Syria Agrees to Withdraw Troops from Lebanon; Funeral for Slain Italian Intelligence Officer
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. A developing story from the Middle East at this hour. Syrian troops pulling back from positions near Beirut. But are they planning to leave the country entirely? Outrage today in Italy. Thousands gather for the funeral of a security agent killed in Iraq. Pressure on the U.S. now to explain what happened at a checkpoint shooting. And following Martha Stewart's every move as she is fitted with an electronic bracelet today, all ahead on</s>AMERICAN MORNING. ANNOUNCER: From the CNN broadcast center in New York, this is AMERICAN MORNING with Bill Hemmer and Soledad O'Brien.</s>SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Welcome, everybody. Lots of developments, as we mentioned, coming out of Damascus this morning, as the presidents of Syria and Lebanon are meeting to discuss a troop pullback. Still lots of questions, though, about the timetable. And the U.S. is expressing reservations. We're going to check in with the Syrian ambassador to the United States in just a moment.</s>HEMMER: Also this hour, the sister of Michael Jackson's accuser back on the witness stand today. Week two of the child molestation case begins today. We'll look at the testimony so far, who's helped and who's hurt, when criminal defense attorney Anne Bremner is our guest here, in a moment.</s>O'BRIEN: Also this morning, Mr. Cafferty has got "The File."</s>JACK CAFFERTY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning. Coming up in "The Cafferty File," two former U.S. presidents, one bed. What to do? Arnold Schwarzenegger calls for a ban on steroids, and it's not in baseball. And a $50 million for some saffron sheets gets turned down.</s>O'BRIEN: Interesting. Thank you, Jack.</s>HEMMER: That's got to go somewhere.</s>O'BRIEN: We're looking forward to that. Let's get right to the headlines. Carol Costello in for us this morning -- hello. Good morning.</s>CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Hello. Good morning, everyone. Now in the news, more violence in Iraq this morning. At least 15 people have been killed in another round of attacks. These pictures just in to CNN. Take a look. After clashes in Ba'qubah between insurgents and the members of the Iraqi Army, that's where this violence came from. Also, a car bomb attack there and a suspected car bomber also struck in Balad, which is north of Baghdad. We have new details this morning about the health of Pope John Paul II. The pontiff, last seen blessing the faithful from his hospital window in Rome. The Vatican says the pope was continuing to improve following a tracheotomy less than two weeks ago and that he's likely to be back at the Vatican in time for Holy Week, which is less than two weeks from now. Forty years after the Bloody Sunday attack on voting rights demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, the march is being reenacted. Some 10,000 people joined celebrations to cross the Edmund Pettis Bridge. U.S. Representative John Lewis from Atlanta led a congressional delegation in the march. And we will speak with him in the next hour of AMERICAN MORNING. And Martha Stewart is getting ready to get back to work. Stewart is expected to meet with employees at her namesake company in New York City today. She spent the weekend reacquainting herself with her 153 acre suburban estate following a five month stint at Camp Cupcake. That would be a minimum security prison. Under the terms of her home detention, Stewart is allowed to work 48 hours a week outside of her home, so she'll be in the big city today.</s>HEMMER: That's a short work week for her, 48 hours. Thank you, Carol. We want to get to the story that's still developing overseas in the Middle East. The presidents of Syria and Lebanon have agreed to meet again in a month to talk about the pullback of Syrian troops from that country. There is no mention, though, of a timetable for withdrawal. Some soldiers, however, seen packing their bags outside of Beirut today. The Syrians have been under international pressure to withdraw some 14,000 forces and intelligence personnel from Lebanon. The leader of Hezbollah has called for a massive pro-Syrian demonstration tomorrow, on Tuesday, in Beirut. Now, the Syrian ambassador to the U.S. is Imam Moustapha. He's watching all this unfold from his position in Washington. Welcome back, Mr. Ambassador, to our program here.</s>IMAD MOUSTAPHA, SYRIAN AMBASSADOR TO U.S.: Good morning. Good morning.</s>HEMMER: What has been agreed to so far as a result of this meeting today?</s>MOUSTAPHA: You know, this meeting is about the actual implementation of Syria's decision. We have made a categoric decision. We will withdraw all our troops from all Lebanon. This will be done in two phases. First, as of today, we started pulling all our troops from every part of Lebanon toward the border area in al-Bekaa Valley. Once this is done, in a peaceful, organized manner that will not cause any instability in Lebanon -- because Lebanon has been very stable in the past 15 years and Lebanon has actually thrived economically in the past 15 years -- one we do this, we will immediately start implementing the second phase, in which all our troops are pulled to inside Syrian borders. So all our troops will be in Syria proper, all of them.</s>HEMMER: So that you are confirming this morning that all Syrian troops will be removed from Lebanon, is that right?</s>MOUSTAPHA: Definitely. This is what we have said, because -- we are doing this for two reasons. One, Syria will never put itself in violation of any single Security Council, United Nations Security Council resolution. 1559 said all troops should withdraw and 1559 was issued a few months ago and we are complying with this. This is one reason. The second reason is so that we will allow the United States, who is very eager on seeing the United Nations Security Council's resolutions being implemented in the Middle East, we will allow the United States to focus on its efforts to the stockpile of United Nations Security Council resolutions in the past 50 years demanding that Israel withdraw from Syrian, Lebanese and Palestinian territories and end its violent occupation of those areas. We think we are doing the best approach. Let the United States focus its efforts on the true occupation in the Middle East, that of Palestine. And, of...</s>HEMMER: Allow me, Mr. Ambassador...</s>MOUSTAPHA: ... Palestinian territory.</s>HEMMER: I just want to get a couple more definitions here. Phase two is the complete withdrawal. Is there a timetable when that will happen, for these 14,000 troops?</s>MOUSTAPHA: Actually, as we have said, the political decision is taken. This will happen as soon as possible and it will not take a long time. The leader...</s>HEMMER: Is that a week, sir...</s>MOUSTAPHA: The leadership -- yes, yes?</s>HEMMER: ... or is that months or -- you're saying that will be weeks?</s>MOUSTAPHA: Yes. We are talking about less than two or three weeks for the first phase and less than two to three months for the second phase. The leadership are meeting to actually put the timetable. This is what we are doing. It is clear. It's categoric. There's no doubts about this. So that the whole world now can really focus on the true problems of the Middle East. Syria has said our presence in Lebanon should never cause a rift between the Lebanese people. Once we saw that such a rift might happen, we announced that we will pull out. We will never stay there as -- if we are not wanted there.</s>HEMMER: We talked about the forces there. We did not talk about the intelligence personnel.</s>MOUSTAPHA: No, everybody.</s>HEMMER: But we know the White House...</s>MOUSTAPHA: Everybody.</s>HEMMER: You're saying everybody, across the board?</s>MOUSTAPHA: Everybody. Not a single Syrian influence in Lebanon. All of our troops outside. The only influence we will have on Lebanon is that based on our historic cultural, family, social ties with Lebanon, because we are two neighboring countries. We entered Lebanon to end a bloody civil war. We succeeded in doing this. We never annexed a single kilometer of Lebanon. We never built a single Syrian settlement in Lebanon. We never demolished a single house in Lebanon. And now we are withdrawing in compliance of international law.</s>HEMMER: OK, OK...</s>MOUSTAPHA: We are giving a good example to the rest of the Middle East.</s>HEMMER: One final question here, Mr. Ambassador. What is the impact of U.S. pressure on this decision?</s>MOUSTAPHA: I would say that we have to be realistic. The United States is the world's unique superpower. The United States have declared, President Bush himself has declared in his inauguration speech that the United States is adamant that all countries in the Middle East should abide by international law and the oppressors should be freed from the -- the oppressed should be freed from the oppressors. Now we are actually helping the United States to focus its efforts on what they really should do, exert the tremendous maximal pressure on Israel to withdraw its troops from the West Bank and Gaza and end the misery and the catastrophe that has befallen the Palestinian nation.</s>HEMMER: All right, Imam Moustapha, the Syrian ambassador to the United States, from Washington. Come back. We will talk again when we get more developments.</s>MOUSTAPHA: Thank you very much.</s>HEMMER: Certainly. Here's Soledad.</s>O'BRIEN: Mourners lined the streets of Rome today for the funeral of an Italian Secret Service agent killed by American soldiers. The U.S. says the shooting was accidental. But the journalist that the agent was escorting suggests that, in fact, she may have been deliberately targeted by the U.S. troops. CNN's Rome bureau chief Alessio Vinci is there -- Alessio, good morning to you. You just spoke with that journalist, Miss. Sgrena. What did she have to say about the incident?</s>ALESSIO VINCI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Nicola Sgrena, in a telephone interview that she did with me a couple of minutes ago, she basically said that she was not saying that the attack was planned by the Americans, as she has been quoted widely in the Italian media here. But she did concede that there are too many murky elements in this incident and too many answers -- too many questions that were not answered. First of all, she disputes the account given by the U.S. military that the car was driving too fast toward the checkpoint, that there were warnings that the car had to slow down. She said, first of all, the car was going at about 30 miles an hour, there was no warning whatsoever. She also says there was no checkpoint. She says that the fire came from a tank -- she described it as a tank -- parked on the side of the street, who opened fire on them without any warning. So she basically hopes that this investigation will eventually be able to come up with some answers, because she says when incidents like this happen, somebody must take the blame. And obviously she puts the blame on the Americans. And now she wants the Americans to take that blame -- Soledad.</s>O'BRIEN: Alessio Vinci, CNN's Rome bureau chief. Alessio, thank you -- Bill.</s>HEMMER: Well, the White House, Soledad, is calling Friday's shooting a horrific accident. Suzanne Malveaux at the White House there this morning. How are they responding to this suggestion of a deliberate attack -- Suzanne.</s>SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Bill, I just spoke with an administration official who called that absurd. They say that the president, of course, offers his condolences, that this is a very sad day for Italy, it's a sad day for the United States. But they maintain that, yes, it was a horrific accident. It was Friday that President Bush called Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to express his regrets; also, of course, to pledge a full investigation. Saturday, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, as well as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, both calling their counterparts very much to say the same. One senior administration official calling it how terrible everyone felt to express those type of feelings. But yesterday, White House Spokesman Dan Bartlett had warned that there are still many unanswered questions regarding capability.</s>DAN BARTLETT, COUNSELOR TO THE PRESIDENT: Well, first and foremost, President Bush, on behalf of the American people, expresses our condolences. This is a horrific accident, one in which President Bush personally called Prime Minister Berlusconi to offer his condolences, as well as to make sure that there is a full investigation so we're able to understand the very facts that are now being discussed. As you know, in a situation where there is a live combat zone, particularly this region -- this road to the airport has been a notorious area for car bombs, that people are making split second decisions. And it's critically important that we get the facts before we make judgments.</s>MALVEAUX: And, Bill, again, an administration official really saying that that was an absurd suggestion, really, by the journalist to say that she was targeted in any way. And the military is sticking by its story. They believe, of course, that the convoy approached that checkpoint, that they tried to warn that convoy, that they did not heed those warnings. They ignored those warnings. And then they fired upon that vehicle. Until that evidence proves otherwise in the investigation, that is the story that they're sticking with -- Bill.</s>HEMMER: Suzanne, thanks, from the White House this morning -- Soledad.</s>O'BRIEN: A look at the weather this morning. Chad Myers at the CNN Center with the latest for us -- hey, Chad, good morning.</s>CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, Soledad.</s>O'BRIEN: Well, the results of new crash tests are in now. "Consumer Reports" is changing its recommendations on small cars. Most small cars with side airbags don't do well in tests by an insurance industry group. The crashes simulate being hit by a pickup or an SUV. The Toyota Corolla and the Chevy Cobalt were rated acceptable. Corolla is now recommended by "Consumer Reports." The others got a poor rating, though. The Dodge Neon was the least crash worthy. The testers called it "a disaster."</s>HEMMER: Also, "Consumer Reports" is naming its picks for the top cars for 2005. Once again, Japanese cars lead the pack there. The Honda Accord Hybrid was chosen as the top pick for family sedans. The Hybrid version costs between $21,000 and $30,000. The Honda Odyssey named top minivan. The redesigned Odyssey can cost between $26,000 and $38,000. And the "Consumer Reports" top pick for midsized SUV is the Lexus RX330. The Lexus can be bought for about $44,000. And coming up in our 9:00 hour, we'll talk to "Consumer Reports" auto editor Rick Paul about the results out in their magazines.</s>O'BRIEN: That's expensive. It looks nice, that Lexus. That's $44,000? Whoo.</s>HEMMER: Rick loves that car.</s>O'BRIEN: I bet he does.</s>O'BRIEN: I'm sure. It's a lovely car. But it's expensive. Ahead this morning, before Martha Stewart gets back to business, she's got to go back to court. We'll take you live to the courthouse to find out just what the next step is today.</s>HEMMER: Also, it is week two of the Michael Jackson matter. Could a piece of videotape prove devastating to the prosecution? We'll look at that this morning.</s>O'BRIEN: And milk does a body good, right? Well, a shocking new study says that slogan is a myth. We are "Paging Dr. Gupta" just ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.