Jihadist Web Site: Ex-Guantanamo Detainee was Iraqi Suicide Bomber; Myanmar Death Toll
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Worst comes to worst in Myanmar. Days after a cyclone bearing 150-mile-an-hour winds and 20 inches of rain, a U.S. diplomat says more than 100,000 people may be dead.</s>DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Well, the outside world is begging to get in to help, and Myanmar's military rulers, well, they aren't saying no to emergency supplies, but they're not exactly throwing open the borders either. Hello, everyone. I'm Don Lemon, live here at the CNN world headquarters in Atlanta.</s>KEILAR: And I'm Brianna Keilar. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM. We will get you the latest on the situation in Myanmar in just a moment. But first, a story just into the CNN NEWSROOM. Let's bring in Senior Pentagon Correspondent Jamie McIntyre. I understand, Jamie, we're talking about a former Guantanamo Bay detainee. What can you tell us?</s>JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SR. PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brianna, it's not often that you find a jihadist Web site and the Pentagon agreeing on something, but today both say that a man named Abdullah Saleh al-Ajmi was responsible for a suicide attack in Mosul against Iraqi police officers, and the Pentagon says that this man was a former detainee at the Guantanamo prison in Guantanamo, Cuba. The Web site lauds him as a martyr and hero. The Pentagon says he was someone who was picked up in 2001 in Afghanistan, alleged to have been fighting with the Taliban against the Northern Alliance during the fighting there in 2001. He was held in Guantanamo Bay, according to U.S. military records, until 2005, when as a Kuwaiti citizen, he was returned to Kuwait. After facing justice in Kuwait, he was released. And now the Pentagon says he's one of at least 10 former Guantanamo detainees who has shown up on the battlefield, either been captured, or killed, or in this case, believed to have carried out a suicide attack last April 26th in Mosul -- Brianna.</s>KEILAR: And Jamie, I know the details are really just coming in on this, but you said he went back to Kuwait, he faced justice there. Do we know what type of justice was handed out there?</s>MCINTYRE: Well, he was charged with terrorism offenses. Of course, during his stay at Guantanamo, he wasn't formally charged with anything, although the U.S. believed he was an enemy combatant. But he denied that he had anything to do with fighting with the Taliban. He said he was in Afghanistan to study the Koran. He was apparently acquitted by a Kuwaiti and released sometime after his transfer in 2005. And then flash forward to 2008, he shows up in Iraq, in Mosul, according to this jihadist Web site, responsible for that terrorist attack. Again, the Pentagon says this is the problem they have with the detainees -- and there are about 270 left -- in Guantanamo. They're never sure when they release somebody if they may be a threat in the future.</s>KEILAR: All right. Jamie McIntyre for us at our Washington bureau. Thanks, Jamie.</s>LEMON: Late word now that more than 100,000 people possibly lost their lives in this cyclone that hit Myanmar, and the U.N. is pleading with the government of Myanmar to let aid workers in to help storm victims. Food and medicine are trickling into the country, with some difficulty though. But volunteers from the outside are having a tough time getting visas, and once they get in, they face poor or nonexistent roads, no communications, and a government not used to outsiders. It is four days since a Category 3 hurricane wiped away much of the low-lying parts of the country. The official word from Myanmar's hard-line government is that 22,000 people lost their lives, but we're hearing now as many as 100,000. That figure is not universally trusted. The 14,000 is not universally trusted. But it may in reality be much, much higher, as we have been saying here. Now, look at these amazing pictures just into the CNN NEWSROOM. It's video taken as a cyclone was ravaging towns on the Burmese coast. People struggling just to stay upright there. And of course the video is telling you the story. Look at the trees bending under the cyclone winds, and the terrible, terrible aftermath that follows that. Homes weren't built to withstand wind and rain like what happened in that cyclone. There's also a question of how much warning -- how much warning villagers had and whether they were told the size and strength of that oncoming storm.</s>KEILAR: And as we just told you, more dreadful news here in the past few minutes. A U.S. diplomat in Myanmar saying that, yes, more than 100,000 people may be dead. CNN's Dan Rivers saw some of the most ravaged neighborhoods.</s>DAN RIVERS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Not even the Buddhist temples were spared the fury Cyclone Nargis. Even the venerable symbols of religion have somehow been toppled by the wind. It brought unremitting fury to this landscape, sending much of the Irrawaddy delta into a wasteland. A land where funerals and death are at every turn. Some are buried, but many bodies are still lying beneath the rubble. And everywhere, those haunting hollow faces, the drowned world that feels beyond hope. (on camera): But it's not just people's homes that have been destroyed here. The very infrastructure of Myanmar has taken a severe battering. This is all that remains of a school science laboratory, completely flattened by Cyclone Nargis. The school says it doesn't know what it's going to do, and it still hasn't heard anything from the authorities. (voice over): This is the schoolyard. The water was three feet deep, and it's miles from the river. Save the Children estimate that 40 percent of those who have died are children. The classrooms have no roofs. It will be a long time before the lessons can be taught again here. State television has shown aid being distributed by the army, but the need here is immense. So far, many foreign aid agencies haven't been able to get their staff and equipment into Myanmar. They say the red tape of this reclusive country is preventing progress. Food shortages are critical in some areas, and opposition groups are cynical about the army's motives.</s>EGOY BANS, FREE BURMA COALITION: We are also learning the military junta, not to politicize the delivery of relief services. This is one of our concerns, because it might be that the military structure supporting the delivery of relief and rehabilitation services will be very selective and prioritize their communities that are a stronghold of the military junta. And intentionally miss out on those communities supportive of the democratization movement.</s>RIVERS: Another crippling problem right now is fuel. This is the line of cars waiting for gas. (on camera): It just goes on and on and on for -- for miles, really. Just this never-ending queue, all the way down here. And I guess the people at the back are going to be waiting, God knows how long, hours and hours, you think. (voice over): Here, the gas is $1.50 for a gallon, or for four liters. And if you don't want to wait for hours, you can pay the black market rates of 10 times that amount. But it's here in the Irrawaddy River delta that the real misery and suffering is happening. These people are reaching a breaking point. How much longer will they be made to wait before the help they desperately need arrives? Dan Rivers, CNN, southern Myanmar.</s>LEMON: Wow. Well, many nations, including the U.S., are pleading -- or pledging, I should say, millions upon millions of dollars in aid to help Myanmar. But that's long term. People there need help on the ground, and they need it right now. And U.S. forces in the Pacific are offering as well. Let's go straight now to the Pentagon and our correspondent there, Barbara Starr, with the very latest on this. What's going on now with the forces in the Pacific? Are they able to get in, Barbara?</s>BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, not yet, Don. And gloom is mounting here at the Pentagon about the ability to go do anything to help this devastated area. I think it's very clear to everyone, calls are mounting around the world from the United Nations to Europe to Asia for the military government, the military junta in Myanmar, to open the door and let the international relief community in. U.S. military officials confirm they have even approached the Chinese to act as intermediaries to approach the government in Myanmar and ask them to let the international relief community in. The U.S. military does have a good number of humanitarian relief capabilities in Asia right now. They were conducting a relief exercise off the coast of Thailand, so there's plenty in place. A little bit earlier today, CNN spoke to Admiral Timothy Keating, the head of the U.S. Pacific Command.</s>ADM. TIMOTHY KEATING, COMMANDER, U.S. PACIFIC COMMAND: We've been watching this through our command center as the storm came ashore over the weekend. We began moving forces very soon thereafter. We've been in extensive dialogue with our Department of Defense leaders and listening as the Department of State leaders and our president himself have implored Myanmar, Burma to let us come in, and it's been several days now. We do not as yet have permission.</s>STARR: Not only do they not have permission, they don't have a "yes," they don't have a "no." According to top officials, they are hearing nothing from the government in Myanmar, and that is leading to some considerable distress and considerable worry about the people there. What could the U.S. military in the region do? Very quickly, they have a number of helicopters they are already putting on the ground in northern Thailand, next door, so they could quickly, if they got permission, begin flowing relief supplies in that way. There are six U.S. military C-130 aircraft in Thailand. They could also bring in supplies and relief. U.S. Navy ships have considerable water purification capability. They could be on scene within a number of days. But there's a lot of concern, Don, that time is running out for the people there, and a lot of concern about what may happen next -- Don.</s>LEMON: All right, Pentagon Correspondent Barbara Starr. Barbara, thank you.</s>KEILAR: Let's go and go ahead now and bring in CNN State Department producer Elise Labott. She was on this conference call when the top U.S. diplomat in Myanmar told the world, really, that the death toll there is much higher than previously we believe that it was. Elise, are you there? What can you tell us?</s>VOICE OF ELISE LABOTT, CNN STATE DEPT. PRODUCER: I'm here, Brianna. The U.S. charge d'affaires in Myanmar, Shelly Villarosa (ph), told reporters just moments ago in a conference call that the death toll there could exceed about 100,000. These reports coming from NGOs in the area, international NGOs that work in Myanmar and are familiar with the situation on the ground. She said most of the deaths are coming from the rural areas, the delta, as you say. There's not potable water. There's -- because of the cyclone, the seawater contaminated the region. Not only are people missing and presumed dead, but there's additional possible deaths because of no access to water. The basic sanitation situation very bad right now. And as Barbara and others have said, that the military government there is not allowing relief workers in to help the situation. So there's danger of even more death because of very real risk of disease outbreak is very possible.</s>KEILAR: Now, at last count, we heard, Elise, coming from opposition groups, as well as state-run media there, the death toll was at 22,000. That's the number we were reporting yesterday. Did this diplomat talk about why there may be a discrepancy?</s>LABOTT: Well, based on the people in the area, there's about five to six million people in the area, and not only are they dealing with the number of people that they believe to be dead, but the number of missing makes them believe that the death toll could reach eventually as much as 100,000. She was careful to say that they don't believe 100,000 people are dead as of now, but as they fine the missing, as they find the missing that are believed to be dead, they believe that this figure could reach as high as 100,000 when they figure out who is -- who is missing, who is dead, and who is accounted for.</s>KEILAR: CNN State Department producer Elise Labott. Thank you so much for joining us on the phone.</s>LEMON: OK. So if you went to bed last night without knowing who won the Indiana Democratic primary, Lake County is the reason, of course. Or you were just too sleep to stay up. The second largest county in the state, on the outskirts of Chicago, saw a much bigger vote than unusual, especially from absentee voters. Our Susan Roesgen tried to find out why it took so long to get those results.</s>SUSAN ROESGEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Election commissioners here at the Lake County administration building kept the state of Indiana and the entire nation waiting for the results of the Democratic primary. Those commissioners told us that it was simply a case of 11,000 absentee ballots that had to be counted, mostly by hand.</s>MICHELLE FAJMAN, ELECTION SUPERVISOR: They verify signatures from the application to the ballot. Then they separate those, then they open up the ballot envelope. Then they look for two sets of initials on there to make sure it's been validated. Then they separate those out, they commingle them. Then they come over to a scanning team. We match them up to the report, make sure that our numbers match. If you have 25 ballots, you have 25 returns and so forth.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We had the most excitement here in Lake County since 1964. And we had a chance to shine. And we had a flaw in it. And unfortunately, it was -- it went all over the nation. And now we have to live with that until we can rectify it.</s>ROESGEN: Elections officials also told us that as soon as they realized that everybody out here was waiting for their results in there, they stopped counting the absentee ballots and went back to doing the precinct tallies, which took much less time. In fact, it took them until 5:00 a.m. this morning, a full 24 hours, to count all the absentee ballots in. In the end, results showed that this county went overwhelmingly for Senator Obama. But the state of Indiana was a barely-get-by win for Senator Clinton. Susan Roesgen, CNN, Lake County, Indiana.</s>KEILAR: Let's get a overall look now. Here is where we stand in the delegate race. By CNN's estimate, Barack Obama now has 1,842 delegates. Hillary Clinton, 1,686. Obama is 183 delegates short of the 2,025 needed to win the nomination. Up next is the West Virginia primary. That is next Tuesday, where 28 Democratic delegates are up for grabs there.</s>LEMON: All right. All the latest campaign news of course right at your fingertips. Just go to cnnpolitics.com. We also have analysis from the best political team on television. It's all there, cnnpolitics.com.</s>KEILAR: A police beating caught on tape. Does the video of a violent arrest tell the whole story of what happened? We'll go in depth ahead in the NEWSROOM. And as many as 100,000 people dead after that devastating cyclone in Myanmar. Now the United Nations has a message for the leaders of that country -- let the rest of the world in to help the victims. We'll have a live report straight ahead.