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U.S. Officials Deny any Detainees are Going Free Anytime Soon; Bombings in Sadr City; More than 700 dead in Haiti
Aired September 22, 2004 - 14:00 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.
DREW GRIFFIN, CNN ANCHOR: From the CNN Center in Atlanta, I'm Drew Griffin in for Miles O'Brien today.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Kyra Phillips. This hour of CNN's LIVE FROM starts right now.
We begin this hour with the hostage and the HVD both in Iraq. One in peril, the other in apparent legal limbo.
HVD in military jargon is High Value Detainee. In this case, Iraqi scientist Rihab Rashid Taha Al-Azzawi known in the west as Dr. Germ, officials in Baghdad are suggesting she may soon be released, though they insist there's no connection with Islamic kidnappers' demands that U.S. forces free all Iraqi women in their custody.
Those captors have already killed two American engineers in two days and are threatening to kill a Brit and any time. For their part, U.S. officials and reportedly Iraq's prime minister are denying any detainees are going free any time soon.
CNN's Barbara Starr is sorting all this out from her vantage point at the Pentagon.
What do you know, Barbara?
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, a lot of confusion, a lot of conflicting statements today. The Pentagon does confirm that the status of all of the high value detainees is under review. They are open for a possible release if they are no longer of intelligence value, if they haven't committed a crime, if they are cooperating with their interrogators.
But they are holding two women. And now this is a very delicate matter because, of course, if they were to release those women after a review, it might be seen as giving into kidnappers' demands. Dr. Rihab Rashid Taha, Dr. Germ, alleged to have been involved in Saddam Hussein's biological warfare programs, her case was reviewed as recently as a week ago just before the hostages were taken.
Now, here at the Pentagon, officials say to their knowledge no decision has been made. If there was a decision to release her, it would have to be in practical terms a joint decision between the United States and the Iraqis. At the United Nations in New York today, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell spoke about this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) COLIN POWELL, SECRETARY OF STATE: I deeply regret the loss of these two men who went to help the Iraqi people. And my heart goes out to their families when I consider the manner of their death. And I extend deepest condolences to the family.
But it is one thing we've learned over time is that you can't negotiate with these kinds of terrorists. You can't give into them. Because all it does is incentivize them to do it again.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
STARR: And, of course, with one man still apparently alive, the British hostage still alive in Iraq, this is now an extremely sensitive matter about whether or not these women detainees would be released at this time. U.S. officials making it very clear they don't want to do anything that would be seen as giving into those kidnappers' demands -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: All right. Barbara, sort of turning the corner, what's this information you have about a new mission along the Iraq- Syria border?
STARR: Indeed, we reported a few days ago that a U.S. diplomatic mission had gone to Syria to talk to the Syrians about trying to control the border. Well, CNN has now learned that a U.S.-Iraqi military team will return to Syria next week.
They will sit down and talk to their Syrian military counterparts about border security issues, about practical things, we are told, practical matters between the U.S. military, the Syria military and the Iraqi security forces about trying to control that border, get a handle on it to keep foreign fighters from coming into the country. Some of the things that the U.S. may be offering the Syrians, compatible communications equipment, joint patrols, if you will, something to get more coordination along that border.
It will be an extraordinary meeting. U.S. military personnel sitting down with their Syrian military counterparts -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Barbara Starr, live from the Pentagon, thanks -- Drew.
GRIFFIN: Lost in the politics of Iraq is the family of Jack Hensley. Instead of celebrating his 49th birthday, which would have been today, that family of Marietta, Georgia, is mourning today.
Hensley's wife, daughter and brother got confirmation that they were dreading. A headless body turned over to U.S. officials in Baghdad is the civil engineer, kidnapped along with two co-workers almost a week ago.
Ty Hensley remembered his older brother and role model as extraordinarily innocent. This morning, he spoke with CNN's Heidi Collins about a suspicious lack of security at the Baghdad house that Jack shared with Eugene Armstrong and Ken Bigly.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: COLLINS: I know that you, as you said, you were in correspondence with him every day or so, talking about what he was doing there. Towards the last correspondence with him, was there any sort of indication that things were getting scary or threatening to his life?
TY HENSLEY, JACK HENSLEY'S BROTHER: From my talking to Patty over the -- earlier in the last few days, that she and Jack had talked about it. And the risks were this -- they were starting to have guards not show up. And they lived in a very, you know, quiet home. And they just had, I guess, a -- very modest guards posted. I heard they were even unarmed.
They stopped showing up. And they were tipped off that one was not even -- he came back and said that he was threatened, if he came and worked again he'd be killed.
COLLINS: Did he mention anything about wanting to leave, wanting to just get out of there? I know he'd been trying to hang on for a year because of the financial benefits.
HENSLEY: You're right. Right. Patty wanted him home. She had -- she just -- her nerves couldn't take it anymore. And she pretty much had pleaded with him. But you know, and he's free, I guess, to get up and come home. But he -- he did want to, you know, make it. And I guess he just felt that he wouldn't be treated like this.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRIFFIN: Ty Hensley says Jack's widow, Patti, whom you may have seen on CNN and elsewhere pleading for husband's release, is devastated.
PHILLIPS: Even for Baghdad, this has been a brutal day. Two separate car bombings, deadly raids and rolling battles dead end wounded from one end of the city to the other and far beyond.
Once again, Sadr City is a war zone. At least 10 people killed on the ground. And air attacks aimed at what U.S. forces call insurgent crews-served weapons teams. A separate joint raid on Haifa Street, known as Little Fallujah, killed at least four insurgents and netted an array of nasty weapons.
With more on the car bombs, here's CNN senior international correspondent Walt Rodgers.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WALTER RODGERS, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Thunderous explosion rocked Baghdad today as more suicide car bombs were detonated in the city. This morning, the most lethal occurred.
There, the target was a police recruiting center and an ice cream parlor near that police recruiting center where the would-be policemen often went to savor a little ice cream. A thunderous explosion, as I say, 12 Iraqis were killed. Close to 60 others were injured and sent to hospital.
Nearby, close to that, there was another car bomb. It was not detonated. Rather, it was discovered and defused.
Then another explosion in the upscale Mansoor district of Baghdad this afternoon. A U.S. military convoy was passing by, a suicide car bomber drove his vehicle close up to --- alongside the military convoy.
There was a large explosion, and at least two Humvees were injured. Four U.S. soldiers sent to hospital. U.S. fatalities now as of this time on our air, 1,038 since the war began.
Walter Rodgers, CNN, Baghdad.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Tonight now on CNN, a special look at the strategy for Iraq. Tune in for "NEWSNIGHT" at 10:00 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN.
Well, the death toll continues to rise. More than 700 people dead now in the brutal flooding in Haiti. We go Karl Penhaul via phone in Port-au-Prince.
Karl, bring us up to date.
KARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Kyra.
Yes, in the course of the morning, we've been talking to U.N., United Nations officials who are spearheading the relief and emergency effort in the north of Haiti. They tell us that so far confirmed dead, 691 people in northern Haiti. That they say are the number of bodies they have in body bags at this time.
That said, the Haitian Civil Protection Department reporting more than 1,000 people missing. One of the main problems facing emergency services right now is that there's still a lot of water lying around in the city of Gonaives. That's a northern city that's been worse affected by this disaster, and (UNINTELLIGIBLE) levels water dropped.
And residents there are finding more people dead in the homes. And so that figure of 691 confirmed dead so far seems very likely to rise.
Now, again, according to the United Nations officials, they say that the main cause of this disaster was water runoff from mountains and hills behind Gonaives. There's huge deforestation here in Haiti, and what that means is the water table rises. And when there's heavy rainfall, such as the rainfall caused by that Tropical Storm Jeanne that passed through this area over the weekend, then the water just runs off down the mountain, taking mud and stones with it.
And that's what happened here. There were no trees to break this up -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Karl Penhaul reporting to us there. He just arrived in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
Well, it's a story we'll continue to follow as Tropical Storm Jeanne has just terrorized that area. Right now, almost 700 people confirmed dead. Still about 1,000 people missing. We'll stay on that story -- Drew.
GRIFFIN: Thanks, Kyra.
The singer once known as Cat Stevens facing deportation today from the U.S. back to Britain. His plane diverted over the Atlantic yesterday. He is on the U.S. watch list under his actual name, Yusuf Islam, suspected of links to terrorist groups.
The latest on that and more from a law enforcement veteran, CNN correspondent Mike Brooks.
Mike, "Moon Shadow," "Peace Train." What's this guy doing on this list?
MIKE BROOKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: He should not have been on this flight. He apparently was on the list because of some of his involvement with money he had given to some other groups in the past. It took off from London, it was diverted to Bangor, Maine, here in the United States, and apparently the passengers on board didn't even know up until almost the time they landed that they were actually going there.
Now, Drew, there are two different lists that the Transportation Security Administration puts out to the airlines. You have the no fly list, which his name, his direct name was on, and they make sure that no one flies. In fact, if you're on this list, if you're stopped before the flight, the FBI will be out to interview you, and it -- when they were diverted into Bangor, the FBI pulled him off and he was interviewed by FBI and Customs officials.
And there's a second list called the selectee list. It's for names that may sound similar to some of the names on the list. And they don't tell the airlines why these names are on there.
They put them on, and the selectee list, you just get a little extra scrutiny. Similar to when you're on a selectee and you're sent to a special line in an airport where they go through your baggage. Sometimes if you buy a ticket with cash, one way, same day travel, you'll be on a selectee list. But his name was on this list.
And there is a new -- I guess you would call it clearing house, if you will, Drew, called the Terrorist Screening Center at FBI headquarters. They're the ones that gather in all of the different intelligence from all of the three-lettered agencies: CIA, FBI, NSA, DIA, and they put together this list from the intelligence that they have currently.
This list is then given to the airlines. The airlines put it into their database.
Now, for some reason, he was allowed to get onto this plane that was taking off from London. I'm hearing from a airline security official -- source that it actually was possibly a technology glitch that allowed his name to be on there. He flew to the United States as early as May, but apparently his name was just recently put on the no- fly list -- Drew.
GRIFFIN: So when they got the list of the passengers arriving, that's when it tipped off authorities and they put him down in Bangor, Maine?
BROOKS: Right. After they took off, the -- apparently Customs officials were going over the list again and saying, hey, the manifest says there's a guy here on the no-fly list. So they decided to go ahead and divert into Bangor, Maine, which is basically the first international airport where a plane can land coming into the United States when they cross the top of the Atlantic.
There are FBI agents there. They have an office there. When they did land there, they detained them -- they detained the flight for about four hours, talked to him. They decided to deport him back to the U.K.
GRIFFIN: All right. Mike Brooks, thanks for clearing that up for us.
Well, did you try to help someone and they were so ungrateful that you wish you hadn't? Well, a Scottish rescuer can sympathize after a thankless cow kicked him into the drink. It's our video of the day.
Location, location, location. When a string of hurricanes hit the same place in the same year, even meteorologists wonder if some places are just unlucky.
And imagine a day when Twinkies go extinct. LIVE FROM ponders the significance of that after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Admission, now investigation. Two days after apologizing for using dodgy sources for a story about President Bush's military service, CBS executives say they've hired a former U.S. attorney to lead a probe into how it happened.
For the latest turns and twists in the document controversy, including a very cloak and dagger tale from a key player, we hand it to Jeanne Meserve in Washington -- Jeanne.
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, you're right, CBS has announced that independent panel that will investigate this matter. The names are Dick Thornburgh. He's the former attorney general, a Republican, we should note. And also Louis Boccardi. He is a former president of The Associated Press.
One of the key questions in this story is the credibility of Bill Burkett, who has acknowledged misleading CBS about where he got the disputed documents. In an interview with Dan Rather Saturday night, Burkett gave a second version of how they came into his hands.
CNN cannot verify the facts of his news story given to us by his now former lawyer, David Van Os. Van Os, though present for the Rather interview, has no first-hand knowledge either. But his rendition may tell us more about Burkett, who last February was alleging that damaging information had been removed from President Bush's National Guard record.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAVID VAN OS, BILL BURKETT'S ATTORNEY: During this time that Bill was getting lots of phone calls, one of the phone calls that he got when he picked up the phone was an individual, a female, who told him that he had some -- that she had documents that -- that she would like to give to him.
The caller, identifying hers as Lucy Ramirez, told Bill that she had been an employee of the National Guard and had -- had access to files. He told the woman that he was going to be in Houston for the Houston livestock show around March 21 or on March 21, and that if she wanted to come talk to him, she could find him at the Cemitol Association (ph) booth.
Random gentlemen, like many other random people that day walking up to the booth, but this man says to Bill, "Are you Bill Burkett?" And Bill tells him, "Yes, I am."
Then the man places in front of Bill a sealed manila envelope. Bill looks down the at manila envelope and looks up to try to talk to the man and ask him some questions or engage him, and the man is gone.
He's thinking, "Oh, my god. Here we go again. Here -- here I'm going to end up once again in the middle of a storm of controversy, and I don't want to be there."
The person he assumed to be Lucy Ramirez told him that she was so worried about her confidentiality, that she didn't want anybody to be able to trace her by being able to get DNA samples off the -- off the pieces of paper. So she told Bill that she wanted him to make copies of the -- of the -- of the documents that she gave him and burn her copies.
And he made the copies at a Kinko's in Waco, Texas. Then he went back in the parking lot. And Bill doesn't smoke, but his wife -- but his wife Nicky (ph) had left a cigarette lighter in the car, and he used Nicky's (ph) cigarette lighter to burn the -- the actual document that was -- that had -- that was in the envelope, and he saved his next generation copy.
He has a locker in a cold storage facility. It's a -- it's facility where hunters take the -- take the game that they've killed to put it in cold storage, like a -- like a meat locker for public use with public customers. And he had a locker there, and he put the -- put the documents in the envelope in his meat locker and locked it, and he's the only person with a key.
I agree with Bill in his own description of the story that it sounds far-fetched.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MESERVE: Van Os says he did not know his client had told CBS a different story about where the documents came from until last Saturday night's Rather interview. Van Os was not happy, but believes Burkett was trying to protect the woman he knew as Lucy Ramirez.
Van Os says he has never seen the documents first-hand, does not know if they are authentic, but does not believe Bill Burkett forged hem. "If he had," asked Van Os, "why would he have insisted CBS authenticate them before taking them to air?"
Kyra, back to you.
PHILLIPS: All right. Jeanne Meserve, thank you -- Drew.
GRIFFIN: Lunchtime warning, Kyra. From Wall Street, the possible end of a cream-filled little -- what do you call these things, anyway? They once thought they'd last forever, literally, each one individually wrapped would last forever. But the Twinkie twilight may be next -- Rhonda.
RHONDA SCHAFFLER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Drew, at this point, we're looking at more trouble for the nation's airlines, and you could pay the price. I'm going to tell you why when LIVE FROM flies on after this break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRIFFIN: Now the Twinkie trauma. The company that bakes those childhood treats, Twinkies and Wonder Bread, in serious financial trouble. That story from CNN's Mary Snow in New York -- Mary.
MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Drew.
Interstate Bakeries has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection citing the low-carb diet craze as one of its problems. And this company not only makes Twinkies and Wonder Bread, but it also owns Drake, so it makes things like Devil Dogs.
And it's in bankruptcy court filing. It specifically cited the popularity of the South Beach and Atkins diets, saying that they hurt sales. We've heard this from other big companies, like Krispy Kreme, saying they've been hurt by low-carb diets.
Analysts say, though, in Interstate's case, there are a number of reasons for the bankruptcy filing. However, one thing it says that Interstate failed to do is to keep up with trends.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There has been a decline in carb volumes. People are really cutting back on a lot of those products. But at the same time, a lot of companies have seen a lot of opportunity in that. Flower's Foods, which is a regional bread maker, a large competitor of IBC's, has done a much better job picking up on some of those trends.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SNOW: Now, Interstate had a host of other problems which got it into trouble, accounting issues, also rising pension costs. Its CEO has resigned, and a well-known turnaround firm has been hired. And its executives have now taken helm of the company.
It says that the company will continue to operate normally. And Drew, I guess the good news is that those Twinkies are not yet on the endangered species list. But whether or not we'll see a low-carb version remains to be seen.
GRIFFIN: Well, for the sake of Twinkie lovers everywhere, Mary, let's hope that they can turn it around. Thanks for joining us.
SNOW: Sure.
PHILLIPS: My mom never let me have Twinkies. I always had to have a fruit roll.
GRIFFIN: I haven't had a Twinkie in a dozen years.
PHILLIPS: Exactly. I don't think I've ever tasted one.
All right. Let's stick to business news and talk about food, I guess. Maybe a food fight going on in major airlines.
GRIFFIN: Oh. Rhonda Schaffler joins us live from the New York Stock Exchange with that aerial story -- Rhonda.
(STOCK MARKET REPORT)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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Aired September 22, 2004 - 14:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DREW GRIFFIN, CNN ANCHOR: From the CNN Center in Atlanta, I'm Drew Griffin in for Miles O'Brien today.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Kyra Phillips. This hour of CNN's LIVE FROM starts right now.
We begin this hour with the hostage and the HVD both in Iraq. One in peril, the other in apparent legal limbo.
HVD in military jargon is High Value Detainee. In this case, Iraqi scientist Rihab Rashid Taha Al-Azzawi known in the west as Dr. Germ, officials in Baghdad are suggesting she may soon be released, though they insist there's no connection with Islamic kidnappers' demands that U.S. forces free all Iraqi women in their custody.
Those captors have already killed two American engineers in two days and are threatening to kill a Brit and any time. For their part, U.S. officials and reportedly Iraq's prime minister are denying any detainees are going free any time soon.
CNN's Barbara Starr is sorting all this out from her vantage point at the Pentagon.
What do you know, Barbara?
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, a lot of confusion, a lot of conflicting statements today. The Pentagon does confirm that the status of all of the high value detainees is under review. They are open for a possible release if they are no longer of intelligence value, if they haven't committed a crime, if they are cooperating with their interrogators.
But they are holding two women. And now this is a very delicate matter because, of course, if they were to release those women after a review, it might be seen as giving into kidnappers' demands. Dr. Rihab Rashid Taha, Dr. Germ, alleged to have been involved in Saddam Hussein's biological warfare programs, her case was reviewed as recently as a week ago just before the hostages were taken.
Now, here at the Pentagon, officials say to their knowledge no decision has been made. If there was a decision to release her, it would have to be in practical terms a joint decision between the United States and the Iraqis. At the United Nations in New York today, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell spoke about this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) COLIN POWELL, SECRETARY OF STATE: I deeply regret the loss of these two men who went to help the Iraqi people. And my heart goes out to their families when I consider the manner of their death. And I extend deepest condolences to the family.
But it is one thing we've learned over time is that you can't negotiate with these kinds of terrorists. You can't give into them. Because all it does is incentivize them to do it again.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
STARR: And, of course, with one man still apparently alive, the British hostage still alive in Iraq, this is now an extremely sensitive matter about whether or not these women detainees would be released at this time. U.S. officials making it very clear they don't want to do anything that would be seen as giving into those kidnappers' demands -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: All right. Barbara, sort of turning the corner, what's this information you have about a new mission along the Iraq- Syria border?
STARR: Indeed, we reported a few days ago that a U.S. diplomatic mission had gone to Syria to talk to the Syrians about trying to control the border. Well, CNN has now learned that a U.S.-Iraqi military team will return to Syria next week.
They will sit down and talk to their Syrian military counterparts about border security issues, about practical things, we are told, practical matters between the U.S. military, the Syria military and the Iraqi security forces about trying to control that border, get a handle on it to keep foreign fighters from coming into the country. Some of the things that the U.S. may be offering the Syrians, compatible communications equipment, joint patrols, if you will, something to get more coordination along that border.
It will be an extraordinary meeting. U.S. military personnel sitting down with their Syrian military counterparts -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Barbara Starr, live from the Pentagon, thanks -- Drew.
GRIFFIN: Lost in the politics of Iraq is the family of Jack Hensley. Instead of celebrating his 49th birthday, which would have been today, that family of Marietta, Georgia, is mourning today.
Hensley's wife, daughter and brother got confirmation that they were dreading. A headless body turned over to U.S. officials in Baghdad is the civil engineer, kidnapped along with two co-workers almost a week ago.
Ty Hensley remembered his older brother and role model as extraordinarily innocent. This morning, he spoke with CNN's Heidi Collins about a suspicious lack of security at the Baghdad house that Jack shared with Eugene Armstrong and Ken Bigly.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: COLLINS: I know that you, as you said, you were in correspondence with him every day or so, talking about what he was doing there. Towards the last correspondence with him, was there any sort of indication that things were getting scary or threatening to his life?
TY HENSLEY, JACK HENSLEY'S BROTHER: From my talking to Patty over the -- earlier in the last few days, that she and Jack had talked about it. And the risks were this -- they were starting to have guards not show up. And they lived in a very, you know, quiet home. And they just had, I guess, a -- very modest guards posted. I heard they were even unarmed.
They stopped showing up. And they were tipped off that one was not even -- he came back and said that he was threatened, if he came and worked again he'd be killed.
COLLINS: Did he mention anything about wanting to leave, wanting to just get out of there? I know he'd been trying to hang on for a year because of the financial benefits.
HENSLEY: You're right. Right. Patty wanted him home. She had -- she just -- her nerves couldn't take it anymore. And she pretty much had pleaded with him. But you know, and he's free, I guess, to get up and come home. But he -- he did want to, you know, make it. And I guess he just felt that he wouldn't be treated like this.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRIFFIN: Ty Hensley says Jack's widow, Patti, whom you may have seen on CNN and elsewhere pleading for husband's release, is devastated.
PHILLIPS: Even for Baghdad, this has been a brutal day. Two separate car bombings, deadly raids and rolling battles dead end wounded from one end of the city to the other and far beyond.
Once again, Sadr City is a war zone. At least 10 people killed on the ground. And air attacks aimed at what U.S. forces call insurgent crews-served weapons teams. A separate joint raid on Haifa Street, known as Little Fallujah, killed at least four insurgents and netted an array of nasty weapons.
With more on the car bombs, here's CNN senior international correspondent Walt Rodgers.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WALTER RODGERS, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Thunderous explosion rocked Baghdad today as more suicide car bombs were detonated in the city. This morning, the most lethal occurred.
There, the target was a police recruiting center and an ice cream parlor near that police recruiting center where the would-be policemen often went to savor a little ice cream. A thunderous explosion, as I say, 12 Iraqis were killed. Close to 60 others were injured and sent to hospital.
Nearby, close to that, there was another car bomb. It was not detonated. Rather, it was discovered and defused.
Then another explosion in the upscale Mansoor district of Baghdad this afternoon. A U.S. military convoy was passing by, a suicide car bomber drove his vehicle close up to --- alongside the military convoy.
There was a large explosion, and at least two Humvees were injured. Four U.S. soldiers sent to hospital. U.S. fatalities now as of this time on our air, 1,038 since the war began.
Walter Rodgers, CNN, Baghdad.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Tonight now on CNN, a special look at the strategy for Iraq. Tune in for "NEWSNIGHT" at 10:00 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN.
Well, the death toll continues to rise. More than 700 people dead now in the brutal flooding in Haiti. We go Karl Penhaul via phone in Port-au-Prince.
Karl, bring us up to date.
KARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Kyra.
Yes, in the course of the morning, we've been talking to U.N., United Nations officials who are spearheading the relief and emergency effort in the north of Haiti. They tell us that so far confirmed dead, 691 people in northern Haiti. That they say are the number of bodies they have in body bags at this time.
That said, the Haitian Civil Protection Department reporting more than 1,000 people missing. One of the main problems facing emergency services right now is that there's still a lot of water lying around in the city of Gonaives. That's a northern city that's been worse affected by this disaster, and (UNINTELLIGIBLE) levels water dropped.
And residents there are finding more people dead in the homes. And so that figure of 691 confirmed dead so far seems very likely to rise.
Now, again, according to the United Nations officials, they say that the main cause of this disaster was water runoff from mountains and hills behind Gonaives. There's huge deforestation here in Haiti, and what that means is the water table rises. And when there's heavy rainfall, such as the rainfall caused by that Tropical Storm Jeanne that passed through this area over the weekend, then the water just runs off down the mountain, taking mud and stones with it.
And that's what happened here. There were no trees to break this up -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Karl Penhaul reporting to us there. He just arrived in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
Well, it's a story we'll continue to follow as Tropical Storm Jeanne has just terrorized that area. Right now, almost 700 people confirmed dead. Still about 1,000 people missing. We'll stay on that story -- Drew.
GRIFFIN: Thanks, Kyra.
The singer once known as Cat Stevens facing deportation today from the U.S. back to Britain. His plane diverted over the Atlantic yesterday. He is on the U.S. watch list under his actual name, Yusuf Islam, suspected of links to terrorist groups.
The latest on that and more from a law enforcement veteran, CNN correspondent Mike Brooks.
Mike, "Moon Shadow," "Peace Train." What's this guy doing on this list?
MIKE BROOKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: He should not have been on this flight. He apparently was on the list because of some of his involvement with money he had given to some other groups in the past. It took off from London, it was diverted to Bangor, Maine, here in the United States, and apparently the passengers on board didn't even know up until almost the time they landed that they were actually going there.
Now, Drew, there are two different lists that the Transportation Security Administration puts out to the airlines. You have the no fly list, which his name, his direct name was on, and they make sure that no one flies. In fact, if you're on this list, if you're stopped before the flight, the FBI will be out to interview you, and it -- when they were diverted into Bangor, the FBI pulled him off and he was interviewed by FBI and Customs officials.
And there's a second list called the selectee list. It's for names that may sound similar to some of the names on the list. And they don't tell the airlines why these names are on there.
They put them on, and the selectee list, you just get a little extra scrutiny. Similar to when you're on a selectee and you're sent to a special line in an airport where they go through your baggage. Sometimes if you buy a ticket with cash, one way, same day travel, you'll be on a selectee list. But his name was on this list.
And there is a new -- I guess you would call it clearing house, if you will, Drew, called the Terrorist Screening Center at FBI headquarters. They're the ones that gather in all of the different intelligence from all of the three-lettered agencies: CIA, FBI, NSA, DIA, and they put together this list from the intelligence that they have currently.
This list is then given to the airlines. The airlines put it into their database.
Now, for some reason, he was allowed to get onto this plane that was taking off from London. I'm hearing from a airline security official -- source that it actually was possibly a technology glitch that allowed his name to be on there. He flew to the United States as early as May, but apparently his name was just recently put on the no- fly list -- Drew.
GRIFFIN: So when they got the list of the passengers arriving, that's when it tipped off authorities and they put him down in Bangor, Maine?
BROOKS: Right. After they took off, the -- apparently Customs officials were going over the list again and saying, hey, the manifest says there's a guy here on the no-fly list. So they decided to go ahead and divert into Bangor, Maine, which is basically the first international airport where a plane can land coming into the United States when they cross the top of the Atlantic.
There are FBI agents there. They have an office there. When they did land there, they detained them -- they detained the flight for about four hours, talked to him. They decided to deport him back to the U.K.
GRIFFIN: All right. Mike Brooks, thanks for clearing that up for us.
Well, did you try to help someone and they were so ungrateful that you wish you hadn't? Well, a Scottish rescuer can sympathize after a thankless cow kicked him into the drink. It's our video of the day.
Location, location, location. When a string of hurricanes hit the same place in the same year, even meteorologists wonder if some places are just unlucky.
And imagine a day when Twinkies go extinct. LIVE FROM ponders the significance of that after this.
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PHILLIPS: Admission, now investigation. Two days after apologizing for using dodgy sources for a story about President Bush's military service, CBS executives say they've hired a former U.S. attorney to lead a probe into how it happened.
For the latest turns and twists in the document controversy, including a very cloak and dagger tale from a key player, we hand it to Jeanne Meserve in Washington -- Jeanne.
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, you're right, CBS has announced that independent panel that will investigate this matter. The names are Dick Thornburgh. He's the former attorney general, a Republican, we should note. And also Louis Boccardi. He is a former president of The Associated Press.
One of the key questions in this story is the credibility of Bill Burkett, who has acknowledged misleading CBS about where he got the disputed documents. In an interview with Dan Rather Saturday night, Burkett gave a second version of how they came into his hands.
CNN cannot verify the facts of his news story given to us by his now former lawyer, David Van Os. Van Os, though present for the Rather interview, has no first-hand knowledge either. But his rendition may tell us more about Burkett, who last February was alleging that damaging information had been removed from President Bush's National Guard record.
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DAVID VAN OS, BILL BURKETT'S ATTORNEY: During this time that Bill was getting lots of phone calls, one of the phone calls that he got when he picked up the phone was an individual, a female, who told him that he had some -- that she had documents that -- that she would like to give to him.
The caller, identifying hers as Lucy Ramirez, told Bill that she had been an employee of the National Guard and had -- had access to files. He told the woman that he was going to be in Houston for the Houston livestock show around March 21 or on March 21, and that if she wanted to come talk to him, she could find him at the Cemitol Association (ph) booth.
Random gentlemen, like many other random people that day walking up to the booth, but this man says to Bill, "Are you Bill Burkett?" And Bill tells him, "Yes, I am."
Then the man places in front of Bill a sealed manila envelope. Bill looks down the at manila envelope and looks up to try to talk to the man and ask him some questions or engage him, and the man is gone.
He's thinking, "Oh, my god. Here we go again. Here -- here I'm going to end up once again in the middle of a storm of controversy, and I don't want to be there."
The person he assumed to be Lucy Ramirez told him that she was so worried about her confidentiality, that she didn't want anybody to be able to trace her by being able to get DNA samples off the -- off the pieces of paper. So she told Bill that she wanted him to make copies of the -- of the -- of the documents that she gave him and burn her copies.
And he made the copies at a Kinko's in Waco, Texas. Then he went back in the parking lot. And Bill doesn't smoke, but his wife -- but his wife Nicky (ph) had left a cigarette lighter in the car, and he used Nicky's (ph) cigarette lighter to burn the -- the actual document that was -- that had -- that was in the envelope, and he saved his next generation copy.
He has a locker in a cold storage facility. It's a -- it's facility where hunters take the -- take the game that they've killed to put it in cold storage, like a -- like a meat locker for public use with public customers. And he had a locker there, and he put the -- put the documents in the envelope in his meat locker and locked it, and he's the only person with a key.
I agree with Bill in his own description of the story that it sounds far-fetched.
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MESERVE: Van Os says he did not know his client had told CBS a different story about where the documents came from until last Saturday night's Rather interview. Van Os was not happy, but believes Burkett was trying to protect the woman he knew as Lucy Ramirez.
Van Os says he has never seen the documents first-hand, does not know if they are authentic, but does not believe Bill Burkett forged hem. "If he had," asked Van Os, "why would he have insisted CBS authenticate them before taking them to air?"
Kyra, back to you.
PHILLIPS: All right. Jeanne Meserve, thank you -- Drew.
GRIFFIN: Lunchtime warning, Kyra. From Wall Street, the possible end of a cream-filled little -- what do you call these things, anyway? They once thought they'd last forever, literally, each one individually wrapped would last forever. But the Twinkie twilight may be next -- Rhonda.
RHONDA SCHAFFLER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Drew, at this point, we're looking at more trouble for the nation's airlines, and you could pay the price. I'm going to tell you why when LIVE FROM flies on after this break.
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GRIFFIN: Now the Twinkie trauma. The company that bakes those childhood treats, Twinkies and Wonder Bread, in serious financial trouble. That story from CNN's Mary Snow in New York -- Mary.
MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Drew.
Interstate Bakeries has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection citing the low-carb diet craze as one of its problems. And this company not only makes Twinkies and Wonder Bread, but it also owns Drake, so it makes things like Devil Dogs.
And it's in bankruptcy court filing. It specifically cited the popularity of the South Beach and Atkins diets, saying that they hurt sales. We've heard this from other big companies, like Krispy Kreme, saying they've been hurt by low-carb diets.
Analysts say, though, in Interstate's case, there are a number of reasons for the bankruptcy filing. However, one thing it says that Interstate failed to do is to keep up with trends.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There has been a decline in carb volumes. People are really cutting back on a lot of those products. But at the same time, a lot of companies have seen a lot of opportunity in that. Flower's Foods, which is a regional bread maker, a large competitor of IBC's, has done a much better job picking up on some of those trends.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SNOW: Now, Interstate had a host of other problems which got it into trouble, accounting issues, also rising pension costs. Its CEO has resigned, and a well-known turnaround firm has been hired. And its executives have now taken helm of the company.
It says that the company will continue to operate normally. And Drew, I guess the good news is that those Twinkies are not yet on the endangered species list. But whether or not we'll see a low-carb version remains to be seen.
GRIFFIN: Well, for the sake of Twinkie lovers everywhere, Mary, let's hope that they can turn it around. Thanks for joining us.
SNOW: Sure.
PHILLIPS: My mom never let me have Twinkies. I always had to have a fruit roll.
GRIFFIN: I haven't had a Twinkie in a dozen years.
PHILLIPS: Exactly. I don't think I've ever tasted one.
All right. Let's stick to business news and talk about food, I guess. Maybe a food fight going on in major airlines.
GRIFFIN: Oh. Rhonda Schaffler joins us live from the New York Stock Exchange with that aerial story -- Rhonda.
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