Return to Transcripts main page
Live From...
Muslims Concerned in Wake of Terror Suspect Arrests; Five Suspects Now Held in Aruba Disappearance; Iraqi Family Shares Story of Tragedy, Hope; Pistons to Face Off with Spurs in NBA Finals
Aired June 09, 2005 - 15:00 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.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN HOST: Thumbs up for a third term after first saying no way. The Bush administration says it will back Mohammed ElBaradei if others at the United Nations want him to continue as head of its nuclear monitoring agency. ElBaradei met earlier today with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
A compromise on a new constitution. More Sunni Muslim Arabs soon will be helping draft Iraq's new constitution. That word from President Jalal Talabani. Just yesterday, the Sunnis threatened to boycott the process because of their lack of representation.
California shaman (ph), a fifth Pakistani is under arrest in Lodi near Sacramento, as the feds unravel what's alleged to be an al Qaeda plot to kill Americans. CNN's Chris Lawrence is on the story -- Chris.
CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Fredricka, the mayor of Lodi just wrapped up about a two-hour meeting with local Islamic leaders here in the town, basically trying to address how all the attention on these five men can have an affect on the greater Muslim community here.
Right now two U.S. citizens are in jail, being held at the Sacramento County jail. One of them is this man right here. He is Umer Hayat. He is an ice cream truck driver here in Lodi. He and his son Hamid have been accused of lying to the FBI, denying, then admitting that Hamid attended a terrorist training camp in Pakistan and then asking to come back to the U.S. to carry out his mission.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KEITH SLOTTER, FBI: Although we believe these individuals are committed to acts of jihad against the U.S., we do not possess information concerning exact plans, timing, or specific targets of opportunity.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LAWRENCE: Now, federal agents have raided several locations in the last few days. The other men who have been detained are two local Islamic leaders, and one of their sons. The officials won't say exactly how they're connected to the Hayats, but Hamid Hayat's attorney says he's being labeled a terrorist without actually being accused.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WAZHMA MOJADDIDI, HAMID HAYAT'S ATTORNEY: I recognize that the affidavit definitely has some pretty shocking details. But I just want to remind you that the only charge that has actually been filed against him is making false statements.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LAWRENCE: Now, we may hear a little more information tomorrow morning about 40 miles north of here in Sacramento. That's where Hamid Hayat will have a bail hearing in a federal courthouse -- Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: All right, Chris. Thanks so much.
Since very shortly after 9/11 the FBI has had a freer hand in tracking suspected terrorists, thanks to the Patriot Act. Parts of that expanded search and surveillance measure are -- are due, rather, to expire at the end of this year. But not if President Bush has his way.
Today Mr. Bush took his case for Patriot permanency to Ohio where a truck driver and al Qaeda foot soldier was uncovered, charged and sentenced to 20 years.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The Patriot Act has accomplished exactly what it was designed to do. It has protected American liberty and saved American lives. The problem is at the end of this year, 16 critical provisions of the Patriot Act are scheduled to expire. Some people call these sunset provisions. That's a good name, because letting that -- those provisions expire would leave law enforcement in the dark.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: Critics call the Patriot Act a threat to civil liberties.
More now on the latest arrests in Aruba. With three more men taken into custody today, there are now a total of five men being held in the disappearance of Alabama teenager Natalee Holloway.
CNN's Karl Penhaul joins us by phone from Aruba with the very latest -- Karl.
KARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The arrests, Fredricka, took place before dawn today. Three young men, those are the three young men in whose company Natalee Holloway was last seen in the early hours of the morning when she disappeared.
Police have told us in a press conference at midday that Natalee Holloway knew at least one of the boys, the 17-year-old, a minor, from the day before. They had met one another in the casino at the Holiday Inn where Natalee was staying. The police officer went on to say that he could not answer questions as to whether there had been any intimate physical contact between any of the boys and Natalee on the night that they left the Carlos and Charlie's Mexican bar. That's the same night that Natalee disappeared.
In addition to that, there have been some accusations here that the two initial suspects who were arrested over the weekend may have been arrested because they happened to be from black immigrant families, a question of a race issue. But the prosecution services moved quickly to quash those fears, saying that neither the skin color of any of the suspects comes into play, nor does the flat that one of the three suspects who was arrested today comes from an influential Aruban family -- Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: And Karl, what lead police to these suspects?
PENHAUL: Police have declined to say specifically. What they do say is that there is nothing in the witness statements of these two suspects who were arrested over the weekend that led to the detention of these three people but that police and prosecution say they had been watching these three young men ever since they first requested them, which was shortly after Natalee's disappearance, by virtue of the fact that they were the last people seen in her company -- Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: And we're looking at file tape of the search efforts underway involving local authorities there, even the FBI and even a number of civil servants who voluntarily went out to help in the search. What is happening now with the search? And who is involved?
PENHAUL: We have seen volunteers leave the Holiday Inn this morning to go on searches. Some of them have been tying yellow ribbons around the trees. I believe that move has also been made in Alabama, as well, a sign, a call to Natalee to come home.
Prosecutors and police do say that all scenarios, all options are still open. They say they don't have any evidence to suggest whether Natalee is alive or dead.
That said, we did talk to FBI sources yesterday. They say their dive teams that were called into the island have now left, because the government didn't pinpoint any space for them to search. Another search and rescue team say they have served all the public property they can and are awaiting further orders from the government -- Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: Karl Penhaul, thanks so much for that update from Aruba.
Overseas now, an Italian aid worker held hostage in Afghanistan has been released. New pictures into CNN right now just a few moments ago from Kabul. Afghan officials say Clementina Cantoni, who works for CARE International, is safe. She was abducted by gunmen while driving in central Kabul more than three weeks ago.
Up next the innocent victims of war.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Two Americans. One is Chris and the other is Joe. I remember that. And they took -- they took two of my daughters, and I saw by my eyes, they died.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: A deadly confrontation illustrates the everyday reality of the fighting in Iraq. Candy Crowley profiles one family devastated by the violence. But it turned into Belan (ph). That story when LIVE FROM returns.
ANNOUNCER: You're watching LIVE FROM on CNN, the most trusted name in news.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This week in history, allied forces stormed the beaches of Normandy in 1944 in the D-Day invasion of World War II.
Secretariat wins the Triple Crown of horse racing in 1973, and in 1987, President Ronald Reagan delivers a memorable speech at Brandenburg Gate in West Berlin.
RONALD REAGAN, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Tear down this wall.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That is this week in history.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(WEATHER REPORT)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: It's always tough saying good-bye.
Well the U.S. Army insists there is no personnel crisis, but the numbers aren't too optimistic. The Army missed its recruiting goal for the month of May and the month before that and the two months before that. In May alone the service was about 1,700 recruits short.
Army officials point to a strong job market and the difficulty of making war time service appealing.
We know that many Iraqis have been killed or injured since the beginning of the war in Iraq. We rarely put a face on the numbers, however, or listen to their stories of survival.
Here's CNN Candy Crowley.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) CANDY CROWLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): There are many stories in the "Arabian Nights," the interpreter who pulled Saddam Hussein from his spider hole. The waitress who fled Kurdistan. The electrical engineer who came to St. Louis by way of tragedy in Nasiriyah.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And there is sandstorm there. And I don't see -- I see nothing because of sandstorm. So there is, I think, four or three tanks, American tanks in the gate, Nasiriyah gate.
CROWLEY: In March of '03, U.S. troops were battling for control of Nasiriyah. The fighting was intense, the scene chaotic.
Hoping to find safety on his father's farm, Daham Kassim (ph) drove north out of town into a blinding sandstorm, straight at a U.S. checkpoint.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I stop my car and I wait. I wait less than one minute, really, and they shoot me.
CROWLEY: He was wounded in the face, his chest, his arm. He lost his right leg and so much more.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't know how one minute they still shoot my car. Then my brother, also with me, my brother and my wife and four kids, my kids.
CROWLEY: He bears unspeakable sadness but cannot stop talking.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Two Americans comes. One is Chris and the other is Joe. I remember them. And they took two of my daughters. And I saw by my eyes, they are died.
CROWLEY: His brother-in-law helps sometimes with the translation, but Daham's broken English perfectly articulates his broken heart.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And also I saw them take my son Mohammed, 7 years. It is difficult to breathing. And my daughter, the fourth one, my daughter Zainab is still OK as I see her.
CROWLEY: Mohammed died within minutes, 5 and a half-year-old Zainab, with her father and mother, spent several hours in a field hospital. But the trio was moved just as chill took over the Iraqi night.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Then my daughter Zainab said, "Pop, it is very cold." But you know, I have nothing to help her because I can't stand up. I can't -- this is broken, and my legs is also broken, and the other also. And my wife also the two arms -- two arms are broken. It is difficult to help my daughter and also die.
CROWLEY: Ages 2 and a half to 9, four children were dead.
(on camera) I'm a mother. I think that I would hate Americans if you were you. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (speaking foreign language)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just a person, whatever he did. She said she hate that person because of what he has done, because he's not careful. And she love the people who help her. So, it's kind of -- it's not a country, it's an individual.
CROWLEY (voice-over): Daham and his wife, Hufran (ph), are in the U.S. now, staying with her sister and brother-in-law on a six- month visa sponsored by a manufacturing company so Daham can update his skills.
They are two years and a world of day from the sandstorm, but the pain is just a breath away.
In January they went to Tennessee to vote in the Iraqi elections. Few have paid so dear a cost to cast a ballot.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I feel the same feelings for the Americans which they lost their sons or daughters. I have sad feeling, sad feeling, but we must see the hope for many million peoples in Iraq, also. This is -- this is the goal.
CROWLEY: The U.S. military found an incident fitting Daham's description of events. No one would talk on camera, but the Marines provided a written statement. "It was determined," the statement said, "that the shooting did not violate our rules of engagement nor the law of war."
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And this is American you see here, I think.
CROWLEY: This is the death certificate for 5 and a half-year-old Zainab. Cause of death: blast injury causing penetration of skull and exposure of brain. The space for Social Security number is all zeroes, ending in 27. Verifying Daham's records, an Army spokeswoman says that means Zainab, in March of 2003, was the 27th civilian casualty at the Nasiriyah Air Base Hospital.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They don't care my story and they don't -- this is the American government, I mean, and the American army, and the American -- all -- and they don't care of my story. But -- but on the other side, there is many, many American people help me.
CROWLEY: There are the Americans aboard the USS Comfort who cared for the couple. The American who owns the electrical company that sponsored the visas. The ones who coached him free of charge through rehab.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Can you step into the gray and then back?
CROWLEY: And there is the American company which gave him a new prosthesis and something he dearly wanted...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is that good?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Wonderful.
CROWLEY: ... the ability to kneel down to pray.
This is not a story that can have a happy ending, but there are reasons to smile.
(on camera) You have some big news?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
CROWLEY: Tell me.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My wife -- my wife pregnant now, I think, before two months.
CROWLEY: Her health is delicate. They are trying to extend their visa in the U.S., at least until the baby comes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The name is not so difficult, but I am sure. I mean if she, if come a daughter, I will have the same name of my big daughter. And if come a boy, the same of my boy. This is sure.
CROWLEY: By one estimate as many as 25,000 Iraqi civilians have been killed since the start of the war. No one knows how many have been injured.
Candy Crowley, CNN, St. Louis.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: And more of LIVE FROM right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: Get ready. NBA finals begin tonight when the two teams which spent the regular season racking up big defensive numbers face off in San Antonio. Larry Smith from CNN Sports in the Spurs country with a preview now.
Hi, Larry.
LARRY SMITH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Fredricka, how are you?
You know these NBA finals figure to be very special in that for the first time since the mid-1980s, we have a pair of teams, each with a nucleus that has won a championship.
The Detroit Pistons are bringing the same starting five with which they won it all a year ago, versus a Spurs team that was champion in 2003.
Detroit is coming off a grueling seven-game Eastern Conference finals series versus Miami. It wrapped up just three days ago. While the Spurs have been cooling their heels. They have been off since a week ago Wednesday. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TIM DUNCAN, SAN ANTONIO SPURS: There's been a little break. You've got to fight against the rust and whatever else. But I think we'll break through that pretty soon, and we'll get back into our flow.
RICHARD HAMILTON, DETROIT PISTONS: We want to play. We would rather play. You know, it's good that, you know, we won the last series, and that gives us an opportunity to come back and lay it on the line again, you know. We look at it as a challenge. You know, they had about a week off or something like that, and we just feel as though, you know, we're in a nice little groove right now. So we want to continue to try to stay in that groove.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SMITH: Game one tonight, 9 p.m. Eastern Time. In case you're wondering what happens before the game, all kinds of rehearsals. Will Smith, Alanis Morissette will both be in the building tonight for rehearsals, rehearsals for six hours.
Something to watch, though, the two opposing coaches. They are best friends. Detroit's Larry Brown was once the Spurs' head coach several years ago, and during that time he hired as his assistant Gregg Popovich, who is now the Spurs' head coach. They'll put their friendship aside, emotions aside, both now matching wits to try to win an NBA championship.
Let's go back to you.
WHITFIELD: All right. See how everything is cyclical? All right, Larry Smith, thanks so much.
That's going to wrap it up for this edition of LIVE FROM. And now here's Dana Bash for a preview of what's ahead on "INSIDE POLITICS".
Hello, Dana.
DANA BASH, HOST, "INSIDE POLITICS": Hi, Fredricka. And thank you.
DNA Chairman Howard Dean met with Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid on Capitol Hill today. Just ahead, the latest on their efforts to get beyond controversial comments and focus on issues they want to talk about.
And I'll talk with Senator Olympia Snowe, a Republican who may hold the key to whether the president's fledgling top agenda item, Social Security reform, is dead or alive.
"INSIDE POLITICS" begins in just a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
END
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired June 9, 2005 - 15:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN HOST: Thumbs up for a third term after first saying no way. The Bush administration says it will back Mohammed ElBaradei if others at the United Nations want him to continue as head of its nuclear monitoring agency. ElBaradei met earlier today with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
A compromise on a new constitution. More Sunni Muslim Arabs soon will be helping draft Iraq's new constitution. That word from President Jalal Talabani. Just yesterday, the Sunnis threatened to boycott the process because of their lack of representation.
California shaman (ph), a fifth Pakistani is under arrest in Lodi near Sacramento, as the feds unravel what's alleged to be an al Qaeda plot to kill Americans. CNN's Chris Lawrence is on the story -- Chris.
CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Fredricka, the mayor of Lodi just wrapped up about a two-hour meeting with local Islamic leaders here in the town, basically trying to address how all the attention on these five men can have an affect on the greater Muslim community here.
Right now two U.S. citizens are in jail, being held at the Sacramento County jail. One of them is this man right here. He is Umer Hayat. He is an ice cream truck driver here in Lodi. He and his son Hamid have been accused of lying to the FBI, denying, then admitting that Hamid attended a terrorist training camp in Pakistan and then asking to come back to the U.S. to carry out his mission.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KEITH SLOTTER, FBI: Although we believe these individuals are committed to acts of jihad against the U.S., we do not possess information concerning exact plans, timing, or specific targets of opportunity.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LAWRENCE: Now, federal agents have raided several locations in the last few days. The other men who have been detained are two local Islamic leaders, and one of their sons. The officials won't say exactly how they're connected to the Hayats, but Hamid Hayat's attorney says he's being labeled a terrorist without actually being accused.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WAZHMA MOJADDIDI, HAMID HAYAT'S ATTORNEY: I recognize that the affidavit definitely has some pretty shocking details. But I just want to remind you that the only charge that has actually been filed against him is making false statements.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LAWRENCE: Now, we may hear a little more information tomorrow morning about 40 miles north of here in Sacramento. That's where Hamid Hayat will have a bail hearing in a federal courthouse -- Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: All right, Chris. Thanks so much.
Since very shortly after 9/11 the FBI has had a freer hand in tracking suspected terrorists, thanks to the Patriot Act. Parts of that expanded search and surveillance measure are -- are due, rather, to expire at the end of this year. But not if President Bush has his way.
Today Mr. Bush took his case for Patriot permanency to Ohio where a truck driver and al Qaeda foot soldier was uncovered, charged and sentenced to 20 years.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The Patriot Act has accomplished exactly what it was designed to do. It has protected American liberty and saved American lives. The problem is at the end of this year, 16 critical provisions of the Patriot Act are scheduled to expire. Some people call these sunset provisions. That's a good name, because letting that -- those provisions expire would leave law enforcement in the dark.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: Critics call the Patriot Act a threat to civil liberties.
More now on the latest arrests in Aruba. With three more men taken into custody today, there are now a total of five men being held in the disappearance of Alabama teenager Natalee Holloway.
CNN's Karl Penhaul joins us by phone from Aruba with the very latest -- Karl.
KARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The arrests, Fredricka, took place before dawn today. Three young men, those are the three young men in whose company Natalee Holloway was last seen in the early hours of the morning when she disappeared.
Police have told us in a press conference at midday that Natalee Holloway knew at least one of the boys, the 17-year-old, a minor, from the day before. They had met one another in the casino at the Holiday Inn where Natalee was staying. The police officer went on to say that he could not answer questions as to whether there had been any intimate physical contact between any of the boys and Natalee on the night that they left the Carlos and Charlie's Mexican bar. That's the same night that Natalee disappeared.
In addition to that, there have been some accusations here that the two initial suspects who were arrested over the weekend may have been arrested because they happened to be from black immigrant families, a question of a race issue. But the prosecution services moved quickly to quash those fears, saying that neither the skin color of any of the suspects comes into play, nor does the flat that one of the three suspects who was arrested today comes from an influential Aruban family -- Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: And Karl, what lead police to these suspects?
PENHAUL: Police have declined to say specifically. What they do say is that there is nothing in the witness statements of these two suspects who were arrested over the weekend that led to the detention of these three people but that police and prosecution say they had been watching these three young men ever since they first requested them, which was shortly after Natalee's disappearance, by virtue of the fact that they were the last people seen in her company -- Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: And we're looking at file tape of the search efforts underway involving local authorities there, even the FBI and even a number of civil servants who voluntarily went out to help in the search. What is happening now with the search? And who is involved?
PENHAUL: We have seen volunteers leave the Holiday Inn this morning to go on searches. Some of them have been tying yellow ribbons around the trees. I believe that move has also been made in Alabama, as well, a sign, a call to Natalee to come home.
Prosecutors and police do say that all scenarios, all options are still open. They say they don't have any evidence to suggest whether Natalee is alive or dead.
That said, we did talk to FBI sources yesterday. They say their dive teams that were called into the island have now left, because the government didn't pinpoint any space for them to search. Another search and rescue team say they have served all the public property they can and are awaiting further orders from the government -- Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: Karl Penhaul, thanks so much for that update from Aruba.
Overseas now, an Italian aid worker held hostage in Afghanistan has been released. New pictures into CNN right now just a few moments ago from Kabul. Afghan officials say Clementina Cantoni, who works for CARE International, is safe. She was abducted by gunmen while driving in central Kabul more than three weeks ago.
Up next the innocent victims of war.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Two Americans. One is Chris and the other is Joe. I remember that. And they took -- they took two of my daughters, and I saw by my eyes, they died.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: A deadly confrontation illustrates the everyday reality of the fighting in Iraq. Candy Crowley profiles one family devastated by the violence. But it turned into Belan (ph). That story when LIVE FROM returns.
ANNOUNCER: You're watching LIVE FROM on CNN, the most trusted name in news.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This week in history, allied forces stormed the beaches of Normandy in 1944 in the D-Day invasion of World War II.
Secretariat wins the Triple Crown of horse racing in 1973, and in 1987, President Ronald Reagan delivers a memorable speech at Brandenburg Gate in West Berlin.
RONALD REAGAN, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Tear down this wall.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That is this week in history.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(WEATHER REPORT)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: It's always tough saying good-bye.
Well the U.S. Army insists there is no personnel crisis, but the numbers aren't too optimistic. The Army missed its recruiting goal for the month of May and the month before that and the two months before that. In May alone the service was about 1,700 recruits short.
Army officials point to a strong job market and the difficulty of making war time service appealing.
We know that many Iraqis have been killed or injured since the beginning of the war in Iraq. We rarely put a face on the numbers, however, or listen to their stories of survival.
Here's CNN Candy Crowley.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) CANDY CROWLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): There are many stories in the "Arabian Nights," the interpreter who pulled Saddam Hussein from his spider hole. The waitress who fled Kurdistan. The electrical engineer who came to St. Louis by way of tragedy in Nasiriyah.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And there is sandstorm there. And I don't see -- I see nothing because of sandstorm. So there is, I think, four or three tanks, American tanks in the gate, Nasiriyah gate.
CROWLEY: In March of '03, U.S. troops were battling for control of Nasiriyah. The fighting was intense, the scene chaotic.
Hoping to find safety on his father's farm, Daham Kassim (ph) drove north out of town into a blinding sandstorm, straight at a U.S. checkpoint.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I stop my car and I wait. I wait less than one minute, really, and they shoot me.
CROWLEY: He was wounded in the face, his chest, his arm. He lost his right leg and so much more.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't know how one minute they still shoot my car. Then my brother, also with me, my brother and my wife and four kids, my kids.
CROWLEY: He bears unspeakable sadness but cannot stop talking.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Two Americans comes. One is Chris and the other is Joe. I remember them. And they took two of my daughters. And I saw by my eyes, they are died.
CROWLEY: His brother-in-law helps sometimes with the translation, but Daham's broken English perfectly articulates his broken heart.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And also I saw them take my son Mohammed, 7 years. It is difficult to breathing. And my daughter, the fourth one, my daughter Zainab is still OK as I see her.
CROWLEY: Mohammed died within minutes, 5 and a half-year-old Zainab, with her father and mother, spent several hours in a field hospital. But the trio was moved just as chill took over the Iraqi night.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Then my daughter Zainab said, "Pop, it is very cold." But you know, I have nothing to help her because I can't stand up. I can't -- this is broken, and my legs is also broken, and the other also. And my wife also the two arms -- two arms are broken. It is difficult to help my daughter and also die.
CROWLEY: Ages 2 and a half to 9, four children were dead.
(on camera) I'm a mother. I think that I would hate Americans if you were you. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (speaking foreign language)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just a person, whatever he did. She said she hate that person because of what he has done, because he's not careful. And she love the people who help her. So, it's kind of -- it's not a country, it's an individual.
CROWLEY (voice-over): Daham and his wife, Hufran (ph), are in the U.S. now, staying with her sister and brother-in-law on a six- month visa sponsored by a manufacturing company so Daham can update his skills.
They are two years and a world of day from the sandstorm, but the pain is just a breath away.
In January they went to Tennessee to vote in the Iraqi elections. Few have paid so dear a cost to cast a ballot.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I feel the same feelings for the Americans which they lost their sons or daughters. I have sad feeling, sad feeling, but we must see the hope for many million peoples in Iraq, also. This is -- this is the goal.
CROWLEY: The U.S. military found an incident fitting Daham's description of events. No one would talk on camera, but the Marines provided a written statement. "It was determined," the statement said, "that the shooting did not violate our rules of engagement nor the law of war."
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And this is American you see here, I think.
CROWLEY: This is the death certificate for 5 and a half-year-old Zainab. Cause of death: blast injury causing penetration of skull and exposure of brain. The space for Social Security number is all zeroes, ending in 27. Verifying Daham's records, an Army spokeswoman says that means Zainab, in March of 2003, was the 27th civilian casualty at the Nasiriyah Air Base Hospital.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They don't care my story and they don't -- this is the American government, I mean, and the American army, and the American -- all -- and they don't care of my story. But -- but on the other side, there is many, many American people help me.
CROWLEY: There are the Americans aboard the USS Comfort who cared for the couple. The American who owns the electrical company that sponsored the visas. The ones who coached him free of charge through rehab.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Can you step into the gray and then back?
CROWLEY: And there is the American company which gave him a new prosthesis and something he dearly wanted...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is that good?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Wonderful.
CROWLEY: ... the ability to kneel down to pray.
This is not a story that can have a happy ending, but there are reasons to smile.
(on camera) You have some big news?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
CROWLEY: Tell me.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My wife -- my wife pregnant now, I think, before two months.
CROWLEY: Her health is delicate. They are trying to extend their visa in the U.S., at least until the baby comes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The name is not so difficult, but I am sure. I mean if she, if come a daughter, I will have the same name of my big daughter. And if come a boy, the same of my boy. This is sure.
CROWLEY: By one estimate as many as 25,000 Iraqi civilians have been killed since the start of the war. No one knows how many have been injured.
Candy Crowley, CNN, St. Louis.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: And more of LIVE FROM right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: Get ready. NBA finals begin tonight when the two teams which spent the regular season racking up big defensive numbers face off in San Antonio. Larry Smith from CNN Sports in the Spurs country with a preview now.
Hi, Larry.
LARRY SMITH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Fredricka, how are you?
You know these NBA finals figure to be very special in that for the first time since the mid-1980s, we have a pair of teams, each with a nucleus that has won a championship.
The Detroit Pistons are bringing the same starting five with which they won it all a year ago, versus a Spurs team that was champion in 2003.
Detroit is coming off a grueling seven-game Eastern Conference finals series versus Miami. It wrapped up just three days ago. While the Spurs have been cooling their heels. They have been off since a week ago Wednesday. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TIM DUNCAN, SAN ANTONIO SPURS: There's been a little break. You've got to fight against the rust and whatever else. But I think we'll break through that pretty soon, and we'll get back into our flow.
RICHARD HAMILTON, DETROIT PISTONS: We want to play. We would rather play. You know, it's good that, you know, we won the last series, and that gives us an opportunity to come back and lay it on the line again, you know. We look at it as a challenge. You know, they had about a week off or something like that, and we just feel as though, you know, we're in a nice little groove right now. So we want to continue to try to stay in that groove.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SMITH: Game one tonight, 9 p.m. Eastern Time. In case you're wondering what happens before the game, all kinds of rehearsals. Will Smith, Alanis Morissette will both be in the building tonight for rehearsals, rehearsals for six hours.
Something to watch, though, the two opposing coaches. They are best friends. Detroit's Larry Brown was once the Spurs' head coach several years ago, and during that time he hired as his assistant Gregg Popovich, who is now the Spurs' head coach. They'll put their friendship aside, emotions aside, both now matching wits to try to win an NBA championship.
Let's go back to you.
WHITFIELD: All right. See how everything is cyclical? All right, Larry Smith, thanks so much.
That's going to wrap it up for this edition of LIVE FROM. And now here's Dana Bash for a preview of what's ahead on "INSIDE POLITICS".
Hello, Dana.
DANA BASH, HOST, "INSIDE POLITICS": Hi, Fredricka. And thank you.
DNA Chairman Howard Dean met with Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid on Capitol Hill today. Just ahead, the latest on their efforts to get beyond controversial comments and focus on issues they want to talk about.
And I'll talk with Senator Olympia Snowe, a Republican who may hold the key to whether the president's fledgling top agenda item, Social Security reform, is dead or alive.
"INSIDE POLITICS" begins in just a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
END
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
