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Bush Holds Press Conference, Answer Iraq Questions; Unclear When Troop Reductions Will Occur; Iraqi Insurgents Attack Prison, Free Prisoners

Aired March 21, 2006 - 13:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: If I didn't believe we could succeed, I wouldn't be there. I wouldn't put those kids there. It's -- I meet with too many families who's lost a loved one to not be able to look them in the eye and say we're doing the right thing. And we are doing right thing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KYRA PHILLIPS, HOST: Stay in the fight in Iraq and at home: President Bush makes an impassioned defense of the war. Let's get straight to our senior political correspondent, Candy Crowley, for that and much more on the president's news conference this morning.

Candy, you and I talking about this. It looks like he's definitely trying to turn things around.

CANDY CROWLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. I think you have to sort of look at this news conference as part a continuum of an effort that really began in December when the president's poll numbers really got at sort of a very anemic, scary rating for the White House, because it impacts everything he does, just not the war in Iraq.

So this has been going on since then. And it's -- it's this effort, really, to find a sweet spot, if you will, to find some way to say to the American people, "Wait a second. I understand what you're seeing. I understand that things have gone badly. I understand that there's sacrifice, but I want you to know that we'll win."

Because when you look at the poll numbers it becomes sort of increasingly clear that Americans have looked at this war and looked at the president's rhetoric and seen a huge gap. So he's trying to say, "I see it. I know the reality." But on the other hand, say, "We're going to win this." Because what seems to have happened in the poll numbers is people have taken a look and thought, we can't win this; we need to get out.

PHILLIPS: All right. Two questions in one. Why do you think he took unscripted questions? And second of all, how do you think he did? Was he comfortable?

CROWLEY: Well, you know, I think that the more President Bush -- and this is true of a lot of presidents I've covered. Probably President Clinton is the exception, because he was always comfortable in whatever he did that involved public speaking. Certainly with Ronald Reagan, who was considered the great communicator. And with this president. They get rusty.

If you keep them out of places where they take tough questions, it, A, begins to look as though they're afraid of them and, B, they get bad at doing it. So the president has clearly stepped up his game in this particular kind of forum.

We saw him yesterday take questions, many of which were not friendly. And of course, this is the White House press corps. None of those could have considered all that friendly. So what the president is saying in style, as well as in substance, is, "Hey, you think I'm holed up here, that I'm afraid to face reality, that I can't take criticism? Unh-uh, here I am, taking questions from the White House press corps."

PHILLIPS: So Candy, are Americans even paying attention to the other issues at hand or do you think the majority of Americans are sitting back saying, "You know what? Until I feel right about Iraq, I'm not listening to anything you have to say"?

CROWLEY: I don't think that's a -- you know, right there as, you know, a cognitive idea. I think what's happening is that Iraq colors everything else, that Iraq is the issue that this president says, "I'm spending my capital on Iraq," and he is. His presidency rests here, and he understands that.

But this is a man who has almost three years left in a presidency. He needs to do other things. But because of Iraq, and what is perceived as the failure there by the American public, is out there, it colors how they view his handling of other things.

So his marks on all sorts of things have fallen precipitously. They've always been low on some things, but they keep falling, because Iraq kind of colors the whole landscape of political and domestic agendas.

PHILLIPS: Candy Crowley, always great to have you. Thanks.

CROWLEY: Thanks. Good to talk to you.

PHILLIPS: Well, the question came up before the war started, and three years later, there's still no answer. How long will American troops have to be in Iraq?

CNN's Tom Foreman takes a hard look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): From the start of the Iraq war, the question has been debated: how many Americans will have to fight there and for how long? One assessment came before the first shot was fired, from the then Army chief of staff.

SEN. CARL LEVIN (D), MICHIGAN: General Shinseki, could you give us some idea as to the magnitude of the Army's force requirement for an occupation of Iraq?

GEN. ERIC SHINSEKI, FORMER U.S. ARMY CHIEF OF STAFF: Something on the order of several hundred thousand soldiers are probably -- you know, a figure that would be required.

FOREMAN: That comment was widely criticized as overly cautious, overly pessimistic, especially after the invasion force of 165,000 coalition troops took Baghdad in a few weeks.

BUSH: Major combat operations in Iraq have ended and the battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed.

FOREMAN: But a few months later, the insurgency took off, fueled by long-standing ethnic differences, just as General Shinseki predicted. And ever since, hopes for bringing significant numbers of American troops home have risen, only to fall.

Saddam Hussein was captured. American troops stayed the same.

The interim Iraqi government took over. American troops stayed.

A constitution was written. Full elections were held. Tens of thousands of Iraqis were trained as soldiers and police officers. And each development brought calls for more American troops coming home.

REP. JOHN MURTHA (D), PENNSYLVANIA: The military's done everything that has been asked of them. The U.S. cannot accomplish anything further in Iraq militarily. It's time to bring the troops home.

FOREMAN: But the military, while talking vaguely of troop reductions now and then, has consistently kept around 130,000 to 150,000 fighting men and women in Iraq.

(on camera) Various military strategists have said announcing a date for a troop reduction would be foolish, letting insurgents mount an offensive at a critical moment.

(voice-over) Furthermore, historically, predicting how many troops are needed for any war has been tricky business. And this is war.

SCOTT MCCLELLAN, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: No one said that combat operations weren't ongoing. Those -- those operations continue.

FOREMAN: Nevertheless, nearly three years after combat started that central question remains: how many American troops, for how long?

Tom Foreman, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: A virtual army of insurgents with an arsenal of deadly weapons on a mission to free their comrades. It was a brazen assault on a jail compound north of Baghdad at daybreak. Our Nic Robertson joins me now with the latest.

Nic, I want to ask you about the corruption. There's been talk about corruption within the new Iraqi government. Is this becoming a serious problem? And if so, how pervasive is it?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, if we're talking here bout corruption and infiltration of the police and how that can affect or how that can influence an attack such as the one today on a heavily fortified police compound that allowed the 100 or so insurgents attacking to get inside that compound, it is a very big concern.

It's been a concern that militias have been drawn into the police force, whose loyalty is not to the Iraqi government. It's been a concern that, where the speed and the necessity of building up the police force and others -- and the Iraqi army, has meant that insurgents have been able to get in and get information out, about perhaps what was happening inside that police compound.

We do know it was a very complex attack: 100 insurgents, 11 vehicles, breaking their way into this secure compound, freeing 30 detainees, among them, many other insurgents. Eighteen policemen were killed, seven wounded in the attack. And the insurgents made a getaway by setting off explosions and getting away.

And it is a very big concern, when officials look at this. I talked to -- we talked, here, to a police officer -- a police spokesman, a little earlier. And he said we hadn't had an attack like this for over a year. And this development is of great, great concern, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: So Nic, what's being done to help prevent these insurgents to be able to infiltrate, disguising themselves as Iraqi soldiers or policemen?

ROBERTSON: It's a slow process. When we talked to military commanders here, U.S. military commanders.

They say it's recognized that the speed of building up this force has meant a lot of these people have been scooped up into the force, and it really takes time to develop good commanders, and those commanders, then, to sort of figure out who are the good guys and who are the bad guys within their ranks, determine who might be passing out information, who is actually loyal to the police or the army and, therefore, to the government and to the people of Iraq. And that takes time. It's not -- it's not a quick or easy process, they say.

PHILLIPS: So how determined do you think the Iraqi police are with regard to confronting the insurgents? Are they doing it, or do you see a number of them still worried about having confrontation with these insurgents?

ROBERTSON: I think the vast majority of police are concerned about being attacked by insurgents on any day. They are, very often, more so even than the Iraqi army, these days, a target for the insurgents. I think perhaps the majority of police are trying to do a good job for the people in their communities.

But the way insurgents work here is that they perhaps not directly recruit a police officer or put a police officer into the army, but by strong-armed tactics on a family or a relative, a family member or a relative of that policeman, they can influence a policeman's actions. They can make him, perhaps, not turn up one day, perhaps give them key information about what's going on inside a base at a certain time. And there are pressures like that on the policemen.

And as the Iraqi police and as the Iraqi army grow bigger and stronger, the theory is that such intimidation should grow less effective. But right now, the insurgents still have a lot of strengths and cards, if you will, to play against the police and the army here.

PHILLIPS: Our Nic Robertson live from Baghdad. Thanks, Nic.

A snarling dog, a cowering inmate, a notorious image from the Iraqi prisoner abuse scandal. Today, a U.S. military jury found the soldier in this photo, Army Sergeant Michael Smith, guilty of assault, maltreatment, dereliction, conspiracy and indecency. He could face more than eight years in prison.

Prosecutors say Smith terrorized inmates at Abu Ghraib for fun. The defense says he was a good soldier, just doing his job in a dangerous place. Sentencing hearing begins this afternoon.

Come on back, but rebuild at your own risk. That's the warning within the welcome from the New Orleans mayor, Ray Nagin. Our Gulf Coast correspondent, Susan Roesgen, takes a closer look at Nagin's blueprint for his hurricane-battered city.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SUSAN ROESGEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: People in this city just want to know whether or not they should try to rebuild their damaged neighborhoods. And this new blueprint gives them some answers but not all.

MAYOR RAY NAGIN, NEW ORLEANS: I will address this more...

ROESGEN (voice-over): Mayor Ray Nagin insists New Orleans is on the verge of something great.

NAGIN: This committee's recommendations offer a solid framework for rebuilding.

ROESGEN: The new blueprint, drafted by his hand-picked committee, calls for better neighborhoods, better schools, better just about everything. No one will be stopped from rebuilding a damaged home. And even neighborhoods with fewer than 50 percent of their pre- Katrina population will be welcomed back. But all that comes with a warning.

NAGIN: The Army Corps of Engineers has warned me that some of our most lowest lying areas of New Orleans East, in the lower Ninth Ward, will have some flooding from levees over-topping if another hurricane travels along the same path as Katrina, even with the restoration of higher, better fortified levees.

ROESGEN: What the mayor did not say is whether those low-lying areas will be fully redeveloped. This map shows the areas the mayor mentioned. The lower Ninth Ward and New Orleans East, the areas in red, severely flooded after Katrina and likely to flood again. And the message some people are getting in these predominantly African- American areas is that the city will eventually abandon them.

BABATUNJI AHMED, NEW ORLEANS RESIDENT: A smaller footprint means you don't want my mama back. You don't want my grandkids back!

CHUI CLARK, ACTIVIST: This is a racist, no-good, rotten committee. It doesn't represent the (UNINTELLIGIBLE). It doesn't represent poor folks. It represents the rich, the ruling class.

ROESGEN: The public comment was loud but powerless. The mayor's plan is final, pending approval by the state, which is in charge of doling out federal dollars for the recovery.

(on camera) The next step in the process is for teams of neighborhood planners to fan out across the city: teams of urban planning specialists, city architects, trying to figure out how many home owners really do plan to try to come back.

Susan Roesgen, CNN, New Orleans.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Many people aren't saying no, but they want to hear more. Among them, Oliver Thomas, president of New Orleans city council.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OLIVER THOMAS, PRESIDENT, NEW ORLEANS CITY COUNCIL: If neighborhoods are going to have to prove their viability, then they're going to need resources. They're going to need contacts with planners, engineers and architects, to talk about how they'll bring their neighborhoods back.

Are the levees going to protect them? Will they be able to get flood insurance? What are the new FEMA maps going to say about the elevation in their communities? The planning process is extremely important.

You know, when you talk about people building at their own risk -- you know, we should never put our citizens in harm's way. But if we can protect them and give them the assurances they need that their neighborhoods will not only be viable but they're going to get the resources they need, they're going to get the government services they need, then they have the right to come back to their community.

(END VIDEOTAPE) PHILLIPS: No one knows how many that will be. A recent survey predicted 40 percent won't, at least in the next couple of years.

Coming up on LIVE FROM, bird flu and bottom line. What are U.S. companies doing to prepare for a possible pandemic? Call the home office. We're checking it all out.

ANNOUNCER: You're watching LIVE FROM on CNN, the most trusted name in news.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: A lawn, a gun and a story that's off the LIVE FROM outrage chart. Rich Jaffe reports from WKRC, our Cincinnati affiliate, on a territorial dispute that turned deadly.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RICH JAFFE, WKRC CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Neighbors say Charles Martin was a loner, frequently seen working in his yard or walking in the neighborhood.

"SKIN" BUERK, NEIGHBOR: He's really one of a kind, really, and -- but he go up and down the street when he walks. Everybody speaks to him, and he speaks to everybody. But the only time he gets unglued is when the kids are around that yard.

JAFFE: Investigators say Martin shot 15-year-old Larry Mugrage twice with slugs from a .410 shotgun when the teen walked in front of his house Sunday. After hitting him with the first shot, investigators say Martin walked to within 10 or 20 feet for a second, killing shot. Moments later, Martin called 911.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Tell me what happened, Charles.

CHARLES MARTIN, SHOOTING SUSPECT: Kid's been giving me a bunch of (expletive deleted), making other kids harass me and my place, tearing things up.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK. So what did you do?

MARTIN: I shot him with a (expletive deleted) .410 shotgun twice.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You shot him with a shotgun? Where is he?

MARTIN: He's laying in the yard.

JAFFE: While people who know him say Charles Martin's a nice enough guy about most things, they also say there's one thing about which he was totally manic: the line dividing his property from his neighbor's.

Charles Martin was known as a man who would frequently help out some of his neighbors. But he said he had problems with Mugrage's family. BUERK: They're the nicest people in the world, and I've known them for 40-some years living up here. And -- and he's mad at her because -- she used to go out and cut the grass and cut in his yard maybe a foot. He was really warped on that stuff.

MARK TEKULVE, PROSECUTOR: Your honor, you've been on the bench awhile, had this job quite a long time, and frankly, I don't know that I've seen a more cruel or cowardly act, than perpetrated by this defendant here today. Thank you.

JAFFE: Rich Jaffe, local 12.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: And another sad chapter in the Carlie Brucia tragedy in Florida. Carlie's mother, Susan Schorpen, faces 90 days in jail after pleading no contest to drug and prostitution charges.

It was just last week, you may recall, that Joseph Smith, the mechanic who kidnapped, raped and killed Carlie Brucia in 2004, was sentenced to death. The judge said surveillance camera footage of Carlie being led away, quote, "will no doubt forever be etched in our minds."

A 13-year-old Philadelphia girl is accused of setting her house on fire and killing her father, who died while looking for her. Brittany Talington is being held without bail ahead of a court hearing tomorrow. Police believe she touched her house -- or torched her house, rather, after arguing with her dad, a veteran police officer.

Neighbors say Tyrone Talington died in the burning house, looking for his daughter, not knowing she was safe. Police say the two had argued over the girl's cell phone.

Well, when it comes to avian influenza, a.k.a., bird flu, it's only a pandemic if you've got feathers. But the feds say planning for a possible human pandemic isn't strictly for the birds.

CNN's Mary Snow takes a closer look at the challenge for U.S. companies.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When it comes to bird flu and the businesses it could affect, the poultry industry is on the front lines. But across the board, other businesses are bracing, if the deadly strain of H5N1 mutates and jumps from birds to humans.

MIKE LEAVITT, HHS SECRETARY: It's every business. They need to ask themselves the question, how would we continue to operate, to serve our customers, and the public in general, if 40 percent of our workforce could not come to work for a two- to four-week period?

SNOW: If there is a pandemic -- and it's still a big "if" -- financial firms, for instance, are thinking about backup facilities, restrictions on travel and one big factor, absenteeism. Officials stress that, unlike a natural disaster, a pandemic would come in waves across a 12- to 18-month period. Some companies are looking to have employees work from home.

TOMMY THOMPSON, DELOITTE CENTER FOR HEALTH SOLUTIONS: I've talked to some companies that are buying more PCs for their employees to take home and get set up in case there is a pandemic.

SNOW: Former health and human services secretary, Tommy Thompson, is now consulting companies on getting prepared. He says he's advising them to stock up on inventories and things like Tamiflu for workers. A recent survey by his firm found that most companies are not prepared.

THOMPSON: I was surprised to find out that 66 percent of the businesses in America that we surveyed did not believe that they were prepared at all for a pandemic flu, but 73 percent said they would like to get prepared, which was a good sign.

SNOW (voice-over): Businesses aren't prepared for a pandemic only because there haven't been any in recent history. And if a widespread one does occur, it could have huge costs. The Brookings Institution has calculated that in a mild pandemic, it could cost $330 billion in lost output globally, $4.4 trillion in a worst case scenario.

Mary Snow, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: She made history by becoming president of her African homeland. Now Liberia's leader looks for international support. A campaign that takes her, today, to the White House. Our conversation with President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf is coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: So are you gelling? I'm not talking about your shoes but your hands. Gelling phone sanitizers are popular substitutes for soap and water. But if you really want to K.O. creepy bacteria, well, you better check the fine print.

Experiments found that unless the product is mostly alcohol -- we're talking 60 percent -- it's not much good. In fact, some of the lesser gels seem to increase the amount of bacteria. The study appears in "CDC Journal of Emerging Infectious Diseases."

Google is branching out into the world of personal finance. Susan Lisovicz is live from the New York Stock Exchange with that story and the rest of the day's business news.

Hi, Susan.

(STOCK REPORT)

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