Transcripts For CNNW CNN Newsroom 20121116 : vimarsana.com

Welcome to newsroom international. Were taking you around the world in 60 minutes. Were beginning with breaking news. An explosion on an oil platform in the gulf of mexico just set off a major fire. Two workers are now missing. Want to bring in chad myers with the latest on what we know about this. Any details . Literally things just coming in here. It was a production platform. It was not a drilling rig. It was in shallow water. It was not deep water. They were not drilling. There was not a blowout. This is not take two, okay . This is not like we saw in 2010. This is not an environmental disaster according to the coast guard thats out there right now. This is not what we saw when it took ray year to cap that oil from coming into the gulf of mexico, but six were injured. Two possibly killed from this explosion. It was considered to be a production problem. Production and drilling completely different. Production means its railroad working. They dont even believe there was any oil coming out because of the construction that was going on in that. And what would it take, actually, to assess some of those because one of the problems was before you had that leaking that was going on, it was a mile underneath the surface, and people did have i sense of what was taking place until much, much later. Is this the kind of thing that you can assess right away what theyre dealing with . Right away within 12 hours. We couldnt get down to the base of the old well because it was thousands of feet down. You cant put a diver down there. With this being in shallow water, less than 500 feet, and probably much less than that, we can can assess that much, much quicker. By tonight theyll know whats going on. Right now theyre saying no oil in the water. Were worried about the men and women in the platform and theyre worried about the disaster at this point in time because the coast guard is out there trying to find two of the big i want to bring in this is tazzman alfonso. This is a spokeswoman for the West Jefferson Medical Center. Can you hear me . Yes, can i hear you. Barely. I understand there are some that we know are injured. Can you tell us about that . Im sorry. Didnt hear you. Has anybody been injured from this i can tell you that we have a total of four injured here at West Jefferson Medical Center. All four are in critical condition. We got the first three at 9 55 a. M. , and the fourth one at 10 10 a. M. This morning. They were all helicoptered in. What is the nature of their injuries . Can you describe it for us . Because of law, i cannot detail their injuries, but i can tell you as soon as they are stabilized, that they will be transported through the baton rouge burn center. Are these serious in nature . It is critical condition. That is what i can say stit. We are having Critical Care nurses transported with the patients via ambulance to the baton rouge burn center. They are going to be intube ated and drip on their trip there to make sure that they are properly cared for before they get to the burn center in baton rouge. Is there any indication that might be getting additional patients bught in . There is a possibility that we may get one or two, but that hasment been confirmed. Well get back to you as soon as you have more information about the state of those patients and whether or not there are more injuries on their way. This platform, which seems to be some sort of incident of fire that occurred there. Well have more, and well be following this breaking news story throughout the next two hours. Turning now to the middle east. Despite a very brief ceasefire, rockets are flying back and forth between gaza and israel. The death toll is now rising. Hamass rockets are reaching farther into israel than ever before. Israel says they didnt cause much damage. Palestinian Officials Say rockets from israel have killed 24 palestinians and wounded 200 in the past two days. Three died yesterday from rocket fire. Egypt dispatched its Prime Minister to gaza to show support for the Palestinian People and hamas today. He met with hamass Prime Minister about the casualties on the ground. He visited a hospital, showed emotion over the death of a 1yearold boy. He also read a verse from the koran and later egypts president Mohammed Morsi gave a fiery speech in support of the Palestinian People on state tv. Listen. We support the people of gaza. What hurts them, hurts us. Hate and violence between the israelis and palestinians was sparked by this. Israels assassination of hamass military chief on wednesday. An assassination that israel called necessary because of increased rocket attacks from gaza into israel the last several weeks. Our Senior International correspondent ben wiederman has been covering the middle east. Youve been covering it for decades now. When you see israel moving hundreds of troops to the border of israel and gaza and saying its going to call up 16,000 more reservists, what does that sound like theyre preparing for . Certainly would case that theyre preparing for a Ground Invasion of gaza. In fact, this is very similar to what happened in the 2008, 2009 fight between hamas and israel. Israel for the first few days pounded targets around gaza, and then sent in the troops. Certainly, i mean, if you listen, for instance, to what ehud barack, the Israeli Defense minister told cnn yesterday, he essentially said that we want to put an end once and for all to the firing of missiles from gaza into israel, and theres no other way to do that logically than to go in and not only smash hamass military capabilities, but to smash it as an organization, and, frankly, thats a fairly tall order. Thats what they tried to do in 2008, 2009. It didnt really work. In fact, hamas was only more entrenched in power in gaza after that, so i think were looking ahead to some very difficult days certainly for the people of gaza and for the people of southern israel. Lets more than 400 rockets have been fired into israel from gaza since this operation began, and you have the iron dome Defense System intercepting at least a quarter of them. Away do you make of the capabilities of both sides . Certainly its completely out of balance. I mean, israel is by far the most powerful military power m middle east compared to hamas, which, you know, can only man sort of field a few thousand men. They do have these rockets, but obviously they dont have any airplanes or tanks or mying. Its a fairly uneven fight, but the problem is, of course, politically it has come at a high cost for israel, particularly when theres a high civilian casualty. So far the civilian deaths on the palestinian side have been compared to 2008, 2009 relatively small. You remember in that 20day war around 1,500 palestinians were killed. So far 48 hours into this fight only around 25 palestinians have been killed, but if they go in with Ground Troops that could change much for the worse, suzanne. Ben, looking at me. Watching closely. Egypts newly elected Mohamed Morsi is a tight spot. He needs to show hamas support because they have roots in the Muslim Brotherhood, a group morsi once led in ewript, and he also wants the respect of the peace treaty that stands between israel. He doesnt want to lose western support. He was elected on april groundswell of passion. Part of that passion being antimubarak, who the egyptian people saw as abandoning the palestinians back in 2008, 2009. He is the man who has to stand up to the palestinians and hold the ambassador to egypt to israel and so he is trying to look up, but he cant be too tough, though, because if this peace treaty is strengthened, the west steps in with their billions of dollars in aid that they give to egypt every year. Their economy stinks at the moment, and they need that money to survive. You know, its another reason why egypt and i think all the players there dont want this to go that far. Can they count on egypts support . It would be a big deal if it escalated in a tanning i object sense. I dont know about supplying weaponry or Something Like that. I cannot see that happening. Egypt needs western money. European and importantly, United States money just to survive economically. The sense is i dont think any of these people want to go to a ground war. Israel has an election in two months. They dont want dead soldiers. Netanyahu doesnt want dead soldiers. Egypt cant afford for things to go south for them as well. I get the feeling that everyone is waiting for a truce to come out to be brought up probably in egypt, and everyone can say they both won and go back to the highly unsatisfactory status quo. Lets listen to one egyptian official what they believe could be a peace treaty. Respecting the peace treaty does not mean theyre indifferent what is going on along our borders, and what is touching our we cannot be indifferent to human suffering. So we are abiding by our obligations, but we are active to help establish real peace in the area. What do you make of that . We were saying before, there is a need for this truce to come out. I think theres probably being one worked on right now. Im sure that i was talking to tony blair, the british Prime Minister, an envoy to the region. Theyre running hot. Theyre trying to get a truce together. Things can go south very quickly, and it doesnt take much. If one of these missiles lands in a sensitive place in jerusalem, lands on an Apartment Building in televeef, then it could be Ground Invasion time. At the moment as long as they keep it to a dull roar as we like to say in australia, i think that theres a chance that i dont think they want what is the role of the United States playing here . We already know the defense secretary leon panetta weighed in with his counterpart saying, look, you know, be careful that youre not going to have civilians, mass casualties here . Do you think that they played an effective role . Do they have leverage . Do they have much leverage . They have a little bit of leverage with israel, and we were chat about this, and when it comes to settlements and the rest the israeli leadership has ignored. In this situation i think they are listening. I think that theyre trying to get cooler heads to prevail. Same as theres pressure being put by egypt on hamas. Its not looking good. All right. Mike, thank you. Appreciate it. This is a big story. Were going to be following it coming up in about 20 minutes. Well be talking about this with former middle east envoy senator george mitchell. Former cia rector David Petraeus has testifi t e attack on the u. S. Consulate in benghazi. One republican says there is a discrepancy on a count given by pet whys in the count initially given by the white house. Uld seu a picture. Floor to ceiling bookshelves. Floor to ceiling bookshelves. Original windows. Original windows. And this. Is that a. Fireplace face yes, yes it is. Fireplace shaped like a face. I know right [ male announcer ] only at ts network lets you talk and surf at the same time on your iphone 5. Rethink possible. [ male announcer ] youve been years in the making. And there are many years ahead. Join the millions of members whove chosen an aarp Medicare Supplement Insurance Plan insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company. Go long. Insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company. Customer erin swenson bought so, im happy. Today. Sales go up. Im happy. It went out today. Im happy. What if shes not home . together she wont be happy. Use ups she can get a text alert, reroute. Even reschedule her package. Its ups my choice. Are you happy . Im happy. Im happy. Im happy. Im happy. Im happy. Happy. Happy. Happy. Happy. together happy. I love logistics. Members of congress have been demand it for days. This morning they got a detail of the u. S. Consulate attack in benghazi. The man who was the head of the cia at the time, david petd petraeus. He testified behind closed doors to both the house and Senate Intelligence committees. Dana bash was there as lawmakers were leaving this meeting. Shes joining us from capitol hill, and, dana, theres been a lot of outrage about these conflicting intelligence reports on this attack. Was there anything that petraeus said today to kind of clear up some of the confusion. It seemed that he certainly tried. When were talking about confusion, its whether or not the Intelligence Community gave appropriate or enough information, maybe emphasis is the right word, on what turns out to be more of the case, which is there are extremist elements that are behind the attack on the consulate in benghazi, much more than a protest which doesnt even appear to have existed. That was what petraeus came in here to try to clear up, but the republicans and democrats are coming out, and republicans for the most part who were talking said that they didnt think that petraeuss recollection of his initial briefing here was exactly the way he thought, and democrats said, no, its fine. Its exactly what he thought. He came in, and he said that it could be extremism extremist elements. It could be these protests, and were not just going to find out for a little while, and this today he was coming to give an update. One other thing that has been very controversial coming out of these briefings, whether or not susan rice, the u. N. Ambassador the u. S. Ambassador to the u. N. , had the proper information or was correct in what she said publicly about the attack being probably at that point four days after the attack because of a demonstration. Democrats are really to a person coming to her defense aggressively and trying to explain why there was a discrepancy. Listen to kent conrad of the democratic member of the Senate Health care community. What is very clear is that ambassador rice used the talking points that the Intelligence Committee had all signed off on. That is very, very clear. She used the unclassified talking points that were signed off on by the entire Intelligence Community, so criticisms of her are completely unwarranted. That is very clear. And susan, Dianne Feinstein, just moments ago actually took out and read the unclassified talking points that susan rice used on that day, and they were very short. It sounds like there were two, maybe three points in the talking points, and it was almost certain to change. Even Dianne Feinstein doesnt like to get political on these, and she was aggressive in her defense saying shes being unfairly hillaryed. Who did she get the talking points from . Did she get it from general petraeus, and, secondly, is there some sort of suggestion that perhaps they gave the talking points, but they still had other intelligence that was clear it of as terrorist attack . The suggestion, it seems to be that the difference here in what theyre trying to the picture theyre trying to paint is theres a difference between unclassified talking points, what they can talk about in public, and classified talking points, what at the time still they didnt feel comfortable talking about in public for whatever reason. That is the difference that theyre painting. Where she got the talking points, unclear if its from petraeus. I can tell thaw the director of National Intelligence clapper was here also for a separate briefing in a room right behind me, and he also showed and talked about the talking points. Theyre definitely trying to clear this up inside the Intelligence Community. Right quickly here, any questions about this affair with this biographer of Paula Broadwell and the circumstances around him stepping down . In the fest meeting he was asked right at the beginning by the intelligence chairman whether or not his resignation had anything to do with benghazi, that he wanted to clear that up, and general petraeus said definitively no, they had nothing to do with one another. We just heard from the senate that the intelligence chairwoman that he has virtually said the same thing, and nothing else was asked about his affair or his resignation. Dana, thank you. Appreciate it. Now that lawmakers have heard from the former cia director David Petraeus, were going to break it down and see what it means. Retired general james spider marks joins us after the break. Try running four. Ning a restaurant is hard, fortunately weve got ink. It gives us 5x the rewards on our internet, phone charges and cable, plus at Office Supply stores. Rewards we put right back into our business. This is the only thing weve ever wanted to do and ink helps us do it. Make your mark with ink from chase. Soothes you to sleep with ingredients like melatonin. Its safe with no side effects, so you wake up. Ready to go. [ male announcer ] unisom natural nights. Lawmakers arent just hearing information about the attack on the u. S. Consulate in benghazi. They are also now seeing it. House and Senate Intelligence Committee Members were shown footage of the attack taken by surveillance cameras and a drone. Retired army general cnn contributor james spider marks joining us from washington. First of all, lawmakers say they watch this video. They saw the attack from beginning to end, and it even included shots of the ambassador being dragged out from this building here. Hard to watch. Why didnt this intelligence actually help with the initial response and a potential rescue mission . Suzanne, you are really getting a tactical view of what occurred, and i dont think there was any debate in any of the discussions over the course of the last two months that this was brutal, that this was very targeted. The issue became what motivated this to occur, and, again, from t