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Marine Commandant Speaks Out about Alleged Misconduct; Iraqis Launch Investigation Into Haditha; Wounded Reporter Headed Home

Aired June 07, 2006 - 13:00   ET

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

KYRA PHILIPS, HOST: Hello, everyone. I'm Kyra Phillips, live at the CNN world headquarters in Atlanta.
Military probe. Marines accused of murder, conflicting stories, Iraqi civilians dead. What really happened in Haditha and Hamdaniya? The man in command speaks out live this hour

Repeat offender. A registered sex offender allegedly strikes again. This time, he's accused of rape and murder of a college student. Why was he out on the street? We'll investigate.

Plus, from rapper to role model. She's got no problem promoting her curves with confidence. Queen Latifah takes on Capitol Hill. She joins us live to tell us why.

Let's get straight to the Pentagon. Our main story that we've been talking about, those investigations surrounding the U.S. Marine Corps. The head man, the commandant of the Marine Corps, is speaking now.

GEN. MICHAEL HAGEE, COMMANDANT, U.S. MARINE CORPS: ... and it is constantly reinforced that an important part of being a Marine is accomplishing the mission while adhering to our core values of honor, courage and commitment.

Our high standards, mission focus and selfless service are what enabled Marines to attack successfully in the Bella Wood in June of 1918 after being told that the war was lost and their attack was futile. These same military virtues resulted in the successful assault on Iwo Jima in February of 1945. They're also what enabled the 1st Marine Division to conduct a successful withdrawal from the Toksin (ph) reservoir when surrounded by ten Chinese divisions during the Korean War.

And since 9/11, we have also enabled an estimated 180,000 Marines to perform so superbly in the very dangerous, complex and stressful environments of Iraq and Afghanistan.

While Marines are proud of our high standards, they also note that if they violate these tenets, they will be held accountable. Without accountability, standards would be nothing more than goals. Where compliance with our standards is in question, we use well- established processes to determine, as accurately and expeditiously as possible, what happened and why.

But make no mistake, a Marine who has been found to have violated our standards will be held accountable. It is an important part of who we are, and all Marines expect it. High standards and accountability define Marines.

As commandant, I am gravely concerned about the serious allegations concerning actions of some Marines at Haditha and Hamdaniya. I can assure you that the Marine Corps takes them seriously. As commandant, I am the one accountable for organization, training and equipping of Marines. I am responsible, and I take these responsibilities quite seriously.

We are committed to fully supporting the investigations of both incidents. We want to ensure the investigations are complete with respect to what actually happened on the ground and actions taken or not taken by the chain of command.

I have told the commanders who are responsible for the investigations that the Marine Corps will provide any resources necessary to help. While we want to complete these processes as expeditiously as possible, we are committed to ensuring they are thorough that no avenue of investigation is left undone, and that due process and the rights of the affected individuals are protected. If it turns out that an individual violated rules or regulations, he will be held accountable, regardless of grade or position.

I need to stress that the investigations are ongoing within the operational chain of command. Once finished, they will go up the operational chain to the final adjudicating authority, in this case, the commander of Marine Forces Central Command.

Until they are complete, it would be inappropriate for me to comment on any aspect of the investigations. I refer all these questions to the operational chain of command for comment at the appropriate time. We intend to keep you informed to the fullest extent possible without interfering with the legal process.

As you know, I recently returned from visiting Marines in Iraq and North Carolina. Among other things, I took this trip to emphasize our ethos, standards and traditions. I was gratified -- but not surprised -- to discover that Marines have no confusion on these subjects.

In the near future, I will visit with Marines in southern California, Hawaii, and Japan. I will tell them, as I did the Marines in Iraq and North Carolina, how proud I am of their performance and service to our corps and our country. I will also talk with them about how I expect them to adhere to our regulations and high standards.

As I did in Iraq and North Carolina, I will talk with senior commanders and their sergeants major about their responsibilities with regards to training, teaching, mentoring, and setting the example. This is what Marine commanders have been doing for over 230 years and we will continue to provide this leadership.

While I remain concerned about the current allegations, I am confident the American people recognize that Marines are men and women of the highest caliber. I ask you to remember that, day in and day out, in combat and in various roles throughout the world, today and throughout our history, Marines have acquitted themselves with honor, dedication and dignity in some of the most difficult and dangerous environments imaginable. We don't intend to change.

PHILLIPS: Marine Corps commandant General Michael Hagee holding a live press conference there at the Pentagon. Of course, he's focusing on the accusations against Marines in Haditha and Hamdaniya, those incidents that we have been talking about for the past couple weeks, about the deaths of innocent civilians.

Once again, General Hagee, as you know, he went to Iraq at the end of May to stress the importance of protecting noncombatants on the battlefield and to tell Marines they must maintain their core values of honor, courage and commitment. He's saying the same thing today as he did in Iraq.

He wants to make it clear that the investigations are ongoing. He says they're putting in all their resources so that investigators get what they need. They're going to follow these investigations to wherever they lead. And if, he says, they find people that have violated the Marine standards, they will be held accountable.

Now, stateside, the alleged atrocities are seen as possible criminal cases, something to be investigated dispassionately to determine the facts. In the town where two dozen Iraqis were killed, women, children, the elderly, some say gunned down in cold blood, it's personal.

CNN's John Vause is in Baghdad.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN VAUSE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Until now, they've been bodies wrapped in blankets. But these are some of the faces of Haditha, Rasheed Hamad Hassan (ph), seen here on his wedding day. According to the death certificate, he was shot dead.

Also in the photo, Zanad Salam (ph), Rasheed's niece, 5 years old, also dead from gunshot wounds, says the director of the local hospital. Rasheed's wife survived. So, too, their 18-month-old daughter, Isha (ph).

The oldest victim, Abdul Hamid Hassam Ali (ph), 76, found dead in his bed, his body charred. Witnesses claim he was killed by a hand grenade. His wife, Hamasa Hamid Ali (ph), also killed.

All victims of a war which has claimed the lives of over 30,000 Iraqi civilians during three long years of bombings, shootings and sectarian violence. Which may explain why here, amid so much death, Haditha is barely front page news. And promises from the U.S. president, on down, for a full investigation mean little.

"The U.S. and its army do not represent us. They don't understand the nature of Iraqis," says this man. "We demand our government conduct a full investigation." And that's just what the new prime minister is doing. He's demanded the U.S. hand over all the evidence from Haditha. And Iraqi officials have told CNN they've been promised by the U.S. military full cooperation.

HAIDAR AL-ABADI, IRAQI POLITICIAN: It is no more acceptable from what we hear from the U.S. military that there is a full investigation and there's no wrongdoing. While we Iraqis are seeing every day there is a lot of wrongdoings. And if you let any military loose within the population, there will be casualties.

VAUSE: After the scandal at Abu Ghraib prison, many Iraqis have little faith in American justice, complaining those responsible were never fully punished.

Abdul Rahman is the head of Hamarabi Human Rights, which first raised questions about what happened at Haditha. "Of course it will be like previous investigation, such as the Abu Ghraib crime," he says, "and it was clear that the sentence there was not fair compared to the crime that was carried out by U.S. soldiers."

And with such public criticism of the U.S. and by ordering its own inquiry into Haditha, this new fledgling government has earned some credentials among Iraqis.

"I trust our Iraqi politicians and Iraqi political parties, but I don't trust the U.S. forces, because they're occupiers," says this man.

(on camera) The Iraqi government says a committee from four different ministries will gather its own evidence on Haditha, talk with witnesses and then compare the findings with the Pentagon, and if necessary the case will be referred to an Iraqi judge.

(voice-over) But in practical terms, whatever the outcome of that investigation, it's likely to mean little to U.S. forces, because they're not subject to Iraqi law.

John Vause, CNN, Baghdad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: What happened in Haditha? We're told official findings from the Pentagon's probe are still weeks, maybe months away. And still, plenty of pointed questions flying. I have some, too. Hardy Vieux is a former Navy officer, a JAG officer, now in private practice. He knows a thing or two about the military investigative process.

Good to see you again, Hardy.

HARDY VIEUX, FORMER JAG ATTORNEY: Good afternoon.

PHILLIPS: Why don't we start with the Marine Corps, the commandant? We've heard from him now twice. This was his first live news conference there from the Pentagon, where he went into a little bit more detail. Do you think that the Marines will get to the bottom of this, even if it makes the Marine Corps look bad?

VIEUX: Yes, the Marine Corps has all the incentive to get to the bottom of this. The American people are watching. And as General Hagee alluded to, Marines in Iraq needs to know what happened. And the American public has that right to know. If something did go awry, then those Marines ought to be held accountable, and the system only works with that sort of accountability. So the Marines are going to do this to the best of their ability.

PHILLIPS: Now, look, you're a former JAG attorney. You know the legal process. You've seen a lot of different types of cases. Have you had to deal with a lot of cases that involved men or women really getting pushed to the max, maybe being in combat for a long period of time, second, third tours, as we're seeing in Iraq, and having to deal with post-traumatic stress, to the point where they're just not thinking clearly and they may do things that they were not trained to do?

VIEUX: Although I have not dealt with those sorts of case, they do occur. The combat stress there is extremely high, as you alluded to. These men and women are on second and third tours of duty. They're working 24 hours a day, day after day, without days off. So these situations, unfortunately, do occur.

Although there are standards and procedures in place to help avoid them, this is an aberration if something did happen. And it's the Marine Corps' responsibility to reemphasize the standard of conduct, the rules of engagement, and conduct a thorough investigation. And it seems like they have the incentive to do so and will do so.

PHILLIPS: Do you think the military was too slow to investigate and too slow to inform Congress from the beginning?

VIEUX: It sounds like the chain of command, the Marine Corps, didn't get a word of this until February of this year. So although it was slow, there was a huge time gap between the incident in November of '05 until February of 2006. And that's one of the points of the investigation. Why did it take so long for the Marine Corps chain of command to be fully informed about what took place on that November morning?

PHILLIPS: Hardy, let me ask you, when we talk about post- traumatic stress, and everybody's talking about the fact that oh, maybe they were just so worn out, so tired, so frustrated, that they might have done something wrong. Do you think it is more stress or more chaos?

I mean, things -- so many situations have appeared to be chaotic because of this insurgency, because of the surprises, the IEDs. I mean, this is, by all means, not a fair war. And this insurgency is something that these men and women have not dealt with in this type of manner in the past.

VIEUX: Well, it's a very unique situation for those men and women, and the success of the insurgency depends on preying on the fears of those service members and getting into their heads and affecting their state of mind so that these men and women in the military uniforms can't understand who is friend or foe, they must make split-second decisions, and they don't know what's coming at them next. They must be constantly look over their shoulder. And that's how the insurgency works. And it really does have an impact on those who are on the counterinsurgency side of the coin.

PHILLIPS: Do you think there was a cover-up?

VIEUX: I'm not sure what happened, but certainly there are a lot of questions to be answered, because it took so long for this information to get out. Hopefully, now, both investigations, that looking into the cover-up and that looking into the criminal aspect, will move swiftly but also thoroughly.

PHILLIPS: What could happen to these Marines?

VIEUX: They could certainly be charged with a number of things, as serious as premeditated murder and, on the other end of the scale, they could be it's facing charges of aiding in the assault or in the cover-up. So they could be facing serious charges at a general court- martial, which is the most severe type of court-martial proceeding in the United States military.

PHILLIPS: Hardy Vieux, you know we'll be following it on a regular basis, and we hope you'll come back and talk with us more.

VIEUX: Happy to do so, thank you.

PHILLIPS: Thanks, Hardy.

More LIVE FROM in just a moment. You're watching CNN, the most trusted name in news.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HAGEE: As commandant, I am gravely concerned about the serious allegations concerning actions of some Marines in Haditha and Hamdaniya. I can assure you that the Marine Corps takes them seriously. As commandant, I am the one accountable for organization, training and equipping of Marines. I am responsible, and I take these responsibilities quite seriously.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: On the mend and on her way home. CBS correspondent Kimberly Dozier, wounded in Baghdad, is being flown back to the U.S. along with 39 other patients from the U.S. military hospital in Germany. Our Chris Burns saw them off.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRIS BURNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kimberly Dozier was placed on a C-17 U.S. military transport plane headed back to the states. The CBS correspondent remains in critical, but stable, condition, after last week's car bombing that severely injured her in the head and legs, killed her cameraman and soundman, as well as an Iraqi translator and a U.S. soldier.

She's undergone surgery to remove shrapnel from her head. Doctors have also placed rods in her legs. She's shown some signs of improvement here at Landstuhl Medical Center. She's been taken off a ventilator. She's started to eat solid food. She's speaking with her family. She's undergone physiotherapy for her legs, and the facial swelling has gone down considerably.

She now goes on to Bethesda Naval Medical Center to decide on what the next steps should be in a recovery process that's expected to be a long one.

Chris Burns, CNN, Ramstein Air Base, Germany.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Left at the altar again, supporters of a constitutional amendment banning same sex marriage. Today only 49 senators voted to move the process forward, well short of the 67 that would have been needed eventually. And even that would have been just a start.

Nevertheless, it's still an election year, so the House plans a vote of its own.

Off the hook on domestic wiretaps and phone records? Well, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee has changed his mind about hauling top phone company executives into a public hearing. In return, Vice President Cheney has supposedly agreed to consider letting a secret federal court oversee those post-9/11 surveillance programs. Republicans call the deal a winner for all sides.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. ORRIN HATCH (R), UTAH: The administration is willing to work with us on this legislation. As long as it doesn't, you know, detract from the president's constitutional powers. And -- and I believe we can do this legislation without doing so.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Well, many Democrats object. In the words of Dick Durbin, "Based on what has been said, we will now leave it to the media to investigate this administration. We will depend on leaks and front page stories in 'USA Today' to discover programs which members of Congress have no knowledge of. We are somehow going to bring Vice President Cheney in as the constitutional arbiter when it comes to the individual rights of Americans."

Boomers, are you ready to retire? Maybe while you're sorting out your funds for the future, you should clue in your kids in Generation X. We'll explain why when LIVE FROM continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEANNE GAROFALO, ACTRESS: Evian is "naive" spelled backwards. Can you turn this up please? Please?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: When we think about Generation X retirement certainly isn't the first thing that comes to mind. But a new study shows that Gen-Xers should be doing something, at least thinking more about retirement. Susan Lisovicz live from the New York Stock Exchange to explain why.

I'm telling you, Susan, you could make some side money being a consultant.

SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, exactly, Kyra. You know, the term Generation X for many of us brings to mind slackers in Seattle, as personified by the clip you just saw from "Reality Bites," that movie from 1994 with Winona Ryder and Ben Stiller and Ethan Hawke and Janeane Garofalo. Well, guess what? Those slackers are in their 30s and early 40s and a major part of the workforce.

Unfortunately, those Gen-Xers are even less prepared for retirement than their Baby Boomer elders. According to a new study by researchers at Boston College, 49 percent of Generation Xers are likely to be at least 10 percent short of meeting their income needs in retirement. That's compared to 44 percent of late Baby Boomers, those born between 1955 and 1964. And 35 percent of early Boomers, born between 1946 and 1954.

One of the big problems, Kyra, for Gen-Xers is that they won't have, or at least they're not expected to have the same kind of Social Security benefits of previous generations and they will be relying almost entirely on 401(k) plans as opposed to those defined benefit plans commonly known as pensions -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right, so what do we do to make up the difference?

LISOVICZ: Ah, Kyra, studies show that if Gen-Xers increase their savings rate by just three percent the chance of missing their retirement income target decreases substantially. The decline, of course, will be less dramatic for older workers, because they have less time to make up the difference.

Working an extra year or two would also help.

Overall, 34 percent of workers are at risk of missing their retirement targets, assuming a retirement age of 65. If those workers put off retirement by just two years, it reduces the numbers of households at risk by 11 percentage points, Kyra.

I'm saving for retirement, but I know I'm going to be working past 65 anyway. PHILLIPS: I know. I have this conversation with my parents all the time, especially in our business, you know, let's lay it out here, we never know how long you're going to have this gig, so you've got to save everything and you've got to be frugal. You've got to invest. So I'm going to call you and have you look at all my numbers in about two hours, OK?

LISOVICZ: You got it.

PHILIPS: Speaking of numbers, what's happening on Wall Street?

(STOCK REPORT)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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