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American Morning
Aid to Southern Lebanon; Marine Sergeant Suing Congressman John Murtha for Libel; Withering Workforce?
Aired August 03, 2006 - 06:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back, everybody. I'm Soledad O'Brien.
RICK SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Rick Sanchez, filling in for Miles O'Brien.
Had to leave you yesterday, but good to be back with you today.
O'BRIEN: Thank you. It's nice to have you all week. We appreciate it.
Let's get right to what's happening in the Middle East.
Israeli warplanes once again pounding the southern suburbs of Beirut. That, as more than two dozen Hezbollah rockets land in northern Israel. Yesterday Hezbollah fired more than 200 rockets from Lebanon.
With southern Lebanon under constant barrage from Israeli airstrikes and artillery fire, it's making humanitarian aid efforts even more very dangerous. Still, some of the aid is getting through.
Let's get right to CNN's Karl Penhaul. He's live for us in Tyre in southern Lebanon.
Karl, good morning.
KARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.
And a lot of those rockets, those Hezbollah rockets that you referred to there that landed in Israel yesterday did go out from positions to the east and south of Tyre yesterday. We saw many barrages going out. And this morning we've heard the response, pounding artillery fire from Israeli positions just down close to the border. But that 48-hour lull in airstrikes did allow many civilians to get out of those border villages.
Aid is coming in through Tyre now. But still, getting the aid out to those outlying villages is still wrought with many difficulties.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PENHAUL (voice over): A welcome sight for a war-torn city: 200 tons of international aid sails into Tyre harbor. The ship's hull is emblazoned with freshly painted Red Cross, the guarantee of safe passage past the Israeli warships blockading Lebanon's coast.
Today, it's bringing basic food supplies and cooking kits.
(on camera): It's taking (INAUDIBLE) freighter about eight hours to sail from Cyprus here to the port of Tyre. But now as they begin offloading some of this aid, it seems that thing are going to be far from straightforward.
(voice over): At dock side, a Lebanese customs officer tells an international Red Cross worker he cannot unload 5,000 gallons of diesel needed to run water pumps in far-flung villages. Even in desperate times there's red tape.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can take the decision upon the minister of energy.
PENHAUL: Before heading into the countryside with these supplies, aid officials must get a pledge from the warring parties not to attack their aid convoys.
ROLAND HUGUENIN, ICRC SPOKESMAN: We send maps with key positions of all of the villages we want to stop at. And we have this information passed on to the Lebanese side and to the Israeli side. And by the next morning we normally have either a green light or a red light.
PENHAUL: After a 24-hour lull, Israel resumed airstrikes Wednesday morning around Tyre in retaliation against Hezbollah launching more rockets from the city's outskirts.
For now it's too dangerous for the Doctors Without Borders charity to venture outside Tyre, so they're distributing washing kits, along with diapers and powdered baby milk to around 400 refugees at this school in town.
Relief worker Hakim Khaldi says the risks are keeping many other aid organizations away.
HAKIM KHALDI, DOCTORS WITHOUT BORDERS: It's quite difficult because there is not so many international organizations, but mainly we found local organizations, many Lebanese organizations who have been doing a very, very huge job.
PENHAUL: Many of the refugees are impatient after three weeks of Israeli air and artillery bombardment.
This man tries to fight one aid worker as he grows frustrated with the long wait. Others drag him out of punching range.
Back at the port, dockers work fast to unload the (INAUDIBLE). The crew wants to up anchors by late afternoon. They feel they've already spent long enough in harm's way.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PENHAUL: So, of course, Soledad, there is still a great humanitarian need here in southern Lebanon, but aid agencies are weighing that need against their need to keep their personnel safe -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Yes, clearly, very, very risky.
Karl Penhaul for us this morning in Tyre.
Karl, thanks -- Rick.
SANCHEZ: There's still been no public sightings of Cuban leader Fidel Castro since word of his intestinal surgery, but the head of Cuba's parliament did talk about Castro's condition on a New York radio show, saying that Castro was "very alive." Also, Castro's sister, who lives in exile in Miami, says she's been told he is out of intensive care. And what about the celebrations that she has been seeing since she has been in Miami?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JUANITA CASTRO, FIDEL CASTRO'S SISTER: I am very upset about this, the show that they had the last night, two days ago, you know, I don't think it's necessary. He's not dead. He's very sick, but he's not dead.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: That's Juanita Castro. She also predicts the rein of her other brother, Raul, is very temporary. Raul still hasn't been seen since -- at least not in public, anyway -- since his brother's surgery.
Arizona drying out after lots of flooding. The governor is ready to declare a state of emergency in the southern part of the state. Residents left with a muddy mess are now trying to clear it up. The owners estimate more than $75,000 so far in damages.
In central Kansas, winds up to 100 miles an hour tearing down trees, smashing windows, flipping over cars. Police say the winds also swept some cars off a major highway. No reports of any serious injuries.
People in south-central Minnesota cleaning up from tornadoes there. Take a look at these pictures. Funnel clouds touching down Tuesday night. One family says that they were cooking dinner when suddenly their house was lifted from its foundation. All were able to make it out safely.
And on the East Coast, people are trying to cool off from a blistering heat, but the heat wave is taking its toll. Thousands of customers in New York, New jersey and Connecticut without power this morning.
So, a lot of those folks going to be asking, "When do we get a break?" Chad Myers says it has to do with a storm.
Right, Chad? I've been listening. CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes. Cold front -- a cold front, Rick, yes.
(WEATHER REPORT)
O'BRIEN: All right, Chad. Thanks for watching it.
MYERS: You're welcome.
O'BRIEN: Happening "In America" this morning, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has decided he will testify about Iraq before the Senate Armed Services Committee this morning, after all. Secretary Rumsfeld initially said he was too busy, and that angered some lawmakers.
Secretary Rumsfeld hasn't appeared before the committee in public since back in February.
A serial killer in the Phoenix area may have struck again. Investigators say a woman was murdered in nearby Mesa. The shooting was similar to some other cases. In the area, police are now searching for two serial killers blamed for eight murders since May of 2005.
House Republicans are traveling around the country, trying to gain support for a tough new immigration bill. Members of the House Judiciary Committee held a meeting in San Diego yesterday saying undocumented workers are costing taxpayers. The Senate, meanwhile, has passed its own more lenient bill.
A day by the pool turned dangerous in Newport News, Virginia. Take a look at this.
Seven children and a contractor were taken to a hospital yesterday. The contractor had mistakenly mixed two chemicals and released toxic gas. The pool was evacuated; dozens of fire fighters and hazmat team had to respond. Fortunately, nobody was seriously hurt.
And Marie Osmond's spokeswoman says she's just trying to set the record straight. She says the singer spent a few days in a Utah hospital last week because she had a bad reaction to medication. It was not, she says, because of a failed suicide attempt. That was reported in "The National Enquirer." Osmond is now said to be vacationing with her family.
SANCHEZ: And here is one of those stories we don't know quite what to make of, so we'll just present it to you and let you make of it what you wish.
Elvis Presley's beloved teddy bear is now but a memory. A guard dog apparently went berserk at a teddy bear exhibition show in England and, well, ripped the stuffing right out of Mabel -- that's Mabel.
The dog was just doing his normal patrols when suddenly he just went crazy and just went after the teddy bear, Mabel. Tore off his head, we're told.
A local aristocrat bought Mabel for $75,000 because Mabel belonged to "The King," after all. The dog, meanwhile, has been relieved of his guard duties pending an investigation.
Well...
O'BRIEN: Who reimburseds the $75,000 that the dog has just shredded?
SANCHEZ: Maybe it's more money now because they can sell it twice. You've got the head and the torso.
O'BRIEN: Still to come this morning, did Congressman John Murtha go too far?
SANCHEZ: It's a teddy bear.
O'BRIEN: A Marine sergeant says the war critic is bad-mouthing him and he's fighting back now.
SANCHEZ: And then -- I apologize for that.
O'BRIEN: Moving on...
SANCHEZ: You teddy bear lover, you.
Then, many workers are discovering that their paychecks are going down. They're not thrilled about it. Andy explains. He's "Minding Your Business."
O'BRIEN: And the immigration debate makes its way to the breakfast table. We'll tell you how it's actually affecting what you're paying for your morning glass of OJ.
That story, much more ahead, right here on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: Welcome back.
A Marine sergeant connected to the killing of several civilians in the Iraqi town of Haditha is suing Pennsylvania Congressman John Murtha. The sergeants says that Murtha is bad-mouthing him.
Sergeant Frank Wuterich accuses Murtha, a critic of the war, with libel.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): The libel suit by the staff sergeant who led the Marines in Haditha cites these and other comments made by Congressman John Murtha.
REP. JOHN MURTHA (D), PENNSYLVANIA: They overreacted and killed, and they killed a number of civilians without anybody firing at them. And then they went into the rooms and killed women and children.
KOCH: Murtha told CNN and other news organizations he had gotten that information from "the highest level of the Marine Corps." The suit claims Murtha jeopardized Staff Sergeant Frank Wuterich's right to a fair trial if he is charged with any wrongdoing.
MARK ZAID, ATTORNEY FOR STAFF SGT. WUTERICH: Our objective is to clear Staff Sergeant Wuterich's good name. These allegations were untrue. They didn't commit war crimes. They weren't cold-blooded killers.
NEAL PUCKETT, ATTORNEY FOR STAFF SGT. WUTERICH: We're going to have a heck of a time trying to walk into a courtroom if we ever have to do that in front of court-martial members or jurors with the presumption of innocence because of what Congressman Murtha has done.
KOCH: Wuterich's attorneys are asking, among other things, for $75,000 in damages, as well as a public retraction and an apology. Murtha offered only a written statement in response saying, "I don't blame the staff sergeant for lashing out." He explained his comments were intended "... to draw attention to the horrendous pressure put on our troops in Iraq and to the cover-up of the incident."
The suit comes as military officials say the criminal investigation into the Haditha incident has been completed. The case has been forwarded to a military prosecution team and Pentagon officials say some Marines are expected to be charged.
Some outside lawyers believe it is no coincidence Wuterich's libel case is being brought now.
HARDY VIEUX, MILITARY LAW EXPERT: It's more of an opportunity to get information and to have his day in court, and to get out there early, as opposed to waiting for the government to charge him with whatever the case may be. So, this is certainly -- it's a creative ploy, and it's, it's, in some ways, a stroke of genius.
KOCH (on camera): Legal experts say it will be a difficult case to win. Not only does Wuterich have to prove he's innocent, but statements by members of Congress are normally protected by the Constitution.
(voice over): Whether that immunity applies to Murtha's comments to the media may have to be decided in court.
Kathleen Koch, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SANCHEZ: We should tell you that Congressman Murtha was asked about the lawsuit by CNN affiliate WTAE yesterday. Here is what -- what he told the television station.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MURTHA: Well, they're going to do everything they can to defend themselves. There's nobody supports the military more than I do, but these kind of incidents really hurts us. It hurts our troops, it puts them in more danger. And the reason I spoke out because they were trying to cover it up.
He'll just have to work his way through the system himself. I can understand him -- him -- his lawyers trying to defend him, but he's going to have to work it out himself.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: Mutha, as you may know, is a former Marine. Here's his main point. He says that U.S. troops are "caught in the middle of a civil war." He says the conflict cannot be won militarily.
O'BRIEN: Ahead on AMERICAN MORNING, the summer scorcher that is really taking a toll on commuters, baking as they head to work. Any relief in sight? We'll check in with Chad for the forecast.
And it's not the heat, it's not the hurricanes. We'll tell you what is really putting the squeeze on America's orange growers.
That and much more ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: Happening this morning, relief from the heat is expected tonight, but that means a third day of dangerously high temperatures here in the Northeast.
Tropical Storm Chris is weaker this morning. Chris is heading west. It's expected to dump heavy rain on Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands and the Dominican Republic.
And President Bush will make another appeal for his immigration reform plan today. He's stopping at the Texas border before he heads to his ranch for a 10-day vacation.
Well, immigration reform is stalled in Congress. Worker shortages are affecting farms and orchards all around the country. To see the effects, well, all you have to really do is stroll down the local aisle at your local supermarket.
CNN's Susan Candiotti has our story this morning.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MATT MCLEAN, ORANGE GROWER: This is the premier juicing orange in Florida. Most people know the Valencia because of its dark orange color.
SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): But those juicy Valencia oranges you know may be harder to find. The official projection, about one-third fewer oranges this year from Florida, the biggest producer in the U.S.
Blame it on two crippling hurricane seasons, canker disease, and groves lost to development. But lately, there's a new and potentially more troubling reason: not enough pickers to do the work. Migrant farm worker activists estimate half as many as last year.
(on camera): How many acres do you have all together?
MCLEAN: We have about a thousand acres, whether it's organic or in transition to organic.
CANDIOTTI (voice over): Matt McLean is a fourth generation orange grower. He figures about 3,000 boxes went unfilled. A lot for a small organic farmer.
(on camera): And what happens to this?
MCLEAN: Well, it will fall on the ground and become plant food.
CANDIOTTI: But they're perfectly good.
MCLEAN: They're perfectly ripe.
CANDIOTTI (voice over): In the past, there's been no trouble finding migrant workers to do the back-breaking job.
Not this year.
TIRSO MORENO, FARMWORKERS ASSOCIATION: They need to pay better. They need to take care of the workers' needs. They need to treat them better in order to have a more steady workforce.
CANDIOTTI: Workers rights group say some migrants have found better-paying construction jobs in hurricane-ravaged states. Others are being replaced by machines. Still, others have been deported.
This migrant says he's legal and in the U.S. for 12 years, sending every cent he makes to his family in Mexico. In his case, orange-picking machines cut down on available work.
"The money is for my wife and children," he says, to pay the rent, for food. "It is very important. They need it to live."
If immigration laws get tougher, grower Matt McLean says farmers face an even tighter squeeze.
MCLEAN: What we don't want, obviously, is for there to be no labor and none of the fruit get picked.
CANDIOTTI (on camera): Even though Florida orange production is down for the second season in a row, demand and prices have stayed high. Consumers willing to pay whatever the price for orange juice.
(voice over): So, for now, farmers aren't hurting too much, but if orange groves continue to go unpicked...
(on camera): So what's a grower to do?
MCLEAN: Like we do every year, dig in and keep fighting. CANDIOTTI (voice over): Susan Candiotti, CNN, Clermont, Florida.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: Worker shortages aren't confined just to the orange industry in Florida. An American Farm Bureau study estimates that immigration issues could put a third of the country's fruit and vegetable growers out of business.
SANCHEZ: Here's a little business factoid. You know what they do with the oranges after they squeeze the juice out of them in Florida?
O'BRIEN: No.
SANCHEZ: They feed them to the cows, and that's what's increased the dairy industry in Florida for so long.
ANDY SERWER, EDITOR-AT-LARGE, "FORTUNE": All working.
O'BRIEN: Cows eat orange rinds?
SANCHEZ: They do. So you get a lot of Vitamin C in your milk when you drink Florida cows. When you drink the milk from the Florida cows, I should say.
SERWER: I got you.
SANCHEZ: Because it's tough to drink a cow.
SERWER: It doesn't make the milk taste sour, though, right?
SANCHEZ: Don't know where to put the straw.
Sorry?
SERWER: It doesn't make the milk taste sour, I guess, huh?
SANCHEZ: No. Well...
O'BRIEN: I'm sorry I asked. It was actually a real question, but whatever.
What's coming up in business news, Andy?
SERWER: Speaking of business news, yes. Why should you be happy if your company took money out of your paycheck without telling you?
Plus, a scintillating, revealing interview with Bill Gates. The only problem is, the world's richest problem says it never happened.
We'll tell you about that coming up.
O'BRIEN: Interesting.
SANCHEZ: Intriguing, as well. Also, here's what we're going to have.
Did you ever want to see the White House briefing room? Well, guess what? You see it all the time, right? Because the president comes out, he speaks, and our reporters are there, as well as many others.
Well, the story here is that there's going to be something different going on. Maybe a little renovation. We'll take you behind the scenes.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: Here's a question. Are you saving enough for retirement? Congress just could make retirement fund automatic now.
Andy Serwer is "Minding Your Business." He's good enough to joins us now to let us know how that could possibly work out for us.
SERWER: Good morning, Rick.
More and more employees are seeing their paychecks getting cut, and they're not given any notice by their employees -- or employers, I should say. Here's what is going on.
It's called automatic enrollment, or forced savings in 401k plans. And what's going on here is companies are simply taking money out of employees' paychecks and putting it in 401ks and not telling them.
Now, this may sound like a bad idea, but, as an employee, you can always opt out. Twenty-four percent of big companies now have automatic savings plans. That's up from 7 percent in 1999. And Congress is taking up a bill right now which will allow companies to do this without any legal implications. Of course, again, letting employees opt out if they need to.
Costco has a plan like this, and they said nine out of 10 new hires stayed with the plan. It's a great way to try to see if you can afford it. And then if you can't, you can always opt out.
Speaking of big money, how about Bill Gates? An interview in a Norwegian magazine by a respected journalist, "Iman" (ph) magazine, by this gentleman, Bejan Benko (ph).
Now, in this interview, all kinds of really cool details, like that Bill Gates never carries more than a dime in his pocket, that he makes $1 bets with his wife Melinda. And then he's quoted as saying, "Google have been smart."
Now, the only problem with this interview, which is said to have taken place on a two-hour commercial flight to Europe -- there's a tip-off right there -- it never happened. According to Microsoft, they just said Bill Gates never talked to this guy at all...
O'BRIEN: And never flies commercial, for god's sake. SERWER: And he doesn't fly commercial.
SANCHEZ: Yes.
SERWER: The interview is called "Big Bill," and the magazine says that they intend to make a full retraction. This guy interviewed Tom Cruise and Oprah, too. We better check on those interviews big time.
O'BRIEN: Yes, sure he did.
SERWER: Coming up, we're going to be talking about companies pitching in to save energy in the next hour.
And speaking of that, the next hour of AMERICAN MORNING begins right now.
O'BRIEN: Thank you, Andy.
From the Northeast, back to Oklahoma, still no relief from the heat. Dozens of deaths are being blamed on those high temperatures.
MYERS: Another hot day today, all the way from the Northeast in New England, down into the Deep South. Thunderstorms along a cold front could get severe, as well.
SANCHEZ: Fidel Castro very alive, but very sick. Castro's exiled sister talks to CNN about his condition.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CASTRO: He's not dead. He's very sick, but he's not dead.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: She lives in Miami, has long criticized her brother, disagrees with him politically across the board, but still is somewhat upset about the celebrations that she's seen in her hometown.
O'BRIEN: An outspoken critic of the war in Iraq is now being sued by a Marine who's at the center of that alleged massacre in Haditha.
And this...
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: This is where we sit. Each of the seats has a name plate. This one is ours. Just kind of squeeze in and flip the desk over, kind of like you were in third grade.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: Suzanne Malveaux sounds positively melancholy about the end of an era in Washington. The White House briefing room is going under the knife, so to speak. We'll tell you what's happening there.
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