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Bodies of Soldiers Found; Iraq Debate Raging on Senate; Lost Boy of Sudan Discusses His Success Story

Aired June 20, 2006 - 14:00   ET

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

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well what started as a rescue mission driven by hope has ended in a recovery operation burdened by grief. Two American soldiers missing in Iraq since Friday are dead. Their bodies found mutilated and rigged with explosives. Our Barbara Starr is at the Pentagon.
Pretty heart-wrenching details, Barbara.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kyra, the news just really gets more difficult as we learn more details about this incident. U.S. forces found the bodies of these two young American soldiers, Private First Class Kristian Menchaca and Private First Class Thomas Tucker late yesterday after receiving a tip from an Iraqi civilian in the Yusufiyah area south of Baghdad where the original firefight took place last Friday night.

And by all accounts, these two young soldiers taken, missing but taken away, it is believed, by Iraqi insurgents. They went to the site where they located the bodies, Kyra, and sources confirming to CNN the bodies they found had been severely desecrated, had suffered severe trauma.

The families were told these details and that they were so desecrated, Kyra, that visual ID could not be made on the bodies with any precision. And so DNA testing will be done. The bodies were found rigged with explosives, with IEDs, and also the road leading to the area, the path into where they found the bodies, that was also rigged with explosives, with IEDs.

The insurgents, apparently, determined to wreak harm on anybody that was coming into the area to recover the bodies. Major General Bill Caldwell spoke about this earlier today from Baghdad.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAJ. GEN. BILL CALDWELL, U.S. ARMY: We spotted what we believed to be them late last night as it was dark. And not knowing for sure, we went ahead and established a cordon around the area to protect it so it would be undisturbed to daylight this morning, and then brought the necessary assets and like explosives (ph) and some others because there were some IEDs in that location, and they did have to dismantle some stuff to get it them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STARR: Kyra, the families are being informed -- excuse me -- with all of the details about the condition of the bodies when they were found. If they are asking their military grief counselor any specific questions, we are told, then, those questions will be answered.

But there's a lot of concern about protecting the family's privacy in this very difficult situation. And we are also told that the remains of both young soldiers will be flown to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware for further forensics, so they can give the families as much precise information as possible -- Kyra?

PHILLIPS: All right. Barbara Starr from the Pentagon. Thanks a lot.

Well, major debate on the Iraq war is raging on Capitol Hill right now, this time in the Senate. CNN's Dana Bash joins me with that -- Dana?

DANA BASH, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Kyra. Well, last week, you remember in the House, Republicans were driving the debate. This week in the Senate, it's actually the Democrats who are pushing the debate, and that's because they have essentially broadly made a calculation that they believe that the public frustration over the war has grown quite a bit and that this is an important time, four and a half months before an election year, to come up with some kind of alternative.

But the big question, Kyra, when you're talking about the Democrats is, what kind of alternative are they coming up with? They're actually meeting behind closed doors in their weekly lunch as we speak. On the one hand, you have senators like John Kerry, like Russ Feingold, like Barbara Boxer.

They're going to offer an amendment that says that they believe that U.S. troops should be entirely pulled out of Iraq by this time next year, July 1st 2007. And today, the number two Democrat in the Senate seemed to endorse that approach.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. DICK DURBIN (D), ILLINOIS: This week, the Senate will have a chance. A chance to say to the Iraqi people that as of the middle of next year, this becomes your responsibility. We will give you 12 months and more American lives and more American dollars and then, Iraq, you have to stand up and defend yourself.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Now, a lot of Democrats in the Senate, though, they believe that that idea of setting a date certain for troops to come out is not only bad policy, but also bad politics in an election year. And that's why many of them have crafted an alternative, an amendment that they are also going to put forward this week, perhaps as early as today, to say that there should be a broad phased redeployment, they call it, beginning this year.

With no exit date in particular, unlike the approach endorsed by Senator Kerry. But Republicans, they are already saying that anything that gives what they call an arbitrary date for withdrawal is dangerous. And the Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist on the Senate floor today went so far as calling it surrendering, which he said is not a solution.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BILL FRIST (R-TN), SENATE MAJORITY LEADER: We cannot retreat, we cannot surrender, we cannot go wobbly. The price is far too high. The strength we show now is the security we earn for the future. As the president has explained, America's troops will stand down as the Iraqi troops stand up. They're gaining strength every day. By keeping a steady eye on the ultimate goal, by having flexibility and patience, I'm confident they'll succeed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Now the politics of this -- is really all about the politics of this, Kyra. And Republicans, at this point, believe that the Democrats in the Senate are essentially playing into their hands, that they are playing into what has been the Republican campaign strategy for the past two elections, which is to call Democrats weak on national security.

But on the other hand, Kyra, Democrats simply believe that they know Republicans are going to run against them on that particular issue, and they say that the public especially wants some kind of solution that is not what the president is offering, which they say is no end in sight. And they want the status quo to be changed. And that's why the Democrats say it's time to step up and, what they say, show some accountability -- Kyra?

PHILLIPS: Dana Bash, live on the Hill. Thanks, Dana.

Another top terrorist is dead. This one described as a very senior member of Al Qaeda with excellent credentials. He was known as Sheikh Mansur. He was killed on Friday when coalition forces blasted his vehicle. The U.S. said that Mansur to the also dead Abu Musab al- Zarqawi and to the man who they think replaced Zarqawi as leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq.

They lost their homes to war or some other disaster, and all too often, their more fortunate neighbors don't know that they exist. Well, today was World Refugee Day, and all day long, CNN is shining a light on the millions of people who suffer and those who are trying to help.

The U.N. (ph) considers five nationalities of particular concern. Afghans, almost 3 million, Columbians, 2 1/2 million, Iraqis almost 2 million, Sudanese 1.6 million, and Somalis 839,000. Almost half of the world's refugees are children.

Bombings, shootings, kidnappings, fear of hatred and despair. Think of Iraq, and those are the woes that you might think of. You may not realize Iraq also has a refugee crisis, one of the worst in the world in the U.N.'s view. CNN's Arwa Damon reports. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ARWA DAMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: At 85 years old, Shi'a Mohsin Madhlom never thought that he would leave his home in the Sunni area of Abu Ghraib. He lived through tough times, he says, but nothing like this. He fled with his five children and 13 grandchildren, fearing that they would be the next victims of sectarian violence.

"We received a death threat, a letter that said we all had to leave that night," he says. I saw all my neighbors leaving in front of my eyes." They moved in with family members living in a Shia neighborhood in Baghdad. Refugees in their own country after the February bombing of a Shia shrine led to a spike in sectarian violence.

According to the Iraqi government, there are more than 100,000 just like Mohsin. Nearly double the number of just two months ago, as much of the country splits into Sunni and Shia strongholds.

DR. SAID HAKKI, IRAQI PHYSICIAN: The numbers start becoming some way alarming sometimes at the 22nd of March, when we made our first assessment. And then we're doing it every like three or four days. We're beginning to see a serious trend.

DAMON: Some Iraqis don't even have families that can shelter them and end up in tent villages. The lucky ones manage to escape abroad. According to a recent survey, some 600,000 Iraqis are now living in Jordan and Syria, and they include many professionals.

And that's what makes Iraq so unusual among countries that have a refugee crisis. It's best and brightest, 40 percent of its middle class according to some estimates, have left the country in the last three years, unable to stomach the violence any longer.

Arwa Damon, CNN, Baghdad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: They were children when they were forced to flee a brutal civil war. Twenty years later, those who managed to survive have incredible stories. You'll meet one the lost boys of Sudan when LIVE FROM continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: United nations calls them IDPs or internally displaced people. Simply put, they're refugees in their own countries. And thousands of them are living in miserable conditions along the border of Chad and Sudan. It's a crisis overshadowed by another in nearby Darfur. CNN's international correspondent Nic Robertson reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: In a dusty, crowded displaced persons camp in Chad, about 50 miles from the border with Sudan, Jan Egeland, the U.N.'s top humanitarian relief official, came to show the world how the problems of Darfur are spreading.

JAN EGELAND, U.N. EMERGENCY RELIEF COORDINATION: Right on the front lines of humanity here it's very difficult to aid these people. And it's also very dangerous to aid these people.

ROBERTSON: 14,000 Chadians, all displaced inside their own country by Arab fighters crossing from Sudan, according to Egeland.

EGELAND: This problem is exported from Sudan. It was the ethnic militias, probably the Arab ethnic militias, the so-called Janjaweed.

ROBERTSON (on-camera): From Sudan?

EGELAND: From Sudan that displaced all of these people.

ROBERTSON (voiceover): Chadian troops stand guard during Egeland's visit, but the area is so close to the border, Sudanese rebels seek sanctuary and support in Chad while the Janjaweed, backed by the Sudanese government, appeared to cross the border and raid villages with impunity.

MARC M. WALL, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO CHAD: Borders don't mean very much, though, in this part of the world.

ROBERTSON: So far, about 50,000 Chadians have been forced from their homes. And without a deterrent force, attacks continue. In the same village, Egeland also visited a refugee camp, crammed with Sudanese families, many who fled across the border from Darfur more than two years ago, an indication of the complexity of the aid problem here. Refugees, displaced people and locals all compete for the same resources.

Nic Robertson, CNN, Chad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Sadly, the crisis in Sudan is not the first, just the most recent. The documentary film "The Lost Boys of Sudan" tells an earlier but no less heartbreaking story. In 1987, civil war wracked that country, and thousands of tiny boys, some just 6 or 7 years old, fled their villages to avoid being forced into the army.

They headed to Ethiopia and Kenya, but many thousands died along the way from thirst and starvation. Some were brutally killed by lions or crocodiless. About 4,000 of the lost boys eventually made it to America, including Ngor Biar Deng, who now goes by the name James and who just graduated from the University of Kentucky with a degree in chemistry. He joins me from Louisville.

Great to see you, James.

NGOR "JAMES" BIAR DENG, SUDANESE REFUGEE: Yes, thank you.

PHILLIPS: Well, we've been talking so much about Sudan. We've been doing reports from that region. What do you think you remember the most about where you grew up? BIAR DENG: What I remember the most is pretty the war. The displacement from my parents is what I can remember the most.

PHILLIPS: Do you remember being scared? Do you remember that moment when you had to leave?

BIAR DENG: Yes, I was so scared and almost shocked about the war. But I never knew that I could make it up to today.

PHILLIPS: And when you -- do you remember that moment when you got separated from your parents and you were on your own?

BIAR DENG: That is around 1988.

PHILLIPS: Wow. And you still are not quite sure of your age, right? You think you're 26, but you could be 23?

BIAR DENG: Yes. When I came here, I was made to say, "What day could you remember from that?" And I said could remember the civil war. And that was back in 1988, I mean, when most of the lost boys (inaudible). That was 1988. Between 1987 and 1988.

PHILLIPS: So when you got separated from your parents, you were obviously very, very young. Who embraced you? Who was the person or who were the individuals that finally were able to protect you and help you to eventually get to where you are right now?

BIAR DENG: Most of them, like all the boys could have little boys. And as the time goes, we had to help ourselves because we didn't have many other people who were (inaudible). So, we had to help ourselves. Help the little ones.

PHILLIPS: And how did you know how to survive? How did you find food? How did you care for yourself? How did you dress yourself? I mean, what are some of those moments that you remember?

BIAR DENG: Some of those moments I remember in life when I got separated (inaudible) and in Ethopia, we were given food by the United Nations, and that is called the (inaudible) high commissioners for the refugees. And in Ethopia they provide little food, drugs and medicines in Ethopia. And that was like when the refugees came in Ethiopia

PHILLIPS: So, James, when you were in that refugee camp, I know that somehow you realized education was the only way that you were going to be able to do something for yourself. And you were in this refugee camp, and you used sand and sticks to do your homework. What was that like? Did you actually feel that you were learning and that you were growing intellectually?

BIAR DENG: Actually, I feel there was nothing that I could use better than like taking a lot of it by doing that, and that was the only option, and I never knew it could grow today to a better degree. So I had to make use of that opportunity to get the little that I could have to report it to say that I'm a student.

PHILLIPS: Do you remember the day that you got your first pencil and paper?

BIAR DENG: That was like around July 1988.

PHILLIPS: You remember? You remember the month and the year, that's amazing.

BIAR DENG: Yes.

PHILLIPS: You got to the United States, and I know you were embraced by a woman by the name of Gale Howard (ph), and that she actually helped you with money. Tell us about Gale and how you worked so many jobs, as well, and, basically, never slept just to get an education.

BIAR DENG: Yes, because when I was in the refugee camp in Kenya and I had to go through all my interviews and by chance I get qualified to be one of the lost boys that get accepted in the United States. So to begin was like in Kenya I could say, "OK, the little education that I could have was like up to the ninth grade."

And when I came here, I didn't have any other options of saying, "OK, I can't use an excuse of saying I can never make it through college." And (inaudible) just to do those kind of jobs. And I met Gale at my job at the University of Louisville. And that's when she embraced me. She kind of helped me out, opened a bank account, introduced me to this new society.

PHILLIPS: And you did everything from cleaning jobs to working at UPS to -- I mean, all through the hours. When did you find time to study? How did you make it through school?

BIAR DENG: Like, I mean, when I begin, it was hard to get into universities around here. And in 2001, when I came here in April the 10th, it was hard to begin. But later on, I was told that I could take a GED and maybe enroll at a community college or at the public universities.

So I took my GED and passed it by December the 5th of 2001. And I tried to go -- I mean, I forget. I started at trying to go to University of Louisville (ph), but I was denied because I didn't have a high school diploma, never passed the 12th grade.

So I had to go back to Jefferson Community College, which is basically in Louisville, took one year there, working because I know that I have to have help myself like paying rents and paying for the transport. So I had to work like a night shift and go to school during the day.

And sometime, if I feel that I have not covered a lot just to be successful in whatever test that would come the following day, I would choose to stay up like the whole night studying and maybe go to work the following night.

PHILLIPS: Well, it's paid off. You graduated from the University of Louisville. You're on your way to medical school. I know you found your mom, finally, in 2003. You're working on getting her here. What a blessed life in so many ways. Thanks, James, for sharing your story.

BIAR DENG: Yes, thank you.

PHILLIPS: Well, the face of the refugee problem is clear when you look in the eyes of children displaced by war, famine, or natural disaster. More than half of the world's refugees are children. These kids lose all things familiar. Home, friends, sometimes their families. You heard it first hand from James.

And many, as you have heard, are forced into fighting. Others are used as slave labor. Many never make it to safety, dying while trying to cross war-ravaged borders. If you want to help, get to your computer and log on to any one of these Web sites and make a donation.

Anderson Cooper has more stories about the global refugee problem tonight. Plus, watch actress Angelina Jolie in her first TV interview since the birth of her daughter. She talks to Anderson about her work with refugees. AC 360, 10:00 Eastern, 7:00 Pacific.

Keeping a promise; that's what keeps Hearty Jackson (ph) going almost after a year after his life was shattered by a devastating storm surge. Jackson's life after Katrina, just ahead on LIVE FROM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Crime doesn't pay, even when you run your 20s through a laser printer. Get this. A Georgia couple is in the hooscow (ph) after a sharp-eyed hairdresser said, "Hey, they're allegedly passing phony dough."

Thirty-nine-year-old Katherine Morgan (ph) and 24-year-old Sean Daniels face forgery charges now after cops tracked them to their home. They say they found more than $3,000 in fake bills, mostly in 1s and 20s and 5s. Now which of these suspects had to be the hairdresser?

Northwest Airlines is making a move that could save you some time. Cheryl Cassoni is live with at the New York Stock Exchange with that story.

Hey, Cheryl.

CHERYL CASONE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Kyra.

Well, this could certainly save Northwest some time. Northwest is ditching the row-by-row boarding in coach and shifting to a looser boarding process. The procedure will now be you line up, take your assigned seat in no particular order.

Now, of course, those with special needs and those in first class can still pre-board. Northwest says of this system in several markets have found that if passengers get on when it's convenient for them, as long as it before they close the door for departure, that is, it could cut up to ten minutes from the normal time that it takes to board an aircraft. According to the airline, the randomness cuts down on congestion in aisles because people boarding aren't trying to squeeze into one section at the same time or hit you with their carry-on bags -- Kyra?

PHILLIPS: We've all been there, haven't we?

Well, speaking of congestion, a computer glitch causing quite a bit of a problem for Airtran passengers. What happened?

CASONE: Yes, Airtran has had some issues today. They began using a new computer system early this morning, but the airline has been having problems checking their passengers in. That is causing some long lines and delays at many of the airports that Airtran serves.

The biggest problems were reported where you are, Hartsfield Jackson International Airport in Atlanta. That is Airtran's hub. And it's also the nation's busiest airport. For now, Airtran recommends that their passengers print out their boarding passes online or show up for their flight two to three hours early. Hope that you're packed.

(MARKET UPDATE)

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