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Shootout in Iraq; Thousands Pay Last Respects to Pope John Paul II; Peter Jennings Diagnosed With Lung Cancer
Aired April 05, 2005 - 13:59 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, CNN ANCHOR: Live pictures from the Vatican, where people by the thousands are paying their last respects to Pope John Paul II. This hour we'll take you inside the rituals for burying this pope and picking the next one.
BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: Disturbing news from ABC anchorman Peter Jennings as he tells his colleagues he's facing cancer. We've got those details.
PHILLIPS: Oil hits record-high prices, gas is going up. What's fueling the hike? And is there any relief in sight?
NGUYEN: And don't go into the water. Check out our picture of the day. Dozens of sharks forced Florida beach-goers to change their plans.
From the CNN Center in Atlanta, I'm Betty Nguyen, in for Miles O'Brien.
PHILLIPS: And I'm Kyra Phillips. This hour of CNN's LIVE FROM starts right now.
NGUYEN: Our top story this hour take us to Iraq and a shootout there that killed one terrorist, but injured a member of the press. We want to get the latest now from senior Pentagon correspondent Jamie McIntyre.
Jamie, what's the latest on this?
JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SR. PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Betty, according to a statement issued by the U.S. military, the journalist was shot when he was mistaken for a hostile insurgent in an engagement near Mosul in northern Iraq. According to the statement, U.S. forces were at the site of a previous bomb attack when they saw a man waving an AK-47, inciting the crowd nearby.
He was shot and killed, along with a man standing near him who appeared to be pointing a weapon. But the U.S. military says when they got to him they discovered he was, in fact, a journalist with a video camera. He was rushed to a nearby military hospital where he was treated for his wounds.
A statement from the U.S. military says he is expected to recover. It also expresses regret that a news reporter was shot in what they called a complex and volatile situation, and said there will be a full investigation of the incident -- Betty. NGUYEN: Jamie, help us understand how this mistake could have happened. In war zones do reporters, photographers have to wear certain articles of clothing to show that they are members of the media?
MCINTYRE: Well, many -- many do. They're not required, of course, to wear anything. And it's often sometimes hard to distinguish, particularly depending on light, if there's a shadow behind them.
Many of them do try to wear markings that clearly identify themselves as journalists, but even that is no protection in the so- called fog of war, when somebody believes they see something pointed at them, they think it's a weapon, a rocket launcher or perhaps a gun, and they react to that. These kinds of incidents do happen, which is why covering these kinds of incidents in a war zone is extremely dangerous.
Even if you are embedded with U.S. troops, or with the U.S. troops, it can be dangerous. And this may be a case where the journalist was covering it by himself without the benefit of that. According to sources, this reporter was a -- somebody working for CBS News, the American news organization in northern Iraq. We still have no name or identification or even nationality of the journalist involved.
NGUYEN: And just as a reminder, that reporter suffered minor injuries. And that person is expected to recover. Jamie McIntyre, thank you -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: So many people, so little space. Actually, St. Peter's Square is a colossal space, the largest of its kind in all Christianity. But at times it seems all of Christianity is trying to get in.
The occasion, of course, is the public viewing of Pope John Paul II. A near round-the-clock procession leading up to the papal funeral on Friday. And between now and then, the population of Rome could essentially double from three million to six million people.
What's got officials losing sleep are a couple hundred special people, heads of state, heads of government, royalty, dignitaries. The U.S. alone will be represented by three past and present presidents.
CNN's Diana Muriel joins us now with more on the security and the logistics amid the liturgy -- Diana.
DIANA MURIEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, an absolutely enormous crowd. It's just gone 8:00 at night here in Vatican City. And some of these people have been waiting in this queue for something like eight hours.
A lot of people who get to this stage are deciding to give up. We're seeing more and more people leaving the crowd at this point simply because the word is passing down the line that it's another three hours from this point before they actually get inside the basilica.
PHILLIPS: Sorry about that. We lost Diana Muriel's audio. That actually happened the other day.
As you can imagine, all those people, all those wires, it's hard to keep a signal up and going. We'll try and check back in with Diana Muriel in Rome in just a little bit -- Betty.
NGUYEN: In other news right now, South Africa's archbishop Desmond Tutu is praising Pope John Paul II for speaking out against apartheid and his efforts to unite humanity. Tutu also has some definite ideas about who the next head of the Roman Catholic Church should be.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DESMOND TUTU, SOUTH AFRICAN ARCHBISHOP: And it is time, as it was time to have a non-Italian pope such as John Paul II, so it will be time to have a pope come from the so-called third world and particularly Africa.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NGUYEN: You can catch all of Paula Zahn's interview with Desmond Tutu. That is tonight, 8:00 p.m. Eastern, right here on CNN.
Well, throughout much of the pope's life, one man was by his side. Stanislaw Dziwisz was his personal secretary and a fellow Pole. Never in his spotlight -- or in the spotlight himself, but many believe his access to John Paul II gave him great power behind the scenes.
Our Chris Burns looks at their unique relationship.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHRIS BURNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When Pope John Paul II fell, bleeding from an assassin's bullet in 1981, Monsignor Stanislaw Dziwisz caught him in his arms. The pope later said the last thing he remembered was telling Dziwisz he forgave his assailant.
And amid the pope's declining health, Dziwisz was also considered a fallback for his boss. As the pope's personal secretary papal analysts say the Polish-born Dziwisz, known in the Vatican as Don Stanislaw, was increasingly influential while the pope weakened. Just how influential is unclear.
HENRYK WOZNIAKOWSKI, PUBLISHER: He's an extremely faithful servant for the pope.
ROBERTO SURO, PEW HISPANIC CENTER: He progressed up to maybe sort of a kind of chief of staff or chief executive assistant.
BURNS: With a 19-year age difference, their relationship was at first one of father and son. Legend has it they met skiing in Zakopane, Karol Wojtyla's spiritual retreat. Like Wojtyla, he grew up poor, born in a southern mountain village not far from the pontiff's hometown, Wadowice.
As Wojtyla led the church in Poland during communist rule, he ordained Dziwisz as a priest in 1963 and named him his personal secretary three years later. At the Vatican, Dziwisz played the pope's gatekeeper, his right-hand man, and chief confidante, a heart beat away. He slept steps away from the pope's bedroom and stood by the pontiff's shoulder during mass.
In recent years, as the pope's health waned, analysts say the father-son relationship changed. They say Dziwisz's voice increasingly carried weight.
SURO: Inside the Vatican when Dziwisz spoke, the assumption was he spoke for the pope.
BURNS: One example, as the Iraq war approached, he was asked the pope's position. Without taking time to consult, he said the pontiff opposed it.
With a bit of black humor, he jealously guarded the pope from prying reporters. Asked in 2003 about the pope's physical state, he said, "Many journalists who in the past have written about the pope's health are already in heaven."
Vatican observers say Dziwisz played a consultative role, including in deciding appointments and papal trips. And he was seen as a mediator among powerful Vatican personalities.
Perhaps the greatest power Dziwisz wielded was access to the Holy See for the powerful and the weak. While the pope was hospitalized in February, it was Dziwisz who invited a young cancer patient to visit the pontiff in his room. It was Dziwisz's hand the pope was holding when he died. In naming him bishop in 1998, the pope told him, "You have stood faithfully by my side as secretary, sharing the works, the joys, the anxieties and hopes."
Stanislaw Dziwisz is now gatekeeper of those memories, jealously guarding Karol Wojtyla's privacy even in the pontiff's death.
Chris Burns, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Well, turning now to some rather unsettling news about a fellow journalist, ABC News anchor Peter Jennings has lung cancer. He revealed the diagnosis in an e-mail. Our Adaora Udoji is live from New York with more on the details -- Adaora.
ADAORA UDOJI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good afternoon, Kyra.
From what we understand, Peter Jennings, who is 66, found out yesterday that he does have lung cancer and told the folks at ABC News, sharing that information with his staff, saying in that e-mail you mentioned, "I have been diagnosed with lung cancer."
"Yes, it was quite a surprise," he writes. "As you all know, this is a challenge. I begin chemotherapy next week. I will continue to do the broadcast. There will be good days and bad, which means that some days I may be cranky and some days really cranky."
An ABC spokesman told us today that Jennings, Peter Jennings, will be doing his broadcast tonight. And he will talk about his diagnosis of lung cancer, and that that treatment is expected to begin on Monday.
It comes, the spokesman said, after several months Peter Jennings was feeling ill. And so he had been undergoing some testing. And yesterday, his doctors said he did have lung cancer.
So, Kyra, a very, very tough time for Peter Jennings, his family and the folks at ABC News. And, of course, we wish him a very speedy recovery -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Adaora Udoji, that, indeed. Thank you so much -- Betty.
NGUYEN: Shifting gears now, we take you to Juno Beach, Florida, where the best way to enjoy the crystal clear waters, even on a gorgeous spring day, is from the beach. Well, better yet, TV, because these are dozens, maybe even hundreds of sharks swarming in search of food -- that we're told -- during a spring migration.
Needless to say, Juno Beach is temporarily closed. And earlier, I spoke with Bob Hueter, the director at the Center for Shark Research in Sarasota, Florida, about the situation there.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NGUYEN: Why are they in that area?
BOB HUETER, CENTER FOR SHARK RESEARCH: Well, the sharks that I have seen in the video are primarily two species, the black tip shark and the spinner shark. They look very similar.
These are sharks -- they don't get to be huge. These are sharks that get to be about seven to maybe nine feet long at the most. They're in the area because they're feeding.
This is their spring migration time, when they're moving north. They come into coastal waters, and they're concentrated up close to shore where all the food is.
NGUYEN: We are looking at video of this. And there seems to be hundreds of these sharks. Do they travel in such large packs?
HUETER: Normally, it's hard to see them in these big groups. They -- it's not -- it's not that they travel like this all year round. But during the spring and fall times, when they're moving through an area like this area off of Florida, and the water is clear, then they can be seen in these large groups. And it's pretty spectacular, but it's nothing that signals anything unusual happening in the environment. NGUYEN: You are right about that, it is spectacular to see this video. It's also a bit frightening when you consider this is so close to the beaches there, several beaches there in Florida. You say they are feeding. Are they any threat to humans in the water?
HUETER: Well, only in the sense that if we had people in the water with the sharks, all together while the sharks are feeding, then there is certainly a possibility of someone getting bitten. These are not -- these are not really man eating sharks in the sense that these are very large predators. But this is the species that in the summertime in Florida will sometimes bite the hands of surfers or swimmers. And so it's probably prudent that we don't mix people with sharks at this time when they're all -- when they're over there.
NGUYEN: All right.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Well, straight ahead, is America prepared for another terror attack? Right now, training for the worst case scenario is under way. We'll take you live to the drills designed to test how your emergency officials respond.
Flooded out. Thousands of people evacuated. We'll have the latest on deadly floods hitting the Northeast just ahead on LIVE FROM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: This is only a test, the second day of the nation's largest ever emergency terror attack response test. The week-long drill uses scenarios of a biological attack in New Jersey and a chemical weapons explosion in Connecticut.
CNN homeland security correspondent Jeanne Meserve is in New London, Connecticut.
How did they fare, Jeanne?
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, we don't know yet. We probably aren't going to know much until the end of the week. But the game is still very active at this point in time.
If you look at the field behind me, you can see a lot of search and rescue is still going on at this time. There was in this game a mustard attack here yesterday. At last count, 195 people had died in the game, almost 5,000 were injured. A thousand ventilators have been flown in here to Connecticut, as have 1,000 burn kits.
Federal disaster declarations have been made, which means the federal government has now become the principal player, a big player here. The Coast Guard has closed the Port of New London and set up a security zone around this blast site. And the FAA has closed airspace up to about 3,000 feet. This, all of course, just happening in the game.
Meanwhile, another scenario is being played out in New Jersey. That is an outbreak of pneumonic plague. We're told in that game 908 people have died in two counties.
Threat level red has been declared. That's the very highest level. And schools have been closed in those two counties. Hospitals that are dealing with all the people that are suffering from symptoms are described as being overwhelmed.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DORI PRASEK, MUHLENBERG MEDICAL CENTER: We did get some patients that came through the emergency department. So there were some staff that were exposed. But that was because local law enforcement allowed those people to come through without going through triage. So that was one dilemma we did face when the drill first -- when the situation first came into effect.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MESERVE: Now, another thing being tested here are investigative capabilities. The FBI and ATF are working in that field behind me, collecting evidence. They're try to mesh that with fake intelligence which had been fed into the system over the last 30 days.
I'm told by officials that there has been some progress in the investigative side in connection with the New Jersey pneumonic plague attack. They, I am told, have made an arrest of one woman at the Philadelphia Airport. They have arrest warrants out for two other individuals.
This is, of course, all made up. It is a flexing of muscles, the kind of thing the military does all the time. The people involved in homeland security are trying to make sure that they will be ready for whatever may happen, be it natural disaster or a terrorist attack.
Kyra, back to you.
PHILLIPS: Jeanne, I know there's helos airborne. Can you hear me OK if I ask you a question?
MESERVE: I can hear you. We've got a Coast Guard helicopter right up to my right here, but go ahead.
PHILLIPS: They might drop a basket for you and give you a lift. There could be folks around the country saying, why is this exercise not happening in my hometown, I want to see how my energy personnel would respond. Is this something that will work its way across the country?
MESERVE: No, this is the third one of the TOPOFF exercises. They take place in a couple of venues each time they're conducted, which happens every two years. These are congressionally mandated.
And communities ask to be participants. And various things are weighed by the federal government to determine whether, in fact, that will be the community chosen.
This one, New London, happens to be a particularly good one because the Coast Guard Academy is here. So you have some people who would be very interested in what's happening.
You have a couple of nuclear power plants nearby. You have a couple of the world's largest casinos nearby. Those are regarded as potential targets.
You have a maritime environment. You have an Amtrak route from Boston to New York running right through here. So there are a lot of different things that they get to exercise by locating it here.
They take the lessons here, they write an after-action report. That is disseminated around the country. So hopefully every other community will benefit.
I will tell you, though, there's a little bit of criticism from some of those communities that don't directly participate. They feel that those reports are so heavily classified that they don't learn as much as they could or should from them -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: All right. Jeanne Meserve, thank you so much, along with the sounds of the U.S. Coast Guard overhead. Thanks, Jeanne.
NGUYEN: The Senate Judiciary Committee is holding hearings on the Patriot Act, parts of which will expire at the end of the year if Congress doesn't renew them. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and FBI Director Robert Mueller called for renewal of the law. Gonzales said some of its most controversial provisions had been exceedingly helpful in fighting terrorism. Critics of the law say it is too intrusive.
CNN is committed to providing the most reliable coverage of news that affects your security. You'll want to stay tuned to CNN for the latest information both day and night.
PHILLIPS: Checking other stories "Across America."
The Department of Defense held its own ceremony today in Washington for the newest Medal of Honor recipient. President Bush yesterday awarded the medal to Army Sergeant First Class Paul Ray Smith, who was killed defending his fellow U.S. soldiers on April 4, 2003. His 11-year-old son received that award.
The University of North Carolina is bringing home another men's basketball title. The Tar Heels beat the University of Illinois in St. Louis 75-70 last night, claiming the school's fourth championship.
Police say about 45,000 screaming, cheering fans turned out for last night's victory celebration just off the UNC campus in Chapel Hill. Some tossed furniture into bonfires.
It's actually an annual tradition -- actually. We should have pointed that out.
NGUYEN: Yes. Who would have thought.
PHILLIPS: And they usually get in trouble. I don't know. It doesn't look -- it looks like they remained pretty much calm. NGUYEN: Oh, ouch. That one guy looks like he almost got burned there. Wow.
All right. Let's talk about some flooding. It has forced thousands from their homes in New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania.
Storms and melting snow caused the floods. It could be at least Thursday before hundreds of people in the Trenton, New Jersey, area can return home. Jim Cinkovich (ph) from affiliate WPHL reports from nearby Yardley, Pennsylvania.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This -- this, I think, is as bad as that one.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Arthur Curtin (ph) lived through the flood of '55 and has since moved to higher ground here in Yardley. He must really have compassion for his neighbors near the river then, right?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think all these people that build in a flood plain are absolutely stupid.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Wow. Flood victims like Elizabeth Terabato (ph) don't need that kind of talk right now.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You can just barely see a white house...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Elizabeth can't even see her house, a house she hasn't lived in since the last flood. She and her family were set to go back home to a remodel job that just wrapped up on Wednesday.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Brand-new kitchen cabinets, brand-new refrigerator, dishwasher that's never even been run yet.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thousands of dollars of work most likely down the tubes, or at least down the river. Some residents did disobey police orders today. They tried to wade out to their houses. Firefighters would eventually pluck them out and bring them back to shore in a boat.
After two major floods in six months, people here are absolutely desperate.
MAYOR DOUGLAS PALMER, TRENTON, NEW JERSEY: There isn't a whole lot you could say to folks other than, you know, we're going to do our best to help clean up.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As for Elizabeth, she says she'll fix up her house one more time, then sell it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There are acts of nature that there's not much you can do about. But I guess you can take it into consideration and not live in a flood plain if you don't want to anymore. And I don't want to anymore.
(END VIDEOTAPE) PHILLIPS: All right. More now on those sharks we were telling you about in Juno Beach, Florida. If you're wondering if you should still go in the water and enjoy that spring break or vacation, well, we've got lifeguard Len Rodriguez on the phone joining us. He's right there on the beach.
All right, Len. Put this into perspective. You see the video, you panic a little bit. But this isn't too abnormal for this time of year, right?
LEN RODRIGUEZ, JUNO BEACH, FLORIDA: That's right. The sharks seem to be migrating from the south. Last week and the week before that, we were getting lots of reports. We knew it was a matter of time before they came north. They were in the south, Palm Beach County area, Boca Raton, Del Ray and Boynton Beach. And I guess it's time, now they're here.
PHILLIPS: So in a situation like this -- because to the average eye, you see this video and you think, oh my gosh, I'm not going anywhere near the water. Now, your training, your expertise, how do you signal beach-goers? What are you trained to do, and how do you advise those that are coming out to the areas where we're seeing the shark activity?
RODRIGUEZ: Well, on the beaches in every public park, beach park, they have the condition boards. They're all located on the entrance way into the beaches. And people have to pay attention to them.
And the lifeguards rank the conditions and the cautions on the condition boards. And they're to read it. And if they have any questions, they can always go up to the lifeguard tower and we'd gladly answer their questions.
We also place a double red flag -- one red flag would mean that there's a dangerous situation, that they shouldn't -- that they should advise before they go in the water. But a double red flag means absolutely no swimming, that there definitely exists a life- threatening condition in the ocean.
PHILLIPS: Any double red flags right now, Len?
RODRIGUEZ: Absolutely. The double red flags are going up, up and down the beaches. We're monitoring our radios from Juno Beach, north to Tequesta, and in Martin County lines. And the sharks seem to be enjoying this area at the time.
PHILLIPS: Now, from where you are, Len, how close are they to shore? Can you -- I mean, do you have a good view, or...
RODRIGUEZ: Yes.
PHILLIPS: OK. You do.
RODRIGUEZ: They're coming in approximately -- normally, they stay out about 60 to 70 feet away from the shoreline. But in an instance today, it's very surprising that they're jumping just close to shore.
During the high tide, they were inside the sandbar, and they're jumping up in the water. You see them swimming very close to shore. We're talking about two feet, three feet from the shoreline, where people like to wade.
PHILLIPS: Wow. Len Rodriguez, a lifeguard there on Juno Beach. You're seeing the video, though, there via our affiliate WPTV. Pretty amazing picture.
Len, thanks so much. Keep us updated.
RODRIGUEZ: Thank you. Let's keep everybody out of the water for a while.
PHILLIPS: Hey, man, I don't think anybody's going in there, Len.
RODRIGUEZ: Especially me.
PHILLIPS: I don't blame you. And you're even trained for it.
RODRIGUEZ: Bye-bye.
PHILLIPS: Bye, Len.
Well, straight ahead, from the Swiss Guards to the papal vestments, ahead, just a fascinating look at the centuries of tradition behind the events unfolding at the Vatican this week.
SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Susan Lisovicz at the New York Stock Exchange, where investors are keeping a close eye on oil prices. Fed chief Alan Greenspan is weighing in on the situation. I'll have his take on the story coming up next on LIVE FROM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Well, concerns about high oil prices have kept Wall Street on edge recently. Now Federal Reserve chief Alan Greenspan is weighing in on the topic.
NGUYEN: I must say, I've been on edge, especially since I need to fill up. Susan Lisovicz join us now from New York with the latest on that.
(STOCK MARKET REPORT)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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Aired April 5, 2005 - 13:59 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Live pictures from the Vatican, where people by the thousands are paying their last respects to Pope John Paul II. This hour we'll take you inside the rituals for burying this pope and picking the next one.
BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: Disturbing news from ABC anchorman Peter Jennings as he tells his colleagues he's facing cancer. We've got those details.
PHILLIPS: Oil hits record-high prices, gas is going up. What's fueling the hike? And is there any relief in sight?
NGUYEN: And don't go into the water. Check out our picture of the day. Dozens of sharks forced Florida beach-goers to change their plans.
From the CNN Center in Atlanta, I'm Betty Nguyen, in for Miles O'Brien.
PHILLIPS: And I'm Kyra Phillips. This hour of CNN's LIVE FROM starts right now.
NGUYEN: Our top story this hour take us to Iraq and a shootout there that killed one terrorist, but injured a member of the press. We want to get the latest now from senior Pentagon correspondent Jamie McIntyre.
Jamie, what's the latest on this?
JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SR. PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Betty, according to a statement issued by the U.S. military, the journalist was shot when he was mistaken for a hostile insurgent in an engagement near Mosul in northern Iraq. According to the statement, U.S. forces were at the site of a previous bomb attack when they saw a man waving an AK-47, inciting the crowd nearby.
He was shot and killed, along with a man standing near him who appeared to be pointing a weapon. But the U.S. military says when they got to him they discovered he was, in fact, a journalist with a video camera. He was rushed to a nearby military hospital where he was treated for his wounds.
A statement from the U.S. military says he is expected to recover. It also expresses regret that a news reporter was shot in what they called a complex and volatile situation, and said there will be a full investigation of the incident -- Betty. NGUYEN: Jamie, help us understand how this mistake could have happened. In war zones do reporters, photographers have to wear certain articles of clothing to show that they are members of the media?
MCINTYRE: Well, many -- many do. They're not required, of course, to wear anything. And it's often sometimes hard to distinguish, particularly depending on light, if there's a shadow behind them.
Many of them do try to wear markings that clearly identify themselves as journalists, but even that is no protection in the so- called fog of war, when somebody believes they see something pointed at them, they think it's a weapon, a rocket launcher or perhaps a gun, and they react to that. These kinds of incidents do happen, which is why covering these kinds of incidents in a war zone is extremely dangerous.
Even if you are embedded with U.S. troops, or with the U.S. troops, it can be dangerous. And this may be a case where the journalist was covering it by himself without the benefit of that. According to sources, this reporter was a -- somebody working for CBS News, the American news organization in northern Iraq. We still have no name or identification or even nationality of the journalist involved.
NGUYEN: And just as a reminder, that reporter suffered minor injuries. And that person is expected to recover. Jamie McIntyre, thank you -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: So many people, so little space. Actually, St. Peter's Square is a colossal space, the largest of its kind in all Christianity. But at times it seems all of Christianity is trying to get in.
The occasion, of course, is the public viewing of Pope John Paul II. A near round-the-clock procession leading up to the papal funeral on Friday. And between now and then, the population of Rome could essentially double from three million to six million people.
What's got officials losing sleep are a couple hundred special people, heads of state, heads of government, royalty, dignitaries. The U.S. alone will be represented by three past and present presidents.
CNN's Diana Muriel joins us now with more on the security and the logistics amid the liturgy -- Diana.
DIANA MURIEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, an absolutely enormous crowd. It's just gone 8:00 at night here in Vatican City. And some of these people have been waiting in this queue for something like eight hours.
A lot of people who get to this stage are deciding to give up. We're seeing more and more people leaving the crowd at this point simply because the word is passing down the line that it's another three hours from this point before they actually get inside the basilica.
PHILLIPS: Sorry about that. We lost Diana Muriel's audio. That actually happened the other day.
As you can imagine, all those people, all those wires, it's hard to keep a signal up and going. We'll try and check back in with Diana Muriel in Rome in just a little bit -- Betty.
NGUYEN: In other news right now, South Africa's archbishop Desmond Tutu is praising Pope John Paul II for speaking out against apartheid and his efforts to unite humanity. Tutu also has some definite ideas about who the next head of the Roman Catholic Church should be.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DESMOND TUTU, SOUTH AFRICAN ARCHBISHOP: And it is time, as it was time to have a non-Italian pope such as John Paul II, so it will be time to have a pope come from the so-called third world and particularly Africa.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NGUYEN: You can catch all of Paula Zahn's interview with Desmond Tutu. That is tonight, 8:00 p.m. Eastern, right here on CNN.
Well, throughout much of the pope's life, one man was by his side. Stanislaw Dziwisz was his personal secretary and a fellow Pole. Never in his spotlight -- or in the spotlight himself, but many believe his access to John Paul II gave him great power behind the scenes.
Our Chris Burns looks at their unique relationship.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHRIS BURNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When Pope John Paul II fell, bleeding from an assassin's bullet in 1981, Monsignor Stanislaw Dziwisz caught him in his arms. The pope later said the last thing he remembered was telling Dziwisz he forgave his assailant.
And amid the pope's declining health, Dziwisz was also considered a fallback for his boss. As the pope's personal secretary papal analysts say the Polish-born Dziwisz, known in the Vatican as Don Stanislaw, was increasingly influential while the pope weakened. Just how influential is unclear.
HENRYK WOZNIAKOWSKI, PUBLISHER: He's an extremely faithful servant for the pope.
ROBERTO SURO, PEW HISPANIC CENTER: He progressed up to maybe sort of a kind of chief of staff or chief executive assistant.
BURNS: With a 19-year age difference, their relationship was at first one of father and son. Legend has it they met skiing in Zakopane, Karol Wojtyla's spiritual retreat. Like Wojtyla, he grew up poor, born in a southern mountain village not far from the pontiff's hometown, Wadowice.
As Wojtyla led the church in Poland during communist rule, he ordained Dziwisz as a priest in 1963 and named him his personal secretary three years later. At the Vatican, Dziwisz played the pope's gatekeeper, his right-hand man, and chief confidante, a heart beat away. He slept steps away from the pope's bedroom and stood by the pontiff's shoulder during mass.
In recent years, as the pope's health waned, analysts say the father-son relationship changed. They say Dziwisz's voice increasingly carried weight.
SURO: Inside the Vatican when Dziwisz spoke, the assumption was he spoke for the pope.
BURNS: One example, as the Iraq war approached, he was asked the pope's position. Without taking time to consult, he said the pontiff opposed it.
With a bit of black humor, he jealously guarded the pope from prying reporters. Asked in 2003 about the pope's physical state, he said, "Many journalists who in the past have written about the pope's health are already in heaven."
Vatican observers say Dziwisz played a consultative role, including in deciding appointments and papal trips. And he was seen as a mediator among powerful Vatican personalities.
Perhaps the greatest power Dziwisz wielded was access to the Holy See for the powerful and the weak. While the pope was hospitalized in February, it was Dziwisz who invited a young cancer patient to visit the pontiff in his room. It was Dziwisz's hand the pope was holding when he died. In naming him bishop in 1998, the pope told him, "You have stood faithfully by my side as secretary, sharing the works, the joys, the anxieties and hopes."
Stanislaw Dziwisz is now gatekeeper of those memories, jealously guarding Karol Wojtyla's privacy even in the pontiff's death.
Chris Burns, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Well, turning now to some rather unsettling news about a fellow journalist, ABC News anchor Peter Jennings has lung cancer. He revealed the diagnosis in an e-mail. Our Adaora Udoji is live from New York with more on the details -- Adaora.
ADAORA UDOJI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good afternoon, Kyra.
From what we understand, Peter Jennings, who is 66, found out yesterday that he does have lung cancer and told the folks at ABC News, sharing that information with his staff, saying in that e-mail you mentioned, "I have been diagnosed with lung cancer."
"Yes, it was quite a surprise," he writes. "As you all know, this is a challenge. I begin chemotherapy next week. I will continue to do the broadcast. There will be good days and bad, which means that some days I may be cranky and some days really cranky."
An ABC spokesman told us today that Jennings, Peter Jennings, will be doing his broadcast tonight. And he will talk about his diagnosis of lung cancer, and that that treatment is expected to begin on Monday.
It comes, the spokesman said, after several months Peter Jennings was feeling ill. And so he had been undergoing some testing. And yesterday, his doctors said he did have lung cancer.
So, Kyra, a very, very tough time for Peter Jennings, his family and the folks at ABC News. And, of course, we wish him a very speedy recovery -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Adaora Udoji, that, indeed. Thank you so much -- Betty.
NGUYEN: Shifting gears now, we take you to Juno Beach, Florida, where the best way to enjoy the crystal clear waters, even on a gorgeous spring day, is from the beach. Well, better yet, TV, because these are dozens, maybe even hundreds of sharks swarming in search of food -- that we're told -- during a spring migration.
Needless to say, Juno Beach is temporarily closed. And earlier, I spoke with Bob Hueter, the director at the Center for Shark Research in Sarasota, Florida, about the situation there.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NGUYEN: Why are they in that area?
BOB HUETER, CENTER FOR SHARK RESEARCH: Well, the sharks that I have seen in the video are primarily two species, the black tip shark and the spinner shark. They look very similar.
These are sharks -- they don't get to be huge. These are sharks that get to be about seven to maybe nine feet long at the most. They're in the area because they're feeding.
This is their spring migration time, when they're moving north. They come into coastal waters, and they're concentrated up close to shore where all the food is.
NGUYEN: We are looking at video of this. And there seems to be hundreds of these sharks. Do they travel in such large packs?
HUETER: Normally, it's hard to see them in these big groups. They -- it's not -- it's not that they travel like this all year round. But during the spring and fall times, when they're moving through an area like this area off of Florida, and the water is clear, then they can be seen in these large groups. And it's pretty spectacular, but it's nothing that signals anything unusual happening in the environment. NGUYEN: You are right about that, it is spectacular to see this video. It's also a bit frightening when you consider this is so close to the beaches there, several beaches there in Florida. You say they are feeding. Are they any threat to humans in the water?
HUETER: Well, only in the sense that if we had people in the water with the sharks, all together while the sharks are feeding, then there is certainly a possibility of someone getting bitten. These are not -- these are not really man eating sharks in the sense that these are very large predators. But this is the species that in the summertime in Florida will sometimes bite the hands of surfers or swimmers. And so it's probably prudent that we don't mix people with sharks at this time when they're all -- when they're over there.
NGUYEN: All right.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Well, straight ahead, is America prepared for another terror attack? Right now, training for the worst case scenario is under way. We'll take you live to the drills designed to test how your emergency officials respond.
Flooded out. Thousands of people evacuated. We'll have the latest on deadly floods hitting the Northeast just ahead on LIVE FROM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: This is only a test, the second day of the nation's largest ever emergency terror attack response test. The week-long drill uses scenarios of a biological attack in New Jersey and a chemical weapons explosion in Connecticut.
CNN homeland security correspondent Jeanne Meserve is in New London, Connecticut.
How did they fare, Jeanne?
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, we don't know yet. We probably aren't going to know much until the end of the week. But the game is still very active at this point in time.
If you look at the field behind me, you can see a lot of search and rescue is still going on at this time. There was in this game a mustard attack here yesterday. At last count, 195 people had died in the game, almost 5,000 were injured. A thousand ventilators have been flown in here to Connecticut, as have 1,000 burn kits.
Federal disaster declarations have been made, which means the federal government has now become the principal player, a big player here. The Coast Guard has closed the Port of New London and set up a security zone around this blast site. And the FAA has closed airspace up to about 3,000 feet. This, all of course, just happening in the game.
Meanwhile, another scenario is being played out in New Jersey. That is an outbreak of pneumonic plague. We're told in that game 908 people have died in two counties.
Threat level red has been declared. That's the very highest level. And schools have been closed in those two counties. Hospitals that are dealing with all the people that are suffering from symptoms are described as being overwhelmed.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DORI PRASEK, MUHLENBERG MEDICAL CENTER: We did get some patients that came through the emergency department. So there were some staff that were exposed. But that was because local law enforcement allowed those people to come through without going through triage. So that was one dilemma we did face when the drill first -- when the situation first came into effect.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MESERVE: Now, another thing being tested here are investigative capabilities. The FBI and ATF are working in that field behind me, collecting evidence. They're try to mesh that with fake intelligence which had been fed into the system over the last 30 days.
I'm told by officials that there has been some progress in the investigative side in connection with the New Jersey pneumonic plague attack. They, I am told, have made an arrest of one woman at the Philadelphia Airport. They have arrest warrants out for two other individuals.
This is, of course, all made up. It is a flexing of muscles, the kind of thing the military does all the time. The people involved in homeland security are trying to make sure that they will be ready for whatever may happen, be it natural disaster or a terrorist attack.
Kyra, back to you.
PHILLIPS: Jeanne, I know there's helos airborne. Can you hear me OK if I ask you a question?
MESERVE: I can hear you. We've got a Coast Guard helicopter right up to my right here, but go ahead.
PHILLIPS: They might drop a basket for you and give you a lift. There could be folks around the country saying, why is this exercise not happening in my hometown, I want to see how my energy personnel would respond. Is this something that will work its way across the country?
MESERVE: No, this is the third one of the TOPOFF exercises. They take place in a couple of venues each time they're conducted, which happens every two years. These are congressionally mandated.
And communities ask to be participants. And various things are weighed by the federal government to determine whether, in fact, that will be the community chosen.
This one, New London, happens to be a particularly good one because the Coast Guard Academy is here. So you have some people who would be very interested in what's happening.
You have a couple of nuclear power plants nearby. You have a couple of the world's largest casinos nearby. Those are regarded as potential targets.
You have a maritime environment. You have an Amtrak route from Boston to New York running right through here. So there are a lot of different things that they get to exercise by locating it here.
They take the lessons here, they write an after-action report. That is disseminated around the country. So hopefully every other community will benefit.
I will tell you, though, there's a little bit of criticism from some of those communities that don't directly participate. They feel that those reports are so heavily classified that they don't learn as much as they could or should from them -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: All right. Jeanne Meserve, thank you so much, along with the sounds of the U.S. Coast Guard overhead. Thanks, Jeanne.
NGUYEN: The Senate Judiciary Committee is holding hearings on the Patriot Act, parts of which will expire at the end of the year if Congress doesn't renew them. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and FBI Director Robert Mueller called for renewal of the law. Gonzales said some of its most controversial provisions had been exceedingly helpful in fighting terrorism. Critics of the law say it is too intrusive.
CNN is committed to providing the most reliable coverage of news that affects your security. You'll want to stay tuned to CNN for the latest information both day and night.
PHILLIPS: Checking other stories "Across America."
The Department of Defense held its own ceremony today in Washington for the newest Medal of Honor recipient. President Bush yesterday awarded the medal to Army Sergeant First Class Paul Ray Smith, who was killed defending his fellow U.S. soldiers on April 4, 2003. His 11-year-old son received that award.
The University of North Carolina is bringing home another men's basketball title. The Tar Heels beat the University of Illinois in St. Louis 75-70 last night, claiming the school's fourth championship.
Police say about 45,000 screaming, cheering fans turned out for last night's victory celebration just off the UNC campus in Chapel Hill. Some tossed furniture into bonfires.
It's actually an annual tradition -- actually. We should have pointed that out.
NGUYEN: Yes. Who would have thought.
PHILLIPS: And they usually get in trouble. I don't know. It doesn't look -- it looks like they remained pretty much calm. NGUYEN: Oh, ouch. That one guy looks like he almost got burned there. Wow.
All right. Let's talk about some flooding. It has forced thousands from their homes in New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania.
Storms and melting snow caused the floods. It could be at least Thursday before hundreds of people in the Trenton, New Jersey, area can return home. Jim Cinkovich (ph) from affiliate WPHL reports from nearby Yardley, Pennsylvania.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This -- this, I think, is as bad as that one.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Arthur Curtin (ph) lived through the flood of '55 and has since moved to higher ground here in Yardley. He must really have compassion for his neighbors near the river then, right?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think all these people that build in a flood plain are absolutely stupid.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Wow. Flood victims like Elizabeth Terabato (ph) don't need that kind of talk right now.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You can just barely see a white house...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Elizabeth can't even see her house, a house she hasn't lived in since the last flood. She and her family were set to go back home to a remodel job that just wrapped up on Wednesday.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Brand-new kitchen cabinets, brand-new refrigerator, dishwasher that's never even been run yet.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thousands of dollars of work most likely down the tubes, or at least down the river. Some residents did disobey police orders today. They tried to wade out to their houses. Firefighters would eventually pluck them out and bring them back to shore in a boat.
After two major floods in six months, people here are absolutely desperate.
MAYOR DOUGLAS PALMER, TRENTON, NEW JERSEY: There isn't a whole lot you could say to folks other than, you know, we're going to do our best to help clean up.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As for Elizabeth, she says she'll fix up her house one more time, then sell it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There are acts of nature that there's not much you can do about. But I guess you can take it into consideration and not live in a flood plain if you don't want to anymore. And I don't want to anymore.
(END VIDEOTAPE) PHILLIPS: All right. More now on those sharks we were telling you about in Juno Beach, Florida. If you're wondering if you should still go in the water and enjoy that spring break or vacation, well, we've got lifeguard Len Rodriguez on the phone joining us. He's right there on the beach.
All right, Len. Put this into perspective. You see the video, you panic a little bit. But this isn't too abnormal for this time of year, right?
LEN RODRIGUEZ, JUNO BEACH, FLORIDA: That's right. The sharks seem to be migrating from the south. Last week and the week before that, we were getting lots of reports. We knew it was a matter of time before they came north. They were in the south, Palm Beach County area, Boca Raton, Del Ray and Boynton Beach. And I guess it's time, now they're here.
PHILLIPS: So in a situation like this -- because to the average eye, you see this video and you think, oh my gosh, I'm not going anywhere near the water. Now, your training, your expertise, how do you signal beach-goers? What are you trained to do, and how do you advise those that are coming out to the areas where we're seeing the shark activity?
RODRIGUEZ: Well, on the beaches in every public park, beach park, they have the condition boards. They're all located on the entrance way into the beaches. And people have to pay attention to them.
And the lifeguards rank the conditions and the cautions on the condition boards. And they're to read it. And if they have any questions, they can always go up to the lifeguard tower and we'd gladly answer their questions.
We also place a double red flag -- one red flag would mean that there's a dangerous situation, that they shouldn't -- that they should advise before they go in the water. But a double red flag means absolutely no swimming, that there definitely exists a life- threatening condition in the ocean.
PHILLIPS: Any double red flags right now, Len?
RODRIGUEZ: Absolutely. The double red flags are going up, up and down the beaches. We're monitoring our radios from Juno Beach, north to Tequesta, and in Martin County lines. And the sharks seem to be enjoying this area at the time.
PHILLIPS: Now, from where you are, Len, how close are they to shore? Can you -- I mean, do you have a good view, or...
RODRIGUEZ: Yes.
PHILLIPS: OK. You do.
RODRIGUEZ: They're coming in approximately -- normally, they stay out about 60 to 70 feet away from the shoreline. But in an instance today, it's very surprising that they're jumping just close to shore.
During the high tide, they were inside the sandbar, and they're jumping up in the water. You see them swimming very close to shore. We're talking about two feet, three feet from the shoreline, where people like to wade.
PHILLIPS: Wow. Len Rodriguez, a lifeguard there on Juno Beach. You're seeing the video, though, there via our affiliate WPTV. Pretty amazing picture.
Len, thanks so much. Keep us updated.
RODRIGUEZ: Thank you. Let's keep everybody out of the water for a while.
PHILLIPS: Hey, man, I don't think anybody's going in there, Len.
RODRIGUEZ: Especially me.
PHILLIPS: I don't blame you. And you're even trained for it.
RODRIGUEZ: Bye-bye.
PHILLIPS: Bye, Len.
Well, straight ahead, from the Swiss Guards to the papal vestments, ahead, just a fascinating look at the centuries of tradition behind the events unfolding at the Vatican this week.
SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Susan Lisovicz at the New York Stock Exchange, where investors are keeping a close eye on oil prices. Fed chief Alan Greenspan is weighing in on the situation. I'll have his take on the story coming up next on LIVE FROM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Well, concerns about high oil prices have kept Wall Street on edge recently. Now Federal Reserve chief Alan Greenspan is weighing in on the topic.
NGUYEN: I must say, I've been on edge, especially since I need to fill up. Susan Lisovicz join us now from New York with the latest on that.
(STOCK MARKET REPORT)
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