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Iraqi Prime Minister Wants Answers on Haditha; CBS Reporter's Family Joins Her in Recovery Hospital; Military E.R. Saves Lives Daily

Aired May 31, 2006 - 13:00   ET

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

KYRA PHILLIPS, HOST: Hello, everyone. I'm Kyra Phillips at CNN world headquarters in Atlanta.
Horror in Haditha. Did U.S. Marines murder 24 Iraqi civilians? New insight from CNN journalists who traveled in Haditha with Marines a month before the alleged killings.

Iraq under attack. At least 40 bodies found in Baghdad over the past 24 hours. Iraq's prime minister declares a state of emergency in another key city. We're live in Baghdad.

We're live in Landstuhl, Germany, where CBS journalist Kimberly Dozier is fighting for her life, her family by her side, at the U.S. military hospital.

LIVE FROM starts right now.

A lot going on, live this hour. White House press secretary Tony Snow taking questions from reporters. Brigadier General Carter Hamm briefing at the Pentagon and President Bush swearing in General Michael Hayden as CIA chief. We're going to bring you the news as it happens.

But first, our top story. Just what happened in the Iraqi town of Haditha? President Bush vows punishment if laws were broken. Specifically, if U.S. Marines shot two dozen Iraqi civilians to death in November and then tried to make the story go away.

Accounts differ wildly, from the initial official report to the statements of witnesses and survivors. The Pentagon is investigating, and the White House says a full report will be released to the public when it's complete.

Violence in Iraq is spinning further out of control, if that's even possible. One hundred people, maybe more, mostly civilians, have died this week alone in bombings. That doesn't include a horrific discovery in Baghdad today. And then there are questions about Haditha, with top Iraqi leaders promising a probe of their own.

CNN's Ryan Chilcote joins me now live with the details.

Ryan, we heard from President Bush in the last couple of hours on the Haditha investigation. He'd like to see punishment. What about reaction from Iraqi politicians? RYAN CHILCOTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We are now hearing from the prime minister of Iraq that he, too, would like to see punishment, that he'd like to see U.S. troops punished if those allegations that there was misconduct in Haditha prove true.

The prime minister speaking out really for first time on this issue, saying that Iraq will large its own investigation into the events that took place in Haditha, saying that he's very concerned, not just about Haditha, but any time he gets a report that U.S. troops may have mistakenly killed Iraqi civilians.

All this, really, just an indication that the tensions are rising here. It feels like Iraq just really recovered or was recovering from the Abu Ghraib scandal. Now this is out, the allegations of misconduct in Haditha.

The prime minister is saying -- the prime minister saying that he would really like to see a full investigation on this matter to make sure that there's no serious misconduct going on.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NURI KAMIL AL-MALIKI, IRAQI PRIME MINISTER (through translator): We shall hit with an iron fist the heads of the gangs or those who threaten security. We shall request all security departments to draw an effective and quick plan to achieve security to a standard which would give citizens the feeling of security.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHILCOTE: And the prime minister also declared a state of emergency in the southern city of Basra today. There has been a lot of violence in Basra, in particular, over the last month. More than 140 Iraqis killed there.

Three different kinds of violence, really, we are seeing: increased attacks against British troops. We are seeing gang warfare, as it's often described, basically Shiite militias fighting with one another. We're also seeing some increased signs of sectarian violence. A lot of Sunnis have been killed there over the last month. They allege that there are Shiite death squads operating in that Shiite city.

Of course, all of this against the backdrop that Basra really was thought of as a city that has been relatively quiet. Certainly last year, the year before. It has been anything but that, though, for the last few months. And in particular, for this past month. British troops, for example, suffered their most deadly month yet this year in the city of Basra -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Ryan Chilcote live from Baghdad. Thanks, Ryan.

Well, he's said to be a key insurgent leader, a friend of al Qaeda, a suspected planner of terror. Today he's in custody. Ahmed al-Dabash was captured two days ago by Iraqi and coalition troops in Baghdad. The charge, committing terrorist attacks. Chief among them, at Karbala mosque two years ago, killing 140 people celebrating a Shiite holiday. The military hopes the al-Dabash will give up information on other insurgents.

The people closest to CBS correspondent Kimberly Dozier, critically wounded in Baghdad, are now very close indeed. Dozier's family has joined her at the U.S. military hospital in Germany. And CNN's Chris Burns joins us via videophone with the latest -- Chris.

CHRIS BURNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, Kimberly Dozier was joined at her bedside by her mother, father, brother and sister, as well as her boyfriend. They all arrived this morning. They are there. She remains on a ventilator and on sedation. So she was not able to speak with them. But she did recognize their presence. And what we hear from the hospital sources, she was able to squeeze the hand of her boyfriend.

So one can only imagine how emotional the scene must have been for the entire family and for her. She barely survived this attack, this car bombing in Baghdad that killed her camera man and sound man, that killed an Iraqi interpreter of a U.S. soldier and injured several other U.S. soldiers. It's just remarkable that she's alive at all right now.

The doctors are watching to see if she can stabilize over the next few days, at which point she'll be sent back to states for further care -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Chris, have doctors talked about when she might be able to start communicating with family? You mentioned that she was able to squeeze the hand her boyfriend. What about communication? Has she been able to move any of her extremities, as well, her lower extremities, like her toes? I know there was concern about her legs.

BURNS: Yes, absolutely. The injuries -- because she was wearing a Kevlar vest and helmet, she survived this blast. Her abdomen, then, was well protected. But she had a shrapnel wound to the head in any case and also her lower body, her leg, especially, very badly wounded. She had to have tourniquets right there at the scene to prevent her from bleeding to teeth. She nearly did, in any case. She was saved by the U.S. medics there at a nearby medical unit.

The -- she was able, however, on her way back from Iraq, over here, even at the hospital, she was able to wiggle her toes and she's then able to recognize the presence of various people. So doctors say that, considering the injuries she's had, that those are very positive signs that she will recover, but how long that's going to take in anybody's guess, they say -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Chris Burns, thanks.

Well, the fact that Dozier made it out of Baghdad is a credit to the first medics who treated her. She and the soldiers wounded alongside her were rushed to one of the busiest E.R.'s in Baghdad. CNN's Cal Perry and photographer Dominic Swan (ph) just happened to be there, shooting a documentary. And before we take you inside, there's a bit of a warning here: some of the images are anything about gentle. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CAL PERRY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Memorial Day in the Green Zone, Baghdad. Everyday, the war pulls right up to the front door of the 10th combat support hospital. And on this day, Humvees are bringing in the victims of a car bomb that went off just minutes earlier in central Baghdad. The medical staff are anticipating three wounded, but they know to expect the unexpected.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have no idea how -- what they are so if -- just in case, you don't need to come down yet but if they're all three surgical, I'm going to need you to help with one.

PERRY: They quickly find out it's many more than three casualties.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I got one thing of blood coming, so they're getting it now and coming down so if you need somebody immediately, we'll have it.

PERRY (on camera): On Memorial Day this combat support hospital received eight critical patients, seven U.S. soldiers and CBS reporter Kimberly Dozier.

DR. SAM MEHTA, U.S. ARMY MAJOR: Where you from? Where you from back home?

PERRY (voice-over): The soldiers are members of the 4th Infantry Division. Several are still conscious, despite their injuries.

MEHTA: He's not -- The pulse is...

PERRY: The surgeons and nurses here move at astonishing speed.

MEHTA: Bag him.

PERRY: But they also find time to offer words of comfort.

MEHTA: We're going to put you to speed. We're taking good care of you, OK? We'll get you back home, OK? All right, buddy, hang in there.

PERRY: But before they can think of getting these soldiers home, they have to deal with the trauma and stop the blood loss.

MEHTA: What do you have there?

PERRY: Doctor Sam Mehta and his team are used to bringing soldiers back from the brink of death. But even by their standards, this day has been unique.

MEHTA: For me, Memorial Day will never be the same. While I do remember those who have died in our country in past wars in previous conflicts, for me this will also be a day that I remember as a memory of people who have lived. Because we, as a team, saved the life, I believed, of seven soldiers and Ms. Dozier. Those guys are all going home.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Cal Perry joins us live.

Cal, you and I talked when you started shooting this documentary. You'd already been in there 14 days. How did this day differ from the other, when Kimberly Dozier and her cameraman and sound tech came in?

PERRY: Well, Kyra, I mean this was certainly the most emotionally charged day I've ever seen at the CASH. I mean, to start out the morning speaking to doctors about Memorial Day and what it meant to them. To hear them say, we're honored to be here, and doing our duty, and saving U.S. troops so they can spend Memorial Day at home with their families a year from now.

But they also say they miss their families. And one of them said, I miss baseball. And to go from that, to just minutes later, seeing such a dramatic scene, of seven U.S. soldiers who were so incredibly sick, and so incredibly wounded. And to see those doctors have to go from thinking about their families to thinking about these soldiers.

And they -- with the unit stand outside, emotions were really running high. I mean, you could almost cut the tension with a knife. And for example, they were all bleeding so heavily that almost every soldier and every doctor gave blood in that hospital on that day. It was -- especially on Memorial Day -- just an incredibly emotional day for everybody, I think.

PHILLIPS: And you know, you were already on this story. You knew the importance of what was happening inside the CASH. Then we saw what happened to Dozier and her crew. There was a lot more focus on it. What are we -- or what is the hospital seeing that we haven't been able to cover on a daily basis?

PERRY: Well, certainly, you know, the death of the two CBS crew members and Kimberly Dozier's wounds brings to light what's going on here, and I suppose that is a good thing.

What happens at this CASH is they see mostly Iraqi troops, Iraqi police members, and members of the U.S. military. Those are the three groups that really the insurgency targets more than anyone else. And on any given day, those are the patients that they're seeing. Very few days went by at the CASH where we didn't see a U.S. soldier who kind of -- who came in with really horrific injuries.

I think -- I was astonished to hear the statistics that 95 percent of the people that come into that CASH, they leave alive and they go home. But it was troubling to hear the doctors tell the kind of wounds that they leave with. And this is something that we've seen, for the thousands of U.S. troops to be going back to America with the loss of a limb is something that really -- is something that we haven't been able to show.

PHILLIPS: Well, I know this has been pretty hard core for you, especially what you've witnessed. I know there's one story that's really stuck with you. Tell us about the two little girls.

PERRY: I think it stuck with the three of us that are there, correspondent Ryan Chilcote and cameraman Dominic Swann and I. There was a 6-year-old girl that came in, and she had been shot in the head accidentally by her brother. He literally ran her into the hospital. Her blood was all over his body. He was completely distraught. And that little girl died.

And seeing the doctors have to say good-bye to that little girl and take her off a ventilator with her mother in the room is something that I don't think any of us will ever forget.

And it's juxtaposed against really wonderful stories. I wasn't there a day in which Ryan Chilcote, Dominic Swann (ph) were -- they saw a little girl, maybe 4, 5 years old. She was shot in the foot and she came in gripping a green crayon. And she did exceptionally well.

I was there the day that they said good-bye to her. And as she was leaving, the doctors ran around and they collected money from all the hospital staff. They bought her a teddy bear. They gave it to her new, adopted father. Her entire family had been killed. She was left for dead.

But to see the joy on the faces of those doctors, having to pronounce dead a 6-year-old little girl from a horrible accident in the war zone, to then be able to save the life of another little girl and send her on her way, that's something I don't think we'll ever forget.

PHILLIPS: And Cal, you've talked about the fact that these doctors, you know, they don't discriminate. I mean, they work on Iraqis, and they're working on U.S. soldiers. A life is a life.

PERRY: Absolutely, just the other day, I was there and a group of U.S. soldiers brought in an insurgent, a suspected insurgent that they had shot themselves, and they brought him to the CASH. And the doctors had to save that man's life. They did. They sent him up to operating room.

But they are doctors first and soldiers second. They say this time and time again. And it's true. They treat anybody that comes through those doors. They don't care. They took a Hippocratic oath to do no harm, to save all lives, and they do it there every day.

PHILLIPS: Our Cal Perry. Cal, you're doing an incredible job covering this story for us. Thanks so much, and we look forward to the documentary.

Ready to talk? Maybe. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says the U.S. will come to the negotiating table with Iran, alongside Britain, France and Germany if and when Iran stops enriching uranium. That's a ground-breaking shift in U.S. policy, but still just a proposal.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) CONDOLEEZZA RICE, SECRETARY OF STATE: To underscore our commitment to a diplomatic solution and to enhance the prospects for success, as soon as Iran fully and verifiably suspends its enrichment and reprocessing activities, the United States will come to the table with our E.U. colleagues and meet with Iran's representatives.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Rice is ruling out diplomatic relations with Iran which were severed with the 1979 Islamic revolution. The offer of talks comes as the U.S. tries to persuade the U.N. Security Council to take a hard line on Iranian nuclear pursuits.

Who's to blame for this week's deadly rioting in Afghanistan? The Afghan parliament has its own ideas. You'll hear them next on LIVE FROM. Stay with CNN, the most trusted name in news.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Days after deadly riots in Kabul, the Afghan parliament is up in arms. You'll remember a U.S. military truck apparently lost its brakes and plowed into parked cars and pedestrians. And what followed was the worst unrest to hit the Afghan capital since the fall of the Taliban. At one point, shots rang out. U.S. soldiers acknowledged they shot into the crowd, but only after someone shot at them. Afghan lawmakers want the soldiers prosecuted.

Aid is finally pouring in for the victims of Saturday's devastating quake in Indonesia. More than 20 nations have responded to an estimated 650,000 Indonesians in need. U.S. Marines are there, as well. So is CNN's Hugh Riminton.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HUGH RIMINTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hundreds of thousands of people across this province of Java are again enduring the night out in the open with insufficient shelter after this devastating earthquake. We have visited village after village that have completely flattened. There are people, if they're lucky, having some plastic sheets over them to hold off the weather. It rains at night here frequently. This, as I say, the fifth night out in the open.

No one can make an absolute count on this, but there is an estimate. The latest official figure is that 167,000 houses have been flattened or are uninhabitable. Many people live in each one of these houses. The total number of the people directly affected runs to hundreds of thousands.

The latest death toll is more than 5,800 people. There are 17,500 people that have been listed as severely injured.

And still, the hospitals in the main capital at Yogyakarta and elsewhere in the region are simply not coping with this. To help there has been an international aid effort coming in. A Singaporean field hospital has now been in place for about 36 hours. A U.S. Marine Expeditionary Force tent hospital has been setting up in the last few hours. They hope to be taking their first patients in the next few hours. They will also be sending teams out into the field to try to find people who still have not yet received even their first bit of medical care.

The main thing they're dealing with now is fractures and also cuts and other injuries, which are in danger of becoming infected. At one field hospital, we saw Indonesian doctors barefoot working in open-sided tents trying to deal with deep slashes and cuts into people from falling masonry and other things, that these houses came down around them. Also, children with broken limbs and with all matter of infected diseases. This is one of the main areas of concern.

Another area of concern is disease. There's an effort starting now to try to get out and immunize a number of the people who they believe are going to be most in danger from measles. Malaria is another threat.

Shelter is a thing that we're hearing again and again is the main problem. But food, water, everything, all the necessities of life, are now in short supply.

Hugh Riminton, CNN, Yogyakarta, Indonesia.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIP: And log onto CNN.com for up to the minute information on the Indonesian earthquake and find out how you can help the victims of this tragedy.

A young Marine's death allegedly sparks a massacre in Iraq. Now his family speaks out.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Does the idea that Marines could have acted criminally after your grandson died, does that sound impossible to you?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: To me it sounds absolutely impossible.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: We'll visit the hometown of Lance Corporal Miguel Terrazas, ahead on LIVE FROM. CNN, the most trusted name in news.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Beautiful city, spectacular wilderness, better health. Yes, it seems living in Canada does something to make people healthier than they are in America. Canadians are much less likely than Americans to have high blood pressure, diabetes or arthritis. Those findings are from a telephone survey by researchers at Harvard Med School. A co-author points to Canada's national health insurance, making it easier for Canadians to get services that prevent disease. Other experts are not so sure.

Does someone you love smoke cigarettes or chew tobacco? Well, today's a good day to bring up the topic of quitting. It's World No Tobacco Day. Did you know that when you're trying to kick the habit, the amount of nicotine in your bloodstream is cut in half every two hours? And the physical symptoms of withdrawal actually peak by the third day.

Now don't be too hard on yourself. Quitting cold turkey isn't always the best solution. Studies show cold turkey quitters have only a 10 percent success rate over six months.

And for all those smokers who say, hey, cigarettes help keep me skinny, well, you'd have to gain 75 pounds to equal the health risks associated with a pack a day habit.

A big labor agreement has one major airline breathing a big sigh of relief. Susan Lisovicz live from The New York Stock Exchange what that story.

Hey, Susan.

SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Kyra.

And many of my friends and colleagues in Atlanta are also breathing easier. That is, the home headquarters of Delta Airlines. Today word coming that its pilots agreed to a deal with the bankrupt airline which will save Delta $280 million annually. Pilots have accepted initial 14 percent pay cut. That's actually an extension of what they accepted last December.

More than two -- or just under two-thirds of the pilots voted to ratify the agreement; 39 percent voted against. The deal covers 6,000 Delta pilots. And it may end the threat of a crippling strike at the country's second biggest airline.

Analysts say a strike could have forced Delta to shut down permanently. That, in turn, could have led to a crisis for the airline industry and for passengers, right at the worst possible time. Planes are expected to be nearly full this summer, flying at their highest capacity ever.

And Kyra, it should be said that pilots accepted pay cuts of 33 percent in 2004, as a last-ditch measure to avert bankruptcy. And obviously, that ultimately failed. These concessions are in addition to that -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: So is this a done deal?

LISOVICZ: No. The agreement still needs to be approved by the judge overseeing Delta's bankruptcy proceedings. That hearing is scheduled for later on this afternoon. There are some benefits to the deal. The Pension Benefit Guarantee Corp., which is the federal agency that safeguards pension funds, opposes the agreement. So have a group of retired pilots. We're not sure whether they had dropped their objection to that.

Pilots may have seen this deal as the lesser of two evils. If they hadn't ratified the agreement, Kyra, the bankruptcy judge could have imposed even steeper pay cuts and concessions without the pilots' approve at all -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right, what's happening on Wall Street?

(STOCK REPORT)

PHILLIPS: Susan, thank you. Susan, I got a live picture for you. You ready for this?

LISOVICZ: Ready.

PHILLIPS: All right. Donald Rumsfeld, secretary of defense, gave the commencement speech at the Air Force Academy. Now watch what happens. He shakes their hands, they step off stage. OK, this wasn't really good. He didn't do it right. Now watch what happens here. Oh, no, she's going to jump. Do you think? The key -- what they're supposed to do -- they shake the hand of Donald Rumsfeld, they get their diploma. And then as each graduate steps down, the next one is supposed to jump in their arms.

Here. This guy is going to -- oh, man, they're just hugging. OK, they were jumping like one after the other, losing their hat, flying through the air. We couldn't figure out. Are they excited? They just shook the hand of the secretary of defense, or are they just happy to get out of there with their diploma? What do you think?

LISOVICZ: Think it's both actually.

PHILLIPS: All right, we're going to monitor this. We had some pretty good high-flying jumps. And we'll bring it back live if -- here we go. We reracked a little bit. This one does pretty well. She gets pretty airborne here. There we go. She's making the running leap. All right. We got a little bit of action there.

LISOVICZ: There we go.

PHILLIPS: All right, Susan. It's hopping just like Wall Street. We'll see you coming up...

LISOVICZ: It was worth waiting for.

PHILLIPS: There you go. All right. Live pictures now from that ceremony, as it wraps up. More LIVE FROM straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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