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President Bush to Saudi King: Pump Up the Volume; In China Rescuers Pull More People From Crumbled Concrete; Pedal Power
Aired May 16, 2008 - 09:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: At least people aren't repeating the other word that he said.
Thanks so much for joining us on this AMERICAN MORNING. We will see you on again on Monday.
ANNOUNCER: CNN NEWSROOM with T.J. Holmes and Fredricka Whitfield begins right now.
T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Hello there, you are in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm T.J. Holmes.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Fredricka Whitfield.
HOLMES: You are going to be seeing events come to the NEWSROOM live on this Friday, May 16. Here is what we have on the rundown.
WHITFIELD: High emotion in China. Rescuers pull more people from the crumbled concrete. Aftershocks triggering landslides.
HOLMES: Also, President Bush to the Saudi king, pump up the volume. Can he get the Saudis to increase oil production to battle record gas prices?
WHITFIELD: And they are not pumping, they are pumping their legs to get to work, but not gas. Pedal power in the NEWSROOM.
HOLMES: Of course we want to tell you about something going on in Houston right now, just east of downtown where there has been a building collapse. You are looking at the pictures here. Apparently this is a church, the Mt. Carmel Missionary Baptist Church where the roof of the building has sunken in and parts of this roof and parts of this building has collapsed.
Now firefighters right now not sure if anyone might have been inside the building. They believe the building has been a bit unstable because of a fire that happened about a year, year and a half ago which left the building unstable, worried that some people might have been inside but they are not sure if it's safe enough for firefighters to even go inside yet to see if anyone is in there.
Right now they are warning people who are around the building and other people who live close by to maybe get out of the neighborhood, get out of their homes right now because they are not sure in this building if all the walls will collapse and possibly fall over on to people. Close by are also other homes. Right now I want to get to a reporter, a KHOU reporter, Leticia Juarez with the latest. She is on the scene.
LETICIA JUAREZ, KHOU CORRESPONDENT: ... decades old. It' the historic Mt. Carmel Missionary Baptist Church, it's been in this community ones known as Freeman Town, a very historical black area here in the downtown Houston area. Right now you are taking a look at firefighters who are on scene. They have been surrounding this building, they recently backed us further from the building, they want to make sure it's secure. They are making sure that residents are leaving the area because the building is very unstable at the moment. You can see that the wood is just bowing out. They don't know if it can come down at any moment.
They do need to look inside though because there could be people inside though, but we haven't heard of anybody, we haven't seen anyone brought out on stretchers. But just as a precautionary measure, search and rescue is going to go into the building. Once they are able to shore it up and make sure it's safe enough to go inside. That is what we have from the seen. Ron (ph) and Deborah (ph), back to you.
HOLMES: And again the word is that church has been taking place there. The building has been damaged for some time and services haven't been held in that building for quite some time. But again, they do believe that possibly vagrants and other people strolling through, strolling in, using the place as a refuge, as a place to get off the street sometimes might be inside the building. That is the issue. But again, as you heard from the reporter don't know if the building is stable enough for firefighters to even go inside to see if possibly anyone is in there.
But once again, the roof they know has sunken in and there is some damage inside, at least, possibly collapsed on anyone who could have been inside. But again, we will keep an eye on this story happening east of downtown Houston.
WHITFIELD: All right, T.J, let's talk about American politics now. Barack Obama fired up and fighting back. He's taking aim at comments by President Bush about those who would appease terrorists. Dan Lothian with the Election Express in Frankfort. Dan what is the Obama campaign planning today there in Kentucky?
DAN LOTHIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, what CNN has learned is that Senator Obama who by the way will not be in Kentucky today but will be in South Dakota, he will be responding more forcefully to the comment that is the president made yesterday while in Israel.
Initially when those comments were made the campaign responded almost immediately in statements saying that these were sort of false political attacks. And Senator Obama released a statement rather that he said in part, quote, "George Bush knows that I have never supported engagement with terrorists." But again those were statements yesterday. Now Senator Obama expected to make more forceful statements on this at a campaign stop in South Dakota. What's interesting about this controversy though is Senator Clinton who has been critical of Obama for his willingness to meet unconditionally with these rogue leaders such as Iran's president in the past was not critical of him yesterday but instead went after President Bush.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. HILLARY CLINTON, (D) NY: I think what President Bush did today was to make an outrageous and deeply offensive comparison. I just reject it out of hand. I think any fair-minded American will reject it out of hand.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LOTHIAN: I think what's clear from all of this, this controversy, is that this is an issue that will be front and center as we move into the general election. Already we've heard from Senator McCain who by the way will be campaigning here later this afternoon in Kentucky. He was very critical of Senator Barack Obama. So no doubt this is what we are seeing that will be one of the main issues as this campaign moves forward into the general election. By the way, as for the campaign trail, Senator Obama as I mentioned earlier will be campaigning in South Dakota. Senator Clinton will be in Oregon.
Back to you.
WHITFIELD: All right, Dan, thank you so much. T.J.?
HOLMES: And just a short time ago former assistant secretary of state and Clinton supporter Jamie Rubin responded to President Bush's appeasement comment. Here's part of what he told our Kyra Phillips on CNN's AMERICAN MORNING.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JAMIE RUBIN, FORMER ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF STATE: The president of the United States is in the Israeli Knesset. This is a country that was created out of the ashes of World War II because of the Holocaust. And the enemy of everyone connected with that era, that history, was the appeasement of Hitler, the idea that we should have negotiated with Adolf Hitler.
And that is what President Bush brings up before the Israeli Knesset. There's no more gruesome place for the president to suggest that other Americans, other Democrats are somehow appeasers because they want to sit down at the negotiating table with Iran, especially when, let's face it, his own secretary of defense has said we should negotiate with Iran.
Many, many Republican officials have said we should negotiate with Iran. All of Bush's silent treatment of Iran and Syria has gotten us nowhere. So for the president to use this solemn occasion of a presidential address to the Israeli Knesset, to use these horrible words about appeasement and Munich and Neville Chamberlain is really, really the most ugly form of American politics brought to another shore that I've seen in a long time.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Then we see John McCain responding yesterday, the new John McCain, but there's an old John McCain that we discovered and that comes from an interview you did when you were working with sky news in 2006, I believe, correct.
RUBIN: That's right.
PHILLIPS: Let's take a listen to this exchange.
RUBIN: Do you think American diplomats should be operating the way they have in the past in working with the Palestinian government if Hamas is now in charge?
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: They are the government and sooner or later we're going to have to deal with them in one way or another. And I understand why this administration and previous administrations had such antipathy toward Hamas is because of their dedication to violence and the things they not only espouse but practice. But it's a new reality in the Middle East.
PHILLIPS: OK. Explain to me now, where does John McCain stand?
RUBIN: This is the ultimate flip flop in American politics. When he was in Davos, amongst the European crowd and I interviewed him there two years ago, he was talking as if it was appropriate and natural and reasonable to negotiate with Hamas, the new government of the Palestinian Territories, then two years later, he's taking a very, very different position, saying anybody who wants to talk to them is somehow an equivalent terrorists, smearing people for suggesting that one would -- ought to talk to Hamas when it was he himself who was prepared to talk to Hamas two years ago.
And the great irony of all of this is that neither Hillary Clinton nor Barack Obama even want to talk to the Hamas government. They both said we shouldn't negotiate with them or deal with them properly until they renounce terrorism in Israel.
So, John McCain doing this 180-degree flip flop and attacking Barack Obama for it, it's just the height of hypocrisy.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: Well, those are pretty harsh words there. I do want to let you know we did reach out to John McCain's people to talk about what you heard Rubin just refer to as a 180-degree flip flop. We have yet to hear back from them. Again, Rubin, as you saw there, he did serve in the administration of former President Clinton.
Hot button issue in the past? Same sex marriage. The opponents promising action to drive voters to the polls this November. That story a little later this hour in the CNN NEWSROOM.
WHITFIELD: And new horrors now in China. A strong aftershocks rocks the devastated earthquake zone. And here's what we know right now. A 5.5 magnitude quake hit today triggering landsides, blocking roads and burying vehicles in a region already in ruins and it happened shortly after the Chinese president, Hu Jintao, arrived for a first-hand look at the destruction.
Frantic search and rescue efforts are now in day five. And the death toll continues to climb: 21,500 people are now confirmed dead. Officials predict the final death toll could top 50,000.
And some dramatic rescues are still actually taking place. A five-year-old boy was actually pulled from the rubble of his collapsed kindergarten as you see right here. And we see the rescuers also pulling right here a 76-year-old man out of the ruins of his crumbled home. Remarkable there are still survivors.
For a closer look at the tragedy and the triumph, ITN's Bill Neely takes us to Ground Zero in the city of Beichuan. We warn you some of the images you are about to see are pretty hard to watch.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BILL NEELY, ITN CORRESPONDENT: If there is a worst place in the world today, then this is it, a school where the children can still be seen in their classrooms, but they are all, hundreds of them, dead.
The workers lift what rubble they can. But the teenagers are almost fixed in the broken concrete.
(on camera): It is a terrible scene, this whole place is absolutely ghastly. This is one of more than 50 classrooms in this school.
(voice-over): It was the newest building in the city. But its cheap materials broke the law on earthquake safety. With hundreds of children dead, the penalty for the builders may be execution.
A few miles from so much death, life is pulled from the earth. Trapped for three days, a woman is lifted free. They clean her and ask her -- are there any more people inside? Yes, two she says. Are they alive? Yes, she says, they are still talking.
The ruins of Beichuan are still smoking and people are still crying out for relatives. And the question here is -- how do you find anybody alive in all this? Shh. You call for quiet and you shout into the rubble, knock, if you can hear us.
Deep down, someone knocks.
(on camera): The only thing in this city that is as it was is its name. Every single building here has been toppled and the whole place will simply have to be demolished. This city is history.
(voice-over): After such terror, few want to come back. They fled to a stadium in another city, 10,000 already. And in the grounds, the women weep, grief and guilt over the dead children they've left behind. This is the worst thing that's happened to China in 30 years. A national tragedy in 100,000 personal traumas. Bill Neely, ITV News, Beichuan.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: Also making headlines this morning, police attacked by a suicide bomber on a motorcycle. This happened in Sri Lanka's capital of Colombo. The bomber ran his bike into a bus carrying riot police near the president's office. Officials say 10 people were killed, more than 90 wounded. Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels are getting the blame here. The president calls the bombing an act of savagery.
Meanwhile, President Bush on the road and your wallet is on his agenda. He is in Saudi Arabia to meet with King Abdullah and oil will fuel much of their discussion. The president will push for than increase in production, a move aimed at lowering record oil prices. President Bush made a similar request when the two men met four months ago. That request was ignored.
WHITFIELD: Well, another surge in gas prices. It looks like it is becoming the new normal. The national average for a gallon of regular hits a new high, more than $3.78 a gallon according to AAA. And that is up a penny, just since yesterday. Mid grade gas is $4.02. And premium, ouch, at $4.16. And diesel is really hurt, $4.48 a gallon, T.J.
HOLMES: All right. Well, let's stay here because we have a very important story we continue to follow about the misery going on in Myanmar. Aid trickling in as survivors clinging to life and hope.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: You're in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.
Friends say she faked a brain tumor collect thousands in paid sick leave.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No way she had it typed up, she had the heading from the hospital, she had the doctor's name the I.D., doctor's I.D., everything on there.
Brain teaser busted in the NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: It's time we talked weather. Got a lot of rain here in the Southeast. Sometimes that's good, sometimes not so good. And then it's very hot on the West Coast. That is where it seems like you are going to be concentrating, Rob.
(WEATHER REPORT)
HOLMES: Well, veterans' groups are demanding answers from the Department of Veterans' Affairs. They want copies of all documents relating to the department's policies on post-traumatic stress disorder. The department e-mail asked V.A. doctors to keep costs down by giving -- diagnosing vets adjustment disorder. Veterans diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder can get health benefits and in some cases disability retirement pay. However, if they are diagnosed with adjustment disorder, they do not qualify for the benefits.
The e-mail was obtained and released by the group vets.org, a frequent critic of the Bush administration. The House rejects a $163 billion proposal to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan another year. A hundred thirty two Republicans sat out the vote in protest. Minority Leader John Boehner accused Democrats of playing political games by adding an increase in veterans' education benefits and additional unemployment insurance to that bill. The Senate is expected to debate its version of the bill next week.
WHITFIELD: Reporter in the middle of a war zone.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAEL WARE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (inaudible): on the air right now from the gun shots, they are that close. We are in a safe zone right now. We are out of the direct line of fire. But we are very, very close to a clash that is under way as we speak.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: CNN's Michael Ware is living on the edge there. Going inside Baghdad's Sadr City straight ahead in the NEWSROOM.
HOLMES: Also, caught on tape. A man jumps on a bus and attacks the driver, while the bus is still moving. We will explain this hit- and-run.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Recovered from her war wounds, now reporting again. Kimberly Dozier talks about the battle back from a bombing that killed her colleague, that is live next hour here in the CNN NEWSROOM.
WHITFIELD: And overseas now the Red Cross says cyclone victims in Myanmar are in urgent need of clean water. Without it survivors risk falling victim to diseases including dysentery and that could lead to even more deaths in the days ahead. UN officials plan to visit Myanmar this weekend. They hope to persuade military government leaders to grand more access for UN relief workers. Myanmar says at least 43,000 people were killed in the cyclone, almost two weeks ago now.
International relief groups estimate that the death toll could pass 100,000.
As you heard there aid unfortunately still not reaching many cyclone survivors clinging to life and hope. Our correspondent in Myanmar has exclusive video in this report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): A boat ride through the cyclone ravaged area of the Irawaddy River Delta reveals the despair of those affected. This is exclusive CNN video, a man suddenly appears on the shore and frantically swims to the vessel. He says he has been walking for four days, that his village was destroyed by the storm, and seven of his family members killed. The man also says at one point he signaled a Myanmar navy boat for help. "The navy boat passed," he says, "I waved, but it didn't stop. It didn't come near the shore."
This man's ordeal is over. But while hen joys his first decent meal in days, others in the worst affected area wonder when they will get their next meal. We found Wen Wenchi (ph) in a monastery now giving refuge to about 300 people. "If new food does not arrive soon, I'm afraid we will starve here," Wen tells me.
Wen Wenchi is sick, she has a fever, she was given two painkiller tablets. She says that is all the medicine she's been able to get at the camp. And she's not the only one suffering. This woman says she has a respiratory illness and a three-month-old baby to take care of.
Too little food, too little water and almost no medical supplies. The abbot here at the monastery camp says he is doing the best he can to help the displaced and can hardly conceal his anger at Myanmar's military rulers who have restricted international aid.
"I am very sorry that we have received no help from the authorities," he says. "Only some private people are giving us donations."
Donations that are urgent many needed for people like Wen Wenchi and her family. Right now she says it's all about survival, one day at a time.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: And we know many of you out there want to help. At cnn.com we have a special page on the devastation in Myanmar. It has links to aid agencies organizing help in the region. It is a chance for you to impact your world and let us be your guide.
WHITFIELD: A Missouri woman faces federal charges now over an Internet hoax that turned tragic. You may remember this story. Lori Drew (ph), well, she is accused of helping to create a fake MySpace page that was linked to a 13-year-old girl's suicide. A grand jury indicted Drew for conspiracy and fraudulent computer access. Megan Meier hanged herself in October of 2006 allegedly after receiving cruel messages on MySpace. Megan's mother is satisfied that charges have been filed in this case.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TINA MEIER, MOTHER: Bottom line is I want Lori Drew to have to serve jail time because of what she did. She is an absolute criminal and she deserves jail time.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: Well, Lori Drew's attorney says she will fight the charges, he calls them unusual and puzzling.
HOLMES: Saving on gas, car pool, mass transit and now more and more people are getting energized by an even cheaper way to get to work.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Hello again, everyone. And welcome back to the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm T.J. Holmes.
WHITFIELD: And I'm Fredricka Whitfield. There you hear it right there, the opening bell there on Wall Street. We are watching your money all day and we will see if the markets might in any way respond to the president overseas meeting with Saudi Arabia today. Of course, he has on his mind your wallet and oil. That is on the agenda. He is in Saudi Arabia to meet with King Abdullah. Oil will be fuelling much of their discussion. The president will push for an increase in production, a move aimed at lowering record oil prices. President Bush made a similar request when the two met four months ago. That request as you can guess was ignored. So, here we go trying it again.
T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Just in case it's ignored again, a lot of people not waiting for results overseas. They are just taking it upon themselves to find more ways, better ways, cheaper ways to commute. A hint, it's national bike to work day.
CNN's Allan Chernoff joins us now with more on the growing trend. He has taken it seriously as you see him there on his bike on this day.
How you doing? It's a messy day to be commuting.
ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That is true, T.J. Not quite as much fun biking in the rain. If you want to avoid pain at the pump you can't do much better than hopping on to your bike and going to work that way instead of driving.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
CHERNOFF: Every business day Scott pedals to the office. He's been doing it for two decades. These days he navigates midtown Manhattan traffic after moving to New York last year for a software job at Google.
SCOTT SAFIER, GOOGLE EMPLOYEE: It takes me ten minutes to bike to work. If I were to take any other means of transportation, it would take longer than that.
CHERNOFF: Google encourages staffer to bike providing a storage room, so does the "New York Times." As gas prices soar and the ozone layer thins, one of the cheapest and greenest ways to commute is on two wheels, using the power of your own legs.
PAUL STEELY WHITE, TRANSPORTATION ALTERNATIVES: We are seeing a switch to bicycling as a result of gas prices. Our colleagues in Seattle, San Francisco, Chicago, even Houston are starting to see more and more people taking to their bikes.
CHERNOFF: A growing number of people are using pedal power to get to the office; in New York City alone, more than 100,000 bikers according to Transportation Alternative. Driving a typical passenger vehicle costs about 15 cents a mile just for gas, not only is pedal power free it's also healthy, a good way to guarantee getting your daily exercise.
LARRY WALLACH, SID'S BIKES: If you ride a bike to work in New York City, you could save over $1,000 a year. Why not save the money and have the fitness?
CHERNOFF: It's a great way to start the day.
HOLMES: Oh, we lost the signal. I was really hoping to hear the rest of that.
WHITFIELD: I was pumped about that one.
HOLMES: We will try to get him back. A messy day in New York with the weather having a few issues there. We will try to get him back up and hear the rest of what he had to say about today being national bike to work day.
On some days, it just doesn't pay to go to work.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The fuel is what's stopping us now. I mean really. For, you know -- right now if we catch 700 pounds a day, the boat will just break even.
HOLMES: Yeah, their issues certainly not biking to work. What's in their net doesn't give them a net profit. That's still to come here in the CNN NEWSROOM.
WHITFIELD: Counting a court decision. Opponents of same sex marriage are pushing to change California's constitution. The move follows state Supreme Court decision legalized gay marriage.
Here now is CNN's Joe Johns.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOE JOHNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Here we go again, same sex marriage is one of the great political wedge issues of the last decade and a half. Once again, raising its head just in time for a presidential race. A lot of people in this country just don't get men marrying men and women marrying women. Just this week when Gallup asked whether same sex marriages should have the same legal standing as traditional marriages, only 40 percent said yes. 56 percent said no. That's why one of the biggest opponents of gay marriage from California says it could be a factor in the fall.
REP. DAN LUNGREN (R), CALIFORNIA: I think it would energize republicans and independence who believe in traditional values. The simplest traditional value is the concept of marriage between one man and one woman.
JOHNS: In past elections republicans have successfully used this issue to get out the vote. The question is whether same sex marriages still the kind of thing that can get the conservative base riled up. Put another way, in an election over big issues, the Iraq war and the economy, will voters care the way they once did? Congressman Tom Tancredo, former presidential candidate and conservative from Colorado isn't so sure.
REP. TOM TANCREDO (R), COLORADO: I don't know, I sense anyway, I hate to use the word malaise, but that's there. I don't know if this is going to get everybody jazzed up or not, I don't think so.
JOHNS: If the same sex marriage debate doesn't resonate the way it once, did the California decision could still be used as exhibit a in another old favorite, the claim that judges are making laws from the bench.
REP. TRENT FRANKS (R), ARIZONA: For a long time states all over the union have understood that the greatest danger to our foundational republic and our constitution is activist judges.
JOHNS: There's a problem with that argument, this is hardly a liberal court, six out of seven justices are republicans. And don't look for the presidential candidates to make same sex marriage a top issue because their positions are similar. All three define marriage as between a man and a woman. Yet at the same time, all three oppose a constitutional amendment to ban same sex marriage.
Joe Johns, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: Of course you can find more on the candidates at CNNpolitics.com. This is your source for everything political.
(WEATHER REPORT)
WHITFIELD: What possibly could be scarier than snakes on a plane? A plane on a plane perhaps. What? Take a look. A single engine plane landed on top of the other single engine plane. It happened at an airport in Roanoke, Texas. That is frightening. The red plane was about to take off when the white plane with a student pilot and an instructor on board came in for a landing. The planes reportedly radioed each other just before the impact. Apparently each thought the other had agreed to yield. Amazingly no one was hurt. But the crash could lead to some pretty awkward block parties. The pilots are reportedly neighbors.
HOLMES: I was hoping you weren't going to say student pilot. Fail. All right. Stick with us here. We have one of our reporters to show you in the middle of a war zone.
MICHAEL WARE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You hear the gun shot, they are that close. We are in a safe zone right now. We are out of the direct line of fire. But we are very, very close to a clash that is under way as we speak.
HOLMES: Hard to imagine being a safe zone. That is CNN's Michael Ware inside Baghdad's volatile Sadr City.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: Taken for a ride? Co-workers and neighbors help out a women dying of cancer, only problem, police say she actually lied about that cancer. The story eight minutes from now.
HOLMES: We will turn to Iraq now where new violence this week in Baghdad's Sadr City has put a cease-fire on shaky ground. Michael Ware went inside a neighborhood. We want to warn you, some of the images you might find disturbing.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WARE: They called it the siege of Sadr City. You can hear the sound of the gunfire, now we are being signaled to cross the street. For almost 50 days until a weekend cease-fire agreement, 2 million people were virtually encircled in this Baghdad slum where U.S. and Iraqi troops targeting Mehdi army militia fighters.
It was with those Mehdi army fighters that we visited the besieged Sadr City in the combat's last days. They wouldn't let us show their faces but with rare access we could gauge the conflict for ourselves.
What we are seeing now is a blast zone recently erected by the Americans to separate parts of Sadr City. It is down here Americans say many of the rockets fired at the green zone are launched and that is why they are trying to seal it off. The fighting has mauled this neighborhood. There are 11 people supported by the income he makes from the shop. You can see the destruction all through it. The bullet holes have absolutely peppered it, passing from one side down there through the shop. And you can see how this wall is absolutely riddled, even this barrel full of bullet holes. And the street behind me, destroyed cars, bombed buildings, this is very much the front line in Sadr City.
Sadr City is an area for loyalists of anti-American cleric Muqtada al Sadr, his Mehdi army the focus of a government military offensive cautiously backed by the U.S. military. Al Sadr's religious and military leaders claim up to 1,000 people have died in less than seven weeks. Impossible to say how many were combatants, how many were civilians. Others are homeless with food and medical supplies running short. 24 hours before the peace accord, the skirmishes continued. You can smell it in the air right now from the gun shots. They are that close.
We are in a safe zone right now, we are out of the direct line of fire, but we are very, very close to a clash that is under way as we speak. This family's neighbor's house was pummeled by U.S. bombs. One week ago, the house was destroyed. This man survived that bombing, but says 11 of his family did not. We want the siege of the city to finish, he says. And though the siege has eased for now, with the weekend's tentative cease-fire, on Friday the wounded were still descending upon Sadr City hospitals. And there were many dead including a 12-year-old boy and awaiting collection.
Meanwhile thousands gathered for Friday prayers at the mosque chanting -- long live al Sadr. The Mehdi army is victorious. To many like this parliament Tehran, the military offensive is a bid by Shia rivals to undermine al Sadr before local elections. The provincial elections are the target of the operation, he says, because the provincial winners will impose or reject federalism.
A suspicion U.S. commanders share, few want the Iraqi government dragging them into a street fight in a Sadr City teaming with hostile population. If Americans troops do have to enter these streets, the concern a top American officer told me is that the fight could be like monogushu (ph).
Before the cease-fire was struck, on Friday, al Sadr's top aide in Sadr City laid out the terms, telling me the Mehdi army would allow Iraqi army units not American to enter the slum, while the militia would maintain its right of self-defense, a right it vigorously exercises. Its forces dominate each intersection. Its members disciplined and well organized. And with calls for the Mehdi army's disbandment now dropped, they may be even stronger than before.
Michael Ware, CNN, Sadr City.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: Recovered from war wounds, now reporting again. Kimberly Dozer talks about the battle back from a bombing that killed her colleagues. That's coming up next hour on CNN NEWSROOM.
WHITFIELD: Next, caught on tape, a man jumped on a bus and attacks the driver while the bus is moving. Right there. Hit and run you don't want to miss.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: A Milwaukee bus driver pounded like a punching bag while driving a bus. It was caught on tape. Look at this. This is surveillance video, a man who was covering his face with a bandana jumps on the bus and pummels the driver while the bus was still moving. The deputies say the man grabbed the steering wheel, stepped on the accelerator and sent the bus crashing into a tree. The suspect ran away. The driver suffered minor injuries. Still no clear word on why the attack happened in the first place.
WHITFIELD: The doctor's note says she had only months to live. Co-workers watched her have a seizure, but police say in the end social workers say that her brain cancer she claimed she had was a fraud.
George Howell of affiliate KMMO reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GEORGE HOWELL, KMMO REPORTER: When Sandra Martinez told co- workers she suffered from malignant brain tumors people went out of their way to show support. Some donated sick days so she could take paid time off. Former neighbor Peggy Townsell also offered to help. PEGGY TOWNSELL, FORMER NEIGHBOR: On a daily basis we were pretty much feeding her every day because she was too sick to cook. Is this something god would have wanted us to do is help somebody if they need help?
HOWELL: Peggy then checked her computer and found the doctor's letter, Martinez apparently made up that stated she might only have six months to live.
TOWNSELL: If it wouldn't have been printed on my computer by accident I would have thought it was for real. I really would have. The way she had it typed up, that she had the heading from the hospital, the doctor's name, the id, everything on there.
HOWELL: Peggy called Martinez's employer DSHS in Arlington.
RANDY HART, DEPT. OF SOCIAL AND HEALTH SERVICES: We referred the information to law enforcement.
HOWELL: Prosecutors say there were several fake doctors' notes. Martinez took more than $21,000 in paid sick leave.
HART: She didn't have very much leave. She hadn't been with us long enough. So co-workers donated theirs.
CHIEF JOHN GRAY, ARLINGTON, WASHINGTON POLICE: The state of Washington, the taxpayers are out their money. And this is unspeakable. We don't have any patience for that. We want to held this person accountable.
HOWELL: Martinez now faces first degree theft charges for taking advantage of people who just wanted to help out.
HART: If this is true, then this will make a lot of people, I think, feel very bad that their generosity was taken advantage of.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: All right. Martinez is living out of state now, but is expected to return to face those charges.
T.J.?
HOLMES: All right. A look at some of the most clicked on videos at CNN.com this morning. Britain's ministry of defense releasing everything they know about UFOs. Also here is a clip on this story about dedicated Girl Scout who sold more than 17,000 boxes of Girl Scout cookies. And a year-end tradition, naval academy freshmen place a cap on top of a greased up pillar. It's funny to watch. It takes a little while.
For more of your favorite video you can go to our Web site and don't forget the CNN daily podcast, available 24/7 on your iPod.
WHITFIELD: All right. Found alive, amazing. In China, after four days in a concrete tomb, quake victims fight to stay alive and they do in the NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Honoring their comrades. Nearly 100 veterans took a VIP trip from Georgia to the World War II memorial. We have the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's so awesome.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The honors began as they pulled out of Roswell before dawn with a motorcycle escort down the highway and right to their gate at the airport. When the 98 veterans got off the plane in Washington they saw the reception U.S. airways arranged.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you so much. Thank you.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was a better welcome --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think this is fantastic.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: -- than coming home from war.
GEORGE FINCH, WWII VETERAN: Overwhelming really. I think of the guys that should be here and I -- it just upsets me.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In Washington, they got escorts worthy of the president, past monuments to Washington and Lincoln to one for them, the World War II memorial.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's beautiful. I love it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Pat Patterson was the gunners mate in the pacific from the arctic to the tropics.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is it bringing back --
PAT PATTERSON, WWII VETERAN: It sure does. It makes you want to cry.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Most walk, some rode wheelchairs. They posed for the senators. By the time they climbed on and off buses to memorials to three wars, more rode the chairs at the tomb of the Unknown Soldier. And gave thanks.
ALEXANDER "SUDIE" NUCKLES, WWII VETERAN: I'm so thankful and grateful for the Rotary Club. of Roswell, Georgia, raised the money for the vets.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: The Rotary Club of Roswell, Georgia, raised the money for the vets.
WHITFIELD: I love that. That is so sweet.
Hello again. Welcome to the NEWSROOM. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.
HOLMES: I'm T.J. Holmes. Tony and Heidi are off today.
All day here in the CNN NEWSROOM.
Here's what we have on the run-down. President Bush in Saudi Arabia asking the king to pump more oil. Prices to another record high today.
WHITFIELD: Critical supplies reach China's quake survivors. Aftershocks, landslides, all complicating life in the disaster zone.
HOLMES: She escaped death in Iraq.
