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CNN Live Today

Saddam Hussein Attorney Murdered; Cousin of Slain Soldier Shares Thoughts; Firefighters Battle Blaze in Arizona; U.S. Prepared to Monitor North Korean Missile Test; Senate Dems to Propose Two Plans for Iraq

Aired June 21, 2006 - 11:00   ET

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

DARYN KAGAN, HOST: Good morning. Welcome to the second hour of CNN LIVE TODAY. I'm Daryn Kagan.
A bullet-ridden body, a bloody marketplace. The latest insurgent attacks in Iraq target Saddam Hussein's defense team, as well as defenseless civilians. We are live from Baghdad.

The battle over the war in Iraq. Democrats push two proposals to bring troops home. Details of the Senate debate ahead in a live report.

And she is the first woman elected to lead the Episcopal Church, and she may have a difficult road ahead. I'll talk with an Episcopal priest who faced her own challenges.

We begin this hour with a developing story out of Florida. A shootout at a Tallahassee prison leaving a federal agent and the gunman dead. Another person was wounded. The FBI says the agents had arrived at the prison to serve indictments on six corrections officers. One of the officers being arrested then opened fire. Authorities say no inmates were involved in that incident.

More U.S. forces are getting ready to head to Iraq. But the military says it won't mean an increase in troop levels. The troop will replace others who will be coming home from the war. The Pentagon has sent deployment notices to about 21,000 soldiers and Marines. They're scheduled to go to Iraq late this year. It's part of the latest troop rotation.

There's new bloodshed to tell you about in Baghdad. One of Saddam Hussein's lead attorneys is shot to death. And there's late- breaking news on another front.

Arwa Damon joins me live from the Iraqi capital with these developments.

First on Saddam's defense attorney. This is not the first time this has happened to a member of his defense team.

ARWA DAMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: No, Daryn, that's right. It's not. This is actually the third member of Saddam Hussein's defense team to be killed since the trial began.

Now, what we know from the Iraqi emergency police and from Doctor Najiba Nurangi (ph), who is another member of Saddam Hussein's defense team, is that at about 7 a.m. this morning, men dressed in Iraqi Army police uniforms apparently arrived at Khamis al-Obeidi's home, saying that they need to take him for meetings at Iraq's Ministry of Interior.

His wife then asked them for identification, which they presented. Al-Obeidi left with them, and his bullet-riddled body was found approximately one hour later.

Now, Doctor Nurangi (ph), who we were speaking to, when we asked him what might be the motivation behind this, he said perhaps it is a message to the defense team not to appear in court on July 10 to give their closing arguments.

Of course, now the defense for quite some time has been complaining and making statements about the security situation in Iraq that they were requiring and requesting more security -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Arwa, I understand there's another story you're working on that's developed in the last few minutes?

DAMON: Yes, that's right, Daryn. According to the Iraqi emergency police, at least 50 employees that work in companies that fall underneath Iraq's Ministry of Industry have been kidnapped.

Now, this incident happened at about 3 p.m. in an area 20 kilometers north of Baghdad, the area of Tarji (ph). They were apparently leaving work in a number of buses. How many we're not quite sure yet. When about 30 to 40 insurgents stormed the buses and took them to an unknown location.

Now this follows a car bomb that exploded earlier in the capital of Baghdad in the area of Sadr City quite close to a restaurant at lunch time. Two people were killed in that incident. And in Mosul, to the north, 16 more bodies were found by the Iraqi police -- Daryn.

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

A sober -- actually a somber homecoming here in the U.S. The bodies of two U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq expected back in the U.S. today. News that the soldiers were apparently tortured is adding to their families' grief.

Our Keith Oppenheim spoke with the relatives of one of those soldiers.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KEITH OPPENHEIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Kristian Menchaca became a man in the Army, but in the eyes of his family he will still be remembered as the boy who grew up in Houston and Brownsville.

JUAN VASQUEZ JR., COUSIN OF KRISTIAN MENCHACA: I think I was a male role model for him, you know?

OPPENHEIM (on camera): He looked up to you?

VASQUEZ: Right.

OPPENHEIM (voice-over): Juan Vasquez is Kris's big cousin. He said me when Kris was sent to Iraq last year, the family was supportive but worried, and their concern grew when Kris came home for a visit about a month ago.

(voice-over) Did he seem kind of in tough shape from the experience he had had so far?

VASQUEZ: Well, according to my aunt and uncle, he was having trouble sleeping most of the time. Yes.

OPPENHEIM: Do you think he was nervous?

VASQUEZ: He was very nervous.

OPPENHEIM: Vasquez says his cousin told him he had several close calls in Iraq, escaping a roadside bombing without injury, and surviving an insurgent ambush during the first few months of his tour of duty.

Then last week Menchaca was reported missing after insurgents attacked a checkpoint he was patrolling south of Baghdad. Now the family is waiting for the results from DNA testing that could verify Kris Menchaca's body has been found.

VASQUEZ: I think they found him. I know it's him. And he is -- he is dead.

OPPENHEIM (on camera): You want to hold on to some hope?

VASQUEZ: Right.

OPPENHEIM (voice-over): It is hard to hold onto hope when the family hears regular news reports Kris Menchaca may have been tortured. But just what happened is hard to think about, much less discuss.

Juan Vasquez fights back tears as relatives gather at the home of Kris' mother and wait for confirmation that the body of a fallen soldier is coming home.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: And that was our Keith Oppenheim reporting from Texas.

Well, across much of the west, a fierce battle rages. Wildfires still on the move. Sedona, Arizona, is one of the hot spots. Hundreds of homes there are threatened by a blaze that has burned for four days.

On the phone with us right now from Sedona is Paul Broyles. He is a commander with the Great Basin incident management team.

Paul, good morning.

PAUL BROYLES, INCIDENT COMMANDER, GREAT BASIN INCIDENT MANAGEMENT TEAM: Good morning, Daryn.

KAGAN: When I was reading it this morning, I know there's -- I'm very familiar with the area. There's Highway 89A that takes you into Sedona. And as I understand it, you were trying to use that highway literally to draw the line in the sand for this fire, to keep it on that side. How important and -- is that and how successful have you been with those efforts this morning?

BROYLES: The Highway 89 that you referred to is our eastern side. And we've been quite successful so far in keeping it west of Highway 89. Last night the fire did burn down, and we were able to do a minimal amount of burn-out to hold the fire west of Eldad (ph) Highway in Oak Creek Canyon, which is just north of Sedona.

Today is a critical day for us. The fire behavior we expect to continue to threaten that line and threaten to jump across to the east, which would be a worst-case scenario, on the east side of the highway. And the fire continues to want to push north, as well, on the west side.

KAGAN: Now the concern with this canyon, Oak Creek Canyon, which is this absolutely spectacular, that leads you up to Flagstaff, which is safe to say, the largest city in northern Arizona. There's some concern that if it does get up into the canyon that it can lead all the way up to flagstaff.

BROYLES: That's correct. The potential is certainly there. Our opportunities are pretty limited as to what we can do until it does get up higher up out of the broken -- broken rocky topography that you're probably familiar with. Until it gets up on top where we have some opportunity to use heavy equipment that's not within the wilderness area. And more appropriately use heavy tankers and that sort of thing that would be more effective to help us stop this.

KAGAN: So far no homes or structures lost?

BROYLES: None at all so far, and we want to keep it that way.

KAGAN: Absolutely incredible. And then a question that I was able to ask an official in Colorado earlier today. You have all these major fires burning across the west. You have southern California, you, Colorado and New Mexico. Are you able to get enough resources to fight this fire?

BROYLES: So far we have been. We've been quite fortunate. And of course, we're a high priority fire. So given that, they're doing their darndest to help us out and get us the resources that we need.

KAGAN: Well, we hope it stays that way. We wish you how about some wet conditions?

BROYLES: That would be nice, Daryn. Do your rain dance.

KAGAN: I'll send some humidity your way from here in Atlanta.

BROYLES: Thank you much.

KAGAN: All right. Paul Broyles, talking to us from Sedona, Arizona, thank you.

The U.S. under missile attack? Some experts say that it's possible. They suspect North Korea is ready to test a long-range missile, one capable of reaching American soil. The U.S. defense system is in place, but will it work? Our Pentagon correspondent, Barbara Starr, takes a look at that.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BARBARA STARR, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In Okinawa, an Air Force spy plane takes off carrying sensors that can be used to track North Korea's expected launch of its long-range Taepo-Dong missile. Bush administration officials hope international pressure will keep North Korea from conducting a test launch of a missile that could hit the United States.

ALEXANDER VERSHBOW, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO SOUTH KOREA: This missile is -- has a military capability, and we view it, therefore, as a serious matter, particularly in the context of North Korea's illegal development of nuclear weapons.

STARR: If there is a missile launch, the U.S. military will be able to see how well its $11 billion missile defense program works. Several elements of a defensive shield are already in place.

Early warning satellites will detect the exhaust from a launch within seconds. Then upgraded radars in Alaska's Aleutian islands and at Beale Air Force Base in Sacramento, California, will begin tracking the missile's path.

U.S. Navy ships in the Pacific with upgraded radars will also track the Taepo-Dong missile, which has a reported range of about 3,000 miles. All of this will help the U.S. quickly determine if Pyongyang is using the missile to simulate an attack.

The U.S. currently has three aircraft carriers, hundreds of aircraft and other military assets in the Pacific participating in a long planned exercise. The Pentagon has drafted orders for a military response to a North Korean missile launch, but only as a matter of routine.

(on camera) Everyone believes this is nothing more than a test by North Korea, not an attack. If it were an attack then the U.S. military could use nine interceptor missiles it has in Alaska and two in California to try and shoot the North Korean missile down.

Barbara Starr, CNN, the Pentagon.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: It is one of those issues everybody has been talking about, but not everyone agrees on immigration. Now you can share your thoughts with the federal government. We'll tell you how.

And conflict in the church. Episcopalians struggle for unity after a vote on gay bishops. The story on CNN, the most trusted name in news.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: Well, we're getting some more details on that federal prison shooting in Tallahassee, Florida. It was earlier today that federal agents showed up at this prison, which mainly is a women's facility. There is a detention facility for men awaiting trial. But it's mainly a women's facility.

They showed up to serve indictments on six corrections officers. We're now learning a little bit more about what those indictments were about. Apparently, they were for guards that were being investigated for corruption, which involved sex with female inmates in exchange for contraband drugs.

Well, when these federal agents showed up at this prison, one of those that was being served with an indictment opened fire. Before it was all done three people were shot and two people -- two people were killed.

We do expect a news conference to be coming up at some point. And we will watch for that here at CNN. More details as that story unfolds out of Tallahassee, Florida.

An election year showdown over Iraq today in the U.S. Senate. It is about troop withdrawal. The Democrats disagree with each other over the approach.

Two Democratic resolutions are up for debate. One calls for a phased redeployment of U.S. forces in Iraq starting this year. The other calls for a full withdrawal by July of next year.

Our congressional correspondent, Dana Bash, joins me with details.

Dana, you see the Democrats fighting it out in the Senate, but what are the chances of either one of these proposals making it and passing?

DANA BASH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Zero, actually, Daryn. Zero. Neither will pass. And really, that isn't honestly the purpose of this, interestingly. You know, it sort of makes you wonder what goes on in Washington. But this is an exercise to lay down markers for the political debate this election year.

And you mentioned that there are two pretty different measures when it comes to the fundamental issue of whether or not troops should be pulled out and whether there should be a hard and fast deadline.

The Democratic leader, Harry Reid, senators like Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden, all believe that that is a mistake. They actually agree pretty much with Republicans on that issue, that is not a good idea to set what they call an arbitrary deadline to pull troops out of Iraq.

And that will be the first -- those senators will have their so- called consensus legislation debated on first. And that is not to give that deadline, rather to have an amendment that says, a nonbinding amendment, I should say, symbolic that says that simply troop withdrawal should begin in a phased way starting this year.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. CARL LEVIN (D), MICHIGAN: There's a significant agreement, a consensus among Democrats, that we have too much of an open-ended commitment and that we've got to have a phased redeployment begin by the end of the year. That is no way is cut and run. You'll hear that all day long. There's no way that can fairly be characterized as cut and run.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: He's absolutely right. You will hear cut and run all day long, Daryn, from Republicans. They simply don't buy the fact that even this particular amendment, not calling for a specific deadline, isn't cut and run.

And an interesting development this morning. The Republicans were going to offer their own measure, maybe something like what the House passed last week, saying no arbitrary deadline is the way to go. They're not even going to do that. They're going to sit back and watch the Democrats fight it out.

KAGAN: Well, so how does John Kerry play into all this, Dana?

BASH: John Kerry has the alternative amendment. He is going to offer something very late today. The Democratic leader made it very clear how he stands, because he is going to have John Kerry not come to the floor until maybe even when it's dark out today to offer his measure that will set a deadline. July 1, 2007, he believes is the date that troops should come home from Iraq.

He believes, he says, along with Senator Russ Feingold and a handful of other Democrats, that that is the best way to end what they believe is -- has become a truly misguided war.

As I mentioned, he is not going to talk until later today. So his office has put up some excerpts of what he will say on the Senate floor, prepared for delivery. He will say, "No more half measures. No more staged phony political debates. No more attacking those who disagree with policies that are clearly not working. It's time to tell the truth about the consequences of today's broken course."

It will go on to say, "Setting a deadline to redeploy U.S. troops from Iraq is necessary for success in Iraq and victory in the war on terror."

Now politically, some in the Kerry camp, who believe that setting a deadline is important, say that that perhaps they've learned from running against Republicans, especially the Bush White House, in the past couple of years, that the most important thing to do is to set a clear delineation between what they are supporting and what Democrats should support. And certainly, this is a big difference in setting a deadline. The Republicans simply say that is a big mistake.

But I can tell you, a lot of Democrats are uncomfortable with this, especially those who are on the ballot in this November in 2006. They believe, many of them believe, that this is simply going to hurt them to have this kind of measure on the Senate floor and force them to vote, most of them, probably, against this particular measure.

KAGAN: Dana, thank you. Dana Bash.

This just in. Getting pictures from Pompano Beach, Florida. A taxi running into a canal. Pompano Beach on the east coast of Florida, halfway between West Palm Beach and Miami. It looks like this is on the side of a strip mall. Don't know how this taxi ended up -- do we have those pictures again? That was so fast. Don't know how the taxi ended up in the canal or if anyone was hurt.

I just hope the meter still isn't running on that. We'll work on getting more pictures there.

On the run from Ramadi. Families flee as coalition forces crack down on insurgents in Iraq. You'll see that story on CNN, the most trusted name in news.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: Better pictures for you now from Florida. This is the taxi into the canal. This is on the east coast of Florida between Miami and West Palm Beach. We do -- it does appear that the driver was able to get out of the taxi. Hopefully, he wasn't injured. And hopefully, he had nobody riding in the back of that taxi.

Hot and dry. That is not what fire fighters across the western U.S. want to hear today as they battle wildfires, big ones in fact. One of the major hot spots, Sedona, Arizona. Hundreds of homes there are threatened by a blaze that's now in its fourth day. The fire has burned more than 1,700 acres. And right now it's only about five percent contained.

In neighboring California, huge clouds of smoke filled the sky as fire fighters battle a 10,000 acre blaze. It's about 45 east of Santa Maria. So far no homes are threatened.

And in Colorado, a big one sparked by lightning burning about 150 miles south of Denver. Nearly 9,000 acres are scorched there. Nearly 300 homes still evacuated.

So they're worrying about the dry and lack of rain in the west. Across the country, more severe weather possible today, the first day of summer.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: And we're going to have spring- type weather.

KAGAN: How does that work?

MYERS: Well, you know, I guess it can happen any time, as long as you get a Jet Stream over your head. Good morning, Daryn, and good morning, everybody. Yes, it's way up there. Not over us.

(WEATHER REPORT)

KAGAN: Thank you. I'll look over my head for that Jet Stream.

MYERS: It's up there.

KAGAN: Thank you.

Serious news here. Marching orders. Thousands of U.S. troops get word from the Pentagon they are heading to Iraq. That is coming up.

Also, burned out and on a journey of faith, so she left. It's a book called "Leaving Church". An Episcopal priest talks about her journey of faith and the crisis that could be facing the Episcopal Church.

CNN is the most trusted name in news.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: We're following a developing story out of Tallahassee, Florida, a shooting at a federal prison there earlier today.

Apparently, six correction officers were being served with indictments. They were going to be charged with having sex with female inmates in exchange for contraband drugs.

When federal agents showed up at this prison in Tallahassee, apparently one of the guards that was going to be charged opened fire. He was shot and killed. Before it was done a federal agent was killed, as well. No inmates were involved in the exchange of gunfire.

So three people shot, two people dead after that shooting exchange at that federal prison in Tallahassee earlier today.

President Bush is in Europe. But for awhile today his attention was much closer to home. At an E.U. summit in Vienna, Mr. Bush said he understands concerns about the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The president says he, too, would like to end Guantanamo -- those are his words -- but he said the U.S. is still working on what to do with some of the terror suspects.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: There are some who need to be tried in U.S. courts. They are cold-blooded killers. They will murder somebody if they're let out on the street. And yet we believe there's -- there's got to be a way for it in the court of law. I'm waiting for the Supreme Court of the United States to determine the proper venue in which these people can be tried. (END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: The president says about 200 Guantanamo Bay detainees have already been sent home. About 460 are still being held.

In Afghanistan, the U.S.-led coalition is expressing regrets for killing three Afghan police officers. It happened in Kunar province. The coalition says the police were in an unmarked car and failed to slow down at a checkpoint. Troops opened fire. Three officers inside the car were killed. Three others were wounded.

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