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American Morning
Iran Nuclear Standoff; Judging Alito; Road to Recovery
Aired January 13, 2006 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Top of the Friday, the 13th, morning to you. I'm Miles O'Brien.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: I didn't realize it was Friday, the 13th.
O'BRIEN: Did I just mess you up? Sorry.
COSTELLO: Well, good luck today.
I'm Carol Costello in for Soledad.
O'BRIEN: We have a growing nuclear threat to tell you about, the so-called axis of evil is in the midst of this. Keeping a close eye on Iran's nuclear ambitions this morning. And we have a live report from Tehran straight ahead.
COSTELLO: Taking out the trash. New Orleans area residents want to know why it's taking so long. Just ahead, the emotional toll as residents try to rebuild their lives.
O'BRIEN: Some disturbing pictures caught on tape, homeless men in Florida brutally beaten with bats. The attackers still on the loose.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I've been shot.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: She says I've been shot. Calls for help from a police officer shot at point blank. The shooting caught on a dashboard camera, as you see.
COSTELLO: And he's called the great American hope on the slopes, but Olympic skier Bode Miller may have taken a fall in the eyes of many fans.
O'BRIEN: We begin this morning in Iran and a growing standoff with the world. Iranian leaders are threatening to block inspections of their nuclear facilities. Now, if you remember, Iraq denied inspections and that eventually led to sanctions and then later the U.S. invasion. Well now it's happening in Iran, a country President Bush considers part of the axis of evil. This escalation standoff has many world leaders on edge today.
We go now to our chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour in Tehran joining us on the videophone -- Christiane.
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Miles, in fact the comments coming out of Iran today and yesterday in an exclusive interview with us by the chief nuclear negotiators have been conciliatory, much more conciliatory than some of the bombastic language that comes from this country's new president.
The chief negotiators have said that they only want to restart research, technological research, as they say, and not enrichment of uranium. They say that they would not be making weapons under the surveillance of the U.N. cameras here, and they would not be able to, nor do they want to, divert any kind of enrichment or nuclear material towards a weapons program.
Here's what the chief negotiator told us exclusively.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ALI LARIJANI, IRAN'S CHIEF NUCLEAR NEGOTIATOR (through translator): And from the beginning we said that if we use centrifuges, it would be under the supervision of the IAEA. Right now the agency inspectors are there, their cameras are there, these projects are happening under their supervision. There is nothing secret about it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
AMANPOUR: So Iran says there is nothing secret about its program and what it's doing. Of course in the past it has been caught doing nuclear program without reporting it all to the U.N. But for the last more than 14 months, it says it's had 1,400 hours, man-hours of inspections, and the cameras are still here.
The Iranian Foreign Minister today weighed in, saying that if other countries are concerned about its research program and restarting research, then Iran is willing to sit down to explain, to continue negotiations. But he said if Iran's dossier is referred to the United Nations Security Council, then Iran would be forced under its laws here to cut cooperation, all the voluntary cooperation it's had with the European countries -- Miles.
O'BRIEN: Christiane, if Iran is true to its word and doing its nuclear research for civilian purposes, for generation of electricity, why would they be concerned about inspections?
AMANPOUR: Well, Miles, I'm not sure where this is coming from. So far we have heard that they are not at all concerned about inspections, that there are -- there have been inspectors here. There are cameras here. And from what we have been told by the chief officials here, those cameras remain in place.
O'BRIEN: OK. And so, at this point, is this something that the Iranians want to negotiate on? Is this an opportunity for them to stretch this out and perhaps, as some would suggest, start working on an atomic device? AMANPOUR: Well, Miles, what they are saying is that they want to continue negotiations with the West. As you know, they have been negotiating with the three European countries, Britain, France and Germany, over the last two years or so. What they want is to be allowed to continue what they say is their inalienable right to research. And that is their right under the NPT.
In terms of what their intentions are, they say that if the world is concerned, then they invite anybody to come here, officials to ask questions, that they would explain to them. But they say over and over again that they are not diverting anything to a weapons program. And that, anyway, they could not do so under the level of surveillance that exists right now at the nuclear facilities here.
O'BRIEN: CNN's Christiane Amanpour in Tehran, Iran, thank you very much.
We'll hear more about this nuclear controversy during a news conference by President Bush and the German chancellor later this morning. That will be at 11:25 Eastern Time and watch CNN for that -- Carol.
COSTELLO: After 18 hours and 700 questions, Samuel Alito may still have to wait at least an extra week before he finds out if he's on the Supreme Court. Democrats won't say the world filibuster out loud, but they might ask for more time to think. Still, his confirmation is looking like a pretty sure thing this morning.
AMERICAN MORNING's Bob Franken live in Washington to tell us more.
Morning -- Bob.
BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.
Well probably the notable thing is the pivotal moment in this hearing perhaps came on Wednesday when Mrs. Alito left the room in tears. And many people believe what that did is it turned the tide against the Democrats, made them look like they were pushing too hard when they were asking questions about personal matters, about Judge Samuel Alito, his associations, that type of thing.
And perhaps they were just really expressing their frustration, because Alito himself had had an easy time of it, deflecting the Democrats as they tried to pin him down on controversial issues like abortion and the expansion of presidential power, to the point that the Democrats repeatedly expressed their exasperation.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. EDWARD KENNEDY (D-MA), JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: These stakes are very high and that was reflected in the variety of questions posed over the past three days. We started these hearings seeking answers. We have come with even more questions about Judge Alito's commitment to the fairness and equality for all.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FRANKEN: And now what we're going to have is a final day of appearances by interest groups for and against Judge Alito. The hearings are sort of just going to evaporate, wind down, as, it seems, the momentum for the Democrats is -- Carol.
COSTELLO: OK, so it doesn't appear there's going to be a filibuster. But couldn't the Democrats, like, delay the vote in some other clever way?
FRANKEN: Well clever is in the minds of the beholder, I suppose. They can delay it next week. The chairman of the committee, Republican Arlen Specter, would like to have the vote on Tuesday. The Democrats have the parliamentary possibility of delaying that and everything else a week.
COSTELLO: Bob Franken live in Washington this morning, thanks.
O'BRIEN: President Bush back in hurricane country yesterday on his ninth trip to New Orleans since Katrina. He praised the progress that's been made in removing storm debris from the streets. He said only about a third of the debris remains, but local officials say not even close. And what remains is taking an emotion toll on residents trying to rebuild their lives.
AMERICAN MORNING's Alina Cho reporting from St. Bernard Parish.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Steve Schaubhut has lived in this home in St. Bernard Parish for 29 years. Everywhere he looks there is trash.
STEVE SCHAUBHUT, ST. BERNARD RESIDENT: I don't want to wait for this to come back. I'm 54 years old. I want to get on with my life.
CHO: Schaubhut, like many others, wants the mountains of debris removed.
SCHAUBHUT: It's not moving quick enough, you know. And when you tell people coming back here, I come around here and look at my subdivision, it's lifeless. There's nobody here. Do you see anybody here? Thank you, you know.
CHO: Hurricane Katrina left more than six million cubic yards of debris in St. Bernard Parish. Enough to fill more than 1,700 Olympic sized swimming pools. Nearly five months after the storm, parish officials say only about a quarter of that trash has been removed, and it's only piling up. The parish says it will take years and about a billion dollars to remove it all.
Sheriff Jack Stephens wants to see more of an effort.
SHERIFF JACK STEPHENS, ST. BERNARD PARISH: But we need some good news. We need something positive to happen. And certainly this debris is psychologically debilitating. It doesn't give people a whole lot of faith that things are going to be OK in the future.
CHO: Stephens says if the debris isn't removed, the parish won't survive.
STEPHENS: If people come here and every time they come back to visit this jurisdiction and look at their houses and look at the debris piled up and see this, if they get discouraged enough, they are going to decide to invest that money in another part of the state or another part of the country.
CHO: Colleen Bordelon is one of the few still living in St. Bernard.
COLLEEN BORDELON, ST. BERNARD RESIDENT: I come from a big family. Most of my family is coming back here, I hope.
CHO: She rode out the storm on the second floor of her home. She says living there is not so bad, except for the trash.
BORDELON: When it rains it gets sloppy again, you know. It's frustrating. You get the flies. You get the mosquitoes. Light a pit, get some bug spray. What can you do?
CHO: But Steve Schaubhut has had enough, he's decided to leave the parish for good.
SCHAUBHUT: Too depressing.
CHO: Alina Cho, CNN, St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: Just to put this in perspective, to clear out the debris left in St. Bernard Parish you would need to fill up more than 30 million, 30 million, regular garbage cans -- Carol.
COSTELLO: That's some perspective.
O'BRIEN: That's a lot of trash.
COSTELLO: Police in Fort Lauderdale, Florida are looking for at least two young men who took part in a string of horrific attacks. We want to warn you, the pictures you're about to see are pretty disturbing. These two men, armed with baseball bats, they are beating up three homeless men. One died. The two others, including the man you see beaten here, is in serious condition this morning. Police believe there may be other people involved in the attacks, but they were not captured on this surveillance tape.
And more incredible tape from Cincinnati, a police officer is an inch away from being shot through the head. The shooting caught on the dashboard camera. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I've been shot. I've been shot. Officer down. Officer down. I need help.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: OK, you hear the shooting. A shot passes right through the brim of the officer's hat. It shattered her glasses and grazed her face. In the end, she only needed stitches. Her partner was able to shoot the suspect in the leg, and the situation was over, he was taken in.
O'BRIEN: Wow! That's all I can say. If she's got broken glasses, you know, I mean that's -- what a story. And, once again, the surveillance cameras this week. Every day this week we've had remarkable footage captured, dashboard cams, surveillance cams, they have it.
COSTELLO: Yes, I must admit though, the one yesterday was the best, with the guy in the store with the baseball...
O'BRIEN: The baseball bat?
COSTELLO: Yes.
O'BRIEN: Yes, yes. Jimmy Sing (ph) our hero.
COSTELLO: If you missed -- yes. If you missed that, go to Pipeline on CNN.com.
O'BRIEN: Yes. Good thought.
COSTELLO: Time for a check on the forecast.
Chad Myers is standing by.
Good morning -- Chad.
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, Carol and Miles.
(WEATHER REPORT)
Back to you guys.
O'BRIEN: You will be there all night long.
MYERS: I'll be here until 2:00. Jacqui Jeras takes over from 2:00 to midnight.
O'BRIEN: Excellent. Excellent.
Chad Myers working long hours on a Friday for us.
MYERS: Yes.
O'BRIEN: Thank you very much.
MYERS: You're welcome. O'BRIEN: Coming up, big trouble from some folks -- for a guy who some folks call the Tiger Woods of skiing. Bode Miller talking about skiing while wasted. Now he's doing some serious backpedaling.
COSTELLO: I saw that interview. It was kind of refreshing in a way though, I must admit.
O'BRIEN: Yes.
COSTELLO: Also, do you ever have to drag your sleepy teenager out of bed and they say, mom, it's not my fault, it's in my genes?
O'BRIEN: You bet. You bet.
COSTELLO: Well, there is some science to back it up. Doctor Sanjay Gupta has more on that.
O'BRIEN: And later, a man, a home in the middle of the Everglades and a multimillion-dollar offer. Did he finally give in? We'll give you an update on a story we told you about on this AMERICAN MORNING. That's coming up. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: It's a good -- Karl Schweitzer (ph), our producer, says hey, Miles, that's the Beatles. It's the Beatles, because I'm pretty clueless really (ph). That one, Karl (ph),...
COSTELLO: That is so bad -- Miles.
O'BRIEN: That one, Karl, I do know. The Beatles. They're going to be a big group, really. They're going to be quite the rage, I think.
Let's check the news now.
Kelly Wallace here with that.
Kelly, good morning.
KELLY WALLACE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you.
And we're beginning with President Bush who will be meeting this morning with Germany's new chancellor. Iran expected to top the agenda during those talks. The president is hosting Angela Merkel at the White House. It will be her first visit to Washington as Germany's new leader. And the meeting coming as European allies have pledged to push Iran to drop its nuclear efforts.
We expect to hear more when President Bush and the German chancellor hold a joint news conference at the White House. CNN will have live coverage beginning at 11:25 Eastern.
A tragic ending to the Hajj, the Muslim holy pilgrimage. Saudi officials saying at least 345 people were killed in a stampede on Thursday. And that's when we first told you about this incident. It happened during the stone throwing ritual as millions gathered on the final day of the pilgrimage in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. Nearly 300 people were injured in the stampede. Unfortunately, incidents like this one are not rare. The worst stampede was back in 1990 when more than 1,400 people were trampled to death.
Growing concern in Turkey this morning over the Bird Flu. Health officials say they have identified two more cases, bringing the total number of people infected to 18. Three children have died of the flu there. The government is destroying birds that could be contaminated with the flu virus.
Kennedy cousin Michael Skakel losing a bid to have his murder conviction overturned. A source close to the case says the Connecticut Supreme Court rejected his appeal. The ruling is set to be released sometime today. You'll recall that Skakel was convicted back in 2002 for the 1975 killing of Martha Moxley in an affluent Greenwich, Connecticut neighborhood. His attorney had argued that prosecutors waited too long to bring Skakel to trial. The 45-year-old Skakel is serving 20 years to life.
And if you plan to buy James Frey's disputed memoir, "A Million Little Pieces," you can expect a note from the author. Frey acknowledged to our Larry King that he embellished parts of the book detailing his life of drug addiction and alcoholism. Publisher Doubleday now saying that future editions will include a note, but Doubleday isn't saying what's in that author's note.
And you can catch Larry King's exclusive interview with Frey once again. It will be re-airing Saturday night at 9:00 p.m. Eastern.
And you can also catch Oprah Winfrey calling in at the very end of that program, standing behind James Frey.
And we go now to our very own Chad Myers down in Atlanta.
Chad, you're checking some serious weather today I know.
MYERS: Absolutely.
(WEATHER REPORT)
Back to you.
COSTELLO: Thank you, Chad.
The state of Maryland is taking on Wal-Mart to the delight of hundreds and hundreds of employees.
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Yes.
COSTELLO: And Andy Serwer is here to tell us about it.
SERWER: That's right, Carol.
Another big skirmish in the Wal-Mart wars. A landmark law passed by the state of Maryland legislature yesterday specifically targeting Wal-Mart. It's the first state to pass a law forcing big employers to pay more for health care.
Here's how it will work. Employers with more than 10,000 workers must spend at least 8 percent of their payroll on health care. And if they fall short, they have got to pay the difference into the state's Medicaid fund.
There was intense lobbying on both sides, as you might imagine, by Wal-Mart on the one side and by unions and liberal groups on the other. They overrode a veto by Maryland Governor Robert Ehrlich who had blocked previous legislation.
Interestingly, there are four big employers in the state of Maryland, including Wal-Mart, with employees of more than 10,000. So you've got Wal-Mart; Johns Hopkins, the university; Giant Food, which is a supermarket chain and Northrop Grumman, the defense contractor. The other three all pay in excess of that 8 percent.
Wal-Mart has 17,000 employees. And interestingly, they were going to open up a big distribution center there, 1,000 more employees. Now Wal-Mart says, with the new law, we don't think we're going to do that. We might move it to Virginia, for instance.
O'BRIEN: A little hard ball there.
SERWER: So you can see this -- and of course the real big issue here is that other states are looking to perhaps do the same thing, which could be big, big, big across the nation.
COSTELLO: Thank you -- Andy.
SERWER: You're welcome.
COSTELLO: Coming up in "Morning Coffee," what's the harm in a handshake? Well one guy really found that out. He shook the hands of a police officer and a prosecutor and he was charged with assault. That's next on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: All right. That Karl said...
COSTELLO: I know.
O'BRIEN: ... OutKast on that one, and I needed his help.
WALLACE: OK.
O'BRIEN: So thank you, Karl, I appreciate that.
COSTELLO: I wish we could go on listening to it, because it's waking me up. But I have something else that will wake you up, it is time for "Morning Coffee."
And there is a good reason we found that some people carry around those hand sanitizers. This Michigan man you are about to see is facing assault charges after shaking hands with at least three people. Yes, he simply shook their hands.
Officials say he was seen putting on -- putting an unknown liquid on his hands from some sort of vial following a court hearing. So he was in court for something else, like he was pulled over for driving without insurance, and he was in court for that. And afterward, he took out this vial, put it on his hands, whatever liquid was inside, and then he shook hands with the police officer who gave him the ticket,...
O'BRIEN: Wait a minute,...
COSTELLO: ... the prosecutor and the court bailiff.
O'BRIEN: ... the police officer didn't say you know let's pass on the handshake because...
COSTELLO: No, the police officer shook his hand.
WALLACE: Maybe he didn't notice.
COSTELLO: I don't know...
WALLACE: They might not have known.
COSTELLO: Right. Right.
WALLACE: They might not have seen him putting something...
O'BRIEN: Somebody had to see it.
COSTELLO: Somebody did see it in the courtroom...
O'BRIEN: Yes.
COSTELLO: ... and said...
O'BRIEN: Right.
COSTELLO: ... this guy had a vial. Well now -- well anyway, going back to the original thing,...
O'BRIEN: Yes.
COSTELLO: ... the police officer, the bailiff and the prosecutor all came down with severe headaches and nausea. They got sick. So...
O'BRIEN: Everybody who shook his hand got sick?
COSTELLO: Everybody who shook his had got sick. So now this guy has been charged with assault. He claims that it was olive oil he was rubbing on his hand.
WALLACE: And maybe they just had a reaction to the olive oil.
COSTELLO: To the olive oil.
(CROSSTALK)
COSTELLO: Why he had a vial of olive oil in court we don't know, but there you have it.
WALLACE: Interesting.
COSTELLO: As we told you earlier, President Bush was in New Orleans on Thursday. Here he is with Mayor Ray Nagin and other city officials. You see him there. They were discussing very serious topics, like rebuilding the city and fixing the levees.
But they may want to rethink the venue for the next trip, because, take a look at this. This is from the very same event, and it was caught by a news photographer. And they say a picture is worth a thousand words. So we'll let you fill in the rest.
O'BRIEN: There is a White House advance person this morning right now...
WALLACE: Person who is in serious trouble right now.
O'BRIEN: ... who is hiding under his or her desk this morning.
WALLACE: Did you see that the shot with that...
COSTELLO: But you know -- you know that picture is going to show up on Jon Stewart.
WALLACE: You do know that...
COSTELLO: You know that.
Ever hear of the snakefish? You have heard of the snakefish.
O'BRIEN: Yes, but it was delicious. Delicious.
COSTELLO: Yes. Well -- delicious.
O'BRIEN: Filleted and I like it blackened.
COSTELLO: Yes, that does look yummy, doesn't it,...
O'BRIEN: There's a blackened one.
COSTELLO: ... because that's a picture of the snakefish.
Well the snakefish is native to Asia, but it's been popping up in lakes here in the United States. So far seven states have found this nasty creature, the latest, Tennessee. The fish is illegal in most places because of its appetite for destruction. It eats everything. It can grow up to four feet long. And when I say eat everything, that means other fish as well, which is why states want it out here.
And here's the worst part, though, it can walk. It can come up on land and walk. The snakefish, which is also known as the Frankenfish, did you know? WALLACE: I did not know that.
O'BRIEN: Yes. Yes.
COSTELLO: It's also known as the Frankenfish.
(CROSSTALK)
WALLACE: I'm sure.
COSTELLO: And of course this is what we thought when we heard the term Frankenfish, because we have a more frightening Franken...
(LAUGHTER)
O'BRIEN: Man.
WALLACE: He's so gentle, though.
O'BRIEN: Maybe we should get that guy with the liquid to shake their little fins and make them all sick.
(CROSSTALK)
COSTELLO: We need some olive oil to pour in the pond.
O'BRIEN: There you go, olive oil.
WALLACE: There you go.
O'BRIEN: All right.
WALLACE: All right.
O'BRIEN: The morning's top stories are straight ahead. Plus, can't get your teen up and at them in the morning, familiar in your household? Well now they have an excuse. Like they needed an excuse. But it could be -- there could be a biological reason for all of this. Dr. Sanjay Gupta will explain. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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