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Officials Confirm Name of Zarqawi Successor; Iraqis Start Security Crackdown in Baghdad; Bush Discusses Secret Iraq Trip; Massive Fraud Discovered in Hurricane Relief Payments

Aired June 14, 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 headquarters in Atlanta.
Iraqis battling insurgents. Thousands of Iraqi troops hit the streets in a new effort to keep order. We're LIVE FROM Baghdad.

FEMA fraud. Money marked for Katrina relief spent on luxury vacations, strip clubs, even a divorce lawyer. One billion dollars wasted.

And down the drain, literally. Our Rick Sanchez goes into the sewers to see how some illegal immigrants are sneaking into the U.S. It's a story you'll see only on CNN.

LIVE FROM starts right now.

So, is the new man an old enemy? Information just coming in to is CNN about the man who's supposedly replacing dead terror leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Barbara Starr has the latest information from the Pentagon

What just broke, Barbara?

BARBARA STARR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kyra, what we have learned is that the U.S. military right now does have a good deal of classified information about the man they believe is the successor to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

This is a man that they've already publicly identified as Abu Ayyub al-Masri, an Egyptian man, but until now we have seen no picture of him and very little information about him. What we have learned is that the military, as we speak, is trying to declassify possibly pictures and other descriptions of him. And there's a very practical reason, of course, for that. They want to get that information to the troops in the field in Iraq, so if they come across him, if they capture him, they would know they have the successor to Zarqawi. Because so far, almost no one knows anything about this man.

What we have also been told by senior military officials is they have every reason to believe that this Egyptian man, al-Masri, is, in fact, the same person, Abu Hamza, that is quoted on a radical Islamic web site as being named the successor to Zarqawi and as threatening more attacks and swearing his allegiance to Osama bin Laden. They now believe that these two men are one and the same, and all of this, they tell us, is because of recently captured intelligence and interrogation information they have gathered in Iraq in the last many days -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right, keep following it, Barbara. Thank you so much.

Meanwhile, we're talking about checkpoints, curfew, road blocks. It's day one of the biggest security crackdown in Baghdad in at least two years. Tens of thousands of Iraqi forces aim to take back their capital from insurgents and any other enemies of law and order.

John Vause has the latest now, live from Baghdad -- John.

JOHN VAUSE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Kyra.

This operation began just after dawn. It's called Operation Forward Together. Today it mostly involved checkpoints in and out of the Iraqi capital. Police and soldiers were searching vehicles. They seized weapons. They found three Katusha (ph) rockets, they say, and also managed to defuse two roadside bombs.

But there was still violence in the capital today. A roadside bomb, or rather a car bomb exploding in the northern part of Baghdad, killing at least two civilians. Police say the explosives there were detonated by remote control.

Also Iraqi police came under attack from a roadside bomb and Iraqi soldiers on patrol in a Sunni neighborhood were involved in a 30-minute-long gun battle with insurgents. In both those cases, no injuries were reported.

We've also heard from Iraqi police that another six bodies have been found in Baghdad. All of them appear to have been shot and tortured.

For now, though, this all-out offensive appears to be a case of slowly, slowly -- not what we were originally told yesterday by the interior ministry, when we were expecting raids on insurgent safe houses and the possibility of air strikes being called in. The prime minister says it is open-ended. And we've just heard from the defense and the interior ministry, who both say that this operation will be escalated in accordance with the terror threat to the Iraqi capital -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: John, back to the president's surprise visit. Iraqis on the street, ways your sense? I mean, obviously, these people want more than a photo op. They want answers. They want to see their lives change. Are they continuing to protest his visit?

VAUSE: That's right. Well there was a protest today, but that was a relatively small protest. This is a city of six million some people. About 2,000 people took to the streets.

These are the followers of the Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. He's long opposed the U.S. presence here in Iraq. They were trying to burn U.S. flags, chanting anti-U.S. slogans.

But the vast majority of Iraqis here took comfort in the words that were coming from the U.S. president in particular, when he said when America gives its word, America keeps its word.

And also that the United States will stand by this new Iraqi government as it tries to restore law and order here in the Iraqi capital and to the rest of the country, Kyra, because for them, the presence of U.S. troops really is a matter of life and death.

PHILLIPS: John Vause, live from Baghdad. Thanks, John.

Well, from the Green Zone to the Rose Garden, President Bush briefed reporters this morning at the White House on his whirlwind top secret visit to Iraq just yesterday. Let's get more from our White House correspondent, Elaine Quijano -- Elaine.

ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello to you, Kyra.

President Bush summed up his view on Iraq at the end of that Rose Garden news conference. He said, quote, "It's worth it. It is necessary, and we will succeed."

Well, today he filled in some of the details on why he believes that. He said that he is impressed by the new Iraqi leadership that is in place, that officials there are taking steps to address security concerns. The president, though, also acknowledged that he does not expect the violence in Iraq to disappear for good.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Yes, I -- if people say, well, there's got to be no violence in order for there -- this to be a successful experience, that's not going to happen. All that does is just give the power of, you know, a handful of murderers to determine success.

Obviously, we'd like violence to go down, and that's what the operation in Baghdad is intending to do, starting in the capital, is to reduce violence. And the reason why it's important for violence to be reduced, obviously, is to, one, save live, but two, give confidence to the Iraqi people that their government will be able to sustain itself and govern itself and meet the needs of the people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

QUIJANO: Now, the president made those comments fresh off that face-to-face meeting with Iraq's new prime minister, Nuri al-Maliki. The president said that he is impressed with Mr. Maliki and his cabinet.

The president, though, also making clear that he plans to keep U.S. forces in place for as long as is necessary and that the U.S. is willing to stand by Iraq's new government.

At the same time, though, very clearly, this administration is sending the signal that it would like the Iraqi leadership to now step up, that the future of that country is in their hands. And the message, as well, to the American people, the president had, once again appealing to the American people for patience -- Kyra. PHILLIPS: Elaine, you're talking about how the president says he's got confidence or was impressed with the Iraqi ministers, the new prime minister. Yet this whole trip was a secret. It's sort of a double standard, isn't it?

QUIJANO: Well, it's interesting, because the president apparently came in without the prime minister knowing until about five minutes or so before his arrival. And today in that news conference, I asked the president, I said, "What kind of signal does that send to the Iraqi people themselves when you come in to a sovereign nation and don't notify the leader of that nation until five minutes before hand?"

And he essentially didn't answer that part of the question. He said, "Look, I'm a high-value target. Iraq is a dangerous place. There are certainly precautions that are taken wherever I go." But in terms of the trust issue, he brushed aside any kind of inference that maybe there was a trust issue. But certainly what this does, Kyra, it underscores just how precarious, how tenuous, the security situation is in Iraq -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Elaine Quijano, thanks so much.

Targeting the Taliban again. More than 11,000 troops are going after them this time, coalition and Afghan forces, in the largest offensive in Afghanistan in almost five years. Once again, the fight focuses on the mountains near the Pakistan border. And that's where Taliban fighters and Osama bin Laden are believed to be hiding. So far, 26 suspected militants are reported killed.

It was a lifeline for victims of Hurricane Katrina: a FEMA debit card that was supposed to pay for necessities. Guess where some of that money went? A lot of that money, actually. Whatever you imagine, you're probably right.

CNN homeland security correspondent Jeanne Meserve joins me now from Washington. The list was pretty shocking, Jeanne.

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It was, Kyra. FEMA under heavy fire today on Capitol Hill for fraud and abuse in its disastrous systems program after Katrina and Rita. One billion dollars worth, according to the Government Accountability Office.

With displays, GAO laid out some examples, including how one of its own investigators got a $2,358 assistance check from FEMA for what the investigator claimed was damaged property.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GREG KUTZ, MANAGING DIRECTOR, FORENSIC AUDITS, GAO: The next poster board shows the bogus damaged property address that we used to receive this check. It also shows a letter from FEMA, saying that their inspection showed damage to our home and personal property. However, the picture clearly shows this is a vacant lot.

(END VIDEO CLIP) MESERVE: Some of the other things the GAO found, assistance to prison inmates, double payments for rent and hotel rooms. Also that FEMA debit cards had been used to pay for things like an all-inclusive one-week vacation to the Dominican Republic, a divorce lawyer, erotic adult products, strippers and New Orleans Saints season tickets.

The GAO says FEMA simply did not have controls in place to verify the identities, addresses and claims of people who professed to be victims of the storms. Congressman Michael Bacall (ph) called it an obscene squandering of the taxpayers' money. He and others are asking FEMA officials if they've taken steps to make sure it doesn't happen again.

PHILLIPS: Well, Jeanne, what can they do? What is FEMA saying? Are they going to try and get some of this money back? Are they going to work with the Department of Justice?

MESERVE: FEMA is acknowledging that there was fraud and abuse after Katrina. An official from the agency told the committee that its systems were simply overwhelmed and it had to balance whether to help people in what was a very dire emergency against anti-fraud safeguards.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONNA DANNELS, ACTING DEPUTY DIRECTOR, FEMA: We just made the calculated decision that we were going to help as many people as we could and that we would have to go back and identify those people who we either paid in error or that were -- defrauded us and deal with that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MESERVE: FEMA says it is trying to recover that money and it is revamping its systems to prevent these kinds of abuses in the future, but the GAO pointed out that we are already in storm system -- storm season, rather, and those new systems at this point have probably not been adequately tested -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right, Jeanne Meserve, thank you so much.

And in Tennessee, a not guilty plea from a preacher's widow. Mary Winkler is accused of murdering her husband, Matthew, three months ago at the church parsonage in the town of Selmer. Winkler says that little in her brief arraignment -- or Winkler said very little, rather, in the arraignment this morning. Her lawyers asked that she be released on bond, a motion that will be heard June 30. Her trial has been set for the end of October.

No one's introduced a motive yet, though. One of her attorneys does tell CNN that post-partum depression may be involved.

Well, next hour right here on LIVE FROM, we're going to take a closer look at what Mary Winkler may have been going through, stresses unique to spouses of ministers.

And mystery in Massachusetts. Home Depot customers find some unexpected parts in bathroom vanity kits.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHIEF MARK KRYNICKI, SOUTHWICK, MASSACHUSETTS, POLICE: He opened it up and found what we determined were three kilos of cocaine and approximately 40 pounds of marijuana in the box.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Now the feds are on the case. That story straight ahead on LIVE FROM, the most trusted name in news.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Vanity may lead federal drug agents to some otherwise clever smugglers in Texas and Massachusetts. Make that vanities, plural. The bathroom kind. Reporter Dan Elias of CNN affiliate WWLP in Springfield, Massachusetts, has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAN ELIAS, WWLP REPORTER (voice-over): It was in a box containing a bathroom vanity, and a Southwick plumber made the discovery.

KRYNICKI: He opened it up and found what we determined were three kilos of cocaine and approximately 40 pounds of marijuana in the box.

ELIAS: The vanity was purchased here at the Home Depot store in Chicopee.

(on camera) The Southwick police reported the find to the federal Drug Enforcement Administration and then learned it's not the only such incident in Massachusetts the DEA is looking into.

(voice-over) In Tewksbury, a Villarica (ph) couple received a vanity purchased at a Home Depot store. Inside this 50-pound container filled with marijuana. As in the Southwick case, the heavy marble top of the vanity was missing from the box.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Maybe the marijuana is in place of the marble top for weight so it doesn't look like it's, you know, too light or too heavy.

ELIAS: But how a vanity full of drugs got into the store is part of the investigation. Twenty-six News spoke with Home Depot headquarters in Atlanta, and we were told that this Home Depot distribution center in Westfield serves both the Chicopee and Tewksbury stores, though it's not clear whether the investigation now includes this facility.

Some who work in other Southwick building supply stores were surprised by the story.

BOB EAK, MANAGER, BUILDING SUPPLY STORE: Very strange. I'd be curious to find out exactly what's going on or where it came from.

ELIAS: In any case, it's a large drug seizure for the town of Southwick.

KRYNICKI: Substantial drug seizure. There have been larger ones, but this is a good-sized one.

ELIAS: And an unusual one, too, though at the moment, not a unique case in Massachusetts.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Police estimate the street value of those drugs at 100,000 bucks. As for Home Depot, the company says it, quote, "will support law enforcement in any way possible to help bring those responsible to justice."

For eight years, he was the prominent, charismatic and aggressive mayor of Atlanta. Now Bill Campbell faces 2 1/2 years in prison. A federal judge sentenced Campbell yesterday on three counts of tax evasion and one count of defrauding his own re-election campaign. He was charged with, but cleared of, racketeering, taking thousands of dollars in bribes and kickbacks. Campbell says he will appeal the conviction and the sentence.

In medical news, there may be new hope in the fight against Alzheimer's Disease. Researchers say an experimental vaccine has shown promise in tests on mice. The vaccine cut the brain deposits blamed for the memory robbing disorder by as much as 40 percent. Tests on humans could begin within three years.

A steep descent into a war zone. Take off under cover of darkness. What was it like on Air Force One for the president's secret trip to Iraq? Our John King knows and gives us a behind the scenes view when LIVE FROM returns.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: By the time baby Jasmine was a year old, her arms and legs, her hip, hand and elbow had all been broken. She was badly malnourished, and no one would take the blame. Well, her birth mother faces eight years in prison. But Jasmine faces a better life, thanks to one of the officers who investigated her case. Reporter Josh Earl (ph) of CNN affiliate KKTV explains.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOSH EARL (PH), KKTV REPORTER (voice-over): Jasmine Tousky is now 2 1/2 years old and shows no visible signs of a traumatic past.

JAMES TOUSKY, ADOPTIVE FATHER: She's doing great. She's recovered from all her injuries.

EARL (ph): As a baby, Jasmine suffered broken bones in both arms, legs, and wrists. Also a hip, a hand and an elbow. Her birth mother, Loretta Ramos, was sentenced to eight years in prison on Friday. Now Jasmine is doing great.

JASMINE TOUSKY, RESCUED FROM ABUSE: Push the button, daddy.

JACKIE TOUSKY, ADOPTIVE MOTHER: The doctor said she was too young. She was only a year old, that she won't remember anything.

JASMINE TOUSKY: That's OK, mom. That's OK.

EARL (ph): Jackie Tousky is an officer with the Pueblo Police Department. She was one of the responding officers when Jasmine was injured. She also testified in the trial. At the same time, she and her husband, James, were trying to adopt a child of their own.

JAMES TOUSKY: They gave us a call and said they had a child that needed placement. It so happened to be Jasmine.

JACKIE TOUSKY: We wanted a child, and to us it didn't matter what the problem was. We wanted to give her a good home.

EARL (ph): the circumstances behind Jasmine's second chance are bizarre but the results are not.

JAMES TOUSKY: I think it's kind of weird how it worked out, you know. But I wouldn't change anything about it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Well, Jasmine's birth mother had another baby in January 2005 but gave her up for adoption.

It's been a rough month so far for stocks. But we could be seeing some signs of improvement. Susan Lisovicz live from the New York Stock Exchange with all the details.

Hey, Susan.

(STOCK REPORT)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Let's go straight to Carol Lin. She's watching a developing story at the Pentagon -- Carol.

CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: That's right, Kyra. One of your top stories is who -- if we know who, exactly, is the new al-Zarqawi. Well, according to Brigadier General Carter Ham, this is what he said at the latest Pentagon briefing moments ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STARR: Of course, General Caldwell has already identified this Egyptian man, Abu Ayyub al-Masri in his press conference in Baghdad as the person you believe is Zarqawi's designated successor. I'm wondering if you can tell us any more about this Egyptian, how he came to this -- how it is that the military is so convinced, in fact, he is already in place as Zarqawi's successor, and a couple of details about him, his rise to such a prominent role, how he got to this place. And do U.S. troops at this point even have the information in hand about him so if they came across him and captured him, they would know who they have?

BRIG. GEN. CARTER HAM, U.S. ARMY: Well, he said that he has assumed the leadership. We have -- we have enough information to do what you talked about.

STARR: Do you have a photograph of him? Do you know what he looks like, General?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LIN: All right. That's about as much as he had to say. But according to our own CNN reporting, Kyra, we don't have any -- there are no known pictures of al-Masri. But officials are saying that he is Egyptian born, that he developed a relationship with al-Zarqawi at the Al-Faru (ph) training camp in Afghanistan sometime in 2001, 2002. And it's believed that he came to Baghdad in about 2003. But before al-Zarqawi most likely established the first al Qaeda cell.

And, Kyra, in terms of the violence in Baghdad, it is so terrible that the Iraqi prime minister is calling for a huge build-up of forces there. He wants some 70,000 troops on the ground. That's not going to happen. But he wants most to be Iraqi forces. And so far, since this 24-hour crackdown started -- I just checked with the international desk, and they're saying as far as Baghdad standards, which is not saying much, it has been a relatively quiet day.

PHILLIPS: I know we're staying on top of all the news as well and seeing how that's panning out.

Carol, thanks so much.

Well, Carol mentioned the insurgent violence, sectarian strife, and Baghdad has seen all of it. Now Iraqi soldiers and police are trying to take back the streets. As Carol just mentioned, the new government has launched a new security sweep involving tens of thousands of Iraqi forces, backed by a much smaller force of Americans. Even so, a remote-controlled car bomb killed two people in a Baghdad neighborhood today and wounded ten others.

President Bush is back in the West Wing after his surprise trip to the war zone, and he's brought back a message for rest of the world, don't be stringy. At a White House news conference, the president said that he's sending out a team to pressure other friends of Iraq to make good on their pledges for reconstruction.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRES. OF THE UNITED STATES: Earlier, the international community pledged about $13 billion to help this new government, and they've only paid about $3 billion. And so we're going to help encourage those who have made a pledge to pay up.

(END VIDEO CLIP) PHILLIPS: Well, the president says coalition forces are stepping up their fight against insurgents, but he says we can't expect all the violence to end.

Well, details were strictly on a need-to-know basis. And very few people were considered to have the need. Even most members of President Bush's cabinet didn't know he was headed to Iraq. But our chief national correspondent John King got advance notice. He was onboard Air Force One when it landed in Baghdad and took off again five hours later. He joins me now from Washington.

So, John, this is the question I have for you, how long did you know -- and I cannot believe you were able to keep this from all of us.

JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF. NATL. CORRESPONDENT: Very hard to keep secrets from you, Kyra. I know, we have a very open relationship.

I knew Sunday afternoon. I was contacted at about 4:15 by the White House, by Dan Bartlett, from a top aid to the president. I met with him personally at 5:00. He told me the plan, told me that if I was to go, I had to swear secrecy. And I knew then plan then. If I were to say, I couldn't go or I wouldn't go, I would have had to keep my mouth shut as well. So I was told at 5:00 Sunday. We were told we would meet Monday night at an undisclosed location, you might say, in Northern Virginia at 7:00. We went wheels up from Andrew Air Force Base a little after 9:00, about 9:06 p.m. Washington time. And as you mentioned, just about five hours on the ground in Baghdad.

So told Sunday afternoon I had to keep that secret until really Tuesday morning in Baghdad when we were told we were allow to call back home.

PHILLIPS: Now were you able to get a sense for how the president was feeling about the new Iraqi prime minister, why he wanted to make this trip, why he wanted it last minute?

KING: Well, the president actually -- the planning for this has been in the works almost a month. That's what makes it so extraordinary in some ways that they pulled it off. Once the new unity government was formed, the president said this is the prime minister with whom I'm going to have to do some serious business. How long will the troops stay in Iraq? How will we now try to get started on what has been pretty much a failure so far in terms of reconstruction? So the president wanted to do that face to face, he wanted to meet the new prime minister, but he also wanted to meet the key members of his cabinet.

And, remember, it was only just last week, a little more than that, that the key positions of the interior minister and the defense minister were finally selected in that government. So for about a month, the White House has been saying as soon as that cabinet is full, the president wants to pull this trip off. And the president himself on the way back spent about 35 minutes with us talking. He was very upbeat. He said he wanted to have that eyeball-to-eyeball, face-to-face meeting. And he found the new prime minister to be a man -- called him a quiet fellow, but he said a confident fellow. Says he has a plan, and you were just talking about, to start moving on security in Baghdad, start moving on security in Basra, start to give people basic services like better electricity to build their confidence in the government.

Essentially, Kyra, the president of the United States, as you know well, is in a tough political environment back here in the United States, And the commander in chief, if you will, the president of the world's greatest superpower, a great deal of his political fortune now rests in the hands of this man he just met.

PHILLIPS: Well, and a big part of the success in Iraq and success for troops obviously is security, John. Just give me a sense for what it was like. I know that the military's constantly saying, look, it's not just people dying every day, we're doing great things out here, but you saw firsthand how dangerous this is, because you were dealing with the most major parts of security versus anybody else, just trying to get in there. Kind of describe -- give us a visual.

KING: You're traveling with the president of the United States, who I think earlier himself today used the term "high-value target." He is a high-value target to any terrorist organization, or any nut out there, frankly, for that matter who would like to get the president of the United States. But we were told when we showed up, give your cell phones and your BlackBerries. We were told going in there would be no communication. On the flight, more agents than normal. We were given flak jackets as we were going in. We were told when Air Force One lands, that it quite a quick landing for a 747, came down out of the sky pretty quickly, that we would be rushed off to helicopters, we would get on those helicopters. Helmets and other gear on the helicopter. Six-minute flight, you're shaking a little bit. You're flying very low other the rooftop, machine guns out the front and both sides looking down below, six-minute fly to the Green Zone, then a quick motorcade, and you're into the building that is now the -- used to be a palace in the Saddam Hussein government, now the temporary U.S. embassy.

PHILLIPS: Now we have some of the photos that you were actually to take in that quick period of time. This one right here, the warning, stay back 100 meters, tell me, did all the cars have this warning? Did they have to stay a certain amount apart?

KING: No. I took this actually as a joke. And as you can see, I need to keep my day job; I'm not much of a photographer here. But we're moving around. I'm in the vehicle behind this vehicle. We're bouncing around. The roads are very bumpy. And I was just struck by the irony of it. Several of the vehicles had this on the back, "warning: stay back 100 meters." We were about that far away from that car. We were maybe two or three meters away from that car.

PHILLIPS: So what's the point of the warning?

KING: The warning is for normal circumstances. When that car is on out the road, it's an embassy vehicle, a government vehicle. If it is outside driving on the normal streets of Baghdad, that's essentially a warning. It's just to left -- you can't see it in the photograph -- the same words in Arabic. It's a warning essentially if you're driving behind a dump truck on the highway, it says stay back because it might dump stuff on you. It's a government vehicle, if you will, and for security purposes, they want people to stay back.

PHILLIPS: So it's an episode of "24." If they see some unusual car coming up on them on a normal day in Baghdad. I mean, that alerts whoever's inside, hey, this could be trouble?

KING: Pretty much that's the case.

PHILLIPS: All right. And this is inside the helicopter, right?

KING: This is in the helicopter. This is about halfway on our six-minute trip from Baghdad International Airport to the Green Zone, which is the fortified headquarters. And this is the very nice gentleman in the back who is making sure nobody shoots up at us, a machine gunner in the back, and young kid. And he was going back and forth. Any time anything moved on the ground, you would see him swing over and look down and aim, and swing over and look down and aim. Again, the gunner in the back, two gunners up on the side windows, to the front of the helicopter. We had no incidents on all.

On the way out, there was some radio report of some random gunfire. We didn't see it. We didn't hear it. No incidents at all going in. But again, they're protecting the president of the United States in the daylight, a 747 with a big flag on the back tail and the words "United States of America" on the side had just landed at that airport. So if there was anyone around who didn't think much of the United States of America, they'd have a pretty good idea at that point that the president was on the ground in Baghdad.

PHILLIPS: All right, you wore body armor, so did the other journalists, but I was reading that the president's aides did not. Is that true? And does the president wear body armor?

KING: That's now true. When we got on the helicopter, the president's aides -- it was 115 degrees, or 112 degrees. And it's hotter inside those helicopters. They had to wear suits and ties, because they were going to an official meeting with the prime minister and the Iraqi cabinet, and they put the flack jackets over their suits, on the vests. We were told -- we didn't see the president. One of the most interesting things is we did not get to photograph the president getting on Air Force One, off Air Force One, on or off any of those helicopters, because they moved him so quickly they didn't want us to get any pictures of that. We were told that he had body armor on. He doesn't like it. I can tell you that from personal conversations with him in the past. But we were told he had body armor one.

Once we got off the helicopter in the Green Zone, then we were allowed to take our body armor off and walk without it right when you're just around the embassy compound.

PHILLIPS: Quite a summer trip, John. While everybody else is talking about Hawaii or some other place, well, you go with the president to Baghdad.

KING: It's a dry heat.

PHILLIPS: All right, thanks, John King.

PHILLIPS: Well, President Bush is getting some support in Iraq from an unlikely source. Former Vice President Al Gore has been a vocal critic of the president's decision to go to war. But in an interview on CNN's "LARRY KING LIVE," Gore praised Mr. Bush's trip to Iraq yesterday and said he has no problem with the secrecy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AL GORE, FMR. VICE PRES. OF THE UNTIED STATES: I think for security reasons, it's wise for him to have done it in the way he did. And I think it's valuable for him to have a chance to meet personally with this new head of the government there. Of course, the whole situation is so tragic. And how we got there is not the point now. We are there. And there are no real good options. But whatever options there are will be enhanced by a good working relationship between President Bush and this new leader. And So I think it's a good thing.

PHILLIPS: And you don't want to miss "LARRY KING LIVE" tonight. Actress Daryl Hannah talks about her arrest yesterday. It's coming up at 9:00 Eastern, only on CNN.

Illegal immigrants desperate for a better life. You'd have to be to consider this kind of trip across and under the Mexican border.

Our Rick Sanchez checks out one perilous path to the U.S. when LIVE FROM returns.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Hot, dry, dusty, arduous conditions awaiting National Guard troops taking part in Operation Jumpstart. But they're not being deployed to Iraq. They're headed to Arizona/Mexico border. About 150 members of the Arizona Guard should arrive tomorrow. President Bush's plan eventually calls for 6,000 troops in place along that border at any one time. They won't be catching migrants, though, but will do jobs to free up Border Patrol agents.

Now, they're dark, dank and sometimes deadly, unfit for man or beast. But for illegal immigrants desperate to make better lives in the U.S., sewer pipes are a popular option.

CNN's Rick Sanchez goes under the border to see what the trip is like.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RICK SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): You wouldn't think that underneath this 90-pound manhole cover, hundreds, maybe thousands, of people are sneaking into the U.S. through sewer pipes so filthy, so dangerous, city workers won't go inside them without first dropping a hazardous chemical detector to check for methane and other deadly gases.

Yet dangerous as they may be, these subterranean tunnels offer huge rewards for smugglers who know them well enough to escort as many as 30 immigrants per trip, charging up to $1,500 per person for their expertise in avoiding Border Patrol agents like Kurstan Rosberg.

KURSTAN ROSBERG, BORDER PATROL: This is ultimately where the smugglers come out. They enter through a manhole to the north inside the U.S., crawl through the pipes and ultimately come out here.

SANCHEZ: Here in these rancid waters, which lead to a grated opening. This is where smugglers use blowtorches to bust through.

ROSBERG: They've got time to work in concealment here, cut the grate, and the people just run over and hop in.

SANCHEZ: The fence they jump is only 20 feet away. That's how close the Mexican border is. And you see these tall reeds? Agents say immigrants use these as hiding places before heading into the sewer pipes. But then what? What's it like to actually go inside the sewer?

For those answers, we contacted the San Diego Streets Department Supervisor Aaron Snelling. At 6'5", he barely squeezes through an open manhole to show us the way. I follow behind. Fifteen to 20 feet underground, I find concrete pipes four feet across, too small to get through without crawling or slouching.

(on camera): And there is no visibility down here.

AARON SNELLING, SAN DIEGO STREETS DEPARTMENT: No visibility at all.

SANCHEZ (voice-over): The smuggler leading the way may use a cigarette lighter, but for the rest of the immigrants, including women and children, it looks like this.

(on camera): We're in total darkness just to show you what it's really like for these immigrants as they try and get in here. Go ahead now and turn on the light, Orly (ph). This is how they have to go through these pipes, literally feeling their way because they're not able to see anything. You can see the smudge and the dirt and the mud that you have to walk through to get through this thing.

What makes it worse oftentimes they come into these pipes thinking they're only going to be in here a few minutes. But it turns out, one of these manhole covers will be shut and they'll have to go to the next one, or worse, a smuggler will simply lie to them. We could be walking down this tunnel for a couple of blocks.

SNELLING: Yeah. A good seven to eight blocks, over 1,000 feet.

SANCHEZ: That's a long way.

SNELLING: Yes, it is.

SANCHEZ: To walk in the dark in a tunnel.

SNELLING: By just touch and feel, yes.

SANCHEZ: That's got to be real creepy.

SNELLING: Real creepy.

SANCHEZ (voice-over): Look at the size of the cockroaches. They attract rats, and they attract snakes. But Snelling says the biggest danger is simply running out of air. That's why he and his workers only come down here with one of these.

SNELLING: This detects flammables, carbon monoxide or anything that's going to deplete the oxygen.

SANCHEZ: Undocumented immigrants who have been caught in these tunnels say they're taught to travel like a human chain.

(on camera): So what, do they just feel their way around?

SNELLING: Normally they're just holding on to the person ahead of them and just touching the walls and feeling their way out until they get to a point where somebody's tapping on the street.

SANCHEZ (voice-over): But too often, the way out is no way out. This is their escape hatch. Imagine if a car or truck passes over as someone tries to get out. That's why in some areas, Border Patrol agents now seal the manholes, or place sensors around them.

ROSBERG: The sensor will pick up the vibration and send a signal to dispatch. Dispatch will, in turn, call our agents in the area and they'll respond.

SANCHEZ: If they get there in time. For now, with a 23-mile network of sewage and drainage pipes snaking under the U.S. border, and 500 manholes, the serious border crisis has turned into a deadly subterranean game of catch me if you can.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: All right, a couple questions for you. Do you know of anyone that's died? Have they had any reports of immigrants that have died?

SANCHEZ: They think that there have been serious injuries. They haven't been able to get the location on time. Oftentimes, by the time authorities, the Border Patrol arrives, they're coming out of the hole and they see them at the last minute. They think it's inevitable, though, that somebody could lose their life down there.

PHILLIPS: Is the National Guard going to be working the sewer patrol?

SANCHEZ: Interestingly enough...

PHILLIPS: I mean, you know... SANCHEZ: Yes, it's a tough job, and you certainly don't want to have something called that way, although necessary. Because the National Guard is not going to actually do any direct enforcement, they say that they're having meetings already. And when they get to California -- remember, right now they're only in Arizona -- when they're finally deployed in the area around San Diego, they're probably going to be using them for this purpose and others like it, to monitor the manholes, to see if people are coming out.

PHILLIPS: All right, you think sewer -- I'm just going to ask you, you think pretty gross. I mean, what did it smell like, what did it look like? We got a little glimpse there, but is it...

SANCHEZ: It's horrible. It's damp, it's dark, it's smelly, it's dirty. But the thing that really gets you if you have any sense of claustrophobia at all, which I do -- and I think most of us do...

PHILLIPS: Yes, so do I.

SANCHEZ: And once those lights go out -- because when we first went down to -- the first thing I wanted to see was, well, it's really bad, but what would it be like if somebody was going through here with about 20 to 30 other people and it was totally pitch black down there? So I asked the photographer to turn out the lights. And as you saw in the report that I did, you really get a sense of how desperate it must be to be going through there, not knowing where you're going. Because remember, they tell them they might be in there for a couple of minutes when, in fact...

PHILLIPS: It could be days?

SANCHEZ: Could be hours.

PHILLIPS: Hours, OK. How many miles?

SANCHEZ: And that, in and of itself, is tough. Usually about a mile...

PHILLIPS: Oh, OK. All right.

SANCHEZ: Or a little under a mile if they go through -- but remember, you're crawling through there. And you're on your hands and knees.

PHILLIPS: Do they know what they're up against when they're in there?

SANCHEZ: They don't, because, obviously, to get their money up front, the smugglers aren't going to make it as bad as it really is. The smugglers are comfortable down there, because they pretty much know the network. So they've been in from one end to the other. But the people who are going in, they really have no idea. And the smuggler will tell them, you're only going to be down there a couple of minutes and don't worry, it's big enough, you'll be able to get through. Then they go down there, Kyra, and they find out it's not big enough, it's dark, it's tough, and they may be down there for longer than they expect. Because when they get to one manhole cover, they find out it's been sealed by the Border Patrol and they got to keep going until they find the next one.

PHILLIPS: Why now? Is this like the new way to do it because the Border Patrol is catching on to other ways or -- has this been out there a while?

SANCHEZ: Here's what's going on. And this is a concerted effort by immigration officials and folks with Customs and the martial's office and Border Patrol. The U.S. is making an effort right now to see if they can stop all the high-traffic areas. That means, of course, areas like Tijuana and Nogales and around San Diego. So what it's doing is it's forcing the immigration patterns into the deserts, into the mountains, areas where there aren't fences. And no we found out as well -- underground as well, using these sewer pipes, something that hadn't been seen before.

PHILLIPS: Rick Sanchez, we can always count on you for that, that's for sure.

SANCHEZ: Thanks a lot, I appreciate it.

Well, FEMA fraud, money marked for Katrina relief spent on luxury vacations, strip clubs, even a divorce lawyer, $1 billion wasted. I'm going to speak with one top Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee. Stay with CNN, the most trusted name in news.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Alberto is fizzling. The first named storm of the season, now just a tropical depression. Alberto splashed ashore on Florida's Gulf Coast about this time yesterday with a lot of rain, some strong winds, and more than a few tornadoes.

A number of trees and powerlines were downed in Georgia and South Carolina, but no serious injuries or widespread damage have been reported. Emergency crews are calling it a good tune-up for the long hurricane season.

For the most part, farmers in the Southeast with glad Alberto blew through. Our Jacqui Jeras still tracking this rainmaker. Hey, Jacqui.

(WEATHER REPORT)

PHILLIPS: Jacqui, thanks so much.

Well, a heart attack slows down a Las Vegas comeback by Jerry Lewis. The slick-haired comedian is said to be recovering in a San Diego hospital from what a spokesperson calls a minor heart attack and a touch of pneumonia.

He's canceled a week of performances next month at the Orleans Casino, which would have been his first stage show in six years. He still plans to host his muscular dystrophy telethon on Labor Day weekend. As you know, Lewis is now 80 years old.

Fire danger in the west. It's a critical day in several states. We're on that story. The second hour of LIVE FROM is straight ahead.

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