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Sectarian Divisions Run Deep in Iraq; Inside a Top-Secret Mission of the Vietnam War; The Day After the Oscars

Aired March 06, 2006 - 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: Car bombings, one after another, in and around Iraq's capital. Today's bloodshed began in a marketplace in Baquba just north of Baghdad. A car explosion killed at least six people, three of them children. Another two dozen civilians hurt.
In Baghdad, more black smoke, more burning wreckage, more victims bloodied and scarred. Five bombings -- five car bombings in various parts of that city killed three people and wounded another 28.

Amid the violence, a parliament divided. Iraq's president says he intends to convene the new legislature for the first time before the week is out. But there's a reason it hasn't met already. Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds are still on the outs and Washington still is playing peacemaker.

CNN's Aneesh Raman looks at Iraq's ability to stand on its own.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANEESH RAMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Nearly three years after a U.S.-led invasion toppled Saddam Hussein and after a string of free elections, American officials in Iraq find themselves exactly where they don't want to be: in the middle of everything.

KEN POLLACK, BROOKINGS INSTITUTION: Where things stand now is that Iraq simply lacks the governmental and military institutions capable of holding the country together.

RAMAN: Iraqis went to the polls last December, electing a parliament that has still not convened, forcing U.S. officials to become increasingly involved in the attempt to form a unity government among Iraqi leaders who are finding it difficult to compromise. And in terms of security, American troops are also now, many say, equally critical.

ADNAN PACHACHI, IRAQI PARLIAMENT MEMBER: The only hope to maintain, to keep Iraq together, is the presence of American troops.

RAMAN: What little hope there might have been for a large-scale disengagement by the U.S. this year ended with the attack at the end of February on the Shia Askari mosque, which ratcheted up sectarian tensions dramatically, and forced American officials all the way up to President Bush to get directly involved in an effort to head off civil war, aware that what happens here is not simply an Iraqi issue.

ZALMAY KHALIZAD, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO IRAQ: We regard Iraq's success to be our success. And as I said before, God forbid Iraq's failure will be also ours.

RAMAN: And the latest political stalemate over who will be prime minister is the latest example of why U.S. involvement could go on for quite some time.

POLLACK: U.S. officials admit that in private there is no expectation that Iraqis will be able to handle either their political situation or their security situation entirely on their own, probably for several years.

RAMAN: In the interim, Iraqis are waiting desperately for security and for leadership from their own politicians. There was at least six car bombs in Iraq on Monday, further fueling public outrage against the country's government.

"Everything is destroyed in Iraq," screams this woman. "All the politicians care about are positions. We need an honest man to rule this country."

(on camera): American officials are pinning their hopes for success here on a unity government, saying that if all groups are represented, the security situation will dramatically improve. But with tensions among Iraq's political elite reaching new heights, many here fear that a unity government for now could be out of reach.

Aneesh Raman, CNN, Baghdad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Code name Misty. It was one of the most dangerous and top-secret missions of the Vietnam War. American pilots, sometimes flying at treetop levels, hunting targets moving along the Ho Chi Minh Trail into South Vietnam. The sorties lasted hours. Pilots risked enemy fire, capture, even death.

One who survived is CNN military analyst and retired Air Force major general Don Shepperd. He's the co-author of a new book, "Bury Us Upside Down: The Misty Pilots and the Secret Battle for the Ho Chi Minh Trail."

General Shepperd joins us now live. Great to see you.

MAJ. GENERAL DON SHEPPERD (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: My pleasure, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Light reading. About 3,000 pages here, folks. You can get done with it in an hour! Actually, incredible personal stories. Not only an amazing part of history, but you could tell your heart's in this book.

SHEPPERD: Yes. Let me tell you why this one's different. Lots of war books or war stories, bang, bang, what the soldiers did. We tell what the soldiers did, but we tell it through the characters involved. And these guys were a bunch of characters. One hundred and 57 pilots, 34 of them shot down. Seven KIA, killed in action, four POWs and a bunch of famous people in here, as well. And we tell it by revealing their characters and how they got in the business, what they did. And also we focus, in the first time that I think women can relate to a war book -- we focus on what happened to the families of the guys who lost. It makes is different.

PHILLIPS: Well, I want to talk about some of those characters in this book. And men that you were very close to, many you are still very close to. But let's talk about you for a minute. You became a Misty pilot in 1968, right?

SHEPPERD: Sixty-seven.

PHILLIPS: Sixty-seven. All right. Take me back.

SHEPPERD: Yes, just before Christmas. We were all volunteers. You couldn't be sent unless you were a volunteer. When you got there, if you didn't like it, you could opt out of this type of thing. This was a top-secret operation. Our wives were not supposed to know, and of course, intelligence was perfect, they found out, very quickly.

The last thing my wife told me before I left for Vietnam was do not volunteer for Misty. So, of course, just before Christmas '67, I did and I didn't tell her. But she found out shortly after. And she still asks me about every week, tell me one more time why you volunteered for this? We were young, we were excited, we were full of testosterone. We thought what we were doing was important. And interesting guys on a dangerous mission.

PHILLIPS: And let's talk about that mission. Flying low, and -- but high-risk. We can obviously talk about it now. What was so secretive? What was the ultimate mission of the Misty pilots?

SHEPPERD: What we did was we took off from South Vietnam in two- seat F-100 jet fighters. We went north, and we were armed only with smoke rockets. Our job was to go down low-level and look for targets. We looked for surface-to-air missile sites, trucks, ammunition, depots, that type of thing.

Anything that was moving South to prosecute the war, we would find. Then we would call for bomb-laden fighters and we would dive down and mark the targets for them. We sometimes had to mark several times. And there was an awful lot of anti-aircraft fire. What caused us to get hit so much and lose so many airplanes was spending time at low level through the anti-aircraft artillery fire.

PHILLIPS: This one picture that we have of your unit -- I believe it's from 1968. There's 16 of you. Nine of you were shot down. One was killed and one was a POW.

SHEPPERD: Right.

PHILLIPS: That had -- I mean, your P.O.W. stories in this book are -- they're pretty rough.

SHEPPERD: Excruciating. Excruciating.

PHILLIPS: Yes, they are. Why did you go into that kind of detail?

SHEPPERD: Well, you can't tell the story of what happened to the families without telling what happened to their fathers and their husbands. It was excruciating, what happened to the people in captivity. And the families are still haunted by it today. Some of the guys are still missing. We have not found them.

The man who organized the story around, Howard Keith Williams (ph), I kidded him on the way to the airplane, you're really going to like the Triple A. It was his first front-seat ride. He got shot down. I took off after him. I was on the tanker when I heard the mayday call, went right over to their crash site on the first pass. We picked up the other pilot, the second pilot. The military knew two hours after Howie Williams went down he was dead. His wife was not told for 23 years. The book tells why.

PHILLIPS: Why called Misty? That's -- I know the official name, Operation Commando Saber. But hold on a second. Before you answer that question, I got a little surprise for you. Play "Misty" for me, boys.

(MUSIC)

PHILLIPS: All right. Tell the story.

SHEPPERD: It's the favorite song of our first commander, now Colonel retired Bud Day, then Major Bud Day. He was awarded the medal of honor for what he did after he was shot down. He escaped for two weeks, swam the river in South Vietnam, was within hundreds of yards of freedom, and got captured and reshot -- recaptured and shot by the North Vietnamese, and he spent five years in prison. It was his favorite song. We picked that as the radio call song. "Misty." That's how it happened.

PHILLIPS: He loved Johnny Mathis.

SHEPPERD: He did.

PHILLIPS: That's great. And you're saying a lot of you still get together, reminisce. I know we've got a picture of -- we showed the before. We've got the now. Of course, everybody's still looking quite the same. Dapper and young.

SHEPPERD: I look as good as I did then. Most of the other guys don't. But this is a surface-to-air missile in a museum in South Vietnam. Dick Rutan, the famous Dick Rutan, organized a trip in the year 2000, and we went back to see the -- and visit the people that we were fighting against back there.

And we get together courtesy of Dr. Ed Reisinger (ph), who's one of the original Mistys. He keeps all of the records. He holds -- he gets the stuff together for the reunions. And we meet about every other year. There's 125 of us, give or take, still alive. So we have a good time.

PHILLIPS: You know, let me ask you -- and I'm sure you and the guys talk about this a lot. The war in Iraq has been compared to the war in Vietnam. Is that fair?

SHEPPERD: There are some similarities. There's some big differences. The similarities are this a long, drawn-out conflict. The American public doesn't see progress on a day-to-day basis. They don't see light at the end of the tunnel, where we're going. And in Vietnam, our Congress cut off the funds to our allies, the South Vietnamese, who we were training and were doing well, and the South Vietnamese collapsed.

The same thing can happen in Iraq if the public gets fed up with it. Public support for the war effort has to be there. It is the responsibility of the administration to engender that. And so this -- it's really dicey what's happening in Iraq now. And I don't know how long the public will stay with it. It's touchy.

PHILLIPS: I know it was tough even just reading through the stories. Final note, though. You worked hard and you played hard. Give me the toast, Shep.

SHEPPERD: The title is of the book is "Bury Us Upside Down." That was an old fighter pilot toast. When our flying days are over, when our flying days are past, we hope they'll bury us upside down so the world can kiss -- you get the drift of the rest of it.

PHILLIPS: Great to see you, General.

SHEPPERD: The frustration of the war. Good to see you, too, Kyra. Thank you.

PHILLIPS: "Bury Us Upside Down." We'll never forget the toast or the book. "The Misty Pilots and the Secret Battle for the Ho Chi Minh Trail." Our Don Shepperd.

Always on the story, CNN's Wolf Blitzer is in the United Arab Emirates investigating the flap over port security. At issue still, the deal to place the management of six American ports in the hands of a firm in Dubai. In an exclusive interview the head of that firm told Wolf his company is the best in the business.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MOHAMMED SHARAF, CEO, DUBAI PORTS WORLD: We need to educate the people in America that we are truly a global company, and it is not in our best interest to get into those areas where we feel or any of our customers feels that security is an issue.

We have customers whose vessels call at our terminal, which cost hundreds of millions, not only the vessel, the goods on them cost hundreds of millions of dollars. If they don't have any confidence in our operation, they would not bring their ship to our terminals.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Dubai Ports World won a legal battle today. An appeals court in Britain declined to hear a challenge of the takeover of the British firm that controls those American ports at the moment. Wolf Blitzer, by the way, in our 3:00 hour. He will host "THE SITUATION ROOM" from Dubai at 4:00 p.m. Eastern and then again at 7:00.

Today through more than three hours of thank you speeches can be a thankless job. For many people in Hollywood, the real fun begins when the Academy Awards ends. LIVE FROM is your ticket to the Oscar party coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: First come the Oscars, then come the parties, next come -- well, we'll let you know when the parties are over. Last night the Academy Awards were just the beginning of a long night in Hollywood. First stop, the Governor's Ball.

CNN's Brooke Anderson joins me from Los Angeles.

OK. I know you are going to go into all the balls and all the scoop. I just want to know, what was the highlight for you?

BROOKE ANDERSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know what? I always love talking to George Clooney, Kyra, because you can't find a more genuine, gracious person in Hollywood right now. He's a pleasure to speak with. So that was one of my highlights.

And on Hollywood's biggest night, all eyes are, of course, on the big awards and the fashion but also on the after parties. Let's talk the Governor's Ball. It's the party held immediately after the show wraps up. It's held in a ballroom adjacent to where the ceremony take place.

Chef Wolfgang Puck provides the meal. Some memorable moments from this. You see Philip Seymour Hoffman. You saw Reese Witherspoon, Three 6 Mafia. All of them enjoying themselves. George Clooney and Ang Lee, two fellow winners, congratulated each other by a big embrace.

Also, you had Rachel Weisz there. Let me tell you, Rachel is actually celebrating her 35th birthday tomorrow, so this was indeed a terrific birthday present for her. I talked to her, as well, and she is expecting a baby next month. So quite an eventful, wonderful year for her. And, by the way, she told me she doesn't know if the baby is a boy or girl. She wants to be surprised.

And speaking of George Clooney, he won best supporting actor for his role in "Syriana." He told me that despite a competitive edge that he does have, he said that he and his fellow nominees have really enjoyed sharing the wealth of trophies throughout the entire awards season.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE CLOONEY, WINNER, BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: I'm an old jock. So you get a little competitive every once in a while. You kind of want to -- you do that thing where you go I want to beat somebody. But I didn't -- that never happened in this. It was always sort of like, oh, good.

You know, and Matt won at the independent last night and Paul won at the SAG. It sort of just goes back and forth with a bunch of people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON: And another winner, Philip Seymour Hoffman, the best actor winner, told me that his win is really a testament to everyone who worked on the movie "Capote."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PHILIP SEYMOUR HOFFMAN, WINNER, BEST ACTOR: It means that "Capote," this film that we decided to make three years ago, we made it and it got recognized in some way. And I think it is a testament to everybody involved in the film. And that's what it means.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON: Philip had promised that he would bark his acceptance speech if he were to win. But he told me that he decided last night that wouldn't be the case, that he didn't want to do that. And it is a smart move, I think.

Kyra, preliminary ratings are out for the Academy Awards telecast. About 38.8 million viewers on average watch the telecast. And that's down actually about 10 percent from last year.

PHILLIPS: Wow. I'm surprised. There's a lot of interesting twists to this year's Oscars. All right, Brooke.

ANDERSON: A lot of surprises and Jon Stewart at the helm.

PHILLIPS: Yes, no doubt. That's true. I mean, well, that could be a whole other story we need to talk about.

ANDERSON: That's true. We could talk for days about that.

PHILLIPS: Oh, yes, we could.

All right, Brooke. Talk to you soon. Thanks so much.

ANDERSON: Thanks Kyra.

PHILLIPS: You know, Brooke mentioned "Crash." Well here is a crash course on the movie that scored the upset of the night. Best picture winner, "Crash" is the story of racial intolerance in Los Angeles. The film cost $5.6 million to make. And has so far grossed more than $83 million worldwide.

One hundred and thirty thousand copies of the film were sent to studio executives and Academy voters and "Crash" fit the pattern. All but one of this year's best picture nominees were made for less than $14 million. Tune in to "SHOWBIZ TONIGHT," backstage at the Oscars. The stories you haven't heard. The interviews with the winners you haven't seen. Plus, Joan and Melissa Rivers on the fashion hits and fashion fiascoes. "SHOWBIZ TONIGHT" 7:00 p.m., 11:00 p.m. Eastern on CNN Headline Prime.

Well, you think you know the meaning of school spirit. Coming up, we will tell you about a cheerleader who just wouldn't give up. This is LIVE FROM on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Down on his luck, out on the street and then things got really grim. A 30-year-old man is being treated for burns in a Boston hospital today. He says he was sleeping in a downtown park yesterday when two men started kicking him. They left, but came back and drenched the homeless man in some sort of flammable liquid, then set his legs on fire. No arrests have been made.

A scary ride to school today for a dozen students in Pittsburgh. Their bus left the road and hurdled down an embankment headed into a house, head on to a house rather. Four students, ages five, six and eight, were rushed to a hospital with seemingly minor injuries. The driver of the bus and an elderly man who lives in the house were also taken to the hospital.

A weekend of rain weakens the river banks in northern California and a levee gives way, flooding farmland in southern Sonoma County. Half a dozen homes and wineries are threatened. Part of California Highway 121 are also under water. Let's check in with meteorologist Jacqui Jeras for more. Hey, Jacqui.

(WEATHER REPORT)

PHILLIPS: All right, Jacqui, thank you. School spirit and then some from a cheerleader St. Louis yesterday. The squad from southern Illinois was doing a pyramid routine when Kristi Yamaoka fell to the floor with a thud so loud, you could hear it all over the arena. Well they put her on her back, and her neck and look at this. In the brace, yes, from the stretcher, she is doing the cheer, finishing the cheer. Flat on her back, unphased by her concussion and undeterred by what was later diagnosed as a fractured neck, well you say what she did, and didn't stop. She expects a full recovery but will be out of action for six weeks. And by the way, her team won.

Breaking down doors, crawling through crevasses. Find out why six months after Katrina, firefighters and trained dogs on the prowl in devastated homes in New Orleans find another body. LIVE FROM's back after a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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