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Growing Casualty Count in Iraq; Northeast Storm

Aired October 25, 2005 - 13:00   ET

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

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Growing Casualty count in Iraq. The U.S. death toll hits 2,000. Are Iraqis getting closer to protecting their own country?
Wilma's wrath. The hurricane leaves Florida in shambles. At least five people are dead, six million more without power. Damage estimates are within the billions.

Remembering the mother of the civil rights movement. She refused to give up her seat and sparked a revolution. Straight ahead, the life and legacy of Rosa Parks.

From the CNN center in Atlanta, I'm Kyra Phillips. CNN's LIVE FROM starts right now.

Millions of people in Florida still without power after Hurricane Wilma. Wilma took about seven hours to cross the Florida peninsula yesterday, tearing off roofs, downing trees and cutting off power to about six million people, about one-third of Florida's population. And its path included Florida's most populous counties, Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach. Damage is estimated between $6 and $10 billion. Many stores are closed, and the ones that have reopened have extremely long lines.

Wilma remains a category-three strength this hour. It's out in the Atlantic Ocean, about 300 miles off the coast of North Carolina. Even though Hurricane Wilma is not expected to return to the U.S. mainland, it is causing problems in the Northeast. Moisture from Wilma is finding its way into a nor'easter that's bringing more rain to flood-weary New England.

CNN's Dan Lothian standing by now in Massachusetts with more. Where exactly are you, Dan?

DAN LOTHIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm in Chatham, Massachusetts. We are in the southeast corner of Cape Cod. We've been out here since early this morning. And you keep expecting that with each passing hour, that the situation here would get a little bit quieter, would get a little bit better. But that really has not been the case.

In fact, this is perhaps some of the hardest rain that we have felt all day today, the rain and the high winds. I clocked a while ago gusts of more than 30 miles per hour. But gusts have reached in this area more than 60 miles per hour.

The big concern for emergency-management officials, a number of things. First of all, flooding. As you mentioned this is an area, all of New England, that has been hit hard by a lot of rain over the last couple of week. So your rivers and streams are already at high levels. And also the ground is heavily saturated. The concern of course being that as you have more of this rain falling, it would just lead to additional flooding. We have already in Chatham here, seen some minor street flooding.

Other issue as well is we have seen what appear to be power lines or telephone lines that have come down. We're told by emergency- management officials that some 17,000 to 20,000 people are without power. You know this is -- it feels, in a way, that this is like the perfect storm of weather reporting, because not only do you have the wind and the rain, but it's also very cold. Nor'easters are very -- are typical to this region, but they never come this early. So now you have this whole combination, throw in the cold weather, it makes for a miserable day -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Well, let's talk about the preparation, Dan. Were FEMA assets in place, emergency-management officials ready to go and prepared? How did people feel about that? And did they take proper precautions an well?

LOTHIAN: MEMA officials are prepared. They have been meeting since yesterday. MEMA, Massachusetts Emergency Management, they have been meeting since yesterday. As you can see, this continues to intensify here, making -- putting their plans in place. We understand that power crews are in place to replace any of these downed lines. Also, any other emergency-personnel that might be needed, they are also in place.

So yes, they've had plenty of time to prepare for this. And they're ready to activate those people to the right spots when needed.

PHILLIPS: Dan Lothian, live from Chatham, Mass. Thank you so much, Dan.

(WEATHER REPORT)

PHILLIPS: Well, hurricane-recovery efforts also in the Caribbean. Wilma pounded the Mexican resort city of Cancun and caused floods in Cuba. Hundreds of stranded tourists were hoping to leave Cancun today. But Cancun's airport reopened this morning, and initial reports suggest a bit of confusion. Without explanation, taxis and tourist buses dropped travelers off at a checkpoint well short of the airport.

As Wilma passed Cuba, 45-foot waves flooded many of Havana's best-known street, but most of that water has receded. Villages and towns on Cuba's southwest coast also suffered flood damage.

Now before we move on to other news, let's take a look at images of Hurricane Wilma, recorded by one of our citizen journalists. Jimmy McQuillin snapped these pictures of fallen trees in Naples, Florida. And you can be a Hurricane Wilma citizen journalist, too. Send us your photos and video. You can get more information at CNN.com/hurricane. A milestone of military sacrifice, a new day and bloody business as usual in the fight for Iraq. As the numbers roll in from the voting on a new constitution, the U.S. military death toll reaches 2,000 by CNN's count after two years and seven months of war. President Bush says it's a critical time for Iraq and America, and few can doubt the voting and the fighting liberty and loss of life are connected. The constitution passed, though the ground rules added suspense to what could have been a foregone conclusion. The overall yes vote was 78 percent. But a two-thirds no vote in any three provinces wouldn't have killed it. That very nearly happened. The troop deaths are a near everyday occurrence, just like those of Iraqi troops and Iraqi police and innocent civilians.

And big, round numbers mean nothing in relation to each individual, each face, and each name. We remember three.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Private First Class Nicholas Greer first rode in a helicopter when he was only two years old. That day, he told his mother he wanted to be a soldier when he grew up. Then September 11th happened. The 21-year-old from Monroe, Michigan put off college and enlisted in the Army. He became a sniper, and a helicopter search- and-rescue specialist. But only for one year. Greer died on October 7th. His patrol came under fire from insurgents in Iraq. His mother holds on to his memory and his purple heart.

Twenty-three-year-old army specialist Bernard Ceo was from Baltimore. His girlfriend says he asked for her hand in marriage many times. But she insisted they wait. She wanted to have a big family wedding when he returned home from Iraq. Now that will never happen. Specialist Ceo was killed October 14th. A tractor trailer accidentally slammed into the back of his Humvee.

Kenneth Hunt signed up for the Marines right out of Santa Maria High School in 1983. He was a month overdue for retirement. But he stayed in the fight. On July 24th, he gave one of his men the day off and took his place. That same day, his vehicle hit a land mine in the Anbar province, just west of Baghdad. He was treated for his wounds, but they got worse. He died October 12th. It was his daughter, Kimberly's, 13th birthday.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

And as we remember those three men, we also remember the duty, honor and courage of the now 2,000 men and women who have died in this war. President Bush says that all the American war dead, Reserves and active duty, those killed in battle, accidents or illness, have two things in common. They all volunteered to wear their nation's uniform, and they all were sustained by the love and support of their families. Mr. Bush spoke to military wives and husbands just a short time ago at Bolling Air Force base in Washington.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The outcome is not in doubt. Those who despise freedom and progress have condemned themselves to isolation, decline and collapse. Because free peoples believe in the future, free peoples will own the future.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: The 2,000 figure is not one the U.S. commanders will take pains to emphasize. Instead, they focus on the day to day battles and the long-term mission of standing up Iraqi defenses. CNN's Barbara Starr weighs in on that from the Pentagon -- Barbara.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, Kyra, that's right. Here at the Pentagon, no notice of this passing number, this statistic today. In fact, some army officials are saying they don't even call it a milestone. It is simply a mark of time. It is a mark of something that has occurred. Two thousand families now and friends still, obviously, mourning for the loss of their loved one.

And in fact, we will never know who exactly was number 2,000, not something the Pentagon is going to track, not something that is really very easy to determine. In fact, a lot of news agencies have differing numbers still. Some are not yet reporting that 2,000 mark if you will. It all depends on how precisely you count.

But CNN did go over the statistics this morning with military officials and looked at some of the most recent events. The passing of an Army soldier and also a marine over the weekend, in fact, did bring it to 2,000.

The question, perhaps, now, is what about the state of the insurgency? We've also spoken to very senior Army officers this morning and they express a lot of concern about the insurgency. They are seeing the continued rise in IED attacks, those improvised explosive devices, roadside bomb, suicide bombs that we saw over the weekend in Baghdad, more of them and more sophistication in those attacks.

One of the things that they are looking at very carefully is the methodology the insurgents are using. They are seeing new kinds detonators. They are seeing explosively-formed projectiles, they call them. These are new types of shaped charges if you will, that appear to have the ability, in fact, to punch through some types of U.S. armor.

One senior officer telling us that the insurgents have successfully attacked U.S. tanks, Bradley Fighting Vehicles, and even those up-armored Humvees. So the troops looking for the tactics, the procedures that are going to help them succeed in avoiding those roadside attacks. All, Kyra, still very tough business. Very tough days ahead, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: And tough for the families too. Barbara Starr, live from the Pentagon, thank you.

Now, on the political front a constitution clearing the way for a parliamentary election in December. CNN's senior international correspondent, Nic Robertson, joins me from Baghdad with more on that -- Nic.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kyra, 78 percent of Iraqis voted yes for the new constitution. Those that didn't vote yes were mostly Sunnis. Two provinces, majority Sunnis, voted almost entirely against the constitution. There was one swing province in the north and if the vote there had gone a little bit more to the nose, two-thirds voting no, than that would have blocked the constitution.

It didn't happen. The constitution's passed. The next political step here, December the 15th, parliamentary elections. In those elections, a new parliament will be elected that will sit for the next five years. So it seemed as a success that so many Iraqis participated, even those who voted no. The anticipation is even the no voters will still take part in the December elections, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Meanwhile, the explosions we saw, the bombings, not far from Ferto (ph) Square, near those hotels, the Sheraton and the Palestine. Pretty amazing pictures caught on security cameras, Nic. Do we know who is claiming responsibility?

ROBERTSON: Al Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's group has claimed responsibility on at least one Web site they've used in the past to claim responsibility for this type of attack. Impossible to say whether or not this claim is valid. Certainly, for them being able to claim such a spectacular attack draws attention to what they're doing, perhaps draws some additional funds from outside of Iraq, perhaps draws them additional international or foreign fighters to come and join their ranks.

That would be the calculation of security analysts. That's why they would say that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's group would claim responsibility, whether or not they were responsible for this particular attack -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Nic Robertson, live from Baghdad, thanks.

She sat down so others could stand up.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROSA PARKS: I only knew that as I was being arrested, that it was the very last time that I would ever ride in humiliation of this kind.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: She refused to give up her seat. But it sparked the modern civil rights movement. Rosa Parks, dead at 92, but forever remembered in our hearts and in history.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: We're going to listen into German prosecutor Detlev Mehlis right now responding to the U.N. investigation looking into the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. DETLEV MEHLIS, UNITED NATIONS: ... report on our findings to the security council and that is what we did, to the best of our knowledge. And, of course, it was to be expected that the report would be challenged, criticized, so I really took care that the report was being drafted by investigator, coming from different countries -- as many different countries as possible.

So just to make it more clear, this report was being drafted by investigators coming from Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Germany, Egypt, the United States and Austria. And I did this on purpose, to make it as credible an possible.

QUESTION: Just to follow up, when you say it's not official, sir -- I understand that you say it's not from officials in Lebanon or Syria, but are these individuals? Are they groups? Are they Palestinian or Lebanese? Frankly, I'm asking, are these part of -- these threats, have they come from any Palestinian factions in Lebanon or from Hezbollah? When you say south Lebanon, you leave us with the impression that it's maybe Hezbollah so ...

MEHLIS: No, by unknown groups.

PHILLIPS: Right now, German prosecutor Detlev Mehlis briefing reporters there after speaking, actually, to the Security Council there at the U.N. about that report. The U.N. investigation team talking about the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, urging that Syria show cooperation with the ongoing probe. U.N. Ambassador John Bolton speaking just moments before Mr. Mehlis stepped to the mic. Let's listen to see what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN BOLTON, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO U.N.: We want a very strong signal from the council to the government of Syria that its destructionism has to cease and cease immediately. And we want substantive cooperation in the investigation from Syria.

We want witnesses made available, we want documents produced. We want real cooperation, not simply the appearance of cooperation. I think Mehlis has made that very clear, both in his written report and his discussion with the council. That's what we're seeking to have.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: And that investigation, of course, that we've been talking about within the past week has concluded that there was, quote, "converging evidence of Lebanese and Syrian involvement in Hariri's assassination." However, Syrian officials coming forward, denying any involvement in the killing and have said that the report is false and politically motivated. So we'll continue to follow.

This, of course, video from that assassination, that happened back in February of the Former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Right now, with this U.N. report and the U.N. investigation team coming forward and briefing reporters, Syria still not cooperating in this investigation and saying that possibly it may hold its own probe into the killing. We continue to follow this political story of course out of the U.N.

Now, as the northeast braces for more rain, hurricane recovery efforts have started in Florida. CNN senior correspondent Allan Chernoff join us now from Sunny Isles, Florida -- Allan.

ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, have a look at the power of Hurricane Wilma. The Sunny Isles Marina is now a mangled pile of metal. The hurricane treated the steel girders that supported these structures, three of them, treated them just like aluminum foil. As you see, bent down, twisted, mangled, and pulled away. Aluminum and tin, all over the place, thrown down here, thrown across the road.

This place is really a mess. Trapped underneath, more than 350 motor boats, the owners have been coming here through the entire morning, now into the afternoon, essentially having their own little wakes for their boats, their babies although it is possible that some of these boats may be salvaged. Some of the employees were here earlier and they were simply staring in disbelief.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HOSLEY CANNADY, SUNNY MARINA: Man, I'm out of work. But it's bad, man. You know? South wind is a bad wind. It knocked the whole place down. I'm surprised. When I came in this morning, I did expect the buildings to be here. But, man, I'm in shock, you know. I'm in a daze right now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHERNOFF: This is also potentially a very dangerous situation. Every motor boat has two to three batteries in it. Some large yachts have larger amounts, and about 80 gallons of gasoline. Now, some of that gasoline has been leaking out. But if the structure were to fall further, or some of the boats to fall on top of those batteries, that could potentially ignite a spark that, of course, could light up that gasoline.

On top of that, power lines are down. There's one running right along here, into some of the water over there. Obviously, the power is off right now. But that's just one of the many, many reasons that the power company can't just turn the switch, turn the power back on.

They've got to come over here, take care of this situation, take care of so many other situations. But here, a very potentially -- potentially a very dangerous situation. And clean up will certainly be quite costly. Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Allan Chernoff, we'll follow it with you, thank you.

Straight ahead, White House cover up? Well, a new report that Vice President Cheney's chief of staff may have learned about a CIA agent from Cheney himself. But did he tell that to the grand jury?

Also, battling bird flu. An update on the deadly virus that is currently spreading across Europe.

And the symbol of the civil rights movement, dead at 92. Just ahead, remembering the life of Rosa Parks.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Well, a big day on Wall Street yesterday, and it seems investors are taking a little break today. Kathleen Hayes joins us live from the New York Stock Exchange with the latest. We had big news yesterday with possibly the new head of the Fed definitely effecting markets.

(STOCK MARKET REPORT)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(NEWSBREAK)

PHILLIPS: Well, the study of chaos theory speculates that if a butterfly flaps its wings on one side of the world, it may create a tornado on the other. Now consider Rosa Parks as that butterfly. Her one small act, refusing to give up her seat on a bus to a white man, resulted in a tidal wave of racial change in this country and, some say, around the world. Rosa Parks died last night in Detroit at the age of 92, but her legacy will live on forever.

CNN's Gary Tuchman has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Historians point to the courage Rosa Parks showed as a turning point in the civil rights movement. December 1, 1955, Montgomery, Alabama, a seamstress, Parks was on her way home sitting in the so-called colored section of a crowded bus. Several white passengers got on. But she refused to give up the seat.

ROSA PARKS, CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVIST: And the driver wanted us to stand up, the four of us. We didn't move at the beginning, but he said, "You all (INAUDIBLE)." And he says, "Let me have those seats." And when the other three people moved and I didn't...

TUCHMAN: Driving the bus was the same man who ejected her from a bus 12 years earlier. Parks was arrested and fined $14. She recalls, as the officer took her away, she asked, "Why do you push us around?" The officer's response, "I don't know, but the law is the law and you're under arrest."

In protest, a new minister in town organized what would become a 381-day bus boycott. That minister was 26-year-old Martin Luther King Jr.

MARTIN LUTHER KING JR., CIVIL RIGHTS LEADER: This is a nonviolent protest. We are depending on moral and spiritual forces, using the method of passive resistance.

TUCHMAN: Black people walked, rode taxies and organized carpools. The boycott severely damaged the transit company's finances. It ended when the Supreme Court ruled segregation on public transportation illegal. Parks lost her job at a department store because of her activism.

PARKS: I only knew that, as I was being arrested, that it was the very last time that I would ever ride in humiliation of this kind in segregation and being arrested for just wanting to go home and wanting to be comfortable and wanting to be treated as any passenger should.

TUCHMAN: She and her husband left Alabama for Detroit, where she worked for a congressman for more than 20 years.

She would remain an important force in the civil rights movement until her death. Parks co-founded the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self-Development to help young people pursue educational opportunities, get them registered to vote, and work towards racial peace.

PARKS: As long as there is unemployment and while crime, and all the things that go to -- for the infliction of man's inhumanity to man, regardless, that there's much to be done and people of goodwill need to work together.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK. Thank you.

TUCHMAN: Even into her 80s, she was active on the lecture circuit, speaking to civil rights groups and accepting awards.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Wow. It's beautiful.

(APPLAUSE)

TUCHMAN: Including Congress' highest order, the Congressional Gold Model, marking that December day more than 40 years ago, when Rosa Parks said no to a bus driver and no to segregation.

Gary Tuchman, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Well, as accolades pour in from around the world honoring the courage and commitment of Rosa Parks, we're glad to get a chance to speak to the president of the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for self development. Lila Cabbil was also a longtime friend of Rosa Parks. She joins us live from Detroit, a long with Nate Phillips, a Pathways to Freedom participant. It's great to have you both.

NATE PHILLIPS, PATHWAYS TO FREEDOM PARTICIPANT: Thanks for having us.

LILA CABBIL, ROSA & RAYMOND PARKS INST.: Thank you.

PHILLIPS: Lila, let's start with you. An incredible program that Rosa Parks started. Why don't you first of all, tell me, you met her a number of years ago. She became a very good friend and a mentor to you, right? CABBIL: Yes. Very much so. I was about 21 years old, and I'm proud to say that I'm 62, so that was several years ago. And she is just such a special person. I met her through Elaine Steele, who was one of -- my best friend, and she became a part of my life in a very personal way. The way Mrs. Parks is, she is a person who is a friend of ordinary people, as well as leaders and very powerful people, but us ordinary people are in her life the same way as everyone else, and that's really special.

PHILLIPS: What did she tell you a young girl that stuck with you for a number decades?

CABBIL: Well, one of the things that she didn't say a lot about, but that has stuck with me, most outstanding, is her humility. I think she emulates a humility that is rare. She reminds me of my mother in that regard, and the way she is loyal to any cause and passionate about her cause, but in a quiet way. She never required a celebrity, never sought celebrity status, and manage to operate in that humble way, and that is so rare and so unique, and it's something that I've aspired to, and it takes a lot of discipline to emulate that particular part of her character.

PHILLIPS: Quiet strength, as you talk about, in this program and on this Web site, the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self- Development.

Nate, tell me how you found out about the institute, and what drew you to the institute?

N. PHILLIPS: Well, I found out about it through involvement in church. Actually, a gentleman that worked with the institute, Adasaw Faluke (ph), came to the church, and I was like, wow, this guy's really on to it, and just jumped into the Pathways to Freedom Program. I was about 15 or 16, and...

PHILLIPS: And tell us what that is, tell us what the Pathways to Freedom program is.

N. PHILLIPS: Certainly. The Pathways to Freedom is a historical program where young people from all over the world, really, trace the steps of the Underground Railroad and civil rights movement and beyond. Normally starts in the north, in the Detroit area, you know, this area, down South, out west, and comes back up north, up to Canada. The year -- the first year I went, I think we hit -- we went to 31 cities, 12 different states, over the course of about a month and a half, saw everything from -- we stood where Dr. King was assassinated. We really went to stations on the Underground Railroad, got to journal, got to participate in a programs with Mrs. Parks. It was interesting. She travelled with us.

PHILLIPS: What was that like?

N. PHILLIPS: That was weird. You know, I recall leaning over to some of the other students and saying, wow, we're sitting on a bus with Rosa Parks, and she's sitting in the front. It was really interesting. And I think that's what was so compelling about her to me was that considering who she could have had access to and who she could have wanted to spend her time with, she really enjoyed having young people around. And giving us access to her and giving us access to things that she had access to, and people she had access to, and the knowledge and information and resources she had access to. So that -- I don't know how -- I'm pretty sure there's scientific ways to quantify the effect that has, but I'm not really articulate enough to express that, but it means a lot.

PHILLIPS: Nate, you've expressed it beautifully, just the fact you admired her and she taught you how to appreciate history and what she stood for, and obviously that lives through your.

CABBIL: One the things that I remember her speaking about is the fact that before participating with the institute, she had not travelled anywhere else outside of the Detroit area. The fact that the program exposes young people to a larger diverse audience is really important. And doing it through an experiential learning model where the students have hands-on chance to interact with history makes a real difference. She ended up going into aviation. She was interested in travel and transportation, and she pursued that as an interest area. The other area that she was impressed by was the fact that during the program, we practiced self-development skills around everything from nutrition to dress code, that kind thing, discipline in terms of there was no TV during that time, no junk food, no fast food. Young people learn to eat fruit as a dessert.

Modelling Mrs. Parks as a person who practices holistically her nutrition and her health, the young people learned a new perspective in terms of what they knew about living life differently, and certainly many of our young people have commented on the challenge of not going to the fast-food places, and not having TV and not having video games. But then they come back and tell us how valuable it was to have themselves be focused and disciplined like Mrs. Parks.

PHILLIPS: Well, Lila, you and Nate both, so lucky to know her and also be a part of that institute, and continue to be a part of the institute. It's called the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self- Development. Nate and Lila, thank you so much for your time.

CABBIL: Thank you.

PHILLIPS: My pleasure.

Well, straight ahead, we'll talk more about Rosa Parks. But also we're tracking the spread of a deadly bird flu virus, as you know. The disease has turned up in yet another European nation. We've got the details coming up in our check of medical news. Plus, investigating the leak of a CIA operative's name. What was Dick Cheney's possible involvement? New report brings new speculation.

You're watching CNN's LIVE FROM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) PHILLIPS: In medical news today, officials in Indonesia confirm that a man who died last month was infected with the H5N1 bird flu virus. That 23-year-old victim from West Java makes the country's fourth official bird flu casualty since the outbreak began in 2003. There are now 64 confirmed human fatalities from bird flu. All of them have been recorded in Asia.

Meanwhile, U.N. officials say a new bird flu outbreak has sickened more than 2,000 geese in Eastern China in that country's second reported outbreak among birds in a week. Tens of millions of chickens and other fowl have died from bird flu or been killed in attempts to prevent its spread. And the virus has recently been found in Russia, Turkey, Romania and Greece.

And we've just gotten word from Western Germany that preliminary testing on more than a dozen wild geese found dead at a lake is positive for bird flu. Further tests are needed to see if it was the H5N1 strain. But officials also report that the geese died of poisoning, and not of bird flu. There's no human vaccine for bird flu on the market yet, but the CDC says that there will be plenty of regular flu shots this year. At least 70 million doses should be available, and everybody who wants a flu shot should be able to get one. Last year, production problems led to a flu shot shortage in the U.S.

And a tantalizing reports in the waning days of the CIA leak investigation puts new focus on the office of the vice president. "The New York Times" reports that the special prosecutor in the case has notes belonging to Louis Scooter Libby, Dick Cheney's chief of staff. The notes reportedly suggest that Libby first heard about covert CIA officer Valerie Plame from Cheney himself, not from reporters, as Libby has previously testified. The notes reportedly contain no suggestion that Cheney's knew of Plame's undercover status, but they could put Libby in the hot seat if it's alleged that he tried to deliberately mislead or impede the investigation into that leak.

So far, the special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has kept his cards close to his chest. But as the grand jury concludes deliberations this week, will he charge anyone with a crime?

CNN's Kelly Wallace with a closer look at the man who has all of Washington on pins and needles.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KELLY WALLACE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Patrick Fitzgerald, not talking to reporters, with the exception of making sure photographers are OK. His former colleagues are not surprised. They describe him as a Boy Scout, a straight-shooting prosecutor whose taking on the Mafia and Al Qaeda, and now the White House.

MARY JO WHITE, FMR. U.S. ATTORNEY: I mean, he is what you see. He's the real deal, the salt of earth, and that clearly, you know, aids him with judges and, as well as juries.

WALLACE: Mary Jo White was Fitzgerald's boss for nine of his 13 years as an assistant U.S. attorney in New York, when his trial successes included convictions against four defendants for the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in East Africa. She calls him the best prosecutor in the United States, someone unaffected by politics.

WHITE: I don't even know what his politics are, but he is not someone who is motivated at all by anything other than, what do the facts show and what's the right thing to do?

WALLACE: Fitzgerald grew up in Brooklyn, the son of Irish immigrants. His dad worked as a New York City doorman. Fitzgerald himself worked as a janitor and doorman to help pay for college and Harvard Law School. After his years as a federal prosecutor in New York, he became the U.S. attorney in Chicago in 2001, a rarity for an out of towner.

AMY MILLARD, FMR. COWORKER: That's Pat Fitzgerald.

WALLACE: Amy Millard worked with Fitzgerald in New York. They both started in 1988. She recalls his devotion to work, how he ate most meals at the office and went for months without having the gas connected to his stove at home.

MILLARD: He decided that he wanted to get a cat. And there was a sign up in some grocery store that they were giving away kittens, and he went to see if he could get one. And the owner of kittens interviewed him, and decided that he was working too hard to be deserving of this kitten.

WALLACE: Defense attorneys who have gone up against Fitzgerald praise him as honest, straightforward and fair. About the only criticism, they say he can be inflexible at times.

SAM SCHMIDT, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Perhaps the biggest fault is that since he is a prosecutor, while he understands what defense attorneys are going to try to do, I don't think he can put himself in position of a defense attorney.

WALLACE (on camera): Whatever Fitzgerald decides in the CIA leak case, he will no doubt be criticized by one side or the other. But his former colleagues and legal opponents are convinced about this, that Fitzgerald will decide this case on the merit and nothing else.

Kelly Wallace, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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