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Audio Tape Purportedly From Osama bin Laden Appearing on Arabic Web Sites; Dr. Kraft's List

Aired December 16, 2004 - 10:30   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.


RICK SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: It is now 30 minutes after the hour. We do welcome you back. I'm Rick Sanchez.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Daryn Kagan. Let's take a look at what's happening now in the news.

We begin with Osama bin Laden. He may be talking again. This time the Saudi militant is reportedly heard on an audio tape posted on an Arabic Web site. On the tape, Bin Laden assails the Saudi royal family for poverty in the kingdom, and praises the jihadis there. The tape comes on the heels of the December 6th attack on the U.S. consulate in Jeddah.

Viktor Yushchenko says this morning he is sure that the Ukrainian government poisoned him. The opposition presidential candidate told the Associated Press he was poisoned during a lunch with the head of the Ukrainian Security Service. Doctors recently attributed the dramatic disfiguring of Yushchenko's face to dioxin poisoning.

A worker remains trapped in a Texas trench at this hour. Rescuers near Dallas are frantically trying to free the man after the trench he was working in collapsed yesterday afternoon. Rescuers say a massive boulder is hampering their efforts to free him.

Another big business merger to tell you about, Johnson & Johnson announced this morning, it's acquiring Guidant in a $25 billion deal. Johnson & Johnson makes products ranging from band-aids to surgical devices, while the other company specializes in the production of pacemakers and defibrillators.

SANCHEZ: Let's get back to the new audio tape now purportedly from Osama bin Laden. It's appearing on Arabic Web sites all over the world, and if it's found to be authentic, it would just be the latest evidence that Al Qaeda leader is still alive, and he's in hiding.

Our senior Arab affairs editor Octavia Nasr joining us to talk about this.

What do you make, Octavia, of this tape and the timing that comes so close to one of the recent events that he mentions in the tape.

OCTAVIA NASR, CNN SR. ARAB AFFAIRS EDITOR: The timing is very interesting, because he refers to December 6th. This is December 16th. That means within a time frame of 10 days, the man recorded an hour and 14 minute message, and he sent it to someone who was able to post it on the Internet. Arab media, and Arab experts and Jihadis on the Internet are really talking about this man cannot be in hiding. He cannot be on the run. He's somewhere very comfortable. He's somewhere where he can tape all these long messages and send them.

SANCHEZ: Let's try to understand, as citizens of the United States, how this plays in places like Saudi Arabia, and in the Saudi Arabian, "quote, unquote" street. If you look at his as a marketing message, when he lambastes the royal family, and its ties to the United States, what effect does that have on the people who live there? Do they see him as a Robin Hood as a result of this populist message?

NASR: A lot of them do. Research are showing that a huge number of Saudis are sympathetic to Osama bin Laden. Whether they support him or not, whether they carry arms for him or not, that's a different story, but they are sympathetic.

Now it's interesting, we call it the royal family; he calls it the ruling family. And the Arabs, especially in Saudi Arabia, are going to be getting the nuance between royal family and ruling family. He believes this royal family should be overthrown. He believes at the reformist movement should go on. And very interesting how he -- when we think about it, think about it an hour and 14 minutes, that's a long time. But when you think about it, people sit down and listen to the message from beginning to end, and then they comment on it.

SANCHEZ: He's trying to spark a revolution.

KAGAN: Well, and he is. And Nic Robertson, I think, made an interesting point in the last hour in the difference in going to the Internet versus going to Al Jazeera, that's going to take that message and edit it. By getting this message to the Internet, anybody who has access to a computer and who wants to can listen to the entire message, giving Osama Bin Laden a better connection with who he's trying to reach.

NASR: Right, anybody who has monitored Bin Laden and Al Qaeda for a while will tell you the No. 1 choice is the Internet. It's not the Arab networks. It's not the Western networks. It's none of the above. It's the Internet, because of those reasons that you just mentioned.

Not just that, when these messages are posted, there is always a message asking the, quote, unquote, "brothers" to go ahead and distribute this message as widely as possible. So they do know that this message is reaching millions around -- across the globe, really.

SANCHEZ: It's not getting a lot of play, because obviously there's no camera. They don't exactly have a free press in that country. But there's protests. There was a shooting recently. What's the tie between Bin's Laden messages and these incidents we're seeing where some people in that country are taking to the streets?

NASR: I do not know what the tie is. What I do know is what these Islamist Web sites have been talking about for months now. They've been planning a big march inside Saudi Arabia, in Jeddah, and Riyadh, for today, December 16th. They've been planning it. They've been giving advice -- advice down to what to wear. Don't wear the long robe; wear pants, because it's more comfortable. You can run easily when the police chase you. Very interesting rally for this march, which was attempted today.

And you're right, we don't have much news coming out of Saudi Arabia in terms of video and free reporting. We don't have our reporters on the ground there to tell us what's really going on.

But the timing of the tape couldn't be more perfect for bin Laden and his supporters, because on the day that march was supposed to go through, on the day when these people were going forward with this reformist movement, there's this tape, and basically it is rallying of the troops. He's telling them don't you worry, we're going to get them; let's just keep going.

SANCHEZ: And before do not end it (ph), says (ph) rah-rah Osama bin Laden, is there anything, though, that the West can take from it? Any clues, any prevention, anyway that they can take as a tool to work against Osama bin Laden? Certainly it hasn't led on a trail to him in the past.

NASR: It's so interesting because this message is not for us -- it's not for journalists, it's for the media, it's not for the American people -- this is so clear -- not just the Arab street, the Muslims who support Bin Laden, who are sympathetic, who would carry arms for him. There's nothing. Even that reference to December 6th, it is so buried in that message, it's barely mentioned. He doesn't even play it high. He doesn't think it's a big deal. We do; he doesn't.

SANCHEZ: Our senior affairs -- or senior Arab affairs editor Octavia Nasr, we do thank you for that. Good stuff.

KAGAN: Thank you. Thank you so much.

We are going to check in on Iraq.

SANCHEZ: And indeed here we go. In Iraq today, another government official was gunned down in a brazen attack. It's a ministry spokesman who tells CNN that a senior Iraqi communications ministry official was assassinated in a drive-by shooting in western Baghdad. Now one of his bodyguards was also killed in this attack. Spokesman says that a car pulled alongside their vehicle, opened fire, and then fled the scene. Two others were wounded in that attack.

KAGAN: A top U.S. general says the most wanted fugitive in Iraq is now most likely in Baghdad. Islamist militant leader Abu Musab Al Zarqawi was last said to be in Falluja. But officials believe he left the area before last month's U.S.-led attack on that city. Lieutenant General Lance Smith says that Al Zarqawi has been hard to trace.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LT. GEN. LANCE L. SMITH, CENTCOM DEP. COMMAND GENERAL: I believe he's still operating within Iraq. You know, Baghdad would be the likely area, but you know, these guys are getting very, very good at concealing, or making it difficult for us to track them. And so what we use, for the most part, is human intelligence.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: U.S. troops recaptured Falluja last month. General Smith says the loss of Falluja has made it more difficult for Al Zarqawi to communicate with his lieutenants.

And now to a heart-breaking and a heartwarming story, as well, from Iraq. This is a tale of two lists, good and bad, told from a soldier's point of view.

CNN's Beth Nissen explains.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BETH NISSEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was a tough deployment for Alpha Surgical Company starting in February near Falluja. Trauma surgeons worked in 24-hour ORs stabilizing Marines with blast wounds. Navy Lieutenant Commander Heidi Craft, a clinical psychologist, worked in the combat stress platoon on trauma of another kind.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Normal people in this abnormal situation of combat can experience very significant symptoms of shock and sometimes even shutting down psychologically.

NISSEN: Seeing so many, so young, so shattered over seven months was hard on the healers too. Alone in her barracks room, Dr. Craft started a list of things that were good and things that were not good about her time in Iraq.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was partially a self therapy. I was struggling towards the end of the deployment with how to process everything that we had been through and done and survived together.

NISSEN: The not good list came easily.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Things that were not good: terrifying camel spiders, poisonous scorpions, 132 degrees, sweating in places I didn't know I could sweat, like wrists and ears, the roar of helicopters overhead, the popping of gunfire, the cracking sound of giant artillery rounds splitting open against rock and dirt, the shattering of the windows, hiding away from the broken windows.

Waiting to be told we can come to the hospital to treat the ones who were not so lucky. Watching the black helicopter with the big red cross on the side landing at our pad, telling a room full of stunned Marines in blood-soaked uniforms that their comrade that they had just tried to save had died of his wounds.

Washing blood off the boots of one of our young nurses while she told me about the one who bled out in the trauma bay. NISSEN: She struggled at first to find the positive but slowly that list formed.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Things that were good: sunset over the desert, almost always orange, sunrise over the desert almost always red, the childlike excitement of having fresh fruit at dinner after going weeks without it. My comrades, some of the things witnesses will traumatize them forever but they still provided outstanding care to these Marines.

But, most of all, the United States Marines, our patients, having them tell us one after another through blinding pain or morphine- induced euphoria "When can I get out of here, I just want to get back to my unit?"

NISSEN: There was the young sergeant who lost one eye but asked for help sitting up so he could check on the members of his fire team being treated for minor shrapnel wounds.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He smiles, lay back down and said, "I only have one good eye doc but I can see that my Marines are OK."

NISSEN: And there was the young corporal known to the whole company as Heidi's Marine.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The one who threw himself on a grenade to save the men at his side, who will likely be the first Medal of Honor recipient in over 11 years.

NISSEN: That was Corporal Jason Dunham (ph), age 22. He arrived in the trauma bay on April 14th with a severe head wound. Craft took his hand, talked to him, comforted him.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I told him we were proud of him and that the Marines were proud of him and that he was brave.

NISSEN: Dunham could not speak, could only squeeze her hand in response.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I stayed with him as long as I could and I held his hand all the way to the point where we got to the helicopter. It was the most wonderful moment of my life and the most horrible moment of my life at the same time.

NISSEN: She wept when she learned that Corporal Dunham had died at Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland eight days later, wept again when Dunham's mother wrote to thank her.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Her biggest fear was that her son had been alone and that no one had been with him.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: For me basically the whole deployment, all of it, all of it wrapped up at that moment.

NISSEN: The sorrow for the wounded and damaged, the grief for the lost, gratitude for being able to ease another's pain, pride in the U.S. troops for their courage and sacrifice. For Dr. Craft it was all that was good and not good about Iraq. The ending of both lists is the same.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And finally, above all else, holding the hand of that dying Marine.

NISSEN: Beth Nissen, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ: Certainly something we should think about the next time we hear somebody call an athlete or a movie star a hero. Those are the real heroes.

We're back in just a little bit with a check of the markets. You're watching CNN LIVE TODAY.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(STOCK MARKET REPORT)

KAGAN: Honey, this one's for you. Honey being the keyword here. Authorities in Nevada said no one was hurt when a truck dumped a load of honey and a swarm of bees on a busy freeway in Las Vegas. They say traffic on southbound Interstate 15 was stuck for hours while police awaited the arrival of a bee keeper from California.

Imagine getting that call?

SANCHEZ: I hope they weren't of the African variety?

KAGAN: Yes.

SANCHEZ: Bus then they could be real -- they hurt more.

KAGAN: Although I don't know that there's any kind of good bee.

SANCHEZ: To say the least.

Thank you, honey.

KAGAN: Yes.

SANCHEZ: Stranded in the desert after their plane crashes, this is a story of a group of survivors that need to come together, find some way to escape.

KAGAN: I'm just going to say one word -- Dennis, as in Dennis Quaid.

SANCHEZ: Oh, my goodness.

KAGAN: Enough. He's going to be by. He's going to be with us in just a little bit.

SANCHEZ: Fond of him, are you? KAGAN: Just a wee bit, yes. Coming up, talking with Dennis Quaid about his new movie, "Flight of the Phoenix.":

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP FROM "FLIGHT OF THE PHOENIX")

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Get us out of here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have all the parts and tools we need on board.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What the hell is he talking about?

DENNIS QUAID, ACTOR, "FLIGHT OF THE PHOENIX": Building a new airplane.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Out of the old one?

QUAID: It's impossible.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The design is perfect. The only flaw is that we have to rely on you to fly it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: Actor Dennis Quaid in his new movie. Starting tomorrow you can see him in the flick called "Flight of the Phoenix." It's an action-adventure movie in which a group of plane crash survivors are stranded in the desert.

Dennis Quaid joins me now to talk about his new movie. He is live in Los Angeles. Dennis, good morning.

QUAID: Hey Daryn, how are you?

KAGAN: I'm doing great. And you know, the idea of being stranded in the desert, stuck, with you, I just don't see what the problem is.

QUAID: Let's make it Palm Springs.

KAGAN: Yes, now we're talking. I don't see any conflict and potential for a movie there. But apparently the screenwriter had a different idea. A remake of an old movie "Flight of the Phoenix." Give us a better idea of what it's about?

QUAID: There was a Jimmy Stewart movie back in the '60s, it's about this disparate group of people who crash-land their plane in the Gobi desert, out in the middle of nowhere, no one's coming for them. They have to come together as a group to survive and they wind up building a brand-new airplane out of the wreckage of the old one.

KAGAN: And you play the Jimmy Stewart role, of the kind of cynical, jaded pilot.

QUAID: Yes, that's right. I started to do the entire movie like this.

KAGAN: That was a mistake, perhaps. But any kind of taking on such a -- well you've done fantastic yourself, of course, but a legend like Jimmy Stewart, taking on a role that he had done?

QUAID: The movie was a great movie for its time, back in the '60s and thought it was right for a remake, really. The technology that we have these days, we were able to really pump up the volume on all the action.

KAGAN: The technology, and yet shooting the movie, it was not exactly one of your most glamorous assignments, was it?

QUAID: Well, it was actually a great adventure. We shot it in the Nanibian (ph) desert out over in Africa. Biggest sand dunes in the world, spectacular scenery and it was a great adventure.

KAGAN: And your character kind of goes through a big change in figuring out who he is and...

QUAID: He's sort of a jaded, cynical guide. You know, he's a pilot, sort of at the bottom of the heap. And he has to remake himself like everyone else in this film, in order to survive. The movie's about hope, really.

KAGAN: Well, that's a great theme right there. We wish you great things with this movie, it's "Flight of the Phoenix." I've been a huge fan since "Breaking Away."

QUAID: Oh, thanks. Well, the whole family can see this. It's the only action you're going to get this Christmas.

KAGAN: Very good. Well, "Far From Heaven," you were robbed by not getting your Oscar nomination. Had to get that in there.

QUAID: All right. Thank you.

KAGAN: Thank you, Dennis.

QUAID: All right, Daryn, see you.

KAGAN: OK. And we'll have a lot more ahead.

SANCHEZ: Yes, you're really crazy about this guy, aren't you?

KAGAN: Yes. I think...

SANCHEZ: I don't know what he has that I don't have.

KAGAN: Well, he's no Rick Sanchez. But other than that, he and Denzel Washington are like the two movie stars that just I think are fantastic.

SANCHEZ: Those are the its, huh?

KAGAN: Yes, it. And he just -- he made my day. SANCHEZ: You embarrassed him. Hang on, dude, we've got a wild ride to show you. We're going to be catching some waves. Look at this. We've got more when CNN LIVE TODAY returns.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: Something my co-host and best friend knows a little bit about, being from California. She can hang ten.

KAGAN: Oh, yes, I do this all the time.

SANCHEZ: Most of the beaches in Hawaii have been closed out due to high surf, but the fabled north shore of Oahu was open to a select few and Kelly Slater won the Big Wave Invitational out there. Boy, and those are big waves. The competition is held only when the waves reach giant proportions. Some of the waves for the competition crested at higher than 40 feet. Man, you gotta have some kind of courage to do that.

KAGAN: You get some perception of how big they are by seeing how little the surfers look.

SANCHEZ: Exactly. Dennis Quaid could probably do that.

KAGAN: Oh, Dennis Quaid could do anything.

(WEATHER REPORT)

KAGAN: We have a lot more straight ahead. We're going to tell you what's hot on the web in 2004. The Internet's must-haves in electronic, fashion and more.

SANCHEZ: Yes, we're going to tell you what an ugg is. Also, the healing power of the Dead Sea. Why so many people are bathing in its salty water. The second hour of CNN LIVE TODAY gets even better.

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 December 16, 2004 - 10:30   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
RICK SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: It is now 30 minutes after the hour. We do welcome you back. I'm Rick Sanchez.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Daryn Kagan. Let's take a look at what's happening now in the news.

We begin with Osama bin Laden. He may be talking again. This time the Saudi militant is reportedly heard on an audio tape posted on an Arabic Web site. On the tape, Bin Laden assails the Saudi royal family for poverty in the kingdom, and praises the jihadis there. The tape comes on the heels of the December 6th attack on the U.S. consulate in Jeddah.

Viktor Yushchenko says this morning he is sure that the Ukrainian government poisoned him. The opposition presidential candidate told the Associated Press he was poisoned during a lunch with the head of the Ukrainian Security Service. Doctors recently attributed the dramatic disfiguring of Yushchenko's face to dioxin poisoning.

A worker remains trapped in a Texas trench at this hour. Rescuers near Dallas are frantically trying to free the man after the trench he was working in collapsed yesterday afternoon. Rescuers say a massive boulder is hampering their efforts to free him.

Another big business merger to tell you about, Johnson & Johnson announced this morning, it's acquiring Guidant in a $25 billion deal. Johnson & Johnson makes products ranging from band-aids to surgical devices, while the other company specializes in the production of pacemakers and defibrillators.

SANCHEZ: Let's get back to the new audio tape now purportedly from Osama bin Laden. It's appearing on Arabic Web sites all over the world, and if it's found to be authentic, it would just be the latest evidence that Al Qaeda leader is still alive, and he's in hiding.

Our senior Arab affairs editor Octavia Nasr joining us to talk about this.

What do you make, Octavia, of this tape and the timing that comes so close to one of the recent events that he mentions in the tape.

OCTAVIA NASR, CNN SR. ARAB AFFAIRS EDITOR: The timing is very interesting, because he refers to December 6th. This is December 16th. That means within a time frame of 10 days, the man recorded an hour and 14 minute message, and he sent it to someone who was able to post it on the Internet. Arab media, and Arab experts and Jihadis on the Internet are really talking about this man cannot be in hiding. He cannot be on the run. He's somewhere very comfortable. He's somewhere where he can tape all these long messages and send them.

SANCHEZ: Let's try to understand, as citizens of the United States, how this plays in places like Saudi Arabia, and in the Saudi Arabian, "quote, unquote" street. If you look at his as a marketing message, when he lambastes the royal family, and its ties to the United States, what effect does that have on the people who live there? Do they see him as a Robin Hood as a result of this populist message?

NASR: A lot of them do. Research are showing that a huge number of Saudis are sympathetic to Osama bin Laden. Whether they support him or not, whether they carry arms for him or not, that's a different story, but they are sympathetic.

Now it's interesting, we call it the royal family; he calls it the ruling family. And the Arabs, especially in Saudi Arabia, are going to be getting the nuance between royal family and ruling family. He believes this royal family should be overthrown. He believes at the reformist movement should go on. And very interesting how he -- when we think about it, think about it an hour and 14 minutes, that's a long time. But when you think about it, people sit down and listen to the message from beginning to end, and then they comment on it.

SANCHEZ: He's trying to spark a revolution.

KAGAN: Well, and he is. And Nic Robertson, I think, made an interesting point in the last hour in the difference in going to the Internet versus going to Al Jazeera, that's going to take that message and edit it. By getting this message to the Internet, anybody who has access to a computer and who wants to can listen to the entire message, giving Osama Bin Laden a better connection with who he's trying to reach.

NASR: Right, anybody who has monitored Bin Laden and Al Qaeda for a while will tell you the No. 1 choice is the Internet. It's not the Arab networks. It's not the Western networks. It's none of the above. It's the Internet, because of those reasons that you just mentioned.

Not just that, when these messages are posted, there is always a message asking the, quote, unquote, "brothers" to go ahead and distribute this message as widely as possible. So they do know that this message is reaching millions around -- across the globe, really.

SANCHEZ: It's not getting a lot of play, because obviously there's no camera. They don't exactly have a free press in that country. But there's protests. There was a shooting recently. What's the tie between Bin's Laden messages and these incidents we're seeing where some people in that country are taking to the streets?

NASR: I do not know what the tie is. What I do know is what these Islamist Web sites have been talking about for months now. They've been planning a big march inside Saudi Arabia, in Jeddah, and Riyadh, for today, December 16th. They've been planning it. They've been giving advice -- advice down to what to wear. Don't wear the long robe; wear pants, because it's more comfortable. You can run easily when the police chase you. Very interesting rally for this march, which was attempted today.

And you're right, we don't have much news coming out of Saudi Arabia in terms of video and free reporting. We don't have our reporters on the ground there to tell us what's really going on.

But the timing of the tape couldn't be more perfect for bin Laden and his supporters, because on the day that march was supposed to go through, on the day when these people were going forward with this reformist movement, there's this tape, and basically it is rallying of the troops. He's telling them don't you worry, we're going to get them; let's just keep going.

SANCHEZ: And before do not end it (ph), says (ph) rah-rah Osama bin Laden, is there anything, though, that the West can take from it? Any clues, any prevention, anyway that they can take as a tool to work against Osama bin Laden? Certainly it hasn't led on a trail to him in the past.

NASR: It's so interesting because this message is not for us -- it's not for journalists, it's for the media, it's not for the American people -- this is so clear -- not just the Arab street, the Muslims who support Bin Laden, who are sympathetic, who would carry arms for him. There's nothing. Even that reference to December 6th, it is so buried in that message, it's barely mentioned. He doesn't even play it high. He doesn't think it's a big deal. We do; he doesn't.

SANCHEZ: Our senior affairs -- or senior Arab affairs editor Octavia Nasr, we do thank you for that. Good stuff.

KAGAN: Thank you. Thank you so much.

We are going to check in on Iraq.

SANCHEZ: And indeed here we go. In Iraq today, another government official was gunned down in a brazen attack. It's a ministry spokesman who tells CNN that a senior Iraqi communications ministry official was assassinated in a drive-by shooting in western Baghdad. Now one of his bodyguards was also killed in this attack. Spokesman says that a car pulled alongside their vehicle, opened fire, and then fled the scene. Two others were wounded in that attack.

KAGAN: A top U.S. general says the most wanted fugitive in Iraq is now most likely in Baghdad. Islamist militant leader Abu Musab Al Zarqawi was last said to be in Falluja. But officials believe he left the area before last month's U.S.-led attack on that city. Lieutenant General Lance Smith says that Al Zarqawi has been hard to trace.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LT. GEN. LANCE L. SMITH, CENTCOM DEP. COMMAND GENERAL: I believe he's still operating within Iraq. You know, Baghdad would be the likely area, but you know, these guys are getting very, very good at concealing, or making it difficult for us to track them. And so what we use, for the most part, is human intelligence.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: U.S. troops recaptured Falluja last month. General Smith says the loss of Falluja has made it more difficult for Al Zarqawi to communicate with his lieutenants.

And now to a heart-breaking and a heartwarming story, as well, from Iraq. This is a tale of two lists, good and bad, told from a soldier's point of view.

CNN's Beth Nissen explains.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BETH NISSEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was a tough deployment for Alpha Surgical Company starting in February near Falluja. Trauma surgeons worked in 24-hour ORs stabilizing Marines with blast wounds. Navy Lieutenant Commander Heidi Craft, a clinical psychologist, worked in the combat stress platoon on trauma of another kind.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Normal people in this abnormal situation of combat can experience very significant symptoms of shock and sometimes even shutting down psychologically.

NISSEN: Seeing so many, so young, so shattered over seven months was hard on the healers too. Alone in her barracks room, Dr. Craft started a list of things that were good and things that were not good about her time in Iraq.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was partially a self therapy. I was struggling towards the end of the deployment with how to process everything that we had been through and done and survived together.

NISSEN: The not good list came easily.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Things that were not good: terrifying camel spiders, poisonous scorpions, 132 degrees, sweating in places I didn't know I could sweat, like wrists and ears, the roar of helicopters overhead, the popping of gunfire, the cracking sound of giant artillery rounds splitting open against rock and dirt, the shattering of the windows, hiding away from the broken windows.

Waiting to be told we can come to the hospital to treat the ones who were not so lucky. Watching the black helicopter with the big red cross on the side landing at our pad, telling a room full of stunned Marines in blood-soaked uniforms that their comrade that they had just tried to save had died of his wounds.

Washing blood off the boots of one of our young nurses while she told me about the one who bled out in the trauma bay. NISSEN: She struggled at first to find the positive but slowly that list formed.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Things that were good: sunset over the desert, almost always orange, sunrise over the desert almost always red, the childlike excitement of having fresh fruit at dinner after going weeks without it. My comrades, some of the things witnesses will traumatize them forever but they still provided outstanding care to these Marines.

But, most of all, the United States Marines, our patients, having them tell us one after another through blinding pain or morphine- induced euphoria "When can I get out of here, I just want to get back to my unit?"

NISSEN: There was the young sergeant who lost one eye but asked for help sitting up so he could check on the members of his fire team being treated for minor shrapnel wounds.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He smiles, lay back down and said, "I only have one good eye doc but I can see that my Marines are OK."

NISSEN: And there was the young corporal known to the whole company as Heidi's Marine.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The one who threw himself on a grenade to save the men at his side, who will likely be the first Medal of Honor recipient in over 11 years.

NISSEN: That was Corporal Jason Dunham (ph), age 22. He arrived in the trauma bay on April 14th with a severe head wound. Craft took his hand, talked to him, comforted him.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I told him we were proud of him and that the Marines were proud of him and that he was brave.

NISSEN: Dunham could not speak, could only squeeze her hand in response.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I stayed with him as long as I could and I held his hand all the way to the point where we got to the helicopter. It was the most wonderful moment of my life and the most horrible moment of my life at the same time.

NISSEN: She wept when she learned that Corporal Dunham had died at Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland eight days later, wept again when Dunham's mother wrote to thank her.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Her biggest fear was that her son had been alone and that no one had been with him.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: For me basically the whole deployment, all of it, all of it wrapped up at that moment.

NISSEN: The sorrow for the wounded and damaged, the grief for the lost, gratitude for being able to ease another's pain, pride in the U.S. troops for their courage and sacrifice. For Dr. Craft it was all that was good and not good about Iraq. The ending of both lists is the same.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And finally, above all else, holding the hand of that dying Marine.

NISSEN: Beth Nissen, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ: Certainly something we should think about the next time we hear somebody call an athlete or a movie star a hero. Those are the real heroes.

We're back in just a little bit with a check of the markets. You're watching CNN LIVE TODAY.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(STOCK MARKET REPORT)

KAGAN: Honey, this one's for you. Honey being the keyword here. Authorities in Nevada said no one was hurt when a truck dumped a load of honey and a swarm of bees on a busy freeway in Las Vegas. They say traffic on southbound Interstate 15 was stuck for hours while police awaited the arrival of a bee keeper from California.

Imagine getting that call?

SANCHEZ: I hope they weren't of the African variety?

KAGAN: Yes.

SANCHEZ: Bus then they could be real -- they hurt more.

KAGAN: Although I don't know that there's any kind of good bee.

SANCHEZ: To say the least.

Thank you, honey.

KAGAN: Yes.

SANCHEZ: Stranded in the desert after their plane crashes, this is a story of a group of survivors that need to come together, find some way to escape.

KAGAN: I'm just going to say one word -- Dennis, as in Dennis Quaid.

SANCHEZ: Oh, my goodness.

KAGAN: Enough. He's going to be by. He's going to be with us in just a little bit.

SANCHEZ: Fond of him, are you? KAGAN: Just a wee bit, yes. Coming up, talking with Dennis Quaid about his new movie, "Flight of the Phoenix.":

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP FROM "FLIGHT OF THE PHOENIX")

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Get us out of here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have all the parts and tools we need on board.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What the hell is he talking about?

DENNIS QUAID, ACTOR, "FLIGHT OF THE PHOENIX": Building a new airplane.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Out of the old one?

QUAID: It's impossible.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The design is perfect. The only flaw is that we have to rely on you to fly it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: Actor Dennis Quaid in his new movie. Starting tomorrow you can see him in the flick called "Flight of the Phoenix." It's an action-adventure movie in which a group of plane crash survivors are stranded in the desert.

Dennis Quaid joins me now to talk about his new movie. He is live in Los Angeles. Dennis, good morning.

QUAID: Hey Daryn, how are you?

KAGAN: I'm doing great. And you know, the idea of being stranded in the desert, stuck, with you, I just don't see what the problem is.

QUAID: Let's make it Palm Springs.

KAGAN: Yes, now we're talking. I don't see any conflict and potential for a movie there. But apparently the screenwriter had a different idea. A remake of an old movie "Flight of the Phoenix." Give us a better idea of what it's about?

QUAID: There was a Jimmy Stewart movie back in the '60s, it's about this disparate group of people who crash-land their plane in the Gobi desert, out in the middle of nowhere, no one's coming for them. They have to come together as a group to survive and they wind up building a brand-new airplane out of the wreckage of the old one.

KAGAN: And you play the Jimmy Stewart role, of the kind of cynical, jaded pilot.

QUAID: Yes, that's right. I started to do the entire movie like this.

KAGAN: That was a mistake, perhaps. But any kind of taking on such a -- well you've done fantastic yourself, of course, but a legend like Jimmy Stewart, taking on a role that he had done?

QUAID: The movie was a great movie for its time, back in the '60s and thought it was right for a remake, really. The technology that we have these days, we were able to really pump up the volume on all the action.

KAGAN: The technology, and yet shooting the movie, it was not exactly one of your most glamorous assignments, was it?

QUAID: Well, it was actually a great adventure. We shot it in the Nanibian (ph) desert out over in Africa. Biggest sand dunes in the world, spectacular scenery and it was a great adventure.

KAGAN: And your character kind of goes through a big change in figuring out who he is and...

QUAID: He's sort of a jaded, cynical guide. You know, he's a pilot, sort of at the bottom of the heap. And he has to remake himself like everyone else in this film, in order to survive. The movie's about hope, really.

KAGAN: Well, that's a great theme right there. We wish you great things with this movie, it's "Flight of the Phoenix." I've been a huge fan since "Breaking Away."

QUAID: Oh, thanks. Well, the whole family can see this. It's the only action you're going to get this Christmas.

KAGAN: Very good. Well, "Far From Heaven," you were robbed by not getting your Oscar nomination. Had to get that in there.

QUAID: All right. Thank you.

KAGAN: Thank you, Dennis.

QUAID: All right, Daryn, see you.

KAGAN: OK. And we'll have a lot more ahead.

SANCHEZ: Yes, you're really crazy about this guy, aren't you?

KAGAN: Yes. I think...

SANCHEZ: I don't know what he has that I don't have.

KAGAN: Well, he's no Rick Sanchez. But other than that, he and Denzel Washington are like the two movie stars that just I think are fantastic.

SANCHEZ: Those are the its, huh?

KAGAN: Yes, it. And he just -- he made my day. SANCHEZ: You embarrassed him. Hang on, dude, we've got a wild ride to show you. We're going to be catching some waves. Look at this. We've got more when CNN LIVE TODAY returns.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: Something my co-host and best friend knows a little bit about, being from California. She can hang ten.

KAGAN: Oh, yes, I do this all the time.

SANCHEZ: Most of the beaches in Hawaii have been closed out due to high surf, but the fabled north shore of Oahu was open to a select few and Kelly Slater won the Big Wave Invitational out there. Boy, and those are big waves. The competition is held only when the waves reach giant proportions. Some of the waves for the competition crested at higher than 40 feet. Man, you gotta have some kind of courage to do that.

KAGAN: You get some perception of how big they are by seeing how little the surfers look.

SANCHEZ: Exactly. Dennis Quaid could probably do that.

KAGAN: Oh, Dennis Quaid could do anything.

(WEATHER REPORT)

KAGAN: We have a lot more straight ahead. We're going to tell you what's hot on the web in 2004. The Internet's must-haves in electronic, fashion and more.

SANCHEZ: Yes, we're going to tell you what an ugg is. Also, the healing power of the Dead Sea. Why so many people are bathing in its salty water. The second hour of CNN LIVE TODAY gets even better.

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