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CNN Live Sunday
Protesters Heckle Laura Bush in Israel; Will Senate Vote on Nuclear Option This Week?
Aired May 22, 2005 - 11:00 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.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: It is 11:00 a.m. in the nation's capital which could see a watershed battle in Congress this week and 6:00 in the evening in Jerusalem where first lady Laura Bush is visiting right now. I'm Fredricka Whitfield at CNN's global headquarters.
Ahead this hour, tense moments for Mrs. Bush as protesters heckle her while touring religious shrines in Jerusalem.
Will a Senate vote this week change the constitutional balance of power between the president and Congress? We'll get a preview.
Also, internal documents released by a southern California archdiocese and why they're vindication for some parishioners, but first the top stories.
South Korea begins shipping 200,000 tons of fertilize to North Korea in a humanitarian gesture, South Korea pledged to send the fertilizer during meetings between the two nations last week.
U.S. and Afghan soldiers battled insurgents near the Afghan, Pakistan border last night. At least nine rebels were killed while Afghan troops suffered eight losses. That's according to Afghan and Pakistani sources. A U.S. military statement said 12 insurgents were killed.
Investigators in Idaho are still searching for clues and a suspect in the disappearance of a nine-year-old boy and his eight- year-old sister. Dylan and Shasta Groene have been missing since Monday when police found the bodies of their mother, brother and the mother's boyfriend.
We begin this hour with tense scenes as first lady Laura Bush continues her tour of the Middle East, protesters heckled Mrs. Bush, then shoved and shouted as she stopped at two holy sites in Jerusalem. Security forces moved in to protect the first lady. CNN White House correspondent Suzanne Malveaux is traveling with Mrs. Bush. She joins us now from Jerusalem. Suzanne, some very tense moments. Describe what happened.
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Fred, really it was a very frightening and chaotic scene traveling with the first lady when she went to the dome of the rock, a Muslim holy site. She did as custom requires, wore a scarf. She was approaching the mosque, as custom requires, taking off her shoes as well. There were several people who started chanting, saying you don't belong here, get out of here. This is an insult to the Muslims.
At that point there was really a crowd that gathered, got very close to the first lady, people trying to take pictures, some protesters, really a crush of people as she tried to enter the mosque and literally grabbed the sleeve of one of her Secret Service agents as well as her press secretary, pulled me in the mosque with the first lady and that's when she was taken on a brief tour inside. There were some women inside who were praying there who turned around, obviously, irritated at her presence, at the group that was surrounding there.
But really what happened was afterwards, the tension after she left the mosque. That is when a whole group of protesters came out, got very close to the first lady. Her Secret Service got very close inside and then you had another barricade, that of Israeli security that linked arms and tried to walk her down as she walked very slowly. There were people that were crushing in, getting closer and closer. There was a little boy who I saw who went running up to the first lady. One of the Israeli guards drew his gun at the little boy. The little boy went running away. They came down again, many shouts. A lot of confusion, very, very tense situation as they walked her to her motorcade and sped off.
All of this, Fred, was really just the second scene here. There was a scene previous to that. This, a demonstration at the western wall, a very important site for Israeli Jews. She went up there to offer a prayer as is the custom. A barricade was set up. Both sides again, you had the kinds of crowds that were just unbelievable surrounding the first lady, a crush of people. Then a protest that emerged right -- literally like right beside her, a group of about 40 women or so who were shouting "free Pollard now, free Pollard now," with pictures of him. That of course referring to Jonathan Pollard, the Israeli spy who's being held in the United States. A big controversy over that issue, very difficult for her to even leave that particular scene.
One woman, I saw, almost got to touch the first lady when she reached over the barricade to give her one of these photos and they're whisked her away. At one point, they had people surrounding her vehicle in the motorcade on the top -- on the front of the car, rather, the Secret Service as well as Israeli security had to disperse the crowd before they quickly sped off. The first lady was able to talk a little bit after all of this in Jericho. She was visiting with some Palestinian women. She didn't speak specifically about these incidents, but she talked about the broader mission of bringing Israelis and Palestinians together.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LAURA BUSH, FIRST LADY: The chance that we have right now to have peace, to have a Palestinian state living by a secure and safe Israel, both living in democracy, is as close as we've been in a really long time. It will take a lot of baby steps and I'm sure it will be a few steps backward on the way, but I want to encourage the people that I met with earlier and the women that I just met with that the United States will do what they can in this process.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MALVEAUX: Now, Fred this has really been billed as a goodwill mission by the first lady really to go out to the Middle East. Some of it, of course, to repair the damage, the perception of the United States after the Iraq war, after the Abu Ghraib prison scandal and in many recent scandals that have occurred as well. Obviously, a very difficult and tense situation, perhaps much more difficult than they anticipated. Fred?
WHITFIELD: All right. Suzanne, thanks so much. Close call for the first lady and those traveling with her, including you, Suzanne Malveaux from Jerusalem.
We're getting some new information now in the case of a missing eight-year-old girl in Florida. With us now on the telephone, Sergeant Dan Boland with the Lake Worth, Florida, police department. Sergeant, thanks so much for being with us. We know that Lachele Nance was reported missing or last seen early this morning and possibly taken by two people in a truck? What's the latest?
SGT. DAN BOLAND, LAKE WORTH, FLORIDA POLICE: The information we have is that two white males seen leaving the area in an older model brown station wagon with a dent on the back trunk of the vehicle. These individuals, we believe, have possibly involved with the kidnap of this child.
WHITFIELD: Have you received any word of whether anyone has seen this vehicle or whether there were any other witnesses?
BOLAND: No. We haven't received any word yet on the vehicle. We're hoping that individuals that see the newscast or hear it will please call their local 911 if they have any information at all.
WHITFIELD: Was she taken from her home, inside the home, outside? Can you give us a bit more of a description on exactly what took place?
BOLAND: From what we've been told, it happened inside the home. The individual somehow ended up going outside the house. We don't know if she was carried out or pulled out and last seen leaving in that vehicle.
WHITFIELD: All right. Sergeant Dan Boland, thanks so much, of Lake Worth police, still an Amber alert on the lookout for an eight- year-old Lachele Nance, last seen near her home this morning. Be on the lookout for a four-door brown station wagon and that's the picture of the little girl, Lachele Nance.
This could be a watershed week in Washington as the Senate fight nears the boiling point. Caught in the middle of this partisan battle, President Bush's judicial nominees and the outcome could completely change the way Congress does business. CNN's Elaine Quijano is with us now from Washington to explain what's going on and what exactly is at stake. Elaine.
ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello to you, Fredricka. On Friday, Senate Republicans called for a procedural vote to end debate on the nomination of Priscilla Owen to the fifth U.S. circuit court of appeals. Now that move essentially brought the Senate or brings the Senate one step closer to a showdown, to a confrontation over the use of filibusters in order to block judicial nominees.
Now of course in public, there has been some heated rhetoric on both sides publicly over this nomination and the future of the filibuster in general. Republicans say that President Bush's nominees deserve an up or down vote and have threatened to do away with the filibuster which for more than 200 years has allowed for unlimited debate in the Senate. Democrats have threatened right back, saying that if Republicans do exercise that option, something that Democrats have labeled the nuclear option, that the Democrats will slow down Senate business to a crawl. They say that these nominees put forth by President Bush are out of the mainstream and that is why they're continuing to do that.
Now as all of this fighting has been going on in public, behind the scenes, behind closed doors, moderates have been trying to work out a compromise. At last word, direct talks have been put on hold until Monday but it's expected that talks are continuing by phone this weekend according to sources close to the situation. But all of this of course has implications far beyond these particular nominations, with people anticipating a vacancy on the Supreme Court. What happens with these nominees being seen as a test case for President Bush's future judicial picks. Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: Now Elaine, those are the impending tense moments in Washington for later on this week, but how about the tense moments this weekend involving the first lady? Does the White House have any kind of reaction about what happened?
QUIJANO: No reaction just yet, but this coming just days before Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian leader is set to come here to Washington, but so far, of course this is a delicate situation. The White House not choosing to comment at this particular point. Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: All right. Elaine Quijano in Washington, thanks so much.
At this hour, Afghan President Hamid Karzai is delivering the commencement address at Boston University. His visit comes as questions are being raised about his leadership in the battle against heroin trade in his homeland. The "New York Times" reports that American officials warned this month in an internal memo that a U.S.- financed poppy eradication program has been ineffective in part because of Karzai.
The memo says, quote, although President Karzai has been well aware of the difficulty of trying to implement an effective ground eradication program, he has been unwilling to assert strong leadership even in his own province of Kandahar, end quote. The Afghan president responds to the report on CNN's late edition with Wolf Blitzer.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) HAMID KARZAI, AFGHAN PRESIDENT: We have done our job. The Afghan people have done our job. Now the international community must come and provide alternative revenue to the Afghan people which they've not done so far. Let's stop this blame game. Instead of blaming Afghanistan, the international community must now come and fulfill its own objective to the Afghan people.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: You can watch the entire interview with the Afghan president on CNN's "LATE EDITION" with Wolf Blitzer. That's coming up at noon Eastern.
Thousands of Indonesian Muslims staged an anti-American protest today. Their mass produced signs condemned alleged American desecration of Islam's holy Koran. Twenty five Islamic groups and political parties organized the demonstration. The peaceful march ended at the gates of the U.S. embassy at Jakarta. An embassy spokesman said the protest was expected and not unusual.
Saddam Hussein reportedly will sue a British tabloid for printing photos on of him in his jail cell in his underwear. President Bush said he didn't think the images would incite further anti-American sentiment. We'll see if Barbara Ferguson agrees with that. She's the Washington bureau chief for Arab News. Good to see you Barbara.
BARBARA FERGUSON, ARAB NEWS: Hi, Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: Does the president have it right that these photographs will not incite further violence or unrest?
FERGUSON: Fredricka, the unfortunate thing is that I think that the Islamic world is losing their faith in America. They have held us in high esteem for so many years. They wanted to emulate us. They wanted to be like us. We were the superpower that represented democracy to them. Unfortunately, we went into Iraq and I was with the Marines and I have tremendous respect for the Marines when we went in and we've lost our footing on the ground since we've been in there.
We promised them democracy. We've delivered a civil war. There's violence throughout the country. We've shown disrespect for their religion and we haven't given them any of the democracy, quote, unquote that we've promised them and the problem is, Fredricka, is that it used to be a handful of extremists who were saying that America is exporting terrible things to our country, but now it seems as though the majority of Iraqis are saying, if this is your democracy, we don't want it.
WHITFIELD: So first the Abu Ghraib photos, reports of abuse in Afghanistan, by the hands of U.S. military and then reports, true or false, about the desecration of the Koran at Guantanamo. This only adds insult to injury, doesn't it?
FERGUSON: It goes on and on and on. One of the saddest things that I've ever heard was an Iraqi man who told me this week, we used to think that Americans were good people before they came to our country.
WHITFIELD: Oh, my goodness. Now the first lady visiting in Middle Eastern country, she is heckled while in Jerusalem. And this is supposed to be a PR campaign and a continuation of winning the hearts and minds. It seems like the damage is irreparable, isn't it?
FERGUSON: Well, I mean, I would like to think that there's always hope. We're there. We're involved and I don't want to give up hope yet, but I'm stunned and I'm very saddened to see what's happened. But there is just this groundswell of anger and it's interesting that it's happening in the Palestinian territories as well as throughout the Middle East and all of the Muslim countries. I think, truly, now the time has come where the administration needs to step up to the base and take some measures that would show more respect. Really Karen Hughes needs to come to Washington and she needs to help the Bush administration sort through this in the Middle East, because I think we're sending the wrong message no matter how good our intentions are there.
WHITFIELD: So face time doesn't seem like it's the answer. Of the people that you've talked to in covering stories for Arab News, what is it that people want to see from Americans at this juncture to try to repair the damage that's been done?
FERGUSON: Right. Right. Well, obviously, I think the good example would be in Iraq right now. They've lost faith in our military because of the few unfortunate examples of terrible abuse that have taken place and I certainly don't want to lead people to believe that all of the military is behaving like this. I don't think they are, but the problem is and I can't emphasize this enough, is that we used to begin -- we used to believe with Abu Ghraib, for example, that these were just a few misfits that were behaving badly.
But now we're seeing this terrible behavior being repeated through all the prisons in Afghanistan and in Iraq and the people on the ground there are wondering who's behind this? Obviously, there must be a higher power. They're wondering is it the officials? Is it the officers who are telling their enlisted men to behave like this? If we can get a hold of this, if we could find out who's behind all of this and show the Iraqis, look, we really are serious about this. We don't want this abuse to continue. That would help.
WHITFIELD: Persistent questions of who is in charge and who can help correct it. Barbara Ferguson, Washington bureau chief of Arab News. Thanks for joining us this Sunday.
FERGUSON: Always a pleasure, Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: Coming up on CNN LIVE SUNDAY.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We've been told that we have emotional problems and we're lunatics and now these documents come out that show that everything we've said all along has been right.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: Internal church documents are released and alleged abuse victims are able to start the healing process.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: Some Catholics in the Los Angeles area say they feel vindicated by the release of internal church documents last week. The release was part of a court settlement and it reveals a cover-up of alleged sexual abuse of children by priests. Peter Viles has details.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PETER VILES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When Joelle Casteix flips through her high school yearbook, this is what she sees.
JOELLE CASTEIX, ALLEGED SEXUAL ABUSE VICTIM: Here's the man who molested me.
VILES: She remembers herself as a fragile teenager silently suffering sexual abuse from a teacher at Modern Day, a prestigious Catholic school run by the diocese of Orange in California.
CASTEIX: They let this guy molest me. They let him get me pregnant. They let him give me a venereal disease and they tried to shut me up by telling me I was going to go to juvenile hall.
VILES: She says the lowest point was the day she went by herself to have an abortion
CASTEIX: All by myself. I didn't tell anybody, I walked there. I stayed for a while and someone gave me a ride home.
VILES: How old were you?
CASTEIX: 17.
VILES: It took years, but Casteix finally fought back. She joined with other alleged victims of abuse who sued the church and settled for $100 million. The church did not admit liability and the man she accused has maintained his innocence, but more important to her, the church agreed to release internal documents that show years of covering up for abusive priests and employees.
CASTEIX: I wanted these documents out because I knew they existed. I knew that there was paperwork going back 20 years involving a lot of these cases that show that the diocese knew they had abusers working for them. They kept those abusers. They moved them around and they shuffled the kids and lied to the parents and lied to parishioners to cover it up.
VILES: According to the church documents, in one case the diocese was informed in 1983 of a priest's pattern of sexual abuse. Yet there is no record it reported the abuse to authorities, no record the priest was kept from children, no record that parishioners were informed and three years later, the same priest was convicted of child molestation. Church officials say the release of these documents has been painful.
SHIRL GIACOMI, CHANCELLOR, DIOCESE OF ORANGE: It's a horrible chapter for the church. It's been very sad. I've been disgusted and discouraged by what I've learned just in these past few days. It was a horrible thing that happened to children.
VILES: The current bishop of Orange, Todd Brown, was not involved in the cover up, but has apologized repeatedly. In a dramatic gesture of seeking forgiveness, he washed the feet of abuse victims' parents. Later he took a hammer and posted on a church door, a promise to do everything possible to heal victims of sexual abuse. For Joelle, the healing has been difficult. Because she's been so outspoken, she's suffered in her marketing career and is shunned by many in her community.
CASTEIX: We've been called liars. We've been told we're trying to hurt the church. We've been told we're greedy. We've been told that we have emotional problems and we're lunatics. And now these documents comes out that show that everything we've said all along has been right.
VILES: For CNN, Peter Viles, Newport Beach, California.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: A look at your weather coming up. The calendar says spring, but it sure feels like summer in a lot of places. Rob Marciano has your forecast up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: "RELIABLE SOURCES" is straight ahead on CNN. Let's check in with Howard Kurtz for a look at what's coming up -- Howard.
HOWARD KURTZ, CNN ANCHOR, RELIABLE SOURCES: Thanks, Fredricka. Coming up, "Newsweek" promising this morning to crack down on the use of anonymous sources such as the one that lead to its now discredited story about a U.S. prison guard defiling the Koran. How bad was the magazine's mistake and should it be blamed for the riots that followed or is the White House just trying to make "Newsweek" a scapegoat?
Plus, how are those photos of Saddam Hussein leaked to London's "Sun" tabloid and should editors have printed them in Britain and here in the U.S.? That's all coming up on "RELIABLE SOURCES."
WHITFIELD: I look forward to all of that. Thanks a lot, Howard. Let's check in with Rob Marciano for a peek outside. Sure feels like summer in a lot of places. That could be good.
ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Not too bad, record-breaking heat though across the southwest. That's where it certainly feels like summer today. In other spots, little cool with some showers and in the middle a little weak front. Not a tremendous amount of stormy weather today. That's good news. This is spring time. We can easily see rough-and-tumble thunderstorms. There was a batch of thunderstorms that rolled just south of St. Louis overnight. They are dissipating as they head towards and say Little Rock. And just north of Chicago over Lake Michigan, pressing east across the lower part of Michigan is a batch of some showers and storms. And this moisture spinning its wheels off the Atlantic back across New England, cool, cloudy. Light showers expected today but really the cool weather is going to be an ongoing theme and then the clear skies and the hot weather, the ongoing theme across much of the southwest.
And this weather pattern is going to stick with us in some capacity over the next several days and that means cool at times, showery conditions across the northeast. Just keep that in mind as you do your planning. 59 degrees for a high in New York today, 97, look at that heat build in Texas, 110 Phoenix, 88 LA and then tomorrow, things do begin to moderate just a little bit. 84 degrees here in Atlanta. I'm done in about a half an hour, Freddy. Enjoy the rest of your day.
WHITFIELD: You enjoy it. I don't like seeing that rain though in the Washington D.C. area. I've got a niece graduating today at the University of Maryland. Break the clouds a little bit, so they can have a nice graduation day.
MARCIANO: I'll do my best.
WHITFIELD: Congrats to her. All right. Thanks a lot Rob.
That's going to do it for CNN LIVE SUNDAY. Up next, RELIABLE SOURCES with Howard Kurtz. Then on LATE EDITION, Wolf Blitzer interviews Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai, who is on a trip to the United States for a commencement address in part.
And at 2:00 Eastern, "PEOPLE IN THE NEWS" profiles "American Idol" judge Simon Cowell and reality television pioneer Mark Burnett and developer Donald Trump.
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Aired May 22, 2005 - 11:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: It is 11:00 a.m. in the nation's capital which could see a watershed battle in Congress this week and 6:00 in the evening in Jerusalem where first lady Laura Bush is visiting right now. I'm Fredricka Whitfield at CNN's global headquarters.
Ahead this hour, tense moments for Mrs. Bush as protesters heckle her while touring religious shrines in Jerusalem.
Will a Senate vote this week change the constitutional balance of power between the president and Congress? We'll get a preview.
Also, internal documents released by a southern California archdiocese and why they're vindication for some parishioners, but first the top stories.
South Korea begins shipping 200,000 tons of fertilize to North Korea in a humanitarian gesture, South Korea pledged to send the fertilizer during meetings between the two nations last week.
U.S. and Afghan soldiers battled insurgents near the Afghan, Pakistan border last night. At least nine rebels were killed while Afghan troops suffered eight losses. That's according to Afghan and Pakistani sources. A U.S. military statement said 12 insurgents were killed.
Investigators in Idaho are still searching for clues and a suspect in the disappearance of a nine-year-old boy and his eight- year-old sister. Dylan and Shasta Groene have been missing since Monday when police found the bodies of their mother, brother and the mother's boyfriend.
We begin this hour with tense scenes as first lady Laura Bush continues her tour of the Middle East, protesters heckled Mrs. Bush, then shoved and shouted as she stopped at two holy sites in Jerusalem. Security forces moved in to protect the first lady. CNN White House correspondent Suzanne Malveaux is traveling with Mrs. Bush. She joins us now from Jerusalem. Suzanne, some very tense moments. Describe what happened.
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Fred, really it was a very frightening and chaotic scene traveling with the first lady when she went to the dome of the rock, a Muslim holy site. She did as custom requires, wore a scarf. She was approaching the mosque, as custom requires, taking off her shoes as well. There were several people who started chanting, saying you don't belong here, get out of here. This is an insult to the Muslims.
At that point there was really a crowd that gathered, got very close to the first lady, people trying to take pictures, some protesters, really a crush of people as she tried to enter the mosque and literally grabbed the sleeve of one of her Secret Service agents as well as her press secretary, pulled me in the mosque with the first lady and that's when she was taken on a brief tour inside. There were some women inside who were praying there who turned around, obviously, irritated at her presence, at the group that was surrounding there.
But really what happened was afterwards, the tension after she left the mosque. That is when a whole group of protesters came out, got very close to the first lady. Her Secret Service got very close inside and then you had another barricade, that of Israeli security that linked arms and tried to walk her down as she walked very slowly. There were people that were crushing in, getting closer and closer. There was a little boy who I saw who went running up to the first lady. One of the Israeli guards drew his gun at the little boy. The little boy went running away. They came down again, many shouts. A lot of confusion, very, very tense situation as they walked her to her motorcade and sped off.
All of this, Fred, was really just the second scene here. There was a scene previous to that. This, a demonstration at the western wall, a very important site for Israeli Jews. She went up there to offer a prayer as is the custom. A barricade was set up. Both sides again, you had the kinds of crowds that were just unbelievable surrounding the first lady, a crush of people. Then a protest that emerged right -- literally like right beside her, a group of about 40 women or so who were shouting "free Pollard now, free Pollard now," with pictures of him. That of course referring to Jonathan Pollard, the Israeli spy who's being held in the United States. A big controversy over that issue, very difficult for her to even leave that particular scene.
One woman, I saw, almost got to touch the first lady when she reached over the barricade to give her one of these photos and they're whisked her away. At one point, they had people surrounding her vehicle in the motorcade on the top -- on the front of the car, rather, the Secret Service as well as Israeli security had to disperse the crowd before they quickly sped off. The first lady was able to talk a little bit after all of this in Jericho. She was visiting with some Palestinian women. She didn't speak specifically about these incidents, but she talked about the broader mission of bringing Israelis and Palestinians together.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LAURA BUSH, FIRST LADY: The chance that we have right now to have peace, to have a Palestinian state living by a secure and safe Israel, both living in democracy, is as close as we've been in a really long time. It will take a lot of baby steps and I'm sure it will be a few steps backward on the way, but I want to encourage the people that I met with earlier and the women that I just met with that the United States will do what they can in this process.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MALVEAUX: Now, Fred this has really been billed as a goodwill mission by the first lady really to go out to the Middle East. Some of it, of course, to repair the damage, the perception of the United States after the Iraq war, after the Abu Ghraib prison scandal and in many recent scandals that have occurred as well. Obviously, a very difficult and tense situation, perhaps much more difficult than they anticipated. Fred?
WHITFIELD: All right. Suzanne, thanks so much. Close call for the first lady and those traveling with her, including you, Suzanne Malveaux from Jerusalem.
We're getting some new information now in the case of a missing eight-year-old girl in Florida. With us now on the telephone, Sergeant Dan Boland with the Lake Worth, Florida, police department. Sergeant, thanks so much for being with us. We know that Lachele Nance was reported missing or last seen early this morning and possibly taken by two people in a truck? What's the latest?
SGT. DAN BOLAND, LAKE WORTH, FLORIDA POLICE: The information we have is that two white males seen leaving the area in an older model brown station wagon with a dent on the back trunk of the vehicle. These individuals, we believe, have possibly involved with the kidnap of this child.
WHITFIELD: Have you received any word of whether anyone has seen this vehicle or whether there were any other witnesses?
BOLAND: No. We haven't received any word yet on the vehicle. We're hoping that individuals that see the newscast or hear it will please call their local 911 if they have any information at all.
WHITFIELD: Was she taken from her home, inside the home, outside? Can you give us a bit more of a description on exactly what took place?
BOLAND: From what we've been told, it happened inside the home. The individual somehow ended up going outside the house. We don't know if she was carried out or pulled out and last seen leaving in that vehicle.
WHITFIELD: All right. Sergeant Dan Boland, thanks so much, of Lake Worth police, still an Amber alert on the lookout for an eight- year-old Lachele Nance, last seen near her home this morning. Be on the lookout for a four-door brown station wagon and that's the picture of the little girl, Lachele Nance.
This could be a watershed week in Washington as the Senate fight nears the boiling point. Caught in the middle of this partisan battle, President Bush's judicial nominees and the outcome could completely change the way Congress does business. CNN's Elaine Quijano is with us now from Washington to explain what's going on and what exactly is at stake. Elaine.
ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello to you, Fredricka. On Friday, Senate Republicans called for a procedural vote to end debate on the nomination of Priscilla Owen to the fifth U.S. circuit court of appeals. Now that move essentially brought the Senate or brings the Senate one step closer to a showdown, to a confrontation over the use of filibusters in order to block judicial nominees.
Now of course in public, there has been some heated rhetoric on both sides publicly over this nomination and the future of the filibuster in general. Republicans say that President Bush's nominees deserve an up or down vote and have threatened to do away with the filibuster which for more than 200 years has allowed for unlimited debate in the Senate. Democrats have threatened right back, saying that if Republicans do exercise that option, something that Democrats have labeled the nuclear option, that the Democrats will slow down Senate business to a crawl. They say that these nominees put forth by President Bush are out of the mainstream and that is why they're continuing to do that.
Now as all of this fighting has been going on in public, behind the scenes, behind closed doors, moderates have been trying to work out a compromise. At last word, direct talks have been put on hold until Monday but it's expected that talks are continuing by phone this weekend according to sources close to the situation. But all of this of course has implications far beyond these particular nominations, with people anticipating a vacancy on the Supreme Court. What happens with these nominees being seen as a test case for President Bush's future judicial picks. Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: Now Elaine, those are the impending tense moments in Washington for later on this week, but how about the tense moments this weekend involving the first lady? Does the White House have any kind of reaction about what happened?
QUIJANO: No reaction just yet, but this coming just days before Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian leader is set to come here to Washington, but so far, of course this is a delicate situation. The White House not choosing to comment at this particular point. Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: All right. Elaine Quijano in Washington, thanks so much.
At this hour, Afghan President Hamid Karzai is delivering the commencement address at Boston University. His visit comes as questions are being raised about his leadership in the battle against heroin trade in his homeland. The "New York Times" reports that American officials warned this month in an internal memo that a U.S.- financed poppy eradication program has been ineffective in part because of Karzai.
The memo says, quote, although President Karzai has been well aware of the difficulty of trying to implement an effective ground eradication program, he has been unwilling to assert strong leadership even in his own province of Kandahar, end quote. The Afghan president responds to the report on CNN's late edition with Wolf Blitzer.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) HAMID KARZAI, AFGHAN PRESIDENT: We have done our job. The Afghan people have done our job. Now the international community must come and provide alternative revenue to the Afghan people which they've not done so far. Let's stop this blame game. Instead of blaming Afghanistan, the international community must now come and fulfill its own objective to the Afghan people.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: You can watch the entire interview with the Afghan president on CNN's "LATE EDITION" with Wolf Blitzer. That's coming up at noon Eastern.
Thousands of Indonesian Muslims staged an anti-American protest today. Their mass produced signs condemned alleged American desecration of Islam's holy Koran. Twenty five Islamic groups and political parties organized the demonstration. The peaceful march ended at the gates of the U.S. embassy at Jakarta. An embassy spokesman said the protest was expected and not unusual.
Saddam Hussein reportedly will sue a British tabloid for printing photos on of him in his jail cell in his underwear. President Bush said he didn't think the images would incite further anti-American sentiment. We'll see if Barbara Ferguson agrees with that. She's the Washington bureau chief for Arab News. Good to see you Barbara.
BARBARA FERGUSON, ARAB NEWS: Hi, Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: Does the president have it right that these photographs will not incite further violence or unrest?
FERGUSON: Fredricka, the unfortunate thing is that I think that the Islamic world is losing their faith in America. They have held us in high esteem for so many years. They wanted to emulate us. They wanted to be like us. We were the superpower that represented democracy to them. Unfortunately, we went into Iraq and I was with the Marines and I have tremendous respect for the Marines when we went in and we've lost our footing on the ground since we've been in there.
We promised them democracy. We've delivered a civil war. There's violence throughout the country. We've shown disrespect for their religion and we haven't given them any of the democracy, quote, unquote that we've promised them and the problem is, Fredricka, is that it used to be a handful of extremists who were saying that America is exporting terrible things to our country, but now it seems as though the majority of Iraqis are saying, if this is your democracy, we don't want it.
WHITFIELD: So first the Abu Ghraib photos, reports of abuse in Afghanistan, by the hands of U.S. military and then reports, true or false, about the desecration of the Koran at Guantanamo. This only adds insult to injury, doesn't it?
FERGUSON: It goes on and on and on. One of the saddest things that I've ever heard was an Iraqi man who told me this week, we used to think that Americans were good people before they came to our country.
WHITFIELD: Oh, my goodness. Now the first lady visiting in Middle Eastern country, she is heckled while in Jerusalem. And this is supposed to be a PR campaign and a continuation of winning the hearts and minds. It seems like the damage is irreparable, isn't it?
FERGUSON: Well, I mean, I would like to think that there's always hope. We're there. We're involved and I don't want to give up hope yet, but I'm stunned and I'm very saddened to see what's happened. But there is just this groundswell of anger and it's interesting that it's happening in the Palestinian territories as well as throughout the Middle East and all of the Muslim countries. I think, truly, now the time has come where the administration needs to step up to the base and take some measures that would show more respect. Really Karen Hughes needs to come to Washington and she needs to help the Bush administration sort through this in the Middle East, because I think we're sending the wrong message no matter how good our intentions are there.
WHITFIELD: So face time doesn't seem like it's the answer. Of the people that you've talked to in covering stories for Arab News, what is it that people want to see from Americans at this juncture to try to repair the damage that's been done?
FERGUSON: Right. Right. Well, obviously, I think the good example would be in Iraq right now. They've lost faith in our military because of the few unfortunate examples of terrible abuse that have taken place and I certainly don't want to lead people to believe that all of the military is behaving like this. I don't think they are, but the problem is and I can't emphasize this enough, is that we used to begin -- we used to believe with Abu Ghraib, for example, that these were just a few misfits that were behaving badly.
But now we're seeing this terrible behavior being repeated through all the prisons in Afghanistan and in Iraq and the people on the ground there are wondering who's behind this? Obviously, there must be a higher power. They're wondering is it the officials? Is it the officers who are telling their enlisted men to behave like this? If we can get a hold of this, if we could find out who's behind all of this and show the Iraqis, look, we really are serious about this. We don't want this abuse to continue. That would help.
WHITFIELD: Persistent questions of who is in charge and who can help correct it. Barbara Ferguson, Washington bureau chief of Arab News. Thanks for joining us this Sunday.
FERGUSON: Always a pleasure, Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: Coming up on CNN LIVE SUNDAY.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We've been told that we have emotional problems and we're lunatics and now these documents come out that show that everything we've said all along has been right.
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WHITFIELD: Internal church documents are released and alleged abuse victims are able to start the healing process.
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WHITFIELD: Some Catholics in the Los Angeles area say they feel vindicated by the release of internal church documents last week. The release was part of a court settlement and it reveals a cover-up of alleged sexual abuse of children by priests. Peter Viles has details.
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PETER VILES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When Joelle Casteix flips through her high school yearbook, this is what she sees.
JOELLE CASTEIX, ALLEGED SEXUAL ABUSE VICTIM: Here's the man who molested me.
VILES: She remembers herself as a fragile teenager silently suffering sexual abuse from a teacher at Modern Day, a prestigious Catholic school run by the diocese of Orange in California.
CASTEIX: They let this guy molest me. They let him get me pregnant. They let him give me a venereal disease and they tried to shut me up by telling me I was going to go to juvenile hall.
VILES: She says the lowest point was the day she went by herself to have an abortion
CASTEIX: All by myself. I didn't tell anybody, I walked there. I stayed for a while and someone gave me a ride home.
VILES: How old were you?
CASTEIX: 17.
VILES: It took years, but Casteix finally fought back. She joined with other alleged victims of abuse who sued the church and settled for $100 million. The church did not admit liability and the man she accused has maintained his innocence, but more important to her, the church agreed to release internal documents that show years of covering up for abusive priests and employees.
CASTEIX: I wanted these documents out because I knew they existed. I knew that there was paperwork going back 20 years involving a lot of these cases that show that the diocese knew they had abusers working for them. They kept those abusers. They moved them around and they shuffled the kids and lied to the parents and lied to parishioners to cover it up.
VILES: According to the church documents, in one case the diocese was informed in 1983 of a priest's pattern of sexual abuse. Yet there is no record it reported the abuse to authorities, no record the priest was kept from children, no record that parishioners were informed and three years later, the same priest was convicted of child molestation. Church officials say the release of these documents has been painful.
SHIRL GIACOMI, CHANCELLOR, DIOCESE OF ORANGE: It's a horrible chapter for the church. It's been very sad. I've been disgusted and discouraged by what I've learned just in these past few days. It was a horrible thing that happened to children.
VILES: The current bishop of Orange, Todd Brown, was not involved in the cover up, but has apologized repeatedly. In a dramatic gesture of seeking forgiveness, he washed the feet of abuse victims' parents. Later he took a hammer and posted on a church door, a promise to do everything possible to heal victims of sexual abuse. For Joelle, the healing has been difficult. Because she's been so outspoken, she's suffered in her marketing career and is shunned by many in her community.
CASTEIX: We've been called liars. We've been told we're trying to hurt the church. We've been told we're greedy. We've been told that we have emotional problems and we're lunatics. And now these documents comes out that show that everything we've said all along has been right.
VILES: For CNN, Peter Viles, Newport Beach, California.
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WHITFIELD: A look at your weather coming up. The calendar says spring, but it sure feels like summer in a lot of places. Rob Marciano has your forecast up next.
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WHITFIELD: "RELIABLE SOURCES" is straight ahead on CNN. Let's check in with Howard Kurtz for a look at what's coming up -- Howard.
HOWARD KURTZ, CNN ANCHOR, RELIABLE SOURCES: Thanks, Fredricka. Coming up, "Newsweek" promising this morning to crack down on the use of anonymous sources such as the one that lead to its now discredited story about a U.S. prison guard defiling the Koran. How bad was the magazine's mistake and should it be blamed for the riots that followed or is the White House just trying to make "Newsweek" a scapegoat?
Plus, how are those photos of Saddam Hussein leaked to London's "Sun" tabloid and should editors have printed them in Britain and here in the U.S.? That's all coming up on "RELIABLE SOURCES."
WHITFIELD: I look forward to all of that. Thanks a lot, Howard. Let's check in with Rob Marciano for a peek outside. Sure feels like summer in a lot of places. That could be good.
ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Not too bad, record-breaking heat though across the southwest. That's where it certainly feels like summer today. In other spots, little cool with some showers and in the middle a little weak front. Not a tremendous amount of stormy weather today. That's good news. This is spring time. We can easily see rough-and-tumble thunderstorms. There was a batch of thunderstorms that rolled just south of St. Louis overnight. They are dissipating as they head towards and say Little Rock. And just north of Chicago over Lake Michigan, pressing east across the lower part of Michigan is a batch of some showers and storms. And this moisture spinning its wheels off the Atlantic back across New England, cool, cloudy. Light showers expected today but really the cool weather is going to be an ongoing theme and then the clear skies and the hot weather, the ongoing theme across much of the southwest.
And this weather pattern is going to stick with us in some capacity over the next several days and that means cool at times, showery conditions across the northeast. Just keep that in mind as you do your planning. 59 degrees for a high in New York today, 97, look at that heat build in Texas, 110 Phoenix, 88 LA and then tomorrow, things do begin to moderate just a little bit. 84 degrees here in Atlanta. I'm done in about a half an hour, Freddy. Enjoy the rest of your day.
WHITFIELD: You enjoy it. I don't like seeing that rain though in the Washington D.C. area. I've got a niece graduating today at the University of Maryland. Break the clouds a little bit, so they can have a nice graduation day.
MARCIANO: I'll do my best.
WHITFIELD: Congrats to her. All right. Thanks a lot Rob.
That's going to do it for CNN LIVE SUNDAY. Up next, RELIABLE SOURCES with Howard Kurtz. Then on LATE EDITION, Wolf Blitzer interviews Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai, who is on a trip to the United States for a commencement address in part.
And at 2:00 Eastern, "PEOPLE IN THE NEWS" profiles "American Idol" judge Simon Cowell and reality television pioneer Mark Burnett and developer Donald Trump.
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