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CNN Live Sunday

Cuban Government Posts Banners Of Abu Ghraib Prisoners In Response To U.S. Mission's Christmas Decorations; Insurgents Kill Senior Iraqi Election Official, 2 Bodyguards; Pfizer Keeps Celebrex On Market

Aired December 19, 2004 - 18:00 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.

CAROL LIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Welcome to CNN LIVE SUNDAY. Here is what's happening right now in the news. At least 67 people are dead and more than 125 wounded in a pair of car bombings today in Iraq. First, a suicide blast rips (INAUDIBLE) at a bus station and then a car bomb exploded during a funeral procession in Najaf. We've got a full report coming up.
In the meantime, the United Nations says tens of thousands of people have fled from eastern Congo over the past few days because of fighting between the Army groups and (AUDIO GAP). A U.S. (AUDIO GAP) says entire villages have been emptied (AUDIO GAP) the displacement will have disastrous consequences. (AUDIO GAP) near the Ohio border. But at least 17 people have been

(AUDIO GAP) (SATELLITE DOWN)

LIN: So, are you getting nervous yet? Christmas is getting nervously close for people who still have presents to send out of town. And you know, you're taking your chances if you're going to go by regular mail at this point, no guarantee it's going to get there by the 25th and some shipping firms are doing some pretty brisk business and making some money at it, too. CNN's Sara Dorsey is live at FedEx headquarters in Memphis, Tennessee and not only just at the headquarters, you are actually on the tarmac. Any second now I'm going to see a shipping plane go by.

SARA DORSEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We are. We are in the middle of what is called the launch here at the FedEx super hub. What that means is all the packages that were sorted today, there you go, you can hear one of those vehicles going by. All of the packages that were sorted today were put on planes. Those planes are beginning to start leaving behind us, taking the packages to their destination and as you all can imagine after all Santa does need a little help getting those packages to their destination by Christmas and that's exactly where FedEx comes in.

Tomorrow is expected to be the busiest day by FedEx Express. It's estimated that 4.6 million packages will be processed. That's coming off the single busiest day rather for the company last Monday. Eight million packages were processed in that single day, topping even what the company had expected.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) ROBERT CARTER, EXEC VP & CIO, FED EX CORP: We really consider this a very important time of year for us to make sure that all of those presents reach your friends and family out there in the places where they're supposed to be. People enjoy this job.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DORSEY: It's not too late for you to get your packages to their destinations on time. If you're sending here in the United States, you can send it as late as the 23rd for it to arrive at its destination by Christmas. If you're sending internationally, though, you're going to need to get those to FedEx by tomorrow. Carol?

LIN: Sara, how do they manage to pull this off? I mean how does the system actually work to get it their overnight?

DORSEY: It's a very intricate process and they have it planned almost to the tee (ph). These planes come in, some of the international ones overnight and then others in the morning. Immediately when they pull up to the gates, there's crews waiting. They take all the packages off and they go into maze of a processing center. It's unbelievable to see those, the boxes fall all over the place, in a special series of bar code readers and things like that sort it out at which time then it's loaded onto the planes and we come to the process that we're at now which is the launch. Those planes take off and the packages head for their final destinations.

LIN: All right. Thanks very much, Sara. Sara Dorsey, hopefully there's a package in there for all of us.

As Americans rush to sending off those final gifts for the holidays, behind the scenes at one shipping company are young people who are getting a different type of gift, a new start. CNN's Kathleen Koch has that story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Nineteen-year-old Ebony Frederick grew up in Baltimore's foster care system.

EBONY FREDERICK, LIVING CLASSROOMS PARTICIPANT: That's how it was when you ain't had no structure, parents or structured home, you just run wild.

KOCH: Now a mother herself with a three-year-old son, Ebony wanted more. She found a program at UPS that provides jobs and even tuition reimbursement for at risk and foster care youths.

FREDERICK: They instill in you like to need to come to work unless have you logical reasons why not to come.

KOCH: More than 40 young people have been hired since the program was launched in Baltimore five years ago by Kevin Garvey and UPS management.

KEVIN GARVEY, UPS: They're starting at anywhere between $8.50 or $9.50 depending on whether it's a skilled or unskilled position. But they also have the full benefits package that many of our full-time employees enjoy.

KOCH: Twenty-year-old Kevin Brockenbrough has grown confident enough to share his poetry and to try to convince others to leave the streets for the working world.

KEVIN BROCKENBROUGH, LIVING CLASSROOMS PARTICIPANTS: I don't understand why they want to be outside standing in one spot all day long. You can be moving around, doing stuff and getting people to appreciate the work you're doing.

KOCH: The young workers get job training, transportation and valuable advice from a local foundation.

ROCHELLE McGREE, LIVING CLASSROOMS: You might not want to go to work, but you don't go to work, you're not going to get paid. Your paycheck is going to be less. You're not going to be to afford the bus. So we try and make them see the big picture.

KOCH: Other Maryland employers have now adopted the same program. It's a win-win situation, says the owner of one Baltimore restaurant.

GERRY BALOG, PICKLED PARROT: It's nice for us because we have an opportunity to give Dominic a chance to get a foot up and it's nice for the business as well because I have a great employee.

KOCH: And the young employees have a new perspective.

FREDERICK: A big world out here. You need to go school, stay in school, get a job. Who's going to take care of you if you don't take care of yourself?

KOCH: Kathleen Koch, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LIN: All the people behind the scenes of this holiday season.

In the meantime, it must be pretty hard if you have a loved one overseas, especially fighting in this war on terror. So we're going to talk about easing the pain of separation when a parent is deployed to Iraq. Up next, how one soldier's work of art is actually helping those children left behind by war.

Also still to come, searching for answers to a decade's old year old serial killer case. Actually, more simply put, it's more than 20 years old. Will a surprise discovery in a park actually help police find the killer? He has sent a message.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LIN: This holiday season will undoubtedly see the purchase of lots of video games. But as our Aaron Brown explains, the issue of banning the sale of violent video games to children is now gaining some steam. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

AARON BROWN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): These games are raw and bloody, and they are lucrative. They represent about 11 percent of the $7 billion the video game industry takes in every year. And it's not just the blood and guts. It's the sex as well. No one really argues that these games are great for kids, but should there be laws that criminalize their sale or rental to minors? The governor of Illinois is saying absolutely.

GOVERNOR ROD BLAGOJEVICH (D) ILLINOIS: Parents need help protecting their children and protecting the values that they teach their children to believe in. And they're up against a multibillion dollar industry.

BROWN: Governor Blagojevich says he's proposing fines and jail for retailers who sell or rent extremely violent or sexual video games to minors.

GAIL MARKELS, ENTERTAINMENT SOFTWARE ASSN: This is not the first time this type of legislation has been considered. The courts recently in three separate occasions have found that video games are protected speech and have declared similar bills to be unconstitutional.

BROWN: But the governor believes Illinois can make it work, despite the legal failures in other states.

BLAGOJEVICH: We're drafting our legislation narrowly. And the underlying premise of our legislation is based upon the same rationale that we in society have when it comes to kids buying cigarettes or buying alcohol.

BROWN: This public service announcement is aimed at parents. According to the FTC, adults buy more than 80 percent of the 239 million video games sold each year. So many youngsters who wind up playing the most graphic games often didn't even have to leave home to get them. Aaron Brown, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LIN: In terms of what's really going on out there in the Midwest, a serial killer is on the loose, has been for more than 20 years but this time he is sending messages once again. So I'm going to be talking to a former FBI agent about whether the message means he's about to kill again.

Plus, hear what the suspect in the Missouri baby kidnapping case said to her pastor right before her arrest.

Also still to come, give your family the gift that could save their life. Why the holidays are the perfect time to tell your family secrets.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LIN: Welcome back. Here's a quick look at what's happening right now in the news. Iraqi officials say nearly 70 people were killed in two car bombings today, 51 died in a funeral procession bombing in Najaf and 16 died in a Karbala bus station explosion. Karbala and Najaf are two of Iraq's holiest Shiite cities.

Iraqi officials say militants killed a senior election official and his bodyguards as they were traveling through central Baghdad. Witnesses say the gunmen dragged three people out of their car, forced them to kneel on the street and shot them to death. Two others escaped uninjured.

And it's getting a little more affordable to gas up your car. The national survey shows gas prices have fallen a dime in the past two weeks. The national average price of self-serve regular is now $1.83 a gallon.

The suspect accused of strangling a pregnant Missouri woman and stealing her baby faces a court appearance tomorrow. Police say Lisa Montgomery has already confessed and people in her Kansas town of Melbourne (ph) say she had showed off the infant girl as her own just hours before she was arrested. Montgomery's pastor was suspicious.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE WHEATLEY, PASTOR: She was pretty small and I commented to her about it, I asked her if -- if when she was due, and she said she was due in December. I said you're kind of small to be having a baby that soon. And she said I always have small babies and so I just let it go at that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LIN: Well, 23-year old Bobbi Joe Stinnett's (ph) mother found her dead in a pool of blood in her home Thursday, her womb cut open. The baby is reported in good condition.

And police in Wichita, Kansas have new reason to believe a serial killer blamed for 8 murders between 1974 and 1986 is still out there. The case of the so-called BTK Killer was never solved. CNN's Ed Lavandera tells why this cold case is suddenly hot again.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ED LANDANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Wichita, Kansas police believe the BTK Killer left a small package of clues in this park. Investigators have asked the news media to hide the identity of the man who stumbled across the package.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I didn't know what it was, I held onto it and I sit there on the television and looked at it for a while.

LANVANDERA: He opened it, saw what was inside and gave it to a local TV station that had received a letter from the BTK Killer. Police say the package contained two new details: the driver's license of Nancy Fox, police believe she was murdered by the BTK Killer in 1977, and there was a wrapped metallic object.

But some of the items in the package police have seen before. One sheet was titled the BTK story listing 13 chapters. But this time, the last chapter titled "Will There Be More" was revealed.

Another sheet included a word puzzle with scrambled words old, help and fake ID. There were also two photo copied IDs of a telephone company workers and Wichita School District employee. The puzzle and the IDs were copies of papers police received earlier this year.

Authorities suspect the killer might have approached his victims by impersonating other people.

LT. KEN LANDWEHR, WICHITA POLICE: We truly feel that he is trying to communicate with us.

This is one of the most challenging cases that I've ever been involved with.

LAVANDERA: To help track down this killer we have recently learned that police and reporters are investigated. Some have agreed to provide DNA samples. The BTK Killer has been connected to 8 murders between 1974 and 1986, but why he's coming out of the darkness now to send police clues is another chapter of this mysterious story. Ed Lavandera, CNN, Dallas.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LIN: All right. Let's get an investigator's take on both these crime cases we're following today. Before retiring, Don Clark was FBI special agent in charge of New York and Houston. And he ran investigation, including the Serial Rail Car Killer case in Texas. He joins me from Houston.

Don, it's good to have your expertise on the case, because you know you have a sense how a serial killer thinks. Why would this BTK Killer surface again? What is he trying to say?

DON CLARK, FRM. FBI SPECIAL AGENT: Well thanks, Carol, for being here. And yeah, I did go through the Rail Car Killer, that was about a year. Serial killers are very, very difficult cases. And I'm telling you the police officers and investigators now, they have to be pulling their hair out trying to figure out what the clues really mean. And if these clues are a diversion of some sort, or if really do attach themselves in some way to the killing.

The big question as you just asked me is why is he coming out now? I'm telling you, I think the profilers and the psychological people would have a field day with that. But I tell you one thing, it's probably good for other police departments across the country to look and see if they have similar killings, because he may not have been dormant for that period of time.

LIN: Oh, he just may have been elsewhere and gone undetected.

CLARK: Clearly. LIN: All right. But the clue that he left, "Will There Be More?" in this series of writings. Isn't that what he's saying, he's saying I'm ready to kill again?

CLARK: Well, I think so. And you know, we don't know at all what's in the minds of the people. And I've worked closely with the profilers in trying to figure out -- now some people would say while the profilers can't figure them out. But they can give a bit of the clue as to their motivation. And I think at soem point, whether they have enough information now, they might try and figure out what type of person this individual might be, but this one is tough.

LIN: They know a lot about him. Don, I mean, in the writings that the police have released so far, we now know that investigators know that he's probably in his 60s right now. Taht he was born in 1939 according to his claims. That his father died in World War II. That he lived with a woman named Petra. That he has a fascination with trains and railways. I mean, what does it take for the investigators to put these pieces together and track this guy down? It's not a big town he's been operating in?

CLARK: Well you know, Carol, on the surface it does look like that you know a lot about that, about this person. But when you take and look at what he says that he has done and who he is, born in the war, father died, raised by his grandparents. The things that he likes to do, fish and hunt and camp. That fits so many people around that it doesn't give you a narrow gap at all as to who that person really is.

And I still contend that many of those leads are pretty much just generic in terms of being able to narrow the numbers down as to who this person is.

LIN: Yes. So how are they going to catch him?

CLARK: Well, I think what they're going to do is try to keep doing exactly what we are doing right now, is putting as much information out as they can without tipping them off. I admire them on holding back some things it's not necessary to get out. But I think media has to be one of the keys.

I used it down here in Houston and it worked very effective. And I think if they can use it in that case in some kind of way, whatever their strategy might be. I think that's one way that they've got to do it. The second way...

LIN: Let me stop you there, because Don, what scares me about, it's almost tempting him to act again so he makes a mistake, and that's how they're going to get him. They need him to make a move.

CLARK: Unfortunately, that's what usually happens sometime. Is that those type of people I've seen in the past, that they get a little bit full of themselves, if you will, and occasionally they will get careless, and they will start to make mistakes or start to challenge the authorities. And that may give them a break or an opportunity to be able to identify who this person might be. But it's going to take patience and it's really going to take detail, detailed investigative work and analyze and every bit of information that they get from him.

LIN: Well, it's going take a lot of patience on the parts of the families of the eight victims killed more than 20 years ago. They're waiting a long time for justice, Don.

CLARK: You bet.

LIN: Thank you, Don Clark.

Now every week, we try to take you to a different kind of frontlines where the personal side of war can be told. Tonight, an army specialist waiting to be shipped to Iraq is using his artistic talents to help the families of service men and women who are already over there. CNN's Alina Cho goes to the frontlines in Teaneck, New Jersey.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is the new normal for 22-month-old Nicholas Norman, for now is growing up without his father. Pamela Norman is without a husband.

PAULA NORMAN, HUSBAND FIGHTING IN IRAQ: My husband is overseas now. And it's Nicholas and myself, and we're adjusting to life without daddy at home.

CHO: For Pamela and Nicholas, that means spending a lot of time at the Teaneck armory in New Jersey. It doubles as a family assistance center, helping military families cope with having a loved one at war.

NORMAN: It's wonderful to have a great support system here. I mean, everyone is going through the same thing.

CHO: There's a play room for the kids, a food bank for those in need, and throughout, there are murals, helping children like five- year-old Sierra understand why daddy isn't home.

SIERRA: My daddy.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Your daddy?

SIERRA: Yes.

CHO: The murals are painted by Specialist Jeffrey White who uses images that comfort both adults and children, who himself is waiting to be shipped out to Iraq.

SPEC. JEFFREY WHITE, 50TH MAIN SUPPORT BATTALION: I'm doing something to try to help the families themselves through drawings, what have you, if I'm able to help them.

CHO: 55-year-old Sergeant Minnie Hiller is the director of the assistance center. She's also a mother and grandmother.

SFC. MINNIE HILLER, 50TH MAIN SUPPORT BATTALION: They love him. When the children come in, little ones come in, it's hard to get the parents to get them out of there. So, sometimes it becomes a struggle.

CHO: Even for the smallest of kids like four-year-old Hanna who can now say where her father is fighting.

HANNA: In Iraq.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He's in Iraq?

HANNA: Yeah.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you know when he's coming home?

HANNA: No.

HILLER: When am I going to see them? Will they be home for Christmas? These are things we don't have the answers for. So what we try to tell them is that they're doing what they're best prepared to do.

CHO: And that helps. So do the hugs.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I love to give you hugs.

CHO: For the ones left behind like Pamela and Nicholas Norman, they know getting by means taking it one step at a time.

Alina Cho, CNN, Teaneck, New Jersey.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LIN: We want to bring you up to date on a rather distressing story we told you back in August of a father who was celebrating his 44th birthday when he found out his son was killed in Iraq. Well, Carlos Arredondo (ph) is apologizing for actually torching the van of the Marines who came to tell him that bad news about his 20-year-old son.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CARLOS ARREDONDO, SON KILLED IN IRAQ: I'm very glad I got to meet with the three Marines who brought the news. And I'm glad we share the feelings.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LIN: Yeah. Well, he was pretty draught at the time.

After the news when they told him. He jumped into the Marine van, poured gasoline over it, lit it on fire and jumped inside and got then got burned over 26 percent of his body. No charges were filed against him for setting the van on fire, and two scholarships have now been set up in the memory of his son.

Coming up next, we're going to talk about using the holidays to help your family discover the secrets that lie within their health (ph) story. That is after a break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LIN: Well, it looks like the maker of Celebrex is standing by the popular arthritic drugs even as the government is advising doctors to prescribe alternatives.

Pfizer CEO announced Friday that Celebrex more than doubled the risk of heart attack in a recent trial. But today, he says the medicine will remain on the market.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HANK MCKINNELL, CHAIRMAN, CEO PFIZER: We're leaving Celebrex on the market, because it is an appropriate option for many, many patients. Now physicians do need to be fully advised of the risk and particularly this new information, but there are significant benefits for millions of patients with treatment of Celebrex at the recommended dose.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LIN: Celebrex has been prescribed to 27 million Americans. Now, the maker of the competitor drug Vioxx has recalled it because of heart risk in that drug.

Now, some threats to your health come not from anything you actually take, but from your genes that your parents gave you. I'm not talking about blue jeans, I'm talking about the makeup of your DNA, who you are cellularly. Our next guest says the holiday season can actually be a great time to gain knowledge that could actually save your life.

Dr. Lisa Bernstein is an associate professor of medical at Emory Univerity right here in Atlanta. And you work with medical students, internists in trying to get the health historys from people. And surprising how many people don't know the health history of their family.

DR. LISA BERNSTEIN, EMORY UNIVERSITY: That's true. People don't think to take the opportunity to talk to their parents and their grandparents and other relatives about the medical history that acutally might impact their own health.

LIN: We made up a side panel of diseases that we want to show our audience, because these in particular can affect your health, just in case it happened to your grandparents, or your great grandparents, one of them even being cancer or arthritis or diabetes, why is it that people don't know these things? Why isn't it discussed?

BERNSTEIN: I think they don't tong ask a lot of people when you ask them what happened to a family member they say they died of natural causes. And I think that we really have to alert the public that they should ask what the relatives died of, what their family members are dealing with as far as health issues, because it may impact what their physician needs to look for in themselves.

LIN: How so? For example, what's a scenario that might come up, and I did not know the history of diabetes in my family, how might it affect me?

BERNSTEIN: Well, it's important in anyone who's young. We don't necessarily put cardiac disease at the top of the list if someone comes in with chest pain. But if they have several family members who died early from cardiac disease, or have risk factors such as diabetes or hypertension, then we might think to look for that sooner.

In addition, we might want to modify the risk factors and look for diabetes and talk about dietary modification, exercise and other things.

LIN: So the risk I take, if I didn't know the history, frankly, is if I came to you with chest pains, you might think it might be stress or it might be some tendonitis and you wouldn't necessarily do a cardiac workup on me?

BERNSTEIN: Absolutely. We want to take a full history in every patient, but your family history absolutely impacts those things, because it tells us what puts you at risk genetically, as you mentioned. And that interacts with behavior and other environmental factors to put you at risk for diseases.

LIN: All right. So how do you start that dialogue? Because, frankly, on the one hand, you're saying the holidays is a great time to have that conversation, but frankly when I'm sitting and the turkey is basting, I don't want to turn to Uncle Charlie and say, so, Uncle Charley, you know, how did Aunt Sue die?

BERNSTEIN: Well, actually, holiday gatherings are a perfect time to do it, you are together with multiple generations. And you're able to discuss issues, such as what happened this year with everyone. And it's a great time to broach the topic of your medical history. And it really only takes a few seconds.

And exactly the way you put it is perfect. Just saying, hey, tell me about our relatives and what runs in the family. And it's really important that everyone knows that.

And you really want the information on your first degree relatives. So your parents, your grandparents, your sibling, your children, maybe even your aunts and uncles. But if you have a second cousin once removed or a family member by marriage, that's not as important for your own medical health history.

LIN: All right. Immediate family. And many cases it could change your life. It could change the diagnosis when you go in with a problem.

Thanks very much, doctor. BERNSTEIN: Thank you very much for having me.

LIN: Have a great holiday.

BERNSTEIN: Thank you, you, too.

LIN: And a healthy one.

Wel, a holiday flap between Cuba and the United States is playing out in Havana right now. Relations, speaking of relations, between the two countries have long been pretty bad. But as CNN's Lucia Newman explains, Christmas has made the situation worse.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LUCIA NEWMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Fidel Castro had warned there would be consequences if the U.S. diplomatic mission in Havana didn't remove Christmas decorations that included a symbol of 75 Cuban imprisoned Cuban dissidents. Friday morning those consequences were displayed bigger than life along Havana's famous Malacone Boulevard: Graphic posters and banners of Iraqi prisoners in U.S. custody at Abu Ghraib put up directly in front of the U.S. intrasection.

The message, punctuated by swastickas is that Washington has no moral authority to talk about political prisoners and human rights.

Passersby couldn't stop staring.

As a Cuban I say bravo, because the Americans are glorfying those 75 mercenaries who are trying to hurt our country, instead of worrying about what you see here, said this retiree.

I'll keep what I think to myself, said this woman. I prefer to stay out of politics.

But politics is what all this is about. Each side using symbols, meant to speak louder than words.

Washington says it will not back down.

RICHARD BOUCHER, STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESMAN: Any government that puts up swastikas ought to answer its own questions about why it does that. But, I guess this is how the Cuban government responds to Christmas lights.

NEWMAN (on camera): People are already taking bets which side will take down their sign first. A graphic end to the year which seems to summarize what U.S./Cuban diplomatic relations have been reduced to.

(voice-over): Friday afternoon, Cuban electric workers hurried to put up lights so that the Cuban government display would also be illuminated so that it can compete after dark with the American display.

Lucia Newman, CNN, Havana.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LIN: Well, that might have reminded you of a particularly grouchy guy at this time of year. You know next to Santa, he's probably one of the most recognizable Christmas icons. So, what makes the story of Ebenezer Scrooge so appealing? Up next, the undeniable draw of "A Christmas Carol."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LIN: You're looking at the annual Christmas pageant at the Washington National Cathedral, which is especially for children. It got under way just a few hours ago. And it includes what you just saw, a reenactment of the story of Jesus' birth, including the visit from the three wisemen and the animals and the angels.

A nice sight to see. Wish we could see the kid's faces there.

In the meantime, Ebenezer Scrooge has been portrayed by everyone from Albert Finney to Bill Murray to Kelsey Grammer. But for one lesser known actor, playing the character from a Christmas Carol has become something of a tradition. Our Miguel Marquez has that story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A merry Christmas uncle, God save you.

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's been said countless times.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE; Bah humbug.

UNIDENTFIED MALE: Humbug.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Humbug.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Humbug.

MARQUEZ: Stars have done it, cartoon dogs have done it. It's been done on film since 1908. The first talkie was in 1938.

(SINGING)

MARQUEZ: Charles Dickens wrote a Christmas Carol in 1843, and perhaps no one knows Ebeneezer Scrooge better than Hal Landon Jr.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Another present?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Underneath that, you know, is a guy who as a child loved Christmas.

MARQUEZ: For the last 25 years, Landon has played Scrooge for California's South Coast Repitory Theater.

HAL LANDON JR., ACTOR: There's lots of different ways to play it. You know there's the crotchety curmudgeon and the colder, harder, flintier kind of businessman.

MARQUEZ: However one plays Scrooge, the character and the play hit a cultural cord that has never stopped resonating.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Frank this is your last chance.

BILL MURRAY, ACTOR: All right. I could squeeze you in for a breakfast.

MARQUEZ: Part ghost story, part morality message. Landon says what makes a Christmas Carol work year after year is the transformation of Ebenezer Scrooge.

LANDON: Absolutely reprehensible. The worst possible miser in the world, totally transformed into this kind, loving person.

MARQUEZ: In playing Scrooge for a quarter of a century, Landon has seen his own transformation. Today he needs less makeup.

LANDON: Now a little whiter on the eyebrows and temples, and a shade here or there.

MARQUEZ: Hal Landon Jr aging into a part written over 160 years ago, Dickens words still able to stir emotions today.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: God bless us all, everyone.

MARQUEZ: Miguel Marquez, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LIN: That's all the time we have for this hour. Coming up next, a special look at "Time's" Person of the Year. Find out why this election committee picked President Bush.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com

Aired December 19, 2004 - 18:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Welcome to CNN LIVE SUNDAY. Here is what's happening right now in the news. At least 67 people are dead and more than 125 wounded in a pair of car bombings today in Iraq. First, a suicide blast rips (INAUDIBLE) at a bus station and then a car bomb exploded during a funeral procession in Najaf. We've got a full report coming up.
In the meantime, the United Nations says tens of thousands of people have fled from eastern Congo over the past few days because of fighting between the Army groups and (AUDIO GAP). A U.S. (AUDIO GAP) says entire villages have been emptied (AUDIO GAP) the displacement will have disastrous consequences. (AUDIO GAP) near the Ohio border. But at least 17 people have been

(AUDIO GAP) (SATELLITE DOWN)

LIN: So, are you getting nervous yet? Christmas is getting nervously close for people who still have presents to send out of town. And you know, you're taking your chances if you're going to go by regular mail at this point, no guarantee it's going to get there by the 25th and some shipping firms are doing some pretty brisk business and making some money at it, too. CNN's Sara Dorsey is live at FedEx headquarters in Memphis, Tennessee and not only just at the headquarters, you are actually on the tarmac. Any second now I'm going to see a shipping plane go by.

SARA DORSEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We are. We are in the middle of what is called the launch here at the FedEx super hub. What that means is all the packages that were sorted today, there you go, you can hear one of those vehicles going by. All of the packages that were sorted today were put on planes. Those planes are beginning to start leaving behind us, taking the packages to their destination and as you all can imagine after all Santa does need a little help getting those packages to their destination by Christmas and that's exactly where FedEx comes in.

Tomorrow is expected to be the busiest day by FedEx Express. It's estimated that 4.6 million packages will be processed. That's coming off the single busiest day rather for the company last Monday. Eight million packages were processed in that single day, topping even what the company had expected.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) ROBERT CARTER, EXEC VP & CIO, FED EX CORP: We really consider this a very important time of year for us to make sure that all of those presents reach your friends and family out there in the places where they're supposed to be. People enjoy this job.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DORSEY: It's not too late for you to get your packages to their destinations on time. If you're sending here in the United States, you can send it as late as the 23rd for it to arrive at its destination by Christmas. If you're sending internationally, though, you're going to need to get those to FedEx by tomorrow. Carol?

LIN: Sara, how do they manage to pull this off? I mean how does the system actually work to get it their overnight?

DORSEY: It's a very intricate process and they have it planned almost to the tee (ph). These planes come in, some of the international ones overnight and then others in the morning. Immediately when they pull up to the gates, there's crews waiting. They take all the packages off and they go into maze of a processing center. It's unbelievable to see those, the boxes fall all over the place, in a special series of bar code readers and things like that sort it out at which time then it's loaded onto the planes and we come to the process that we're at now which is the launch. Those planes take off and the packages head for their final destinations.

LIN: All right. Thanks very much, Sara. Sara Dorsey, hopefully there's a package in there for all of us.

As Americans rush to sending off those final gifts for the holidays, behind the scenes at one shipping company are young people who are getting a different type of gift, a new start. CNN's Kathleen Koch has that story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Nineteen-year-old Ebony Frederick grew up in Baltimore's foster care system.

EBONY FREDERICK, LIVING CLASSROOMS PARTICIPANT: That's how it was when you ain't had no structure, parents or structured home, you just run wild.

KOCH: Now a mother herself with a three-year-old son, Ebony wanted more. She found a program at UPS that provides jobs and even tuition reimbursement for at risk and foster care youths.

FREDERICK: They instill in you like to need to come to work unless have you logical reasons why not to come.

KOCH: More than 40 young people have been hired since the program was launched in Baltimore five years ago by Kevin Garvey and UPS management.

KEVIN GARVEY, UPS: They're starting at anywhere between $8.50 or $9.50 depending on whether it's a skilled or unskilled position. But they also have the full benefits package that many of our full-time employees enjoy.

KOCH: Twenty-year-old Kevin Brockenbrough has grown confident enough to share his poetry and to try to convince others to leave the streets for the working world.

KEVIN BROCKENBROUGH, LIVING CLASSROOMS PARTICIPANTS: I don't understand why they want to be outside standing in one spot all day long. You can be moving around, doing stuff and getting people to appreciate the work you're doing.

KOCH: The young workers get job training, transportation and valuable advice from a local foundation.

ROCHELLE McGREE, LIVING CLASSROOMS: You might not want to go to work, but you don't go to work, you're not going to get paid. Your paycheck is going to be less. You're not going to be to afford the bus. So we try and make them see the big picture.

KOCH: Other Maryland employers have now adopted the same program. It's a win-win situation, says the owner of one Baltimore restaurant.

GERRY BALOG, PICKLED PARROT: It's nice for us because we have an opportunity to give Dominic a chance to get a foot up and it's nice for the business as well because I have a great employee.

KOCH: And the young employees have a new perspective.

FREDERICK: A big world out here. You need to go school, stay in school, get a job. Who's going to take care of you if you don't take care of yourself?

KOCH: Kathleen Koch, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LIN: All the people behind the scenes of this holiday season.

In the meantime, it must be pretty hard if you have a loved one overseas, especially fighting in this war on terror. So we're going to talk about easing the pain of separation when a parent is deployed to Iraq. Up next, how one soldier's work of art is actually helping those children left behind by war.

Also still to come, searching for answers to a decade's old year old serial killer case. Actually, more simply put, it's more than 20 years old. Will a surprise discovery in a park actually help police find the killer? He has sent a message.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LIN: This holiday season will undoubtedly see the purchase of lots of video games. But as our Aaron Brown explains, the issue of banning the sale of violent video games to children is now gaining some steam. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

AARON BROWN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): These games are raw and bloody, and they are lucrative. They represent about 11 percent of the $7 billion the video game industry takes in every year. And it's not just the blood and guts. It's the sex as well. No one really argues that these games are great for kids, but should there be laws that criminalize their sale or rental to minors? The governor of Illinois is saying absolutely.

GOVERNOR ROD BLAGOJEVICH (D) ILLINOIS: Parents need help protecting their children and protecting the values that they teach their children to believe in. And they're up against a multibillion dollar industry.

BROWN: Governor Blagojevich says he's proposing fines and jail for retailers who sell or rent extremely violent or sexual video games to minors.

GAIL MARKELS, ENTERTAINMENT SOFTWARE ASSN: This is not the first time this type of legislation has been considered. The courts recently in three separate occasions have found that video games are protected speech and have declared similar bills to be unconstitutional.

BROWN: But the governor believes Illinois can make it work, despite the legal failures in other states.

BLAGOJEVICH: We're drafting our legislation narrowly. And the underlying premise of our legislation is based upon the same rationale that we in society have when it comes to kids buying cigarettes or buying alcohol.

BROWN: This public service announcement is aimed at parents. According to the FTC, adults buy more than 80 percent of the 239 million video games sold each year. So many youngsters who wind up playing the most graphic games often didn't even have to leave home to get them. Aaron Brown, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LIN: In terms of what's really going on out there in the Midwest, a serial killer is on the loose, has been for more than 20 years but this time he is sending messages once again. So I'm going to be talking to a former FBI agent about whether the message means he's about to kill again.

Plus, hear what the suspect in the Missouri baby kidnapping case said to her pastor right before her arrest.

Also still to come, give your family the gift that could save their life. Why the holidays are the perfect time to tell your family secrets.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LIN: Welcome back. Here's a quick look at what's happening right now in the news. Iraqi officials say nearly 70 people were killed in two car bombings today, 51 died in a funeral procession bombing in Najaf and 16 died in a Karbala bus station explosion. Karbala and Najaf are two of Iraq's holiest Shiite cities.

Iraqi officials say militants killed a senior election official and his bodyguards as they were traveling through central Baghdad. Witnesses say the gunmen dragged three people out of their car, forced them to kneel on the street and shot them to death. Two others escaped uninjured.

And it's getting a little more affordable to gas up your car. The national survey shows gas prices have fallen a dime in the past two weeks. The national average price of self-serve regular is now $1.83 a gallon.

The suspect accused of strangling a pregnant Missouri woman and stealing her baby faces a court appearance tomorrow. Police say Lisa Montgomery has already confessed and people in her Kansas town of Melbourne (ph) say she had showed off the infant girl as her own just hours before she was arrested. Montgomery's pastor was suspicious.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE WHEATLEY, PASTOR: She was pretty small and I commented to her about it, I asked her if -- if when she was due, and she said she was due in December. I said you're kind of small to be having a baby that soon. And she said I always have small babies and so I just let it go at that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LIN: Well, 23-year old Bobbi Joe Stinnett's (ph) mother found her dead in a pool of blood in her home Thursday, her womb cut open. The baby is reported in good condition.

And police in Wichita, Kansas have new reason to believe a serial killer blamed for 8 murders between 1974 and 1986 is still out there. The case of the so-called BTK Killer was never solved. CNN's Ed Lavandera tells why this cold case is suddenly hot again.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ED LANDANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Wichita, Kansas police believe the BTK Killer left a small package of clues in this park. Investigators have asked the news media to hide the identity of the man who stumbled across the package.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I didn't know what it was, I held onto it and I sit there on the television and looked at it for a while.

LANVANDERA: He opened it, saw what was inside and gave it to a local TV station that had received a letter from the BTK Killer. Police say the package contained two new details: the driver's license of Nancy Fox, police believe she was murdered by the BTK Killer in 1977, and there was a wrapped metallic object.

But some of the items in the package police have seen before. One sheet was titled the BTK story listing 13 chapters. But this time, the last chapter titled "Will There Be More" was revealed.

Another sheet included a word puzzle with scrambled words old, help and fake ID. There were also two photo copied IDs of a telephone company workers and Wichita School District employee. The puzzle and the IDs were copies of papers police received earlier this year.

Authorities suspect the killer might have approached his victims by impersonating other people.

LT. KEN LANDWEHR, WICHITA POLICE: We truly feel that he is trying to communicate with us.

This is one of the most challenging cases that I've ever been involved with.

LAVANDERA: To help track down this killer we have recently learned that police and reporters are investigated. Some have agreed to provide DNA samples. The BTK Killer has been connected to 8 murders between 1974 and 1986, but why he's coming out of the darkness now to send police clues is another chapter of this mysterious story. Ed Lavandera, CNN, Dallas.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LIN: All right. Let's get an investigator's take on both these crime cases we're following today. Before retiring, Don Clark was FBI special agent in charge of New York and Houston. And he ran investigation, including the Serial Rail Car Killer case in Texas. He joins me from Houston.

Don, it's good to have your expertise on the case, because you know you have a sense how a serial killer thinks. Why would this BTK Killer surface again? What is he trying to say?

DON CLARK, FRM. FBI SPECIAL AGENT: Well thanks, Carol, for being here. And yeah, I did go through the Rail Car Killer, that was about a year. Serial killers are very, very difficult cases. And I'm telling you the police officers and investigators now, they have to be pulling their hair out trying to figure out what the clues really mean. And if these clues are a diversion of some sort, or if really do attach themselves in some way to the killing.

The big question as you just asked me is why is he coming out now? I'm telling you, I think the profilers and the psychological people would have a field day with that. But I tell you one thing, it's probably good for other police departments across the country to look and see if they have similar killings, because he may not have been dormant for that period of time.

LIN: Oh, he just may have been elsewhere and gone undetected.

CLARK: Clearly. LIN: All right. But the clue that he left, "Will There Be More?" in this series of writings. Isn't that what he's saying, he's saying I'm ready to kill again?

CLARK: Well, I think so. And you know, we don't know at all what's in the minds of the people. And I've worked closely with the profilers in trying to figure out -- now some people would say while the profilers can't figure them out. But they can give a bit of the clue as to their motivation. And I think at soem point, whether they have enough information now, they might try and figure out what type of person this individual might be, but this one is tough.

LIN: They know a lot about him. Don, I mean, in the writings that the police have released so far, we now know that investigators know that he's probably in his 60s right now. Taht he was born in 1939 according to his claims. That his father died in World War II. That he lived with a woman named Petra. That he has a fascination with trains and railways. I mean, what does it take for the investigators to put these pieces together and track this guy down? It's not a big town he's been operating in?

CLARK: Well you know, Carol, on the surface it does look like that you know a lot about that, about this person. But when you take and look at what he says that he has done and who he is, born in the war, father died, raised by his grandparents. The things that he likes to do, fish and hunt and camp. That fits so many people around that it doesn't give you a narrow gap at all as to who that person really is.

And I still contend that many of those leads are pretty much just generic in terms of being able to narrow the numbers down as to who this person is.

LIN: Yes. So how are they going to catch him?

CLARK: Well, I think what they're going to do is try to keep doing exactly what we are doing right now, is putting as much information out as they can without tipping them off. I admire them on holding back some things it's not necessary to get out. But I think media has to be one of the keys.

I used it down here in Houston and it worked very effective. And I think if they can use it in that case in some kind of way, whatever their strategy might be. I think that's one way that they've got to do it. The second way...

LIN: Let me stop you there, because Don, what scares me about, it's almost tempting him to act again so he makes a mistake, and that's how they're going to get him. They need him to make a move.

CLARK: Unfortunately, that's what usually happens sometime. Is that those type of people I've seen in the past, that they get a little bit full of themselves, if you will, and occasionally they will get careless, and they will start to make mistakes or start to challenge the authorities. And that may give them a break or an opportunity to be able to identify who this person might be. But it's going to take patience and it's really going to take detail, detailed investigative work and analyze and every bit of information that they get from him.

LIN: Well, it's going take a lot of patience on the parts of the families of the eight victims killed more than 20 years ago. They're waiting a long time for justice, Don.

CLARK: You bet.

LIN: Thank you, Don Clark.

Now every week, we try to take you to a different kind of frontlines where the personal side of war can be told. Tonight, an army specialist waiting to be shipped to Iraq is using his artistic talents to help the families of service men and women who are already over there. CNN's Alina Cho goes to the frontlines in Teaneck, New Jersey.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is the new normal for 22-month-old Nicholas Norman, for now is growing up without his father. Pamela Norman is without a husband.

PAULA NORMAN, HUSBAND FIGHTING IN IRAQ: My husband is overseas now. And it's Nicholas and myself, and we're adjusting to life without daddy at home.

CHO: For Pamela and Nicholas, that means spending a lot of time at the Teaneck armory in New Jersey. It doubles as a family assistance center, helping military families cope with having a loved one at war.

NORMAN: It's wonderful to have a great support system here. I mean, everyone is going through the same thing.

CHO: There's a play room for the kids, a food bank for those in need, and throughout, there are murals, helping children like five- year-old Sierra understand why daddy isn't home.

SIERRA: My daddy.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Your daddy?

SIERRA: Yes.

CHO: The murals are painted by Specialist Jeffrey White who uses images that comfort both adults and children, who himself is waiting to be shipped out to Iraq.

SPEC. JEFFREY WHITE, 50TH MAIN SUPPORT BATTALION: I'm doing something to try to help the families themselves through drawings, what have you, if I'm able to help them.

CHO: 55-year-old Sergeant Minnie Hiller is the director of the assistance center. She's also a mother and grandmother.

SFC. MINNIE HILLER, 50TH MAIN SUPPORT BATTALION: They love him. When the children come in, little ones come in, it's hard to get the parents to get them out of there. So, sometimes it becomes a struggle.

CHO: Even for the smallest of kids like four-year-old Hanna who can now say where her father is fighting.

HANNA: In Iraq.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He's in Iraq?

HANNA: Yeah.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you know when he's coming home?

HANNA: No.

HILLER: When am I going to see them? Will they be home for Christmas? These are things we don't have the answers for. So what we try to tell them is that they're doing what they're best prepared to do.

CHO: And that helps. So do the hugs.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I love to give you hugs.

CHO: For the ones left behind like Pamela and Nicholas Norman, they know getting by means taking it one step at a time.

Alina Cho, CNN, Teaneck, New Jersey.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LIN: We want to bring you up to date on a rather distressing story we told you back in August of a father who was celebrating his 44th birthday when he found out his son was killed in Iraq. Well, Carlos Arredondo (ph) is apologizing for actually torching the van of the Marines who came to tell him that bad news about his 20-year-old son.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CARLOS ARREDONDO, SON KILLED IN IRAQ: I'm very glad I got to meet with the three Marines who brought the news. And I'm glad we share the feelings.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LIN: Yeah. Well, he was pretty draught at the time.

After the news when they told him. He jumped into the Marine van, poured gasoline over it, lit it on fire and jumped inside and got then got burned over 26 percent of his body. No charges were filed against him for setting the van on fire, and two scholarships have now been set up in the memory of his son.

Coming up next, we're going to talk about using the holidays to help your family discover the secrets that lie within their health (ph) story. That is after a break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LIN: Well, it looks like the maker of Celebrex is standing by the popular arthritic drugs even as the government is advising doctors to prescribe alternatives.

Pfizer CEO announced Friday that Celebrex more than doubled the risk of heart attack in a recent trial. But today, he says the medicine will remain on the market.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HANK MCKINNELL, CHAIRMAN, CEO PFIZER: We're leaving Celebrex on the market, because it is an appropriate option for many, many patients. Now physicians do need to be fully advised of the risk and particularly this new information, but there are significant benefits for millions of patients with treatment of Celebrex at the recommended dose.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LIN: Celebrex has been prescribed to 27 million Americans. Now, the maker of the competitor drug Vioxx has recalled it because of heart risk in that drug.

Now, some threats to your health come not from anything you actually take, but from your genes that your parents gave you. I'm not talking about blue jeans, I'm talking about the makeup of your DNA, who you are cellularly. Our next guest says the holiday season can actually be a great time to gain knowledge that could actually save your life.

Dr. Lisa Bernstein is an associate professor of medical at Emory Univerity right here in Atlanta. And you work with medical students, internists in trying to get the health historys from people. And surprising how many people don't know the health history of their family.

DR. LISA BERNSTEIN, EMORY UNIVERSITY: That's true. People don't think to take the opportunity to talk to their parents and their grandparents and other relatives about the medical history that acutally might impact their own health.

LIN: We made up a side panel of diseases that we want to show our audience, because these in particular can affect your health, just in case it happened to your grandparents, or your great grandparents, one of them even being cancer or arthritis or diabetes, why is it that people don't know these things? Why isn't it discussed?

BERNSTEIN: I think they don't tong ask a lot of people when you ask them what happened to a family member they say they died of natural causes. And I think that we really have to alert the public that they should ask what the relatives died of, what their family members are dealing with as far as health issues, because it may impact what their physician needs to look for in themselves.

LIN: How so? For example, what's a scenario that might come up, and I did not know the history of diabetes in my family, how might it affect me?

BERNSTEIN: Well, it's important in anyone who's young. We don't necessarily put cardiac disease at the top of the list if someone comes in with chest pain. But if they have several family members who died early from cardiac disease, or have risk factors such as diabetes or hypertension, then we might think to look for that sooner.

In addition, we might want to modify the risk factors and look for diabetes and talk about dietary modification, exercise and other things.

LIN: So the risk I take, if I didn't know the history, frankly, is if I came to you with chest pains, you might think it might be stress or it might be some tendonitis and you wouldn't necessarily do a cardiac workup on me?

BERNSTEIN: Absolutely. We want to take a full history in every patient, but your family history absolutely impacts those things, because it tells us what puts you at risk genetically, as you mentioned. And that interacts with behavior and other environmental factors to put you at risk for diseases.

LIN: All right. So how do you start that dialogue? Because, frankly, on the one hand, you're saying the holidays is a great time to have that conversation, but frankly when I'm sitting and the turkey is basting, I don't want to turn to Uncle Charlie and say, so, Uncle Charley, you know, how did Aunt Sue die?

BERNSTEIN: Well, actually, holiday gatherings are a perfect time to do it, you are together with multiple generations. And you're able to discuss issues, such as what happened this year with everyone. And it's a great time to broach the topic of your medical history. And it really only takes a few seconds.

And exactly the way you put it is perfect. Just saying, hey, tell me about our relatives and what runs in the family. And it's really important that everyone knows that.

And you really want the information on your first degree relatives. So your parents, your grandparents, your sibling, your children, maybe even your aunts and uncles. But if you have a second cousin once removed or a family member by marriage, that's not as important for your own medical health history.

LIN: All right. Immediate family. And many cases it could change your life. It could change the diagnosis when you go in with a problem.

Thanks very much, doctor. BERNSTEIN: Thank you very much for having me.

LIN: Have a great holiday.

BERNSTEIN: Thank you, you, too.

LIN: And a healthy one.

Wel, a holiday flap between Cuba and the United States is playing out in Havana right now. Relations, speaking of relations, between the two countries have long been pretty bad. But as CNN's Lucia Newman explains, Christmas has made the situation worse.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LUCIA NEWMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Fidel Castro had warned there would be consequences if the U.S. diplomatic mission in Havana didn't remove Christmas decorations that included a symbol of 75 Cuban imprisoned Cuban dissidents. Friday morning those consequences were displayed bigger than life along Havana's famous Malacone Boulevard: Graphic posters and banners of Iraqi prisoners in U.S. custody at Abu Ghraib put up directly in front of the U.S. intrasection.

The message, punctuated by swastickas is that Washington has no moral authority to talk about political prisoners and human rights.

Passersby couldn't stop staring.

As a Cuban I say bravo, because the Americans are glorfying those 75 mercenaries who are trying to hurt our country, instead of worrying about what you see here, said this retiree.

I'll keep what I think to myself, said this woman. I prefer to stay out of politics.

But politics is what all this is about. Each side using symbols, meant to speak louder than words.

Washington says it will not back down.

RICHARD BOUCHER, STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESMAN: Any government that puts up swastikas ought to answer its own questions about why it does that. But, I guess this is how the Cuban government responds to Christmas lights.

NEWMAN (on camera): People are already taking bets which side will take down their sign first. A graphic end to the year which seems to summarize what U.S./Cuban diplomatic relations have been reduced to.

(voice-over): Friday afternoon, Cuban electric workers hurried to put up lights so that the Cuban government display would also be illuminated so that it can compete after dark with the American display.

Lucia Newman, CNN, Havana.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LIN: Well, that might have reminded you of a particularly grouchy guy at this time of year. You know next to Santa, he's probably one of the most recognizable Christmas icons. So, what makes the story of Ebenezer Scrooge so appealing? Up next, the undeniable draw of "A Christmas Carol."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LIN: You're looking at the annual Christmas pageant at the Washington National Cathedral, which is especially for children. It got under way just a few hours ago. And it includes what you just saw, a reenactment of the story of Jesus' birth, including the visit from the three wisemen and the animals and the angels.

A nice sight to see. Wish we could see the kid's faces there.

In the meantime, Ebenezer Scrooge has been portrayed by everyone from Albert Finney to Bill Murray to Kelsey Grammer. But for one lesser known actor, playing the character from a Christmas Carol has become something of a tradition. Our Miguel Marquez has that story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A merry Christmas uncle, God save you.

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's been said countless times.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE; Bah humbug.

UNIDENTFIED MALE: Humbug.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Humbug.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Humbug.

MARQUEZ: Stars have done it, cartoon dogs have done it. It's been done on film since 1908. The first talkie was in 1938.

(SINGING)

MARQUEZ: Charles Dickens wrote a Christmas Carol in 1843, and perhaps no one knows Ebeneezer Scrooge better than Hal Landon Jr.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Another present?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Underneath that, you know, is a guy who as a child loved Christmas.

MARQUEZ: For the last 25 years, Landon has played Scrooge for California's South Coast Repitory Theater.

HAL LANDON JR., ACTOR: There's lots of different ways to play it. You know there's the crotchety curmudgeon and the colder, harder, flintier kind of businessman.

MARQUEZ: However one plays Scrooge, the character and the play hit a cultural cord that has never stopped resonating.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Frank this is your last chance.

BILL MURRAY, ACTOR: All right. I could squeeze you in for a breakfast.

MARQUEZ: Part ghost story, part morality message. Landon says what makes a Christmas Carol work year after year is the transformation of Ebenezer Scrooge.

LANDON: Absolutely reprehensible. The worst possible miser in the world, totally transformed into this kind, loving person.

MARQUEZ: In playing Scrooge for a quarter of a century, Landon has seen his own transformation. Today he needs less makeup.

LANDON: Now a little whiter on the eyebrows and temples, and a shade here or there.

MARQUEZ: Hal Landon Jr aging into a part written over 160 years ago, Dickens words still able to stir emotions today.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: God bless us all, everyone.

MARQUEZ: Miguel Marquez, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LIN: That's all the time we have for this hour. Coming up next, a special look at "Time's" Person of the Year. Find out why this election committee picked President Bush.

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