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American Morning
Hillary In The Heartland; Coming To America; In Her Own Words; "Big Brother's" Best; Minding Your Business; Battle in Najaf: Anti- Shiite Plot Uncovered; Cluster-Bomb Controversy: Was Israeli Agreement With U.S. Broken?; Saved in the Sky
Aired January 29, 2007 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Deadly firefight. U.S. and Iraqi forces in an explosive showdown with insurgents. Hundreds killed and another American chopper shot down.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Lashing out. Senator Hillary Clinton slams President Bush on Iraq. Does her campaign face a new threat from former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani.
M. O'BRIEN: And Prince Charles honor and cheered in America, but geared at home on this AMERICAN MORNING.
S. O'BRIEN: Good morning. Welcome, everybody. January 29th. I'm Soledad O'Brien.
M. O'BRIEN: And I'm Miles O'Brien. We're glad you're with us this week.
S. O'BRIEN: Let's begin with what's new this morning.
In Iraq, at least five people dead after overnight bombings in Baghdad. Plus, the staggering death toll in the holy city of Najaf. As many as 300 insurgents reported killed. They apparently planned to storm the city of Najaf, kill Shiite pilgrims and clerics who were celebrating a religious holiday. Two U.S. soldiers were also killed when their helicopter was shot down in Najaf. Let's get right to CNN's Arwa Damon. She's live in Baghdad for us.
Arwa, good morning.
ARWA DAMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.
And that fighting actually began early on Sunday. What we are hearing now from Iraqi forces down in Najaf is that U.S. forces have, in fact, taken the lead following that intense battle Sunday morning.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAMON, (voice over): A snapshot of the battle's intensity captured on a cell phone camera. A fierce firefight between hundreds of gunmen and U.S. and Iraqi forces, just a few miles north of the holy Shia city of Najaf. That plume of smoke is believed to be coming from the wreckage of a U.S. helicopter. The U.S. military confirmed that the two servicemen on board were killed. It all began just before dawn. Police in Najaf received tips, some 150 gunmen were massing north of the city, preparing for an attack on Tuesday, the day that Shia from across the country will be observing Ashurah, the holiest ritual in Shia Islam. The tipsters told police the men were plotting to kill pilgrims and Shia clerics, including Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the most revered Shia religious cleric in the country.
Reaction was swift and the enemy they found surprised them. Estimates of up to 600 insurgents, described by police as a mix of extremists, thugs, criminals, dug-in fighting positions with sophisticated military techniques and modern weaponry. All signs of a well-planned operation and a well-funded enemy.
The Iraqi military and police forces sustained the number of casualties and were forced to withdraw in the face of the enemy, calling the Americans for help. U.S. forces responded with both ground and air support. Based on the intensity of the battle and the ongoing bombardment of the area, Iraqi officials are estimating some 250 to 300 gunmen were killed.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
DAMON: U.S. and Iraqi officials have been bracing themselves for some sort of major attack against the Shia community. And they do remain on the lookout for other plots targeting Shia pilgrims and clerics. But the sheer magnitude of this one has really been shocking.
Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: So if the insurgents had managed, in fact, to carry out their plans to kill the most revered Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Sistani, what could have been the impact of that?
DAMON: Soledad, it would have been, put simply, utterly devastating. If we are thinking that the current levels of sectarian violence throughout Iraq are unacceptable, his death would have really catapulted them to unimaginable levels. He is the most influential, most revered Shia cleric in Iraq. In fact, he is akin to the pope for Shia throughout the entire world, actually. So you can only imagine what sort of sectarian violence, what sort of bloodletting we would have seen throughout the entire country, if not throughout the entire region.
Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: Arwa Damon for us in Baghdad.
Arwa, thanks for the report.
Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: Presidential politics now. The first voting may be a year away, but the candidates are already campaigning hard, jockeying for attention and money. Or at least most of them. The Hillary Clinton campaign descended on Iowa and the former first lady drew huge crowds and at least one big laugh. CNN's Candy Crowley is on the trail.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CANDY CROWLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT, (voice over): Giuliani courts New Hampshire, Richardson works Reno, Kucinich takes his heart to San Francisco and former Governor Mike Huckabee joins the Republican roster. The '08s were out in force this weekend, but the greatest of forces was a Hillaryfest in Iowa.
SEN. HILLARY CLINTON, (D) NEW YORK: Whoa, thank you!
CROWLEY: Election-eve size coverage and standing room only crowds. Mostly adoring crowds with the occasional tough question, how, she was asked, having voted for the war, does she propose to end it.
CLINTON: The president has said this is going to be left to his successor, and I think it's the height of irresponsibility and I really resent it. This was his decision to go to war. He went with an ill-conceived plan and an incompetently executed strategy and we should expect him to extricate our country from this before he leaves office.
CROWLEY: From the theaters to the banners, to the lighting, this is a campaign in full swing where celebrity status brings in the crowd and little is left to chance. All of which makes one odd moment all the odder. The question was, about her ability to stand up to dictators.
CLINTON: And in the gentleman's words, we face a lot of evil men, you know, people like Osama bin Laden comes to mind, and what in my background equips me to deal with evil and bad men?
CROWLEY: Why were they laughing and what did she have in mind? She bristled at the suggestion it was her husband.
CLINTON: You know, you guys keep telling me, lighten up, be funny. You know, I get a little funny and now I'm being psychoanalyzed.
CROWLEY: Whatever. Mostly this was a flawless, maiden voyage for the senator from New York.
CLINTON: Thank you all very much.
CROWLEY: And this coming weekend, the senator from New York sets sail again, this time for New Hampshire for her first visit there since announcing her presidential intentions.
Candy Crowley, CNN, Davenport, Iowa.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
M. O'BRIEN: Remember, CNN is the place to see the first presidential candidate debates of the season, April 4th and 5th from New Hampshire. And on the short-term horizon this morning, about two hours from now, in our 8:00 Eastern hour, we'll talk with Democratic candidate John Edwards.
Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: Happening this morning.
The first suicide bombing in Israel in nine months to tell you about. At least three people are dead following a suicide attack in a bakery in the resort town of Eilat. Three Palestinian militant groups have claimed responsibility.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is in Afghanistan this morning. She's meeting with senior Afghan leaders. On Sunday she met with Afghan president, Hamid Karzai. Pelosi praised a proposed increase in U.S. aid to Afghanistan and said more needs to be done, though, to combat the growing threat from the Taliban. Pelosi is leading a high-level House delegation that's visiting Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Beb's (ph) coming to New Orleans this morning to tour devastated neighborhoods. Senator Barack Obama will be joining members of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee to hear from local and state official for a field report on the city's recovery from Hurricanes Katrina and from Rita too.
Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: Well, they came and went and my invitation got lost in the mail. Prince Charles and Camilla are done with their drive-by visit of the former colonies. The royals flew into the city with the angst declared independence -- I guess bygones are bygones -- to accept an environmental award. And then they swung into New York, but they left the royal jet behind. AMERICAN MORNING's Alina Cho with more on that.
Good morning, Alina.
ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Miles.
You know in Britain he's known as the green prince, but some are accusing him of green hypocrisy, saying the trip doesn't square with the prince's passion for the environment. Still in New York, Charles got an prestigious award from the man who received it last year, another famous face.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
AL GORE, FORMER VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: To ask you to come forward and to accept this award as the Tenth Anniversary Global Environmental Citizen.
Congratulations.
CHO, (voice over): Former Vice President Al Gore presented Prince Charles with a special honor for his efforts to protect the environment.
PRINCE CHARLES, PRINCE OF WHALES: I can't tell you how touched and grateful I am for all these extraordinary flattering words that are being said about me. I find it rather strange, after all of these years, of being the end of a certain amount of abuse and all I can say is, fame at last! It's rather encouraging.
CHO: It capped a whirlwind weekend for Charles and his wife Camilla. Earlier Sunday, they visited a charter school in Harlem, where they watched a group of middle school students pick stocks and perform a scene from Shakespeare's "Midsummer Night's Dream." The prince decided to join the kids for basketball practice. He threw up a royal brick before banking one in.
Their trip has focused on education, urban renewal and the environment. While Charles has won praise from environmentalists, he's been criticized at home. There was a royal roe over the so- called green prince flying to the U.S. in his private jet. In response, the couple flew commercial to Philadelphia. It was their first ever trip to the city where Americans declared their independence from British rule. And their presence excited even some of the littlest royal watchers.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I know he's the son of Queen Elizabeth II and he's the oldest of them all. I think he might be king one day.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHO: Those who criticize the trip say the prince should have accepted the award with a video message instead. Royal handlers say Charles has canceled an annual ski trip to Switzerland to reduce his so-called carbon footprint. And, by the way, they also say that the royals took an electric-powered train, Miles, from Philadelphia to New York.
M. O'BRIEN: With a diesel generator.
CHO: That's right.
M. O'BRIEN: Which does have a little (INAUDIBLE), but we're not going to quibble with them.
CHO: No.
M. O'BRIEN: It was nice to see them drop by.
CHO: That's right.
M. O'BRIEN: And how about your invitation, also lost?
CHO: Also lost in the mail, unfortunately. I wasn't able to attend any of the galas.
M. O'BRIEN: There's always next time.
CHO: That's right. M. O'BRIEN: All right. Thank you, Alina.
CHO: Sure.
M. O'BRIEN: Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: Here's some royalty you can catch a glimpse of. Honors is back for a king and a queen and a little sunshine too at the Screen Actors Guild Awards last night. Now many of the winners are the same who won the Golden Globes, like Forest Whitaker, seen right there. He won best actress in a film for "The Last King of Scotland."
And then there was Helen Mirren. She won for her role as Queen Elizabeth II in "The Queen." She also won best actress in a TV movie for playing Elizabeth I.
Jennifer Hudson, a big winner once again. She was honored for "Dreamgirls." She was awesome in that movie. Picked up the best supporting actress in a film award. And Eddie Murphy won for "Dreamgirls." Got the best supporting actor in the film.
And there was kind of an interesting moment. Did you see this? Sandra Wilson accepted for best female actor in a drama series for "Grey's Anatomy."
M. O'BRIEN: Oh, no, they didn't get that Tony (ph) did that?
S. O'BRIEN: And she - wait, wait. So she, in her acceptance speech, she kind of mentions the controversy over her castmate Isaiah Washington. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHANDRA WILSON, GREY'S ANATOMY: It's about those 10 cast members sitting over there and the other one in rehab. I mean y'all just hold me together.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
S. O'BRIEN: The other one in rehab. The cast of "Grey's Anatomy" won best ensemble cast in a television drama and "Little Miss Sunshine," too, won best ensemble in a film.
M. O'BRIEN: And it's rehab for slur.
S. O'BRIEN: Yes.
M. O'BRIEN: The slur rehab.
S. O'BRIEN: Yes. Who knew there was rehab . . .
M. O'BRIEN: We know now.
S. O'BRIEN: For gay slurs, but apparently there is then. Isaiah Washington is there recovering as we speak, clearly.
M. O'BRIEN: Get ready for a bitter cold start to the work week. Chad Myers tells us how long the deep freeze will last.
Also, 13 minutes of terror in the sky. We're going to hear the pilot in his own words as he is brought back to earth safely by a pair of calm and quick-thinking air traffic controllers.
Plus, a reporter goes public with a private health battle. Her surprising diagnosis and reasons for coming forward ahead on AMERICAN MORNING. The most news in the morning right here.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
M. O'BRIEN: The most news in the morning right here on CNN. Stories on our radar this morning.
Another big setback for Barbaro. The gutsy race horse who captured our hearts. Doctors had to install steel pins in the leg Barbaro shattered during the Preakness Stakes eight months ago.
And wind-whipped snow blamed for a 20-car pile-up that injured several people just north of Detroit.
Quarter past the hour now. Chad Myers at the CNN Weather Center.
Chad, good morning to you. What's the weather word today?
(WEATHER REPORT)
S. O'BRIEN: I want to tell you this morning the story of Kelley Tuthill, 36 years old, mother of two young children. No family history of breast cancer. Never even had to have a mammogram before. So when she found a lump in her breast, she assumed it had something to do with the fact that she had been breastfeeding the new baby and it wasn't anything very serious. Kelly, who's an investigative reporter with CNN affiliate WCVB in Boston, discovered what she actually had was stage two breast cancer and she's decided to go public with her battle. She started keeping an online journal and we wanted to share some of it with you. So here's Kelley in her own words.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KELLEY TUTHILL: It was the Friday before Christmas, December 22nd. I was so convinced this was going to be nothing. I brought Cecilia to the appointment with me. Brendan, fortunately, was there as well and it was a good thing because it became apparent rather quickly that things were not going to be what I expected. I just was sitting there on the table feeling they vulnerable. And while the doctor was examining me, you can just feel the tension start to build in the room and everything gets very serious.
I have no family history of breast cancer. I never even had a mammogram before. When I tell you I was not expecting this diagnosis, believe me, I was not expecting this diagnosis.
We made the decision we weren't going to tell anyone through the holiday weekend. That Friday night, Saturday morning, there was so much crying, so much sadness, so much disbelief. On Tuesday, we did start to tell our family and our friends that we had been given this diagnosis. And to say that people were stunned, I mean, my initial shock was re-lived every time I told people.
I had to go back to Beth Israel and I underwent a biopsy of the breast and a breast MRI Thursday. We were called back to meet with the surgeon and an oncologist. You know, we really got the sense of how serious this was. I had not discovered the little pea-size lump. This was a fairly large mass, over three centimeters, and we learned then that there was involvement in other parts of the same breast, and a lymph node that looked suspicious on the ultrasound had also tested positive.
They consider it stage two, which I found reassuring because there's four stages and I like the sound of two, but the grade is three out of three, which means it's a very aggressive cancer. That, obviously, sounds scary but I'm told most young cancers do tend to be aggressive cancers. There was no question it was going to be a mastectomy. There was no question I was going to need chemotherapy. They were talking about 16 weeks of chemotherapy followed by six weeks of radiation. 2007 was already decided for me.
The treatment sounds daunting because it's going to take me away from my children and it's going to make my children upset because they're going to want me to hold them and there may be times I can't do that.
Going around and talking to different doctors was very empowering for me. There weren't a lot of choices when it came to my care in terms of what the treatment plan was and I'm really looking forward to getting the treatment going and getting healthy again.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
S. O'BRIEN: That's Kelley Tuthill. She's with our affiliate WCVB in Boston. In her own words this morning. She had surgery last week. We're going to talk with her this morning in our 8:00 Eastern hour.
M. O'BRIEN: Coming up, another twist in the hostile takeover bid for Delta.
And, oh brother. A British show that devolved into racial taunts is over and the target is a winner. Ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
M. O'BRIEN: Welcome back. Most news in the morning right here.
There's a winner this morning in that controversial reality show in Great Britain "Big Brother." An Indian actress, who was the target of racist taunts from another contestant, gets the last laugh. Alphonso van Marsh live from London with more.
Hello, Alfonso.
ALPHONSO VAN MARSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Miles.
You're right, it's the reality TV program that put racism on the national agenda. And as you mentioned, it put an Indian actress on the cover of many newspapers here. Shilpa Shetty is showing that in Britain forgiveness may be the path to riches.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
VAN MARSH, (voice over): In the end, the Bollywood film actress turned reality TV victim endeared a nation of television viewers emerging from the "Big Brother" house victorious.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Now reveal that the winner of "Celebrity Big Brother" 2007 is Shilpa!
SHILPA SHETTY, WINNER, "CELEBRITY BIG BROTHER": Oh, my God!
VAN MARSH: By a 63 percent margin, reality TV viewers voted for Shilpa Shetty over her British competitors. Some accused of racially abusing the Indian beauty.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You know I think that (BLEEP). You don't know (BLEEP).
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You are the winner. Please leave the "Big Brother" house.
VAN MARSH: Shetty says she knew little about the international attention her experience had garnered until she left the "Big Brother" house. Shetty rarely lost her composure when rivals like Jade Goody made fun of Shetty's accent, culture and country.
SHETTY: I just want to put one thing -- address that things happen and people make mistakes and we're all human beings and we're all (INAUDIBLE). And I know one thing for sure, Jade really didn't mean to be racist.
VAN MARSH: The overwhelming vote for Shetty is seen as a slap against racially tinged bullying and against the "Big Brothers" Brits who left along or did little to stop it. Actions that mortified many Britains, including the country's top politicians traveling in India.
GORDON BROWN, BRITISH FINANCE MINISTER: We want nothing to interfere with Britain's reputation as a country of fairness and a country of tolerance.
VAN MARSH: Already a movie star in India, Shetty now has a British agent lining up what could be a multimillion-dollar career here. Shetty's overcoming adversity "Big Brother" success story has given her one thing, name recognition.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I (INAUDIBLE) love her. She is so amazing.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She's become so famous.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She's become such an idol. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She's so kind an everything.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And (INAUDIBLE).
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She sets an example to all us Indian girls.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAN MARSH: Miles, now that she's out of the "Big Brother" house, she's maintaining the high road, refusing to speak ill of her former tormentors, which she has forgiven. Shilpa is clearly media savvy, saying that she's thanking England forgiving her so much.
Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: Always better to take the high road, right, Alphonso.
Thank you very much, Alphonso van Marsh in London.
Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: Business news now.
U.S. Airways won't give up the fight. Ready to raise its offer for Delta one more time. It's 25 past the hour. That means it's time for Stephanie Elam who's "Minding Your Business."
Good morning.
STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.
Yes, this has been a long road for U.S. Airways, which has just been getting no and no from Delta. And now they're saying we're going to go ahead and raise this bid by another $1 billion. But they do have certain conditions here. And this is all coming from "The Wall Street Journal" I should also point out.
U.S. Airways is saying that they wants Delta creditors to actually go ahead and talk to Delta because they want Delta to open itself up to some duediligence from U.S. Airways. Delta would also like for the bankruptcy judge to postpone a hearing that's scheduled for next week on Delta's restructuring plan because they're saying that would be moot if they went ahead and actually did buy Delta. At this point, that's what they want to have happen.
But now Delta has said that they do believe that they will be better if they come out of bankruptcy on their own. And so they're still maintaining that. No word yet on what they're saying about this extra $1 billion in cash if they get it.
Taking a look at stocks now. Last week the Dow and the Nasdaq were both off by about 0.25 percent or about 0.5 percent. So not much there. Monthly jobs report coming out and we also have a quarter of the 500 largest companies reporting earnings. The Fed also meet. We will know if they're going to raise interest rates. It's widely expected that they will not.
Back to you, Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: Thank you, Stephanie.
The top stories of the morning are coming up next.
Plus, a report is expected on those cluster bombs used in last year's conflict between Israel and Hezbollah. Did Israel violate an arms agreement with the U.S. in using them?
And a pilot in the clouds, struggling with a plane that wants to nose dive. You'll meet the controllers that talked him through a happy landing. You're watching AMERICAN MORNING. The most news in the morning right here.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
M. O'BRIEN: Iraq under fire. A massive showdown between insurgents and U.S. troops raising new concerns American forces won't be home any time soon.
S. O'BRIEN: The great race. Senator Hillary Clinton's presidential dreams face a new threat from former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani.
M. O'BRIEN: And some guardian angels on the ground. We'll talk to the air traffic controller who is steered a pilot away from disaster and helped save his life, on this AMERICAN MORNING.
S. O'BRIEN: Welcome back, everybody, Monday, January 29th.
I'm Soledad O'Brien.
M. O'BRIEN: And I'm Miles O'Brien.
Thanks for being with us.
S. O'BRIEN: Here's what's happening this morning.
The feds come to New Orleans. Senator Barack Obama will be joining members of the Homeland Security and the Governmental Affairs Committee. He's going to tour devastated neighborhoods, hear from local and state officials, too, about the city's recovery from both Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in Afghanistan this morning. She's meeting with senior Afghan leaders. On Sunday, she met with the Afghan president Hamid Karzai. Speaker Pelosi praised a proposal -- a proposed increase in U.S. aid to Afghanistan, said more needs to be done, though, to combat the resurgent Taliban. Pelosi is leading a House delegation visiting Afghanistan and Pakistan and Iraq.
Britain's Prince Charles and his wife Camilla are making their way back home this morning after their whirlwind trip to America. They visited a school in Harlem on Sunday. Then the prince picked up an award for his work on the environment from former vice president Al Gore, who won the year before. British environmentalists have said the prince should abstain from flying to the U.S. to get the award because of all the fossil fuel he's burning on his way.
They got a point. He canceled his ski trip for that very reason.
M. O'BRIEN: And so now they're flying coach instead. Well, I don't think coach. They are on an airliner.
S. O'BRIEN: I'm sure they're not flying coach.
M. O'BRIEN: No seat for Prince Charles.
In Iraq, U.S. forces now in the lead in a pitch battle for the holy city of Najaf. This, after Iraqi officials say they foiled a plot to kill a religious leader as important to Shiites as the pope is to Catholics.
CNN's Arwa Damon live now from Baghdad with more.
Arwa, this plot is very troubling. If it had succeeded, the implications would have been far-reaching.
ARWA DAMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, Miles. It would have been unimaginable in terms of the levels of the sectarian violence here would have reached.
As you just mentioned right there, an expert on Shia Islam comparing Grand Ayatollah Sistani to the pope. And we can only imagine what it would have done to the sectarian violence here.
We saw it increase after the bombing of the Shia shrine in Samarra back in February to high levels. If this plot had succeeded, really the violence here would have been unimaginable -- Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: Arwa, the U.S. military has assumed the lead in this battle. What can we infer about the readiness and the ability of the Iraqi forces?
DAMON: Well, Miles, I think that the two different schools of thought when it comes to the readiness of the Iraqi security forces will look at it in this way: Those that believe that the handing over should be speeded up. The handing over of control to Iraqi security forces will look at this and say this is an example of Iraqis who were in the lead, they reacted to the initial intelligence and called in the Americans for backup. And that is one of the ideal scenarios that people here are looking for. But others will look at this and say the Iraqi security forces could not handle the situation on their own. They needed the Americans on the ground, they needed the American ground and air support, as well as American coordination, given that they have right now, according to senior Iraqi officials in Najaf, taken the lead -- Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: What do we know about the group and their ultimate goal? DAMON: Well, there have been a number of conflicting reports as to exactly who these individuals are. What we do know pretty much from all sources is their intent was to kill senior clerics and pilgrims in Najaf, including Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, as well as attacking the Shia shrine there, one of the main Shia shrines throughout the entire country and the entire world, in fact.
In terms of who they are, we've heard some reports that they are Sunni extremists, fighters from Ramadi and Falluja. We've heard reports that they are foreign fighters. But we have also heard multiple reports that they are members of a messianic Shia cult that is just trying to increase the chaos here in preparation for the arrival of the Mehdi, whom they believe is their savior -- Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: Arwa Damon in Baghdad.
Thank you -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: In southern Israel this morning, the first suicide attack in nine months. It happened at a bakery in the resort town of Eilat. At least three people and the suicide bomber were killed. Palestinian -- three Palestinian militant groups have claimed responsibility for this bombing.
The Bush administration could present findings to Congress today about whether Israel used cluster bombs in the war with Hezbollah last summer. That would be a violation of Israel's agreement with the U.S.
Ben Wedeman is in Jerusalem this morning.
Good morning to you, Ben.
BEN WEDEMAN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.
Now, the question really isn't weather Israel used those cluster bombs. That's not really in doubt. The question is, did Israel misuse those cluster bombs by firing them into civilian areas?
Now, the Israeli government has said that they have abided by the agreements between Israel and the United States on how those bombs are used, that they did not use them in an illegal way. But we have been trying to get comment from Israeli officials today. They are not talking at this point. They're basically sticking to previous statements made in which they defend their use of these weapons and say that they did not violate any agreements or laws regarding these weapons -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: So the reports out today, do we have any indication early on about what this report is going to say, that in fact they did ignore the restrictions or they did not? Do we know?
WEDEMAN: Well, we understand that it may, in fact, say that they did ignore, they did misuse these weapons and, therefore, that could lead to some sort of punitive action by the United States against Israel. Now, it's worth noting that, for instance, in the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon, Israel did use those cluster bombs against civilian areas. The United States, as a result, suspended its provision of those weapons to Israel for six years. But ironically, Israel basically used that time to start manufacturing those weapons itself.
Israel is now a major producer and exporter of cluster weapons and, in fact, it exports some of them to the United States. So, at best, whatever the United States does, it may be simply of symbolic value -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: And there are still hundreds of these -- there are hundreds of these cluster bombs still unexploded, aren't there, in Lebanon?
WEDEMAN: Well, actually, according to the United Nations, there are more than a million of these bomblets, these small bombs that are spread around by the cluster weapons. A million of them in Lebanon, according to the United Nations. Thirty people have been killed by these weapons since the end of the war last summer, and more than 180 people have been wounded.
Now, the U.N. has an extensive program to clear these weapons away. They say they've cleared around 90,000, but that does leave more than 900,000 of them on the ground throughout southern Lebanon. So it's a very dangerous situation for people in the south -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: Yes, it certainly is.
Ben Wedeman in Jerusalem for us this morning.
Thank you, Ben -- Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: The race for the White House now. The first primary votes won't be cast for a year, but they're already campaigning like it's no tomorrow.
In Iowa, Senator Hillary Clinton bashing President Bush on Iraq. She said she would fix the situation -- he should fix the situation before he leaves office and not pass it on to the next commander in chief.
Former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani still testing the presidential waters, speaking to the New Hampshire Republican Party convention.
And the field keeps growing. Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, a Republican, says he's running, too.
We'll talk with John Edwards, one of the Democratic presidential hopefuls, in our 8:00 Eastern hour.
Coming up, a deep freeze in the Deep South. Severe weather expert Chad Myers has your forecast.
Plus, the lifesavers. Hear how air traffic controllers helped a struggling pilot come down safely.
That's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING. The most news in the morning right here on CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
M. O'BRIEN: Welcome back to the most news in the morning.
And now a moment of terror and heroism in the sky. Imagine you're an air traffic controller and you get a radio call like this one.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
WILLARD NICKISCH, PILOT: I've got an autopilot that won't release, and it wants to pull me down into a dive.
I don't know if I can find the approach yet. It's taking all of my muscles to just pull back on this thing.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
M. O'BRIEN: All right. That's the call that they got in the tower -- or among approach controllers in Champaign, Illinois, this past September. That was Willard Nickisch, the pilot who was having some difficulty with his twin engine Piper Seneca. It just wanted to go into a nosedive.
We're joined now by Willard Nickisch, who lived to tell the tale, fortunately, and the two controllers that got him down to the ground in a safe and happy landing, David Murphy and Yasemin Parker.
Good to have you, all three, with us.
David, let's begin with you.
When you got that first call, the pilot in the soup, in the clouds, and he's struggling just to keep that plane from diving down, what went through your mind?
DAVID MURPHY, AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER: Well, the first thing that went through my mind, the first thing we would normally try to do is troubleshoot the airplane and figure out what was wrong with it, before we did anything else. But the amount of energy it appeared that he was exerting just by his tone of voice on the radio made that not one of the options available to us at the time.
So it was how to get him from above the clouds to below the clouds, which were only about 900 feet above the ground that day. And a lot of things go through your mind in a real big hurry.
M. O'BRIEN: All right. Let's go to the next radio transmission. This is as you're kind of going through the process of troubleshooting. Let's listen to what happened.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP) NICKISCH: I thought I was going down, but it's taking everything I can to hold back on the yoke. They tell me if I release the pressure the thing might let go. But, boy it puts me in a straight dive down, straight down.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
M. O'BRIEN: All right. Just -- the yoke is the steering wheel, for those of you who don't fly.
Willard, give us a sense. You're pulling back on the wheel there and they tell you if you let go it might reset and you won't have to constantly be pulling back. You didn't want to take that risk, did you?
NICKISCH: Actually, I tried that procedure, and I let go for just a couple of seconds, and it went -- it went down. And afterwards they told me that the total time was 15 seconds until I recovered that, and during that time, I was descending at a rate of 2,800 feet a minute. So if I had have let go for a couple more seconds, I probably would have exceeded the structural integrity of the aircraft.
M. O'BRIEN: So you were in -- you were in a pickle. You had a stuck trim. You couldn't get that nose up without pulling back, and you're in the clouds.
How bad was the weather?
NICKISCH: Well, fortunately, at that time, I was above the clouds, but needed to get through them to get down to a safe landing.
M. O'BRIEN: All right. So you had to fly an instrument approach and they needed all the procedures and charts and everything and it's just -- it's like you're riding a bucking bronco.
So David, you had to give him a little bit of tender loving care. Tell us how you got him to where he needed to be safely.
MURPHY: Well, he didn't have the ability to fly in an instant (ph) approach, which is ideally what we would have done at the time, for a couple of reasons. Some of his instruments were not operating either, and he wasn't really sure what heading (ph) he was on.
And the approach plates that he would normally look at to tell him what to do on the approach were -- some of them were in the back of the airplane due to the gyrations. So we gave what we called a radar surveillance approach, which left him to only concentrate on flying the airplane. And by giving him turns, telling him when to start, when to stop, when to go up, when to go down, we put him on final, below the clouds, and fortunately he was able to see the runway about a mile and a half out and the landing was successful.
M. O'BRIEN: Willard, I've got to tell you, an instructor made me do one of those once just to go through it. Had you ever done one? A lot of pilots never do one of these radar surveillance approaches.
NICKISCH: I had practiced those in the '70s, but it had been 20, 30 years since I had done one.
M. O'BRIEN: All right.
Let's -- I want to get Yasemin in. But first, let's hear the happy landing radio calls first, and then I want to talk to Yasemin about this.
Let's listen.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
MURPHY: You are number one cleared to land Runway 3-2 right. Remain on my frequency for now.
NICKISCH: I'm going to try dropping the gear. You got the trucks ready?
MURPHY: Trucks have been rolled, and he's going to try and roll with the gear. He doesn't know what that's going to do.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Local, he's on the ground, safe.
November 48 Quebec, contact Champaign Tower on 1-2-0 point 4. Nice job, sir.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
M. O'BRIEN: All right. So -- and the rest is history, everything came out well.
Yasemin, you're new to this business. What was this like? A little bit of on-the-job training you didn't expect, I guess, huh?
YASEMIN PARKER, AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER: Yes, that's correct. It was quite the surprise, but it could happen any day, and it worked out very well.
M. O'BRIEN: All right.
Well, congratulations to the controllers.
Congratulations to you, Willard. I know you owe them a debt of gratitude.
Today you're going to get your award, right? And the award is named for the first air traffic controller, right?
PARKER: Correct.
M. O'BRIEN: We have a quick picture of him. Let's put him up real quickly. Have you ever seen this guy?
That's the first air traffic controller. In his right hand is the checkered flag. That means go. In his left hand, the red flag, meaning stop.
Things have come a long way, I should say.
Willard Nickisch, David Murphy, Yasemin Parker, thanks to all of you. And congratulations.
PARKER: Thank you.
MURPHY: Thanks.
NICKISCH: And thank you.
S. O'BRIEN: Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: At the end of the day you just want to get on the ground safely, though.
M. O'BRIEN: That's right.
S. O'BRIEN: No matter what time (INAUDIBLE) is.
Let's get you a look at the weather. It is 46 minutes past the hour, and Chad has that for us this morning.
Hey, Chad.
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, Soledad.
(WEATHER REPORT)
S. O'BRIEN: All right, Chad. Thank you.
MYERS: You're welcome.
S. O'BRIEN: Ahead this morning, Shaquille O'Neal, NBA all star, and reserve police officer. We're going to tell you how he made a slam-dunk fighting crime on the streets of Miami this morning.
Plus, one lucky duck first shot then refrigerated. But he was still alive. Then he had surgery and CPR, and he's still kicking.
We've got the story of Perky straight ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): What do you get when you fuse martial arts...
MAURA BARCLAY, BUDOKON INSTRUCTOR: And then scoop with the pelvis, rolling the head forward.
COSTELLO: ... and ancient and modern yoga techniques? Add meditation, and you have budokon, which translated from Japanese means "way of the spiritual warrior."
BARCLAY: And then we move into the more rigorous budo, or martial portion of the class, where we do the kicking and the punching, a lot of ground fighting. Jujitsu is all ground fighting, which is tremendous for women, particularly, because that's where we're the strongest, is on the ground.
COSTELLO: Master Cameron Shayne, a multiple black belt, created budokon and says it's the art of living. The way your body moves influences the way you live your life. Barclay says it's the ultimate total body fitness.
BARCLAY: When you practice with your mind involved, the body gets sculpted and you get an incredible abdominal cavity because it takes so much work. It's very core centric. All the kicking and punching firms the legs and buns, everything. You can expect your body to completely transform.
COSTELLO: Shayne has taught budokon to celebrities such as Jennifer Aniston, Courtney Cox and David Arquette. The goal is to improve agility and strengthen the mind and body.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's an amazing workout, and you feel -- your mind feels so clear after you're done. It's incredible.
COSTELLO: Carol Costello, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
M. O'BRIEN: Welcome back to the most news in the morning.
Happening in America today, a setback for Kentucky derby champ Barbaro. Doctors inserting two steel pins into that broken hind leg of his. Barbaro's other hind hoof still recovering from laminitis. That comes from uneven weight balance on his legs. Doctors say if Barbaro gets laminitis in any other hoof they may stop treatment and possibly have to put him down.
In Michigan, Interstate 69, in Lapeer Township, east of Flint, is back open this morning after a 50-car pileup in a blinding snowstorm. At least a dozen hurt there.
In Miami, Shaquille O'Neal with the assist. Shaq is not only an all star, he's a reserve officer with the Miami Police Department, and he helped catch an alleged hit-and-run driver early Sunday.
He says the driver hit his Cadillac Escalade. I guess he knows it's more than alleged. It hit his car.
Don't mess with Shaq's Escalade, all right?
Shaq caught up with him at a gas station and then called over a nearby police officer.
You do not mess with Officer Shaq, OK?
In Wisconsin, starting today, no more cell phones in Milwaukee schools. School officials say the ban is part of an effort to curb school violence. Last month, apparently some girls got into a fight, used their cell phones to call for help. The resulting reinforcements led to a huge brawl outside the school.
And get a load of this one. Talk about a lucky duck. Tallahassee, Florida, our dateline. Perky is recovering this morning after a hunter shot her and refrigerated her for two days. But perky was still alive.
Veterinarians operated on her. She flatlined, but came back to life. They're now letting her heal on her own from a broken right wing and leg. Where she's headed, we don't know. We'll keep you posted.
Look at little Perky. That's a bill of goods for you this morning, for sure.
S. O'BRIEN: That's just a weird, weird, and true story.
M. O'BRIEN: Yes.
S. O'BRIEN: Coming up this morning, just how much influence does Iran have in Iraq? A report that's soon to be released could provide some big answers.
And we prove it once again, there are no free rides. A space tourist is grounded, not by NASA but by the IRS. We'll explain.
You're watching AMERICAN MORNING. The most news in the morning is right here on CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
S. O'BRIEN: Oh, were you hoping to get your taxes done early this year? Well, it might be a problem.
Stephanie Elam is "Minding Your Business." It's 57 minutes past the hour.
Hey, Stephanie. Good morning.
STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.
It may be some bad news for some. The 1099 forms that you usually get that let us know about your dividends and your interest income, well, they may be coming to you a little late. And that's because some changes to the tax laws are forcing at least five brokerages to delay the mailing of those forms. And even after you get them, there still might be some corrections because of that.
So the IRS has gone ahead and extended the deadline by a month for those brokerages to send out those forms. Usually they're due January 31st, but now they have an extra month. And so they're saying for people who do get those forms, wait until the very end, the last minute, to file them, so that if there are corrections they can make those corrections then.
Now, moving on to a different kind of tax issue, let's say you win a trip to space and you're excited, it's something you want to do, and then you find out that you've got to pay taxes on it. So it's not so much free.
That happened to Brian Emmett. He's from Mountain View, California, and he won a trip from Oracle to go to space, but he gave it up after he found out the $138,000 trip, he'd have to pay $25,000 in taxes.
So that's kind of a -- kind of a sad point.
Back to you -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: All right, Stephanie.
Poor guy.
M. O'BRIEN: Yes.
S. O'BRIEN: So ruins the fun.
M. O'BRIEN: Even out of this planet you cannot avoid taxes. They will find you.
S. O'BRIEN: Let's get to a story this morning about a helping hand for wounded veterans and their families. Two new Fisher Houses are going to open today at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio. Fisher Houses -- and we've done stories on this before -- they provide housing for families of wounded troops while the troops undergo rehab.
Tonight you can catch a special edition of "ANDERSON COOPER 360." He's going to be live in San Antonio. It's called "The Toughest Battle: Healing Heroes."
M. O'BRIEN: Coming up on the top of the hour. Chad Myers at the CNN weather center, looking at the weather.
(WEATHER REPORT)
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