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American Morning

Landing Delayed Due To Low Layer of Clouds; The Life of Peter Jennings; Terror Threat in Saudi Arabia; The War on Cancer

Aired August 08, 2005 - 08:00   ET

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

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: For more than two decades, he was there for every major news story. This morning, the face of ABC News, Anchor Peter Jennings, is dead after losing his battle with lung cancer.
Also making headlines, the crew of the space shuttle Discovery will spend another day in orbit. NASA officials scrubbed the shuttle's landing just hours before the anticipated touchdown. We're live at the Kennedy Space Center with the very latest on this AMERICAN MORNING.

ANNOUNCER: This is AMERICAN MORNING with Miles O'Brien at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida and Soledad O'Brien in New York.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Good morning. Welcome back, everybody.

Welcome to a split edition of AMERICAN MORNING this morning. We're going to have more on the life and death and the career of ABC's Peter Jennings just ahead. But first, let's go right back to Miles. He's at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida this morning.

Hey, Miles.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, Soledad.

The crew of the space shuttle Discovery getting a 24 hour bonus day in orbit, an opportunity to look out the window. NASA tried twice this morning, two separate opportunities, to land the Discovery here, but in both cases they felt the weather was a little too iffy. Some low-lying clouds in the vicinity. And erring on the side of conservatism, they decided to keep the crew in orbit.

So now what happens tomorrow? There was a lot of focus this morning on the Kennedy Space Center. No attempts to land at the alternate sites, Edwards Air Force Base, for example. Tomorrow it will be a different story because with, as you recall, they extended this mission by a day, in the midst of the mission, and thus there will be a worry about ultimately running out of consumables, air and so forth, on board the space shuttle Discovery.

Just a few moments ago, the assent and entry flight director, Leroy Cain, explained the thinking.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LEROY CAIN, FLIGHT DIRECTOR: Well, it means we're going to come in and make a real, earnest attempts at the first two opportunities to KSC. And if we can't make it there, we'll be looking at Edwards.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MILES O'BRIEN: So, they'll try those first two opportunities, 5:08 a.m. Eastern, then 6:43 a.m. Eastern here at the Kennedy Space Center. And then, if those two fail, 8:13 a.m. Eastern time at Edwards Air Force Base will be the opportunity when Discovery will come home. Of course, everybody will be holding their breath because this is the first reentry, Soledad, since Columbia broke apart two- and-a-half years ago.

Soledad.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Yes, clearly, Miles, we'll all be watching very, very closely.

Miles, thanks. We'll check back in with you in just a little bit.

Our other top story this morning, though, the death of Peter Jennings. For decades he was the man who brought viewers the news on ABC and today the nation remembers him. The veteran newsman died last night at his home in Manhattan. He was 67 years old. More now on Jennings' life and legacy. Here's CNN's Tom Foreman.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT, (voice over): Peter Jennings was born in Toronto, died in New York, and lived for the world's news.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is "World News Tonight" with Peter Jennings.

PETER JENNINGS: Good evening, everyone. We're going to begin tonight with Saddam Hussein.

FOREMAN: For 32 years, he was ABC's chief anchor.

JENNINGS: I had I've been in a lot of countries. I covered a lot of great stories. I've been there for some of the great moments of the last 30 years. I'm really lucky.

FOREMAN: Jennings was born to broadcasting. His father, Charles, was an anchorman in Canada. At nine, Peter hosted a kids' show. In his teens, he took a radio job. And at 26, without ever completing high school, he joined ABC News.

JENNINGS: This was my first story outside Saigon and I found out in a hurry. This is Peter Jennings, ABC News.

FOREMAN: An early stint as anchor pitted him against the legendary Walter Cronkite on CBS and the Huntley-Brinkley team on NBC. Jennings was too young, too inexperienced, too Canadian. He lost the position.

JENNINGS: In most Egyptians' thoughts are not on war, they're on inflation.

FOREMAN: So he began building his reporter's resume. The Middle East. On the civil rights trail in the south.

JENNINGS: It started with a single man and it ended with a crowd.

FOREMAN: In the farm fields of Cuba.

JENNINGS: Never in the history of the revolution has sugar cane been as important as this year.

FOREMAN: At the Olympic village in Munich.

JENNINGS: Two negotiators who went in just a few minutes ago have now come back out and are standing in a group.

FOREMAN: And when he rose to become ABC's chief anchor again, after Tom Brokaw turned the job down, he was ready.

JENNINGS: Ginsberg is charged with anti-soviet behavior. Sharansky is charged, much more seriously, with treason.

FOREMAN: A demanding, often unpredictable boss, he was equally capable of relentlessly driving his staff or showing great compassion.

JENNINGS: How are you feeling these days?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, I feel much better than I did.

FOREMAN: He always delighted in reporting. Whether describing a makeshift lamp in Sarajevo.

JENNINGS: They fill it up almost to the very top with water and then put a thin film of oil on the top.

FOREMAN: Or matching wits with world leaders.

BILL CLINTON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And I will go to my grave being at peace about it. And I don't really care what they think.

JENNINGS: Oh, yes you do, sir.

CLINTON: They have no idea.

JENNINGS: Oh, excuse me, Mr. President, you care I can feel it across the room.

CLINTON: No, no, I care . . .

JENNINGS: You feel it very deeply.

CLINTON: (INAUDIBLE) I care. You don't want to go here, Peter. You don't want to go here.

FOREMAN: But Peter Jennings was at his best when news was breaking.

JENNINGS: Because this was an attack on these on the United States. No question about it. Everybody said it all day, a declaration of war, an act of war against the United States.

FOREMAN: He loved hockey, history, culture, politics.

JENNINGS: I think when you come home and participate in the democratic process, even vicariously as journalists do, I think it's extraordinarily moving.

FOREMAN: And he loved trying to understand what drives Americans to work, to play, to dream, to pray.

JENNINGS: I've been in search for America ever since I came to America 30 some odd years ago. All journalists are.

FOREMAN: He wrote books, married four times, had children and became an American citizen himself finally two years ago. Peter Jennings promised to keep working throughout his illness and he did right up to the end of his own story.

JENNINGS: Have a good evening. I'm Peter Jennings. Thanks and good night.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: We're going to have much more throughout AMERICAN MORNING on the life of Peter Jennings.

It's time to get a look at the other stories making news, though, this morning. Let's get right to Carol Costello.

Good morning.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.

Good morning to all of you.

"Now in the News."

There was some very tight security in London earlier as the suspects in the July 21st botched bombings appeared in court. A British judge ordered them back to jail. Seven suspects were arrested in a series of raids across London after the bombing attempts on the city's transportation system. Another hearing will take place in November.

An Israeli pullout from Gaza is set to go on as planned. The Israeli cabinet approved the first stage of the withdrawal despite a protest from Benjamin Netanyahu, who quit his post Sunday as finance minister. The former Israeli prime minister says a pullout would threaten Israeli security. The withdrawal is set to begin on August 15th.

Japan's prime minister is calling for an emergency cabinet meeting. Members of the ruling party struck down his plans to privatize the country's postal system. The move would have paid the way for the creation of the world's largest private bank. The prime minister is now threatening to dissolve the parliament.

And a fast moving wildfire in Southeastern Washington state is threatening more families this morning. Some 175 homes have already been evacuated. The blaze more than doubled over the weekend to 32,000 acres. Firefighters are hoping cooler temperatures and more rain will help contain this blaze. Well, let's see if more rain is on the way to Washington state.

Good morning, Chad.

(WEATHER REPORT)

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Still to come this morning, U.S. officials go on alert in Saudi Arabia. Just how serious is this latest terror threat? We'll take a look at that.

And a dramatic rescue in the Pacific Ocean. A closer look at how the crew of a Russian mini-sub just narrowly escaped tragedy.

Those stories on AMERICAN MORNING. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: The mother of a soldier killed in Iraq is demanding answers from the commander in chief. She wants U.S. troops to come home and she's holding a vigil at President Bush's Texas ranch to make her point. Here's Elaine Quijano.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT, (voice over): Her name is Cindy Sheehan and she is one voice in the emotional debate over the Iraq War.

CINDY SHEEHAN, ARMY SPECIALIST CASEY SHEEHAN'S MOTHER: I'm a mom. My heart was broken on April 4th when my son was killed.

QUIJANO: Her son, 24-year-old Army Specialist Casey Sheehan, died in Baghdad's Sadr City last year. She blames President Bush for his death.

SHEEHAN: George Bush said that the families can be can rest assured that their children died for a noble cause. And I want to ask him what is that noble cause?

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We're laying the foundation of peace for generations to come. We're defeating the terrorists in a place like Iraq so we don't have to face them here at home.

QUIJANO: Recent polls show the public's support for the president's Iraq policy is falling below 40 percent. And while the president says he's determined to finish the job . . . BUSH: We will stay the course. We will complete the job in Iraq.

QUIJANO: Cindy Sheehan says she's determined to get answers from him.

SHEEHAN: I'm going to go see the president.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, ma'am, you're going to stop.

QUIJANO: Sheehan has met the president before when he stopped at Ft. Lewis, Washington, to deliver a speech about the Iraq War.

SHEEHAN: My son had only been dead two months. I was in a deep state of shock. Since we met with George Bush in June of 2004, the Downing Street Memos have come out, the Dulfer weapons of mass destruction, or lack of weapons of mass destruction, report came out.

QUIJANO: She vows to camp out near the president's Texas ranch for the rest of his vacation until she sees him.

Two top White House officials, the national security adviser and the deputy chief of staff, did come out to talk to Sheehan on Saturday but she isn't satisfied.

SHEEHAN: And they said they'll pass on the concerns to the president. And I said, fine, but I'm not leaving until I talk to him.

QUIJANO: The White House says many of the hundreds of families the president has met with know their loved ones died for a noble cause and that the best way to honor their sacrifice is to complete the mission.

SHEEHAN: The only way he can honor my son's sacrifice and my family's sacrifice is by bringing the troops home in honor of my son's sacrifice.

QUIJANO: Elaine Quijano, CNN, Crawford, Texas.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Cindy Sheehan is the co-founder of a group called Gold Star Families for Peace.

Well, all U.S. diplomatic missions in Saudi Arabia are closed today due to what's being described as a specific and credible terrorist threat. The State Department says the embassy in Riyadh and consulates in Jeddah and Dhahran will remain closed through tomorrow. CNN Terror Analyst Peter Bergen is in Washington, D.C., this morning.

Peter, nice to see you, as always.

PETER BERGEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: If these are being closed in response to specific and credible threats, does that mean that there has been incredibly good intelligence and they've cracked a specific threat against those embassies and those consulates?

BERGEN: It's hard to tell exactly what the, you know, what the intelligence is. Obviously I'm not privy to that. But it's a very unusual step to close the embassies. We've had attacks on U.S. diplomatic facilities in Saudi Arabia before. The British are also contemplating closing their facilities. The Australian government has issued some sort of warning to its citizens. Clearly, there is some sort intelligence out there that westerners are being targeted, particularly Americans.

Generally speaking, I think Saudi Arabia is in a very different (INAUDIBLE) than it has been in the past in terms of cracking down al Qaeda. We had a, you know, starting in May 2003, there was a series of attacks in Riyadh and there were 20 attacks all told. But the Saudi government has taken a very proactive stance against al Qaeda and we've seen these attacks and these threats sort of diminish. So it's kind of unusual that these threats are coming back.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: And also unusual, I think, at least from the outside, that they named two days. The embassies and the consulates will be closed for the 8th and 9th of August and then reopen on Wednesday. That seems strange to me that, one, you'd announce it. What could be behind that?

BERGEN: You know, frankly, Soledad, you know, I don't know I don't why that would be the case. But I think that what's interesting is, having sort of seen a diminution of al Qaeda activity in the kingdom, certainly in the last in recent months, these terrorist alerts are kind of unusual. Most of these sort of al Qaeda like- minded Saudis are actually in Iraq right now. Something like 60 percent of the foreign fighters, according to a lot of different studies that have been done, the suicide attackers in Iraq are actually Saudis. So most of the militants actually aren't in Saudi Arabia right now. They're concentrating on attacking Americans in Iraq.

So, you know, at least in my opinion, it seemed to me that the terrorism problem within Saudi Arabia, to a large degree being, you know, really been dealt with. So many of the top leaders of al Qaeda and Saudi Arabia have either been captured or killed by the Saudis. Something like 100 militants had been killed. Something like 800 of them have been imprisoned. And so you're really in a very different situation in Saudi Arabia. So it's sort of disturbing to see these terrorist alerts coming back.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: So to what degree, then, is the diminution, as you point out, in these terrorist attacks due to that a huge percentage of these fighters are in Iraq fighting somebody else? And what percent is the crackdown that you described? And what percent is the backlash of the Saudi people against al Qaeda?

BERGEN: Well I think the latter is probably very important. Certainly the Saudi government has had a very strong public relations campaign. There are all sorts of public service announcements on television against terrorism. Very senior clerics in the Saudi kingdom have condemned not only terrorism but also the 9/11 events in the last year or so. We've seen then, of course, with the crackdown, we've had a lot of people being put in jail. Also a dialogue between clerics and the radicals on the Internet trying to bring people back into the less radical side of things. And then as, you know, as you mentioned, there is a problem that Saudis are going to Iraq to engage in fighting there which, of course, you know, when the Iraq War is over, these guys are going to come back to Saudi Arabia (INAUDIBLE) . . .

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Yes, I was going to ask you that.

BERGEN: Yes.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: I mean because you're saying that basically they're being distracted or led away. And whether the Iraq War ends in a year or five years or 10 years, at some point, those fighters are going to come back. What happens then?

BERGEN: Yes. Not all of them are going to get a one-way ticket, you know, and die in Iraq. Some of them are going to come back. And we saw with the Afghan War that veterans of these kinds of wars tend to have good battle skills. They've exchanged business cards with other like minded militants. They will have learned skills that are useful for urban terrorism, such as suicide operations, how to conduct them. Also how to make improvised explosive devices, IEDs. Unfortunately, there's going to be some pretty serious blowback from this war all around the Middle East and potentially also in the west.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Peter Bergen joining us, CNN's terrorism analyst.

Thanks, Peter. Appreciate it.

BERGEN: Thank you.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: As we have been reporting, Peter Jennings died last night following a nearly four-month battle with cancer. Coming up next, we're going to take you to the front lines in the fight against the disease.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BOBBY YOAKUM, CANCER PATIENT: If you have cancer, don't worry. That's not going to solve it. Don't worry. You pray about it. You trust God. You have faith.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: We're paging Dr. Gupta for one man's story of survival against the odds. That's up next on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Commanding and compassionate, Peter Jennings left a lasting signature as one of the dominant figures of television news. Jennings lost his battle with lung cancer late last night in his Manhattan apartment with his wife, his two children, and his sister by his side. The ABC "World News Tonight" anchor announced on his news cast four months ago that he was diagnosed with lung cancer. Jennings vowed to host the newscast when possible but sadly his signoff that evening was his last.

All this week, in a special series, Dr. Sanjay Gupta takes us to the front lines in a fight against cancer. These are stories of perseverance and survival. And he begins this morning with one about faith and dignity against the odds.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

: I know where Bobby is going to be sitting. Bobby will be sitting to my left to the congregation's right and he will be approximately eight to nine rows back. He is always there.

DR. GUPTA: By all odds, Bobby Yoakam should not be alive. A Baptist church deacon, he praise each day his stage four lung cancer won't take him.

BOBBY YOAKUM, CANCER PATIENT: If you have cancer, don't worry. That's not going to solve it. Don't worry. You pray about it. You trust God. You have faith. Have faith in God.

GUPTA: Bobby spends his days receiving chemotherapy, sometimes radiation, and one experimental drug after another. Dr. Roy Herbst is Bobby's doctor, a pioneer in new therapies to beat back lung cancer.

ROY HERBST, PHYSICIAN: More and more I'm developing a group of patients who are long-term survivors of this disease.

GUPTA: Dr. Herbst first ordered Bobby a foul tasting mystery drink. He wanted to know if pure shark cartilage worked on lung cancer.

YOAKUM: I knew it would taste terrible, but anything that he suggested, if Dr. Herbst said it, I was willing to try it. I have nothing to lose.

GUPTA: And in the beginning, plan "a" was a hit.

HERBST: So you can see the main mass has pretty much disappeared.

GUPTA: But after 15 months of remission, the cancer began spreading. Bobby moved on to plan "b," more chemo and a new experimental drug. But like almost all clinical trials, plan "b" soon flopped.

HERBST: His tumor grew by more than 20 percent. So he had to come off the study.

GUPTA: Bobby was disappointed but hopes that his participation may have a larger purpose.

YOAKUM: Thank you, sir. Thank you for coming.

It's not just going to ben fit me. What they find out is going to benefit the public. And that's why I was willing to do this.

GUPTA: Clearly, a single drug will not magically cure Bobby Yoakum and the more than 175,000 Americans living with lung cancer. Bobby is now on plan "c."

HERBST: We're not going to make it all go away. So what we're really trying to do is knock it down as much as we can.

GUPTA: The Yoakums are left with the promise of new drugs, new weapons in the FDA pipeline. Just days later . . .

Well I guess congratulations are in order.

HERBST: Yes.

GUPTA: A new weapon does arrive.

HERBST: A drug we've worked on here for probably three, four years now got its FDA approval.

GUPTA: Tarceva, a once-a-day pill, was fast tracked when trials showed it prolonged lives.

HERBST: In someone like Mr. Yoakum who, of course, is here on a regular basis, who follows what's going on in our research, you know we've already talked to him about, you know, what next.

GUPTA: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Tomorrow in the second part of his week long series, Sanjay takes a look at the so-called smart bomb treatment for one of the deadliest forms of cancer.

Also out this morning, a major new study says that smaller tumors, not just better treatments, have led to an increase in breast cancer survival. The study examined 25 years of cancer records nationwide. It found that smaller tumors accounted for 61 percent of improvement in survival when the cancer was in the breast and underscores the importance of mammograms for early detection.

Coming up in the next hour, we're going to speak with one of the study's leading physicians.

Ahead this morning, we continue to reflect on the legacy of Peter Jennings with some of his former colleagues. That's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MILES O'BRIEN: Still to come, another day in space, another day away from their families. Discovery's reentry a no-go on account of weather. It was a conservative call. Was it the right one? Either way, we'll see Discovery tomorrow. We'll tell you all about it ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

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