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American Morning

Military Moms Battle; Mideast Violence; U.S. Customs Catch; Shaken Baby Syndrome

Aired August 25, 2005 - 07:30   ET

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

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back, everybody. It's just about half past the hour on this American. I'm Soledad O'Brien.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Carol Costello in for Miles.

Coming up, a lot going on in Crawford, Texas today. Cindy Sheehan back in her camp. The president is back home. And protesters supporting the president are heading there today as well.

O'BRIEN: And in this very public debate over U.S. troops in Iraq, now there is another mom who knows about sacrifice. She was singled out by the president in his speech to National Guard troops on Wednesday. This morning, we take a look at the White House strategy.

First, though, another check of the headlines with Kelly Wallace.

Hey, Kelly, good morning.

KELLY WALLACE, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you. And hello, everyone.

These stories "Now in the News."

Southern Florida under hurricane watch this morning, and residents are already preparing for the worst just in case Katrina hits.

(WEATHER REPORT)

WALLACE: Turning now to Iraq. More American troops are heading there. The Pentagon says it is sending 1,500 more paratroopers ahead of the fall elections in Iraq. They will be from the 82nd Airborne Division out of Fort Bragg in North Carolina. Those troops expected to deploy in mid-September.

Hawaii has become the first U.S. state to put a cap on gas prices. The state Public Utilities Commission says wholesalers cannot charge more than a total of about $2.67 for a gallon of regular gasoline in Honolulu. Wednesday's average price there was $2.76, a record high.

And Christian broadcaster Pat Robertson is apologizing for urging the assassination of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Robertson initially denied he had called for the Venezuelan leader to be -- quote -- "taken out" and said his comments were misinterpreted. But Robertson later issued a written statement saying assassination is wrong and that his comments were made out of frustration. We will see if that's the last of this story.

Now back to Carol.

COSTELLO: It was a big mistake, it was a big misunderstanding. All right, thank you, Kelly.

The war of words over Iraq escalates on the home front. Cindy Sheehan made an emotional return to Crawford, Texas, on Wednesday to resume her protest at "Camp Casey." President Bush also sent out a message Wednesday, meeting with military families in Idaho and enlisting the support of a military mother of his own. Are we seeing a new battle emerge, that of military moms?

Mike Allen of "The Washington Post" is just back from Crawford, Texas. He joins us now in our Washington bureau.

Welcome, Mike.

MIKE ALLEN, "WASHINGTON POST": Good morning, Carol.

COSTELLO: Well, let's talk with Tammy Pruett, because the president brought her up in his speech. She has four sons serving in Iraq. Four. After the president brought her up in his speech, she spoke out. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TAMMY PRUETT, MILITARY MOTHER: We stand firm that we stand behind the president, that we continue this battle until it's done, and we al of our boys and women home safely.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: And when you see pictures of her four sons serving there, it's just so powerful. I mean, clearly, this was President Bush's way of saying military families do support the war and do support my policies. But who's winning?

ALLEN: Well, Carol, in addition to the four sons, she had another son who had been over there earlier and her husband had been over there. So, she said good-bye to seven loved ones going over to Iraq.

The White House viewed this as sort of a Paul Harvey "rest of the story." They felt that the majority of military families who support the president had been ignored or, at best, given passing coverage by the news media.

As you mentioned, I was in Crawford over the weekend. And out at the coffee station that all of your viewers have seen at that big crossroads, there were military families there who support the president. And they really felt railroaded by the coverage.

So, the White House here is saying, look, if you want to play this game, we can play, too. We have more military families than you do. And you saw on the video on your air yesterday the amazing response that Tammy Pruett got from that National Guard audience.

So, the White House theory is if you put the president in friendly settings, show that Cindy Sheehan does not speak for all military families that although they're never convince the activists in Crawford that the broad American people might have a different idea about how the military feels.

COSTELLO: Cindy Sheehan has a few more weapons in her arsenal, though. I mean, every place the president stops to talk about support for the war, these ads are playing. So let's allow our viewers to listen to one of them.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CINDY SHEEHAN, ANTIWAR MOM: You were wrong about the weapons of mass destruction. You were wrong about the link between Iraq and al Qaeda. You lied to us. And because of your lies, my son died. You said he died for a noble cause. What cause?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: And then Cindy Sheehan returned back to "Camp Crawford." A large picture of her son was hung up by her supporters. And you can see, she just broke down and cried. She need medical treatment right at the scene. I mean, scenes like this are quite powerful as well. So will her message gain momentum?

ALLEN: Well, Carol, you're right. It's very difficult to watch that video and not be touched by that and realize for the loss that she has faced and that 1,800 other families have faced.

But what Republicans will tell you is that Cindy Sheehan is a flawed messenger for this message. As you know, she has said the president is a war monger. She said that he's a terrorist. She said that he killed her son. The very words in that video, I think, point to her as an activist as opposed to someone who wants to have an honest conversation with the president.

Now the question is: Has she become sort of a logo of her bigger idea? Is her idea something...

COSTELLO: But, you know, Mike, even if she has, the president is fighting back with other military families. He's trying to get the message out that most military families support the war. But in the broader sense, if most of the American public doesn't support the war, does that message really matter?

ALLEN: Right. And that's why these next couple weeks are very crucial for the president. As you point out, in polls support for the war has been going down. Support for specifically for how the president has conducted it has been going down.

And so, in these two weeks before Labor Day, the president is giving three speeches, trying to remind the American people that the 9/11 Commission said that every time al Qaeda wins, that every time that a free nation shows a weakness that that emboldens them. He's trying to put these ideas to take a very complicated and difficult situation and point it in stark terms that to withdraw is to concede. We're going back to the election, where the idea is you're with us or you're with the terrorists.

COSTELLO: Oh, I wish we could continue, but we cannot. But thank you for joining us. Mike Allen of "The Washington Post."

ALLEN: Have a beautiful day, Carol.

COSTELLO: You too.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Israeli troops killed five Palestinians in a West Bank raid; that, according to the Associated Press. And suspected Palestinian militants fired a rocket into Israel today. It's the first sign of violence between the two sides since Jewish settlers were moved out of the West Bank and Gaza.

John Vause is in Jerusalem.

John, good morning to you. Give us more details about the attack.

JOHN VAUSE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Soledad.

Well, two Kazam (ph) rockets were fired earlier today from the Gaza Strip. One landed in the Israeli border town of Sderot. Now, there were no reports of injuries or damage. The second missile landed in Palestinian territory within Gaza. No reports of injury on that second missile either.

This comes after a shootout in the West Bank town of Tulkarem last night. Israeli security forces shot dead five Palestinians. According to Israeli intelligence, these five men belonged to the Islamic Jihad militant group and were responsible for carrying out a suicide bombing, part of the planning and the execution of that suicide bombing in Tel Aviv in February of this year -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Also, we have information about this barrier that Israel continues to build in spite of the objections from the United States. What's the status of that debate?

VAUSE: Yes. While Israel was in the midst of the withdrawal from Gaza, pulling out 8,500 Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip, notices were being issued by the justice ministry advising Palestinians who own land around Maale Adumim -- that's one of the largest Jewish settlements in the West Bank -- that their land would be seized and it would be used to build a barrier around Maale Adumim.

Now, the Palestinians say this is nothing more than a land grab. The Israelis say that barrier is necessary to stop suicide bombers and other militants entering Israel and carrying out attacks.

Now, the Palestinians say this just confirms their worse fears; that while Israel is getting out of Gaza, giving up the Gaza Strip, what it's doing now is consolidating its hold over those large West Bank settlements -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: John Vause for us this morning. John, thanks -- Carol.

COSTELLO: U.S. Customs officials say they denied entry to a man who would later be accused of suicide attacks in Iraq.

In a CNN "Security Watch" this morning, Jeanne Meserve reports that the suspect wasn't blocked from coming into the United States because of his terrorist ties.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): At least 127 people die when a suicide bomber blows himself up outside a health clinic in Hillah, Iraq, last February. The accused bomber, this Jordanian, Ra'ed Mansour al-Banna.

Al-Banna lived in the U.S. off and on beginning in May of 2001, even visiting the World Trade Center. On June 14, 2003, al-Banna tried to re-enter the U.S. at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, but was stopped by customs and border protection agents. U.S. officials are investigating why he was trying to enter the U.S.

Customs and U.S. Border Protection Commissioner Robert Bonner this week wrote in a high-level memo that it was not clear that al- Banna was a suicidal jihadist.

But al-Banna had been flagged for secondary inspection before his flight from Amsterdam arrived at O'Hare. Officials say he was trying to reuse an outdated visa, and agents suspected he wanted to work in the U.S. illegally. The next day he was sent out of the country.

Twenty months later, the clinic in Hillah went up in flames. Iraqis protested after reports that some Jordanians celebrated al- Banna's alleged involvement in the attack. U.S. officials say Jordan denies al-Banna had any role at Hillah, claiming he died in another suicide bombing elsewhere in Iraq.

(on camera): Homeland security officials say in either case, al- Banna was clearly connected with terrorist bombing efforts. And they are patting themselves on the back for keeping him out of the country, though it appears they did not recognize him as a potential terrorist.

Jeanne Meserve, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: And stay tuned to CNN day and night for the most reliable news about your security.

O'BRIEN: Still to come on AMERICAN MORNING, a ride-along with a Chicago cab driver, coping as best he can with skyrocketing gas prices.

COSTELLO: Also ahead, it's very parents' nightmare, a caretaker who harms your child. We'll talk to a mother and father who believe their nanny harmed their baby. Stay with us AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: The Donohue story is every new parents' nightmare. Back in June, Vanessa and Patrick Donohue hired a baby nurse to show them how to take care of their newborn daughter. Instead, they now believe that that baby nurse ended up shaking their baby so hard she may have caused brain damage and broken bones.

The baby nurse is now charged with three counts -- criminal counts, including allegedly endangering the welfare of a child.

Joining us this morning, Vanessa, Patrick and little baby Sarah.

Nice to see you. Thank you for talking with us. We appreciate it. How is she doing? She's adorable.

VANESSA DONOHUE, SARAH JANE'S MOTHER: Thank you.

PATRICK DONOHUE, SARAH JANES' MOTHER: Thank you.

O'BRIEN: How is her health? What have doctors told you about her health now and her prognosis?

P. DONOHUE: Well, I mean, her health right now is she's doing OK. There's still reasons for us to be concerned. But the reality is that we're not going to know her long-term prognosis for about a year until she starts hitting, you know, developmental stages. And so that's why we're asking everybody to pray for her. It's basically in her hands and God's hands.

O'BRIEN: Yes, and I think it's a request you really don't have to make, because when this story hit the front page of the papers here in New York, parents everywhere were just utterly devastated for you. She was 5 days old when -- did you notice something was wrong? I mean, how did you sort of get clued in?

V. DONOHUE: My mother started noticing something and started alerting me that she just seems very lethargic. And I wasn't exactly sure how a baby should be behaving. I mean, she was just a couple of days old.

O'BRIEN: You're a new mom. How would you know anyway?

V. DONOHUE: Yes.

P. DONOHUE: And she latched on for Vanessa breast-feeding.

V. DONOHUE: For breast-feeding.

P. DONOHUE: And then she...

V. DONOHUE: She was able to do it one time, and then the injury happened and then she never was.

O'BRIEN: So you brought her to the doctor. V. DONOHUE: Oh, she was -- all of her routine visits. The night that this happened she had seen the doctor that day. So we were really concerned, because we couldn't understand if she had just seen the doctor, why are we seeing all of these symptoms? And the attack occurred on her that same night. She had seen the doctor on a Thursday.

O'BRIEN: Later in the day.

V. DONOHUE: That Thursday night is when the attack occurred.

O'BRIEN: When you went back to the doctor for all of the problems, she was lethargic, and the doctor says she has two collar bone broken in two places.

P. DONOHUE: No, that's not when we found out. We first brought her back to the doctor, and...

V. DONOHUE: They admitted her to the hospital.

P. DONOHUE: To the hospital.

V. DONOHUE: And then they ran a gallant of tests. It was when they ran a CAT-scan that they found out that there was severe brain damage. Out of a 10, it was an 8 in severity.

O'BRIEN: What was at that like? I mean, you've had this baby for days. What was that like?

P. DONOHUE: It was Father's Day that we found this out.

V. DONOHUE: Father's Day, yes.

O'BRIEN: What was your reaction? And when did you make the connection that your baby nurse might have been involved?

V. DONOHUE: When the doctors found out that there was broken bones and trauma, and they knew that this was due to a very violent shake on our baby, that was when we knew. It was...

P. DONOHUE: It was instantaneously.

V. DONOHUE: Yes, about a week after she was in the hospital.

O'BRIEN: The baby nurse, Noella Allick, has now been charged, as we mentioned.

V. DONOHUE: She confessed.

O'BRIEN: She said this, and we'll throw it up on the screen here. "I tried to feed her with a bottle, but she wouldn't wake up. But that's when I began to shake her. I shook her hard. I noticed that Sarah's body was limp. I began to think that I did that to her when I shook her." She said she shook the baby and shook the baby hard. What is in your heart right now? Because as a parent -- and I have to imagine every parent would want to kill this person, would want retaliation, would want her put in prison forever?

V. DONOHUE: We're in so much pain right now, at least I'm in so much pain right now that I haven't even gotten to the point of anger. I'm in shock. I'm devastated. I'm just trying to focus on my baby. The fact that someone could be so evil is beyond my comprehension.

D. DONOHUE: And we're really letting the criminal justice system take care of that. And they've been phenomenal. Our focus really is just on as much positive toward Sarah Jane as possible, because that's how she is going to get better is we're surrounding her with people who believe in her, who love her. And that's how we're going to...

V. DONOHUE: We need a miracle for our baby. And we want to thank the people who have been sending us messages to our Web site there. And they're helping us heal, and they're helping our baby heal. We read them Sarah Jane.

O'BRIEN: She's 2-and-a-half months old. She's a big talker.

V. DONOHUE: Yes, yes, yes.

O'BRIEN: And I guess every sign like that you say...

V. DONOHUE: Absolutely.

P. DONOHUE: Well, we love to hearer cry.

V. DONOHUE: Absolutely.

P. DONOHUE: Because after nurse had did this to her -- yes, it's OK.

O'BRIEN: And she cries on cue for you. That's very good. Look at that already.

V. DONOHUE: After this happened to her, she -- because of the brain injury, she wasn't able to cry.

P. DONOHUE: When we brought her into the hospital to run the tests, they were poking her and prodding her.

V. DONOHUE: With needles. And tears were running down her face, but she couldn't cry out loud.

P. DONOHUE: It just killed us.

V. DONOHUE: So now when she cries, we love to hear her cry.

P. DONOHUE: It's music.

V. DONOHUE: It's a sign of health.

O'BRIEN: Yes, there is certainly that. You know, I think that for anybody who has a child, you've had an experience that we all fear.

V. DONOHUE: Yes.

O'BRIEN: What do you do, whatever age your child is, what do you do when you hand that child over to somebody who in an interview who seemed great, who you were really...

V. DONOHUE: There were multiple interviews.

O'BRIEN: And multiple interviews. And you followed up, and you did everything right.

V. DONOHUE: Yes.

O'BRIEN: What...

P. DONOHUE: Like, in the day you can't interview within someone's heart or soul. So, I mean, one of the messages that -- one of the reasons why we came forth is not to tell people to stop trusting people, but quite the opposite, to trust a mother's instinct, because it was really Vanessa's instinct that saved Sarah Jane. Typically cases like this aren't figured for 10 months to a year. And Vanessa figured it out...

V. DONOHUE: When a child starts reaches developmental stages and are unable to do things.

O'BRIEN: Early intervention is probably really helpful.

P. DONOHUE: So it's really, at the end of the day, it's, you know, your mother's instinct that you need to pay attention to.

O'BRIEN: I know you're asking for prayers, and everybody already is certainly obliging on that front.

V. DONOHUE: We're so grateful.

P. DONOHUE: And we really want to thank all of the people that have reached out to us. The staff at the Langsfil (ph) Hospital that we had her in, they were phenomenal. You know, just everybody that's been around her. We're really surrounding her with people who love her and care for her.

O'BRIEN: Well, we appreciate you bringing her in, because she's cute, and because we're interested in your story. Thank you very much.

V. DONOHUE: Thank you.

P. DONOHUE: Thank you.

O'BRIEN: The Donohues, we should mention, have set up a Web site, www.sarahjanedonohue -- that's all one word -- .com. Vanessa and Patrick Donohue are the parents.

We're back right after this. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: The market tumbled Wednesday as oil prices reached another record high. With that story and a preview of today's action on Wall Street, Ali Velshi, he's in for Andy. He's "Minding Your Business" this morning.

ALI VELSHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: After a cute baby, I'm going to talk about oil prices and a market preview after a cute baby was on TV.

COSTELLO: I know. It's a hard act to follow.

VELSHI: If any of you are still here, tune in.

Let me tell you what the issue is. Yesterday late in the day, as we were tracking this storm, very late in the day in the last 15 minutes of trading or so, oil prices spiked to $67.32 a barrel, setting a new record. They've hit $68 in pre-market trading this morning. So we're really pushing this up, because so much of the oil in the United States comes from the Gulf Coast. And we're concerned that if the storm...

COSTELLO: So Katrina.

VELSHI: Katrina and her waves are what is to blame for this thing. Now, what happens is these Gulf Coast refineries and oil rigs and platforms, they watch this very closely. And when it starts to look a little like it's going to get a little windy, they shut them down. And people worry that that affect the flow coming in. Not really, because there's a lot of flow there. A couple days of shutdown is not going to shut, you know, our oil consumption down, but the prices are up. And the price for natural gas hit a high that it hasn't seen for about two-and-a-half or three years.

COSTELLO: See, that's going to be very troublesome again.

VELSHI: That's going to get people...

COSTELLO: When it starts to get colder...

VELSHI: Yes, yes.

COSTELLO: ... that's really going to be troublesome.

VELSHI: And you pay your heating bill in chunks. So you really feel that. Sometimes you feel that more than you feel the gas tank prices.

COSTELLO: Well, let's look at the effect it had on the markets.

VELSHI: It took the markets down in the last little bit of trading. Today, we're looking -- the futures are showing a little higher open today. We'll see what happens. These are busy business days.

COSTELLO: All right, Ali, thank you.

VELSHI: OK.

COSTELLO: Soledad.

O'BRIEN: That's the economic impact. Next up is a look at the path of Tropical Storm Katrina. The storm is heading, as we mentioned, for the Florida coast, expected to gain hurricane strength. We've got the latest on that path just ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: Closing in. Tropical Storm Katrina gaining strength as it moves toward south Florida, expected to become a hurricane soon. We're tracking the latest changes in the storm just ahead.

Deadline in Iraq. Negotiators trying to get all sides to finally agree on the constitution. What happens if this deadline expires without a deal?

And an emotional moment in Crawford, Texas. Cindy Sheehan returns to "Camp Casey," and a portrait of her son triggers some powerful emotions.

The president is also back in Crawford, and a caravan of his supporters are heading there, too.

That's all ahead on this AMERICAN MORNING.

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