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American Morning
America Votes 2006; Crisis in the Middle East; Drafting Peace; The Iraq Effect
Aired August 09, 2006 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. It is Wednesday, August 9. I'm Soledad O'Brien.
TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Good morning.
HARRIS: I'm Tony Harris -- good morning, everyone -- in for Miles O'Brien this week.
Let's get you started this morning with a look at the morning's headlines.
O'BRIEN: Down but not out, Senator Joe Lieberman says he's going to run as an Independent to keep his Senate seat. This, after he lost to anti-war challenger Ned Lamont in Connecticut's Democratic Primary.
Big defeat for controversial Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, the Georgia Democrat lost in a run-off against attorney Hank Johnson. McKinney won 41 percent of the vote.
HARRIS: In Lebanon's Bekaa Valley, rescue workers say at least five people are trapped in the rubble of a building leveled by Israeli warplanes. Arab language TV networks say at least six people were killed in that strike.
In Iraq, a search is under way right now for two crew members after a U.S. Army Blackhawk helicopter went down. Four other crew members are in stable condition. The chopper crashed in Anbar Province west of Baghdad. Military officials do not believe the chopper was shot down.
O'BRIEN: In Boston, part of the Big Dig Highway Project back open this morning. It's an entrance ramp that was closed last month after a fatal ceiling collapse in a nearby tunnel. Several portions, though, of the Big Dig remain closed.
And the country's biggest oil field may not have to shut down completely for repairs after all. Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman says there have been discussions with BP about keeping the Prudhoe Bay operating at about 50 percent capacity. BP, you'll recall, shut down the field on Sunday after they found that corrosion and a leak.
HARRIS: And in London, three men have been arrested, accused of wiretapping Prince Charles' official residence. One of the suspects is a reporter for a London tabloid. Big surprise there. Let's get our first check on the nation's weather this morning. Chad Myers is at the CNN Center in Atlanta.
Chad, good morning.
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, good morning, Tony.
(WEATHER REPORT)
Back to you.
O'BRIEN: All right, Chad, thanks.
Let's get a story this morning, our top story, and it is truly rocking the political world, newcomer Ned Lamont upsetting longtime Senator Joe Lieberman in Connecticut's Democratic Primary. Well Senator Lieberman is vowing now to run as an Independent. The -- excuse me. The race, you'll recall, drew national -- Tony, you're going to have to take over.
HARRIS: Yes, yes.
The race drew national attention as an indicator of voter anger over the Iraq war.
Here is CNN's senior political correspondent Candy Crowley.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SR. POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT (on camera): In the end the only surprise was that Joe Lieberman did not lose by as much as everyone thought he might, just four points behind Ned Lamont, an anti-war businessman who was well funded by his own personal wealth and whose candidacy was pushed actively by the left wing of the blogosphere.
In his victory speech, Lamont asked that Joe Lieberman rethink his position and unite behind the Democratic ticket. But no such luck, because in his concession speech, Lieberman also said that he would press on and run as an Independent. "I cannot," he said, "let this result stand."
Lieberman is counting on a large number of Independents that are in Connecticut, more than there are Republicans or Democrats, and also a sizable Republican vote. In fact, there are those in the Lieberman campaign who say they have already been approached by some prominent Republicans who are willing to come in to Connecticut and campaign for Lieberman.
Candy Crowley, CNN, Hartford, Connecticut.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARRIS: Joe Lieberman will join us live at 7:30 a.m. Eastern Time this morning and Ned Lamont will be our guest at 8:15 a.m. Eastern. And in Georgia, Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney was defeated in a run-off race. Hank Johnson, a former county commissioner, beat McKinney 59 to 41 percent. During a post election rally, McKinney played the song "Dear Mr. President," an anti-Bush anthem by the singer Pink.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. CYNTHIA MCKINNEY (D), GEORGIA: Tell you about hard work, minimum wage with a baby on the way, let me tell you about hard work.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: All right.
HARRIS: OK. McKinney drew national headlines in March after a confrontation with a Capitol Hill police officer. In last night's concession comments, she complained about electronic balloting.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MCKINNEY: Electronic voting machines are a threat to our democracy.
(APPLAUSE)
MCKINNEY: So let the word go out, we aren't going to tolerate any more stolen elections.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: McKinney made no mention of her future political plans.
O'BRIEN: Hopefully they do not include singing in any way, shape or form.
Israeli Security Council meeting right now, trying to decide whether to send as many as 30,000 more troops into Lebanon as Israeli airstrikes continue to hammer suspected Hezbollah hideouts.
We're getting reports now from both sides of the border, Matthew Chance in northern Israel for us, Anthony Mills in Beirut again today. Let's begin with Anthony.
Good morning, -- Anthony.
ANTHONY MILLS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.
That's right, the airstrikes do continue. Yesterday evening, again a series of explosions in Beirut, in the southern suburbs, the Hezbollah stronghold that has been struck repeatedly in the course of this conflict, also airstrikes in the Bekaa Valley where a Red Cross worker tells us that in one village a three-story house was hit. Five to seven people trapped in the rubble there, or at least underneath the rubble, he says. Also in the south, in Sidon on the coast, Lebanon's largest refugee camp, Palestinian refugee camp hit. And according to Sultan Abu Alaynen, the head of the Fatah, a Palestinian group in Lebanon, one person was killed in that and six people injured.
In another development as well, Soledad, flyers like this, this one here, were dropped on a part of the southern suburbs this morning. And I'd like to tell you roughly what is said in this flyer. It asks why Hassan, a clear reference to Hassan Nasrallah, the head of Hezbollah, attacked Israel. And it casts doubt, Soledad, on the suggestion that it was to get Lebanese prisoners in Israeli prisons freed, saying he could have done that beforehand through negotiations.
It also says that Hassan Nasrallah has been playing with fire and now Beirut is burning. It also says he has played with your future, gambled with your future, addressing the Lebanese people there, and now you are paying the price. So fairly ominous words on these leaflets that were dropped in Beirut today -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: It certainly is.
Anthony Mills for us this morning.
Anthony, thanks.
HARRIS: And now to northern Israel where more people are looking to head south away from the incoming Hezbollah rockets.
CNN's Matthew Chance joins us now live from northern Israel.
Matthew, good morning.
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you as well, Tony.
That's right, the remaining few hundred people in some of the towns and cities up here in northern Israel have been evacuated now or started the process of being evacuated to elsewhere in the country to escape the constant threat of rocket attack that they're still under here in this region from Hezbollah as it fires its Katyusha rockets into northern Israel.
There's also been a lot of firepower going out in the other direction as well, particularly from the Israeli artillery positions and tanks that have really been pounding Hezbollah positions in south Lebanon from here over the course of the past several days. But especially since last night where we stood on the balcony from where I'm talking to you right now and watched a really ferocious firefight take place with Israeli soldiers sweeping across the border here into southern Lebanon, pounding again at Hezbollah positions.
It is proving a very tough battle indeed, though. I've spoken to the Israeli Defense Forces within the last few minutes before I came on air to describe to me where the battles were taking place. They were talking about Bint Jbeil, Maroun al-Ras, Tiber, other names that we've been reporting on for the past several weeks, places where Israeli forces have been fighting Hezbollah guerrillas for several weeks now.
So I think that gives us an indication of just how tough an enemy Hezbollah is proving to dislodge. They're fighting a guerrilla war in small units. They're giving way to Israeli forces as they enter, but then counterattacking them and harassing them as they attempt to move forward. So it really is a tough battle on the ground for Israeli forces -- Tony.
HARRIS: And, Matthew, how does the IDF explain its inability so far to put this resistance down?
CHANCE: Well precisely because of that reason. For the past six years, since Israel ended its occupation of southern Lebanon, Hezbollah has been using the time well to dig in, to rearm, to train its fighters, to establish sort of strategic and tactical battle plans in case there was an Israeli incursion, which is what they've been expecting. And so they're fighting a very well-trained, very tough army. And they're fighting in small units. And it's difficult for a classical army to beat a guerrilla army, particularly when they're operating out of a civilian population -- Tony.
HARRIS: CNN's Matthew Chance for us in northern Israel.
Matthew, thank you.
O'BRIEN: A resolution to end the fighting has stalled at the United Nations. A Security Council vote could happen tomorrow though.
CNN's Richard Roth has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RICHARD ROTH, CNN SR. UNITED NATIONAS CORRESPONDENT (on camera): A visiting delegation of Arab envoys demanded the Security Council change its proposed resolution on the Middle East. And Qatar's Deputy Prime Minister warned the longer Israel remains in southern Lebanon, the chances of destabilizing Lebanon's government increases.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE, QATAR DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER (through translator): If we adopt resolutions without fully considering the reality of Lebanon, we will face a civil war. Instead of helping Lebanon, as the representative of Israel has said, we will destroy Lebanon.
ROTH: The French like the Lebanese idea, sending thousands of government troops to work alongside an existing U.N. peacekeeping mission to stop possible Hezbollah attacks. Israel is highly skeptical.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is time to bring this conflict to an end, but speeches and resolutions do not themselves end conflicts, neither do good intentions. Conflicts are ended by actions, not by words.
ROTH: France and the United States had strong debate behind closed doors over the plans to adjust the resolution. Diplomats say if an agreement is reached, the earliest a vote could occur is Thursday.
Richard Roth, CNN, United Nations.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARRIS: Happening in America.
Formerly conjoined twins in Utah are sleeping in two different beds for the very first time. The 4-year-old girls went through 26 hours of surgery to separate and reconstruct their organs. Doctors say they are both doing very well, but they're expected to be in the hospital for at least a month.
Some New Orleans homes are getting demolished today so the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers can strengthen the 17th Street Levee. The homes are in an area where workers need to put up temporary walls to protect the neighborhood during repairs.
A construction worker in Phoenix who spent nearly seven hours pinned under tons of concrete remains in critical condition. More than 100 firefighters worked to pull Casey Johansson (ph) from the debris yesterday after a building partially collapsed. Johansson was conscious and talking during the entire ordeal.
A 10-year-old saves the day in Tampa, Florida. Noah Gadson (ph) is being called a hero for going door to door in the middle of the night and warning his neighbors about a fire. Several units were damaged, but there were no reports of injuries.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ask in me why, why I never left you and why I kept it real and why I'm still with you?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: She can sing.
HARRIS: Well that's more like it.
O'BRIEN: Yes.
HARRIS: That's a lot better. Thousands of "American Idol" wannabes hoping for their big break have already taken the first step. The singers showed up in Pasadena, California yesterday for the first of a series of nationwide auditions all for the upcoming sixth season of "American Idol."
O'BRIEN: Come on, can't wait, can't wait.
Still to come this morning, a vicious robbery. Did you guys see these pictures? My goodness, look at this, a grandmother hit from a bottle by the robber.
HARRIS: Come on. OK. O'BRIEN: He eventually smacks her with the cash register as well as he rips her off. It's all done in front of her small grandchildren. We'll tell you what happened in this case.
Also, royal eavesdroppers. Who is listening in on Prince Charles and Camilla? Been an arrest in the case. Got a live report from London coming up.
HARRIS: Also ahead, the war in Iraq, from the front lines to the voting booths the battle rages in thousands of U.S. homes.
And Carrie Lee with business headlines.
Carrie, good morning.
CARRIE LEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Thank you very much. Good morning to you.
The Federal Reserve takes a pause on interest rates hikes and stocks take a bit of a hit. Also, a networking gear company wants to be the gateway to your future. We'll have those stories and more coming up on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: Happening this morning, two coalition troops are missing after a U.S. Blackhawk helicopter went down in Iraq's Anbar Province. Four other crew members are in stable condition. Military officials do not think that enemy fire is to blame.
Israel is declaring a no-drive zone in southern Lebanon, threatening to blow up any moving vehicles as potential guerrilla targets.
And Cuban officials are organizing rallies in support of Fidel Castro. People close to Castro say he is recovering from intestinal surgery that took place last month.
HARRIS: Well a growing number of Americans say they're against the war in Iraq. The Opinion Research Corporation polled for CNN more than 1,000 Americans. The results now being released.
Sixty percent of the people surveyed say they oppose the war, 61 percent would like to see some troops pulled out by the end of the year. That doesn't mean they want to withdrawal all troops by year's end. Only a quarter of the people polled want that to happen. And they are almost evenly divided on whether the U.S. will win the war. Forty-seven percent say yes, the U.S. will win, 48 percent say no.
Opposition of the war in Iraq may have already cost Senator Joe Lieberman his primary and could affect many more politicians come November.
AMERICAN MORNING's Alina Cho joins me now to take a look at Iraq as the issue.
Alina, good morning.
ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Tony.
You know it's not clear if Iraq was the deciding factor in this race, but it certainly played a role. Joe Lieberman knows that and so do the voters in Connecticut.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHO (voice-over): It may have to come down to one central question, do you support the war in Iraq...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I do.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Very much so.
CHO: ... or are you against it?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm against it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We shouldn't have been there. We shouldn't be there. We shouldn't have gone, period.
CHO: Across Connecticut, a quiet battle raged over another battle thousands of miles away.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I feel that in that part of the world there's been problems there for a long, long time and democracy, from what I read, from what I hear, has to come from within. You can't impose democracy on people.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I support that we're there. You know I don't know how long we need to be there. But does it affect how I vote, not necessarily.
CHO: But make no mistake, it did affect how some voted and may continue to.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's definitely going to influence my vote in the main election. I think there was a chance that it could have worked out, but I just think they really made a ton of logistical mistakes early on.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Definitely against the Iraqi war. I believe in more diplomacy. It's not giving into the enemy, but it's containing something. And I don't think we've had that much diplomacy. You can not talk to the enemy because you think he's evil. You have to speak to everybody.
CHO: Still, is punishing Joe Lieberman for his stand on Iraq right in the eyes of his constituents?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think it's kind of hypocritical of some of the other Democrats that basically passively voted for the war.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, I think it's worth kicking somebody out if he's for the war if you're against the war.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I supported Lieberman. So I'm telling you how I voted.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHO: Having lost the Democratic Primary, Lieberman is vowing to run as an Independent in the November election. But remember this is bigger than just one race, political pundits say Lieberman's loss is a sign Americans are fed up with the war in Iraq and some say this could reverberate well beyond November, all the way to the presidential election in 2008 -- Tony.
HARRIS: Well, well, well, let's not get ahead of ourselves. Alina, we're going to spend a lot of time talking about this race, OK, this morning...
CHO: We are.
HARRIS: ... and the results and what it means for the country. But if you focus in on Connecticut, was it just Lieberman's position on the war that doomed him or were there other issues percolating below the surface here?
CHO: I don't think you can ever say that it's one issue. Certainly as you just heard in the piece, a lot of voters are talking about the war in Iraq and that certainly played a role. You know, listen, I think it was a confluence of events. You're looking at a wealthy businessman,...
HARRIS: Yes.
CHO: ... a political newcomer. Howard Dean showed us that the fervent backing of blockers can...
HARRIS: But how do you beat Joe Lieberman as a newcomer with money?
CHO: Well he had a lot of money and he had the backing of left wing bloggers. Let's not forget that. And you know political newcomers seem to be, according to some political pundits, very popular these days. And so it will be interesting to see how other Democrats shape or reshape their message come November time.
HARRIS: Yes. Alina, that's good, thank you, appreciate it.
O'BRIEN: Ahead this morning, it's caught on tape. Have you seen this? A robbery suspect now faces attempted murder charges. Watch this. This is a grandmother behind the counter there. Her small grandchildren, who are 7 and 10 years old, are watching as he attacks her and then you know steals from her. We're going to tell you a little of what happened in the story. That and much more ahead on AMERICAN MORNING. We're back in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: A look at some of the most popular stories on CNN.com this morning.
Three people under arrest for possibly eavesdropping on Prince Charles' staff. One of the men being held is an editor from a London tabloid.
The L.A. county sheriff's office is refusing to release videotape and audio tapes of Mel Gibson's arrest for driving under the influence. The sheriff says can't do it, it's part of an investigation.
And take a look at these pictures, accident and penguins on board. Yes. Well 21 of those penguins in somebody's arm, I guess. Twenty-one of those penguins, though, rescued after the truck that was carrying them -- there you go, that's the picture I was talking about.
HARRIS: Yes.
O'BRIEN: Rescued, though, after the truck that was carrying them, and some other wildlife as well, overturned near San Antonio. Four of the penguins were killed in the accident. Apparently there was a truck ahead of them that was carrying alligators and snakes. And the cop said well, I'm glad that one wasn't the one that overturned.
HARRIS: Whatever happened to the driver, do we know? Worried about the penguins and it's good that everything is OK.
O'BRIEN: I'm going to look into that for you. I'll check into that.
LEE: I don't think -- they can't run very fast penguins.
O'BRIEN: Penguins. No, apparently the ones that were killed were hit by motorists. I don't think the accident itself was so horrific. But the ones that were killed were run over by motorists. And the ones that stayed in a little ditch on the sides of the road ended up OK.
HARRIS: Ended up OK. Yes.
O'BRIEN: That's sad, isn't it?
HARRIS: OK. Yes, it is.
Interest rates. Hey, did this work out pretty much the way you thought it would?
LEE: It works out the way I thought it would.
HARRIS: Yes.
LEE: And a lot of people on Wall Street. Of course it's easy to say in hindsight, right, exactly what I wanted.
HARRIS: Right.
LEE: Or exactly what we were thinking.
We're talking about the Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke and team deciding to pause on a two-year-plus interest rate hike campaign. Yesterday the Fed decided to hold off after 17 consecutive rate hikes going back to June of 2004. Bernanke and team cited the slowing economy.
Wall Street very interesting reaction. After this news came out yesterday afternoon, stocks gained a little bit of ground. But then look at this, red arrows across the board at the close, and that is mainly because people are worried that more interest rate hikes could be on the horizon later this year. And they certainly left that possibility open.
Now for this morning it is looking like a strong start on Wall Street though, so we could see a little bit of rebound from those red arrows you just saw on the screen.
One networking gear company wants to be the gateway to your future. That's what CEO John Chambers of Cisco Systems is saying. A lot of people probably heard of Cisco, maybe not understand exactly what they do. This is kind of the background networking company when it comes to everything from Internet access, computing. Take a look at those routers and switches.
HARRIS: OK.
LEE: Yes. Well Cisco now plans a consumer advertising push to get people aware of the brand. Chambers says among other things, it's not going to be a technical geeky thing but an idea that resonates with the average customer.
HARRIS: So here's who we are, here is what we do.
LEE: Right. We...
O'BRIEN: We make switches.
HARRIS: Right.
LEE: They're going to make it exciting...
HARRIS: Sexy.
LEE: ... and sexy. That's right. We don't know exactly what they're going to do,...
HARRIS: Good luck.
LEE: ... television, print, but this is their idea.
O'BRIEN: Are they doing well? The stock doing well?
LEE: You know stock I'm not really sure about. But you know they're trying to get bigger. They acquired Scientific America -- Scientific Atlanta, excuse me, and that's the world's second largest seller of cable television back in February. So they're trying to expand the empire a little bit there.
HARRIS: Got you.
O'BRIEN: You've got to look that up and see how they're doing. I own a lot of Cisco, sexy.
HARRIS: Yes, yes, yes.
(CROSSTALK)
HARRIS: They don't go together.
LEE: I know the stock is trading at just a couple of bucks not too long ago.
And then finally, Pixar. This is the company, the computer animated company founded by Apple Computer's Steve -- Chief Steve Jobs. And it's found out that the company's top execs did receive stock option grants priced at the stock's annual lows in the years between 1997 and 2003. So we've been talking about this, following up on this story and that is the latest there.
HARRIS: Any money in that for Jobs?
LEE: You know according to the recent reports, no, Jobs never received any options.
HARRIS: (INAUDIBLE).
LEE: In the prior reports, there was some thinking that he had.
HARRIS: Right.
LEE: So now it appears no.
Cablevision, by the way, the latest company to look into how it has granted options to its execs. So big story on Wall Street continuing.
HARRIS: Carrie, thank you.
LEE: OK, my pleasure.
HARRIS: Good to see you.
LEE: Sure.
O'BRIEN: A look at the morning's top stories straight ahead, including Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman loses the Democratic Primary, concedes the race kind of, now he's running as an Independent. What chance does he have to win there?
And a brutal attack is caught on tape, gets worse, though, when the camera stops rolling. We'll tell you what happened to that woman behind the camera. She's a grandmother.
Stay with us. You're watching AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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