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Cubans in Miami's Little Havana Respond to Fidel Castro's Illness; On Board an Israeli Warship; Haditha Guilt Will Be Hard to Prove
Aired August 02, 2006 - 14:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(WEATHER REPORT)
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: The big U.S. automakers have been struggling for years to hold off competition from their Japanese rivals, and the latest numbers confirm just how tight the battle has gotten. Susan Lisovicz live from the New York Stock Exchange with that.
Hey, Susan.
SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Kyra.
Not good news for Detroit's big three automakers which have seen their U.S. sales slip for the last few months while Japanese imports have steadily gained market share and now it's come to this. Toyota outsold Ford last month to grab the number two position in the U.S. market for the first time ever. It's already surpassed number three, DaimlerChrysler.
Toyota sold nearly 242,000 vehicles in the U.S., slightly better than Ford's total. General Motors held on to the top spot with more than 400,000 vehicles sold, but some analysts say Toyota could pass G.M. in the next couple of years.
The numbers reflect a big, dramatic trend in consumer tastes away from the large pickups and sport utility vehicles that are a part of Ford and G.M.'s product lines, their most lucrative vehicles. Instead, car buyers are increasingly opting for more fuel-efficient Japanese models and with gas prices likely to remain high for the foreseeable future, that trend shows no signs of reversing -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Well, speaking of energy prices, what did this week's report on fuel inventory show?
LISOVICZ: It was a mixed picture, Kyra.
There was a smaller than expected drop in gasoline supplies -- that's good -- but crude stockpiles fell more than expected, and that's contributing to a big jump in oil prices right now up nearly a dollar, back above $76 a barrel about $1 and change shy of the record- closing high.
Traders, like Reynolds, also keeping an eye on Tropical Storm Chris, which could become the first hurricane of the season and threaten oil rigs and refining operations in the Gulf of Mexico. (STOCK MARKET REPORT)
PHILLIPS: All right, Susan, thanks.
Well, speculation and celebration -- reaction to Fidel Castro's health crisis. We're live in Havana, Cuba and Miami's Little Havana. The news keeps coming. We'll keep bringing it to you. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Fidel Castro's condition remains a state secret in Cuba. Here's what we know right now. People in Cuba are wishing their ailing leader well after the Castro's personal secretary reads a message said to be from Castro himself. The 79-year-old ruler says that he's in stable condition and good spirits after intestinal surgery.
Reuters News Agency is reporting a slight increase in police presence in some of Havana's more decrepit neighborhoods where protests over power cuts took place last summer.
And Capitol Hill is preparing for a post-Castro Cuba. Majority Leader Bill Frist and other Senate Republicans say they're working on legislation to help transition to a Democratic Cuba.
Well, what a difference 90 miles can make. In Cuba's capital city, Havana, the mood is calm and restrained as citizens wait for the next word about ailing leader Fidel Castro. But in Miami's Little Havana neighborhood, well, the pulse of Cuba's exiled community is still elevated, especially at the Versailles restaurant.
CNN's Rick Sanchez chats up Little Havana locals about the latest news.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RICK SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): To feel the pulse of Cuban-Miami, to understand why so many Cuban-Americans are so strident in their support of democracy, their hatred of communism, their extreme dislike of Fidel Castro, one has to come here.
Felipe Valls founded his restaurant 34 years ago.
FELIPE VALLS, RESTAURANT OWNER: It was one of the few places where I found something Cuban, something truly authentic to our culture.
SANCHEZ: It's Versailles where among the guava-filled pastelitos and chicken croquettes, politics is the nightly staple served up with Cuban coffee as strong and pure as the passion displayed by these men and women who refer themselves not as Cubans, nor Americans, but as exiles hoping to return home.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It would be a dream for me for my parents to be able to go back there.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If it's not on the first plane, I'll go on the second one.
SANCHEZ (on camera): But you'll go back?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Definitely.
SANCHEZ: Is that important for all of you?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Of course.
SANCHEZ: Raise your hands. Yes. Yes. Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
SANCHEZ: You'll go back?
(voice-over): It is their eternal hope to get back to a free Cuba. That's why the news of Castro handing power to his brother, Raul, brings them here. And here at Versailles, as they have for decades, they break down the latest news, debate it, analyze it and argue it.
(on camera): Why Raul Castro?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't know why Raul, because he is not competent. He is -- he doesn't have the charisma. He doesn't have the personality. He does not have the know-how. And I think he's going to fall.
SANCHEZ (voice-over): Not all Cuban-Americans in Miami are so strident, so political. In fact, polls show many want to normalize relations with Castro's Cuba, something that decades ago would have been considered heresy.
But Cuban-Americans who want to normalize relations are less vocal, seemingly less powerful, and much less inclined to drink the coffee, unlike regulars here, like Jose Leaven (ph).
JOSE LEAVEN, CUBAN: Havana is the big city in the world. You know the big city. All casino, parade, gay, women, everything in Havana. You know that before the capital.
Rick Sanchez, CNN, Little Havana.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Well, if you've ever wished that you could say I report for CNN, well, here is how you can join the most trusted name in news. When you have pictures of video of breaking news or other stories from your part of the world, go to CNN.com and click on I- Report.
That is what viewer Kerry Rawe did after seeing a report on a house explosion on CNN earlier today. A woman and her grandson were killed in that blast and her two sons were injured. Kerry headed to the scene in Carlinville, Illinois, and here's the description of what he found. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KERRY RAWE, I-REPORT VIEWER: As you can see here, you can tell that the local 911 rescue services windows in the front part of their building were shattered from this explosion, right over here. This is the gasoline explosion, 7:30 a.m. this morning.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Well, Kerry (ph) also got the shot of the aftermath, as you can see. And remember, you can go to CNN.com and click on I- Report for more information. There you'll get complete instructions on how to submit your stories to CNN. It's fast, it's easy, and if we use your pictures or video on air, you can tell your friends, I report for CNN.
Well, coming up, the war at sea. John Vause has an exclusive report from the nerve center of the Israeli blockade. Stay with LIVE FROM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: The Middle East conflict is entering its fourth week today. Here's what we know right now.
In their deepest push yet into Lebanon, Israeli special forces raided Hezbollah stronghold 70 miles north of the border. Israeli commanders say their troops killed ten militants and captured five more at a hospital allegedly used as a Hezbollah base.
Hezbollah staged its biggest rocket attack yet today. More than 200 rockets hit northern Israel, and authorities are reporting one death.
The United Nations today postponed a meeting of nations that could send peacekeepers to Lebanon. A U.N. spokesperson that meeting would be premature until there is a political framework for ending that conflict.
And the Israeli push in the Middle East is not limited to war planes and ground troops. CNN's John Vause has an exclusive report from an Israel warship just off the coast of Lebanon..
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN VAUSE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Fifty nautical miles due west of Beirut, the INS Lahav, flagship of the Israeli Navy, enforcing a brigade of Lebanon. These are international waters, but, here, Israel decides who comes and who goes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Water vessels (INAUDIBLE), water vessels (INAUDIBLE), Israeli navy warship calling to channel 1-6, over.
VAUSE: All ships, like this Liberian freighter, are intercepted.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Israeli navy warship, good afternoon. So we'd like to ask you a few questions -- over.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, sir, go ahead.
VAUSE: The Israelis want to know its destination, captain and cargo.
JR. LT. YONATAN, INS LAHAV BRIDGE OFFICE: If any merchant vessel would attempt to break it, then, yes, we will have the authority to stop it.
VAUSE: The freighter is cleared, allowed to resume course and that is how it's been out here for three weeks. No ships have been boarded, warning shots only twice.
A flotilla of missile and smaller patrol boats enforce this maritime checkpoint. And from the air, surveillance helicopters send back real-time information, including video, to the command and control center, a darkened room on a lower deck in the Lahav.
Because of Israeli wartime censorship, it's not allowed to show the information on the computer screens. But the Israeli Navy says this technology gives them a detailed picture up and down Lebanon's coast and far beyond.
(on camera): Israel says its naval blockade serves two purposes: to stop weapons, especially missiles, coming from Iran and Syria, from reaching Hezbollah; and also to prevent the two kidnapped Israeli soldiers from being smuggled out of Lebanon.
(voice-over): The Lahav is heavily armed, with harpoon missiles, anti-aircraft defenses and torpedos. A corvette class ship, it's slightly smaller than the frigate and sister ship of the Henit (ph), which was hit by an Iranian-made Hezbollah missile in the first few days of this conflict; an attack which, Israel's navy says, took them totally by surprise.
JR. LT. ZVIEL, INS LAHAV TACTICAL OFFICES: We weren't prepared then because we didn't know they have the missile. In the moment, we knew. In the moment we heard that Henit was hit by a missile, we turned all our defense systems on, and from that moment on the ship is totally defended.
VAUSE: Most commercial shipping now avoid these dangerous waters, especially after a Cambodian freighter was also hit and sunk by a Hezbollah missile, leaving Lebanon even further isolated and under siege.
John Vause, CNN, on board the INS Lahav.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Lapses in border security. When it comes to checking IDs, the government says its own people aren't doing enough to stop illegal entry. That story, straight ahead on LIVE FROM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) PHILLIPS: Words of optimism from Iraq's president. At a Baghdad news conference, Jalal Talabani said that he looks forward to a time when Iraq can handle its own security, maybe as soon as the end of the year. In his words, "God willing, the Iraqi armed forces will, at the end of the year, take over all of the security in all the Iraqi provinces."
Well, a U.S. Marine who has been linked to the deaths of Iraqi civilians has filed a suit against a member of Congress. Staff Sergeant Frank Wuterich accuses Congressman John Murtha of spreading what the Marine calls, "false and malicious lies." The suit also claims Pentagon officials deliberately gave Murtha false information about the incident.
Murtha, himself a former Marine, is an outspoken critic of U.S. policy in Iraq. In media interviews, including here on CNN, Murtha has accused Marines of intentionally killing 24 civilians in Haditha last November and then trying to stage a cover-up.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. JOHN MURTHA (D), PENNSYLVANIA: There's no question in my mind, the highest level of the Marine Corps has come to me and told me what happened and there's no question in my mind exactly what happened. It is the transparency which is so bad.
This happened on November 19th and they knew about it two days later. They knew exactly what happened, and all this time they've tried to confuse the whole thing. Now, they're blaming me for bringing it out. If I hadn't brought it out, I'm not sure it would have come out.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Congressman Murtha has released a statement in response to the lawsuit filed against him: "I don't blame the staff sergeant for lashing out." He says, "When I spoke up about Haditha, my intention was to draw attention to horrendous pressure put on our troops in Iraq and to the cover-up of the incident.
The military's investigation of the Haditha Killings is almost complete. The A.P. quotes an unnamed Pentagon official who says evidence supports claims that the Marines involved deliberately shot unarmed civilians.
Our senior Pentagon correspondent Jamie McIntyre reports if criminal charges are filed against the Marines, proving their guilt will not be easy.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SR. PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Defense attorneys say that killings of 24 civilians at Haditha, including unarmed women and children, may have been justified under military law. The Marines who are now under investigation for the deaths claim, according to their lawyers, they were in hot pursuit of insurgents. And those attorneys argue that just because innocents may have died doesn't automatically mean the Marines did anything unlawful.
GARY MYERS, ATTORNEY FOR HADITHA MARINE: To use an old Vietnam expression, "To save the village, we had to destroy it." And that's the problem.
MCINTYRE: As harsh as it seems, the killing of unarmed civilians in warfare can be considered justified, but according to experts in the law of war, only if the deaths were unavoidable and the military objective important enough.
LT. COL. GARY SOLIS (RET.), FORMER MILITARY JUDGE: Proportionality says that the death and wounding of civilians, the destruction of civilian property, may not be disproportional to the concrete military advantage to be gained.
MCINTYRE: Gary Solis is a former Marine trainer and retired military judge. He says the Marines at Haditha had a right to protect themselves if they honestly believed armed insurgents were among the civilians.
SOLIS: Well, the law of war is not a suicide pact. At some point, you have to make the decision to fire or not fire.
MCINTYRE: The investigation is not over, but should any of the Marines be charged, defense attorneys say they will argue the military objective -- hunting down insurgents who detonated a deadly roadside bomb -- was worth the risk to civilians who were in the houses from which the Marines say they were taking fire.
If the case goes to court, prosecutors would likely counter that the use of indiscriminate gunfire and grenades to clear houses was a disproportionate application of force, given the uncertainty about who was inside.
It's a much less clear-cut case, experts say, than the June 8th precision airstrike that killed al Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab al- Zarqawi, who was in a house with several civilians, including two women and a child.
SOLIS: Is Zarqawi worth five non-combatants? Well, obviously, the decision was made yes, he is. And I don't have any problem with that decision, although one has to regret the death of non-combatants, particularly women and children. Is Zarqawi worth 10, 20, 50? How many is he worth? Someone has to make that hard call.
MCINTYRE (on camera): The contention that the civilians killed at Haditha were an inadvertent tragedy of war and not victims of murder hinges on a second argument, as well -- that the Marines were under the honest belief that they faced a deadly threat from the houses they attacked and had to make quick decisions under the stress of combat.
Jamie McIntyre, CNN, the Pentagon.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Well, straight ahead, steamy oppressive, dangerous heat. The East Coast seeks relief from triple digit temps and Tropical Storm Chris. Will it be our first hurricane of the year? The third hour of LIVE FROM is straight ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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