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American Morning

11-Hour Wait to See Pope; Iraq Govt. Picks Prez; Halliburton Settles with Pentagon

Aired April 06, 2005 - 08:28   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.


SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back, everybody. I'm Soledad O'Brien in New York. But you're looking at pictures from Rome, Italy, this morning, which is where Bill Hemmer is.
Bill, these crowds, really, over the last couple of days we were saying they were impressive. But of course, as that number grows, we are even more moved by those who have come out to really spend their last moments with Pope John Paul II.

BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: They are extraordinary, Soledad. We thought they we were long yesterday. We thought they were long Monday night. But again today, I mean, they are twice as long as they were when we left them about late in the evening yesterday.

And there's a situation developing here, Soledad. The church is expecting to close on Thursday night, which is about another day-and- a-half. They want to close then so they can get ready for the funeral on Friday. If that's the case, and if these lines continue, there will be tens of thousands of people who will not get the opportunity to pay their final respects. And they are extraordinary. We'll take you down and talk with some of them in a moment here. Diana Muriel is working the cobblestone pavement of Vatican Square in a moment.

Also want to talk to Delia Gallagher right now, our Vatican analyst, because it was last hour when we found that the conclave would be set for April 18th. That's a Monday. That's about 12 days from now. And I want to talk, first of all, with that to Delia.

Any surprise, Delia, on the date?

All right, my apologies. We can't get that set up for us, but I know Diana Muriel is standing by. So let's check in with Diana and find out what she's discovering today with the mourners.

Good afternoon down there.

DIANA MURIEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello. Yes, it's a very, very hot day here in Rome. It's about 80 degrees centigrade, and this crowd standing here is absolutely jam-packed, one up against the other. There is almost no space for them to move.

The volunteers and the authorities here are handing out bottles of water to them, but we are seeing several people being taken away by ambulances, suffering from heat exhaustion as the temperature rises.

The people that have got to this stage have been waiting something in the region of eight hours to get to this point. But it's a further three hours or so before they'll actually manage to get into the basilica to see the body of Pope John Paul II lying in state. And that will be a minute or two, a minute or two before they have to file out of the room.

So an incredible wait for these people. And the ones at the back are bringing coats and hats with them, Bill, because it's going to get very cold when the sun goes down, and this wait is very long indeed -- Bill.

HEMMER: Well, we're hearing from city officials, these crowds are posing major problems. Can you talk more about that? And how will they handle it?

MURIEL: They are certainly, I mean, today the Rome authorities have decided to close off many of the streets leading to this area, the first time that they have done that. So in fact, my crew and I, we had to get here on foot. There was simply no way to get here in a taxi or in a car.

So they have closed off the roads, but they're also getting ready for the arrival of various dignitaries, which will be happening on Friday for the funeral. And the road closure will increase. They're going to shut the airport. They're going to have NATO surveillance planes flying over the city. There will be a complete shutdown of the airspace.

They want the dignitaries to arrive at the military airport. And the mayor of Rome, speaking on Tuesday, said he really hopes that the 200 or so heads of state, presidents and various monarchs who are coming to this, that they will come on Friday and leave on Friday. Simply because Rome cannot accommodate their needs, not only their accommodation, but also the security needs, most importantly, of all these people, these important people in the city.

The Roman authorities are at their limit. They've had practice with the G-8, practice with Bush's visit here in June. But even so, this is stretching them as far as they can go -- Bill.

HEMMER: All right, Diana, thanks for that.

Want to talk more about the news we learned last hour from the Vatican. Delia Gallagher, our Vatican analyst, is with me now.

Good afternoon to you.

DELIA GALLAGHER, CNN VATICAN ANALYST: Hi, Bill.

HEMMER: A couple of things we need to talk about, first of all, the will to be made public tomorrow. We know the cardinals have had already an opportunity to read that will. But difficult to get anything out of the cardinals.

GALLAGHER: You're not going to get anything out of the cardinals.

HEMMER: Well, we can try.

GALLAGHER: But it's wonderful even that they come to be here. I think, you know, their thoughts are still with the current pope, Pope John Paul II as well, we haven't even had the funeral yet. So I think that they're sensitive to that. And of course, they have this vow of secrecy. They're not going to tell you what's going on in the congregations, even the most minimal thing.

And that's fair enough. I think we ought to respect that.

HEMMER: Knowing that we do not have any facts within this will, we're all waiting to see if anything is in there that will surprise us.

GALLAGHER: Well, they're talking about a sort of spiritual will and a material will. So you heard Cardinal George say it was a very moving testament. So I assume that there is some sort of spiritual message for the world.

As far as the sort of material will, well, I don't think the pope had all that much to give away, to leave behind. But I don't know how much of the will they're going to give us, if they're going to tell us all of it or just this spiritual message.

HEMMER: It's clear though that we're getting the image now that this man, Pope John Paul II, was prepared for this moment...

GALLAGHER: Since 1979.

HEMMER: ... to leave the Earth.

GALLAGHER: Since 1979 was the first time he wrote this will and he updated it, obviously. That's more than 20 years. So he sort of kept updating it. But he was prepared, yes.

HEMMER: With regard to the conclave, do we know anything more other than the starting date on Monday April 18th?

GALLAGHER: We can only speculate, we can only speculate about what -- based on what's happened in the past and how we know the cardinals work out. The real information that we get about what happens in the conclave is in about 20 years' time.

So if you can wait that long, we'll have some idea of what happened. That's the way it's worked in the past. The cardinals will come out and tell you a little bit, but later on, after it's happened.

HEMMER: All right. Thanks, Delia. We'll talk to you a bit later, OK. Much more from Rome in a moment here. And very interesting here, Diana Muriel, Soledad, talk about these mourners and trying to see how the city can handle them. So we'll keep a close eye on it for you as we continue from here.

O'BRIEN: Clearly, the numbers issues going to be a huge issue. Bill, we're going to, of course, get back to you in a just a little bit. Other news around the globe this morning, Iraq has a new president. The interim assembly chose a president and two vice presidents today, each from one of Iraq's main ethnic groups. And the former president, Saddam Hussein, was watching on TV. Aneesh Raman is in Baghdad with the very latest.

Aneesh, good morning to you. Give us a sense of the difficulty in reaching these choices.

ANEESH RAMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Soledad, good morning to you. It really comes after weeks of political wrangling, days after the assembly elected its speaker. But a seminal moment for the transitional government, for the first time in half a century, an Iraqi president rising from free elections.

Jalal Talabani, a prominent Kurd, taking that spot. Also as you said, they elected two deputy presidents, Sunni Sheikh Ghazi al-Yawar, the interim president, and Shia Adel Abdel Mahdi of the United Iraqi Alliance.

All three will be sworn in in just under 24 hours. At that point, based on the transitional law, they will have two weeks to name a prime minister and his cabinet. But speaking with people there today, Soledad, it seems that this entire transitional government could be formed by as early as the end of next week.

O'BRIEN: It was interesting to me, Aneesh, that Saddam Hussein was allowed to watch this on television. Any idea why?

RAMAN: Well, we spoke yesterday to the interim human rights minister, Bakhtiar Amin, he said that for the first time, Saddam has been in a virtual informational blackout for two years now. He has been kept appraised of the government's motions as it goes forward, but for the first time really able to see this moment, perhaps a sign of confidence among the new government in this process. It is now permanent. They do not feel there is any danger to it being disrupted.

And for Saddam, a poignant moment in politics, to see a man who battled him for years, who led a people that Saddam persecuted for years, oppressively, come to the position that Saddam still claims a hold. So a very ironic situation, one, that shows how far this country has come in two years, Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Not all the cabinet positions have been agreed upon. What's the next step for this new government, Aneesh?

RAMAN: Well, once they're sworn in, we have the two-week time period that really will put an urgent push on the government to be formed. As we said, we expect it by the end of next week. The key ministry that is unresolved at the moment is the oil ministry, the rich ministry within the government. The Kurds have expressed interest, the Shia obviously as well, the Sunnis looking at their overall situation, and not just who gets it in terms of the group, but who specifically within those groups. So we don't know anything in terms of when that will be hammered out. But outside of that, and perhaps the defense ministry, everything else seems at least set in place for this government to form.

O'BRIEN: Aneesh Raman in Baghdad for us this morning. Aneesh, thanks.

Time to get another check of the headlines with Carol Costello.

Good morning, again.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, Soledad. Good morning, everyone.

"Now in the News," there are casualties following a helicopter crash in Afghanistan. The U.S. military says the chopper went down about 100 miles southwest of Kabul in severe weather. There are reports of at least nine people killed, but that has not been confirmed.

A changing of the guard in Monaco, Prince Albert is the new ruler following the death of his father, Prince Rainier, earlier today, of lung, heart, and kidney failure, that's what he died of. The prince had been one of the longest serving monarchs in the world. His reign spanned more than half a century. Prince Rainier was 81 years old.

Hospital officials in Ohio are scrambling to protect patients' personal and medical details, this after a box fell off a delivery truck, blowing thousands of confidential files across downtown Cleveland. The records including billing information and policy numbers. A hotline has now been set up for those concerned.

And an amazing finish for the women's NCCA champs. The Baylor Lady Bears rolling onto victory over Michigan State, 84-62. Baylor ends the season with 20 straight wins to become the first Big 12 team to win a championship in women's basketball. And coach Kim Mulkey- Robertson goes on to become the first woman to win a national championship as both a player and a coach.

(WEATHER REPORT)

O'BRIEN: Well, some stunning health news from one of America's greatest newsmen. Peter Jennings diagnosed with lung cancer. The daunting challenge that he faces up next on AMERICAN MORNING. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: Shocking many and still in shock himself, ABC News anchor Peter Jennings announced on Tuesday that he has cancer.

CNN's Adaora Udoji has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ADAORA UDOJI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): With a raspy voice, Peter Jennings made his announcement.

PETER JENNINGS, ABC ANCHOR: As some of you now know, I have learned in the last couple of days that I have lung cancer. Yes, I was a smoker until about 20 years ago. And I was weak and I smoked over 9/11. But whatever the reason, the news does slow you down a bit.

UDOJI: Chemotherapy begins Monday for the 66-year-old celebrated anchor, uncharted territory for a man who has traveled the world several times over, covering war, conflict, and triumph.

ANNOUNCER: This is "World News Tonight." Reporting from Washington, Peter Jennings.

UDOJI: Jennings became a fixture in millions of homes after taking over "World News Tonight" in 1983. But some wondered recently why he didn't travel to Southeast Asia to cover the tsunami catastrophe or travel to Rome after the pope's death.

HOWARD KURTZ, HOST, "RELIABLE SOURCES": This sudden news, sudden as well to Jennings, who got the diagnosis on Monday afternoon, has sent a shock wave through ABC News, and, in truth, through much of journalism.

UDOJI: Network rivals felt it from Rome to New York City.

BRIAN WILLIAMS, NBC ANCHOR: Peter is in our prayers tonight.

BOB SCHIEFFER, CBS ANCHOR: I just hope Peter knows that what he needs to do now is do what his doctor tells him. And I hope he also knows there are a lot of us out there that are pulling for him.

UDOJI: Indeed, he says the outpouring surprised him. Irrepressible, Jennings plans to keep working.

JENNINGS: Living is the key word. The National Cancer Institute says that we are survivors from the moment of diagnosis. I will continue to do the broadcast, on good days my voice will not always be like this.

UDOJI: Even now, with a hard road ahead, he made light of it.

JENNINGS: I wonder if other men and women ask their doctors right away, OK, doc, when does the hair go?

UDOJI: Adaora Udoji, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: Let's get right to CNN's medical correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen, she joins us from Atlanta this morning.

Elizabeth, he's sort of making a rueful joke about the hair loss, because, of course, he starts his chemotherapy treatments. What are the other side effects from chemotherapy? ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: There are several side effects from chemotherapy. But before we talk about that, Soledad, I want to talk a little bit about lung cancer and how even though he used the one term, lung cancer, there are different kinds of lung cancer. And the treatment that one would get would depend upon the type of lung cancer that someone has, and also, on how advanced it is.

And as we mentioned, he'll be undergoing chemotherapy. And some of those side effects include hair loss, which, of course, Mr. Jennings made a joke about during his broadcast last night. And some of the other side effects include a drop in blood pressure, gastrointestinal problems, mouth ulcers, and hair loss that we were talking about.

Now we mentioned chemotherapy. Other treatments for lung cancer also can involve surgery and radiation -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Can you tell how aggressive his lung cancer is by the treatment he's undergoing? Because obviously, while he has spoken very emotionally about what's happening in his life, he's not been very specific about his chances for survival.

COHEN: No, he hasn't been specific about his chances for survival. He also hasn't been specific about what type of lung cancer he has or how advanced it is. And those are really the two key questions. And so it's really difficult to say anything about his chances of beating this, because we don't know the answers to those two questions.

But let's talk about survival rates with the most common form of lung cancer. I have to say these are not happy numbers. Six out of 10 people die within the first year of being diagnosed with lung cancer. And seven to eight out of 10 will die within two years of being diagnosed. This is a tough cancer to beat. But again, it depends upon how early it's found and it depends upon what type.

O'BRIEN: He has said he plans to work, as we heard in Adaora's piece, that he may have a raspy voice or he may be a little crabby, but he's going to try to work. Is that realistic to think that you can undergo chemotherapy and also keep doing your job?

COHEN: Well, I think it depends upon whether you mean working every single day. That would probably prove to be a very, very difficult challenge. Or, as what he says, what people at ABC have said, is working but taking days off, taking time off as necessary and having someone else do his job. And that's probably a lot more realistic.

Now there's an important point I want to make about those statistics that we just saw that really aren't looking so good, is that, of course, statistics are based on treatments in the past and there are some new ways of delivering treatment. They don't extend life, necessarily, by all that much. They work better sometimes than what we have. And that's combining radiation and chemotherapy. That's sort of one of the newer things that doctors are doing, particularly doing that before surgery can be very helpful. There are also new chemotherapy drugs out there. There are also new forms of radiation therapy. And those are some of the things that doctors look to when they're treating lung cancer.

O'BRIEN: Elizabeth Cohen, Elizabeth, thanks for the report. And, of course, we want to add our voices to those who have said that they are certainly pulling for Peter Jennings with this terrible news that we are reporting today.

Ahead this morning, Andy Serwer is "Minding Your Business." He says one automaker plans to give away lots of cars. We've got details on that up next on AMERICAN MORNING, stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: Welcome back, everybody.

JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: General Motors is going to give away some cars. And the Army and Halliburton settle the tab for feeding the troops. Halliburton wins. Andy Serwer has that, he's "Minding Your Business."

ANDY SERWER, EDITOR-AT-LARGE, FORTUNE: Yes, good morning to you, Jack. The Pentagon has settled with Halliburton's Kellogg Brown & Root in a dispute over billing about feeding the troops. You remember this goes back to the first months of the war, the first nine months in fact.

Halliburton had billed the Pentagon $1.2 billion for feeding the troops. And at issue was $200 million of that bill. The Pentagon said, you billed us too much. For instance, in July of '03, they said they served 42,000 meals. The Pentagon went in and found they only did 14,000 meals.

CAFFERTY: A little discrepancy.

SERWER: And the Pentagon had this curious notion. They said, you know, we only really want to be billed for the meals that you actually serve.

CAFFERTY: Not three times as many.

SERWER: Yes, whereas these guys were saying, well, we were doing estimates. And the Pentagon is saying, we don't want estimates, we just want to know what you're actually doing.

CAFFERTY: Count the pork chops.

SERWER: Yes, and the company said they couldn't do it. Finally they had to go back and they figured this out and the Pentagon sort of said, well, we understand that they were serving 1.3 meals per soldier. So the company gets $150 million of the $200 million that it wanted. So you're right, Halliburton wins here. CAFFERTY: What a surprise.

SERWER: And this company has got a lot of issues. We've got a big story about them in the latest issue of Fortune magazine which details them in great detail.

CAFFERTY: May have to pick that up.

SERWER: Yes, thank you. Let's talk about General Motors, boy, another company with some issues. And they're going to be reviving their hot button program. You may remember they did this in January and February of last year. Hot button, that's correct. They brought 2 million customers into their showrooms. Not too many sales. They give away 1,000 vehicles, 1,000 vehicles when they're doing this.

CAFFERTY: Will they give us one?

SERWER: If you go in and you push the button and it's the right button, they'll give you one.

CAFFERTY: Oh, it's like a lottery.

SERWER: It is.

CAFFERTY: They wouldn't just like give us one.

SERWER: Well, maybe, maybe not.

CAFFERTY: We're sitting there talking about them on national television and there's no charge.

SERWER: General Motors could give us a car.

CAFFERTY: It's free.

SERWER: And they could give us a car.

CAFFERTY: This is free advertising.

O'BRIEN: Yes, but he started off by saying, a company with its own troubles, and that generally won't get you a car.

(LAUGHTER)

CAFFERTY: But this free advertising might help generate some sales.

SERWER: We could get a new car for sales.

CAFFERTY: So maybe they would like give us...

O'BRIEN: You guys are so transparent, it's killing me.

SERWER: We're too transparent.

CAFFERTY: Shameless. SERWER: All right. Quickie about the markets here, up yesterday, and futures are up this morning because the price of oil is falling. That's yesterday and we'll get to today at 9:30 Eastern.

CAFFERTY: All right. Thanks, Andy.

SERWER: You're welcome.

CAFFERTY: Time for the "File" Wednesday. Time -- there we go, time for things people say...

O'BRIEN: What?

(LAUGHTER)

CAFFERTY: Beginning with...

SERWER: It's just making things difficult.

CAFFERTY: "Understanding is vital in a modern society. If you see a rather manly person in women's clothes, it might not be a lesbian. It might be Camilla Parker Bowles."

(LAUGHTER)

SERWER: Nice.

CAFFERTY: That's Billy Crystal at last week's Gay & Lesbian Alliance Awards Dinner.

SERWER: Wow.

CAFFERTY: "This is not the homo land, this is the Holy Land." Rabbi Yehuda Levin protesting a 10-day gay pride festival scheduled for Jerusalem this summer. That will make him a lot of friends.

Or this: "I think there are some people in the audience who meant to be at the sexual reorientation class down the hall." Conservative columnist Ann Coulter after being repeatedly heckled during a lecture at Kansas University.

SERWER: I'm seeing a theme here.

O'BRIEN: Couldn't happen to a nicer gal.

(LAUGHTER)

SERWER: There is that too, definitely.

CAFFERTY: The preceding does not necessarily reflect the opinion of this reporter.

"I exercised very poor judgment in the course of reviewing the files." This, what a three dollar bill, former Clinton National Security Adviser Sandy Berger after pleading guilty to stealing documents from the National Archives. You may remember, at the time, one of the security guards said they thought they saw him stuffing these things in his socks. And he wasn't sure the next day whether he may have put some in his socks or not.

Try rolling up the evening newspaper, sticking it in your sock, and then see if you know whether it's there or not.

O'BRIEN: Depends on what your definition of "is" is.

CAFFERTY: Yes, and my favorite is this one: "I've already yielded more than a cheerleader at a drive-in." Texas State Senator Kel Seliger defending his resolution to name the Frontier Wagon as Texas's official state vehicle.

SERWER: That's the metaphor of the day right there, isn't it?

CAFFERTY: "Yielded more than a cheerleader at a drive-in." I have no idea what he's talking about.

SERWER: Neither do I.

O'BRIEN: And neither do I. So we're move along. Thank you, Jack, thank you, Andy.

(LAUGHTER)

O'BRIEN: Ahead in just a moment, we're going to take you back out to Bill Hemmer in Rome. He's got some details this morning on those rumors about the so-called secret cardinal. AMERICAN MORNING back right after this short break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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Aired April 6, 2005 - 08:28   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back, everybody. I'm Soledad O'Brien in New York. But you're looking at pictures from Rome, Italy, this morning, which is where Bill Hemmer is.
Bill, these crowds, really, over the last couple of days we were saying they were impressive. But of course, as that number grows, we are even more moved by those who have come out to really spend their last moments with Pope John Paul II.

BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: They are extraordinary, Soledad. We thought they we were long yesterday. We thought they were long Monday night. But again today, I mean, they are twice as long as they were when we left them about late in the evening yesterday.

And there's a situation developing here, Soledad. The church is expecting to close on Thursday night, which is about another day-and- a-half. They want to close then so they can get ready for the funeral on Friday. If that's the case, and if these lines continue, there will be tens of thousands of people who will not get the opportunity to pay their final respects. And they are extraordinary. We'll take you down and talk with some of them in a moment here. Diana Muriel is working the cobblestone pavement of Vatican Square in a moment.

Also want to talk to Delia Gallagher right now, our Vatican analyst, because it was last hour when we found that the conclave would be set for April 18th. That's a Monday. That's about 12 days from now. And I want to talk, first of all, with that to Delia.

Any surprise, Delia, on the date?

All right, my apologies. We can't get that set up for us, but I know Diana Muriel is standing by. So let's check in with Diana and find out what she's discovering today with the mourners.

Good afternoon down there.

DIANA MURIEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello. Yes, it's a very, very hot day here in Rome. It's about 80 degrees centigrade, and this crowd standing here is absolutely jam-packed, one up against the other. There is almost no space for them to move.

The volunteers and the authorities here are handing out bottles of water to them, but we are seeing several people being taken away by ambulances, suffering from heat exhaustion as the temperature rises.

The people that have got to this stage have been waiting something in the region of eight hours to get to this point. But it's a further three hours or so before they'll actually manage to get into the basilica to see the body of Pope John Paul II lying in state. And that will be a minute or two, a minute or two before they have to file out of the room.

So an incredible wait for these people. And the ones at the back are bringing coats and hats with them, Bill, because it's going to get very cold when the sun goes down, and this wait is very long indeed -- Bill.

HEMMER: Well, we're hearing from city officials, these crowds are posing major problems. Can you talk more about that? And how will they handle it?

MURIEL: They are certainly, I mean, today the Rome authorities have decided to close off many of the streets leading to this area, the first time that they have done that. So in fact, my crew and I, we had to get here on foot. There was simply no way to get here in a taxi or in a car.

So they have closed off the roads, but they're also getting ready for the arrival of various dignitaries, which will be happening on Friday for the funeral. And the road closure will increase. They're going to shut the airport. They're going to have NATO surveillance planes flying over the city. There will be a complete shutdown of the airspace.

They want the dignitaries to arrive at the military airport. And the mayor of Rome, speaking on Tuesday, said he really hopes that the 200 or so heads of state, presidents and various monarchs who are coming to this, that they will come on Friday and leave on Friday. Simply because Rome cannot accommodate their needs, not only their accommodation, but also the security needs, most importantly, of all these people, these important people in the city.

The Roman authorities are at their limit. They've had practice with the G-8, practice with Bush's visit here in June. But even so, this is stretching them as far as they can go -- Bill.

HEMMER: All right, Diana, thanks for that.

Want to talk more about the news we learned last hour from the Vatican. Delia Gallagher, our Vatican analyst, is with me now.

Good afternoon to you.

DELIA GALLAGHER, CNN VATICAN ANALYST: Hi, Bill.

HEMMER: A couple of things we need to talk about, first of all, the will to be made public tomorrow. We know the cardinals have had already an opportunity to read that will. But difficult to get anything out of the cardinals.

GALLAGHER: You're not going to get anything out of the cardinals.

HEMMER: Well, we can try.

GALLAGHER: But it's wonderful even that they come to be here. I think, you know, their thoughts are still with the current pope, Pope John Paul II as well, we haven't even had the funeral yet. So I think that they're sensitive to that. And of course, they have this vow of secrecy. They're not going to tell you what's going on in the congregations, even the most minimal thing.

And that's fair enough. I think we ought to respect that.

HEMMER: Knowing that we do not have any facts within this will, we're all waiting to see if anything is in there that will surprise us.

GALLAGHER: Well, they're talking about a sort of spiritual will and a material will. So you heard Cardinal George say it was a very moving testament. So I assume that there is some sort of spiritual message for the world.

As far as the sort of material will, well, I don't think the pope had all that much to give away, to leave behind. But I don't know how much of the will they're going to give us, if they're going to tell us all of it or just this spiritual message.

HEMMER: It's clear though that we're getting the image now that this man, Pope John Paul II, was prepared for this moment...

GALLAGHER: Since 1979.

HEMMER: ... to leave the Earth.

GALLAGHER: Since 1979 was the first time he wrote this will and he updated it, obviously. That's more than 20 years. So he sort of kept updating it. But he was prepared, yes.

HEMMER: With regard to the conclave, do we know anything more other than the starting date on Monday April 18th?

GALLAGHER: We can only speculate, we can only speculate about what -- based on what's happened in the past and how we know the cardinals work out. The real information that we get about what happens in the conclave is in about 20 years' time.

So if you can wait that long, we'll have some idea of what happened. That's the way it's worked in the past. The cardinals will come out and tell you a little bit, but later on, after it's happened.

HEMMER: All right. Thanks, Delia. We'll talk to you a bit later, OK. Much more from Rome in a moment here. And very interesting here, Diana Muriel, Soledad, talk about these mourners and trying to see how the city can handle them. So we'll keep a close eye on it for you as we continue from here.

O'BRIEN: Clearly, the numbers issues going to be a huge issue. Bill, we're going to, of course, get back to you in a just a little bit. Other news around the globe this morning, Iraq has a new president. The interim assembly chose a president and two vice presidents today, each from one of Iraq's main ethnic groups. And the former president, Saddam Hussein, was watching on TV. Aneesh Raman is in Baghdad with the very latest.

Aneesh, good morning to you. Give us a sense of the difficulty in reaching these choices.

ANEESH RAMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Soledad, good morning to you. It really comes after weeks of political wrangling, days after the assembly elected its speaker. But a seminal moment for the transitional government, for the first time in half a century, an Iraqi president rising from free elections.

Jalal Talabani, a prominent Kurd, taking that spot. Also as you said, they elected two deputy presidents, Sunni Sheikh Ghazi al-Yawar, the interim president, and Shia Adel Abdel Mahdi of the United Iraqi Alliance.

All three will be sworn in in just under 24 hours. At that point, based on the transitional law, they will have two weeks to name a prime minister and his cabinet. But speaking with people there today, Soledad, it seems that this entire transitional government could be formed by as early as the end of next week.

O'BRIEN: It was interesting to me, Aneesh, that Saddam Hussein was allowed to watch this on television. Any idea why?

RAMAN: Well, we spoke yesterday to the interim human rights minister, Bakhtiar Amin, he said that for the first time, Saddam has been in a virtual informational blackout for two years now. He has been kept appraised of the government's motions as it goes forward, but for the first time really able to see this moment, perhaps a sign of confidence among the new government in this process. It is now permanent. They do not feel there is any danger to it being disrupted.

And for Saddam, a poignant moment in politics, to see a man who battled him for years, who led a people that Saddam persecuted for years, oppressively, come to the position that Saddam still claims a hold. So a very ironic situation, one, that shows how far this country has come in two years, Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Not all the cabinet positions have been agreed upon. What's the next step for this new government, Aneesh?

RAMAN: Well, once they're sworn in, we have the two-week time period that really will put an urgent push on the government to be formed. As we said, we expect it by the end of next week. The key ministry that is unresolved at the moment is the oil ministry, the rich ministry within the government. The Kurds have expressed interest, the Shia obviously as well, the Sunnis looking at their overall situation, and not just who gets it in terms of the group, but who specifically within those groups. So we don't know anything in terms of when that will be hammered out. But outside of that, and perhaps the defense ministry, everything else seems at least set in place for this government to form.

O'BRIEN: Aneesh Raman in Baghdad for us this morning. Aneesh, thanks.

Time to get another check of the headlines with Carol Costello.

Good morning, again.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, Soledad. Good morning, everyone.

"Now in the News," there are casualties following a helicopter crash in Afghanistan. The U.S. military says the chopper went down about 100 miles southwest of Kabul in severe weather. There are reports of at least nine people killed, but that has not been confirmed.

A changing of the guard in Monaco, Prince Albert is the new ruler following the death of his father, Prince Rainier, earlier today, of lung, heart, and kidney failure, that's what he died of. The prince had been one of the longest serving monarchs in the world. His reign spanned more than half a century. Prince Rainier was 81 years old.

Hospital officials in Ohio are scrambling to protect patients' personal and medical details, this after a box fell off a delivery truck, blowing thousands of confidential files across downtown Cleveland. The records including billing information and policy numbers. A hotline has now been set up for those concerned.

And an amazing finish for the women's NCCA champs. The Baylor Lady Bears rolling onto victory over Michigan State, 84-62. Baylor ends the season with 20 straight wins to become the first Big 12 team to win a championship in women's basketball. And coach Kim Mulkey- Robertson goes on to become the first woman to win a national championship as both a player and a coach.

(WEATHER REPORT)

O'BRIEN: Well, some stunning health news from one of America's greatest newsmen. Peter Jennings diagnosed with lung cancer. The daunting challenge that he faces up next on AMERICAN MORNING. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: Shocking many and still in shock himself, ABC News anchor Peter Jennings announced on Tuesday that he has cancer.

CNN's Adaora Udoji has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ADAORA UDOJI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): With a raspy voice, Peter Jennings made his announcement.

PETER JENNINGS, ABC ANCHOR: As some of you now know, I have learned in the last couple of days that I have lung cancer. Yes, I was a smoker until about 20 years ago. And I was weak and I smoked over 9/11. But whatever the reason, the news does slow you down a bit.

UDOJI: Chemotherapy begins Monday for the 66-year-old celebrated anchor, uncharted territory for a man who has traveled the world several times over, covering war, conflict, and triumph.

ANNOUNCER: This is "World News Tonight." Reporting from Washington, Peter Jennings.

UDOJI: Jennings became a fixture in millions of homes after taking over "World News Tonight" in 1983. But some wondered recently why he didn't travel to Southeast Asia to cover the tsunami catastrophe or travel to Rome after the pope's death.

HOWARD KURTZ, HOST, "RELIABLE SOURCES": This sudden news, sudden as well to Jennings, who got the diagnosis on Monday afternoon, has sent a shock wave through ABC News, and, in truth, through much of journalism.

UDOJI: Network rivals felt it from Rome to New York City.

BRIAN WILLIAMS, NBC ANCHOR: Peter is in our prayers tonight.

BOB SCHIEFFER, CBS ANCHOR: I just hope Peter knows that what he needs to do now is do what his doctor tells him. And I hope he also knows there are a lot of us out there that are pulling for him.

UDOJI: Indeed, he says the outpouring surprised him. Irrepressible, Jennings plans to keep working.

JENNINGS: Living is the key word. The National Cancer Institute says that we are survivors from the moment of diagnosis. I will continue to do the broadcast, on good days my voice will not always be like this.

UDOJI: Even now, with a hard road ahead, he made light of it.

JENNINGS: I wonder if other men and women ask their doctors right away, OK, doc, when does the hair go?

UDOJI: Adaora Udoji, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: Let's get right to CNN's medical correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen, she joins us from Atlanta this morning.

Elizabeth, he's sort of making a rueful joke about the hair loss, because, of course, he starts his chemotherapy treatments. What are the other side effects from chemotherapy? ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: There are several side effects from chemotherapy. But before we talk about that, Soledad, I want to talk a little bit about lung cancer and how even though he used the one term, lung cancer, there are different kinds of lung cancer. And the treatment that one would get would depend upon the type of lung cancer that someone has, and also, on how advanced it is.

And as we mentioned, he'll be undergoing chemotherapy. And some of those side effects include hair loss, which, of course, Mr. Jennings made a joke about during his broadcast last night. And some of the other side effects include a drop in blood pressure, gastrointestinal problems, mouth ulcers, and hair loss that we were talking about.

Now we mentioned chemotherapy. Other treatments for lung cancer also can involve surgery and radiation -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Can you tell how aggressive his lung cancer is by the treatment he's undergoing? Because obviously, while he has spoken very emotionally about what's happening in his life, he's not been very specific about his chances for survival.

COHEN: No, he hasn't been specific about his chances for survival. He also hasn't been specific about what type of lung cancer he has or how advanced it is. And those are really the two key questions. And so it's really difficult to say anything about his chances of beating this, because we don't know the answers to those two questions.

But let's talk about survival rates with the most common form of lung cancer. I have to say these are not happy numbers. Six out of 10 people die within the first year of being diagnosed with lung cancer. And seven to eight out of 10 will die within two years of being diagnosed. This is a tough cancer to beat. But again, it depends upon how early it's found and it depends upon what type.

O'BRIEN: He has said he plans to work, as we heard in Adaora's piece, that he may have a raspy voice or he may be a little crabby, but he's going to try to work. Is that realistic to think that you can undergo chemotherapy and also keep doing your job?

COHEN: Well, I think it depends upon whether you mean working every single day. That would probably prove to be a very, very difficult challenge. Or, as what he says, what people at ABC have said, is working but taking days off, taking time off as necessary and having someone else do his job. And that's probably a lot more realistic.

Now there's an important point I want to make about those statistics that we just saw that really aren't looking so good, is that, of course, statistics are based on treatments in the past and there are some new ways of delivering treatment. They don't extend life, necessarily, by all that much. They work better sometimes than what we have. And that's combining radiation and chemotherapy. That's sort of one of the newer things that doctors are doing, particularly doing that before surgery can be very helpful. There are also new chemotherapy drugs out there. There are also new forms of radiation therapy. And those are some of the things that doctors look to when they're treating lung cancer.

O'BRIEN: Elizabeth Cohen, Elizabeth, thanks for the report. And, of course, we want to add our voices to those who have said that they are certainly pulling for Peter Jennings with this terrible news that we are reporting today.

Ahead this morning, Andy Serwer is "Minding Your Business." He says one automaker plans to give away lots of cars. We've got details on that up next on AMERICAN MORNING, stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: Welcome back, everybody.

JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: General Motors is going to give away some cars. And the Army and Halliburton settle the tab for feeding the troops. Halliburton wins. Andy Serwer has that, he's "Minding Your Business."

ANDY SERWER, EDITOR-AT-LARGE, FORTUNE: Yes, good morning to you, Jack. The Pentagon has settled with Halliburton's Kellogg Brown & Root in a dispute over billing about feeding the troops. You remember this goes back to the first months of the war, the first nine months in fact.

Halliburton had billed the Pentagon $1.2 billion for feeding the troops. And at issue was $200 million of that bill. The Pentagon said, you billed us too much. For instance, in July of '03, they said they served 42,000 meals. The Pentagon went in and found they only did 14,000 meals.

CAFFERTY: A little discrepancy.

SERWER: And the Pentagon had this curious notion. They said, you know, we only really want to be billed for the meals that you actually serve.

CAFFERTY: Not three times as many.

SERWER: Yes, whereas these guys were saying, well, we were doing estimates. And the Pentagon is saying, we don't want estimates, we just want to know what you're actually doing.

CAFFERTY: Count the pork chops.

SERWER: Yes, and the company said they couldn't do it. Finally they had to go back and they figured this out and the Pentagon sort of said, well, we understand that they were serving 1.3 meals per soldier. So the company gets $150 million of the $200 million that it wanted. So you're right, Halliburton wins here. CAFFERTY: What a surprise.

SERWER: And this company has got a lot of issues. We've got a big story about them in the latest issue of Fortune magazine which details them in great detail.

CAFFERTY: May have to pick that up.

SERWER: Yes, thank you. Let's talk about General Motors, boy, another company with some issues. And they're going to be reviving their hot button program. You may remember they did this in January and February of last year. Hot button, that's correct. They brought 2 million customers into their showrooms. Not too many sales. They give away 1,000 vehicles, 1,000 vehicles when they're doing this.

CAFFERTY: Will they give us one?

SERWER: If you go in and you push the button and it's the right button, they'll give you one.

CAFFERTY: Oh, it's like a lottery.

SERWER: It is.

CAFFERTY: They wouldn't just like give us one.

SERWER: Well, maybe, maybe not.

CAFFERTY: We're sitting there talking about them on national television and there's no charge.

SERWER: General Motors could give us a car.

CAFFERTY: It's free.

SERWER: And they could give us a car.

CAFFERTY: This is free advertising.

O'BRIEN: Yes, but he started off by saying, a company with its own troubles, and that generally won't get you a car.

(LAUGHTER)

CAFFERTY: But this free advertising might help generate some sales.

SERWER: We could get a new car for sales.

CAFFERTY: So maybe they would like give us...

O'BRIEN: You guys are so transparent, it's killing me.

SERWER: We're too transparent.

CAFFERTY: Shameless. SERWER: All right. Quickie about the markets here, up yesterday, and futures are up this morning because the price of oil is falling. That's yesterday and we'll get to today at 9:30 Eastern.

CAFFERTY: All right. Thanks, Andy.

SERWER: You're welcome.

CAFFERTY: Time for the "File" Wednesday. Time -- there we go, time for things people say...

O'BRIEN: What?

(LAUGHTER)

CAFFERTY: Beginning with...

SERWER: It's just making things difficult.

CAFFERTY: "Understanding is vital in a modern society. If you see a rather manly person in women's clothes, it might not be a lesbian. It might be Camilla Parker Bowles."

(LAUGHTER)

SERWER: Nice.

CAFFERTY: That's Billy Crystal at last week's Gay & Lesbian Alliance Awards Dinner.

SERWER: Wow.

CAFFERTY: "This is not the homo land, this is the Holy Land." Rabbi Yehuda Levin protesting a 10-day gay pride festival scheduled for Jerusalem this summer. That will make him a lot of friends.

Or this: "I think there are some people in the audience who meant to be at the sexual reorientation class down the hall." Conservative columnist Ann Coulter after being repeatedly heckled during a lecture at Kansas University.

SERWER: I'm seeing a theme here.

O'BRIEN: Couldn't happen to a nicer gal.

(LAUGHTER)

SERWER: There is that too, definitely.

CAFFERTY: The preceding does not necessarily reflect the opinion of this reporter.

"I exercised very poor judgment in the course of reviewing the files." This, what a three dollar bill, former Clinton National Security Adviser Sandy Berger after pleading guilty to stealing documents from the National Archives. You may remember, at the time, one of the security guards said they thought they saw him stuffing these things in his socks. And he wasn't sure the next day whether he may have put some in his socks or not.

Try rolling up the evening newspaper, sticking it in your sock, and then see if you know whether it's there or not.

O'BRIEN: Depends on what your definition of "is" is.

CAFFERTY: Yes, and my favorite is this one: "I've already yielded more than a cheerleader at a drive-in." Texas State Senator Kel Seliger defending his resolution to name the Frontier Wagon as Texas's official state vehicle.

SERWER: That's the metaphor of the day right there, isn't it?

CAFFERTY: "Yielded more than a cheerleader at a drive-in." I have no idea what he's talking about.

SERWER: Neither do I.

O'BRIEN: And neither do I. So we're move along. Thank you, Jack, thank you, Andy.

(LAUGHTER)

O'BRIEN: Ahead in just a moment, we're going to take you back out to Bill Hemmer in Rome. He's got some details this morning on those rumors about the so-called secret cardinal. AMERICAN MORNING back right after this short break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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