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CNN Live Today

Middle East Crisis Continues

Aired July 18, 2006 - 11:29   ET

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

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: And now the view from the Pentagon.
Let's bring in our Jamie McIntyre to explain what we're seeing here, the mixture of the embassy and military action right there in Beirut. Also a move on the high seas -- Jamie.

MCINTYRE: Well, Daryn, what we're seeing here they're referring to as the air bridge. This is a CH-53E helicopter. It is one of six that has been going back and forth now between Beirut, Lebanon, and Larnaca, Cyprus. Actually, more specifically, a British air base in southeastern Cyprus. And it is carrying the people who most urgently need to get out of Lebanon, as designated by the State Department.

The six helicopters operating, each one of them can carry up to 36 people, passengers at a time. They estimate they can move 300 people a day out of Lebanon just by helicopter, but the Pentagon insists that is not the most efficient way to move people. So their plan is to primarily move people by a commercial chartered ship.

And, as you mentioned, the Orient Queen -- excuse me -- the Orient Queen has already been chartered and is getting ready to dock at the Port of Beirut, if it hasn't already.

In addition, the U.S. government hopes to charter four or five more additional charter vessels, because they believe that's both the safest and the most efficient way, and perhaps even the most comfortable way, to get Americans out of the danger in Lebanon as quickly as possible -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Is there also some concern about putting military vessels in harm's way, that would -- if something happened to one of the ships or something, that would further draw the Americans into this battle?

MCINTYRE: Well, I'm not sure there's really much concern. I mean, I don't think the U.S. Navy is concerned about putting warships in harm's way. That's what they do all the time.

There is still concern, though, about while you could move people on these ships that they're moving into the region -- they certainly are big enough and have the capability to put American civilians on board and take them some place, it's not the most efficient say to do that. They are warships. They do have a certain amount of capacity.

They do bring other things to bear, though. They have hospital facilities. They will provide additional security for the charter ships. They will be able to escort them. They also have additional helicopters if they're needed. And they can be pressed into service if they don't have enough capacity on the commercial ships that they're chartering.

But for now, the plan is to take the most urgent people out by helicopter. And, again, they have the capacity to do about 300 a day. They're not getting close to that at the moment. And then to take the bulk of the Americans out, several thousand, by commercial vessel.

KAGAN: All right, Jamie.

And these are live pictures now back that we're watching at the embassy.

Any insight you can give us as to what we're watching?

MCINTYRE: Well this -- yes, again, this is the CH-53.

Three of these were brought down from England. They were based there. Three of them came from the Marine Expeditionary Unit. You can see on the side of the helicopter there it said "Marines." This is a U.S. Marine helicopter.

This is one of the big transport helicopters. And its basic job is moving people around. So this is what it does.

But you can see if you had to evacuate thousands of people from Lebanon just using helicopters, it would be quite a mission. And, by the way, the helicopters, while they're efficient, they're not all the comfortable. They're loud. They're noisy. You can smell the jet fuel when you're in them.

So they're a good way to get people out when you need to do it right away. But if people are going to be moving with families and taking their, you know, luggage with them, some of their personal possessions, they're going to need to have some sort of create comforts, as well. The cruise ships are going to be much more efficient. They're going to be able to move a much larger number of people once they get that operation underway.

And, again, part of the problem there is simply congestion in the Port of Beirut. You can imagine, not just the United States, but many other countries are trying to get their nationals out, as well. All of that has to be coordinated. All of the ships have to be brought in. It involves security in the port and the people who are piloting the ships. There's a lot of coordination that has to go on there. And that's part of the delay in getting these ships in.

But, again, with the airport out of commission, helicopters like the one we're seeing here and ships are going to be the main way that the Americans are going to be getting out -- Daryn.

KAGAN: All right, Jamie McIntyre, thank you for that.

I want to go ahead and welcome in our next guest, former ambassador, Martin Indyk.

He heads the Sabin Center for Middle East Policy and is a former U.S. ambassador to Israel, joining me live. Mr. Ambassador, hello.

MARTIN INDYK, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO ISRAEL: Hi, Daryn.

KAGAN: I want to talk to you about diplomacy, in just a moment. But I also know your background in the State Department, as a State Department official. It is the State Department that is coordinating these evacuations. So I just wanted to get your take on that.

We've heard from a lot of frustrated Americans that this hasn't happened a lot more quickly.

What's your response to that?

INDYK: Well, I can well understand their frustration and their great concern about their loved ones over there. As a former ambassador in Israel, we faced many situations like this. And I could just say a couple of things, if I might.

One is that the ambassador and the embassy over there are very competent people. He worked with me in Israel. They've had a lot of experience. They know exactly what the situation is. They've planned these evacuation routes over many years. And I think the challenge that they're facing is to get the transportation in so that they can move such large numbers of Americans out.

But I'm confident that the operation will get underway as quickly as they can do it and that they'll be moving those people out as quickly as they can.

KAGAN: Let's get to the topic of diplomacy. President Bush suggesting that he will be sending Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to the region. No timetable on that.

How effective do you think she'll be able to be once she gets there?

INDYK: Look, the challenge for the secretary of state is a really tough one because this crisis can be concluded, at least in terms of the fighting and the exchange of missiles and bombs, when Hezbollah is ready to cease fire, stop rocketing Israel. The United States has a lot of influence with Israel. If it were able to get Hezbollah to stop its attacks and return the soldiers, then Israel, I think, would respond accordingly.

But how do you get Hezbollah to toe the line?

So far, they rejected outright the U.N. envoys when they went yesterday and suggested the conditions for a cease-fire. And the Iranians today are backing them and saying, you know, that the whole of Israel is now under threat.

And she doesn't have a lot of influence on Hezbollah. The way we used to influence Hezbollah was through the Syrians. But the Syrians left Lebanon under our insistence. Now they're offering to help. But if she goes to Damascus and asks Damascus to help, what we're basically doing is asking Syria to intervene in Lebanon again. In other words, we'd be sacrificing Lebanese freedom for the sake of getting the Syrians to curb Hezbollah. And that's not something she's going to want to do.

KAGAN: And in terms of the timing, a spokesman for the Lebanese foreign ministry had this to say about a potential trip by the secretary of state.

Let's listen to that and then I'll get your comments.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: First, we want to prepare the ground for her to have a successful mission. I don't think now the conditions are right for that. But we want a complete cease-fire. That's what we want. Because my country is under destruction and under a killing machine and we don't know how things can be done and this concerns me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: And that was the -- a spokesperson for the Lebanese foreign ministry.

You do hear clues and suggestions from both sides that they'd be open to a cease-fire, but with conditions that the other side has to move first.

INDYK: Yes, but, look, the Lebanese government, the Israeli government, the G8 have all put out principles for a cease-fire that are very similar. They're comprised of an end to all the firing, a return of the Israeli soldiers, the extension of the Lebanese government's authority to Southern Lebanon -- which means putting the army down there, which they've been unable to do because of Hezbollah, the removal of Hezbollah from Southern Lebanon, the intervention of an international force to back the Lebanese government there and the implementation of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1559, which calls for the disarmament of all the militias, which means, of course, Hezbollah.

Those have been -- those principles have been articulated by the Lebanese prime minister, by the Israeli prime minister and by the G8. And I expect that we will see, when the Security Council meets in the next couple of days, that they will be articulated in a resolution there, too.

The foundation is there.

The question is how do you get Hezbollah to accept this?

They're rejecting it. And that is going to be the most difficult part.

KAGAN: Before I let you go we have not some breaking news, but a development here. The top Democrat in the House, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, putting out a statement. She's critical of the U.S. government, the Bush administration, making U.S. citizens pay for these evacuations.

As we actually watch them take place in Beirut, we're seeing another military helicopter land on the grounds of the U.S. Embassy there in Lebanon.

So, before they're allowed to leave, Americans are forced to sign a promissory note saying that they will reimburse the U.S. government for these costs.

That's not the case with many other countries that have gotten their citizens out.

As a former ambassador, you say there's been -- they planned for this over many years.

What was the policy when you were there in Israel?

INDYK: I don't remember ever having to do that, or that we ever did it in the case of evacuations from Lebanon and Syria. So, it must be a new policy. I think the Congress could probably resolve this pretty quickly by deciding to appropriate some money to take care of this, if that's the problem.

I can't believe that anybody is going to be left behind because they can't pay for it.

KAGAN: Former Ambassador Martin Indyk, the former ambassador to Israel.

Thank you for your time, sir.

INDYK: Thanks, Daryn.

KAGAN: Speaking of evacuations, we actually have a chance now to talk with an evacuee.

Linda Sayed has made it out of Lebanon and is on board a Norwegian cruise ship and joins me by phone right now.

Linda, hello.

LINDA SAYED, EVACUEE: Hi.

How are you?

KAGAN: I'm fine. A better question is how are you doing and how were you able to get out?

SAYED: Well, we were able to get out through the American (AUDIO GAP) which was working with the U.S. Embassy for (AUDIO GAP) here.

KAGAN: So you are American? SAYED: Excuse me?

KAGAN: You are American?

SAYED: Yes, I am.

KAGAN: And do I hear children in the background?

SAYED: Excuse me?

KAGAN: You know, we're going to work on getting a better phone connection.

The story we're trying to tell you here is Linda Sayed. She's an American citizen able to make it out of Lebanon and onto a Norwegian cruise ship. We're very interested in her story about how she got out and her tale. But we're going to try to reconnect phone contact with her and do that.

Also, the latest developments from the Mideast as we watch these live pictures from the grounds of the U.S. Embassy in Lebanon. They're offloading some supplies from this military helicopter and very soon will put more Americans on board. The embassy there saying they expect 320 Americans to evacuate from Lebanon today.

More ahead.

I'm back after this break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: More live pictures from the U.S. Embassy in Lebanon.

That's a military helicopter, a CH-53E. They're offloading supplies, but very soon there'll probably be about 30 Americans going on board, eagerly trying to get out of Lebanon. They expect as many as 320 Americans to be airlifted out of Lebanon today.

Right now, I'll tell you what else we know about what's happening in the region.

A short time ago, several more Hezbollah rockets shook the Israeli City of Haifa. No injuries were reported there, but one person was killed in a rocket attack closer to the Lebanese border.

This hour in Lebanon, frantic evacuation is underway, as we look at these pictures once again. This is the U.S. Embassy. Our Chris Burns also telling us that a cruise ship has started evacuating Americans from Beirut. The Pentagon also sending the three ship Iowa Jima group to help out.

About 25,000 Americans were in Lebanon when the fighting began. Not all of them want to leave.

Diplomats searching for ways to end the crisis, as we look at a scene -- well, apparently we don't have that scene. I'll just tell you that along the Israeli-Lebanese border, nearly -- neither Israeli or Hezbollah forces are showing any signs of backing down.

We'll keep our eye on the story about what's happening in the Middle East, of course.

But there also is a lot of other news happening around the country, including the heat wave, including a big power outage at LaGuardia Airport in New York City.

And that's where we find our Allan Chernoff -- Allan.

ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Daryn.

Of course, the temperature here in New York City today well up into the high 90s. So everybody very stressed. And the power cables also highly stressed.

As a result, we have a partial power outage here at LaGuardia Airport.

The American Airlines terminal right behind me, you see the people standing out here. Most people, actually, are inside, and they are inside a dark terminal. There are battery powered lights on inside, but hundreds of people stranded here.

American Airlines has had to cancel 13 flights thus far today. Some of the potential passengers are being shipped out to Newark and JFK Airports, the other neighborhood airports.

But a lot of frustrated people. In fact, we have one right here.

Kathryn has been here since 8:00 in the morning.

Kathryn, where are you trying to get?

KATHRYN NOVAKOCIC, AMERICAN AIRLINES PASSENGER: Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina.

CHERNOFF: Not exactly what you were anticipating, huh?

NOVAKOCIC: No. This is going to be a very long day. Very long. I hope to get there by tonight, yes. But we'll see how it goes. I'm actually headed over to Newark shortly to try to catch a flight there. So let's just hope this doesn't go to Newark, follow me there. But...

CHERNOFF: OK, well, we understand things are OK at Newark.

NOVAKOCIC: Yes.

CHERNOFF: So best of luck getting over there.

NOVAKOCIC: That's great.

Thank you.

CHERNOFF: Daryn, certainly a very interesting situation here because, as I said, it's only one third of the airport that is out. So the American terminal here totally out.

Also, the Delta shuttle terminal, the marine air terminal, where flights go from New York to Washington and Boston, also is down right now. But the rest of the airport? It's totally fine. So if you walk all the way down, United Airlines, Continental, the other airlines that run-out of here, they're doing just fine.

So it's a bizarre situation. Over here shut down, people waiting in darkness. Over there, everything looks normal.

KAGAN: A tough day to be flying American, or trying to be flying American.

Thank you.

We're covering two different worlds at once. We're showing you what's happening around the U.S. but also keeping this live picture up from the U.S. Embassy in Lebanon. About 30 Americans about to pile onto that military helicopter and fly out to Cyprus as they try to get out of Lebanon.

Meanwhile, remember the story of the stolen laptop that had all the information of the military veterans?

Well, our Tony Harris has an update on that -- Tony.

TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Daryn, it was stolen from the home of an employee of the Veterans Administration. That was in May. And it contains the information of, what, 26 million veterans, all the personal information on the hard drive.

The laptop was recovered and turned into the FBI last month. But you'll also recall that at the time the Bush administration essentially promised free credit monitoring for veterans for a year. Well, the Bush administration -- it's right here -- is withdrawing that free credit monitoring because it says the laptop has been recovered.

Now, White House Budget Director Rob Portman -- I figured I'd give you a name to attach to this story -- White House Budget Director Rob Portman said he was canceling his request to Congress for $160 million to cover the cost of a year's worth of free credit monitoring because the FBI had determined with a high degree of confidence -- let me put that in quotes -- that the information on the laptop had not been compromised.

So, the Bush administration is actually canceling its promise to monitor the credit of veterans that might have been impacted by the theft of that laptop computer from the home of an employee of the Veterans Administration.

Veterans might want to weigh in with their thoughts on this move by the administration.

KAGAN: They might have a few things to say about that.

HARRIS: They might have a couple of things to say.

KAGAN: Yes, absolutely.

HARRIS: OK.

Thank you, Daryn.

KAGAN: All right, Tony, thank you.

HARRIS: Have a good day.

KAGAN: Well, what a difference the Internet makes in terms of covering an international crisis.

Let's welcome in our tech guru, Daniel Sieberg -- you're looking at Mideast blogs and people becoming instant reporters and video journalists online.

DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN TECHNOLOGY CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. And, in fact, it's quite possible that some of the folks getting on this helicopter may have a camera in their cell phone. They may post some of that video online. And that's what we're seeing, you know, a lot of sites like YouTube are becoming very popular. People on both sides of the border in this conflict are posting.

And in this case, what you're seeing right now, this is a video -- by the way, we can't -- we have to say off the top that we cannot verify the authenticity or origin of these videos.

But in this case, this is what claims to be a 19-year-old in Haifa, who's recording this video. And you can possibly hear some explosions in the background here as he goes outside and the air raid sirens. This is posted on YouTube.

Last night when we first looked at this, it had about 150,000 hits. That jumped up to more than 210,000 this morning. So obviously very popular. That's the whole point of YouTube is you're meant to go there, share this video with anybody around the world.

The next video that we've got is on the pro-Hezbollah site. It is a propaganda video. Again, we can't verify the authenticity or the origin of this video. But I did talk to the folks at the International Desk and they're saying that that number at the bottom of the screen correlates to where this was taken from, apparently a talk show where pro-resistance, supporters of Hezbollah are encouraged to phone in and voice their support.

This video only viewed about 1,000 times, so not quite as popular, obviously very contentious. Certainly rallying people on both sides of this issue. And this one that is getting quite a number of hits right now. And the text on it says: "Onwards to victory against Israel."

So you can obviously see the two sides at work here.

KAGAN: Let's explain what is YouTube, because it's such a new thing.

SIEBERG: It is a new thing. TouTube is a -- has been around for several months or so. The whole idea of it is that you can post video about just about anything. Obviously, after this conflict started, a lot of people have been posting their own personal movies, video up to the site.

It's very quick, very easy. These days, a lot of people do have access to a cell phone camera or a video camera that you can upload very quickly to this site. You need to log in, register as a user. But after you do that, you have access to all of this content.

Now, some of it is very mundane. Some of it is very gruesome. Some of it we simply can't show you.

But YouTube basically acts as this clearinghouse for everybody's video around the world. So you can post pretty much whatever you want.

KAGAN: And it's having an impact in terms of the coverage.

SIEBERG: Yes, absolutely.

KAGAN: But you make an important point. You don't know what's accurate...

SIEBERG: Right, you don't. And, you know...

KAGAN: ... and what's real.

SIEBERG: Right. And, you know, the video content is one thing. We've also been looking at the blogs and there are a couple of blogs that we can show you.

Again, we can't verify the authenticity of some of this information.

However, the first one is called Urshalim. And in this case, if you can see the top there, it's awfully small. There we go. It says: "Sad and ugly -- how can we expect peace in the future?"

These photos are getting a lot of traffic and a lot of play on the blogs this morning. The reason is they are apparently pictures of Israeli girls writing messages on bombs. These were apparently taken by the Associated Press or Agence France-Presse. They are being circulated around and commented on on both sides. And in this case, you can imagine, this is a Lebanese blogger who's pro-Hezbollah. He's very upset about them.

If you scroll down, you can see there, he's actually posted something from his son. His son is commenting on how the playground where he used to live, right there, has actually been blown up. He comments that his parents have done no wrong to anyone, why did this have to happen in his neighborhood?

So, some pretty emotional stuff. Again, you have to take all of this with a bit of a grain of salt, sort of surfer beware type stuff.

KAGAN: Got it.

SIEBERG: Yes.

KAGAN: Daniel Sieberg, thanks for the tour, the Internet tour.

SIEBERG: You bet.

KAGAN: Coming up at the top of the hour, a very important hour, YOUR WORLD TODAY.

We'll continue the coverage from the Mideast.

Our Michael Holmes gives you a preview -- Michael.

MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Good to see you, Daryn.

That's right, yes, we've got correspondents, of course, all over the world who have been watching these live pictures as Americans start to evacuate, escape from Beirut. That happened with the French, as well. Numerous nationalities are trying to get out of town.

We're going to be covering that. And, also, elsewhere, we're going to be talking about hunkering down in Israel as Hezbollah rockets continue to rain down in that area.

Hassan Nasrallah, he's the man who heads up Hezbollah, if you like. We're going to take a look at him. He's got a lot of support in Syria, not just in the government, from the people, as well. We've got a reporter there who's going to be covering that.

Also, let's not forget Iraq. You know, 150 people have been killed in Iraq in the last three days alone. Slaughters going on in and around the capital.

We'll be covering that and a whole lot more.

Do join us at the top of the hour -- Daryn, back to you.

KAGAN: All right, Michael, we'll see you in about eight minutes.

We have more coverage coming up live from Lebanon and Israel just ahead.

We're back after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: Looking at live pictures. That's another military helicopter, a U.S. military helicopter, a CH-53E, taking off just seconds ago from the U.S. Embassy in Lebanon. About 30 Americans on board, as we understand. The U.S. ambassador telling the Associated Press today that about 320 Americans will leave Lebanon today. They do expect that to pick up tomorrow. And they do expect as many as 1,000 Americans will make it out. It looks like our Alessio Vinci standing by -- quickly. Alessio, can you hear me?

ALESSIO VINCI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Daryn, hi.

Before you couldn't hear me. Now that the helicopter has taken off -- it was too loud earlier to be able to speak over the engine noise.

But basically this is the fourth helicopter that has left from the compound of the U.S. Embassy today alone. Each helicopter carrying 30 American citizens, each of them with a special case, with a special medical condition or simply because they had small children or old parents who needed medicines and therefore the U.S. Embassy organizing this kind of transport being here...

KAGAN: Alessio, let me just jump in there because...

VINCI: ... and aside from the people who have just left here, about 50...

KAGAN: I'm just going to jump in and interrupt, Alessio.

VINCI: Go ahead.

KAGAN: We are getting close to the top of the hour and they are going to have much more ahead on YOUR WORLD TODAY in just a couple of minutes.

That is going to wrap up our time together.

It is short.

As we go, let me give you just a final check of the markets as they respond to international pressure.

Once again, the Dow down 2 and the Nasdaq turning around into negative territory. It is down 8.

I'm Daryn Kagan.

I'll be back with American headlines in about 20 minutes.

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