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Who's Blogging Now?; Crisis in the Middle East
Aired August 16, 2006 - 13:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: A new blog popped up on the Net just a few days ago. Nothing revolutionary, but the blogger tells some childhood stories, shares some photos. The unexpected part is what this blogger does for a living.
CNN's Aneesh Raman is on the line from Tehran.
Aneesh, I'm wondering if you got on the blog and e-mailed the president.
ANEESH RAMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I haven't done that just yet. My Internet connection is a little slow at the hotel we're at. But I did go out to some Internet cafes to get a sense whether Iranians are doing it.
First, we went to one of the busiest squares in Tehran. And literally everyone we spoke to had no idea that this blog had popped up. It did so with very little fanfare, that of the president over the weekend. Some of them said they were interested. They would go to this site.
At the Internet cafe, they were more aware of blog was there. They showed us the blog. They walked us through.
There's an online poll, by the way, asking whether people think the U.S. and Britain are brining about World War III, and interestingly, at least, the opinion is split. It's 49 percent at the moment that say yes, 50 that say no.
We got a sense, really, that people think this is something that could be good. But what matters most, everyone told us, is whether the president will respond. His last post was last Friday. Those that have put in questions haven't heard back yet. And whether any of this will matter really in affecting how he deals with the world. These are tense times in Iran. There's a lot for the country to confront domestically and internationally. And so people are waiting to see if this is anything more than a publicity stunt.
PHILLIPS: And you know, we talked a little bit about this yesterday, Aneesh, the fact that he has been accused of torturing and locking up bloggers, journalists that say anything negative about his regime, yet here he is, using the same type of technology. Why now? Why do you think he's doing this?
RAMAN: I think we've seen Mahmoud Ahmadinejad rise in an unexpected victory in the presidential post as a popular figure. He did so largely by embracing the country's poor, promising economic progress. He has yet to really deliver anything sustainable in terms of economic progress domestically, and he's taken on, instead, more of an international role, both with what's happening with Lebanon, also of course with Iran's nuclear disputes. So it seems he's trying to expand his support, aware he needs to broaden it. So the majority youth -- the median age here is about 25 years old. The youth tend to be more moderate, and so he's trying with this blog to connect with them. They're a bit skeptical. And when you talk to kids at the Internet cafe, most of them who are paying for their time there are going there to play games. It's a way that they can online chat with the opposite sex in ways that they can't so freely out on streets. And so finding out more about their president's past is not high on the list at the moment, at least from those that we spoke to at the Internet cafe.
PHILLIPS: Aneesh Raman, let us know if you send e-mails on the blog and if you get us a response, all right?
RAMAN: Will do.
PHILLIPS: All right. Well, the way back home, it's long, slow and dangerous, but that's not stopping thousands of Lebanese refugees, even if they have no homes to go back to.
CNN's Beirut bureau chief Brent Sadler reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRENT SADLER, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): The Litani River, south Lebanon, a strategic boundary for Israel during the fighting. This stretch has turned into a chokepoint for stranded trucks and cars. Their desperation to reach home turns into determination to defeat the river.
Even if my farm is damaged, he says, I just want to see it.
The river is narrow and shallow here. So one by one they attempt to cross. Some vehicles splutter to a halt. But no one's giving up. As men join hands to muscle a truck laden with family belongings to safety.
The roads leading to south Lebanon are jammed with vehicles. They are packed with people who have chosen to make a frustrating and perilous journey, forced to take uncertain detours around vital bridges that Israel destroyed to cut Hezbollah's supply lines.
And they risk death from unexploded bombs. Despite the setbacks and possibility they will find their homes destroyed at the end of this journey, they speak with one voice.
God strengthen the resistance, he says. The resistance of Hezbollah whose Katyusha rockets, like these scaled-down models, were damaged, but not destroyed.
For the first time since major battles stopped, it's been possible for Lebanese Red Cross teams to reach a line of bomb blasted villages that face Israel along what seems to be a lifeless border. They are looking for more of Lebanon's dead.
This is where Israel pulverized Hezbollah strongholds, reducing one village after another to rubble. It still feels a dangerous place to be.
(On camera): This whole area has been heavily destroyed. This really is one of Hezbollah's front lines. They're now taking us to see what they say are civilian casualties as a result of the Israeli strikes.
(Voice-over): They make a grim discovery. Four decomposing bodies lie in the scorching heat. Two men, two women killed, they say, when Israeli troops and armor punched through the village facing a deadly storm of Hezbollah fire.
(On camera): The bombardments were so intense in this area that civil defense workers and the Red Cross simply couldn't make it here. This really was a killing zone. And with each body they bring out of these destroyed villages, the death toll in Lebanon rises one by one.
Brent Sadler CNN, Tibae (ph), south Lebanon.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Third grade science turned upside down, like the universe. Our planetary roster may be expanding. Find out how, on CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: State of emergency near Casper, Wyoming: A fast-moving wildfire just five miles south out of that city. Hundreds of homes have been evacuated, and more firefighters are trying to protect them. The main concern today, high winds.
In Bend, Oregon, it's the smoke. People with asthma or heart conditions are being urged to limit their time outside until the fire around the lake -- or around Lake George, rather, is finally out.
(WEATHER REPORT)
PHILLIPS: Well, you learned it in elementary school. Earth's solar system has nine planets. That could soon be old school. New school would be 12. It depends on the verdict from an astronomy conference that's under way in Prague. And Charon, one of Pluto's moons, might be named a planet in its own right, along with an asteroid named Ceres and 2003 UB13, the farther known object in the solar system. Even more bodies could eventually make the list, depending on how the conference decides to define planet. The big decision is expected next week. We'll, of course, keep you posted.
And of all the planets, Pluto may get the least respect. Maybe because of the name, first given to the Roman god of the underworld; not, we might add, to Mickey Mouse's dog. We found out some other reasons for Pluto's poor standing in the solar system.
Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Almost from the moment that Pluto was discovered in 1930 by Kansas native Clyde Tombaugh, astronomers have fiercely debated whether it should even be classified as a planet. Nearly five billion miles away, Pluto is further from the sun than any of the other eight planets in the solar system.
It's also the smallest, about two-thirds of the size of the Earth's moon. Because of Pluto's eccentric orbit, it takes the planet 248 Earth years to circle the sun.
And its off-center orbit in relation to the sun is the reason that Pluto periodically crosses the orbital path of Neptune. Before that happened the last time in 1999, Pluto was actually the eighth planet from the sun. Now it will be the ninth for 221 years.
Pluto's erratic orbit and tiny size are two of the main reasons some astronomers argue it isn't a true planet. The last time an international gathering of astronomers attempted to kick Pluto out of the planetary posse, in 1990, they faced the wrath of, among others, schoolchildren in Streator, Illinois. They mounted a letter-writing campaign in defense of their hometown hero, Pluto discover Clyde Tombaugh. Their school now displays a banner that reads "St. Anthony's: The School That Saved Pluto."
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NEIL ARMSTRONG, ASTRONAUT: That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: One of the most indelible recordings of our time is missing. NASA can't find the original tape of the first moon landing with Neil Armstrong's famous small step line. Hundreds of boxes of Apollo transmissions were apparently misplaced about a year ago, and today on CNN's AMERICAN MORNING, the chairman of the Smithsonian Institution's space history division explained the mission to find the missing tapes.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROGER LAUNIUS, SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION: They went to the National Archives at one point. They were called back by NASA for a while and maybe went back to the National Archives. We're not quite sure of that. And when they go to the National Archives, we're talking about billions of documents and millions of boxes of material. It's not an easy task sorting out exactly where they might be.
And the reality is, if you recall the movie "Raiders of Last Ark," that last scene where they roll the ark in a box into this nondescript warehouse, that's not too far off from some of the federal record centers that I've seen.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Well, Armstrong's transmission was downlinked to tracking stations in Australia and California before being broadcast around the world in July of 1969.
A notorious Mexican drug lord captured by U.S. authorities. Hear how the Coast Guard took him down. We're expecting a live press conference from the DEA's office, straight ahead. We'll bring it to you live.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Israel's foreign minister says that her country's conflict with Hezbollah isn't over yet. She's at the United Nations today, and so is our senior U.N. correspondent Richard Roth -- Richard.
RICHARD ROTH, CNN SR. U.N. CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, the Israeli foreign minister says that the war is not over because, she says, the resolution is being violated. The fact that prisoners that were abducted, Israeli soldiers, have not been returned yet, she says not living up to that resolution approved Friday night by the Security Council.
The foreign minister did meet with Secretary-General Kofi Annan. She said to journalists afterwards, "This is the moment of truth for the international community." She says UNIFIL, the expanded, beefed- up, enhanced U.N. force, will have to play a key role, assisting Lebanon in sealing the border so that illegal arms do not come in from Syria and Iran.
I asked her about reports..
ROTH: She says UNIFIL, the expanded, beefed up, enhanced U.N. force, will have to play a key role assisting Lebanon in sealing the borders so that illegal arms don't come in from Syria and Iran. I asked her about reports that Israel might not accept certain countries that don't have diplomatic relations with Israel serving in that U.N. peacekeeping mission.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TZIPI LIVNI, ISRAELI FOREIGN MINISTER: It's going to be a mixed force. We expect also some European states to contribute forces to this international force, and it can be also mixed with some Muslim states. But, of course, it should be stated we have certain -- that are not part of Israel's enemies in a way, but it's going to be mixed force and I don't want to say about -- one state, yes, or the other, no, right now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROTH: There will be a major troop contributors meeting tomorrow at the United Nations, getting offers and commitments from countries to send troops to help UNIFIL as Israel slowly withdraws from southern Lebanon. The foreign minister of Israel said Israel and Lebanon are really on the same side.
On the other side, it's Syria, Hezbollah and Iran. She says the international community must do something about Hezbollah and the funding they get from Iran. As soon as damage is done by Israel, she says Iran is ready to write a check and send it, sends the wrong message to the Lebanese people -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: It's a terrifying scenario -- nuclear power plants becoming targets of a 9/11-style attack. Are they strong enough to survive? You won't be surprised that anti-nuclear activists and the government disagree.
CNN's Jonathan Freed reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MICHAEL HAY, NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION: Got homework to do?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't have any homework to do.
HAY: No? I bet you do.
JONATHAN FREED, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Michael Hay isn't worried about living near a nuclear power plant. That's because it's his job to ensure they're safe.
HAY: It has never concerned me to live near a plant.
Good morning, how are you?
FREED: Hay is a senior project engineer with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, overseeing security at plants like this, Waterford 3, near New Orleans. The NRC and Waterford's operator, Entergy, don't normally allow cameras inside nuclear plants, but agreed to let CNN follow Hay on his rounds to try to counter concerns the country's nuclear power facilities aren't adequately protected since September 11.
HAY: Prior to 9/11, you know, I will tell you that security didn't get as much attention as what it gets today.
FREED: This is the heart of the plant, the nuclear reactor that transfers energy to the electricity generators, and the building next to it where they store the used but still dangerously radioactive nuclear fuel, sitting in 40 feet of water to keep it cool.
(on camera): The reactor is in the round building.
HAY: That's correct.
FREED: The spent fuel rods are stored in the square building.
HAY: Right.
FREED: The public wants to know, how safe are these facilities? Could they withstand a 9/11-style attack or something similar?
HAY: Well, the NRC has conducted site-specific engineering studies. And based on those studies, it's our conclusion that the probability of damaging fuel that would result in a significant radiological release that could possibly harm the public is extremely low.
FREED (voice-over): Nuclear watchdog groups disagree and say spent fuel pools are especially vulnerable because their buildings are not as strong as those protecting reactors.
DAVID KRAFT, NUCLEAR ENERGY INFO. SERVICE: Frequently, a spent fuel pool building will have concrete walls but maybe only 18 inches thick, whereas the reactor towers themselves would be 36 to 48 inches thick.
FREED: While the NRC concedes some pool buildings are less reinforced, it says most are low-profile targets, often shielded by the reactor complex, more difficult to hit from the air.
Hay insists operators would have plenty of time to react even if an airliner hit the buildings because, he says, the control room is protected like a bunker. In fact, while CNN was touring the control room, the plant's computer system did not recognize a security badge worn by a member of our crew. A guard in SWAT gear holding a machine gun appeared at the door.
Hay insists the NRC has required operators like Entergy to invest millions of dollars upgrading security in the last few years, including new bullet-resistant guard stations around the site.
HAY: We've also added more armed guards to these facilities. We've increased their training requirements.
FREED: The NRC insists all nuclear plants are capable of defending against what it calls "a determined terrorist ground assault." As for sabotage, the NRC says if it ever happened, it would not cause an instant catastrophe like some might expect.
HAY: Nuclear accidents don't happen instantaneously where you've damaged your core and you have a release. It takes a long time for the progression of those sorts of accidents and so, you know, an operator that might come here and even attempt to do something like that would never have the time to accomplish it.
FREED: Hay says it would take hours or even days for a crisis to develop, giving other operators and the plant's computer system time to stop it. The NRC says assault scenarios always factor in insider help, and the plants always pass the tests.
Critics, though, say the tests don't always match real world situations.
KRAFT: Yes, we acknowledge the improvement. Can we keep our nuclear sites secure? I am not so sure yet, I'm not convinced.
FREED: But Mike Hay is, saying he wouldn't gamble with his family's security or anyone else's.
Jonathan Freed, CNN, Taft, Louisiana.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Straight ahead, the airline terror case in court. Investigators try to hold on to the suspects while police search for evidence. We're live from Scotland Yard.
Plus, a notorious Mexican drug lord captured by U.S. authorities. Hear how the Coast Guard took him down. A live press conference from the DEA's office, straight ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: At the top of the hour, we're talking about an infamous, Mexican drug lord. One of the DEA's most wanted is out of circulation. Let's get straight to the newsroom now. Carol Lin has been following all the details on this developing story -- Carol.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: Kyra, we are expecting a live press conference around 2:00 p.m. from the DEA's office to hear more about this, but we're learning more details. The name, Javier Arellano- Felix. He is a reputed Mexican drug lord on the DEA's most wanted list. There was a $5 million reward issued for information leading to his arrest.
And sources are telling CNN, officials familiar with the operation, say that federal agents learned through intelligence that this infamous fugitive was to board a boat called the Doc Holliday
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