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CNN Live Today

Trapped Under Sea; London Terror; 'Daily Dose'

Aired August 05, 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 "Now in the News."
First, a map of Baghdad and the Green Zone. That is the heavily fortified sector of Baghdad on the banks of the Tigris River in the center of the city. Just moments ago, a loud explosion was heard in the Green Zone. The exact details of what it was and exactly where it was we're still working on. We have our cameras on, and working on getting more information out of Baghdad.

Also today, we are told that the U.S. Navy is joining the desperate effort to rescue seven Russian sailors trapped more than 600 feet beneath the ocean. The sailors have less than 24 hours of oxygen left. Their mini sub is entangled in fishing nets off the Pacific coast of Russia.

A better-than-expected jobs report is providing some encouraging economic news this morning. The Labor Department says employers added 207,000 jobs in July. That's about 27,000 more than Wall Street predicted. And the largest payroll expansion in five months. The nation's unemployment rate held steady at 5 percent.

The Shuttle Discovery astronauts are savoring the view from up there and preparing to come home. NASA has determined that a torn thermal blanket poses little or no risk for Discovery's reentry. The shuttle is scheduled to undock from the space station tomorrow and return to Earth on Monday.

Investigators say the Air France jet that crashed in Toronto this week apparently landed too far down the runway. They say the long landing may have contributed to the jet skidding off into a ravine. Remarkably, all 309 people on board that plane survived.

Good morning. Welcome to CNN LIVE TODAY.

Let's check some of the time around the world. 8:00 a.m. in San Francisco, California; 11:00 a.m. here in Atlanta, Georgia; and it's 7:00 p.m. in Moscow.

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

Once again, we're following a situation out of Baghdad, Iraq, in the Green Zone. That is the heavily fortified area in the middle of the city along the banks of the Tigris River. We've gotten word within the last half-hour that there's been an explosion, a loud explosion in that city, a lot of sirens -- sirens in that area. We're getting more information as it comes in. And actually, now, I'm being told more updated information. It is not in the Green Zone. It is just outside the Green Zone. We'll work on getting our Aneesh Raman up from Baghdad in just a moment.

Meanwhile, let's go to the other story. It's a race against the clock, a desperate race.

We're told the U.S. Navy is stepping up this morning to help rescue seven Russian sailors. The men are trapped 625 feet below the Pacific. They're in a mini sub. The vessel's propeller apparently is tangled in fishing nets, and oxygen will quickly become critical.

Our correspondent Barbara Starr has late information from the Pentagon.

Barbara, hello.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Daryn.

It is a race against the clock. The U.S. Navy at this hour scrambling to put this mission together. Within the next couple of hours, 20 U.S. Navy personnel and two undersea water rescue vehicles are going to be put on board a U.S. Air Force C5 aircraft in San Diego. This is the type of rescue vehicle they are sending.

They will get on board the C5. They will be flown about 12 hours to Kamchatka peninsula on the eastern coast of Russia, put on board a Russian ship, and then sail out to this dive site where seven Russian sailors are trapped 600 feet under the water in a Russian submarine. As you say, a mini sub they believe is tangled in some fishing nets or cables.

Now, this U.S. underwater vehicle is basically a remotely-piloted vehicle. It will be dropped over the side of the Russian ship by the U.S. personnel.

This rescue vehicle, if you will, has cameras, it has robotic arms, it has cutters. Everything they will try and use to get this Russian submarine free. But this is an extraordinary race against the clock. Nobody's really sure how much oxygen is left on board.

The Russians made a quick call, apparently, to the U.S. Navy last night, saying this problem had emerged, trying to see what the U.S. Navy could offer to help them. Overnight, U.S. Navy commanders in Hawaii met in a top-level meeting to see what they could put together and are now sending this rescue equipment out of San Diego, hoping to get there in time -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Barbara, as I understand it, this mini sub itself is a rescue vehicle. Do we know what it was doing in the place when things went wrong?

STARR: That has not fully emerged yet. To the best of anybody's knowledge, it is only the seven sailors on board. The Russians do, by the way, conduct rescue -- undersea rescue training missions with the U.S. Navy. They've done this in the last five years or so since that terrible accident with the Russian submarine, the Kursk, on -- off the western coast of Russia when it ran into trouble, sank. The Russians did not call for international help very readily, they didn't want the international community showing up.

More than 100 Russian sailors died in that terrible accident. By all accounts, in this situation, the Russians were much more quick to call for help.

In fact, indeed, the Japanese navy is also at this hour looking to see what they can get to the scene. They may be looking at sending some of their surface ships, but they may be two or three day's sailing time away, not time enough to get there. So the U.S. Navy very quickly trying to see what it can do -- Daryn.

KAGAN: All right. Barbara Starr live at the Pentagon. Barbara, thank you.

Well, as Barbara was mentioning, for Russians, this mini sub drama is revving up painful memories of the Kursk disaster.

Peter Truscott joins me now by phone from St. Petersburg, Russia. He specializes in Russian security and has written about the Kursk disaster in his book: "Kursk: Russia's Lost Pride."

Lord Truscott, thank you for joining us by phone.

LORD PETER TRUSCOTT, AUTHOR, "KURSK: RUSSIA'S LOST PRIDE": Hello there.

KAGAN: There is, as our Barbara Starr at the Pentagon was noting, there's a big difference in the way the Russians are handling this situation by reaching out for international help more quickly.

TRUSCOTT: Yes, I mean, some lessons have obviously been learned from the Kursk disaster. It's coming up. Actually, it's a week away from the fifth anniversary of when the nuclear sub the Kursk went down with the loss of 118 crew.

They've learned some lessons in that they called for international help pretty quickly. I mean, on that occasion, they left it for five days before they called in international help. This time, they obviously requested help a lot faster than that.

I think one of the problems that obviously still remains is the fundamental lack of resources of the Russian military and their ability to rescue their own people. There's been no real improvement in their rescue capacity. And that's why I think they've had to call on the United States for help in this case.

KAGAN: We're also talking about two very different type of submarines here. As we were saying, this is a mini sub, only, we believe, seven sailors on board. The Kursk much larger, and I believe was a nuclear submarine.

TRUSCOTT: Yes, that's right, it was a nuclear submarine, and it was nuclear capable. It could carry supersonic cruise nuclear missiles. This is a different scale of operation altogether. This is a small mini sub, as you said, which is not a war-fighting submarine at all.

So it's a difference of scale. So it's not on that same sort of scale as the Kursk crisis at all. And I think the Russians are still actually recovering from the trauma of the Kursk disaster five years ago.

And I think President Putin and the Kremlin will be concerned that there will be echoes of that disaster, even though it's a lot smaller in scale, compared to the Kursk crisis a number of years ago. And at that point, President Putin suffered is a dip in his popularity. And the Kremlin will be nervous that perhaps this will have a similar sort of effect and remind people of the ramshackle nature of the Russian military.

KAGAN: As we said, you're an expert in Russian defense. What would a submarine of this type be doing on a mission like this off the Pacific coast of Russia?

TRUSCOTT: Well, it could be, as your correspondent said, it could be involved in a training mission. The Russians themselves do have rescue submarines themselves, but the trouble is that they're not really as capable as the deep sea rescue vehicles that are coming out of San Diego, or like some other countries, like Britain, Sweden and Japan, have themselves. A lot of the submarines still obsolete.

And at the time of the Kursk crisis five years ago, one thing President Putin promised to do was update the rescue capabilities of the Russian fleet. And here we have five years on, the Russians having to yet again call in international help because they haven't got the capability to do it themselves. So some of those promises have obviously not been fulfilled.

KAGAN: Well, let's hope the help does get there in time for the seven sailors on board that mini submarine. Lord Truscott, thank you for your expertise and joining us from St. Petersburg.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair is vowing to crack down on extremists who preach hate and incite violence. He gave a news conference this morning where he announced strict new measures the government plans to put in place. Mr. Blair dismissed a message from Osama bin Laden's top deputy linking the London bombings to his support for the Iraq war. And he says Britain is cracking down on those who commit acts of terror and those who encourage them.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TONY BLAIR, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: There will be new anti- terrorism legislation in the autumn. This will include an offense of condoning or glorifying terrorism. The sort of remarks made in recent days should be covered by such laws. But this will also be applied to justifying or glorifying terrorism anywhere, not just in the United Kingdom.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: Blair says that foreign nationals linked to extremism could face deportation.

It is a month after the deadly attacks in London, and there still are questions about those attacks. Were they connected to the failed July 21 bombings? And who was the mastermind behind the attacks?

Our Senior International Correspondent Nic Robertson has the latest on the investigation in this report from London.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): As London is on high alert, British police are now reasonably sure about a key question: are the two attacks linked?

The similarities startlingly clear: four bombs, three on trains, one on a bus, all in backpacks. The hottest lead that could connect the two terror cells, two sets of home-made bombs. One set recovered in a car used by the July 7 bombers, and those left in the failed July 21 attack.

CNN has now learned from investigators they believe there is no direct link between the two London attacks, at least not one that's been found yet. Not between the bombs, nor the two cells.

CHRISPEN BLACK, SECURITY ANALYST: If two totally independent groups of young men have become radicalized in such a way they're prepared to use this violence, I see no reason why there should not be three, four, five, six.

ROBERTSON: And that goes a long way to answering another very important question: will there be more attacks?

ANDY TROTTER, BRITISH TRANSPORT POLICE: Well, of course it could happen again. London is at a high level of alert.

ROBERTSON: Which raises another very important question. Who is masterminding the attacks? In a new message, al Qaeda number two, Ayman al-Zawahiri, avoids shedding any light on that question by not taking credit for the London attacks.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's saying, almost, we didn't have to be in charge of this. We didn't have to attack you. We can make your own people do our job for us.

ROBERTSON (on camera): A hard fact is, police are only making limited progress on the first terror cell. No one linked to their attacks yet in police custody. And no link either between odd man out Jamaican-born Germaine Lindsey and the other three cell members, all of Pakistani origin.

(voice-over): And the only clue to why any of them decided to attack coming from Hamdi Issac, the July 21 suspected bomber captured in Rome last week. He told his defense attorney that he was angered by watching videos of the fighting in Iraq.

Hard to know even if that's the truth. He lived on false documents in Britain for years. Clues to Issac's escape to Rome are expected to emerge now that the first person in the U.K. has been charged in relation to the attack.

Twenty-three-year-old Ismael Abdurahman came to court confident, blew a kiss to a relative, and vowed to contest the accusation that he knew about Issac and his plans to flee Britain. He's being held pending more charges. And likely many more questions.

Nic Robertson, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: Up next, a conversation with former President Bill Clinton. CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta finds out what he's doing to fight one of the biggest health problems facing American children.

And in our "Safe at Home" series, we'll look at the explosion of security cameras, including technology that can actually see through your clothes. Oh, my goodness. Do you know who's watching you?

And we have a quiz for you ahead. What do you think Americans prefer, wine or beer? The answer coming up a little bit later in the show.

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(STOCK MARKET REPORT)

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KAGAN: Former President Bill Clinton is campaigning again. This time he's waging a battle against childhood obesity. It's an issue he knows about from personal experience.

Senior Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta has the story in our "Daily Dose" of health news.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SR. MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): More than four years after leaving the White House, Bill Clinton has been traveling the world, looking trim and fit.

WILLIAM J. CLINTON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'm doing great. I think I've made a complete recovery.

GUPTA: He says this campaign by the Clinton Foundation is driven by personal experience.

CLINTON: You know, I was probably in the last generation of Americans where people widely thought a fat baby was a healthy baby. And I lived with my grandparents until I was 4. They just stuffed me. And so I was -- I always battled my weight. When I was 13, I was 5 foot 8 and weighed 185 pounds.

GUPTA: He lost the weight by college, but a lifetime of bad eating took its toll when he landed on the operating table last September for quadruple bypass heart surgery.

CLINTON: The brush with death I had maybe had the biggest impact of all going through the health problems I did. I realized that one more time I've been given another chance, and I just wanted to make the most of it.

GUPTA: Making health issues a top priority. AIDS in Africa, obesity at home, and big changes in his personal life. Fewer French fries, more fresh fruits and vegetables, at least an hour of walking every day, and more rest at night.

CLINTON: Emory University has done a study saying that obesity alone accounted for 25 percent of the increased health costs of the last 15 years. So I thought it was a chance where I could save the most lives, do the most good, and also do something that I understood from my own experience. But the bottom line is that we've got too many kids too overweight, and they're walking time bombs.

GUPTA (on camera): Is this individual responsibility, or is this something that the legal system government should get involved with?

CLINTON: First of all, the legislators and the governors should get involved, because they provide most of the money for the schools. So the first thing I'd ask them to do is to look at the schools, set some standards for the school meals. And they certainly do something about the vending machines. They either ought to get them out of the grade schools or get the bad stuff out of the vending machines.

GUPTA (voice over): Another Clinton target? The fast food giants.

(on camera): You talk about food industry, the fast food industry. Could you go to McDonald's today and say, listen, this is killing us -- I mean, this is literally killing us, some of this food?

CLINTON: We've reached out to McDonald's, to the other fast food places and to a lot of the food producers. We cannot sustain it from a healthcare point of view. It's devastating to the country for people to be ingesting as much fat and sugar as they are, eating the way they do.

GUPTA (voice over): Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, reporting.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: And this programming note for you: CNN's "House Call" will focus on the fight against childhood obesity. You can hear more from former President Clinton. He'll answer viewer e-mail as well. That's this weekend at 8:30 a.m. Eastern. Big brother, security versus your civil liberties. How much are you willing to give up, even if it's a tool to fight terrorism? A closer look ahead.

Plus, we've become a nation of wine lovers. We're going to talk with a woman about America's taste for the vino when CNN LIVE TODAY returns.

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KAGAN: Time to look at weather. Rob Marciano has that for us.

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KAGAN: Securing America. It seems surveillance cameras are everywhere. Is it a good form of security or a violation of your privacy? A closer look just ahead.

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