President Bush to Hold News Conference; Iran's Involvement in Iraq Topic of Military Briefing
TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning, everyone. You are in the CNN NEWSROOM.I'm Tony Harris.</s>HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Heidi Collins. For the next three hours, watch events as they come in to the NEWSROOM live on February 14th. It is Valentine's Day. And here now is what's on the rundown. Iraq, Iran, North Korea -- President Bush facing questions on those topics at a news conference. You'll see it live in the NEWSROOM two hours from now.</s>HARRIS: An Iraqi-American soldier kidnapped in Baghdad last fall. Today he turns up in an undated video on a militant Web site.</s>COLLINS: Trouble on the runway, trouble on the highway. A rip roaring Nor'easter let's loose on the East. Travel delays, school closings, snow day in the</s>NEWSROOM. HARRIS: And at the top this morning, the Bush White House at war in Iraq, under siege on Capitol Hill, and facing reporters later this morning. CNN White House Correspondent Elaine Quijano is in place for the news conference. She is part of the best political team on television. Elaine, good morning to you. What do -- what do we expect to hear from the president this morning?</s>ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Tony. Well, a senior administration official tells CNN that President Bush at the outset of his news conference will make a brief statement about five to seven minutes long on Iraq, as well as North Korea. And this official says that this statement will include a mention of that House debate taking place over a non-binding resolution opposing the president's idea for a troop increase in Iraq. And you can expect some of what the president will say, to incorporate what his new commander on the ground, General David Petraeus, has to say. In fact, this hour another senior official says that the president is talking to or set to talk to General Petraeus via secure videoconference. Now, it has been, Tony, nearly two months since President Bush last held his last formal news conference. He had been having them about once a month. But of course, in January he delivered two major addresses. One, of course, on Iraq, the other on the State of the Union. So this will be his first formal news conference since late December since those speeches, and a lot, Tony, on the agenda.</s>HARRIS: And Elaine, are we expecting to hear anything from the president about the radical anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al- Sadr?</s>QUIJANO: Well, we're not sure if that will be mentioned in the statement, but you can be sure that he will be asked about that. Of course it was just yesterday when news of this broke that two senior administration sources confirmed to CNN that, in fact, they believe Muqtada al-Sadr had fled to Iran. You can be sure that the president will be pressed on that and a host of other topics later this morning -- Tony.</s>HARRIS: Elaine Quijano at the White House for us. Thank you, Elaine. And CNN will have live coverage of the president's news conference. It is scheduled to get under way less than two hours from now at 11:00 a.m. Eastern.</s>COLLINS: Iran's involvement in Iraq the leading topic today at a military briefing. CNN Pentagon Correspondent Barbara Starr joining us this morning. Barbara, nice to see you. What exactly do we expect to hear from this news conference?</s>BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Heidi, General Caldwell, the chief military spokesman in Baghdad, wrapped up a little while ago. It was one of the major topics of conversation over the weekend. There had been a background briefing where a top official who would not be named said that these Iranian weapons coming into Iraq were at the direction of the highest levels of the Iranian government. Those are important words to remember, because then, yesterday, of course, there was a lot of controversy. General Pace, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said, not so fast. He wasn't at all sure it was all really tied to the government. All a topic for the White House. The president expected to be asked about this. Let's have a listen, though, today to what General Caldwell had to say, backpedaling just a bit.</s>MAJ. GEN. WILLIAM CALDWELL, SPOKESMAN, MULTINATIONAL FORCE, IRAQ: I think people want to make an inference. I think people want to hype this up. What we are saying is that, within Iran, that these EFP component parts are being manufactured. Within Iran, weapons and munitions are being manufactured that are ending up in Iraq. And we are asking the Iranian government to assist in stopping that from occurring.</s>STARR: So what wasn't said at the Caldwell press conference, Heidi? General Caldwell would not endorse what a background intelligence briefer said in Baghdad over the weekend. He would not on camera endorse the notion that this was all at the highest levels of the Iranian government, even though he acknowledged that had been said over the weekend. What appears to be emerging here is people are about to get on General Pace's message point, and that may be because the administration is continuing to try and ratchet down tensions with Iran. We'll wait and see what the president has to say, of course.</s>COLLINS: Yes, of course. And it does strike me a little bit, too, Barbara, what Caldwell said, using the words "hype," you know, trying to hype this up. Does that say anything to you?</s>STARR: Well, General Caldwell doing, one can only say with great respect, what many military people do when they get into trouble on these mixed message points. They blame the news media. They say the media is trying to hype this up. In fact, the news media pretty accurately reported what was said over the weekend at a background briefing that the U.S. military organized that they would not go on camera, they would not allow their names to be identified. They would not even allow the news media to record this news briefing. They only passed out these pictures that you see on our air now. So there's been a very significant struggle to try and get this information out accurately. The bottom line, Heidi, is the U.S. certainly does have intelligence tying these Iranian weapons shipments to Iran's supreme leader, the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. It's not something that the Bush White House wants to talk about in public too much because they really do not want to ratchet tensions up with Iran, the facts aside -- Heidi.</s>COLLINS: All right. Barbara Starr clearing it up for us today. Thank you, Barbara.</s>HARRIS: Iran's government meddling in Iraq. The Bush administration states it has facts, but the nation's top military commander not convinced. Joint Chiefs chairman Peter Pace says he hasn't seen evidence proving the Iranian government is funneling weapons to insurgents. Pace's comment led to this testy exchange, CNN's Ed Henry questioning White House press secretary Tony Snow yesterday.</s>ED HENRY, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: But isn't it really a question about whether or not you have strong evidence? When the chairman of the Joints Chiefs of Staff seems to be saying something different than the White House, does that raise questions about how solid this evidence is?</s>TONY SNOW, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: No, because you've got -- you've got -- you have explosively-formed penetrators. He says they exist, correct?</s>HENRY: I didn't see that in this particular quote, but...</s>SNOW: Well, no. No, he said that there are weapons coming from Iraq.</s>HENRY: He says there are projectiles manufactured in Iraq, yes.</s>SNOW: OK. So there's no doubt about that, correct? There are Iranians in Iraq. There's no question about that, correct?</s>HENRY: Sure.</s>SNOW: All right. So where's the credibility program in terms of -- are you saying...</s>HENRY: In terms of the Iranian government being behind it. That's not -- nobody's disputing whether it's manufactured in Iran. You keep changing what my question is.</s>SNOW: No. No, I'm trying to clarify your question because I think this is...</s>HENRY: I don't need clarifying. I'm trying to tell you -- I know what my question is. And basically, he's saying that he doesn't see evidence that the Iranian government clearly is behind it. That's my -- I've asked that three or four times. You haven't answered that. You're saying the Iranian government is behind it.</s>SNOW: OK. Let me put it this way -- I'll say it one more time. The Kuds force is part of the Iranian's government. The Kuds force is behind it, is associated with it.</s>HENRY: OK.</s>SNOW: All right? Thank you.</s>HARRIS: OK. No word for four months. Today, a kidnapped American soldier surfaces in a brief video clip. Live to Baghdad for today's developments in minutes.</s>COLLINS: Icy roads and runways. Schools shut down. Homes and businesses plunged in the dark. What a mess today from the Midwest to the East Coast. And right in the middle of all of this misery, the state of Ohio. The situation there dangerous today. The snow's so heavy in some areas, drivers could be arrested if they go out. CNN's Rob Marciano with us now from Cleveland. Rob, tell us what you're seeing around you. I can see all kinds of wind and blowing snow, obviously.</s>ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well, that pretty much sums it up, Heidi. Temperatures in the lower teens. Winds gusting at times to 40 miles an hour. Wind-chills around minus 10. Not to mention, when you've got snow blowing sideways, visibility is reduced. Here's the -- you've got plenty of plows out here today for sure. This is a secondary roadway. But beyond here about a block, just up that road, yesterday was absolute gridlock. People trying to get home early before the storm, and today it's pretty much a ghost town. The Ohio Highway Patrol is telling us that they've had over 1,000 accidents since this storm began yesterday. Almost 100 of those have been accident-related. Got a lot of drifting. Unofficially, about a foot or more of snow so far. But at the airport, where they're open, by the way, but a lot of delays. They've had four and five-foot drifts. This is the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame here in Cleveland right on the lake with a lot of snow blowing around it. It kind of looks like the pyramids in Egypt during a snowstorm. But alas, this is all white and it is all snow, and it continues to come down. We have winter storm warnings that are posted until noontime today. But there has been no letup in sight, Heidi. Winds have not dropped down at all today. They're out of the north, which tells us that this storm is moving off to the east, towards New York and the East Coast. But it's snowing about as hard as it was at this time late last night before we went to bed. So it doesn't seem to want to let up -- Heidi.</s>COLLINS: No. And boy, a thousand accidents certainly not a good report on that. But listen, Rob, I know you're right by the lake, Lake Erie. Is this lake-effect snow that we always talk about?</s>MARCIANO: Well, you're right. You know, Cleveland, especially the counties east of Cleveland, are in the snow belt of Lake Erie, and this wind right now is off of the lake out of the north, but this isn't lake effect snow. As a matter of fact, this time of year -- Lake Erie is one of the more shallow lakes. It's, you know, 60, 70 feet average depth. So it gets quite a bit of ice. So there's a fair amount of ice cover on the lake, and when the ice cover is on there, it kind of puts a cap on lake-effect snow. So, no, this is all snow that's developed from that storm that's been rolling across the Plains and into through the Ohio River Valley, now about to skip over the Appalachians. We've had that cold air in place for several weeks, really, and we've just been looking for the timing with some moisture to make a big old wintry mess. And that's exactly what we've seen here. And they're trying to keep up pace. Schools are closed, as you can imagine, Heidi. Pretty much, folks are going to try to stay in and wait for this one to come out. But this will be the biggest storm here in Cleveland this season. It could be the biggest one they've seen in several years.</s>COLLINS: Wow. And really quickly, Rob, what about tomorrow, more snow tomorrow?</s>MARCIANO: They'll see a few snow flurries, a couple of snow showers. But nothing that should accumulate here. But it will be bitterly cold. The cold air drawn in behind this system is going to be the larger story. Temperatures, if they're lucky tomorrow, will get above 10. And that doesn't include the wind-chill. So it will definitely feel like winter. Heidi, back to you.</s>COLLINS: Yes. Certainly far from the tropics in this case. All right. Rob Marciano in front of the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame. Interesting. All right, Rob, thank you. And Chad Myers joining us now.</s>HARRIS: And let's bring you up to date on this news. You saw it just moments ago with Ali Velshi and AMERICAN MORNING. CNN has now confirmed that Chrysler, a unit of Germany's DaimlerChrysler, will eliminate about 13,000 jobs. More than expected. Thirteen thousand jobs, or 16 percent of its workforce by the end of 2009. The automaker also announcing the idling of its newer Delaware plant and a reduction of shifts at its Warren, Michigan, truck plant. Heavy cuts. Big job losses for DaimlerChrysler. We should tell you that Chrysler is holding a news conference at the bottom of the hour. Ali Velshi is following that and he will join us at about 9:40 this morning with an update here in the</s>NEWSROOM. COLLINS: And president Bush getting ready to meet reporters. See his news conference at 11:00 Eastern live. We talk with the best political team on television about it, questions and answers in the</s>NEWSROOM. HARRIS: Devastated again. Homes rebuilt in the wake of Katrina now torn apart by a rare tornado. That's ahead in the</s>NEWSROOM. COLLINS: A bold move by the defense in the Lewis "Scooter" Libby perjury trial and why his former boss, the vice president, will not be there. Ahead in the</s>NEWSROOM. HARRIS: Big delivery. A newborn really tips the scales, but he's just following a family tradition. Big baby. A big, big baby in the NEWSROOM.