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American Morning

Marine Massacre?; Aid Pouring into Indonesia

Aired May 31, 2006 - 07:00   ET

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

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: CNN's Kathleen Koch live at the Pentagon this morning with more.
Good morning, Kathleen.

KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Miles.

Right now, the Pentagon is not releasing any new details on the probe, but "The New York Times" is reporting that according to death certificates, and these were -- this was information given to them by a senior military official in Iraq, but according to death certificates, the 24 Iraqi victims all suffered from gunshot wounds, mostly to the head and to the chest. You will recall that the initial report made by the Marines after this incident was that it occurred that these victims were all killed by a roadside bomb.

Now, congressional sources have already told CNN that of the 24 victims, they included some seven women, three children, many of them shot in their beds. Those sources also told CNN that there were five unarmed men in a taxi also killed by gunshot wounds.

Now sources tell CNN that the investigation is substantially complete, could lead to murder charges perhaps as soon as next month, and of course the White House is now coming out, press Secretary Tony Snow, saying that when this investigation is complete, that all the details will be made public -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Kathleen, give us a sense of what sort of evidence is coming to light here.

KOCH: Well, Miles, again, as I said, the Pentagon isn't putting out a lot of evidence on this, because the investigation is still under way.

Now CNN did get the opportunity to talk to one of the Marines who was apparently in the humvee that was hit. Of course, one Marine was killed, and this Marine tells CNN about what happened.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CPL. JAMES CROSSAN, U.S. MARINE CORPS: Yes, but it's a tricky situation over there, because the enemy could be anywhere, but if someone does get hurt, you are going to get angry and you are going to want to retaliate, and some decisions that were made were bad ones, so I can't speak on behalf of them, because I wasn't conscious at the time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOCH: So Corporal Crossan giving some idea of what can happen in the heat of battle. Of course, the Pentagon insisting that some 99.9 percent of Marines who are serving in Iraq are serving honorably and certainly paying close attention to obeying the rules of engagement -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Kathleen Koch at the Pentagon, thank you very much.

Meanwhile, there's a high level call now for investigation into yet another incident in Haditha. The new Iraqi ambassador to the U.S., Samir Al-Sumidaie, says one of his relatives was killed there last June. Here's how he described it on CNN's "SITUATION ROOM" yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SAMIR AL-SUMAIDAIE, IRAQI AMB. TO U.S.: The Marines were doing house-to-house searches, and they went into the house of my cousin. He opened the door for them. His mother, his siblings were there. He let them into the bedroom of his father. And there he was shot. I believe he was killed intentionally. I believe that he was killed unnecessarily. And unfortunately, the investigations that took place after that sort of took a different course, and concluded that there was no unlawful killing. I would like further investigation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

M. O'BRIEN: But Al-Sumaidaie also says he's ultimately confident that the U.S. military's investigation of the November killings, that other incident we just told you about with Kathleen Koch, in Haditha, will be carried out properly. You can see more with Wolf Blitzer and "THE SITUATION ROOM" every weekday 4:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. Eastern Time -- Soledad.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: President Bush will be in Virginia this afternoon for a ceremonial swearing in of the new CIA director, General Michael Hayden. Hayden actually already started the job. He took his oath at the CIA yesterday.

Let's get right to CNN's Ed Henry. He's live for us at the White House.

Hey, Ed. Good morning.

ED HENRY, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.

That's right, we are expecting the president to make some brief remarks at CIA headquarters. Of course it's named after his father, a former director of that agency, and I think the president is mostly trying to buck up an agency that is really in some turmoil right now. You'll remember its power eclipsed just over a year ago by this new Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

To make matters worse, the last director, Porter Goss, resigned abruptly after a very tumultuous tenure. As you noted, the president did not even really need to make this trip. General Michael Hayden was officially sworn in officially yesterday in a private ceremony. But I think, at least symbolically, the president wants to show his new director, as well as all the agencies' employees, the White House still considers the CIA a critical part of the war on terror -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Can Hayden's swearing in be seen, do you think, Ed, as a big victory in a slew of certainly controversial problems for the president?

HENRY: Absolutely. I mean, this is a president who has been desperate for some victories. And I think it's a win, at least on two levels. First of all, the president's been getting a lot of static from fellow Republicans on the Hill, including initially over the Hayden nomination. It was Republicans, not Democrats, who mostly saying they did not necessarily think Hayden was the right man for the job. Well, the president held firm; he got his man confirmed.

And second of all, at the beginning of the process, you heard Democrats saying, this would be a test case on the president's domestic--surveillance program, that Hayden the chief architect of that as the head of the National Security Agency, and they, the Democrats, thought they might stop this nomination on the grounds that this program is not good, and as it turns out, if this was a test case, the president passed that test -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Ed Henry. Thanks, Ed -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Aid is pouring into the area of Indonesia hit by that big earthquake, but there as questions about whether it's getting to everyone who needs it. The quake killed more than 5,800, injured thousands more, and left perhaps a half-million homeless.

CNN's Hugh Riminton is Yogyakarta with more -- Hugh.

HUGH RIMINTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Miles, night is falling now, and this is the fifth night for, on some counts, up to 500,000, more than 500,000 people, who are sleeping under plastic. If they're lucky. Many of these people have not even had their first visit to doctors for injuries, which can include fractures and other abrasions, after their houses came down. Those sorts of injuries starting to get infected. So it's a big medical issue. It's also huge shelter issue.

We, I must say, have not found anger, in an open sense, from people who are sleeping out rough, but a lot of anxiety. How much longer are they going to stick around like this? They haven't seen coordinated, organized deliveries of food, of safe drinking water, and certainly not of the shelter that they so desperately needed. It is rainy season, and there is frequently showers in the evenings -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Hugh, give us a sense of the big needs are. We've talked about shelter, water, medicine. Which of those needs is being addressed best? Which least? RIMINTON: Yes. Well, you know, they need everything right now. There's been -- particularly in the last 24 hours, a lot of international help on the medical front. Initially, the hospitals here simply couldn't cope. There were thousands and thousands of people going to hospitals, and they were be turned away. Injures -- in one case, a man with a broken back was sent away, because he wasn't sufficiently badly injured to be treated in the first fury of this, in the first hours after the earthquake. There is some support coming in there. But shelter is desperately in short supply, and there's no sign that that is really going to be fixed, you know, you hate to say it, but not for weeks, or even possibly months, will these people back under secure roofs -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Hugh Riminton in Yogyakarta -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Back in the States, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff got a look at New Orleans' preparations for hurricane season. The season starts tomorrow, officially.

CNN's Jeanne Meserve got an exclusive interview with Secretary Chertoff, rode with him on the tour of the city, and it's something you're going to see only on CNN.

Jeanne is in New Orleans this morning.

Hey, Jeanne, good morning.

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.

Secretary Chertoff came here to find the answer to a question -- is New Orleans ready for hurricane season?

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I.D., please? OK. Your last name?

MICHAEL CHERTOFF, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: Chertoff, C-H-E- R-T-O-F-F.

MESERVE (voice over): Secretary Chertoff plays an evacuee to get a firsthand taste of what will happen if another big storm beelines for Orleans.

CNN was given exclusive access to Chertoff's visit to the city. He is looking for potholes, roadblocks, unexpected obstacles in hurricane planning, and he finds them. There is the city's emergency communications system.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We can communicate to the surrounding parishes and up the state, but we have to do it through a system of patches.

MESERVE: The system is gerry-rigged, far from perfect, but workable, says Chertoff. A local hospital shows off three new emergency generators, but acknowledges it may have staffing problems in a big storm.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One of the big issues that we have to worry about this year is people are afraid.

MESERVE: Riding a city bus, just as an evacuee would, Chertoff says there's one glaring problem.

CHERTOFF: I think the biggest outstanding challenge for us is shelter for people being evacuated.

MESERVE: Chertoff is working with the governor to find more shelter space in Louisiana, but it is a thorny issue. Some communities experienced problems with Katrina evacuees, and are reluctant to open doors next time around.

CHERTOFF: At the end of the day, we're all in this together, and we can't have a situation where people throw people out of a lifeboat, because they say, well, not in my lifeboat.

MESERVE: New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin brings the secretary another problem. The Regional Transit Authority will run out of money the very month hurricane season starts.

MYR. RAY NAGIN, NEW ORLEANS: That will mean that drivers will be laid off, and we won't have enough people to implement our evacuation plan.

MESERVE: Chertoff says the federal government will pay if it has to keep the drivers on the job.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MESERVE: A great unknown, whether storm-weary New Orleanians will leave the city when they're asked to. Chertoff says that could undercut some of the plans that have been made.

Soledad, Back to you.

S. O'BRIEN: What did Secretary Chertoff, Jeanne, say about the preparations for Hurricane Katrina and disasters like it this time around? I mean, is there a sense that he's 100 percent confident that in fact the U.S. is better prepared?

MESERVE: Well, I asked if they were prepared enough. He said they were better prepared than they ever have been. Have they done everything correctly? Have they done everything they should? Frankly, we'll only know the answer to that when the next big storm hits -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Jeanne Meserve for us this morning. Jeanne, thanks.

(WEATHER REPORT)

M. O'BRIEN: Tomorrow on American morning, we'll take a closer look at the official start of the 2006 hurricane season. As Chad points out, it's not like a switch gets flipped, but this is when the water starts to warm up enough to create these kinds of storms. We'll check in with the National Hurricane Center for the latest forecast. The director of FEMA, David Paulison, will join us for a look at how prepared the agency is, and we'll have live reports from Florida and the Gulf Coast as residents there brace for yet another go around. CNN remains your hurricane headquarters -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Still to come this morning, a former U.S. Marine hailed as a hero after fighting off as many as five would-be crooks. His heart, though, is heavy this morning. We'll tell you why.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Carol Costello in New York. He's not in Giants stadium and he's not under a horse barn either. The search for Hoffa over, for now.

M. O'BRIEN: And later, the so-called marriage crunch. If you're already past your 20s, are you really out of luck when it comes to finding a soulmate? Past your 20s, come on. No. That's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(NEWSBREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: Let's talk about the FBI and the latest search for Jimmy Hoffa. It's ended finally, and there is still no trace of the Teamsters boss. He's been missing for three decades. Carol Costello is live in the newsroom with more on this story.

Hi, Carol.

COSTELLO: Hi, Soledad. Good morning to all of you.

I mean, is anybody surprised by this? The FBI found nothing; 35 agents, anthropologists and cadaver-sniffing dogs failed to turn up Hoffa's remains. For 13 days they searched, and now it's over. Now it's not to say that Hoffa's body is not buried on the farm. FBI agents say they just can't find it, if it is.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JUDY CHILEN, FBI ASST. SPECIAL AGENT: After a thorough and comprehensive search, no remains of Mr. Hoffa have been located, and absent any additional new information, our work here has been concluded.

COSTELLO: The FBI calling off the dig at a suburban Detroit horse farm aptly named "Hidden Dreams." The latest search for Teamsters boss Jimmy Hoffa ended Tuesday with no end to the mystery surrounding his disappearance more than 30 years ago. The tip that led the feds to the Michigan farm came from a prison inmate who lived there in the '70s when Hoffa vanished.

But after 13 days of searching, and prodding, and digging and taking apart a horse barn, nothing.

CHILEN: Through work with the anthropologists, archaeologists, we searched the likely locations and have not been able to find the body.

COSTELLO: Jimmy Hoffa last seen on July 30th, 1975, after leaving a restaurant about 20 miles from the Detroit horse farm. What happened after that has become the stuff of legendary speculation. And the source of endless jokes and humor.

Federal authorities believe Hoffa was killed to keep him from regaining control of the Teamsters union and driving the mob out. He was officially declared dead in 1982, but the legend of Jimmy Hoffa lives on.

Despite coming up empty in their latest search, the FBI is promising, as it always has, to keep looking for Jimmy Hoffa.

CHILEN: We go where the investigation takes us. This search is where the evidence led us, and we will continue to follow up and pursue all leads in an effort to resolve this investigation and all other ongoing organized crime matters. We hope this sends a message to those involved in organized crime activities that the FBI does not give up and will pursue all logical investigations no matter how much time has passed.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: And they do view this as a logical investigation. Oddly, the federal prisoner who gave agents the tip may still profit from the information, even though they didn't find anything. According to the "Detroit Free Press," the information he gave was credible, and he could be given a reduced sentence. Oh, and the search costs taxpayers around $250,000 -- Miles.

S. O'BRIEN: Worth absolutely every dime -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Well, now all we know is he's not under that horse barn.

S. O'BRIEN: Cross that off, he is not under the barn.

M. O'BRIEN: Oh no, he could be there. They just maybe didn't find him.

S. O'BRIEN: Or don't cross it off, asterisk it. All right, Carol, thank you.

M. O'BRIEN: All right. Still to come on the program, we're "Minding Your Business" for you. The Dow, it was messy. It was messy. Andy will tell us why, and more importantly, tell you what to expect for the day ahead.

And what really happened in Haditha? Was it a Marine massacre? We'll hear from some who were there. That's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BUSINESS HEADLINES) S. O'BRIEN: Ahead this morning, we'll tell you the story of a hero what has a heavy heart. A former Marine explains how he fought off as many as five would-be robbers, but left one of them dead. A CNN exclusive. That's ahead.

BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATL. CORRESPONDENT: I'm Bob Franken in Washington. The Hill is alive with the sound of soundbites. We'll be talking about that on AMERICAN MORNING in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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