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American Morning
Iraq Assassination; Jackson's Ex-Wife to Testify; Story of Survival
Aired April 27, 2005 - 08:59 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. There is a developing story in Iraq. Insurgents today gunning down a member of the National Assembly. And the Pentagon answering tough questions about the fight it is in.
Michael Jackson as a husband and a father. His ex-wife set to testify today in that trial.
And five brand-new baby boys. The doctor who brought them into the world telling us about their amazing surrogate mother on this AMERICAN MORNING.
ANNOUNCER: From the CNN Broadcast Center in New York, this is AMERICAN MORNING with Bill Hemmer and Soledad O'Brien.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Welcome back, everybody.
Also ahead this morning, shocking reports about steroid abuse not by professional athletes but by little girls, girls as young as 9 years old. We're going to find out where they're getting steroids and why they want to use them.
HEMMER: Also this hour, an incredible story of survival. A skier breaking his leg in the wilderness of Colorado. He went eight days without food or water. How he made it and how he was rescued just in the nick of time.
And that man has a story, too. We'll get to it.
O'BRIEN: Mr. Cafferty.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: How are you doing, Soledad?
Two months on the road, President Bush trying to sell this idea of partial privatization of Social Security. And nobody is buying. The idea is going absolutely nowhere.
The system, on the other hand, is scheduled to run out of money at some point in the not too distant future. So what would you do about your Social Security to fix it?
It's your retirement program. The government isn't going to do anything. Give us some ideas. One of them might be awake and listening.
O'BRIEN: You have 59 minutes to solve the problem.
HEMMER: Thank you, Jack.
First to the headlines once again. Here is Carol Costello.
Good morning, Carol.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Good morning to all of you.
"Now in the News, a " CNN "Security Watch." U.S. officials apparently not doing enough to protect chemical plants from potential terrorists. That's what President Bush's former homeland security adviser is expected to tell Congress at the next hour. We'll bring you that testimony when it happens.
Stay tuned to CNN day and night for the most reliable news about your security.
Testimony resumes this morning in a preliminary hearing for a U.S. Marine accused of killing two unarmed Iraqi. Second Lieutenant Ilario Pantano claims he shot the men in self-defense. Two fellow Marines testified Tuesday that Pantano shot the Iraqis in the back. If formally tried and convicted, Pantano could face the death penalty.
First came Enrique, then Jorge, then three other brothers. A surrogate mother delivers five, count them, five baby boys. Teresa Anderson delivered the rare quintuplets by cesarean section within five minutes and without complications. Wow. But her bond with the family did not stop there.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. JOHN ELLIOTT, DELIVERED QUINTUPLETS: I know Teresa didn't know what she was getting herself into when she -- when she first found out she was carrying five, and then had to make the decision to continue with the pregnancy and to carry five babies.
She then kind of backtracked on her initial contract with the Morenos, where she was going to be paid $15,000 to be a surrogate and carry one baby for them. And she very graciously and generously decided that they need the money more than she and her family did.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Ah. Four of the boys should go home early next month. One has a defective heart and will stay a little longer in the hospital. All are said to be doing well, though, this morning.
And the world's largest passenger plane touching down. The Airbus A380 completing its maiden voyage, landing in southern France after about four hours in flight.
This massive, 500-plus seater jet is expected to be ready for its first passengers next year. Officials and the crew holding a news conference right now. We'll get more details from Richard Quest in the next half-hour.
He's been there the whole time. Watched the takeoff. And he was funny earlier this morning.
O'BRIEN: He was a riot. Complaining a little because they were delayed.
COSTELLO: I know. And he has these little cufflinks of planes. It's kind of nauseating, but funny at the same time.
HEMMER: Perfect for today. Thank you, Carol.
COSTELLO: Sure.
HEMMER: New development now out of Iraq. A female member of Iraq's National Assembly has been gunned down. It happened in eastern Baghdad a short time ago. The woman had been a member of the outgoing legislative bloc of the prime minister, Ayad Allawi.
The attackers knocked on her door. She answered and they opened fire.
The attack comes as the assembly is trying to decide on a cabinet. And all this activity and the increasing frequency of insurgent attacks brings us to our Pentagon correspondent, Barbara Starr.
And Barbara, good morning there.
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Bill.
Well, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff says that the insurgency is just about at the level it was a year ago. So, is there progress in Iraq? The Pentagon insists yes.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
STARR (voice-over): In Najaf, a funeral procession for 19 Iraqis shot dead in a stadium by insurgents. Iraqi police fire into the air to break up the crowd. It is Iraqis bearing the brunt of the recent increase in attacks. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff says the insurgents still have a significant capability to create havoc.
GEN. RICHARD MYERS, CHAIRMAN, JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF: Well, I think their capacity is -- stays about the same. And where they are right now is where they are almost a year ago.
STARR: After the January elections, attacks had dropped significantly. But in recent days, had risen slightly, according to officials.
MYERS: But the month of April is the -- they've been using more vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices, which are obviously very deadly, and they've used some of them in tandem. STARR: In Baghdad, a deadly car bomb outside a popular ice cream shop. As people rushed to help victims, a second bomb explodes. Twenty-five Iraqis are reported killed.
Secretary Rumsfeld says U.S. troops are now paying less attention to fighting insurgents and more to training Iraqi security forces. And he says just counting the number of attacks each day doesn't give the full picture.
DONALD RUMSFELD, DEFENSE SECRETARY: The insurgency could be actually increasing and our capability to deal with it increasing, in which case the level stays about the same.
STARR: Despite his earlier remarks that the insurgency had stayed level, Myers says the U.S. is on the road to victory.
MYERS: I'm going to say this: I think we are winning. OK? I think we're definitely winning. I think we've been winning for sometime.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
STARR: And Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Bill, is continuing to say that he believes it is economic and political progress in Iraq that will ultimately win against the insurgents -- Bill.
HEMMER: Barbara Starr from the Pentagon -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: To the Michael Jackson trial now and the appearance later today by his ex-wife, Debbie Rowe. Legal analysts tell us don't expect any juicy details about her relationship with the pop star. But CNN's Sibila Vargas give us a little peek behind the curtain.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SIBILA VARGAS, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): She's the mother of Michael Jackson's two oldest children, and for three years was the megastar's wife. But for the most part, Debbie Rowe is still a mystery.
JIM MORET, JACKSON POOL LEGAL ANALYST: And that's really by design. She was a simple person before, and she still leads a simple life.
VARGAS: Born in Spokane, Washington, in 1958, Rowe's parents divorced when she was 15. Rowe then moved to California, finished high school, and began working for Dr. Arnold Klein.
MORET: They met when she was working as a receptionist at Michael Jackson's dermatologist office. They formed a friendship that was on another level. And it was primarily due to Michael Jackson's skin condition that they formed this friendship.
VARGAS: In November of 1996, after 15 years of friendship, Jackson and Rowe were married in a private civil ceremony in Sydney, Australia. But it was a passionless marriage, a Jackson biographer says. The two did not even live together.
J. RANDY TARABORRELLI, JACKSON BIOGRAPHER: I think their marriage was really for the purposes of public relations and image- making, but not for the purposes of, you know, love and romance.
MORET: Debbie Rowe was married so that she could produce children for Michael Jackson. I don't even know that marriage would have come into the picture had Michael Jackson's mother, Kathrine, not interceded and felt that they should be married.
VARGAS: Ultimately, Rowe signed away her parental rights to both Prince Michael Jr. and Paris Michael Katherine.
MORET: She basically said, I have no visitation rights, I have no rights whatsoever . They're your children. Michael Jackson, you're the father, they're your children.
VARGAS: But by October of '99, the former doctor's assistant had filed for divorce. And now six years later, amid Jackson's child molestation trial, Rowe's parental rights have been reinstated.
MORET: She has something at stake. She has continued support and she has the visitation and custody of her children at stake.
VARGAS: Sibila Vargas, CNN, Los Angeles.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: So how could Rowe's testimony affect the trial? CNN senior legal analyst Jeff Toobin with us this morning.
Nice to see you.
JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SR. LEGAL ANALYST: Hello.
O'BRIEN: Whoa, lots to talk about. All right. Let's talk about what she could say on the stand.
The judge has said, we're going to -- we're going to limit what she has to say. But that doesn't mean that she may only talk about the conspiracy, the videotape.
TOOBIN: Right. I mean, one of the many things I don't understand about this case is precisely why she's testifying.
I mean, I know what she's going to say. She's going to say that she was recruited, like the family of the accuser was recruited, to participate in this rebuttal videotape to the Martin Bashir documentary that started this whole thing.
O'BRIEN: Consistency is what she's supposed to be showing the jury: it happened to me, it happened to her, the mother.
TOOBIN: Right. I mean, the idea is, well, she was kind of coerced into this scripted videotape just like the family of the accuser was coerced. But, I mean, there are so many inferences you have to draw there.
First, that Michael Jackson personally had something to do with this, not all the hangers-on who are actually directing this videotape. Also, that there was some coercion involved and that Michael Jackson directed the coercion. I mean, it's a very attenuated chain from Michael Jackson's alleged criminality to anything involving this testimony, but that's what she's going to testify about.
O'BRIEN: OK. So shaky ground there.
But couldn't the judge allow questions that I think are more -- of more interest to sort of lay people, like myself, who are watching about, what was it like to be married to Michael Jackson? How exactly did you get these kids? You know, I mean, those are kind of the same...
(CROSSTALK)
TOOBIN: Well, that's what we all want to know, of course.
O'BRIEN: And you don't think any of that's going to be allowed?
TOOBIN: Well, I don't think very much of that is going to be allowed. Because remember, when they were married for that three-year period, any communication between them is covered by the marital privilege and cannot be disclosed in court under any circumstances. So that is going to be completely off limits.
Potentially something regarding their post-divorce relationship might be relevant to this trial. Any sort of coercion, any sort of...
O'BRIEN: She knew him for 15 years beforehand. I mean, can't she talk about...
TOOBIN: She could talk about something relating to their prior -- you know, before their marriage, if it's relevant to the case. And I don't know what is.
O'BRIEN: There are some people who with would say she, like some of the other mothers in this whole thing, kind of gave their kids up for money. They were bought out. They sort of sold their children. You know, they cut off all -- all communication, handed them over to Michael Jackson.
Why are none of these people taking -- going to be charged in any way, or even, say, some of the security guards who say they witnessed what they now believe was inappropriate? I mean, why are none of these people being targeted?
TOOBIN: Well, it's a little difficult to identify what crime they committed, except sort of generally being a bad mother. What's curious about the trial is, you have to remember, is they're being cross-examined by Michael Jackson's lawyer, who doesn't have any interest in saying "How crazy can you be to turn over your children to Michael Jackson?"
O'BRIEN: Because it hurts his own client.
TOOBIN: It hurts his own client.
O'BRIEN: So what's the strategy, then, with someone like Debbie Rowe?
TOOBIN: Well, I think basically to try to stay away from her. Basically say, look, Michael Jackson personally didn't tell you to do anything, did he? When you made this videotape, you were saying what you knew to be the truth, right?
And that's it. I think that is all Tom Mesereau, the defense attorney, really wants to do. He doesn't want to get into what any normal person would say, is how can you possibly do this?
O'BRIEN: Yes, it will be interesting. So maybe not such a big bombshell ending to the prosecution's case.
TOOBIN: I don't think she's actually going to be that significant.
O'BRIEN: We're going to know today, won't we?
TOOBIN: We'll know.
O'BRIEN: All right. Jeff, thanks -- Bill.
HEMMER: How about a check of the weather? Eleven minutes past the hour, back to Chad Myers at the CNN center looking at Florida, huh?
Good morning.
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Looking at a very wet Florida, Bill. Good morning.
(WEATHER REPORT)
HEMMER: All right, Chad.
O'BRIEN: Get the umbrella, put the umbrella back, get the umbrella, put the umbrella back. Chad, you know, that kind of looks like it's going to happen here, too. All right, Chad. Thanks.
MYERS: You're welcome.
O'BRIEN: Well, a cross-country skier on the brink of death all because of a broken leg, trapped in the wilderness for eight days without food or water. It's one man's incredible story of survival.
HEMMER: Also, a follow-up to this disturbing trend: young girls turning to steroids. Experts say the big reason for it has nothing to do with sports. We'll get to that.
O'BRIEN: And cabby chaos in New York City. New details this morning on how a single driver cut such a wide path of destruction. That's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HEMMER: Now to this man in Colorado, recovering after spending eight days in the snowy mountains with a broken leg. Rescuers found him on Monday, frost-bitten, hypothermic, but he was alive. And doctors, while marveling at his resilience -- resilience, rather, friends say they are not surprised for a minute.
Keith Oppenheim has the story this morning.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KEITH OPPENHEIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The people who found Charles Horton say this is one rescue they won't ever forget.
SGT. ANTHONY MAZZOLA, RIO BLANCO SHERIFF'S OFFICE: I would say this is going to be on top of our list, a man that survived eight days in the winter like that with a broken leg. That's amazing.
OPPENHEIM: The doctor who treated him said Horton wasn't your average outdoorsman.
DR. MICHAEL SISK, YAMPA VALLEY MEDICAL CENTER: And Charlie's been trained. And I think that a lot of people in that situation would not have had a chance of making it.
OPPENHEIM: On Sunday, April 17, Charlie Horton drove to a wilderness area in northwest Colorado to go cross-country skiing. On a moderate slope, he fell and broke his right leg.
CHULA WHEBY, SURVIVOR'S FRIEND: He didn't panic. He remained calm.
OPPENHEIM: Chula Wheby's family owns the home in Steamboat Springs, where Horton, a certified message therapist, lives. A week after the accident, Wheby and their family discovered his cat unfed, his phone messages unanswered.
WHEBY: We all got back on Sunday from our vacation and looked around, called friends. They hadn't heard from him.
Listened to his answering machine, and on there it said, "Where are you? I thought we thought we had an appointment." And it was not like him.
OPPENHEIM: Fortunately, the family knew generally where Horton had planned to go skiing. As rescue teams began to search, conditions were getting worse.
MARY O'BRIEN, SURVIVOR'S FRIEND: Sunday it started to rain and snow. And he -- by Sunday night, he was soaked pretty much to the skin. And at that time, he questioned his ability to survive much longer. OPPENHEIM: Despite his broken leg, Horton built a shelter to stay warm. At one point, he tried to crawl three miles to his car, supporting himself on his elbows.
It was eight days before he was found. And Horton was suffering from dehydration, hypothermia and frostbite. He was very, very cold.
MAZZOLA: And Mr. Horton was quiet. You know, at a temperature of 88 degrees, most people are quiet.
OPPENHEIM: Horton is now in stable condition. And while his survival may have surprised the experts, it didn't really surprise his friends.
Keith Oppenheim, CNN, Chicago.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HEMMER: Charles is expected for surgery later today. And experts say he survived because he had the right gear, a space blanket, a means to start a fire, and a whistle to alert rescuers. Age 55. He's doing all right -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Well, today was a big day for the future of air travel, the maiden flight of the world's largest passenger airplane. We're going to take you live to the site of the historic flight ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HEMMER: All right. Welcome back. And to Jack again and the "Question of the Day."
CAFFERTY: Thank you, Bill.
The effort by the president over the last two months to convince the country that we should partially privatize Social Security appears now headed for failure. It's not going to happen. The Democrats are opposed. Some Republicans are opposed.
So that bring us to Plan B, since it's your retirement program and the government appears intent on doing nothing at this point. We're asking, what would you do about Social Security?
Kevin in Florida writes, "First, I'd make it so the government couldn't use any of the Social Security money for anything but Social Security." There's a concept. "Then, I'd insist the federal government pay back the trillions of dollars it has borrowed from the Social Security trust fund."
Yes, there is no trust fund. There's a box of IOUs -- they're called government bonds -- in some basement in Washington. That's the trust fund.
Zeke in Arizona writes, "I'm a 22-year-old male. I can tell you right now, Jack, my plan for Social Security, the one for my entire generation, we just won't count on it."
Gregg in Minnesota writes, "Eliminate pork barrel projects, the decades-long missile defense project, the journey to Mars. Use a tiny amount of that to solve the problem."
And Dwight in Ohio writes, "2001, the stock market tanks. I'm still writing off the losses. My wife, five years my junior, loses 50 percent of her 401(k). It has still not recovered to 2001 levels, and she has two years until retirement. What do I do now, George?"
O'BRIEN: The amazing thing, I think, is the government runs, you know, the business of the nation in a way you would never ever in a zillion years do with your own budget at home, borrowing money. I mean, not ever. It's laughable.
CAFFERTY: You'd go broke. The government has a printing press. They just print more money, which is, you know...
O'BRIEN: Right.
HEMMER: Keep it coming.
O'BRIEN: I'm starting to sound like you, Jack.
CAFFERTY: Well, you know, there's some serious structural financial problems in this country. Social Security's only one of them.
O'BRIEN: Yes.
CAFFERTY: The deficits, both the government deficit, the trade deficit, Medicare is going broke at a faster rate than Social Security. It's just -- it's just terrible.
O'BRIEN: Congress is tackling steroids today, though.
CAFFERTY: Maybe one could be hopeful of being run over by a cab here in New York and being put out of one's misery.
O'BRIEN: Well, did you see those pictures?
CAFFERTY: Yes, I did.
O'BRIEN: And, I mean, you're being sarcastic, but did you -- I mean, people were seriously injured. We've got a follow-up to that story we were telling you about yesterday.
Police in New York now trying to determine what exactly drove that cab driver to go on this wild ride through one of the busiest intersections in New York City. Several people were hurt, including an woman who was in the back of the taxi. She was eight months pregnant.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was just a flash, the way he hit everybody. I was standing right in front of the chain reaction of the other cabs up there. It was just crunch, crunch, crunch.
O'BRIEN (voice-over): It was chaos at the crossroads of the world when an out of control cab carrying a pregnant passenger cut a path of destruction through New York's Times Square, injuring 11 people, three critically.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He was speeding like lightning. But there was so much traffic, I don't know where he was trying to go.
O'BRIEN: Police say the cabby was trying to get across 42nd Street at 8th Avenue, one of the city's busiest intersections. They say he rear-ended a station wagon, hit a pedestrian, not once, but twice. He then sped off, then plowed into a minibus, another car, and a row of taxis before coming to a complete stop.
Maria Stein, eight months pregnant, had just left her obstetrician's office when she got into the cab. Doctors say they were forced to deliver her baby.
DR. MAURIZIO MIGLETTA, BELLEVUE HOSPITAL TRAUMA DIRECTOR: Given the extent of her injuries and this potentially life-threatening injury, we did not want to take a chance with a baby that -- a fetus that is viable outside of mom. So we felt it was prudent to deliver the baby at this point and take care of mom.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: She's in critical condition. The baby is said to be doing well, though.
The pedestrian that was struck twice is also in critical condition. And the driver faces possible criminal charges. I mean...
HEMMER: You can probably bank on that.
O'BRIEN: Wow.
HEMMER: And this guy stopped and started, and stopped and started. Hit one pedestrian twice.
CAFFERTY: A few years ago, right over here on 5th Avenue, there was a cab that jumped the sidewalk. There was a blind man sitting against the wall of a building probably 20 feet from the street with his seeing eye dog. That's where he sat every day, trying to collect whatever he could collect to get back that day.
A cab coming up 5th Avenue, far in excess of the speed limit, jumps the sidewalk and manages to careen all the way across 25 feet of sidewalk and smacks up against the blind man and his dog, pinning him against the building. If that guy is not in jail today, he should be. And this guy who did this yesterday should be put in jail.
A lot of these cab drivers in the city are terrific, but a lot of them are a bunch of cowboys that drive around here with no regard for the traffic laws, the pedestrians, the fact that they're in a city of eight million people. They're morons. O'BRIEN: But...
CAFFERTY: But the city lets them get away with it.
(CROSSTALK)
O'BRIEN: But the traffic usually doesn't let you go that fast.
CAFFERTY: It doesn't matter. The way they operate their vehicles, put him in jail. You injure a woman and her fetus, and there are people are in critical condition, the guy belongs in prison. That's irresponsible.
HEMMER: The overwhelming majority of them are, though...
CAFFERTY: Well, I'm not sure it's the overwhelming majority. I would say the majority. But there are a lot of them who are absolute jerks.
I see them every day. I've been riding in these streets for 27 years.
You can look right out this window. Watch them run red lights, run people out of the crosswalks. It's dangerous riding in some of the cabs in this city. And not enough is being done to protect the safety of the riding passengers and the tax-paying public that uses these streets.
And something ought to be done about it. Carl (ph), is that enough for you?
O'BRIEN: Yes, that's enough for me.
CAFFERTY: You're welcome. Carl's (ph) our producer.
O'BRIEN: And save your "Question of the Day" for tomorrow.
CAFFERTY: No, no. But he said hang around, maybe you've got something to say.
O'BRIEN: No. I'm kidding.
CAFFERTY: It's disgraceful the way they let cabs operate here.
O'BRIEN: Yes.
CAFFERTY: It's the city government's fault. Do something about it.
O'BRIEN: OK.
CAFFERTY: All right?
O'BRIEN: I hear you, sister.
CAFFERTY: I'm going to go get a cab now. O'BRIEN: That doesn't get you out for the rest of the show, though.
We've got a short break. We're back in just a moment, everybody.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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Aired April 27, 2005 - 08:59 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. There is a developing story in Iraq. Insurgents today gunning down a member of the National Assembly. And the Pentagon answering tough questions about the fight it is in.
Michael Jackson as a husband and a father. His ex-wife set to testify today in that trial.
And five brand-new baby boys. The doctor who brought them into the world telling us about their amazing surrogate mother on this AMERICAN MORNING.
ANNOUNCER: From the CNN Broadcast Center in New York, this is AMERICAN MORNING with Bill Hemmer and Soledad O'Brien.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Welcome back, everybody.
Also ahead this morning, shocking reports about steroid abuse not by professional athletes but by little girls, girls as young as 9 years old. We're going to find out where they're getting steroids and why they want to use them.
HEMMER: Also this hour, an incredible story of survival. A skier breaking his leg in the wilderness of Colorado. He went eight days without food or water. How he made it and how he was rescued just in the nick of time.
And that man has a story, too. We'll get to it.
O'BRIEN: Mr. Cafferty.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: How are you doing, Soledad?
Two months on the road, President Bush trying to sell this idea of partial privatization of Social Security. And nobody is buying. The idea is going absolutely nowhere.
The system, on the other hand, is scheduled to run out of money at some point in the not too distant future. So what would you do about your Social Security to fix it?
It's your retirement program. The government isn't going to do anything. Give us some ideas. One of them might be awake and listening.
O'BRIEN: You have 59 minutes to solve the problem.
HEMMER: Thank you, Jack.
First to the headlines once again. Here is Carol Costello.
Good morning, Carol.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Good morning to all of you.
"Now in the News, a " CNN "Security Watch." U.S. officials apparently not doing enough to protect chemical plants from potential terrorists. That's what President Bush's former homeland security adviser is expected to tell Congress at the next hour. We'll bring you that testimony when it happens.
Stay tuned to CNN day and night for the most reliable news about your security.
Testimony resumes this morning in a preliminary hearing for a U.S. Marine accused of killing two unarmed Iraqi. Second Lieutenant Ilario Pantano claims he shot the men in self-defense. Two fellow Marines testified Tuesday that Pantano shot the Iraqis in the back. If formally tried and convicted, Pantano could face the death penalty.
First came Enrique, then Jorge, then three other brothers. A surrogate mother delivers five, count them, five baby boys. Teresa Anderson delivered the rare quintuplets by cesarean section within five minutes and without complications. Wow. But her bond with the family did not stop there.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. JOHN ELLIOTT, DELIVERED QUINTUPLETS: I know Teresa didn't know what she was getting herself into when she -- when she first found out she was carrying five, and then had to make the decision to continue with the pregnancy and to carry five babies.
She then kind of backtracked on her initial contract with the Morenos, where she was going to be paid $15,000 to be a surrogate and carry one baby for them. And she very graciously and generously decided that they need the money more than she and her family did.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Ah. Four of the boys should go home early next month. One has a defective heart and will stay a little longer in the hospital. All are said to be doing well, though, this morning.
And the world's largest passenger plane touching down. The Airbus A380 completing its maiden voyage, landing in southern France after about four hours in flight.
This massive, 500-plus seater jet is expected to be ready for its first passengers next year. Officials and the crew holding a news conference right now. We'll get more details from Richard Quest in the next half-hour.
He's been there the whole time. Watched the takeoff. And he was funny earlier this morning.
O'BRIEN: He was a riot. Complaining a little because they were delayed.
COSTELLO: I know. And he has these little cufflinks of planes. It's kind of nauseating, but funny at the same time.
HEMMER: Perfect for today. Thank you, Carol.
COSTELLO: Sure.
HEMMER: New development now out of Iraq. A female member of Iraq's National Assembly has been gunned down. It happened in eastern Baghdad a short time ago. The woman had been a member of the outgoing legislative bloc of the prime minister, Ayad Allawi.
The attackers knocked on her door. She answered and they opened fire.
The attack comes as the assembly is trying to decide on a cabinet. And all this activity and the increasing frequency of insurgent attacks brings us to our Pentagon correspondent, Barbara Starr.
And Barbara, good morning there.
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Bill.
Well, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff says that the insurgency is just about at the level it was a year ago. So, is there progress in Iraq? The Pentagon insists yes.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
STARR (voice-over): In Najaf, a funeral procession for 19 Iraqis shot dead in a stadium by insurgents. Iraqi police fire into the air to break up the crowd. It is Iraqis bearing the brunt of the recent increase in attacks. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff says the insurgents still have a significant capability to create havoc.
GEN. RICHARD MYERS, CHAIRMAN, JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF: Well, I think their capacity is -- stays about the same. And where they are right now is where they are almost a year ago.
STARR: After the January elections, attacks had dropped significantly. But in recent days, had risen slightly, according to officials.
MYERS: But the month of April is the -- they've been using more vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices, which are obviously very deadly, and they've used some of them in tandem. STARR: In Baghdad, a deadly car bomb outside a popular ice cream shop. As people rushed to help victims, a second bomb explodes. Twenty-five Iraqis are reported killed.
Secretary Rumsfeld says U.S. troops are now paying less attention to fighting insurgents and more to training Iraqi security forces. And he says just counting the number of attacks each day doesn't give the full picture.
DONALD RUMSFELD, DEFENSE SECRETARY: The insurgency could be actually increasing and our capability to deal with it increasing, in which case the level stays about the same.
STARR: Despite his earlier remarks that the insurgency had stayed level, Myers says the U.S. is on the road to victory.
MYERS: I'm going to say this: I think we are winning. OK? I think we're definitely winning. I think we've been winning for sometime.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
STARR: And Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Bill, is continuing to say that he believes it is economic and political progress in Iraq that will ultimately win against the insurgents -- Bill.
HEMMER: Barbara Starr from the Pentagon -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: To the Michael Jackson trial now and the appearance later today by his ex-wife, Debbie Rowe. Legal analysts tell us don't expect any juicy details about her relationship with the pop star. But CNN's Sibila Vargas give us a little peek behind the curtain.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SIBILA VARGAS, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): She's the mother of Michael Jackson's two oldest children, and for three years was the megastar's wife. But for the most part, Debbie Rowe is still a mystery.
JIM MORET, JACKSON POOL LEGAL ANALYST: And that's really by design. She was a simple person before, and she still leads a simple life.
VARGAS: Born in Spokane, Washington, in 1958, Rowe's parents divorced when she was 15. Rowe then moved to California, finished high school, and began working for Dr. Arnold Klein.
MORET: They met when she was working as a receptionist at Michael Jackson's dermatologist office. They formed a friendship that was on another level. And it was primarily due to Michael Jackson's skin condition that they formed this friendship.
VARGAS: In November of 1996, after 15 years of friendship, Jackson and Rowe were married in a private civil ceremony in Sydney, Australia. But it was a passionless marriage, a Jackson biographer says. The two did not even live together.
J. RANDY TARABORRELLI, JACKSON BIOGRAPHER: I think their marriage was really for the purposes of public relations and image- making, but not for the purposes of, you know, love and romance.
MORET: Debbie Rowe was married so that she could produce children for Michael Jackson. I don't even know that marriage would have come into the picture had Michael Jackson's mother, Kathrine, not interceded and felt that they should be married.
VARGAS: Ultimately, Rowe signed away her parental rights to both Prince Michael Jr. and Paris Michael Katherine.
MORET: She basically said, I have no visitation rights, I have no rights whatsoever . They're your children. Michael Jackson, you're the father, they're your children.
VARGAS: But by October of '99, the former doctor's assistant had filed for divorce. And now six years later, amid Jackson's child molestation trial, Rowe's parental rights have been reinstated.
MORET: She has something at stake. She has continued support and she has the visitation and custody of her children at stake.
VARGAS: Sibila Vargas, CNN, Los Angeles.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: So how could Rowe's testimony affect the trial? CNN senior legal analyst Jeff Toobin with us this morning.
Nice to see you.
JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SR. LEGAL ANALYST: Hello.
O'BRIEN: Whoa, lots to talk about. All right. Let's talk about what she could say on the stand.
The judge has said, we're going to -- we're going to limit what she has to say. But that doesn't mean that she may only talk about the conspiracy, the videotape.
TOOBIN: Right. I mean, one of the many things I don't understand about this case is precisely why she's testifying.
I mean, I know what she's going to say. She's going to say that she was recruited, like the family of the accuser was recruited, to participate in this rebuttal videotape to the Martin Bashir documentary that started this whole thing.
O'BRIEN: Consistency is what she's supposed to be showing the jury: it happened to me, it happened to her, the mother.
TOOBIN: Right. I mean, the idea is, well, she was kind of coerced into this scripted videotape just like the family of the accuser was coerced. But, I mean, there are so many inferences you have to draw there.
First, that Michael Jackson personally had something to do with this, not all the hangers-on who are actually directing this videotape. Also, that there was some coercion involved and that Michael Jackson directed the coercion. I mean, it's a very attenuated chain from Michael Jackson's alleged criminality to anything involving this testimony, but that's what she's going to testify about.
O'BRIEN: OK. So shaky ground there.
But couldn't the judge allow questions that I think are more -- of more interest to sort of lay people, like myself, who are watching about, what was it like to be married to Michael Jackson? How exactly did you get these kids? You know, I mean, those are kind of the same...
(CROSSTALK)
TOOBIN: Well, that's what we all want to know, of course.
O'BRIEN: And you don't think any of that's going to be allowed?
TOOBIN: Well, I don't think very much of that is going to be allowed. Because remember, when they were married for that three-year period, any communication between them is covered by the marital privilege and cannot be disclosed in court under any circumstances. So that is going to be completely off limits.
Potentially something regarding their post-divorce relationship might be relevant to this trial. Any sort of coercion, any sort of...
O'BRIEN: She knew him for 15 years beforehand. I mean, can't she talk about...
TOOBIN: She could talk about something relating to their prior -- you know, before their marriage, if it's relevant to the case. And I don't know what is.
O'BRIEN: There are some people who with would say she, like some of the other mothers in this whole thing, kind of gave their kids up for money. They were bought out. They sort of sold their children. You know, they cut off all -- all communication, handed them over to Michael Jackson.
Why are none of these people taking -- going to be charged in any way, or even, say, some of the security guards who say they witnessed what they now believe was inappropriate? I mean, why are none of these people being targeted?
TOOBIN: Well, it's a little difficult to identify what crime they committed, except sort of generally being a bad mother. What's curious about the trial is, you have to remember, is they're being cross-examined by Michael Jackson's lawyer, who doesn't have any interest in saying "How crazy can you be to turn over your children to Michael Jackson?"
O'BRIEN: Because it hurts his own client.
TOOBIN: It hurts his own client.
O'BRIEN: So what's the strategy, then, with someone like Debbie Rowe?
TOOBIN: Well, I think basically to try to stay away from her. Basically say, look, Michael Jackson personally didn't tell you to do anything, did he? When you made this videotape, you were saying what you knew to be the truth, right?
And that's it. I think that is all Tom Mesereau, the defense attorney, really wants to do. He doesn't want to get into what any normal person would say, is how can you possibly do this?
O'BRIEN: Yes, it will be interesting. So maybe not such a big bombshell ending to the prosecution's case.
TOOBIN: I don't think she's actually going to be that significant.
O'BRIEN: We're going to know today, won't we?
TOOBIN: We'll know.
O'BRIEN: All right. Jeff, thanks -- Bill.
HEMMER: How about a check of the weather? Eleven minutes past the hour, back to Chad Myers at the CNN center looking at Florida, huh?
Good morning.
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Looking at a very wet Florida, Bill. Good morning.
(WEATHER REPORT)
HEMMER: All right, Chad.
O'BRIEN: Get the umbrella, put the umbrella back, get the umbrella, put the umbrella back. Chad, you know, that kind of looks like it's going to happen here, too. All right, Chad. Thanks.
MYERS: You're welcome.
O'BRIEN: Well, a cross-country skier on the brink of death all because of a broken leg, trapped in the wilderness for eight days without food or water. It's one man's incredible story of survival.
HEMMER: Also, a follow-up to this disturbing trend: young girls turning to steroids. Experts say the big reason for it has nothing to do with sports. We'll get to that.
O'BRIEN: And cabby chaos in New York City. New details this morning on how a single driver cut such a wide path of destruction. That's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HEMMER: Now to this man in Colorado, recovering after spending eight days in the snowy mountains with a broken leg. Rescuers found him on Monday, frost-bitten, hypothermic, but he was alive. And doctors, while marveling at his resilience -- resilience, rather, friends say they are not surprised for a minute.
Keith Oppenheim has the story this morning.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KEITH OPPENHEIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The people who found Charles Horton say this is one rescue they won't ever forget.
SGT. ANTHONY MAZZOLA, RIO BLANCO SHERIFF'S OFFICE: I would say this is going to be on top of our list, a man that survived eight days in the winter like that with a broken leg. That's amazing.
OPPENHEIM: The doctor who treated him said Horton wasn't your average outdoorsman.
DR. MICHAEL SISK, YAMPA VALLEY MEDICAL CENTER: And Charlie's been trained. And I think that a lot of people in that situation would not have had a chance of making it.
OPPENHEIM: On Sunday, April 17, Charlie Horton drove to a wilderness area in northwest Colorado to go cross-country skiing. On a moderate slope, he fell and broke his right leg.
CHULA WHEBY, SURVIVOR'S FRIEND: He didn't panic. He remained calm.
OPPENHEIM: Chula Wheby's family owns the home in Steamboat Springs, where Horton, a certified message therapist, lives. A week after the accident, Wheby and their family discovered his cat unfed, his phone messages unanswered.
WHEBY: We all got back on Sunday from our vacation and looked around, called friends. They hadn't heard from him.
Listened to his answering machine, and on there it said, "Where are you? I thought we thought we had an appointment." And it was not like him.
OPPENHEIM: Fortunately, the family knew generally where Horton had planned to go skiing. As rescue teams began to search, conditions were getting worse.
MARY O'BRIEN, SURVIVOR'S FRIEND: Sunday it started to rain and snow. And he -- by Sunday night, he was soaked pretty much to the skin. And at that time, he questioned his ability to survive much longer. OPPENHEIM: Despite his broken leg, Horton built a shelter to stay warm. At one point, he tried to crawl three miles to his car, supporting himself on his elbows.
It was eight days before he was found. And Horton was suffering from dehydration, hypothermia and frostbite. He was very, very cold.
MAZZOLA: And Mr. Horton was quiet. You know, at a temperature of 88 degrees, most people are quiet.
OPPENHEIM: Horton is now in stable condition. And while his survival may have surprised the experts, it didn't really surprise his friends.
Keith Oppenheim, CNN, Chicago.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HEMMER: Charles is expected for surgery later today. And experts say he survived because he had the right gear, a space blanket, a means to start a fire, and a whistle to alert rescuers. Age 55. He's doing all right -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Well, today was a big day for the future of air travel, the maiden flight of the world's largest passenger airplane. We're going to take you live to the site of the historic flight ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HEMMER: All right. Welcome back. And to Jack again and the "Question of the Day."
CAFFERTY: Thank you, Bill.
The effort by the president over the last two months to convince the country that we should partially privatize Social Security appears now headed for failure. It's not going to happen. The Democrats are opposed. Some Republicans are opposed.
So that bring us to Plan B, since it's your retirement program and the government appears intent on doing nothing at this point. We're asking, what would you do about Social Security?
Kevin in Florida writes, "First, I'd make it so the government couldn't use any of the Social Security money for anything but Social Security." There's a concept. "Then, I'd insist the federal government pay back the trillions of dollars it has borrowed from the Social Security trust fund."
Yes, there is no trust fund. There's a box of IOUs -- they're called government bonds -- in some basement in Washington. That's the trust fund.
Zeke in Arizona writes, "I'm a 22-year-old male. I can tell you right now, Jack, my plan for Social Security, the one for my entire generation, we just won't count on it."
Gregg in Minnesota writes, "Eliminate pork barrel projects, the decades-long missile defense project, the journey to Mars. Use a tiny amount of that to solve the problem."
And Dwight in Ohio writes, "2001, the stock market tanks. I'm still writing off the losses. My wife, five years my junior, loses 50 percent of her 401(k). It has still not recovered to 2001 levels, and she has two years until retirement. What do I do now, George?"
O'BRIEN: The amazing thing, I think, is the government runs, you know, the business of the nation in a way you would never ever in a zillion years do with your own budget at home, borrowing money. I mean, not ever. It's laughable.
CAFFERTY: You'd go broke. The government has a printing press. They just print more money, which is, you know...
O'BRIEN: Right.
HEMMER: Keep it coming.
O'BRIEN: I'm starting to sound like you, Jack.
CAFFERTY: Well, you know, there's some serious structural financial problems in this country. Social Security's only one of them.
O'BRIEN: Yes.
CAFFERTY: The deficits, both the government deficit, the trade deficit, Medicare is going broke at a faster rate than Social Security. It's just -- it's just terrible.
O'BRIEN: Congress is tackling steroids today, though.
CAFFERTY: Maybe one could be hopeful of being run over by a cab here in New York and being put out of one's misery.
O'BRIEN: Well, did you see those pictures?
CAFFERTY: Yes, I did.
O'BRIEN: And, I mean, you're being sarcastic, but did you -- I mean, people were seriously injured. We've got a follow-up to that story we were telling you about yesterday.
Police in New York now trying to determine what exactly drove that cab driver to go on this wild ride through one of the busiest intersections in New York City. Several people were hurt, including an woman who was in the back of the taxi. She was eight months pregnant.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was just a flash, the way he hit everybody. I was standing right in front of the chain reaction of the other cabs up there. It was just crunch, crunch, crunch.
O'BRIEN (voice-over): It was chaos at the crossroads of the world when an out of control cab carrying a pregnant passenger cut a path of destruction through New York's Times Square, injuring 11 people, three critically.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He was speeding like lightning. But there was so much traffic, I don't know where he was trying to go.
O'BRIEN: Police say the cabby was trying to get across 42nd Street at 8th Avenue, one of the city's busiest intersections. They say he rear-ended a station wagon, hit a pedestrian, not once, but twice. He then sped off, then plowed into a minibus, another car, and a row of taxis before coming to a complete stop.
Maria Stein, eight months pregnant, had just left her obstetrician's office when she got into the cab. Doctors say they were forced to deliver her baby.
DR. MAURIZIO MIGLETTA, BELLEVUE HOSPITAL TRAUMA DIRECTOR: Given the extent of her injuries and this potentially life-threatening injury, we did not want to take a chance with a baby that -- a fetus that is viable outside of mom. So we felt it was prudent to deliver the baby at this point and take care of mom.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: She's in critical condition. The baby is said to be doing well, though.
The pedestrian that was struck twice is also in critical condition. And the driver faces possible criminal charges. I mean...
HEMMER: You can probably bank on that.
O'BRIEN: Wow.
HEMMER: And this guy stopped and started, and stopped and started. Hit one pedestrian twice.
CAFFERTY: A few years ago, right over here on 5th Avenue, there was a cab that jumped the sidewalk. There was a blind man sitting against the wall of a building probably 20 feet from the street with his seeing eye dog. That's where he sat every day, trying to collect whatever he could collect to get back that day.
A cab coming up 5th Avenue, far in excess of the speed limit, jumps the sidewalk and manages to careen all the way across 25 feet of sidewalk and smacks up against the blind man and his dog, pinning him against the building. If that guy is not in jail today, he should be. And this guy who did this yesterday should be put in jail.
A lot of these cab drivers in the city are terrific, but a lot of them are a bunch of cowboys that drive around here with no regard for the traffic laws, the pedestrians, the fact that they're in a city of eight million people. They're morons. O'BRIEN: But...
CAFFERTY: But the city lets them get away with it.
(CROSSTALK)
O'BRIEN: But the traffic usually doesn't let you go that fast.
CAFFERTY: It doesn't matter. The way they operate their vehicles, put him in jail. You injure a woman and her fetus, and there are people are in critical condition, the guy belongs in prison. That's irresponsible.
HEMMER: The overwhelming majority of them are, though...
CAFFERTY: Well, I'm not sure it's the overwhelming majority. I would say the majority. But there are a lot of them who are absolute jerks.
I see them every day. I've been riding in these streets for 27 years.
You can look right out this window. Watch them run red lights, run people out of the crosswalks. It's dangerous riding in some of the cabs in this city. And not enough is being done to protect the safety of the riding passengers and the tax-paying public that uses these streets.
And something ought to be done about it. Carl (ph), is that enough for you?
O'BRIEN: Yes, that's enough for me.
CAFFERTY: You're welcome. Carl's (ph) our producer.
O'BRIEN: And save your "Question of the Day" for tomorrow.
CAFFERTY: No, no. But he said hang around, maybe you've got something to say.
O'BRIEN: No. I'm kidding.
CAFFERTY: It's disgraceful the way they let cabs operate here.
O'BRIEN: Yes.
CAFFERTY: It's the city government's fault. Do something about it.
O'BRIEN: OK.
CAFFERTY: All right?
O'BRIEN: I hear you, sister.
CAFFERTY: I'm going to go get a cab now. O'BRIEN: That doesn't get you out for the rest of the show, though.
We've got a short break. We're back in just a moment, everybody.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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