Al Anbar Province in Iraq a Hotbed of Insurgency; General Richard Myers Says Goodbye
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Also today, "New York Times" reporter Judith Miller is out of jail and telling all to a grand jury this hour. Miller is revealing details of conversations she had with the vice president's chief of staff about an undercover CIA operative. The development again throws the spotlight on whether the bush administration played a role in the leak of the agent's identity. Congressional Democrats are demanding an apology from former education secretary William Bennett. They say his radio remarks linking blacks to crime were "outrageous." Bennett denies being a racist and says his words are being taken out of context. President Bush did call the remarks inappropriate. The view from both sides, coming up next hour on CNN LIVE FROM. Gas prices are on the rise again. The numbers may be a little different where you live, but AAA reports the average price of a gallon of regular gas is about $2.84 a gallon. That Thursday price is three cents a gallon higher than Wednesday. The increase could be due to concern over hurricane damage to Gulf Coast refineries.</s>KAGAN: We've been getting some good information from helicopter pilot Kai Simonson. He is with our affiliate YNYW. He is over the scene in the Bronx of this bus accident. Let's bring him in -- Kai?</s>KAI SIMONSON, YNYW REPORTER: Well, continuing to bring you live pictures from the scene out here. It happened at around 11:15 a.m. this morning, Eastern time, on the southbound side of the Major Deegan Expressway, about ten miles north of midtown Manhattan, here in the Bronx, New York. You can see here towards the center part of your screen there have been numerous injuries. A school bus apparently carrying 40 or so Catholic students down from Westchester County. They were actually attending a funeral for one of their teachers. They were headed southbound here along the Major Deegan Expressway and somehow, this nasty accident happened. The school bus overturned. You can see the school bus there, toward the center part of your screen. Now, there have, unfortunately, been numerous injuries. You can see there towards the Jersey wall, up against the Jersey wall. This is where they have actually been setting up patients. They have been boarding them up and then passing them over the wall out to the northbound side of the Major Deegan, put into ambulances and then taken to local hospitals. Now, as far as the patient count goes, we don't have an exact patient count, but there have been at least 10 to 15 injuries. Fortunately, none of them have been serious. And right now, from -- I'm pretty much just counting the people that they're taking out of here. So that's how I'm coming up with that number. Now, as far as the people on the bus, we are being told 40 students, two teachers and one principal. Of course, we will continue to keep up to date -- back to you.</s>KAGAN: Kai Simonson with our affiliate, WNYW. Thank you. The situation in Iraq remains as bloody as ever for ordinary Iraqis. A car bomb today targeted a busy vegetable market in the city of Hilla. Iraqi officials say the blast killed at least eight people and wounded 49, including many women and children. Hilla's population is mostly Shiite. The attack in Hilla follows yesterday's coordinated bombings in Balad. The death toll there has now risen to at least 102, and more than 100 people were wounded. The first attack was a car bomb near an Iraqi police station. As a crowd gathered afterward, a suicide car bomber then detonated his vehicle and mortars rained down on the area. A third car bomb appeared to target a mosque. U.S. troops later detained one person. Iraq's Al Anbar province is that country's version of the wild west. It's a vast frontier that extends from Baghdad to the borders of Syria, Jordan, Syria and Saudi Arabia. Al Anbar is also known as a stronghold for the Iraqi insurgency, which is why the U.S. military is spending a lot of time in this region. With more on that, here's CNN's Jennifer Eccleston.</s>JENNIFER ECCLESTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This day's front line against western Al Anbar's vibrant insurgency. Qadiseye's tiny population, some several hundred strong, doubling this morning when American soldiers and marines and Iraqi armed forces entered the town for the first time.</s>UNIDENTFIED MALE: Yes, I think actually we are in 111.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And 112.</s>ECCLESTON: Every house on every street searched. Families questioned. Are they providing shelter or weapons to the insurgents? Their names checked against a manifest of the area's most wanted. (on camera): These soldiers didn't know what to expect when they came into this town, but there is expected to be a large number of insurgents, particularly a large number of foreign fighters. So far, we've gone through a number of houses and they've detained one individual. (voice-over): The man can't explain what this suspicious-looking electronic device does that was hidden in his bedroom. His answers differ from those given by his father. So the younger man is taken away, his family eerily calm. Others in this overwhelmingly Sunni neighborhood are visibly distressed as soldiers rifle through personal belongings. Evidence of insurgent activity could be anywhere.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): We are just scared that they may shoot us or something. Our kids are scared.</s>ECCLESTON: Iyab Allawi (ph) says they've never seen American soldiers before. Her children's faces a mixture of curiosity and fear. Yet everyone cooperates. The searches turn up a number of ammunition belts and guns. Every Iraqi family is allowed to carry one weapon for protection; anything beyond that is confiscated. It's not a major find, but...</s>SGT. 1ST CLASS STEVEN CLAIR, U.S. ARMY: The more day-to-day fight for us right now is finding caches, finding how they're transporting people and weapons, from the east to the west or the west to the east. And trying to stay on top of it and trying to get one step ahead of them so we can actually, ultimately, catch the individuals that are doing it.</s>ECCLESTON: Fighting the insurgents suspected or real; one house, one street, one town at a time. The chase up and down the Euphrates River Valley continues for another day. Jennifer Eccleston, CNN, Qadiseye, Iraq.</s>KAGAN: Other military news for you now. After 40 years in the military, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Richard Myers is saying good-bye. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld hosted a farewell tribute this morning. Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr joining us live with more on that -- Barbara, hello.</s>BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Hello to you, Daryn. Well, military pomp and ceremony this morning at Ft. Myer, Virginia, here in suburban Washington, as General Richard Myers indeed ended a 40-year distinguished career in the United States military, retiring as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. There is, indeed, a new chairman, General Peter Pace, the first marine to rise that high level office. President Bush attended the ceremony and offered some very expected, very kind remarks about General Myers.</s>GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: As my principle military adviser, he brought a calm and reassuring presence, coupled with sound judgment and fresh thinking and unflinching candor. His approach was steady and practical. He had the vision to see the larger strategic picture and the tactical awareness one would expect from an experienced fighter pilot.</s>STARR: But, of course, General Myers leaves office as the war in Iraq goes on. And the final verdict on that situation certainly far from settled. Indeed, in just about half an hour here in the briefing room, we will have a live news conference. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld accompanied by General George Casey, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, taking questions about the current operations, the strategy, the way ahead in Iraq. Both men, of course, are expected to say that they are going to stick the course and they believe their strategy is working. But General Casey, we are told, expects to answer the question about those Iraqi security forces. He talked yesterday about this on Capitol Hill. How is it that there were three Iraqi army battalions just a few months ago fully independent, fully capable of operating on their own -- and the current rating system operated by the United States shows there is just one Iraqi army battalion capable of operating on its own. We are told that is a question General Casey wants to answer -- Daryn?</s>KAGAN: Barbara, beyond the ceremony that we saw today, the pomp and circumstance, how does changing the guard of the Joint Chiefs, how does that affect the military?</s>STARR: Well, it certainly won't affect it very much, as long as you have the current administration. Because, of course, the chairman of the joint chiefs is essentially the senior military adviser to the president, giving him his best advice about military affairs. It is kind of a historic oddity right now, though. General Pace, the first marine. And both General Myers retiring and General Pace coming in are combat veterans of Vietnam. They are both, perhaps, the last two Vietnam-era veterans who will serve in this high office. There's really only a handful of them left at this point. Both men often talk in private, as well as in public, how Vietnam shaped their careers, shaped their military experiences. So it's a bit of the beginning of the end of the chapter, if you will, in military history. Certainly though, the question, the legacy of the Iraq war, still a legacy to be written -- Daryn.</s>KAGAN: Barbara Starr, live in the Pentagon. Thank you. We're going to head out to California. When it comes to battling the wildfires there, there can often be a determining factors in whether firefighters succeed or fail. So what is the driving force behind the seasonal Santa Ana winds, and what makes them so menacing? Bill Nye the science guy has the answer -- he usually does -- and he is joining us, up next.