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CNN Sunday Morning
Remains of Missing War Pilot Found; American Killed in Kenya Plane Crash
Aired August 02, 2009 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everybody. From the CNN Center, this is CNN SUNDAY MORNING for this August 2nd. It's 8:00 where we sit here in Atlanta, Georgia. Hello to you all. I'm T.J. Holmes.
BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Good Sunday morning. I'm Brooke Baldwin, sitting in for Betty. Thank you for being with us.
I want to get right to some breaking news we first brought to you about half an hour ago. For 18 years, no one knew for sure what happened to this man, Captain Michael Scott Speicher. He was considered the first American lost in the 1991 Gulf War.
HOLMES: The mystery is now over. Defense officials say his remains have been found in Iraq and they have positively identified them.
We're covering this breaking story for you from all angles. We want to start with our Pentagon correspondent who has been taking us through the story this morning and working the phones -- on the phone with us this morning now.
And, Barbara, to start here from the top. How that did this come about that after 18 years, we now know what happen to Scott Speicher?
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): Well, T.J., this is really just an extraordinary story. What the U.S. military tells us is, in early July, an Iraqi citizen in western Iraq came to them and said there was a location that U.S. forces needed to go to and he believed that was the crash site and the place where Scott Speicher was buried.
What is, U.S. Marines in Iraq's Al Anbar province went to the location, which was believed to be the crash site, the Iraqi citizen told the U.S. he knew of two others who recalled seen an American jet hit the desert floor on the night of January 17th, 1991, and that Bedouins had buried the pilot of that plane in the desert. So, the marines very quietly -- no one knew this was going on over the last several days -- had gone to this site, dug up skeletal remains and bone fragments.
In fact, let me go back one second here. One of the Iraqi citizens said they were present when Captain Speicher was found dead by the Bedouins at the crash site and his remains were buried. So, what has been happening out of public view over the last several days, the remains brought back to the United States, positively identified by the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, and it was yesterday that the chief of naval operations, Admiral Gary Roughead, was finally able to call the Speicher family and notify them of the positive identification of Captain Speicher's remains in Iraq, bringing to a close a chapter that had been very troubling to the U.S. military for the last 18 years.
Obviously, their nightmare scenario because they were never able to recover Captain Speicher, the nightmare scenario was that this young American pilot had been alive when he hit the ground and had been held, God forbid, in one of Saddam Hussein's prisons for many years. They now can put that to rest. What they do know now is that Scott Speicher was dead when the F-18 hit the ground, buried by some Bedouins in the desert, now, his remains back home in the United States, T.J.
BALDWIN: Barbara, can you explain further as to how the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology were able to look at these skeletal remains and make this positive identification some 18 years later?
STARR: Well, you know, the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology is really the ultimate CSI out there. They have some of the most advanced equipment. They took -- we are told -- Captain Speicher's dental record, match them with the jawbone recovered at the site. They tell us the teeth were a match, both visually and using radiographic test methods.
This is a lot of the work that the U.S. military regularly does around the world, as they continue, over the last many decades, to, for example, to recover remains of the missing from the Vietnam War. They can take small bone fragments, teeth, and if they can get some DNA matches or some dental record matches, they can go ahead and make that positive I.D. This is something that the U.S. military regularly does as they continue to look for remains around the world of the U.S. military's missing in action.
But the Speicher case, in particular, had been very troubling, as I say, because there had been -- his F-18 was shot down on that first night of the war. It was seen to be shot down, but they could never take it to the next step, they were never sure that he hadn't been found alive by Saddam Hussein regime and hadn't been held in a prison for some time. That is what concerned them the most.
And, you know, this is why the U.S. military has that saying that always puts chills up and down everyone's spine. Leave no one behind on the battlefield. They try and really resolve every case no matter how long it takes. It took 18 years for Scott Speicher -- T.J., Brooke?
HOLMES: All right. Barbara Starr, we thank you so much for being online with us this morning and getting those breaking details. Thank you so much.
A lot of people friends and family of Scott Speicher, certainly, you imagine the thoughts they're having this morning. I want to talk to one of those friends -- Nels Jensen is his name, coming to us from Little Rock, Arkansas, this morning. He actually went to high school with Scott Speicher.
Nels, I appreciate you getting on the lines with us this morning. Here we are some 18 years later. There's some closure here, but can you tell me after all of these years, not knowing for sure. Have you and other friends and family always still hold out -- held out a little bit of hope that maybe he was out there somewhere?
NELS JENSEN, SPEICHER'S FRIEND (via telephone): Yes, we did. All the evidence that we were getting seemed to suggest that Scott was alive and being held against his will. And, you know, we never sent out a search-and-rescue party. And if we had, you know, none of this mess would probably have been necessary, but some of those high school members and I, we got together, trying to raise awareness for Speicher, and tried to get the Speicher bill passed which ultimately did.
And, you know, when he started having his MIA to...
HOLMES: Missing captured.
JENSEN: ... missing captured I think was a thing. You know, it really helped us as a group to stay focused on trying to get the American public aware that, you know, there's a soldier maybe over there being held against his will. And a lot of people weren't aware of that, not even in Jacksonville.
HOLMES: Well, Nels, it sounds like a little bit there. And, I guess, a lot of people would say that they're glad there's some finale to this story. But it sounds like you might be harboring still some hard feelings about how the military did handle this along the way. That you think it shouldn't have made it to 18 years of this?
JENSEN: Oh, absolutely. I mean, it's a shame what they did to Scott and the family, Joanne and Buddy Harris and the family -- you know, my heart goes out to them. We didn't look for Scott. And that was the beginning of all Scott's problems. If they had sent out a search-and-rescue party, I'm sure they would have found him wandering around in the desert as the Bedouins had (ph).
BALDWIN: Now, through this entire 18 years of time, and you stayed -- it sounds like you've stayed in contact with his family. Can you give us a little bit of background about how they've been feeling through this entire ordeal? About his children, perhaps, how old are they? And how they may be reacting to the news?
JENSEN: I'm sure it's bringing some sort of closure, you know, how in the world after so many years and the press that this got starting, you know, five, six, seven years ago. The family, I'm sure is going to survive this, you know. Buddy Harris had worked extremely hard going to every month up to Washington to be briefed on what they, you know, were doing and stuff like that. That was my understanding.
As far as the group, friends working to free Scott Speicher, we had one contact person which was another classmate. And we kept it simple. We didn't want to try to complicate their lives anymore than what it was with all of the publicity. So, you know, a lot of good things came out of this. Looking back -- you know, I don't think the government will ever leave anybody without sending out some sort of search-and-rescue again. Leave no one behind -- that was our great motto. And everybody seemed to drop the ball on that one.
BALDWIN: Nels, we -- we are sorry that it sounds almost as though, it's almost like he's losing him again. It's a feeling of sadness, as you mentioned closure. But it's difficult waking up on a Sunday and not having any idea that you would wake up to this news that your friend from high school, his remains have positively been identified, thanks to U.S. military and Iraqi citizen, who brought the military to the Al Anbar province of Iraq.
Nels, thank you for calling in.
And again, Scott was -- he was shot down really the opening hours, it was January 17th, 1991. And so much confusion over captured, missing in action, and now his I.D. -- his remains positively identified.
HOLMES: And the story has been changing over the years. Our thanks again -- once again, Nels, thank you so much for hopping on the line with us this morning.
But we'll continue here with our coverage -- and, again, for our viewers, that face you have seen over the past, really, almost two decades, that this country has gotten more and more familiar with the first American lost in the First Gulf War now remains finally identified, mystery solved, so much conjecture over the past 20 years -- almost 20 years now about whether or not he was alive or not.
There have been so many stories, quite frankly, we called them conspiracy theories. Our Barbara Starr called it stuff of a Hollywood movie, really, over the years about what has happened to him. It looks like some photos we are getting maybe at the actual site there, as well.
Our Josh Levs is looking into the background, as well. What do you have for us, Josh?
JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Well, speaking of photos of the site, I actually have a piece of the actual wreckage from his plane in 1991. Let's zoom into this shot, I want to see this. This is just hours after. This is in the time after it happened. This is a piece of the plane at the time, back in 1991.
You're looking at this from the Defense Department's Web site, DefenseLink.mil. And what they say here -- I'm going to show you something else from the same report. A bunch of words, sometimes have (ph) troubles standing out on TV.
But check this out. This is important. Look at this. What they show is: over the years, how they keep changing his classification. He was missing in action until 1991. Then it was changed to killed in action, body not recovered. Then later on, they changed it to missing in action again. Then 2002, after a careful review of the evidence available, they changed it again to status missing captured.
And the reason for all of these changes is that there were all of these constant theories and ideas and little pieces at times of intelligence based on what we're seeing here, from military and from some background CIA reports. Over the years, some suggestions that there may have been captured, that it may not have been what it looked like to some people. So, there were reasons to believe that maybe he was still alive. So, they kept changing it.
And also, seeing this report, what's interesting is that they said that Saddam Hussein's regime obviously would not cooperate -- no surprise there -- in the search for him and that after Saddam Hussein's regime was taken out by the U.S.-led war that they began this process of trying to find that. Clearly, it's been six years now, but eventually they had a feeling -- they hoped even back in 2003 that it would at some point lead to finding him.
Let me show you a couple more things here. One site is getting a lot of attention. All of a sudden, it's one of the biggest ones on Google about him, is the Web site for Arlington National Cemetery, that's partly because of the details that they write about him and his life. It's ArlingtonCemetery.net.
They talk about who he had left behind. They say his widow Joanne was left to comfort their two young children. She in turn was consoled by his best friend, a fellow, a Navy pilot, Buddy Harris. They then married 18 months later, had two children of their own. I'm seeing that reported elsewhere as well.
Let me encourage you. Go to CNN.com, because we're pulling together all of the information that we have on him, including some of our own background reports.
Take a look at this. We're going to go back to 2003, 2002, and even farther back. Some of the special reports we have done about him and status over the years.
And, guys, before we go, I want to show you one more thing, something that he could never have imagined, what's happened with the Internet. Now, we've got all of these people tweeting about him, it's one of the top things on Twitter right now.
I'll show you two of them. This one says, "May you now rest in peace, Captain Speicher." And this one plays well out of the interview you guys just did. Look at this: Captain Michael Scott Speicher was a 1979 grad of his high school, his high school as well, "my alma mater. From one rebel to another, rest in peace."
We're following your tweets, your Facebook messages, as well, and, obviously, T.J. and Brooke, a lot of people are weighing in right now with their thoughts about this man and his family 18 years after all of that happened.
BALDWIN: What an ordeal that the family had to go through. And, Josh, you went over all that, missing in action, captured, was he a POW? LEVS: (INAUDIBLE)
BALDWIN: Yes, it's amazing. Thank you.
HOLMES: All right, Josh, thank you.
We're not going to be too far from that story at any point, continue to work that breaking story this morning.
We also want to turn to a plane crash in Kenya. Another breaking story we're getting. Four people were on board that plane. All were Americans.
The pilot was killed, one crew member in a coma now. The passengers were shooting a documentary about poverty in Africa. The plane crashed into a three-story residential building in a neighborhood in Nairobi.
CNN correspondent David McKenzie is on the phone with us here.
McKenzie -- David, I wonder if you can help us understand. It seems like from the reports that the plane was flying low. What do we know about why this plane was flying so low?
DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): Well, T.J., thanks.
What we know is that this plane was with four Americans on board; two of them were documentary filmmakers. They took from Wilson Airport. I've flown from that airport, too, many times. It was in the confines of Nairobi, the capital of Kenya.
It seems, according to other members of the crew, that they were out shooting for a documentary of poverty in Africa. Apparently, they were flying very low, according to witnesses and the Kenya officials, flying over Kibera slum, which is the largest slum in Nairobi. What it seemed like happen there, they're flying very low. They're on 50 feet off the ground and they hit some power lines and their plane flipped and then crashed into a third-story of a residential building.
Luckily, no one on the ground was hurt seriously. But two of them managed to get out with only minor injuries, and one, as you say, is in a coma, and unfortunately, the pilot died in that crash when the plane exploded quite soon after impact -- T.J.?
HOLMES: All right. David McKenzie on the line with us and some extraordinary pictures we got from someone on the ground, as well. David, we appreciate you.
BALDWIN: Still to come: We're staying on top of this story we have been following for you. Captain Scott Speicher, the first American life lost to a shot down in his F-18 during the First Gulf War. The U.S. military has positively I.D.'ed his remains that were discovered in the desert in the Al Anbar province of Iraq. We'll continue on that story.
As well as a horrific story out of Alberta, Canada -- a concert stage just completely collapsing; 15 injuries, one death.
More on those stories on the other side of the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: If you are just joining us, our breaking story this morning is that the first American who was lost in the First Gulf War, remains have finally been found and identified.
There he is. You probably recognize the face by now. You've seen it a lot over the past 18 years. That is Captain Michael Scott Speicher. His remains have been identified after he went down in January of 1991 in the First Gulf War, shot down the first night of that war, actually.
And over the past 18 years, there were a change in his status from "killed in action" to "missing in action," to "missing captured" even. But now, the mystery has been solved. Captain Scott Speicher -- remains positively identified after all of these years. More details about that to come. But a breaking story this morning.
BALDWIN: Turning your attention to a developing story in Iran. Iran is saying it has arrested three American hikers after they illegally crossed into the country from Iraq. That is according to the state-run media there.
One of the Americans, believed to be captured is Joshua Fattal from Pennsylvania, and his mother spoke briefly with CNN Radio.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
LAURA FATTAL, MOTHER OF DETAINED AMERICAN: My husband and I are eager for the best welfare and conditions for our son Josh and for the other two companions he's with. And that is our only concern -- his welfare and the best conditions for him.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
BALDWIN: The U.S. State Department says it's working to confirm those reports. And if, in fact, they're true, it will seek consular access. Deputy spokesman Robert Wood also said, quote, "The protection of American citizens is our highest priority."
HOLMES: To Canada now where one person is dead, 15 others are injured, some of them critically after an outdoor stage collapsed at a concert. A violent storm with high winds, hail, heavy rains, slammed into an area during the performance last night.
Listen now as one frightened survivor describes the scene.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARIA ORYDZUK, SURVIVED DECK COLLAPSE (via telephone): (INAUDIBLE) which means we get access to the show on stage. The next thing I know, we're running off and 20 feet up on the stage and this wind gust comes out of nowhere and literally (INAUDIBLE) splashes just like a midway ride of Capital Ex.
The next thing I know there is like concrete and there is like or something on top of my back. I can't see a thing, all I'm doing is yelling for my sister. There's children on the deck with us.
It was awful, I thought my life was literally ending because it was completely dark and black, and I can honestly say if I wasn't just there (ph) as I was, I would have never gotten out because there was a tiny, tiny hole that I crawled through and it was probably, I don't know, a good 50 feet down that I had to jump. That was the scariest part of my life.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
HOLMES: And also, one side note here is that actor Kevin Costner, his band was there. They were scheduled to perform.
Coming up next: After that backstage actually collapsed, about 15,000 people were there attending that concert. This is during a festival in Camrose, about 50 miles south of Edmonton. That's in Alberto province in Canada.
BALDWIN: Israeli police is treating a deadly shooting inside a Tel Aviv gay club as a hate crime. We're told at least two people are dead, 11 others injured. Witnesses inside the club say a man just walked in and opened fire. He escaped running out of there. Police right now are searching for him.
A church pays it forward and inspires, really, an entire community with the kindness.
HOLMES: This is a fun story you'll want to hear. That's coming up in our next half hour in our "Face of Faith."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: I want to take a moment and check in with CNN's national political correspondent Jessica Yellin, sitting in for John King and the big chair this morning.
Jessica, good morning to you.
JESSICA YELLIN, CNN NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, guys. Exciting morning.
BALDWIN: Yes, exciting morning, busy morning. You have this massive exclusive with Senator John McCain.
YELLIN: That's right. John King has an interview with John McCain and they hit on all of the big topics you want to know about. Not only the economy and health care, but yes, Sarah Palin -- exactly what does John McCain think of Sarah Palin's decision to step down now that she has. So, he's going to bring that all to you in just a few minutes.
HOLMES: And also, I hope you can help us interpret a lot of these economic numbers we get. There are new numbers here and there, and depending on how you interpret them, some say the economy is doing better, some say it's still stagnant, recession might be over.
Where are you going with that this morning? Are you going to simplify this for us?
BALDWIN: Help us out, Jessica.
YELLIN: That's exactly. I can't tell you what's up, but our guest, hopefully, will, because that's her whole job, is to make predictions about the economy for the president. Her name is Dr. Christine Romer. And we're going to ask her, you know, right now, it looks like there are some signs of growth, but unemployment remains really bad.
So, are we out of the recession soon or not? And so, she's going to give us, hopefully, some straight talking, plain English information about that.
HOLMES: And that is what we need.
YELLIN: Yes.
BALDWIN: Straight talk.
HOLMES: Plain English, more so.
BALDWIN: And there's a -- you're featuring an author of a book because the president actually didn't think he'd win the election. Is that what that book's about?
YELLIN: Yes. There's actually -- he -- there's a big book out that everybody's buzzing about in D.C. these days, coming out by Dan Balz, a guy who writes for "The Washington Post." He interviewed President Obama, and the president said that when he decided to run, he only thought he had a 25 percent to 30 percent chance of actually winning.
Now, that's pretty remarkable if you think about it. The president said, despite that, he's figured those aren't bad odds for a gambling man if you're talking about winning the presidency. So, he took the plunge.
BALDWIN: He gambled.
YELLIN: Yes, he gambled. Paid off, huh?
BALDWIN: Yes.
HOLMES: And those odds got better as we went along, no doubt about it.
And, of course, you can't do a Sunday talk show these days without talking about health care, even though Congress is pretty much getting out of there. The House of Representatives is already going home. Senate is going to head home later this week. But still, the president is still going to be pushing.
YELLIN: It's true. And, you know, you have 435 people, you have 435 different opinions about what's going to happen with health care. So, we're going to have some debates here with a bunch of the savviest political reporters in town, who can give us a lot of insight into what is really going to be in a plan, what's really going to happen.
Look, this is do or die months for the president. Either he can sell it to the American people while Congress is gone, with town halls, with ads, or this thing dies. So, it's really teetering on the edge right now. And we'll talk about it.
HOLMES: And you talked about the savviest political reporters in town...
YELLIN: Yes.
HOLMES: ... I assume those are all CNN reporters, of course.
(LAUGHTER)
YELLIN: Many CNN reporters.
HOLMES: All right.
YELLIN: I should say many of the savviest.
HOLMES: Many of the savviest. All right. Well, Jessica, we will be tuned in. Jessica, we will see you at the top of the hour.
Jessica Yellin is sitting in for that guy, John King for "STATE OF THE UNION." Jessica, good luck. We'll see you soon.
YELLIN: Thanks.
BALDWIN: Well, we were just talking vacation, August recess. The U.S. Senate has a lot to get done with just a week left before going on break. And the two big things on the agenda, Judge Sotomayor and the health care reform. We'll take a look at the week ahead in politics.
HOLMES: Also, officials in Afghanistan say they cannot guarantee the safety of voters in the upcoming presidential election. That does not sound good. We'll take a look at the escalating violence that is now threatening democracy.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Now, our breaking story this morning: Captain Michael Scott Speicher, the first American to go missing in the 1991 Gulf War initially thought to have been killed. Status changed over the years to missing in action, also missing/ captured.
Well, we now know 18 years later what happened to him. Defense officials say his remains have been found in Iraq and positively identified. Here's what our Barbara Starr is telling us this morning.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): That there will be a lot of gratitude -- I mean think -- this all happened in Iraq's western Al Anbar province. And you'll recall of course for so many years we have talked about Anbar province out in western Iraq as being the real heartland, the Sunni triangle, the heartland of the insurgency in the worst days of the war; a place where so many U.S. military members tragically lost their lives fighting the war in Iraq; wounded.
And now, now this is the place where Iraqis have come to the U.S. Marines with this information and have come to them and offered critical intelligence to bring another American home.
So it's just -- it just seems terribly emblematic a real symbol of the turn of the events in Iraq. I have to tell you, we just don't have a lot of these forward-looking details. We'll also be looking for obviously any memorial services, any funerals, anything that -- where we can bring people more details.
But this information broke overnight. The actual confirmation, that his family had been notified that the remains were back in the United States they've been positively identified. And the military started in the last couple of hours making phone calls to reporters in the early morning hours, putting out the statement, getting the word out that this -- that this had all happened.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN GUEST CORRESPONDENT: CNN Pentagon Correspondent Barbara Starr on the phone with us just a little while ago.
Turning our attention though now to Afghanistan; this has been a deadly weekend for U.S. and coalition troops there. Looking at just the latest numbers, three Americans have been killed by roadside bombs in southern Afghanistan. A French soldier was killed elsewhere. July was the deadliest month for international forces since the war began.
Ivan Watson joins us from Kabul. Ivan, I know Hamid Karzai -- the Presidential elections up coming this month -- Hamid Karzai looking for votes in central highland. How might, though, all of this violence undermine the elections later this month?
IVAN WATSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's definitely a major challenge, Brooke. And I've just updated some of those casualty numbers, those grim numbers with an American military spokeswoman. She says that six American and NATO troops were killed on Saturday in three separate incidents, three of them being Americans killed by those roadside bombs and in the south of the country.
Then she went on to say that three more Americans were killed today in Eastern Afghanistan by a roadside bomb that hit the patrol followed up by an ambush with small arms fire by Taliban insurgents.
Now, the Afghan President Hamid Karzai, he's running for reelection right now. He went on a campaign tour in the north of the country and he conceded that during his years in office, he's been President since 2001, there're still major security challenges in his country.
Let's take a listen to what he had to say, Brooke.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PRESIDENT HAMID KARZAI, AFGHANISTAN (through translator): We passed the journey of success, we passed the journey of happiness, but all of our joys were mixed with sadness. We could not bring complete peace to our country. Terrorism is still bothering us, killing our people, destroying our country.
I promise that when I become President by winning your votes, my first priority will be to bring peace to our country.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WATSON: Now, Brooke, the opposition candidates -- and there are 40 candidates running for the post of president against Hamid Karzai, they've been heaping criticism on him and one of the front runners, Dr. Abdullah Abdullah, a former Afghan Foreign Minister, he says it's Karzai's fault, the fault of his government that the U.S. now eight years after the overthrow of the Taliban has to double the number of troops on the ground to an expected 70,000 American soldiers by this fall.
Let's listen to what he told us yesterday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. ABDULLAH ABDULLAH, AFGHANISTAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Unfortunately, the government of Afghanistan has failed to provide security for its citizens and also to utilize the opportunity, which was the presence of the foreign troops, international troops as well as billions of reconstruction assistance in Afghanistan to stabilize Afghanistan to the extent that eight years down the road we would have been able to say less troops rather than more.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WATSON: And, Brooke, the United Nations has said that more than 1,000 Afghan civilians have been caught in the cross-fire during the first six months of this year -- Brooke.
BALDWIN: Ivan, you mentioned 40 presidential candidates plus incumbent Hamid Karzai making 41. We heard from the candidate, what about the Afghan people? You mentioned the violence, what are they saying about the elections?
WATSON: Well, this is something that's really interesting, Brooke. You get out into the streets of Kabul, you start to talk to ordinary Afghans and they don't say a word about the Taliban or the insurgency.
Their number one concerns are usually the economy, unemployment, inflation and then corruption, many of them complaining about the very Afghan security forces that western governments have contributed hundreds of millions of dollars to help train.
They're complaining that the police are out there doing things like stealing their coats when they get stopped at check points or demanding bribes just to sell watermelons on the side of the street.
So for some of these people, they're accusing this government of Hamid Karzai of being tyrannical. A big challenge and I think we may see that this election on August 20th will definitely be a referendum on Hamid Karzai -- Brooke.
BALDWIN: Interesting, upcoming presidential election, the economy being a big issue there.
Sounds familiar, Ivan Watson live for us in Kabul this morning. Ivan, thank you.
HOLMES: Lawmakers have left the building, at least the House of Representatives. They took off for their August recess, the Senate will follow suit a little later this week, but that doesn't mean Washington is grinding to a halt.
Let's talk to our deputy political director Paul Steinhauser with a look at what's happening in the political world this week.
PAUL STEINHAUSER, CNN DEPUTY POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Good morning Brooke, T.J.
Let's begin with Sonia Sotomayor. On Tuesday, the full Senate begins debating her nomination to the Supreme Court. They're expected to vote on her nomination later in the week. Remember, she passed committee 13 to 6 and she's expected to pass the full Senate as well and be confirmed to the high court. Already, at least six Republicans have said they'll vote to confirm her to the Supreme Court.
Also this week for the Senate, health care, I know you've heard about it just every week, this week is no different. The Senate Finance Committee continues negotiations as they try to hammer out a bill. The Senate, remember, this is their last week in session before they go out on summer recess.
Now, the House, they've already begun their recess and lawmakers are back home and I would assume a lot of them are going to be back in their districts speaking to voters, holding town halls and listening to what voters like and don't like when it comes to health care reform proposals.
The President this week will be talking about health care, as well. He'll be in meetings and I'm sure he'll be speaking out on health care reform. But on Tuesday, he may take a little bit of time out because it's his birthday. Wednesday, the President's going to the town of Elkhart, Indiana. He was there early February; he went there to talk about the stimulus bill at the time. He's going back to talk about the stimulus and the economy again. Why Elkhart, this is a town with high unemployment.
Also the next day the president goes back out on the campaign trail, not for himself, but he's going out for fellow democrat, Creigh Deeds. He's the Democratic candidate for Governor in Virginia. There's a big election there this year and the Democrats would like to keep that seat in Democratic hands.
Also this week, the president marks 200 days in office. And CNN, this is something you're going to want to watch, Thursday night our national report card in prime time 8:00 Eastern, where we give your grades out, how you graded Barack Obama, Congress, and other things.
So remember, you can go online CNN.com and cast your votes and grade the President and Congress and it's all at CNN.com -- Brooke, T.J.
BALDWIN: Paul Steinhauser, thank you.
A church pays it forward and inspires an entire community with kindness.
HOLMES: Yes, that story ahead in our "Faces of Faith."
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BALDWIN: In case you're just now joining us. I want to just give you a brief recap of our breaking story this morning, essentially a story 18 years in the making. This man, Captain Scott Speicher missing in action; was he captured, was he alive? A lot of questions through the years.
The Department of Defense officially coming out this morning identifying his remains. Military in the Al Anbar province of Iraq were led to the desert by an Iraqi citizen; some information they had from an Iraqi citizen. And it was the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology that was able to match positively identify, thanks to his dental records, his remains now taken back to Dover Air Force Base showing really the commitment of the U.S. military to bring him home.
Eighteen years -- finally some closure this morning, the story of Captain Scott Speicher.
HOLMES: A Florida church is giving back by giving money away. You know the collection plate usually comes by, you're supposed to put money in there, well, they were taking money out, literally. The church handed each of them an envelope and told them to pay it forward.
We continue to bring you stories here on spirituality, religion, and inspiration in our weekly "Faces of Faith" segment. And here now to report from Aixa Diaz, from our affiliate in Orlando WESH.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was kind of like, really, are you serious? Are we really doing this?
AIXA DIAZ, CNN AFFILIATE, ORLANDO WESH: Congregation members at First Baptist Oviedo were stunned when each member received an envelope with cash, $10, $20, even $100 inside.
DON JACOBS, CHURCH MEMBER: I have four children and a wife and all of us kind of looked at each other and they got a big laugh out of it.
DIAZ: The mission, pay it forward; pass on the cash to someone who needs it.
Dan Byrd gave his $10 to a waitress who seemed to be having a bad day. She surprised him back.
DAN BYRD, CHURCH MEMBER: I had started to explain what our church was doing and before I could even get it out, she said, oh, is it the Baptist Church in the middle of town? And I said, yeah, that's right. How did you know?
She said, "I've already had two other people who have given me money because of what your church is doing."
DIAZ: A friendly cashier at a winter park Wendy's received Patty Villane's money.
PATTY VILLANE, CHURCH MEMBER: Her eyes got very big and she immediately just started smiling and she was trying to get her co- worker's attention.
DIAZ: a chance meeting with a homeless man outside of the church moved Don Jacobs to give him his $20. Others are still waiting for the right moment.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm still praying about what to do with mine.
DIAZ: The church hopes these random acts of kinds will blossom across Oviedo, Central Florida and beyond
BYRD: Hopefully we'll inspire people to continue to bless people and see that it makes a difference.
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HOLMES: You just saw some of the church members there.
Well, I'm being joined now by another church member joining us now for our "Faces of Faith" segment for this discussion. Dwayne Mercer, he's the head of the First Baptist church there in Oviedo Florida and also Mr. Don Jacobs, one of those who received one of the envelopes in the first place.
Gentlemen, I appreciate you being here.
Pastor, I will start with you. How in the world does a church afford something like this? A lot of people are having tough time in these tough economic times, including churches. How are you just able to afford to hand out $25,000 to pay it forward?
PASTOR DWAYNE MERCER, FIRST BAPTIST OVIEDO: Well, of course, it wasn't easy to do, but we wanted to do something to help the community. We have been involved so much in missions overseas and really emphasizing that type of thing. People come back give a testimony. But we were actually doing things in the community that really no one knew about and therefore no one was really inspired to carry it on and to multiply it.
So we had the idea of giving money back to our church members, actually came from one of our staff members and then it just sort of evolved from there. Why don't we put it in the offering plate and make it novel and people take money out back on June 28th.
What we're asking people to do is not spend it on themselves, not giving back to the church, but also to blog about it on remarkableministry.com in order to talk about this.
HOLMES: And to talk about it.
Now, Don, you were the one who took out an envelope. It's usually odd for us to think about somebody taking money out of the collection plate. That's what you were encouraged to do. How tough was it, first of all, to come up with an idea? Did you have to think long and hard about where you wanted that money to go?
JACOBS: Well, I trusted God to provide an opportunity to do something with the money. I'll be honest with you, I put the money in my bible and out of sight out of mind. On Friday morning, July the 3rd, the church was closed for the holiday. And a homeless gentleman was out in front of our office.
I had a decision to make, do I get involved in the situation or walk quietly to my truck? And I knew the lord wanted me to participate in that. I met with him and he told me that the police had dropped him off at the church and was hoping for somebody to help.
There was nobody there except me, so I just knew the opportunity was from God. I gave him something to eat, gave him $20, and afterwards, I thought about the mission project that the pastor started.
HOLMES: And you talked about $20 there. And Pastor, let me ask you, these were in increments -- I have it right -- it was $10, $20, or $100 in some of these envelopes. So these are small -- especially $10 or $20. How can amounts so small, an amount so small still make such a difference?
MERCER: Well, I think it's just really an encouragement to people knowing that the church loves them and therefore they feel that God really cares about them. There's so many stories on the remarkableministries.com Web site that just tell stories of people that were so encouraged in a down time in their life that somebody really cared about them.
And, of course, $10 will buy you some food, and $20 some gas, and some was even more than that. A lot of people's lives I think have been touched by it.
HOLMES: And either one of you, I'll let you take this question here. As we know people across this country, we're in a tough economic situation. People at your church, even, I'm sure many families could use some help of their own.
Did you all even know stories of people around the church who were maybe tempted to use that money to help themselves out? Because they could use it, as well. Did you know that was something that might be happening around the church too?
JACOBS: Well, if you'll allow me. I think that this is a test of us and our trust. And in this economic time this is really a bad time to have God's money in our billfold or in our home. So I'm sure that people that trusting God are trying to conduit that money out as quickly as possible.
My family put together an idea to bless some construction workers and it's generated a lot of excitement about being able to give and make a difference in the community.
HOLMES: Well, gentlemen, Don Jacobs and Pastor Dwayne Mercer, great that we could get you on this morning and talk about this. I wish more and more people could do this. You can't give out $25,000 every Sunday, you've got to keep the lights on at the church, as well.
But gentlemen great something you're doing. We appreciate you joining us this morning.
JACOBS: Thank you.
MERCER: Thank you very much for having us.
HOLMES: All right. Brooke.
BALDWIN: Well, still to come this morning, T.J., we'll be pushing forward on this breaking story. Captain Scott Speicher remains positively identified. He was the first U.S. casualty really in the opening hours of the first Gulf War.
Coming up on the other side of the break, we're talking to one of his friends, a high school classmate. How she remembers Scott Speicher.
Stay here.
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BALDWIN: The remains of the first American whose life was lost during the first Persian War, the first Gulf War. It was in January 17th, 1991, Captain Scott Speicher went down in his F-18; the Department of Defense positively identifying his remains.
We've been talking to Barbara Starr on the phone and some of his friends. Right now we have Miriam Novelly on the phone. Miriam was a friend of Scott's; a classmate from high school. And the last time, Miriam, that you spoke is with him, you saw him was 1990 months before his plane went down. What do you make of the news this morning?
MIRIAM NOVELLY, FRIND OF CAPT. MICHAEL SCOTT SPEICHER (via telephone): It's relief that we finally have closure. And, of course, we would've hoped that they found him, but, you know, it's great relief for him, especially his family.
BALDWIN: He has two children. Is that correct?
NOVELLY: Yes, a son and a daughter.
BALDWIN: Are you in contact with them? Have you been in contact with them this morning at all?
NOVELLY: No, no.
BALDWIN: What can you tell us? What do you remember about Scott from high school?
NOVELLY: He was a loyal friend. Loyal classmate, and a loyal family man and loyal to his country.
BALDWIN: You say you feel relief this morning. We spoke with another friend earlier who spoke a little bit about frustration that this whole thing lasted 18 years, changes in classifications, his status through the years, was he perhaps a prisoner of Saddam Hussein, was he missing in action? And we finally get the news 18 years later. Is there any frustration on your part? Or is this closure for you?
NOVELLY: Well, the reason why we started the organization was we were -- we were frustrated because so many different reports kept coming out. And we decided that if we wanted to get some closure, we needed to do something about it. And that is true, we were frustrated.
So we started the friends working to free Scott Speicher. But today I feel just relief and closure. And, you know, I'm not frustrated with my government, I'm proud of my government for finally, you know, bringing this closure that his family deserves.
BALDWIN: And perhaps this really just shows the military's commitment never to stop searching and to bring our servicemen and women home. Miriam, thanks for calling in. Thank you.
We'll be right back.
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BALDWIN: "STATE OF THE UNION" coming up at the top of the hour. But...
HOLMES: Here now, we've got a check of the headlines for you.
Of course, the breaking story we've been following, the remains of the first American lost in the 1991 Gulf War has been found in Iraq. Captain Michael Scott Speicher was shot down on the first night of the war, he had been listed as killed or missing in action, also missing captured over the past 18 years. We'll continue to follow that story today.
Also the U.S. says it's working to confirm reports by Iran's state-run media that three Americans have been arrested after illegally hiking into the country from Iraq. The U.S. says if the reports are true, it will seek counselor access.
Also one person is dead, 15 others injured -- some critically -- when the outdoor stage collapsed -- this one you're seeing there. This happened at a concert in Canada. A violent storm there hit the area during a performance last night; about 15,000 people were attending that concert during a festival in Camrose -- that's about 50 miles south of Edmonton in Alberta.
Also LaGuardia Airport back on schedule this morning -- thank goodness -- the day after a fake bomb caused a massive evacuation. Scott McGann now being charged, held without bail allegedly for bringing a backpack with wires and batteries.
Now I want to hand it over to "STATE OF THE UNION" with Jessica Yellin sitting in today.
