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CNN Live Sunday
Mourners Remember Sago Mine; U.S. Fears Iran Building Nuclear Weapon; Stardust Spacecraft Returns to Earth
Aired January 15, 2006 - 16:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Remembering those killed in the Sago Mine disaster. We'll have a live report from Buckhannon, West Virginia. Also ahead, what the U.S. should can do about Iran's nuclear program. And, Martin Luther King Jr. would have been 77- years-old this weekend. Tonight, we look at how his legacy is being carried on and by who.
Hello and welcome to CNN LIVE SUNDAY. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. All that and more after this check of the headlines.
First lady Laura Bush is on a four-day tour of West Africa. She arrived in Ghana today where she is promoting U.S.-backed initiatives on HIV/AIDS education. She also told reporters that the U.S. government had the right to eavesdrop on Americans with suspected ties to terrorists.
Meantime, Senator Arlen Specter is skeptical of the government's domestic spying program. He's joining lawmakers on both sides of the aisle questioning its legality. Specter says the basis of the plan is wrong and he plans to wear his skepticism on his sleeve during next month's hearings examining the program.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had another medical procedure today. Doctors performed a tracheotomy to help wean him off a respirator. Mr. Sharon remains in critical, but stable condition following a massive stroke.
We begin with sorrow and remembrance in West Virginia. Quote, "God definitely has 12 more angels." That's just one message today at the memorial for the dozen miners killed after an underground blast almost two weeks ago. CNN's Christopher King is in Buckhannon, a community in mourning. Christopher?
CHRISTOPHER KING, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Fredricka, people are here from all over the country for the service. The memorial is here at Wesley Chapel on the campus of West Virginia Wesleyan College to honor the 12 men who died after being trapped inside the Sago Mine.
Authors or organizers are calling it a service for hope, honor and healing. Governor Joe Manchin is attending, along with Senators Robert Byrd and Jay Rockefeller. The families of the victims are here as well to remember their loved ones. They showed pictures of the miners and told a little bit about their lives. They're described as hard-working men of honor and dignity.
Author Homer Hickam was here. He's a West Virginia native, he spoke.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HOMER HICKAM, AUTHOR: How and why these men died will be studied. Now and in the future, many lessons will be learned and many other miners will live because of what is learned. This is right and proper. But how and why these men lived, that is perhaps the more important thing to be studied.
We know this much for certain. They were men who loved their families. They were men who worked hard. They were men of integrity and honor.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: Now the only man who survived is Randal McCloy. He is now in serious condition at a hospital in Morgantown, West Virginia. Doctors say his health is slowly improving. People here sent out a prayer for Randal McCloy and of course the investigation is underway and no word yet on the cause of the disaster. Fredricka?
WHITFIELD: And now what about the investigation overall of the disaster there? There are a lot of facets of the investigation. Where do they stand?
KING: That's right, Fredricka. Investigators right now are still drilling holes into the mine. They want to vent toxic gasses out of the mine so they can send teams down in there to find out exactly what caused the explosion and how the miners died.
WHITFIELD: All right, Christopher King, thank you so much from Buckhannon, West Virginia.
Well now to Florida where mourners are preparing to hold a candlelight vigil for 15-year-old Christopher Penley. A lawyer for his family says the eighth grader is brain dead. Police shot Penley at his school Friday. They say he threatened classmates and aimed what appeared to be a handgun at a SWAT team member. It turned out to be a pellet gun. A neighbor of the boy's family says Penley went to school Friday saying he hoped he would die.
Iran's nuclear ambitions, an issue that's making the U.S. and Europe increasingly uneasy. Yesterday Iran's president insisted his country won't abandon its nuclear research program, despite threats by the West to refer the matter to the U.N. Security Council. What's the reaction in the U.S.? Joining us live from the White House is CNN's Elaine Quijano -- Elaine?
ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good afternoon to you, Fredricka. Well the United States and European allies are alarmed by Iran's behavior. They are worried Iran is trying to develop a nuclear weapon. Now President Bush has made clear that that would not be acceptable.
The president has said that a nuclear-armed Iran poses a grave threat to the security of the world. Now this past week Iran took steps to resume uranium-enrichment research in violation of international agreement.
Iran contends it has the right to contend that research for peaceful energy purposes. Complicating matters, Iran produces nearly five percent of the world's oil and that means any sanctions could drive up oil prices. But today one lawmaker said that's a prospect people might have to face.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: I think that the president is faced with no good option, but I think as opposed to the Iranian's proceeding and some say as short a period as six months, they will have at least acquired the technological capability if not the absolute manufacture of these weapons. And the possibility of Israel feeling they may have to act or them acting against Israel. These are a set of bad option, but if the price of oil has to go up then that's a consequence we would have to accept.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
QUIJANO: Now fueling concerns over Iran is a sears of provocative statements made by Iran's president. He has called for Israel to be, quote, "wiped off the map" and calls the Holocaust, which killed six million Jews a, quote, "myth." As for the White House today a spokesman said Iran's, quote, "defiant actions and comments only further isolate it from the rest of the world." Fredricka?
WHITFIELD: And in fact, Iran is saying they're going to have a conference on that very matter and of course later on in this hour, we'll be talking more about it. Elaine Quijano at the White House, thanks so much.
Well ahead on CNN LIVE SUNDAY, after comments by the Iranian president left world leaders outraged, Iran is now planning a conference on the Holocaust. We'll talk to a Middle East analyst.
Also, remembering Martin Luther King Jr. and his legacy. Who is carrying the torch today? You're watching CNN LIVE SUNDAY. We're back in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BONNIE SCHNEIDER, CNN METEOROLOGIST: I'm CNN meteorologist Bonnie Schneider with a look at your cold and flu report for Sunday. As we check things out across the map, we can show you areas we have reports of the flu so far this season. Widespread activity from California to Texas. We're looking at sporadic activity in states like Florida, even further to the north across the Dakotas. No activity so far for Louisiana and you'll find local activity in parts of the Midwest and down in the South. That's a look at your cold and flu report for Sunday. I'm meteorologist Bonnie Schneider. Have a great day.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) WHITFIELD: Just moments ago this was the scene outside the Wesley Chapel on the Wesleyan College campus in Buckhannon, West Virginia. The release of balloons all symbolizing the hope and the prayers for the families, the grieving family members of the 12 miners, the Sago miners that died two weeks ago in that explosion. Today a special memorial service was held for them, as well as prayers being held out for the sole survivor.
More anger today in Pakistan over a U.S. air strike that killed 18 people Friday. U.S. sources say the target was Ayman al-Zawahri, al Qaeda's No. 2 men. No comment so from the U.S. government, but lawmakers are defending the strike. Earlier today on CNN's "LATE EDITION" Republican Senator Trent Lott said the U.S. took reasonable action.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. TRENT LOTT (R-MISS.), INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: I believe that the intelligence has indicated that he had been in that area and obviously we have evidence that some of the leaders of the former al Qaeda are in Pakistan and so I think this was a justified strike.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: Thousands of people turned out today in Pakistan to protest the attack. One of the country's intelligence officials says it's not known whether al-Zawahri was even at the site of the air strike. But if he is dead, it would be an important development in the war on terrorism. CNN's senior international correspondent Nic Robertson takes a look at the life of al Qaeda's No. 2 man.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
AYMAN AL-Zawahri, AL QAEDA LEADER: We want to speak to the whole world. Who are we?
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): By the time Ayman Al-Zawahri burst onto the world scene after the assassination of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, he was already a committed jihadi.
The young doctor came from one of Egypt's leading families. There is an al-Zawahri Street in Cairo, named for his grandfather.
Al-Zawahri spent three years in prison after Sadat's assassination. After he got out, he made his way to Pakistan, where he treated those who fought against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. That's where he met Osama bin Laden. And, by the mid-1980s, they had found a common cause. He talked about it a decade later.
AL-ZAWAHRI: We are working with brother bin Laden. We know him since more than 10 years. We have fought with him here in Afghanistan. We are working with him in Sudan and many other places.
ROBERTSON: Al-Zawahri was at bin Laden's side when he declared war on America in May 1998. Weeks later, they launched an attack on U.S. embassies in Africa. And after the 9/11 attacks, al-Zawahri began to come out of the shadows, taunting the U.S., making it clear that he was al Qaeda's number two.
AL-ZAWAHRI (through translator): Oh, American people, you must ask yourselves, why all this hate against America?
ROBERTSON: Along with bin Laden, al-Zawahri became a man on the run after the U.S. invaded Afghanistan. His wife and daughters were killed in a U.S. airstrike aimed at him.
Al-Zawahri's frequent messages in recent years on subjects ranging from the war in Iraq to the London subway attacks showed he was up to date on the news.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: And that was Nic Robertson reporting. A Canadian military convoy, the target of a deadly suicide bombing today in southern Afghanistan. Officials say a car packed with explosives rammed into the convoy and detonated. One Canadian soldier was killed, along with two Afghans. As many as 13 people were wounded.
In Iraq, the chief judge in Saddam Hussein's war crimes trial handed in his resignation today. Rizgar Amin wants to leave his current post, but remain a judge with the Iraqi high tribunal. That tribunal is reviewing Amin's resignation letter and will decide whether to accept it. Amin hasn't revealed the motive behind his decision. Today's on CNN's "LATE EDITION," an Iraqi official at the U.N. rejected theories the judge is worried about his safety.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FAISAL AL-ISTRABADI, IRAQI DEPUTY U.N. REPRESENTATIVE: He is not the kind of man who would resign for those kinds of reasons. He, along with his colleagues and brother judges would have been very aware of the risks at the time that they accepted their assignments. And I can assure you that those considerations would not be on his mind. Again, it's one thing to tender a resignation, it's another thing entirely to have the resignation accepted. So I would wait and see exactly what's going on.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: In other news around the world, Kuwait is mourning the loss of a leader. The country's Emir Sheik Jaber al-Ahmad al- Sabah died today and was buried in an unmarked grave. The ceremony was attended by thousands of weeping citizens. The emir was 77-years- old and had been battling health problems for years. He's succeeded by the country's crown prince.
A glimpse finally of Kim Jong Il's secretive trip to China. You can see the North Korean leader here to the right of the green balloon. China has maintained a media blackout on Kim's visit, which reportedly included a tour today of high-tech companies in an economic boom town. Kim is also expected to meet with China's president to discuss North Korea's stalled nuclear talks.
The first results from Chile's presidential election are expected in about 15 minutes. The outcome is likely to be historic. Socialist leader Michelle Bachelet is favored to win, becoming the country's first female president. A Bachelet victory would also consolidate a shift to the left in Latin America.
Next on CNN LIVE SUNDAY, remembering Martin Luther King Jr. Is his legacy still alive today? A frank talk with former U.S. ambassador Andy Young and NPR's Farai Chideya. And a doctor accused of outrageous behavior. Why he continues to practice today?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: Today would have been Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.'s, 77th birthday and we're honoring the slain civil rights leader and examining his legacy. Earlier I spoke with former U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Andrew Young and NPR's "News and Notes" Farai Chideya about the civil rights movement and King's legacy.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANDREW YOUNG, FORMER U.N. AMBASSADOR: He talked about redeeming the soul of America from the triple evils of racism, war and poverty. And I think we've made progress on all but poverty. And I think the declining economy has meant that more and more people are slipping into poverty.
Places like India and China are dealing with poverty, but in America the poor are growing amongst us and more people are dropping out. There are more teen pregnancies, there are more complications for people who don't have adequate diets before having babies. So you've got low birth-weight babies and many health problems that come about because we just have not focused on the public responsibilities for the poor.
WHITFIELD: Farai when you try to pinpoint the Martin Luther legacy, do you feel that it is a legacy that is being continued in this present day? That there are several reminders of that legacy or do you believe that there's a segment of the population, a grand segment of the population, that perhaps is unaware or has forgotten what the legacy is.
FARAI CHIDEYA, NPR'S "NEWS AND NOTES": Well, Fredricka, I couldn't agree more with Ambassador Young that poverty is really the forefront of some of the issues we have to deal with today. And I think also that when, you know -- I'm 36-years-old and so I'm kind of the leading edge of the hip-hop generation and there's many generations younger than me who may have even less of a connection to the civil rights era in terms of what they hear from their parents or from their peers.
And so part of it is that the legacy is alive, but there has to be more communication between generations. As I grew, I really moved from seeing Dr. King as someone who was this mythic figure to seeing him as a strong, brilliant, adventurous, daring man. He was a man. He made mistakes. I don't think that we can take Dr. King and we can take the civil rights leaders and the civil rights generation and put them in a box. We as younger people...
YOUNG: ... Or put them on a pedestal.
CHIDEYA: Exactly. You know, we have to put people in a position of understanding that this generation sacrificed, lived, continues to live, some have passed on. But people were making individual choices and that we have that power in our own lives.
YOUNG: My daughter says that you all were just some get-down brothers in the right place at the right time and you did the right thing. And that that makes it possible for every generation to produce a group of leaders that are responsible and conscientious.
Now let me just say a word about the hip-hop generation because I was really thrilled that they got active in getting out the vote. And I still think that voter registration also realized that they are putting out their own clothing lines. They are promoting Sean Combs promoting "Raisin in the Sun" on Broadway.
They are -- well one, they have more money than we have -- we had. We did everything we did and Martin Luther King never had $600,000 a year in his annual budget and there were only 25 or 30 of us on the staff.
So the power of these young people, many of them have larger staffs than that and they certainly have much bigger annual budgets. As they mature, I think you're going see them getting more and more involved in remedying the injustices of our society at home and abroad.
WHITFIELD: So Farai, if -- you know, you talked about you being part of the hip-hop generation. And if we're talking about this type of movement that Mr. Young is speaking of would be fueled by money or celebrity and that's the only -- if that is in part the only way that young people of today are able to identify with or understand the kinds of sacrifices that were made 30, 40, 50 years ago for this movement, to bring us to the current day -- do you concern yourself that it seems like the only -- those that are going to be powerful enough to get the attention of young people are the ones who have the money? The ones who have the celebrity and the fame? Is that what it becomes?
CHIDEYA: I think that it's a situation where, for example, those of us in the media are perpetuating an idea that it's only the celebrities, only the Sean Combs and the Russell Simmons who have power. But there's actually quite a strong grassroots movement, but it's more local.
And I think it's important to realize that at one point the civil rights movement was local. It was local activists and people who traveled to local communities to lift people up and to make them understand that there was a groundswell of support for changing America and making sure that America lived up to the ideals that were written into the Constitution. You still have local people. You have people like Van Jones in Oakland at the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights working on issues of incarceration. You have people in Selma, Alabama, Malika Sanders working the 21st Century Youth Movement. You have people on a local level who are lifting up their communities and that is eventually going to connect in the middle with people like Sean Combs and Russell.
But there has to be a bridging of, I think, local and national celebrity and grassroots -- money and no money and that is, I think what Ambassador Young was talking about, the lull. To me it's not quite a lull. What it is is an interregnum where people are figuring out how to unite different local groups and different national groups.
I don't think we can put it all on celebrities, but I also think that one of the major differences between the civil rights era and today is the impact of celebrity. You see it everywhere. Celebrities get more air time sometimes than national news. And so you have to have that element of celebrity in order to work with this generation.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: Farai Chideya, as well as U.S. Ambassador Andy Young.
Well straight ahead on CNN LIVE SUNDAY, after calling the mass murder of millions of Jews a myth, Iran's president now announces plans to hold a conference about the Holocaust. What's the political agenda behind all of this? We'll discuss it with an expert.
Also, hold on to your seat and send your kids out of the room when you see this story. A physician with a record of sexual abuse complaints against him is still practicing and nobody seems to care except his accusers.
And after years in space and traveling billions of miles, you heard it, billions of miles away, a $200 million dust bin finally comes home and makes NASA scientists cheer. The story straight ahead on CNN LIVE SUNDAY.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: It's week two of the "New You Resolution." Let's check in with CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta and his group of volunteers trying to lose weight.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In week one, the twins are already encouraging each other with brotherly competition.
STUART RASCH, PARTICIPANT: BROTHER: Come on.
GUPTA: Getting started is harder than it looks for Stuart.
S. RASCH: I haven't really exercised since junior high school. GUPTA: What were the goals again?
MARK RASCH, PARTICIPANT: My goal is that I succeed and that I do better than he does.
GUPTA: Mark was reunited with his trainer who whipped him back into shape last year. Now he's on the bandwagon, hopefully for good.
M. RASCH: The goal is to really keep it up, not just for eight weeks, but for a lifetime.
GUPTA: From the relative calm of Cheyenne to the hustle and flow of the big city, the Rampollas came to New York and "New You," ready to start and raring to go -- home?
DENISE RAMPOLLA, PARTICIPANT: We're motivated, hate lots of energy and want to get home and get started right away.
GUPTA: One thing they started in New York, laying out the fitness goals with trainer Mary Holte (ph).
RAMPOLLA: I told Mary not to be easy on me, and not on us as a couple.
GUPTA: Next week, a diet overhaul with "Cooking Light's" Chef Billy.
BILLY STRYNKOWSKI, CHEF, COOKING LIGHT: When the kids don't go along with our food choices, then we end up going with theirs.
GUPTA: Watch out, kids, "New You's" coming to town.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: A look now at our top stories. More than 2,000 people gathered in the chapel at West Virginia's Wesley College today for a memorial service honoring the victims of the Sago Mine tragedy. Twelve white candles were lit to remember the 12 killed in the mine blast. The flame of one red candle honored Randy McCloy the only survivor of the January 2 explosion.
A candlelight vigil will be held tonight for the 15-year-old Florida boy shot by police at his school. Police say Christopher Penley pointed a gun at them. It turned out to be a pellet gun painted to look like a pistol. A lawyer and friend of the family say Penley was declared brain dead yesterday.
First lady Laura Bush will be spending four days in West Africa. Tomorrow she'll travel to Liberia for the inauguration of the first Democratically elected female president in African history. The U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will be also on hand as Harvard educated economist Ellen Johnson Serliff is sworn in as the Liberian president. Now more on controversial comments coming out of Iran. The country announced today it's planning to hold a conference on the Holocaust. The purpose, it says, to examine the scientific evidence supporting the slaughter of 6 million Jews by the Nazis during World War II. Just last month Iran's president called the Holocaust a myth. Joining us to examine the motive behind all this rhetoric, Fawas Gerges an expert on the Middle East. Good to see you.
FAWAS GERGES, PROFESSOR, SARAH LAWRENCE COLLEGE: Thank you.
WHITFIELD: All right. Well Mahmoud, the president is raising a lot of eyebrows lately. His sentiments on the Holocaust, does it in any way reflect the majority sentiment in Iran?
GERGES: Not really, actually. That there have been some major criticisms about the rhetoric of the Iranian president by some of the leading former officials including former president Mohammed Khatami. I think what the Iranian president is trying to do is to respond to western attempts to suspend an end for Iran's nuclear program by shifting to the debate to the question of Israel's occupation of the Israeli territories.
WHITFIELD: So do you say he is he almost willing to say anything to shift the attention?
GERGES: Yes. Absolutely. In fact I would argue the rhetoric is primarily designed for public consumption, but what he's trying to do is to basically consolidate his power base and lend legitimacy to his radical vision for the Islamic Republic. In a way, I would go further and argue that his rhetoric really is seeking -- the president is seeking national unity over and at the expense of international exclusion and even confrontation.
WHITFIELD: Well his rhetoric Republic consumption is also garnering him a lot of worldwide attention. We're talking about a president who no one knew when he -- just before the election when he was running for president and then he became president and people were struggling with how to pronounce his name and not really knowing who he was. Well now he is now on a worldwide stage. He is getting notice. It seems as though that really was his objective or at least one objective.
GERGES: I really think, the rhetoric itself is very counterproductive because his rhetoric on Israel and the Holocaust is not only alienating American and Jewish public opinion. It is also alienating world public opinion.
WHITFIELD: So he's not being taken seriously as a world leader?
GERGES: He's taken it very seriously because increasing the pressure on Iran and this is why. If you look at his rhetoric, vis-a- vis the international community it does not make sense because it denies logic. You cannot understand the new precedent of the rhetoric except by contractualizing the local contract. What he is trying to do is to basically consolidate his power base to respond to dissidents to create national unity of international exclusion and this is why I think it is essential to really understand what's happening within Iran itself and what's happening in Iran itself tells us a great deal why the Iranian president is saying what he's saying because if you see and if you observe what's been happening in the last few months, he has alienated world public opinion.
He has alienated American public opinion; even the European community now is taking a very harsh and critical view and position, vis-a-vis, Iran's nuclear program and arsenal.
WHITFIELD: So this sort of alienation that you speak of, this isolation that he's putting himself and his country in, he really is speaking as though he's a leader who says, you know what? I don't need any allies?
GERGES: Absolutely. What he's saying, listen. I need my own power base. My vision is a radical vision, ironically, the morning after he was elected the president of Iran, guess what he did? He visited the tomb of the founder of the Islamic revolution, Ayatollah Khamenei and he reminded the Iranians that Ayatollah Khomeini was the founder of the revolution, the reference of the revolution, he is the revolution. What he's trying to do is that he wants to reclaim the revolutionary mental of the Ayatollah Khomeini and position Iran as you might say the leader of revolutionary Islamism in Iran and the Muslim world at large.
WHITFIELD: Do you concern yourself with President Jihad? Do you think he is a leader that the world needs to be concerned about?
GERGES: Well, I don't think, unfortunately I think if we take his record seriously I think we're giving the president Jihad a great deal of credibility. What he's trying to do now is he is creating a great deal of anger and rage internationally and in fact I would argue he has mastered the art of making enemies for Iran. He is not helping Iran and Iranians; in fact he is making more enemies for Iran and the Iranians in the international system.
WHITFIELD: All right. Professor Fawas Gerges, thank you so much, of Sarah Lawrence College. Always good to see you. Thanks for being with us.
GERGES: Pleasure.
WHITFIELD: Well now to New York and the investigation into a child's horrific death. The city's children's sources official say caseworkers should have made Nixzmary Brown's case a priority. The 7- year-old was found dead in her Brooklyn home last week. Police say she had been tortured, beaten and bound. The child's stepfather is charged with murder and sexual abuse. Her mother is charged with manslaughter and reckless endangerment. Officials say caseworkers and police detectives interviewed the child and her stepfather last month after her school noticed that she had a swollen eye. But they didn't take any further action, the offices rather neighbors say they saw signs of abuse.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) PERRY ROBINSON, NIXZMARY BROWN'S NEIGHBOR: She showed me a bruise on her leg and on her shoulder and I said what happened and she says her stepfather had thrown a chair at her.
MERVIN COTTO, SOCIAL WORKER'S SON: I that it's not beyond my mother to go to somebody's house and try to do something if other people aren't doing anything.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: The girl weighed only 36 pounds at death. Prosecutors say she had been forced to eat cat food.
You might want to send the kids to another room right now because our next story deals with an adult subject and very graphic language. It's about a truly shocking breach of doctor-patient trust. How can a physician with a record of sexual abuse complaints going back to the 1970s still be practicing? Among those who want to know are women who say they were his victims. Here's CNN's Ted Rowlands.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): In February of 2000 Yvette Chambers went to see Dr. Lawrence Reich for a gynecological examine at a clinic near Los Angeles.
YVETTE CHAMBERS, VICTIM: Immediately there was something wrong.
ROWLANDS: Chambers said she was in the exam room with her feet in the stir ups, Reich the only other person in the room.
CHAMBERS: You're naked from your waist down and your legs are spread and you feel extremely vulnerable.
ROWLANDS: Chambers said she became concerned with the way he was touching her and the things he was talking about including her sex life.
CHAMBERS: I was questioning myself as to why I felt so uncomfortable because it's a doctor. He's a doctor.
ROWLANDS: After the exam, Chambers said Reich watched her get dressed and then asked her out.
He offered to take you to lunch.
CHAMBERS: Offered to take me to lunch.
ROWLANDS: Chambers saved a piece of paper with personal phone numbers, which he says Reich gave her.
CHAMBERS: At that point I realized ewe, I have just been molested. I have just been violated.
ROWLANDS: Five months before Chambers saw Reich, this woman who doesn't want us to use her name says she had a very similar experience when she went to get a prescription for birth control.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You're in a precarious situation with your feet in stir ups and this doctor, examining you. You are pretty vulnerable. Right there. And so when you're feeling like something's not right and you're in that position there's really no option for you to escape at that point.
ROWLANDS: This woman, like Chambers says Reich made her feel uncomfortable while touching her and then he asked her questions about her sex life and eventually for her home telephone number.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just knew in my gut that something was wrong. I was scared.
ROWLANDS: Both women filed complaints and found out that they were not alone. In documents on file with the California Osteopathic Medical Board, Reich is accused of outrageous behavior by a number of women dating back to the late 1970s.
One woman says that Reich was touching her genitals during an exam and asked her if it; quote, felt good and then kissed her. Another claims Reich was sexually excited during an exam and told her she needed to, quote lubricate her self through self-stimulation so he could properly diagnose an infection.
Another woman says Reich asked her to manipulate herself in front of him and then after the exam, she says Reich asked her to demonstrate an oral sex technique on his thumb.
In 1982 Lawrence Reich had his license suspended for 180 days. When he resumed practice, part of Reich's punishment was for ten years another person had to be in the exam room while he worked. In August of 2002, because of the new allegations and his history, Reich was arrested for sexual misconduct.
MAUREEN GREEN, PROSECUTOR: It had a factual challenge and it had legal challenges, but I certainly would have tried the case.
ROWLANDS: Maureen Green was the prosecutor on the case; she says her goal was to get Reich to stop practicing so she agreed to a deal. The doctor would plead no contest and avoid a possible prison sentence; she thought that would speed up the process of pulling his license.
GREEN: Why should someone like that continue to practice?
ROWLANDS: But three years later the Osteopathic Medical Board has done nothing about Dr. Reich's license. He's still practicing medicine. He's also the medical director at a clinic in this Beverly Hills building.
We found Reich by calling one of those numbers given to Chambers. When we went to see him, he appeared to be at his office, but his staff claimed he wasn't there. Dozens of phone calls to Reich and his lawyer have not been returned. So why three years after he pleaded no contest has nothing been done? It's up to the State Osteopathic Medical Board to recommend to suspend or pull a license. The board was in public session last month in Sacramento after the meeting, we asked them about the Reich case.
DR. TRACEY NORTON, OSTEOPATHIC MEDICAL BOARD MEMBER: I'm not --I don't think I can comment on it because it is still in process.
ROWLANDS: Any feelings about him still practicing three years after the criminal case?
DR. MICHAEL FEINSTEIN, PRESIDENT, OSTEOPATHIC MEDICAL BOARD: I have no opinion on that, because if I did I couldn't judge the case later on.
ROWLANDS: For three years Reich's lawyer has been trying to negotiate a settlement with the board. According to a source close to the case, two deals have been brought to the board, but were both rejected because the board thought they were too lenient.
CHAMBERS: I think the system is absolutely broken.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If they would have acted immediately on my complaint in February, what would what happened to a number of other women, would not have happened upon.
ROWLANDS: The board, which regulates osteopathic doctors not medical doctors, could pull Reich's license without negotiating, but it hasn't.
Would you want your daughter to see this doctor during this process?
LINDA BERGMANN, DIRECTOR, OSTEOPATHIC MEDICAL BOARD: I can't comment on that.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The state board needs to be completely revamped, and this kind of thing should never happen again.
GREEN: I understand the victims' frustration. I'm concerned. He's treating patients. I'm concerned.
ROWLANDS: Reich is free to treat patients until a decision is made by the board. A hearing on his case is scheduled for February.
Ted Rowlands, CNN, Los Angeles.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: Straight ahead on CNN LIVE SUNDAY. Imagine getting a letter from overseas only to discover that you're not the first one to read it. Turns out the U.S. government may be opening your mail.
And NASA's Stardust spacecraft makes its long-awaited return to Earth. Ahead what the capsule brought with it and what we could learn from its seven-year journey.
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WHITFIELD: Will buying plates become a thing of the past? Meet the man who designed a machine that lets you make your own dishes at home.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: Tired of washing dishes? What if you could just throw away your dirty plates and make new ones? Leonardo Bonanni invented the dish maker to do just that.
LEONARDO BONANNI, MIT MEDIA LAB: It's a machine that makes all of the dishes you need to eat with and when you're done eating you can throw them away back in the machine and it recycles the material for the next time that you're ready to eat.
ANNOUNCER: The machine uses heat to transform flat acrylic glass disks into dishes. The process of making or recycling a dish takes about 90 seconds.
BONANNI: What's cutting edge about it is really putting a miniature factory inside your home to give you products that you use on a daily bases. The dish maker makes it so you don't need cabinets full of dishes. In case of a special occasion.
ANNOUNCER: According to Bonanni this device doesn't just save space and time. It says energy.
BONANNI: You can recycle a dish three times a day for a whole year without consuming as much energy as you would to make a single used ceramic dish like you have at home.
ANNOUNCER: But Bonanni says the dish maker is currently just a prototype and his work isn't done yet.
BONANNI: We tackled the first challenge which is making a product that can be recycled endlessly and we're working on adding more shapes, more kinds of dishes to it and making the device also include a dishwasher which it doesn't right now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
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WHITFIELD: News now from across America. The eyes of car lovers are on Detroit this week as the city hosts the North American International Auto Show. More than 700 vehicles are on display including 36 cars and trucks being introduced for the first time.
Among the hot items a Nissan concept car that has an Xbox 360 video game system onboard.
A prayer service was held today in Atlanta for the Iraqi infant known as Baby Noor. The 3-month-old underwent life saving surgery to treat her spinal bifida on Monday and is set to return to the hospital this week for a brain scan. It's wedding deja vu for rapper Eminem. The Grammy-wining musician remarried his high school sweetheart, Kim Mathers in a private ceremony outside Detroit yesterday. The couple first married in 1999. Divorced in 2001 and announced they were reuniting last month.
Is the government opening your personal mail? The U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency acknowledges it may read mail coming from abroad as part of the fight against terrorism. CNN's Brian Todd tells us about one man who says he found out the hard way.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GRANT GOODMAN, SAYS GOVERNMENT OPENED LETTER: Express descent to me.
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Grant Goodman is a bookish 81-year-old from a retirement community in Lawrence, Kansas. He has a friend in the Philippines who is about the same age and whom he says is no more of a public threat than he is.
So Goodman shuddered recently when a letter from his friend, which he says, contained nothing more than a note and some newspaper clippings had clearly been opened and resealed from officials from Customs and Border Protection, an agency within the Department of Homeland Security.
GOODMAN: I was obviously shocked and very distressed to think that my privacy had been violated in this way. I wondered why in the world this had happened to a letter addressed to me.
TODD: Goodman doesn't believe there's anything in his background that's suspicious. A long time Asian studies professor at the University of Kansas, retired for 16 years, says he's never been publicly critical of the government and says he served as a Japanese translator for General Douglas Macarthur at the end of World War II.
Our separate background check found nothing to refute any of that. He says his friend who he wouldn't name is also an American- educated former professor with whom he's exchanged letters for many years. On the heels of the NSA wiretapping controversy, Goodman's letter raises more concern over the balance between privacy and security.
CAROLINE FREDRICKSON, ACLU: And it would trouble me that that goes on and that our administration feels like it has the authority to poke around at people's private lives when there's no evidence of them doing anything wrong.
TODD: Contacted by CNN, an official with Customs and Border Protection says its longstanding policy that any package coming into the U.S. from overseas can legally be opened. If there's suspicion of contraband inside. A statement from the agency says in part, CBP does not open mail to read personal correspondence. Sealed letter class mail which appears to contain only correspondence is only opened when a search warrant is issued or the sender or addressee gives written authorization.
Goodman says he never gave permission and is sure his friend didn't. The customs official says she does not know about Goodman's case and doesn't know where the letter would have been opened. The official says it's likely that no one actually read the letter, but Grant Goodman says he still feels like he's under surveillance.
Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: They're calling it cosmic booty. Find out what the spacecraft the size of a coffee table could reveal. The news keeps coming at stellar speed and we'll bring it to you when CNN LIVE SUNDAY returns.
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WHITFIELD: NASA scientists are overjoyed. The Stardust spacecraft returned to Earth today after its seven -year mission among the stars bringing with it cosmic dust. That could help scientists better understand the nature of the universe. Here's our technology correspondent, Daniel Sieberg.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): A coffee table sized capsule carrying precious special crews to the origins of our solar system returned to Earth early Sunday, setting the record as the fastest man made craft to ever make re-entry to Earth. It wasn't without a couple of anxious moments before confirmation that the parachutes opened and then --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have touchdown!
SIEBERG: Cheers all around at NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena as scientists watched the 100-pound capsule float down at 5:10 a.m. Eastern Time. The capsule was jettisoned from the Stardust mother ship about four hours earlier rocketing towards Earth at 29,000 miles per hour. NASA used infrared cameras to see the descent into the pitch-black salt flats of Utah.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's a culmination of over 10 years worth of work and to see that thing in one piece on the floor of the desert just very moving.
SIEBERG: Stardust was launched nearly seven years ago and traveled almost 3 billion miles as it chased the comet.
The lightest substance in the world, aero gel was used to trap the microscopic particles from the comet's trail. It looks like solid smoke. That interstellar dust can help further explain the theory that comets originally brought water and life to Earth.
DON BROWNLEE, STARDUST PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR: Inside this thing is our treasure. Our sample of the edge of the solar system. That truly contains stardust, building blocks of the solar system.
SIEBERG: The canister containing the samples was removed from the capsule and it will be taken to Johnson's Space Center in Houston this week where scientists will likely spend years even decades, studying what NASA calls cosmic booty.
Daniel Sieberg, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: So much more ahead on CNN LIVE SUNDAY. We're following recovery efforts along the Gulf Coast. Coming up we'll take you to Waveland, Mississippi, more than four months after Hurricane Katrina, things don't look a whole lot different.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: A community united by tragedy gathers strength from its faith. We'll go live to West Virginia for today's memorial service on the minors lost in the Sago Mine.
Also ahead, CNN's Anderson Cooper returns to a tiny Gulf Coast community that was nearly wiped off the map by hurricane Katrina. His report from the ghost town that was Waveland, Mississippi. Coming up
And later, a celestial visitor arrives under the cover of darkness bearing a payload that may unload some of the deepest secrets of the cosmos.
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