Return to Transcripts main page

American Morning

Day of Mourning in Lebanon Following Qana Attack; Middle East Diplomacy Takes Front Seat for Bush; Women Defy Vatican to Become Catholic Priests

Aired July 31, 2006 - 08:30   ET

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

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Welcome, everybody. I'm Soledad O'Brien.
TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, Soledad!

O'BRIEN: Hi there.

HARRIS: Wow, I get to work with you.

O'BRIEN: Yes, it's your lucky day, baby.

HARRIS: I feel it.

O'BRIEN: Yes, stay on your own side there. I'm just teasing you.

HARRIS: Good morning, everyone. I'm Tony Harris, in today for Miles O'Brien.

O'BRIEN: Nice to have you helping us out.

(NEWSBREAK)

O'BRIEN: Day of mourning in Lebanon in response to the killings of dozens of civilians in Qana by Israeli warplanes. It is not the first time that Qana has been hit.

CNN Beirut bureau chief Brent Sadler has that story. We have to warn you, though, some of the images are tough to look at.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRENT SADLER, CNN BEIRUT BUREAU CHIEF (voice-over): The lifeless bodies of children were plucked from the rubble at Qana, killed by an Israeli strike. Shock quickly turned to revulsion across the Arab world, but in Lebanon gruesome pictures of the carnage broadcast on local TV networks touched off a violent backlash.

Enraged demonstrators stormed the headquarters of the United Nations in central Beirut. Terrified U.N. staff fled to a basement during the rampage. But outrage calmed when thousands of Lebanese rallied to denounce Israel, its U.S. ally, and what they perceived as global indifference to the mounting death toll.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is collective punishment to the Lebanese people. I think a sense of revolt will unify the Lebanese people of the magnitude of what is happening to its civilians.

SADLER: Especially at Qana, where history tragically repeats itself in a bloody cycle of violence.

Ten years ago, Qana grabbed world headlines in the midst of an Israeli air and artillery blitz to destroy Hezbollah. That 1996 Israeli firestorm was called Grapes of Wrath.

A report I filed back then has obvious parallels today.

"The shelling never stops for long. A rim of villages south of Tyre taking more punishment. But it's not stopped Hezbollah's rockets."

The next day, April 18th, Israeli artillery shells hit a U.N. compound at Qana manned by Fijian peacekeepers. There was appalling loss among civilians sheltering there, more than 100 killed. I reported the aftermath.

Amid the human debris, raw anger.

(on camera): It's impossible to count the numbers of dead and dying among this chaos and pandemonium.

(voice-over): Every year since then, Lebanese have commemorated what they call the Qana massacre. The neat burial site a place for remembrance and bitter reflection of a costly war that had passed but has returned to haunt the present.

Brent Sadler, CNN, Beirut.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: John Lee Anderson is a writer for "The New Yorker" magazine. He was in Qana yesterday, just after the Israeli attack, and he arrived there just as the bodies of five children were being pulled out of the rubble. He spent much of the day today in Bint Jbeil, which is the scene of heavy fighting last week.

John Lee Anderson joins us from Tyre this morning.

Nice to see you. Can you hear me? Is your audio OK?

JOHN LEE ANDERSON, "THE NEW YORKER": I can, Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Terrific.

ANDERSON: Thanks, I can hear you.

O'BRIEN: We've been just looking at Brent Sadler's report showing some of the truly horrific pictures of these small children being carried out. When you got on the ground at Qana just after the attack, what did you see?

ANDERSON: Most of the bodies that have been recovered -- there was about 21 -- had just been put away when I got there. I drove from Beirut. But there were five children being laid out and moved from stretchers into ambulances as I arrived, ranging in age from I think maybe 18 months or two years old to a boy of about 14. They seemed to be boys.

It was very, very, very heartbreaking to see. These were just children. And a great air of sadness over the whole place, of course. You know, and I spent the entire afternoon as the Chinese UNIFIL, U.N. troops with the bulldozers, tried to take away part of the building that was blocking access to the basement where they believed other bodies were. But they finally had to give up at twilight.

There were still drones in the air, there were still jets flying, and there was some bombing in the vicinity. And of course, today things have opened up again. And I've been to a different area, Bint Jbeil. The whole south has sort of temporarily opened up with a cease-fire. And, of course new scenes of...

O'BRIEN: But I'm going to stop you there, if I can, for a second, John, because I want to get that in a moment. But let me ask you another question about Qana before you move on -- oh, it looks like your satellite image is freezing. Let's see if we can fix that. And hopefully he can still hear me, he can still get audio.

The Israeli military, John, has said that it was an accident. They've said that they're going to investigate. They've said that Hezbollah may have been firing rockets from that location. They've said Hezbollah may have been firing rockets from nearby, and it collapsed the building, the building wasn't hit. A variety of things have been said.

Any indication from what you've seen there? Was this building in any way that you could tell used as a place for storing rockets? Were there rockets being fired from there?

ANDERSON: That was impossible to tell. The building was effectively crushed. There was a part of the building was -- seemed to me entirely pulverized. And then the other part had been really heavily bombed so that it caved in, you know, slabs of cement effectively forming a sandwich and keeling over. It didn't appear to have burned, which would have occurred if there had been explosives stored there.

But you know, I mean, these things happen in air campaigns. It's happened again and again and again. And I'd sort of been waiting for the moment when, yet again, another refuge full of women and children would be killed. It happened in Iraq for the Americans. It consistently happens. It happened in Qana ten years ago, with the Israelis. And you know, the problem -- political problem that accrues from this is that, no matter what you say, it was still women and children that were killed, and they have to deal with the consequences.

Impossible to tell whether there had been an anti-gun emplacement or a missile launch site there. It would seem odd, because it was in a very precipitous part of the village, falling down into a canyon. There were quite a few houses together. I'm not saying it is impossible, but there certainly was no evidence of that when we were there.

O'BRIEN: You moved onto Bint Jbeil, and now you're in Tyre today. Let me ask you a bigger picture question. Has -- because of what's happened in Qana and because of the difficulties in -- for the Israeli army to actually get control of Bint Jbeil and Maroun al-Ras also -- has this all, this three weeks, almost, of fighting, really made Hezbollah stronger, do you think? Or is it that Hezbollah is near to being wiped out?

ANDERSON: Oh, I think the former rather than the latter. I mean, certainly, politically, you now have the -- effectively, the moderate government that President Bush said that he hoped would not defect (AUDIO GAP). Then you had the prime minister yesterday following Qana come out, sitting next to the political ally of Sheikh Nasrallah, the head of Hezbollah, praising Sheikh Nasrallah, praising Hezbollah and very angrily calling for an unconditional cease-fire.

This is the moderate government that the west hoped to shore up, and which was, in its own way, trying to extricate itself from this very strange cohabitation of power with Hezbollah in this country. This tragedy yesterday effectively pushed it over the edge.

Politically, it now becomes much more difficult for Israel and, for that matter, Washington, to achieve its aims here at this moment. And Hezbollah looks very strong. It may have had houses smashed. It may have had storehouses smashed, but politically, it would appear to be stronger than ever on the surface.

O'BRIEN: John Lee Anderson of "New Yorker" magazine. John, as always, nice to see you. Thank you for your insight. We certainly appreciate it.

HARRIS: What will the president say about the Middle East crisis today? President Bush waking up in Florida. Planned meetings on hurricane preparedness and the economy must now take a back seat to Middle East diplomacy.

CNN White House correspondent Ed Henry is live in Miami this morning.

Ed, good morning.

ED HENRY, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Tony.

That's right, the president this morning, in a short time, will be visiting the National Hurricane Center as we approach the first anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. We're also about 100 days from the mid-term elections. So the president will be here at 10:10 Eastern time, giving a speech at the port of Miami on the economy, one of the many domestic issues that he hopes Republicans focus on heading into November.

But try as he might, the president cannot shift the subject from all these global hot spots, especially Lebanon. So we are told at top of his economic speech, he will be talking about the latest violence in the Mideast and the way forward. But that way forward very unclear at this point, especially given the international outrage over the attack at Qana.

Before leaving the White House yesterday, the president called it a tragedy, but stopped short of calling for an immediate cease-fire.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The United States has resolved to work with members of the United Nations Security Council to develop a resolution that will enable the region to have a sustainable peace, a peace that lasts, a peace that will enable mothers and fathers to raise their children in a -- in a hopeful world. May God bless those who lost their lives.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HENRY: But the pressure only increasing on the White House, given all of the international calls for that immediate cease-fire. The president on the phone yesterday no less than three times with his secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, who is wrapping up her second diplomatic mission to the Mideast. And we're told that when the president returns to the White House this afternoon from Miami, he'll be getting a briefing directly from the secretary, who is already on her way back to Washington -- Tony.

HARRIS: CNN White House correspondent Ed Henry. Ed, thank you.

HENRY: Thank you.

O'BRIEN: Still to come this morning...

HARRIS: May I?

O'BRIEN: Oh, breakfast has arrived, yes. This is how we do it here. We can split it.

HARRIS: Whoo, thank you, thank you.

O'BRIEN: Two pieces of toast, one for each of us.

HARRIS: I guess I should wait until we get to the break.

O'BRIEN: Yes, that would be -- that's probably to be advised.

HARRIS: (INAUDIBLE) proper.

O'BRIEN: Have you heard that commercial for Head On?

HARRIS: Yes, repeatedly, incessantly, in my dreams.

O'BRIEN: You apply it directly to your forehead. That's it, that's the entire commercial. Andy's going to tell us this morning why Head On's commercial is working so well when he minds your business, just ahead.

Also this morning, we talk to a nun who wants to become a priest. Find out what the church has to say about that. That's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING. We're back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: On the question of women becoming priests, the Vatican says the issue was settled when Jesus chose 12 men as apostles. But today, a dozen women are breaking ranks with Rome and making history here in the U.S. They're becoming priests and deacons in an act of faith and defiance.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm Sheryl Bristol (ph) from Detroit, Michigan...

HARRIS (voice-over): Flying in the face of centuries of Catholic law, 12 American women will be ordained today as clergy in the Roman Catholic Church.

JOAN HOUK, BEING ORDAINED AS PRIEST: I am the first female to be ordained in the Roman Catholic women priests in Pittsburgh.

HARRIS: Eight women will proclaim themselves priests, four will become deacons. The ceremony, the first of its kind in the U.S., will take place on a boat in the Three Rivers in Pittsburgh. The women are devoted church members, but they won't have the church's blessing -- far from it. The Roman Catholic Church prohibits the ordination of women.

The Pittsburgh Diocese says, in a statement, "This unfortunate ceremony will take place outside the church and undermines the unity of the church. Those attempting to confer Holy Orders have, by their own actions, removed themselves from the church, as have those who present themselves for such an invalid ritual."

DR. VIRGINIA RUE, ORDAINED PRIEST: In this day and age, when women are the heads of companies and, you know, CEOs of this, that, and the other, and the Catholic Church is so far behind the times.

HOUK: It's really important that we have women in the ordained ministry of the Catholic Church, because without them, you are missing 50 percent of the people's voices.

HARRIS: Church observers say support for the ordination of women has grown over the years, and those taking part in today's historic ceremony are determined that it won't be the last.

HOUK: We've had a law for a long time that kept women from ordination for various reasons, and now we understand things differently, and we need to look at it in a new way. And by looking at it in a new way, we can change that law and open up ordination to women.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: Sister Bridget Mary Meehan is one of the eight women who will be ordained as a Roman Catholic priest today, and she's joining us from us Pittsburgh.

Sister, good to see you, good to talk to you.

BRIDGET MARY MEEHAN, BEING ORDAINED AS PRIEST: Thank you very much.

HARRIS: You are not under any illusion that the Roman Catholic Church will some time in the future, any time soon, acknowledge this ceremony today, are you?

MEEHAN: No, not right now. But I think in the future, yes. I think we're pioneers, paving the way.

HARRIS: Well, why? Why do you feel that way?

MEEHAN: I think as Rosa Parks led the civil rights movement, so we are leading the movement for women's equality in the church in all areas,, including priestly ministry. And I think you have to begin -- the people have to get a sense of what the new, renewed priesthood looks like.

So if we pioneer and model it, they will understand and see in the communities where we are rooted, what it feels like, what it is like to be treated as equals, where there's no gap between clergy and lay. We're working as one discipleship of equals, which by the way, is Jesus' vision in the Gospel.

HARRIS: So down the road, you're expecting that perhaps the church will acknowledge this, but...

MEEHAN: I am very much so expecting. I think the church is looking for us to model it so they can see what it looks like. Right now, you have a hierarchal, male-dominated structure, and they only know one way of being priests. We need to really renew the church and go back to the early times where Jesus treated women as partners and equals and women were empowered.

HARRIS: But to today's...

MEEHAN: Mary Magdalene was the first witness of the Resurrection, and the Samaritan woman was the first evangelist. Why not woman as equals? That's what Jesus' vision was. That's what we want for our church.

O'BRIEN: So today's ordination service. Largely symbolic. Obviously you feel it's even more than that?

MEEHAN: Oh, it's totally valid. Our bishops were ordained by Roman Catholic male bishops in full apostolic succession. But it was done secretly so that these bishops would not face reprisal by the Vatican.

So our orders are valid. Yes, they are illicit. That means unlawful, of course. But we understand that this is going to be a problem for the institutional church. However, our message is, we are loyal, devoted daughters of the church, and we want to make our church better and resemble the Gospel of Christ.

HARRIS: Loyal daughters of the church. I have to ask you personally, how comfortable or uncomfortable are you standing as you are in opposition to church doctrine? This is a church that you, at one time, and I guess still do, love.

MEEHAN: I do love -- I cherish our church. Actually, I feel we stand in the tradition. Because we have had women in the tradition condemned by the church because the church did not understand that they followed their conscience. For example, Joan of Arc. She was burned at a stake for being a heretic. Later on, she was canonized as a saint. And the pope is going to canonize Blessed Theodore Garrin (ph), founders of the Sisters of Providence, this October. She was ex-communicated and the bishop threatened her sisters with ex- communication.

Now, I want to point out that the letter we're getting from the bishops is not saying the word ex-communication. They have sort of made it a little softer. They're saying you, by your own choice, are choosing this. We are not by our own choice choosing this.

We are choosing consecration to the church. We are -- want to renew our church, and we're offering the church a new model of priestly ministry that's in communion with the whole people of God. There should not be a separation between clergy and lay, higher or lower. We're all one in Christ. That's what the Gospel said, and the Gospel's central.

HARRIS: We will be watching.

MEEHAN: Thank you.

HARRIS: Thanks for your time this morning. Sister Bridget Mary Meehan, we appreciate your time. Thanks.

MEEHAN: Thank you, Tony.

O'BRIEN: The Lebanese border town of Bint Jbeil has been the scene of the heaviest military losses for both Israel and Hezbollah. After a week of intense fighting, the town has been laid waste.

Karl Penhaul has just returned from there. He's on the phone from Tyre, in Lebanon.

Karl, we're going to show some of the pictures while you tell us a little bit about what you saw in Bint Jbeil. Good morning.

KARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.

We're, in fact, just on the road, back from Bint Jbeil now. The scene there is total destruction. We were down in the downtown area of Bint Jbeil, and it was hard to find a house that was still left standing. Every single house that we saw seemed to have kind of -- some kind of structural damage. Most of the houses were in complete ruins. We saw the debris from shrapnel, from bombs. We saw artillery shells both exploded and unexploded still lying in the streets. We also saw the shells from 30-millimeter cannon rounds. Those 30- millimeter cannon rounds presumably coming out of -- from an aircraft or from possibly an Apache helicopter.

But as I say, the buildings completely destroyed. And we also saw one or two people that were still making their way out of that town, but also towns a little closer to the border. As you know, Bint Jbeil itself is about a mile-and-a-half from the border. Incredibly, throughout the height of fighting, some people have managed to stay in homes or shelters that they had made for themselves around there. And only now, now that there's a 48-hour cessation of hostility, do they think it is safe enough to try to get out and try to find their way to more safety -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: That's what I think we're seeing right now, Karl, as we look at your pictures. It looks like a convoy led by the Red Cross, vans followed by a number of trucks and then cars behind them. Can you describe a little bit more for me how many people are still there, how many people are using this 48-hour reprieve to get out of town?

PENHAUL: There seems to be very few people left here. I counted possibly 20, 25 people that were leaving. We also have word that another group of 15 were also on their way and trying to leave. However, the fighting was so intense there that the people made their way out (INAUDIBLE) -- well, this doctor in fact, one of those who is still staying at Bint Jbeil hospital. The hospital has now lost power because the fuel ran out, and so the (INAUDIBLE) was going to leave from (INAUDIBLE) and destroyed the surgery there.

After that, he was leaving, but he said that in the height of the fighting, he treated 160 injured. He said that at least ten dead people came through the hospital and he said there are many, many more dead, that the people just buried them where they were killed or close to the village itself. The hospital is on the outskirts, and at the height of the fighting, was too dangerous to take the dead up to the hospital.

And just to give you some idea of how intense the fighting was there, the doctor told me that over a half hour period, he counted artillery shells falling on Bint Jbeil and he said he stopped counting after 300 artillery shells in half an hour -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Oh my goodness. Oh my goodness. Karl Penhaul with some of the pictures -- first pictures we're seeing from Bint Jbeil, as he mentioned, just about a mile or so from the border. And you can see just the absolute devastation of that town. Fierce, fierce fighting on both sides. The biggest losses have been seen in that town.

Karl, a little trouble with his audio. If you couldn't hear him, he was saying that it got so bad that they finally were just burying people where they fell on the street, and that one gentleman in the hospital said that after 300 artillery shells were fired in 30 minutes, that he lost the ability to even count them. We're going to take a short break and we are back in just a moment. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BUSINESS HEADLINES)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: We'll look at our top stories right after this quick break. Back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com