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American Morning
Afghanistan Airstrike: 7 Children Killed in Attack; Sextuplet Struggles; Palestinian Crisis: U.S. and Israel Back Fatah
Aired June 18, 2007 - 06:59 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR (voice over): Breaking news. A coalition bomb hits a school in Afghanistan, killing seven children.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We didn't know they were there.
ROBERTS: Earlier, dozens of police recruits killed in a Kabul bus blast. A new wave of Iraq-style suicide bombings hitting the other war on this AMERICAN MORNING.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: And good morning to you and thanks for being with us. It's Monday the 18th of June.
I'm John Roberts.
ALINA CHO, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Alina Cho.
Kiran Chetry has the morning off.
A lot of stories "On Our Radar" this morning.
I know you've heard about this one, an incredible story. A woman actually spots the person who stole her identity for several months. She had a photo of her because the bank gave it to her, so she knew...
ROBERTS: It was the coat that gave her away.
CHO: It was the coat that gave it away. Not a great looking coat either.
She called police, followed her. Take a listen to the 911 tape.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This woman has been taking my identity for the last five months. It's been a living hell. She just threw something in a trash bag. Now she's continuing to walk.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Have you made a report about this?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. Countless reports. And I think I have her, and I want somebody out here please.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
CHO: Can you imagine how her heart must have been beating during that whole ordeal?
We're going to hear her amazing story when she joins us live in the next couple of minutes. And you're going to hear about that coat. You'll see the pictures, too.
ROBERTS: A special recognition for our own Christiane Amanpour. Queen Elizabeth awards her with the commander of the British empire for our ground-breaking journalism. She joins us in a few minutes to talk about her reporting around the world.
We'll also get Christiane's take on the crisis in the Middle East, check in with her.
We want to get right now to breaking news overnight. Seven children killed in a madrassa, a religious school, in a U.S.-led airstrike in Afghanistan. We've got the latest information from a military spokesman an hour ago.
He said the military was going after an al Qaeda operation in Paktika province in eastern Afghanistan. And al Qaeda, he claims, was using the children as human shields.
Here's some of what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAJ. CHRIS BELCHER, U.S. ARMY: Yes, we had -- there were (INAUDIBLE) on the ground surveilling the building, or surveilling the compound all day. And the information we got from talking to the children who survived is that they were prevented from leaving the building. The people we had who were doing the surveillance did not see them, or we would have not targeted that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: CNN's Jamie McIntyre now is live at the Pentagon.
What are you picking up there on this incident overnight, Jamie?
JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SR. PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, despite the fact that the U.S. military says that they conducted surveillance of this mosque and madrassa compound, it had no idea that children were there, this kind of a strike really hurts the U.S. and NATO effort in Afghanistan because it plays right to the criticism that the U.S. is producing way too many unintended civilian casualties. And again, they did not have adequate intelligence, clearly, to know what was in that target, or, as the military spokesman said, they wouldn't have hit it knowing that children were inside.
Again, the U.S. continues to blame the Taliban for this, saying that the reason they didn't know the children were there is that they were held inside the school and beaten and pushed if they tried to get out. But nevertheless, this is the latest in a string of incidents which has angered local Afghans and really undercut support for Hamid Karzai because of the civilian deaths, John.
ROBERTS: What about that weekend bombing that we saw in Kabul, Jamie? It's the worst attack since 2001. Is this the spring offensive that people had been talking so much about that really hadn't materialized, at least until this weekend?
MCINTYRE: Well, you know, NATO and the U.S. have been crowing about the fact that the spring offensive had been mostly a NATO offensive, and that's still basically the case. But what this is showing is that the Taliban can strike back in and using the same sort of tactics that the Iraqi insurgents have been using successfully.
There's been an increase in suicide bombings, an increasing in roadside bombings. The same sort of tactics that have bogged down the U.S. in Iraq are now appearing in Afghanistan. And you have to say that it's not a positive trend, although the U.S. insists that they still have the upper hand. And we saw some very heavy fighting in the south, by the way, overnight. Again, offensives that were started by the Taliban insurgents.
ROBERTS: All right.
Jamie McIntyre at the Pentagon.
Thanks for that, Jamie. We'll check back with you a little bit later on.
CHO: A third sextuplet from Minnesota died over the weekend. The remaining three are in critical condition. The situation is obviously raising new concerns and questions for women in their late 30s and 40s who may also be considering fertility treatments.
Our medical correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen, has been looking into the issue. She's here with us in New York this morning.
So, a lot of women who are, you know, taking fertility treatments, they're just so thrilled to be pregnant that they don't really think about the risks involved. So I think the story really illustrates that there should be some concerns, right?
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Right. Anyone who is even thinking about undergoing fertility treatments needs to think about what would happen, what you can do to prevent having multiples. It is a real possibility when you're undergoing fertility treatments. It's something you have to think about.
Big risks here for the babies. We're talking about prematurely. And for the mom, a lot of people forget about the mom. Higher risk of diabetes, higher risk of eclampsia, higher risk of all sorts of conditions.
CHO: Well, doctors actually advised this couple to selectively reduce the number of viable fetuses to two, right? And this couple declined. Would that have helped the situation, do you think?
COHEN: The doctors that I talked to said that it probably would have. That's what they usually advise couples in this situation. If someone's pregnant with six babies, they'll usually say, let's get it down to two. It's better for the mom, it's better for the babies.
But basically -- I mean, they use the term "selective reduction". Basically, what you're doing is you're aborting four of the fetuses. Some couples just have philosophical, moral, religious problems with that. And it's the couple's choice in the end. It's not the doctor's choice.
CHO: Right. And what's the takeaway for women in their late 30s and early 40s who are taking fertility treatments? What should they be aware of?
COHEN: There is a huge takeaway here, Alina. And women and men, the couples, really need to think about this.
A lot of times this happens because couples pressure doctors. They go to the doctor and say, we've been trying to get pregnant for years. Help us. Amp us up on drugs. Give us whatever drugs, and give us big dosages.
And doctors sometimes oblige. They really feel for their patients.
Don't pressure your doctor. Take the dosage that they give you. Don't pressure them.
And sometimes doctors will even say, you know what? You've got a lot of eggs in there. Do not go home and have sex, because you're going to have a lot of babies. And they do.
So, listen to your doctor.
CHO: That's right. Good advice.
Our medical correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen.
Great to see you.
COHEN: Thanks.
CHO: Thanks -- John.
ROBERTS: Coming up to six minutes after the hour.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is in the United States. He's meeting with President Bush tomorrow.
Both the United States and Israel are lining up behind Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and the new emergency government that he has sworn in after Hamas took control of Gaza. Gaza is cut off from food and supplies, but within the last hour an Israeli company said it will resume supplying fuel to Gaza, holding off a potential humanitarian crisis.
CNN's Ben Wedeman is live in Jerusalem and joins us now.
Ben, let's take a quick listen to what Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said about supporting Mahmoud Abbas yesterday when he was here in New York City.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
EHUD OLMERT, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: We will cooperate with this government. We will de-freeze moneys that we kept under our control because we didn't want these moneys to be taken by Hamas in order to be used as part of the terrorist action.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: So it sounds like they're opening up the vault for the Fatah elements of the Palestinians.
What's the strategy here, Ben?
BEN WEDEMAN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: To pump hundreds of millions of desperately needed dollars into the West Bank to allow Mahmoud Abbas and his government to show that there are palpable and immediate benefits to cooperating with Israel and the United States, and that maybe down the line there could be even a resumption of peace talks show that it would show the people in Gaza and certainly show Hamas that their current strategy is not working. The only problem is, John, that the United States and Israel were following a similar policy in Gaza, backing one faction, Fatah, against another, Hamas. And we saw how successful that was.
And there are many people here who are worried that simply the formula doesn't work, that Fatah is too corrupt, it mismanaged Palestinian affairs for years, and there's no reason to expect now, with hundreds of millions of dollars in their bank accounts, that they're going to be any less corrupt or anymore efficient -- John.
ROBERTS: Is Hamas the sort of organization, Ben, that you could isolate out of existence? I mean, they're famous for living an ascetic lifestyle.
WEDEMAN: They do live a far simpler lifestyle than some of the Fatah people I know. But they are a very popular organization, and before they went into the suicide bombing business, before they sort of took up arms, so to speak, they were very active in social areas with running schools, hospitals, clinics, providing social welfare for people. So they have a very big grassroots backing that, in fact, Fatah simply doesn't have.
So, it's very -- not only it's difficult to isolate Hamas, it's potentially very dangerous -- John.
ROBERTS: Ben Wedeman for us in Jerusalem.
Ben, thanks. We'll see you again soon. The immigration bill is back in Washington this week. A new deal is giving senators one more chance to vote on the plan. It provides a way for the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in this country to stay.
The bitter Washington political fight is also affecting the presidential race. This weekend I traveled with Mitt Romney around the state of Iowa and asked him about it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: The immigration bill, they decided to resurrect it. They're going to be bringing it back to the floor, perhaps in the next week or so.
Is this a bill that should come back to the floor of the Senate?
MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, it needs to be changed in one significant way. And that is that the Z visa which is given to all the illegal immigrants, it needs to be adjusted to make it temporary.
ROBERTS: Would you have been happier had it just stayed dead?
ROMNEY: Oh, I don't -- I'm not going to get involved in that. I think, you know, whether we fix it or whether we use the old bill, the key is to make sure that we don't give amnesty to all the people that are here illegally. And we can do that either by enforcing the bill from 1986 or by fixing this bill.
Fixing this bill would be a wonderful thing to do. And making sure we don't have amnesty, making sure that we don't give Z visas to everybody who's here illegally, that's something we've got to do.
ROBERTS: Do you think the president's pushing too hard?
ROMNEY: Well, I think the president is entitled to express his view. I disagree with him on this. You know, there are some places I'm going to part company with the president. He understands that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: In the next hour we're going to ask Mitt Romney about the defining moment of his presidential campaign.
We got to spend an awful lot of time with him, Alina.
CHO: Yes, you did.
ROBERTS: And got some interesting insight into who he is.
CHO: And I think there are two men with movie star good looks in that equation.
ROBERTS: I only saw one in that picture, and that was him.
CHO: Well, we look forward to that.
All right.
A new beginning tops our "Quick Hits" this morning.
Virginia Tech's Norris Hall, the site of America's deadly school shooting, reopens today. No more classrooms, though. The hall will now be used for offices and labs.
Following some breaking news in the weather department this morning. Active tornado warnings in Texas right now, just north of Dallas. And major flooding in Forth Worth. There are reports of rescues and mobile homes under water.
We're going to go live to Chad Myers in a moment with the very latest on that.
And our own Christiane Amanpour is getting a top honor from the queen of England. We'll talk to the newest commander of the British empire.
There she is. We're going to see her live next on AMERICAN MORNING.
The most news in the morning right here on CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Breaking news out of Afghanistan tops our "Quick Hits" now.
The U.S. military says seven children were killed in a U.S. airstrike on a madrassa, a religious school, in Paktika province. Several al Qaeda militants were also killed. The military spokesman claims there was no sign of children inside the building before the attack, and the children were used there as human shields.
Police in Ohio suspect foul play in the disappearance of 26-year- old Jesse Marie Davis (ph). The pregnant single mother is due to give birth any day. On Friday, the woman's mother found her daughter's 2- year-old son home alone and the house ransacked.
And a small plane in New Zealand makes an emergency landing, but surprisingly smooth. Take a look at this, coming down, no wheels, right flat on the belly. It landed on the belly, skidded along the runway there as perfect as something like that can be.
None of the 17 people on board were injured.
CHO: About 14 minutes after the hour.
Tornado warnings in Texas to tell you about. Chad Myers tracking the storms, live in the weather center down in Atlanta.
(WEATHER REPORT)
ROBERTS: It's coming up to 16 after the hour now.
You have seen her in virtually every war zone on the planet, from Bosnia to Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, Rwanda. Once it was said the sun never sets on the British empire. And so, it would seem, on our own Christiane Amanpour. She's not just CNN's chief international correspondent, she has just been named a commander of the British empire by the queen of England.
Christiane joins us now from London.
Christiane, congratulations. And I'm wondering, what are you thinking about all of this?
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You know, I'm really, really thrilled. And I'm really proud.
It's a long tradition. They set this up back in 1917. And it really is an amazing thing to be part of this.
But I think I'm really proud of the simple citation which says "for services to journalism". And I really do feel, really genuinely from the bottom of my heart, feel that I share this with all of our colleagues and friends who believe in this kind of journalism, and, of course, with all of my colleagues and some of my best friends who've been killed, who've been wounded on the front lines of what we pursue because we're so passionate about the real meaning of this profession.
ROBERTS: Well, you've certainly let nothing stand in your way as you have toured around the world to all of these hot spots, trying to shine the bright light of truth on some very dark places.
You know, "TIME" magazine once called you the most influential foreign correspondent since Edward R. Murrow. I mean, that's a pretty great thing to have said about you.
AMANPOUR: You know, it's really nice, but I really strongly feel -- and I feel more and more -- that our job is simply to stick to the basics of what this profession is about. It's about reporting without fear nor favor. It's about recognizing the serious in this world and going out and telling the stories, giving a voice to those who don't have a voice, and just simply trying to tell the truth, because our viewers really want it, they really deserve it.
And, you know, whether it's against dictators, or whether it's in elected governments, we must always remember that our job is not to be part of the propaganda campaign, but to report without fear nor favor, because if we don't, we can get really into a big disaster. And I, as you know, feel very strongly that that's what happened in the lead-up to the Iraq war.
ROBERTS: Right.
AMANPOUR: And so I'm very, very committed to this.
ROBERTS: We should mention, Christiane, that right after this interview you're on a plane and you're heading for Jordan. We want to ask you about the Middle East crisis there.
Is there a danger here when you see the split in the Palestinians, the rise of Sunni extremism in Lebanon, Iran's influence in both of those places, that the Middle East could be ripe for a conflagration that could spread across the region?
AMANPOUR: Well, I really do think that nobody could have imagined even a few years ago that the entire Middle East, not just Iraq since the 2003 invasion, but so many of the neighboring countries and so many of the important places such as Israel and Palestine, are in such a terrible situation right now. And to see this situation come to a head, whereby now the Palestinians are almost in a civil war with each other -- some of them call it a coup d'etat, but the fact of the matter is they're split right now, and there's no real -- no real sort of way to figure out how to conduct meaningful diplomacy to get out of this.
Yes, everybody's saying that they're now going to recognize and work with Mahmoud Abbas. But, you know, where were they when he really needed them to work with them? You know, what did create this split between the two Palestinian factions? And after all, of course, because of the failure of Fatah, that's why people voted for Hamas.
ROBERTS: Right.
AMANPOUR: And now what happens to the people in Gaza, 1.5 million people? What will happen to that? And there's no real easy answer out of that right now. It's a very, very dangerous situation.
ROBERTS: Well, we look forward to your reporting there, Christiane, in the future. And again, congratulations from all of us here. It really is a terrific honor.
AMANPOUR: Thank you.
ROBERTS: And it couldn't have happened to a better person.
AMANPOUR: I'm proud to do it for CNN.
ROBERTS: All right. Thank you, Christiane.
CHO: Congratulations, Christiane.
ROBERTS: Isn't that great?
CHO: Oh, boy. And doesn't she look great?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(NEWSBREAK)
CHO: Twenty-four minutes after the hour. Ali Velshi "Minding Your Business".
A little spectacle de l'air (ph) in Paris.
ALI VELSHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, outside Paris.
ROBERTS: Whoa.
VELSHI: Isn't that good?
CHO: Well, trying. It sounds good.
VELSHI: The Paris air show, which is the biggest air show in the world, right outside of Paris today -- the last time they had a Paris air show was in 2005, and the big deal there was the Airbus A380. That's not going to be the big deal there today.
The A350 is what Airbus is concentrating on. This is a plane that seats between 270 and 350 people. You'll be seeing a lot of those. In fact, Airbus is hoping this is its future.
US Airways has just announced a deal to buy between 22 and 30 of them. They're in the midsize long range category. This plane competes directly with Boeing's 787 Dreamliner.
These are fuel-efficient planes. The Dreamliner is the first plane to be made out of carbon fiber. That's the one you're looking at.
Airbus is hoping to get 150 planes announced this week. Boeing already has more than 500 of these Dreamliners. The one you're on may not look like that one.
The big deal of the last one, as I said, is the A380. Of course, for the last two years, the A380 has had lots of problems.
Emirates, the largest buyer of the A380, has just announced that it is buying another eight to 10 of them, which brings the order up to around 55. That makes it the biggest buyer of these A380s.
I got to fly on one of these. They are fantastic. This is like two Boeing 777s on top of each other.
CHO: Wow.
VELSHI: A double-deck plane, highly fuel efficient.
CHO: Well, it's all relative. Highly fuel efficient.
VELSHI: That's right. It's not as fuel efficient as your car.
CHO: That's right.
VELSHI: But the idea is there's so much more air traffic, and there aren't more slots available. So, when -- particularly these Asian routes, which are growing, you can't -- unless you're going to keep on building airports, which hopefully they'll do in time, you'll want to fly more people on the same planes. And that's why the growth of these big, big long-range planes.
So, you know, there'll be a lot of deals today, a lot of money made -- and lost, perhaps -- at the Paris auto (sic) show. But at least, you know, it will be the kind of thing that we're flying on in the future. So it's worth looking at.
ROBERTS: The Paris air show.
VELSHI: The Paris air show.
ROBERTS: Right. Not the auto.
VELSHI: The Paris auto show -- did I say Paris auto show? Cars, planes -- I can keep talking about this for hours.
ROBERTS: Trains, planes, automobiles.
CHO: Automobiles.
ROBERTS: You've got them all.
VELSHI: Yes. Paris air show.
(NEWSBREAK)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: And there's a shot for you this morning of Lake Michigan, a marina right there just outside of Chicago. Our thanks to WGN. It looks like it's going to be another nice day there.
CHO: Yes, it looks clear. I used to run right along that river. Went to graduate school in Chicago.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR, AMERICAN MORNING: You can't tell. Is that the sun coming up through the haze and are those raindrops or is that - you can't really tell. And I flew through Chicago on Friday on the way out to interview Mitt Romney in Iowa, flew back through Detroit's new metro airport. I hadn't been there in years, what a surprise. The best thing about it, they've got CNN up on the jumbotrons (ph) all over the terminal, so hey to everybody in Detroit's metro airport this morning.
Welcome back, it's Monday, the 18th of June. I'm John Roberts.
CHO: And I'm Alina Cho. Kiran Chetry has the morning off. Lots of stories on our radar this morning, including this one, just an incredible tale. A woman actually spots the person who stole who identity for five months, made her life a living hell. There she is. She's live in our studio. She actually called 911, followed her on a foot chase all over town. This woman was eventually caught. Wait until you hear how she recognized her. It has to do with a fur-trimmed coat.
ROBERTS: There you go, that's one not to forget, that's for sure. And quite literally on our radar this morning, on Chad's radar at least, severe weather in Texas, homeowners rescued, floods, tornado warnings, the latest from Chad coming up in just a minute.
We begin now with breaking news overnight. Seven children killed in a madrassa a religious school, in a U.S.-led air strike in Afghanistan. We've got the latest information from a military spokesman in our 6:00 show. He said that the military was going after an al Qaeda operation in Paktika (ph) province in eastern Afghanistan and that al Qaeda was using the children as human shields.
CHO: And we're keeping a close eye on that extreme weather in Texas for you. Chad Myers tracking all of it at the CNN weather center in Atlanta. Hey, Chad, good morning.
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Lots of flooding, Alina, good morning. It's all from the Ft. Worth right on up towards Sanger (ph) and this is just some of the live pictures we're seeing in just a minute ago from WFFA. We've been watching it on our little satellite feed here. This was one of the rescues here. This is Haltom City, but there's a lot of rain on up toward Lindsey (ph) and Gainesville, Texas. Now these are towns that are just maybe bedroom communities just north of Dallas/Ft. Worth, north of the DFW airport. Some reports now on the Doppler of four to five inches of rainfall in just one hour's time. So here's Sanger. There was a tornado on the ground just north of Sanger about an hour ago, just as we were going onto the 6:00 hour.
But we'll zoom you in to where the storm is rotating now. Lindsey and Gainesville, you should be taking cover. You are under a severe thunderstorm warning, but this storm is rotating so quickly it probably could be a tornado warning right now. Get in the lowest level of your house. Stay away from the windows. Do not go outside yet. Let this storm go by. You need to be careful though. If you're going to get to the lowest level, make sure that water is not near you because Gainesville you had four inches of rain in the past hour. You could see flooding. You don't want to be in your basement if all of a sudden your home floods. You got to think about that. I know there aren't that many basements in that area, but still keep it in mind. There is the storm. It's very small. It will pass but for now, it is a very dangerous storm. We're keeping a look at it now. We'll try to get you more video as it comes in. There's going to be more flooding in Texas. We're going to get that video in as the day comes on. Guys, back to you.
ROBERTS: Chad, thanks. Taking a look at some live pictures here. What are we looking at here Chad?
MYERS: They're trying to get these people - we do know that a four-year old boy is missing this morning, swept away by the flood waters. Overnight they are still trying to find him this morning and there are rescues going on all across north Texas. Shawn (ph), is that ready? Let me put this in just for some perspective for you. This is a one-hour rainfall map of Dallas Ft. Worth, way down there. There's Denton. You probably already heard of that town. Here is the Red River, that one squiggly line here, Gainesville and Lindsey, these pink dots here indicate rainfall in one hour of over four inches. This dark red is over three inches and even the I-35 is flooded this morning, water over the roadway and that road is shut down.
You can see this is literally, it looks like a radar. It looks like more of the rain is happening now, but this is the radar adding up what has happened over the past hour. This is the live radar with the thunder and lightening going on. Gainesville, you need to take cover now.
ROBERTS: Wow, pretty incredible. Chad, keep a close eye on it. Ping us if something else happens. We'll get right back to us.
MYERS: All right.
ROBERTS: Thanks. Israel Prime Minister Ehud Ohlmert is going to meet with President Bush tomorrow about the United States and Israel backing Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. It could lift sanctions to support him. For the moment, Ohlmert is in New York where he met with U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon. CNN senior United Nations correspondent Richard Roth is here. So, what's the strategy here between Ohlmert and President Bush in terms of supporting Abbas and trying to isolate Hamas?
RICHARD ROTH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We've already seen Ohlmert say that Israel would be a good partner with the Fatah government of Mahmoud Abbas. We've heard this before, but he's like the only horse they have in this race now that Hamas has ousted Fatah in the West Bank. Today, the so-called quartet, which isn't a string music group as we know John. It's the U.S., Russia, the European Union, that whole group. These are Mid East peace pursuers and they are all going to confer again today about the latest developments. But it seems like this summer jigsaw always in the Middle East, it's reshuffled.
ROBERTS: And so is Ohlmert and I would imagine President Bush as well expected to go to the United Nations to ask for more support for Abbas in an attempt to isolate Hamas.
ROTH: That's it. It's going to be support Abbas because he's our man. We can work with him. Hamas seeks the destruction of Israel and will not join any type of peace process at the moment. Perhaps they'd like to see if the West Bank can bloom economically and politically, it could make Hamas look even worse and maybe lure them back of some type of dialogue, though some doubt that.
ROBERTS: Some people have talked about the idea of a UN peacekeeping force going into Gaza. Is there anything on the horizon?
ROTH: Well, Ban and Ohlmert discussed it yesterday. It's believed Hamas would certainly reject it. Egypt is not too keen on it. They'd like to stop the smuggling that might be helping Hamas getting arms. Also in a little noted report last week, the UN said there's still a lot of smuggling getting weapons into Hezbollah in southern Lebanon which is that other front (INAUDIBLE).
ROBERTS: Richard, always good to get your perspective on these things. Thanks for coming in. Alina.
CHO: Thanks John. Spectators killed topping our quick hits now. There are big questions this morning about just how a dragster was allowed to race down a crowded highway with no guardrails. You're looking at home video there. It careened into a crowded charity event killing six people, all of them under the age of 22, more than a dozen in the hospital.
Plans to reduce gasoline use could lead to higher gas prices for years to come. Oil executives say there's little incentive to upgrade refineries while the government is pushing biofuels like ethanol.
She had her identity stolen and her bank accounts looted. What one woman did when she came face to face with the woman accused of emptying her accounts. She's going to join us live in just a couple of minutes with her amazing story. This one you won't want to miss. You're watching AMERICAN MORNING. The most news in the morning is right here on CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Coming up to 40 minutes after the hour. We're monitoring breaking weather news in Texas this morning. A line of severe storms that drenched central Texas and now causing severe flooding. Rescue efforts are underway as we speak in Haltom City, Texas. Our Chad Myers is keeping a close eye on all of the developments down there. If there is the slightest hint of an impending or immediate risk, Chad will get right back to us and get on the air with all of that.
Another computer test at the space station today will determine if the crew of the space shuttle "Atlantis" can leave tomorrow. The "Atlantis" crew will spend the day getting ready and saying their good byes to the space station crew preparing to leave tomorrow and get back to Cape Canaveral on Thursday.
Also Fatah accuses Hamas of stealing Yasser Arafat's Nobel peace prize. They told the "Jerusalem Post" that Hamas militants looted Arafat's former home in Gaza City. They also took his old uniforms and gifts from world leaders.
CHO: Millions of Americans have their identity stolen every year along with their good name and thousands of dollars in stolen credit. It's usually a faceless, nameless crime that attacks innocent people and they never know it. So imagine what you would do if cops showed you pictures of someone pretending to be you, draining your bank account and then you spotted that person on the street.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHO (voice-over): Walking the streets of San Francisco last April, Karen Lodrick spotted the woman who stole her identity and immediately called 911.
KAREN LODRICK: I need somebody to come to Laguna and Market. She's running. I need the police. This woman has been taking my identity for the last five months. It's been a living hell. And I want somebody out here please.
CHO: She then began yelling at the woman to stop.
LODRICK: I know who you are. Don't let her go. She's identity theft. The cops are coming. CHO: When she didn't stop, Lodrick gave chase. Lodrick knew it was her because the woman was wearing the same distinctive coat the day she was looting Lodrick's checking account as seen here in these surveillance photos.
LODRICK: She's carrying this funky tan coat that has fuzz all around the collar and sleeves.
CHO: While waiting for the police to arrive, she kept following the thief and phoning into street locations to the 911 operator.
LODRICK: She went down Page and she walked into a building.
OPERATOR: You see her.
LODRICK: Yeah, she's coming out. Oh I'm so afraid she's going to jump out at me or something.
CHO: Lodrick kept up the chase until 45 minutes later, she spotted the woman in the parking garage where the police arrived to apprehend her.
LODRICK: That is her. That is the thief. That is the one that's been making my life hell for the last six months.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHO: I can only imagine what that must have been like. Karen Lodrick joins us live now. Let's step back a little bit. Tell me exactly how she stole your identity in the first place.
LODRICK: Well, what I was told was that (INAUDIBLE) the those got stolen off of him and they were looting the neighborhood.
CHO: She went into your mailbox.
LODRICK: And she went into my mail box. She'd go into like the whole mailbox that they took - they got a lot of my mail. It just happened that there were credit cards that I never requested that were sent and then PIN numbers.
CHO: Bank statements.
LODRICK: Bank statements.
CHO: That was key really right?
LODRICK: Yeah.
CHO: So eventually she went, looted your checking account. The bank thankfully got a photo of her, Wells Fargo. They gave you the photo. Why did they do that?
LODRICK: They wanted me to make sure that I didn't know her and to - and I wanted to see her. I was anxious to sell what she looked like. CHO: They also wanted you to prove that it wasn't you who drained your own account (INAUDIBLE) going on. So tell me, let's talk a little bit about the chase now. Because you were just going about your business, getting a latte at a Starbucks and you turn around and you see that coat, that awful coat.
LODRICK: Yeah, actually she has it over her hands. She wasn't even wearing it that day and I thought, that's interesting. That's that coat and I looked at her and I thought well, she looked very grungy, but she had Gucci glasses, really nice Neiman Marcus coat and the Prada bag and I thought well, that didn't seem right.
CHO: And so you started following her and in fact at one point, you tracked her down. She threw down her purse that she purchased with your credit by the way and let's take a look at the 911 tape.
LODRICK: I just looked inside the PRada thing and she has my name in there.
OPERATOR: Oh my God.
LODRICK: It's freaking her man.
CHO: Oh my goodness, sends chills down your spine I guess when you hear that tape again. But what was going through you mind at that point? I mean here you are chasing the woman who you believe stole your identity. I mean made your life a living hell really for six months or more.
LODRICK: Yeah, it was pretty bad. It was like a cat and mouse chase. One account would get open. I'd have to close something and then something else she was opening because she had just too much of my information. So it was pretty bad and so just the thought of letting her out of my sight when I was chasing her was more terrifying than chasing her. So I just couldn't - I just did not want to let her out of my sight.
CHO: I know you're angry about what you believe was a light sentence and so you've become an advocate for victims of identity theft, so Karen Lodrick, we thank you for joining us this morning and telling this incredible tale.
LODRICK: Thank you very much.
CHO: John.
ROBERTS: What a story, incredible.
Breaking news out of Afghanistan tops our quick hits. Seven children were among those killed in an American air strike on suspected al Qaeda militants in eastern Afghanistan. A military spokesman told us this morning that the militants were using the children as human shields, but that the U.S. military didn't know about it. Jamie McIntyre joins us live from the Pentagon with more at the top of the hour. And a militant group claiming to hold a BBC reporter hostage in Gaza says reports that they are prepared to release him are incorrect. Several reports circulated this week that Allan Johnston (ph) would be released within hours. Johnston was kidnapped more than three months ago.
The silver surfer is box office gold. The new fantastic (INAUDIBLE) movie debuted at number one. Our Lola Ogunnaike will be along with more on the movie weekend coming up on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHO: Welcome back on this Monday morning, 10 years, quick hits now, General David Petraeus, the top commander in Iraq says stabilizing Iraq could take 10 years based on other similar situations. Petraeus said the big question is at what level would those operations need to be at that time.
A giant addition to an aquarium in Japan. This manta is believed to be the first giant manta ray born in captivity. She was more than six feet wide at birth.
And Blue Ray lands a major blow in the war of high-degeneration DVDs. Blockbuster announcing today that it will expand its high-def offerings next month but only in Blue Ray, not in the competing HDDVD format. John.
ROBERTS: That old beta max, versus the VHS struggle, that battle all over again.
It's coming up now to 50 minutes after the hour. Fantastic four topped the box office this weekend, "Silver Surfer" helped the sequel fly to number one, grossing more than $57 million in its opening weekend. AMERICAN MORNING's Lola Ogunnaike gives us the rundown now. It goes to show that comic book adaptations for the silver screen as in the case of the "Silver Surfer" still very popular among the movie going audience.
LOLA OGUNNAIKE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They actually really do well, though adaptations, x-men done well. This is doing well. This actually did better than its opening weekend two years ago. It grossed $56 million last year, $57 million this year and "Silver Surfer" was a huge draw. The fans love this character. He's a beloved character. He travels the galaxy on this really cool silver surfboard and fans are going out for him. I predict a spin-off of "Silver Surfer" soon.
ROBERTS: I would imagine if there is money to be made, somebody will figure out a way to do it. Speaking of money to be made, what did "Silver Surfer" do to the other top hits at the box office?
OGUNNAIKE: Well it bounced "Ocean Thirteen" down to number two. We'll see on full screen, it's about -- it's done about $90 million so far. -- I'm sorry, "Ocean's Thirteen" has done about $70 million. "Knocked Up" in its third week has done a little over $90 million. So those two are still holding on strong.
ROBERTS: "Knocked Up" though I would imagine is the real money maker here, $90 in three weeks.
OGUNNAIKE: In three weeks, exactly.
ROBERTS: It didn't cost as much to make as the "Silver Surfer" or the other two.
OGUNNAIKE: No. It's done great. The reviews have been stellar and a lot of word-of-mouth so people have been going to see this one. It's a hoot. It's hysterical (INAUDIBLE) He's the guy who brought us "40-Year-Old Virgin" so it's is doing well. Not doing so well, Nancy Drew, opened at number seven, only took in $7.1 million. That's a huge disappointment. The reviews were not good. "The New York Times" compared it to a less than groovy version of a Scooby-Doo episode.
ROBERTS: Despite Ali Velshi's contribution to the box office, Nancy Drew just didn't do too well. Lola thanks.
CHO: All right John thanks. Sneak copies of "Sicko" tops our quick hits now. The Michael Moore film is out on the Internet two weeks before its official release. The film company is trying to fight the piracy.
The world's best selling board game could soon be coming to a theater near you. Director Ridley Scott is actually considered to direct a "Monopoly" movie which could star Kirsten Gunst (ph) or Scarlet Johansen. Hasbro wants the movie to feature sexy young people.
A five -year-old survives two nights alone in the woods after a swimming accident that left her grandfather dead. The little girl and her parents will be joining us live in the next hour of AMERICAN MORNING. Stay with us. You're watching the most news in the morning here on CNN.
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CHO: Welcome back. We're following some breaking news in the weather department. That tops our quick hits today. Active tornado warnings in Texas right now just north of Dallas and some major flooding in Ft. Worth. There are reports of rescues and mobile homes under water.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VERONICA NORRIS, MOBILE HOME PARK RESIDENT: ... on top of the roof and finally about 45 minutes later, the fire team and the cops came and rescued us.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHO: A developing situation. We're going to go live to Chad Myers in just a moment for the very latest.
An honor fit for a CNN correspondent. Our very own Christiane Amanpour has been named commander of the order of the British empire by Queen Elizabeth. That's for her distinguised service to journalism, which all of us know about. And from now on, she's Christiane Amanpour, CEE.
And a British knighthood for author Salman Rusdie has drawn some protest from Pakistan and Iran. You may remember Rushdie's novel, "The Satanic Versus" outraged Muslims around the world. He was targeted for assassination after the book was published and that forced him into hiding for nine years.
ROBERTS: Fifty seven minutes after the hour now and Alina touched on this just a little while ago, the battle between HDDVD and Blue Ray. Is it going to be a single format or two formats? Ali Velshi here minding your business. We'll get more on that.
ALI VELSHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Do I have any credibility left? I hear you've been dragging my name through the mud for seeing Nancy Drew on Friday.
ROBERTS: We've been dragging...
CHO: (INAUDIBLE) Nancy Drew.
VELSHI: The single guy just got a new home theater system. I felt everything is new in my home theater system except my DVD player, because I was not prepared to commit to either - to one of the two high-definition DVD formats. HDDVD or Blue Ray. Now until now, you could kind of get most things in both. Warner Brothers is the only one that released exclusively HD DVD. Most of those are released in both formats. Blockbuster has just announced now that it is going with the Blue Ray format. Blue Ray players by the way tend to be much more expensive than HDDVD players. But it's kind of like the whole beta/VHS thing. On the left you see the companies that have committed to HDDVD, X-box 360 and a lot of the adult industry.
ROBERTS: Not that you would know anything about that.
VELSHI: I was just reading it. I went to see "Nancy Drew" John. Would I likely to know much about the adult industry? On the right is Blue Ray, Playstation and Blockbuster if you like the dirty movies, you'll have to stick with HDDVD.
CHO: You said Blue Ray is more expensive.
VELSHI: Blue Ray is more expensive which it might be why the adult industry is going for the HD because they're cheapskates.
CHO: Thank you, Ali. See you later.
The next hour of AMERICAN MORNING starts right now.
ROBERTS: Breaking news. Coalition bombs targeting al Qaeda in Afghanistan hit children at a school.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We didn't know they were there.
(END VIDEO CLIP) ROBERTS: A dramatic escalation of violence, including a deadly bus blast in Kabul heating up the frontlines of Afghanistan on this AMERICAN MORNING.
And good morning to you. Thanks very much for joining us, Monday the 18th of June. I'm John Roberts.
CHO: And I'm Alina Cho. Kiran Chetry has the morning off. Thanks for joining us.
A lot of stories on our radar this morning, including this one. Incredible tale, a boating trip with a grandfather and his five-year- old granddaughter turns tragic. He drowns, but it's bitter sweet. She miraculously survives after spending two days alone in the woods. Can you imagine how scared this girl must have been? She wandered toward searchers and they said what is your name, girl and found her, so it's an incredible story. That little girl and her parents are our guest this morning.
ROBERTS: When she came up to the rescuer she had a handful of berries so she was actually foraging the woods.
CHO: Smart enough to know how to do that.
ROBERTS: Also today, on the road with Mitt Romney in Iowa. His defining moment as a person and candidate as we introduce you to the crew for '08. We begin with breaking news in Texas, dangerous weather happening right now, tornado warnings and major flooding. Let's get you right to Chad Myers in our weather center. Chad, what is it looking like down there? Pretty bad as we understand from the pictures.
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