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Conflicting Information Emerges Over Missing Explosives; Kerry Stumps in Florida; Red Sox Pitcher Calls Off Bush Appearance; Yasser Arafat Flown to Paris for Treatment; FBI Renews Halliburton Investigation
Aired October 29, 2004 - 13:00 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.
KYRA PHILLIPS, HOST: What happened to tons of powerful explosives missing from an Iraq military compound? The Pentagon comes forward with new information.
Four days to determine who will lead this country for four years. We're live from the campaign trail as the countdown is on.
The ballot battle: disputes, lawsuits and challenges even before most of Americans cast their votes.
And postponing a facelift for a little pick-me-up. We're going to show you why more people are opting for this cosmetic surgery.
From the CNN center, I'm Kyra Phillips. Miles is off. CNN's LIVE FROM starts right now.
Who knew about the weapons at the al Qa Qaa military compound, and when did they know it? The finger pointing continues over more than 350 tons of missing explosives, and it remains an explosive issue in the waning days of the presidential campaign.
Now video shot by a U.S. TV crew embedded with the Army ratchets up the controversy.
CNN Barbara Starr on what the pictures show and how the Pentagon is responding. Officials just wrapped up a news conference there about ten minutes ago -- Barbara.
BARBARA STARR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Indeed, Kyra, this story continues to grow at the Pentagon in Washington and, of course, across the campaign trail every day this week.
There are a number of developments. We have just finished a half hour briefing with the top political aide to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Larry Di Rita, accompanied by a U.S. Army major to the podium of the briefing room here.
This Army major involved in some of the technical issues. He says he was with the unit that arrived at the al Qa Qaa weapons facility on April 13. And his munitions unit removed 250 tons of material. What he cannot say, even from the Pentagon podium, is that any of that material was under seal by the International Atomic Energy Agency, that it was any of the material that has been under question for the last several days. Major Austin Pearson told reporters that it was about 250 tons, he believes. It did include plastic explosives, detonation cord, some of the type of material that has been of concern.
But he was very clear, having been brought to the podium by Secretary Rumsfeld's aides, that he could not testify to the fact that it was the material that the IAEA has been concerned about.
Now, we're going to listen to what Major Pearson had to say for just a minute.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAJOR AUSTIN PEARSON, U.S. ARMY: I did not see any IAEA seals at the locations that we went into. I was not looking for that. My mission specifically was to go in there and to prevent the exposure of U.S. forces and to minimize that by taking out what was easily accessible and putting it back and bringing it into our captured ammunition holding area.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
STARR: Now, so what he's talking about is that he cannot match up this is the material that the IAEA has expressed concern about.
The dates are very interesting, Kyra. He was there on April 13. If was April 18 when a television crew from an ABC affiliate in the United States arrived at that site and filmed and taped soldiers going into some of these locked bunkers, opening up some of these materials that clearly were under IAEA seal.
That was five days after this major was there, removed materials and said he not say that he saw anything under any type of international regulatory seal.
So, Kyra, the bottom line is we've had this half hour briefing, but it is not at all clear that it really addresses the point -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: All right. I have someone now, Barbara, who's going to try to make it a little more clear. And that's the story as seen by Dean Staley, who was embedded with the 101st Airborne Division when they first got to al Qa Qaa, nine days after the fall of Baghdad.
Dean now works as an anchor in Seattle. And I talked with him just a short while ago about a day in Iraq he almost had forgotten but is now the hottest story to hit the headlines.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Dean, when you were deployed with the 101st airborne, tell me what your assignment was, what kind of stories you were turning with them.
DEAN STALEY, FORMER EMBED: Well, basically we were covering all of the movements of our unit, which was an aviation unit. And they were involved with, you know, flying the Black Hawk helicopters and taking soldiers, you know, infantry soldiers into the fight.
So you pick up the infantry soldiers at a given point. You fly them into the fight. You drop them off. You go back, and you get more. That was their part of the war effort. That was their specialty, air assault.
PHILLIPS: And then you reached a time where it was pretty quiet. You were sort of hanging out with these guys while other things were taking place in Baghdad.
STALEY: That's right. It was a week after Baghdad had fallen. We were camped outside of Baghdad, about a half hour, maybe 45 minutes south of Baghdad. And the unit, really, was just waiting for orders for the next mission. No one was clear what we would be doing next.
And that's when my photographer and I talked to a couple of people in our unit and said, "Let's go out and drive around and see what we can see." And that's when we drove north into this area that we now know as al Qa Qaa and found these bunkers that we got video of that everyone is talking about right now.
PHILLIPS: So you say to the guys, "Let's look for a story. It's a little slow right now." You drive around in the Humvee. Doesn't surprise me, because I remember you as a reporter in Green Bay. You were always looking for a good story.
And you come across this complex. When you went inside, tell me what you saw at first.
STALEY: We saw stacks and stacks of crates. In other bunkers, we saw stacks and stacks of boxes that were probably stacked higher than waist high, about chest high covering almost the entire floor of the bunker, a pretty good-sized area.
In all of these books, all these crates, and in some cases some cardboard barrels with powder inside marked "explosive" on the outside. So we knew that we were in a bunker filled with explosives.
We didn't have the expertise to tell, you know, exactly what we were looking at the entire time. But clearly, these were all parts of some sort of, you know, bomb making.
PHILLIPS: So, when you and the soldiers got back to camp, did the soldiers go to their superiors and say, "You're not going to believe what we came across?"
STALEY: No, they didn't. This was not an official mission. They, just as we, had been outside of, you know, the perimeter of our camp just to look around and see what was out there.
And remember, at the time, everyone was talking about weapons of mass destruction. So, to find an abandoned military complex that had conventional weapons, I mean, it was clear to us that this didn't look like chemical weapons. It didn't look to us like, you know, weapons of mass destruction. It looked to us like the makings of some sort of large conventional bombs. That to us didn't seem like a particularly big news story. And I don't think it struck the soldiers that we were with as any, you know -- any find that surprised them. But we were shocked at just how much of this stuff there was, and we were a little bit surprised at the scope. I mean, this compound was a huge area.
But, really everyone had on their minds, "Where are the weapons of mass destruction?" And the fact that this place was not being guarded, you know, I sort of rationalized that by saying, "Well, maybe that's because the Army knows that they won't find weapons of mass destruction here. And they're busy looking in other places where they think there's a higher probability of finding the WMD. And that's why this place is just essentially being left open."
PHILLIPS: Wow. All right, so time goes on. You sort of forget about this place, I guess, a little bit. And you're reading the paper. The story comes out about these explosives. Take me -- take me to the next step from there.
STALEY: Well, I read the "New York Times" this last Monday. And of course I read the story about the explosives that had gone missing. And immediately, just from the general description of where this facility was and the description of, you know, these bunkers and how these things might have been stored, I said to myself, "I think we might have been there."
So I immediately called Joe Caffrey, my good friend and photojournalist, who works in Minneapolis, who actually shot the video. I said, "Joe, look at the video. I think we were at this place. You ought to take a look."
So he looked at the video. Other people looked at the video. And the more people that looked at it, the more people they showed it to who had expertise in terms of people who know something about explosives and this sort of ordnance, the more and more convinced we became that this was actually from al Qa Qaa.
And in fact, one of the crates actually has on the outside, printed, "al Qa Qaa" on it. So there was -- there were lots of reasons to believe that we were in fact in this place.
PHILLIPS: So what do you think now that this has come to light? I know you're glad you saved those tapes now, or at least Joe saved the tapes, right?
STALEY: Yes.
PHILLIPS: What does this mean for you as a journalist? I mean, this is sort of the story that you sort of hope you come across and that it somehow it makes an impact in your career at one point or another.
STALEY: Well, you're encouraged -- I mean, it's always encouraging and it always feels good to feel like you were a part of adding something to the body of knowledge. And I tried to do that cautiously. Because I want to remind people that I don't know for certain that the explosives that we were looking at are the explosives that later went missing. I mean, we could have very well been at al Qa Qaa looking at explosives that were not guarded that may -- and they may have been looted as well. But they may not be the same explosives that everyone is talking about right now.
But we are able to add to the body of information and the larger puzzle the fact that there were explosives there. This was well after Baghdad had fallen. The U.S. was in control of this area, and no one was guarding these explosives. This much I know is an absolute fact.
PHILLIPS: So if anything, hopefully this is one step closer to the truth.
STALEY: Absolutely.
PHILLIPS: And we're going to hear more from Dean Staley coming up in 2 p.m. hour.
Well, it's finally here, or almost: the last weekend of the presidential campaign of 2004. When it all began well over a year ago, we might have known Iraq, the economy and terror would be big. And Ohio, Florida and Pennsylvania would get a lot of the candidates' attention. We were right.
John Kerry is in Florida all day Orlando to West Palm Beach, Miami, and the final stop, again co-starring a famous ally from Jersey.
CNN's famous Frank Buckley is at West Palm Beach.
Hi, Frank.
FRANK BUCKLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Kyra.
Time to put on those comfortable shoes as we enter the final sprint of this campaign. As you said, Senator Kerry spending the entire day in Florida. At the end of the day, going to Wisconsin. Spending time over the next few days in the Midwest. Heading up to New Hampshire, back to Florida. A lot of time on the road between now and Tuesday.
This morning Senator Kerry spoke in Orlando, delivering a speech that he called a, quote, "summary of my case." The campaign saying the Senator is trying to tie together all the threads and themes of the campaign.
Kerry saying that Americans had a choice to make in the next four days, a choice between four more years of the, quote, "same failed course" or a fresh start with Kerry.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOHN KERRY (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: In the next four days a woman is going to walk into a voting booth thinking about the husband that she said good-bye to four months ago, or a husband will think about the wife he said good-bye to four months ago.
She'll wonder how much longer, or he will wonder, they have to stay in Iraq. And when they're all going to see each other again and see their kids. And they'll wonder whether or not they can afford four more years of a president who's unwilling to admit the mistakes that he has made and says he would do everything all over again the same way.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BUCKLEY: Now, Senator Kerry touching on Iraq there. But what we didn't hear in that speech is a specific line of attack on those missing explosives. After four days of stories on that, a senior adviser, Mike McCurry, saying that they believe that they won that argument. They're portraying the administration in a way that suggests that this administration went to war in the worst possible way.
Now they're concentrating on trying to get those few undecided voters to make up their minds, make up their minds in favor of John Kerry, of course. And helping to try to do that tonight, Bruce Springsteen, who added another date, another appearance for the Kerry campaign down here in Florida in the Miami area tonight -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: All right. Frank Buckley, thank you so much.
And George W. Bush is dividing his day between New Hampshire and Ohio. But we can't exactly say he's Schilling for votes.
CNN's Elaine Quijano weighs in from the White House on the president's travels, his talking points and a major league no-show -- Elaine.
ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello to you, Kyra. That's right.
President Bush was to have been joined today by Boston Red Sox pitcher -- I guess we should say world champion Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling in New Hampshire today. But Schilling canceled.
A White House official says that Schilling's doctors said that he shouldn't travel because of an ankle injury.
In any case, President Bush, at that first stop a short time ago in Manchester, New Hampshire, was joined by several September 11 family members. A more solemn tone, their presence there clearly intended to underscore the president's commitment to fighting terrorism, especially as he continues in these final days to make his case that he can better protect America.
Now, the president talked about the Bush doctrine of acting preemptively against perceived terror threats abroad to make Americans safer domestically.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Our strategy to win the war on terror is succeeding. We are shrinking the area where terrorists can operate freely. We have the terrorists on the run.
And so long as I am your president, we'll be determined and steadfast, and we will keep the terrorists on the run.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
QUIJANO: Now, at that appearance, a bit of an unscripted moment. It happened in the last few minutes of the president's speech as he was talking to Arlene Howard. Now, she is the mother of George Howard. He was a Port Authority officer who was killed September 11. And his badge is one that President Bush carries with him.
But here is what happened just a short time ago in Manchester, New Hampshire.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BUSH: I will never forget the fallen. God bless you, Arlene.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
QUIJANO: Now, a bit hard to tell there, but you see the confetti starting to fall down. According to Bush aides, what happened is that there was a miscue. President Bush there, you heard him say, "God bless you." That was the cue -- supposed to be, for the confetti.
But the president actually said it twice. The first time -- you heard it there -- that was not to be the moment that the confetti was to be launched. In any case the president continued on with his speech.
The president at this hour moving on to Portsmouth, New Hampshire. He then goes on to events, two events in Ohio. And Kyra, the tour of battleground states continues over the weekend. We have on tap Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Florida -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: All right. Elaine Quijano, thank you so much.
Straight ahead, Palestinian Authority president Yasser Arafat flies to France for treatment. An update on the ailing leader's health straight ahead.
Also, car dealers tell automakers to put on the brakes. What this could mean or why this could mean the end of those rebates and higher prices for you.
And a dog dials for help. Yes, it's true. It's another one of those amazing stories of a life-saving 911 call. We're going to get on that line later on LIVE FROM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) PHILLIPS: For the first time in almost three years, Yasser Arafat is outside Ramallah today, outside the West Bank, outside the Middle East entirely. The ailing Palestinian icon is undergoing tests at a military hospital near Paris for what may or may not be a life threatening condition.
We get the latest now from CNN's Paula Hancocks -- Paula.
PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Kyra.
Well, these latest health problems for Yasser Arafat started just over two weeks ago. He fell ill with intestinal flu, and it's then that doctors say that they realized there was actually something more seriously wrong with him.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HANCOCKS: Yasser Arafat finally arrived in Paris early Friday afternoon, a seven and half hour journey from his compound in Ramallah, ending at the high security Percy Military Hospital.
His wife, Suha, greeted him at the helicopter, and he was carried on a stretcher inside the hospital. Now the tests begin to try and determine the mystery illness which has struck the Palestinian leader for the last two weeks.
LEILA SHARID, PALESTINIAN ENVOY: He is in the proper place with the proper doctors and in the proper conditions. And I'm sure his strength, his determination to -- to defend his people, to recover his health will allow him to overcome the sickness that he feels these days.
HANCOCKS: This is the first time Arafat has left his Ramallah compound in almost three years. It's no coincidence it's also the first time the Israeli government has guaranteed Arafat a safe return to the West Bank.
French President Jacques Chirac personally authorized the plane to bring Arafat from Jordan to Paris. The French government has a good relationship with the Palestinian Authority.
JACQUES CHIRAC, PRESIDENT OF FRANCE (through translator): We will welcome him and do everything we can for him until he recovers.
HANCOCKS: In June of this year, Chirac sent his foreign minister, Michel Barnier, to the Ramallah compound, a public vote of confidence in Arafat. A different stance to the United States and Israel, who have refused to deal with Arafat for years.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HANCOCKS: Leila Sharid, the Palestinian delegate here in France, also said that President Yasser Arafat was in good shape and conscious when he did actually touch down in that helicopter. She also said that she'd seen him this afternoon in his hospital bed, and he wanted to pass on his gratitude to the French authorities. In addition, Ms. Sharid did say that the medic in charge of Yasser Arafat had said he would need around about three days to make his diagnosis, and we shouldn't expect too much concrete information in the next few days -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Paula Hancocks, thanks so much.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS (voice-over): Next on LIVE FROM.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was getting to the point where I looked in the mirror and I'm like, "I look tired."
PHILLIPS: Younger people opting for a pick me up rather than a facelift. Find out why it's one of the hottest cosmetic procedures.
Later on LIVE FROM, the NAACP reportedly under review by the IRS after a speech critical of President Bush. Could its tax-exempt status be in jeopardy?
Monday on LIVE FROM, down to the wire. We're covering all the twists and turns of the race for the White House on the eve of America's vote.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Well, now a story melding war, politics and money. The FBI is investigating one of those no-bid Iraq war contracts given to the oil services conglomerate formerly headed by Dick Cheney.
CNN's Chris Huntington tells us what puts Halliburton back into the hot seat 96 hours before election day -- Chris.
CHRIS HUNTINGTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, thank you.
Well, law enforcement sources tell CNN that the FBI plans to interview a woman named Bunnatine Greenhouse. She is the chief contracting officer for the Army Corps of Engineers.
Last week Greenhouse came public with allegations that the Army Corps had unfairly awarded its no-bid contract to a Halliburton subsidiary, Kellogg Brown and Root, for repairing and managing Iraq's oil fields.
Greenhouse's lawyer says the FBI has requested the interview. He said that Greenhouse specifically objects to the open-ended duration of that contract, as long as five years, that it should have been for only one year, and that it offered renewal for KBR without regard for competing bids from small or minority contractors.
The lawyer also says that Greenhouse first made her objections known in February of 2003 at a meeting with Army Corps officials and Halliburton representatives. The lawyer goes on to say that the Army has told Greenhouse now that she will, quote, "maintain her position" for the duration of the investigation.
Now, the Army has always said that the no-bid contract to Kellogg Brown and Root was legitimate, because it fell under a pre-existing contract that Halliburton had won competitively to be the Army's sort of on-call contractor for logistical support. That's a contract called LOGCAP.
In early 2003, as the Army prepared for war in Iraq, the Army Corps asked Halliburton to draw up a plan for putting out oil well fires and repairing the Iraqi oil fields.
Lieutenant General Robert Flowers explained the decision making process in a letter to Representative Henry Waxman. He said that on February 14, 2003, after receiving approval from headquarters, the U.S. Army issued a sole source letter contract to KBR under the LOGCAP contract.
Flowers went on to explain that this provides, quote, "maximum flexibility" so that even as the worse case unfolded the Army Corps of Engineers could issue orders of any combination of services without having to negotiate another contract.
Now for its part right now, Halliburton says that the General Accounting Office in Congress earlier this year said that the contract was properly awarded because Halliburton was the only contractor that could do the work.
Halliburton goes on to say that "we look forward to the end of the election, because no matter who is elected president, Halliburton is proud to serve the troops, just as we have over the past 60 years for both Democratic and Republican administrations."
Halliburton clearly making the point that they feel this latest controversial flair-up is politically motivated.
Just one final note, Kyra. In January of 2004, this year, the Army did award two new competitively bid contracts for the Iraqi oil fields. One went to a company called Parsons ENC (ph). Another one went back to Kellogg Brown and Root -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Chris Huntington will follow the FBI investigation. Thank you.
Well, your chances of getting zero percent financing on a new car may be rolling away slowly. Rhonda Schaffler has the story at the New York Stock Exchange -- Rhonda.
(STOCK MARKET REPORT)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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Aired October 29, 2004 - 13:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, HOST: What happened to tons of powerful explosives missing from an Iraq military compound? The Pentagon comes forward with new information.
Four days to determine who will lead this country for four years. We're live from the campaign trail as the countdown is on.
The ballot battle: disputes, lawsuits and challenges even before most of Americans cast their votes.
And postponing a facelift for a little pick-me-up. We're going to show you why more people are opting for this cosmetic surgery.
From the CNN center, I'm Kyra Phillips. Miles is off. CNN's LIVE FROM starts right now.
Who knew about the weapons at the al Qa Qaa military compound, and when did they know it? The finger pointing continues over more than 350 tons of missing explosives, and it remains an explosive issue in the waning days of the presidential campaign.
Now video shot by a U.S. TV crew embedded with the Army ratchets up the controversy.
CNN Barbara Starr on what the pictures show and how the Pentagon is responding. Officials just wrapped up a news conference there about ten minutes ago -- Barbara.
BARBARA STARR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Indeed, Kyra, this story continues to grow at the Pentagon in Washington and, of course, across the campaign trail every day this week.
There are a number of developments. We have just finished a half hour briefing with the top political aide to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Larry Di Rita, accompanied by a U.S. Army major to the podium of the briefing room here.
This Army major involved in some of the technical issues. He says he was with the unit that arrived at the al Qa Qaa weapons facility on April 13. And his munitions unit removed 250 tons of material. What he cannot say, even from the Pentagon podium, is that any of that material was under seal by the International Atomic Energy Agency, that it was any of the material that has been under question for the last several days. Major Austin Pearson told reporters that it was about 250 tons, he believes. It did include plastic explosives, detonation cord, some of the type of material that has been of concern.
But he was very clear, having been brought to the podium by Secretary Rumsfeld's aides, that he could not testify to the fact that it was the material that the IAEA has been concerned about.
Now, we're going to listen to what Major Pearson had to say for just a minute.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAJOR AUSTIN PEARSON, U.S. ARMY: I did not see any IAEA seals at the locations that we went into. I was not looking for that. My mission specifically was to go in there and to prevent the exposure of U.S. forces and to minimize that by taking out what was easily accessible and putting it back and bringing it into our captured ammunition holding area.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
STARR: Now, so what he's talking about is that he cannot match up this is the material that the IAEA has expressed concern about.
The dates are very interesting, Kyra. He was there on April 13. If was April 18 when a television crew from an ABC affiliate in the United States arrived at that site and filmed and taped soldiers going into some of these locked bunkers, opening up some of these materials that clearly were under IAEA seal.
That was five days after this major was there, removed materials and said he not say that he saw anything under any type of international regulatory seal.
So, Kyra, the bottom line is we've had this half hour briefing, but it is not at all clear that it really addresses the point -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: All right. I have someone now, Barbara, who's going to try to make it a little more clear. And that's the story as seen by Dean Staley, who was embedded with the 101st Airborne Division when they first got to al Qa Qaa, nine days after the fall of Baghdad.
Dean now works as an anchor in Seattle. And I talked with him just a short while ago about a day in Iraq he almost had forgotten but is now the hottest story to hit the headlines.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Dean, when you were deployed with the 101st airborne, tell me what your assignment was, what kind of stories you were turning with them.
DEAN STALEY, FORMER EMBED: Well, basically we were covering all of the movements of our unit, which was an aviation unit. And they were involved with, you know, flying the Black Hawk helicopters and taking soldiers, you know, infantry soldiers into the fight.
So you pick up the infantry soldiers at a given point. You fly them into the fight. You drop them off. You go back, and you get more. That was their part of the war effort. That was their specialty, air assault.
PHILLIPS: And then you reached a time where it was pretty quiet. You were sort of hanging out with these guys while other things were taking place in Baghdad.
STALEY: That's right. It was a week after Baghdad had fallen. We were camped outside of Baghdad, about a half hour, maybe 45 minutes south of Baghdad. And the unit, really, was just waiting for orders for the next mission. No one was clear what we would be doing next.
And that's when my photographer and I talked to a couple of people in our unit and said, "Let's go out and drive around and see what we can see." And that's when we drove north into this area that we now know as al Qa Qaa and found these bunkers that we got video of that everyone is talking about right now.
PHILLIPS: So you say to the guys, "Let's look for a story. It's a little slow right now." You drive around in the Humvee. Doesn't surprise me, because I remember you as a reporter in Green Bay. You were always looking for a good story.
And you come across this complex. When you went inside, tell me what you saw at first.
STALEY: We saw stacks and stacks of crates. In other bunkers, we saw stacks and stacks of boxes that were probably stacked higher than waist high, about chest high covering almost the entire floor of the bunker, a pretty good-sized area.
In all of these books, all these crates, and in some cases some cardboard barrels with powder inside marked "explosive" on the outside. So we knew that we were in a bunker filled with explosives.
We didn't have the expertise to tell, you know, exactly what we were looking at the entire time. But clearly, these were all parts of some sort of, you know, bomb making.
PHILLIPS: So, when you and the soldiers got back to camp, did the soldiers go to their superiors and say, "You're not going to believe what we came across?"
STALEY: No, they didn't. This was not an official mission. They, just as we, had been outside of, you know, the perimeter of our camp just to look around and see what was out there.
And remember, at the time, everyone was talking about weapons of mass destruction. So, to find an abandoned military complex that had conventional weapons, I mean, it was clear to us that this didn't look like chemical weapons. It didn't look to us like, you know, weapons of mass destruction. It looked to us like the makings of some sort of large conventional bombs. That to us didn't seem like a particularly big news story. And I don't think it struck the soldiers that we were with as any, you know -- any find that surprised them. But we were shocked at just how much of this stuff there was, and we were a little bit surprised at the scope. I mean, this compound was a huge area.
But, really everyone had on their minds, "Where are the weapons of mass destruction?" And the fact that this place was not being guarded, you know, I sort of rationalized that by saying, "Well, maybe that's because the Army knows that they won't find weapons of mass destruction here. And they're busy looking in other places where they think there's a higher probability of finding the WMD. And that's why this place is just essentially being left open."
PHILLIPS: Wow. All right, so time goes on. You sort of forget about this place, I guess, a little bit. And you're reading the paper. The story comes out about these explosives. Take me -- take me to the next step from there.
STALEY: Well, I read the "New York Times" this last Monday. And of course I read the story about the explosives that had gone missing. And immediately, just from the general description of where this facility was and the description of, you know, these bunkers and how these things might have been stored, I said to myself, "I think we might have been there."
So I immediately called Joe Caffrey, my good friend and photojournalist, who works in Minneapolis, who actually shot the video. I said, "Joe, look at the video. I think we were at this place. You ought to take a look."
So he looked at the video. Other people looked at the video. And the more people that looked at it, the more people they showed it to who had expertise in terms of people who know something about explosives and this sort of ordnance, the more and more convinced we became that this was actually from al Qa Qaa.
And in fact, one of the crates actually has on the outside, printed, "al Qa Qaa" on it. So there was -- there were lots of reasons to believe that we were in fact in this place.
PHILLIPS: So what do you think now that this has come to light? I know you're glad you saved those tapes now, or at least Joe saved the tapes, right?
STALEY: Yes.
PHILLIPS: What does this mean for you as a journalist? I mean, this is sort of the story that you sort of hope you come across and that it somehow it makes an impact in your career at one point or another.
STALEY: Well, you're encouraged -- I mean, it's always encouraging and it always feels good to feel like you were a part of adding something to the body of knowledge. And I tried to do that cautiously. Because I want to remind people that I don't know for certain that the explosives that we were looking at are the explosives that later went missing. I mean, we could have very well been at al Qa Qaa looking at explosives that were not guarded that may -- and they may have been looted as well. But they may not be the same explosives that everyone is talking about right now.
But we are able to add to the body of information and the larger puzzle the fact that there were explosives there. This was well after Baghdad had fallen. The U.S. was in control of this area, and no one was guarding these explosives. This much I know is an absolute fact.
PHILLIPS: So if anything, hopefully this is one step closer to the truth.
STALEY: Absolutely.
PHILLIPS: And we're going to hear more from Dean Staley coming up in 2 p.m. hour.
Well, it's finally here, or almost: the last weekend of the presidential campaign of 2004. When it all began well over a year ago, we might have known Iraq, the economy and terror would be big. And Ohio, Florida and Pennsylvania would get a lot of the candidates' attention. We were right.
John Kerry is in Florida all day Orlando to West Palm Beach, Miami, and the final stop, again co-starring a famous ally from Jersey.
CNN's famous Frank Buckley is at West Palm Beach.
Hi, Frank.
FRANK BUCKLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Kyra.
Time to put on those comfortable shoes as we enter the final sprint of this campaign. As you said, Senator Kerry spending the entire day in Florida. At the end of the day, going to Wisconsin. Spending time over the next few days in the Midwest. Heading up to New Hampshire, back to Florida. A lot of time on the road between now and Tuesday.
This morning Senator Kerry spoke in Orlando, delivering a speech that he called a, quote, "summary of my case." The campaign saying the Senator is trying to tie together all the threads and themes of the campaign.
Kerry saying that Americans had a choice to make in the next four days, a choice between four more years of the, quote, "same failed course" or a fresh start with Kerry.
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SEN. JOHN KERRY (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: In the next four days a woman is going to walk into a voting booth thinking about the husband that she said good-bye to four months ago, or a husband will think about the wife he said good-bye to four months ago.
She'll wonder how much longer, or he will wonder, they have to stay in Iraq. And when they're all going to see each other again and see their kids. And they'll wonder whether or not they can afford four more years of a president who's unwilling to admit the mistakes that he has made and says he would do everything all over again the same way.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BUCKLEY: Now, Senator Kerry touching on Iraq there. But what we didn't hear in that speech is a specific line of attack on those missing explosives. After four days of stories on that, a senior adviser, Mike McCurry, saying that they believe that they won that argument. They're portraying the administration in a way that suggests that this administration went to war in the worst possible way.
Now they're concentrating on trying to get those few undecided voters to make up their minds, make up their minds in favor of John Kerry, of course. And helping to try to do that tonight, Bruce Springsteen, who added another date, another appearance for the Kerry campaign down here in Florida in the Miami area tonight -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: All right. Frank Buckley, thank you so much.
And George W. Bush is dividing his day between New Hampshire and Ohio. But we can't exactly say he's Schilling for votes.
CNN's Elaine Quijano weighs in from the White House on the president's travels, his talking points and a major league no-show -- Elaine.
ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello to you, Kyra. That's right.
President Bush was to have been joined today by Boston Red Sox pitcher -- I guess we should say world champion Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling in New Hampshire today. But Schilling canceled.
A White House official says that Schilling's doctors said that he shouldn't travel because of an ankle injury.
In any case, President Bush, at that first stop a short time ago in Manchester, New Hampshire, was joined by several September 11 family members. A more solemn tone, their presence there clearly intended to underscore the president's commitment to fighting terrorism, especially as he continues in these final days to make his case that he can better protect America.
Now, the president talked about the Bush doctrine of acting preemptively against perceived terror threats abroad to make Americans safer domestically.
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GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Our strategy to win the war on terror is succeeding. We are shrinking the area where terrorists can operate freely. We have the terrorists on the run.
And so long as I am your president, we'll be determined and steadfast, and we will keep the terrorists on the run.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
QUIJANO: Now, at that appearance, a bit of an unscripted moment. It happened in the last few minutes of the president's speech as he was talking to Arlene Howard. Now, she is the mother of George Howard. He was a Port Authority officer who was killed September 11. And his badge is one that President Bush carries with him.
But here is what happened just a short time ago in Manchester, New Hampshire.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BUSH: I will never forget the fallen. God bless you, Arlene.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
QUIJANO: Now, a bit hard to tell there, but you see the confetti starting to fall down. According to Bush aides, what happened is that there was a miscue. President Bush there, you heard him say, "God bless you." That was the cue -- supposed to be, for the confetti.
But the president actually said it twice. The first time -- you heard it there -- that was not to be the moment that the confetti was to be launched. In any case the president continued on with his speech.
The president at this hour moving on to Portsmouth, New Hampshire. He then goes on to events, two events in Ohio. And Kyra, the tour of battleground states continues over the weekend. We have on tap Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Florida -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: All right. Elaine Quijano, thank you so much.
Straight ahead, Palestinian Authority president Yasser Arafat flies to France for treatment. An update on the ailing leader's health straight ahead.
Also, car dealers tell automakers to put on the brakes. What this could mean or why this could mean the end of those rebates and higher prices for you.
And a dog dials for help. Yes, it's true. It's another one of those amazing stories of a life-saving 911 call. We're going to get on that line later on LIVE FROM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) PHILLIPS: For the first time in almost three years, Yasser Arafat is outside Ramallah today, outside the West Bank, outside the Middle East entirely. The ailing Palestinian icon is undergoing tests at a military hospital near Paris for what may or may not be a life threatening condition.
We get the latest now from CNN's Paula Hancocks -- Paula.
PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Kyra.
Well, these latest health problems for Yasser Arafat started just over two weeks ago. He fell ill with intestinal flu, and it's then that doctors say that they realized there was actually something more seriously wrong with him.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HANCOCKS: Yasser Arafat finally arrived in Paris early Friday afternoon, a seven and half hour journey from his compound in Ramallah, ending at the high security Percy Military Hospital.
His wife, Suha, greeted him at the helicopter, and he was carried on a stretcher inside the hospital. Now the tests begin to try and determine the mystery illness which has struck the Palestinian leader for the last two weeks.
LEILA SHARID, PALESTINIAN ENVOY: He is in the proper place with the proper doctors and in the proper conditions. And I'm sure his strength, his determination to -- to defend his people, to recover his health will allow him to overcome the sickness that he feels these days.
HANCOCKS: This is the first time Arafat has left his Ramallah compound in almost three years. It's no coincidence it's also the first time the Israeli government has guaranteed Arafat a safe return to the West Bank.
French President Jacques Chirac personally authorized the plane to bring Arafat from Jordan to Paris. The French government has a good relationship with the Palestinian Authority.
JACQUES CHIRAC, PRESIDENT OF FRANCE (through translator): We will welcome him and do everything we can for him until he recovers.
HANCOCKS: In June of this year, Chirac sent his foreign minister, Michel Barnier, to the Ramallah compound, a public vote of confidence in Arafat. A different stance to the United States and Israel, who have refused to deal with Arafat for years.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HANCOCKS: Leila Sharid, the Palestinian delegate here in France, also said that President Yasser Arafat was in good shape and conscious when he did actually touch down in that helicopter. She also said that she'd seen him this afternoon in his hospital bed, and he wanted to pass on his gratitude to the French authorities. In addition, Ms. Sharid did say that the medic in charge of Yasser Arafat had said he would need around about three days to make his diagnosis, and we shouldn't expect too much concrete information in the next few days -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Paula Hancocks, thanks so much.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS (voice-over): Next on LIVE FROM.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was getting to the point where I looked in the mirror and I'm like, "I look tired."
PHILLIPS: Younger people opting for a pick me up rather than a facelift. Find out why it's one of the hottest cosmetic procedures.
Later on LIVE FROM, the NAACP reportedly under review by the IRS after a speech critical of President Bush. Could its tax-exempt status be in jeopardy?
Monday on LIVE FROM, down to the wire. We're covering all the twists and turns of the race for the White House on the eve of America's vote.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Well, now a story melding war, politics and money. The FBI is investigating one of those no-bid Iraq war contracts given to the oil services conglomerate formerly headed by Dick Cheney.
CNN's Chris Huntington tells us what puts Halliburton back into the hot seat 96 hours before election day -- Chris.
CHRIS HUNTINGTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, thank you.
Well, law enforcement sources tell CNN that the FBI plans to interview a woman named Bunnatine Greenhouse. She is the chief contracting officer for the Army Corps of Engineers.
Last week Greenhouse came public with allegations that the Army Corps had unfairly awarded its no-bid contract to a Halliburton subsidiary, Kellogg Brown and Root, for repairing and managing Iraq's oil fields.
Greenhouse's lawyer says the FBI has requested the interview. He said that Greenhouse specifically objects to the open-ended duration of that contract, as long as five years, that it should have been for only one year, and that it offered renewal for KBR without regard for competing bids from small or minority contractors.
The lawyer also says that Greenhouse first made her objections known in February of 2003 at a meeting with Army Corps officials and Halliburton representatives. The lawyer goes on to say that the Army has told Greenhouse now that she will, quote, "maintain her position" for the duration of the investigation.
Now, the Army has always said that the no-bid contract to Kellogg Brown and Root was legitimate, because it fell under a pre-existing contract that Halliburton had won competitively to be the Army's sort of on-call contractor for logistical support. That's a contract called LOGCAP.
In early 2003, as the Army prepared for war in Iraq, the Army Corps asked Halliburton to draw up a plan for putting out oil well fires and repairing the Iraqi oil fields.
Lieutenant General Robert Flowers explained the decision making process in a letter to Representative Henry Waxman. He said that on February 14, 2003, after receiving approval from headquarters, the U.S. Army issued a sole source letter contract to KBR under the LOGCAP contract.
Flowers went on to explain that this provides, quote, "maximum flexibility" so that even as the worse case unfolded the Army Corps of Engineers could issue orders of any combination of services without having to negotiate another contract.
Now for its part right now, Halliburton says that the General Accounting Office in Congress earlier this year said that the contract was properly awarded because Halliburton was the only contractor that could do the work.
Halliburton goes on to say that "we look forward to the end of the election, because no matter who is elected president, Halliburton is proud to serve the troops, just as we have over the past 60 years for both Democratic and Republican administrations."
Halliburton clearly making the point that they feel this latest controversial flair-up is politically motivated.
Just one final note, Kyra. In January of 2004, this year, the Army did award two new competitively bid contracts for the Iraqi oil fields. One went to a company called Parsons ENC (ph). Another one went back to Kellogg Brown and Root -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Chris Huntington will follow the FBI investigation. Thank you.
Well, your chances of getting zero percent financing on a new car may be rolling away slowly. Rhonda Schaffler has the story at the New York Stock Exchange -- Rhonda.
(STOCK MARKET REPORT)
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