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American Morning

Two Days of Hearings Set to Begin on Capitol Hill; Interview with Richard Ben-Veniste

Aired April 13, 2004 - 08:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Also this morning, you may have wondered what the doctor is looking at when he or she opens up your file and studies your medical records. Well, Dr. Sanjay Gupta is going to join us in just a few moments to tell us how you how you can get a peek inside that folder. The big question, of course, would you have any idea what you are looking at? Do you really want to know?
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: I like that second part. Do you really want to know?

Let's start again here at the half hour in Iraq. In Iraq, there are reports of heavy fighting in a helicopter crash. This is west of Baghdad, in Fallujah. At least two Marines are dead, eight wounded, an intense firefight last night. That battle lasted about an hour. It started when insurgents attacked a building, which houses those Marines. Also this morning east of Fallujah, witnesses telling the A.P. a helicopter, an Apache, was hit by a rocket and went down. No word on casualties. A live report from Iraq in a moment on all of that.

Also some videotape a bit later this morning. We'll show you what's happening there today. Also, the questioning today of the wanted radical cleric Muqtada Al Sadr. He was spotted leaving a mosque. The aide was also in Najaf earlier today. U.S. forces had detained one of those aides in Baghdad, and later released him, saying he was not behind any of the recent violence. So the question and answer session with him is now over. More on this as we move throughout the day here.

A Pakistani scientist claims to have seen three North Korean nuclear devices. "The New York Times" reports A Qkhan (ph), known as the father of Pakistan's nuclear program, told interrogators that North Korea granted him a brief inspection of the weapons five years ago. U.S. intelligence officials unsure if Khan had the time, the expertise or the equipment to verify that nuclear claim at the time.

In this country, a Fresno, California, man will stand trial in the deaths of nine of his children. A judge ruling yesterday that there is enough evidence to charge Marcus Wesson. He pleaded not guilty to murder and sexual abuse charges earlier. Police found a pile of bodies at his home last month. Each victim was shot once in the eye.

A pair of blackouts left some travelers and gamblers without much luck. A power failure shutting the luxurious Bellagio Hotel Casino in Vegas. Thousands will have to be replaced, cables, that is, before the hotel can reopen this morning. That's at the earliest, they say.

Meanwhile, further west, Los Angeles, the airport there, a brief power outage caused minor disruptions in flight traffic. The outage lasted less than a minute, we are told.

A wealthy executive getting a higher salary for firing people. Donald Trump negotiating a pay boost for the next two seasons of his hit reality TV show "The Apprentice." Sources telling the "L.A. Times" he'll get at least double his current salary, which is about 50 grand per episode. Two more to look forward to. Thursday night is it, Kwame and Bill, one of them wins? You following this?

O'BRIEN: Yes.

HEMMER: I think Thursday night.

O'BRIEN: I think Donald Trump needs some money to bail out some of his casinos. What does that add up to?

HEMMER: There's a question in there.

O'BRIEN: Interesting. Interesting.

(WEATHER REPORT)

O'BRIEN: The 9/11 Commission has saved some of its toughest questions for the FBI, the CIA and the Justice Department. Two days of hearings are set to begin on Capitol Hill in less than an hour.

Bob Franken is standing by for us at the Capitol this morning.

Hey, Bob, good morning.

BOB FRANKEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.

And the former director of the FBI, Louis Freeh, can expect some very tough questioning. The FBI can expect to really have its reputation challenged. There are going to be charges that the FBI, because of the cultural way it was set up, and because of a lack of will within the agency, did not do all that it could have done to investigate the possibility of terrorist acts in the United States. Now Freeh and "The Wall Street Journal" article that he's expected to echo as he testifies, will say there was no political will, he didn't get enough money, although some people are saying that he was getting a huge increase in money for the fight against terrorism.

Also, expected to be criticized is Attorney General John Ashcroft. The former acting director of the FBI, who was in charge in the summer of 2001 when Freeh had left, Thomas Pickard, is going to say that Ashcroft rejected his pleas to increase the focus on terrorism. Ashcroft is expected to deny, his aides already are, that that was not the case, that he gave terrorism and counterterrorism a high priority. This is going to be the first of two days as you pointed out. Tomorrow, the intelligence community will also face the same kind of tough grilling. A lot of finger pointing about to happen -- Soledad. O'BRIEN: All right, Bob Franken for us. Bob, thanks a lot.

A lot more on that tough grilling now. 9/11 commissioner, Richard Ben-Veniste is in Washington, D.C. and joins us.

Nice to see you, sir.

As we just heard, Louis Freeh as you well know, first up at 9:30. What do you want answered from him?

RICHARD BEN-VENISTE, 9/11 COMMISSION MEMBER: We're going to ask a number of questions. After all, our function is to develop the factual record of 9/11 and to elicit recommendations to make us safer as we go forward.

The FBI had the principal responsibility for defending us domestically. So we will ask questions relating to the structure of the FBI, why it was certain information which had been collected was not disseminated and put in the hands of individuals who might just might conceivably have made a difference.

O'BRIEN: You certainly had lots of contentious questioning when you were talking to Condoleezza Rice the other day. What do you think is the most significant piece of information that you've gotten since these hearings have convened?

BEN-VENISTE: Let me clarify that.

Our function is to find the facts. And this is not personal, and it's not partisan. Each of us on this commission has sworn a solemn oath to do the best job we can to fulfill our responsibilities in providing the facts to the American people. And so, that's what we're going about to do.

O'BRIEN: Okay. Then I'll restate that as you had a lively exchange often with Condoleezza Rice the other day. What do you think -- and not necessarily out of her testimony but other testimony -- since the entire hearings have convened, what do you think is the most significant piece of information you've taken away so far?

BEN-VENISTE: It is the fact that despite our extraordinary, extraordinary individuals who work for the FBI, the CIA and our other agencies, who will give their lives to protect us, somehow the system didn't work properly. And this is a question of how to fix it and looking at what went wrong so that we know what needs to be fixed. And that is the central issue, I think, that we are grappling with.

O'BRIEN: Here's a little of what the president had to say yesterday at the ranch in Crawford, Texas.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: They included the fact that the FBI was conducting field investigations, which comforted me. You see, it meant the FBI was doing its job. The FBI was running down any lead. And I will tell you this, Scott, that had they found something, I'm confident they would have reported back to me. That's the way the system works.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: Or as some would say the system doesn't work in this particular case. Are you inclined to blame the system as many have done or are you looking to blame a specific person at the end of all of this?

BEN-VENISTE: You know what? I'm not looking to blame anybody, Soledad. I am looking to get the facts so we can report it.

This is an extraordinary commission and it is a testimonial to our democracy that we are strong enough to have authorized a public inquiry into what went wrong to report on it without fear or favor. And that's what we're after. We will have a final report, I think, that will be credible and that the American public can rely upon.

O'BRIEN: 9/11 commissioner Richard Ben-Veniste joining us this morning from Washington, D.C. Thanks for being with us.

We're going to take you live to the 9/11 hearings and the testimony of former FBI director Louis Freeh. That happened at 9:30 a.m. Eastern Time -- Bill.

HEMMER: At the manslaughter trial of Jayson Williams, lawyers still debating the next move there. Defense attorneys asking the judge yesterday to throw out the charges. They accuse the prosecutor of misconduct for not giving records to the defense. We may get a decision today.

Adaora Udoji has more on this.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why did you change the report?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Judge, I disagree.

ADAORA UDOJI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): With the jury still on hold the prosecution and defense clashed repeatedly as lawyers for Jayson Williams fought to have aggravated manslaughter charges against the former NBA star dropped. Defense lawyers vigorously questioned a prosecution weapons expert whose notes about the shotgun involved in the death of Gus Christofi were not turned over until two weeks ago by lead prosecutor Steve Lember. The defense honed in on changes the expert made to his draft report months ago after talking to the prosecutor.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sir, didn't you tell us that you thought that was a substantive change?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, I don't think so.

UDOJI: All of this relates to what made the gunfire. Prosecutors accuse Williams of recklessly shooting at a limousine driver two years ago. The defense says the gun accidentally misfired. They accuse prosecutors of intentionally withholding the evidence to deny Williams a fair trial.

BILLY MARTIN, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: This discovery violation, your honor, we believe is part and parcel of a continuing pattern of conduct.

UDOJI: Prosecutors vehemently argued the late turnover was unintentional. That the defense has an ulterior motive.

KATHERINE ERRIKSON, PROSECUTOR: The defense wants the death of Gus Christofi to go unjudged because they don't like how Steve Lember handled this case.

UDOJI: At the end of nearly six hours the judge requested more time to review the record before making a decision. Which he said would come on Tuesday. Adaora Udoji, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HEMMER: We are told the court will reconvene later this afternoon without the jury present. In fact, the jury hasn't been there for a while. That's when we do expect a ruling. A dismissal probably would mean Jayson Williams could not be retried. Several legal experts, including our own, our own Jeff Toobin. We'll see which way we go later today.

COLLINS: Still to come this morning, more Americans want to be able to check out their medical records. Of course, the big question, is it really a good idea? We're going to find out from our Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

HEMMER: Also the saying says politics makes strange bedfellows. We've got the latest example. The California's governor's involved. Ahead here on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: A new study finds that two-thirds of patients want to see their medical records, but some doctors don't actually think that's a good idea.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta is at the CNN Center with the latest on how to get these records, and also, maybe more importantly, how to use them.

Hey, Sanjay. Good morning.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.

The argument sometimes a little bit of knowledge can be a dangerous thing may apply here. Listen, all patients have legal access to their medical records. That's been true for some time now. What hasn't been known and is the subject of a new study is how many patients actually want to see these records. Sometimes they can be a hassle, sometimes they may not know how to interpret them. So that was a study being done here, looking at 4,500 patients, finding 36 percent of the patients very interested in looking at their medical records, 43 percent of the patients somewhat interested, The Rest really not that interested at all in looking at their medical records.

What they wanted to see specifically, though, perhaps even more interesting. What they wanted to see out of these medical records is, first and foremost, what the doctors were saying about them, the physician's comments. Also, they wanted to be more involved with their health care, thinking if they knew what the medical records say, they could be more involved with that health care, and to better understand the condition.

All of this sort of predicated on an act called the Health Portability and Accountability Act, HEPA (ph). It's pretty well known in health care circles. And what is says specifically with regards to access to medical records is like this. It's sort of interesting. Since '96 now, people can access and get their medical records. Patients can request corrections. This has become an important point in the world of HEPA. And health care providers must provide those records within 30 days, charges only for copying and sending. So you can get your medical records, Soledad. Some people want to get them, about one-third of the people do, very interested in getting those, and you can legally -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: I think it's interesting a lot of people want to get their medical records because they want to see what their doctors are saying about them, and honestly, it sort of made me laugh a little bit. Do doctors put comments about their patients that differ from what they are actually telling their patients in their medical records, Sanjay?

GUPTA: You know, it's an interesting point. I think certainly there is doctor jargon, doctors sort of writing notes that other doctors will understand about a patient's condition, and that's both a pro and a con. On the pro side is patients get to see all of that. The con is they may not be able to understand exactly what they're saying. One of the interesting things that came out of this study was most of the researchers believe that if you actually release medical records, it's going to improve the communication between patients and their doctors, perhaps because patients are going to start asking, what does that jargon mean about this?

The downside, of course, Soledad, and I think you alluded to that earlier, is sometimes they can't digest all this information, they may not be able to comprehend it, and that's where it gets a little bit more dangerous -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: How do you think the Internet and Internet access to your records is going to change all of this?

GUPTA: You know, it's interesting. I'm actually surprised as a physician that this hasn't caught on in a bigger way among the medical community. Only about 10 percent to 15 percent of all hospitals and medical practices use electronic record keeping. I think once that happens, and I think it will happen, it's just going slower than I expected, once it happens, I think it's going to really increase the amount of these medical records being requested for a couple of reasons. One, it's going to be a lot easier. It's all going to be digitized. And two, it's going to be typed, so you won't have the messy doctor handwriting. People will be able to read this stuff and make sense out of it -- Soledad.

All right, Sanjay Gupta for us this morning. Sanjay, thanks.

O'BRIEN: Still to come this morning, reality TV, just how low can it go? We're going to let Jack fill you in, coming up.

Also, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger Is seeking signatures, and you might be surprised just where he's doing it. Andy Serwer has a look at that as AMERICAN MORNING continues, right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HEMMER: Ladies and gentlemen, Jack Cafferty.

It just gets better, doesn't it?

JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: In his effort to cut costs, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has a new best friend, unlike your humble reporter here. And, is the Comcast/Disney deal all but dead? Probably. And there are retail sales out this morning that should affect the market. It's a busy time. Andy Serwer "Minding Your Business."

Good morning.

ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Busy. Good morning. Good morning to you, Jack.

I don't know how I'm going to quite follow that, but I'm going to try. This is a Left Coast report, a California report we're going to do, California dreaming. Let's start off with Governor Schwarzenegger, who's basically gotten pretty high marks from the business community, from Wall Street, for all sorts of people, for stabilizing California's difficult financial situation, but there are more difficult tasks ahead. He's got to balance the budget over there, and plus, their sky-high workman comp costs that he's looking to reduce.

Now Arnold has enlisted an unlikely ally in this war on workman's comp costs. That being retail giant Costco. I've never heard of this kind of thing. He's gone to Costco, Jack, and gotten people there to work with him, to gather signatures, to put a petition on the ballot to reduce workman comp costs.

Now here's a picture Arnold at Costco, getting signatures, and that's a Costco clipboard. Of course, guess what, the Teamsters, who represent a lot of Costco workers, are not very happy about this at all, as you can imagine. But I've never heard of a politician enlisting the help of a private company like that. But that's what Arnold is able to do, do things differently from other politicians.

CAFFERTY: "The Alamo," I heard on the radio this morning, CBS reporting $140 million on that Turkey picture that grossed $9 million. And apparently, if those folks who were thinking of doing a deal are still interested, they better get to the doctor. SERWER: Well, there's two ways to look at this. There's an analyst out there saying this Comcast deal for Disney is as good as dead, in part because the company continues to screw up, to wit, Jack's analysis of "The Alamo" motion picture.

CAFFERTY: And they had some others, like "Hidalgo" and that animated Western thing. None of these pictures are any good, are they?

SERWER: On the other hand, maybe it'll make the stock go down. So Comcast is out there saying, well, we don't really think we're going to do this. Have you heard the phrase playing possum?

CAFFERTY: Sure.

SERWER: I think Comcast may be playing possum.

CAFFERTY: Don't you throw me in that briar patch.

SERWER: Do You want to talk about the market, though, quickly?

CAFFERTY: Retail sales numbers?

SERWER: Absolutely boffo. Yesterday was boffo, too. "Boffo" is the word of the day. 75 points, the Dow was up, and up all across the board. That's because investors are optimistic about earnings season, which is kicking off right now, and the big number is 1.8 percent retails sales growth in March, three times what was expected, highest number in a year, so good stuff there for the economy.

CAFFERTY: All right, thanks, Andy.

On to "The Cafferty File." If you thought you'd seen it all on reality TV, just wait. The BBC has come up with another idea. British channels say it's going to broadcast the first televised sperm race later this month. The...

O'BRIEN: What?

CAFFERTY: The two competitors are Dr. Leahy (ph), who is a scientist, and a guy names Zeron Byson (ph), who is a comedian, and probably you can make book on this thing in London, because you can bet on anything. It will be filmed by a microscope inside two test tubes. Absolutely true story. A BBC official says it's aimed at an audience that usually wouldn't normally like educational television. Makes sense.

First it was the Clintons -- what's the matter?

SERWER: Shocked. Shocked. That was her shock.

O'BRIEN: I thought we would be talking about a sperm whale race or something.

CAFFERTY: Don't be shocked and awed. That's how you got the way you are. Somebody won the race, you know what I'm saying? SERWER: That's as good as it gets.

O'BRIEN: Actually, it's twins.

CAFFERTY: Yes, well, it was a dead heat. A photo finish, as they say.

First it was the Clintons, now it's Barbara Walters. "The New York Daily News" reporting that Walters will be getting a $6 million advance on her memoirs. Walters announced a few months ago that she'll be leaving her anchor job at ABC's "20/20" in September. The deal will be with Miramax Books. Now guess what, Miramax and ABC are all part of Disney. Maybe the book will do better than "The Alamo."

And as promised, some people pamper their dogs with beauty treatments. Here is a picture of how to blow dry a chicken. This is from the Australia's royal Easter show. This is a pecking chicken having its hair blow dried after a poultry wash demonstration. I see No reason to blow dry your chicken if you didn't wash it first. The show takes place annually in Sydney. They say it's similar to a county or a state fair.

SERWER: Where do you find this stuff?

CAFFERTY: Sarah Leader (ph) is the demented young woman...

O'BRIEN: Two weeks ago, she was the brains behind the operation. Now she's demented.

When the stuff's good, she's the brains behind the operation.

CAFFERTY: That's right, and when it's about blow drying chickens, she's the demented woman who produces my segments.

O'BRIEN: I didn't know you could do a poultry wash.

SERWER: You got the chicken, Barbara Walters, the sperm. I don't know, is it all connected?

CAFFERTY: You know, like I said an hour ago, it's a three-hour show.

O'BRIEN: AMERICAN MORNING, real news that makes a difference.

SERWER: There you go.

HEMMER: Let's get a break here. In a moment, the former head of the FBI, Louis Freeh, before that commission, 90 -- check that --- 30 minutes from now. We'll be there live. Top of the hour, we'll talk about it, in depth here on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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Aired April 13, 2004 - 08:30   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Also this morning, you may have wondered what the doctor is looking at when he or she opens up your file and studies your medical records. Well, Dr. Sanjay Gupta is going to join us in just a few moments to tell us how you how you can get a peek inside that folder. The big question, of course, would you have any idea what you are looking at? Do you really want to know?
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: I like that second part. Do you really want to know?

Let's start again here at the half hour in Iraq. In Iraq, there are reports of heavy fighting in a helicopter crash. This is west of Baghdad, in Fallujah. At least two Marines are dead, eight wounded, an intense firefight last night. That battle lasted about an hour. It started when insurgents attacked a building, which houses those Marines. Also this morning east of Fallujah, witnesses telling the A.P. a helicopter, an Apache, was hit by a rocket and went down. No word on casualties. A live report from Iraq in a moment on all of that.

Also some videotape a bit later this morning. We'll show you what's happening there today. Also, the questioning today of the wanted radical cleric Muqtada Al Sadr. He was spotted leaving a mosque. The aide was also in Najaf earlier today. U.S. forces had detained one of those aides in Baghdad, and later released him, saying he was not behind any of the recent violence. So the question and answer session with him is now over. More on this as we move throughout the day here.

A Pakistani scientist claims to have seen three North Korean nuclear devices. "The New York Times" reports A Qkhan (ph), known as the father of Pakistan's nuclear program, told interrogators that North Korea granted him a brief inspection of the weapons five years ago. U.S. intelligence officials unsure if Khan had the time, the expertise or the equipment to verify that nuclear claim at the time.

In this country, a Fresno, California, man will stand trial in the deaths of nine of his children. A judge ruling yesterday that there is enough evidence to charge Marcus Wesson. He pleaded not guilty to murder and sexual abuse charges earlier. Police found a pile of bodies at his home last month. Each victim was shot once in the eye.

A pair of blackouts left some travelers and gamblers without much luck. A power failure shutting the luxurious Bellagio Hotel Casino in Vegas. Thousands will have to be replaced, cables, that is, before the hotel can reopen this morning. That's at the earliest, they say.

Meanwhile, further west, Los Angeles, the airport there, a brief power outage caused minor disruptions in flight traffic. The outage lasted less than a minute, we are told.

A wealthy executive getting a higher salary for firing people. Donald Trump negotiating a pay boost for the next two seasons of his hit reality TV show "The Apprentice." Sources telling the "L.A. Times" he'll get at least double his current salary, which is about 50 grand per episode. Two more to look forward to. Thursday night is it, Kwame and Bill, one of them wins? You following this?

O'BRIEN: Yes.

HEMMER: I think Thursday night.

O'BRIEN: I think Donald Trump needs some money to bail out some of his casinos. What does that add up to?

HEMMER: There's a question in there.

O'BRIEN: Interesting. Interesting.

(WEATHER REPORT)

O'BRIEN: The 9/11 Commission has saved some of its toughest questions for the FBI, the CIA and the Justice Department. Two days of hearings are set to begin on Capitol Hill in less than an hour.

Bob Franken is standing by for us at the Capitol this morning.

Hey, Bob, good morning.

BOB FRANKEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.

And the former director of the FBI, Louis Freeh, can expect some very tough questioning. The FBI can expect to really have its reputation challenged. There are going to be charges that the FBI, because of the cultural way it was set up, and because of a lack of will within the agency, did not do all that it could have done to investigate the possibility of terrorist acts in the United States. Now Freeh and "The Wall Street Journal" article that he's expected to echo as he testifies, will say there was no political will, he didn't get enough money, although some people are saying that he was getting a huge increase in money for the fight against terrorism.

Also, expected to be criticized is Attorney General John Ashcroft. The former acting director of the FBI, who was in charge in the summer of 2001 when Freeh had left, Thomas Pickard, is going to say that Ashcroft rejected his pleas to increase the focus on terrorism. Ashcroft is expected to deny, his aides already are, that that was not the case, that he gave terrorism and counterterrorism a high priority. This is going to be the first of two days as you pointed out. Tomorrow, the intelligence community will also face the same kind of tough grilling. A lot of finger pointing about to happen -- Soledad. O'BRIEN: All right, Bob Franken for us. Bob, thanks a lot.

A lot more on that tough grilling now. 9/11 commissioner, Richard Ben-Veniste is in Washington, D.C. and joins us.

Nice to see you, sir.

As we just heard, Louis Freeh as you well know, first up at 9:30. What do you want answered from him?

RICHARD BEN-VENISTE, 9/11 COMMISSION MEMBER: We're going to ask a number of questions. After all, our function is to develop the factual record of 9/11 and to elicit recommendations to make us safer as we go forward.

The FBI had the principal responsibility for defending us domestically. So we will ask questions relating to the structure of the FBI, why it was certain information which had been collected was not disseminated and put in the hands of individuals who might just might conceivably have made a difference.

O'BRIEN: You certainly had lots of contentious questioning when you were talking to Condoleezza Rice the other day. What do you think is the most significant piece of information that you've gotten since these hearings have convened?

BEN-VENISTE: Let me clarify that.

Our function is to find the facts. And this is not personal, and it's not partisan. Each of us on this commission has sworn a solemn oath to do the best job we can to fulfill our responsibilities in providing the facts to the American people. And so, that's what we're going about to do.

O'BRIEN: Okay. Then I'll restate that as you had a lively exchange often with Condoleezza Rice the other day. What do you think -- and not necessarily out of her testimony but other testimony -- since the entire hearings have convened, what do you think is the most significant piece of information you've taken away so far?

BEN-VENISTE: It is the fact that despite our extraordinary, extraordinary individuals who work for the FBI, the CIA and our other agencies, who will give their lives to protect us, somehow the system didn't work properly. And this is a question of how to fix it and looking at what went wrong so that we know what needs to be fixed. And that is the central issue, I think, that we are grappling with.

O'BRIEN: Here's a little of what the president had to say yesterday at the ranch in Crawford, Texas.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: They included the fact that the FBI was conducting field investigations, which comforted me. You see, it meant the FBI was doing its job. The FBI was running down any lead. And I will tell you this, Scott, that had they found something, I'm confident they would have reported back to me. That's the way the system works.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: Or as some would say the system doesn't work in this particular case. Are you inclined to blame the system as many have done or are you looking to blame a specific person at the end of all of this?

BEN-VENISTE: You know what? I'm not looking to blame anybody, Soledad. I am looking to get the facts so we can report it.

This is an extraordinary commission and it is a testimonial to our democracy that we are strong enough to have authorized a public inquiry into what went wrong to report on it without fear or favor. And that's what we're after. We will have a final report, I think, that will be credible and that the American public can rely upon.

O'BRIEN: 9/11 commissioner Richard Ben-Veniste joining us this morning from Washington, D.C. Thanks for being with us.

We're going to take you live to the 9/11 hearings and the testimony of former FBI director Louis Freeh. That happened at 9:30 a.m. Eastern Time -- Bill.

HEMMER: At the manslaughter trial of Jayson Williams, lawyers still debating the next move there. Defense attorneys asking the judge yesterday to throw out the charges. They accuse the prosecutor of misconduct for not giving records to the defense. We may get a decision today.

Adaora Udoji has more on this.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why did you change the report?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Judge, I disagree.

ADAORA UDOJI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): With the jury still on hold the prosecution and defense clashed repeatedly as lawyers for Jayson Williams fought to have aggravated manslaughter charges against the former NBA star dropped. Defense lawyers vigorously questioned a prosecution weapons expert whose notes about the shotgun involved in the death of Gus Christofi were not turned over until two weeks ago by lead prosecutor Steve Lember. The defense honed in on changes the expert made to his draft report months ago after talking to the prosecutor.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sir, didn't you tell us that you thought that was a substantive change?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, I don't think so.

UDOJI: All of this relates to what made the gunfire. Prosecutors accuse Williams of recklessly shooting at a limousine driver two years ago. The defense says the gun accidentally misfired. They accuse prosecutors of intentionally withholding the evidence to deny Williams a fair trial.

BILLY MARTIN, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: This discovery violation, your honor, we believe is part and parcel of a continuing pattern of conduct.

UDOJI: Prosecutors vehemently argued the late turnover was unintentional. That the defense has an ulterior motive.

KATHERINE ERRIKSON, PROSECUTOR: The defense wants the death of Gus Christofi to go unjudged because they don't like how Steve Lember handled this case.

UDOJI: At the end of nearly six hours the judge requested more time to review the record before making a decision. Which he said would come on Tuesday. Adaora Udoji, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HEMMER: We are told the court will reconvene later this afternoon without the jury present. In fact, the jury hasn't been there for a while. That's when we do expect a ruling. A dismissal probably would mean Jayson Williams could not be retried. Several legal experts, including our own, our own Jeff Toobin. We'll see which way we go later today.

COLLINS: Still to come this morning, more Americans want to be able to check out their medical records. Of course, the big question, is it really a good idea? We're going to find out from our Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

HEMMER: Also the saying says politics makes strange bedfellows. We've got the latest example. The California's governor's involved. Ahead here on AMERICAN MORNING.

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COLLINS: A new study finds that two-thirds of patients want to see their medical records, but some doctors don't actually think that's a good idea.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta is at the CNN Center with the latest on how to get these records, and also, maybe more importantly, how to use them.

Hey, Sanjay. Good morning.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.

The argument sometimes a little bit of knowledge can be a dangerous thing may apply here. Listen, all patients have legal access to their medical records. That's been true for some time now. What hasn't been known and is the subject of a new study is how many patients actually want to see these records. Sometimes they can be a hassle, sometimes they may not know how to interpret them. So that was a study being done here, looking at 4,500 patients, finding 36 percent of the patients very interested in looking at their medical records, 43 percent of the patients somewhat interested, The Rest really not that interested at all in looking at their medical records.

What they wanted to see specifically, though, perhaps even more interesting. What they wanted to see out of these medical records is, first and foremost, what the doctors were saying about them, the physician's comments. Also, they wanted to be more involved with their health care, thinking if they knew what the medical records say, they could be more involved with that health care, and to better understand the condition.

All of this sort of predicated on an act called the Health Portability and Accountability Act, HEPA (ph). It's pretty well known in health care circles. And what is says specifically with regards to access to medical records is like this. It's sort of interesting. Since '96 now, people can access and get their medical records. Patients can request corrections. This has become an important point in the world of HEPA. And health care providers must provide those records within 30 days, charges only for copying and sending. So you can get your medical records, Soledad. Some people want to get them, about one-third of the people do, very interested in getting those, and you can legally -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: I think it's interesting a lot of people want to get their medical records because they want to see what their doctors are saying about them, and honestly, it sort of made me laugh a little bit. Do doctors put comments about their patients that differ from what they are actually telling their patients in their medical records, Sanjay?

GUPTA: You know, it's an interesting point. I think certainly there is doctor jargon, doctors sort of writing notes that other doctors will understand about a patient's condition, and that's both a pro and a con. On the pro side is patients get to see all of that. The con is they may not be able to understand exactly what they're saying. One of the interesting things that came out of this study was most of the researchers believe that if you actually release medical records, it's going to improve the communication between patients and their doctors, perhaps because patients are going to start asking, what does that jargon mean about this?

The downside, of course, Soledad, and I think you alluded to that earlier, is sometimes they can't digest all this information, they may not be able to comprehend it, and that's where it gets a little bit more dangerous -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: How do you think the Internet and Internet access to your records is going to change all of this?

GUPTA: You know, it's interesting. I'm actually surprised as a physician that this hasn't caught on in a bigger way among the medical community. Only about 10 percent to 15 percent of all hospitals and medical practices use electronic record keeping. I think once that happens, and I think it will happen, it's just going slower than I expected, once it happens, I think it's going to really increase the amount of these medical records being requested for a couple of reasons. One, it's going to be a lot easier. It's all going to be digitized. And two, it's going to be typed, so you won't have the messy doctor handwriting. People will be able to read this stuff and make sense out of it -- Soledad.

All right, Sanjay Gupta for us this morning. Sanjay, thanks.

O'BRIEN: Still to come this morning, reality TV, just how low can it go? We're going to let Jack fill you in, coming up.

Also, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger Is seeking signatures, and you might be surprised just where he's doing it. Andy Serwer has a look at that as AMERICAN MORNING continues, right after this.

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HEMMER: Ladies and gentlemen, Jack Cafferty.

It just gets better, doesn't it?

JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: In his effort to cut costs, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has a new best friend, unlike your humble reporter here. And, is the Comcast/Disney deal all but dead? Probably. And there are retail sales out this morning that should affect the market. It's a busy time. Andy Serwer "Minding Your Business."

Good morning.

ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Busy. Good morning. Good morning to you, Jack.

I don't know how I'm going to quite follow that, but I'm going to try. This is a Left Coast report, a California report we're going to do, California dreaming. Let's start off with Governor Schwarzenegger, who's basically gotten pretty high marks from the business community, from Wall Street, for all sorts of people, for stabilizing California's difficult financial situation, but there are more difficult tasks ahead. He's got to balance the budget over there, and plus, their sky-high workman comp costs that he's looking to reduce.

Now Arnold has enlisted an unlikely ally in this war on workman's comp costs. That being retail giant Costco. I've never heard of this kind of thing. He's gone to Costco, Jack, and gotten people there to work with him, to gather signatures, to put a petition on the ballot to reduce workman comp costs.

Now here's a picture Arnold at Costco, getting signatures, and that's a Costco clipboard. Of course, guess what, the Teamsters, who represent a lot of Costco workers, are not very happy about this at all, as you can imagine. But I've never heard of a politician enlisting the help of a private company like that. But that's what Arnold is able to do, do things differently from other politicians.

CAFFERTY: "The Alamo," I heard on the radio this morning, CBS reporting $140 million on that Turkey picture that grossed $9 million. And apparently, if those folks who were thinking of doing a deal are still interested, they better get to the doctor. SERWER: Well, there's two ways to look at this. There's an analyst out there saying this Comcast deal for Disney is as good as dead, in part because the company continues to screw up, to wit, Jack's analysis of "The Alamo" motion picture.

CAFFERTY: And they had some others, like "Hidalgo" and that animated Western thing. None of these pictures are any good, are they?

SERWER: On the other hand, maybe it'll make the stock go down. So Comcast is out there saying, well, we don't really think we're going to do this. Have you heard the phrase playing possum?

CAFFERTY: Sure.

SERWER: I think Comcast may be playing possum.

CAFFERTY: Don't you throw me in that briar patch.

SERWER: Do You want to talk about the market, though, quickly?

CAFFERTY: Retail sales numbers?

SERWER: Absolutely boffo. Yesterday was boffo, too. "Boffo" is the word of the day. 75 points, the Dow was up, and up all across the board. That's because investors are optimistic about earnings season, which is kicking off right now, and the big number is 1.8 percent retails sales growth in March, three times what was expected, highest number in a year, so good stuff there for the economy.

CAFFERTY: All right, thanks, Andy.

On to "The Cafferty File." If you thought you'd seen it all on reality TV, just wait. The BBC has come up with another idea. British channels say it's going to broadcast the first televised sperm race later this month. The...

O'BRIEN: What?

CAFFERTY: The two competitors are Dr. Leahy (ph), who is a scientist, and a guy names Zeron Byson (ph), who is a comedian, and probably you can make book on this thing in London, because you can bet on anything. It will be filmed by a microscope inside two test tubes. Absolutely true story. A BBC official says it's aimed at an audience that usually wouldn't normally like educational television. Makes sense.

First it was the Clintons -- what's the matter?

SERWER: Shocked. Shocked. That was her shock.

O'BRIEN: I thought we would be talking about a sperm whale race or something.

CAFFERTY: Don't be shocked and awed. That's how you got the way you are. Somebody won the race, you know what I'm saying? SERWER: That's as good as it gets.

O'BRIEN: Actually, it's twins.

CAFFERTY: Yes, well, it was a dead heat. A photo finish, as they say.

First it was the Clintons, now it's Barbara Walters. "The New York Daily News" reporting that Walters will be getting a $6 million advance on her memoirs. Walters announced a few months ago that she'll be leaving her anchor job at ABC's "20/20" in September. The deal will be with Miramax Books. Now guess what, Miramax and ABC are all part of Disney. Maybe the book will do better than "The Alamo."

And as promised, some people pamper their dogs with beauty treatments. Here is a picture of how to blow dry a chicken. This is from the Australia's royal Easter show. This is a pecking chicken having its hair blow dried after a poultry wash demonstration. I see No reason to blow dry your chicken if you didn't wash it first. The show takes place annually in Sydney. They say it's similar to a county or a state fair.

SERWER: Where do you find this stuff?

CAFFERTY: Sarah Leader (ph) is the demented young woman...

O'BRIEN: Two weeks ago, she was the brains behind the operation. Now she's demented.

When the stuff's good, she's the brains behind the operation.

CAFFERTY: That's right, and when it's about blow drying chickens, she's the demented woman who produces my segments.

O'BRIEN: I didn't know you could do a poultry wash.

SERWER: You got the chicken, Barbara Walters, the sperm. I don't know, is it all connected?

CAFFERTY: You know, like I said an hour ago, it's a three-hour show.

O'BRIEN: AMERICAN MORNING, real news that makes a difference.

SERWER: There you go.

HEMMER: Let's get a break here. In a moment, the former head of the FBI, Louis Freeh, before that commission, 90 -- check that --- 30 minutes from now. We'll be there live. Top of the hour, we'll talk about it, in depth here on AMERICAN MORNING.

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