Israeli Navy Storms Gaza Aid Ships; Israel Raids Aid Ships Killing 10; New Effort to Cap Oil Leak
BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Lionel Richie singing "America the Beautiful" at the 21st Annual National Memorial Day concert there in Washington on PBS. It was broadcast just yesterday evening and the show, they say, focused really on three themes. Of course the sacrifices of young military widows, Korean War soldiers -- by the way, it was the 60th anniversary of that conflict -- and the service members who died in both world wars. And America remembers its fallen fighting men and women who paid the ultimate price for freedom on this Memorial Day holiday. And we are bringing you live various observances including Vice President Joe Biden's ceremonial wreath-laying at the Tomb of the Unknowns and the nation's hallowed military cemetery there from Arlington, Virginia. We will also be taking you live -- how unique is this -- to Nazaria, Iraq for another Memorial Day observance being held there. We have a whole lot more for you when it comes to, really, just remembering all of our heroes. But first let's get to this developing crisis in the Middle East and this growing diplomatic outrage. We have brand-new overnight video, folks -- this just keeps coming in -- of the commandos in the Israeli military storming these six ships. Almost looks like infrared video here. It's loaded -- the ship, the flotilla, loaded with food, medicine, construction supplies all bound for Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip. And part of the melee -- here's the number we have now. At least nine people left dead, dozens injured. The fiasco happened as the vessels were sailing in international waters off the Mediterranean Coast. But let's take a little bit -- closer look here at some of these video of the attack. And again we're getting video here really literally by the minute here. And clearly pandemonium unfolding as Israeli naval troops drop down from helicopters from above from ropes onto the largest of the ships, that being the one from Turkey. And you can see really just violent clashes back and forth. In some cases you can see guns drawn. I have seen blood. And some of these activists are trying to fend off the commandos with axes, knives. And let's take a step back because the situation in Gaza has been desperate -- you know this. It's been desperate for years. And Israel has maintained this three-year blockade of the strip in an effort to isolate Hamas. They took control of the territory in 2007 and Israel considers Hamas a terror organization. And in terms of really the people on board those six ships we're hearing about 600 passengers were on board carrying over 10,000 tons of aid. But we are getting conflicting reports about what precisely happened, really, from both sides. You have the pro-Palestinian passengers. They say they were just trying to get much help -- much needed help to people in Gaza, but Israel coming out saying the organizers are well known for their ties to global jihad and that the convoy had a much more sinister purpose than simply delivering some medicine. Take a listen.</s>DANNY AYALON, ISRAELI DEPUTY FOREIGN MINISTER: I want to report this morning that the armada of hate and violence in support of Hamas terror organization was a premeditated and outrageous provocation. The organizers are well-known for their ties to global jihad, al Qaeda and Hamas. They have a history of arm struggling and deadly terror. On board the ship we found weapons prepared in advance and used against our forces. The organizer's intent was violent. Their method was violent and their results were unfortunately violent. Israel regrets any loss of life and did everything to avoid this outcome.</s>BALDWIN: Now Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has already declared three days of mourning and one of his aids said, quote, "We certainly condemn such an attack. This is a clear manifestation of Israel's determination to undermine the will of the Palestinian people to maintain its siege of Gaza, the largest in modern times." And already here, of course, backlash really internationally over this raid is erupting. United Nations Secretary-General Bang Ki-moon saying, quote, "I condemn the violence and Israel must explain." Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, as I just said, three days of mourning. And Turkey now stepping forward recalling its ambassador from Israeli as thousands of ralliers take over the streets of Istanbul. And Octavia Nasser, senior editor of Middle East affairs, joining me live. And Octavia, if we can just -- let's walk through some of these pictures because I know -- I was just being told in my ear that we're getting some new pictures. You help me as we look at some of the video that's coming, some of the surveillance video, both that looked like from some of the -- some of the ships, some of it from above. Let's walk through what we're seeing and also explaining, again, what both sides are claiming here.</s>OCTAVIA NASSER, CNN SENIOR EDITOR, MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS: Yes. First of all, this video seems to be coming to us from the IDF, the Israel Defense Force. And it shows basically that commandos, as you described it -- you see the helicopters and then some Israeli Navy officers drop down on the ship. What Israel is saying is they were faced with -- what they called lynching, that the people on board were ready to attack them and that they were using paintballs in the beginning, the IDF were, and then they changed -- they switched to live ammunition. And this is where people are not buying into that, even people within Israel. Even Israeli journalists and -- this is getting this reaction really on social media.</s>BALDWIN: Yes.</s>NASSER: Yes.</s>BALDWIN: Let's talk about that because, Octavia, this is fascinating. And here in 2010, we are looking at a story halfway across the world yet we're hearing about it up-to-the-minute updates on Twitter.</s>NASSER: That's right. As a matter of fact, those people who organized this flotilla to go to Gaza with the aid on board and 600 people. We're talking about many, many volunteers from many different countries. We're not talking about just Palestinians. Now obviously all those on board are pro-Palestinian in the sense that they are for sending aid to Gaza.</s>BALDWIN: Freedom for Gaza movement, being one of the big groups.</s>NASSER: The -- yes. These are the organizers. And what they did, they had a camera o board. And they were doing live streaming. As a matter of fact, before the story became a huge story on Twitter and other social media, we were able to see the development -- how these ships are heading to Gaza and so forth. And you saw pictures like these where the IDF soldiers got on the boat and you saw some of the scuffles, as you describe. So having those cameras on board, very interesting because they were able to stream all that live as it was happening. And of course right now we're not hearing anything from that side. But we're getting new pictures from the</s>IDF. BALDWIN: Fascinating. Amazing just looking at some of the pictures and hearing in this day and age with social media. Octavia Nasser, thank you so much. I'm also hearing that we have Dan Lothian with live for us in Illinois. And, Dan, I'm hearing you have some breaking news. Let me just pass it on to you.</s>DAN LOTHIAN, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right. From Benjamin Netanyahu's office now confirming that he is canceling that trip that was scheduled for tomorrow coming here to meet with President Obama. Of course, this all comes at a very critical time as the administration has been trying to move forward with Mideast peace talks. Also wanted to sit down and talk with Mr. Netanyahu about the situation in Iran as the United States has been pushing for tougher sanctions there. The White House releasing a statement earlier this morning in response to the incident saying, quote, "The United States deeply regrets the loss of life and injuries sustained and is currently working to understand the circumstances surrounding this tragedy." Now I reached out to the White House to get some kind of reaction to whether or not Mr. Netanyahu's trip would be cancelled and what implication that might have. We're still waiting for a response on that -- Brooke.</s>BALDWIN: So, just to reiterate, you're hearing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cancelling his trip. He was supposed to be in Washington meeting with the president tomorrow. I know he's in Canada right now.</s>LOTHIAN: That's right.</s>BALDWIN: Any idea when he's heading home?</s>LOTHIAN: No idea yet on when he's heading home.</s>BALDWIN: OK.</s>LOTHIAN: But again as we pointed out, he was scheduled to meet with President Obama tomorrow. And in fact, what's interesting is that next week Mahmoud Abbas is expected to meet with President Obama. So again, you know, this is an important time as the administration really try to push this Mideast peace process forward, try to get these two critical leaders to sit down and talk. And now this incident complicating the situation.</s>BALDWIN: Unbelievable timing of all of this. Whew. Dan Lothian in Illinois traveling with the president. Dan, thank you for that. Also want to remind you we should be getting some more reaction from Israel to this flotilla attack about an hour from now. Of course we'll bring that to you live. Live coverage of that news conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as Dan was just reporting. He will not, not be going to Washington, D.C. Meantime, turning our attention to the story we've all been watching here, what for 42 days. Folks, this is day 42 of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Still no end in sight to the crisis. So right now work is under way to place this custom-built dome over the ruptured well. We've been seeing all that oil seeping out. Now that effort replaces the top kill effort to plug the leak. And over the weekend, huge news we learned from BP COO Doug Suttles. The maneuver had failed. So it could be several more days before we know -- they said four to seven days before we know if this capping method will work. And even if this new effort to cap the leak does indeed work, it will not fully capture all of the escaping oil. So let's take a look at what is next, right, in this painstakingly slow process, some would say. CNN's Josh Levs is here to walk us through this LMRP, this lower marine riser package cap.</s>JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. It's time for us --</s>BALDWIN: Did I get that?</s>LEVS: Yes, you've got it. You got the lexicon. You've got the lexicon. Perfect I guess. Time for us to take a look at the next step. In fact what we can do first is just go straight to this video. We have the animation that's showing you what BP is talking about here. And the reason I want to do that is I want to make very clear what it is that's different this time. You know throughout all this, every time you hear a term -- containment dome, top hat -- there's been a lot of similar concepts. Just put a cap on the thing, right? So what you're seeing here is what they're going to be trying to do is the lower marine riser package. And they want to put a cap on it. Hence LMRP, and it looks really pretty in the animation. You have a stub, you have a cap that comes on and seals it off. The problem is that's not how it works. And it's really like performing heart surgery 5,000 feet below the water. It's incredibly hard. Let me show you what has to be done. I have some images here from BP. This is the blowout preventer right here. And this right here used to be poking upwards, right, up toward land basically. What you have here through this explosion is this is now way down here. And they have these little robot things called remote operated vehicles that are at work right now. They need to make a couple of cuts. The first cut they need to do is this hydraulic shears are going to make a cut basically in what seems like that pipe right there. Then come over here. Then they have some even sharper. It's an actual diamond wire cutter. It uses diamond. It's that sharp. And it's going to be making a cut right here. And if those cuts go the way they want them to then what you end up with is -- you know, I'm going to make this big, watch that. I'm going to make this big. And what you end up with is what they're looking for. You end with a stub right here at the lower marine riser and then you end up with a cap that will fit right on top of it. So the idea is you get this cap, you seal it off. Now let's go back to that animation. What you understand now when you see this animation is what happens at the beginning of it. They're showing you the blowout preventer. Then they're showing you those he two pieces just kind of move away and that's where things are so hard -- right there. Because you have to be incredibly precise all the way down in order to remove those pieces and in order to create a cap that will fit perfectly. And in the process, you have to make sure that you're not -- think of it like nicking a vessel. Creating more problems that are ultimately going to cause even more oil to gush out. BP is already saying it could cause 20 percent more in the process as planned. What if it's even more than that? All right. Let me tell you what you're seeing now. I'm hearing in my ear here. These are live pictures of these remote operated vehicles at work under water. They're not actually doing yet what I told you about. What I told you is going to take four to seven days before they can start that LMRP process. What they are doing now, we're told by BP, is some preliminary steps to try to get ready for that. You know if we wait a few seconds you can actually see one of these little remote robots, one of these remote operated vehicles at work underneath kind of sawing away. Before they can even start the process, I was just showing you, they have to get rid of -- just think of it as some extra stuff that comes from the explosion. So we're looking at these pictures now and we're all following this 24/7 as they are going about this process of preparing it for what we're talking about eventually happening, Brooke, which is preparing it for this process to take place all in the hopes that when it does it ultimately creates a seal which, as you said, is not even 100 percent.</s>BALDWIN: Right. It's not perfect. Looking at my inbox, BP is saying they're on track, four to seven days, continue to work to make adjustments and prep for cutting the riser.</s>LEVS: Prep the cutting riser. Yes. I mean that's the goal. The prep work is going on right now. They're laying the groundwork for what I'm talking to you about that surgery there. And again, so many ifs along the way. There's a lot of conditionals about whether this works or not. But at least it's the next thing that they're trying.</s>BALDWIN: All right, Josh Levs, thank you.</s>LEVS: You got it.</s>BALDWIN: Let's also mention -- let's talk about the chemicals here, right? BP using some chemicals. In fact some of the chemicals -- one in particular -- is banned in other countries. So why are the chemicals that are being prohibited in other countries allowed to be used, right, in everyday products in America? Watch "TOXIC AMERICA," this two-night special investigation with Dr. Sanjay Gupta. It is Wednesday and Thursday 8:00 p.m. Eastern here on CNN. So how mad are the people in Grand Isle, Louisiana right now? They are so mad that a priest will not even say -- won't even utter the word "BP" in church for fear it will make the flock boil over. But the oil that threatens to destroy their community sustains their economy. This is a complex duo of emotions really for people along the gulf region and Carol Costello will have that story later this hour.</s>ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: And I'm Rob Marciano in the CNN Severe Weather Center. It is Memorial Day. That's means picnics, barbecues and Memorial Day services and parades, many of which are outdoors. We're going to run down that forecast for you in just a few minutes. Stay there.