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American Morning

New Message Believed to be From Osama bin Laden; Gaza Offensive on Hold

Aired June 30, 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 new message believed to be from Osama bin Laden. The al Qaeda leader makes his first comments since the death of his so-called lion in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Taking a breather in Gaza -- the offensive there on hold. For now, diplomacy given a chance.

S. O'BRIEN: An investigation is now underway at Disneyworld. A ride shut down after the death of a 12-year-old boy. We've got that story.

M. O'BRIEN: And it's almost launch time. The Shuttle Discovery poised to return to space tomorrow. We'll talk with astronaut Scott Kelly, whose twin brother is piloting the latest mission. He also is an astronaut. How's that for an interesting twist of fate?

That's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

Good morning to you.

I'm Miles O'Brien.

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

We are keeping an eye on the flooding in the Northeast today.

We're going to have reports from three locations for us this morning.

Jason Carroll is in New Hope, Pennsylvania. Allan Chernoff is in Binghamton, New York. And Chad Myers is watching everything from the CNN Weather Center.

Let's begin with Jason -- hey, Jason.

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Soledad.

And things in New Hope definitely looking much better today, even in terms of where we're standing. If you can see right here, you can look and see where the mud is at this point. But early this morning when we got up and came out here, there was still water here.

So you can just see how quickly the water is receding just with each passing hour.

Take a look right out here. You can see where the Delaware River is out there. You can see how it still is surging. There is still some concern for the amount of debris that's in the water. That bridge that you see out there, that is the New Hope Bridge. It is still closed because of all the debris in the water that's still threatening the bridge. That is the reason why it is still closed at this point.

At its peak, the Delaware River crested at 37 feet. That's 14 feet above flood stage. But it is receding, receding slowly at this point.

Governor Ed Rendell said that the state basically dodged a bullet. Six thousand two hundred people in this area alone had to be evacuated along the Delaware River. Three hundred businesses in New Hope also had to be evacuated.

We spoke to one business owner who actually owns the parking lot that you see right here, right before the river. He told us how the flood has affected him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We used to have a dumpster over here for our tenants. That has floated down the river and is gone like a boat. And it's a parking lot that's gone. Around the corner are the ATMs and the drive-throughs of the bank. And they're filled. The ATM areas in the bank are just filled with water.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARROLL: And that dumpster was located just about where I'm standing right now. But you can see, look, this parking lot basically dry. So things for that business owner looking much better. Some of these business owners say that they hope to be in and start the process of cleaning up either later today or tomorrow -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: All right, Jason, thanks a lot for the update.

About 170 miles from New Hope is Binghamton, New York.

That's where CNN's Allan Chernoff is this morning -- Allan, how is it looking where you are?

ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, certainly much better, no question about that, Soledad.

Where I'm standing, yesterday we had about six more feet of water. And, in fact, this was the staging ground for people from the fire department to actually -- they took a boat across what appears to be a pond. This is actually just a backyard. And they went to a pumping station over there to turn it back on. That's a sewage pumping station. So that's one indication of how things have improved.

But let me just give you an indication of the damage.

This is the garage of the house that I'm standing right next to. And you can see what the water did, basically slammed in. The entire side of the garage ripped open. Huge gashes here. The windows are shot. And this is owned by our friend, Anton Lucas, who has been so kind to host us here, pretty much.

He's a contractor. This is where he keeps a lot of his equipment, including his lumber. And you can see all the lumber, lots of it already pulled out by the water and it's way down the Susquehanna River right now. All of this is pretty much shot.

Next door, his neighbors have also suffered some pretty severe damage. Now, at least the water has been gone, because the water level, well, it had been pretty much about this height even yesterday. So you can see just how much it has receded.

But the house really has stood pretty well. The foundation still intact. But you can see here in the basement still very flooded, plenty of water to get out. So they've still got plenty of cleanup work here to do -- Soledad, back to you.

S. O'BRIEN: What a mess.

All right, Allan Chernoff for us this morning.

Thanks, Allan.

Let's check in now with severe weather expert Chad Myers at the CNN Center -- Chad, where do you want to start?

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: It's going to take a long time to dry all of that stuff out for those people. I mean that just...

S. O'BRIEN: So what -- so is the weather going to support that, do you think, any time soon?

MYERS: Yes. Yes, the air is better today. There were showers yesterday. And, you know, sometimes you have so much muck and silt on the road and around you, you almost want a shower to help you out and clean some of that, wash it back into the river. But you don't need anything else to bring that river back up. So it's kind of 50-50 whether you want more rain or not, especially at this point in time, because everything is wet.

(WEATHER REPORT)

MYERS: Miles, I know you're going to be in Florida tomorrow, so you're anxiously awaiting this forecast.

I've zoomed in here for you and this is what the computers think. This is Saturday morning, 8:00 in the morning. A couple of clouds, a couple of showers. But by 4:00, not too much out there.

M. O'BRIEN: Ooh.

MYERS: Maybe they're going to have to lower that 60 percent chance of no fly. We'll see.

M. O'BRIEN: We'll get a new forecast in two hours...

MYERS: Yes.

M. O'BRIEN: ... the official one. But maybe you are -- as always, you are always prescient.

MYERS: You know, a couple of clouds but...

M. O'BRIEN: It's your job to be prescient, naturally. Yes, that's...

MYERS: You know, the threshold for a launch is so small.

M. O'BRIEN: Yes.

MYERS: I mean those -- they've got to be so tight and so precise...

M. O'BRIEN: Yes.

MYERS: ... that anything can make it stop, but...

M. O'BRIEN: Boy, that's a fact. That's a fact.

I'll never forget the launch where it was a beautiful day in Florida and there was a sirocco-in Morocco.

MYERS: Oh, yes.

M. O'BRIEN: I kid you not, a dust storm at one of the emergency landing sites scrubbed it.

MYERS: Sure. Yes.

M. O'BRIEN: It was amazing.

All right, anyway, thank you, Chad.

MYERS: You're welcome.

M. O'BRIEN: Osama bin Laden is apparently speaking and once again the world is listening. An audiotape posted overnight on an Islamic Web site and it's apparently the first message from the al Qaeda leader since the U.S. military killed Al Qaeda in Iraq leader, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

Bin Laden called that bombing "a hateful American raid on a great leader."

Here's more of the message.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

OSAMA BIN LADEN (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): Our dear Muslim nation, we were deeply saddened by the passing of our loved ones, Abu Musab and his companions. But we were very happy that their souls and flooded these great battles, as they were defending the Islamic law. Because we were hit through one of our greatest knights and one of our best leaders, but we were very happy to find in him a symbol and a role model for our future generations.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

M. O'BRIEN: In just a few moments, we'll get a little deeper into this message to try to decipher all of this with our terrorism expert, Sajjan Gohel.

Israel is using warplanes and artillery to send a blunt message to Palestinian militants. It wants a soldier who was kidnapped on last Sunday returned.

Right now, Israeli troops are poised on the northern Gaza border, poised, but not moving. There are efforts at negotiating an end to the crisis, and that's why they're staying put for now.

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

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Miles.

Well, these Israeli strikes are continuing on Gaza -- by land, by sea, by air. We know that there have been at least 100 shells landing in Gaza just since midnight. And then on Thursday, there were 400. So this shelling is fairly heavy.

We also know that the first Palestinian has been killed in these air strikes, as well. An Islamic Jihad militant was killed -- died a little earlier this Friday from wounds he sustained in a gun-battle in southern Gaza on Thursday night.

Now, we also know that overnight they -- the Israeli air strike took out the interior ministry here in Gaza City. Now, the reason for that, the Israelis say, is because they believe that was where terror attacks were being planned and they were being carried out. Now, and, also, we know that Hamas, in fact, offices have been targeted and more open fields are being targeted, as along with roads, as they want to make sure that the Palestinian militants cannot move this particular corporal from north to south Gaza, so they can keep a closer check on where he may be.

We also know that the humanitarian crisis in Gaza is becoming worse. They took out the power plant, the Israeli air strike on the early hours of Wednesday morning. We just went there this morning. It's still smoking. It's not working at all. And it gives electricity and pumps water to three quarters of the people in Gaza -- 1.4 million Palestinians in Gaza.

So there are serious worries now about what's going to happen to the humanitarian issues, how people, over the next few days, are going to be getting fresh water.

Now, we heard the group of eight industrialized nations also on Thursday saying they wanted Israel to show restraint. Kofi Annan, the U.N. secretary general, calling for him -- for Israel to show restraint, as well -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Well, certainly you would say these are high pressure negotiation tactics. I mean we even saw yesterday and reported yesterday that that Israeli Defense Forces rounded up several cabinet ministers and lawmakers from the Palestinian government and then buzzed the summer residence of the Syrian president.

All of this doesn't seem like it sets the stage for talks and negotiations.

How fruitful might those talks be?

HANCOCKS: Well, we heard from the Egyptian president, Hosni Mubarak, a little earlier on Friday. He did an interview with a local newspaper. And he said that he had secured a preliminary agreement with the militants themselves to release this soldier, but it had conditions to it.

Now, we don't yet know what those conditions are. And we do understand that Ehud Olmert, the Israeli prime minister, in the past few days, has said there will be no negotiations. He's not agreeing to a prisoner swap.

But we also heard from Israeli media, reporting that the defense minister of Israel had said that diplomatic avenues were not necessarily closed. And this is obviously why we understand that northern Gaza has not had those tanks rolling in yet, just in case there can be a diplomatic solution -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Paula Hancocks in Gaza.

Thank you very much -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: In Florida, a roller coaster ride turned deadly at a Disney theme park. And this morning an autopsy is planned on a 12- year-old Kentucky boy who lost consciousness and then died after riding on that roller coaster yesterday.

CNN's Susan Candiotti is in Lake Buena Vista in Florida.

She joins us with more on the story -- hey, Susan, good morning.

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.

A family of four went to MGM Studios yesterday morning after checking out of their hotel. But by the time this one minute ride was over, 12-year-old Michael Russell had slumped over.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

CANDIOTTI (voice-over): It has zip and then some -- from zero to 60 in less than three seconds. Disney says the Rock 'n' Roller Coaster propels passengers around hoops and cork screws 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 OFFICE: The father was in the back seat 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 CALLER: A little boy passed out on the train. He's over here...

UNIDENTIFIED DISPATCHER: Is he still unconscious and is he breathing?

UNIDENTIFIED CALLER: He is still unconscious right now.

UNIDENTIFIED DISPATCHER: OK. Is he breathing?

UNIDENTIFIED CALLER: Someone is 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, DISNEY SPOKESMAN: 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 the 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 VIDEO TAPE)

CANDIOTTI: For now, the ride is shut down. An autopsy will be done this morning. Preliminary findings are expected later today -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Oh, that's such sad, sad news for that family.

How awful.

Susan Candiotti for us this morning.

Susan, thanks -- Miles. M. O'BRIEN: Still to come on the program, more on that taped message from Osama bin Laden. We'll talk to a terror expert. Does the tape offer any clues that might lead to bin Laden's capture?

S. O'BRIEN: Then, the Supreme Court says the president crossed the line with the GITMO tribunals. Some say this isn't the first time the president has overreached. We'll take a look at that.

M. O'BRIEN: And Discovery is all set for tomorrow's launch. No technical issues. But some at NASA have some real issues about the safety of the space shuttle.

We'll get into that ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: A new message to tell you about. It came in overnight from Osama bin Laden in a posting on an Islamic Web site. A voice believed to be that of the al Qaeda leader talks at length about the death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, calls him "the knight of Islam" who was killed in a "hateful American raid."

Terror expert Sajjan Gohel is in London for us this morning.

Sajjan, nice to talk to you, as always.

Thanks.

SAJJAN GOHEL, ASIA-PACIFIC FOUNDATION: Good to be with you.

S. O'BRIEN: Thank you very much.

What do you make of the fact that we've had now four tapes, three from the number two in al Qaeda, and one from Osama bin Laden, it's believed, right now, in just four weeks in this month?

GOHEL: Well, it seems, Soledad, that al Qaeda are now going down the propaganda route. They know that al Qaeda central, operationally, has been limited in its ability to carry out attacks. But bin Laden's most powerful tool is his message, his propaganda, the doctrines. He knows that by appearing on an Internet statement, he's able to galvanize his supporters throughout the world, inspire them. And that is what's so dangerous is that he doesn't necessarily need to be in charge of a terrorist group, but he provides that incentive to the different terror groups throughout the world that will then react from his statements.

And that is the most worrying dimension of al Qaeda today is the propaganda machine that it's so expertly able to produce.

S. O'BRIEN: He doesn't really make a personal appearance in this tape. What you see is what we're seeing on the screen right there, which is a sort of still of Osama bin Laden, old videotape of al- Zarqawi.

What kind of an impact do you think that has? GOHEL: I think, also, bin Laden knows how to exploit the whole image of himself. He knows that it creates that mystique by not appearing on television. Also, it creates uncertainty as to what his appearance may now look like.

The last time we actually saw Osama bin Laden was on the eve of the U.S. presidential elections in October 2004. At that time, he was visibly seen.

Now, again, he's gone back into the woodwork. So we hear his voice, but we don't see his image. And I think that also is deliberately done to raise the stakes, create a fear, mostly focused on the fear factor itself.

S. O'BRIEN: On this tape, which runs about 19 minutes, you hear a lot of praise of Zarqawi. And it was long rumored -- and you and I actually have talked about this in the past -- that the two didn't really like each other that much.

What do you think is going on here?

GOHEL: Well, this is very interesting. In fact, he referred to al-Zarqawi as a lion, as a knight. He, in fact, he referred to him by his original name, which is Ahmed al-Khalayleh. And it seems that he's also trying to join the bandwagon. He knows that al-Zarqawi had a lot of support amongst insurgent groups in Iraq. He's pretty much trying to join that, exploit the whole agenda of al-Zarqawi.

What's also interesting is he didn't make a reference to who's replaced him. Now, if bin Laden had a say inside Al Qaeda in Iraq, then he surely would have shown who his successor was.

It's interesting that he also made the assertion toward the end that al-Zarqawi was given instructions on who they should carry their attacks out. It seems like he's still trying to show that he had direct control over al-Zarqawi.

But we do know that in the past they didn't get on very well.

But I think what bin Laden is also trying to show is that there were no divisions. He's trying to show a united front to everybody, not just amongst the Islamists, but also to the international community.

S. O'BRIEN: If he's trying to show a united front, and if, in fact, you get the sense that he's trying to be inspirational, if not necessarily tactically relevant, do you think there's something in the works, so to speak, if we're getting four tapes in a month?

GOHEL: What worries me is that whenever Abu Musab -- whenever Osama bin Laden or Ayman el-Zawahiri, his deputy, issue a statement, there is this worry that somehow that will have an impact on a different terrorist group throughout the world.

We have known since September the 11th they have been more attacks in more parts of the world than ever before. But these groups operate independently. But they're inspired by the goals of bin Laden.

What worries me, also, Soledad, is that the events that are taking place internationally -- bin Laden in this message talked about the problems in Sudan, Somalia, Iraq, Afghanistan -- he's hoping to exploit the tensions there -- as well as the fact that we're on the eve of the anniversary of the London terrorist attacks.

We have to bear in mind that they will want to launch an attack at some point. They'll want groups that are affiliated with them to be prepared for that. And there are always these cryptic messages that bin Laden issues, which could have hidden significance. But unfortunately only time will tell what that actually means.

S. O'BRIEN: Yes, definitely, unfortunately.

Sajjan Gohel is a terrorism expert with the Asia-Pacific Foundation, joining us this morning.

Sajjan, thanks.

GOHEL: Good to be with you.

S. O'BRIEN: Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Still to come on the program, Zarqawi may be dead, but the insurgents didn't miss a beat, while prisoners stream out of Iraqi jails. We'll ask a top U.S. general what he thinks will stop the violence.

And the floodwaters are receding in the Northeast and now homeowners face an awful lot of headaches. Lots to clean up. And in many cases, no insurance to help.

Stay with us for more AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: The U.S. Supreme Court out with that much anticipated Guantanamo ruling. Justices offering a strong rebuke to the Bush administration's tactics in holding suspected foot soldiers in the war on terror.

Senior political correspondent Candy Crowley with more.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In the balance of power, tilt the scale toward the legislative branch. Democrats all but danced in the halls.

SEN. DICK DURBIN (D-IL), INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: The United States Supreme Court handed down a decision reminding the Bush administration that no president is above the law.

CROWLEY: Even Republicans, at least the ones in the legislative branch, thought the president went too far. SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: The problem with the way he chose to do this is that they dealt Congress out early on, and they paid a price in the court for that.

CROWLEY: Beyond Guantanamo, beyond suspected terrorist Salim Hamdan, this Supreme Court case was about power. The president claimed too much of it. The decision is not the end of the struggle and not the beginning.

STEPHEN HESS, PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN, BROOKINGS INSTITUTION: This is a president who came into office, who felt that somehow, in recent years, the powers of the president had been eroded, and he was going to do something about it.

CROWLEY: For six years, most of it against the backdrop of war, George Bush has moved aggressively to assert executive power. He claimed his administration did not have to reveal the names of industry executives who advised the vice president's energy task force. The courts essentially agreed.

He signed an order allowing current and former presidents and vice presidents to restrict release of their papers. He has added more than 750 signing statements to new laws, offering his interpretation of the law, flagging portions he won't enforce, claiming they infringe on executive authority. He authorized warrantless surveillance of some international calls to and from the United States.

He claimed the authority to designate enemy combatants to be held indefinitely without charges, an authority upheld by an appellate court. And while he was White House counsel, Attorney General Gonzales said that the president can set aside laws and treaties for national security reasons.

ALBERTO GONZALES, ATTORNEY GENERAL: I think the decision not to apply Geneva in our conflict with al Qaeda was absolutely the right decision.

CROWLEY: This is not the first wartime challenge to presidential powers. Franklin Roosevelt's right to intern Japanese-Americans during World War II survived two Supreme Court challenges. But during the Korean War, the court ruled as unconstitutional Harry Truman's attempt to take over U.S. Steel mills that were threatening to strike.

Historians say this whole balance of power thing -- the legislature, the president, the courts -- has teetered across the generations.

HESS: Particularly when strong presidents, who are Article -- remember, right in the middle -- they're Article II of the Constitution -- they're pushing with sharp elbows in both directions, against Article I, the legislature; Article III, the courts. And sometimes they win and sometimes they lose.

CROWLEY: This time, this president lost. Candy Crowley, CNN, Washington.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: Candy Crowley, part of the best political team on TV.

Still to come this morning, we're talking about what has to happen on the ground in Iraq before U.S. troops come home.

And, also, the new Osama bin Laden tape. Is it inspiring more insurgent attacks? The spokesman for the multinational force in Iraq is our guest. Major General William Caldwell coming up next on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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