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President Bush in Budapest; Kidnapped and Slain Soldiers Remembered; Worries North Korean Missile Test; Arizona Fires; Suicide Attack in Kandahar; Murder Charges Against U.S. Soldiers

Aired June 21, 2006 - 14:00   ET

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

PHILLIPS: Live now in Budapest, the president left Vienna, arriving here in Budapest as past of the E.U. summit, talking trade, but of course, things we want to hear about are the nuclear threats regarding North Korea and these possible missile tests that might be taking place. Is it true, or is North Korea just testing the Bush administration? We'll listen to see. Of course, we have reporters with the president.
Also want to see what he says about Iran, the nuclear threat there and if indeed he talks about the two Iraqi soldiers, bodies on the way back to the United States as we speak.

Not an act of war, but allegedly an act of murder. CNN has learned that several U.S. troops will face charges in the shooting death of an Iraqi civilian in April. A news conference is scheduled at Camp Pendleton, California in just about two hours. In the meantime, let's get the latest details from Barbara Starr at the Pentagon -- Barbara.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, everyone here at the Pentagon aware of the press conference, waiting for it to unfold. We are told it will be at Camp Pendleton about 4:00 Pacific coast time. It is expected that charges will be filed against seven Marines and a Navy corpsman regarding the death of an Iraqi man back in April.

They are alleged to have murdered the man and then tried to have covered it up, making it appear that he, perhaps, was planting a roadside bomb. According to sources that CNN has spoken to, all eight will be charged with murder, kidnapping, conspiracy and larceny. They have been incarcerated at Camp Pendleton for some time awaiting these charges and we are expected to hear public word of this as we say in the next couple of hours -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right, Barbara, thank you so much. We do expect a news conference as Barbara said from Camp Pendleton regarding the April 26th incident and murder charges against those Marines and a navy corpsman. CNN will bring that to you live 4:00 p.m. Eastern, 1:00 Pacific.

Now, two American families, one tragic homecoming. The U.S. military is flying the bodies of Army Privates Kristian Menchaca and Thomas Tucker back to the U.S. from Iraq. They'll arrive at Dover Air Force base in Delaware sometime today. As you remember, the two were kidnapped and killed by Iraqi terrorists who mutilated and booby- trapped their bodies.

Thousands of their comrades searched for them and spent 12 hours clearing away explosives once they found their bodies. Private Menchaca's family is trying to deal with his brutal death by remembering how he lived. Our Keith Oppenheim has more details now from Brownsville, Texas.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KEITH OPPENHEIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Kristian Menchaca became a man in the army, but in the eyes of his family, he will still be remembered as the boy who grew up in Houston and Brownsville.

JUAN VASQUEZ, JR., MENCHACA'S COUSIN: I think I was a male role model for him.

OPPENHEIM: He looked up to you?

VASQUEZ: Right.

OPPENHEIM: Juan Vasquez is Kris' big cousin. He told me when Kris was sent to Iraq last year, the family was supportive but worried. And their concern grew when Kris came home for a visit about a month ago. He seemed kind of in tough shape from the experience he had had so far?

VASQUEZ: According to my aunt and uncle, he was having trouble sleeping most of the time.

OPPENHEIM: You think he was nervous?

VASQUEZ: He was very nervous.

OPPENHEIM: Vasquez says his cousin told him he had several close calls in Iraq, escaping a roadside bombing without injury and surviving an insurgent ambush during the first few months of his tour of duty. Then, last week, Menchaca was reported missing after insurgents attacked a checkpoint he was patrolling south of Baghdad. Now, the family is waiting for the results from DNA testing that could verify Kris Menchaca's body has been found.

VASQUEZ: I think deep down inside I know it's him and he is dead.

OPPENHEIM: You want to hold onto some hope?

VASQUEZ: Right.

OPPENHEIM: It is hard to hold onto hope when the family hears regular news reports Kris Menchaca may have been tortured. But just what happened is hard to think about much less discuss. Juan Vasquez fights back tears as relatives gather at the home of Kris' mother and wait for confirmation that the body of a fallen soldier is coming home.

Keith Oppenheim, CNN, Brownsville, Texas.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: President Bush says the world should be nervous that North Korea's apparent plans to test a long-range missile but the greatest concern is in Asia.

CNN's Atika Shubert is in Tokyo.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Tensions still high in Japan and across Asia as North Korea insists that it has the right to develop, deploy and test its missiles. Today, South Korea's former president, Kim Dae-Jung, postponed a planned meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il, citing tensions over the missile test.

The meeting was supposed to be a follow-up to ground-breaking summit held by the two leaders in June of 2000. South Korea also threatening to suspend food aid to the communist country if North Korea goes ahead with the test.

In Japan, meanwhile, U.S. Ambassador Thomas Sheefer (ph) met with reporters saying that the U.S. now has more options in responding to a missile launch by North Korea, including greater tracking capability. He did not give further details but did say that the Bush administration is keeping all options on the table.

U.S., of course, does have a missile defense shield in operation and could theoretically shoot down any missile launch by North Korea. It may not come to that, however. North Korea's envoy to the United Nations also today said that his country wants to hold direct talks with the U.S. to defuse tensions.

Atika Shubert, CNN, Tokyo.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Cooler and calmer in southern Colorado giving firefighters a bit of a break. They're battling a huge wildfire that broke out Sunday. People in three subdivisions near Fort Garland have been ordered out of there. Others nearby have been advised to leave. Folks in Sedona, Arizona, also have been chased out of their homes as a wildfire races down Oak Creek Canyon.

Firefighters are lighting backfires trying to stop it. The fire lines are getting longer in Sedona, Arizona, where a four-day-old wildfire has chased people out of their homes as it races down Oak Creek Canyon. So far, no homes have burned, but the fire is still far from contained.

Reporter Tammy Leitner of CNN affiliate KPHO is on the scene.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHIEF MATT SHOBERT, SEDONA FIRE DEPT: From a suppression standpoint, I don't think the fire went as well as we'd have liked.

TAMMY LEITNER, KPHO: The Brines (ph) fire chewed up hundreds of acres getting dangerously close to houses.

SHOBERT: The fire just behaved badly and, as a result, for safety reasons, we de-energized the power lines that run through Oak Creek Canyon.

LEITNER: Newshawk five was the only news helicopter allowed into the canyon. You can see the fire has worked its way down into the canyon in at least three spots. From this view, the fire appears to be within just a few hundred yards of the homes in Indian Wells.

PAUL BROYLES, FIRE INCIDENT COMMANDER: It's into Sterling Canyon. The prediction is that it will probably keep eating its way slowly northward unless we can pool our priorities with our aircraft, primarily helicopters, to keep that growth from happening.

LEITNER: Their biggest fear, this fire will not stop before hitting Flagstaff.

BROYLES: Obviously, with the winds and the terrain there going up Oak Creek Canyon, we could have this fire go, could have that fire go all the way to Flagstaff area, so we don't want to have that happen.

LEITNER: In Sedona, Tammy Leitner.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Well, a Federal prison guard is dead, a Federal agent is dead after a shootout in a Federal prison in Tallahassee, Florida. Federal agents showed up this morning to arrest six guards named in alleged sex for contraband ring involving women inmates. We're told one of the suspects opened fire before being shot dead himself. Besides the dead agent, a prison official was hurt. No inmates were involved in any of it.

An update now on some unsolved crimes. Million dollar insurance scams and two old lady suspects, well, they apparently killed two homeless men in Los Angeles. Police say they have new evidence now linking a year-old hit-and-run to Helen Gloy (ph) and Olga Waterschmidt (ph). The two are already in Federal custody for alleged mail fraud. Prosecutors believe they ran down their suspected victims to collect more than $2 million in life insurance.

A Mona Lisa mystery. Straight ahead, is this painting a version of Da Vinci's masterpiece? Clues when LIVE FROM continues. Stay with CNN, the most trusted name in news.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Let's go straight to Fredricka Whitfield working a story for us in the newsroom. Fred.

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: More on that suicide attack in Kandahar involving the death of one and the wounding of nine. Let's check in with Tom Coghlan, who's in Kabul. He's a reporter there that we often like to refer to and, Tom, what's your understanding as to what happened in Kandahar?

VOICE OF TOM COGHLAN, JOURNALIST: Well, this evening, a Canadian military convoy was passing through the center of Kandahar. This is near where there have been frequent suicide bomb attacks on coalition forces in the past few months. That convoy was hit by a suicide car bomb at around 7:30 p.m. Now, one person, a bystander, was killed, nine others injured, as you say. Two Canadian soldiers are also confirmed injured in that attack in the last few moments.

WHITFIELD: And, Tom, it seems as though in recent weeks, perhaps even recent months, we've heard of a lot more suicide attacks taking place in various locations in Afghanistan. How are authorities able to handle this?

COGHLAN: Well, that's correct. At least 30 suicide attacks have taken place in Afghanistan so far this year. Now, those suicide attacks are obviously extremely difficult to guard against. They're often individuals, sometimes in cars, sometimes on motorbikes, sometimes on foot.

Now, the many people that are suffering as a result of these attacks are actually ordinary Afghans because when these attacks take place against armored convoys, usually the convoys, people in the convoy aren't killed, but often large numbers of ordinary Afghans in these built-up areas like Kandahar are killed.

So, they're a pretty indiscriminate weapon. The Taliban has obviously decided that these generate big news headlines. They're very high-profile attacks, but they're not a terribly effective military tool as far as trying to kill coalition soldiers is concerned.

WHITFIELD: And Tom as we say, it was a military convoy which was near where this attack took place. Is there any way of confirming whether the military convoy only involved Canadian forces or coalition forces as a whole, including that of the U.S.?

COGHLAN: My understanding at the moment is that this was only Canadian convoy. The Canadians are the main, the main nation taking on policing duties in and around Kandahar. They often post convoys through that city. At the moment, there are a small number of American soldiers still operating in that theater of operations, that is, southern Afghanistan.

But the majority of U.S. forces are now based in the east of the country and other nations such as Britain and Holland have moved troops into that southern area and they're taking up the slack where those U.S. forces were before. So it is possible that there may have been U.S. forces involved, but it's actually pretty unlikely at the moment. And certainly, I don't have any confirmation on U.S. forces being involved at this time.

WHITFIELD All, right Tom Coghlan, journalist in Kabul, Afghanistan. Thank you so much. Kyra, one more time taking place in Kandahar, a suicide attack taking place near a military convoy, nine reported wounded, one dead and among those wounded, two Canadian soldiers.

PHILLIPS: We'll keep on the story, Fred, thanks so much.

Dozens of Iraqi factory workers are now in the hands of insurgents. Gunmen hijacked five buses carrying at least 50 Iraqis today and drove off with them. The workers had just finished their shift at a plant that makes school benches and black boards just north of Baghdad. Also today, a car bomb went off outside a Baghdad restaurant. Two people are dead, four others wounded.

Defending Saddam Hussein once again, it's cost a lawyer his life. Today, police in Baghdad found the bullet-riddled body of one of Hussein's lead attorneys, the third defense counsel to be killed since the trial started late last year. There's word that a group of insurgents dressed as Iraqi police stormed the lawyer's home and just took him he way.

The scenery is spectacular. This week though, it's also frightening in Sedona, Arizona. A huge wildfire is threatening hundreds of homes right now and some fear it may reach Flagstaff, month are than 20 miles away. KTVK's Javier Soto is on the scene in Sedona -- Javier.

JAVIER SOTO, KTVK: Good day to you, Kyra. This fire is a very serious situation. As it has dropped to the bottom of Oak Creek Canyon, it is threatening highway 89 and that's where ground crews have set up and that is where they are going to meet this fire face to face. Now, all along, they've had trouble in fighting this fire. They've mostly used helicopters and fought this fire from the air.

However, as it inches down that canyon wall, they are starting to set back burns. Now, it's dropping in between two campgrounds, that is the Incinosa (ph) campground and also the Manzanita campground and fire officials say the good news, it is not moving laterally. It is actually moving closer and closer to 89A.

Fire officials say if that fire jumps highway 89A, it could be catastrophic, as you just mentioned a little while ago. That fire could rip through very dry pine and move all the way up into Flagstaff. There are about 300 homes and businesses through that area and as of yesterday afternoon, when that fire inched into the canyon area, they evacuated everyone out of Oak Creek Canyon.

Right now, about 500 residents remain evacuated from Oak Creek Canyon through Sedona. However, the good news is this fire is pushing away from Sedona and about 100 residents through the Soldier Pass area will be allowed back into their homes about 5:00 this afternoon.

Also, the governor is touring this fire sometime between 11:00 and 3:00 Arizona time. And she will give an update and there will be a huge community meeting sometime around noon where all residents will be advised of this very serious situation. PHILLIPS: All right, Javier Soto, thanks so much. We'll stay on top of that story as well. We're going to take a quick break. We're LIVE FROM right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Not an act of war, but allegedly an act of murder. CNN has learned that several U.S. troops will face charges in the shooting death of an Iraqi civilian in April. A news conference is scheduled in Camp Pendleton, California in about three hours. Our Kareen Wynter is just outside the base -- Kareen.

KAREEN WYNTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well Kyra, we're actually on base right now. We've moved to this command center just over my shoulder. You can see a brick building behind me on Camp Pendleton and that's where they'll be holding a briefing and they'll be explaining to the media just the terms regarding the military's justice system.

They'll be going over a number of things. To my right, you can see some members of the media already lined up there and that's where that official news conference will take place at 4:00 p.m. Eastern time later today.

Now, a little bit more about that military briefing. It's going to be equivalent to a civilian grand jury we're being told. Once these charges are filed, Pendleton officials will decide how to proceed with preliminary hearings known in the military justice system as an article 32 proceeding.

You can see again we're awaiting word behind us on what exactly will take place. CNN has learned that those eight servicemen, eight, seven Marines and one Navy corpsman, will be charged. Now, exactly what that will entail is still up in the air, be you we are hearing that those charges will include kidnapping, murder, conspiracy, larceny as well as making false statements.

The community is on edge right now. They have been rallying behind other servicemen for the last several weeks. There have been heated protests outside here, out the gate of Camp Pendleton where people have been holding signs, chanting words of support, in particular, Kyra, for what they call the inhumane treatment of those men who are being held inside a brig on base.

They're saying that they don't deserve to be shackled. Now that has changed since Friday. The military released a statement saying that they're going to -- that they were going to lower the level of restraint. The servicemen up to that time were wearing leg cuffs and ankle cuffs whenever they had to leave their cell. They're in, still in solitary confinement so that has changed. It gives you an idea of some things that they were speaking out against.

It's also made daily news out here. The front page of today's paper also talks about the wave of donations that have been coming in across the country, money, messages of support for those who are being held here inside the brig but a lot coming up a short time from now. Again, the military briefing just on their proceedings, the process, what we can expect and later on today, a news conference on what those charges will be -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right, Kareen, thanks so much, as Kareen said, we do expect that news conference this afternoon from Camp Pendleton right there on the April 26 incident in Hamdaniya. CNN will bring it to you live 4:00 p.m. Eastern, 1:00 Pacific. We're going to take a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: We may need another dose of sunscreen today at least in the northern hemisphere, after all, it's the longest day of the year. In England, the summer solstice brought out the druid-minded to watch sunrise at Stonehenge. Alas, it rained at the site alleged to be a Neolithic observatory. But we know the sun is shining elsewhere.

Loosely translated from Latin, solstice means, "sun stands still." As far as scientists are concerned, the summer solstice is the day that the earth's north pole is tilted closest to the sun. Who would have thought Picasso and Kmart in the same sentence? Stephanie Elan is live at the New York Stock Exchange to tell us about Kmart's latest blue light special. Hey, Steph.

STEPHANIE ELAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi Kyra. That's right, starting this week, the company known for its bargains on clothing and household items is auctioning off pieces of rare art from its old Michigan headquarters. The company you may remember merged with Sears last year and its old headquarters was sold off back in December. So what kind of art are we talking about?

Well, there's a rare Picasso tapestry, a 15th century Ming dynasty painting and signed work by Andy Warhol and Jasper Johns and Georgia O'Keefe. The Picasso tapestry is actually one of the last pieces the artist created before he died. Kyra.

PHILLIPS: So how could someone get a hold of one of these Kmart treasures?

ELAN: Well, the liquidators have set up a gallery in the old headquarters. There will be six showings a month through September and each month with feature a different style of art. Most pieces can be bought on the spot but you'll have to bid on some of those higher- end works. The liquidator said some of the art could fetch as much as $300,000. Not a small penny there Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right. Well, speaking of bidding, investors certainly bidding up stock prices today.

ELAN: No doubt about it. We're definitely in rally mode around these parts here. Investors are cheering upbeat corporate earnings reports from companies like Morgan Stanley as well as FedEx. FedEx actually happens to be the world's largest package delivery company and it posted a surprising big 27 percent jump in its profits.

Now, FedEx is often seen as a gauge for overall U.S. business activity since it ships items from such a wide array of companies. So obviously, good news there, good news for the market. Taking a look right now at the Dow industrials, are up 148 points at 111.122 right now. And you can see that the NASDAQ Composite is adding more than two percent, so not a bad day. That's the latest from Wall Street. Back to you.

PHILLIPS: Thank you so much, Stephanie.

Well, possible missile test by North Korea. How will the U.S. respond? The story's on CNN, the most trusted name in news.

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