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CNN Live Today

Cindy Sheehan Holds News Conference in Texas

Aired August 25, 2005 - 11:30   ET

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

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Let's take a look at what's happening "Now in the News."
The outer bands of Tropical Storm Katrina lashing out at the coast of southeast Florida. The storm could strengthen to a hurricane before it makes landfall. More than five million people in Broward, Dade and Palm Beach Counties have been warned to prepare for the storm. We're tracking Katrina's progress and we will keep you updated.

The prime minister in a southern Russian republic was wounded in an assassination attempt today. According to his office, the prime minister of Ingushetia was injured in the leg when a bomb targeted his motorcade. The country is in a region bordering Chechnya, and violence from that conflict has spilled over.

Airport officials in Billings, Montana, say there's no evidence that an emergency landing by a Northwest Airlines plane is linked to the ongoing mechanic strike. The plane landed without incident after reporting hydraulic problems. Police in Maryland are investigating whether an incident there is linked to the strike, and they say two tires on a Northwest plane may have been tampered with.

Hawaii becomes the first state to impose a cap on gas prices since the energy prices in the 1970s. That law on wholesale gas prices goes into effect September 1st. It caps the price in Honolulu at $2.15 a gallon before taxes. That's about $2.74 a gallon including taxes. Critics warn the price caps could lead to gas shortages.

Let's show you live pictures now from Crawford, Texas. Anti-war protest mom Cindy Sheehan is about to hold a news conference. It's scheduled for what they're calling Camp Casey, near President Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas. When she does speak, we will go ahead and listen in to her for a bit, as well as to a father of a son who also lost his life in Iraq.

Many military families have been turning out to support President Bush; among them, the Pruetts. Tammy Pruett has four sons currently serving in Iraq. Her husband and another son have recently returned from the war, as well.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TAMMY PRUETT, MOTHER OF 4 IRAQ SOLDIERS: We stand firm that we stand behind the president, that we continue this battle until it's done, and we bring our boys and women home safely. Most people would say that it's really horrible to have that many over there. But actually, you know, it's quite a comfort to us. All the boys are in an area where at least two of them get to see each other almost every day and then the other two get to see the others sporadically. So they have family there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: Let's show this video. It turns out the Pruett sons were part of a CNN profile that aired in June. Mr. Bush praises the Idaho family in a speech, saying, "American lives in freedom because of families like the Pruetts."

On to CNN "Security Watch" now. A terror suspect caught in the customs security net. But officials may not have known just how dangerous the man was until a devastating attack in Iraq. The story now from our homeland security correspondent Jeanne Meserve.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): At least 127 people die when a suicide bomber blows himself up outside a health clinic in Hillah, Iraq, last February. The accused bomber, this Jordanian, Ra'ed Mansour al-Banna.

Al-Banna lived in the U.S. off and on beginning in May of 2001, even visiting the World Trade Center. On June 14, 2003, al-Banna tried to re-enter the U.S. at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, but was stopped by customs and border protection agents. U.S. officials are investigating why he was trying to enter the U.S.

Customs and U.S. Border Protection Commissioner Robert Bonner this week wrote in a high-level memo that it was not clear that al- Banna was a suicidal jihadist.

But al-Banna had been flagged for secondary inspection before his flight from Amsterdam arrived at O'Hare. Officials say he was trying to reuse an outdated visa, and agents suspected he wanted to work in the U.S. illegally. The next day he was sent out of the country.

Twenty months later, the clinic in Hillah went up in flames. Iraqis protested after reports that some Jordanians celebrated al- Banna's alleged involvement in the attack. U.S. officials say Jordan denies al-Banna had any role at Hillah, claiming he died in another suicide bombing elsewhere in Iraq.

(on camera): Homeland security officials say in either case, al- Banna was clearly connected with terrorist bombing efforts. And they are patting themselves on the back for keeping him out of the country, though it appears they did not recognize him as a potential terrorist.

Jeanne Meserve, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: CNN "Security Watch" keeps you up to date on safety. Stay tuned day and night for the most reliable news about your security.

Pain and politics. Just ahead, the latest on the politics surrounding the release of a new study regarding fetal pain.

Also ahead, when is a blunt bedside manner politically incorrect? A doctor in New Hampshire is finding out.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE CORRESPONDENT: I was in the courtroom this week when Eric Rudolph was sentenced for the Olympic Park bombing, and it made me wonder, as I listened to his victims speak, does Eric Rudolph represent the future of domestic terrorism or does he represent the past? The FBI believes he represents the past. Others are not so sure. And that's the topic of this week's "Tracking Terror" column.

It may surprise you who the FBI thinks is the number one threat. They say it comes from animal rights and ecoterrorist groups. They point to it incidents like the burning of SUVs, or when they break into laboratories and free animals and harass scientists, and say there have been 1,200 such attacks since 1990.

Groups like the Southern Poverty Law Center, that monitor domestic terrorism, say that's nonsense. And they say since Oklahoma City, at least 15 police officers -- that's not the rest of us, but just 15 police officers alone -- have been killed by right-wing extremists. So they still believe that people like Eric Rudolph represent not only the past of domestic terrorism, but also the future.

Which do you think should be the number one priority for the FBI? The animal rights and ecoterrorist groups or the extreme right-wing, the same type of people that spawned people like Eric Rudolph and Timothy McVeigh? We'd like you to logon to CNN.com/trackingterror, and there you can send us an e-mail.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: Showing you a live picture now. This is Crawford, Texas. Any minute, we expect Cindy Sheehan to speak, to step up to the mike. She's holding a news conference. This is upon her return to what they're calling Camp Casey.

KAGAN: Cindy Sheehan to speak, to step up to the mike. She's holding a news conference. This is upon her return to what's they're calling Camp Casey. That's named after her 24-year-old son, who was an Army mechanic killed in Iraq in 2004. Cindy Sheehan had to leave there for about a week or so. It's been no end of tragedy for this woman. Her mother had a stroke, and she had to go back to California to check on her, but now she's back and giving this news conference. Let's listen in.

CINDY SHEEHAN, SON KILLED IN IRAQ: This is really amazing. What I saw when I came back was very overwhelming. Some of you were here yesterday when I saw Casey's portrait there. And, you know, I might be doing this, and I might represent a lot of people, but still, my son's gone. And I'm never going to see him again, and I'm never going to hold him again. I'm never going to hear his voice again.

I just got over the thing where the phone rings, and I think my first thought is, oh, maybe that's Casey. You know, I just got over that. And just, you know, at the end of the day, I just miss him so much, and I miss him more every day. And so it's really nice to be here. Nice to see, you know, what Casey's sacrifice, what Ken's sacrifice, what John's sacrifice has started in this country, that we're making it stand for peace and not for more killing.

I know my son. I know him better than anybody else. And he wasn't married. We were very close. He called me every day when he was at Fort Hood. We talked about all of his life, all of my life. And I lost my best friend when I lost my son. But I know my son. And I know he would say, I don't want any more of my buddies killed just because I'm dead. I want my buddies to come home alive.

And I know when I get up to greet him, when it's my time, he's going to say, good job, mom. He's not going to accuse me of dishonoring his memory. And anybody who knows my son better than me would like to come forward and tell me something different, I'll be glad to hear their voices.

Also my mom, my mom was moved to a private room. She's doing physical therapy now. Her right side was paralyzed. She had a major stroke, but it wasn't a hemorrhagic stroke. So they're expecting her to at least partially recover. And I want to thank everybody in America for all their thoughts and prayers. As a matter of fact, everybody from all over the world was praying for my mom. I told my mom she was the most famous stroke victim, you know, at this time. So she smiled about that. She tried to tell me that she loved me when I left.

And one good thing about Camp Casey and what we started here is that when I left it didn't end. When I left, it thrived and it grew, and it's because I am not alone. I am not the only one that wants the answers to these questions. There are people standing behind me here, but there's thousands of military families, hundreds of Gold Star Families, who want the same answers to the questions. You know, and I never ever got up here and said, I speak for every single Gold Star Family. I speak for every single military family. I've never said that. But I know I speak for thousands of them, I know we speak for thousands of them, when we want to know, what is the noble cause our children died for, what is the noble cause they're still fighting for and dying for every day? And that's what we want the answers to the questions.

And there's millions of Americans here with us, thousands here actually in Crawford, who want the same answers. They don't have what I like to call skin in the game, but we are all affected. Humanity is affected when one country wages an illegal and immoral war on another country. It affects our entire humanity, and that's why America is behind us, saying we want the answers to those questions, too.

And there's other people who disagree with our position, who have lost their children. And I know with Karen here, and Melanie and Susan, we respect their rights to their opinions, because at the end of the day, or at the beginning of this quest, we started in the same way, with our loved one coming home in a flag-draped coffin. And if there is any family who says that they believe their child died for a noble cause, I say that is your right. If that helps you get through the day, if that helps you in your pain because we all, we might not have the same politics, but trust me, we have the same pain. And we do what we have to do to get through our pain, and we hope they respect us for that, and we respect them in any way they have to do to get through their pain.

And right now, I want to introduce a very good friend of mine, Marq Anderson, from the American Friends Service Committee. They do an exhibit called "Eyes Wide Open." And they're good friends of Gold Star Families for Peace, and we're very good friends with the American Friends Service Committee.

MARQ ANDERSON, AMERICAN FRIENDS SERVICE COMMITTEE: The day Casey Sheehan's name was released by the Department of Defense as the 616th casualty of the Iraq war, a pair of boots labelled with his name, rank, age and home state was added to "Eyes Wide Open."

Good morning. I am Marq Anderson, the National Tour Manager for Eyes Wide Open, which is an exhibit created by the American Friends Service Committee, a co-recipient of the Nobel Prize for Peace for its humanitarian work. As many of you know...

KAGAN: We've been listening in to Cindy Sheehan, the protesting mother who started Camp Casey, named after her son, outside of President Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas. She's still demanding a second meeting with President Bush. She says she wants answers about what she calls an illegal and immoral war. The president so far has refused to grant that second meeting.

As she was saying, that there are other families who share the same pain because they've lost a son or daughter in this war, but they have different politics.

That includes Gary Qualls. He also lost a son in Iraq, and he also joins me on the phone right now.

Mr. Qualls, good morning, thanks for being here with us.

GARY QUALLS, SON DIED IN IRAQ: Thank you, ma'am.

KAGAN: You have a different opinion about this war than Cindy Sheehan?

QUALLS: Pretty much, ma'am. I know that no matter what, we have to stand up and finish our course of action, so we cannot afford to draw our troops back and be sitting on what would be considered somebody else's butt or posterior and afford to lose another 3,000, or another or another.

KAGAN: Tell me about your son, Marine Lance Corporal Louis Qualls.

QUALLS: Louis Qualls was a very good man. Even just the other day, I've got the letter in my truck, where a full (INAUDIBLE) colonel from our Air Force had written to me and thanked me for my son and the way I've raised him, because his son has patterned his life after my son. They played football together, were in ROTC, and they've known each other growing up, and he thanked me for doing such a fine job with my son.

KAGAN: Have you had a chance to meet with President Bush, like Cindy Sheehan has?

QUALLS: I've never had any kind of a conference like what Cindy Sheehan and a lot of other (INAUDIBLE) parents have had. Anything I've had has just been brief, and that's been it.

KAGAN: And if you did have a chance to meet with the president, what would you say to him?

QUALLS: I would like to thank him for bringing the honor, and dignity and respect back to the president -- back to the office of the president of the United States.

KAGAN: And what about this war? Cindy Sheehan just called it an illegal and immoral war.

QUALLS: This is not an immoral war. This is for what the Americans stand up for. And for what Cindy Sheehan believes in. She's already said in public statements, to the world, that this country is not worth fighting and dying for. And yet she can't be more totally wrong. She's totally disrespected all fallen heroes, and all the soldiers that are fighting for a good cause. And she has not been able to decipher the difference between her wants and needs. We know what she wants. But does she truly know what this country needs? Just look at the groups that align with her and look at their moral values and the differences and how much they just travel around just to protest and complain about things. This is not a just people. This is not a socially accepted group, either. And yet she's aligned herself with the wrong types of people.

KAGAN: And so, Mr. Qualls, let me ask you this, because we heard her say, respectfully, that she understands there are other families, like yours, out there, who you share the same pain, but you have different politics, and she respects that. Do you respect what she's doing in speaking out with her freedom of speech?

QUALLS: Well, when I first met with her, what she's saying now is completely different than what she said before.

KAGAN: So you've met with him and talked with her?

QUALLS: Yes, I have. I've already had meetings with her. And whenever I thought that I was going to be invited to one of their meetings also, she looked and me and said, excuse me, we're fixing to have a meeting, and she pretty much brushed me aside.

I sat right there at what they call their camp freedom, or whatever it is, right there in Crawford. Their group specifically bought a house right there so that they could gather, and complain and protest against our president anytime that he comes back to his ranch right here in Texas. And that's basically the only time anybody is there, is whenever he's there trying to do his job.

KAGAN: Well, thank you for sharing, especially sharing about your son and the great sacrifice he has made.

QUALLS: Thank you, ma'am

KAGAN: Your son, once again, Marine Lance Corporal Louis Qualls. And that was Gary Qualls, his father, with a different political point of view about the protest currently taking place at Camp Casey in Crawford, Texas.

We have more news to get to in final minutes. We'll do that after this break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: And now on to our "Daily Dose" of health news. A New Hampshire physician is in trouble for his blunt bedside manner. What did Dr. Terry Bennett tell an obese patient? The truth. She's fat.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. TERRY BENNETT, NEW HAMPSHIRE PHYSICIAN: The same thing that I tell every patient that's got a weight problem, that you're going to live a short and dramatic life, that you're going to spend an enormous amount of money and suffer a lot at the end of your life, and you don't get to live to be old. So you can change this, especially if I catch you early. You can change the whole outcome here by getting some pounds off.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: The patient claims Dr. Bennett also told her obese women have a hard time finding a husband. The patient filed a complaint with the state oversight board. The doctor apologized, but the patient is still trying to get the doctor reprimanded.

For your "Daily Dose" of health news online, logon to our Web site. You'll find the latest medical stories, special reports and a health library. The address is CNN.com/health.

(STOCK MARKET REPORT)

(WEATHER REPORT)

KAGAN: Of course, we'll continue to have the updates here on CNN, also CNN.com, your source for the latest information about Katrina and all your weather across the country. That's going to do it for me this hour. I'm Daryn Kagan. But the news continues here on CNN. International news is up next. I'll see you tomorrow morning.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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