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American Morning
Deadly Train Wreck; Palestinian Election
Aired January 10, 2005 - 07:32 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: Welcome back, everybody. It will be light soon here in New York City. Good morning to you on a Monday morning. Soledad is back from overseas. And great to have you back by the way.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks very much. It's nice to be back, believe me.
HEMMER: We'll be talking a whole lot about your coverage and also the stories you picked up on. So we look forward to hearing more from what you experienced over there.
O'BRIEN: Some new tsunami pictures to show everybody today.
HEMMER: Oh, boy!
O'BRIEN: Also, we're talking about that deadly train accident; that taking place in South Carolina. A very dangerous job, obviously, ahead now. Officials have to get that toxic gas from the damaged railcar to a safer container. We're going to talk to a member of the NTSB about that and also about their investigation, if the investigators have found any cause for this accident.
HEMMER: Also from overseas, the Middle East, a historic election for the Palestinians. The moderate Mahmoud Abbas will be the next president, winning more than 16 percent of the vote. We'll talk to commentators on both sides of the Palestinian/Israeli issue about whether or not this may provide a breakthrough for peace in the region. So, we'll get to that this half-hour as well.
O'BRIEN: And then we've got that winter storm warning that's taking effect in parts of California and Nevada. Areas in the Sierra, Nevada region near Lake Tahoe already have as much as 19 feet of snow. Another four feet could fall before tomorrow. That same storm is dumping heavy rains in the Los Angeles area.
And rescuers pulled a man from the Coyote Creek after his car and his pants as well got swept away by the rushing waters. Eventually, he was fortunately pulled to safety. A pretty dramatic rescue to watch. I mean, when he falls here, he comes so close to hitting that concrete divider on that bridge. I mean, if he had hit his head, forget the rescue. It would have all been over.
So far, eight deaths are blamed on this storm. They were able to rescue his daughters from the vehicle as well, I'm happy to report.
(WEATHER REPORT) Kelly Wallace is with us here this morning, watching the other headlines.
Good morning -- Kelly.
KELLY WALLACE, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you. Welcome back. Great job overseas.
O'BRIEN: Hi, Kelly. Thank you.
WALLACE: It's great to see you.
"Now in the News," everyone.
President Bush is getting an update on the tsunami recovery efforts this morning from Secretary of State Colin Powell. He will brief the president on his recent trip to Sri Lanka and Indonesia. The death toll from the disaster has now topped 140,000, scaled down from 150,000 after it was learned some bodies were counted twice.
A damaged nuclear submarine is docking this morning at a U.S. naval base in Guam. One sailor died and 24 others were injured when the USS San Francisco ran aground Saturday about 350 south of the Pacific island. Navy officials say the sub's nuclear reactor is fine. A crew is now on board surveying the extent of the damage.
In Ohio, the search resumes this morning for a crew member missing after a tugboat sank in the Ohio River. The boat sank northwest of Pittsburgh yesterday after strong currents pushed it through a dam. At least three people were killed, four others were rescued.
And Newt Gingrich is fueling speculation he might make a run for the White House. That's right. The former House speaker says he hopes his upcoming book tour will help keep his political options open. Gingrich is touting his new book titled "Winning the Future." Asked about a possible run for president, Gingrich responded -- quote -- "anything seems possible."
And, Bill, he is also putting out some heavy criticism of the administration's Iraq policy along the way.
HEMMER: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) very soon.
WALLACE: Yes.
HEMMER: Thank you, Kelly.
WALLACE: Sure.
HEMMER: Investigators in South Carolina this morning are trying to determine what caused the train wreck and deadly chemical spill there. In the town of Graniteville, they finally patched a damaged tank car that was the source of toxic fumes. Nine people died after a freight train collided with railroad cars parking on a siding last Thursday. More than 5,000 evacuated. They're still not back home today.
And earlier, I asked the NTSB spokesperson, Debbie Hersman, about where they stand this morning on that investigation.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DEBBIE HERSMAN, NTSB SPOKESWOMAN: The NTSB is on-site to gather facts. We will not be determining a cause while we're on-scene. We will be gathering information or conducting interviews. We're looking at systems. We're looking at track. We are interviewing the crew. We are looking at the switch, and we are working with the railroad to gather all of the information about dispatch records, about training, and about any inspections that might have taken place.
HEMMER: I understand at some point, you will transfer that gas into a safer container. Is there any danger when this process gets under way?
HERSMAN: Absolutely. We want to make sure that any of the operations on-scene are safe. The NTSB is not actually going to be doing the work there. The railroad and its contractors are performing the work. But there are certainly concerns about a secondary release. They're going to take every precaution to make sure it's safe.
The one-mile-radius evacuation is still in effect. That affects about 5,400 residents who continue to be displaced from their homes. And site access is limited. People need to be in personal protective equipment and have breathing apparatus. They have to go through decontamination when they get off-scene. So, every precaution is being taken.
HEMMER: When will those people be able to return home?
HERSMAN: Unfortunately, we won't be able to say when people will be able to return home. We defer to the EPA and the local incident commanders to make decisions about when people can return. We are hopeful that any operations to remove any of the toxic materials left can be completed.
We were advised yesterday that the tanker containing sodium hydroxide was cleared. It was voided. And they are under way as far as removing the chlorine from the -- both the breached tank, both the tank that had the leak, as well as the other two tanks that were not leaking.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HEMMER: Again, Debbie Hersman from the NTSB. That switching device she talked about, that has been sent to the FBI to be tested for fingerprints. We'll let you what wee find out more as we go throughout the day on that matter.
Also next hour, Dr. Gupta is with us here with more on the public health risk that Debbie Hersman mentioned in that interview. Stay tuned for that as well -- Soledad. O'BRIEN: Palestinians have a new leader in place of Yasser Arafat. Final results in less than an hour ago show Mahmoud Abbas winning the presidential race by a wide margin. He declared victory overnight.
And there is cautious optimism at the White House today over the prospects for peace. Ari Shavit with the Israeli newspaper "Ha'aretz" is in Jerusalem this morning. And Sam Bahdur, a Palestinian commentator, is in Ramallah.
Nice to see you, gentlemen. Thank you very much. Let's begin with Sam first. We've heard, of course, words like "historic." We've been using them all morning. But give me a sense, Sam, of the significance of this, not just obviously in who won, but the fact that it was a democratic election and the fact that it seems to have gone off pretty much without a hitch.
SAM BAHDUR, PALESTINIAN COMMENTATOR: Absolutely. And this is a positive indicator of what's coming in the future Palestinian political system. However, today is a very sober week for Palestinians, especially the candidates, because we awake today to the same Israeli occupation that has been here for the last 37 years. And I don't think anyone envies the winner of this race, Mahmoud Abbas, because the challenges ahead of him are huge. He needs to address the political situation as well as address the domestic deterioration that has happened over the last four years.
O'BRIEN: Ari, give me a sense of how Israelis are perceiving Mahmoud Abbas' victory.
ARI SHAVIT, "HA'ARETZ": I think that Israelis watch with excitement the new developments in the Palestinian arena. I personally would like to really congratulate our neighbors, the Palestinians, for really going through a truly democratic process, which is an example for the entire Arab world. For the first time, although there are huge tasks ahead, there is a glimmer of hope. And I think that after experiencing a kind of manmade tsunami in this country for the last four years, with waves of violence taking the lives of thousands of Palestinians and Israelis, this morning there is reason for some cautious optimism.
O'BRIEN: Sam, if you look at the numbers, 62 percent, more or less, was the victory. Everyone is reading into that a strong mandate from the people. But a mandate to do what, exactly? Is it to deal with the terrorists, to forge with the separate state for the Palestinian people? What do you think it is?
BAHDUR: It's a measured mandate to basically lead the Palestinians, I believe, in two major directions. The first direction has to do with the tsunami of the occupation that needs to end in order for to us start the rebuilding process. And I don't think, even though the international community may be very excited, that this is a cornerstone in the new Palestinian policy towards how fast the occupation must end. I don't think that's going to materialize.
Basically, the end of occupation and all of the elements of the conflict are rather well-defined, and the end game is rather well- known. So, I think the onus today is on Israel to start ending the occupation, unilaterally, if it has to.
On the other side, Abu Mazen needs to so some very serious institution-building. He needs to start by taking the electoral process to the PLO, where the rest of the six million Palestinians are not living under occupation are represented. It's not enough for Abu Mazen to take the mandate of yesterday's election and ignore six million Palestinians in refugee camps and in the Diaspora around the world who did not take part in this process.
If he wants a clear mandate, he needs to also move the electoral process to the PLO and come up with a serious mandate to be able to end the occupation through negotiations.
He also has to do some serious institutional reform on the domestic level. He needs to install a competent government, starting with the ministries and moving its way down to the different systems and institutions that are in place.
So, as I said earlier, no one envies the scope of work that he needs to do. But Palestinians will not be patient in waiting for the domestic issues to be addressed. That has to be addressed in parallel to making, hopefully, some incremental steps towards ending the occupation from our side. At the end of the day, the occupying power is Israel.
O'BRIEN: Ari, I'm going to give you the final word this morning. Both of you gentlemen used the word "tsunami" to describe what's been happening between the Israelis and the Palestinians. And, of course, a tsunami sort of swoops in and then swoops out. And these are debates and arguments that have been going on actually for a very, very, very long time. What, Ari, do you think the U.S. role needs to be in all of this?
SHAVIT: I think that we must all adopt determination to have two processes at the same time. Definitely, Israeli occupation must end, but it has to end gradually and with caution.
At the same time, there must be a process of Palestinian conversion. The creation of a real democratic Palestine is in the interest of the Palestinians, the Israelis and the entire international community.
The two processes, actually beginning today, with a new Palestinian president elected and with a new Israeli government to be elected later in the day, really create the basis for this process. But it's going to be difficult. It's going to be long. Anyone who would expect the end to arrive immediately, perfect peace, perfect solutions, within a few months will actually endanger the process.
O'BRIEN: But some signs.
SHAVIT: I think what the Palestinians...
O'BRIEN: Ari Shavit and Sam Bahdur, forgive me for interrupting you, gentlemen, but we're out of time. And obviously there is much more to talk about. And we'll have the opportunity to talk about them much more as we go forward. Thank you, gentlemen. Appreciate it -- Bill.
HEMMER: It's about 15 minutes before the hour now. A heavy ax is about to fall at the world's biggest carmaker. Andy is back "Minding Your Business" on that. He'll tell us whose jobs may be in trouble this time.
O'BRIEN: Plus, what's the real reason behind Brad and Jen's split? Could it be that somebody wasn't ready to take the next step? "90-Second Pop" is just ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HEMMER: Welcome back, everybody. To Jack now and the "Question of the Day" again.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Indeed. Thank you, Bill.
The independent commission investigating the U.N. oil-for-food program is out with its report. Awful. The U.N., according to the report, failed to monitor the $64 billion program, often ignored the recommendations of its own auditors. The financial audits show numerous instances of overpayments to contractors, including firms hired to monitor the oil exports and Iraq's imports of food, medicine and supplies.
It's a huge moment for the United Nations. They're going to be facing a lot of scrutiny as they spearhead the tsunami relief effort and are handling billions of dollars in aid money from all around the world. But it may be too late.
Here is the question: What does the United Nations have to do to restore its credibility? Here are the answers.
Lynn in Riverview, New Brunswick: "The first thing is to unburden itself of the many tiers of useless staff and allocate the equipment and manpower where it will be most effective. Annan's tenure has been rife with mismanagement. Had he been in a corporate position he would have been fired and rightly so."
Valerie in San Antonio: "The U.N. restore its credibility? When did it have any? Better yet, after all of the audits and no consequences, who cares? The U.N. is the biggest joke ever. The only thing the U.N. could do to restore its credibility is shut its doors for good. Case closed."
Fiona in Lexington: "Keep doing what they've always done: feed and house people in parts of the world journalists rarely visit. Prepare to do the same thing again in Iraq."
Winston in Lawndale, California. Now, that's the right name for a town in California: Lawndale. "The United Nations is a dinosaur left over from the Cold War era. It needs to dissolve its charter and disperse. It cannot improve an image that has been earned over decades of impotency. A new charter needs to be established to address today's matrix in the world."
And Edward in Ottawa: "Restore credibility? Claim that Greenland has weapons of mass destruction, then deal with it diplomatically. If that doesn't work, free coffee mugs for everyone."
HEMMER: Get in line and raise your hand. Thank you.
CAFFERTY: Somebody had a long weekend that wrote that last one.
HEMMER: Thank you, Jack.
CAFFERTY: You're welcome.
O'BRIEN: Well, some highlights and some low points for football fans this weekend. With that, plus a preview of the market, Andy Serwer is "Minding Your Business" this morning.
Hello.
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Good morning, Soledad. Let's take a look backwards, first of all, and see what happened last week. Not a good way to start the year at all.
And, of course, the first week of the year can be very important. And we got off on the wrong foot, I think it's safe to say, particularly the Nasdaq, down a lot.
Out of the Detroit auto show we talked about earlier in this program, CEO Rick Wagner of General Motors suggesting it's going to be another weak year for the world's largest automaker, suggesting that they're going to be laying off thousands of workers. Actually, the workforce will be shrinking through attrition, I should say.
I also want to update some of the information we gave you earlier. The Chrysler 300, Soledad, FYI...
O'BRIEN: Thank you.
SERWER: ... goes for between $24,000 and $34,000. The Ford Escape, $32,000. I'm just giving you some prices there.
O'BRIEN: Oh, that's not bad.
SERWER: Not so bad.
O'BRIEN: Not so bad.
SERWER: As far as football goes, Soledad, we didn't have a very good week picking games.
O'BRIEN: Oh (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
SERWER: How did I do? How did I do? We didn't do very well, 1- 3. And that's because the only team that really, the favorite that won was the Colts beating Denver. Otherwise, some upsets. The Jets winning. So, you can see Jack did very well. CAFFERTY: Well, I was wondering if you were going to mention I was at the top of the list there.
SERWER: Jack won, yes.
CAFFERTY: It took you long enough to get around to it.
SERWER: Well, Soledad and I were commiserating. And...
CAFFERTY: It's never happened before.
O'BRIEN: What happened? Did you give Todd a day off or something?
SERWER: I don't know what happened. I thought you were working at the computer over in Phuket, you know. You kind of had some stuff going on.
O'BRIEN: Clearly, I wasn't monitoring my own football scores.
SERWER: The Rams, of course, beat Seattle. And the Vikings won when it really mattered. They beat Green Bay. And Randy Moss is happy with his two touchdown catches, right?
O'BRIEN: Jack is trouncing us all in the football picks.
SERWER: Yes, underdogs, underdog Cafferty.
CAFFERTY: Because all of the losers won.
SERWER: Underdog Cafferty.
O'BRIEN: They have to eventually, right?
HEMMER: And a great weekend coming up this weekend, too.
O'BRIEN: All right, Andy, thanks.
SERWER: You're welcome.
HEMMER: It's the end of the road for Brad and Jen. You saw it over the weekend. Yes, Jack, listen up here.
CAFFERTY: I am heartbroken.
HEMMER: Front-page news Saturday and Sunday.
CAFFERTY: Oh, what a shame.
HEMMER: Hollywood's power couple calling it quits.
CAFFERTY: Who cares?
HEMMER: The 90-second poppers have a theory on this. In fact, they have three theories. And then we're going to get to Jack's theory a bit later in the broadcast. Back in a moment here on a Monday morning.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HEMMER: On a Monday morning, we have one topic today. Say hello to the pop culture club here on AMERICAN MORNING. With us, Andy Borowitz, he reports, he decides at the BorowitzReport.com. Sarah Bernard, contributing editor for "New York" magazine.
Nice to see you, Sarah.
SARAH BERNARD, CONTRIBUTING EDITOR, "NEW YORK" MAGAZINE: Good morning.
HEMMER: Good morning to you.
And the prince of urban populous is Toure.
TOURE, CNN POP CULTURE CORRESPONDENT: There you go!
HEMMER: Back with us.
Brad and Jen are finished?
TOURE: Yes.
HEMMER: Why?
TOURE: And it's interesting. Well, a lot of people outside of Hollywood are sad about it. Like, people were not cynical about them. This is one of those celebrity couples that we actually liked.
I think the problem here is not so much Angelina, which you'll hear about, but Rachel, that Jennifer did not want to go down being remembered as a ditzy fashionable sitcom star. She wants to be a movie star. She's 35. She's booked a bunch of movies in the next two years. That means she's not going to have a lot of time to be a mom. And Brad's like, come on, let's get on with it.
HEMMER: So you're saying she's...
TOURE: And she's, like, whoa.
HEMMER: They're at different times of their lives and different points in their careers.
TOURE: Yes. I mean, we have here a woman who wants career and a man who wants family. And it doesn't really work.
BERNARD: I think you can do both.
HEMMER: I see a smirk over here. What's up, young lady.
BERNARD: Well, I think this is a really bad week for Brad, because there's another big separation in his life. He actually had a production company called Plan B with Brad Grey, who actually had introduced them. He was the Brillsteen (ph) Grey head who actually produced "The Sopranos" and was a big manager. He got the job last week as Paramount's chief, head of the studio. And so, he had to divest himself from their production company. So, not only is he splitting with his wife, but his sort of business movie production company is falling apart.
HEMMER: A double whammy.
BERNARD: Exactly.
ANDY BOROWITZ, BOROWITZREPORT.COM: I have a little different theory, which is that it's interesting that this happened just a few weeks after the DVD of "Troy" came out. I think Jen finally saw it.
HEMMER: Yes?
BOROWITZ: I think that may be it.
HEMMER: You mentioned that when he was making the rounds doing the interviews last spring about that. I talked to him, and we talked about the idea about expanding the household. Listen here from May of last year.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HEMMER: Your wife made a joke, I think, on "Saturday Night Live" about starting a family together. Is it time now to expand the Pitt- Aniston household?
BRAD PITT, ACTOR: I think it's time. I think it's time.
HEMMER: Yes?
PITT: We've been in rehearsals long enough.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HEMMER: A pretty good answer. Been in rehearsals long enough.
TOURE: Love rehearsing, huh? But, I mean, I think that Jen is not going to make it as a big movie star. I don't think it's going to happen for her.
BERNARD: Why not? Why not?
TOURE: I think she's a small-screen sort of person, and it's not going to -- and so we're going to look back in four years and be, like, wow, she could have had a family with Brad. She gambled it on a film career, and it didn't blow up for her.
BOROWITZ: You know, I haven't spoken to Brad or Jen, because I think at a time like this, you know, their friends should give them some space.
HEMMER: And they asked for that in the statement, by the way, too. BOROWITZ: But I think there's just a lot of pressure on these A- list celebrity couples. Like, I really have my fingers crossed for Brigitte Nelson and Flavor Flav, because they can just blow up.
BERNARD: Well, you know (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
HEMMER: "US Weekly" has a shot that's going to be out tomorrow. They get to the "New York Post" today. This is the two of them, what, in the Caribbean a day before the statement came out?
BOROWITZ: Right. One last final phony photo-op...
BERNARD: Before it ends.
BOROWITZ: ... before it ends.
BERNARD: I want to know how all of this affects Gwyneth Paltrow. I always liked Brad and Gwyneth together. And now she's got the baby.
TOURE: That (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
BERNARD: Right. Because they were sort of, you know, when he was going with Jennifer Aniston in 2000, her life wasn't going so well. And now she's on top of the world.
BOROWITZ: And then there are those rumors about Jennifer and Bernard Kerik, what's about that? Is that the real...
HEMMER: We're going to save that for Wednesday.
BOROWITZ: OK.
HEMMER: Thanks, guys. Talk to you later, OK? Here's Soledad.
O'BRIEN: All right, guys, thanks.
Today's top stories just ahead. Also, hellish weather sweeping through the West threatening lives. We're going to find out how one dramatic rescue attempt ended. That's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING. Stay with us.
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Aired January 10, 2005 - 07:32 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back, everybody. It will be light soon here in New York City. Good morning to you on a Monday morning. Soledad is back from overseas. And great to have you back by the way.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks very much. It's nice to be back, believe me.
HEMMER: We'll be talking a whole lot about your coverage and also the stories you picked up on. So we look forward to hearing more from what you experienced over there.
O'BRIEN: Some new tsunami pictures to show everybody today.
HEMMER: Oh, boy!
O'BRIEN: Also, we're talking about that deadly train accident; that taking place in South Carolina. A very dangerous job, obviously, ahead now. Officials have to get that toxic gas from the damaged railcar to a safer container. We're going to talk to a member of the NTSB about that and also about their investigation, if the investigators have found any cause for this accident.
HEMMER: Also from overseas, the Middle East, a historic election for the Palestinians. The moderate Mahmoud Abbas will be the next president, winning more than 16 percent of the vote. We'll talk to commentators on both sides of the Palestinian/Israeli issue about whether or not this may provide a breakthrough for peace in the region. So, we'll get to that this half-hour as well.
O'BRIEN: And then we've got that winter storm warning that's taking effect in parts of California and Nevada. Areas in the Sierra, Nevada region near Lake Tahoe already have as much as 19 feet of snow. Another four feet could fall before tomorrow. That same storm is dumping heavy rains in the Los Angeles area.
And rescuers pulled a man from the Coyote Creek after his car and his pants as well got swept away by the rushing waters. Eventually, he was fortunately pulled to safety. A pretty dramatic rescue to watch. I mean, when he falls here, he comes so close to hitting that concrete divider on that bridge. I mean, if he had hit his head, forget the rescue. It would have all been over.
So far, eight deaths are blamed on this storm. They were able to rescue his daughters from the vehicle as well, I'm happy to report.
(WEATHER REPORT) Kelly Wallace is with us here this morning, watching the other headlines.
Good morning -- Kelly.
KELLY WALLACE, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you. Welcome back. Great job overseas.
O'BRIEN: Hi, Kelly. Thank you.
WALLACE: It's great to see you.
"Now in the News," everyone.
President Bush is getting an update on the tsunami recovery efforts this morning from Secretary of State Colin Powell. He will brief the president on his recent trip to Sri Lanka and Indonesia. The death toll from the disaster has now topped 140,000, scaled down from 150,000 after it was learned some bodies were counted twice.
A damaged nuclear submarine is docking this morning at a U.S. naval base in Guam. One sailor died and 24 others were injured when the USS San Francisco ran aground Saturday about 350 south of the Pacific island. Navy officials say the sub's nuclear reactor is fine. A crew is now on board surveying the extent of the damage.
In Ohio, the search resumes this morning for a crew member missing after a tugboat sank in the Ohio River. The boat sank northwest of Pittsburgh yesterday after strong currents pushed it through a dam. At least three people were killed, four others were rescued.
And Newt Gingrich is fueling speculation he might make a run for the White House. That's right. The former House speaker says he hopes his upcoming book tour will help keep his political options open. Gingrich is touting his new book titled "Winning the Future." Asked about a possible run for president, Gingrich responded -- quote -- "anything seems possible."
And, Bill, he is also putting out some heavy criticism of the administration's Iraq policy along the way.
HEMMER: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) very soon.
WALLACE: Yes.
HEMMER: Thank you, Kelly.
WALLACE: Sure.
HEMMER: Investigators in South Carolina this morning are trying to determine what caused the train wreck and deadly chemical spill there. In the town of Graniteville, they finally patched a damaged tank car that was the source of toxic fumes. Nine people died after a freight train collided with railroad cars parking on a siding last Thursday. More than 5,000 evacuated. They're still not back home today.
And earlier, I asked the NTSB spokesperson, Debbie Hersman, about where they stand this morning on that investigation.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DEBBIE HERSMAN, NTSB SPOKESWOMAN: The NTSB is on-site to gather facts. We will not be determining a cause while we're on-scene. We will be gathering information or conducting interviews. We're looking at systems. We're looking at track. We are interviewing the crew. We are looking at the switch, and we are working with the railroad to gather all of the information about dispatch records, about training, and about any inspections that might have taken place.
HEMMER: I understand at some point, you will transfer that gas into a safer container. Is there any danger when this process gets under way?
HERSMAN: Absolutely. We want to make sure that any of the operations on-scene are safe. The NTSB is not actually going to be doing the work there. The railroad and its contractors are performing the work. But there are certainly concerns about a secondary release. They're going to take every precaution to make sure it's safe.
The one-mile-radius evacuation is still in effect. That affects about 5,400 residents who continue to be displaced from their homes. And site access is limited. People need to be in personal protective equipment and have breathing apparatus. They have to go through decontamination when they get off-scene. So, every precaution is being taken.
HEMMER: When will those people be able to return home?
HERSMAN: Unfortunately, we won't be able to say when people will be able to return home. We defer to the EPA and the local incident commanders to make decisions about when people can return. We are hopeful that any operations to remove any of the toxic materials left can be completed.
We were advised yesterday that the tanker containing sodium hydroxide was cleared. It was voided. And they are under way as far as removing the chlorine from the -- both the breached tank, both the tank that had the leak, as well as the other two tanks that were not leaking.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HEMMER: Again, Debbie Hersman from the NTSB. That switching device she talked about, that has been sent to the FBI to be tested for fingerprints. We'll let you what wee find out more as we go throughout the day on that matter.
Also next hour, Dr. Gupta is with us here with more on the public health risk that Debbie Hersman mentioned in that interview. Stay tuned for that as well -- Soledad. O'BRIEN: Palestinians have a new leader in place of Yasser Arafat. Final results in less than an hour ago show Mahmoud Abbas winning the presidential race by a wide margin. He declared victory overnight.
And there is cautious optimism at the White House today over the prospects for peace. Ari Shavit with the Israeli newspaper "Ha'aretz" is in Jerusalem this morning. And Sam Bahdur, a Palestinian commentator, is in Ramallah.
Nice to see you, gentlemen. Thank you very much. Let's begin with Sam first. We've heard, of course, words like "historic." We've been using them all morning. But give me a sense, Sam, of the significance of this, not just obviously in who won, but the fact that it was a democratic election and the fact that it seems to have gone off pretty much without a hitch.
SAM BAHDUR, PALESTINIAN COMMENTATOR: Absolutely. And this is a positive indicator of what's coming in the future Palestinian political system. However, today is a very sober week for Palestinians, especially the candidates, because we awake today to the same Israeli occupation that has been here for the last 37 years. And I don't think anyone envies the winner of this race, Mahmoud Abbas, because the challenges ahead of him are huge. He needs to address the political situation as well as address the domestic deterioration that has happened over the last four years.
O'BRIEN: Ari, give me a sense of how Israelis are perceiving Mahmoud Abbas' victory.
ARI SHAVIT, "HA'ARETZ": I think that Israelis watch with excitement the new developments in the Palestinian arena. I personally would like to really congratulate our neighbors, the Palestinians, for really going through a truly democratic process, which is an example for the entire Arab world. For the first time, although there are huge tasks ahead, there is a glimmer of hope. And I think that after experiencing a kind of manmade tsunami in this country for the last four years, with waves of violence taking the lives of thousands of Palestinians and Israelis, this morning there is reason for some cautious optimism.
O'BRIEN: Sam, if you look at the numbers, 62 percent, more or less, was the victory. Everyone is reading into that a strong mandate from the people. But a mandate to do what, exactly? Is it to deal with the terrorists, to forge with the separate state for the Palestinian people? What do you think it is?
BAHDUR: It's a measured mandate to basically lead the Palestinians, I believe, in two major directions. The first direction has to do with the tsunami of the occupation that needs to end in order for to us start the rebuilding process. And I don't think, even though the international community may be very excited, that this is a cornerstone in the new Palestinian policy towards how fast the occupation must end. I don't think that's going to materialize.
Basically, the end of occupation and all of the elements of the conflict are rather well-defined, and the end game is rather well- known. So, I think the onus today is on Israel to start ending the occupation, unilaterally, if it has to.
On the other side, Abu Mazen needs to so some very serious institution-building. He needs to start by taking the electoral process to the PLO, where the rest of the six million Palestinians are not living under occupation are represented. It's not enough for Abu Mazen to take the mandate of yesterday's election and ignore six million Palestinians in refugee camps and in the Diaspora around the world who did not take part in this process.
If he wants a clear mandate, he needs to also move the electoral process to the PLO and come up with a serious mandate to be able to end the occupation through negotiations.
He also has to do some serious institutional reform on the domestic level. He needs to install a competent government, starting with the ministries and moving its way down to the different systems and institutions that are in place.
So, as I said earlier, no one envies the scope of work that he needs to do. But Palestinians will not be patient in waiting for the domestic issues to be addressed. That has to be addressed in parallel to making, hopefully, some incremental steps towards ending the occupation from our side. At the end of the day, the occupying power is Israel.
O'BRIEN: Ari, I'm going to give you the final word this morning. Both of you gentlemen used the word "tsunami" to describe what's been happening between the Israelis and the Palestinians. And, of course, a tsunami sort of swoops in and then swoops out. And these are debates and arguments that have been going on actually for a very, very, very long time. What, Ari, do you think the U.S. role needs to be in all of this?
SHAVIT: I think that we must all adopt determination to have two processes at the same time. Definitely, Israeli occupation must end, but it has to end gradually and with caution.
At the same time, there must be a process of Palestinian conversion. The creation of a real democratic Palestine is in the interest of the Palestinians, the Israelis and the entire international community.
The two processes, actually beginning today, with a new Palestinian president elected and with a new Israeli government to be elected later in the day, really create the basis for this process. But it's going to be difficult. It's going to be long. Anyone who would expect the end to arrive immediately, perfect peace, perfect solutions, within a few months will actually endanger the process.
O'BRIEN: But some signs.
SHAVIT: I think what the Palestinians...
O'BRIEN: Ari Shavit and Sam Bahdur, forgive me for interrupting you, gentlemen, but we're out of time. And obviously there is much more to talk about. And we'll have the opportunity to talk about them much more as we go forward. Thank you, gentlemen. Appreciate it -- Bill.
HEMMER: It's about 15 minutes before the hour now. A heavy ax is about to fall at the world's biggest carmaker. Andy is back "Minding Your Business" on that. He'll tell us whose jobs may be in trouble this time.
O'BRIEN: Plus, what's the real reason behind Brad and Jen's split? Could it be that somebody wasn't ready to take the next step? "90-Second Pop" is just ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HEMMER: Welcome back, everybody. To Jack now and the "Question of the Day" again.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Indeed. Thank you, Bill.
The independent commission investigating the U.N. oil-for-food program is out with its report. Awful. The U.N., according to the report, failed to monitor the $64 billion program, often ignored the recommendations of its own auditors. The financial audits show numerous instances of overpayments to contractors, including firms hired to monitor the oil exports and Iraq's imports of food, medicine and supplies.
It's a huge moment for the United Nations. They're going to be facing a lot of scrutiny as they spearhead the tsunami relief effort and are handling billions of dollars in aid money from all around the world. But it may be too late.
Here is the question: What does the United Nations have to do to restore its credibility? Here are the answers.
Lynn in Riverview, New Brunswick: "The first thing is to unburden itself of the many tiers of useless staff and allocate the equipment and manpower where it will be most effective. Annan's tenure has been rife with mismanagement. Had he been in a corporate position he would have been fired and rightly so."
Valerie in San Antonio: "The U.N. restore its credibility? When did it have any? Better yet, after all of the audits and no consequences, who cares? The U.N. is the biggest joke ever. The only thing the U.N. could do to restore its credibility is shut its doors for good. Case closed."
Fiona in Lexington: "Keep doing what they've always done: feed and house people in parts of the world journalists rarely visit. Prepare to do the same thing again in Iraq."
Winston in Lawndale, California. Now, that's the right name for a town in California: Lawndale. "The United Nations is a dinosaur left over from the Cold War era. It needs to dissolve its charter and disperse. It cannot improve an image that has been earned over decades of impotency. A new charter needs to be established to address today's matrix in the world."
And Edward in Ottawa: "Restore credibility? Claim that Greenland has weapons of mass destruction, then deal with it diplomatically. If that doesn't work, free coffee mugs for everyone."
HEMMER: Get in line and raise your hand. Thank you.
CAFFERTY: Somebody had a long weekend that wrote that last one.
HEMMER: Thank you, Jack.
CAFFERTY: You're welcome.
O'BRIEN: Well, some highlights and some low points for football fans this weekend. With that, plus a preview of the market, Andy Serwer is "Minding Your Business" this morning.
Hello.
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Good morning, Soledad. Let's take a look backwards, first of all, and see what happened last week. Not a good way to start the year at all.
And, of course, the first week of the year can be very important. And we got off on the wrong foot, I think it's safe to say, particularly the Nasdaq, down a lot.
Out of the Detroit auto show we talked about earlier in this program, CEO Rick Wagner of General Motors suggesting it's going to be another weak year for the world's largest automaker, suggesting that they're going to be laying off thousands of workers. Actually, the workforce will be shrinking through attrition, I should say.
I also want to update some of the information we gave you earlier. The Chrysler 300, Soledad, FYI...
O'BRIEN: Thank you.
SERWER: ... goes for between $24,000 and $34,000. The Ford Escape, $32,000. I'm just giving you some prices there.
O'BRIEN: Oh, that's not bad.
SERWER: Not so bad.
O'BRIEN: Not so bad.
SERWER: As far as football goes, Soledad, we didn't have a very good week picking games.
O'BRIEN: Oh (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
SERWER: How did I do? How did I do? We didn't do very well, 1- 3. And that's because the only team that really, the favorite that won was the Colts beating Denver. Otherwise, some upsets. The Jets winning. So, you can see Jack did very well. CAFFERTY: Well, I was wondering if you were going to mention I was at the top of the list there.
SERWER: Jack won, yes.
CAFFERTY: It took you long enough to get around to it.
SERWER: Well, Soledad and I were commiserating. And...
CAFFERTY: It's never happened before.
O'BRIEN: What happened? Did you give Todd a day off or something?
SERWER: I don't know what happened. I thought you were working at the computer over in Phuket, you know. You kind of had some stuff going on.
O'BRIEN: Clearly, I wasn't monitoring my own football scores.
SERWER: The Rams, of course, beat Seattle. And the Vikings won when it really mattered. They beat Green Bay. And Randy Moss is happy with his two touchdown catches, right?
O'BRIEN: Jack is trouncing us all in the football picks.
SERWER: Yes, underdogs, underdog Cafferty.
CAFFERTY: Because all of the losers won.
SERWER: Underdog Cafferty.
O'BRIEN: They have to eventually, right?
HEMMER: And a great weekend coming up this weekend, too.
O'BRIEN: All right, Andy, thanks.
SERWER: You're welcome.
HEMMER: It's the end of the road for Brad and Jen. You saw it over the weekend. Yes, Jack, listen up here.
CAFFERTY: I am heartbroken.
HEMMER: Front-page news Saturday and Sunday.
CAFFERTY: Oh, what a shame.
HEMMER: Hollywood's power couple calling it quits.
CAFFERTY: Who cares?
HEMMER: The 90-second poppers have a theory on this. In fact, they have three theories. And then we're going to get to Jack's theory a bit later in the broadcast. Back in a moment here on a Monday morning.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HEMMER: On a Monday morning, we have one topic today. Say hello to the pop culture club here on AMERICAN MORNING. With us, Andy Borowitz, he reports, he decides at the BorowitzReport.com. Sarah Bernard, contributing editor for "New York" magazine.
Nice to see you, Sarah.
SARAH BERNARD, CONTRIBUTING EDITOR, "NEW YORK" MAGAZINE: Good morning.
HEMMER: Good morning to you.
And the prince of urban populous is Toure.
TOURE, CNN POP CULTURE CORRESPONDENT: There you go!
HEMMER: Back with us.
Brad and Jen are finished?
TOURE: Yes.
HEMMER: Why?
TOURE: And it's interesting. Well, a lot of people outside of Hollywood are sad about it. Like, people were not cynical about them. This is one of those celebrity couples that we actually liked.
I think the problem here is not so much Angelina, which you'll hear about, but Rachel, that Jennifer did not want to go down being remembered as a ditzy fashionable sitcom star. She wants to be a movie star. She's 35. She's booked a bunch of movies in the next two years. That means she's not going to have a lot of time to be a mom. And Brad's like, come on, let's get on with it.
HEMMER: So you're saying she's...
TOURE: And she's, like, whoa.
HEMMER: They're at different times of their lives and different points in their careers.
TOURE: Yes. I mean, we have here a woman who wants career and a man who wants family. And it doesn't really work.
BERNARD: I think you can do both.
HEMMER: I see a smirk over here. What's up, young lady.
BERNARD: Well, I think this is a really bad week for Brad, because there's another big separation in his life. He actually had a production company called Plan B with Brad Grey, who actually had introduced them. He was the Brillsteen (ph) Grey head who actually produced "The Sopranos" and was a big manager. He got the job last week as Paramount's chief, head of the studio. And so, he had to divest himself from their production company. So, not only is he splitting with his wife, but his sort of business movie production company is falling apart.
HEMMER: A double whammy.
BERNARD: Exactly.
ANDY BOROWITZ, BOROWITZREPORT.COM: I have a little different theory, which is that it's interesting that this happened just a few weeks after the DVD of "Troy" came out. I think Jen finally saw it.
HEMMER: Yes?
BOROWITZ: I think that may be it.
HEMMER: You mentioned that when he was making the rounds doing the interviews last spring about that. I talked to him, and we talked about the idea about expanding the household. Listen here from May of last year.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HEMMER: Your wife made a joke, I think, on "Saturday Night Live" about starting a family together. Is it time now to expand the Pitt- Aniston household?
BRAD PITT, ACTOR: I think it's time. I think it's time.
HEMMER: Yes?
PITT: We've been in rehearsals long enough.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HEMMER: A pretty good answer. Been in rehearsals long enough.
TOURE: Love rehearsing, huh? But, I mean, I think that Jen is not going to make it as a big movie star. I don't think it's going to happen for her.
BERNARD: Why not? Why not?
TOURE: I think she's a small-screen sort of person, and it's not going to -- and so we're going to look back in four years and be, like, wow, she could have had a family with Brad. She gambled it on a film career, and it didn't blow up for her.
BOROWITZ: You know, I haven't spoken to Brad or Jen, because I think at a time like this, you know, their friends should give them some space.
HEMMER: And they asked for that in the statement, by the way, too. BOROWITZ: But I think there's just a lot of pressure on these A- list celebrity couples. Like, I really have my fingers crossed for Brigitte Nelson and Flavor Flav, because they can just blow up.
BERNARD: Well, you know (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
HEMMER: "US Weekly" has a shot that's going to be out tomorrow. They get to the "New York Post" today. This is the two of them, what, in the Caribbean a day before the statement came out?
BOROWITZ: Right. One last final phony photo-op...
BERNARD: Before it ends.
BOROWITZ: ... before it ends.
BERNARD: I want to know how all of this affects Gwyneth Paltrow. I always liked Brad and Gwyneth together. And now she's got the baby.
TOURE: That (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
BERNARD: Right. Because they were sort of, you know, when he was going with Jennifer Aniston in 2000, her life wasn't going so well. And now she's on top of the world.
BOROWITZ: And then there are those rumors about Jennifer and Bernard Kerik, what's about that? Is that the real...
HEMMER: We're going to save that for Wednesday.
BOROWITZ: OK.
HEMMER: Thanks, guys. Talk to you later, OK? Here's Soledad.
O'BRIEN: All right, guys, thanks.
Today's top stories just ahead. Also, hellish weather sweeping through the West threatening lives. We're going to find out how one dramatic rescue attempt ended. That's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING. Stay with us.
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