kimberly Dozier, she's in very serious condition, likely to stay at the U.S. military hospital in Landstuhl, Germany, for at least several more days. Her mother, her father, her brother, her sister and her boyfriend have all just arrived in Germany. And they're going to help doctors decide the next steps in her treatment.

CNN's Chris Burns is live in Landstuhl for us this morning.

Chris, good morning.

CHRIS BURNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.

Yes, the family is here. The boyfriend is here. They are, of course, meeting with Kimberly Dozier, but they're not able to really speak with her, or she's not able to speak with them.

She is still under sedation, on ventilation, as well, a ventilator. So that is keeping her from speaking, though the hospital officials here say that she, of course, is able to acknowledge their presence, and that's about as far as it goes.

It is anybody's guess how much longer she's going to be on that ventilation and sedation. But that is the game plan for the moment.

There are no tests or procedures planned today because of her meeting with the family. That could come later. And, of course, the decision must be made as to whether any further procedure must be done here or whether she should simply be stabilized and sent back to the states. That decision must be made in the coming days -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: A lot to talk about with the family, certainly.

Chris Burns for us this morning.

Chris, thank you -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Saddam Hussein's defense team now saying many of the people the Iraqi dictator and his cohorts are accuse of killing in Dujail are in fact alive. That tops our look at stories CNN correspondents are looking at all around the world.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RYAN CHILCOTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It was the prosecutor on the defensive today at the Saddam trial responding to allegations he was seen bribing people to testify against the former dictator and offering his assistance in fabricating their evidence. This morning, the prosecutor vehemently denied those charges.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: I'm Barbara Starr in Kabul, Afghanistan, where government troops and police remain on the streets here to keep order after Monday's car accident which sparked a riot across the city. U.S. soldiers now say that they did fire into the crowd of civilians at the accident site, but say they only fired in self-defense after people in the crowd fired at them. It became so violent across Kabul, that some Afghan national police had their weapons taken away from them by rioters in the crowd.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

M. O'BRIEN: For more on these and any of our top stories, we invite you to head to our Web site, CNN.com.

Still to come on AMERICAN MORNING, on this eve of the hurricane season, is the federal government really up to the task at hand? An exclusive interview with the Homeland Security chief is ahead.

BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm Bob Franken in Washington, where the town may be empty, but the bickering goes on. And so does AMERICAN MORNING in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: Happening this morning, President Bush will swear in General Michael Hayden as the new CIA chief. It's a ceremonial event. Hayden officially sworn in, I guess appropriately, behind closed doors yesterday.

In Afghanistan, authorities in Kabul say they may prosecute the U.S. soldiers responsible for the car crash that sparked Monday's riots. Meanwhile, the U.S. military conducting its own investigation to see whether troops involved in that crash fired into a group of demonstrators.

And deadly drug mix hits the Detroit area. As many as 48 people have died overdosing on heroin or cocaine laced with Fentanyl, a powerful painkiller -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: House leaders aren't backing down from a fight with the Justice Department. They're at odds over the search and seizure of documents at the office of Congressman William Jefferson. He's accused of taking bribes. Now the head of the House Judiciary Committee says lawmakers need protection from what he calls "reckless justice."

AMERICAN MORNING'S Bob Franken live for us in Washington this morning.

Hey, Bob. Good morning.

FRANKEN: Good morning, Soledad.

Well, Washington may be quiet right now, but, of course, your nation's capital is never silent.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FRANKEN (voice over): What do you do when the nation's capital is nearly empty and the media are desperate for news?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The committee will be in order.

FRANKEN: You hold a hearing with anybody who's left, that's what. The issue doesn't even need to be sexy. Rehashing debate over the FBI's recent nighttime raid on Congressman William Jefferson's office certainly is not sexy, but no matter.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: To put it bluntly, the president did not prove to be a good constitutional neighbor.

FRANKEN: It was definitely not a good day in the neighborhood office of a congressman accused of accepting kickbacks. He's denied the allegations.

PROF. CHARLES TIEFER, UNIVERSITY OF BALTIMORE LAW SCHOOL: Now, this raid had all the elements of unconstitutional executive intimidation.

FRANKEN: Intimidation. That's what the Constitution's authors were concerned about. They were mindful of the raid King Charles I first ordered on parliament in 1642 that started the British civil wars. Nothing quite so severe seems to be in the works this time around.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The intelligence activities I authorized are lawful.

FRANKEN: But many critics charge this Congress has been intimidated by President Bush for years. REP. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN (D), MARYLAND: There are many other areas where this executive branch has exerted their authority, and I think overstepped their bounds.

FRANKEN: Many in Congress complain, for instance, the administration never bothered with adequate consultation over national security matters like the Dubai ports deal and electronic surveillance.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The House will be in order.

FRANKEN: Of course, the struggle between the two branches is nothing new. President Clinton was impeached for his activities with Monica Lewinsky. President Johnson was accused of deceiving Congress into passing the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution that led to a massive commitment to the Vietnam War.

Fast forward to 2006 and the FBI raid on a congressman's office.

TONY SNOW, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Nobody called up and said this is going to happen. The White House was informed after the process had begun.

REP. JAMES SENSENBRENNER (R), HOUSE JUDICIARY CHAIRMAN: I want to have Attorney General Gonzales and FBI Director Mueller up here to tell us how they reached the conclusion that they did.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FRANKEN: Well, the Justice Department did react in a court filing by saying, Soledad, that it acted with abundant caution. But apparently for many congressional leaders the caution was not abundant enough.

S. O'BRIEN: Let me ask you a little bit about the -- the near future. The Republicans seem to be split on almost every issue that comes up. The president has still got two years to go. That could be a very long two years for him, couldn't it?

FRANKEN: It could be. Of course, really it depends on what happens in the election that's coming up. If the Democrats take over each house -- or either house, the Senate or the House of Representatives, it could be an extremely long two years.

S. O'BRIEN: Bob Franken for us.

Bob, thanks.

Andy Serwer is "Minding Your Business" up next.

Andy, what are you looking at?

ANDY SERWER, EDITOR-AT-LARGE, "FORTUNE": Good morning, Soledad.

As the Enron case finally winds down, a new scandal embroils corporate America. Plus, does one CEO finally get paid just the right amount of money -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: That's intriguing.

SERWER: Yes.

S. O'BRIEN: And I wonder what the number is. All right, Andy. Thanks.

Still ahead, remember the infamous line, "A woman over 40 more likely to be killed by a terrorist than to ever get married"? Do you remember that? I remember that. Well, 20 years later, it's time to take another look at that statistic.

We're rethinking the marriage crunch just ahead on this AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: Andy Serwer is "Minding Your Business" this morning.

Good morning.

SERWER: Good morning, Soledad.

Fallout from the stock option scandal continues to grow. Now we're learning a company, McAfee, which is a security software company, has fired its general counsel, which is the company's top lawyer, in connection with a stock option probe.

Kent Roberts was let go. The company didn't get into any specifics, but did acknowledge it did have to do with the stock option brouhaha. And there have been so many companies named, more than a dozen now.

Another one, Rambus (ph), another big tech company, also acknowledging...

S. O'BRIEN: Do we know it's about -- was he the guy who got the stock options, or was he the guy who signed off on the stock options?

SERWER: He -- we really don't know. I mean, and you can't even really speculate. But a general counsel would be involved in the issuance of these stock options.

And again, just to clarify for people out there, you know, this stock option backdating process, instead of pricing the options when they're issued, you price them at a low which makes them more valuable. You're not supposed to do that. And we see this going on and on, and it really has become the scandal de jour.

And as I mentioned, just when we thought we were over these types of problems, as the Enron trials winds down and we're looking forward to sentencing there, this is a whole new chapter in this kind of behavior. S. O'BRIEN: This has gone on for so long, I'm going to guess. You know?

SERWER: I think that's right. It goes back to the tech boom, you know, in the late 1990s and 2000. I think the problems go back to that.

S. O'BRIEN: It's too easy to do.

SERWER: That's right, it's too easy, and there's too much money involved.

S. O'BRIEN: And they make a lot of money.

M. O'BRIEN: It's as old as greed, Andy. And that's old.

S. O'BRIEN: And that's old.

SERWER: And that's old. Yes, what is that, the world's first profession, or something like that?

(CROSSTALK)

S. O'BRIEN: Right. It's not the oldest. One of them.

SERWER: Speaking of greed -- right. With all the hubbub over executive greed, is there finally an impact in corporate America? In other words, are CEOs finally waking up? Well, maybe.

MasterCard, which you may remember went public last Thursday, you would think, well, the CEO is going to get a big windfall here. We see this time after time after time.

Robert Selander, in fact, did get a fair amount of goodies, 287 thousand shares of restricted stock options and 193 stock options proper. That's about $14 million.

Now, that's a princely sum for most Americans, but in terms of the CEO scheme of things, not so huge. Typically in these situations, these guys get tens and tens and tens of millions of dollars. So maybe, just maybe someone out there is listening.

M. O'BRIEN: So should we give him a round of applause?

SERWER: We shouldn't give him a raise. We shouldn't give him a raise...

S. O'BRIEN: I don't feel sorry for him, sorry.

SERWER: ... because that's a lot of money. But it's over five years, so, you know, it's a huge amount of money.

S. O'BRIEN: He's downright poor, that guy.

SERWER: I know. We're not going to shed any tears, but...

S. O'BRIEN: Poor guy. I'm so sorry for him.

SERWER: ... instead of $200 million, it's $14 million. Is that different? A little different.

(CROSSTALK)

M. O'BRIEN: As they say in the commercials, "priceless."

SERWER: Priceless.

S. O'BRIEN: I'm sure as someone who owns a MasterCard, I'm paying for that in some way.

SERWER: Yes, you are, Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Thank you, Andy.

SERWER: You're welcome.

M. O'BRIEN: All right. Let's get the forecast in, Chad Myers.

Good morning to you, Chad.

MYERS: Good morning, Miles.

(WEATHER REPORT)

MYERS: That's the next hour of AMERICAN MORNING, it starts right now.

S. O'BRIEN: Thank you, Chad.

The public may soon get to see inside the investigation into that alleged massacre in Haditha, Iraq. The White House now promising full disclosure.

M. O'BRIEN: In Indonesia, aid is on the way, but is it too little and too late for tens of thousands left homeless by that killer earthquake.

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: The Homeland Security secretary takes a firsthand look at New Orleans hurricane preparedness. We'll tell you what he found.

M. O'BRIEN: A big storm season is brewing. A leading expert on hurricanes weighs in again today. Just how many storms will we see?

S. O'BRIEN: And one of the worst days of the year on Wall Street. We'll take a look at the major drop and guess what's next for the market just ahead on this AMERICAN MORNING.

And welcome back, everybody. I'm Soledad O'Brien.

M. O'BRIEN: And I'm Miles O'Brien. Thanks for being with us.

Six months after that alleged Marine massacre at Haditha, Iraq, the president is promising full disclosure. The military investigating the killing of 24 Iraqi civilians by Marines. And we're told it could lead to murder charges against some Marines.

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