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American Morning

Dick Cheney In Hospital; 'State of War'; New Orleans Universities Reopening; 'Minding Your Business'; Cheney's Medical Condition

Aired January 09, 2006 - 07:30   ET

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

ANNOUNCER: You're watching AMERICAN MORNING with Soledad O'Brien and Miles O'Brien.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Welcome, everybody. It's shaping up to be a beautiful day here in New York City and going to be a warm one too according to Chad.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, forget the jacket. Forget the winter coat.

We've got some breaking news this morning from Washington to tell you about. Vice President Cheney in the hospital as we speak. He felt shortness of breath overnight but his problems do not seem to be directly related to his heart disease history. Elaine Quijano live at the White House now.

Elaine, what can you tell us?

ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Miles.

Well, the information that we have comes to us from the vice president's office. They say about four and a half hours ago the vice president was taken to nearby George Washington University Hospital after experiencing shortness of breath. Now once there, his doctors determined that his EKG was unchanged. Instead, they found he was retaining fluid as a result of anti-inflammatory medication that he had been taking for a foot problem.

Now doctors have placed him on a diuretic and he's expected to return home later today. An administration official said that the vice president was taken by car to the hospital and that he was accompanied by his wife, Lynne Cheney, who remains with him at the hospital.

Now it was last Friday, of course, that we saw the vice president walking with a cane. At that time, his office said it was because of an old injury involving his Achilles heel. Officials said that was a recurring condition that usually goes away after a day or two. It was his left foot which was being treated with anti-inflammatory medication.

Now, of course, the vice president has had a history of heart problems, but again, his office saying this morning that his EKG was unchanged. That this had to do with foot medication and that the vice president should be home later today. Miles.

MILES O'BRIEN: All right, Elaine Quijano at the White House. Thank you very much. We're going to, of course, keep you posted on all that all throughout the morning.

Let's get some other headlines in. Carol Costello with that.

Welcome back, Carol.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Thank you very much. It's nice to be back. Good morning to all of you.

We are following developments out of Iraq this morning. At least 14 Iraqi police officers killed in a double suicide bombing. It happened a little more than three hours ago in Baghdad. These are pictures just coming in to us now. Officials say the bombers blew themselves up outside the main door to the interior ministry. The attack came during celebrations for Iraqi police day.

In the mean time, still no word as to the cause of the crash of that Blackhawk helicopter. The chopper went down in Telefar, in that region on Saturday. At least 12 Americans were killed. Four of them were civilian crew members. There are reports the UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter, which is pretty much like the one seen here, was flying in bad weather. We're going to have a live report from you from CNN's Michael Holmes. He will join us from Baghdad in the next hour.

We're also expecting to hear more this morning about how Randy McCloy, Jr., is doing. He's the only survivor in the coal mine accident in West Virginia. Doctors say they're withdrawing sedatives and he could come out of a medically induced coma within the next couple of days. A news conferences is expected later this morning. Of course, we will monitor that news conference for any developments.

More medical news for you. This out of Jerusalem. Doctors are in the process of bringing Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon out of his medically induced coma. They're trying to determine the extent of brain damage after he suffered a major stroke last week. He does remain in critical condition.

And Howard Stern, he's back without dialogue bleeps to cover the more questionable language. He's debuting today on Sirius Satellite Radio and he will not face any FCC restrictions, so as they say, just about anything goes. Sirius is counting on Stern to attract more customers and he seems to be doing that. Last week the company reportedly gave Stern more than $200 million worth of stock for helping to boost subscriptions. $200 million in stock. It's amazing.

Soledad.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Oh, yes, nice work if you can get it, right, Carol? Thanks.

Well, the White House is defending a controversial policy that has the National Security Agency eavesdropping on Americans without warrants. "New York Times" reporter James Risen broke the story last month. His new book reveals how and why the government began spying on its own citizens and it's called "State of War: The Secret History of the CIA and the Bush Administration." James Risen is with us this morning.

It's nice to see you. Thanks for talking with us.

JAMES RISEN, AUTHOR, "STATE OF WAR": Thanks for having me.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: In all your reporting, do you have any evidence that, in fact, the U.S. government spied on innocent Americans?

RISEN: Not yet. We have -- the evidence of abuses hasn't come out yet, but that's something that I think a lot of reporters in Washington are now looking for, to see what were the parameters of this program, what kind of oversight there was and how closely they were able to monitor it to make sure there were adequate safeguards.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: The story was pretty shocking when it first broke and then I think the follow-up, which was also shocking, which is "The New York Times" essentially refuses to give any information on why they sat on this story for so long. Why did you not, for a year, publish your story?

RISEN: Well, it was, you know, the -- it wasn't my decision. It was up to "The Times." I rather would focus on the fact that when they did publish it, I think it was a great public service to the country, because I think now we can have a national debate about this whole issue of warrantless surveillance and whether or not it is legal or constitutional.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Might be a national debate but certainly critics would say actually you've compromised the security by -- in your book and you go through a lot what the NSA and the CIA do. Do you think you've compromised a security not only of agents overseas but also Americans?

RISEN: No, I don't believe so. I think what this country needs, more than anything right now, is vigorous investigative reporting because it's really crucial to a healthy democracy. And it's really one of the things that separates the United States from other countries around the world.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Can you understand when people read the article and want to know where it all came from, what was behind the decision then? As you say, what we really need is a discussion and debate. Sort of a clearing of the air.

RISEN: Right.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: You don't get that from "The New York Times" and a newspaper that has certainly had its issues in the recent past about anonymous sources, et cetera.

RISEN: Right. Well, I think the issue of anonymous sources is one that all of us in the press are struggling with. But I can say that on national security issues and intelligence issues that you really can't do any reporting without anonymous sources and you have to protect people and provide some sense of -- that you will, you know, give them anonymity in order to get people to step forward because there's been a whole new creation, I think, since 9/11 of a secret side of the federal government that we are now just beginning to get a grasp on. And so in order to get people to talk about some of this new infrastructure of the government that we're just beginning to see, you have to give them some protection.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Sort of the whistle blowers that you spoke to?

RISEN: Yes. Yes. I think the people I talked to about the NSA program are patriots and I think that they stepped forward for the best reasons, which was because they thought something was going wrong.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: As you know, the president, in a White House press conference, he said that he felt that security was now damaged and gave an example of the Osama bin Laden phone call. Let's run a little bit of what the president had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: In late 1990s, our government was following Osama bin Laden because he was using a certain type of telephone. And then the fact that we were following Osama bin Laden because he was using a certain type of telephone made it into the press as a result of a leak. And guess what happened? Osama bin Laden changed his behavior. He began to change how he communicated.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: The Justice Department doesn't -- wouldn't see necessarily your whistle blowers as patriots. They might want to see your whistle blowers in prison.

RISEN: Right. I think actually after that the president said that, several news organizations pointed out that it was a myth that the press had leaked that about Osama bin Laden. And, in fact, I think that the press has a vital role to play when there is something that so many people in the United States feel so strongly about as domestic eavesdropping without court approval that I think you have to have a balance between civil liberties and national security and that is always a debate and a balancing act that we struggle with in this country.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: There's an investigation. Are you willing to go to prison for the people -- for the whistle blowers?

RISEN: Well, hopefully it won't come to that. I'm hoping that, you know, we'll never have to decide that. But I'm going to protect my sources.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: James Risen. The book is called "State of War." A very interesting read. I enjoyed it this weekend. Thanks for talking with us.

RISEN: Thank you.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Miles.

MILES O'BRIEN: This just in to us here at CNN, Vice President Dick Cheney about four and a half hours after he was reported to head to the hospital has now left the hospital. Is presumably headed back to the vice president's residence. And as we have been reporting all this morning, it apparently was an unwelcome side effect to some medication, some anti-inflammatory medication, that Mr. Cheney was taking to alleviate some pain related to an old injury to his foot. You can see this pictures is from Friday. He clearly was carrying a cane in his right hand. Related to that old Achilles heel injury.

In any case, that caused a buildup of fluid around his heart and that caused shortness of breath. And as a result, he went to the hospital this morning in his motorcade. Not in an ambulance. He's headed back home now, we presume. And apparently that has been rectified, but we'll keep you posted on his condition all throughout the morning.

Shifting gears now. Hurricane Katrina forced the cancellation of their fall semesters, but now several universities in New Orleans are getting back on track, or so they hope. AMERICAN MORNING'S Alina Cho just returned from the crescent city.

Good to have you with us, Alina. Are students coming back?

ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know what. Miles, in large part they are coming back. And what these students are finding is that Hurricane Katrina has changed everything.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHO, (voice over): Dillard University freshman Sonni Jones-Ford is back in New Orleans for her spring semester. But she's not on campus.

SUNNI JONES-FORD, DILLARD UNIVERSITY STUDENT: Actually, I think it might be a little bit better than dorms. I mean you're staying in a hotel. So it's exciting. It's different.

CHO: Dillard has effectively moved into the Hilton Hotel in downtown New Orleans.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There you go.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Good luck this semester.

CHO: Classes are being held in the hotel ballroom. Students and faculty are living there, too. That's because Dillard's campus, which was under eight feet of water following Hurricane Katrina, is still under repair. MARVALENE HUGHES, DILLARD UNIVERSITY PRESIDENT: I never dreamed that I would be in the midst of a trauma like Katrina. But after we discovered how serious it was, it was very clear to me that we had to exercise a lot of creativity in order to keep our students on track.

CHO: So have the students. Sonni, who's from Denver, spent the fall semester in Texas. About half of Dillard's student body has returned. Over at Tulane University, nearly nine in 10 students have come back. University President Scott Cowen calls that unbelievable.

SCOTT COWEN, TULANE UNIVERSITY PRESIDENT: There was a time period after that storm, and it was about three weeks, where quite honestly I did not think we would survive as an institution.

CHO: Tulane's campus sustained about $200 million in damage following Katrina. Cowen says that forced him to make some tough decisions. He fired 233 faculty and eliminated nearly half of the doctoral program. That means engineering student Will Clarkson won't be able to stay at Tulane for his graduate work.

WILL CLARKSON, TULANE UNIVERSITY STUDENT: That's just not an option now. I'm disappointed, but I feel like I have an opportunity to go somewhere else and -- but I really would like to have stayed here.

CHO: Post-Katrina there are other changes at Tulane. Starting in the fall, all undergraduates will be required to perform community service.

COWEN: It's going to be like being in a small college town in a peace corps environment.

CHO: Next door to Tulane, Loyola University's campus suffered minimal damage. Eighty-seven percent of its undergrads are returning. The University of New Orleans stayed open during the fall semester by holding classes at a sister campus in nearby Jefferson Parish. In the spring, UNO will be back on its main campus and will house some students and faculty in trailers. Xavier University, which suffered some of the worst damage in the storm, will now cram a year's worth of curriculum into one longer semester. Most of its students are back, too, and they'll be in class through August.

They won't have a summer break.

WARREN BELL JR. XAVIER UNIVERSITY SPOKESMAN: They will not have a summer, nor will our faculty. But the end result is, by next fall, these students will be right on track.

CHO: Despite the disruptions, students like Sonni Jones-Ford are glad to be back.

JONES-FORD: It's a lot different than I think any freshman year would be.

(END VIDEOTAPE) CHO: That's for sure. Many students we talked to said one of the big reasons they're returning is that in addition to supporting their school, they also want to help rebuild the city. Now as we mentioned, many universities are requiring community service and, Miles, some would argue that there is no better place for community service right now than New Orleans.

MILES O'BRIEN: Plenty of opportunities there. Oh, those poor Xavier students having to cram all of that into one semester.

CHO: I know.

MILES O'BRIEN: What are parents saying about all of this?

CHO: Well, you know, we spoke to one parent who was very concerned. She told me flat out she didn't want her son going back to New Orleans. She was worried that the city wasn't clean. She was even worried that there wasn't enough food to eat. But, of course, we all know that that's not true.

Ultimately, she says, in her words, she caved three weeks ago, decided to support her son and now he's back at Dillard University.

MILES O'BRIEN: Well, I can understand how parents would be concerned.

CHO: Sure.

MILES O'BRIEN: But, ultimately, it could be a great experience as well. A different kind of educational experience.

CHO: That's right, a peace corps environment, as one university president said.

MILES O'BRIEN: There you go. Less frat house and more peace corp. Maybe that's good. Alina Cho, thank you very much.

Soledad.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: They kind of need that there. Thanks, Alina.

Weather now. Chad Myers has that. It's about 45 minutes past the hour.

Hey, Chad. Good morning.

(WEATHER REPORT)

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Andy's "Minding Your Business" just ahead on AMERICAN MORNING. What you got coming up?

ANDY SERWER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Soledad, just how safe is that pickup or SUV you drive? Plus, you want to buy a classic car cheap? Well, it's an Edsel. Stay tuned for that.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: So you own a big old SUV? Well, the gas mileage is absolutely terrible, but at least it's much safer than your average car, right, Andy Serwer?

SERWER: No. Sorry.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Oh, man.

SERWER: Not in this specific instance. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, which is a industry group that monitors the safety of cars and trucks, just came out with a new survey that shows that pickups and SUVs not very safe when it comes to neck injuries. They were doing 20-mile-per-hour crashes with test dummies. And only six out of the 44 SUVs surveyed did well. None of the pickups.

Let's check out and see whether you own one of the SUVs that's in good stead when it comes to neck injuries. These are them. Your Honda Pilot. Your Jeep Grand Cherokee, Land Rover LR3, Subaru Forester and the Volvo XC90. As you can see, very clearly there, as I can see very clearly.

What about some of them that didn't do so well? We have some of those, don't we? Yes, we do. Now, look at that. The Ford Explorer, which I happen to own, unfortunately, and some of these others. You can see the Chevrolet Silverado, Ford F-150, that's a pickup, and your Dodge Dakota.

Meanwhile, another car story to tell you about. This is kind of amusing. There's a gentlemen named Edsel Henry Ford, who lives in the Bay Area. He's 81 years old and, surprise, surprise, he has a collection of Edsels. He's trying to sell them and he's not having much luck. Now it turns out he's not a relative of the Ford family. He was just named after him. His last name is Ford and his father decided to name him after Edsel and Henry Ford. He's trying to sell one of these babies. First, trying to sell one for $8,000. Can't sell it. $5,000. And you'd think that someone would want to buy one of these. It's a beautiful vehicles.

MILES O'BRIEN: Surely. You know what, I'll pick it up. I mean, that would be a great thing to have here in the city, don't you think?

SERWER: You've just got to tell your wife you've got to fly over, drive it back and then park it here in New York.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Yes, right, park it.

MILES O'BRIEN: It would be a fun road trip, wouldn't it?

SERWER: They're kind of cool cars I think.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: A little bit cool.

MILES O'BRIEN: Here, you want these? Want these glasses?

SERWER: No, don't need them. I could see that Ford Edsel perfectly.

MILES O'BRIEN: All right. Andy Serwer, thank you very much.

MILES O'BRIEN: Coming up later, we'll meet our "New You Resolution" participants in 2006. This year our friends will be working in teams. Dr. Sanjay Gupta will be here to talk about that.

Plus, Sanjay will also talk to us about some breaking news out of Washington this morning. The vice president briefly hospitalized. Now back out. Dr. Gupta will explain his condition next on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

MILES O'BRIEN: Let's get to the Rose Garden.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Conducting himself with such dignity and class in the weeks leading up to the confirmation process, which begins today. Sam Alito is eminently qualified to be a member of the bench. I'm not the only person that feels that way. The American Bar Association looked at his record, looked as his opinions, looked at his temperament and came to the same conclusion, that he is well qualified to be a Supreme Court judge.

Sam's got the intellect necessary to bring a lot of class to that court. He's got a judicial temperament necessary to make sure that the court is a body that interprets the law and doesn't try to write the law. And so I'm looking forward to your hearings. I know the American people will be impressed, just like I have been impressed and a lot of other members of the Senate have been impressed.

And my hope, of course, is that the American people will be impressed by the process. It's very important that members of the Senate conduct a dignified hearing. The Supreme Court's a dignified body. Sam is a dignified person. And my hope, of course, is that the Senate bring dignity to the process and give this man a fair hearing and up or down vote on the Senate floor.

Sam, good luck to you.

SAMUEL ALITO: Thank you very much.

BUSH: Thanks for your agreement (ph) to serve. I appreciate you. Thank you.

QUESTION: Sir, what do you hear about Vice President Cheney? Sir?

MILES O'BRIEN: The president of the United States and Judge Samuel Alito in the Rose Garden, having had breakfast and a little bit of support there from the president as he begins his week of hearings. Those hearings will begin at noon Eastern and we will, of course, bring them to you here live on CNN. Judge Samuel Alito confirmation hearings beginning today. Vice President Dick Cheney out of the hospital as we speak after about a four and a half hour stay suffering side effects from apparently an anti-inflammatory drug. Mr. Cheney unable to catch his breath in the wee hours this morning. He was taking the drug to ease pain from an old foot injury. Dr. Sanjay Gupta here to help us understand what's going on with this.

Sanjay, good to see you.

This is not an unknown side effect from these anti- inflammatories.

SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right, it's not unknown at all. People are surprised when they hear about this but it tends to affect people who already have some history of heart problems and also people who have been on the medication for sometime. I don't think he's actually been on it that long, but he, obviously, does have this long history of heart problems. Four heart attack in the past. So he may have been a little bit of a setup for this, Miles.

MILES O'BRIEN: We see him there on Friday. He was carrying a cane. Obviously he's hobbled by this old injury. Do we know what the original injury was?

GUPTA: Yes, I've heard that it's probably osteoarthritis. So some sort of arthritis. And then he's maybe had an inflammation of his Achilles heal. I don't know exactly. Doesn't sound like it was gout, which is another potential foot problem that he may have had also requiring anti-inflammatory medications. But, either way, the medication is probably the same.

MILES O'BRIEN: And while it isn't directly an outgrowth of his cardiac condition, as you say, it is somewhat related in the sense that if you have the problem you would notice this more.

GUPTA: Well, what happens when you have heart attacks, Miles, is that some of your heart tissue actually dies, so your heart's not as strong. It can't force the blood as strongly anymore. If you add on like something like this anti-inflammatory causing a little bit of fluid buildup, makes it even harder for the heart to beat, to pump and that's called congestive heart failure. You start to retain fluid. And the way to really treat that is to get a quick diuretic medication, a water pill, if you will, just force some of that fluid out and allow the heart to start pumping a little bit more effectively.

MILES O'BRIEN: Which is likely what happened over these past four and a half hours. Sanjay Gupta . . .

GUPTA: He's out of the hospital already.

MILES O'BRIEN: Out of the hospital, on his way.

All right. We're not done with you yet. Sanjay's getting double, triple duty today. Sanjay will be back with us in the next hour. He will introduce you to our "New You Resolution" participants for 2006. This year, there's a little twist. We're doing tag team combinations here. Stay with us for more AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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