Good Morning America (ABC) / CBS This Morning snippets - 1992-12-11
Channel: malgent
Transcript
Language: English (original, YouTube automatic captions)
[0:00] budget there on that little animation.
[0:01] >> Pretty neat though to have your name on
[0:03] the money.
[0:04] >> Uh yeah. All right. Can you show me some
[0:06] identification? Yes. Here's the $1 bill.
[0:08] It's my name on it. Anyway, we're going
[0:10] to be talking about the new economic
[0:11] team. Uh he was the president-elect's
[0:13] first cabinet level nomination, Senator
[0:15] Lloyd Benson, a shrewd Washington
[0:17] insider and a fiscal moderate, just part
[0:19] of the economic team that Mr. Clinton
[0:20] proposed yesterday. And we'll get
[0:22] reaction from Wall Street and
[0:23] Washington. And we'll get the weather of
[0:25] course from you know who.
[0:26] >> Absolutely. Well, Charlie, as those of
[0:27] us who live in this area know well, a
[0:29] powerful storm is pounding the Northeast
[0:31] this morning with heavy rain and snow.
[0:33] High winds and waves, winds gusting 90
[0:36] miles hour in Atlantic City this
[0:38] morning. Very little change is likely
[0:39] for the weekend with snowy, windy
[0:41] weather persisting in the northeastern
[0:42] states. We'll have more details coming
[0:44] up.
[0:44] >> I know in Connecticut, a lot of trees
[0:45] came down. Our electricity went out at
[0:47] 8:00 for the rest of the night.
[0:48] >> Same thing in North.
[0:49] >> It was great. All we could do is sit
[0:50] around and chat.
[0:51] >> Yeah, but the alarm clock worked anyway
[0:52] this morning.
[0:53] >> Had a backup alarm clock. Denise
[0:55] Richardson, who's uh been bringing us
[0:56] her stories from Somalia, will show us
[0:58] how a US Marine spends his day there as
[1:01] he patrols the dangerous streets of the
[1:02] capital. Plus, we'll meet the man who
[1:04] says he killed former Teamsters's boss
[1:07] Jimmy Hoffa, a mob hitman named Donald
[1:09] Tony the Greek Franco. First though,
[1:11] Mike Schneider has the morning's news.
[1:13] Mike,
[1:14] >> thank you, John. Good morning everybody.
[1:15] We begin this morning with Somalia and
[1:16] actually some hopeful news this morning.
[1:18] The country's two warlord leaders, the
[1:21] two men who've been blamed for a lot of
[1:22] the fighting and looting in the food
[1:24] supplies in and around the capital city
[1:25] of Mogadishu, they held a meeting with
[1:27] the US envoy to that country this
[1:29] morning, Robert Oakley. And in that
[1:30] meeting, they agreed to a cease fire.
[1:33] And perhaps even more importantly, they
[1:34] agreed to put their forces under a joint
[1:36] command this weekend. And there's also
[1:38] new information today about when relief
[1:40] supplies might be getting into an area
[1:41] of Somalia that desperately needs help.
[1:43] Now, here's ABC's Linda Patillo. Leaf
[1:46] agencies hoping that the US military
[1:48] would help speed up aid to Bidoa and
[1:51] other areas where people are starving
[1:53] will not get help as soon as they would
[1:55] like. The commander of US troops here
[1:57] met with relief officials for the first
[1:59] time this morning and emerged saying it
[2:01] would be at least a week until the
[2:03] Marines move into Bidoa.
[2:04] >> That is our top priority to get out
[2:06] there as quickly as possible and I think
[2:08] it's reasonable to expect in the next 7
[2:10] to 10 days we would have something
[2:12] relatively permanent there. But that's
[2:14] not to say that we will not provide some
[2:16] support support for convoy security to
[2:18] help improve the situation in BO as
[2:20] quickly as possible.
[2:22] >> Johnston refused to answer questions
[2:24] about the deaths of two Somali last
[2:26] night after French legionnaires and US
[2:28] Marines opened fire on a vehicle at a
[2:31] French checkpoint. Seven others were
[2:33] injured and several were taken by
[2:35] helicopter to the USS Tripoli. Witnesses
[2:38] say there was no gun on the vehicle. The
[2:40] Pentagon says it was an armed technical
[2:43] that ignored warnings to stop. That
[2:45] contradicts an earlier version from the
[2:47] Pentagon that said there was a family
[2:49] aboard and that the brakes failed.
[2:51] Today, UN officials say they are
[2:53] satisfied with the explanation.
[2:55] >> General Johnson has assured us and we're
[2:57] very satisfied as uh as the commander of
[3:00] the task force as to his explanation.
[3:03] The big question now, of course, is
[3:05] whether that cautious estimate by
[3:07] General Johnston of when the Marines can
[3:08] actually help out in areas like Vido may
[3:12] change. Uh the Marines have been very
[3:14] anxious to get in there. The situation
[3:16] has been uh somewhat difficult. And now
[3:18] with this news of a reconciliation
[3:20] effort, we're wondering whether this
[3:22] timetable could be moved up. A few more
[3:25] details, Mike, on the uh on what they
[3:27] have decided. They say they will end all
[3:29] hostilities and that all technicals,
[3:31] those armed vehicles we have seen so
[3:33] much of, will retire into camps outside
[3:36] the city within the next 48 hours. That
[3:38] could make a big difference on whether
[3:40] the Marines leave this area and start
[3:41] moving out into the countryside.
[3:43] >> Linda, we probably should make the point
[3:45] though that uh while these two warlords
[3:47] perhaps are among the most important in
[3:49] the country, they're not the only ones
[3:50] there. And and they don't control all
[3:52] the weapons, do they?
[3:54] >> Absolutely they do not, Mike. You're
[3:55] right. Uh this is a large country uh
[3:58] roughly an area the size of Texas. To
[4:00] the south there are other warlords. Uh
[4:02] there are still factions loyal to the
[4:04] former government here. Uh there is much
[4:06] work to be done. But this is the kind of
[4:08] breakthrough that the UN forces were
[4:10] looking for. They've been saying all
[4:11] along that only the Somali could restore
[4:14] peace here and only the Somali could get
[4:16] rid of the guns and only when that
[4:17] happens can the Marines really get down
[4:19] to the business of helping to deliver
[4:21] aid to the people here.
[4:22] >> All right, Linda, thank you very much.
[4:23] ABC's Linda Patillo live again this
[4:25] morning for us at the airport in
[4:26] Moadishio, Somalia. On to Sar Evo now
[4:29] where that's another place of course the
[4:30] United Nations is trying to get relief
[4:32] supplies in. The fighting there has been
[4:34] so bad though over the past week and a
[4:35] half that the airport has been shut down
[4:37] once again. But this morning the UN said
[4:40] it has talked to the three waring
[4:41] factions in Bosnia and that it hopes to
[4:43] get Sieo's airport open again perhaps by
[4:45] early next week, maybe as soon as
[4:47] Tuesday. Back in this country, you saw
[4:50] the campaign. You've seen the
[4:51] transition. Now you can say hello to the
[4:53] Clinton administration. The open secret
[4:55] in Little Rock, Arkansas today is that
[4:57] Mr. Clinton is about to name two more
[4:58] cabinet secretaries and two more senior
[5:01] staffers. Yesterday it was the turn of
[5:03] the economic team. And ABC's Walter
[5:05] Rogers has details.
[5:08] With his economic conference scheduled
[5:10] for next week, President-elect Clinton
[5:12] fielded his first team of economic
[5:14] adviserss, one aimed at sending a
[5:16] reassuring signal to the financial
[5:18] markets. Four men and a woman, mostly
[5:21] moderates, all establishment. Senate
[5:23] Finance Committee Chairman Lloyd Benson
[5:25] will be Treasury Secretary, friendly to
[5:27] business, Clinton said of Benson.
[5:29] >> In filling this post, I wanted someone
[5:31] who had the unique capacity to command
[5:34] the respect of Wall Street while showing
[5:38] an unrelenting concern for the Americans
[5:40] who make their living on Main Street.
[5:43] Main Street aside, Benson's chief deputy
[5:46] is Roger Alman, a Wall Street banker. To
[5:48] head the critical budget director's
[5:50] office, Clinton again turned to Capitol
[5:52] Hill, picking Congressman Leon Panetta.
[5:55] The president-elect, making light of the
[5:57] fact that during the campaign, Panetta
[5:58] said some of Mr. Clinton's economic
[6:00] ideas did not add up.
[6:02] >> I'm going to give him a chance to teach
[6:04] me some math.
[6:06] >> Panetta enjoyed the joke, but signaled
[6:08] he's going to hold the new president's
[6:09] feet to the fire. I think the first
[6:12] priority and I and I believe deeply that
[6:14] the governor shares this first priority
[6:16] is to develop a long-term deficit
[6:18] reduction plan.
[6:19] >> Alice Rivlin, formerly of the
[6:21] Congressional Budget Office, will be
[6:22] Petta's deputy and the president-elect
[6:25] tapped Robert Rubin for the new White
[6:27] House post that puts the economy on a
[6:29] par with national security. Wall
[6:31] Street's reaction was generally
[6:33] positive.
[6:33] >> Most of them have experience in how to
[6:36] get things done in Washington.
[6:39] Still some of the thunder may have gone
[6:41] out of Mr. Clinton's economic conference
[6:43] next week. What with yesterday's good
[6:45] economic news with the rep recovery
[6:48] apparently continuing that conference
[6:50] now may turn out to be more cosmetic
[6:52] than substantive. Mike
[6:53] >> Walter, let's talk a little bit about
[6:54] the people who are apparently going to
[6:56] be named today. Run them down first of
[6:57] all again. Robert Rich will be named
[6:59] labor secretary. He's an old friend of
[7:01] Mr. Clinton's a professor at Harvard. Uh
[7:04] the University of Wisconsin chanced
[7:05] Donna Shala apparently going to get the
[7:07] Health and Human Services job, Florida
[7:09] environmental official Carol Browner to
[7:10] head the EPA and Laura Tyson to head the
[7:12] Council of Economic Adviserss. What kind
[7:14] of signal or signals is Mr. Clinton
[7:16] sending out with those appointments?
[7:18] >> Two very clear signals, Mike. The
[7:20] appointment of Mr. Rich to Labor signals
[7:22] Mr. Clinton is endorsing or is creeping
[7:25] close to a national industrial policy
[7:27] which many people say the United States
[7:29] must embrace to compete with Japan and
[7:32] Germany. on the world global econ
[7:34] economic scene and of course the
[7:36] appointment of two women uh the two you
[7:38] mentioned uh further uh makes Mr.
[7:41] Clinton committed to his pledge to make
[7:43] his cabinet more like uh the overall
[7:46] demographics of America.
[7:47] >> Okay, Walter have to leave it there.
[7:48] Appreciate it. ABC's Walter Rogers live
[7:50] for us this morning in Little Rock. That
[7:52] is the news till now. It's time to check
[7:53] in with Charlie and Spencer.
[7:55] >> Thanks Mike and live for us here in the
[7:57] picture. Here's a look at the weather
[7:58] where you are to the hour. As Mike
[7:59] mentioned, the Clinton economic team is
[8:01] in place. What's it going to mean for
[8:02] Wall Street? What's it going to mean in
[8:04] Washington? What will it mean across the
[8:05] nation? David Jones is joining us. He's
[8:07] the chief economist from the Wall Street
[8:09] firm of Aubry G. Lansston and Company.
[8:11] And with us from Washington for the
[8:12] political overview is Chris Matthews,
[8:14] political columnist for the San
[8:16] Francisco Examiner. Good to see you both
[8:17] again. David, let me get the Wall Street
[8:19] reaction to the appointments yesterday.
[8:21] Favorable Charlie. Uh moderate group,
[8:24] establishment group. uh we've already
[8:26] seen the names in public and so
[8:28] therefore the markets have uh
[8:29] particularly the bond market came down
[8:31] about a half a percentage point. That
[8:32] means mortgage money is going to get a
[8:34] little bit cheaper. Uh we don't have the
[8:36] whole story yet though, Charlie, because
[8:37] this is only a team. I have a feeling
[8:39] that the quarterback of that team is
[8:41] going to be President-elect Clinton.
[8:42] It's going to be a lot different than
[8:44] the Reagan administration when we had a
[8:45] lot of power delegated to people like
[8:48] this team. I think the quarterback's
[8:49] going to be Clinton. He's going to call
[8:51] the shots. And since we don't know where
[8:52] he may go, it's still tough to predict
[8:55] what this means for policy.
[8:56] >> That's exactly right. For example, since
[8:58] this is a relatively conservative team,
[9:00] since we heard a lot about deficit
[9:02] cutting yesterday, the question is, what
[9:04] are we going to do at the front end of
[9:05] this process? Are we going to see some
[9:07] stimulus to the economy? Are we going to
[9:09] see some spending? Are we going to add
[9:10] to the deficit? My feeling is there's
[9:12] one person that's going to make that
[9:14] decision. It's going to be the
[9:15] president. All right, we come back to
[9:16] that in a moment. Chris, the political
[9:18] reaction. Well, I think there's some
[9:20] real political packaging uh underway
[9:22] here. I mean, Lloyd Benson is is a great
[9:24] name, as you showed in your graphic to
[9:25] put on the dollar bill. It suggests
[9:27] power and confidence. Lloyd Benson looks
[9:30] like sort of a stern father figure who
[9:32] made a lot of money, but is still tight
[9:33] with the checkbook. Uh we we saw him
[9:36] very effectively debate Dan Quail four
[9:38] years ago, and the fact was he has been
[9:40] in politics all the way going all the
[9:41] way back to the 1940s. He was a
[9:43] congressman in the late 1940s with Jack
[9:45] Kennedy. He is a political survivor and
[9:47] I think that's the key point. Uh, Bill
[9:48] Clinton likes politicians around him who
[9:50] know how to win elections.
[9:51] >> Chris, though, there was a lot of voter
[9:53] dissatisfaction that was expressed in
[9:56] this past election. Every other word
[9:58] that Bill Clinton said during the
[10:00] campaign was the word change. And the
[10:02] first five appointments are all either
[10:04] political or Wall Street insiders. Well,
[10:06] that's right. I think he he also said
[10:08] the day after he won the election down
[10:10] in Little Rock, he walked out there with
[10:11] Bill with Al Gore with their blue suits
[10:13] on and the first thing he said as an
[10:15] elected president was uh I'm going to
[10:17] assure the bond markets I'm going to
[10:19] convince them that I'm not going to try
[10:20] anything new. You know, he's only 46
[10:22] years old. He looks very young. In fact,
[10:24] yesterday on telev again, I think he
[10:26] made a point to pick someone older than
[10:28] him as his Treasury spokesman, someone
[10:30] more conservative than him, and someone
[10:32] who's more respected by business than he
[10:33] is. I think he's trying to offset who he
[10:35] is. And I think David Jones is right. We
[10:37] have no idea what policy is going to
[10:39] come out of this package. All we're
[10:40] seeing now is the package.
[10:42] >> All right, David, you're nodding. He has
[10:43] reassured Wall Street. He has reassured
[10:45] the bond markets.
[10:46] >> Exactly right, Charlie. And I completely
[10:47] agree with Chris as well that I think
[10:50] we're going to see uh a packaging
[10:52] process. This group is going to say we
[10:54] can sell this policy to Congress. We can
[10:56] sell it to Wall Street with minimal
[10:57] effect on interest rates. But still look
[11:00] at the group today, much more liberal
[11:02] tinge. Mr. Rich uh head of sort of the
[11:04] liberal adviserss the president is going
[11:06] to get a role in the cabinet and we
[11:08] never know with the president when they
[11:09] may come in the back door talk to the
[11:11] president about policy. So what we're
[11:13] going to get here is uh we're going to
[11:15] have some uncertainty with respect to
[11:16] how Clinton makes policy but my bet is
[11:18] he's the one that's going to make it and
[11:20] they're the ones that's going to package
[11:21] it these new
[11:22] >> and I always trust you on these matters.
[11:24] Do you expect that we'll get the kind of
[11:26] infrastructures
[11:28] infrastructure spending stimulus that he
[11:30] talked about or do you think he'll
[11:31] immediately go after the deficit? Now, I
[11:32] think he'll he'll spin. Charlie, you
[11:34] made the point a a minute ago. The
[11:36] president ran on one thing, the
[11:38] president-elect, change and getting this
[11:40] economy going. He can't turn out like
[11:42] George Bush finally after the election's
[11:44] over and say, "Well, I'm not going to do
[11:46] anything after I promised it." He has to
[11:48] give the economy a boost. But the
[11:50] trouble is he's going to have to go
[11:51] through and experiment. He's got to
[11:53] spend and create deficits up front and
[11:55] then he's got to bring them down later.
[11:56] We've never seen any fiscal policy like
[11:58] that before. It's true activism. And
[12:00] Chris, in the final 30 seconds, he's got
[12:01] a team on the hill that looks pretty
[12:03] well suited to sell this.
[12:05] >> That's right. But I think the front men
[12:06] are the conservatives like uh Lloyd
[12:08] Benson, uh Leon Petta. They're the ones
[12:10] out there to assure that he's not going
[12:12] off in some leftwing direction. But
[12:14] remember, as David Jones said, behind
[12:15] the scenes are the ideologues, a few
[12:17] lefties back there. It's just like Jack
[12:19] Kennedy. Put Douglas Dylan out at the
[12:20] Treasury Post, convince business you're
[12:22] a conservative, and then behind the
[12:24] scenes have Arthur Slesinger and John
[12:25] Kenneth Galbra.
[12:27] >> All right, Chris David Jones. That's
[12:28] interesting. Chris, the Kennedy
[12:29] connection continues and the parallels
[12:32] are still there. 15 minutes after the
[12:33] hour, 17 years after Jimmy Ha
[12:35] disappeared, meet the mob hitman who
[12:37] says he killed him when Good Morning
[12:39] America continues.
[12:40] Justin
[12:46] >> now showing
[12:46] >> President Jimmy Hoffa in a new book,
[12:48] Contract Killer, Donald Franco, a
[12:50] self-admitted mafia hitman currently
[12:53] serving time for another murder, claims
[12:55] he killed Hawa and dozens of others as
[12:57] well. Well, Steve Fox recently spoke
[12:59] with Franco at New York's Attica Prison.
[13:03] >> How old are you?
[13:04] >> I'm 54 years old.
[13:06] >> Now, how many of those 54 years have you
[13:08] spent in prison?
[13:10] >> Oh, I would say about 30 years.
[13:11] >> 30 out of 54 years in prison.
[13:13] >> Yes. Yes.
[13:15] >> In the course of your career, how many
[13:17] people did you kill or participate in
[13:19] the killing of?
[13:20] >> Well, approximately around 36 to 45 uh
[13:24] people I killed.
[13:25] >> 36 to 45?
[13:26] >> Yes. Well, I keep
[13:27] >> Well, you lose count after a while.
[13:30] >> You You can lose count. I lost count. I
[13:33] was I know for sure 36 people.
[13:36] >> It may be as high as 45.
[13:37] >> Yes. Okay. In your book, you claim that
[13:40] a mob boss named Fat Tony Solerno wanted
[13:44] to kill Jimmy Hoffa and he contracted
[13:46] with you and a couple other guys to do
[13:48] the killing. Why did Salerno want Hoffa
[13:51] dead?
[13:52] Well, one thing Salena was very very
[13:56] much in involved with the the the
[13:57] unions. Hafa when he came out of jail
[14:01] wanted his position back as president
[14:03] >> of the teams did you?
[14:04] >> Yes sir. And uh Solerno
[14:08] with uh Tony Promazano they got together
[14:11] and he says this guy he's going to open
[14:13] up on us. He's going to go to the
[14:14] government and he's going to tell the
[14:16] government what we're doing with the
[14:17] unions. He's going to tell the
[14:19] government that the mob is involved
[14:20] >> is involved with with the teamsters and
[14:23] uh in fact Tony says no way we got to
[14:27] get rid of him.
[14:28] >> Tell me how you killed Jimmy Hoffa. How
[14:30] how did it happen? How did you kill him?
[14:32] >> We needed Chucky O'Brien. Chucky O'Brien
[14:34] was the one who could make Hawa at ease.
[14:37] Jimmy at ease.
[14:38] >> He was sort of his adopted son.
[14:40] >> He was his adopted son. Yes.
[14:43] And uh we went first in fact Tony went
[14:46] to Tony Jackalone who was a mob boss out
[14:49] of Detroit and he he told Tony Jackalone
[14:51] he says listen we want to get this guy
[14:53] the only way we could get this guy you
[14:55] got to talk to this Chucky O'Brien
[14:58] lure ch uh ha in the car have ha come to
[15:02] the the meet in Mount Clemens which is
[15:05] not going to be a meet and uh
[15:10] get him to Mount Clemens and we're going
[15:12] to have our hit is over there and we're
[15:14] going to we're going to do away with
[15:15] this guy.
[15:16] >> Why would Chuck O'Brien do that to a man
[15:17] who had been good to him?
[15:18] >> Well, number one, he was told to
[15:23] and if he didn't go along with it, they
[15:25] were going to kill him. We were going to
[15:26] kill him.
[15:27] >> Kill O'Brien.
[15:28] >> O'Brien. That's number one. Number two,
[15:30] he had no choice. Either it was going to
[15:32] be him or his his father.
[15:35] >> Okay.
[15:35] >> Not the father.
[15:36] >> So Hawa arrives at the house in Mount
[15:38] Clemens. Then what happens? Before he
[15:41] got to the living room, he was ready to
[15:42] sit down. We was in the the adjacent
[15:45] part of the living room, which is the
[15:46] kitchen area. I walked out with Jimmy
[15:49] [ __ ] and I shot him twice in the
[15:52] forehead.
[15:53] He's a quick death then.
[15:55] >> Very quickly, we didn't want to torture
[15:56] him or anything like that. We We're not
[15:58] into that. We hit him and that's it.
[16:00] >> After Hawa was dead, what did you do
[16:02] with the body?
[16:04] >> We chopped them up. Where did Jimmy
[16:06] Hoff's body, the various pieces of it,
[16:08] eventually end up
[16:10] >> outside of Giant Stadium. It didn't end
[16:12] up in the stadium. It ended up outside
[16:14] the stadium.
[16:15] >> The stadium being Giant Stadium,
[16:17] Metallands in New Jersey.
[16:18] >> Exactly.
[16:19] >> When you weren't murdering people, how
[16:21] did you make money through crime?
[16:23] >> Selling heroin. Selling heroin.
[16:26] Stickups.
[16:27] >> Stickups.
[16:28] >> A lot of stickups. Uh, mostly heroin and
[16:30] hijacking.
[16:32] Counterfeit money. I would or buying
[16:35] swag, you know, like buying stolen goods
[16:38] and sell it to another person for a
[16:41] profit, things like that. Why write the
[16:44] book? What's the point?
[16:45] >> I didn't write it for the profit.
[16:47] >> Why did you write it?
[16:47] >> I wrote it for some young some young
[16:50] teenager before he does anything in his
[16:53] life. Don't turn to crime because crime
[16:57] is not all that glorified.
[16:59] It's not There's no profit in crime.
[17:02] just profit it maybe once or twice,
[17:03] three times, four times, but then
[17:05] eventually you're going to lose. You're
[17:07] going to and lose big. Either you're
[17:09] going to get killed or you're going to
[17:11] do a lot of time like I'm doing. But
[17:13] it's not Hollywood. They're vicious all
[17:16] cold bloodooded killers you're dealing
[17:17] with and eventually they're going to
[17:19] kill you or you're going to do a lot a
[17:20] lot of time.
[17:23] >> Steve Fox is here with me now. I I How
[17:25] much credibility does this guy have?
[17:27] >> Well, this guy's credibility is very
[17:29] much open to question. We know that he
[17:31] is a convicted killer. We know that the
[17:32] federal government thought he had enough
[17:34] valuable evidence or information to
[17:36] enlist him in the federal witness
[17:37] protection program. But we also know
[17:39] that he's changed his story at least
[17:40] once about the Hawa killing. In ' 89, he
[17:43] said in an interview that he knew where
[17:44] the body was, but that he didn't take
[17:46] part in the murder. Now he says, "I know
[17:48] where the body is, and I personally
[17:50] killed Jimmy Hoffa." So the story's
[17:52] changed once already. I guess the bottom
[17:54] line of this is that there's no way to
[17:56] prove or disprove his story unless
[17:58] somebody spends the money to dig up part
[18:00] of the parking lot out there at Giant
[18:01] Stadium in New Jersey.
[18:03] >> All right, Steve Fox, thank you.
[18:05] >> Gust to 50 to 60 mph already this
[18:07] morning. LGA, that's LaGuardia, JFK, uh
[18:10] uh Newark, places like that, Boston,
[18:12] Logan Airport. Uh if you're going to be
[18:14] traveling into the Northeast, I would
[18:15] maybe pack a lunch a little bit today.
[18:17] You may experience some delays. Snow
[18:18] through Pittsburgh, also some gusty
[18:20] winds down through the south as well. So
[18:21] mainly the delays on the eastern half of
[18:23] the country. For the rest of the
[18:24] country, there is another storm to talk
[18:25] about outside of this. This is the big
[18:27] storm there. Out to the west, you see a
[18:29] big finger of precipitation coming down
[18:31] from uh the northwest stretching or
[18:33] actually from the north stretching down
[18:34] into Southern California. And you'll see
[18:36] in the northwest some more rain and some
[18:38] more snow up there. So it's December.
[18:40] These things do happen. Paula,
[18:42] >> thanks Mark. We're going back to
[18:43] Moadishu Somalia now. Dan Rather is just
[18:46] back from Adoa, one of the real trouble
[18:47] spots for the relief effort. He joins us
[18:50] now. Good morning, Dan. What did you
[18:51] see?
[18:52] >> Well, good morning, Paula. Uh, I in fact
[18:55] descended into hell this morning. Got
[18:56] back this afternoon. The name of it was
[18:58] Badoa. Uh, this is the wild west of
[19:02] Somalia just now. It's been wild for
[19:04] quite a time. A lot of killing there
[19:06] during the last week. Uh, it's getting
[19:08] worse. The relief workers are in a kind
[19:11] of Fort Apache or Alamo situation. Uh,
[19:13] the incredible things are happening to
[19:15] them at night. uh thieves, lutters, uh
[19:19] people with bad things on their mind
[19:20] literally come over the compound walls.
[19:22] Uh they run through the place, try to
[19:24] loot it. They're defending themselves as
[19:25] best they can. They're trying to
[19:28] continue to feed people in feeding
[19:30] centers such as this one. Uh the fe the
[19:32] feeding centers uh continue to
[19:34] deteriorate because situation is so bad.
[19:37] They can't get food into them. In this
[19:39] one feeding center, uh we saw no fewer
[19:42] than five children who if they don't get
[19:45] help within the next 24 to 48 hours, uh
[19:47] may very well die. Now, uh the Marine
[19:50] Task Force commander said today he
[19:52] thought it would be 7 to 10 days before
[19:54] the Marines get uh to Bedoa. If it's
[19:56] that long, uh a lot of uh a lot more
[19:59] people up there are going to die. I
[20:00] don't know what the relief workers are
[20:01] going to do. who they they don't want to
[20:03] be evacuated because they say that would
[20:04] stop their work and then you know more
[20:06] people would die of of starvation and
[20:08] disease. I I tell you frankly Paul I in
[20:10] all my experience I have never seen
[20:12] anything to match this. I know I said
[20:13] that the other day when I went down to
[20:15] uh Kismayu on the southern coastu 100
[20:19] people have died there. Uh we're told
[20:21] within the last five or six days
[20:23] including many the day we were there.
[20:25] But it's unique to itself. BDOA uh is is
[20:28] some kind of hell and as I say if the
[20:30] Marines can't get there for another 7 to
[20:32] 10 days. Uh uh many of the people we saw
[20:35] today will be dead.
[20:36] >> You you get the impression from the
[20:38] relief workers that we have been in
[20:39] touch with the pace of this whole thing
[20:41] has slowed down. Is that the case? Were
[20:44] they counting on help earlier than 7 to
[20:46] 10 days?
[20:47] >> Well, yes. Naturally, in a siege
[20:49] situation, which is what many of these
[20:51] relief workers in a place like Bedoa
[20:53] they are, I mean I I you just can't
[20:55] overstate it. This isn't a John Wayne
[20:57] movie. This is real. This is happening.
[20:59] And you know, they're back to the wall
[21:01] uh every evening beginning sundown. Uh
[21:04] you know, no elderly man, woman, or
[21:08] child of any race, creed, color, or
[21:10] religion is safe there. This is the only
[21:12] place I have ever been where they shoot
[21:15] children. Walk through the hospital
[21:16] today. A child with eye blown out, part
[21:19] of his head blown off. Uh the doctor
[21:21] there desperately trying to keep this
[21:23] child alive. Uh, listen, this is if this
[21:26] isn't an apocalypse now, it'll do to one
[21:29] comes along.
[21:31] >> What can you tell us about the expected
[21:33] truck convoys that are supposed to be in
[21:35] there in the next 3 to 4 days? Do you
[21:37] have any hope they're going to make it
[21:38] in?
[21:40] >> Well, I I simply don't know. Uh, the
[21:42] road, if you think of the map, Moadishu
[21:44] on the coast, the road to Bedo, it's
[21:46] about
[21:48] 150 mi. Uh, as the crow flies, and the
[21:50] road's pretty straight. That road it's
[21:52] possible to get through. Some shipments
[21:54] of food may get through. The road
[21:55] running from Bedoa over to another place
[21:57] in the so-called triangle of death. Bada
[22:00] uh we were told today is heavily mined.
[22:02] The road's minded. The side of the road
[22:03] is mined. I don't think anything can get
[22:05] through there.
[22:06] >> What kind of reaction are you getting to
[22:08] the announced ceasefire between the
[22:10] rival warlords? Does that have any
[22:12] resonance at all at the moment?
[22:14] >> Well, yes, it certainly does and
[22:15] particularly here in Moadishu. Uh this
[22:18] uh in Moadishu, spirits are on the rise.
[22:21] Look, uh there's a lot of trouble here.
[22:23] For one thing, uh the lawlessness, if
[22:25] anything, has gotten worse everywhere
[22:27] except inside the the Marines perimeter.
[22:29] There's rising tension in the street. Uh
[22:32] fist fights, smuggings, sporadic
[22:34] gunshots. Uh things are getting worse on
[22:37] the streets of Bogadishu. Overall, the
[22:39] Somalian the Somali are are almost
[22:42] overjoyed that these warlords have said,
[22:44] "Okay, we're going to try to get it
[22:46] together and help the Americans." But
[22:47] that's in Mogadishu out there,
[22:49] particularly west and south of here. Uh
[22:51] the hell continues to just draw an ever
[22:54] deepening circle.
[22:55] >> Dan Rather, thank you. Reporting from
[22:57] Mogadishu, Somalia this morning. We'll
[23:00] be right back.