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CNN Live Today

On the Job Training for Iraqi Soldiers; ABC News Names Charles Gibson as Solo Anchor

Aired May 23, 2006 - 10:30   ET

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

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: On the job training. It's one thing at the office, but in the battlefield? Case in point, Iraqi soldiers required to jump from a chopper during their very first ride. Training that military -- training a military while they're fighting at a war at the same time?
Our Arwa Damon reports from Iraq.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right, let's go ahead and get first group over there.

ARWA DAMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is the last rehearsal for these Iraqi army troops. The mission is in minutes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You guys in?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're in.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You ready to get out?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're ready to bounce.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right, let's roll.

LT. ADAM GREGORY, U.S. ARMY: It's like being a teacher anywhere else. You get to see the effects of your work as they get better.

DAMON: But test time is over. This is not only their first air assault, it's the first time these men have been up in a helicopter. The Iraqi army doesn't have machines like these, and it shows. The mission, to capture a suspected insurgent.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're going to go ahead and move to the next one. Go to the next one, right.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

DAMON: This is the real thing. Learning as they go, instructed by 22-year-old Lieutenant Adam Gregory, himself on his first tour to Iraq.

GREGORY: Where we at? OK. Take this and see -- no -- these. We're going to consolidate them in one courtyard and then we're going to sort them out to see if we got our man over. Tell them to give the instructions, OK? Tell them just to stay here seated, hands out in front of them on their laps. Yes, I want them to give the instructions.

DAMON: For the Iraqi army, it's clear instructions at every step.

GREGORY: They can go back to doing what they're doing.

DAMON (on camera): They're now waiting for nightfall to maintain the element of surprise while they continue their search.

(voice-over): Pushing through fields and farmlands, continuing their round up.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tell them to put them underneath.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Search complete of the target houses. We are a dry hole once again, and we can be extracted.

DAMON: They'll keep looking for their men. In the meantime, these Iraqi soldiers have conducted their first air assault.

GREGORY: Part of the reason we're out here is just so they can get a practice and, you know, one day they can do this on their own. But -- you know, if that's all we get accomplished here, then that's a success.

DAMON: For now, the Americans provide the instructions and the helicopters.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: And Arwa Damon, live from the battlefield, joins us live now from Baghdad. Arwa, my question for you is what's the point of training Iraqi troops for equipment that they don't have since they don't have helicopters?

DAMON: Well, Daryn, the hope is, of course, that they are going to have them in the future. The training process is ongoing and, essentially, every single mission that the Iraqi forces go out on, like the air assault that you just saw, is a training mission. And all of this is, of course, to move them towards the end state, in which they will be able to take over security on their own.

But even when Iraqi forces are able to conduct operations, when they' are responsible for their own area of operations, they still have what is called coalition effects. And those are, as you just mentioned, helicopters, other forms of air support, fire support, logistical support. And until they get those, until they have moved forward and trained on those, on those specific issues, of course, it might seem as though there is no point to train on them. But that is, of course, an end state that everyone here hopes that they will eventually achieve -- Daryn.

KAGAN: And how is that readiness preparation going? DAMON: Well, really, it varies depending on where you are in the country and which unit you are with. Now, speaking with U.S. and Iraqi commanders here about the issue of drawing down U.S. forces or the withdrawal of U.S. forces, many are very wary to actually be speaking about it. Some were even saying that perhaps the process is happening a little too fast. You can look to some areas of the country where U.S. forces have drawn down their presence due to an increase of Iraqi security forces. And there you see that the violence is not necessarily increasing, but it's not decreasing, either.

Now, Iraqi security forces are being trained on a daily basis. Like you just saw, each operation is essentially a training mission. But some U.S. commanders here who are working with the Iraqi security forces say that they feel like they are under pressure to speed up that process. And should that handing over to the Iraqi security forces happen too fast, the results could be devastating -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Arwa Damon, live from Baghdad. Thank you.

Danger on the doorstep. A 500-pound bear storms into a house and attacks. The outcome, ahead on LIVE TODAY.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: This isn't your typical backyard pet. This 400-pound gator crawled under a homeowner's fence in Missouri City, Texas. We get the story from our affiliate KPRC. The gator lunged at the family dog, but was roped and wrestled into a cage before it could to any harm.

Love may have lead the the gator to roam. Wildlife workers say it's breeding season. Better luck next time, gator.

Bear attacks, those are rare. But a bear attack inside of a home? Almost unheard of, but that's what happened in Ohio. The women is expected to survive. Her daughter describes how a simple dog walk exploded into violence and fury.

Here's CNN's Carol Costello.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Fifteen year-old Daphne Supplee was taking her dog for a walk on Monday when she was suddenly face to face with a 500-pound bear, right on her doorstep.

DAPHNE SUPPLEE, MOTHER MAULED BY BEAR: And I saw the bear, so I ran back into the house, closed the door. And after the door was closed, it knocked through the door. Ran past me and grabbed my mom at the doorway and drug her over here into the walkway, and then I tried to pull it off of her. But it just wouldn't -- it just jumped right back on me.

COSTELLO: Daphne and her dog tried desperately to save her mother, 36-year-old Rachel Supplee, as she was being mauled by the bear.

SUPPLEE: I was hitting it, and pulling it and doing everything, and it kept right on her. it didn't touch me. My dog was, like, biting the bear, like, it was barking and it starting biting the bear. It just jumped right back on her.

So I grabbed lunch meat and got it to go into the kitchen so she could go outside. And after she was outside, I went in the bedroom and climbed out the bedroom.

COSTELLO: Turns out the bear had escaped from a commercial breeding farm nearby. The owner was attempting to clean the cage when the bear got away. He was able to lure the bear out of Supplee's house before shooting and killing it. State wildlife officials say a bear attack inside a home is extremely rare. But this wasn't your typical bear.

RENO REDA, STATE WILDLIFE OFFICER: A bear that's raised with humans is not going to have a fear of humans, and that's one of the big factors we count on with wild bears. They would much rather be away from humans. This bear is acclimated with people, so it's going to interact much more readily.

COSTELLO: Rachel suffered numerous bite wounds. She was air lifted to a trauma center in Youngstown. At last check, she was in satisfactory condition.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A year and a half ago, his bobcat got loose for two weeks, and they were hunting for it, and my cat mysteriously came up eaten. You know, Half of the cat laying underneath the vehicle because his bobcat ate it.

DAISY WELDY, VICTIM'S SISTER: It just really makes me mad that when the bear got away, because people didn't, you know, go get it. The game warden should have been notified to get it. You know, whatever the story was, that's someone's bear, that owns that bear. They could have prevented this.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: As we told you minutes ago, ABC News has named a new solo anchor for its flagship broadcast. But he is a familiar face to many. Veteran anchor Charlie Gibson will take over as solo anchor, inherited the spot vacated by the death of Peter Jennings. Gibson's promotion bumps Elizabeth Vargas and Bob Woodruff. They were named as the show's co-anchors just six months ago.

Let's take a closer look with media reporter Howard Kurtz, with "The Washington Post," and host of CNN's "RELIABLE SOURCES."

Howard, good morning.

HOWARD KURTZ, "THE WASHINGTON POST": Hi, Daryn.

KAGAN: You need a scorecard to keep up with all these changes in network news. Why Charlie Gibson, and why go to the solo-anchor format?

KURTZ: Well, ABC has had a very rough year, emotionally because of the death of Peter Jennings, and then they named Elizabeth Vargas and Bob Woodruff, and Woodruff gets blown up in Iraq and is recuperating at home now. And Elizabeth Vargas gets pregnant. And she has struggled valiantly to hold down the fort, so to speak, as basically the sole anchor until now.

But ABC has lost nearly a million viewers for "World News Tonight," and clearly management decided it had to make a change. And if you're going to make a change, Charlie Gibson one of the two strongest performers on the ABC bench.

KAGAN: Which actually leaves the question, though, then who takes his part at "Good Morning America?"

KURTZ: I am told this morning that ABC is not planning, at least immediately, on replacing Charlie Gibson on "Good Morning America." Diane Sawyer was the other heavy-hitter to whom I referred, obviously the big start there. But roughly a year or so ago, ABC had elevated the news reader, Robin Roberts, knowing that at some point there was going to be a transition. So Robin Roberts, in effect, will become the second co-anchor of that program. Usual format to have two women. Usually it's a male-female pairing, like in local news. But that is where all the money is made, so the ripple effects here can be felt both at 6:30 at night, where Charlie Gibson will now be going up against Brian Williams, who's the number-one guy at NBC, and Katie Couric when she takes the anchor chair at CBS and in the morning, where "GMA" had been making a run "The Today Show," will now be doing it without the services of Charlie Gibson.

KAGAN: I told you we needed scorecards. We made one up here. Brian Williams made an interesting point. I was reading a piece of him in the last week. He said, his change, his taking over that network newscast for Tom Brokaw was the only planned change of the last year; everything else has either -- well, mainly comes from Peter Jennings' death or Dan Rather getting in trouble over some of his reporting.

KURTZ: The other networks somewhat envious of NBC, because not only was it the Brokaw to Williams transition rather seamless, but they announced it two-and-a-half years before Tom Brokaw actually stepped down.

Now a lot of people are surprised that Charlie Gibson didn't get the nod as at least the co-anchor of "World News Tonight" the first time around, but there was a dispute between him and ABC management over how long he would keep that job. He wanted it at least through the 2008 presidential election. They had offered two years. I never quite understood why there was such a hangup over that year.

But ABC's shifting gears here, because the previous philosophy has been, let's go younger, let's put two people in their early 40s, Woodruff and Vargas in that chair, and be prepared for the whole next generation. But now, given the unfortunate sequence of event here, ABC decides to go with the old veteran Charlie Gibson, who is, I believe, 63.

But you know, At CBS, Bob Schieffer, who is 69, has shown that you don't have to be a spring chicken to attract viewers. Schieffer has done very well in that interim role at "CBS Evening News."

KAGAN: And so the next big story to watch will be not just Charlie Gibson taking over, but to see what Katie Couric does with CBS.

KURTZ: I think there'll be a huge amount of media attention when she takes that chair in early September, because she is the biggest celebrity of the three. But ABC, I guess, deciding with Couric and Williams as pretty stiff competition, it's got to put its best team on the field, no more co-anchor, Gibson is the guy, and we'll see if he can bring back some of those viewers that ABC has lost at 6:30 at night.

KAGAN: Here's the thing I wonder, though, Howard, why all the focus -- is it an ego thing? Is it a New York thing? Why do they want the evening news? A lot of people say this is a dinosaur. The days when people used to wait until 6:30 or 7:00 at night to find out what happened in the news that day, those days are long over.

Now, granted, I'm partial to morning television. This is what I do. But those jobs don't seem as significant or as financially beneficial to the networks as the morning jobs do.

KURTZ: Well, certainly not as financially beneficial. The morning shows have become a gold mine. They're much longer. They bring in bigger advertising bucks. But don't underestimate the prestige of those evening news anchor jobs. For one thing, even though they don't have the huge mass audiences of the Cronkite and Huntley-Brinkley days, an estimated 25 million people still watch those three broadcasts network newscasts.

But in addition, you are the face of the news division. The next time there's a major development in Iraq, another Hurricane Katrina, another terror attack, which, of course, we hope does not happen, it Charlie Gibson who will be on the air unscripted for hours, just as it will be Katie Couric at CBS. So it's more than reading the news at 6:30. It really is becoming the symbol and the logo of an entire news division, and that's why these news are still pretty coveted.

KAGAN: Yes, there's a lot of ego gratification in that. Thank you, Howard Kurtz with "The Washington Post," and our own CNN's "RELIABLE SOURCES." Thank you, Howard.

KURTZ: Thanks.

KAGAN: Coming up, a ballot becomes a lottery ticket and voters get a shot at a million bucks. It could happen. We'll tell you which state is offering a million bucks just to get you to vote.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: A dramatic rescue from an apartment fire. A frantic mother drops her children into the arms of strangers that were waiting below. The fast spreading fire had changed the family on to a second floor balcony, and they knew there was only one way to safety: straight down.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CONNIE STRAUSS, CHILDREN'S GRANDMOTHER: Flames were shooting up the hall, there was smoke. So she immediately closed the door. We got the babies and my husband, we got out on the balcony. He closed the door right away to keep the smoke from coming out any further. And this gentleman and other gentleman were on the ground and literally we dropped the babies to them.

STEFFONE ROBINSON, RESCUER: Just to help them out. Help them out. Catch the babies and help them out. Get whoever we could out. That's what we done. Whoever we could get out the balcony, we got them off the balcony.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Quite a hero.

ROBINSON: It's not a hero. It's just life. It's what you got to do sometimes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: Well, the children are fine. In fact, there were no serious injuries. Crews in Kansas City, Missouri, are working today to find the cause of that fire.

The big winner in Arizona? It could be a voter, not a candidate. Here's the idea. One randomly drawn voter would win a million dollar Lottery prize after each statewide election. But you have to vote to play. Supporters have filed to get an initiative on the November ballot. The political activist behind the plans calls it a capitalist incentive to get out the vote. Critics call it a gimmick.

(BUSINESS HEADLINES)

KAGAN: Fascinating testimony in one Maryland courtroom is taking place right now. Confessed sniper Lee Boyd Malvo testifying against the other sniper from 2002, John Muhammad. It's the second trial for both. Both will -- both have already been tried in Virginia. Some fascinating testimony and details from the younger sniper, and we'll have more on that at the top of the hour.

Meanwhile, extreme weather, melting polar ice caps. Dire predictions for our planet, or is it just another political platform? Facts versus rhetoric, coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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