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Latest on Investigation into Alleged Massacre of Iraqi Civilians by U.S. Marines; Relief Efforts for Survivors of Indonesian Earthquake

Aired May 31, 2006 - 08:00   ET

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

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: A full accounting of what happened at Haditha. The president is now promising to make the investigation's result public.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: A frantic flurry of help. But is it getting to the right place at the right time? The latest from the Indonesian earthquake zone.

BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm Bob Franken in Washington.

The town may be nearly empty, but the hits keep on coming.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: And I'm Chad Myers in Atlanta.

We are looking for a new Dr. Gray forecast for the 2006 Atlantic hurricane season. We'll bring it to you when it comes in on this AMERICAN MORNING.

M. O'BRIEN: Good morning to you.

I'm Miles O'Brien.

S. O'BRIEN: And I'm Soledad O'Brien.

There is a promise now of full disclosure, and it's coming from the White House. That means releasing evidence to the public into the massacre of 24 Iraqi civilians, allegedly by U.S. Marines and also any questions about the suspected cover-up of the incident.

CNN's Kathleen Koch is live at the Pentagon -- Kathleen, good morning.

What's the Pentagon saying now about the evidence?

KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Soledad, right now the Pentagon is saying precious little because they point out that this investigation is not complete, though CNN has learned it is nearly complete and that, indeed, charges perhaps as serious as murder charges could be brought as soon as next month. So the Pentagon isn't saying anything. But portions of what they're finding have begun- leaking out.

Now, initially, of course, the Marines explained that the 24 civilian deaths were caused by a roadside bomb, but also claimed the life of a U.S. Marine. But a senior military official in Iraq now is telling the "New York Times" that according to death certificates, the 24 Iraqi civilians all suffered from gunshot wounds, mostly to the head and to the chest.

Now, this does corroborate information that CNN had already obtained in the past from congressional sources, who told us that among the dead were seven women, three children -- some of them shot in their beds -- also that five unarmed men in a taxi were shot in the same incident, as well.

Now, this obviously causing great concern in official Washington because of the harm that this will do in U.S. efforts to win the hearts and minds of folks in the Arab world. But the White House is promising all the details will be released when this is over -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Kathleen, Iraq's ambassador to the U.S. was in Washington yesterday, as you well know, and he was speaking about this alleged incident in Haditha.

What did he say about how Iraqis view this incident?

KOCH: Well, certainly he knows that this is causing great harm to the U.S. reputation when it comes to Iraqis and a lot of them do have a great deal of concern about how the Marines may or may not have conducted themselves in this case.

He condemned the killings, but he said that he believed they were not indicative of the honorable job that he says most Marines are doing 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)

KOCH: And it is interesting that the ambassador pointed out he has a young cousin who he believes was unnecessarily and intentionally killed by Marines, as well, this time in a house-to-house search. And he says he's asked for a further investigation of that -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Kathleen Koch live at the Pentagon for us this morning.

Kathleen, thanks.

KOCH: You bet.

S. O'BRIEN: A rare glimpse into the minds of the Marines who were in Haditha. What actually happened is still under investigation, obviously.

But Corporal James Crossan was wounded in that roadside bombing that may have triggered the attacks and he describes some of the actions of his fellow Marines.

Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CPL. JAMES CROSSAN, U.S. MARINE CORPS: We did have a lot of the new -- like our squad leader was 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 the 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 really don't think about it anymore.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

S. O'BRIEN: Corporal James Crossan, speaking on behalf of himself, he says, not the U.S. military.

The Marine Corps not commenting, in fact, until a full investigation is completed -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: In Indonesia, help is coming, but for many survivors of Saturday's killer earthquake, it's not soon enough. The breadth and depth of the need is overwhelming. The Indonesian military trying to airlift in supplies to heavily damaged and remote villages.

A half million people are homeless, many thousands injured and now more than 5,800 dead on the tally.

Our Hugh Riminton joining us live now from Yogyakarta -- Hugh, what's the latest?

HUGH RIMINTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, it is pretty inevitable, Miles. We know that there is aid starting to get in. It's arriving at the airport here in the provincial capital of Yogyakarta. It's being -- starting to move into distribution.

But in terms of getting right out to the people who need it most, that hasn't happened as effectively as people would like.

People are entering their fifth night now, hundreds of thousands of them, under plastic, if they're lucky enough even to have that. And there is anxiety, frustration that they're simply not seeing more shelter, more food, more signs of the government, the Indonesian government, coming to their rescue.

It certainly is coming in and we're seeing a Marine Expeditionary Force. A military hospital, a tent hospital has been set up in the last few hours. That will go into work tomorrow to help relieve some of the pressure from the still dreadfully overloaded local hospitals. They can't cope.

There are other tent hospitals setting up, Singaporean. The Indonesian Armies are doing it. And people are still coming into them with injuries from five days ago, injuries that, in many cases, are starting to get badly infected -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Hugh, something like this is bound to overwhelm hospitals and the ability to respond. But have there been missteps in that response, nonetheless?

RIMINTON: It depends on who you talk to. The president of Indonesia had said that because they've dealt with the tsunami, they dealt with the Nias earthquake, which also killed over 1,000 people, they've dealt with the erupting volcanoes, he says we're getting quite good at this.

Others would beg to differ. They have been aid groups really tearing their hair out with frustration, saying there is just no coordination. They don't know who to talk to, to get the stuff that they've got together ready to distribute, how to get it distributed, where are the priority areas, you know, who is going to talk them through this and get it organized.

There's always a difficulty with a multinational aid relief effort, but in this case, a lot of tempers starting to fray -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Understandable.

Hugh Riminton in Yogyakarta.

Thank you -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: President Bush swears in General Michael Hayden today as the new head of the CIA. This is a ceremonial event. Hayden is already on the job. He took his oath yesterday behind closed doors.

Today's swearing in will be held at the CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia. The building was named after President Bush's father.

The constitutional struggle between House leaders and the Justice Department moves back to the front burner this morning. It's day two of the House Judiciary Committee hearing into the FBI raid on Representative William Jefferson's Capitol Hill office.

Jefferson, of course, the focus of a bribery investigation.

AMERICAN MORNING'S Bob Franken live in Washington -- hey, Bob.

FRANKEN: Hello.

There are going to be several hearings, according to the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. He wants to call the attorney general and the FBI director, among others, to talk about why it was that the FBI ignored the Capitol police and went in on its own and for the first time in the nation's 219-year-old history, raided an office on Capitol Hill, raising the questions that have reverberated in Washington about a constitutional violation of the separation of powers. We've heard all that.

The whole tenor of this hearing yesterday said over and over was captured in the title, "Reckless Justice." no question about where this hearing was going. Each and every person there had his variation on a complaint that the executive branch was trampling over the legislative branch of government.

So this becomes, when all is said and done, a battle of the sound bites.

And there were some experts out there yesterday. But the consensus is that the winner was constitutional scholar Bruce Fein.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRUCE FEIN, PRINCIPAL, THE LICHFIELD GROUP: Checks and balances are every bit as dispensable to our civil liberties as the Bill of Rights. And yet the Bush administration has been bent on a scheme for years of reducing Congress to akin to an extra in a Cecil B. DeMille political extravaganza.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FRANKEN: Proof once again, Soledad, that Andy Warhol was right when he called Washington Hollywood East.

S. O'BRIEN: All right, Bob, thanks -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Happening this morning, in Maryland, D.C. sniper John Muhammad quickly convinced of six murders in Maryland yesterday. Now awaits sentencing tomorrow. Ten were killed during three weeks in October of 2002, during that sniper spree. Muhammad already on death row in Virginia for one of the murders in that deadly series of attacks.

Wichita police incinerating more than 1,300 DNA samples taken during the BTK serial killer investigation. A public display of that, of course. Dennis Rader pleaded guilty a year ago, was sentenced to 10 consecutive life sentences. The destruction of the evidence requested by the judge in the case.

Tempe, Arizona -- you'd expect to see people wearing hats or shades to block the sun-in that part of the world, but they can also block surveillance cameras from getting a good look at bad guys and gals. So now, some local banks are asking people to remove their Foster Grants and Chapeaus as they arrive. It's good manners anyway, folks.

Pawtucket, Rhode Island -- a spectacular rescue on a burning building. Fireman Mike Polacek climbing a slippery rooftop to save Isha the cat. Sadly, 10 people were left homeless, but they're safe and sound. One woman had to run-out of the house barefoot.

Harper County, Kansas -- the weather turning ugly. A severe storm sweeping across the area, dropping hail anywhere from a penny to a quarter size. Authorities report no serious injuries or any serious damage either.

S. O'BRIEN: Tomorrow is the official start of hurricane season. We're expecting to get a new hurricane forecast this morning.

Let's take you right to Chad.

He's our severe weather expert -- hey, Chad, good morning.

MYERS: Good morning, Soledad.

Dr. Gray -- I know you know that name by now if you've been watching hurricane seasons in the past. He's out there at Colorado State. He makes a forecast every year. This may be his last year that he does it. He's actually giving it forward to one of his assts, Dr. Klotzbach.

Obviously, we're going to get some numbers today that maybe we like and maybe we don't like. The official start of hurricane season nothing at all in the warm water of the Caribbean or the eastern Atlantic.

Here was the forecast, though, that he made back in April. And he'll update it today. We'll see if the numbers change -- 17, 19 and five. The official NOAA forecast, about 13 to 16, so a little bit higher than the NOAA forecast. Eight to nine for NOAA here for hurricanes right in the middle. And then for major hurricanes, four to six from the Hurricane Center and five from Dr. William Gray.

We'll keep watching to see if that changes.

Here are the names. We go from Alberto all the way down to William. Let's hope we don't get to Tony, Valerie and William. Sorry, all of you Tonys out there, but we really don't want to get to the end of the list this year like we did, and then we ran out of names.

(WEATHER REPORT)

S. O'BRIEN: Tomorrow on AMERICAN MORNING, we're taking a closer look at the official start of the 2006 hurricane season, which Chad was just talking about. We're going to check in with the National Hurricane Center for the latest forecast.

FEMA Director David Paulison will join us for a look at just how prepared FEMA is. And we'll have live reports from Florida and the Gulf Coast, as residents there really get ready for another go around.

CNN, of course, is your hurricane headquarters -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Coming up, we're going to talk to the actor Matt Damon. Actually, Soledad is going to talk to him. Fatherhood has changed his life and he hopes that will mean better lives for others. We'll explain.

S. O'BRIEN: Also, a CNN exclusive. Never before heard audiotapes from fugitive polygamist Warren Jeffs lecturing girls on the virtues of polygamy.

M. O'BRIEN: And next, U.S. Marines accused in the massacre of 24 Iraqi civilians. Did they simply snap under pressure? We'll take a closer look.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: A CNN exclusive now. Rare audiotapes of Warren Jeffs. He is one of the FBI's Ten Most Wanted. Jeffs, as you recall, probably, the polygamist church leader on the run-and wanted for sexual assault on a minor, rape and some other charges.

Our Dan Simon with the exclusive report.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

WARREN JEFFS, FUGITIVE POLYGAMIST LEADER: I want to testify to you...

DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This audiotape, obtained exclusively by CNN, was given to children.

JEFFS: That when this celestial and plural marriage is lived correctly...

SIMON: The voice is that of fundamentalist Mormon leader Warren Jeffs, lecturing young girls on the virtues of polygamy.

JEFFS: It is the most beautiful thing there is.

SIMON: At the beginning of the tape, Jeffs says he's teaching what he calls a home economics class. The tape, given to us by a former member of the sect, was recorded in 1996, six years before Jeffs declared himself a prophet. At the time, his father, Rulon Jeffs, held that title, and Jeffs defends him from a hostile world.

JEFFS: And when people declare the prophet is a wicked man for having many wives, or any other good man, those people are only revealing what is in their own hearts.

SIMON: Jeffs tells the girls that God channels to the prophet whom they should marry. He calls this a revelation and warns his young students that outsiders look on with scorn.

JEFFS: The world especially mocks how the prophet appoints the marriages by revelation. You have to have a faith that God lives and that his prophet teaches us the truth.

SIMON (on camera): Jeffs took control of the sect in 2002. According to former members, he has excommunicated anyone who challenged his authority as a prophet. So that makes his words back then about loyalty to the prophet so relevant today.

JEFFS: Loyalty to the prophet is everything. And that's the kind of husband you want, a man whose greatest love and loyalty is to the prophet. SIMON (voice-over): And the kind of wife you want?

JEFFS: The woman is to obey the husband as he obeys the Lord.

SIMON: When he came into power, Jeffs exerted influence on all aspects of life. He forbid his followers to watch television or see movies, even listen to contemporary music, saying in another lecture, it's evil.

And here Jeffs exposes his racism.

JEFFS: So when you enjoy the beat, the rock music, you are enjoying the spirit of the black race.

SIMON: And Jeffs believed much of America was lured into what he called immorality and corruption.

JEFFS: And thus, the whole world has partaken of the spirit of the Negro race, accepting their ways.

SIMON: Instead, Jeffs only approved music made by his followers and gave out recordings of his own singing.

JEFFS (SINGING): That guide us on our way.

SIMON: On the run-from law enforcement, Warren Jeffs hasn't been seen publicly in two years, but his voice is still with us.

JEFFS (SINGING): We must live in love.

SIMON: Dan Simon, CNN, San Francisco.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

M. O'BRIEN: Dan's report first aired on "ANDERSON COOPER 360."

And Anderson here's a look at what's coming up on the program tonight -- Anderson.

ANDERSON COOPER, HOST, "ANDERSON COOPER 360": Miles, we're back in New Orleans, a city still cleaning up from Katrina.

Are the levees ready for another storm? Are plans really in place? And what happens if it all happens again? That on the eve of hurricane season -- "Twenty-Four Hours In New Orleans," tonight, 10:00 p.m. Eastern -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Thank you, Anderson.

Coming up, there's a new sheriff in town in Langley, Virginia.

General Michael Hayden needs to turn around a demoralized CIA, but how? We'll talk to the real life spy portrayed in that George Clooney movie, "Syriana," ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) S. O'BRIEN: The investigation into the killings in Haditha, Iraq centers on a group of Marines who may have snapped. Investigators say the alleged massacre came after one Marine was killed by a roadside bomb. In the end, 24 Iraqi civilians were dead and sources tell CNN that several Marines could face murder charges.

Haditha is in the very dangerous Anbar Province, which is west of Baghdad. And that is where CNN's Arwa Damon met up with the Marines just a month before the alleged massacre.

Arwa is in Beirut this morning -- Arwa, good morning.

And we really should stress that the Marines that you were embedded with, in fact, were not from the Kilo Company, but in that same battalion.

Tell me a little bit about the operations that you were on with these Marines.

ARWA DAMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Soledad, I was actually on a number of operations throughout the Euphrates River Valley that, like you mentioned, is so volatile; and in Haditha itself, most recently, like you just said, a month before this alleged Haditha incident took place. And at that time, when the Marines entered this city -- and this was not the first time that they had entered Haditha, but this time the difference was they were going to leave fixed bases behind with their Iraqi Army counterparts.

And what they found when they entered the city was that the insurgents seemed to have either blended away into the local population or fled. But what they had left behind was basically a mine field of IEDs. I mean the IEDs were everywhere. They were daisy-chained up and down the main road, sometimes 18 to 24 IEDs all daisy-chained in a row.

The triggermen would not be there, though, to detonate those IEDs. But it was a very tense scenario in the sense that as they moved through the city at that point in time, you essentially don't really know if you're going to place your foot, if you're going to step on something that detonates. You don't know what to expect from the insurgency. You don't know when you're going into a house doing these house-to-house searches, these clearing operations that they were doing back then, exactly what was going to be behind each closed door -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Yes, you have to imagine that the stress of working in circumstances like that -- where on a, you know, you have no idea what's going to hit you at any moment, it must be just horrible.

What were the Marines like who you were with? I mean how did they reflect that stress? Were they tense? Were they nervous? Were they in control?

Give me your sense.

DAMON: Well, it's a very interesting dynamic, Soledad, when you're going through on these operations with the troops, how they actually deal with what they are facing. And now, mind you, as embedded journalists, we experience perhaps a fraction of what they're experiencing. When we're done with our embed, we eventually leave. And they have to stay dealing with these scenarios.

And when you look at them, they're very professional. They maintain a calm outer stance. They joke around with each other. And one way of dealing with these incredibly intense scenarios is to joke around, but at the same time still maintaining a very professional stance.

And if you can just try to imagine what it's like day in, day out, to be patrolling these streets, not knowing if at any point in time where you put your foot down that might detonate on you; if when you're driving your Humvee, within a fraction of a second, an atmosphere can change from being, for example, a friendly, crowded marketplace to all of a sudden a massive explosion occurs and that friendly marketplace has turned into a kill zone.

Or if you're doing a house-to-house search, you never really know what is behind a closed door at that point in time, especially up and down the Euphrates River Valley, where they have been a number of instances where insurgents were hiding behind closed doors, just waiting for Marines to -- or troops there to come through and start pulling their trigger. They don't really know if when they're looking into a garden, for example, and they see a shadow run-across, is that an insurgent, is that an armed person or is that just a frightened civilian?

And what I personally did notice was an amazing amount of self- control. Essentially these troops have a fraction of a second to decide whether or not to pull that trigger. And like I said, we only experienced these scenarios with them for the duration or our embed, bearing in mind that when we leave, they are still facing these same dangers every day -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: I mean, of course, the Marines are well aware that there's a journalist traveling with them, as well, who's rolling tape, so I'm sure that plays a little bit of a role.

But a question for you -- and we don't have a lot of time -- but a quick answer, if you can.

Are the Marines that you know and you've kept in touch with and you've spoken to, are they well aware of the damage to their reputation that the actions of somewhere between four and seven Marines in Haditha has now wrought up on the service, frankly?

DAMON: Yes, of course. I mean they are aware of it. But they also do realize -- and I think the hope is that the general public does realize that this is an isolated incident. And the investigation is still ongoing. Of course, we don't really know what that is going to lead to. But they are aware that it could be damaging to all of the hard work that they have done.

But I think there also is that strong hope that there is the recognition that this is an isolated incident and hopefully it's not going to scar all of the other efforts that are going on in those areas -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Arwa Damon for us this morning.

Arwa, thanks.

Much more from Arwa and her time with the Marines in Iraq, when she was embedded.

Go right to cnn.com and find the articles that she has written. Really fascinating -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Today is General Michael Hayden's first full day as CIA chief.

So what's the biggest challenge ahead of him?

We'll ask the former CIA officer who spent 20 years fighting terrorists about that.

Plus, we're going to check in with Matt Damon. He's got a baby on the way and that is something that made him think about the crisis of AIDS in Africa. Soledad talks to him and puts the two together for u.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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