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American Morning
Army General Whose Report Sparked Prisoner Abuse Scandal Will Answer Questions This Morning; A Discussion With Tim Russert
Aired May 11, 2004 - 08:31 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: Good morning. Welcome, everybody. It is just about half past the hour on this AMERICAN MORNING. In just about an hour, we're expecting more Senate testimony on the Iraqi abuse scandal from Army Major General Antonio Taguba. We're going to get a live update from the capital in just a few moments and find out if there are any surprises expected in today's public session.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Also in a moment here, are food companies pulling the wool over your eyes with all those low-carb food labels. Good question for Sanjay, looking into whether or not some foods that are supposed to help you lose weight are actually bad for you diet.
Sanjay has the...
O'BRIEN: That's also interesting. How do they make low-carb pasta, I mean, something that's all carbs? How do they make...
HEMMER: Sound good at 8:30 in the morning.
O'BRIEN: ... low-carb bread.
It does, although I've heard it doesn't taste that good. But we'll get to that with Sanjay a little bit later.
Let's get right to our top stories this morning first, though. In Iraq, Najaf's new governor says the Iraqi holy city must be free of fighters like those local to radical cleric Muqtada Al Sadr. Hundreds of Iraqis march through Najaf today, calling on Al Sadr to pull out his militia. Military official say U.S. troops have killed 13 members of Al Sadr's army in an overnight battle outside the city. Some 14 others have been taken into custody.
More details are emerging from a Red Cross report on the Iraqi prison abuse scandal. The report suggests that between 70 and 90 percent of Iraqi prisoners detained since last year have been arrested by mistake. The Red Cross also -- report also provides information about the forms of abuse suffered by the Iraqi prisoners, and that members of the Bush administration were told about those allegations back in January.
Vice President Dick Cheney has arrived at the hospital for a routine examine of his pacemaker this morning. The vice president has had four attacks, none of them, though, while in office. He was fitted for a -- with a pacemaker in June of 2001. A spokesman says the check is routine, and it was not trigger by any irk vent. Cheney is expected back at work by midday.
A family in Pennsylvania welcome six new brothers and sisters into the world. Twenty-nine-year-old Kate Gosslin delivered the babies, three boys and three girls, yesterday. Kate and her husband are, oh, my goodness, also the parents of 3-year-old twin. All right, Kate, wow, that's a busy girl. But cute babies, nonetheless.
And some severe weather to talk about. In Colorado, seven tornadoes in Colorado tore across that state. Look at the videotape of one of those twisters, a huge one, in Elbert County, just outside of Denver. A farmhouse and a barn were destroyed. But apparently the family living inside was just fine.
HEMMER: A lot of open country, and luckily for those folks living in Colorado. Seven of those suckers touch down yesterday, and they were large, very large.
(WEATHER REPORT)
HEMMER: In about an hour from now, the Senate Armed Services Committee gaveled to order this morning. Not long after that, the U.S. Army general whose report sparked the prison prisoner abuse scandal will start answering questions.
To Washington, CNN's Ed Henry there this morning.
Good morning, Ed.
ED HENRY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Bill. How are you?
There's a little bit of news this morning about the fact that General Taguba was supposed to be testifying on his own before the Senate committee, and now we have news about how this drama of the second round of hearings will be playing out. It turns out that, as you remember, General Taguba put out this report that was very critical of the prison abuse scandal. He pointed out that there were allegations of criminal and illegal abuses, sadistic abuses as well.
CNN has confirmed late yesterday at the Pentagon called the committee and said they do not want General Taguba testifying solo. Instead, there will be two other officials testifying with General Taguba this morning. They are Lieutenant General Lance Smith. He's the deputy at U.S. Central Command. There will also be Steven Cambone. He's the top intelligence official at the Pentagon. He will be testifying this morning at 9:30.
The problem that Democratic senators see with this is they believe that General Taguba is an honest broker in this process. They wanted to hear from him directly, unfiltered, without other Pentagon officials standing by. But instead, he will be part of a panel of three people. That will make this a little more confusing, and there will not be quite as much direct testimony from General Taguba.
Also a little bit of news this morning on the information front, on the flow of information to Capitol Hill from the Pentagon with these very sensitive photos and videos we've heard so much about. The Senate committee now has possession of the several annexes to this report from General Taguba. These are supposedly annexes to the report that have very graphic detail of more abuses. But Chairman John Warner, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said he does not want the actual photos and videos just yet, until he gets three Senate lawyers to review these photos, find out the ramifications of in Senate receiving that information and also review the ramifications of whether the Senate or Pentagon itself should be the body that is actually distributing these files publicly -- Bill.
HEMMER: Ed, thanks for that. Ed Henry watching the clock, 50 minutes away. We'll be there live when that coverage begins, Major General Antonio Taguba's testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee, 9:30 a.m. Eastern Time here on AMERICAN MORNING -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: On a much different note now. As the host of NBC's "Meet The Press: since 1991, Tim Russert has earned a solid reputation for grilling politicians and presidents on the important issues of the day. For all he has achieved though, the highest compliment that you could pay to him is this, like father like son. Russert's new books is a tribute to the other Tim. It's called "Big Russ and Me: Father and Son, Lessons of Life."
And just a little bit earlier this morning, I spoke with Tim Russert about this labor of love, and I started though by asking him about some of the latest polls showing this drop in the president's approval rating to just 46 percent.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TIM RUSSERT, AUTHOR, "BIG RUSS & ME": It's a real warning sign for the president. His chief strategist, a very smart man named Matthew Dowd, said last month that the president's approval rating is generally what he gets in the general election. Forty-six percent is not enough to be re-elected for George W. Bush. And it's tied to Iraq. There has been job growth in the economy. So people would have a reason, an inclination to be somewhat optimistic about the economy coming back. But the news coming out of Iraq is just devastatingly bad. And I believe the American psyche is inextricably linked to both the economy and Iraq, and there's a lot of anxiety about Iraq.
O'BRIEN: Karl Rove has said he thinks it's going to take a generation before the United States is able to essentially live this scandal down in the Arab world. Do you think that's true, and do you think people, the general voting public, come November, will have essentially forgotten about this scandal, or won't be like it is now in the headlines every single day?
RUSSERT: I think this is one thing the Democrats would agree with Karl Rove. I cannot find anyone who does not think that these pictures have made an indelible mark on the minds of -- on the world. As the president said, it has stained our honor. How do we win over the hearts and minds of people when we lose the moral high ground. And it is essential we get to the bottom of this and find out why such activity occurred and who may have authorized it. There's no doubt in my mind that this will be an issue in the campaign. O'BRIEN: Let's talk a little bit about your book. It's call "Big Russ and Me," Big Russ being your dad. I got to tell you, I was surprised this was the book you would write, because I suspected in an election year, you'd be writing about politics and politicians, and drama leading up to the election year, with the election of 2000. A very moving book about your dad. Why this topic?
RUSSERT: Many people came to me and asked me to write a story about Sundays with Tim, or behind the scenes of "Meet the Press," and I just didn't want to do it. I didn't want to take opinions on positions on politicians and surrender my objectivity about their performance on "Meet the Press," but my dad is someone who left school in 10th grade, was involved in a terrible plane crash, in a B-24 Liberator, World War II, nearly lost his life, spent six months in a hospital. But then he came home and he had one other mission, and that was to raise and educate his four kids. He doesn't say much, but he had two full-time jobs for 30 years. He taught me more by the quiet eloquence of his hard work, his loyalty, his devotion. I'm the first person in my family to go to college.
I wanted to affirm his life. I wanted 2004, a time when there would be a lot of debate, liberal/conservative, Democrat/Republican, that we got the Father's Day, we could take a break and say, you know what, there are a lot of dads in this country who have given everything, everything to help out their kids, and this is one son who is very appreciative.
O'BRIEN: What's the biggest thing, do you think, or the most important thing he taught you?
RUSSERT: That hard work is essential to success. He had another expression, the world doesn't owe you a favor. And he got up every day for 30 days. When he retired from his first job, he turned in his pension papers, and they said, Mr. Russert, you have 200 sick days coming. I said, dad, 200 sick, why didn't you take them? He said, because I wasn't sick. And if I called in sick for one job, I couldn't go to the other. He said, you got to do it, you got to pay the piper, you got to get it done, you can't recover the fumble unless you go on the field. And I take that worth ethic and combine it with discipline, preparation and accountability.
O'BRIEN: How do you then translate and transfer that to your son, Luke, when you don't do what your dad did, you have a high- powered job, you have a wife who has a very high-powered job and you live in a very totally different circumstances and time than your dad did. How do you send that message to your son, who's sort of at that formative stage?
RUSSERT: You have captured the central challenge confronting me as a father. How do I convince my son, who has lived so much differently than I grew up, that he's always, always loved, but never, never entitled. There is no sense of entitlement.
After I wrote the book, I reread it, and I realized I had written it as much for my son as my dad. So I added another chapter, an open letter to my son, where I summarized all the lessons my dad had taught me, and told Luke that if he was to affirm grandpa's life, he also had to adopt these lessons of life.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: Tim Russert, once again the title of the book is "Big Russ & Me: Father and Son, Lessons of Life." Tim's son, Luke, also started a Web site that should be up and running soon. It's called bigruss.com.
HEMMER: It's No. 1 at Barnes & Noble.
O'BRIEN: And No. 4 on Amazon.com.
You know what, I love him. I think people really like him, enjoy him and have tremendous respect. And he used to always say, and certainly when I worked at NBC, just how much he loved his job and how grateful he feels to have, you know, the greatest job in the world.
HEMMER: True passion.
O'BRIEN: And he shows it every single day, so he's a great guy.
HEMMER: And that's exactly right, it shows.
And he still thinks the Bills are going to go 10-6 next year.
O'BRIEN: Well, you know what, actually I was asking him about that. He had something to say about your Bengals, too.
HEMMER: Oh, did he? I bet he did. I got $1, Russert, that says my Bengals are better than your Bills.
Let's get a break here. In a moment, the prison abuse scandal creating some intense scrutiny of U.S. soldiers in Iraq today. One soldier cited the soldiers from the front lines, in a moment.
O'BRIEN: Also this, Sanjay, and a closer look at why some low- carb foods may not then best things to eat to lose weight. Those stories are ahead as AMERICAN MORNING continues, right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HEMMER: "Consumer Reports" magazine putting a new spin on the low-carb diet craze. The new issue, just out today, has the skinny on carbs, and Sanjay is here at the CNN Center to figure this out for us.
Good morning, Sanjay, what do you got?
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Bill.
This is one of the most popular topics out there, no question. I know Andy has been on the diet. You guys have questions about it. "Consumer Reports" taking a hard look at low-carb products, specifically low-carb foods.
Let me summarize quickly, the truth about low-carb foods, here's what you need to know: Specifically, first of all, low carb doesn't always equal low calorie, really important point.
Case in point here, take a look at this particular brand of ice cream, Indulge Atkins Ice Cream, for example, 280 calories typically in this. That's about twice as much as other non-low-carb ice cream. Six grams of carbs, though, that's a number that a lot of people are attracted to.
Number two, low-carb labels. First of all what exactly do they mean? They're sort of meaningless. There's no set standard for this. We're about a year away from the FDA giving us any guidelines on low- carbohydrate products. So what do they mean? Well, if you read a label, for example, if you take a look at labels, which a lot of people are doing, for example, you'll see this, total grams, 13.5 grams. Fiber of which is 5, and sugar alcohols is 5.3. That leaves your net carbs at 3.2. Are you confused? I'm a little confused. The bottom line that they'll list, though, is 3.2 grams of net carbs, when in fact the total carbs, 13.5.
And then, finally, I think the biggest point really is that low carb then isn't low carb now. And what I mean by that is when people started eating the low-carb diet, they'd eat steak and eggs maybe, but they'd avoid the bread, they've avoid sweets and things like that, and ultimately, what a lot of nutritionists think is that they were eating fewer calories. If you add these low-carb products now that actually have more calories, it may in fact undermine all the efforts of the low-carb diet in the first place -- Bill.
HEMMER: Bottom line, I'm going to try to cut through this. You have to count your carbs and calories is what you're saying, right?
GUPTA: And I think calories are probably a paramount importance to this. Ultimately, everyone still agrees, the fewer calories you take, the more likely you are to lose weight.
HEMMER: But hang on a second here, because I've done this Atkins thing, not to a tee, but I've kind of cheated in areas. But you can lose weight on this, regardless of whether you are counting calories. If you just look at the carb intake, you can still lose weight.
GUPTA: And ultimately -- and I agree with this. What a lot of nutritionists tell me is that If you really looked at your diet and really at the calories when on a low-carb diet, not to a tee, but when you're on your low-carb diet, you probably were taking in fewer calories. Why? Because you eliminated breads, you eliminated desserts, you eliminated sugary sodas. So ultimately, you were doing both. But now, if you start add these low-carb products,. you may be low carb, but in fact, you shot up your calorie intake again, and that's going to undermine your efforts.
HEMMER: So what you're saying is, if you eat like low-carb ice cream, or potato chips or low-carb beer, then you're adding on in areas where you probably did not count previously.
GUPTA: Exactly. You got to count the calories as well.
And another point, Bill, how do they get these low-carb products? How do you actually design them? It's sort of a miracle of modern food technology. Essentially, they're still the same number of carbs you saw from that one label. What they're doing is they're substituting certain carbs that don't get absorbed as well in the body, so your body doesn't functionally see those carbs, but they're still there. And this is a point of dispute that the FDA will hopefully resolve within the next year or so -- Bill.
HEMMER: Thank you, Sanjay. It's a good topic, very popular.
Andy was listening.
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: I'm taking notes.
O'BRIEN: Pasta is all carbs.
SERWER: I don't know, they squeeze them out like this. They squeeze the carbs out.
O'BRIEN: They put in fake carbs. That's interesting.
Let's talk about the low-carb craze from a business perspective. It's actually driving some companies pretty crazy, isn't it?
SERWER: It is, and it's a huge trend, $39 billion market for low-carb foods right now, and if you're on the other side of this freight train, forget about it. To wit, Krispy Kreme's just the past couple of days, stock got stomped when it said it's business was slowing down because of low carbs.
We've got some food here in our continuing effort to feed Soledad. We've got low-carb Russell Stover candies. Why don't you work on those while we work about some of the stuff going?
O'BRIEN: Are they any good?
SERWER: You're going to make the call.
Low-carb wine coming to a Costco and a Wal-Mart near you very, very soon. They've got a 1.6 chardonnay and 1.9 merlot. That's the brand name, 1.6 and 1.9. That's the number of carbs per 5 ounce serving, grams of carbs per five-ounce serving. Brown & Foreman (ph) out of Louisville, Kentucky introducing these things. You should be seeing them in the stores as of Memorial Day.
What do you think?
O'BRIEN: Pretty darn good.
SERWER: All right, we'll keep going. How about Equal Baking Sweetener, low-carb baking sweetener, this coming from Equal. Equal sugar light. This will be coming in the fall. It's half sugar, half aspartame, good for baking. That's another thing coming out. You can see companies just going nuts. You can see Soledad going nuts here as well.
O'BRIEN: Then you know what Sanjay was talking about? Fifty calories for this little guy.
SERWER: But low carbs.
O'BRIEN: I'm not on a low carb diet.
SERWER: Right, Aspartame.
Another casualty, like Krispy Kreme of the low-carb craze, New World Pasta, the largest pasta maker in the U.S., also had a lot of debt and maybe some accounting problems as well, filed for bankruptcy yesterday. What brands? You know the brands, Ronzoni, Creamette (ph), San Giorgio and Prince. Wednesday is Prince Spaghetti Day. That's comes from 1953, their first store at Prince Street in Boston Massachusetts. A 7 percent drop in pasta sales last year, and it's going to be tough for this company to come out of chapter 11, analysts say, and really get going again, because people are eating less pasta.
O'BRIEN: That's too bad.
SERWER: What do you think about that?
O'BRIEN: I have to say, high calories are good. They're delicious.
But I like everything.
SERWER: Want to do a quick markets?
O'BRIEN: Sure, do you have time? Two seconds.
SERWER: I think we do. Just two seconds -- futures are up after yesterday's debacle. Higher interest rates sending stocks down. But we may have a little recovery this morning.
O'BRIEN: Thank you.
SERWER: You're welcome.
HEMMER: You got it. Thank you for that. I'll take one of those in a second here.
In a moment here, all eyes on Capitol Hill, 40 minutes away is the general who details abuses at the prison outside of Baghdad, testifies today before the Senate. Others will testify with him. Much more on this, when we continue after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: Welcome back, everybody. Time for Jack and The Cafferty File.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, as advertised, it's a little on the cheesy side today, but then... O'BRIEN: It must be really bad, because that's now the third time you've said that.
CAFFERTY: Well, I like to do a little mea culpa before I get in a lot of trouble.
Anyway, we're all tired, or at least I am, of seeing people's rear ends hanging out their pants with their underwear sticking out. I mean, it's just gone beyond -- it's no longer interesting or amusing; it's disgusting.
Now there's a difference between the plumber bending over to fix your sink and seeing somebody like this on the street. This is Christina Aguilera. They're not the same. But still, in Louisiana, they've had enough. There's actually a bill that's been approved by a house panel that would make this kind of thing, exposing your underwear or your bottom, a criminal offense, and violators would spend three eight-hour days of community service and be fined up to $175.
It's a rite of spring in the far north. Temperatures in Alaska reach 40 below zero, so the ground does not thaw out until Memorial Day. So what happens if your Aunt Bessie has the big one at Christmas dinner back in December? Well, they throw her in storage until spring, unless the family can afford to have the grave site thawed by steam or fire, but that's expensive, so must families just wait for nature to take its course. Call it spring planting.
And finally, every New Yorker's dream come true. There's a strange man -- I -- let me rephrase this. There's another strange man standing in the middle of Washington Square Park doling out free hugs. Here's a reason to pack up the kids and come to the Big Apple this summer. Jason Lippman (ph) is a financial analyst who thinks that New Yorkers need a hug. Some New Yorkers think Jason needs a life. But he gives them a free hug between 1:00 and 4:00 every Sunday.
O'BRIEN: Shouldn't he be working?
CAFFERTY: He should be doing anything but this. He thinks he's starting a national hugging movement. He says 200 people hug back in the first 2 1/2 hours.
O'BRIEN: If they were tourists, I could understand.
CAFFERTY: He lost his wallet and four of them beat the snot of out him.
O'BRIEN: He's been sued by four women.
CAFFERTY: So that's the file, and as I said, it was fairly low rate.
O'BRIEN: I thought that was quite good today. But maybe, you know, you started expectations so low, and now...
CAFFERTY: Exactly, set the standards down, and then everything is relative.
HEMMER: Pass the parmesan. Not too cheesy.
CAFFERTY: See, you're talking about food. You know what I found. Haagen-Dazs has a new flavor, white chocolate with raspberry truffle. I found it in the store yesterday.
O'BRIEN: Low carb?
CAFFERTY: No, it's Haagen-Dazs, and I boat a carton of it. I took it home, and I ate half of it last night. It is sensational.
O'BRIEN: Next time, bring it in.
HEMMER: In a moment here -- hate to cut you off, but we got to do our jobs here -- U.S. abuses, Iraqi prisoners, Abu Ghraib prison in focus today, 32 minutes away. That hearing starts 9:30 a.m. Eastern Time.
Also, some Iraqis urging the radical cleric Muqtada Al Sadr to withdraw his fighters from the holy city, perhaps the most positive sign we've heard today so far from Iraq. We'll get to it after this, on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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Aired May 11, 2004 - 08:31 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Welcome, everybody. It is just about half past the hour on this AMERICAN MORNING. In just about an hour, we're expecting more Senate testimony on the Iraqi abuse scandal from Army Major General Antonio Taguba. We're going to get a live update from the capital in just a few moments and find out if there are any surprises expected in today's public session.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Also in a moment here, are food companies pulling the wool over your eyes with all those low-carb food labels. Good question for Sanjay, looking into whether or not some foods that are supposed to help you lose weight are actually bad for you diet.
Sanjay has the...
O'BRIEN: That's also interesting. How do they make low-carb pasta, I mean, something that's all carbs? How do they make...
HEMMER: Sound good at 8:30 in the morning.
O'BRIEN: ... low-carb bread.
It does, although I've heard it doesn't taste that good. But we'll get to that with Sanjay a little bit later.
Let's get right to our top stories this morning first, though. In Iraq, Najaf's new governor says the Iraqi holy city must be free of fighters like those local to radical cleric Muqtada Al Sadr. Hundreds of Iraqis march through Najaf today, calling on Al Sadr to pull out his militia. Military official say U.S. troops have killed 13 members of Al Sadr's army in an overnight battle outside the city. Some 14 others have been taken into custody.
More details are emerging from a Red Cross report on the Iraqi prison abuse scandal. The report suggests that between 70 and 90 percent of Iraqi prisoners detained since last year have been arrested by mistake. The Red Cross also -- report also provides information about the forms of abuse suffered by the Iraqi prisoners, and that members of the Bush administration were told about those allegations back in January.
Vice President Dick Cheney has arrived at the hospital for a routine examine of his pacemaker this morning. The vice president has had four attacks, none of them, though, while in office. He was fitted for a -- with a pacemaker in June of 2001. A spokesman says the check is routine, and it was not trigger by any irk vent. Cheney is expected back at work by midday.
A family in Pennsylvania welcome six new brothers and sisters into the world. Twenty-nine-year-old Kate Gosslin delivered the babies, three boys and three girls, yesterday. Kate and her husband are, oh, my goodness, also the parents of 3-year-old twin. All right, Kate, wow, that's a busy girl. But cute babies, nonetheless.
And some severe weather to talk about. In Colorado, seven tornadoes in Colorado tore across that state. Look at the videotape of one of those twisters, a huge one, in Elbert County, just outside of Denver. A farmhouse and a barn were destroyed. But apparently the family living inside was just fine.
HEMMER: A lot of open country, and luckily for those folks living in Colorado. Seven of those suckers touch down yesterday, and they were large, very large.
(WEATHER REPORT)
HEMMER: In about an hour from now, the Senate Armed Services Committee gaveled to order this morning. Not long after that, the U.S. Army general whose report sparked the prison prisoner abuse scandal will start answering questions.
To Washington, CNN's Ed Henry there this morning.
Good morning, Ed.
ED HENRY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Bill. How are you?
There's a little bit of news this morning about the fact that General Taguba was supposed to be testifying on his own before the Senate committee, and now we have news about how this drama of the second round of hearings will be playing out. It turns out that, as you remember, General Taguba put out this report that was very critical of the prison abuse scandal. He pointed out that there were allegations of criminal and illegal abuses, sadistic abuses as well.
CNN has confirmed late yesterday at the Pentagon called the committee and said they do not want General Taguba testifying solo. Instead, there will be two other officials testifying with General Taguba this morning. They are Lieutenant General Lance Smith. He's the deputy at U.S. Central Command. There will also be Steven Cambone. He's the top intelligence official at the Pentagon. He will be testifying this morning at 9:30.
The problem that Democratic senators see with this is they believe that General Taguba is an honest broker in this process. They wanted to hear from him directly, unfiltered, without other Pentagon officials standing by. But instead, he will be part of a panel of three people. That will make this a little more confusing, and there will not be quite as much direct testimony from General Taguba.
Also a little bit of news this morning on the information front, on the flow of information to Capitol Hill from the Pentagon with these very sensitive photos and videos we've heard so much about. The Senate committee now has possession of the several annexes to this report from General Taguba. These are supposedly annexes to the report that have very graphic detail of more abuses. But Chairman John Warner, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said he does not want the actual photos and videos just yet, until he gets three Senate lawyers to review these photos, find out the ramifications of in Senate receiving that information and also review the ramifications of whether the Senate or Pentagon itself should be the body that is actually distributing these files publicly -- Bill.
HEMMER: Ed, thanks for that. Ed Henry watching the clock, 50 minutes away. We'll be there live when that coverage begins, Major General Antonio Taguba's testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee, 9:30 a.m. Eastern Time here on AMERICAN MORNING -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: On a much different note now. As the host of NBC's "Meet The Press: since 1991, Tim Russert has earned a solid reputation for grilling politicians and presidents on the important issues of the day. For all he has achieved though, the highest compliment that you could pay to him is this, like father like son. Russert's new books is a tribute to the other Tim. It's called "Big Russ and Me: Father and Son, Lessons of Life."
And just a little bit earlier this morning, I spoke with Tim Russert about this labor of love, and I started though by asking him about some of the latest polls showing this drop in the president's approval rating to just 46 percent.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TIM RUSSERT, AUTHOR, "BIG RUSS & ME": It's a real warning sign for the president. His chief strategist, a very smart man named Matthew Dowd, said last month that the president's approval rating is generally what he gets in the general election. Forty-six percent is not enough to be re-elected for George W. Bush. And it's tied to Iraq. There has been job growth in the economy. So people would have a reason, an inclination to be somewhat optimistic about the economy coming back. But the news coming out of Iraq is just devastatingly bad. And I believe the American psyche is inextricably linked to both the economy and Iraq, and there's a lot of anxiety about Iraq.
O'BRIEN: Karl Rove has said he thinks it's going to take a generation before the United States is able to essentially live this scandal down in the Arab world. Do you think that's true, and do you think people, the general voting public, come November, will have essentially forgotten about this scandal, or won't be like it is now in the headlines every single day?
RUSSERT: I think this is one thing the Democrats would agree with Karl Rove. I cannot find anyone who does not think that these pictures have made an indelible mark on the minds of -- on the world. As the president said, it has stained our honor. How do we win over the hearts and minds of people when we lose the moral high ground. And it is essential we get to the bottom of this and find out why such activity occurred and who may have authorized it. There's no doubt in my mind that this will be an issue in the campaign. O'BRIEN: Let's talk a little bit about your book. It's call "Big Russ and Me," Big Russ being your dad. I got to tell you, I was surprised this was the book you would write, because I suspected in an election year, you'd be writing about politics and politicians, and drama leading up to the election year, with the election of 2000. A very moving book about your dad. Why this topic?
RUSSERT: Many people came to me and asked me to write a story about Sundays with Tim, or behind the scenes of "Meet the Press," and I just didn't want to do it. I didn't want to take opinions on positions on politicians and surrender my objectivity about their performance on "Meet the Press," but my dad is someone who left school in 10th grade, was involved in a terrible plane crash, in a B-24 Liberator, World War II, nearly lost his life, spent six months in a hospital. But then he came home and he had one other mission, and that was to raise and educate his four kids. He doesn't say much, but he had two full-time jobs for 30 years. He taught me more by the quiet eloquence of his hard work, his loyalty, his devotion. I'm the first person in my family to go to college.
I wanted to affirm his life. I wanted 2004, a time when there would be a lot of debate, liberal/conservative, Democrat/Republican, that we got the Father's Day, we could take a break and say, you know what, there are a lot of dads in this country who have given everything, everything to help out their kids, and this is one son who is very appreciative.
O'BRIEN: What's the biggest thing, do you think, or the most important thing he taught you?
RUSSERT: That hard work is essential to success. He had another expression, the world doesn't owe you a favor. And he got up every day for 30 days. When he retired from his first job, he turned in his pension papers, and they said, Mr. Russert, you have 200 sick days coming. I said, dad, 200 sick, why didn't you take them? He said, because I wasn't sick. And if I called in sick for one job, I couldn't go to the other. He said, you got to do it, you got to pay the piper, you got to get it done, you can't recover the fumble unless you go on the field. And I take that worth ethic and combine it with discipline, preparation and accountability.
O'BRIEN: How do you then translate and transfer that to your son, Luke, when you don't do what your dad did, you have a high- powered job, you have a wife who has a very high-powered job and you live in a very totally different circumstances and time than your dad did. How do you send that message to your son, who's sort of at that formative stage?
RUSSERT: You have captured the central challenge confronting me as a father. How do I convince my son, who has lived so much differently than I grew up, that he's always, always loved, but never, never entitled. There is no sense of entitlement.
After I wrote the book, I reread it, and I realized I had written it as much for my son as my dad. So I added another chapter, an open letter to my son, where I summarized all the lessons my dad had taught me, and told Luke that if he was to affirm grandpa's life, he also had to adopt these lessons of life.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: Tim Russert, once again the title of the book is "Big Russ & Me: Father and Son, Lessons of Life." Tim's son, Luke, also started a Web site that should be up and running soon. It's called bigruss.com.
HEMMER: It's No. 1 at Barnes & Noble.
O'BRIEN: And No. 4 on Amazon.com.
You know what, I love him. I think people really like him, enjoy him and have tremendous respect. And he used to always say, and certainly when I worked at NBC, just how much he loved his job and how grateful he feels to have, you know, the greatest job in the world.
HEMMER: True passion.
O'BRIEN: And he shows it every single day, so he's a great guy.
HEMMER: And that's exactly right, it shows.
And he still thinks the Bills are going to go 10-6 next year.
O'BRIEN: Well, you know what, actually I was asking him about that. He had something to say about your Bengals, too.
HEMMER: Oh, did he? I bet he did. I got $1, Russert, that says my Bengals are better than your Bills.
Let's get a break here. In a moment, the prison abuse scandal creating some intense scrutiny of U.S. soldiers in Iraq today. One soldier cited the soldiers from the front lines, in a moment.
O'BRIEN: Also this, Sanjay, and a closer look at why some low- carb foods may not then best things to eat to lose weight. Those stories are ahead as AMERICAN MORNING continues, right after this.
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HEMMER: "Consumer Reports" magazine putting a new spin on the low-carb diet craze. The new issue, just out today, has the skinny on carbs, and Sanjay is here at the CNN Center to figure this out for us.
Good morning, Sanjay, what do you got?
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Bill.
This is one of the most popular topics out there, no question. I know Andy has been on the diet. You guys have questions about it. "Consumer Reports" taking a hard look at low-carb products, specifically low-carb foods.
Let me summarize quickly, the truth about low-carb foods, here's what you need to know: Specifically, first of all, low carb doesn't always equal low calorie, really important point.
Case in point here, take a look at this particular brand of ice cream, Indulge Atkins Ice Cream, for example, 280 calories typically in this. That's about twice as much as other non-low-carb ice cream. Six grams of carbs, though, that's a number that a lot of people are attracted to.
Number two, low-carb labels. First of all what exactly do they mean? They're sort of meaningless. There's no set standard for this. We're about a year away from the FDA giving us any guidelines on low- carbohydrate products. So what do they mean? Well, if you read a label, for example, if you take a look at labels, which a lot of people are doing, for example, you'll see this, total grams, 13.5 grams. Fiber of which is 5, and sugar alcohols is 5.3. That leaves your net carbs at 3.2. Are you confused? I'm a little confused. The bottom line that they'll list, though, is 3.2 grams of net carbs, when in fact the total carbs, 13.5.
And then, finally, I think the biggest point really is that low carb then isn't low carb now. And what I mean by that is when people started eating the low-carb diet, they'd eat steak and eggs maybe, but they'd avoid the bread, they've avoid sweets and things like that, and ultimately, what a lot of nutritionists think is that they were eating fewer calories. If you add these low-carb products now that actually have more calories, it may in fact undermine all the efforts of the low-carb diet in the first place -- Bill.
HEMMER: Bottom line, I'm going to try to cut through this. You have to count your carbs and calories is what you're saying, right?
GUPTA: And I think calories are probably a paramount importance to this. Ultimately, everyone still agrees, the fewer calories you take, the more likely you are to lose weight.
HEMMER: But hang on a second here, because I've done this Atkins thing, not to a tee, but I've kind of cheated in areas. But you can lose weight on this, regardless of whether you are counting calories. If you just look at the carb intake, you can still lose weight.
GUPTA: And ultimately -- and I agree with this. What a lot of nutritionists tell me is that If you really looked at your diet and really at the calories when on a low-carb diet, not to a tee, but when you're on your low-carb diet, you probably were taking in fewer calories. Why? Because you eliminated breads, you eliminated desserts, you eliminated sugary sodas. So ultimately, you were doing both. But now, if you start add these low-carb products,. you may be low carb, but in fact, you shot up your calorie intake again, and that's going to undermine your efforts.
HEMMER: So what you're saying is, if you eat like low-carb ice cream, or potato chips or low-carb beer, then you're adding on in areas where you probably did not count previously.
GUPTA: Exactly. You got to count the calories as well.
And another point, Bill, how do they get these low-carb products? How do you actually design them? It's sort of a miracle of modern food technology. Essentially, they're still the same number of carbs you saw from that one label. What they're doing is they're substituting certain carbs that don't get absorbed as well in the body, so your body doesn't functionally see those carbs, but they're still there. And this is a point of dispute that the FDA will hopefully resolve within the next year or so -- Bill.
HEMMER: Thank you, Sanjay. It's a good topic, very popular.
Andy was listening.
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: I'm taking notes.
O'BRIEN: Pasta is all carbs.
SERWER: I don't know, they squeeze them out like this. They squeeze the carbs out.
O'BRIEN: They put in fake carbs. That's interesting.
Let's talk about the low-carb craze from a business perspective. It's actually driving some companies pretty crazy, isn't it?
SERWER: It is, and it's a huge trend, $39 billion market for low-carb foods right now, and if you're on the other side of this freight train, forget about it. To wit, Krispy Kreme's just the past couple of days, stock got stomped when it said it's business was slowing down because of low carbs.
We've got some food here in our continuing effort to feed Soledad. We've got low-carb Russell Stover candies. Why don't you work on those while we work about some of the stuff going?
O'BRIEN: Are they any good?
SERWER: You're going to make the call.
Low-carb wine coming to a Costco and a Wal-Mart near you very, very soon. They've got a 1.6 chardonnay and 1.9 merlot. That's the brand name, 1.6 and 1.9. That's the number of carbs per 5 ounce serving, grams of carbs per five-ounce serving. Brown & Foreman (ph) out of Louisville, Kentucky introducing these things. You should be seeing them in the stores as of Memorial Day.
What do you think?
O'BRIEN: Pretty darn good.
SERWER: All right, we'll keep going. How about Equal Baking Sweetener, low-carb baking sweetener, this coming from Equal. Equal sugar light. This will be coming in the fall. It's half sugar, half aspartame, good for baking. That's another thing coming out. You can see companies just going nuts. You can see Soledad going nuts here as well.
O'BRIEN: Then you know what Sanjay was talking about? Fifty calories for this little guy.
SERWER: But low carbs.
O'BRIEN: I'm not on a low carb diet.
SERWER: Right, Aspartame.
Another casualty, like Krispy Kreme of the low-carb craze, New World Pasta, the largest pasta maker in the U.S., also had a lot of debt and maybe some accounting problems as well, filed for bankruptcy yesterday. What brands? You know the brands, Ronzoni, Creamette (ph), San Giorgio and Prince. Wednesday is Prince Spaghetti Day. That's comes from 1953, their first store at Prince Street in Boston Massachusetts. A 7 percent drop in pasta sales last year, and it's going to be tough for this company to come out of chapter 11, analysts say, and really get going again, because people are eating less pasta.
O'BRIEN: That's too bad.
SERWER: What do you think about that?
O'BRIEN: I have to say, high calories are good. They're delicious.
But I like everything.
SERWER: Want to do a quick markets?
O'BRIEN: Sure, do you have time? Two seconds.
SERWER: I think we do. Just two seconds -- futures are up after yesterday's debacle. Higher interest rates sending stocks down. But we may have a little recovery this morning.
O'BRIEN: Thank you.
SERWER: You're welcome.
HEMMER: You got it. Thank you for that. I'll take one of those in a second here.
In a moment here, all eyes on Capitol Hill, 40 minutes away is the general who details abuses at the prison outside of Baghdad, testifies today before the Senate. Others will testify with him. Much more on this, when we continue after this.
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O'BRIEN: Welcome back, everybody. Time for Jack and The Cafferty File.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, as advertised, it's a little on the cheesy side today, but then... O'BRIEN: It must be really bad, because that's now the third time you've said that.
CAFFERTY: Well, I like to do a little mea culpa before I get in a lot of trouble.
Anyway, we're all tired, or at least I am, of seeing people's rear ends hanging out their pants with their underwear sticking out. I mean, it's just gone beyond -- it's no longer interesting or amusing; it's disgusting.
Now there's a difference between the plumber bending over to fix your sink and seeing somebody like this on the street. This is Christina Aguilera. They're not the same. But still, in Louisiana, they've had enough. There's actually a bill that's been approved by a house panel that would make this kind of thing, exposing your underwear or your bottom, a criminal offense, and violators would spend three eight-hour days of community service and be fined up to $175.
It's a rite of spring in the far north. Temperatures in Alaska reach 40 below zero, so the ground does not thaw out until Memorial Day. So what happens if your Aunt Bessie has the big one at Christmas dinner back in December? Well, they throw her in storage until spring, unless the family can afford to have the grave site thawed by steam or fire, but that's expensive, so must families just wait for nature to take its course. Call it spring planting.
And finally, every New Yorker's dream come true. There's a strange man -- I -- let me rephrase this. There's another strange man standing in the middle of Washington Square Park doling out free hugs. Here's a reason to pack up the kids and come to the Big Apple this summer. Jason Lippman (ph) is a financial analyst who thinks that New Yorkers need a hug. Some New Yorkers think Jason needs a life. But he gives them a free hug between 1:00 and 4:00 every Sunday.
O'BRIEN: Shouldn't he be working?
CAFFERTY: He should be doing anything but this. He thinks he's starting a national hugging movement. He says 200 people hug back in the first 2 1/2 hours.
O'BRIEN: If they were tourists, I could understand.
CAFFERTY: He lost his wallet and four of them beat the snot of out him.
O'BRIEN: He's been sued by four women.
CAFFERTY: So that's the file, and as I said, it was fairly low rate.
O'BRIEN: I thought that was quite good today. But maybe, you know, you started expectations so low, and now...
CAFFERTY: Exactly, set the standards down, and then everything is relative.
HEMMER: Pass the parmesan. Not too cheesy.
CAFFERTY: See, you're talking about food. You know what I found. Haagen-Dazs has a new flavor, white chocolate with raspberry truffle. I found it in the store yesterday.
O'BRIEN: Low carb?
CAFFERTY: No, it's Haagen-Dazs, and I boat a carton of it. I took it home, and I ate half of it last night. It is sensational.
O'BRIEN: Next time, bring it in.
HEMMER: In a moment here -- hate to cut you off, but we got to do our jobs here -- U.S. abuses, Iraqi prisoners, Abu Ghraib prison in focus today, 32 minutes away. That hearing starts 9:30 a.m. Eastern Time.
Also, some Iraqis urging the radical cleric Muqtada Al Sadr to withdraw his fighters from the holy city, perhaps the most positive sign we've heard today so far from Iraq. We'll get to it after this, on AMERICAN MORNING.
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