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American Morning

Saddam Loyalists Released; Powerful Storms; Defending the War

Aired December 19, 2005 - 8:59   ET

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

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Welcome, everybody.
We've got a big developing story to get to out of Iraq, so let's get right to it, the release of eight former members of Saddam Hussein's regime, some once considered to be so-called high-value detainees, including two who earned the nicknames "Mrs. Anthrax" and "Dr. Germ."

Correspondent Aneesh Raman live for us in Baghdad.

Aneesh, good morning. Why were they released?

ANEESH RAMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Soledad, good morning.

The U.S. military says they no longer need to keep these high- value detainees in custody. They are no longer investigating them.

We knew earlier today that eight high-value detainees had been released on Saturday. We now know, according to Buddy Arraf (ph), one of the lawyers for the detainees, who they were, at least some of them.

Now, as you mentioned, the first one viewers might recall is Mrs. Anthrax. She was the five of hearts, number 39 in that deck of 55 most wanted Iraqis after the war began. She was a top weapons official in Iraq. She was being held in connection, presumably, to any WMD development.

Also released today, Rihab Taha. She was known as "Dr. Germ." Again, another top weapons expert in Saddam's regime.

Both of these were the two female high-value detainees. They have now both been released.

And a third person that viewers might recall is number 34 on that list of 55. He was the six of clubs, Hussam Amin. He was the man who often came and spoke at those press conferences, talking about Iraq's weapons program and the buildup to the war.

Now, the U.S. military says, again, that they are being released because they no longer have any need to keep them in custody. It is unclear why exactly they are being released now. And the lawyer that we spoke to, Buddy Arraf (ph), said in total, 24 people released, eight of them were these high-value detainees -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Aneesh Raman for us this morning.

Aneesh, thanks for the update. Appreciate it.

He's reporting for us from Baghdad this morning.

President Bush, as we've been mentioning, going to hold a news conference in just about an hour and a half. Last night's speech all about Iraq. The president says progress is being made and the Iraqi elections are proof of that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This election will not mean the end of violence, but it is the beginning of something new: constitutional democracy at the heart of the Middle East. And this vote, 6,000 miles away, in a vital region of the world, means that America has an ally of growing strength in the fight against terror.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: The president also directly appealing to his critics for their support as well.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BUSH: I've heard your disagreement and I know how deeply it is felt. Yet, now there are only two options before our country: victory or defeat. And the need for victory is larger than any precedent or political party because the security of our people is in the balance.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: We've got live coverage on CNN of the president's news conference. That starts, again, 10:30 a.m. Eastern Time this morning -- Rick.

RICK SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: The president is also dealing with something else. He's taking a lot of heat for authorizing wiretaps in the United States without warrants. Now, he says it's an important tool on the war on terror and he's going to keep on allowing such domestic spying "as long as we have terror threats," says the president. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales tells AMERICAN MORNING the president has the legal authority to do this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALBERTO GONZALES, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: The authority by the Congress was the authority to use all unnecessary and appropriate force. And a very important aspect of engaging in war against the enemy is to engage in signal intelligence. Signal intelligence means that we have to know what our enemy is doing. We can't go into a war blindly.

We've engaged in signal intelligence beginning with the Civil War and through all of the conflicts since then. This is a very important aspect of engaging in the war. We do believe that would constitute the authority by the Congress to engage in this kind of surveillance. (END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Members of Congress on both sides of the aisle have called for an investigation into these wiretaps, nonetheless.

Let's go over now to Carol Costello and find out what's going on today in other headlines, in other news.

What have you got, Carol?

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Thank you, Rick.

And good morning to all of you.

Vice President Dick Cheney is in Afghanistan for a milestone event. He attended the inaugural session of the new Afghanistan government. It's the first democratically-elected parliament in more than 30 years.

Before heading off to Kabul, though, the vice president made an unannounced trip Iraq. There he met with U.S. military and Iraqi leaders. Cheney says this is a watershed year for Iraq.

We're learning more this morning about Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's illness. His doctors say a brain blood clot caused a mild stroke. Sharon is undergoing more tests today. Despite the illness, doctors say the Israeli leader should make a full recovery and is expected to be released from the hospital tomorrow.

It was a long night on Capitol Hill. The House opened the way for drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The drilling provision was attached to a major defense spending bill. That legislation also includes money for hurricane relief and bird flu prevention.

And if you haven't gotten that Christmas card or holiday package, Christmas package in the mail, take heart. You've still got time. Just don't sit there, though. Run, for goodness sakes.

The Postal Service says this could be the busiest day of the year, and many post offices are staying open later to accommodate the rush. Postal officials expect to handle some 900 million pieces of mail. So you're not the only procrastinator.

O'BRIEN: Wow. Nine hundred million?

COSTELLO: Nine hundred million.

O'BRIEN: Wow.

COSTELLO: That's a lot of mail.

O'BRIEN: It sure is, in packages.

SANCHEZ: They probably would have got it out faster if they would have given them a comfy chair and some beer. O'BRIEN: Maybe. It could work. It could always work.

SANCHEZ: Let's do this, let's go over to Bonnie Schneider. She's going to tell us what's going on with the weather.

Mostly good, although they're having some issues in California, is that right?

BONNIE SANCHEZ, CNN METEOROLOGIST: That's absolutely right, Rick, especially in northern California, where we've had some heavy rain in San Jose. And it's raining right now in San Francisco.

In fact, there are some airport delays right now. About an hour and four minutes for arriving flights into the San Francisco Airport. It's a good idea to call ahead if you're traveling in northern California or further north towards Portland, where we're watching out for some freezing rain in the forecast.

Seattle, mostly just rain, though, as we look further to the north. But as you travel a little bit into the higher elevations, back to the east, we'll be looking at more of a wintry mix for that region.

What's happening is we have our jet stream coming up from the south, pulling up all this moisture straight into the Pacific Northwest. So we're going to keep rain in the forecast for a while. Mostly rain, as I mentioned, in San Francisco, nothing freezing over, with temperatures right now into the 50s.

But further to the north, in Portland, you'll be looking at a wintry mix just to start off with some freezing rain. But then temperatures should warm up.

By tomorrow we'll be looking at a high of 45 degrees. So rain only. And then for Wednesday, it warms back up to 50 degrees.

So just watch out this morning for an icy commute in Portland -- Rick.

SANCHEZ: Well, thanks a lot, Bonnie.

Interestingly enough, that situation that Bonnie was just describing in California has cost tens of thousands of customers to lose their electricity. No power, that's a problem.

Powerful winds, heavy rain over the weekend have knocked out power in much of the area.

Teresa Garcia of affiliate KGO is live for us. She's in San Jose, California, watching this. This is about 50 miles south of San Francisco, by the way.

Teresa, what you got?

TERESA GARCIA, REPORTER, KGO: Well, good morning. You know, for now here in San Jose, the skies have certainly cleared, but we did have a lot of rain. Now, the stormy weekend weather brought about three to four inches in the Bay area. We had up to 10 inches in the Santa Cruz Mountains.

With was so much rain in such a short period of time, well, the flooding became an issue in parts of Berkeley. We had a vault (ph) cover kicking up beneath the University Avenue overpass. It even inundated the city animal shelter, and workers were scrambling to get the animals to higher ground.

Now, elsewhere, it was a trickier situation staying dry. In Marin County, several inches of water flowed into a hardware store.

And in San Francisco, the situation there was dim, because at one point they had lights out for about 5,000 homes after a tree limb fell on top of power lines on Fulton Street Sunday.

Now, the PG&E crews certainly responded as quickly as they could. In total, during the height of the storm, we had about 50,000 customers without power. That was late Sunday afternoon. Again, they are restoring power.

We have about a thousand, but we do have another storm on the way here. So slick roads are still to continue for days to come.

Live in San Jose, Teresa Garcia, CNN.

SANCHEZ: All right. And Teresa is with KGO, we should add.

We thank you for that live report.

Soledad, back over to you.

O'BRIEN: Well, a man who is suspected of sexually assaulting a New York City woman after posing as a firefighter on Halloween is due in court for arraignment today. Peter Braunstein was arrested Friday on the University of Memphis campus in Memphis, Tennessee. An employee of the university noticed Braunstein, called in the campus police, and patrolman Jay Johnson said Braunstein tried to avoid being taken into custody.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAY JOHNSON, UNIVERSITY OF MEMPHIS POLICE: I warned him to drop the knife or I would shoot him. He then put the knife up to his neck, and he began stabbing himself in the neck.

At that time, I had already called for a backup, said that he had a knife and that he was stabbing himself. I sprayed him in the face with pepper gas. He had a blank expression on his face. It looked like the pepper gas had no effect.

Even put the knife in his knife. He was stabbing himself deeply in the neck, and he didn't wince. He did it several times, turned and walked away, continuing to stab himself. (END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: Oh, what a description. Well, Braunstein was released from the hospital on Sunday night. He remains in jail on $1 million bond. He's going to face extradition to New York on charges of kidnapping and sexual abuse.

New York police have questioned Braunstein in Memphis, and he reportedly has given them a videotape of the assault, and also a journal which apparently contains details of the attack.

SANCHEZ: Wow.

Well, here's one they're talking about inside and outside the loop. President Bush delivering a rare primetime address, and part of the story is where he did it. Part of the push to gain support for Iraq once again.

Our own panel of experts weighs in on whether it's working.

O'BRIEN: And another story we're following, the White House on the defense over wiretaps. Can the government legally eavesdrop on Americans without a warrant?

Plus, this story. It might sound a little familiar. Maybe it's deja vu all over again for you. Dr. Sanjay Gupta is going to take a look at what causes that uncanny feeling just ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: We are waiting to hear what the president has to say. It's at 10:30. It's a news conference the president is going to hold, answering reporters' questions, different from what he did last night. It is pretty certain that he's going to be asked about what he said last night.

Defended his decision to go to war once again, although a little more conciliatory. He did it with almost a low-key tone, you might say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BUSH: Some look at the challenges in Iraq and conclude that the war is lost and not worth another dime or another day. I don't believe that. Our military commanders do not believe that. Our troops in the field who bear the burden and make the sacrifice do not believe that America has lost. And not even the terrorists believe it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: So where's the news here? What's the impact?

We've got a political roundtable we've put together. CNN Political Analyst Bill Schneider is joining us from Los Angeles. Chief National Correspondent John King is in New York. And Amy Walter of the "Cook Political Report" is joining us from Washington.

Good morning to all of you.

Let's begin with John King.

The fact that the president did this from the Oval Office, John, what's the significance there?

JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Rick, it is to give the speech gravitas, to show the American people that the president considers this to be a major address to them and a chance for the president at the end of the year to try to recalibrate his Iraq message.

You noted a more humble tone from the president. He said things have not gone -- always gone as well as we had expected. The president also reached out to those who disagreed with him in the speech. It was quite significant.

This is a president often accused of being arrogant, of not conceding any mistakes. He said in the speech, "I know a lot of you don't agree with me. I don't expect you to agree with everything I do from here on out. But please don't listen to those who say we have lost."

The president is trying to change the psychology of the country when it comes to the war, not only for his own political standing, but for the political standing of the Republicans in Congress who are on the ballot next year.

SANCHEZ: But should he have been as definitive as he was?

Amy, let me take this question to you. And in fact, let's preface it with this. These are president's own words talking about the situation in Iraq right now.

Amy, when we come back, I want to hear what you think. Here's the president.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BUSH: For every scene of destruction in Iraq there are more scenes of rebuilding and hope. For every life lost there are countless more lives reclaimed. And for every terrorist working to stop freedom in Iraq there are many more Iraqis and Americans working to defeat them.

My fellow citizens, not only can we win the war in Iraq, we are winning the war in Iraq.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Amy, are we winning the war in Iraq? And what does it mean for the president to use those words so definitively?

AMY WALTER, "COOK POLITICAL REPORT": Well, look, this is a president, as everybody has said earlier, who has gone on the offensive here. Five speeches in the last 19 days, really trying to move the ball here, put it back, get himself back on the offensive, back on his toes, instead of being back on his heels.

We saw a little uptick in his approval rating. You can't say that it's directly related to the fact that he's been going out and being more aggressive on this. But certainly this is what folks here in Washington especially, supporters from his own party have been saying to the president, is we are the ones who have to go out talking to voters, we're the ones on the ballot in 2006. We're going home for recess, we need to give something tangible to the people asking us questions. We're on the front lines here.

SANCHEZ: Which voters though? Which voters are you talking about? The voters who are going to believe him no matter what, or the other ones who are sitting on the fence, who those who believe that Iraq was a mistake? Who's he talking to?

WALTER: Well, these are -- these are folks -- this is actually -- I think the fact that he did this in the Oval Office, the sense was, I'm talking to each and every one of you out there. There wasn't bunting, there wasn't a whole lot of fanfare.

It was, I'm talking to each and every American here. And for folks in Washington, for those members of Congress who are going home now for the holidays, what they want to be able to do is to say to their voters and their districts, look, here's what the president has laid out. He said that we're winning the war. That helps to give me as a member of Congress something more to hang on to go out...

(CROSSTALK)

SANCHEZ: Let's go over to Bill Schneider.

A new CNN-"USA Today"-Gallup poll finds 61 percent of the American people think that Iraqi elections, the ones last week, very successful, will actually hasten our troops departure.

Possibility? Bill, your take on that.

WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, CNN SR. POLITICAL ANALYST: My feeling is Americans would like to believe that and they do endorse that. But they do not think -- by about the same margin, they do not think it will end the insurgency.

Are we wining in Iraq, the question you just asked Amy? Well, much of that answer depends not on our capabilities, but on the capabilities of the Iraqis, the Iraqi political leaders who have to form a new government, the Iraqi military.

Americans have enormous confidence in our military, but they don't know what to make of the Iraqi politicians and the Iraqi military and police and their capabilities. And that's really what's going to decide the outcome.

SANCHEZ: So with this speech, John King, and Bill, both of you, either one, how big a risk is the president taking by going out and saying these things at his point? And really, this is turning into like a campaign blitz. He's got another news conference -- or, pardon me, he's going to be taking reporters' questions at 10:30.

SCHNEIDER: He has one thing going for him, and it's very important. The timing of the speech, not the Oval Office, but the fact that it took place three days after the Iraqis had a successful election with over -- apparently over 70 percent participation, including large-scale participation by the Sunnis. It is that fact on the ground more than the sequence of speeches that is likely to have an impact.

SANCHEZ: So John, can he turn it around? John King?

KING: Well, there are early signs that he may be turning it around a little, Rick. You can't do that with one speech and one press conference. But, you know, there's an old rule in sports, when you're in trouble you want the best player on the team on the field.

The president is the best politician on the team. He's given those speeches in recent days. Now he's in a very tough box.

He has to explain this controversy over domestic spying. His aides were out over the weekend, the attorney general on AMERICAN MORNING this morning. At the White House they would concede privately that they haven't done as good a job as they need to yet explaining that very controversial program.

So what do you do? Send the president out to do it.

SANCHEZ: Well, we thank all three of you for being with us. It certainly has been an interesting discussion and one that we'll be picking up once again.

Thanks.

Political Analyst Bill Schneider; Chief National Correspondent John King; and Amy Walter of the "Cook Political Report."

We'll have live coverage, by the way, on CNN of the president's news conference. And as we've been telling you, that's starting right here at 10:30 a.m. Eastern Time.

O'BRIEN: And still to come this morning -- wait a minute, I've got this strange feeling that this has all happened before. Yes, we're talking about deja vu. Sanjay Gupta is going to explain this somewhat curious phenomenon coming up next.

Stay with us. You're watching AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: Well, most of us have experienced it, but what exactly is deja vu, a past life experience? Is it a form of ESP?

Dr. Sanjay Gupta takes a closer look. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SR. MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Many of us have been struck by it, that uncanny feeling that you've been in a room, place or situation before, but you just know you haven't. It's deja vu. The literal meaning, it's French for already seen.

ALAN BROWN, PSYCHOLOGIST, SOUTH METHODIST UNIV.: Deja vu in its essence is an illusion of familiarity, except it's a very intense illusion.

GUPTA: Some think they are signals from a past life or hauntings of the supernatural. But researchers say that's unlikely.

BROWN: The amount of scientific credibility might surprise people.

GUPTA: Alan Brown has been studying deja vu in the people who experience it for years.

BROWN: Deja vu experience tends to peak around the late teens to early 20s, and then tapers off.

GUPTA: Also more likely to feel it, those with a higher level of education or income, liberals more than conservatives, and people who travel more.

But what triggers deja vu?

BROWN: There's probably a lot of different ways that you could have a deja vu experience, sort of like there's a number of different ways you could have a stomach ache.

GUPTA: One explanation might come from a small group of epileptics who experience deja vu immediately before a seizure. Scientists have traced the seizures to the brain's frontal lobe, that area responsible for familiarity. It may be that irregular activity in that part of the brain causing deja vu.

Another theory involves how information gets from your eyes and ears to your brain. Usually the signal travels at the same rate to the millisecond. But sometimes they may be way out of sync.

BROWN: Occasionally, one of the paths may have an event occur, a neurological event occur, where it slows it down slightly.

GUPTA: Causing you to think you've felt something before. And you have, but just milliseconds before.

Another approach is implicit memory interpretation.

(on camera): Say you walk into a room like the one behind me and you get that strange overwhelming feeling of inexplicable familiarity. What you don't realize is that lamp is the same lamp that was in your grandmother's living room when you were 4 years old. That small lamp, not the entire situation, has triggered deja vu.

(voice over): And it's not always an object. Sometimes scents or sounds.

BROWN: Information does get in often under our radar, and that plants itself. And then we react later in ways that surprise us.

GUPTA: So if you feel like we've ever seen this piece before, you might have, or it just might be deja vu, deja vu, deja vu.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: Researchers found that two-thirds of people experience deja vu at one time or another. They say if you get it once you're likely to get it again and again and again.

SANCHEZ: And it's not a past life.

O'BRIEN: No, apparently not. Maybe just the same lamp that your grandmother had when you were 4. Who knew?

SANCHEZ: Yes, right. The smells, too.

Still to come, more on this controversy over wiretaps and the president's can or can't do. Can the government eavesdrop on our phone calls? We're going to see what the White House has to say, and we're going to be live in Washington for that.

And...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... by the time I got back to my cell, that I would never come back to prison. I would not be like him and keep repeatedly coming back to prison.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: We've got the story of an ex-con's battle to escape his past. He went to college, got terrific grades. No one would give him a chance, though. We're going to find out what he did to turn things around ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: Welcome back, everyone.

You know, we felt horrible about this, so we wanted to see if we could do a make-do, you know.

O'BRIEN: Oh, the little boy you were interviewing, we had little audio problems just as he was reading this incredibly moving poem about his dad. SANCHEZ: It's hard to get kids on TV to be able to do something right, anyway, because, you know, they get nervous and they're not used to it, and they don't understand what the big deal is. And so at first we started to get him to try to talk to us about something and he became real shy and he wouldn't say anything.

So then, finally, he comes out and he blossoms and he's ready to go and he's going to read this poem that he reads every night to his father who's in Iraq when he looks at the stars at night. He starts to read it to us...

O'BRIEN: And technology fails him and us.

SANCHEZ: The microphone goes down.

O'BRIEN: Oh, yes.

SANCHEZ: But you know what we did? We recorded it.

O'BRIEN: Oh, good.

SANCHEZ: So we've got it now. Here it is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ISAAC YOHN, AGE 6: Star light, star bright, keep my daddy safe tonight. When he's in Iraq, please hurry and bring him back.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Isn't that nice? See? We were able to get you on, Isaac, and do it right.

Isaac Yohn is his name. Mom Debbie's got a book. She put the book out. She's helping other parents who are dealing with the same thing. What do you tell your kids when your husband or your wife, whatever the case may be, goes overseas and they don't see them for six months?

O'BRIEN: I love that they said, you know, when you look up at the stars and see those stars, I'm looking up at the stars too at the same time from a different place, and we're both looking at the same thing.

SANCHEZ: And were talking to each other.

O'BRIEN: That's a nice thing -- that's a nice thing to tell a little kid.

SANCHEZ: That is nice, yes.

O'BRIEN: I like that story.

And good for Isaac. I'm glad we finally fixed our little technology problems. SANCHEZ: By the way, we're going to have a movie that's a bit of a controversy that we're going to be talking about. People are saying this is the first gay western, "Brokeback Mountain."

O'BRIEN: It did really well this weekend.

SANCHEZ: It's only in 39 theaters, though. So, we're going to talk about it and "King Kong," maybe make a comparison. How? We'll figure it out.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: Good morning and welcome, everybody.

That's Christopher Columbus, Columbus Circle in New York.

SANCHEZ: Yes, that was a good show. I liked the parade, too.

O'BRIEN: Yes. It was beautiful.

It's a beautiful day here in New York, and quite nice weather, actually, considering what we've been dealing with over the last couple of days.

(STOCK MARKET REPORT)

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