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CNN Live Sunday
Bush Campaign's Unpaid Adviser Resigns; 9/11 Commission Releases New Details About Hijackers
Aired August 22, 2004 - 11:00 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.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: It's 11:00 a.m. in Washington, 10:00 a.m. in Crawford, Texas. Hello, I'm Fredricka Whitfield at the CNN center in Atlanta. Welcome to CNN LIVE SUNDAY. Ahead this hour, a new controversy involving the Swift boat ads as President Bush decides to dump one of his campaign's unpaid advisers.
Also new information about the 9/11 hijackers and how hundreds of thousands of dollars were secretly funneled to the terrorists.
And later...
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Most of us don't mind working some overtime from time to time, but to do it without the overtime pay would, in my opinion, be unreasonable.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: New overtime rules go into effect on Monday. How will it change who is eligible to receive overtime pay?
But first, a look at the top stories. Our top story, an unpaid Vietnam veteran adviser is dropped from the Bush-Cheney campaign after showing up in a political ad critical of John Kerry. We'll get more on that in a moment.
Well, the Kerry camp is fighting back today with a new ad campaign of its own calling on the Bush administration to repudiate the Swift vote ads.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOHN KERRY (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm John Kerry and I approved this message.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: American soldiers are fighting in Iraq. Families struggle to afford health care, jobs heading overseas. Instead of solutions, George Bush's campaign supports a front group attacking John Kerry's military record. Attacks called smears, lies. Senator McCain calls them dishonest. Bush smeared John McCain four years ago. Now he's doing it to John Kerry. George Bush, denounce the smear. Get back to the issues. America deserves better.
(END VIDEO CLIP) WHITFIELD: Both John Kerry and Vice President Dick Cheney are taking a campaign breather today. However Kerry's running mate, John Edwards, is busy on the trail. Yesterday in Roanoke, Virginia, Edwards called for an end to the Swift boat ad campaign. He's in Charlotte, North Carolina, this morning for a front porch visit scheduled to begin within the next hour.
And this reminder, joining Paula Zahn as she explores the undecided vote in a town hall meeting tonight at 5:00 p.m. Eastern.
And one other political note. New Jersey Governor James McGreevey insists he has good reasons for delaying his resignation in the wake of a sex scandal. In a "New York Times" op ed piece, the Democratic governor admits putting it off until November until -- rather, to dodge a constitutional call for a special election. But, he says, a special election to fill the governor's seat would not be in the state's best interest. McGreevey announced his resignation after admitting to an extramarital affair with a man.
Hundreds of people are outside the Imam Ali mosque in Najaf. They are waiting for a delegation of Shiite religious authorities to take custody of the shrine. Fighting in Najaf slowed down after the U.S. launched an operation of troops, tanks and aerial gunships this morning, hitting Mehdi fighters loyal to cleric Muqtada al Sadr.
Authorities in Pakistan believe they've foiled a plan of seven days of continuous attacks -- attacks that would have included the U.S. embassy. Government officials there say there have been additional arrests in the bomb plot with up to 10 suspects now in custody. Other high profile targets included the residence of Pakistan's president. The nation's information minister said the suspects had 50 bombs, several rocket launchers and guns when they were arrested.
The commission investigating the 9/11 attacks is officially out of business, but not before releasing two more staff reports, in them, new details on the money trail for the 9/11 and other conspirators. CNN financial news, Ali Velshi joins us live from Washington with more on that. Ali?
ALI VELSHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Fredricka, late yesterday, new reports were released and now getting reaction from Washington, more specifics on "Face the Nation" this morning. About an hour ago on the Sunday morning talk circuit, Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Pat Roberts was speaking and going further than what Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has said in the past and what President Bush has said, put some detail into his call for the establishment of a new director of national intelligence, which will take some control and some money away from both the Defense Department and the CIA. Let's see if we can hear what he had to say an hour ago.
OK. We don't have that for you yet. I'll let you know what he was talking about. He way saying that they want to step out of the boxes that they're used to about which agency deals with intelligence. This follows from recommendations that were contained in the original report released by the 9/11 Commission. That was a 567-page long report, released exactly a month ago. The 9/11 Commission wanted it to be a readable report for -- an affordable report for Americans.
Last night, they issued two more reports and they total another 400 pages. The new reports go into greater detail about how exactly the terrorists were financed and how they evaded immigration authorities. One report details specifically how each of the hijackers were in different ways in violation of U.S. immigration laws. Among the new photographs released in the new reports, one was the partially burned visa belonging to Ziad Jarrah, the lead hijacker, the pilot of the United Airlines flight 93, which crashed in Pennsylvania.
The commission also released a new picture of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged architect of the plot. He was arrested in March of 2003. You'll recall the photograph of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed that was released upon his arrest. That took place in the early morning. He was roused from his bed. That's a picture a lot of people are familiar with. He had applied for a U.S. visa under an assumed name and yesterday, the commission released his denied visa application.
Now according to the report, the Saudi passport is the preferred travel document of al Qaeda and that's because at the time, Saudi Arabia had lax passport security controls. At least two and maybe seven of the terrorists from September 11th used altered passports. The commission says al Qaeda operatives would use substitute photos. They'd add false visas. They'd remove the visas and they'd bleach stamps in the passports. One illustration of lax Saudi passport controls, last night's report says that as many as 10,000 Saudi passports may have been lost or stolen in recent years and until late 2001, a stolen Saudi passport that later turned up being used by someone else was not a crime.
A spokesman for the commission said that while the commission's original report didn't deal with some of the intricacies of how the terror network was financed, this new report last night contains a level of detail that could be useful to the financial industry and to law enforcement, specifics about how the U.S. financial system and border penetration were manipulated. Pat Roberts now calling for the establishment of a new director of intelligence and we're going to hear a lot more about that through the course of the day. Fredricka?
WHITFIELD: All right. Ali Velshi in Washington, thanks so much.
Back to our top story, a Bush/Cheney campaign unpaid adviser steps down. Jill Daugherty is in Crawford, Texas, to help us understand what this is all about and why this comes now.
JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Fredricka, there are a lot of details and wrinkles in this story. But essentially, what we're dealing with again is the events in Vietnam in 1969 with John Kerry and, specifically now, the attack ads that have come out concerning his activity. And the question being, the debate over who is really behind those ads. We know that there is a group, Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, and -- but the Democrats, the Kerry campaign, say that ultimately, it is the Bush campaign that is behind all of that. They have filed a suit with the FEC about the ads, Swift boat ads. But the Republicans, the Bush campaign is sending its own letter to the FEC saying it's frivolous and there's no hard evidence. We heard a lot about this from Ken Mehlman, spokesman for the Bush campaign on NBC this morning.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KEN MEHLMAN, BUSH-CHENEY '04 CAMPAIGN MGR: We've actually sent a letter to the Federal Election Commission, which the Kerry campaign had contacted, asking them to look into this. We've told them to dismiss the complaint that the Kerry campaign has put forward. There's absolutely no connection between the Bush campaign and this organization.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DOUGHERTY: So now, in another development, a member of a veterans coalition for Bush, Air Force Colonel Ken Cordier quit and he quit because he was involved in a TV ad going after Kerry for his activity back in the Vietnam days, anti-war activity. The Bush campaign, for its part, said it did not know that Cordier was going to be involved in that ad. And then finally, from the Kerry side of it, the Kerry campaign is trying to link what is happening with these ads against Kerry to what happened in 2000 in the primaries with John McCain. They have issued an Internet ad about that. And again, we heard from Tad Devine, from the Kerry campaign about that this morning. Here's what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TAD DEVINE, SENIOR KERRY CAMPAIGN ADVISER: These are the same tactics they employed against John McCain in South Carolina in the 2000 primary, the same tactics, a front group which does their dirty work for them. It's incredible. They're describing John Kerry with the same language they used to describe John McCain's service in Vietnam. They say it was noble, exactly the same words, the same tactics, the same words and the same pack of lies being advanced for their cause.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DOUGHERTY: So Fredricka, I think what's really quite striking about all of this is this is an issue that the Democrats thought they really owned. That John Kerry being a Vietnam War veteran, having served in Vietnam, being decorated, et cetera, would actually be a very positive thing. They staked their convention on that, presenting him as a war hero. And now, into the campaign quite a few days and weeks, they find themselves on the defensive about this and involved in a back and forth that just doesn't seem to want to end.
WHITFIELD: All right, Jill Dougherty in Crawford, Texas, thanks so much.
People in Norway now, at the art museum there, watched in shock today as masked bandits ripped Edvard Munch's "The Scream" off a wall and then took off. The thieves also took Munch's "Madonna" as well. Erlend Fernandez, a journalist with VGnet (ph), joins us on the telephone with some of the details. And Erlend, exactly how did this take place, given that this was at a time that was in broad daylight for many witnesses to see?
ERLEND FERNANDEZ STEDDING, JOURNALIST: That's a question that everyone is asking, because we had the robbery, similar robbery in 1994 and on the video footage, we could see like people, just climbing into the window and take this piece of art worth 70 million U.S. dollars. And now, the minister of cultural affairs, she said earlier on today that she was shocked that the security was not tight enough after that robbery we had.
WHITFIELD: In fact, isn't that the complaint, that there were some alarms that were supposed to go off when this piece would be removed from the wall, given it's happened already 10 years ago. Did the alarm go off? Was there security in place? Obviously, not security tight enough in order to prevent something like this from happening again though.
STEDDING: Well, people that our reporters there talked to at the scene, they said that they didn't hear an alarm at all when the robbers took the paintings. And when they started running, they tried to run out the emergency exits. Those were closed. And they couldn't see any guards trying to prevent the robbers to get out of the building. Anyway, the police said in a press conference half an hour ago that they got camera footage on the robbery and that they've found the car of the robbers and the frame. But still, I think it's going to be quite difficult for them to find the robbers.
WHITFIELD: Now, these were armed robbers, correct? How about the witnesses? Did any of them say that their lives were threatened as they watched all of this unfold?
STEDDING: A woman we spoke to, she said everyone -- everybody started screaming and running in all directions when this happened. And she said when the people realized that the armed -- the robbers were armed, they got really, really afraid because one of the staff was actually threatened with a gun inside the museum.
WHITFIELD: And so the "Madonna" and "The Scream," both in the same room, in the same hallway, easy for these robbers to go from one piece of art to the next?
STEDDING: Very, very easy. I was there like two weeks ago and they are in the same room, not on the same wall. There's no -- there are no frames. They're not like centered around or extra tight security on these paintings. They're just put on the wall with metal wires. So it's unbelievable what happened today.
WHITFIELD: It is, indeed. Erlend Fernandez Stedding with VGnet, thanks so much for joining us on the telephone from Oslo.
Well, right now, if you get overtime pay, that could change starting tomorrow. When it comes to new government regulations, find out why the word "professional" could be a bad thing for your wallet.
And piece by piece, a Florida community devastated by hurricane Charley tries to get back to normal. We'll show you the latest signs of recovery. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: The government's controversial new overtime rules take effect tomorrow and many people still don't know if they'll be on the winning end. CNN's Denise Belgrave examines how the new rules might affect one particular profession.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DENISE BELGRAVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Americans work on average 49 hours a week, many of them relying on overtime pay to help bridge the gap. Michelle Spears Sevy is one of them. But she believes she is on the losing end of the government's new labor deal.
MICHELLE SPEARS SEVY, RN, BUMPTER REGIONAL HOSPITAL: Most of us don't mind work some overtime from time to time, you know, a little extra Christmas money or down payment on braces. But to do it without the overtime pay would, in my opinion, be unreasonable.
BELGRAVE: Spears Sevy is a registered nurse and she's concerned that her position could fall into the category of professional. That would mean she's ineligible to get paid for those extra hours. She believes her industry will be among the hardest hit and she's not alone.
RICHARD TRUMKA, AFL-CIO: The changes that they're about to make will hurt the 6 million people roughly who work overtime. Nurses are among them.
BELGRAVE: But the Department of Labor says that 1.3 million workers will now gain overtime rights and that the rules don't necessarily mean nurses will lose the extra cash.
VICTORIA LIPNIC, ASST. SECRETARY, LABOR DEPT: We've got a big nursing shortage in this country and so I would think that even if it were the case that some nurses moved into a salaried position, their employers are very likely to pay them overtime.
BELGRAVE Georgia Nurses Association President Linda Easterly doesn't buy it.
LINDA EASTERLY, GEORGIA NURSES ASSOCIATION: Unfortunately, in the time crunches we are with health care costs increasing every day, and facilities having to look at cutting costs in any way, shape and form they can to make ends meet, one of the areas that they always are looking at are employee costs, what it costs them to have those nurses or any other health care worker in the facility providing patient care. And long-term, these are -- there are enough loopholes in this law that will allow the facilities to be more creative than they've ever been before, particularly when you're looking at the overtime.
BELGRAVE: Spears Sevy says she's not clear on the finer points of the new rules and figuring out who falls into which category is enough to make her reach for the aspirin. This ream of paper is 500 sheets and the new fair labor and standards act is approximately 500 pages long. It's not surprising that employers and employees alike are uncertain about what this all means for the future. Denise Belgrave, CNN, Americus, Georgia.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: Coming up next, a look at your weather.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: In the aftermath of hurricane Charley, some good medicine might help restore hope to victims in one devastated area. A hospital in Punta Gorda is back open after sustaining damage. CNN's Sara Dorsey has the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SARA DORSEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Charlotte Regional Medical Center in Punta Gorda is back in business, much to the surprise of some of its patients.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I thought I'd be going to a tent.
DORSEY: Instead of that, doctors checked out John Guilfoyle (ph) inside and then gave him the OK to go home. The hospital is not entirely back to normal or functioning fully. Less serious problems are being handled, but the staff says surgical and critical patients will have to get treatment somewhere else for the next couple of weeks. Construction and electrical workers are still fixing some damage inside, while roofers repair the layers that Charley carried away. Agnes Smith remembers hearing that noise very well. She rode out the storm on the third floor with 150 other people.
AGNES SMITH, HOSPITAL ASSISTANT: The next morning, when we opened these shutters and my staff live in those houses across the street, some of them, that's when the reality hit.
DORSEY: The hospital survived, battered but not broken for good. Dr. Sophia Salmon Trajan was surprised to see the hospital working again so soon. She says there's no doubt of the need.
DR. SALMON TRAJAN, CHARLOTTE REGIONAL MEDICAL CTR: It's busy. I mean, we're hopping. You know, just keep moving, because if we don't, then it's just going to be a backlog of patients.
DORSEY: It took crews working 24 hours a day an entire week to get this hospital up and running. The staff here says they're relieved to be finally able to reach back out to a community that needs them so much. Sara Dorsey, CNN, Punta Gorda, Florida.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: Rob Marciano is in the weather center and how's it looking out there Rob?
ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Hey, Fredricka, pretty quiet across the tropics. That's good news. The only sort of action we can find in the Atlantic Ocean is off the Carolina coast line from a strong front that rolled through parts of New England last night. There's your rainfall but everybody from the Carolina beaches up through New England looking good today. Cool, actually. Nice weather in through Chicago.
There's a little weak disturbance that's rolling across Wisconsin but dying out, brought some cooler air to Minneapolis last night, some record-breaking low temperature. Record breaking rains from Salem to Portland to Seattle the last day. Looks like it will rain again today and through parts of tomorrow. That's unusual for this time of year.
High pressure in control across the inter-mountain west back through parts of southern California. Probably see some showers and storms fire up. That front that went through New England last night with strong storms has stalled across the southern part of the U.S., southeastern part and below that, we'll see the showers pop up. Looking at beautiful weather, Fredricka, across the northeastern area, 72 degrees expected for a high temperature in Boston. Almost cool enough for a jacket. Back to you.
WHITFIELD: Not bad at all. Thanks a lot Rob.
Still much more ahead on "RELIABLE SOURCES," which is coming up in a few minutes. Howard Kurtz is here with a preview.
HOWARD KURTZ, HOST, RELIABLE SOURCES: Thanks, Fredricka. Coming up, did the media give a megaphone to the Swift boat veterans who were attacking John Kerry's Vietnam record? We'll talk with three White House correspondents about how the press is doing trying to figure out the real story and whether President Bush bears any responsibility.
Plus New Jersey Governor Jim McGreevey's stunning admission that he's gay and he's resigning, did reporters focus on the wrong story line?
And Tom Brokaw says he's not a preening egocentric anchor. We'll tell you what that's all about, all coming up, that and more on "RELIABLE SOURCES."
WHITFIELD: All right. Thanks a lot Howard. Highlighting those who have sacrificed so much. After the break, a West Point graduate's difficult road to recovery after losing her arm in Iraq.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: Among the tragedies of war, young soldiers returning home nursing injuries, missing an eye or one or more limbs. CNN Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr visited Walter Reed Army Medical Center, where U.S. troops come to terms with their sacrifice.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BARBARA STARR, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Army First Lieutenant Dawn Halfaker more than keeps up as she works out alongside other amputees at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. She lost her right arm in Iraq after being hit by a rocket propelled grenade.
FIRST LT. DAWN HALFAKER, U.S. ARMY: It came kind of from the back and through and it took a big chunk out of here and then it came through this way and took off, basically the top part of my arm.
STARR: She woke up days later at Walter Reed.
HALFAKER: I was screaming, you know, "don't cut my arm off" and things of that nature. So my dad calmed me down and told me, you know, you already lost your arm. So it was a lot to take in for just waking up.
STARR: A West Point graduate where she starred on the basketball team, Halfaker, 25 years old, is one of only three female amputees from the war, a woman in combat now facing intensely personal challenges.
HALFAKER: The hair has been a big issue. I still, as a female, you might relate I can't do my own hair as of yet, which is very, very difficult. You know, you want to look nice and it's hard. But then moving down, you know, obviously, the bra, you know. It's hard to put on a bra with one hand, so guys aren't faced with that. You know, putting on makeup, I was trying to do this eye, you know, and I'm trying to put on mascara. So that was a little bit tough.
HALFAKER: Still, Halfaker thought the Army would be her life.
HALFAKER: I had all these plans. All of a sudden, your life is just turned upside down.
STARR: Now, moving on, but not forgetting.
HALFAKER: There's no way you can go through this alone. You need people to be able to talk to, to vent, you know, to ask why.
STARR: Barbara Starr, CNN, Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: Still much more ahead on "CNN SUNDAY." In a few moments, "RELIABLE SOURCES" today in depth on media coverage of the Swift boat controversy. At noon, it's "LATE EDITION" with Wolf Blitzer. Among Wolf's guests, David Kay and the controversy over the search for WMD in Iraq.
At 2:00 Eastern, it's "PEOPLE IN THE NEWS" today, profiling singers Britney and Spears and Madonna.
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Aired August 22, 2004 - 11:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: It's 11:00 a.m. in Washington, 10:00 a.m. in Crawford, Texas. Hello, I'm Fredricka Whitfield at the CNN center in Atlanta. Welcome to CNN LIVE SUNDAY. Ahead this hour, a new controversy involving the Swift boat ads as President Bush decides to dump one of his campaign's unpaid advisers.
Also new information about the 9/11 hijackers and how hundreds of thousands of dollars were secretly funneled to the terrorists.
And later...
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Most of us don't mind working some overtime from time to time, but to do it without the overtime pay would, in my opinion, be unreasonable.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: New overtime rules go into effect on Monday. How will it change who is eligible to receive overtime pay?
But first, a look at the top stories. Our top story, an unpaid Vietnam veteran adviser is dropped from the Bush-Cheney campaign after showing up in a political ad critical of John Kerry. We'll get more on that in a moment.
Well, the Kerry camp is fighting back today with a new ad campaign of its own calling on the Bush administration to repudiate the Swift vote ads.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOHN KERRY (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm John Kerry and I approved this message.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: American soldiers are fighting in Iraq. Families struggle to afford health care, jobs heading overseas. Instead of solutions, George Bush's campaign supports a front group attacking John Kerry's military record. Attacks called smears, lies. Senator McCain calls them dishonest. Bush smeared John McCain four years ago. Now he's doing it to John Kerry. George Bush, denounce the smear. Get back to the issues. America deserves better.
(END VIDEO CLIP) WHITFIELD: Both John Kerry and Vice President Dick Cheney are taking a campaign breather today. However Kerry's running mate, John Edwards, is busy on the trail. Yesterday in Roanoke, Virginia, Edwards called for an end to the Swift boat ad campaign. He's in Charlotte, North Carolina, this morning for a front porch visit scheduled to begin within the next hour.
And this reminder, joining Paula Zahn as she explores the undecided vote in a town hall meeting tonight at 5:00 p.m. Eastern.
And one other political note. New Jersey Governor James McGreevey insists he has good reasons for delaying his resignation in the wake of a sex scandal. In a "New York Times" op ed piece, the Democratic governor admits putting it off until November until -- rather, to dodge a constitutional call for a special election. But, he says, a special election to fill the governor's seat would not be in the state's best interest. McGreevey announced his resignation after admitting to an extramarital affair with a man.
Hundreds of people are outside the Imam Ali mosque in Najaf. They are waiting for a delegation of Shiite religious authorities to take custody of the shrine. Fighting in Najaf slowed down after the U.S. launched an operation of troops, tanks and aerial gunships this morning, hitting Mehdi fighters loyal to cleric Muqtada al Sadr.
Authorities in Pakistan believe they've foiled a plan of seven days of continuous attacks -- attacks that would have included the U.S. embassy. Government officials there say there have been additional arrests in the bomb plot with up to 10 suspects now in custody. Other high profile targets included the residence of Pakistan's president. The nation's information minister said the suspects had 50 bombs, several rocket launchers and guns when they were arrested.
The commission investigating the 9/11 attacks is officially out of business, but not before releasing two more staff reports, in them, new details on the money trail for the 9/11 and other conspirators. CNN financial news, Ali Velshi joins us live from Washington with more on that. Ali?
ALI VELSHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Fredricka, late yesterday, new reports were released and now getting reaction from Washington, more specifics on "Face the Nation" this morning. About an hour ago on the Sunday morning talk circuit, Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Pat Roberts was speaking and going further than what Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has said in the past and what President Bush has said, put some detail into his call for the establishment of a new director of national intelligence, which will take some control and some money away from both the Defense Department and the CIA. Let's see if we can hear what he had to say an hour ago.
OK. We don't have that for you yet. I'll let you know what he was talking about. He way saying that they want to step out of the boxes that they're used to about which agency deals with intelligence. This follows from recommendations that were contained in the original report released by the 9/11 Commission. That was a 567-page long report, released exactly a month ago. The 9/11 Commission wanted it to be a readable report for -- an affordable report for Americans.
Last night, they issued two more reports and they total another 400 pages. The new reports go into greater detail about how exactly the terrorists were financed and how they evaded immigration authorities. One report details specifically how each of the hijackers were in different ways in violation of U.S. immigration laws. Among the new photographs released in the new reports, one was the partially burned visa belonging to Ziad Jarrah, the lead hijacker, the pilot of the United Airlines flight 93, which crashed in Pennsylvania.
The commission also released a new picture of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged architect of the plot. He was arrested in March of 2003. You'll recall the photograph of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed that was released upon his arrest. That took place in the early morning. He was roused from his bed. That's a picture a lot of people are familiar with. He had applied for a U.S. visa under an assumed name and yesterday, the commission released his denied visa application.
Now according to the report, the Saudi passport is the preferred travel document of al Qaeda and that's because at the time, Saudi Arabia had lax passport security controls. At least two and maybe seven of the terrorists from September 11th used altered passports. The commission says al Qaeda operatives would use substitute photos. They'd add false visas. They'd remove the visas and they'd bleach stamps in the passports. One illustration of lax Saudi passport controls, last night's report says that as many as 10,000 Saudi passports may have been lost or stolen in recent years and until late 2001, a stolen Saudi passport that later turned up being used by someone else was not a crime.
A spokesman for the commission said that while the commission's original report didn't deal with some of the intricacies of how the terror network was financed, this new report last night contains a level of detail that could be useful to the financial industry and to law enforcement, specifics about how the U.S. financial system and border penetration were manipulated. Pat Roberts now calling for the establishment of a new director of intelligence and we're going to hear a lot more about that through the course of the day. Fredricka?
WHITFIELD: All right. Ali Velshi in Washington, thanks so much.
Back to our top story, a Bush/Cheney campaign unpaid adviser steps down. Jill Daugherty is in Crawford, Texas, to help us understand what this is all about and why this comes now.
JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Fredricka, there are a lot of details and wrinkles in this story. But essentially, what we're dealing with again is the events in Vietnam in 1969 with John Kerry and, specifically now, the attack ads that have come out concerning his activity. And the question being, the debate over who is really behind those ads. We know that there is a group, Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, and -- but the Democrats, the Kerry campaign, say that ultimately, it is the Bush campaign that is behind all of that. They have filed a suit with the FEC about the ads, Swift boat ads. But the Republicans, the Bush campaign is sending its own letter to the FEC saying it's frivolous and there's no hard evidence. We heard a lot about this from Ken Mehlman, spokesman for the Bush campaign on NBC this morning.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KEN MEHLMAN, BUSH-CHENEY '04 CAMPAIGN MGR: We've actually sent a letter to the Federal Election Commission, which the Kerry campaign had contacted, asking them to look into this. We've told them to dismiss the complaint that the Kerry campaign has put forward. There's absolutely no connection between the Bush campaign and this organization.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DOUGHERTY: So now, in another development, a member of a veterans coalition for Bush, Air Force Colonel Ken Cordier quit and he quit because he was involved in a TV ad going after Kerry for his activity back in the Vietnam days, anti-war activity. The Bush campaign, for its part, said it did not know that Cordier was going to be involved in that ad. And then finally, from the Kerry side of it, the Kerry campaign is trying to link what is happening with these ads against Kerry to what happened in 2000 in the primaries with John McCain. They have issued an Internet ad about that. And again, we heard from Tad Devine, from the Kerry campaign about that this morning. Here's what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TAD DEVINE, SENIOR KERRY CAMPAIGN ADVISER: These are the same tactics they employed against John McCain in South Carolina in the 2000 primary, the same tactics, a front group which does their dirty work for them. It's incredible. They're describing John Kerry with the same language they used to describe John McCain's service in Vietnam. They say it was noble, exactly the same words, the same tactics, the same words and the same pack of lies being advanced for their cause.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DOUGHERTY: So Fredricka, I think what's really quite striking about all of this is this is an issue that the Democrats thought they really owned. That John Kerry being a Vietnam War veteran, having served in Vietnam, being decorated, et cetera, would actually be a very positive thing. They staked their convention on that, presenting him as a war hero. And now, into the campaign quite a few days and weeks, they find themselves on the defensive about this and involved in a back and forth that just doesn't seem to want to end.
WHITFIELD: All right, Jill Dougherty in Crawford, Texas, thanks so much.
People in Norway now, at the art museum there, watched in shock today as masked bandits ripped Edvard Munch's "The Scream" off a wall and then took off. The thieves also took Munch's "Madonna" as well. Erlend Fernandez, a journalist with VGnet (ph), joins us on the telephone with some of the details. And Erlend, exactly how did this take place, given that this was at a time that was in broad daylight for many witnesses to see?
ERLEND FERNANDEZ STEDDING, JOURNALIST: That's a question that everyone is asking, because we had the robbery, similar robbery in 1994 and on the video footage, we could see like people, just climbing into the window and take this piece of art worth 70 million U.S. dollars. And now, the minister of cultural affairs, she said earlier on today that she was shocked that the security was not tight enough after that robbery we had.
WHITFIELD: In fact, isn't that the complaint, that there were some alarms that were supposed to go off when this piece would be removed from the wall, given it's happened already 10 years ago. Did the alarm go off? Was there security in place? Obviously, not security tight enough in order to prevent something like this from happening again though.
STEDDING: Well, people that our reporters there talked to at the scene, they said that they didn't hear an alarm at all when the robbers took the paintings. And when they started running, they tried to run out the emergency exits. Those were closed. And they couldn't see any guards trying to prevent the robbers to get out of the building. Anyway, the police said in a press conference half an hour ago that they got camera footage on the robbery and that they've found the car of the robbers and the frame. But still, I think it's going to be quite difficult for them to find the robbers.
WHITFIELD: Now, these were armed robbers, correct? How about the witnesses? Did any of them say that their lives were threatened as they watched all of this unfold?
STEDDING: A woman we spoke to, she said everyone -- everybody started screaming and running in all directions when this happened. And she said when the people realized that the armed -- the robbers were armed, they got really, really afraid because one of the staff was actually threatened with a gun inside the museum.
WHITFIELD: And so the "Madonna" and "The Scream," both in the same room, in the same hallway, easy for these robbers to go from one piece of art to the next?
STEDDING: Very, very easy. I was there like two weeks ago and they are in the same room, not on the same wall. There's no -- there are no frames. They're not like centered around or extra tight security on these paintings. They're just put on the wall with metal wires. So it's unbelievable what happened today.
WHITFIELD: It is, indeed. Erlend Fernandez Stedding with VGnet, thanks so much for joining us on the telephone from Oslo.
Well, right now, if you get overtime pay, that could change starting tomorrow. When it comes to new government regulations, find out why the word "professional" could be a bad thing for your wallet.
And piece by piece, a Florida community devastated by hurricane Charley tries to get back to normal. We'll show you the latest signs of recovery. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: The government's controversial new overtime rules take effect tomorrow and many people still don't know if they'll be on the winning end. CNN's Denise Belgrave examines how the new rules might affect one particular profession.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DENISE BELGRAVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Americans work on average 49 hours a week, many of them relying on overtime pay to help bridge the gap. Michelle Spears Sevy is one of them. But she believes she is on the losing end of the government's new labor deal.
MICHELLE SPEARS SEVY, RN, BUMPTER REGIONAL HOSPITAL: Most of us don't mind work some overtime from time to time, you know, a little extra Christmas money or down payment on braces. But to do it without the overtime pay would, in my opinion, be unreasonable.
BELGRAVE: Spears Sevy is a registered nurse and she's concerned that her position could fall into the category of professional. That would mean she's ineligible to get paid for those extra hours. She believes her industry will be among the hardest hit and she's not alone.
RICHARD TRUMKA, AFL-CIO: The changes that they're about to make will hurt the 6 million people roughly who work overtime. Nurses are among them.
BELGRAVE: But the Department of Labor says that 1.3 million workers will now gain overtime rights and that the rules don't necessarily mean nurses will lose the extra cash.
VICTORIA LIPNIC, ASST. SECRETARY, LABOR DEPT: We've got a big nursing shortage in this country and so I would think that even if it were the case that some nurses moved into a salaried position, their employers are very likely to pay them overtime.
BELGRAVE Georgia Nurses Association President Linda Easterly doesn't buy it.
LINDA EASTERLY, GEORGIA NURSES ASSOCIATION: Unfortunately, in the time crunches we are with health care costs increasing every day, and facilities having to look at cutting costs in any way, shape and form they can to make ends meet, one of the areas that they always are looking at are employee costs, what it costs them to have those nurses or any other health care worker in the facility providing patient care. And long-term, these are -- there are enough loopholes in this law that will allow the facilities to be more creative than they've ever been before, particularly when you're looking at the overtime.
BELGRAVE: Spears Sevy says she's not clear on the finer points of the new rules and figuring out who falls into which category is enough to make her reach for the aspirin. This ream of paper is 500 sheets and the new fair labor and standards act is approximately 500 pages long. It's not surprising that employers and employees alike are uncertain about what this all means for the future. Denise Belgrave, CNN, Americus, Georgia.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: Coming up next, a look at your weather.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: In the aftermath of hurricane Charley, some good medicine might help restore hope to victims in one devastated area. A hospital in Punta Gorda is back open after sustaining damage. CNN's Sara Dorsey has the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SARA DORSEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Charlotte Regional Medical Center in Punta Gorda is back in business, much to the surprise of some of its patients.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I thought I'd be going to a tent.
DORSEY: Instead of that, doctors checked out John Guilfoyle (ph) inside and then gave him the OK to go home. The hospital is not entirely back to normal or functioning fully. Less serious problems are being handled, but the staff says surgical and critical patients will have to get treatment somewhere else for the next couple of weeks. Construction and electrical workers are still fixing some damage inside, while roofers repair the layers that Charley carried away. Agnes Smith remembers hearing that noise very well. She rode out the storm on the third floor with 150 other people.
AGNES SMITH, HOSPITAL ASSISTANT: The next morning, when we opened these shutters and my staff live in those houses across the street, some of them, that's when the reality hit.
DORSEY: The hospital survived, battered but not broken for good. Dr. Sophia Salmon Trajan was surprised to see the hospital working again so soon. She says there's no doubt of the need.
DR. SALMON TRAJAN, CHARLOTTE REGIONAL MEDICAL CTR: It's busy. I mean, we're hopping. You know, just keep moving, because if we don't, then it's just going to be a backlog of patients.
DORSEY: It took crews working 24 hours a day an entire week to get this hospital up and running. The staff here says they're relieved to be finally able to reach back out to a community that needs them so much. Sara Dorsey, CNN, Punta Gorda, Florida.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: Rob Marciano is in the weather center and how's it looking out there Rob?
ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Hey, Fredricka, pretty quiet across the tropics. That's good news. The only sort of action we can find in the Atlantic Ocean is off the Carolina coast line from a strong front that rolled through parts of New England last night. There's your rainfall but everybody from the Carolina beaches up through New England looking good today. Cool, actually. Nice weather in through Chicago.
There's a little weak disturbance that's rolling across Wisconsin but dying out, brought some cooler air to Minneapolis last night, some record-breaking low temperature. Record breaking rains from Salem to Portland to Seattle the last day. Looks like it will rain again today and through parts of tomorrow. That's unusual for this time of year.
High pressure in control across the inter-mountain west back through parts of southern California. Probably see some showers and storms fire up. That front that went through New England last night with strong storms has stalled across the southern part of the U.S., southeastern part and below that, we'll see the showers pop up. Looking at beautiful weather, Fredricka, across the northeastern area, 72 degrees expected for a high temperature in Boston. Almost cool enough for a jacket. Back to you.
WHITFIELD: Not bad at all. Thanks a lot Rob.
Still much more ahead on "RELIABLE SOURCES," which is coming up in a few minutes. Howard Kurtz is here with a preview.
HOWARD KURTZ, HOST, RELIABLE SOURCES: Thanks, Fredricka. Coming up, did the media give a megaphone to the Swift boat veterans who were attacking John Kerry's Vietnam record? We'll talk with three White House correspondents about how the press is doing trying to figure out the real story and whether President Bush bears any responsibility.
Plus New Jersey Governor Jim McGreevey's stunning admission that he's gay and he's resigning, did reporters focus on the wrong story line?
And Tom Brokaw says he's not a preening egocentric anchor. We'll tell you what that's all about, all coming up, that and more on "RELIABLE SOURCES."
WHITFIELD: All right. Thanks a lot Howard. Highlighting those who have sacrificed so much. After the break, a West Point graduate's difficult road to recovery after losing her arm in Iraq.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: Among the tragedies of war, young soldiers returning home nursing injuries, missing an eye or one or more limbs. CNN Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr visited Walter Reed Army Medical Center, where U.S. troops come to terms with their sacrifice.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BARBARA STARR, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Army First Lieutenant Dawn Halfaker more than keeps up as she works out alongside other amputees at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. She lost her right arm in Iraq after being hit by a rocket propelled grenade.
FIRST LT. DAWN HALFAKER, U.S. ARMY: It came kind of from the back and through and it took a big chunk out of here and then it came through this way and took off, basically the top part of my arm.
STARR: She woke up days later at Walter Reed.
HALFAKER: I was screaming, you know, "don't cut my arm off" and things of that nature. So my dad calmed me down and told me, you know, you already lost your arm. So it was a lot to take in for just waking up.
STARR: A West Point graduate where she starred on the basketball team, Halfaker, 25 years old, is one of only three female amputees from the war, a woman in combat now facing intensely personal challenges.
HALFAKER: The hair has been a big issue. I still, as a female, you might relate I can't do my own hair as of yet, which is very, very difficult. You know, you want to look nice and it's hard. But then moving down, you know, obviously, the bra, you know. It's hard to put on a bra with one hand, so guys aren't faced with that. You know, putting on makeup, I was trying to do this eye, you know, and I'm trying to put on mascara. So that was a little bit tough.
HALFAKER: Still, Halfaker thought the Army would be her life.
HALFAKER: I had all these plans. All of a sudden, your life is just turned upside down.
STARR: Now, moving on, but not forgetting.
HALFAKER: There's no way you can go through this alone. You need people to be able to talk to, to vent, you know, to ask why.
STARR: Barbara Starr, CNN, Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: Still much more ahead on "CNN SUNDAY." In a few moments, "RELIABLE SOURCES" today in depth on media coverage of the Swift boat controversy. At noon, it's "LATE EDITION" with Wolf Blitzer. Among Wolf's guests, David Kay and the controversy over the search for WMD in Iraq.
At 2:00 Eastern, it's "PEOPLE IN THE NEWS" today, profiling singers Britney and Spears and Madonna.
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