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CNN Live Today
Draft Cease-fire Resolution Make Rounds at U.N.; Iraqi Forces Take Over More Duties in Iraq
Aired August 08, 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: We're at the half hour.
Let's take a look at what we know right now about what's happening in the Middle East.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert says that his country may widen operations in southern Lebanon. Security officials will talk about that tomorrow. The Israeli ground and air assault is now in its 28th day. All the while, Hezbollah guerrillas are lobbing more rockets into northern Israel.
A draft resolution designed to end hostilities is making the rounds at the U.N. Security Council. Today the Arab League is sending envoys there. They'll press for language demanding an immediate Israeli pull-out from Lebanon.
Speaking of Lebanon, let's go there. Our Anthony Mills is in the capital of Beirut.
Anthony, hello.
ANTHONY MILLS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Daryn.
Well, yes, the violence, as a backdrop to the diplomatic activity, continues. Yesterday evening here, we had a strike on a neighborhood, a residential neighborhood in the capital that had, until now, actually been spared by the airstrikes. It was nominally part of the southern suburbs, but closer than ever before.
That strike to the central part of Beirut and it caught residents by surprise. They hadn't actually moved out of that neighborhood. They thought they were pretty safe there. And so, according to Lebanese internal security forces, 15 people were killed and 65 injured. Really caught by surprise. In a sense, in this city right now after that strike, for example, that it really could come out of nowhere. That nowhere is really necessarily safe. And people are on edge -- Daryn.
KAGAN: Tell us more about the mood and also about these leaflets and warnings that the people in Beirut are getting to stay out of the way, if possible.
MILLS: Well, to the leaflets first, Daryn. They've been dropped down in the south of the country, warning people south of the Litani River, which is 20 miles inside Lebanon -- it runs across Lebanon -- warning residents who live in Lebanon south of that river to not get into vehicles, to not move in vehicles at all of any kind. Saying that anyone moving in a vehicle could be considered a target. So that's really a blanket warning right there, restricting movement of any sort in a vehicle.
And then here in the capital, well the mood, as I say, tense with a fuel crisis gripping the city. And, really,a sense that the strikes could come out of nowhere. There's no air warning system here. And really a sense that the strikes could come out of nowhere -- Daryn?
KAGAN: Is there no air warning system because it doesn't work or there just never was one built?
MILLS: There really aren't any at all. That's not a question of they're not working. They don't exist, Daryn. And that is despite the fact that Beirut is a city that has known 15 years of civil war in the not-too distant past from 1975 to 1990. So no air warning system in place here -- Daryn.
KAGAN: Very strange. Anthony Mills in Beirut, Lebanon. Thank you for that.
Let's take a look at the cease-fire resolution that is going before the U.N. Security Council. The measure was written by the United States and France. It calls for both Israel and Hezbollah to cease all hostilities. It does not, however, demand a withdrawal of Israeli troops from Lebanon. And that has stirred a lot of grumbling in the Arab world. Lebanon and other Arab states want withdrawal language added to that resolution.
So Arab League envoys are on their way to the U.N. to push for changes in the Middle East cease-fire plan. Among other things, the group wants to include this full Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon. A lot of Americans aren't familiar with the Arab League. So here now, some background.
The coalition was formed in Cairo in 1945. Its primary goals then, to protect Arab interests and prevent the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestinian. Today 21 nations and the Palestinian Authority are members. The Arab League strives for cooperation on economic defense and cultural matters. That said, its effectiveness is often hampered by division among the key players -- Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan.
Israeli defense forces say that this video shows a shootdown of a Hezbollah drone. CNN cannot independently verify that video, but that report that Hezbollah may have drones is surprising many.
Our Brian Todd takes a look at that.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TODD (voice-over): A senior Israeli military official tells CNN the drone shot down, similar to this one,is the third unmanned Hezbollah drone launched over northern Israel over the past few years and the first to be shot down. The official says the vehicle was targeted by an Israeli fighter jet and crashed into the sea. The Iranian-made drone, according to Israeli sources, has a wingspan of just a few feet, but may have carried explosives. Experts say Hezbollah does not have drones the size of the U.S. Predator, capable of firing longer-range missiles.
MICHAEL O'HANLON, BROOKINGS INST. Hezbollah probably has relatively simple drones that may be numerous, but would be relatively easy to shoot down. It doesn't mean that none of them will get through. Some could get through, and some of them could be steered quite accurately to a target.
TODD: Hezbollah could easily weaponize its drones with warheads, according to experts, but the drones themselves would have to fly low, get very close to Israel's major cities to hit them, and would likely be intercepted before they reach the target. But one key tactical use, analysts say, is to find Israeli military positions and send pictures of them back to Hezbollah command posts.
JOHN PIKE, GLOBAL SECURITY ORG.: You send out this UAV with a TV camera to look for convoys, people who have not taken shelter. As soon as this thing spots them, the TV sends back the target location, you fire your rockets.
TODD: This deployment has other uses for Hezbollah, as well, according to Israeli officials and other experts: propaganda, sending a message to Hezbollah's supporters and its enemies that the group is still capable of tactical surprises.
Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KAGAN: Brian is one of the regular contributors for "THE SITUATION ROOM" with Wolf Blitzer, weekdays at 4:00 p.m. Eastern and again in primetime at 7:00.
A military milestone in Iraq. Iraqi forces take over more security duties from U.S. troops, even as the new round of attacks hit Baghdad.
Our Harris Whitbeck has the latest from the capital.
Harris, hello.
HARRIS WHITBECK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Daryn.
The hand-over ceremony you mention took place in a military base in Tikrit, north of Baghdad. Tikrit is in the area close to Saddam Hussein's birthplace. And there, the Iraqi army's fourth army division took control of that area, bringing to five out of ten the number of Iraqi army divisions that are now taking the lead in different battle spaces across the country. The U.S. military says it hopes to have all ten divisions on line by the end of the year.
There were, however, more acts of violence to report today. And whoever takes control of this country is going to continue to face a serious security challenge in Baghdad. Several bombs went off, proving that once again not even marketplaces or public spaces where Iraqi civilians congregate are safe from attack.
There was one bomb that went off near the -- one of the main public markets in Baghdad, killing ten people, wounding 69. And another three bombs went off near the ministry of the interior, killing another nine people there -- Daryn.
KAGAN: And with this hand-over, even though the numbers say it's 50 percent, they're not really taking over -- those numbers can be misleading. Why don't we interpret those a little bit more?
WHITBECK: That's correct. That's correct. And some of the battle spaces are areas in Iraq that have been relatively free from combat or from security incidents. Obviously, what the U.S. wants to do is to hand over the control of the entire country by the end of the year. But even by handing over control, that's not really the case. They say they will be taking the lead in these areas, but the U.S. will still be in charge of helping them with logistics, with intelligence gathering, with help -- security and safety issues for quite some time.
Again, U.S. military is touting this as a very important step. And the Iraqi government is touting this as a very important step. So again, it will be quite some time, however, before the Iraqi military is fully in control of the entire country.
KAGAN: Harris Whitbeck, live from Baghdad. Thank you.
Want to go to a different desert. Phoenix, Arizona. A serious construction accident happened early this morning. A rescue is under way, trying to save the man's life.
Betty Nguyen has the latest on that -- Betty.
BETTY NGUYEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Daryn, we continue to watch this. It's a very active scene. You can see -- we're going to put up the live pictures right now of many rescue crews on the scene, trying to get this 28-year-old construction worker out from under all that debris. We talk about the amount of debris, thousands of pounds of it.
Basically what happened, 4:30 a.m. Phoenix time this morning, this 28-year-old construction worker was trying to tear down a wall when that wall came tumbling down on top of his equipment. He is now stuck underneath that. And we understand that he is stuck from the waist down and he does have injuries. We don't know the extent of those injuries. What we do know is they are some major lower body injuries. That's what we were told from the Phoenix Fire Department.
So the frantic rescue is under way. Trying to do this very carefully so no one else gets hurt, but at the same time trying to get this construction worker out from under it as quickly as possible. What you're looking at is a parking structure. They've been taking down the old Phoenix Civic Plaza. And it's part of a $600 million expansion. They're going to put up the new Phoenix Convention Center, and this was part of phase two of that operation.
And unfortunately this accident occurred early this morning, where a man is still trapped. At 4:30 a.m. Phoenix time, which is 7:30 a.m. Eastern. So what is it 10:30, 10:40 now. So he's been trapped for a little over three hours at this point, and they're trying to get him out as best they can. And obviously, time is of the essence -- Daryn.
KAGAN: All right, Betty, we'll watching that. Pictures and information coming out of downtown Phoenix. Thank you.
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KAGAN: Another headache for patients at some V.A. hospitals. Thousands treated at veterans centers in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh may be at risk, yes, for identity theft. The Department of Veteran Affairs says the subcontractor's computer with patients personal data, well, it's missing. The FBI is investigating. In May, a laptop with data on 26 million vets was stolen in Virginia. That one's been found. Police don't think that information was accessed.
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KAGAN: A suspect in the Phoenix serial shooter case is wasting no time. He says he's innocent.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I guess I'm just guilty by association, even though I did not shoot anybody or kill anybody. I'd like to see them prove it. They're going to have to prove it, because I didn't do anything wrong.
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KAGAN: Public relations, ahead on CNN, the most trusted name in news.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) KAGAN: To Phoenix, Arizona, now. Two suspects in a string of shootings are turning on each other. Dale Hausner claims he didn't do it, but the other man, Samuel Dieteman, told police he and Hausner took turns in the shootings that killed six people. Now Hausner is pressing his case with the public.
Kim Holcomb from our affiliate KPNX has the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KIM HOLCOMB, KPNX REPORTER (voice-over): Shackled and surrounded by armed guards, an accused serial killer hits before a swarm of media and very calmly presents his defense.
DALE HAUSNER, ACCUSED SERIAL KILLER: I guess I'm guilty by association, even though I did not shoot anybody or kill anybody.
HOLCOMB: Dale Hausner says he's innocent, but claims his roommate, Sam Dieteman, may not be.
HAUSNER: He could easily have access to my car and I'd never know about it.
HOLCOMB: Piece by piece, Hausner attempted to dismantle the case without him. For every accusation, an answer. Police say he was spotted prowling the dark streets with Dieteman in his car.
HAUSNER: Many, many times at night, I drive around because I can't sleep.
HOLCOMB: The arsenal of weapons removed from his apartment?
HAUSNER: I am a gun collector. I have lots of weapons. As does most Americans.
HOLCOMB: A map plotting the serial shooter crimes recovered from his complex dumpster.
HAUSNER: Yes, I've been keeping track of what's been going on.
HOLCOMB: Surveillance photos showing both suspects at Wal-Mart before it was torched.
HAUSNER: If Sam committed arson and I was there with him, I did not actually commit any arson.
HOLCOMB: For about ten minutes, Hausner appears to candidly and confidently field every inquiry, at times openly challenging police and prosecutors.
HAUSNER: I'd like to see them prove it then. They're going to have to prove it, because I didn't do anything wrong.
HOLCOMB: But just as quickly as it started, the surprise press conference ended.
HAUSNER: I'm sorry. I'm going to have to stop answering questions.
HOLCOMB: A public defender advising him to stop talking. Even so, he would not ignore one final question.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are you a serial shooter?
HAUSNER: Absolutely not.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KAGAN: Fascinating stuff from Phoenix, Arizona. Well, not too far from the jail where those suspects would be held is a very serious construction accident taking place in downtown Phoenix. A rescue operation going on.
Betty Nguyen has details on that -- Betty.
NGUYEN: Yes, I was just reading up on some of the latest information that is coming in. Let me give you some background here on what you're looking at. Many crews, rescue crews, are on the scene. And they've been on this scene for about, what, three and a half hours now. Basically, a construction worker was trying to tear down a wall with a front end loader. That wall fell on top of his heavy equipment. Now he is trapped under thousands of pounds of concrete.
This was a parking structure that they were trying to take down as part of this new Phoenix Convention Center, which is going up in its place. It's part after $600 million project. But at this point, no one is focused on anything else but trying to get this 28-year-old man out from underneath that debris.
What we understand is that he is stuck from the waist down and he does have some major life-threatening injuries. But here's the good news, Daryn: that he is in stable condition at this point. We understand, also, that they have put some air bags in there to help push some of the debris off of him as they try to get this big wall completely off the equipment that he is trapped in. But time is of the essence. They're trying to get him out just as quickly as possible.
And just a little history on this site. Again, this was the Phoenix Civic Center or Plaza, I should say. They're turning it into a new expanded version of the Phoenix Convention Center. But about a year ago, an ironworker at this same construction site plunged more than 100 feet to his death. So this has been a site where obviously there have been some accidents. The latest one being what you're seeing right now.
Good news, too, though, I must tell you, is that the worker's family is on the scene. So hopefully they are sending some word down to him and giving him some kind of encouragement as these rescue crews continue to work around the clock to get this man out from under the debris there.
And we'll stay on top of it for you -- Daryn. KAGAN: All right, Betty, thank you. Live pictures from downtown Phoenix.
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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
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(END VIDEO CLIP)
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