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American Morning
President Bush in Hungary; Troops Charged; U.S. Troops Killed; Grieving Families
Aired June 22, 2006 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, and welcome, everybody. It is Thursday, June 22. I'm Soledad O'Brien.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm John Roberts in this week for Miles O'Brien. Good Thursday morning to you.
And here's a look at what's happening this morning.
S. O'BRIEN: There is a new videotape from al Qaeda's number two, Ayman al-Zawahiri. On the tape, al-Zawahiri addresses the people of Afghanistan and talks about what he calls American crimes against the Afghan people.
Senate votes expected this morning on two Democratic measures to pull U.S. troops out of Iraq. One would start bringing troops home by the end of the year. The other calls for a complete pullout by July of next year.
ROBERTS: President Bush wraps up his European trip today with a visit to Budapest. He is meeting with the president of Hungary. Later on, he'll deliver a speech commemorating the 50th anniversary of Hungary's revolt against Soviet rule.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert says he has agreed to a joint meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. It will happen in the next few weeks. Today, the two leaders attended a breakfast with Jordan's King Abdullah.
A court hearing today in the Duke University lacrosse rape case. A lawyer for Reade Seligmann is trying to get his bond lowered from $400,000 to $40,000. He also wants the judge to unseal cell phone records of the accuser.
S. O'BRIEN: In Fort Charlotte, Florida today, cleaning up from a tornado that touched down last night. Eyewitnesses saw everything, including mobile homes, tossed around like toys, they say. Luckily, no injuries were reported.
ROBERTS: Wow, look at that video.
S. O'BRIEN: Amazing.
In Arizona, firefighters struggling to contain a huge wildfire just outside of Sedona. The fire has now burned more than 2,500 acres and flare-ups are reported on the fire's northern side.
Let's get right to Chad Myers. He's at the CNN Center with a forecast for us this morning.
Hey, Chad, good morning.
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, Soledad.
(WEATHER REPORT)
Back to you, -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: All right, Chad, thank you.
President Bush in Budapest this morning. He is meeting with the Hungarian president and marking the 50th anniversary of a bloody revolt against Communism. Later today, the president will talk about the global struggle for democracy, and he's expected to link Hungary's transition with what's happening now in Iraq.
Suzanne Malveaux is traveling with the president. She's in Budapest this morning as well.
Suzanne, good morning.
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.
President Bush of course being received very warmly here in Hungary. He's in Budapest. That is where, as you had mentioned, he is going to be commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Hungarian uprising against Soviet Rule.
President Bush met with the Hungarian president this morning. He visited the Parliament. And then later today, he's going to be laying a wreath at the Eternal Flame, recognizing those who perished after the Soviet's crushed that rebellion.
Of course President Bush also later today will be addressing the Hungarian people. And U.S. officials say in the speech he will draw parallels between the Hungarian struggle for freedom and Iraq's struggle for democracy.
All of this, as you know, Soledad, comes at a time when the president is reaching out to European leaders and allies -- that one- day summit wrapping up yesterday in Vienna, Austria -- from those who were very much against the U.S. invasion and the Iraq war. But President Bush reaching out to them as well.
And then this trip to Budapest, Hungary is also meant to signal to Russian President Vladimir Putin the importance of commitment to democracy. U.S. officials have been very disappointed about Putin, what they consider kind of a backsliding, if you will, of moving toward those democratic reforms. And President Bush will be visiting with Putin later. That will come next month at the G-8 Summit in St. Petersburg, Russia -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: Suzanne Malveaux in Budapest for us this morning.
Suzanne, thanks.
ROBERTS: Seven Marines and one Navy corpsman have been charged with murder now, kidnapping and conspiracy in the death of an Iraqi civilian back in April.
We get more from CNN's Kareen Wynter. She is at Camp Pendleton in California.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KAREEN WYNTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): The military careers and lives are on the line for seven Marines and a Navy corpsman charged with premeditated murder. That stems from the shooting death of an Iraqi civilian in April in Hamdaniya, Iraq.
Now all eight men are confined to a brig here on the base here at Camp Pendleton. Based on the evidence in this criminal investigation, the men are accused of kidnapping, assault and actually staging a cover-up that they planted an assault rifle, as well as a shovel, on the body of that Iraqi civilian.
This morning, for the first time we're hearing from the sister of one of the accused, Corporal Trent Thomas. She spoke out regarding these new charges.
VALENCIA THOMAS, SISTER OF CPL. TRENT THOMAS: You're over in Iraq and you're in war. So when an order is given, you don't stop to think should I follow out this order, because the minute that you stop to think, your life could end like that.
WYNTER: The servicemen now face a military hearing that's equivalent, in some respects, to a civilian grand jury. If they find these charges are warranted, that could lead to a court-martial.
I'm Kareen Wynter at Camp Pendleton.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
S. O'BRIEN: New information out of Iraq today, insurgent attacks have claimed the lives of five U.S. service members.
CNN's Arwa Damon live for us in Baghdad this morning.
Arwa, good morning.
ARWA DAMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.
That's right, three separate attacks, actually, and five U.S. troops did lose their lives in the last 24 hours. Four of them happened in Iraq's volatile Al Anbar Province. Three Marines lost their lives to a roadside bomb, those deadly IEDs. And one Marine lost his life during security operations. The fifth soldier, that incident happened in Baghdad, again, to a roadside bomb. They are, and do remain, the number one killer of U.S. troops here in Iraq today -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: A huge number of people kidnapped in Baghdad yesterday as well. What can you tell us about that Arwa?
DAMON: Yes, that's right. And perhaps a happy ending for some of those who were kidnapped. Originally, 80 employees working at two factors that fall under Iraq's Ministry of Industry were kidnapped yesterday as they were leaving work. Gunmen stormed their buses, basically, and took them away.
Sixteen of those women were freed, though, about half an hour later. Another 30, 35 men were freed three to four hours after being abducted. This according to Iraq's Minister of Industry. However, the other 30 men do remain still in the captivity of those who came to attack them. Iraq's security forces are looking for them right now -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: Arwa Damon with a look at what's happening in and around Baghdad for us this morning.
Arwa, thanks.
Heads of Senate open debate on U.S. troops in Iraq. Two Republican lawmakers claim that weapons of mass destruction still pose a threat. They said troops have found aging stockpiles of chemical shells.
Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. RICK SANTORUM (R), PENNSYLVANIA: It is important for the American public to understand that these weapons did in fact exist, were present in the country and were, in fact, and continue to be a threat to us.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
S. O'BRIEN: That was Republican Senator Rick Santorum.
The claim is refuted by the man who surveyed Iraq's weapons program for the CIA back in 2004. Charles Duelfer says the chemical shells are no longer effective -- John.
ROBERTS: Happening in America today.
The FBI set to launch an investigation this morning into a deadly shooting at a federal prison in Tallahassee, Florida. The shootout began when federal agents tried to arrest a corrections officer linked to a sex-for-drugs conspiracy. The officer and a federal agent were killed.
A Baltimore woman and her boyfriend are in jail this morning on child abuse charges after police found the woman's teenaged daughter chained to a bed in this house. The 15-year-old told police that she had been there for more than two days with no food or water and that she was being punished for bringing home a bad report card.
Police in Columbus, Ohio plan to question a man today in connection with the deaths of a woman and her three children. Their bodies all discovered on Wednesday. All of them had been shot. The man is already in custody, suspected in two separate assault cases. He may be the father of one of the victims.
Chicago police are carrying out major drug raids in the city right now. They are cracking down on the notorious gang the Mickey Cobras. As many as 30 alleged members of the gang are expected in court today. Police are still looking for more than a dozen other suspects.
A California woman narrowly missed being hit by a runaway dump truck while in her own home. This was the scene north of San Diego. Pat Richardson (ph) says she had just walked out of her living room when the truck plowed through it. The truck's driver reportedly passed out at the wheel.
S. O'BRIEN: A lot of damage there.
Still to come this morning, the grieving family of Private First Class Thomas Tucker. We'll talk about how they are coming to grips with the brutal news of the death of their son in Iraq.
ROBERTS: Then we go to Arizona where raging wildfires are threatening hundreds of homes.
S. O'BRIEN: And later, what does Oprah Winfrey have against hip- hop artists? We'll take a look at this controversy just ahead.
Plus, Carrie Lee will join us with a look at business headlines.
Those stories are all ahead as we continue right here on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
S. O'BRIEN: Happening this morning.
President Bush is wrapping up his European visit in Budapest. He is going to deliver a speech commemorating the 50th anniversary of Hungary's revolt against Soviet rule.
A new videotape from al Qaeda's second in command. On the tape, Ayman al-Zawahiri talks about what he calls American crimes against the Afghan people.
And the Senate is expected to vote this morning on two proposals to bring U.S. troops home from Iraq. One would start bringing troops home by the year's end. The other calls for a complete pullout by July of next year.
ROBERTS: The bodies believed to be those of two U.S. soldiers abducted and killed in Iraq are expected back in the United States today. The military will conduct DNA tests to confirm their identities. The family of Private Thomas Tucker says they are anxious to have his remains brought home.
Brianna Keilar reports from Madras, Oregon.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MEG TUCKER, MOTHER OF PFC. THOMAS TUCKER: I'm going to wake up and it's all going to have been a bad dream.
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For Wes and Meg Tucker, parents of Private First Class Tom Tucker, and his older sister, Tava (ph), the pain of losing the youngest member of their family is unimaginable.
Tom was just 25. He loved music, played the guitar, piano and the trombone. After high school, he worked in construction. But as he got older, he yearned for something more. He wanted to do something for himself and his country.
M. TUCKER: And I said, but, Tom, the Army, this is wartime. He said, mom, I want to do this. And there was no talking him out of it. He said, mom, I'm 24 years old and I still live at home. Again, he said, I've been in and out, I've been in and out and he said, I just -- I need a purpose in my life. I need to do something, fulfill something. I want to travel.
KEILAR: A year ago, Tom enlisted in the Army. He left for Iraq in February.
M. TUCKER: Well we could see him turning the corner.
KEILAR: His parents say Tom's sense of purpose was buoyed, even though he knew his assignment was dangerous.
WES TUCKER, FATHER OF PFC. THOMAS TUCKER: The eight months before he joined the Army was the most trying but the most enjoyable time we have ever had with our son.
KEILAR (on camera): The Tuckers live in a small central Oregon community of Madras. Less than 6,000 people live here, but the support they have received evident in the signs and ribbons that line the main street is immense.
W. TUCKER: We have more food than we'll eat in a year from people we don't know.
KEILAR (voice-over): The Tuckers say they are grateful for their countless visitors, the kind words, even donations of money. They find comfort in these touching moments as they wait for Tom to make his final trip.
W. TUCKER: The only one thing I want is I want him home so that we can have a place to go and talk to him at and that will help.
KEILAR: Brianna Keilar, CNN, Madras, Oregon.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: The U.S. military tells CNN that given the sensitive details surrounding the deaths of the two soldiers it will not make a public statement until after the medical tests are completed -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: An update now on a story we've been following for you. Five-year-old Omar Hasan may finally be ready to go back home to Baghdad. He's scheduled to have his final check-up at a New Jersey hospital today, less than a month after undergoing life-saving open heart surgery.
Remember we brought you his story. U.S. military, several charities worked together to bring him to the U.S. for his operation. If he gets the all clear, Omar could be back on a plane, back home to Baghdad, as early as tomorrow.
At quarter past the hour, let's check on the forecast with Chad Myers at the CNN Center.
Hey, -- Chad.
MYERS: Hi, soledad.
(WEATHER REPORT)
Back to you guys in New York.
S. O'BRIEN: Chad, was that your baby?
MYERS: Yes. The what?
S. O'BRIEN: There was a baby. We heard a baby noise...
MYERS: Yes.
S. O'BRIEN: ... behind you when you started. Is that -- did you bring your baby in?
MYERS: There's no baby here, no.
S. O'BRIEN: We were all thinking maybe Chad brought his baby into work today.
ROBERTS: Sure it was a baby noise?
S. O'BRIEN: Sure.
MYERS: I heard it, but I'm not sure where it came from.
S. O'BRIEN: It was a baby. Wasn't it a baby noise? Yes.
MYERS: Yes.
S. O'BRIEN: Everyone is nodding their heads.
MYERS: It wasn't in my office.
S. O'BRIEN: It was a baby noise. ROBERTS: Have to get to the bottom of that mystery.
MYERS: He's still home sleeping.
S. O'BRIEN: Good. That's a good thing.
ROBERTS: Thanks, -- Chad.
MYERS: You're welcome.
ROBERTS: Still to come on this AMERICAN MORNING, what would cause a person to throw thousands of dollars of cash to strangers on the streets?
And then, the invasion of the creepy crawlies. These little buggers are causing quite a problem. That story is coming up ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
S. O'BRIEN: Welcome back, everybody.
You're taking a look at some live pictures. This is President Bush on the right-hand side of your screen attending a luncheon before he gives his speech in about an hour or so. He's meeting with the Hungarian president, the Hungarian prime minister and he will be delivering his speech at the monument to the Hungarian uprising which began in October of 1956. Going to be, obviously, bringing you some more information on that as it breaks during the morning -- John.
ROBERTS: Twenty-one minutes now after the hour. We talked a little bit about this yesterday.
Carrie is back with more. A multibillion-dollar bid to buy the nation's largest Spanish language broadcaster Univision.
S. O'BRIEN: Univision.
ROBERTS: Morning, -- Carrie Lee.
CARRIE LEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Thanks, John. Good morning, Soledad. Hello, everyone.
Well, first of all, Univision has been putting itself up for sale. Originally they wanted to get about $14 billion. That was sort of the earlier estimate the company had privately given out.
Well things have changed a bit for the Spanish language television network. They now have a bid from a private investor group worth about $10.7 billion, so significantly lower than that 14. The prior frontrunner, a group that included Televisa, has lost some of its investors, so now they're scrambling to come up with another offer.
So Univision stock fell over 4 percent yesterday on this news, probably because the deal is worth so much less than they had originally been reportedly seeking. So that's the latest on Univision.
ROBERTS: That's not the way you want those things to go, is it?
LEE: No, no. Well even the marketplace has changed so much. Merger and acquisition activity very busy earlier in the year. But now with rising interest rates, it means prices, things are more expensive, not just for us, but for corporations as well.
ROBERTS: Yes.
LEE: So that's one thing affecting the deal.
Short selling has hit an all-time high on the New York Stock Exchange. If you take a look at the month ending June 15, short selling, open short positions accounted for 5.5 percent of the action on the NYSE.
Now short selling, of course, is a bet that stock prices are going to go down, which they did during that month. So say you borrow a stock from your broker at $20. Well, you bet that it's going to go down lower. You can buy it back at a lower price and then make money on that difference.
Now since then, the market has come back a little bit. But interesting the short sellers really came in.
ROBERTS: Is that sort of indicative of a longer-term trend that people think that the market is going to go down?
LEE: Well short sellers usually aren't looking at the long term, they're looking at the shorter term. That's not why it's called short selling, but just coincidentally there. And the markets have come back, fortunately.
In fact, it's looking good for this morning. Looks like a strong start for the markets. Yesterday the Dow up over 100 points, Nasdaq up 34. Looks like people have maybe put the interest rates fears that we're going to see -- we'll see the Fed's decision next week. Look like people have gotten those fears off the table a little bit.
ROBERTS: Guess that's already factored in and...
LEE: Exactly.
ROBERTS: ... things are moving back up.
LEE: Exactly.
ROBERTS: Good.
Carrie, thanks very much.
LEE: OK. My pleasure.
S. O'BRIEN: Well you guys have heard of pennies from heaven, right? How about pounds from heaven? Did you hear this story? Take a look at this. This is a scene in a small town in Wales this week. A guy yells out who wants free money and then throws about 5,000 pounds out of his car window.
ROBERTS: It took people a little while to react.
S. O'BRIEN: Yes. Well, you know, they were like what's going on? Nine thousand dollars, U.S. dollars. He was later arrested for drunk driving. And now police are trying to get all that cash back because they're not sure where he got the money from. That's probably not going to happen.
ROBERTS: I guess they're checking local banks and the newspapers to see if there were any robberies.
S. O'BRIEN: Yes.
ROBERTS: Yes.
LEE: Was it a single pound? Was it 5 pound notes?
S. O'BRIEN: I don't know, but it was a lot. And you're right, they watch and they're like huh.
LEE: Funny what you do after a few cocktails.
S. O'BRIEN: It is.
ROBERTS: I don't think I'd ever do that.
Twenty-four minutes after the hour. This morning's top stories are straight ahead, including a new terror tape from al Qaeda. We'll tell you about the terror group's latest threats coming from Ayman al- Zawahiri.
And murder, conspiracy, kidnapping, just some of the charges filed against eight U.S. troops. Find out what they're accused of doing in Iraq.
Stay with us on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
S. O'BRIEN: Millions of American couples struggle with infertility. In today's edition of "Welcome to the Future," some new ideas to help women improve their chances of conceiving.
Here's Miles O'Brien.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BEVERLY: I have always dreamed of having a house full of kids, but right now we're just hoping for one baby. We started trying to have children about a year after we got married. We just weren't getting pregnant. We have been doing fertility treatments for a little bit over four years now. We are just wondering why am I having all these miscarriages? We found out that we have a chromosome abnormality. We've always led very healthy lifestyles and I just figured we would have no problem having children.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR (on camera): Beverly is not alone. Infertility haunts more than six million U.S. couples. But doctors are hoping to reduce that number by learning more about how an embryo develops by screening them for problems before they're even implanted in the mother. But with that knowledge comes dilemmas, where do we draw the line?
(voice-over): Dr. Mark Perloe is with a fertility clinic called Georgia Reproductive Specialists. Here they use prenatal genetic diagnosis, or PGD, to help couples conceive healthy babies. The procedure tests embryos fertilized in the lab for certain kinds of abnormalities. Only the healthy embryos are transferred back to the mother.
DR. MARK PERLOE, GEORGIA REPRODUCTIVE SPECIALISTS: PGD can screen for just about any disease where we know the sequence of the genetic abnormality, cystic fibrosis, sickle cell, other hemoglobin disorders.
M. O'BRIEN: Perloe says PGD could one day screen embryos for things like heart disease, breast cancer or diabetes, and that raises a lot of questions.
PERLOE: Which conditions are worthy of testing? How should we decide which embryos would be transferred?
M. O'BRIEN: And it could be even more complex in the future as many believe PGD could also give doctors the ability to correct abnormalities by actually changing the embryos DNA.
PERLOE: Society has to play an important role in overseeing this and setting boundaries and limits.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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