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CNN Live Today
Beirut Bombing; Election Results In; Spy in the Sky?
Aired February 14, 2005 - 10:59 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Let's take a look at what's happening right "Now in the News."
A massive explosion ripping through downtown Beirut, killing the former Lebanese prime minister. At least nine other people were killed and 100 others wounded. The explosion comes amid increasing political tensions in Lebanon. We'll go live to Beirut in just a minute.
Authorities say at least three people were killed in a trio of bombings in the Philippines today. Among the targets a bus in Manila and a department store in the southern Philippines. A caller to a radio station claimed the Muslim extremist group Abu Sayyaf was responsible.
Thousands of U.S. troops prepare to leave Iraq after a handover ceremony today in Tikrit. Members of the 1st Infantry Division were replaced by solders from the 42nd Infantry Division. It's the first National Guard division to be activated since the Korean War.
The nation's new attorney general takes the oath of office. Alberto Gonzales was sworn in during a ceremony seen live on CNN last hour. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor administered the oath as President Bush looked on.
It is 11:00 a.m. on the East Coast, 8:00 a.m. on the West Coast. From the CNN Center in Atlanta, good morning once again. I'm Daryn Kagan.
RICK SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Rick Sanchez. A lot of news.
And up first this hour, it's a massive explosion in downtown Beirut. And that was not just a bombing, but a political assassination as well. The blast killed one of the most influential power brokers in the Middle East and left the city's fashionable seafront littered with burned-out cars.
Senior international correspondent Brent Sadler, he's been tracking the story all morning long. And he's joining us now live.
Do we know yet why this happened, Brent?
BRENT SADLER, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: No, we have no suspects in the frame. No real hard information as to why it happened. But you can add the figures together in terms of trying to make sense of it, in terms of an equation. This was a huge blast it. It shook me off my desk earlier this day in our bureau here in central Beirut. Glass shattered through the city's center a mile away from the actual scene of this political assassination, of this very larger than life political figure, Rafiq al-Hariri, who just turned 60 at the end of last year.
He was a dynamo in terms of the reconstruction, the post-civil war reconstruction of Beirut. He was seen as a powerhouse of politics by his supporters, but he also had very many political opponents on the scene here, as well as diehard enemies.
And Lebanon is facing a parliamentary election in a couple of months from now. One of Hariri's closest allies, there was an assassination attempt against him with a bombing attack a couple of months backed. He survived.
Hariri knew the risks of the game in terms of trying to come back again for possibly a sixth term as prime minister in these upcoming general elections here. But there has been fierce political rhetoric. The whole atmosphere of politics has been really thrown back in recent weeks to the years of the civil war.
This is a country with a veneer of stability. And that veneer was ripped apart by that massive explosion earlier this day, eliminating one of the most powerful Sunni political players on the field in Lebanon whose reach not just because he was a multibillionaire, but whose reach stretched far beyond the coastal shores of Lebanon to the United States.
He had cordial, very good relations with President George W. Bush. Also a personal friend of President Jacques Chirac of France. A player who used his own personal 777 Boeing jet to travel the world to promote Lebanon, to get over the years of civil war and brutal conflict here to try and rebuild the country.
And it was Hariri who has now been liquidated. A political assassination it's being seen by his supporters here, and the ramification are indeed potentially seismic -- Rick.
SANCHEZ: Why would people suspect the Syrians? And could this then have a backlash against the Syrians? Can you explain that to us?
SADLER: Yes, the Syrians have been under growing international pressure, led primarily by the United States, with the support of France to pressure Syria to loosen its grip on Lebanon, to withdraw what are seen by many Lebanese here, particularly among the Christian community, as occupation forces. For Syria to stop supporting Hezbollah, which the U.S. and Israel regards as a terrorist organization. And Hariri behind the scenes was seen as a catalyst to bringing about this U.S.-French pressure on Syria -- Rick.
SANCHEZ: Interesting. Brent Sadler, thanks so much for explaining that to us. We'll certainly be checking back with you -- Daryn.
KAGAN: Now to Iraq, where the horse trading begins today. The election results are in, and a Shiite slate of parties will now try to shape a new unity government.
Senior international correspondent Nic Robertson is watching developments in Baghdad today.
Hello.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Daryn.
Well, perhaps one of the most interesting things to happen today, we've heard from some Sunni politicians who have been mostly marginalized so far in these elections that have been dominated by the Kurds from the north and the Shias from the south. The Sunnis today saying that they feel like they're in a vacuum. The influential and the most popular Sunni party here, the Iraqi Islamic Party, has said that it thinks that the Sunni clerics are to blame for the reason that Sunnis didn't come out to vote.
And now they want to be a part of a political process. They want to be involved in the drafting of the constitution that's going to begin soon. And they say that they hope by the end of the year, when next elections are expected to happen, that Sunnis will come out and vote. So that's quite an interesting development, that really the split happening within the Sunni grouping now -- Daryn.
KAGAN: A couple questions for you. First, about the Kurds, they had what many consider an excellent showing in these elections. My question is, do the Kurds want to be part of Iraq or do they want to have their own independence movement and continue that effort to have their own country?
ROBERTSON: Well, they really feel that they got what they were expecting here, which was a quarter of the seats in the national assembly. Right now they say absolutely, they want to play ball, they want to be part of Iraq. Indeed, they want to be -- they want to get one of the top jobs in the new government. They want their representative to become president. And they say that's going to be a real test of how well the ethnic Kurds in the north are going to be dealt with by the ethnic Arabs, if you will, the Arabs in Baghdad.
The Baghdad government has never had to deal with the Kurds in this way. And the Kurds say, if they're not accepted in Baghdad on equal terms, if their man cannot be president or take a top job, then that's going to show them that they don't have a future in a united Iraq, and therefore, they'd rather pursue their own interests. But right now, they say Kurds as part of united Iraq, definitely the best place for Kurds to be.
KAGAN: Let's talk about some of the other key positions. You mentioned a president, also a prime minister needs to be selected.
ROBERTSON: Prime minister, defense ministry is also an important position, the minister of interior as well. Key, key jobs here, and the horse trading for those is going to be very intense. Perhaps what makes it more intense than people had initially anticipated is because that -- the very popular religious Shia party that so dominated in the elections has done well, but not that well that they can ignore what everyone else wants.
Now, they're expected to put in a moderate person in one of those influential positions. Indeed, a lot of people are saying, "We want to see an independent player there. We don't want to see party politics coming into top jobs like the prime minister's job, like the interior ministry, key, key positions in determining the future security." Those jobs that would determine whether or not the country stays united and whether or not the person doing those jobs really is a unifier or a divider, and that's very critical for the future of the country -- Daryn.
KAGAN: Nic Robertson joining us live from Baghdad. Thank you.
An expert weighing in on Iraq's election outcome in our next half-hour. We're going to talk with a former Middle Eastern diplomat about the next steps on Iraq's road to democracy.
SANCHEZ: Time now for a CNN "Security Watch" report.
South Korea's top diplomat goes to the State Department this hour. He's going to talk with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice about North Korea's nuclear pursuits.
Last week the north declared it had nuclear weapons. It demanded one-on-one talks with the United States, not with five other nations. The Bush administration refused to do it. State Department officials say China, which holds a lot of sway over the north, will try and pressure it now to return to six-party talks, or so the Chinese have promised over the weekend.
Now, the Pentagon and the CIA is not going to touch this one that we're about to tell you about. But there is a published report saying that the Bush administration is spying on Iran's nuclear program, using drones, supposedly. National security correspondent David Ensor has been following up on the story, and he's joining us now to let us know what he knows.
David, over to you.
DAVID ENSOR, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Rick, there have been a couple of developments in the area of intelligence in Iran over the weekend. With the U.S. intelligence community working on a wide-ranging review of its intelligence about Iran, these two revelations are getting attention in town here.
First, knowledgeable former officials are telling CNN that in the early 1990s a network of Iranian agents for U.S. intelligence was discovered by Iranian counterintelligence and dozens of agents were jailed or executed, according to these sources. They did say the network was a low-level one, was set up at the request of the Pentagon. Word of the loss came first in recent testimony by former Pentagon official Richard Perle.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RICHARD PERLE, FMR. PENTAGON OFFICIAL: I imagine there are many on the committee who are familiar with the terrible setback that we suffered in Iran a few years ago, when in -- in a display of unbelievably careless management we put pressure on agents operating in Iran to report with greater frequency, and did not provide communications, channels for them to do it. The Iranian intelligence authorities quickly saw the surge in traffic and, as I understand it, virtually our entire network in Iran was wiped out.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ENSOR: Now, Richard Perle is a frequent critic of the CIA. And knowledgeable former officials dispute him on several counts.
They call his testimony "inaccurate" in some details and "misleading." These officials say his description of how the network was rolled up is wrong, and that it was smaller than he described.
Meantime, as you mentioned, two well-placed sources are now confirming to CNN a report that the U.S. has used unmanned aerial vehicles to collect intelligence on Iran, though U.S. military and other officials are saying that no such flights have occurred recently. This occurs over a backdrop where some CIA officials are worrying that the Pentagon and FBI may be seeking to take over more of the human intelligence effort in Iran, recruiting spies to report from the ground.
We're in a situation now where the president seems to be delaying his choice of a new director of national intelligence. And that, in the view of some senior former officials, lays U.S. intelligence to be vulnerable to what one official called poaching -- Rick.
SANCHEZ: David Ensor, national security correspondent, reporting to us on two developments having to do with Iran.
And we should tell you that CNN "Security Watch" keeps you up to date on safety, your safety. Stay tuned day and night for the most reliable news about your security.
KAGAN: A lot going on this morning. Just as you were talking to David Ensor, Michael Jackson arriving at the courthouse in Santa Maria, California. We have the pictures of Michael Jackson arriving.
Jury selection continues. The requisite umbrella on a sunny day on the central coast there.
As jury selection goes on, they have it down to nearly 250 potential jurors. They're filling out questionnaires into -- they want to get to down to 12 panelists and eight alternates.
Jackson is accused of molesting a 13-year-old former cancer patient, giving the boy alcohol and conspiring to hold him and his family captive. So jury selection continues in Santa Maria.
We move back East. A shooting at a crowded New York mall sends panicked shoppers scrambling for cover and leaves at least two people wounded.
This morning, police identified the suspect as 24-year-old Robert Bonelli. He's charged with assault and reckless endangerment.
Police placed the mall on lockdown immediately after the shooting yesterday. They say the gunman fired an assault-type weapon until he ran out of ammo. A mall employee helped capture the suspect after he stopped firing.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KEITH LAZARCHIK, MALL EMPLOYEE: All of a sudden, out of the Best Buy exit I saw a guy with a guns, a rifle coming out. And a couple of shots rang out. And as everybody was running out, I saw him going down the mall entrance.
And so for whatever reason I started going down towards that entrance. And people were yelling at me to get back, "He's got a gun, he's shooting people." And, you know, gun's going off and firing.
And so I peeked around the corner and saw him go around another corner. So I snuck down that corner and saw him go around.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KAGAN: Police say that a National Guard recruiter wounded in the shooting might lose his leg. The other victim had minor wounds to his arm and his leg.
SANCHEZ: Thank god he was terrible shot.
KAGAN: Yes. It could have been a lot worse.
SANCHEZ: There's also another story that we're following. There's a concern about safety as well after yesterday's intense fire in this building. Look at it. It's a fire now out, but authorities have another problem on their hands, and we're going to tell you what it is up next.
KAGAN: And then have you heard what Canseco -- Jose Canseco has to say? He's letting loose in a new book. Find out who he says he did steroids with and what he thinks about doing steroids now.
SANCHEZ: Also, don't forget about Valentine's Day today.
KAGAN: Did you remember?
SANCHEZ: Of course I did.
KAGAN: OK. Good job.
SANCHEZ: I'm all over this one. All over it. I'm convincing myself. Why chocolate may be a tasty and healthy choice, or a great excuse.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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KAGAN: World leaders are condemning the bombing in Beirut today that killed the former prime minister of Lebanon. It was the most devastating attack since the end of the country's 15-year civil war.
For some insight, let's bring in Octavia Nasr, our senior editor for Arab affairs.
Good morning.
OCTAVIA NASR, CNN SR. EDITOR FOR ARAB AFFAIRS: Good morning to you.
KAGAN: Let's talk about this attack here. Any claims of responsibility so far?
NASR: Not really. Al-Jazeera is announcing that it has a tape that it's about to air that will show a claim of responsibility. They have it on their Web site.
Basically, they're saying there is this group. It's an unknown group. They're saying that they killed the infidel because he got what he deserves, basically.
It's an unknown group, again. Too early to speculate.
It's such a big job that it cannot be summed up in one claim or one story at this point. You have the whole world reacting to this. Countries such as France asking for an investigation. It's too big to be summed up in a claim or two.
KAGAN: And the world's attention hasn't been focused on Lebanon so much lately. So for those not as familiar, explain why when this happens people who do know the area so well, as you do, you think Syria.
NASR: The reason being, I mean, Lebanon hasn't had anything like this in a long, long time, as you said. The war -- the civil war ended back in 1990. And the way it ended was by Syria coming in and taking full control of the country.
The remnants of any opposition to Syria were either jailed, killed or exiled. And then since then, since 1990, Syria has been in total control of Lebanon. It's -- there are many people, including the U.S., who have been asking Syria to leave Lebanon alone, to pull its troops out, but there are groups within Lebanon who are saying that, no, we want Syria to stay, because Syria's presence in Lebanon keeps them in power.
So what happened with the Iraqi elections, which just took place, and with President Bush coming out a winner in the Middle East with his policy on Iraq and so forth, what happened is you had -- you felt a movement in the Middle East, and especially in Lebanon. You felt the opposition.
There was a buzz of sorts. On Arab media you could hear it. You heard the experts in op-eds, editorials, everywhere you could feel, sense, that the opposition is moving. So the timing of this assassination and the magnitude of the assassination has to tell you that it's an attempt to quell the opposition and keep it quiet at this point.
KAGAN: So within that context, how does Rafik Hariri get caught up in that? And why is he an intended target?
NASR: He is an intended target. Him and other people, as a matter of fact. He's not the only one.
There were reports of warning against assassinating him. And also another important figure is (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
These are vocal opposition members of the Lebanese society. They're very influential, they have a big support group behind them. And they're very vocal against the presence of Syria in Lebanon. So he -- that makes him a target in this sense.
Now, of course Rafik Hariri is not someone who is liked all the way. I mean, he had lots of enemies for many, many reasons.
When you think about Beirut, I mean, you remember the names that Beirut had in Lebanon. You know, "The Switzerland of the Middle East." The -- it was a place where people went for vacation. It was a beautiful country. And then the civil war destroyed it completely.
What this man did -- and this is a picture of Beirut now, which looks very different from Beirut of the civil war, which was completely destroyed. What this man did, he helped rebuild Beirut into what you're looking at now. So he's credited for a lot of the beautifying that happened in Lebanon since the end of the war.
He's a billionaire, he didn't need to come in and embezzle any money, which is the reputation that a lot of politicians in Lebanon had for long, long time. So he was seen as someone who's reconstructing Lebanon.
But at the same time, he had his critics and even people who hated him. They didn't like him because they thought that he was too arrogant, that he was -- he acted alone, he didn't bring the other parties, he didn't include a lot of people. He was very exclusive.
So he had enemies. It's not fair to say...
KAGAN: It's not so simple.
NASR: ... only Syria or X or Y or Z, but the magnitude of the event I think is something for everybody to pause and think about. The timing right around the Iraqi elections is something for everybody to pause and think about.
KAGAN: Certainly has gotten the world's attention. Octavia, thank you.
NASR: Thank you. SANCHEZ: He is naming names and some pretty big ones at that. What Jose Canseco reveals in his new tell-all book about baseball and steroids.
And this little baby boy survived the tsunami. But there was another battle to come. His happy ending and a couple of other people's as well. We're going to tell you who they are. That's up next.
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SANCHEZ: Here we go once again. Major League Baseball is dealing with an inside pitch about a league rife with illegal steroid use. Now Jose Canseco, formerly one of the sport's biggest stars, is out with a new book. It has new claims, names new names.
Here's CNN's Steve Overmyer.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
STEVE OVERMYER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): After retiring from baseball in 2002, Jose Canseco said one day he would write a tell-all book. That day has come. During an interview about his new book with "60 Minutes," Canseco claimed he used steroids with former Oakland teammate Mark McGwire.
JOSE CANSECO, FMR. BASEBALL PLAYER: I think I injected him -- I mean, this once or twice for sure. I didn't keep track. But an athlete -- an athlete may prepare his needle and may ask another athlete to inject him quickly. And that's the way it works.
OVERMYER: McGwire has denied using steroids and issued a statement saying, "I have always told the truth and I am saddened that I have to continue to respond to this line of questioning. With regards to this book, I'm reserving comment until I've had the chance to review its contents myself."
Jason Giambi was also named by Canseco as a steroid user. The Yankees' first baseman reportedly admitted to using steroids during his testimony before a grand jury which is investigating a California company for the illegal distribution of steroids.
JASON GIAMBI, 2000 AMERICAN LEAGUE MVP: I think he might be a little delusional. I mean, like I said, I have not read his book. So I don't know to what extent is even in that.
You know, I've only seen bits and pieces like everything else. But I think in time that a lot of those things, you know, are going to come out to be untrue.
OVERMYER: Although Canseco's allegations are being disregarded by those who question his credibility, not everyone is convinced he's lying.
KEN ROSENTHAL, "THE SPORTING NEWS": You can look at his credibility two ways. One, he's not credible, he's a guy who is an outcast in the sport, he's out to make a buck, he's clearly looking to bring people down for his own benefit.
At the same time, this is a person who was a firsthand witness to all the steroid use in the late '80s, early '90s, into the 2000s. He was right in the middle of everything, and you would think that he would have some idea of who did what.
OVERMYER: Baseball's brightest star, Barry Bonds, was not named in Canseco's book but continues to be surrounded by suspicions that he used performance-enhancing drugs. The six-time MVP could break Hank Aaron's all-time homerun record this season, so the questions will continue.
ROSENTHAL: I don't think there's a light at the end of the tunnel for baseball anytime soon. You have Bonds this year. When he approaches Ruth and approaches Aaron, people are going to wonder, is this real or is it something else?
OVERMYER: Steve Overmyer, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SANCHEZ: Expect a lot more on that one.
KAGAN: Yes. Barry Bonds having knee surgery. Going to miss spring training. Might be a little bit smaller...
SANCHEZ: He's got another problem. It has to do with a court case that's going on right now and a specific woman who's talking. More on that later.
KAGAN: Yes, I guess so.
SANCHEZ: This story will grow, folks.
It was a shocking and heartbreaking story out of Asia.
KAGAN: It was. A baby that was lost in the tsunami then found, and then somehow lost in the system. How the confusion worked out as baby goes home. We'll have that story just ahead.
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Aired February 14, 2005 - 10:59 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Let's take a look at what's happening right "Now in the News."
A massive explosion ripping through downtown Beirut, killing the former Lebanese prime minister. At least nine other people were killed and 100 others wounded. The explosion comes amid increasing political tensions in Lebanon. We'll go live to Beirut in just a minute.
Authorities say at least three people were killed in a trio of bombings in the Philippines today. Among the targets a bus in Manila and a department store in the southern Philippines. A caller to a radio station claimed the Muslim extremist group Abu Sayyaf was responsible.
Thousands of U.S. troops prepare to leave Iraq after a handover ceremony today in Tikrit. Members of the 1st Infantry Division were replaced by solders from the 42nd Infantry Division. It's the first National Guard division to be activated since the Korean War.
The nation's new attorney general takes the oath of office. Alberto Gonzales was sworn in during a ceremony seen live on CNN last hour. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor administered the oath as President Bush looked on.
It is 11:00 a.m. on the East Coast, 8:00 a.m. on the West Coast. From the CNN Center in Atlanta, good morning once again. I'm Daryn Kagan.
RICK SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Rick Sanchez. A lot of news.
And up first this hour, it's a massive explosion in downtown Beirut. And that was not just a bombing, but a political assassination as well. The blast killed one of the most influential power brokers in the Middle East and left the city's fashionable seafront littered with burned-out cars.
Senior international correspondent Brent Sadler, he's been tracking the story all morning long. And he's joining us now live.
Do we know yet why this happened, Brent?
BRENT SADLER, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: No, we have no suspects in the frame. No real hard information as to why it happened. But you can add the figures together in terms of trying to make sense of it, in terms of an equation. This was a huge blast it. It shook me off my desk earlier this day in our bureau here in central Beirut. Glass shattered through the city's center a mile away from the actual scene of this political assassination, of this very larger than life political figure, Rafiq al-Hariri, who just turned 60 at the end of last year.
He was a dynamo in terms of the reconstruction, the post-civil war reconstruction of Beirut. He was seen as a powerhouse of politics by his supporters, but he also had very many political opponents on the scene here, as well as diehard enemies.
And Lebanon is facing a parliamentary election in a couple of months from now. One of Hariri's closest allies, there was an assassination attempt against him with a bombing attack a couple of months backed. He survived.
Hariri knew the risks of the game in terms of trying to come back again for possibly a sixth term as prime minister in these upcoming general elections here. But there has been fierce political rhetoric. The whole atmosphere of politics has been really thrown back in recent weeks to the years of the civil war.
This is a country with a veneer of stability. And that veneer was ripped apart by that massive explosion earlier this day, eliminating one of the most powerful Sunni political players on the field in Lebanon whose reach not just because he was a multibillionaire, but whose reach stretched far beyond the coastal shores of Lebanon to the United States.
He had cordial, very good relations with President George W. Bush. Also a personal friend of President Jacques Chirac of France. A player who used his own personal 777 Boeing jet to travel the world to promote Lebanon, to get over the years of civil war and brutal conflict here to try and rebuild the country.
And it was Hariri who has now been liquidated. A political assassination it's being seen by his supporters here, and the ramification are indeed potentially seismic -- Rick.
SANCHEZ: Why would people suspect the Syrians? And could this then have a backlash against the Syrians? Can you explain that to us?
SADLER: Yes, the Syrians have been under growing international pressure, led primarily by the United States, with the support of France to pressure Syria to loosen its grip on Lebanon, to withdraw what are seen by many Lebanese here, particularly among the Christian community, as occupation forces. For Syria to stop supporting Hezbollah, which the U.S. and Israel regards as a terrorist organization. And Hariri behind the scenes was seen as a catalyst to bringing about this U.S.-French pressure on Syria -- Rick.
SANCHEZ: Interesting. Brent Sadler, thanks so much for explaining that to us. We'll certainly be checking back with you -- Daryn.
KAGAN: Now to Iraq, where the horse trading begins today. The election results are in, and a Shiite slate of parties will now try to shape a new unity government.
Senior international correspondent Nic Robertson is watching developments in Baghdad today.
Hello.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Daryn.
Well, perhaps one of the most interesting things to happen today, we've heard from some Sunni politicians who have been mostly marginalized so far in these elections that have been dominated by the Kurds from the north and the Shias from the south. The Sunnis today saying that they feel like they're in a vacuum. The influential and the most popular Sunni party here, the Iraqi Islamic Party, has said that it thinks that the Sunni clerics are to blame for the reason that Sunnis didn't come out to vote.
And now they want to be a part of a political process. They want to be involved in the drafting of the constitution that's going to begin soon. And they say that they hope by the end of the year, when next elections are expected to happen, that Sunnis will come out and vote. So that's quite an interesting development, that really the split happening within the Sunni grouping now -- Daryn.
KAGAN: A couple questions for you. First, about the Kurds, they had what many consider an excellent showing in these elections. My question is, do the Kurds want to be part of Iraq or do they want to have their own independence movement and continue that effort to have their own country?
ROBERTSON: Well, they really feel that they got what they were expecting here, which was a quarter of the seats in the national assembly. Right now they say absolutely, they want to play ball, they want to be part of Iraq. Indeed, they want to be -- they want to get one of the top jobs in the new government. They want their representative to become president. And they say that's going to be a real test of how well the ethnic Kurds in the north are going to be dealt with by the ethnic Arabs, if you will, the Arabs in Baghdad.
The Baghdad government has never had to deal with the Kurds in this way. And the Kurds say, if they're not accepted in Baghdad on equal terms, if their man cannot be president or take a top job, then that's going to show them that they don't have a future in a united Iraq, and therefore, they'd rather pursue their own interests. But right now, they say Kurds as part of united Iraq, definitely the best place for Kurds to be.
KAGAN: Let's talk about some of the other key positions. You mentioned a president, also a prime minister needs to be selected.
ROBERTSON: Prime minister, defense ministry is also an important position, the minister of interior as well. Key, key jobs here, and the horse trading for those is going to be very intense. Perhaps what makes it more intense than people had initially anticipated is because that -- the very popular religious Shia party that so dominated in the elections has done well, but not that well that they can ignore what everyone else wants.
Now, they're expected to put in a moderate person in one of those influential positions. Indeed, a lot of people are saying, "We want to see an independent player there. We don't want to see party politics coming into top jobs like the prime minister's job, like the interior ministry, key, key positions in determining the future security." Those jobs that would determine whether or not the country stays united and whether or not the person doing those jobs really is a unifier or a divider, and that's very critical for the future of the country -- Daryn.
KAGAN: Nic Robertson joining us live from Baghdad. Thank you.
An expert weighing in on Iraq's election outcome in our next half-hour. We're going to talk with a former Middle Eastern diplomat about the next steps on Iraq's road to democracy.
SANCHEZ: Time now for a CNN "Security Watch" report.
South Korea's top diplomat goes to the State Department this hour. He's going to talk with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice about North Korea's nuclear pursuits.
Last week the north declared it had nuclear weapons. It demanded one-on-one talks with the United States, not with five other nations. The Bush administration refused to do it. State Department officials say China, which holds a lot of sway over the north, will try and pressure it now to return to six-party talks, or so the Chinese have promised over the weekend.
Now, the Pentagon and the CIA is not going to touch this one that we're about to tell you about. But there is a published report saying that the Bush administration is spying on Iran's nuclear program, using drones, supposedly. National security correspondent David Ensor has been following up on the story, and he's joining us now to let us know what he knows.
David, over to you.
DAVID ENSOR, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Rick, there have been a couple of developments in the area of intelligence in Iran over the weekend. With the U.S. intelligence community working on a wide-ranging review of its intelligence about Iran, these two revelations are getting attention in town here.
First, knowledgeable former officials are telling CNN that in the early 1990s a network of Iranian agents for U.S. intelligence was discovered by Iranian counterintelligence and dozens of agents were jailed or executed, according to these sources. They did say the network was a low-level one, was set up at the request of the Pentagon. Word of the loss came first in recent testimony by former Pentagon official Richard Perle.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RICHARD PERLE, FMR. PENTAGON OFFICIAL: I imagine there are many on the committee who are familiar with the terrible setback that we suffered in Iran a few years ago, when in -- in a display of unbelievably careless management we put pressure on agents operating in Iran to report with greater frequency, and did not provide communications, channels for them to do it. The Iranian intelligence authorities quickly saw the surge in traffic and, as I understand it, virtually our entire network in Iran was wiped out.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ENSOR: Now, Richard Perle is a frequent critic of the CIA. And knowledgeable former officials dispute him on several counts.
They call his testimony "inaccurate" in some details and "misleading." These officials say his description of how the network was rolled up is wrong, and that it was smaller than he described.
Meantime, as you mentioned, two well-placed sources are now confirming to CNN a report that the U.S. has used unmanned aerial vehicles to collect intelligence on Iran, though U.S. military and other officials are saying that no such flights have occurred recently. This occurs over a backdrop where some CIA officials are worrying that the Pentagon and FBI may be seeking to take over more of the human intelligence effort in Iran, recruiting spies to report from the ground.
We're in a situation now where the president seems to be delaying his choice of a new director of national intelligence. And that, in the view of some senior former officials, lays U.S. intelligence to be vulnerable to what one official called poaching -- Rick.
SANCHEZ: David Ensor, national security correspondent, reporting to us on two developments having to do with Iran.
And we should tell you that CNN "Security Watch" keeps you up to date on safety, your safety. Stay tuned day and night for the most reliable news about your security.
KAGAN: A lot going on this morning. Just as you were talking to David Ensor, Michael Jackson arriving at the courthouse in Santa Maria, California. We have the pictures of Michael Jackson arriving.
Jury selection continues. The requisite umbrella on a sunny day on the central coast there.
As jury selection goes on, they have it down to nearly 250 potential jurors. They're filling out questionnaires into -- they want to get to down to 12 panelists and eight alternates.
Jackson is accused of molesting a 13-year-old former cancer patient, giving the boy alcohol and conspiring to hold him and his family captive. So jury selection continues in Santa Maria.
We move back East. A shooting at a crowded New York mall sends panicked shoppers scrambling for cover and leaves at least two people wounded.
This morning, police identified the suspect as 24-year-old Robert Bonelli. He's charged with assault and reckless endangerment.
Police placed the mall on lockdown immediately after the shooting yesterday. They say the gunman fired an assault-type weapon until he ran out of ammo. A mall employee helped capture the suspect after he stopped firing.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KEITH LAZARCHIK, MALL EMPLOYEE: All of a sudden, out of the Best Buy exit I saw a guy with a guns, a rifle coming out. And a couple of shots rang out. And as everybody was running out, I saw him going down the mall entrance.
And so for whatever reason I started going down towards that entrance. And people were yelling at me to get back, "He's got a gun, he's shooting people." And, you know, gun's going off and firing.
And so I peeked around the corner and saw him go around another corner. So I snuck down that corner and saw him go around.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KAGAN: Police say that a National Guard recruiter wounded in the shooting might lose his leg. The other victim had minor wounds to his arm and his leg.
SANCHEZ: Thank god he was terrible shot.
KAGAN: Yes. It could have been a lot worse.
SANCHEZ: There's also another story that we're following. There's a concern about safety as well after yesterday's intense fire in this building. Look at it. It's a fire now out, but authorities have another problem on their hands, and we're going to tell you what it is up next.
KAGAN: And then have you heard what Canseco -- Jose Canseco has to say? He's letting loose in a new book. Find out who he says he did steroids with and what he thinks about doing steroids now.
SANCHEZ: Also, don't forget about Valentine's Day today.
KAGAN: Did you remember?
SANCHEZ: Of course I did.
KAGAN: OK. Good job.
SANCHEZ: I'm all over this one. All over it. I'm convincing myself. Why chocolate may be a tasty and healthy choice, or a great excuse.
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KAGAN: World leaders are condemning the bombing in Beirut today that killed the former prime minister of Lebanon. It was the most devastating attack since the end of the country's 15-year civil war.
For some insight, let's bring in Octavia Nasr, our senior editor for Arab affairs.
Good morning.
OCTAVIA NASR, CNN SR. EDITOR FOR ARAB AFFAIRS: Good morning to you.
KAGAN: Let's talk about this attack here. Any claims of responsibility so far?
NASR: Not really. Al-Jazeera is announcing that it has a tape that it's about to air that will show a claim of responsibility. They have it on their Web site.
Basically, they're saying there is this group. It's an unknown group. They're saying that they killed the infidel because he got what he deserves, basically.
It's an unknown group, again. Too early to speculate.
It's such a big job that it cannot be summed up in one claim or one story at this point. You have the whole world reacting to this. Countries such as France asking for an investigation. It's too big to be summed up in a claim or two.
KAGAN: And the world's attention hasn't been focused on Lebanon so much lately. So for those not as familiar, explain why when this happens people who do know the area so well, as you do, you think Syria.
NASR: The reason being, I mean, Lebanon hasn't had anything like this in a long, long time, as you said. The war -- the civil war ended back in 1990. And the way it ended was by Syria coming in and taking full control of the country.
The remnants of any opposition to Syria were either jailed, killed or exiled. And then since then, since 1990, Syria has been in total control of Lebanon. It's -- there are many people, including the U.S., who have been asking Syria to leave Lebanon alone, to pull its troops out, but there are groups within Lebanon who are saying that, no, we want Syria to stay, because Syria's presence in Lebanon keeps them in power.
So what happened with the Iraqi elections, which just took place, and with President Bush coming out a winner in the Middle East with his policy on Iraq and so forth, what happened is you had -- you felt a movement in the Middle East, and especially in Lebanon. You felt the opposition.
There was a buzz of sorts. On Arab media you could hear it. You heard the experts in op-eds, editorials, everywhere you could feel, sense, that the opposition is moving. So the timing of this assassination and the magnitude of the assassination has to tell you that it's an attempt to quell the opposition and keep it quiet at this point.
KAGAN: So within that context, how does Rafik Hariri get caught up in that? And why is he an intended target?
NASR: He is an intended target. Him and other people, as a matter of fact. He's not the only one.
There were reports of warning against assassinating him. And also another important figure is (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
These are vocal opposition members of the Lebanese society. They're very influential, they have a big support group behind them. And they're very vocal against the presence of Syria in Lebanon. So he -- that makes him a target in this sense.
Now, of course Rafik Hariri is not someone who is liked all the way. I mean, he had lots of enemies for many, many reasons.
When you think about Beirut, I mean, you remember the names that Beirut had in Lebanon. You know, "The Switzerland of the Middle East." The -- it was a place where people went for vacation. It was a beautiful country. And then the civil war destroyed it completely.
What this man did -- and this is a picture of Beirut now, which looks very different from Beirut of the civil war, which was completely destroyed. What this man did, he helped rebuild Beirut into what you're looking at now. So he's credited for a lot of the beautifying that happened in Lebanon since the end of the war.
He's a billionaire, he didn't need to come in and embezzle any money, which is the reputation that a lot of politicians in Lebanon had for long, long time. So he was seen as someone who's reconstructing Lebanon.
But at the same time, he had his critics and even people who hated him. They didn't like him because they thought that he was too arrogant, that he was -- he acted alone, he didn't bring the other parties, he didn't include a lot of people. He was very exclusive.
So he had enemies. It's not fair to say...
KAGAN: It's not so simple.
NASR: ... only Syria or X or Y or Z, but the magnitude of the event I think is something for everybody to pause and think about. The timing right around the Iraqi elections is something for everybody to pause and think about.
KAGAN: Certainly has gotten the world's attention. Octavia, thank you.
NASR: Thank you. SANCHEZ: He is naming names and some pretty big ones at that. What Jose Canseco reveals in his new tell-all book about baseball and steroids.
And this little baby boy survived the tsunami. But there was another battle to come. His happy ending and a couple of other people's as well. We're going to tell you who they are. That's up next.
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SANCHEZ: Here we go once again. Major League Baseball is dealing with an inside pitch about a league rife with illegal steroid use. Now Jose Canseco, formerly one of the sport's biggest stars, is out with a new book. It has new claims, names new names.
Here's CNN's Steve Overmyer.
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STEVE OVERMYER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): After retiring from baseball in 2002, Jose Canseco said one day he would write a tell-all book. That day has come. During an interview about his new book with "60 Minutes," Canseco claimed he used steroids with former Oakland teammate Mark McGwire.
JOSE CANSECO, FMR. BASEBALL PLAYER: I think I injected him -- I mean, this once or twice for sure. I didn't keep track. But an athlete -- an athlete may prepare his needle and may ask another athlete to inject him quickly. And that's the way it works.
OVERMYER: McGwire has denied using steroids and issued a statement saying, "I have always told the truth and I am saddened that I have to continue to respond to this line of questioning. With regards to this book, I'm reserving comment until I've had the chance to review its contents myself."
Jason Giambi was also named by Canseco as a steroid user. The Yankees' first baseman reportedly admitted to using steroids during his testimony before a grand jury which is investigating a California company for the illegal distribution of steroids.
JASON GIAMBI, 2000 AMERICAN LEAGUE MVP: I think he might be a little delusional. I mean, like I said, I have not read his book. So I don't know to what extent is even in that.
You know, I've only seen bits and pieces like everything else. But I think in time that a lot of those things, you know, are going to come out to be untrue.
OVERMYER: Although Canseco's allegations are being disregarded by those who question his credibility, not everyone is convinced he's lying.
KEN ROSENTHAL, "THE SPORTING NEWS": You can look at his credibility two ways. One, he's not credible, he's a guy who is an outcast in the sport, he's out to make a buck, he's clearly looking to bring people down for his own benefit.
At the same time, this is a person who was a firsthand witness to all the steroid use in the late '80s, early '90s, into the 2000s. He was right in the middle of everything, and you would think that he would have some idea of who did what.
OVERMYER: Baseball's brightest star, Barry Bonds, was not named in Canseco's book but continues to be surrounded by suspicions that he used performance-enhancing drugs. The six-time MVP could break Hank Aaron's all-time homerun record this season, so the questions will continue.
ROSENTHAL: I don't think there's a light at the end of the tunnel for baseball anytime soon. You have Bonds this year. When he approaches Ruth and approaches Aaron, people are going to wonder, is this real or is it something else?
OVERMYER: Steve Overmyer, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SANCHEZ: Expect a lot more on that one.
KAGAN: Yes. Barry Bonds having knee surgery. Going to miss spring training. Might be a little bit smaller...
SANCHEZ: He's got another problem. It has to do with a court case that's going on right now and a specific woman who's talking. More on that later.
KAGAN: Yes, I guess so.
SANCHEZ: This story will grow, folks.
It was a shocking and heartbreaking story out of Asia.
KAGAN: It was. A baby that was lost in the tsunami then found, and then somehow lost in the system. How the confusion worked out as baby goes home. We'll have that story just ahead.
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