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American Morning

Airstrike in Qana; Condoleezza Rice Hopes to Take Peace Plan to United Nations; Baghdad Kidnappings

Aired July 31, 2006 - 09:00   ET

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

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Both sides of the border this morning. Israel is now apologizing for another deadly airstrike.
And after a disappointing weekend of diplomacy, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is now asking the U.N.'s help.

TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Gunmen dressed as Iraqi police stormed Baghdad's Chamber of Commerce, kidnapping more than a dozen employees.

O'BRIEN: High temperatures and heat warnings and advisories all over the map. Will the heat wave that is gripping the nation loosen its stranglehold any time soon?

HARRIS: And actor Mel Gibson arrested on suspicion of DUI, but the real scandal seems to be what happened after he was read his rights.

A closer look just ahead on this AMERICAN MORNING.

O'BRIEN: Good morning. Welcome back, everybody.

I'm Soledad O'Brien.

HARRIS: And I'm Tony Harris, in for Miles O'Brien.

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

HARRIS: Good to be with you.

O'BRIEN: Israel says that its warplanes today hit a vehicle believed to be carrying a senior Hezbollah militant. It was not. In fact, the vehicle was carrying Lebanese army soldiers. The aide to a general was killed.

The airstrike came after Israel agreed to a 48-hour halt in its air campaign. That, after scores of people were killed on Sunday in Qana, Lebanon.

Let's get right to CNN's Brent Sadler. He's in Qana this morning.

Brent, good morning.

BRENT SADLER, CNN BEIRUT BUREAU CHIEF: Good morning, Soledad.

Behind me you can see the building that was destroyed. Inside that building, during an Israeli airstrike, were scores of Lebanese civilians, many of them children, taking refuge from Israeli bombardments.

This is a Hezbollah sympathetic area. It is Qana, and Qana all around as you enter this area has been tremendously damaged by Israeli air activity over the past number of days. But specifically, world attention is being focused on the events leading up to the strike against this building.

The Israelis say that Hezbollah was firing Katyusha rockets close to this location. We see no proof on the ground, but I wouldn't expect we would be able to given the fact the whole area is covered with concrete, and it's difficult to see any tracks of any activity by Hezbollah.

I can tell you that the past several hours we've been here, Soledad, I can hear Israeli drones. They are pilotless surveillance aircraft flying over head. And I spoke to a representative from Amnesty International, and she said that given the fact those drones had been very active in the days, according to eyewitnesses, before the strike against this building, that the Israelis should have known that there were civilians in this area when that strike was ordered.

Now, why has Qana touched off such raw emotion? Why has world attention swung fiercely around the diplomatic level after this attack? You have to turn back the pages of history, Soledad, and take a look at what happened in 1996, April 18th, during another Israeli air and artillery blitz set out to destroy Hezbollah.

It was called Israel's Grapes of Wrath offensive. During that offensive, Israel shelled a United Nations compound here also at Qana, killing more than a hundred Lebanese civilians who were taking shelter with U.N. peacekeepers. That's why so much attention has been focused on this town of Qana.

Back to you, Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Yes, those pictures, really, I mean, you almost can't tell which ones you are looking at from this weekend and which ones you're looking at from 10 years ago.

Brent Sadler for us this morning.

Brent, thank you.

People in Lebanon are observing a day of mourning for those who were killed in Qana. There's still plenty of anger and outrage in the Arab world. Dozens of people -- thousands of people flooded the streets of Beirut on Sunday in what became a violent protest. Some of the demonstrators broke into the building housing the United Nations offices there.

There were also some smaller protests earlier today. Those took place in Damascus, Syria.

HARRIS: Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice may be feeling a little heat to get something done on the diplomatic front. Rice is on her way home from Israel right now with a peace plan in her pocket. And she hopes to take it to the United Nations later this week.

CNN's John King is live in Jerusalem right now.

John, good morning.

JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Tony.

Heading home from what was a grueling Middle East diplomacy mission, at times she was described as exhausted. At others, we were told she was exasperated. Now she is heading home with a plan she hopes quiets the Bush administration's critics and redeems her own skills as a peacemaker.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KING (voice over): Fresh from one diplomatic achievement, Secretary of State Rice set her sights on the bigger, much more difficult goal, a full cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah.

CONDOLEEZZA RICE, SECRETARY OF STATE: To make a cease-fire more than words alone, the international community must be prepared to support and sustain it. And I call on my international partners to do so this week in New York.

KING: Secretary Rice immediately headed home to oversee negotiations at the United Nations, voicing confidence there is a consensus on an approach that includes a permanent cease-fire; deployment of the Lebanese army in areas now controlled by Hezbollah; an international embargo against rearming of Hezbollah; and creation of a new national force to police any cease-fire.

RICE: And Lebanon should, assisted by as appropriate by the international community, disarm unauthorized armed groups.

KING: Secretary Rice made no mention of concessions by Israel, but U.S. and Israeli sources tell CNN she was assured this weekend Israel is ready to discuss prisoner exchanges and returning disputed land to Lebanon as long as the soldiers Hezbollah kidnapped to provoke this conflict are released. Secretary Rice spoke hours after forcing a significant Israeli concession, a 48-hour suspension of airstrikes in southern Lebanon to clear the way for major humanitarian missions.

RICE: These are important yet temporary measures.

KING: The suspension of Israeli airstrikes in the south is a direct fallout of the tragedy bombing at Qana and the first time the United States forced a major Israeli concession since the hostilities began nearly three weeks ago.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KING: Now, Egypt's president again this morning joining the chorus around the world, saying the cease-fire should be immediate and unconditional. The plan advocated by Secretary Rice does not do that, Tony, but she hopes by getting action in the Security Council this week, perhaps as early as Thursday, she will quiet those critics. And most of all, she hopes it will end the conflict, perhaps by the end of this week.

We'll see how her mission plays out, a very tough one -- Tony.

HARRIS: That's for sure.

CNN's John King in Jerusalem for us.

John, thank you.

And President Bush is expected to address the Middle East crisis in just about an hour. CNN will have coverage of the president's remarks starting at 10:10 Eastern Time.

O'BRIEN: Iraqi officials are now searching for 17 people who were kidnapped today in Baghdad. The gunmen were dressed as Iraqi police and they stormed the Chamber of Commerce.

Harris Whitbeck is live for us in Baghdad this morning.

Harris, good morning. What happened?

HARRIS WHITBECK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.

We have some new information from the interior ministry on what turned out to be two mass kidnappings which occurred in Baghdad this morning. The first one at the Iraqi-American Chamber of Commerce in which 12 people were kidnapped by a group of gunmen who were dressed in military uniforms. They arrived at that location in a convoy of vehicles, herded everybody into those cars and sped away.

Just a few blocks away from there, a telecommunications company, a company that sells mobile phones, a group of gunmen also stormed that office location and took 14 other people away. So obviously, as you said, a manhunt is on. And this is not the first time this has happened here.

There had been a lull in violence just yesterday as more U.S. troops are on the streets here. But there have been more incidents of violence to report today beyond those kidnappings.

Near northern city of Tikrit, five people who were traveling in a car were stopped and shot in the head by unidentified gunmen. And gunmen also killed a high-ranking member of the Iraqi National Intelligence Service and an adviser to the Health Ministry this morning.

So, things certainly not as calm as some people would like them to be here in Baghdad -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: No, certainly not.

Harris Whitbeck for us this morning. Harris, thanks for the update -- Tony.

HARRIS: Well, New Orleans' image is in danger of another -- after another bloody weekend. City officials worry that growing violence will hurt tourism just as the city is trying to bounce back from last year's hurricanes.

Sean Callebs is live for us in New Orleans this morning.

Sean, good morning.

SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Tony.

Indeed, the city is fighting not only a problem of a growing murder rate, but also a public perception around the nation this city is once again becoming too violent for visitors.

Now, the state's governor has weighed in on all this. And she has been keeping the National guard in the city. They have been patrolling for the past number of weeks, beyond the September deadline, to pull out of this area. This is being done to give New Orleans police more time to fight what they say is a drug trade that is fueling this violence.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CALLEBS (voice over): Crime tape, police lights, and another bloody weekend in post-Katrina New Orleans.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't know. There's nothing going on. They got my grandbaby. Please bring him to me.

CALLEBS: Six people dead in three separate shootings this weekend. And this after five teenagers were killed a month and a half ago in a bloody shooting.

Authorities blame the recent violence on the drug trade. New Orleans is struggling to rebuild, bring its residents back, and see tourists once again fill the French Quarter. But ask Mayor Ray Nagin about a perceived crime problem and he offers this rosy assessment...

MAYOR RAY NAGIN (D), NEW ORLEANS: The National guard, state troopers and the NOPD have done an incredible job. Crime is dropping dramatically.

CALLEBS: City leaders say fewer people were killed this year in New Orleans compared to the same date last year. But there are far fewer citizens in the city right now.

In an effort to allay fears that could cripple the rebuilding effort, police are telling tourists and law abiding citizens they aren't being targeted.

WARREN J. RILEY, NEW ORLEANS POLICE SUPT.: But it is clearly, clearly people who live the life that are involved in drugs and violence who are killing each other and who are dying. CALLEBS: And they say the spate of killings also coincides with government benefits running out for Katrina victims.

JOHN BRYSON, NEW ORLEANS POLICE DEPUTY SUPT.: What is happening is that they have no jobs, they have no place to stay, so therefore they take to the streets and try to support themselves through the narcotics trade, which is dangerous.

CALLEBS: In fact, police say this sign is right on the mark.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And I don't know what's next, what we're going to do with the young people.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CALLEBS: And I asked the police yesterday if this city -- city leaders simply were in a denial state, refusing to believe that crime is growing here. They say that they understand that crime is growing, but they say it is not out of control.

And Tony, we really have to focus on what the deputy superintendent of police here said, that the spike in the murder rate really coincides with about the time FEMA and government benefits ran out. So people who had fled to Houston and other areas are now coming back to this city, and what we are seeing, they say, is a bloody battle over drug turf.

HARRIS: Hey, Sean, it sounds like Louisiana's governor, Kathleen Blanco, has a decision to make about the National Guard, doesn't she?

CALLEBS: Well, yes, they have to decide exactly how long these troops are going to be here. There aren't that many, between 200 and 300. Basically, they are patrolling the areas that are simply flooded out, New Orleans east, the Lower Ninth Ward, areas where people aren't living. That is supposed to give police the chance to get out of those areas and focus on these pockets with the drug trade where heroin and crack is going on.

HARRIS: CNN's Sean Callebs in New Orleans for us.

Sean, thank you.

O'BRIEN: Record-high temperatures are expected to grip the nation again today. Heat advisories are now in effect for Chicago and St. Louis. It's hot also in Minneapolis. And the hot weather is moving east, according to Chad, who is at the CNN Center for us.

East would be where, hmm, Chad, we are.

What's up with that?

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, northeast, east, even Montreal, Toronto breaking records.

(WEATHER REPORT)

HARRIS: Boy. OK, Chad. Thank you.

MYERS: You bet.

HARRIS: Well, still to come, an Israeli airstrike in southern Lebanon this morning despite agreeing to take 48 hours off. How is Lebanon responding? We'll take to an adviser to the Lebanese prime minister. That's next.

O'BRIEN: Then, look at these pictures. A car, wow, smashes right through the gas station, hits another vehicle, triggers a big fire. Nobody is hurt. We'll tell you what happened.

HARRIS: And part one of our weeklong series on autism. Today we ask the question, what is autism?

Dr. Sanjay Gupta has the answer.

Stay with us on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

MOHAMAD CHATAH, ADVISER TO LEBANESE PRIME MINISTER: This is insane. The firing should stop. It should be a complete cease-fire, and work should be to make the cease-fire last. And we do have a plan for this, and we should all be focused on that.

O'BRIEN: The plan in this temporary cessation of strikes, I should say, was to allow humanitarian aid in, to allow refugees, evacuees to get out of the country if they need to, or get to a safer part of the country. Are you seeing progress on both of those fronts?

CHATAH: If there is progress, it's not enough. We still have difficulty getting supplies to the refugees. The south and a good part of the other part of the country is cut up into pieces by the bombing of bridges and roads and other facilities.

Yes, we're trying our best to get relief to the 800,000 or 900,000 people who fled their homes, but this is not good enough. We should have full-fledge humanitarian relief without obstruction from bombs of the Israelis or from any other source. We want the cease- fire to start. And as I said before, we want to focus, one, on the humanitarian relief, and, two, making the cease-fire a permanent one.

O'BRIEN: Lebanese officials made it very clear to Secretary Rice apparently that she was not welcome in the wake of that terrible attack in Qana. Is that going to change? Will you welcome the secretary back to have discussions, continued discussions?

CHATAH: Look, we've been working with the United States administration as the perhaps most important member of the Security Council, and a country that is involved in the Middle East in a very intimate way. We have been working with the U.S. administration, with the -- with the State Department, Secretary Rice, and we will continue to work with them. In the aftermath of the tragedy in Qana, it was impossible to talk about anything else but the tragedy itself and the need for an immediate cease-fire. But we are talking, and today we're talking to the French minister of foreign affairs. And we'll be talking to others so that all those who want peace and security in the south can pull their efforts together to reach this, tomorrow, not next week.

O'BRIEN: Let me play for you what Dan Gillerman, who is the Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, had to say in the wake of these attacks.

Let's listen to him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAN GILLERMAN, ISRAELI AMB. TO U.N.: The Hezbollah is the one that caused you all the pain. The Hezbollah is a monster you have allowed to grow. If you would have taken care of it before, if you would have deployed your forces in the south, this would never happen.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: He has -- they have said and apologized for the attacks, but he's also clearly saying that Hezbollah, by planting itself within communities, sort of invites these kinds of attacks. Hezbollah is to blame for the killings of the civilians.

What's your reaction?

CHATAH: I think this argument is frankly morally outrageous. To blame babies and civilians for anything is insane.

I mean, you cannot justify the killing of civilians in the name of self-defense or to say that a third party is responsible. You cannot target sophisticated aircraft and huge bombs on civilian neighborhoods and say, well, it's somebody else who is responsible because they should have done this or that.

O'BRIEN: Well, but, sir, let me stop you there, because, of course, it begs the question, then what to do, if indeed, as has been suggested by many, many people, Hezbollah is firing in civilian areas, rolling the weaponry in and out, how do you -- how do you root out Hezbollah? To some degree, isn't Hezbollah responsible when there's a return of fire that hits a civilian?

CHATAH: It's really not that complicated. It's straightforward. The firing should stop by both sides. But that's not enough. There are pending issues on the border that should be resolved and can be resolved.

There is a piece of Lebanon that Israel still occupies, and that borders the Golan Heights. There is a solution for that. We suggested in our platform and the plan we submitted to the international community to put those 40 square kilometers -- that's some 20 square miles -- to put that piece of the border under U.N. jurisdiction until the issue is settled between Syria and Lebanon as to the exact borderline.

Other than that, we do not have issues that cannot be resolved, and we cannot continue to fire at each other, or Hezbollah and Israel firing at each other and bickering about who is to blame. There is a way out.

We want to go to the Security Council and say, please, we want to have a cease-fire, and we want a cease-fire that lasts, and here is the plan. The whole of the country is behind the Lebanese government and its plan to end this once and for all.

O'BRIEN: Mohamad Chatah is an adviser to the Lebanese prime minister, Fouad Siniora.

Thank you for talking with us, sir. We appreciate it.

CHATAH: You're welcome.

HARRIS: And still ahead on AMERICAN MORNING, a blow to one of the most notorious prison gangs in the country. We will take a closer look at that.

But first, our special series, "Inside Autism." Dr. Sanjay Gupta helps explain this mysterious disorder.

Stay with us. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: You know, a decade ago we rarely heard the word "autism." Today, it's something parents fear and maybe children are living with.

Senior Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta takes us "Inside Autism" this week in a special five-part series. He begins with a look at just what autism is.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SR. MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Eight-year-old Jordan (ph) and his 7-year-old sister Gina Bates (ph) have both been diagnosed with autism. And when you meet them, it's hard to believe they have the same disorder.

For sure, autism is complex, hard to define, and a bit of a mystery.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They are hard to find, but there are six...

GUPTA: And there is still no way to test for it. There are many types of autism.

TOMMY BATES, FATHER OF 2 AUTISTIC CHILDREN: She is moderate in some areas. She's severe in others. You know? So it's so complex, but her official diagnosis is moderately autistic. Our son is PDD- NOS, which was his original diagnosis, and that has now changed to Asperger's.

GUPTA: Autism has been broken down into five disorders that make up what is called Pervasive Developmental Disorders, or PDD. They are Autistic Disorder, Pervasive Disorder Not Otherwise Specified, or PDD- NOS. The less common, Rett Syndrome and Childhood Disintegrative Disorder and Asperger Syndrome, which is on the low end of the autism spectrum.

Doctors believe most autism is genetic, but beyond that it's difficult to define what exactly autism is.

DR. FRED VOLKMAR, CHILD PSYCHIATRIST, YALE UNIV.: For a child to have autism they have to have significant problems in social interaction. That's where the word "autism," comes from, living in your own world.

GUPTA: Regardless of the type, one thing has become more clear.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So what can we do if we feel nervous?

GUPTA: The number of children living with autism is rising and is now higher than ever before. Today, as many as one out of every 166 children will be born autistic.

Boys outnumber girls four to one. But it is girls who often have more severe autism. We know this because doctors are tracking and diagnosing autism more than ever before.

WENDY STONE, VANDERBILT UNIV. AUTISM RESEARCH: It's really the absence of behaviors. It's not the presence of unusual behavior.

GUPTA: Jessica and Tommy Bates don't concern themselves too much with definitions. They have not one, but two autistic children. And every day they simply try to figure out how to help them.

JESSICA BATES, MOTHER OF 2 AUTISTIC CHILDREN: That's the million-dollar question. It's not like with a cancer patient you can say, OK, let's try chemo or radiation. You just have to, you know, bide your time and start one thing, see if it works, and if not, move on to something else.

GUPTA: As the Bates now know, every child can be different. Siblings of children with autism are at higher risk of also having the disorder, but so far the other children in the Bates' family , 2-year- old Chloe (ph) and 1-year-old Gabriel seem fine.

Little Gina (ph) seems to have been affected the most, but in many ways she teaches her family lessons every single day.

T. BATES: Our daughter is a blessing. Both of our children, all four of our children, but especially Gina (ph). Every day she's helped me grow so much.

GUPTA: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, reporting.

(END VIDEOTAPE) HARRIS: And tomorrow, in part two of Sanjay's series, a look at some of the possible causes and how researchers are dealing with the disorder for which there is no cure.

A short break. We're back with this morning's top stories right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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