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CNN Live At Daybreak
Ensor Discusses Latest Vision of U.S. Handover of Power to Iraqis; Investigations into Prisoner Abuse by U.S. Troops in Afghanistan
Aired May 21, 2004 - 05:00 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: More Iraqi prisoners rolling toward freedom this morning as new pictures of alleged abuse surface.
It is Friday, May 21.
This is DAYBREAK.
And good morning to you.
From the CNN global headquarters in Atlanta, I'm Carol Costello.
Here are the latest headlines for you now.
Union workers at the country's second largest local phone company walked off the job at midnight. Nearly 20,000 employees of SBC Communications in Connecticut, Ohio and Michigan are on a four day strike.
An Oregon attorney who had been held as a material witness in the Madrid train bombings has been set free. Spanish authorities now say a fingerprint found on a bag of detonators was not Brandon Mayfield's.
In money news, the House votes to keep the $1,000 per child tax credit. It now goes to the Senate. Without congressional action, the credit will drop to $700 next year.
In sports, the Detroit Pistons were firing on all cylinders as they swept past the New Jersey Nets 90-69 in game seven of the NBA's Eastern Conference semifinals.
In culture, a humanitarian award for Michael Eisner, Walt Disney's CEO, from the United Jewish Appeal Federation. It is presented to legendary figures of vision in the entertainment industry.
So, some good news for Mr. Eisner -- Rob.
ROB MARCIANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. He's had a tough go in the past 12 months, it seems.
COSTELLO: He has.
MARCIANO: Good morning, Carol.
(WEATHER REPORT) COSTELLO: Just what the Pentagon and the Bush administration don't need right now -- more pictures apparently showing abuse of Iraqi prisoners by their American guards. The "Washington Post" has new images this morning of apparent prisoner abuse about Abu Ghraib. The "Post" says it obtained a video showing a prisoner -- showing a soldier, rather -- slapping a prisoner. The picture you see here appears to show a U.S. soldier with his right arm raised, his fist cocked over a pile of Iraqis. In another, a hooded detainee is in his underwear, his ankle handcuffed to the door behind him. Earlier this month, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told the Senate that more pictures and videos exist and, quoting here, "If these are released to the public, obviously it's going to make matters worse."
Hundreds more prisoners are being released today from Abu Ghraib. These pictures are from overnight and they're from that prison west of Baghdad. Several buses left the facility used by Saddam Hussein to detain political opponents. Close to 500 prisoners are being released today. Three hundred were released last week.
The prison abuse scandal is just one problem facing the U.S. in Iraq. With the transfer of power just about six weeks away, there are a lot of unresolved issues.
CNN's national security correspondent David Ensor takes a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAVID ENSOR, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Amid the continuing fighting and scandals in Iraq, administration officials are rushing to set out the way they see things working in July after the handover. First and foremost they say incoming U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte will not be running the country.
COLIN POWELL, SECRETARY OF STATE: It is the interim government that is replacing Ambassador Bremer and the Coalition Provisional Authority not Ambassador Negroponte.
ENSOR: But newly sovereign Iraq will still have 135,000 or more American troops and Negroponte will head the largest U.S. Embassy on earth with a staff of almost 1,000.
FRANK RICCIARDONE, STATE DEPT. COORDINATOR FOR IRAQI TRANSITION: No other embassy in the world is responsible for overseeing $18.4 billion in assistance.
ENSOR: With just over 40 days to the turnover officials admit key questions are unresolved like how much influence over coalition troops will the new Iraqi government have?
And, in the wake of the abuse scandal at Abu Ghraib, who will control the prisons. The handover to a new Iraqi government to be selected by the U.N.'s Lakhdar Brahimi cannot come too quickly say many experts.
LARRY DIAMOND, HOOVER INSTITUTION: The overall ineptitude of our mission to date leaves us and Iraq in a terrible bind. GEN. JOSEPH HOAR (RET.), FORMER COMMANDER, U.S. CENTRAL COMMAND: I believe we are absolutely on the brink of failure. We are looking into the abyss.
ENSOR: Bush administration officials stress that the incoming Iraqi government, the new ministers, really will have power. There are plenty of skeptics.
HUSAIN HAQQANI, CARNEGIE ENDOWMENT FOR INTL. PEACE: The general feeling in the Muslim and the Arab world is that the U.S. will not really truly pull out after June 30th. What will happen is that there will just be more Iraqi faces and that there will still be a de facto American-run administration.
ENSOR (on camera): After the handoff, U.S. officials say the American footprint in Iraq will need to remain large. In addition to all the security, the troops and the big embassy, about 200 advisers to the Iraqi ministries, consultants hired by the U.S. will also be in place, most of them from this country.
David Ensor, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: And possibly complicating the handover, this business with Ahmad Chalabi, a member of the Iraqi Governing Council. Exactly 24 hours ago, Iraqi police, accompanied by American troops, were raiding Chalabi's compound. Senior U.S. officials say an associate of Chalabi's may be an Iranian intelligence agent. Chalabi says the raid shows the U.S. coalition Provisional Authority is failing.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AHMAD CHALABI, IRAQI GOVERNING COUNCIL: I am America's best friend in Iraq. If the CPA finds it necessary to direct an armed attack against my home, you can see the state of relations between the CPA and the Iraqi people.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: And we will talk about the Chalabi factor in the next hour of DAYBREAK with Patrick Basham of the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank in Washington. And you can hear what Ahmad Chalabi has to say about this when he talks with our Paula Zahn. You can see that tonight at 8:00 Eastern.
Elsewhere in Iraq, American tanks and aircraft pounded insurgent positions in Karbala. The U.S. military says it killed 18 fighters loyal to rebel cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
In Najaf, the main police station was attacked with mortars and small arms fire around midnight. The U.S. blames al-Sadr's militia for this attack.
And the troops from Spain are mainly on the plain. The last Spanish troops have left their base in southern Iraq. Within hours, they will have left the country altogether.
In the other war, you know, the one in Afghanistan, some civilians are reported killed and others wounded by a U.S. air strike in the southeastern province of Khowst. The air strike was called in when a U.S. patrol came under fire.
In the meantime, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan has ordered a top to bottom investigation of detention sites following allegations of prisoner abuse.
CNN's Ryan Chilcote live for us in Kabul this morning to tell us more -- hello, Ryan.
RYAN CHILCOTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.
Well, there are a number of investigations into prisoner abuse here in Afghanistan under way. Let's start with one that has been launched by the CIA. The CIA is investigating the circumstances of a death of a detainee in a detention facility in northeast Afghanistan, near Asadabad. This detainee died in 2003 after he was interrogated by a private contractor working for the U.S. government.
The U.S. Army also has an investigation under way right now. Its criminal investigation division is investigating the death of two detainees back in December of 2002 who were being held at the Bagram Air Base just north of here, north of Kabul, when they died in detention after some interrogation by U.S. soldiers there.
The review you were speaking about, the top general here in Afghanistan, General David Barno, has ordered a top to bottom review of all detention facilities here in Afghanistan and the practices that are carried out inside those detention facilities.
The Army is saying that it is very comfortable with the practices it is using in its detention facilities, but that there is always room for improvement.
What's really interesting here, Carol, is that in Afghanistan, the U.S. military does not believe that it is fighting what it calls lawful combatants. It considers them unlawful combatants. And so the people that they detain, the U.S. military detains here, according to the U.S. military, do not fall under the Geneva Conventions. Still, the U.S. military says it is following the spirit of the Geneva Convention here.
What is going to be the big question is, is the practices that are used here, do they have something in common with the prisoner abuse issues we're seeing in Iraq and is it possible that they perhaps somehow migrated from Afghanistan to Iraq -- Carol.
COSTELLO: And sort of set the stage for what apparently is happening here.
Back to this battle between U.S. forces when they came under fire -- what more can you tell us about that -- Ryan. CHILCOTE: Sure. Well, the information at this point is very sketchy. I just got off the phone with the U.S. military. They are saying that they have no information about this at this point and they're a bit skeptical that they will get information because it is Friday here. It is not a working day in Afghanistan.
But what the reports are is that there was some kind of U.S. strike in the Khowst province, near the border with Pakistan. One -- the mayor of that city of Khowst saying that three people were killed and several wounded by a U.S. air strike. That mayor saying that those people were civilians. Another report, however, says that someone was firing at U.S. soldiers from that building where those people -- where those casualties came about and that what the U.S. military did there was simply respond with close air support.
So still a bit sketchy at this point -- Carol.
COSTELLO: All right, Ryan Chilcote reporting live from Kabul, Afghanistan this morning.
The FBI is warning state and local police to be on the alert for suicide bombers. The Bureau says there is no hard intelligence indicating terrorists plan to launch suicide attacks here in the United States, but it wants those on the front lines in the war on terror to be alert to a possible threat.
And in New York, transit officials want to ban photography on subways and busses. They say a ban could help prevent surveillance by terrorists on the nation's largest mass transit system.
And the Department of Homeland Security is telling passenger railways to do more for security; for example, ask passengers and employees to report unattended property or suspicious behavior, or, in some places, remove trash cans that could be used to hide bombs.
An update on the little girl no one seems to want. She says her name is Courtney. She's three years old. And today we just can't tell you a whole lot more about her.
The Israeli military pulls out of southern Gaza but leaves behind craters where Palestinian homes once stood.
And a drug that's supposed to protect our military in Iraq has apparently made many soldiers sick.
And probing the age old differences between men and women -- some experts say it's between our ears.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: There are several new developments in the story of Courtney, the 3-year-old girl abandoned two weeks ago in Baltimore. First, her name is not Courtney. It's a convoluted story.
Roosevelt Leftwich of CNN affiliate WMAR sorts it all out for you. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ROOSEVELT LEFTWICH, WMAR CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This family is optimistic that their prayers will finally be answered. It's been 18 months since they've seen Akasha Persons, but the child's grandfather says when he saw a picture on TV of the child that was abandoned here in Baltimore, he knew it was her.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. I would very much like to thank you guys for doing everything you did putting her picture up. I appreciate it very much.
QUESTION: How much did that help, do you think?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It made all the difference in the world, because that's when I totally became convinced that it was her, when I saw the picture.
LEFTWICH: The story started in December of 2002. The woman in the gray shirt, 21-year-old Patricia Harper, was in a custody battle with Akasha's father, 37-year-old Robert Persons. Persons was awarded temporary custody of Akasha. A week later, Harper was given permanent custody of the child, but Persons took Akasha and then disappeared.
Last Friday, a child calling herself Courtney from Brooklyn, New York is turned over to social services.
GARY GERSTENFIELD, MOTHER'S ATTORNEY: He dropped the child off with a complete stranger, went out trying to buy drugs, apparently got arrested and the child was turned into the department of social services, the child thinking that her name is Courtney. And what she said was, "My name is Courtney and I am from Brooklyn." But what she meant was Brooklyn Avenue in Baltimore City.
LEFTWICH: Social services began a nationwide search, concentrating in the New York area. But when Akasha's pictures were shown on TV, that's when her grandfather, from Laurel, saw her. The family came up Thursday with documents, including a court order awarding the child to Patricia Harper. Social services is investigating the family's claim, but the attorneys say the family is hopeful that Akasha will come home soon.
GERSTENFIELD: She's actually from Prince Georges county. Her name happens to be Akasha. She's got a beautiful mom that she hasn't seen in two years and she's going to find out that her mother loves her very much. Her father apparently told Courtney that her mother didn't want anything to do with her.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: Roosevelt Leftwich of CNN affiliate WMAR in Baltimore.
There will be some kind of court hearing later today. A judge will be asked to grant custody to the little girl's mother.
Your news, money, weather and sports. It is 5:16 Eastern.
Here's what's all new this morning.
Thousands of workers at the country's second largest phone company, SBC Communications, went on strike at midnight, but only for four days. The union workers are protesting the company's latest contract offer. SBC serves 13 states.
Busloads of Iraqi prisoners are leaving the notorious Abu Ghraib Prison near Baghdad today. More than 470 prisoners are expected to be released today. Three hundred fifteen were released last week.
In money news, a Federal Reserve governor says the Board should be able to gradually push interest rates higher in the coming months. He sees inflation ahead, but not enough to destabilize prices.
In sports, Keith Primeau scored with less than two minutes left in overtime, giving the Philadelphia Flyers a 5-4 victory over Tampa Bay in game six of their series. Game seven is tomorrow night and the winner faces the Calgary Flames in the Stanley Cup finals.
In culture, actress Sissy Spacek helps honor Rosie the Riveter at a ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery. Rosie the Riveter, you may know, symbolized the American women who worked in defense plants and managed the home front during WWII -- Rob.
(WEATHER REPORT)
COSTELLO: Those are the latest headlines for you.
Wall Street stocks were little changed, but let's check the overseas markets to see if the price of oil is still affecting stocks over there.
For that, we head live to London and Diana Muriel -- good morning.
DIANA MURIEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.
Yes, it's all about oil in the European markets. This is where Brent crude for July delivery is standing at the moment, at $37.15 a barrel. It's a touch off its highs, but nonetheless a lot of interest expressed by analysts and traders and investors as to what might come out of this Amsterdam meeting at the weekend with OPEC oil ministers on the fringes of a production meeting that's taking place there. We wait to see whether or not they decide to increase the level of oil supplies from OPEC.
This is how the main markets are standing at the moment, in a rather positive frame of mind, other than Switzerland, which is in negative territory; very, very thin volumes on the European markets today. We are really recovering from the Ascension Day holiday on Thursday. A lot of trades away from their desks, turning this into a long weekend. We've had some strong numbers, though, from U.K. mortgage figures in the U.K., which is helping to take the FTSE to just under half a percentage point rise -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Diana Muriel reporting live from London.
They're back and they're a cash cow and we'll tell you why the cicadas are music to the ears of some creative entrepreneurs.
And royal wedding fever spreads across Spain. We're going to take you there in a live report.
We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: I've been practicing my Spanish congratulations. Felicidades.
Do you speak Spanish, Rob Marciano? Not with a name like Marciano.
MARCIANO: No, barely. Buenos dias. Como esta? Quetal?
COSTELLO: That's pretty good.
MARCIANO: Que bella (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
COSTELLO: But, anyway, I say felicidades because the red carpet is being rolled out in Madrid for the first royal wedding in Spain in nearly a century.
Madrid bureau chief Al Goodman has the story for you.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
AL GOODMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The celebration when Spain's Crown Prince Felipe marries a divorced commoner, journalist Letizia Ortiz, on Saturday, will be tempered by the March 11 Madrid train bombings, still on everyone's minds, including the royal family's.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Like when March 11 happened, they were very close to us. So I think we like that a lot. We like that the royal family has been with us.
GOODMAN: The wedding will be in the same cathedral where the royal family mourned at the state funeral for the bombing victims just two months ago. Last week, the wedding couple went to the Atocha station, hard hit in the commuter train attacks.
(on camera): The wedding couple has canceled the bachelor party and the bridal shower out of respect for the bombing victims and they've asked Madrid to forget the street dance and instead give the money to a victim's charity.
(voice-over): But it will still be a royal wedding -- a long red carpet and more than a thousand guests; a million flowers planted in town and state television ready to broadcast it live to the world. Some say the hoopla could actually help this capital.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The only thing that can justify this is to give the people a moment to party and a way to defy the fear of terrorism. In other words, we'll have life in all its splendor.
GOODMAN: But with tighter security than initially planned due to the terrorist attacks, a royal gala on guard.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GOODMAN: Good morning, Carol.
Well, we're less than 24 hours from this royal wedding. It's due to start at 11:00 a.m. local time on Saturday. That's 5:00 a.m. East Coast time. World leaders are already arriving in this capital at this hour. Former South African President Nelson Mandela is due to be touching down at one of the Madrid airports. The Prince Charles of Great Britain is due this afternoon. There is a dinner this evening for about 300 of these special VIPs. About 1,400 people are invited to the wedding and the town, although it is coming in the shadow of the Madrid train bombings, many people here think this will give the town a lift. And you can see, the town is really choked off with traffic. It is in a royal mood -- Carol.
COSTELLO: I know, and Madrid is such an exuberant city. I mean people there are really passionate and enthusiastic. So it's nice to see. Do you have your ticket to the wedding, Al?
GOODMAN: Well, you know that the bride, Letizia Ortiz, is a former colleague. She was an anchorwoman at our CNN partner station in Spain, CNN+, so I've known her for five years. I can't say we're great friends and I've got to tell you, Carol, I did not get an invitation to the wedding.
COSTELLO: Oh, I'd be sending her a letter.
Thank you.
Al Goodman reporting live from Madrid this morning.
Time for our DAYBREAK Eye-Opener now.
Home sweet home -- this remote wooded area in a Portland, Oregon park is where a man and his 12-year-old daughter lived for four years, until they were discovered by a cross country runner. The man said he had no job and didn't want his child exposed to alcohol and drugs. He home schooled her from an old encyclopedia. They now have moved into a nice mobile home.
While scouting sites in Utah for a possible film location, Tommy Woodard took these pictures. Later, when he zoomed in on the photos, he found what he thinks -- look at that -- is a UFO. Woo.
MARCIANO: PhotoShop. PhotoShop. COSTELLO: PhotoShop? All right. The National UFO Reporting Center is skeptical, Rob. It says the object in the photo is probably a bird.
MARCIANO: Yes.
COSTELLO: That looks like a flying saucer.
In Nepal, a 26-year-old man has scaled Mount Everest faster than anyone in history. It took him eight hours and 10 minutes to reach the summit from the base camp. That's more than two hours faster than the old record.
Time to talk about the cicadas in Ohio. They're coming out.
MARCIANO: This is a bigger story than I remember it being 17 years ago.
COSTELLO: I guess in Washington, D.C. it's just a complete mess. Friends of mine are calling and saying shells are all over the place.
But let's talk about in Ohio. Hear the sound of that?
MARCIANO: It's music to my ears.
COSTELLO: It's music to many people's ears, because the Cincinnati Symphony has come up with the Cicada song. They're selling CDs.
MARCIANO: Do you know the melody? Come on, hum a bar or two.
COSTELLO: No, I don't know -- well, no.
MARCIANO: You're from Ohio.
COSTELLO: Well, the melody sounds just like that, what we just heard. See? What do you mean I'm from Ohio, I know the cicada song?
MARCIANO: But those are cool looking bugs and they're celebrating big time in Cincinnati.
COSTELLO: They certainly are.
MARCIANO: The bug that's known as Brood X.
COSTELLO: They're making some money.
MARCIANO: There's so many that they're known as Brood X by entomologists.
COSTELLO: Yes, sir. We had an entomologist on not long ago.
MARCIANO: Really?
COSTELLO: And he brought a cicada with him, Willie the cicada, that sat on his shoulder the whole time. He was going to eat him later.
MARCIANO: How sweet. And I missed it.
COSTELLO: Here's what's all new in the next half hour of DAYBREAK.
Married to the Marines -- a heartfelt story of sacrifice, love and long distance as dad becomes Mr. Mom.
And after a major incursion and deadly clashes, Israeli forces are rolling out of a Rafah refugee camp. We'll get the latest live for you.
And did a drug meant to help the troops in Iraq do more harm than good?
This is DAYBREAK for Friday.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GERRI WILLIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: When consumers think of hardware stores, they normally think of the giant warehouse stores of Lowe's and Home Depot. Yet there is also a smaller competitor, Ace Hardware. Despite trailing Home Depot and Lowe's in revenues, Ace has more stores than both superstores combined, with over 5,000 locations. And Ace is also nailing down record yearly profits, recently surpassing $100 million for the very first time.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
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Aired May 21, 2004 - 05:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: More Iraqi prisoners rolling toward freedom this morning as new pictures of alleged abuse surface.
It is Friday, May 21.
This is DAYBREAK.
And good morning to you.
From the CNN global headquarters in Atlanta, I'm Carol Costello.
Here are the latest headlines for you now.
Union workers at the country's second largest local phone company walked off the job at midnight. Nearly 20,000 employees of SBC Communications in Connecticut, Ohio and Michigan are on a four day strike.
An Oregon attorney who had been held as a material witness in the Madrid train bombings has been set free. Spanish authorities now say a fingerprint found on a bag of detonators was not Brandon Mayfield's.
In money news, the House votes to keep the $1,000 per child tax credit. It now goes to the Senate. Without congressional action, the credit will drop to $700 next year.
In sports, the Detroit Pistons were firing on all cylinders as they swept past the New Jersey Nets 90-69 in game seven of the NBA's Eastern Conference semifinals.
In culture, a humanitarian award for Michael Eisner, Walt Disney's CEO, from the United Jewish Appeal Federation. It is presented to legendary figures of vision in the entertainment industry.
So, some good news for Mr. Eisner -- Rob.
ROB MARCIANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. He's had a tough go in the past 12 months, it seems.
COSTELLO: He has.
MARCIANO: Good morning, Carol.
(WEATHER REPORT) COSTELLO: Just what the Pentagon and the Bush administration don't need right now -- more pictures apparently showing abuse of Iraqi prisoners by their American guards. The "Washington Post" has new images this morning of apparent prisoner abuse about Abu Ghraib. The "Post" says it obtained a video showing a prisoner -- showing a soldier, rather -- slapping a prisoner. The picture you see here appears to show a U.S. soldier with his right arm raised, his fist cocked over a pile of Iraqis. In another, a hooded detainee is in his underwear, his ankle handcuffed to the door behind him. Earlier this month, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told the Senate that more pictures and videos exist and, quoting here, "If these are released to the public, obviously it's going to make matters worse."
Hundreds more prisoners are being released today from Abu Ghraib. These pictures are from overnight and they're from that prison west of Baghdad. Several buses left the facility used by Saddam Hussein to detain political opponents. Close to 500 prisoners are being released today. Three hundred were released last week.
The prison abuse scandal is just one problem facing the U.S. in Iraq. With the transfer of power just about six weeks away, there are a lot of unresolved issues.
CNN's national security correspondent David Ensor takes a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAVID ENSOR, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Amid the continuing fighting and scandals in Iraq, administration officials are rushing to set out the way they see things working in July after the handover. First and foremost they say incoming U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte will not be running the country.
COLIN POWELL, SECRETARY OF STATE: It is the interim government that is replacing Ambassador Bremer and the Coalition Provisional Authority not Ambassador Negroponte.
ENSOR: But newly sovereign Iraq will still have 135,000 or more American troops and Negroponte will head the largest U.S. Embassy on earth with a staff of almost 1,000.
FRANK RICCIARDONE, STATE DEPT. COORDINATOR FOR IRAQI TRANSITION: No other embassy in the world is responsible for overseeing $18.4 billion in assistance.
ENSOR: With just over 40 days to the turnover officials admit key questions are unresolved like how much influence over coalition troops will the new Iraqi government have?
And, in the wake of the abuse scandal at Abu Ghraib, who will control the prisons. The handover to a new Iraqi government to be selected by the U.N.'s Lakhdar Brahimi cannot come too quickly say many experts.
LARRY DIAMOND, HOOVER INSTITUTION: The overall ineptitude of our mission to date leaves us and Iraq in a terrible bind. GEN. JOSEPH HOAR (RET.), FORMER COMMANDER, U.S. CENTRAL COMMAND: I believe we are absolutely on the brink of failure. We are looking into the abyss.
ENSOR: Bush administration officials stress that the incoming Iraqi government, the new ministers, really will have power. There are plenty of skeptics.
HUSAIN HAQQANI, CARNEGIE ENDOWMENT FOR INTL. PEACE: The general feeling in the Muslim and the Arab world is that the U.S. will not really truly pull out after June 30th. What will happen is that there will just be more Iraqi faces and that there will still be a de facto American-run administration.
ENSOR (on camera): After the handoff, U.S. officials say the American footprint in Iraq will need to remain large. In addition to all the security, the troops and the big embassy, about 200 advisers to the Iraqi ministries, consultants hired by the U.S. will also be in place, most of them from this country.
David Ensor, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: And possibly complicating the handover, this business with Ahmad Chalabi, a member of the Iraqi Governing Council. Exactly 24 hours ago, Iraqi police, accompanied by American troops, were raiding Chalabi's compound. Senior U.S. officials say an associate of Chalabi's may be an Iranian intelligence agent. Chalabi says the raid shows the U.S. coalition Provisional Authority is failing.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AHMAD CHALABI, IRAQI GOVERNING COUNCIL: I am America's best friend in Iraq. If the CPA finds it necessary to direct an armed attack against my home, you can see the state of relations between the CPA and the Iraqi people.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: And we will talk about the Chalabi factor in the next hour of DAYBREAK with Patrick Basham of the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank in Washington. And you can hear what Ahmad Chalabi has to say about this when he talks with our Paula Zahn. You can see that tonight at 8:00 Eastern.
Elsewhere in Iraq, American tanks and aircraft pounded insurgent positions in Karbala. The U.S. military says it killed 18 fighters loyal to rebel cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
In Najaf, the main police station was attacked with mortars and small arms fire around midnight. The U.S. blames al-Sadr's militia for this attack.
And the troops from Spain are mainly on the plain. The last Spanish troops have left their base in southern Iraq. Within hours, they will have left the country altogether.
In the other war, you know, the one in Afghanistan, some civilians are reported killed and others wounded by a U.S. air strike in the southeastern province of Khowst. The air strike was called in when a U.S. patrol came under fire.
In the meantime, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan has ordered a top to bottom investigation of detention sites following allegations of prisoner abuse.
CNN's Ryan Chilcote live for us in Kabul this morning to tell us more -- hello, Ryan.
RYAN CHILCOTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.
Well, there are a number of investigations into prisoner abuse here in Afghanistan under way. Let's start with one that has been launched by the CIA. The CIA is investigating the circumstances of a death of a detainee in a detention facility in northeast Afghanistan, near Asadabad. This detainee died in 2003 after he was interrogated by a private contractor working for the U.S. government.
The U.S. Army also has an investigation under way right now. Its criminal investigation division is investigating the death of two detainees back in December of 2002 who were being held at the Bagram Air Base just north of here, north of Kabul, when they died in detention after some interrogation by U.S. soldiers there.
The review you were speaking about, the top general here in Afghanistan, General David Barno, has ordered a top to bottom review of all detention facilities here in Afghanistan and the practices that are carried out inside those detention facilities.
The Army is saying that it is very comfortable with the practices it is using in its detention facilities, but that there is always room for improvement.
What's really interesting here, Carol, is that in Afghanistan, the U.S. military does not believe that it is fighting what it calls lawful combatants. It considers them unlawful combatants. And so the people that they detain, the U.S. military detains here, according to the U.S. military, do not fall under the Geneva Conventions. Still, the U.S. military says it is following the spirit of the Geneva Convention here.
What is going to be the big question is, is the practices that are used here, do they have something in common with the prisoner abuse issues we're seeing in Iraq and is it possible that they perhaps somehow migrated from Afghanistan to Iraq -- Carol.
COSTELLO: And sort of set the stage for what apparently is happening here.
Back to this battle between U.S. forces when they came under fire -- what more can you tell us about that -- Ryan. CHILCOTE: Sure. Well, the information at this point is very sketchy. I just got off the phone with the U.S. military. They are saying that they have no information about this at this point and they're a bit skeptical that they will get information because it is Friday here. It is not a working day in Afghanistan.
But what the reports are is that there was some kind of U.S. strike in the Khowst province, near the border with Pakistan. One -- the mayor of that city of Khowst saying that three people were killed and several wounded by a U.S. air strike. That mayor saying that those people were civilians. Another report, however, says that someone was firing at U.S. soldiers from that building where those people -- where those casualties came about and that what the U.S. military did there was simply respond with close air support.
So still a bit sketchy at this point -- Carol.
COSTELLO: All right, Ryan Chilcote reporting live from Kabul, Afghanistan this morning.
The FBI is warning state and local police to be on the alert for suicide bombers. The Bureau says there is no hard intelligence indicating terrorists plan to launch suicide attacks here in the United States, but it wants those on the front lines in the war on terror to be alert to a possible threat.
And in New York, transit officials want to ban photography on subways and busses. They say a ban could help prevent surveillance by terrorists on the nation's largest mass transit system.
And the Department of Homeland Security is telling passenger railways to do more for security; for example, ask passengers and employees to report unattended property or suspicious behavior, or, in some places, remove trash cans that could be used to hide bombs.
An update on the little girl no one seems to want. She says her name is Courtney. She's three years old. And today we just can't tell you a whole lot more about her.
The Israeli military pulls out of southern Gaza but leaves behind craters where Palestinian homes once stood.
And a drug that's supposed to protect our military in Iraq has apparently made many soldiers sick.
And probing the age old differences between men and women -- some experts say it's between our ears.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: There are several new developments in the story of Courtney, the 3-year-old girl abandoned two weeks ago in Baltimore. First, her name is not Courtney. It's a convoluted story.
Roosevelt Leftwich of CNN affiliate WMAR sorts it all out for you. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ROOSEVELT LEFTWICH, WMAR CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This family is optimistic that their prayers will finally be answered. It's been 18 months since they've seen Akasha Persons, but the child's grandfather says when he saw a picture on TV of the child that was abandoned here in Baltimore, he knew it was her.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. I would very much like to thank you guys for doing everything you did putting her picture up. I appreciate it very much.
QUESTION: How much did that help, do you think?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It made all the difference in the world, because that's when I totally became convinced that it was her, when I saw the picture.
LEFTWICH: The story started in December of 2002. The woman in the gray shirt, 21-year-old Patricia Harper, was in a custody battle with Akasha's father, 37-year-old Robert Persons. Persons was awarded temporary custody of Akasha. A week later, Harper was given permanent custody of the child, but Persons took Akasha and then disappeared.
Last Friday, a child calling herself Courtney from Brooklyn, New York is turned over to social services.
GARY GERSTENFIELD, MOTHER'S ATTORNEY: He dropped the child off with a complete stranger, went out trying to buy drugs, apparently got arrested and the child was turned into the department of social services, the child thinking that her name is Courtney. And what she said was, "My name is Courtney and I am from Brooklyn." But what she meant was Brooklyn Avenue in Baltimore City.
LEFTWICH: Social services began a nationwide search, concentrating in the New York area. But when Akasha's pictures were shown on TV, that's when her grandfather, from Laurel, saw her. The family came up Thursday with documents, including a court order awarding the child to Patricia Harper. Social services is investigating the family's claim, but the attorneys say the family is hopeful that Akasha will come home soon.
GERSTENFIELD: She's actually from Prince Georges county. Her name happens to be Akasha. She's got a beautiful mom that she hasn't seen in two years and she's going to find out that her mother loves her very much. Her father apparently told Courtney that her mother didn't want anything to do with her.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: Roosevelt Leftwich of CNN affiliate WMAR in Baltimore.
There will be some kind of court hearing later today. A judge will be asked to grant custody to the little girl's mother.
Your news, money, weather and sports. It is 5:16 Eastern.
Here's what's all new this morning.
Thousands of workers at the country's second largest phone company, SBC Communications, went on strike at midnight, but only for four days. The union workers are protesting the company's latest contract offer. SBC serves 13 states.
Busloads of Iraqi prisoners are leaving the notorious Abu Ghraib Prison near Baghdad today. More than 470 prisoners are expected to be released today. Three hundred fifteen were released last week.
In money news, a Federal Reserve governor says the Board should be able to gradually push interest rates higher in the coming months. He sees inflation ahead, but not enough to destabilize prices.
In sports, Keith Primeau scored with less than two minutes left in overtime, giving the Philadelphia Flyers a 5-4 victory over Tampa Bay in game six of their series. Game seven is tomorrow night and the winner faces the Calgary Flames in the Stanley Cup finals.
In culture, actress Sissy Spacek helps honor Rosie the Riveter at a ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery. Rosie the Riveter, you may know, symbolized the American women who worked in defense plants and managed the home front during WWII -- Rob.
(WEATHER REPORT)
COSTELLO: Those are the latest headlines for you.
Wall Street stocks were little changed, but let's check the overseas markets to see if the price of oil is still affecting stocks over there.
For that, we head live to London and Diana Muriel -- good morning.
DIANA MURIEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.
Yes, it's all about oil in the European markets. This is where Brent crude for July delivery is standing at the moment, at $37.15 a barrel. It's a touch off its highs, but nonetheless a lot of interest expressed by analysts and traders and investors as to what might come out of this Amsterdam meeting at the weekend with OPEC oil ministers on the fringes of a production meeting that's taking place there. We wait to see whether or not they decide to increase the level of oil supplies from OPEC.
This is how the main markets are standing at the moment, in a rather positive frame of mind, other than Switzerland, which is in negative territory; very, very thin volumes on the European markets today. We are really recovering from the Ascension Day holiday on Thursday. A lot of trades away from their desks, turning this into a long weekend. We've had some strong numbers, though, from U.K. mortgage figures in the U.K., which is helping to take the FTSE to just under half a percentage point rise -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Diana Muriel reporting live from London.
They're back and they're a cash cow and we'll tell you why the cicadas are music to the ears of some creative entrepreneurs.
And royal wedding fever spreads across Spain. We're going to take you there in a live report.
We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: I've been practicing my Spanish congratulations. Felicidades.
Do you speak Spanish, Rob Marciano? Not with a name like Marciano.
MARCIANO: No, barely. Buenos dias. Como esta? Quetal?
COSTELLO: That's pretty good.
MARCIANO: Que bella (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
COSTELLO: But, anyway, I say felicidades because the red carpet is being rolled out in Madrid for the first royal wedding in Spain in nearly a century.
Madrid bureau chief Al Goodman has the story for you.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
AL GOODMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The celebration when Spain's Crown Prince Felipe marries a divorced commoner, journalist Letizia Ortiz, on Saturday, will be tempered by the March 11 Madrid train bombings, still on everyone's minds, including the royal family's.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Like when March 11 happened, they were very close to us. So I think we like that a lot. We like that the royal family has been with us.
GOODMAN: The wedding will be in the same cathedral where the royal family mourned at the state funeral for the bombing victims just two months ago. Last week, the wedding couple went to the Atocha station, hard hit in the commuter train attacks.
(on camera): The wedding couple has canceled the bachelor party and the bridal shower out of respect for the bombing victims and they've asked Madrid to forget the street dance and instead give the money to a victim's charity.
(voice-over): But it will still be a royal wedding -- a long red carpet and more than a thousand guests; a million flowers planted in town and state television ready to broadcast it live to the world. Some say the hoopla could actually help this capital.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The only thing that can justify this is to give the people a moment to party and a way to defy the fear of terrorism. In other words, we'll have life in all its splendor.
GOODMAN: But with tighter security than initially planned due to the terrorist attacks, a royal gala on guard.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GOODMAN: Good morning, Carol.
Well, we're less than 24 hours from this royal wedding. It's due to start at 11:00 a.m. local time on Saturday. That's 5:00 a.m. East Coast time. World leaders are already arriving in this capital at this hour. Former South African President Nelson Mandela is due to be touching down at one of the Madrid airports. The Prince Charles of Great Britain is due this afternoon. There is a dinner this evening for about 300 of these special VIPs. About 1,400 people are invited to the wedding and the town, although it is coming in the shadow of the Madrid train bombings, many people here think this will give the town a lift. And you can see, the town is really choked off with traffic. It is in a royal mood -- Carol.
COSTELLO: I know, and Madrid is such an exuberant city. I mean people there are really passionate and enthusiastic. So it's nice to see. Do you have your ticket to the wedding, Al?
GOODMAN: Well, you know that the bride, Letizia Ortiz, is a former colleague. She was an anchorwoman at our CNN partner station in Spain, CNN+, so I've known her for five years. I can't say we're great friends and I've got to tell you, Carol, I did not get an invitation to the wedding.
COSTELLO: Oh, I'd be sending her a letter.
Thank you.
Al Goodman reporting live from Madrid this morning.
Time for our DAYBREAK Eye-Opener now.
Home sweet home -- this remote wooded area in a Portland, Oregon park is where a man and his 12-year-old daughter lived for four years, until they were discovered by a cross country runner. The man said he had no job and didn't want his child exposed to alcohol and drugs. He home schooled her from an old encyclopedia. They now have moved into a nice mobile home.
While scouting sites in Utah for a possible film location, Tommy Woodard took these pictures. Later, when he zoomed in on the photos, he found what he thinks -- look at that -- is a UFO. Woo.
MARCIANO: PhotoShop. PhotoShop. COSTELLO: PhotoShop? All right. The National UFO Reporting Center is skeptical, Rob. It says the object in the photo is probably a bird.
MARCIANO: Yes.
COSTELLO: That looks like a flying saucer.
In Nepal, a 26-year-old man has scaled Mount Everest faster than anyone in history. It took him eight hours and 10 minutes to reach the summit from the base camp. That's more than two hours faster than the old record.
Time to talk about the cicadas in Ohio. They're coming out.
MARCIANO: This is a bigger story than I remember it being 17 years ago.
COSTELLO: I guess in Washington, D.C. it's just a complete mess. Friends of mine are calling and saying shells are all over the place.
But let's talk about in Ohio. Hear the sound of that?
MARCIANO: It's music to my ears.
COSTELLO: It's music to many people's ears, because the Cincinnati Symphony has come up with the Cicada song. They're selling CDs.
MARCIANO: Do you know the melody? Come on, hum a bar or two.
COSTELLO: No, I don't know -- well, no.
MARCIANO: You're from Ohio.
COSTELLO: Well, the melody sounds just like that, what we just heard. See? What do you mean I'm from Ohio, I know the cicada song?
MARCIANO: But those are cool looking bugs and they're celebrating big time in Cincinnati.
COSTELLO: They certainly are.
MARCIANO: The bug that's known as Brood X.
COSTELLO: They're making some money.
MARCIANO: There's so many that they're known as Brood X by entomologists.
COSTELLO: Yes, sir. We had an entomologist on not long ago.
MARCIANO: Really?
COSTELLO: And he brought a cicada with him, Willie the cicada, that sat on his shoulder the whole time. He was going to eat him later.
MARCIANO: How sweet. And I missed it.
COSTELLO: Here's what's all new in the next half hour of DAYBREAK.
Married to the Marines -- a heartfelt story of sacrifice, love and long distance as dad becomes Mr. Mom.
And after a major incursion and deadly clashes, Israeli forces are rolling out of a Rafah refugee camp. We'll get the latest live for you.
And did a drug meant to help the troops in Iraq do more harm than good?
This is DAYBREAK for Friday.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GERRI WILLIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: When consumers think of hardware stores, they normally think of the giant warehouse stores of Lowe's and Home Depot. Yet there is also a smaller competitor, Ace Hardware. Despite trailing Home Depot and Lowe's in revenues, Ace has more stores than both superstores combined, with over 5,000 locations. And Ace is also nailing down record yearly profits, recently surpassing $100 million for the very first time.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
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