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American Morning

Revenge Killings in Iraq?; Escaping North Korea; Military Leaders Criticized

Aired July 11, 2006 - 06:29   ET

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

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Happening this morning, sectarian violence to tell you about in Baghdad. At least five people are dead after a car bombing near the city's heavily fortified Green Zone. About an hour earlier, gunmen killed all 10 people on a bus that was carrying a coffin in Najaf for burial.
The Pentagon is condemning a new videotape on the Internet. It supposedly shows two U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq. The tape also includes a previously recorded message from Osama bin Laden.

CNN is working to authenticate this tape.

And Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is visiting Afghanistan, meeting with President Hamid Karzai.

Good morning. Welcome back, everybody. I'm Soledad O'Brien.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Miles O'Brien. Good to have you with us on this Tuesday morning.

In Afghanistan, the violence continues as U.S.-led forces take aim on Taliban strongholds in the south. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is vowing the Taliban will be defeated. This in the midst of an unannounced visit to that country today. Rumsfeld meeting with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, as well as U.S. and NATO commanders.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD RUMSFELD, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: Well, I think if you look at the number of terrorists and Taliban and al Qaeda that are being killed every month, it would be hard for them to say that the coalition forces and the Afghan security forces were losing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: At the same time, U.S. and coalition forces raided a village in southern Afghanistan, killing as many as 30 insurgents.

In Iraq, more sectarian killings. In Baghdad today, gunmen ambushed a bus passing through a Sunni neighborhood. The bus carrying Shiites to a funeral. Ten killed there.

Another dead in a second bus attack today. And five others killed by a car bomb outside a police station in the so-called Green Zone. Iraqi insurgents say they killed and mutilated two American soldiers out of revenge. Today the U.S. military is condemning an insurgent video that appears to show the bodies of the two men. The video says the killings last month were in revenge for the alleged rape and murder of a young girl in Mahmoudiya in March.

CNN's Nic Robertson live now in Baghdad with more -- Nic.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Miles, the videotape is almost five minutes long. It's very brutal, very hard to watch. It is topped by a statement from al Qaeda saying that it is showing the bodies of the two kidnapped Americans. There is no confirmation yet this is true.

The video goes on to show Osama bin Laden and his last audio message saying that what makes Muslims happy is attacks on Americans. Then the gruesome video of the two soldiers, what appears to be the two soldiers, begins.

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, his last statement is put on the tape, too, urging people to attack Americans. The message, though, very clear that this was an attack in revenge by al Qaeda against soldiers from the same brigade as those that committed or alleged to have committed the rape against the young Iraqi woman back in March earlier this year.

There is no way to verify that that's true. It has all the hallmarks of opportunistic insurgent propaganda -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Certainly propaganda by any stretch, Nic, but is there any way to date the video and get a sense if this truly is some sort of reprisal?

ROBERTSON: There seems to be no doubt when you look at this video that it is two American soldiers who have been killed, and they're dead. There's no doubt about that.

It has not been verified yet who these soldiers are. It seems very likely they were the two soldiers that were kidnapped.

Beyond that, it's very hard to say if these claims that it was done in revenge are true. If you look at the timeline, the timeline is such that the kidnapping occurred before it was announced publicly about the alleged rape of Abir Ajunabi (ph) in March in the town of Mahmoudiya.

The video itself is very shaky, it's not indicative of material we've seen from al Qaeda before which has been very professionally shot, if you think of the most recent video of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi before he was killed. Verification of what's claimed here is very, very difficult to do -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: And just a quick thought here. The kidnapping occurred before the alleged rape and murder, but it might have been -- or, excuse me, that it became known in the news. It might have been known in the street though, correct? ROBERTSON: It is absolutely possible that it was known in the street, that the family, possibly the extended family, because the girl's parents were killed as well, may have talked about this, may have informed insurgent groups. It's entirely possible. We don't know -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: All right. Nic Robertson in Baghdad.

Thank you very much -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Diplomatic efforts to get North Korea to stop testing missiles are centered today in Beijing. U.S. envoy Christopher Hill is talking with Chinese diplomats who are encouraging Pyongyang to halt their tests.

CNN's Dan Rivers is in Beijing with details this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAN RIVERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the shuffled diplomacy is continuing a pace here in Asia. The State Department's envoy, Christopher Hill, has just made an unscheduled stop in Beijing. He's been talking to Chinese diplomats, trying to find a compromise in this nuclear crisis.

This is what he had to say as he arrived at Beijing airport.

CHRISTOPHER HILL, U.S. ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF STATE: Obviously, we are in a rather crucial period. We -- there was, I think, a very important decision to postpone the actual vote on the resolution because the Chinese government had an important diplomatic mission going on. So we want to be in post consultation with the Chinese government. That's why I'm here.

RIVERS: He also said that China had asked for a delay in that crucial U.N. Security Council vote. They are hoping to broker some sort of deal with North Korea, but at the moment, any sort of compromise looks a long way off.

Dan Rivers, CNN, Beijing.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

S. O'BRIEN: North Korea, of course, is a closed and very secret country. Since 2004, in fact, only six North Korean refugees have made it to America.

In a story that you'll only see on CNN, Jason Carroll speaks to four of them. CNN will not reveal their faces to protect them and their families back home in North Korea.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): In other countries, criminals are people who commit murder, people who steal. But in North Korea, the criminals are people who are hungry and left the country, or people who sought freedom and left the country.

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Joe (ph) is 31. Like these other refugees, at one point he escaped North Korea into China but was caught, repatriated and tortured in a place in the north he calls the prison of nightmares.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): There is a stick that thick and that large, and they will place that between your calves and your thighs and make you kneel down that way. They will bind with rope your legs together. After that, I couldn't walk for two days because my legs were so numb and I thought I was paralyzed.

CARROLL: Joe's (ph) sister, Chan Mi (ph), is 20. She says many in her country risk leaving, rather than face starvation.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): I would go to the mountains and strip the bark off trees and boil that and eat it.

CARROLL: They all feel guilty for having to leave loved ones behind. They also feel hatred toward their former leader, Kim Jong- il.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): If he would have taken the money he used to build one missile and given it to his people, they would have so much to eat. Even if I just think of Kim Jong-il, I want to carry a bomb and ignite it when I'm near him.

CARROLL: Jason Carroll, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

S. O'BRIEN: Jason's full report can be seen tonight on "PAULA ZAHN NOW" at 8:00 p.m. Eastern -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Happening "In America," Louisiana officials slamming a hurricane report by the Bush administration. Guidelines in the report supposed to protect people from big storms, but state officials say the report leaves out some important projects that would make improvements to the levee, floodgate and canal systems.

Prospective jurors in central Florida will face questioning today once again in the John Couey case. The 47-year-old convicted sex offender accused of kidnapping, raping and killing 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford in March of 2005. Most prospective jurors questioned Monday said they didn't know many details surrounding the case.

A Southwest Airlines first officer accused of being intoxicated minutes before takeoff facing federal charges this morning. Forty- one-year-old Carl Fulton (ph) appeared Monday in a U.S. district court in Salt Lake City. He did not enter a plea. If convicted, Fulton (ph) could face up to 15 years in prison.

People in the northeast part of Ohio today cleaning up from a round of severe storms. Up to seven inches of rain pounded an area outside Cleveland on Monday, causing flooding and emergency evacuations. No one injured. And in Colorado, it looked a little more like winter than July. Storms brought heavy hail to the southern part of the state Monday, but officials say all the wet weather isn't enough to make up for Colorado's lingering drought.

S. O'BRIEN: I was there during this weather. It was cold and miserable in Boulder and in Denver when, you know, usually it's really, really hot this time of year.

M. O'BRIEN: Was it hail the size of basketballs?

S. O'BRIEN: I didn't get hit by anything, but I tell you, I'm not surprised about basketballs.

M. O'BRIEN: Chad is the one that's out there. Was it basketballs, was it golf balls? What was it, Chad?

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: That was probably just little pea size, little gravel size.

M. O'BRIEN: Pea hail.

MYERS: I'll tell you, though. I have been there in August. I got engaged there in August, and the night that I got engaged was August 8th or 9th, whatever it was, I don't even know. I shouldn't say that.

M. O'BRIEN: You should know that date, my friend. You better know that date!

MYERS: It actually was sleeting. It was sleeting that day.

M. O'BRIEN: Not an omen at all.

MYERS: No.

M. O'BRIEN: Not at all.

MYERS: It wasn't hail. It was literally -- it was cold enough. It was 32 degrees there in August. So anything could happen in Colorado this time of year.

(WEATHER REPORT)

MYERS: Back to you, Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: And you remember when you got engaged, right?

MYERS: It was August 19th.

S. O'BRIEN: All right. Good work.

MYERS: I got a phone call reminding me.

S. O'BRIEN: Oh, man.

Anyway, thank you, Chad.

Aging and driving. When is somebody too old to safely be behind the wheel? CNN's Brianna Keeler has a preview of a story that she's working on for us in the next hour.

Good morning.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.

That's right, how big of a risk are elderly drivers? This past weekend we saw a man in New London, Connecticut, lose control of his car and plow into a crowd. Twenty-seven people were injured. The man is in his 80s, begging the question, was age a factor?

I went to someone who knows firsthand.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The speed limit up here is 15 miles per hour.

KEILAR: Do you really go 15 miles per hour around here?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Personally?

KEILAR: Personally.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Not for publication, no. Yes, if there are...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: That was a 94-year-old who teaches other elderly drivers how to stay safe on the road. And we'll hear more from him in the next hour -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Ninety-four years old and he's still on the road?

KEILAR: He is so sharp. He is so sharp it's amazing.

S. O'BRIEN: But at some point, you're 94. Even if you're sharp and you're mentally with it, there's got to be a reaction...

M. O'BRIEN: Wait a minute. When you're 94, if you feel good and you can do the job, you should be able to drive.

S. O'BRIEN: But isn't there -- I mean, this is -- I know you're going to talk about this in our next hour.

KEILAR: Yes.

S. O'BRIEN: But, you know, at some point, don't you -- just reaction time. You're just slower reaction time.

M. O'BRIEN: If they fail all the tests it's one thing. It shouldn't just be measured by your chronological age.

S. O'BRIEN: How do you figure out?

KEILAR: Well, he's going to tell us exactly how we figure it out.

M. O'BRIEN: Yes.

KEILAR: So we'll find out coming up next hour.

S. O'BRIEN: Well, clearly, this is something we're going to talk about it.

KEILAR: Definitely.

S. O'BRIEN: Brianna, thanks. Looking forward to that.

M. O'BRIEN: Stirred up a tempest (INAUDIBLE) have we?

All right.

Still to come on the program, the top commander in Iraq has gotten the first of a couple of reports of the deaths of those civilians in Haditha last year at the hands of Marines. The question is, how far up the chain of command should this investigation go?

S. O'BRIEN: Then Russia says its most wanted man is dead, the mastermind they claim behind some of Russia's most deadly terror attacks.

We'll update you on that story coming up.

M. O'BRIEN: And later on the program, Revlon tries to put a pretty face on its quarterly earnings and forecasts. And we're not making this up. You know what I mean?

Stay with us.

S. O'BRIEN: Oh, I get it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: Here's a look now at stories that CNN correspondents around the world are covering today.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN VAUSE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm John Vause, reporting from Jerusalem. The Israeli military offensive in Gaza has been ongoing now for almost two weeks. According to the Red Crescent, 66 Palestinians have been killed so far, many of them militants, but women and children are also among the dead.

Israel says it has two objectives, to try and free a kidnapped Israeli soldier and also to stop Palestinian militants firing rockets from Gaza into southern Israel. Right now, neither side looks ready to back down. The militant group Hamas says the Israeli soldier is a prisoner of war and will only be freed in exchange for Palestinian prisoners. But the Israeli prime minister says there will be no negotiations with Hamas. There will be no deals.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROBERTSON: Hello. I'm Nic Robertson in Baghdad.

The trial of Saddam Hussein has been delayed for another two weeks. Over the past two days, defense lawyers for the four lower defendants have presented their case for the defense. But, during that time, Saddam Hussein and the other top defendants' lawyers have boycotted the court. The judge has now ruled an extra two weeks for court-appointed lawyers to prepare their defense cases for Saddam Hussein and his co-defendants.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm Matthew Chance in Moscow.

Russian authorities are praising their country's security services for a job well done a day after the country's most wanted terrorist was announced dead. Russian officials say Shamil Basayev, responsible for masterminding some of the worst atrocities against Russian civilians in recent years, including the Beslan school siege, was killed in a special operation by Russian agents. They denied his death was an accident, as claimed by the rebels.

Whatever the truth, the passing of Basayev marks a significant victory for the Kremlin in its fight against terrorism.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

S. O'BRIEN: For more on these stories or any of our top stories, you can go right to our Web site, CNN.com -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Still to come on AMERICAN MORNING, overnight violence in Iraq to tell you about, including a deadly car bomb near a heavily fortified portion of the Green Zone.

And -- but first, a new military report on the investigation into those killings at Haditha. We'll tell you what it says and what the Pentagon plans to do next.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: Happening this morning, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in Afghanistan, meeting with the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai. They meet amid rising Taliban violence, while NATO plans to take over military operations in the south.

Diplomats from China and North Korea talking today, trying to diffuse that North Korea missile crisis.

And in Boston, one woman is dead after part of a highway tunnel collapsed on her car. The tunnel is closed until engineers can figure out if it's safe.

S. O'BRIEN: The top commander in Iraq, General George Casey, is considering possible discipline for commanders in the Haditha incident. He's been given the first of two reports on the killings of 24 Iraqi civilians allegedly by Marines last November.

CNN's Jamie McIntyre has a view this morning from the Pentagon.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SR. PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: This administrative investigation is one of two into the deaths of 24 Iraqis at Haditha last year. This administrative review found a failure by Marine Corps officers to follow up on the conflicting reports of how the civilians died. A separate criminal probe is still looking into the claims of the villagers that the Marines went on a rampage after a roadside bomb killed one of their own Marines and then shot the civilians without justification.

The administrative report has already been forwarded to the top U.S. commander in Iraq, General George Casey, who will have to decide if some leaders are going to face some administrative punishment. The report finds specifically that the initial reporting of the Haditha incident was "untimely, inaccurate and incomplete," and that officers failed throughout the 2nd Marine Division to sufficiently and adequately investigate the reports of what happened. And they also missed red flags, including the payment of $38,000 in compensation to families of the victims, which should have been a tip-off that something happened at Haditha that wasn't right.

While the failure to follow up on the obvious inconsistencies may not rise to the level of a criminal offense, defense officials say it does show a failure of leadership, and that could, could mean some career-ending discipline for some of the officers involved.

Jamie McIntyre, CNN, the Pentagon.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

M. O'BRIEN: Up next on the program, Andy here.

Good morning, Andy.

ANDY SERWER, EDITOR-AT-LARGE, "FORTUNE": Good morning, Miles.

Cosmetics giant Revlon hit by a double whammy yesterday: punk earnings and a blown up building.

We'll explain coming up next on AMERICAN MORNING. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: All right. Cosmetics maker Revlon out with some not so good financial numbers, and Andy Serwer is here to tell us how they're going to put lipstick on the pig.

SERWER: Yes, something like that, Miles. Interesting day for Revlon, which is controlled by billionaire financier Ronald Perelman.

First, this happened -- both these events happened between 8:30 and 900 a.m. Eastern yesterday. First, the company announced a $95 million loss, saying that its Vital Radiance line, which is a makeup line for women 50 years of age and older, was doing poorly. Apparently, women 50 years and older don't need makeup, or they don't need that line of makeup, I should say.

This is something that happens in the world of business all the time, but something very unusual occurred just minutes later. And that was the bombshell of the building across the street from Ronald Perelman's headquarters at 32 East 62nd Street blowing up yesterday.

Of course, Perelman's headquarters is at 35 East 62nd Street. The windows were blown out of his townhouse. No one was hurt.

I called over there shortly after this happened and spoke to someone who answered the phone and said that they were OK. There's Ronald Perelman right there -- that everyone was OK, that no one was hurt, that Perelman wasn't hurt. And it's a very, very tony (ph) block if you know that block, and there are businesses. And Perelman is there with limousines and security, so this came as quite a shock.

M. O'BRIEN: He was there. He was at the office, as far as you know?

SERWER: No. No, I do not think he was there.

M. O'BRIEN: Oh, OK.

SERWER: But...

S. O'BRIEN: It's got to be terrifying.

SERWER: It's a terrifying thing. And, you know, with the windows all gone -- and obviously there were people who were hurt a lot more seriously than that. But interesting little tidbit there in terms of business. So...

S. O'BRIEN: Bad day.

M. O'BRIEN: A memorable day.

SERWER: Yes, indeed.

M. O'BRIEN: What's next? What do you have next?

SERWER: We're going to be talking about the new Treasury secretary, Hank Paulson, his first day. And also, the president is going to be speaking about the economy.

We'll be previewing that as well.

M. O'BRIEN: Thank you, Andy.

SERWER: You're welcome.

S. O'BRIEN: Let's get a check of the forecast in the meanwhile, 58 minutes past the hour. Chad's got that.

Hey, Chad.

MYERS: Good morning, Soledad.

Good morning, guys, up there.

(WEATHER REPORT)

MYERS: That's all I have for now.

The next hour of AMERICAN MORNING starts right now.

M. O'BRIEN: Thank you, Chad.

A gruesome new video from insurgents. They say they killed two U.S. soldiers in revenge.

S. O'BRIEN: Secretary of State Donald Rumsfeld on an unannounced trip to Afghanistan right now, even as a bloody surge of Taliban fighting continues.

And talks are ongoing between China and North Korea over those missile tests. A strongly worded U.N. resolution on hold, though, for now.

M. O'BRIEN: Part of a tunnel roof gives way overnight in Boston. One woman is dead, the interstate is shut down. The latest on the big dig.

Also, a building on the Upper East Side -- well, actually, that would be a picture of something else entirely.

S. O'BRIEN: That's the tunnel.

M. O'BRIEN: That would be the -- I think that's North Korea. I don't know what that is.

Good morning to you. We're glad you're with us this morning. Whatever the video may be, thanks for being with us on this Tuesday.

Good to have you back.

Welcome, everybody. I'm Soledad O'Brien.

Oh, thank you. You meant me, good to have you back.

M. O'BRIEN: I meant you, yes.

S. O'BRIEN: I thought you meant the viewers. It's nice to be back.

M. O'BRIEN: Well, it's good to have them there, too, and you here.

S. O'BRIEN: A head cold makes you a little slow in the morning.

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