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American Morning

UNICEF Helping Children After Earthquake; New Orleans Hospitals Starting Back Up; New Clinton Allegations; 'Minding Your Business'; 'New You' Update

Aired October 10, 2005 - 07:30   ET

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

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Name the man on top of the statue. It's an important day for him.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Christopher Columbus.

MILES O'BRIEN: Bingo. Very good. You answered that correct.

Good morning. Happy Columbus Day to you. We're working in honor of Christopher Columbus today.

I'm Miles O'Brien.

COSTELLO: I'm Carol Costello, in for Soledad today.

Good morning to you.

MILES O'BRIEN: Coming up today, a game of he said, she said between former President Clinton and his FBI chief, Louis Freeh. Did you see that last night? The interview?

COSTELLO: I did. I did.

MILES O'BRIEN: Very interesting allegations, I'd say.

COSTELLO: Interesting allegations, that's an understatement. It will be interesting to see what Bill Clinton has to say about it today because he should probably defend himself against those comments.

MILES O'BRIEN: It will be interesting, yes, and we'll let the viewers decide what they think are the allegations.

In the meantime, let's check the news. Betty Nguyen is in with that.

Good morning, Betty.

BETTY NGUYEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning and Happy Columbus Day to you both.

"Now in the News."

President Bush is getting another firsthand look at the recovery efforts in the Gulf Coast. The president is set to leave for New Orleans later today. Now this will be his eighth trip to the affected areas by Katrina and Rita. And he and First Lady Laura Bush will make more stops in the region tomorrow.

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroder's seven years in office could reportedly be coming to an end to make room for a woman. According to German state television, Conservative Leader Angela Merkel is set to become the country's first female chancellor. It's part of a power sharing agreement announced earlier this morning. Now the deal would end a three-week standoff but the parliament still has to sign off on that agreement.

Back here in the U.S., gas prices have jumped about 10 cents a gallon over the past two weeks. The national average is now $2.91 a gallon. And the prices being blamed on damage to refineries from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. But experts say a big drop-off in prices could come soon. We're all waiting for that.

Well, New Hampshire officials say it will take months to clean up the state's flood damaged roads and bridges. Some streets are under as much as six feet of water. Look at this. Hundreds of people have been evacuated. At least one death is blamed on the weather. A state of emergency is in effect.

And winter is coming early for much of Colorado. Look at the snow. The southern part of the state is expected to get up to 20 inches of snow in the next 24 hours. So put your ski boots on.

And the longest post game season in baseball history. Did you see it? The Houston Astros beating the Atlanta Braves in the 18th inning. Yes, you heard it right, 18 innings. The game clocked in at five hours and 55 minutes. Final score, 7-6. The Astros advance to the National League Championship Series for a second year in a row.

And, Miles, I guess they earned it with 18 innings.

MILES O'BRIEN: Eighteen innings. I guess so. So sorry for the Braves. Oh, well, there's always next year, as they say.

NGUYEN: Next year, yes.

MILES O'BRIEN: As they say frequently in Braves land.

Thank you very much, Betty.

Just hours after the quake struck in South Asia, the U.N. Children's Fund, UNICEF as you know it, began moving supplies into the affected area. Among the items UNICEF is trucking into the disaster area, or perhaps airlifting, blankets, clothes, tents, medicine and food for infants. UNICEF says half the population in the area are children. Now joining me now is Anne Veneman, executive director for UNICEF.

Good to have you with us.

ANNE VENEMAN, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, UNICEF: Thank you.

MILES O'BRIEN: Half children. That's an extraordinary number right there. VENEMAN: Absolutely. About 50 percent of the population of the affected area is under 18 population. About 20 percent of the population is under the age of five years old.

MILES O'BRIEN: All right, UNICEF has its hands full.

VENEMAN: Absolutely.

MILES O'BRIEN: Start with the tsunami, take it to Katrina, the first time UNICEF has focused on U.S. kids, and now this. How are you going to handle it all?

VENEMAN: Well, we've got teams of people who have been working all through the weekend deploying resources. We have the first shipments that have now reached the most affected areas. We know they're reaching the children and the people and the families who need them, whether it's shelter, medicines, nutritional assistance for children. It is extremely important that we work for survival with these children and families the most immediately.

MILES O'BRIEN: It's so broad scale when you talk about 30,000 plus dead and perhaps many others and still not quite the death toll we saw in the wake of the tsunami. That experience of the tsunami, for example, did you learn lessons that you're employing in this?

VENEMAN: Absolutely. We learned lessons about what you do with children in terms of reuniting them with their families. We know how important it is, as quickly as possible, to get children back in school. We know about the trauma of children that go through disasters like this.

One of the difficult things about this disaster is the fact that many children were in schools that collapsed and have been hurt or trapped in those schools. That's a very sad thing.

MILES O'BRIEN: Oh, that's just devastating to even think about that.

When you go through those list of priorities, obviously reuniting families is important. Lack of communication in an area where there's not a lot of Internet connectivity in the first place, how do you put those families back together?

VENEMAN: Well, the first thing is, is to make sure that children that are in an area are not moved from the area so that you can then begin to put together the identification systems, parents who are looking for children, children who are look for parents. You have to put together whole system in the region.

MILES O'BRIEN: But, of course, if they need help and you've got to take them out . . .

VENEMAN: Absolutely.

MILES O'BRIEN: Inevitably, as we saw post-Katrina, children and their parents get separated. VENEMAN: Absolutely. And some of these children are in the most remote areas. Their families are in very remote areas. So the most important thing now is to get medical care and assistance into the remote areas and, presumably, most of the people in those areas will stay in those areas.

MILES O'BRIEN: All right. UNICEF, a lot of us know UNICEF through the trick or treat campaign. And I think this year we should all be thinking doubly hard about UNICEF, shouldn't we. How much money do you need to pull all this off?

VENEMAN: Well, yesterday we put out an appeal for an additional $20 million for the earthquake and Pakistan and the region. That's in addition to the millions of dollars we've raised for the tsunami and this year, of course, Katrina also, half of the proceeds from trick or treat for UNICEF will go to the children of Katrina.

MILES O'BRIEN: Lots to do. Ann Veneman, keep up the good work at UNICEF.

VENEMAN: Thank you.

MILES O'BRIEN: Thanks to coming in.

Carol.

COSTELLO: Speaking of Katrina, in New Orleans, plans are being made to set up an emergency trauma center near a hospital that was recently declared unsalvageable. The move follows the departure over the weekend of the Navy hospital ship, Comfort, for its home base in Maryland. It's going back to Baltimore. And that, for the moment, leaves the city without a level one emergency care center. Dr. Fred Cerise is the Louisiana secretary of health and hospitals. He joins us now live from Baton Rouge.

Good morning, sir.

DR. FRED CERISE, LA. SECRETARY OF HEALTH AND HOSPITALS: Good morning.

COSTELLO: Why is The Comfort leaving?

CERISE: Well, we knew all along from the start that that was a temporary asset. The military told us that it could be deployed for a period of a few weeks at the most. And so I think that was just the plan all along. We've bought some time to get some better coordination among the hospitals in town while it was in New Orleans. And, now, we've got to work with the existing hospitals to provide those services.

COSTELLO: Well, we know that Charity and University Hospitals are no more in essence. But there's no trauma care center in the city of New Orleans now, so why didn't The Comfort just stay for a while until you got one up and running?

CERISE: Well, you know, to get a trauma center, the magnitude of what was at Charity Hospital, is going to take some time to do. Now there's going to be some modular units probably coming in that that system is talking about bringing in, but that's going to be not until November or so.

But, as I said, there is a emergency unit that is at the river front that the military said they can provide assets into to provide trauma capability. There are other hospitals in the area that can take care of emergency services.

COSTELLO: Doctor, let's talk about the tap water now because tap water in the majority of New Orleans, in most of New Orleans, is now safe to drink, which is hard to believe since there was e. coli in the water. How safe is it?

CERISE: Well, would not have issued a safe to drink order unless we were certain that the water was clean. What has happened is, over the time, there's been a number of leaks in the system that have been repaired. There's actually parts of the city that are turned off from the water and that's to allow the pressure to stay up in areas in the Central Business District, the French Quarter and other areas of the city. And we've done extensive testing throughout the city and have gotten consistent results now where we're not finding bacteria in the water.

COSTELLO: But there were some bad tests? They weren't all good, right?

CERISE: Well, and that's part of the process. You know, as you you would expect that immediately after because the water pressure is lost, there's leakage in pipes and things like that. And so major leaks were repaired. The water pressure is up. Chlorination is in place. And, as I said, we have a consistent series of tests now that show that we're not finding bacteria in the water.

COSTELLO: Let's talk about the chlorine because that's how you're treating the water. When I was in New Orleans, I took a shower in chlorinated water and I broke out into a rash. Like how much chlorine is in the water and how does it affect people?

CERISE: Well, as I said, we are now you may have been using a temporary treatment system or something like that which is likely if you were showing in a hotel down there, and that's a different chlorinating system than we have in the permanent plants. And so the water now is of the quality that it is in normal circumstances.

COSTELLO: But you're still asking people to run the water for 15 minutes, hot and cold, before they drink it, right?

CERISE: That's correct. As people turn their water back on, we're asking them to flush their lines for 10 to 15 minutes, as I said, to flush those lines before they begin using it.

COSTELLO: Dr. Fred Cerise with the Louisiana he's the Louisiana secretary of health and hospitals.

Thanks for joining us this morning. CERISE: Thank you.

MILES O'BRIEN: The former director of the FBI is taking on former President Clinton. In his memoir out this week, Louis Freeh writes about his years of frustration trying to get his boss to take the terrorist threat more seriously and the personal scandals that overwhelmed the White House. Peter Viles with our story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PETER VILES, CNN CORRESPONDENT, (voice over): One of the frostiest relationships of the Clinton area has now turned downright nasty. Former FBI Director Louis Freeh going public with criticism of the man who chose him for that job, former President Clinton. Referring to the various scandals that dogged the Clinton White House, Freeh told "60 Minutes," "we were preoccupied in eight years with multiple investigations." He says it became ridiculous when the FBI needed a DNA sample from the president to compare with the infamous stain on Monica Lewinsky's dress.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And the president, obviously, didn't want anyone around him knowing that the FBI was going to be taking his blood for his DNA. How did you get it?

LOUIS FREEH, FORMER FBI DIRECTOR: Well, we went over to the White House. We did it very carefully, very confidentially.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He was at a dinner.

FREEH: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Scheduled dinner. Pretended he had to go to the bathroom.

FREEH: Yes. And that's where it was done.

VILES: Former Clinton aides are rushing to defend the former president.

JOE LOCKHART, FORMER CLINTON PRESS SECRETARY: And I think when President Clinton appointed Louis Freeh, he thought he was up to the job. He was wrong. No one made Mr. Freeh go around and chase political rumors and scandals, to go and get into the depths of the president's personal life. He did that to win favor and curry favor with the far right wing in this country. What he didn't do was run the FBI.

VILES: Freeh also claims that Clinton failed to press Saudi Arabia for cooperation in the investigation of the Khobar Towers terror attacks, claiming Clinton instead asked the Saudis for money for his own presidential library, another charge Clinton aides deny.

LOCKHART: Everyone who was in those meetings has been talked to. Everyone says what Mr. Freeh is saying is not true. And all he's trying to do is just to follow the right wing play book, which is make up a bunch of charges about President Clinton and do it in a way so you can line your own pockets.

VILES: Freeh also blames Congress, saying it failed to give the FBI the money it needed in the 1990s to fight terrorism.

Peter Viles for CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MILES O'BRIEN: And former FBI Louis Freeh will be our guest here on Wednesday on AMERICAN MORNING. I hope you'll join us for that.

Let's check the weather. Chad Myers at the Weather Center with that.

Good morning, Chad.

(WEATHER REPORT)

MILES O'BRIEN: Still to come, the makers of Vioxx find themselves in a hole after a courtroom shouting imagine. Andy will tell us all about that in "Minding Your Business."

COSTELLO: Oh, a little excitement in the business world.

Plus, it's checkup time for our "New You" friends. Dr. Sanjay Gupta has a progress report eight months into the making. How did they do? Stay with us on this AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MILES O'BRIEN: All right. This is the meeting of business and legal television once again.

ANDY SERWER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes.

MILES O'BRIEN: Andy Serwer's here to tell us about a little outbreak in court.

SERWER: Yes, it was like one of those legal TV shows for Merck the other day in New Jersey. A big trial. One of these Vioxx trials. And it got very, very ugly. Merck Defense Attorney Diane Sullivan getting into it with Judge Carol Higbee.

Apparently here is what happened. There was a Merck physician named Dr. Briggs Morrison who testified on the company's behalf. There is Dr. Briggs Morrison. And the judge said, you know what, after thinking about his testimony, I found that completely misleading and we're going to strike all of this testimony from the record.

At that point, Counselor Sullivan jumped up and started shouting at the judge. The judge didn't like it. There was finger-pointing. There was yelling. The judge told the attorney to sit down.

And this is very bad news for Merck since half of the 5,000 Vioxx cases are going to be consolidated in Judge Higbee's courtroom. What kind of a strategy is this, you might ask? MILES O'BRIEN: Must have been a very important witness, right? This is a key person.

SERWER: It was a very important witness. But here's what's going on, legal experts are thinking that perhaps Miss Sullivan is planning a mistrial motion. That . . .

MILES O'BRIEN: Oh, deliberately scuttled her own efforts.

SERWER: Exactly. There's some suggestion and she has denied that, of course.

MILES O'BRIEN: And, of course, you don't have tape. This is federal court, so there's no tape?

SERWER: There is no tape. There is no tape, sadly. But we could reenact it actually . . .

MILES O'BRIEN: No, let's not. Let's not do that.

SERWER: Let's talk about the markets instead.

MILES O'BRIEN: Let's do that. Yes.

SERWER: We'll do that. Stocks swooned last week, this despite an upbeat jobs report on Friday. Remember, job loss is a lot less than expected but look at all that red ink on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday.

MILES O'BRIEN: I object! I object!

SERWER: OK, we're going to stop it.

And futures are higher this morning, you'll be happy to know, Miles.

MILES O'BRIEN: Excellent way to start the Monday.

Thank you, Andy Serwer.

SERWER: Nice finger pointing.

MILES O'BRIEN: I object, your honor!

SERWER: There you go.

MILES O'BRIEN: All right. We won't try to reenact, however.

SERWER: No.

MILES O'BRIEN: Still to come on the program, Dr. Gupta will check in. It's "New You" time. I know you've been thinking about these people.

SERWER: I have. MILES O'BRIEN: Low these eight months. What have they been up to? Are they still on their diets? Are they still on the treadmill? What about Thekla? Is she ready to get pregnant yet? That's what her goal was. Find out whether she stuck with the program. That's next on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MILES O'BRIEN: You know, you shift the set around and I'm all confused now.

COSTELLO: I know. He's been like . . .

MILES O'BRIEN: I mean we went from, you know, noon to 2:00 and everything's different.

COSTELLO: It's going to be OK.

MILES O'BRIEN: Is it going to be OK?

COSTELLO: It's going to be OK, Miles.

MILES O'BRIEN: It's there like an aberration (ph), stands Gupta.

COSTELLO: Yes, let's talk about something really difficult, though.

Back in January, five brave souls joined our "New You" revolution. They set out to change their bad health habits and we helped them to develop healthier ones.

MILES O'BRIEN: And, over these past eight months . . .

COSTELLO: We watched them.

MILES O'BRIEN: We've been thinking about them, right? I mean, really, not a day goes by that I don't think about Thekla and whether she's how she's doing, right? Just among what were there? There were six or eight of them.

COSTELLO: Eight.

MILES O'BRIEN: Eight of them. You just said that. Sanjay Gupta is here with us on our strangely twisted set here to tell us a little bit about how everybody is doing.

Good morning, Sanjay.

SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.

There was five of them and it was eight months ago.

MILES O'BRIEN: There you go!

GUPTA: Just to keep it clear here.

MILES O'BRIEN: Thank you very much. I knew something was wrong.

GUPTA: Listen, good morning, everybody.

At the end of those two months, we followed them along for two months of our "New You" revolution. Each and every one of our five participants had made significant progress. But the question was this, could they stick to their habits when the cameras was turned off? So we're going to check up on all five of them this week. First stop, Thekla Fischer.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GUPTA, (voice over): When we met Thekla Fischer at the beginning of the year, this 34-year-old seemed to have it all. A high-powered job as an attorney. A new husband. And even an appreciation for exercise. But she wanted one more thing. Her "New You" revelation goal, a baby.

THEKLA FISCHER: I'm sure that most people probably just take a leap and do it. But I think they are probably some other people out there who think, wait a second, you know, what do I really need to do before I have this family?

GUPTA: Her baby prep plan, first, good nutrition. Lots of foods full of folic acid, omega threes and the all around prenatal vitamin. Second, getting back into an exercise routine. Third, becoming more comfortable with kids.

Now, month late, Thekla says she's kept off 15 pounds by sticking with her eating smarter plan and regular exercise, but no word on pregnancy yet. The couple is still settling into their life together.

Thekla is still working towards her goal. But what about the rest of the "New You" fab five?

LEIGH ANN RAYNOR: If you think that I'm going to be on CNN and have Dr. Gupta say, Reverend Raynor, you're gained 12 pounds!

GUPTA: Did the spunky Reverend Leigh Ann Raynor keep off the pounds and keep up healthy home cooking?

When his kids kind up this former fit father for "New You," they were concerned about his health.

HARALD FRICKER: I wish I could just flash six months forward because I'm absolutely sure I'm going to be at least very close to the hundred-pound weight loss.

GUPTA: Check in later this week to find out if Harald Fricker got back to his former self.

And the nail-biter, Jonathan Karp. Did he manage to break the nasty, nervous habit by the time his wedding day rolled around?

And finally, Sandra Garth. This grandmother wanted to get healthier and beat stress as she cared for her grandson while his parents were in Iraq.

Is she still feeling good and proud of her progress? We'll update each of the fab five on this week's "New You" resolution eight- month update.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GUPTA: You know, it was so interesting, as we followed them along for those two months, we obviously had the cameras on following them all around their entire lives. And we're really going to see this week how they do when all those cameras are turned off and they don't have that inspiration of television. Be updating you all week long.

MILES O'BRIEN: It's where you call it inspiration, not pressure, maybe?

Hey, the big question, of course, people want to know, is Thekla with child? I mean . . .

GUPTA: Not with child. No, she's not with child. But, you know, as interesting, things like prenatal vitamins, all those sorts of things, pretty basic things nowadays, she's really focused on. So hopefully when she does have a child, she'll be already to go.

MILES O'BRIEN: All right.

COSTELLO: It looks like she will, anyway.

MILES O'BRIEN: She's definitely getting prepared.

All right. What about tomorrow? What do we got going tomorrow?

GUPTA: Tomorrow we're going to visit with the Reverend Leigh Ann Raynor. Now you remember her. At the end of eight weeks, she was on a exercise regimen. She learned how to cook and she lost 14 pounds. Tomorrow we're going to see if she's been able to keep that weight off.

MILES O'BRIEN: Excellent. Thank you very much, Sanjay Gupta.

GUPTA: Thank you.

COSTELLO: How embarrassing would it be if she didn't? I would be so I wouldn't let anybody weigh me anyway on television.

MILES O'BRIEN: Yes, I mean I guess if you say, look, no cameras. That would be a sign that there's trouble, right?

COSTELLO: Yes, exactly.

As we look back on the progress made by this year's participants, it's also time to look ahead to next year. And what do you have planned for next year, Sanjay?

GUPTA: Well, you know, we wanted to mix it up a bit this time around. Our goal in 2006 is to find three couples, three pairs, three duos, any pairs that want to be fit and get healthier as well. So perhaps you and your roommate want to lose those freshman 15 or you and your spouse want some help lowering your combined weight. If you have if you think you have what it takes to be one of our featured two-some, that's what it's going to be for our next challenge, simply go to cnn.com/am. Sign up with your partner to join the "New You" revolution.

MILES O'BRIEN: Hey, what about my two dogs? I've got some issues with my dogs I've got to rectify.

GUPTA: We're sticking to humans. Maybe next year.

MILES O'BRIEN: Are we going to do that? You're not doing pets yet, right?

GUPTA: Right. Maybe next year.

MILES O'BRIEN: Sticking to humans. All right. Thank you very much.

MILES O'BRIEN: All right. Back with more in a moment. We resolve to be back in just a few minutes.

COSTELLO: We do.

MILES O'BRIEN: Promise.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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