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American Morning

Iraq's Most Wanted; Crisis in Gaza; Iraq Rape-Murder Probe; Slot Cops

Aired July 03, 2006 - 07:00   ET

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

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Insurgents. Bin Laden also mentions the new leader of al Qaeda in Iraq.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OSAMA BIN LADEN, (through translator): Our brothers, the mujahideen, an al Qaeda organization, have chosen the dear brother of Abu Hamza al-Muhajir as their leader to succeed the emir, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. I advise him to focus his fighting on the Americans and everyone who supports them and allies himself with them in their war on the people of Islam and Iraq.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: The message was bin Laden's fifth this year and his second released in just three days.

A new most wanted list in Iraq. Included in the 41 are Saddam Hussein's relatives and the new al Qaeda leader in Iraq. CNN's Arwa Damon is in Baghdad to explain.

Good morning, Arwa. Who tops the list?

ARWA DAMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.

Well that would be Izzat Ibrahim al-Duri with a $10 million reward. Now he is the senior most Baath Party official out there still at large. He was the former deputy commander of Iraq's revolutionary command council which essentially ran the country.

Now he's also number six on the United States' list of top 55 most wanted. Now there were reports back in November of 2005 that he was dead. This was posted on a Baathist website. But there has been no confirmation of that.

And two interesting names on that list to point out, as you just mentioned, Saddam Hussein's eldest daughter and his wife. His eldest daughter, Raghad, currently resides in Amman. She's been there since 2003 and has been nicknamed by the community in Amman "Little Saddam." Her personality resembles very much that of her father, former president Saddam Hussein. And his wife is believed to be in Qatar.

Now they're both accused of providing logistics and funds to the insurgency here in Iraq. His wife, according to Iraq's government, also provide spiritual support and guidance to the insurgents operating here. Now Iraq's national security adviser, Dr. Mowaffak al-Rubaie, called these people on the list of 41 the murderers of Iraq.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MOWAFFAK AL-RUBAIE, NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: This list shows those who are trying to destroy our country and to create a sectarian violence. We are not going to rest until we capture them. So I'm asking all Iraqis, all my fellow countries, to look at this list closely. You may know where some of these people are. Let us know their whereabouts so we can capture them and increase the stability and safety in our country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DAMON: Now Iraqis CNN spoke to this morning on the streets of Baghdad, where the violence does continue, said that they believe that this list would encourage Iraqis to come forward with information should they have any. Also saying that the fact that the government is providing financial rewards would be very beneficial.

Carol.

COSTELLO: I don't think the list is going to mean anything to the governments of Jordan and Qatar. I mean they're unlikely to turn over Saddam Hussein's daughter and mother. But is there anything that Iraq can do?

DAMON: That's difficult. And, in fact, it could end up being quite the friction point between Iraqi and Jordan. Now Jordan has provided the daughters with asylum there and saying that they are keeping a close eye on them and on their activities. So far all we've heard from the Jordanian government has been that the Iraqi government has not contacted them just yet. However, Iraq's national security adviser said that they have notified all countries to hand over those that are there.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AL-RUBAIE: We're asking all of the neighboring countries who are harboring these people to hand them over the Iraqi justice and to the Iraqi police so that they will have their fair trial in Iraq. (END VIDEO CLIP)

DAMON: Dr. Rubaie also said that he believes that those who are on the list of 41 who are operating outside of Iraq are providing direct funding, arms and support to those that are operating inside the country. Emphasized that securing them and getting the cooperation of these counties is essential in capturing these individuals to eventually bring stability and security here.

COSTELLO: Arwa Damon live in Baghdad. We'll talk to you again in the next hour. Thanks.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Palestinian militants who claim they're holding an Israeli corporal hostage issuing a deadline this morning. It's been a week now since the soldier was kidnapped along the Gaza border. The militants say if the Israelis don't release Palestinian prisoners there will be consequences unspecified. CNN's Paula Hancocks in Gaza City watching this unfold.

Paula.

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Miles.

Well the three Palestinian militant groups that are still holding that soldier did release that ultimatum and Israel, once again, said that it would not negotiate with terrorists. It would not organize a prisoner swap and it wants an unconditional release of Gilad Shailt, the 19-year-old corporal who was taken eight days ago.

Now we've have had increased clashing between the Israeli forces and Palestinian militants throughout Monday. We know that three Palestinian militants were killed in southern Gaza where they approached an Israeli troop near the airport. Israeli troops killed those three Palestinian militants. Two of them turned out to be wearing suicide belts. And also another two militants have been killed in northern Gaza.

So the clashes are increasing. We had air strikes in the early hours of Monday morning as well. Another political target in Gaza City. The offices of Al Axa Martyrs Brigade.

Now on a humanitarian front, we have seen some improvement. At least there has been some humanitarian aid coming in. There's been emergency supplies for six hours on Sunday at the border with Gaza and Israel. That was opened and they brought in food, they brought in fuel which was desperately in need of and so that's the latest from here.

Miles.

O'BRIEN: Paula Hancocks in Gaza, thank you very much.

"The New York Times" fighting back over the weekend. The paper's editor defending his paper's decision to print a story about a secret program to track banking transactions in the hunt for terrorists. It happened on the CBS program "Face The Nation." Bill Keller saying the program was not news to the terrorists. The White House had already talked about it openly. Reports in several papers claim the White House was track banking records and that triggered a fire storm of political criticism -- mostly from Republicans. Some even say "The Times" should be prosecuted. But Keller says the issue is political.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL KELLER, "THE NEW YORK TIMES": It's an election year. Beating up on "The New York Times" is red meat for the conservative base. But I don't think this is all politics. I think the administration's a little embarrassed. This is the most secretive White House we've had since the Nixon White House.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: Keller said, when lives are at risk, "The Times" often withholds stories. Carol.

COSTELLO: Happening now in America.

New Jersey's government is going at half speed this morning. Some 45,000 state workers have been told to stay home. State lawmakers couldn't agree on a budget before the July 1st deadline, so Governor John Corzine started shutting the government down on Friday. The governor will be our guest in the next hour.

In Madison, Indiana, nearly a dozen people are hurt after a car drove through a crowd gathered at a boat race, then plunged 25 feet into the Ohio River. Charges are expected to be filed against the driver. Indiana police will hold a news conference later this morning.

Police in San Mateo, California, want to know what caused a car to hit a city bus. The car also hit another car before crossing into the path of that bus. Twelve people in the two cars and the bus were injured. Some seriously.

Fireworks may be to blame for a fire at an abandoned school next to the Sea-Tac Airport in Washington. The flames could be seen at least 20 miles away. About 100 firefighters were called to the scene. The former elementary school was being used to store school papers and furniture.

In Ohio, police say two children are recovering after being burnt by fireworks. It happened in Mason, about 20 miles northeast of Cincinnati. A two-year-old girl has serious burns. A seven-year-old boy has less serious injuries.

And get out the chain saw in eastern Pennsylvania. A massive lightning storm downed hundreds of trees. Get this, 12,000 lightning strikes in the span of just two hours. The National Weather Service calls it a micro burst, a massive burst of air.

Time now to learn more about that. To the man who knows, Chad.

(WEATHER REPORT)

COSTELLO: And hopefully no rain in Florida.

O'BRIEN: Let's hope. What do you think, Chad, real quickly before we talk about the shuttle?

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: You know, I didn't look at the 7:00 update to see if it came in yet or not, but it looks pretty good. It looks better than it did on Saturday.

O'BRIEN: You've got about 20 seconds right now. We'll get right back with you. Stay there. Go look real quick.

MYERS: OK. All right.

O'BRIEN: We're going to talk about what happened over the weekend while you were doing other things like going out and buying fireworks, whatever you're doing, to get ready for the . . .

COSTELLO: I was sitting watching you like kill time because the shuttle wasn't blasting off.

O'BRIEN: Kill time? Kill time? That was scintillating television.

Anyway, this is what we saw all weekend. Actually that's an old picture. You can see the rotating surface structure. The cocoon of the shuttle enveloping it. And, in any case, that -- or is that a live picture this morning? Have they already closed it up?

Anyway, in any case, beneath that scaffolding is the space shuttle Discovery, still on the ground. Should be in space. Two attempts to launch. Mother nature in both cases no go for launch. Everybody else was go. Not mother nature. She said no go.

And basically what we're talking about is trying to launch in the afternoon. In the summertime, as Chad would say, the some some summertime means thunderstorms.

Chad, how's that forecast?

MYERS: They didn't change it yet, Miles.

O'BRIEN: OK.

MYERS: They were nine minutes late coming out right now but we'll wait -- as soon as it -- I'll scream over the line. I'll let you know.

O'BRIEN: You scream.

COSTELLO: Scream loud.

O'BRIEN: The goal is tomorrow, July 4th. The first ever attempt to launch on July 4th.

COSTELLO: That's pretty cool, actually.

O'BRIEN: And the weather picture is generally better for it to do that.

COSTELLO: Talk about fireworks. Talk about your fireworks.

O'BRIEN: That's what I call a fireworks display. Patriotic display in every way, shape and form.

All right, coming up in the program . . .

COSTELLO: President Bush's poll numbers down again. But his numbers look good -- yes, they look good compared to what you think about Congress. We're going to take a closer look.

O'BRIEN: Also the movie critics, Roger Ebert, on the mend this morning in the hospital but doctors giving him a thumb's up prognosis. We'll tell you why he's there.

COSTELLO: And later, thousands of new slot machines, thousands of new jobs and plenty of headaches for police. A look at how Florida's slot cops are keeping up with the crooks. That's just ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: Happening this morning.

The president set to sign the Foster Children Act. A new law expecting to speed up the time it takes to get foster children into permanent homes.

A schedule reminder now. The president and the first lady will be guests on "Larry King Live," Thursday night, 9:00 Eastern. Why don't you tune in for that?

The race to succeed Mexico's President Vicente Fox still too close to call. The two leading candidates have each claimed victory. Official results may not come until Wednesday.

Movie critic Roger Ebert recovering in the hospital this morning. He's in serious but stable condition. He's been battling cancer. Doctors had to fix a burst blood vessel in his neck.

Lil 'Kim got out of prison today in Philadelphia. These pictures came in just a little while ago. Oh, actually those are old pictures. Her real name is Kimberly Jones and she was sentenced to a year and a day for lying to a grand jury about a gun fight that she saw. Is that from this morning or not? I don't think it is.

COSTELLO: No. She had roses this morning.

O'BRIEN: She had roses this morning. She was wearing white. She looks very similar to what you see there, which was a year and a day ago. She's getting out a couple of months early. Actually, it's not quite a year and a day ago. She gets good behavior time. There you see her. That's not prison garb, folks. Not even close, if you know what I mean. All right.

Another Pentagon investigation of alleged crimes by U.S. troops in Iraq. This time there are allegations U.S. Army enlisted men stalked and raped an Iraqi woman, killed her and her family and then set a fire to try and hide their tracks. Amazing allegations. Barbara Starr is at the Pentagon to help us understand what this is all about.

Barbara, good morning.

BARBARA STARR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Miles.

Well, Army sources say these allegations actually came up about two weeks ago when soldiers from the 502nd Infantry Regimen were being debriefed following the deaths of Private Menchaca and Tucker. You'll remember those are the other two soldiers from this same unit who were killed by Iraqi insurgents when they were taken after a firefight.

Now according to a senior Army official, during those stress debriefings following those two deaths, at least two soldiers said they had heard about this other incident, apparently back in March when it is alleged at this time, two soldiers were involved in the rape of an Iraqi woman and then killing her and three other Iraqis, including a child, that were in a house that they then burned down.

This is something that the soldiers said they heard about. That they had no firsthand information. But all of that was enough for top commander to order a criminal investigation into all of this. A statement was issued late last week saying "a preliminary inquiry found sufficient information existed to recommend a criminal investigation into the incident." All of this taking place at a town called Mahmoudiya, south of Baghdad, an area that is known to be an insurgent stronghold at times.

Now all of this a matter of criminal investigation. One of the two soldiers alleged to be involved in the incident is still in the military and is being questioned. Another one of the soldiers is out of the military now and officials say he is being sought for additional questioning.

Miles.

O'BRIEN: Barbara, I think, by my count, that would mean there are four fairly large investigations that we know about where U.S. troops and Marines are the focus. This one has implications, through, which might have even more of a ripple effect inside Iraq. Tell us about that.

STARR: Well, it's perhaps a question of, you know, let's start from the standpoint, all of these are allegations. In some of these cases, there are charges. In the cases you're speaking about, Miles, at this point no U.S. military service-member has been found guilty in a military court of law.

So these are all allegations in the eyes of the United States military until there is resolution of these cases. But in Iraq certainly there is a good deal of growing bad feeling, if you will, by Iraqis about all of this and a lot of concerns by the Iraqi government, as well as the coalition, to make sure that they do investigate all of these and come to some resolution on them. A lot of concern that matters are being handled appropriately on all fronts.

Miles.

O'BRIEN: Barbara Starr at the Pentagon, thank you.

Carol.

COSTELLO: In other news this morning, a touch of Las Vegas is coming to south Florida. Four racetracks in Broward County will soon have state-of-the-art gambling and entertainment facilities. Now police are getting ready for a whole new kind of crime. CNN's John Zarrella has more from Miami. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT, (voice over): Music to a gambler's ear. Now, a new tune. In about two months, the first of 6,000 slot machines will be ringing at racetracks in Broward County, Florida. The only place in the state not on Native American land to now allow slots. Thousands of new jobs are being created. And new headaches for police.

THOMAS GIARDINA, INSTRUCTOR: Right now it paid him three, but I don't see a winning combination.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's why I like this machine.

ZARRELLA: A half dozen slot machines were set up in a windowless conference room at the Florida Department of Law Enforcement offices in Miami. Here dozens of agents, along with local police, got to play the slots. Part of three days training.

When the new venues open, it will be the first time police in Florida will be responsible for stopping gaming crime. To do that, they need to know how to spot bandits trying to rip off the one-arm bandits.

GIARDINA: You see people doing odd stuff. They'll put the money in and then they'll turn around and cash out right away. Well, that's not normal play.

ZARRELLA: Instructor Thomas Giardina is an expert in slot machine cons.

GIARDINA: They're pacing back and forth in front of the game. They're nervously looking around, like they're watching for something.

ZARRELLA: Giardina can't and won't talk publicly about the exactly ways criminals beat the slots. He won't even admit there are master criminals who do it.

GIARDINA: So I've been told.

ZARRELLA: But over the years in Vegas and Atlantic City, slot thieves have been nabbed in low and high-tech schemes. Some used remote control devices or inside knowledge of codes. Others used a light device that fooled the machines into paying off.

LAZARUS KIMSEL, FDLE AGENT: And it's always amazed me and it still does every day. You learn what people can do with their minds criminally to try to outsmart and to outsmart the systems.

AMOS ROJAS, SPECIAL AGENT IN CHARGE, FDLE: We work under the premises that if there's money out there, whether it's in the machine or being transported from the machines to the count room, there's someone out there that's going to try to steal that money.

ZARRELLA: And there will be plenty of it. When all four slot venues are operating, they are expected to bring in $400 million a year. Half of that will go to the state in taxes. The slot cops jobs will be to make sure none of it mysteriously disappears.

John Zarrella, CNN, Miami.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: And John says some facilities may have their slot machines up and running by this fall. But others will not be ready until the beginning of the year.

O'BRIEN: Coming up, an asteroid can ruin your day, and mine for that matter, and everyone else's. Just ask a dinosaur. So how close did we come to extinction last night? Well, closer than you may think. We'll ask an expert.

Plus, here's a question. What will a man do for love and free beer? Just about anything, folks. We'll look at a heavy competition ahead from Finland. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: All right. Gas prices are high and Detroit's in the tank so to speak. So Ellen McGirt is here to give us the bad news about June auto sales.

How are you, Ellen?

ELLEN MCGIRT: I'm good, thanks. Glad to be here.

Yes, it looks grim. The numbers are still rolling in. But the June sales are going to be absolutely grim for all three automakers. And GM, in particular, is having a really rough year. They're going to have a tough report year over year. It looks like it's going to be down because things are just sitting on the lot, particularly their really expensive cars, the SUVs and the pickups.

Gas prices up 32 percent from last year. Interest rates on their way up and everyone looking for fuel efficiency. Al Gore is putting pressure on everybody. Nobody wants to have these big gas guzzlers anymore.

O'BRIEN: So it's Al Gore's fault?

MCGIRT: It is. It is.

O'BRIEN: Oh, OK.

MCGIRT: And you heard it here.

COSTELLO: It is.

MCGIRT: Sorry.

O'BRIEN: Anyway. MCGIRT: But there are going to be lots of tasty treats for people who are going to be shopping for cars starting today and over the weekend. Chrysler started their employee pricing for everyone, which is actually a pretty good deal. GM did this last year and it kind of backfired for them.

O'BRIEN: Of course, that's a Ford product there but, you know, details.

MCGIRT: Right. Right. But there will be stuff for Ford too.

O'BRIEN: Oh, Ford's doing it too? OK. Good.

MCGIRT: There's going to be discounts and rebates and free gas. You're going to see it on a case by case basis.

O'BRIEN: They're giving them away now.

MCGIRT: Well, they're going to make you work for it. GM's going to be doing some zero percent financing through Wednesday.

COSTELLO: They're giving you like $50 worth of gas or something.

MCGIRT: Some of its pretty good. It's local.

O'BRIEN: That's like half a tank on my Yukon XL. That's great.

MCGIRT: Now I know.

Chrysler's also bringing back the muscle car. I know you're going to be excited to be cruising this summer in your . . .

O'BRIEN: Well at $3 a gallon, I don't know how much muscle I want, but . . .

COSTELLO: But in Miles tanktop, that would be premo, wouldn't it?

MCGIRT: Oh, man.

O'BRIEN: Do we have a picture of the new Challenger? Do we have it?

MCGIRT: It was coming out in 2008. They had a preview at the January auto show.

O'BRIEN: Man that's a beautiful thing.

MCGIRT: But, man, oh, that just makes me want to go to Miami.

O'BRIEN: That takes you right back to 1979, doesn't it?

COSTELLO: You could actually have a white t-shirt on and have cigarettes rolled up in the sleeve. That would do it (INAUDIBLE). Even though you don't smoke.

MCGIRT: Do you want the music?

No, I know, we can't smoke. You can just have them just rolled up there.

O'BRIEN: About 308 horses under the hood there maybe. Do you know?

MCGIRT: Something. I've got a Hemi joke but I just can't get it off. I'm so sorry. I failed you. I failed you again.

O'BRIEN: All right.

COSTELLO: Loving that.

O'BRIEN: We'll see you in a bit.

COSTELLO: Coming up, new poll numbers for President Bush and for Congress. And compared to Congress' numbers, President Bush might have reason to celebrate. We'll show you the numbers just ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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