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American Morning

American Evacuations From Lebanon; Israel Warplanes Still Targeting Lebanon, Hezbollah Continues to Return Fire in Haifa; Hospital Arrests in New Orleans

Aired July 18, 2006 - 09:01   ET

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

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Trying to get Americans out. A cruise ship in Beirut now ready to evacuate some Americans. Others have gone by helicopter, as you can see. But is it too little, too late?
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Parts ofs Indonesia devastated again by a massive tsunami. The death toll rising to more than 300 this morning.

Republican senators turning their backs on President Bush. Expanded stem cell funding could be approved today, despite the promise of a veto from the White House.

M. O'BRIEN: And a heat wave hammering much of the country. Any relief in sight? A full forecast from the brand new weather center is ahead on this AMERICAN MORNING.

Good morning to you.

COSTELLO: And a beautiful weather center it is.

M. O'BRIEN: The Weather Ship Enterprise.

Good morning to you. I'm Miles O'Brien.

COSTELLO: I'm Carol Costello, in for Soledad. Soledad is on assignment in Cyprus. We'll get to her in just a minute.

M. O'BRIEN: We begin in the Middle East, of course. More fighting between Hezbollah and Israel, and growing concern about Americans caught in the middle. The Pentagon stepping up efforts to evacuate Americans trapped in Lebanon who want to go home. A cruise ship chartered by the U.S. is now waiting in the port of Beirut. The Orient Queen, under U.S. Navy escort, on its way, as well.

There is good reason for concern about -- for -- for those trapped. Israeli bombs struck a Lebanese army base and a house near the border, killing 16. Hezbollah continues to return fire with rockets landing all morning in the northern Israeli port of Haifa. That's the third largest city in that country.

At least 180 Lebanese, 24 Israelis are now dead after seven days of fighting.

The United Nations is trying to negotiate a cease-fire. Israel says it will take another week, however, to create a buffer zone in southern Lebanon.

Soledad is in Larnaca, Cyprus, where evacuees from the war are heading for safety. She joins us now with more -- Soledad.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Hey, Miles. More on that Orient Queen now.

Seven hundred fifty passengers can get on that -- on that ship which, will then be escorted, as you mentioned. You know, it's a very slow process.

First, they have to process each and every passenger who comes on board. It's not just like opening up the doors and letting people come on.

In addition to that, it takes a long time. It has to be done before sundown. And once that happens, sundown comes, then the ship takes off. And that means, as we saw with the French ship which arrived early this morning, if you don't get everybody on board and processed, well, then you basically run out of time.

The French ship came with fewer passengers than it could actually carry. It could carry 1,200 passengers. Only 950 or so were on board. And that meant there were people, hundreds of people who were left behind who could have gotten on that ship.

What Americans are being told is that they can bring one bag. They need to bring all their important documents. No pets allowed whatsoever.

And they have to sign a waiver, too, Miles, which means they will reimburse the government essentially for their -- for their evacuation fees. And that, we have seen in some published reports, not quite sitting well with Americans who have been even afraid to complain, use their names because they feel there might be some retaliation against them as they try to evacuate -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: OK. So, basically, right now they are being said -- we'll take you out, but you've got to pay later?

S. O'BRIEN: Right.

M. O'BRIEN: Interesting. All right. We'll follow...

S. O'BRIEN: Reimbursed. You've got to -- you have to agree to reimburse for what it costs. You know, several thousand dollars, probably.

You know, it's -- it's a complicated -- I mean, there are other ways to get out. Americans have tried to get out through -- through Syria, and there were three main roads out to Damascus, and two of them have been bombed. So there's only one now. And there's some back roads, too.

The embassy is not advising that. It's too dangerous. Other nations have taken that route, gotten some of their people out in convoys, et cetera.

But, you know, as we've said, it's sort of a time game, a numbers game. And it's a dangerous game as things continue to ratchet up and don't seem to show any signs of slowing.

M. O'BRIEN: You know, Soledad, I talked with Nick Burns, the under secretary of state, last hour, and he said the effort is going well and is organized. Can you tell -- I know you just got there, but can you tell if that is in fact the reality?

S. O'BRIEN: Well, you know, it's -- I don't think he's necessarily wrong. It's organized for a war time.

I think that the people who are trapped, of course, would like to have been out three days ago and feel very confused by the directions. For example, they are told they should wait for e-mail. They're told they should watch television. None of that, of course, is exactly comforting if you're petrified and you've got children with you and you're desperate to get out and you're a vacationer, or even if you're an American, you know, foreign national in that country.

So, probably from the embassy standpoint, it is going well. They've got ships going. And we have seen similar efforts on all fronts.

Other nations, frankly, have been able to get their people out faster and in bigger numbers. But I think there are issues that some nations have been arranging for their people to go by land that the Americans don't feel comfortable with, taking the Americans right through -- straight through to Syria. They don't think it's safe enough.

So, I don't think he's necessarily wrong. Organized for war time may not be any definition of organized if you're trapped somewhere and you want to get out.

O'BRIEN: All right, Soledad. We'll be back with you in just a little bit. Thank you -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Talking about that cruise ship and safety, the Pentagon now sending U.S. warships to Lebanon to help with the evacuations. How soon can they get there, though?

CNN Senior Pentagon Correspondent Jamie McIntyre has the lowdown.

Good morning.

JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SR. PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Carol, they're still a couple of days away.

This is the Iwo Jima strike group. It's a group of amphibious assault ships that was conducting exercises in the Red Sea. They've collected the Marines that were in those exercises, and now they've been ordered to proceed off the coast of Lebanon. They still have to transit to Suez Canal. So, they are a day or so away. But these are big amphibious landing ships that have a lot of helicopters. They also have hospital facilities on board. They're big ships, they have helicopters.

So, obviously, they have a great capacity to assist in the evacuation. But exactly what they're going to be doing we're not clear at this point.

Again, the U.S. government is under some criticism for the pace of the evacuation operations. Helicopter evacuations have continued today.

We're told from State Department sources that two helicopters took off today with 30 more Americans who had particular needs. The helicopters are being used for people who need to get out very urgently. About more than 60 taken out in the last two days, another 30 today. And those helicopter operations are going to continue.

So, we're seeing the United States government step up the pace of their capability to get people out, but so far none of the ships are there -- Carol.

COSTELLO: And you talked about exactly what role these ships could play. They could simply escort the cruise ships, or they could allow people to board the war ships to evacuate them.

MCINTYRE: Yes. And that's right. And, you know, presumably, these kinds of ships that have a big deck, they have a lot of space, these are big ships. Essentially, some of them are helicopter carriers. They look like little aircraft carriers.

They have a lot of room. So they could take a lot of people on that basically short jaunt from Lebanon to Cyprus, where -- which is going to be the transfer point to move to other locations. So -- and also included in that is what's called a swift boat, which will also be possibly used to load up people and take them.

So, it does appear that these ships would be used to transport people, not just to provide security or export.

COSTELLO: Jamie McIntyre live at the Pentagon this morning.

Thanks.

Israeli warplanes still pounding Lebanon this morning. They targeted an army barracks, killing nine Lebanese soldiers. That's just one of several airstrikes today.

In the meantime, Hezbollah responding with rockets aimed once again at the northern Israeli city of Haifa.

CNN's Paula Hancocks is live in Haifa to tell us more.

Good morning.

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello again, Carol. Well, just a few hours ago we had a couple of rockets that landed in and around Haifa, Israel's third largest city. Now we understand from the police that there were no casualties and no damage reported this time around, but over the past few days there have been barrages of rockets hitting all over northern Israel.

We know that on Monday more than 50 rockets hit northern Israel. Ten just in Haifa alone.

Now, many people have headed south trying to get out of the reach of these rockets coming from southern Lebanon. And we know that the port, Haifa port, behind me, which is Israel's biggest port, has been closed on Monday. And also, any ships that have any dangerous substances in or flammable goods inside have been moved away because there are worries that they could catch fire if a rocket does hit them.

Now, we know the heightened terror alert has gone all the way down to Tel Aviv. That's half the country. And also, we're hearing from the Israeli air force that they believe they destroyed at least 10 long-range missiles that were made by Iran that Hezbollah had in its control on Monday. Now, they believe that those missiles could, in fact, reach Tel Aviv.

Now, we heard from Ehud Olmert, the Israeli prime minister, on Monday evening. He said Israel will no longer be held hostage to terror.

He also replied -- he also reiterated exactly what his conditions for a cease-fire are. He said, first of all, they have to make sure they get two kidnapped soldiers taken last Wednesday back safely into Israel. Also, he said that Lebanese troops must be in the buffer zone in southern Lebanon, just on the border with Israel, and make sure that Hezbollah is nowhere near that border so they can't carry out attacks in the future.

And finally, they want Hezbollah to obey the U.N. Security Council Resolution 1559, which basically asks it to disarm. This was passed two years ago and as yet has not been complied with -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Paula Hancocks live in Haifa, Israel, this morning.

Thanks.

M. O'BRIEN: Now to New Orleans, where a doctor and two nurses face murder charges this morning. They are accused of killing some of their patients to make it easier to evacuate their hospital after Katrina hit last year.

This is a story you heard here first on CNN. The story broken by Investigative Correspondent Drew Griffin, who joins us now live from New Orleans with details on the charges -- Drew.

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT: The charges allegedly took place at Memorial Hospital, the big hospital here in New Orleans, in those days after Katrina, Miles, when the hospital was surrounded by water, the staff feeling abandoned, feeling and actually told they could not leave without "taking care of their patients."

The allegation now being filed as charges by the attorney general of Louisiana is that this one doctor, Dr. Anna Pou, and two nurses, Lori Budo and Cheri Landry, deliberately murdered patients in order that they could evacuate that hospital. You know, basically leave them behind.

Here's what we're expecting today. These three people, we are told, will be making an appearance, or are expected to make an appearance in a first appearance setting here in Orleans Parish. And also, later today, Charles Foti, the attorney general, and his staff who have been investigating this since the days after Katrina, expected to announce in a news conference their findings, tell us exactly how many victims may have been involved in this, and also lay out their case against medical professionals who are now charged with deliberately killing patients -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Drew Griffin in New Orleans. Thank you very much -- Carol.

COSTELLO: In Iraq, south of Baghdad today, more sectarian violence. A suicide car bomber kills at least 45 people, injures 60 more in Kufa, a city considered holy by Shia Muslims. On Monday, an attack left at least 40 Iraqis dead.

CNN's Arwa Damon joins us live from Baghdad to tell us more.

Good morning.

ARWA DAMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.

Well, the attack happened at 7:30 in the morning just as day laborers were gathered looking for work. And at that point, we're told by the Iraqi emergency police, a suicide car bomber drove his vehicle into the group and detonated his explosives, killing at least 40, wounding another 60.

Now, this incident comes on the heels of another devastating attack that happened yesterday morning, this time targeting a market in Mahmoudiya, just south of Baghdad. Over 40 killed in that attack, dozens more wounded. And this, again, targeting Iraqi civilians as they are going about their daily lives in the market, shopping for fruits and vegetables.

Both of these attacks in the last two days have killed over 100 Iraqis, not to include dozens more who were killed in separate attacks across the country. Just underscoring how crucial it is for Iraq's government to be able to establish security and stability throughout the country -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Talking about security, you have more information on those two soldiers who were killed and mutilated last month. Tell us what you know.

DAMON: Well, Iraq's national security advisor made a big announcement a few hours ago at a press conference saying that Iraqi security forces, along with U.S. backup, U.S. forces used as backup in an operation, had killed a member of al Qaeda in Iraq who they believe was responsible for the execution of those two soldiers.

They identified him as Abu al-Afghani (ph). He is Jordanian- born, who was operating in Iraq. He was formerly operating in Falluja up until 2005. And at that point he moved his operations to Yusufiyah.

He was also believed to be very close to former al Qaeda in Iraq Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. In fact, his name was being thrown around as being perhaps his replacement -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Arwa Damon live in Baghdad this morning.

The death toll from Monday's earthquake and tsunami in Indonesia has risen to more than 300, with at least 430 injured. The government says 115 people are still missing, more than 35,000 are homeless. Most of the deaths are from the tsunami that washed ashore with waves up to 10 feet high.

M. O'BRIEN: Firefighters still hard at it in southern California, hoping they can at least declare at least a partial victory tonight. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger touring one of the most damaged areas yesterday.

The 62,000-acre Sawtooth fire nearly contained. Crews hope to contain a smaller adjacent fire in the next three to five days. Now the concern is rain and flashfloods.

California and a large part of the nation getting more heat than it can handle. Temperatures could soar into the triple digits in parts of the West, the Northeast, and the Southern Plains. It doesn't leave much not affect by the heat wave, does it?

So far, the heat wave is blamed for at least one death.

Let's get the forecast now from Chad Myers, who is in our new weather center this morning.

Good morning, Chad.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: I am. We'll do a tour in the next half-hour, though, Miles.

(WEATHER REPORT)

MYERS: Back to you guys.

M. O'BRIEN: Thank you, Chad.

COSTELLO: Coming up, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice heads to the Middle East for a diplomatic mission, but has the United States already lost credibility? We're going to pose that question to a former Clinton advisor.

M. O'BRIEN: Also, conflict, of course, is nothing new to the Middle East. We'll look at why religions have fought over the same piece of land for centuries.

COSTELLO: And later, you'll meet an American family desperate for news -- for news of loved ones in Lebanon. Their tearful vigil just ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: So what can the U.S. do to try to stop the shooting in the Middle East? We overheard the president yesterday saying he will send Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to the region to do some shuttle diplomacy, but the Israelis, and apparently the U.S., say now is not the time.

Robert Malley was an advisor to President Clinton on Arab-Israeli affairs. He's now with the International Crisis Group. He joins us now to talk more about this.

He has written about the new Mideast crisis in this week's "TIME" magazine, by the way. You might want to check out that piece. It's well worth reading.

Good to have you with us, Robert.

ROBERT MALLEY, INTERNATIONAL CRISIS GROUP: Thanks for having me.

M. O'BRIEN: First of all, Condoleezza Rice, should she go? Should she go now? And should she limit herself to Lebanon and Israel?

MALLEY: Well, you know, not going now does look a bit odd given that the whole region is aflame. I could understand why the president wants to send her, but we have lost leverage. We've lost our ability to influence events because we don't talk to the parties who are really controlling things. Syria is one of them, Iran is another. And so, we are subcontracting our diplomacy to actors like the U.N., who we don't really trust.

M. O'BRIEN: We just had the under secretary of state, Nicholas Burns, on here, and he said we have active diplomacy ongoing with Syria, we just don't necessarily see it in the headlines.

MALLEY: Well, no, the active diplomacy he's talking about is we do have an embassy there even though we've recalled the ambassador. And so we have diplomatic exchanges. But I think you and I know that that's not the same thing as having a real diplomatic engagement, where you hear what the other side wants, you may not agree, but you answer, and you try to see if there's a deal on the table.

M. O'BRIEN: The undergirding philosophy here for the Bush administration is, the way you punish players who are not acting according to the way you'd like them to act is you shut them out.

MALLEY: Right.

M. O'BRIEN: There's some logic in that, isn't there? MALLEY: I mean, there's logic to it, but talking is a favor to the other side. It could be a favor to us as well. And when you see the situation now, where the region is really heading towards a large- scale escalation, great loss of life, we're not even in the picture. It's hard to see how that is a positive balance sheet. Talking sometimes could actually be a way to convey tough messages, but also to listen and see whether there is a diplomatic solution available.

M. O'BRIEN: Did -- how did the Clinton administration engage Syria differently than the Bush administration is now?

MALLEY: Because we engaged them. I mean, what happened in '96, Secretary Christopher did a huge amount of...

M. O'BRIEN: You're talking about Warren Christopher, the secretary of state at the time.

MALLEY: Warren Christopher, the secretary of state at the time. He went to Syria countless times, and did manage at the time to achieve a cease-fire between Hezbollah and Israel in the situation that was not even as bad as what is now appearing.

So there's a way to do it. It's very hard, because when you don't use diplomatic tools they wither away. And that's what's happened over the last six years.

M. O'BRIEN: Ultimately, though, everything that was done in the content of the Clinton administration, up to and including a tremendous effort on the part of President Clinton, led to nothing, led to no agreement.

So, is that a case that perhaps the Clinton philosophy, the approach he took was not successful?

MALLEY: Well, it certainly didn't achieve what the president and what his entire team wanted to achieve. But I would prefer to have the nothing we had than the something we have today, with the casualties and with what is really the destruction of a country, Lebanon. And, of course, the civilians, as usual, are paying all the price.

M. O'BRIEN: Is there such a thing as too much U.S. engagement? In other words, for example, a Clinton Camp David type of scenario, where you have at the highest levels of government trying to engage these players. A lot of credibility and prestige of the U.S. government is put on the line.

Is that too much engagement?

MALLEY: You know, there's an argument about that, about Camp David. And historians will decide. Right now we're so far from that. Nobody is talking be about that kind of day-to-day presidential involvement at a summit.

We're just talking about seeing whether the U.S. can talk, use its influence, use its leverage, use its power to try to stop the bloodshed. That's not the kind of engagement that anyone would qualify as overengagement.

M. O'BRIEN: Final thought here. When you talk about engaging the Syrians and you talk about Hezbollah, you talk about people that have been characterized, Hezbollah in particular, as terrorists. You wouldn't suggest engaging and having a dialogue with Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda, also terrorist? I mean, you see...

MALLEY: Or Hezbollah. Or Hezbollah.

M. O'BRIEN: OK.

MALLEY: We're not even talking to those who talk to those who need to act. And President Bush said it yesterday to Prime Minister Blair, when he said, you know, we should get the Syrians to tell Hezbollah to stop what it's doing. Somebody has to tell that to the Syrians. And if we're not in the picture, as I said, we're either subcontracting it to parties who we don't have full confidence in, or we're just letting the fighting continue. And as I said, the civilians are the ones that are going to pay that price.

M. O'BRIEN: Robert Malley, formerly with the Clinton administration, now with the International Crisis Group.

I recommend the article you wrote in "TIME" magazine this week.

Thank you.

MALLEY: Thank you.

M. O'BRIEN: Carol.

COSTELLO: Miles, we're getting some new pictures in from Beirut, Lebanon, or at least around Beirut in the suburban areas. You're looking at some devastation.

We've been telling you all morning that Israeli warplanes have been striking Lebanese targets today. We believe this is in a suburb that is a Hezbollah stronghold. Reuters is reporting 23 people have been killed here. And, of course, Hezbollah retaliated this morning, firing six rockets into Haifa.

You can see reporters running from the scene as these rockets strike. Again, new pictures we're just getting in showing the devastation. This is a suburban area.

We believe that among the 23 people killed there today, nine belong to the same family. When we get new pictures in, of course, we'll share them with you.

We'll take a break. We'll be back with more.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: Good morning. And welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING.

We're tracking this morning a continuing barrage of violence back and forth across the border between Lebanon and Israel. Here you see some scenes from southern Beirut. This apparently the aftermath of an Israeli air attack on the stronghold neighborhood of Beirut, where many Hezbollah leadership and many people loyal to Hezbollah live.

We're trying to tally up all of the casualties, and frankly don't -- having a hard time getting all the numbers together. But the fact is, the attacks and the reprisals continue.

Rockets being lobbed on the northern Israeli port city of Haifa, the third largest city. And airstrikes conning in Beirut today.

We've got reporters all throughout the region, including Soledad, who is in Cyprus, where many of the Westerners who have been trapped in the crossfire in Lebanon now being evacuated. There you see Cyprus not far away, about a five hour steam by cruise ship.

Some 25,000 Americans in Lebanon now. Many of them desperate to get out.

We're tracking all that for you this morning.

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