Iran Said U.S. Navy Video Of A High Seas Confrontation Was Fabricated; Dramatic Video From Iraq; President Bush Is In Israel
HARRIS: President Bush in Israel. He's aiming for peace but, is his goal already out of reach? The story ahead. Coming back up on the bottom of the hour. Welcome back, everyone, to the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Tony Harris.</s>COLLINS: Hi, everybody. I'm Heidi Collins. Want to take a moment now to check out the big boards. A crazy place to be. Boy, yesterday, not so great. Dow Jones down 238? Is that right? Points?</s>HARRIS: Heidi, has there been a positive day so far in '08?</s>COLLINS: Ah, yes, really tiny now, but there's the opening bell. Today could be the day. Come on.</s>HARRIS: OK.</s>COLLINS: Stay positive. We're going to be talking with Susan Lisovicz later on about all things business, and what some of these first few days of trading of the year has meant.</s>HARRIS: And among our top stories this hour, they react, you decide. Iran today said U.S. Navy video of a high seas confrontation was fabricated. CNN's Jamie McIntyre has the pictures.</s>JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: As sailors on the U.S.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I am coming to you.</s>MCINTYRE: From the bridge of the Hopper, a warning to back off.</s>U.S. SAILOR: Your identity is not known, your intentions are unclear,</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You will explode after a few minutes.</s>U.S. SAILOR: You will explode after a few minutes.</s>MCINTYRE: At this point, after nearly 30 minutes of provocation from the Iranians, the Hopper is preparing to unload its 50 caliber machine guns but the Iranians give up the dangerous game.</s>GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We viewed it as a provocative act. It is a dangerous situation. And they should not have done it. Pure and simple.</s>MCINTYRE: The video does not show the small white boxes the U.S. Navy says were dumped in the gulf near the trailing ship in the three- ship formation but it does clearly show how close the Iranian patrol boats came. If one had turn and sped directly towards one of the U.S. ships it would have hit it in a matter of seconds. Jamie McIntyre, CNN, Washington.</s>COLLINS: Dramatic video from Iraq. U.S. military officials calling it a brutal execution and linking the killers to al Qaeda. Our Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr is here now with the story. Barbara, what's this all about?</s>BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Heidi, let me tell you that early this morning there was a news briefing from top commanders in Baghdad talking about some of the new military operations under way north of Baghdad to go after al Qaeda members, and they showed quite a startling video, as you say, of an execution that they caught on camera from a drone flying overhead. We're going to show that video. Look very carefully at the lower part of your screen, and you will see something very startling. Have a listen.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What you're about to see on the film are three individuals pulling another individual from the trunk of a car in the middle of an open field and then throwing him into a ditch and assassinate him. You can see these three individuals now pulling them off. They'll be a little break in the film shortly as the camera smoothes. This was off of an unmanned aerial vehicle. And now you see several of them shooting and leaving him in the ditch. What you are seeing on the screen is a brutal execution of an individual in Diala.</s>STARR: This is the area of Diala province north of Baghdad, Heidi, where much of the combat action is going on right now in this new operation. The briefing went on to talk about the other threat that they are now seeing emerge there against these concerned local citizen groups. These are the Iraqis that are now supporting the coalition and they are coming under increasing attack, of course, from al Qaeda. General Hertling and General Bergner also at the briefing talking about the military just found five severed heads with a threatening note attached in writing saying, if you join the concerned local citizens, this is what will happen to you. So it is the Iraqi citizens that are suffering much of the violence in that country right now -- Heidi?</s>COLLINS: Yes and it also makes you wonder, I mean, the imagery is spectacular from the drone up above. But it does make you wonder, clearly how many times this happens without being caught on camera and this intimidation type of method. I mean, it's been use for a long time in Iraq.</s>STARR: Absolutely. This is really the message that, you know, we asked the military today, why did they show such an explicit video? And of course, they have videos that are much more explicit that they will not show the public. And we asked them why they at least showed this one? And that's the point they wanted to make. They say that this is the intimidation tactic that al Qaeda in Iraq is using and they want the Iraqis to know that the U.S. is very aware of what's going on and that they are trying to engage in these combat operations right now to try and get a handle on it all one more time -- Heidi?</s>COLLINS: All right. CNN's Barbara Starr for us from the Pentagon this morning. Barbara, thank you.</s>STARR: Sure.</s>HARRIS: And new details emerging this morning about the kidnapping and killing of a Georgia hiker. Authorities say Meredith Emerson was alive for three days after her disappearance last Tuesday. An autopsy found she died from a blow to the head and was then decapitated. A 61-year-old drifter has been charged with Emerson's murder. Gary Michael Hilton will be in court this afternoon. A prosecutor says Hilton led police to Emerson's body only after authorities agreed they wouldn't ask for the death penalty. Hilton is now being investigated to possible links to unsolved murders. Officials say the Emerson deal would have no bearing on other prosecutions. An escaped New Jersey inmate is cooling his heels in jail this morning. Police found Jose Espinosa in an apartment just six blocks from the jail. A young woman was also arrested. You'll remember, Espinosa and his cohort, Otis Blunt. They tunneled through the cinder block wall of their cell at the Union County Jail last month. They covered the hole in the wall with posters of women in bikinis.</s>RALPH FROELICH, UNION COUNTY, NEW JERSEY: That's one down and one more to go, and I'm certain we're going to be successful with it. With the combined efforts of all of these agencies, we'll get the other guy. Blunt is still on the loose. But authorities believe he may be close to turning himself in.</s>COLLINS: We have been talking severe weather for a few days now. Jacqui Jeras is back over the severe weather center. I saw snow flurries in our animation there. So it's still about the northwest, right?</s>HARRIS: Well President Bush is in Israel this morning. It isn't his first trip there. First trip was in 1998. He certainly has been there before, but this time he has a very different title and a different agenda. CNN's Ben Wedeman has more.</s>BEN WEDEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This was nine years ago. Meeting with Israel's ceremonial President Bush ducked the presidential question.</s>BUSH: I haven't made up my mind if I'm running for president or not.</s>WEDEMAN: Bush on rare trip outside the U.S. was then Texas governor. Former Israeli government adviser Ra'anan Gissin got a taste of the effect the journey had on Bush.</s>RA'ANAN GISSIN, SENIOR SHARON ADVISER: One of the things that really affected him greatly when he awoke the first time in the King David Hotel. He opened the curtains and he saw the sun rising over Jerusalem, over the old city. And the glow on the mosques and on the churches and everything, and he said, at that moment, you know, I understood what a revelation is, he said. This was like a revelation to me.</s>WEDEMAN: During the visit, then Israeli foreign minister Ariel Sharon took Bush on a helicopter ride over the occupied West Bank. For someone with little knowledge of the region beyond the Bible, it was an eye-opener.</s>GISSIN: I asked him, Mr. Governor, what do you think of that tour? I never realized how small Israel is. You know, I have a creek in my ranch in Crawford, which is larger than the Jordan River.</s>BUSH: A good friend of the prime minister of Israel</s>WEDEMAN: Bush and Sharon in a coma for the last two year were later to meet 12 times as leaders. And while Israel and President Bush didn't always see eye to eye, it is a close relationship. And many Israelis see Bush as the most pro-Israeli U.S. president ever. For the Palestinians, the Bush years have been hard. He refused to meet the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. Palestinians saw Bush giving Israel a free hand to crush the Intefadeh and isolate Arafat in his Ramallah headquarters.</s>SAEB ERAKAT, CHIEF PALESTINIAN NEGOTIATOR: But at the same time he was meeting has Sharon, almost every month, which is, to us, it was -- you know, you know people are going to talk to them about themselves, about being honest broker, even handed. Even handed means even handed, not one handed. You know, Sharon, Sharon, Sharon.</s>WEDEMAN: But George W. Bush was the first U.S. president to have what he called a vision for a Palestinian state. Though that vision for much of his administration has been little more than a mirage. Long ago blurred, many argue, by grim reality.</s>ERAKAT: On the ground, the settlements are being determined by more settlements. Jerusalem fate instead of being negotiated to being determined by settlements and the borders are being determined by a war. So what's there to negotiate?</s>WEDEMAN: In November, Bush hosted a Middle East Peace Summit in Annapolis heralded as the start of American re-engagement in the Palestinian/Israeli conflict. But in the last year of the waning presidency, it's hard to shake the impression among both Palestinians and Israelis that it's a visit too late to make a difference. Ben Wedeman, CNN, Jerusalem.</s>HARRIS: As we take a look at some of these live pictures, boy, that tells a story. As you know, the president as Ben Wedeman was just outlining in Israel right now. Take a look at the view from Gaza. We've also heard reports of some protests along the West Bank as well. A protest in Gaza right now of the president's trip to Israel. As you know, the president is scheduled to hold a new conference with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. And you will see that, of course, live in the NEWSROOM. Scheduled to start at 10:55 a.m. Eastern time.</s>COLLINS: Can Senator McCain beat Senator Clinton in a general election? And is there any upside to Senator Obama losing in New Hampshire? Veronica De La Cruz joins us with answers from the political bloggers straight ahead.