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Residents Return to Lower Ninth Ward; Malawi's Famine Crisis; Senator Warner Addresses Propaganda Claims

Aired December 02, 2005 - 14:30   ET

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

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, one of New Orleans best known restaurants, Arnaud's, reopened last night, serving dinner for the first time since Hurricane Katrina. It's viewed as a sign that the city's famed French Quarter is coming back to life.
But in other parts of the city, the future is much less certain. Residents were allowed back into the Lower Ninth Ward yesterday to collect their belongings as well.

CNN's Daniel Sieberg reports it was pretty much an unsettling homecoming.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): You've never experienced anything like this before. Can you imagine how it might feel? Can you imagine?

JEANNETTE TRASK, 9TH WARD RESIDENT: It's shock, it's confusion, it's hurt, it's anger, it's everything. This just hurts so bad.

SIEBERG: Jeannette Trask anxiously waited three months for a journey home, a trip to uncertainty. Jeannette and her neighbors in the flooded out Lower Ninth Ward had been kept away.

TRASK: I just had to see it. And as soon as they let me in, I see I'm gone.

SIEBERG: Unlike many others in New Orleans, the residents in this devastated neighborhood have not been allowed back home because of safety concerns. Jeannette didn't know what she'd find.

Her day started early at a military checkpoint where residents had to sign in. We drove with her to the home she lived in from the time he was 6 years old. Three generations have lived here, starting with her grandmother.

TRASK: Everybody knows 2323 Caston (ph) Avenue. This is where everybody liked to come.

SIEBERG: At 61, Jeannette is now a grandmother herself. She has been living in Texas waiting for three months, living out of a suitcase.

TRASK: Oh, this is the living room.

SIEBERG (on camera): Do you remember some of the moments you had in this living room? You must have had a lot of times.

TRASK : Oh, yes. Good moments. Fun times.

SIEBERG (voice-over): Decades of memory ruined.

(on camera): Does it help to come back here today though? Does this help?

TRASK: Yes. Yes. I needed this. Because it's been on my mind and I just wanted to see for myself.

(voice-over): Then in the darkness and the muck, she find a few of her favorite things.

TRASK: Oh, this is my grandmother's picture.

SIEBERG (on camera): Wow.

TRASK: This is her pitcher she had.

SIEBERG: What would she have used that for?

TRASK: Lemonade.

SIEBERG: Lemonade.

(voice-over): Sentimental treasures unearthed from the mire, but no time to linger. Residents here must look and leave and only during daylight hours. If the city eventually allows her to live here again, Jeannette wants to rebuild.

TRASK: Things are going to be better.

SIEBERG (on camera): As hard as it is right now.

TRASK: As hard as it is right now, I have the faith that things are going to be better. God didn't bring me this far to drop me off here.

SIEBERG (voice-over): Daniel Sieberg, CNN, New Orleans.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Now, most of the damage in New Orleans was inflicted not by Hurricane Katrina itself, but by the subsequent failure of that levee system. Experts say it was the largest civil engineering disaster in the history of the United States and a new report now suggests that 17th Street floodwall was destined to fail because of engineering errors.

Professor David Rogers is one of the nation's leading forensic engineers. He joins us from St. Louis. And, David, how many times did you actually go to New Orleans and take a look at the levees?

PROF. DAVID ROGERS, UNIV. OF MISSOURI-ROLLA: Well, we had a group that went down there in early October from our Natural Hazards Mitigation Institute, along with the U.S. Geological Survey.

PHILLIPS: OK, and as I -- I was reading through various investigative reports and it looks like it came down to weak soil layers and then this sheet piling that is used to support the floodwalls. Is that right? Did it come down to those two things pretty much failing?

ROGERS: Yes, that's the system that failed. The sheet piles were there just to support the floodwall built on top of the old levee. They did not extend down to great depth that you would need to have a seepage cutoff to keep the water from moving from the river side or drainage side of the levee to the land side of the levee. And that's one of the factors that everybody is asking, you know, why didn't this thing go deeper?

PHILLIPS: All right, so is it the initial design from the very beginning, that was the problem or would that initial design -- would that have worked and would that have been OK if engineers would have just done the regular checkups and been going out and surveying and monitoring the levees on a regular basis, which I have been learning from my understanding that that did not happen.

ROGERS: Yes, that appears to not have happened. We don't know the whole issue on all that yet because there's so many different agencies and there's superposition of one agency taking over for another one, things like this, and a lot of people that are retired and gone, that kind of thing. So, we're still sifting through that evidence.

But the fact that the sheet pile was not deep enough to be an effective seepage cutoff, I think everybody agrees with that. And that's a systemic problem with all three levees that failed in New Orleans.

PHILLIPS: And, David, just as we're talking about this, stay with me, because we're actually getting news out of New Orleans.

Tony Harris in the news room, real quickly. Tony, what do you have? I want to come back to David.

TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Absolutely. Let me just give you a quick footnote on this. There's a recommendation from the Louisiana secretary of state that elections scheduled for February in New Orleans be postponed until no later than September 30th. Now, this is a pretty big deal. All city council members, Mayor Ray Nagin up for re-election. There's a race for sheriff.

The final decision, Kyra -- and then I'll let you get back to your guest -- the final decision on this belongs to the governor, Kathleen Blanco. She is not on the record on this so far but she has indicated in the past that she would follow the recommendations from the secretary of state. So we have seen schools reopen, we have seen some other things that show some signs of life in New Orleans, but clearly this is a city a long way from being whole again -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Tony, thank you. And actually, you bringing us this news, talking about these elections having issues and possibly being delayed, I want to bring David Rogers back in.

As we were talking about the levees and failures in that system, David, it is interesting because I was also reading in the reports there were so many people that failed the city of New Orleans, not just the engineers and what they should have been doing to keep this city going, but also the politicians, local all the way up to Washington. So, how important are these elections and the individuals that take these seats with regard to doing what's right to fix those levees?

ROGERS: Well, we're probably in the aftermath of all this. We're going to find that we need a more streamlined system. There are lots of indications in the records that we've sifted through so far that problems were identified 25 years ago, but that people were looking for money and looking for responsibility and someone else to pay for the investigation and the retrofitting that would certainly have to follow to make these things failsafe.

PHILLIPS: So what kind of recommendations have you made or have you made any recommendations to this point on how New Orleans needs to go forward now to make sure this doesn't happen again?

ROGERS: Well, no one's got as far to make actual engineering recommendations, but what we do see here very clearly is a systemic foundation failure. It didn't just occur at one place or two, but it occurred at a whole bunch of different places all at one time.

The soils in New Orleans are some of the worst and most heterogeneous, changing soil conditions of any metropolitan city in the United States. It's actually the cradle of soil mechanics and foundation engineering in many respects with some of the older structures in that city, dating back to the 19th century. So this is an area that's a real treacherous one to work in, and most people in our profession recognize that.

PHILLIPS: Well, it must be -- I mean, this is something you study, I guess, your whole career to get involved with. It's probably a great project for you, yes?

ROGERS: Yes. I mean, my entire career, since 1972, we've been told that one of the most likely disasters facing this country would be a flooding of New Orleans.

PHILLIPS: Wow.

ROGERS: It finally happened.

PHILLIPS: Yes, that's pretty amazing. David Rogers, University of Missouri, we'll stay in touch with you. Keep us updated on your investigation, OK?

ROGERS: All right.

PHILLIPS: Thanks, David.

Straight ahead, a nation in crisis. The details painfully familiar. Our Jeff Koinange reports from southern Africa, where millions of people in Malawi are facing the twin threats of disease and natural disaster. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: A second wave of possible deaths in the areas hit by the October 8th earthquake. Relief officials in the Kashmir region say that the vast majority of 400,000-plus tenants sent to the area cannot protect quake survivors against that harsh mountain winter. Pakistan's army says it's building thousands of metal shelters and relief agencies are trying to rush in with blankets. Three and a half million people were left homeless by that earthquake.

Disease and drought have converged on that small African country of Malawi with devastating consequences. It's located in Southern Africa. Malawi's a little smaller than Pennsylvania. It's also one of the poorest countries in the world, and aid workers say they're running out of time to help most of the people in need.

We continue our special look at a number of stories brought to us by CNN's Jeff Koinange.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEFF KOINANGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Mercy Mujumbay (ph) is nine months old and she'll be lucky to live another nine. She weighs about five kilograms, or ten pounds, not much more than a newborn in the West. Her skin is wrinkled by malnutrition. Her bones protrude. Mercy opens her mouth to cry out during this routine examination, but even that is a challenge; eventually, the faint cry of an infant fighting for life.

It's the same throughout this pediatric ward of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Blantyre, every bed taken up with the youngest victims of Malawi's multiple crises. Drought, food shortages, poverty, and disease.

DR. PAUL TEMBO, QUEEN ELIZABETH HOSPITAL: It is frustrating. Because you know you know what you're dealing with, but then to deal with a thing, it's like, we don't have the resources to even deal with them. So it is kind of frustrating, yes.

KOINANGE: Dr. Paul Tembo has been doing the rounds here for the past 18 months. He and most aid workers here agree that by the time parents bring their children here, it's usually too late.

ROGER MATHIESON, UNICEF: We have seen increase admissions, drastic increase in admissions, of severely malnourished children to the nutrition rehabilation units the last three months. And those numbers are expected to triple in the next months.

KOINANGE: Doctors here at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital tell us that they are admitting an average of four civilian malnourished cases every single day, and they're also quick to admit that if the hunger doesn't kill these children, then any number of diseases, from HIV/AIDS to malaria to tuberculosis, surely will. The United Nations Children's Agency UNICEF has desperately been trying to set up feeding centers for children at risk. But UNICEF says the funding simply isn't coming fast enough. It's politely known as donor fatigue.

MATHIESON: UNICEF in Malawi has appealed, for $13 million U.S., to be able to implement these interventions, life-saving interventions. So far we have received $2.5 million U.S. That's 19 percent of what is required to help the Malawi children from the suffering and death of malnutrition.

KOINANGE: In the drought-stricken south of Malawi, more and more mothers are bringing their sick and dying children to feeding centers like this as food supplies continue to dwindle.

Mothers like Judith Fernando, who's brought 2-year-old Jessica, the youngest of six children. Jessica is half the average weight of a girl her age and is in urgent need of nutrition. Her mother admits she's never felt so helpless. "I am so worried for my children," she says. "If the food rations run out, then we are all going to die."

In a joint operation run by UNICEF and the World Food Program, children get a week's supply of high energy nutrition, just enough to hold malnutrition at bay, but hardly enough to stay healthy. And to local doctors, time is running out for Malawi's youngest generation.

FREDDY ZAINGA, CHIKWAWA HOSPITAL: We wish the (INAUDIBLE) to come, that they are available during this month. Otherwise, we're going to lose lots and lots of people dying of hunger.

KOINANGE: Four in ten Malawian children are already severely stunted, the sign of acute malnutrition. That number seems set to increase. The next harvest is not due for months, and the price of maize, the country's staple food, is skyrocketing. Malawi's future, it seems, is withering before the world's eyes.

Jeff Koinange, CNN, Chikwawa in southern Malawi.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Well, as we continue to try to get questions answered by the Pentagon, politicians like John Warner trying to get answers, too, about a military program planting favorable stories in Iraqi media. He's launching an investigation. Let's listen in to what he has to say.

SEN. JOHN WARNER (R), VIRGINIA: Now, they're confronted with a serious problem over there in Iraq -- I've now finished my sixth visit just two months ago -- and that is disinformation. An enormous amount of information is being fed the Iraqi press, both written and television, that is just plain factually wrong.

So it was the desire of General Casey -- he's the top officer in this pyramid -- I'll get to the structure in a moment -- to get the truth out. And so far as I can determine, that has been their mission, to get the facts in a truthful way out. Now, they contracted with the Lincoln Group, and we'll address that here momentarily.

So that's my background on it. And I have an A.P. story where the reporter came up to me just as I was going down the Pentagon steps from the meeting and reports that I said things like this happen and it's a war.

And my point of that statement was to talk about the measure of disinformation, and I stand by the statement. I said here the disinformation is going out in that country is really affecting the effectiveness of what we're achieving and what our troops are fighting and dying for and being wounded. And as a consequence, we have no recourse but to try and get the truth and the facts out.

Now, the building, as of an hour ago when I was there, is still trying to obtain the facts. They do not have all the facts at this time. But I was assured that General Casey, hopefully within the 24- or 48-hour period, would be putting out another body of fact to give further clarification of what did go contrary, should we say, to the traditions of journalism and what didn't.

So I don't detect any effort on the part of Defense, at least the team that briefed me, about eight in number, of trying to cover up anything. They are working diligently to get the facts out. Now, there's a part of this program that has a classification to it, and they'll have to work through that classification -- again, to protect the interests of our troops.

Now I'm going to pull out of my pocket just some rough notes that I made and sort of dart around on one or two subjects here, and then I'll go to the questions.

WARNER: With regard to the Lincoln Group, they said that Lincoln has a contract with the MNCI. That's the organization that's working on this problem. All products developed by or distributed by the Lincoln Group on behalf on the MNCI are reviewed by a flag officer and by the command very carefully before distribution.

They also told me that all material passed to the Iraqi media through the Lincoln Group is represented as originating with coalition forces. Lincoln group is authorized to provide payment for placement of this material in Iraqi newspapers.

You pick up our papers here in America, you'll see a number of articles carried in there. And there's usually that byline: "paid for and requested by this organization." And that's generally what they've been trying to do.

Now it's been discovered in some areas there's an omission of that reference that it's been paid for. And they're looking into that.

Lincoln Group is authorized to provide payment for placement of this material in Iraqi newspaper, similar to the way in which any advertiser, marketer or public relations firm would place advertisements.

Further on down, the MNCI affairs are aware of the production of this editorial-type content referred to in the press, those allegations.

The PAO, that's the Public Affairs Office, are not involved in the distribution of any of the material. Further, all products developed by the IO staff, the Lincoln Group, or other contractors are reviewed by staff attorneys at MNCI to ensure compliance with the law and regulation.

PHILLIPS: Right now Senator John Warner talking about the Lincoln Group. It's a Washington-based group that has at least two contracts with the military to provide media and public relations services.

And the reason why he's talking about this group is because there had been some stories that came out recently about the U.S. military feeding positive stories to the Iraqi press. Warner is looking into it.

He says at this point the U.S. military has said, look, there were major issues with incorrect facts getting into the press. We hired this group to try to help to get the facts out and get the stories done properly. Of course, the investigation continues. We'll stay on top of it. Quick break. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: It's official. Big changes coming soon in the way they screen airline passengers. Just ahead, the news rules and how they will affect you. Don't go away.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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