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American Morning

Iran Turns Up the Volume; Gordon Parks Dies

Aired March 08, 2006 - 08:33   ET

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

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: The news wire services this morning are just blazing as Iran turns up the volume on its already sometimes- odd rhetoric. The country is threatening the U.S. harm and pain now. That's if the country gets dragged in front of the U.N. Security Council for trying to enrich uranium, a key step potentially toward building atomic weapons. And in fact, today in Vienna, a report is due, the last stop before this issue goes before the U.N. Security Council.
Matthew Chance live on the videophone from Vienna, where this is all kind of coming to a head.

Good morning, Matthew.

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you as well, Miles.

In fact, that report from Mohammed ElBaradei, the director- general of the U.N.'s atomic nuclear watchdog agency has already been formally submitted, triggering the ability of the United Nation's Security Council to pick up the issue of Iran's nuclear program and discuss it in New York.

The report outlines some of the big questions that are still hanging over Iran's nuclear activity. First and foremost, of course, the inability of the IAEA here in Vienna to say whether or not the program is for purely peaceful purposes, or whether it's merely a front to build a nuclear weapon in Iran. These are obviously things that the international community is deeply concerned about.

There's been reaction already from various countries, including the United States. The ambassador from the U.S. to the IAEA here in Vienna, saying that the leaders of Iran have done nothing to raise international confidence. Quite contrary, their behavior has only contributed to mounting international concerns about nuclear weapons, also called for the Security Council to take action as soon as possible.

There's been a sharp response as well from Iran here in Vienna. Javad Vaeedi is the country's head of delegation:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAVAD VAEEDI, DEP. SECY. IRANIAN NATL. COUNCIL: The United States may have the poverty cause harm and pain, but it's also susceptible to harm and pain. So if the United States wish to see choose that path, let the ball roll. (END VIDEO CLIP)

CHANCE: Well, the ball will indeed continue to roll.

Now on to the Security Council in New York. It will be up to that council to decided how best to take the diplomatic process forward now -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: All right, Matthew Chance, in Vienna, thank you very much.

All of this talk about uranium, and enrichment and centrifuges and underground sites have you a bit confused. If you're wondering what Iran is really up to, we invite you to think about M&M's.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

M. O'BRIEN (voice-over): The hardest thing about making an atomic bomb isn't building the bomb itself; it's producing the nuclear fuel.

DAVID ALBRIGHT, INST. FOR SCIENCE AND INTL. SECURITY: The top hole in the tent is certainly getting the capability to make the highly enriched uranium. It's not simple to make nuclear weapons; it's simpler than learning to build and operate gas centrifuges.

M. O'BRIEN: Uranium is like crude oil; it must first be refined before it becomes fuel. And the refinery is called a centrifuge.

(on camera): Imagine, for a moment, this bag of M&M's is a package of uranium. Now, they're all M&M's, or all uranium atoms in this case, but there are different kinds. As a matter of fact, there are three different kinds of uranium, but only one. In this case, for our example, let's call it the blue M&M's. Only one is useful if you're trying to generate electricity or make a nuclear bomb.

So the real question is, how do you separate the blue M&M's from all of the others? It's possible when you consider this one key point. Uranium 235, blue M&M's in this case, are ever so slightly lighter than the rest. So if it's possible to spin the tray, the heavier items move to the outside, the lighter stuff, the stuff you want, can stay in the middle.

This is, in essence, what happens inside a centrifuge. Now imagine what happens when this is repeated over and over again.

(on camera): That is what happened when a series of centrifuges is linked together. They call it a cascade. The uranium in gaseous form is piped from centrifuge to centrifuge, gets spun, and then respun again and again and again. Each time the uranium 235 content goes up, at 20 percent, it's good enough to run a nuclear power plant. Eighty percent uranium 235 is the high test the weapon's grade fuel.

At their sprawling nuclear facility in Etans (ph), the Iranians hope to build 50,000 centrifuges. That's a big facility. Iran says it has no plans to make a bomb, but with that many centrifuges, how long would it take to make enough fuel for a crude, yet devastating bomb?

ALBRIGHT: Unfortunately centrifuges can be shifted very quickly from a civil purpose to a military purpose. And a centrifuge plant would give Iran an incredible ability to break out of the Non- Proliferation Treaty and build nuclear weapons rapidly.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

M. O'BRIEN: So they have a little bit of information here. They're able to get some from that famous nuclear network of A.Q. Khan (ph), the former Pakistani nuclear expert, but they don't apparently, according to the experts, have quite enough yet. So it's really incumbent upon the world, Soledad, at this point for all of the countries to limit the amount of information on these centrifuges.

This is one thing, fortunately, you still can't get on the Internet, how to build a centrifuge.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: That is the best explanation I have ever seen of a centrifuge, M&M, how it really works. No, that was brilliant. I get it. Good work.

M. O'BRIEN: Thank you very much.

S. O'BRIEN: Thank you very much.

(WEATHER REPORT)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: Some sad news to report. Gordon Parks, a pioneer in photography and filmmaking, died on Tuesday in New York.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

S. O'BRIEN (voice-over): Gordon Parks was a legend behind the camera. He spent more than 20 years as a photographer for "Life" magazine, covering everything from fashion, to politics to sports. Parks is best known perhaps for his gritty photo essays on poverty in the U.S. and abroad and on America's civil rights movement.

In a 1998 interview with CNN, Parks talked about his passion.

GORDON PARKS, PHOTOGRAPHER/DIRECTOR: The important thing about trying to show bigotry with a camera was that you just couldn't photograph a bigot, and write "bigot" underneath the photograph. You had to go to the source of bigotry, which is how people lived and what they were suffering.

S. O'BRIEN: Parks also wrote books of fiction, nonfiction and poetry, including the best-selling autobiographical novel "The Learning Tree."

In 1969 he turned his talent to Hollywood, becoming the first major black movie director. He made a film version of his story, and then, two years later, came this. "Shaft" was a breakout film, and a box office smash. On three of his other movies, he even composed the music. Though he never formally studied music, Parks wrote a piano concerto, a symphony and a ballet based on the life of Martin Luther King Jr.

Gordon Parks said his body of work should be a lesson to all.

PARK: So many people could do so many things if they just tried. But they're frightened off because they haven't been trained to do this or trained to do that. I just picked up a $7.50 camera and went to work.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

S. O'BRIEN: The legendary Gordon Parks was 93 years old. You know, I met him once. Harley (ph) School for the Arts had a big event, and I was hosting. I got to present him with a review. And they had to literally help him. He was just about 90, and bring him up to get his award, and people were very worried about how weak he was. Then he sat at the piano and played magnificently. And it was such an amazing night and such an amazing moment.

SERWER: What an accomplished guy in all different fields like that, truly amazing.

S. O'BRIEN: Yes, really across the board. What a big loss.

(MARKET REPORT)

O'BRIEN: Ahead this morning, we're going to continue to talk about Dana Reeve and the legacy that she has now left behind. She worked tirelessly, as we well know, on behalf of the Christopher Reeve Foundation. The White House, though, wants to slash its funding. We're going to take a look at how that could impact the work the foundation does.

Then later this morning, cycling champion and cancer survivor Lance Armstrong is going to join us live in the studio. He was a close friend of Dana Reeve's. We're going to ask him about the state of cancer research today.

Stay with us. We're back in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: She was the absolute picture of grace and courage under fire, and that is probably why we're all so shocked to hear the news yesterday that Dana Reeve had lost her battle with lung cancer. After such struggles in her life dealing with her late husband, Christopher, who, of course, had that terrible accident on a horse, leaving him paralyzed, to have succumbed this way seemed particularly poignant.

As our next guest just told me a few moments ago when I saw him in the hall, this is not what we had in mind for her after the loss of Chris. And joining us now is close friend and Reeve family friend and co-founder of the Christopher Reeve Foundation, Michael Manganiello. Good to have you with us, Michael.

MICHAEL MANGANIELLO, CHRISTOPHER REEVE FOUNDATION: Thank you for having me.

M. O'BRIEN: I know it's a tough time. You were with her when she passed away. What was that like?

MANGANIELLO: I was. Well, there was a team of us, sort of Team Dana, that had been with her most of the last month. Lung cancer is a very difficult disease. But like her life, Dana ended it with a lot of grace and dignity and very bravely.

M. O'BRIEN: Yes. And it's obviously very --- at the end, it's a very terrible thing. Was she communicating right to the end? How -- what was she saying? What was going on?

MANGANIELLO: On her last day, yes, she was communicating and her children had come in to see her and we all had spent some time with her. You know, toward the end with cancer, she sort of slipped away and was...

M. O'BRIEN: Tell us about what we saw with just a few glimpses. Basically, when it was announced, and I think we saw her in January. And, once again, for all of the world, portrayed that picture that we have -- I think we connected with in a very meaningful way. What was it really like for her, though?

MANGANIELLO: It was, of course, shocking. She had a very mild cough that had persisted. She was just getting her singing career back on track, she had made chairman of the foundation and was doing work. We had brought her down to Washington to do a rally, which we're going to do another one of spinal cord injury legislation.

And we -- but the cough had got a little worse and she went in, lo and behold, there was a lung cancer diagnosis. Like Chris, Dana was -- it took her a little bit to process, and then she was like what do I need to do next? She was very much like Chris, how do I beat this? What do we have to do?

M. O'BRIEN: Yes. There's a certain -- there's a pragmatism and pragmatism and an optimism there that I think we all responded to. Is that what it is? Do you think -- how do you explain the way people have connected with her and with Chris for that matter?

MANGANIELLO: They were different people, but in many ways they were very similar. Dana was one of those people, though, that -- she was beautiful and she was talented. But there was something about her personality that when you were with Dana, you didn't want to leave her. When she came into the room, you wanted to be with her and sort of stay with her.

She focused all of that energy on trying to find out as much as she could about cancer. We didn't know that much about cancer, certainly not about lung cancer. And we got the best help. And Memorial Sloan Kettering (ph) was a remarkable place for us to be. M. O'BRIEN: Yes, I mean, the irony, of course, is you had another specialty here, which was stem cells and cures for paralysis and all the things that...

MANGANIELLO: Yes.

M. O'BRIEN: ... you crusaded for. Tell us about that cause and the foundation. Where does it stand right now in the wake of some federal budget cuts, which have focused on CDC, the Center for Disease Control's efforts...

MANGANIELLO: That's right...

M. O'BRIEN: ... for paralysis. Where does the foundation stand right now?

MANGANIELLO: Well, when the president came out with his budget and he actually zeroed out the Christopher and Dana Reeve Paralysis Resource Center, a center that Dana founded, really, by taking care of people with paralysis -- Chris was clearly -- what was important to him was medical research cures. Dana was living with quality of life.

The irony of it was it, in the president's State of the Union, he talked so much about dealing with people with chronic illness. Our resource center does that and have been taking care of so many of our veterans coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan. So it was a little bit surprising to see it zeroed out.

M. O'BRIEN: So does the foundation soldier on?

MANGANIELLO: Oh, absolutely. Chris and Dana always said it wasn't just about them. There are four million Americans with paralysis in this country, and we will continue to carry on their legacy.

M. O'BRIEN: Thanks for coming in. I know this is a tough time.

MANGANIELLO: Thank you very much.

M. O'BRIEN: And we wish you and the family well. Michael Manganiello, who is with the Christopher Reeve Foundation and a family friend, of course.

MANGANIELLO: Thank you.

M. O'BRIEN: Soledad?

S. O'BRIEN: A look at the top stories are ahead this morning. President Bush heads to the Gulf Coast. The Patriot Act comes closer to renewal. Some lawmakers try to stop that controversial port deal. Andrew Fastow takes the stand again in the Enron trial.

And we're going to dedicate most of our next hour to understanding cancer. Dana Reeve's death put lung cancer on the spotlight today. Find out what you need to know about the killer disease. If you've got questions, you can just e-mail us at CNN.com/am, or AOL instant message CNN_AM. We're going to answer all your questions. Stay with us. We're back after this short break.

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