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CNN Live At Daybreak

Another Leak of Classified Information, Another Call for Action; Can Saddam Hussein's Trial Move Forward With Attorneys' Lives in Danger?

Aired November 09, 2005 - 06:00   ET

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

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: It is Wednesday, November 9.
Another leak of classified information, another call for action. This time it's a "Washington Post" article stirring up Capitol Hill. Also on the Hill, oil. Pain at the pump for drivers while oil company profits soar. Lawmakers want some answers.

And Saddam Hussein's trial -- can it move forward with attorneys' lives in danger?

ANNOUNCER: From the Time Warner Center in New York, this is DAYBREAK with Carol Costello.

COSTELLO: And good morning to you.

We'll have more on the latest leak of classified information in just a minute.

Also ahead, too much of a good thing? How some women are sabotaging their health.

And higher transportation costs are showing up on the grocery shelves.

But first, now in the news, violence flared again in parts of France last night, although there were fewer clashes with police. It is the 13th straight night of violence. Leon's subway system, the second largest in the country, was closed after a gas bomb was thrown at a train station. Several cities now have curfews.

Another suicide car bombing in Iraq. Seven Iraqis, four of them police officers, were killed, and another four people injured in Ba'qubah today. The bomber was targeting an Iraqi police patrol.

Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Ahmed Chalabi meets with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Treasury Secretary John Snow in Washington today. The Bush administration defends the meetings despite accusations Chalabi passed American code breaking secrets to Iran. He's also been accused of supplying the U.S. with now discredited prewar weapons intelligence.

To the Forecast Center and Jacqui -- good morning.

JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, Carol.

Good morning, everybody.

(WEATHER REPORT)

COSTELLO: It's a story you've probably heard a lot about in recent days. The "Washington Post" reporting allegations that the U.S. runs secret prisons for terror suspects overseas. But should you have heard about it in the first place?

Top Republican lawmakers say no, amid fears that classified information was leaked.

CNN congressional correspondent Ed Henry has more for you.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

ED HENRY, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: House Speaker Dennis Hastert and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist formally launched a joint investigation, a special investigation by the House and Senate Intelligence Committees to get to the bottom of this classified leak of information.

But there was a little bit of a problem, perhaps, because a little get in touch of a controversy flared up. Basically, Republican Senator Trent Lott said that while a lot of people up here have been saying that it appears from the "Washington Post" story that current and former CIA official who were quoted in that "Washington Post" story are the ones who are responsible for the leak, Senator Lott is saying he also believes that at least one Republican senator, maybe even a Republican staffer, was involved in this leak, as well.

Lott basically revealed to reporters that at a closed-door meeting last Tuesday here, in the Capitol, Republican senators only, no staff in the actual room, and Vice President Cheney at this luncheon, as well, Lott says they discussed these secret prisons. This information was flying around. And Lott said, point blank, he believes that a lot of that "Washington Post" report, the information there, "came out of that room" late Tuesday.

And he was pointing at the room where they had lunch.

He added of the vice president: "He was up here last week and he talked up here in that room, right there, in a room full of nothing but senators. And every word that was said in there went right to the newspaper.

Lott was basically adding, as well, he thinks this Republican-led investigation on the Hill could end up becoming, in part, an ethics investigation of a Republican senator as to whether or not they leaked at least some of this information or confirmed some of it.

Democrats, as you can imagine, having a field day that this investigation may boomerang on Republicans. Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid basically telling me that he wants to know whether Republicans will end up investigating themselves. A Democratic staffer saying he wants to know, since Vice President Cheney was in this room, what did Vice President Cheney say and when did he say it? (END VIDEO TAPE)

COSTELLO: Ed Henry making your head spin this morning. Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid is urging President Bush to get tough. Reid wants the president to promise that he will not pardon former White House aide Lewis "Scooter" Libby or anyone else involved in the CIA leak scandal. Reid says the scandal involves series crimes.

In the meantime, White House aides say they will get tough, but not against their own. They tell CNN they plan to strike back at Democrats who are criticizing the Bush administration's prewar intelligence on Iraq. The aides say they're planning a campaign style strategy to counter the criticism.

Now to the campaign trail, or, more specifically, the end of the trail. New Jersey has a new governor and it is the state's current Democratic senator, Jon Corzine. He won the tight and sometimes contentious battle against Doug Forrester. Actually, it was ugly.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JON CORZINE, NEW JERSEY GOVERNOR-ELECT: I have and been honored to be your United States senator for the last five years and let me tell you, I'll be even more honored and more proud to be the 53rd governor of the State of New Jersey.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Moving south to Virginia and another win for a Democrat, Lieutenant Governor Tim Kaine defeated Republican Jerry Kilgore. The end of this race was closely watched after President Bush made a last minute stop to support Kilgore's campaign.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TIM KAINE (D), VIRGINIA GOVERNOR-ELECT: We did come together, Democrats and Republicans, business and working people, young and old from all regions of the Commonwealth, from all backgrounds. We came together as Virginians to begin that journey. And tonight, and tonight, the people of Virginia, the people of Virginia has sent a message loud and clear that they like the path that we chose and they want to keep Virginia moving forward.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Here are some of the major mayoral results.

In New York, incumbent Michael Bloomberg won by a record 20 point margin. He also outspent his Democratic counterpart 10 to one. Take a look at the cover of the "New York Post" this morning. I think this pretty much says it all. You see Mayor Bloomberg's head on King Kong's body? Yup, he did win by 30 points, so he becomes mayor again of the City of New York.

In Atlanta, Mayor Shirley Franklin keeps her job. She garnered around 90 percent of the vote against several fringe candidates.

In San Diego, former police chief, Jerry Sanders, came out on top. He managed to defeat the former surf shop owner and current councilwoman, Donna Frye, by 8 percent.

California voters have spoken, or did they shout? Voters defeated all four ballot issues championed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, including one that would have given him more power over the budget.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER (R), CALIFORNIA: But tomorrow we begin anew. I want to close here just with a personal note, not with a political note. I feel the same tonight as that night two years ago when I was elected governor. You know, with all my heart, I want to do the right thing for the people of California. Oh, yes, I want to do the right thing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Schwarzenegger's spending proposal fell by the biggest margin. Also defeated were changes to congressional districts and teacher tenure rules.

Sexual orientation was on the ballot in two states. In Texas, voters approved a constitutional amendment against gay marriage. Texas already had laws banning same-sex unions.

In the meantime, in Maine, they voted to keep a law on the books that bans discrimination based on a person's sexual orientation.

The battle over intelligent design was waged at the ballot box in Dover, Pennsylvania. Voters there defeated eight of the nine school board members who added intelligent design to the high school science curriculum. Eight Democrats captured those school board seats with vows to strike down that decision.

In other news this morning, a northeast Tennessee high school is shut down this morning after a deadly shooting rampage. The suspect is a 15-year-old student, here being led away by police, his yellow sweatshirt spattered with blood.

Police say he shot and killed an assistant principal and wounded two other administrators.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHERIFF RON MCCLELLAN, CAMPBELL COUNTY, TENNESSEE: No doubt that the individual had the gun concealed, but we haven't had any concrete evidence how long he had the gun on him or how he got it into the school or where he had it hid.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Police say the student was grazed by a bullet from his own handgun. A teacher managed to wrestle the weapon away.

In the fight for Iraq this morning, U.S. and Iraqi troops have just about cleared out insurgents from a town near the Syrian border. Operation Steel Curtain involves more than 3,000 U.S. troops and 500 Iraqi troops. The fighting left one Marine and at least 36 insurgents dead.

Still talking about Iraq, a prominent war crimes prosecutor says Saddam Hussein's trial should be moved out of Iraq to another area country. That comment comes after a lawyer representing the former prime minister -- actually, it was the former vice president -- was assassinated in broad daylight. Another defense attorney was kidnapped and killed three weeks ago.

But the government plans to resume the trial in Baghdad on November 28th.

And we'll talk more about the security for the trial and whether a change of venue, a change of country, in this case, would be possible, when we check in with a legal expert, one that helped train those Iraqi judges. That's coming up in less than 10 minutes here on DAYBREAK.

Still to come, Congress is putting oil prices under the microscope. Later, the president is rewarding some national legends.

And when does a good thing become too much if you're talking about health and fitness?

But first, here's a look at what else is making news this Wednesday.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: The guarantee of a fair trial for Saddam Hussein, or even a safe one, is thrown into question in Iraq. Earlier, we told you about the attack on Hussein's defense team yesterday. One lawyer was killed, another wounded. Another defense attorney was kidnapped and killed three weeks ago.

These attacks cast doubt on security in the run-up to the trial and during the trial itself.

Michael Scharf, professor of law at Case Western Reserve University, helped train the Iraqi judges hearing this case.

He joins us live now from Cleveland.

Good morning.

MICHAEL SCHARF, CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY: Hi.

It's good to be on this morning.

COSTELLO: Oh, we're glad to have you, because there is a real concern this morning that this trial will not even take place because it's just too dangerous.

What is your feeling about that?

SCHARF: Well, it's a real tragedy that the lawyer, Adil al- Zubeidi, was killed. He was actually quite a hero in my mind. He was not a Saddam Hussein supporter or a Baathist. He was just a Shiite lawyer who thought that this tribunal and this trial was important, it was important for Saddam to get a fair trial. So he volunteered to represent him.

On the other hand, I think that the defense counsel collectively are playing a dangerous game and are playing the price -- or now paying the price. And by that I mean that they were offered the choice of not having their faces shown on TV and their identities disclosed during the first day of the trial, but they wanted the world and Iraqis to see them and to know who they were. Then they were offered protection. The U.S. government actually said we'll give you a military escort everywhere you go, we'll move you to the green zone, we'll protect your families. And they declined.

And because of that, they are now very vulnerable and we're starting to see the price of that.

COSTELLO: But when you say they're playing a dangerous game by wanting their faces shown on television, oddly enough, the lawyer who was killed yesterday did a "Time" magazine interview just a day before his murder. And I want to read you a quote from "Time" magazine.

This is from al-Zubeidi. He says: "I believe now we are sitting together, but tomorrow maybe we cannot sit together because of the death of one of us."

So by this, it seems, he fully expected that he might be killed.

SCHARF: Yes, I think individually none of them wanted to die, obviously. But collectively they were willing to pay the price of having one or two of the defense counsel knocked off so that they could say look how unsafe this is, we have to boycott the trial, we have to end the proceedings.

COSTELLO: But that seems...

SCHARF: And ultimately that is their goal.

COSTELLO: ... crazy, Michael.

SCHARF: It seems counter-intuitive, but from the very beginning, everything that the defense counsel has done has been calculated to derail and to disrupt the proceedings. And their boycott of the proceedings has really helped their cause. You have, for example, Richard Goldstone, the former prosecutor of the Yugoslavia tribunal, earlier in the broadcast saying we now have to move the proceedings.

But you know what? That won't solve anything, because these defense counsel still have to go all over Iraq and interview witnesses. They're still going to be unsafe unless they accept the security.

So ultimately they have to accept the security and play ball with the court.

COSTELLO: But other tribunals are held outside of the home country.

SCHARF: Well, you do have the Yugoslavia tribunal and the Rwanda tribunal that have been held in international venues like the Hague and Arusha, Tanzania. But in some ways, that's actually disadvantageous to the defense because Slobodan Milosevic, up in the Hague, cannot get all of the witnesses he wants to testify, whereas the lawyers and the defendants in Iraq are able to haul anybody who is in the territory of Iraq into a court in Baghdad.

But if they move it to Jordan or some other location, they won't even be able to get their witnesses to testify.

COSTELLO: OK, but still, two lawyers have been killed. One lawyer has been wounded. There's no sense that more of these defense attorneys aren't going to be killed or wounded or kidnapped.

Will this trial really go on on November 28th or will new measures be put into place to make sure it does go on?

SCHARF: Well, Judge Amin has some cards that have yet to be played. He is going to try to get the defense counsel to meet and negotiate so that they will accept some security. And those cards he has are that when they registered to defend these witnesses and these defendants, they became officers of the court. And they can be sanctioned for obstruction of justice and for not playing by the rules.

He can say either you accept the security and you show up in court on the 28th, or we're going to, for example, just have you disbarred as an Iraqi lawyer.

COSTELLO: We'll see what happens.

Michael Scharf, professor of law at Case Western Reserve in Cleveland.

Thank you for joining us this morning.

SCHARF: It's been a pleasure.

COSTELLO: Still to come on DAYBREAK, Oreo lovers, be prepared to pay more for your treat.

And health and fitness habits -- at what point does a good thing become too much?

But first, good morning, Pittsburgh. The city just elected a new mayor. His name is Bob O'Connor. He's a Democrat -- a day -- ah, you know what I'm trying to say.

DAYBREAK will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Time for a little "Business Buzz."

Kraft Foods, the makers of Oreo cookies and all those other snacks, says it's raising prices on many foods by an average of almost 4 percent. And guess what it blames it on? Rising oil prices.

On Wall Street, investors will likely be keeping a close eye on shares of Pixar Animation Studios. The producer of hit films like "Finding Nemo" and "The Incredibles" reported higher profits than many analysts expected and its shares rose 9 percent yesterday.

Remember those sky high gas prices we paid after hurricane Katrina? Were those prices justified or was it price gouging, because they're sure down now.

Executives from the oil companies are on Capitol Hill today to answer that question, that question of was it gouging?

CNN's Allan Chernoff joins us now with a preview of the hearings -- good morning.

ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is going to be juicy stuff, no question.

COSTELLO: Um-hmmm.

CHERNOFF: Well, the CEOs of the biggest oil companies -- Chevron, Exxon Mobil, Conoco-Phillips, Royal Dutch Shell and B.P. are all scheduled to appear at this hearing. And those five companies -- get this -- earned over $31 billion in profits during the first three months, from July through September. That is $14 million an hour. Wow!

But were those earnings the result of gouging the consumer?

Believe it or not, it is actually not all that clear.

The Federal Trade Commission has never filed a gouging charge over gas prices, because in every case it has found a legitimate business reason for the high prices. Several bills have been introduced in Congress to clearly define gouging, which in some states is classified as a 10 or 25 percent increase in prices after a disaster.

Another proposal on the Hill is a windfall profits tax. When profits reach a certain point, a tax would kick in and the money could be used as a rebate to consumers or to support low income energy assistance plans.

The CEOs will likely defend themselves by saying they don't determine the price of oil, the energy traders in the global market do. And when the price they pay for oil goes up, they simply have to pass that on to consumers. Also, the big oil companies don't own most of the gas stations that bear their name. Ninety-three percent of Exxon and Mobil stations are owned by independent dealers. So the companies don't have control, total control, over pricing at those stations.

And also some anti-gouging laws could punish those station owners, not the big companies.

COSTELLO: Of course not.

CHERNOFF: The hearings scheduled to begin at 9:30.

And, Carol, there's no question that some individual gas station owners are definitely gouging and state attorneys general are going after those stations that charge people $6, $7 a gallon. That's outrageous. That's out of control.

Whether or not the big oil companies are gouging, well, we're going to have some...

COSTELLO: OK, well, let me pose this question...

CHERNOFF: ... looking at it.

COSTELLO: ... and we're going to be talking a lot more about this in a couple of minutes, but oil companies are raking in these huge profits and everybody says well, you need to build more refineries. And that would enable you to like supply all of us with more energy.

So why aren't they putting their money into that?

CHERNOFF: They do need to build more refineries. You know, there hasn't been a new refinery built in something like more than 20 years in this country.

COSTELLO: Amen, brother.

CHERNOFF: It's crazy.

COSTELLO: So why aren't they doing that with their record profits?

CHERNOFF: Part of the problem is that a lot of people, a lot of states are saying, or communities are saying, you know, not in my neighborhood, because refineries do certainly generate plenty of pollution. That's part of the problem.

But it's a huge capital investment. And these guys want to keep pumping out the profits right away for their investors rather than putting in the huge investment, the billion dollars that it would take.

COSTELLO: Well, I don't know if CNN is carrying it live, but I plan to watch those hearings. And if CNN is not, I'll watch C-SPAN.

Allan Chernoff, thank you very much.

Appreciate it.

Stick around. In about 20 minutes, we're going to talk to an expert, another expert, about some of the myths surrounding oil prices, including are you willing to pay more for green energy? And the hydrogen economy is going to change everything. You know that?

We'll have the answers -- the true answers to those questions coming up in the next half hour.

Still to come, too, on DAYBREAK, moderation, over saturation -- how less may be more when it comes to healthy habits.

Stay with me. I'll explain.

And later, national icons are getting recognition from the president today.

You're watching DAYBREAK for a Wednesday, November 9.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: How much is too much of a good thing? That's a question we're asking this morning?

And, of course, Lisa Drayer here with the -- she's with -- she has all the answers.

She's with "Women's Health" magazine and she joins us now.

This is really interesting because I never really thought about this, that you can actually be eating too much of a good thing.

LISA DRAYER, "WOMEN'S HEALTH" MAGAZINE: Exactly. That's right. Even when it comes to healthy behaviors, there is such a thing as overdoing it.

COSTELLO: OK, let's talk first about protein.

DRAYER: That's right. We know many people who like to cut carbs and load up on turkey and eggs in an attempt to lose weight. If you're restricting fruits and vegetables and cutting out all bread, that's too much. Way too low in carbs.

What happens is you're depriving your body of its main source of energy, carbohydrates. Your brain and your muscles rely on carbohydrates. So not a good idea.

Also, this type of eating can result in ketosis. That's that altered metabolic state where our body burns fat. It can result in dizziness, bad breath, also loss of appetite.

So you want to aim for about half of your calories from carbohydrates. And choose the healthy ones. The rest you can divide between protein and fat. COSTELLO: Isn't it funny, though, the Atkins Diet is just off the map now?

DRAYER: I know. Isn't that amazing?

COSTELLO: Nobody talks about it anymore, nobody does it anymore. So, I don't know.

DRAYER: The Atkins, oh, I know.

COSTELLO: I think you have something there, Lisa.

Exercise -- you can exercise too much.

DRAYER: That's right. If you're not feeling any pain or exhaustion, then you're probably overdoing it. And, you know, Carol, some women actually do this. It's almost like an eating disorder. So instead of restricting their calorie intake, they're burning off what they've eaten through compulsive exercise.

But this is definitely not a healthy behavior.

COSTELLO: But how do you define compulsive exercise, though?

DRAYER: Again, if you're not able to feel any pain or exhaustion, you're probably overdoing it. And there is a chance...

COSTELLO: If you're not able to feel exhaustion or pain?

DRAYER: Exactly. Your endorphins are going, you're not even sensitized to this.

COSTELLO: So if you run like seven miles and you're not tired, you actually should be tired?

DRAYER: Exactly.

COSTELLO: Unless you're superman.

DRAYER: Right. And we're talking about very extreme cases. But even if you're not an exercise bulimic, as it's called, too much high intensity exercise can result in headaches, an elevated morning heart rate and possibly bone fractures.

COSTELLO: OK, so those are the signs you should watch for?

DRAYER: Definitely.

COSTELLO: OK, because I get headaches a lot from exercising. Maybe I'm overdoing it.

DRAYER: And that could be water, too, lack of water intake.

COSTELLO: OK, thank you, Lisa.

Moisturizer? DRAYER: I know. We don't...

COSTELLO: Too much moisturizer is a bad thing?

DRAYER: It definitely can be. Some women put on excess moisturizer, perhaps to hide wrinkles, to undo sun damage. But if you're applying three or more times a day, you may be overdoing it. Too much moisturizer can lead to clogged pores, acne if you're prone to it, and, Carol, even possibly dermatitis. That's when the skin becomes itchy and inflamed. That may be due to the emulsifying agents in the moisturizer.

So you want to be careful, not overdue it. One to two times a day should be enough, and it's best to do it right after your shower, while your skin is still hydrated because that helps to trap...

COSTELLO: That helps keep the moisture in.

DRAYER: There you go.

COSTELLO: And that's all you need for the day.

Great advice this morning.

Thank you, Lisa.

DRAYER: Thanks.

COSTELLO: Lisa Drayer from "Women's Health" magazine, joining us again this morning.

More of DAYBREAK when we return.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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