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Iraq's Special Tribunal Files First Formal Charges Against Saddam Hussein; Courage Under Fire
Aired July 18, 2005 - 13:35 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Stories now in the news. Confessed serial bomber Eric Rudolph says deadly force is needed to stop abortion. Rudolph spoke out for the very first time today about his deadly crime spree at a sentencing hearing in Birmingham, Alabama. One of Rudolph's victims says it gives her great delight knowing Rudolph will spend his life in an 8x12 box.
A new development in the search for Natalee Holloway. Aruban authorities and the FBI will be conducting tests on blonde hair strands that were found on a piece of duct tape. The duct tape was found on Turtle Beach yesterday, some seven weeks after Holloway vanished.
Plenty of damage, but no deaths are being reported in Mexico in the aftermath of Hurricane Emily. Emily slammed into the Yucatan Peninsula as a category-four storm early today. The far southern border of Texas is preparing for a possible run-in with Emily late tomorrow.
A trial date could be set within days for Iraq's former-dictator- turned-prisoner Saddam Hussein. Iraq's special tribunal filed its first formal charges against Hussein yesterday. A significant step in what's expected to be a long and difficult trial.
From Baghdad, here's CNN's Aneesh Raman.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RAMAN (voice-over): Justice now one step closer.
RAID JUHI, CHIEF INVESTIGATIVE JUDGE (through translator): The Iraqi Special Tribunal has entered a new phase, the phase of the actual trial of these accused, and we ask the almighty to support us.
RAMAN: Iraq's chief investigative judge Sunday issuing the first formal charges against Saddam Hussein and other members of his former regime. They could face trial as early as September, on the first of what is expected to be multiple cases, beginning with the alleged atrocities in the northern village of Dujail, Where In 1982, more than 150 people were killed after a failed assassination attempt against then-President Hussein.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ladies and gentlemen, we got him.
RAMAN: Since Saddam's capture in December of 2003, Iraqis have eagerly awaited the moment their former dictator would come to trial. But it took nearly seven months for the special tribunal to put Saddam in a courtroom and, under the world's watch, listing the various crimes he would face. And then again, a period of silence as the tribunal staff traveled throughout the country gathering evidence, conducting interviews, meticulously preparing. A tug of war ensued, tribunal officials fearing a rush could weaken their case at trial.
Iraqi political figures bowing to public pressure, publicly demanding Hussein face trial as soon as possible, often suggesting it would be a matter of months.
But in this, the latest video released in June, Saddam was interrogated about the events in Dujail, an indication that his case was moving forward.
(on camera): This will be the first of perhaps a dozen trials Saddam Hussein will face, each for a specific case, each carrying the potential of the death penalty. But for the Iraqi people, the specifics are as important as the defendant. Many of them say humanity itself is on trial.
Aneesh Raman, CNN, Baghdad.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARRIS: Hurricane Emily has officially passed out of the area and into the Gulf of Mexico, but we're still getting damage assessments. At the very least tourists will be left to cope with power outages and debris-strewn beaches. We're going to check in at a Marriott Hotel in Cancun which has served as an official evacuation shelter.
Manager Chris Calabrese joins me on the phone with a status update. Chris, good to talk to you. How are things where you are right now?
CHRIS CALABRESE, MARRIOTT HOTELS: Well, Tony, they're getting a lot better. In our particular hotels as you've mentioned, they've been designated. We actually made an appeal to the government to use our two hotels as a local shelter. They come out and do a physical test and make sure we meet category-four and category-five hurricane velocity wind protection, and we were given that right to protect our guests, rather than what most hotels had to do was to evacuate to some small schools in the center of town, so they were very, very well protected in our two properties here.
HARRIS: When did the storm make landfall?
CALABRESE: It hit Cancun about 1:00, 1:15 when we felt the leading edge of the hurricane. We estimate some category two about 125 mile-an-hour winds. The palm trees are pretty much shot. We had some minor damage in the hotel, but we put our Marriott evacuation plan into place to make sure that our guests and employees are well taken contrary of.
HARRIS: Chris, what does that feel like? Describe what it feels like to be hit with winds of that speed? CALABRESE: I mean, we walked the beach and walked the areas just to make sure that there was nothing flying around that could break any windows, and we all had a very difficult time standing straight. It feels like you're trying to push against a car that's moving against you, and it's pretty intense.
HARRIS: Did you get mandatory evacuation orders?
CALABRESE: Well, the rest of the city did. But since we have been designated as a shelter, the only thing we needed to do was make sure that our guests were secure. We even asked -- we provide several places for them in the ballroom, which is a protected area, with beds. We have movies. We put a buffet out there so that they were well taken care of.
HARRIS: How many people?
CALABRESE: Well, unfortunately it's July, and we don't normally get hit with big hurricanes this early in the season. So we had about 600 guests in the CasaMagna Marriott Hotel and about 500 guests in the J.W. Marriott Resort and Spa.
HARRIS: My goodness. And everybody came through it okay?
CALABRESE: Everybody came through it. All the employees are fine. All the guests are fine, and they were very grateful for what we were able to do to them without moving them downtown to a school that maybe had one bathroom in it.
HARRIS: Hey, Chris, I'm curious, what do you do for vacationers certainly in a month when they're not anticipating getting hit with a major hurricane? What can you do to help them salvage their trips?
CALABRESE: Well, one thing is to keep them in the hotel so they're not forced to go downtown in a very inconvenient place, and try to make this as pleasant as possible. Like I said, we were showing movies in the ballroom. We had a dinner buffet, and basically it affected 18 hours of their vacation, in preparation.
Now, we did have -- we were surprised to see that on Saturday late afternoon, with everybody knowing that the hurricane was going to hit, that the planes were full coming in with new visitors.
HARRIS: Wow.
You don't offer any refunds for the time that folks had their trips impacted by this, do you?
CALABRESE: No, it's really a -- you know, one of those Mother Nature things. If somebody wants to cancel their trip and they've got a paid-in-advance sort of situation, we'll waive that expense. But most people who were here rode out the storm very, very well. We were very impressed with their attitudes and the way that our guests behaved. And really, it's over now. It's passed. People are going about their business. We've opened up all of our areas again at both properties and they're here to enjoy the rest of their vacation. And hopefully the sun comes out tomorrow.
HARRIS: All right, let's have some fun. Chris, we appreciate it. Chris Calabrese for us.
CALABRESE: Thank you, Tony.
HARRIS: The best places to live are no more than a click away. Find out more about it. That's coming up next, and getting creative with their stiff upper lips.
After suicide bombings, the folks in London aren't afraid to tell you they are not afraid. Jeanne Moos has the story later on LIVE FROM.
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CHRISTINA PARK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Where do you hang your hat if you're looking for a change of scenery? CNNmoney.com/bestplaces has your list of the top 10 best cities to live in. In the top slot, Moorestown, New Jersey for its schools, nice homes at reasonable prices, and its proximity to City of Brotherly Love, Philly, as well as easy access to the Jersey shore and a decent drive to New York City. Bainbridge Island, Washington, slides into second. Naperville, Illinois rounds out the top three.
For the rest of the list, click on over to CNNmoney.com/bestplaces. While you're there, you can configure your ideal place to live. Rank what's important to you: crime rate, affordability, pollution, culture, access to quality health care and we'll serve up your dream cities. So get moving. If you need a reason to stay, type in your city or state to see how it stacks up against other cities in the U.S. But don't take our word for it. Whether you're looking for home cheap home or a new adventure, CNN.com/bestplaces does all the work for you. We've got everything you need to move, except the bubble wrap, of course.
I'm Christina Park from the dot-com desk.
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(STOCK MARKET REPORT)
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PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Dominique Dawes tumbled into the spotlight during the 1996 Olympics as part of the Magnificent Seven gold-medal winning gymnastic teams. "Awesome Dawson" became the first African-American to win an individual gymnastics medal, with the bronze in the floor exercise.
DOMINIQUE DAWES, GYMNAST: It just meant a lot to do it for the country, my team and myself. ZAHN: After the games in Atlanta, Dawes turned heads on Broadway, dabbled in acting and modeling, and cartwheeled her way through a Prince music video.
She hung up her leotard in 1998 and started class at the University of Maryland, but soon realized that gymnastics was not quite out of her system. Dawes participated in her third Olympic Games in 2000, in what she calls a once in a lifetime experience.
Dawes is now 28, is completely retired from gymnastics, and splits her time between coaching and motivational speaking.
DAWES: It's really going out there and teaching young girls what being fit is all about.
ZAHN: She's also president of the Women's Sports foundation, and has recently launched a new project called Go Girl, Go.
DAWES: I feel like I do have to inspire and empower others, and that's why, you know, I've found these different platforms, these different venues that I feel like I've been able to touch lives in.
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SUZANNE PLESHETTE, ACTRESS: Bob, I know the morning didn't start off too well, so why don't we go out to dinner tonight? That would be fun.
BOB NEWHART, ACTOR: No.
PLESHETTE: Why don't we go to the movies?
NEWHART: No.
PLESHETTE: Or why don't we just go to bed early?
NEWHART: The movies isn't a bad idea.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: Suzanne Pleshette. Bob and Emily may be going to the movies, but you got to stick around for the second hour of LIVE FROM, when comedy legend Bob Newhart joins us to talk about his career. From the early '60s to "Desperate Housewives"? That's in our next hour.
But first, Franklin Delano Roosevelt put it this way: The only thing we have to fear is fear itself. After the London bombings, one Brit took that concept and boiled it down for today's computer literate office.
CNN's Jeanne Moos has more on how the idea has taken off. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Want to tell terrorists that you're not afraid? Not afraid at all? Pah, so not afraid. Let your toes do the talking. Spell it out with alphabet soup.
ALFIE DENNEN, CREATOR, WERENOTAFRAID.COM: It's such a simple way of getting the message across that's quite a deep message.
MOOS: Londoner Alfie Dennen dreamed up the Web site werenotafraid.com right after the bombings. Since then, over 11,000 photos have been submitted from all over the world, a rush of photos from Mt. Rushmore to Hollywood.
DENNEN: I did it at first because it was a really personal kind of effect on me. You know my friend was involved.
MOOS: This friend, who took his own picture fleeing one of the underground bombings, Dennen reacted by posting this photo of himself. And look where it went from there, from home-made signs to elaborate graphic design.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That just sums it up, man.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Terrorist Advisory. We're not afraid.
MOOS: The sky's the limit. Photos pour in, sometimes at a rate of five or six a minute. Baby pictures are big, but not any bigger than pets. It seems as if the entire animal kingdom is free from fear, from fluffy, to super squirrel. Do I look afraid? Do I look afraid? Do we look afraid? New Yorker Richard Ghazarian doctored his driver's license to reach out to London the way London reached out to New York after 9/11.
RICHARD GHAZARIAN: What a better way to show who you are and where you're from than your driver's license?
MOOS: Pregnant women are not afraid. Even fetuses are showing remarkable courage. Middle fingers seem to be getting a lot of exercise, even the littlest of middle fingers. Dennen and a dozen of his friends manage the site. Editing out anti-Muslim hate e-mail. Does he think his site makes a difference to the terrorists?
DENNEN: No. No. I think it makes a difference to us.
MOOS: Dennen even quit his job at a streaming video company to devote himself to the site. It's identical in concept to another Web site. Remember "Sorry, Everybody," when those who voted against George Bush apologized after his re-election?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It says, "Sorry, World, We Tried."
MOOS: The creator of that site contacted Dennen.
DENNEN: You know, he e-mailed me and he said, you biting my style? I said, yes, you were a total inspiration.
MOOS: Many use humor to defy the terrorists.
DENNEN: The Scared-O-Meter. Terrorists, squirrels, paper bags, flying, spiders.
MOOS: And remember the Iraqi information minister who told the opposite of truth? You have my word, they are all very, very afraid. Despite Dennen's sign, he's frightened by his own Web site.
DENNEN: It's frightened me because it's the huge amount of attention.
MOOS (on camera): But I'm afraid, afraid that's all we have time for except for one final photograph.
DENNEN: He was in the carriage which had a bomb in it.
MOOS (voice-over): In the middle of the night, this photo of someone named Mark arrived.
DENNEN: He sent in an image with stitches on his head, sutures on his head, just with we're not afraid.
MOOS: Mark and Dennen ended up talking.
DENNEN: I told him that he was the bravest person I'd ever spoken to and he just went off kind of laughing.
MOOS: Laughing away terror seems to help. The contents of our diapers are scarier than you. Take that, terrorists!
Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
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