Casualty Numbers Climbing in Iraq; Memogate Comes to Washington
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: It is Thursday, June 16. The casualty numbers are climbing. President Bush is shifting strategies and Democrats in Washington want to know how far in advance the war in Iraq was planned. The Downing Street memo has already made the rounds in Britain. Today, Memogate comes to Washington. Plus, is the huge tobacco trial settlement up in smoke? We could find out today. And later, was this unnecessary force? See the beating caught on tape that caused two police officers their jobs.</s>ANNOUNCER: From the Time Warner Center in New York, this is DAYBREAK with Carol Costello and Chad Myers.</s>COSTELLO: And good morning to you. We'll have more on those stories in a moment. Also ahead, the search of a judge's house in Aruba -- did it reveal any clues to Natalee Holloway's whereabouts? And what could have happened to Harry is the question being asked in Britain, as new tape of a royal security breach surfaces. But first, now in the news, in the Iraqi city of Ramadi, five U.S. Marines have been killed by a roadside bomb. The Marines, with the 2nd Division, were involved in a combat operation. In a separate incident, a U.S. sailor with the same Marine division also was killed in Ramadi. A car bomb goes off in the Iraqi capital, wounding six people. Five of them were Iraqi police on patrol. A police captain says the car was parked on a street and detonated by remote control. A six hour hostage crisis at an international school in Cambodia ends with at least one child dead. Two of the gunmen also killed. The end came as police rushed a van that had been delivered to the hostage takers. In Houston, Texas and surrounding counties, it has been a long night without power, a long hot night. Authorities are trying to determine if several house fires are related to the power outage. When power was partially restored, the surge caused sparks to fly, so to speak. And that's because, Chad, everybody had their air conditioner on.</s>CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Right. Hoping for it to come back on.</s>COSTELLO: Right.</s>MYERS: The surge came and took it all out again. Yes, so, you've got to turn all that stuff off, although me telling them to turn it off doesn't do any good, because they can't see us.</s>COSTELLO: Exactly.</s>MYERS: So, you know, this is kind of a Catch-22.</s>COSTELLO: Battling identity theft is the focus of a Senate committee this morning. Senators will look at ways to prevent the stealing of data that costs you billions of dollars. A survey by a technology trade group shows many of you do not shop online because you fear identity theft. So, are you concerned about the government snooping into what you read? The U.S. House of Representatives is. It's voted to restrict federal investigators from using the Patriot Act to look at library records and bookstore sales receipts. President Bush has indicated he will veto the bill if Congress changes Section 215. A six day sweep in New England has netted nearly 200 illegal immigrants. The immigrants were supposed to have been deported for committing crimes, but had managed to avoid authorities. The number of such arrests could increase because the government is doubling the number of fugitive apprehension teams this summer. Is the Guantanamo Bay prison camp an international embarrassment or a vital part of the war on terror? That was pretty much the tone of discussion when a Senate committee debated that hot button issue. Republicans stuck to their position that detainees are well treated. Democrats rejected that, saying allegations of mistreatment have hurt the nation's image. The committee chair said both sides must be considered.</s>SEN. ARLEN SPECTER (R-PA), JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: While procedural due process is obviously important, we ought to be as sure as we can what steps are being taken so that we do not release detainees from Guantanamo who turn up on battlefields killing Americans. And what's the value of a promise not to bear arms against the United States?</s>COSTELLO: In the meantime, Democratic Senator Dick Durbin says he is not going to apologize for comparing the actions of U.S. soldiers at Guantanamo with Nazis, Soviet gulags and a mad regime like the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. President Bush plans to address how things are not going in Iraq. Looking at all time low poll numbers, White House aides have concluded an erosion of public support for the war. Bush will meet with the Iraqi prime minister for the first time next week, as well as focus on Iraq in several upcoming speeches. Which brings up Memogate. In Washington, House Democrats initiate hearings on allegations that intelligence was manipulated to justify the war in Iraq. The memo in question was prepared for British Prime Minister Tony Blair. The "London Sunday Times" published the leaked minutes of a July 2002 meeting in Blair's office. That's eight months before the war in Iraq. Here's an excerpt: "Bush wanted to remove Saddam through military action justified by the conjunction of terrorism and weapons of mass destruction. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy." Walter Rodgers picks up the Memogate story -- Walter, what has been the reaction to the so-called Downing Street memo in Great Britain?</s>WALTER RODGERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Carol, one of the most interesting aspects about this memo is that no one, no one at Downing Street -- that is Prime Minister Blair's office -- no one in the British government is questioning the authenticity of it. The memo, among other things, says that the evidence against Saddam Hussein, both on alleged terrorism ties and on alleged weapons of mass destruction was "thin." Now, the background for all of this is that Britain's top intelligence officer in July of 2002 went to the United States to meet with his American counterparts. And he -- Sir Richard Dearlove -- and he returned and essentially told the British government -- and that means Prime Minister Tony Blair, and that's the origin of this memo -- that the Americans had already decided to go to war and that President Bush may have been denying publicly that he was going to take the United States to war against Iraq, but privately it was the British intelligence estimate that the Bush administration's decision to go to war was inevitable and that was three months before the Congress authorized it -- Carol.</s>COSTELLO: How did this memo surface?</s>RODGERS: I really don't know the trail as to how it became public. But, again, the most interesting thing about this memo is that it is out there. Not even Number Ten Downing Street is saying this is a fake memo or it's false. Everyone here accepts the voracity of the memo. And that is not good news, of course, for the administration in Washington. There are more than a few very interesting aspects of this. And one of them, which reflects on the Blair government, is that at one point in the discussions going into Iraq, the Blair government, Prime Minister Blair was told that the evidence against Saddam was thin and that they could not legally go to war on the basis of just regime change, that is, ousting Saddam Hussein, and thus the Blair government decided well, the conditions have to be created to justify the war and make it legal. And, of course, that's one of the great sticking points here in Britain, because the large majority of British subjects in this country have long believed this war was illegal and that, indeed, as the memo suggests, the policy created by the Bush administration drove intelligence reports as opposed to intelligence driving policy, which is the way things are supposed to work -- Carol.</s>COSTELLO: Interesting. Walter Rodgers live in London this morning. The American government's case against big tobacco is closed, but the controversy surrounding last minute changes to the case will continue. Democrats are asking for investigations and say that any planned settlement should be scuttled. CNN chief national correspondent, John King, has more for you.</s>JOHN KING, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Democrats and anti- smoking crusaders charge politics is behind the Justice Department's decision to drastically slash the dollar amount it's seeking from big tobacco.</s>SEN. FRANK LAUTENBERG (D), NEW JERSEY: It reeks. And it reeks of political interference. It reeks of an administration whose heart isn't really in this case.</s>KING: Sparking the outrage, a stunning twist in the government's landmark racketeering case against the tobacco industry. The prosecution's charge? For 50 years, cigarette makers conspired to get Americans hooked on nicotine, jeopardizing countless lives by deliberately withholding information about the dangers of smoking. The suit was filed during the Clinton administration, with Justice Department lawyers demanding a $280 billion payout, punishment, they said, for profits obtained through the alleged fraud. But in February, an appeals court ruled the government couldn't penalize the tobacco industry for past profits. So the focus shifted to getting the companies to fund future anti-smoking initiatives. A government expert witness estimated those programs would carry a $130 billion price tag. And that's what the Justice Department was seeking when, without warning, it scaled back its request to just $10 billion. Tobacco industry lawyers voiced confusion; anti-smoking advocates disbelief and skepticism, accusing the Bush Justice Department of going easy on the tobacco industry.</s>BILL CORR, TOBACCO-FREE KIDS CAMPAIGN: The Bush administration and the Bush Justice Department is way too close to the tobacco industry. I don't have any proof that they've made these decisions because of campaign contributions, but they have a long history of opposing this lawsuit and it is inexplicable that they would undermine their own expert witness at the last minute.</s>KING: Justice Department officials argued the diminished reward request reflects the appellate court ruling that sanctions apply only to future cases of fraud by big tobacco. The $10 billion figure, they say, is just a jumping off point, an initial requirement based on the compelling evidence that the defendants will continue to commit fraudulent acts in the future. They add that all department lawyers involved with previous tobacco cases were recused from this case. But that doesn't appease critics, who strongly denounced the about face. Their hope now lies with the judge in the case, who can award any amount she sees fit if she finds the tobacco industry liable at all.</s>COSTELLO: There is no timetable for the judge's decision. In the meantime, the Justice Department says they'll investigate interference accusations brought by Democrats. An autopsy finally offers some answers about Terry Schiavo's sudden collapse 15 years ago. But some questions do remain. The coroner's report says Schiavo suffered heart failure. But the precise cause could not be determined. It also said she had massive brain atrophy and that no amount of therapy would have reversed it, and the vision centers of her brain were dead. That means she was blind. Schiavo's family says they don't know if that's entirely true.</s>DAVID GIBBS, SCHINDLERS' ATTORNEY: We would not dispute that she was significantly visually impaired. I don't think that she was totally blind. If she was totally blind -- and, again, they in their report believe that medically it would look that way -- I would indicate that she had an amazing sense of hearing, smell and sense, because she was clearly interactive and would clearly respond.</s>COSTELLO: Terry Schiavo's body was cremated after the autopsy, but her ashes have not yet been interred. Still to come this hour, a police chase ends with a scuffle caught on tape. See what -- well, you can see what cost two cops their jobs. And soldiers discharged from the U.S. Army. A new lawsuit brings back the old controversy of gays in the military. I'll talk to one of the attorneys involved in the latest case. And then some airlines are offering more than just a ticket online. But do you really need to buy their travel insurance, too? But first, here's a look at what else is making news this Tuesday.