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CNN Saturday Morning News

New Warship Deployed to U.S. 7th Fleet in Japan; President Bush Stressing Multilateral Approach In Dealing With North Korea; Shuttle Discovery's Astronauts Walking in Space

Aired July 08, 2006 - 10:00   ET

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

TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: In a move that could heighten tensions following North Korea's recent missile test, the U.S. today sends a destroyer to Japan equipped with a state-of-the-art missile tracking radar.
And good morning, everyone. From the CNN Center in Atlanta, I'm Tony Harris on this the eighth day of July. It is 10:00 a.m. here in Atlanta, 7:00 a.m. in Atlanta -- in Atlanta 10:00 a.m., 7:00 a.m. in Los Angeles.

BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, you'll be tested on that.

HARRIS: It takes me a minute, and 11:00 p.m. in Japan.

NGUYEN: Which we'll be talking a lot about in light of this destroyer.

Good morning everybody, I'm Betty Nguyen. We have a live report on these new development involving that U.S. destroyer in just a moment, but first, we want to take a quick look at some of the other stories making news right now.

Violence in the Middle East prompts about 65 Americans visiting relatives in Gaza to leave the territory under protection. Once inside Israel, they were driven by bus to Jordan for flights home. Israeli forces searching for a kidnapped soldier have now moved into eastern parts of Gaza City. The Palestinian prime minister, meanwhile, appealed for calm on all sides.

A new videotape on the Internet claims two of the suicide bombers in last July's London transit attacks were trained at al Qaeda camps. The half hour video, which has been reviewed by CNN, has the logo of al Qaeda's video production company. Now the London subway and bus bombings killed 52 people and four suicide bombers.

One of two military probes into the alleged massacre by U.S. Marines of Iraqi civilians in Haditha last November has been completed. The investigation examined the reporting, training and command climate related to that incident. Now the report has been sent to General George Casey, the head of the U.S. forces in Iraq, and a criminal probe is still underway.

HARRIS: And in Trenton, New Jersey, during the wee, small hours of the morning, state lawmakers today passed a budget compromise to put the Garden State back in business. An executive order signed by the governor a short time later cleared the way for state offices to reopen. That had a direct impact on the state's casinos which quickly reopened to gamblers.

And right now, a live picture from over 200 miles above earth, astronauts Piers Sellers and Mike Fossum working outside the International Space Station -- look at this. About five-and-a-half hours remain in their spacewalk which began an hour ago. CNN's space correspondent Miles O'Brien will join us in about 10 minutes to explain exactly what the astronauts are doing. CNN, the most trusted name in news.

NGUYEN: Well, you would think that running through six pairs of shoes from Los Angeles all the way to Atlanta would be enough, right? Apparently not. We will find out what makes Jonathan Prince run and run and run and keep running.

Plus this ...

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NGUYEN: Yes, we're down with this. We tag along on this talent show as R&B singer Beyonce Knowles holds auditions for a new group that she is forming.

HARRIS: New developments this morning amid the North Korean missile standoff. A new warship has reportedly been deployed to the U.S. 7th Fleet in Japan, with another one on the way. Both are top of the line guided missile destroyers.

U.S. envoy Christopher Hill is in South Korea trying to finesse a deal with North Korea. He says the U.S. will talk one on one with North Korea, but he'll insist that will happen only within six-party talks within the Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program.

We have been talking about the reported warship deployment this morning with Major General Thomas Wilkerson with the U.S. Naval Institute. He joins us on the phone again this morning, and General, good to talk to you once again.

And just for the record, I'll ask you a question I asked you this morning just for clarity. Give us a sense why you believe the Mustin is on its way to the region.

MAJ. GEN. THOMAS WILKERSON, U.S. NAVAL INSTITUTE: Good morning again, Tony. And the reason stays the same. It's a normal deployment. It predates in planning and execution any of the North Korean missile launches or deliveries, and the reason I tell you that, I think, is because moving a ship of that size with that many sailors aboard and relocating it as a fleet unit to the 7th Fleet is not something that happens overnight.

HARRIS: We shouldn't take this as a response -- kind of a direct response, to last week's missile launch?

WILKERSON: Just the opposite. What it is, is a continuing effort on the part of U.S. forces in the joint world, the operational forces, to maintain a level of capability in the 7th Fleet and in the Western Pacific area that we have kept for quite some time.

Now, the newest units have more capabilities against ballistic missiles, but that's a normal course of upgrades that's been going on since the introduction of the Aegis system in 1991.

HARRIS: How significant -- we're still doing some reporting on the Enterprise moving -- movement of the nuclear powered aircraft carrier, the Enterprise. If that moves into the Pacific, would that be a significant move?

HARRIS: The only thing that you can use as a litmus test for a significant national command authority -- read the president or the secretary of defense -- a national command authority decision to move fleet units or even land or air units, is if they are currently deployed in one region and receive quick orders to move to another.

And I'll give you an example. When the tsunami struck in the Pacific region, the deployment of the Lincoln Battle Group to assist them in their recovery from that natural disaster was a huge change in the normal deployment cycle that was caused by our response. That's what you're looking for.

HARRIS: OK.

WILKERSON: If it's just something like the Mustin's movement or a return of a unit from the war zone in Iraq back to Norfolk or to its home port those are normal cases of events and they are usually not announced.

HARRIS: Got you. And very quickly, you're so good on this. Talk to us -- no, no, you really are. Talk to us about the capabilities of the Mustin.

WILKERSON: It's the latest in a line of what is the most capable surface warfare vessel in the world. The Mustin is a multifaceted, multitasking Aegis destroyer that can do ballistic missile defense, land attack missiles in close defense for fleet units, submarine, NES submarine warfare.

And it's all built around a complex computer generated system that's been in existence and upgraded for about 15 years, and it's a really awesome piece of machinery.

HARRIS: And just one final thought. The fact the Mustin is moving, that perhaps the Enterprise is moving as well, and perhaps even the Shiloh may be on the move, do you believe this will be viewed by North Korea as a provocative move?

WILKERSON: As little as they hear what is going on in the outside world they might not even know it is happening. On the other hand if they happen to tune in to CNN they might discover that, well, some of that is a normal course of events, some of it is not.

The idea that something the United States would do would be provocative after they launched seven missiles around our Independence Day seems to escape me just a bit.

HARRIS: That is a point so well-taken. Major General Thomas Wilkerson, we appreciate your time again this morning.

WILKERSON: Take care, Tony.

HARRIS: That's good.

NGUYEN: Definitely an honest answer there.

So will the U.S. and North Korea ever get to the negotiating table? That's what a lot of people are asking today.

So let's go live to the White House and CNN's Elaine Quijano. Any movement on that front, Elaine?

ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hello to you, Betty.

Well, as Tony just reported, U.S. officials are, in fact, stressing diplomacy right now. In fact, as Tony noted, earlier today in South Korea, the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said that Washington would be open to one on one discussions with Pyongyang, only if Pyongyang returns to the stalled six nation talks over North Korea's nuclear weapons program.

Now in addition to the U.S. and North and South Korea, those talks also include China, Russia and Japan. President Bush is stressing that multilateral approach, noting that in the past, North Korea has not lived up to agreements it made in bilateral talks. But the president also acknowledges that the diplomatic approach will take time.

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GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, the problem with diplomacy it take awhile to get something done. If you're acting alone, you can move quickly. When you're rallying world opinion and trying to come up with the right language at the United Nations to send a clear signal, it takes a while.

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QUIJANO: Now, as for what is next, diplomats at the United Nations have agreed to delay a vote on a draft resolution put forth by Japan. That resolution was circulated on Friday and it includes sanctions.

Now, the countries are taking a look at that, but already we know that two key members, China and Russia, are opposed to that idea. Instead, China and Russia want to see what is called a Presidential Security Council Statement and, Betty, the bottom line, that would have less impact and would not make any reference to sanctions -- Betty.

NGUYEN: All right. CNN's Elaine Quijano at the White House for us. Thank you, Elaine.

So we're going to ask you today, what do you think? Should the U.S. sit down with direct talks with North Korea? Now, you heard the U.S. envoy says yes, we'll sit down as long as it is six party talks. Should the U.S. sit down with direct talks with North Korea, or does that simply play into North Korea's hands? What are you thoughts on this? Weekends@CNN.com, we'll read those replies at the end of the hour.

And this weekend, come along as Korean-American journalists uncover the brutal life in North Korea. CNN presents "UNDERCOVER IN THE SECRET STATE" with two chances to watch today and Sunday at 8:00 p.m. Eastern only on CNN.

HARRIS: Nice hair there, man.

The dice are rolling and the slot machines are ringing again in New Jersey. This after state lawmakers approved a nearly $31 billion budget early this morning. The governor then issued an executive order ending the government shutdown. The budget includes a one percent sales tax increase. Now earlier, we spoke with the governor's press secretary about the financial crisis.

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VOICE OF ANTHONY COLEY, N.J. GOV. CORZINE'S PRESS SECY.: The problem that the state of New Jersey has had is that recurring revenues, the money coming in, does not match recurring expenses, the money going out.

So the governor thought that the best way to get the left side of the ledger to equal the right side of the ledger is to have a recurring revenue stream. The sales tax in his opinion was the one that could provide the most constant source of income.

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HARRIS: Atlantic City casinos were affected by the government shutdown because state inspectors are required to be on duty. Those inspectors were furloughed.

NGUYEN: Well, several suspects in an alleged plot to attack New York City tunnels are still at large this morning. New York's former police commissioner joins us next hour for the latest details regarding the threat, and details that could help keep you safe. So you definitely want to stick around for that.

HARRIS: And then how about this? A live trip into outer space. Fly me to the moon and let me play among the stars. Take a look at this. A busy crew this morning at the space station.

NGUYEN: That's a robotic arm right there. HARRIS: ...that we have been talking about. Miles O'Brien joins us next to explain exactly what it is you're seeing there and what is the weather like out there?

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HARRIS: And our top stories this morning -- amid mounting tensions over North Korea's missile tests, a new top of the line U.S. warship has been deployed to Japan. The USS Mustin is equipped with sensitive missile tracking radar and a crew of 300.

Germany meets Portugal in today's World Cup match-up. They're battling for third place. Italy plays France for the championship. That's tomorrow. Pope Benedict is defending the Vatican's vision as marriage as a unique union of man and woman. He's in Spain this weekend. Spain's government has clashed with the church over same-sex marriage.

Live now from the International Space Station, Shuttle Discovery's astronauts walking in space.

NGUYEN: That's part of the robotic arm. And you know what? You know who is going to be able to tell us the most about this? That's our very own Miles O'Brien. He's joining us live from New York.

So, exactly how does this arm work and the importance of it in the spacewalk, Miles?

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN SPACE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, well, it's -- think about trying to work at the long end of a flagpole and how stable would that be? I'm trying to come up with analogy, but they are trying to see how stable this platform will be. You know, the robot arm on the space shuttle is 50 feet long. They have an extension which they use to inspect the tiles now, post-Columbia, which is another 50 feet.

And the question is, if they found something wrong and the shuttle were not near the space station where they have other ways of accessing the bottom of the shuttle, could they use that extension to work from? And that's the goal of this spacewalk today, six-and-a- half hour long planned spacewalk. They are about an hour into it.

Let me tell you where people are. It is kind of hard to see them. And I'm looking for them myself. OK, that's Mike Fossum right there. You see him? And that's Piers Sellers right there, there are two of them. Just watch there. Watch your screen very closely, and you'll see it wiggling.

And in the foreground here, Betty, is exactly what we're talking about, that arm which goes boom, boom. And here's the extension portion or -- and they will eventually make their way to the end of that and what they will do is at separate occasions -- I want to make sure you remember where these guys are. Separate occasions they will try working, trying tasks or simulating tasks, the movement associated with those tasks, to see if they could conceivably do some work on the space shuttle if they needed to at some point down the road. Spectacular pictures when you look at this. It almost -- it's kind of surreal when you look.

And consider the fact that they are traveling around the planet right now at 17,500 miles an hour. And, boy, what a view they are going to get when they get that boom, that 100 foot boom, is extended. They will be six stories away from the shuttle, and I suspect we're going to see some fantastic pictures a little bit later.

Let me just show you a quick animation to give you a sense of what I'm talking about here. I hesitate to get away from these live pictures, but let's look real quickly just so you can see what they're going to be doing as the spacewalk progresses. They will use -- the arm will be moved in all sorts of positions, and will give them an opportunity to test that out.

I guess we don't have the animation. You get the idea. They extend the arm and they test it to see if it wiggles too much. It's fairly straightforward.

They did -- by the way, the first task of this was to free up a railroad car device which goes along the truss of the space station, right along here. It had been jammed up, and they fixed a cable that was giving some problems there. So they did that. Oh, there goes our picture, and that should probably be a good time for us to stop talking.

NGUYEN: Taking your cue there, but it's really quite fascinating, and I'm glad that you put the little arrows where the astronauts are, because they almost get kind of lost in all of that white there.

O'BRIEN: Yes, you really -- it's amazing how the light is kind of a two dimensional effect. And, of course, the suits are the same color as the Kevlar insulation to the space station, and you really have to look. So I'm happy to help guide the viewer through the spacewalk.

HARRIS: Well, Miles, do you have your model of ...

O'BRIEN: I do.

NGUYEN: You know he has his toys.

O'BRIEN: Always handy.

HARRIS: Because I wanted you to talk us through the problem -- I don't want to overstate it -- that they are keeping an eye on.

O'BRIEN: Well, here. Yes. There's two things I want to show you before I go to the model. This is gap filler. Remember we've been talking about gap filler? That's an actual piece of it. That's what gets everybody so concerned. And this is how this works. I have got a piece of tile here, and the gap filler goes right between the tiles. The tiles are very close together, but they put this little piece in for added measure.

But what happens -- has happened, is when it rises toward launch, something hits it or dings it, and it moves out just a little bit like that. And that, in and of itself, can create a disturbance in the turbulent airflow of searing hot gases that come back to the planet.

And take a look at two places they have been looking at. This one, gap filler sticking out. Not worried about it. This one not sure yet. What's interesting -- come back to me on the model. I want to show you where that is on the space shuttle. It's back in here. There's a door here which attaches the hoses for the main engines to that big external fuel tank right by the door. And they're a little worried about that.

But how would you get to that is the question. And so it turns out that this spacewalk, even though they are thinking about future missions needing it, they might very well -- if things work out well today -- they might use this boom, this extended boom on spacewalk number three just to prove yesterday to go and pluck that gap filler out as we saw a year ago.

NGUYEN: And the worry with that Miles is that on reentry it could really heat up and cause problems?

O'BRIEN: Yes, think about the shuttle as it comes in. It's kind of almost enclosed and encased in a gas -- sort of a gas cushion. And the gap filler creates a little pointy place there and it can turn that nice cushion into a blowtorch and it can just concentrate heat on one spot. It takes away the smooth air -- not air, smooth gases around it and turns it into a hot spot, and that's a worry.

NGUYEN: That's problematic. OK, Miles, we will be watching these live pictures. They are truly fascinating. It's a long day for them, six hours out in space. And of course, it's going to a long day for you, too, Miles. Sorry about that, but we'll check in with you soon.

HARRIS: And coming up this morning, on CNN SATURDAY MORNING, a plot foiled, suspects jailed, but other alleged plotters, are they still on the loose? A former New York police commissioner talks about the latest threat to the Big Apple. His advice in about 10 minutes.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Imagine being able to see something the size of a nickel from 10,000 miles away? Dr. Hal McAlister designed the Chara array to do just that.

DR. HAL MCALISTER, CHARA DIR., GEORGE STATE UNIVERSITY: We've been working for 20 years to build a facility in Southern California that links together six independent telescopes and stitches them together as if they form a single telescope a thousand feet across. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Chara rays' powerful zoom brings to light information that astronomers simply couldn't reach before. All this to feedback into the theory of how stars form.

MCALISTER: By learning more about the stars, we learn more about our own star, and really what gives us here life on earth.

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HARRIS: OK, let me see if I can get this right. So, I was trying to figure out Los Angeles this morning, time and everything in Los Angeles or Tucson.

NGUYEN: Three hours difference, yes.

HARRIS: No, this is Tucson right now. Wow! And you could only hope it doesn't look like this today. Powerful afternoon downpour closed several roads.

NGUYEN: That just one afternoon downpour did all that.

HARRIS: That was just like -- yes. Boats, I guess, would have been a better fit for the streets.

NGUYEN: Yes, I would say so.

HARRIS: You think? About a thousand customers.

NGUYEN: Some of those cars turn into boats. Look at that.

HARRIS: Floating along there. A bunch of customers lost power in the storm. No injuries, thankfully, reported.

NGUYEN: Well, that's the good news. But the question is, just an afternoon shower did that?

HARRIS: Hopefully it gets better today.

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NGUYEN: All right, speaking of, we are still monitoring the movement of U.S. destroyers deployed to Japan.

Plus, new information about plans to attack tunnels between Manhattan and New Jersey.

HARRIS: And it is -- well, it is hard to believe all this destruction led to some very heartwarming stories, but it's true. We'll share some of them with you coming up on CNN SATURDAY MORNING.

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