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American Morning

Crisis in the Middle East: Evacuating Lebanon

Aired July 20, 2006 - 07:34   ET

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

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Miles, imagine, if you will, if your vacation suddenly turned into a way out of a war zone. And for many people, getting out also meant bringing with them their small children, children who are terrified and confused.
Here's a look this morning at what some parents faced.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

S. O'BRIEN (voice-over): Even in the dark, you could make out the anxious families on the Orient Queen in the windows comforting babies, or carrying their little ones in their arms off the ship or holding them tightly by hand. Marie and Sam Hamade and their two children were exhausted but happy to be out of Beirut.

SAM HAMADE, EVACUEE: We had a hard time explaining what a bombing was, because they were scared. We just wanted to leave. Elena, I guess, she was more scared than the little kid, because she didn't understand, but she was very scared and she was crying, like get me out of here.

S. O'BRIEN: Could you hear the bombs, Elana?

ELENA HAMADE: Yes.

S. O'BRIEN: Really? Did they sound loud? What did it sound like?

E. HAMADE: It sounded like fireworks, but louder.

S. O'BRIEN: And did you want to go right away, too?

E. HAMADE: Yes.

S. O'BRIEN (voice-over): They joined a long line of Americans waiting to be processed through customs, then settled with the help of the embassy. They were relieved to be safe, but many people said they were sad to leave.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Our heart goes out to our parents and family that we left behind, so.

S. O'BRIEN (on camera): That's got to be tough.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, it is tough.

S. O'BRIEN (voice-over): Inside the crowded port it was organized chaos, easily half the passengers were children. Some got sick from the heat in the crowds and the long trip.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They're all crammed in there and they're getting heat exhaustion, because you're crammed in these little corridors, and you can't move. You can't move. It was excellent until this time. We were treated very well. We had the luxury boat, you know, and we were treated very well, until now. They're not letting people out and they're jammed in there, and the kids are getting sick.

S. O'BRIEN: Some who'd seen the very worst were unsure of how to explain the horrors of war to their children.

ZAR YASSIN, EVACUEE: I've never seen so many charred bodies in my life. I've never seen, as a father, I saw a 7-year-old being carried, a poor soul of a 7-year-old without the bottom half. I saw a 3-year-old that was just charred and stiff. It was just devastating for me. I am a father; I have a child. This is unnecessary. This is uncalled for. There is no reason for this.

HANNAH SOUEID, EVACUEE: It's kind of scary because you could hear the bombs and you could also kind of feel it sometimes. So...

S. O'BRIEN (on camera): And what did you do? I mean, I can't imagine what I'd do if I started hearing or seeing bombs. What did you do to sort of, you know, comfort yourself?

SOUEID: Well, we all like stayed together so we wouldn't be scared or anything. We watched some movies and stuff, like just to comfort ourselves to make it not scary.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

S. O'BRIEN: Scary in and of itself was the number of children, who told us very matter of factly how as they would try to fall asleep at night, they could hear the bombs falling around them. Their parents clearly relieved that they were able to get them out, at least this far, to Cyprus.

(WEATHER REPORT)

M. O'BRIEN: So what should the U.S. do to try and stop the war? Most of you think our government should not play an active role. But when we asked you about sending U.S. troops, that was a little different story. We'll have the numbers for you coming up.

Israel hopes to weaken Hezbollah. What happens if they succeed? And could the war actually embolden them even more?

Plus, under fire and online. Some gripping home movies of the nighttime bombing in Beirut. That's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: Live pictures now. This is Baltimore Washington International Airport, and these are some of the evacuees that just landed there a short time ago, having made their way out of Lebanon. One by one, they're stepping up to the microphones and telling harrowing tales, gripping tales of what they've witnessed, what they endured, and how they got out of Lebanon. We're watching that for you.

Bob Franken is on the scene there and we'll bring you more from there as the morning progresses.

Meanwhile, a little closer to Beirut, there you see some evacuees making their way aboard the USS Nashville. That's an amphibious ship that is used by United States Marines, a Navy ship, and they are in the process of making their way to Cyprus. First leg of their journey out of Lebanon, first evacuation leg. And ultimately will make their way back to the United States as well.

We're tracking all these evacuations for you this AMERICAN MORNING and we'll keep you posted every step of the way.

So what do you think about the war in the Middle East? we Asked Opinion Research Corporation to ask you yesterday, and we got some surprising answers, frankly.

Our senior political analyst, Bill Schneider, is in Washington to breakdown the poll numbers for us.

Good morning, Bill.

WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, CNN SR. POL. ANALYST: Good morning, Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Tell us what you've got.

SCHNEIDER: Well, what do Americans want the United States to do? Play an active role in trying to resolve this conflict or stay out of it? The answer we got was very clear. Nearly two-thirds of Americans, you can see, 65 percent, say stay out of it.

Now, how about U.S. troops taking part in an international peacekeeping force on the border between Israel and Lebanon? Now there we see a pretty close split, 45 percent favor that idea, 42 percent oppose. So with American troops already involved in Iraq, there's a lot of wariness for American troops to participate in this conflict, even as part of a peacekeeping force.

M. O'BRIEN: It's interesting to me that people say let's stay out of it, let's not play an active role, and yet it's OK, even those close numbers, OK to send U.S. troops. Explain that. Seems like a little contradiction there.

SCHNEIDER: As part of an international peacekeeping force. The idea would be that this would be an international force, not just an American force. And I think that multilateralism makes a lot of difference, if other people share the risk.

M. O'BRIEN: All right. Let's talk about Hezbollah. What do Americans think about how Israel has responded to Hezbollah so far?

SCHNEIDER: Well, we asked people about the proportionality of Israel's response. Do Americans think Israel has gone too far in its military response? Fewer than 1/3, 31 percent you see there, say that Israel has gone too far. Nearly half say either that its military response has been about right or it actually hasn't gone far enough.

Now, we also asked people whether Israel should continue to take military action until Hezbollah can no longer threaten Israel or seek an immediate cease-fire? And in that case, Americans were divided.

But interestingly, that was a big party split. Republicans felt Israel should continue to attack until the Hezbollah threat is eliminated. Democrats said the first thing, the most important thing is to seek a cease-fire.

M. O'BRIEN: Interesting.

Let's talk about the evacuation for just a moment. What do Americans think about it? We've heard a lot of criticism from people in the midst of that evacuation, saying it was rather chaotic. It is, after all, a war zone. What are people thinking?

SCHNEIDER: Well, we asked people to assess the evacuation of Americans, and what we found is that a majority, 53 percent, believe the U.S. government is doing a good job in handling it; 29 percent say the Lebanon evacuation is being handled poorly.

M. O'BRIEN: Interesting.

You know, yesterday Soledad was talking to somebody who came off one of the ships, and she said, well in the wake of Katrina, what would you expect? In other words, drawing a link between the Katrina evacuation and the evacuation of Beirut, or of Lebanon. Are you picking up that thread at all?

SCHNEIDER: Well, there have been critics in Congress and elsewhere who are calling this a Katrina-like evacuation. So we asked precisely the same question this time that was asked in September of last year after the Katrina disaster, and there we found that there is a big difference. In that case, only 38 percent thought things were going well, that the United States government handled the Katrina evacuation well, compared to 53 percent now.

Now we saw a minute ago 29 percent said Lebanon evacuation is being handled poorly, 63 percent last September said the Katrina evacuation is being handled poorly. So the public sees a big difference between the two.

M. O'BRIEN: Big difference.

OK, Bill Schneider, always a pleasure. Thank you for going through the numbers with us. Our senior political analyst Bill Schneider, who is part of the best political team on television.

Coming up in the program, Israel has Hezbollah in the crosshairs, but could a weakened Hezbollah create a power vacuum in the Mideast? We'll look into that. Plus, under fire and online. Dramatic video once again being shared all around the world on the Internet. We'll tell you about what's out there, ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: The war in the Middle East is playing out online like no other conflict before. It so many video cameras in so many places, and now an easy way to share some gripping images with the world.

Our technology correspondent Daniel Sieberg has been watching all this unfold.

It has been fascinating and frightening at the same time, Daniel.

DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN TECHNOLOGY CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. Good morning, Miles.

That's right. We need to preface everything we're showing you with our cyber-caveat, in a way CNN cannot independently confirm the authenticity of any of videos or the blogs we're going to show you.

Nevertheless, people are turning to online video to illustrate their situation, their story in this crisis, particularly on sites like YouTube, where anybody can post video of anything they want. The first one we'll show you is one that starts off with what sounds like a couple of guys hearing an explosion in the background, reacting to it. We had to actually censor out some of what they say, and then showing the explosion there. You can see that the background. This is apparently in Bekaa. They actually remark at the end of it, why did they hit there? So we thought that was kind of interesting.

The next one shows a night scene. You see a very bright flash, and I'll pause for a second and you can hear the resulting explosion from it. This is getting about 5,000 page views this morning, a lot of traffic. YouTube is actually featuring it on their main page. This is apparently happening in Beirut.

The next one starts off with the title "bombings, a view from my window," so you can just imagine this person is seeing what they're seeing out their window. These apparently some Katyusha rockets that are basically just about in their backyard, and they're capturing this video and putting it up on YouTube.

This is just a sample, Miles, of some of the material we're seeing on places like YouTube. Of course the blogs are very active in this as well.

M. O'BRIEN: It's truly remarkable. It's like a force multiplier for the TV news business, to have all these cameras out there.

Let's talk a little bit about what you're seeing on the blogs this morning.

SIEBERG: Yes, no less powerful are the words that people are posting on their blogs. The first one we want to show you is from one called Cedar Seed Live Journal, presumably relating to the stately cedars that are in Lebanon. We want to talk about a particular posting here that apparently comes from a young girl in Lebanon. She writes, "My parents are talking about evacuating. My dad says it looks like things are going to escalate, and we might end up without power, water or anything. Not that I wouldn't enjoy being in Europe for a while" -- presumably to evacuate -- "but not knowing I have people I care for and everything I own back here. If anything happened to my photos, I would be devastated. I hate this." This apparently by a poster who goes by the name "Mana." That's, again, on Cedar Seed Live Journal.

To contrast that, we found a blogger in Israel. This is a woman there who actually posted a photo of herself in the hallway as well, as she turned to her laptop in order to try and post while she was under fire there.

She says on this Kishkushim blog -- she says, "My boyfriend is getting nervous because the rockets have started falling in his town and also in the town he works in, and is seriously considering leaving the north for the time being. I, however, don't want to leave my home. We were having this discussion when the sirens went off, again, so we quickly hung up the phone so he could get into safety. I grabbed the laptop and retreated to the hallway, as usual." That from someone who goes by the name Karmia (ph) on the Kishkushem, and you saw the photo of her there in the hallway. So, Miles, some amazing stuff when you're talking about video and blogs. Again, we have to tell people, just be careful, cyber-beware in terms of what you're seeing online.

M. O'BRIEN: Yes, always consider what you're taking in, but as you're looking at it in this raw and unfiltered way, it is compelling and in many cases very poignant.

Daniel, thank you very much. Back with you a little bit later to talk a little bit more about this.

Another place, by the way, to see some compelling video above and beyond what you see on our air here is CNN's pipeline Products, CNN.com/pipeline.

There that's what's going on right now there on pipeline. If you had a family member on that airplane or if you have somebody who's evacuating out, you could sit there and watch that stream, look for your loved one or friend there, and stay with the crisis in that way, multiple streams of video coming out of the Middle East as the conflict continues. Full coverage at CNN.com/pipeline.

And later today, 10:30 Eastern, Miles-cam will be there. We'll talk about whatever you want to talk about. Send us an e-mail right now. AM@CNN.com is the place.

We'll talk about our coverage in the Middle East. You can talk about the space program. Today's the anniversary of the first moon landing, by the way, lost amid all this. In any case, CNN.com/pipeline is the place to see the answers.

(BUSINESS HEADLINES)

M. O'BRIEN: The latest on the conflict in the Middle East after a short break. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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