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American Morning

Life Support Battle; Bitter Cold in Colorado; Detainee Lawsuit; 'Minding Your Business'; New Orleans Road To Recovery

Aired December 07, 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.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Pretty dawn there over Central Park there.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Looks very nice.

Good morning. Welcome, everybody. It's 7:30 here on the East Coast, meaning we're 90 minutes into our broadcast. If you haven't been joining us at 6:00 a.m., our new start time, you should.

MILES O'BRIEN: By all means, please do. Carol Costello was here bright and early every morning. We know that.

Good morning, Carol.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I am indeed.

Hey, we're just getting in some new pictures from Baghdad of the Saddam Hussein trial. And you know it's getting stranger and stranger because he is refusing to show up in court. Apparently his co- defendants did not refuse because they are in court, as well as the judge. We know that the lawyer had some meetings with Saddam Hussein, oh, about a half hour or so ago. We don't know what transpired there but we do know that Saddam Hussein is not in the courtroom at this time. And, of course, we'll try to get a hold of Aneesh Raman to find out exactly what's happening in that courtroom.

But it seems to be that the trial is resuming with Saddam Hussein co-defendants. And I don't think Saddam Hussein necessarily has to be there either. In fact, another quote from Saddam Hussein this morning, he says, I will not be in court without justice. Go to hell all of you. So, of course, we'll keep you posted.

In the meantime, President Bush will try again this morning to build support for the Iraq War. In about three hours the president will deliver his second speech in a series he calls strategy for victory in Iraq. CNN will have live coverage of the president's speech. It's set to begin at 10:45 Eastern.

The White House is speaking out about its policy on torture. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says all U.S. personnel working overseas have to abide by the UN convention against torture.

And remember that story we told you about a man robbing Salvation Army bell ringers? Well it seems the suspect, Lee George, is dead. Police say they found the car he apparently used in the robberies upside down in a lake. Officials say George may have had a drug habit and was using the kettle money to support his habit. One of his victims was a 68-year-old man, there you see him there. The 68-year- old man managed to run after him and grab the pail back but the robberies caused Florida officials to order a lockdown on the red pails. And this morning the suspect is dead.

And "Passion of the Christ" director Mel Gibson has a new project underway. This time it's a nonfiction miniseries about the holocaust. You might remember many critics accused "Passion of the Christ" of being anti-Semitic. Well the miniseries will be based on the true story, a love story, of a Dutch Jew when her non Jewish boyfriend who protected her from the Nazis. The project has not been formally green-lighted and will not air until at least next fall. So there you go.

You know there were all those rumors that Mel -- I don't know if they were rumors or not but Mel Gibson's father didn't believe the holocaust actually happened either and now his son is going ahead and making this movie about the holocaust. So we'll see how it turns out.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Yes, it will be definitely interesting to see.

All right, Carol, thank you.

Let's get you now to the story of Haleigh Poutre. This is the 11-year-old girl from Massachusetts who's now on life support. Well, her stepfather's in court and he's trying to stop her ventilator and feeding tube from being removed but he's suspected of the abuse that put her in the coma in the first place. CNN's Brian Todd has our report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Jason Strickland is fighting desperately to keep his step daughter alive and has taken her case to the Massachusetts Supreme Court.

EDWARD J. MCDONOUGH, JASON STRICKLAND'S ATTORNEY: The question is whether or not and how an 11-year-old chill will die. And there's no question that withdrawing a feeding tube and withdrawing water, you're going to have an awful death by starvation.

TODD: Strickland's attorneys say he has no alternative motive. But a source close to the case tells CNN, if Strickland's step daughter, 11-year-old Haleigh Poutre, is taken off life support, Strickland could be charged with her murder. According to a police report, relayed to CNN by officials at the district court in Westfield, Massachusetts, police believe Strickland and his wife, Haleigh Poutre's adoptive step mother, Holly Strickland, delivered the blows that put Haleigh in a vegetative state. Police say Haleigh was the victim of an ongoing pattern of abuse. And that when she was admitted to a western Massachusetts hospital back in September, her injuries included cuts, burns, shearing of her brain stem and a subdural hematoma, a clot in the brain caused by a severe blow to the head. Massachusetts Department of Social Services now has temporary custody of Haleigh and wants to take her off life support. A juvenile court agreed but Jason Strickland's attorneys are now fighting that ruling.

MCDONOUGH: Mr. Strickland, as the stepfather, has information about the child's upbringing, her religious faith, the fact she received the religious sacraments and none of that was included in the hearing.

TODD: Meanwhile, police have booked Jason Strickland on five counts of assault and battery. He has yet to be formally charged and has maintained his innocence. The stepmother, Holly Strickland, was found dead, along with her grandmother, some days after Haleigh Poutre was admitted to the hospital. CNN is told the deaths are being investigated as a possible murder-suicide.

Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: A complicated case. Let's get right to CNN's Senior Legal Analyst Jeff Toobin.

Good morning.

JEFF TOOBIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: What a nightmare.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: It is.

TOOBIN: This poor girl. Virtually every adult in her life . . .

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Failed her.

TOOBIN: Was either abusing her, neglecting her or dead.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Oh, a terrible, terrible story.

TOOBIN: Incredible, yes.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: And also so bizarre on so many legal levels as well.

TOOBIN: Absolutely.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: First of all, you got Jason Strickland. The guy's charged with five counts of assault, which is really what is alleged to put her into the hospital in the first place. Shouldn't he automatically be forced to give up any right to have any say in her care just based on that alone?

TOOBIN: Well, he has been accused. He hasn't been convicted. That's where -- if he was convicted, certainly there would be no issue. But even the accusation, I think, will convince the court to say, look, we are not going to consider your views. There's a doctrine in law called unclean hands, which means you can't benefit from your own wrongdoing. And here you have the complication of the charges could become more serious if she, in fact, dies, as it appears she will. The assault charge could turn into a murder count against him, which, you know, obviously, is worse for him.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Well, the court-appointed guardian, in fact, as she's on life support, has said, let's take her off life support. I mean there's sort of no hope, apparently, for this girl. His attorneys are arguing, if she gets taken off life support, then she dies and he's going to face murder charges when really it was the taking her off life support that killed her, not necessarily him.

TOOBIN: Right. Well the medical dispute is will she -- apparently, sadly enough, she's going to die anywhere. She will die somewhat sooner if the nutrition is taken away, but she's going to die anyway. So I don't know if that legal argument is going to hold much water. I think the key fact here is that the juvenile court has taken custody away. Custody means that -- what custody means is you get to make medical decisions for a minor.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: But he's petitioning for custody. I mean he's the stepfather but he never adopted this little girl. This little girl was adopted by the woman who was her actual mother's sister. So her husband, who's now charged with these five counts, never officially adopted her.

TOOBIN: Right. And she called him her stepfather, but he wasn't really the stepfather because he was the sister's husband.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Does he have any legal ground when he says she lived with me and I was essentially her stepfather, ergo I should be able to adopt her?

TOOBIN: It seems unlikely. I mean because this is a juvenile court proceeding, not all of the records are public. But certainly when a state decides to take custody away and a judge agrees, that's a very big step. And they have -- and they don't do that if they feel that there is any family member who is competent to make decisions for her. So I assume that the court that took away custody rights in the first place consider him as a possibility and rejected him. And you can see why.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Let me ask you one quick, final question. And it's kind of another wrinkle. The girl's birth mother was weighed in too. Should the court take any weight to what she says?

TOOBIN: I don't think so because custody means the right to make legal decisions. The state now has custody. If this woman, the mother, had wanted to be involved earlier, she could of been, I guess.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: It's such a sad story.

TOOBIN: Oh, awful.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: I mean, legally it's just a mess. But also . . .

TOOBIN: I mean, but I mean as human tragedy (INAUDIBLE). SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Yes, horrible. Jeff, thank you for clarifying some of those details on the case.

TOOBIN: OK.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Miles.

MILES O'BRIEN: It's bitter cold in Colorado, as we've been telling you. The mercury at one Rocky Mountain town, Steamboat Springs, a ski town there, inching toward 25 below this morning. If you're skiing today, you better bundle up. Jim Hooley of our affiliate KMGH, live now from Denver.

What's it like out there, Jim?

JIM HOOLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Miles, how you doing? Good morning.

I can tell you, I've got about four or five layers on right now, plus the long johns. It is chilly. Right where we are now, over I-25 heading into downtown Denver, we have about minus 3 degrees right here.

It's so cold, look at this, you can't even make a snowball with this stuff. No moisture content in the snow whatsoever. That is dry snow. We like that here up in the ski slopes here in Colorado. But down here in the roadways, it's a different story.

The roadways, icy and snow covered this morning. They've been putting this stuff called ice slicer (ph) on the roadways. That's the stuff that can work at 16 degrees and below. But even that's not able to cut down on some of the ice and the snow that we have here this morning.

It's a crazy week weather-wise here in Denver and all throughout Colorado. Take a look at some of the pictures that we have from Monday. These pictures were taken when the wind was blowing at 100 miles per hour, if you can believe that. We had planes turned over, trucks turned over on the highways. And people with the big cargo boxes up on top of their cars, though things were simply ripped right off.

So, again, it's just a very, very cold morning. We love winter here in Colorado, Miles, I'll tell you that. But when it gets cold like this and chilly like this, well, you know, we're looking forward to spring, too.

Miles, back to you in a very warm studio, I'm sure.

MILES O'BRIEN: Yes, I hate to rub that in, Jim, but, yes, we're a long way from -- I think those are category 2 level winds there. Jim Hooley of our affiliate KMGH in Denver. And stay warm. Get inside. Get in that truck and have a hot cocoa on us.

Let's get the big picture of today's chilly forecast and go to another warm studio. This one in Atlanta. Jacqui, good morning.

(WEATHER REPORT)

MILES O'BRIEN: Coming up, we've got an amazing story. It's a story of a German man who says he was kidnaped, beaten, drugged all by the CIA, held in Afghanistan and now he's suing. He's going to sue the former CIA director, George Tenet, as well as some of the private companies that allegedly transported him around. We'll tell you about his story.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Also ahead this morning, the story of Irwin Mayfield. He lost a lot in Hurricane Katrina. We're going to introduce you to this jazz musician and hear his future thoughts on New Orleans. That's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MILES O'BRIEN: All right, here's a term for you, extraordinary rendition. Do you know what it means? Well, that's the process, it's actually a euphonism really, of supposedly moving a suspected terrorist from one country to another for interrogation in locations that allow agencies, CIA for example, a lot more latitude in how they deal with these people. Supposedly. It's a heated controversy right now because, of course, all of this is denied by the U.S. government. But the practice is at the center of a lawsuit in Virginia. Perhaps some of this will come to public light as a result. The story now from National Security Correspondent David Ensor.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID ENSOR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The American Civil Liberties Union lawyers says their client, Lebanese-born German Khaled El-Masri was abducted by the CIA off the streets of Macedonia, beaten, drugged and flown to Afghanistan where he was subjected to torture.

ANTHONY ROMERO, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, ACLU: Forcibly kidnaping foreign citizens, holding them without access to a lawyer, and brutalizing them is not only illegal, but also immoral. That is precisely, however, what the U.S. government did to our client.

ENSOR: El-Masri was eventually freed and U.S. officials have privately admitted to Germany that he was captured by mistake. He was recently turned away trying to enter the U.S. so he spoke from Germany by video link through a translator.

KHALED EL-MASRI, PLAINTIFF, (through translator): When the door was closed, I was beaten from all sides. I was hit from all sides. I then was humiliated.

ENSOR: The lawsuit is against George Tenet, the then director of the CIA, and private air charter companies. The CIA and a spokesman for Tenet had no comment. The charter companies could not be reached for comment.

The lawsuit comes as Secretary of State Rice faces a barrage of questions in Europe about new stories, saying the CIA ran secret prisons for al Qaeda prisoners, some of them in Europe and questions in Germany about El-Masri.

CONDOLEEZZA RICE, SECRETARY OF STATE: I did say to the chancellor that when and if mistakes are made, we work very hard and as quickly as possible to rectify them.

ENSOR: But the ACLU lawsuit is an attempt to challenge the whole policy of extraordinary rendition under which scores of terror suspects have been grabbed, moved to another country and then interrogated by the U.S. or by others.

ARTHUR HULNICK, FORMER CIA OFFICER: I think it's hard to argue that this is within the bounds of international law. After all, it's a kind of kidnaping. On the other hand, it's one of the few good weapons that the intelligence system has for preempting some of these terrorists.

ENSOR: High morals principles are fine said one former senior CIA official, but this program has gathered intelligence that has saved a lot of American and Europe lives. And their governments know that perfectly well.

David Ensor, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MILES O'BRIEN: So it all boils down to this, does the end justify the means? In our next hour, we'll talk to John McLaughlin, a former CIA agency high level authority there, who is now a national security advisor for CNN and we'll ask him some questions about this whole shadowy world.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Business news coming up next. Andy's got that. What's ahead?

ANDY SERWER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Soledad, the post office is swimming in cash. So why is it raising rates in January? Good question. We'll try to explain coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Great news. The U.S. Postal Service is finally in the black. So why are they raising the price of the stamp? Andy Serwer's "Minding Your Business."

Good morning.

SERWER: It's what we call counter intuitive, Soledad.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Yes, it is.

SERWER: It really is. The post office was reorganized in the 1970s and mismanaged for years. Finally it got itself so deeply into the red, $11 billion in the red, that some drastic measures were needed. Of course, they've raised rates a lot, reorganized. But they have finally gotten themself into the black. Last year they had about $70 billion of revenue. That makes them about as big as Verizon or Home Depot. They delivered over 200 million pieces of mail which is, you know, amazing.

And they $1.4 billion surplus. Yes, they made $1.4 billion last year. So here's the thing. They're going to raise rates from 37 cents to 39 cents for a first class stamp on January 8th. Why? Well, here's why. Because Congress has mandated that the post office must have $3 billion in escrow. In other words, a reserve fund of $3 billion. This because it's been so poorly managed over the years that Congress says, you better have some money on the side because you guys don't necessarily know what you're doing. So, in other words, we're going to have this rate increase no matter what.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: So past mismanagement means I'm going to pay more, we're all going to pay more for our stamps?

SERWER: Exactly.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: That's fair.

SERWER: Yes. Well, not hardly, but that's how it works.

Want to talk about the market a little bit because yesterday we were up for the first time in a couple of days. You can see here, green arrows across the board. Positive economic news. We were up 100 points on the Dow. Not so much at the end of the day. Futures are up this morning.

I want to tell you just about Apple Computer because the stock hit an all-time high, $74. This stock is up ten-fold, Soledad, over the past three years. And the reason why is because they have figured out how to sell copyrighted material in the digital world, i.e. the iPod. More deals, Christmas sales brisk and they have a deal with NBC and ABC now to sell television programming.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Cha-chink, in other words.

SERWER: Exactly. Big deal.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Andy Serwer, thank you very much.

SERWER: You're welcome.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Miles.

MILES O'BRIEN: Well, he's a musician with a mission, using the tools of his trade to help his beloved city of New Orleans on the long road back from Hurricane Katrina. More now from CNN's Dan Lothian.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAN LOTHIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is how Irvin Mayfield likes to speak, with his trumpet.

IRVIN MAYFIELD, JAZZ MUSICIAN: Music is a tool for healing. It gives -- you know, it gives us a message without having to use words.

LOTHIAN: The Grammy nominated jazz trumpeter, who's also the cultural ambassador to Louisiana and New Orleans, is on a mission, trying to ensure the rich culture of jazz music isn't lost as his still battered city rebuilds.

MAYFIELD: Kind of really trying to show -- be an example to the rest of the world of how we can rebuild and how we use our culture to help us do that.

LOTHIAN: That's why a few weeks ago Mayfield led musicians in a traditional jazz funeral march. A display of resilience, the a cultural reopening of New Orleans. It's also why he showed up at the only open public school in the city, giving elementary students something positive to hear after so many difficult months.

MAYFIELD: A lot of people even on this street having a hard time getting people to come in and redo their house.

LOTHIAN: But the music can't mask the pain in his own life. His home was damaged. Much more devastating, his 64-year-old father, Irvin Mayfield Sr., was swept away by rising flood waters and drowned.

MAYFIELD: It's a tragic situation but I know he kind of would want us to be here doing this kind of a thing.

LOTHIAN: And Mayfield wants to do much more. As artistic director of the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra, he's helping to provide housing for returning musicians who have lost everything.

A determined musician with a passion to help his native city recover, while never missing an opportunity to share his talents with children or a reporter who hasn't practiced in a long time.

MAYFIELD: In New Orleans, we play like that. Makes it better for your air.

LOTHIAN: New Orleans still has a major mountain to climb. Mayfield hopes music will provide the inspiration.

Dan Lothian, CNN, New Orleans.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MILES O'BRIEN: All right, there's another musician involved. Arlo Guthrie, did you read about this? He is doing a benefit tour for the city and victims of Hurricane Katrina. Of course, you remember Arlo Guthrie? Alice's Restaurant where you can get anything you want, except Alice. All right. Remember that?

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Yes. And what a sad story. I mean, you really think about everyone's lost. You know, I mean, his father washed away in the storm and living in the same neighborhood, in Gentilly, where we were just doing those stories on the bodies that were just recently recovered and many people, of course, think more will come.

We're going to actually later this morning talk to the coroner about progress or maybe lack thereof a little bit later this morning.

Ahead this morning, though, a judge, two lawyers, no defendant, though. At least no Saddam Hussein. Why is the former dictator refusing to come into the court? We're going to take you live to Baghdad for the very latest on this developing story. Stay with us. You're watching AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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