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CNN Saturday Morning News
Air Raid Sirens Sounding in Haifa; One Killed, Many Wounded in Seattle Shooting; Floyd Landis Denies Doping Allegations
Aired July 29, 2006 - 09:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FLOYD LANDIS, TOUR DE FRANCE WINNER: I would love to keep racing and I'm going to do my best to depend my dignity and my innocence.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BETTY NGUYEN, CNN CO-ANCHOR, CNN SATURDAY MORNING: Floyd Landis gives Larry King his side of the story. Hear what the Tour de France winner has to say about drug test results raising suspicions about his win.
From the CNN Center right here in Atlanta good morning everybody, I'm Betty Nguyen, this is CNN SATURDAY MORNING.
TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR, CNN SATURDAY MORNING: Good morning everybody. I'm Tony Harris. Thank you for starting your day with us. Here's what is happening right now in the news.
New details in yesterdays deadly shooting out of Seattle Jewish center that police are calling a hate crime. Police say the suspect is an American Muslim of Pakistani dissent. The attack left one woman dead, five wounded. A live report in less than two minutes.
NGUYEN: The U.S. military reports three more marines killed in Iraq. A statement says they were killed in action Thursday. In Iraq's Anbar Province. Both army and marine units operate in the Ramadi area of Anbar. Since the start of the war 2,572 U.S. troops have been died in Iraq.
HARRIS: Burning the midnight oil. House lawmakers hike the minimum wage. Bumping it up $2.10. But it may never get into American's pockets. Republicans attached the minimum wage hike to a bill cutting inheritance taxes on multimillion-dollar estates. The legislation goes to the Senate there, a tough battle is expected.
Several thousand acres go up in flames in northwest Nebraska. As many as five fires were burning last night fueled by triple digit temperatures and low humidity. The crackling flames have charred portions of three counties. Some residence in Chadron, Nebraska was forced to evacuate. A number of homes were damaged from no injuries.
CNN, the most trusted name in news.
NGUYEN: Updating the crisis in the Middle East. Here is what we know right now. Israel has rejected a call for a 72-hour cease-fire for humanitarian relief. Israel kept up its attacks overnight. The Israeli air force says it carried out 60 air strikes.
Hezbollah representatives agree to a Lebanese government peace plan with reservations. The group objected to plans to a robust force of international peacekeepers but agreed to an increased international presence.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice calls the Lebanese peace plan a positive step. Rice arrives back in the region today to push for an end to the fighting. She meets first with Israel's prime minister.
You want to stay with us right here on CNN because we are all over this story. We will bring you any updates from the Mid East just as soon as they happen.
HARRIS: Back in the states, we're learning more about the man accused of opening fire at a Jewish Center yesterday in Seattle, killing one woman and wounding five others.
Reporter Katherine Barrett joins us from Seattle, where it is just 6:00 a.m., Katherine, good to see you. Let's start with an update, if you could give us the latest information on the condition of those people wounded.
KATHERINE BARRETT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Those five wounded remain at Seattle's Harbor View Medical Center. That's the area's number one trauma center. The information about the health was updated only at 10:00 p.m. local time last night and there's been no new news since then that we can report.
But what was reported then was that of the five wounded, they are women between the ages of 23 and 43 years old and the -- of the five three remain in critical condition at Harbor View, two are in satisfactory condition. Among their injuries are gunshot wounds to the abdomen, groin, knee and arm. Again, which woman has which injuries we don't know but again three are in critical and two in satisfactory condition at this hour.
Tony.
HARRIS: OK, and Katherine as you tell us this story we're taking a look at pictures from the scene yesterday. Take us back, if you would, to what the witnesses describe of that scene yesterday afternoon.
BARRETT: Tony, it's been a little over 12 hours since really the heart of downtown Seattle was shaken by these scenes of violence that are more familiar in recent days from the Middle East. Police S.W.A.T. teams surrounded the building housing the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle.
Medical triage evacuees from the building to the street corner and then sent them to that trauma center. This morning in front of the building several small bouquets of flowers, cards and one candle in front of the door where the gunman fought his way in for the attack. Frankly, Seattle's Muslim and Jewish communities are both in a state of shock. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Shocking, terrible that somebody would do something like that to hurt innocence.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's an act of terrorism. It's something done by one angry group to another because of the religious reasons.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Certainly with everything going on in the world right now that's the first thought that comes to everyone's minds.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Muslim community wanted to express its deep sorrow and it's condolences to the family and let the public know that we have a wonderful relationship with this inter faith dialogue that we have going on and we are deeply concerned and hope they will bring this horrible crime to justice.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BARRETT: That last speaker is a leader in Seattle's Muslim community, a moderate and a consensus builder with the entire community. The entire area here really in shock that this could happen in this neighborhood, in this part of the world. So far away from the violence in the Middle East.
Tony.
HARRIS: Katherine very quickly, what do we know about the suspect in custody?
BARRETT: What we know is that he's a 31-year-old named Navid Hawk (ph) from the Washington area. That's about 180 miles southeast of here although he has in some published reports have been said to be living much closer to the Seattle area in Everett. That is all that police are at the moment releasing about him. We will have to wait to hear more. He is being booked for investigation of one count of murder, five counts of attempted murder. Though no formal criminal charges have been filed as yet. I'm sure we will hear more from the police when things get underway later this morning.
Tony.
HARRIS: OK, Katherine Barrett for us in Seattle. Katherine we appreciate it. Thank you.
NGUYEN: Some breaking news to tell you about. Here's a live picture. We are watching this very closely because our CNN crew in Haifa, Israel, has just given us word that air raid sirens have gone off. I think we're seeing in that shot Fionnuala Sweeney. Here is a map of the area; we're trying to get our crews up and running to bring you a live report from this area. Obviously they are taking cover as the air raid sirens have just gone off in that particular area.
Though fighting does continue in this region. So far the Lebanese say 421 people have been killed in the conflict. Israelis, the count there 51 so far killed and the rockets continue to fire on both sides of this and, again, this morning we are learning according to our CNN crew in Haifa, Israel, that air raid sirens have gone off in that particular area. We're waiting to see if it hit in any populated civilian area. Obviously no one wants to see any more damage but obviously the missiles continue to fly and we will be watching it and as soon as it is safe for our crew to bring us a live report from the area, we will bring it straight to you here on CNN.
HARRIS: Changing gears quite literally here. Floyd Landis is adamant that he did not cheat to win the Tour de France bicycle race. Results of the testosterone test taken at the end of last Sunday's spectacular come from behind win seems to suggest otherwise. But a physician for Landis says those results could occur naturally. Last night an exclusive interview with CNN's Larry King Landis said, all the other tests taken during the race show nothing out of the ordinary.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FLOYD LANDIS, TOUR DE FRANCE WINNER: I don't have the other tests in my possession. I don't have the actual tests, which I was accused of having abnormal reading. The team has a copy, I could get it. The other tests were in the process of trying to acquire. Ordinarily we don't receive any kind of correspondence from the testers, unless there's a problem. So I have never in my life received any kind of results from a test.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: The former teammate and seven-time Tour de France champ Lance Armstrong says he's inclined to give Landis the benefit of the doubt.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LANCE ARMSTRONG, SEVEN-TIME TOUR DE FRANCE CHAMPION: All I can say you know without knowing the specifics of this case and just sticking to the facts that I know is what I know about Floyd. We spent three years together on the same team obviously spending massive amounts of time training and racing together. If we ever suspected anything that there was suspicious behavior, anything to lead us to believe he was a cheater, then we would have parted ways long before we did.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: OK. Well, what do you think? It's your turn. Email us. Here is the question, "Floyd Landis: Do you believe his story?" OK we will read some of your comments a little later in the program.
NGUYEN: Well, food is running out, disease that is starting to spread. Cut off from the outside world. Straight ahead I'm going to talk with a college student whose Lebanon hometown is flooded with refuges.
HARRIS: And in 20 minutes is your homes power supply at risk. Gerri Willis will show you what a massive power outage in Queens, New York reveled about utility politics.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: Back to our breaking news now. Just moments ago, Betty reported to you that warning sirens are being heard in Haifa, Israel. CNN's Fionnuala Sweeney is there. Fionnuala, what can you tell us?
FIONNUALA SWEENEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, yes, the air raid sirens Tony have been sounding in Haifa throughout the day, this Jewish Sabbath weekend. Haifa normally quiet recently because of the number of rockets that have been falling on this city. There have been no direct hits. However 39 rockets in total have been launched by Hezbollah in southern Lebanon over northern Israel today and there have been six injuries.
Tony.
HARRIS: The very latest on the situation in Haifa. From our Fionnuala Sweeney. Fionnuala appreciate it. Thank you.
NGUYEN: We are hearing more and more stories about innocent civilians isolated by the fighting in Lebanon.
Carla Al-Hage is a 19-year-old college student at American University in Beirut. She is from Ameish, near the Israeli border. Now the mostly Christian village has taken in thousands of displaced people. The power is out. Supplies are dwindling and now disease is starting to spread. Carla Al-Hage made it out of Beirut just a few days ago and she joins me now.
Thanks for being with us this morning.
CARLA AL-HAGE, LEBANESE COLLEGE STUDENT: Thank you.
NGUYEN: Well take us back to the village where you were staying. It's near the Lebanese border, you were visiting family and then of course the conflict broke out. The fighting broke out. What happened?
AL-HAGE: Yes, we were there on a vacation and there was nothing to indicate that there would be war or anything. We went there to spend one month and suddenly one Wednesday we heard airplane and the bombing started.
NGUYEN: Water, electricity, what were those conditions? I understand disease even started to spread.
AL-HAGE: There's no water at all. No drinking water and no water for use. We have a pump there. People are using it to feed their babies or to bathe. And this is really very dirty water. It is used for dog and sheep. Electricity, there is no electricity at all. We charge the cell phones off the battery of our cars. We have to hear the news on the radio. Other than this, everything is really miserable. The Lebanese are really (INAUDIBLE)
NGUYEN: You call it very miserable. I understand yellow fever spread because there were a few doctors in that area as all the refugees, thousands of them started to come in. You yourself decided to do something about it. You called the U.N; you also called the Lebanese army for help. What kind of response did you get?
AL-HAGE: The U.N. told me they, too, are complaining from lack of food, lack of water. They can't do anything. But the spokes person told me to call the Joint Center in Lebanon. So I called them and I had no answer from them at all.
NGUYEN: A part of the problem and we have been talking about this is the fact that these humanitarian aid groups are having a difficult time making safe passage to southern Lebanon. But you yourself decided to get out to head back to Beirut. How dangerous of a trip was that for you? What did you experience on your way back to Beirut?
AL-HAGE: It is a very dangerous trip. It doesn't guarantee it. But what happened is that the convoy was giving the car license plate numbers to the American Embassy as the people said so we felt a bit safer. But on the road you can see cars, which are just left there because they were down and people couldn't fix them because they were afraid to stay there for more than like five minutes standing there. So they just left the cars and went -- headed back to Beirut and other cars, ask for help.
NGUYEN: I know today Israel has rejected U.N. requests for a three-day cease-fire so it can get aid down to southern Lebanon. Now Israel says basically it's made ways for safe passage but Hezbollah has decided to block that passage. Did you see any of that on your way back to Beirut? Is this true?
El-HAGE: No, the passage is not blocked. I came here two days ago. But the path is really rocky and rubble is everywhere. Need really good cars to get through the road. The road is really very hard to go through. It took us seven hours to get here for a normally two- hour trip.
NGUYEN: Quickly, how do you see this ending? Do you plan on staying in Lebanon?
AL-HAGE: Of course I plan on staying in Lebanon. We want our country. Really Lebanese are devastated. They want peace. They are tired of rebuilding the country over and over again. Innocent civilians, mothers, children and fathers are being dead. It's like Lebanon is just a theater for people who really do want war. Lebanese are really (INAUDIBLE)
NGUYEN: We appreciate your time. Glad you made it safely back to Beirut. Obviously a lot of people in the southern areas are having difficult passage. We appreciate your time and your insight with us today. Thank you.
Coming up in our 11:00 hour of CNN SATURDAY, former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu discusses the crises in the Middle East. That live interview coming up in less than two hours. Stick around for that. HARRIS: When it comes to questions surrounding Floyd Landis' drug test do you believe his side of the story? Up next we will read some of your e-mails about the Tour de France winner.
NGUYEN: In just ten minutes they can give your family great joy or great stress. "Open House" with Gerri Willis tell us how to pick the perfect pet.
HARRIS: Once again we're following a developing story in Haifa, Israel. Once again, more air raid sirens sounding in Haifa. When we get a moment we will check in with CNN's Fionnuala Sweeney for the situation on the ground in Haifa. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: Once again we're continuing to follow breaking news in Haifa, Israel. Once again, for the last few minutes, maybe ten or 15 minutes we'll get a firmer handle on that situation from Fionnuala Sweeney in just a moment. Air raid sirens are being heard in Haifa. Sounding the warning for folks to get to safety. Let's go to Haifa now and CNN's Fionnuala Sweeney. Fionnuala, give us the latest, please.
SWEENEY: Yes indeed Tony, the air raid sirens sounding quite a number of times today over Haifa. The last one sounding a few minutes ago. The usual procedure that everybody goes in for cover. Haifa is very quiet today. Normally Haifa wouldn't be necessarily as quiet as a city like Jerusalem for example which is a much more religious city. Things have been very quiet here over the last 16, 17 days since the rockets started falling.
Overall in northern Israel 39 rockets have fallen so far from southern Lebanon injuring six people but a very clear indication that Hezbollah still has the capability to launch missiles from just the boarder to Haifa and other cities and beyond.
Tony.
HARRIS: Fionnuala, once you hear one of the sirens how much time do you have to get into a shelter?
SWEENEY: Well, when the sirens start Tony, essentially that means that the radar has picked up the fact the rockets are already on their way. So in Haifa in a sense because it's a little more southern than other communities along the border there is a sense you have maybe 30 seconds to get undercover but sometimes the rockets start falling before the sirens finish. Sometimes the rockets fall without the sirens going off. If you live along the border don't get any warning at all. Because it takes maybe two minutes for a rocket to come from Lebanon to Haifa which is some 20 kilometers away.
If you live along the border it obviously takes less time for a rocket to come which you have very little warning which there are thousands of people living 24/7 in bunkers and shelters all the time. Here in Haifa people are out and about but not to any degree like one would expect in Israel's third largest city. It is very quiet here today. The air raid sirens sound, you get inside as fast as you can and you wait for the rockets to fall. Sometimes they don't.
HARRIS: Fionnuala, its two weeks now. Is it still a surprise to folks who live in Haifa that this new confrontation with Hezbollah means that their homes are now in the line of fire?
SWEENEY: Excuse me Tony; I think people here always felt that Haifa would have been in the firing lines for rocket attacks from Hezbollah. I think some of the shock has been some of the rockets have been hitting farther south. Hezbollah has rockets that are capable of reaching Tel Aviv. Just the other day the leader of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, said the rocket he would authorize would be other rockets, new rockets so that is the fear that there are longer range missiles that would be able to reach further south and be able to go all the way to Tel Aviv. That's what people are really concerned about.
HARRIS: Is public opinion still in the Haifa area in total support of Israel's military efforts?
SWEENEY: Well, on Thursday the Israeli cabinet met. It took a decision not to expand the ground offensive. The day before eight Israeli soldiers had been killed in a fierce fighting in the Hezbollah stronghold of Bint Jbeil. That is something Israeli public is very sensitive to.
But in a poll taken just before those soldiers were killed it showed the same consistency of support overwhelming backing for Ehud Olmert and his government. Ninety five percent of people believe Israel is doing the right thing. Public support is in the 70- percentage range for Ehud Olmert. Even the defense minister Amir Peretz, who has no military experience, is a former trade union leader support for him very high.
This poll was taken just before the eight soldiers were killed in Bint Jbeil. That is obviously a very sensitive subject for Israel. But for the moment yes, but Israel is used to short wars. This is something that looks like it is going to be around for some time. Whether public opinion will back Ehud Olmert in the coming weeks remains to be seen.
HARRIS: CNN's Fionnuala Sweeney for us in Haifa, Fionnuala thank you.
NGUYEN: Back here in the U.S., get a handle on the weather outside and see how that is shaping up. Reynolds Wolf joins us from the Weather Center. Hi there Reynolds.
REYNOLDS WOLF, CNN METEOROLOGIST: OK lets take a look and see what is happening out there. We have a pretty good-looking morning in some parts of the world. Other places it is not quite as good outside of Stones River National Battlefield, south of Nashville we are seeing the popping up of the showers and storms, some of these not severe but later on today that certainly could happen. We're going to look for some severe storms later on for the U.P. of Michigan near national lakeshore.
They are going to get the rain this morning. The rain is pounding in parts of the four corners back over to the I-10 corridor. Even in Tucson the heavy rains coming down. Another big story we have today has got to do with the heat. It's going to be extreme through portions of the central U.S. from Dallas-Fort Worth 99 degrees, 97 in Kansas City, and 100 for the Twin Cities. That's a quick check on your forecast. Let's send it back to you at the news desk.
NGUYEN: Another scorcher. Thank you.
HARRIS: "Open House" is straight ahead with tips on how you can afford that dream vacation home.
NGUYEN: Love to.
Next hour some American evacuees from Lebanon want to take the U.S. government to court over the handling of the evacuation. Find out why at the top of the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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