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AROUND THE WORLD
911 Tape In Zimmerman Case To Be Further Discussed In Court After Holiday; More Extreme Heat In Southwest U.S.; Catching Up With The Bushes In Zambia; Military Controls Egypt Again; Anatomy of the Yarnell Hill Fire
Aired July 4, 2013 - 12:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back.
George Zimmerman's trial might take a bit of an emotional turn when the court resumes. They're in recess, of course, for the July the Fourth holiday here in the United States.
But, you know, tomorrow, Trayvon Martin's mother and brother could be called to testify about whose voice is on a 911 tape.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: The person is heard yelling for help during that fatal fight between Zimmerman and Martin.
The screams are considered crucial evidence because they could determine who the aggressor was in that fight.
HOLMES: Yesterday, the jury saw what has become something of a symbol of this tragedy, the hoodie worn by Martin on the night he was killed.
Jurors also got a close look at the gun Zimmerman used to shoot the unarmed teenager, and, of course, for our international viewers, we've been covering this story a bit, too, but it's been massively covered here in the United States.
WHITFIELD: It is, and the prosecution likely to rest soon and the defense picking up. It will be interesting to see whether the defense does call witnesses or if they rest.
Meantime, it is a soggy Fourth of July for millions of Americans and it's impressively hot for others.
HOLMES: Yeah, it is indeed. It is certainly soggy here, rain drenching the Southeast where flash floods are possible again today.
The Ohio River Valley also has a risk of flooding.
WHITFIELD: Meanwhile, there is more extreme heat in the Southwest. Cities in California, Nevada and Arizona have topped 120 degrees in the past few days. Folks doing all they can to try and keep cool.
HOLMES: That is hot. Half a world away, Egypt's new democracy in turmoil.
WHITFIELD: A popular uprising resulted in a military overthrow of the country's first freely elected president, and a new leader was installed, at least an interim one.
HOLMES: Yes, see how long he is there. We don't know.
But the ousted president and many of his Muslim Brotherhood leaders now under arrest. They're being rounded up at the moment, including the spiritual leader, this after just a year in power.
Now the Muslim Brotherhood, of course, is outraged over this coup. I spoke earlier with a senior adviser to the group.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEHAD EL-HADDAD, SENIOR ADVISER, MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD: This is an illegitimate military coup. I don't know how the rest of the world is watching this and letting it slip by.
The voice of the people has been betrayed by its own military, taxpayers money that took up a political position to side with a certain faction and to remove a democratically elected president as well in Egypt.
I can't believe that in one year we managed to (inaudible) back the military inside Egypt in an attempted coup that is trying to subvert the constitution that has been approved by 64 percent of Egyptian, and install an illegitimate president.
HOLMES: How do you think the Muslim Brotherhood supporters are going to react to what has happened?
There have been calls for calm and there are those who have been speaking of taking somewhat darker action.
EL-HADDAD: No violent action at all. We're sticking to peaceful means and peaceful mechanisms.
We're an organization committed to a peaceful nature and we are committed to non-violent roots of containing the mechanism of how this country is governing.
We're patriotic and we are not going to let this country die again into a military dictatorship even if it's slapped with a civilian face on top of it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: There you have it there, Gehad El-Haddad there, speaking to me earlier, saying that the Brotherhood, or the organization at least, promising to retain a peaceful stature throughout all of this political turmoil, although we have been hearing from Fareed and others that there is fear that other more radical elements may not be quite so peaceful. WHITFIELD: Yeah, if there was uncertainty after the Arab Spring, there is certainly uncertainty now.
The country right now is clearly in a tug of war between Islamists and secular groups.
HOLMES: Morsy, of course, had become increasingly unpopular at a grassroots level because critics say he failed to live up to his promises, also was installing an authoritarian monopolistic sort of regime, if you like.
Well, Heba Morayef is the director of Human Rights Watch in Egypt, joins us now from Cairo.
You know, when you talk about human rights, whether you like the Muslim Brotherhood or not, you must be concerned about what we're hearing about mass arrests of Muslim Brotherhood members and other things you are seeing there in Egypt. It doesn't augur well for inclusive democracy going forward.
HEBA MORAYEF, HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH, EGYPT DIRECTOR: Absolutely. I think that's the most disturbing thing that has happened in the last few hours, and obviously since the announcement of a coup by the military.
And in his speech yesterday the minister of defense said the process going forward had to be inclusive, and yet the first thing we saw was that three television stations, one of which belongs to the Muslim Brotherhood, were taken off the air by order of the ministry of interior.
And then over that evening the arrests started, so the head of the Freedom and Justice Party was actually taken from his home and we're sort of slowly trying to put together the list of people that have actually been arrested so far with news of an arrest warrant for other Muslim Brotherhood members out there.
Clearly a violation of human rights and, honestly, bringing us back to the pre-2011 Mubarak era approach to the Muslim Brotherhood.
WHITFIELD: How do you classify this? What do you call it? Do you classify this as the ultimate we trail by this military leadership?
MORAYEF: The ministry is always active in its own interests. What it did on February 11th, in 2011, was intervened a military coup to get rid of Mubarak and ruled for a year-and-a-half and this time on back of the mass protests on June 30th the process through intervening which they're then trying diploze so of course it is a coup.
HOLMES: And just very briefly before we let you go, on the grassroots, street level here, you're concerned about the law and order issue, too, and even during these protests, these so-called "joyous" protests in Tahrir Square, an enormous number of sexual assaults going on.
MORAYEF: Horrific sexual assaults. This has been a long-term problem in Egypt, sexual violence in general and, in particular, over the last two years in Tahrir Square behind me a spike in the number of sexual assault cases.
This is the worst week we have ever seen in Egypt, over 169 women have been attacked and sexually assaulted by mobs and I think been around seven gang rapes cases so far, so horrific levels and a government that has failed to deal with it.
WHITFIELD: Heba Morayef, thank you so much for joining us. Be safe.
All right, from president of the United States to painter, the first painter perhaps, for five years, former President George W. Bush is stepping back into the spotlight with a paint brush.
HOLMES: Or we step into his.
He tells us what he has been up to since leaving the Oval Office. He is trying to be low key.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROBYN CURNOW, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Bush says that when he's at home in Texas he spends much of his time painting portraits and landscapes.
They were pretty good.
FORMER PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: Well, thank you. When you paint by numbers, it is not that hard.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
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WHITFIELD: The South African government says Nelson Mandela remains in critical but stable condition after almost four weeks now in the hospital.
HOLMES: This latest update coming after President Jacob Zuma visited the anti-apartheid hero.
Now Mandela's eldest daughter said last week the 94-year-old is breathing with the aid of life support.
WHITFIELD: He is receiving treatment for a recurring lung infection which has been a problem ever since he spent 27 years in prison for fighting apartheid.
HOLMES: And the former president of the United States, George W. Bush, managed to stay pretty much out of the limelight for five years now.
WHITFIELD: It's been his choice, hasn't it?
HOLMES: It has.
WHITFIELD: But our Robyn Curnow caught up with him in Zambia while he was painting a health clinic there.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CURNOW: The (inaudible) is still there, but the responsibility isn't.
BUSH: It is an awesome experience being here.
CURNOW: George W. Bush says he doesn't miss presidential life.
BUSH: Like a moth to a candle.
CURNOW: Happy here in rural Africa, fixing up this simple clinic.
This is really good for you.
BUSH: Oh, it's good for my soul because, in the midst -- first of all, I come from a privileged land, and a land of plenty, and so when we come to a place where there is deprivation, to see such joy, it is a reminder the human condition can be full of great spirit.
CURNOW: For five years, he says he's made a conscious effort to stay out of the limelight, few speeches, no conferences, and no criticism of his successor.
BUSH: It is difficult, and a former president doesn't need to make it harder as far as I am concerned.
Other presidents have taken different decisions. That's mine.
CURNOW: Slowly, though, he says he is emerging, bringing attention to women's health issues, a continent away.
BUSH: See, we did one of these in (inaudible) last year, and there are a lot of women that came, a lot.
CURNOW: (Inaudible).
BUSH: Yeah, it's very special. And they kept coming.
CURNOW: It wasn't just that one day when the ribbons were cut.
BUSH: No. Some local said, OK, President Bush, Mrs. Bush, make sure you show up. OK. There is a need.
CURNOW: President Bush says when he is at home in Texas he spends much of his time painting portraits and landscapes.
They were pretty good.
BUSH: Well, thank you. You know, when you paint by numbers, it is not that hard.
CURNOW: Here in Zambia, it is the clinic walls getting a fresh coat.
In a way, it is quite spiritual, isn't it, when you know such good work is going to be done in this tiny little building? BUSH: Yeah, we view it as a mission of mercy. But it's not our mercy. So when you say spiritual, I agree with you. And our motivation is to help save lives.
CURNOW: His current project builds on PETFAR, a presidential program that provided anti-AIDS drugs to millions of people, mostly in Africa.
BUSH: There needed to be an impatience because thousands were dying and kind of the world wasn't responding, and so I guess -- I mean, I'm kind of an impatient guy.
CURNOW: From an impatient president of a privileged land, now a volunteer still with steely-eyed focus as he tries to find meaning away from the Oval Office.
Robyn Curnow, CNN, Livingston, Zambia.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: Well, after months of protest, the Egyptian military removing the country's president from power.
WHITFIELD: Indeed.
And bringing in an interim leader.
Up next, we'll look at the military's role in Egypt's uncertain future.
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WHITFIELD: All right. Again, Americans are celebrating the Fourth of July and two U.S. senators are spending the Fourth in Afghanistan. We're talking about Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham. It is one of those unannounced visits kept quiet for security purposes, of course.
HOLMES: Yes, the old unannounced visit. We've heard that a lot in Iraq and Afghanistan. Now the senators did meet with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, also with U.S. troops in Kabul. They are both members of the Senate Armed Services Committee. All international combat troops are scheduled to be out of Afghanistan by the end of next year.
WHITFIELD: And then police are investigating the disappearance of British toddler Madeleine McCann. Remember her? They say they've identified 38 people of interest.
HOLMES: Thirty-eight. I know this broke just an hour or two ago. McCann, of course, disappeared while her family was on vacation in Portugal six years ago. U.K. officers have spent the past two years reviewing the initial investigations and say they came across new witness evidence.
WHITFIELD: The lead detective says police continue to believe there is a possibility that McCann is alive. HOLMES: Egypt's military has dominated the country for decades, the most powerful group in the country. Today, the generals again exercising that power. In Cairo, some praise and some criticism of the coup that toppled President Mohamed Morsy.
WHITFIELD: The military has laid out a road map for moving the country forward, but critics say the latest action moves Egypt backwards. Atika Shubert examines the role of the Egyptian military, past and present.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Is Egypt's military a hero stepping in to restore order, or does it threaten to put the country under indefinite military rule? Well, since the 1952 coup d'etat by Gamal Abdel Nasser, the military has always been crucial to securing and maintaining political power in Egypt. The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, or SCAF, is massive. More than 450,000 personnel taking up 3 percent of the country's budget. And under President Hosni Mubarak, a former military chief himself, retired officers staffed the highest levels of government.
In 2011, when protesters filled Tahrir Square and demanded Mubarak step down, it was the military that offered to run the country for six months to widespread public support. But six months turned into 17. And when Islamist Mohamed Morsy was elected president, the military gave up the reins of power.
Now, since then, the military has, for the most part, stayed on the sidelines. But when millions filled the streets again calling for Morsy to leave, the military weighed in once again.
For now, the generals have the support of anti-government protesters, hoping perhaps that they will safeguard the country's unruly transition to democracy without over staying their welcome.
Atika Shubert, CNN, London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: Well, they were members of an elite firefighting team known as "The Hot Shots."
WHITFIELD: So sad. But the fire at Yarnell Hill was so unpredictable, they were unable to ride it out. Up next, the anatomy of a deadly fire.
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WHITFIELD: Here in the U.S., just how exactly did those 19 heroic firefighters die in the fire still raging near Yarnell, Arizona.
HOLMES: Yes, it is still going, isn't it. Officials trying to unravel how that deadly fire started and how the Granite Mountain Hot Shots got trapped inside. Here's Brian Todd.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Sunday, midafternoon, Firefighter Andrew Ashcraft texts his wife this picture of his crewmates as they get ready to continue their battle with the Yarnell Hill fire. The last known picture of the Granite Mountain Hot Shots before the fire suddenly blew up, killing 19 of them, including Ashcraft.
The anatomy of this fire, the specific events causing that tragedy, are still under investigation. What we know so far, officials believe the fire started the afternoon of Friday, June 28th, with a lightning strike near Yarnell.
TODD (on camera): Officials say because the weather in the region has been consistently so hot and dry, because livestock grazing in the area has been limited, once that lightning bolt struck, there were plenty of fuels like this on the ground that would have enabled the fire to spread so quickly.
TODD (voice-over): What are those fuels? Shelby Erickson, with the Highlands Fire District, whose battled about 400 wildland fires, says fires in this area feed off dry grass, shrubbery and -
SHELBY ERICKSON, WILDLAND FIRE EXPERT: The needle accumulation or leaf accumulation and over years it breaks down, actually starts turning into dirt essentially. But the top layer is the needles and leaves that have just been sluffed off.
TODD: A bone-dry fuel load that experts say makes these fires more volatile and dangerous. One official says, on Sunday, this fire went from about 400 acres in size to 8,400 acres in a couple of hours. The Hot Shots were working on hills and in canyons. These fires shoot quickly uphill. But it was the sudden shifts in wind direction on Sunday, officials say, that caught the Hot Shot in a deadly trap.
What caused the winds to shift so fast?
JIM WHITTINGTON, SOUTHWEST AREA FIRE MANAGEMENT TEAM: It sounds like there was a thunderstorm with down drafts and that changed the direction of the fire and pushed the fire in the wrong direction.
TODD: Once they were trapped, officials say the Hot Shots deployed their shelters, individual sleeping bag like shells made of fire resistant material. Demonstrating the procedure for us, Firefighter Lance Cole got into one in about 15 seconds. It took me a little longer.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Pull it over you.
TODD (on camera): When you're underneath the fire shelter, according to Shelby and Lance, you've got to feel it like this to trap breathable air underneath. Make sure you have your water with you.
TODD (voice-over): Then, ride it out. Erickson was careful not to comment on the actions of the Granite Mountain Hot Shots, but he says if the fire is that violent, if there's enough fuel near you on the ground -
ERICKSON: And if it's that incredible and it's that dry and the fire's moving that fast, it may be so hot that this won't provide that radiant heat blockage.
TODD: So far it appears that between the fuel that was on the ground and the fact that the Yarnell Hill Fire changed directions so quickly and moved so fast at that moment, the shelters deployed just couldn't protect those 19 men.
Brian Todd, CNN, Skull Valley, Arizona.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: And, of course, you want to tune in later on this afternoon as we are remembering those Hot Shots, the 19 firefighters killed in Arizona.
HOLMES: Indeed. That program is called "True Heroes." It is today at 3:30 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN, if you're in the United States. International viewers will be getting other programing at that time.
WHITFIELD: That's right.
Hey, it's not the kind of language you might expect at a school board meeting
HOLMES: Have a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You're still smirking at me. Please.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, would you please shut up for Christ sake.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You really need to get out. You need to get out.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Who are you hiding behind, your paycheck?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Oh, goodness me. That wasn't even the worst of it.
WHITFIELD: Oh, boy.
HOLMES: Next hour we'll be telling you what started this screaming match. Please behave, people.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: it's an incredible situation. So many powerful images are now coming out of Egypt today. Just here are a few that kind of caught our eye.
HOLMES: Yes, let's start with this one. An Egyptian military member there standing, guarded a roadblock. This is in the district of Giza (ph). That's not too far from the pyramids, actually.
WHITFIELD: And on a bridge in Cairo, the Egyptian army stops to pray on the same night that the country's interim leader is installed.
HOLMES: Yes. And take a look at this. A poignant moment. A man sleeping on the ground near Tahrir Square this morning. A lot of those demonstrators were out there for a very long time.
And that will do it for me. Thanks for watching AROUND THE WORLD.
WHITFIELD: All right.
HOLMES: You're not done yet. Carry on.
WHITFIELD: Not done yet. We have much more in the NEWSROOM for our viewers in the United States.
HOLMES: And international viewers, you'll have the I-desk coming up.
WHITFIELD: All right. Thanks, Michael.
HOLMES: See you later.
