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CNN Live Today

President Bush Talks of Military Taking Control in Major Catastrophes; Energy Alert; 9/11 Plotter Convicted in Spain Trial

Aired September 26, 2005 - 11:19   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: President Bush at the Energy Department today, being briefed on the energy situation in the wake of Hurricane Rita and Hurricane Katrina. Also talking about an idea that would call for more military intervention before a major natural disaster like what we've seen here in the U.S.
With more on that, let's bring in our Dana Bash, and then we'll get to the energy part with our Ali Velshi.

Dana, first this idea that the president wants to bring before Congress.

DANA BASH, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Daryn, this is something that the president initially brought up in a real way in his national address more than a week ago in New Orleans, but really brought it up again over the weekend, the whole idea of having what the White House earlier today called a trigger. The president talking again about it now, to get the U.S. military in more of an oversight role, really taking control when there is a major catastrophe.

And the question here is, well, what does that mean for the Department of Homeland Security? Wasn't that the what they were supposed to do? And the president making clear that he is thinking about this concept again in the idea of a Katrina-like catastrophe.

He said over the weekend that we have thought about this in terms of response to terrorism, but not really necessarily in response to natural disasters. So the president is saying that this is an idea that he, again, wants Congress to really think about, but clearly is trying to push -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Dana Bash, live at the White House.

Dana, thank you.

Let's bring in Ali Velshi.

Some of the ideas the president was talking about for energy, suspending winter blends so that they can bring in from refineries overseas. Also, tapping into the strategic reserve, and then bringing up the idea of conservation, something we can all do.

ALI VELSHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. And, you know, there are some people who say the president doesn't talk enough about that. And he's been very clear today. I mean, he said specific things that people need to think about curtailing: nonessential travel, shifting electricity use to off-peak hours.

About the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, you know there are four sites, Daryn, two of them in Texas, two of them in Louisiana. Three of them were shut down in anticipation of Hurricane Rita. And one of them, one you're looking at right now, that's the BIG HILL Strategic Petroleum Reserve on the Texas side of the Texas-Louisiana border. That was one of the ones shut down.

It's pretty large. And now we have reports that there has been damage to that strategic petroleum reserve site. We don't know how much, but the Department of Energy saying that the roads into the facility were flooded. It's received some minor damage, and they might be able to get access to it today.

So those are two very interesting points. The other one, of course, the president talking about exploring with Congress the idea of rebuilding most of those refineries.

Those in the paths of Katrina and Rita, it's got 30 percent of the country's refining capacity. It sounds like it's a good idea because it's near all those offshore oil wells. But when you get two storms in a month, two hurricanes in a month, you start to wonder whether or not, you know, obviously there are refineries in other parts of the country, but should we be thinking about both the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and refineries being elsewhere?

Daryn, one last thought to leave you with. Suspending those EPA regulations and the winter blend mixes and discussing new refineries, that all comes straight up against people who thinks that all of this pollutes the environment. They haven't been able to get past this is many years. There's no particular reason why at this time around environmentalists are going to say, yes, sure, go ahead, build all the refineries you want.

KAGAN: Yes. And actually, that's something that President Bush has been pushing for a long time, long before these storms came ashore.

VELSHI: Yes.

KAGAN: Ali, thank you.

VELSHI: OK.

KAGAN: Southwest Louisiana the hardest hit by this latest hurricane. We will go there live, just ahead, after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: Now to the damage assessment in the aftermath of Hurricane Rita. Small towns in Texas and southwest Louisiana bore the brunt of the damage. Early estimates put insured losses between $2.5 billion and $7 billion.

Cameron Parish, Louisiana, is under as much as 15 feet of water. Officials say 90 percent of homes were destroyed there. Louisiana's governor says everything is just obliterated.

City and parish officials in Lake Charles and the surrounding Calcasieu Parish have set an October 3 target date that would allow residents to come back in. The plan is to allow people to return in stages, with business owners being allowed back first.

Last check, more than 925,000 customers in Louisiana, Texas and Mississippi were without electricity as a result of hurricanes Rita and Katrina. The president and CEO of Entergy Louisiana says the back-to-back storms have kept repair crews on the move.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RENAE CONLEY, PRESIDENT AND CEO, ENTERGY LOUISIANA: On a storm like this, if you remember, you have to go all the way back to the beginning of Katrina when that hit Florida. And they had over a million customers out in Florida.

So then those crews came to our aid when Katrina came and hit us. And a lot of those crews have been working now, you know, we're talking six weeks of storms. So we're continuing to rotate people out and have additional crews come to our aid.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: Utility companies say it could take up to a month to fully restore electricity.

So Rita hit hard in Louisiana's Cajun country. Our Ed Lavandera is in the town of Erath, population of 2,000, but that was before Rita showed up.

Ed, good morning.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Daryn.

Well, that population is starting to make its way back. We have scenes like this that you see behind me, where families are coming back to check on -- on their belongings. And there's still a good amount of water in the city.

This is kind of the main road that takes you into the main part of town. Trucks are able to go through. There's probably about a foot, a foot and a half of water still on this roadway. And this kind of gives you a sense of what you see. There's pockets of water around town at this point.

The good news is, is much of the water in Vermilion Parish is going down. Over the weekend, almost 300 people had to be rescued from their homes as the storm surge that came actually several hours after the worst of Hurricane Rita came through town. In fact, many people who had evacuated were already coming back to check out on their -- to check out their homes when they were, many of them, trapped in the floodwaters as well.

Many of the people we have spoken with here have come back very emotional. Many people in this part -- this is the heart of Cajun country, as they like to say here, and many people say they were born and bred here, they live here, and they don't plan on moving away. So these days very emotional for them.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CONNIE MASON, ERATH, LOUISIANA, RESIDENT: Everybody's in the same condition, and the whole town is flooded. Not everyone got water, but you watch the poor people with Katrina, and you say thank god it wasn't us. This is our turn.

We've been through it before. And it's -- just have to clean it up. I hope the young kids understand what hard work is, because they're going to learn.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAVANDERA: And back out to a live picture on this roadway that takes you into the main part of Erath. Kind of a lonely walk for many of the people who have to make their way to their homes.

We've seen a lot of people riding by in trucks, if they have them, also on four-wheelers. And as you see, these two gentlemen just kind of walking into town as well.

Much of the water through Vermilion Parish is dropping, but there are still other places -- still pockets of places, like this town, another town to the east of here, that is also struggling with the water levels receding. But they hope that in the next day or so, much of it will be gone so they can start assessing the damage -- Daryn.

KAGAN: All right. Ed Lavandera in southwest Louisiana.

Thank you for that.

On to Houston now. Residents arriving home this morning, bringing the nation's fourth largest city back to life.

Our national correspondent, Bob Franken, is there to watch the reentry -- hello.

BOB FRANKEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, it's kind of ironic, Daryn, to hear the president talk about conservation, and watching here as all the gas guzzlers zip by, but zip by they are. The re-entry into Houston has gone swimmingly, in spite of the fact that a large number of people, the largest number of people, are frankly, ignoring the request from the local officials for a phased re-entry. Phased meaning to be staggered out over three days. People have decided they would stagger it when they're ready to go, and they have been doing that.

Now there have been some bottle necks, but there are always bottlenecks on any urban-highway system. As a matter of fact, one could argue that the traffic is moving more freely than normal into the city, on Monday, a weekday, partly because employers are being asked to not bring anything but essential people back to work, and the schools are closed for a couple extra days.

Those who are coming back, many of them are going to be without power. There's still a couple hundred thousand homes and businesses that don't have power. What is particularly difficult about that, is the fact that the temperatures are at record highs for this time of year, approaching 100 degrees, with the heat index of about 108, I believe is what they're expecting today, and that's a little tough to take without air conditioning -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Yes, hopefully you can hang in there as well. Bob Franken, thank you, live from the side of the road in Houston, Texas.

On the phone with us right now, I want to welcome in National Guard leader. Let's see, where did we go with that? Yes, Brigadier General Doug Pritt. He is in Lafayette, Louisiana. He's with the Oregon National Guard.

General, good morning.

BRIG. GEN. DOUG PRITT, OREGON NATL. GUARD: Good morning.

KAGAN: Tell me what you're facing there in Cameron parish.

PRITT: Well, Cameron Parish is a very unique situation. I was there yesterday for several hours meeting with the officials. And in fact, I'm getting ready to fly down there now with the Corps of Engineers general that will be here to meet me at 11:15.

The entire parish, for the most part, was inundated with water when I arrived the day after Hurricane Rita, or actually the night that Hurricane Rita passed through. And the water has receded significantly, temporarily set up operations on Highway 27, at a wildlife refuge headquarters building that is clearing the water by about six inches.

And last night, we delivered food, water, ice, a generator and a communications package down there, and they're operational. What we're going to do is make an assessment this morning. The corps has opened the locks to be able to allow the water to flow out. And hopefully the water level will recede, and we'll be able to get them into the townhall, city hall, and yesterday when we flew them in there to assess the damage, the second, third floors were water-free, and the emergency generator is on the third floor. So we hope to be able to move their operations down to the city hall once the water level drops to allow vehicle traffic in and out of the parish.

KAGAN: Now is the phase of search and rescue of trying to get people out of there, is that over?

PRITT: Yes, ma'am. Again, meeting with the emergency officials from the parish last night, they indicated that all of the people that needed or wanted to be evacuated were evacuated, and that those that remained in the area -- there were three in the town of Cameron. So you can see we are talking very small numbers. There were more in the surrounding area, in either, you know, homes in isolated areas. But those people had been contacted by boat or by air, and had said, no, they had enough food and water, they wanted to stay. The water level was dropping very quickly, and they anticipated in the next couple of days that they would be able to drive their vehicles out, and so they had elected and were in no immediate threat. So they're allowed to stay in there.

KAGAN: Is that a realistic expectation, a couple days for all that water to get out.

PRITT: Ma'am, that's a great question, and that's out of my area of expertise, and that's why the Corps of Engineers, general, General Burwick (ph), is en route here now to link up with me and fly down there and make an assessment on the ground, and we will be meeting with those emergency managers when we do that inspection.

KAGAN: All right, a lot of work, a lot of drainage ahead. Brigadier General Doug Pritt with Oregon National Guard, right now in Lafayette, Louisiana. Brigadier General, thank you so much for that.

KAGAN: We're going to take a break. A lot more news ahead after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: And a welcome sight in New Orleans, something so simple as this, but, boy, will people be happy to see them, power crews working in New Orleans. Still hundreds of thousands of people without power across Louisiana, and Mississippi, and now Texas. Let's go to New Orleans. Most parts of the city. many parts of the city, not as dry as those streets, as we're seeing right there.

Our Mary Snow joining us live from there this morning, from New Orleans. Good morning.

MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Daryn.

And one thing you haven't been seeing in New Orleans lately is traffic jams, and there was one this morning.

Right behind me is I-10. Traffic moving smoothly here, but in other parts, there's had been backups, this as New Orleans is now allowing some people to come in. And this is the test for New Orleans as it tries to rebuild. The mayor of the city is allowing business owners in three districts, the French Quarter, the central business district and uptown to come in, assess their business and try to get it up and going. He is also allowing residents to come in to the neighborhood of Algiers. Algiers is on the west bank. These are areas that were not as hard hit by flooding by Hurricane Katrina.

And this program was started last week; it was put on hold when Hurricane Rita started making her way towards this region.

Now, in terms of New Orleans, the mayor is saying he's going to take a look, see how this plan goes, and then set a timeline for other parts of New Orleans to start coming back in. Everyone is getting a flyer saying, enter at your own risk. Here on the east bank, there is no running water for these business owners. Electricity is spotty. So a lot of hurdles so far. And of course this comes after the latest setback, when new flooding enter entered New Orleans over the past weekend, on Friday, when rain and wind hit. The Lower Ninth Ward once again reflooded. The Army Corps of Engineers is working to pump that area out. They believe, at this point, they can do that within a week's time.

Now, this reentry plan, the mayor is hoping to get as many as 280,000 people over several weeks, perhaps months, back into New Orleans. A lot is weighing on what happens in these first stages for that timeline -- Daryn.

KAGAN: All right, Mary, thank you. Mary Snow live in New Orleans. What about the weather today? we'll check in with Chad Meyers, just ahead. Right now, a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: Want to go ahead and make use of a Helinet service that has been so useful, even since before Katrina hit. Looking at live pictures now from New Orleans. This is the Industrial Canal. It is up and operational just a couple days after Hurricane Rita hit there. Earlier, we were able to see pictures of barges that were carrying gravel and different kind of industrial equipment through that area.

And that's a look that we watched so carefully on Friday, where the water came spilling over and overtopping the levee there and spilling into the Lower Ninth Ward. We can the water has gone down quite a bit because now we can see earth where only we saw flowing water.

(WEATHER REPORT)

KAGAN: Coming up next, he's accused of being al Qaeda's leader in Spain. We're going to tell you if prosecutors made their case, when CNN LIVE TODAY returns after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: Our "Security Watch" focuses on Spain this hour. A court convicted 18 al Qaeda-linked suspects today. It was Europe's largest terror trial to date.

Our Al Goodman is live from Madrid. Al, hello.

AL GOODMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Daryn.

Well, six other of these men of the 24 were acquitted. And the prosecution, notably -- and the three main defendants, the ones who were charged with the planning role in the September 11th attacks, the three who the prosecution was trying to get 74,000 year jail sentences for each one of them, prosecution didn't get close.

The main one, Imad Eddin Barakat Yarkas, a Syrian-born man here in Spain, got 27 years: 12 years for leadership of al Qaeda in Spain and 15 years for conspiracy in helping to plan but not to carry out the September 11th attacks, which would have been the much higher sentence. Another man, an alleged aide to Yarkas, got just six years for collaboration with al Qaeda, but not anywhere near the 74,000.

And the third man, Ghasoub Al Abrash Ghalyoun, a Syrian-born man also here in Spain, he was acquitted. Now, he had made -- you may remember this, Daryn, a videotape back in 1997 of the World Trade Center towers and other U.S. landmarks when he was in the United States. The prosecution said this was a scouting tape that was passed on to other al Qaeda operatives to help plan the September 11th attacks. But the court didn't buy that argument. In fact, it apparently bought the argument from Mr. Ghasoub, who said that this was simply vacation video, and he never showed it to anybody but his wife -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Al, quickly, what was the problem with the prosecution's case? Why was it so weak?

GOODMAN: Well, according to defense lawyers who came out here, they said there was a large amount of circumstantial evidence, and you just couldn't connect dot A over to dot B. And that's why they said the key charges against these defendants just did not stand. And so that's where we are this day. We have to study up.

I must say, the sentence is 450 pages long. I have not had a chance to read it yet. That may provide some more clues. But the quick answer, according to many, a lot of circumstantial evidence that the three-judge panel which heard this case just was not convinced by -- Daryn.

KAGAN: All right. Al Goodman, live from Madrid, Spain. Thank you.

CNN "Security Watch" keeps you up to date on your safety. Stay tuned day and night for the most reliable news about your security.

And here's some other stories making news overseas this morning.

A breakthrough in the Northern Ireland peace process. The head of the Disarmament Commission says the IRA has given up the entire arsenal of weapons from its decades-long struggle against British rule. He described the cache of weapons as enormous. He said it included explosives and arms, as well as missiles and mortars.

After days of violence, the leader of the Palestinian militant group Hamas has vowed to stop attacks against Israelis from Gaza. But Israeli airstrikes across Gaza continue today. Missiles targeted sites that Israel says were used to launch rocket attacks on its territory. The violence had threatened fragile peace efforts by Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

The fighting comes as Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's Likud Party votes in a crucial poll today. The vote, about whether to move up the party primary from April to November. It is widely seen as an attempt to oust Sharon as party leader. The prime minister was prevented from addressing a Likud Convention yesterday when his microphone wouldn't work. Some speculated it was sabotage.

And we will check in on the markets, which apparently are doing quite well today. The latest with Susan Lisovicz, just after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(STOCK MARKET REPORT)

KAGAN: We're going to head back to Texas and Louisiana in the next hour for live updates on the cleanup following Hurricane Rita. In fact, we're looking at live pictures right now from the area around New Orleans. Mayor Ray Nagin saying it's OK to come back to certain parts, like the Algiers neighborhood, downtown, uptown and also the French Quarter, at least for business owners.

As you can see, people really anxious to get back to see what they haven't seen, getting close to a month now.

Plus, how the storm wiped out one man's life's work and put his retirement plans on hold. You'll see that all, just ahead in the next hour of CNN LIVE TODAY.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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