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American Morning
American Hostage In Iraq; War On Terror In Yemen; The WB And UPN Closing; No Free Speech From Pope
Aired January 25, 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 back, everybody.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Not many people know but those are trained pigeons that we have here on, you know, retainer.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Que the pigeons to fly off.
MILES O'BRIEN: Yes, and we have a director out there, cue, fly and they go.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: They're very expensive, those pigeons.
MILES O'BRIEN: Well, you know.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: But it's worth every dime.
MILES O'BRIEN: It's the things we do for our viewer. There they go.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Yes.
MILES O'BRIEN: That's one of our P.A. pigeons.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Those of you that don't already know, that's obviously a shot of Central Park right here. That's kind of the view right outside our window.
MILES O'BRIEN: You might say, except we don't have a window. They have windows. Anyway.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: No here, but here.
Let's get right to the top stories this morning. Carol's got that.
Good morning.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.
Good morning to all of you.
Washington is closely watching today's big elections in Gaza and the West Bank. Palestinian Leader Mahmoud Abbas encouraged Palestinians to head to the polls and many are apparently doing just that. Turnout is reportedly high. Hamas, considered by the U.S. State Department to be a terrorist organization, could get as much as a third of the 132 seat legislative council.
President Bush preaching to the choir today, so to speak. He's heading to Ft. Mead, Maryland, to defend his domestic spying program. And he'll be speaking to employees of the National Security Agency and that is the agency that runs the program. He's expected to tell the workers he has the constitutional authority to carry on the program without court approval.
One down and one to go. The full Senate begins debating Samuel Alito's nomination to the Supreme Court today. Alito got the backing of the Senate Judiciary Committee in a vote on Tuesday and it appears he'll have enough votes to get confirmed. That final vote on confirmation could come as early as this week.
Police are trying to figure out how actor Chris Penn died. An autopsy will soon get underway in California. Chris Penn is the younger brother of actor Sean Penn. He was found dead in his San Monica condo. Police say there were no obvious signs of fowl play. Chris Penn appeared in dozens of films. Among them, "Reservoir Dogs," "At Close Range," and "Mulholland Falls."
Basketball great and president of the New York Knicks Isiah Thomas is accused of sexual harassment and discrimination. A lawsuit has been filed in federal court in Manhattan by one of the team's former front office executives. Anucha Browne Sanders claims she was propositions by Thomas and fired last week as senior vice president of marketing and business operations because she complained about that.
And remember the incident on the Continental plane preparing to take off from the airport in Ft. Lauderdale? Sure you do. Troy Rigby ran through the plane demanding to be let off. He struggled with passengers and flight attendants before jumping out. And, oh, he bit a passenger along the way. His sister now says he suffers from bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. Rigby's sister says she doesn't blame the airline or anyone else. She says she was just glad other passengers managed to subdue him and he's doing OK.
Back to you, Soledad.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Well, that's a little bit of an explanation. That was kind of a bizarre case.
Carol, thank you.
Some movement -- a little bit of movement to tell you about in the case of the kidnaped American journalist. Five female Iraqi prisoners could be released tomorrow. When Jill Carroll's kidnappers released videotape of her, they demanded that all Iraqi female prisoners be released. Let's get right to Aneesh Raman. He's live for us in Baghdad this morning.
Aneesh, good morning. ANEESH RAMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Soledad, good morning.
The news comes from Iraq's deputy justice minister who says that tomorrow five of the nine, he says, female Iraqi prisoners will be released. Part of a bulk release. Some 400 prisoners set to be freed tomorrow.
Now he says the four other female prisoners that are in custody will be released in the months to come. He didn't give a specific time. He says all of this is part of an unrelated effort that he began before Jill Carroll was kidnaped, trying to free all Iraqi women that were in custody for humanitarian reasons.
The U.S. military, we should say, has said all along there are eight female Iraqi prisoners and that any number of procedures need to take place before they can be released. They gave us no specifics in terms of when they would be released.
Now all of this comes as we still wait for word on Jill Carroll's fate. No news since that Friday deadline came and went. As you mentioned, the last we saw Jill Carroll was last Tuesday in that video that was released by the group holding her, Brigades Of Vengeance. In that, they did demanded the release of all Iraqi women prisoners. It is completely unclear at the moment whether this new release that we're expecting tomorrow will affect Jill Carroll's situation.
Soledad.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Well, let's hope it affects her situation in a positive way.
Aneesh, thanks for the update.
Miles.
MILES O'BRIEN: CNN's Barbara Starr continues her fascinating and revealing walk down the trail of terror in the Middle East. The kind of story you see only here on CNN. Today we find her in Yemen, ancestral home of the bin Laden clan and a nexus of terror to this day. Here's Barbara.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BARBARA STARR, CNN CORRESPONDENT, (voice over): The (INAUDIBLE) of Yemen's capital city Sena, there is music, tea and talk of politics. In the old sook (ph), there are few tourists. Yemen has had a rush of kidnapings of westerners, especially in the north.
Rashad al Alimi, minister of interior, is responsible for the fight against al Qaeda here. He granted a rare interview to CNN to talk about the security situation.
Rashad said the organized al Qaeda cell here, in the aftermath of the attack on the USS Cole, is gone. But he knows Osama bin Laden still has supporters here. And there is a new al Qaeda worry. Rashad says young men in Yemen, including Saudis, are joining Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's network in Iraq to fight the U.S. More than 70 men inside Yemen have been arrested, some on their way back from Iraq. The U.S. and Yemen are now working together to track the Zarqawi recruiting network here.
It came to a head when a plot was uncovered last year. The U.S. ambassador explained.
THOMAS KRAJESKI, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO YEMEN: We have some evidence, information that a group that conspired and planned to attack the embassy, to assassinate me, to assassinate the president of Yemen, that some members of that group had been in Iraq and had been in contact with Zarqawi.
STARR: But the U.S. says the government here still has to clean up it's own act.
The U.S. has just cut economic aid to this country almost in half to about $8 million over concern about government corruption here. But Yemen says the U.S. money is vital to fighting the foothold that terrorists have in this country.
This impoverished nation, a vital U.S. ally in the war against al Qaeda, still under pressure from Washington and finding the U.S. war in Iraq is posing new challenges.
Barbara Starr, CNN, Sena, Yemen.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MILES O'BRIEN: And Barbara tells us, 19 suspected Zarqawi followers were just arrested on Tuesday, accused of planning attacks on westerners.
Soledad.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Thanks.
So it's been 11 years since we've had a new broadcast network enter the TV arena, but the WB and UPN sort of failed to thrill, so they're closing up shop. Now the few successful shows they did have are going to have a new home. It's called the CW. Johnny Roberts is "Newsweek's" senior media writer.
It's nice to see you. Thanks for talking with us this morning.
JOHNNIE L. ROBERTS, "NEWSWEEK": Thank you.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: What exactly was the problem with both of these networks?
ROBERTS: Well, the problem was that there was too much television for the audience. There were six broadcast networks and The WB and UPN were the youngest, the last to start up, didn't draw the audience. So that was the problem, they weren't making money. SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Losing money and so they had to go.
ROBERTS: Exactly.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: So then if you have two unsuccessful venture that you put into one venture, does that mean you're going to necessarily win with that formula?
ROBERTS: Well, at the least, they'll lose less money. So there is some upside right there. But still the challenges is to draw an audience. The idea isn't simply to break even or lose money, it's to draw an audience and that remains the challenge.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Yes, I mean, that kind of brings us to what the lineups will look like. Because both of, as you say, both of these networks had some successful shows and some duds, too. What happens with their lineups?
ROBERTS: Well, what the plan is, is to take presumably the best of the programming from each of those networks and create a schedule from them. As you noted, you have The WB with "Smallville," the "Gilmore Girls." You have the UPN with some very popular shows, too. Chris the Chris Rock show, "Everybody Hates Chris."
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: "Everybody Hates Chris."
ROBERTS: Et cetera, et cetera. So presumably they'll take the best of those shows, put them together and the audience will stick with those shows.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Is there an inherent problem? Because, to a large degree, the UPN has targeted African-Americans, sometimes young African-Americans but African-Americans as a whole.
ROBERTS: Right.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: The WB has seems to go for the youth group in the demographics.
ROBERTS: Right.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: You put them together, you know, do you alienate sort of both audiences?
ROBERTS: Well, there's a risk of that. But my take on it is that, if you like the show that was on The WB, if you like a show that was on UPN, that you'll tune in for those shows. What the networks undoubtedly will do is promote their other shows, so you will have audiences that perhaps never was exposed to any of these shows on the rival network, now at least being able to sample it. They'll see that. Oh, that show is there, perhaps it's worth tuning into.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Do you think the audience could also grow outside of sort of the demographic could increase? Are they looking to grow the audience overall? ROBERTS: Well, what they're looking for, as all of these networks look for, is a demographic slice now. In terms of age, this one is targeting young, the youth and young adults, 18 to 34. Of course, they'll draw younger and older, but that's the sweet spot for this network. If they can happen to draw a much broader audience, I think they'll be happy about that.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Yes, and even better then.
What do you make of sort of the marriage itself between the two entities? The WB, which we should mention is our sort of corporate cousin.
ROBERTS: Right.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: And CBS. Can they work happily together?
ROBERTS: Well, that's always an issue in any kind of merger, not just of networks. Can the two cultures come together? Can the management -- they'll cherry-pick management from each of the networks and put them together under one roof. Can that work? We've seen it work in some instances. In many instances, we don't see success from mergers because of the social and corporate issues as they are described.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Johnnie Roberts from "Newsweek," nice to see you. Thanks for talking with us this morning.
ROBERTS: Thank you very much.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Miles.
MILES O'BRIEN: Well, does it seem a little warm out there to you? If so, there might be a good reason. A British study says it is in fact getting warmer. In fact, 2005 the warmest year on record here in the northern hemisphere. Globally, 2005 is second only to 1998 when we all were talking so much about el nino in this hemisphere. The study blames greenhouse gases for the temperatures increase. Chad Myers has settled the global warming debate via e-mail this morning.
(WEATHER REPORT)
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Andy's "Minding Your Business" just ahead.
What have you got coming up for us?
ANDY SERWER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Soledad, the IRS folds. Plus, did IBM short-change thousands of workers? We'll check that out.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: The IRS folds. It's going out of business?
SERWER: Happens every once in a while.
MILES O'BRIEN: They're afraid of Andy. We'll tell you, we are (ph).
SERWER: I'll tell you. I'll tell you.
MILES O'BRIEN: It's true.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: It's a tease, yes.
SERWER: It's a tease.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Thanks, Andy.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MILES O'BRIEN: It not get better.
SERWER: She does a pretty good rendition here.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Go Etta. Happy birthday, Etta.
SERWER: I'm very . . .
MILES O'BRIEN: Oh, Etta. That is good stuff.
SERWER: Go, Soledad. I like that.
MILES O'BRIEN: That is good stuff.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: I'm good with Etta in the background loud.
SERWER: Right, yes, lip-syncing basically.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Exactly. Yes.
SERWER: All right.
MILES O'BRIEN: You know, you could say the IRS is singing the blues this morning because Andy Serwer spoke, scared them to death and now some people are going to get their refunds. Of course, you're going to be audited for the next 20 some years but that's neither here nor there.
SERWER: Right. Yes, there is that.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Only for you.
SERWER: Yes, I don't like doing those IRS stories. They start to scrutinize my returns.
Not exactly lightening speed here by the IRS, but they did respond. You remember two weeks ago we told you that an internal study showed that hundreds of thousands of tax filers had their refunds frozen and, worse than that, they weren't even being notified. This outraged lawmakers on Capitol Hill and now the IRS glacially seems to be doing something about it.
They've announced that they're going to make changes and the IRS will soon announce a procedure to notify taxpayers when refunds are frozen. I like this, though. We'll announce plans in the very near future to institute notification procedures. Boy.
MILES O'BRIEN: We will unfreeze our plans.
SERWER: Very near future. We wonder when that will be. They're also going to change the screening process. So it's good to see actually we're making some progress on that front. That's nice to hear.
MILES O'BRIEN: Keep it up, Andy.
SERWER: Well, thank you, Miles. You may be audited too for saying that, though. Be careful.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: I have no comment.
SERWER: Soledad is not involved.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Go IRS.
SERWER: Listen to you. Sellout. Go IRS. Come on. We're not going to let you get away with that.
MILES O'BRIEN: Man.
SERWER: That's horrible. That really is.
MILES O'BRIEN: Get out of here.
SERWER: OK. Another story here. I want to tell you about another involving compensation involves IBM, big blue. A lawsuit filed yesterday in San Francisco U.S. district court accusing the computer giant of not paying overtime to employees, suggesting that tens of thousands of employees may be at issue here. They're seeking class action status. You know, Wal-Mart had similar issues. But you think of IBM as a white collar company. And, of course, those issues wouldn't apply to people who are salaried rather than on the clock. But IBM does have many, many people who are technicians who are on the clock. So it will be interesting to watch this one unfold.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Yes, and you'll be watching it.
All right, Andy, thank you.
SERWER: OK.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: I have a question for you guys.
SERWER: Yes.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Why, oh why, oh why, can American politicians -- why are they not as much fun as British politicians are?
MILES O'BRIEN: I don't know. They do have a good . . .
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: You wouldn't see . . .
MILES O'BRIEN: Well, yes.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Governor George Pataki doing the stuff we've seen from George Galloway.
SERWER: And that's probably a good thing. Come one.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: You wouldn't see Mayor Bloomberg doing this.
SERWER: No. Stop him.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: George Galloway, a member of parliament, on TV, on all fours acting like a kitty cat.
MILES O'BRIEN: The closest thing we've got is Ray Nagin. That's as close as we got.
SERWER: No.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: No. No. No.
SERWER: Not even close.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Not even close.
MILES O'BRIEN: Is that chocolate milk, maybe? Who knows.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Not even close.
Anyway, these pictures are from the reality show "Celebrity Big Brother." Now there's another set of pictures, even better, I dare say. There you go.
SERWER: Oh, no.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: This is the parliament member.
SERWER: Now he's gone transgender?
MILES O'BRIEN: Oh, man.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: He's prancing around.
SERWER: Call him Felicity Huffman.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: In a skin-tight leotard with some kind of rock star. A lot of people think actually that he's going to get knocked off the show today.
SERWER: No.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Not because of the wardrobe, but for a whole host of other reasons. Pretty crazy.
MILES O'BRIEN: We -- let's just hope he has quirky constituents.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Who appreciate . . . SERWER: Understanding constituents.
MILES O'BRIEN: Are watching this in a pub with, you know, a Black & Tan or something and think it's OK.
SERWER: Yes. Several. After several pops it looks OK.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Our politicians don't even rate on that scale.
SERWER: They don't get -- yes.
MILES O'BRIEN: Which is -- the good news is, we can bring the tape here from there and still be entertained.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: And share it. Share the worthwhile pictures.
MILES O'BRIEN: Yes.
SERWER: Yes. A paradigm.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Ahead this morning, as you well know, you can buy and sell just about anything. Even the pope's words, believe it or not. We're going to take a look this morning at the latest Vatican controversy. That's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING. We're back in just a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Pope Benedict gave his first encyclical today, saying the church has no desire to governor states, but will not remain silent in the face of political suffering around the world. The pope's words carry lots of weight. They also cost a pretty penny. That's right, the pope's prayers and messages aren't free anymore. Details now from Rome Bureau Chief Alessio Vinci.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ALESSIO VINCI, CNN CORRESPONDENT, (voice over): For decades, the pope's image has been sold on all types of merchandise all over the globe. But his words were not for sale, or at least not until now. In a controversial measure, the Vatican has decided to impose strict copyright on all paper pronouncements. Including speeches, Hamalies (ph), Sunday prayers and even encyclicals, the highest form of paper writings. The first of which was released by the new pope today.
The move has been denounced by many authors like Marco Tosatti, a Vatican correspondent who has written several books containing papal quotes.
MARCO TOSATTI, VATICAN CORRESPONDENT: Well, certainly now the pope's words are more expensive than before.
VINCI: The publisher of Tosatti's most recent work, a dictionary containing several of Pope Benedict's quotes, received a bill for more than $17,000. TOSATTI: The church exists because this word and this word must be published and must be sent all over the world. If you put some kind of limits to this, you are counterproductive with this kind of telegraphy (ph).
VINCI: The Vatican insists the measure is aimed at defending itself against pirated editions and premature publications. Last week, Italian news agencies leaked portions of the pope's first encyclical, angering many officials who call the leaks speculative.
At this catholic book store, Sister Giovanna praised the Vatican's move.
SISTER GIOVANNA GALAVERA, BOOKSELLER: The Vatican has a right to control. But it's not that control over something to make -- in order to make money, but it's a control to make sure that the word is even pure.
VINCI: Pure words that could end up costing publishers millions for reprinting church teachings that for centuries have largely been available for free.
Perhaps most astonishingly the measure is retroactive. It covers what the pope wrote when he was a cardinal. It also affects what his predecessors wrote over the last 50 years. Basically the works of the last five popes.
Alessio Vinci, CNN, Rome.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: The new rules that say people have to pay to quote the pope could also extend to news organization. That's sort of an interesting development, isn't it.
MILES O'BRIEN: I should say. It's a good thing Jesus didn't do that, because then every time you'd do the "our father" you'd have to pay a royalty.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: It would cost you a fortune.
MILES O'BRIEN: Yes. Yes.
Coming up, if you just got a pink slip, and we're sure you're out there, what do you do next? Tips on thwarting some turbulent waters and hitting pay dirt on the other side. That's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MILES O'BRIEN: Good morning. I'm Miles O'Brien.
The U.S. keeping an eye on an important vote by Palestinians this morning. Will a group linked to terror grab a large share of the power there. We'll take you live to the scene.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: I'm Soledad O'Brien.
Can American troops succeed in Iraq. A new Pentagon report says they might be stretched to thin. We've got that story this morning.
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