Seaplane Crashes Off Coast of Miami Beach; Bush: Wiretaps Without Warrants Will Continue
WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: And to our viewers, you're in THE SITUATION ROOM, where new pictures and information are arriving all the time. Standing by, CNN reporters across the United States and around the world to bring you the day's top stories. Happening now. It's 7:00 p.m. in Miami where a seaplane with 20 people onboard goes down just off the beach, before horrified onlookers. A desperate rescue effort under way gives way to a recovery operation. Here in Washington, President Bush defends domestic spying saying the wiretaps without warrants will continue. He gets strong support from Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. She joins me for a special interview this hour. And it's 3:00 a.m. in Iraq. Saddam Hussein had plans for a getaway from his spider hole. We'll tell you what he hoped to find when he left his hiding place. I'm Wolf Blitzer. You're in THE SITUATION ROOM. We begin with that still developing story, the crash of a small plane in the waters around Miami Beach, Florida. CNN's John Zarrella standing by in Miami Beach. But let's go to CNN's Tom Foreman. He's got the latest. Tom?</s>TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, let's get a sense of what's going on down there. What happened, in fact, was a terrible moment for many people apparently going on vacation. Conflicting reports from people on the ground of what they saw but no matter how you look at it, a terrible accident that now has to be investigated.</s>FOREMAN (voice-over): Crews in the water off Miami Beach after a frightening scene of a plane in distress.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The plane was flying pretty low next to the freight ship and it was a little bit loud. We thought it was an interesting picture, whatever. I didn't take a picture. It goes to the peer and heard it blow up. And I saw two pieces and I went down into the water.</s>FOREMAN: The small seaplane had just departed Miami bound for the Bahamas when it went down. There were no survivors.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All of the bodies have been recovered.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Nineteen people onboard?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nineteen passengers onboard.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How many were crew?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nineteen passengers on board. My understanding we don't have the manifest in our hands but it is alleged that there is 17 passengers and two crew members.</s>FOREMAN: Another witness described watching the deadly descent in horror.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I seen a plane coming across, coming through Government Cut, make a left-hand turn. Wing came off. Exploded.</s>FOREMAN: Government Cut is the name of this channel used by cargo and cruise ships to sail past the popular South Beach neighborhood into the Port of Miami. And the place where much of the planes wreckage is now strewn. Miami's fire chief says the crews did all they could to search for and save potential survivors.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They made a gallant effort. They did the best they could in order to get in the water as quickly as possible. There was a quick response. Unfortunately, their efforts did not result in any survivors.</s>FOREMAN: The route is popular one for many people wanting to travel between Florida and the Bahamas. The plane was operated by Chalk's Ocean Airways.</s>FOREMAN: Obviously, investigators will have to figure out if there was some sort of engine failure or explosion upon that plane. What we do know is that taking off in position, it could have hit the water somewhere between 150 and 180 miles per hour. Wolf?</s>BLITZER: All right. Tom, thanks very much. Tom Foreman reporting. Let's get a sense of the scene of the crash. For that, we'll turn to John Zarrella. He's in Miami Beach. John, we just got a still photo. I want to show our viewers, this taken on a cell phone by a 14-year-old boy. You can see the smoke, the trail coming in. Chalk's Ocean Airways plane. Must be devastating where you are.</s>JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Wolf, we are literally where I'm standing is the southern end of Miami Beach, the very south end on the beach, on that white sand. And you can see in the distance there, the blue lights of the police boats, the coast guard boats and there is a coast guard helicopter. We can see in the distance with his search light on the water. The number of people confirmed dead, 19. There may well have been a 20th person on board. A little bit of confusion. The airline themselves telling us earlier today that it was 18 passengers and two crew members. Then we were told the manifest listed 17 passengers and two. So a little bit up in the air on that but either way it is a terrible tragedy here on South Beach and you can see as Tom said in his piece, that is Government Cut back there and there's a jetty out there and this plane went down just inside of the jetty. That, of course, a breakwater for those big cruise ships which is, of course, presenting a problem tonight for thousands of people here because the cruise ships are stuck inside at the Port of Miami and others are stuck outside of the Port of Miami, and can't get in because this whole area is now closed down. You could see that in those shots, Wolf. Closed down until the NTSB can get here and move on with the investigation and recover that wreckage. Wolf?</s>BLITZER: John Zarrella on the scene for us. John, thank you very much. We'll continue to continue to follow this story for our viewers. In the meantime, here in Washington, President Bush isn't making any apologies for approving secret wiretaps without a court order and he isn't planning to stop the eavesdropping, either. At his news conference over at the White House earlier today, Mr. Bush was fierce in the defense of domestic spying just hours after sounding less strident about Iraq.</s>GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I swore to uphold the laws. Do I have the legal authority to do this? And the answer is, absolutely.</s>BLITZER: But many members of Congress still are asking some serious and very tough questions about the spying program and whether Mr. Bush crossed a legal line.</s>SEN. RUSS FEINGOLD, (D) WI: The president does not have a leg to stand on legally. He is the president, not a king.</s>BLITZER: The president was bombarded with questions about his domestic wiretapping program during his end of the year news conference. Let's bring in our White House correspondent Suzanne Malveaux. Suzanne, how are the president and his advisers justifying this decision?</s>SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, one of the parts that they're saying is that the president said this is a very specific program, essentially, that these are calls that come from within the United States, overseas. That the person on the other line they believe to be either al Qaeda or some member of a terrorist network. This is something that he says he's reviewed with members of Congress, that he has renewed every 45 days and essentially signed on to some 30 times since this whole program began. But he says bottom line here is he believes he has the authority through the Constitution as, of course, commander in chief during wartime and also from congressional authorization in the fight against terror against al Qaeda.</s>BLITZER: How is it playing out politically?</s>MALVEAUX: Well, this is really a political hot potato here and we expect that it is only going to get hotter. Members of Congress, Democrats are saying that the president has essentially broke the law. Republicans are reserving judgment, are calling for congressional hearings. Now, the president, part of his argument was that he had consulted at least a dozen times with members of Congress about this program. Today, one of those members who he consulted, that the Democrat, Senator Jay Rockefeller released a letter here to the vice president that he had under seal in an envelope for two years essentially saying that he was concerned about the program. He goes on to say that the inability to consult staff or anybody about this particular program made it very uneasy for him and that he felt he just could not endorse this. The big question, Wolf, is whether or not anyone is going to have the stomach to go through those kinds of hearings for congressional oversight. Wolf?</s>BLITZER: Suzanne Malveaux reporting for us. Thank you very much. Suzanne is over at the White House. The Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is in the hot seat herself over the president's approval of domestic spying. At the time, she was the president's national security adviser. How does she explain his actions? My one on one interview with America's top diplomat. That's coming up this hour. And in the meantime, let's go up to New York. Jack Cafferty standing by with the "Cafferty File." Hi, Jack.</s>JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, Wolf. This all started with a "New York Times" story last Friday morning and now that newspaper is in the focus of some controversy itself. When the newspaper came out with a story about domestic eavesdropping, they said they had held it for over a year because of requests from the White House. But "Times" executive editor Bill Keller said that the paper decided to go ahead when they found that civil liberties issues loomed larger within the government than they, "The Times" had thought. Meantime, President Bush says that because of the report, quote, "Our enemies have learned information they should not have," unquote. Mr. Bush says it damages our national security and puts citizens at risk. So here's the question -- was it wrong for the "New York Times" to publish the eavesdropping story? Your thoughts, you can send them to caffertyfile@cnn.com. We'll read some of them in a half hour or so, Wolf.</s>BLITZER: I'm not sure about you but I was pretty stunned Saturday morning when the president publicly confirmed the existence of this program. It's one thing for "The New York Times" to report. It's another thing for the president of the United States to publicly acknowledge it.</s>CAFFERTY: And where are all these congresspeople that he said he consulted about this? I haven't seen anybody come out and say that's right, we talked this over with the president and we said this is a great idea. Have you heard any of those?</s>BLITZER: Well, Nancy Pelosi said she did know about it and Jay Rockefeller said he did know about it. But they suggested it wasn't consultation, they were only told about it and they were sworn to secrecy given the nature of the program.</s>CAFFERTY: Plus, I don't understand this attitude that just because we're having a problem in Iraq, it's OK to circumvent what our traditional procedures for these kinds of things, which is if you want to do a wiretap, you go and get a court order. You know, how come those rules suddenly don't apply. I don't quite understand that.</s>BLITZER: Well, you have to listen to my interview with Condoleezza Rice. Because she explains it in her own way. That's coming up this hour.</s>CAFFERTY: OK.</s>BLITZER: All right, Jack. Thanks very much. Coming up, a developing story. Five hundred pounds of missing explosives believed to be stolen. Now police want your help to track them down. Also, an amazing story, Saddam Hussein actually had an escape plan. Hear for the first time how he says he was planning to get out of that hole when U.S. forces tracked him down. Plus, more of my interview with Condoleezza Rice, the one on one interview. I'll ask her those questions about government spying on American citizens. Much more coming up. You're in THE SITUATION ROOM.