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Aruban Officials Empty Pond in Holloway Search; NASA Grounds All Future Missions

Aired July 28, 2005 - 08:31   ET

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

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: That's a beautiful shot, isn't it? The water fountain?
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: And it's kind of nice weather, relatively speaking today.

S. O'BRIEN: Uh huh. Seventies, just what Chad predicted.

M. O'BRIEN: You like it warmer than that, though, don't you?

S. O'BRIEN: Eighties is fine, but that's OK, I'll let everybody else...

M. O'BRIEN: Don't be complaining. I don't think anyone's going to go along with that one today.

It's just about half past the hour on this AMERICAN MORNING. Coming up, we're going to look at the latest rumblings about a possible U.S. exit from Iraq.

In fact, on Wednesday, the top coalition commander in Iraq said a significant draw down could start next year. There were lots of ifs with that, though, lots of caveats. We're going to talk this morning to a U.S. general who served in Iraq himself about just what needs to happen before Americans can leave.

First, though, a check of the headlines with Carol Costello. Good morning again.

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

"Now in the News," British Police Chief Sir Ian Blair says three bombings suspects are still at large and they could strike again. The warning comes just hours after officers arrested nine men in South London. Scotland Yard had arrested three women the night before on suspicion of harboring offenders.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak says he will run in the country's September elections. Mubarak making the announcement in a nationally-televised speech earlier today. He's led Egypt since 1981, but asked the parliament this year to amend the voting process. The changes will open up the elections to multiple candidates.

A free trade agreement with Central America narrowly passes through the House. Lawmakers approved CAFTA, as its called, by a vote of 217-215. Two-vote margin. The agreement eliminates trade barriers between the United States and five Central American countries, plus the Dominican Republic. President Bush has said the measure will help ensure that free trade is fair trade.

In the meantime, the president now expected to address the Boy Scouts at the national jamboree in Virginia tonight. His scheduled Wednesday appearance was postponed because of the threat of thunderstorms, but some 300 people, mostly Boy Scouts, were treated for heat-related conditions while waiting for the president to appear. The jamboree has been plagued with problems, including a tragic accident in which four scout leaders were killed.

And a possible third case of mad cow disease in the United States. The Agriculture Department says the tests suggest the disease was present in a 12-year-old cow, but also stresses there's absolutely no way that cow made it into the food supply. Results should be known by next week.

And we're just getting these pictures into CNN. They show brush fires in Gorman, California. Take a look. The fire apparently sparked after two big rigs collided. One of the trucks was carrying a hazardous substance. There are reports of at least one injury. When we get more information, of course, we'll pass it along to you.

M. O'BRIEN: I wonder how -- obviously that brush is somewhat dry. I hope that doesn't start a huge fire out there.

COSTELLO: Yes, not a good mix.

S. O'BRIEN: Yes, that could always happen, this sort of something triggers a much bigger fire. Wow. And pretty amazing pictures, too. Carol, thanks.

COSTELLO: Sure.

S. O'BRIEN: Well, officials in Aruba are still emptying a pond. They're hoping to turn up any clues in the disappearance of 18-year- old Natalee Holloway.

Let's get right to Sean Callebs. He's live for us in Palm Beach, Aruba. Sean, good morning to you. How close are they to actually being done with the emptying of this pond? Everyone thought it would sort of be finished a little earlier, didn't they?

SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, exactly. Actually, the first day they started, which was a couple of days ago, they were only using one pump. Now they're using at least five. They are making significant progress. There's some areas of that pond, which is actually a catch basin, really, and it only had about two inches of water in it back in the end of May when Natalee Holloway went missing. But after Hurricanes Dennis and Emily came through, it has now -- it's got more than five feet of water in it. Authorities could have it empty as early as today.

But here's the significance about that. A witness came forward in the past several days and said that he saw the three suspects in his case, at least three people, who had been considered suspects in this case -- Joran Van Der Sloot, as well as two brothers from Surinam, Deepak and Satish Kalpoe -- drive near that pond as they were going into a club around 2:30 in the morning the night that Natalee Holloway, the Alabama teenager, was reported missing.

Now, investigators, law enforcement sources, are telling CNN they're not checking that pond specifically because of the information that one witness provided, but because it is close in proximity, physically close, to the area where those three teens drove that night before even they were seen by that last witness in the case. So Holloway's family, however, is very bolstered by this recent effort and they truly believe if they don't find Natalee's body in that area that they could at least find some significant evidence.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

T.J. WARD, PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR: I think something is going to happen or something is going to appear in here, whether it be evidence or if it is Natalee Holloway buried into the lake. I think something's going to come about. And then we'll take this case to another level.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CALLEBS: Now, Holloway's family has had private investigators down here working on this case as well, Soledad, and we know that they went through that area at some point. They didn't search it incredibly thoroughly, but it is one area that has already been looked at -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Sean Callebs for us. All right, Sean, thanks for the update -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: The Space Shuttle Discovery, now docked at the International Space Station, safe and sound. Discovery docked about an hour ago. The mission potentially could be the last. Lots of talk about that this morning. NASA has grounded all future shuttle missions over a problem the space agency hoped it had fixed.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Space Shuttle Discovery.

M. O'BRIEN (voice-over): Little more than two minutes after Discovery left the launchpad, the foam fell once again and so did hopes for the beleaguered shuttle program two-and-half years after the loss of Columbia and her crew of seven.

BILL PARSONS, SHUTTLE PROGRAM MANAGER: You have to admit when you're wrong. You know, we were wrong. We need to do some more work here. And so, we're telling you right now, the bipod foam -- I mean, the power ramp foam should not have come off. It came off. We've got to go do something about that.

M. O'BRIEN: It was a large piece of insulating foam, but it was fortunate timing for the crew and NASA. At that point in the flight, the air flow did not send the debris toward the orbiter. The piece that shattered Columbia's heat shield and doomed the crew of seven fell off 40 seconds sooner, at just the moment when it would be blowing right into the leading edge of the wing. While mission managers say Discovery is in good shape and separate damage to thermal tiles is minor, they are confident the crew is safe. Just the same, they will be double checking.

WAYNE HALE, SHUTTLE DEP. PROGRAM MGR: What we're going to do, I can guarantee you, is that we're going to look at the thermal protection system on the bottom of orbiter very closely. And any damage will not detect our -- will not escape our detection, any significant damage.

M. O'BRIEN: But NASA had vowed to stop large pieces of foam from falling off the external fuel tank and redesign several spots where it was more likely to happen. In this case, the foam fell off a long, wedged-shape piece called the petrubrid's (ph) air load, or POW ramp. It is there to smooth out the air flow over some cables that run beside a liquid hydrogen pipe.

PARSONS: Right now, until we understand this problem and until we're ready to say that we've fixed it and we're -- we can say that we're safe to go fly and we're not going to go fly. Now, you know, I don't know if that's a month, I don't know if that's, you know, three months. I don't know how long that is right now. So we've got a lot of work to do in front of us.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

M. O'BRIEN: And just before docking today, there was this spectacular picture which came from space. This is shot from the International Space Station. Discovery doing a pirouette maneuver to present its belly side to the space station occupants. They were equipped with a couple of digital cameras, 400-millimeter and 800- millimeter lens. They spent 90 seconds playing shuttle paparazzi, shooting tiles to make sure that all those tiles are -- have integrity and the crew can return safe and sound at the end of this mission in 12-and-a-half days.

And just to underscore the point, Discovery is safe and sound so far. Engineers have not found any signs of any serious damage, and the crew should be fine for a re-entry -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: All right. Let's get back to Iraq and, in fact, the long debated question of a timetable for bringing U.S. troops home. On Wednesday, the senior commander of coalition forces said a substantial troop withdrawal could begin in less than a year.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEN. GEORGE CASEY, SR. COMMANDER IN IRAQ: If the political process continues to go positively and if the development of the security forces continues to go as it is going, I do believe we'll still be able to take some fairly substantial reductions after these elections in the spring and summer next year.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

S. O'BRIEN: Retired Brigadier General James "Spider" Marks served in Iraq in 2003. He's in Washington this morning. Nice to see you. Good morning to you.

BRIG. GEN. JAMES MARKS, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Hi, Soledad. Good morning.

S. O'BRIEN: There was a lot of ifs in what we heard from General Casey, if, if, if, and really big ifs. So my question would be, how realistic is the proposal, that within a year you could really bring out those troops with all those big ifs?

MARKS: Well, certainly they're going to be the removal large -- or as General Casey indicated substantial removal of forces will be contingent on variables. And, frankly, they've laid those out, but the primary thing that has to take place is the two things that General Casey talked about. There has to be an increase in a real kind of a growing of roots of the burgeoning democracy that's taking place. In other words, there's got to be a real political face on the growth and the development of this new democracy, and clearly the measurement of that is going to be how well are Iraqi forces trained and prepared. And we're seeing insights that in many cases Iraqi forces are really stepping up and doing quite well.

Just recently, General "Fuzzy" Webster, the commander in Baghdad, had a press conference, and he indicated that his troop strength and Task Force Baghdad, which is what he commands, has a total of 26,000 Iraqi forces, about 11,000 commando forces, doing some pretty good special operations, pretty precise applicational force, and about 15,000 Iraqi forces, or conventional force. So that's a considerable contribution.

S. O'BRIEN: OK, but then is the question, I guess, isn't can troops be withdrawn within a year, but rather can those points that General Casey made that you just pointed out, can those really happen given some of the good news that you're just pointing out there? Can they happen?

MARKS: Sure they can. I mean, in fact, they must. And I would tell you that there are several factors at play. Number one, as long as the United States specifically is present in Iraq, it will be the ingredient that causes the unholy alliance between foreign fighters and Iraqi nationalists. You've got the infrastructure of the former Baathists that are facilitating the foreign fighters as they come in. This is something that's extremely unusual, and would normally not be an alliance that would take place, but it exists because they share the hatred for the United States.

So the United States understands that it needs to take a secondary, less visible role. That has been stated, Soledad, many, many times. So politically, there's -- I need to tell you there needs to be a political face on this. Where's the American ambassador in Baghdad stepping forward next to General Casey, saying, you know, here are some points I want to make as well. MARKS: So is there sort of a political benefit and a military strategic benefit as well to talk about being always on the verge of withdrawing a year away, could happen if this is met and that is met because it gives credence and a sense to Iraqis that it's on the verge of happening? Is that's what's going on?

MARKS: Exactly, Soledad. This is -- frankly, this is the right thing do. The Iraqis gain confidence as they step forward. This is a very proud nation. I got to know many of them very, very closely. They're very brave. They're very patriotic. They want to make this work. So their prime minister steps forward and says this is going to happen and the Iraqis will put an Iraqi face on this fight against this incredible insurgency that's taking place.

S. O'BRIEN: You know, you talked about the U.S. troops sort of being the factor in that unholy alliance. Are you saying that if U.S. troops got out of there, that the Iraqi troops who are now very often the target of these suicide bombers, that that would stop?

MARKS: No, it wouldn't stop. The thing you have to realize is that the United States simply will not leave, it should not believe; it needs to take a secondary role, but one of the ingredients, one of the key ingredients, is this is -- the United States presence is decisive, and we know that and we've seen that, and our leaders on the ground have indicated that as well.

S. O'BRIEN: Retired General James "Spider" Marks, nice to see you as always. Thanks.

MARKS: Thanks, Soledad.

(WEATHER REPORT)

S. O'BRIEN: Still to come this morning, a struggling airline comes up with a risk-free cancellation policy. Andy explains as he minds your business, just ahead.

M. O'BRIEN: Plus, "Paging Dr. Gupta." Close your eyes. OK, that was that scene Tuesday night. What happens when a ball hits a human head. Well, the obvious answer is it hurts, but there's more to it than that of course. Why don't we call upon a brain surgeon for some answers. That's Later on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: It is no secret that Delta Airlines is hurting in a pretty big way, teetering on the brink of bankruptcy, stock plummeting. Andy Serwer is "Minding Your Business" to talk more about that company.

Good morning.

ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Good morning.

We've heard this before from Delta last fall, and earlier this year, threats of bankruptcy. A new memo from the company's CEO Gerald Grinstein the other day warning employees that though cost cutting was going well, it might not be enough. The company said it will pare $5 billion in costs. Still bankruptcy a possibility. The stock plunging, Soledad, on that news, down more than 12 percent. Airline stocks are volatile, but this is crazy. Was it $8; it's now down below $3.

Meanwhile, the company is rolling out a new ticketing policy, which is very intriguing actually. If you buy a ticket directly from Delta at one of their ticket offices, or particularly online -- they really want you to buy a ticket online -- you can change the ticket within 24 hours of purchase, cancel it or simply get a refund if you find a cheaper ticket at another airline. Now you know how airlines hate to do this, but what the company's trying to do is get more people to buy tickets online. They get about 25 percent of their ticketing online. They want to move that up to 45 percent, because it's so much less expensive for them to sell tickets online.

S. O'BRIEN: Many fewer people behind the online operation certainly.

SERWER: Absolutely. Let's talk quickly about the markets yesterday. A good one for investors. All three major U.S. indexes up, as you can see here.

Did you go out and buy amazon.com yesterday?

S. O'BRIEN: No, I did not.

SERWER: Soledad, I told you, it was up...

S. O'BRIEN: I had a busy day.

SERWER: It was busy -- $6 to $43 and change yesterday, futures up nicely this morning. We've got earnings news to tell you about later from Starbucks, Exxon and Daimler-Chrysler?

S. O'BRIEN: Is it Good or bad news?

SERWER: All pretty much good.

S. O'BRIEN: All right, good. Thanks for the early tip on that.

Andy, thank you -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: It Daimler or Daimler?

S. O'BRIEN: I say Daimler.

M. O'BRIEN: I say Daimler? Daimler?

SERWER: Yes.

M. O'BRIEN: You say potato, and I say...

SERWER: It's a German word. Depends how you pronounce it.

M. O'BRIEN: OK. Say Daimler. Daimler. Daimler?

All right. Anyway, we're "Paging Dr. Gupta" next with -- sorry about that, folks. Let's press on with the show, shall we? You have winced on this -- oh, we've got to show it again. Red Sox pitcher Matt Clement hit in the head by a batted ball. Let's do it again. Sanjay explains why his injury could have been a lot worse, though.

AMERICAN MORNING is continuing after a break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: Well, I was so busy with the Daimler/Daimler thing I added insult to injury by mispronouncing the poor guy's name. It's Matt Clement. And the good news is, he's out of the hospital. Doctors cleared him Wednesday after overnight observation. That line drive hit him straight there in the head on Tuesday night, Tampa Bay. And from the big leagues down to the little leagues, boys and girls stand in the way of a potentially deadly missile, a batted ball.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta, joining us to from the CNN Center to talk about some of the risks ballplayers face. Somebody asked me yesterday -- it might have been Soledad -- why don't they hear helmets on the mound? Maybe not a bad idea.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SR. MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, you know, we talked to a lot of people about this. This is a pretty unusual situation. Most of the people we talked actually said that yes, I mean for the very occasional chance that you're going to see something like this, a helmet might be a good idea. But, you know, it luckily doesn't happen that often. We've seen this video so many times.

Now, a couple things I wanted to point out -- sort of my background as a neurosurgeon. We talked to some of the doctors that treat these sorts of injuries. He is lucky. It may not look like that, looking at this particular video. And I want to show you on the skull model that I have here exactly where he was hit and why that's important. Take a look.

This is a real skull. If you watch the video closely, he actually turns his head and he's hit back here. This is behind the ear. And this part of the bone, this part of the skull, is actually very thick bone, which is probably what saved him in this particular situation. Had he been hit up here, for example, he may have had a skull fracture and subsequently bleeding, as well, underneath the skull. So, again, although it may not look like it, he's pretty lucky in this situation -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: So it just so happens that the place where he was hit is a thicker part of the skull? Good thing?

GUPTA: Thicker part of the skull. And you know, what happens in this situation, as in any time someone has a significant blow to the head like this, he's taken to the hospital and he gets a couple CAT scans, one CAT scan initially to make sure that there's not a significant skull fracture or bleeding on top of the brain, and then -- that's actually another CAT scan is taken as well several hours later to make sure that maybe some blood is not developing later on.

Both of those, we're hearing, were normal, negative as we say in the medical world. Nothing to be seen there other than what's normal. And then he was sent home. So sounds like everything's pretty good there -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: You know, every now and then, you see this in baseball. You know, Red Sox fans remember Tony Conigliaro back before they wore, you know, helmets at the plate. That was a terrible injury. I think recall he got it sort of near the temple. Tremendous velocities here, tremendous risks.

GUPTA: Yes, you know, it's interesting, as well. And, you know, we talk to a lot of people trying to figure out exactly how fast the ball was going when he got hit. And no one really could give us a straight answer. They say it's dependent in some ways on what the pitch that was being thrown. All sorts of different things.

The only thing we could come up with conclusively was it's different for wooden bats and aluminum bats. There have been some studies actually done on this, trying to figure out if it's coming off faster off a wooden on aluminum bat. And I think that it's not going to be surprising, the wooden bats, the average speed of the ball coming off the bat was about 86 miles per hour. Only 2 percent of the hits over 100 miles per hour.

With an aluminum bat -- and this is probably why you don't see them as much anymore, average of 93 miles an hour coming off the bat. 37 percent of those hits over 100 miles an hour. So that gives you a little bit of a sense on how fast this thing was going.

As far as Clement himself, you know, they talk about something known as a concussion. And I just want to highlight this point, because a lot of people pay attention to what is a concussion. You don't have to be knocked out to still be called having had a concussion. There's certain symptoms that are most associated with concussion: confusion, headaches, nausea, loss of memory, ringing in the ears. Those sorts of things, even if you didn't get knocked out, could be symptoms of a concussion. A lot of these things can go away in a couple days. He's going to need to be observed just for some of the symptoms, not in the hospital necessarily, but even at home -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: All right, Sanjay. The man who -- you have a skull right there, right?

GUPTA: I have my skull, that's right. And my brain.

M. O'BRIEN: Sanjay Gupta and Urich (ph) today. Alas, we knew him well. Thank you very much for being with us, Sanjay, as always.

Let's go to space, shall we? 222.6 miles above the planet Earth, there they are, the nine member cojoined team of space station and space shuttle crews, on board the Destiny lab as the hatch is opened, the pictures are being snapped. The gifts are being exchanged. And everybody shaking hands, hugging. And this is the first shuttle arrival at the space station in nearly three years. It was back in November of 2002 when last a shuttle visited the space station. Lots of needed supplies there and, of course, a little bit of moral support for the two person crew.

Back with more AMERICAN MORNING in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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