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American Morning

Will Islam be a Source or the Source of Iraqi Law?; Internet Birth

Aired August 11, 2005 - 09:30   ET

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

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: There are only four days left for Iraq to draft a constitution. Among the major stumbling blocks holding it up, women's rights. Aneesh Raman is following negotiations in Baghdad.
Aneesh, under this new constitution, are women in danger of losing some rights?

ANEESH RAMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Carol, it comes down to just a few words, will Islam be a source or the source of Iraqi law? Words that are causing quite a deal of debate on the Iraqi streets.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RAMAN (voice-over): For 24 years, Saddam Hussein was a dictator, killing and torturing his own people. But when it came to women's rights, he was also one of the most progressive rulers in the Islamic world, allowing them to drive, work, divorce, vote, many of the basic liberties that women in the West enjoy.

Now an ironic twist. A Democratic Iraq would soon base its constitution on Islamic laws, and that leaves open the possibility that fundamentalists could dictate everyday life. That has women like Rend Rahim, a former Iraqi ambassador to the U.S., on the offensive.

REND RAHIM, IRAQ FOUNDATION: This is a constitution written by men for men and of men.

RAMAN: But others, like Iraqi assembly member, Dr. Amal Mousa, see religion as their way of life.

DR. AMAL MOUSA, NATIONAL ASSEMBLY MEMBER: We are descendants of (INAUDIBLE), and we want this in the law, because it's making the limits that conserve our people and our ideals, and prevent our being like society the European society.

RAMAN: If Islam becomes the sole source of law, many fear that women's rights would fall victim to interpretation, with conservative clerics deciding what's women can and cannot do. Such as what they can wear, if they can travel alone. Can women visit salons like this? Essentially making them perhaps second-class citizens in their own country by denying them the freedoms to make simple choices in their lives.

RAHIM: We are building a society in which everybody must feel that they are a part of it. Saying Islam is the primary source of legislation is going to be -- is going to exclude.

RAMAN: Mousa, on the other had, sees democracy, affording choice for an Islamic majority, choice to inject religion into law.

MOUSA: But which will it be? Or which will pass? Which will be the law? Which will be the constitution? The idea (ph) of the majority.

RAMAN: For Iraqi women, this is as big a crossroads as one could find.

RAHIM: Every individual who's engaged feels that they are making history.

RAMAN: The question for these women is, what kind of history do they want to make?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

RAMAN: And, Carol, it is just a matter of days before we are set to know how the new Iraq chooses to live -- Carol.

COSTELLO: You know, but ultimately, the Iraqi people need to vote. Just how conservative is the majority there?

RAMAN: Well, the only reference we have for that is, of course, January's elections, the first time they came out to vote, as they will by mid-October. In those elections, secular politicians like Ayad Allawi did not fair well. The current prime minister, Ibrahim Al Jaafari was swept in. He has clear religious ties. So people like Dr. Musa say the Iraqi majority is a conservative one; it wants a constitution that is largely based in Islamic law. Those, though, like Rend Rahim, question that, but no one really knows. Everyone is waiting for that vote to find out what exactly constitutes the Iraqi population -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Aneesh Raman, live in Baghdad this morning, thank you -- Soledad.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

S. O'BRIEN: What's more amazing than witnessing the birth of your child. For one sergeant serving in Iraq, modern technology meant he could be virtually by his wife's side when she delivered her daughter Monday. Sergeant William Hamrick is in Balad, Iraq. His wife, Angela, and their new baby, Elena (ph), are in Parkersburg, West Virginia.

Good morning both of you, all three of you. Thanks for being with us this morning.

Angela, Let's begin with you. It's been 48 hours since the baby was born, more or less. How are you feeling?

ANGELA HAMRICK, WIFE OF SOLDIER IN IRAQ: Pretty good. I mean, a lot of Tylenol, but pretty good. O'BRIEN: That's what it's all about. Keep taking the Tylenol.

William, you were able to coach Angela, but virtually through streaming video and a phone line that had been set up. Was it frustrating for you not to be able to hold her hand and really be there physically for the delivery?

SGT. WILLIAM HAMRICK II, SAW BABY'S BIRTH OVER INTERNET: Yes, ma'am it was a little frustrating, not to be able to be there, but, you know, it was good for what we had, for the situation.

O'BRIEN: I guess it certainly was better than not being there at all. Angela, what kind of things was William telling you during your delivery? Was he helpful?

A. HAMRICK: Well, what I can remember, I mean -- the most thing I remember is him being able to see the baby. Going through it, I mean, he was being moral supportive and stuff, but there so many other people were talking in the room, that the only thing I really honestly heard was how much he said was -- how beautiful his daughter was.

O'BRIEN: Well, that's the most important part. The rest of it doesn't really matter, right?

So tell me something, William, what's it like, that moment, when -- I mean, watching any birth is amazing, but when it's your own child, what was it like for you to see baby Elena come out?

W. HAMRICK: It really, truly was amazing to be halfway around the world in a war zone and be able to be at my wife's side when she gave birth to our daughter.

Congratulations to you, Angela Hamrick. The baby's beautiful. From what we can see, she's adorable.

A. HAMRICK: Well, thank you.

O'BRIEN: And Sergeant Hamrick as well. You guys want to take a moment while we have the linkup to say anything to each other?

W. HAMRICK: Ang, I love you. Chance, I love you. Elena, I love you. I miss you guys. Hang in there. I'll be home soon.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(WEATHER REPORT)

O'BRIEN: Still to come this morning, TiVo's in trouble. TiVo -- TiVo's in trouble?

COSTELLO: We love TiVo.

O'BRIEN: I know. What's going to happen if TiVo goes away. Andy's going to tell us why the company that really started the DVR revolution, why it's hurting. He's "Minding Your Business" ahead.

COSTELLO: Plus, the Stones roll into one big controversy over their new song. Are they taking shots at President Bush?

O'BRIEN: Yes.

COSTELLO: Not according to Mick Jagger or Keith Richards. But we'll hear more from them, next on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: After 43 years together, the Rolling Stones are taking it to the road again. Some lucky fans got a sneak preview on Wednesday night in Toronto. The Stones performing tunes from their new album, which is called "A Bigger Bang." It's out that one of the songs was setting off a little explosion of its own.

David Haffenreffer of "SHOWBIZ TONIGHT" joins us. Had a chance to sit down with Mick Jagger and Keith Richards about the song, the album, and hey, really, about the controversy, right?

DAVID HAFFENREFFER, "SHOWBIZ TONIGHT": Yes, the controversy. You know, Soledad, we do have a copy of the -- an advanced copy of the new CD. It doesn't come out until next month. But, certainly, a lot the headlines coming to this one particular song called "Sweet NeoCon."

We can't play it for you, because the album hasn't been released yet, but we can show you some of the more controversial lyrics. Among them, the song goes, "You call yourself a Christian / I think that you're a hypocrite / They say you a patriot / I think that you're a crock of..."

O'BRIEN: You can fill in your own blank.

HAFFENREFFER: Yes. You can fill in the blanks on your own.

The song goes on to say: "But one thing that is certain / Life is good at Halliburton / If you're really so astute / You should invest in Brown and Root," which is, of course, one of the subsidiaries of Halliburton, the oil services company.

I did have a chance to talk to Mick Jagger and Keith Richards about the lyrics, about the song and the criticism.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HAFFENREFFER: "A Bigger Bang" isn't out yet and already the bang is out there . A little controversy about "Sweet NeoCon."

MICK JAGGER, THE ROLLING STONES: Yes, a little bit. Frank loves this sort of thing.

HAFFENREFFER: Yes, a very fierce attack, it seems, on President Bush. Tell me about the song...

JAGGER: It's not an attack on President Bush. It wouldn't be called "Sweet NeoCon" if it was President Bush. No, I mean, it certainly criticizes policies he espouses, I'm sure, but you know, it was really sparked off by some rowels (ph) with some Republican friends of mine. We disagreed and we argued about Iraq, and we argued about this and that, you know.

HAFFENREFFER: Well, you mention Halliburton, you mention Brown and Root, one of its subsidiaries, even.

JAGGER: Yes, you know. That was one of the things that we were joking about investments in war. You know, war profiteering, and -- so I thought I felt like that throwing that in the songs.

HAFFENREFFER: "Sweet NeoCon" is grabbing some headlines.

KEITH RICHARDS, THE ROLLING STONES: Yes, I figured.

HAFFENREFFER: A bit of a fierce attack against President Bush?

RICHARDS: Well, it's kind of a mindset. I don't know if it's really quite -- this is against one person. Actually, I mean it is Mick's song, and to sort of set this straight, I said to Mick, hey, you know, that's pointy pointy. And my only thing about this song was, the album's cool and it's good by itself. I don't even want to be sidetracked by some little political storm in a teacup, you know?

(MUSIC)

HAFFENREFFER: Any thoughts on retirement?

RICHARDS: How do you spell that? I could write a song called that, but I don't know -- you don't -- it's impossible. The wheels aren't falling off. I mean, you retire, you know, when your backside hits the ground and there's a cloud of dust on the horizon and you realize you're retired. Otherwise, no. No. No way.

HAFFENREFFER: Any thoughts on when you might want to hang it up or if you'll ever hang it up?

RICHARDS: I don't know. I don't really think about that. At the moment, I've got a whole year-and-a-half in front of me.

HAFFENREFFER: You've got a long road, there.

RICHARDS: At the end of it, I might think differently. Now I'm all like, yes. But, a year-and-a-half from now, I might tell you, oh, God, I'm exhausted. You know, I'm never going to do this again. Of course, you don't know.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HAFFENREFFER: And you know, Soledad, after talking with all four members of the band earlier this week and hearing the new album, it doesn't sound like retirement is even an option for any of them at this point. And we did add up all their ages, all four of them together, it's something like 245...

O'BRIEN: 700 right now? HAFFENREFFER: So they're going strong, though.

O'BRIEN: Sixty. Keith Richards is 61. Mick Jagger is 62. Was that right?

HAFFENREFFER: Uh-huh.

O'BRIEN: Gosh. Wow. They're going strong, though. You've got to admit that. I mean, is there a sense, though, that the song really is about President Bush or the administration? I mean, as much as you hear the denials from Mick Jagger?

HAFFENREFFER: We had Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, separate rooms, separate interviews, and they both said the same thing. So they're...

O'BRIEN: Pointy pointy.

HAFFENREFFER: Yes, pointy pointy. But it was -- it seemed fairly consistent that it was more sort of anti-Republican.

O'BRIEN: They don't do a lot of political songs. I mean, historically, with all the songs that the Stones have put out, they really avoid politics and have avoided politics over the years.

HAFFENREFFER: They have done that. But we have seen some bands recently -- Green Day, among them, with their album "American Idiot," -- that certainly struck a cord with people who were buying music at the time. It was a very successful album. Maybe that sort of type of song, that type of theme, is one that is successful in the record stores.

O'BRIEN: Was it a fun interview?

HAFFENREFFER: It was great.

O'BRIEN: Was it great? David Haffenreffer, nice to have you. Thank you very much.

HAFFENREFFER: Nice to see you.

O'BRIEN: Appreciate it. You can catch David on "SHOWBIZ TONIGHT," weeknights 7:00 p.m., 11:00 p.m. Eastern. And that is on Headline Prime.

CNN LIVE TODAY is coming up. Daryn Kagan is in Atlanta. Hey, Daryn. Good morning to you.

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, Soledad.

Hey, we're talking about something that is happening in your city. Coming up at the top of the hour, New York is known for its wide variety of restaurants, but could there be some big changes coming to the menu, all in the name of good health? We'll explain.

And it's time for some coffee talk. You probably had a mocha at Starbucks before. You're going to meet a man whose goal is to drink a cup of joe at every single Starbucks all around the world.

O'BRIEN: Oh, it's good to have goals.

KAGAN: I'm telling you.

O'BRIEN: And you know what, you rock for that Long Island accent you put on there for just a moment.

KAGAN: Yes. "Tawk." "Coffee Tawk"!

O'BRIEN: Yes, girl! I like it! I liked it!

KAGAN: There you go.

O'BRIEN: Thanks, Daryn. We'll see you at the top of the hour.

KAGAN: Still to come on AMERICAN MORNING, do you belong on beautifulpeople.net? It is the Web site where beauty is in the eye of the beholder. That's up next on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: Welcome back, everybody. The company that launched the DVR revolution may be losing a different battle. And Yahoo! puts its money on China. With those stories, plus a check of the markets, Andy Serwer is "Minding Your Business."

You got a lot to do this morning. Where are you going to start?

ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" COLUMNIST: I do. I'm going to start with the markets, if you don't mind, Soledad.

O'BRIEN: No, go right ahead.

SERWER: Let's do it. Go down to the big board on Wall Street. We're up 25 points. On the Dow, 10,619, as you can see there. Stocks rebounding, even though oil prices continue to climb this morning, sorry to say.

Chinese Internet companies are very, very hot. You probably know about Buydo, that Google-like company that went public this week. Now we learn that Yahoo! is investing a billion dollars in a company called Alibaba. Alibaba is the Chinese version of eBay, basically, and you can just imagine that will be a big company.

O'BRIEN: Another celebration.

SERWER: A big celebration in China. Dan Rosensweig of Yahoo! on the right. Gentleman Ma Young, the CEO of Alibaba in the center. There they are making nice with each other.

O'BRIEN: Making money together.

SERWER: What's not to lose? Interesting, no big complaints about Yahoo! investing in this company like people were complaining about CNOOC investing in Unocal. Does it go both ways? Interesting. TiVo, the company that really brought you the DVR, digital video recorder, pioneered it and popularized it, in a bit of some trouble now. DirecTV, which is really the biggest source of their customer. Sixty percent of TiVo's three million customers are DirecTV customers. DirecTV saying today they are going to stop using TiVo and using a competitor's device. That stock is down, I should say, TiVo is down eight percent this morning.

O'BRIEN: Why are they doing that?

SERWER: They're actually connected to Newscorp, and Newscorp has a connection with a company that make as rival DVR. You can see.

O'BRIEN: All making sense then.

SERWER: That's right.

And finally this morning, Asarco, one of the nation's oldest and biggest copper producers is filing Chapter 11, which is really striking, because copper prices are going through the roof these days. The problem is a major strike in Texas and Arizona. That's been going on for five months. Plus very, very steep environmental cleanup costs over the past year has crippled that company.

O'BRIEN: Andy, thank you -- Carol..

SERWER: You're welcome.

COSTELLO: Remember that saying, beauty is only skin-deep? Well, that's not the slogan of a select online community with an exceptionally high bar to gain entry.

Our own Jeanne Moos found out what it takes -- or doesn't -- to join the ranks of the beautiful.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): All you beautiful people, you probably think this Web site is about you. Maybe both eyes, if you think you belong on an Internet dating service called beautifulpeople.net.

(on camera): Look at that, how am I supposed to compete with that?

(voice-over): Only beautiful people are allowed on, chosen by the beautiful people who are already members. Some, so perfect they are washboard abs inspire laughter. Only one in ten get in. We wondered what does it take to join the beautiful people.

(on camera): What we need is a guinea pig, not him, me.

(voice-over): In a fit of journalistic excess, I volunteered. First stop, the makeup room, where they sprayed every pore.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And maybe some false eyelashes? MOOS (on camera): No. We're not going that far.

(voice-over): A beautiful photo is a must if you want to be among the beautiful people.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good. I like that little head tilt.

MOOS: Datingheadshots.com specializes in taking pictures that look good on Internet sites. Photo finished, it was time to fill in the application with a little help from my colleagues.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We are going to lie.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're going to lie on this one, too.

MOOS (on camera): We are?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

MOOS: Select body type. Oh, oh. Slim, average, toned, athletic, muscular, cuddly or ample.

(voice-over): Next, we had to write a profile.

(on camera): Outgoing but reclusive.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, that's not going to work.

MOOS (voice-over): We opted for over the top. Basically I'm here because I'm hot.

(on camera): Take my temperature.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No.

(voice-over): We then had to choose from dozens of photos.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's too sensitive.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm too sexy for my whatever.

MOOS: Into cyberspace I went stacked up against cleavage and chiseled bodies and exposed, exposed, exposed flesh. Guys vote on female applicants. Women vote on men.

GREG HODGE, WWW.BEAUTIFULPEOPLE.NET: Is it elitist? Yes it is, because our members want it to be. Is it lookers? Yes, it is, because our members want it to be. Is it PC? No it's not, but it's honest.

MOOS: And did I mention, you have to pick a user name? Mine was feastyoureyes.

For three days, they feasted. You can check out your rating in progress on a bar graph.

Remember "take my temperature?"

(on camera): Mmm, mmm. Temperature is plummeting.

(voice-over): Though nine out of ten are rejects. That didn't soften the sting of the final e-mail. The members of beautiful people did not find your profile attractive enough, but a producer up in showbiz got in.

AMY SCHULMAN, CNN SHOWBIZ TONIGHT: I do think it's kind of rude -- it is mean. It's mean. And I do feel bad.

MOOS: Beautiful people have feelings, too.

(on camera): How old are you?

SCHULMAN: I'm 27-and-a-half.

MOOS (voice-over): She has gotten e-mails from two guys and even a woman who called her absolutely stunning and offered to exchange numbers.

So, what's a rejected guinea pig to do? Maybe start my own Web site, Beautifulguineapigs.com.

Dark-haired beauty with chestnut highlights, soft brown eyes, loves heavy petting.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: I'm 27. Let's find that woman.

O'BRIEN: She didn't sound sad at all, like that's so mean. It's so cruel. She didn't sound like...

SERWER: But I'm in. But I'm in. But I'm OK.

COSTELLO: I'm going to go find her and put more clothes on her right now.

O'BRIEN: Cover up, honey. You're on TV.

COSTELLO: By the way, beautifulpeople.net started a little over two years ago in Denmark. It's not spread to countries ranging from Australia to Sweden to the United Kingdom...

SERWER: To here.

COSTELLO: To here.

O'BRIEN: Some of the people, checked out the Web site, not so cute. I don't know how they got in. Jealousy talking.

KAGAN: A short break. We're back in a moment. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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