Return to Transcripts main page

Live From...

Beirut Neighborhood Reels from Strike; Lebanese Army Headed for Border; Arab Delegates Request Change in U.N. Resolution; Violence Continues in Iraq Despite Handover in Tikrit

Aired August 08, 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 the world headquarters at -- here in Atlanta.
Cut off from the world. Parts of Lebanon in desperate need. You'll hear from one aid worker who's risking her life to help the people who need it most.

CNN's John Roberts with Israel IDF. The mission: root out Hezbollah fighters. Details from the battlefield.

And why would his attorney let him talk? An alleged serial killer holds a news conference. He says he's innocent. Take a listen and see whom you believe.

LIVE FROM starts right now.

Well, another story that we're watching this hour. Surgeons in Utah have just updated reporters on the formerly conjoined Herrin twins. It took a 14-hour operation to separate the 4-year-old girls.

Our CNN medical correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen, will join us in just a moment with more on that developing story.

Let's get straight to the newsroom now. Betty Nguyen working details on another developing story for us -- Betty.

BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, we've been watching this, Kyra. Basically, suspicious packages have been found at four different locations in Pittsburgh. Now we understand three of those locations were synagogues. But according to the FBI, those packages are no cause for alarm.

Here's what we know about the packages. They were reported suspicious late this morning with no return address. Now two packages have already been examined and determined to be just harmless mass mailers.

Authorities are still at the sites of two other packages and, based upon the information that they've received so far, authorities expect to find those packages harmless, too.

But again, four different locations, three of them synagogues, suspicious packages at all of them. So far, the FBI says that there's no cause for alarm. They are still investigating two locations where packages were found. But at this point, it didn't seem to be something that they're truly concerned about, though they will check it out. And should it develop into anything more, Kyra, we will keep you posted.

PHILLIPS: Day 28 of the Middle East crisis and Lebanon braces for the worst. Here's what we know right now.

Israel may expand its offensive in Southern Lebanon. The security cabinet will consider it tomorrow. Today, Israel bombed more suspected Hezbollah targets and warned of more attacks to come.

That's especially true in Tyre on the Southern Lebanese coast, which is now a no-drive zone. Israeli forces dropped leaflets over the city, warning people to stay off the roads or risk becoming targets.

Thousands of miles away, a diplomatic battle is taking shape. Arab envoys are at the U.N. Security Council pushing for changes to a U.S.-backed resolution to end the fighting. They want Israel to pull out of Lebanon now.

CNN has reporters all throughout the region, and LIVE FROM will have reports throughout this program.

We begin in Beirut, still reeling from a deadly Israeli attack. Our Anthony Mills is in the Lebanese capital with more -- Anthony.

ANTHONY MILLS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, there is a sense of unease in the capital this evening. It was yesterday evening at around about this time that a strike hit a neighborhood of this capital that had rarely been spared until now.

It was nominally part of the southern suburbs, the Hezbollah stronghold part of the city that has been pounded throughout the course of the crisis. But it was the closest ever to central Beirut.

And the people in that neighborhood, the Shia neighborhood, a primarily a Shia Muslim neighborhood, they felt relatively safe. So the area was fairly full of people. There were people in the building that was hit and also in the street. That explains the casualty figure; internal security forces here telling us that 15 people were killed and 65 injured.

So a sense of shock in that neighborhood but also unease across the whole of the city, among areas that, until now, hadn't been hit. A sense that maybe anywhere at this time could be struck -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Anthony, thanks so much.

Now after almost a month of fighting, Israel might be preparing to fight for a lot more. Our John Vause is in Jerusalem -- John.

JOHN VAUSE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Kyra, the Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, says he'll take a proposal to the security cabinet tomorrow for a vote, whether or not the ground offensive should be extended north to the Litani River. Mr. Olmert says that he was asked -- had this request put to him yesterday by commanders in the northern part of Israel, but that vote will now take place tomorrow.

Also today, the Israeli prime minister responding to that proposal being put forward by Beirut, to send 15,000 troops to the southern part of Lebanon. It seems that this should be greeted favorably by the Israelis, but right now, the Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, is choosing his words very carefully.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

EHUD OLMERT, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: I'm not familiar yet with all the details and what is the assistance needed for the Lebanese army and what would be the structure of the forces that will join the Lebanese army and what will be the strength of these forces and the makeup of these forces; and what are the other conditions, if there are any conditions, that represented by the Lebanese government. So I think that it will be fair to say that we studied these. It looks interesting.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Sources in Jerusalem say they see both positives and negatives in this. On the upside, they say, this is a sign that the Lebanese government is finally willing to act against Hezbollah. And also the fact that two Hezbollah cabinet ministers gave approval to this, they see as an indication that the militant group may be weakening and looking for a way out.

On the downside, there's a great deal of concern whether or not the Lebanese army is willing and able to take on Hezbollah and capable of stopping the rockets from being fired from Southern Lebanon into Israel. Also concerns about how this Lebanese force would work in with a multinational force being discussed by the United Nations, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: John, what do we know about this IDF video that was released, apparently shooting down a Hezbollah drone?

VAUSE: Well, it happened late yesterday. Israeli fighter jets were scrambled once the drone was detected.

Israeli military sources told me that it was a relatively small drone, the wingspan just a few feet. They say it was made in Iran. They do not believe it was carrying a warhead. If it was carrying a warhead, it was a relatively small amount of explosives.

The fighter jet shot it down. It landed in the sea, in the ocean, just off the coastal city of Acco (ph), not far from Haifa.

Now the reason why this was flown, according to the Israelis, they believe it was more propaganda than a military -- military value. And they say this is part of Hassan Nasrallah, the Hezbollah leader, making good on his promises of surprises, also a demonstration of the Hezbollah's military capability -- Kyra. PHILLIPS: John Vause, live from Jerusalem. Thanks, John.

No Israeli pull-out, no deal. That's the case that Lebanon and its allies are making before the U.N. Security Council this afternoon.

CNN's Richard Roth joins me from U.N. headquarters in New York -- Richard.

RICHARD ROTH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, the United Nations Security Council in a couple hours will hear from an Arab delegation coming here with criticism, suggestions, for a proposed Security Council resolution that may go some ways towards ending this crisis. We shall see.

With us is one of the permanent ambassadors, so to speak, representing the United Kingdom on the Security Council. They always have the right to a chair there. Emyr Jones Parry.

Ambassador, what's the status of the resolution? I know you're not supposed to talk publicly about diplomacy and intricacies in public. But where do we stand now after there were suggestions that there would be changes, maybe?

EMYR JONES PARRY, BRITISH AMBASSADOR TO U.N.: Well, there's a resolution on the table. Discussions have taken place with the simply aim of getting this done as soon as possible.

We've stopped the process within the council until we hear this afternoon from this delegation. Right to do that. After that, we'll take account of what they've said, what they've asked for.

And to the extent we can, if there are adjustments to the text, but which preserve the essential structure, if there is some way of actually helping the government of Lebanon, while at the same time keeping the interests of Israel in play, we'll try and do it.

ROTH: Will you put different language in now that Lebanon says it's ready to send thousands of government troops there? Is that enough to change the timetable of the Israeli withdrawal, which the Arab group has a big problem with at this moment?

PARRY: I'm not sure that in itself is enough. Bear in mind the essential requirement for Israel, that there should not be a vacuum in the south of Lebanon. We cannot go back to position where Israel is under attack.

So we need to balance out, but where security is enforced by an international force, by the present United Nations force playing its part, and by an increasing role for the government of Lebanon forces.

Nothing would help the situation more than have the government of Lebanon able to exercise full sovereignty over all its territory and for the armed groups like Hezbollah to be disarmed. That's what the council asked for last year. If we could achieve that, it would be a big step to gaining stability.

ROTH: Everybody wants to know, when's the vote?

PARRY: We want to know as well. Because all of us, really, would like to see this done as soon as possible. The constraints are to make sure that when we do it, that the parties will actually have a very good chance of complying with it.

So we need to listen today. We need to amend the text, if it's going to be amended in the light of that, and then go to a vote. But colleagues are entitled to ask for 24 hours, for the consideration of capitals on the final version. So I would see a text probably on Thursday.

ROTH: All right, thank you very much, Emyr Jones Parry, the ambassador from the United Kingdom.

That is the latest, direct from an ambassador on the Security Council. Back to you, Kyra.

PHILLIP: All right, Richard Roth, thanks so much.

Well, bombings and shootings killed dozens more people in Iraq today, even while an Iraqi army division took the lead in hot spots just north of Baghdad.

Joining me now from the capital, CNN's Harris Whitbeck.

Harris, bring us up to date.

HARRIS WHITBECK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Kyra.

The handover ceremony took place in Tikrit, a military base in Tikrit, which is the homeland of Saddam Hussein. Iraq's 4th Army Division took the lead in that battlefield and that battle space, rather. U.S. military commanders were on hand for that ceremony. The U.S. ambassador was also on hand there.

And U.S. military commanders say that little by little, all 10 of Iraq's army divisions will be in control of the entire battle space. And they expect that to happen by the end of the year.

But no matter who's in control, in charge of security here, the situation continues to be violent in Baghdad. There were attacks today that left 19 people dead. There was also an attack in the town of Samarra near Tikrit where that handover took place.

In Baghdad, one of the bombs went off in a central market during the morning hours, a time when the market was busy with lots of shoppers and shopkeepers. There were 10 people who died in that incident and 69 were wounded.

Two other bombs went off in Baghdad, this time, near the ministry of the interior. Another nine people were killed there. And several others were wounded.

So the security situation, Kyra, particularly in the capital, continues to be quite difficult. The U.N. estimates that about 100 people a day on average are dying in Baghdad in the last several months -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: How about the protests supporting Hezbollah? Do those continue?

WHITBECK: There haven't been any protests since the one that took place this weekend. That was a planned march. It was called by radical Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. That protest surprised many by the sheer numbers of people who were out there. And at the time, people were surprised to see so many Hezbollah flags being flown.

PHILLIPS: Harris Whitbeck, live from Baghdad, thanks.

Well, have you seen 11 missing exchange students from Egypt? The FBI hasn't and would very much like to. They've been in this country for about a week and a half but haven't shown up for any classes.

Our homeland security correspondent, Jeanne Meserve, is in Washington with more.

Jeanne, what's the deal? Were they on an exchange program?

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. The 11 Egyptians did not show up for a cultural exchange program at Montana State University in Bozeman. A law enforcement BOLO, or "be on the lookout", has been issued for them, although the FBI says, quote, "We do not know of any association with any terrorist or criminal groups. There is no threat associated with these men."

And one homeland security official says, quote, "We have run their names through the wringer."

The 11 were part of a larger group of Egyptians who arrived with student visas at New York's Kennedy Airport on July 29. Six went on to Montana State as planned. But when 11 did not, the university reported them even more promptly than they're required to do by law.

Government officials say it shows the system for monitoring student visa holders works. One source says the 11 are believed to have stayed in New York to visit relatives and get jobs, but authorities want to find them and question them and likely kick them out of the country for violating the terms of their visas -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: So, Jeanne, some of them do have relatives in the United States?

MESERVE: That's right, that's right. Because, of course, they went through the visa application process, answered questions there, filled out forms. So there is a significant amount of information about these individuals already on file.

PHILLIPS: All right. Jeanne Meserve, thanks.

Stay tuned to CNN day and night for the most reliable news about your security.

Straight ahead, surgeons in Utah give two little girls new lives, separate lives. Stay with us. An update on their surgery straight ahead on LIVE FROM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Cribs of their own, for the first time in their lives. Four-year-old Kendra and Maliyah Herrin are sleeping separately today after almost 16 hours of surgery in Utah.

The girls were born joined at the midsection with only one kidney between them. They also shared one set of lungs, one pair of legs, a pelvis and liver. Doctors say so far, so good.

Parents are taking it one day at a time, though.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAKE HERRIN, TWINS' FATHER: We've thought about it forever, the last four or five years. And just knowing that -- that this journey with them conjoined has ended and -- and we're just about to start a brand-new one. And that's -- this is just a new beginning, a new birth.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Well, the girls already have undergone some reconstructive surgery. There's more to come. Our medical correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen, is following their every move.

So, what's next?

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: What's next is that they have to recover many from the surgery. And that's going to take two or three months. You can imagine a surgery that took that long, with so much that needs to be separated.

Now there have been about 250 conjoined twin separations in which one or both of the twins survived, since the '90s. However, this one's a little bit different. As you can see, they are joined at the midsection. The girls share quite a bit, including one kidney. And I'll get to that later, how they -- how they dealt with that issue. But this made for an especially tricky separation surgery. However, the surgeons said afterward that everything had gone very well.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Kendra and Maliyah are now back in the ICU in separate beds. And they're doing very, very well. Surgery went extremely smoothly. It was long, but no surprises. I don't think it could have gone better. We're thrilled.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COHEN: Now, as I mentioned, the girls shared quite a bit, because they were attached at the midsection, where obviously so many organs are. They shared one kidney, just one kidney. They're now 4 years old. And so for 4 1/2 years, they've been sharing just one kidney. They shared a liver, one set of legs between them. And so that made this an especially difficult surgery.

PHILLIPS: So how do you decide who gets what in that type of situation and can you actually divide those organs at that age and hope that they grow separately? Does that make sense?

COHEN: Sure. It sounds like a Solomon-like decision, doesn't it?

The big decision had to do with the kidney. With the liver, they were able to split it, and each girl got half of the liver. And the liver regenerates. So that -- it will grow back and they'll each have a full liver at some point.

As we said, shared liver, legs, part of the large intestine and the kidney. So that the liver was split in half. They were each given one leg. And they will receive a prosthetic second leg later on down the way.

The tricky thing, as I said, the kidney. And the kidney went to one of the -- will go to Kendra. And Maliyah right now, as we speak, is on dialysis. She does not have a kidney. And it went to Kendra because it was more connected to her. It just made more sense medically to give it to her.

Maliyah, in a couple of months, when she is ready to handle it, will be given her mother's kidney. Her mother is going to donate a kidney to her. But for the next couple of weeks or even months, she will be on dialysis.

And so the girls are, as we said, 4 years old. Now what's interesting, most of these conjoined twin stories that we've talked about over the years, they're much younger. Twins are usually separated at between 6 and 12 months. But because of the kidney situation, they decided that they really ought to wait until they were 4 1/2.

But as I said, they've been planning for this surgery since before they were born. I mean, they've known about this and thought about it.

PHILLIPS: Wow. So the next big surgery, then, will be when mom gives her baby her kidney?

COHEN: Right, and she can get off -- hopefully get off dialysis.

PHILLIPS: That's incredible. All right, Elizabeth, thanks.

COHEN: Thanks.

PHILLIPS: Let's get straight to the newsroom. Betty Nguyen working details on a developing story -- Betty.

NGUYEN: Yes, this is an interesting one. On the day of the Connecticut -- it's the Senate primary, Joe Lieberman says his web site has been hacked and that it's causing major disruptions, not only with the web site but with his e-mail. And he blames his challenger, Ned Lamont, for causing these problems.

Let me just read you a statement from the Lieberman campaign, this from the campaign manager, saying, "For the past 24 hours, the Friends of Joe Lieberman's web site and e-mail have been totally disrupted and disabled. We believe that this is the result of a coordinated attack by our political opponents. The campaign has notified the U.S. attorney and will be filing formal complaints reflecting our concerns."

Also goes on to say, "This type of dirty politics has been the staple of the Lamont campaign," referring to Ned Lamont, the challenger, "from the beginning, from the nonstop personal attacks to the intimidation tactics and offensive displays to these coordinated efforts to disable our web site."

After this web site was attacked, the Lieberman campaign called the Democratic state party chair and ask that the Lamont campaign call off its cyber allies.

Now, all of these claims, mind you, Kyra, coming from the Lieberman camp. Again, on today, the primary, where voters are, you know, placing their votes on who they want to represent them, whether it be Joe Lieberman or Ned Lamont.

We do have to tell you that CNN has tried to contact the Lamont campaign. We're making those calls as we speak. This information just coming to us now. We do have correspondents on the ground to get to the bottom of this.

Lieberman says Lamont is responsible for this web site attack, shutting down not only the web site but the e-mails. We'll see if that's true or not. As soon as we get that information in, we'll bring it to you.

PHILLIPS: All right. Thanks, Betty.

Well, still to come, pipeline problems and high gas prices. What are you saying about the cost of a fill-up? More LIVE FROM in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: At $3.03 and holding. The average price of a gallon of regular unleaded gas, as quoted by AAA a day after BP broke the news about Prudhoe Bay. That price is not expected to hold very long.

Our Alina Cho is following BP's problems, which are yours and my problem, too, by the way.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TAMIKA STAFFORD, MOTORIST: When I was (UNINTELLIGIBLE) put $75 in this car just this week, $75. ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): And don't expect relief from those gas pains anytime soon. BP is shutting down its Prudhoe Bay oil field in Alaska. It found corrosion so severe it's replacing 16 miles of pipeline. That means 400,000 fewer barrels of oil being pumped each day, an eight percent drop in U.S. oil production, some 2.5 percent of the total U.S. oil supply.

BOB MALONE, CHAIRMAN AND PRESIDENT, BP AMERICA: On behalf of the BP group, I apologize for the impact this has had on our nation and to the great state of Alaska. BP will commit the necessary human and financial resources to complete this job safely and as quickly as possible.

CHO: The West Coast will take the biggest hit. Some 25 percent of its oil comes from Alaska.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's important that all these companies at all the different levels need to be accountable and responsible. Ultimately, it's affecting all of us.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't know how long will it take of increasing the prices.

CHO: Just how long will it take to bring the nation's biggest oil field back online? Weeks? Months?

MALONE: We will not commit to a date. This is going to be based upon when we can safely restart some of these lines.

CHO: BP is under investigation for a massive oil spill at Prudhoe Bay back in March and for an explosion and fire at a Texas refinery last year, which killed 15 people.

As for the 16 miles of corroded pipeline discovered at Prudhoe Bay, federal regulators say it hadn't been cleaned and tested properly since 1992.

AXEL BUSCH, ENERGY ANALYST: It is damaging, not the least because it's part of a series of incidents. It's not a stand-alone, a stand-alone accident. Accidents will happen. When you have a number of them, people will start asking questions.

CHO: Alina Cho, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: High gas prices are bearable, so long as gas is available. So say respondents to a CNN poll conducted by Opinion Research Corporation. It shows more than one-third of Americans are worried about pricey gas. But more than half are more concerned that long lines and rationing.

Asked whether gas prices are causing hardships for their families, almost two-thirds say yes. The poll was conducted last week before BP announced its oil field shutdown. Well, oil prices surged close to record highs yesterday after BP shut down a huge oil field in Alaska. Susan Lisovicz, live from the New York Stock Exchange with a look at what oil prices are doing today and more on the company at the center of this controversy.

Hey, Susan.

SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Kyra.

Well, crude oil is retreating just a bit. Now trading at $76.90 a barrel. So about 13 cents from the all-time closing high. This, of course, after BP shut down the Prudhoe Bay Alaska oil field. That field draws about eight percent of all U.S. oil production.

The Prudhoe Bay field, almost 30 years old. But its pipelines were designed to last 25 years. This points to a potentially huge problem for the entire U.S. energy industry. The infrastructure of the whole system is aging, and critics say it has not been well maintained.

Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said today it will take months for normal shipments to resume and that the costs of repairs should fall on industry, not consumers. But he said it may not be necessary to shut down the entire field.

As for BP this is just one of a series of setbacks. In March, a corroded pipe spilled more than 200,000 gallons of oil in the same Alaskan oil field. That spill was the largest since oil production began on the North Slope in 1977 and prompted a wave of state and federal investigations, including a criminal probe by the Environmental Protection Agency.

Separately, an explosion last year at a BP refinery in Texas killed 15 workers and injured many more.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com