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Runaway Bride Back Home; Lynndie England Pleads Guilty to Abu Ghraib Related Charges; U.S. Soldiers Cleared of Checkpoint Shooting
Aired May 02, 2005 - 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: Six freeway shootings, some of them fatal, have California drivers wondering who's taking shots at them?
From the CNN center, I'm Kyra Phillips. Miles O'Brien is on assignment. CNN's LIVE FROM starts right now.
What do you think? Do you take this woman to court? That's the question facing prosecutors in the Georgia county that Jennifer Wilbanks fled six days ago, setting off a frenzied search that ended with a frenzied lie in New Mexico.
Two days later after Wilbanks returned to Atlanta on what would have been her wedding night, her prospects for prosecution may come down to premeditation, or the lack of it.
We're waiting for a news conference with the police in the Georgia city of Duluth, which is where we find CNN's Charles Molineaux.
Charles, bring us up to date on what we know as we wait for this news conference.
CHARLES MOLINEAUX, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We are standing by for a briefing, Kyra, that is going to involve the city of Duluth as well as the FIB and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and the district attorney here in Gwinnett County, Georgia. Part of it may well involve addressing the question about whether this runaway bride should be held criminally liable for this entire misadventure, which was, of course, at the heart of it, the case was somebody having second thoughts before a wedding.
But before it was over, it sucked the entire community in, as well as police halfway across the country.
It was a pretty odd scene on Saturday night as Jennifer Wilbanks made her way through the airport in Albuquerque, New Mexico, wearing not her bridal veil, but a multicolored blanket over her head, right about the time when she would have been walking up the aisle back in her hometown of Duluth, Georgia.
Her fiance, John Mason, their families, and their whole town were expecting the worst when she went missing last Tuesday. The news that she took off on a bus to Los Vegas and then ended up in Albuquerque, calling back to Duluth and telling a phony story about being kidnapped, stunned two families and a whole community, which had spent a lot of effort, energy, emotion and, yes, money looking for her. But the district attorney here in Gwinnett County says freaking out and taking off before a big wedding is one thing, but if Jennifer Wilbanks actually dreamed up a deceptive plan and this disappearance was something that concocted on purpose, then she could get hit with criminal charges.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DANNY PORTER, GWINNETT COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY: At this point it's too early to determine whether a crime has been committed. I've got to do some research on whether or not the call to Duluth would give us jurisdiction over the false report of the crime. The potential crimes we're looking at are false report, which is a misdemeanor, and false statements, which is a felony.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MOLINEAUX: Well, Porter says he's been going over the law books and talking with his staff about just what the options might be.
Now, meanwhile, the city of Duluth has been adding up the cost of this entire misadventure. The city clerk is still tabulating just what it took to have hundreds of volunteers and police out on the streets, trying to figure where Jennifer Wilbanks had gone. This of course, before the entire hoax became apparent. The numbers aren't in yet, but the mayor says her best unofficial guesstimate so far would be that it set the city back about $100,000.
Of course, a lot of people in this area are pretty angry, especially those who had a lot vested in hoping to see that she came home safely, including some who have spent many days out there combing the countryside, looking to see where she might be found.
Actually, Porter says that he's been hearing from people and that maybe about half and half was the split that he figured on those who thought maybe this confused runaway bride ought to get a break or that maybe she ought to be held responsible for what happened.
We are standing by to get some idea about what happened and also, perhaps, a time line of exactly what the sequence of events was that led from Jennifer Wilbanks on Tuesday night going on what was supposed to be an ordinary jog and ending up in Albuquerque, New Mexico, four days later -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: All right, Charles Molineaux. As soon as it starts, we'll take it live. We'll check in with you. Thank you so much.
And what would you do if you were the D.A.? E-mail us at LIVEFROM@CNN.com, and we'll read as many of your answers as we can.
Also, tune in this evening for a special edition of "NEWSNIGHT." Aaron Brown digs into the Wilbanks wedding that wasn't tonight and some high-profile hoaxes that it calls to mind. That's at 10 p.m. Eastern, 7 Pacific right here CNN.
Indecency, conspiracy, abusing detainees, Private First Class Lynndie England, a name and face synonymous with the scandal at Abu Ghraib, pleaded guilty today to most of the charges that she was facing at her court-martial in Texas.
CNN's Susan Candiotti is there -- Susan.
SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Kyra.
Yes, this is a deal worked out ahead of time between Lynndie England's attorneys and military prosecutors. England, for her part, has always told a judge the plea was strictly voluntary. And at the moment she's in the process of answering questions from the judge, going over the particulars of the case about her role in the Abu Ghraib prison scandal.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LYNNDIE ENGLAND, CHARGED IN ABU GHRAIB PRISON SCANDAL: You think you're taking it the right road, and it ends up being the wrong one, so...
CANDIOTTI (voice-over): Lynndie England, now a young unwed mother after an affair at Abu Ghraib prison, reached a deal to try to avoid years behind bars herself.
She was once called the poster child of the Iraqi prison scandal. Today the Army reservist from rural West Virginia pleaded guilty to seven counts, all involving photos from Abu Ghraib.
England was a clerk, not a guard at Abu Ghraib, and so she posed for the now infamous photos because her boyfriend, guard Charles Graner, asked her to do so. England talked about the photos in a Dutch television documentary.
In this one, seen holding a leash around a prisoner's neck, her defense: she was trying to help move him to another cell.
ENGLAND: It was the whole intimidation tactic.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The county district attorney's office, the FBI, the GBI, and Duluth police are...
PHILLIPS: Straight -- straight to Duluth, Georgia, now. This is the news conference we've been waiting for with regard to the runaway bride. Let's listen in.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... several hours. And as soon as possible we will get back with you and let you know the results of that discussion and have another press conference.
That's all we have to say at this time. Thank you. Yes, ma'am.
PHILLIPS: We apologize for that. Pretty uneventful. We were waiting, obviously, for more information from the police department there in Duluth, Georgia, with regard to the status of the investigation that is still pending, circling, of course, Jennifer Wilbanks. We know her now as the runaway bride.
As soon as we work more information, get something from the police department, we will let you know. Let's move on.
Australian by birth, Californian by choice, engineered by profession, taken captive by Iraqi insurgents. Douglas Wood is the latest terrified westerner to turn up in a homemade video with rifles at his head and a plea for his home country. In Woods' case, countries.
The 63-year-old contractor, asks for Australian, U.S. and British troops to pull out of Iraq. Australia's prime minister says he, for one, is not giving in to hostage-takers. It's not clear when Wood was kidnapped.
Four more car bombs rocked Baghdad today. Two others hit the northern city of Mosul. In all, a dozen Iraqis were killed, bringing to 105 the lives lost since Iraq's new assembly cabinet OK'ed a government last Thursday. That's not counting the bombers. It does include more than 30 Iraqi security forces and eight U.S. troops.
Spurts and lulls have long made up the cycle of Iraq violence, and a spurt apparently was in full force the day U.S. forces opened fire on a car that was trying to rush a newly freed Italian hostage at Baghdad Airport.
We get the details now from CNN's Barbara Starr. She's at the Pentagon -- Barbara.
BARBARA STARR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, the long awaited U.S. military investigation into the March shooting incident in which an Italian security agent died and the Italian hostage Giuliana Sgrena was wounded, that report now out over the weekend, exonerating U.S. military troops, saying they obeyed the rules at that checkpoint even though the tragic incident occurred.
Italy disagreeing. A report from the Italian government expected out possibly as soon as later today.
The U.S. military report findings were expected, that U.S. troops fired upon this vehicle. It was traveling at high speed, the U.S. says, and did not stop when it was warned to.
But there have been additional developments today, Kyra, a classified version of the report appearing on the Internet accidentally. CNN has seen it. We will not discuss, of course, details that would risk U.S. soldiers' lives, but look at this one statistic revealed in the report.
Over 3,000 insurgent attacks in Baghdad over that several month period. Over 2,000 of them directed against U.S. forces alone. An indicator, Kyra, of the kind of tension and stress that U.S. forces were under.
The report describes the number and type of attacks of improvised explosive devices that they were coming across. The report also tells us that that night, those soldiers at that checkpoint had been warned as suicide bombers. They were on the lookout for both a black car and a white car, and they had already turned away up to 30 cars from this checkpoint.
So when this particular vehicle came at them at high speed, they had every reason to believe they were under threat -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: What more does the report tell us about U.S. troops and the involvement there?
STARR: Well, there are, indeed, some have very human details about what happened on that dangerous airport road that night.
U.S. troops tried to render medical assistance to the Italian security agent, Nicola Calipari. They did what they could, but the report tells us now for the first time that he died a few minutes later. They were unable to revive him. Ms. Sgrena treated at the scene for shock and then taken to a hospital.
There is also the detail that one of the young American soldiers who fired his weapon apparently so distraught, he had to be relieved of duty from his duty post so he could, quote, "collect himself."
There was another Army captain, attached to the Italian contingent. He suspected that something might be afoot, but the Italian general told him that it would be better if nobody knew about. He took that as a direct order, did not pursue the matter.
But the bottom line is the report is unequivocal that the U.S. military was not notified that the Italians would be on the road that night -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: All right. Barbara Starr, live from the Pentagon, thank you so much.
Straight ahead, nuclear standoff. Did a missile test this weekend put North Korea's Kim Jong-Il a step closer to becoming a nuclear threat? We're going to talk about it, straight ahead on LIVE FROM
And stranded at sea for nearly a week, two teenage boys finally rescued and sharing how they survived for so long.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: So the city slugger asked the old guy how to get to the nearest town.
LAURA BUSH, FIRST LADY: Not that old joke. Not again.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: And what Laura Bush said next really brought down the house. The first lady gets the last laugh.
ANNOUNCER: You're watching LIVE FROM on CNN, the most trusted name in news.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(WEATHER REPORT)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Nuclear tensions on the rise across the globe are prompting calls for restraint. United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today urged non-weapons states, including Iran, to stay out of the nuclear race. He also asked the U.S. and Russia to cut down on their nuclear arsenals.
The calls came at a U.N. conference in New York aimed at overhauling the nuclear nonproliferation treaty.
Now, whether it was timed for the nuclear conference or not, North Korea's reported missile testing this weekend came at a convenient time for Kim Jong-Il. Pyongyang apparently test fired a short range missile yesterday, just as it did almost seven years ago. The missile apparently landed in the Sea of Japan.
Now, while the missile test was not surprising, it does raise alarm, with North Korea claiming it now has nuclear weapons.
Now, what's the capability of these short-term missiles and can they be armed with nuclear warheads? Joining us to offer some perspective on all of this is David Kang. He's an associate professor at Dartmouth College and co-author of "Nuclear North Korea: A Debate over Engagement Strategies."
Nice to have you with us, David.
DAVID KANG, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, DARTMOUTH COLLEGE: Fine to be here.
PHILLIPS: Let's talk about, first of all, the remaining question. Is it possible that, when we observe missile testing like this, that, indeed, we should have a fear about nuclear war warheads? From what I understand and from what you've written, the fact that it was short-range says no?
KANG: Yes. This is a missile that they test fired that has a range of about 100 kilometers, so about 60 miles or so. So it's not even long enough to reach Japan.
Certainly, in terms of being able to put a nuclear warhead on a short range missile like that doesn't pose a threat, and it's unlikely they can do it, anyway.
PHILLIPS: So, when we hear about testing like this, does it tell us anything new about a North Korean threat? About a nuclear threat? About what maybe is on the mind of Kim Jong-Il?
KANG: Not really. They've actually tested a number of these short-range missiles over the years. We already know their capabilities. This, in fact, is the same technology that they sold to the Iraqis years ago, the SCUD missile technology. So we already know they have this capability.
The concern is over two or three stage missiles that could go 6,000 miles. And they've never successfully tested one of those.
PHILLIPS: We'll talk about another concern, this one coming from Andrew Card, the White House chief of staff. This is what he said to Wolf Blitzer yesterday. I just want you to take a listen and get you to respond.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANDREW CARD, WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: Kim Jong-Il is not a good leader. He's not a good leader for his people. His people are living in abject poverty. Many of them are in concentration camps. They do not have any exercise of democracy of freedom. They are not allowed to contact the outside world. The outside world is not invited into North Korea.
He's not the kind of leader that instills confidence from his own people, and he's not really a comfortable leader with the rest of the world.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: So David, although we may look at missile testing like what we observed over the weekend and say, well, we're not really learning anything new, doesn't seem to be something that worries the U.S. at this point, but then looking at Kim Jong-Il, looking at his history, look at the type of person that he is, and what obviously, the administration thinks about him as a leader, does that at all open your eyes to thinking more about, well, this may not have meant anything, but when we look at Kim Jong-Il, there are other things we do have to look at?
KANG: Well, not really. I mean, no one disagrees. I mean, everyone agrees that he's a terrible leader, that he's repressive and that everyone would like him to go away or at least change his ways. That's not the issue.
The issue is over how you actually get rid of North Korea's military threat. And on that end, it's not so clear that amping up the pressure is going to make North Korea give in. In fact, they seem to meet pressure with more pressure.
PHILLIPS: So does that pressure just need to come from the United States? Is that the way to work this out? Or do you need to bring in Russia and Japan and China?
Actually, David, I'm going to ask you to hold on. Listen in with me. Condoleezza Rice talking about North Korea. Let's listen in.
CONDOLEEZZA RICE, SECRETARY OF STATE: ... have been focused on the nuclear issue with North Korea. And let me just say, Barry, I don't think anyone is confused about the ability of the United States to deter, both on behalf of itself and on behalf of its allies, North Korean nuclear ambitions or gains on the peninsula.
We have, after all, a very strong alliance with South Korea and a very strong alliance with Japan and, of course, the United States maintains significant -- and I want to underline significant -- deterrent capability of all kinds in the Asia-Pacific region.
So I don't think there should be any doubt about our ability to deter whatever the North Koreans are up to, but that does not mean that it is not a serious problem and the North Korean shouldn't come back to the six-party talks, because all of their neighbors consider this to be a problem. This is not just between the United States and North Korea.
And, yes, missiles will at some point have to be a part of the discussion.
PHILLIPS: Condoleezza Rice, secretary of state there, actually having lunch today with the foreign affairs minister of France.
Perfect timing, as David Kang and I are talking about the threat of North Korea. He's an associate professor at Dartmouth College, also co-author of "Nuclear North Korea: Debate Over Engagement Strategies."
Perfect timing for us, there, David. Right -- I was asking about the United States, and you were talking about the pressure the U.S. is putting on North Korea. Asking you also about Russia, Japan, China. And is that the answer to de-escalating this threat, is incorporating talks with these different countries? Obviously, Condoleezza Rice having an opinion about that.
KANG: Yes, well, again, all of the countries in the region agree that a nuclear North Korea is a bad idea. The disagreement is over how to go about it, as I was talking about earlier.
In the United States, we are much more concerned about North Korean strength, their nuclear weapons. But particularly China and South Korea are worried about North Korean weakness. That is, economic collapse and the chaos that would come in the region if you had 22 million refugees.
So they want to go more softly and try and get North Korea to open up its economy. The U.S. wants to ignore the economic side and put pressure on than the military side. So you have a problem in terms of getting everyone to agree on how to approach North Korea.
PHILLIPS: And on what the concerns are. OK, from economic to military. Of course, the nuclear threat is what the U.S. is most concerned about, but has North Korea ever tested a nuclear device? And although Kim Jong-Il claims there are nukes, we really don't know for sure if there are, if they exist or not.
KANG: Yes. North Korea's never tested a nuclear weapon. They've also never successfully test a three-stage intercontinental ballistic missile, i.e., one that would go across the Pacific, go 6,000 miles. As a result, what we have a lot of speculation about what they might do. But even in the three years since 2002, since this crisis began, North Korea hasn't tested either the missile or the nuke.
PHILLIPS: David Kang, thanks for your time today. Of course, we'll follow the story as it continues.
More LIVE FROM right after this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS (voice-over): Next on LIVE FROM...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm very concerned about it, because anybody can just pull a gun and shoot you now.
PHILLIPS: Six freeway shootings have drivers in southern California wondering who's gunning for them?
Later on LIVE FROM, Cy Young Award winning pitcher Barry Zito has a new inspiration for his next strikeout: America's wounded troops. He joins me with the LIVE FROM interview.
Old enough to retire, but still ready to serve his country. Bill responds to the call to protect and defend, wagging his tail all the way.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Merger Monday on Wall Street once again. With a look at today's big details, Susan Lisovicz standing by live from the New York Stock Exchange.
Hi, Susan.
(STOCK MARKET REPORT)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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Aired May 2, 2005 - 13:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, HOST: Six freeway shootings, some of them fatal, have California drivers wondering who's taking shots at them?
From the CNN center, I'm Kyra Phillips. Miles O'Brien is on assignment. CNN's LIVE FROM starts right now.
What do you think? Do you take this woman to court? That's the question facing prosecutors in the Georgia county that Jennifer Wilbanks fled six days ago, setting off a frenzied search that ended with a frenzied lie in New Mexico.
Two days later after Wilbanks returned to Atlanta on what would have been her wedding night, her prospects for prosecution may come down to premeditation, or the lack of it.
We're waiting for a news conference with the police in the Georgia city of Duluth, which is where we find CNN's Charles Molineaux.
Charles, bring us up to date on what we know as we wait for this news conference.
CHARLES MOLINEAUX, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We are standing by for a briefing, Kyra, that is going to involve the city of Duluth as well as the FIB and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and the district attorney here in Gwinnett County, Georgia. Part of it may well involve addressing the question about whether this runaway bride should be held criminally liable for this entire misadventure, which was, of course, at the heart of it, the case was somebody having second thoughts before a wedding.
But before it was over, it sucked the entire community in, as well as police halfway across the country.
It was a pretty odd scene on Saturday night as Jennifer Wilbanks made her way through the airport in Albuquerque, New Mexico, wearing not her bridal veil, but a multicolored blanket over her head, right about the time when she would have been walking up the aisle back in her hometown of Duluth, Georgia.
Her fiance, John Mason, their families, and their whole town were expecting the worst when she went missing last Tuesday. The news that she took off on a bus to Los Vegas and then ended up in Albuquerque, calling back to Duluth and telling a phony story about being kidnapped, stunned two families and a whole community, which had spent a lot of effort, energy, emotion and, yes, money looking for her. But the district attorney here in Gwinnett County says freaking out and taking off before a big wedding is one thing, but if Jennifer Wilbanks actually dreamed up a deceptive plan and this disappearance was something that concocted on purpose, then she could get hit with criminal charges.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DANNY PORTER, GWINNETT COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY: At this point it's too early to determine whether a crime has been committed. I've got to do some research on whether or not the call to Duluth would give us jurisdiction over the false report of the crime. The potential crimes we're looking at are false report, which is a misdemeanor, and false statements, which is a felony.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MOLINEAUX: Well, Porter says he's been going over the law books and talking with his staff about just what the options might be.
Now, meanwhile, the city of Duluth has been adding up the cost of this entire misadventure. The city clerk is still tabulating just what it took to have hundreds of volunteers and police out on the streets, trying to figure where Jennifer Wilbanks had gone. This of course, before the entire hoax became apparent. The numbers aren't in yet, but the mayor says her best unofficial guesstimate so far would be that it set the city back about $100,000.
Of course, a lot of people in this area are pretty angry, especially those who had a lot vested in hoping to see that she came home safely, including some who have spent many days out there combing the countryside, looking to see where she might be found.
Actually, Porter says that he's been hearing from people and that maybe about half and half was the split that he figured on those who thought maybe this confused runaway bride ought to get a break or that maybe she ought to be held responsible for what happened.
We are standing by to get some idea about what happened and also, perhaps, a time line of exactly what the sequence of events was that led from Jennifer Wilbanks on Tuesday night going on what was supposed to be an ordinary jog and ending up in Albuquerque, New Mexico, four days later -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: All right, Charles Molineaux. As soon as it starts, we'll take it live. We'll check in with you. Thank you so much.
And what would you do if you were the D.A.? E-mail us at LIVEFROM@CNN.com, and we'll read as many of your answers as we can.
Also, tune in this evening for a special edition of "NEWSNIGHT." Aaron Brown digs into the Wilbanks wedding that wasn't tonight and some high-profile hoaxes that it calls to mind. That's at 10 p.m. Eastern, 7 Pacific right here CNN.
Indecency, conspiracy, abusing detainees, Private First Class Lynndie England, a name and face synonymous with the scandal at Abu Ghraib, pleaded guilty today to most of the charges that she was facing at her court-martial in Texas.
CNN's Susan Candiotti is there -- Susan.
SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Kyra.
Yes, this is a deal worked out ahead of time between Lynndie England's attorneys and military prosecutors. England, for her part, has always told a judge the plea was strictly voluntary. And at the moment she's in the process of answering questions from the judge, going over the particulars of the case about her role in the Abu Ghraib prison scandal.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LYNNDIE ENGLAND, CHARGED IN ABU GHRAIB PRISON SCANDAL: You think you're taking it the right road, and it ends up being the wrong one, so...
CANDIOTTI (voice-over): Lynndie England, now a young unwed mother after an affair at Abu Ghraib prison, reached a deal to try to avoid years behind bars herself.
She was once called the poster child of the Iraqi prison scandal. Today the Army reservist from rural West Virginia pleaded guilty to seven counts, all involving photos from Abu Ghraib.
England was a clerk, not a guard at Abu Ghraib, and so she posed for the now infamous photos because her boyfriend, guard Charles Graner, asked her to do so. England talked about the photos in a Dutch television documentary.
In this one, seen holding a leash around a prisoner's neck, her defense: she was trying to help move him to another cell.
ENGLAND: It was the whole intimidation tactic.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The county district attorney's office, the FBI, the GBI, and Duluth police are...
PHILLIPS: Straight -- straight to Duluth, Georgia, now. This is the news conference we've been waiting for with regard to the runaway bride. Let's listen in.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... several hours. And as soon as possible we will get back with you and let you know the results of that discussion and have another press conference.
That's all we have to say at this time. Thank you. Yes, ma'am.
PHILLIPS: We apologize for that. Pretty uneventful. We were waiting, obviously, for more information from the police department there in Duluth, Georgia, with regard to the status of the investigation that is still pending, circling, of course, Jennifer Wilbanks. We know her now as the runaway bride.
As soon as we work more information, get something from the police department, we will let you know. Let's move on.
Australian by birth, Californian by choice, engineered by profession, taken captive by Iraqi insurgents. Douglas Wood is the latest terrified westerner to turn up in a homemade video with rifles at his head and a plea for his home country. In Woods' case, countries.
The 63-year-old contractor, asks for Australian, U.S. and British troops to pull out of Iraq. Australia's prime minister says he, for one, is not giving in to hostage-takers. It's not clear when Wood was kidnapped.
Four more car bombs rocked Baghdad today. Two others hit the northern city of Mosul. In all, a dozen Iraqis were killed, bringing to 105 the lives lost since Iraq's new assembly cabinet OK'ed a government last Thursday. That's not counting the bombers. It does include more than 30 Iraqi security forces and eight U.S. troops.
Spurts and lulls have long made up the cycle of Iraq violence, and a spurt apparently was in full force the day U.S. forces opened fire on a car that was trying to rush a newly freed Italian hostage at Baghdad Airport.
We get the details now from CNN's Barbara Starr. She's at the Pentagon -- Barbara.
BARBARA STARR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, the long awaited U.S. military investigation into the March shooting incident in which an Italian security agent died and the Italian hostage Giuliana Sgrena was wounded, that report now out over the weekend, exonerating U.S. military troops, saying they obeyed the rules at that checkpoint even though the tragic incident occurred.
Italy disagreeing. A report from the Italian government expected out possibly as soon as later today.
The U.S. military report findings were expected, that U.S. troops fired upon this vehicle. It was traveling at high speed, the U.S. says, and did not stop when it was warned to.
But there have been additional developments today, Kyra, a classified version of the report appearing on the Internet accidentally. CNN has seen it. We will not discuss, of course, details that would risk U.S. soldiers' lives, but look at this one statistic revealed in the report.
Over 3,000 insurgent attacks in Baghdad over that several month period. Over 2,000 of them directed against U.S. forces alone. An indicator, Kyra, of the kind of tension and stress that U.S. forces were under.
The report describes the number and type of attacks of improvised explosive devices that they were coming across. The report also tells us that that night, those soldiers at that checkpoint had been warned as suicide bombers. They were on the lookout for both a black car and a white car, and they had already turned away up to 30 cars from this checkpoint.
So when this particular vehicle came at them at high speed, they had every reason to believe they were under threat -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: What more does the report tell us about U.S. troops and the involvement there?
STARR: Well, there are, indeed, some have very human details about what happened on that dangerous airport road that night.
U.S. troops tried to render medical assistance to the Italian security agent, Nicola Calipari. They did what they could, but the report tells us now for the first time that he died a few minutes later. They were unable to revive him. Ms. Sgrena treated at the scene for shock and then taken to a hospital.
There is also the detail that one of the young American soldiers who fired his weapon apparently so distraught, he had to be relieved of duty from his duty post so he could, quote, "collect himself."
There was another Army captain, attached to the Italian contingent. He suspected that something might be afoot, but the Italian general told him that it would be better if nobody knew about. He took that as a direct order, did not pursue the matter.
But the bottom line is the report is unequivocal that the U.S. military was not notified that the Italians would be on the road that night -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: All right. Barbara Starr, live from the Pentagon, thank you so much.
Straight ahead, nuclear standoff. Did a missile test this weekend put North Korea's Kim Jong-Il a step closer to becoming a nuclear threat? We're going to talk about it, straight ahead on LIVE FROM
And stranded at sea for nearly a week, two teenage boys finally rescued and sharing how they survived for so long.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: So the city slugger asked the old guy how to get to the nearest town.
LAURA BUSH, FIRST LADY: Not that old joke. Not again.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: And what Laura Bush said next really brought down the house. The first lady gets the last laugh.
ANNOUNCER: You're watching LIVE FROM on CNN, the most trusted name in news.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(WEATHER REPORT)
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PHILLIPS: Nuclear tensions on the rise across the globe are prompting calls for restraint. United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today urged non-weapons states, including Iran, to stay out of the nuclear race. He also asked the U.S. and Russia to cut down on their nuclear arsenals.
The calls came at a U.N. conference in New York aimed at overhauling the nuclear nonproliferation treaty.
Now, whether it was timed for the nuclear conference or not, North Korea's reported missile testing this weekend came at a convenient time for Kim Jong-Il. Pyongyang apparently test fired a short range missile yesterday, just as it did almost seven years ago. The missile apparently landed in the Sea of Japan.
Now, while the missile test was not surprising, it does raise alarm, with North Korea claiming it now has nuclear weapons.
Now, what's the capability of these short-term missiles and can they be armed with nuclear warheads? Joining us to offer some perspective on all of this is David Kang. He's an associate professor at Dartmouth College and co-author of "Nuclear North Korea: A Debate over Engagement Strategies."
Nice to have you with us, David.
DAVID KANG, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, DARTMOUTH COLLEGE: Fine to be here.
PHILLIPS: Let's talk about, first of all, the remaining question. Is it possible that, when we observe missile testing like this, that, indeed, we should have a fear about nuclear war warheads? From what I understand and from what you've written, the fact that it was short-range says no?
KANG: Yes. This is a missile that they test fired that has a range of about 100 kilometers, so about 60 miles or so. So it's not even long enough to reach Japan.
Certainly, in terms of being able to put a nuclear warhead on a short range missile like that doesn't pose a threat, and it's unlikely they can do it, anyway.
PHILLIPS: So, when we hear about testing like this, does it tell us anything new about a North Korean threat? About a nuclear threat? About what maybe is on the mind of Kim Jong-Il?
KANG: Not really. They've actually tested a number of these short-range missiles over the years. We already know their capabilities. This, in fact, is the same technology that they sold to the Iraqis years ago, the SCUD missile technology. So we already know they have this capability.
The concern is over two or three stage missiles that could go 6,000 miles. And they've never successfully tested one of those.
PHILLIPS: We'll talk about another concern, this one coming from Andrew Card, the White House chief of staff. This is what he said to Wolf Blitzer yesterday. I just want you to take a listen and get you to respond.
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ANDREW CARD, WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: Kim Jong-Il is not a good leader. He's not a good leader for his people. His people are living in abject poverty. Many of them are in concentration camps. They do not have any exercise of democracy of freedom. They are not allowed to contact the outside world. The outside world is not invited into North Korea.
He's not the kind of leader that instills confidence from his own people, and he's not really a comfortable leader with the rest of the world.
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PHILLIPS: So David, although we may look at missile testing like what we observed over the weekend and say, well, we're not really learning anything new, doesn't seem to be something that worries the U.S. at this point, but then looking at Kim Jong-Il, looking at his history, look at the type of person that he is, and what obviously, the administration thinks about him as a leader, does that at all open your eyes to thinking more about, well, this may not have meant anything, but when we look at Kim Jong-Il, there are other things we do have to look at?
KANG: Well, not really. I mean, no one disagrees. I mean, everyone agrees that he's a terrible leader, that he's repressive and that everyone would like him to go away or at least change his ways. That's not the issue.
The issue is over how you actually get rid of North Korea's military threat. And on that end, it's not so clear that amping up the pressure is going to make North Korea give in. In fact, they seem to meet pressure with more pressure.
PHILLIPS: So does that pressure just need to come from the United States? Is that the way to work this out? Or do you need to bring in Russia and Japan and China?
Actually, David, I'm going to ask you to hold on. Listen in with me. Condoleezza Rice talking about North Korea. Let's listen in.
CONDOLEEZZA RICE, SECRETARY OF STATE: ... have been focused on the nuclear issue with North Korea. And let me just say, Barry, I don't think anyone is confused about the ability of the United States to deter, both on behalf of itself and on behalf of its allies, North Korean nuclear ambitions or gains on the peninsula.
We have, after all, a very strong alliance with South Korea and a very strong alliance with Japan and, of course, the United States maintains significant -- and I want to underline significant -- deterrent capability of all kinds in the Asia-Pacific region.
So I don't think there should be any doubt about our ability to deter whatever the North Koreans are up to, but that does not mean that it is not a serious problem and the North Korean shouldn't come back to the six-party talks, because all of their neighbors consider this to be a problem. This is not just between the United States and North Korea.
And, yes, missiles will at some point have to be a part of the discussion.
PHILLIPS: Condoleezza Rice, secretary of state there, actually having lunch today with the foreign affairs minister of France.
Perfect timing, as David Kang and I are talking about the threat of North Korea. He's an associate professor at Dartmouth College, also co-author of "Nuclear North Korea: Debate Over Engagement Strategies."
Perfect timing for us, there, David. Right -- I was asking about the United States, and you were talking about the pressure the U.S. is putting on North Korea. Asking you also about Russia, Japan, China. And is that the answer to de-escalating this threat, is incorporating talks with these different countries? Obviously, Condoleezza Rice having an opinion about that.
KANG: Yes, well, again, all of the countries in the region agree that a nuclear North Korea is a bad idea. The disagreement is over how to go about it, as I was talking about earlier.
In the United States, we are much more concerned about North Korean strength, their nuclear weapons. But particularly China and South Korea are worried about North Korean weakness. That is, economic collapse and the chaos that would come in the region if you had 22 million refugees.
So they want to go more softly and try and get North Korea to open up its economy. The U.S. wants to ignore the economic side and put pressure on than the military side. So you have a problem in terms of getting everyone to agree on how to approach North Korea.
PHILLIPS: And on what the concerns are. OK, from economic to military. Of course, the nuclear threat is what the U.S. is most concerned about, but has North Korea ever tested a nuclear device? And although Kim Jong-Il claims there are nukes, we really don't know for sure if there are, if they exist or not.
KANG: Yes. North Korea's never tested a nuclear weapon. They've also never successfully test a three-stage intercontinental ballistic missile, i.e., one that would go across the Pacific, go 6,000 miles. As a result, what we have a lot of speculation about what they might do. But even in the three years since 2002, since this crisis began, North Korea hasn't tested either the missile or the nuke.
PHILLIPS: David Kang, thanks for your time today. Of course, we'll follow the story as it continues.
More LIVE FROM right after this.
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PHILLIPS: Merger Monday on Wall Street once again. With a look at today's big details, Susan Lisovicz standing by live from the New York Stock Exchange.
Hi, Susan.
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