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American Morning
U.S. Soldiers Charged; North Korea Threat; 'Political Hot Topics'
Aired July 10, 2006 - 06:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Happening this morning, Japan weighing its options following North Korea's missile tests. It says it is considering a preemptive strike as a possible form of self- defense.
New information in that alleged terror plot to attack New York City tunnels. Investigators in Lebanon say they found evidence on one suspect's computer. They say it includes maps and plans for a bombing.
And closing arguments starting today in the trial of Saddam Hussein. Only one of Hussein's co-defendants is at the proceedings. Saddam, his main lawyers and six other co-defendants are absent. Unclear why.
Good morning to you. I'm Miles O'Brien.
MELISSA LONG, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning. I'm Melissa Long, in for Soledad. She's back tomorrow after a well-deserved vacation.
O'BRIEN: She's back from -- she's enjoyed her vacation.
Good to have you with us.
LONG: Nice to be here.
O'BRIEN: You're normally seen on Pipeline, which is a fantastic product.
Just check that out.
LONG: Great service. I know. Thank you for all the suggestions for everybody to go to Pipeline.
O'BRIEN: Just check out Pipeline.
LONG: CNN.com/pipeline.
O'BRIEN: There you go.
The Pentagon is moving ahead in the suspected rape and killing of an Iraqi girl and her family. Five American soldiers have now been charged in connection with the case, and a discharged soldier who is charged in a civilian court as well.
CNN's Tara Mergener live now in Washington with more -- Tara. TARA MERGENER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning, Miles.
The military has not named the newly accused. We do know there are more charges in this rape and murder probe.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MERGENER (voice over): This morning, four more American soldiers are charged with participating in the rape and murder of a young Iraqi women and killing her family. A fifth soldier is accused of dereliction of duty for not reporting the crime.
NICHOLAS BURNS, UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE: We're very disturbed by the reports that we've seen as well, and we don't have a complete picture because these events are unfolding as we speak.
MERGENER: The victims lived near a checkpoint the soldiers were manning in Mahmoudiya. Former private Steven D. Green was charged last week in a U.S. civilian court with rape and murder. Prosecutors say three of the others now charged accompanied Green into the house, while another monitored the radio during the attack.
AYDA AL-SHARIF, MEMBER OF IRAQI PARLIAMENT (through translator): If that this act had taken place in another country, the world would have turned upside down. The announcements are not enough.
MERGENER: There is conflicting information about the young girl's age, but the mayor of Mahmoudiya tells CNN she was 14. Soldiers told investigators Green and his companions shot and killed the family, including a 5-year-old girl, raped the teenager, shot and killed her, then set the house on fire.
SEN. CHRISTOPHER DODD (D), CONNECTICUT: I'm saddened by it on the one hand, obviously, but also pleased to see that people are pursuing these matters and not allowing them to sweep them under the carpet.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MERGENER: And Green remains behind bars in Kentucky. The others are still on base in Iraq, stripped of their weapons and under close supervision.
Live in Washington this morning, I'm Tara Mergener.
Miles, back to you.
O'BRIEN: Thank you very much Tara -- Melissa.
LONG: Chinese diplomats are in Pyongyang today, urging North Korea to back off testing any more missiles. That comes as the United Nations Security Council reconvenes to consider sanctions against Pyongyang and as a U.S. diplomat talks with Japanese officials.
CNN's Kathleen Koch is live -- actually, not live, has this taped report from the White House. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: 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.
Now, U.S. envoy Christopher Hill has been making the rounds of East Asian capitals, trying to rally support, rally a united front. Now, 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)
O'BRIEN: Happening "In America," two California college students under arrest and as many as eight others could be charged in the gang rape of an 11-year-old girl. Fresno police say the victim assaulted by as many as 10 men on Saturday night. They say most or all of them are football players at two local colleges.
The issue of same-sex marriage before the California courts again. A San Francisco judge decide last year that the state discriminated against gay and lesbian couples. Two groups against same-sex marriage are trying to have that ruling overturned.
Central Florida now. Jury selection begins today in the trial of John Couey. He is accused of kidnapping, raping and killing 9-year- old Jessica Lunsford. The judge has ruled that Couey's history as a sex offender cannot be used against him in his trial.
A bumpy roller coaster ride at an amusement park outside Cincinnati sent dozens to the hospital. At least 27 people complained of minor chest and neck injuries after riding the Son of Beast at Paramount's Kings Island. One passenger said it was a jolting experience.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It just seemed like every turn it seemed like you were going to fall off. Everybody got scared and panicked real bad like it was missing the track or something. You know how -- you know how the ride is supposed to go -- but it just went boom, and then it went back on track.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: The ride is closed until inspections can be completed.
In Pennsylvania, Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro had surgery Saturday to treat a potentially serious infection in the leg he shattered at the start of the Preakness. The trainer said the surgery was done to clean the site of the infection after the colt had developed discomfort and was running a consistent fever.
Real-life Curious George back home at the zoo in Roanoke, Virginia. The 20-pound snow monkey named Oops was found in someone's backyard about a mile from the zoo. Oops escaped from the zoo about a week ago. She'll now spend the next 30 days in solitary confinement -- no, no, in quarantine to make sure she didn't pick up anything from the outside world.
They're going to treat her just fine. Don't call.
Time for a check of the forecast now. Chad Myers at the CNN Center. We like to call him "Oops" some days, too.
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes. Yes, especially when it rains and I don't think about it.
O'BRIEN: Yes.
MYERS: Good morning, everybody.
We have some rain showers now across parts of Ontario here. They are getting very close to Cleveland. I can zoom into one more shot here. You can see kind of a stronger storm coming into the lake shore there.
Other than that, though, most of the weather is back out to the West. We did have some flooding around Pueblo as the storms came out of Colorado. They've now charged into Kansas. Here are some pictures around Pueblo.
All up and down I-25 it was a mess yesterday. But for a while, eight miles of this interstate was actually closed as water was running over the top. They do have it back open now, but not without a bunch of stuff all over it. So they're trying to get that cleaned up today.
As we just showed you earlier, some of the flooding there. And that one guy that was caught in the arroyo there in Albuquerque, part of the same system that made all the rain. It's still raining there in parts of New Mexico. There's the big storm through Albuquerque yesterday.
Now, let's move ahead to today. What are we expecting?
The rain showers across parts of Pennsylvania and even upstate New York, Buffalo seeing some showers now. They will charge into the Northeast from about New York City and Albany, Schenectady, right on down into D.C.
D.C., you may not get the showers, though, until late tomorrow, as it's going to take a little while for that front to get to you. But there's a front, 73 in Toronto, 89 today in D.C. The cold air is behind it.
If you're waking up in Boston, it will be 88 degrees today. Pleasant through the week. A couple showers tomorrow.
Same story for the city. Don't expect the showers to get to New York City today, but they certainly will be around tomorrow morning. It could be -- if you're not getting home till late, late tonight, you could see some showers in New York City.
Not so for D.C. That does take until tomorrow.
Chicago, 73 today. You're in the cold air, and then you warm back up to where you should be by Friday, back up to 90.
Back to you guys in New York.
O'BRIEN: All right. Thank you very much, Chad.
LONG: Thank you.
Still to come this morning, a major shift may be going on at the White House. We'll be talking about the end of cowboy diplomacy and if President Bush is dealing with the world in a whole new way.
O'BRIEN: Then we'll talk about former vice president Al Gore's new assignment at Wal-Mart. No, he's not a greeter.
LONG: And were you watching the World Cup nail-biter? Italy and France battling it out to the bitter end. We have a report from Germany coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: In Russia, investigators are tapping into the black boxes from that airliner that crashed over the weekend. A hundred and twenty-four died when an Airbus A-310 overran a slick runway.
And that tops our stories CNN correspondents all around the world are covering today.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RYAN CHILCOTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Ryan Chilcote in Irkutsk, Russia, where a Siberian airliner crashed over the weekend.
What you see behind me is a row of garages. And at the end of that row of garages, an Airbus A-310, or at least what remains of an Airbus A-310.
That airbus had just landed on a runway at the airport about 300 yards to my left. It immediately veered off that runway upon landing, and it nearly full-throttle crashed through a cement barricade until it hit these garages behind me, bursting into flames.
Officials say that miraculously just over 70 people survived that crash, although they say the death toll now stands at 124. They say, however, that that death toll still could rise. There still are search teams going through the wreckage.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning. I'm Atika Shubert in Tokyo.
And Japan is the last stop in Asia for U.S. envoy Christopher Hill. He's in town to talk about North Korea's missile launches. Japan, of course, is America's biggest ally in the region, and it is North Korea's harshest critic. Japan has proposed with the U.S. support for a U.N. Security Council resolution that would impose tough sanctions on North Korea.
Now, Mr. Hill has asked for North Korea's neighbors to speak in a united voice. However, both China and Russia, who both have veto powers in the Security Council, have opposed the plan.
In the meantime, North Korea has said that it would respond to sanctions possibly with more missile launches. Now a vote on that Security Council resolution could come as early as today.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: For more of these or any of our top stories, we invite to you head to our Web site, CNN.com -- Melissa.
LONG: The crimes are shocking: murders, rapes, robberies, and shootings. And police in Phoenix, Arizona, are on the hunt for three different serial criminals.
Coming up, we are live on the scene with the latest on the crime scene.
But first, could former congressman Tom DeLay be heading back to the House? There's word he could run for his old seat in Texas even though he now lives in Virginia.
The latest on this hot topic ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Does a 3,000- year-old spa in Italy hold the key to the fountain of youth? Dr. Nicholas Fortunati (ph) thinks so. He's the director of one of the many spas in Italy's Tuscany region that claim their warm sulfuric waters have anti-aging and healing properties.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You achieve a special sensation, a special feeling of well-being.
COSTELLO: He says the hydrogen sulfate is good for your heart and that you can drink the water to purify your liver. But some doctors are skeptical.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't think there's science or medical evidence or fact that the composition of the water does anything particularly healing for us, but I think the whole idea of a hot spring is not so much dipping your toes in a magical water and getting better, but I think it's the investment in yourself to come to a hot springs to be healthy.
COSTELLO: Dr. Drew (ph) recommends his patients use the Colorado Glenwood Hot Springs for swimming and exercise.
Carol Costello, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LONG: Good morning once again. Plenty of hot topics to share with you on the political radar this morning.
A change of strategy, it seems, at the White House, and Tom DeLay possibly heading back to the House.
John Mercurio is a senior editor at "The National Journal's Hot Line," and he joins us now live from Washington this morning.
Good morning, John. Thanks for your time.
JOHN MERCURIO, SR. EDITOR, "NATIONAL JOURNAL'S HOT LINE": Good morning, Melissa. Good to be here.
LONG: Let's bring everybody up to date. They were on vacation last week, perhaps, didn't have a chance to check in on the news.
North Korea fired a series of test missiles last week. Following that action, President Bush weighed in on Friday. Let's share a comment first, and then we'll get your comment.
This is President Bush last Friday in Chicago.
MERCURIO: Sure.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Now, the problem with diplomacy, it takes a while to get something done. You're acting alone, you can move quickly. When you're rallying world opinion and trying to, you know, come up with the right language at the United Nations to send a clear signal, it takes a while.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LONG: In that address last Friday, the president used the word "diplomacy" at last half a dozen times. And there's also a current "TIME" magazine cover story, "The End of Cowboy Diplomacy."
Couple those two.
MERCURIO: Yes.
LONG: What is your reaction?
MERCURIO: I think the sound bite you just played is extremely interesting.
What you're seeing is a president being sort of reluctantly forced into this new policy of his. This isn't president -- an administration that believes in a post-9/11 world the presidency should assume certain powers and should act in certain circumstances unilaterally and preemptively. But that's what they did in Iraqi, and that hasn't worked out so well.
They haven't had -- they haven't had the progress to show they haven't had the result. And so I think he's forced -- the Republicans, Democrats, critics are saying, look, we tried that. You now, with certain situations in North Korea and Iran, need to focus much more on building an international coalition.
That's not in Bush's nature, though, and that's something I think he's being dragged along to do. And you could -- you could hear it in the tone of what he said last week.
LONG: Let's shift gears a little bit, talk about former powerful Republican Tom DeLay. He stepped aside. There were indictments, actually physically moved to a new home state of Virginia.
How is it possible that he could be back on the ticket in Texas?
MERCURIO: Well, there's sort of -- there's a legal proceeding going on in Texas. There was a court last week that ruled in favor of Democrats who want to keep Tom DeLay on the ballot because they believe he's probably the weakest Republican who could run in that district.
Now, Republicans want to appeal that ruling. They're trying to actually get Tom DeLay, their sort of -- you know, the godfather of the Republican Party in Texas, they want to get him removed from the ballot so they can replace him with another Republican. It's a very Republican district, so anybody other than Tom DeLay is given a pretty good chance of winning.
I don't count Tom DeLay out, though. If he runs, I think it's going to be a very interesting race to watch. You know, he has national fund-raising ability, and he's an extremely aggressive campaigner, he loves a good fight. And I think, of course, if his name is left on the ballot because of this court decision, he's going to want to try to clear his name, or at least defend it.
LONG: And even though he's not a resident of the state of Texas, he can still be on the ballot?
MERCURIO: Well, I know, that's sort of the legal -- the legal -- the legal wrangling that's going on. He says that he moved to Virginia and that made him ineligible to run for re-election in Texas, but when reporters went to try to reach him last week to talk to him about this court ruling, he was still living in Sugarland, Texas, in the 22nd congressional district in Texas. He answered the front door at his house in Texas, which sort of begs the question, have you moved to Virginia, Congressman, or have you -- are you still down there? So...
LONG: Right. John, before we wrap up, looking ahead, what's the inside scoop? What's the hot political story we should keep an eye out for this week?
MERCURIO: I think there's going to be a pretty significant debate in Washington over the president's decision on his way to Russia later this week for the G8 summit to enter into a negotiation with Russia to allow them to store nuclear waste. This is something that the president has resisted for a long time, and there are critics across the ideological spectrum, from anti-Russia conservatives, to environmental Democrats and liberals, who are going to be questioning his decision to do that sort of in the broader scope of the North Korean crisis.
LONG: And of course we'll be covering the summit in great detail this week.
John Mercurio, senior editor of "The National Journal's Hot line."
Thank you.
MERCURIO: Thank you.
O'BRIEN: Look who's dropped by for another week of great business news. Andy Serwer.
ANDY SERWER, EDITOR-AT-LARGE, "FORTUNE": I like that, Miles. Thank you very much.
Some business stories coming up.
Al Gore goes to Wal-Mart, and he's not looking for a new grill. We'll tell you what the former VP is up to with the giant retailer.
Plus, batten down the hatches. "Hooked On Phonics" is back -- Miles.
O'BRIEN: Oh, my goodness. I've missed those commercials so much.
SERWER: I know you did, yes.
O'BRIEN: Thank you, Andy.
SERWER: You're welcome.
O'BRIEN: Also ahead, you're going to meet some happy campers who have every right to be anything but. We'll take to you a special place where some Katrina kids are doing what kids should be doing over the summer.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LONG: "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" sailed straight to the top of the box office heap over the weekend. The Disney adventure sequel had the most successful movie opening in Hollywood history, with an estimated $132 million in treasures over the three days.
Coming in a distant second was "Superman Returns," with about $22 million.
"The Devil Wears Prada" -- saw that over the weekend -- "Click" and "Cars" rounding out the top five.
Now, "Pirates" plundered the previous three-day record of nearly $115 million. That was set by "Spider-Man" back in '02.
And later in today's "AM Pop" we will speak with a man who calls himself a certified pirate fanatic to find out why we're so fascinated with these swashbuckling buccaneers.
O'BRIEN: That's hard to say.
Certified pirate fanatics?
SERWER: Certified is right.
O'BRIEN: Yes.
LONG: What certifies you in that category?
O'BRIEN: I don't know.
SERWER: Certifiable.
O'BRIEN: Among those certifiable, Andy Serwer.
SERWER: Yes. You're not going to do the pirate -- Melissa, you've created a monster here.
LONG: I'm sorry.
SERWER: You're going to have the pirate alphabet all morning with Miles, I'm afraid.
O'BRIEN: Good morning, Andy.
SERWER: Good morning, Miles.
Some business news to talk about.
Starting off here, kind of a strange bedfellow story. We're talking about former vice president Al Gore and Wal-Mart, a company known for, well, I guess you could say conservative political views. Al Gore has been invited by Wal-Mart to come to company headquarters next week to speak to its top executives about the environment and environmentalism. And, of course, it all ties in with vice president -- the former vice president's film "An Inconvenient Truth."
Wal-Mart has been on a bit of an environmental kick lately. CEO Lee Scott has been looking to reduce emissions, cut energy use and waste, and sell more environmentally-friendly products. And so perhaps the former VP will be looking to reinforce those notions.
O'BRIEN: Interesting bedfellows, you might say.
SERWER: I think that's right. I think you could say that.
O'BRIEN: Yes, you could.
SERWER: Now, let's talk about "Hooked On Phonics".
You know, there are a lot of learning games out there these days, "Leap Frog," "Leap Pad," "Dora the Explorer," educational toys. Whatever happened to ""Hooked On Phonics""?
Well, they were founded years and years ago, but their style of learning fell out of favor. That was number one.
O'BRIEN: It did.
SERWER: The comprehension learning versus the sound learning, then those infomercials drove everyone crazy.
O'BRIEN: Yes, people were insane. They had to go.
SERWER: Then they had a problem with the FTC. They settled with them on charges they made unsubstantiated claims about being able to teach children to read who had learning disabilities. Then they went bankrupt in 1995.
So you can see they had a whole lot of problems.
Now they're coming back, apparently, and they're being sold in Wal-Marts and Targets and Barnes & Noble and Costco, as well. So interesting to see them making a bit of a comeback.
O'BRIEN: There's always a second act in America, isn't there?
SERWER: Especially for ""Hooked On Phonics"."
O'BRIEN: For "Hooked On Phonics."
SERWER: Even for, yes.
O'BRIEN: All right, Andy Serwer. Thank you.
SERWER: You're welcome.
O'BRIEN: Let's get a check of the forecast now. Chad Myers with that.
Hello, Chad.
MYERS: And good morning.
Hot across the Southwest today. Storms across the central plains -- already there. And a few airport delays expected later today.
The storms now are about Buffalo to Cleveland, but they will kind of charge into central and western Pennsylvania, western New York, and then even into the big cities. But that shouldn't happen until later on today.
But when you get storms in the flight path of big planes trying to go east to west, or vice versa, you sometimes have to fly those planes around those storms and so, therefore, you slow down airports. We'll talk about that a little bit later.
The next hour of AMERICAN MORNING starts right now.
O'BRIEN: Thank you, Chad.
More U.S. soldiers face serious charges for an alleged attack in Iraq. They're charged in connection with the rape and murder of an Iraqi woman and the killing of her entire family.
LONG: The top U.S. envoy for Asia is in Japan this morning, still discussing what can be done about North Korea's missile tests.
O'BRIEN: Deadly plane crash in Siberia, more than 120 killed when the plane burst into flames on the ground.
LONG: A crime wave in Phoenix has police now looking for a possible serial criminal.
O'BRIEN: And a teen carried away by floodwaters, but rescuers are able to grab him just before it's too late.
That's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
Good morning to you. I'm Miles O'Brien.
LONG: And good morning. I'm Melissa Long, in today for Soledad.
O'BRIEN: In Iraq, escalating tit-for-tat sectarian violence. A car bombing in a Shiite neighborhood of Baghdad today killing five. And police investigating militia fighting outside a Sunni mosque today as well.
Both incidents following the slaughter of more than 40 unarmed Sunnis in western Baghdad yesterday. The victims dragged from their homes and killed in the street.
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