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CNN Live Sunday
Northern Ghana Village Tames River Crocodiles; Small Colombian Village Resorts To Cocaine As Bartering Currency; Bill Gates Critical Of American Public High Schools
Aired March 06, 2005 - 16:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): She says American forces fired without motive. An Italian journalist released by Iraqi captors only to come under fire, tells her side of the story.
New details about the suspected BTK killer, was Dennis Rader trying to get caught and how is his family reacting? We have some answers.
A side effect of the war on drugs in one nation. How local residents are surviving by using a unique barter system, base, get this, on cocaine.
And what's wrong with this picture? Crocodiles that like being petted. It's the softer side of one of the world's most dangerous creatures.
(on camera): Hello and welcome to CNN SUNDAY. I'm Andrea Koppel. All of that and more after this check of the headlines.
(voice-over) A protest for women's rights becomes violent in Turkey. Police use nightsticks and tear gas on protesters during an unauthorized demonstration. The crowd denounced government policies and demanded equal rights ahead of World Women's Day.
40 years ago, a civil rights match in Selma, Alabama, would become known as Bloody Sunday. This weekend, a parade was held to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the march across the Edmund Pettis Bridge. The 1965 march was a milestone in the voting rights movement for African Americans.
A missed shot at perfection. Ohio State beat number one ranked Illinois today 65-64. Illinois was trying to cap the Big 10's first unbeaten season in 29 years. The last team to reach the NCAA tourney without a loss was UNLV in 1991.
(on camera): We begin with what's increasingly becoming a case of she said/they said. An Italian journalist freed after a month of captivity in Iraq, then wounded in a shooting incident is describing her version of events. Giuliana Sgrena is disputing the U.S. military's account of what happened on a Baghdad road Friday night. And she is suggesting she may have been targeted on purpose. CNN Rome bureau chief Alessio Vinci reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) ALESSIO VINCI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Guiliani Sgrena called her account "La mia verita," in English, "My truth." It's her initial description of what happened in Baghdad on Friday. Published of the Sunday edition, of "Il Manifesto," the communist newspaper for which she filed dozens of reports before being kidnapped in early February, most of her articles highly critical of the U.S. military invasion of Iraq.
In her account of what happened, she writes that she was traveling to the Baghdad Airport. With her, two Italian intelligence agents. One is driving. The other is Nicola Calipari, the officer who negotiated her release and who paid the ultimate price to save her life.
TRANSLATOR: Nicola Calipari sat next to me. The driver twice informed the embassy and in Italy that we were heading toward the airport which I knew was heavily patrolled by U.S. troops. They told me that we were less than a kilometer away when, I only remember fire. At that point, a rain of fire and bullets hit us.
VINCI: The U.S. has said the car was speeding toward the checkpoint, ignoring warnings to stop. But Sgrena writes, the car was not speeding, and calls the shooting unjustified.
TRANSLATOR: Driver started yelling that we were Italians. "We're Italians. We're Italians." Nicola Calipari threw himself on me to protect me, and immediately, I repeat, immediately, I heard his last breath as he was dying on me.
VINCI: The autopsy reveals he was hit by a single bullet to his head. Sgrena who is currently recovering from her wounds in an Italian hospital also remembers something one of her captors said moments before releasing her.
TRANSLATOR: Don't give any signals of your presence with us otherwise the Americans could intervene. It was the confirmation they didn't want to hear. It was altogether the most happy and most dangerous moment. If we bumped into someone, meaning American military, there would be an exchange of fire. My captors were ready and they would have responded.
VINCI: By the time Sgrena's car reached the American checkpoint, her captors were no longer with her. Moments before coming under fire, she writes, the mood in the car was joyful.
TRANSLATOR: The car kept on the road, going under an underpass full of puddles and almost losing control to avoid them. We all incredibly laughed. It was liberating. Losing control in a car in a street full of water in Baghdad, and maybe wind up in a car accident after all I would have been through would really be a tale I would not be able to tell.
VINCI: Instead, her tale is of a harrowing experience, a day of joy turned to tragedy. Italian media suggests a ransom of several million dollars was paid for her release. Government officials are not commenting. But Calipari was an experienced negotiator, who previously secured the release of other hostages in Baghdad. On Sunday his body lay in state at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Rome. Thousands came to pay their last respects.
Alessio Vinci, CNN, Rome.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KOPPEL: An Italian official says Giuliani Sgrena also disputes the U.S. account that placed the incident at a checkpoint. Rather, she says, the shots came from a patrol. In a phone interview with Italian media today, Sgrena also suggested there were no warning shots before her car was sprayed with gunfire.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
GIULIANA SGRENA, ITALIAN JOURNALIST (through translator): Let's understand what's an ambush. When you're driving on a road and there are people who are supposed to be aware of the fact that you're coming and you find a tank in front of you shooting hundreds of bullets against you without any warning, as they should always do in a case, I saw my seat in the car full of bullets. Let's call it whatever we want. But fact of feeling yourself covered with an avalanche of gunfire from a tank that is beside you that did not give you any warning that it was about to attack if we did not stop, this is absolutely inconceivable, even in normal situations. Even if they hadn't known that we were there, that we were supposed to come through.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
KOPPEL: President Bush promising a full investigation into the shooting. He's already expressed his regrets to Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. Today, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld called his Italian counterpart to express regret at the loss of life and the situation. And the White House counsel Dan Bartlett called the shooting a horrific accident.
It is promising to be a crucial week for relations between Syria and Lebanon. Leaders of both countries will meet tomorrow to discuss Syria's pledge to pull its troops out of neighboring Lebanon. And while Beirut has been filled with anti-Syrian protesters for the past few weeks, the city's actually getting ready for a demonstration of a different kind. CNN's Brent Sadler is there.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRENT SADLER, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): Anti-Syrian demonstrations continue in the heart of downtown Beirut here in Martyr Square. This has really been the nucleus of these demonstrations for the past three weeks since the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and now there is going to be a top-level meeting, it's been announced in the Syrian capital in Damascus involving the heads of state of both Syria and Lebanon. President Bashar al Assad of Syria meeting his Lebanese counterpart, President Emile Lahoud. And they will be thrashing out the details of the mechanics of a two-stage Syrian troop redeployment in Lebanon. Syria's leaders said there will be a first stage, didn't say when, to the Bekaa Valley closer to the Syrian border. Then a second phase, he said will come into effect, taking troops across the border into Syria. Now, that certainly is the syrian pledge. Whether or not they will fulfill that pledge still remains to be seen.
But we are expecting more clarification about this from that top- level meeting in Damascus and possibly a timetable very much demanded that by the United States and the international community.
At the same time as that's been developing, we've also heard from the chief of Hezbollah, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah here in Beirut, the Islamic resistance organization that the United States and Israel labels a terrorist group. Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah saying that he is calling for a mass protest of what's called patriotic forces also in the center of Beirut next Tuesday to really defy what Hezbollah says is growing international interference and pressure on not only Syria but also its allies here in Lebanon.
Aired March 6, 2005 - 16:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): She says American forces fired without motive. An Italian journalist released by Iraqi captors only to come under fire, tells her side of the story.
New details about the suspected BTK killer, was Dennis Rader trying to get caught and how is his family reacting? We have some answers.
A side effect of the war on drugs in one nation. How local residents are surviving by using a unique barter system, base, get this, on cocaine.
And what's wrong with this picture? Crocodiles that like being petted. It's the softer side of one of the world's most dangerous creatures.
(on camera): Hello and welcome to CNN SUNDAY. I'm Andrea Koppel. All of that and more after this check of the headlines.
(voice-over) A protest for women's rights becomes violent in Turkey. Police use nightsticks and tear gas on protesters during an unauthorized demonstration. The crowd denounced government policies and demanded equal rights ahead of World Women's Day.
40 years ago, a civil rights match in Selma, Alabama, would become known as Bloody Sunday. This weekend, a parade was held to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the march across the Edmund Pettis Bridge. The 1965 march was a milestone in the voting rights movement for African Americans.
A missed shot at perfection. Ohio State beat number one ranked Illinois today 65-64. Illinois was trying to cap the Big 10's first unbeaten season in 29 years. The last team to reach the NCAA tourney without a loss was UNLV in 1991.
(on camera): We begin with what's increasingly becoming a case of she said/they said. An Italian journalist freed after a month of captivity in Iraq, then wounded in a shooting incident is describing her version of events. Giuliana Sgrena is disputing the U.S. military's account of what happened on a Baghdad road Friday night. And she is suggesting she may have been targeted on purpose. CNN Rome bureau chief Alessio Vinci reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) ALESSIO VINCI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Guiliani Sgrena called her account "La mia verita," in English, "My truth." It's her initial description of what happened in Baghdad on Friday. Published of the Sunday edition, of "Il Manifesto," the communist newspaper for which she filed dozens of reports before being kidnapped in early February, most of her articles highly critical of the U.S. military invasion of Iraq.
In her account of what happened, she writes that she was traveling to the Baghdad Airport. With her, two Italian intelligence agents. One is driving. The other is Nicola Calipari, the officer who negotiated her release and who paid the ultimate price to save her life.
TRANSLATOR: Nicola Calipari sat next to me. The driver twice informed the embassy and in Italy that we were heading toward the airport which I knew was heavily patrolled by U.S. troops. They told me that we were less than a kilometer away when, I only remember fire. At that point, a rain of fire and bullets hit us.
VINCI: The U.S. has said the car was speeding toward the checkpoint, ignoring warnings to stop. But Sgrena writes, the car was not speeding, and calls the shooting unjustified.
TRANSLATOR: Driver started yelling that we were Italians. "We're Italians. We're Italians." Nicola Calipari threw himself on me to protect me, and immediately, I repeat, immediately, I heard his last breath as he was dying on me.
VINCI: The autopsy reveals he was hit by a single bullet to his head. Sgrena who is currently recovering from her wounds in an Italian hospital also remembers something one of her captors said moments before releasing her.
TRANSLATOR: Don't give any signals of your presence with us otherwise the Americans could intervene. It was the confirmation they didn't want to hear. It was altogether the most happy and most dangerous moment. If we bumped into someone, meaning American military, there would be an exchange of fire. My captors were ready and they would have responded.
VINCI: By the time Sgrena's car reached the American checkpoint, her captors were no longer with her. Moments before coming under fire, she writes, the mood in the car was joyful.
TRANSLATOR: The car kept on the road, going under an underpass full of puddles and almost losing control to avoid them. We all incredibly laughed. It was liberating. Losing control in a car in a street full of water in Baghdad, and maybe wind up in a car accident after all I would have been through would really be a tale I would not be able to tell.
VINCI: Instead, her tale is of a harrowing experience, a day of joy turned to tragedy. Italian media suggests a ransom of several million dollars was paid for her release. Government officials are not commenting. But Calipari was an experienced negotiator, who previously secured the release of other hostages in Baghdad. On Sunday his body lay in state at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Rome. Thousands came to pay their last respects.
Alessio Vinci, CNN, Rome.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KOPPEL: An Italian official says Giuliani Sgrena also disputes the U.S. account that placed the incident at a checkpoint. Rather, she says, the shots came from a patrol. In a phone interview with Italian media today, Sgrena also suggested there were no warning shots before her car was sprayed with gunfire.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
GIULIANA SGRENA, ITALIAN JOURNALIST (through translator): Let's understand what's an ambush. When you're driving on a road and there are people who are supposed to be aware of the fact that you're coming and you find a tank in front of you shooting hundreds of bullets against you without any warning, as they should always do in a case, I saw my seat in the car full of bullets. Let's call it whatever we want. But fact of feeling yourself covered with an avalanche of gunfire from a tank that is beside you that did not give you any warning that it was about to attack if we did not stop, this is absolutely inconceivable, even in normal situations. Even if they hadn't known that we were there, that we were supposed to come through.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
KOPPEL: President Bush promising a full investigation into the shooting. He's already expressed his regrets to Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. Today, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld called his Italian counterpart to express regret at the loss of life and the situation. And the White House counsel Dan Bartlett called the shooting a horrific accident.
It is promising to be a crucial week for relations between Syria and Lebanon. Leaders of both countries will meet tomorrow to discuss Syria's pledge to pull its troops out of neighboring Lebanon. And while Beirut has been filled with anti-Syrian protesters for the past few weeks, the city's actually getting ready for a demonstration of a different kind. CNN's Brent Sadler is there.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRENT SADLER, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): Anti-Syrian demonstrations continue in the heart of downtown Beirut here in Martyr Square. This has really been the nucleus of these demonstrations for the past three weeks since the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and now there is going to be a top-level meeting, it's been announced in the Syrian capital in Damascus involving the heads of state of both Syria and Lebanon. President Bashar al Assad of Syria meeting his Lebanese counterpart, President Emile Lahoud. And they will be thrashing out the details of the mechanics of a two-stage Syrian troop redeployment in Lebanon. Syria's leaders said there will be a first stage, didn't say when, to the Bekaa Valley closer to the Syrian border. Then a second phase, he said will come into effect, taking troops across the border into Syria. Now, that certainly is the syrian pledge. Whether or not they will fulfill that pledge still remains to be seen.
But we are expecting more clarification about this from that top- level meeting in Damascus and possibly a timetable very much demanded that by the United States and the international community.
At the same time as that's been developing, we've also heard from the chief of Hezbollah, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah here in Beirut, the Islamic resistance organization that the United States and Israel labels a terrorist group. Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah saying that he is calling for a mass protest of what's called patriotic forces also in the center of Beirut next Tuesday to really defy what Hezbollah says is growing international interference and pressure on not only Syria but also its allies here in Lebanon.
