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Cleanup Operations Continue in Falluja; Hostage Killed?; Clinton Library to be Dedicated Tomorrow

Aired November 17, 2004 - 10:32   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: We are just about 32 minutes past the hour. Welcome back. I'm Daryn Kagan.
RICK SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Rick Sanchez.

Here's what's happening now in the news. We are told that President Bush is going with a trusted aide to be the next education secretary. Mr. Bush is expected to nominate Margaret Spellings to replace Rod Paige. Spellings has served as the president's domestic policy adviser since he took office. She also worked for Mr. Bush when he was governor of Texas, developing education policy. At the White House, she was a key author of the "no child left behind" plan.

There was one turkey left behind at the White House, though. Just moments ago, the president pardoned the national thanksgiving turkey. The holiday tradition was started by President Truman. That was back in 1947. Instead of winding up on a platter next Thursday, this bird will be given to a Virginia petting zoo.

Big news from the business world, Sears Roebuck and Company will emergency with K-mart in a $11 billion stock deal. Both companies have lost ground in recent years as other discount retailers have grown, and both the K-mart and Sears logos will live on as separate name brands.

A record has been set in the skies over Southern California. NASA's unmanned scram jet shattered speed records yesterday when it flew nearly 7,000 miles an hour. That's almost 10 times the speed of sound. The results raised hopes of developing a new generation of spacecraft that would be vastly cheaper than what we use with today's technology.

KAGAN: And now to the fight for Iraq. A top U.S. commander says the situation in Mosul is fairly calm right now, with some isolated incidents of guerrilla activity. U.S. and Iraqi forces launched and offensive in the northern city after insurgents attacked police stations and other government buildings last week.

Cleanup operations continue in Falluja, which may be under control, but there still is sporadic fighting there.

We get an update now from CNN's Karl Penhaul, who is in Baghdad -- Karl.

KARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, there, Daryn. That situation in Mosul has been going on for the best part of a week now, more or less since the offensive on Falluja started. But the two actions are very different. Falluja was a known hotbed of the Iraqi insurgency. Several thousand insurgents were holed up there, and it had, by all accounts, several months to build up defensive positions. The fighting in Mosul seems to have been more spontaneous in nature. The city of Mosul itself many times bigger than the city of Falluja.

As you say, though, today the situation in Mosul seems to be vastly calmer. All the police stations, which had been a to call point of insurgent attack over the last few days, are now under the control of the U.S. military and the Iraqi security forces. We do understand there was a mortar attack on one of those police stations today, but it was empty at the time, so no death there.

There had also been fears by U.S. commanders that the offensive on Falluja may displace insurgents to there parts of Iraq. This is what the U.S. general in commander of Mosul had to say about that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRIG. GEN. CARTER HAM, U.S. ARMY: We expected to see some number of insurgents come north after the fighting started in Falluja. But frankly, we haven't seen a lot of that. We think that most of the insurgents that we're faced with here are local, from the Mosul and the Tigris River Valley, just south of the city of Mosul. Surely, there are some from Falluja, but not in large numbers that we have seen yet.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PENHAUL: What military analysts are saying is that this is very much the nature of guerrilla warfare, that these insurgents aren't going to stand and fight in one place, possibly as they tried to go if Falluja. But we will see flare-ups and violence in many different parts of Iraq, and as the military move into one area, then insurgents are likely to pop up elsewhere -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Karl, any more news about hostage Margaret Hassan, and word yesterday that she was apparently was assassinated?

PENHAUL: Indeed. We understand that that was the information contained in a video that was passed to the Arabic-language broadcast Al Jazeera. Al Jazeera didn't broadcast the video. We haven't seen it, but we understand that officials from the British Foreign Office analyzed that and believe that it is genuine. We understand that that video shows a person, a woman in an orange jumpsuit, kneeling down, her eyes are blindfolded, and a masked man at the back of her is shooting into her head. Her husband has said that he believes it is genuine. He is now saying that he believes Margaret Hassan has died.

KAGAN: A woman who dedicated 30 years of her life to helping the people of Iraq, a true tragedy indeed.

Karl Penhaul from Baghdad, thank you. SANCHEZ: There is an outpouring of emotion in British Isles today for an aide worker apparently killed by militants in Iraq. You were just hearing Daryn and Karl talking about this story, and it really is reverberating throughout the country. Special masses are being held for Irish-born and British Iraqi national Margaret Hassan. A video was believed to show the head of CARE International in Iraq being shot to dealt.

Now Hassan's Iraqi husband still is awaiting for confirmation of her death. He did, though, share this. It's a message for her kidnappers.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TAHSEEN AL HASSAN, HOSTAGE'S HUSBAND: I beg those people who took Margaret to tell me what they have done with her. They can't tell me. They can't call the help line. I need her. I need her back to rest in peace. Margaret lived with me in Iraq for 30 years. She dedicated her life to serving the Iraqi people. Please now, please return her to me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Hassan was kidnapped October 19th. She had been widely praised for her decades' long work to try and bring food and medicine to children in need.

KAGAN: In just a week's time, a half dozen members of President Bush's cabinet have announced plans to resign. Here is a look of the shuffle of those 15 positions. The move started last Tuesday when the White House announced the resignations of Attorney General John Ashcroft and Commerce Secretary Don Evans. There's goes two. The very next day President Bush nominated his replacement for Ashcroft, White House Alberto Gonzalez. Speculation on more resignations announced over the weekend.

And then Monday -- boy, that was a big day -- four more departures were announced -- Secretary of State Colin Powell, Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman, Education Secretary Rod Paige and Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham.

And then day later, Mr. Bush nominated Condoleezza Rice as the next secretary of state.

A senior administration official tells CNN that the president's longtime domestic policy adviser is about to enter the picture. Next hour, Margaret Spellings is expected to be named his choice as education secretary.

Senior administration sources also tell CNN that homeland security Tom Ridge plans to leave his post. That has not been officially confirmed. But what we do know, at 11:05, about 25 minutes from right now, you're going to see President Bush announce the nomination of Margaret Spellings as his next education secretary, and you'll see that live right here on CNN.

We have it all. We have education secretaries, we have turkey pardons, whatever you need.

SANCHEZ: You need your calculator, though, to try to keep up with all of those changes.

Most loved or hated presidents has a new place to check out his own library. You might want to take a look at this. We're going to tell you exactly who we're talking about.

KAGAN: And a penny saved is a penny earned. Coming up later, meet the man who cashed in his copper for some big bucks.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(STOCK MARKET REPORT)

SANCHEZ: Well, you know, lawmakers are focusing on a flu vaccine shortage and keeping it from happening in the future. CDC Director Dr. Julie Gerberding appears before a House panel investigating the shortage just this afternoon. Another CDC official told a Senate panel yesterday that the flu season has been mild so far. But Dr. Mitchell Cohen warns that that could change. And the acting head of the FDA, Lester Crawford, says that Congress needs to provide the money to find new ways to make this flu vaccine, and they'll continue looking into it.

KAGAN: And we're going to continue with taking a look at stories making news coast to coast.

SANCHEZ: Yes. We're going to begin at the Texas-Oklahoma state line. That's where some 25 vehicles were entangled in this massive pile-up. Three people were taken to area hospitals. Northbound Interstate 35 was closed for a while. Not yet clear what triggered this chain reaction of crashes.

KAGAN: The buck stops here at Chicago's O'Hare Airport. You have to look kind of closely, look at the spotlight there. But if you do look closely you can see the deer that wandered into a terminal at one of the busiest airports in the world. Animal control officials say that it had apparently been injured before...

SANCHEZ: Oh there it is, just moved...

KAGAN: Yes. Apparently it was already hurt and so the deer had to be put down.

SANCHEZ: In Los Angeles police are hoping that this thief's luck will run out. They're releasing this surveillance tape of a man breaking into a convenience store and snatching hundreds of scratch- off lottery tickets and some 30 cartons of cigarettes to boot. A police spokesman says those lottery tickets are becoming a popular target of smash and grab burglaries.

KAGAN: These aren't pennies from heaven but rather from the basement collection of Eugene Suki (ph). Over the past 34 years, this man from Lynnhurst, Ohio, has hoarded more than 1 million pennies, that adds up to more than $10,000, weighing some 3.5 tons. So you get the money and a workout all at the same time.

Former President Clinton's home state of Arkansas feeling mighty proud today.

KELLY WALLACE, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Rick, Daryn, they're getting ready for the formal dedication of Bill Clinton's library tomorrow. But we've already had a sneak peek, an inside look at the library coming right up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: And welcome back to CNN LIVE TODAY. Former President Bill Clinton is just weeks removed from heart surgery but he is reveling in a new measure of immortality. In fact, you're looking at it right there. Tomorrow his presidential library is going to be formally dedicated in Little Rock, Arkansas. It will include the highs and lows of his two terms and events, some causes that he's now serving.

And what you're looking at right there is that bridge to the future he always made reference to. CNN national correspondent Kelly Wallace is joining us now from Little Rock with more on this story.

Hey, Kelly.

WALLACE: Hello, Rick. Well, rehearsal is under way here for that formal dedication ceremony tomorrow. You will hear some of that music behind me. But some of us got a sneak peek inside the library museum earlier this morning. And what we found, we found a whole range of features, including the presidential limousine that the former president used during his 1993 inaugural parade, an exact replica of the Oval Office. We are told the only one that exists in the world. Seventy-nine thousand artifact in all. More than 2 million photographs and 80,000 pages of presidential documents, more than any other presidential museum.

There are exhibits capturing the highs and the lows. And there is mention of the impeachment battle in an exhibit titled "The Fight for Power." There is a brief mention of former White House intern Monica Lewinsky and plenty of criticism for independent counsel Kenneth Starr.

When you look at this exhibit in its totality, you do get the sense the former president is trying to convey the message that there were politically motivated attempts throughout his presidency to try and bring him down.

Now Mr. Clinton has said he wanted a building that would capture the imagination of people today and people decades from now. And that's clearly what the architects had in mind when they built this bridge-like structure overlooking the Arkansas River. Most of the reviews of the design have been very, very positive but there have been some critics and the former president joked about that yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) BILL CLINTON, 42ND PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Most people have said it's a beautiful building, a great landmark of 21st Century architecture. And the London "Economist" in typical snide form compared it to a glorified house trailer. And I thought, well, that's me, I'm a little red and a little blue. They got me pretty good there. You know, I like that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALLACE: When it comes to the impact on Little Rock, no debate there, Rick. Since the former president announced he would build his museum and library here in Little Rock in 1997, $800 million of investment in the downtown area -- Rick.

SANCHEZ: Yes. As I was listening to the former president, I'm amazed at how few people that I think we've ever covered have the ability of turning a negative into a positive like he just did right there with that comment about the trailer. It's amazing.

Kelly Wallace, thanks so much for that. By the way, for a closer look at the Clinton legacy and its future, tune in tonight to "LARRY KING LIVE." His guest will be U.S. senator and former first lady, Hillary Rodham Clinton. That's tonight at 9 Eastern, 6 Pacific. Stay with us because we've got a whole lot more as well. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(WEATHER REPORT)

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


Aired November 17, 2004 - 10:32   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: We are just about 32 minutes past the hour. Welcome back. I'm Daryn Kagan.
RICK SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Rick Sanchez.

Here's what's happening now in the news. We are told that President Bush is going with a trusted aide to be the next education secretary. Mr. Bush is expected to nominate Margaret Spellings to replace Rod Paige. Spellings has served as the president's domestic policy adviser since he took office. She also worked for Mr. Bush when he was governor of Texas, developing education policy. At the White House, she was a key author of the "no child left behind" plan.

There was one turkey left behind at the White House, though. Just moments ago, the president pardoned the national thanksgiving turkey. The holiday tradition was started by President Truman. That was back in 1947. Instead of winding up on a platter next Thursday, this bird will be given to a Virginia petting zoo.

Big news from the business world, Sears Roebuck and Company will emergency with K-mart in a $11 billion stock deal. Both companies have lost ground in recent years as other discount retailers have grown, and both the K-mart and Sears logos will live on as separate name brands.

A record has been set in the skies over Southern California. NASA's unmanned scram jet shattered speed records yesterday when it flew nearly 7,000 miles an hour. That's almost 10 times the speed of sound. The results raised hopes of developing a new generation of spacecraft that would be vastly cheaper than what we use with today's technology.

KAGAN: And now to the fight for Iraq. A top U.S. commander says the situation in Mosul is fairly calm right now, with some isolated incidents of guerrilla activity. U.S. and Iraqi forces launched and offensive in the northern city after insurgents attacked police stations and other government buildings last week.

Cleanup operations continue in Falluja, which may be under control, but there still is sporadic fighting there.

We get an update now from CNN's Karl Penhaul, who is in Baghdad -- Karl.

KARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, there, Daryn. That situation in Mosul has been going on for the best part of a week now, more or less since the offensive on Falluja started. But the two actions are very different. Falluja was a known hotbed of the Iraqi insurgency. Several thousand insurgents were holed up there, and it had, by all accounts, several months to build up defensive positions. The fighting in Mosul seems to have been more spontaneous in nature. The city of Mosul itself many times bigger than the city of Falluja.

As you say, though, today the situation in Mosul seems to be vastly calmer. All the police stations, which had been a to call point of insurgent attack over the last few days, are now under the control of the U.S. military and the Iraqi security forces. We do understand there was a mortar attack on one of those police stations today, but it was empty at the time, so no death there.

There had also been fears by U.S. commanders that the offensive on Falluja may displace insurgents to there parts of Iraq. This is what the U.S. general in commander of Mosul had to say about that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRIG. GEN. CARTER HAM, U.S. ARMY: We expected to see some number of insurgents come north after the fighting started in Falluja. But frankly, we haven't seen a lot of that. We think that most of the insurgents that we're faced with here are local, from the Mosul and the Tigris River Valley, just south of the city of Mosul. Surely, there are some from Falluja, but not in large numbers that we have seen yet.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PENHAUL: What military analysts are saying is that this is very much the nature of guerrilla warfare, that these insurgents aren't going to stand and fight in one place, possibly as they tried to go if Falluja. But we will see flare-ups and violence in many different parts of Iraq, and as the military move into one area, then insurgents are likely to pop up elsewhere -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Karl, any more news about hostage Margaret Hassan, and word yesterday that she was apparently was assassinated?

PENHAUL: Indeed. We understand that that was the information contained in a video that was passed to the Arabic-language broadcast Al Jazeera. Al Jazeera didn't broadcast the video. We haven't seen it, but we understand that officials from the British Foreign Office analyzed that and believe that it is genuine. We understand that that video shows a person, a woman in an orange jumpsuit, kneeling down, her eyes are blindfolded, and a masked man at the back of her is shooting into her head. Her husband has said that he believes it is genuine. He is now saying that he believes Margaret Hassan has died.

KAGAN: A woman who dedicated 30 years of her life to helping the people of Iraq, a true tragedy indeed.

Karl Penhaul from Baghdad, thank you. SANCHEZ: There is an outpouring of emotion in British Isles today for an aide worker apparently killed by militants in Iraq. You were just hearing Daryn and Karl talking about this story, and it really is reverberating throughout the country. Special masses are being held for Irish-born and British Iraqi national Margaret Hassan. A video was believed to show the head of CARE International in Iraq being shot to dealt.

Now Hassan's Iraqi husband still is awaiting for confirmation of her death. He did, though, share this. It's a message for her kidnappers.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TAHSEEN AL HASSAN, HOSTAGE'S HUSBAND: I beg those people who took Margaret to tell me what they have done with her. They can't tell me. They can't call the help line. I need her. I need her back to rest in peace. Margaret lived with me in Iraq for 30 years. She dedicated her life to serving the Iraqi people. Please now, please return her to me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Hassan was kidnapped October 19th. She had been widely praised for her decades' long work to try and bring food and medicine to children in need.

KAGAN: In just a week's time, a half dozen members of President Bush's cabinet have announced plans to resign. Here is a look of the shuffle of those 15 positions. The move started last Tuesday when the White House announced the resignations of Attorney General John Ashcroft and Commerce Secretary Don Evans. There's goes two. The very next day President Bush nominated his replacement for Ashcroft, White House Alberto Gonzalez. Speculation on more resignations announced over the weekend.

And then Monday -- boy, that was a big day -- four more departures were announced -- Secretary of State Colin Powell, Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman, Education Secretary Rod Paige and Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham.

And then day later, Mr. Bush nominated Condoleezza Rice as the next secretary of state.

A senior administration official tells CNN that the president's longtime domestic policy adviser is about to enter the picture. Next hour, Margaret Spellings is expected to be named his choice as education secretary.

Senior administration sources also tell CNN that homeland security Tom Ridge plans to leave his post. That has not been officially confirmed. But what we do know, at 11:05, about 25 minutes from right now, you're going to see President Bush announce the nomination of Margaret Spellings as his next education secretary, and you'll see that live right here on CNN.

We have it all. We have education secretaries, we have turkey pardons, whatever you need.

SANCHEZ: You need your calculator, though, to try to keep up with all of those changes.

Most loved or hated presidents has a new place to check out his own library. You might want to take a look at this. We're going to tell you exactly who we're talking about.

KAGAN: And a penny saved is a penny earned. Coming up later, meet the man who cashed in his copper for some big bucks.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(STOCK MARKET REPORT)

SANCHEZ: Well, you know, lawmakers are focusing on a flu vaccine shortage and keeping it from happening in the future. CDC Director Dr. Julie Gerberding appears before a House panel investigating the shortage just this afternoon. Another CDC official told a Senate panel yesterday that the flu season has been mild so far. But Dr. Mitchell Cohen warns that that could change. And the acting head of the FDA, Lester Crawford, says that Congress needs to provide the money to find new ways to make this flu vaccine, and they'll continue looking into it.

KAGAN: And we're going to continue with taking a look at stories making news coast to coast.

SANCHEZ: Yes. We're going to begin at the Texas-Oklahoma state line. That's where some 25 vehicles were entangled in this massive pile-up. Three people were taken to area hospitals. Northbound Interstate 35 was closed for a while. Not yet clear what triggered this chain reaction of crashes.

KAGAN: The buck stops here at Chicago's O'Hare Airport. You have to look kind of closely, look at the spotlight there. But if you do look closely you can see the deer that wandered into a terminal at one of the busiest airports in the world. Animal control officials say that it had apparently been injured before...

SANCHEZ: Oh there it is, just moved...

KAGAN: Yes. Apparently it was already hurt and so the deer had to be put down.

SANCHEZ: In Los Angeles police are hoping that this thief's luck will run out. They're releasing this surveillance tape of a man breaking into a convenience store and snatching hundreds of scratch- off lottery tickets and some 30 cartons of cigarettes to boot. A police spokesman says those lottery tickets are becoming a popular target of smash and grab burglaries.

KAGAN: These aren't pennies from heaven but rather from the basement collection of Eugene Suki (ph). Over the past 34 years, this man from Lynnhurst, Ohio, has hoarded more than 1 million pennies, that adds up to more than $10,000, weighing some 3.5 tons. So you get the money and a workout all at the same time.

Former President Clinton's home state of Arkansas feeling mighty proud today.

KELLY WALLACE, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Rick, Daryn, they're getting ready for the formal dedication of Bill Clinton's library tomorrow. But we've already had a sneak peek, an inside look at the library coming right up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: And welcome back to CNN LIVE TODAY. Former President Bill Clinton is just weeks removed from heart surgery but he is reveling in a new measure of immortality. In fact, you're looking at it right there. Tomorrow his presidential library is going to be formally dedicated in Little Rock, Arkansas. It will include the highs and lows of his two terms and events, some causes that he's now serving.

And what you're looking at right there is that bridge to the future he always made reference to. CNN national correspondent Kelly Wallace is joining us now from Little Rock with more on this story.

Hey, Kelly.

WALLACE: Hello, Rick. Well, rehearsal is under way here for that formal dedication ceremony tomorrow. You will hear some of that music behind me. But some of us got a sneak peek inside the library museum earlier this morning. And what we found, we found a whole range of features, including the presidential limousine that the former president used during his 1993 inaugural parade, an exact replica of the Oval Office. We are told the only one that exists in the world. Seventy-nine thousand artifact in all. More than 2 million photographs and 80,000 pages of presidential documents, more than any other presidential museum.

There are exhibits capturing the highs and the lows. And there is mention of the impeachment battle in an exhibit titled "The Fight for Power." There is a brief mention of former White House intern Monica Lewinsky and plenty of criticism for independent counsel Kenneth Starr.

When you look at this exhibit in its totality, you do get the sense the former president is trying to convey the message that there were politically motivated attempts throughout his presidency to try and bring him down.

Now Mr. Clinton has said he wanted a building that would capture the imagination of people today and people decades from now. And that's clearly what the architects had in mind when they built this bridge-like structure overlooking the Arkansas River. Most of the reviews of the design have been very, very positive but there have been some critics and the former president joked about that yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) BILL CLINTON, 42ND PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Most people have said it's a beautiful building, a great landmark of 21st Century architecture. And the London "Economist" in typical snide form compared it to a glorified house trailer. And I thought, well, that's me, I'm a little red and a little blue. They got me pretty good there. You know, I like that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALLACE: When it comes to the impact on Little Rock, no debate there, Rick. Since the former president announced he would build his museum and library here in Little Rock in 1997, $800 million of investment in the downtown area -- Rick.

SANCHEZ: Yes. As I was listening to the former president, I'm amazed at how few people that I think we've ever covered have the ability of turning a negative into a positive like he just did right there with that comment about the trailer. It's amazing.

Kelly Wallace, thanks so much for that. By the way, for a closer look at the Clinton legacy and its future, tune in tonight to "LARRY KING LIVE." His guest will be U.S. senator and former first lady, Hillary Rodham Clinton. That's tonight at 9 Eastern, 6 Pacific. Stay with us because we've got a whole lot more as well. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(WEATHER REPORT)

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