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President Bush Backs Greater Authority For National Intelligence Director; NASA Crash Landing
Aired September 08, 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: Cracking down on Fallujah. For a second straight day, U.S. warplanes bombed the Sunni stronghold. Elsewhere, fighting raids in Baghdad's Sadr City. And two U.S. troops were killed in roadside attacks. The U.S. death toll now stands at 1,004.
And a frightening picture of what went on inside a Russian school during last week's terror attack. Russia's prosecutor general says the ringleader detonated explosives on two of the female attackers to silence any and all criticism during the standoff. Russia officials are offering a $10 million reward for the capture of top Chechen rebels.
Stalking the Caribbean. Hurricane Ivan churning toward Bonaire, Aruba and Curacao at this hour. It is expected to skirt those islands, possibly slamming into Jamaica on Friday. The Category 4 hurricane is packing 140-mile-an-hour winds. The storm is blamed for the deaths of nine people in Granada.
A crash landing puts a three-year space mission at risk, to say the least. The Genesis space capsule crash-landed in the Utah desert today, after its parachute failed to open. The capsule is carrying solar particles NASA hopes will answer questions about the origin of the solar system. At a news conference this past hour, scientists and engineers said it's still not clear whether any of the data on board can be saved.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHRIS JONES, NASA SCIENTIST: ... that the capsule hit the ground at about 193 miles per hour. It's located about 31 miles from this facility, well within the impact target ellipse that the navigators predicted for the entry.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: NASA says the crash landing site has been secured. A team assembled to recover the Genesis capsule, they are on their way.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Topping the hour, for the third time in less than a month, the president finds himself in Florida, Mr. Bush joining his brother, Governor Jeb Bush, surveying the mess that Hurricane Frances left behind.
The president assures residents that help is on the way. The mayor of one of the hardest-hit cities said that he talked to the president about the specific needs of Fort Pierce.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BOB BENTON, MAYOR OF FORT PIERCE: I just told him we needed help. We needed money. We need housing. There was some discussion with his brother about four days ago that it might be two weeks before we could get housing. At that time, we didn't know it was as bad as it is. So we're hoping we can get better housing in here quicker.
QUESTION: What did he say to you?
BENTON: He assured me it would be done.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: Catching up with the Kerry campaign now. The Democratic presidential nominee was in Cincinnati today, and he spoke at the same venue where the president made his case in October 2002 for going to war in Iraq.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOHN KERRY (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The cost of the president's go-it-alone policy in Iraq is now $200 billion and counting; $200 billion for Iraq, but they tell us we can't afford after-school programs for our children; $200 billion for Iraq, but they tell us we can't afford health care for our veterans; $200 billion for Iraq, but they tell us we can't afford to keep the 100,000 police officers we put on the streets during the 1990s.
We are here today to tell them they're wrong. It's time to lead America in a new direction.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: Kerry wasn't entirely preaching to the choir. His speech was just getting under way when a protester started yelling about atrocities. The man was quickly shown the door by Kerry supporters.
Back at the White House today, Mr. Bush said, we're making good progress in the war against terror. And the same could probably be said of congressional attempts to turn the 9/11 panel's recommendations into law. On that front, Mr. Bush today abandoned his reluctance to let a new intel director hold the purse strings now controlled mainly by the Pentagon. This afternoon, all eyes are on the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee.
CNN's David Ensor following events on both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue for us -- David.
DAVID ENSOR, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, Miles, as you say, an important signal from the president today in his meeting with congressional leaders that he will support giving a new national intelligence director real budget and hire-and-fire power over the whole intelligence community.
By uttering those words, full budgetary authority, Mr. Bush appeared to support the position of the 9/11 Commission, but some skeptical Democrats said they will wait to see the fine print in the administration's reform proposals.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA), MINORITY LEADER: The president did not say -- he didn't even indicate that it was a change of mind, but he did say that he supported it and the budgetary authority. But, as you know, with all of this, it's the devil is in the details. In what manner do they support the budgetary authority going to the national intelligence director? Well, that remains for us to see in print on paper so that we can make a judgment about it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ENSOR: At stake is whether the Pentagon really will relinquish budgetary control over 80 percent of the intelligence budget, which reportedly totals around $40 billion a year. That's real power that will be changing hands. And that does not happen easily in this town.
In the hearing you mentioned today, acting intelligence director John McLaughlin was asked why he thinks the reform is needed and what the national intelligence director must be able to do.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN MCLAUGHLIN, ACTING CIA DIRECTOR: A national intelligence director needs be able to say to his operating or her operating agencies, I need five from you and five from you and five from you and I need them in two or three days and they need to be up and running in this room with these computers and these information technology, these systems, with these databases flowing to them in order to move with maximum agility and speed.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ENSOR: Congress is trying to us agility and speed to reach an intelligence reform bill the president can sign by the end of October, well before the elections. That's not much time.
But the political pressure on both Republicans and Democrats to get this thing done is very strong indeed, Miles.
O'BRIEN: Well, and the concern might be that, with all that pressure to get something done with an election looming, that the approach might ultimately be the wrong one and not be well-thought through.
ENSOR: There are those on Capitol Hill and in the administration who worry that, if this thing is rushed, it could be botched. A number of people in the intelligence community have said, look, the thing isn't broken. You could make it worse. So there are those around town who are worried about that, but the train does seem to have left the station and there does seem to be a consensus that there can and should be a national intelligence director.
Just how much power he or she is going to have is the key question that still remains, though.
O'BRIEN: All right, David Ensor, thank you very much -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Drive-by shootings, Fallujah firefights and more dead Americans are making news in Iraq this hour.
We get the latest from CNN's Walter Rodgers in Baghdad.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WALTER RODGERS, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: There are days when Iraq very much seems like a country up for grabs. Last week, the distinguished British Royal Institute of International Affairs released a report saying if current trends continue in Iraq the country could well slip into a bloody civil war.
There was an upswing of violence again today, yesterday, and the day before. The fighting was centered in Sadr City. U.S. soldiers fighting the Mahdi Army there. Today, however, the fighting seems to be in Fallujah, in the Sunni Triangle. U.S. aircraft bombing suspected Iraqi rebel command and control centers there.
Recall that on Monday of this week, seven U.S. Marines were killed outside Fallujah in a deadly suicide car bomb attack on their transport vehicle. In the last four days, 17 U.S. service personnel have been killed in Iraq. Still, the American generals' here strategy, at least with regard to Fallujah, seems to be to encircle the city, lock it down, but do not commit American troops to more ferocious fighting there as we saw in April, earlier in this past year.
Another reason for that restraint at this point could well be political. No president running for reelection wants to go into an election with a spike in American casualties just a few weeks before the public goes to the polls.
But if Americans are dying in moderate numbers, the Iraqis continue to die in more substantial numbers. There has been a rash of assassinations of public figures here, hospital directors, police detectives, even politicians. The assassinations, of course, are launched by the insurgents, aimed at destabilizing the American attempt to build a Democratic society here.
Walter Rodgers, CNN, Baghdad.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Other news across America now.
Bill Clinton could be going home at the end of week. Doctors say the former president is continuing to recover well after undergoing quadruple heart bypass surgery in New York on Monday. Clinton is said to be awake and alert and talking with his family. More legal movement in the Michael Jackson case. Jackson's attorneys filed a motion today questioning whether Santa Barbara County's former sheriff violated a court order by recently discussing an 11-year-old investigation of Jackson. The pop star is currently fighting child molestation charges.
Trouble again for Lionel Tate. He's the Florida boy whose conviction for killing a 6-year-old playmate was overturned. Tate was arrested early Friday after he was found two blocks from his home. He's supposed to be under house arrest.
O'BRIEN: OK, so maybe it sounded a little farfetched, even if things went according to plan. But when the parachute fails on a collection of solar particles microscopic in size, some pricey NASA dreams crash to Earth with a resounding thud. We'll get behind the scenes on the picture of the day in just a bit.
Football ticket prices making business news. Get that along with your market check.
More LIVE FROM after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: All right, we want to give kudos to our affiliate KDFW, because the station brought us a piece that we're all talking about here on LIVE FROM. It's about a Texas family that was run out of its home after some unwanted guests moved in, about 60,000 bees.
Jeff Crilley and photographer Mark Camoner (ph) braved the swarm to bring us the details.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEFF CRILLEY, KDFW REPORTER (voice-over): The Queen family knew there were bees around, but they had no idea just how many until they started up the lawn mower on Labor Day and the bees went berserk.
ANGELA QUEEN, HOMEOWNER: And the next thing I know, there's bees in my hair, bees all over us. And my husband and I just took off running. And then we hear our kids screaming from downstairs. And they see the bees just all over our dog. You couldn't even see our dog's face.
CRILLEY: The family dog, Spike, was tied up and was stung some 600 times in the face. He had to be put down by the vet.
Too scared to go back home, the Queen family called in an expert, David Lister (ph), a professional bee buster.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm just trying to locate exactly where the hive's at. They're in the ceiling between the first and second floor, I believe.
CRILLEY: Soon, Lister determined that best way to evict the unwanted house guests was to go in through the ceiling. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now we'll open up the Sheetrock. A bunch of bees will...
CRILLEY: Lister carefully removed a section of the ceiling and the problem was worse than anyone could imagine. As many as 60,000 bees were living between the first and second floors. Photographer Mark Camoner (ph) was stung about half a dozen times himself just trying to bring you these shots. There was about 50 pounds of honey comb inside. And as devastating as this discovery is, the Queen family is grateful. They don't even want to think about what could have happened.
QUEEN: I mean, it's really scary because my daughter sleeps in that room. We're, just like I said, blessed that it was the dog and not one of our kids.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(WEATHER UPDATE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: Well, the Genesis space capsule did in fact return to Earth. It's just not the way scientist his expected, actually, not even close. Instead of floating in, it tumbled in and it slammed into the Utah desert; 193 miles an hour is what it was clocked at. The question is, how much of its precious cargo, particles from the sun, survived?
Now, here's what the helicopter crew, the first ones on the scene, had to say just a few moments ago.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROY HAGGARD, VERTIGO, INC.: The SRC penetrated the soil about half its diameter. It was leaned over maybe 10 degrees off vertical. It was clear that the mortar hadn't fired and the canister was slightly breached, maybe just a few inches, due to the high-velocity impact. It appeared that the science canister also had been breached a couple of inches, although it was difficult to tell looking into the canister just how much damage it took, but it was actually quite surprising how little damage there was considering how -- the velocity that it touched.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: That was Roy Haggard with a company called Vertigo, which provide the Hollywood stunt pilots flying the choppers for this.
This is how it was supposed to happen. You're looking at some animation which NASA provided to us. The 5-foot-in-diameter Genesis capsule containing that scientific payload, tiny, very fragile wafers containing pieces of solar wind, was to come down at about 20,000 feet. That parafoil parachute was supposed to deploy. A series of pyrotechnic mortar explosions needed to occur in order for that to happen, all of that commanded by a clock on board the spacecraft. Then a helicopter was to come with an 18.5-foot hook hanging beneath, snag the parachute and then take it to a very, very slow and gentle landing. A parachute landing of eight miles an hour was considered too abrupt for this very sensitive package. So you can only imagine what 193 miles an hour means for the scientific team. Not only is it jarring, but it also allowed the Earth's atmosphere to contaminate the particles, thus, greatly inhibiting the scientific payload.
Hard to say if it's a scientific loss just yet, but the fact is, this is a big disaster for the Genesis team. We've been watching this thing all day for you. We'll have more reports as the evening goes on. We invite you to check out CNN.com. All along the way, we've been running a blog all day as we've been learning little tidbits here and there. We've been giving you little bits of those on the blog. CNN.com is the place. Just hit the little blog location there and you'll see that handsome mug. And you can tune in and see what's going on behind the scenes as we try to cover Genesis -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: One of your glamour shots?
O'BRIEN: That's a glam shot, yes.
PHILLIPS: Not bad.
(CROSSTALK)
O'BRIEN: It's fashion week. It's fashion week, so there it was.
PHILLIPS: You're a fashionista of CNN.
O'BRIEN: I should say, yes. All right.
PHILLIPS: All right.
Well, homeland security is a big issue this campaign season, as we all know. And that includes the safety of the country's nuclear power plants, like the one at Indian Point in New York. Well, a new HBO documentary raises questions about how easily terrorists could target the plant. And, by the way, HBO is owned by Time Warner, the parent company of CNN. We must point that out.
Now Maria Hinojosa looks at the controversy.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARIA HINOJOSA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Indian Point nuclear power plant is so close to residential areas that people can see it from their local parks, close enough for environmental activists to release rubber ducks to show just how close terrorists could get.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "IMAGINING THE UNIMAGINABLE")
ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR., NATURAL RESOURCES DEFENSE COUNCIL: On September 11, 2001, the hijackers actually used the Hudson River as a navigational point.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HINOJOSA: Close enough for a famous brother and sister, Bobby and Rory Kennedy, to legally fly a helicopter right over a nuclear plant.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "IMAGINING THE UNIMAGINABLE")
ROBERT KENNEDY: If they had banked left and hit Indian Point rather than proceeded down to the World Trade Center, this area could be uninhabitable today.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HINOJOSA (on camera): What is in fact declared a no-fly zone now in a post-September 11 reality?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's not too hard to get declared a no-fly zone. Disneyland has a no-fly zone. Disney World has one. The Super Bowl has a no-fly zone. My cousin Caroline Kennedy's wedding had a no-fly zone.
HINOJOSA (voice-over): As September 11 approaches, the debate about safety at Indian Point is heating up.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "IMAGINING THE UNIMAGINABLE")
RORY KENNEDY, FILMMAKER: On the day the World Trade Center was attacked...
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HINOJOSA: An HBO documentary made by Rory Kennedy called "Imagining the Unimaginable" raises new fears about security.
RORY KENNEDY: New York City is only 24 miles south of Indian Point. There's just too much at stake. There's simply too much at stake.
HINOJOSA: A group of scientists favoring nuclear power accuses Kennedy of basing her conclusions on fear, not science.
DR. LETTY G. LUTZKER, ST. BARNABAS MEDICAL CENTER: A slow release of proportions large enough to damage the community or any outlying areas is virtually impossible.
HINOJOSA: But after 9/11, activists say no scenario is too farfetched.
DAVID LOCHBAUM, NUCLEAR SAFETY ENGINEER: All of these past reactor access has have been caused by people making mistakes in the control room. The fully-loaded jet airplane hitting the control room can do far more damage than those people did with their mistakes over the years.
HINOJOSA: Or could it?
JERRY KREMER, NEW YORK STATE DIRECTOR, AREA: The construction of this plant is such that, even if you crashed an airliner into it, every test shows that, with the depth of the plant, 100 feet below, plus the six feet of concrete, there's just no way that you can penetrate the core and create the kind of disaster they're talking about.
HINOJOSA: Maria Hinojosa, CNN New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: LIVE FROM continues right after a quick break. We're going to have a business news update and news from around the world, demonstrations in Russia following that school massacre, as Russian officials threaten a preemptive strike on terrorists. We'll tell you about it.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Here's a look at what's making news around the world, heavy fighting in Fallujah, U.S. Marines and Iraqi security forces using tanks, artillery and aircraft to hit insurgents. The military estimates as many as 100 militants have now been killed.
More demonstrations in Russia after that bloody school siege almost promising to attack -- also promises, rather, to attack terrorists. A top commander warned, the Russian military would strike terrorist bases anywhere in the world. And Russia's federal security service is putting up a $10 million reward for information on Chechen rebel leaders who have been involved.
(FINANCIAL UPDATE)
O'BRIEN: That wraps up this very busy Wednesday edition of LIVE FROM.
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 September 8, 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: Cracking down on Fallujah. For a second straight day, U.S. warplanes bombed the Sunni stronghold. Elsewhere, fighting raids in Baghdad's Sadr City. And two U.S. troops were killed in roadside attacks. The U.S. death toll now stands at 1,004.
And a frightening picture of what went on inside a Russian school during last week's terror attack. Russia's prosecutor general says the ringleader detonated explosives on two of the female attackers to silence any and all criticism during the standoff. Russia officials are offering a $10 million reward for the capture of top Chechen rebels.
Stalking the Caribbean. Hurricane Ivan churning toward Bonaire, Aruba and Curacao at this hour. It is expected to skirt those islands, possibly slamming into Jamaica on Friday. The Category 4 hurricane is packing 140-mile-an-hour winds. The storm is blamed for the deaths of nine people in Granada.
A crash landing puts a three-year space mission at risk, to say the least. The Genesis space capsule crash-landed in the Utah desert today, after its parachute failed to open. The capsule is carrying solar particles NASA hopes will answer questions about the origin of the solar system. At a news conference this past hour, scientists and engineers said it's still not clear whether any of the data on board can be saved.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHRIS JONES, NASA SCIENTIST: ... that the capsule hit the ground at about 193 miles per hour. It's located about 31 miles from this facility, well within the impact target ellipse that the navigators predicted for the entry.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: NASA says the crash landing site has been secured. A team assembled to recover the Genesis capsule, they are on their way.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Topping the hour, for the third time in less than a month, the president finds himself in Florida, Mr. Bush joining his brother, Governor Jeb Bush, surveying the mess that Hurricane Frances left behind.
The president assures residents that help is on the way. The mayor of one of the hardest-hit cities said that he talked to the president about the specific needs of Fort Pierce.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BOB BENTON, MAYOR OF FORT PIERCE: I just told him we needed help. We needed money. We need housing. There was some discussion with his brother about four days ago that it might be two weeks before we could get housing. At that time, we didn't know it was as bad as it is. So we're hoping we can get better housing in here quicker.
QUESTION: What did he say to you?
BENTON: He assured me it would be done.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: Catching up with the Kerry campaign now. The Democratic presidential nominee was in Cincinnati today, and he spoke at the same venue where the president made his case in October 2002 for going to war in Iraq.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOHN KERRY (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The cost of the president's go-it-alone policy in Iraq is now $200 billion and counting; $200 billion for Iraq, but they tell us we can't afford after-school programs for our children; $200 billion for Iraq, but they tell us we can't afford health care for our veterans; $200 billion for Iraq, but they tell us we can't afford to keep the 100,000 police officers we put on the streets during the 1990s.
We are here today to tell them they're wrong. It's time to lead America in a new direction.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: Kerry wasn't entirely preaching to the choir. His speech was just getting under way when a protester started yelling about atrocities. The man was quickly shown the door by Kerry supporters.
Back at the White House today, Mr. Bush said, we're making good progress in the war against terror. And the same could probably be said of congressional attempts to turn the 9/11 panel's recommendations into law. On that front, Mr. Bush today abandoned his reluctance to let a new intel director hold the purse strings now controlled mainly by the Pentagon. This afternoon, all eyes are on the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee.
CNN's David Ensor following events on both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue for us -- David.
DAVID ENSOR, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, Miles, as you say, an important signal from the president today in his meeting with congressional leaders that he will support giving a new national intelligence director real budget and hire-and-fire power over the whole intelligence community.
By uttering those words, full budgetary authority, Mr. Bush appeared to support the position of the 9/11 Commission, but some skeptical Democrats said they will wait to see the fine print in the administration's reform proposals.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA), MINORITY LEADER: The president did not say -- he didn't even indicate that it was a change of mind, but he did say that he supported it and the budgetary authority. But, as you know, with all of this, it's the devil is in the details. In what manner do they support the budgetary authority going to the national intelligence director? Well, that remains for us to see in print on paper so that we can make a judgment about it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ENSOR: At stake is whether the Pentagon really will relinquish budgetary control over 80 percent of the intelligence budget, which reportedly totals around $40 billion a year. That's real power that will be changing hands. And that does not happen easily in this town.
In the hearing you mentioned today, acting intelligence director John McLaughlin was asked why he thinks the reform is needed and what the national intelligence director must be able to do.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN MCLAUGHLIN, ACTING CIA DIRECTOR: A national intelligence director needs be able to say to his operating or her operating agencies, I need five from you and five from you and five from you and I need them in two or three days and they need to be up and running in this room with these computers and these information technology, these systems, with these databases flowing to them in order to move with maximum agility and speed.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ENSOR: Congress is trying to us agility and speed to reach an intelligence reform bill the president can sign by the end of October, well before the elections. That's not much time.
But the political pressure on both Republicans and Democrats to get this thing done is very strong indeed, Miles.
O'BRIEN: Well, and the concern might be that, with all that pressure to get something done with an election looming, that the approach might ultimately be the wrong one and not be well-thought through.
ENSOR: There are those on Capitol Hill and in the administration who worry that, if this thing is rushed, it could be botched. A number of people in the intelligence community have said, look, the thing isn't broken. You could make it worse. So there are those around town who are worried about that, but the train does seem to have left the station and there does seem to be a consensus that there can and should be a national intelligence director.
Just how much power he or she is going to have is the key question that still remains, though.
O'BRIEN: All right, David Ensor, thank you very much -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Drive-by shootings, Fallujah firefights and more dead Americans are making news in Iraq this hour.
We get the latest from CNN's Walter Rodgers in Baghdad.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WALTER RODGERS, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: There are days when Iraq very much seems like a country up for grabs. Last week, the distinguished British Royal Institute of International Affairs released a report saying if current trends continue in Iraq the country could well slip into a bloody civil war.
There was an upswing of violence again today, yesterday, and the day before. The fighting was centered in Sadr City. U.S. soldiers fighting the Mahdi Army there. Today, however, the fighting seems to be in Fallujah, in the Sunni Triangle. U.S. aircraft bombing suspected Iraqi rebel command and control centers there.
Recall that on Monday of this week, seven U.S. Marines were killed outside Fallujah in a deadly suicide car bomb attack on their transport vehicle. In the last four days, 17 U.S. service personnel have been killed in Iraq. Still, the American generals' here strategy, at least with regard to Fallujah, seems to be to encircle the city, lock it down, but do not commit American troops to more ferocious fighting there as we saw in April, earlier in this past year.
Another reason for that restraint at this point could well be political. No president running for reelection wants to go into an election with a spike in American casualties just a few weeks before the public goes to the polls.
But if Americans are dying in moderate numbers, the Iraqis continue to die in more substantial numbers. There has been a rash of assassinations of public figures here, hospital directors, police detectives, even politicians. The assassinations, of course, are launched by the insurgents, aimed at destabilizing the American attempt to build a Democratic society here.
Walter Rodgers, CNN, Baghdad.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Other news across America now.
Bill Clinton could be going home at the end of week. Doctors say the former president is continuing to recover well after undergoing quadruple heart bypass surgery in New York on Monday. Clinton is said to be awake and alert and talking with his family. More legal movement in the Michael Jackson case. Jackson's attorneys filed a motion today questioning whether Santa Barbara County's former sheriff violated a court order by recently discussing an 11-year-old investigation of Jackson. The pop star is currently fighting child molestation charges.
Trouble again for Lionel Tate. He's the Florida boy whose conviction for killing a 6-year-old playmate was overturned. Tate was arrested early Friday after he was found two blocks from his home. He's supposed to be under house arrest.
O'BRIEN: OK, so maybe it sounded a little farfetched, even if things went according to plan. But when the parachute fails on a collection of solar particles microscopic in size, some pricey NASA dreams crash to Earth with a resounding thud. We'll get behind the scenes on the picture of the day in just a bit.
Football ticket prices making business news. Get that along with your market check.
More LIVE FROM after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: All right, we want to give kudos to our affiliate KDFW, because the station brought us a piece that we're all talking about here on LIVE FROM. It's about a Texas family that was run out of its home after some unwanted guests moved in, about 60,000 bees.
Jeff Crilley and photographer Mark Camoner (ph) braved the swarm to bring us the details.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEFF CRILLEY, KDFW REPORTER (voice-over): The Queen family knew there were bees around, but they had no idea just how many until they started up the lawn mower on Labor Day and the bees went berserk.
ANGELA QUEEN, HOMEOWNER: And the next thing I know, there's bees in my hair, bees all over us. And my husband and I just took off running. And then we hear our kids screaming from downstairs. And they see the bees just all over our dog. You couldn't even see our dog's face.
CRILLEY: The family dog, Spike, was tied up and was stung some 600 times in the face. He had to be put down by the vet.
Too scared to go back home, the Queen family called in an expert, David Lister (ph), a professional bee buster.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm just trying to locate exactly where the hive's at. They're in the ceiling between the first and second floor, I believe.
CRILLEY: Soon, Lister determined that best way to evict the unwanted house guests was to go in through the ceiling. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now we'll open up the Sheetrock. A bunch of bees will...
CRILLEY: Lister carefully removed a section of the ceiling and the problem was worse than anyone could imagine. As many as 60,000 bees were living between the first and second floors. Photographer Mark Camoner (ph) was stung about half a dozen times himself just trying to bring you these shots. There was about 50 pounds of honey comb inside. And as devastating as this discovery is, the Queen family is grateful. They don't even want to think about what could have happened.
QUEEN: I mean, it's really scary because my daughter sleeps in that room. We're, just like I said, blessed that it was the dog and not one of our kids.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(WEATHER UPDATE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: Well, the Genesis space capsule did in fact return to Earth. It's just not the way scientist his expected, actually, not even close. Instead of floating in, it tumbled in and it slammed into the Utah desert; 193 miles an hour is what it was clocked at. The question is, how much of its precious cargo, particles from the sun, survived?
Now, here's what the helicopter crew, the first ones on the scene, had to say just a few moments ago.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROY HAGGARD, VERTIGO, INC.: The SRC penetrated the soil about half its diameter. It was leaned over maybe 10 degrees off vertical. It was clear that the mortar hadn't fired and the canister was slightly breached, maybe just a few inches, due to the high-velocity impact. It appeared that the science canister also had been breached a couple of inches, although it was difficult to tell looking into the canister just how much damage it took, but it was actually quite surprising how little damage there was considering how -- the velocity that it touched.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: That was Roy Haggard with a company called Vertigo, which provide the Hollywood stunt pilots flying the choppers for this.
This is how it was supposed to happen. You're looking at some animation which NASA provided to us. The 5-foot-in-diameter Genesis capsule containing that scientific payload, tiny, very fragile wafers containing pieces of solar wind, was to come down at about 20,000 feet. That parafoil parachute was supposed to deploy. A series of pyrotechnic mortar explosions needed to occur in order for that to happen, all of that commanded by a clock on board the spacecraft. Then a helicopter was to come with an 18.5-foot hook hanging beneath, snag the parachute and then take it to a very, very slow and gentle landing. A parachute landing of eight miles an hour was considered too abrupt for this very sensitive package. So you can only imagine what 193 miles an hour means for the scientific team. Not only is it jarring, but it also allowed the Earth's atmosphere to contaminate the particles, thus, greatly inhibiting the scientific payload.
Hard to say if it's a scientific loss just yet, but the fact is, this is a big disaster for the Genesis team. We've been watching this thing all day for you. We'll have more reports as the evening goes on. We invite you to check out CNN.com. All along the way, we've been running a blog all day as we've been learning little tidbits here and there. We've been giving you little bits of those on the blog. CNN.com is the place. Just hit the little blog location there and you'll see that handsome mug. And you can tune in and see what's going on behind the scenes as we try to cover Genesis -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: One of your glamour shots?
O'BRIEN: That's a glam shot, yes.
PHILLIPS: Not bad.
(CROSSTALK)
O'BRIEN: It's fashion week. It's fashion week, so there it was.
PHILLIPS: You're a fashionista of CNN.
O'BRIEN: I should say, yes. All right.
PHILLIPS: All right.
Well, homeland security is a big issue this campaign season, as we all know. And that includes the safety of the country's nuclear power plants, like the one at Indian Point in New York. Well, a new HBO documentary raises questions about how easily terrorists could target the plant. And, by the way, HBO is owned by Time Warner, the parent company of CNN. We must point that out.
Now Maria Hinojosa looks at the controversy.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARIA HINOJOSA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Indian Point nuclear power plant is so close to residential areas that people can see it from their local parks, close enough for environmental activists to release rubber ducks to show just how close terrorists could get.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "IMAGINING THE UNIMAGINABLE")
ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR., NATURAL RESOURCES DEFENSE COUNCIL: On September 11, 2001, the hijackers actually used the Hudson River as a navigational point.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HINOJOSA: Close enough for a famous brother and sister, Bobby and Rory Kennedy, to legally fly a helicopter right over a nuclear plant.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "IMAGINING THE UNIMAGINABLE")
ROBERT KENNEDY: If they had banked left and hit Indian Point rather than proceeded down to the World Trade Center, this area could be uninhabitable today.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HINOJOSA (on camera): What is in fact declared a no-fly zone now in a post-September 11 reality?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's not too hard to get declared a no-fly zone. Disneyland has a no-fly zone. Disney World has one. The Super Bowl has a no-fly zone. My cousin Caroline Kennedy's wedding had a no-fly zone.
HINOJOSA (voice-over): As September 11 approaches, the debate about safety at Indian Point is heating up.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "IMAGINING THE UNIMAGINABLE")
RORY KENNEDY, FILMMAKER: On the day the World Trade Center was attacked...
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HINOJOSA: An HBO documentary made by Rory Kennedy called "Imagining the Unimaginable" raises new fears about security.
RORY KENNEDY: New York City is only 24 miles south of Indian Point. There's just too much at stake. There's simply too much at stake.
HINOJOSA: A group of scientists favoring nuclear power accuses Kennedy of basing her conclusions on fear, not science.
DR. LETTY G. LUTZKER, ST. BARNABAS MEDICAL CENTER: A slow release of proportions large enough to damage the community or any outlying areas is virtually impossible.
HINOJOSA: But after 9/11, activists say no scenario is too farfetched.
DAVID LOCHBAUM, NUCLEAR SAFETY ENGINEER: All of these past reactor access has have been caused by people making mistakes in the control room. The fully-loaded jet airplane hitting the control room can do far more damage than those people did with their mistakes over the years.
HINOJOSA: Or could it?
JERRY KREMER, NEW YORK STATE DIRECTOR, AREA: The construction of this plant is such that, even if you crashed an airliner into it, every test shows that, with the depth of the plant, 100 feet below, plus the six feet of concrete, there's just no way that you can penetrate the core and create the kind of disaster they're talking about.
HINOJOSA: Maria Hinojosa, CNN New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: LIVE FROM continues right after a quick break. We're going to have a business news update and news from around the world, demonstrations in Russia following that school massacre, as Russian officials threaten a preemptive strike on terrorists. We'll tell you about it.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Here's a look at what's making news around the world, heavy fighting in Fallujah, U.S. Marines and Iraqi security forces using tanks, artillery and aircraft to hit insurgents. The military estimates as many as 100 militants have now been killed.
More demonstrations in Russia after that bloody school siege almost promising to attack -- also promises, rather, to attack terrorists. A top commander warned, the Russian military would strike terrorist bases anywhere in the world. And Russia's federal security service is putting up a $10 million reward for information on Chechen rebel leaders who have been involved.
(FINANCIAL UPDATE)
O'BRIEN: That wraps up this very busy Wednesday edition of LIVE FROM.
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