Deadly Storms; War Speeches; Saddam Hussein on Trial; Milosevic Autopsy; Student Slain
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Good Monday morning to you. I'm Miles O'Brien.</s>SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome, everybody. I'm Soledad O'Brien. Bad weather and it is moving eastward. Deadly twisters have killed five people in the Midwest.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The whole house was shaking and the wind was nuts. And looked outside and there was just debris going all around.</s>M. O'BRIEN: Selling an unpopular war. President Bush has a new strategy to try to change America's feelings about Iraq.</s>S. O'BRIEN: A New York graduate student brutally murdered. Now officials are pointing the finger at bar bouncer Darryl Littlejohn.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Littlejohn is the prime suspect in this case, and his indictment will be sought for the murder of Imette St. Guillen.</s>M. O'BRIEN: The Saddam Hussein trial. Saddam's half-brother and co-defendant admits he issued death warrants for 148 people. And Dubai would like to polish its image post-port deal with who else, Oprah.</s>S. O'BRIEN: Strange, but true. Let's get right to the severe weather we've been talking about battering the Midwest this morning. In Missouri, deadly tornadoes cut a wide path of destruction. At least five people were killed there on Sunday. One tornado touched down for 20 miles, just ripping through towns, destroying homes. Much more of the same in Illinois to tell you about, twisters there hit the capital, Springfield, with a one-two punch late last night and then early this morning. At least 19 people were injured. At least one person is still missing. Power is out and several roofs, as you can see right there, just ripped off of buildings. Classes are cancelled today at the University of Kansas where 60 percent of the buildings at Lawrence campus have been damaged. Hail the size of baseballs shattered windows throughout southern parts of the state. Severe weather expert Chad Myers is at the CNN Center for us this morning. Hey, Chad, good morning.</s>CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: What an ugly, ugly weekend for some folks.</s>S. O'BRIEN: The pictures. Yes.</s>MYERS: Good morning, Soledad. Yes. This storm is really fired up along the same line now that's moving weather into Detroit. Still have red boxes here. Tornado watch boxes are still in effect this morning. The potential for strong weather still exists at this hour. Watch this storm, a couple of the storms, as they just ripped right on by. That was one. It was a super cell way ahead of the line and that's the one that actually ran right through Springfield and right up into parts of Indiana. Over 100 reports of tornadoes yesterday alone. A typical year in North America will have around 1,000 tornadoes reported. It was 10 percent of the entire year day yesterday, and there were 16 the day before that. So you get the idea, the strong weather still with us. As we kind of give you a map, show you where all of these little dark maroon dots are, every dot a tornado report. Now some of the tornadoes, in fact, may be the same tornado seen by two different people from two different angles reported as two tornadoes and they may only be one. So those numbers may not be quite that high. We'll see. Soledad, back to you.</s>S. O'BRIEN: All right, we're watching it. Thanks, -- Chad.</s>MYERS: You're welcome. Texas now, massive and deadly wildfires are still burning out of control this morning in the northern panhandle. At least six people there are reported dead, four of them in a nine-car pileup that's blamed on drivers who were blinded by the smoke from the fires. Two other victims killed while trying to get away from their burning home. Fires have already scorched at least 300,000 acres of grassland. Fire officials say tens of thousands more could burn before crews are able to get these fires under control -- Miles.</s>M. O'BRIEN: A leading liberal in the U.S. Senate says President Bush broke the law and should be censured. Senator Russ Feingold of Wisconsin says the president stepped out of bounds by eavesdropping on Americans without warrants. Today, the president will begin trying to turn the tide of anti- war sentiment in America. He plans a series of speeches tied to the third anniversary of the Iraq invasion. White House correspondent Elaine Quijano is following the administration's strategy.</s>ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Today, President Bush will once again lay out his Iraq strategy. He is set to deliver the first in a series of speeches this month as the three-year anniversary of the start of the Iraq war approaches. Now aides say that his remarks today will focus on the issue of security and also the problem of IEDs, or improvised explosive devices. Now with a recent uptick in violence, aides say they know those images are troubling. So these speeches are also an opportunity, they hope, to show the president is not out of touch. At the same time, aides also say providing context is critical. As one senior administration official put it, a person can be unsatisfied but still have a better understanding of what is happening. Elaine Quijano, CNN, the White House.</s>M. O'BRIEN: CNN will have live coverage of the president's speech. It begins at 1:15 Eastern Time this afternoon. One of the defendants in the trial of Saddam Hussein today freely admitted ordering the deaths of more than 140 people. Arwa Damon live in Baghdad now. This is, obviously, significant testimony -- Arwa.</s>ARWA DAMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. Good morning, Miles. Today's testimony is significant, because it does raise a number of points. Now Awad Bander is the -- was the former chief judge of the Revolutionary Court that issued those deaths warrants. And he is saying that all of those who were sentenced to death confessed not only to the attempted assassination against former President Saddam Hussein, but that they also confessed that their orders came from Iran. Now the prosecution is calling this trial imaginary. He is saying that the accused did not even appear in court and is also seeking to prove that some of those who were sentenced to death were minors, something that is of course illegal under international law. And is also trying to prove that the regime went after the entire civilian population of the town of Dujail. Of course Bander is saying that that is not correct, that that was not the case, that it was a fair and just trial that took place back in 1984 -- Miles.</s>M. O'BRIEN: Arwa, when will Saddam Hussein take the stand?</s>DAMON: Well so far -- and this new phase of the trial did start on Sunday. It started yesterday. We are seeing all of the defendants coming out one by one. So far we have heard from five of Saddam's co- defendants. Now if the trial does proceed on schedule, we're expecting to hear from Saddam Hussein himself tomorrow -- Miles.</s>M. O'BRIEN: Arwa Damon in Baghdad, thank you -- Soledad.</s>S. O'BRIEN: The remains of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic are being released to his family today. Preliminary autopsy results indicate that Milosevic died of a heart attack on Saturday in his cell in the Netherlands. There's already, though, a dispute brewing over just what was exactly to blame for his death. Correspondent Paula Newton is live in The Hague for us this morning where Milosevic was on trial for war crimes. Hey, Paula, good morning.</s>PAULA NEWTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Soledad. You know you would think when you get a result like that someone died of a heart attack you would assume it was of natural causes. Right now, with the controversy brewing here, nothing is being taken for granted. They are awaiting results of a blood test and that blood test will show exactly what was in Milosevic's bloodstream when he died. But some explosive new allegations this morning coming out from a Dutch doctor, saying that, look, I tested Milosevic's blood two weeks ago, there was a very, very strong antibiotic in his bloodstream that they say Milosevic took on purpose in order to make sure his heart medication wasn't working. And they say that would have allowed him to continue to interrupt the trial and that would have allowed him, perhaps, to have a better case for going to seek treatment in Russia, and that's where he desperately wanted to go -- Soledad.</s>S. O'BRIEN: And not just controversy, Paula, over what exactly was the cause, also controversy over where Milosevic should be buried.</s>NEWTON: Well can you imagine this, Soledad, they are trying to release the body. The Tribunal wants to release the body to the family. The family still not knowing where to take his body. The controversy is should it be taken to Serbia, where he will be buried, or to Russia. His family's preference is definitely Serbia. But if his widow sets foot in Serbia, she will be arrested. There is an arrest warrant out for her. We understand her lawyers were in court this morning in Serbia to see if they could get that arrest warrant lifted. If they can, it is believed that his body would go to Serbia, but that still all remains in doubt. You know a lot of confusion here over exactly just what to do with the autopsy results and with his remains.</s>S. O'BRIEN: Yes, and a lot of big ifs. All right. Paula Newton for us this morning at The Hague. Paula, thanks. Here is a story, a follow-up, really, on a story that's been shocking New York, making all the local papers' headlines for the past couple of weeks now. Police say they are ready to move against their prime suspect in the brutal killing of Imette St. Guillen. The 24- year-old graduate student was found dead, naked, bound and gagged in an abandoned lot. Investigators say they now have forensic evidence that links a bouncer in a bar to her death. CNN's Allan Chernoff has the latest for us.</s>ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Brooklyn's district attorney, as early as today, will be asking a grand jury to hand up an indictment against Darryl Littlejohn in the rape and murder of grad student Imette St. Guillen. Littlejohn is a bouncer at The Falls, a bar in SoHo, the last place that St. Guillen was seen before her body was found in an abandoned lot in eastern New York. Her body was wrapped in a bedspread, her hands and legs tied up and her face taped from forehead down to the chin. Police say that blood found on the plastic ties that were wrapped around St. Guillen's wrists in fact is the blood of Littlejohn. Police also say his cell phone was tracked to the vicinity of the body the night of the murder. Littlejohn currently is at Rikers Island jail on a parole violation. He served time for armed robbery. Allan Chernoff, CNN, New York.</s>M. O'BRIEN: Well they are picking up the pieces this morning in the Midwest, and they are assessing the damage after some wild weather yesterday. Ahead, we'll get the latest from an emergency official who is on the scene.</s>S. O'BRIEN: Also, Andrew Fastow is back in the hot seat at the Enron trial. We're going to tell you what he's expected to face today.</s>M. O'BRIEN: There is Fastow. And then let's move the video to the next item. We'll tell you -- there you go -- why the people behind that Dubai port deal want to jump the couch. Will Oprah take her show on the road to the Emirates? That's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.