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Live From...
Supreme Court Agreeing to Consider Ten Commandments Issue; F-16 Fighter Jet Controversy; In Kentucky, Rabbit Hash's Mayoral Election
Aired October 12, 2004 - 13:30 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: Time to check some stories now in the news.
Syria says it's foiled a plot to kill the leader of the Hamas militant group. Security and government sources are telling CNN they've arrested four people sent by the Israeli intelligence agency, the Mossad. Israel is denying the allegation.
In Los Angeles, a vote expected today on whether to preserve the hotel where Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in 1968. One plan favored by the Kennedy family calls for the destruction of the Ambassador Hotel and a building of a school in its place. The L.A. Conservatory wants to preserve the hotel and convert it into a school.
Jury selection underway, round two of the World Trade Center insurance trial. The Trade Center's leaseholder argues two separate attacks brought down the World Trade Center on 9/11 and, therefore, he says he should receive $7 billion in insurance money, twice the single payout. In May, a federal jury ruled the attack was a single event, however.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: A surprise from the Supreme Court: It's agreeing to consider the contentious issue of displaying the Ten Commandments on public property. The cases come from Texas and Kentucky.
Last week, the court rejected an appeal from former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore. He lost his job for defying a federal order to take down a monument to the Ten Commandments. Roy Moore is with us now in Montgomery with reaction on what took place today.
Good to see you, Chief Justice.
ROY MOORE, FMR. ALABAMA CHIEF JUSTICE: Nice to be with you, Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Well, I know you're working a busy schedule, and we appreciate you being with us. But I'm very curious to your first reaction when you heard that the justices will listen to the Texas and Kentucky case, but rejected yours.
MOORE: Well, of course I was disappointed they rejected mine. And I'm pleased that they're finally addressing cases regarding the Ten Commandments. But we've got to understand what the real issue here is that -- not about the Ten Commandments at all, it's about the acknowledgement of God. And that's the reason they objected to my case, because my case acknowledged the sovereignty of God by the display of the Ten Commandments.
The cases of McCreary County, Kentucky, and Van Orden v. Perry in Texas, both start from the wrong premise that you can only acknowledge God if you surround it by other historical documents to make God a matter of history. And if you start from the wrong premise, you reach the wrong result.
So, I'm not sure this is going to be a victory at all. And I'm concerned about what the court would rule. And I think that some day they will have to address whether or not we as Americans can acknowledge God, which is the very basis of our organic law.
PHILLIPS: But that's what appears to be taking place in Kentucky and Texas. It's talking about state-sponsored religion. Now, the Supreme Court is going to listen to these two cases. So, why are they listening to these two cases and still rejecting yours?
MOORE: Because again, it's not about religion, it's about God. And these cases both deny the sovereignty of God surrounding the monument and the plaque with historical documents, which deny the sovereignty of God -- place God as a matter of history, not as a present day reality. My monument actually, I said, disacknowledged (ph) the sovereignty of God and the moral foundation of our laws.
PHILLIPS: So, what...
MOORE: So, there's a difference in what, you know, the cases are about.
PHILLIPS: So, you see a difference among all the cases. Well, let's talk about just the issue -- there's been a lot of talk about, hey, this controversy is about God. It is about national morality. It's about hypocrisy of the court.
MOORE: That's right.
PHILLIPS: Is it about all three? Is it about one more...
MOORE: It is.
PHILLIPS: It is about all three?
MOORE: It's about all three. I mean, you know, long ago, Washington, in his farewell address, recognized that if we distanced ourselves from God and our faith in God, then we lose our national morality, no matter how wise or intelligent we may think we are.
He said whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of a peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.
What he said was if we forget our relationship with God, we will lose our national morality. And indeed, we're losing our morality across this country. Our morality is not established in the Constitution or in a book, it comes from the Bible and from a recognition that our moral basis was in God.
PHILLIPS: Well, are you feeling any justice at all, with the decision that the higher court will listen to the Texas and Kentucky cases?
MOORE: Well, I'm glad they'll listen. I hope they recognize that it's about God and that they have no authority or right to deny the acknowledgement of God. And that's what, you know, the Constitution Restoration Act, which the Foundation for Moral Law and myself have sponsored in Washington, is about -- is about that federal courts have no authority over the recognition of God. That was left to the states by and through the First Amendment. And indeed, Congress and the Supreme Court are precluded from interfering with that relationship.
PHILLIPS: Where is the two-ton Ten Commandments granite monument that was once in your rotunda? Where is it now?
MOORE: A group of veterans are taking it around the country. It was last in Illinois -- I believe as of yesterday -- and is going to Ohio today.
PHILLIPS: So, I'm curious: Are you going to run for chief justice in 2006?
MOORE: Well, I haven't said what I'll do, and I haven't really made those plans. Right now, I'm writing a book and hope that I live through writing the book, because it's a different experience.
PHILLIPS: Former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore, thank you for your time today.
MOORE: Thank you, Kyra. Nice to be with you.
PHILLIPS: Miles?
O'BRIEN: Successful insurgent hunt, or a botched mission? A closer look at a controversial U.S. air strike in Iraq. We'll have the story for you ahead.
Also, free money -- yes, free money -- available for millions of college students. But wait, there's more. The problem is: Where do you find it? We'll explain in our business report.
And politics and pork bellies: We'll take you to one small town where the animals appear to be running the political asylum.
ANNOUNCER: You're watching LIVE FROM on CNN, the most trusted name in news.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: There's some video from an F-16 fighter jet circulating on the Internet. It has been for months. And it is generating more debate on civilian casualties in Iraq.
The video shows what the U.S. Military calls a legitimate strike against hostile forces. But Iraqis say otherwise. A warning: Some of the video you're about to see is graphic.
Here is our senior Pentagon correspondent Jamie McIntyre.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SR. PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Saturday, April 10th capped a bloody week in Falluja. Hundreds of Iraqis were killed by U.S. Marines who were still pushing into the insurgent stronghold, even as members of Iraq's governing council were negotiating a cease-fire. U.S. Air Force F-16s dropped more bombs in support of the Marine offensive that Saturday than on any day that week.
A cockpit video of one such engagement, never officially released, has circulated on the Internet for months. CNN has confirmed it's authentic. The 53-second clip provides a rare look at how the U.S. uses what it calls "precision air strikes" in urban areas to support ground operations.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've got numerous individuals on the road. You want me to take those out.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Take them out.
MCINTYRE: According to a U.S. Military account, the order to take them out is from a forward air controller on the ground with the Marines, whose job is to confirm the targets are hostile before calling in the bombs. The original target was said to be a nearby building where Marines had been trading fire with the insurgents before they allegedly fled into the street.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ten seconds.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Roger.
MCINTYRE: The U.S. says the ground controller could see the situation before he cleared the pilot to drop a 500-pound bomb.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Impact.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, dude.
MCINTYRE: Experts who have reviewed the tape at CNN's request say whether the strike was legitimate hinges entirely on whether the controller was right.
JAMES CARAFANO, MILITARY LAW ANALYST: The challenge there is for the guy who has his eye on the targets, his responsibility to identify the target to the aircraft.
LT. GEN. ROBERT GARD, INTL. SECURITY CONSULTANT: My first reaction to it was I wondered where the air controller was and whether he could identify that as a group of insurgents, or whether he was somewhere remote from that area and didn't know for sure.
MCINTYRE: In an interview with Channel 4 television in the U.K., a doctor who says he was at the hospital in Falluja in April claimed the dead were innocent civilians. At the time, fierce fighting across Falluja was filling the local hospital with numerous casualties, including women and children.
And some wonder whether it's logical for insurgents to move in a large group that would make them vulnerable to air strikes.
GARD: The only questionable thing is whether or not the well- disciplined and competent insurgents would pour out of a building onto a wide street without any cover.
On the other hand, we do know that there are a number of insurgents who are poorly trained who, out of anger or frustration, have taken up arms. And it's quite possible that they were insurgents.
MCINTYRE (on camera): Even the most precise air strikes can result in unintended civilian casualties. But the U.S. Military insists this strike was by the book and carefully followed rules designed to minimize the risk of innocent lives.
Jamie McIntyre, CNN, the Pentagon.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: And a story that we mentioned earlier, preservationists in Los Angeles say the city is turning its back on an important piece of U.S. history right in its own backyard.
CNN's Thelma Gutierrez has the story of the battle over the Ambassador Hotel.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
THELMA GUTIERREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In its heyday, the Ambassador was a grand hotel.
LINDA DISHMAN, L.A. CONSERVANCY: Judy Garland to Lena Horne, Barbra Streisand...
GUTIERREZ: A beacon for stars and politicians. And in 1968, one presidential candidate was murdered here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Here we are, near the area where Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated -- behind these doors.
GUTIERREZ: But the Ambassador Hotel, since 1921, a witness to history, could soon become history itself.
ROY ROMER, LAUSD SUPERINTENDENT: Would take the tower down and the old ballroom building down...
GUTIERREZ: In its place, a new $318 million K through 12 school complex for inner city children who are currently bused far away.
JOSE HUIZAR, LAUSD BOARD PRESIDENT: We bus 3,000 students to parts of the city about an hour away, two hours away, because we do not have space.
GUTIERREZ: This is where the controversy begins. The Los Angeles Conservancy wants the hotel preserved, converted into a school.
DISHMAN: The building works very well for educational services.
ROMER: It just doesn't work.
GUTIERREZ: Superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District, which owns the 23-acre site, says preservation is just too expensive.
ROMER: It would cost us roughly another $100 million. We can't afford that.
GUTIERREZ: So, Superintendent Roy Romer came up with a plan to save parts of the building.
ROMER: The view -- we can save the Coconut Grove, we can save the coffee shop. We can save the roof of the ballroom.
GUTIERREZ: The cost of the Romer plan -- an extra $15 million. But even that plan is drawing fire.
MAXWELL KENNEDY, RFK COALITION: It's absolutely inappropriate.
GUTIERREZ: Maxwell Kennedy is Robert Kennedy's son.
KENNEDY: This is a photograph of my father breaking bread with Cesar Chavez.
GUTIERREZ: Kennedy says the last thing his father would have wanted was to spend any education money on preservation.
KENNEDY: My father felt, above all, that the most important thing you can do for society is to educate the youth. And so, to take the money that's been set aside to educate the poorest people in this community and to spend it on preserving a building is exactly, I think, what he would not have wanted.
DISHMAN: Our view is that the site belongs to many more people than just the Kennedy family.
GUTIERREZ: If the Romer plan passes, the school complex would open in 2008.
Thelma Gutierrez, CNN, Los Angeles.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: Well, we all know paying for college is tough, but even tougher when you're passing up free money. Rhonda, what's the word on this one?
RHONDA SCHAFFLER, CNN SR. BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Miles, apparently many students are eligible for financial aid, but they're simply not applying for it. More details coming up when LIVE FROM continues after this break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: A former Seattle teacher who served more than seven years in prison for raping one of her students now plans to marry him. Mary Kay LeTourneau had two children with Vili Fualaau. He was 13 when the two began a sexual relationship.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LARRY KING, HOST, "LARRY KING LIVE": Do you and Vili want to get married?
MARY KAY LETOURNEAU, FMR. TEACHER: Yes, we do, yeah.
KING: Are you going to?
LETOURNEAU: Yes, we are.
KING: Nothing stops you, right? You can get married. He's of age. You're of age.
LETOURNEAU: Oh, yeah, it's our plan.
KING: This second ring looks like a wedding ring.
LETOURNEAU: Yeah.
KING: Is it?
LETOURNEAU: That is an engagement ring.
KING: You're engaged?
LETOURNEAU: Yes.
KING: You have a date? You can tell me...
LETOURNEAU: Not that we're talking about, no.
KING: But -- you mean publicly?
LETOURNEAU: Right.
KING: But do you have one non-publicly...
LETOURNEAU: We have a timeframe, but not a specific date.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: We apologize if you were eating lunch during that. In any case, Mary Kay apparently went to Mary Kay. LeTourneau told King she wouldn't have gotten sexually involved with the teen, then teenager, had she known such an act was a felony. I hope that's the last we hear of that one, Kyra.
PHILLIPS: That's a little painful.
All right. I have something that's going to make you laugh. In Rabbit Hash, Kentucky, just a short hop from Cincinnati, politics is dog eat dog, or dog eat donkey, or donkey eat turtle. And there's no such thing as a free election.
It's the latest in our occasional series, "Tales of Old Kentucky," told by our LIVE FROM favorite duo, reporter and photographer Eric Flack and Drew Cook, from CNN affiliate WAVE in Louisville.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ERIC FLACK, REPORTER, WAVE: It's election time in one tiny northern Kentucky town...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I haven't voted yet -- haven't made my mind up yet.
FLACK: ... where the race for mayor is sure to get dirty. Campaign headquarters is a barn. There's Lulu, the pot bellied pig, running on the feminist ticket.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A lot of the women around here like her for that.
FLACK: Higgins the donkey.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He thinks he can be a real smart ass.
FLACK: He's a Republican.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Higgins can't decide which side of the fence he's on.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Here's our next mayor.
FLACK: There's Rudy, whose campaign promise is not to pee on your tires.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's a turtle that's got, like, three votes. I think -- he's kind of slow in the race.
FLACK: In a town called Rabbit Hash.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We don't want a human, because then people can really go to them with problems. And frankly, in Rabbit Hash, we do just fine when we don't have anyone to report to.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What is it, a person? UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's Kenny Williamson's peacock.
FLACK: It started six years ago when someone thought electing an honorary mayor would also be a good way to raise money for the town.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're going to do a typical Kentucky election, money talks, dollar a vote. You can vote as much as you want. You can have whiskey at the polling place. As a matter of fact, that was encouraged.
FLACK: That's how Goofy the dog got elected.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He was a good mayor. He didn't bite anybody. The little kids, he'd come up and lick their face. He was a really good mayor.
FLACK: But Goofy died.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The state -- we're the only community in the United States that euthanized a public official. We actually thought it would take off.
FLACK: This year, some familiar storylines are developing. Higgins made a pass at Lulu.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He actually tried to get amorous with Lulu.
FLACK: Now she's got the nickname Monica Lulu-insky.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Higgins, come on!
FLACK: And not surprisingly...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Come on, look in the camera. Come on, Higgins.
FLACK: Higgins being called stubborn.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Come on! See if he takes a stand, he's going to stay with it.
FLACK: A black lab named Junior is in the lead. He's fundraising out west.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is kind of a cross between Jackie Kennedy and Mamie Eisenhower.
FLACK: While he's gone, Junior's first lady is running the campaign.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And she is not only his wife, she's also his niece, which is OK in Kentucky.
FLACK: You might think politics is no joke...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But if you think about it, they have a donkey running as a Republican.
FLACK: ... but it is in Rabbit Hash.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The candidate with the most money, meaning the most votes, wins. So, I think they're kind of making fun of the whole political government thing.
FLACK: In Boone County, Eric Flack, WAVE 3 News.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: See, that's it, they're just making fun of the whole political thing. I get it now.
A new study says many low-income college students may not be getting financial aid for one reason, because they're dogs. No, no, because they don't apply for it.
Rhonda Schaffler, joining us from the New York Stock Exchange, with more on that. Hey, Rhonda, quickly, what's this deal about the Yankees, there. You're not really a Yankees fan, are you?
SCHAFFLER: Miles, where's the New York Stock Exchange?
O'BRIEN: Oh, gosh, yes.
SCHAFFLER: What kind of fan would I be if I'm here?
O'BRIEN: There you go, yeah.
SCHAFFLER: It's safest that way.
O'BRIEN: All right. Let's talk about college, because I'm looking for a free ride for my kids, big time. How do I get -- how do I do it?
SCHAFFLER: Well, you might be able to. Missed opportunities here is what we're going to tell you about.
Some four million students enrolled in colleges during the 1999- 2000 academic year did not file for financial aid. This is according to a study done by the American Council on Education. And that number includes 1.7 million low- and moderate-income student.
So, who is saying no to free money? More than two-thirds of community college students fail to apply, and 42 percent of four-year institutions didn't bother either. Some students may have neglected to apply because they got funding elsewhere. But others might have simply been confused by the application process, which is complex.
The study also points out that many students suffer by turning in their forms late. There is no deadline for federal aid, but many states require financial aid forms be submitted before April 1st.
As for the market here today, stocks broadly lower. The Dow losing some ground, off 34 points. Nasdaq is down more than half a percent.
That is the latest from Wall Street. Coming up in the next half hour of LIVE FROM, Florida's orange farmers are getting squeezed. I'll have the latest hurricane damage numbers.
In the meantime, Kyra, Miles, all yours.
PHILLIPS: All right, straight ahead, security concerns along the Canadian border. Come up in the second hour of LIVE FROM, new efforts to prevent Canada from becoming a staging ground for terrorism.
LIVE FROM continues right after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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 October 12, 2004 - 13:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Time to check some stories now in the news.
Syria says it's foiled a plot to kill the leader of the Hamas militant group. Security and government sources are telling CNN they've arrested four people sent by the Israeli intelligence agency, the Mossad. Israel is denying the allegation.
In Los Angeles, a vote expected today on whether to preserve the hotel where Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in 1968. One plan favored by the Kennedy family calls for the destruction of the Ambassador Hotel and a building of a school in its place. The L.A. Conservatory wants to preserve the hotel and convert it into a school.
Jury selection underway, round two of the World Trade Center insurance trial. The Trade Center's leaseholder argues two separate attacks brought down the World Trade Center on 9/11 and, therefore, he says he should receive $7 billion in insurance money, twice the single payout. In May, a federal jury ruled the attack was a single event, however.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: A surprise from the Supreme Court: It's agreeing to consider the contentious issue of displaying the Ten Commandments on public property. The cases come from Texas and Kentucky.
Last week, the court rejected an appeal from former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore. He lost his job for defying a federal order to take down a monument to the Ten Commandments. Roy Moore is with us now in Montgomery with reaction on what took place today.
Good to see you, Chief Justice.
ROY MOORE, FMR. ALABAMA CHIEF JUSTICE: Nice to be with you, Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Well, I know you're working a busy schedule, and we appreciate you being with us. But I'm very curious to your first reaction when you heard that the justices will listen to the Texas and Kentucky case, but rejected yours.
MOORE: Well, of course I was disappointed they rejected mine. And I'm pleased that they're finally addressing cases regarding the Ten Commandments. But we've got to understand what the real issue here is that -- not about the Ten Commandments at all, it's about the acknowledgement of God. And that's the reason they objected to my case, because my case acknowledged the sovereignty of God by the display of the Ten Commandments.
The cases of McCreary County, Kentucky, and Van Orden v. Perry in Texas, both start from the wrong premise that you can only acknowledge God if you surround it by other historical documents to make God a matter of history. And if you start from the wrong premise, you reach the wrong result.
So, I'm not sure this is going to be a victory at all. And I'm concerned about what the court would rule. And I think that some day they will have to address whether or not we as Americans can acknowledge God, which is the very basis of our organic law.
PHILLIPS: But that's what appears to be taking place in Kentucky and Texas. It's talking about state-sponsored religion. Now, the Supreme Court is going to listen to these two cases. So, why are they listening to these two cases and still rejecting yours?
MOORE: Because again, it's not about religion, it's about God. And these cases both deny the sovereignty of God surrounding the monument and the plaque with historical documents, which deny the sovereignty of God -- place God as a matter of history, not as a present day reality. My monument actually, I said, disacknowledged (ph) the sovereignty of God and the moral foundation of our laws.
PHILLIPS: So, what...
MOORE: So, there's a difference in what, you know, the cases are about.
PHILLIPS: So, you see a difference among all the cases. Well, let's talk about just the issue -- there's been a lot of talk about, hey, this controversy is about God. It is about national morality. It's about hypocrisy of the court.
MOORE: That's right.
PHILLIPS: Is it about all three? Is it about one more...
MOORE: It is.
PHILLIPS: It is about all three?
MOORE: It's about all three. I mean, you know, long ago, Washington, in his farewell address, recognized that if we distanced ourselves from God and our faith in God, then we lose our national morality, no matter how wise or intelligent we may think we are.
He said whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of a peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.
What he said was if we forget our relationship with God, we will lose our national morality. And indeed, we're losing our morality across this country. Our morality is not established in the Constitution or in a book, it comes from the Bible and from a recognition that our moral basis was in God.
PHILLIPS: Well, are you feeling any justice at all, with the decision that the higher court will listen to the Texas and Kentucky cases?
MOORE: Well, I'm glad they'll listen. I hope they recognize that it's about God and that they have no authority or right to deny the acknowledgement of God. And that's what, you know, the Constitution Restoration Act, which the Foundation for Moral Law and myself have sponsored in Washington, is about -- is about that federal courts have no authority over the recognition of God. That was left to the states by and through the First Amendment. And indeed, Congress and the Supreme Court are precluded from interfering with that relationship.
PHILLIPS: Where is the two-ton Ten Commandments granite monument that was once in your rotunda? Where is it now?
MOORE: A group of veterans are taking it around the country. It was last in Illinois -- I believe as of yesterday -- and is going to Ohio today.
PHILLIPS: So, I'm curious: Are you going to run for chief justice in 2006?
MOORE: Well, I haven't said what I'll do, and I haven't really made those plans. Right now, I'm writing a book and hope that I live through writing the book, because it's a different experience.
PHILLIPS: Former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore, thank you for your time today.
MOORE: Thank you, Kyra. Nice to be with you.
PHILLIPS: Miles?
O'BRIEN: Successful insurgent hunt, or a botched mission? A closer look at a controversial U.S. air strike in Iraq. We'll have the story for you ahead.
Also, free money -- yes, free money -- available for millions of college students. But wait, there's more. The problem is: Where do you find it? We'll explain in our business report.
And politics and pork bellies: We'll take you to one small town where the animals appear to be running the political asylum.
ANNOUNCER: You're watching LIVE FROM on CNN, the most trusted name in news.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: There's some video from an F-16 fighter jet circulating on the Internet. It has been for months. And it is generating more debate on civilian casualties in Iraq.
The video shows what the U.S. Military calls a legitimate strike against hostile forces. But Iraqis say otherwise. A warning: Some of the video you're about to see is graphic.
Here is our senior Pentagon correspondent Jamie McIntyre.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SR. PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Saturday, April 10th capped a bloody week in Falluja. Hundreds of Iraqis were killed by U.S. Marines who were still pushing into the insurgent stronghold, even as members of Iraq's governing council were negotiating a cease-fire. U.S. Air Force F-16s dropped more bombs in support of the Marine offensive that Saturday than on any day that week.
A cockpit video of one such engagement, never officially released, has circulated on the Internet for months. CNN has confirmed it's authentic. The 53-second clip provides a rare look at how the U.S. uses what it calls "precision air strikes" in urban areas to support ground operations.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've got numerous individuals on the road. You want me to take those out.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Take them out.
MCINTYRE: According to a U.S. Military account, the order to take them out is from a forward air controller on the ground with the Marines, whose job is to confirm the targets are hostile before calling in the bombs. The original target was said to be a nearby building where Marines had been trading fire with the insurgents before they allegedly fled into the street.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ten seconds.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Roger.
MCINTYRE: The U.S. says the ground controller could see the situation before he cleared the pilot to drop a 500-pound bomb.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Impact.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, dude.
MCINTYRE: Experts who have reviewed the tape at CNN's request say whether the strike was legitimate hinges entirely on whether the controller was right.
JAMES CARAFANO, MILITARY LAW ANALYST: The challenge there is for the guy who has his eye on the targets, his responsibility to identify the target to the aircraft.
LT. GEN. ROBERT GARD, INTL. SECURITY CONSULTANT: My first reaction to it was I wondered where the air controller was and whether he could identify that as a group of insurgents, or whether he was somewhere remote from that area and didn't know for sure.
MCINTYRE: In an interview with Channel 4 television in the U.K., a doctor who says he was at the hospital in Falluja in April claimed the dead were innocent civilians. At the time, fierce fighting across Falluja was filling the local hospital with numerous casualties, including women and children.
And some wonder whether it's logical for insurgents to move in a large group that would make them vulnerable to air strikes.
GARD: The only questionable thing is whether or not the well- disciplined and competent insurgents would pour out of a building onto a wide street without any cover.
On the other hand, we do know that there are a number of insurgents who are poorly trained who, out of anger or frustration, have taken up arms. And it's quite possible that they were insurgents.
MCINTYRE (on camera): Even the most precise air strikes can result in unintended civilian casualties. But the U.S. Military insists this strike was by the book and carefully followed rules designed to minimize the risk of innocent lives.
Jamie McIntyre, CNN, the Pentagon.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: And a story that we mentioned earlier, preservationists in Los Angeles say the city is turning its back on an important piece of U.S. history right in its own backyard.
CNN's Thelma Gutierrez has the story of the battle over the Ambassador Hotel.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
THELMA GUTIERREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In its heyday, the Ambassador was a grand hotel.
LINDA DISHMAN, L.A. CONSERVANCY: Judy Garland to Lena Horne, Barbra Streisand...
GUTIERREZ: A beacon for stars and politicians. And in 1968, one presidential candidate was murdered here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Here we are, near the area where Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated -- behind these doors.
GUTIERREZ: But the Ambassador Hotel, since 1921, a witness to history, could soon become history itself.
ROY ROMER, LAUSD SUPERINTENDENT: Would take the tower down and the old ballroom building down...
GUTIERREZ: In its place, a new $318 million K through 12 school complex for inner city children who are currently bused far away.
JOSE HUIZAR, LAUSD BOARD PRESIDENT: We bus 3,000 students to parts of the city about an hour away, two hours away, because we do not have space.
GUTIERREZ: This is where the controversy begins. The Los Angeles Conservancy wants the hotel preserved, converted into a school.
DISHMAN: The building works very well for educational services.
ROMER: It just doesn't work.
GUTIERREZ: Superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District, which owns the 23-acre site, says preservation is just too expensive.
ROMER: It would cost us roughly another $100 million. We can't afford that.
GUTIERREZ: So, Superintendent Roy Romer came up with a plan to save parts of the building.
ROMER: The view -- we can save the Coconut Grove, we can save the coffee shop. We can save the roof of the ballroom.
GUTIERREZ: The cost of the Romer plan -- an extra $15 million. But even that plan is drawing fire.
MAXWELL KENNEDY, RFK COALITION: It's absolutely inappropriate.
GUTIERREZ: Maxwell Kennedy is Robert Kennedy's son.
KENNEDY: This is a photograph of my father breaking bread with Cesar Chavez.
GUTIERREZ: Kennedy says the last thing his father would have wanted was to spend any education money on preservation.
KENNEDY: My father felt, above all, that the most important thing you can do for society is to educate the youth. And so, to take the money that's been set aside to educate the poorest people in this community and to spend it on preserving a building is exactly, I think, what he would not have wanted.
DISHMAN: Our view is that the site belongs to many more people than just the Kennedy family.
GUTIERREZ: If the Romer plan passes, the school complex would open in 2008.
Thelma Gutierrez, CNN, Los Angeles.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: Well, we all know paying for college is tough, but even tougher when you're passing up free money. Rhonda, what's the word on this one?
RHONDA SCHAFFLER, CNN SR. BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Miles, apparently many students are eligible for financial aid, but they're simply not applying for it. More details coming up when LIVE FROM continues after this break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: A former Seattle teacher who served more than seven years in prison for raping one of her students now plans to marry him. Mary Kay LeTourneau had two children with Vili Fualaau. He was 13 when the two began a sexual relationship.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LARRY KING, HOST, "LARRY KING LIVE": Do you and Vili want to get married?
MARY KAY LETOURNEAU, FMR. TEACHER: Yes, we do, yeah.
KING: Are you going to?
LETOURNEAU: Yes, we are.
KING: Nothing stops you, right? You can get married. He's of age. You're of age.
LETOURNEAU: Oh, yeah, it's our plan.
KING: This second ring looks like a wedding ring.
LETOURNEAU: Yeah.
KING: Is it?
LETOURNEAU: That is an engagement ring.
KING: You're engaged?
LETOURNEAU: Yes.
KING: You have a date? You can tell me...
LETOURNEAU: Not that we're talking about, no.
KING: But -- you mean publicly?
LETOURNEAU: Right.
KING: But do you have one non-publicly...
LETOURNEAU: We have a timeframe, but not a specific date.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: We apologize if you were eating lunch during that. In any case, Mary Kay apparently went to Mary Kay. LeTourneau told King she wouldn't have gotten sexually involved with the teen, then teenager, had she known such an act was a felony. I hope that's the last we hear of that one, Kyra.
PHILLIPS: That's a little painful.
All right. I have something that's going to make you laugh. In Rabbit Hash, Kentucky, just a short hop from Cincinnati, politics is dog eat dog, or dog eat donkey, or donkey eat turtle. And there's no such thing as a free election.
It's the latest in our occasional series, "Tales of Old Kentucky," told by our LIVE FROM favorite duo, reporter and photographer Eric Flack and Drew Cook, from CNN affiliate WAVE in Louisville.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ERIC FLACK, REPORTER, WAVE: It's election time in one tiny northern Kentucky town...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I haven't voted yet -- haven't made my mind up yet.
FLACK: ... where the race for mayor is sure to get dirty. Campaign headquarters is a barn. There's Lulu, the pot bellied pig, running on the feminist ticket.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A lot of the women around here like her for that.
FLACK: Higgins the donkey.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He thinks he can be a real smart ass.
FLACK: He's a Republican.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Higgins can't decide which side of the fence he's on.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Here's our next mayor.
FLACK: There's Rudy, whose campaign promise is not to pee on your tires.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's a turtle that's got, like, three votes. I think -- he's kind of slow in the race.
FLACK: In a town called Rabbit Hash.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We don't want a human, because then people can really go to them with problems. And frankly, in Rabbit Hash, we do just fine when we don't have anyone to report to.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What is it, a person? UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's Kenny Williamson's peacock.
FLACK: It started six years ago when someone thought electing an honorary mayor would also be a good way to raise money for the town.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're going to do a typical Kentucky election, money talks, dollar a vote. You can vote as much as you want. You can have whiskey at the polling place. As a matter of fact, that was encouraged.
FLACK: That's how Goofy the dog got elected.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He was a good mayor. He didn't bite anybody. The little kids, he'd come up and lick their face. He was a really good mayor.
FLACK: But Goofy died.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The state -- we're the only community in the United States that euthanized a public official. We actually thought it would take off.
FLACK: This year, some familiar storylines are developing. Higgins made a pass at Lulu.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He actually tried to get amorous with Lulu.
FLACK: Now she's got the nickname Monica Lulu-insky.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Higgins, come on!
FLACK: And not surprisingly...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Come on, look in the camera. Come on, Higgins.
FLACK: Higgins being called stubborn.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Come on! See if he takes a stand, he's going to stay with it.
FLACK: A black lab named Junior is in the lead. He's fundraising out west.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is kind of a cross between Jackie Kennedy and Mamie Eisenhower.
FLACK: While he's gone, Junior's first lady is running the campaign.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And she is not only his wife, she's also his niece, which is OK in Kentucky.
FLACK: You might think politics is no joke...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But if you think about it, they have a donkey running as a Republican.
FLACK: ... but it is in Rabbit Hash.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The candidate with the most money, meaning the most votes, wins. So, I think they're kind of making fun of the whole political government thing.
FLACK: In Boone County, Eric Flack, WAVE 3 News.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: See, that's it, they're just making fun of the whole political thing. I get it now.
A new study says many low-income college students may not be getting financial aid for one reason, because they're dogs. No, no, because they don't apply for it.
Rhonda Schaffler, joining us from the New York Stock Exchange, with more on that. Hey, Rhonda, quickly, what's this deal about the Yankees, there. You're not really a Yankees fan, are you?
SCHAFFLER: Miles, where's the New York Stock Exchange?
O'BRIEN: Oh, gosh, yes.
SCHAFFLER: What kind of fan would I be if I'm here?
O'BRIEN: There you go, yeah.
SCHAFFLER: It's safest that way.
O'BRIEN: All right. Let's talk about college, because I'm looking for a free ride for my kids, big time. How do I get -- how do I do it?
SCHAFFLER: Well, you might be able to. Missed opportunities here is what we're going to tell you about.
Some four million students enrolled in colleges during the 1999- 2000 academic year did not file for financial aid. This is according to a study done by the American Council on Education. And that number includes 1.7 million low- and moderate-income student.
So, who is saying no to free money? More than two-thirds of community college students fail to apply, and 42 percent of four-year institutions didn't bother either. Some students may have neglected to apply because they got funding elsewhere. But others might have simply been confused by the application process, which is complex.
The study also points out that many students suffer by turning in their forms late. There is no deadline for federal aid, but many states require financial aid forms be submitted before April 1st.
As for the market here today, stocks broadly lower. The Dow losing some ground, off 34 points. Nasdaq is down more than half a percent.
That is the latest from Wall Street. Coming up in the next half hour of LIVE FROM, Florida's orange farmers are getting squeezed. I'll have the latest hurricane damage numbers.
In the meantime, Kyra, Miles, all yours.
PHILLIPS: All right, straight ahead, security concerns along the Canadian border. Come up in the second hour of LIVE FROM, new efforts to prevent Canada from becoming a staging ground for terrorism.
LIVE FROM continues right after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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