Return to Transcripts main page

American Morning

Crisis in the Middle East; Impending Civil War?; Backing Hezbollah

Aired August 04, 2006 - 06:00   ET

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

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Morning. It's Friday, August 4. I'm Soledad O'Brien.
RICK SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Rick Sanchez. I'm in for Miles O'Brien.

And here's what's happening this morning.

O'BRIEN: Israel, once again, is pounding Beirut's southern suburbs. This time Israel is specifically trying to isolate the capital city by knocking out major bridges in the region. Officials in Lebanon say that more than 600 Lebanese civilians and soldiers have died in three weeks of fighting.

SANCHEZ: A senior Iraqi policeman has been killed by a car bomb in Mosul. There are reports this morning of heavy clashes between insurgents and U.S. and Iraqi forces there as well.

O'BRIEN: May be a break this morning in that serial shooter case in Phoenix. We're hearing from our affiliate KPNX that police have arrested two people in Mesa on Sunday. You'll remember that's where police found what they believe was a sixth victim in that spree.

Minimum wage is going to remain $5.15, at least for now. Late last night, the Senate rejected a more than $2 increase. It was a Republican-sponsored bill and it included a tax cut for the wealthy.

SANCHEZ: Nearly 2,000 residents in El Paso, Texas are being told to get out. There is concern a weakened dam could possibly break causing what El Paso's mayor calls a tidal wave of water from the Rio Grande to rush into his city.

Tropical Storm Chris is loosing some more steam as it heads towards Cuba. Right now the storm's winds are about 40 miles an hour as it continues to push across the eastern Caribbean. Chris is expected to become a tropical depression before reaching the Gulf of Mexico.

O'BRIEN: And the heat wave felt across most of the country this week finally breaking. There is relief today for places like Boston and New York and Washington. Finally!

Chad Myers, finally.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Finally. Yes, although it's not quite to you yet. There's a cold front through central New York, central Pennsylvania. It will get through New York City later on today.

(WEATHER REPORT)

Back to you guys.

O'BRIEN: All right, Chad, thanks.

Let's begin this hour with the expanded bombing campaign by Israel happening in southern Lebanon. Israeli warplanes are now targeting parts of northern Beirut. It's outside of traditional Hezbollah hideouts.

Reporters standing by with the very latest from both sides of the border, Paula Hancocks in Haifa this morning and Brent Sadler who is in Beirut.

Brent, let's begin with you. Good morning, -- Brent.

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

Yes, Israel delivered on its threats the previous day by widening its air campaign against Lebanese infrastructure. Soledad, I've just come back from an area north of the Lebanese capital, Beirut, where there's been extensive damage to the main highway connecting Beirut to the northern border of Lebanon with neighboring Syria. One of these bridges, a four-lane highway, multi-lane highway, completely toppled, smashed to pieces a 200-yard span of bridge, really creating shock amongst those who live in this area.

Now the population is Christian, primarily. This is the heartland of the Christian Lebanese. And for them to see their infrastructure destroyed in this way is really turning attitudes. Until now, Christians have, by and large, stayed out of the fighting in terms of the damage that's been inflicted by Israel against Lebanon. There have been some strikes in their area, but nothing on this scale.

And there is now a sense that the Christians believe that Israel has made a tactical mistake by unleashing this fire power early this morning in the Christian heartland. And that the Christians really will have to rally around the defense of the country as a result of these strikes -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: So what exactly is the strategy here in trying to take out the bridges, -- Brent?

SADLER: Well Israel will argue that its military objective will be to knock out the main supply routes from Beirut, from Lebanon to neighboring Syria. Already we know they've systematically been destroying roads in the eastern part of the country connected to Syria, but this is the first time that the main highway has been toppled in this devastating way. It really is something on a level I haven't seen before over the many 25 years I've been reporting here.

This really is a very serious blow not only to Hezbollah's capability to move equipment around, men and material, which the Israelis would argue, but on the Lebanese front, for the Lebanese as a whole, this really is a shocking development and it gives them a greater sense of unease and desperation that this siege of the country is being tightened each day -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: I'm going to ask you one more question, Brent, because we're looking at these pictures. And you're right, they're just unbelievable.

You guys go back to rolling those pictures that Brent just shot showing that this highway completely, completely shredded.

What are the implications, as you were talking about, of the Christian population now being targeted? And you're saying now they have to really turn their focus on supporting the government at this point. So what's the fallout from that do you think?

SADLER: Well the fallout is that until now Christians have been divided really about the Hezbollah action and the retaliation by Israel. But this level of destruction in their communities really means that those who would have liked to have seen Hezbollah disarmed, even if that meant paying a price in terms of infrastructure and so on and so forth, that now they are pushed into a corner. They have got no choice but to support the defense of this country, which, at this moment, is in the hands, it would be argued by many now, in the hands of Hezbollah, by retaliating against what Israel is doing. So it adds yet another complicated dimension to the way that this country is reacting to the systematic devastation of its infrastructure.

I've seen, Soledad, coming back here, long, long lines of queues at gas stations. Again, I haven't seen anything like this on this scale of desperation, shortages, the sense of isolation under Israeli siege certainly compared to all that I have seen here in the last 25 years. And that has to be very, very worrying, if not giving deepening concern of a nightmarish scenario that could unfold as this goes on -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Brent Sadler.

Thanks, Brent, for the update. We're going to continue to check in with you this morning as we talk more about Israel's offensive in Lebanon. Really incredible pictures from there.

Israel's offensive -- take a look at this. This is Tyre in Lebanon. You've been looking at live pictures now as those strikes continue. You can see smoke as we have often now in the many days of fighting there. Ongoing airstrikes happening this morning. We're going to, obviously, continue to talk about what is happening in Tyre.

The stepped up offensive hasn't seemed to slow down Hezbollah, frankly. In fact, some predict it's having the opposite effect with more than 4,000 -- 400, excuse me, 400 Katyusha rockets hitting northern Israel in just the past two days. Truly a barrage coming from Lebanon into Israel.

Let's get right to CNN's Paula Hancocks. She's in Haifa in Israel today. Hey, Paula, good morning.

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Morning, Soledad.

Well the Israeli politicians had claimed that the reason they are carrying out so many airstrikes on Lebanon, especially southern Lebanon, is to try and degrade Hezbollah's ability to hurt Israel. But Hezbollah has proved that it's more than capable of still hurting Israel. We saw on Thursday one of the deadliest days in northern Israel since this conflict began, more than 200 rockets fell across northern Israel. Eight people were killed. So it shows that Hezbollah still has the ability to hit Israel. In fact, the number of rockets, as you say, is far more than we have seen in the past.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HANCOCKS (voice-over): Less than one minute after a Katyusha rocket hit, it's carnage. A car less than 10 meters from the point of impact burst into flames. The wounded lay where they fell, waiting for help.

The man driving this car was hit by pellets packed into the rocket warhead and lost control. Emergency services managed to free him from the wreckage, but he dies on his way to hospital.

Four more people died at the scene. A father and his 14-year-old daughter among the victims.

(on camera): It was late in the afternoon when the air raid siren sounded here in Akko. One of the rockets hit just down the road from here. And then the siren ended, so people started to come out of their houses to see what had happened. And this is when this particular rocket hit. You can see the point of impact. This was the most deadly rocket. Four people standing nearby were killed.

YUVAL SABAG, ISRAELI AMBULANCE SERVICE: While I treated the first one, I hear another explosion. And we go to there, to another explosion, the second one. And we saw a lot of people that lie on the ground not alive.

HANCOCKS (voice-over): Charlie says he was standing in the street a block away when the rocket hit. He says he could see wounded and the dead lying on the ground.

More fatalities in Tashiha (ph), just five miles from the Lebanese border. Three Arab Bedouins jumped out of their car when the siren sounded, according to Israeli police, looking for shelter. It was a direct hit.

More than 200 rockets fell across northern Israel on Thursday, more than 260 fell the day before, casting doubt on Israel's claim it has dealt Hezbollah a heavy blow.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

So the Israeli death toll is rising. It's still just a tenth of the numbers we're seeing in Lebanon. But so far 68 people have been killed in northern Israel, 27 civilians and 41 soldiers.

Now interestingly, Soledad, some of the people I was speaking to yesterday who were very close to where the rockets hit in Akko said they believed that the military operations had to continue. They didn't want them to stop because they wanted to make sure that any future threat from Hezbollah was going to be destroyed -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Paula Hancocks for us.

Thank you very much, Paula.

Despite three weeks of violence, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is confident, she says, a U.N. resolution aimed at ending the conflict will be passed soon. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CONDOLEEZZA RICE, SECRETARY OF STATE: We're certainly getting close. We're working with the French very closely. We're working with others. We have wanted very much to see an end to this conflict. We need to end the hostilities in a way though that points forward a direction for a sustainable peace. And we are working. We've worked with the parties when I was in the region to come up with those principles, with those elements. We're now working on a Security Council resolution and hopefully we can get that passed. And I think it will certainly be within days.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: That was the secretary of state appearing on CNN's "LARRY KING LIVE." That of course airs every night at 9:00 p.m. Eastern Time, 6:00 p.n. -- 6:00 p.m., easy for me to say, Pacific -- Rick.

SANCHEZ: Turning to Iraq now, the growing instability there means American troops will not be coming home, at least not anytime soon. That was the consensus during a sometimes heated Senate hearing yesterday. At the center of the storm, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

CNN Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A day after agreeing to testify in public, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld took heat from his Senate critics but gave it right back.

SEN. HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON (D), NEW YORK: We hear a lot of happy talk and rosy scenarios. But because of the administration's strategic blunders and, frankly, the record of incompetence in executing, you are presiding over a failed policy. Given your track record, Secretary Rumsfeld, why should we believe your assurances now?

DONALD RUMSFELD, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: My goodness. I have never painted a rosy picture. I've been very measured in my words. And you have a dickens of a time trying to find instances where I've been excessively optimistic.

STARR: Rumsfeld's generals used the opportunity to sound a warning about the rising violence.

GEN. JOHN ABIZAID, U.S. CENTRAL COMMAND: I believe that the sectarian violence is probably as bad as I've seen it in Baghdad in particular. And that if not stopped, it is possible that Iraq could move toward civil war.

GEN. PETER PACE, CHAIRMAN, JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF: Sir, I believe that we do have the possibility of that devolving to a civil war, but that does not have to be a fact.

STARR: Some committee members still pressing on the overall strategy and whether there are enough troops.

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: Is the situation under control in Ramadi?

ABIZAID: I think the situation in Ramadi is workable.

MCCAIN: And the troops from Ramadi came from Fallujah, isn't that correct?

ABIZAID: I can't say, senator, I know they've been moved.

MCCAIN: Well that's my information. What I worry about is we're playing a game of whack them all here. We move troops, it flares up, we move troops there.

STARR (on camera): Even as the generals express their concern about civil war, they also said that they do believe the new Iraqi government will maintain control and will keep civil war from unfolding.

Barbara Starr, CNN, the Pentagon.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ: And we also have some pictures coming in now which seem to prove at least a certain confluence of events throughout this region. These are pictures that are in support of Hezbollah, but they're not coming from Lebanon, no, they're coming from Sadr City in Iraq. This is a Shia rally that's going to be taking place with the permission, we should add, of the Iraqi government. A rally in support of Hezbollah's resistance in Lebanon against the Israeli attacks as it's being worded by them of course. We're certainly going to be following this rally throughout the course of the day, again, in Sadr City, Iraq.

Meanwhile, happening in America now.

President Bush says the U.S. is going to help the people of Cuba work toward democracy. The president now vacationing at his Texas ranch says that the White House would support efforts to build a transitional government. It is the first public statement that Mr. Bush has made since ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro handed over power to his brother this week.

New Orleans police believe this man and his brother are behind a quadruple murder. Eighteen-year-old Raymond Amison is under arrest. His brother, 21-year-old Kevin Amison, has been in contact with investigators and he's believed to be hiding in Alabama. Police are hoping that he will turn himself in.

Those murders and others have one New Orleans lawmaker worried a crime rate is spiraling out of control there. Senator Mary Landrieu is calling for the government to send more federal agents and prosecutors to the city. Landrieu says a rise in violent crime is threatening hurricane recovery efforts as well.

Republicans trying to remove Tom DeLay from the November ballot in Texas are taking their battle to the Supreme Court. A federal appeals court blocked the state's GOP effort to replace him. DeLay faces money laundering and conspiracy charges.

Two missing Colorado Boy Scouts are safe this morning. The Scouts, ages 14 and 15, were found in Waterton Canyon yesterday. The teens got separated from their hiking troop in the mountains Wednesday and didn't show up for camp until later that night or, I should say, didn't show up later that night. I apologize.

Also, a former New Jersey state trooper is promising to help authorities with their case against ex-hockey star Rick Tocchet. James Harney pleaded guilty to running a gambling ring allegedly with him. Authorities say that Janet Jones, wife of hockey great Wayne Gretzky, was among the betters, as well as a handful of current NHL players.

O'BRIEN: Still to come this morning, Hollywood stars turning on Mel Gibson. We'll tell you which actors swear they will never work with him again.

SANCHEZ: Also Carrie Lee with some of the business headlines.

CARRIE LEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning. Thank you, everyone.

A big stock option scandal could force one tech giant to revise four year's worth of profits. We'll have that story coming up and a preview of the July jobs report on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: Let's get back now to the story we mentioned just a little while ago. It's about two stories really coming together because in Iraq this morning there's a show of support for Hezbollah. Thousands of Shiites are holding a rally in Baghdad's Sadr City right now.

CNN's Harris Whitbeck is joining us live from Baghdad.

Harris, we understand they're doing this with the permission of the government, correct? HARRIS WHITBECK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. The Iraqi local television says the Ministry of Defense approved the rally which is taking place inside Sadr City. Sadr City is considered by many to be practically a state within a state. It is under the control of Muqtada al-Sadr's militiamen.

He issued a call to thousands of his supporters from all over the country to participate in this rally to show support for Hezbollah and for Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. Thousands of young men carrying the yellow Hezbollah flag, some of them wrapped in white shrouds which signifies their willingness to die for their cause, marched in Sadr City.

Again, the rally is being seen on local Iraqi television. Iraqi television says the numbers are quite high. Reports we've received say at least several thousand people have been participating in that rally which is taking place on this Friday which is the traditional day of prayer in the Muslim world. And in Baghdad in particular, the hours between 11:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. are -- there is a ban on all traffic in the streets. So that makes this rally seem even more impressive with the amount of people out there in Sadr City -- Rick.

SANCHEZ: Now you know oftentimes in Iraq obviously when you have rallies like this or funerals in the past there's been some kind of secular violence. What are officials there doing to try and make sure that this doesn't happen in this case?

WHITBECK: Well the area in Sadr City where the rally is taking place has been cordoned off by armed militiamen, militiamen who answer to Muqtada al-Sadr. We also understand Iraqi police are cordoning off the area around the area precisely to prevent any sort of violence there.

SANCHEZ: All right, Harris Whitbeck following that story for us from Iraq. And we'll certainly continue to monitor these events as well. Thanks so much.

Soledad, back over to you.

O'BRIEN: Thank you very much.

The heat wave that's been gripping the country, well finally there's some relief.

Let's get right to Chad Myers with more.

Good morning to you, -- Chad.

MYERS: Good morning.

(WEATHER REPORT)

Back to you guys.

O'BRIEN: Absolutely drink to that, man.

SANCHEZ: All right.

O'BRIEN: Let's hope we have this through...

MYERS: Cheers.

O'BRIEN: When does hurricane season end? Yes.

MYERS: All right. You have a ways to go.

O'BRIEN: All right. Thanks, -- Chad.

MYERS: You're welcome.

O'BRIEN: Still to come this morning, the forecasters in fact across the border changing their predictions about the hurricane season. So if what Chad says is true, does that mean we're not going to get another Katrina? I sure hope so. We'll take a look this morning at the forecast.

Plus there are some big job cuts at one of the nation's biggest online service providers. We've got business headlines for you up next. You're watching AMERICAN MORNING. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: Understand a lot of people are going to be watching Apple Computer stocks this morning. Apple may have to revise some profit reports.

Carrie Lee has your business headlines and she's good enough to join us this morning.

Good morning to you.

LEE: Thanks, Rick. Good morning to you.

Apple Computer having some trouble when it comes to stock options and the way they grant stock options to executives. This has been a big issue on Wall Street lately. Apple now saying that it has uncovered enough evidence about mishandled options to make it question the accuracy of its profit reports going back to 2002. So Apple could very well have to restate four year's worth of earnings.

Obviously the company's been helped by the iPod the past couple of years. It's been good news for the stock. Some of the options in question were awarded to Chief Executive Steve Jobs. However, he voluntarily canceled some of them in 2003 or, I'm sorry, he cancelled some of them in 2003 before cashing them in. Now Apple shares fell sharply in the after-hours session last night. We'll see what happens today. But that is the latest on Apple.

And now that AOL has announced plans to give away its services for free, become an ad-based Internet company, they are following this up with some job cuts. So the company now saying it plans to cut 5,000 of 19,000 total jobs. This is 6 percent of the total at Time Warner. And the goal here is to save a billion dollars in total. AOL, like CNN, are units of Time Warner.

Finally a quick check on stocks, Dow, Nasdaq, S&P gaining a little bit of ground at the close yesterday. The industrials higher by 43 points. This morning it's looking like a flat to slightly weak start. Pretty much everyone on Wall Street will be watching the big July jobs report coming an hour before the 9:30 Eastern Time opening bell. And the number of jobs expected to rise, the number of jobs added during the month, to 145,000. The unemployment rate expected to stay at 4.6 percent. If the report is not so strong, well, Wall Street could see that as good news because that means the Fed may not be as aggressive in raising rates meeting next Tuesday.

SANCHEZ: So we'll see the market cap (ph).

O'BRIEN: One of those bad news means good news for some people.

LEE: Exactly, and that's the way it's been on Wall Street...

O'BRIEN: Right.

LEE: ... pretty much all summer.

SANCHEZ: It gets confusing, doesn't it?

LEE: Well, we keep an eye on it.

SANCHEZ: That's good.

O'BRIEN: Not for Carrie. She's like...

LEE: We do our best.

O'BRIEN: ... maybe for you, but not for me.

SANCHEZ: Carrie is like it went up because everything was down or it went up because everything was up.

LEE: That's right.

SANCHEZ: How it works.

O'BRIEN: Pretty much in a nut shell.

SANCHEZ: Thanks so much.

LEE: My pleasure. OK.

O'BRIEN: Carrie, thanks.

The morning's top stories are straight ahead, including Israel stepping up its attacks in southern Lebanon this morning. We're live with the very latest from there. Plus, Hezbollah gets support from inside Iraq. We've got an update on that big rally in Baghdad. Stay with us, you're watching AMERICAN MORNING.

(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