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Baghdad Neighborhood Enjoys Bond Made By Tolerance; Illegal Immigrants Sent Back To Home Countries; Challenges Of Reporting In China

Aired April 21, 2006 - 14:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Proof today you don't have to commit an act of terrorism to find yourself in deep with the Feds. Prosecutors charge this man, Syed Ahmed, with providing material support to people planning terrorist attacks on American soil.

Ahmed is 21 years old, a naturalized U.S. citizen, and a Georgia Tech student living right here in Atlanta. One of Ahmed's acquaintances is also in custody. According to court papers, the two men discussed locations for a terrorist attack when three -- with three men, rather, that they met in Canada.

Iraqi politics always topsy-turvy and never boring. Shiite lawmakers picked a replacement candidate today for interim Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari. Follow along here. It's one day after al-Jaafari stepped down, two days after he swore he'd never quit.

Pressure to reconsider came from every side -- Sunnis, Kurds, fellow Shiites, the West -- all calling al-Jaafari a major roadblock to a unity government. The new prime minister candidate, Jawad al- Maliki, a member of Parliament who, like al-Jaafari, hails from the Dawa Party. Reaction from Sunnis? So far it's positive.

The fight for Iraq isn't military, it's political, it's religious -- it is military, rather. It's being fought in Parliament and in Iraqi cities torn to pieces by sectarian tensions and rampant mistrust. CNN's Aneesh Raman found the exception to what appears to be the rule, a Baghdad neighborhood that enjoys a bond made tighter by tolerance.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANEESH RAMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): 63-year-old Jabar Khalid represents the dream of what Iraq could be, a Sunni living in a Shia neighborhood of Baghdad with no fear of being forced from his home.

"If I receive a threat to leave the neighborhood," he says, "I am certain all of my Shia neighbors will come to my aid and prevent any harm. I will not go."

Um Nasir is a reason why, a Shia neighbor of Jabar's, a Shia who speaks of both sects being one. "The Sunnis are our brothers. There are marriages between Shia and Sunni, she says. We feed them and they feed us. There should be no feuds between us."

But feuds between Shia and Sunnis are intensifying elsewhere in Iraq. The country is now confronting an exploding number of internal refugees, Sunnis who have fled Shia areas, Shia who have fled Sunni areas after receiving death threats, arriving in camps that are solidifying Iraq's sectarian divides.

Here they are all Shia. They left because they were threatened for living in Sunni neighborhoods, an unimaginable prospect for Um Nasir. If her family lived in a Sunni neighborhood and got a death threat, her son, Jasim (ph), makes it clear, no, he wouldn't leave.

And neither would Um Nasir. She says she believes her Sunni neighbors would protect her just as she would protect them.

(on camera): It is hard to know how unusual this camaraderie is between Shia Um Nasir and her Sunni neighbor, Khalid. Hard to know how many Iraqis share their tolerance, and hard to know as well how long it can survive, given that tens of thousands of Iraqis who now find themselves in tent cities segregated by sect.

Aneesh Raman, CNN, Baghdad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: We now salute our fallen heroes, the men and women who have made the ultimate sacrifice fighting the war in Iraq.

A fellow soldier who served with Army Staff Sergeant Bryan A. Lewis choked up as she talked about what he meant to her. She said you could not help but look up to him. There was a standing room only crowd at his memorial service in Louisiana. Lewis, a military policeman, was killed in March by a roadside bomb. He leaves behind a wife, parents, and three sisters.

Private First Class Amy A. Duerksen died of a non-combat related injury in Baghdad. The 19-year-old was quick with a warm smile, encouraging words and affectionate hugs. At her funeral, the minister said of Amy, "she loved people and they knew it."

Marine Corporal Adam O. Zanutto married his wife, Amber, on the 4th of July. She was at his bedside when he died at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland in March. The 26-year-old Californian was wounded in February when a roadside bomb went off outside Baghdad.

These are just three of the 2,379 men and women who have died serving in Iraq.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Catch and return, it doesn't have the some oomph as shock or even cease and desist, but it packs quite a punch. More than 80,000 illegal immigrants returned to their home countries so far this year. CNN's Rick Sanchez returned with several dozen in an exclusive report for "ANDERSON COOPER 360." (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RICK SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Shackles scrape against the tarmac at Williams International Airport in Mesa, Arizona. These are the first close-up images of the U.S. government's new initiative to get rid of undocumented immigrants not within months or years anymore, but rather within days. From this airport alone, three full flights leave each week bound for Central America.

It's now 7:30 in the morning we're about a half hour from wheels up on this MD83 that's going to literally remove 110 immigrants from the United States. The expedited removal program began last September but because there are so many undocumented immigrants, the number of flights not just from here in Arizona but nationally have already been increased to 12 a week. On board, one of the men who handles the new program for the Bush administration.

GARY MEAD, ICE ASSISTANT DIRECTOR: It's our hope that these people, when they get back, will explain that there is no safe haven anymore, that when people are apprehended they are processed quickly and they're returned quickly.

SANCHEZ: But is the message getting through? On board we find immigrants separated by two classifications, criminal aliens whose crimes range from heroin smuggling, murder and petty offenses, to those whose only crime is being in the country illegally. An hour into the flight we find Marlin Vargas a 23-year-old with a boyish grin who says he came to the U.S. because he was hungry. Is this the first time you tried to come to the United States?

MARLON VARGAS, ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT: No.

SANCHEZ: No? How many times?

VARGAS: Seven times.

SANCHEZ: Then there's Jose Membrero a criminal alien who admits to a rap sheet that dates back to 1991 with crimes that include selling drugs, domestic violence, parole violations and finally a DUI arrest that's now getting him deported. Although not a citizen, Membrero was in the U.S. legally. He's lived in Colorado for 19 years and speaks English with hardly a trace of a Spanish accent. You feel like you blew it?

JOSE MEMBRERO, IMMIGRANT: Yes.

SANCHEZ: It's now about noon. And the flight dubbed Conair is maneuvering the tricky approach through the mountains into the capital city of Tegucigalpa. Once on the ground, their welcomed by Honduran immigration officials using the plane's P.A. to tell them they're happy to have them back.

At the refugee return and welcome center, Membrero, remember he's the one with the long rap sheet, clear immigration and Interpol almost immediately. However, Marlon Vargas has a problem. Honduran officials spot his tattoos and question him about gang activity. MS-13 is a dangerous gang. Here as well says the police official who decides Vargas' tattoo is not a gang logo after all. He is free to go. As is Membrero who tells us he won't return to the U.S. because now, as a deported ex-con, he would face a federal sentence of 20 years if caught. However, Honduras is a country he hardly knows.

MEMBRERO: I'm lost.

SANCHEZ: You're lost?

MEMBRERO: Yes, I'm lost.

SANCHEZ: Vargas knows where he's going. It's now 3:00 PM and we follow him back to his village, a two-hour ride through the Honduran countryside. Santa Rosa is poor, but the greeting he gets from his mom is rich. One look inside Vargas' home and you immediately understand why half the boys here have left for America. Leaving behind fathers like Vargas' dad.

(on camera): Does it bother you when he leaves?

(voice-over): I need him, says Thomas Vargas who tells me he only makes $3 a day, shows me his empty cupboards, the holes in his roof and his next meal. And every meal. Beans and corn.

(on camera): To say that life is hard here in Santa Rosa would be an understatement. For running water, for example, you have to go outside. That's if it works. Like this squeaky faucet, everyone seems to agree, U.S. immigration policy is in disrepair. Will this newest initiative fix it? That's up to Marlon Vargas and tens of thousands like him. If it was easier to get in, would you go back?

VARGAS: Probably.

SANCHEZ: Yes?

VARGAS: Yes.

SANCHEZ: But they're making it harder now.

VARGAS: It's harder now.

SANCHEZ: Vargas plans, instead to join the Honduran military. But his is just one story. A snapshot of one family, one village, where America's immigration dilemma begins.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: You can join "ANDERSON COOPER 360" weeknights at 10:00 Eastern right here on CNN.

It was the scream heard around the world. Well, almost. A heckler disrupted the White House welcome for Chinese President Hu. As you well know, if you were watching CNN, but not if you were watching CNN in China. Censoring dissent when LIVE FROM continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: If a heckler screams at the White House and a billion Chinese don't here it, does she make a sound? Chinese censors blanked out CNN's coverage yesterday of yesterday's unscripted incident at the welcoming ceremonies for President Hu Jintao. And they blanked out discussions of the incident afterwards. Chinese censorship, of course, is nothing new.

In 1989, a visit to China by then-Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, triggered pro-democracy demonstrations in Beijing's Tiananmen Square. CNN and other news organizations covered the protests until China decided the world had seen enough. Our viewers watched as a Chinese official CNN staffers in Beijing to say goodbye.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm here announcing that CNN should stop the movable (INAUDIBLE) and its transmitting frequencies right away. Mr. Chu Lee (ph), 11:02, 20th of May, 1989. Beijing, summertime.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. The government is -- our policy is the government has ordered us to shut down our facility. We are shutting down our facility.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can we sign off?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Joining us now to discuss that moment and the challenges of reporting in China are two veteran CNN journalists, Vito Maggiolo and Jim Clancy.

Vito, that was you in the background at the beginning of that videotape. Take me back and tell me what you remember from that moment.

VITO MAGGIOLO, CNN ASSIGNMENT EDITOR: Well, I remember the Chinese coming in, telling us we would have to go off the air. And from there on in, it was -- we made a concerted effort to stay on the air as long as we could. Finally when they wrote the letter demanding that we shut down, our argument was we had a document saying we could stay on the air until a certain point. You need to give us a document saying that that's not the case.

And when they did, finally -- and, as you heard that gentleman read that statement in the previous video, one last attempt, I personally made to try to keep things going on the air was that in China, which is an extremely bureaucratic nation, everything requires what is known as a chop, which is an official stamp.

And after he wrote the letter, I pointed out that it didn't have a stamp. And I questioned it's officiality or legality as it were. Unfortunately he said his signature was the final say, and things happened. And we, in fact, were forced to stop transmitting from China live.

PHILLIPS: Let's take a look back at that moment that you're talking about, about these letters and about that stamp and that specific legal pad. Let's take a listen right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BERNARD SHAW, ANCHORED CNN COVERAGE: These characters being written on this legal pad in effect are saying that this government is telling CNN to end its transmission. With this scene unfolding in the CNN control room at the Great Wall Sheraton Hotel in Beijing, as the thousands, more than 100,000 people, surround and stand in Tiananmen Square.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Now, Vito, this was very interesting. You hear Bernie Shaw talking very slowly describing what is going on. You guys were stalling, weren't you?

MAGGIOLO: Oh, very much so. We were trying to do everything within our ability to stay on the air and let this drama as it were play out. It's not a drama we created. It's a drama that the Chinese brought into us as things in the square took the turn that they did. So, yes, we were stalling for time. We wanted to stay on the air and show what was happening as long as we could.

PHILLIPS: Now, Jim, you just went back to Tiananmen Square. You remember 1989. What hit you as soon as you stepped onto that square and started talking to the people there?

JIM CLANCY, CNN INTERNATIONAL: Well, we had a camera, of course a little video camera and plus still cameras. And I was walking with one of our CNN colleagues, Jim Shipman (ph), that speaks perfectly good Chinese, talking with people, why they were there, what they were talking about and of course what they thought about Democratic change, what they thought about their country and the way it was rising up.

And they most notably avoided any answers that had anything to do with human rights, with democracy, and some of them looked around nervously. Others just walked away, and finally one young man that we were talking to, who seemed to be very engaging, basically said, you know, you need permission to come here and ask those kinds of questions. You can get it in the building right there.

PHILLIPS: Interesting. So they're seeing economically that life is getting better, so they don't want to talk about human rights.

CLANCY: Well, that's broadly true. They're focused right now on making their lives richer, making their better. They are sincere. They are hard-working, and they want to get ahead. They want their share of it all.

PHILLIPS: However, there are still people standing up and protesting the government. You actually got some of this on videotape, and I want to talk about the fact that this was not seen in China, however, we are getting it.

CLANCY: No, no, never. Yes.

PHILLIPS: OK. Let's take a look at this.

CLANCY: Take a look...

PHILLIPS: I think we have sound of the six seconds, right? Is that right, guys? Do we have that?

CLANCY: With some home videotape that was shot.

PHILLIPS: OK. Let's roll it. Let's roll it.

CLANCY: This is a protest over land. This is from -- it's more than a year ago. You never see these scenes. Kyra, the important thing is, there are more than 10,000 of these incidents in China in a year. And these are farmers in a dispute with communist party members, local officials over how land is going to be used.

Land is a scarce commodity, and people, as you can obviously see in this videotape, are very upset about it. Now, why doesn't the government want this seen? Because they don't want people attacking police stations, attacking party officials, as they have done in the past, and protesting against what they see as something that is very unfair.

And it doesn't always have to be land. It can be about a number of different issues. But this kind of violent confrontation is something they don't want to show. And some people would say, well, for good reason.

PHILLIPS: Well, why for good reason? I mean, this should be addressed. If the president of the United States is having the president of China here visiting, and they're talking about building a relationship, I thought the United States is all about not putting up with civil rights violations.

CLANCY: And you hit right at the heart of it all. What makes China so unique is here is an authoritarian state that is trying to have a free market economy on one hand. On the other hand, it's trying to have central party rule. It's important to note this has never, never been done before.

And whether it succeeds or not is a grave concern to everyone, to everyone. Those kinds of riots you saw there, those kinds of things, this could become a serious problem. Nobody wants a destabilized China.

PHILLIPS: Vito, you're in charge of our coverage there in the D.C. Bureau. You organize the photographers, the news coverage there. What were you thinking when you were organizing this coverage for the president and the president of China? Were you thinking about Tiananmen Square? When you saw the heckler, did it bring back memories? What was going through your mind? MAGGIOLO: Well, I thought it was ironic because here we had a summit -- not a summit, but a meeting between the president of the United States and the Chinese representative. And of course, what the events at Tiananmen Square started what was going to be a routine summit that the Chinese were in fact very proud of, Gorbachev meeting with Gung (ph).

And seeing her heckling, I was actually astounded that somebody was able to accomplish, somebody was able to get in and accomplish that sort of heckling in that environment, in that venue. But I think it shows the strong feelings that exist in China that somebody was willing to go to that length to their that statement.

PHILLIPS: And it's our duty to stay on top of that story, Jim, especially when you are not seeing it in China. It is even being deleted from history classes there.

CLANCY: You want to point out, though, wherever President Bush goes there are protests, and there could be protests in China. But the Chinese officials would never allow that to come to interrupt an official ceremony. This is what was important to the Chinese, because Hu's entire visit is really something for the people back at home, how they're going to see their president standing alongside but standing -- at the same time -- standing up to the U.S. leader.

That's what all that Taiwan talk was about. That was what all the defiance that you heard there about that it had to be a one China policy. Nobody better be supporting independence for Taiwan. That's the whole schedule. He starts out at Boeing, and he is chummy with the workers then he moves on to the more difficult area of policy and trade, nuclear Iran and nuclear North Korea.

And then at the end he's back talking to academia, talking about academics. He's sandwiching in the difficult part in between two warmer parts, if you want to call it that. And that's the image that is going to be shown to the Chinese. That's the front page of the people's daily.

PHILLIPS: No doubt this will be something we continue to cover. It will be interesting to see if protests ever take place again. Some are saying it could lead to that.

Jim Clancy, thanks so much. Vito, out of our Washington bureau, thank you. It's great to see you on television. You're always behind the scenes. It's great to see you bringing back the memories.

MAGGIOLO: Appreciate it.

PHILLIPS: By the way, happy birthday.

MAGGIOLO: Thank you so much.

CLANCY: Happy birthday Vito.

MAGGIOLO: Thanks Jim. PHILLIPS: Straight ahead, with some people paying $3 a gallon for gas or more -- believe me, I am not laughing at that -- drivers across the country are feeling the pain. But why? Some answers straight ahead in our third hour of LIVE FROM.

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