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American Morning

Identify the Dead; Confirmation Hearings for Alberto Gonzales

Aired January 06, 2005 - 08:31   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.


BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everybody. Welcome back. 8:30 here in New York City, half past the hour on AMERICAN MORNING. Soledad continues reporting from Thailand. We'll get back to her in a moment this hour.
Also, how do forensic experts go about identifying victims? in many cases, bodies ask been exposed to seawater, some have been buried already. We'll talk about it with a medical examiner who has worked on large-scale disasters before, and also talk about the challenges now in the third world that they face.

Also in about an hour, 9:30 Eastern Time, one of the most controversial of the president's cabinet nominees heads to Capitol Hill. It could be a rough and tumble day of questioning. We'll find out later, but will Alberto Gonzales ultimately be confirmed as the next attorney general? We'll look at that in "Political Jab," today, Watkins and (INAUDIBLE) standing by. We'll get to that.

Heidi Collins with me as well this morning here in New York. Good morning to you.

HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you. And good morning once again, everybody. Now in the news today, this just in. Emergency crews are at the scene of a major train collision in Aiken County, South Carolina. A decontamination unit has been set up, and police say two freight trains collided and derailed, spilling a hazardous chemical that apparently includes some chlorine. There are reports of injuries, but no exact figures at this hour. Of course, we'll continue to follow that story for you.

Congress will meet today to formally certify the electoral count, but a democratic protest may delay the process. Some Democrats say they'll try to force Congress to examine voting irregularities in Ohio last November, but it's not likely President Bush's victory will be in jeopardy. Both the Republican-controlled House and the Senate would have to vote to invalidate Ohio's ballots.

New Jersey officials are headed to Washington today to appeal for more money to fight terrorism. The Department of Homeland Security cut New Jersey's security funding by $19 million this year. New Jersey officials have expressed frustration, and they say New Jersey's proximity to New York City heightens its terror risk.

NASA today will unveil it's redesigned shuttle fuel tank at the Kennedy Space Center. Crews have worked on its design following the 2003 Columbia shuttle accident when a piece of foam installation broke free from the tank. The 15-story tank is the last component needed now to restart NASA's shuttle program. It will be used on Discovery, scheduled for launch in early summer. Good news there.

Bill, back to you.

HEMMER: All right, Heidi, thanks. Twenty-six minutes now before the hour.

Among the enormous challenges facing relief workers now, trying to identify more than 150,000 dead bodies. Dr. Charles Wetli is the medical examiner who had the job back in 1996 here in New York after the crash of TWA flight 800. Good morning to you, and thanks for your time.

DR. CHARLES WETLI, MEDICAL EXAMINER: Good morning.

HEMMER: The critical factor it appears is time. Is it a race against time for these examiners now?

WETLI: It really is. The first line of identification of course, is visual. People report a loved one missing, for example, and so forth, and if they can actually see the person, then that's the first line of actual identification.

After that, then you have to worry about artifacts and the secondary forms of identification, such as artifacts they might have on them, jewelry, clothing, wallets other personal forms of identification, tattoos and so forth.

The next problem you have, of course, especially in a case like the tsunami, is that these are all in tropical countries, and you have the whole problem of decomposition, which takes place very, very rapidly. In 48 hours approximately, bodies become totally unrecognizable, and now you have a race against time to try and find out...

HEMMER: 48 hours? That is not much time at all.

WETLI: Exactly. In a tropical climate, that's very true. In temperate climates, in wintertime in New York, for example, you have much longer, but tropical climates, it goes very, very rapidly.

HEMMER: 8 1/2 years ago with TWA flight 800, you had dental records to work on in this country?

WETLI: Oh, we a tremendous amount of things to work with. We had X-rays, CAT scans, fingerprints, footprints, dental, radiology, all kinds of things in which to identify people, plus DNA. So we a tremendous number of resources.

HEMMER: If you do not have those resources in places like Sumatra, and Thailand and Sri Lanka, what are the challenges you have to overcome?

WETLI: You have two challenges to worry about. First of all, to identify the bodies as best you can, realizing that in a realistic world you're not going to be able to do it very well, or perhaps even at all many time. And your race against time is the fact you now have a public health problem, not so much that the decomposing body is going to necessarily cause disease in and of itself, but it is going to foment the proliferation of vectors, such as rats, and insects and so forth, which will carry diseases. And so now you have a tremendous problem as far a diseases, as far as the living are concerned. So you must figure out some way to at least hopefully identify them at a future date and knowing where these bodies are.

HEMMER: In a tropical climate, you have mosquitoes, too, that are a big factor, too, in carrying...

WETLI: Exactly, malaria, yellow fever, all these things.

HEMMER: Listen to this, temples have become makeshift morgues, dry ice thrown between body bags to slow down the rotting of human flesh -- when you hear that, is there any way to overcome that?

WETLI: No. There isn't. Nobody's got a morgue this big or refrigeration of this much. What -- the only thing you can do is buy time enough so you can at least establish a numbering system for these bodies, obtain whatever you can, as far as potential identifiers, distinguishing scars, tattoos, that kind of thing. Take a sample of, say, hair follicles for example, DNA, preserve that, and then start with the mass burials because of the public health problem.

HEMMER: Thank you, doctor. It's tough to talk about, but so critical for so many now in Southeast Asia.

Dr. Charles Wetli, thanks for your time with us today .

WETLI: Thank you.

(WEATHER REPORT)

HEMMER: Today in Washington, in fact, 50 minutes away, there'S expected to be some confrontation during confirmation hearings for Alberto Gonzales. He is the president's choice to replace outgoing attorney General John Ashcroft. Let's talk about this this morning from Philadelphia. Republican strategist Joe Watkins back with us here.

Hey, Joe, good morning down there in Philly.

JOE WATKINS, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Good morning, Bill. How are you?

HEMMER: I'm doing great, just OK. In D.C., Democratic strategist Jenny Backus back with us as.

Hey, Jenny, good morning.

JENNY BACKUS, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Hey, Bill.

HEMMER: Why don't you start us off. Dick Durbin, Democrat senator 15 minutes ago, said he will likely be confirmed. Does that mean it's a done deal? BACKUS: I think the chances are that Gonzales will get confirmed. Most senators still want to give the president the benefit of the doubt. But I think the Republican administration and the country is in for a very interesting couple of days, because there's a lot of questions for Alberto Gonzales, not only for his actions on sanctioning terrorism on some very sort of questionable legal rulings that he's done, and especially on things like vetting the Homeland Security secretary.

But I also think there's a lot of questions for the Bush administration, and this is the first time that Democratic senators are actually going to be able be to ask serious questions about, you know, putting prisoners' lives in danger. This military's opposition that's come up against Gonzalez should give the president and the Republicans in Congress some serious pause.

HEMMER: Well, Jenny, you know what Joe's going to say. He'll say the Democrats just want to bloody up the president and take it out on Gonzalez.

WATKINS: That's exactly right.

HEMMER: Is that right, Joe? Why do you think that?

WATKINS: That's right, Bill. This nomination ought to pass, he ought to be confirmed and he ought to be confirmed easily. This is a qualified guy. He'll be the first Hispanic attorney general of the United States. But a wonderfully qualified guy. That's the most important thing. Qualified guy...

HEMMER: You know, Joe, but what about Jenny's point? Jenny says...

WATKINS: ... who believes in and is committed to the rule of law and...

HEMMER: Let me interrupt you.

WATKINS: ... what is special about him, I think, is that he will abide if nominated -- if confirmed, that is, by all the treaties that have called for the abolishment of torture.

BACKUS: Yes, but wait a minute. Hold on, Joe. Hold on. Hold on, Joe.

WATKINS: The Democrats want to bloody him up, they want to bloody him up in the event that President Bush chooses to nominate...

HEMMER: I tell you what, Jenny, hang on a second there. Joe can't hear any of us so this is really bad right now.

WATKINS: This is a good guy. He ought not be the poster child for Abu Ghraib, because as we all know, that was rogue activity that took place outside of chain of command. So this confirmation ought to sell.

HEMMER: Jenny, get a final comment there. And we'll try and fix the problem out there in Philadelphia.

BACKUS: Well, I mean, the major point that needs to be answered here is that are serious questions for the administration about why they just flip-flopped on their terror position. There's serious questions from families of soldiers across the country about why the president and Mr. Gonzalez sanctioned torture overseas, which puts Americans' military people overseas in serious jeopardy. And there's some other questions that are going to come forward.

HEMMER: We will watch that hearing at 9:30. Our apologies to Joe Watkins. We'll try and re-establish next time. Thanks, Jenny. Thanks, Joe. Talk to you later.

BACKUS: Thanks, Bill.

HEMMER: That Senate confirmation hearing gets underway at 9:30 a.m. Eastern time. We'll let you know what's happening down there on Capitol Hill -- Heidi.

COLLINS: Well, Andy's "Minding Your Business" coming up next. He's got a preview of the markets straight ahead.

Also, children have lost so much in this disaster. Relief workers, though, giving them a new gift to help cope with the tragedy. We'll get to that, ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: This morning our Dr. Sanjay Gupta focuses on the youngest victims of the tsunami disaster. Sanjay is on assignment in Sri Lanka traveling with Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist as he surveys the damage. You heard from him just a little earlier on AMERICAN MORNING. In this report, though, Sanjay tells us about a family that survived a tsunami that are now concerned about the emotional scars of the children.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's not surprising that 12-year-old Dushara Naomi (ph) and 5-year-old Madra (ph) both wake up screaming at night.

N. PREMADAFA DE SILVA, FATHER: When she goes to sleep, she asks whether the tsunami will also come to this place. Several times throughout the night she wakes from sleep and shouts. She has nightmares.

GUPTA: The two girls, along with their mother, ran for high ground as the tsunami wrapped itself around their country. Their father found them here, five kilometers from their home. Even though they are in a displacement camp now, most would consider the De Silva family lucky, everyone in their family survived. But more than a week later, it's abundantly clear that it's not just the physical but the psychological damage that is of major concern.

N. DE SILVA (through translator): As a man, I can bear it. But for my girls, I am doubtful that they can handle it, so I don't show my fear to my wife and my children for their own sake.

GUPTA: As their father hides doubts of their recovery, the mother does what she can to shield them from traumatic memories.

KUMARI KAJAKARUNA DE SILVA, MOTHER (through translator): I'm in a difficult situation. I don't like to talk to my daughters about it, because I know that with the help of these teachers and music class they will soon come through a certain level of understanding. That is why I don't want to remind them again.

GUPTA: In a country where you'll be hard pressed to find a psychologist or counselor to deal with these emotions, music therapy seems to make a difference for the De Silva children.

IROHANLE GUNAWARDHANE, MUSIC TEACHER (through translator): These children have lost their teachers, schools, books and everything. Music activities will help them stay focused on their education. Also, these children show some abnormal behavior, such as loneliness, depression and stress. By doing music, maybe they can forget these things and enjoy life.

GUPTA: As Irohanle teaches the children patriotic songs of ancestors who also overcame adversity, they join the countless generations who have used music to sway emotion and to sway fear.

As they sing, you can almost see the nightmares disappear, even if it's just for a little while.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, Sri Lanka.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COLLINS: Good to see a couple smiles there at least. Well, Sanjay is going to be part of the CNN primetime special that's coming your way tonight at 10:00 Eastern called "Saving the Children."

HEMMER: Here's a health note for you. Is your city among the fittest or the fattest in the country? "Men's Fitness" magazine has done a survey. Seattle, they say, is number one in terms of fitness. It's non-scientific, this survey, weighs things like the number of fast food restaurants per capita, the amount of TV watching, the air quality. The other fit cities on this list include Honolulu, Colorado Springs, San Francisco and Denver.

And for the fourth time in five years, Houston is America's fattest town. According to the survey, anyway. Followed by Philly, Detroit, Memphis and Chicago. They say that New York is number eight in terms of the fittest. So I think we need to get to the gym today.

COLLINS: OK.

HEMMER: Yep. I'm going to go.

COLLINS: You call me once you get there.

Maybe Ashlee Simpson should think twice the next time she goes on live TV. A little more trouble for the pop star in "The Cafferty File," you know how Jack follows Ashlee Simpson all the time. Coming your way ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HEMMER: All righty. Welcome back.

JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Remember that saying, things go better with Coke? Well, Coke's top salesman was just told you better go somewhere else and Starbucks is trying to take hot chocolate upscale, along with the coffee that charge outrageous sums of money for. God know what they'll get for a cup of hot chocolate. $20,000, right?

ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE": Yes. Close to that.

CAFFERTY: How you doing? You all right?

SERWER: I'm doing fine. We got the daily beverage report, it seems, today. Let's talk about the markets first of all. Day three of trading this year, and it's another sorry state of affairs, as you can see here...

CAFFERTY: We're getting killed here.

SERWER: We are getting killed. We're losing money hand over fist. I predict the market's going to go up today, but jobless claims just came out for last week, up strongly, putting my prediction in serious jeopardy. But wouldn't you know that would happen to me?

HEMMER: What was your prediction?

SERWER: I said the market was going to close up today. Starbucks is a stock in focus this morning. They announced store sales open a year, up only eight percent. The market was expecting almost 10 percent. So that stock may be down a little a bit.

Let's talk about beverages. The Coke executive who put C2, that's that low-carb Coke, on your shelves, has been shown the door, apparently. This thing didn't do well. It was supposed to cost just a little less than regular Coke, ended up costing like 50 percent more and then there was the point that no one really liked it.

CAFFERTY: Yes, that and it tasted bad. Other than that, it was a great idea.

SERWER: There's two problems. No one bought it and it didn't taste good. Oh, there's a third problem, right? It was too expensive, no one liked it and it tasted bad. Great stuff.

OK, Starbucks has this new product out, coming out Saturday, called Chantico. It is liquid chocolate. That's the only way to describe it. I mean, it's a hot chocolate drink, but this stuff is just melted chocolate. Chantico, the Aztec goddess of home, course. It's got cocoa butter, and of course, we have some here. It's got a new cup. It tastes great, not less filling. COLLINS: Definitely not.

SERWER: And we've got some here. Anyone care to -- look, Jack's going to even try...

HEMMER: The goddess of what again?

SERWER: The goddess of home and hearth.

HEMMER: Like your home, my home?

SERWER: Yes, yes. Liquid brownie, I think this is.

CAFFERTY: It's like jet fuel.

SERWER: Average American consumes 11 pounds of chocolate a year.

CAFFERTY: Yes, just like a melted Hershey bar.

HEMMER: Ooh, that's thick.

(CROSSTALK)

SERWER: You know, you put a little Red Bull and vodka in here...

HEMMER: Now we're talking.

(CROSSTALK)

HEMMER: Happy hour somewhere.

SERWER: I like it.

CAFFERTY: On "The File" now, the Palestinians are going to the polls Sunday to vote for who's going to succeed Yasser Arafat. The Hollywood actor Richard Gere, who usually spends his time trying to save Tibet, is over there urging the Palestinian people to vote. Here's a commercial that's currently running on Palestinian television.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RICHARD GERE, ACTOR: Hi, I'm Richard Gere, and I'm speaking for the entire world. We're with you during this election time. It's really important. Get out and vote. (FOREIGN LANGUAGE).

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAFFERTY: That ought to handle it. Speaking for the entire world?

SERWER: Talented guy, too. In Palestinian?

HEMMER: Talking for you, Jack.

CAFFERTY: Radical Muslim cleric Abu Hamza al Masri failed to show in a British court Tuesday, saying his toenails are too long and he can't come. Hamza, who is going to be -- there he is, good looking dude right there.

SERWER: Wow.

CAFFERTY: He is wanted in the U.S. for allegedly trying to establish a terrorist training camp in Oregon.

SERWER: Yep.

CAFFERTY: He was arrested in May in Britain, he's being charged on various offenses, including terror-related charges. His toenails are too long to go to court.

Ashlee -- see, "The File"'s not bad today.

SERWER: No, it's good.

CAFFERTY: Ashlee Simpson is at it again, trying to sing in front of a live audience.

SERWER: This is problematic.

(MUSIC)

CAFFERTY: Simpson's performance, and we use the word loosely, during Tuesday's Orange Bowl halftime show, resulted in loud booing from the audience. Note to Ashlee -- get out of the business. How do you call yourself a singer if you can't perform live? Remember that lip-synching embarrassment on "Saturday Night Live"? In the upcoming March edition of "Teen People" magazine, Ashlee says those people who complain about her are just quote, "old people who watch the news and don't know anything about me." Also, old people who do the news, Ashlee.

SERWER: Man.

HEMMER: You know, I saw that. That whole thing was bad. That whole halftime show. They opened up with Kelly Clarkson, her microphone was like dead for about the first 45 seconds of her song. Not well done.

SERWER: It went downhill from last year.

HEMMER: Correct.

COLLINS: Yes, we got nothing to talk about.

CAFFERTY: Bring back nothing. No. Long for the good old days of Janet Jackson.

SERWER: Yes, exactly. That's what I'm suggesting.

HEMMER: By the way, this stuff here -- I'm sticking with the latte. It is really...

SERWER: Are you?

HEMMER: Yes.

COLLINS: You can only have like maybe five sips.

HEMMER: Thank you, guys. Let's get a break here. In a moment, we'll go back to Southeast Asia and the issue of missing Americans. Why is it taking so long for the U.S. to come up with hard numbers? The State Department with an answer this morning. We'll get to it, top of the hour after this on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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Aired January 6, 2005 - 08:31   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everybody. Welcome back. 8:30 here in New York City, half past the hour on AMERICAN MORNING. Soledad continues reporting from Thailand. We'll get back to her in a moment this hour.
Also, how do forensic experts go about identifying victims? in many cases, bodies ask been exposed to seawater, some have been buried already. We'll talk about it with a medical examiner who has worked on large-scale disasters before, and also talk about the challenges now in the third world that they face.

Also in about an hour, 9:30 Eastern Time, one of the most controversial of the president's cabinet nominees heads to Capitol Hill. It could be a rough and tumble day of questioning. We'll find out later, but will Alberto Gonzales ultimately be confirmed as the next attorney general? We'll look at that in "Political Jab," today, Watkins and (INAUDIBLE) standing by. We'll get to that.

Heidi Collins with me as well this morning here in New York. Good morning to you.

HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you. And good morning once again, everybody. Now in the news today, this just in. Emergency crews are at the scene of a major train collision in Aiken County, South Carolina. A decontamination unit has been set up, and police say two freight trains collided and derailed, spilling a hazardous chemical that apparently includes some chlorine. There are reports of injuries, but no exact figures at this hour. Of course, we'll continue to follow that story for you.

Congress will meet today to formally certify the electoral count, but a democratic protest may delay the process. Some Democrats say they'll try to force Congress to examine voting irregularities in Ohio last November, but it's not likely President Bush's victory will be in jeopardy. Both the Republican-controlled House and the Senate would have to vote to invalidate Ohio's ballots.

New Jersey officials are headed to Washington today to appeal for more money to fight terrorism. The Department of Homeland Security cut New Jersey's security funding by $19 million this year. New Jersey officials have expressed frustration, and they say New Jersey's proximity to New York City heightens its terror risk.

NASA today will unveil it's redesigned shuttle fuel tank at the Kennedy Space Center. Crews have worked on its design following the 2003 Columbia shuttle accident when a piece of foam installation broke free from the tank. The 15-story tank is the last component needed now to restart NASA's shuttle program. It will be used on Discovery, scheduled for launch in early summer. Good news there.

Bill, back to you.

HEMMER: All right, Heidi, thanks. Twenty-six minutes now before the hour.

Among the enormous challenges facing relief workers now, trying to identify more than 150,000 dead bodies. Dr. Charles Wetli is the medical examiner who had the job back in 1996 here in New York after the crash of TWA flight 800. Good morning to you, and thanks for your time.

DR. CHARLES WETLI, MEDICAL EXAMINER: Good morning.

HEMMER: The critical factor it appears is time. Is it a race against time for these examiners now?

WETLI: It really is. The first line of identification of course, is visual. People report a loved one missing, for example, and so forth, and if they can actually see the person, then that's the first line of actual identification.

After that, then you have to worry about artifacts and the secondary forms of identification, such as artifacts they might have on them, jewelry, clothing, wallets other personal forms of identification, tattoos and so forth.

The next problem you have, of course, especially in a case like the tsunami, is that these are all in tropical countries, and you have the whole problem of decomposition, which takes place very, very rapidly. In 48 hours approximately, bodies become totally unrecognizable, and now you have a race against time to try and find out...

HEMMER: 48 hours? That is not much time at all.

WETLI: Exactly. In a tropical climate, that's very true. In temperate climates, in wintertime in New York, for example, you have much longer, but tropical climates, it goes very, very rapidly.

HEMMER: 8 1/2 years ago with TWA flight 800, you had dental records to work on in this country?

WETLI: Oh, we a tremendous amount of things to work with. We had X-rays, CAT scans, fingerprints, footprints, dental, radiology, all kinds of things in which to identify people, plus DNA. So we a tremendous number of resources.

HEMMER: If you do not have those resources in places like Sumatra, and Thailand and Sri Lanka, what are the challenges you have to overcome?

WETLI: You have two challenges to worry about. First of all, to identify the bodies as best you can, realizing that in a realistic world you're not going to be able to do it very well, or perhaps even at all many time. And your race against time is the fact you now have a public health problem, not so much that the decomposing body is going to necessarily cause disease in and of itself, but it is going to foment the proliferation of vectors, such as rats, and insects and so forth, which will carry diseases. And so now you have a tremendous problem as far a diseases, as far as the living are concerned. So you must figure out some way to at least hopefully identify them at a future date and knowing where these bodies are.

HEMMER: In a tropical climate, you have mosquitoes, too, that are a big factor, too, in carrying...

WETLI: Exactly, malaria, yellow fever, all these things.

HEMMER: Listen to this, temples have become makeshift morgues, dry ice thrown between body bags to slow down the rotting of human flesh -- when you hear that, is there any way to overcome that?

WETLI: No. There isn't. Nobody's got a morgue this big or refrigeration of this much. What -- the only thing you can do is buy time enough so you can at least establish a numbering system for these bodies, obtain whatever you can, as far as potential identifiers, distinguishing scars, tattoos, that kind of thing. Take a sample of, say, hair follicles for example, DNA, preserve that, and then start with the mass burials because of the public health problem.

HEMMER: Thank you, doctor. It's tough to talk about, but so critical for so many now in Southeast Asia.

Dr. Charles Wetli, thanks for your time with us today .

WETLI: Thank you.

(WEATHER REPORT)

HEMMER: Today in Washington, in fact, 50 minutes away, there'S expected to be some confrontation during confirmation hearings for Alberto Gonzales. He is the president's choice to replace outgoing attorney General John Ashcroft. Let's talk about this this morning from Philadelphia. Republican strategist Joe Watkins back with us here.

Hey, Joe, good morning down there in Philly.

JOE WATKINS, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Good morning, Bill. How are you?

HEMMER: I'm doing great, just OK. In D.C., Democratic strategist Jenny Backus back with us as.

Hey, Jenny, good morning.

JENNY BACKUS, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Hey, Bill.

HEMMER: Why don't you start us off. Dick Durbin, Democrat senator 15 minutes ago, said he will likely be confirmed. Does that mean it's a done deal? BACKUS: I think the chances are that Gonzales will get confirmed. Most senators still want to give the president the benefit of the doubt. But I think the Republican administration and the country is in for a very interesting couple of days, because there's a lot of questions for Alberto Gonzales, not only for his actions on sanctioning terrorism on some very sort of questionable legal rulings that he's done, and especially on things like vetting the Homeland Security secretary.

But I also think there's a lot of questions for the Bush administration, and this is the first time that Democratic senators are actually going to be able be to ask serious questions about, you know, putting prisoners' lives in danger. This military's opposition that's come up against Gonzalez should give the president and the Republicans in Congress some serious pause.

HEMMER: Well, Jenny, you know what Joe's going to say. He'll say the Democrats just want to bloody up the president and take it out on Gonzalez.

WATKINS: That's exactly right.

HEMMER: Is that right, Joe? Why do you think that?

WATKINS: That's right, Bill. This nomination ought to pass, he ought to be confirmed and he ought to be confirmed easily. This is a qualified guy. He'll be the first Hispanic attorney general of the United States. But a wonderfully qualified guy. That's the most important thing. Qualified guy...

HEMMER: You know, Joe, but what about Jenny's point? Jenny says...

WATKINS: ... who believes in and is committed to the rule of law and...

HEMMER: Let me interrupt you.

WATKINS: ... what is special about him, I think, is that he will abide if nominated -- if confirmed, that is, by all the treaties that have called for the abolishment of torture.

BACKUS: Yes, but wait a minute. Hold on, Joe. Hold on. Hold on, Joe.

WATKINS: The Democrats want to bloody him up, they want to bloody him up in the event that President Bush chooses to nominate...

HEMMER: I tell you what, Jenny, hang on a second there. Joe can't hear any of us so this is really bad right now.

WATKINS: This is a good guy. He ought not be the poster child for Abu Ghraib, because as we all know, that was rogue activity that took place outside of chain of command. So this confirmation ought to sell.

HEMMER: Jenny, get a final comment there. And we'll try and fix the problem out there in Philadelphia.

BACKUS: Well, I mean, the major point that needs to be answered here is that are serious questions for the administration about why they just flip-flopped on their terror position. There's serious questions from families of soldiers across the country about why the president and Mr. Gonzalez sanctioned torture overseas, which puts Americans' military people overseas in serious jeopardy. And there's some other questions that are going to come forward.

HEMMER: We will watch that hearing at 9:30. Our apologies to Joe Watkins. We'll try and re-establish next time. Thanks, Jenny. Thanks, Joe. Talk to you later.

BACKUS: Thanks, Bill.

HEMMER: That Senate confirmation hearing gets underway at 9:30 a.m. Eastern time. We'll let you know what's happening down there on Capitol Hill -- Heidi.

COLLINS: Well, Andy's "Minding Your Business" coming up next. He's got a preview of the markets straight ahead.

Also, children have lost so much in this disaster. Relief workers, though, giving them a new gift to help cope with the tragedy. We'll get to that, ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: This morning our Dr. Sanjay Gupta focuses on the youngest victims of the tsunami disaster. Sanjay is on assignment in Sri Lanka traveling with Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist as he surveys the damage. You heard from him just a little earlier on AMERICAN MORNING. In this report, though, Sanjay tells us about a family that survived a tsunami that are now concerned about the emotional scars of the children.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's not surprising that 12-year-old Dushara Naomi (ph) and 5-year-old Madra (ph) both wake up screaming at night.

N. PREMADAFA DE SILVA, FATHER: When she goes to sleep, she asks whether the tsunami will also come to this place. Several times throughout the night she wakes from sleep and shouts. She has nightmares.

GUPTA: The two girls, along with their mother, ran for high ground as the tsunami wrapped itself around their country. Their father found them here, five kilometers from their home. Even though they are in a displacement camp now, most would consider the De Silva family lucky, everyone in their family survived. But more than a week later, it's abundantly clear that it's not just the physical but the psychological damage that is of major concern.

N. DE SILVA (through translator): As a man, I can bear it. But for my girls, I am doubtful that they can handle it, so I don't show my fear to my wife and my children for their own sake.

GUPTA: As their father hides doubts of their recovery, the mother does what she can to shield them from traumatic memories.

KUMARI KAJAKARUNA DE SILVA, MOTHER (through translator): I'm in a difficult situation. I don't like to talk to my daughters about it, because I know that with the help of these teachers and music class they will soon come through a certain level of understanding. That is why I don't want to remind them again.

GUPTA: In a country where you'll be hard pressed to find a psychologist or counselor to deal with these emotions, music therapy seems to make a difference for the De Silva children.

IROHANLE GUNAWARDHANE, MUSIC TEACHER (through translator): These children have lost their teachers, schools, books and everything. Music activities will help them stay focused on their education. Also, these children show some abnormal behavior, such as loneliness, depression and stress. By doing music, maybe they can forget these things and enjoy life.

GUPTA: As Irohanle teaches the children patriotic songs of ancestors who also overcame adversity, they join the countless generations who have used music to sway emotion and to sway fear.

As they sing, you can almost see the nightmares disappear, even if it's just for a little while.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, Sri Lanka.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COLLINS: Good to see a couple smiles there at least. Well, Sanjay is going to be part of the CNN primetime special that's coming your way tonight at 10:00 Eastern called "Saving the Children."

HEMMER: Here's a health note for you. Is your city among the fittest or the fattest in the country? "Men's Fitness" magazine has done a survey. Seattle, they say, is number one in terms of fitness. It's non-scientific, this survey, weighs things like the number of fast food restaurants per capita, the amount of TV watching, the air quality. The other fit cities on this list include Honolulu, Colorado Springs, San Francisco and Denver.

And for the fourth time in five years, Houston is America's fattest town. According to the survey, anyway. Followed by Philly, Detroit, Memphis and Chicago. They say that New York is number eight in terms of the fittest. So I think we need to get to the gym today.

COLLINS: OK.

HEMMER: Yep. I'm going to go.

COLLINS: You call me once you get there.

Maybe Ashlee Simpson should think twice the next time she goes on live TV. A little more trouble for the pop star in "The Cafferty File," you know how Jack follows Ashlee Simpson all the time. Coming your way ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HEMMER: All righty. Welcome back.

JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Remember that saying, things go better with Coke? Well, Coke's top salesman was just told you better go somewhere else and Starbucks is trying to take hot chocolate upscale, along with the coffee that charge outrageous sums of money for. God know what they'll get for a cup of hot chocolate. $20,000, right?

ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE": Yes. Close to that.

CAFFERTY: How you doing? You all right?

SERWER: I'm doing fine. We got the daily beverage report, it seems, today. Let's talk about the markets first of all. Day three of trading this year, and it's another sorry state of affairs, as you can see here...

CAFFERTY: We're getting killed here.

SERWER: We are getting killed. We're losing money hand over fist. I predict the market's going to go up today, but jobless claims just came out for last week, up strongly, putting my prediction in serious jeopardy. But wouldn't you know that would happen to me?

HEMMER: What was your prediction?

SERWER: I said the market was going to close up today. Starbucks is a stock in focus this morning. They announced store sales open a year, up only eight percent. The market was expecting almost 10 percent. So that stock may be down a little a bit.

Let's talk about beverages. The Coke executive who put C2, that's that low-carb Coke, on your shelves, has been shown the door, apparently. This thing didn't do well. It was supposed to cost just a little less than regular Coke, ended up costing like 50 percent more and then there was the point that no one really liked it.

CAFFERTY: Yes, that and it tasted bad. Other than that, it was a great idea.

SERWER: There's two problems. No one bought it and it didn't taste good. Oh, there's a third problem, right? It was too expensive, no one liked it and it tasted bad. Great stuff.

OK, Starbucks has this new product out, coming out Saturday, called Chantico. It is liquid chocolate. That's the only way to describe it. I mean, it's a hot chocolate drink, but this stuff is just melted chocolate. Chantico, the Aztec goddess of home, course. It's got cocoa butter, and of course, we have some here. It's got a new cup. It tastes great, not less filling. COLLINS: Definitely not.

SERWER: And we've got some here. Anyone care to -- look, Jack's going to even try...

HEMMER: The goddess of what again?

SERWER: The goddess of home and hearth.

HEMMER: Like your home, my home?

SERWER: Yes, yes. Liquid brownie, I think this is.

CAFFERTY: It's like jet fuel.

SERWER: Average American consumes 11 pounds of chocolate a year.

CAFFERTY: Yes, just like a melted Hershey bar.

HEMMER: Ooh, that's thick.

(CROSSTALK)

SERWER: You know, you put a little Red Bull and vodka in here...

HEMMER: Now we're talking.

(CROSSTALK)

HEMMER: Happy hour somewhere.

SERWER: I like it.

CAFFERTY: On "The File" now, the Palestinians are going to the polls Sunday to vote for who's going to succeed Yasser Arafat. The Hollywood actor Richard Gere, who usually spends his time trying to save Tibet, is over there urging the Palestinian people to vote. Here's a commercial that's currently running on Palestinian television.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RICHARD GERE, ACTOR: Hi, I'm Richard Gere, and I'm speaking for the entire world. We're with you during this election time. It's really important. Get out and vote. (FOREIGN LANGUAGE).

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAFFERTY: That ought to handle it. Speaking for the entire world?

SERWER: Talented guy, too. In Palestinian?

HEMMER: Talking for you, Jack.

CAFFERTY: Radical Muslim cleric Abu Hamza al Masri failed to show in a British court Tuesday, saying his toenails are too long and he can't come. Hamza, who is going to be -- there he is, good looking dude right there.

SERWER: Wow.

CAFFERTY: He is wanted in the U.S. for allegedly trying to establish a terrorist training camp in Oregon.

SERWER: Yep.

CAFFERTY: He was arrested in May in Britain, he's being charged on various offenses, including terror-related charges. His toenails are too long to go to court.

Ashlee -- see, "The File"'s not bad today.

SERWER: No, it's good.

CAFFERTY: Ashlee Simpson is at it again, trying to sing in front of a live audience.

SERWER: This is problematic.

(MUSIC)

CAFFERTY: Simpson's performance, and we use the word loosely, during Tuesday's Orange Bowl halftime show, resulted in loud booing from the audience. Note to Ashlee -- get out of the business. How do you call yourself a singer if you can't perform live? Remember that lip-synching embarrassment on "Saturday Night Live"? In the upcoming March edition of "Teen People" magazine, Ashlee says those people who complain about her are just quote, "old people who watch the news and don't know anything about me." Also, old people who do the news, Ashlee.

SERWER: Man.

HEMMER: You know, I saw that. That whole thing was bad. That whole halftime show. They opened up with Kelly Clarkson, her microphone was like dead for about the first 45 seconds of her song. Not well done.

SERWER: It went downhill from last year.

HEMMER: Correct.

COLLINS: Yes, we got nothing to talk about.

CAFFERTY: Bring back nothing. No. Long for the good old days of Janet Jackson.

SERWER: Yes, exactly. That's what I'm suggesting.

HEMMER: By the way, this stuff here -- I'm sticking with the latte. It is really...

SERWER: Are you?

HEMMER: Yes.

COLLINS: You can only have like maybe five sips.

HEMMER: Thank you, guys. Let's get a break here. In a moment, we'll go back to Southeast Asia and the issue of missing Americans. Why is it taking so long for the U.S. to come up with hard numbers? The State Department with an answer this morning. We'll get to it, top of the hour after this on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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