Voice on Audiotape Vows To Assassinate Iraqi Leader
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Is Iyad Allawi, the interim prime minister of Iraq, a marked man threatened with assassination from this man, al-Zarqawi? It is Wednesday, June 23. This is DAYBREAK. And good morning to you. From the CNN global headquarters, I'm Carol Costello. Here are the latest headlines for you right now. The eight British sailors and Marines being held Iran could be released today. They were arrested after allegedly crossing into Iranian waters. Iranian state media reports they will be released because they crossed the border unintentionally. Multinational talks get under way today in Beijing over North Korea's nuclear program. Delegates from six nations, including the United States, are set to meet for four days. Two previous rounds of talks have not produced any breakthroughs. In money news, a sex-discrimination lawsuit against Wal-Mart is not a class-action suit. That means more than a million and a half former and current female employees can be included in the pay-equity suit.</s>COSTELLO: In culture, an oldie but goodie. "Somewhere Over the Rainbow," from 1939's "The Wizard of Oz" has been named the best song from a movie in voting by the entertainment industry. "As Time Goes By" from "Casablanca" is No. 2. In sports, two-time defending Wimbledon champion Serena Williams breezed through her first-round match. Williams has won 15 straight matches in the Grand Slam tournament -- Chad.</s>COSTELLO: We've been working this morning on a new audiotape that's been airing on al-Jazeera television. On the audiotape, a suspected terrorist, maybe one of the terrorists responsible for the beheading of a South Korean in Iraq. We want to bring in our senior international editor, David Clinch, now to help us sort through this. Is this Zarqawi on this audiotape?</s>DAVID CLINCH, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL EDITOR: Well, so far what we can tell you - this audiotape playing on a Web site that has played many audiotapes of Zarqawi in the past and video from his group, some of these horrific videos of beheadings and other things - our experts listening to it tell us that it is the voice of Zarqawi. But I would caution that the CIA and their expertise in machinery for checking voices has not yet been applied to this. We will be asking the CIA and others during the day whether their assessment is that it is Zarqawi. But...</s>COSTELLO: Does the voice on the audiotape specifically refer to the beheading of this South Korean?</s>CLINCH: It does not refer to the beheading of the South Korean, and that is interesting. That is an interesting point. What the voice claiming to be Zarqawi does do is go through a list of what he says his group will continue to do: continue to attack U.S. troops in Iraq, continue to attack the Iraqi security forces. But the headline, the most interesting and specific threat is a threat to kill the new Iraqi interim prime minister, Iyad Allawi. Now, of course, that fits into his general and continuing threats to attack this Iraqi interim government. It's not new that he's threatened to attack anybody associated with the coalition or this interim government. But he's very specific in his threat to kill Allawi. This is Allawi we're seeing here, some file of him when the government was announced. The way in which he voices this threat to Allwai is to said, "Be warned. We killed Izzadine Saleem," who, if you remember, a few months ago, was the acting head of the Iraqi Governing Council at the time, was killed in an attack blamed by the U.S. on Zarqawi's group. Zarqawi, or the voice claiming to be Zarqawi says today, "We killed Izzadine Saleem. We will do the same to you."</s>COSTELLO: Any word from Allawi's</s>CLINCH: We have not heard from him; that's an excellent point. We want to give him an opportunity to react to this. We have not yet heard from Allawi today. Of course, the difficult, awkward, terrible position that we're in in these cases is always that in reporting this, we want to get the information out. But on the other hand, you're left with this terrible feeling, in some ways, of amplifying the voice of this terrorist, putting out this message. We will try to keep it as much as we can to what we know, and that is that he's making this threat, and then seek a reaction from the Iraqi Governing Council during the day.</s>COSTELLO: Where is this audio playing? Is al-Jazeera playing this audiotape right now?</s>CLINCH: The Arab networks have been playing it. But originated on a Web site that we and others monitor and have been continuously monitoring not only for audiotape, but, of course, videotape, including videotape that we believe is available now of the beheading of this South Korean. But as you say, Zarqawi or the voice claiming to be him, did not mention that killing. Now, the U.S. has in the past blamed Zarqawi himself for the killing of Nicholas Berg, the American in Iraq. They have yet to assess whether Zarqawi himself was responsible for the killing of that South Korean.</s>COSTELLO: We'll have much more on this throughout the two hours of DAYBREAK. Thank you, David. We appreciate it. CNN takes the pulse of the world this week, as the countdown to the handover of Iraq nears. Join us at 1 p.m. Eastern tomorrow to find out the European view. You can get a check of the American pulse Friday, same time, 1 p.m. Eastern. The Bush administration is fighting back. The White House has now put out a memo showing President Bush accepted the Justice Department's advice that the Geneva Conventions did not protect al Qaeda and Taliban prisoners, but that he ordered they be treated humanely anyway.</s>GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We do not condone torture. I have never ordered torture. I will never order torture. The values of this country are such that torture is not a part of our soul and our being.</s>COSTELLO: Pentagon officials insist any prisoner abuse was done by a small number of military police acting on their own and not at the direction of the president. What were the interrogation orders from the Pentagon and the Justice Department though? Conflicting memos have been circulating over what was deemed to be acceptable behavior at the Guantanamo Bay detention center. CNN's senior Pentagon correspondent, Jamie McIntyre, sorts it out for you.</s>JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SR. PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The documents detail how U.S. commanders complained in October of 2002 that they were encountering advanced resistance from detainees at Guantanamo Bay. They asked permission to use more aggressive interrogation tactics to break them down, a request that eventually went to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. The tactics included convincing the detainee that death or severe pain could be imminent, exposure to cold weather or water, the use of water to induce a perception of suffocating, also known as water boarding. But Rumsfeld approved only one technique, mild noninjurious physical contact, defined as grabbing, poking in the chest, or light pushing. Rumsfeld insists nothing he authorized was torture or inhumane.</s>DONALD RUMSFELD, DEFENSE SECRETARY: The implication that's out there is the United States government is engaging in torture as a matter of policy and that's not true.</s>MCINTYRE: Rumsfeld did approve subjecting detainees at Guantanamo to yelling, isolation, 20-hour marathon interrogations, forced shaving and standing for four hours straight. And while he also approved other more controversial techniques, including hooding, stress positions, removal of clothing and the use of dogs to induce stress, the Pentagon insists those tactics were never used.</s>ELISA MASSIMINO, HUMAN RIGHTS FIRST: I think we're beyond a situation where we can be satisfied with the answer, "trust us, it's never been used." In fact, it appears that there are some in the military chain of command who were unaware that some of this misconduct amounting to torture was engaged in at Abu Ghraib.</s>MCINTYRE: A Pentagon official Monday inaccurately told CNN that Rumsfeld had approved water boarding. But even though the documents show Rumsfeld rejected it, they do indicate it could be approved in the future. The Pentagon general counsel writes in a December 2, 2002 memo, signed by Rumsfeld: "While all techniques may be legally available, we believe a blanket approval is not warranted at this time." Rumsfeld, who works at a stand-up desk, scrawled at the bottom of the memo: "However, I stand for eight to 10 hours a day. Why is standing limited to four hours?" (on camera): A month later, in January of 2003, Rumsfeld replaced those guidelines with 24 new, approved interrogation techniques, most of them straight out of the Army Field Manual. But four techniques, including playing good cop-bad cop, removing incentives, insulting the prisoners or isolating them, required that Rumsfeld be personally notified before they were implied. Jamie McIntyre, CNN, the Pentagon.</s>COSTELLO: Those eight British sailors and Marines being held in Iran are expected to be released today. Iran captured the British troops after they allegedly crossed into Iranian territorial waters along the Iran-Iraq border. Three ships were also confiscated. Iranian state media reports that since the troops did not intentionally cross the border, they would likely escape prosecution and be released. CNN's Matthew Chance will join us from London live with more on this story. That will come your way at the bottom of the hour. The group claiming to have beheaded a South Korean hostage in Iraq claims to be the same group that killed U.S. hostage Nicholas Berg. And it says it's linked to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Our Seoul bureau chief, Sohn Jie-Ae, has reaction to the killing from South Korea. Good morning.</s>SOHN JIE-AE, CNN SEOUL BUREAU CHIEF (voice-over): The news of Kim Sun-il's death devastated his family in the South Korean city of Pusan. His parents and sisters wept in front of a small, makeshift altar adorned with Kim's photograph. He was an Arabic speaker and devout Christian who had worked in Iraq for a year as a translator for a South Korean firm supplying goods to the U.S. military. Monday night, South Korean news reports had said Kim was seen alive and that negotiations were under way for his safe release. But hours later, South Korea's Foreign Minister announced that the U.S. military in Iraq had reported finding Kim's body on the road from Baghdad to Fallujah. After an emergency meeting of the National Security Council, the government released a statement strongly condemning the killing as "an inhumane act of terror." And it said it will strengthen safety measures to prevent similar incidents and seek an early withdrawal of all South Korean civilians from Iraq. But the government reiterated its position that Seoul will push ahead with plans to send an additional 3,000 troops to Iraq. The statement said the deployment was for reconstruction and humanitarian aid. The kidnappers had demanded South Korea not send further troops. South Korean civic groups had also called for the government to scrap its deployment plans, a demand that many believe will become stronger with the brutal killing of Kim Sun-il.</s>SOHN: Now, there are going to be protesters gathering in the streets in just a short while from now. They're going to also be there calling for the South Korean government to scrap their plans to deploy more troops to Iraq. They're going to raise their voices in the hopes that they can actually change the government's mind, Carol.</s>COSTELLO: And so far, South Korea -- the South Korean government, at least, is not changing its mind, correct? I don't think Sohn Jie-Ae could hear me, but that was Sohn Jie-Ae reporting live from South Korea this morning. We'll have much more for you through the two hours of DAYBREAK. For more on the tragic killing of that South Korea hostage and other developments in Iraq, you can also log onto our Web site, cnn.com. Just ahead on DAYBREAK, is a nuclear-powered breakthrough on the table? The U.S. says it's time to make a deal to keep North Korea's nuclear ambitions in check. We'll get the latest on those negotiations. And employees get the green light to take on the nation's largest retailer. We'll tell you why some women of Wal-Mart are saying, "Enough is enough." Also ahead, a live report on the status of those British troops being held by Iran. This is DAYBREAK.