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Implications of U.S. Support of Fatah, Texas Floods, Fertility Drug Dangers, General Who Investigated Abu Ghraib Abuses, Rice Holds Press Conference to Discuss Support for Fatah
Aired June 18, 2007 - 13:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: It came in the middle of the night and rescues continue. Right now rushing flood waters pushing people to their rooftops, entire Dallas neighborhoods still under water.
BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: While in others, the water came and then it went. This is what's left. People's homes just washed away, cars piled like matchbox cars in the aftermath. Their stories ahead.
LEMON: Hello everyone, I'm Don Lemon, live at the CNN world headquarters in Atlanta.
NGUYEN: Good afternoon, I'm Betty Nguyen in for Kyra Phillips today. We have full coverage live from the NEWSROOM.
LEMON: Happening right now, tragedy across north Texas where the water is still rising and with us on the phone we're going to get first to Chris Cypert, he's a municipal court judge for Gainesville. Judge Seibert, just how bad is it downtown?
VOICE OF CHRIS CYPERT, MUNICIPAL COURT JUDGE: Downtown is pretty bad. The water is beginning to recede, but we've had several rescues from rooftops, the local EMS, law enforcement officers and fire departments are going from door-to-door now trying to help people get out of their homes.
LEMON: We have been hearing that -- you have been hearing people crying out because they are trapped in their homes, judge. You're looking at live pictures right now of some of the cars that are under water and just at the mess all of this rain overnight has caused. We're going to get to our Rob Marciano in just a little bit who can explain those pictures more. But judge, tell me about this, any casualties or tell us about those who are possibly injured or if you know of any people who might not have fared well in this.
CYPERT: Well, we -- we haven't had any numbers of any fatalities. We have had several that have had to go to the hospital and though we haven't had any numbers on fatalities right now. Most of it is property damage and like I said, they're just still doing rescues as we speak.
LEMON: What are you doing for the people because obviously they don't have a place to live judge with all this water in their homes? Are there shelters set up any where, can you tell us about that?
CYPERT: Right now we have three shelters set up, one is with -- in our -- in a Wailey(ph) Methodist Church, one is with First Baptist Church, and then we have one in our local civic center. Right now we only have about 300 folks in temporary shelters. If we need to open more shelters then we will do that. I have just heard that we have got over -- over 25 pastors and counselors coming in to help with that and help with those folks.
LEMON: I'm sure that you were paying attention to the weather forecast sir, did this catch you off guard at all? I would imagine you didn't think that it would be to this extent, the amount of the damage and flood water.
CYPERT: You never think it's going to be to this extent. We knew it was going to rain, our ground was pretty saturated but we received a little over eight inches of rain is what I have been told since midnight and then at 6:30 the flooding began.
LEMON: Judge Chris Cypert, a municipal court judge there in Gainesville, Texas. We thank you for joining us. We're going to continue to update you on this breaking news story throughout the day right here in the CNN newsroom.
(WEATHER REPORT)
LEMON: All right, we're going to continue to follow that. Now let's go to the Middle East where there is new leadership and now a new U.S. policy expected for Palestinians. Hamas is in control of Gaza, while an emergency government appointed by Palestinian authority President Mahmoud Abbas is operating in the West Bank. Now that is prompting the U.S. to renew long frozen aid. CNN's State Department correspondent Zain Verjee joins us now and Zain, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is set to hold a briefing just a few minutes from now. What are we expecting to hear from her?
ZAIN VERJEE, CNN STATE DEPARTMENT CORRESPONDENT: Well senior State Department officials have told CNN that what we expect is a major policy shift by the United States. Secretary Rice is expected to announce a resumption of direct aid to the Palestinian government of the emergency government of Mahmoud Abbas and the West Bank. This is significant. Officials have said that Rice is expected to say that the U.S. and its international partners will recognize the Abbas government as the legitimate authority in the West Bank and Gaza. Now the reason that the aid is being resumed is really because it meets three very important criteria for the United States and its international partners. This government recognizes Israel, it rejects violence and it recognizes past agreements. The U.S. in the past has suspended direct aid since the Hamas led government came to power and basically Don, refused to recognize those three criteria. State Department officials are also telling us that the money isn't really going to be new money, they're saying don't really look for Secretary Rice to announce a huge commitment of new U.S. resources. There already exists an aid package to boost Abbas and the security forces. The U.S. is really going to assess it and see how this situation changes that. Secretary Rice is expected to discuss things that the U.S. will try and do in the short term to support the Abbas government. She's also going to reiterate the idea of a two-state solution. Don? LEMON: Ok, Zain, before you go, then what is she expected to say about the Palestinian territories?
VERJEE: Well she is expected to say about Gaza, that's what she's expected to say in the West Bank about Gaza specifically. She is expected to talk about the U.S. concern for the humanitarian situation that the U.S. wants to help. But it's really going to depend on the extent to which U.N. relief agencies can be on the ground and the U.S. can use them as a vehicle to provide support in a humanitarian capacity to the people there. Don?
LEMON: So maybe an obvious question but what is the U.S. hoping to do here?
VERJEE: Well what they really want to do here is boost Mahmoud Abbas, that's really the goal here. You know, with the end goal of essentially wanting a situation where he can be strong enough, have enough public opinion to negotiate a peace deal with Israel. What they're doing here is they want to paint a very stark choice. This is what one senior U.S. official told us, that basically you can have the chaos in Gaza, you can have the boycott of Hamas, you have instability on the one hand and then on the other hand, you have a relative peace in the West Bank. You have a relative calm environment and you have U.S. dollars. So the message that they're sending is moderates, get money and international support and recognition. .
LEMON: CNN's State Department correspondent Zain Verjee, thank you for that report. Secretary of State, we should tell you Condoleezza Rice will talk about new U.S. policy in wake of the new Palestinian government in a briefing at 1:20 eastern. CNN will bring it to you live.
NGUYEN: Well listen to this story, nine months pregnant, due to give birth any day now and missing without a trace. The search intensifies in Ohio for a young pregnant single mother, but police and her loved ones have no clue where she might be. Now we're waiting to hear from police within the hour. I want to go straight now to CNN's Jim Acosta in north Canton as he waits for the latest word. Any indication as to progress in the search for this lady?
JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Unfortunately, no, Betty. After a weekend of searching, police say they simply have no new leads in this investigation and the family of Jessie Davis says they're not discouraged by the lack of progress in this case, they're just numb.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PATTY PORTER: We don't know what's happened and I just want my daughter back.
ACOSTA (voice-over): Police in Stark County, Ohio near Canton are searching for 26-year-old Jessie Marie Davis. The pregnant, single mother who is due to give birth any day, vanished last week. On Friday her mother found Jessie's 2-year-old son home alone and signs of possible foul play in her daughter's bedroom. PATTY PORTER, DAUGHTER MISSING: Her comforter was off and her mattress was pushed over. Her night stand was knocked over, the lamp was knocked over. And someone had poured bleach all over her carpet.
CAPT. GARY SHANKLE, STARK COUNTY POLICE: I think there is an element of foul play involved in this case. We have not had any clues of where she might be or who may be responsible for what happened to her.
ACOSTA: While investigators continue to search for those clues, friends and family have posted fliers with the hope Jessie is still alive.
JANE DAVIS, MISSING WOMAN'S SISTER: It hurts my heart because I -- I mean you know she's the one you look up to. She is your big sister. And she's such a strong person and you can't imagine that anything would ever happen to her. She knows she didn't have any enemies. She didn't -- she has never done anything wrong.
ACOSTA: Police have questioned the father of Davis' son, who investigators believe is also the father of the child she's carrying. He's also a local police officer and married to another woman. But police stress neither he nor his wife are suspects.
(END OF VIDEOTAPE)
ACOSTA: Police are planning to hold a press conference in about an hour from now as you mentioned Betty, and hopefully they'll have some new information in this case.
NGUYEN: Well obviously the family very upset, the search is on. But as for the community, have they come together in this search, how's it affecting the community?
ACOSTA: Yes. The community has pulled together. Over the weekend we saw not just family members of Jessie Davis but neighbors, friends, relatives, canvassing the area. And one of the things that they are also concerned about is this little boy Blake, Jessie's 2- year-old son, who apparently was home at the time when she disappeared. It's not clear whether or not she was abducted but when she vanished and one thing that we have heard from family members, the mother of Jessie Davis told us earlier this morning is that her son kept saying, mommy is in the rug, mommy is in the rug. And that is pertaining to what police say is something that may have occurred during the time of her disappearance. There is a comforter apparently, according to the mother of Jessie Davis', missing from the home, an oriental type of comforter. And that may be why this little boy is saying mommy is in the rug. But it is one piece of information that authorities at this point are latching on to and saying well hopefully, they can make something of this. Betty?
NGUYEN: Oh, and what a piece of information that is, if indeed it's true. Disturbing to hear that, but obviously, we are going to be waiting to hear much more if there is anything to it from that news conference that's going to be held at 2:00 this afternoon. Thank you, Jim Acosta. And when that happens we will bring it to you live. We're also going to be speaking with the woman's mother coming up in our 2:00 p.m. hour as well. So stay with CNN for all of that.
LEMON: Back to our top story and it is breaking news. We want to get one more look at the flooding situation in Texas before we go to break. Let's take a look at these live pictures now. We have pictures throughout the afternoon of just some of the video. This is the video -- actually, this is live. That's just a creek, it appears to be just swollen past its limits there and overflowing water rushing through. We also have some video from overnight of people who had to go up to their rooftops and were being rescued from their roofs. We're going to speak to the person who is in charge of the command center in Sherman, Texas, but overall in all of this, Betty, in Texas, at least two people dead. We're going to continue to update this developing and breaking news story right here in the CNN NEWSROOM. You're looking at --
NGUYEN: Local coverage of -- and of the two people, one was just a 4 year old girl who was swept out of her mother's arms as they were trying to rescue those two. So it's really a devastating situation as you can obviously see by these pictures.
Well we are covering other news as well. The U.S. military sent him to find out what happened at Abu Ghraib. Now he says they punished him for what he reported. He's talking with us.
LEMON: This is amazing. A day at a car show. Look at this, turns into multiple tragedies. What went wrong at a Tennessee charity show? We'll talk about that.
NGUYEN: And Gaza in chaos, but the U.S. and Europe say they won't abandon Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has the plan and you are watching CNN, the most trusted name in news.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
NGUYEN: It is 1:17 eastern and here are three of the stories that we're working on right here in the CNN NEWSROOM this hour. Any minute now Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will speak on the new turmoil in the Middle East. The U.S. is pledging to support the emergency government of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, after his Fatah forces were defeated by rival Hamas militants in Gaza.
We are also waiting to hear from police in northern Canton, Ohio, on the desperate search for a missing woman who is nine months pregnant. Jessie Davis vanished last week and her 2-year-old son was found home alone.
Also right now, rescuers are going door-to-door in northern Texas saving people from flash floods that swamped several towns. Just look at this video. A 4-year-old girl was swept from her mother's arms to her death as firefighters tried to rescue her.
LEMON: And Betty we want to continue with that developing story. It is breaking weather news. This is severe weather happening all across Texas. Just moments ago, one of our affiliate chopper pilots, WFAA pilot T troy Bush, flew over the scene. But look at those live pictures there of some of the cattle and livestock there being driven off the land and trying to I guess, imagine get to dry land there. But there you go, that's what's happening in Texas or at least as far as the animal situation. But of course, as we said, people there had to be rescued as well. Let's take a look at the chopper pilot who flew over the scene just moments ago.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VOICE OF TROY BUSH, WFAA CHOPPER PILOT: Creek which has been the downfall of the city of Gainesville since this storm started about 12:35 last night. What you're looking at right here is a mobile home park that was located just on the shores up the concrete. Now if we'll pan down about 100 yards to a bridge that's crossing -- you'll see what's left of a mobile home. That was uprooted from the park, taken downstream and then just totally destroyed. If you have any questions, any doubt in your mind about the force of running water, this should answer those questions right there. We were overhead with DBS1 and they searched the inside of the mobile home. There was no one in it, when it happened the folks got out before it was swept away. But thank goodness for that, there could have been some tragedies like we had in (INAUDIBLE) city this morning. So, folks, if you are still in Gainesville, still waiting to be rescued, please take your time, please wait. Please contact 911, let the folks know where you are and wait for rescue workers to come to you. Reporting live over Gainesville in HD Chopper 8, I'm Troy Bush, channel 8 news.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: And as he said his name is Troy Bush, WFAA. We thank our affiliate there for helping us out. Some of the coverage, sometimes you see a two shot of the anchors there. That's actually local coverage that's happening at WFAA there. But, according to one of the people on the scene, a judge, the people are still going door to door and we're also hearing that there have been people who were screaming from their homes because they need to be rescued. Continuing coverage throughout the day right here.
NGUYEN: Well we also are following this, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is going to be talking about the new U.S. policy in the wake of the new Palestinian government that is going to occur at a live briefing at 1:20 eastern. Actually, it's supposed to happen any minute now. As soon as she takes to the mike, we are going to bring that to you live.
LEMON: Innocent civilians used as human shields in Afghanistan. The U.S. military says that's what happened when a coalition area strike killed seven children at a compound where al Qaeda fighters were believed gathered. CNN's senior correspondent Jamie McIntyre joins us now with details. And Jamie, if the secretary comes to the podium there, we may have to interrupt you. Go ahead.
JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SR. PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, just interrupt me if that happens. This, again, Don, as another one of those situations where the U.S. military has conducted an operation only to discover after the fact that they were unintended civilian casualties in this case. Seven children, who apparently were in a compound that included a mosque and a religious school, a madrassa. These were school children in Paktika Province in southeastern Afghanistan. The U.S. military in its defense said that it had been -- had the compound under surveillance for quite some time, was convinced that only top suspected Taliban fighters were inside before an air strike was called in. They say that the reason that they were unable to determine the school children were there was because the Taliban were deliberately holding them and keeping them from leaving the building. In fact, they accused the people inside of quote, "Beating and pushing the children to keep them from leaving," according to other people they talked to. Nevertheless, it's another situation that erodes some of the public support for NATO and the U.S. coalition in their fight against the Taliban. It has been a sore subject with Afghanistan for quite some time now and a number of incidents in which civilians have been killed and it's put a lot of pressure on Hamed Karzai the Afghan president, to in turn put a lot of pressure on the U.S. And again, the U.S. blames the Taliban, the al Qaeda, for using -- for putting civilians in a situation where they could be hurt but nevertheless, the U.S. military clearly did not have a complete picture of what was going on inside this compound. Or, it says, it never would have conducted this strike. This comes as violence is erupting across southern Afghanistan. There was a night of fierce fighting in Hellman Province in (INAUDIBLE) yesterday. In the capital Kabul, a suicide bomber hit a bus that was carrying police trainers. It was the deadliest suicide attack since the beginning of this conflict in 2003. It shows once that the Taliban can strike back and is adopting the kind of insurgent tactics, suicide bombers and even roadside bombs that have been used successfully by insurgents in Iraq to bog down U.S. troops there. Don?
LEMON: CNN's senior Pentagon correspondent Jamie McIntyre. Many thanks Jamie.
NGUYEN: And we are still waiting for Secretary of Sate Condoleezza Rice to speak. A lot going on in the Middle East, as you know. New Palestinian government has been put in place and the secretary is expected to make a special briefing today to talk about support of that new government, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' government. There will be other information that she will provide that includes U.S. support in the wake of all of this. As soon as that happens, we will bring it to you live.
In the meantime, a drag race stunt goes terribly wrong. Look at this, six young people now dead and Tennessee officials have to figure out why. The latest on the investigation, that is AHEAD in the CNN Newsroom.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
NGUYEN: Another live look as we are waiting on Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to hold a special briefing which should be happening any minute now. She is going to be talking about the U.S. support of the new Palestinian government there headed by the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. She will speak to tissues of direct aid to this NEW government, how that aid will be used, and how the U.S. is going to help tackle the humanitarian situation in Gaza, a lot on the plate. Important information coming from the secretary of state and just as soon as she takes to that microphone, we will bring it to you live.
LEMON: Well the rain came overnight and the flooding soon followed, surprised many people in Texas. We're hearing so far that two people are dead from severe storms and floodwater happening in that area. We're going to speak with the man in charge of the command center in Sherman, Texas in just a little bit and get an update. But as we look at these pictures of people being rescued there in Texas.
(WEATHER REPORT)
LEMON: Let's go to Condoleezza Rice now, she is holding a press conference.
CONDOLEEZZA RICE, SECRETARY OF STATE: He told him that the United States supports his legitimate decision to form an emergency government of responsible Palestinians and he welcomed the appointment of Salam Fayad as prime minister. The president pledged the full support of the United States for the new Palestinian government. I delivered the same message this morning in a phone call to Prime Minister Fayad. I congratulated him on his new post and I told him that the United States would resume full assistance to the Palestinian government and normal government to government contacts. I told the prime minister that we want to work with his government and support his efforts to enforce the rule of law and to ensure a better life for the Palestinian people.
A fundamental choice confronts the Palestinians and all people in the Middle East more clearly now than ever. It is a choice between violent extremism on the one hand and tolerance and responsibility on the other. Hamas has made its choice. It has sought to attempt to extinguish democratic debate with violence and to impose its extremist agenda on the Palestinian people in Gaza. Now, responsible Palestinians are making their choice. And it is the duty of the international community to support those Palestinians who wish to build a better life and a future of peace. I have worked -- I am working with my colleagues on ways that the international community can deliver support to the new Palestinian government.
In the meantime, the United States is taking some immediate actions of its own. We intend to lift our financial restrictions on the Palestinian government which has accepted previous agreement was Israel and rejects the path of violence. This will enable the American people and American financial institutions to resume normal economic and commercial ties with the Palestinian government. We are also reviewing our democracy and development assistance to help the new government build institutions and infrastructure that will improve life for Palestinians, that will provide essential services, better roads and clean drinking water to people in need.
We have previously identified up to $86 million to support President Abbas' efforts to build responsible security forces. Now, in light of the new Palestinian government, we will be working with Congress to restructuring that assistance so that it can be used effectively.
Finally, I would like to make one point absolutely clear. Through its actions, Hamas has sought to divide the Palestinian nation. We reject that. It is the position of the United States that there is one Palestinian people and there should be one Palestinian state. Therefore, to help ease the suffering of all Palestinians, especially those in Gaza, we intending to contribute $40 million to the United Nations relief and works agency. We will not leave 1.5 million Palestinians at the mercy of terrorist organizations.
In the days and weeks ahead, there will be much work to do. I plan to continue working with Prime Minister Olmert and President Abbas to clarify a political horizon for a Palestinian state. We are at a critical juncture for the Israeli and Palestinian peoples, one at which the choices are ever more clear. We must take hold of this moment to make new progress toward the vision that President Bush laid out five years ago this week. Two states, Israel and Palestine living side by side in peace and security. And now I would be happy to take your questions.
QUESTION: Can Mahmoud Abbas really negotiate on behalf of all of his people if he's effectively only representing half of them?.
RICE: Let's remember that Mahmoud Abbas is the president of all of the Palestinian people through the Palestinian authority. He's also the head of the PLO. These are the institutions of the Palestinians as a whole. We are focusing today and in the days to come on helping this new government to find its footing and to begin the work, very difficult work, of making life better for the Palestinian people. And that is our focus today.
QUESTION: Secretary, how will you ensure that the money that goes to the Palestinians and Gaza gets to the people and isn't siphoned off by Hamas, since you obviously have no one there to supervise that?
RICE: Well, we have some experience, of course, working with UN relief agencies and with nongovernmental agencies and we will work through (INAUDIBLE) in this regard. Obviously, it will be very important and we will do everything that we can to make certain that the moneys get to the Palestinian people. But we have a long history of working through agencies of this kind. It has been some time since we had a presence in Gaza in any case. And so we will use many of the same goals. I would hope that as many of the same means. I would certainly hope that the -- that people in Gaza would understand that it is as important for the international community to be able to respond to the humanitarian conditions there.
QUESTION: Madam secretary, Fatah leaders have been corrupt in the past. By resuming aid, do you think that there is danger that you are propping up a system and leaders that have proven to be corrupt in a system that has been proved in the past not to work?
RICE: First of all, we have been very strong advocates of political reform in the Palestinian political space, including Fatah reform and that needs to proceed and I'm certain that it will. But I think if you look at this government, in particularly if you look at its prime minister, you see someone who has the reputation for integrity, who has a reputation for having accountability. I remember when he was finance minister, even under the old government when Yasser Arafat was still in power, he was the one who went forward to try and publish the budget on the Internet so that to people could see transparently what was being spent by the Palestinian authority. So this is someone who has a reputation for integrity and I think can be relied on with appropriate controls and appropriate authorities to make certain that funding is used for the good of the Palestinian people.
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR, NEWSROOM: That's the Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice holding a press conference there, essentially saying that recognizing the emergency government of Mahmoud Abbas, also saying $40 million in UN, will be given to the UN for relief and works there, that organization. We are following the story from here in the U.S. and also overseas. We have Ben Wedeman who's in Jerusalem, but first we start with our Ed Henry who is live at the White House with details on that. Ed, the secretary of state said that it seems that Hamas has made its choice and it is violence.
ED HENRY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right and clearly in this phone call - it all started with this phone call from President Bush to President Abbas this morning, initiated by the White House, lasted 15 minutes in which Mr. Bush really expressed his full support for this new government. The U.S. trying to take advantage of the fact that Hamas is out. Obviously, we are not dealing with them since they are a terrorist group. Now that the U.S. believes they are out of the way, this aid could start flowing back in to the Palestinian people. White House aides saying their most important priority right now is making sure that aid can actually flow to the people who need it most, people who may not have food and electricity, people caught in the crossfire. But also in that phone, President Abbas was pushing for a new round of Mideast peace talks. Mr. Bush demurred on that in part because he wants to wait until tomorrow when the Israeli Prime Minister Olmert will be here. That will be on the table. But not fully onboard yet, the White House not saying they are ready for a new round of peace talks. It is a touchy subject for them. Early in the Bush administration the president was criticized for not being engaged enough in Mideast peace talks. Secondly, obviously, before the war in Iraq, President Bush promised taking out Saddam Hussein would make the Middle East more stable and obviously, that's not exactly worked out Don.
LEMON: All right, CNN's Ed Henry at the White House. Now we go to Jerusalem where CNN's Ben Wedeman is standing by. Your perspective from there, Ben?
BEN WEDEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Don. This is a positive development for at least the Ramalla government. That led by Mahmoud Abbas. They have been expecting as soon as the split occurred between Hamas and the west bank - or rather Gaza and the west bank, that many hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. aid and European Union aid and also these frozen tax revenues would be freed up. And this is in a sense a way for the United States to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat following the fall of Gaza to Hamas. The United States put a lot of money and a lot of political capital in supporting Fatah in the Gaza strip and clearly that was money down the drain. So this is one way to show that there are benefits from moderation, from compromise. And those benefits come in the form of this renewed aid. And it is encouraging to hear from the secretary that money will be funneled through the United Nations organizations in the Gaza strip to ordinary Palestinians because in Gaza, they are facing a severe potential humanitarian crisis. At the moment all of the borders between Israel and Gaza and Gaza and Egypt are hermetically sealed. Nothing is getting through and therefore, this is an indication that the United States is mindful of the fact that they are 1.5 million Palestinians living in Gaza and they do need this -- some sort of assistance. Don.
LEMON: CNN's Ben Wedeman in Jerusalem, thank you Ben.
BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR, NEWSROOM: Well back here in the U.S, there's a lot of concern for those that live in north Texas and you can see why. Look at this. People just wading through the water on what normally would be a roadway. Flash flooding has caused all sorts of problems in the Ft. Worth area and that means dramatic rescues after high water just swamped homes and cars. We have more on this straight ahead. But first, as we go to break, let's take a look at the big board today, see how it is doing on a Monday. It is down six points. The Dow not looking so good at this hour but things can often change and very quickly. We will be watching it. There's much more in the NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
NGUYEN: Welcome back. You are in the CNN NEWSROOM and we are watching the situation in north Texas today. A lot of flooding just causing havoc for many people there including a four-year-old who in fact lost her life to the flooding there. Let's take you to WFAA reporter Cynthia Vega who is on the scene just moments ago.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE CORRESPONDENT: All right Cynthia thank you very much. Well, the heavy rains also did a lot of damage in the Trophy Club area. Channel 8's Debbie Denman (ph) is joining us to tell us about the flooding there. Debbie
DEBBIE DENMAN: It was pretty bad here.
NGUYEN: Obviously, that was the wrong video. Just to reiterate so far there have been two deaths in north Texas because of all the flash flooding. It's affected many areas, Haltom City, Gainesville, Sherman, a lot of people under a lot of water, some eight inches, eight to 10 inches came down overnight. And you are looking at some video right now. Rescuers have been working all day long to get people out of their homes. Some of them in fact on top of their roofs as they waited for someone to come and rescue them. I believe we have the video now of WFAA's Cynthia Vega who is on the scene in Haltom City.
CYNTHIA VEGA, WFAA CORRESPONDENT: Back behind me, folks are still trying to assess the damage that has been done here. Take a look back here. You can see one stretch to give you a strong indication of what is going on here. We've seen a lot of flooding come and go but in this area, it really resembles more of the aftermath of a small earthquake. If you move in closer, CJ, we'll show you the asphalt in and of itself lifted up from the ground in many areas back there and ripped to pieces, now just piled up as rubble. And alongside that, that scene with those vehicles toppled on one another. The waters when they raged through here picked them up, moved them yards down the way smashing into one another.
And a little bit beyond there, you can see now the American Red Cross on the scene making the rounds, trying to help these homeowners cope as they begin to step back inside their flooded-out homes to find that so little is left anyway. And at the height of this storm earlier this morning at about 2:00 this morning, that is when those floodwaters raged from the creek beyond, swelling beyond the creek and rising really as people here tell me just in a matter of an hour or two. Waters rising as high as six to 10 feet and just imagine all of these hundreds of homes here, people sitting on top of them waiting to be rescued. Only to be rescued finally by a lot of the rescue boats that came in here and at that point as they go back now, they find that their homes have been destroyed. Some have gone back to find their homes gone. They are now in that creek as are some of the vehicles.
So a lot of losses going on as we speak here at this hour, but, of course, the greatest one that loss of life. A four-year-old girl swept from her mother's arms this morning right along the creek's edge. She was found about a half a mile away, two hours later, but it was too late to save her life. At this hour, those searches continue because even now, authorities have told us that they cannot assess fully how many people were involved in this storm or not inside those two mobile homes that exploded when a gas line ruptured. They still know if there were people inside at the time or not. They've got still so much work ahead. Reporting live in Haltom City, I'm Cynthia Vega.
NGUYEN: The damage is just devastating. We are going to take you north of Haltom City to Gainesville, Texas if you are familiar with the area, this is about 60 miles north of Dallas. Look at this. This isn't a lake. This used to be roadways and fields there. Now all you see is water just stretching beyond the, you know, where you can see with the camera right now, going into neighborhoods and we saw a little bit early on. I don't know if we can get a shot of this now. But what was left of a mobile home. You can see nothing but just wood piled upon other pieces of just debris because of just the strength that this storm had when it blew through the area. Obviously, we are going to continue to follow this and as we heard from Cynthia Vega there with WFAA, there are still people missing. There are still people that we are looking for help. And rescue crews are trying to get to them.
LEMON: We are going to talk about the weather, too, bring in our Rob Marciano in just a little bit on this and as Betty said, we will continue to follow this breaking weather story throughout the day right here in the CNN NEWSROOM.
Let's move on now and talk about new concerns for women considering fertility treatment after the death of a third sextuplet over the weekend. Now the babies were born to a Minnesota couple last Sunday, 4 1/2 months early. Half have now died. What does mean for other women considering the use of fertility drugs? It is a very interesting topic here. CNN medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen joins us now live from New York with some answers on that. Elizabeth, what exactly happened here? How did the Morrisons -- how does anyone (INAUDIBLE) sextuplets.
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A lot of people have a fallacy about this. A lot of people say if you have sextuplets you must have had IVF. In fact it's not IVF or invitro fertilization that usually gets this. What usually happens and what happened in this case is that people take a hormonal drug. Mrs. Morrison took a drug called Falastem (ph). That makes the woman hyper-ovulate. She produces as whole lot of eggs. Now, hopefully it is managed so that she doesn't produce too many but in some cases many, many eggs are produced. Obviously that's what happened in this case.
LEMON: So Elizabeth, so I can imagine that most people probably don't want to have six babies at one time for the most part. What can be done to avoid having this many babies?
COHEN: Well, there are things that doctors can do and you know what, there are also things that patients can do. If you are even thinking about fertility treatments, you really need to listen to this. You need to make sure that your doctor is monitoring you closely. For example, make sure that your doctor is doing ultrasound. The ultrasounds will let you know if you are getting ready to produce too many eggs. If you are, the doctor will tell you not to have sex that month because it will just be too many babies.
Also blood work can help you monitor the state of your hormones to help the situation. And the last one is actually the most important one. Don't pressure your doctors. Fertility doctors can be under a lot of pressure. Families have been trying for years sometimes to have a baby. And sometimes they will say to the doctor, amp me up, give me a lot of hormones, I want the highest dose that you can give me because I want to make sure that I have a baby. That sometimes doctors actually give in to that pressure and often that's when you get these high order multiples, triplets, quadruplets, quintuplets, et cetera.
LEMON And that's when it happens. CNN's Elizabeth Cohen in New York for us. Thank you, Elizabeth.
COHEN: Thanks.
NGUYEN: Well, he was ordered to figure out what went wrong at Abu Ghraib. But higher-ups didn't like what he found. Was Army Major General Antonio Taguba (ph) punished for doing his job? Journalist Seymour Hersh joins us next in the NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: His report spoke volumes about the abuses at Abu Ghraib and now that he is retired from the army, Major General Antonio Taguba is speaking out himself about the personal fallout and what he says were deliberate misrepresentations by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Journalist Seymour Hersh, he interviewed General Taguba for the "New Yorker." His article appears in this month's issue and he joins us now live. Are you going to open up a can of worms with this. So you are saying - exactly tell me what are you saying? What did you find out from General Taguba in this report that you have?
SEYMOUR HERSH, THE NEW YORKER: It cuts two ways. One issue of course is he was a two star general who had come up with the bottom to the top the hard way. And was a deputy commander in the war zone in Kuwait and he was tapped by just chance. They needed a two-star general to investigate Abu Ghraib and they hit on him. He just did his job. As far as he is concerned, he was appalled by what he found. He thought it was systematic. He wrote a very tough report. He knew people told him watch out, Tony. You could get in trouble doing this. He did the best he could and he suffered for it instead of going on to a good career and he was sent back to Washington and retired as a two star and felt very badly about it.
LEMON: Mr. Hersh, we are going to talk about that because the Pentagon actually responded to it, at least Donald Rumsfeld's former spokesperson responded. Again, this report that you are talking about and that he's talking about apparently came out long before others admitted at least according to him that they saw this report. In this report he says quote, numerous incidents of sadistic, blatant and wonton criminal abuses were inflicted on several detainees systemic and illegal abuse. Now the Defense secretary is saying that he didn't see this report until shortly before he had to speak in front of hearings. He's saying -- Mr. Taguba, that the defense secretary saw this long before. What's the discrepancy there?
HERSH: What he's saying, Taguba, is this. That on May 7th, Rumsfeld was called after the story came out, I was involved in breaking it in "The New Yorker."" CBS had some photographs on the air. It became a scandal. Don Rumsfeld was called to testify before the House and Senate Armed Services committee and his testimony was then oh, my God, if I had only known. I just saw the photographs the other day. I hadn't seen them. I didn't know much about it. What Taguba knew and what bothered him very much was within days of the original complaint which was made months earlier by a soldier in January of '04, five months earlier, within days the back channel was humming. Messages were being sent from the field from Baghdad to Rumsfeld's immediate military assistant, a three-star general. Everybody else at the senior level of the Pentagon saying this is serious. This is real. You didn't -- they were very explicit descriptions of the photographs. You didn't have to see the photograph to know what it was.
LEMON: Let's listen to him in those hearings that we talked about, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld then.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD RUMSFELD, FMR. DEFENSE SECRETARY: It breaks our hearts that in fact someone didn't say wait, look, this is terrible. We need to do something to manage -- the legal part of it was proceeding along fine. What wasn't proceeding along fine is the fact that the president didn't know and you didn't know and I didn't know. And the -- as a result, somebody just sent it -- secret report to the press and there they are.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: OK. He's saying he didn't know. The president didn't know. Also today our Jamie McIntyre spoke to the former chief of staff, Rumsfeld chief of staff, Lawrence Diretta (ph) and here is what he says to CNN. Secretary Rumsfeld was advised on several occasions by the military chain of command and by legal advisors that extracting the photos from the criminal investigative process for viewing could materially affect the ongoing criminal investigation and then goes on to say that he thought once the hearings were about to go on that he should take a look at it.
HERSH: If that's their story, that's their story. Let them stick with it. I can just tell you that that report was available. Taguba tried I think 12 or 13 different senior generals and office civilians to offer them the report. The photographs were available to any senior high-level official who wanted to see them. Above and beyond the question of the rights of those accused, this is a very serious international issue that was going to damage the war effort. Of course the photographs were available to him.
LEMON: Mr. Hersh, just before we go, because we're running out of time, but you are saying that Mr. Taguba released this videotape that's supposed to be horrific. Have you seen that videotape?
HERSH: No. He didn't release it. What happened is he saw a videotape of American soldiers raping woman prisoners in the prison. That was not made public. That was just another piece, another day on the job. The point to make here the final point to make is it is not a question of whether you actually see the photographs. All you had to do was read the cable traffic that went to Rumsfeld within days that described what the photos -- they were very concerned on the inside about this. Of course he knew that this was serious -- I don't know what he told the president but it is just -- it is almost laughable that he would seriously tell Congress that I had no idea. They had an idea.
LEMON: Seymour Hersh, thank you very much. You can read more of this story in this month's "New Yorker." Thanks again.
NGUYEN: A pregnant woman abruptly just disappears leaving behind a tiny son in a trail of unnerving clues. Ahead in the NEWSROOM, we will hear from Ohio police and the missing woman's mother.
First though, as we go to break, let's take a look at the big boards today. The stock market is down still at 9 points there. There is more in the NEWSROOM in just a moment. You're watching CNN, the most trusted name in news.
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