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Tensions Escalate Between Israeli and Lebanon; Verdict In New Jersey Vioxx Trial; California Wildfires Growing; Judge Halts Jury Selection in Murder Trial of John Evander Couey; Bashar Ja'afri Interview

Aired July 13, 2006 - 14:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, even in the best of times it's a tense and uncertain region, and these are not the best of times. Here's what we know so far in the Middle East. Hezbollah fighters have launched Katyusha rockets into northern Israeli, including the major port city of Haifa. Israel says it's been hit by more than 70 rockets in the last 24 hours. Dozens of people are wounded, one is confirmed dead.

Israeli jets have bombed all three runways at the Beirut Airport. They also struck a TV station used by Hezbollah. And a full naval blockade has been set up off the Lebanese coast.

And one more potential worry -- an Israeli government spokesperson says Hezbollah may try to transfer two abducted Israeli soldiers to Iran. He won't say what information prompted the government's concern.

The situation in the Middle East is having a ripple effect on financial markets around the world. Susan Lisovicz live from the New York Stock Exchange following all of that for us as this breaking story continues, and also another breaking story, a verdict in the Vioxx trial. Tell us about it all.

SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, Kyra, it's a very busy day, and we have a verdict in the seventh trial that Merck has faced over its withdrawn blockbuster drug Vioxx. A jury in Atlantic City, New Jersey, has found that Vioxx was not a substantial factor in the heart attack of a 68-year-old grandmother.

Although Merck -- according to the jurors, found that Merck failed to warn the plaintiff of risks associated with the drug, it did adequately warn her doctor. The plaintiff in this case was suffering from diabetes, high blood pressure, obesity, high cholesterol.

This is Merck's seventh case and one of the interesting things about it, is that Merck has decided to face each case individually rather than lumping into one big class action suit. There are an estimated 13,000 of them nationwide.

(STOCK MARKET REPORT)

PHILLIPS: All right, Susan. Appreciate it. Thanks so much. Well, 108 blistering degrees, winds as strong as 40 miles an hour and 40,000 acres already torched. Could it get any worse in California? Sadly, the answer is yes, much worse.

CNN's Kyung Lah is in Pioneertown with more on the rampaging Sawtooth fires and another wildfire southeast of San Francisco. Kyung, what can you tell us about both of those?

KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it is getting to be a larger and larger problem for the firefighters in this area. And this is the devastation that a fire leaves behind. The person, the homeowner, who owns this particular hill says this entire area used to be bright green, but you can see what the fire did back here.

And back there, you see the terrain, Kyra? That terrain is the reason why this fire is so difficult to fight. Just beyond that hillside, you're seeing that thick, black smoke rising in the air. Firefighters are trying to hit it from the air. We can actually see a helicopter way in the distance as it's about to make a water drop. Firefighters trying to fight it from the air because it's so difficult to get to on the ground.

Now, let's give you a look at the fires as far as what's happening today, 40,000 acres burned so far, 20 percent contained. At this point, no estimation of when there will be any sort of full containment. Forty-two houses have been lost, 1,500 homes and buildings remain in danger.

Now, there is that fire that you were talking about, the fire to the south and the west of us. It's expected to merge in the next 12 hours or so, and that means that it will be 50,000 acres that firefighters are going to have to fight, and it's just getting a little more difficult for them to deal with.

Now, Kyra, as we come back live here, again, this area used to be all green. What firefighters say they are dealing with now is the extreme heat, trying to walk up and down these hillsides. So far nine firefighters have been injured trying to take care of the fires.

They're trying to build that containment line. So far 20 percent containment, and no estimation on when that containment will be 100 percent. And if this fire does march toward Big Bear, as they are predicting, the situation is going to get quite worse.

PHILLIPS: All right. Do you think there are enough resources out there, enough firefighting capabilities to try and at least contain these?

LAH: They are trying to -- what they are actually doing is they are going to let these two fires, because of the terrain that they are seeing there, they are going to least these two fires merge and then they're going to try to draw a big circle all the way around and bulldoze all the way around the fire so that they can get it to burn itself out right at the center.

PHILLIPS: And Kyung, actually, as we're talking, we're getting new, live pictures in from our affiliate KABC our of Los Angeles of Yucca Valley, and you can actually see -- it's pretty smoky right now, but you can see that those flames are definitely continuing to spread throughout the area.

I mean, you see these pictures, Kyung, and you don't -- I mean, it's hard to tell how you get a handle on this, I mean, if it's getting better or worse. I mean, it looks just as bad as it was yesterday.

LAH: It's a little bit bigger than it was yesterday. What firefighters say they are seeing are very similar weather conditions as they saw in the last couple of days, and weather is really going to play the biggest factor in whether or not they can actually knock this fire down.

What they are actually looking at, though, is what's going to happen in the next day or so. If the fire continues to march north toward Big Bear, where there are a lot of trees, a lot of big, thick trees, not this desert sort of tree, then they have a lot of fuel there. And then this fire can go from a wildfire to an extremely large, out-of-control fire.

PHILLIPS: Yes, a lot of cabins up there, a lot of people vacation there, live there, ski there in the winter. Kyung Lah, thanks so much.

Our top story, the Middle East crisis. We're covering all the angles. Alessio Vinci is in Beirut, Lebanon; John Vause is the on the Lebanese-Israeli border; Paula Hancocks is in Jerusalem; and White House correspondent Ed Henry is traveling with the president in Germany.

A live report straight ahead. You're watching CNN, the most trusted name in news.

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PHILLIPS: We're going to get straight to Carol Lin, working obviously a developing story there in the Middle East as we continue to follow all aspects of this story, Carol.

CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: We got some fresh pictures just in. We just turned the tape around as we were watching it live on Arab television. What you're looking at, Kyra, here is the result of the second Israeli airstrike against the Beirut International Airport. What you're seeing, that's burning, are gas tanks that they fired, that they attacked.

Primarily this is the reserve fuel supply at the Beirut International Airport. So the IDF has confirmed this strike. We first heard it from the Lebanese Army. So, Kyra, this is the second strike. The IDF took out three runways about six hours ago at the Beirut International Airport.

They want to make sure that they can physically isolate the militants, Hezbollah militants, as quickly as possible and take out any extra gasoline supplies. But this just happened moments ago and we just got this videotape in.

PHILLIPS: All right, and now, there's a number of television or broadcasts that you're monitoring.

LIN: Right.

PHILLIPS: Kind of set the scene for our viewers, Carol. You're right there over at the international desk and we're monitoring Hezbollah television, Lebanese television, Israeli television. Obviously getting a number of different messages from various networks.

LIN: What's interesting, Kyra, right behind me here we have our Arab affairs editor, we are one of the few networks to actually have someone who specializes in the Middle East. She is Lebanese. Her family is over there right now, and this is a very personal story to her.

We've got translators, all of them monitoring all of the media out of the Middle East, very important to note that it's an interesting to see what's coming out on Israeli television, Lebanese television and then Hezbollah has its own network, with its own programming.

What's fascinating about that, Kyra, is that that network is banned in the United States as well as the European Union. Hezbollah considered to be a terrorist organization and propagating and recruiting for its terrorism through this network. We are watching it and bringing you select images to show you how this conflict is being characterized.

Hezbollah television showing alternating images between Lebanese entertainers singing nationalistic songs, even some Hezbollah theme songs, if you will, and then Israeli television, a short time ago, as we showed you an incoming missile. We don't know where that missile was going or what it struck, but they have been dealing with rockets fired from, by Hezbollah militants over the Lebanese border.

Hezbollah reaching as far into Israel as the port city of Haifa. And just this odd juxtaposition of the violence that is occurring through these alternating airstrikes and this weird propaganda video that you see on Hezbollah television as they try to rally their supporters with these nationalistic songs. Very interesting perspective on the Middle East right now.

PHILLIPS: Fascinating stuff, and we'll continue to check in with you, Carol, as you monitor all those images and how the various networks are reporting this story. Sure appreciate it.

Another story that we're following here in the United States, fair and impartial in the Couey case? Well, easier said than done. A judge has halted jury selection in the murder trial of John Evander Couey, saying that a fair and impartial jury can't be found. Couey is charged in the brutal kidnap and murder of 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford just last year. CNN's John Zarrella has the latest on a trial that's addressed pretrial publicity once before, and, John, what's interesting is I think it was just last week or so that the judge was saying he felt really confident that he would be able to find an impartial jury.

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, and it's interesting, too, Kyra, that even up until this morning, before they began going through this second round of questioning of the jurors that the prospective jurors that had come in, that the defense, for about the fourth time, since this process began, asked for a change of venue.

In other words, moving the trial out of, you know, out of Citrus County, and the judge said, no, he was going to continue with the process of trying to pick the jury in Lake County. Which is nearby, and then busing them and sequestering them in Citrus County where the trial would be held.

But it kept coming up time and time again as the questioning went on of these prospective jurors, 58 of them brought back today for the second round of questioning, that all of them had seen or heard about John Evander Couey's confession to the killing of Jessica Lunsford, and, of course, that confession was thrown out because Couey had repeatedly asked for an attorney during the interview with the, with the police officers, in Augusta, Georgia, who went to question him, and he wasn't granted that.

So, the judge threw that out. But everybody's heard about the confession. Now, following the judge's decision today, the state attorney in the Inverness area, the Citrus County area, came out and discussed the possibilities of where they go next.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRAD KING, FLA. STATE ATTORNEY: Obviously you want to try to hold the trial, probably, honestly, somewhere outside of the media area that's represented here. And that's, that was the original reason of moving it to Lake. It is because the Lake regional media is different than Citrus County's regional media. So, the thought was if you move it to where the basic media outlets were different, you wouldn't have this same issue with coverage.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: With such a national story, I guess we get back to the same question of, is there anywhere in Florida that's unbiased in this case?

KING: I expect that there are places in Florida where people have not heard quite as much about this case.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZARRELLA: And that's going to be the bottom line now, Kyra, is where do you move the trial? You tried it this way. It didn't work. Do you move to it south Florida? Do you move to it very far north Florida? That's going to have to be determined in the next several weeks. There is a possibility that this trial could now be delayed for several more months, before they can move and find a courtroom that has to be found, staffing that has to be found.

So, you know, it's not that simple just to pick up and move a trial. You've got to go some place where it's an adequately sized courtroom to handle the media attention that this case is going to get and that is going to have a space for the judge and for the prosecutors and everybody else to work out of. It's not easy.

PHILLIPS: I know it's not going to be an easy trial to cover either, considering the circumstances. John Zarrella, appreciate it.

The Israeli promised a robust response to the kidnapping of two soldiers this week. Robust it is. I'm going to talk to the former U.S. ambassador to Israel, straight ahead.

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PHILLIPS: Even in the best of times, it's a tense and uncertain region. And these are not the best of times. Here's what we know so far in the Middle East. Hezbollah fighters have launched Katyusha rockets into northern Israel, including the major port city of Haifa. Israel says that it's been hit by more than 70 rockets in the past 24 hours. Dozens of people are wounded. One is confirmed dead.

Israeli jets have bombed all three runways at the Beirut airport and now helicopter gunships have taken out airport fuel tanks. Israeli forces also struck a TV station used by Hezbollah and are blockading the Lebanese coast.

One more potential worry -- an Israeli government spokesperson says Hezbollah may try to transfer two abducted Israeli soldiers to Iran. He won't say what information prompted the government's concern.

Now, if you think today's events in the Middle East are only about Israel and Lebanon, think again. The effects of this fighting are being felt literally and political in Egypt, Jordan, the Palestinian Territories, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Syria.

Joining me now from New York, Syria's ambassador to the United Nations, Bashar Ja'afri. Mr. Ambassador, we want to thank you for being with us. And I'm just going to ask you point blank, are you supporting these Hezbollah attacks on Israel?

BASHAR JA'AFRI, SYRIAN AMBASSADOR TO THE U.N.: Syria has been consistently supporting national resistance against foreign occupation. Either it is Hezbollah or somebody else. Everywhere on earth there is a foreign occupation, Syria supports national resistance. And the case in Lebanon and as well as in Palestine applies to this principle. The Syrian diplomacy has always been the principle with this regard.

PHILLIPS: So you feel that what is happening right now is about, as you say, occupation, whether it's in Gaza or it's Israel pulling out of Shiba Farms, you think it's strictly about land and not about terrorists trying to make a message very clear of what they are capable of doing. JA'AFRI: Absolutely, ma'am. Because the only state terrorism in the area is that, the Israeli one. Because who is who? We would like to know, to identify, where is the problem. The problem is laying in the foreign occupation of Palestinian territory, Syrian Golan and part of southern Lebanon. So we are the victims. We are not the victimizers. And ...

PHILLIPS: You say you're the victims, but you are not the victimizers. But so many innocent civilians are killed in these types of attacks.

JA'AFRI: Which kind of attacks?

PHILLIPS: In these terrorists attacks, specifically Hezbollah attacks. I want to read you something about terrorists operating openly in Damascus. This is according to the 2005 State Department's Country Report on Terrorism. It says, "The Syrian government hosts Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and other terrorist groups. Damascus serves as the main transshipment point in Hezbollah's supply chain." Do you agree with that and are you willing to end ties with these terrorist organizations?

JA'AFRI: Madam, there is a conflict of terminology with this regard. Syria, since 1986, called for holding an international conference to identify the definition of terrorism. Who is terrorist and who is not terrorist? This confusion of terminology has led to this definition, offered by the American State Department, with regard to national resistance.

PHILLIPS: So how would you define terrorism? I just want to ask you, Mr. Ambassador. How would you define terrorism?

JA'AFRI: Every act, every act -- military act aiming at terrorizing civilian people is an act of terrorism. So what Israel has been doing for decades in Lebanon, in Palestine, in Syria is exactly and precisely this kind of terrorism I am talking about.

PHILLIPS: Do you believe that we are seeing the fighting right now due to Hezbollah and Hamas being involved with the capture of Israeli soldiers?

JA'AFRI: Madam, this is a very good question, because the answer is the following -- the Arab-Israeli conflict did not start with the capture of an Israeli soldier in Gaza or two other Israeli soldiers in south Lebanon. The Arab-Israeli conflict is 60 years old, and nobody was paying -- giving any care to this conflict, to solving this conflict. We had great hope with the Madrid conference, launched in 1990, to solve the Arab-Israeli conflict, but with the visit paid by Sharon to the mosque Al-Aqsa Jerusalem in the late 1990s, the peace process has stopped.

So, the -- those who should be blamed are the Israeli policies, not the Arab policies.

PHILLIPS: Let's talk about that peace process, though, and why it has stopped. And no one's disagreeing with you about the history of the violence. I mean, we could go back decades and decades and talk about the political and religious differences and why these battles have not ended and why they continue.

But let's talk about right now, and talk about what's happening, and talk about what Hezbollah has done and the fact that you are supporting these attacks. That is no way to a peace process, to support attacks on innocent people, and to capture Israeli soldiers. Is that the way to go about trying to come to the table and have talks and find peace?

JA'AFRI: Ma'am, there are ten (SIC) Palestinian, Lebanese and Syrian prisoners in the Israeli jails for decades. Why not talking about these prisoners also? Are they rabbits? Are they not a human being? Why should the issue be disproportionate? We focus only on three Israeli soldiers, and we forget about the human suffering of 10,000 Arab prisoners. Why shouldn't be talk about the releasing of all these prisoners?

PHILLIPS: Why not talk about why those prisoners are in jail in the first place? Are you saying that every single one of those Arab prisoners are innocent and have never been tied to any attacks -- attacks with regard to terrorism?

JA'AFRI: We are talking about those prisoners who are -- who have been indicted illegally by the Israeli courts, because of their national resistance against foreign occupation. I'm talking exclusively about these -- these guys.

PHILLIPS: Ambassador Bashar Ja'afri, always appreciate your time and your insight, and I'm sure we'll continue to talk throughout the next couple of days.

JA'AFRI: Thanks a lot.

PHILLIPS: Appreciate it.

JA'AFRI: Thank you very much. Bye-bye.

PHILLIPS: We're covering all the angles in this Middle East crisis. We have reporters in Beirut, Lebanon, on the Lebanese-Israeli border and in Jerusalem. Our live coverage continues straight ahead.

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