Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Live At Daybreak
Rockets Hit Central Baghdad; Iraq Reacts to Saddam's Trial; U.S. & North Korea Talk at ASEAN Meetings
Aired July 02, 2004 - 5:30 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.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Insurgents on the attack in Iraq this morning. They launched several rockets in central Baghdad, but it backfired.
Take you along to Baghdad to find out why. Here's Brent Sadler.
Hello, Brent.
BRENT SADLER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello. Good morning, Carol.
This was a morning rocket attack.
We think it was aimed, according to the U.S. military, on the ground here at the Sheraton Hotel; if not the Sheraton Hotel, then the Green Zone, the heavily fortified complex where the U.S. Embassy is now positioned.
Either way, it didn't quite work out. One rocket did hit the Sheraton, the 10th floor, caused some damage. No injuries there. Many Western journalists based in that hotel along with Western contractors.
Another rocket veered off from the launch site and headed toward another hotel, again, used by Western contractors, the Baghdad Hotel. That detonated in the parking lot there, set a vehicle on fire and injured two workers in the Baghdad Hotel.
The other seven rockets simply skidded on the ground and impacted in Firdos Square, which is where the statue of Saddam Hussein was symbolically toppled when Baghdad fell to U.S. forces last April.
So a very early morning reminder that the insurgency is still very much going on here. In the days up to the trial of Saddam Hussein, the start of the trial, the intensity had lowered, particularly after the transfer of sovereignty to an interim government on Monday.
However, we did see Saddam Hussein, the deposed dictator, in court. He was seen throughout this country on excerpts, as everybody else did, and there really was a mixed reaction on the streets of Baghdad and elsewhere.
Many people were astonished to see that the Iraqi, former Iraqi leader was able to be combative in the courtroom. He was certainly tough on the judge. The judge was tough on him. He was at times defiant. He was claiming he was still the president of the Republic of Iraq. He was hostile to the Kuwaitis, the country he invaded back in 1990.
And as far as the charges are concerned, he simply dismissed those. In reference to the 1988 gassing of Kurds in Halabja, he simply said, "I have heard stories about that on the media."
So this was the kind of Saddam Hussein, casually dressed in a suit, that most Iraqis were not expecting to see.
And many people were saying they thought that a fair trial, such as it is, is simply too good for Saddam Hussein. Some people thought the trial was a waste of time, he should be executed now. Others thought this was the way Iraq should be, a fair and open trial, even for Saddam Hussein -- Carol.
COSTELLO: About the hearing itself, Brent, could you get into more about what Iraqis are feeling about this new justice system within Iraq?
SADLER: Well, certainly, as I was saying, they are confused somewhat that the former dictator was able to hold court within the court. He was challenging the jurisdiction of the judge, he was dismissing the charges against him, he refused to sign a document, milleting (ph) the proceeding that took place over about 30 minutes.
So this is not what Iraqis were expecting to see. They thought they'd be seeing something of a repetition of what they saw last December when Saddam Hussein was captured: a broken, deposed despot. That's not what they saw.
Back to you, Carol.
COSTELLO: Brent Sadler reporting live from Baghdad this morning.
Thank you.
The deposed Iraqi dictator, Saddam Hussein's defiant first court appearance is drawing reaction from the people he once ruled with an iron fist. You heard Brent refer to that.
Iraqis watched the proceeding on TV with intense interest and some say they want him punished for his crimes.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): Where are you now, Saddam? Where are you, Saddam? This is the end of injustice. This is the end of injustice.
Where are the good young people you buried in mass graves?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): Today is a happy day to see Saddam in court. He executed two of my brothers, mainly because they went to Friday prayers. And he has killed many people in Halabja. And he executed the first and second Sadrs.
(END VIDEO CLIP) COSTELLO: Many Iraqis say the former president deserves to face trial, but they say it should be an Iraqi tribunal without influence from outsiders.
Let's bring in our senior international editor David Clinch now, with word of Osama bin Laden and a truce and the time period's up.
DAVID CLINCH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL EDITOR: Well, yes.
You may not remember this, but I do. About...
COSTELLO: I didn't. I had to be prompted.
CLINCH: ... three months or so ago, April 15th, Osama bin Laden -- the last time we've heard his voice or purported to be his voice -- put out a warning to European countries saying that they, those European countries would be targets of al Qaeda attacks if they did not pull their troops out of, quote, "Muslim countries." He didn't refer to Iraq specifically, but to all Muslim countries.
That's an old theme of his, but the timing three months ago was very important because it came after that attack in Spain when, of course, the train bombing in Madrid...
COSTELLO: But, of course, Spain did pull its troops out of Iraq.
CLINCH: ... followed immediately by Spain changing government and then pulling out of Iraq.
Well, what have we got today? We've got a letter appearing in an Arabic newspaper, a very well-known Arabic newspaper, "Al-Sharq Al- Alwsat," from the same group that claims responsibility for the bombing in Spain, reminding us, reminding the world and Europe in particular that that deadline is almost up -- that would be from April 15th, three months, July 15th -- and warning that unless those European countries do what Osama warned them to do, pull their troops out of Muslim countries, they will be attacked.
Now, I'm bringing a very large bag of salt to throw on that story, because while we are remembering that that deadline is coming up, deadlines are just that and warnings from terrorists are just that.
You know, they're -- we said this many times before, their greatest weapon in some ways is just fear. They can warn anything and threaten anything and not follow through with it, and the weapon itself is fear.
So we're not reading anything into this letter today necessarily, but it does remind us of that threat from Osama bin Laden.
COSTELLO: Well, so are other countries taking more precautions because of this letter?
CLINCH: Well, that's a good point. We'll be watching July 15th. A few days away from now, we will be watching for that. But the important point is, this is a letter from a group. This is not Osama bin Laden's voice himself. That's what led to such great attention to that warning at the time, that it was his voice. That, of course, has resonance beyond just some letter in a newspaper.
So we'll be watching closely to see if he speaks again.
COSTELLO: All right.
David Clinch, many thanks to you.
CLINCH: All right.
COSTELLO: Secretary of State Colin Powell is fresh from trying to halt a humanitarian crisis and now he's trying to prevent a nuclear one.
He's been meeting with his North Korean counterpart. The meeting site is Indonesia.
And we take you live to Jakarta and our bureau chief there, Maria Ressa.
Hello, Maria.
MARIA RESSA, CNN JAKARTA BUREAU CHIEF: Hi, Carol.
This is the highest-level diplomatic contact between the United States and North Korea, takes place at the sidelines of the ASEAN meetings, Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
This has always been the place of these meetings, the only place where North Korea, North Korea's foreign minister and the U.S. secretary of state has met.
Two years ago, they had a 15-minute coffee break together.
And this year, it was far more formal. They set a time to meet and they met for 20 minutes. Both sides came out with statements that had -- that put a far more positive tone to these talks than there was before that.
Soon after that meeting, they, both U.S. and North Korea, went into the larger regional security forum of ASEAN and North Korea was taken up as a topic of the 24 foreign ministers who were there, as well as more contentious issues like Myanmar -- Carol?
COSTELLO: You know, Maria, it's so confusing with North Korea, because at last check when these nations were sitting down talking, North Korea was threatening to test a nuclear weapon and now everybody's making nice again.
RESSA: Well, it seems at least in ASEAN's perspective that the key point here in how to deal with North Korea is not to isolate it; that nuclear weapons is seen by North Korea as a way to, in effect, gain superpower status instantaneously, and by continuing to negotiate, by actually having the first high-level contact between the United States and North Korea, that North Korea's paranoia would be further diminished and that more meaningful substantive talks can follow.
COSTELLO: Maria Ressa reporting live for us from Jakarta.
Thank you so much.
Tighter U.S. sanctions on Cuba are now in effect. The White House imposed new restrictions on travel and U.S. dollars flowing to Cuba, but that's just the surface. There is an underlying threat on both sides of the Florida Strait.
Havana bureau chief Lucia Newman explains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LUCIA NEWMAN, CNN HAVANA BUREAU CHIEF (voice over): The same day Washington's new measures tightening the embargo on Cuba went into effect, President Fidel Castro seemed more interested in enjoying a good tango at the Argentine Embassy.
According to Castro, the new restrictions on family visits and remittances to Cuba could cost President George Bush his re-election.
FIDEL CASTRO, PRESIDENT OF CUBA (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): I'll just say that I think President Bush was ill-advised when he adopted these measures that go against his political interests.
NEWMAN: In a rare encounter with foreign journalists, Castro joked he'd be sorry to see President George Bush lose.
CASTRO (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): Because we like having adversaries. We're going to miss him, especially since he's one of the ones who's threatened us the most.
NEWMAN: Many ordinary Cubans, though, are more concerned about what might happen if Washington makes good on its vow to broadcast TV Marti into Cuba from a U.S. C-130 aircraft.
(on camera): Some are afraid that Cuba may respond by interfering with commercial broadcasts in much of the southern United States, which it has the capability of doing, and that Washington could retaliate with force.
(voice-over): Castro wouldn't tell CNN what he'd do if TV Marti was successfully beamed into Cuba.
CASTRO (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): All of our responses will be intelligent. We don't use threats. We simply say we'll defeat anything they try against us.
NEWMAN: And, like a soldier eager for a fight, Castro left, defiant in the face of Washington's newest efforts to accelerate the downfall of his communist regime.
Lucia Newman, CNN, Havana.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: It is a shameful chapter in medical history.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED PARTICIPANT: They didn't even tell us anything. They just go on treating us just like, I don't know, dumb pigs, (UNINTELLIGIBLE) guinea pigs.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Coming up next, what's being done to undo the damage of the Tuskegee Experiment?
This is DAYBREAK for Friday.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Your news, money, weather and sports. It is 5:44 Eastern.
Here's what's all new this morning:
A round of explosions rocked central Baghdad this morning. The Sheraton Hotel is one target. That's where a number of international journalists and civilian contractors are staying. No one reported hurt in those attacks.
In eastern Turkey, an earthquake leaves at least 18 people dead and some 50 more injured. A number of stone and mud homes are leveled by the quake. Heavy damage reported in a small village near the Iranian border.
In money news, who's going to be a millionaire? The multistate Mega Millions jackpot now a whopping $290 million big bucks, and a lot of people are buying tickets for tonight's drawing.
In culture, Johns Hopkins Hospital has done it again. It tops the list of America's best hospitals for the 14th year in a row. That is according to a survey in "U.S. News and World Report." The rankings are based on a survey of doctors nationwide.
And in sports, tee-off time is just over two hours from now. At the PGA's Western Open defending champion Tiger Woods has been having another lackluster showing.
Loren Roberts leads the pack.
(WEATHER REPORT)
COSTELLO: Those are the latest headlines for you this morning.
There is widespread distrust in African-American communities for the U.S. government, particularly when it comes to medical issues. The Tuskegee Experiment, where black men were used as laboratory animals, is one of many reasons for that distrust. How to rebuild trust was the focus of a conference at Tuskegee University this week.
Our medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen has more for you.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It seems unbelievable when you hear about it now, that, for decades, government doctors recruited illiterate black sharecroppers with syphilis by telling them they'd take care of them, but, instead, deliberately never gave them penicillin, the cure for the disease.
HERMAN SHAW, TUSKEGEE SYPHILIS STUDY SURVIVOR: They didn't even tell us anything, just go on treating us just like dumb pigs, or guinea pigs.
COHEN: The U.S. Public Health Service, along with local doctors and nurses, intentionally allowed these men to suffer the ravages of syphilis just so they could study the natural course of the disease.
As is common when the disease goes untreated, some of the men went blind. For some of them, the disease attacked the brain and the heart and many of them died. While the government never told the men they had syphilis, many others knew what was going on. Doctors frequently published study results in medical journals and discussed them at conferences.
The experiment went on for 40 years. The studies continued even after the Nuremberg Code was written, a set of regulations for preventing abuse of human study subjects that grew out of the Nazi medical experiments. Then, in 1972, a whistle-blower from within the Public Health Service leaked the story to the press. Outraged followed.
And because of Tuskegee, for the first time, the U.S. adopted strict rules for medical research and clinical trials. But trust had already been shattered by decades of betrayal. How to overcome the legacy of Tuskegee is now the challenge. Many leaders in the African- American community say much time has already been lost. It took 25 years for a president to apologize.
WILLIAM J. CLINTON, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: What the United States government did was shameful, and I am sorry.
COHEN: This week, 32 years after the experiment ended, as part of an effort to rebuild that trust, the government has come back to Tuskegee.
CLAUDE ALLEN, DEPUTY HHS SECRETARY: How do we go about getting more and better health care to communities of color, but also getting participation from communities of color in our research activities?
COHEN: Some say this week's conference is a start, but still not nearly enough minorities join medical studies. For example, just 5 percent of the study subjects in cancer clinical trials are African- American, even though they make up 12 percent of the population. Lack of participation means drugs sometimes are developed without being fully tested on minorities.
BILL JENKINS, MOREHOUSE SCHOOL OF MEDICINE: All too often, we produce a medication by studying a very narrow group like white males, only to find out that that medication may not only be unhelpful to other populations; it may actually be dangerous to other populations.
COHEN: According to the Food and Drug Administration, studies have shown that African-Americans respond differently than others to certain medicines, such as those for high-blood pressure and hepatitis.
FRED GRAY, ATTORNEY: The circle in the middle represents the memorial tile.
COHEN: Fred Gray, a lawyer for the men who survived the study, says he hopes this memorial, still in the planning stages, will help heal wounds by bearing witness to the men who were duped into thinking they were getting care when, in fact, they were just being used as guinea pigs.
Elizabeth Cohen, Tuskegee, Alabama.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: The early life of a fetus, parents get a really cool first look at their bundle of joy, but the FDA is now concerned. We'll tell you why.
And in the next hour of DAYBREAK, the Fourth of July means good food, but with weight-conscious America counting the carbs, we'll show you the best way to beat the barbecue blues.
You stay tuned. This is DAYBREAK.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: DAYBREAK, the 4th of July means good food, but with weight-conscious America counting the carbs, we'll show you the best way to beat the barbecue blues.
You stay tuned. This is DAYBREAK.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Welcome back to DAYBREAK.
Four-dimensional ultrasounds have been around for a while, but one doctor in England says he's getting a whole new view through the high-tech scan.
CNN senior medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta looks at these amazing new baby pictures and examines why some people say they may not be a good idea. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SANJAY GUPTA, SR. MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Only in its 12th week, and this fetus appears to be taking its first steps. With new scanning techniques, doctors are finding out that reflexes like walking occur much earlier than previously thought.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is very typical of a newborn baby. If you hold a newborn baby with the feet against a flat surface, the baby makes stepping movements. And this little fetus is...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's as if he's walking up the womb.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE See the steps, yes, is making stepping movements.
GUPTA: The new technology is called a 4-D ultrasound. It's a 3- D ultrasound with the added dimension being movement. Originally created to help identify defects, it is giving doctors a new view of what fetuses are actually up to in the womb.
It makes for an emotional experience.
PROF. STUART CAMPBELL, LONDON'S CREATE HEALTH CLINIC: I think the bonding is enhanced enormously by this. If you see the reaction of the parents to these images, it is so overwhelming. I mean, I have seen mothers in tears, fathers kiss the screen, kiss their wife's abdomen. It is really quite overwhelming, this feeling of love for their child, prenatally.
GUPTA: Later on at 18 weeks, this ultrasound shows the fetus can open its eyes, but it can't see anything because the womb is dark. Doctors previously thought a baby's eyelids were fused shut until 26 weeks.
And at 20 weeks, this fetus is yawning widely, but it's not breathing air. It's breathing through the placenta. And so a whole new picture of the life of the early fetus is emerging.
These high-tech ultrasounds are available in U.S. doctor's offices, and also in specialty shops popping up across the country. Some parents are shelling out $200 or more for these ultrasounds outside the doctor's office.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It is a little boy.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is it really?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It is.
GUPTA: The FDA is concerned, and issued a firm warning earlier this year, saying not enough is known about the long-term effects of repeatedly sending high doses of energy across a mother's womb.
Doctors are also concerned that entertainment ultrasounds may give parents a false sense of security. After seeing what appears to be a healthy fetus, some parents may forego standard prenatal visits.
So if you really want a prenatal keepsake, ultrasound experts say the risk from getting just one are probably pretty low. But first, clear it with your doctor. Or you can just wait a few more months and be surprised.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: For more on this or any other health story, head to our Web site. The address, cnn.com/health. That was absolutely amazing.
MYERS: Yes, some of those pictures are kind of spooky, though. You know.
COSTELLO: They are.
MYERS: Just because a regular ultrasound is so grainy, that to see that kind of resolution is...
COSTELLO: Yes, they always look like little blobs; they're not really babies.
MYERS: Yes, exactly.
COSTELLO: But that looked like a baby.
MYERS: It sure did.
COSTELLO: That's amazing. It is a baby, I guess.
We want to talk about Chiquita, because it's talking about developing a new flavored banana that wouldn't be flavored like a banana, but it could have apple in it, it could have strawberry in it. So you'd have like a strawberry-banana banana.
MYERS: It scares me a little, except, you know, I mean, you can cross an apple and an orange. You can put the stem on one and kind of get -- but I'm a purist.
COSTELLO: They say that it won't be genetically altered.
MYERS: Right.
COSTELLO: Somehow the flavor would be infused into the banana, but I guess, you know, Chiquita lost $20 million last year so they're trying something new to get people to buy more bananas.
MYERS: They could make a low-carb banana, and then they would make money.
COSTELLO: I think it's a texture problem with bananas, too.
MYERS: Really? COSTELLO: Yes.
MYERS: Not enough banana splits going on. It's been too cold.
COSTELLO: Like banana in shakes is good, but a banana-banana texture problems. That's what I think. I'll talk to the folks at Chiquita.
MYERS: OK.
COSTELLO: America's favorite dad does it again. Coming up, we'll hear more controversial comments from Bill Cosby. Stay tuned.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Less than 24 hours after Saddam Hussein appears in court, multiple explosions on the streets of Baghdad.
It is Friday, July 2nd. 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 July 2, 2004 - 5:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Insurgents on the attack in Iraq this morning. They launched several rockets in central Baghdad, but it backfired.
Take you along to Baghdad to find out why. Here's Brent Sadler.
Hello, Brent.
BRENT SADLER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello. Good morning, Carol.
This was a morning rocket attack.
We think it was aimed, according to the U.S. military, on the ground here at the Sheraton Hotel; if not the Sheraton Hotel, then the Green Zone, the heavily fortified complex where the U.S. Embassy is now positioned.
Either way, it didn't quite work out. One rocket did hit the Sheraton, the 10th floor, caused some damage. No injuries there. Many Western journalists based in that hotel along with Western contractors.
Another rocket veered off from the launch site and headed toward another hotel, again, used by Western contractors, the Baghdad Hotel. That detonated in the parking lot there, set a vehicle on fire and injured two workers in the Baghdad Hotel.
The other seven rockets simply skidded on the ground and impacted in Firdos Square, which is where the statue of Saddam Hussein was symbolically toppled when Baghdad fell to U.S. forces last April.
So a very early morning reminder that the insurgency is still very much going on here. In the days up to the trial of Saddam Hussein, the start of the trial, the intensity had lowered, particularly after the transfer of sovereignty to an interim government on Monday.
However, we did see Saddam Hussein, the deposed dictator, in court. He was seen throughout this country on excerpts, as everybody else did, and there really was a mixed reaction on the streets of Baghdad and elsewhere.
Many people were astonished to see that the Iraqi, former Iraqi leader was able to be combative in the courtroom. He was certainly tough on the judge. The judge was tough on him. He was at times defiant. He was claiming he was still the president of the Republic of Iraq. He was hostile to the Kuwaitis, the country he invaded back in 1990.
And as far as the charges are concerned, he simply dismissed those. In reference to the 1988 gassing of Kurds in Halabja, he simply said, "I have heard stories about that on the media."
So this was the kind of Saddam Hussein, casually dressed in a suit, that most Iraqis were not expecting to see.
And many people were saying they thought that a fair trial, such as it is, is simply too good for Saddam Hussein. Some people thought the trial was a waste of time, he should be executed now. Others thought this was the way Iraq should be, a fair and open trial, even for Saddam Hussein -- Carol.
COSTELLO: About the hearing itself, Brent, could you get into more about what Iraqis are feeling about this new justice system within Iraq?
SADLER: Well, certainly, as I was saying, they are confused somewhat that the former dictator was able to hold court within the court. He was challenging the jurisdiction of the judge, he was dismissing the charges against him, he refused to sign a document, milleting (ph) the proceeding that took place over about 30 minutes.
So this is not what Iraqis were expecting to see. They thought they'd be seeing something of a repetition of what they saw last December when Saddam Hussein was captured: a broken, deposed despot. That's not what they saw.
Back to you, Carol.
COSTELLO: Brent Sadler reporting live from Baghdad this morning.
Thank you.
The deposed Iraqi dictator, Saddam Hussein's defiant first court appearance is drawing reaction from the people he once ruled with an iron fist. You heard Brent refer to that.
Iraqis watched the proceeding on TV with intense interest and some say they want him punished for his crimes.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): Where are you now, Saddam? Where are you, Saddam? This is the end of injustice. This is the end of injustice.
Where are the good young people you buried in mass graves?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): Today is a happy day to see Saddam in court. He executed two of my brothers, mainly because they went to Friday prayers. And he has killed many people in Halabja. And he executed the first and second Sadrs.
(END VIDEO CLIP) COSTELLO: Many Iraqis say the former president deserves to face trial, but they say it should be an Iraqi tribunal without influence from outsiders.
Let's bring in our senior international editor David Clinch now, with word of Osama bin Laden and a truce and the time period's up.
DAVID CLINCH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL EDITOR: Well, yes.
You may not remember this, but I do. About...
COSTELLO: I didn't. I had to be prompted.
CLINCH: ... three months or so ago, April 15th, Osama bin Laden -- the last time we've heard his voice or purported to be his voice -- put out a warning to European countries saying that they, those European countries would be targets of al Qaeda attacks if they did not pull their troops out of, quote, "Muslim countries." He didn't refer to Iraq specifically, but to all Muslim countries.
That's an old theme of his, but the timing three months ago was very important because it came after that attack in Spain when, of course, the train bombing in Madrid...
COSTELLO: But, of course, Spain did pull its troops out of Iraq.
CLINCH: ... followed immediately by Spain changing government and then pulling out of Iraq.
Well, what have we got today? We've got a letter appearing in an Arabic newspaper, a very well-known Arabic newspaper, "Al-Sharq Al- Alwsat," from the same group that claims responsibility for the bombing in Spain, reminding us, reminding the world and Europe in particular that that deadline is almost up -- that would be from April 15th, three months, July 15th -- and warning that unless those European countries do what Osama warned them to do, pull their troops out of Muslim countries, they will be attacked.
Now, I'm bringing a very large bag of salt to throw on that story, because while we are remembering that that deadline is coming up, deadlines are just that and warnings from terrorists are just that.
You know, they're -- we said this many times before, their greatest weapon in some ways is just fear. They can warn anything and threaten anything and not follow through with it, and the weapon itself is fear.
So we're not reading anything into this letter today necessarily, but it does remind us of that threat from Osama bin Laden.
COSTELLO: Well, so are other countries taking more precautions because of this letter?
CLINCH: Well, that's a good point. We'll be watching July 15th. A few days away from now, we will be watching for that. But the important point is, this is a letter from a group. This is not Osama bin Laden's voice himself. That's what led to such great attention to that warning at the time, that it was his voice. That, of course, has resonance beyond just some letter in a newspaper.
So we'll be watching closely to see if he speaks again.
COSTELLO: All right.
David Clinch, many thanks to you.
CLINCH: All right.
COSTELLO: Secretary of State Colin Powell is fresh from trying to halt a humanitarian crisis and now he's trying to prevent a nuclear one.
He's been meeting with his North Korean counterpart. The meeting site is Indonesia.
And we take you live to Jakarta and our bureau chief there, Maria Ressa.
Hello, Maria.
MARIA RESSA, CNN JAKARTA BUREAU CHIEF: Hi, Carol.
This is the highest-level diplomatic contact between the United States and North Korea, takes place at the sidelines of the ASEAN meetings, Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
This has always been the place of these meetings, the only place where North Korea, North Korea's foreign minister and the U.S. secretary of state has met.
Two years ago, they had a 15-minute coffee break together.
And this year, it was far more formal. They set a time to meet and they met for 20 minutes. Both sides came out with statements that had -- that put a far more positive tone to these talks than there was before that.
Soon after that meeting, they, both U.S. and North Korea, went into the larger regional security forum of ASEAN and North Korea was taken up as a topic of the 24 foreign ministers who were there, as well as more contentious issues like Myanmar -- Carol?
COSTELLO: You know, Maria, it's so confusing with North Korea, because at last check when these nations were sitting down talking, North Korea was threatening to test a nuclear weapon and now everybody's making nice again.
RESSA: Well, it seems at least in ASEAN's perspective that the key point here in how to deal with North Korea is not to isolate it; that nuclear weapons is seen by North Korea as a way to, in effect, gain superpower status instantaneously, and by continuing to negotiate, by actually having the first high-level contact between the United States and North Korea, that North Korea's paranoia would be further diminished and that more meaningful substantive talks can follow.
COSTELLO: Maria Ressa reporting live for us from Jakarta.
Thank you so much.
Tighter U.S. sanctions on Cuba are now in effect. The White House imposed new restrictions on travel and U.S. dollars flowing to Cuba, but that's just the surface. There is an underlying threat on both sides of the Florida Strait.
Havana bureau chief Lucia Newman explains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LUCIA NEWMAN, CNN HAVANA BUREAU CHIEF (voice over): The same day Washington's new measures tightening the embargo on Cuba went into effect, President Fidel Castro seemed more interested in enjoying a good tango at the Argentine Embassy.
According to Castro, the new restrictions on family visits and remittances to Cuba could cost President George Bush his re-election.
FIDEL CASTRO, PRESIDENT OF CUBA (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): I'll just say that I think President Bush was ill-advised when he adopted these measures that go against his political interests.
NEWMAN: In a rare encounter with foreign journalists, Castro joked he'd be sorry to see President George Bush lose.
CASTRO (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): Because we like having adversaries. We're going to miss him, especially since he's one of the ones who's threatened us the most.
NEWMAN: Many ordinary Cubans, though, are more concerned about what might happen if Washington makes good on its vow to broadcast TV Marti into Cuba from a U.S. C-130 aircraft.
(on camera): Some are afraid that Cuba may respond by interfering with commercial broadcasts in much of the southern United States, which it has the capability of doing, and that Washington could retaliate with force.
(voice-over): Castro wouldn't tell CNN what he'd do if TV Marti was successfully beamed into Cuba.
CASTRO (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): All of our responses will be intelligent. We don't use threats. We simply say we'll defeat anything they try against us.
NEWMAN: And, like a soldier eager for a fight, Castro left, defiant in the face of Washington's newest efforts to accelerate the downfall of his communist regime.
Lucia Newman, CNN, Havana.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: It is a shameful chapter in medical history.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED PARTICIPANT: They didn't even tell us anything. They just go on treating us just like, I don't know, dumb pigs, (UNINTELLIGIBLE) guinea pigs.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Coming up next, what's being done to undo the damage of the Tuskegee Experiment?
This is DAYBREAK for Friday.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Your news, money, weather and sports. It is 5:44 Eastern.
Here's what's all new this morning:
A round of explosions rocked central Baghdad this morning. The Sheraton Hotel is one target. That's where a number of international journalists and civilian contractors are staying. No one reported hurt in those attacks.
In eastern Turkey, an earthquake leaves at least 18 people dead and some 50 more injured. A number of stone and mud homes are leveled by the quake. Heavy damage reported in a small village near the Iranian border.
In money news, who's going to be a millionaire? The multistate Mega Millions jackpot now a whopping $290 million big bucks, and a lot of people are buying tickets for tonight's drawing.
In culture, Johns Hopkins Hospital has done it again. It tops the list of America's best hospitals for the 14th year in a row. That is according to a survey in "U.S. News and World Report." The rankings are based on a survey of doctors nationwide.
And in sports, tee-off time is just over two hours from now. At the PGA's Western Open defending champion Tiger Woods has been having another lackluster showing.
Loren Roberts leads the pack.
(WEATHER REPORT)
COSTELLO: Those are the latest headlines for you this morning.
There is widespread distrust in African-American communities for the U.S. government, particularly when it comes to medical issues. The Tuskegee Experiment, where black men were used as laboratory animals, is one of many reasons for that distrust. How to rebuild trust was the focus of a conference at Tuskegee University this week.
Our medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen has more for you.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It seems unbelievable when you hear about it now, that, for decades, government doctors recruited illiterate black sharecroppers with syphilis by telling them they'd take care of them, but, instead, deliberately never gave them penicillin, the cure for the disease.
HERMAN SHAW, TUSKEGEE SYPHILIS STUDY SURVIVOR: They didn't even tell us anything, just go on treating us just like dumb pigs, or guinea pigs.
COHEN: The U.S. Public Health Service, along with local doctors and nurses, intentionally allowed these men to suffer the ravages of syphilis just so they could study the natural course of the disease.
As is common when the disease goes untreated, some of the men went blind. For some of them, the disease attacked the brain and the heart and many of them died. While the government never told the men they had syphilis, many others knew what was going on. Doctors frequently published study results in medical journals and discussed them at conferences.
The experiment went on for 40 years. The studies continued even after the Nuremberg Code was written, a set of regulations for preventing abuse of human study subjects that grew out of the Nazi medical experiments. Then, in 1972, a whistle-blower from within the Public Health Service leaked the story to the press. Outraged followed.
And because of Tuskegee, for the first time, the U.S. adopted strict rules for medical research and clinical trials. But trust had already been shattered by decades of betrayal. How to overcome the legacy of Tuskegee is now the challenge. Many leaders in the African- American community say much time has already been lost. It took 25 years for a president to apologize.
WILLIAM J. CLINTON, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: What the United States government did was shameful, and I am sorry.
COHEN: This week, 32 years after the experiment ended, as part of an effort to rebuild that trust, the government has come back to Tuskegee.
CLAUDE ALLEN, DEPUTY HHS SECRETARY: How do we go about getting more and better health care to communities of color, but also getting participation from communities of color in our research activities?
COHEN: Some say this week's conference is a start, but still not nearly enough minorities join medical studies. For example, just 5 percent of the study subjects in cancer clinical trials are African- American, even though they make up 12 percent of the population. Lack of participation means drugs sometimes are developed without being fully tested on minorities.
BILL JENKINS, MOREHOUSE SCHOOL OF MEDICINE: All too often, we produce a medication by studying a very narrow group like white males, only to find out that that medication may not only be unhelpful to other populations; it may actually be dangerous to other populations.
COHEN: According to the Food and Drug Administration, studies have shown that African-Americans respond differently than others to certain medicines, such as those for high-blood pressure and hepatitis.
FRED GRAY, ATTORNEY: The circle in the middle represents the memorial tile.
COHEN: Fred Gray, a lawyer for the men who survived the study, says he hopes this memorial, still in the planning stages, will help heal wounds by bearing witness to the men who were duped into thinking they were getting care when, in fact, they were just being used as guinea pigs.
Elizabeth Cohen, Tuskegee, Alabama.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: The early life of a fetus, parents get a really cool first look at their bundle of joy, but the FDA is now concerned. We'll tell you why.
And in the next hour of DAYBREAK, the Fourth of July means good food, but with weight-conscious America counting the carbs, we'll show you the best way to beat the barbecue blues.
You stay tuned. This is DAYBREAK.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: DAYBREAK, the 4th of July means good food, but with weight-conscious America counting the carbs, we'll show you the best way to beat the barbecue blues.
You stay tuned. This is DAYBREAK.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Welcome back to DAYBREAK.
Four-dimensional ultrasounds have been around for a while, but one doctor in England says he's getting a whole new view through the high-tech scan.
CNN senior medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta looks at these amazing new baby pictures and examines why some people say they may not be a good idea. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SANJAY GUPTA, SR. MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Only in its 12th week, and this fetus appears to be taking its first steps. With new scanning techniques, doctors are finding out that reflexes like walking occur much earlier than previously thought.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is very typical of a newborn baby. If you hold a newborn baby with the feet against a flat surface, the baby makes stepping movements. And this little fetus is...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's as if he's walking up the womb.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE See the steps, yes, is making stepping movements.
GUPTA: The new technology is called a 4-D ultrasound. It's a 3- D ultrasound with the added dimension being movement. Originally created to help identify defects, it is giving doctors a new view of what fetuses are actually up to in the womb.
It makes for an emotional experience.
PROF. STUART CAMPBELL, LONDON'S CREATE HEALTH CLINIC: I think the bonding is enhanced enormously by this. If you see the reaction of the parents to these images, it is so overwhelming. I mean, I have seen mothers in tears, fathers kiss the screen, kiss their wife's abdomen. It is really quite overwhelming, this feeling of love for their child, prenatally.
GUPTA: Later on at 18 weeks, this ultrasound shows the fetus can open its eyes, but it can't see anything because the womb is dark. Doctors previously thought a baby's eyelids were fused shut until 26 weeks.
And at 20 weeks, this fetus is yawning widely, but it's not breathing air. It's breathing through the placenta. And so a whole new picture of the life of the early fetus is emerging.
These high-tech ultrasounds are available in U.S. doctor's offices, and also in specialty shops popping up across the country. Some parents are shelling out $200 or more for these ultrasounds outside the doctor's office.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It is a little boy.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is it really?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It is.
GUPTA: The FDA is concerned, and issued a firm warning earlier this year, saying not enough is known about the long-term effects of repeatedly sending high doses of energy across a mother's womb.
Doctors are also concerned that entertainment ultrasounds may give parents a false sense of security. After seeing what appears to be a healthy fetus, some parents may forego standard prenatal visits.
So if you really want a prenatal keepsake, ultrasound experts say the risk from getting just one are probably pretty low. But first, clear it with your doctor. Or you can just wait a few more months and be surprised.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: For more on this or any other health story, head to our Web site. The address, cnn.com/health. That was absolutely amazing.
MYERS: Yes, some of those pictures are kind of spooky, though. You know.
COSTELLO: They are.
MYERS: Just because a regular ultrasound is so grainy, that to see that kind of resolution is...
COSTELLO: Yes, they always look like little blobs; they're not really babies.
MYERS: Yes, exactly.
COSTELLO: But that looked like a baby.
MYERS: It sure did.
COSTELLO: That's amazing. It is a baby, I guess.
We want to talk about Chiquita, because it's talking about developing a new flavored banana that wouldn't be flavored like a banana, but it could have apple in it, it could have strawberry in it. So you'd have like a strawberry-banana banana.
MYERS: It scares me a little, except, you know, I mean, you can cross an apple and an orange. You can put the stem on one and kind of get -- but I'm a purist.
COSTELLO: They say that it won't be genetically altered.
MYERS: Right.
COSTELLO: Somehow the flavor would be infused into the banana, but I guess, you know, Chiquita lost $20 million last year so they're trying something new to get people to buy more bananas.
MYERS: They could make a low-carb banana, and then they would make money.
COSTELLO: I think it's a texture problem with bananas, too.
MYERS: Really? COSTELLO: Yes.
MYERS: Not enough banana splits going on. It's been too cold.
COSTELLO: Like banana in shakes is good, but a banana-banana texture problems. That's what I think. I'll talk to the folks at Chiquita.
MYERS: OK.
COSTELLO: America's favorite dad does it again. Coming up, we'll hear more controversial comments from Bill Cosby. Stay tuned.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Less than 24 hours after Saddam Hussein appears in court, multiple explosions on the streets of Baghdad.
It is Friday, July 2nd. 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
