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CNN Live Sunday
Interview With Ahmed Chalabi; Interview With Tim Burger of "Time" Magazine
Aired August 08, 2004 - 16:00 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.
DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN ANCHOR: Ahead on CNN LIVE SUNDAY, the White House faces a new round of questions about its handling of the war on terror. Plus, target: America, a "Time" magazine exclusive. I'll talk with one of the reporters who helped uncover what could be plans for al Qaeda's next big attack.
And this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The first thing I thought when I saw the sharks was, I wanted to get in the water.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FEYERICK: The shark feeding frenzy and the man in the middle of it all.
Hello, and welcome to CNN SUNDAY. I'm Deborah Feyerick. Fredricka Whitfield has the day off.
All that and more after this check of the headlines. In Iraq, arrest warrants have been issued for Ahmed Chalabi and his nephew, Salem Chalabi. Ahmed Chalabi is a former member of Iraq's Governing Council. We'll have much more on this story in just a moment.
In Afghanistan, two U.S. soldiers and their Afghan interpreter were killed by a roadside bomb southwest of Kabul. Another U.S. soldiers was wounded in the blast. It happened in an area where Taliban-backed rebels routinely clash with U.S. and Afghan forces.
Four men are under arrest today for the gruesome slayings of six people in Florida last week. We'll have a live update on this story in 20 minutes. Keeping you informed, CNN, the most trusted name in news.
We're watching a number of developing stories out of Iraq. The very latest is confirmation that an arrest warrant has been issued for Ahmed Chalabi, at one time a U.S. favorite for civilian leadership in the new Iraq. The relationship soured months ago. CNN's Matthew Chance has the details.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Under tight security, an unannounced visit to Najaf by the Iraqi leader. Iyad Allawi entered this strife-torn city with his defense and interior minters in tow, and a strong message for those he's termed "the criminals causing the unrest."
IAYD ALLAWAI, IRAQI INTERIM PRIME MINISTER (through translator): We hope that this situation will end as soon as possible. And we believe gunmen should leave the holy sites quickly, lay down their weapons, and return to the rule of order and law.
CHANCE: In recent days, the holy city of Najaf has borne the brunt of Iraq's heaviest fighting for months. Members of the Mehdi army, loyal to radical Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr have been fighting street-to-street, battling U.S. Marines close to the shrine of Imam Ali, one of the holiest sites in Shia Islam.
LT. COL. JOHN LEWIS MAYER, U.S. MARINE CORPS: We did not pick this fight. We were down there assisting our partners who are the Iraqi police and the Iraqi national guard, and of course, the governor of Najaf. We were asked to assist on behalf of the governor of Najaf, and our motto is no better friend, no worst enemy in the Iraqi police have been our friend since the liberation.
CHANCE: In Baghdad, the streets of Sadr City are also engulfed in violence. Mehdi army fighters in this mainly Shia suburb have been battling U.S. forces since Thursday as well. A U.S. chopper has been brought down in the latest fighting, despite all efforts to quell the unrest. There's little sign it's easing.
(on camera): Iraq's interim prime minister has stopped short of blaming Muqtada al-Sadr for all of this violence, either in Najaf or in Baghdad. U.S. military officials say that his Mehdi army may have splintered and may not be fully underneath his control. Officials believe they can still bring the firebrand Shia cleric into the political process here in Iraq, one he so far wholeheartedly rejected.
Matthew Chance, CNN, Baghdad.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FEYERICK: We understand that Ahmed Chalabi has been -- an arrest warrant has been issue for the former Governing Council member, as well as for his son, Salem Chalabi. Salem Chalabi, the head of Iraq's special tribunal, who is in charge of the -- Saddam Hussein. Do we have Ahmed Chalabi on the phone now?
AHMED CHALABI, FORMER IRAQI GOVERNING COUNCIL MEMBER: Yes, hello?
FEYERICK: Mr. Chalabi, the arrest warrant, what can you tell us about it...
CHALABI: First of all, Salem Chalabi is my nephew, not my son.
FEYERICK: I apologize, sir. I apologize. Your nephew. Tell us about this arrest warrant, what you know of it, and whether you have spoken to the authorities? CHALABI: We have heard -- I have heard about it this evening from the press. Now, our lawyers have been -- have not been notified. It is outrageous. It is completely manufactured, and I'm heading back to Baghdad to confront it, and to confront those lies. This court...
FEYERICK: Sir, the charge...
(CROSSTALK)
FEYERICK: The charge is counterfeiting. They say that you had several -- that you had some money, that you were trading on the streets, that it was counterfeit money?
CHALABI: This is a total lie. This -- there was false currency in the possession of the Finance Committee of the Governing Council, of which I was chairman. We were working very closely with the Central Bank of Iraq to see what kind of currency, what the volume of the forgeries that were being cashed in the banks, and we have -- I had many meetings with the governor of the Central Bank and his deputy and their staff in my offices at night. And this -- all this was done under the auspices of the Finance Committee to stop the forgeries and to put a stop, an and to the theft of the Iraqi people.
This is currency forged by Saddam. People were trying to pass it off. We were trying to stop this process going forward. It was done officially, as I was doing this as the chairman of the Finance Committee of the Governing Council. At the time, when this raid was on my headquarters -- on my headquarters in Baghdad, the Governing Council was in existence.
FEYERICK: So, sir, are you...
CHALABI: This is all official, official business.
FEYERICK: Sir, are you saying that you're being set up?
CHALABI: Yes. Without a doubt, I'm being set up. It is every time I'm out of Baghdad for a few days in the past -- after the raid on my house, rumors like that begin to circulate. And they think they can hurt me by doing this politically. This has a completely counterproductive effect in Iraq. It's -- I've been fielding many telephone calls of sympathy from the people of Iraq, and they're outraged at this move.
And then this, at a time of violence, and at this time of killing that is going on in the country by the terrorists, this just sees fit to bring this case up, that had been in their possession for two months.
It is a ridiculous charge. It's a minute amount of money, and at the same time, this judge, if there is -- if he has any sense of justice, he should recuse himself from this case, because he's been attacking me for months in the American press.
FEYERICK: Sir, talk to me about your -- sir, talk to me about your nephew, Salem Chalabi. He is the head of Iraq's special tribunal that's trying...
CHALABI: (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
FEYERICK: I'm sorry, sir?
CHALABI: That tells you a lot about for the motivation, for Salem now is the flag -- is the flag-bearer of the trial of Saddam Hussein. When a court that charged Saddam Hussein turns around and charges Salem on no evidence of something that he would -- he is so far from doing, after all the great work he's done in making this court go forward and setting up the court. This is the reward that he gets from his job? This is outrageous.
FEYERICK: So are you suggesting, though, that the judge perhaps has some political motivation in trying to derail the trial of Saddam Hussein?
CHALABI: Without a doubt. Yes. He attacked the court, he attacked the trial of Saddam Hussein in the press! This is outrageous. You see, this is the thing. This is what you get when Baathists begin to return to government in this fashion.
It is not -- not a good scene now in Iraq. You can see that (UNINTELLIGIBLE) of the violence. We support the government in trying to restore order in Iraq. We have offered them our support, and we want to support them to restore order, and have sovereignty, and all the elections on time.
FEYERICK: Sir, if you had been contacted by the judge or by other authorities, would you have gone in willingly to talk to them and to answer questions about these charges that are now against you?
CHALABI: Of course I would. I'm going straight -- I'm going to the court. I'm not going to stand still with these charges out there. I will go to the court, and despite my reservations about the court, I will answer questions. No one is above the law in Iraq. I certainly am not.
FEYERICK: And finally, sir...
CHALABI: This is -- we want to establish rule of law.
FEYERICK: Sir, do you see this as personal and nothing else?
CHALABI: It is political. It is political.
FEYERICK: OK. Well, Ahmed Chalabi, thank you very much. We really appreciate your joining us on the phone. Thank you very much, Ahmed Chalabi.
CHALABI: Thank you.
FEYERICK: A former Governing Council member, answering charges that an arrest warrant has been issued against him for counterfeiting.
We now turn to the larger war on terrorism. Some recent major successes seem to have been tempered by what looks to be a case of two steps forward, one step back. One step forward was the arrest on Friday in Dubai of a suspected high level al Qaeda operative. He's now been flown back to Pakistan, where he's suspected of taking part in plots to assassinate the country's pro-U.S. president. His capture came after a series of important arrests in Pakistan itself. Those arrests revealed a possible terrorist plot against buildings in New York, New Jersey and Washington, which we've known about for a week.
The apparent step back came when U.S. officials publicly identified one of the Pakistanis in custody, Muhammad Naeem Noor Khan. Pakistani officials tell CNN they were using Khan in a sting operation to track down more al Qaeda higher-ups. Khan's cover was blown when the U.S. went public with his name.
Khan's arrest in mid-July was an important breakthrough, according to this week's cover story in "Time" magazine. Khan fingered other al Qaeda suspects, including a man wanted in connection with the 1998 bombings of U.S. bombings in Africa. That resulted in a late July raid, in which Pakistani authorities also seized computers and computer discs, which contained the information that sparked last week's U.S. terrorism alerts. I'll talk with one of the "Time" correspondents behind the article in just a bit.
But first we want to focus on why Khan's name has been made public, and what, if any, damage it has done. For that, we go now to Elaine Quijano. She joins us in Washington -- Elaine.
ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good afternoon, Deborah. It was last week that questions about why exactly the Department of Homeland Security had decided to raise the terror threat level for the financial services sectors in New York, New Jersey and Washington, those questions were swirling about quite intensively, and the Department of Homeland Security certainly acted with the approval of President Bush, but it was against that backdrop that unnamed U.S. government officials decided to leak the name of Muhammad Naeem Noor Khan as the source of the intelligence that led the U.S. to act. And that disclosure was likely intended to bolster the government's case for raising the threat level.
But Pakistani intelligence sources say it effectively shut down the sting operation that Khan was being used in to try to net other al Qaeda members. And today, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice discussed what happened, and also talked about the dilemma facing the U.S. government about how to tip off the public without tipping the government's hand to terrorists.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CONDOLEEZZA RICE, NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: We did not, of course, publicly disclose his name. One of the...
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: He was disclosed in Washington on background.
RICE: On background. And the problem is that when you're trying to strike a balance between giving enough information to the public so that they know that you're dealing with a specific, credible, different kind of threat than you've dealt with in the past, you're always weighing that against kind of operational considerations. We've tried to strike a balance. We think for the most part we've struck a balance. But it's indeed a very difficult balance to strike.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
QUIJANO: Now, some are questioning the wisdom of that move, specifically today, Republican senator from Virginia, George Allen criticized that decision to leak Khan's name to the public.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. GEORGE ALLEN (R), VIRGINIA: They should have kept their mouth shut, and just said we have information, trust us, and I think that would have been good enough, for me, and I would hope for also others.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
QUIJANO: Now, meantime here in the nation's capital, security continues to be ramped up here as well as in New York and New Jersey. Local authorities here in Washington say they have received information regarding threats against members of Congress. Now, one senator who was briefed on part of that intelligence says that it is something to be concerned about, but something certainly he says not to be alarmed about -- Deborah.
FEYERICK: Elaine, we don't want to put you on the spot. Has the White House, though, responded at all to the arrest warrant being issued for Ahmed Chalabi on counterfeiting charges, and also an arrest warrant for his nephew, who actually heads the tribunal trying Saddam Hussein. Have they had any reaction to that?
QUIJANO: Well, certainly at this point, what the White House is saying is what they have said all along when asked about Ahmed Chalabi, specifically at a time when the White House has tried to distance itself from Ahmed Chalabi. The statement issued by a White House spokesman says simply, this is a matter in the hands of the Iraqi authorities and they will resolve it. It's a matter for the Iraqi government to decide.
But it was just this past year during the State of the Union address that Ahmed Chalabi, whom you see there, was actually a guest of first lady Laura Bush's during the State of the Union address. He sat, in fact, right behind her. But then when the reports surfaced about Chalabi potentially sharing information, secrets with Iran, that relationship dissolved quite quickly. And now certainly the White House has said, has continued to say that they will look to the Iraqi government for the leadership role in this situation, that right now, because Iraq is a sovereign nation, it is their situation to try to resolve -- Deborah.
FEYERICK: OK, Elaine, thank you very much. As we know, Ahmed Chalabi was a favorite in the Pentagon, and then he did fall out of favor, but was invited as a guest, as you say. Elaine Quijano, thank you very much for that.
Well, all of us have become keenly aware that al Qaeda terrorists are thorough and methodical planners. They had training camps. They put intricate schemes on computers. They photographed potential targets. CNN has obtained some of this material relating to an attack that occurred last year inside Saudi Arabia. Here is a unique insight into how al Qaeda works, reported by Brian Todd.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Surveillance, an al Qaeda staple. This tape showing what's believed to be the al Muhaia (ph) civilian housing compound in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. This is that same neighborhood, and the product of that reconnaissance.
November of last year: Suicide car bombs setting off three explosions kill at least 17 people at al Muhaia (ph) and wound more than 100. This type of surveillance, now very much in the American public consciousness, as officials ratchet up the terrorism alert based partly on information about the casing of financial buildings in the U.S. at least three years ago.
RICE: Al Qaeda does meticulous planning over many years.
TODD: On this tape we learned how the November attack in Riyadh was planned, from the group believed to have carried it out, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.
BEN VENZKE, INTELCENTER: And it's the expertise that is frequent -- frequently used and trained on by al Qaeda cells around the world.
TODD: CNN obtained this tape from a group called IntelCenter, a consulting firm that works with U.S. government agencies. Experts who we consulted confirmed the authenticity of the tape.
We see al Qaeda members displaying rocket-propelled grenades and surface-to-air missiles, but the operational part of the tape is perhaps the most chilling. A diagram is shown of what IntelCenter says is the al Muhaia (ph) complex, and a technique which later proved very effective. A vehicle is painted with the markings and insignia of the Saudi Security Forces. Those vehicles were used to breach the al Muhaia (ph) compound.
PETER BERGEN, CNN TERRORISM ANALYST: In this instance, they learned that there was some security which they wanted to get around, and the way to do that was to pretend that they were themselves police officers, and that worked. And they got in the compound and they killed a lot of people.
TODD: We also see a man next to one of the vehicles, later identified as Nasser Al-Sayari (ph), an al Qaeda operative killed in that suicide attack.
This tape, produced some months ago, was originally posted on a Web site. We asked IntelCenter why al Qaeda would tip off people on their operational techniques. VENZKE: It is used for instructional material for future recruits. It's released after attacks to drive fund-raising, and as a morale boost for the group.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TODD: One other practical reason for distributing this tape, terrorism experts say al Qaeda can no longer operate training camps with any consistency. They say the Internet and tapes like these are a virtual replacement for those camps and they are often used as a communications network -- Deborah.
FEYERICK: Brian Todd in Washington, thanks very much for that report.
So that's the question. Will al Qaeda strike again? Up next, a chilling look at what investigators believe to be the group's detailed plans. I'll speak to "Time" magazine's Tim Burger.
Plus, a gruesome find, six people bludgeoned to death in one Florida home. Today, arrests are made, questions linger.
And this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was the one, 30 seconds, 45 seconds of just the best thing I've ever seen underwater.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FEYERICK: Taking the bait. One man gets an up close and personal look at a shark feeding frenzy. Not my cup of tea.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
FEYERICK: As we reported, a string of recent arrests in Pakistan opened up new insights into al Qaeda and led to a heightened terrorism alert in the U.S. Details are in the cover story, the latest issue of "Time" magazine. One of "Time"'s correspondents, Tim Burger, joins me from Washington, D.C. Thanks for being here. Good article, a lot of information. Let's talk first of all about the Prudential building and limousines. What did you discover?
TIM BURGER, "TIME" MAGAZINE: Well, one of the things that everyone's been talking about in the last week is that these computers and these people caught in Pakistan revealed the detailed planning that al Qaeda was doing for possible attacks in the U.S., and one element of that, among these five buildings that were named last week as in danger in New Jersey and New York, for the Prudential building in Newark, New Jersey, they saw that if you wanted to get, for example, a truck bomb into the parking garage, it would be very difficult, because trucks didn't readily have access to that.
But they observed that the black limousines that are fairly common in the area, could be in New York, could be Donald Trump or P. Diddy, had no problem getting into the parking garage. So they thought that what you could do is gut a limousine, get the seats out, fill it with explosives, and potentially have a car bomb in the bank.
FEYERICK: And also, these weren't sort of traditional suicide bombers, per se. This was going to be more of an attack where the culprits then had a way to get away. What did you find?
BURGER: Well, that was a potential implication of the fact that they apparently cased the New Jersey transit and the mass transit options for getting to and from that area. So it could mean that, you know, it's not easy to find a talented suicide operative to go do the deed, so they might have thought that they could just get some technician, someone who'd parked the car and hit the road, like they did -- like the bombers did at the World Trade Center in '93.
FEYERICK: And also, the embassy bombing, where somebody drove the car up and then just ran away from it before it detonated. But you also discovered some interesting things, as well, about the heliports, as well as New York ports. Tell us about it?
BURGER: That's right. Some of the data that was located with these suspects caught in Pakistan, including -- included scrutiny to evaluate where the heliports are, and there's a number of them in New York City, and to possibly see helicopter routes, and also helicopter cockpit study was there, like photographs and that sort of thing.
And so the potential was there for either hijacking a helicopter and crashing it in the city, who knows if they try and fill it with explosives, also. Or, you know, possibly -- helicopters are fragile birds, and you know, if you -- there's certain things that can be done to them to make them crash. So whatever it was, it was another chilling detail of what they were possibly considering for New York.
FEYERICK: OK, and finally, Tim, also, you know, one big question that everybody has and everybody is speculating on is, are there actual al Qaeda operatives in the United States simply waiting for orders, just waiting to get the green light to put whatever their piece of the puzzle is into action. What information are you finding?
BURGER: Well, that's really the big question, and there's a belief that as we say in our story, this guy Khan and maybe some of the others who were caught in Pakistan were in touch with some people in the United States. So authorities are looking very closely at that, and seeing if there's anyone -- certainly they have people under surveillance, but they're seeing if there is anyone that they should or need to arrest right away.
FEYERICK: OK, Tim Burger from "Time" magazine. We will look forward, of course, to checking in with you again soon. Thanks so much.
BURGER: All right, thank you.
FEYERICK: Well, four people are under arrest in Florida today, charged in the brutal beating deaths of six people. Our Sara Dorsey is here with all of these details on the new developments. What do you have?
SARA DORSEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's right, Deborah. Volusia County Sheriff Ben Johnson said this was the worst crime he has ever seen. The four men are accused of using aluminum baseball bats to kill the six people in one (UNINTELLIGIBLE) in the home. And Johnson said it all came down to some missing clothes and a video game system.
The sheriff says three of the men confessed to the crime. They're 18-year-olds Robert Cannon, Jerone Hunter and Michael Salas. The fourth, Troy Victorino, is said to be the ringleader who organized the group to go to the home on Thursday to get back his missing property and to kill.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SHERIFF BEN JOHNSON, VOLUSIA COUNTY, FLORIDA: This is a mean individual that believed that somebody had done him wrong, which they had no -- nothing justifies this, and I don't call it a mistake; I call this a criminal acting out on violence that he has shown in the past that he is capable of.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DORSEY: And Johnson said he hopes all the men get the death penalty for this crime. None, he says, have shown any remorse at all, except for just being caught.
FEYERICK: All right, well, you know, the sheriff, it really looks like even he was shaken at the brutality of this crime. These poor people just must have suffered a horrible, horrible death?
DORSEY: He really has. He said that he felt for the family. And he really took it personally. He was out looking for the suspect vehicles. He was on the scene whenever they arrested those final two overnight, and basically he's just saying he really doesn't want to see these guys see the light of day again.
FEYERICK: All right, Sara Dorsey, thank you very much. And we understand you have another good piece coming up for us later on in this show. We will see you again.
Well, most of us don't even like seeing them on television, much less having them swim just feet away. But one man isn't like the rest of us, he actually goes out looking for sharks. And with this find, boy, did he hit the jackpot.
Plus, do you have the need for speed or is nice and slow your style? Later, finding that perfect balance to get the most out of life.
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FEYERICK: Well, most people would do their best to stay away from the business end of a shark, but for those with an adventurous spirit, getting video like this is the thrill of a lifetime. A self- described shark chaser tells us how he got these amazing images of a feeding frenzy in the waters off Oahu, Hawaii.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JIMMY HALL, SHARK CHASER: The goal in this was not to see the dead whale. The dead whale was actually kind of disgusting. The goal was to see the sharks feeding on it. It sounds rather funny, but it's actually been a dream of mine is to find something like this. Probably more than 20 years ago when I first heard about a dead whale and the kind of action going around it.
So when I heard about this one, fortunately, the weather was perfect, we had a boat. We dropped everything, blazed out there, and it was everything we expected it to be. It was one of the heights of my life.
The first thing I thought when I saw the sharks was I wanted to get in the water. That kind of went against us, because we were in such a panic, we tied up to the whale, dropped the cage in the water, and then I jumped in the water. All that activity, actually, believe it or not, kind of -- I don't know if it scared the sharks, but they quit eating because of that, and they would swim around and look at us, but they would not feed on the whale anymore.
So the second day we went out there, we eased into the water and swam up to it slowly, and that didn't seem to upset them. And that's when we got that one just epic shot of the big tiger shark just ripping a chunk off of that whale, and we were filming from one or two feet away. It was definitely the pinnacle of all my years of diving. It was the one, 30 seconds, 45 seconds of just the best thing I've ever seen under water.
I was never worried in the water. The sharks were -- they had plenty to eat, and I just wasn't on their list of what they wanted to eat, which is the case with sharks. The term "man-eater" is an incredible misnomer. The sharks don't eat people. They're so big, certain kinds of sharks, that they occasionally will mistakenly bite a person. But we're not what they want to eat.
Anytime you're in real clear water where the sharks know what you are, you're not in danger of being bitten. If you can't have fun in life, why have life, you know? You're not going to be laying on your deathbed going, "Gee, I wish I'd worked more." No, you're not. You're going to remember a day like this out with the tiger sharks or out on the water surfing than in the office.
You're not going to remember, so spend as much time as you've got to work in to finance your fun. You've got to do what you've got to do to make it happen, so work hard, play hard, and live. I'd rather blow up than rust. I ain't going to fade away or anything.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FEYERICK: Well, I hope he certainly considers luck as being on his side. Well, here's the latest on what's happening now in the news. The fortunes of former Iraqi exile and one-time Pentagon favorite Ahmed Chalabi continue to decline as Iraq issues an arrest warrant for him today. According to the Associated Press, Iraq's chief investigating judge says the warrant was issued on counterfeiting charges. Chalabi spoke on CNN just moments ago and called the charge outrageous.
Interim Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi made a surprise visit to the holy city of Najaf today. He was accompanied by his defense and interior ministers. Najaf has been the scene of bloody street fighting between militants and Iraqi police forces backed up by the U.S. Marines.
At least 60 illegal immigrants were discovered in an unventilated tractor-trailer in the Dallas, Fort Worth area today. The men, women, and children were believed to have been in the trailer for a number of hours. The truck was searched after a routine traffic stop.
Political commentator and former ambassador Alan Keyes has officially announced his candidacy for the U.S. Senate from Illinois. Keyes, who lives in Maryland, was asked to run by the Illinois State Republican Party after candidate Jack Ryan pulled out of the race. Keyes will face Democratic candidate Barack Obama.
Politics and humor. Believe it or not, for some, the two go hand in hand. Up next, I will speak with the very funny political satirist John Devore. And you can speak it, but can you spell it? These guys certainly can. Later, the true word wizzes.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
FEYERICK: For many Americans, including the presidential candidates, Sunday meant church. Democratic nominee John Kerry is campaigning by train. It stopped so he could attend a Catholic mass in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Kerry then spent about 20 minutes shaking hands with a couple hundred onlookers outside the church before flying back to Washington. President Bush went to an Episcopal church near the family's compound in Kennebunkport, Maine. The sermon was about the need to abandon material possessions.
Election year politics is serious business for both parties, which makes it all the more fun for humorists. Joining me from New York to talk about the lighter side of the campaign is John Devore. He's associate editor and satirist for Maxim magazine. So John, your advice, what should Kerry be doing, what should Bush be doing?
JOHN DEVORE, MAXIM MAGAZINE: Well, they're doing what they've been doing, which is just going all across the nation trying to convince the world that they're a couple of working stiffs when, in fact, they're just a pair of Yankee bluebloods.
FEYERICK: All right, so you've got George Bush, on one hand, bolstering the job numbers, even though they were pretty low, while John Kerry coming out attacking them, saying the economy's going nowhere.
DEVORE: Well, look, these economic numbers are really open to interpretation. The Democrats just love it. They're having a field day with it. And the Republicans can turn around and talk about how there's been nine months of growth, although not consecutive, and they can turn to rustbelt states and also claim that in July, 10,000 jobs were created.
It's worth remembering that Jimmy Carter, during his term, presided over a 13 percent increase in jobs, and he still got his butt whooped.
FEYERICK: So right now, at this point, leading up to the election, what do you see as George Bush's biggest asset, what do you see as John Kerry's?
DEVORE: Bush's biggest asset is security. I mean, I call it like my little Jimmy theory. The Democrats are going to come out and say that, you know, Joe Voter can't take little Jimmy to Six Flags because he doesn't have enough money. The Republicans are going to turn around and say, well, you can't take little Jimmy to Six Flags if he's dead from anthrax.
Security is Bush's biggest asset. Kerry right now, it still remains to be seen. I'm not really sure who he is other than Rambo.
FEYERICK: All right. Well, Rambo seems to have made at least some small political gain, at least in the minds of some Democrats, during his own convention. Do you think he's going to get trounced when the Republicans go to New York?
DEVORE: Let me tell you, in terms of anything that happens between now and the Republican Convention -- everything that happens, actually, between now and the Republican Convention is going to be forgotten. The Republicans are going to turn on the razzle-dazzle. It's going to be like a convention of nothing but Bob Fosses. It's going to be an amazing show.
I have no idea how a bunch of middle aged bankers have such an amazing control over political theater. The convention is going to wipe all the slate clean. And in September, it's going to be a whole new game.
FEYERICK: Though I'm sure that the Bush team is definitely checking on their balloon release mechanism.
DEVORE: Yeah, they're not going to mess up this time.
FEYERICK: I don't think so. Well, at least not after watching what happened at the Democratic Convention. Let's talk about George Bush and some of the things that he said. His latest, I guess, what they call "Bushisms" -- I do think we have this on tape. Let's take a quick listen.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.
(END VIDEO CLIP) FEYERICK: OK, now the crowd did not get that.
DEVORE: You know, the amazing thing to me about Bush's malapropisms, his misstatements, is that if they would have sunk him by now they would have. But I think a lot of the country finds it almost endearing that he doesn't speak in this very kind of very patrician, very Ivy League way. I mean, that's one of the amazing things about Bush. He's an Ivy Leaguer, he's a Yankee, but he goes off into the middle of the country and he misspeaks and people find that charming.
FEYERICK: I guess you could argue it's not what you say, it's what you mean.
DEVORE: Right.
FEYERICK: And I think probably the people there knew what he meant.
DEVORE: Well, it seems snobbish to make fun of him for misspeaking. And I think it's almost -- I'm not a conspiracist, but it almost seems like it's part of the program. There's a part of me that thinks Karl Rove writes in, you know, the miss-under-estimations.
FEYERICK: Sort of charming. Let's talk about the campaigning this week. How big a deal of it is that video -- we tend to get maybe a little bit of a kick out it -- those poor cheering supporters out there in Kansas while John Kerry's train just, whoosh, blows right by them?
DEVORE: Oh, well, you know, Kansas is a very Republican state. I think those little moments kind of chip away at Kerry, kind of make him seem what a lot of voters think of him as, as kind of like distant and wooden. You know, the devil is in the details, and that got a lot of press, rightfully so. I mean, it was ridiculous.
FEYERICK: All right, John Devore, as always, a pleasure talking to you -- a pleasure reading you as well.
DEVORE: Take care, Deborah.
FEYERICK: You too. Well, in the hustle and bustle of American life, one author says the key to divine prosperity is a delayed pace. I don't remember what that's like. Well, that's right, taking the slow road instead of the fast track. Up next, I will speak to him live. Also, pinpointing predators -- how a new device could soon change the way we keep track of sex offenders. You're watching CNN LIVE SUNDAY.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
FEYERICK: Law enforcement officials have an especially tough job when it comes to monitoring paroled sex offenders. But recently, a number of states have begun using GPS technology to keep tabs on them. CNN's Sara Dorsey has that story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DORSEY (voice-over): He's a convicted sex offender, and he's free, walking the streets. But Kenneth Baxley is being watched, his every move recorded by a GPS tracking device.
KENNETH BAXLEY: I would obviously take the box rather than stay in prison longer.
DORSEY: That's the tradeoff, living in society with the tracking device in tow or staying in prison longer. The company that makes it, Pro Tech, is located near Tampa, Florida.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: If you cut the strap, if you open the strap, if you try to open the case, it will send off a tamper alert, and that's a major violation. What this bracelet is doing is it's communicating with the tracking device.
DORSEY: A satellite sends down a signal every minute. Pro Tech's staffers and law enforcement can keep tabs on offenders simply by logging onto a computer. Hot zones are also setup to keep the offender out of restricted areas 24 hours a day.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: It might be schools, daycare centers, parks.
DORSEY: It also includes a victim's house. If the offender enters a hot zone, tampers with the device, or is not where he should be, both the offender and probation officers are paged immediately by the computer.
BAXLEY: Of course, you have to have a very good reason for where you are and what you're doing, or they'll send somebody to come get you.
DORSEY: The upside of GPS tracking is the cost. Prison runs between $45 and $75 a day per inmate. The GPS system can cost between $5 and $10 a day, an obvious savings. But can it prevent crimes?
Would carrying this box stop you from doing something?
BAXLEY: Oh, I think if anybody wants to do something, I don't think anything will stop them.
DORSEY: Pro Tech agrees, but says the numbers show the device does at least help.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Two-thirds of all offenders that are not being tracked will recidivate within three years. Offenders that are on GPS tracking recidivate less than two percent in the same three-year period.
DORSEY (on-camera): This technology now goes beyond just the offender and law enforcement. The victim can choose to wear a small pager. And if the offender enters one of those restricted zones, the victim is automatically paged and told to take cover.
BEVERLY CRAWFORD, SON TARGETED BY SEX OFFENDER: If he happens to come, it will go off. You don't have to worry about wondering if somebody's stalking you or watching you from a distance. You're going to know.
DORSEY: Beverly Crawford's son was targeted by a sex offender. She's chosen to go with the pager for an added level of security, but is not convinced it will keep the offender away forever. She says she's willing to try anything for some peace of mind. Sara Dorsey, CNN, Lakeland, Florida.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FEYERICK: News around the world now. Witnesses say an Israeli helicopter fired three missiles near the Rafah refugee camp in the Gaza Strip today. The Israeli Army says it fired cannons to deter hostile activity. Israeli troops had been in Rafah looking for tunnels used to smuggle weapons from Egypt.
Nigeria is inviting the Sudanese government and rebel negotiators to come and resume talks toward ending what the U.N. calls the worst humanitarian crisis in the world. The conflict in Sudan's western Darfur region has killed 30,000 people, displaced a million more, and left more than 2 million in urgent need of food, medicine, and other basic necessities.
There's no claim of responsibility yet for a fatal bombing today in an Islamic school in Karachi, Pakistan. Two bombs went off in the Sunni Muslim school, reportedly killing eight people and wounding dozens.
Well, if you want to become Scrabble world champion, knowing all your two-letter words is a must... spelling their way to the top of the letter ladder, we'll show you what it takes. Plus, easy does it -- do Americans have too much of a need for speed? Up next, an author tells us how to pause the fast forward button in our lives.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
FEYERICK: A rehabilitated speed-aholic wants the public to find the off ramp from life's fast lane -- not permanently, but just once in a while so they'll have a little more balance in their lives. Carl Honore is the author of "In Praise of Slowness," and he actually got a speeding ticket while researching this book. He is joining me now from London. Carl, thank you so much.
First of all, let's talk about it. We've got cell phones, Blackberries, pagers, and we all have taken multitasking to an art. How do we slow down before we implode?
CARL HONORE, AUTHOR, "IN PRAISE OF SLOWNESS": Well, you used the word "balance" there. I mean, all of these things, all of this technology, cell phones, pagers, e-mail, they're all wonderful tools. We can use them. We can make our work work better. We can get excitement from life.
But the problem is that we get stuck in this kind of fast forward mode, where we're using technology all the time, where we're always seeking to multitask or to cram more and more into less and less time. So the first step is just to be aware that we get stuck in that kind of roadrunner way of living and pick the moments when you can slow down, and that you'll actually benefit from decelerating just a little bit.
FEYERICK: Well, when you pick the moments -- it's hard to do it at work. It's hard to do it at home if you've got children. It's simply hard to do it and keep up.
HONORE: Well, no, there's a misconception there. I mean, even in the workplace -- I mean, I work in the media, and you've got to be quick a lot of the time. But there are times when you don't have to be quick. You can, you know, take a moment to read something thoroughly or think through a decision and make the right call. And I think a lot of us get away from that.
We just get stuck in full throttle and we're doing everything at high speed, and that's why people make so many mistakes in the workplace. Or you come home at the end of the day and you're still stuck in that kind of fast way of doing things. So you're maybe gobbling down your dinner like you're on a deadline, when you're not, or maybe you're speed reading bedtime stories to your child as though, again, you're on a deadline, but you're not.
And sometimes, it's enough to just kind of take a step back, a deep breath, and look at how fast you're doing something and ask yourself, "Do I need to be doing this this fast, right at this moment?" And often, the surprising answer is no. And when you discover the answer is no, it's enough just to put on the brakes a little bit.
FEYERICK: So you're talking about essentially living in the moment, sort of being there. Is this the newest rebellion against the intelligence age?
HONORE: I think it's a kind of backlash, yeah, against this overstressed, overwrought, kind of over-scheduled way that we live now, where we're always trying to do many things at once, and we're always trying to do them all as fast as possible. And that's just a recipe for hurrying through your life instead of actually living it. So I think we're less productive when we're constantly hurrying, we're less healthy, and we have less sort of time for the things that really matter, like relationships.
And when you actually start to slow down a little bit and get a balance between fast and slow, you find that you're more productive at work, you're healthier, you've got more energy, and you take a lot more pleasure out of your life, because I think that's one thing we really sacrifice by living constantly in the fast lane is pleasure. Because you can't take pleasure from food, from a conversation, even from the work you do if you're doing it always at high speed.
FEYERICK: OK, well, savor the moment. We're out of time. But thank you for joining us.
HONORE: Inevitably... FEYERICK: We look forward to your book...
HONORE: Thanks for having me.
FEYERICK: ... "In Praise of Slowness" by Carl Honore. Thank you very much. Well, you've probably never heard of a man named Alfred Mosher Butts. He was an out of work architect during the Great Depression and he invented one of the greatest word games ever. Today, 1 out of every 3 American homes has a Scrabble game. And Mr. Butts's invention even has its own national tournament, as Beth Nissen reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BETH NISSEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Initially, it looks like the Scrabble you played as a kid. But look more closely. This is competitive tournament Scrabble.
JOHN WILLIAMS, NATIONAL SCRABBLE ASSOCIATION: There are over 850 Scrabble experts here from 40 states and five or six different countries. The age range here is from 12-years-old to, I think, 93- years-old. And Scrabble is everywhere throughout the (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
NISSEN: Well, quietly thrilled. It takes intense concentration to make the highest scoring words, using randomly drawn sets of seven tiles, and place those words strategically on the board before time runs out -- concentration and often obsessive preparation.
WILLIAMS: To be a top-level tournament Scrabble player, one really needs to spend about four or five hours a day on the game, studying word lists, practicing against a computer, doing exercises.
NISSEN: Players memorize lists of words -- say, all three and four-letter words using the letter "Z"... words using the letter "Q" that don't need a "U," and of course, all permissible two-letter words.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: A-A-A-B-A-D-A...
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: A-R-A-S-A-T...
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: B-A-B-O-B-I-B-E...
MAN: M-M-H-M...
WOMAN: M-M-H-M...
MAN: S-H...
WILLIAMS: There are 97 two-letter words, which every Scrabble tournament player knows by heart.
NISSEN: And needs to know to make parallel plays like this one. "H-i-d" is a legal word and so are "s-i" and "o-d." Parallel plays help rack up the points; so do bingos. ANDRE ORNISH, TOURNAMENT COMPETITOR: A bingo is when you play all seven of your tiles, then you get a 50-point bonus.
NISSEN: To help make bingos, most competitive players arrange their tiles in alphabetical order into alphagrams. Many have spent hours and years memorizing all the words that can be made from those letter combinations.
WILLIAMS: If I go down the street and I see a sign that says "Marines," I look at it and I see "remains, seminar." Everybody here pretty much can look at a group of letters and tell you what words are in there.
NISSEN: Those words can be obscure. In this game between defending national champion Joel Sherman and three-time national champion Joe Edley, words included "caid, firth, calri." What do those words mean? To tournament players, the meanings are meaningless.
JOE EDLEY, 3-TIME NATL. SCRABBLE CHAMP: It's not cost-effective to spend time keeping them in your memory. It's just enough to know that they're words.
NISSEN: Even players who know all the words -- and there are some who have memorized the entire official Scrabble Players Dictionary -- have to contend with the luck of the draw... theirs and their opponent's.
TREY WRIGHT, 2004 CHAMPION: Anything can happen. This is scrabble. Any of my opponents can beat me if they draw the right tiles.
NISSEN: Players use ritual and talismans so the tile gods will be kind -- not give them a "U" with no "Q," let them draw a blank... tile that is.
WILLIAMS: People have their lucky tile bags, their lucky rack, their lucky shirt.
NISSEN: Tournament players aren't in it for the money. Top cash prize at the nationals is $25,000, plus a very nice silver bowl. What draws them is something else, which even amateurs can experience.
WILLIAMS: If you haven't played Scrabble in a while, sit down. It doesn't matter if you play the word "cat" or you play the word "quixotic," you'll remember how much fun it is to get a bunch of letters and randomly throw them around and then find a word and score.
NISSEN: Word up...
Beth Nissen, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FEYERICK: The Scrabble Dictionary -- critical for challenges, by the way. Well, that's it for us. "NEXT@CNN" is coming up. Here's Daniel Sieberg with a preview.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN ANCHOR: Ahead on "NEXT@CNN", will the notorious smog in Athens affect how athletes perform in the Olympics? And new discoveries bolster the case that life could exist somewhere else in the universe.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FEYERICK: And then, at 6 PM Eastern, "CNN LIVE SUNDAY" continues with Carol Lin. She'll have a look at who's who at the Olympics. And tonight on "PEOPLE IN THE NEWS," Carly Simon and Tom Cruise, a look inside both of their careers. Thanks for joining us. I'll be back with the headlines after a quick break.
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Aired August 8, 2004 - 16:00 ET
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DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN ANCHOR: Ahead on CNN LIVE SUNDAY, the White House faces a new round of questions about its handling of the war on terror. Plus, target: America, a "Time" magazine exclusive. I'll talk with one of the reporters who helped uncover what could be plans for al Qaeda's next big attack.
And this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The first thing I thought when I saw the sharks was, I wanted to get in the water.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FEYERICK: The shark feeding frenzy and the man in the middle of it all.
Hello, and welcome to CNN SUNDAY. I'm Deborah Feyerick. Fredricka Whitfield has the day off.
All that and more after this check of the headlines. In Iraq, arrest warrants have been issued for Ahmed Chalabi and his nephew, Salem Chalabi. Ahmed Chalabi is a former member of Iraq's Governing Council. We'll have much more on this story in just a moment.
In Afghanistan, two U.S. soldiers and their Afghan interpreter were killed by a roadside bomb southwest of Kabul. Another U.S. soldiers was wounded in the blast. It happened in an area where Taliban-backed rebels routinely clash with U.S. and Afghan forces.
Four men are under arrest today for the gruesome slayings of six people in Florida last week. We'll have a live update on this story in 20 minutes. Keeping you informed, CNN, the most trusted name in news.
We're watching a number of developing stories out of Iraq. The very latest is confirmation that an arrest warrant has been issued for Ahmed Chalabi, at one time a U.S. favorite for civilian leadership in the new Iraq. The relationship soured months ago. CNN's Matthew Chance has the details.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Under tight security, an unannounced visit to Najaf by the Iraqi leader. Iyad Allawi entered this strife-torn city with his defense and interior minters in tow, and a strong message for those he's termed "the criminals causing the unrest."
IAYD ALLAWAI, IRAQI INTERIM PRIME MINISTER (through translator): We hope that this situation will end as soon as possible. And we believe gunmen should leave the holy sites quickly, lay down their weapons, and return to the rule of order and law.
CHANCE: In recent days, the holy city of Najaf has borne the brunt of Iraq's heaviest fighting for months. Members of the Mehdi army, loyal to radical Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr have been fighting street-to-street, battling U.S. Marines close to the shrine of Imam Ali, one of the holiest sites in Shia Islam.
LT. COL. JOHN LEWIS MAYER, U.S. MARINE CORPS: We did not pick this fight. We were down there assisting our partners who are the Iraqi police and the Iraqi national guard, and of course, the governor of Najaf. We were asked to assist on behalf of the governor of Najaf, and our motto is no better friend, no worst enemy in the Iraqi police have been our friend since the liberation.
CHANCE: In Baghdad, the streets of Sadr City are also engulfed in violence. Mehdi army fighters in this mainly Shia suburb have been battling U.S. forces since Thursday as well. A U.S. chopper has been brought down in the latest fighting, despite all efforts to quell the unrest. There's little sign it's easing.
(on camera): Iraq's interim prime minister has stopped short of blaming Muqtada al-Sadr for all of this violence, either in Najaf or in Baghdad. U.S. military officials say that his Mehdi army may have splintered and may not be fully underneath his control. Officials believe they can still bring the firebrand Shia cleric into the political process here in Iraq, one he so far wholeheartedly rejected.
Matthew Chance, CNN, Baghdad.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FEYERICK: We understand that Ahmed Chalabi has been -- an arrest warrant has been issue for the former Governing Council member, as well as for his son, Salem Chalabi. Salem Chalabi, the head of Iraq's special tribunal, who is in charge of the -- Saddam Hussein. Do we have Ahmed Chalabi on the phone now?
AHMED CHALABI, FORMER IRAQI GOVERNING COUNCIL MEMBER: Yes, hello?
FEYERICK: Mr. Chalabi, the arrest warrant, what can you tell us about it...
CHALABI: First of all, Salem Chalabi is my nephew, not my son.
FEYERICK: I apologize, sir. I apologize. Your nephew. Tell us about this arrest warrant, what you know of it, and whether you have spoken to the authorities? CHALABI: We have heard -- I have heard about it this evening from the press. Now, our lawyers have been -- have not been notified. It is outrageous. It is completely manufactured, and I'm heading back to Baghdad to confront it, and to confront those lies. This court...
FEYERICK: Sir, the charge...
(CROSSTALK)
FEYERICK: The charge is counterfeiting. They say that you had several -- that you had some money, that you were trading on the streets, that it was counterfeit money?
CHALABI: This is a total lie. This -- there was false currency in the possession of the Finance Committee of the Governing Council, of which I was chairman. We were working very closely with the Central Bank of Iraq to see what kind of currency, what the volume of the forgeries that were being cashed in the banks, and we have -- I had many meetings with the governor of the Central Bank and his deputy and their staff in my offices at night. And this -- all this was done under the auspices of the Finance Committee to stop the forgeries and to put a stop, an and to the theft of the Iraqi people.
This is currency forged by Saddam. People were trying to pass it off. We were trying to stop this process going forward. It was done officially, as I was doing this as the chairman of the Finance Committee of the Governing Council. At the time, when this raid was on my headquarters -- on my headquarters in Baghdad, the Governing Council was in existence.
FEYERICK: So, sir, are you...
CHALABI: This is all official, official business.
FEYERICK: Sir, are you saying that you're being set up?
CHALABI: Yes. Without a doubt, I'm being set up. It is every time I'm out of Baghdad for a few days in the past -- after the raid on my house, rumors like that begin to circulate. And they think they can hurt me by doing this politically. This has a completely counterproductive effect in Iraq. It's -- I've been fielding many telephone calls of sympathy from the people of Iraq, and they're outraged at this move.
And then this, at a time of violence, and at this time of killing that is going on in the country by the terrorists, this just sees fit to bring this case up, that had been in their possession for two months.
It is a ridiculous charge. It's a minute amount of money, and at the same time, this judge, if there is -- if he has any sense of justice, he should recuse himself from this case, because he's been attacking me for months in the American press.
FEYERICK: Sir, talk to me about your -- sir, talk to me about your nephew, Salem Chalabi. He is the head of Iraq's special tribunal that's trying...
CHALABI: (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
FEYERICK: I'm sorry, sir?
CHALABI: That tells you a lot about for the motivation, for Salem now is the flag -- is the flag-bearer of the trial of Saddam Hussein. When a court that charged Saddam Hussein turns around and charges Salem on no evidence of something that he would -- he is so far from doing, after all the great work he's done in making this court go forward and setting up the court. This is the reward that he gets from his job? This is outrageous.
FEYERICK: So are you suggesting, though, that the judge perhaps has some political motivation in trying to derail the trial of Saddam Hussein?
CHALABI: Without a doubt. Yes. He attacked the court, he attacked the trial of Saddam Hussein in the press! This is outrageous. You see, this is the thing. This is what you get when Baathists begin to return to government in this fashion.
It is not -- not a good scene now in Iraq. You can see that (UNINTELLIGIBLE) of the violence. We support the government in trying to restore order in Iraq. We have offered them our support, and we want to support them to restore order, and have sovereignty, and all the elections on time.
FEYERICK: Sir, if you had been contacted by the judge or by other authorities, would you have gone in willingly to talk to them and to answer questions about these charges that are now against you?
CHALABI: Of course I would. I'm going straight -- I'm going to the court. I'm not going to stand still with these charges out there. I will go to the court, and despite my reservations about the court, I will answer questions. No one is above the law in Iraq. I certainly am not.
FEYERICK: And finally, sir...
CHALABI: This is -- we want to establish rule of law.
FEYERICK: Sir, do you see this as personal and nothing else?
CHALABI: It is political. It is political.
FEYERICK: OK. Well, Ahmed Chalabi, thank you very much. We really appreciate your joining us on the phone. Thank you very much, Ahmed Chalabi.
CHALABI: Thank you.
FEYERICK: A former Governing Council member, answering charges that an arrest warrant has been issued against him for counterfeiting.
We now turn to the larger war on terrorism. Some recent major successes seem to have been tempered by what looks to be a case of two steps forward, one step back. One step forward was the arrest on Friday in Dubai of a suspected high level al Qaeda operative. He's now been flown back to Pakistan, where he's suspected of taking part in plots to assassinate the country's pro-U.S. president. His capture came after a series of important arrests in Pakistan itself. Those arrests revealed a possible terrorist plot against buildings in New York, New Jersey and Washington, which we've known about for a week.
The apparent step back came when U.S. officials publicly identified one of the Pakistanis in custody, Muhammad Naeem Noor Khan. Pakistani officials tell CNN they were using Khan in a sting operation to track down more al Qaeda higher-ups. Khan's cover was blown when the U.S. went public with his name.
Khan's arrest in mid-July was an important breakthrough, according to this week's cover story in "Time" magazine. Khan fingered other al Qaeda suspects, including a man wanted in connection with the 1998 bombings of U.S. bombings in Africa. That resulted in a late July raid, in which Pakistani authorities also seized computers and computer discs, which contained the information that sparked last week's U.S. terrorism alerts. I'll talk with one of the "Time" correspondents behind the article in just a bit.
But first we want to focus on why Khan's name has been made public, and what, if any, damage it has done. For that, we go now to Elaine Quijano. She joins us in Washington -- Elaine.
ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good afternoon, Deborah. It was last week that questions about why exactly the Department of Homeland Security had decided to raise the terror threat level for the financial services sectors in New York, New Jersey and Washington, those questions were swirling about quite intensively, and the Department of Homeland Security certainly acted with the approval of President Bush, but it was against that backdrop that unnamed U.S. government officials decided to leak the name of Muhammad Naeem Noor Khan as the source of the intelligence that led the U.S. to act. And that disclosure was likely intended to bolster the government's case for raising the threat level.
But Pakistani intelligence sources say it effectively shut down the sting operation that Khan was being used in to try to net other al Qaeda members. And today, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice discussed what happened, and also talked about the dilemma facing the U.S. government about how to tip off the public without tipping the government's hand to terrorists.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CONDOLEEZZA RICE, NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: We did not, of course, publicly disclose his name. One of the...
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: He was disclosed in Washington on background.
RICE: On background. And the problem is that when you're trying to strike a balance between giving enough information to the public so that they know that you're dealing with a specific, credible, different kind of threat than you've dealt with in the past, you're always weighing that against kind of operational considerations. We've tried to strike a balance. We think for the most part we've struck a balance. But it's indeed a very difficult balance to strike.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
QUIJANO: Now, some are questioning the wisdom of that move, specifically today, Republican senator from Virginia, George Allen criticized that decision to leak Khan's name to the public.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. GEORGE ALLEN (R), VIRGINIA: They should have kept their mouth shut, and just said we have information, trust us, and I think that would have been good enough, for me, and I would hope for also others.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
QUIJANO: Now, meantime here in the nation's capital, security continues to be ramped up here as well as in New York and New Jersey. Local authorities here in Washington say they have received information regarding threats against members of Congress. Now, one senator who was briefed on part of that intelligence says that it is something to be concerned about, but something certainly he says not to be alarmed about -- Deborah.
FEYERICK: Elaine, we don't want to put you on the spot. Has the White House, though, responded at all to the arrest warrant being issued for Ahmed Chalabi on counterfeiting charges, and also an arrest warrant for his nephew, who actually heads the tribunal trying Saddam Hussein. Have they had any reaction to that?
QUIJANO: Well, certainly at this point, what the White House is saying is what they have said all along when asked about Ahmed Chalabi, specifically at a time when the White House has tried to distance itself from Ahmed Chalabi. The statement issued by a White House spokesman says simply, this is a matter in the hands of the Iraqi authorities and they will resolve it. It's a matter for the Iraqi government to decide.
But it was just this past year during the State of the Union address that Ahmed Chalabi, whom you see there, was actually a guest of first lady Laura Bush's during the State of the Union address. He sat, in fact, right behind her. But then when the reports surfaced about Chalabi potentially sharing information, secrets with Iran, that relationship dissolved quite quickly. And now certainly the White House has said, has continued to say that they will look to the Iraqi government for the leadership role in this situation, that right now, because Iraq is a sovereign nation, it is their situation to try to resolve -- Deborah.
FEYERICK: OK, Elaine, thank you very much. As we know, Ahmed Chalabi was a favorite in the Pentagon, and then he did fall out of favor, but was invited as a guest, as you say. Elaine Quijano, thank you very much for that.
Well, all of us have become keenly aware that al Qaeda terrorists are thorough and methodical planners. They had training camps. They put intricate schemes on computers. They photographed potential targets. CNN has obtained some of this material relating to an attack that occurred last year inside Saudi Arabia. Here is a unique insight into how al Qaeda works, reported by Brian Todd.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Surveillance, an al Qaeda staple. This tape showing what's believed to be the al Muhaia (ph) civilian housing compound in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. This is that same neighborhood, and the product of that reconnaissance.
November of last year: Suicide car bombs setting off three explosions kill at least 17 people at al Muhaia (ph) and wound more than 100. This type of surveillance, now very much in the American public consciousness, as officials ratchet up the terrorism alert based partly on information about the casing of financial buildings in the U.S. at least three years ago.
RICE: Al Qaeda does meticulous planning over many years.
TODD: On this tape we learned how the November attack in Riyadh was planned, from the group believed to have carried it out, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.
BEN VENZKE, INTELCENTER: And it's the expertise that is frequent -- frequently used and trained on by al Qaeda cells around the world.
TODD: CNN obtained this tape from a group called IntelCenter, a consulting firm that works with U.S. government agencies. Experts who we consulted confirmed the authenticity of the tape.
We see al Qaeda members displaying rocket-propelled grenades and surface-to-air missiles, but the operational part of the tape is perhaps the most chilling. A diagram is shown of what IntelCenter says is the al Muhaia (ph) complex, and a technique which later proved very effective. A vehicle is painted with the markings and insignia of the Saudi Security Forces. Those vehicles were used to breach the al Muhaia (ph) compound.
PETER BERGEN, CNN TERRORISM ANALYST: In this instance, they learned that there was some security which they wanted to get around, and the way to do that was to pretend that they were themselves police officers, and that worked. And they got in the compound and they killed a lot of people.
TODD: We also see a man next to one of the vehicles, later identified as Nasser Al-Sayari (ph), an al Qaeda operative killed in that suicide attack.
This tape, produced some months ago, was originally posted on a Web site. We asked IntelCenter why al Qaeda would tip off people on their operational techniques. VENZKE: It is used for instructional material for future recruits. It's released after attacks to drive fund-raising, and as a morale boost for the group.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TODD: One other practical reason for distributing this tape, terrorism experts say al Qaeda can no longer operate training camps with any consistency. They say the Internet and tapes like these are a virtual replacement for those camps and they are often used as a communications network -- Deborah.
FEYERICK: Brian Todd in Washington, thanks very much for that report.
So that's the question. Will al Qaeda strike again? Up next, a chilling look at what investigators believe to be the group's detailed plans. I'll speak to "Time" magazine's Tim Burger.
Plus, a gruesome find, six people bludgeoned to death in one Florida home. Today, arrests are made, questions linger.
And this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was the one, 30 seconds, 45 seconds of just the best thing I've ever seen underwater.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FEYERICK: Taking the bait. One man gets an up close and personal look at a shark feeding frenzy. Not my cup of tea.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
FEYERICK: As we reported, a string of recent arrests in Pakistan opened up new insights into al Qaeda and led to a heightened terrorism alert in the U.S. Details are in the cover story, the latest issue of "Time" magazine. One of "Time"'s correspondents, Tim Burger, joins me from Washington, D.C. Thanks for being here. Good article, a lot of information. Let's talk first of all about the Prudential building and limousines. What did you discover?
TIM BURGER, "TIME" MAGAZINE: Well, one of the things that everyone's been talking about in the last week is that these computers and these people caught in Pakistan revealed the detailed planning that al Qaeda was doing for possible attacks in the U.S., and one element of that, among these five buildings that were named last week as in danger in New Jersey and New York, for the Prudential building in Newark, New Jersey, they saw that if you wanted to get, for example, a truck bomb into the parking garage, it would be very difficult, because trucks didn't readily have access to that.
But they observed that the black limousines that are fairly common in the area, could be in New York, could be Donald Trump or P. Diddy, had no problem getting into the parking garage. So they thought that what you could do is gut a limousine, get the seats out, fill it with explosives, and potentially have a car bomb in the bank.
FEYERICK: And also, these weren't sort of traditional suicide bombers, per se. This was going to be more of an attack where the culprits then had a way to get away. What did you find?
BURGER: Well, that was a potential implication of the fact that they apparently cased the New Jersey transit and the mass transit options for getting to and from that area. So it could mean that, you know, it's not easy to find a talented suicide operative to go do the deed, so they might have thought that they could just get some technician, someone who'd parked the car and hit the road, like they did -- like the bombers did at the World Trade Center in '93.
FEYERICK: And also, the embassy bombing, where somebody drove the car up and then just ran away from it before it detonated. But you also discovered some interesting things, as well, about the heliports, as well as New York ports. Tell us about it?
BURGER: That's right. Some of the data that was located with these suspects caught in Pakistan, including -- included scrutiny to evaluate where the heliports are, and there's a number of them in New York City, and to possibly see helicopter routes, and also helicopter cockpit study was there, like photographs and that sort of thing.
And so the potential was there for either hijacking a helicopter and crashing it in the city, who knows if they try and fill it with explosives, also. Or, you know, possibly -- helicopters are fragile birds, and you know, if you -- there's certain things that can be done to them to make them crash. So whatever it was, it was another chilling detail of what they were possibly considering for New York.
FEYERICK: OK, and finally, Tim, also, you know, one big question that everybody has and everybody is speculating on is, are there actual al Qaeda operatives in the United States simply waiting for orders, just waiting to get the green light to put whatever their piece of the puzzle is into action. What information are you finding?
BURGER: Well, that's really the big question, and there's a belief that as we say in our story, this guy Khan and maybe some of the others who were caught in Pakistan were in touch with some people in the United States. So authorities are looking very closely at that, and seeing if there's anyone -- certainly they have people under surveillance, but they're seeing if there is anyone that they should or need to arrest right away.
FEYERICK: OK, Tim Burger from "Time" magazine. We will look forward, of course, to checking in with you again soon. Thanks so much.
BURGER: All right, thank you.
FEYERICK: Well, four people are under arrest in Florida today, charged in the brutal beating deaths of six people. Our Sara Dorsey is here with all of these details on the new developments. What do you have?
SARA DORSEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's right, Deborah. Volusia County Sheriff Ben Johnson said this was the worst crime he has ever seen. The four men are accused of using aluminum baseball bats to kill the six people in one (UNINTELLIGIBLE) in the home. And Johnson said it all came down to some missing clothes and a video game system.
The sheriff says three of the men confessed to the crime. They're 18-year-olds Robert Cannon, Jerone Hunter and Michael Salas. The fourth, Troy Victorino, is said to be the ringleader who organized the group to go to the home on Thursday to get back his missing property and to kill.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SHERIFF BEN JOHNSON, VOLUSIA COUNTY, FLORIDA: This is a mean individual that believed that somebody had done him wrong, which they had no -- nothing justifies this, and I don't call it a mistake; I call this a criminal acting out on violence that he has shown in the past that he is capable of.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DORSEY: And Johnson said he hopes all the men get the death penalty for this crime. None, he says, have shown any remorse at all, except for just being caught.
FEYERICK: All right, well, you know, the sheriff, it really looks like even he was shaken at the brutality of this crime. These poor people just must have suffered a horrible, horrible death?
DORSEY: He really has. He said that he felt for the family. And he really took it personally. He was out looking for the suspect vehicles. He was on the scene whenever they arrested those final two overnight, and basically he's just saying he really doesn't want to see these guys see the light of day again.
FEYERICK: All right, Sara Dorsey, thank you very much. And we understand you have another good piece coming up for us later on in this show. We will see you again.
Well, most of us don't even like seeing them on television, much less having them swim just feet away. But one man isn't like the rest of us, he actually goes out looking for sharks. And with this find, boy, did he hit the jackpot.
Plus, do you have the need for speed or is nice and slow your style? Later, finding that perfect balance to get the most out of life.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
FEYERICK: Well, most people would do their best to stay away from the business end of a shark, but for those with an adventurous spirit, getting video like this is the thrill of a lifetime. A self- described shark chaser tells us how he got these amazing images of a feeding frenzy in the waters off Oahu, Hawaii.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JIMMY HALL, SHARK CHASER: The goal in this was not to see the dead whale. The dead whale was actually kind of disgusting. The goal was to see the sharks feeding on it. It sounds rather funny, but it's actually been a dream of mine is to find something like this. Probably more than 20 years ago when I first heard about a dead whale and the kind of action going around it.
So when I heard about this one, fortunately, the weather was perfect, we had a boat. We dropped everything, blazed out there, and it was everything we expected it to be. It was one of the heights of my life.
The first thing I thought when I saw the sharks was I wanted to get in the water. That kind of went against us, because we were in such a panic, we tied up to the whale, dropped the cage in the water, and then I jumped in the water. All that activity, actually, believe it or not, kind of -- I don't know if it scared the sharks, but they quit eating because of that, and they would swim around and look at us, but they would not feed on the whale anymore.
So the second day we went out there, we eased into the water and swam up to it slowly, and that didn't seem to upset them. And that's when we got that one just epic shot of the big tiger shark just ripping a chunk off of that whale, and we were filming from one or two feet away. It was definitely the pinnacle of all my years of diving. It was the one, 30 seconds, 45 seconds of just the best thing I've ever seen under water.
I was never worried in the water. The sharks were -- they had plenty to eat, and I just wasn't on their list of what they wanted to eat, which is the case with sharks. The term "man-eater" is an incredible misnomer. The sharks don't eat people. They're so big, certain kinds of sharks, that they occasionally will mistakenly bite a person. But we're not what they want to eat.
Anytime you're in real clear water where the sharks know what you are, you're not in danger of being bitten. If you can't have fun in life, why have life, you know? You're not going to be laying on your deathbed going, "Gee, I wish I'd worked more." No, you're not. You're going to remember a day like this out with the tiger sharks or out on the water surfing than in the office.
You're not going to remember, so spend as much time as you've got to work in to finance your fun. You've got to do what you've got to do to make it happen, so work hard, play hard, and live. I'd rather blow up than rust. I ain't going to fade away or anything.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FEYERICK: Well, I hope he certainly considers luck as being on his side. Well, here's the latest on what's happening now in the news. The fortunes of former Iraqi exile and one-time Pentagon favorite Ahmed Chalabi continue to decline as Iraq issues an arrest warrant for him today. According to the Associated Press, Iraq's chief investigating judge says the warrant was issued on counterfeiting charges. Chalabi spoke on CNN just moments ago and called the charge outrageous.
Interim Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi made a surprise visit to the holy city of Najaf today. He was accompanied by his defense and interior ministers. Najaf has been the scene of bloody street fighting between militants and Iraqi police forces backed up by the U.S. Marines.
At least 60 illegal immigrants were discovered in an unventilated tractor-trailer in the Dallas, Fort Worth area today. The men, women, and children were believed to have been in the trailer for a number of hours. The truck was searched after a routine traffic stop.
Political commentator and former ambassador Alan Keyes has officially announced his candidacy for the U.S. Senate from Illinois. Keyes, who lives in Maryland, was asked to run by the Illinois State Republican Party after candidate Jack Ryan pulled out of the race. Keyes will face Democratic candidate Barack Obama.
Politics and humor. Believe it or not, for some, the two go hand in hand. Up next, I will speak with the very funny political satirist John Devore. And you can speak it, but can you spell it? These guys certainly can. Later, the true word wizzes.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
FEYERICK: For many Americans, including the presidential candidates, Sunday meant church. Democratic nominee John Kerry is campaigning by train. It stopped so he could attend a Catholic mass in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Kerry then spent about 20 minutes shaking hands with a couple hundred onlookers outside the church before flying back to Washington. President Bush went to an Episcopal church near the family's compound in Kennebunkport, Maine. The sermon was about the need to abandon material possessions.
Election year politics is serious business for both parties, which makes it all the more fun for humorists. Joining me from New York to talk about the lighter side of the campaign is John Devore. He's associate editor and satirist for Maxim magazine. So John, your advice, what should Kerry be doing, what should Bush be doing?
JOHN DEVORE, MAXIM MAGAZINE: Well, they're doing what they've been doing, which is just going all across the nation trying to convince the world that they're a couple of working stiffs when, in fact, they're just a pair of Yankee bluebloods.
FEYERICK: All right, so you've got George Bush, on one hand, bolstering the job numbers, even though they were pretty low, while John Kerry coming out attacking them, saying the economy's going nowhere.
DEVORE: Well, look, these economic numbers are really open to interpretation. The Democrats just love it. They're having a field day with it. And the Republicans can turn around and talk about how there's been nine months of growth, although not consecutive, and they can turn to rustbelt states and also claim that in July, 10,000 jobs were created.
It's worth remembering that Jimmy Carter, during his term, presided over a 13 percent increase in jobs, and he still got his butt whooped.
FEYERICK: So right now, at this point, leading up to the election, what do you see as George Bush's biggest asset, what do you see as John Kerry's?
DEVORE: Bush's biggest asset is security. I mean, I call it like my little Jimmy theory. The Democrats are going to come out and say that, you know, Joe Voter can't take little Jimmy to Six Flags because he doesn't have enough money. The Republicans are going to turn around and say, well, you can't take little Jimmy to Six Flags if he's dead from anthrax.
Security is Bush's biggest asset. Kerry right now, it still remains to be seen. I'm not really sure who he is other than Rambo.
FEYERICK: All right. Well, Rambo seems to have made at least some small political gain, at least in the minds of some Democrats, during his own convention. Do you think he's going to get trounced when the Republicans go to New York?
DEVORE: Let me tell you, in terms of anything that happens between now and the Republican Convention -- everything that happens, actually, between now and the Republican Convention is going to be forgotten. The Republicans are going to turn on the razzle-dazzle. It's going to be like a convention of nothing but Bob Fosses. It's going to be an amazing show.
I have no idea how a bunch of middle aged bankers have such an amazing control over political theater. The convention is going to wipe all the slate clean. And in September, it's going to be a whole new game.
FEYERICK: Though I'm sure that the Bush team is definitely checking on their balloon release mechanism.
DEVORE: Yeah, they're not going to mess up this time.
FEYERICK: I don't think so. Well, at least not after watching what happened at the Democratic Convention. Let's talk about George Bush and some of the things that he said. His latest, I guess, what they call "Bushisms" -- I do think we have this on tape. Let's take a quick listen.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.
(END VIDEO CLIP) FEYERICK: OK, now the crowd did not get that.
DEVORE: You know, the amazing thing to me about Bush's malapropisms, his misstatements, is that if they would have sunk him by now they would have. But I think a lot of the country finds it almost endearing that he doesn't speak in this very kind of very patrician, very Ivy League way. I mean, that's one of the amazing things about Bush. He's an Ivy Leaguer, he's a Yankee, but he goes off into the middle of the country and he misspeaks and people find that charming.
FEYERICK: I guess you could argue it's not what you say, it's what you mean.
DEVORE: Right.
FEYERICK: And I think probably the people there knew what he meant.
DEVORE: Well, it seems snobbish to make fun of him for misspeaking. And I think it's almost -- I'm not a conspiracist, but it almost seems like it's part of the program. There's a part of me that thinks Karl Rove writes in, you know, the miss-under-estimations.
FEYERICK: Sort of charming. Let's talk about the campaigning this week. How big a deal of it is that video -- we tend to get maybe a little bit of a kick out it -- those poor cheering supporters out there in Kansas while John Kerry's train just, whoosh, blows right by them?
DEVORE: Oh, well, you know, Kansas is a very Republican state. I think those little moments kind of chip away at Kerry, kind of make him seem what a lot of voters think of him as, as kind of like distant and wooden. You know, the devil is in the details, and that got a lot of press, rightfully so. I mean, it was ridiculous.
FEYERICK: All right, John Devore, as always, a pleasure talking to you -- a pleasure reading you as well.
DEVORE: Take care, Deborah.
FEYERICK: You too. Well, in the hustle and bustle of American life, one author says the key to divine prosperity is a delayed pace. I don't remember what that's like. Well, that's right, taking the slow road instead of the fast track. Up next, I will speak to him live. Also, pinpointing predators -- how a new device could soon change the way we keep track of sex offenders. You're watching CNN LIVE SUNDAY.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
FEYERICK: Law enforcement officials have an especially tough job when it comes to monitoring paroled sex offenders. But recently, a number of states have begun using GPS technology to keep tabs on them. CNN's Sara Dorsey has that story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DORSEY (voice-over): He's a convicted sex offender, and he's free, walking the streets. But Kenneth Baxley is being watched, his every move recorded by a GPS tracking device.
KENNETH BAXLEY: I would obviously take the box rather than stay in prison longer.
DORSEY: That's the tradeoff, living in society with the tracking device in tow or staying in prison longer. The company that makes it, Pro Tech, is located near Tampa, Florida.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: If you cut the strap, if you open the strap, if you try to open the case, it will send off a tamper alert, and that's a major violation. What this bracelet is doing is it's communicating with the tracking device.
DORSEY: A satellite sends down a signal every minute. Pro Tech's staffers and law enforcement can keep tabs on offenders simply by logging onto a computer. Hot zones are also setup to keep the offender out of restricted areas 24 hours a day.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: It might be schools, daycare centers, parks.
DORSEY: It also includes a victim's house. If the offender enters a hot zone, tampers with the device, or is not where he should be, both the offender and probation officers are paged immediately by the computer.
BAXLEY: Of course, you have to have a very good reason for where you are and what you're doing, or they'll send somebody to come get you.
DORSEY: The upside of GPS tracking is the cost. Prison runs between $45 and $75 a day per inmate. The GPS system can cost between $5 and $10 a day, an obvious savings. But can it prevent crimes?
Would carrying this box stop you from doing something?
BAXLEY: Oh, I think if anybody wants to do something, I don't think anything will stop them.
DORSEY: Pro Tech agrees, but says the numbers show the device does at least help.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Two-thirds of all offenders that are not being tracked will recidivate within three years. Offenders that are on GPS tracking recidivate less than two percent in the same three-year period.
DORSEY (on-camera): This technology now goes beyond just the offender and law enforcement. The victim can choose to wear a small pager. And if the offender enters one of those restricted zones, the victim is automatically paged and told to take cover.
BEVERLY CRAWFORD, SON TARGETED BY SEX OFFENDER: If he happens to come, it will go off. You don't have to worry about wondering if somebody's stalking you or watching you from a distance. You're going to know.
DORSEY: Beverly Crawford's son was targeted by a sex offender. She's chosen to go with the pager for an added level of security, but is not convinced it will keep the offender away forever. She says she's willing to try anything for some peace of mind. Sara Dorsey, CNN, Lakeland, Florida.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FEYERICK: News around the world now. Witnesses say an Israeli helicopter fired three missiles near the Rafah refugee camp in the Gaza Strip today. The Israeli Army says it fired cannons to deter hostile activity. Israeli troops had been in Rafah looking for tunnels used to smuggle weapons from Egypt.
Nigeria is inviting the Sudanese government and rebel negotiators to come and resume talks toward ending what the U.N. calls the worst humanitarian crisis in the world. The conflict in Sudan's western Darfur region has killed 30,000 people, displaced a million more, and left more than 2 million in urgent need of food, medicine, and other basic necessities.
There's no claim of responsibility yet for a fatal bombing today in an Islamic school in Karachi, Pakistan. Two bombs went off in the Sunni Muslim school, reportedly killing eight people and wounding dozens.
Well, if you want to become Scrabble world champion, knowing all your two-letter words is a must... spelling their way to the top of the letter ladder, we'll show you what it takes. Plus, easy does it -- do Americans have too much of a need for speed? Up next, an author tells us how to pause the fast forward button in our lives.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
FEYERICK: A rehabilitated speed-aholic wants the public to find the off ramp from life's fast lane -- not permanently, but just once in a while so they'll have a little more balance in their lives. Carl Honore is the author of "In Praise of Slowness," and he actually got a speeding ticket while researching this book. He is joining me now from London. Carl, thank you so much.
First of all, let's talk about it. We've got cell phones, Blackberries, pagers, and we all have taken multitasking to an art. How do we slow down before we implode?
CARL HONORE, AUTHOR, "IN PRAISE OF SLOWNESS": Well, you used the word "balance" there. I mean, all of these things, all of this technology, cell phones, pagers, e-mail, they're all wonderful tools. We can use them. We can make our work work better. We can get excitement from life.
But the problem is that we get stuck in this kind of fast forward mode, where we're using technology all the time, where we're always seeking to multitask or to cram more and more into less and less time. So the first step is just to be aware that we get stuck in that kind of roadrunner way of living and pick the moments when you can slow down, and that you'll actually benefit from decelerating just a little bit.
FEYERICK: Well, when you pick the moments -- it's hard to do it at work. It's hard to do it at home if you've got children. It's simply hard to do it and keep up.
HONORE: Well, no, there's a misconception there. I mean, even in the workplace -- I mean, I work in the media, and you've got to be quick a lot of the time. But there are times when you don't have to be quick. You can, you know, take a moment to read something thoroughly or think through a decision and make the right call. And I think a lot of us get away from that.
We just get stuck in full throttle and we're doing everything at high speed, and that's why people make so many mistakes in the workplace. Or you come home at the end of the day and you're still stuck in that kind of fast way of doing things. So you're maybe gobbling down your dinner like you're on a deadline, when you're not, or maybe you're speed reading bedtime stories to your child as though, again, you're on a deadline, but you're not.
And sometimes, it's enough to just kind of take a step back, a deep breath, and look at how fast you're doing something and ask yourself, "Do I need to be doing this this fast, right at this moment?" And often, the surprising answer is no. And when you discover the answer is no, it's enough just to put on the brakes a little bit.
FEYERICK: So you're talking about essentially living in the moment, sort of being there. Is this the newest rebellion against the intelligence age?
HONORE: I think it's a kind of backlash, yeah, against this overstressed, overwrought, kind of over-scheduled way that we live now, where we're always trying to do many things at once, and we're always trying to do them all as fast as possible. And that's just a recipe for hurrying through your life instead of actually living it. So I think we're less productive when we're constantly hurrying, we're less healthy, and we have less sort of time for the things that really matter, like relationships.
And when you actually start to slow down a little bit and get a balance between fast and slow, you find that you're more productive at work, you're healthier, you've got more energy, and you take a lot more pleasure out of your life, because I think that's one thing we really sacrifice by living constantly in the fast lane is pleasure. Because you can't take pleasure from food, from a conversation, even from the work you do if you're doing it always at high speed.
FEYERICK: OK, well, savor the moment. We're out of time. But thank you for joining us.
HONORE: Inevitably... FEYERICK: We look forward to your book...
HONORE: Thanks for having me.
FEYERICK: ... "In Praise of Slowness" by Carl Honore. Thank you very much. Well, you've probably never heard of a man named Alfred Mosher Butts. He was an out of work architect during the Great Depression and he invented one of the greatest word games ever. Today, 1 out of every 3 American homes has a Scrabble game. And Mr. Butts's invention even has its own national tournament, as Beth Nissen reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BETH NISSEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Initially, it looks like the Scrabble you played as a kid. But look more closely. This is competitive tournament Scrabble.
JOHN WILLIAMS, NATIONAL SCRABBLE ASSOCIATION: There are over 850 Scrabble experts here from 40 states and five or six different countries. The age range here is from 12-years-old to, I think, 93- years-old. And Scrabble is everywhere throughout the (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
NISSEN: Well, quietly thrilled. It takes intense concentration to make the highest scoring words, using randomly drawn sets of seven tiles, and place those words strategically on the board before time runs out -- concentration and often obsessive preparation.
WILLIAMS: To be a top-level tournament Scrabble player, one really needs to spend about four or five hours a day on the game, studying word lists, practicing against a computer, doing exercises.
NISSEN: Players memorize lists of words -- say, all three and four-letter words using the letter "Z"... words using the letter "Q" that don't need a "U," and of course, all permissible two-letter words.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: A-A-A-B-A-D-A...
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: A-R-A-S-A-T...
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: B-A-B-O-B-I-B-E...
MAN: M-M-H-M...
WOMAN: M-M-H-M...
MAN: S-H...
WILLIAMS: There are 97 two-letter words, which every Scrabble tournament player knows by heart.
NISSEN: And needs to know to make parallel plays like this one. "H-i-d" is a legal word and so are "s-i" and "o-d." Parallel plays help rack up the points; so do bingos. ANDRE ORNISH, TOURNAMENT COMPETITOR: A bingo is when you play all seven of your tiles, then you get a 50-point bonus.
NISSEN: To help make bingos, most competitive players arrange their tiles in alphabetical order into alphagrams. Many have spent hours and years memorizing all the words that can be made from those letter combinations.
WILLIAMS: If I go down the street and I see a sign that says "Marines," I look at it and I see "remains, seminar." Everybody here pretty much can look at a group of letters and tell you what words are in there.
NISSEN: Those words can be obscure. In this game between defending national champion Joel Sherman and three-time national champion Joe Edley, words included "caid, firth, calri." What do those words mean? To tournament players, the meanings are meaningless.
JOE EDLEY, 3-TIME NATL. SCRABBLE CHAMP: It's not cost-effective to spend time keeping them in your memory. It's just enough to know that they're words.
NISSEN: Even players who know all the words -- and there are some who have memorized the entire official Scrabble Players Dictionary -- have to contend with the luck of the draw... theirs and their opponent's.
TREY WRIGHT, 2004 CHAMPION: Anything can happen. This is scrabble. Any of my opponents can beat me if they draw the right tiles.
NISSEN: Players use ritual and talismans so the tile gods will be kind -- not give them a "U" with no "Q," let them draw a blank... tile that is.
WILLIAMS: People have their lucky tile bags, their lucky rack, their lucky shirt.
NISSEN: Tournament players aren't in it for the money. Top cash prize at the nationals is $25,000, plus a very nice silver bowl. What draws them is something else, which even amateurs can experience.
WILLIAMS: If you haven't played Scrabble in a while, sit down. It doesn't matter if you play the word "cat" or you play the word "quixotic," you'll remember how much fun it is to get a bunch of letters and randomly throw them around and then find a word and score.
NISSEN: Word up...
Beth Nissen, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FEYERICK: The Scrabble Dictionary -- critical for challenges, by the way. Well, that's it for us. "NEXT@CNN" is coming up. Here's Daniel Sieberg with a preview.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN ANCHOR: Ahead on "NEXT@CNN", will the notorious smog in Athens affect how athletes perform in the Olympics? And new discoveries bolster the case that life could exist somewhere else in the universe.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FEYERICK: And then, at 6 PM Eastern, "CNN LIVE SUNDAY" continues with Carol Lin. She'll have a look at who's who at the Olympics. And tonight on "PEOPLE IN THE NEWS," Carly Simon and Tom Cruise, a look inside both of their careers. Thanks for joining us. I'll be back with the headlines after a quick break.
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