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Police Claim Beating Justified; Rain Continues to Flood Northeast; Tales of Hope from Pakistan; Iraqi Lawmakers Reach Compromise on Constitution

Aired October 12, 2005 - 13:00   ET

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

DARYN KAGAN, HOST, "CNN LIVE TODAY: And that's going to wrap up this hour of "CNN LIVE TODAY." A lot more ahead as news continues on CNN's LIVE FROM. Fredricka Whitfield is in today. I'm Daryn Kagan. Have a great day.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FRANK DESALVO, ATTORNEY, POLICE ASSOCIATION OF NEW ORLEANS: ... just go off to jail. He brought it on by his actions.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: According to their lawyer, New Orleans police did nothing wrong during this taped beating. We're live from New Orleans.

Rain, rain go away. An already dangerously flooded northeast gets more of what it doesn't need.

And meeting the needs of millions of people in the quake zone. How will they get help?

From the CNN center in Atlanta. I'm Fredricka Whitfield, in for Kyra Phillips. CNN's LIVE FROM begins right now.

Standing their ground. Three New Orleans police officers suspended and accused in the videotaped beating of a retired school teacher on Bourbon Street, a retired school teacher who allegedly was drunk and abusive. That man, Robert Davis, is standing his ground, as well.

And CNN's Dan Simon has the latest on all of this.

DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Daryn (sic).

A press conference just took place behind me there. The three officers were there, along with their attorney. The officers did not speak. They appeared to be very somber, however. The attorney basically spelled out the version of what he claims happened.

What he says is that, basically, all this occurred as a result of Mr. Davis' actions. They said that Mr. Davis was belligerent from the very beginning, used expletives with the officer. They claim that he actually stumbled into a horse. And when they went to question him, he got very belligerent. At the same time, they said that they feared that he had a weapon in his pants. They said that he put his hands in his waistband, and the implication there is that they had a weapon. Let's hear now from the attorney, Frank DeSalvo.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DESALVO: Two officers observed him as he actually fell into the police horse. The officers were concerned for his safety, approached in an attempt to see if they could get a friend or someone to assist him.

His speech was slurred. He was belligerent. He told the officers to go "F" themselves and pushes -- pushed them away in an attempt to get away.

Based on his condition, his inability to or refusal to cooperate, he was escorted to a nearby wall, where he would be cuffed and frisked. When directed to place hands behind back, he refused and placed both his hands in his front waistband, in either an effort to keep them from cuffing him or an effort to maybe grab a weapon.

When directed to place his hands behind his back, he did that. His left hand was eventually cuffed. His right hand, they were unable to pull it behind. In an effort to try to get it behind, he was struck several times around the neck and shoulders and the back of his head.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIMON: Now, we also saw Mr. Davis this morning. He had his court arraignment. He's been charged with public intoxication, battery, public intimidation, and resisting arrest. Today, he pleaded not guilty to those four charges.

So clearly you have two very opposing viewpoints of what happened. We heard from those officers today. We heard from the lawyer. He says that stress did not play a role I what occurred. They're claiming that basically they followed proper police procedure. Of course, this will all be hatched out in a court of law -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: And Dan, in that videotaped beating you can hear the extraneous voices of witnesses, perhaps. Is there any point of view on what the witness -- eyewitness accounts will be and what their role will be playing in this investigation?

SIMON: Well, we don't know how many witnesses actually saw this. We do know that one particular witness saw it actually as was unfolding. Most of it was over. And then he wanted to report what happened to a nearby police officer. It was actually a customs officer. He claims that that officer told him, "This is really none of your business" and was basically accosted by this particular customs officer.

In terms of how many witnesses actually viewed this, that's all going to come out a bit later on -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right. Dan Simon in New Orleans, thanks so much. That investigation still ongoing and in the beginning stages.

Rain again in New Hampshire and New York and Massachusetts and Vermont. And several more inches are expected by the weekend. It all adds up to big trouble, especially in the Granite State where three people are dead and four still missing after violent floods caused by 10 inches of rain last weekend. Hardest hit are the southwest communities of Keene and Alstead.

And CNN's Chris Huntington checks in from Alstead with the very latest.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRIS HUNTINGTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm standing down in the river bed of the greatly expanded Cold River in Alstead, New Hampshire. This is a river that, until Sunday, was only about 20 feet wide. It's now more than 100 feet wide.

On Sunday, storm surge came down here, locals say, about 10 to 15 feet high, sweeping back the banks, knocking homes, many businesses, cars and trucks dumped into the river.

Now, right now, the situation is stable, but could turn critical again with lots of rainfall expected in the days ahead. One of the chief concerns is a dam about five miles up river that was topped on Sunday. Right now, the water is said to be about a foot and a half below the top of that dam. Significant rainfall could change that situation and change it quickly.

Reporting from Alstead, New Hampshire, Chris Huntington.

Back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: And more rain is forecast for the northeast. And if you are wondering where all this rain is coming from, well, some of it is coming from hurricane season. CNN meteorologist Jacqui Jeras connects the dots for us -- Jacqui.

(WEATHER REPORT)

WHITFIELD: All right. Thanks a lot, Jacqui.

Well, the weather is better in northeast Pakistan, clearing the way for earthquake aid to flow in from about 30 countries around the world and more importantly, to reach many of the people and places that need it most.

Among the estimated 2.5 Pakistanis left homeless, foodless, helpless, on remote and unforgiving terrain, whole families who lived middle-class lives before Saturday.

Hopes of finding any more survivors are fading. But here and there, now and then, they are still being realized.

In the northern city of Balakot, French crews used an infrared device to pinpoint a 4-year-old boy buried under piles of concrete, steel and wood. They dug for hours and pulled the boy out of the rubble alive and into his father's arms.

From Islamabad, CNN's Stan Grant tell us about some other heartening moments in the face of overwhelming devastation.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

STAN GRANT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Sometimes miracles do happen. While a nation counts its loss, this family is counting its blessings.

KHALIDA BHEGUM, SURVIVOR: It's a big miracle that God saved my -- all of my children and then he saved me and my mother also. And I came back to them and can see them and I -- I saw in my eyes that so many people loves me.

GRANT: These are the images that tell of hope where all around there is hopelessness. Fifty-five-year-old Khalida Bhegum and her mother, Maha Bibi, 75, plucked from the rubble that was once their home. A ten-story apartment block now reduced to this.

For 80 hours, they were in darkness, trapped. Outside, their family waited and prayed. Yet faith alone could not banish fear. Their thoughts turned to the worst.

ANZUM TARIQ, KHALIDA'S DAUGHTER: If you ask me honestly, I didn't think they were going to make it, because I had been there. I had seen what was like. And I really -- I really didn't know how me and Telha (ph) escaped. I really couldn't understand how I made it out there. I believe that God had pushed us out.

GRANT: Anzum Tariq was in the apartment with her mother, Khalida, and grandmother. She remembers that moment when disaster struck. She grabbed her 3-year-old son and ran for the door. Khalida and Maha Bibi could not find a way out. Within moments it all came crashing down.

BHEGUM: This thing came on me and my mother's own head, and it was a big sound. And then we felt that we are going down because the floor opened and we went inside the basement.

GRANT: In the long, dark hours that followed, it was cold. Khalida thought of her family. She huddled together with her mother, caring for her, making her comfortable.

She heard voices outside, the rescuers working through the day and night. When they found her, it was not a relief. She did not want to face her worst fears.

BHEGUM: I was not worried about me. I was only worried about my children. And all the time I was praying if they're alive, so please bring me out. If they are not alive, don't bring me out. GRANT: Now, safe together, four generations of family reunited. Khalida and Maha Bibi have survived with minor injuries.

Elsewhere in the hospital, people are being treated wherever doctors and nurses find them. These are the lucky survivors, who have made their way from the worst affected towns and villages. They are battered and bruised. They are thankful for the smallest of mercies.

The people of Pakistan have been traumatized. But life has taught them patience and perseverance.

Where Khalida and her mother were rescued, others now wait for news of their loved ones.

(on camera) This is, in every respect, a desperate race against time. The people behind me are searching for anyone who may still be alive underneath this rubble. Now, rescue workers and medical teams say that people can survive between five to seven days in these conditions. We are now at day five, about to enter day six. But while there is life, there is hope.

Stan Grant, CNN, Islamabad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Earlier, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf had this to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PERVEZ MUSHARRAF, PRESIDENT, PAKISTAN: May I also say that the Indian prime minister was very kind to ring me up and offer all possible assistance. We express our gratitude to him, and we have accepted Indian aid in certain form and informed them.

I would also like to mention the number of telephone calls and the number of letters that I've received from various heads of state. We express our deepest gratitude for all your words of kindness, words of sympathy in our hour of need. Thank you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: More LIVE FROM right after this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD (voice-over): Next on LIVE FROM, letters from a terrorist to a terrorist. Chilling messages from Osama bin Laden's top lieutenant about future plans in Iraq.

Later on LIVE FROM, is Uncle Sam going to take away some of your biggest tax breaks, mortgage interest deductions, employer health insurance coverage? Calculating how the proposed changes could affect your bottom line.

Also ahead, young hurricane evacuees get a new school. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We started the schools from scratch.

WHITFIELD: And a fresh start, far from home.

(MUSIC)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: The fight for Iraq in the political sense is not just a metaphor. It is a real fight with real casualties. Today alone, 30 people dead, including the bomber who targeted them.

Aneesh Raman is in Baghdad, where officials predicted a rise in such attacks, and so did the president of this country -- Aneesh.

ANEESH RAMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Fredricka, an elaborate ceremony now under way at Baghdad's convention center. Iraq's prime minister, Ibrahim al-Jafari, at the podium. Just moments ago, they announced that a deal had been reached between the Shia-Kurd coalition and one of the major Sunni parties, the Iraqi Islamic Party. Now, the deal allows for a certain number of amendments on the current draft constitution but also sets in place a mechanism so that this constitution can continue to be revised past this referendum on Saturday.

You'll recall that mid-December, general elections will elect a permanent government. That government will put in place a new constitutional committee that can reevaluate the entire constitution, and another constitutional referendum would take place within six months of that mid-December election.

The point of this is to ease Sunni concerns about the wording in this draft document. But the timing may simply be too late. We are just days away from that vote. And getting the word out to the Sunni community will be incredibly difficult for those who are part of this agreement.

At the other end are the Sunni politicians who are not signing onto this agreement, who still want their community to go out and vote this constitution down.

The stakes, incredibly high on Saturday. If the constitution fails, this entire political process starts again. A new national assembly is elected. A new constitutional committee is put in place.

But now, with this agreement, either way, if this constitution passes or fails, it seems that the writing of this constitution does not end there. Another referendum likely, in either case, by mid-next year.

Now as you mentioned, as a political process is moving forward, the insurgents are, as well. In the northwestern town of Tal Afar, near the Syrian border, a suicide bomber, wearing an explosives vest, detonated there at an army and police recruitment center. At least 30 people were killed, some 40 others wounded.

We also had a car bomb here in Baghdad. But that one in Tal Afar, the residents there still today grieving from yesterday's attack. A suicide car bomb that detonated there, killing an incredible amount of people, wounding, again, some 40 others.

The insurgents in the Sunni areas really trying to intimidate potential Sunni voters, trying to keep them at home, which is why we've seen, of course, those U.S. military operations in the Sunni provinces to try and bring security into those areas.

The big question now, of course, Fredricka, given this new agreement, is on Sunday, what kind of Sunni turnout do we see and whether this agreement affects the Sunni vote that, before now, we'd assume would be voting against this draft constitution -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right. Aneesh Raman, thanks so much from Baghdad.

Well, they are the words of al Qaeda, a terror group that may be questioning itself and doubting its future? Out now, the translation of an intercepted communication between these two men. Both report to Osama bin Laden.

CNN's national security correspondent, David Ensor, has read it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID ENSOR, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Senior U.S. intelligence officials call the 6,300-word letter from al Qaeda's No. 2 man to its leader in Iraq chilling, because of how calm, clear and well argued it is.

The letter, which a senior official says he's absolutely confident is genuine, predicts, quote, "The Americans will exit soon from Iraq." And says, "Things may develop faster than we imagine."

But in the letter, Ayman al-Zawahiri is clearly worried that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, with his televised beheadings of hostages and attacks on Shiite Muslims, could lose what he calls a media battle for the hearts and minds of Muslims.

"The Muslim populace who love and support you will never find palatable the scenes of slaughtering the hostages," Zawahiri warns. It is the language, says a senior U.S. intelligence official, of an al Qaeda elder to an occasionally hot-headed field commander, language President Bush had seen before he spoke last week.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Zarqawi has said that Americans are, quote, "the most cowardly of God's creatures." But let's be clear. It is cowardice that seeks to kill children and the elderly with car bombs and cuts the throat of a bound captive and targets worshipers leaving a mosque.

ENSOR: In the letter, Zawahiri is even more opposed to Zarawi's attacks on Shiites in Iraq, to the many car bombs and attacks on mosques. "Is the opening of another front now, in addition to the front against the Americans and the government, a wise decision?" he asks. "Or does this conflict with Shia lift the burden from the Americans by diverting the Mujahideen to the Shia, while the Americans continue to control matters from afar?"

Zawahiri reminds Zarqawi that Shiite Iran is holding more than 100 al Qaeda prisoners, many of them leaders like Saif al-Adel and Osama bin Laden's son Saad.

The letter, dated two days after the July 7 terror attacks in London, makes no mention of them and pleads for more information, Zawahiri clearly feeling cut off. He describes difficulties he and al Qaeda are facing over a dozen times, says the real danger to him comes from Pakistani army operations in the tribal areas and asks Zarqawi whether he could spare $100,000.

JOHN MCLAUGHLIN, CNN INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: I would think Zarqawi's reading this letter a bit skeptically. I mean, it's coming from a guy who's remote from the situation, who's asking for money, who confesses that he's having difficulty with communications and other things. While Zarqawi is probably full of himself, feeling he's the field commander, he's running troops.

ENSOR (voice-over): A senior U.S. intelligence official says the letter is being released now because it would no longer compromise U.S. intelligence sources and methods or operations to do so. The American public and the world, he said, should be fully informed about the enemy.

David Ensor, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: And now to the shockwaves rolling through the Middle East today. The death of a prominent Syrian official. Officials in Syria say interior minister Ghazi Kanaan took his own life in Damascus, just hours after delivering a statement on radio.

Kanaan had headed Syrian intelligence in Lebanon for two decades.

Fingers have pointed to Syrian leaders in connection with the assassination of former Lebanon prime minister, Rafik Hariri, earlier this year. It's a charge Syrian president Bashar al-Assad adamantly denies.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BASHAR AL-ASSAD, SYRIAN PRESIDENT: We have good relation with all of the world, and I think most of the country knows Syria is not involved in that crime. For two reasons. The first reason: this goes against our principles. The second reason: this goes against our interests. And from another aspect, Rafik Hariri was a supporter to the city of Lebanon. He was never against. So there's no logic involving Syria in -- putting the name, the Syrian -- the Syria's name in this crime.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: And again, Syrian officials say Ghazi Kanaan committed suicide. But is it that simple? CNN senior Arab affairs editor Octavia Nasr is with us now.

Before we talk about some of the scenarios, whether it was suicide or something else, let's talk a little bit more about who is Ghazi Kanaan.

OCTAVIA NASR, CNN ARAB AFFAIRS EDITOR: Well, he's well known for his role in Lebanon. For about 20 years he was heading military intelligence in Lebanon. So for many people, they'll tell you that basically he was running Lebanon because -- for all this time, Lebanon was under the watchful eye of Syria. And both countries acted as one in many, many ways.

Back in 2002, he was removed from that position, and he became the interior minister for Syria. Basically, he became the boss of the man who replaced him. So his power was even -- increased even more. So he's someone who played a major role in Syria's presence in Lebanon and the way it controlled Lebanon.

WHITFIELD: Is there anything to be read into the timing of this reported suicide? This, taking place a week before a U.N. report would be coming out, looking into the assassination of Hariri.

NASR: This is the most bizarre thing here. Kanaan spoke with the investigator, the U.N. investigator, and gave him his statement and was cooperating.

This morning, right before his death was announced, he went on Lebanese radio and spoke to the anchor and told her that he choose her because he believes in her objectivity and he wanted to clear his name.

And at the end of that statement, he said that -- and here's a quote, he said, that "I believe this is the last announcement I can make."

Now, this is the most bizarre thing, because about an hour and a half after that statement was made, he told her to please distribute that statement to all the television stations, named people by name and stations by name. Then the Syrian news agency announces that he committed suicide. So this is the part that many people in the Middle East are not really able to digest at this point.

WHITFIELD: And also, now there are opposition party members here in the U.S. who are saying, "Wait a minute. We don't necessarily think this is suicide. We think assassination"? Are they going that far in saying that?

NASR: They think -- yes, they're going that far. As a matter of fact, right before coming on the set, I was watching the newscasts in the Middle East. This is the prime time for newscasts.

LBC, for example, the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation, started the newscast saying, he's dead, he committed suicide, or he was killed. The man is gone. So now the theory is spreading among others than just the opposition.

WHITFIELD: So if killed, why?

NASR: I asked the question to the opposition, Syrian opposition members, why would Syria kill this man? And basically, the theory that they came up with is that this is someone who was contemplating overthrowing the Assad regime.

They said that back in 2002, when he became the interior minister, that same opposition group hailed the decision, because they figured that this is someone who, if anybody can overthrow the Assad family, they said that he could.

So according to the Syrian opposition, if he was killed, he was killed for that reason, to stop him from attempting to overthrow.

And, again that opposition person I spoke with we're going to try to put him on the air later on. But basically, he's saying that, that statement he made to the radio station was read. He thinks that he was forced to read the statement. And he had no idea that he was going to be killed.

WHITFIELD: Boy this is complicated.

NASR: Drama, drama.

WHITFIELD: Wow.

NASR: Middle Eastern-style, that's for sure.

WHITFIELD: And again, Syrian officials are saying, however, at this point, they have only one reason to believe that this was a suicide.

NASR: They're saying it's a suicide.

WHITFIELD: OK.

NASR: They're saying he shot himself in the head, and they're saying they're investigating the circumstances of that suicide.

WHITFIELD: All right, investigation is ongoing. International scope, as well. Octavia Nasr, thanks so much.

Well, will you be watching video on your iPod, of all places? Apple making a big announcement for its popular music machine. We've got details later on, on LIVE FROM.

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