Return to Transcripts main page

American Morning

Holiday Spirit Brought To Soldiers Overseas; Indonesian Boy Revisited After One Year; Holiday Travel On A Budget; Tom Cruise Acted Strangely This Year

Aired December 26, 2005 - 09:30   ET

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

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Headlines for you now. New developments in that incident outside Jersey City we're following this morning. Investigators are still looking for a second body, but say both police officers are presumed dead after their vehicle plunged into the Hackensack River. The Jersey City mayor spoke just a short time ago.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR JERRAMIAH HEALY, JERSEY CITY, N.J.: For their families and for the entire Jersey City Police Department and people of Jersey City, it was a terrible accident and true tragic results.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: We now have pictures of the officers. Police say they found the body of 40-year-old Sean Carson. And they're still looking for the 30-year-old officer, Robert Nguyen. And when they find his body, of course, we'll pass it along to you.

Police in Washington are looking for a motive in an apparent murder-suicide. Officers found the bodies of five people on Christmas morning in an upscale neighborhood in the D.C. suburbs. Police say they believe the shootings are connected and that one of the dead is responsible. In fact, one of the victims is believed to be the suspect's mother.

Many Americans are beginning Kwanzaa celebrations today. It's a seven-day holiday that celebrates African-American heritage and pride. It's based on the African Winter harvest festivals. Kwanzaa actually means first fruits in Swahili.

And get ready, set, return. Shoppers were out bright and early this morning hoping to exchange or return those holiday gifts that just weren't quite right. People are running into the - that's at seven in the morning Eastern time.

Many people also hoping to cash in on some of those great after- Christmas sales. But if you're hoping to return something, be warned. Many retailers have tightened their restrictions on returns.

Let's get a check of the weather now. Bonnie Schneider is in.

Good morning. BONNIE SCHNEIDER, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Good morning. I was just thinking of what things I'm going to return and what I'm going to keep. But, you know, as long as the store eventually takes it back.

(WEATHER REPORT)

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Thank you very much, Bonnie. The holidays, of course, are a tough time for those serving overseas in the military, separated by thousands of miles, but, of course, connected by the heart and sometimes by the Internet. Our Becky Diamond is in Camp Eggers outside of the Afghanistan Capital of Kabul. She joins us now by video phone.

Hello, Becky.

BECKY DIAMOND, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Miles, here in Camp Eggers, the soldiers are about 10,000 miles from home. Despite the distance and despite the fact that everyone here says, of course, they'd rather be with their family members over the holidays, they all say that they're very proud to serve their country and really proud to be here in Afghanistan.

They're also getting a little bit of home holiday spirit sent to them from American civilians. They've been sending in stocking stuffers filled with candy, supplies like wool socks and face creams and also really nice holiday cards. I'm going read you one that a young child wrote to one of the soldiers here.

It says, "Dear soldier, thank you for working very, very hard for our country. I hope you like what I give to you." From Braden (ph). And this is a typical example of some holiday spirit brought to these soldiers in Kabul.

Also though, it's business as usual. I went out on a Christmas patrol yesterday morning with members from a Mississippi National Guard unit. But on their normal patrol, they decided to bring along some supplies to hand out to local children. They handed out milk, candy, crackers. And this was their way of extending an American Christmas spirit here in Islamic Afghanistan. It felt good for these soldiers. But everyone says the same thing. They're always excited to return home.

O'BRIEN: Becky, generally speaking, this war is sort of thought of in a way the forgotten war here with so much focus and attention on Iraq. Do the soldiers feel that?

DIAMOND: Definitely the soldiers feel that. A constant source of frustration that I'm being told is they do feel overshadowed, but also they feel that the accurate picture of what's going on here in Afghanistan and the war on terror is not being told by the media and not understood by the public. They say that there's a lot of progress going on here.

There are political institutions that are being built. The economy is moving along. Social reforms are being made. And they say that the media tends to focus on the violence. And it's been quite a violent year here in Afghanistan. But there is also positive news.

I spent a bit of time this morning with Task Force Phoenix soldiers who are helping to train the Afghan Army. This is, they say, one of the success stories here. They've graduated 35,000 soldiers in the Afghan Army from this military training center. And this is a critical step in any future U.S. troop withdrawals -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: Thank you, Becky Diamond in Kabul -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Looking back at the tsunami one year later, the killer wave left tens of thousands of people homeless. After the disaster, CNN's Alex Quade met a young Refugee at an Indonesian camp. Now after a year, she's met up with him again.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALEX QUADE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When we first met Nasir, his life was hard, his family and village gone, swept away by the tsunami.

NASIR (through translator): I ran to the mosque to save us. Then the mosque was hit by the wave, and the water came in. I had my two sisters on my lap. They kept calling for my mother. More water came in. They couldn't breathe and were limp. I didn't let go of their hands. I held them tight, then I couldn't breathe anymore, so I let go. Somebody saved me.

QUADE: Nasir thought he was orphaned and ended up here in a refugee tent, cooking, cleaning, feeling guilty.

NASIR (through translator): The last time I saw my father, "Take care of your sisters," he said. Then he left. Half know hour later, the water came.

QUADE: Days later Nasir's life changed again. The mother he thought dead showed up at his tent.

NASIR (through translator): Before I found my mother, I couldn't eat. I couldn't sleep at night. I am responsible for my mother now. She can't work. She thinks about my sisters. When the tsunami came, my mother almost surrendered. She wanted to die with her children.

QUADE: So Nasir worked even harder to care for them both.

NASIR (through translator): The difficult part is thinking about my dead family and what my future will be.

QUADE: One year later at a new camp an hour away in the hills I find 13-year-old Nasir still living in a tent.

NASIR (through translator): We are given a bag of rice three times a month.

QUADE: He, his mother and 1,500 other tsunami victims share this camp with cows, goats, cats.

The last time that we talked, you were doing so many things for your mom. Are you still doing so much?

NASIR (through translator): I did all that stuff at the first camp because I had no other family. But now my mother does more things.

QUADE: But she is still too depressed to work.

NASIR (through translator): My mother could not survive without me. I worry when I leave her alone to go to school.

QUADE: He wants to get a job picking coconuts.

NASIR (through translator): I need a good job so if my mother is sick there's money to go to the hospital. I hate to see her suffer.

QUADE: Nasir, too, suffers and prays at the mosque five times a day to help deal with his pain.

NASIR (through translator): I really miss my father and my little sisters because no one can replace them. I've had the same dream more than 10 times. When I wake-up, I wonder if it's going happen again or not.

QUADE: Only one thing brings him joy in this refugee life.

NASIR (through translator): This is my monkey named Joy. I got Joy from the tsunami.

QUADE: Has having a pet monkey made it easier to live in the camp?

NASIR (through translator): Yes, I'm very happy to play with Joy.

QUADE: But his future beyond this camp weighs on him.

NASIR (through translator): When I was five years old, my father told me when you grow up, you must be a policeman. So that's what I hope to do some day.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: And Alex Quade joins us now. Just to listen to those children, they're like little adults.

QUADE: They really are. In fact, Nasir you saw. The entire situation weighs on him. He feels that he needs to try to support his mother. And living in the camps, it's very much a daily struggle. Only five percent of the people living there have managed to find jobs. And this is a year later. He wants to try to pick coconuts.

COSTELLO: Not only that, but, you know, we heard some of the mothers haven't recovered psychologically from this because they lost their other children. So, I mean, is there anyone around to help?

QUADE: There really -- right after the tsunami, there were so many aid apple there were so groups. And they were coming to the camps, and they were helping with the volunteer work, helping with counseling. And then the Pakistan earthquake happened. The hurricanes happened.

A lot of these aid groups left. And they're starting to come back again. But they do need more help. They would like more counseling. And you saw in Nasir. He still has nightmares. He dreams about his dead father. He feels guilty about his little sisters. And it's just a daily struggle in these camps.

COSTELLO: You know what I'm wondering? So many people are still living in these tents in these camps. Millions and millions of dollars have flowed in to Indonesia to aid. So why don't they have homes? Why isn't the money being used to do that more quickly?

QUADE: Actually, they're trying to do it the right way in Indonesia. It's a place that has been known in the past for corruption and for nepotism. So they did get in $7.5 billion in aid for the entire tsunami-stricken region. And they're trying specifically in Indonesia to make sure that this is distributed properly. So they're taking their time. They're making sure it's done right. They're trying to avoid corruption. So it is taking time. And they estimate that it might take 10 years for the recovery.

COSTELLO: Alex Quade, thank you so much for sharing. We appreciate it.

QUADE: Thank you.

COSTELLO: And tonight on Paula Zahn Now, a full hour devoted to the tsunami one year later, the stories of destruction and survival. That's tonight at eight Eastern right here on CNN. And we're back in a moment.

O'BRIEN: You have to be careful who you ask the question, "tell me where to go." Our next guest is the kind of guy who you can ask that question. He is the sultan of cheap, and he takes that as a compliment. Clark Howard -- and he offers some tips for us. Thanks a lot for being with us, Clark.

CLARK HOWARD, CONSUMER ADVOCATE: Sure.

O'BRIEN: I suppose your advice would have been to already book for your winter travel because booking in advance is a good thing. But there are places to go where you can get deals at the last minute as well. Tell us where to go.

HOWARD: The whole key with travel is you buy a bargain and then figure out why you want to go there. And the airline industry -- I'm serious.

O'BRIEN: That's the tail wagging the dog, isn't it?

HOWARD: But it's what you do because I only buy the bargain. And I've been to every continent on Earth except Antarctica. But if you buy the bargain considering how airline deregulation works, where it makes no sense based on distance what a fare is, that's how you decide where to go. You will go everywhere on Earth, but you'll do it for a whole lot less money.

O'BRIEN: What site should you go to, and how do you search for these deals?

HOWARD: Well, I love - well, Travel Zoo is great. Have you ever been to Travel Zoo?

O'BRIEN: No, no, I haven't.

HOWARD: Neat site. It tells you the kind of things I'm talking about where you're not going to believe it. But there's this great deal to Cabo San Lucas or wherever. And you see it on their list with their top 20 every week that they e-mail to you. Plus for booking fares, let's say you have to go to a particular place or you want to go and you're looking for the best deal there. There are some sites people don't use a lot that are great. Kayak.com - have you been to that one?

O'BRIEN: No.

HOWARD: K-a-y-a-k.com, really good. Sidestep.com - do you use that one?

O'BRIEN: How would you know kayak was a travel site, you know?

HOWARD: Well, because I'm going tell you.

O'BRIEN: No, but I mean, that's really odd. It's no wonder people don't go there. Yes.

HOWARD: But it's great. It's great.

O'BRIEN: Sidestep?

HOWARD: Sidestep is wonderful. Sidestep works one of two ways. You can either use it while you're going to Orbitz, Travelocity, Expedia and airline site to go do its own searches while you're at one of those sites, or you can go there directly and have it do a search. And for international travel Mobissimo.com. Do you know that one?

O'BRIEN: Mobissimo? No.

HOWARD: M-o-b-i-s-s-i-m-o, Mobissimo, fantastic. And it'll find routings and ways for you to get somewhere around the globe that you never, ever would have thought about.

O'BRIEN: All right, hotels -- you're in New York now. We put you up, and I know that kind of appalls you. Tell me about that.

HOWARD: You upset me so much. When I got to the desk at the hotel and they said how much my room was -- I have never paid this much money for a hotel night in my life. And I travel 100 nights a year. It was $599.

O'BRIEN: And that's about 100 nights a year for you, right?

HOWARD: Right. So when do you think - exactly. What is Time Warner doing? How would the stockholders feel if they knew you were spending that kind of money?

O'BRIEN: When you pay your cable bill, think of that hotel, right? Tell me about...

HOWARD: But you can save a ton on hotels.

O'BRIEN: Tell me how to find those deals though.

HOWARD: OK. Biddingfortravel.com is my favorite bargain site to save money on hotels. Bidding for travel is a bulletin board. And fellow travelers tell you what deals they're finding using Priceline and HotWire, what hotels -- if you bid a four-star in Chicago, what you're going to get and what you should bid for it. It'll save you more money than you could ever shake a stick at.

But another thing is Trip Adviser. Have you ever been to Trip Adviser?

O'BRIEN: No.

HOWARD: Neat site. Trip Adviser is where your fellow travelers tell you a hotel may be rated three stars but it's really a place that the rats carry the furniture around.

O'BRIEN: Really?

HOWARD: So you find out what people really think about a hotel by going to Trip Adviser. And it will steer you right.

O'BRIEN: So people have used it, offer up their own little reviews?

HOWARD: Exactly. So you look for the compilation of reviews. You could take the best hotel in the world and somebody's going to be somebody who just no matter what you give them they're not going to like it. But if you see review after review that says the hotel stinks, I don't care how many stars somebody gave it, you go with what the Trip Adviser fellow poster said.

O'BRIEN: All right. Clark Howard, thank you very much.

HOWARD: Certainly.

COSTELLO: All right. We have to talk a little sports now because you probably did not see what happened in the Pittsburgh- Cleveland game over the weekend. And, boy, if you did, you would have remembered it. So we're going to show you now.

This is a drunken fan who ran onto the field, and he is eventually body slammed by linebacker, James Harrison, who took him down. James Harrison said he had to be a little rough because the fan was backing up toward the sidelines. Right? O'BRIEN: Wow, he could have really hurt him. You notice, though, he was dressed like a Brown. He's a Cleveland fan. And none of the Browns touched him. They're like, hey, he's one of ours. That's our...

COSTELLO: Cleveland fans can turn on you in an instant. Well, this happened...

O'BRIEN: Well, he did push him.

COSTELLO: This happened in Cleveland Stadium. Well, he was pushing him off the playing field. There was nine minutes and 17 seconds left in the game. He's trying to push him over to the sidelines. And then James Harrison finishes the job.

O'BRIEN: Man, he did a number on him, too.

COSTELLO: Yes. In fact, Harrison said if it were a Pittsburgh fan, he probably wouldn't have touched him.

O'BRIEN: I see.

COSTELLO: But this drunken fan was moving toward the Pittsburgh sidelines. So you never know what's going to happen.

O'BRIEN: He's not exactly ready and fit for play, is he?

COSTELLO: No.

O'BRIEN: His six pack has a protective cover there, you might say.

COSTELLO: Yes. He's charged with criminal trespass, and he was taken to jail. So there you go.

O'BRIEN: So there you go.

COSTELLO: Yes. "CNN LIVE TODAY" coming up next.

Daryn, good morning.

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Carol. Well, and Cleveland Brown fans will tell you that wasn't even the ugliest thing that happened in the whole game.

COSTELLO: No.

KAGAN: Forty-one, zip, I think.

COSTELLO: Yes, that was ugly.

KAGAN: Now, if you're a Steelers fan, that was a beautiful thing. Anyhow, Carol, coming up, one year later we're going to talk about how the tsunami and all the international aid that followed changed the lives of millions of people in South Asia. Plus bargain hunters live for this, the day after Christmas. This is a high holy day for shoppers. Are there really big savings out there, though? Or is it just a lot of hype and hassle? Stick around. We will find out.

COSTELLO: What do you mean, hype and hassle? It's fun.

KAGAN: Are you heading out into the stores of New York City?

COSTELLO: Yes, ma'am.

O'BRIEN: No, you're not.

COSTELLO: Yes, I am.

O'BRIEN: You are not.

COSTELLO: Yes, I am. It's a tradition.

O'BRIEN: Where are you going?

COSTELLO: I'm going to Saks. I'm going to Bloomingdales.

O'BRIEN: Really?

COSTELLO: Yes, you get cheap stuff there now, which is unusual.

O'BRIEN: Really? We'll have to do a story on that. We'll send a crew with you.

COSTELLO: I'll take Clark Howard with me.

O'BRIEN: There you go.

COSTELLO: Yes. Coming up, we start our countdown of the biggest newsmakers of 2005. It's called five in '05. Tom Cruise had tongues wagging in 2005. We'll look back at his surprise romance, his spat with Brooke Shields. And, yes, that bizarre appearance on Oprah. Stick around.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: It was a year to remember. There were some people we just could not take our eyes off of in 2005. Do you remember jumping the couch with Tom Cruise? How could you forget his maniacal courtship with Katie Holmes? Every day this week we're looking at the "Top Five in '05." Number five on our countdown, Tom Cruise.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

OPRAH WINFREY, TALK SHOW HOST: I've never seen you like this.

COSTELLO (voice-over): It's still strange. Tom Cruise crashed through our TV sets like a maniacal Romeo. In an instant, his carefully crafted veneer looked vulnerable. The world famous smile was still there. But who was this guy? RICHARD ROEPER, FILM CRITIC: It was astonishing. And it's interesting now because Oprah keeps telling everybody, "At the time I thought he's lost his mind." No, she didn't. She was going right along with him. She was going, "Wow, you're gone." And the audience was going crazy. And I'm at home thinking are these people all insane.

COSTELLO: It was a long way from the days of the all-American cool guy in "Risky Business." Hollywood types blamed it on Cruise's new agent, his sister. But Cruise deserved or at least took the brunt of the blame.

CARTOON: Don't you understand, Elron (ph)? It's me, Tom Cruise.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, I know who you are.

COSTELLO: Cruise's brand of crazy in love played out like a bizarre sitcom. Look, there's Tom and Katie all over each other. And with each seemingly fixed smile, fans and critics alike grew more suspicious. He also provided a brand new term in the urban dictionary, jumping the couch, slang for insane, insanity, gone crazy.

WINFREY: Let's focus here. OK.

CRUISE: OK, I'm sorry.

COSTELLO: But Cruise wasn't just crazy about Katie Holmes. There was that "Today Show" interview with Matt Lauer when Cruise pushed Scientology and told us psychiatry is a pseudo-science.

MATT LAUER, "TODAY SHOW": I'm just saying. But aren't there examples where it works?

CRUISE: Matt, Matt, Matt, you don't even -- you're glib.

ROEPER: The interview with the "Today Show" with Matt Lauer was just disturbing and frightening to see him get so argumentative with Lauer and to spew out a bunch of stuff, which I think, quite frankly is nonsense. It was not a good advertisement for Scientology or for Tom Cruise.

COSTELLO: Or for Cruise's image with women. He attacked Brooke Shields calling her misguided for taking Paxil to cure her post-partum depression, a condition Cruise called a myth that could be treated with vitamins. Shields was not amused saying, "Tom should stick to saving the world from aliens and let women who are experiencing post- partum depression decide what treatment options are best for them."

Despite all this, Cruise showed he was still a draw at the box office. "War of the Worlds" was proof.

ROEPER: Crazy happy is OK. Crazy mean is not.

COSTELLO: Tom Cruise, one of our "Top Five in '05."

(END VIDEOTAPE) COSTELLO: That just cracks me up. Crazy happy is OK. Crazy mean is not. The "Top Five in '05" is a week-long series. Tomorrow we take a look at Pope John Paul's legacy and the man in the red Prada shoes. We're back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: My, how time flies. That's all the time we have. Thanks for being with us for this AMERICAN MORNING.

COSTELLO: But we'll be back tomorrow. Daryn Kagan is at the CNN Center to take you through the next couple of hours.

Hey, Daryn.

KAGAN: Good morning, Carol. Good luck in the stores.

COSTELLO: Thank you. I can't wait.

KAGAN: And, Miles, I'm sure you're home figuring out whatever electronics you gave to your children.

O'BRIEN: Yes, I'm I.T. support at home. That's what I'm doing today.

KAGAN: That's it. Or they're explaining it to you, as it usually might happen. You guys have a great day in New York City.

We'll go ahead and get started for the next two hours. Let's do that by taking a look at what's happening now in the news.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com