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CNN Live At Daybreak
New Fighting in Fallujah; Residents of Several Midwestern Communities Waking Up to Extensive Damage From Severe Storms
Aired April 21, 2004 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: So much for a cease-fire -- there is new fighting in Fallujah this morning. The battle picks up in one of Iraq's most dangerous cities.
It is Wednesday, April 21.
This is DAYBREAK.
Good morning to you.
From the CNN global headquarters in Atlanta, I'm Carol Costello.
We'll have more on that fighting in Iraq, but first the latest headlines for you now.
Powerful tornadoes kill four people in Illinois and also rip through Indiana. Daylight will reveal the extent of the damage left by those storms. The cleanup has already begun.
It is a deadly morning in Iraq. Huge explosions ripped through three police stations in Basra at nearly the same time. The official death toll has now risen to more than 60. That figure is expected to climb higher.
Israeli forces killed six Palestinians in Gaza this morning. The Israeli military moved in with tanks and bulldozers. They exchanged fire with Palestinian gunmen.
The man who exposed Israel's nuclear secrets walked out of prison less than one hour ago. He spent 18 years behind bars, but that clearly did not break his spirit. He says he is proud of what he did.
To the forecast center now and Chad.
CHAD MYERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.
(WEATHER REPORT)
COSTELLO: Within the past few minutes, we have been getting some riveting pictures from the front lines in Fallujah. U.S. Marines are battling insurgents there. This is the second straight day of intense fighting.
CNN's senior international editor David Clinch joins us with a look at these new pictures coming into us now. DAVID CLINCH, CNN INTERNATIONAL EDITOR: Yes, Carol, this is a pool feed from Fallujah today. We were aware of this incident earlier, but we've begun to receive the pictures. This is a series of incidents over the last few days where Marines in Fallujah trying to adhere to an agreed cease-fire in the city to allow negotiations, to allow civilians to return, to allow the local civilian leaders to try and end this insurgency. But the Marines have been hit.
They were hit last night. This morning they were hit hard, incoming RPG and mortar fire to their fixed positions and then heavy machine gun fire coming into where the Marines had their position on one side of the city.
COSTELLO: Explain the geography of this picture.
Where are the Marines in relation to the camera?
CLINCH: The Marines are -- the camera we're seeing is with the Marines on the top of a building looking down onto, I believe, the northern side of the city. You can see the main mosque there on the left. The incoming fire, you can see some of it there falling short of where the Marines are. Some of it fell a lot closer to where the Marines are. That's the early part of this incident, where the mortars and the RPGs are coming in.
COSTELLO: And now we can see the Marines. And there are a lot of Marines beside this one.
CLINCH: Right. We'll see this individual. We see 20 to 30 Marines lined up on top of this building returning machine gun fire. They are aiming very carefully -- we saw this sequence -- they see the incoming fire. They immediately identify, triangulate, basically, the idea of where the fire is coming from. They've got some very sharp shooters in the Marines here who specifically have been put in position for this purpose. And then, of course, we see this -- they're bringing in the gunships above. They can target, based on what the Marines are seeing and what the helicopters can see themselves, where this fire is coming from and they hit the insurgents.
COSTELLO: And, David, from what we know, there are 20 to 30 insurgents on the other side of that wall.
CLINCH: Right. And that still was the initial estimate by the Marines and then confirmed, apparently, by those in the helicopters. The information coming from those in the helicopters, we hear from the Marines, is that they believe they killed as many as nine of those insurgents. We then later on in this sequence saw the Marines, who are on this building, getting down into the streets and doing the very dangerous job of going street to street looking for these guys who are firing at them. And, of course, the helicopters the whole time above firing at anything they can see.
COSTELLO: And just quickly now, how many Marines were injured in this particular battle? CLINCH: We are now being told that at least three Marines were injured and have been evacuated from this. That kind of information, though, of course, then gets updated through the day. We'll keep a very close eye on that.
COSTELLO: Thank you, David.
CLINCH: All right.
COSTELLO: Explosions, too, and death in Basra. At least five blasts targeting police stations in southern Iraq. Caught in the middle -- schoolchildren.
We want to take you live to Baghdad and Jane Arraf, who has more on that fallout -- hello, Jane.
JANE ARRAF, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Carol.
Those blasts appeared to be virtually simultaneous and timed for what essentially is rush hour, very early this morning, around 7:00 a.m., as people would have been taking their children to school, as police officers would have been reporting for work. Five explosions, three of them in the city of Basra and two just outside, in Azubair. One of them at a police recruitment center.
Now, at least three have been confirmed to be suicide bombers. And while people in the rest of Iraq have become, sadly, used to suicide car bombs outside police stations in Baghdad and the surroundings, this is relatively new for Basra. There are at least 60 people confirmed dead. Five, according to the interior minister, at least, of them children, and many children wounded, prompting fears that this phenomenon, this wave of violence that we had seen a lull in for the past few weeks, may be heading south -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Jane Arraf reporting live for us from Baghdad this morning.
In the United States, residents of several Midwestern communities are waking up to see extensive damage from severe storms. One of those towns mourning its dead. There were tornadoes or apparent tornadoes in Utica, in Joliet, Illinois, and Kokomo, Indiana. At least four people are dead, as I said. In Utica, where a tavern was literally flattened -- you're looking at pictures of it right now -- dozens of other buildings in a three to four block area also damaged or destroyed. In Joliet, a roof collapsed at a drugstore. About 15,000 people without power in northern Illinois this morning. Some buildings damaged, too, in Indiana, but most of the tornado sightings were only brief touchdowns.
We want to get more now on these violent spring storms.
So let's go live now to Lisa Leiter.
She joins us on the phone from Utica, Illinois.
And Chad is here with me, as well -- Lisa, tell me what it looks like right now there.
LISA LEITER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Carol, this is a tiny town about 90 miles southwest of Chicago. The recovery effort is well under way. Power is still out here, as it is in many neighboring areas, as you mentioned. The number of 15,000 has now been taken down to about 9,000 people in the surrounding counties without power.
I am standing on a street facing that tavern spot where four people, at least four people died. They ran into the basement when they heard the sirens shouting last night and the building caved in on them.
It...
COSTELLO: Lisa, I want to talk further about that. They heard the warning sirens. They went to the basement and the building collapsed on top of them.
Did they not get down to the basement on time or did the sirens come too late?
LEITER: Well, Carol, we're going to get more information on that, not far from now, in about a half an hour (AUDIO GAP) have a briefing here with the LaSalle County fire chief, the coroner, the sheriff, and, also, a representative from the Illinois Emergency Management Association. The details of that at this point are still unclear.
What...
COSTELLO: Well, let me interrupt you for just a moment and talk to Chad at this now.
LEITER: Sure.
COSTELLO: Because this was unusual. I don't know about specifically Utica, and maybe you can help me with this.
MYERS: Sure. Go ahead.
COSTELLO: Was there more than one tornado or just one tornado there?
MYERS: There was one tornado in Utica. There was also another tornado in Kankakee. There was another -- there was actually 51 reports of actual touchdowns. But we think that there were probably three or four main tornadoes that skipped along one after another after another. One, though, in Utica, was a half mile wide when it moved across the freeway. And you can see some pictures here. There's some amateur video here.
This is what we even called, we thought was a multiple vortex tornado at times, which means more than one tornado suction spot on the ground at the same time. These guys get an awful lot closer to this video as we let it roll. You'll be able to see one little wedge on the ground to the left and another little suction spot creating dust. Right in the middle of your screen, you see the dust now coming from the ground. It looks like, almost like fire or something like that. That's the actual -- the suction of the tornado picking up dirt and dust off the ground right there.
COSTELLO: Lisa, how many homes are damaged in Utica?
LEITER: Well, right now it certainly doesn't -- I'm actually standing on a block here staring at a house that the roof has been ripped off. And what the emergency workers are doing is marking all of the homes in this area with an X to indicate that the people who live there have been accounted for. This area has been evacuated and the people who live in this area have been taken to nearby State Park Lodge, and that's where they're being housed at this time.
But...
COSTELLO: And just to interrupt you for a moment, because I want to get Chad in here, too, when those sirens sound, warning people to take cover, how much time do you have after that?
MYERS: The guys here had -- the people in Utica had 25 minutes. The warnings went off at about quarter till the hour, a quarter till six. And the tornado hit here at about 6:06 to 6:09, depending on what part of town you were in. So almost 20 minutes.
COSTELLO: All right, Lisa, back to you.
I'm sorry I interrupted.
You were saying?
LEITER: No problem.
Yes, this area has been evacuated. The people have been taken to the State Park and right now, as I said, work crews are tying to dig through this rubble with those generator powered lights right now because, you know, you really cannot see anything around here with the exception of all the media cameras out in front (AUDIO GAP)...
COSTELLO: We understand.
Lisa Leiter, we lost her again, but she's live on the phone from Utica, Illinois.
And, thank you, Chad, for informing us.
MYERS: Sure.
COSTELLO: Very interesting information this morning. Exciting information.
MYERS: Yes. And the problem with those people that were in the basement of this building, clearly, when the building itself collapsed, the first floor was not able to hold the collapsing structure. And so that structure actually went down into the basement. One of the problems of being in the basement is that, you know, there's a lot of metal and roof and whatever, bricks up above you.
COSTELLO: But that's what you're supposed to do. You're supposed to go to the basement.
MYERS: They just -- they did the exact right thing anyway.
COSTELLO: Oh.
MYERS: They would not have been safe on the first floor or the second floor. They were in the safest place and they still didn't make it.
COSTELLO: All right, thank you, Chad.
MYERS: You're welcome.
COSTELLO: Still to come on DAYBREAK this morning, accusations and denials -- top guns from the White House down are explaining what they said and did not say before the war in Iraq.
And here's a question you've probably heard -- credit or debit. We'll tell you who's ahead in the plastic race.
Then more on those devastating tornadoes that tore through parts of the Midwest. We'll tell you what the rescuers face in the calm after the storm.
This is DAYBREAK for April 21.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Welcome back to DAYBREAK.
MYERS: Time for some good news for a change. Time to give away a coffee mug.
COSTELLO: I forgot to bring it up here again.
MYERS: And not those ugly paper ones you're drinking out of again this morning. Let me show you what's going -- yes, there you go. With the lipstick.
COSTELLO: Oh, stop.
MYERS: It's not...
COSTELLO: That's so embarrassing, isn't it?
MYERS: Good morning.
COSTELLO: Stop that.
MYERS: What are the two there for?
COSTELLO: Oh, I had two cups of coffee in quick succession so I'd wake up. MYERS: Oh, OK. I see. And so you're going on that. Anyway, hey, which American airport could become the first to allow non- ticketed passengers past security? That's going to be Pittsburgh. There's a huge mall. If you get past security, there's like a hundred stores back there and they're really hurting because no one except passengers can go back there. It used to be where everyone could go back there and actually go shopping at the airport. So that's Pittsburgh.
And what percentage of school resource officers say the schools are not adequately prepared for something like Columbine? And that was 55 percent.
The winner, the winner today, from Virginia, from Standardsville, Virginia, Steve Ramsey. Good morning, Steve. Congratulations.
COSTELLO: Yes, absolutely, congratulations.
The next set of DAYBREAK questions come your way at 6:50 Eastern time.
MYERS: We'll be right here.
COSTELLO: Your news, money, weather and sports.
It is 6:14 Eastern time.
Here's what's all new this morning.
In Basra, at least 60 people, including about 20 schoolchildren, have been killed in several explosions at three police stations in southern Iraq.
Tornadoes sweep through north central Illinois, leaving a 60 mile path of destruction into the suburbs of Chicago. At least four are dead; several others injured.
In money news, Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan appears on Capitol Hill this morning to report on the nation's economy. He told a Senate panel Tuesday the economy has picked up again.
In sport, you knew it would happen -- 19-year-old Lebron James is the NBA Rookie of the Year. The Cleveland Cavalier becomes the youngest player to be named the league's top rookie.
In culture, is "The Passion of the Christ" too graphic for television's four largest networks? Possibly so. Executives of the networks say it's unlikely they will make a deal to show the movie on TV.
MYERS: And, good morning, Carol.
(WEATHER REPORT)
COSTELLO: Those are the latest headlines. Coming up on DAYBREAK, an apology decades after the fact.
Plus, we'll go back to the scene of those fierce storms in the Midwest as the cleanup gets under way this morning.
And our DAYBREAK Photo of the Day. What is it? We'll be back with the answer.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: We have some photographs to show you right now that we thought you'd find interesting. These are the tornadoes that ripped through parts of the Midwest yesterday.
MYERS: Fifty-one reports so far, Carol, and I'm sure as we wake up this morning, we're going to get more. That tornado there was probably an F2 tornado, with winds at least 150 miles per hour. When you start taking branches off trees, that's when you start to know you've got something above about 120, 130 miles per hour.
Power lines down all the way from Kankakee. There were even storms in Indiana. We're not trying to separate you, Indiana, as well. Most of the damage to real structures was obviously in Illinois, in the town of Utica. Folks there are going to be cleaning up for quite some time. Four people so far have lost their lives and I think we still have four trapped. I'm not sure.
COSTELLO: No, we -- those four trapped were the four who lost their lives in the tavern in Utica, Illinois.
MYERS: Oh, those were the four. OK. OK. So everybody else accounted for. Great.
COSTELLO: Right.
You'll have much more for us later.
Thank you, Chad.
MYERS: Will do.
COSTELLO: Candlelight and caring at Columbine -- that tops our look at some of the news across America.
More than a thousand people took part in memorial services in Littleton, Colorado. Family, friends and survivors shared their stories on the fifth anniversary of the Columbine High School shooting.
Convicted sex offender Edward Stokes will have until next week to decide whether to fight his extradition to Washington State. Stokes was arrested Sunday in Oregon on a federal warrant. He's accused of illegally trying to get a Washington driver's license.
An Oregon judge ruled that one county must stop issuing same-sex marriage licenses. But the state was ordered to recognize the more than 3,000 marriages that were already sanctioned. The judge says the final decision on the legality of the unions must be made by the state supreme court.
A 3-year-old girl back with her parents after being kidnapped at gunpoint by as many as four men. The girl was recovered after a police chase ended in a crash. Police arrested one man and are looking for three others involved in that abduction.
Faculty members at the University of Alabama have issued a formal apology for slavery. In the 1800s, university presidents owned slaves and many of the buildings on campus were either built by or housed slaves. The university is also undertaking an initiative to recognize former slaves.
MYERS: And what is it? The Picture of the Day.
COSTELLO: The Picture of the Day.
Any guesses?
MYERS: Could you tell what it was? I mean you can kind of use your imagination. Maybe a scoreboard. Actually, SBC Park. What does the scoreboard say, though?
COSTELLO: Oh.
MYERS: Barry Bonds hitting 667.
COSTELLO: He's amazing, isn't he?
MYERS: Could you imagine? Can you imagine hitting one?
COSTELLO: Not with somebody pitching at me at 100 miles per hour.
MYERS: What an amazing guy.
COSTELLO: He is amazing.
OK, moving on now, here's what's all new in the next half hour of DAYBREAK.
Some say they said it. They say they didn't say it. Denial at the highest levels. We'll talk to a Washington insider about why the White House seems to be up in arms about the allegations in a new book.
And the candidates and the money trail -- who's on top and who's breaking records in campaign fundraising?
And then, putting Saddam Hussein on trial, one of the highest profile cases to come to court. We'll talk with our legal expert, Kendall Coffey, on the ins and outs of this case.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) COSTELLO: This has been a particularly violent and deadly day in Iraq. Five explosions near three police stations and a police training facility in Basra have killed at least 60 people and injured more than 200.
In Fallujah, insurgents attack U.S. Marines, wounding three. U.S. officials say the Marines may assault the city if insurgents do not lay down their weapons.
Halliburton says three of the four bodies found last week were employees of its subsidiary, KBR. The three had been missing since an attack on a fuel convoy outside of Baghdad.
Not all the Iraq fighting is taking place overseas.
As our Joe Johns reports, there are lots of skirmishes on Capitol Hill.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOE JOHNS, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): With a June 30th deadline to transfer power to the Iraqis just weeks away, the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee was demanding answers.
SEN. RICHARD LUGAR (R), FOREIGN RELATIONS COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN: The administration must present a detailed plan to prove to Americans, Iraqis and our allies that we have a strategy and that we are committed to making it work.
JOHNS: The top Democrat on the committee was less diplomatic blasting the administration for not committing a high-ranking Pentagon official to answer the committee's questions.
SEN. JOSEPH BIDEN (D), FOREIGN RELATIONS COMMITTEE VICE-CHAIR: They are totally incompetent and they don't have anything to tell us which would constitute incompetence or -- or they're refusing to allow us to fulfill our constitutional responsibility and there's always a price to pay for that.
JOHNS: But over in the Armed Services Committee, Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz was answering questions and arguing there is a plan that should not be postponed or derailed but there were few details.
SEN. CARL LEVIN (D), MICHIGAN: Either you have a plan or you don't.
WOLFOWITZ: There are certainly ways to proceed if it can't be done by July 1st but the reason for keeping so much pressure on July 1st is, as I said earlier, it will improve the security situation in the country enormously if people stop thinking of themselves as occupied.
JOHNS: Wolfowitz was also grilled by Democrat Ted Kennedy about the assertion in Bob Woodward's new book that the administration diverted $700 million intended for Afghanistan to planning the Iraq War. Wolfowitz denied it.
WOLFOWITZ: We did not divert funds. We were very careful in making sure that we applied money to the broader war on terrorism that the Congress had authorized.
JOHNS (on camera): Two more days of hearings are scheduled, more tough questions, as the administration defends its policies in Iraq before the Congress and the public.
Joe Johns, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: Time to pump up the volume now with our talker of the morning. Every few days we like to tune the dial to see what's being said over the airwaves. This morning the dial has landed on WTOP News Radio in Washington, D.C.
With us now, anchor/reporter Judlyne Lilly.
Good morning, Judlyne.
JUDLYNE LILLY, WTOP ANCHOR: Good morning, Carol.
COSTELLO: You know, the Bob Woodward book continues to be the talker in D.C. Now it seems to have spawned the battle of the transcripts.
LILLY: Isn't that curious? Isn't it curious that President Bush told his people to talk to Bob Woodward for the book, "Plan of Attack," and now that presumably they all told the truth, there is some truths that are different for others? So you have these battle over the transcripts. And, in fact, the one that is on the Department of Defense site from the secretary of defense does leave out a couple of things that Woodward has in his; for instance, the talk about Bandar, Prince Bandar from Saudi Arabia and the gas prices.
COSTELLO: Yes, and specifically that phrase, you can take it to the bank.
LILLY: You can take it to the bank. Now, you know that Woodward was told this. This is, once again, a second hand sort of thing. Woodward, who is a very well respected and trusted journalist, he of Watergate fame, was told that this phrase was uttered. And so he has to believe it because he's told by the highest people in our government. Why would they lie?
COSTELLO: Well, interestingly enough, this is how Donald Rumsfeld explained the blacked out portion of the released Defense Department transcripts in a Pentagon briefing.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
QUESTION: Do you remember saying you could take it to the bank, this is going to happen? DONALD RUMSFELD, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: It -- I don't remember saying it, to be perfectly honest. But I have said that, that phrase in my life. But I could have said it about a dozen different things. In other words, it may have been about some discussion we'd had about an interaction with another country.
My best recollection -- and I hate to use the word certainty, because no one's memory is perfect -- but I can't believe the decision had been made by the president during that period. If it had been, I didn't know it had been. Therefore, I would never have said what you said somebody said I said, with respect to that aspect of it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: So, Judlyne, after that explanation...
LILLY: This is the non-denial denial, because he, you notice that in the beginning of his comments, he says I don't recall it and I've said it on occasion. And then he backs off and says well, maybe not in that particular instance.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired April 21, 2004 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: So much for a cease-fire -- there is new fighting in Fallujah this morning. The battle picks up in one of Iraq's most dangerous cities.
It is Wednesday, April 21.
This is DAYBREAK.
Good morning to you.
From the CNN global headquarters in Atlanta, I'm Carol Costello.
We'll have more on that fighting in Iraq, but first the latest headlines for you now.
Powerful tornadoes kill four people in Illinois and also rip through Indiana. Daylight will reveal the extent of the damage left by those storms. The cleanup has already begun.
It is a deadly morning in Iraq. Huge explosions ripped through three police stations in Basra at nearly the same time. The official death toll has now risen to more than 60. That figure is expected to climb higher.
Israeli forces killed six Palestinians in Gaza this morning. The Israeli military moved in with tanks and bulldozers. They exchanged fire with Palestinian gunmen.
The man who exposed Israel's nuclear secrets walked out of prison less than one hour ago. He spent 18 years behind bars, but that clearly did not break his spirit. He says he is proud of what he did.
To the forecast center now and Chad.
CHAD MYERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.
(WEATHER REPORT)
COSTELLO: Within the past few minutes, we have been getting some riveting pictures from the front lines in Fallujah. U.S. Marines are battling insurgents there. This is the second straight day of intense fighting.
CNN's senior international editor David Clinch joins us with a look at these new pictures coming into us now. DAVID CLINCH, CNN INTERNATIONAL EDITOR: Yes, Carol, this is a pool feed from Fallujah today. We were aware of this incident earlier, but we've begun to receive the pictures. This is a series of incidents over the last few days where Marines in Fallujah trying to adhere to an agreed cease-fire in the city to allow negotiations, to allow civilians to return, to allow the local civilian leaders to try and end this insurgency. But the Marines have been hit.
They were hit last night. This morning they were hit hard, incoming RPG and mortar fire to their fixed positions and then heavy machine gun fire coming into where the Marines had their position on one side of the city.
COSTELLO: Explain the geography of this picture.
Where are the Marines in relation to the camera?
CLINCH: The Marines are -- the camera we're seeing is with the Marines on the top of a building looking down onto, I believe, the northern side of the city. You can see the main mosque there on the left. The incoming fire, you can see some of it there falling short of where the Marines are. Some of it fell a lot closer to where the Marines are. That's the early part of this incident, where the mortars and the RPGs are coming in.
COSTELLO: And now we can see the Marines. And there are a lot of Marines beside this one.
CLINCH: Right. We'll see this individual. We see 20 to 30 Marines lined up on top of this building returning machine gun fire. They are aiming very carefully -- we saw this sequence -- they see the incoming fire. They immediately identify, triangulate, basically, the idea of where the fire is coming from. They've got some very sharp shooters in the Marines here who specifically have been put in position for this purpose. And then, of course, we see this -- they're bringing in the gunships above. They can target, based on what the Marines are seeing and what the helicopters can see themselves, where this fire is coming from and they hit the insurgents.
COSTELLO: And, David, from what we know, there are 20 to 30 insurgents on the other side of that wall.
CLINCH: Right. And that still was the initial estimate by the Marines and then confirmed, apparently, by those in the helicopters. The information coming from those in the helicopters, we hear from the Marines, is that they believe they killed as many as nine of those insurgents. We then later on in this sequence saw the Marines, who are on this building, getting down into the streets and doing the very dangerous job of going street to street looking for these guys who are firing at them. And, of course, the helicopters the whole time above firing at anything they can see.
COSTELLO: And just quickly now, how many Marines were injured in this particular battle? CLINCH: We are now being told that at least three Marines were injured and have been evacuated from this. That kind of information, though, of course, then gets updated through the day. We'll keep a very close eye on that.
COSTELLO: Thank you, David.
CLINCH: All right.
COSTELLO: Explosions, too, and death in Basra. At least five blasts targeting police stations in southern Iraq. Caught in the middle -- schoolchildren.
We want to take you live to Baghdad and Jane Arraf, who has more on that fallout -- hello, Jane.
JANE ARRAF, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Carol.
Those blasts appeared to be virtually simultaneous and timed for what essentially is rush hour, very early this morning, around 7:00 a.m., as people would have been taking their children to school, as police officers would have been reporting for work. Five explosions, three of them in the city of Basra and two just outside, in Azubair. One of them at a police recruitment center.
Now, at least three have been confirmed to be suicide bombers. And while people in the rest of Iraq have become, sadly, used to suicide car bombs outside police stations in Baghdad and the surroundings, this is relatively new for Basra. There are at least 60 people confirmed dead. Five, according to the interior minister, at least, of them children, and many children wounded, prompting fears that this phenomenon, this wave of violence that we had seen a lull in for the past few weeks, may be heading south -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Jane Arraf reporting live for us from Baghdad this morning.
In the United States, residents of several Midwestern communities are waking up to see extensive damage from severe storms. One of those towns mourning its dead. There were tornadoes or apparent tornadoes in Utica, in Joliet, Illinois, and Kokomo, Indiana. At least four people are dead, as I said. In Utica, where a tavern was literally flattened -- you're looking at pictures of it right now -- dozens of other buildings in a three to four block area also damaged or destroyed. In Joliet, a roof collapsed at a drugstore. About 15,000 people without power in northern Illinois this morning. Some buildings damaged, too, in Indiana, but most of the tornado sightings were only brief touchdowns.
We want to get more now on these violent spring storms.
So let's go live now to Lisa Leiter.
She joins us on the phone from Utica, Illinois.
And Chad is here with me, as well -- Lisa, tell me what it looks like right now there.
LISA LEITER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Carol, this is a tiny town about 90 miles southwest of Chicago. The recovery effort is well under way. Power is still out here, as it is in many neighboring areas, as you mentioned. The number of 15,000 has now been taken down to about 9,000 people in the surrounding counties without power.
I am standing on a street facing that tavern spot where four people, at least four people died. They ran into the basement when they heard the sirens shouting last night and the building caved in on them.
It...
COSTELLO: Lisa, I want to talk further about that. They heard the warning sirens. They went to the basement and the building collapsed on top of them.
Did they not get down to the basement on time or did the sirens come too late?
LEITER: Well, Carol, we're going to get more information on that, not far from now, in about a half an hour (AUDIO GAP) have a briefing here with the LaSalle County fire chief, the coroner, the sheriff, and, also, a representative from the Illinois Emergency Management Association. The details of that at this point are still unclear.
What...
COSTELLO: Well, let me interrupt you for just a moment and talk to Chad at this now.
LEITER: Sure.
COSTELLO: Because this was unusual. I don't know about specifically Utica, and maybe you can help me with this.
MYERS: Sure. Go ahead.
COSTELLO: Was there more than one tornado or just one tornado there?
MYERS: There was one tornado in Utica. There was also another tornado in Kankakee. There was another -- there was actually 51 reports of actual touchdowns. But we think that there were probably three or four main tornadoes that skipped along one after another after another. One, though, in Utica, was a half mile wide when it moved across the freeway. And you can see some pictures here. There's some amateur video here.
This is what we even called, we thought was a multiple vortex tornado at times, which means more than one tornado suction spot on the ground at the same time. These guys get an awful lot closer to this video as we let it roll. You'll be able to see one little wedge on the ground to the left and another little suction spot creating dust. Right in the middle of your screen, you see the dust now coming from the ground. It looks like, almost like fire or something like that. That's the actual -- the suction of the tornado picking up dirt and dust off the ground right there.
COSTELLO: Lisa, how many homes are damaged in Utica?
LEITER: Well, right now it certainly doesn't -- I'm actually standing on a block here staring at a house that the roof has been ripped off. And what the emergency workers are doing is marking all of the homes in this area with an X to indicate that the people who live there have been accounted for. This area has been evacuated and the people who live in this area have been taken to nearby State Park Lodge, and that's where they're being housed at this time.
But...
COSTELLO: And just to interrupt you for a moment, because I want to get Chad in here, too, when those sirens sound, warning people to take cover, how much time do you have after that?
MYERS: The guys here had -- the people in Utica had 25 minutes. The warnings went off at about quarter till the hour, a quarter till six. And the tornado hit here at about 6:06 to 6:09, depending on what part of town you were in. So almost 20 minutes.
COSTELLO: All right, Lisa, back to you.
I'm sorry I interrupted.
You were saying?
LEITER: No problem.
Yes, this area has been evacuated. The people have been taken to the State Park and right now, as I said, work crews are tying to dig through this rubble with those generator powered lights right now because, you know, you really cannot see anything around here with the exception of all the media cameras out in front (AUDIO GAP)...
COSTELLO: We understand.
Lisa Leiter, we lost her again, but she's live on the phone from Utica, Illinois.
And, thank you, Chad, for informing us.
MYERS: Sure.
COSTELLO: Very interesting information this morning. Exciting information.
MYERS: Yes. And the problem with those people that were in the basement of this building, clearly, when the building itself collapsed, the first floor was not able to hold the collapsing structure. And so that structure actually went down into the basement. One of the problems of being in the basement is that, you know, there's a lot of metal and roof and whatever, bricks up above you.
COSTELLO: But that's what you're supposed to do. You're supposed to go to the basement.
MYERS: They just -- they did the exact right thing anyway.
COSTELLO: Oh.
MYERS: They would not have been safe on the first floor or the second floor. They were in the safest place and they still didn't make it.
COSTELLO: All right, thank you, Chad.
MYERS: You're welcome.
COSTELLO: Still to come on DAYBREAK this morning, accusations and denials -- top guns from the White House down are explaining what they said and did not say before the war in Iraq.
And here's a question you've probably heard -- credit or debit. We'll tell you who's ahead in the plastic race.
Then more on those devastating tornadoes that tore through parts of the Midwest. We'll tell you what the rescuers face in the calm after the storm.
This is DAYBREAK for April 21.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Welcome back to DAYBREAK.
MYERS: Time for some good news for a change. Time to give away a coffee mug.
COSTELLO: I forgot to bring it up here again.
MYERS: And not those ugly paper ones you're drinking out of again this morning. Let me show you what's going -- yes, there you go. With the lipstick.
COSTELLO: Oh, stop.
MYERS: It's not...
COSTELLO: That's so embarrassing, isn't it?
MYERS: Good morning.
COSTELLO: Stop that.
MYERS: What are the two there for?
COSTELLO: Oh, I had two cups of coffee in quick succession so I'd wake up. MYERS: Oh, OK. I see. And so you're going on that. Anyway, hey, which American airport could become the first to allow non- ticketed passengers past security? That's going to be Pittsburgh. There's a huge mall. If you get past security, there's like a hundred stores back there and they're really hurting because no one except passengers can go back there. It used to be where everyone could go back there and actually go shopping at the airport. So that's Pittsburgh.
And what percentage of school resource officers say the schools are not adequately prepared for something like Columbine? And that was 55 percent.
The winner, the winner today, from Virginia, from Standardsville, Virginia, Steve Ramsey. Good morning, Steve. Congratulations.
COSTELLO: Yes, absolutely, congratulations.
The next set of DAYBREAK questions come your way at 6:50 Eastern time.
MYERS: We'll be right here.
COSTELLO: Your news, money, weather and sports.
It is 6:14 Eastern time.
Here's what's all new this morning.
In Basra, at least 60 people, including about 20 schoolchildren, have been killed in several explosions at three police stations in southern Iraq.
Tornadoes sweep through north central Illinois, leaving a 60 mile path of destruction into the suburbs of Chicago. At least four are dead; several others injured.
In money news, Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan appears on Capitol Hill this morning to report on the nation's economy. He told a Senate panel Tuesday the economy has picked up again.
In sport, you knew it would happen -- 19-year-old Lebron James is the NBA Rookie of the Year. The Cleveland Cavalier becomes the youngest player to be named the league's top rookie.
In culture, is "The Passion of the Christ" too graphic for television's four largest networks? Possibly so. Executives of the networks say it's unlikely they will make a deal to show the movie on TV.
MYERS: And, good morning, Carol.
(WEATHER REPORT)
COSTELLO: Those are the latest headlines. Coming up on DAYBREAK, an apology decades after the fact.
Plus, we'll go back to the scene of those fierce storms in the Midwest as the cleanup gets under way this morning.
And our DAYBREAK Photo of the Day. What is it? We'll be back with the answer.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: We have some photographs to show you right now that we thought you'd find interesting. These are the tornadoes that ripped through parts of the Midwest yesterday.
MYERS: Fifty-one reports so far, Carol, and I'm sure as we wake up this morning, we're going to get more. That tornado there was probably an F2 tornado, with winds at least 150 miles per hour. When you start taking branches off trees, that's when you start to know you've got something above about 120, 130 miles per hour.
Power lines down all the way from Kankakee. There were even storms in Indiana. We're not trying to separate you, Indiana, as well. Most of the damage to real structures was obviously in Illinois, in the town of Utica. Folks there are going to be cleaning up for quite some time. Four people so far have lost their lives and I think we still have four trapped. I'm not sure.
COSTELLO: No, we -- those four trapped were the four who lost their lives in the tavern in Utica, Illinois.
MYERS: Oh, those were the four. OK. OK. So everybody else accounted for. Great.
COSTELLO: Right.
You'll have much more for us later.
Thank you, Chad.
MYERS: Will do.
COSTELLO: Candlelight and caring at Columbine -- that tops our look at some of the news across America.
More than a thousand people took part in memorial services in Littleton, Colorado. Family, friends and survivors shared their stories on the fifth anniversary of the Columbine High School shooting.
Convicted sex offender Edward Stokes will have until next week to decide whether to fight his extradition to Washington State. Stokes was arrested Sunday in Oregon on a federal warrant. He's accused of illegally trying to get a Washington driver's license.
An Oregon judge ruled that one county must stop issuing same-sex marriage licenses. But the state was ordered to recognize the more than 3,000 marriages that were already sanctioned. The judge says the final decision on the legality of the unions must be made by the state supreme court.
A 3-year-old girl back with her parents after being kidnapped at gunpoint by as many as four men. The girl was recovered after a police chase ended in a crash. Police arrested one man and are looking for three others involved in that abduction.
Faculty members at the University of Alabama have issued a formal apology for slavery. In the 1800s, university presidents owned slaves and many of the buildings on campus were either built by or housed slaves. The university is also undertaking an initiative to recognize former slaves.
MYERS: And what is it? The Picture of the Day.
COSTELLO: The Picture of the Day.
Any guesses?
MYERS: Could you tell what it was? I mean you can kind of use your imagination. Maybe a scoreboard. Actually, SBC Park. What does the scoreboard say, though?
COSTELLO: Oh.
MYERS: Barry Bonds hitting 667.
COSTELLO: He's amazing, isn't he?
MYERS: Could you imagine? Can you imagine hitting one?
COSTELLO: Not with somebody pitching at me at 100 miles per hour.
MYERS: What an amazing guy.
COSTELLO: He is amazing.
OK, moving on now, here's what's all new in the next half hour of DAYBREAK.
Some say they said it. They say they didn't say it. Denial at the highest levels. We'll talk to a Washington insider about why the White House seems to be up in arms about the allegations in a new book.
And the candidates and the money trail -- who's on top and who's breaking records in campaign fundraising?
And then, putting Saddam Hussein on trial, one of the highest profile cases to come to court. We'll talk with our legal expert, Kendall Coffey, on the ins and outs of this case.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) COSTELLO: This has been a particularly violent and deadly day in Iraq. Five explosions near three police stations and a police training facility in Basra have killed at least 60 people and injured more than 200.
In Fallujah, insurgents attack U.S. Marines, wounding three. U.S. officials say the Marines may assault the city if insurgents do not lay down their weapons.
Halliburton says three of the four bodies found last week were employees of its subsidiary, KBR. The three had been missing since an attack on a fuel convoy outside of Baghdad.
Not all the Iraq fighting is taking place overseas.
As our Joe Johns reports, there are lots of skirmishes on Capitol Hill.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOE JOHNS, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): With a June 30th deadline to transfer power to the Iraqis just weeks away, the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee was demanding answers.
SEN. RICHARD LUGAR (R), FOREIGN RELATIONS COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN: The administration must present a detailed plan to prove to Americans, Iraqis and our allies that we have a strategy and that we are committed to making it work.
JOHNS: The top Democrat on the committee was less diplomatic blasting the administration for not committing a high-ranking Pentagon official to answer the committee's questions.
SEN. JOSEPH BIDEN (D), FOREIGN RELATIONS COMMITTEE VICE-CHAIR: They are totally incompetent and they don't have anything to tell us which would constitute incompetence or -- or they're refusing to allow us to fulfill our constitutional responsibility and there's always a price to pay for that.
JOHNS: But over in the Armed Services Committee, Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz was answering questions and arguing there is a plan that should not be postponed or derailed but there were few details.
SEN. CARL LEVIN (D), MICHIGAN: Either you have a plan or you don't.
WOLFOWITZ: There are certainly ways to proceed if it can't be done by July 1st but the reason for keeping so much pressure on July 1st is, as I said earlier, it will improve the security situation in the country enormously if people stop thinking of themselves as occupied.
JOHNS: Wolfowitz was also grilled by Democrat Ted Kennedy about the assertion in Bob Woodward's new book that the administration diverted $700 million intended for Afghanistan to planning the Iraq War. Wolfowitz denied it.
WOLFOWITZ: We did not divert funds. We were very careful in making sure that we applied money to the broader war on terrorism that the Congress had authorized.
JOHNS (on camera): Two more days of hearings are scheduled, more tough questions, as the administration defends its policies in Iraq before the Congress and the public.
Joe Johns, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: Time to pump up the volume now with our talker of the morning. Every few days we like to tune the dial to see what's being said over the airwaves. This morning the dial has landed on WTOP News Radio in Washington, D.C.
With us now, anchor/reporter Judlyne Lilly.
Good morning, Judlyne.
JUDLYNE LILLY, WTOP ANCHOR: Good morning, Carol.
COSTELLO: You know, the Bob Woodward book continues to be the talker in D.C. Now it seems to have spawned the battle of the transcripts.
LILLY: Isn't that curious? Isn't it curious that President Bush told his people to talk to Bob Woodward for the book, "Plan of Attack," and now that presumably they all told the truth, there is some truths that are different for others? So you have these battle over the transcripts. And, in fact, the one that is on the Department of Defense site from the secretary of defense does leave out a couple of things that Woodward has in his; for instance, the talk about Bandar, Prince Bandar from Saudi Arabia and the gas prices.
COSTELLO: Yes, and specifically that phrase, you can take it to the bank.
LILLY: You can take it to the bank. Now, you know that Woodward was told this. This is, once again, a second hand sort of thing. Woodward, who is a very well respected and trusted journalist, he of Watergate fame, was told that this phrase was uttered. And so he has to believe it because he's told by the highest people in our government. Why would they lie?
COSTELLO: Well, interestingly enough, this is how Donald Rumsfeld explained the blacked out portion of the released Defense Department transcripts in a Pentagon briefing.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
QUESTION: Do you remember saying you could take it to the bank, this is going to happen? DONALD RUMSFELD, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: It -- I don't remember saying it, to be perfectly honest. But I have said that, that phrase in my life. But I could have said it about a dozen different things. In other words, it may have been about some discussion we'd had about an interaction with another country.
My best recollection -- and I hate to use the word certainty, because no one's memory is perfect -- but I can't believe the decision had been made by the president during that period. If it had been, I didn't know it had been. Therefore, I would never have said what you said somebody said I said, with respect to that aspect of it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: So, Judlyne, after that explanation...
LILLY: This is the non-denial denial, because he, you notice that in the beginning of his comments, he says I don't recall it and I've said it on occasion. And then he backs off and says well, maybe not in that particular instance.
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