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American Morning

Scooter Libby's Chance to Fight Back; Bedlam in France

Aired November 03, 2005 - 07:00   ET

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

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Soledad O'Brien. Lewis Scooter Libby's chance to fight back. The vice president's former chief of staff making his first court appearance this morning. We're live in Washington as the CIA leak case goes to the next level.
Bedlam in France. A seventh night of rioting in the suburbs of Paris. There's been looting and cars and busses set on fire. Authorities don't have a plan to stop it. A report from Paris is straight ahead -- Miles.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Miles O'Brien. We're in the Algiers section of the city of New Orleans, a section that wasn't particularly hard hit, sort of a light if the darkness.

And today, we're digesting yet another element to the Michael Brown story at FEMA. Wait unit till you hear what he was e-mailing about after Katrina.

All that and more on this AMERICAN MORNING.

S. O'BRIEN: Good morning. Welcome, everybody. We continue our split show. I'm reporting from New York this morning, and as Miles mentioned just a moment ago, he is in Algiers, which is on I guess the west bank of New Orleans. In Algiers we really heard of a lot, Miles, because it seemed to be one of the places that was recovering so quickly. Good morning.

M. O'BRIEN: Yes. Good morning, Soledad.

Yes, we really have ridden an roller coaster ride this week as we've gone from places that seemed back to normal to places like St. Bernard Parish, which are nowhere near normal. Algiers in the former category. Things are pretty much getting toward back to business. Let's walk you through our week, remind you where we've been all week. We began very near the French Quarter on Canal Street, sort of Main Street for New Orleans, and there we told you it was seemingly a regular rush hour, though mostly contractors, then we went toward the 17th Street Canal and that ruptured levee there, talked about how those levees are being patched up both temporarily and hopefully permanently as time goes on.

Then yesterday, St. Bernard Parish, really a part of this area it's hard to find any area that is more hard hit than that, just such widespread devastation. We went to a street where you were on September 25th, not a single thing has changed since then.

This morning, here we are across the river in Algiers. They call this the west bank. We're about a mile from where we began on Monday in the French Quarter. And today, we're going to talk about not only a part of the city that's doing well, but talk also about levees and the overlapping Levy authorities and how the gaps in the system may be the weak links that ultimately need to be plugged for this city to be able to withstand any sort of storm of Katrina size or higher. That's among the things we're going to talk about, as well as the Mike Brown e-mails, which really are quite startling -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Yes, I think it's one of the cases you could use the word shocking for some of the things that he was e-mailing about in the middle of a humongous crisis. But we will get to those in a little bit.

Miles, thanks.

Let's turn our attention to Washington D.C. now, the vice president's former chief of staff, Lewis Scooter Libby, is going to be arraigned this morning in Washington. He resigned his post on Friday after he was indicted in the CIA leak case.

AMERICAN MORNING's Bob Franken is live outside the courthouse today.

Good morning to you, Bob.

BOB FRANKEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.

And for Scooter Libby the wheels of justice are now slowly grinding.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FRANKEN (voice-over): In less than a week, Scooter Libby will have come from his rides to the White House with his boss, Vice President Cheney, to a trip to the courthouse, with his lawyer to face serious criminal charges, felonies that raise in some quarters lingering questions about whether the vice president played a role in the CIA leaks.

SCOTT MCCLELLAN, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECY.: We'll be glad to talk more about the matter once it's come to a conclusion.

FRANKEN: It's far from a conclusion. Libby is expected to plead not guilty at this morning's arraignment to charges of perjury, obstruction of justice, making false statements. His lawyer says it was simply faulty recollection.

The allegations stem from the still-incomplete investigation led by prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald into the press leaks identifying Valerie Plame as an undercover CIA operative. Plame is the wife of harsh administration critic Joseph Wilson, who remains harsh.

JOSEPH WILSON: Is this the standard of ethical comportment that we expect from our public servants? I don't believe it is. I cannot understand why the president does. FRANKEN: One huge loose end is the fate of the president's chief political adviser, Deputy White House Chief of Staff Karl Rove, who has not been indicted, and it's not clear whether he will be.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FRANKEN: But for now, it's Scooter Libby, who's faces the charges, and not about the underlying law against identifying a secretive operative, but charges that he lied, and the questions continue to swirl around, Soledad, is he trying to protect someone?

S. O'BRIEN: Good question. Here's another one for you. If there's a trial, that means witnesses, and if there are witnesses, then suddenly you're talking about things that essentially are top secret, right, Bob?

FRANKEN: That is the case. That's always the difficulty when you get into a trial. But the witnesses might include the likes of Vice President Cheney, and of course the reporters who were so instrumental in causing this case to move forward.

S. O'BRIEN: Bob Franken for us this morning. Bob, thanks, as always.

President Bush leaves in just a few minutes for a Latin-American summit on trade and economic reform.

Suzanne Malveaux is live for us at the White House this morning.

Hey, Suzanne. Good morning.

What exactly is he doing?

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning. As a matter of fact, the president will be leaving shortly. Perhaps leaving his domestic problems, his troubles behind, but perhaps facing some international ones as he heads to the Summit of the Americas. His first stop, of course, is going to be Mara del Plata in Argentina, and then on to Brazilia, Brazil, and then Panama City, Panama. The focus of this trip, of course, is to meet with 33 other world leaders and to basically promote the Western Hemisphere Free Trade Agreement. That is a controversial agreement. The president believes it will help alleviate poverty.

And one of the moments to look out for in this trip is going to be whether or not he runs into this man, the Venezuela President Hugo Chavez. He has been an outspoken Bush critic. He has called the president an imperialist. He has accused the United States of trying to assassinate him. He has also vowed to join the thousands of anti- American protesters who have already began to gather on the streets in Argentina -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Easy to say no love loss between the two of them. Let's talk on a lighter note, if we can, Suzanne, about the royals at the White House. Did you get to go to that?

MALVEAUX: I was not invited. I was Cinderella, couldn't go to the ball.

S. O'BRIEN: Weren't you covering it maybe? Come on, you couldn't work there.

MALVEAUX: I was so close. I was right here standing on the lawn, too.

S. O'BRIEN: Oh, man.

MALVEAUX: It was a glamorous affair, a very nice affair, not the standout moment you saw 20 years ago when you had Prince Charles and the late Princess Diana dancing away with John Travolta.

But there was an interesting moment, the toast Prince Charles gave that night. He said, of course, he recall his first visit to the White House some 30 years ago under Nixon when he said people were trying to marry him off to Trisha Nixon, and so got somewhat of a laugh there, and people welcoming of course his new wife Camilla.

And you had to see the dress that first lady was wearing, Oscar De La Renta. And by the way, Oscar De La Renta was there at the affair. Wonderful to see, as well as some other folks. Yo-Yo Ma, the cellist, Kelsey Grammer and some other luminaries. So really quite a glamorous evening.

S. O'BRIEN: She looked great. We were just showing some videotape of it. That red thingy, sparkling...

MALVEAUX: Very nice.

S. O'BRIEN: Very sexy.

MALVEAUX: Now I know when I get my invite, what I'm going to wear.

S. O'BRIEN: Yes, we'll all be waiting for that, right?

All right, Suzanne, thanks a lot.

MALVEAUX: Sure.

S. O'BRIEN: Let's turn to France now. We were telling you about this a little bit earlier this morning. The government now appealing for calm. Officials there are looking for ways to try to end a week of violence. In several Paris suburbs, rioting, and it began after locals blamed police for the deaths of two teenagers who were running for from officers.

Jim Bittermann is following the developments from the French capital this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JIM BITTERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): French police having a very difficult time containing the situation here. They say they are firing rubber bullets and tear gas at people who at least last night, in two instances, fired real bullets at them. And that has raced the stakes considerably. The leader of one of the police associations has called for the army to be brought in to assist the police. He said this amounts to a civil war, and he said that a curfew should be imposed.

Now it's unclear that government's going to take those kind of drastic steps, but they have been meeting all day with community leaders trying to figure out what they should do next.

The violence last night led to more than 40 vehicles destroyed, including two cities busses, there were two schools attacked, a gymnasium went up in flames, and molotov cocktails were tossed at a car dealership. It also went up in flames. A France television crew was chased down the street and they had to abandon their car, which also went up in flames.

So a lot of violence in nine different suburbs at least last night. And that's the kind of things that are shocking a lot of French. They're wanting the government to do something, and the government's been trying as Nicolas Sarcosi and Dominique De Villepin. the prime minister, said yesterday in parliament, that there's no room in French society for the kind of injustice and discrimination that young people have been complaining about, but by the same token, there's no room either for the kind of violence that's going on now for seven days.

Jim Bittermann, CNN, Paris.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

S. O'BRIEN: From Paris, we take you back to New Orleans now. We're right outside of New Orleans.

And really, Miles -- we have bean talking about this morning -- those e-mails from the now former FEMA director, it does not take a close reading to see some of the missteps and some of the inability to glom on to what was clearly a national crisis.

M. O'BRIEN: Yes, you know, it's interesting, a lot of this doesn't come as a surprise, of course, given all that we've heard about Mike Brown and his departure. And we saw one of his underlings testifying before Congress a little while ago alluding to some of this. But let's just share with our viewers what we're talking about, and then we can bat around the issue.

This is on a Congressman's Web site, Louisiana Congressman Charlie Melancon, who got ahold of these things and posted them. Take a look at this, FEMA employees e-mails to his BlackBerry or whatever, to Mike Brown: "FEMA staff is OK and holding its own. DMAT -- which means disaster medical assistance team -- staff working in deplorable conditions. The dying patients are at the DMAT tent being medevaced. Estimates are many will die within hours. Phone connectivity impossible."

And then Mike Brown's response to that really dire e-mail is this -- "Thanks for the update. Anything specific I need to do or tweak?" You know, Soledad, that does not impress me as somebody who really was reading that message very carefully. What do you think?

S. O'BRIEN: You know, actually even -- the focus that has been -- I mean, there are e-mails about going back and forth to his press secretary about what he's wearing during press conferences. I mean, did you read some of these.

M. O'BRIEN: Yes, let's look at that one real quick.

S. O'BRIEN: Go ahead, yes.

M. O'BRIEN: His press secretary says, "You look fabulous." Which is just, you know, incredible they're talking about this, given all that is going on. This is after Katrina's been hit. And Brown's reply, "I got it at Nordstrom's. Are you proud of me?" And then says, "If you'll look at my lovely FEMA attire you'll really vomit. I am a fashion God."

Now I should say, Soledad, if you were to take our e-mails during a newscast or a lot of people's e-mails while doing other things. there's kind of this back channel of trivial communication which goes on during important events. Having said that, this doesn't seem right.

S. O'BRIEN: Well, especially when you consider that really he should be knee deep in the national disaster. I'm not sure that anybody, even your press secretary, the person who maybe should be focused on how you look on TV, I understand that there are people that's their job to sort of monitor that for their employer, one would hope they would be so busy that honestly everybody -- anybody wouldn't have time for that in that office.

You know, I really encourage people to check out that Web site because these e-mails so worth reading. All right, Miles, we'll check in with you in a little a bit, maybe get some more e-mails out of that later on this morning.

(WEATHER REPORT)

S. O'BRIEN: Ahead this morning, pivotal day for Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito, 14 senators who could make or break his pick are prepared to meet today. They're the so-called Gang of 14. One member's going to joins us just ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: Welcome back, everybody. Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito is back on Capitol Hill today. He's going to be meeting with some of the members of the so-called Gang of 14. You may know that, of course, is the group of moderate senators, both split between Republicans and Democrats. And one of those senators is Ben Nelson. He joins us this morning. He's a Democrat from Nebraska.

Thank you for being with us. Nice to see you as always up on Capitol Hill. SEN. BEN NELSON (D), NEBRASKA: Thank you, Soledad. It's good to be with you.

S. O'BRIEN: You had a chance to talk to Judge Alito. What did you think of him?

NELSON: Well, I thought Judge Alito was very articulate on the issues. He expressed his own views on what a judge should be, and that is an adjudicator, not a legislator. He told me that he didn't intend to take a political agenda to the bench and that he didn't plan to take a hammer and chisel to chisel away at existing law, that he respected stare decisis and well-settled law.

S. O'BRIEN: So is that enough for you to hear to say, hey, I like this guy, and I'd endorse him?

NELSON: Well, it's a good beginning. I think it's important to see how the process unfolds, because there are a lot of hearings, a lot of analysis of his opinions, and at the end of the day, you expect people to tell you they're not going to be a judicial activist, but at some point you have to develop enough trust. He certainly had a good start with me yesterday.

S. O'BRIEN: You're going to have meetings later today with the other so for -- Group of 14. What are you on board to discuss? I mean, obviously, you're going to be talking about Judge Alito, but what exactly is the focus?

NELSON: Well, it's sort of a check-in get together. We've been able to communicate with one another, and I think that's why we've been able to avoid the kind of contention and contentious fight that existed before. The Democrats aren't talking about a filibuster, and I would hope that Republicans wouldn't talk about the nuclear option, that we could communicate with one another and stay in tune with where we are.

S. O'BRIEN: Well, but some Democrats actually are talking about a filibuster.

NELSON: I mean, the Gang of 14.

S. O'BRIEN: Your group of Democrats.

NELSON: Yes, right.

S. O'BRIEN: I was going to say really, because some of the ones I'm talking to, senator, with all due respect, actually, you know, the word, the 'f' word, filibuster, certainly has come up. Do you think it's going to come to that, seriously?

NELSON: Well, I don't know. I don't believe so. But you know, time will tell as the process unfolds, and I think that's what's critical here, is the judge deserves a very rigorous, but fair process, a dignified process in which my colleagues decide whether or not they can support him and put him on the highest bench in this land. That's what's so critical. It's a lifetime appointment, and it ought to be pursued vigorously, but at the same time I think we all want to make sure it's a fair process, too.

S. O'BRIEN: Give me a sense of what the atmosphere in the Senate is right now. Obviously we were talking about rule 21, which I'd never heard of before yesterday, and then suddenly I became a little bit of an expert on it. What's the atmosphere now? It sounded very poisonous yesterday.

NELSON: Well, I think it was just a dust up, and too much is being made of the process or the tactic. The real focus here has to be on that report on prewar intelligence, and I hope that we can get back to that focus. But you know, surprises is not always appreciated in politics, so some people took issue with it. But the real issue is not about the dust up, but about that report. It is now -- will be forthcoming because of the process that's been put in place.

S. O'BRIEN: Do you think that dust up, though, could have implications for how this nomination process goes for Judge Alito?

NELSON: Oh, I don't know. I think we can move beyond that particular tactic to give this man a fair hearing. That's what's important, because it is, in fact, at the end of the day, the most important position that anybody can have, and that's on the Supreme Court of the United States. When it comes to the judiciary, I think we'll deal with this with the decorum that is required and not let the little contention of this week get in the way of that.

S. O'BRIEN: And at the end of the day, since you raised it, not me, what do you think? Is he going to be confirmed or not?

NELSON: Well, I think if Judge Alito continues to answer the questions in a forthright manner, it is very -- shows that he has the intellectual capacity, as well as he doesn't want to bring a political agenda to the bench, that it will. There's always the possibility, stumbling along the way, and that's why I think you let the process unfold.

S. O'BRIEN: Senator Ben Nelson, joining us this morning. Nice to see you, sir. Thanks.

NELSON: Nice to see you, Soledad. Thanks.

S. O'BRIEN: Ahead this morning, the government's spending billions of dollar on Katrina recovery efforts. The problem is nobody is quite sure exactly how all that money is being spend spent. We're "Minding Your Business," coming up next on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: Here's some disturbing news. The government has been handing out contracts worth billions of dollars for the Katrina recovery effort, but nobody seems to know where all the money is going. Andy Serwer is "Minding Your Business" this morning.

This is bizarre and terrible news.

ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: It really is. And yesterday, Soledad, lawmakers on Capitol Hill were grilling government contractors over that $60 billion that's been being spent on the cleanup efforts.

A couple key questions. Why is the effort going so slowly? And exactly where is all the money going?

Some interesting examples yesterday, including a $2,500 expenditure to put a blue tarp on a roof. Why did it cost so much? The contractor said, I don't know. This got a Congressman very upset.

Thousands apparently are still living in tents, Soledad. The mobile homes are not ready yet. There's no running water. It's getting cold, and obviously this is a situation that's very disturbing to me. And to everyone I think.

S. O'BRIEN: It's bizarre. And then yesterday, of course, Miles did the story about the folks in St. Bernard Parish, where they're willing to get a loan, they have no tax base, and here you have $60 billion and no one can truly account for how it's being spent. It's bizarre.

SERWER: It really is. Carnival cruise executives were also in the hot seat. You remember them, they got that contract, $236 million, to have evacuees stay there, and people criticizing that as being overly generous.

S. O'BRIEN: Well, they're not full, and it would could cost less money to send all the evacuees on a vacation for six months. I think we did the math on that.

SERWER: That's right, and their defense right now, one of the things is that, well, we have to reimburse travel agents. Well, that's just part of it one would think, and not really accounting for all that money.

But you can see here a lot of questions being asked.

And you know what, it raises the question, do we still need a czar here, someone in charge of the overall effort, I think?

S. O'BRIEN: Well, and this is only a small percentage of what at the end of the day is going to be spent in recovery in the whole region, not just New Orleans obviously, but the Gulf region. And they can't even account for the first, what are they looking at, $200 million?

SERWER: Yes, in this case, that's right.

S. O'BRIEN: So they can't even account for the first third of it.

SERWER: Right, right. And out of the $60 billion, I mean, it's huge money.

S. O'BRIEN: What a mess. All right, Andy, thanks.

SERWER: Thanks.

S. O'BRIEN: Let's get right back out to Miles, because, of course, Miles we're talking about really what's happening where you are today.

Good morning, again.

M. O'BRIEN: Well, you know, I had my calculator out, I'm doing the two hours at $2,500, and I'm looking at the blue tarps here. There's some in, but they need some more work here. I was thinking between live shots, we could all get together and install a few blue tarps. Just a thought.

We're going to come back and talk about something a little more serious, the first cut of inspections in the city of New Orleans. Teams of inspectors are going out, no less than 110,000 homes to inspect and assess and decide whether they should be renovated, gutted or demolished for that matter. We'll check in with that process after a break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: Hey, Miles. You sound terrible. What is wrong with you?

M. O'BRIEN: It's just the morning. What can I tell you. Practicing -- I'm practicing to be a an old man. How am I doing?

S. O'BRIEN: Really, really well. Well, man, you sound like you've got a cold.

Listen, I have a question for you.

Ahead this morning, we're going to talk to Ted Turner, CNN founder, obviously. You know, he has...

M. O'BRIEN: I've heard of him, yes.

S. O'BRIEN: He's just announced a $20 million initiative they're going to try to help fight measles and really go through this U.N. foundation that he created. We're going to talk to him this morning about that money. Is it enough? why they are focusing on measles. And really, what he's going to say when he talks to the Time Global Health Initiative a little later today.

M. O'BRIEN: $20 million. Now that would be when he wipes the change off of his dresser, $20 million, right? That's pretty much...

S. O'BRIEN: Well, funny you would say that, because I have a question for you. Ready? Kind of a quiz.

M. O'BRIEN: Yes.

S. O'BRIEN: Ted Turner -- here's the question: Ted Turner's the largest private landowner in the U.S. So how many acres, Miles, do you think he owns? Would you say, Soledad, it's, a, 900,000 acres? Would you say, Soledad, no, it's, B, 1.8 million acres? And would you say, Soledad, no, it is, C, three million acres. Don't give me your answer yet, Miles. We'll get it after the break.

We're back in a moment.

M. O'BRIEN: OK, I'm filled with suspense.

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