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CNN Saturday Morning News

Update on the Search for Two Soldiers Missing in Yesterday's Deadly Attack; Behind the Scenes of Blackwater USA; Food Allergies In Children

Aired June 17, 2006 - 09:00   ET

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

BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: U.S. forces in Iraq stage a large search and rescue mission for two missing U.S. soldiers west of Baghdad. We're going to take you to Baghdad live in just a moment.
In the meantime, from the CNN Center right here in Atlanta, good morning everybody. I'm Betty Nguyen, CNN SATURDAY MORNING.

RICHARD LUI, CNN ANCHOR: Yes a very good Saturday morning to you. I'm Richard Lui from CNN Pipeline, filling in for Tony Harris.

NGUYEN: Welcome, good morning.

LUI: Thanks for having me.

NGUYEN: Took you out of the Pipeline and put you on the desk.

LUI: Yes, good times, hang out with you.

NGUYEN: Well it's going to be fun. We have a lot to tell you about this morning. So let's get straight to it.

Two U.S. soldiers are missing following a skirmish in Iraq. Coalition forces were attacked at a traffic checkpoint outside of Baghdad. Now the quick reaction force found one soldier dead but no sign of the other two. The U.S. military says it is using every means to try to locate the two soldiers. We have a live update from Baghdad in less than three minutes.

Wrong but not illegal, that's the conclusion of a pentagon report on alleged detainee abuse in Iraq. At least one prisoner fed bread and water for 17 days. Others locked in cramped cells for up to a week. That's according to published reports. Officials investigated several incidents involving special operation forces in 2003 and 2004. No military personnel are being punished as a result of this investigation.

Well it is mid afternoon in Iraq and yet another deadly day in Baghdad. Five separate incidents of bomb attacks or mortar shelling today killed nearly two dozen people. Police say 19 people were killed in four separate attacks just in one hour.

LUI: States and cities across America are not prepared for a catastrophe. No matter that it's nearly five years after 9/11 and nearly one year after Katrina. Homeland Security has concluded the majority of emergency plans are not adequate, feasible or acceptable. Then from Somalia for you, two warlords backed by the U.S. have fled Mogadishu to a ship in the Indian Ocean. That's according to reports quoting Islamic court sources. It comes one week after the warlords forces were defeated by an Islamic militia which wants to impose Islamic law on Somalia. For complete coverage of breaking news and today's top stories, stay with CNN, the most trusted name in news.

NGUYEN: All right, we want to get you an update now on two missing U.S. soldiers in Iraq. The military says the soldiers went missing yesterday after coming under attack at a traffic checkpoint south of Baghdad. Another soldier was killed in that attack. Less than an hour ago the military gave an update on their search. So we want you to take a listen to that statement unedited and in its entirety.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAJ. GEN. WILLIAM CALDWELL, U.S. MILITARY SPOKESMAN: Good afternoon. Last night a coalition force soldier was killed and two others are currently listed as duty status and whereabouts unknown after their security element came under attack at a traffic control point south of Yusufiyah, Iraq at approximately 7:55 p.m. local time Friday, June 16.

The names of the soldiers are being withheld pending notification of their next of kin. Coalition forces and Iraqi security forces initiated a search operation within minutes to determine the status of these soldiers. We are currently using every means at our disposal on the ground, in the air, and in the water to find them. The specifics of this situation currently available for release are as follows.

Coalition forces at an adjacent traffic control point heard an explosion and small arms fire at approximately 7:55 p.m. last night in the vicinity of the missing soldiers' checkpoint at a canal crossing near the Euphrates River in the vicinity of Yusufiyah. After being unable to communicate with the checkpoint a quick reaction force was launched, arriving on scene within 15 minutes.

The quick reaction force reported finding one soldier killed in action and two soldiers' duty status and whereabouts unknown. All traffic control points were notified to stop civilian traffic and increase security. Helicopter, unmanned aerial vehicle and fixed wing assets provide a reconnaissance over and around the site. A dive team was requested.

Within an hour of the incident, blocking positions were established throughout the area in a concerted effort to focus the search and prevent movement of suspects out of the area. Three raids were conducted during the night on suspected possible locations and a fourth operation was conducted this morning.

Coalition forces engaged with local leaders in the area to enlist the support of civilians and providing any information they could and these engagements continue. Dive teams are now on site working the canal and river. There is cross coordination amongst adjacent units to develop actionable intelligence on our soldiers' whereabouts. We are using all available assets, coalition and Iraqi, ground, air and water to locate and determine the duty status of our soldiers.

We continue today to search for Sergeant Matt Maupin captured in April of 2004. We continue to search using every means available and will not stop looking until we find the missing soldiers. Make no mistake we never stop looking for our service members until their status is definitively determined. And we continue to pray for their safe return.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NGUYEN: So there you have it from Lieutenant General William Caldwell, the multinational force spokesman for Iraq. CNN Baghdad Bureau Director Cal Perry has been following these developments and he joins us from Baghdad. Cal, the lieutenant general didn't come out and say it but the big fear here is that these two soldiers that are missing may have been captured.

CAL PERRY, CNN BAGHDAD BUREAU DIRECTOR: Certainly, I mean that is a nightmare scenario for the military. It's a little bit early to speculate that that is the case. What we do know about this area is that it's built on a series of canals. The military refers to this area which starts about 30 miles to the south of Baghdad as the triangle of death.

They have put dive search teams in a nearby river where this checkpoint was located. We do know as the major general said, that this checkpoint came under both small arms fire and explosions. When a quick reaction force team arrived, they found one U.S. soldier killed, two others missing. But as I said, they have put a dive search team into the nearby water to find out if it's possible the soldiers were killed in this assault. Betty?

NGUYEN: All right but in the case that they are still alive talk to us about the situation here in this what you call the "Triangle of Death" and how it has connections to al Qaeda in Iraq.

PERRY: Well, it's certainly seen as an al Qaeda stronghold. The U.S. military has taken heavy casualties in this area. I was recently embedded there with CNN correspondent Aneesh Raman, with the 3rd ACR, and they took very heavy casualties. There is an armor division down in this area and as I said, they'll patrol these waterways but the ground is very soft.

They're known for setting up roadside bombs and what they call these complex attacks. This attack at a checkpoint is exactly what the military would call a complex attack. It started with small arms fire, it was followed by explosions. That could be either mortar fire or roadside bombs. While it's very unclear at this point what has happened to the U.S. soldiers as you said, the nightmare scenario really would be that they're taken hostage and that we would see them on an Arab video at some point. Betty?

NGUYEN: Well the hope is that that's not the case. The search is under way as we speak. CNN Baghdad Bureau Director Cal Perry, thanks for that update, we'll be checking in with you throughout the day.

LUI: And as that goes on, there's been a lot of talk lately about when U.S. troops might come home from Iraq. But there's another side of the story we rarely hear about. An estimated 25,000 private military contractors on the ground in Iraq. They're doing jobs once performed by U.S. troops.

It's a highly sensitive industry not much interested in talking to journalists but CNN's Nic Robertson was able to get unprecedented access to one of the industry giants, Blackwater USA.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The company has never let a TV crew in like this before. Blackwater Vice President Chris Taylor escorts us around. He shows us police officers shooting on a practice range. Unmarked ships, Blackwater trains sailors enforce protection after the bombing of the USS Cole in 2000. Would be private military contractors train to defeat insurgents.

CHRIS TAYLOR, BLACKWATER U.S.A. VICE PRESIDENT: What we're on right now is the country's largest tactical driving track.

ROBERTSON: 2.6 miles custom built training here matches daily realities in Baghdad.

TAYLOR: We're going to do a little slalom work here. Again, imagine that you've been attacked and now you're weaving in and out of traffic to get your principal off the X to get to a safe zone.

ROBERTSON: Blackwater is the brain child of camera shy multimillionaire Eric Prince. After 9/11 business boomed. They just built a brand new headquarters.

(on camera): I see the gun barrels on the doors.

TAYLOR: Yes.

ROBERTSON: A nice touch.

TAYLOR: A little bit of the Blackwater motif.

ROBERTSON: And here it is as well, Blackwater.

(voice-over): Wartime demands allowed them to expand. They are now the second largest employer in northeastern North Carolina.

TAYLOR: Right, 8,000 square feet in the original building. 64,000 square feet here.

ROBERTSON (on camera): That's a big expansion.

TAYLOR: It's a rather big expansion but it's needed. Certainly we've left room for growth.

ROBERTSON (voice-over): Growth because Taylor believes Blackwater has a bright future.

TAYLOR: There's opportunities all over the world. Where we think that we can make a very big impact immediately is in peace keeping operations.

ROBERTSON: The protection of innocents in Darfur, Sudan, is just one of the global hot issues the company says it is ready to tackle. It's so committed to expansion in new markets, Blackwater hired 30- year CIA veteran Cofer Black who for years headed the U.S. hunt for Osama bin Laden.

COFER BLACK, VICE-CHAIRMAN, BLACKWATER USA: My company could deploy a reasonably small force under the guidance and leadership of any established national authority and do a terrific job.

ROBERTSON: As vice chairman of Blackwater he's using his global contacts to search out new lucrative contracts. Not just in the realm of peace keeping. The company is developing airships for surveillance. In the aftermath of hurricane Katrina, heavily armed Blackwater protection teams were among the first on the scene.

TAYLOR: If you notice the hull is in a v-shape.

ROBERTSON: And frustrated by the high U.S. troop death toll from roadside bombs Blackwater has built a prototype for an armored alternative to the Humvee. The company says it can assemble hundreds of battle ready men, a small private army at a moment's notice.

BLACK: Those companies that limit themselves particularly to providing only security services will be increasingly challenged over time.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LUI: You can see more of Nic's exclusive reporting on the private contracting industry. All you have to do is watch the half hour special only on CNN this weekend. That airs at 10:00 eastern tonight and again at 5:00 p.m. eastern on Sunday.

So are your child's food allergies limiting your grocery list? No peanuts, no tomatoes, no milk. So what can they eat? A look at how some parents are working together to fight food allergies among their kids.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LUI: And welcome back to SATURDAY MORNING, we're going to spend some time talking about kids and food allergies. It's a problem facing more and more American families.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A food allergy is defined as an adverse immune system response to food proteins. Allergic reactions can vary in severity from sniffles and sneezes to loss of consciousness, even death. The American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology estimates as many as four percent of Americans have a food allergy. In some circles that number rises to eight percent for children who may experience intolerance to certain foods.

Nearly 90 percent of kids food allergies are caused by seven food items: milk, eggs, peanuts, wheat, soy, shellfish and tree nuts. Children can outgrow their sensitivities to milk, eggs, wheat and soy. But their allergies to peanuts, tree nuts and shellfish can last a lifetime.

The American Academy of Pediatrics believes some childhood food allergies may be preventable. It suggest parents wait until the child is a little older before introducing potentially allergy causing foods. For children who are diagnosed with food allergies, avoiding specific foods is key to minimizing allergic episodes and symptoms. And while some children have been known to outgrow a food allergy, there are no known cures.

(END OF VIDEOTAPE)

NGUYEN: And for a growing number of parents, food really can be the enemy. Here's why. Each year 150 to 200 Americans die from food allergies. Robyn O'Brien is a parent who knows all about these dangers. And she has decided actually to do something about it. She joins us now from Denver this morning. Good morning to you.

ROBYN O'BRIEN, ALLERGYKIDS FOUNDATION: Good morning, Betty.

NGUYEN: Well first of all, talking about why you started this "Allergykids." Why did you come up with it?

O'BRIEN: Well about four months ago my youngest child was diagnosed with food allergies. And I wanted to just tattoo it across her forehead. And I came home and I did a lot of research and there's an incredible amount of information out there but there was no universal symbol to raise awareness of these children as a group. And I wanted to make it easy for anyone, anywhere to identify a child with food allergies in order to prevent the accidental allergic reactions.

NGUYEN: Exactly. Because a lot of these children like your own very young when they start going to school, you're not around to tell everybody, hey, this child can't have that because he or she is allergic to it and it can be deadly. So you came up with this, this exclamation point. We have some stickers here to kind of show it for you. Why this symbol?

O'BRIEN: Well what we were trying to do was alert parents, caregivers, teachers, whoever might come in contact with this child, to stop, which is why we have the octagon. And then the exclamation point is to raise the attention. And so what we're trying to do is get people to stop and ask the question. Because for the most part a 3-year-old can tell you that he's allergic to peanuts, but the problem is that a lot of people don't know to ask.

NGUYEN: Right. So now basically here's how this works. You can put it on your child, you can put it on their -- say their lunchbox or the paper bag that you know takes their lunch to school. But also companies can put this on their boxes to tell people wait a second, there could be items in here that children or adults may be allergic too.

O'BRIEN: That's right, Betty. We're working with some amazing global corporations on this. It's amazing to me how quickly this has been adopted and how quickly people are embracing it as a tool to prevent these reactions. We're working with global food service companies, we're working with national grocery store chains. We're hoping to have these products in their stores for back to school in August. And again, it's just as a tool to protect these children and to protect anyone really with life threatening food allergies.

We have journalists in Brazil who are covering this story, we have had people approach us from the Czech Republic for distribution. It's not just an American problem and the beauty of this symbol is that it transcends any language barrier. Not just for the 4-year-old that can't read the label but if a family is fortunate enough to travel to Europe for the summer, the symbol would mean the same thing in Italy as it does in the U.S.

NGUYEN: Well in speaking of that symbol though, there are those who will say, you know, this is a great idea but isn't it up to the FDA to label foods?

O'BRIEN: It is up to the FDA to label foods and they are working really hard on this plain language labeling. What we're doing is we're going to get in front of them with this symbol and hopefully they can incorporate it in the labeling. Because again a 4-year-old he can't read the labels and he would understand what the symbol meant.

NGUYEN: Now you're also working besides the labels, you're working on something else that I just really think is a great idea. Wristbands and wristbands that really not only denote that a child or an adult has a food allergy, but there's important information that comes with it. Tell us how this works.

O'BRIEN: That's right Betty. We have this medical flash drive wristband and it has medical software encoded into the flash drive, so you can provide your child's medical information and it's compatible with a USB port worldwide. And so you take that wristband with you anywhere you go, just the way you would take a driver's license. And you can hand it over to your child's teacher in the classroom, if you're traveling overseas, plug it into any computer and you have a complete list of the medical information.

NGUYEN: That is fantastic. You know it really kind of highlights the problem of food allergies. How big is this problem?

O'BRIEN: Right now there are estimates that at least one out of every 15 children under the age of three has a severe food allergy. We're not talking about food sensitivities and stomachaches. We're talking about the potential for a life threatening allergic reaction. And so that's eight percent of young children. And from 1997 until 2002 the prevalence of the peanut allergy doubled. And if you extrapolate that out that suggests a 20 percent growth a year of the peanut allergy. It is a huge problem.

NGUYEN: Well hold on right there. Peanut allergies have doubled. Do you know why?

O'BRIEN: If we could answer that question, Betty, we would be well on the way to finding the cure. And that is what our goal is to help fund the research to find a cure or a vaccine for food allergies.

NGUYEN: And that's where some of the money from buying these stickers, buying these bags, buying these bracelets goes, correct?

O'BRIEN: That's right. As we engage these licensing partners and we're hoping to engage Target and Wal-Mart and be able to roll these products out just across the spectrum so that anyone, anywhere can get them. And we'll take the licensing revenue and put it into the Allergykids Foundation to fund the medical research to find a cure. Because right now these doctors, in a certain extent, they have their hands tied. Because they don't have the funds to do the research that they need to do.

NGUYEN: Well it's a good program. Robyn O'Brien, founder of Allergykids. Thanks for your time this morning.

O'BRIEN: Thanks so much for having me Betty.

NGUYEN: Sure. Richard?

LUI: All right, good stuff there Betty. Whether we're talking about terrorist attacks or a natural disaster, how prepared is your city? The answer might shock you. Here we've been asking all morning whether you think your city is disaster ready. Well e-mail us at weekends@CNN.com, let us know how you think. We'll read some on the air a little bit later.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: All right, here's the question. All morning long we have been asking for your thoughts on this. Do you think your city is prepared for a disaster? Now this comes because a new report by the Department of Homeland Security says that basically only 10 states within the U.S. are sufficiently prepared for a disaster. So, do you think your city is prepared? That is the question.

LUI: We have some of your responses right now. Let's share a couple with you.

We have Ron from Virginia starting out by saying, "More money is not going to improve or enhance how safe a state will be or become, it would only encourage more fraud. Take a look at New Orleans and New York and you will have your answer. With more money in the pot, greed takes over and encourages fraud."

NGUYEN: Well, Brian, speaking of New York, from Clifton Park, New York says, "Heck no, we're not prepared. My town is still arguing over whether or not it should have its own postal code!" LUI: OK. And Frank True rounding it out for us in our e-mail for this reading, at least. "We should remember the words, "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country" and have the good sense to prepare individually beforehand and not blame afterwards."

NGUYEN: Preparation is the key as everyone will tell you. Here's the question again, what do you think? Is your city prepared for a disaster? Whether that be a natural disaster or a terror attack? E-mail us weekends@CNN.com. We'll read those replies throughout the morning.

All right. Regardless of whether you own your home, looking to buy a home or if you're an agent showing them "OPEN HOUSE" is a priceless resource for all things home related. And you know what, it's only five minutes away.

LUI: I love that show. And next hour, here getting caught up in the MySpace invasion. Some fun and games but it could cost you later on. You won't be laughing about this one. We'll explain.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LUI: And your top stories this hour. The U.S. military says it's using every means available to try to locate two missing soldiers in Iraq. This follows a skirmish Friday night at a traffic checkpoint outside Baghdad. A quick reaction force found one soldier dead but no sign of two others.

There are reports out today of a newly released pentagon report on alleged detainee abuse in Iraq. Conclusion there it was wrong but not illegal. One detainee was fed only bread and water for 17 days. Others were kept in tiny cells for up to one week. The report was completed in 2004 soon after the incidents.

Bombs ripped through Baghdad today. Almost two dozen people were killed in five separate attacks. Two died when mortar rounds slammed into a market in a Shiite neighborhood. 11 others were killed by a suicide car bomb. The violence continues in spite of a new security operation taking place in the city.

Coalition forces in Afghanistan meanwhile are pressing ahead today with a major offensive. The military says at least 40 Taliban extremists were killed during a raid yesterday. More than 10,000 U.S., Afghan and coalition forces are taking part in Operation Mountain Thrust. They're targeting Taliban fighters who have regrouped in recent months.

Well, Gerri Willis is up next with "OPEN HOUSE." Don't miss that. You have a few minutes to crank open the blinds, fluff those pillow and pour yourself another cup of coffee. We'll be back at the top of the hour with updates on our top news stories of the day.

Stay with CNN, the most trusted name in news.

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