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Baby Noor Update; Iraq War; Hunting for Osama bin Laden

Aired December 29, 2005 - 13:30   ET

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

CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: From the U.S. soldiers who first found out about baby Noor to the Atlanta doctor who's offering surgery for free to the U.S. senator who pushed for her visa to the host family taking Noor and her family in, the story of this tiny girl has drawn the concern and attention of an incredible number of people, and that includes CNN photographer Joe Duran. He's been documenting Noor's story since we first heard about it last week. He's got exclusive television access. And he joins me now on the telephone from Baghdad with more on this remarkable turn of events.
Joe, so what's happening? We understand that the head of the National Guard unit that's trying to help this baby is supposed to be heading to the U.S. embassy. What's going on?

JOE DURAN, CNN PHOTOGRAPHER: Well, Carol, yes everybody has been working hard to get this baby the medical care that she desperately needs. Baby Noor is here now at Camp victory, resting and waiting for that hopeful flight tomorrow. She's doing well and under the care of military doctors here at the base. Her condition is good, and she has been sleeping a good part of the day. As you know, Baby Noor was found by a platoon medic December 8th when they were doing what is called a knock-and-search operation of the family's home. The soldiers answered the house. The grandmother told that platoon that their baby was sick and medics, Navy doctor attached to that platoon, looked at the baby and notified his commanders.

From that point on, as you mentioned, there has been a relentless effort to diagnosis and give this baby the medical care she desperately needs -- Carol.

LIN: So, Joe, we want to know what's happening literally right now, because we're trying to figure out when the baby is going to make it here into the United States to get the surgery she needs.

DURAN: Well, as I mentioned, she will hopefully be on a flight tomorrow. There is no confirmation. And actually for security reasons, we cannot go into details of what is happen at this very moment. But they are hoping that the visas will be given soon, and that she will be on a flight tomorrow. They are not certain until they actually have the passports with the visas, and that has not happened yet. They're hoping that will happen sometime tonight.

LIN: OK. So some family, though, gets to go with her, and I know it's been tricky, because, you know, the National Guard unit found them -- or the U.S. troops found them during a raid, where they were looking for suspected terrorists. So do you know which family members will be able to travel with her here to the United States? DURAN: Well, Carol, there was a raid. That raid happened days before they actually found her. They raided the house. They do these raids in the neighborhood, Abu Ghraib neighborhood, and there -- in fact, today there was a couple of IED explosions and an RPG -- an RPG attack on a post here, but when they found the baby, they were actually doing what they call knock-and-search missions. The grandmother, like I said, had spoke with the medic, and said, you know, my baby's sick, can you please look at the baby? And from that point on, they tried to get the medical help. They've been working relentlessly to get that medical help.

The grandmother and the father will be traveling with the baby, and I understand they will be issued visas, travel with the baby. There will also be a military escort to Kuwait where there will be on another flight, a commercial flight to Atlanta.

LIN: Hey, Joe, you're a veteran war photographer. All right, I mean, you have done your time out in the field. What strikes you about this story? I mean this is usually not the side of the military that you're covering.

DURAN: Well, no, I mean, we cover all sorts of military stories, conflicts, but this has taken the attention of everyone in the company, and everybody has done whatever they can to help this baby, and have been going out there in the middle of the night. We have been out there, you know, several times, to check on the baby. And it's very risky for the soldiers each time they go out there.

When we went last night to pick up Baby Noor, it was late at night and the family, in fact, asked us to leave the house and wait three blocks away because they did not, for their safety, want to leave their house and enter a military humvee, a military vehicle. So in the darkness we had to walk down the street and wait for them to come up to us. It's a very sensitive and a very dangerous spot for them. So yes, it's been dangerous, but everybody's willing to do whatever they need to do to get baby Noor whatever help they can get.

LIN: Well, Joe, we are loving your video. Thanks so much for sending these pictures in and taking the risks to get them. We really appreciate it. And what a cutie pie. She is adorable. And we're looking forward to meeting her here in Atlanta.

Joe Duran, thank you very much.

DURAN: Hopefully you get to see her soon.

LIN: You bet. All right, Joe Duran reporting in from Baghdad as he has been traveling with Baby Noor.

Now it is another day of deadly violence, though, and political turmoil in that country. A suicide bomber blew himself up at the main gate of the interior ministry in Baghdad, killing three police officers and a civilian.

In eastern Baghdad, an American soldier was killed by a roadside bomb. And in a Sunni dominated town south of Baghdad, gunmen killed 14 members of an extended Shiite family. All this as Sunnis and secular Shiites continue to press for an investigation into allegations of fraud in this month's national elections.

Joining us now from Baghdad, CNN's Jennifer Eccleston.

Jennifer, start with the suicide bomb attack at the government building.

JENNIFER ECCLESTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's right, Carol, not as promising news across town in Baghdad where I am, as where Joe is. And as you mentioned, there was that attack today on the ministry building. But first there was the announcement not so long ago that a U.S. soldier in an eastern Baghdad neighborhood's convoy was hit by an IED as he was traveling through that neighborhood, and that soldier has subsequently died.

One of the commanders here in Baghdad today said that the IEDs, one of the biggest problems for U.S. soldiers, one of the deadliest problems for U.S. soldiers here in this country, calling it one of the deadliest weapons of choice and one of the most effective weapons of choice for insurgents.

And as you mentioned, earlier today, there was also that suicide bomber, where he was wearing an explosive belt that exploded at a checkpoint which was leading to the central Baghdad office of the ministry of interior. Three police died in that early-morning attack, as well as one civilian. Eight others, including policemen were wounded in that attack -- Carol.

LIN: All right, Jennifer, when you report on the violence, I mean, is there a distinction to you? Can you read anything into the pattern of violence or the plot to attack that government building? Because it's mind-numbing to all of us who read about the death and destruction and explosions in Iraq.

ECCLESTON: Well, it's -- there has been a definite uptick in violence since the elections, those historic elections on December 15th. We are seeing this is very much a plan by the insurgents to wreak havoc, not only in this city, but across the country, and to undermine this great push towards the political process, where many leaders here, including representatives of the U.S. military and U.S. civilian force who are here that pin their hopes on the political process, of actually stemming the tide of violence and defeating the insurgencies. When we see these attacks, it is quite frankly the voice of the insurgency saying, not so fast, not yet, we're still here.

And in terms of this ministry attack this morning, something significant about that, which your viewers may find interesting, is that the ministry of interior, which was the building that was attacked, is a highly divisive institution in this country. It has its own militia, and many in the Sunni community widely fear that militia, which is associated with the ministry of interior, which is led by somebody from the Shiite part of the government. And they blame them for the number of attacks that are launched on Sunnis as individuals and in groups across the country. And as you know, it is believed that the Sunni community makes up the large part of the insurgency here. Although there is no proof, there is no way to know who is actually responsible for the attack today, which killed those police officers and a civilian. But there can be some sort of connecting of the dots that it is in some sort of retaliation for what is believed to be a number of militia attacks from those who are allegedly associated with the ministry of interior.

LIN: And welcome back to LIVE FROM. John Demjanjuk ordered deported. You may remember him, the retired Ohio automaker accused of being a guard at a Nazi concentration camp. Jack Shea with our Cleveland affiliate WJW has more on Demjanjuk's fight to stay in this country, including reaction from an angry wife.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

VERA DEMJANJUK, WIFE: He is old man. That's a shame. It's a shame, America. America, wake up.

JACK SHEA, REPORTER, WJW (voice over): After maintaining a public silence for nearly three decades, Vera Demjanjuk is speaking out about a federal judge's order that her husband John Demjanjuk be deported to his native Ukraine. Demjanjuk, a retired autoworker, was stripped of his U.S. citizenship in 2002 after a judge ruled that documents proved that he was a guard at several Nazi concentration camps.

DEMJANJUK: You are citizens of United States. If you do something here, you would be in jail just like the rest of them. (INAUDIBLE) less and follow the rules. OK?

What did he do? Who opened our record? Who opened our record ? I ask America, who opened our record?

SHEA: It was in 1977 the Justice Department first attempted to revoke the citizenship of John Demjanjuk. He was later extradited to Israel to stand trial for war crimes. He was found guilty, but his death sentence was later overturned and he was set free.

He was allowed to return to his home in suburban Cleveland; however, he was stripped of his citizenship again in 2002 after the Justice Department successfully argued that he had lied on his citizenship application when he denied any involvement with the Nazis or the concentration camps. His wife maintains he is wrongly accused.

DEMJANJUK: He never did to nobody nothing. He's helping people, he's goodhearted person. And that's what they do to us. SHEA: Vera Demjanjuk is pleading for mercy, the kind of mercy witnesses say her husband never granted in the Nazi death camps. She says her husband is 85 years old, and attorneys for Demjanjuk have argued that he will be tortured or executed if he is deported to the Ukraine.

DEMJANJUK: We have not much to live. We have maybe a couple years or maybe tomorrow I'm dead. I have heart trouble. He has arthritis and everything. You see his body? Where he go, the old man? Who will be watching him there?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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