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CNN Live Today
Hurricane Ivan Grows to Category 5; Under Fire; Giuliani in Russia
Aired September 09, 2004 - 10:59 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: It's getting very close to 11:00 a.m. on the East Coast. For those of you on the West Coast, close to 8:00 a.m. on the dot. From CNN Center in Atlanta, good morning once again. I'm Daryn Kagan.
Our top story this hour is big, bad. It is Ivan. The hurricane is now a ferocious Category 5, and Florida officials have wasted no time ordering the evacuation of the Keys as a precaution.
If Grenada is any indication, Ivan is a whopper. The storm was a Category 3 when it ravaged the island on Tuesday; 115 mile-per-hour winds damaging 90 percent of the island's buildings. The storm is being blamed for at least 12 deaths on Grenada. One casualty was this ancient stone prison on the island. It is now rubble, and all of the inmates have escaped.
Ivan's intensity has groan 40 percent, with sustained winds of 160 miles per hour. Gusts are topping 200 miles an hour, and it is now steering toward Jamaica. That is where we find our Karl Penhaul. He is in Kingston, after riding out Hurricane Frances in the Bahamas, joining us by phone with preparations from there.
Karl, you should have this hurricane thing down by now.
KARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We would hope so. Because, as you say, this one is a whopper.
This one is way bigger than even the one that pounded Freeport, Bahamas. And certainly, people here in Jamaica are looking toward the event in Grenada to get an idea of what may happen here. They're certainly stunned by those reports that at least 12 people have died on Grenada, and people really here are starting to batten down, according to police, that is, because we have been driving around Kingston today, and so far we haven't seen the first sheet of plywood.
We haven't seen the first person boarding up their windows. And even according to some of the journalists here, working for the local newspaper, they say that, on the one hand, some people are too poor to buy the supplies they need to batten down their homes. And others seem to have this attitude that maybe the hurricane will pass away.
But talking to police this morning, Daryn, they say that there may be a need to evacuate 300,000 people from low-lying areas off the southeast. But they say that they are going to wait until flooding actually occurs before they do that. But that will be a mammoth task to try to evacuate 300,000 people if 160-mile-an-hour winds lash up on the shores here.
Currently, Hurricane Ivan, as you say, a Category 5. And the meteorological office here tells us that it's currently lying about 450 miles offshore here. And they expect the first rain squalls and the first winds to begin late evening, and then by the morning we are expected to feel the hurricane-force winds blowing across Jamaica here -- Daryn.
KAGAN: All right. Karl Penhaul, you stay safe.
We will continue the story coverage of Ivan by checking with Orelon Sidney in the weather center -- Orelon.
ORELON SIDNEY, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Thanks a lot.
The 11:00 a.m. advisory from the National Hurricane Center has just came in. The storm is now 430 miles southeast of Kingston. It's moving to the west-northwest at 15, winds 160. This has not changed over the past six hours -- 14.5 north, 71.4 west if you are tracking the storm. And it is a Category 5, of course.
Now, I am going to just read you some of the discussion that came from the hurricane center quickly. They are saying, obviously, that a storm this strong usually does not maintain its strength for -- its peek strength for very long.
So what they are looking at is some fluctuation in strength, obviously, over the next few hours or so, 36 hours. They expect, as the storm works its way towards Jamaica and then across Cuba, they do expect it to encounter two things. Actually three things.
Some sheer it's going to encounter obviously interacting with land. And then the sea surface temperatures here are a little bit cooler than the ones currently under the storm.
So as it moves towards Jamaica, we're still looking at a very strong fluctuating Category 4 or Category 5 storm. As it moves on to the north, then we start to see it potentially weakening, which is excellent news.
The bad news is intensity forecasts are notoriously unreliable. So we are just going to have to keep our fingers crossed with that.
Now, as the storm works its way toward Cuba, all the forecast models -- there are about five of them that they are looking at -- really are very consistent as it heads up towards Jamaica. Once it goes past Cuba, that's when we start to get a little bit of divergence in the track. And that's when we'll have to kind of play it by ear as far as where it might go.
The western, eastern Gulf of Mexico is possible. Obviously Florida is possible. Obviously the Bahamas are possible. But as we go through the next several hours, we'll start to narrow that down a little bit.
Once you get out past 72 hours, you do have to be pretty careful because you could have a potential error of several hundred miles. So we know for sure now Cuba is certainly in the gun sights. Jamaica certainly is.
After that point, then we'll have to be concerned obviously about potential landfall across the United States. And that will be early next week, or perhaps as early as late Sunday -- Daryn.
KAGAN: All right. Orelon, thank you for that. We'll be checking back with you.
Meanwhile, still packing a punch, the remnants of Hurricane Frances whipped through western North Carolina, dumping more than a foot of rain in some areas, causing flooding, mudslides and forced evacuations. Rescue teams were kept busy pulling stranded people and their pets from rising water.
Take a look at this. Pretty much the view that President Bush had when he took an aerial tour of the soggy mess in Florida left behind by Frances just a few days ago. Standing water, no electricity, and destruction all over the place.
Mr. Bush pitched in for a while in Ft. Pierce, alongside his brother, the governor, handing out ice and bottled water. The president also came bearing $2 billion in disaster relief, which is sorely needed by countless hurricane victims.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MIKE BROWN, FEMA DIRECTOR: We are going to use the money we received from Congress yesterday primarily for disaster victim assistance. We've already approved well over 100,000 applications for Hurricane Charley, distributed over $90 million. And for Hurricane Frances, already, we've already registered 62,000 people. So you can see the numbers of victims from these two hurricanes is just staggering.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KAGAN: More than 40 people died in the last two hurricanes, which caused billions of dollars in damage.
We are coming up on six minutes past the hour. Moving on to the White House, which is fighting off new allegations that President Bush received special treatment during his Vietnam-era service in the Texas Air National Guard. A former Texas politician charges in a "60 Minutes" interview that he pulled strings to get Bush into the Guard and keep him out of Vietnam.
Ben Barnes was speaker of the House, the Texas House. Then later Texas lieutenant governor. He says he bumped Bush over several hundred other men, but says he didn't do it at the request of Bush's father, then a Houston congressman.
Barnes is a Democrat and supports John Kerry. But he insists he is only out to set the record straight, not to hurt the president's reelection bid. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BEN BARNES, FMR. TEXAS HOUSE SPEAKER: I would describe it as preferential treatment. There were hundreds of names on the list of people wanting to get in the Air National Guard or the Army National Guard. I think that would have been a preference to anybody that didn't want to go to Vietnam, that didn't want to leave.
We had a lot of young men that left and went to Canada in the '60s and fled this country. But those that could get in the Reserves, or those that could get in the National Guard, chances are they would not have to go to -- to Vietnam.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KAGAN: Well, the Bush campaign is calling this whole issue recycled and insisting the president did fulfill his Guard obligations. Here is senior White House correspondent John King.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN KING, CNN SR. WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): New questions about the president's National Guard service are shifting the campaign focus on Vietnam-era conduct his way and drawing an aggressive White House response. Mr. Bush in June 1973 signed this promise to associate with a new Guard unit when he moved from Texas to enroll at Harvard Business School. If not, he could face possible involuntary order to active duty for up to 24 months.
The "Boston Globe" says its investigation found Mr. Bush did not keep the commitment. But the White House cited documents released months ago that show Mr. Bush was reassigned in October 1973 to inactive Reserve status with a unit in Denver, Colorado, and listed Harvard as his address.
DAN BARTLETT, WHITE HOUSE COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: The fact of the matter is that President Bush would not have been honorably discharged if he had not met his obligations.
KING: A former head of the Air National Guard who reviewed the records for CNN backs the White House.
MAG. GEN. DON SHEPPERD (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: He did everything right. Everything in accordance with what he was supposed to do.
KING: The Pentagon says it recently discovered these records detailing Mr. Bush's early flight training in the Texas Air National Guard. Critics say still missing are logs of what, if any, drills Mr. Bush performed during a four to six-month period in 1972 after he transferred to the Alabama Guard. A group calling itself Texans for Truth launched a new ad campaign suggesting Mr. Bush never showed up.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That was my unit, and I don't remember seeing you there. So I called friends, you know, "Did you know that George served in our unit?" "No, I never saw him there." KING: The White House says dental and pay records prove he did report for duty, and note that liberal Bush critics are bankrolling the ad.
BARTLETT: Their strategy now is that President Bush is ahead in the polls and we are going to try to bring him down. So let's recycle old charges...
KING: In a memo made public Wednesday, however, a commanding officer speculates that when he was trying to transfer to Alabama, Lieutenant Bush was "talking to someone upstairs." Another refers to a superior officer who wanted to sugarcoat Lieutenant Bush's evaluation.
The memos were first reported by "60 Minutes." The officer who wrote them died 20 years ago.
(on camera): The Democratic Party's national chairman says those new memos contradict Mr. Bush's longstanding claim of receiving no special treatment and call into question his credibility now, as well as his conduct back then. The White House says those memos prove nothing and call the Democratic attacks recycled partisan garbage.
John King, CNN, the White House.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KAGAN: To world news now. Terror in Jakarta. A powerful car bomb shook the Indonesian capital today, killing at least eight people and wounding dozens.
The attack happened near the front gate of an Australian embassy. The explosion was so huge it shattered nearly all the windows and seven buildings surrounding the embassy. Indonesia says all indicators point to a group linked to al Qaeda, the same one blamed for the 2002 Bali nightclub bombing.
Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani is in Russia this morning. He is showing solidarity with the people there after a series of terror attacks. Our Ryan Chilcote joins us from Moscow -- Ryan.
RYAN CHILCOTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Daryn, first to talk about a memorial that we attended today in Moscow. This was a memorial for the victims not of the school siege down in southern Russia, but for -- an apartment building bombing that took place in 1999. It took place five years ago to the day on September 9, 1999.
In that attack, 106 people killed. It was the first of a series of apartment building bombings that served as the catalyst for the Russian president not yet then the Russian president, but then Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's decision to send Russian troops into Chechnya. And, of course, it was his decision to send troops into Chechnya that began the war in Chechnya.
Now, moving on to former mayor of New York, Rudy Giuliani, he was here today, has been here this week on a private business. He went to the site of the Moscow theater siege and toured the site. It was visited -- and visited a monument there to the victims of the Moscow theater siege.
He said at that site that he felt very sorry and sympathetic to the Russians for the victims of that, and also for the victims of the attack -- the school siege in Beslan this last week. He said that he had been following events very carefully, that he was very moved, and he condemned it very clearly, saying it is never right to attack innocent people to achieve your means, to advance your cause, and that he believes that no one can recognize a cause that is promoted by such evil means.
Now, the Russian government has been very critical of the United States State Department in particular recently. They accuse the United States of using double standards by calling the -- the people that Russia is fighting in Chechnya rebels and insurgents and separatist, as opposed to what the Russians would like them called, terrorists.
And they also believe that the United States and the U.K., who are both -- who have given political asylum to Chechen rebel leaders, should extradite those people to Russia. And so I asked the former mayor what he thought about this -- this disagreement between the United States and Russia what he would advise to the Russians. Well, this is the advice he had to give to Russia today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RUDY GIULIANI (R), FMR. NEW YORK CITY MAYOR: Maybe what this should say to us is, without reviewing all that history or trying to figure out which was right or which was wrong, because I think any time you let terrorists get rewarded it is wrong, I think we should have a new policy. Our policy should be -- and this is the one President Bush announced back on September 20, 2001 -- that we're not going to accept terrorism.
We're going to stand against it. If you try to advance your political cause by killing innocent human beings, your political cause will be rejected in that context. It won't be rewarded. And, you know, I think that that has to be the thing that comes out of all this.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHILCOTE: And those words will certainly come as -- to the pleasure of the Russians here. Tough words from the former mayor of New York.
A short while later, the Russian foreign minister advised, as he put it, his western partners not to interfere in Russia's internal affairs when he was speaking about Chechnya. So the Russians definitely moving forward, saying that Chechnya is not a matter of debate.
A good example of that is the fact that they say it's just a part of the international war of terrorism. They are going to reject any talks that any western country might suggest -- Daryn.
KAGAN: Ryan Chilcote with the latest from Moscow. Ryan, thank you.
A disturbing question is being pondered. How many deaths make a genocide? New developments in a debate over what to do next in Sudan. We are live coming up next on that story.
Also, death and destruction in China after the worst flooding that country has seen in years. Now the cleanup begins.
And later, a close encounter in New York City. Fashion week continues. We'll take you there when CNN LIVE TODAY returns.
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(STOCK MARKET REPORT)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KAGAN: Harsh words from the Bush administration this morning regarding the ongoing violence in Sudan's Darfur region. State Department correspondent Andrea Koppel joins me now.
Andrea, good morning.
ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN STATE DEPT. CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Daryn.
Harsh words and one word in particular, genocide, uttered by -- for the first time by the Bush administration's top diplomat speaking on behalf of the U.S. government. Secretary of State Powell reporting to the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee on this report which was just completed by a team that was sent out, teams of investigators sent by the U.S. State Department to refugee camps in Chad, neighboring Sudan, and interviewed about 1,100 refugees, Sudanese refugees. They were randomly selected, and this is what Secretary Powell had to say about that report.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COLIN POWELL, SECRETARY OF STATE: When we reviewed the evidence compiled by our team, and then put it beside other information available to the State Department and widely known throughout the international community, widely reported upon by the media and by others, we concluded, I concluded, that genocide has been committed in Darfur, and that the government of Sudan and the Janjaweed bear responsibility, and that genocide may still be occurring.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KOPPEL: Now, the Janjaweed are Arab militias which, according to the U.S. government now, were sent by the Sudanese government as sort of a proxy military force to wipe out many of the black African minorities who live throughout western Sudan in the Darfur region. In particular, the State Department saying there was a calculated strategy by the government of Khartoum and the Janjaweed proxies to decimate their political opponent, part of a deliberate pattern to destroy this targeted group, at least in part, if not in their entirety.
Now, there are four points that the State Department actually made or pulled out of this report that was compiled by State Department investigators. And what they saw from those 11 -- more than 1,100 interviews was the explicit targeting of black Africa, that is non-Arab ethnic groups, the use of racial epithets during these attacks, some of which included, "Kill the slaves, kill the slaves. We have orders to kill all blacks."
There was also the rape of women and young girls. And finally, the fact that more than half of all the refugees had had at least one person in their family killed.
Now, what does this change on the ground in Sudan? At the moment, not a lot. There is debate that is going on up in New York, a closed-door session of the United Nations about a new draft U.N. resolution that the U.S. is circulating there that would try to step up the pressure on the Sudanese government to do what they had been told more than a month ago, and that is to rein in the Janjaweed militia and to stop these attacks on the Sudanese villagers -- Daryn.
KAGAN: Andrea Koppel at the State Department. Thanks for the latest on Secretary Powell.
Let's take a look at other news now from overseas in this morning's world wrap.
Six British soldiers were killed today when their helicopter crashed in the Czech Republic. The troops were taking part in joint military exercises with the Czechs.
Flooding and landslides have killed close to 200 people in southwestern China. The persistent storms forced engineers to discharge millions of cubic yards of water from the massive Three Gorges Dam.
And the future king of Brunei took a teenage bride today. An opulent ceremony that is going to go on several days. The (UNINTELLIGIBLE) crown prince is 30. His bride is 17. Her name is Sara Sala (ph). She is a daughter of a public works employee.
Well, this week, New York City is full of model citizens, you might say, and the designers dressing them. We are live at fashion week coming up.
And later, the war once again takes center stage in the race for the White House, but we're talking the Vietnam War. Your morning's most complete political wrap-up is coming up.
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KAGAN: Well, fall might be almost in the air, but it is springtime in New York City. Fashion week turning Bryant Park into a star-lined runway. Eighty shows are scheduled, and among the designers showing today, Carolina Herrera, joining me now from New York City.
Ms. Herrera, good morning. Thanks for being here with us.
CAROLINA HERRERA, FASHION DESIGNER: Hello. How are you?
KAGAN: I'm doing fantastic, and honored to speak with you. Tell me, please, what are you showing for spring 2005?
HERRERA: Do you want me to talk about the collection?
KAGAN: Yes, please.
HERRERA: I can't hear you very well.
KAGAN: OK.
HERRERA: But let me explain to you what it is all about.
KAGAN: OK.
HERRERA: This -- this is spring 2005. I have a great inspiration from the textiles and the imperial designs and jewels of the '40s. Not the fashion, but of the ambience.
And this collection is full of color. No black. I don't have any trousers. It's all about legs. And I was very happy that it's over. And I think it had a good reaction.
(LAUGHTER)
KAGAN: A big relief, you might say. Why no black this year? Why all color?
HERRERA: I was a little bit -- I think I'm ready for color, so I make this ivory and tangerine and aqua and emerald green. And I think women sometimes like to wear color.
KAGAN: Absolutely. Now, for women who have great legs, they will love your collection. What do you say for women who want to cover up their legs, they don't love their legs?
HERRERA: To show legs. I think they have to show legs, because it's not (UNINTELLIGIBLE). I think it's below the knee. And I think the legs are the last thing to worry in a woman. You can show them.
(LAUGHTER)
KAGAN: So whatever you've got, go ahead and show it. Well, Carolina Herrera, good luck with the collection, 2005, spring. And thanks for giving us a peek at what you were showing the fashion community today in Bryant Park.
HERRERA: Thank you very much. Bye.
KAGAN: Bye.
HERRERA: Thank you.
KAGAN: Well, we'll be doing some political news. Not the politics of fashion, but the politics of politics. And a comment from the vice president starting a firestorm of controversy. At the center of it, the issue of using scare tactics to get votes. Up next, our Bill Schneider takes a look at the politics of fear.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KAGAN: I'm Daryn Kagan in Atlanta. Let's check what's happening right "Now in the News."
The state of Florida is telling people in the Florida Keys get out now. You just have to look at these pictures of Grenada and understand why. Underscoring the urgency of that message, Hurricane Ivan grew from a Category 3 to a Category 5 after smashing up Grenada on Tuesday.
The storm now spinning toward Jamaica. Winds of 160 miles per hour. And depending on the path that it takes, it could arrive in the Keys by Sunday.
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Aired September 9, 2004 - 10:59 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: It's getting very close to 11:00 a.m. on the East Coast. For those of you on the West Coast, close to 8:00 a.m. on the dot. From CNN Center in Atlanta, good morning once again. I'm Daryn Kagan.
Our top story this hour is big, bad. It is Ivan. The hurricane is now a ferocious Category 5, and Florida officials have wasted no time ordering the evacuation of the Keys as a precaution.
If Grenada is any indication, Ivan is a whopper. The storm was a Category 3 when it ravaged the island on Tuesday; 115 mile-per-hour winds damaging 90 percent of the island's buildings. The storm is being blamed for at least 12 deaths on Grenada. One casualty was this ancient stone prison on the island. It is now rubble, and all of the inmates have escaped.
Ivan's intensity has groan 40 percent, with sustained winds of 160 miles per hour. Gusts are topping 200 miles an hour, and it is now steering toward Jamaica. That is where we find our Karl Penhaul. He is in Kingston, after riding out Hurricane Frances in the Bahamas, joining us by phone with preparations from there.
Karl, you should have this hurricane thing down by now.
KARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We would hope so. Because, as you say, this one is a whopper.
This one is way bigger than even the one that pounded Freeport, Bahamas. And certainly, people here in Jamaica are looking toward the event in Grenada to get an idea of what may happen here. They're certainly stunned by those reports that at least 12 people have died on Grenada, and people really here are starting to batten down, according to police, that is, because we have been driving around Kingston today, and so far we haven't seen the first sheet of plywood.
We haven't seen the first person boarding up their windows. And even according to some of the journalists here, working for the local newspaper, they say that, on the one hand, some people are too poor to buy the supplies they need to batten down their homes. And others seem to have this attitude that maybe the hurricane will pass away.
But talking to police this morning, Daryn, they say that there may be a need to evacuate 300,000 people from low-lying areas off the southeast. But they say that they are going to wait until flooding actually occurs before they do that. But that will be a mammoth task to try to evacuate 300,000 people if 160-mile-an-hour winds lash up on the shores here.
Currently, Hurricane Ivan, as you say, a Category 5. And the meteorological office here tells us that it's currently lying about 450 miles offshore here. And they expect the first rain squalls and the first winds to begin late evening, and then by the morning we are expected to feel the hurricane-force winds blowing across Jamaica here -- Daryn.
KAGAN: All right. Karl Penhaul, you stay safe.
We will continue the story coverage of Ivan by checking with Orelon Sidney in the weather center -- Orelon.
ORELON SIDNEY, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Thanks a lot.
The 11:00 a.m. advisory from the National Hurricane Center has just came in. The storm is now 430 miles southeast of Kingston. It's moving to the west-northwest at 15, winds 160. This has not changed over the past six hours -- 14.5 north, 71.4 west if you are tracking the storm. And it is a Category 5, of course.
Now, I am going to just read you some of the discussion that came from the hurricane center quickly. They are saying, obviously, that a storm this strong usually does not maintain its strength for -- its peek strength for very long.
So what they are looking at is some fluctuation in strength, obviously, over the next few hours or so, 36 hours. They expect, as the storm works its way towards Jamaica and then across Cuba, they do expect it to encounter two things. Actually three things.
Some sheer it's going to encounter obviously interacting with land. And then the sea surface temperatures here are a little bit cooler than the ones currently under the storm.
So as it moves towards Jamaica, we're still looking at a very strong fluctuating Category 4 or Category 5 storm. As it moves on to the north, then we start to see it potentially weakening, which is excellent news.
The bad news is intensity forecasts are notoriously unreliable. So we are just going to have to keep our fingers crossed with that.
Now, as the storm works its way toward Cuba, all the forecast models -- there are about five of them that they are looking at -- really are very consistent as it heads up towards Jamaica. Once it goes past Cuba, that's when we start to get a little bit of divergence in the track. And that's when we'll have to kind of play it by ear as far as where it might go.
The western, eastern Gulf of Mexico is possible. Obviously Florida is possible. Obviously the Bahamas are possible. But as we go through the next several hours, we'll start to narrow that down a little bit.
Once you get out past 72 hours, you do have to be pretty careful because you could have a potential error of several hundred miles. So we know for sure now Cuba is certainly in the gun sights. Jamaica certainly is.
After that point, then we'll have to be concerned obviously about potential landfall across the United States. And that will be early next week, or perhaps as early as late Sunday -- Daryn.
KAGAN: All right. Orelon, thank you for that. We'll be checking back with you.
Meanwhile, still packing a punch, the remnants of Hurricane Frances whipped through western North Carolina, dumping more than a foot of rain in some areas, causing flooding, mudslides and forced evacuations. Rescue teams were kept busy pulling stranded people and their pets from rising water.
Take a look at this. Pretty much the view that President Bush had when he took an aerial tour of the soggy mess in Florida left behind by Frances just a few days ago. Standing water, no electricity, and destruction all over the place.
Mr. Bush pitched in for a while in Ft. Pierce, alongside his brother, the governor, handing out ice and bottled water. The president also came bearing $2 billion in disaster relief, which is sorely needed by countless hurricane victims.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MIKE BROWN, FEMA DIRECTOR: We are going to use the money we received from Congress yesterday primarily for disaster victim assistance. We've already approved well over 100,000 applications for Hurricane Charley, distributed over $90 million. And for Hurricane Frances, already, we've already registered 62,000 people. So you can see the numbers of victims from these two hurricanes is just staggering.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KAGAN: More than 40 people died in the last two hurricanes, which caused billions of dollars in damage.
We are coming up on six minutes past the hour. Moving on to the White House, which is fighting off new allegations that President Bush received special treatment during his Vietnam-era service in the Texas Air National Guard. A former Texas politician charges in a "60 Minutes" interview that he pulled strings to get Bush into the Guard and keep him out of Vietnam.
Ben Barnes was speaker of the House, the Texas House. Then later Texas lieutenant governor. He says he bumped Bush over several hundred other men, but says he didn't do it at the request of Bush's father, then a Houston congressman.
Barnes is a Democrat and supports John Kerry. But he insists he is only out to set the record straight, not to hurt the president's reelection bid. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BEN BARNES, FMR. TEXAS HOUSE SPEAKER: I would describe it as preferential treatment. There were hundreds of names on the list of people wanting to get in the Air National Guard or the Army National Guard. I think that would have been a preference to anybody that didn't want to go to Vietnam, that didn't want to leave.
We had a lot of young men that left and went to Canada in the '60s and fled this country. But those that could get in the Reserves, or those that could get in the National Guard, chances are they would not have to go to -- to Vietnam.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KAGAN: Well, the Bush campaign is calling this whole issue recycled and insisting the president did fulfill his Guard obligations. Here is senior White House correspondent John King.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN KING, CNN SR. WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): New questions about the president's National Guard service are shifting the campaign focus on Vietnam-era conduct his way and drawing an aggressive White House response. Mr. Bush in June 1973 signed this promise to associate with a new Guard unit when he moved from Texas to enroll at Harvard Business School. If not, he could face possible involuntary order to active duty for up to 24 months.
The "Boston Globe" says its investigation found Mr. Bush did not keep the commitment. But the White House cited documents released months ago that show Mr. Bush was reassigned in October 1973 to inactive Reserve status with a unit in Denver, Colorado, and listed Harvard as his address.
DAN BARTLETT, WHITE HOUSE COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: The fact of the matter is that President Bush would not have been honorably discharged if he had not met his obligations.
KING: A former head of the Air National Guard who reviewed the records for CNN backs the White House.
MAG. GEN. DON SHEPPERD (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: He did everything right. Everything in accordance with what he was supposed to do.
KING: The Pentagon says it recently discovered these records detailing Mr. Bush's early flight training in the Texas Air National Guard. Critics say still missing are logs of what, if any, drills Mr. Bush performed during a four to six-month period in 1972 after he transferred to the Alabama Guard. A group calling itself Texans for Truth launched a new ad campaign suggesting Mr. Bush never showed up.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That was my unit, and I don't remember seeing you there. So I called friends, you know, "Did you know that George served in our unit?" "No, I never saw him there." KING: The White House says dental and pay records prove he did report for duty, and note that liberal Bush critics are bankrolling the ad.
BARTLETT: Their strategy now is that President Bush is ahead in the polls and we are going to try to bring him down. So let's recycle old charges...
KING: In a memo made public Wednesday, however, a commanding officer speculates that when he was trying to transfer to Alabama, Lieutenant Bush was "talking to someone upstairs." Another refers to a superior officer who wanted to sugarcoat Lieutenant Bush's evaluation.
The memos were first reported by "60 Minutes." The officer who wrote them died 20 years ago.
(on camera): The Democratic Party's national chairman says those new memos contradict Mr. Bush's longstanding claim of receiving no special treatment and call into question his credibility now, as well as his conduct back then. The White House says those memos prove nothing and call the Democratic attacks recycled partisan garbage.
John King, CNN, the White House.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KAGAN: To world news now. Terror in Jakarta. A powerful car bomb shook the Indonesian capital today, killing at least eight people and wounding dozens.
The attack happened near the front gate of an Australian embassy. The explosion was so huge it shattered nearly all the windows and seven buildings surrounding the embassy. Indonesia says all indicators point to a group linked to al Qaeda, the same one blamed for the 2002 Bali nightclub bombing.
Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani is in Russia this morning. He is showing solidarity with the people there after a series of terror attacks. Our Ryan Chilcote joins us from Moscow -- Ryan.
RYAN CHILCOTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Daryn, first to talk about a memorial that we attended today in Moscow. This was a memorial for the victims not of the school siege down in southern Russia, but for -- an apartment building bombing that took place in 1999. It took place five years ago to the day on September 9, 1999.
In that attack, 106 people killed. It was the first of a series of apartment building bombings that served as the catalyst for the Russian president not yet then the Russian president, but then Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's decision to send Russian troops into Chechnya. And, of course, it was his decision to send troops into Chechnya that began the war in Chechnya.
Now, moving on to former mayor of New York, Rudy Giuliani, he was here today, has been here this week on a private business. He went to the site of the Moscow theater siege and toured the site. It was visited -- and visited a monument there to the victims of the Moscow theater siege.
He said at that site that he felt very sorry and sympathetic to the Russians for the victims of that, and also for the victims of the attack -- the school siege in Beslan this last week. He said that he had been following events very carefully, that he was very moved, and he condemned it very clearly, saying it is never right to attack innocent people to achieve your means, to advance your cause, and that he believes that no one can recognize a cause that is promoted by such evil means.
Now, the Russian government has been very critical of the United States State Department in particular recently. They accuse the United States of using double standards by calling the -- the people that Russia is fighting in Chechnya rebels and insurgents and separatist, as opposed to what the Russians would like them called, terrorists.
And they also believe that the United States and the U.K., who are both -- who have given political asylum to Chechen rebel leaders, should extradite those people to Russia. And so I asked the former mayor what he thought about this -- this disagreement between the United States and Russia what he would advise to the Russians. Well, this is the advice he had to give to Russia today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RUDY GIULIANI (R), FMR. NEW YORK CITY MAYOR: Maybe what this should say to us is, without reviewing all that history or trying to figure out which was right or which was wrong, because I think any time you let terrorists get rewarded it is wrong, I think we should have a new policy. Our policy should be -- and this is the one President Bush announced back on September 20, 2001 -- that we're not going to accept terrorism.
We're going to stand against it. If you try to advance your political cause by killing innocent human beings, your political cause will be rejected in that context. It won't be rewarded. And, you know, I think that that has to be the thing that comes out of all this.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHILCOTE: And those words will certainly come as -- to the pleasure of the Russians here. Tough words from the former mayor of New York.
A short while later, the Russian foreign minister advised, as he put it, his western partners not to interfere in Russia's internal affairs when he was speaking about Chechnya. So the Russians definitely moving forward, saying that Chechnya is not a matter of debate.
A good example of that is the fact that they say it's just a part of the international war of terrorism. They are going to reject any talks that any western country might suggest -- Daryn.
KAGAN: Ryan Chilcote with the latest from Moscow. Ryan, thank you.
A disturbing question is being pondered. How many deaths make a genocide? New developments in a debate over what to do next in Sudan. We are live coming up next on that story.
Also, death and destruction in China after the worst flooding that country has seen in years. Now the cleanup begins.
And later, a close encounter in New York City. Fashion week continues. We'll take you there when CNN LIVE TODAY returns.
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KAGAN: Harsh words from the Bush administration this morning regarding the ongoing violence in Sudan's Darfur region. State Department correspondent Andrea Koppel joins me now.
Andrea, good morning.
ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN STATE DEPT. CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Daryn.
Harsh words and one word in particular, genocide, uttered by -- for the first time by the Bush administration's top diplomat speaking on behalf of the U.S. government. Secretary of State Powell reporting to the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee on this report which was just completed by a team that was sent out, teams of investigators sent by the U.S. State Department to refugee camps in Chad, neighboring Sudan, and interviewed about 1,100 refugees, Sudanese refugees. They were randomly selected, and this is what Secretary Powell had to say about that report.
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COLIN POWELL, SECRETARY OF STATE: When we reviewed the evidence compiled by our team, and then put it beside other information available to the State Department and widely known throughout the international community, widely reported upon by the media and by others, we concluded, I concluded, that genocide has been committed in Darfur, and that the government of Sudan and the Janjaweed bear responsibility, and that genocide may still be occurring.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KOPPEL: Now, the Janjaweed are Arab militias which, according to the U.S. government now, were sent by the Sudanese government as sort of a proxy military force to wipe out many of the black African minorities who live throughout western Sudan in the Darfur region. In particular, the State Department saying there was a calculated strategy by the government of Khartoum and the Janjaweed proxies to decimate their political opponent, part of a deliberate pattern to destroy this targeted group, at least in part, if not in their entirety.
Now, there are four points that the State Department actually made or pulled out of this report that was compiled by State Department investigators. And what they saw from those 11 -- more than 1,100 interviews was the explicit targeting of black Africa, that is non-Arab ethnic groups, the use of racial epithets during these attacks, some of which included, "Kill the slaves, kill the slaves. We have orders to kill all blacks."
There was also the rape of women and young girls. And finally, the fact that more than half of all the refugees had had at least one person in their family killed.
Now, what does this change on the ground in Sudan? At the moment, not a lot. There is debate that is going on up in New York, a closed-door session of the United Nations about a new draft U.N. resolution that the U.S. is circulating there that would try to step up the pressure on the Sudanese government to do what they had been told more than a month ago, and that is to rein in the Janjaweed militia and to stop these attacks on the Sudanese villagers -- Daryn.
KAGAN: Andrea Koppel at the State Department. Thanks for the latest on Secretary Powell.
Let's take a look at other news now from overseas in this morning's world wrap.
Six British soldiers were killed today when their helicopter crashed in the Czech Republic. The troops were taking part in joint military exercises with the Czechs.
Flooding and landslides have killed close to 200 people in southwestern China. The persistent storms forced engineers to discharge millions of cubic yards of water from the massive Three Gorges Dam.
And the future king of Brunei took a teenage bride today. An opulent ceremony that is going to go on several days. The (UNINTELLIGIBLE) crown prince is 30. His bride is 17. Her name is Sara Sala (ph). She is a daughter of a public works employee.
Well, this week, New York City is full of model citizens, you might say, and the designers dressing them. We are live at fashion week coming up.
And later, the war once again takes center stage in the race for the White House, but we're talking the Vietnam War. Your morning's most complete political wrap-up is coming up.
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KAGAN: Well, fall might be almost in the air, but it is springtime in New York City. Fashion week turning Bryant Park into a star-lined runway. Eighty shows are scheduled, and among the designers showing today, Carolina Herrera, joining me now from New York City.
Ms. Herrera, good morning. Thanks for being here with us.
CAROLINA HERRERA, FASHION DESIGNER: Hello. How are you?
KAGAN: I'm doing fantastic, and honored to speak with you. Tell me, please, what are you showing for spring 2005?
HERRERA: Do you want me to talk about the collection?
KAGAN: Yes, please.
HERRERA: I can't hear you very well.
KAGAN: OK.
HERRERA: But let me explain to you what it is all about.
KAGAN: OK.
HERRERA: This -- this is spring 2005. I have a great inspiration from the textiles and the imperial designs and jewels of the '40s. Not the fashion, but of the ambience.
And this collection is full of color. No black. I don't have any trousers. It's all about legs. And I was very happy that it's over. And I think it had a good reaction.
(LAUGHTER)
KAGAN: A big relief, you might say. Why no black this year? Why all color?
HERRERA: I was a little bit -- I think I'm ready for color, so I make this ivory and tangerine and aqua and emerald green. And I think women sometimes like to wear color.
KAGAN: Absolutely. Now, for women who have great legs, they will love your collection. What do you say for women who want to cover up their legs, they don't love their legs?
HERRERA: To show legs. I think they have to show legs, because it's not (UNINTELLIGIBLE). I think it's below the knee. And I think the legs are the last thing to worry in a woman. You can show them.
(LAUGHTER)
KAGAN: So whatever you've got, go ahead and show it. Well, Carolina Herrera, good luck with the collection, 2005, spring. And thanks for giving us a peek at what you were showing the fashion community today in Bryant Park.
HERRERA: Thank you very much. Bye.
KAGAN: Bye.
HERRERA: Thank you.
KAGAN: Well, we'll be doing some political news. Not the politics of fashion, but the politics of politics. And a comment from the vice president starting a firestorm of controversy. At the center of it, the issue of using scare tactics to get votes. Up next, our Bill Schneider takes a look at the politics of fear.
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KAGAN: I'm Daryn Kagan in Atlanta. Let's check what's happening right "Now in the News."
The state of Florida is telling people in the Florida Keys get out now. You just have to look at these pictures of Grenada and understand why. Underscoring the urgency of that message, Hurricane Ivan grew from a Category 3 to a Category 5 after smashing up Grenada on Tuesday.
The storm now spinning toward Jamaica. Winds of 160 miles per hour. And depending on the path that it takes, it could arrive in the Keys by Sunday.
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