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CNN Live Today

Bodies of Two Missing Soldiers Believed Found; Millions of Refugees Urged Not to Lose Hope

Aired June 20, 2006 - 11:00   ET

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

DARYN KAGAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And good morning, once again. I'm Daryn Kagan. This is CNN LIVE TODAY.
A grim discovery in Iraq. The military believes it has found the remains of two U.S. soldiers, but there still are a lot of questions. Ahead, we're live from the Pentagon, Baghdad, and one of the men's hometowns, Houston.

She opened a door to a real life drama. Now, this retired teacher hopes to open minds with a new documentary. Her border lessons are ahead.

And on this World Refugee Day, we'll find out more about this serious global problem. We're going to hear what the U.N. refugee agency goodwill ambassador, Angelina Jolie, has to say about her role. It's a CNN exclusive.

All ahead on this hour of CNN LIVE TODAY.

First up, anguishing news on those two U.S. soldiers who have been missing in Iraq. The Pentagon now says it appears the men's remains have been found. The news and the circumstances are very disturbing, indeed.

Let's go to our Barbara Starr at the Pentagon with the new developments.

Barbara, good morning.

BARBARA STARR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Daryn, to say disturbing would be an understatement. Major General Bill Caldwell conducted a press briefing in Baghdad where he spoke about what little information they are able to make public at this point, because they are still trying to keep the families informed first about the discovery last night in Yusifiya, south of Baghdad, of two bodies that they, of course, do believe are the soldiers who have been missing since a firefight last Friday night.

Let's have everyone listen very closely to what General Caldwell had to say about the state of the bodies when they found them.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAJ. GEN. BILL CALDWELL, SPOKESMAN, COALITION FORCES IN IRAQ: We spotted what we believed to be them late last night, as it was dark. And not knowing for sure, we went ahead and established a cordon around the area to protect it so it would be undisturbed until daylight this morning and brought the necessary assets in like explicit (ph) ordinance and some others, because there were some IED's in that location, and they did have to dismantle some stuff to get to them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STARR: Let's decipher that for everyone, Daryn. We are told that -- General Caldwell's words -- they had to dismantle some stuff to get to the bodies. The bodies were -- the area immediately around the bodies were booby-trapped. There were IED's. There were explosive devices around them. And the military, when they located these bodies, brought in explosive ordinance disposal teams to dismantle those explosives so they could recover the bodies in an appropriate manner.

DNA testing is under way. The families have been notified. There is every reason, of course, to believe these are the two missing men, Private First Class Kristian Menchaca and Private First Class Thomas Tucker. Their families know about this information. But nonetheless, DNA testing on both of these young men will take place so there is an absolute positive I.D., complete closure for their families.

And the military may have more news later, we are told, about the actual timeline of events last Friday night, how it was that this firefight broke out, how it was that these two men and another soldier who died at the scene somehow found themselves vulnerable to enemy attack, where other soldiers were at the time and exactly what transpired.

Because it is still the case that the military has reports from Iraqis in the area that they saw insurgents take these two young men away while they were still alive. All of that information being evaluated, more expected later today, Daryn.

KAGAN: Barbara Starr from the Pentagon. Thank you.

And as Barbara saying, of course, this is not the kind of end that these families that were waiting for these soldiers wanted. Let's go to the hometown of one of them, to Houston, Texas, the home of Private Kristian Menchaca. And our Ed Lavandera is standing by there -- Ed.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I just came back from the house that Kristian Menchaca grew up in here on the north side of downtown Houston and spoke with an uncle of his. He comes from a large family, grew up in this neighborhood that was often plagued by gangs and drugs. And his family very proud of the fact that Kristian Menchaca avoided all of that, created a career in the military and then he wanted to go on to join the Border Patrol.

This morning, the family coping with the news that they received from U.S. military officials, and this family, the Menchaca family has been pressing those military officials for many of the gruesome details that Barbara has just been talking about. Suffice it to say that we have been told by this family that they have received many of these gruesome details at their own will. They pressed the military officials. They said they wanted to hear it from them directly, not from the reports coming out of Iraq, in terms of this situation.

The family very sad -- saddened this morning, but also an uncle very angry. And he didn't hide that from us just a short while ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CIP)

MARIO VASQUEZ, KRISTIAN MENCHACA'S UNCLE: And I wish they'd punish people that did -- does this kind of things right away instead of taking forever and spending millions of dollars trying to figure out, you know, keeping them prisoners and then trying to get to them or what their plans. I mean, I think, you capture them, make them pay for what they did. You know, don't think that it's just two more soldiers. Don't negotiate anything. They didn't. They didn't negotiate with my nephew. They didn't negotiate with Tucker. Make them pay.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAVANDERA: The family saying that they were very touched by the fact that the U.S. military had sent out so many people to search for those two soldiers, Kristian Menchaca and Thomas Tucker. And as this uncle mentioned to me, he said he hopes the U.S. military turns all those 8,000 people around to find the people responsible for killing not only Tucker and Menchaca but the other soldier that was killed as well in Friday's attack at that checkpoint in Baghdad.

And one other point they asked me to pass along, as well, is that this family does not know the Tucker family from Oregon. This is a case we've seen over and over, in situations like this, where soldiers from all over the country are placed to work next to one another, and the families back home really don't know who they're working alongside of. The Menchaca family here asking me to pass along to the Tucker family just how sorry they feel for them, as well this morning.

KAGAN: They're bound together forever.

Now, as this story was unfolding earlier today, Ed, there was -- it seemed like there was a little bit of a struggle of the flow of information that the news was coming out, but the military was trying to hold back until the families had been contacted. Were you able to find out from the Menchaca family, did they find out in proper channels or did they have to find out through the media?

LAVANDERA: Well, they found out from watching the various news reports. They said they were watching a little bit CNN this morning and some other news reports as well. All of this started from, I believe, coming from the Iraq defense ministry, putting out that two of these bodies had been found.

Of course, the U.S. military and officials at Fort Campbell, where Army Private First Class Menchaca was stationed out of, didn't make any comments until the family here had been made aware, officially from them, exactly what was going on.

But those news reports trickled out of Iraq first before the U.S. military could tell them officially. But just -- it didn't -- I don't think it was much longer after they had first heard that initial wave of the reports that they got the call from the U.S. military.

KAGAN: Ed Lavandera, live from Houston. Ed, thank you for that.

And coming up in a little bit, we'll live go to Madras, Oregon, the hometown of the other soldier that we're talking about, Lowell Tucker -- Tommy Tucker, Tommy Lowell Tucker.

Other news to get to today, in Arizona, Sedona, Arizona, about 90 miles north of Phoenix, this wildfire continues to burn bout 1,500 acres. Five percent containment, so a little bit of progress there. Five hundred homes and 150 campsites are still evacuated near Oak Creek Canyon.

Also, out of New York City, Dan Rather official now. It's official he is leaving CBS News after 44 years, more than half of that as that network's lead anchor. CBS making that official today.

In New Orleans, concerns about crime in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Today, reinforcements arrived to help police. At the mayor's request about 100 National Guard troops and 60 state police officers are being deployed. More guard troops are expected later.

Authorities say crime is on the rise in the city. Fifty-three murders have been reported this year. Police say six of them happened over the weekend. The guard is expected to free up police to focus on hot spots.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SUPT. WARREN RILEY, NEW ORLEANS POLICE DEPARTMENT: We are expecting 300 National Guard troops, which will focus their patrols on desolate and isolated areas in New Orleans that were overwhelmed by the storm, where we have some looting problems. The state police will focus on the central business district, the French Quarter and an area called the Marinie (ph) and focus on that, which will allow us to pull some of our officers out and focus on some of the areas of concern.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: And the chief of police there in New Orleans appearing earlier today on CNN's "AMERICAN MORNING".

This is the first time the National Guard has been used for law enforcement in the U.S. since the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Well, the Gulf Coast may be on the road to recovery, but many of these cars will never hit the road again. Crews are towing about 100,000 vehicles that were flooded by Katrina or Rita. The vehicles will go to staging areas, and owners have 30 days to claim them. Unclaimed cars will be sold for scrap.

Tense moments in the skies and on the ground when an American Airlines plane made an emergency landing in Chicago this morning. The pilot brought the plane skidding to a stop on a runway at O'Hare. Aviation officials say the pilot reported problem with the plane's front landing gear. American's Flight 1740 was going from L.A. to Chicago. There were 146 passengers and crew on board, no reports of any injuries.

She is a retired teacher now giving lessons about immigration. The unlikely film-maker ahead on CNN.

Also fear of violence and political persecution. For some in Iraq, that is everyday life. And now, they're being forced from their homes and we're telling their story.

And the U.N.'s message for refugees around the world, never lose hope. Some Palestinians say even if they never make it back to the homes they fled, their children will. That story is ahead on CNN, the most trusted name in news.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: The Army has charged three U.S. soldiers with murder in the shooting death of three Iraqi prisoners. The detainees were killed last month north of Baghdad near Samarra. The soldiers initially claimed the Iraqis were trying to escape. The men are also charged with threatening to kill a fellow soldier who witnessed the killings. They could face the death penalty if convicted of murder.

Every day Iraqis still a primary target for insurgents. At least 13 people were killed and 50 wounded in attacks in Baghdad in Basra today. This damage is from a car bomb that exploded in a market in the capital.

And even the most vulnerable Iraqis aren't safe. Police in Basra say a suicide bomber walked into a senior citizens home and blew himself up. Two people were killed there.

A message of hope for millions around the world. Today is World Refugee Day. And all day long, CNN is focusing on this global problem and some possible solutions. The U.N. says this year's theme, never give up hope.

The U.N. says there are more than eight million refugees worldwide. Nearly 21 million people around the world are displaced. Around half of the world's refugees are children.

Five nationalities account for nearly half of those uprooted: Afghans, Colombians, Iraqis, Sudanese and Somalis. Here is where people are going: to Pakistan, Iran and Germany.

We are going in depth this morning, talking about World Refugee Day. The U.N. said this message is don't give up hope, but in for those in Iraq, where sectarian violence is on the rise, hope is in short supply for many. CNN's Arwa Damon reports from Baghdad.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ARWA DAMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): At 85 years old, Shia Mohsin Madhlom never thought that he would leave his home in the Sunni area of Abu Ghraib.

He's lived through tough times, he says, but nothing like this. He fled with his five children and 13 grandchildren, fearing that they would be the next victims of sectarian violence.

"We received a death threat, a letter that said we all had to leave that night," he says. "I saw all my neighbors leaving, too, in front of my eyes."

They moved in with family neighbors living in a Shia neighborhood in Baghdad, refugees of their own country after the February bombing of a Shia shrine led to a spike in sectarian violence.

According to the Iraqi government, there are more than 100,000 just like Mohsin. Nearly double the number of just two month ago, as much of the country splits into Sunni and Shia strongholds.

DR. SAID HAKKI, IRAQI PHYSICIAN: The numbers start becoming some form -- some way alarming sometimes on this 22nd of March, when we made our first assessment. And we're doing it every, like, three or four days. We're beginning to see a serious trend.

DAMON: Some Iraqis don't even have families that can shelter them and end up in tent villages. The lucky ones manage to escape abroad. According to a recent survey, some 600,000 Iraqis are now living in Jordan and Syria, and they include many professionals.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: Arwa Damon joining us live from Baghdad. Arwa, tell us a little bit more about that point at the end of your piece, the middle class educated professionals leaving Iraq. What kind of impact is that going to have on this country as it tries to rebuild and go forward?

DAMON: It's going to have a huge impact. That's essentially a brain drain that we're seeing right there as the country's best and brightest. By some estimates, 40 percent of its middle class have fled the country in the last three years, basically just unable to live with the violence. But what that is creating, like I just mentioned, is a huge brain drain here in Iraq that is causing much concern -- Daryn.

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

Well, as we move on with our refugee day today, more than four million registered Palestinian refugees. More than a million live in overcrowded camps scattered throughout the region.

Our Paula Hancocks has one family's story from a refuge camp near Bethlehem.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This Palestinian refugee camp houses more than 12,000 refugees, an overpopulated concrete jungle. This has been Abu Nidal Abu-Aker's temporary home for half a century.

At the age of 5, he fled his home with his family during the 1948 Arab-Israel war, along with hundreds of thousands of other Palestinians. His family lived in a tent in this Bethlehem refugee camp for 10 years. Then, one room served as kitchen, bathroom and bedroom for the next 15 years.

ABU NIDAL ABU-AKER, PALESTINIAN REFUGEE (through translator): This picture always reminds me of my land and the suffering that I experienced. This picture represents history for us, and that's why I'm keeping it.

HANCOCKS: Abu Nidal paints furniture by day and works in a gas station at night, the main bread winner for the 16 family members that live in his house.

ABU-AKER (through translator): I'm exhausted but I have to work, especially as I'm 63, my sons are in prison. I have to take care of my family. I have two jobs, and I have to work.

HANCOCKS: But he never loses hope of returning to his hometown, now on Israel soil. He's even kept the keys to his home that was demolished decades ago.

His wife tells me, even if she cannot go home in her lifetime, she has faith her children will.

(on camera) The Abu-Aker family's story is mirrored in Palestinian refugee camps across the region. Now, the World Bank says that 44 percent of all Palestinians live below the poverty line. That number rises when you come to a camp like Doaisha (ph). And the conditions have been worsening for the past six months.

(voice-over) Poverty in refugee camps has risen nine percent since the surprise win of Hamas in the Palestinian elections in January. The west halted millions of dollars of aid to the Palestinian Authority and increased restrictions on movement between Israel and the West Bank, effectively denying many Palestinians lucrative work in Israel.

The United Nations office of Palestinian refugees, or UNRWA, says the situation is dire.

ANDERS FANGE, DIRECTOR, UNRWA WEST BANK: If you talk to the real old hands among refugees and so on, they're actually telling you that they have not seen as bad times since the beginning of the 1950s.

HANCOCKS: In the past six months, UNRWA has doubled its emergency appeal for this year, saying the minimum refugee need here is $75 million for the absolute basics of food and health care. It's appealing to some of its biggest donors, the United States and the European Union, to help.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: Paula Hancocks, joining us live now from the West Bank. Paula, when you look at this particular refugee situation, how are the Palestinians different from other refugees around the world?

HANCOCKS: Well, it is a unique situation here. Apart from the fact this is one of the oldest refugee crises in the world.

But the United Nations and the UNHCR has a clear mandate that for refugees. It has to give them three options that they can volunteer on. Now the first is local integration, the second is resettlement in a second or a third country. Now, to many Palestinian refugees, this is just not feasible. It's unacceptable to them.

And the third option is return to their home country. Now to Israelis, this is unacceptable, because many of the Palestinian refugees that have been living in this refugee camp in the West Bank and many others have left their home and their land, which is now on Israeli soil. And this, obviously, is one of the real integral issues of the Israel-Palestinian conflict and one of the things that does have to be resolved before there can be a final status, the fact that the Palestinians want the right to return, as Abu-Aker, you saw in that package there. Many other families want to go back to their home, but that is now on Israel soil and Israelis will not accept their right to return.

KAGAN: Paula Hancocks, live from the West Bank. Paula, thank you.

And you want to stay with CNN throughout the day and then watch Anderson Cooper tonight at 10. He has more stories about the global refugee problem. Plus, U.N. goodwill ambassador Angelina Jolie, in her first U.S. television interview since the birth of her daughter. A CNN exclusive, "AC 360" at 10 Eastern, 7 Pacific.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: There's a wet start to the week, storms dumping more than 10 inches of rain in the Houston area Monday. We watched a lot of this unfold on this program yesterday. Showed you some of the first pictures on the flooding here.

More rain is forecast for the area. National Guard troops are on call if needed.

Heavy rains also lashed southwest Louisiana Monday. Residents of a nursing home had to evacuate, and they may not be able to return for a couple of weeks.

Chad, can they just transport some of that water into Arizona where they're fighting the fires?

(WEATHER REPORT)

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Daryn, I hear you there.

KAGAN: Have you been to Sedona?

MYERS: I have. Beautiful place, the red rocks.

KAGAN: Absolutely. One of the prettiest places in Arizona.

MYERS: I went from skiing at -- was it called Sugar Bowl, up in...

KAGAN: Snow Ball.

MYERS: Snow Ball. Skied there, drove through Sedona, and then played golf the next day in Scottsdale.

KAGAN: That's a good -- that's a good vacation.

MYERS: Yes.

KAGAN: That's a good thing.

MYERS: We're watching this behind me. We'll talk about this later in the day. This could be the next tropical system of the Bermuda -- the Bahamas there, between maybe Florida and Bermuda by Wednesday or Thursday of next week.

KAGAN: Is that looking more West Coast Florida or East Coast?

MYERS: This actually looks like it's going to just come out here and sit in the middle of the Gulf Stream for awhile.

KAGAN: Perfect. Those are the ones we love.

MYERS: Yes. We have no direction on it.

KAGAN: We like that. All right, Chad. Thank you.

MYERS: You're welcome.

KAGAN: Well, the military believes it know what happened now to those missing U.S. soldiers in Iraq. There are still a lot of questions, though. When did they die and how did they die? And what happens next? More on this developing story ahead.

You're watching CNN, the most trusted name in news.

A man on trial for child rape. The prosecutor showed up late. What the judge did next is stirring outrage. She's not worried about it, though.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I firmly believe I did nothing inappropriate, and I am prepared to hear the case and render a verdict on the evidence.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: Call it disorder in the court. That story is ahead on LIVE TODAY.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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