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CNN Live Today

Deadly Attack on U.S. Marines in Iraq; Air France Flight 358; Success in Space

Aired August 03, 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 get things started with taking a look at what's happening "Now in the News."
Fourteen U.S. Marines and a civilian interpreter were killed by a roadside bomb in western Iraq today. It happened near the insurgent hotbed of Haditha. The Associated Press says there are members of the same Ohio-based battalion that lost six Marines two days earlier. A live report from Iraq is just ahead.

A couple of gentle tugs was all it took. Astronaut Steve Robinson successfully removes two pieces of filler material from the Shuttle Discovery's underbelly. The in-flight repair was a first for NASA. Officials were concerned the protruding material might cause dangerous overheating during reentry. More on the successful mission in just a minute.

Investigators are focusing on whether weather is the likely cause of that fiery crash in Toronto. They plan to retrieve the plane's voice and data recorders today. Looking at the pictures, it's almost impossible to believe, but all 309 passengers and crew members survived the crash and managed to escape the burning flame.

Islamic clerics, tribal chiefs and other Saudis today pledged allegiance to the new king. The ceremony completes the transition of power to King Abdullah. He's been the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia for the last 10 years. He officially assumed the post Monday, following the death of his half-brother, King Fahd.

And we're getting word of a military coup in the western nation -- western African nation of Mauritania. Army officers say that the president has been overthrown. He was en route back from Saudi Arabia and is said to be in the nearby country of Niger.

Good morning. And welcome to the second hour of CNN LIVE TODAY.

Let's check the time. It is 400 p.m. in Maradi, Niger; 6:00 p.m. in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; and 700 p.m. in Baghdad, Iraq.

From CNN Center in Atlanta, good morning once again. I'm Daryn Kagan.

We're going to begin this hour with a deadly attack on U.S. Marines in Iraq. This is the second in just the past three days. Today's attack, 14 Marines and a civilian interpreter were killed by a roadside bomb in the western part of the country.

Our Aneesh Raman joins us now live from Baghdad with more on this developing story -- Aneesh.

ANEESH RAMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Daryn, good morning.

The disturbing news coming from the military on the ground this morning that, as you say, 14 U.S. Marines, along with a civilian interpreter, were killed just northwest of the capital city near the town of Haditha. It happened after what must have been a massive roadside bomb detonated and destroyed their amphibious assault vehicle.

This brings to total the number of Marines killed in just three days to 21. You will recall that on Monday seven U.S. Marines were killed in two separate incidents. Six of them right in and around Haditha itself.

They were walking on a foot patrol, killed by small arms fire. A seventh killed by a suicide bomber not far away.

That area, Al Anbar province, is a hotbed for insurgent activity, Daryn. There are ongoing operations to try and curb the flow of foreign fighters that are passing that Syrian border. And this now just underscoring how dangerous some of Iraq still remains and how essential these operations are.

Now, to he south of Baghdad, to the town of Basra, there, as well, today, disturbing news. Confirmation from the U.S. embassy that American freelance journalist Steven Vincent was found dead this morning. We're still piecing together exactly what took place, but Basra police tell us that Vincent and his Iraqi translator were abducted by gunmen just after midnight local time on Wednesday.

A short time later, Vincent's body was found, we're told, by western officials. He died from gunshot wounds. His translator was injured. She is now recovering in the hospital.

He had been there most recently to research a book on Basra, and he had just written an op-ed in "The New York Times" just a few days ago, really raising alarm bells on what he saw as a disturbing trend there, a growing rise in Shia Islamic fundamentalism. Basra, of course, a place that often is looked at as what Iraq should be, a sure enclave in this country. But, of course, there are elements, Shia extremist elements, there that seem to now be on the rise -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Aneesh Raman. A lot of news, a lot of disturbing news coming out of Iraq today. Thank you.

We do hope to learn more about the Marine death in Iraq from a Pentagon briefing getting under way this hour. Not quite started yet, but once it does, we're going to keep an ear open and let you know what we learn.

Meanwhile, other news to get to today.

Passengers today praising a fast-thinking Air France crew. Flight attendants hurried everyone off after their plane overshot a runway in Toronto. And then seconds later, the flames came. There are bumps, there are bruises. Remarkably, though, there are no deaths today.

Investigators today pointed to bad weather as one likely cause.

Our Jeanne Meserve is in Toronto and has this report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've got an aircraft slide off the end of the runway. You will not be landing on Runway 24. Approach clearance is canceled.

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Planes were diverted from Toronto's Pearson International Airport Tuesday after Air France Flight 358 attempted to land in stormy weather and ran out of concrete. The Airbus A-340 overshot the runway, ended up in a ravine, and burst into flames.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We had come to a complete stop, so it's not like you -- you think anything else is about to happen. I mean, even though we had a hell of a roller coaster going down the ravine. But as soon as there was some smoke and fire outside -- and I can't tell how the other people reacted because I was at the very, very end of the plane, the absolute last seat of the plane. And so, you know, all I could think of was, get off.

MESERVE: To witnesses, indeed to all the world, it looked like a catastrophe. But miraculously, all 309 people on board the plane got out safely.

STEVE SHAW, GREATER TORONTO AIRPORT AUTHORITY: The aircraft was evacuated very rapidly. The emergency services responded very quickly. And at this stage, we're very satisfied, of course, that there are no fatalities.

MESERVE: Passengers escaped with their lives and had chilling stories of survival.

AHMED ALATOWA, AIR FRANCE PASSENGER: When we come to land at the airport, so everybody clapped to the captain. That -- they think everybody is OK. But when -- after that, we feel bump, bump, bump, bump, bump.

Then the fires come beside me, the window we see the fire. And the wings is gone. The tire is gone.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The stewardess in the back seat says, "Fire, fire, fire" and "move, move, move, move. And then they put the toboggans down and we all slid out.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You don't think you're jumping. When I got to the bottom of the chute and looked around and saw the flames, I only thought of one thing, is to just get out of there as fast as possible. MESERVE: After hours of uncertainty, family members were reunited with loved ones at the airport, overcome with relief that this time the worse did not happen.

MARK JOHNSTON, WITNESS: When you see smoke like that, you know that that's not a good thing. Oh, my god, that's, you know, bad. People are going to be dying on this.

MESERVE: Jeanne Meserve, CNN Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: Part Michelin man, part Maytag repairman, and a helmet cam that would make David Letterman jealous. A spacewalking astronaut perched atop a robotic arm 220 miles above Earth, he aced his mission this morning.

Steve Robinson pulled a couple of loose pieces of fabric from the shuttle's underbelly. The cloth strips, gap fillers, as he called them that, between heat tiles could have caused Discovery to overheat on its return home.

Up to New York now and our space correspondent, Miles O'Brien.

Miles, Steve Robinson can come over and be a handyman at my house anytime.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN SPACE CORRESPONDENT: I think that was do it yourself of a high order. Wouldn't you say? Of course, you're not calling the handyman from there. You've got to be the handyman.

You know, Steve Robinson had a couple of tools with him just in case he needed them, a hacksaw -- this is actually bent a little bit -- and some forceps. But all it took were the -- well, the opposable thumb. It was a beautiful thing, wasn't it? And it worked very well for Steve Robinson.

Let's take a look at the pictures from space. They're wrapped up with the spacewalk now, but the pictures they sent down during this whole process were at times spectacular, at times not so good, as you see the live pictures there.

There you go. Take a look at him at the end of the space station robot arm. His crew mates, Wendy Lawrence and Jim Vegas Kelly, driving the thing. But in spite of Vegas's handle, no gambling there today. And all belts were paid off handsomely, I guess, if they were.

In any case, he made his way ever so closely, guiding them gently toward the very fragile underbelly of the space shuttle. You know, it's able to withstand upwards of 3,000 degrees, and yet it is as fragile as me walking around in a Pottery Barn, which is, to say, a bad idea. You've got a guy in an inflated suit, he's got the helmet on, the backpack, and he's beside things that chip very easily.

Take a look at the scenario here.

OK. I'm told I am out of time. I will send it back to you -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Only, Miles, because we do have some developing news we need to get to. We'll get back to you.

Right now, though, we do want to go live to the Pentagon. They're talking about the 14 Marines killed earlier today in Iraq.

Let's listen in.

BRIG. GEN. CARTER HAM, U.S. ARMY: I can't tell you that they were a unit that was moving in an amphibious assault vehicle, which is their normal vehicle to move in. It is an armored vehicle that they use in the conduct of their normal operations.

QUESTION: Again, do you have any information on whether it was an improvised mine?

QUESTION: In other words, was it rolled over or was it hit from the side?

HAM: The report this morning only is that it was an explosive device. We're not yet sure of whether it was a mine or whether it was command detonated. We just don't know those details yet.

QUESTION: General, what do these attacks over the past couple of days, in which actually 21 Marines were killed, because there was another Marine from that same unit who was killed by an IED two days ago -- what does that say about the state of insurgency in that region? What information do you have about the status of the insurgents, what they're up to there and what their U.S. Marine Corps has been trying to do over the past couple of months in trying to root them out?

HAM: Well, it is, I think, very important to always remember that this is a very lethal and, unfortunately, adaptive enemy that we are faced with inside Iraq.

It's important, I think, to put this in a larger context. If you look along the Euphrates River and the number of towns and villages along the river that have previously been locations from which insurgents have operated, Multinational Force-West is conducting a number of operations in a number of those towns simultaneously in an effort to deny the enemy freedom of movement, to deny them safe haven.

So I think what we're seeing here is a concerted effort to assert control, ultimately Iraqi control, in those towns and there's resistance that is coming from the insurgents in those towns.

LAWRENCE DI RITA, PRINCIPAL DEP. ASST. SECY. OF DEFENSE FOR PUBLIC AFFAIRS: Perhaps previously, they may have had an opportunity to move. For example, if there was pressure in Haditha they could perhaps move someplace else.

Well, now, because of the simultaneity of operations that Multinational Force-West is conducting, they don't have that freedom of movement, and I think that's one of the contributing causes to these number of direct contacts that are occurring.

QUESTION: But because of the U.S. military operations, has their ability to operate there been diminished? Given the events of the past couple of days, it doesn't appear to be the case.

DI RITA: Absolutely not. The Marines and all the personnel of Multinational Force-West are conducting these operations specifically to do that, to ensure that there are no safe havens, that multinational forces, all coalitions forces and the Iraqi forces have the opportunity to operate where they need to when they need to.

QUESTION: I just wanted to make it clear, because I'm not sure we're on the same wavelength there.

I think the point that I tried to make was that because of the attacks over the past couple days it appears that the insurgents' capability to operate has not been diminished.

Is that the case? Are they still able to operate pretty freely in that region?

HAM: I think not. Again, they are dangerous and they certainly have a capability. But as to whether they have an ability to freely operate throughout the area, I think not. And that's specifically the focus of Multinational Force-West's operations.

DI RITA: And to just broaden the context a little bit more, there's a couple of factors.

One is what I began with, which is: That's one of the things we're going to be looking at increasing is: Where are areas that are more ready for Iraqi control completely around the country? And some areas we've already discussed are; we've turned over some modest areas to be sure.

But at the same time, our objective is to continue to see the political milestones be met and so far we haven't missed one. And we've also said that as we get close to these milestones we anticipated additional violence.

KAGAN: We've been listening in today's daily Pentagon briefing, looking for news about the 14 Marines that were killed on Wednesday by an improvised explosive device. The military right now saying they're not exactly sure what type of device that was, if they were in their regular armored vehicle when the device went off.

But the other news of today particularly devastating for a community in Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland, Brookpark. These 14 Marines were from the same battalion, the same Marine battalion that lost six Marines just two days earlier. That is the 3rd Battalion, 25th Marines, based out of Brookpark, Ohio.

More from the Pentagon in a little bit.

We also have world news for you, including the devastating famine in Niger. We're going to walk you through the horror. You're going to see what it's like to see all this sadness. Our Anderson Cooper is going to present his "Reporter's Notebook" after the break.

Plus, the education battle over the words "intelligent design." We'll explain the concept and talk to two men on either side of the debate on whether it should be taught in public schools.

And a brain-dead woman kept alive on life support gives birth. This miracle baby story ahead in our "Daily Dose" segment.

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KAGAN: It's being called a miracle. All 309 people aboard the Airbus that crashed in Toronto yesterday survived. Quick action by the flight crew is partially credited, along with their emergency training.

Kevin Tomich is with our affiliate KOCO, and received some tips at surviving a plane crash at the FAA Training Academy, which is in Oklahoma City.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MAC MCLEAN, FAA CABIN SAFETY RESEARCH: Having a plan and executing that plan is the most important aspect.

KEVIN TOMICH, REPORTER, KOCO (voice-over): Mac McLean, the FAA's investigator for cabin safety, shared his five-step survival plan.

Step one: when you board, count the rows between your seat and the exit.

MCLEAN: Well, because if you know how many there are, and you can't see if the cabin feels up with smoke, then you can feel your way along the seat backs and know by counting how close you are back to that exit row.

TOMICH: Step two: read the card. Even if the instructions are ingrained in your mind, McLean says a refresher course can't hurt.

MCLEAN: If you know what to do and know how to go about saving yourself, well, then, you will be able to do a lot better.

TOMICH: Sep three: brace for landing.

MCLEAN: We've just been told that we're going to have a crash landing. Don't sit back. The proper position is to cross your hands on the seat in front of you, put your head against your hands, and stay in that position as long as it takes to get to the ground.

TOMICH: FAA tests show using the brace position reduces the distance your head travels in a crash and decreases the damage suffered. Step four: stop, stay low, and go. Once the plane stops, move towards your exit. Stay low. Remember, the attendant's head clear air and visibility at ground level. But hurry, it won't stay that way for long.

Twenty seconds into this FAA-simulated fuel fire, the seats decompose. Thirty seconds later, poisonous fumes turn the hall into a gas chamber. One-and-a-half minutes in, flashover consumes anyone still on board. So move quickly, but not like this, McLean says.

MCLEAN: The best that people can do is just be as orderly as the situation will allow, and yet move as fast as they possibly can.

TOMICH: The fifth step: get away.

MCLEAN: It's going to become a very lethal environment, so get away as fast and as far as you can.

TOMICH: As for your belongings stored overhead...

MCLEAN: That's not part of the plan. You will get them later if they are still to be gotten. And if not, just thank your lucky stars that you're off of that airplane and you're one of the survivors.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: Some really good tips. That's from Kevin Tomich with our affiliate KOCO in Oklahoma City.

Thank you, Kevin.

Thousands are children are starving to death in famine-stricken Niger.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's shocking how quickly things can change here, how in the blink of an eye a child can simply vanish.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: CNN's Anderson Cooper will bring you face to face with the horrors of this crisis.

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KAGAN: Portraits of grief and despair, images that no one should have to see. But pictures the world is forced to confront, as thousands are dying and millions are at risk of dying from a starvation crisis in Niger. Our Anderson Cooper traveled there and brings us these images from his "Reporter's Notebook."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER (voice-over): "What's it like over there? What's it like?" That's the question I always get. But, really, I never know how to answer it.

It's like this. And like this. It's also like this.

It's terrible, it's tragic, it's wonderful, it's alive. Even in death, Africa pulses with life. There's no layer of fat to cushion the pain, the joy. Back home, it's just not the same.

You cross rivers, you get stuck. Nothing is easy. With money, of course, you can always get by. We sleep in a dingy hotel in Maradi, eating tuna and candy, working around the clock. No one complains, however. The work just feels right, and we all have it so easy.

The poverty, well, it's crushing, but people are resilient. I know it's a cliche, but this is a continent of heroes, of people who make do with nothing.

You get surrounded by kids. Half the population of Niger is under the age of 15. They're poor, they have nothing, but they are so quick to laugh.

Kids are supposed to go to school here, but you see a lot of them working the fields or selling stuff. Their families need the extra hands.

It's impossible to get used to seeing this kind of thing, this poverty, this malnutrition. I've seen it up close, but the truth is, I still can't imagine what it's like. Laying on a plastic mat, no sheets, no privacy, medicine only for the lucky. What can you do watching your child die in your arms?

Did you know when a child dies at night in this intensive care, they let his mother sleep by his side. I can't get that image out of my mind. Does she speak to her baby in the pitch black of night? The moment she wakes, does she think he's still alive?

When you've reported a lot of stories like this, there's a tendency to compare. Somalia was worse, they say. So is the Sudan. But there shouldn't be a sliding scale of sorrow. Children are dying. How many little lives lost is an acceptable toll?

Anderson Cooper, CNN, Maradi, Niger.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: Relief agencies are asking for your help as they struggle to find the people and feed the people of Niger. And there are many in need of aid. The aid group CARE says 800,000 children under the age of five are malnourished, 150,000 are showing signs of severe malnutrition.

You can call these phone numbers to help through the U.N. World Food Program and Concern Worldwide. CARE says more than 4,000 communities are suffering from the food crisis.

And you can also go to our CNN Web site for more information on Niger and other aid organizations, who to call, how to donate. It's all there on CNN.com.

More news ahead after the break.

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