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CNN Live Today

One Year Later, Tsunami Orphans Hope for Brighter Future; Justice Department to Investigate NSA Leak

Aired December 30, 2005 - 10:30   ET

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

DARYN KAGAN, HOST: We are right at the half hour. I'm Daryn Kagan. Here's a look at what's happening now in the news.
Baby Noor is on her way to the United States and life saving surgery. The Iraqi infant suffers from spina bifida and doctors, had given her less than two months to live. U.S. soldiers found her during a house raid and spent the last three weeks arranging for her travel and her surgery here in Atlanta.

Two explosions have rocked central Baghdad. At least five people are dead and 23 wounded in the blast. Police say a parked car and a mortar round exploded on a busy stretch of central Baghdad. There's been no public claim of responsibility.

Here in the U.S., California is reeling from pay powerful Pacific storm with another one due to arrive on New Year's day. The southern coast is being pummeled by monstrous surf while rivers in the northern part of the state are seeing their highest levels in seven years. The threat of mud slides also looms over much of the state.

Fire crews are on the lines and on guard today as new grass fires pick up on the edges of Oklahoma City. Fires have swept across Oklahoma and northern Texas the last few days. More than 300 homes have burned and five lives lost, and conditions are expected to worsen this weekend.

At the top of the hour, Oklahoma City's fire chief will update us from the fire lines.

It has been a little more than a year since South Asia's killer tsunami rolled ashore. More than 200,000 people died and survivors are still coming to grips with what's left. Hardship, heartache and for a few, a glimmer of hope.

CNN's Alex Quade returns to Banda Aceh, Indonesia, and she finds three orphans that she had just met after the wave wiped out the life that they once knew.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): Everything is gone and there's only one tilted house.

ALEX QUADE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): 10-year-old Eka (ph), 14-year-old Nona (ph) and their brother, 16-year-old Marwadih (ph) return to their neighborhood for the first time. Four thousand people lived here. Few survived. Bodies float in the water, bake under the rubble. The children take us and an uncle along to find their house.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): There are a lot of houses here. Four full blocks. We lived over there at the end. There were a lot of stores on my right here and here there was a fish farm. The day it happened it was exactly like this, nice and sunny, but today the waves look nice.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): When the earthquake hit Mama was so scared that she started praying. We looked towards the ocean and all of a sudden there was a wave. Dad told us to take the motor bike and run away. This was when we last saw him.

QUADE (on camera): The three children on their small motor bike raced down this road. The tsunami they could hear directly behind them. They fell off their bike several times. They even hit a pedestrian. They couldn't stop to see how he was. They had to outrun the wave.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): It was really tall. Taller than that tree. When we were on the bike here I looked behind me and saw a two-story house crashing down, hit by the really tall wave.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): The water was coming closer as if a dam had broken. It was about 50 meters behind us so we continued.

QUADE (voice-over): Their search for their parents began in a mass of corpses.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): We both looked at the bodies. Eka (ph) was too scared. She waited on the motor bike. We looked for three days.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): We couldn't look anymore because bodies were starting to decompose. We opened the body bags, and we couldn't even identify who they looked like.

QUADE: The children don't talk about losing their parents, but about what they remember. Eka (ph) says their father was teaching her to ride the motor bike. Nanna (ph) misses their mother singing. Marwadih (ph) prayed with their father every day.

So they search through the rubble for some sign of their former life.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): I wish that out of all this I wish I could find at least something for identity. A school certificate or something. There's nothing left.

QUADE: They finally see their home.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): This is our house!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): This is mom's room.

QUADE: And these were their rooms.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): This is where I used to cook. This is where I used to wash.

QUADE: She misses cooking with her mother.

Nanna (ph) wants to leave her mark. This was her room. But her pen dies.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): You can't see it clearly.

QUADE: Nanna (ph), Eka (ph) and Marwadih (ph) must move on.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): Brother, there is nothing left.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Yes, there is nothing.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): That is my school.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): That's the library and these are all the classes. There's nothing left, I don't know where we'll go to school.

QUADE: No school, home, money or parents. Their future, uncertain.

One year later I find Nanna (ph), Eka (ph), and Marwadih (ph) at an uncle's, babysitting his four children in exchange for shelter. Nanna (ph) goes on a new school. So does Eka (ph), and they now wear Muslim head scarves. Marwadih (ph) goes to a new mosque.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): We have to struggle to survive because we lost those we loved. Allah gave us this challenge and we had to face it.

QUADE: They miss their old home. So we go back.

(on camera) what is it like to be back here?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): It's very different now. There's nothing here. There should be new houses here by now, but the government doesn't allow the redevelopment, because it's too close to the sea.

QUADE: The little left of their house, taken.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Someone took the toilet. There are people going through the rubble looking for things to take.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): This is a broken plate.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): It was mama's plate.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): Why didn't the scavengers take it?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): What for? It's damaged.

QUADE (on camera): The children tell me that even a year later they still worry about stumbling across bodies. They found a skeleton here not too long ago.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): Nanna (ph), I'm afraid to walk over here.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): I'm afraid when I see the ocean.

QUADE: They don't like to go much closer.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): I'm also afraid. The other day I went out there after low tide and found many bones and skulls.

QUADE: Then he teases.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Go further, there's ghosts. Ghosts will take you.

QUADE: It's been a tough year.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): I feel like I've replaced my father, because I have to take care of my sisters.

QUADE: Eka (ph) has taken their loss the hardest, her sister says.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): It is very hard to take care of Eka (ph). She never finishes her homework.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): I only study when there's a quiz.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): I tell her she needs to change her attitude because it is very important for her future.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): I always remind Eka (ph) that we have no parents anymore. That's why we have to be tough and do everything by ourselves.

QUADE: Marwadih (ph) wants to be a doctor. Nanna (ph), a nurse, and Eka (ph) jokes, a hospital manager so she can boss them around.

(on camera) Last time we came over here, and the pen you tried to write your name on the floor that this was your room and the pen did not work.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): Yes. The pen did not work when I wanted to mark this ground so my brother made a sign. This is to protect our family's property.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): A bulldozer will come and level the land. I'm afraid if I don't put the sign I won't find my property again.

QUADE (voice-over): A year after the great tsunami they have hope for the future which Eka (ph) sings about. And their smiles are back.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): I want us to be successful in our lives, to help others and I want us to live the way our parents wanted us to.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: And that story by Alex Quade. We'll talk with Alex in just a moment more about that.

Right now we want to tell you about a story that is just in to us here at CNN. The Justice Department has confirmed to CNN it is opening an investigation regarding the recent leaks concerning the classified National Security Agency's surveillance program.

You might remember it was about -- about two weeks ago that "The New York Times" first reported the story on the existence of wiretapping and eavesdropping by the NSA.

President Bush has defended this program, saying that it is -- he believes he is constitutionally charged with having to protect the United States and with gathering information. Other people are very concerned about the privacy rights being violated here.

Our David Ensor is working the story and we'll have more on that in just a moment on that in just a moment, on that Justice Department investigation.

First of all, I want to welcome Alex Quade.

It's always good to see you, because you travel to such dangerous places. It's always good to have you here with us in person.

QUADE: Thank you.

KAGAN: And thank you for updating us on the plight of those three children. Realistically, what do their futures hold? The brother wants to be a doctor. One wants to be the nurse.

QUADE: That was the thing. When we went back there, we were so worried that the prospects for their future were very bleak. And it was encouraging to see just how serious they are about getting an education and about trying to go and have a good career that, as you said, Marwadih (ph) wants to be a doctor, Nanna (ph) wants to be a nurse and little Eka (ph), their little sister, has been joking that she wants to be the hospital manager so that she can boss her brother and sister around. But they're also -- they're trying to study English and learn how to use the Internet so that their educational opportunities are -- they have more opportunities.

KAGAN: Was it hard to find them again?

QUADE: It really -- it was. I mean, first, when we very first got to Banda Aceh, the first time right after the wave hit, there were no children. We -- the majority of the victims that were killed by the wave were children. And we looked at hospitals, what was left of hospitals, what was left of schools, what was left of markets. We could not find children.

And slowly they came down from the hills. And we met Nanna (ph) and Eka (ph) and Marwadih (ph). And we tried to keep track of them over the course of a year with the help of our CNN Jakarta bureau.

And this last time when we went back we went back to the area where we had last seen them and it just so happened that they were in that neighborhood living with an uncle.

KAGAN: Alex Quade, thank you. We've look forward to many more interesting stories from you in 2006.

QUADE: Thank you.

KAGAN: And be safe out there.

QUADE: Thank you very much.

KAGAN: It's like your mother paid me tell you that. But please. And bring your stories to us here at CNN LIVE TODAY.

QUADE: Thank you.

KAGAN: All right. Let's go back to our breaking news story and that is the Justice Department opening an investigation into a leak about the NSA. David Ensor with us right now to tell us more about that -- David.

DAVID ENSOR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Daryn, Justice Department officials are now confirming to CNN that a leak investigation has indeed been launched by the Justice Department into the story that appeared in "The New York Times" 10, 12 days ago by James Risen of "The New York Times" about a top-secret program in which the National Security Agency, without warrants from a court in certain cases, is able to wiretap individuals in the United States in conversations with others overseas.

This program was very, very top secret and a number of present and former senior officials have said that the revelation that the program exists has done real damage to U.S. national security. Clearly, the fact that it's there, the fact that that's out of the public may change the patterns of conversations or communications of some would-be terrorists. That is the -- that is the fear of officials. So it is routine under U.S. law. The National Security Agency, the CIA and other intelligence agencies are required by law to refer to the Justice Department any situation where they believe classified information may have been disclosed.

Interestingly, "The New York Times" says that it had this information about a year ago and was convinced not to publish it at that time. They've now put this story out. It's been something of a firestorm, with a lot of critics saying that the president exceeded the law and questioning whether this program is legal. Clearly, there are likely to be hearings on the Hill about that.

But now there is going to be a Justice Department investigation into who leaked the information to "The New York Times." This was a very top secret program. Very few people in the government even knew of its existence. Only eight people on Capitol Hill, for example, were briefed on it.

So it is likely that FBI agents and Justice Department officials will first take a look at that very small group of officials here in Washington who knew about this program, and from there try to figure out who might have told "The New York times about it" -- Daryn.

KAGAN: It will take some detective work, though, because as you said, the reporter for "The New York Times" says he's had it for a year. It's not like this just happened in the last couple of weeks.

ENSOR: That's right. And he actually has a book coming out next week. There may be some additional revelations about this party in that book. So there's lots more to come on this one, Daryn.

KAGAN: Well, if nothing else, good publicity for him. David Ensor, thank you.

And one reminder going back to the tsunami story that we were just watching from Alex Quade. Our year-ending "CNN PRESENTS: VOICES FROM THE TSUNAMI," airs Saturday at 8 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN.

We are back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: Well, doesn't look like Wall Street is going to pull it out. The stocks are dipping at year end, this the last trading day of 2005. The Dow is down 47 points. The NASDAQ is down 14. So it looks like the Dow 30 will fall into the red for the year.

A traveling salesman and a hit man walk into a bar. No, no, this is not a joke. It's a storyline for Pierce Brosnan's newest movie. He's trying to break out of the James Bond role. Mr. Moviefone is along next with his take on this movie and the rest of the weekend's new releases. We'll be with you in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JONATHAN RHYS-MEYERS, ACTOR: Just say you will, please.

SCARLETT JOHANSSON, ACTRESS: You're going to do very well for yourself. Unless you blow it.

RHYS-MEYERS: And how am I going blow it?

JOHANSSON: By making a pass at me.

RHYS-MEYERS: If you allow to push the guilt under the rug, then go on. Otherwise it overwhelms you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: Called "Match Point" and yes, it comes from Woody Allen. It's one of the many new movies out this year, but will they score with the audience? To weigh in on that, we have Mr. Moviefone himself, Russ Leatherman.

Russ, happy New Year.

RUSS LEATHERMAN, MR. MOVIEFONE: Happy new year to you, Karyn. I've got to tell you though, I'm feeling a little guilty.

KAGAN: Oh, no. What did you do now?

LEATHERMAN: Well, I live in Los Angeles and if you live in Los Angeles or New York you get to see all these fantastic moves early.

KAGAN: Right.

LEATHERMAN: If you live anywhere else you're watching "Cheaper by the Dozen 2." So -- but I'm going to get over it. These moves will come to a theater near you, I promise.

KAGAN: Eventually, by 2007. Well, is this one worth waiting for? "Match Point" by Woody Allen.

LEATHERMAN: You know, when you think about it, Woody Allen hasn't had a good movie in years.

KAGAN: No?

LEATHERMAN: No. He hasn't, but he does now. This is actually a really good movie. I enjoyed it a lot. It's about a young tennis pro who ingratiates himself to this very rich family by marrying the sister of the guy he's training to play tennis.

But what ends up happening is life is going fine until he decides to have an affair with his friend's fiance. Yes, that's never good news.

Now what happens is she's already broken up her relationship. He doesn't want to break up his marriage and Scarlett Johansson that you see right there is not very happy about it and looking to make things right, if you what I mean. Yes, I have to tell you this, is Woody Allen not like you've seen him in a long time. Scarlet Johansson is terrific in the movie. There's a great twist. I don't want to give anything away. But this is a movie worth checking out.

It's -- it's in limited release. Like I said, if you live on one of the coasts enjoy it this weekend. If you don't, it will be out in a few weeks.

KAGAN: All right. That's "Match Point."

Now, Pierce Brosnan, his James Bond days are over. He's looking to break the mold and do something different and he picks this script called "The Matador," and he costars with Greg Kinnear. Any good?

LEATHERMAN: It is good. It's really good. I enjoyed Pierce Brosnan more...

KAGAN: Are you drunk early? You like all these moves. You never like all these moves.

LEATHERMAN: Well, the answer is yes, I am.

KAGAN: OK.

LEATHERMAN: But it has nothing to do with it. OK?

It is another great movie. I like every movie coming out this week just because this is the time of year we get them.

This is Pierce Brosnan. He's really -- he's a tired, worn out hit man, very quirky. He meets up with Greg Kinnear in Mexico, who's a businessman trying to make a deal. It's really their odd couple chemistry and relationship that makes this movie what I think is comedy gold.

It's Pierce doing very different things than you've seen him -- than you've seen him do in the past. And I just think he's really, really charming and very funny, which we've never seen from him before.

So I enjoyed this movie a lot. I say you should check out "The Matador."

KAGAN: OK, of the list that you submitted, the one that looks the most intriguing to me is "Mrs. Henderson Presents," stars Judi Dench, Bob Hoskins. It looks like one of those movies that could kind of slip under the radar but just might be delightful.

LEATHERMAN: Well, it is delightful, and I hope it doesn't slip under the radar. I hope people get a chance to go out and see this thing.

Judi Dench is just spectacular. She plays a widow in World War I who's got a lot of money. She's very rich, doesn't know what to do with her money, so she buys a small theater in London and turns it into a very interesting thing, which is she's decided that all of the ladies in the theater should be naked.

KAGAN: Oh, it's your kind of movie.

LEATHERMAN: You know something, Daryn, I knew you were going say that, but I have to tell you, the nudity is not why I like this movie.

KAGAN: You are drunk. You are definitely drunk.

LEATHERMAN: I like this -- I'm telling you, I like this movie because it's charming, because Judi Dench is terrific in everything she does, as is Bob Hoskins, and I really thought it was very well done. Very classy, presented in a terrific sort of way.

This is another really, really nice movie that will come to theaters in a few weeks. If it comes to your town, be sure and check it out.

KAGAN: You liked it because it was charming, not because of the nudity. I am now officially taking your temperature and going beyond any kind of drunk thing.

LEATHERMAN: I hate the nudity.

KAGAN: I know. In all seriousness, I wish you a new year as sweet as a big bucket of kettle corn, Russ.

LEATHERMAN: That's very nice. You, too, Daryn. And you know what? I will see you at the movies.

KAGAN: We will look for you.

Thank you.

LEATHERMAN: Bye-bye.

KAGAN: Russ Leatherman, Mr. Moviefone, giving your some tips.

And you can keep your eye on entertainment 24/7. You just point your Internet browse to CNN.com/entertainment. Among the highlights you'll find right now, the breakout movie stars of 2005.

We're going from the movies to cartoons. Political cartoons, that is. There isn't an issue he can't spoof or a politician he can't make fun of. We're going to take a look back at the year in politics when Pulitzer Prize-winner Mike Luckovich joins me live.

And then we'll look ahead to some unlikely stories that one prognosticator thinks we'll be talking for 2006. Yes, the Amazing Kreskin will join me live with his predictions as the second hour of CNN LIVE TODAY begins after a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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