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Saddam Hussein Trial Adjourned for One Week; The View From Home; Part of Supreme Court's Facade Falls

Aired November 28, 2005 - 11:00   ET

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

TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: And here's a look at what's happening "Now in the News."
After resuming today in Baghdad, the trial of Saddam Hussein and his co-defendants is on hold again. The chief judge has adjourned the proceedings until next Monday. That decision came after the defendants complained about a number of things, including legal representation and the court process.

In Sarasota, Florida, sentencing begins today in the Carlie Brucia case. Joseph Smith could get the death penalty for kidnapping, raping and killing the 11-year-old girl, but Smith's attorney says he will argue for life without parole. Smith was convicted earlier this month.

On the economic front, some difficult news for several thousand American workers. Drugmaker Merck says it is cutting 7,000 jobs and closing or selling some of its manufacturing plants as part of a restructuring plan. About half of the staff cuts will come in the United States. The cutbacks are expected to take place by the end of 2008.

And a chunk of marble fell off the facade of the Supreme Court this morning. It crashed 100 feet below onto the steps of the grand building. Fortunately, no one was hurt.

Americans are heading back to work or school after the Thanksgiving holiday, but getting home is proving to be tough in some areas. Blizzards, rain and severe storms have interfered with travel plans in part s of the country. Right now bad weather is moving across parts of the Southeast, including Alabama and Georgia.

And good morning, everyone. And welcome to CNN LIVE TODAY.

It is 7:00 p.m. in Baghdad; 11:00 a.m. here in Atlanta, GA; and 10:00 a.m. in Crawford, Texas.

From the CNN Center in Atlanta, I'm Tony Harris, in for Daryn Kagan.

First this hour, flashes of anger, brief testimony, another delay. So goes the trial of Saddam Hussein today, the first court session in five weeks.

Our senior international correspondent, Nic Robertson, was in the courtroom today. He joins us now from Baghdad. And good day, Nic. What a day in court.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It certainly was. The adjournment came because one of the defendants, Taha Yassin Ramadan, the former vice president, stood up in the court after a recess for lunch and said that of his three original lawyers, one had been shot dead, one shot and wounded, and that lawyer, he said, had left the country with his family. And his other lawyer, he said, also left Iraq, fearing for their lives with their family.

He said that he rejected the lawyers appointed by the court. Just after he finished saying that, Saddam Hussein's half brother, Barzan Hassan (ph), also stood up and said the same thing.

The judge really didn't seem to be left with any alternative, but apart from to call for a seven-day adjournment until next Monday, because he said they needed that amount of time to talk to their lawyers, talk to their original lawyers, try and get them to come back to court. And he said if that didn't happen, if they didn't come back to court, then they would have to use those court-appointed lawyers -- Tony.

HARRIS: That is really something. And Nic, talk to us about the theatrics this morning from Saddam Hussein, standing up and protesting the way he was brought into court, shackled, handcuffed, and then complaining about papers and a pen being taken away from him. It was quite a scene.

ROBERTSON: Well, what he was complaining about -- and going back to the very beginning of the trial today, the judge called all the defendants, and they all appeared in court sort of within 30 seconds of their names being called. When Saddam Hussein's name was called, it took six and a half minutes for him to get to the court, and it wasn't clear exactly why that was.

As the trial began, Saddam Hussein complained that he -- about not having a pen, not having a paper, so he couldn't write some of the things down that the judge had asked him to write down, and said, "I was brought to the court with my hands still in handcuffs. When I got to the elevator, the elevator wasn't working, and I was forced to walk up." That apparently was the reason for the delay.

And then the judge said, "Well, I'll speak to the guards about it." And he said, "You won't speak to the guards, you will order the guards. This is an occupation, there are foreigners in your country. You will order the guards to do this."

So, it was Saddam Hussein, if you will, and he still believes and he still sees himself as the president of this country, taking on that position and making it very clear that's how he felt. He did seem very relaxed and at ease, smiling when he came into the court shortly earlier -- Tony.

HARRIS: OK. Nic Robertson for us in Baghdad.

Nic, thank you. A recent poll asks Americans, "Should Saddam Hussein be put to death if convicted?" Seventy-two percent told our CNN "USA-Today"- Gallup pollsters yes, a quarter said no. While the Iraq war started out about Saddam Hussein, the poll suggests he is far from the focus now.

Senior Political Analyst Bill Schneider weighs in this morning from Washington.

Good to see you, Bill. So, what are we focussing on now?

WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, CNN SR. POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, when Americans are asked, "Do you think that if Saddam Hussein were put on trial, found guilty and ultimately executed, would it have much affect on the insurgency that the United States and the Iraqi government are fighting in Iraq?" And the answer is no, three-quarters of Americans don't expect to see an impact on the insurgency. Only 22 percent say yes.

Right now, Americans don't believe this war is primarily about Saddam Hussein anymore. It's about competition among various sects for power in the new Iraq. And to some of the insurgents, it's about opposition to U.S. and non-Muslim troops in their country.

HARRIS: And Bill, let me ask you something. So the focus turns next month to the election. And do we have a sense of whether or not Americans believe the election of a permanent government in Iraq will have much of a difference on the insurgency?

SCHNEIDER: That may be different, because the election points to the future rather than the past.

HARRIS: Yes.

SCHNEIDER: And it looks like a way in which at least the possibility that the various sects and groups that are competing can reconcile. That's what elections are all about.

If the Sunnis participate in large numbers, as they did in the constitutional referendum in October -- although they overwhelmingly voted no, they did participate -- then it's possible Americans are optimistic that this could lead for some progress toward a political settlement. And that's the beginning to the end of the insurgency.

Every time there's been an election in Iraq -- there was one in January, there was one in October, there's another one in December -- Americans become hopeful, optimistic. They regain some confidence that perhaps they'll be able to have a government that can control the situation, that can handle the security, and perhaps there's a light at the end of the tunnel and American forces can begin to withdraw. Perhaps. Hope springs eternal.

HARRIS: And we're hoping the light at the end of the tunnel is not an oncoming train. Bill Schneider in Washington for us.

Bill, thank you. One other note from Iraq today. We're told that four relief workers have been kidnapped. Government officials say the group includes one American, two Canadians and a British citizen. The relief agency the four individuals worked with was not identified by the officials. The wife of the kidnapped Briton says her husband helped a number of organizations in Iraq.

And back here in the U.S., authorities in California say investigators are trying to determine whether driver fatigue may have been a factor in a deadly bus crash. A pregnant woman and a man were killed when the Greyhound bus drifted off a highway Sunday near Santa Maria and slid into a tree. Dozens of others were injured.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CAROLE PITTS, PASSENGER: I remember the bus going off to the side, and the next thing I know I'm picking my head up off the -- off the window, pouring dirt off my ear.

VALERIE BRADLEY, PASSENGER: I'm literally traumatized, because all I keep on hearing in my head is this dude that keep on screaming over and over again. He died.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: Authorities say a preliminary investigation gave no indication of mechanical problems with the bus.

In Texas, authorities say a man could face criminal charges after his dogs mauled a 76-year-old woman to death. Authorities say the woman was working in her yard when she was attacked by a pack of six dogs.

The dogs are described as a Pit Bull-Rottweiler mixed. The woman's husband shot and killed one of the dogs. The others were seized by the sheriff's department.

And in neighboring Louisiana, more signs that life is slowly returning to normal in hurricane-ravaged New Orleans. Students are back in classes at Benjamin Franklin Elementary School today. It's the city's first parish public school to reopen since the storm hit.

Meanwhile, New Orleans officials get a new police chief today. Acting Chief Warren Riley will be sworn in as superintendent of the city's police department in a ceremony this evening.

Earlier on CNN's "AMERICAN MORNING," Lieutenant General Russel Honore, who took charge of military relief efforts in the chaotic days after Katrina, said his full -- full recovery will take some time.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LT. GEN. RUSSEL HONORE, U.S. ARMY: While this was not a war, the end state was the same. And you can look at areas around the world that were devastated, and all of those places have come back stronger. And New Orleans will, the Gulf Coast of Mississippi will. Their leadership is focussed.

All of them have picked the best brains in the states of Mississippi and Louisiana to help them plan this at the state and national level. It's going to take time, though, because this is not an instant solution.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: And today, General Honore is back at his previous job training National Guard and reserve troops for Afghanistan and Iraq.

Still to come, you might think a twister in Kansas isn't all that unusual, but considering it's late November, wow, take a look at this video caught of an extraordinary sight.

And the weekend traffic headache turns into a hangover for many of us. We'll check out some of the worst places.

And back to work? Well, sort of. If you're a cyber shopper, today's your lucky day. Don't tell your boss.

More on that coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN FINANCIAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm Susan Lisovicz from the New York Stock Exchange, where stocks are slipping, tolling back from a five-week rally. Right now the DOW industrials are down just 13 points. The Nasdaq, meanwhile, is down 15, or two-thirds of one percent.

Energy stocks drag on the market today. This is oil prices, full more than a buck, now trading back below $58 a barrel.

And home building stocks are getting hit today following a disappointing report on the housing market. The National Association of Realtors says sales of previously-owned homes fell by nearly three percent last month. This, of course, as mortgage rates rise.

The decline would have been even larger if not for spike in sales in areas where people were displaced by the Gulf Coast hurricanes. But home prices are still rising. They're up nearly 17 percent from a year ago, and that's the biggest increase since 1979.

That's the latest from Wall Street.

CNN's LIVE TODAY continues right after this break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: A base -- no, that's not a baseball. It's more like a basketball, really, sized chunk of marble fell from the facade of the Supreme Court this morning.

CNN's Kimberly Osias joins us from the Supreme Court with more.

Good morning, Kimberly.

KIMBERLY OSIAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Tony.

Well, actually, there were two basketball-sized pieces. They were about one foot by one foot by one foot of marble. Fortunately, nobody was injured, because there were about three dozen people in line.

I want to show you, this is actually the main tourist entrance here. And if we can, we'll kind of go up to this west pediment, this facade area right here. All, of course, beautiful marble.

And if you look right at that central figure, that is named Liberty. Right to the right of the figure, the name is Order. And that's where everything sort of happened.

About 9:30, a big chunk -- it's actually called dental molding -- it's very hard to tell, because you still see kind of that square piece -- fell apart, broke apart. I actually talked to some folks in line that had come here from California to see the inside of the high court. Of course, they are hearing arguments, oral arguments this morning.

And there's a little girl. She said, "My gosh, I heard a huge cracking!" And then it fell down about 100 feet.

They actually -- everything -- the engineers have cleared the area, at last for people to walk around. The gentleman said, "You know, we thought about getting a piece and taking it home."

They have cleared it now. So that is fortunate. Nobody was hurt. And again, they are hearing oral arguments in about two cases today -- Tony.

HARRIS: Boy. All right. So, they're thinking about taking a piece home with them. It's pretty funny as long as no one is hurt in all of this.

Kimberly Osias for us in Washington.

Kimberly, thank you.

Well, bosses may think it's back to work today after a long holiday weekend, but for a growing number of workers, the Monday after Thanksgiving means back to more shopping, this time online. Can that be?

With fast work, computers and enticing online deals, Sam Grobart of "MONEY" magazine is here to help us sort it all out.

Sam, good to see you this morning.

SAM GROBART, "MONEY" MAGAZINE: Good morning, Tony. How are you?

HARRIS: Come on, you can't -- you can't shop online while you're at work. You can't do that. And yet, people are doing it, aren't they?

GROBART: I would never advocate anybody do anything but the job that they're told to do, but on the other hand, a lot of people do spend a lot of time at their computer at work going online and shopping.

HARRIS: Well, how big a business is this online? I guess it's just -- it's just really exploded over recent years, hasn't it?

GROBART: It really has, Tony. In the last year, online sales this year are expected to be up 24 percent for holiday shopping, up to $19 billion. If you go back to 1999, sales were at $4.7 billion. So it's been about a 400 percent increase.

HARRIS: Is this really akin to Black Friday when we call this Cyber Monday?

GROBART: It's becoming that way. I mean, overall, holiday sales are supposed to reach about $440 billion this year. But online sales are becoming a growing part of that.

HARRIS: So, are there some deals out there? I hope so. If everyone's doing all of this shopping online, let's hope they can find some deals.

GROBART: There are some deals. And there are some deals happening earlier than expected.

Retailers are putting discounts online now, in part because they're afraid that when people get their heating bills for the winter, which are coming up, they're going to want to not spend as much money. So they're trying to get people to shop right now.

HARRIS: And are retailers counting more and more on online sales during the holiday to sort of make their year?

GROBART: Absolutely. In fact, Amazon just announced that their holiday sales up until today are greater than the entire holiday shopping period last year.

HARRIS: Wow.

GROBART: So this is a very important time for retailers.

HARRIS: Sam Grobart, good to talk to you.

Don't get caught.

GROBART: Don't get caught. Remember that your employer can and will perhaps check your online activity.

HARRIS: That's right.

GROBART: And you could get in a lot of trouble if you're not doing the work that you were supposed to be doing.

HARRIS: OK, Sam. Good to see you. Thanks for your time.

GROBART: Thank you, Tony.

HARRIS: Well, in shopping online, don't forget eBay, the powerful auction site where it seems just about anything sells -- anything. Take a square inch piece of land near Terra Haute, Indiana. A Michigan real estate executive did for $1,700. The land is about the size of a postage stamp, so what do you do with it? The CEO of the real estate company jokes that the firm may subdivide the property.

If you live in Tornado Alley, you know how quickly bad weather can blow in. But in late November?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It came -- came up quickly. And it last lasted maybe 30, 40 seconds, and it was gone.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: Meet some families and business owners who were thankful they were in the right place at the right time when this storm whipped through.

And later, more winter weather making the journey home from grandmother's house a slow go. We'll go live to Denver.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: And we want to take you to Columbus, Ohio, now. Take a look at these pictures. But we can tell you, a fire at this Columbus electric substation is now under control.

The firefighters were able to get that under control by smothering it with foam. But earlier, this was the scene.

Balls of fire and smoke just billowing from the American Electric Power Station. That's on the city's north side. There was an explosion there that occurred about 5:30 this morning.

And we can tell you, a few nearby homes were evacuated just as a precaution, and several schools in the area were also closed. That is a precaution because of power outages in the area. But we are understanding that the power is beginning to come back on in some of the homes and some of the businesses in the area, and to the estimated 32,000 Columbus customers who were affected by this fire at this substation.

Those pictures just in to CNN.

As the Thanksgiving holiday draws to a close, parts of the U.S. are taking a beating from severe weather. Check out this scene yesterday in eastern Kansas.

Tornadoes swept across the region, damaging homes and businesses and knocking out power. But no injuries are reported.

Tornadoes also dipped from the sky across Kansas last night, killing at least one person. And today officials are assessing the damage and trying to account for people who live in storm-battered areas in hard-hit Conway County. A motorist on Interstate 40 was killed when a van was slammed by high wind and thrown across the highway where it overturned.

Severe weather also battered parts of Missouri. Reporter Chris Nagus with our affiliate KNBC gives us a look at some of the damage and loss near Kansas city.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRIS NAGUS, REPORTER, KNBC (voice over): Debris litters the showroom floor, leaving dealership employees thankful no one was inside.

When we have storms up here, we keep everybody out of the showroom. And it shows you why.

NAGUS: Down the road, walls crumbled at Magna Corporation (ph). North on 69, power outages are widespread. The only light comes from headlights.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The only lights I have is my pickup truck. So I just sign them in through the window here. And I'm cleaning up.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you guys all right?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, we're fine.

NAGUS: On rural roads, broken power poles leave lines dangling. Trees are snapped, fences trashed, just like Terri Crisdek's (ph) home.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The wind just picked up immediately and blew open our patio doors out the back. And everything went flying at that point.

NAGUS: Outside walls are blown apart. Pieces of the roof are scattered in the driveway.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't want to go through it again. It came up quickly and it lasted maybe 30, 40 seconds. And it was gone.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, why don't you go and check that.

NAGUS: Lawson's deputy fire chief says he watched the storm roll through town.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I did see debris flying in a tornado or funnel cloud.

NAGUS: Now he's going house to house, making sure everyone is OK following the spring-like storm. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's always in the back of your mind that this can happen, but not this late in the season.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: That report from Chris Nagus with our affiliate KNBC.

And let's go now to our severe weather expert, Chad Myers, upstairs in the CNN weather center.

And Chad, what a pattern of severe weather we have seen over the last three, four weeks.

CHAD MYERS, CNN SEVERE WEATHER EXPERT: Same idea in the spring, Tony, that we have now. Although 180 degrees.

We have cold air trying to push away the warm air of summer. In the spring, the warm air trying to push away the cold air of winter.

Well, warm and cold mix like oil and vinegar. Eventually they separate. Even a tornado watch in effect for places like Alabama right now. And more weather even popping up. We have a tornado warning for Dallas County in Alabama, and then snow back on the north side of this. This is the cold trying to push away the warm.

A little bit closer to Montgomery, though, and south of Selma, that's where that tornado warning is going on right now for that cell right there. That's eastern Dallas County. There are a couple of areas that are spinning only about 35 miles from Montgomery.

And the storm is still moving toward the Northeast. And it's going to continue to move to the Northeast rather quickly.

Birmingham, you have weather popping up to your west right now as well.

High temperatures today, 32 in Denver, 61 in Atlanta, 79 in New Orleans and Mobile. This warm air right through here, right through Alabama, that's where the severe weather is going to take place today. And really, the potential, it's just all the way up to Cincinnati for some wind.

The tornado development will occur in Alabama, maybe southern Georgia, northern Florida, the panhandle of Florida. But other than that, this is going to be wind and possibly small hail up to the north.

It's still painted red; it's still severe.

Blizzard-like conditions across parts of South Dakota and Nebraska. Very heavy snow, with chains required through parts of the Sierra. Sixty-four Dallas, 74 Houston, 70 in San Antonio. And a windy day in Oklahoma.

Places up around Stillwater yesterday picked up wind gusts over 76 miles per hour. And that was not with a thunderstorm. That was just a wind as the storm comes rolling down the plains, as the song goes.

HARRIS: This is really something.

MYERS: Yes.

HARRIS: OK, Chad. Thank you.

MYERS: You're welcome.

HARRIS: Much more news still to come as CNN LIVE TODAY continues right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Coming up on the half-hour now. The president zeros in on border security in the Southwest today. More on that in a moment.

But first, I'm Tony Harris, sitting in for Daryn Kagan. Here's what's happening "Now in the News."

An explosion at an Ohio power substation sent balls of fire and smoke into the sky before dawn today. Firefighters used foam to smother the flames. A few homes were evacuated as a precaution. Some 32,000 customers lost electricity, but it's slowly coming back on for some.

After a nearly six-week delay, Saddam Hussein's trial on murder and torture charges resumed in Baghdad today. But after the testimony of just one witness, the court adjourned until next Monday.

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