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American Morning

New Attacks This Morning on Israeli Port City of Haifa; Hospital Deaths

Aired July 21, 2006 - 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: And welcome back, everybody, to a special edition of AMERICAN MORNING. We're coming to you this morning live from Jerusalem.
Good morning, Miles.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, Soledad.

I'm Miles O'Brien in New York.

New attacks this morning on the Israeli port city of Haifa, one of several cities targeted by Katyusha rockets fired by Hezbollah guerrillas. North of the border in Southern Lebanon, we're told as many as 10 injured in Haifa alone. There you see the scene in the wake of one of these attacks. These Katyusha rockets lobbed across the border, had been a 24-hour respite from that activity in the city of Haifa. As we say, four other northern Israeli cities were targeted in the last hour or so. We're doing our best to get further information on what the injury toll might be. We'll keep you posted on that.

No end in sight for the war in the Middle East. As a matter of fact, it appears this morning, as you just saw, that things seem to be escalating once again. The U.S. poised to send the Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to the region. Israel poised, or so it appears, for a ground invasion, an all-out invasion from Southern Lebanon.

White House spokesman Tony Snow joining us from the White House now to talk a little bit about this.

Tony, good to have you with us this morning.

TONY SNOW, WHITE HOUSE SPOKESMAN: Thank you, Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: There's a column in "The Washington Post." I want to share a brief excerpt from you. This talks about the U.S. timetable in all of this. The secretary of state going perhaps as early as Tuesday to the region. Says this -- David Ignatius, the author -- "The problem is that the American diplomatic timetable is so slow that by the time a cease-fire is reached, Lebanon may be to broke on it put back together any time soon." There's a lot of concern that fledgling democracy in Beirut -- we talked about the Cedar Revolution -- may not be able to withstand all of this. Is the U.S. doing enough and doing enough quickly to nurse along that democracy?

SNOW: Yes, well, I like David, but with all due respect, he doesn't know what's going on behind the scenes. As a matter of fact, the United States has been very aggressively involved from the beginning in diplomacy on this.

In fact, Miles, even before this became a glimmer in terrorist's eyes we were involved it, because a couple of years ago the United States cosponsored U.N. Security Council 1559 that addressed the root cause that we're dealing with today, which is Hezbollah. It's an independent militia in Southern Lebanon acting independently and in defiance of the government, placing Lebanese citizens in harm's way, treating them as human shields. So that is a huge hugely important problem.

When the cross-border incursion began, the president, the secretary of state, the secretary of defense, the national security advisers and their designees immediately started working the problem. We dispatched Elliott Abrams from the National Security Council and David Welch from the Department of State to the region immediately.

So the notion that we've been sort of sitting around and having glacial diplomacy is just flat wrong.

On the other hand, it's a complicated problem, and the United States has been very firm on reminding people that you've got to make choices when dealing with terrorists. Do you allow them to continue to have the capacity to destabilize nations and the region, or do you address the cause? Hezbollah started this. The president has said from the beginning, they need to return the Israeli soldiers they kidnapped; they need to stop firing the rockets. You just mentioned the attacks today. Everybody's agreed on that, and that is the way forward. Hezbollah has to cease and desist, and that will create the conditions in which, we hope, we're going to be able to have some stability in Southern Lebanon.

As for the government, we're keenly concerned about the integrity and the future of the government of Prime Minister Maliki. The United States has been working with allies and having consultations by the humanitarian land bridge to get humanitarian supplies in. We know there's going to be reconstruction after this is all done.

But on the other hand, nothing is a greater factor in destabilizing the government right now than Hezbollah itself.

M. O'BRIEN: Let's talk about that, though. Hezbollah started it, given the fact that the kidnappings of the soldiers occurred. The big question that is on a lot of people's minds is the Israeli response, whether it is proportionate.

Listen to the secretary-general of the United Nations.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KOFI ANNAN, U.N. SECY.-GEN.: While Hezbollah's actions are deplorable, and as I've said, Israel has a right to defend itself, the excessive use of force is to be condemned.

(END VIDEO CLIP) M. O'BRIEN: Is it excessive?

SNOW: Well, we condemn excessive use of force, but you will notice the way that was phrased. He didn't actually say, Israel was guilty of excessive use of force. He said, excessive force is could be condemned.

We have said from the start that the Israelis need to practice restraint for obvious reason. I mean, you look at the civilian casualties, and it's an awful thing.

On the other hand, you have to keep in mind that Hezbollah conducts operations in a way to put civilians right in the line of fire. They use houses as places for putting rockets, or they use civilian areas. They put radars in the middle of civilian areas, so in order to strike back at Hezbollah, guess what, guess who gets caught in the crossfire? Innocents, that is reprehensible.

M. O'BRIEN: Let's talk about the larger picture here for a moment. There are some who would suggest, no less than "The Wall Street Journal" editorial pages, that the war in Iraq is somehow inviting a lot of the trouble we're seeing.

Let me share a brief excerpt with you: "The real problem is the growing perception among Arab regimes and terrorist frontmen that the U.S. is so bogged down in Iraq and so suddenly differential to the wishes to the international community that it has lost its appetite for serious reform." How do you respond to that one?

SNOW: Well, for one thing, the United States has been more aggressive than anybody else on all of those tracks.

It's interesting, because people get angry when you use military force and people get mad when you use diplomatic force. You got to use what is appropriate to the time and situation, and the United States understands that Hezbollah answers to Syria and Iran, and we have been putting pressure through the people who can actually assert it. We're at a distance. The Saudis aren't. The Turks aren't. The Jordanians aren't. The Egyptians aren't. They're in the neighborhood. They've got a vested interest in creating peace. We've been working with them, and the president has spoken directly with the leaders of those countries.

M. O'BRIEN: But more to the point of the editorial there, the question is, with the U.S. bogged down in Iraq, is that somehow sending a message to an Arab world and inviting attacks?

SNOW: No. As a matter of fact, I think what you're seeing here is that Hezbollah and others are realizing that the United States has disabled al Qaeda in large part. You do have violence in Iraq, and that's being addressed. You see terrorist organizations slowly getting the message, hey, we may not be able to sit around and develop the kind of resources that we have in the past; we may not be able to sit around and try to collect power over a period of time so we can destabilize the governments. They realize that everybody now is in the business of making choices, making the choices of whether to look the other way as terrorists grow in strength and in number, or whether they're going to go ahead and start taking measures to make sure that democracy can take root in the region.

So I would argue the opposite. The United States has been actively engaged in all of these fronts and is capable of doing so. Secretary Rice, as you mentioned, is going to be in the region soon.

And what we've been able to do, is we've been able to put together coalitions that have direct interests in the number of crises now so the people who are most interested, the people who are close by are able to assert maximum influence. It's common sense.

M. O'BRIEN: Tony Snow, White House press secretary, thank you.

SNOW: Thanks, Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Soledad?

S. O'BRIEN: All right, here's a question for you, and a big question -- are we close to seeing some kind of a ground offensive by Israel into Lebanon? You heard just a few moments ago Paula Newton reporting, in fact, that Israel is ready to call up some of its reserve troops. Also, a leaflet, telling people in the southern part of Lebanon that they need to evacuate. Lebanon says it is committed to protecting its border against any kind of invasion. You heard just a little while ago Nic Robertson talking exclusively to the president of Lebanon, who said yes, indeed, they will protect their border.

Larry King spoke to the Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora about that question, and here's what he said. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FOUAD SINIORA, PRIME MINISTER OF LEBANON: It is not the quantity of arms and weapons that makes the security of any people or any country. It is in its ability to build good relations with its neighbors. It is not through killing and vengeance, and the spreading death here and there, and making destruction. It is by creating confidence, and creating confidence can't happen without really working towards a comprehensive and just peace in the Middle East, whereby all they can cooperate together. I think this is probably an opportunity. It is very, very important for historic men to see how they can convert a calamity or a problem situation into an opportunity.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

S. O'BRIEN: The Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora talking with Larry King on "LARRY KING LIVE" last night.

Several Israelis that we've been speaking to today have been comparing what has been happening now with Hezbollah in Lebanon to what happened in America during 9/11. We had a chance to talk with a few of them as we did a little bit of a tour of the old city.

Here's what they said. Listen. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I used to work two blocks from World Trade Center. And for me to go there and not see those two buildings is very sad, so you know, so if people, I mean country, or terrorist organization attack you, you go and, you know, do anything. I mean, you are free to do anything.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It needs to be continued.

S. O'BRIEN: Forever?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It needs to be continued until they need to understand, you know, to stop doing all of this, because you know, either before a few years before, it was happened all the time, so they need to stop.

S. O'BRIEN: The skirmishes back and forth?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And when our soldiers (INAUDIBLE), because soldiers who, not provide us, who...

S. O'BRIEN: Protect.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Secure us, yes, protect us from our enemies.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I know for some Americans they think that Israel is a street corner in a bad neighborhood, but it's a whole country, and we have friends who are refugees from the north who are going through a hard time. We've been here for two-and-a-half weeks. For us, it's been totally normal. I played golf in Cesaria (ph). I came for a learning program at Jerusalem that I studied. We've eaten at the restaurants.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

S. O'BRIEN: That was Steve Wylan (ph), a guy from New Jersey, who was visiting and we ran into him in the Old City, giving us some of his perspective on what's happening as well.

Some reports of clashes, and we saw a few ourselves this morning here in the Old City, just before noon prayers. Some young Arabs were trying to get through the gates to get into the prayers mosque, and in fact they were stopped by police, something they do whenever the tensions are running high. And it also to some degree set up what I would call minor clashes, with arguments back and forth. In some cases, Arab-Israelis, so the people who live here, who are Arab, who are suddenly not allowed to get into the mosque, the access being controlled by Israelis. And so we saw what I would characterize as sort of minor friction, clashes, as that was going on right before afternoon prayers, prayers at noon -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Soledad, thank you very much. Back with you in just a little bit. There's another front in this war, where it all began, with the kidnapping of an Israeli corporal three weeks ago. Israeli troops had targeted a refugee camp. They left that camp, but the fighting does continue in Gaza.

CNN's Matthew Chance joining us live from there -- Matthew.

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Thanks very much, Miles.

Well, certainly the level of military action here in the Gaza Strip is nowhere near as intense as has been witnessed in Lebanon and in the south of Beirut, and elsewhere across that country. But certainly you say this is Israel's other front, and Israel certainly has not forgotten it. You mentioned there Israeli trooped pulled out of one of the areas they've been in for the past several days, clashing with Palestinian militants. But they've come back in to in an area just south of where I'm standing right now, just to the east of Gaza City, where they've been clashing again with Palestinian militants, firing tank shells, returning fire in those clashes, at least four people from one family, we understand, were killed in one exchange with the Israeli forces, witnessed their funerals earlier today.

Israel is trying to do two things in the Gaza Strip. First of all, get the release of that Israeli Corporal Gilad Shalit who was abducted late last month in an incident which really sparked this latest crisis. They want him released. They haven't achieved that yet.

The other thing they're trying to do is deprive the Palestinian militants of areas from which they can fire their makeshift rockets into southern Israel. They're rockets are nowhere near as accurate or as powerful as the rockets being fired by Hezbollah from Lebanon, but they've been a real thorn in the side for Israelis over the past several years. They're still doing that as well, though, and so these Israeli operations are still continuing to try and put an end to them, Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: So, Matthew, I get the sense, lower grade, but still very persistent there, no real end in sight.

CHANCE: It's still persistent, and it's still very bloody.

And it's very difficult as well, Miles, for ordinary Palestinians who aren't militants, who are caught in the middle of all of this. Because what Israel has done in its attempt to stop the terrorists in Gaza from operating, is hit the electricity stations, hit the water- supply systems, hit the sanitation systems, and so life for ordinary Palestinians, which was already extremely difficult, is even harder now.

M. O'BRIEN: Matthew Chance in Gaza City, thank you very much.

(WEATHER REPORT)

M. O'BRIEN: Still to come on the program, has Israel's response been over the top? We'll ask a top Israeli officials about that.

But first, the story of a 90-year-old grandmother. She died in a hospital in New Orleans right after Katrina. Her family says she was murdered by medical personnel. We'll tell you the story ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: We'll get back to our coverage of the crisis in the Middle East in just a moment. More now on those alleged mercy killings in New Orleans. A doctor and two nurses accused of murdering four patients to expedite the evacuation of the hospital, post- Katrina.

The family of one woman who died there spoke with CNN's Susan Roesgen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SUSAN ROESGEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Three days after the hurricane, New Orleans Memorial Medical center was surrounded by water. The hospital had lost power, no air-conditioning, no plumbing, no way to power the machines to keep some patients alive.

Trapped in what seemed like a desperate situation was 90-year-old Rose Savoie. But her family says she was a feisty independent woman, nowhere near dying.

SUE PORTIER, GRANDDAUGHTER: If she had something to do, she would get there and do it. She didn't want anybody to do it for her. She just...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If you tried to help her out of a chair or something...

PORTIER: No, I can do that.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, I can do that. You don't need to help me. I don't need no help.

PORTIER: Let me do that by myself.

ROESGEN: The family says Savoie has just survived a bout of bronchitis and was not being treated at the hospital for any illness. In fact, she wasn't even one of the hospital patients.

(on camera): Family members say the day before the hurricane, Savoie was brought to the hospital by the staff at the nursing home where she lived with the idea that she'd be safer here. Three days later, she was dead.

(voice-over): The state attorney general, Charles Foti, has refused to publicly identify the four alleged victims, except by their initials and birth dates, but Rose Savoie's family says the attorney general told them she was "R.S." Foti accuses a doctor and two nurses of intentionally administering lethal doses of drugs to all four victims. CHARLES FOTI, LA. ATTY. GEN.: This is not euthanasia; this is a homicide.

ROESGEN: Lawyers for the accused say they're innocent, and the case will be turned over to a New Orleans grand jury. In the meantime, the arrest warrant for the doctor and nurses contains a chilling detail about one of the alleged victim's last moments. It says a witness saw a nurse inject R.S. with something, and then heard R.S. say, "That burns."

PORTIER: When I heard that on the news when they said that, I knew it was her. I didn't have to see her name, I didn't have to see her date of birth; I knew it was her. It's just like standing there and shooting somebody with a gun. It doesn't give anybody the right to just inject somebody and take their life away, because they don't know how much time on Earth they have left.

ROESGEN: Savoie's daughter and granddaughter say they didn't know what happened to her until two months after the hurricane, when they got a call from the morgue. Now they want to know why a woman who went into a hospital for her own safety didn't come out alive.

Susan Roesgen, CNN, New Orleans.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

M. O'BRIEN: The doctor and two nurses are each accused of being a principal to second-degree murder, a conviction would carry a mandatory life sentence.

Coming up on the program, the Syria conundrum. No one holds more sway over Hezbollah, but the U.S. says it is a bad idea to engage Damascus. Is that really the path to peace?

And how far is too far? Is Israel laying the groundwork for a backlash in the future? We'll pose that question as well ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BUSINESS ANALYSIS)

M. O'BRIEN: We'll have the latest on the conflict in the Middle East after a break. As a matter of fact, we have some live pictures coming to us from Haifa. There you see the scene, rockets raining down once again on that Israeli port city 20 miles south of the border with Lebanon. We're told there are at least 10 injuries there, and there are four other cities affected by that Katyusha rocket fire launched by Hezbollah. We'll get you the latest after a break. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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