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CNN Live At Daybreak

Death of Peter Jennings; NASA Waves Off Shuttle Landing; Israel's Pullout Plans

Aired August 08, 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: And good morning to you.
Coming up in the next 30 minutes, much more on the passing of longtime ABC News anchor Peter Jennings and the cancer that took his life.

And later, Israel's Cabinet OKs the withdrawal of all troops and settlements from the Gaza strip. And with that, Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu quits.

But first, "Now in the News."

The shuttle landing is delayed 24 hours due to bad weather in Florida. NASA officials have set the next attempt for tomorrow morning. And you can watch it live right here on CNN.

A political crisis in Japan, the Upper House of Parliament has rejected a plan to privatize the country's postal system. Japan's prime minister is expected to respond by calling new elections next month to get rid of dissenters in his party.

Security threats close the U.S. embassy and consulates in Saudi Arabia. The State Department says specific and credible threats prompted the closure. The facilities will reopen on Wednesday.

President Bush will send the long-debated $14.5 billion energy bill into law today. He heads from his ranch in Crawford, Texas this morning to Albuquerque, New Mexico for the signing at Kirtland Air Force Base.

To the Forecast Center and, Chad, good morning.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, Carol.

(WEATHER REPORT)

COSTELLO: All right, thank you -- Chad.

MYERS: You're welcome.

COSTELLO: Peter Jennings' death comes almost four months after he was diagnosed with lung cancer. He made this statement to viewers last April. You're going to see it in a minute. Turned out to be his last on-air appearance.

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

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: In a written statement to his staff, ABC News President David Westin says -- and I quote -- "None of us will be the same without him.... He knew that it was an uphill struggle. But he faced it with realism, courage, and a firm hope that he would be one of the fortunate ones. In the end, he was not."

CNN's Jim Bittermann is a former Jennings colleague. He joins us live from Paris to share his thoughts on this.

Just four months -- Jim.

JIM BITTERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: An amazing short time, and I did hear from friends that in fact the lung cancer had spread very quickly and there really was nothing that could be done.

There was a couple of days ago there were stories out about him celebrating his 67th birthday and sending ice cream to the staff at "World News Tonight." And I think it went very, very quickly, indeed. And he said on his, what turned out to be his farewell broadcast, he said he was going to be back one of these days. And he never did or never was able to do that. He was able to visit the office a couple of times, according to some mutual friends that I salvaged at ABC,...

COSTELLO: Well you know what, Jim...

BITTERMANN: ... but never did really come back on the air.

COSTELLO: Jim, from what I understood, he really has tried to stay involved in the broadcast. In fact, Charlie Gibson would say occasionally that Peter Jennings was still very connected to "World News Tonight."

BITTERMANN: Well that wouldn't surprise me at all, because Peter was so totally and thoroughly connected with that broadcast. I mean, unlike some anchor people that we may know who don't really get involved too much in the preparation of the scripts and the preparation of the program, Peter was always involved from morning until the broadcast went out in the evening, and even after that, always involved in every little detail.

And I mean it could be maddening at times, because he would go over every single script, every single word that went into the broadcasting was very, very cautious and felt very responsible about everything that went on the air. So it wouldn't surprise me at all that he was thoroughly involved right until the end in making sure that the broadcast that carried his name in fact lived up to it.

COSTELLO: He was a tough boss, wasn't he? BITTERMANN: He could be very tough. He could be very demanding. And I think you know one of the things that was terrific and terrifying at the same time was the fact that he was so thoroughly involved in international news coverage. Those of us who are realizing and hope to emphasize the importance of covering international stories, like we do on CNN, the fact is that he was just an icon for us, because he kept international news in front of the American audience.

And he also knew so much, and that was the terrifying part, he knew so much about what was going on overseas. He frequently knew more about the story you were on than you did. And as a consequence, it really kept you on your toes. You had to be thoroughly involved.

And he was also a great history buff and read a great deal of history, would always bring history into his commentaries and into his adlibs. And as a consequence, you had to know the background of everything better than he did, or at least be ready for any kind of question.

COSTELLO: He'll be sorely missed.

Jim Bittermann, thank you for sharing your thoughts with us this morning.

Peter Jennings, one of the most respected American journalists, dead at the age of 67.

And more now on the breaking news out of Florida's Kennedy Space Center, shuttle Discovery will stay in space another day. Bad weather has forced NASA to wave off any landing attempts today.

So let's go to the Kennedy Space Center and space correspondent Miles O'Brien.

So maybe tomorrow at 5:08 Eastern Time?

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN SPACE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, 5:08 Eastern Time is the first opportunity. There's a series of opportunities, Carol, one, two, three, four, five, six of them at three locations, Kennedy Space Center, White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico and Edwards Air Force Base in California.

There's some thinking that there'll be a lot of desire to come back home tomorrow. There's also, kind of conflicting with that, the desire to come back home to Florida. Because, from a processing standpoint, this is, after all, where the shuttle launches from. This is the place it makes it a lot easier if the shuttle comes home here, doesn't have to be carried back on the back of a 747 and all the logistics involved in that, cost, time and all that kind of thing.

Astronaut Cady Coleman has been with me all morning. We just have been talking about, first of all, the decision tomorrow on three landing sites, Kennedy Space Center we just said is the prime. Edwards has been historically the back up. There's only been one shuttle landing, historically, at White Sands. And there was a dust storm afterward that damaged the vehicle. It's kind of got a -- never been used since, for various reasons. Why are they deciding this time around to include White Sands in the mix?

CADY COLEMAN, NASA ASTRONAUT: Well, I think practically they'd just like to land tomorrow. We do, actually, I think have one more day past that, but we begin to eat into margins that we, you know, would rather not. And so I understand that they'd like to, barring a systems failure, land the vehicle tomorrow. That means we use all our resources. Northrop is one of those.

O'BRIEN: All right. And one of the things post Columbia, Carol, is the decisions on reentry tracks were looked at a little more carefully. And one of the focuses was to limit the shuttle's exposure over landmass, over populations, and so that's why those White Sands opportunities came into play. Because frequently on Edwards Air Force Base landings, the shuttle would have to go over Los Angeles, for example, so that's part of the thinking in all of this.

COSTELLO: Understand. Hey, Miles, we've been asking our viewers today to send us e-mails about the shuttle program, and Chad is prepared with about 150 or so. So since you have Cady there, maybe this is a good time to introduce some of our viewer comments.

O'BRIEN: Yes. Sure.

MYERS: Well one of the quick ones, Miles, was how much does it cost? They said that they don't want to land it in Edwards because it costs money. What is that number, is it a million, 5 million, 10 million?

O'BRIEN: It's about $5 million, I'm told. I guess in the space business that's kind of, you know, rounding your tight money (ph). But you know you're talking about a $3.5 billion program, the space shuttle program, but you know $5 million is nothing to sneeze at, either.

MYERS: Our big question today...

O'BRIEN: Wait, go ahead, Cady's got something to say. Go ahead -- Cady.

COLEMAN: I was just going to say that things are optimized for KSC. I mean all the payloads that they're bringing back, everything is ready for them here. Technically, things are ready in California, as well, but it's not as optimized. And the families are here.

O'BRIEN: There you go, families, that's important, too -- Chad.

MYERS: Right. One of our questions today, and the biggest question was, what should happen to the space program? A lot of people asking, you know, let's go ahead and start this new rocket program that you showed, the new system, but they also want to know can we still run the shuttle and research a new one or is there just not money to do both?

O'BRIEN: Well, you know it's interesting, this is one of the concepts. This would take one of the solid rocket boosters, essentially, that's part of the shuttle stack and put a capsule on top. And that's the thinking that you know kind of back to the future kind of notion. Go back to what was successful during Apollo and Gemini and Mercury.

MYERS: Sure.

O'BRIEN: The capsule concept. And I'm curious, as an astronaut, Cady, you know I know the shuttle is a wonderful vehicle, but I bet you're anxious to get going on to this mission onto the moon and Mars, potentially.

COLEMAN: Well we'd all like to go somewhere and somewhere fast, you know it's just the way we are. And at the same time, I'd like to know that we understand more about where we're going before we get there. And so we really need both. We need people thinking about just what you were talking about futuristic ways to get to space and to get further off our planet. And at the same time, we also need the shuttle and the space station to understand what's going to happen to people when they're up there.

O'BRIEN: All right, but let me ask you this, if you pulled the plug on the shuttle tomorrow and it made it that much faster to get this concept going and a trip to the moon under way, would you be in favor of that?

COLEMAN: Personally, no, I think we've got a lot to learn on the International Space Station. I'm a scientist, and we built that space station to do some science on there. We've already done a lot of really interesting things, and I'm anxious to do more. It's like building a house and not quite moving in.

We've done a lot of great experiments already, but there is so much that one can do. I mean, once you leave Earth's gravity, all the rules are different. There's a lot of things that we can find out scientifically can't be done down here. I'd like to do that on the space station. We need the shuttle to finish that construction.

O'BRIEN: Chad.

MYERS: There's going to be a little bit better tomorrow, so maybe we have some better news for you tomorrow morning, and all of this speculation about $5 million and all that should all be out the window. The air gets a lot drier tomorrow, especially coming in from the west.

O'BRIEN: Good.

MYERS: So we've got something -- at least a better forecast on the horizon, whether it's still that marginal or not, we don't know, but it's better than today.

O'BRIEN: Good.

COSTELLO: OK.

O'BRIEN: Glad to hear that.

COSTELLO: We're going to wrap up this segment and we're going to read more of your viewer e-mails a little bit later, and we'll pose them to Cady and Miles and see what they say.

Moving on now, we expect to learn more today about those terrorist attacks on London's transit system. Six of those charged in the July 21 failed attacks are in court today. Those proceedings begin, well, actually they began just about 40 minutes ago. Four are charged with either attempted murder or conspiracy to murder. In addition, Haroon Rashid Aswat will appear in court to face extradition to the United States. Aswat allegedly conspired to build a jihad camp in Oregon, a camp that was never built.

A suspected al Qaeda operative is due to appear at a London courtroom, as well, today. Haroon, actually, I just told you about this. Haroon Rashid Aswat, he's suspected of having facilitated or recruited the July 7 London bombers who killed 52 commuters. And, as I said, he's wanted here in the U.S. in connection to those terror cases.

Still to come on DAYBREAK this morning, much more on the return of the space shuttle Discovery. The Kennedy Space Center hoping for a landing tomorrow. We'll explain why today's scheduled landing will not happen.

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Your news, money, weather and sports. It's 5:46 Eastern. Here's what's all new this morning.

We have been following breaking news from NASA. Space shuttle Discovery will stay in space an extra day, at least. NASA has waived off any landing attempts today because of low-lying clouds and unstable weather.

ABC's longtime anchorman Peter Jennings has died. Died at his Manhattan home nearly four months after being diagnosed with lung cancer. His family said Jennings died without pain and in peace. Peter Jennings was 67.

In money news, the General Lee took the Duke boys all the way to the top of the box office. "The Dukes of Hazzard" movie captured the top spot for the weekend with just over $30 million.

In culture, Mel Gibson may stage a reenactment of the crucifixion of Jesus in his native Australia. It would be part of the bid by Sydney, Australia to host a major Catholic gathering in 2008. Gibson has been asked to produce a live recreation of Christ's final hours.

In sports, the Great One is set to add coach to his resume. The Phoenix Coyotes are expected to name Wayne Gretzky as their new head coach at a news conference today. The NHL's all-time scoring leader has been in the Coyotes front office for the past four years. So he'll just add another job to his title -- Chad.

MYERS: Right, we hope there are fans in the stadium to watch him. We'll see.

COSTELLO: Yes, really.

MYERS: It won't be me.

(WEATHER REPORT)

COSTELLO: All right, thank you, Chad.

Still to come on DAYBREAK, how would you like it if the government was about to force you to leave your home? That is what will happen later this month in 21 settlements in Gaza. And, as you might imagine, tensions are rising. We'll have that story next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Just a week to go before Israel's planned pullout from the Gaza Strip. The Israelis are still sticking to their plan, but not without some political fireworks.

For the latest, let's head straight to Jerusalem and CNN's Paula Hancocks.

Hello -- Paula.

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Carol.

Well, on Sunday we did see the highest-ranking minister giving up his position in protest of the disengagement of all 21 settlements from Gaza and 4 from West Bank will be dismantled. Benjamin Netanyahu, the former Finance Minister, said that he found his position untenable. He said the he had to resign because he did not agree with the way that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was carrying out this disengagement. Saying there comes a moment of truth for every leader to stand up for what he is fighting for and this is exactly his moment of truth.

He's worried that this is going to jeopardize the security of the state of Israel. However, just hours after he put his resignation on the Cabinet table, there was another name on the table, as well, Ehud Olmert, which is Sharon's deputy, he said that he will be the next Finance Minister. So, for Sharon, not particularly bad news, he's managed to change a longstanding rival with a longstanding ally. Ehud Olmert is his closest ally in the Cabinet.

Also, when it comes to the disengagement itself, this resignation will not make a huge amount of difference. Just a few moments after he resigned, a vote went ahead for the first phase of the disengagement, 17 voted in favor, only 5 against. So the first phase is approved.

August the 15th, a week today, is when those letters will be going to all the settlers in Gaza and parts of the West Bank saying they must move. A 48-hour grace period for them, and then on August the 17th is when the troops themselves go in and remove the rest of the settlers.

Now this resignation did have a little bit of a bearing on the polls. One of the newspapers here in Israel had a poll today and it shows that 58 percent of Israelis approve this pullout and 39 percent are against. Now the gap between those two narrowing just slightly after Benjamin Netanyahu's resignation.

But the government says that things will go as planned. There will not be a delay for the pullout. And they also say about 60 percent of the settlers who are expected to be pulling out have already applied for compensation with just a week to go. So they're saying that more and more settlers are realizing that the day for them to move is coming close -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Paula Hancocks live in Jerusalem this morning.

Stay tuned for the next hour of DAYBREAK, much more on the return of the space shuttle Discovery and it's landing now set for tomorrow.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LARRY KING, CNN HOST, "LARRY KING LIVE": What was it like to become an American?

JENNINGS: Well, it was a deeply moving experience. It took me a long time to do it. There's people that ask me if I feel any different, and the answer is no, which I think reflects on how American I felt before in so many ways.

Robert McNeil (ph) or Robin McNeil (ph) of late of public television, who's now a full-time writer and went through the same experience, and he said something which I think is really interesting. He was asked what changes had occurred in his way of behaving and thinking. He said one thing, which I hadn't thought about, he said you know you absolutely stop forever thinking that you're a guest in the country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Peter Jennings on CNN's "LARRY KING LIVE" nearly two years ago talking about becoming a U.S. citizen 39 years after he joined ABC News. As you know, Jennings died last night four months after announcing he had lung cancer. He made that announcement in a hoarse voice on his evening newscast.

We take you back now to what would become his final farewell on the air.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JENNINGS: I've been reminding my colleagues today, who have all been incredibly supportive, that almost 10 million Americans are already living with cancer, and I have a lot to learn from them. And living is the key word. The National Cancer Institute says that we are survivors from the moment of diagnosis. I wonder if other men and women ask their doctors right away, OK, doc, when does the hair go?

At any rate, that's it for now on "World News Tonight." Have a good evening. I'm Peter Jennings, thanks, and good night.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Of course he was joking about one of the side effects of chemotherapy, and he was optimistic about living with cancer.

CNN medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen takes up both issues.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The side effects of chemotherapy include a drop in blood pressure, gastrointestinal problems, mouth ulcers and hair loss. Other treatments can include surgery and radiation.

Let's look at survival rates for the most common type of lung cancer. Unfortunately, these are not great numbers. According to the American Cancer Society, 6 out of 10 people die within the first year of being diagnosed with lung cancer and 7 or 8 out of 10 die within the first two years.

Now there are some new treatments that can help improve those odds. First of all, combining radiation and chemotherapy together, particularly just before performing surgery, can help. There are also some new chemotherapy drugs out there and there are also some new forms of radiation, and that's helped some people get a little bit more time after their diagnosis.

Elizabeth Cohen, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: Peter Jennings' family issued a statement that says, "Peter died with his family around him without pain and in peace. He knew he had lived a good life."

More on Peter Jennings in the next hour of DAYBREAK, it starts in just a minute.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: And good morning to you, I'm Carol Costello from the Time Warner Center in New York.

The space shuttle Discovery's return to Earth is being delayed until before daybreak tomorrow. We'll have more on that in a minute. First, though, we're following breaking news this hour, the death of Peter Jennings. The longtime ABC News anchor died last night. His death comes just over four months to the day since he revealed to a national audience he had lung cancer.

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