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CNN Live Sunday

Florida Residents Preparing for Alberto; More Fallout from Killing of al-Zarqawi; Disagreement on Global Warming Question

Aired June 11, 2006 - 19:00   ET

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

CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: Tropical Storm Alberto aims for Florida. In this hour, you're going to find out when and where it could land. And in defense of the Haditha marines, for the first time, a lawyer for one of the marines speaks out about the incident that left 24 Iraqi civilians dead.
And one of the most powerful weapons for terrorists is not a gun or a bomb, it's the Internet. Al Qaeda is making the most of the World Wide Web.

It is Sunday, June 11th and you're watching CNN LIVE SUNDAY. I'm Carol Lin and these are the stories making news right now.

People along Florida's west coast are already being warned that a tropical storm is coming their way. Alberto is churning in the Gulf of Mexico and headed right for the U.S. A live report on the storm in one minute.

Now Alberto's heavy rain has already caused major flooding in western Cuba. And forecasters say the storm may bring up to 30 inches of rain. And with it, the threat of flash floods and mudslides.

Now a new threat from al Qaeda in Iraq. Days after the death of leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, on an Islamic Web site, the group threatens a large attack that will, quote, "shake the enemy and rob them of sleep." And a security expert says even with al-Zarqawi dead, more attacks against the U.S. forces are likely.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAMES WALSH, INTERNATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST, MIT: al-Zarqawi is only one part of the insurgency. There are nationalists, there are Baathists, there are criminals. It's helpful, maybe they can put them on the defensive a little bit. But I think we're going to continue to see violence.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LIN: To Afghanistan, a British soldier is killed in a fire fight, with suspected Taliban fighters. Two others seriously injured. They were patrolling the Helmand province when they came under attack.

And new details about the alleged civilian massacre in Haditha, Iraq. We hear from the sergeant who led the accused marines and he is denying his unit went on a rampage or tried to cover anything up. A full report in 13 minutes. Now according to the latest survey, gas prices have been stable for the last three weeks. The average price of self-serve regular remains at $2.93 a gallon. Stable crude oil prices, increased supply and flat demand have helped keep those prices steady.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You've got to be aware of it and you've got to be ready to act.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LIN: Florida emergency teams are bracing for Alberto. The first-named storm of the season is dumping rain on the Gulf of Mexico and bearing down on the United States. Now right now, a tropical storm watch covers 300 miles of Florida's west coast. Jacqui Jeras covering all of this for us from the CNN Weather Center. Jacqui?

(WEATHER REPORT)

LIN: Now, for more on the view from Florida, Nicole Linsalata of CNN affiliate WSVN is in Key West.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NICOLE LINSALATA, WSVN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): At the famous southern-most point, not quite a picture-perfect Sunday.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This sucks. We were going to rent a boat today.

LINSALATA: Little Skye (ph) and Kyle (ph) from New York, will likely end up at the zoo in Miami instead. Even visitors from overseas realizing it's just that time of year.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We were hoping we'd get between hurricanes. But didn't happen this time. It's still very nice.

LINSALATA: Well maybe not a hurricane, but the first storm of the 2006 season, showering Key West with steady rain. Washing out the weekend for tourists and business owners alike.

(on camera): Some of the things you're selling today?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Lots of umbrellas. Lots of umbrellas and ponchos.

LINSALATA (voice-over): And while Lahta (ph) the dog may be having a good time, jet skis hit idle, a glass-bottom tour boat remains docked. The water too riled up for visitors to see very much.

Just two months ago, work crews finished repairing the Sunset Pier, damaged after Wilma and completed roof work on the Ocean Key Resort. But Robert Cooley (ph) is still waiting for his roof damage to be repaired and for his house to sell. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was supposed to be out of here two years ago. And it's just not been able to do it. And now, probably will be a couple years before people will forget that we've had -- the weather we've had.

LINSALATA: Away from the crowds, an oasis of calm and reassurance.

(on camera): Sister Mary Louis Gabriel established the Lourdes Grotto here in Key West in 1922, after a series of hurricanes killed hundreds of people here. She said, as long as the Grotto stands, Key West will never again experience the full brunt of a hurricane. And this area had a lot of luck with that until Hurricane Wilma. And now, residents say the days of feeling safe are over.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But most people, take things a lot more serious. And things that we took for granted, we don't take for granted anymore.

LINSALATA (voice-over): You don't have to live here to feel that way. Just ask Dan and Noel Henry (ph), married eight days.

(on camera): The Chapels (ph) from New York, the family with the two small children, say they likely will be leaving town early. But interestingly, those folks who live in Key West, everyone we spoke to anyway, says that if a hurricane comes this year, they'll be leaving town, as well. Reporting in Key West, Nicole Linsalata for CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LIN: Stay safe out there. Our storm coverage will continue. At the bottom of the hour, we're going to tell you why Alberto could actually be a good thing for parts of the southeast.

ANNOUNCER: CNN, your hurricane headquarters.

LIN: More fallout now from the killing of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Al Qaeda in Iraq is vowing revenge for the death of its leader.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): With a promise of large-scale operations that will, quote, "shake the enemy and rob them of sleep," a group calling itself al Qaeda in Iraq sent a message. Despite the death of their leader, they will continue to attack their enemy. While CNN cannot verify the authenticity of the statement, it was posted on a Web site that has carried messages from the group in the past.

MOWAFFAQ AL-RUBAIE, IRAQI NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: They're trying to make up for the huge loss and the disorientation they are suffering from because there is a huge vacuum of power, now within al Qaeda.

WHITFIELD: The statement mentioned no replacement for Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. But the posting claimed the group would continue attacks and renewed allegiance to Osama bin Laden.

WALSH: Whether al-Zarqawi was dead or alive, they'd still be trying to mount a big attack against U.S. forces or more likely against the Shiite Muslim community, with the purpose of trying to encourage a civil war.

WHITFIELD: The statement also warned that the group will not be acting alone, but will coordinate with other members of the Mujahadin council to launch future operations.

CAROLINE FARAJ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I think this is very important because they are here reiterating that they're not only the al-Zarqawi group if you like, quote, unquote, they are also some other militants who are supporters of al-Zarqawi.

WHITFIELD: The White House has been cautious about what impact al-Zarqawi's death may have, but U.S. leaders have said before that further attacks are inevitable.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LIN: Now there have been so many rumors swirling in the Arab world about how he died. al-Zarqawi's autopsy results are expected to be released at a military briefing tomorrow at 8 a.m. Eastern.

Now in Iraq today, 230 detainees are set free. It's part of a government plan to promote national unity. About 2,500 Iraqi prisoners will be released as part of that plan.

Now as for the future plan for Iraq, that is going to be the big topic when President Bush and his top advisers and military commanders in Iraq hold a summit this week. And White House correspondent, Ed Henry, has more details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ED HENRY, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: As President Bush gathers his top advisers for two days of high-level talks on Iraq strategy at Camp David, the Iraqi national security adviser is predicting U.S. troop levels will drop below 100,000 by the end of this year.

AL-RUBAIE: By the end of next year, most of the multinational forces would have gone home. And by the middle of 2008, we will not see a lot of visibility neither in the cities nor in the town of the multinational forces.

HENRY: President Bush is downplaying expectations of U.S. troop cutbacks while touting the death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi as a major blow to al Qaeda.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: He killed a lot of people. And it's a big deal to have brought him to justice. Having said that, I don't want the American people to think that a war is won with the death of one person, that we have still more work to do. HENRY: The top U.S. commander in Iraq, who will participate in the Camp David talks by video conference, suggests U.S. forces will come home over time.

GEN. GEORGE CASEY, U.S. COMMANDER IN IRAQ: I think as long as the Iraqi security forces continue to progress, and as long as this national unit government continues to operate that way and move the country forward, I think we're going to be able to see continued gradual reductions of coalition forces over the coming months and into next year.

HENRY: Experts say the death of al-Zarqawi coupled with the filling out of a new Iraqi cabinet sets the stage for more progress at Camp David.

PAUL BREMER, FMR. US AMBASSADOR TO IRAQ: The opportunity now is to design a military strategy to defeat the insurgency which is the core of the problem in Iraq. And once that is done, once a strategy is in place, it makes it possible to deal with the problems of the Shia militia, the problems of reconstruction of the economy and so forth.

HENRY (on camera): A senior administration official said the president wants to leave this two-day summit feeling that every level of the U.S. government has a specific strategy to help the Iraqi government succeed. Ed Henry, CNN, the White House.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LIN: But the president is dealing with an unexpected distraction: the suicides of terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay. Senate Republican leader Arlen Specter and Democrat Jack Reed are both troubled by what's happening at Gitmo.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. ARLEN SPECTER (R-PA), CHAIRMAN, JUDICIARY CMTE: There is the overtone that quite a number of them will be tried, if there is tangible evidence. As to a great many others, there is not evidence, which could be brought into a court of law. When they are rounded up, their efforts may determine which ones are enemy combatants and which ones are dangerous and then they're brought to Guantanamo. But it is the flimsiest sort of hearsay.

SEN. JACK REED (D), RHODE ISLAND: And I think also, too, we recognize, or should recognize, that as long as Guantanamo exists, it's a source of international attention and concern. And that these types of incidents, these suicides, not only will provoke further condemnation around the world.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LIN: Tonight, at 10:00 p.m. Eastern, former U.S. army chaplain, James Yee, once stationed at Guantanamo Bay. He talks about the detainee suicides, tonight on CNN SUNDAY NIGHT.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NEAL PUCKETT, ATTY. FOR STAFF SGT. FRANK WUTERICH: To represent it as a massacre is just totally wrong.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LIN: His client led the marine unit in Haditha that's accused of killing 24 civilians. For the first time, hear what one defense lawyer says -- what really happened, according to him, that November day.

And Web sites of hate and violence. We're going to show you how terrorists are utilizing the power of the World Wide Web.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He cut off my arm with a machete and then ordered my mother and the others to do the same.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LIN: She had to explain why her hand was missing. Her classmates got a lesson in the horrors of war.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LIN: We have heard only the accusations about an alleged marine massacre in Haditha, Iraq. Well for the first time, we're going to hear from the sergeant who led the operation, who adamantly denies his men slaughtered innocent civilians. CNN's Jamie McIntyre reports.

JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The lawyer for the senior Marine at the scene of the killing says the Marines followed the standard rules of engagement last November and that the 24 civilians who died were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

PUCKETT: It's clear that innocent civilians died that day, but they died according to what we call the fog of war.

MCINTYRE: Neal Puckett represents then sergeant, now Staff Sergeant Frank Wuterich, the leader of a four-man team that killed the occupants of two houses that day. He's told his attorney several Marines witnessed hostile fire coming from inside the house.

PUCKETT: That door was kicked in. A frag grenade was thrown inside and immediately following that, the lead man in the stack went in firing his weapon and killed everyone inside.

MCINTYRE: Puckett, a retired Marine lieutenant colonel insists that was the standard procedure for clearing a suspected insurgent hideout and that the first Marine in, who was not Wuterich had done it before in Fallujah.

PUCKETT: There was very little experience on the ground that day, but the one Marine who did have experience in Fallujah and who had cleared houses the very same way, was that first man through the door. And that was what he was trained to do.

MCINTYRE: It was Sergeant Wuterich's first real combat says Puckett and he believed he was in hot pursuit of enemy fighters.

PUCKETT: They finished with that room and there's no one else in the house. And Sergeant Wuterich noticed that the back door is wide open. He presumes that the guys who were firing had escaped out the back. So they went back out the front door, stealthily went around the house. The most likely house that they could possibly be in during the fallback position was cleared the same way.

MCINTYRE: Puckett says Wuterich fired no shot at either house but he did fire on five men in a car after they refused orders in Arabic to lie on the ground and instead took off running. He says the Marines thought the car might have contained another bomb and didn't know the men were unarmed. The Marines say they shot others that day too. According to Puckett, in one case, unarmed civilians were shot after they were spotted running from the scene of the attack. And in another a third house where one man had an AK-47 was cleared by a different group of Marines who shot everyone inside. But Puckett argues it was all done by the book.

PUCKETT: Sergeant Wuterich does not believe that he did anything wrong on that day. He followed the rules of engagement as had been instructed to him by professional instructors, by his chain of command and everything he understood he was supposed to do he did. They were in houses that were suspected insurgent hiding places from which the Marines were taking fire.

MCINTYRE: How does Sergeant Wuterich feel about what happened?

PUCKETT: He's incredibly sorry that innocent civilians were killed, but he knows that he relied on his Marine Corps training to protect his men that day.

MCINTYRE: Puckett says if anything was to blame for the deaths, it was the rules of engagement that didn't provide enough protection for innocent civilians. He's hopeful his client, a 26-year-old father of two, won't be charged with anything as serious as murder once the investigation wraps up later this summer. Jamie McIntyre, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LIN: We are watching our first tropical storm of this year's hurricane season. So, it kind of raises the question about global warming. Well, Al Gore's new movie is designed to warm about global warning. Now in three minutes, why one of the nation's most renowned hurricane forecasters say the former vice president has it wrong.

And at the bottom of the hour, a Mississippi town leveled by Hurricane Katrina, gets caught in a financial "Catch 22."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LIN: In news across America, two people ditch their small plane into the Pacific Ocean. They're safe now on board a container ship bound for China. The Coast Guard says the plane reported engine trouble about 1,000 miles off the coast of Santa Barbara.

Now south from there near Malibu, four people are safe after being plucked from this sinking ship this morning. Amazing pictures there.

And a search is underway for newspaper publisher, Philip Merrill, who went missing in Maryland's Chesapeake Bay. Authorities believe 72-year-old Merrill, a former diplomat, may have fallen over board. His sailboat was found with its engine running.

And now hurricane season, 2006. Starting with Tropical Storm Alberto, now. One of the leading hurricane forecasters is now making waves over global warming. CNN's Mary Snow filed this report from "THE SITUATION ROOM."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In one corner, former vice president Al Gore making the movie, "An Inconvenient Truth" to focus attention on a global crisis.

AL GORE, FORMER VICE PRESIDENT: The Arctic is experiencing faster melting. If this were to go, sea level world wide would go up 20 feet.

SNOW: In the other corner, renowned forecaster Dr. William Gray, who accurately predicted last year's hurricane season better than the National Hurricane Center. Two men with a focus on the environment with a divide over the science of global warming, with Gray skeptical that humans are having a major impact on the warming of the planet.

WILLIAM GRAY, COLORADO STATE UNIVERSITY: I think this threat of human-induced global warming is largely manufactured. I don't think it's real.

SNOW: That puts Dr. Gray at odd odds not only with former vice president Al Gore, but with over 2,000 of the world's leading climate scientists. They say, yes, because humans are burning things like oil and coal, it is contributing to global warming. So why aren't there more skeptics?

Dr. Gray claims that scientists, especially younger ones, are afraid to voice skepticism.

GRAY: There has been, I might say, a mild McCarthyism running against skeptics like me. I believe I lost some government money and funds over the years because I have been a skeptic on this topic.

SNOW: Not so says one of those younger scientists who said she is surprised by Gray's global warming claims.

BRENDA EKWURZEL, UNION OF CONCERNED SCIENTISTS: If we wait until every last person understands the data as most of the scientists do, then it may be too late.

SNOW: Just last month a scientific panel set up by the Bush administration concluded there is no more debate, the Earth's climate is burning up and there's only one explanation, human burning of oil and coal. Mary Snow, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LIN: Tune into "THE SITUATION ROOM," every weekday at 4:00 p.m. Eastern, and 1:00 Pacific.

And on Tuesday night, former vice president Al Gore. His stark warning about global warming. He's also taking your calls. It's a special "LARRY KING LIVE," Tuesday night at 9:00 Eastern.

Now the first-named storm of this hurricane season. We're going to bring you the very latest on Tropical Storm Alberto in three minutes. And believe it or not, portions of the southeast could actually benefit from a lot of the summer storms. We're going to explain why.

And in 15 minutes...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Things have happened in life, but that doesn't mean that you have to lose your hopes for the future.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LIN: She is so amazing. She's only 13-years-old. Her nation's civil war left her without a hand. But she's finding a new life in America. I'm going to talk with this inspirational 13-year-old. You're watching CNN LIVE SUNDAY.

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