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Fire Tears Through Paris Apartments; September 11 Intelligence Questions Linger; Armstrong on the Defense
Aired August 26, 2005 - 13:33 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, overnight, an inferno ripped through an apartment building in Paris, leaving 17 people dead and sparking angry questions over fire inspection procedures in a city filled with aging buildings.
CNN's Jim Bittermann has the latest.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JIM BITTERMANN (on camera): Six children among those 17 victims, according to fire authorities, more than 30 people injured. The fire broke out at just after midnight last night, and it took firemen an hour and a half to bring it under control. They were on the scene immediately, but it was quite a smoky fire. And because of that, a number of victims were said to have been asphyxiated in their sleep. There is a fire station not very far away, and there's also a hospital not far away from this location.
So the victims would have gotten good care, but the problem was apparently that the fire broke out in a central stairway of the building which was made of wood, and because of that a number of people could not exit the buildings.
OUMAR CISSE, RESIDENT (through translator): I started to hear screams from 10:00 to 10:30 p.m. Children and adults, they were screaming everywhere. People of goodwill then called the police and firefighters, and everyone came to help. That's what we heard. And I've also seen children and adults jumping from the windows. It's a real tragedy.
BITTERMANN: The interior minister says that he's going to inspect all of these the buildings in Paris that house immigrants now after this fire. This is the second one in just a matter of months. An earlier fire in the (INAUDIBLE) 24 people were killed in a hotel fire. That was criminal in nature. This one, there's still no cause that's been determined.
Jim Bittermann, CNN, Paris.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: In other news around the world now, the Spanish government goes after a prime suspect in last year's Madrid bombings. Officials are seeking the extradition of a 23-year-old Moroccan man currently in Serbia. Rescuers believe that Abded Mujid Busharb (ph) played a decisive role in the commuter train attacks that killed 191 people.
Meanwhile, a man suspected in the failed July 21st bombings in London is fighting attempts to extradite him from Italy. Police arrested Hamdi Issac in Rome days after that attack. An Italian court already approved extradition, but the move is being contested by Issac's lawyer. A new hearing will be held within the next few weeks.
Now to lingering questions about intelligence failures ahead of the 9/11 attacks in the U.S. The Associated Press reports that the CIA inspector general is recommending disciplinary reviews for current and former officials who may have been involved. The list reportedly includes former CIA chief George Tenet. It's unclear if current CIA chief Porter Goss will act on the recommendation, but we wanted to talk to someone who once worked with Goss. CNN contributor Bob Barr joins us now. You and Goss both worked as CIA analysts.
What do you think? How do you think he'll respond to this?
BOB BARR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm not real optimistic, Kyra, that what needs to be done will, in fact, needs to be done. There needs to be a thorough house cleaning at the agency, a very systemic going through of the agency. How it does its work, how it's done its work in the past, to make sure that not only do we solve the problems that were apparent in its failure to really get to the root of the 9/11 problems before 9/11, as well as to really prepare itself for the years ahead, which are going to be real challenges for intelligence. I just think there's so much institutional defensiveness here, and the administration does not want to admit mistakes.
So I think that this probably will eventually be swept under the rug and will be the worse for it.
PHILLIPS: Well, this report is actually naming names. And among them are -- we mentioned George Tenet. Also the former clandestine service chief Jim Pavette (ph), former Counter-Terrorism Center head Cofer Black. What could hatch to them? And, I mean, what type of action could be taken against them? And how would that improve the situation, something that's already been done, and they're not really -- how highly involved are they with anything now period?
BARR: Well, they are actually pretty highly involved. Cofer Black, and there were problems with him as long ago as the mid 1990s in the agency's failure to do anything with regard to Osama Bin Laden in the Sudan when he was down there. But he's very heavily involved. Cofer Black is the "black" part of the name Blackwater, the major civilian contractor that is providing huge amounts of -- gaining huge amounts of money and providing security in Baghdad and the Middle East. So he's still very much tied in with the internal power structure in Washington.
George Tenet, of course, received the medal of freedom not too many months ago, and the problem there is that if the administration allows this process to go forward, and it is critical, in fact, of George Tenet and disciplinary action, so to speak, is taken against him, that will be a tacit admission that they shouldn't have given the medal to him. So the White House isn't going to want to do that. The bottom line is, though, that it's important for the integrity of the intelligence process, and for the American people and decision makers to know that mistakes have, in fact, been corrected and that the agency is serious about this in order for it to regain the credibility that is essential if that intelligence in the future is going to mean something.
PHILLIPS: So you're saying it's more important to just realize what went wrong, fix that, instead of holding anybody accountable?
BARR: Holding them accountable is part of that process. And even though there's not a lot that the administration can do in terms of disciplining, Cofer Black or George Tenet since they're not longer at the agency.
PHILLIPS: Yes, what kind of discipline are we talking about?
BARR: Really nothing. And it's not so much the substance of disciplining them as the appearance, the message that it would send if this is not swept under the rug, if this is swept under the rug, which I suspect it will be, then that's going to send a message that the administration is not, in fact, serious about making the systemic changes in intelligence that it talks about.
PHILLIPS: Bob Barr, thank you.
BARR: Thank you.
PHILLIPS: CNN's committed to providing the most reliable coverage of the news that affects your security. Stay tuned to CNN for the latest information day and night.
Well, as Katrina gathers strength and mulls where to strike next, South Florida is left with a mess to mop up. These pictures from Hollywood Beach now. More than a million people are without power in this area, thanks to downed power lines, and at least four deaths are being blamed on falling trees. Miami International Airport and the Ft. Lauderdale Hollywood Airport have both reopened, although many flights have been delayed or canceled.
And Florida Governor Jeb Bush is asking for federal disaster assistance in three South Florida counties so far, but more money may soon be needed elsewhere in that state. Forecasters say it's possible that Katrina could revisit the Florida panhandle in just a few days.
More now with the round one of Katrina. South Florida residents got doused with 15 inches of rain overnight. Some of them are making the most of it. How often do you get to jet ski through the neighborhood? Well, others are left with definitely damper spirits.
Elena Echarri reports now from Miami affiliate WPLG.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ELENA ECHARRI, WPLG CORRESPONDENT (on camera): This housing development's lake typically ends right over there where that box is. But as you can see, it's overflowed way beyond its banks.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's normally about maybe five to ten feet of just grass before you get into the lake.
ECHARRI (voice-over): Much of this Palmetto-based subdivision submerged, the area inundated overnight by Hurricane Katrina. This fence, immersed.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A lot of trouble. Thank God there's nothing real serious, but, yes, it's trouble moving around.
ECHARRI: Cars stalled all around. This father and daughter bicycled their way through waves of water on their streets, since it's impossible to get cars out of driveways. They put their bikes to work since cars have their limitations.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: To see if you were able to like -- I don't have a big SUV, to see if there was any way that we could get in and out. But I don't think so. Even SUVs in there are stuck.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's gross. There's leaves and debris everywhere, all water. Our shoes are all full of dirt and stuff.
ECHARRI (on camera): And in the same housing development, this large ficus tree crashes down, crushing this cinder block wall. A lot of troubles for one neighborhood.
In Palmetto Bay, I'm Elena Echarri, Local 10.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Speaking up in his own defense, Lance Armstrong tells his side following the latest doping allegation. Up next, we're going to hear from the seven-time Tour de France winner.
And dropping the P. Now he's just plain "Diddy." A bit later, we're going to consider this and other famous name changes.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TODD LEOPOLD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The big movie this weekend is "The Brothers Grimm." It's the latest from the visionary director Terry Gilliam.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This place is haunted by a witch.
LEOPOLD: It stars heath Ledger and Matt Damon as -- well, they're conmen, they roam through Napoleonic era Europe and they tell villagers they've got monsters in their forests, and then they exorcise those monsters. But then they come up against what might be some real monsters. That's the plot of the film, which also stars Jonathan Pryce.
The director, Terry Gilliam, was one of the founding members of Monty Python. We have galleries on the Entertainment page devoted to man of Monty Python, biographical sketches and their credits, as well as the films of Terry Gilliam, which include "Brazil," "The Fisher King," "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas."
Sunday night is the MTV Video Music Awards. Always a good time. And on Tuesday, Kanye West's new album, "Late Registration," comes out.
And that's it from the entertainment news this weekend. Get all your entertainment news and facts from CNN.com/showbiz.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Well, seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong says he's tired of allegations that he used performance-enhancing drugs. In his words, this thing stinks. Armstrong is responding to a French newspaper's claim that a urine sample he provided in 1999 recently tested positive for a banned substance.
In an interview last night with Larry King and Bob Costas on CNN's "LARRY KING LIVE," Armstrong says the claims, based on new tests of an old sample, are simply not legit.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BOB COSTAS, CNN GUEST HOST: What's your defense to the allegation itself?
LANCE ARMSTRONG, TOUR DE FRANCE CHAMPION: Our defense when we look at this thing and we say -- and I guess I try to ask people to sit in my seat and say, "OK, you know, a guy in a French -- in a Parisian laboratory opens up your sample, you know, Jean-Francis so and so, and he tests it. Nobody's there to observe. No protocol was followed. And then you get a phone call from a newspaper that says we found you to be positive six times for EPO."
Well, since when did newspapers start governing sports? I mean, Bob, you know baseball well. When an athlete's positive, Major League Baseball calls and they handle it in the correct way. When does a newspaper decide they're going to govern and sanction athletes? That's not the way it works.
COSTAS: When -- go ahead.
ARMSTRONG: And nowadays, we all want clean sport. And fortunately, an organization called WADA has come along and has really governed the world of anti-doping. They have set about a protocol and a code that everybody has to live by, and they've violated the code several times.
They don't have an answer for it. You know, you talk to the head of WADA and he doesn't have an answer. You talk to the head of the French Ministry for Sport, he doesn't have an answer. The lab runs from it. The only person who's sticking by the story is "L'Equipe."
COSTAS: Here's the head of the World Anti-Doping Agency, Richard Pound, a long-time Olympic official. He said this week, "It's not a he-said-she said scenario. There were documents. Unless the documents are forgeries or manipulations of them, it's a case that has to be answered."
ARMSTRONG: You know what? It is absolutely a case of he said- she said. What else can it be? Do you think I'm going to trust some guy in a French lab to open my samples and say they're positive and announce that to the world and not give me the chance to defend myself? That's ludicrous. There is no way you can do that.
COSTAS: Do you plan legal action?
ARMSTRONG: That's the most commonly asked question in the last three or four days, and it's a possibility. We would have to decide who we -- we're going to pursue, whether it was the lab, whether it was "L'Equipe," whether it was the sports minister, whether it was WADA. All of these people violated a serious code of ethics.
LARRY KING, CNN ANCHOR: But Lance, if you're totally clean, why not sue them all, since they all have some part in this, right? Can you unequivocally say you have never used an illegal substance ever?
ARMSTRONG: Listen, I've said it for seven years. I've said it for longer than seven years. I have never doped. I can say it again. But I've said it for seven years. It doesn't help. But the fact of the matter is, I haven't. And if you consider my situation: A guy who comes back from arguably, you know, a death sentence, why would I then enter into a sport and dope myself up and risk my life again? That's crazy. I would never do that. No. No way.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Well, today in Paris, a director of the French lab that performed the new tests said that all the results had been forwarded to the World Anti-Doping Agency. The agency has says his researchers will review those findings.
We're going to be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: We're just getting word out of Washington now with regard to base closings. The Federal Base Closing Commission, we are being told, has voted not to shut down Cannon Air Force base in New Mexico. Once again, Cannon Air Force Base in New Mexico, not going to be shutdown. The base will say open for another five years, we're being told, but it's operations will be scaled back. We'll continue to follow those BRAC hearings.
Now on a much lighter note, hey diddle, diddle, this cat's got to fiddle. Why does he keep changing his name? Our P. Jeanne Puff Moos on the perils of monkeying with your moniker, and why celebrities seems hooked on phonics funny business.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Never has the 16th letter of the alphabet been so insulted.
DIDDY, MUSICIAN: Enough is enough with the P getting in the way. You know, just call me Diddy.
MOOS: Easy for him to say.
(on camera): Who is this guy? What's his name?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: P. Diddy.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: P. Diddy.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Diddy P.
MOOS: And what was his next oldest name?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Puff Daddy.
MOOS: And then he became?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: P. Diddy.
MOOS: And now he's?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Puff P. Combs.
MOOS (voice-over): Looks like the P isn't going gently into the night.
It's tough, keeping up with celebrity name dropping. First, Jennifer Lopez opted for J.Lo, then backed off it.
And what about Snoop Dogg?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't like rap, and I don't like him, and I forget his name.
MOOS: His mom supposedly nicknamed him after the Peanuts character, because of his long, snoopy-shaped face.
First, it was Snoop Doggy Dogg.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Snoop Doggy Dogg, you need to get a jobby- job!
MOOS: Then Doggy became plain old Dogg, always with two G's. Seems like G is getting better treatment than P.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: P. Diddy.
MOOS (on camera): Diddy?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Diddy. Just Diddy that's it.
MOOS: Did he?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did he?
MOOS (voice-over): He did.
DIDDY: Diddy. It's simple. You know what I'm saying?
MOOS (on camera): It's just Diddy.
DIDDY: Five letters. One word. Period.
MOOS (voice-over): Lately, another one-word wonder has been using her Kabbalah name, Esther.
Perhaps the king of name changers is Prince. When he recorded this song, he was known as the Artist Formerly Known as Prince.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is that a guy or a woman?
MOOS: He adopted this unpronounceable symbol, combining the male and female signs, to get around a contract dispute. And when the contract was no longer a problem...
PRINCE, MUSICIAN: I will now go back to using my name instead of the symbol I adopted as a means to free myself.
MOOS: So he's back to Prince, though not everyone recognized him.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She said that she thought Michael Jackson.
MOOS (on camera): Michael -- do you think this is Michael Jackson? No, that's close. Well, it's not really. He wouldn't -- Prince wouldn't like us to call him Michael Jackson.
(voice-over): And we wouldn't want to short-change this guy.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: 50 Cent!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) 50 Cent!
(CROSSTALK)
MOOS: You're over excited.
(voice-over): It's not that he's changed his nickname, it's just that the way some folks pronounce 50 Cent is an automatic laugh inducer.
AMY POHLERT, "SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE": Members of 50 Cent's entourage -- is that funny -- maybe I should just stop the joke right here. Actually, Tina, you know, I think I know how this fight started. Hey, that seat is 50 Cent's!
TINA FEY, "SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE": I only have a dollar.
MOOS: These French guys weren't up on Diddy's name change.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: P. Diddy.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is Puff Daddy.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: P. Diddy.
MOOS (on camera): Hey, you know why he dropped the P?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why?
MOOS: So I could get closer to his fans. Are you feeling closer?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No.
MOOS (voice-over): But the French guy named Rafael (ph) followed Diddy's lead with his own nickname.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Raffy (ph).
MOOS (on camera): Raffy?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Raffy.
MOOS: See I can't tell...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If I drops the R, because -- to get closer to the fans.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And happy (ph).
MOOS (voice-over): Diddy will learn that there are worse things than being called by the wrong nickname.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So you're this international Mongol (sic) now. I mean, you have so much...
DIDDY: Mongol? Mogul.
(LAUGHTER)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I can't believe...
DIDDY: Mongol.
MOOS: Serves you right for diddling with your P, Diddy.
Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Coming up in the second hour of live from, unplanned parenthood? We're going to take you to one high school more than 10 percent of the girls have been pregnant within the past year. What's going on?
And just off the Florida coast, Hurricane Katrina gearing up for a second landfall. The latest on the storm's track. Don't go away.
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