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American Morning

Death at Disney; Will Gitmo Shut Down?; Crisis in Gaza

Aired June 30, 2006 - 09:00   ET

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

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm Susan Candiotti in Orlando. A father who had administered CPR to his son could not revive him after the boy fell unconscious at a -- on a Disney roller coaster.
I'll have that story coming up.

BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm Bob Franken at the Supreme Court, where the justices have raised questions about the future of Guantanamo Bay.

AAA says more than 37 million people will make trips at least 50 miles from home, a little more than last year. Here's a look at what's going on out there right now.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: T minus 30 hours for the Space Shuttle Discovery. But is the shuttle safe to fly? Lots of questions out there in this countdown.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: And Star Jones is firing back on her ouster from "The View." The new Star wars ahead on this AMERICAN MORNING.

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

M. O'BRIEN: And I'm Miles O'Brien. Welcome to Friday.

America hitting the road today. Big holiday weekend, Fourth of July. And the price of the gas isn't slowing anybody down.

AAA says more than 37 million people will make trips at least 50 miles from home, a little more than last year.

Here's a look at what's going on out there right now.

Live pictures, first of all, Atlanta. That's the connector, Interstate 75 and 85, right through the center of the city. About a million people expected to travel in Georgia this weekend.

Chicago we go to now, live pictures there. Like many states, they're adding police patrols to the roads Fourth of July weekend, also the deadliest weekend to drive of the year they tell us.

And let's go to L.A., where they're just kind of waking up there. It's about 6:00 in the morning now, and 4.5 million Californians expected to be on the highways. It sounds like a normal day in California. But nevertheless, lots of travel associated with this holiday weekend.

Now, if you fill up today, you will pay on average $2.89 for regular. That's up a nickel from last month. Last year, a gallon of gas was $2.22. And that's, once again, the national average. Locally, you may find more or less than that.

That's AAA who gives us those numbers.

Let's get the holiday forecast now. Chad Myers watching that from the weather center for us -- Chad.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well, we'll start in Dallas, work our way around and back into the Northeast, Dallas.

Good morning, Miles -- 97 today and tomorrow, but pretty good driving conditions as long as your air-conditioner is working or you can get all those windows down.

Back into Miami, a couple of showers and thunderstorms. Those are the same showers that they're concerned with for the shuttle launch, but temperatures in the lower 90s to the upper 80s.

San Francisco, a broken record forecast for you. Onshore flow, 70 each day.

They would like to have a flow of something in Phoenix --108 today and tomorrow. A couple of showers, but then dry throughout the rest of your weekend. And a really nice fourth. Hot, but still nice.

Highs today around the country, 91 Kansas city, 86 in Chicago, 84 in Detroit. Tomorrow, strong storms across the upper Midwest, but those storms should move away by Monday.

New York City for today, partly cloudy and 84 by the fourth. All the way to 86. Not a lot of rain in the forecast. And for D.C., New York, Philadelphia, and all of New York and Pennsylvania, that's good, they don't want anymore showers, actually, at all -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Oh, they sure do not need them.

MYERS: Yes.

S. O'BRIEN: Yes. There's no question there.

All right, Chad. Thanks.

MYERS: You're welcome.

S. O'BRIEN: Well, during the holiday weekend, you're probably heading out to an amusement park, many of you. Safety concerns, of course, on the minds of the folks of Walt Disney World in Florida following the death of a 12-year-old boy.

It happened on the Rock 'n' Roller coaster at the Disney MGM Studios theme park. An autopsy is going to be performed on that boy today. Susan Candiotti joins us this morning from Lake Buena Vista in Florida.

Hey, Susan.

CANDIOTTI: Good morning, Soledad.

Since we last spoke just about an hour ago, within the hour, Disney put out a statement, so let's get right to it. It says the following: "Rock 'n' Roller Coaster reopened when Disney-MGM Studios opened at 8:00 today. Walt Disney World engineers and ride system experts completed a thorough inspection of the attraction overnight and found it to be operating properly."

Now, given that finding, all eyes are now on the medical examiner to try to find out what led to the death of 12-year-old Michael Russell.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CANDIOTTI (voice over): It has zip, and then some. Zero to 60 in less than three seconds, Disney says the Rock 'n' Roller Coaster propels passengers around hoops and corkscrews in the dark to the sounds of Aerosmith.

When the one-minute ride was over, vacationer Michael Russell had passed out.

BARBARA MILLER, ORANGE COUNTY SHERIFF'S SPOKESWOMAN: The father was in the backseat and his son Michael was in the front with his mom. He noticed that his son went limp. So he pulled him off the ride as they were exiting, and immediately he began CPR. So, evidently, he realized there was a problem early on.

CANDIOTTI: A call went out to 911.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A little boy passed out on the train. He's over here (INAUDIBLE).

DISPATCHER: Is he still unconscious and is he breathing?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He is still unconscious right now.

DISPATCHER: OK. Is he breathing?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Someone's doing CPR on him right now.

CANDIOTTI: The 12-year-old was rushed to a hospital and pronounced dead. He was on the ride with his parents and 7-year-old brother. His father, a Green Beret, is stationed at Fort Campbell, Kentucky

MILLER: As far as the father was telling us, what we know right now, that the child did not have any pre-existing medical conditions.

CANDIOTTI: Signs warn riders about Disney's high-speed rides. Park officials maintain the roller coaster was operating normally at the time.

JACOB DIPIETRE: Right now, our deepest sympathies are with the family. And we are doing everything we can to assist them.

CANDIOTTI: The young man's death is a third on a Disney ride since last June. Two other tourists died on Epcot Center's Mission Space, one as recently as April. Autopsies found those two victims had pre-existing medical conditions.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CANDIOTTI: A 911 tape says a portable defibrillator was not available until paramedics arrived about three minutes after they were called. Now, the family of Michael Russell has told police that he recently passed a physical with flying colors -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Oh, that's such a sad story. Susan Candiotti for us this morning.

Susan, thanks.

A question for you this morning. What's going to happen to Guantanamo now that the Supreme Court says that President Bush has overstepped his bounds by ordering military trials for Guantanamo detainees?

AMERICAN MORNING'S Bob Franken is in Washington.

Hey, Bob.

BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, first of all, Soledad, the answer to what's going to happen to Guantanamo immediately, at least, is nothing. Although there's quite a bit of outrage around the world about it, the justices said nothing that would change that.

However, now the story moves across the street. As you probably know, the Supreme Court building is located right across the street from the Capitol, and the Capitol is where this is going to go next. It is going to be taken up in legislation.

The legislation is going to try and come up with some way, the justices suggested, that the next act goes to Congress. The legislation has to come up with some way that they can come up with a way to authorize this so they can pass the -- pass this -- pass the Supreme Court muster, because that is what is so interesting about this.

By the time that this is through and Congress does come up with the legislation that would authorize these military commissions, you know what's probably going to happen to it? Well, the lawyers are going to get hold of it again and it's going to go right back across the street, and it's going to end up right back here in all probability at the Supreme Court -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: That's what it looks like. Bob Franken for us this morning.

Thanks, Bob -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Israel pressuring Palestinian militants who are holding an Israeli soldier hostage. It has been firing artillery rounds into Gaza, and Israeli troops and armor are poised on the northern Gaza border. Still, there are efforts to negotiate an end to the crisis.

CNN's Paula Hancocks joining us from Gaza -- Paula.

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Miles.

Well, the strikes are continuing by the Israelis by air, land and sea. We've had well over 100 shells this Friday landing on Gaza, 400 on Thursday. So, you can see that the Israeli airstrikes and the military are keeping up the pressure to try and pressurize these Palestinian militants to let go of that Israeli soldier that they kidnapped on Sunday.

Now, overnight, we had the airstrike hitting an interior ministry here in the middle of Gaza City. Now, the Israeli defense forces say the reason for that is because that's where they believe terror attacks were being planned.

We also had the first casualty of this increased military action from Israel. An Islamic Jihad militant died of his wounds after being hit by an Israel airstrike in southern Gaza earlier on.

Now, we have heard from Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, one of the first times we've seen him since these attacks started. He was speaking in a Gaza City mosque during Friday prayers saying that the Israeli attempts to topple the Hamas government will not work, also calling on the world to try and save the Palestinian people.

Now, we've also heard from the United Nations and we've heard from the International Red Cross, asking Israel to allow medicine and to allow food and water to be brought into Gaza. There is a worry of a humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip.

The power plant that was giving power and pumping water to three- quarters of the people in Gaza was taken out by an Israeli airstrike two days ago. That could take up to six months to be repaired -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: All right. What do we know about what's going on behind the scenes here, Paula, and the diplomatic efforts? Are there active talks under way, and are they making any progress?

HANCOCKS: As far as we understand, these talks are under way, still, and have been for days. Now, we know that Palestinian security source telling us that Egyptian mediators are still in Gaza trying to work out a deal. We also know from these same source that Khaled Mashaal, who's the exiled Hamas leader who Israel has blamed for this particular kidnapping, he is in Egypt talking to President Hosni Mubarak and also Omar Salim (ph), the intelligence officer there.

And also, Mubarak, in an interview this morning in Egyptian newspapers, said he believed he had struck a deal with the militants who are holding this soldier and they would release him if there were conditions met. But Israel, through the prime minister, Ehud Olmert, has said consistently they will not negotiate, there will be no prisoner swap -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Paula Hancocks in Gaza.

Thank you very much -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: A new terror tape believed to be from Osama bin Laden, an audiotape, not a videotape. Why isn't bin Laden going on camera? A take a look at that coming up.

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And the Delaware River continues to recede. Welcomed news for the people here in New Hope, Pennsylvania. I'll have an update coming up.

M. O'BRIEN: And countdown to uncertainty. The shuttle is set to fly, but there's a problem considered probable and catastrophic. We'll tell you why NASA's boss overruled some of the his own experts ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: In the Northeast, the floodwaters are drying, but it's still too early to start a full-scale cleanup. New pictures from the Delaware River region show there's still some problems. Streets submerged, basements still flooded, homes still barely visible.

CNN's Jason Carroll joining us now from New Hope, Pennsylvania.

Jason, bring us up to date. What's going on there this morning?

CARROLL: Well, Miles, the Delaware River is still surging behind me, but not with the same force we saw yesterday. The waters are receding here, and that's something that people here in New Hope have been waiting for the past three days.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CARROLL (voice over): Homes along the Delaware River partially submerged. Businesses, too. In New Hope, Pennsylvania, its charming shops, bed and breakfasts under water.

STEVE EBERSOL, BUSINESS OWNER: This is about a 50-stall parking lot, and the fence over there is the border up to the river. And then there's a big bank that drops down to what usually is a very low- running river.

CARROLL: Steve Ebersol owns this parking lot, this building, and the bed and breakfast across the street.

EBERSOL: That water is trying to get into -- into my basement. Even though it's got walls, it's basically just fitting right through the -- right through the concrete block and coming in.

CARROLL: The Delaware River crested Thursday evening six feet above flood stage, and while its waters are supposed to steadily recede, there's still a lot of debris in the water which is threatening the New Hope Bridge. It remains closed until further notice.

Emergency officials say most people here evacuated. The area has flooded many times before.

CHIEF HENRY PASQUALINI, NEW HOPE POLICE DEPT.: We have become proficient with floods. This is our third flood in two years. And we will get the borough back and running, the business community back and running as soon as possible.

CARROLL: Further north, the Susquehanna River in the town of Wilkes-Barre receded pretty quickly, a relief to the people living here and to the Army Corps of Engineers monitoring the levees.

(on camera): Are you surprised at all by the fact that the water has receded in this area so quickly?

JIM MOORE, U.S. ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS: Yes, I am. This crest, even as late as yesterday, was predicted to stand for at least a day. We've already lost five or six feet.

CARROLL (voice over): Emergency officials lifted the evacuation order in Wilkes-Barre, but statewide 34 counties were declared federal disaster areas.

GOV. ED RENDELL (D), PENNSYLVANIA: It's too soon to put a dollar figure on it, but in terms of loss of life, it looks like at least five lives, maybe six. In terms of loss of homes and properties and businesses and possessions and things that are dear to people, it's impossible to calculate.

CARROLL: Back in New Hope, disappointment among the Ebersols and other business owners at the loss before the Fourth of July holiday.

CHRISTINE EBERSOL, BUSINESS OWNER: So I think it's really going to hurt the town. This is a shame, because it's a great place.

CARROLL: A place still waiting for relief.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CARROLL: And just to give you a sense of what things look like right now, this is Steve Ebersol's parking lot. It's a muddy mess, but at least most of the water is gone. And for him that is certainly something that he's going to be looking forward to.

You also heard him say that this is the third time in two years that people in this area have had to deal with flooding. That is true. They are tired at this point, they are weary, they are waterlogged, and they are not looking forward to the prospect of having to clean up once again -- Miles. M. O'BRIEN: Well, they don't call it New Hope for nothing. Hopefully that's what they'll have.

CARROLL: Yes.

M. O'BRIEN: Jason Carroll, thank you very much -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Hard-hit Binghamton, New York. People are being evacuated, being told not to come back quite yet. We'll give you a shot of just how bad it is there.

Take a look. State officials are asking for federal emergency aid. Local emergency workers are now checking gas and electric lines. They're also trying to check buildings to see if they're safe to get back into.

Anton Lucas, though, didn't evacuate from his home in Binghamton. He joins us this morning.

Mr. Lucas, nice to see you. Nice to see that you're doing OK.

Why would you want to stay behind when I know that the cops and the fire marshals were telling you it's time to go?

ANTON LUCAS, FLOODING VICTIM: Oh, it's just nice to be home. You have a nice place, you want to kind of protect your -- your possessions.

S. O'BRIEN: Did you prepare for staying? I mean, did you stockpile things in your house, et cetera?

LUCAS: I'm always prepared here. And I did try to prepare a little better this year, but the flood came up a little higher. It was a little more than we anticipated, more than we expected.

S. O'BRIEN: You're right where two rivers meet, right, the Chenango and the Susquehanna?

LUCAS: Yes.

S. O'BRIEN: So -- so where other people were getting it bad, you were getting it even worse, to a large extent. Give me a sense of how bad you've been hit now.

LUCAS: Well, I don't know how to describe it really. You can actually see by the pictures that basically it's the mud and the damage that it causes. You know, replacing your walls and your woodwork and all that. Possessions, those are easily replaced.

S. O'BRIEN: How much money -- I mean, can you give me a dollar figure about what you think it's going to cost? We're looking at these pictures on the inside. What a mess. What a huge mess inside.

What do you think it's going to cost you to fix this?

LUCAS: Oh, maybe $30,000 this time. Last time it was about $10,000 to $15,000.

S. O'BRIEN: You know, it kind of begs the question when you say last time it was $15,000 worth of damage, why do you...

LUCAS: I'm sorry. I'm losing you.

S. O'BRIEN: Can you hear me now?

LUCAS: Barely.

S. O'BRIEN: OK. Well, then I'm going to yell, Mr. Lucas. Here's my question for you: Why stay when you've had floods before and you know you're going to have floods again?

LUCAS: I lost you.

S. O'BRIEN: Oh, I'm sorry. You know, let's see if we can work on Mr. Lucas' audio.

LUCAS: I got you. I got you back.

S. O'BRIEN: Oh, there you go. Look at that, the miracle of fixing technology on the fly.

LUCAS: Yes.

S. O'BRIEN: Why stay? Why stay when you had $15,000 worth of damage last time? This time, maybe -- maybe $30,000 worth of damage, maybe more. Why stay?

LUCAS: Well, this time the flood came up five feet higher than last, and there was a lot more damage. Even though we prepped even harder, sometimes you just can't stop water. And there's no protecting against it.

S. O'BRIEN: I mean, I guess the question is why not move?

LUCAS: Sometimes you don't anticipate everything. And even all the precautions you can do just don't matter.

S. O'BRIEN: Are you going to take a hard look at it now and say it's time to -- I know that's a particularly beautiful part of the country, but still, are you thinking about, you know, maybe it's time to move on to less risky territory, frankly?

LUCAS: No, because I think that this is the first time it's really happened since 1930. And usually you have floodwaters like this every hundred years. So I think there's something going on with maybe global warming.

It's just been unusual weather. And I've never seen it.

Back in '76, when Agnes came through -- since I'm a Dutchman, I just built a little dyke and ripped the gutters off, and I had no -- now water actually in my basement and sustained very little damage. The first time, even though I was prepped to the max and had a ton of friends over to, you know, evacuate me up to the second floor, you can't protect anything. Especially your shop. You just can't get everything out that quick.

S. O'BRIEN: All right. That's interesting, because, of course, Agnes is the one that everybody points to as the really, really bad one.

Anton Lucas...

LUCAS: Yes.

S. O'BRIEN: ... it's nice to see that you're doing OK and that you certainly...

LUCAS: Oh, yes.

S. O'BRIEN: ... have personally survived with no -- with no -- with no ill effects. But we wish you the best of luck as you try to clean up that mess. Thanks for talking with us.

LUCAS: You're welcome. Thank you. And thank the crew for being here.

S. O'BRIEN: Oh, gosh, no, I'm sure they want to thank you.

He's been providing hospitality to Allan Chernoff and his crew as they have been wading through all that water. That's his house in the background where they've been reporting from for us.

M. O'BRIEN: I know. In spite of all that, he's been very hospitable. We wish him well in the future.

S. O'BRIEN: Yes, that's tough.

M. O'BRIEN: Well, coming up, was it a big victory in the war on terror or just a big waste of precious waste of time and resources? We'll ask an expert about those alleged terrorist wannabes in Miami.

And it's a make-or-break mission for the space shuttle program. Discovery is set to fly with a serious flaw. So why did the agency brass overrule concerns from some safety engineers?

Stay with us for more AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: A live picture there. There you see the base of one of the solid rocket boosters and one of the workers there. It gives you a sense of the scale. They call those guys pad rats, and they wear that moniker proudly as they begin the final stages of the countdown inside about the 30-hour range right now to the launch of the Space Shuttle Discovery on its way to the International Space Station.

There's a tense, uncertain countdown. For the first time ever, Discovery, a shuttle, will be flying with a problem categorized as "probable catastrophic."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

M. O'BRIEN (voice over): Before a space shuttle can fly, agency brass, engineers, contractors, astronauts must all sign on the dotted line, written proof they believe the launch is as safe as it can be. But this time around, two of the signatures come with a catch. The agency's chief engineer, Chris Scolese, and chief safety officer, Brian O'Connor (ph), penning in they are no go for launch.

CHRIS SCOLESE, NASA CHIEF ENGINEER: And the where the community is coming from is, if we can prevent the problem or mitigate the problem, that's what we should do.

M. O'BRIEN: O'Connor (ph) and Scolese are concerned about three dozen pieces of foam on Discovery's external fuel tank, so-called ice frost ramps (ph) that could fall off during launch, damaging the orbiter. Precisely the scenario that inflicted a fatal breach on Columbia's heat shield three and a half years ago, dooming the crew of seven.

Shuttle engineers are busy trying to redesign the vulnerable ice frost ramps (ph), but NASA administrator Mike Griffin is unwilling to wait.

MICHAEL GRIFFIN, NASA ADMINISTRATOR: We are electing to take the risk. We do not believe we are risking crew.

M. O'BRIEN: Griffin says if falling foam damages Discovery, engineers will know about it this time and the crew can take refuge on the space station pending a rescue mission. O'Connor and Scolese say they will not appeal that decision.

WILLIAM GERSTENMAIER, ASSOC. NASA ADMINISTRATOR: They do not object us flying and they understand the reasons and the rationale that we laid out in the review foreflight.

M. O'BRIEN: Griffin says he's anxious to fly now because the shuttle program is slated to end in 2010 and NASA is committed to flying at least 16 missions to complete the International Space Station. He worries delays now will lead to dangerous schedule pressure later.

GRIFFIN: I'm willing to take some programmatic risk now in order to prevent an excessive buildup of programmatic risk later on. This is, in fact, what you pay me to do.

M. O'BRIEN: So Griffin has overruled his worried deputies, knowing full well it could mean sudden death for the space shuttle program.

GRIFFIN: If we were to lose another vehicle, I will tell you right now that I would be moving to figure out a way to shut the program down. I think at that point we're done.

M. O'BRIEN: With that much at stake, the debate over shuttle safety is reaching a boil. Charlie Carmotta (ph), an astronaut who flew on the shuttle mission last summer and most recently the top engineer in Houston, this week was suddenly reassigned after rubbing senior managers the wrong way and expressing reservations about mission safety. The shuttle's sunset years seem destined to be anything but tranquil.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

M. O'BRIEN: Now, NASA revealed yesterday it has a worst-case backup plan to bring a damaged shuttle home. Should Discovery's heat shield be breached, the crew will wait for that rescue mission on the space station, and then they have the option of attaching a wiring harness to the controls of Discovery that will allow ground controllers to land the shuttle by remote control at California's Vandenberg Air Force Base, assuming it can get that far intact.

Now, I'll be there for the launch. It is set for 3:49 p.m. Eastern Time tomorrow. We'll have a special that begins at 3:00 p.m. Eastern Time. We'll be on the air all morning, and my expert guest for the day and for the mission is Eileen Collins, the former shuttle commander, first woman to ever hold that role, and the commander of the last mission of Discovery a year ago -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: We've got a look at our top stories straight ahead this morning, including that new audiotape believed to be from Osama bin Laden. We only hear this voice. We don't see him. We'll take a look at the reasons behind that.

And homegrown terrorists or just clueless pawns? Questions that the Miami terror arrests were all for show, possibly even entrapped by the FBI. We're going to talk to a former FBI agent coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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