School Hostages; An Update on Republican National Convention; Arnold Schwarzenegger Attends After-School All-Stars Event in Harlem
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: It is 11:00 a.m. on the East Coast, 8:00 a.m. on the West Coast. From CNN Center in Atlanta, good morning once again. I'm Daryn Kagan. We're going to start our hour with a chilling act of terror in Russia this morning. Armed attackers seizing a school in southern Russia. They are holding at least 100 people, perhaps as many as 400. Many are children back in class for the first day of school of the new school year. The drama is unfolding in the town of Beslan, not far from the border with the restless republic of Chechnya. Our Ryan Chilcote is following the developments. He is in Moscow this morning -- Ryan.</s>RYAN CHILCOTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Daryn, it's the first day of school here in Russia. And students, their parents and teachers had gathered in front of this particular school to attend a ceremony to kick off the school year. That's when more than a dozen armed men and women, some of them wearing suicide belts, belts with explosives attached to them, seized the school, forcing all of these people inside. Now, Russian authorities now believe that there may be as many as 300 to 400 hostages inside this school. Many of them students between the ages of seven and 17. Now, the hostage-takers are warning Russian officials not to try to storm the school. They say they will kill 50 children for every hostage-taker that is killed, if the Russians try to storm the school, or 20 children for every hostage-taker that is wounded if the Russians try to storm that school. Now, these hostage-takers are demanding that Russia pull out its troops, tens of thousands of them, out of the Russian region of Chechnya. There have been sporadic reports of fighting from the -- from the area. Initially, when the school was seized, there was some fighting, and some fighting after that. The most recent word on casualties is that four people have been killed so far in this attack, 10 injured -- Daryn.</s>KAGAN: Ryan, this brings to mind what happened in Moscow back in October of 2002, when that theater was seized by Chechen rebels. Any connection or any similarities between the two incidents?</s>CHILCOTE: Well, lots of similarities. It's an audacious act by these terrorists. They've seized a school with hundreds of people inside of it. And they've put the Russian government in a very precarious situation. The Russian president says that he doesn't negotiate with terrorists. But this is different here in Russia. These are children, primarily. Even the attack that you were mentioning, that Moscow theater siege, there was a relatively small number of children attending that musical then in that -- in that Moscow theater. This is primarily children. It's happening on basically a national holiday here in Russia, the first day of school. It's a big day for everybody. Everybody -- parents bring their children to school in their best clothes. So this is very similar to the Moscow theater siege. An audacious attack with connections to Chechnya. -- Daryn.</s>KAGAN: Ryan Chilcote in Moscow, thank you for the update. It has been eight days of terror in Russia. A suicide bomber killed herself and nine others outside a subway station in Moscow on Tuesday. Authorities did not immediately say whether the woman was Chechen. But the bombing does fit the pattern of previous Chechen attacks. And 89 people were killed when suspected suicide bombers downed a pair of Russian airliners last week. The planes went down minutes apart after taking off from the same Moscow airport. Michael O'Hanlon is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. He joins me now from Washington to talk about the surge of terror across Russia. Michael, good morning. Thanks for being here with us.</s>MICHAEL O'HANLON, BROOKINGS INSTITUTION: Good morning, Daryn.</s>KAGAN: Let's talk about this particular incident right now. When you goo into a school on this first day of the school year and seize schoolchildren, it seems like some just terrible moral line has been crossed.</s>O'HANLON: Yes, I agree. Although it's not entirely surprising, unfortunately. If you look at the history of terrorism, there are terrorist groups that will try to pick their targets very carefully, even try to minimize civilian casualties, and certainly stay away from the elderly or children. There are other times where people just try for maximum devastation, and, of course, that's tended to be the trend in recent years, with many al Qaeda affiliates. Sometimes they've gone after, you know, the Pentagon or the World Trade Center towers, where it's mostly adult, symbols of power, people who are in positions of importance in the country. But other times, they'll try to bring down airliners, or just do mass suicide bombings on street corners. And so, unfortunately, in this day and age, any tendency of terrorists to be restraining in some way, or careful and selective in their choice of targets, has largely been lost. And this is obviously a deliberate attack to maximize the shock value of who is at risk here, because the Chechens have tried virtually every other tactic and it hasn't work for them.</s>KAGAN: Well, and they certainly can't be going for sympathy with this.</s>O'HANLON: Exactly. They're going for sheer pain and agony, and hoping that the Russian people at some point will say, enough is enough, instead of continuing in this war, let's just let the Chechens do what they want. But usually what happens in this sort of a situation, at least in this conflict, is this make the Russians even angrier. And then they intensify their attacks or reduce their restrain and their tactics. And the whole thing is a vicious spiral. So I understand the logic. It's an extraordinarily tragic and twisted and perverse logic, but I'm afraid it's not likely to work. And it's just likely to lead to a worsening of the situation, not any kind of a positive outcome for the terrorists or anyone else.</s>KAGAN: Michael, we're getting word that the Russian government is asking the United Nations for help in dealing with this crisis right now. What could the United Nations -- what kind of help could they provide?</s>O'HANLON: Well, of course it could be a cover if they wanted to negotiate with the Chechens and maintain some very strict terms, but say, listen, we're not going to give you independence, but we can start to have a political dialogue, it gives you some more autonomy. But I doubt that's what the Russians have trying to do. I think the Russians are probably just grasping for straws at this point. They're in a horrible situation. They have no plausible way to storm this facility that I can think of. Chances are they have to hope for a miracle. And that's what they're hoping the U.N. can somehow deliver. But it's not a very promising situation.</s>KAGAN: No, it certainly is not. Michael O'Hanlon, thank you for your insight today.</s>O'HANLON: Thank you.</s>KAGAN: We move on to Iraq. Authorities have been ordered to track down the militants who ambushed Ahmed Chalabi's convoy. The controversial politician escaped harm, but two of Chalabi's bodyguards were wounded in that attack. Another -- their convoy came under fire south of Baghdad as it was returning from Najaf.</s>AHMED CHALABI, IRAQI POLITICIAN: I went to Najaf to primarily -- to visit Ayatollah Sistani and to see -- to congratulate him on his safe return and congratulate him and thank him for the great initiative that he made to restore peace in Najaf and other parts of Iraq. And also to discuss the future, especially elections.</s>KAGAN: Despite the attack, Chalabi made it to Baghdad for the swearing in of the National Advisory Council. He is a former Pentagon favorite but recently was accused of passing secrets to Iran. He denies those allegation. Also in Iraq, seven drivers for a Kuwaiti trucking company were set free today. This is six weeks after they were kidnapped by Islamic militants. All are now back on their to Kuwait. A man identified as an Egyptian negotiator told an Arab language television network that he was able to free the hostages with the help of Egyptian, Indian and Kuwaiti officials. And in Nepal, a wave of rioting against Muslims and other target over the cold-blooded slaughter of 12 Nepalese workers in Iraq. A curfew has been imposed on Katmandu, and the U.S. embassy is advising Americans to lay low for now. It is the largest mass killing of hostages since the toppling of Saddam Hussein, and it brings the confirmed number of hostages killed in Iraq to 23. Israel responds to a pair of deadly bus bombings. Early today, Israeli troops demolished the home of one of the suicide bombers. It's the policy of the Israeli defense forces to destroy houses belonging to suicide attackers. The militant group Hamas claimed responsibility for yesterday's attack that killed 16 people and wounded 94 others. The bombers blew up two buses within second of one another in the southern Israeli town of Beer Sheva. And a senior Israeli official says that government -- the government there has no plans to launch a major military offensive, but it does plan to step up operations against Palestinian militants. They may include targeting killers of Hamas leaders both inside and outside the Palestinian territories. In the past, Israel has attacked suspected Hamas facilities in Syria. Well, a live picture from New York City and Madison Square Garden. You see two senators there, Senator Rick Santorum, standing next to Senator Zell Miller of Georgia. He will be giving the keynote address tonight at the convention. Very big news because Senator Miller is a Democrat. More on that and the significance of his speech in just a bit. California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger brought the crowd to its feet last night. A rousing speech by the governor. He declared that America is back because of President Bush's perseverance, character and leadership. Tonight, Vice President Dick Cheney steps into the spotlight. He addresses the convention after he is officially nominate for a second term. President Bush formally won the party's nomination last night. Land of opportunity is the theme for the convention tonight. And right now, we have an opportunity to check in with our national correspondent, Bob Franken, joining us from Madison Square Garden. Bob, good morning.</s>BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning. And as usual, the story of the convention here, in its third night, is competing with the story of all the security.</s>FRANKEN (voice-over): While more protesters were arrested on the streets outside, the Republicans were keeping the volume up inside. Arnold Schwarzenegger left little doubt he had gone from movie star to GOP political star.</s>GOV. ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER (R), CALIFORNIA: And to those critics who are so pessimistic about our economy, I say, don't be economic girlie men!</s>FRANKEN: Then it was time for the women of the president's family. First, his daughters.</s>JENNA BUSH, PRESIDENT BUSH'S DAUGHTER: Our parents are actually pretty cool.</s>FRANKEN: The pretty cool mother, of course, had warm words about her husband.</s>LAURA BUSH, FIRST LADY: He's a loving man with a big heart.</s>FRANKEN: He arrives later today. First, the president visits with firemen in Elmhurst, a not so subtle reminder of the September 11 attacks just a few miles away. Then he settles in to watch first the keynote speaker, Georgia Senator Zell Miller, a Democrat who will not be making his party very happy. And then the acceptance speech by the very Republican vice president, Dick Cheney. He's accepting, by the way, his re- nomination, which is what President Bush does tomorrow.</s>FRANKEN: And as we saw just a moment ago, Zell Miller was checking out things on the floor, and looking around, and saying, "So, this is what a Republican is." What's interesting, Daryn, is that 12 years ago he was a keynote speaker at the Democratic convention -- Daryn.</s>KAGAN: Yes, and nominated President Bill Clinton.</s>FRANKEN: Bill Clinton. He's versatile.</s>KAGAN: Absolutely. He is retiring and has -- people really expecting to hear some swinging words from him tonight, because he really has nothing to lose. He can say that he doesn't care about being loyal to his party, he doesn't care about a future in politics. So it's going to be rare form to hear what Zell Miller has to say tonight.</s>FRANKEN: And it's fair to say that many Democrats don't care that he's retiring either.</s>KAGAN: Yes. From here in Georgia, I would say that does reflect many people's opinions. Thank you, Bob Franken. Well, from politics to the protests, thousands lined up along Broadway from Wall Street to Madison Square Garden this morning. Let's take a look at the pictures. The demonstrators formed a symbolic unemployment line, and they waved pink slips to protest President Bush's economic policies. The mostly peaceful demonstration lasted for about 15 minutes. By contrast, New York police say more than 1,000 people were arrested in protests yesterday. The total number of arrests since last week has now topped 1,700. Here is a lineup for tonight's convention coverage on CNN. It begins at 7:00 p.m. Eastern with a special edition of "ANDERSON COOPER." That is followed by "America Votes," convention coverage at 8:00, and "LARRY KING LIVE" from Madison Square Garden at 9:00. We're going to have Vice President Cheney's speech at 10:00 Eastern, followed by a special edition of "NEWSNIGHT" with Aaron Brown at 11:00 and Larry King at midnight. Well, people have died in a building collapse in one of Richmond's most historic districts completely under water. A state of emergency in Virginia. More on that is coming up next. Also, if you thought Hurricane Charley was bad, the worst may be yet to come for Florida. Frances is gaining strength and taking aim. We're following the latest developments out of southern Russia as well, where a school full of children is now under the control of armed terrorists. More on that story when CNN LIVE TODAY returns.