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CNN Live Saturday

Operation Iron Fist is launched in Iraq; A series of explosions in Bali kills many; One California wildfire is 40 percent contained; A sever typhoon set to hit Taiwan; Challenges forecasters face; The search for missing bodies in New Orleans; Judith Miller testifies

Aired October 01, 2005 - 13:00   ET

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

GERRI WILLIS, CNN ANCHOR: A series of explosions rock Bali, killing at least 24 and wounding nearly 100. The suspects are terrorists.
Plus wildfires still raging in California. We're live on the scene in Burbank.

And in New Orleans, as people try to put their lives back together, many face the difficult task of recovering the bodies of loved ones. We follow one man's determined search for his sister.

Welcome to CNN LIVE SATURDAY. I'm Gerri Willis in for Fredricka Whitfield. Those stories in a moment, but first, other headlines "Now in the News."

"Now the News," Operation Iron Fist is underway in western Iraq. It's the U.S. military's latest crackdown on insurgents in the dangerous Anbar province. About 1,000 troops backed by helicopter gun ships moved into the town of Sa'da earlier today. The military says three suspicious vehicles were fired on, two of them were carrying bombs. Marines are also conducting house-to-house searches.

And California fire officials expect to have a huge fire that is burning on the outskirts of Los Angeles fully contained by Monday. Right now it's 40 percent contained. Nearly 24,000 acres have been scorched and three homes have been damaged or destroyed. Another fire has burned in the hills above Burbank and covers about 1,000 acres. We'll have a live report from Burbank just ahead.

And an extremely powerful typhoon is headed for Taiwan and expected to make landfall today. Forecasters say the typhoon has top winds of 145 miles an hour and will likely bring torrential rains to the island. Sea and land warnings have been issues, and most airline traffic in and out of Taiwan has been suspended.

And in Southern California, the weather has taken a turn for the better, and that's helping firefighters in their battle against some big wildfires. Now, one of the fires, northwest of Los Angeles, has charred nearly 24,000 acres. CNN's Peter Viles is with us now from Burbank with the latest on these big blazes -- Peter.

PETER VILES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Gerri, the focus has shifted from that bigger blaze to the east of us to a more active but smaller fire here in Burbank, outside of Burbank. No homes immediately threatened right now but this is a big fire and not yet under control.

Joining me now, from the Burbank Fire Department, Captain Ron Bell. Tell us, captain, the size of the fire, and the degree to which you have it contained right now. What can you tell us?

CAPT. RON BELL, BURBANK FIRE DEPARTMENT: Right now we're a little over 1,000 acres. They flew over to fire to give us a good picture and find out where the hot spots are. And we're about 15 percent contained which is along the golf course here. That's about the only safe area we have got right now.

VILES: And to what degree is there an immediate threat to homes around here?

BELL: Well, our nearest homes are to the south, and that would be in the Country Club area, Country Club Drive area, and we've had mandatory evacuations of about 75 homes, with -- about 95 percent of those people are gone now. The other people are going decide to stick it out. Those are the closest homes, and the fire is not near there now, but if the wind were to come up tonight and change, that's where it would probably go.

VILES: And lastly, I can hear the helicopters overhead so I sort of know the answer, but tell me how you're fighting the fire behind us and the one in the canyon over here.

BELL: Because the other fires in the valley are in better condition, we're getting a lot more support now, so we've got a lot of air support with our rotary wing, our helicopters and I just saw the SuperScoopers fly by, so they're going to be probably wetting down the far side of the mountain.

We've got live fire in up in Wildwood Canyon here, and in Stout (ph) Canyon. Those are the hot spots right now. We've got bulldozers in the hills that have been there all night long with our hand crews. We're trying to put a line around this fire so that when it lays down tonight and the winds die down, we can put our arms around it and hopefully contain this fire today.

VILES: Terrific, Captain Ron Bell from the Burbank Fire Department. Gerri, just to bring you up to speed on that other fire, the bigger fire that was of great concern -- 3,000 firefighters to the west of here fighting that Topanga fire -- they had a good day yesterday with lighter winds and brought that fire to 40 percent containment.

And as you said, they now believe that by Monday they'll have that big fire, which has burned an area almost one-and-a-half times the size of Manhattan to the the ground, they believe they'll have that big fire completely contained by Monday. But great news for homeowners out there, only two homes were lost in that massive fire -- Gerri.

WILLIS: Peter Viles, that's a great report. Thank you for that. And we feel for those homeowners. Thank you. Photojournalist J.T. Alpaugh with Hellenic (ph) Aviation Services brought us incredible images of the damage from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita you may remember. Now he's flown over those California wildfires, and he's going to join us from Burbank to talk about what he saw -- J.T.

J.T. ALPAUGH, PHOTOJOURNALIST: Hello. Good morning. And we're here in the Burbank fire, and what you've seen here is you've seen very similar destruction to what's been going on in New Orleans but in a different sense. These fires are raging out here. Fire crews working in the helicopters you see behind us at the Burbank fire doing an excellent job to stop these flames from reaching these homes.

WILLIS: J.T., talk to us a little bit about how fast these fires move. That's what I can't get over, is especially if the wind whips up, they can move at pretty quick speeds.

ALPAUGH: Absolutely. We saw a lot of that, the winds whipping up in the Topanga fire, and earlier last night from this Burbank fire as well. The winds can be extremely treacherous through these areas, and these fires create their own winds. And what's happening is when these winds -- we get a Santa Ana wind that's been coming out of the north when these fires started.

The winds have shifted now. With have an offshore -- an onshore flow, where the waters are coming off of the ocean causing a moister air. So that lower wind and the moisture coming in from the ocean is really helping fighting these fires.

Early -- we're going to expect some more of those Santa Anas later on this week, so it's very important that these crews take care of these fires very quickly before those Santa Ana winds from the north -- those dry, hot winds -- start to build up again.

WILLIS: That's all a matter of time. Do you have a sense of how well people are being evacuated?

ALPAUGH: Well, there are a lot of evacuations including my home in the Simi Valley area through the Topanga fire. And this home -- in this Burbank fire, as Pete and Captain Bell were talking about earlier, there were evacuations on Country Club Drive which is an area just west of us here. So those people are all out of there.

These evacuations happen very quickly. First they come voluntarily, then they come mandatory. So what happens is these people have to gather their belongings and get out quickly before these wind -- and these fuel driven fires at this point. Since the winds are very low, these are fuel-driven fires.

These steep terrains and this heavy brush cause a lot of movement and very fast movement. So it's -- to get these people out of their homes and evacuate very quickly is the key in helping fight these fires and protecting these homes.

WILLIS: Well, J.T., we wish you luck with your house since it is also in this area. Thanks so much for your report. Two weeks before Iraqis go to the polls to vote on a new constitution, a major new offensive against insurgents is under way. The U.S. military's Operation Iron Fist centers on the arrestive (ph) area, that's the Anbar province in western Iraq. Jennifer Eccleston is in the region. She's on the phone with the latest information -- Jennifer.

JENNIFER ECCLESTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Gerri. Well, today's focus is the town of Sa'da, which is a tiny, small village that straddles the Euphrates River as you head in that western Al Anbar province.

It has been a scene of near constant fights between insurgents, between those foreign fighter, those coming across from Syria and extremist elements here in Iraq who are fighting not only coalition forces but the Iraqi government.

And it was very much a joint operation today. It involved some 1,000 people, all members of the armed forces including the Army, the Navy, but it was mostly a Marine operation. And apart from calling it Operation Iron Fist, they referred to it as a sweep and clean operation, that is sweeping into the city, going neighborhood by neighborhood, street by street, house by house and sweeping and cleaning it out of the insurgency.

And for the most part, it was a relatively calm day for the Marines and the Army and those other patrols that were involved. There was sporadic gunfire from insurgents. There were also a number of IEDs that had not detonated by those troops. But it really was quite a scene to see all sthees troops come into this very tiny village and overall get a receptive feel from the local residents -- Gerri.

WILLIS: Jennifer, it brings up a question. How are those American soldiers? How is their morale, if they're getting a positive reception? It must be heartening.

ECCLESTON: Yes, as we talked about earlier, in the beginning of the operation it was a little edgy because there had (INAUDIBLE) as the marines left their vehicles to enter into the town. And, of course, those IEDs -- and there were a number of them today -- didn't create a very festive mood in the beginning.

But as they patrolled through the town, as they went house by house, they didn't find any armed caches, they didn't find any insurgents and they didn't detain anybody who thought could be related to the insurgency here, the spirits did lift. But it was an incredibly hard day for them.

They were on patrol for some 13 hours. We are now at a base. Everybody is ready to go to bed. And overall, they thought it was a job well done. They now say that the town is secure and part of that is so that they can secure, as you mentioned, for that upcoming referendum in October -- October 15th, to be precise.

They are hoping here by creating this more secure environment -- our course, many of the insurgents are believed to have slipped away, and a offensive will continue to capture them, but by creating this near peaceful, if you will, environment today, it will encourage people to (INAUDIBLE) and either vote up or down on the new constitution -- Gerri.

WILLIS: Jennifer eccleston, thank you for that report.

We are now going to go to John Mulcahy. He saw the Bali bombings. He's an eyewitness. He's here by beeper. John, are you there? John? Hello? Do we have John? Sean?

SEAN MULCAHY, BALI EYEWITNESS: Sean, hello. Can you hear me.

WILLIS: Sean, pardon me for mispronouncing your name.

MULCAHY: Yes, hi.

WILLIS: Thanks for being with us. We understand that you actually were an eyewitness to the bombings in Bali. Can you tell us what you saw?

MULCAHY: Well, I mean, the situation is one of carnage. I mean, it's -- the site of the Kuta is in a very busy tourist area. As you can imagine in the high season, and a Saturday night at the time. It was chock a block full of Westerners. And it was a blast in a restaurant and obviously, you know, trying to cause maximum damage to tourists.

WILLIS: And were you on the street? Were you inside the restauraunt? Where were you located when it happened?

MULCAHY: Well, I'm out here working with a team, and we were dining in the restaurant next door. I mean, so it's by sheer coincidence that we weren't caught up in the Jimbaran blast.

We were booked into that restaurant in the evening, myself and a couple of colleagues and -- because it was a holiday here in Bali today, the traffic was horrendous and we decided to pull the pin on that and dine in Kuta instead, walked past the Kuta restaraunt into pulled into one just around the corner and the bomb went off. And had we had gone through to Jimbaran, we would have more than likely been dead.

WILLIS: Well, you barely sidestepped death. You must feel very lucky to be alive today. Tell us about the situation on the street. How are people reacting?

MULCAHY: Well, I mean, as I said, it's one of carnage. I mean, you know, it was a tourist area. You can imagine, you know, it's only a couple of years since the Bali bombings here some years ago. And is it coming up to the anniversary. And the place here, people were just starting to build up confidence again and to have this happen is devastating for the locals.

But I think it's the nail in the coffin for people coming to this place. It's just caused utter chaos and people are just terrified. People are fleeing the streets with suitcases, doing anything they can to get out of here. I'm at the hospital at the moment. I've traveled around to the various sites tonight and I've just been to the hospital. And it resembles a war zone.

I've mean, I've traveled through war zones for my job as a journalist. And this is something that you would expect in Afghanistan or Iraq, the emergency room at some of the hospitals is just -- the ground is just covered in blood. There are people walking around with arms missing. It is a war zone.

WILLIS: You said some of the confidence just coming back to this area now. And of course, this seems to me like this would make it very difficult for its comeback. What is the talk in town among people trying to get out? Do they feel like they've got a safe exit, a safe way to get out? Is the panic continuing?

MULCAHY: Well, I think anyone who was around and saw what went on tonight, they'd be absolutely terrified. These people, you know -- you come here with a little bit of faith that what, you know, happened in the past is gone and it happens again. I think it's just fear and terror in their minds.

I don't think anyone will be feeling safe until they touch down in the countries that they're from. But in this place is -- you know, I feel for this place. These people were -- they're a lovely bunch of people and they've struggled very hard since the bombings a couple years ago to rebuild this place and gain the trust of the tourists.

And, you know, they seem to have done that. The hotels were full. The restaurants were full. I mean, the restaurant in particular at Jimbaran is -- it's a well known tourist area. And people go sit on tables on the beach and watch the sunset. And it was chockablock (ph).

I mean, you would not know there was a terrorist attack here some years ago. And for this to happen now is devastating for these people. This will ruin the economy here and the tourism industry and people will flee. I mean the flights will be - I imagine they'll be putting on extra flights to cope with the amount of people that are leaving.

WILLIS: Well, Sean Mulcahy, we're pleased that you're safe. And we really appreciate your report and talking with us about what you saw on hand at these explosions, the fear and the terror in the streets. Thank you so much.

MULCAHY: My pleasure.

WILLIS: And also, the Louisiana death toll from Hurricane Katrina is now up to 929 people. And now families are searching for the bodies of their loved ones to pay their last respects. We follow one man as he looks for the body of his sister.

Plus, why did the levees break? And what's standing in the way of investigators finding out? The answer might surprise you. Plus, it's been a month of hurricanes, but there's been a lot of other news out there you probably didn't hear. We'll help you catch up this hour on CNN LIVE SATURDAY.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WILLIS: The architects of the new New Orleans -- that's a 17- member commission named by the mayor -- are getting to work this weekend. We've got Chris Lawrence in New Orleans today where some folks are trying to put the pieces back together -- Chris.

CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Gerri, we've been driving around different neighborhoods in New Orleans all day. And really, what you get a sense of, it is really almost a tale of two cities. There are some that look a lot better than others.

This street is a perfect example. I mean, right behind me you can see the damage to the restaurant here. Next door it's all dark inside. The one next to that still boarded up, people trying to get the roof fixed and fix that up.

But right next to it, McKenzie's (ph) looks, you know, up an running. The lights are on, people coming in and out of there. And behind a sign that says "welcome home New Orleans," Kyoto Restaurant looks ready to go.

When you take a look around the city, especially places like Bourbon Street, it can look as if New Orleans is ready to go. We saw life on Bourbon Street, bars open, people walking through the streets, things like that. That was one of the areas that did not get hit as hard. Is it one of the areas that the mayor opened up first.

As you go along to some of the other areas, we're starting to see stores opening up on the fringes of New Orleans. A lot of signs out too, people posting signs, bring your soaked rugs call this number, or help wanted call this number. A lot of people with no real tough way to get communciation around, they've gone back to the old-fashioned way or just posting signs around the city to get some business started.

On the other hand, you go to certain other areas like St. Bernard Parish and it's utterly devastating. The lights aren't on. You've got homes that were literally moved from their lot down the street. You've got cars piled on top of some of the homes, just an incredible amount of devastation there.

The mayor is slowly trying to -- or some say quickly trying to get the city back on its feet by bringing people back in. But I've got to tell you, just driving around there are parts of the city that are still dark at night and the stench is unbelievable.

We can show you what it looks like here, we can tell you about it, but nothing can replace walking down the street and the incredible stench that is here in New Orleans right now. A lot of people we talked to today say no trash has been picked up. And you can literally drive down the street and see piles and piles of trash. Many of the residents we talked to today were wondering why that trash hasn't been picked up yet and you're starting to bring in more people. That's just going to add to the amount of debris that's going to be piling up here in New Orleans -- Gerri.

WILLIS: Chris Lawrence, thank you for that report.

Largely off camera and behind the scenes, the awful job of collecting and identifying the dead in New Orleans. CNN's Ted Rowlands spent some time with one family, a brother searching in vain for his sister.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Fifty-six-year-old Carmen Bennett decided to stay in her home with her dog during Hurricane Katrina.

JOSE FERRAND, BROTHER OF CARMAN BENNETT: The wind was loud. She was hearing the trees falling and she was obviously panicked.

ROWLANDS: Her brother jose, who had evacuated, was on the phone with Carmen until the line went dead.

FERRAND: She was in her bathroom with her pet. She had loaded up on water, filled up the bathtub, like the officials tell to you do. But as it turned out it may have been the wrong thing to do.

ROWLANDS: Jose said when he saw on television homes in his sister's neighborhood under water, he knew she was in trouble and called everyone he could think of including the Coast Guard.

FERRAND: We told them where she was in the bathroom at this house.

ROWLAND: Two weeks later still no word until a relative e-mailed Jose a photo of Carmen's home, painted on the side a number one and the word dead. Jose says he wants his sister's body, but he doesn't know where she is. He says he has done everything he can think of. He's given a DNA sample and he's talked to every agency involved in the recovery process. Still, nobody has told him anything about Carmen.

FERRAND: We don't believe in leaving your relatives sitting in a -- laying in a box in the morgue for a month and not having access to her to give her a proper religious burial. And it's uncomfortable, it's inhumane, it's immoral.

ROWLANDS: We went along with jose and his family on their first visit to Carmen's house in St. Bernard Parish. The water had gone all the way up to the ceiling.

FERRAND: She had no chance. No chance whatsoever. This was a surge. Water just came into here (ph) -- there was no -- well, I think this was just a surge. I mean, it took the ceilings off. ROWLANDS: Jose showed us the bathroom where he says his sister was huddled with her dog. He thinks she probably died here. Jose needed a break and went to his car.

FERRAND: They told us how bad it was, but we didn't have any idea. No amount of words could explain what happened in that house. You saw for yourself, it's catastrophic.

ROWLANDS: With tears in their eyes, the family looked for things to keep. They found a silver wedding glass a few photos and some of Carmen's other keepsakes. They also found her dog dead in the house.

Jose says he's very angry that Carmen's body wasn't discovered until September 16th, more than two weeks after the storm. He's also very angry that nobody has called to say that she was found or that she's even believed dead.

FERRAND: I just wish every government official could have been in that house today. Shame on all of them.

ROWLANDS: Jose says he wants to have a funeral for Carmen and bury her next to her husband who died last year, but he can't do anything until he finds his sister's body.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WILLIS: Two giant hurricanes have slammed into the United States this storm season. And while a lot of progress has been made in predicting where such big storms will make landfall, pinpointing the exact location? Well, it remains a guessing game. CNN's Jim Clancy takes a look at the challenges forecasters face as they tracked Hurricane Rita.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JIM CLANCY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The forecasters first thought Rita would grow to a Category 4 storm around 2:00 p.m. Wednesday.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, Rita did intensify, but it became stronger, quicker than what we had predicted.

CLANCY: Predicting a storm's intensity is one of the major challenges scientists face. They have satellites in space to see it, buoys in water to take the temperature, and airplanes in harm's way to measure wind speed and moisture. All this data, and forecasters have cut the margin of error for where a storm will hit by 50 percent over the last 15 years. But as for forecasting the intensity of a storm ...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We haven't gotten much better at all in predicting wind speeds in hurricanes. We don't do a very good job of that.

CLANCY: Late Wednesday afternoon, more data from an Air Force plane in the center of the storm. Rita has become a monster.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Rita reached Category 5 hurricane with 145 knots.

CLANCY: For those in Rita's path, the only hopeful sign is the possibility the storm could pass over an eddy of slightly cooler water and weaken. So is that great news for Texas?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There is no good news for Texas.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WILLIS: Now, you can find more about these big storms and what forecasters go through to find them coming up tonight at 8:00 eastern on "Monster: Tracking the Storm." "CNN PRESENTS" will follow forecasters, emergency officials and ordinary citizens who worked frantically as Hurricane Rita roared towards Texas and Louisiana.

Here's what's making news right now. Just ahead of the holy month of Ramadan, explosions rock the Indonesian island of Bali. At least 24 deaths are reported in a series of blasts at popular tourist spots. Dozens of other people were injured. And Indonesian officials are calling the blast a terrorist attack. So far, though, there is no word on who is responsible. Nightclub bombings on Bali three years ago killed more than 200 people.

And American troops step up their hunt for insurgents in western Iraq. The U.S. military launched Operation Iron Fist earlier today. It's aimed at rooting out al Qaeda operatives in Anbar province near the Syrian border. The operation comes just two weeks before Iraqis vote on a new constitution.

Thick smoke covers parts of Los Angeles as some big wildfires continue to burn there right now. The biggest blaze northwest of L.A., it has scarred about 24,000 acres. The fire is about 40 percent contained. Firefighters say they'll have it fully contained by Monday.

And New Orleans is moving quickly to repair the damaged levees to keep water out of the city, but is the work keeping officials from finding out why the levees broke in first place? We'll tell you why.

Plus, Judith Miller, that's The New York Times reporter jailed for not revealing her sources, is now -- she's out, she's talking. So is she finally gets things set straight? Our legal eagles will take that case up coming up.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER (voice-over): Celebrity chef Tyler Florence is whipping up his own recipe for success.

TYLER FLORENCE, CELEBRITY CHEF: I tried not to stay in the line of competition. I try to branch out and really think outside the box and kind of come up with some really fresh ideas. UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: In addition to publishing two cookbooks, Florence hosts the Food Network's "Food 911," a series teaching how to prepare simple meals.

FLORENCE: Anybody can cook. I would recommend defining your palate and find some books, because when quickly really get cookbooks, you get inspired, just commit to doing it.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Florence encourages aspiring chefs to pursue formal culinary training and business school. But he believes mastering the art of cooking requires traveling to Europe.

FLORENCE: Go to France, go to Italy, knock on someone's door and tell them that you want to learn because that's where real serious food happens. It's the subtle nuances that make you a really good cook. And you only pick-up that from traveling and tasting

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WILLIS: Mayor Ray Nagin is moving ahead with plans to rebuild New Orleans. He's named 17 citizens to advise him on redevelopment. Now his "Bring Back New Orleans" commission includes businessmen, scholars, church leaders, even celebrity trumpeter Winton Marsalis. Nagin is calling on Washington to give residents a 50 percent credit on their income taxes, and he wants the levee system immediately rebuilt to withstand a Category 3 storm. Eventually, he wants it upgraded to handle a Category 5.

Investigators are trying to pinpoint the cause of the levee failures there. It is a lot like a crime scene investigation. Here's CNN's chief national correspondent John King.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Urgent activity everywhere: patches to the levee; installing new pumps; draining the seemingly endless pool of water. For most, progress. But to investigators, contaminating the crime scene. Moving, burying, and in some cases perhaps destroying the clues to how and why this happened.

LARRY ROTH, AMER. SOC. OF CIVIL ENGINEERS: There's been repairs to the breaches and, of course, Hurricane Rita did some additional damage, so we're concerned that maybe some of the key evidence has been covered up.

COL. DUANE GAPINSKI, U.S. ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS: That may be true. I mean, certainly doing the repairs affects things, but the first priority is to save life and property.

KING: Brigadier General Robert Crear commands the Army Corps of Engineers in this region and is keeping a constant eye on the work.

BRIG. GEN. ROBERT CREAR, U.S. ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS: I know people will continue to look for simple answers. But I don't think you'll have a simple answer here. I don't think you'll get a quick answer.

KING: The lead investigators from the American Society of Civil Engineers have just arrived and hope to get their first major look at the scene Thursday. These breaks will be one major focus to determine whether the levee was built to specification and properly maintained.

This ditch could be another clue, according to a levee expert from just south of New Orleans.

WINDELL CUROLE, LAFOURCHE PARISH LEVEE DIST.: Water can come in, destabilize the soil, that's the force (ph) of (INAUDIBLE), then the pressure of the water can finally cause it to collapse.

KING: The investigators are already examining the levee plans and maintenance records and photographs taken just after Katrina hit.

ROTH: There were at least three breaches. And it's possible that each breach was a different cause.

KING: General Crear knows there's a lot of anger here. One immediate goal: discount as many theories as you can, including conspiracy theories like the rumors that the overwhelmingly black Lower 9th Ward was deliberately flooded to save the French Quarter and downtown.

CREAR: That's absolutely not true. I mean, we would never do something like that. So that's just not true.

KING: Some who escaped this neighborhood blamed this loose barge, believing it crashed through the levee. The early clues suggest otherwise.

GAPINSKI: It's only a theory. And there are things there that say that maybe that didn't happen.

KING: In police terms, the failure of those 70-year-old pumps was an accomplice. It was not the old technology. They just weren't built high enough or otherwise protected when Katrina's surge overwhelmed the levee walls.

CREAR: You don't have to look far to see the power of this storm. I've never seen levees beaten that bad.

KING (on camera): While there are clear Corps deadlines for the levee repairs, General Crear says investigators can take all the time they need. And he says the Corps deliberately went outside to the Society of Civil Engineers because he knows here in devastated New Orleans many simply would not trust the military or a government investigation.

John King, CNN, New Orleans.

(END VIDEOTAPE) WILLIS: And after nearly three months behind bars, a New York Times reporter is talking. So why now? Why did she have to go to jail in the first place? The CIA leak is on the docket. That's up next in "Legal Briefs."

And in other news, all the headlines that got overshadowed this hurricane season. CNN's Beth Nissen is coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WILLIS: After nearly three months in jail, "New York Times" reporter Judith Miller is now out of prison. And yesterday she appeared before a federal grand jury investigating who leaked the identity of a covert CIA operative. Now earlier, as you remember, Miller had refused to testify to protect her source. CNN justice correspondent Kelli Arena has all the details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KELLI ARENA, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Judith Miller is exhausted but happy.

JUDITH MILLER, "THE NEW YORK TIMES": I heard directly from my source that I should testify before the grand jury. This was in the form of a personal letter and most important, a telephone conversation, a telephone call to me at the jail.

ARENA: Though she wouldn't say, Miller's source was Lewis Libby, the vice president's chief of staff. That's according to Libby's lawyer.

Miller says she was also given assurances from special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald that he wouldn't go on a fishing expedition and instead would limit questioning to specific discussions she had with her source.

MILLER: The special counsel agreed to this, and that was very important to me.

ARENA: Miller had received permission from Libby in the form of a waiver to testify more than a year ago, but she didn't because she says it may not have been voluntary. Libby's lawyer says that he made it clear from the start that it was. But Miller wasn't convinced until her lawyer recently approached Libby.

ROBERT BENNETT, JUDITH MILLER'S ATTORNEY: We had reason to believe that he was prepared. He had made those representations to some third parties.

ARENA: As long as the grand jury was sitting and Miller refused to talk, she had to stay in jail. There was speculation Fitzgerald would ask to for an extension or even empanel a new one, meaning even more jail time.

Now that Miller has testified, Fitzgerald may be able to wrap up his two-year probe. (on camera): Knowingly divulging the name of a covert CIA operative is a federal crime. But it's unclear whether Fitzgerald has found any evidence that anyone did that, in the White House or anywhere else.

ROSCOE HOWARD, FORMER U.S. ATTORNEY: But certainly one of the options is that yes, we've got all this evidence, and, yes, we found out that certain acts or activities happened. But, nevertheless, we've just decided that we're not going to go forward with it.

ARENA (voice-over): The controversy started when columnist Bob Novak revealed Valerie Plame's name in one of his articles as the wife of diplomat Joe Wilson, who openly criticized the president's policy in Iraq.

It's not clear who Novak's sources were or why he wasn't held in contempt.

BOB NOVAK, CNN COMMENTATOR: My lawyer said I cannot answer any specific questions about this case.

ARENA: Libby isn't the only senior White House staffer who admits to having discussions with reporters. So did Karl Rove, the president's deputy chief of staff. But both he and Libby say they never mentioned Plame's name to reporters.

Kelli Arena, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WILLIS: OK. So Judith Miller, Tom DeLay headline our "Legal Briefs" this hour. And with us, our law professor Avery Friedman and New York criminal defense attorney Richard Herman.

Welcome to both of you.

AVERY FRIEDMAN, LAW PROFESSOR: Hi, Gerri, nice to see you.

RICHARD HERMAN, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Good afternoon.

WILLIS: So these are two very complicated topics. Let's start with Judith Miller. Now why did she decide now to testify? Richard, let's start with you.

HERMAN: Well, based on what she just told the press yesterday, apparently she now had a comfort level that her source has agreed to allow her to waive any privilege there and testify. But to me, she was under a direct order by a judge to give this information. She refused to give it. She was held in contempt of court. And she was incarcerated.

I don't know why they waited three months to make this clear and unequivocal, this waiver. But regardless, the wheels of justice turned, she was in court, she divulged all this information before the grand jury. And there may be indictments coming up shortly.

WILLIS: Avery, what do you have to say?

FRIEDMAN: I see this very differently, Gerri. I'm looking at Judith Miller as a noble, principled journalist.

HERMAN: Oh, please.

FRIEDMAN: I think she's the essence of the First Amendment. In fact, it wasn't until she got that telephone call from Lewis Libby that she felt that that release was adequate, because up to this point, she had a form release. She might have faced obstruction of justice. It was cleared by the special prosecutor. And I think she did the right thing. I think she really is a beacon for purposes of the First Amendment. I think...

(CROSSTALK)

HERMAN: Oh, please. Avery, it's a federal...

WILLIS: Richard, you clearly think otherwise.

HERMAN: Avery, it's a federal crime to divulge the identity of a CIA agent.

FRIEDMAN: Right, no question.

HERMAN: An investigation ensued. An investigation ensued. And she was subpoenaed as a potential witness.

FRIEDMAN: Right.

HERMAN: Based on that, she has to testify at the grand jury. She's not above the law. And she found that out.

FRIEDMAN: And she knew she wasn't above the law and that's why she went to jail because confidentiality is holy, is sacrosanct to reporters. And that's why Congress is considering right now a federal shield law.

WILLIS: Well, let me interrupt you right there. Richard, could Libby face jail time at this point?

HERMAN: Libby? I don't know that Libby was subpoenaed for the grand jury. Certainly he may be a target in the investigation. I'm not sure. That's a very good question. He very well may a target.

WILLIS: Avery?

FRIEDMAN: The question of the testimony, and obviously we don't know all the details about what Judith Miller said, but the question becomes what did Louis Libby say about Valerie Plame and Joe Wilson? And we're not going to know that. It's a secret grand jury. But I disagree. I think there may be some culpability here on his part.

WILLIS: Avery, do you think this whole case is winding down? Is there any indication out there that this grand jury may be almost done with its work? FRIEDMAN: Well, the grand jury part of it, Gerri, may be winding down, but again that's the beginning of something much larger than this. The objective of Patrick Fitzgerald, the special prosecutor, is to find out whether or not federal officials violated a federal law that makes it essentially treasonous to make a disclosure of a covert agent.

So we're really getting at the beginning of the case. And so everyone really wants to find out what happens with the grand jury here.

WILLIS: Right. Exactly.

HERMAN: But, Gerri, they...

WILLIS: Let's move on, if we could, because we've got a lot to cover here. Onto Tom DeLay, and, Richard, I'll give first crack at this. Big story this week. The Republican majority leader, I should say former now because he stepped down, charged with a criminal conspiracy having to do with raising political funds in Texas. Now, here's what I don't understand. How do you prove intent that he was going to try to get those funds used in a way that they shouldn't be? It sounds very complicated. Richard?

HERMAN: Well, Gerri, welcome to my world of criminal defense. It's a criminal conspiracy, all the rhetoric he's been spewing in the press this week, how the prosecutor is outrageous and this is a ridiculous indictment. All of my clients say that. Every criminal defendant says that. He's going to find out what the wheels of justice are like also.

However, in this case, Gerri, it looks like that there will be at least one or two cooperating witnesses who will give direct testimony as to their evaluation of the intent of Mr. DeLay. And, look, he's facing two years and a monetary fine here. It's very serious. And he had better take it serious.

WILLIS: A two-year sentence is what you're referring to there. Avery, weigh in here. How difficult are these cases to prove, and what are the next steps here?

FRIEDMAN: You know, if you look at the indictment, it's four pages. And to be honest with you, from a prosecutorial perspective, it's fairly vague. He is charged with criminal conspiracy. So intense is one of the elements. However, what is going to be required here is the involvement.

We don't know what the prosecutor has there in Texas. We don't know what kind of testimony. But what is very clear is that Tom DeLay has always made crystal clear that he wanted to change the face of politics in Texas, and how he did this is really one of the issues in this case.

WILLIS: All right. I have to take you to another story this week that is going to get some big attention. Anna Nicole Smith...

HERMAN: Yes.

WILLIS: Can you believe it? Before the Supreme Court.

HERMAN: Yes.

WILLIS: She's been fighting for a long time to get a piece of her husband's estate. You know, in some ways this case is really, you know, played out over and over again all the time across the country. Richard, tell me what you make of this?

HERMAN: Well, what I make of it, Gerri, is that to my understanding the issue before the United States Supreme Court will concern itself with the jurisdiction of the federal courts over state court proceedings. And that's really what it boils down to in its simplistic form here. These are state court -- surrogate court proceedings dealing with an estate. The federal courts got involved, issued some orders. That's why we have an issue before the Supreme Court.

WILLIS: Avery, do you agree?

FRIEDMAN: Very simple. The question is, do federal courts oversee issues of probate and wills and things like that? That's the issue that's before the Supreme Court. All she knows is that there are oral arguments next year. She heard there are oral arguments. She's showing up.

WILLIS: All right. Well, we've got to go here. Richard Herman, Avery Friedman, we love having you on. Thanks so much for your time today.

FRIEDMAN: Nice to see you, Gerri.

HERMAN: Love those glasses, Gerri.

(LAUGHTER)

WILLIS: While most of the nation has been focused on the aftermath of hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the world just kept spinning on. That means there's a lot of news out there that you may have missed. From Afghanistan to Iraq, we'll get you up to date. That's coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WILLIS: Over the last month, the devastating impact of Hurricane Katrina has taken over the national media coverage. Needless to say, there were several other groundbreaking stories and events happening during these trying times.

CNN's Beth Nissen has a look now at some of the other stories you may have missed.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BETH NISSEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They are stories that would otherwise have led newscasts: an especially a bloody month in Iraq; a major U.S. offensive in the town of Tal Afar near the Syrian border, offensives in Ramadi, retaliation by insurgents. Since Katrina hit, 55 U.S. troops have been killed in Iraq, 38 of them by improvised explosive devices.

IEDs took civilian lives, too, almost 100 in car bombings in Baghdad on September 14, another 30 three days later when a car bomb ripped through a market just east of Baghdad, at least 60 more Thursday, when three pickup trucks detonated just north of Baghdad in Balad.

There was news about other wars, other conflicts. Israeli troops pulled out of the Gaza Strip after 38 years of occupation. Bands of Palestinians set flags in the rubble of former Jewish settlements, set fire to former synagogues.

Hamas militants fired rockets into Israel territory. Israeli aircraft fired back into Gaza.

A disarmament monitor confirmed that the Irish Republican Army had given up its entire arsenal of weapons after more than 30 years of armed struggle.

There was news from battlegrounds of other kinds, over gay rights. The Vatican announced a massive investigation to find and dismiss homosexuals in U.S. seminaries.

The Massachusetts legislature resoundingly defeated a constitutional amendment that would have banned gay marriage.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This one is very sweet.

NISSEN: In California, the legislature passed a bill approving gay marriage. The bill was promptly vetoed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who then announced he will run for reelection in 2006.

GOV. ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER (R), CALIFORNIA: I'm in there for seven years. Yes, I will run for governor.

NISSEN: In Dover, Pennsylvania, the court battle began over the teaching of evolution versus intelligent design in public high school biology classes.

In Washington, an unflappable John Roberts faced down frustrated Democratic senators...

JOHN ROBERTS, CHIEF JUSTICE OF THE UNITED STATES: So help me God.

NISSEN: ... was confirmed as chief justice of the Supreme Court, elevated as the nominee to that position after the September 3rd death of Justice William Rehnquist.

There were other notable deaths: Simon Wiesenthal, the famed Nazi hunter.

BOB DENVER, ACTOR: You don't have to, I'm not going anyplace.

NISSEN: Bob Denver, best known as the hapless Gilligan.

A plane crash in Indonesia killed 117; a commuter train derailment in Chicago killed two.

Delta and Northwest, America's third- and fourth-largest airlines, filed for bankruptcy protection.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And lift off!

NISSEN: And NASA unveiled plans to, by 2018, again send humans from the turmoil of Earth to the tranquil surface of the moon.

Beth Nissen, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WILLIS: There's much more ahead on CNN LIVE SATURDAY.

At the top of the hour, "CNN PRESENTS: Is America Prepared" for the next national crisis?

And at 4:00, I'll be back for another hour of CNN LIVE SATURDAY. We're going to look at natural gas prices. Hurricane Katrina could change the way you look at your thermostat this winter.

And at 5:00, "CNN PRESENTS" an hour-long look at the "Heroes Among Us." It's an hour-long look at the amazing stories of ordinary people helping neighbors following Hurricane Katrina.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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