U.S. Base in Lockdown; Indonesia Earthquake; FBI Raid Fallout; Pope's Emotional Trip; Gift of Life
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Morning. Welcome, everybody. I'm Soledad O'Brien.</s>MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Miles O'Brien. Here's a look at what is happening this morning, Monday, May 29, Memorial Day. In Indonesia, aid is pouring in after Saturday's devastating earthquake. Officials say it was a magnitude 6.3. Quake has now killed more than 5,000, another 100,000 homeless this morning. America honors its war dead this Memorial Day. Thousands of those who have served in uniform visiting the Vietnam Veterans Memorial this -- Washington this weekend. And later today, President Bush will lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery.</s>S. O'BRIEN: Testimony resumed overnight in the trial of Saddam Hussein. The first witness testified on behalf of a judge who sentenced 148 people to death during a 1982 crackdown on Shiites. He said sentences were fair. A Senate committee will investigate a massacre allegedly committed by U.S. Marines in the Iraqi town of Haditha. Senior Pentagon officials already say a military investigation tends to support the allegations.</s>M. O'BRIEN: Senator Bill Frist apparently changing his tune on Congressman William Jefferson. Frist now says the FBI search of Jefferson's office was constitutional. Last week, Frist said he was worried the raid violated the Constitution's separation of powers. Check of the forecast on this Memorial Day. Chad Myers is off. Rob Marciano is in. Good morning, -- Rob.</s>ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, Miles. Good morning, Soledad.</s>M. O'BRIEN: All right, thank you very much, -- Rob.</s>MARCIANO: All right.</s>M. O'BRIEN: In Afghanistan, escalating violence as the U.S. tries to thwart a spring offensive by the Taliban. We're just getting word of a U.S.-led airstrike aimed at a suspected meeting of Taliban militant leaders in southern Afghanistan. Upwards of 50 suspected militants are dead. The strike took place just a couple of hours ago. Meanwhile in Kabul, rioting and gunfire after a U.S. convoy collided with a rush hour traffic jam. There were reports U.S. troops fired on an angry crowd after the accident. CNN's Barbara Starr on the line now from Kabul. Barbara, give us the latest.</s>BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, the latest here is they are still trying to gather the facts. But earlier today, a U.S. military convoy was headed through Kabul when it was involved in a car accident. Apparently one of the large military trucks experienced some kind of brake failure, then it hit as many as 12 civilian vehicles. The initial reports were that one civilian at least was killed and six were injured. U.S. soldiers tried to respond by offering medical assistance to the injured and help them get to a hospital, but the crowd rapidly became hostile. U.S. troops -- further U.S. troops arrived on the scene to try and help that first convoy get out of the area. Afghan security forces arrived on the scene. But then, apparently, the situation really degenerated. According to the video that has come from this unit and the reports are that rocks were thrown. There was a report indeed that at least one U.S. gunner in a military vehicle manning a 50-caliber machine gun fired warning shots over the crowd. And that now all of that unrest, Miles, has resulted in several hours of sporadic gunfire now being heard across Kabul all day long here. That is something that the people here in Kabul and the U.S. military in Kabul has not experienced. No one can remember this amount of gunfire across the city since the day the Taliban were overthrown and basically run out of town. Our location here at Camp Eggers with the coalition forces, with U.S. military troops, they had just concluded their Memorial Day ceremonies here this morning, trying to remember their fallen comrades, when all of this unfolded. The camp went into immediate lockdown and immediate security situation. The troops here, no one is leaving the camp, and they've been in protective gear all day long -- Miles.</s>M. O'BRIEN: Barbara, do we know yet about this anti-American sentiment that is evident in all of this? Was it sort of sparked by Taliban insurgents or is it more widespread than that?</s>STARR: Well, it's very curious. Actually, we've been in lockdown today with a number of local Afghan journalists who live here in Kabul. And we've been asking them what they think is going on. And these journalists who have a real pulse for the streets here in Kabul say that they are shocked and surprised. There is no question, they say, that there is still Taliban across the country, even Taliban here in Kabul. But they say they just simply can't remember any case of gunfire across the city. You know there has been fighting down south, there has been fighting in the east, but Kabul for months and months really has been relatively calm. There have been IEDs, there have been suicide bombers, that sort of thing, but not this type of widespread unrest across the city. And it does comes, Miles, at a time when the country is certainly noticing these areas down south where the Taliban have been gathering again. Where, as you say, before the</s>M. O'BRIEN: Barbara Starr in Kabul, thank you very much -- Soledad.</s>S. O'BRIEN: A grim start to Memorial Day in Baghdad, at least 34 people killed in a series of bomb and gun attacks. One of the attacks targeting a U.S. humvee. A roadside bomb blew up in central Baghdad earlier this morning. The U.S. military not confirming if anyone has been hurt. Now to the major earthquake in Indonesia we've been talking about. Aid from the American military just arriving there now, and that includes a contingent of doctors and nurses to try to help the thousands of injured. Relief workers and supplies from all over are also stemming to the area. Right now, the death toll stands at 5,136. The hospitals are overflowing with the injured. More than 8,000 at last count. It's estimated that as many as 100,000 people are without homes. The quake was centered in the southern part of the island of Java, not far from Mount Merapi, the active volcano that we've been watching. CNN's Dan Rivers is live in the Vantul (ph) region of Indonesia. Dan, good morning to you. It looks, from the little bit I can see behind you, it looks pretty bad.</s>DAN RIVERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Soledad, it really is a very harrowing and distressing situation here. You can probably just make out on the videophone behind me one of the many collapsed buildings around here. We've been touring the villages here. We've been to places where 9 out of 10 of the houses have been completely leveled by this earthquake. We have seen hundreds of villagers having to make due under temporary shelters from things they have salvaged from their homes. We spent the morning at the hospital today and some awful scenes up there. I mean they are completely overwhelmed by hundreds of people flooding in. The one hospital we went to, there are only beds for 750 people, but there were 1,700 people in need of urgent treatment up there, and they haven't got the basic medical supplies they need. They lack painkillers, they lack antibiotics and they lack bandages.</s>S. O'BRIEN: Dan Rivers updating us on the terrible situation there in Indonesia. Dan, thank you for the update, we'll check in with you again this morning. If you need to and you want to help out the relief effort, you can make donations to the Red Cross at 1-800-REDCROSS or redcross.org. Also, 1-800-4-UNICEF, that's 4 the number, Unicefusa.org. Coming up later on AMERICAN MORNING, we're going to talk to one U.N. relief worker who is helping lead some of the efforts right on the ground in Indonesia -- Miles.</s>M. O'BRIEN: A constitutional divide on Capitol Hill as members of Congress face off over that FBI raid on Congressman William Jefferson's office. The Senate majority leader now changing his tune in the debate over whether lawmakers should be treated differently by law enforcers. Ed Henry with more.</s>ED HENRY, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (on camera): The White House is getting a boost today from Senator Majority Leader Bill Frist who has broken with House Republican leaders by declaring he thinks the raid of Democratic Congressman William Jefferson's office was OK. Frist had earlier raised questions about separation of powers, but now says Jefferson, accused of bribery, is not above the law. While Frist's camp denies it, a senior Republican strategist charged the change of heart is -- quote "all about Bill Frist running for president." He's afraid of a public backlash from standing up for a congressman under fire. Three top Bush officials, including the attorney general, threatened to resign if the president buckled and gave the seized documents back to Republican congressional leaders. The president defused that somewhat by ordering a 45-day cooling off period. But the heat is still on. Republican Congressman James Sensenbrenner is planning a Tuesday hearing entitled "Reckless Justice: Did the Saturday night raid of Congress trample the Constitution?" Judging by that title, House Republicans are not about to back down. Ed Henry, CNN, the White House.</s>M. O'BRIEN: We'll get some perspective on all this, 8:00 Eastern hour, Soledad will talk with former U.S. Attorney General Richard Thornburgh and George Washington Law School's Jonathan Turley, an expert on such matters -- Soledad.</s>S. O'BRIEN: Pope Benedict XVI back at home after the -- at the Vatican, rather, after an emotional visit to the Auschwitz Concentration Camp in Poland. The pope lit a candle at the Wall of Death and asked God why He remained silent, God that is, during the killings. Delia Gallagher traveled with the pope. Delia, good morning.</s>DELIA GALLAGHER, CNN FAITH AND VALUES CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, -- Soledad.</s>S. O'BRIEN: Why was this trip so critical and so important to this pope?</s>GALLAGHER: Well, you know the pope really had two purposes in going to Poland. One, to follow in the footsteps of John Paul II. You know he wanted to encourage Poles, a 95 percent Catholic country, to continue that enthusiasm for Catholicism that was generated by John Paul II. And he said that you know it was important that a Catholic country in Europe continue in sort of that same vein, because, of course, part of his agenda is to keep Catholicism alive and even give it a rebirth in Europe. The other part was this trip to Auschwitz and Birkenau, how very important and historic for a German pope. And the pope in fact said that it was a particularly difficult visit being a German pope. However, you know it was very important to him, according to the papal spokesman, to attend this ceremony at Auschwitz and Birkenau because he said that he needed to ask for reconciliation from God and from the men and women who suffered there. A lot has been made of the fact that Pope Benedict was involved in the Hitler Youth. And that was something that he said was involuntary, mandatory at the time. And so he felt that this was an important gesture in Catholic-Jewish relationships to try and heal a little bit of that wound.</s>S. O'BRIEN: And what was the reaction to that gesture?</s>GALLAGHER: Well, it's been mixed of course, because many people expected a little bit more that he would talk about the relationship of men to men. In other words, German culpability in that or the Catholic Churches' culpability in that. But this is not a pope who talks on political or even emotional terms about what his experience was. This is a pope who goes straight to the theological level. And so his message, as you mentioned, was where was God in this? And his message was why did man forsake God? And that the only way he thinks to have a rebirth, a new vision of man to avoid these kind of tragedies in the future is that man puts God at the center. So that was the focus of his talk.</s>S. O'BRIEN: Delia Gallagher for us this morning. Delia, thank you -- Miles.</s>M. O'BRIEN: Happening now in America. Actor Paul Gleason is dead. He's perhaps best known as the cranky principal in the 1985 film "The Breakfast Club." But Gleason starred in 60 other films, at least. He wrote a poetry book and played AAA baseball at one time. Gleason died from a rare form of lung cancer associated with asbestos. He was 67. The trains are still running in the northeast, but the questions about last week's power failure still unanswered. And now calls for an independent investigation coming from New York Senator Chuck Schumer. Thousands of train passengers on Amtrak and New Jersey transit stuck during that outage along the Washington-New York corridor. Amtrak doesn't know what caused the power problem yet. Home run number 715 for Barry Bonds, putting him number 2 on the all-time career homer list, moving past Babe Ruth. No place like home for Bonds. Most of his milestones come in the city by the bay. This one no different.</s>BARRY BONDS, 2ND ON ALL-TIME HR LIST: I knew it was gone, yes. I knew it was definitely gone. There was no doubt. And you know I've got to keep tradition alive. Just got to keep the tradition alive. It now belongs here.</s>M. O'BRIEN: Bonds now has Henry Aaron in his sights. Forty home runs behind Henry Aaron for the -- to be first on the all-time list. A high seas, high wind ordeal is over for five Canadian sailors. They are safe after spending days in bad weather on a damaged 36-foot sailboat. The Coast Guard rescued them 250 miles off Nantucket, apparently in good shape. The mayday came in Saturday night after three days of gale force winds caused serious damage to their boat. And -- excuse me -- still digging for Jimmy Hoffa outside Detroit. Today, FBI agents return for a 13th day of searching on that horse farm north of the city. Agents say they have a credible tip the former labor leader's body is buried at that farm -- Soledad.</s>S. O'BRIEN: It is Memorial Day today. The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq obviously on our minds and many others in this country as well. Since March of 2003, some 2,465 American have been killed in Iraq. President Bush and the First Lady will honor the troops this morning. They're going to lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns. Visitors and families have been paying tribute to American troops all weekend, many at the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, D.C.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've got men in that wall that lost their lives for my freedom.</s>STEVE LENTZ, VIETNAM VETERAN: That wall isn't just a tourist attraction, it's a memorial. It's a monument to my brothers that died and are missing in action.</s>TOM TITUS, VIETNAM VETERAN: Because I have 176 names on one panel and my best friend is on panel three west. He died in my arms. One of the guys on my team. Well, right now it faces the fallen down here and my son's portrait is there. He wanted to carry on the family tradition. And as he put it or we read the last letter at his funeral, his simple statement was before I could take advantage of the freedoms that had been given to me, have been fought for, I have to earn them myself.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you so much for giving of your life and giving of your time so that we today can sit and stand in this amphitheater free, free, free. May we never forget.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Public would like to forget about Vietnam, and we'd like to forget about Vietnam, but it's something I'll never ever be able to do.</s>RON SHOUSE, VIETNAM VETERAN: I come up here every -- at least once a year, sometimes more than that, just to let them know that I still know they're alive. We were doing what we thought was right. History will say we did or history will say we didn't.</s>LENTZ: Whether the war was right or wrong is immaterial. It's not up for debate anymore. We were there, we did a job and my brothers died and we need to honor them.