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CNN Live At Daybreak

Rice in Egypt; CNN.Com Freebie; 'War of the Worlds'

Aired June 20, 2005 - 05:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Thank you -- Chad.
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: You're welcome.

COSTELLO: Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is in Egypt right now pushing for democratic reform.

So let's go live to CNN's Ben Wedeman. He's in Cairo.

Hello -- Ben.

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Carol.

I'm at the American University in Cairo where Secretary Rice is expected to deliver within the next half-hour what has been described as a major foreign policy address. We're told the emphasis of that speech will be on pushing the United States' continued emphasis on democratic reform and change in the Middle East.

Earlier this morning, she met with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and afterwards had a press conference in which she said that the United States is looking forward to free and fair elections here in Egypt, presidential elections, later this year. Election campaigns during which she says she hoped that the opposition parties get free access to the state-run media. The Egyptian Foreign Minister responded that the elections would be fair and transparent -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Ben, we understand the secretary is going to speak shortly. Is she set to begin soon?

WEDEMAN: Yes, we're told within the half-hour. She had flown from Sharm-el-Sheikh, which is a resort town in the Sinai.

And what I'm told from people who have actually seen advanced copies of this speech, it's not quite the bloody nose that one wire agency was reporting would be delivered to the Mubarak regime during this speech, but apparently the tone is much less hard on the government here. But she should be starting -- she should begin her speech within a half an hour, and we'll get a better idea of what's in it then -- Carol.

COSTELLO: I know. I asked you that because we're going to go to it live when she begins speaking, so we wanted a good idea, and you've given us that.

Ben Wedeman, live from Cairo this morning, we'll get back to you. The FBI apparently is not doing what it promised Congress it would do, and Congress is taking note. The Associated Press obtained testimony from a lawsuit against the FBI. It provides sharp insight on how the bureau picks agents to run its war on terrorism. FBI Director Robert Mueller pledged to Congress a year after 9/11 that he would build a bureau shifted toward terrorism prevention. But two top managers admitted they have no significant anti-terrorism experience or knowledge of Middle Eastern culture and history.

The 2008 election is more than three years away, but already potential candidates are evaluating their chances. Democratic Senator Joe Biden and Republican John McCain are gauging public reaction and their gut feelings.

On the Sunday morning talk show circuit, Biden says he's trying to figure out if he can raise enough money and attract enough support.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOSEPH BIDEN (D), DELAWARE: I'm acting now in terms of finding that out as if I'm running. My intention now is to seek the nomination.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Senator McCain is in no hurry, either, to express his intentions.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: The question is not whether you'd like to be president or not. The question is this, do you think you can win and do you want to run? And none of those are clear to me. And that's why I'm going to wait a couple of years before making any decision or setting up any organization or going through the machinations that people go through when they are going to run for president of the United States.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Senator Robert Byrd also in the news. His autobiography hits book store shelves today, and it has some revealing information about his past membership in the Ku Klux Klan. The West Virginia Democrat chronicles his life from boyhood to reelection in 2000.

The 770-page book is titled "Robert C. Byrd: Child of the Appalachian Coal Fields." In it, Byrd calls his membership in the Klan a foolish mistake. He writes -- and I quote -- "it has emerged throughout my life to haunt and embarrass me ... I displayed very bad judgment, due to immaturity and a lack of seasoned reasoning."

In other news "Across America" now.

The search in Utah for a missing Boy Scout is expected to resume in just about 90 minutes. Eleven-year-old Brennan Hawkins was last seen with his Scout group on Friday. Rescue crews have been joined by helicopter and search dogs. He's lost in the same area where a 12- year-old disappeared last year. That boy was never found.

Closing arguments expected today in the trial of Edgar Ray Killen. The 80-year-old former Klansman is accused of orchestrating the murders of three civil rights workers in Mississippi in 1964. Jurors could get the case tomorrow, which also happens to be the 41st anniversary of those murders.

A new video game is drawing more than just criticism from Senator Charles Schumer of New York. Schumer says the game "25 to Life" is too violent. The game allows players to kill police officers. Schumer is asking retailers to refuse to sell the game. He also wants media giants Sony and Microsoft to cancel agreements with the game's creator.

Still to come on DAYBREAK, a sort of best of from Jeanne Moos. We'll take a look at some of her most infamous segments. Believe me, you do not want to miss this.

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: It's a beautiful shot of New York City this morning. It looks like it's right out of a movie.

Do your ears perk up when you hear the word free? Well there's something new starting today at CNN.com, free video. You will be able to check out tons of our video for absolutely free.

For instance, several years worth of stories from one of our favorite reporter, Jeanne Moos. Stories like these.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Hi, I'm Jeanne Moos, and the news I do is always slightly askew.

(voice-over): So feel free to stare at stories like the Staremaster contest. If you blink, you lose. The record, almost 18 minutes. Ocular gladiators locked in eye-to-eye combat.

(on camera): We do lots of unusual product stories. My office is littered with leftovers from the Runaway Bride doll to my pet fat.

(voice-over): An atomically correct model of the real thing. The idea is to keep it handy to scare you into eating less.

You might want to drink less of this.

(on camera): What is it?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mashed potato soda.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mashed potato soda. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's the stuff that I had with the colonoscopy.

MOOS (voice-over): From comfort food you drink to comfort for the lonely, a Japanese product called the boyfriend's arm pillow.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Am I supposed to cuddle like I would with a guy?

MOOS: Some find spiritual comfort in candles billed as having the scent of Jesus, made of ingredients the Bible says his robe smelled like.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My goodness me, they're putting Jesus in everywhere.

MOOS: We find stories everywhere. Sometimes they're just things we notice, like messages scrawled on dirty cars.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The more they write on it, the low less dirt I have.

MOOS: Or how folks like to arrange their money.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Face fold one way, high denominations in the center.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just dump them in.

MOOS (on camera): There's always something to poke fun at in politics.

(voice-over): When dancers on a foreign trip inspired President Bush to swivel his hips, we couldn't resist compiling every shot we could find of the president dancing.

From dancing Bush to drenched politicians, Bill drips on Hill, Hill gets bonked, W. gets skewered, the Carter's cuddle, love reigns.

We've covered wheel covers honoring the president, as well as the give Bush the boot doormat.

(on camera): We also like to celebrate icons. Well, actually, we like to torture icons.

(voice-over): Easter was an excuse to try peep jousting. Arm two peeps with toothpicks, pop them in the microwave, watch them expand.

(on camera): Holy smokes!

(voice-over): The peep that skewers its opponent wins.

On the Twinkie's 75th birthday, we showcased a brittle, moldy Twinkie preserved for 32 years as a science experiment.

(on camera): Do you think it's edible?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I wouldn't want to try it.

MOOS: And then there are stories that don't fit in categories that are just odds and ends, mostly odd.

(voice-over): From the sword swallower's convention to the get together of people with edible names.

HARRY WIENER: Harry Wiener.

KYRA COFFEE: I'm Kyra Coffee.

ROSALIE CREAM; Rosalie Cream.

EVELYN CHERRY: Evelyn Cherry.

MOOS (on camera): Mr. Fried?

FRIED: Yes.

MOOS: I'd like you to meet Mr. Rice.

(voice-over): From tasty names to bad taste, Virgin Atlantic announced a quirky and fun plan to put women's lips on men's urinals.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What were they thinking?

MOOS: Whatever they were thinking, the outcry changed their minds.

(on camera): Often we like to examine offbeat angles of actual news, believe it or not.

(voice-over): Like the scarf waving some in the media did to signal Martha Stewart's guilty verdict and composers who took Donald Rumsfeld's press briefings and turned them into songs.

DONALD RUMSFELD, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: There are things that we now know we don't know.

MOOS (on camera): But our favorite stories are animal stories.

(voice-over): From goggles for dogs, doggles, to cow poetry.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He said he wanted to write words on cows. I said you've got to be kidding me.

MOOS: The mingling cows then made poetry, if you consider body image and milk on poetic.

We covered a mystery creature that turned out to be nothing more than a fox with mange. And there was a CD of songs composed especially for dogs, composed with the help of an animal communicator.

(on camera): You growling? Why do you keep turning it off? (voice-over): We covered the latest wrinkle in the Westminster Dog Show, a new entry, the Neo.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can you make him flap his cheeks?

(on camera): Whoa!

(voice-over): Our award for luckiest dog goes to Snoopy for surviving a rampant rush hour on a major New York expressway.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK, he's moving.

MOOS: We've done two-legged dogs and two headed turtles. This guy is named Lefty-Righty.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: One head will go this way, the other head will go that way.

MOOS: We invite you to head to CNN.com, the Web site that's head and shoulders, make that heads and shoulders above the rest.

Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: So, if something for nothing interests you, go to CNN.com and check out Free Video.

Your news, money, weather and sports. It is 5:44 Eastern. Here's what's all new this morning.

In Egypt today, Condoleezza Rice praised the Arab country's first steps toward democracy. And in about 15 minutes, the secretary of state is set to give what's called a major foreign policy address.

For the second day in a row, police have questioned an Aruban judge about the disappearance of Alabama teenager Natalee Holloway. The judge is the father of one of the young men being held in the case.

In money news, the beginning may not be the end. The movie "Batman Begins" topped the weekend box office with nearly $47 million. That success left one Warner Brothers executive to hint that a sequel may get the green light.

In culture, Versailles Palace in Paris will be the site for that city's Live 8 show. There will be eight Live 8 concerts held on July 2 to raise awareness and money for Africa. Among the acts slated to play in Paris are Shakira and Andrea Bocelli.

In sports, Robert Horry hit a final three-pointer in overtime to lead the San Antonio Spurs to victory over the Detroit Pistons. The 96-95 win gives the Spurs a three-games-to-two lead in the NBA finals. Game six will be tomorrow night in San Antonio -- Chad.

MYERS: Yes, it's kill or be killed there. And they have got to go back to Auburn Hills if they do win. So we'll see what all goes on in the NBA finals. It's almost over, people.

(WEATHER REPORT)

COSTELLO: Thank you, Chad.

Again, don't go away, it is time to read some e-mail right now.

MYERS: Well of course.

COSTELLO: Of course.

Our question this morning, because of all the credit card fraud stories coming to light, it's just been incredible. We're asking you this question, have you changed your habits because of it?

MYERS: And G.T. (ph), Carol, has a really good one, because he heard me say that if I'm on a Web site and I look for the lock in the bottom I think that site is secure. He goes my name is G.T. I own numerous online companies and do transactions on servers daily.

One thing that just stuck in this, my sensitive security nerve, is that if I look at the lock in the bottom it's good. Wait just a minute. I can register a domain and purchase that SSL, the secure security lock, whatever that is, security lock certificate and get a Web site running in 30 minutes and it's legal.

The days of being comfortable with that SSL certificate are long gone, my friend. It only tells you that some company paid 15 bucks to buy that lock. All told, that lock on your browser has nothing to do about the company and establishes nothing regarding their e-commerce status. Be very careful. Be very trusting of what you do. Careful out there. So that's good news or good information.

After beginning a few months ago, I noticed that I signed up for a service called Prepaid Legal. They're going to do my monitoring for me,...

COSTELLO: Really?

MYERS: ... 24/7, 365 and notify me if any action happens.

Obviously it's not free, but hey.

COSTELLO: You have to trust them, too, though, right?

MYERS: Well true. But you can also do the same thing with some of the Experian Trans Union. You can pay them money to keep your numbers looking at. They look at them once in a while, you know once a week, whatever they do, for 29, 39, 40 bucks a week, a month, whatever you want.

I have changed my habits, not just with my credit card, but also with my Social Security number. My SS number now is my telephone number to my life. If someone evil gets that number, the possibilities of damage grows tremendously. And that's from Gary (ph). COSTELLO: Thanks for your comments this morning. And we're going to talk more about this in the next hour of DAYBREAK, specifically how to protect yourself. Carrie Lee will be along with some tips.

Still to come on DAYBREAK, the next Mrs. Cruise joins her fiance on the red carpet for the London premier of "War of the Worlds," and something really nasty happens. We'll tell you next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Riddle me this, who won the national senior spelling bee? Did you even know there was a senior spelling bee? Well there was. This year's competition drew 21 not so senior spellers from eight states but all over the age of 50. Dave Riddle of Pacific Grove, California bested all of them. He didn't miss one word in the two-and-a-half hour round. The winning word, ptosis. Ptosis. There it is. It means limpness of a limp or eyelid caused by paralysis. Dave took home the $100 first prize. Congratulations.

Still to come in the next hour of DAYBREAK, finally some good news for General Motors. Its new sales promotion may be helping the bottom line. That story is still ahead on DAYBREAK.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: In "Entertainment Headlines" for you this morning, illusionist Roy Horn is at a rehab center in his homeland of Germany. This comes 18 months after one of his tigers nearly mauled him to death during a Las Vegas performance. Horn, of the famed duo Siegfried and Roy, was left partially paralyzed by that attack.

Actor Leonardo DiCaprio was reportedly hit in the head with a beer bottle and needed about a dozen stitches near his ear. According to "People" magazine, DiCaprio was attending a Hollywood party given by Paris Hilton's ex-lover when a woman struck him with a bottle.

And Miss America is looking for a home, the pageant that is. It was dropped by ABC last fall because of record low viewership and is now searching for a new television outlet to carry the 84-year-old pageant.

May have seemed funny at the time, it was a stunt for a new TV comedy show.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TOM CRUISE, ACTOR: You're a jerk. You're a jerk. You know what, you're a jerk.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: That fake reporter using a fake microphone that squirted water drenched Tom Cruise at the London premier of his new movie "War of the Worlds." It's not so funny now since the fake news crew may be charged with assault. Now to the movie premier, CNN's Malika Kapur has more on that.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MALIKA KAPUR, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was a movie premier where no one talked about the movie. The fans and the press were far more interested in something else, the star of Steven Spielberg's latest film "War of the Worlds." We're talking about Tom Cruise. More specifically, about his whirlwind romance with Katie Holmes.

CRUISE: We haven't decided yet, you know. You take the one step and then you go from there. To tell you, I'm really excited.

KAPUR: The 42-year-old Hollywood star asked the 26-year-old actress to marry him on Friday on top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris. That's before announcing it to the world at a press conference for his new film.

CRUISE: Yes, I proposed to Kate last night.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Wow!

KAPUR: Their romance has given tabloids and talk shows plenty to talk about and divided loyal fans into two camps.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think it's true love. I've seen them both on TV recently and both of them just seemed like they're so caught up in love.

KAPUR (on camera): As Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes work their way down the red carpet behind me, fans have a lot of things to say about their romance. Some call it true love, others say it's a publicity stunt.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It seems a bit coincidental, really, that it's so soon, kind of so close to the premier.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think it's just a big publicity stunt, but that's just me. I don't know.

KAPUR (voice-over): Cruise is in the middle of a tour to promote "War of the Worlds," while Holmes has just finished promoting her summer blockbuster "Batman Begins."

Malika Kapur, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: You can get more entertainment news every night on "ShowBiz Tonight." That's at 7:00 p.m. Eastern on Headline News.

And the next hour of DAYBREAK starts right now.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: It is Monday, June 20.

A call for fair and transparent elections, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice issues a challenge for Egypt in the hopes of spreading democracy. She should hit the stage any minute now.

Operation Spear advances through Iraq another day, weeding out insurgents near the Syrian border.

And it's more deadly than hurricanes, tornadoes or earthquakes. What could save your life when an electrical storm strikes?

And good morning to you, we'll have more on Lightning Awareness Week in just a moment.

Also ahead, two familiar faces consider a run for the top spot in 2008. We'll talk about that.

Plus,...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CRUISE: A jerk. You're a jerk. You know what, you're a jerk.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Tom Cruise gets upset. We'll tell you what happened.

But first, "Now in the News."

Condoleezza Rice is set to begin what's billed as a major foreign policy speech in Cairo any moment now. We're monitoring

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