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American Morning

Pushing The Economy; Lionel Tate Case; 'Minding Your Business'; Bedbug Comeback

Aired December 05, 2005 - 07:30   ET

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

ANNOUNCER: You're watching AMERICAN MORNING with Soledad O'Brien and Miles O'Brien.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Welcome, everybody. You're looking at a live shot of Columbus Circle. Now the traffic's kind of moving there because the rush hour's underway. Wow, Central Park looks beautiful with the snow.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It looks like the arctic circle.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Yes, it does, kind of, doesn't it?

COSTELLO: It looks so cold.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Because it is. It is.

COSTELLO: It's cold and it's . . .

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: You really hate the cold, don't you?

COSTELLO: I do.

MILES O'BRIEN: You just hate it.

COSTELLO: I know, you wouldn't -- I know, I grew up in Ohio, I should be used to it. But, I do, I hate it.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: It's going to be a long winter for you.

COSTELLO: How did you know?

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: It's only just getting going. It's not even winter officially yet.

MILES O'BRIEN: Not even winter, yes.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: We should mention to everybody that we begin now -- it's not only a long winter, a long day, because ours start time is at 6:00 a.m. If you're just joining us now, you've missed the first 90 minutes of our broadcast. So a reminder to please join us at 6:00 a.m. when we begin our day. We'd love to have you.

MILES O'BRIEN: We did it for one week, I guess we've got to do it again. We'll keep going.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Yes, we're back.

MILES O'BRIEN: Keep going.

Let's talk about the Saddam Hussein trial. A remarkable scene we've been witnessing unfold there. Riveting to see a victim of the 1982 Dujail massacre testifying before the men who once ruled with absolute authority. CNN's Nic Robertson has been in the courtroom and calling in ever chance he gets. This is a little excerpt of his last phone to us.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: He went on to describe numerous times that he was tortured, that his family was tortured, that they were tortured, that his younger brother was tortured in front of his father, given electric shock treatment. He described how one of his brothers had his legs set on fire as torture. Another colleague inside the detention center had had his legs broken, arms broken. Very, very graphic testimony describing the different levels of torture. He described how women had given birth in the jail. That there had been no help from the guards. And he, at this point, he wanted to address Saddam Hussein, telling him that the guards hadn't helped and that babies had died in the jail. And very, very emotional testimony at some point. And Saddam Hussein's half brother and Saddam Hussein both trying to interject.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MILES O'BRIEN: Now the defendants haven't been quiet during all this testimony. Near the beginning of today's court proceedings, Saddam Hussein himself complained the court was appointed by U.S. occupiers. He stood up and said, shaking his fist, "long live Iraq!"

Carol Costello is here with more news for us.

You know we were talking, Carol, about Saddam Hussein's, you know, body language and his demeanor. He feels like the old tyrant, the dictator there in the courtroom. But the fact is that testimony is so compelling it's difficult to respond.

COSTELLO: It's angry and it's emotional and it's bound to get, I don't know, even more fascinating. It's tough to say it's fascinating, but it is, it's fascinating to watch.

MILES O'BRIEN: Yes.

COSTELLO: All right, I have other news. In fact, we're just getting this story in.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says the U.S. does not ship suspected terrorists around the globe to be tortured. This as some European governments have been complaining about reports of secret CIA prisons and the treatment of detainees. Rice spoke just in the past 15 minutes. Here's what she had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) CONDOLEEZZA RICE, SECRETARY OF STATE: In conducing such renissions (ph). It is the policy of the United States, and I presume of any other democracies who use this procedure, to comply with its laws and comply with its treaty obligations, including those under the convention against torture. Torture is a term that is defined by law. We rely on our law to govern our operations. The United States does not permit, tolerate, or condone torture under any circumstances.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Rice is now off to Europe. She's set to arrive in Berlin later today.

U.S. security is getting a failing grade from the 9/11 Commission. It says the United States is not prepared for another terrorist attack. The commission claims security changes aren't, "a priority for the government right now." The commission will release its full report less than three hours from now.

Israeli police confirm an explosion at a shopping mall earlier this morning was a suicide bombing. It happened in the town of Netanya. At least five are dead, 35 others hurt.

Supporters of Stanley "Tookie" Williams are calling for clemency. Demonstrators rallied across California this weekend. Williams, the cofounder of the street gang The Crips, is set to be executed on December 13th. He was convicted in the killings of four people in 1979. But supporters say he's a changed man, a positive influence for children. California Governor Schwarzenegger will hold a private clemency hearing on Thursday.

And professional wrestling putting a headlock on steroid use. World Wrestling Entertainment says it will soon start random testing. The move follows the death of star Eddie Guerrero. He died last month right before a match. His autopsy suggests heart disease caused by years of drug and alcohol abuse. Wrestling is the latest sport to announce drug testing. Major League Baseball recently strengthened its steroids policy under pressure from Congress. So the Worldwide Wrestling Federation is doing it on its own.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Good. It's about time.

COSTELLO: Yes.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: You know, that's just -- you know, it's ridiculous that everybody doesn't jump on board and get rid of steroids. It sort of ruins the game for everybody, I think.

COSTELLO: It does.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: My little soap box for the day. I'm moving on.

Carol, thank you very much.

President Bush is going to North Carolina today. He's going to be talking about the economy. Some pretty strong numbers lately on jobs and economic growth. Here to talk about that with us is the presidential counselor, Dan Bartlett. He's -- live is the word I'm trying to day, Dan.

DAN BARTLETT, COUNSELOR TO THE PRESIDENT: Good morning, Soledad.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Off to a stellar start. Live from the White House is what I'm trying to get out there.

Good morning. Nice to see you, Dan.

BARTLETT: You, too.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Thank you very much.

Good numbers when it comes to the economy. Bad numbers, again, when it comes to the polls. Let me throw one up for you. The president, 55 percent of people polled -- it's a "Time" magazine poll I'm talking about here -- disapprove of the way that the president is handling the economy. Why do you think these numbers are where they are?

BARTLETT: Well, first and foremost, the president is not as concerned about his personal numbers. He's more concerned about those numbers that were reported out of the government last week, which demonstrating that this economy continues to hum along. In the last two and a half years alone, we've created over four million jobs in this economy, Soledad. Retail sales are up. Consumer confidence is up. The housing market continues to grow and be strong.

Those are the type of numbers that President Bush is concerned about. His personal approval rating, those things are always kind of fluctuating and he's not concerned about that. And he's going to travel to North Carolina today to talk about some of the progress our economy's making.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Oh, I don't know. He may not care that much about his personal poll numbers, but it is a reflection of how Americans are feeling. And how Americans are feeling, frankly, Dan, is scared. I mean the war goes on. You know, I've looked at my heating bill.

BARTLETT: Yes.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: It may be triple what it was last year. Triple what it was last year. So good numbers but, honestly, it doesn't really feel like it. Why not?

BARTLETT: Well, that's a very good point and that's something that President Bush is going to discuss today is that we do have a foundation of strength here in our economy, but there are still some very acute concerns to the American people, energy costs, healthcare costs going up. The fact that when people want to change jobs, they fear that they don't have the type of skill set to change jobs. And President Bush is going to talk about how he can help workers meet those challenges. But one thing he's also going to argue here in this speech in North Carolina is the fact that in Washington there continues to be discussion about raising taxes. That now is the time to do that. The very point that you make is that heating bills are up. This is the last time -- the wrong time to be talking about raising taxes. And that's a debate we need to have in this country and something he's going to talk about directly down in North Carolina.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: All right, let's turn our focus from the economy and talk about Hurricane Katrina.

Governor Blanco, as I'm sure you well know, just released a hundred thousand pages of documents and basically it shows this trail of blame, if you ask her, which includes the White House, for people to come to aid of her state. In one case, literally it took five days for the White House to get back to her on a request. And when they did, the White House aide wrote or told her, "we found it on the governor's website but we need an original for the staff secretary to process the request."

I mean, people, as you've seen in the pictures from Hurricane Katrina, desperately in need of aid but we need the original copy before we can go ahead and start sending aid? What do you think people make of this when they hear this response from the White House?

BARTLETT: Well, Soledad, I think these e-mail show very thin slices of exactly what happened on the ground. But President Bush has made clear that there is blame to go around at the federal level, at the state level, at the local level and we need to do better at preparing for these types of natural catastrophes so there is better lines of communications at these various levels of government.

But now's not the time. We're not going to do finger pointing. We're not here interested in trying to re-litigate past differences. There were differences. There were breakdowns in communication. We needed to do better. We didn't. And we're going to try to fix it. But like I said, I think these individual e-mails probably don't give a complete picture of exactly what happened during those critical days.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: You never like to do the finger pointing, but I've got to tell you, I'm really interested in the finger pointing, actually. It's one of the more interesting things.

A quick, final question for you. The president's got a speech on Wednesday. He's going to talk about the war once again. Some critics of the president's most recent speech said that, in fact, they thought he set out goals but didn't really give a strategy to fulfill those goals. What's your answer to that?

BARTLETT: Well, I disagree on that, obviously. But the fact of the matter is, most critics are those who were calling for immediate withdrawal of our troops. And they define a strategy as troop withdrawal. President Bush defines strategy as winning. And if we're going to have a conditions-based strategy on the ground in Iraq, and we are making progress. There's been horrific violence in that country. There have been setbacks, but steady progress is being made and that's why President Bush is confident that we're going to accomplish our goals in that country.

And one of the critical goals he talked about last week was the training of Iraqi security forces. It's been uneven. The president conceded that point last week. But we are making significant progress. Iraqis are taking the lead in more and more of the fights against the enemy. And week by week, month by month, their capabilities grow, which mean our posture in that country can change and that's important for the overall terms of success in Iraq and it's important, obviously, for those military families and others who want their troops to come home. President Bush shares their concerns and that's why we're pushing forward with a conditions based strategy that will prevail.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Dan Bartlett is counselor to the president. Nice to see you, Dan. As always, thanks for talking with us.

BARTLETT: Thanks.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: CNN's going to have live coverage of the president's speech. It begins at 1:15 this afternoon Eastern Time. And again, the president talking about the economy at a North Carolina manufacturing plant.

Miles.

MILES O'BRIEN: Lionel Tate could be heading back to prison for the rest of his life. At age 13, Tate was the youngest person ever to be sentenced to life in prison. In a little over an hour, a judge will hear his probation violation case. CNN's John Zarrella is outside the courthouse in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.

John, good morning.

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Miles.

Certainly a troubled young man, Lionel Tate, back this morning in a very familiar place, the Broward County Courthouse. Tate, as you mentioned, the youngest person ever sentenced to life in prison. He was given a second chance but has not been able to stay out of trouble. This hearing today could determine whether Lionel Tate is locked up again for the rest of his life.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ZARRELLA, (voice over): Lionel Tate, in the words of the man who prosecuted him, had been given a, "second bite at the apple," and the judge who set him free warned . . .

JUDGE JOEL LAZARUS, BROWARD COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT: You have to follow the rules of society, obviously, and also the rules explained to you by the Department of Corrections. ZARRELLA: Tate had received a life sentence without parole for killing his playmate when he was just 12. Two years ago, an appeals court overturned his conviction because he never received a competency hearing. Tate was allowed to plead guilty to a lesser charge and released.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You are Lionel Tate. You are entering this plea freely and voluntarily, is that correct?

LIONEL TATE: Yes, sir.

ZARRELLA: Tate had killed a six-year-old family friend, Tiffany Eunick. His attorneys' argued that it was an accident. That Lionel was imitating wrestling moves he'd seen on TV.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now can you show me how she hit, as best as you can remember?

TATE: Right. She hit like this.

ZARRELLA: The little girl's mother never believed it.

DEWEESE EUNICK, VICTIM'S MOTHER: This is not child's play. This was not roughhousing. This was a brutal murder.

ZARRELLA: But after his release, days before his 17th birthday, Tate couldn't stay out of trouble. He was arrested for carrying a knife in a park. Investigators say he also took his mother's gun -- she's a highway patrol officer -- and shot into the air. And then, last May . . .

UNIDENTIFIED MALE, (through translator): I came to deliver pizzas and they pointed a gun at me.

ZARRELLA: A pizza delivery man identified Tate as the person who held a gun to his head and robbed him. And in this videotaped testimony, a teenaged witness said it was Tate.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Lionel pushes the door open and have the gun to the man's face and the man like throws the pizza boxes in the air and start tumbling down the steps.

ZARRELLA: Tate's attorney, Don Williams, says he believes the witness, himself, was involved in the robbery and that's why he fingered Lionel. Williams would not speak with us on camera about the case. Tate has been back behind bars since May, charged with robbery with a firearm. If the judge finds the teen has violated his parole, there may be no more bites at the apple for Lionel Tate.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZARRELLA: Now this is not, by any means, a slam dunk for the prosecutors here. The DNA samples taken from the scene of that pizza delivery man robbery, they were inconclusive. And Tate's attorney has maintained right along that he was not there and it was not him.

Miles.

MILES O'BRIEN: CNN's John Zarrella at Ft. Lauderdale. Thank you very much.

Soledad.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: About 15 minutes before the hour. Let's check the weather again with Jacqui Jeras at the CNN Center.

Hello, Jacqui. We know snow is falling here.

(WEATHER REPORT)

MILES O'BRIEN: Andy "Minding Your Business" after the break. He's going to tell you which are the safest cars. Now my theory is, the bigger, the better. But that isn't necessarily true.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Not always true.

MILES O'BRIEN: Of course, the category . . .

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Not everybody is looking for the SUV.

MILES O'BRIEN: That's true.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: We'll have all sides for you coming up.

MILES O'BRIEN: And they're expensive to keep them going, you might say.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Yes, it is.

MILES O'BRIEN: We can attest.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: (INAUDIBLE).

MILES O'BRIEN: Back with more in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MILES O'BRIEN: You know what's unsafe, driving a car right into a barrier, which is what these guys do to figure out . . .

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Yes, I wouldn't recommend that.

ANDY SERWER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Crash test dummies.

MILES O'BRIEN: Don't try that at home, for sure.

SERWER: Right. All right, the Insurance Institute has the safest cars on the road for 2006, the list is just out. It may be surprising. How about the Ford Five Hundred and the Mercury Montego. Safest car? That's surprising. They've got optional side air bags. That will do it. The Saab 9-3 made by GM. Of course, Saab's owned by GM, so that's some good new from American manufacturers. Subaru and Honda Civic up there as well. Then we move on to the Audi's, Audi A3, A4, A6. Doing pretty well. A Malibu and the Jetta and the Passat. So you can see a potpourri of domestic and international models.

MILES O'BRIEN: Nary a Volvo, though. Unusual.

SERWER: They used to be.

MILES O'BRIEN: They used to always be there.

SERWER: Very safe.

MILES O'BRIEN: Right at the top.

SERWER: Not as safe as they used to be.

And how about this finally, a little note here. Nissan has a type of paint that fixes its own scratches. -- I'm not quite sure how this works, quite frankly. They say it's an elastic resin. If your car gets a scratch, within a week, it heals itself. Don't ask me for the chemical particulars here, folks. It's a story from the AP about Nissan's new car paint that repairs its own scratches and scrapes.

MILES O'BRIEN: If they paint the engine with that stuff, will it fix itself?

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: No.

SERWER: No.

MILES O'BRIEN: OK. Just checking.

SERWER: But that's a very good question, Miles.

MILES O'BRIEN: Just a thought. Just a thought.

SERWER: You ask the good one. You really do.

MILES O'BRIEN: I try to get to the bottom of it.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Thank you, Andy.

SERWER: You're welcome.

MILES O'BRIEN: Coming up in the program, don't let the bed bugs bite. They're invading bedrooms all across the country. New York City is all a twitter with bed bugs.

SERWER: Yuck. Kill that (INAUDIBLE).

MILES O'BRIEN: I'm sorry, we just ruined your breakfast.

SERWER: There it is.

MILES O'BRIEN: Tips on getting rid of these unwanted guests next on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) MILES O'BRIEN: All right. We're sorry about possibly ruing your breakfast here, but this is a story you need to know about a little bit. You know, sleep tight, don't let the bedbugs bite, all that stuff. A lot of people in New York City these days not sleeping so tight because of those very bugs. We've given you the disclaimer. Let's go right to it. We are joined by University of Maryland bug expert, Holly Menninger, entomologist. And she's wearing, if you remove the banner -- remove the banner for just a moment, Michael, if you would, that's a dragonfly. That's a good bug.

Now if we unleash dragonflies on the bedbugs -- no. Let's talk about bedbugs. Apparently the situation here in New York is growing. Bedbugs are on the rise, so to speak. Why?

HOLLY MENNINGER, ENTOMOLOGIST: Well, they're on the rise really not just in New York City, so the folks in the big apple aren't alone. They're rising all over the country. And we think largely due to the increase in international travel. Also, our pest management practices have changed over the last 10, 20 years. For health reasons, we don't really spray insecticides as much and so that may have also led to the increase in bedbugs.

MILES O'BRIEN: So literally getting rid of DDT is -- this is one of the implications. And those kinds of pesticides actually leads to bedbugs. Help people -- you know, for those who think it's just like a little expression you say to your kid, what's a bedbug?

MENNINGER: OK. Well, a bedbug is a tiny sucking insect. It's an oval-shaped bug about the side of an apple seed as an adult. They have sucking mouth parts and they come out at night. They like to hide in crevices, cracks in your mattress, around your bed, maybe in your drapes, in carpets near where the rug hits the wall. They'll crawl out at night. They like to feed on any area of your body that may be exposed while you're sleeping. They'll feed for about 10 minutes and then go away and hide, digest their meal and then they'll hide there until they are hungry again.

MILES O'BRIEN: Gross!

MENNINGER: Yes.

MILES O'BRIEN: Just gross!

All right. Well, we call them bedbugs. It's not just beds. And I think you made that point. They don't like the light, though. So you turn the light -- you may not necessarily -- it might be difficult to find out if you have them, is what I'm trying to say, right?

MENNINGER: Yes. Yes, definitely. Like I say, they only come out at night. So I guess if you're vigilant and you're laying there awake and you flip on the lights real quick at 3:00 in the morning, you may actually see them. But during the day, they're going to be hiding under your sheets, maybe in the seams of your mattress and parts of your headboard. It's pretty gross.

MILES O'BRIEN: And do you get a little sore or a wealth when they suck your blood?

MENNINGER: Exactly. They have a chemical in their saliva that causes a reaction in people. So you'll actually get a little tiny welt. Sometimes they're (INAUDIBLE). The worse part about it is that they itch really, really badly. And so they could itch for an hour and in some people a couple of days.

MILES O'BRIEN: All right. So if you should have them, here's a couple of thoughts. Or if you turn on the lights real quick and you see them after you've freaked out completely, do the following. Call the exterminator.

MENNINGER: Definitely. This is not a problem that you can handle on your own. You really are going to want to call a licensed pest control specialist.

MILES O'BRIEN: Number two, wash the sheets and clothes which might be around the bed. That kind of thing. That's kind of a given, I guess.

MENNINGER: Yes, exactly. The important point there is that to actually kill them, you're going to need to wash your clothes in really hot water, about at least 120 degrees. The bedbugs, they can withstand -- they're pretty resilient little critters and the can withstand a lot.

MILES O'BRIEN: Right. And hygiene, it continues with vacuum, clean up the clutter. And then also, new mattresses. Don't get -- do people actually get used mattresses?

MENNINGER: I think that people -- well, poor college students and graduate students like myself can't shell it out, but I would definitely be aware of second-hand furniture, couches, mattresses, beds. If you do go buy a new mattress because you had an infestation of bedbugs, you want to make sure that the bedbugs are gone. So you're going to need the help of an exterminator to do that. But once they're gone, then you can bring in a new mattress. And even so, I'd probably put a plastic vinyl cover over the mattress just to make sure that they won't get into your mattress.

MILES O'BRIEN: All right. Thank you very much, Holly Menninger. You've grossed us out but provided us very important information. Thank you very much for doing that.

Resist the temptation to pick up that mattress or couch on the side of the road, Soledad, OK. That's a bad thing.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: In a word, ew! Ew!

MILES O'BRIEN: Ew, yes.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Ahead this morning, as we start our next hour, the first witness in the Saddam Hussein trial. He lashes out at the former dictator. We're going to tell you what he said when we take you live to Baghdad for his testimony. That's just ahead on AMERICAN MORNING. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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