President Bush to Deliver Address on Iraq War
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: It's not exactly child's play, insuring the safety of millions of imported toys, but the head of Mattel promises Congress he will get the lead out.</s>DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: And a small child targeted for ghastly cruelty in Iraq finds compassion and hope in America. Yusef's (ph) story takes a big step forward right here in the CNN NEWSROOM. Hello, everyone. I'm Don Lemon, live at the CNN world headquarters in Atlanta.</s>PHILLIPS: And I'm Kyra Phillips. You're live in the</s>CNN NEWSROOM. LEMON: It's 3:00 here in the East. How many troops is enough? How soon is soon enough? Does a surge reversal count as a new direction? Iraq war critics and Congress aren't waiting for the president's address tomorrow night to shoot down his expected troop reduction plan as too little too late. CNN's Suzanne Malveaux is following the speech writing at the White House. Our Jessica Yellin is busy getting an earful at Capitol Hill. Suzanne, let's start with you.</s>SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Don, President Bush is now on more than 20 drafts of the speech, a critical speech that he will deliver tomorrow to the American people. Already, he's facing a barrage of criticism, people essentially saying this is more of the same, this is no change in strategy. He will be talking about withdrawing some 30,000 troops, back to the pre- surge troop level. A lot of people saying that was inevitable. Military planners said that they really couldn't sustain this troop level surge until April of next year, President Bush announcing that it will happy in July, but the White House insisting today that it's happening faster than they imagined. And they also say that there are some successes on the ground that are happening in Iraq. We heard from Press Secretary Tony Snow, who essentially was accusing Democrats and critics today of having blinders on.</s>TONY SNOW, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Number one, if you believe in the troops and support them, why don't you acknowledge and celebrate their success? I mean, this ought to be a time for people to say, "Job well done."</s>MALVEAUX: Don, he was pretty much all over the place. He was saying, it was game of cat and mouse here, that they were not acknowledging that true success was happening on the ground. He even tried to change the debate, if you will, saying that it's not about the troop levels at all, but whether or not, in his words, he said, the Iraqis are in this, whether or not they give a rip. So, we're going to hear the president outlining some of those arguments and make his case to the American people tomorrow -- Don.</s>LEMON: CNN's Suzanne Malveaux -- thank you, Suzanne.</s>PHILLIPS: And the Democrats are trying to get out ahead of the president's message. No to CNN's Jessica Yellin. She is on Capitol Hill -- Jessica.</s>JESSICA YELLIN, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, the Democrats could not disagree more emphatically with Tony Snow. They insist that what the president is expected to propose, that the U.S. draw down troops to pre-surge levels by next summer, is exactly more of the same. It's where the U.S. was one year ago. And they say the U.S. needs to do more than that. There needs to be a real change of course, and they are putting the pressure on moderate and wavering Republicans to vote with Democrats to force the president to do more. This was Harry Reid just minutes ago.</s>SEN. HARRY REID (D-NV), MAJORITY LEADER: I hope the Senate Republicans also recognize it's time for them to come over and work with us. It's long past time to change the mission in Iraq. It's time to reduce our large combat footprint and fight in other areas to make this country safer. So, I call on the Senate Republicans to not walk lockstep, as they have, with the president, for years, in this war. It's time to change.</s>YELLIN: Now, Harry Reid said this has been the president's war. Republican senators</s>PHILLIPS: All right, Jessica, thanks so much. Don't forget, the president's speech airs at 9:00 p.m. Eastern tomorrow. You are going to want to tune in at 7:00 Eastern, 4:00 Pacific, for a special edition of "THE SITUATION ROOM," though. That will be right here on CNN prior to the speech.</s>LEMON: We have some developing news. There's new information on a horrific crime against a young woman in West Virginia. Our Brianna Keilar is standing in Charleston with the very latest. Update us, Brianna.</s>BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Don, you know there was speculation we have been talking about today, would hate crimes, federal hate crime charges come into play in this case? We have just learned from the U.S. attorney's office here in Charleston, West Virginia, that federal authorities will not step in. So, read, no hate crime charges. Now, the Logan County prosecutor's office tells us that this may not have been the first time that this alleged victim had been to the residence where police found her on Saturday. That prosecutor, Brian Abraham, telling us that this alleged victim was attacked back at this house in July by one of the suspects, Bobby Brewster, and that Bobby Brewster was charged with beating her. This prosecutor saying that this victim may have been romantically involved with Brewster. Well, when sheriff's deputies found the victim, Megan Williams, at the Brewster residence on Saturday, police reports say that she had been raped at knifepoint, stabbed in the left leg, beaten, strangled, doused with hot water, and forced to eat animal feces. And I should mention that, normally, CNN does not reveal the identity of an alleged victim in a sexual assault case. But, in this case, this woman, Megan Williams, her parents say they want people to know what has happened to their daughter, so that other people can learn to not be so trusting. So, Ms. Williams is here at this hospital in Charleston, West Virginia, where she is recovering at this point. About an hour-and-a- half drive from here in Logan, West Virginia, not far from where police say that Williams was held captive, six suspects have been arrested. And they are being held at this point. Police reports alleged that two people, Frankie Lee Brewster, Bobby Brewster, her son, that man who I already mentioned, that they were really the ringleaders in this case, that they are facing the more serious charges, but also George Messer and Alisha and Karen Burton, who are a daughter and a mother, as well as Danny Combs, are also facing serious criminal charges. All six of these suspects very familiar to local law enforcement there in Logan. All of them have histories of run-ins with police, including charges that involve violence. In fact, Frankie Lee Brewster spent five years in prison. She had pled out to voluntary manslaughter. That was in connection with the death of her son's grandmother. And then the talk around town about Bobby Brewster there in the Logan area was that he had killed his father as a teenager. This is a fact that was confirmed by "The Charleston Daily Mail" today by Logan Sheriff Eddie Hunter -- Don.</s>LEMON: All right, breaking details from CNN's Brianna Keilar, thank you.</s>PHILLIPS: Well, the headline is pretty familiar. A powerful earthquake strikes near Indonesia, sending people into the streets. Today, a quick with a magnitude of 8.4 struck in the Indian Ocean, killing at least nine people in Indonesia and damaging buildings 400 miles away in Jakarta. Tsunami warnings were issued, and a small tsunami around two feet high was detected on Sumatra, just several hundred miles from the quake's epicenter. Now, those warnings have been canceled. While strong, today's quake is still about nine times weaker than that 2004 quake that set off a tsunami that killed more than 200,000 people.</s>LEMON: All right. Senator Obama giving a speech today in Iowa about the Iraq war. Of course, that's him there live. You're looking at live pictures there. Of course, we have been talking about the war, General Petraeus testifying in front of a joint subcommittee all this week talking about Iraq, saying that, by next June or next July, some 30,000 troops will be brought back home to pre-surge levels. Well, apparently, Senator Barack Obama, very critical of the president today and also talk about the Iraq war, here's what he had to say just moments ago.</s>SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D-IL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: ... of this war. America's standing has suffered. Our diplomacy has been compromised by a refusal to talk to people who we don't like. Our alliances have been compromised by bluster. Our credibility has been compromised by a faulty case for war. Our moral leadership has been compromised by Abu Ghraib. That is the cost of this war. Perhaps the saddest irony of the administration's cynical use of 9/11 is that the Iraq war has left us less safe than we were before 9/11.</s>LEMON: Of course, you heard from our Candy Crowley just a short time ago, saying that this is part of Senator Barack Obama's effort to sort of enhance his experience. That's where he's weak, according to our Candy Crowley, who is on the campaign trail with Senator Barack Obama. She has been following him. And don't forget, the president's speech airs at 9:00 p.m. Eastern tomorrow. But you will want to tune in at 7:00 Eastern, 4:00 Pacific, for a special edition of "THE SITUATION ROOM" -- right here on</s>CNN. PHILLIPS: Doctors feared that he would be paralyzed from this hit. Today, an NFL tight end is down, but not out in Buffalo. We will have the details straight ahead from the</s>NEWSROOM. LEMON: Caught in the act. A driver turns the tables on cops and installs his own dashboard camera. Listen to what he caught on tape.</s>SGT. JAMES KUEHNLEIN, ST.  GEORGE POLICE: Do you want to try me? Do you want to try me, young boy? You want to try me tonight, young boy?</s>LEMON: That's him and his camera there. We will hear his story and hear more of the dramatic tape straight ahead in the CNN NEWSROOM. Oh, boy.