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CNN Live At Daybreak
CIA Challenges; Talk Radio in Iraq; Honoring D-Day 60 Years; Smarty Jones
Aired June 04, 2004 - 05:30 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.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: The president in Rome this morning. He's there to drum up support for Iraq and to commemorate the liberation of Europe.
It's Friday, June 4. This is DAYBREAK.
Good morning to you, welcome to the second half-hour of DAYBREAK. From the CNN Global Headquarters in Atlanta, I'm Carol Costello.
Let me bring you up to date now.
About 20 minutes from now, President Bush and the first lady will have an audience with Pope John Paul II. Air Force One landed in Rome overnight. The president is hoping his European visit will lead to more support for the rehabilitation of Iraq.
There is another resignation expected today at the CIA. Spymaster James Pavitt, he's the guy in charge of covert operations, is expected to resign. As you know, CIA Director George Tenet announced his resignation on Thursday.
In money news, Martha Stewart's company plans to expand its board of directors from five to nine. The new board candidates for Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia are prominent media and marketing executives.
In sports, L.A. Dodgers centerfielder Milton Bradley has been suspended for four games. Bradley was thrown out of Tuesday's game with Milwaukee after throwing a tantrum and a bunch of other stuff, too. Manager Jim Tracy also was suspended but just for one game.
In culture, former President Bill Clinton is on the road. Today is the second day of a book tour promoting his memoir, it's "My Life." It's just called "My Life," not "It's My Life." It's out on June 22 -- Rob.
ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: That would be a song, if I remember correctly.
COSTELLO: I know. I was wondering where I got that.
MARCIANO: All I know is I'm sure he is paid handsomely, at least, and in advance.
COSTELLO: I'm sure. MARCIANO: Good morning, again, Carol.
(WEATHER REPORT)
COSTELLO: Thank you, Rob.
MARCIANO: OK.
COSTELLO: President Bush is just a few minutes away from a meeting with Pope John Paul II. The President and Mrs. Bush arrived in Italy just before dawn. It's the first stop on a European trip designed to get more international support for the reconstruction of Iraq. The president adjusted his schedule to meet with the Pope. Aides say the war in Iraq will most likely come up. The Pope is strongly opposed to the war. Security is extremely tight for the visit amidst fears anti-war protests could get out of hand.
When the president returns from Europe, he has got to fill a vacancy at the CIA. George Tenet says he plans to resign as CIA director on July 11, seven years to the day after he was sworn in. And sources tell CNN that James Pavitt, the agency's deputy director of operations who oversees covert operations, is planning to announce his resignation later today.
Some members of Congress say now is the time to make broad changes to improve the CIA's intelligence gathering capabilities.
Our Tom Foreman looks at the challenges the CIA has faced in recent times.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The still unfound weapons of mass destruction, the testing of nuclear weapons by Pakistan and India, the rise of Osama bin Laden and the way he has eluded capture, all are events that have raised the question, should the CIA have been better informed? Peter Earnest is a 36-year veteran of the CIA and now head of the International Spy Museum.
PETER EARNEST, FMR. CIA OFFICER: The answer is simple, yes. That's what an intelligence service capability is. It's the capability of perceiving threat, of identifying it, of analyzing it, of making policymakers aware of it. Clearly, we did not.
FOREMAN: Tenet himself made it clear he was concerned about spy capabilities, particularly in the Arab world. Although the CIA will not release specifics under Tenet, more Arabic-speaking officers were recruited. More cooperative agreements were established with foreign intelligence services, but spying on governments which the CIA was made for and learning what small individual terrorist groups are planning are wildly different things.
RONALD KESSLER, AUTHOR, "INSIDE THE CIA": The really hard thing is how do you get the information in the first place? How do you convince someone to rat on someone like bin Laden? That is so difficult and that just requires years of work, patience, money. FOREMAN: Adding to the problem according to some Arab-Americans is a basic cultural gap.
JAMES ZOGBY, ARAB AMERICAN INSTITUTE: We see Arabs as an objectified problem. We see the culture as less than ours. We see them as more violent than we are.
FOREMAN: And you think that makes it hard to gather intelligence.
ZOGBY: I think very hard. It makes us very susceptible and very prone to bad intelligence.
FOREMAN: And fixing that problem, by all accounts, would take a very long time.
Tom Foreman, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: All right, want to talk a little bit more about China and the 15-year anniversary of Tiananmen Square, because there's some interesting things going on today in China.
Our senior international editor Eli Flournoy is here to tell us what's happening to CNN International in China.
ELI FLOURNOY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL EDITOR: Yes, unfortunately, as we heard Mike Chinoy reporting about his experiences at the time of the Tiananmen Square thing earlier, some things haven't really changed that much in China.
CNN is being censored. All this week we've been airing reports and pieces that we've seen here on this show, as well, about the Tiananmen anniversary. But in China, as you can see, here is a clip from CNN International. Now this is recorded off air in China and Kristie Lu Stout, the anchor, is reporting and then all of a sudden it goes to black. Well this...
COSTELLO: So they actually have a censor sitting there watching.
FLOURNOY: Exactly.
COSTELLO: And whenever there's a mention of Tiananmen Square, it just goes black?
FLOURNOY: That's correct. That's correct. Our Beijing bureau chief Jaime FlorCruz tells us that every single time that we have had a piece about Tiananmen Square, they hit the button, it goes to black. So this is if you're watching CNN in China right now, which can be seen in hotels and government offices watch it and embassies and so forth, every time...
COSTELLO: The problem is not in your set.
FLOURNOY: (INAUDIBLE). The problem is not on your -- on your screen. It's -- yes, the censor is just hitting the button and it goes to black.
COSTELLO: Isn't that something.
FLOURNOY: Yes.
COSTELLO: Isn't that something. The other interesting, you have a lot of interesting stories today, actually. Want to talk about Iran or the U.N. report first?
FLOURNOY: Well let's talk about the U.N. report. Within the coming hour, we're expecting the U.N. human rights report to come out on Iraq. Now the interesting thing about this, what everybody is waiting for is are they going to talk about the prison abuse situation? We anticipate that they are probably going to talk about concerns about the relationship between U.S. forces in Iraq and Iraqi citizens and that relationship and civilians killed in operations in Iraq. But the whole prison abuse scandal is something that is such a hot button issue and it remains to be seen. And we'll find out, hopefully within an hour, whether that's going to be addressed today.
COSTELLO: And in talking about the pictures from that prison abuse scandal, they have made their appearance in Iran.
FLOURNOY: That's correct. Yes, the effect of this prison abuse scandal is broadening. And this picture here, which we got from a street in Tehran, this is a main highway, Al-Sadr Highway in Tehran. And you can see there, there are artist renditions. You can see the people there walking alongside the streets. You can get an idea of how big those billboards are. Those, of course, are two of the prison scandal pictures there with the officer Lynndie England there with the leash on the neck.
COSTELLO: So this is just on a city street in Tehran in Iran, and this is a person walking by and somebody has painted?
FLOURNOY: Yes.
COSTELLO: For what purpose?
FLOURNOY: Well because...
COSTELLO: Should I ask?
FLOURNOY: Yes, on the -- on the right -- the picture on the right hand side there, it says first it was Palestine, now it is Iraq. And that's a reference connecting the situation now in Iraq to the Iranian support for the Palestinians and saying that the U.S. is now oppressing Iraqis the way the Palestinians have been oppressed, according to Iran.
COSTELLO: Well see, I thought Iran was trying to build better relations with the United States, so why would the government allow this kind of stuff to go up?
FLOURNOY: Well, it is and it isn't. There's a lot of -- you know there's a lot of criticism still of the United States and people are very, very concerned about what's going on next door. The Iranian people feel a very close connection to the Iraqi people, even though the two country's governments have been at odds for a long time. The people...
COSTELLO: And at war at times for a very long time.
FLOURNOY: Exactly. Exactly, but the people are very close. And the -- and the religion of Iran being Shiite Islam and Iraq, most of the Iraqis being Shiite Islamic, they feel a very close connection. So they are very, very sensitive to this kind of thing, this kind of abuse going on with their neighbors in Iraq.
COSTELLO: Interesting. Fascinating stuff this morning. Thank you, Eli, we appreciate it.
FLOURNOY: Thanks, Carol.
COSTELLO: One U.S. soldier at the center of the Iraqi prison abuse scandal has requested that Vice President Cheney and Defense Secretary Rumsfeld testify in her behalf. That would be Private 1st Class Lynndie England. She has a preliminary hearing at Fort Bragg, North Carolina later this month. England has hired a new attorney to head up her defense team.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RICHARD HERNANDEZ, ATTORNEY FOR LYNNDIE ENGLAND: She's not getting the constitutional protection. One of those things is the presumption of innocence. And she's been crucified in the military -- I mean in the media. And the military has pretty much completely abandoned her as the poster child for the abuses.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: England's lawyer says Cheney and Rumsfeld are on a list of more than 130 people the defense wants to call in as witnesses.
And CNN has learned that two Marines have pleaded guilty to prisoner abuse charges. The charges stem from electric shocks given to inmates at a temporary holding facility in Iraq. The two were court-martialed in Fallujah last month. Both will serve prison terms then get bad conduct -- bad conduct discharges. Two other Marines face court action as well.
A top radio station has hit the airwaves in Baghdad. Even though it's free of government influence, it still plays a key political role.
CNN's Aneesh Raman tells us about it.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANEESH RAMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Out of a modest building on a Baghdad side street, an American staple has come to Iraq, talk radio. The first independent all-talk radio station in the country, Radio Dijla (ph), is the brainchild of Ahmad Rikaby.
AHMAD RIKABY, FOUNDER, RADIO DIJLA: The station started in my mind many years ago. So it's a result of a dream.
RAMAN: A dream that brought Rikaby, an Iraqi born and raised abroad, to Baghdad soon after the war ended, broadcasting it first out of a tent. Hitting the airwaves just one month ago, his latest creation is proving an overnight success among an audience largely immobilized by violence, desperate to connect with each other.
RIKABY: Iraqis have many things to say. They want to complain. They want to cry. They want to shout. They want to sing.
RAMAN (on camera): But in a country where radio has an enormous audience, there is more to this station than allowing callers to vent. There is also a strong political role for it to play.
(voice-over): A day after the announcement of Iraq's interim government, callers voiced their opinions. "I don't think that the government is Iraqi; I think the Americans will rule us," says one caller. Another says, "During the first three months, we will see what they do."
Rikaby hopes that by introducing Iraqis to a new medium, he can help give them a new mind-set, a must, he says, if democracy is to survive.
RIKABY: We are still able to produce another Saddam Hussein in this country, because the mentality is still stuck in the old times. So how to face this challenge, how to stop this threat? In order to do that, you need to have free media.
RAMAN: And while Radio Dijla has yet to find a Rush Limbaugh or an Al Franken, that is sure to come, a novel style of radio in Iraq, having arrived, is now hard to imagine ever going silent.
Aneesh Raman, CNN, Baghdad.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: The president and the pontiff. A monumental meeting of the minds in Rome marred by protests. In the next hour of DAYBREAK, we will get the latest live from a Vatican analyst.
Plus,...
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DANIEL FUNK (ph), WORLD WAR II VETERAN: It was a gloomy, wet, cold, muddy, miserable place to be.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: And we thank you for being there, sir. This man helped liberate Europe. Now 60 years later, he's going back to receive thanks. This is DAYBREAK for Friday.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Your news, money, weather and sports. It is 5:46 Eastern. Here is what's all new this morning.
We just got these pictures in to CNN. This is President Bush in Italy meeting with the Italian President Carlo Ciampi. The president is due to meet with the Pope a little later on. When he does that, you can sure -- you can be sure the discussion will be hot. They're going to talk about the war in Iraq. And also probably the prisoner abuse scandal. When the president does meet with Pope John Paul II, we'll bring you those pictures as well.
In China, police snuffed out any hint of protests in Tiananmen Square today. It's the 15th anniversary of the military assault on pro democracy protesters. Hundreds, perhaps thousands of people were massacred by Chinese troops.
In money news, new signs of a recovery in the job market. The Labor Department says business productivity grew at a rate of 3.8 percent in the first quarter. That is stronger than expected.
In sports, Miami Dolphins linebacker Junior Seau has apologized for using a slur considered derogatory to gays. Beau made the remark at a team banquet while trying to describe the close, loving relationship he shared with his teammates.
In culture, the day Broadway fans have waited for almost here, the Tony Awards ceremony takes place Sunday at Radio City Music Hall in New York. Some observers say "Wicked" will -- "Wicked," rather, will win the Tony.
Those are the latest headlines for you this morning -- Rob.
MARCIANO: Hey, Carol, we'll go through the forecast.
(WEATHER REPORT)
MARCIANO: Carol, back to you.
COSTELLO: Thank you, Rob.
The memories, both joyous and painful, will come flooding back this weekend for World War II veterans who fought in Europe.
CNN's Brian Todd has been talking to some of them.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Daniel Funk got rejected by the Marines because he couldn't see well enough. Determined to join the fight, he ended up an artillery mechanic with the Army's 28th Infantry Division fixing pins in wheels on huge cannons, landed in France weeks after D-Day and never got injured, but don't think his road was easy. Don't think he can't relate to combat, like the day he did land at Normandy.
FUNK: All the beach was stink. It was -- it was the odor of death. Even before we got off the ship, about a mile, a mile and a half down into the Channel, you start to pick up that terrible odor.
TODD: From there some of the war's most storied advances carried Dan Funk and his division with them. The hedge roads (ph) of northern France where the retreating Germans fought for every inch. The liberation of Paris, which Funk says was just a route to another battle, although a pleasant one.
FUNK: All the people over there were happy and joyful and they threw everything at us, tomatoes, and the girls were wonderful.
TODD: Soon, the U.S. Army would push to the border between Germany and Belgium. Then Funk moved to the Battle of the Bulge.
FUNK: It was a gloomy, wet, cold, muddy, miserable place to be.
TODD: Funk had his close calls, got strafed and shelled, but made it to Germany for war's end, won liberation medals from France, Belgium and Luxembourg. This week in Paris he gets one more, France's highest award, the Legion of Honor.
FUNK: I'm going to my division reunion in September, and they'll all know it's there because it belongs to them. OK. Let's take a smoke.
TODD: Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: Want to take you quickly to the Vatican just to show you a picture that we have got in from there. This is a live shot from inside the Vatican. You can see the dignitary standing there and also you can see the guards and that's their formal dress. Actually, they dress that way all the time at the Vatican.
President Bush will soon be meeting Pope John Paul II, and I believe his wife will be along with him. They'll be talking about a number of things, controversial things. And of course when that meeting happens, we will bring that to you live. But we just thought that you'd like to see the pictures this morning because it's just so darned beautiful there, isn't it?
We're going to take a break. We'll come right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: There is a chance of rain in the forecast, but that does not bother Smarty Jones, the chestnut colt with the explosive acceleration. No horse has beaten him yet. And tomorrow's Belmont Stakes will give Smarty Jones a shot at the racing's Triple Crown.
As CNN's Josie Burke reports, they will be cheering him on in Philadelphia. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOSIE BURKE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When Smarty Jones enters the starting gate at Belmont Park Saturday to try to win horse racing's Triple Crown, the thoroughbred will truly be saddled with expectations.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It would break a drought, I think, in terms of morale.
MIKE LIEBERTHAL, PHILADELPHIA PHILLIES: Does that count? Does that count as like a sports championship? If it does, then I'll be rooting for him.
BURKE: Smarty hails from Philadelphia, the home of some sport's greatest athletes, most storied franchises, and lately biggest disappointments.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is a lift from the Flyers, the Sixers, the Eagles losing three years in a row. And Smarty Jones is bringing the life back to Philadelphia.
IKE REESE, EAGLES LINEBACKER: I'm like everybody else in the city of Philadelphia. We're pulling for him. We need a champion here. We need something to hang our hat on and say, this is a winning town.
BURKE: In January, the Eagles came up one win shy of the Super Bowl for the third straight season. And when the Flyers were recently knocked out a win away from the Stanley Cup Finals, it marked the ah time in 21 years that a Philadelphia playoff team failed to win a championship. It is a drought that the City of Brotherly Love has begun to hate.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He'll be another Philly horse if he doesn't win the Triple Crown.
RANDY WOLF, PHILADELPHIA PHILLIES: Chicago has the goat, which is the animal that caused the cure. So maybe a horse can reverse Philadelphia's curse.
LIEBERTHAL: As a horse, I don't know if he knows he's from Philly. So maybe he's got that going for him.
BURKE: But could winning the first Triple Crown in 26 years be enough to satisfy the city's championship desire?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: By asking that question, you probably just jinxed us.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm hoping it is the Phillies a little bit over the horse. But it may take a horse. It may take a filly.
(LAUGHTER)
BURKE: Alas, Smarty is a Philadelphian, not a filly. But should he realize the hopes of a title-starved town, it seems anything might be possible.
JIM O'BRIEN, 76ERS HEAD COACH: Well, if he wins the Triple Crown, I'm going to have him talk to my team in training camp.
BURKE: That would be winning advice straight from the horse's mouth.
Josie Burke, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: Let's head back to the Vatican for just a second to show you more pictures. The President and Mrs. Bush expected to meet with Pope John Paul shortly. Soon you will see the Swiss Guards standing at attention awaiting the President and Mrs. Bush's arrival. And when the president meets the Pope, he will present him the Presidential Medal of Freedom. That is the nation's highest civilian award, which recognizes exceptional meritorious service. And of course then the Pope and the president will probably talk Iraq.
We'll be back with more of DAYBREAK right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: The president and the pontiff, a momentous occasion at the Vatican this morning. You're taking a live look at the Vatican. We're going to take you there again shortly.
It is Friday, June 4. This is DAYBREAK.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired June 4, 2004 - 05:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: The president in Rome this morning. He's there to drum up support for Iraq and to commemorate the liberation of Europe.
It's Friday, June 4. This is DAYBREAK.
Good morning to you, welcome to the second half-hour of DAYBREAK. From the CNN Global Headquarters in Atlanta, I'm Carol Costello.
Let me bring you up to date now.
About 20 minutes from now, President Bush and the first lady will have an audience with Pope John Paul II. Air Force One landed in Rome overnight. The president is hoping his European visit will lead to more support for the rehabilitation of Iraq.
There is another resignation expected today at the CIA. Spymaster James Pavitt, he's the guy in charge of covert operations, is expected to resign. As you know, CIA Director George Tenet announced his resignation on Thursday.
In money news, Martha Stewart's company plans to expand its board of directors from five to nine. The new board candidates for Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia are prominent media and marketing executives.
In sports, L.A. Dodgers centerfielder Milton Bradley has been suspended for four games. Bradley was thrown out of Tuesday's game with Milwaukee after throwing a tantrum and a bunch of other stuff, too. Manager Jim Tracy also was suspended but just for one game.
In culture, former President Bill Clinton is on the road. Today is the second day of a book tour promoting his memoir, it's "My Life." It's just called "My Life," not "It's My Life." It's out on June 22 -- Rob.
ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: That would be a song, if I remember correctly.
COSTELLO: I know. I was wondering where I got that.
MARCIANO: All I know is I'm sure he is paid handsomely, at least, and in advance.
COSTELLO: I'm sure. MARCIANO: Good morning, again, Carol.
(WEATHER REPORT)
COSTELLO: Thank you, Rob.
MARCIANO: OK.
COSTELLO: President Bush is just a few minutes away from a meeting with Pope John Paul II. The President and Mrs. Bush arrived in Italy just before dawn. It's the first stop on a European trip designed to get more international support for the reconstruction of Iraq. The president adjusted his schedule to meet with the Pope. Aides say the war in Iraq will most likely come up. The Pope is strongly opposed to the war. Security is extremely tight for the visit amidst fears anti-war protests could get out of hand.
When the president returns from Europe, he has got to fill a vacancy at the CIA. George Tenet says he plans to resign as CIA director on July 11, seven years to the day after he was sworn in. And sources tell CNN that James Pavitt, the agency's deputy director of operations who oversees covert operations, is planning to announce his resignation later today.
Some members of Congress say now is the time to make broad changes to improve the CIA's intelligence gathering capabilities.
Our Tom Foreman looks at the challenges the CIA has faced in recent times.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The still unfound weapons of mass destruction, the testing of nuclear weapons by Pakistan and India, the rise of Osama bin Laden and the way he has eluded capture, all are events that have raised the question, should the CIA have been better informed? Peter Earnest is a 36-year veteran of the CIA and now head of the International Spy Museum.
PETER EARNEST, FMR. CIA OFFICER: The answer is simple, yes. That's what an intelligence service capability is. It's the capability of perceiving threat, of identifying it, of analyzing it, of making policymakers aware of it. Clearly, we did not.
FOREMAN: Tenet himself made it clear he was concerned about spy capabilities, particularly in the Arab world. Although the CIA will not release specifics under Tenet, more Arabic-speaking officers were recruited. More cooperative agreements were established with foreign intelligence services, but spying on governments which the CIA was made for and learning what small individual terrorist groups are planning are wildly different things.
RONALD KESSLER, AUTHOR, "INSIDE THE CIA": The really hard thing is how do you get the information in the first place? How do you convince someone to rat on someone like bin Laden? That is so difficult and that just requires years of work, patience, money. FOREMAN: Adding to the problem according to some Arab-Americans is a basic cultural gap.
JAMES ZOGBY, ARAB AMERICAN INSTITUTE: We see Arabs as an objectified problem. We see the culture as less than ours. We see them as more violent than we are.
FOREMAN: And you think that makes it hard to gather intelligence.
ZOGBY: I think very hard. It makes us very susceptible and very prone to bad intelligence.
FOREMAN: And fixing that problem, by all accounts, would take a very long time.
Tom Foreman, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: All right, want to talk a little bit more about China and the 15-year anniversary of Tiananmen Square, because there's some interesting things going on today in China.
Our senior international editor Eli Flournoy is here to tell us what's happening to CNN International in China.
ELI FLOURNOY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL EDITOR: Yes, unfortunately, as we heard Mike Chinoy reporting about his experiences at the time of the Tiananmen Square thing earlier, some things haven't really changed that much in China.
CNN is being censored. All this week we've been airing reports and pieces that we've seen here on this show, as well, about the Tiananmen anniversary. But in China, as you can see, here is a clip from CNN International. Now this is recorded off air in China and Kristie Lu Stout, the anchor, is reporting and then all of a sudden it goes to black. Well this...
COSTELLO: So they actually have a censor sitting there watching.
FLOURNOY: Exactly.
COSTELLO: And whenever there's a mention of Tiananmen Square, it just goes black?
FLOURNOY: That's correct. That's correct. Our Beijing bureau chief Jaime FlorCruz tells us that every single time that we have had a piece about Tiananmen Square, they hit the button, it goes to black. So this is if you're watching CNN in China right now, which can be seen in hotels and government offices watch it and embassies and so forth, every time...
COSTELLO: The problem is not in your set.
FLOURNOY: (INAUDIBLE). The problem is not on your -- on your screen. It's -- yes, the censor is just hitting the button and it goes to black.
COSTELLO: Isn't that something.
FLOURNOY: Yes.
COSTELLO: Isn't that something. The other interesting, you have a lot of interesting stories today, actually. Want to talk about Iran or the U.N. report first?
FLOURNOY: Well let's talk about the U.N. report. Within the coming hour, we're expecting the U.N. human rights report to come out on Iraq. Now the interesting thing about this, what everybody is waiting for is are they going to talk about the prison abuse situation? We anticipate that they are probably going to talk about concerns about the relationship between U.S. forces in Iraq and Iraqi citizens and that relationship and civilians killed in operations in Iraq. But the whole prison abuse scandal is something that is such a hot button issue and it remains to be seen. And we'll find out, hopefully within an hour, whether that's going to be addressed today.
COSTELLO: And in talking about the pictures from that prison abuse scandal, they have made their appearance in Iran.
FLOURNOY: That's correct. Yes, the effect of this prison abuse scandal is broadening. And this picture here, which we got from a street in Tehran, this is a main highway, Al-Sadr Highway in Tehran. And you can see there, there are artist renditions. You can see the people there walking alongside the streets. You can get an idea of how big those billboards are. Those, of course, are two of the prison scandal pictures there with the officer Lynndie England there with the leash on the neck.
COSTELLO: So this is just on a city street in Tehran in Iran, and this is a person walking by and somebody has painted?
FLOURNOY: Yes.
COSTELLO: For what purpose?
FLOURNOY: Well because...
COSTELLO: Should I ask?
FLOURNOY: Yes, on the -- on the right -- the picture on the right hand side there, it says first it was Palestine, now it is Iraq. And that's a reference connecting the situation now in Iraq to the Iranian support for the Palestinians and saying that the U.S. is now oppressing Iraqis the way the Palestinians have been oppressed, according to Iran.
COSTELLO: Well see, I thought Iran was trying to build better relations with the United States, so why would the government allow this kind of stuff to go up?
FLOURNOY: Well, it is and it isn't. There's a lot of -- you know there's a lot of criticism still of the United States and people are very, very concerned about what's going on next door. The Iranian people feel a very close connection to the Iraqi people, even though the two country's governments have been at odds for a long time. The people...
COSTELLO: And at war at times for a very long time.
FLOURNOY: Exactly. Exactly, but the people are very close. And the -- and the religion of Iran being Shiite Islam and Iraq, most of the Iraqis being Shiite Islamic, they feel a very close connection. So they are very, very sensitive to this kind of thing, this kind of abuse going on with their neighbors in Iraq.
COSTELLO: Interesting. Fascinating stuff this morning. Thank you, Eli, we appreciate it.
FLOURNOY: Thanks, Carol.
COSTELLO: One U.S. soldier at the center of the Iraqi prison abuse scandal has requested that Vice President Cheney and Defense Secretary Rumsfeld testify in her behalf. That would be Private 1st Class Lynndie England. She has a preliminary hearing at Fort Bragg, North Carolina later this month. England has hired a new attorney to head up her defense team.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RICHARD HERNANDEZ, ATTORNEY FOR LYNNDIE ENGLAND: She's not getting the constitutional protection. One of those things is the presumption of innocence. And she's been crucified in the military -- I mean in the media. And the military has pretty much completely abandoned her as the poster child for the abuses.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: England's lawyer says Cheney and Rumsfeld are on a list of more than 130 people the defense wants to call in as witnesses.
And CNN has learned that two Marines have pleaded guilty to prisoner abuse charges. The charges stem from electric shocks given to inmates at a temporary holding facility in Iraq. The two were court-martialed in Fallujah last month. Both will serve prison terms then get bad conduct -- bad conduct discharges. Two other Marines face court action as well.
A top radio station has hit the airwaves in Baghdad. Even though it's free of government influence, it still plays a key political role.
CNN's Aneesh Raman tells us about it.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANEESH RAMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Out of a modest building on a Baghdad side street, an American staple has come to Iraq, talk radio. The first independent all-talk radio station in the country, Radio Dijla (ph), is the brainchild of Ahmad Rikaby.
AHMAD RIKABY, FOUNDER, RADIO DIJLA: The station started in my mind many years ago. So it's a result of a dream.
RAMAN: A dream that brought Rikaby, an Iraqi born and raised abroad, to Baghdad soon after the war ended, broadcasting it first out of a tent. Hitting the airwaves just one month ago, his latest creation is proving an overnight success among an audience largely immobilized by violence, desperate to connect with each other.
RIKABY: Iraqis have many things to say. They want to complain. They want to cry. They want to shout. They want to sing.
RAMAN (on camera): But in a country where radio has an enormous audience, there is more to this station than allowing callers to vent. There is also a strong political role for it to play.
(voice-over): A day after the announcement of Iraq's interim government, callers voiced their opinions. "I don't think that the government is Iraqi; I think the Americans will rule us," says one caller. Another says, "During the first three months, we will see what they do."
Rikaby hopes that by introducing Iraqis to a new medium, he can help give them a new mind-set, a must, he says, if democracy is to survive.
RIKABY: We are still able to produce another Saddam Hussein in this country, because the mentality is still stuck in the old times. So how to face this challenge, how to stop this threat? In order to do that, you need to have free media.
RAMAN: And while Radio Dijla has yet to find a Rush Limbaugh or an Al Franken, that is sure to come, a novel style of radio in Iraq, having arrived, is now hard to imagine ever going silent.
Aneesh Raman, CNN, Baghdad.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: The president and the pontiff. A monumental meeting of the minds in Rome marred by protests. In the next hour of DAYBREAK, we will get the latest live from a Vatican analyst.
Plus,...
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DANIEL FUNK (ph), WORLD WAR II VETERAN: It was a gloomy, wet, cold, muddy, miserable place to be.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: And we thank you for being there, sir. This man helped liberate Europe. Now 60 years later, he's going back to receive thanks. This is DAYBREAK for Friday.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Your news, money, weather and sports. It is 5:46 Eastern. Here is what's all new this morning.
We just got these pictures in to CNN. This is President Bush in Italy meeting with the Italian President Carlo Ciampi. The president is due to meet with the Pope a little later on. When he does that, you can sure -- you can be sure the discussion will be hot. They're going to talk about the war in Iraq. And also probably the prisoner abuse scandal. When the president does meet with Pope John Paul II, we'll bring you those pictures as well.
In China, police snuffed out any hint of protests in Tiananmen Square today. It's the 15th anniversary of the military assault on pro democracy protesters. Hundreds, perhaps thousands of people were massacred by Chinese troops.
In money news, new signs of a recovery in the job market. The Labor Department says business productivity grew at a rate of 3.8 percent in the first quarter. That is stronger than expected.
In sports, Miami Dolphins linebacker Junior Seau has apologized for using a slur considered derogatory to gays. Beau made the remark at a team banquet while trying to describe the close, loving relationship he shared with his teammates.
In culture, the day Broadway fans have waited for almost here, the Tony Awards ceremony takes place Sunday at Radio City Music Hall in New York. Some observers say "Wicked" will -- "Wicked," rather, will win the Tony.
Those are the latest headlines for you this morning -- Rob.
MARCIANO: Hey, Carol, we'll go through the forecast.
(WEATHER REPORT)
MARCIANO: Carol, back to you.
COSTELLO: Thank you, Rob.
The memories, both joyous and painful, will come flooding back this weekend for World War II veterans who fought in Europe.
CNN's Brian Todd has been talking to some of them.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Daniel Funk got rejected by the Marines because he couldn't see well enough. Determined to join the fight, he ended up an artillery mechanic with the Army's 28th Infantry Division fixing pins in wheels on huge cannons, landed in France weeks after D-Day and never got injured, but don't think his road was easy. Don't think he can't relate to combat, like the day he did land at Normandy.
FUNK: All the beach was stink. It was -- it was the odor of death. Even before we got off the ship, about a mile, a mile and a half down into the Channel, you start to pick up that terrible odor.
TODD: From there some of the war's most storied advances carried Dan Funk and his division with them. The hedge roads (ph) of northern France where the retreating Germans fought for every inch. The liberation of Paris, which Funk says was just a route to another battle, although a pleasant one.
FUNK: All the people over there were happy and joyful and they threw everything at us, tomatoes, and the girls were wonderful.
TODD: Soon, the U.S. Army would push to the border between Germany and Belgium. Then Funk moved to the Battle of the Bulge.
FUNK: It was a gloomy, wet, cold, muddy, miserable place to be.
TODD: Funk had his close calls, got strafed and shelled, but made it to Germany for war's end, won liberation medals from France, Belgium and Luxembourg. This week in Paris he gets one more, France's highest award, the Legion of Honor.
FUNK: I'm going to my division reunion in September, and they'll all know it's there because it belongs to them. OK. Let's take a smoke.
TODD: Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: Want to take you quickly to the Vatican just to show you a picture that we have got in from there. This is a live shot from inside the Vatican. You can see the dignitary standing there and also you can see the guards and that's their formal dress. Actually, they dress that way all the time at the Vatican.
President Bush will soon be meeting Pope John Paul II, and I believe his wife will be along with him. They'll be talking about a number of things, controversial things. And of course when that meeting happens, we will bring that to you live. But we just thought that you'd like to see the pictures this morning because it's just so darned beautiful there, isn't it?
We're going to take a break. We'll come right back.
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COSTELLO: There is a chance of rain in the forecast, but that does not bother Smarty Jones, the chestnut colt with the explosive acceleration. No horse has beaten him yet. And tomorrow's Belmont Stakes will give Smarty Jones a shot at the racing's Triple Crown.
As CNN's Josie Burke reports, they will be cheering him on in Philadelphia. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOSIE BURKE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When Smarty Jones enters the starting gate at Belmont Park Saturday to try to win horse racing's Triple Crown, the thoroughbred will truly be saddled with expectations.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It would break a drought, I think, in terms of morale.
MIKE LIEBERTHAL, PHILADELPHIA PHILLIES: Does that count? Does that count as like a sports championship? If it does, then I'll be rooting for him.
BURKE: Smarty hails from Philadelphia, the home of some sport's greatest athletes, most storied franchises, and lately biggest disappointments.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is a lift from the Flyers, the Sixers, the Eagles losing three years in a row. And Smarty Jones is bringing the life back to Philadelphia.
IKE REESE, EAGLES LINEBACKER: I'm like everybody else in the city of Philadelphia. We're pulling for him. We need a champion here. We need something to hang our hat on and say, this is a winning town.
BURKE: In January, the Eagles came up one win shy of the Super Bowl for the third straight season. And when the Flyers were recently knocked out a win away from the Stanley Cup Finals, it marked the ah time in 21 years that a Philadelphia playoff team failed to win a championship. It is a drought that the City of Brotherly Love has begun to hate.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He'll be another Philly horse if he doesn't win the Triple Crown.
RANDY WOLF, PHILADELPHIA PHILLIES: Chicago has the goat, which is the animal that caused the cure. So maybe a horse can reverse Philadelphia's curse.
LIEBERTHAL: As a horse, I don't know if he knows he's from Philly. So maybe he's got that going for him.
BURKE: But could winning the first Triple Crown in 26 years be enough to satisfy the city's championship desire?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: By asking that question, you probably just jinxed us.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm hoping it is the Phillies a little bit over the horse. But it may take a horse. It may take a filly.
(LAUGHTER)
BURKE: Alas, Smarty is a Philadelphian, not a filly. But should he realize the hopes of a title-starved town, it seems anything might be possible.
JIM O'BRIEN, 76ERS HEAD COACH: Well, if he wins the Triple Crown, I'm going to have him talk to my team in training camp.
BURKE: That would be winning advice straight from the horse's mouth.
Josie Burke, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: Let's head back to the Vatican for just a second to show you more pictures. The President and Mrs. Bush expected to meet with Pope John Paul shortly. Soon you will see the Swiss Guards standing at attention awaiting the President and Mrs. Bush's arrival. And when the president meets the Pope, he will present him the Presidential Medal of Freedom. That is the nation's highest civilian award, which recognizes exceptional meritorious service. And of course then the Pope and the president will probably talk Iraq.
We'll be back with more of DAYBREAK right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: The president and the pontiff, a momentous occasion at the Vatican this morning. You're taking a live look at the Vatican. We're going to take you there again shortly.
It is Friday, June 4. This is DAYBREAK.
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