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CNN Live At Daybreak

Schiavo Ruling; Vatican Update; Stress & Memory; School Shooting

Aired March 23, 2005 - 05:30   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 COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you, and welcome to the second half-hour of DAYBREAK. From the Time Warner Center in New York, I'm Carol Costello.
"Now in the News."

A major new development overnight in the Terri Schiavo case, on a two-to-one vote, a federal appeals court panel in Atlanta has refused to order the reinsertion of her feeding tube. This happened around 2:30 this morning Eastern Time. Schiavo's parents are vowing to appeal again on behalf of their brain-damaged daughter. This time they'll do it way up at the Supreme Court, the U.S. Supreme Court.

President Bush hosts his neighbors to the north and south today. He'll meet at his Texas ranch with the leaders of Canada and Mexico. On the agenda, easing immigration laws and creating a free trade zone.

Turning overseas, should Europe's weapons embargo on China be lifted early? The European Union's foreign policy chief thinks so. At an E.U. summit in Brussels today, he says Beijing has made progress on human rights.

Mr. Dean goes to Washington. Tonight in the nation's capital, Howard Dean hosts his first fund raiser for the Democratic National Committee. The former presidential candidate was recently named party chairman.

To the Forecast Center, Rob Marciano in for Chad this morning.

Good morning -- Rob.

ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Hi, Carol.

(WEATHER REPORT)

COSTELLO: You know actually that snow didn't come.

MARCIANO: It didn't?

COSTELLO: And I was happy for that, because I guess the front took a turn or something, I don't know. But hopefully it will do the same.

MARCIANO: Hopefully.

COSTELLO: Thank you -- Rob. MARCIANO: See you.

COSTELLO: The options for appeals are running out for Terri Schiavo's family. The federal circuit court of appeals in Atlanta has denied a request by her parents to have her feeding tube reinstated.

CNN's Bob Franken joins us now from Pinellas Park, Florida with reaction.

Good morning -- Bob.

BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well the reaction is that the family, we're told, is devastated by this ruling. But to be perfectly honest about it, most lawyers said they expected it. It was a two-to-one decision, three judges from the federal circuit court in Atlanta. They wrote no matter how much we wish that Ms. Schiavo had never suffered such a horrible accident, we are a nation of laws. It went on to say that there was no reason to overturn the lower court's decision to deny the reconnection of the feeding tube.

Now all of this an outgrowth, of course, of Congress and its extraordinary session over the weekend directing the federal court system to once again consider this case. There was a dissent from appeals court Judge Charles Wilson who said that Terri Schiavo's death, which the argument is is that it is imminent, Terri Schiavo's death, which is imminent, effectively ends this litigation. He went on to say it frustrates Congress' intent, which is to maintain the status quo by keeping Terri Schiavo alive.

Now she has been disconnected from her feeding tube since Friday. Time is a factor. There are a number of possible appeal venues, but the most likely one is that the lawyers will now go to the U.S. Supreme Court. There can be a high-speed process that's involved there.

The justice who handles this region is Anthony Kennedy. He can elect to consult the other justices to decide a) whether to grant the temporary restraining order, but more importantly, whether to take the case. And the decision to take the case would, under that circumstance, require not a majority of justices but just four. So all of that is going to play out probably at the highest court in the land later today.

Meanwhile, the family here, the family of Terri Schiavo, that is to say the blood relatives, are continuing a fight elsewhere. They're beginning to see that the legal system may not be the way that they want to go, nor can the federal government help anymore, so they're going back to the state government at the capital in Tallahassee. They are pushing legislation that has not succeeded before, to try and come up with a bill that would reconnect Terri Schiavo -- Carol.

COSTELLO: And I understand there are two state legislators holding out in Operation Rescue, Randall Terry. That operation is trying to convince them to change their minds.

FRANKEN: That is that whenever you have heavy pressure and lobbying, you have people making claims about support that sometimes are not supported by the actual truth. What they are saying is they believe they are making progress and that they want to get the legislation passed.

Another bit of point of pressure is on the Governor Jeb Bush. They're trying to get him involved again. Of course he has been involved in the past, and his actions have been struck down by the courts.

COSTELLO: Bob Franken live in Florida this morning.

Our Tony Harris has read through that 31-page ruling by the court of appeals in Atlanta. He joins us from Atlanta on this developing story.

What else have you gleaned from this -- Tony?

TONY HARRIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well just we want to give you a couple of other thoughts from the judges who weighed in on this opinion. You heard some of that from Bob, but here's a little bit more. And this is a bit more of the dissenting opinion from Judge Charles Wilson.

He says Congress intended -- I think we've prepared a full screen on this -- for this case to be reviewed with a fresh set of eyes. We are not called upon to consider the wisdom of the legislation in granting this injunction. We would merely effectuate Congress' intent.

And let me give you another bit of the majority opinion. We agree that the plaintiffs have failed to demonstrate -- and we don't have a full screen prepared for this, but let me just read this to you. We agree that the plaintiffs have failed to demonstrate a substantial case on the merits of any of their claims. We also conclude that the district courts carefully thought out this issue to deny temporary relief in these circumstances is not an abuse of discretion.

And, Carol, that was one of the issues at hand here to be decided by this three-judge panel whether or not Judge James Whitmore in Tampa had abused his discretion in denying that temporary restraining order to restore the feeding tube to Terri Schiavo. And in this decision, this three-judge panel, the majority of which, two-to-one, has decided that the judge in Florida, in Tampa, Judge James Whitmore, did act within his discretion. And that's where we are right now.

COSTELLO: Tony Harris, live in Atlanta this morning, thank you.

Health issues are big news at the Vatican as well. The pope looked out over the crowd from his window this morning just about 15 minutes ago. But there are still serious questions about his health.

CNN Rome bureau chief Alessio Vinci joins us now with the latest.

Good morning.

ALESSIO VINCI, CNN ROME BUREAU CHIEF: Good morning, Carol.

It's Wednesday here in Rome, of course, as well, and this is a day usually when Pope John Paul II holds a general audience with the people who come here to Rome. That event was canceled because the pope is still recovering from a tracheotomy. Nevertheless, the pope did make a brief appearance from the window of his apostolic palace overlooking St. Peter's Square about 15 minutes ago.

There were about 1,000 people there in the square waiting for him, chanting some songs, praying for him, and the pope rewarded them with a brief appearance of about a minute. The pope blessed them a few times. He did not speak.

We have not heard the pope speaking in the last few days the last few times he has appeared, but nevertheless, the pope looked quite all right. This, after reports, especially in the Italian media, that his health had deteriorated in the last few days.

Vatican officials are telling us that while the pope's health remains a problem, of course, that he is not responding well to medication and that he is basically not recovering as fast as they had hoped for. But at the same time, Vatican officials also tell us that he continues in his duties from the Vatican apostolic palace.

Back to you -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Despite all of this, Alessio, he is weighing in on the Schiavo case. The ruling today, has the Vatican put out word on how it feels about that?

VINCI: We haven't heard from the pope himself, of course, on Terri Schiavo's case. I did manage to speak to a few cardinals in the last few days that did react, not to this latest ruling that just came a few hours ago, but to recent rulings which ruled that the tube had to be removed.

And Vatican officials and the cardinals with whom I spoke with are unanimous in condemning that removal. They are pointing out that Terri Schiavo is not in a coma, she is not brain dead, that there is life in her, but therefore doctors have a duty, a moral duty to save her life.

There is also unanimous praise, if you want, for President Bush. Interesting enough, even from cardinals who in the past have criticized the president, for example, for the war in Iraq. Cardinals are welcoming the fact that the president has signed emergency legislation to try to save Terri Schiavo.

And one senior Vatican official, one cardinal with whom I spoke last night, spoke in no uncertain term about what he felt was the fact that the tube was removed from Terri Schiavo.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CARDINAL RENATO MARTINO, VATICAN OFFICIAL: I was appalled because this is denying life to a person who is not in a coma. And so how can you deprive of food and living clear child (ph).

VINCI: You spoke about euthanasia as well?

MARTINO: Yes, a way, a very cruel way to up value euthanasia.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VINCI: And, Carol, Cardinal Martino, during that interview last night, told me that doctors have a right to cure but a duty to care.

Carol, back to you.

COSTELLO: Alessio Vinci, live in Rome this morning, thank you.

When DAYBREAK continues, psychological pressure and memory, why highly stressful situations can rob you of your ability to, what's that word I'm looking for, you know. I'll remember eventually.

Plus, more details in what might have led a troubled teenager to go on a shooting spree at his Minnesota high school.

But first, here's a look at what else is making news this Wednesday morning.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Your news, money, weather and sports. It's 5:43 Eastern. Here's what's all new this morning.

Terri Schiavo's parents say they will fight on despite a federal appeals court ruling overnight. About 2:15 a.m. Eastern local time, a three-judge panel in Atlanta refused a request to have a feeding tube reinserted into their severely brain-damaged daughter.

Slugger Barry Bonds says he may not play at all this season. The San Francisco Giant says he's just plain tired and drained both physically and mentally. He's blaming the media scrutiny over the steroid scandal and recent knee surgeries for his problems.

In money news, coming soon to a highway near you, the Jeep Commandeer, Chrysler's new SUV. The Commander, I should say, will be unveiled today at the New York International Auto Show. And on the Jeep Web site it gets 13 miles to the gallon in the city, 18 on the highway.

In culture, famed tenor Luciano Pavarotti returns to Italy this weekend following neck surgery in New York this month. After some rest, he'll resume his farewell tour. That tour ends next year in New York.

In sports, there's a new No. 1. Tennessee women's basketball coach Pat Summitt is the all-time winningest head coach in Division 1 basketball. She surpassed North Carolina's Dean Smith last night. Win No. 880 was a 75-54 victory over Purdue in the NCAA Tournament -- Rob.

MARCIANO: And congratulations to her. Sweet 16 gets under way tomorrow night. Always a good time in March, isn't it?

(WEATHER REPORT)

Back to you.

COSTELLO: I would say thank you, but I don't think I will right now.

MARCIANO: OK, see you.

COSTELLO: Those are the latest headlines for you this morning.

Still to come on DAYBREAK, having trouble keeping tabs on things, well now there may be a reason. We'll look at why more things slip your mind when you're all stressed out.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: OK, you've got no pen, no paper and several things you've just got to pick up at the grocery store because you're backed up in hectic rush hour traffic and you're late picking up the kids, you had a fight with your spouse. Stress can be a bear. It can affect your memory, raise your blood pressure and just make you feel plain rotten.

CNN's senior medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta tells us about real stress and its profound affect on your memory.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm not going to listen to any more lies from you. You've been lying to me off and on, ever since we've started this interview.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): You'd think it would be unforgettable. Imagine, nearly an hour face to face, an interrogator leans in, cajoling, then threatening, demanding the code word.

This is the military's elite survival school at Ft. Bragg in North Carolina. The final exam, three days of hell, hiding and starvation in the woods, inevitable capture, an interrogation by an instructor playing the role of a brutal warden in a POW camp. If you want to study the effect of stress on memory, this is the place.

Dr. Andy Morgan of Yale University tested trainees during the mock interrogation. Not surprisingly, he found that stress, measured by hormone levels, is extremely high.

DR. ANDY MORGAN, YALE UNIVERSITY: When I say extraordinary high, I mean specifically that it's higher than levels that we have seen in people who are landing on an aircraft carrier at night for the first time. It's higher than people who are skydiving for the first time. So, the physical pressure can be up. People can actually physically touch them. And their heart rate goes way up to about 165, 175 beats a minute. GUPTA: A day later, Morgan showed trainees a line up, like the ones used by police. Could they identify the guard who was grilling them? Remarkably, the answer for most was no.

Details of the training are classified. The military did not let us film the mock interrogation, but we can say the interrogator's face is uncovered and comes within inches of the squirming prisoner. And yet, when shown a set of photos, only 34 percent could identify the man or women who had confronted them. In the experiment, the eyes were not covered as they are here.

MORGAN: People picked a male when it was a female who interrogated them. We had people who were interrogated by a white man who picked a black man in the line up and other minorities. We had people who were picking folks as their interrogator who have hair on their head, when in fact, their interrogator was bald.

GUPTA: When photos were shown one by one, instead of all at once, accuracy was a little better, but still just 49 percent. Memory may have suffered from lack of food and sleep, but Morgan says stress was the key. And that the more stress the trainee registered, the less accurate he was.

MORGAN: So, you have a high stress event, whether you did live line ups, photo spreads or the sequential photo line up, you would have done better flipping a coin.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

There are also some memories we try to erase. Tonight on "ANDERSON COOPER 360," haunting memories, those things you wish you could forget. That's tonight at 7:00 p.m. Eastern, 4:00 Pacific Time.

Here's what's ahead in the next hour of DAYBREAK, school security back in the spotlight. We'll talk to an expert about what could have been done to stop the Minnesota massacre.

And a reminder, our e-mail "Question of the Morning," should school security guards be armed? E-mail us at DAYBREAK@CNN.com.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: The motive behind that tragic school shooting in Minnesota does remain a mystery this morning. Investigators are learning more about the troubled teenager who opened fire on his high school out there in Minnesota, but they have more questions than answers this morning.

For more on this we're joined by Mark Potok, an expert on hate crimes from the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Good morning.

MARK POTOK, SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER: Good morning. COSTELLO: We don't know much about this teenager. We know his last name was Weise, but he was also a Native American Indian. And we also know that he often went to neo-Nazi Web sites. It just seems kind of strange that he would have the last name of Weise and go to these Nazi Web sites.

POTOK: Yes, I mean I don't know what to say about the last name. I mean the thing that strikes me is that he's a Native American kid and you know not only visiting these Web sites, but posting comments about you know how he sees himself very much as a Nazi and so on.

You know, and I guess the thing worth saying in this is that from where I sit this kind of thing actually isn't that unusual. We frequently run across neo-Nazis who are secretly Jewish, who are secretly gay. We have even written, in one instance, about a white supremacist who was really black, or biracial, as it turned out.

So you know I think what goes on with a lot of this, especially these young people who get attracted in these bizarre ways. I mean these are all people of course who would be on the first train to Auschwitz is that they make an association. You know they belong to essentially kind of powerless groups or feel personally powerless and very much want to associate with the sort of power and might of Nazism or...

COSTELLO: We're going to get into that in just a second. More on this Web site that this kid supposedly visited. This was, and I'm going to read from this so I get it right, this Web site is the Libertarian National Socialist Green Party's Web forum. And the forum has a swastika on a green flag on its home page. It promotes itself as an alternative to white supremacist sites, a place where people of all races are welcome as long as they oppose racial mixing. That's a little different.

POTOK: Well, yes, it's a slight -- first of all, I mean you know the Web site makes it sound like there's a real group behind it, like there actually is a party, and that's false. I mean this is a Web site with very few people associated with it, if more than one at all.

Yes, it is somewhat unusual. We see a lot of these or a strange variance in the world of Nazism. But, yes, I mean in a way this is a very modern variant, the idea of well I guess we don't want to rule over the other races. You know we think everybody should withdrawal into their own racially, you know pure and homogeneous homelands.

COSTELLO: How dangerous are these Web sites?

POTOK: Well, I mean they're dangerous in the sense that they spread this kind of ideology, not terribly effectively, but they do spread it to certain kinds of people. And it's kids like this, apparently, who really run into trouble.

I mean I certainly don't think that you know this young man, if indeed he's the shooter, you know somehow visited this Web site and came away ready to shoot. It seems obvious to me that this was a very, very troubled kid. And this is one of the expressions of that trouble as he goes exploring these...

COSTELLO: Very lonely boy. Supposedly his father committed suicide. His mother was in a terrible car accident and she's in a nursing home right now.

POTOK: Sure.

COSTELLO: And then we don't know what went on between this kid and his grandparents, but we do know that there are glowing descriptions of the grandfather, at least in the community. But still, this child allegedly took a gun and shot his grandfather, the grandfather's girlfriend and then went to his high school.

Thank you for joining us. Mark Potok, an expert on hate crimes from the Southern Poverty Law Center.

We're asking you this question this morning, because we know that Jeff Weise, at least according to police, took a gun, went to the school and at the front of the school was a security guard. He was unarmed, and that was the first person that Jeff Weise allegedly shot. So we're asking this question this morning, should school security guards be armed? DAYBREAK@CNN.com. And we've gotten a lot.

And this one is interesting from Mark (ph). He's the president of the student body from Wheeler (ph) High School. He says I'm a high school student. We have one security guard who is armed, but he cannot do it all. The best weapon he has is his handcuffs. I don't think another gun will stop something from happening.

Rob, do you have some as well?

MARCIANO: I have got a couple, one real short. Arm the guards or they are now guards (ph). To guard an interest you must be armed.

But here's one from a former security guard, which I find interesting. I'm a former security guard at a local school. We dealt with violence and drugs, gangs, weapons at our school. I myself would have felt safer if I was armed.

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Aired March 23, 2005 - 05:30   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you, and welcome to the second half-hour of DAYBREAK. From the Time Warner Center in New York, I'm Carol Costello.
"Now in the News."

A major new development overnight in the Terri Schiavo case, on a two-to-one vote, a federal appeals court panel in Atlanta has refused to order the reinsertion of her feeding tube. This happened around 2:30 this morning Eastern Time. Schiavo's parents are vowing to appeal again on behalf of their brain-damaged daughter. This time they'll do it way up at the Supreme Court, the U.S. Supreme Court.

President Bush hosts his neighbors to the north and south today. He'll meet at his Texas ranch with the leaders of Canada and Mexico. On the agenda, easing immigration laws and creating a free trade zone.

Turning overseas, should Europe's weapons embargo on China be lifted early? The European Union's foreign policy chief thinks so. At an E.U. summit in Brussels today, he says Beijing has made progress on human rights.

Mr. Dean goes to Washington. Tonight in the nation's capital, Howard Dean hosts his first fund raiser for the Democratic National Committee. The former presidential candidate was recently named party chairman.

To the Forecast Center, Rob Marciano in for Chad this morning.

Good morning -- Rob.

ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Hi, Carol.

(WEATHER REPORT)

COSTELLO: You know actually that snow didn't come.

MARCIANO: It didn't?

COSTELLO: And I was happy for that, because I guess the front took a turn or something, I don't know. But hopefully it will do the same.

MARCIANO: Hopefully.

COSTELLO: Thank you -- Rob. MARCIANO: See you.

COSTELLO: The options for appeals are running out for Terri Schiavo's family. The federal circuit court of appeals in Atlanta has denied a request by her parents to have her feeding tube reinstated.

CNN's Bob Franken joins us now from Pinellas Park, Florida with reaction.

Good morning -- Bob.

BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well the reaction is that the family, we're told, is devastated by this ruling. But to be perfectly honest about it, most lawyers said they expected it. It was a two-to-one decision, three judges from the federal circuit court in Atlanta. They wrote no matter how much we wish that Ms. Schiavo had never suffered such a horrible accident, we are a nation of laws. It went on to say that there was no reason to overturn the lower court's decision to deny the reconnection of the feeding tube.

Now all of this an outgrowth, of course, of Congress and its extraordinary session over the weekend directing the federal court system to once again consider this case. There was a dissent from appeals court Judge Charles Wilson who said that Terri Schiavo's death, which the argument is is that it is imminent, Terri Schiavo's death, which is imminent, effectively ends this litigation. He went on to say it frustrates Congress' intent, which is to maintain the status quo by keeping Terri Schiavo alive.

Now she has been disconnected from her feeding tube since Friday. Time is a factor. There are a number of possible appeal venues, but the most likely one is that the lawyers will now go to the U.S. Supreme Court. There can be a high-speed process that's involved there.

The justice who handles this region is Anthony Kennedy. He can elect to consult the other justices to decide a) whether to grant the temporary restraining order, but more importantly, whether to take the case. And the decision to take the case would, under that circumstance, require not a majority of justices but just four. So all of that is going to play out probably at the highest court in the land later today.

Meanwhile, the family here, the family of Terri Schiavo, that is to say the blood relatives, are continuing a fight elsewhere. They're beginning to see that the legal system may not be the way that they want to go, nor can the federal government help anymore, so they're going back to the state government at the capital in Tallahassee. They are pushing legislation that has not succeeded before, to try and come up with a bill that would reconnect Terri Schiavo -- Carol.

COSTELLO: And I understand there are two state legislators holding out in Operation Rescue, Randall Terry. That operation is trying to convince them to change their minds.

FRANKEN: That is that whenever you have heavy pressure and lobbying, you have people making claims about support that sometimes are not supported by the actual truth. What they are saying is they believe they are making progress and that they want to get the legislation passed.

Another bit of point of pressure is on the Governor Jeb Bush. They're trying to get him involved again. Of course he has been involved in the past, and his actions have been struck down by the courts.

COSTELLO: Bob Franken live in Florida this morning.

Our Tony Harris has read through that 31-page ruling by the court of appeals in Atlanta. He joins us from Atlanta on this developing story.

What else have you gleaned from this -- Tony?

TONY HARRIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well just we want to give you a couple of other thoughts from the judges who weighed in on this opinion. You heard some of that from Bob, but here's a little bit more. And this is a bit more of the dissenting opinion from Judge Charles Wilson.

He says Congress intended -- I think we've prepared a full screen on this -- for this case to be reviewed with a fresh set of eyes. We are not called upon to consider the wisdom of the legislation in granting this injunction. We would merely effectuate Congress' intent.

And let me give you another bit of the majority opinion. We agree that the plaintiffs have failed to demonstrate -- and we don't have a full screen prepared for this, but let me just read this to you. We agree that the plaintiffs have failed to demonstrate a substantial case on the merits of any of their claims. We also conclude that the district courts carefully thought out this issue to deny temporary relief in these circumstances is not an abuse of discretion.

And, Carol, that was one of the issues at hand here to be decided by this three-judge panel whether or not Judge James Whitmore in Tampa had abused his discretion in denying that temporary restraining order to restore the feeding tube to Terri Schiavo. And in this decision, this three-judge panel, the majority of which, two-to-one, has decided that the judge in Florida, in Tampa, Judge James Whitmore, did act within his discretion. And that's where we are right now.

COSTELLO: Tony Harris, live in Atlanta this morning, thank you.

Health issues are big news at the Vatican as well. The pope looked out over the crowd from his window this morning just about 15 minutes ago. But there are still serious questions about his health.

CNN Rome bureau chief Alessio Vinci joins us now with the latest.

Good morning.

ALESSIO VINCI, CNN ROME BUREAU CHIEF: Good morning, Carol.

It's Wednesday here in Rome, of course, as well, and this is a day usually when Pope John Paul II holds a general audience with the people who come here to Rome. That event was canceled because the pope is still recovering from a tracheotomy. Nevertheless, the pope did make a brief appearance from the window of his apostolic palace overlooking St. Peter's Square about 15 minutes ago.

There were about 1,000 people there in the square waiting for him, chanting some songs, praying for him, and the pope rewarded them with a brief appearance of about a minute. The pope blessed them a few times. He did not speak.

We have not heard the pope speaking in the last few days the last few times he has appeared, but nevertheless, the pope looked quite all right. This, after reports, especially in the Italian media, that his health had deteriorated in the last few days.

Vatican officials are telling us that while the pope's health remains a problem, of course, that he is not responding well to medication and that he is basically not recovering as fast as they had hoped for. But at the same time, Vatican officials also tell us that he continues in his duties from the Vatican apostolic palace.

Back to you -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Despite all of this, Alessio, he is weighing in on the Schiavo case. The ruling today, has the Vatican put out word on how it feels about that?

VINCI: We haven't heard from the pope himself, of course, on Terri Schiavo's case. I did manage to speak to a few cardinals in the last few days that did react, not to this latest ruling that just came a few hours ago, but to recent rulings which ruled that the tube had to be removed.

And Vatican officials and the cardinals with whom I spoke with are unanimous in condemning that removal. They are pointing out that Terri Schiavo is not in a coma, she is not brain dead, that there is life in her, but therefore doctors have a duty, a moral duty to save her life.

There is also unanimous praise, if you want, for President Bush. Interesting enough, even from cardinals who in the past have criticized the president, for example, for the war in Iraq. Cardinals are welcoming the fact that the president has signed emergency legislation to try to save Terri Schiavo.

And one senior Vatican official, one cardinal with whom I spoke last night, spoke in no uncertain term about what he felt was the fact that the tube was removed from Terri Schiavo.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CARDINAL RENATO MARTINO, VATICAN OFFICIAL: I was appalled because this is denying life to a person who is not in a coma. And so how can you deprive of food and living clear child (ph).

VINCI: You spoke about euthanasia as well?

MARTINO: Yes, a way, a very cruel way to up value euthanasia.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VINCI: And, Carol, Cardinal Martino, during that interview last night, told me that doctors have a right to cure but a duty to care.

Carol, back to you.

COSTELLO: Alessio Vinci, live in Rome this morning, thank you.

When DAYBREAK continues, psychological pressure and memory, why highly stressful situations can rob you of your ability to, what's that word I'm looking for, you know. I'll remember eventually.

Plus, more details in what might have led a troubled teenager to go on a shooting spree at his Minnesota high school.

But first, here's a look at what else is making news this Wednesday morning.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Your news, money, weather and sports. It's 5:43 Eastern. Here's what's all new this morning.

Terri Schiavo's parents say they will fight on despite a federal appeals court ruling overnight. About 2:15 a.m. Eastern local time, a three-judge panel in Atlanta refused a request to have a feeding tube reinserted into their severely brain-damaged daughter.

Slugger Barry Bonds says he may not play at all this season. The San Francisco Giant says he's just plain tired and drained both physically and mentally. He's blaming the media scrutiny over the steroid scandal and recent knee surgeries for his problems.

In money news, coming soon to a highway near you, the Jeep Commandeer, Chrysler's new SUV. The Commander, I should say, will be unveiled today at the New York International Auto Show. And on the Jeep Web site it gets 13 miles to the gallon in the city, 18 on the highway.

In culture, famed tenor Luciano Pavarotti returns to Italy this weekend following neck surgery in New York this month. After some rest, he'll resume his farewell tour. That tour ends next year in New York.

In sports, there's a new No. 1. Tennessee women's basketball coach Pat Summitt is the all-time winningest head coach in Division 1 basketball. She surpassed North Carolina's Dean Smith last night. Win No. 880 was a 75-54 victory over Purdue in the NCAA Tournament -- Rob.

MARCIANO: And congratulations to her. Sweet 16 gets under way tomorrow night. Always a good time in March, isn't it?

(WEATHER REPORT)

Back to you.

COSTELLO: I would say thank you, but I don't think I will right now.

MARCIANO: OK, see you.

COSTELLO: Those are the latest headlines for you this morning.

Still to come on DAYBREAK, having trouble keeping tabs on things, well now there may be a reason. We'll look at why more things slip your mind when you're all stressed out.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: OK, you've got no pen, no paper and several things you've just got to pick up at the grocery store because you're backed up in hectic rush hour traffic and you're late picking up the kids, you had a fight with your spouse. Stress can be a bear. It can affect your memory, raise your blood pressure and just make you feel plain rotten.

CNN's senior medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta tells us about real stress and its profound affect on your memory.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm not going to listen to any more lies from you. You've been lying to me off and on, ever since we've started this interview.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): You'd think it would be unforgettable. Imagine, nearly an hour face to face, an interrogator leans in, cajoling, then threatening, demanding the code word.

This is the military's elite survival school at Ft. Bragg in North Carolina. The final exam, three days of hell, hiding and starvation in the woods, inevitable capture, an interrogation by an instructor playing the role of a brutal warden in a POW camp. If you want to study the effect of stress on memory, this is the place.

Dr. Andy Morgan of Yale University tested trainees during the mock interrogation. Not surprisingly, he found that stress, measured by hormone levels, is extremely high.

DR. ANDY MORGAN, YALE UNIVERSITY: When I say extraordinary high, I mean specifically that it's higher than levels that we have seen in people who are landing on an aircraft carrier at night for the first time. It's higher than people who are skydiving for the first time. So, the physical pressure can be up. People can actually physically touch them. And their heart rate goes way up to about 165, 175 beats a minute. GUPTA: A day later, Morgan showed trainees a line up, like the ones used by police. Could they identify the guard who was grilling them? Remarkably, the answer for most was no.

Details of the training are classified. The military did not let us film the mock interrogation, but we can say the interrogator's face is uncovered and comes within inches of the squirming prisoner. And yet, when shown a set of photos, only 34 percent could identify the man or women who had confronted them. In the experiment, the eyes were not covered as they are here.

MORGAN: People picked a male when it was a female who interrogated them. We had people who were interrogated by a white man who picked a black man in the line up and other minorities. We had people who were picking folks as their interrogator who have hair on their head, when in fact, their interrogator was bald.

GUPTA: When photos were shown one by one, instead of all at once, accuracy was a little better, but still just 49 percent. Memory may have suffered from lack of food and sleep, but Morgan says stress was the key. And that the more stress the trainee registered, the less accurate he was.

MORGAN: So, you have a high stress event, whether you did live line ups, photo spreads or the sequential photo line up, you would have done better flipping a coin.

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COSTELLO: Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

There are also some memories we try to erase. Tonight on "ANDERSON COOPER 360," haunting memories, those things you wish you could forget. That's tonight at 7:00 p.m. Eastern, 4:00 Pacific Time.

Here's what's ahead in the next hour of DAYBREAK, school security back in the spotlight. We'll talk to an expert about what could have been done to stop the Minnesota massacre.

And a reminder, our e-mail "Question of the Morning," should school security guards be armed? E-mail us at DAYBREAK@CNN.com.

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COSTELLO: The motive behind that tragic school shooting in Minnesota does remain a mystery this morning. Investigators are learning more about the troubled teenager who opened fire on his high school out there in Minnesota, but they have more questions than answers this morning.

For more on this we're joined by Mark Potok, an expert on hate crimes from the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Good morning.

MARK POTOK, SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER: Good morning. COSTELLO: We don't know much about this teenager. We know his last name was Weise, but he was also a Native American Indian. And we also know that he often went to neo-Nazi Web sites. It just seems kind of strange that he would have the last name of Weise and go to these Nazi Web sites.

POTOK: Yes, I mean I don't know what to say about the last name. I mean the thing that strikes me is that he's a Native American kid and you know not only visiting these Web sites, but posting comments about you know how he sees himself very much as a Nazi and so on.

You know, and I guess the thing worth saying in this is that from where I sit this kind of thing actually isn't that unusual. We frequently run across neo-Nazis who are secretly Jewish, who are secretly gay. We have even written, in one instance, about a white supremacist who was really black, or biracial, as it turned out.

So you know I think what goes on with a lot of this, especially these young people who get attracted in these bizarre ways. I mean these are all people of course who would be on the first train to Auschwitz is that they make an association. You know they belong to essentially kind of powerless groups or feel personally powerless and very much want to associate with the sort of power and might of Nazism or...

COSTELLO: We're going to get into that in just a second. More on this Web site that this kid supposedly visited. This was, and I'm going to read from this so I get it right, this Web site is the Libertarian National Socialist Green Party's Web forum. And the forum has a swastika on a green flag on its home page. It promotes itself as an alternative to white supremacist sites, a place where people of all races are welcome as long as they oppose racial mixing. That's a little different.

POTOK: Well, yes, it's a slight -- first of all, I mean you know the Web site makes it sound like there's a real group behind it, like there actually is a party, and that's false. I mean this is a Web site with very few people associated with it, if more than one at all.

Yes, it is somewhat unusual. We see a lot of these or a strange variance in the world of Nazism. But, yes, I mean in a way this is a very modern variant, the idea of well I guess we don't want to rule over the other races. You know we think everybody should withdrawal into their own racially, you know pure and homogeneous homelands.

COSTELLO: How dangerous are these Web sites?

POTOK: Well, I mean they're dangerous in the sense that they spread this kind of ideology, not terribly effectively, but they do spread it to certain kinds of people. And it's kids like this, apparently, who really run into trouble.

I mean I certainly don't think that you know this young man, if indeed he's the shooter, you know somehow visited this Web site and came away ready to shoot. It seems obvious to me that this was a very, very troubled kid. And this is one of the expressions of that trouble as he goes exploring these...

COSTELLO: Very lonely boy. Supposedly his father committed suicide. His mother was in a terrible car accident and she's in a nursing home right now.

POTOK: Sure.

COSTELLO: And then we don't know what went on between this kid and his grandparents, but we do know that there are glowing descriptions of the grandfather, at least in the community. But still, this child allegedly took a gun and shot his grandfather, the grandfather's girlfriend and then went to his high school.

Thank you for joining us. Mark Potok, an expert on hate crimes from the Southern Poverty Law Center.

We're asking you this question this morning, because we know that Jeff Weise, at least according to police, took a gun, went to the school and at the front of the school was a security guard. He was unarmed, and that was the first person that Jeff Weise allegedly shot. So we're asking this question this morning, should school security guards be armed? DAYBREAK@CNN.com. And we've gotten a lot.

And this one is interesting from Mark (ph). He's the president of the student body from Wheeler (ph) High School. He says I'm a high school student. We have one security guard who is armed, but he cannot do it all. The best weapon he has is his handcuffs. I don't think another gun will stop something from happening.

Rob, do you have some as well?

MARCIANO: I have got a couple, one real short. Arm the guards or they are now guards (ph). To guard an interest you must be armed.

But here's one from a former security guard, which I find interesting. I'm a former security guard at a local school. We dealt with violence and drugs, gangs, weapons at our school. I myself would have felt safer if I was armed.

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