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Relief Supplies Making Way to Lebanon; Mother and Adopted Baby Back War Zone; Power Outages Ending in U.S.

Aired July 26, 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: Planes carrying medical supplies are landing at Beirut's airport. They are the first flights land there since Israeli bombs battered the runways earlier this month.
Here's the latest death toll now on both sides of the border. Israel says 41 people have been killed. And in Lebanon, at least 398 fatalities reported in two weeks of fighting.

Now, we were talking about help getting on the way and arriving. Relief supplies are making their way into Lebanon. Jordanian military planes filled with medical supplies arrived at Beirut airport today. As I was saying before, they're the first planes to land there since Israel had bombed the runways.

Also, a U.N. convoy left Beirut headed for the Lebanese port city of Tyre. Ten trucks are carrying food, medicine and hygiene supplies. A U.N. spokesman calls this a test of security for humanitarian missions.

Let's get more now on the relief efforts. Michael Hess is assistant administrator with the U.S. Agency for International Development, USAID, and he joins me from Washington.

Good morning.

MICHAEL HESS, USAID: Good morning, Daryn.

KAGAN: What can you tell us about these -- if you know -- about these two Jordanian planes that were able to land?

HESS: Actually, we've heard now that there are three that have landed. They are carrying medical supplies, part of a field hospital from the Jordanian military. A good test of getting the air corridor expanded. And as you know, we sent in some relief supplies yesterday.

KAGAN: Yes. Well, I'd like to know, what is the U.S. sending?

HESS: Right now, we have pre-positioned ten health kits. These are large health kits. They can take care of 10,000 people for up to three months. We positioned --- pre-positioned ten of those in Cyprus. Two went forward yesterday, another one went forward today.

KAGAN: And how is this working? It's one thing to gather the supplies; it's another thing to do the distribution.

HESS: Absolutely. KAGAN: How does it work?

HESS: Well, the WFP, World Food Program, is in charge of setting up a joint logistic center, and they are responsible for logistics into Southern Lebanon right now for all the humanitarian needs. And so they are getting that first convoy that you talked about going down to Tyre. That one was a good test. So we are starting to get supplies into the south. So we'll use Beirut as the main hub, and then send them down from there.

KAGAN: You use organizations called NGOs, non-governmental organizations?

HESS: Absolutely.

KAGAN: Why is that important? What can they do that the U.S. government can't do on its own?

HESS: Well, they have a large reach there. And most of them have been operational there for some time. And so they have a presence, they know who the people are, where the needs are. So Mercy Corps has been there a while, Catholic Relief Services, Save the Children. These are big NGOs with whom we've worked in the past. We've worked with them in the region and in Lebanon. So they know what's going on. There you can see a picture of our supplies right there.

KAGAN: And draped in the American flag. What are the delivery challenges, though, at this point?

HESS: Well, the challenges are getting into the airport. There's a lot of supplies in Beirut, actually, right now. ICRC's warehouses are doing fairly well.

KAGAN: ICRC?

HESS: International Community of the Red Cross.

KAGAN: OK.

HESS: So they have supplies there. It's just getting them into the south right now. And that's why we're trying to expand these corridors even as we speak.

KAGAN: All right. We wish you well in those efforts.

HESS: Thanks a lot.

KAGAN: Michael Hess with USAID. Thank you, sir.

And you can help Lebanon through several agencies. Information is available on the Web at care.org, mercycorps.org, or redcross.org. And for a full list of agencies, go to CNN.com/specials.

He had to dodge bureaucracy and bombs, but he made it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This Logan Edward Maroun Gabriel (ph).

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He is very, very happy to be home.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: I have chills. This is an update on the family -- we were telling you about this woman. She was stuck in Lebanon, trying to finalize the adoption of her and her husband's new baby boy. An adopted son makes it out of Lebanon. We're going to tell you Logan's story on CNN, the most trusted name in news.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: As we look toward the next hour, Iraq's prime minister will be holding talks. And actually, that's not a live picture of Iraq's prime minister. He was on Capitol Hill earlier today, but he will be addressing a joint meeting of Congress. Some will listen -- some lawmakers, though, will listen for an apology. And that is because when the prime minister Nouri al-Maliki yesterday was in a news conference with President Bush, he had some very harsh words for Israel. And a lot of senators and congressmen, especially Democrats, did not like what he had to say.

We'll be listening in. Full coverage here on CNN.

Speaking of the prime minister, as he's making his rounds in Washington, we're taking you behind the headlines for an in-depth look at the major issues in Iraq. CNN's Carol Lin has a "Fact Check" on one, which is Iraqi oil.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CAROL LIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Iraq's oil reserves are among the largest known in the world: at least 115 billion barrels of high=grade petroleum, according to the U.S. government. Most experts believe there is much more, because most of the country has not been explored.

Iraq's two primary oil fields lie in the north around Kirkuk, and to the south, near Basra. Production peaked in December, 1979, at 3.7 million barrels per day. It fell to almost nothing after Iraq invaded Kuwait and triggered the first Gulf War.

By the late 1990s, production climbed back up to 2.5 million barrels a day under the U.N.'s Oil-for-Food program. Again, it fell sharply after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.

Three years later, Iraq's oil fields are now pumping 2.1 million barrels a day. U.S. government energy analysts believe that is only about a fourth of Iraq's capacity.

To boost production, Iraq's government must negotiate new contracts with international oil firms, so equipment can be upgraded and the oil fields rehabilitated. That is not expected to happen before 2007 and not before the drilling fields and pipelines are fully protected from insurgency attacks.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: And I want to update you on a very special baby whose journey we've been following. It centers around the Gabriel family of New Hampshire. Their adopted son is finally home here in the U.S., home from Lebanon.

Linda Ergas has Logan's story. She's with affiliate WHDH in Boston.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LINDA ERGAS, WHDH REPORTER (voice-over): Crouching down, this father is trying to catch a glimpse of his new baby and his wife. And sure enough, they come through those doors. This reunited family takes a moment and then reality sets in for dad. He's got his boy, and shows him off to the world. With the cameras capturing every move, it's now time for the official introduction.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is Logan Edward Maroun Gabriel (ph).

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And he is very, very happy to be home.

ERGAS: It has been a long three months. Little Logan's mom, Laura, and dad, Scot, had gone to Lebanon in the spring to adopt their son. But when the fighting broke out, the adoption was delayed as the Lebanese government was in shambles. Dad had returned home to New Hampshire as mom worked to finalize the adoption, but things only got worse, and mom soon realized she and her baby were trapped in a war- torn country.

LAURA GABRIEL, MOTHER: When I was feeding him dinner and the bomb went off 200 feet in front of me, that just -- at that point, all you want to do is just get home.

ERGAS: Laura and the baby did have Logan's grandparents with them, and together, they were able to get through this.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They're truly our heroes for Laura and I.

GABRIEL: Night, night.

ERGAS: It was a long trip home for this little boy, and now this family is together, on U.S. soil for good.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: Good to see the stories that bring you happy tears. Welcome home to Logan and to his parents.

We're going to talk some searing heat. You take that, subtract electricity and multiply it by several day, it's a miserable equation. An update on CNN, the most trusted name in news.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) (NEWSBREAK)

(BUSINESS HEADLINES)

KAGAN: As we look into the next hour, Iraq's prime minister getting set to talk. Congress will listen. Well, some members of Congress will. If you'd like, you can stay with us, live coverage on CNN, the most trusted name in news.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: Air conditioners and refrigerators are humming back to life in parts of the U.S. The power outages are slowly ending, but is more trouble in store?

Ali Velshi brings us the latest from New York.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm tired. I can't wash. I can't cook. I can't iron. I can't anything.

ALI VELSHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Temperatures reached 100 degrees at the height of the blackout, while more than 100,000 people in Queens, New York, balanced the emotions that come from life without air-conditioning, fridges, lights and elevators.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's 50 percent complete, sheer anger, where you just want to kill somebody, and the other 50 percent is just complete depression.

VELSHI: Newsflash -- it's hot in the summer. Americans run the A/C and use more electricity. A strain on the grid is what officials are saying in St. Louis, for instance, where more than half-a-million residents were plunged into darkness.

Extreme heat and the electricity demand created by air- conditioners are also what's being blamed for blackouts and brownouts in California.

But New York has a good power-transmission system. So what happened?

One expert says that Queens had a heart attack.

KATHERINE KENNEDY, NATURAL RESOURCES DEFENSE COUNCIL: Say you have someone who has blocked arteries. He's very sick, not because he doesn't have enough blood, but because he can't circulate the blood through his system where he needs it.

VELSHI (on camera): The blocked arteries in this case are 93,000 miles of this -- rubber-encased copper wire of different sizes that transmits electricity underneath New York's streets. That's enough wire to go around the world at the equator almost four times. And even though it's protected underneath New York's streets, a lot of this wire is decades old, it's decrepit, it needs to e replaced. And like us, the wire does not like the extreme heat.

The city's electricity utility, Consolidated Edison, says it has backups and redundancies, but they didn't work, maybe because the already strained wires got too hot themselves and failed. Critics say ConEd hasn't maintained the wires properly. ConEd says the root of the problem is still under investigation.

Mayor Mike Bloomberg took a page out of President Bush's post- Katrina playbook. Remember when the president publicly defended FEMA boss Michael Brown.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRES. OF THE UNITED STATES: Brownie, you're going a heck of a job. The FEMA director is working 24...

(APPLAUSE)

VELSHI: Well, he's no Mike Brown, but ConEd boss Kevin Burke is a man under fire.

MAYOR MICHAEL BLOOMBERG (R), NEW YORK: I think Kevin Burke deserves a thanks from this city. He's worked as hard as he can.

VELSHI: But no thanks is what the look on the faces of the folks standing around the mayor seemed to say.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VELSHI: Daryn, an update for you on what's going on here in Queens. The ConEd people tell us pretty much everybody's got their power back. In St. Louis, they're expecting everybody to have their power back by today. California doesn't have a -- doesn't have an electricity production problem, but there are rolling brownouts and some blackouts. We've even heard of some transformers exploding from the heat and from the extra pressure. So it's a big problem.

KAGAN: Here's the thing about keeping that infrastructure up-to- date. It's just not sexy. Is it?

VELSHI: No. Well, because if you've got to do it, it costs billions of dollars. I mean, 93,000 miles of cable in New York? It's not like building an airport or a subway or a highway, where people can definitely see what their connection is to it. We just expect electricity to be there. So we're not really interested in paying extra taxes to get these things kept up. It's a hard thing to press forward with, but it's a big, big deal because we use so much of it now. Every new appliance and thing that we plug in just draws more power.

KAGAN: And we got stuff.

VELSHI: Yes.

KAGAN: Yes, we do. Ali, thank you.

VELSHI: Good to see you, Daryn.

(WEATHER REPORT)

KAGAN: Friends describe him as a typical kid who played football. Police say he is their prime suspect in the Indiana sniper shootings. Seventeen-year-old Zach Blanton is scheduled in court next hour, where he'll be charged as an adult facing charges of murder and attempted murder. Police say Blanton, who is an avid hunter, has confessed. The shootings happened last weekend along Interstate 65 and 69. One man was killed, another injured. The motive? That still is unclear.

Coming up in the next hour, Iraq's prime minister set to talk to a joint meeting of Congress. You're seeing a live picture from inside the House. But some lawmakers will be listening in for an apology, if they show up at all. The story on CNN, the most trusted name in news.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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