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CNN Live Saturday

50 French Engineers Arrive In Lebanon; Lebanon Condemns Israeli Raid for Violation of U.N. Cease-Fire; Suspect in JonBenet Ramsey Murder to Arrive in U.S. Tomorrow; North Korea May Be Getting Ready to Test Nuclear Weapon; Cruise Ship Encounters Cuban Rafters

Aired August 19, 2006 - 12:00   ET

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

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: "Now in the News," the prime suspect in the JonBenet Ramsey murder case could be back in the United States as early as tomorrow night. John Mark Karr is being deported from Thailand, he face charges in Boulder, Colorado
French troops, 50 of them, arrive in Lebanon this morning. They're engineers sent in to repair roads and destroy unexposed ordnance in the war torn area. Another 150 are due to arrive next week.

A Marine officer tells investigators the deaths of 24 men, women and children in Haditha, Iraq were unfortunate but at the same time not unusual. The "Washington Post" reports the officer never suspended any wrongdoing by his fellow Marines. The military is investigating whether the killings, Last November, were deliberate.

President Bush says security in the United States depends on democracy taking hold in the Middle East. However in his radio address this morning, Mr. Bush described both Iraq and Lebanon as fragile democracies.

Iran tests its military might. Large scale air, land, and sea exercises are underway and could last for more than a month. Tehran says the operation is aimed at improving the country's combat readiness. Iran has routinely conducted war games over the past 20 years.

We update the top stories every 15 minutes on CNN LIVE SATURDAY. Your next update is coming up at 12:15 Eastern.

Straight ahead this hour: Is North Korea getting ready to test a nuclear weapon? We'll have the latest on U.S. intelligence is seeing.

Also, are your children ready to manage their money, especially if they're headed off to college? We'll have some tips you can give them.

From the CNN Center in Atlanta, I'm Fredricka Whitfield, welcome to CNN LIVE SATURDAY.

Our top story right now, the JonBenet Ramsey murder investigation. Here's what we know so far. Suspect John Mark Karr is expected to arrive in the United States from Thailand late tomorrow or early Monday. He is charged with murder, kidnapping, and sexual assault in the 1996 death of the 6-year-old beauty queen.

But Boulder District Attorney Mary Lacy warns against a rush to judgment. A law enforcement sources says Karr knows gruesome details about the murder scene that are known only to the medical examiner and investigators.

And experts are looking for hand writing clues that might connect Karr to a ransom note found in the Ramsey home.

We begin our coverage in Bangkok, Thailand where John Mark Karr awaits deportation. Our Stan Grant is there -- Stan.

STAN GRANT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Fredericka, the countdown is really on now for John Mark Karr, of course he was arrested here in Bangkok on Wednesday over the killing of JonBenet Ramsey saying he was there on the night that she died. He said her death was accidental, of course that he loved her.

Well, in a matter of hours from now, about the middle of the afternoon, Bangkok time, Saturday afternoon, he'll be moved from here, in the cell that he's been kept at here in Bangkok, and taken to the airport. From there, he will stay there for a few hours an then be flown direct on a Thai Airways flight to Los Angeles. He will be in a business class seat, he will be escorted by U.S. security officials on that commercial flight.

Now he was visited by U.S. officials earlier, they'd spoken to him. Upon leaving, they said he was in a good condition, he'd been spending his time reading an watching television had eaten a meal of Kentucky Fried Chicken.

We just heard from some other inmate whose had actually been in the cell as well and had spoken to him and seen him saying that he was also doing well and they said that, quote, he was "at peace" and he told them, reportedly, that some of the things that are being said about him, he said, "were untrue." Well, of course, a lot of those questions will be answered when he actually gets back to the United States. Many questions being raised about his story there. So much of the investigation still to come and expected to be back in the United States by tomorrow evening -- Fredericka.

WHITFIELD: And Stan, has he elaborated on what things he says are being said that are untrue?

GRANT: No. We just managed to speak to a couple of other inmates who in fact themselves are going to be deported from Thailand and they just left the cells here and said that they'd a chance to speak to him and all they said was he that he'd said some of the things that are said about him were untrue. They did say that he was at peace and he's being guarded by two security guards inside the cell itself.

Of course, we member the last time we saw him, he was saying that he is not innocent then, he said that he was there on the night, that he killed and that confession of now, of course, open to so much scrutiny and so many answers still can come, both from him and also the investigation back in the United States -- Fredericka. WHITFIELD: And so Stan, what about this suicide watch? Apparently there was one for a moment.

GRANT: Yes, he's certainly been under guard. There have been two security guards, we'd heard that from the U.S. officials who visited him here and also from the inmates that we'd spoken to, the two security guards had been keeping a watch over him.

But he has been described as being in good conditions, being at peace, and as we heard, he'd spending his time watching television, interesting, watching news reports about his case, reading books, and of course that meal we described to you before, a meal of Kentucky Fried Chicken, one of the last meals he'll have here before being moved in another 15, 20 hours from now and put on that plane back to the United States -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: Stan Grant, thanks so much from Bangkok, Thailand.

Well, when the case first broke in 1996, a lot of attention was focused on that ransom note found at the Ramsey home. Now samples of John Mark Karr's handwriting are under scrutiny. CNN's Brian Todd takes a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Twenty-four years later, four words that seem innocuous in a high school yearbook now seem eerie -- 1982, John Mark Karr is in 11th grade at the end of an entry in a classmates yearbook, obtained by CNN, he writes the phrase "maybe I shall be the conqueror."

The first letters of those last four words, S-B-T-C, the same on the signoff on the ransom note found in JonBenet Ramsey's home at the time of her death in 1996, 14 years after the yearbook entry. We looked at that tie John Hargett who once ran the document section of the U.S. Secret Service.

JOHN HARGETT, FMR. U.S. SECRET SERVICE: I find it to be an interesting coincidence that notation appears on a document from the 1980s and there's an SBTC appearing on the letters that were involved in this matter addressed to Mr. Ramsey.

TODD: But on pure handwriting comparison and analysis, Hargett says don't jump to any conclusions.

HARGETT: Quite frankly based upon this, I see no similarity really between the SBTC appearing on the document from the 1980s and the one appearing on the letter Thailand, also obtained by CNN.

TODD: Next, we asked Hargett to compare the ransom letter with Karr's recent application for employment at a school. When placing the application, written in all capital letters, next to the Ramsey ransom note, Hargett and others experts agree.

HARGETT: Quite frankly, you just can't really compare -- can't really make a meaningful comparison between capital letters and lower case letters.

TODD: Hargett believes the style of the handwriting in the yearbook entry is likely not the style that individual would normally use. All the artistry and flourishes, he says, likely reflect a young person experimenting with a handwriting style.

Hargett and other analysts tell us they have long believed the author of the Ramsey ransom note was trying to disguise his or her handwriting, but again they say, all the similarities could easily be just coincidence.

(on camera): The ransom note shows another inconsistency with Karr's admission. On it, the demand "You will withdraw $118,000 from your account," that's the exact amount of money John Ramsey received in a company bonus from before his daughter was killed. Experts have long believed the only people who could have known that were those very close to the Ramsey family. John Ramsey says he does not know John Mark Karr.

Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: And this programming note, Larry King will have an exclusive interview with the Ramsey family attorney, Lin Wood, and the Colorado professor who led police to Karr. That's Monday at 9:00 Eastern.

Now despite a U.N. cease-fire in Southern Lebanon, the fighting isn't over. Here's what we know right now. Israeli commandos raided Hezbollah target in the Bekaa Valley, today, the aim, prevent weapons transfers from Iran and Syria to Hezbollah forces. One Israeli soldier was killed, two wounded. Lebanon reports no Hezbollah casualties. Lebanon is outraged over the attack calling it, "naked violation of the U.N. cease-fire." The prime minister lodged a protest with visiting U.N. envoys.

The first deployment of 200 French peacekeepers, meantime, arrived in southern Lebanon, today. The 50 troops are the vanguard of a contingent of international troops charged with enforcing the cease- fire.

Lebanon, as I said, was quick to condemn the Israeli raid saying it's a violation of the U.N. cease-fire which took effect just Monday. CNN Beirut bureau chief, Brent Sadler joins us with the very latest -- Brent.

BRENT SADLER, CNN BEIRUT BUREAU CHIEF: Thanks, Fredericka. Right now, there's a top level security meeting going on at the prime minister's headquarters just across the road from where I'm reporting from. At that meeting, top U.N. officials also attending and being hold in no uncertain terms that unless the U.N. condemns, and in effect censors this Israeli raid, it could -- could unravel the continuing troop deployments by Lebanese forces in the south of the country. Now this, a helicopter-born raid dropped Israeli commando in the Bekaa Valley, that's a bastion for Hezbollah fighters. We saw in video that came out in the morning after the raid, bandages and blood scattered about open fields. There was a fierce firefight, it was the first deadly clash between Hezbollah and the Israelis since the truce came into effect almost a week ago.

Now, top U.N. Middle East envoys, Terje Roed Larsen, is here in the Lebanese capital and he says the security situation is certainly giving some nations across the world second thoughts about sending troops here. Roed Larsen he had several worries. Let's listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TERJE ROED LARSEN, U.N. SPECIAL ENVOY: Needless to say, there is a reluctance amongst many countries to contribute troops simply because of the security situation. So, these are my two worries, a worry related to the potential troop contributors, and a worry related to possible retaliation from Hezbollah, which again could escalate the situation and worse case, bring it out of control. This is why it's now so important that all parties concern act with utmost restraint.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SADLER: Forty-nine French troops, all engineers, Fredericka, had landed in the south of the country today. The first blue helmets, reinforcements to actually get boots on the ground. The envisaged force should be 15,000 to match the 15,000 Lebanese troops that are building up in the country, but as things stand right now, those delays are causing concerns at the highest levels, as this cease-fire appears to a wobble -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right, long way to go before that 15,000 mark is met. Brent Sadler, thanks so much from Beirut.

Well, more than a month after the fighting in Southern Lebanon began and less than a week since that cease-fire took hold, no surprise, tensions do remain high. CNN's Chris Lawrence traveled to the Israeli-Lebanese border for that first-hand look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Two countries separated by a jagged wall of barbed wire. We watched two men approach from the Lebanese side, and Israeli troops watched them.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We come here for peace only.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Would we be afraid.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Not for fighting. Not for anyway. Only for peace.

LAWRENCE: They come from Beirut, curious about life on the border. The Israeli's posture telling them there's still tension, but it has relaxed since the cease-fire.

(on camera): You didn't see any Israeli troops and Lebanon troops together?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We haven't reached the border yet.

LAWRENCE (voice-over): The Lebanese army is marching south, they're expecting to work with U.N. peacekeepers and take command of the southern border, but some Israelis don't want Lebanon's army less than a kilometer away.

BATIA AMIRI (ph), CHICKEN COOP OWNER (through translator): To tell you the truth, I don't trust them. I really don't trust them. It's frightening. Frightening, only the U.N.

LAWRENCE: Batia Amiri runs her family business, a chicken coop right on the border. She looks into Lebanon from her backyard, but doesn't like what she sees coming.

AMIRI (through translator): If we don't have a buffer zone with the U.N. guarding the border as it should be, we can't live in this situation, in this place.

LAWRENCE: Having felt Hezbollah's rockets fly by, she has no faith they'll be disarmed.

AMIRI (through translator): Hezbollah is like a rat, you can't stop it. It's hiding, and Lebanon protected it.

LAWRENCE: A lot of Israelis who lived in the path of the Katyushas are still in shock, having been taught that their military was so superior.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He has a better soldiers and he have a plant, he have towns, he has bombs, he as -- all the time the best, the best, the best. And Hezbollah fight just with Katyusha.

LAWRENCE: The craters can be filled in but the fear and anxiety those rockets created won't be so easily repaired.

Chris Lawrence, CNN, on the Israeli-Lebanon border.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: And still overseas, North Korea's missile test didn't go so well. Have leaders in that country got something new that they're ready to try?

And later, your kids and their money. Do they know what they're doing with that money? We'll have some tips on how to avoid some costly mistakes.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: A quarter past the hour, here's what's happening right now. John Mark Karr, the suspect in the killing of JonBenet Ramsey is expected to arrive in the U.S. from Bangkok, Thailand, tomorrow. Ramsey was killed 10 years ago in her Boulder, Colorado home.

Lebanon warns it might stop troop deployments to the southern part of that country. The defense minister says the step may be taken if the U.N. must -- if the U.N., rather, does not take up the issue of a raid by Israeli forces against Hezbollah militants today. Lebanon calls the raid, "A flagrant violation of the U.N. cease-fire."

Iran is conducting large-scale war crimes across much of the country. Iranian state television reports the military is testing new weapons and tactics against a potential enemy. A senior Iranian army commander is quoted as saying, "the armed forces are prepared for any action by Israel."

And there may be a break in the highway sniper shootings in Indiana. Officials report no injuries in the latest shootings in Lake County yesterday, but a motorist who saw one of the shootings gave officials a description of the shooter and the pickup truck being driven. Windows on 13 different vehicles have been damaged or shattered in the shootings which started last month.

This just in, in Eastern Afghanistan, a combat operation ends with four U.S. soldiers being kill and three others wounded. When more information arrives, we'll bring that to you.

We update the top information every 15 minutes on CNN LIVE SATURDAY, your next update coming up at 12:30 Eastern.

It's a secretive regime and it has a mysterious leader. Now reports that North Korea may be getting ready to test a nuclear weapon. Our Pentagon correspondent, Barbara Starr, has that story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): While pouring over new imagery of a suspected North Korean underground nuclear test site several days ago, U.S. intelligence analysts saw something was different. Bundles of wire cables suddenly appeared along with signs of vehicle activity. There are concerns this all could be preparations for North Korea's first underground nuclear test.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: When you're asking me to divulge any intelligence information I have and I'm not going to do that, as you know.

STARR: The U.S. and its allies have never been completely certain whether North Korea has enough material to actually make nuclear bombs. A nuclear test would change the equation.

JOHN MCLAUGHLIN, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR: The question would remain about whether they can weaponize that and put it on a weapon to be delivered, but I think that is, in a way, a lesser question than whether they can bring about a nuclear explosion with a yield that would be sufficiently alarming. STARR: But the uncertain remains about Pyongyang's intention.

MCLAUGHLIN: Their motivation for not doing a test would be that this is the final step on their escalatory ladder and they would be basically using their last card. On the other hand, the motive for doing a test would be that the missile test they did some weeks ago, fizzle and embarrassed them and this would be one way to make up for that if they carried off a successful nuclear test.

STARR (on camera): For the intelligence community, detecting an underground nuclear test is especially difficult; one former analyst likened it to looking across hundreds of miles for a hole in the ground by looking through a soda straw.

Barbara Starr, CNN, the Pentagon.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: And firefighters have had their hands full in some parts of this country this week. We'll have the latest on the battle against wildfires coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: About 60 families are back in their homes near Casper Mountain in Wyoming, 300 others still under evacuations orders because of this. Finally, some cool humid weather is helping firefighters get a handle on a forest fire that has consumed more than 11,000 acres.

Let's go straight to the weather center where we find Reynolds Wolf and wow, some serious situations out there in Wyoming.

REYNOLDS WOLF, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, it's been a real struggle for them, they've had, of course, an improving situation with the humidity coming back, damp conditions. But what they really, really could use is parts of the Ohio Valley and the empire Sate of New York.

(WEATHER REPORT)

WHITFIELD: Tough summer there.

WOLF: No question.

WHITFIELD: All right, thanks so much, Reynolds.

Well, in the Western Caribbean, a cruise ship has an encounter with nine Cuban rafters. This photo is from I-Reporter Finola Jacobucci, a passenger onboard the Carnival Glory. Well, she tells CNN the rafters refused the cruise ship's offer to come onboard, so the crew handed down fresh water, food, and lifejackets. The ship waited until the U.S. Coast Guard arrived.

Now, if you've got a picture like that, go to CNN.com, send in an I-Report and join the world's most powerful news team.

So far it seems like there are more questions than answer in the JonBenet murder case. We'll take a look at the issue authorities need to address before they can solve this case.

And there seems to be more to the fair in Iowa these days than just taffy and cotton candy, we'll show you why it's become a cattle call for politicians.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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