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American Morning

9/11 Pentagon Lies?; Crisis in the Middle East

Aired August 02, 2006 - 09:32   ET

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

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: A new report out this morning about the commission investigating the U.S. response to the September 11th terror attacks and the Pentagon. Let's get right to Barbara Starr, live for us in Washington D.C.
Good morning, Barbara.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Soledad.

Well, articles in "Vanity Fair" magazine and "The Washington Post" are highlighting new details about how much distrust the 9/11 Commission had of the Pentagon when officials testified before the commission about events regarding 9/11. What is new here, is that we are now learning that the commission was so concerned about all of this that it referred the matter to the Pentagon's inspector general to see if they had been lied to by the Pentagon, and there was even consideration of going to the Justice Department to look at a criminal probe.

One of the 9/11 commissioners, Tim Roemer, spoke to CNN earlier this morning, and said, quote, "We were extremely frustrated with the false statements we were getting. We were not sure of the intent, whether it was to deceive the commission or merely part of the fumbling bureaucracy.

Now all of this centered around what the Pentagon testified to about 9/11, the timeline of events, when it knew the planes had been hijacked and when it was able to scramble jets in the air.

In fact, the Pentagon back a year after it testified and corrected the record, acknowledging that it had made a number of mistakes in its original testimony.

We now also know that the DOD inspector general has completed its probe that was asked for by the commission, and a Pentagon spokesman tells us the following -- that quote: "The DOD inspector general has found nothing in the course of their review that indicates testimony by DOD was knowingly false."

But, of course, still, Soledad, very difficult for families to continue almost five years later to hear some of the details about the level of confusion about what happened on that day -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Yes, I bet it is. And I guess the key word in that statement is "knowingly," isn't it? STARR: It is indeed. The Pentagon did go back and correct the record, said that it kept looking at the material it had on hand, and it knew that it's original testimony had made a number of mistakes in timelines, reporting events, what it exactly knew on that day, on that morning, and when it knew it.

It went back and corrected the record on four events, two of the hijackings, whether it even knew about flight 93, of course, which crashed in Shanksville, and how quickly it was able to scramble jets. A lot of this was timeline issues, when it knew what it knew, but it just underscores again five years later the continuing confusion about that day, and underscores how suspicious the 9/11 Commission really was about whether they were getting the truth from the administration.

O'BRIEN: Just brutal for the family members. Barbara Starr for us this morning in Washington. Thanks, Barbara.

Let's get to the crisis in the Middle East now. Israel stepping up its ground offensive in Lebanon, fighting reported in several southern Lebanese cities. More than 25,000 Israeli troops are near the Lebanese/Syrian border. Israel also launched a special-operations attack near Balbeck in the Bekaa Valley, saying they captured five fighters, killed ten others. The Israeli military also striking at the Lebanese port city of Tyre. Israel officials say today has been one of the heaviest days for fighting so far for rocket attacks on northern Israel.

Now something you're going see only on CNN. For the last three weeks, the Israeli navy has been patrolling off the coast of Beirut. Its crews are on the lookout for ships that could be delivering arms to Hezbollah fighters.

John Vause is the first television network correspondent to get a look inside the flagship of this Naval blockade. He takes us on a tour of the ship.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN VAUSE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): This is the INS Lahab (ph), the flagship of the Israeli navy. It's a Korbit (ph) class missile ship, slightly smaller than a frigate, but still it is heavily armed. Right here there are torpedoes. Part of the armaments include harpoons, missiles and what they call a Barak (ph) anti-missile defense system. This is the flagship of the Israeli navy, and right now it's serving as the command post essentially for the Israeli naval blockade off the coast of Lebanon. A lot of the technology aboard this ship we can't show you, because of the Israeli censorship rules during wartime.

But some of the technology is in a room just down here. They call it the CIC, the command and control center, effectively the nerve center of Israel's blockade off the coast of Lebanon. A lot of the technology in this room we're not allowed to show you because of the Israeli censorship rules. It's high-tech. But effectively, what's in here is that the Israeli Navy can see a radius of around 180 nautical miles, vertically up and down the coast of Lebanon, able to see every vessel which comes and goes. And the purpose of the naval blockade, Israel says, is to stop weapons, in particular missiles from Iran and Syria, reaching Hezbollah, and also to prevent the two kidnapped Israeli soldiers from being smuggled out of Lebanon.

John Vause, CNN, onboard the INS Lahab.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(NEWSBREAK)

(WEATHER REPORT)

(WEATHER REPORT)

RICK SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: You know, to understand exactly what it is that this anti-Castro fervor is all about, you almost have to come to a place like south Florida, or as Soledad mentioned earlier, New Jersey, and meet some of the people, and understand the experiences that they have actually been through. Hear their stories about life under the regime, or trying to get away from the regime; incredible hardships that many of these people have endured trying to escape. Think of the rafters. Think of the people who've spent, oh, days, sometimes weeks at sea before they were finally rescued.

Sergio Parodin that type of story. He was Only seven years when he left Cuba on a large boat, then later a raft. Today he's a college student here in Miami, and he's good enough to talk to us.

His story will, I believe, amaze you. It begins in 1994. Take us there. You get on a boat. You decide that you're going to leave Cuba. What happens?

SERGIO PARODIN, CUBAN EXILE: We get on a boat around 3:00 in the morning, and we embark with -- along with 72 people. And after seven miles off the coast of Cuba, we've been attacked by three Cuban tugboats with large...

SANCHEZ: So Cuban military boats came out to where you were. You say attacked. What does that mean?

PARODIN: We were fired with large cans of water, that contained large pressures of water to turn off fires in the ocean. And we were being wrecked with their boats, and we crashed around in the ocean until our boat disintegrated on top of the water.

SANCHEZ: So people went overboard?

PARODIN: Yes, people were all over the water.

SANCHEZ: How many people were on the boat?

PARODIN: Seventy-two. Seventy-two people.

SANCHEZ: Did you have family members on the boat?

PARODIN: I had five family members on the boat, and -- which I lost three family members.

SANCHEZ: Who died?

PARODIN: My mom, my brother and an uncle of mine.

SANCHEZ: You were seven?

PARODIN: Seven years old.

SANCHEZ: Do you remember that?

PARODIN: I remember a lot of things.

SANCHEZ: Do you remember your mother passing away? Did she drown?

PARODIN: I believe she drowned. Everybody was in the water, holding each other and trying to survive, trying to get a breath of air. Because they were making twisters and tornadoes inside the water to drown everybody so there would be no survivors.

SANCHEZ: Why would the Cuban gun boats do that?

PARODIN: There were -- they had no mercy. They wanted everybody who escaped Cuba to die. Either to die or take them back to prison. And the solution was just to kill them.

SANCHEZ: So they took you back in custody to the island? I imagine you were seven, they didn't put you in prison, did they?

PARODIN: They put my father in prison, and my aunt, which was on the boat, took me back to my house. They questioned us basically the whole day, and then they put my father in prison for a month.

SANCHEZ: Did you finally -- your father got out?

PARODIN: My father got out after a month. And after five days, we started building a raft.

SANCHEZ: You started building a raft to come to the United States?

PARODIN: Mmm hmm.

SANCHEZ: Did you build it and did you do it?

PARODIN: Yes. They built it in five days, approximately a week. And after a week, we embarked it again.

SANCHEZ: So you got on a raft, just started floating the Gulf Stream, hoping that it would bring to you Florida?

PARODIN: Yes.

SANCHEZ: Did it?

PARODIN: Uh-huh.

SANCHEZ: What was it like? I mean, you're out in the middle of the ocean in the middle of nowhere on a little raft with your father and how many other people?

PARODIN: Nine. Nine others on the raft.

SANCHEZ: You must have been scared.

PARODIN: Definitely.

SANCHEZ: Were you picked up by the Coast Guard?

PARODIN: We were picked up by the Coast Guard two or three days afterwards, and we were taken to Guantanamo -- Guantanamo Bay, where they kept us in Guantanamo for five months and a half. And after that, they gave us permits to come to the United States.

SANCHEZ: And were you able to make it, and you're kind of a bit of a success story now. You're going to college. What are you studying?

PARODIN: Civil engineering, Miami-Dade College.

SANCHEZ: And things are going well for you?

PARODIN: Yes, they are.

SANCHEZ: Thanks for talking to us. It's an amazing story. And you certainly are a credit to what people do when they believe that they need to get to freedom. Let me ask one quick thing. Why do you think you and your -- or your parents, in this case, made that decision, to really risk their lives and your life at sea?

PARODIN: I'm pretty sure my dad wanted a future for me. And I definitely did not have that in Cuba. I was -- nobody has the liberty to study whatever they want or achieve whatever they want to be in Cuba. So he gave -- he tried to give me that freedom, and that's why he brought me to the United States.

SANCHEZ: So it was about reaching freedom?

PARODIN: Reaching freedom.

SANCHEZ: Sergio Parodin, thanks so much for talking to us.

PARODIN: You're welcome.

SANCHEZ: We appreciate it. Take care.

What's interesting about stories like Sergio's is, if you think of it, hearken back to some of the video, Soledad, that we were seeing in the late 1990s of all those rafters being picked up day after day and perhaps all the ones that didn't really make it, who may have been lost at sea, you start to understand his story and all the other stories that there may be out there of people who somehow found a way to make it to the United States, looking for freedom.

Soledad, back to you.

O'BRIEN: All right, Rick, thanks.

Business news is up next, with news that McDonald's is planning to sell healthy snacks. We'll tell you about their new menu item, just ahead.

And Mel Gibson's apology, version 2.0. We'll talk to a woman who was at a restaurant with Gibson in the hours just before his arrest. What she has to say about his condition, just ahead. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: Welcome back, everybody. We're getting this word coming to us from the Associated Press this morning. It says that that investigation that Haditha, the deaths of 24 Iraqis in the town of Haditha, back on November 19th, is nearly complete. And apparently that investigation, according to the Associated Press, is supporting the accusations that, in fact, U.S. marines deliberately shot unarmed Iraqi civilians. They are quoting a defense department official.

The question was, of course, was this attack on the civilians deliberate? You'll remember that women and children, some children as young as 1-year-old, were killed. Agents of the Naval Criminal Investigation Service apparently completed their initial work. They could be asked to do more work, probe a little bit further, as marine corps and Navy prosecutors review the evidence and determine now what the criminal charges will be in the case coming. That's coming from two Pentagon officials who have discussed this with the Associated Press on the condition of anonymity.

So looks as if there is some movement in the investigation into what happened, the incident at Haditha that happened on November 19th. And it looks, at this point -- at least early word is that the investigation is supporting the accusations that marines, in fact, did deliberately kill 24 unarmed Iraqi civilians on that day. We're going to continue, obviously, to follow up on this story.

Got to take a short break. We're back in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: We've been talking this morning about Mel Gibson's arrest over the weekend. He's now issued a second apology for those anti-Semitic remarks he made. An exclusive look this morning about how Gibson behaved before he even got behind the wheel of his car.

Brooke Anderson talks to someone who saw Gibson the night of his arrest.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BROOKE ANDERSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The same day Mel Gibson made a plea to the Jewish community asking for forgiveness for the vitriolic and harmful remarks he made during his DUI arrest, CNN obtained a letter written by a Los Angeles rabbi asking Gibson to speak at his temple on Yom Kippur, the Jewish day of atonement. Rabbi David Barron (ph) feels it would be an important time for Gibson to directly express his remorse.

Gibson admits he made anti-Semitic statements to a sheriff's deputy after he was pulled over. Quote: "There is no excuse, nor should there be any tolerance, for anyone who thinks or expresses any kind of anti-Semitic remark." Gibson added, "Please note from my heart that I am not an anti-Semite. I am not a bigot."

Gibson's publicist wouldn't comment on whether Gibson plans to accept the rabbi's invitation.

POUNEH NASSERI, WITNESSED GIBSON BEFORE ARREST: Well, Mel Gibson was there, and he was drunk walking around, talking to everybody, and just having fun.

ANDERSON: Pouneh Nasseri, who was at Malibu's Moon Shadows Restaurant Thursday night, is talking exclusively to CNN about seeing Gibson there before his arrest.

NASSERI: He was talking to a group of my friends, and he stood and said hi to each one of us, and smiling, talking. He wasn't out of control, but he was drunk-happy.

ANDERSON: Photos have surfaced, showing him reveling with a variety of patrons, at times toting what appears to be a beer bottle.

NASSERI: He had a drink in his hand. He seemed a little drunk.

I was surprised that why wouldn't someone like that hire a driver to pick him up.

ANDERSON: Gibson registered a blood alcohol level of .12, above the California legal limit of .08.

(on camera): Gibson isn't the only one suffering a lingering hangover from this incident. This has turned into a huge headache for the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, as well. A department watchdog group is looking into accusations that authorities tried to cover up Gibson's comments in the initial reports detailing Gibson's arrest.

(voice-over): The sheriff's department is saying there was no cover up. ABC announced it is canceling plans for a Holocaust-themed miniseries that Gibson's company was going to produce. But the network said the decision was unrelated to Gibson's arrest. Gibson also said he's not concentrating on professional matters, while he focuses on a program of recovery.

Brooke Anderson, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(BUSINESS HEADLINES) O'BRIEN: We'll take a short break. We're back in just a moment with a look at the top stories.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: We're out of time. Let's get right to Daryn Kagan. She's at the CNN Center. She'll be with you for the next couple hours.

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