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CNN Live Today
Iran Weapons?; Southern Dragnet; Pass the Pork
Aired August 10, 2005 - 11:00 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."
President Bush puts pen to paper this hour on a $286 billion highway bill. It pays for six years worth of road, bridges and other projects. Critics say it's also packed with pork. We'll have live coverage of the bill-signing from Montgomery, Illinois. That's expected around 11:30 a.m. Eastern.
Tennessee authorities say there have been no sightings of a prisoner and his wife on the run following a deadly escape. Jennifer Hyatte is accused of springing her husband George after fatally shooting a guard who was escorting him. At least one of the Hyattes may have been wounded. A live update on the manhunt is just ahead.
Iran takes the final step toward fully restarting a uranium conversion plant. The U.N. watchdog agency is quoted as saying "The final seals were removed from the nuclear facility today." Iran began work at the plant Monday over objections from the west. The U.S. is concerned Iran is developing nuclear weapons. Tehran says it is not.
A tragic ending in Arizona. Searchers today finding the body of a 7-year-old girl swept away by floodwaters near Cave Creek. Marissa Reyes' (ph) family members and a ranch worker tried to escape to higher ground. The others made it to safety, but the force of the water ripped Marissa (ph) from the ranch worker's grip.
Good morning, and welcome to CNN LIVE TODAY.
A check of some of the time around the world. 10:00 a.m. in Montgomery, Illinois; 5:00 p.m. in Vienna, Austria; 7:00 p.m. in Baghdad.
And from CNN Center in Atlanta, good morning. I'm Daryn Kagan.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is furious. He says weapons in Iraq are clearly coming from Iran. Rumsfeld says a shipment of explosives confiscated in Iraq came from Iran. U.S. officials say the explosives are more lethal than the improvised devices typically used by insurgents.
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DONALD RUMSFELD, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: If one sees it there on the ground, you identify it. It's from Iran, and you don't know who brought it in, or who tolerated it being brought in, who facilitated it to be brought in, who sold it to someone to take in, to bring in. What you do know of certain knowledge is the Iranians did not stop it from coming.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KAGAN: The Iranian government denies involvement in the shipment of any explosives or weapons into Iraq. U.S. intelligence officials believe the Iranian Revolution Guard may be responsible.
The Iraqi government says it's looking into reports of weapons crossing the border from Iran. Meanwhile, insurgents continue their deadly strikes on U.S. forces and Iraqis.
CNN's Aneesh Raman joins us now. He's live in Baghdad with the latest -- Aneesh.
ANEESH RAMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Daryn, good morning.
The Iraqi government being very careful in its word choice with respect to the secretary's allegations. Such is the enormously complex relationship between Iran and Iraq at the moment.
They did say, though -- and I spoke with the prime minister's spokesman earlier today -- that Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari brought up this specific issue in his visit to Tehran last month, where he met with Iranian leaders. He called on Iran to cease any interference in Iraq's affairs, whether it be the allowance of weapons across that border, or into the political arena.
They are very aware of the situation. The Iraqi government made similar suggestions last year when, in a standoff in Najaf, then the Iraqi defense minister called on Iran to stop allowing weapons into the country for that -- for that combat -- for what was going on in Najaf.
So clearly, this is something that they are looking into, they say. They have back channels of communication with Iran as they try to figure out how to really secure those borders to try to suffocate the insurgency -- Daryn.
KAGAN: Aneesh, what about the latest on today's violence?
RAMAN: Yes. Word from the U.S. military today, Daryn, that about 120 miles north of the capital, in the town of Baiji, late yesterday, four U.S. soldiers were killed. Six others wounded in what the military is calling a "complex attack," one that was coordinated.
These troops were driving in an armored vehicle, trying to investigate an incident, when they hit a landmine. We're not sure how similar it is to the one that hit that -- three landmines in a vehicle in Haditha last week that killed some 14 Marines. So they hit the landmine, an explosion occurred, and then insurgents came upon them with small arms fire.
Also word that yesterday another U.S. soldier was killed near Falluja of small arms fire. It brings, Daryn, to 43 the number of U.S. military personnel killed in Iraq since the start of the month just a week and a half ago. It shows how dangerous parts of this country remain and how essential operations continue to be to try and isolate the insurgency -- Daryn.
KAGAN: Aneesh Raman, live from Baghdad. Thank you.
Just about five minutes past the hour. We focus now here in the U.S.
Tennessee police and the FBI are laying down a dragnet today for an inmate and his wife. They are on the run after a daring getaway.
We have CNN's David Mattingly in Kingston, Tennessee, this morning -- David.
DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Daryn, I spoke to state officials overseeing this investigation a short time ago, and they say they believe that the couple may be in need of assistance at this hour, 24 hours after they made their escape. It began right here, where a state van was parked.
This is where George Hyatte was supposed to be put into a van by state corrections officers and then taken back to prison. Instead, it's believed that his wife drove up in an SUV here in this public parking lot, rolled down the window and opened fire on the corrections officers, killing one of them. It's believed that she was possibly wounded or injured during this exchange of gunfire and herself now in need of medical attention.
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JIM MOORE, TENNESSEE BUREAU OF INVESTIGATIONS: There was a substantial amount of blood found in the Explorer, which leads us to believe that, you know, someone was seriously injured. And it was on the driver's -- in was in the driver's side of the Explorer. So that leads us to believe it would be the female.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MATTINGLY: Right now, investigators are talking to the family of Hyatte. They are also checking into locations where they might have gone.
We're told that there was a lot more assistance brought in, too, to help the local police here last night with their patrols, thinking that they might be here in the area. They're assuming they could be anywhere, and they're following up on leads everywhere from here, all the way west to Memphis -- Daryn.
KAGAN: David Mattingly, live from Kingston, Tennessee. Thank you.
We want to go live now to New York. Westchester district attorney Jeanine Pirro announcing she plans to run for the U.S. Senate. Let's listen in.
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JEANINE PIRRO, DISTRICT ATTORNEY, WESTCHESTER, NEW YORK: ... public service on behalf of New Yorkers, everyday New Yorkers who struggle to make ends meet, who worry about their jobs and their car payments, about the quality of their children's education, affordable health care, their elderly parents. I come to this race as a fighter, an advocate, and an agent for change.
Thirty years ago, I made a choice to enter public service. My commitment has never wavered.
There is a simple reason for that. Nowhere does a person have a better opportunity to help strengthen our community than in service to its citizens. And I have long believed that the first order of government is the protection of its citizens, and that each and every one of us has an obligation to be a voice for the voiceless, for the alienated, for the disenfranchised, and for the people who never thought they had a chance in the first place.
For the past 30 years, it's been my job each and every day to work for New Yorkers, to protect them and defend them. My candidacy is a continuation of that public service on behalf of all New Yorkers.
Now I believe it is tine to take this fight to the next level. And it's time for our voices to be heard in the United States Senate.
KAGAN: Westchester district attorney Jeanine Pirro says she is ready for a fight. And it is going to be an interesting fight.
She is announcing that she is going to run for the Republican nomination for the Senate seat currently held by Hillary Clinton. That is an interesting match-up, but before she even gets out of the primary, she'll have to face Edward Cox, the son-in-law of the late President Nixon, and a look at her own record and her family record as well. Her husband has a history of serving time in prison for tax fraud.
So politics looking very interesting in the Senate race for 2006 in New York State.
National politics now. You're waking up. You might smell the bacon.
President Bush this hour signing what the critics call a pork- filled transportation bill. Appropriately, he is going to do it on the road. He'll be in Illinois.
Live to the president in about 20 minutes. First, though, Congressional Correspondent Joe Johns shows us how lawmakers are spending or wasting, depending on how you look at it, your money.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOE JOHNS, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): It's about highways, bridges, and other transportation improvements, and it's about bringing goodies to the folks back home, goodies that help get members of Congress reelected. Goodies that make members of Congress look like they're doing something on Capitol Hill. KEITH ASHDOWN, TAXPAYERS FOR COMMON SENSE: It's packed with pork for every congressional district in the nation. It's too expensive, and it really doesn't deal with the nation's transportation problems, like congestion.
JOHNS: The numbers are staggering. More than 6,300 projects worth an estimated $24 billion, according to a watchdog group, Taxpayers for Common Sense. A $200 million bridge in Alaska named for Don Young, the chairman of the House Transportation Committee, more than $16 million just for bike paths in the Minnesota congressional district of the committee's top Democrat, Jim Oberstar.
All told, Oberstar's district will get more than $120 million for transportation projects, almost 10 times more than the average congressman. Why?
REP. JAMES OBERSTAR (D), MINNESOTA: Because I've put in the most time, put in 31 years in the Congress.
JOHNS: The bill also funds horse trails, traffic lights, and transit systems. Even a daycare center in Illinois. Many members of Congress defend the bill as a creator of jobs.
OBERSTAR: This legislation is -- is a real shiny example of using our transportation funds to make society better.
JOHNS: While watchdog groups complain that the bill costs too much, some states are already arguing that they did not get their fair share.
Joe Johns, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KAGAN: And we'll go live to Illinois when the president puts his signature on the transportation bill. It is scheduled for around 11:30 Eastern. Don't go too far. The president is often early for these events, as we have learned as the years have gone by.
Well, they say everything has a price. Even a trip to the moon? One company wants to take you there for a close-up look. How much would that cost? How much would you pay? How much you got? The president of Space Adventures joins me next.
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KAGAN: Police in New Mexico are looking this morning for the person who shot down a sheriff's helicopter. The chopper crashed in the back yard of an Albuquerque home over the weekend. Police say they found a bullet hole in the windshield and lead fragments inside the cockpit. The sheriff calls the shooter a coward and the shooting a sick and twisted act. The pilot and deputy aboard were lucky no major injuries took place.
Firefighters are mopping up hotspots in the Los Angeles area today. Fast-moving wildfires in Pomona and the Hollywood Hills threatened several dozen homes. More than 20 acres burned. Police have arrested a homeless man. They say he may have started the fire.
A check in on weather now.
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KAGAN: Talking a lot about Dana Reeve yesterday. And her diagnosis proves that lung cancer doesn't only happen to smokers. A closer look at the disease is ahead in our "Daily Dose" segment.
Plus, President Bush is paving the way for new highways and bridges. He is about 15 minutes away from signing the massive $286 billion highway bill into law. The bill faced stumbling blocks for the amount of pork that critics say it includes. We'll take you live to suburban Chicago as soon as the signing begins.
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KAGAN: Worth it just to listen to the music this morning. Jackie Gleason said this one best: "To the moon." Today, a company announced it will take you and a friend to the moon for a close-up view and a price, a big price.
Eric Anderson is president of Space Adventures Limited. He joins me from New York this morning.
Eric, good morning.
ERIC ANDERSON, SPACE ADVENTURES LTD.: Good morning. How are you?
KAGAN: I'm doing good. My eyes are popping at the price of this, however. $100 million. Do you get a first class seat at least, for $100 million?
ANDERSON: You actually do get a first class seat.
KAGAN: OK.
ANDERSON: Keep in mind that the cost of -- the cost most people think it takes to go to the moon is billions and billions of dollars.
KAGAN: Well, yes, but, I mean, how many people have $100 million to buy a trip to the moon? What's the market here?
ANDERSON: Well, very -- very few. This is not something for -- this is something for a fraction of .01 percent of the population. But that's how exploration starts. How expensive were the very first super computers? How expensive were the first airplanes and the first -- you know, how -- this is how things start. It's never going to get less expensive for the rest of us unless we start by doing this.
KAGAN: OK. So someone comes up with $100 million. What does that buy you?
ANDERSON: It buys them a circum-lunar voyage in the most flown, most reliable spacecraft in human history, the Soyuz, the same one that we use now at Space Adventures to fly people for $20 million flights to the International Space Station.
KAGAN: And it takes you to the moon, but you don't get to land on the moon.
ANDERSON: No. Landing on the moon comes later.
KAGAN: That costs extra.
ANDERSON: That's -- that's a bit much for now. The fact is that the Soyuz was originally designed years ago to be able to go around the moon. And it's a wonderful experience.
It will take you within 100 kilometers of the far side of the moon. This is something that only the Apollo astronauts did. We have not been back to the moon or around the moon or outside of low-Earth orbit, frankly, as humanity in the last 33 years.
KAGAN: So, any takers? And if so, when would they get to go?
ANDERSON: So the answer is, we're working on it. There are several people I've talked to who have the financial resources who are very interested, including Dr. Olsen, Greg Olsen. He'll be flying to the International Space Station on October 1 this year and paying $20 million to do so.
And there are others. And I'm sure after today's announcement that there will be a few more. But we're talking about single-digit people who really want to make a difference and become part of history and open the door for the rest of us as we build new technologies and find ways to fly private citizens and take them to space.
KAGAN: And down the road, really, what are you looking at? This is a very few select people. But are we talking about opening it up more, you think, as time goes on?
ANDERSON: Absolutely. I think -- you know, now, it's going to cost $100 million. On the second and third and fourth mission it will cost a little bit less.
On the 20th mission, it might cost a lot less. Twenty or 30 years from now, it might be a couple of million dollars. Which still may sound like a lot, but, you know, think of the people out there in the world who have million-dollar yachts, million-dollar jets, who play with money like that. And it's a small percentage, but there are more and more people like that every year. And we need those people to come forward and do this so that the rest of us, you know, way down the line will have invested infrastructure and technology so that we can do it, too, for a much more affordable price a long time down the road.
KAGAN: I'll tell you what would get my attention. The frequent flier files must be a lot.
ANDERSON: There will be. Thank you.
KAGAN: Well, good luck with all that.
ANDERSON: Thank you.
KAGAN: It's Space Adventures for $100 million. Eric Anderson and his company say they can fly you to the moon.
Thank you, Eric.
ANDERSON: Thank you.
KAGAN: It is 25 minutes past the hour. A congressional delegation and family members welcome the Discovery crew back to Earth today.
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EILEEN COLLINS, DISCOVERY COMMANDER: It is absolutely fantastic to be back here to the planet Earth. We had a great mission. We got a few more days than we expected. And we used them wisely.
It's important for us to get back to our families and get back to our homes. We have been in quarantine for three weeks, and then up in space for two weeks. So we have a lot of things to take care of when we get back. So we'll head back.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KAGAN: That is shuttle commander Eileen Collins. She and the crew are in Houston for the reunions, a day late, as the commander was mentioning, because the shuttle had to divert to California weather. Not cooperating in Florida.
It will be a week before the vehicle is put atop a modified 747 and transported back to Florida. The extra cost to NASA, by the way, when they land the shuttle in California, $1 million.
And tomorrow is now the big day for NASA's Mars reconnaissance orbiter. Takeoff was scheduled for today, but the launch was scrubbed so manufacturers could check over the aircraft's liftoff equipment. The orbiter is expected to bring back more information about the Red Planet than all previous Mars missions combined.
Transportation here in the U.S. President Bush is in Illinois for the signing of the highway transportation bill today. That should begin in just a few minutes. After a quick break, we'll bring you live coverage of the signing.
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