Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Live Sunday
Space Shuttle Discovery Ready for Trip Home; Iraqis Living in a State of Fear; New Israeli Air Strike in Gaza Kills One and Wounds at Least 12
Aired July 09, 2006 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: An Iraqi family killed and a daughter raped. Now more U.S. soldiers face charges. And engulfed in flood waters and battling for survival, we're going to tell you what happened with this New Mexico river rescue. And tracking terror with your fingertips. Is cyberspace becoming the true front line on the war on terror?
It's Sunday, July 9th and you're watching CNN LIVE SUNDAY. I'm Carol Lin and these are the stories making news right now.
Five more U.S. soldiers now charged in the Mahmoudiya murders. The military says it conspired in a rape, multiple killings and a cover up as well in the Iraqi town back in March. We've got more details straight ahead.
Now the official death toll is 124 in the crash of a Russian passenger jet. Officials say the plane skidded off a slick runway after landing in eastern Siberia.
And one person is dead and at least 12 wounded in a new Israeli air strike in Gaza. Several of those hurt are Hamas militants. Israel is pressing for the release of a captured soldier and an end to the militants' rocket attacks on Israeli towns.
Italy has won the 2006 World Cup and celebrations are in full swing from Rome to Milan. The Italians beat France 5-3 in a shoot out after a 1-1 draw. And a record-smashing opening weekend for some big screen buccaneers. "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" has raked in about $132 million since its release on Friday.
We begin this hour with more sectarian violence in the war zone and more Americans charged with a disturbing war crime. Major new developments in the fight for Iraq tonight and CNN is covering it all.
First we're going to begin with five more U.S. soldiers charged in a rape and murder investigation. They're accused of conspiring with a comrade in the brutal crimes just south of Baghdad back in March. A young Iraqi woman was raped and killed and three of her family members gunned down. You are seeing the families' I.D. cards here. Now CNN has decided not to show the alleged rape victim's face because of lingering questions about her age. She may be as young as 14-years-old. Our senior Pentagon correspondent Jamie McIntyre has more on the former soldier at the center of this probe.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SENIOR PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A white van departs the Mecklenburg County Jail in North Carolina, as a former Army private is transferred to Louisville, Kentucky, to face charges in federal court, charges that have sent shockwaves across Iraq and strained relations between the U.S. military and the Iraqi people.
Twenty-one-year-old Steven Green is accused of a premeditated murder in March of an Iraqi family, including a small child, followed by the brutal rape and murder of their eldest daughter, whose age is variously reported as between 15 and 25.
What Green and up to four other American soldiers are alleged to have done in this farmhouse in Mahmoudiya, identified in videotape by the Associated Press, is especially offensive to Muslims. The reason? In Islamic culture, rape and sexual assault can be a source of deep shame for a family.
So, recognizing that, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq and the top U.S. commander today issued a rare joint statement.
"This is painful, confusing, and disturbing, not only to the family who lost a loved one, but to the Iraqi people as a whole," Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad and General George Casey wrote. "The alleged events of that day are absolutely inexcusable and unacceptable behavior. We will fully pursue all the facts in a vigorous and open process."
While the killings occurred March 11 or 12, the allegations didn't surface until June 23, when two soldiers came forward during stress counseling. The investigation started the next day, June 24, and Green was arrested in the United States June 30, a week later.
By then, Green had already received an honorable discharge from the Army in April, according to court documents, because of a personality disorder, something that, according to Army regulation, is authorized only if the disorder is so severe that the soldier's ability to function effectively in the military environment is significantly impaired.
A few months before his discharge, Green was featured on the Army's official Web site. In a picture, he's seen about to blast a lock off a gate of what is described as an abandoned Iraqi home.
(on camera): In federal court in Kentucky, Green entered a plea of not guilty to the charge of rape and murder. He waived a pretrial hearing, and agreed to be charged in the federal court, not the military justice system. His arraignment was set for next month.
Jamie McIntyre, CNN, the Pentagon.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LIN: And now to another U.S. military probe. This one started in the Iraqi town of Haditha and now it's reached the upper ranks of the U.S. Marine Corps. Local Iraqis accuse U.S. marines of murdering two dozen civilians in November after another marine was killed in a roadside bombing. Now, a defense source tells CNN that senior marine leaders are facing some blame in a new military report. It says they failed to properly investigate the incident.
Now there is plenty of present-day violence to talk about, including a terrifying example of religious hatred. Gunmen killed at least 42 unarmed Sunnis today in a Baghdad neighborhood, including women and children. They dragged the victims from their cars or simply targeted them on the street.
Also in Baghdad today, two car bombs killed at least 19 people and wounded nearly 60. They went off at the same time at a market near a Shiite shrine.
So clearly, living in a state of fear, and wondering if they are going to be the next victims. That is what many Iraqis are going through right now. Here is our senior international correspondent Nic Robertson with a report you will only see on CNN.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): By night, bodies are pulled from the Tigris River in Baghdad. Most have their hands bound and have been shot execution style, in the head. In the safety of daylight, Mohamed Jasir Mohamend (ph) searches for two brothers missing for 22 days. Two other relatives have already washed up here. He is a Shia and blames Sunnis for their killings. He is close to tears. "What do we do," he says. "Just wait here to get the bodies and then give them a proper burial."
Across Baghdad, helplessness in the face of fear is pervasive. A spate of sectarian violence over the weekend resulting in more than 70 brutal killings is only the latest in months of Sunni on Shia and Shia on Sunni violence since the attack on an important Shia shrine in February.
ASHRAF JEHANGIR QAZI, U.N. SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE: Issues have now come to almost defying the political process an that's an extremely dangerous development. There has been a low-grade ethnic cleansing.
ROBERTSON: The U.N. says at least 150,000 people have fled their homes. But millions more are living in fear. This Baghdad/Sunni who wants his identity hidden is so afraid of random sectarian attack, even at home, he is selling his house and plans to leave Iraq.
"They target scientists, intellectuals, people with money, Sunnis, Shias, whatever is written on your I.D., you're a target," he says. "Who targets who is not known, but it's fear of the unknown that destroys you," he adds.
Some people are so afraid they've stopped venturing beyond their sectarian enclaves. Shia Hadzuber's (ph) car parts store is 15 minutes walk through his own neighborhood from his house. Even then, he says, he prays before going out to work.
"Inside my shop I'm not safe," he says. "I get worried when someone comes in. Are they coming to buy something or kill me?"
Once a confluence of cultures, Baghdad is turning into sectarian islands of fear.
(on camera): In an indication of just how bad fears have become, one international official told me of reports among his staff that a 15-year-old girl had been beheaded and a dog's head sewn on her body in its place, and the young child who had had his hands drilled and bolted together before being killed. Whether or not the reports are accurate, the staff took them as fact. It seems in this climate of fear, no act is so barbaric it can't be believed. Nic Robertson, CNN, Baghdad.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LIN: And new problems in Iraq, new pressure on President Bush. But the president still says he has no regrets about going to war. He and the first lady spoke to Larry King exclusively in this interview.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LARRY KING, CNN HOST: So there is no doubt if you had to do it all over again, knowing that WMDs weren't there, you'd still go in.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Yes. See, this is a -- we removed a tyrant who was an enemy of the United States who harbored terrorists and who had the capacity at the very minimum to make weapons of mass destruction. And he was a true threat. And, yes, I'd have done the same thing.
KING: You fear another 9/11?
BUSH: Do I? Yes, I do, I do.
KING: You think we're safe?
BUSH: I think we're safer, but I'm worried about an enemy that wants to hit us again. I'm comforted by fact there is a lot of people working hard on the issue.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LIN: You can see Larry's entire exclusive interview with the president and the first lady tonight at 9:00 Eastern only on CNN.
All right, one of those issues, tracking terrorists. But terrorists in cyberspace. In about 20 minutes, I'm going to be talking to a leading intelligence analyst about the jihad online.
Pressure is building against North Korea. The big question is will the U.N. Security Council vote for sanctions. Now not only did the North Korea's recent missile test fail, it raised the ire of the United States and other powerful nations. As Kathleen Koch reports, North Koreans ally -- North Korea's ally China is starting to catch some heat as well.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): U.S. officials agree the road to resolving the North Korea nuclear standoff runs through Beijing. China provides food, energy and more to its neighbor.
NICHOLAS BURNS, UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE: We hope very much that the Chinese government, which has some influence in Pyongyang, will now use that influence and exert some pressure on the North Korean regime to get it to come back to the six-party talks and end these missile tests that have been so disruptive and, frankly, so irresponsible over the past week.
KOCH: If China doesn't up the pressure on North Korea, two Republican lawmakers say it could pay a price.
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: There are consequences in our relationship. There are many key areas that we are cooperating on that I believe would be affected, including trade, by China's failure to act.
SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: The Chinese are hanging by a thread politically with the Congress now over trade policy. If they don't really come to the table harder with North Korea, they're going to be hanging by a thread in terms of international diplomatic policy.
KOCH: Japan has proposed a United Nations resolution imposing sanctions on North Korea. U.S. envoy Christopher Hill is making the rounds of East Asian capitals, rallying support. The U.S. still rejects one-on-one talks with North Korea, but some Democrats, including a former special envoy to Pyongyang, say it's time for a new game plan.
GOV. BILL RICHARDSON (D), NEW MEXICO: Our current policy is not working. They have increased their supply of enriched plutonium. They have more nuclear weapons. They have missiles.
Face-to-face direct talks, getting North Korea to dismantle their nuclear arsenal, I believe, is the best way to go.
KOCH: A Republican who once supported such face-to-face meetings insists that after the missile tests it's now too late.
SEN. RICHARD LUGAR (R), INDIANA: I think, unfortunately, the shots eliminated the efficacy of that.
KOCH (on camera): Much at stake today as the United States waits to hear whether or not a Chinese mission to North Korea has had any success. For now it appears that Japan will continue pushing for a resolution in the United Nations. A strongly-worded one that would impose sanctions on North Korea for those missile tests last week. The United States, Great Britain and France support sanctions, while Russia and China oppose them.
The U.S. envoy Christopher Hill has been making the rounds of east Asian capitals trying to rally support, rally a united front. The U.S. insists it does have the votes to pass a U.N. resolution, but there is concern that if it passes with Russia and China abstaining, it could have less impact on North Korea. Kathleen Koch, CNN, the White House.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LIN: Tonight get a rare look at the brutal way of life in North Korea. Don't miss "CNN PRESENTS: Undercover in the Secret State," tonight at 8:00 Eastern.
Survivors found in the rubble of a horrific plane crash. Details at 15 after.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There was a man floating down the river.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All of a sudden he just popped underneath the water.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LIN: Swept away, we're going to show you this dramatic river rescue.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Homemade ravioli. Ravioli, meat or cheese.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LIN: And in 40 minutes, seeing, or in this case, hearing, is believing. New technology turns text into audio for the blind. You're watching CNN, the most trusted name in news.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LIN: A fiery plane crash killed 124 people in Siberia today. The plane was trying to land when it skidded off a rain-slicked runway and smashed into a concrete barrier. Matthew Chance has this story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Recorded on amateur video, the fiery aftermath of Russia's latest air catastrophe. The ill-fated Airbus A-310 aircraft was carrying more than 200 people from Moscow to Irkutsk. Many of the passengers were children on a school trip.
Emergency workers were quick on the scene and described the chaos.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): We saw the plane burning. Petrol tanks were exploding. The plane crashed into private garages and damaged them. Something was exploding in the garages. It must have been petrol. The plane itself was on fire. A lot of people with burns were running around, but we concentrated on those lying on the ground.
CHANCE: It seems to have been an uneventful flight until the aircraft touched down in Irkutsk, five time zones from Moscow. On the runway, the Siberian Airlines aircraft failed to stop, overshooting the tarmac, plowing into a concrete fence and a building at a terrific speed before bursting into flames. Incredibly, dozens survived the inferno, including six children and three crewmembers. Most are now hospitalized with severe burns.
A few passengers like Margarita Svetlova (ph) were able to throw themselves from the aircraft and escape the horror. "I was so scared," she says, "I heard the people screaming and saw how they burned, so I just ran and jumped out."
Siberian Airlines has a relatively good reputation in Russia but it's had more than its fair share of tragedies, too. In 2001, one of its airliners was accidentally shot down by a missile over Ukraine, killing all 78 on board. Three years later, in 2004, another Sibir aircraft was blown up by a suspected Chechen suicide bomber.
Investigators in the latest crash say the black box flight recorders have already been retrieved and they soon hope to know what caused the catastrophe this time.
Matthew Chance, CNN, Moscow.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LIN: NASA says the shuttle Discovery is safe to fly home. Astronauts spotted fabric filler sticking out of Discovery's heat shield during yesterday's space walk. NASA decided a space walk was not necessary to remove that fabric. Astronaut Michael Fossum says it's been a great trip.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAEL FOSSUM, ASTRONAUT (voice-over): I certainly am pumped up. I went through, commented that yesterday was kind of like a dream, nobody pinch me, I don't want to wake up.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LIN: The crew's next space walk begins at just after 8:00 a.m. tomorrow. Astronauts will finish repairs on the International Space Station and can you watch the space walk right here on CNN's "AMERICAN MORNING."
Dramatic rescue video from New Mexico. A 15-year-old was swept away in a rain-swollen gully by a raging current. Sasha Andrade with affiliate KOAT takes us through these tense moments.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There was a man floating down the river.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All of a sudden he just popped underneath the water.
SASHA ANDRADE, KOAT REPORTER (voice-over): Witnesses say it was all happening so fast, a 15-year-old boy dragged along the arroyo by raging waters. This is video you'll only see on seven, rescue workers spot the boy and think they'll be able to rescue him, but then.
EDDIE GUTIERREZ, RESCUE WORKER: The two meet right here, there's a certain point in the middle there where he went underwater.
ANDRADE: Here is that moment captured on camera. He slips under the water and doesn't come back up. Crews work frantically to find him, hoping that all is not lost. All eyes remain on the rapid water, searching for a glimpse of the victim.
GUTIERREZ: That's where he popped out close to me. We threw a rope in front of him, and luckily he was able to grab it from there.
ANDRADE: After that intense moment, the 15-year-old is pulled out of the arroyo and into safety. Amazingly, he's going to be OK. Some might call his rescuer a hero, but he says it was all in the line of duty.
GUTIERREZ: It's just doing our job, you know. Anybody else in another station would have done it.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LIN: It's just amazing. All right, the power of the Internet may have made your life more convenient, but are you less safe? In 10 minutes, how terrorists are turning the Internet into a training camp without borders.
And next.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Person to person along a secret underground network. Powerful evidence of public executions under the regime of Kim Jong-il.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LIN: A rare look inside the secretive world of North Korea.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LIN: So what is it really like living in Kim Jong-il's North Korea? Well watch "Undercover in the Secret State," a "CNN PRESENTS" special tonight at 8:00 p.m. Eastern. It includes secretly shot footage that had to be smuggled out of the country.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) FRANK SESNO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): North Korea, March 2005, a crowd has been ordered to gather in an open field. A party official makes an announcement. Children have been brought to watch.
UNIDENTIFIED CHILD (through translator): Mom. I want to go.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Just hold on, and let's watch them go.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): It looks scary.
SESNO: The sentence is about to be passed.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): All the workers who came here today and the inhabitants of the nearby village are about to learn the punishment for these crimes.
SESNO: Three men are about to die.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): How stupid these criminals are. Kim Jong Il is great in comparison to these worthless criminals.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): Carry out the death sentence immediately!
SESNO: These people have committed the crime most damaging to North Korea's leader, Kim Jong Il, they made contact with the outside world.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): They have been involved in the illegal act of aiding people to defect the country. They trafficked women across the border to China. We have to protect North Korea from the outside influence and build up a strong guard to keep these influences out .
SESNO: Three policemen step forward and raise their rifles. On the left, a prisoner is tied to a poll.
(GUNSHOTS)
SESNO: The next day, a different town, another public execution for the same crimes, helping people escape to the outside world.
(GUNSHOTS)
SESNO: The man with the secret camera walks into a vacant building and talks to his audience.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): I witnessed soldiers executing people by firing squad. They were accused of human trafficking offenses. Men, women, and children came to watch.
SESNO: This video was passed from person to person along a secret underground network, powerful evidence of public executions under the regime of Kim Jong Il. (END VIDEOTAPE)
LIN: That's just one part of "Undercover in the Secret State." Don't miss a special airing tonight at 8:00 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They were chased and hunted like animals across the entirety of Sudan.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LIN: It was a death march for thousands, but some survived. Coming up in 20 minutes, I'm going to talk to a pair of survivors about their lives then and now. And the future is now for the visually impaired. Find out how this new device is opening up a whole new world for them. And then, how the Internet is making it easier for terrorists to plan attacks and train recruits. That story is coming up in three minutes.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
