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CNN Live Today
President Bush Looking Ahead to Iraqi Election and What Comes After
Aired January 28, 2005 - 11:34 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: We welcome you back. President Bush is looking ahead to the Iraqi election and what comes after. Would he pull the U.S. troops if asked by the new government that is elected this weekend? Interesting question, because he had one answer in the past. Is the answer changing now?
CNN's Elaine Quijano is at the White House this morning. She's been following this part of the story.
What are we learning, Elaine?
ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello to you, Rick. Well, the answer to that question, in an interview with "The New York Times," President Bush said the answer to that question is yes. The president also, though, also saying, Rick, that he would be surprised if Iraqi interim leaders were to make that request. But that answer is not a surprise, because in the past Bush administration officials have said if the Iraqis wanted out the U.S. troops out that they would abide by that request.
In any case, President Bush earlier today was on hand at the State Department, witnessing the ceremonial swearing in of his new Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. She was officially sworn in on Wednesday night, but today Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Supreme Court justice administered the oath at the State Department. Rice is, of course, the president's former national security adviser. She's taking office as secretary of state at a critical time, just days away from the Iraq elections. and today against that backdrop President Bush reiterated his confidence in Rice, saying she has what he called an abiding belief in the power of Democracy.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Our nation will be more secure, the world will be more peaceful as freedom advances. Condi Rice understands that. And the terrorists understand that as well, and that is why they are now attacking Iraqi civilians in an effort to sabotage elections.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
QUIJANO: Now, President Bush is on his way now to speak to congressional Republicans. He left the White House just a short time ago for a trip to West Virginia to do just that. We're told the president will be talking not only about Iraq, but will also be focusing on his domestic agenda. That includes things like liability reform and immigration, but the centerpiece of course is the president's push to privatize part of Social Security. Look for President Bush to continue trying to make the case that Social Security is a looming problem, one that the Bush administration feels needs to be dealt with soon -- Rick.
SANCHEZ: Elaine Quijano, joining us from just outside the White House with the very latest on today's developments.
Well, like CNN television, all of the many networks, CNN.com is also focusing on the Iraqi election all weekend, and there's a lot you can learn there. Check it out, 24 hours a day at CNN.com/Iraq. In fact, here's Veronica De La Cruz.
She's at the dot-com desk, joining us now to give us an update.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
VERONICA DE LA CRUZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Sunday's election is one in a series of important events for the country as it moves towards democracy. At CNN.com, this special report. June 1, 2004, this process began with the dissolution of the Iraqi Governing Council.
January 30, 2005, elections will be held for a 275-member transitional national assembly. Members are expected to draft a new constitution.
December 31, 2006, Iraq plans to have the new government in place.
There are a number of people and organizations assisting the process. Some you may know, like interim prime minister Ayad Allawi, and some you may not be as familiar with.
Like most Democratic elections, election employees will staff polling places. There will be trained election monitors, and Iraqi army and police will be on patrol. Thirty thousand polling places will be set up throughout the country. The polls will open at 7:00 a.m. in Iraq.
For more on the Iraqi selections, you can visit CNN.com/Iraq. From the dot-com desk in Atlanta, I'm Veronica De La Cruz.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KAGAN: Yes, we're at the CNN desk.
From coast to coast, high profile -- let's rewind that tape. From coast to coast, some high-profile people are back in court today.
SANCHEZ: After a defeat by the U.S. Supreme Court, Terry Schiavo's parents are trying again with the Florida supreme court. What will their latest argument be?
KAGAN: And jury selection in the Michael Jackson case will begin on Monday. today a pretrial hearing may settle some key issues. What they are and whether the King of Pop will make an appearance. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: Let's do this now. What's on the docket for our legal briefs? We start with this. A suspected serial killer in Peoria, Illinois, his head covered by a blue tarp, took police on a tour of his mother's rural property, pointing out places to look for evidence. Prosecutors say that construction Larry Bright has confessed to killing eight women. The case is now going to go to a grand jury and indictments are expected within a month.
Also in the Michael Jackson case, jury selection begins Monday, but the judge has a number of issues to decide before then. One is whether those jurors are going to be required to watch a 2003 documentary about the lifestyle of the pop singer. Prosecutors say it's central to the child molestation case against Jackson. The defense argues, that would be Michael Jackson's attorneys, that the piece is Hollywood hype that would prejudice the jury.
And in the Terry Schiavo case. This is that Florida judge who is being asked to vacate his earlier ruling that Schiavo's husband has the right to remove her feeding tube that's been keeping the severely brain damaged woman alive for the past 14 years. A hearing on the matter is set for some time this afternoon.
KAGAN: Those issues deserve some closer scrutiny, plus we want to discuss the latest allegations against Bill Cosby. For that we bring in our legal expert, former U.S. Attorney Kendall Coffey.
Found you in a little bit Hartford, Connecticut. Good morning.
KENDALL COFFEY, FMR. U.S. ATTORNEY: Good morning. And yes, it's really cold here. I can't wait to get back to South Florida.
KAGAN: Yes, I bet you're missing Miami today, Kendall. Let's talk about Michael Jackson. Jury selection begins on Monday. Some of these issues we're looking at in these pretrial hearings, does the young accuser have to do the testimony in front of Michael Jackson?
COFFEY: Well, I think the reality is there has to be the ability of Michael Jackson to see the accuser. Lawyers of Michael Jackson obviously to crossexamine him. As we know that's the right to confrontation that's central. But a lot of times if there's a compelling enough demonstration, courts can fashion protections for child witnesses so that, for example, the public isn't in the room. And sometimes these kind of things are literally done out of the courtroom if necessary, in effect in a private room so that the intrusion and the potentially harmful impact on the child witness is minimized.
KAGAN: What about the issue of playing this British documentary, there was a lot of salacious material in there?
COFFEY: I think that would really be opening a pandora's box wide open to start put television programs as evidence in a trial. What I think the judge should do is carve out the things that Michael Jackson said and potentially that the alleged child victim said. Those kind of things are traditionally admissible. The kind of things that commentators, including legal talking heads, say are not admissible evidence.
KAGAN: Let's talk about Bill Cosby right now. No charges have been filed. This is an ongoing investigation, but sometimes prosecutors and those trying to make allegations try to do their damage just with the investigation without filing charges.
COFFEY: One of the things that is so tough is that in the court of public opinion you're guilty until proven innocent. And I have some questions, Daryn, about how the prosecution handled this, going public, saying that they wanted Bill Cosby coming in to interview. When we look at the background of this, it's a very, very thin set of allegations...
KAGAN: And they're old. They're old.
COFFEY: And they're old. They are staler than week-old toast. And so I have a real question. What happened to the good old days when prosecutors didn't comment and made sure that they protected the confidentiality of everybody unless and until there was an indictable case to come forward with?
KAGAN: Well, those good old days happened when they couldn't get the charges but they wanted to make a point anyway. Terry Schiavo, now the news of the week, the U.S. Supreme Court said they're not going to take on this case. Why is this still in legal limbo?
COFFEY: End of the line for Terry's law which gave the governor the right to intrude, but apparently not the final chapter in a legal battle that could continue for months, even years. The parents have come up with several new arguments claiming they want the husband disqualified as the guardian. A due process argument that says Terry Schiavo never had her own lawyer appointed for her. And also they're relying on religious differences allegedly between the husband and Terry Schiavo. Terry Schiavo was a Catholic, and in 2004, in March, the pope apparently made statements to the effect that it is immoral to withdraw life support systems for someone who is in the condition of a Terry Schiavo. So they're now injecting a religious issue into what could be a controversy that we see for a long time to come.
KAGAN: Still going on. Kendall, thank you.
COFFEY: Hey, thank you.
KAGAN: Safe travels getting back to your naturally warmer places.
COFFEY: I'll shiver on my way back.
KAGAN: OK. Thank you.
SANCHEZ: A recall of one of America's best-selling vehicles making big news. You're going to hear about a potentially dangerous fact -- or I suppose I should say defect that's been found in some Ford trucks. We'll be back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: Let's start this story off by showing you a vehicle. See that? If you own that vehicle or one very much like it or know someone who does, we want you to know this, Ford is recalling almost 800,000 pickups and SUVs. The cruise control switch could short out and cause a fire under the hood. The recall applies to the 2000 model year F-150. That's the 2000 model year F-150. That's the 2000 model year F-150. Also the 2000 Ford Expedition and the Lincoln Navigator and the 2001 Super Crew Pickup Truck. So, once again, there's the list of those four vehicles. If you have one or know someone who does, they got to go back to the dealer, they got to fix a little switch just to make sure it doesn't spark up.
(STOCK MARKET REPORT)
(WEATHER REPORT)
KAGAN: You might be wondering, this weekend's elections in Iraq, are they important to us here in the U.S.? But that would be overlooking the sacrifice so many Americans have made to make these elections possible.
SANCHEZ: That's why when we come back we're going to introduce you to a father whose son made the ultimate sacrifice and how that has now affected him. His story. Don't go away.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KAGAN: One Florida man's very private pain has taken a public turn. CNN's John Zarrella has the story of one father's grief and sacrifice.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Nearly every room in this modest house in Hollywood, Florida, is a shrine to Carlos Arredondo's son.
CARLOS ARREDONDO, ALEX'S FATHER: We have here the Purple Heart...
ZARRELLA: In August, 20-year-old Marine Lance Corporal Alex Arredondo was killed in Iraq. The Marines say only that he was shot once in the head during combat near Najaf.
CARLOS ARREDONDO: I've been thanking God for the time he loaned me Alex, because it was a very short period of time . It was a very short period time, but, you know, God loaned me my son for 20 years, 20 days.
ZARRELLA: To his father, who immigrated from Costa Rica, Alex was his American dream, pictures on tables memorialize his life.
CARLOS ARREDONDO: Alex, Merry Christmas. He print a Christmas tree.
ZARRELLA: This grief is private. The day the three blue- uniformed Marines showed up outside his house was not.
CARLOS ARREDONDO: I mean, I say, are you guys here to recruit some kids? Because you guys are in the wrong house. The kids are next house, next door. And they respond me by saying, We are not here to recruit anyone.
ZARRELLA: Carlos was in the front yard when the Marines told him. He remembers running to the back yard and thinking...
CARLOS ARREDONDO: Perhaps it's a nightmare. I need to wake up.
ZARRELLA: Then he ran to the garage.
CARLOS ARREDONDO: I grab a hammer...
ZARRELLA: He went to the Marine van out front and began smashing it, then dropped the hammer and went back to the garage for gasoline.
CARLOS ARREDONDO: I grab a torch, I grab the gas, and I start pouring gas on everywhere inside the van.
ZARRELLA: The van exploded in flames when Carlos says he accidentally pressed the button on the lighter.
CARLOS ARREDONDO: The next thing I knew, it threw me out to the street, and I was on fire.
ZARRELLA: This was August 25. On September 4, with burns over 25 percent of his body, Carlos attended his son Alex's funeral in Boston from a stretcher and an ambulance.
CARLOS ARREDONDO: The burns are healing much better.
ZARRELLA: Emotional healing will take much longer. Carlos is divorced from Alex's mother. She lives with their younger son in Maine. Their grief is no less painful, but Carlos's was so public.
He has apologized to the three Marines. No charges were filed. Now he wants to be there for others who may get a knock at the door.
CARLOS ARREDONDO: If I can help somebody else to be ready for, that will be something that I can accomplish to help another family.
ZARRELLA: Carlos is in counseling. His wife, Melida, hopes it will help him pack away the shrine.
MELIDA ARREDONDO, ALEX'S STEPMOTHER: To me, Alex was not these pictures. To me, when I go walk and I see a rainbow, that's Alex.
ZARRELLA: In a letter, Alex Arredondo wrote he was not afraid of dying, he was serving his country.
CARLOS ARREDONDO: I was being very proud of being Alexander's father, you know, the Marine.
ZARRELLA: Carlos Arredondo has no idea why he snapped. Perhaps, he says, because the day the Marines came was his birthday.
John Zarrella, CNN, Hollywood, Florida.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
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 January 28, 2005 - 11:34 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
RICK SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: We welcome you back. President Bush is looking ahead to the Iraqi election and what comes after. Would he pull the U.S. troops if asked by the new government that is elected this weekend? Interesting question, because he had one answer in the past. Is the answer changing now?
CNN's Elaine Quijano is at the White House this morning. She's been following this part of the story.
What are we learning, Elaine?
ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello to you, Rick. Well, the answer to that question, in an interview with "The New York Times," President Bush said the answer to that question is yes. The president also, though, also saying, Rick, that he would be surprised if Iraqi interim leaders were to make that request. But that answer is not a surprise, because in the past Bush administration officials have said if the Iraqis wanted out the U.S. troops out that they would abide by that request.
In any case, President Bush earlier today was on hand at the State Department, witnessing the ceremonial swearing in of his new Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. She was officially sworn in on Wednesday night, but today Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Supreme Court justice administered the oath at the State Department. Rice is, of course, the president's former national security adviser. She's taking office as secretary of state at a critical time, just days away from the Iraq elections. and today against that backdrop President Bush reiterated his confidence in Rice, saying she has what he called an abiding belief in the power of Democracy.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Our nation will be more secure, the world will be more peaceful as freedom advances. Condi Rice understands that. And the terrorists understand that as well, and that is why they are now attacking Iraqi civilians in an effort to sabotage elections.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
QUIJANO: Now, President Bush is on his way now to speak to congressional Republicans. He left the White House just a short time ago for a trip to West Virginia to do just that. We're told the president will be talking not only about Iraq, but will also be focusing on his domestic agenda. That includes things like liability reform and immigration, but the centerpiece of course is the president's push to privatize part of Social Security. Look for President Bush to continue trying to make the case that Social Security is a looming problem, one that the Bush administration feels needs to be dealt with soon -- Rick.
SANCHEZ: Elaine Quijano, joining us from just outside the White House with the very latest on today's developments.
Well, like CNN television, all of the many networks, CNN.com is also focusing on the Iraqi election all weekend, and there's a lot you can learn there. Check it out, 24 hours a day at CNN.com/Iraq. In fact, here's Veronica De La Cruz.
She's at the dot-com desk, joining us now to give us an update.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
VERONICA DE LA CRUZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Sunday's election is one in a series of important events for the country as it moves towards democracy. At CNN.com, this special report. June 1, 2004, this process began with the dissolution of the Iraqi Governing Council.
January 30, 2005, elections will be held for a 275-member transitional national assembly. Members are expected to draft a new constitution.
December 31, 2006, Iraq plans to have the new government in place.
There are a number of people and organizations assisting the process. Some you may know, like interim prime minister Ayad Allawi, and some you may not be as familiar with.
Like most Democratic elections, election employees will staff polling places. There will be trained election monitors, and Iraqi army and police will be on patrol. Thirty thousand polling places will be set up throughout the country. The polls will open at 7:00 a.m. in Iraq.
For more on the Iraqi selections, you can visit CNN.com/Iraq. From the dot-com desk in Atlanta, I'm Veronica De La Cruz.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KAGAN: Yes, we're at the CNN desk.
From coast to coast, high profile -- let's rewind that tape. From coast to coast, some high-profile people are back in court today.
SANCHEZ: After a defeat by the U.S. Supreme Court, Terry Schiavo's parents are trying again with the Florida supreme court. What will their latest argument be?
KAGAN: And jury selection in the Michael Jackson case will begin on Monday. today a pretrial hearing may settle some key issues. What they are and whether the King of Pop will make an appearance. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: Let's do this now. What's on the docket for our legal briefs? We start with this. A suspected serial killer in Peoria, Illinois, his head covered by a blue tarp, took police on a tour of his mother's rural property, pointing out places to look for evidence. Prosecutors say that construction Larry Bright has confessed to killing eight women. The case is now going to go to a grand jury and indictments are expected within a month.
Also in the Michael Jackson case, jury selection begins Monday, but the judge has a number of issues to decide before then. One is whether those jurors are going to be required to watch a 2003 documentary about the lifestyle of the pop singer. Prosecutors say it's central to the child molestation case against Jackson. The defense argues, that would be Michael Jackson's attorneys, that the piece is Hollywood hype that would prejudice the jury.
And in the Terry Schiavo case. This is that Florida judge who is being asked to vacate his earlier ruling that Schiavo's husband has the right to remove her feeding tube that's been keeping the severely brain damaged woman alive for the past 14 years. A hearing on the matter is set for some time this afternoon.
KAGAN: Those issues deserve some closer scrutiny, plus we want to discuss the latest allegations against Bill Cosby. For that we bring in our legal expert, former U.S. Attorney Kendall Coffey.
Found you in a little bit Hartford, Connecticut. Good morning.
KENDALL COFFEY, FMR. U.S. ATTORNEY: Good morning. And yes, it's really cold here. I can't wait to get back to South Florida.
KAGAN: Yes, I bet you're missing Miami today, Kendall. Let's talk about Michael Jackson. Jury selection begins on Monday. Some of these issues we're looking at in these pretrial hearings, does the young accuser have to do the testimony in front of Michael Jackson?
COFFEY: Well, I think the reality is there has to be the ability of Michael Jackson to see the accuser. Lawyers of Michael Jackson obviously to crossexamine him. As we know that's the right to confrontation that's central. But a lot of times if there's a compelling enough demonstration, courts can fashion protections for child witnesses so that, for example, the public isn't in the room. And sometimes these kind of things are literally done out of the courtroom if necessary, in effect in a private room so that the intrusion and the potentially harmful impact on the child witness is minimized.
KAGAN: What about the issue of playing this British documentary, there was a lot of salacious material in there?
COFFEY: I think that would really be opening a pandora's box wide open to start put television programs as evidence in a trial. What I think the judge should do is carve out the things that Michael Jackson said and potentially that the alleged child victim said. Those kind of things are traditionally admissible. The kind of things that commentators, including legal talking heads, say are not admissible evidence.
KAGAN: Let's talk about Bill Cosby right now. No charges have been filed. This is an ongoing investigation, but sometimes prosecutors and those trying to make allegations try to do their damage just with the investigation without filing charges.
COFFEY: One of the things that is so tough is that in the court of public opinion you're guilty until proven innocent. And I have some questions, Daryn, about how the prosecution handled this, going public, saying that they wanted Bill Cosby coming in to interview. When we look at the background of this, it's a very, very thin set of allegations...
KAGAN: And they're old. They're old.
COFFEY: And they're old. They are staler than week-old toast. And so I have a real question. What happened to the good old days when prosecutors didn't comment and made sure that they protected the confidentiality of everybody unless and until there was an indictable case to come forward with?
KAGAN: Well, those good old days happened when they couldn't get the charges but they wanted to make a point anyway. Terry Schiavo, now the news of the week, the U.S. Supreme Court said they're not going to take on this case. Why is this still in legal limbo?
COFFEY: End of the line for Terry's law which gave the governor the right to intrude, but apparently not the final chapter in a legal battle that could continue for months, even years. The parents have come up with several new arguments claiming they want the husband disqualified as the guardian. A due process argument that says Terry Schiavo never had her own lawyer appointed for her. And also they're relying on religious differences allegedly between the husband and Terry Schiavo. Terry Schiavo was a Catholic, and in 2004, in March, the pope apparently made statements to the effect that it is immoral to withdraw life support systems for someone who is in the condition of a Terry Schiavo. So they're now injecting a religious issue into what could be a controversy that we see for a long time to come.
KAGAN: Still going on. Kendall, thank you.
COFFEY: Hey, thank you.
KAGAN: Safe travels getting back to your naturally warmer places.
COFFEY: I'll shiver on my way back.
KAGAN: OK. Thank you.
SANCHEZ: A recall of one of America's best-selling vehicles making big news. You're going to hear about a potentially dangerous fact -- or I suppose I should say defect that's been found in some Ford trucks. We'll be back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: Let's start this story off by showing you a vehicle. See that? If you own that vehicle or one very much like it or know someone who does, we want you to know this, Ford is recalling almost 800,000 pickups and SUVs. The cruise control switch could short out and cause a fire under the hood. The recall applies to the 2000 model year F-150. That's the 2000 model year F-150. That's the 2000 model year F-150. Also the 2000 Ford Expedition and the Lincoln Navigator and the 2001 Super Crew Pickup Truck. So, once again, there's the list of those four vehicles. If you have one or know someone who does, they got to go back to the dealer, they got to fix a little switch just to make sure it doesn't spark up.
(STOCK MARKET REPORT)
(WEATHER REPORT)
KAGAN: You might be wondering, this weekend's elections in Iraq, are they important to us here in the U.S.? But that would be overlooking the sacrifice so many Americans have made to make these elections possible.
SANCHEZ: That's why when we come back we're going to introduce you to a father whose son made the ultimate sacrifice and how that has now affected him. His story. Don't go away.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KAGAN: One Florida man's very private pain has taken a public turn. CNN's John Zarrella has the story of one father's grief and sacrifice.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Nearly every room in this modest house in Hollywood, Florida, is a shrine to Carlos Arredondo's son.
CARLOS ARREDONDO, ALEX'S FATHER: We have here the Purple Heart...
ZARRELLA: In August, 20-year-old Marine Lance Corporal Alex Arredondo was killed in Iraq. The Marines say only that he was shot once in the head during combat near Najaf.
CARLOS ARREDONDO: I've been thanking God for the time he loaned me Alex, because it was a very short period of time . It was a very short period time, but, you know, God loaned me my son for 20 years, 20 days.
ZARRELLA: To his father, who immigrated from Costa Rica, Alex was his American dream, pictures on tables memorialize his life.
CARLOS ARREDONDO: Alex, Merry Christmas. He print a Christmas tree.
ZARRELLA: This grief is private. The day the three blue- uniformed Marines showed up outside his house was not.
CARLOS ARREDONDO: I mean, I say, are you guys here to recruit some kids? Because you guys are in the wrong house. The kids are next house, next door. And they respond me by saying, We are not here to recruit anyone.
ZARRELLA: Carlos was in the front yard when the Marines told him. He remembers running to the back yard and thinking...
CARLOS ARREDONDO: Perhaps it's a nightmare. I need to wake up.
ZARRELLA: Then he ran to the garage.
CARLOS ARREDONDO: I grab a hammer...
ZARRELLA: He went to the Marine van out front and began smashing it, then dropped the hammer and went back to the garage for gasoline.
CARLOS ARREDONDO: I grab a torch, I grab the gas, and I start pouring gas on everywhere inside the van.
ZARRELLA: The van exploded in flames when Carlos says he accidentally pressed the button on the lighter.
CARLOS ARREDONDO: The next thing I knew, it threw me out to the street, and I was on fire.
ZARRELLA: This was August 25. On September 4, with burns over 25 percent of his body, Carlos attended his son Alex's funeral in Boston from a stretcher and an ambulance.
CARLOS ARREDONDO: The burns are healing much better.
ZARRELLA: Emotional healing will take much longer. Carlos is divorced from Alex's mother. She lives with their younger son in Maine. Their grief is no less painful, but Carlos's was so public.
He has apologized to the three Marines. No charges were filed. Now he wants to be there for others who may get a knock at the door.
CARLOS ARREDONDO: If I can help somebody else to be ready for, that will be something that I can accomplish to help another family.
ZARRELLA: Carlos is in counseling. His wife, Melida, hopes it will help him pack away the shrine.
MELIDA ARREDONDO, ALEX'S STEPMOTHER: To me, Alex was not these pictures. To me, when I go walk and I see a rainbow, that's Alex.
ZARRELLA: In a letter, Alex Arredondo wrote he was not afraid of dying, he was serving his country.
CARLOS ARREDONDO: I was being very proud of being Alexander's father, you know, the Marine.
ZARRELLA: Carlos Arredondo has no idea why he snapped. Perhaps, he says, because the day the Marines came was his birthday.
John Zarrella, CNN, Hollywood, Florida.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
