CBS Evening News open - 2000-08-14 (Democratic Convention)

Channel: malgent

Transcript

Language: English (original, YouTube automatic captions)

[0:00] Talk of the town.

[0:03] >> Disaster on the ocean floor.

[0:06] More than 100 Russians trapped aboard a

[0:09] submarine. Can they be saved? In Los

[0:12] Angeles, Clinton passing the torch to

[0:14] Gore. And a convention closeup with the

[0:18] first lady. Hurricane warnings go up on

[0:20] the Gulf Coast. Plus, another CBS News

[0:23] exclusive on Firestone Tires as a

[0:25] whistleblower goes public.

[0:32] This is the CBS Evening News

[0:36] with Dan Rather reporting from the

[0:38] Democratic National Convention in Los

[0:40] Angeles.

[0:42] Good evening from the city of Angels

[0:44] where demonstrators are gathering

[0:45] outside this hall now. We'll have the

[0:47] convention story in a moment, but first,

[0:50] high drama deep below the ocean. It

[0:52] sounds like the plot of a Cold War

[0:54] thriller, but it's very real tonight for

[0:57] more than 100 Russian sailors. They are

[1:00] trapped in a nuclearpowered submarine at

[1:02] the bottom of the sea. The sub is 460 ft

[1:05] long. It was engaged in exercises near

[1:08] the Arctic Circle yesterday when,

[1:10] according to Russian Navy officials, a

[1:12] collision of some kind sent it to the

[1:14] bottom. CBS coverage begins with David

[1:17] Hawkins in Moscow.

[1:19] The Russian Navy says there are no

[1:21] nuclear weapons on board. The

[1:23] submarine's atomic reactors have been

[1:25] shut down, and there are no reports of

[1:27] radioactive leakage, but the prospects

[1:29] are grim for the Russian sailors seen

[1:32] here during a recent visit to base, but

[1:34] now trapped beneath nearly 500 ft of icy

[1:37] Arctic water. They are believed to be

[1:39] communicating with rescue ships by

[1:41] tapping out messages in Morse code. But

[1:43] Russia's top admiral says the chances of

[1:46] a positive outcome are not very high.

[1:49] >> The Russian Navy is not as well equipped

[1:51] as it should be for for for submarine

[1:53] rescue. Um over the years, it's allowed

[1:54] its capability to decay.

[1:56] >> The Russian submarine Kursk sank to the

[1:59] floor of the Barren Sea yesterday after

[2:01] suffering heavy damage in what the Navy

[2:03] describes as a major collision with an

[2:06] object it did not identify. The sub had

[2:09] been taking part in naval exercises with

[2:11] other vessels in Russia's northern

[2:13] fleet. US and other NATO warships

[2:15] routinely monitor Russian naval

[2:17] exercises and there have been collisions

[2:19] in the past. A Russian Navy spokesman

[2:21] says a runin with a foreign submarine is

[2:23] a likely explanation. And CBS News has

[2:27] learned that two American submarines

[2:29] were in the area.

[2:31] >> But the Kremlin isn't pointing any

[2:33] fingers. If it turns out the old Cold

[2:36] War game of cat and mouse did cause the

[2:38] accident, the sinking of the Kursk could

[2:40] become a dangerous international

[2:42] incident. David Hawkins, CBS News,

[2:45] Moscow. Russian experts are reportedly

[2:48] using robots to study the sunken

[2:50] submarine to see if there's any way to

[2:52] use deep sea rescue equipment. And now,

[2:55] Pentagon officials are telling CBS's

[2:57] David Martin a US sub reports the

[3:00] incident may have happened as early as

[3:02] Saturday. Of the two American submarines

[3:05] monitoring the Russian exercise, one has

[3:07] reported actually hearing an underwater

[3:09] explosion, which may have been the

[3:11] accident. The other sub is not due to

[3:13] report in for several hours. So, US

[3:16] officials cannot rule out the

[3:17] possibility it collided with the Russian

[3:19] Oscar class submarine, although they

[3:21] believe it was miles away. Officials

[3:24] also say they have received no distress

[3:26] signal from the American sub, which

[3:28] would be expected if it had been

[3:29] involved in a collision serious enough

[3:31] to send the Oscar to the bottom. The

[3:33] Oscar was operating in 3 to 600 ft of

[3:36] water, which for submarines is not very

[3:38] deep. US officials say it could have

[3:40] collided with one of the 30 other

[3:41] Russian ships taking part in the

[3:43] exercise or simply run into the bottom.

[3:46] When it hit bottom, the Oscar