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Fragile Truce Persists in Fallujah; 9/11 Investigation: Law Enforcement Turn

Aired April 12, 2004 - 15:00   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.


MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: This is LIVE FROM. I'm Miles O'Brien.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Kara Phillips. Here's what's happening at this hour.

President Bush prepares to tackles the issues head on. He's scheduled a formal news conference for tomorrow night at 8:30 Easter Time. CNN will carry that live. White House officials say the president wants to update Americans on the mission to Iraq.

Prospect for peace in the Middle East? Mr. Bush was discussing that earlier today with Egyptian president, Hosni Mubarak. The two leaders, meeting at the Bush ranch in Texas, view a possible Israeli withdrawal from Gaza as a positive step. The president meets with Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, later this week.

Eye on Iran. United Nations inspectors are back there to find out whether Iran has halted work on a method for enriching uranium. They also want details on the weapons-grade uranium that was found on an earlier visit. Iran maintains it is not seeking nuclear weapons

O'BRIEN: We begin this hour with fresh reports of freedom for several civilian hostages in Iraq. The official Chinese news agency says seven Chinese men captured last night while en route from Jordan to Baghdad have just been released. So far, as we know, that still leaves a Mississippi man and a few other non-Iraqis in the hands of insurgents despite a purported ban on that practice by Iraqi clerics. Two U.S. soldiers are also said to be unaccounted for.

The renegade cleric U.S. forces are determined to capture or kill supposedly has agreed to pull his fighters out of police stations in the holy city of Najaf. That does not seem to be carved in stone, and there do seem to be conditions, however.

And two-and-a-half months before the handover of Iraqi sovereignty, Central Command expressing disappointment with Iraqi soldiers and police. CENTCOM commander John Abizaid says in last week's violence a number of Iraqi units did not stand up to the intimidators. He says Americans are working to strengthen the Iraqis' chain of command.

A cease-fire declared by U.S. Marines in Fallujah remains in effect this hour despite on-and-off attacks from the other side. CNN's Jane Arraf is watching the Sunni Triangle and beyond from her post in Baghdad. She recently filed this report. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JANE ARRAF, CNN BAGHDAD BUREAU CHIEF: Signs of progress in the holy city of Najaf, where U.S. forces are massing to reinforce a threat from the head of U.S. Central Command that the U.S. is intent on either capturing or killing radical Shia leader Muqtada al-Sadr. Now, with those troops moving into Najaf, prepared to act militarily, they say, the chief of police, along with the Sadr organization, say that they have reached an agreement for the militia to withdraw from police stations and government offices.

Now, that has not been implemented yet. And there appears to still be fighting. The city is still under control of militia loyal to Muqtada al-Sadr, but signs of the beginning, perhaps, of a political settlement.

West of Baghdad, in the city of Fallujah, what is called a tenuous cease-fire. Tenuous, the U.S. says, because insurgents are continuing to shoot at U.S. soldiers.

In the middle of all this, the United States taking a lot of political heat for hundreds of civilian casualties who have been caught in the crossfire. The head of U.S. Central Command, though, rejects accusations, as does the chief U.S. commander for land forces here, General Ricardo Sanchez, that the United States is being careless with civilian lives.

LT. GEN. RICARDO SANCHEZ, GROUND FORCES COMMANDER: The tactics being used in Fallujah are fairly straightforward. We've been attacking to secure the city of Fallujah, and we're running into active resistance. It is very clear where we're taking fire from. And where we're taking fire from, we're applying the appropriate proportionate combat power to eliminate that resistance. We are being very deliberate and precise in the application of that combat power to prevent any wounding or injuring of noncombatants in the area.

ARRAF: One of the more worrying things for the U.S. in the midst of fighting all these battles, a spate of kidnappings. Those are continuing. Some of those nationals belong to countries that have troops here in Iraq. The stated aim is for those countries to get their troops out, and for the U.S to get its troops out as well.

Jane Arraf, CNN, reporting from Baghdad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Among those taken hostage is Mississippian Thomas Hamill. He's a civilian truck driver for a U.S. contractor who apparently was captured outside Baghdad on Good Friday. The deadline his captors set for U.S. forces to leave Fallujah came and went late Saturday Eastern Time with no more word on Hamill's status. His tiny hometown of Macon, near the Alabama border, remembers a struggling dairy farmer who only wanted to make ends meet.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SCOTT BOYD, MACON BEACON: Tommy tried to stick it out in the dairy business but didn't. He sold his farm, and didn't quite earn enough from that sale to satisfy the debt. So he saw an opportunity to go to Iraq for a high-paying job, a lot better than the job that he could get over here. So he went over there and obligated himself for a year to try to earn enough money to support his family and to satisfy his debts from his farm.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Well, in a video clip from the Arab network Al- Jazeera, a narrator who is supposedly quoting Hamill says he's in good shape and being treated well.

Devastated by a daughter's death in Iraq and the danger that still looms for two other daughters, all members of the Wisconsin National Guard posted in Iraq. We get the family's story from Chris Goodman of CNN affiliate WITI in Milwaukee.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MICHELLE WHITMER, DIED IN IRAQ: I've seen some amazing things. And I feel like I've lived a lot of life for being only 19.

CHRIS GOODMAN, WITI (voice-over): But her short life has ended. Michele Whitmer talks when she and her sisters got to come home before Christmas. Saddam Hussein was captured during the brief visit.

WHITMER: Rachel came running into my bedroom, jumped on my bed, on top of me, and started shaking me. And I thought the house was on fire. I had no idea what was going on. And she's like, "They got him! They got him! They got him."

And I'm like, "What?" And she's like, "Saddam." And I'm like, "No way." And she's like, "Yes." And we both just started screaming.

GOODMAN: Rachel, the oldest, and Michelle's twin sister, Charity, are scheduled to return to Iraq after Michelle's funeral. But will they?

JOAN APT, FAMILY SPOKESWOMAN: For the sake of our family, we have appealed to the Army National Guard to grant whatever exceptions necessary to make sure Rachel and Charity are not returned to Iraq.

GOODMAN: A family friend talk on behalf of the Whitmers Sunday afternoon. She says the family is also pleading with Wisconsin elected officials to do what they can to keep Michele's sisters out of harm's way.

APT: We trust that those in charge of making such a decision will realize that we have already sacrificed enough and that our family must not be asked to bear such an impossible burden.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: The biggest names in law enforcement will sit in front of the 9/11 Commission this week. Exhibit A, the August 6 presidential briefing issued just a few weeks before the attacks. Details from CNN's Elaine Quijano in Washington.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): President Bush maintains the information in the now declassified August 6, 2001 PDB, or presidential daily briefing, wasn't detailed enough for the U.S. to prevent September 11.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: There was not a time and place of an attack. And it was -- it said Osama bin Laden had designs on America. Well, I knew that. What I wanted to know was, is there anything specifically going to take place in America that we needed to react to?

QUIJANO: But critics, including a Democratic member of the 9/11 Commission, say that PDB contained important pieces of the puzzle that should have been taken into context with the spike in intelligence chatter during the summer of 2001.

RICHARD BEN-VENISTE (D), 9/11 COMMISSIONER: There was a lot of focus overseas, but the CIA author of this PDB by stressing the fact that bin Laden was determined to strike in the United States was telling the president that we ought to look here as well.

QUIJANO: This week, the commission turns its attention to law enforcement and intelligence officials past and present. Among those scheduled to testify, former FBI director Louis Freeh, as well as Attorney General John Ashcroft, who a source tells CNN is not believed to have received a copy of that August 6 PDB. Ashcroft and others are expected to face tough questions on whether the Justice Department made fighting terrorism a top priority, and what specific steps the FBI took to investigate the terror threats that existed in the summer of 2001.

(on camera): The panel is expected to look not only at the FBI, but other agencies, and what one commissioner says were problems getting available information into the hands of those who could make a difference.

Elaine Quijano, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Up next, U.S. troops in Afghanistan in their own words. Cameras are rolling when the enemy attacks.

O'BRIEN: Mel Gibson's "Passion" makes a comeback at the box office for obvious reasons over the past weekend.

And the bet of a lifetime makes this man our pick for today's reality TV watch.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

It does not sound

PHILLIPS: Today, something different. A rare look at the United States forces in Afghanistan fighting in the war on terrorism.

The Taliban government is long since gone, but the wild border region with Pakistan continues to harbor terrorists, including many loyal to Osama bin Laden and perhaps bin Laden himself. In 24 hours this week, Blackfoot Company of Taskforce One, the 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment, they were engaged in two ambushes while an Army camera crew was tagging along. This is how it looks from the eyes of the Americans.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The first thing I was thinking is I wanted to send a smaller element.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Go ahead and send (UNINTELLIGIBLE) again, pushing a (UNINTELLIGIBLE) section.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was kind of concerned about the time of the explosion, being that it was still in the broad daylight.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh (EXPLETIVE DELETED).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Keep going.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Go, go, go!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At about the 20-minute mark, when they were on site, they started receiving contact.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, 706, from those locations give me a templated (ph) grid.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And that was RPG AK-47 fire, RPK, and 107 rockets.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Help establish a control point for 31. Have these guys flow back so we can orient forces.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And he informed me that he was making contact at multiple flanks while I was moving down taking a look at the map that was (UNINTELLIGIBLE) feeding me reports to. It looked like it was an L-shaped ambush. What that means is we were taking that contact from the front at two or multiple locations, and then making contact from one of the flanks.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Establish the contact point.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's definitely a challenge when you're working with coalition -- other coalition forces that don't speak the English language.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I need you to pull in, Major Norwally (ph), and let me know where he's got guys oriented right now so we don't have a (EXPLETIVE) friendly fire incident.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, Captain Chong (ph)?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right now you've got both (UNINTELLIGIBLE). I want to move (UNINTELLIGIBLE) reinforcements.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They had to have had comms (ph), too, sir. They initiated front and rear with RPG. Trying to seal off the front and rearview deck and keep everybody in the kill zone.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One of the things that we've learned is that moving to that location, obviously when there's an IED, it's potentially an abated ambush. The second ambush, we were pushing back up north to return back to our fire operating base in Salerno (ph).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I need some birds in the air. Over.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, you guys listening to the radio? Fifteen minutes we'll have arrows (ph) (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Initially, there's chaos on the radio, guys who are making contact. But I'm very confidence in the leaders that I have.

Our guys are definitely a lot more focused now because being the first contact that we've had being in the country going on five months, it's definitely real now. Definitely real for these guys.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Once again, those were United States forces in western Afghanistan. The scenes were shot by a crew from the Army Times, which was accompanied by CNN's Nic Robertson.

O'BRIEN: Well, are you a big risk taker? A British man puts his entire life savings on the line in Vegas. I bet he doesn't have kids who require tuition. We'll tell you about him.

PHILLIPS: Are you one of those individuals, Miles, who can't live without your morning coffee?

O'BRIEN: Afternoon, evening.

PHILLIPS: The price of java -- 2:00 a.m. -- may be going up. Details when we check Wall Street.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(STOCK MARKET REPORT)

O'BRIEN: Checking entertainment headlines on this Monday, April 12th, Easter resurrected "The Passion of the Christ" among moviegoers. Mel Gibson's telling of the last hour of Christ's life reclaimed the top spot at the box office this weekend, taking in more than $17 million.

A breast-baring backlash. In the wake of the hubbub over Janet Jackson's wardrobe malfunction or boobgate (ph), if you will, Victoria's Secret is pulling the plug on its annual TV fashion show just as quick as you can say "teddy." The company says it will find alternative ways to reveal the appeal of its lingerie. Read catalog and then another catalog, and then another one the next week later.

Didn't get your fill of former counterterrorism chief Richard Clarke testifying on Capitol Hill, did you? Haven't had time to read his book, "Against All Enemies"? Well, Sony Pictures has a solution. The entertainment giant plans to bring his inside look at the war on terror to a theater near you. The Passion of the Richard, I guess.

In the world of reality TV, a double or nothing gamble pace off. Ashley Revel (ph) sold off everything he owned, raising more than $135,000 for a wager. The British man let it roll on red at the roulette wheel in Las Vegas on Sunday. A 50-50 shot, right, red or black. He won.

He takes home nearly $280,000. His exploits will be featured on a British reality show. Not exactly sound financial planning, but the proof, as they say, is in the pudding.

PHILLIPS: Oh, gosh.

Well, he's been so close, he could just taste it. Now Phil Mickelson is savoring success. He's got the monkey off his back, it's in place. A green jacket appropriate attire for the new Masters champ. He sat down with our Josie Burke for a little one-on-one.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOSIE BURKE, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: So when you were walking up to the 18th green, you were about to take the biggest shot of your life. You had this grin on your face. Why?

PHIL MICKELSON, GOLFER: I just -- I had a lot of fun this week. I just had a feeling that I was going to knock the putt in. I hit a good shot in there, I hit a good T shot, good second shot in there. And I've seen so many guys in the past make that putt.

It's a putt that doesn't break too much. And I just had a good feeling I was going to make it.

BURKE: Can you admit now that you knew this was going to happen? You knew even before you teed off on Thursday that you would be wearing the green jacket now?

MICKELSON: Well, you never know for sure. You never know for sure. But I had a good feeling this week that I knew I was playing well. I knew I was driving it well, I was putting well. I had a lot of confidence this week.

I also had something interesting happen to me over the holidays. My grandfather passed away. He was 97 in January, and he had been waiting for so long now to put up a major championship flag on his wall.

And before he passed away, he said, "This is your year. I can feel it coming. I know it's going to happen." And when he passed away, I just had a feeling that this was going to be the tournament.

BURKE: What's this the start of?

MICKELSON: Well, it's been -- this is a year, 2004, that I really want to make something special. I want to do some things that I haven't done before, and obviously winning a major is one of them. It's a great start.

But I want to make this year really special. And although winning this tournament makes be it already special, I want to finish it off right. I want to continue the year right. Last year was a tough year, not a very good year for me. And I want to make '04, continue to be as special as it is today.

BURKE: Are you going to sleep in the green jacket? How does it feel?

MICKELSON: It's going to be hard to get two things off: this and this.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: He's a cool guy.

O'BRIEN: Yes. Congratulations to him. Well deserved.

PHILLIPS: We were watching.

O'BRIEN: That wraps up LIVE FROM.

PHILLIPS: Now to take us through the next hour of political headlines, "JUDY WOODRUFF'S INSIDE POLITICS."

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 12, 2004 - 15:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: This is LIVE FROM. I'm Miles O'Brien.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Kara Phillips. Here's what's happening at this hour.

President Bush prepares to tackles the issues head on. He's scheduled a formal news conference for tomorrow night at 8:30 Easter Time. CNN will carry that live. White House officials say the president wants to update Americans on the mission to Iraq.

Prospect for peace in the Middle East? Mr. Bush was discussing that earlier today with Egyptian president, Hosni Mubarak. The two leaders, meeting at the Bush ranch in Texas, view a possible Israeli withdrawal from Gaza as a positive step. The president meets with Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, later this week.

Eye on Iran. United Nations inspectors are back there to find out whether Iran has halted work on a method for enriching uranium. They also want details on the weapons-grade uranium that was found on an earlier visit. Iran maintains it is not seeking nuclear weapons

O'BRIEN: We begin this hour with fresh reports of freedom for several civilian hostages in Iraq. The official Chinese news agency says seven Chinese men captured last night while en route from Jordan to Baghdad have just been released. So far, as we know, that still leaves a Mississippi man and a few other non-Iraqis in the hands of insurgents despite a purported ban on that practice by Iraqi clerics. Two U.S. soldiers are also said to be unaccounted for.

The renegade cleric U.S. forces are determined to capture or kill supposedly has agreed to pull his fighters out of police stations in the holy city of Najaf. That does not seem to be carved in stone, and there do seem to be conditions, however.

And two-and-a-half months before the handover of Iraqi sovereignty, Central Command expressing disappointment with Iraqi soldiers and police. CENTCOM commander John Abizaid says in last week's violence a number of Iraqi units did not stand up to the intimidators. He says Americans are working to strengthen the Iraqis' chain of command.

A cease-fire declared by U.S. Marines in Fallujah remains in effect this hour despite on-and-off attacks from the other side. CNN's Jane Arraf is watching the Sunni Triangle and beyond from her post in Baghdad. She recently filed this report. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JANE ARRAF, CNN BAGHDAD BUREAU CHIEF: Signs of progress in the holy city of Najaf, where U.S. forces are massing to reinforce a threat from the head of U.S. Central Command that the U.S. is intent on either capturing or killing radical Shia leader Muqtada al-Sadr. Now, with those troops moving into Najaf, prepared to act militarily, they say, the chief of police, along with the Sadr organization, say that they have reached an agreement for the militia to withdraw from police stations and government offices.

Now, that has not been implemented yet. And there appears to still be fighting. The city is still under control of militia loyal to Muqtada al-Sadr, but signs of the beginning, perhaps, of a political settlement.

West of Baghdad, in the city of Fallujah, what is called a tenuous cease-fire. Tenuous, the U.S. says, because insurgents are continuing to shoot at U.S. soldiers.

In the middle of all this, the United States taking a lot of political heat for hundreds of civilian casualties who have been caught in the crossfire. The head of U.S. Central Command, though, rejects accusations, as does the chief U.S. commander for land forces here, General Ricardo Sanchez, that the United States is being careless with civilian lives.

LT. GEN. RICARDO SANCHEZ, GROUND FORCES COMMANDER: The tactics being used in Fallujah are fairly straightforward. We've been attacking to secure the city of Fallujah, and we're running into active resistance. It is very clear where we're taking fire from. And where we're taking fire from, we're applying the appropriate proportionate combat power to eliminate that resistance. We are being very deliberate and precise in the application of that combat power to prevent any wounding or injuring of noncombatants in the area.

ARRAF: One of the more worrying things for the U.S. in the midst of fighting all these battles, a spate of kidnappings. Those are continuing. Some of those nationals belong to countries that have troops here in Iraq. The stated aim is for those countries to get their troops out, and for the U.S to get its troops out as well.

Jane Arraf, CNN, reporting from Baghdad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Among those taken hostage is Mississippian Thomas Hamill. He's a civilian truck driver for a U.S. contractor who apparently was captured outside Baghdad on Good Friday. The deadline his captors set for U.S. forces to leave Fallujah came and went late Saturday Eastern Time with no more word on Hamill's status. His tiny hometown of Macon, near the Alabama border, remembers a struggling dairy farmer who only wanted to make ends meet.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SCOTT BOYD, MACON BEACON: Tommy tried to stick it out in the dairy business but didn't. He sold his farm, and didn't quite earn enough from that sale to satisfy the debt. So he saw an opportunity to go to Iraq for a high-paying job, a lot better than the job that he could get over here. So he went over there and obligated himself for a year to try to earn enough money to support his family and to satisfy his debts from his farm.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Well, in a video clip from the Arab network Al- Jazeera, a narrator who is supposedly quoting Hamill says he's in good shape and being treated well.

Devastated by a daughter's death in Iraq and the danger that still looms for two other daughters, all members of the Wisconsin National Guard posted in Iraq. We get the family's story from Chris Goodman of CNN affiliate WITI in Milwaukee.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MICHELLE WHITMER, DIED IN IRAQ: I've seen some amazing things. And I feel like I've lived a lot of life for being only 19.

CHRIS GOODMAN, WITI (voice-over): But her short life has ended. Michele Whitmer talks when she and her sisters got to come home before Christmas. Saddam Hussein was captured during the brief visit.

WHITMER: Rachel came running into my bedroom, jumped on my bed, on top of me, and started shaking me. And I thought the house was on fire. I had no idea what was going on. And she's like, "They got him! They got him! They got him."

And I'm like, "What?" And she's like, "Saddam." And I'm like, "No way." And she's like, "Yes." And we both just started screaming.

GOODMAN: Rachel, the oldest, and Michelle's twin sister, Charity, are scheduled to return to Iraq after Michelle's funeral. But will they?

JOAN APT, FAMILY SPOKESWOMAN: For the sake of our family, we have appealed to the Army National Guard to grant whatever exceptions necessary to make sure Rachel and Charity are not returned to Iraq.

GOODMAN: A family friend talk on behalf of the Whitmers Sunday afternoon. She says the family is also pleading with Wisconsin elected officials to do what they can to keep Michele's sisters out of harm's way.

APT: We trust that those in charge of making such a decision will realize that we have already sacrificed enough and that our family must not be asked to bear such an impossible burden.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: The biggest names in law enforcement will sit in front of the 9/11 Commission this week. Exhibit A, the August 6 presidential briefing issued just a few weeks before the attacks. Details from CNN's Elaine Quijano in Washington.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): President Bush maintains the information in the now declassified August 6, 2001 PDB, or presidential daily briefing, wasn't detailed enough for the U.S. to prevent September 11.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: There was not a time and place of an attack. And it was -- it said Osama bin Laden had designs on America. Well, I knew that. What I wanted to know was, is there anything specifically going to take place in America that we needed to react to?

QUIJANO: But critics, including a Democratic member of the 9/11 Commission, say that PDB contained important pieces of the puzzle that should have been taken into context with the spike in intelligence chatter during the summer of 2001.

RICHARD BEN-VENISTE (D), 9/11 COMMISSIONER: There was a lot of focus overseas, but the CIA author of this PDB by stressing the fact that bin Laden was determined to strike in the United States was telling the president that we ought to look here as well.

QUIJANO: This week, the commission turns its attention to law enforcement and intelligence officials past and present. Among those scheduled to testify, former FBI director Louis Freeh, as well as Attorney General John Ashcroft, who a source tells CNN is not believed to have received a copy of that August 6 PDB. Ashcroft and others are expected to face tough questions on whether the Justice Department made fighting terrorism a top priority, and what specific steps the FBI took to investigate the terror threats that existed in the summer of 2001.

(on camera): The panel is expected to look not only at the FBI, but other agencies, and what one commissioner says were problems getting available information into the hands of those who could make a difference.

Elaine Quijano, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Up next, U.S. troops in Afghanistan in their own words. Cameras are rolling when the enemy attacks.

O'BRIEN: Mel Gibson's "Passion" makes a comeback at the box office for obvious reasons over the past weekend.

And the bet of a lifetime makes this man our pick for today's reality TV watch.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

It does not sound

PHILLIPS: Today, something different. A rare look at the United States forces in Afghanistan fighting in the war on terrorism.

The Taliban government is long since gone, but the wild border region with Pakistan continues to harbor terrorists, including many loyal to Osama bin Laden and perhaps bin Laden himself. In 24 hours this week, Blackfoot Company of Taskforce One, the 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment, they were engaged in two ambushes while an Army camera crew was tagging along. This is how it looks from the eyes of the Americans.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The first thing I was thinking is I wanted to send a smaller element.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Go ahead and send (UNINTELLIGIBLE) again, pushing a (UNINTELLIGIBLE) section.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was kind of concerned about the time of the explosion, being that it was still in the broad daylight.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh (EXPLETIVE DELETED).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Keep going.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Go, go, go!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At about the 20-minute mark, when they were on site, they started receiving contact.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, 706, from those locations give me a templated (ph) grid.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And that was RPG AK-47 fire, RPK, and 107 rockets.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Help establish a control point for 31. Have these guys flow back so we can orient forces.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And he informed me that he was making contact at multiple flanks while I was moving down taking a look at the map that was (UNINTELLIGIBLE) feeding me reports to. It looked like it was an L-shaped ambush. What that means is we were taking that contact from the front at two or multiple locations, and then making contact from one of the flanks.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Establish the contact point.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's definitely a challenge when you're working with coalition -- other coalition forces that don't speak the English language.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I need you to pull in, Major Norwally (ph), and let me know where he's got guys oriented right now so we don't have a (EXPLETIVE) friendly fire incident.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, Captain Chong (ph)?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right now you've got both (UNINTELLIGIBLE). I want to move (UNINTELLIGIBLE) reinforcements.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They had to have had comms (ph), too, sir. They initiated front and rear with RPG. Trying to seal off the front and rearview deck and keep everybody in the kill zone.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One of the things that we've learned is that moving to that location, obviously when there's an IED, it's potentially an abated ambush. The second ambush, we were pushing back up north to return back to our fire operating base in Salerno (ph).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I need some birds in the air. Over.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, you guys listening to the radio? Fifteen minutes we'll have arrows (ph) (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Initially, there's chaos on the radio, guys who are making contact. But I'm very confidence in the leaders that I have.

Our guys are definitely a lot more focused now because being the first contact that we've had being in the country going on five months, it's definitely real now. Definitely real for these guys.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Once again, those were United States forces in western Afghanistan. The scenes were shot by a crew from the Army Times, which was accompanied by CNN's Nic Robertson.

O'BRIEN: Well, are you a big risk taker? A British man puts his entire life savings on the line in Vegas. I bet he doesn't have kids who require tuition. We'll tell you about him.

PHILLIPS: Are you one of those individuals, Miles, who can't live without your morning coffee?

O'BRIEN: Afternoon, evening.

PHILLIPS: The price of java -- 2:00 a.m. -- may be going up. Details when we check Wall Street.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(STOCK MARKET REPORT)

O'BRIEN: Checking entertainment headlines on this Monday, April 12th, Easter resurrected "The Passion of the Christ" among moviegoers. Mel Gibson's telling of the last hour of Christ's life reclaimed the top spot at the box office this weekend, taking in more than $17 million.

A breast-baring backlash. In the wake of the hubbub over Janet Jackson's wardrobe malfunction or boobgate (ph), if you will, Victoria's Secret is pulling the plug on its annual TV fashion show just as quick as you can say "teddy." The company says it will find alternative ways to reveal the appeal of its lingerie. Read catalog and then another catalog, and then another one the next week later.

Didn't get your fill of former counterterrorism chief Richard Clarke testifying on Capitol Hill, did you? Haven't had time to read his book, "Against All Enemies"? Well, Sony Pictures has a solution. The entertainment giant plans to bring his inside look at the war on terror to a theater near you. The Passion of the Richard, I guess.

In the world of reality TV, a double or nothing gamble pace off. Ashley Revel (ph) sold off everything he owned, raising more than $135,000 for a wager. The British man let it roll on red at the roulette wheel in Las Vegas on Sunday. A 50-50 shot, right, red or black. He won.

He takes home nearly $280,000. His exploits will be featured on a British reality show. Not exactly sound financial planning, but the proof, as they say, is in the pudding.

PHILLIPS: Oh, gosh.

Well, he's been so close, he could just taste it. Now Phil Mickelson is savoring success. He's got the monkey off his back, it's in place. A green jacket appropriate attire for the new Masters champ. He sat down with our Josie Burke for a little one-on-one.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOSIE BURKE, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: So when you were walking up to the 18th green, you were about to take the biggest shot of your life. You had this grin on your face. Why?

PHIL MICKELSON, GOLFER: I just -- I had a lot of fun this week. I just had a feeling that I was going to knock the putt in. I hit a good shot in there, I hit a good T shot, good second shot in there. And I've seen so many guys in the past make that putt.

It's a putt that doesn't break too much. And I just had a good feeling I was going to make it.

BURKE: Can you admit now that you knew this was going to happen? You knew even before you teed off on Thursday that you would be wearing the green jacket now?

MICKELSON: Well, you never know for sure. You never know for sure. But I had a good feeling this week that I knew I was playing well. I knew I was driving it well, I was putting well. I had a lot of confidence this week.

I also had something interesting happen to me over the holidays. My grandfather passed away. He was 97 in January, and he had been waiting for so long now to put up a major championship flag on his wall.

And before he passed away, he said, "This is your year. I can feel it coming. I know it's going to happen." And when he passed away, I just had a feeling that this was going to be the tournament.

BURKE: What's this the start of?

MICKELSON: Well, it's been -- this is a year, 2004, that I really want to make something special. I want to do some things that I haven't done before, and obviously winning a major is one of them. It's a great start.

But I want to make this year really special. And although winning this tournament makes be it already special, I want to finish it off right. I want to continue the year right. Last year was a tough year, not a very good year for me. And I want to make '04, continue to be as special as it is today.

BURKE: Are you going to sleep in the green jacket? How does it feel?

MICKELSON: It's going to be hard to get two things off: this and this.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: He's a cool guy.

O'BRIEN: Yes. Congratulations to him. Well deserved.

PHILLIPS: We were watching.

O'BRIEN: That wraps up LIVE FROM.

PHILLIPS: Now to take us through the next hour of political headlines, "JUDY WOODRUFF'S INSIDE POLITICS."

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