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U.S. Marines Killed; Shuttlenaut Plucks Pesky Gap-Fillers From Discovery; Air France Flight Crashed During Heavy Storm

Aired August 03, 2005 - 13:58   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Another grim distinction and a horrible week for U.S. Marines in Iraq. Fourteen killed in a roadside explosion near the Syrian border. Apparently the single deadliest attack on a U.S. military ground vehicle of the war.
Just two days earlier, a half-dozen marines from the same battalion were killed in a firefight in that same area, Haditha, in Anbar province. And moments ago, President Bush took note in a visit to Grapevine, Texas. We'll hear from him in just a moment.

More now from CNN's Barbara Starr, who joins us live from the Pentagon -- Barbara.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, a very difficult day here and in Iraq. Very, very deadly. And the question is, what is going on? Is there a new insurgent offensive in western Iraq around the city of Haditha?

Now, at a press conference here earlier today, some of the top officials said, yes, they do see insurgent activity there, that the U.S. and coalition forces have been conducting an offensive all up and down the Euphrates River valley in that area, trying to corner the insurgents. And they now do see the insurgents reacting to that. That's why they believe some of these attacks are happening.

Very interestingly, though, one of the top generals here said that while the number of IED attacks, such as was seen earlier today that killed 14 Marines, the number of attacks are down, the lethality is up. That these IED attacks are becoming much more deadly. Let's listen to a minute to what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRIG. GEN. CARTER HAM, U.S. ARMY: We are seeing larger amounts of explosives, we are seeing different techniques that are being used in an effort to counter the efforts of coalition and Iraqi security forces to protect folks while they are moving. Different types of penetrators, different techniques of triggering the events. I mean, again, this is -- this is a very brutal, lethal and adaptive enemy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STARR: Kyra, take note of what General Ham said, different types of penetratetors. What he is talking about there are new types of IEDs formed specially to go through the armored vehicles that U.S. forces have been using to protect themselves against these type of attacks.

Fourteen Marines killed today in an IED attack. Of course, six on Monday.

That Monday attack still very much under investigation. These were expert-trained Marine Corps snipers. They were on foot patrol. Five of them killed in an initial small arms attack. One man, however, was found dead about three miles away from his colleagues. The Marines trying very urgently to try and determine what happened to that Marine who was found dead some miles away from the rest of his team -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right. Barbara Starr. Thank you for those details.

And of course we told you we're going to hear from the president, what he had to say. Here it is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Men and women who have lost their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan and in this war on terror have died in a noble cause, and a selfless cause. Their families can know that American citizens pray for them, and the families can know that we will honor their loved one's sacrifice by completing the mission.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: And I've just received the list of those six Marines from the battalion that were killed in the firefight there in Haditha. I want to take a moment to read you those six names.

They're Corporal Jeffrey Boskovitch, 25, of Seven Hills, Ohio; Lance Corporal Roger Castleberry Jr. (ph), 26, of Austin, Texas; Sergeant David Culiard (ph), 32, Glastonbury, Connecticut; Lance Corporal Daniel DeYoungman Jr. (ph), 22, Talmadge, Ohio; Lance Corporal Brian Montgomery (ph), 26, of Willoughby, Ohio; Sergeant Nathaniel Rock (ph), 26, of Toronto, Ohio.

These are the six Marines that were killed on Monday. As you know, this battalion that they were a part of, it's pretty amazing, because they lost their lives. And now we're reporting another grim distinction in a horrible week for these Marines. And that is the 14 killed in a roadside explosion near the Syrian border, the same battalion that lost these six Marines.

It's been a while since I've actually read the names. And usually we're talking about numbers. So a pretty powerful moment there when you receive those names. I apologize.

Moving on. Also, to talk about the toll of fallen journalists in Iraq, that's grown as well. Freelance writer Steven Vincent, an American, was found shot to death in the southern city of Basra today, just hours after he and a translator were kidnapped. That translator was also shot, but at last report alive. Vincent's last report was an op-ed piece in Sunday's "New York Times" on the rise of Islamic militarism and formerly stable Basra. Well, the group reports -- Reporters Without Borders, says that his death brings to 64 the number of media professionals killed in Iraq since March 2003.

Talking about gap fillers now. What gap fillers? OK. So the drama, the uncertainty and the stakes involved in this morning's spacewalk to the belly of the Space Shuttle Discovery haven't been forgotten just yet. But gap filler plucker Steve Robinson certainly made it seem like no big deal, so he said.

CNN's John Zarrella watched the mission go down as smoothly as NASA had hoped it would happen. Now the reentry will go next Monday. We hope it will be just as smooth.

Pretty amazing stuff, John.

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, you want gap fillers? We've got gap fillers. Here's gap filler.

PHILLIPS: Fill in the gaps for us, would you?

ZARRELLA: This is a gap filler. Here's a shuttle tile. And really, this would be -- my hand could be the other tile. And I guess it would have been something like this, and, you know, he would have plucked that gap filler right out of there.

And it worked very, very easily. It's really a -- it's like a sandpaper material, but very, very smooth, maybe a little bit thicker than wall paper. So interesting substance, but you can see it really came right out very easily for Steve Robinson.

Again, yes, he had the responsibility to get on the International Space Station's robotic arm. And for the first time in the quarter- century history of the shuttle program, to actually descend underneath the belly of the shuttle and perform a repair on the space shuttle.

You can see him there grabbing that gap filler out. The red material on that there is the bonding agent that obviously did not bond very well, but it went extremely smoothly, removing both gap fillers, using just his hand. Didn't need to use any of the tools that he had brought up with him. And, in fact, after -- oh, after a press briefing this morning, the EVA officer, Cindy Begley, was commenting that, even for Steve Robinson, it was -- came out easier than he thought.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL HILL, FLIGHT DIRECTOR: This was the last thing remaining open for us to clear. So with those gap fillers coming out like that, we've got a clean vehicle for de-orbit, pending the discussion on Eileen's side window, which we expect to hear today or tomorrow.

(END VIDEO CLIP) (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CINDY BEGLEY, SPACEWALK OFFICER: So it did turn out to be just as easy as we said it was going to be.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZARRELLA: So the issue, of course, now, as Paul Hill mentioned, is they're turning to the issue of what are called -- what is this blanket underneath Commander Collins' window.

There's beauty shots that they took, just spectacular images of the leading edge of the wing there of the Shuttle Discovery as they're giving it the once-over to make sure everything is OK. But again, they're turning their attention now to this blanket, this puffy blanket material underneath Commander Collins' window, and they have to decide what, if anything, needs to be done about that before they come home on Monday.

There is a possibility, although very remote, Kyra, that they might have to perform another spacewalk to deal with that blanket material. It should be flush against the shuttle. And it's for some reason puffed up, perhaps from some impact on ascent into orbit.

But yet one more thing to deal with before they can come home. But other than that, Discovery has gotten a clean bill of health and is in good shape for the return -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: That's good news.

Now, what are you going to do with that gap filler? Are you going to wait for the crew to come back an get them to sign it? What do you think?

ZARRELLA: I think they want me to give this back before I leave here today, but if I can stick it in my pocket...

PHILLIPS: They'll never know.

ZARRELLA: ... I'll get them to sign one for you and for me.

PHILLIPS: I like that. Is it expensive?

ZARRELLA: You know, I'm going to find -- anything that they put up in space is expensive. How much it costs, I don't know.

PHILLIPS: That's a good point. That's true.

ZARRELLA: Yes.

PHILLIPS: All right. John Zarrella, thanks so much. We won't tell anybody.

Well, "incredible" and "miraculous," those words are being used over and over to describe the harrowing crash of Air France Flight 358. That Airbus, the A-340, overshot the runway in Toronto yesterday. It hit a ravine, and then it burst into flames.

Remarkably, all 309 people on board survived. As passengers reflect on the crash, investigators are trying to piece together what happened.

CNN's Mary Snow is live at the Toronto airport -- Mary.

MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kyra, we may get some more answers. In a little under an hour, we're expecting another update from officials, but Canada's Transportation Safety Board has a team on the ground investigating. Also, Air France has sent a team over here to investigate as well.

And what's happening now is that investigators are trying to get some information from the black box recorders. This morning, they said they had not yet retrieved them. They're also talking to passengers and crew.

This is part of an effort to try to piece together the final moments and find out why Air France Flight 358 skidded off that runway and plowed into a ravine that caught fire. This happened around 4:03 Eastern Time yesterday afternoon.

Investigators say they are looking at everything, but they say weather is likely a factor. There had been a lightning alert at the airport for several hours yesterday afternoon. There were thunderstorms, heavy rain and heavy wind.

As you mentioned, all passengers were able to escape safely. Forty-three people reported injured, but officials say those injuries are really minor.

And fire officials are also pointing out kind of remarkable timing that everyone was able to get out of the plane and evacuate it to safety in under two minutes. And fire officials say that was crucial, because the plane went up in flames, they estimate, just about a minute to two minutes after that.

Passengers, no doubt, are saying that they feel very fortunate and lucky today. One gentleman we spoke with earlier today says that he thinks that maybe this Sunday he'll go to church -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Not a bad idea. They definitely are blessed individuals.

Mary Snow, thank you so much.

And we are expecting a 3:00 p.m. news conference there at the Toronto airport. Mary's been talking about that. We will take it as soon as it happens. In addition, we're going to hear from a survivor in exactly one minute.

So stay with us.

Also ahead, what would you do to yourself -- or how would you keep yourself, rather, safer from terrorists? How about putting all your personal information on a national I.D. card? We're going to talk about it straight ahead.

And meet Harvey, the newest tropical storm in an already turbulent season. He's not very good looking, is he? We're tracking it later on LIVE FROM.

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PHILLIPS: Three hundred and nine people evacuating a burning plane. It sounds like a recipe for disaster, yet everyone on board the flight survived. How did they do it? And what was going through their minds as they tried to escape?

Yasmin Ladak, a 26-year-old doctor, was on board that Air France flight. She joins us live to talk about it.

Yasmin, and I can honestly say, it's very good to see you. Your entire family is probably saying the same thing.

DR. YASMIN LADAK, PLANE CRASH SURVIVOR: They are.

PHILLIPS: I'm sorry.

LADAK: They're very relieved to see me.

PHILLIPS: Oh, no doubt. I want to get to why you were on that flight in just a moment. But first, take me back to yesterday, the sounds, the sights, the feel. Tell me how it went down. You were strapped in, thought you were getting ready to take off. What happened?

LADAK: Right. You know, everything was fine throughout the whole flight, right until we touched down.

The weather did look a little bit unsettled. But when we did touch down, people started clapping, just happy that we did touch the ground. And a couple of seconds after that, the plane just started jerking quite violently, and the next thing we knew, we were off the runway, and I could see flames in the distance behind me.

PHILLIPS: Was there panic inside the cabin?

LADAK: Yes. There was definitely a lot of panic, people screaming, just didn't know what was going on or what to do. So it was quite chaotic.

PHILLIPS: So how did the flight crew just get everybody together and try and maintain calm? Because obviously, everybody got out. So how did it...

LADAK: Right.

PHILLIPS: ... how did it end up in an organized fashion? Or was it really not organized and everybody just popped the doors and jumped?

LADAK: That was my recollection. I mean, I think everyone's instinct was to just get off the plane. And so I didn't -- I'm sure the Air France crew was involved, but I just didn't -- I didn't see them at any point. And I just kind of, along with the other passengers, tried to make my way toward the front and to the closest exit and to get off the plane.

PHILLIPS: And was everybody helping everybody get off? And what were you doing? And how did you finally get off? Did you have to jump out the door?

LADAK: Yes. I was just -- I guess people started reaching for their things and they just started yelling, you know, "Just keep going, keep walking, forgot about your things, we have to get off the plane," and just started moving forward as quickly as possible. And I was able to get out off of a chute and down and off the plane.

PHILLIPS: Now, you're a doctor. So were you kind of checking everybody out at the same time to make sure everyone was OK, and actually seeing if you need to treat anybody?

LADAK: Well, I was looking around to see -- to make sure everybody ahead of me was moving, and able to sort of walk out. And as far as I could see there, was no -- there weren't any urgent medical injuries. So I was kind of watching out for that, and at the same time trying to get people off the plane.

PHILLIPS: Now, here's another part of the miracle. You were coming back from the Himalayas, because you were on a very special trip. Tell us about that.

LADAK: Right. I spent the last few weeks in the Himalayas with a medical group. And we were traveling in under-served areas of northern India and close to Tibet. And I was there for the past two weeks, and I was on my way back from there and had the layover in Paris, and that's how I wound up on this flight.

PHILLIPS: Well, what comes around goes around. I think your good karma helped save everybody on that plane. Your prayers were definitely answered.

Yasmin, thanks for your story.

LADAK: Thank you.

PHILLIPS: My pleasure.

We're going to take a quick break. More LIVE FROM right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: May I see your papers, please? Well, over the years, America has steadfastly refused to embrace the idea of a national identification card. The war on terror may be changing that, though. Congress recently passed a law creating national standards for driver's licenses, the closest thing we have to a national I.D. Former homeland security secretary Tom Ridge wants to go even further, though.

CNN Contributing Correspondent Frank Sesno has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FRANK SESNO, CNN CONTRIBUTING CORRESPONDENT: In Hollywood's black-and- white world of wartime "Casablanca," not having the right papers...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: These papers expired three weeks ago.

SESNO: ... could cost you your life. In real-world America, it's nowhere near that bad. But just a few years ago, when Nevada rancher Dudley Hibel repeatedly refused to give his name and I.D. to a local sheriff's deputy, he was handcuffed and arrested.

Hibel argued his right to refuse I.D. all the way to the Supreme Court.

DUDLEY HIBEL, ARGUED RIGHT TO REFUSE I.D.: This isn't just about me. This is about all Americans.

SESNO: He lost. The court ruled that because the cops had reasonable suspicion that Hibel was abusing a passenger in his truck, they had every right to demand I.D. The American Civil Liberty's Union called the ruling, "... a step on the road to a police state."

But in our war on terror, I.D. is now standard fair at airports, federal buildings and increasingly at the office.

(on camera): So, what's the most common form of identification in the United States? What do I already share with 200 million other people? It's this: my driver's license. It's my permit to drive, but it's a lot more.

(voice-over): Name, height, date of birth, my address, which I'm not going to let you see here, all courtesy of the commonwealth of Virginia. But each state does licensing in its own way. So brace yourself for a brave new world.

A brand new law, the Real I.D. Act, creates standards for driver's licenses, making them harder to get, harder to forge, more high-tech, linking databases. Non-citizens will have to prove they're here legally.

A first step toward a national I.D.? Yes, says none other than the former head of Homeland Security, who believes it's about time.

TOM RIDGE, FMR. HEAD OF HOMELAND SECURITY: A standard form that basically says Frank Sesno is Frank Sesno, Tom Ridge is Tom Ridge, gives anyone involved with combating terrorism a base of information about people who are legitimately here.

SESNO: Knowing he's stirring a hornet's nest, Ridge favors a national I.D. system. RIDGE: Look, there's so many people, going down so many paths. Is it not in the national interest that we come up with a standard form?

SESNO: Jim Harper is a privacy advocate who vehemently disagrees. He's with the Libertarian Cato Institute and runs a Web site called Privacilla.org.

JIM HARPER, PRIVACY ADVOCATE: The dominant use of national identification will be surveillance of ordinary law-abiding citizens.

SESNO: But the systems are being built. We visited a company, Visage, that's working with DMVs in more than a dozen states.

KENNETH SCHEFLEN, SENIOR V.P., VISAGE: The biggest problem and the hardest one to solve technically is knowing who the person is in the first place. Are they really who they purport to be.

SESNO: Authenticating documents is the first step. So they've looked at mine as if I were an applicant. My passport takes just a nanosecond to get a green light. My license...

KEVIN MCKENNA, DIRECTOR, VISAGE: We look for certain visible patterns on that driver's license.

SESNO: Security features, some exposed only by infrared light. Yes, the documents are real, but am I really who I say I am? Picture time.

(on camera): I failed.

MCKENNA: You failed on biometrics.

SESNO (voice-over): Now, I've got a problem. Because of the poor quality of my passport and driver's license photos, the machine can't verify I am who I claim to be. A DMV employee will have to look more closely. But can any of this stop the bad guys?

Say I'm a terrorist, I want to change my face, warts and all, because I know the authorities have my original photo on file. What happens now? My scruffy self, scanned against 50,000 others in this sample database. The computer sees right through the new me and zeros in on a likely match.

MCKENNA: Those are under different names, but it sure looks like the same guy.

SESNO (on camera): But what's going on here that makes this computer say, ah, these are the same guys?

MCKENNA: Well, what we're actually doing is we're taking a flexible grid, placing it over the face. And it's comparing over 1,700 different feature points on your face.

SESNO (voice-over): The technology is imperfect, but improving. Already, Illinois is using it every day, scanning new applicants against the pictures of 18 million license holders. Critics say terrorists will still do whatever it takes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The terrorists will use fraud to acquire cards. They will corrupt DMV employees. They will use forgery to create cards.

SESNO: "But it's an important layer of security," insists Tom Ridge, that with oversight and limits on access and use can make us safer."

(on camera): You know what people say: There goes Tom Ridge. What's wrong with Tom Ridge? A national I.D., a central database in the United States of America? Are you crazy?

RIDGE: It doesn't have to be a central database, but it does have to be a standard form of identification. I am optimistic enough and confident enough that we could come up with a system that would protect privacy rights, but also significantly enhance security.

SESNO: Would it prevent another 9-11? Those hijackers all managed to get valid driver's licenses or state-issued I.D.s would it have stopped Timothy McVeigh? He had a license long before he bombed Oklahoma City. Would a national I.D. have stopped the London bombers. Apparently, they were all legal residents.

RIDGE: It should not be viewed as the beat-all and end-all and the answer to every security problem that we have. It should be viewed as one of a series of steps, particularly in a post-9-11 world, that has, I think, definite security benefits, but also other benefits to the 21st-century world in which we live in.

SESNO: A dangerous digital world, where we have to decide how to balance security and privacy when there are no guarantees.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Well, since 9/11, the government has passed aggressive new laws to fight terrorism. You may be surprised to learn that the scope of these laws and the sweeping new powers given to law enforcement. All this week, CNN's "PAULA ZAHN NOW" has been examining the status of the war on terror.

Our Americas bureau's Kelli Arena joins us live from Washington now with a preview of her story tonight.

Hi, Kelli.

KELLI ARENA, CNN AMERICA BUREAU CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Kyra.

Well, as you know, I cover the law enforcement and terrorism beats everyday. So I am drowning in this information. But most Americans are not, until they find themselves face to face with authorities.

We met with some folks and had them share their stories. We don't get into a debate about whether this is right or wrong, but instead, we try to matter of factly give people a sense of what is going on as law enforcement fights the war on terror on a daily basis that ordinary Americans just might not be aware of.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ARENA (voice-over): Paul Burgess and Randy Olson (ph) are train enthusiasts and amateur photographers. So it's no surprise that one of their favorite pastimes is taking pictures of trains.

PAUL BURGESS, AMATEUR PHOTOGRAPHER: That was Hiawatha service from Milwaukee.

ARENA: Which is exactly what they were doing one day about seven months ago on this very platform in suburban Chicago when they were confronted and detained by police. Their car searched and their names and information checked against terrorist databases.

BURGESS: There was a crowd of people standing here staring at us, we're up against a police car. We're not handcuffed. There's two armed officers standing in front of us telling us that we could be placed in federal detention.

ARENA: While it usually doesn't go this far, police officers do have the right to question you and will if you are taking pictures of transportation systems or bridges or other infrastructure. In fact, as CNN was shooting video for this story, our cameraman was stopped and questioned by authorities.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was just trying to find out who you were with.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I told you who we're with.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right, OK.

ARENA: As attacks in both London and Madrid have made obvious, trains and subways attractive targets for terrorists, and terrorists often conduct early surveillance by taking photos.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ARENA: Now, both those men, the photographers, say that they understand the concern about terrorism, but they don't think that stopping photographers is a way to stop attacks -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Well, you know, it's interesting, Kelli, and you and I talked about this. Everyone has been concerned about racial profiling, and there's that legislator in New York that wants to make racial profiling of Middle Easterners legal.

ARENA: Right.

PHILLIPS: But it's not just Middle Easterners that are getting stopped and questioned.

ARENA: Well, that's right. Look at the two guys that we just profiled, middle-aged white guys. And they actually make that point. They said, you know, "We thought that there had to be, you know, maybe some suspicious activity, maybe we would hide our cameras, maybe we'd fit a different profile." So it just goes to show you that any suspicious activity will -- will be questioned.

PHILLIPS: And didn't your FBI sources say to you more than likely what's going to stop a terrorist will be someone right there on the front lines, in the street, a citizen that notices something strange or a police officer working a beat?

ARENA: You're absolutely right, Kyra. The -- we had interviewed the special agent in charge of the Baltimore field office. And he said, you know, he really truly believes that. Because 95 percent of the time, when police officers do go out and question anybody, it's because a citizen has called and said, "I saw somebody doing something and it didn't seem kosher to me, and I think you ought to check it out." Or, "I've noticed my neighbor's been acting weird," or "These new guys just moved in."

And so he says that the number of calls that they get on a daily basis from just concerned citizens is pretty astounding. And he said that, you know, chances are it's not going to be some big national intelligence coup or some overseas intelligence agencies sharing information, but it's probably going to be the normal cop on a beat that stops you for a traffic violation and notices something odd and could very well prevent a major attack.

PHILLIPS: Interesting stuff. Kelli Arena, I look forward to your report tonight. Thank you so much.

ARENA: You're welcome.

PHILLIPS: And this week CNN is presenting a series of "Security Watch" special reports. You can see "Safe At Home: A Day in the Life of a Secure America" on "PAULA ZAHN NOW." That will include Kelli's piece tonight at 8:00 Eastern.

CNN is committed to providing the most reliable coverage of news that affects your security. Stay tuned to CNN for the latest information day and night.

Straight ahead, terror charges. We've got details on the first official charges in the July 21 attempted London terror bombings.

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