[Don Lemon, Cnn Anchor:] Revolutionary dictator, enemy of ten U.S. presidents. Fidel Castro ends nearly half a century of rule in Cuba, announcing his resignation in a letter.
[Brianna Keilar, Cnn Anchor:] The cigar-chomping, fatigue-wearing dictator once spoke for hours on end to massive crowds. Well, he quit smoking, shed his khakis and grew more quiet over the years but remains an anti-American icon.
[Lemon:] We'll have you we'll take you to Havana, Little Havana and also beyond that, many places beyond that, getting reaction from this story. Good afternoon, everyone, I'm Don Lemon live at the CNN World Headquarters here in Atlanta.
[Keilar:] And I'm Brianna Keilar. You're in the
[Cnn Newsroom. Lemon:] Shouts of "Free Cuba" tempered by cautious optimism. That's the scene right now on the streets of Miami's Little Havana, the heart of the Cuban exile community. They've waited decades for change, and many say they are still waiting. Our Susan Candiotti is there for us. Hi, Susan.
[Susan Candiotti, Cnn Correspondent:] Hi, Don, there is no other American city better known for the Cuban exile population, of course, than Miami. And we're in the heart of it, Miami's Little Havana, where we always come when anything of importance happens in Cuba. And here you see the crowds of people here, although I must say it's probably equal part journalists and equal part Cuban exiles, as well. For the most part these are people who came here in the 1960s or their children. It is a mostly older crowd, however. And you see people here holding signs across the street, the Cuban flag strung from a couple of, appropriately, palm trees. And walking down here just a little bit you can hear, of course, people honking their horns occasionally, truck drivers, people driving their cars. And over my shoulder, across the street is a cabaret, a nightclub. And the sign on it reads in Spanish "Fidel,
[Ninoska Perez, Anti-castro Radio:] The happy moment will be when he doesn't write the story and somebody else writes his obituary. And this is not the time.
[Candiotti:] Now I want to bring you another look right over here as we kind of squeeze through a couple of cars here. You see a lot of people being interviewed here. And just around the corner here, I'll show you the front of this Cafe Versailles, where you have a lot of people gathered over here at the coffee shop, where they're having a little cafe con leche and talking, of course, politics. Above all, you have a Cuban congressman saying that Fidel's absolute power is not based on titles. What we need to concentrate on, he says, is a transition to democracy in Cuba. But is this the time? No one here knows. Back to you, Don.
[Lemon:] Susan, great job out there showing us what's going on. I have a question for you. But real quickly, can you get your photographer just to turn around and show us more of that scene? Because this is really the best stuff that we've shot all day. And talk to us about what's going you said people are being interviewed. I see them taking pictures. Who are these folks being interviewed? Are these local politicians or people who have some expertise on Cuban-American relations?
[Candiotti:] Oh, yes, there are all kinds of interviews going on right now. And they're talking about, if I heard you correct because quite frankly, it's so loud transition, what does the transition mean? As I said, if Raul takes over, they don't think there will be much change at all. And this really is a place for people to vent their feelings. Probably they'll stay here through the night. We will see tomorrow. And I can tell you, Don, that a couple of summers ago when we first heard that Fidel was in such poor health, that is when a number of people came out here. I would say there were probably more people than there are now. Perhaps that's because you had roughly 19 months for people to take in what was happening here and to watch to see whether Raul, who temporarily had power, would make any changes. He has not. So that might be why you have fewer people out here, at least at this hour in the middle of the day. I suspect it will pick up at night. We'll see how what changes tomorrow, for example.
[Lemon:] Yes. Susan, we're going to check back with you standing in front of Cafe Versailles. Great live shot, Susan. We really love the flavor that you're bringing us. If you find any more information or get to any more places like this, check back with us, OK?
[Candiotti:] We will.
[Lemon:] Thank you, Susan.
[Keilar:] From Little Havana to Havana now. CNN the only U.S. network with a correspondent based in the Cuban capital. So let's go straight to Havana bureau chief Morgan Neill.
[Morgan Neill, Havana Bureau Chief:] This morning in Cuba's official state media the remarkable announcement Cuban leader Fidel Castro is stepping down. In a letter addressed to the country, Fidel Castro says that he's resigning, because he is no longer physically capable of doing the job that he has done for so long. Fidel Castro writes he will not aspire to, nor accept the post of president of the council of state, nor that of commander in chief when the country's national assembly meets this coming Sunday. That means the national assembly will have to name a new president. The most likely candidate appears to be Raul Castro, who's led the country for the last year and a half since illness forced Fidel Castro to transfer power to his brother. Now what to expect from Raul Castro? Well, in the year and a half we've had to study him, he is a leader more apt to recognize some of the Cuban the problems that Cuba has. For example, he's said state salaries are simply insufficient to meet people's needs, and that certain structures need to lead to lawbreaking within Cuba. Nevertheless, he's not been able to fulfill that big changes that a lot of Cubans say that they would like to see, things like an end to the double currency in the country, whereby Cubans are paid in one currency but have to buy many of their goods in another one worth 25 times less. Prohibitions against free travel, the inability of Cubans to get access to the Internet like they see others in the world getting. So far we have not seen those kinds of changes. Now, although Fidel Castro is resigning his political position, this won't be an end to his influence. He says he will continue writing these articles as he has up to this point in the last year and a half and that this is not his farewell. Morgan Neill, CNN, Atlanta.
[Keilar:] Fidel Castro has been a thorn in the side of ten U.S. administrations, including that of President Bush, who is hoping for even bigger changes in Cuba. He spoke in Rwanda on his continuing African tour.
[George W. Bush, President Of The United States:] I believe that the change from Fidel Castro ought to begin a period of a democratic transition.
[Keilar:] And if you'd like to read Fidel Castro's full resignation letter, you can check it out at CNN.com. You can also view an interactive time line of his life and his rule or share your thoughts in an I-Report. All of that at CNN.com.
[Lemon:] Get out of the way. That is the warning to ships and planes as the U.S. Navy gets ready to try to shoot down a faulty satellite sooner than they had planned. Our senior Pentagon correspondent, Jamie McIntyre, is following all the latest for us. Jamie, I thought they only had, like, one shot at it. Why did they decide to move it up?
[Jamie Mcintyre, Cnn Correspondent:] Well, they're the what they're trying to do is take that shot as soon as they can, so if it doesn't work they have a couple of chances to do it again. Right now we have an official notification from the U.S. government that their first window of opportunity will be Wednesday night, late Wednesday afternoon, Hawaii Time, when the satellite will be passing over the Pacific Ocean, and the U.S. Navy will take a shot.
[Mcintyre:] This is the target, an experimental spy satellite that failed upon launch over a year ago. And this is what will try to take it down: a Navy standard missile. Price tag for the missile alone is $10 million. Figure at least $40 million for the whole shebang. So why not just let the satellite fall? Chances are it won't hit anyone. But if it does, its full tank of hydrazine fuel could be a deadly hazard.
[Gen. James Cartwright, Joint Chiefs Vice Chairman:] So the regret factor of not acting clearly outweighed the regret factors of acting.
[Mcintyre:] There's not much real downside of a miss, except the cost, which could go from $40 million to $60 million if the Navy has to fire a second $10-million missile. There's no rainy-day fund for falling satellites, so the money will come out of the general Pentagon budget. The only other risk is of embarrassment, if America's $100 billion missile shield can't hit a satellite the size of a bus. Still, the smart money is on a direct hit.
[John Pike, Globalsecurity.org:] The interceptors they've tested a number of times before. Generally, been successful. They've tested them against much smaller targets. And this large satellite, I think the odds of success are pretty good.
[Mcintyre:] So this official notice to airmen that the U.S. government has put out identifying a large patch of the Pacific Ocean west of Hawaii as the potential zone where the debris could come down. Don't be surprised, by the way, if you see another one of those issued tomorrow for Thursday night, even before the first shot takes place, because they have to put these out at least 24 hours ahead of time, and the U.S. is going to want to keep preserving its options of taking additional shots if that first one doesn't work.
[Lemon:] OK. So that sort of answers the question here. If you can answer question yes or no for me. Will they try again? Yes, if they can, right?
[Mcintyre:] Well, you know, it's actually a complicated calculation. Because what will happen is the satellite will go by. They'll fire a missile. They'll either hit it or graze it or perhaps miss it entirely. Then they'll go back to their calculations while the satellite continues to orbit to try to figure out if they have another shot where they can bring it down over water. The last thing they want to do is bring it down over land. If they don't feel like they have a good shot, they'll just let it come down naturally. But if they do have a good second shot, they'll try it again.
[Lemon:] And I've got to ask you something. Complete transparency here. I have Miles O'Brien's old office and extension here. And I got a call from a viewer. He said, "I was trying to get Miles, but I'll ask you. What happens if they miss? What happens to the missile that they're sending there, because that missile has an explosive head on it?" So people are wondering, well, is the missile going to be more dangerous than the actual satellite that's coming down? What happens?
[Mcintyre:] Well, first of all, the missile does not have an explosive head.
[Lemon:] OK.
[Mcintyre:] It has what's called a kinetic kill vehicle. It actually smashes the satellite from impact.
[Lemon:] Got it.
[Mcintyre:] They'll try to hit it head-on. The other thing is there is a self-destruct mechanism on the missile if it were to malfunction before it got into space. But no, it will not it will not pose a hazard once it's up in space.
[Lemon:] There you go, you answered the question. Thank you very much for that. Senior Pentagon correspondent, Jamie McIntyre. And next hour we could hear more about what the Pentagon is planning. Press secretary Jeff Morrell will be talking with reporters at 2:30 Eastern. And we'll bring you those comments here in the CNN NEWSROOM. And topping our political ticker, three more states are holding contests today in the race for the White House. Democrats are concentrating on the Wisconsin primary and caucuses in Hawaii. For the Republicans, there are primaries in Wisconsin and Washington state. Senator Barack Obama is hoping to build on his recent momentum, but the Democratic candidate is also looking ahead. He's campaigning today in Texas, which holds its primary on March 4th. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton hopes to swing the momentum to her side today, but she, too, is looking ahead to the big March 4th primaries in Texas and Ohio. On her schedule today, a rally in Youngstown, Ohio.
[Keilar:] It's also a busy day on the campaign trail for Republican frontrunner John McCain. He held a rally this morning in Brookfield, Wisconsin, and then he headed to Columbus, Ohio, where he will meet with the media and also attend an election-night party this evening. Mike Huckabee is hoping to pull some surprises in today's Republican primaries in Wisconsin and Washington. After a campaign swing through Wisconsin, the former Arkansas governor is not on the trail today. He's actually at home in Little Rock.
[Lemon:] The delegate count in the Democratic race for president will climb by 94 after today's contests in Wisconsin and Hawaii. Either Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama will have to get 2,025 delegates to win the nomination. According to the latest CNN estimate, here's the Democrat delegate total right now. Obama has 46 percent, Clinton has 12. Or was that 42? Can we back that up real quick? Because this is coming in live. Just complete transparency. All of this is happening live. It's fed down. Clinton 42, Obama 46. Now we can move on from there. On the Republican side, there are 45 delegates for John McCain, 875 total, I should say. Two hundred and twenty-one total for Huckabee. Ron Paul has 16. And then uncommitted, nine are uncommitted. A total count of delegates on the Republican side right there. Right now you can be part of the best political team. If you're in Wisconsin, Hawaii or Washington state, we want your I-Reports. Send video and pictures of your experience, and we'll feature some of them in our election coverage. Just go to CNN.comIReport.
[Keilar:] Nearly half a century of often-bitter relations. There have been a lot of angry words between Washington and Havana since Fidel Castro's rise to power. We're going to hear from our senior political analyst, David Gergen.
[Lemon:] Flu season, it's hitting hard across most of the U.S. And now another concern to go along with that. Guess what it is? It's pneumonia. We'll tell you what you need to know.