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CNN Live Today

Some Evacuees From Hurricane Katrina on the Move Again; President Bush Address on War on Terror

Aired September 22, 2005 - 11:30   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. President Bush is expected to speak at the Pentagon in about 30 minutes. He's been there a while this morning, participating in a briefing on the war on terror. When the president begins his remarks, we will bring that to you live.
In Los Angeles, it was a white-knuckle landing yesterday for a JetBlue airliner with a faulty nose wheel. You can see The tires were stuck sideways. The landing threw off huge sparks, but otherwise it was perfect. The plane had just taken off from Burbank en route to New York when the malfunction was detected.

Delta Airlines, other airline news here, announcing today plans to cut up to 9,000 jobs as part of its bankruptcy-restructuring plan. That's 17 percent of its workforce. Delta plans to reduce employee pay and shift more focus to international flights. The airline has lost nearly $10 billion since January 2001.

The Senate Judiciary Committee is meeting to vote on John Roberts nomination to be chief justice of the United States. Both the panel's chairman and a top Democrat say they'll vote in favor of Roberts. Today's committee endorsement will send the nomination to the full Senate for a vote next week.

On now to our "Daily Dose" of health news. If you think a few cigarettes a day won't hurt you, think again. A study finds that smoking just one to four cigarettes daily triples the risk of heart disease and lung cancer. The findings were even worse for women in the study. They were five times more likely to get lung cancer than nonsmokers.

Fighting the flu is getting more difficult. Scientists say resistance to anti-flu drugs has risen 12 percent worldwide over the past decade. That could pose problems for health officials trying to prevent a flu pandemic. Researchers at the CDC say they were alarmed to find such a dramatic increase in a resistance to flu medications.

Twenty seconds with a bar of soap. That's all it takes, but nearly two out of 10 people don't bother. Researchers figuring out that by spying on public restrooms for hand washing. And, men, you were the worst offenders -- 25 percent of you do not wash your hands. It seems the germ nest people were at Atlanta's Turner Field. Thirty- seven percent of the men left the restroom without washing hands. The best hygiene, by the way, was found at San Francisco and Chicago landmarks. The biggest gender disparity, New York's Penn Station, that's where 64 percent of the guys washed and 92 percent of the ladies did.

You can learn all about germs that make you sick when you logon to our Web site. You're going to find the latest medical news, a health library and information on diet and fitness.

The address is CNN.com/health.

Our coverage of Hurricane Rita continues right after this break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(WEATHER REPORT)

KAGAN: Talk about not being able to catch a break, this next story. Some evacuees from Hurricane Katrina who took refuge in Houston, well, they're on the move again, trying to escape Hurricane Rita's path. Some are taking shelter in Arkansas. That is where Governor Mike Huckabee says they are putting out the welcome mat.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. MIKE HUCKABEE (R), ARKANSAS: What we've done is establish a series of 26 camps around the states so we can disperse the population. It doesn't put a strain on anyone's workforce, or schools or hospitals. It also gives us the opportunity, putting them in church camps, where they have much more comfortable settings. They're able to have more privacy, more intimacy.

But most importantly, what it really gives them is an opportunity to be just overwhelmed with the love and compassion of volunteers who are coming in and giving them not just cots, showers, sandwiches, and even hot meals, but more importantly, giving them hugs, and smiles and a sense of just personally caring for them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: Arkansas was expecting up to 4,000 evacuees from the Houston area, but only about 350 relocated there. A spokesman for the governor's office says some people just do not want to move again. Understandable there.

Well, all Americans could suffer at the gas pump If Rita strikes oil platforms and refineries. Take a look at the location of dozens of fixed manned oil platforms off the Texas and Louisiana coast. And this map shows some of the refineries at risk in the Houston/Galveston area. The yellow dots locate the refineries. And the map in red shows that would be affected by just a Category 1 or 2 storm; and the yellow, the refineries affected by a Category 4 or 5 storm.

Our Ali Velshi reports now on the potential impact to gas prices.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALI VELSHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): If $3.00 a gallon shocked you, get ready for this. Katrina took a chunk out of America's oil production, but the country's biggest refineries were spared. They're in Texas and now Hurricane Rita is on its way potentially to finish the job that Katrina left undone.

PHIL FLYNN, ENERGY TRADER: This could be the worst storm we've ever seen when we talk about the potential damage and the potential price ramifications when it comes to the oil industry.

VELSHI: Oil watchers say look for new record highs when you go to the gas station. Here's why. The country's biggest refinery, ExxonMobil, Baytown, it refines half a million barrels of oil a day. It's between Houston and Galveston. It may be right in Rita's path. Massive nearby gasoline factories owned by B.P. and Shell have already been shut down.

Depending on what Rita does, 21 refineries could lie in its path, accounting for more than a quarter of all the gasoline refined in America. The fear of those refineries taking a direct hit have some people making predictions no one would have believed a year ago.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: More than likely we would see gasoline prices probably push up towards, you know, $3.70, $4.00 a gallon, maybe even as high as five.

VELSHI: That's a worst-case scenario. Best-case scenario isn't very good, either. You see, those refineries that have been shut down can't just be turned on once Rita passes. Even if they're not damaged, they'll be down for the better part of the next week.

Rita will hit, that much is certain. When it hits and how hard it hits will make all the difference.

Ali Velshi, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: And right now here's a look at some of the larger refineries that may be in the path of Rita. They include the biggest names in U.S. gas production. A number of the refineries are now already closed.

So first it was Katrina, now Rita. Some evacuees got out of one, into the way of another. After the break, we have a story of one family that's being uprooted for the second time in less than a month.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: Thousands of Hurricane Katrina evacuees are on the road again today. This time, they're running from Rita. Here now is Sean Callebs from Galveston.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Savoy family is getting good at packing up in a hurry.

ANNE SAVOY, LOUISIANA EVACUEE: It was unbelievable. It really was. I said not again. I said we just got here. The kids got settled in school. I think that's it. CALLEBS: Now the family all six, seven if you count the dog, are on the road again. A little more than three weeks ago they fled their home in Louisiana ahead of Katrina. This is what happened to their community in St. Bernard Parish. Now Rita is forcing them out of a donated condo here in Galveston.

SAVOY: You feel like you're in time and space. You don't feel like you belong anywhere just yet. You know I just feel like living out of a bag right now.

CALLEBS: A very light bag. When they left Louisiana, they packed for just three days. Like their brother, Shelby Savoy now faces her third different school in three weeks.

SHELBY SAVOY, LOUISIANA EVACUEE: I have mixed emotions. I'm confused, sad, angry and I'm just wondering why, why this had to happen.

CALLEBS: Shelby has friends at her Galveston high school who also evacuated from New Orleans. Now they are all scattering to the wind again.

S. SAVOY: I felt like a magnet, I guess, because the other students I was talking with back in Louisiana, we were all just saying we feel like hurricane magnets right now. We didn't want this to happen.

CALLEBS: The family thought about going to Houston. That's out now. Rita could cause flooding there, so they may move to the town of Slidell in Louisiana close to family. But right now they are just looking for a place to rest their heads.

Sean Callebs, CNN, Galveston, Texas.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: Our coverage of Hurricane Katrina continues after the break and throughout the day today. Also, in just a few minutes, the president will be talking about terror. We'll go to that live when it begins.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: A lot of things developing all at once right now, as they have been in recent weeks. Standing by waiting for President Bush, he's at the Pentagon today. We expect him to make remarks on the war on terror, also the situation with the hurricanes along the Gulf Coast and Texas. So when the president begins to speak, we will go to that live.

Meanwhile, let's focus on New Orleans, very concerned about Hurricane Rita and what might happen if they get even a few inches of rain. The focus on the levee system there.

Our Jason Carroll joins us live now from New Orleans -- Jason. JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Daryn, we have just gotten off the phone with one of the representatives from the Army Corps of Engineers, and what they tell us is they're not so much concerned about the amount of rainfall, if they only get about several inches here in the city of New Orleans. It's really the storm surge that they're concerned about, in terms of the integrity of the levee system.

The Corps says that it can basically take several inches of rain here in the city. If that were to happen, what we would see is pockets of flooding in areas that were flooded before by Katrina. But what they say is that they've got pumps in place that are ready to handle that amount of water.

There are two areas of concern that the Army Corps of Engineers has focussed on, the 17th Street Canal and the London Avenue Canal. Both of those canals have been shored up at this point. So they say that they should be OK in terms of that.

But let's talk about storm surge, because they say that's really where the concern is here. They say based on what they've been able to do so far with the levee system, and remember, there's upwards of 350 miles of levee system throughout the city of New Orleans, that they've been able to check on and shore up, but basically what they're telling us, is that they could take, in the Lake Pontchartrain area, a 10 to 12-foot storm surge. They believe they would be able to handle that. However, in the St. Bernard Parish area, it's more like four to six feet. They've got a team of Army Corps of Engineers that are on standby and ready to head out to these areas.

But basically, at this point, one of the guys said, it's really like looking at the crystal ball, Daryn, in terms of what could happen here. They've really got to wait to see which direction Rita heads and what she ends up doing to the area of New Orleans -- Daryn.

KAGAN: And, meanwhile, in the wake of the confusion earlier in the week, when people thought they'd be allowed back in, and Mayor Nagin said, well, no, that's not a good idea, people seem to be obeying that and staying away?

CARROLL: It seems that way. There have been a number of people that have evacuated. And just in terms of looking at the downtown area, you do see some cars, but they are mostly emergency vehicles that are down here. I think, given what has happened with Katrina and how big Rita appears to be, most people seem to be heeding the warnings and are getting out while they still can.

KAGAN: Jason Carroll, live from New Orleans, thank you.

We're going to shift our spotlight in just a moment to the area around the nation's capital. President Bush speaking at the Pentagon. We'll see those comments live.

Also we're watching Capital Hill. The Senate judiciary Committee getting ready to vote on John Roberts as the next chief justice of the United States. We're covering both. We're back after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: And a live picture there at the Pentagon. You see the vice president, Dick Cheney, the secretary of defense, Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Here comes President Bush. He's been at the Pentagon all morning focussing on the war on terror.

Let's listen in to the president.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I appreciate being back at the Pentagon. I just finished a briefing with Secretary Rumsfeld and General Myers and obviously members of my national security team, along with Generals Abizaid and Casey and Ambassador Khalilzad from the Middle East via video conferencing.

We got an update on the wide range of missions being carried out by our armed forces.

Before I talk about the briefings and our war on terror, I do want to thank the leadership here in the Pentagon, Secretary Rumsfeld and others, as well as all our folks who wear the uniform for their help in the aftermath of Katrina.

We have more than 50,000 soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines, including thousands of National Guardsmen and reservists, on the ground helping the people there. These good folks showed great capacity and compassion for our fellow citizens who hurt. They saved a lot of lives. On behalf of a grateful nation, I thank them for their service.

We now got another hurricane coming, Hurricane Rita.

BUSH: This morning I met with Secretary Chertoff about Rita, I talked to Governor Perry again -- I talked to him last night, I talked to him this morning.

This is a big storm. And it's really important for our citizens there on the Texas coast to follow the instructions of the local authorities.

Officials at every level of government are preparing for the worst. Our armed forces have pre-positioned troops. We have resources there to help the federal, state and local officials to respond swiftly and effectively.

As we meet our responsibilities in dealing with these two significant storms -- Katrina and Rita -- our focus on defending our country remains undiminished.

Today, General Abizaid delivered a detailed brief on the global war on terror, with particular attention on the major battlefront in Afghanistan and Iraq. In Afghanistan, we have nearly 18,000 Americans troops who continue to serve as part of a coalition that has made extraordinary progress in delivering freedom and security to the people of that proud nation.

This past Sunday, the Afghan people took another vital step toward democracy by electing representatives to their provincial councils and the national assembly.

President Karzai described the moment this way: "After 30 years of wars and interventions and occupation and misery, today Afghanistan is moving forward." And that's positive news for the world.

Our mission in Afghanistan is not yet complete. The international community is helping Afghanistan become a lasting democracy.

There are still terrorists who seek to overthrow the young government. You see, they want to return Afghanistan to what it was under the Taliban. A miserable place.

BUSH: A place where citizens have no rights, women are oppressed, and the terrorists have a safe haven to plan and plot attacks.

And that's why coalition forces and our special forces and Afghan forces are conducting precision raids against high-value targets in southeastern Afghanistan.

Our country will stand with the Afghan people as they secure their freedom and become an ally in the war on terror.

As we work to help defeat the enemies of a democratic Afghanistan, we're also working to defeat the enemies of a democratic Iraq.

General Casey briefed us about a comprehensive strategy to achieve victory in Iraq. We're going to deny the terrorists a safe haven to plot their attacks. We'll continue to train more Iraqi forces to assume increasing responsibility for basic security operations. Our forces will focus on hunting down high-value targets like the terrorist Zarqawi.

We'll continue working with Iraqis to bring all communities into the political process. Together, we'll help Iraq become a strong democracy that protects the rights of its people and is a key ally in the war on terror.

General Abizaid and General Casey extensively talked about how we're going to achieve this victory. The terrorists are concentrated in four of Iraq's 18 provinces. Over the last several months, terrorists have continued to launch suicide attacks and assassinate Iraqis who are working to improve their country. The number of attacks has increased, particularly in the last week as the terrorists have begun their campaign to stop a referendum on the constitution.

See, they don't care who they kill. They just kill. They kill innocent people. They kill women. They kill children. They kill election workers.

And they've had a history of this before. They've had a history of escalating their attacks before Iraq's major political milestones, like the handover of sovereignty in 2004, the free elections this past January, and the drafting of the constitution over the summer.

BUSH: Recently, Zarqawi, the terrorist, the killer, has called for a total war on Shi'a Iraqis. His hope is to set off a civil war that will divide the country and derail its march to democracy.

Today, our commanders made it clear: As Iraqis prepare to vote on their constitution in October and elect a permanent government in December, we must be prepared for more violence. To defeat the terrorists, we're constantly adapting to their changing tactics and conducting aggressive counterterrorism operations in the areas where they're concentrated.

As more and more Iraqi security forces complete their training, they're taking on greater responsibilities in these efforts. Iraqi troops are increasingly taking the lead in joint operations. They're conducting independent operations and expanding the reach and effectiveness of American forces.

The growing size and increasing capabilities of the Iraqi security forces are helping our coalition deal with a challenge we have faced since the beginning of the war. It used to be that after we cleared out a city, there were not enough qualified Iraqi troops to maintain control. And so what would happen is, is that the terrorists would wait for us to leave and then they tried to move back in, and sometimes with success.

Now the increasing number of more capable Iraqi troops allows us to0 hold onto the cities we have taken from the terrorists. The Iraqi troops know their people, they know their language. and they know who the terrorists are.

By leaving Iraqi units in the cities we've cleaned out, we can keep the cities safe while we move on to hunt down the terrorists in other parts of the country.

We saw the value of larger and more capable Iraqi security forces in Najaf and Fallujah last year when America and Iraqi forces conducted joint operations to clean out terrorist strongholds.

BUSH: We followed up these successful efforts by working with the Iraqi government to ensure that Iraqi forces were able to maintain law and order.

We worked with local leaders to improve infrastructure and create jobs and provide hope.

As a result, the people of Najaf and Fallujah are safer and their cities are moving ahead with vital reconstruction. And that's part of our strategy to help develop a secure, safe democracy in Iraq.

We're seeking to repeat this success elsewhere in Iraq, most recently in the country's northwest region. This area was the main route of foreign terrorists entering Iraq from Syria and a major concern of coalition forces.

During operations in the key town of Tal Afar, Iraqi security forces outnumbered U.S. forces for the first time in a major offensive operation. Our joint efforts killed, captured or flushed out hundreds of terrorists. And as a part of General Casey's strategy, Iraqi forces remain in Tal Afar to ensure that the terrorists are not allowed to return, regroup, and hold hostage the innocent residents of that city.

Thanks to these operations we're making it more difficult for foreign terrorists to enter through the northwest part of Iraq.

Coalition Iraqi troops are now focussing their efforts in western Iraq, where we're trying to stop foreign terrorists from entering through Syria and prevent Al Qaida from establishing a safe haven in the Anbar province.

General Casey's working with his Iraqi counterparts to restore Iraqi control of this region. And when we have completed this task, elements of the Iraqi military will remain to protect Iraq's boarder and ensure that the enemy does not return to dominate this region and intimidate its citizens.

To ensure that we can maintain this aggressive pace of military operations through the election period we have temporarily increased our troop levels, just as we have before other major political events.

As Iraqi security forces establish control over more and more of their country, American troops will support these forces and continue to hunt down the terrorists in the remaining problem areas. Iraqi forces are showing the vital difference they can make. They are now in control of more parts of Iraq than at any time in the past two years. Significant areas of Baghdad and Mosul, once violent and volatile, are now more stable because Iraqi forces are helping to keep the peace.

Iraqis are providing security in Najaf and parts of Diyala province.

In all these areas, the Iraqis are gathering useful intelligence. They're forging alliances with civic and religious leaders.

As the Iraqi security forces show they're capable of keeping the terrorists out, they're earning the confidence of the Iraqi people and ensuring the success of a free and democratic Iraq.

Listen, there are differences of opinion about the way forward. I understand that. Some Americans want us to withdraw our troops so that we can escape the violence.

I recognize their good intentions, but their position is wrong. Withdrawing our troops would make the world more dangerous and make America less safe. To leave Iraq now would be to repeat the costly mistakes of the past that led to the attacks of September the 11th, 2001.

The terrorists saw our response to the hostage crisis in Iran, the bombings in the Marine barracks in Lebanon, the first World Trade Center attack, the killing of American soldiers in Somalia, the destruction of two U.S. embassies in Africa and the attack on the USS Cole.

The terrorists concluded that we lacked the courage and character to defend ourselves, and so they attacked us.

Now the terrorists are testing our will and resolve in Iraq. If we fail that test, the consequences for the safety and security of the American people would be enormous. Our withdrawal from Iraq would allow the terrorists to claim an historic victory over the United States. It would leave our enemies emboldened and allow men like Zarqawi and bin Laden to dominate the Middle East and launch more attacks on America and other free nations.

The battle lines are drawn, and there is no middle ground. Either we defeat the terrorists and help the Iraqis build a working democracy or the terrorists will impose their dark ideology on the Iraqi people and make that country a source of terror and instability to come for decades.

BUSH: The only way the terrorists can win is if we lose our nerve and abandon the mission. For the security of the American people, that's not going to happen on my watch.

We'll do our duty. We'll defeat our enemies in Iraq and other fronts in the war on terror. We'll lay the foundation of peace for our children and grandchildren.

Since our country was attacked on the morning of September the 11th, 2001, we have known that the war on terror would require tremendous sacrifice and commitment. Across the world, the brave men and women of our armed forces are taking on dangerous and difficult work.

Some have given their lives in battle. They did so in a cause that is just and necessary for the security of this country. We're grateful for their service. We pray for their families they left behind. We'll honor their sacrifice by completing their mission and winning the war on terror.

I'll take a couple of questions.

QUESTION: Mr. President, what are you doing differently with Hurricane Rita (OFF-MIKE) didn't do with Hurricane Katrina (OFF-MIKE)?

BUSH: Well, I think one thing that's different is people understand the need to evacuate more clearly. I saw the mayor of Galveston, Texas, on TV, and she said that the people of her city seem to have learned one of the lessons, and that is take the evacuation orders very seriously. And so there appears to be a significant evacuation from parts of the Texas coast to get out of harm's way. Secondly, we've got Admiral Hereth on the ground. He's a Coast Guard admiral. He'll be Admiral Allen's counterpart in Texas. He's there in Texas ready to go.

Like Katrina, we're moving federal assets to be in position to move in. For example, the USS Iwo Jima, where we were the other day, has left New Orleans. It is now tracking in behind the storm ready to bring Marines and choppers into place.

But that's not really that different from Katrina. We had choppers moving very quickly. In this case, though, we're able to come in behind the storm.

As you might remember, we had equipment that had to come across the land, fight through the storm to get there. This time we're going to be able to bring some assets around behind it, which will help get some rescue missions there as quickly as possible.

But I think the biggest difference is people are aware of the danger of these storms and people are responding at all levels of government.

QUESTION: Mr. President...

BUSH: Hold on for a minute please.

(CROSSTALK)

BUSH: I'll get you in a minute. You seem anxious to ask a question. OK. Well, just take your time.

QUESTION: Why has it been so difficult to catch Osama bin Laden and Zarqawi? And can you really say that you are making progress in the war on terrorism when these people have been, you know, able to stay free?

BUSH: Yes, I can say we're making progress in the war on terror. If you look at the organizational structure of Al Qaida right after September the 11th and this look at it today you'll see a lot of people have been brought to justice. Khalid Shaikh Mohammed. Al- Libbi. I mean, there's a series of these folks that had been plotting and planning and ordering attacks, and we have found them -- "we" being a coalition.

And so step one is there is a coalition. A lot of people around the world understand the stakes, that this is a global war against people who have got a dark vision and a strategy to achieve that vision.

Let me take a step back. People got to understand that there is a global network of terrorists who desire to dominate a part of the world. They would like to see Taliban-type relationships in countries around the world. They want to be in a position to impose their philosophy.

The best way for me to describe what life would be like is to remind people what life was like for those poor Afghan citizens under the Taliban. In other words, they have a strategy. We understand that. And we have a strategy. And part of the strategy is to call free nations together to form a coalition to share information and to find people before they hurt.

BUSH: Now, look, they've been successful on attacks. They were successful here. They've been successful in London and Madrid. In other words, they have had attacks.

On the other hand, we've been successful at bringing them to justice and to finding some of the killers before they were able to strike again. And so there's been success at bringing awareness to the international community about what we need to do. There has been success about bringing people to justice.

No question that some of their leaders are still at large -- isolated, however, kind of in remote parts of the world. But make no mistake about it, we're doing everything we can to find them. And when we do, we'll bring them to justice.

A part of that global war on terror is in Iraq. And the reason why is because these killers and these terrorists understand that the spread of democracy is their worst nightmare. See, democracy trumps their view of the world. Democracy trumps Taliban-type regimes because it's free, because when you live in a free world, you have hope.

And so that's why you're seeing them, a guy like Zarqawi, who has become a top Al Qaida fighter, using every tool at his disposal, primarily the ability to get on TV screens with massive suicide bombing. The killing of innocent people. And he does so because they want us to retreat. I mean, the strategy is clear.

And we're not going to let them get away with it. We will work for democracy in Iraq. We'll hunt them down. We will train Iraqi forces so they can deal with those who are disgruntled with the march to democracy.

But the war is beyond Iraq. That's what I'm trying to say to you. This is a global war.

Afghanistan is a good example of progress being made. You might remember, Afghanistan was the home base for the Taliban, as well as Al Qaida. And now we've got a democracy in Afghanistan and the world is better for it and safer for it.

You bet we're making progress. We got a lot of work.

And this is a long struggle. To defeat this enemy, the United States of America must understand that it's going to take time, just like it took time to defeat other struggles we had -- to succeed in other struggles we've had, like communism. It's going to take a while.

But what will accelerate the ability for the enemy to succeed is for the United States to lose its nerve. That's what I'm telling you. You got a question, sir?

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)

BUSH: What might it be?

QUESTION: There's concern about the country's ability to pay for these hurricanes in the time ahead. Have you prioritized what may need to be cut?

BUSH: I'm going to work with Congress to prioritize what may need to be cut. The other day I said that we're open-minded about offsets.

What's the priority for me is to win this war on terror and secure the country and to help the people down there to the extent that the law allows.

QUESTION: Mr. President?

BUSH: Joseph?

QUESTION: Why is it taking so long to secure the border at Syria. And do you really think that the Iraqis can secure it if the U.S. troops have been unsuccessful to do it so far?

BUSH: It takes a while to secure the border with Syria because it is a long border that has had smuggling routes in existence for decades. In order to secure a border, it requires cooperation on both sides of the border, and we're getting limited cooperation from Syria.

We've made it clear to Syria we expect them to help us secure their border and to stop the transit of suiciders coming from other countries through Syria into Iraq. Their response hasn't been very satisfactory to date. We continue to remind them of their obligation.

And so it's a long border. One of the things is that we need to continue to train the Iraqis to be better controllers of the border. And that's one of the missions that General Casey briefed us on today.

Bianca (ph)? Nobody named Bianca? Well, Bianca's not here. I'd be glad to answer her question.

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)

BUSH: No, that's fine. Thank you, though. Appreciate it.

(LAUGHTER)

Just trying to spread around the joy of asking a question.

QUESTION: How is the strategy outlined today by General Casey different from what the United States was doing in the past? What lessons would you say have been incorporated in it? And based on that, how much closer do you think we are to being able to turn over full control of the security situation in Iraq? BUSH: It's going to be a while to turn over full control. Full control says that the Iraqis are capable of moving around the country and sharing intelligence, they got a command-control system that works like ours. And that's going to be a while.

Turning over some control to Iraqis is now taking place. As I told you, there are more Iraqis in the lead -- Iraqis are in the lead in this mission for the first time on a major operation.

What General Casey briefed us on was how our strategy of cleaning out the terrorists out of a city and being able to fill in behind, or leave behind Iraqi forces, is beginning to pay off. And what hadn't happened in the past was the capacity to fill that void with a capable force that would prevent the terrorists from coming back in.

QUESTION: Mr. President...

BUSH: Yes? Are you Bianca?

QUESTION: No. I'm not. (OFF-MIKE)

BUSH: OK. Just looking for Bianca. I'm sorry.

(LAUGHTER)

QUESTION: More about the funding for -- with the devastation of Katrina and so forth. And just more on -- I know you're going to meet with Congress, to talk about maybe offsets in spending.

BUSH: Yes.

QUESTION: Could you tell us a little bit more about...

BUSH: Look, the first thing is, we're in the process of understanding how much cost the federal government's responsible for, for Katrina and possibly Rita. For example, we're obligated for at least 75 -- by law -- obligated for at least 75 percent of infrastructure repairs.

So in order for us to be able to understand what needs to be offset or how we work with Congress on reducing expenditures in other areas, we first have to understand the scope of the request.

And so, step one is to take inventory of the roads that we'll be responsible for repairing, the bridges we'll be responsible for repairing, the waste water sewage systems we'll be responsible for repairing, the schools we'll be responsible for repairing.

BUSH: And we're now in the process of inventorying the costs. We have made a decision, for example, to send a $2,000 check to each family that has been evacuated. We're getting a pretty good handle on the extent of that.

So, when we speak to Congress (INAUDIBLE) that's a pretty fixed amount. We understand how much that's going to be. And so what I'm telling you is. we're in the process of understanding the size and scope of the federal response so that we can then say to Congress, here's what we anticipate over the next several years the cost will be and here is our expectations and how we can pay for it and here's some offsets. And we're beginning to make those kinds of suggestions.

But you got to understand, it takes a while to understand the amount of -- the size of the federal tab in this process, it just doesn't happen overnight. You just don't go down and look and say, "Oh, this is what it's going to cost." It requires an assessment, an inventorying of potential costs. And that's exactly what we're doing now.

Another area of cost, for example, is debris removal, see. We know what our obligations are. We just, by the way, cut through a lot of red tape to allow for federal debris removal from private property if the mayors were to sign a form basically designating parts of their city to be cleared -- private property to be cleared by the federal government.

We're beginning to understand how much of that territory will be cleared by the government and what our cost obligation is. And when we get those costs up, we'll be happy to share those with the United States Congress and then work through how we can pay for all this.

Thank you all very much.

QUESTION: Mr. President, (OFF-MIKE) do we have a list on the offset side?

BUSH: No. Let me make sure you understand where we're headed. It's hard to work with Congress until we fully understand the size and scope of what is going to be expected for us to pay. So we're in the process of now gathering that information so that when we sit at a table we're not guessing.

Now, it's not going to be perfect. But it's going to have some size and scope of what we're dealing with. Now we're going, by the way, have to calculate in the effects of Rita. And once we do that -- you see, you seem to think that somehow you go down there and overnight it's clear of what we owe. But it requires assessment and inventorying.

Like, for example, sewage treatment facilities. It takes a while to understand how many of those need to be repaired and what the cost will be. And that's what we are in the process of doing.

QUESTION: But you've got targeted expenditures, how about targeting offsets?

BUSH: We'll work with Congress on that, of course. But the point is, is that we're going to work together and come up with a solution that'll obviously help deal with the budget.

But first and foremost, the federal government has got obligations by law, and I want to understand those obligations and the extent of those obligations, and as best we can estimate the costs of those obligations.

Thank you all very much.

KAGAN: We've been listening to President Bush. He's the Pentagon today, getting a briefing on the war on terror. Many of the questions, though, and much of what he talked about had to do with the two hurricanes, Katrina and Rita, the president issuing and repeating warnings for people to get out along the Louisiana and Texas borders. And so more from President Bush a little bit later, also more from Capitol Hill on the nomination of John Roberts as the next chief justice of the U.S.

Meanwhile, while we're listening into the president here in Atlanta, Keyhoc (ph) hospital, Coretta Scott King, the widow of Martin Luther King Jr., we're getting word, has been released from the hospital. She has been there about a month. Her family saying earlier that she has suffered a stroke, but now after a month from the hospital, Coretta Scott King is going home.

Here now, her daughter, Bernice King.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BERNICE KING: My mother was scheduled to wake up at 6:30 this morning, and she told her nursing assistant at 6:00, she was ready to get up, she was ready to go home, and so we are just elated and excited. She had so much joy on her face. She's glowing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: Once again, Coretta Scott King the widow of Martin Luther King Jr., going home from the hospital after a month's treatment for a stroke.

We're going to focus back on Rita. Just ahead, we'll be going to Galveston, Texas, an area that has pretty much cleared out in the wake of that storm, or the storm heading that way.

Also Jacqui Jeras gives us the latest forecast and the latest advisory on Hurricane Rita. We're back with all of that after this.

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