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American Morning

Hostile Fire; The President's Push; Natalee Holloway Case

Aired June 29, 2005 - 9:00   ET

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

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: The president staying put on American troops in Iraq.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: America will not leave before the job is done.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

President Bush insists the U.S. must stay the course, but Democrats say this is the wrong move. We're live at the White House.

Seventeen U.S. service members missing this hour, their fate unknown after the Taliban says it shot down their helicopter in the rugged mountains of Afghanistan.

And tracking Tropical Storm Bret, making landfall in Mexico on this AMERICAN MORNING.

ANNOUNCER: From the CNN Broadcast Center in New York, this is AMERICAN MORNING with Soledad O'Brien and Miles O'Brien.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Welcome back, everybody.

Also ahead this morning, a story you're only going to see here on CNN. We're going to tell you about a prank between teenage friends. It backfired, really affected an entire community.

M. O'BRIEN: Careful what you type into that computer, kids. It can really get you in trouble. It started with an Internet instant message threatening murder. It was not meant seriously, but taken seriously.

Kelly Wallace talked to the girl who got the message, her mother, and offers a compelling cautionary tale for all of us out there who use instant messaging.

S. O'BRIEN: It's kind of a scary story, I think, on all fronts.

M. O'BRIEN: Yes.

S. O'BRIEN: We'll get to that in a little bit. But first, a look at the headlines this morning again with Carol Costello.

Good morning again. CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Good morning to all of you.

"Now in the News," U.S. soldiers have uncovered weapons in one of the most dangerous regions of Iraq. American troops were carrying out operations in the Baquba region near Samarra. Among the weapons found, some rocket-propelled grenades and explosive devices.

A revised design for the World Trade Center site. The design for the so-called Freedom Tower was changed a bit after concerns were raised by the New York City Police Department. Among the changes, the towers will be set further back from the street. New York Governor George Pataki and Mayor Michael Bloomberg will officially present the new model in the next hour.

NASA's chief says the space agency is pushing ahead with plans to resume shuttle flights next month. The announcement comes despite concerns NASA has not fully met some recommended safety guidelines. Senior NASA officials are expected to meet today to resolve any final issues. NASA's administrator will apparently have the last word on the shuttle's return to flight.

And a rare sight at a New York beach. A shark was found on the shore Tuesday with a hook in its mouth. Experts say the blue shark is not a species found close to shore and suspect it had been dead for quite a time. But as you can see, it grew quite a crowd. All looking at a big dead fish.

M. O'BRIEN: Sharks in New York. Hard to believe.

COSTELLO: That's weird.

S. O'BRIEN: It's kind of unusual.

COSTELLO: Yes. There was that one guy who was supposedly attacked by the shark. But I don't know if they ever really proved that that's what got him. But he had an injury to his arm on the New Jersey shore.

S. O'BRIEN: Right.

M. O'BRIEN: It seemed like the thing to claim anyhow, because it's the thing that's going on. So, it was a shark.

COSTELLO: Well, there's one that washed up, so maybe it was true.

M. O'BRIEN: Maybe it was true, yes. All right. Thank you, Carol.

COSTELLO: Sure.

M. O'BRIEN: A U.S. military helicopter carrying 17 service members has apparently been shot down by hostile fire in Afghanistan. The Taliban is taking the blame, or the credit, from their view, I suppose. No word on the fate of those on board. The chopper crashed in a rugged mountainous region of the eastern part of the country near the Pakistan border.

Barbara Starr has been there, seen that part of the world. She joins us live from the Pentagon with more -- Barbara.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Miles, new details emerging at this hour now about what apparently did happen yesterday when this Special Operations MH-47 helicopter was apparently shot down in this remote area of eastern Afghanistan. Military officials are telling CNN at the time when this happened, there were actually four Chinook helicopters flying through the area. They were bringing in U.S. troops as reinforcements for troops on the ground engaged with insurgents.

One of those Chinook helicopters reported seeing a smoke trail from an insurgent position. That was an indication a missile or rocket had been fired. And then the crash of the helicopter that was apparently hit.

At the same time, Air Force A-10 aircraft that were on patrol overhead saw this activity. We are told they rolled in on the insurgent positions and fired their rockets against the area where they thought this insurgent activity had come from.

This is -- we have some pictures to show you. This is some of the most rugged terrain in Afghanistan. These are the mountains.

CNN was there in November '03, actually. These are the mountains of the Hindu Kush. This is near Asadabad, where all of this took place. It shows you just how rugged this terrain is.

What we are told today is that the crash site is spread over a very steep area of these mountains, that the weather is bad today, high wind and rain. Very, very difficult for rescue and recovery forces to get in. No word yet, Miles, about any survivors -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Barbara Starr, at the Pentagon. Thank you -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Well, President Bush says he has no plans to change course in Iraq. In his prime-time speech last night, the president insisted that U.S. troops will stay in Iraq as long as they're needed and that victory in Iraq is critical to winning the war on terror.

Suzanne Malveaux is live for us at the White House this morning.

Suzanne, good morning to you. The White House pleased with the reaction on the speech so far, or no?

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, so far, the reaction has largely been along partisan lines. They certainly hope they've changed some people's minds.

It had been at least six months or so since the president went before the American people to outline his vision when it comes to Iraq. And aides privately concede that that was a much too long period of time. And that, in fact, was part of the mistake. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX (voice-over): With polls showing the majority of Americans believe it was a mistake to go to war in Iraq, President Bush tried to strike a balance between projecting realism and resolve.

BUSH: Like most Americans, I see the images of violence and bloodshed. Every picture is horrifying, and the suffering is real.

MALVEAUX: But the president argued the U.S. mission in Iraq is worth it.

BUSH: We fight today, because terrorists want to attack our country and kill our citizens, and Iraq is where they're making their stand.

MALVEAUX: In his 30-minute address, Mr. Bush took on his critics, rejecting setting a timetable to bring U.S. troops home.

BUSH: It would send the wrong message to the enemy, who would know that all they have to do is wait us out.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, the military what never mixed on the messages. You know, a lot of that is what you see on TV, but at our level, it doesn't really affect us. We have our job to do and we do it, and the plan that he laid out, we'll carry out the mission.

MALVEAUX: And dismissing the suggestion more U.S. troops were needed.

BUSH: Sending more Americans would undermine our strategy of encouraging Iraqis to take the lead in this fight.

MALVEAUX: On six occasions in his speech, the president invoked the memories of September 11, to support his argument that the war in Iraq is linked to that fateful day.

BUSH: The only way our enemies can succeed is if we forget the lessons of September the 11th, if we abandon the Iraqi people to a man like Zarqawi, and if we yield the future of the Middle East to men like Bin Laden. For the sake of our nation's security, this will not happen on my watch.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX: And part of the White House strategy is to emphasize two tracks, a military track and a political one to make the case that there is progress that is happening on the ground in Iraq that Americans aren't necessarily seeing on television -- Soledad

S. O'BRIEN: Suzanne Malveaux at the White House for us. Suzanne, thanks.

Well, gauging public reaction now to the president's speech. CNN "USA Today" and Gallup polled speech watchers, and we should point out that people who already agree with the president are more likely to watch him speak. Well, last night's audience was about 50 percent Republican, 23 percent Democratic, 27 percent Independent.

Forty-six percent of speech watchers had a very positive overall reaction, they said. Twenty-eight percent somewhat positive, 24 percent had a negative reaction.

The president convinced some speech watchers that the U.S. is winning the war in Iraq. Before last night, 44 percent thought the U.S. was winning. Afterward, 54 percent thought so.

And only 56 percent thought President Bush had a clear plan for Iraq before the speech. Now 63 percent think that he does -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Now to Aruba, where the prime minister is calling for more Marines, asking the Hague to send in a new group of Dutch Marines to help in the search for Natalee Holloway.

Chris Lawrence live now from Palm Beach, Aruba.

It seems like it might be too little too late, Chris.

CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Miles, it's been no secret that the family of Natalee Holloway is becoming more and more frustrated with how the investigation is going. The Aruban government is trying to show that, yes, they are doing what they can to try to solve this case.

Now, for the last five days, they've been getting a lot of help from a volunteer search team from Texas. They've had search dogs, sonar equipment out in the water searching different areas around the island. But even the company's founder admits that if there is some physical evidence out there, every day that goes by, that evidence is deteriorating more and more.

Natalee Holloway's mother was pretty happy just to get the help, but she's very frustrated with the investigation right now. After the father of one of the primary suspects was arrested last week, she was very hopeful. Three days later, he was let out of jail and set free. Her hopes were pretty much dashed, and she feels like the investigation has gone all the way back to square one.

Right now, three suspects still in custody, Joran Van Der Sloot and two brothers, Deepak and Satish Kalpoe. They were also the last people to see Natalee Holloway on the night she disappeared. We expect them all to be in court early next week, when prosecutors will have to prove, you know, why they should be able to hold them up to 60 more days. But their attorneys are telling us that takes a higher burden of proof, and they're optimistic that their clients could be released -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Chris Lawrence, in Aruba. Thank you very much -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Well, the second tropical storm of the season is now on the coast of Mexico.

(WEATHER REPORT) M. O'BRIEN: Still to come, a CNN exclusive. The wife of a New York terror suspect speaks publicly for the first time. How does she explain the allegations?

S. O'BRIEN: And then a cautionary tale for teenagers and parents, too. A girl receives a chilling online message from a friend. It was just a prank. Authorities, though, aren't laughing. It's a story you'll see only on CNN.

Stay with us. We're back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: Two Arlington, Virginia, teenagers were arrested last month, accused of sending instant messages which prosecutors say included threats to their schools and fellow students.

Kelly Wallace is here with this cautionary tale, really, for teens and their parents.

A complicated story with a not great ending.

KELLY WALLACE, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: No, not at all. But an important one, because the girl who received the threatening message in one of these cases, she and her mom decided to speak out for the very first time, because they wanted to get a message out that playing pranks on the computer can end up causing a great deal of pain.

They asked us not to include their last name for security reasons. Here now their story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WALLACE (voice-over): It was like any other night, 14-year-old Anna instant messaging with her friends in Arlington, Virginia, when all of a sudden, she received a series of messages that startled her.

ANNA, RECEIVED INSTANT MESSAGE THREAT: I was really scared because I didn't know who it was, and I've gotten like pranks played on me before.

WALLACE: Her mother Felicia showed us a transcript of the messages. The anonymous sender says of Anna's Yorktown high school, "YHS is going to be very different tomorrow, Anna. Tons of chaos. The bodies to be found, the flesh to be seen, the blood to be discovered, the bones to be matched. Well, I'm just telling you this because I'm saving you for my last murder."

Anna says she tried to find out who it was, not intending to tell her mom, but Felicia overheard her talking with friends.

FELICIA, ANNA'S MOTHER: This is the area that concerned me.

WALLACE: She thought about Columbine and the recent school shooting on an Indian reservation in Minnesota. After spending an hour on the phone with computer companies trying unsuccessfully to learn the identity of the sender, Felicia says she called the police.

FELICIA: And pretty much in my heart I knew it was probably a prank, but I didn't want to take that risk, not when you're talking about people's lives.

WALLACE: The next day, shortly after classes began, police evacuated Yorktown and that, Anna said, prompted a confession from a friend of hers who then turned himself in.

ANNA: He was like shaking. He was really scared ad in shock.

WALLACE: The 15-year-old, a popular boy at Yorktown, was placed in juvenile detention for two weeks, facing a felony charge. That outraged some in the community.

More than 300 students signed an online petition calling for leniency, including Anna. However, some targeted Anna and her mom.

Said one, "The parents of that girl had so many options. They could have talked to their daughter. Instead, they acted impulsively and called the police and the FBI." Anna said the criticism online and at school was tough.

ANNA: And then the next day when I came to school, like, people were just really mean and, like, yelling at me, like, "You're just doing this for attention."

WALLACE: Richard Trodden, Arlington's chief prosecutor, said the family and his attorneys did not overreact.

RICHARD TRODDEN, ARLINGTON COUNTY COMMONWEALTH'S ATTORNEY: When I was a kid, I was told you don't pull the fire box. And I think that youngsters have to know that about IM. You don't threaten bodily harm or crimes of violence on a school through IMs.

WALLACE: Six weeks later, the online prank and the serious controversy it unleashed remain painful for Felicia and Anna. They've since moved from Arlington. All that happened here playing a role in their decision to leave.

FELICIA: We need to as parents, and teenagers and kids, we need to realize it's not ratting on people. First of all, people shouldn't be doing that. And secondly, if you report it, it's your moral obligation, your civic responsibility to protect other people when you can.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WALLACE: And last night, we received a statement from the boy's parents. Through the family's attorney, they said, "Our son's instant message to his friend was an act of poor judgment intended as a joke. He never meant to harm anyone. He had no idea that his action would have the consequences it did."

The parents went on to say, "We also hope that other young people will learn that irresponsible use of the computer, even as a prank, can have severe life-changing consequences."

As for the boy, he pled guilty to a felony charge, and part of that plea deal, Soledad, includes serving 100 hours of community service, 10 of those hours spent going to schools, talking to teens about the dangers of playing pranks on the Internet.

S. O'BRIEN: That's a good idea, because, of course, I mean, really, a lose, lose, lose situation. The one family had to move. A kid ends up in juvy for two weeks. He's got this...

WALLACE: And it was -- we're told it was the boy's idea, that he felt that part of his time should be spent -- again, his life has been severely changed. Anna's life has been changed, all for what he said was a prank that clearly was interpreted otherwise.

S. O'BRIEN: Well, he's right. It is a good idea. All right. Kelly, great spot. Thanks.

WALLACE: Sure.

S. O'BRIEN: Still to come this morning, a look at day-to-day life in Iraq. Has it gotten any better or worse in the past year under Iraqi sovereignty? We're going to take a look at that up next right here on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: It's now been one year since the U.S. returned sovereignty to Iraq. In that time, the country has seen historic elections, as well as progress in the war crimes case against Saddam Hussein. But is day-to-day life any better for Iraqis?

CNN's Jennifer Eccleston reports from Baghdad.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JENNIFER ECCLESTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The big day has arrived for Piras Odisho and Nahmed Esho (ph). Despite the daily disruptions to life in Baghdad, a rising number of young couples like them are taking the plunge.

PIRAS ODISHO, GROOM (through translator): Life must go on. There must be marriages and happiness.

ECCLESTON: Marriages are up 30 percent since Saddam's overthrow, and the judge signing their wedding contract thinks he knows why.

GHANI AL-ISAA, JUDGE (through translator): There is an increase since the income of all sectors of Iraqi people has gone up.

ECCLESTON: But not all would agree. Those who work, like the 350 judges trained in the past two years, are better paid thanks to U.S. subsidies. But unemployment remains chronic, somewhere between 28 and 40 percent. Much higher than in prewar Iraq.

The vast majority of Iraqi families still rely on government food rations. And the U.N. says average incomes fell from $255 in 2003 to $144 last year.

Electricity supply in Baghdad has recovered from a low point in 2003 but remains slightly below prewar levels. Oil production is also lower than before Saddam's overthrow, and exports are down more than 40 percent. But then there's what many call the freedom index.

In January, nearly 60 percent of Iraqis voted, choosing from a wide variety of parties. The assembly they voted for is meeting and is beginning to frame a new constitution for Iraq. And 25 Sunni delegates are participating.

Internet cafes unknown under Saddam have sprung up in Baghdad. There are more than three million telephone subscribers compared to fewer than a million before the war, and many of them are on cell phones. Some 170 independent newspapers and magazines offer competing opinions, and there are 80 commercial radio stations.

Much of the country away from the Sunni-dominated north and west is not racked by sectarian violence. And some 150,000 Iraqi soldiers and police are trained, equipped and playing a larger role in battling the insurgents.

They are now bearing the brunt of attacks. An estimated 270 were killed last month, compared with 150 a year ago. And Iraqi civilians are being killed every day.

Eighty U.S. soldiers were also killed last month. That's consistent with the average since the handover of sovereignty.

(on camera): And the top American commander for the Middle East, General Abizaid, said this week that the insurgency's overall strength was about the same as six months ago.

Jennifer Eccleston, Baghdad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

M. O'BRIEN: In his speech last night, President Bush said it's hard to rebuild a decade after three decades of tyranny, and that rebuilding while at war is even harder. And he said the U.S. and Iraqi governments are working to improve basic services, likes sanitation, electricity and water.

And this is a recurring problem, of course. It's hot in the summer there. They have no electricity. Just had water outages. It's very difficult for the U.S. to win the hearts and minds when they can't keep the services going.

S. O'BRIEN: That's really the critical part. No matter what, if people don't have running water, they don't have -- you know...

M. O'BRIEN: They won't be your friend, yes.

S. O'BRIEN: They will not be happy.

M. O'BRIEN: Yes. S. O'BRIEN: And you can understand that.

M. O'BRIEN: Yes.

S. O'BRIEN: Still to come this morning, the wife of a terror suspect speaks for the first time about the charges her husband tried to help al Qaeda. A CNN exclusive is up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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