Return to Transcripts main page
The Situation Room
Thousands of Lebanese Seek Safety in Syria; U.N. Secretary- General Kofi Annan Denouncing Both Israel and Hezbollah for Warfare; USS Nashville Delivering Americans From Lebanon to Cyprus; CNN Correspondent's Family Stuck in Lebanon; U.S. Has Diminished Diplomatic Ties With Many Involved in Mideast Crisis; Nicholas Burns Interview
Aired July 20, 2006 - 17:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: To our viewers, you're in THE SITUATION ROOM, where new pictures and information are arriving all the time.
Standing by, CNN reporters across the United States and around the world to bring you today's top stories.
Happening now, Israel tries to bomb and battle Hezbollah into oblivion. Hezbollah fires back with rockets and words. Its leader says Hezbollah is unharmed and has surprises in store for Israel.
Nearly everyone is running for their life right now, but not everyone has a place necessarily to run to. Americans have the U.S. military to help pick them up, but many Lebanese don't know where they will spend the night, looking for food right now, and many of them looking for water as well.
An end of opportunity? With its diminished diplomatic ties to some of those involved, does the U.S. have a fighting chance to end this conflict?
I'm Wolf Blitzer. You're in THE SITUATION ROOM.
Day nine of fighting in the Middle East, and new developments today. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah speaking out on Al-Jazeera TV just a short while ago. He says Israel is unable to do anything to harm his group. And he's warning Hezbollah will "deliver surprises."
Meanwhile, the sounds of explosions are filling the night air in Beirut as Israeli warplanes launch yet more airstrikes. And on the ground, Israeli troops taking on Hezbollah militants in southern Lebanon with heavy fighting. All of that is fueling the flight from Lebanon.
The U.S. warship the USS Nashville now ferrying about a thousand Americans from Beirut to Cyprus. And at the United Nations, diplomats just back from the region are sharing what they saw with the secretary-general, condemning both Israel and Hezbollah for the fighting, and calling once again for an immediate cease-fire.
We're covering all angles of this fast-moving story. We have CNN correspondents in all the key locations. Standing by this hour, our chief international correspondent, Christiane Amanpour. She's in northern Israel.
Ben Wedeman is in Beirut.
Aneesh Raman is in Damascus, Syria.
Richard Roth is at the United Nations.
Let's go to Beirut first. Ben Wedeman is there with word of yet more Israeli airstrikes -- Ben.
BEN WEDEMAN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Wolf.
Just a little while ago, we heard several large explosions. Once again, Israel is hammering the southern suburbs of Beirut. Those suburbs are where many of Hezbollah's leaders are located and operating.
This has become a daily occurrence, this hammering of the southern suburbs. I've been through that area several times, real devastation.
Those bombs have brought down many buildings. Some of them obviously Hezbollah targets, others not so clear.
This evening we saw on Al-Jazeera some statements and an interview, excuse me, from Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, in which he issued a message of defiance.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HASSAN NASRALLAH, HEZBOLLAH LEADER (through translator): And I assure you today that Hezbollah today is steadfast and have absorbed the strike. Third, and now is going to initiative. And fourth, it will deliver surprises that it promises. And we keep other things for ourselves that we'll do later on.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WEDEMAN: And, Wolf, many people here are really glued -- people here are glued to the radio, listening all of the time, watching television. A lot of sort of intense, almost, fascination with what's going on. Not just here, but I saw in Gaza as well.
Now, one of the other areas that has been taking the brunt of the Israeli bombing, and I was in there today, was Tyre, in the southern part of the country. There, there's a mounting humanitarian crisis as food supplies are running low. Many of the roads between Beirut and Tyre have been blasted. The bridges have been destroyed.
I was in one of the hospitals there, where I saw they were ferrying some of the wounded out of Tyre up to Beirut because the doctors told me they expect in the coming days more wounded, more deaths as this offensive continues -- Wolf.
BLITZER: We're going to come back to you, Ben, as this story continues to unfold.
Let's go to northern Israel, though, right now. Christiane Amanpour is on the scene for us with the latest from that front -- Christiane.
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, we're also hearing artillery going out from our position. And there has been more fighting between Hezbollah guerillas and Israeli soldiers today at the Avivim area, which started yesterday.
This, we're told, because Israeli soldiers were going in, in small groups, to try to take out Hezbollah outposts. Anyway, there were confrontations. Those confrontations continue. And there have been casualties.
The IDF, the Israeli army, says that there were eight casualties today in that and one other casualty, meaning nine all together today.
This has been the most severe and the fiercest face-off between those two since this whole operation began some nine or 10 days ago. And it underscores the issue of whether or not there might be a ground force much larger going in.
Right now, they're saying that there are no specific plans for that. They don't want to do that. But if they have to, then they can do it.
In the meantime, we were also at the air force base in northern Israel, the Ramat David Air Force Base, where we saw some of those sorties that are causing all that damage and mounting casualties in Lebanon. There are some 1,000, we were told, sorties that have taken place so far. And they are going off to, by and large, command and control, infrastructure, also communications, logistics, and those kind of centers.
They know that they cannot from the air take out all the mobile rocket launchers which are what -- which is what's causing the most threat to Israel, as those are positioned very close and on the border. Those rocket launchers and the ability to fire into northern Israel is what Israel is trying to obliterate.
We were talking to some of the pilots, and while they can try to do as much as possible to take out infrastructure, it's going to take something a little more to take out those mobile rocket launchers -- Wolf.
BLITZER: Christiane, thank you very much.
Christiane is going to be coming back shortly with a full report on what she saw when she went to that Israeli air base earlier today.
Meanwhile, Americans are fleeing Lebanon in large numbers. More than 1,600 have now arrived in Cyprus on U.S. military and chartered ships, and to a lesser extent on U.S. military helicopters. And some are now back in the United States. The first planeload arrived at the Baltimore-Washington Airport earlier today. Officials say they expect about 800 to land at BWI through Saturday. The federal government is sending extra screeners and Customs agents to help process them through.
While most foreigners are fleeing by way of Cyprus, thousands of Lebanese are trying to seek safety to the east. That would be in Syria.
CNN's Aneesh Raman is joining us now live from the capital, Damascus, with more on this part of the story -- Aneesh.
ANEESH RAMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, we're at a school for the blind set up by a nongovernmental organization that has now become a refugee center. These gathered around us, interested, of course, in the camera, are some of the 100-plus children that are at this refugee center. You can see behind they're playing soccer.
The group around me has been here for four days. There are 500 people here in total. Just part, a small part of the hundreds of thousands that have fled from Lebanon into Syria.
Here they have come, they have mattresses that are set up in the classrooms. They are offered food. They can stay here for as long as they need.
The Syrian government has really opened up the borders to deal with the influx of refugees.
This is Fara (ph). I was speaking to her a short time ago, 13 years old. She described just seeing apartments reduced to rubble, children crying, scenes of utter destruction as they came here.
And that is one of the concerns at this refugee center and others, is trying to get the kids some semblance of life, giving them time away from the war to digest what is happening there. But Fara told me she doesn't know if she'll be here for days, weeks or years. They simply don't know when they will go back.
In terms of the refugee numbers, as I said, hundreds of thousands, 40,000 yesterday, same amount today. It hasn't reached a point that is unmanageable. This NGO has been able to manage the 500 people here and put them in transit with other families, Syrian families.
And they're out in the courtyard right now. It's about midnight here. Inside behind me are where the rooms are.
But it could become, if we see the influx continue as we've seen at the same rate in the days and weeks ahead, something that the government will have to contend to, a refugee crisis in and of itself -- Wolf.
BLITZER: Aneesh, thank you very much.
Aneesh Raman in Damascus for us. Let's go to New York right now. Jack Cafferty's got "The Cafferty File" -- Jack.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: A new poll out, Wolf. Most Americans think the United States should stay out of the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.
A CNN poll done by Opinion Research Corporation shows 65 percent of those polled say the United States should not play an active role in trying to resolve this conflict, 27 percent think we ought to get involved. The public is pretty much split down the line evenly when asked if U.S. troops should play a part in an international peacekeeping force -- 45 percent say yes, 42 percent say no.
Meanwhile, the administration continues to support Israel, which says it's not yet time for a cease-fire. Israel wants to push Hezbollah back away from its northern border first and get its soldiers back.
So here's the question: Can the United States be an honest broker when it comes to the conflict in the Middle East?
E-mail us at CaffertyFile@CNN.com or go to CNN.com/CaffertyFile -- Wolf.
BLITZER: Jack, thank you for that.
Jack Cafferty in New York.
And by the way, if you want a sneak preview of Jack's questions, plus an early read on the day's political news and what's ahead here on THE SITUATION ROOM, sign up for our daily e-mail alert. Just go to CNN.com/situationroom.
Up ahead, forced to flee. Some 1,000 Americans heading to Cyprus right about now aboard the USS Nashville. Our Pentagon correspondent, Barbara Starr, was there as U.S. Marines plucked them to safety. Barbara's report is coming up.
Also, desperate diplomacy over at the United Nations. Urgent pleas for peace, but no consensus on what to do next. We'll get a live update from Richard Roth.
Plus, after years of helping forge progress in the Middle East, the U.S. now has some very limited options. We're going to show you why.
Stay with us. You're in THE SITUATION ROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: We have the latest right now on the deepening crisis in the Middle East.
The leader of Hezbollah says Israel has not been able to harm the group. And Hassan Nasrallah tells the Arabic language television network Al-Jazeera that they're planning some surprises for Israel.
The State Department says 3,000 Americans have been rescued from Lebanon, including 2,400 over the past 24 hours. The Lebanese finance minister says Israeli bombing has crippled his country's economy.
Israel's prime minister has agreed to open a naval corridor from Cyprus to Beirut to let humanitarian supplies come in.
And there are new death tolls.
Lebanon officially says 258 people have died since the conflict began. The Lebanese prime minister, though, says more than 300 have died.
Israel says 29 have died In Israel, with more than 300 hurt.
Their mission, to aid Americans caught in the crossfire since the conflict began. Right now, U.S. service members are doing precisely that.
Our Pentagon correspondent, Barbara Starr, is on board the USS Nashville, carrying evacuees to Cyprus. She filed this report from the military landing craft leaving Beirut.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, hundreds of Americans have come to he port here boarding this ship that will take them back to safety in the United States. The Marines and the Navy have come here today to get as many people out of Beirut as they possibly can, American citizens trying to get away from the fighting.
There are women, children, elderly, some quite ill. Most of the children taking it in their stride. Some of them, understandably, quite nervous, quite upset about what they have seen in Beirut. They tell us there's bombing and violence almost every night, of course, and that for some of the children, this is very, very scary.
But the Marines and the Navy say they will stay here until they are done and they have picked up as many Americans as possible, all the Americans, they say, that want to get out of Lebanon -- Wolf.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: All right. Barbara Starr on the USS Nashville, doing excellent reporting for us.
Over at the United Nations, desperate times calling for desperate diplomacy. The U.N. secretary-general, Kofi Annan, denouncing both Israel and Hezbollah for the warfare, calling for an immediate halt.
Our senior U.N. correspondent, Richard Roth, is joining us live with details -- Richard.
RICHARD ROTH, CNN SR. U.N. CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, U.N. Secretary- General Kofi Annan held a special briefing for the full Security Council, and the news on the Middle East wasn't good.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ROTH (voice-over): The world's chief peacemaker could only make a Mideast plea, not a deal.
KOFI ANNAN, U.N. SECRETARY-GENERAL: I repeat, hostilities must stop.
ROTH: In true diplomatic style, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan blamed both sides.
ANNAN: Both the deliberate targeting by Hezbollah of Israeli population centers, with hundreds of indiscriminate weapons, and Israel's disproportionate use of force and collective punishment of the Lebanese people must stop.
ROTH: The conclusion of Annan's team of returning shuttle diplomacy artists, serious obstacles to a cease-fire remain.
TERJE ROED LARSEN, U.N. ENVOY: Let me first say that one of the sad conclusions that the mission had during its visit to Cairo, Beirut and Israel is that it seems to be highly unlikely that a cease-fire can take hold without broad political agreement.
ROTH: The Security Council is divided. The U.S. and Britain oppose a demand for a cease fire. Lebanon wants one immediately.
NOUHAD MAHMUD, LEBANESE FOREIGN MINISTRY REP.: We insist on the necessity of a cease-fire.
ROTH: Demanding a cease-fire is too simplistic, says the United States.
JOHN BOLTON, U.S. AMB. TO U.N.: How do you hold a terrorist group accountable? Who runs the terrorist group? Who makes the commitment that the terrorist group will abide by a cease-fire?
ROTH: Israel, confident of U.S. backing, still has the diplomatic space to pursue Hezbollah.
DAN GILLERMAN, ISRAELI AMB. TO U.N.: It will take as long as it will take.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROTH: Kofi Annan gives a personal briefing on his Mideast negotiators' tour through the region to Condoleezza Rice tonight. Rice may head to the Middle East sometime next week -- Wolf.
BLITZER: Richard Roth at the U.N.
Thank you.
And coming up here in THE SITUATION ROOM, nine days of warfare in the Middle East. We'll talk about the fighting, the U.S. role and American evacuations with the under secretary of state, Nicholas Burns. He'll be here in THE SITUATION ROOM.
Plus, we're going to take you back to northern Israel. Our chief international correspondent, Christiane Amanpour, talks to Israeli soldiers about their battle against Hezbollah.
Stay with us.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: Much more on the -- of our complete coverage of the crisis in the Middle East, including Christiane Amanpour. She spent much of this day with some of the top guns in the Israeli air force. That's coming up.
First, though, other important news we're following right now.
For that we turn to CNN's Fredricka Whitfield at the CNN Center -- Fred.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, Wolf.
The Senate has just voted to renew the landmark Voting Rights Act. The vote was 98-0. It came shortly after President Bush addressed the NAACP today.
He told the nation's oldest civil rights group that Americans must not forget its founding fathers who came here "in chains." He also called on the Senate to renew the Voting Rights Act, saying it's crucial to democracy. The measure is now headed to his desk for signing.
FEMA says it's ready for Tropical Storm Beryl. Emergency teams are standing by as Beryl turns up the Northeast coast toward Massachusetts. Its top winds are 50 miles an hour. A tropical storm warning is up for Cape Cod, Nantucket Island, and Martha's Vineyard. Parts of Connecticut and Long Island could be in for some rough weather.
And Hurricane Katrina may have caused record death and destruction, but many Americans say they likely won't evacuate even if they're told to do so. A new Harvard University survey finds that one in four people in southern coastal states plan to ignore government evacuation orders. They cite confidence that their homes will withstand a storm, and they say the roads would be too crowded and evacuating could be that much more dangerous than staying put.
And Barry Bonds won't be indicted. For now. A federal grand jury investigating whether the baseball slugger lied about alleged steroid use expired today. But federal prosecutors in San Francisco say their investigation is continuing.
Bonds' lawyer says his client is a victim of a witch hunt. Bonds' former personal trainer has been released from a federal prison after refusing to testify in the probe -- Wolf.
BLITZER: Thank you very much, Fredricka Whitfield. Coming up, Israel says it will not stop until it drives Hezbollah out of southern Lebanon and wins release of Israeli soldiers. But how long might that take?
I'll talk about Israel's military strategy with former the Pentagon intelligence chief.
And no way out. We'll have an update on a very personal story about those trapped in Lebanon and their worried American families. One of those, CNN's own -- is a CNN reporter herself. We'll tell you how she's dealing with that.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: Welcome back.
We're monitoring all the developments in the Middle East crisis with our CNN reporters. They're in all the key locations.
Right now we want to check in once again with our chief international correspondent, Christiane Amanpour. She's in northern Israel -- Christiane.
AMANPOUR: Well, first, we're trying to chase down a story that we've heard about a possible helicopter coming down on the Israeli side of the border. And we don't know why and we don't know the circumstances. But we're checking with the IDF to see if they can tell us more.
Some of our reporter colleagues are heading towards the location. And perhaps we'll know more.
As you can also hear, we are in a location with outgoing artillery. This is a town almost right on the border. And there's been, you know, regular barrages of outgoing artillery towards the Lebanese side.
We also spoke to members of the Israeli air force this afternoon. We talked about the targeting, about what they think they're taking out. And we're not, under Israeli censorship rules, allowed to fully reveal their faces or their names.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
AMANPOUR (voice-over): Wave after wave of Israeli fighter jets take off from Ramat David Air Force Base on the hunt for Hezbollah leaders, infrastructure, communications and logistics centers. Last night this squadron dropped 23 of this one-ton bombs on what Israel says was a Hezbollah leadership bunker in Beirut.
Captain Y was among those doing the dropping.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We know that it was a bunker and we know we hit the targets. I don't know the exact result or how much of it was destroyed.
AMANPOUR: Nor does the Israeli military. And Hezbollah says the target actually was a mosque under construction and denies its leaders were hit.
(on camera): Despite more than 1,000 sorties, and despite the onslaught of the command and control infrastructure, it doesn't seem to have had an immediate effect on the ability of Hezbollah guerillas to fire their rockets from near the border.
(voice-over): The military says Hezbollah Katyusha cells can still operate relatively autonomously at the border. They can't easily be seen. And Major E admits it's virtually impossible to get their rocket launchers from the air.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a tremendous effort to get those launches. And as you know, it can be a single guy with a rocket launcher on his deck. So it's very, very difficult.
AMANPOUR: But hunting them is the main focus up here at Israel's northern command.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If we don't go and occupy the territory, which we don't want to do, you can't stop the one single rocket that they want to launch.
AMANPOUR: A ground invasion would be painful, as Israel already knows from its 18-year occupation of Lebanon that finally ended six years ago.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
AMANPOUR: Now, as if to underscore the pain of what it means to put Israeli ground forces inside Lebanon, there have been fierce crashes between Hezbollah and Israeli forces over the last two days at a key border town called Avivim.
It's where Israeli small units are going in to try to take out Hezbollah outposts, we're told by the Israeli military. And there have been casualties. Yesterday, two Israeli soldiers were killed, nine were wounded, and today there were eight casualties, and perhaps amongst them some fatalities -- Wolf.
BLITZER: Christiane, we'll check back with you when we get more word on that helicopter incident.
Christiane Amanpour in northern Israel for us.
And joining us now to talk a little bit about Israel's military strategy is retired U.S. Army Colonel Pat Lang. He was headed a key Pentagon intelligence service and was the top DIA officer dealing with the Middle East for several years.
Pat, thanks very much for coming in.
Can this Israeli military strategy of trying to deliver a knockout punch to Hezbollah work?
COL. PAT LANG, U.S. ARMY (RET.): It doesn't make any sense to me. As you know, I've worked in all of these countries and with the IDF a lot, and studied it forever. And this just doesn't make any sense to me what they're doing, because as this Israeli air force major said, it's impossible to go around in a kind of hunt for all of these rocket launchers everywhere.
Hezbollah is a numerous, well organized, disciplined army. They have reserves in depth of people among the Shia people of Lebanon.
They've been organizing this ground for five or six years. There are all kinds of tank traps and ambush positions. All kinds of things like this.
It's a murderous place to go fight. And the idea that you can root people like that out who are Islamic zealots and have -- cause them to quit and run away with air power and artillery and some small- scale operation, it's just -- it's just not on.
BLITZER: So what do you see the Israeli military strategy -- I mean, I assume they appreciate the same factors that you appreciate.
LANG: I don't understand it. I can't understand it. The only way you can stop Hezbollah from shooting into north Lebanon is to move...
BLITZER: Into north Israel.
LANG: Into north Israel is to move their gun line back to the north far enough so that, in fact, they can't reach you.
The only way to do that, in my opinion, is with ground troops. Now, I know the IDF does not want to occupy part of Lebanon again, but they've somehow gotten themselves in a position in which there may be no other choice. And from what I understand, they're mobilizing large numbers of people and they're probably thinking it over.
The other part of their strategy...
BLITZER: Because they tried that invasion for, what, 18 years, and it turned out to not such a great experience.
LANG: It was a terrible experience. The Lebanese lined up to fight them all over the place. It was a continual dribble of casualties all the time which finally politically caused Israel to withdraw from southern Lebanon.
And the other part of this, which is to -- to cause the Lebanese government to be something that it is not, a unified government that has an army that's a real army, instead of symbol of national unity who will act against Hezbollah, that's just not on. The Lebanese don't have that in them to do it.
BLITZER: The brigadier general, Alon Friedman, of the IDF, the Israeli defense forces, was quoted yesterday as saying, "Israeli strikes have destroyed about 50 percent of Hezbollah's arsenal. It will take us time to destroy what is left."
Does that sound credible, that half of the rockets, half of the arsenal over the past nine days has been destroyed?
LANG: Well, there's no way for me to know and there's no way for them to know either, in any way. I mean, you know, I've fought this kind of war against guerillas in various places before, and you never really know until you -- after you get to talk to the people who were defeated afterwards how many people you actually (INAUDIBLE).
The only way you know how you have warned them down by attrition is when the fire that comes into northern Israel starts to fall off and you run into less resistance when you go in on the ground.
BLITZER: I don't think he meant that they killed half of Hezbollah. I think what he said -- he meant they destroyed half of their rockets, let's say.
LANG: I don't think there's any way to know that. As I said, the only way you can know if those deep bunkers of rockets all over southern Lebanon have been emptied is if the fire into northern Israel starts to diminish. That's the only way you'll know.
BLITZER: All right. So put on your advice. You used to give advice to defense secretaries and top U.S. officials.
If you were advising the Israeli government right now, the Israeli military, they've got rockets coming in from south Lebanon, they've got Hezbollah crossing the border, killing and kidnapping Israeli soldiers, this is a U.N. recognized border, what would you do if you were the Israeli military?
COL. PAT LANG, FORMER PENTAGON MIDEAST INTEL. CHIEF: I would have advised them to take specific punitive action on the people who hurt them with the death of these soldiers and to negotiate an outcome with that.
BLITZER: What does that mean exactly, spell it out?
LANG: Well they've done this before. They've worked with the Germans and other people for the return of captured soldiers, things of that kind.
BLITZER: To do a prisoner swap?
LANG: That kind of thing.
BLITZER: But doesn't that encourage further terrorism down the road?
LANG: Well in this, as in many situations in war and politics, in fact you often have to choose between two bad alternatives. Now having done what they have done now, they are now in the position in which I think, probably in four, five, six days, a week, two weeks, whatever it is. They're going to decide they have no choice but to put a large force into southern Lebanon. And that's going to hurt them badly for a long time. In a lot of these things, once you start down the road, having made a bad decision, you're just stuck.
BLITZER: Pat Lang, U.S. Army colonel, retired. Thanks very much for coming in.
LANG: Good to see you, Wolf.
BLITZER: Thank you Pat.
Still to come, over recent years the U.S. has loosened its diplomatic ties to some of those involved. Might that mean less of an opportunity for the White House to try to end this conflict? And we'll have an update on the personal crisis of one of CNN's own. One of our own reporters desperately, trying to get her family out of Lebanon. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: Welcome back in THE SITUATION ROOM, I'm Wolf Blitzer in Washington where we're monitoring all the latest developments in the Middle East crisis, including some growing concern about Americans trapped outside Beirut in some of the Hezbollah controlled territory, especially in the south. Our senior Pentagon correspondent Jamie McIntyre is standing by with details of military options to deal with this problem.
But first, CNN's Chris Lawrence is in Los Angeles with a story about one member of the CNN family, caught up in this problem.
Chris, I don't know if you can hear me, but if you're ready, go ahead. All right you can't hear me. But let's start with Jamie McIntyre. First Jamie, some of the military options available to the Pentagon right now.
JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SENIOR PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well of course as more ships are about to arrive offshore, those options will multiply. But we saw marines on the ground in Lebanon today for the first time in two decades, helping about a thousand Americans get offshore on to landing craft and out to the USS Nashville for the trip back to Cyprus.
That brings to about 3,000 the number of Americans out. And now we're told by the State Department just this afternoon that that includes 341 Americans who had been trapped in southern Lebanon, but now were bussed out to safety, and are in the port of Beirut now. Here's what the State Department said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAURA HARTY, ASST. SECRETARY OF STATE: There were escorts, or diplomatic security officers working very closely with local contacts to make sure the time was right to make that move and they made that move. I don't pretend to know every element that went into that decision-making process, but I'm really delighted that they did it the way they did it and that it was successful and those people are boarding a ship now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MCINTYRE: OK. 341 Americans now getting on the Orient Queen which is back for its second run to take Americans out. Now, the State Department says that doesn't necessarily mean every person is out of southern Lebanon, but they are looking to see who else might be remaining there. And meanwhile, the marines will be offshore with helicopters if needed to extract them. But again, the preferred method over land, it worked this time, they hope it will work again.
BLITZER: Jamie McIntyre at the Pentagon thanks very much. Let's try again with Chris Lawrence, he's in Los Angeles. He's monitoring the story, an update on a very personal story involving one of CNN's own -- Chris.
CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, when the fighting started, thousands of Americans were in other parts of Lebanon, nowhere near Beirut. Now that the roads are so dangerous, they're cut off from the evacuation point, including the family of one of our own colleagues.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LAWRENCE (voice-over): A frantic phone call to California from a sister trapped in the Bekaa Valley, two hours drive from Beirut.
VOICE OF SANDRA CHOKR, TRAPPED IN LEBANON: I know that the roads are all being bombed, bridges, those are being bombed. We just all kind of wondered how the heck we're going to get out of here.
LAWRENCE: On the other end, CNN correspondent Thelma Gutierrez, telling her sister thousands of Americans are leaving Beirut.
THELMA GUTIERREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: If that's where the evacuations are going to be happening, how exactly are you going to get to Beirut?
S. CHOKR: It's all speculation, they're telling you the army is going to come and pick you up, they're going to pick you up in a helicopter. No, they're going to land a plane somewhere in the middle of a field, and nobody knows.
LAWRENCE: Sandra Chokr lives in Seattle with her husband and sons.
RAMADAN CHOKR, SANDRA'S HUSBAND: I know I'm their father, I'm supposed to be protecting them. And I can't.
LAWRENCE: Before the bombs started falling, she took the boys to visit family in Lebanon.
R. CHOKR: And the plan was, they go to spend the summer there, so my mom and my dad will have the opportunity to get to know the grandkids.
LAWRENCE: Thelma's nephew has been e-mailing her whenever he can. Sandra is reading parts of her journal to her sister.
S. CHOKR: Obviously, that's the favorite phrase. Bombs are exploding all around us. But as long as our house is not directly hit ...
LAWRENCE: A lot of Americans may be receiving similar calls.
GUTIERREZ: All right Sandra, well love you.
S. CHOKR: Love you too, Thelma. Talk to you later, OK?
GUTIERREZ: Bye, bye.
S. CHOKR: Bye.
LAWRENCE: And like those other families, there's nothing to do but wait and hope the next call brings better news.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LAWRENCE: Yes, I read an e-mail from Sandra just a few hours ago. She considered making a run for the Syrian border. But she's an American, speaks very little Arabic, and she's got a six and a nine- year-old with her. So, like a lot of other Americans in the same situation, she's going to wait and hope to hear that somebody's coming to get her -- Wolf.
BLITZER: All right, Chris, what a heartbreaking story. Thank you very much for that.
Up ahead, does the U.S. have a fighting chance to end the crisis in the Middle East? Especially with diminished diplomatic ties to some of those countries directly involved.
Brian Todd has a special report on that. And I'll ask a top State Department official about what the U.S. hopes to accomplish. Under secretary of state Nicholas Burns standing by to join us live right here in THE SITUATION ROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: We have the latest now on the deepening crisis in the Middle East. The leader of Hezbollah says Israel has not been able to harm the group and Hassan Nasrallah tells the Arabic language network Al Jazeera that they're planning some surprises for Israel.
The State Department says 3,000 Americans have been rescued from Lebanon so far including some 2400 over the past 24 hours. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan is condemning both Hezbollah and Israel for the strikes and the counter strikes. Kofi Annan repeats his calling for a full and immediate cease fire.
Meanwhile, there are new death tolls. Lebanon officially says 258 people have died since the conflict began nine days ago. But the Lebanese prime minister says more than 300 have died. Israel says 29 people have died in Israel, with more than 300 hurt.
To end this conflict, what tools might the United States have in its diplomatic arsenal? Over recent years, the U.S. has loosened its diplomatic ties to some of those involved. So how does that effect chances of the U.S. playing a really significant role? Let's turn to our Brian Todd, he's been looking into this story. Brian?
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, in almost every major Middle East conflict over the past half century, there's been a classic formula for solving it. For some very important reasons, that formula is not at play here.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TODD (voice-over): Snapshots of success. The accomplishments of shuttle diplomacy in the Middle East. 1973, Henry Kissinger negotiates peace after the Yom Kippur war. Five years later, Jimmy Carter brokers the Camp David Accords. 1993, Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat shake hands on Palestinian self rule and better Israeli security. The consensus now, don't expect any historic photo ops with leaders who could help end this conflict.
RICHARD MURPHY, FORMER ASST. SECRETARY OF STATE: Obviously, that's Syria and Iran. We don't have contact, any meaningful nature in either capital.
TODD: Former top U.S. diplomats say the days when Condoleezza Rice could even think of shuttling between Israel and Syria or Lebanon to broker a cease fire are long gone. Gone since the United States pulled its ambassador out of Damascus last year, over the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
Gone, because of tensions over Syria's alleged sheltering of insurgents from Iraq. And gone in light of the Bush administration's hard line towards Syria and the war on terror and toward Iran in the nuclear standoff. Another reason for diminished diplomatic opportunity, analysts say, one overriding perception of America's role in this conflict.
FAWAZ GERGES, SARAH LAWRENCE COLLEGE: The idea that I hear from really across the board is that the United States has given Israel a green line to continue its bombing of Lebanon.
TODD: An opinion so widely shared, it's forced the White House to deny even greater complicity.
TONY SNOW, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: We're not engaged in military strategy sessions with the Israelis, we're not colluding, we're not cooperating, we're not conspiring.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TODD: Now analysts say that message has to be driven home to some key Arab leaders in the region. Leaders in places like Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, who may provide the only channel to get to Syria and Iran, and possibly negotiate long term security at the Israeli Lebanese border. Wolf.
BLITZER: Brian Todd reporting for us. Thank you, Brian very much, we'll have more on the story coming up.
We'll speak with the undersecretary of state Nicholas Burns, that's coming up here in THE SITUATION ROOM. Plus nine days of warfare with unprecedented coverage on the web. Our internet reporters are standing by to show you the situation online. Stay with us. You're in THE SITUATION ROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: Can the United States still make a difference in trying to resolve this conflict in the Middle East? Joining us now is Nicholas Burns. He's the undersecretary of state for political affairs. Thanks very much for coming in.
NICHOLAS BURNS, UNDERSECRETARY OF STATE: Thanks, Wolf.
BLITZER: Listen to what Kofi Annan told the U.N. Security Council earlier today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KOFI ANNAN, U.N. SECRETARY-GENERAL: While Hezbollah's actions are deplorable and, as I've said, Israel has a right to defend itself, the excessive use of force is to be condemned.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: He's referring to what he called Israel's excessive use of force should be condemned. Is he right?
BURNS: He also noted Israel has a right to defend itself. And in St. Petersburg at the G-8 Summit, eight leaders agreed on that, and they also pointed the finger at Hezbollah for being the part of an instigator.
BLITZER: But they didn't condemn Israel and he is condemning Israel.
BURNS: Well, he said what he said. And Secretary Rice is up in New York right now to have dinner with Kofi Annan and to have a briefing tomorrow morning from his team. Here's what has to happen. We have to work for cessation of hostilities that can be sustainable.
If there's a cease-fire right now, it will leave Hezbollah in place with a sword dangling over Israel's head, and a million Israelis in the northern third of the country will be subject to rocket attacks, Fajr and Katyusha rocket attacks.
What we have got to do is arrange, over the next few weeks, an arrangement where the United States and other countries will try to make sure that Hezbollah doesn't have the capability to do that, to strike at the heart of Israel.
BLITZER: So how do you do that? In other words, do you think there's a week or two that Israel has left to continue its military occupation -- operation?
BURNS: I don't know how long it's going to take, but I do know this. You have to have a sustainable set of facts on the ground that allow the parties to stop. You can't just stop in place now, because that would sow the seeds for conflict.
BLITZER: So you oppose an immediate cease-fire?
BURNS: We want a cease-fire that's sustainable. We want the conditions on the ground to be respected, Resolution 1559. And that means no militia in southern Lebanon, no capacity of Hezbollah to strike at the heart of Israel. Hezbollah started this, they have to return the Israeli soldiers, they have to halt their shelling, and they have to respect 1559. That's a U.N. Security Council resolution that is in place and must be respected.
BLITZER: So on this issue, there's a serious disagreement with the U.N. secretary-general?
BURNS: I think the secretary-general and Secretary Rice agree on many things. And if you look at Secretary-General Anan's speech, he laid out a reason for us to move towards humanitarian corridors, to re-supply the affected civilians in Lebanon -- and too many of them are suffering -- to provide medical care and food to them.
He also said that Israel has a right to defend itself, and he said there has to be an effort made to figure out some -- develop some kind of international presence or force to supply that buffer zone, the force in the buffer zone, that would separate Hezbollah.
BLITZER: Let me ask -- you're a former U.S. ambassador to NATO. Why not let NATO take charge of that kind of international stabilization force in south Lebanon?
BURNS: We're looking at a variety of options right now.
BLITZER: Are you looking at the NATO option?
BURNS: We're not looking at a NATO option per se, but we're looking at a variety of options to strengthen the current effort, maybe to rebuild the current effort, UNIFIL which has not succeeded, as you know, and to try over the next couple of days to figure out a way with the Europeans, with the Arab states, to develop a concept that would be successful here and that would give confidence to the Israelis as well as to the Lebanese, that there's not going to be any further violence from southern Lebanon instigated by Hezbollah.
BLITZER: You point out the secretary of state is going to the Middle East presumably in the next few days. The critics say the U.S. can no longer be an honest broker because it really doesn't even talk to two of the key players that you say are pulling a lot of the strings, Syria and Iran. BURNS: Wolf, I think everybody realizes -- everybody realizes -- that the United States is indispensable to any solution. We have a degree of history and weight and influence in that region that no other country can match. And so what we're hearing over the last few days, from the governments in the region and from the European governments, is they think the United States needs to be engaged in a very defined way.
We will do so. Secretary Rice has said that she will go to the region. We haven't announced yet when and where, but she will go to the region and she will use American energy and pressure to develop a situation where we can establish some situation on the ground that can be effective in sustaining a cease-fire.
BLITZER: Some of her predecessors have engaged in a lot of what they used to call shuttle diplomacy. The former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger comes to mind. Is she ready to do that, to get personally involved in shuttling between capitals to end the fighting?
BURNS: You know, every situation is unique. I don't know if shuttle diplomacy is required in this day and age. But certainly she believes, and we believe, that the United States has to exert its influence here. We are doing that now. She and President Bush have been on the phone for the last week to all the leaders in this situation. She talked to Prime Minister Olmert today. She talked to Secretary General Annan earlier today.
So there's no lack of effort here, but she will go to the region and she will make sure that the United States puts its best foot forward with all of our friends in the region to establish a situation that can succeed. There are very few simplistic answers here, and we have to develop a concept that can actually work on the ground.
BLITZER: Nick Burns, let's hope she does succeed. Good luck to her. Good luck to you. I know you guys have an incredibly hectic schedule.
BURNS: Thank you, Wolf. Thank you very much.
BLITZER: And a lot of people are grateful for this evacuation, the American citizens from Lebanon as well.
BURNS: It's going very well. Thank you.
BLITZER: I know the State Department has been working overtime on that.
BURNS: We have.
BLITZER: Lou Dobbs getting ready for his program, right at the top of the hour. Lou, tell our viewers what you're working on.
LOU DOBBS, CNN ANCHOR: Wolf thank you. Coming up here in just a matter of moments, we'll be live in Beirut with the very latest for you on the war between Israel and Hezbollah. Israeli troops in Southern Lebanon engaged with Hezbollah tonight. Israel has launched a new air attack on Hezbollah positions in southern Beirut. Israeli Special Forces engaged in a second day of fierce fighting with Hezbollah within southern Lebanon.
I'll be joined by the Syrian ambassador to the United Nations. We'll be taking you live as well to Cyprus where the USS Nashville and one thousand American evacuees from Lebanon are set to arrive tonight, and U.S. Marines helping in their escape from Beirut today.
In Iraq, one of our marines died in action as the combat there is picking up, more Iraqi civilians dying as that violence escalates. And tonight we'll be joined as well by one of the country's foremost historians, Niall Ferguson, author of "Colossus." He'll be with us to discuss the United States role and our policies in the Middle East conflict. All of that and more coming up at the top of the hour, please join us. Back to you, Wolf.
BLITZER: Thank you very much Lou for that. And when we come back, more on the conflict in the Middle East. Years ago those not directly involved in war could only experience it through newspapers and broadcast media. But now and in the future that's all about to change. The immediacy of the internet and this war, when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: How will technology change the way we experience war, two, five, ten years down the road? For this "Welcome to the Future" installment let's bring in our internet reporter Jacki Schechner. Jacki?
JACKI SCHECHNER, CNN INTERNET REPORTER: Wolf, technology is getting cheaper and easier to use and internet connections are getting faster. And it's the combination of these factors that's changing the way we witness conflict now and in the future.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SCHECHNER (voice-over): The '60s, Americans across the nation are glued to their televisions as they get first glimpses into a war in Vietnam. 1991, 24 hour cable television captures the first images of Operation Desert Storm as hundreds of missiles drop on Baghdad.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You've never seen battlefield pictures like these before.
SCHECHNER: 2003, journalists are embedded with the U.S. military and soldiers and Iraqis chronicle or blog in personal diaries online, what it's like living in a war zone. By mid 2005, cheaper technology and Web sites like YouTube.com offer an easy way to share home videos worldwide.
This video viewed nearly 20,000 times shows U.S. Marines in Najaf, Iraq firing machine guns. But the current conflict in Israel and Lebanon is providing unprecedented access, imagery and immediacy. Here, a 27-year-old records Israeli bombs dropping on Beirut. And here, a terrified Israeli boy documents his sprint to a bomb shelter. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Time to go to the bomb shelter yet again.
SCHECHNER: Days into the conflict, the sound of sirens and explosions are becoming routine. Here a 24-year-old woman drops everything and heads for protection. In a hallway in Haifa, a young boy passes the time playing a video game.
In the bottom corner his frightened mother folds a pillow over her head. Raw images like these provide unique but offer subjective perspectives. They also raise issues of authenticity and accuracy, issues that will become greater challenges as more and more people put their stories online.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SCHECHNER: Wolf, just to give you a sense of how fast the online video phenomenon is growing, YouTube.com has just announced that it's users are watching more than 100 million videos each day and the site is just a little more than a year old.
BLITZER: Jacki, thanks very much for that. From Jacki, let's go to Jack in New York. Jack?
CAFFERTY: Can the United States be an honest broker when it comes to the war in the Middle East?
Andrew in Minneapolis, "This will be the greatest opportunity for the U.S. to mend fences with the rest of the world, without losing anything. To do this, the United States must work with the U.N. and not just veto the resolutions passed against Israel. Let's sit back and let the U.N. do its job."
Dick in Albuquerque, New Mexico, "There's no reason to be an honest broker. How many Marines were killed in 1983 by the same bunch?"
Tim writes from Los Angeles, "The shameless vote in the House of Representatives to support Israel while the death of the innocent mounts in Lebanon is a prime example of how worthless this government has become and how low the U.S. is willing to go in support of the terrorist government of Israel."
Steven in New Windsor, Maryland, "The best thing the U.S. can do is nothing. Multiple Camp David peace conferences have produced nothing but broken promises. If Mexico, Cuba or Canada were constantly lobbing missiles and suicide bombers on the U.S., we wouldn't sleep until the last one of our enemy was found and stopped."
Larry in La Mesa, California, "Could you repeat the question? I wasn't able to hear it over the sound of U.S. brokered bombs blowing up all over the Middle East."
And Al in Lawrence, Kansas, "We gave $2.5 billion in aid to Israel last year, $40 million to Lebanon. We're about as fair and balanced as that other news channel." If you didn't see your email here, you can go to CNN.com/CaffertyFile and read some more of these. We post them online -- Wolf.
BLITZER: Jack Cafferty in New York, thanks very much. See you back here in THE SITUATION ROOM in one hour. Remember, we're in THE SITUATION ROOM weekday afternoons from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m. eastern, back at 7:00 p.m. eastern, that's an hour from now. Let's go to Lou Dobbs, he's in New York -- Lou.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
