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American Morning

Midwest Storms; Censuring Bush?; Exposing Undercover Agents

Aired March 13, 2006 - 09:00   ET

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

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. I'm Miles O'Brien.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Ad I'm Soledad O'Brien.

A super cell of destruction cuts a path long and deep through the Midwest. Five people are dead in Missouri. Now that storm is heading east.

A tornado watch in Indiana. Rain driven by 70 mile-an-hour winds already flooding the most vulnerable places.

M. O'BRIEN: A fresh political attack on President Bush. A possible presidential contender says there are grounds for censure given the president's actions on the wiretapping situation. We'll ask folks where they stand on this one.

S. O'BRIEN: And if your doctor makes a mistake on your prescription, believe it or not, you may be more to blame than the doctor. We'll tell you what you should ask up ahead.

M. O'BRIEN: And there is technology out there that enables you to track your kid, sort of every step of their day. After the teenager's text messages last week that caused confusion and panic, we'll talk about what really works to keep your kids safe.

S. O'BRIEN: Plus, is it a mob hit? "The Sopranos" comes back after a 21-month layoff. Twists and turns and a little bit of a cliffhanger only in the first hour.

That's ahead this morning on AMERICAN MORNING.

M. O'BRIEN: Tornado Alley certainly living up to its name this morning. A wave of violent weather ripping through the Midwest. At least nine are dead. All in Missouri. Lots of damage in Kansas and Illinois, as well.

This morning they are assessing the destruction. And in some cases, expressing gratitude to be alive.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MIKE FIEWEGER, LOST HOME IN STORM: My house is right over there. It's the one that has nothing to it now. It's totally gone.

M. O'BRIEN (voice over): Bad as it was, Mike Fieweger and his family know it could have been so much worse. FIEWEGER: We were in the basement. We were watching the forecast on the TV and my wife said we should go in the basement. We all went in the basement, and about six minutes later, no house.

M. O'BRIEN: The scene was repeated along a path of death and destruction through Illinois, Kansas and Missouri. Look at this funnel cloud in Sedalia, 70 miles east of Kansas City. At least three tornadoes touched down nearby.

On the other side of the Show-Me State, near St. Louis, Perry City took a licking. Winds inside a tornado there peaked at better than 200 miles an hour.

In Lawrence, Kansas, the wild winds uprooted huge trees and damaged two out of three buildings at the University of Kansas. Air- conditioner units ripped off the roomp of one dorm. The parking lot littered with debris. It was a horrifying scene.

THORNTON THOMPSON, KANSAS UNIVERSITY STUDENT: Very unnerving. So, you know, you always hear about this stuff happening, but you never really think that you're going to be in the middle of a storm like this.

BRAD PAPINEAU, KANSAS UNIVERSITY STUDENT: Just come out, and I'm just like, "Oh, god." I'm like, "This is just terrible." Like, "What happened to my car?" Like, I mean, I was devastated to see it like this.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

M. O'BRIEN: Also cleaning up this morning, Springfield, Illinois. Roofs were knocked off homes there. Power lines and trees were just broken like matchsticks. At one point, all major roads into Springfield were closed because of the debris. The schools are closed this morning. Power out in a lot of places.

Let's go live now to Keith Oppenheim, who is the middle of it all in Springfield.

Keith, how are things -- OK. We just lost Keith, understandably. Things are a little dicey there in Springfield.

Let's get to Chad Myers, who's got the big picture for us.

Chad, give us the latest.

(WEATHER REPORT)

M. O'BRIEN: Keith Oppenheim is in Springfield. We do have a connection with him again. No, we just lost him again. Once again, the -- with the wind blowing upwards of 30 miles an hour, you can imagine what that's doing to our big satellite dish on the back of that truck.

He's there. Let's try it and see how long we last.

Keith, go.

KEITH OPPENHEIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, thank you, Miles. And it's tough to work in these conditions sometimes, but imagine what it would be to have to clean up after a tornado and to see your kitchen and your home looking like this.

Chris, I'm going to pivot around as I walk down the hall here.

We've been invited into the home of Pat and Dana Custer (ph). And they are just going through the incredible damage here. And I'm walking into this bathroom here for a reason, because this, Miles, is where the family went.

This is a slab home. There's no basement. So they used this bathroom walled in as a place to stay. Mom, dad, grandson and pets were all in here.

And as my photographer is showing you, the roof blew off. And that happened while they were in this bathroom.

Fortunately, they were able to go to neighbors across the street and were able to take some safe shelter there, actually get some of the things outside of the house after the first phase of the storm. But what a frightening night for these folks.

Fortunately, they, like everyone else in Springfield, as far as we can tell, is OK. No fatalities here, although there were some minor -- minor injuries -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: What a horrifying night. Keith Oppenheim, thank you very much -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Well, a storm of a different kind to tell you about. The Democratic senator Russ Feingold of Wisconsin says he plans to introduce a resolution today that will call for the censure of President Bush for that domestic wiretapping program.

CNN Congressional Correspondent Ed Henry is live from Capitol Hill this morning.

Good morning to you, Ed.

ED HENRY, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.

Basically, it's very rare, because, in fact, a censure is a severe admonishment by the Congress. So rare, in fact, that the one and only time that a Congress slapped a president with a censure was back in the 1800s, President Andrew Johnson. And that's really your first tip-off that this move by Senator Feingold is very, very unlikely to pass in a Republican Congress.

The second tip-off, of course, is that he's a Democratic senator who is thinking about running for president in 2008. That's provided a real opening for Republicans, like John Warner, to charge that this is just political grandstanding. Senator Feingold insists, though, he's doing it on the merits. He says he believes the president broke the law with the NSA domestic surveillance program and also misled the public. And Senator Feingold was on CNN's AMERICAN MORNING today defending his position.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. RUSS FEINGOLD (D), WISCONSIN: I'm a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee and the Constitution Subcommittee. If I don't stand up and say the law was broken here, do something about it, I'm not doing my job. So they can call it political if they want, but my record is clear that I have been independent.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HENRY: Now, even some of Senator Feingold fellow Democrats, like Carl Levin of Michigan, have told CNN they're not going to sign on to this. And the broader political problem for Feingold is the fact that moderate Republicans like Chuck Hagel, Olympia Snowe, who just a couple of months ago were raising sharp questions about the president's surveillance program, have now really sort of backpedaled from that and are slowly coming aboard the surveillance program with some modifications.

So there really does not seem to be in the center of the Senate real bipartisan support for a move like this. One note, though. As Feingold has been ahead of the curve before, you'll remember that back in 2001 he was the only senator in either party to vote against the Patriot Act. Since then, of course, in the last three to four years a lot of lawmakers in both parties raising questions about whether that law went too far.

So maybe he's ahead of the curve here, but for now the political will is not really behind him -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: It sure doesn't feel that way. All right.

Ed Henry for us this morning.

Ed, thanks a lot.

HENRY: Thank you.

S. O'BRIEN: The talk of censure just the latest headache for President Bush. He's fighting some of the lowest approval ratings of his presidency. His number is at 38 percent right now, approval.

AMERICAN MORNING'S Bob Franken is out on the streets of Washington, D.C. He's been checking in with the folks and get their sense of what the job they think the president is doing.

Good morning to you again, Bob.

BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.

And in this particular area of Washington, around so many government offices and those agencies and companies that deal with the government, you get some pretty strong opinions, both pro and con, about the president, particularly when you talk about international relations and the war in Iraq.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I still do support our -- our presence there. I think it 'twas right thing to do to go there, but I do wish that there was more that was discussed about what is going on there, not just the bombings, not just the killings.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think his foreign policy is going to bankrupt us, and he doesn't have the depth of the knowledge to know what he's doing or understand the consequences.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FRANKEN: Now, those responses pretty much mirror what we've been getting all day. And what we've been doing is then talking to somebody live, in this case Terry Smith, wearing her Air Force One jersey -- but you have never been on Air Force One. It's a souvenir.

TERRY SMITH, WASHINGTON RESIDENT: Not Air Force One.

FRANKEN: You're from Phoenix. Let me just ask you your view about the Bush presidency.

SMITH: Actually, I think he's been doing a fairly good job. And he's been put in a presidency during a very stressful time and he's responded well. And I do believe that anything that you do and you want to do it well, it's going to take time to get it done right.

FRANKEN: What about the international relations parts of it? I'm thinking of the war in Iraq, I'm thinking of the Dubai ports, all of that. What has that done to influence your opinion?

SMITH: Not much on the Dubai ports. And from what I understand from the news, that was kind of something that slipped in, and now they are finding -- I do believe that we should keep our ports to ourselves.

FRANKEN: With the president under quite a bit of criticism now and falling approval ratings, you still are a supporter, right?

SMITH: I'm still supportive. He supports our troops. And I know that while we don't want our troops over there, it is necessary at this time if we're going to achieve the mission they were sent there to do.

FRANKEN: As we've been hearing this kind of comment throughout the morning, and the kind of comment that we've all heard in opposition, they pretty much reflect the polls these days -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Bob Franken for us this morning.

All right, Bob. Thank as lot. Yes, I agree with you. Sort of hearing the polls reflected in the people.

A reminder. CNN is going to have live coverage of the president's speech on the war on terror. That's at 1:15 Eastern Time this afternoon.

Let's get right to Carol in the newsroom. She's got an update on some of the stories making news this morning.

Good morning to you.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, Soledad.

Good morning to all of you.

At least six people have been killed in a string of attacks in Iraq. The violence comes one day after six car bombs blew up almost simultaneously, killing at least 46 people and wounding 200 others.

Also, the Saddam Hussein trial now adjourned. Hussein was not in court today, but he is expected to be there when court resumes on Wednesday now. We thought it was Tuesday, now it's Wednesday.

We hear he could take the stand on Wednesday. Of course we'll keep our eye on it for you.

Work starting today on a World Trade Center memorial in New York, but some families are asking a court to stop construction. Part of the memorial consists of pouring concrete over the original underground foundation, or the footprint. The families say that's where remains of hundreds of victims are buried. We'll monitor for a possible ruling on that injunction.

Enron's former finance chief Andrew Fastow expected to face another grilling this morning. The lead attorney for Enron -- for Enron founder Ken Lay will cross-examine Fastow when the trial gets under way again in Houston. Last week, Fastow said Ken Lay knew about the company's financial troubles but instead chose to paint a rosy picture.

And former Bond man Sean Connery recovering at his home in the Bahamas. He had a tumor removed from his kidney. The surgery was in New York a few weeks ago. Apparently everything went as planned. A spokesman says the 75-year-old actor is very fit, he's 100 percent- plus.

And at least he gets to recuperate in the Bahamas -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: What does that mean, 100 percent-plus?

COSTELLO: I don't know, but it means good things.

S. O'BRIEN: Good. Well, we're glad to hear that.

M. O'BRIEN: Yes.

S. O'BRIEN: I love him. M. O'BRIEN: He's -- he's the best. He's the best.

S. O'BRIEN: Yes, he is -- he was the best Bond.

M. O'BRIEN: The best of the Bonds, definitely.

S. O'BRIEN: No question.

He was the best of the bonds, definitely.

Ahead this morning, we're going to talk about a security scare at the CIA, how a newspaper pretty easily, actually, uncovered one of the biggest top secrets of the CIA.

M. O'BRIEN: That will be interesting.

Then some tips on how you can help your doctor avoid mistakes when it comes to your prescriptions. You'll want to listen to this stuff.

S. O'BRIEN: And then a little bit later, a closer look at new high-tech ways to keep track of your kids. Does it keep them any safer, though, is the question. We'll take a look at that ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: When CIA operative Valerie Plame's cover was blown in a newspaper editorial, the agency was angry. A criminal investigation, in fact, began, and a reporter was thrown in jail. Plus, the vice president's top aide was indicted. But now reporters at the "Chicago Tribune" have shown just how easy it is to expose undercover agents using the Internet and public records, too.

James O'Shea is a managing editor of the "Chicago Tribune," joining us this morning.

Nice to see you. Thanks for talking with us.

It's such a strange story, and really strange how easily it seems your reporters were able to access this information. Give me a sense of how they actually found out.

JAMES O'SHEA, MANAGING EDITOR, "CHICAGO TRIBUNE": Well, they -- they were working on another story involving the CIA renditions in Italy, and in the process of that they uncovered this ability -- their ability to just identify people pretty easily, much more easily than we ever expected. And so we decided to expand upon it and just see how many people we could find out had affiliations with the CIA. And we found over 2,600.

S. O'BRIEN: Twenty-six hundred. Are these all top secret operatives?

O'SHEA: No, not all of them. Some of them were, like, intelligent analysts. But nevertheless, most people who work for the CIA really don't tell you. And so -- but there were quite a few covert undercover sort of operatives that we found, too.

S. O'BRIEN: Is this -- is this the kind of search that anybody can do from their home computer?

O'SHEA: Well I think, yes, you can do it from your home computer. You have to be a little sophisticated in the use of computers. And you -- it's usually not as simple as just putting "CIA" in Google and seeing what comes up. But anyone with really pretty good computer skills could probably identify a lot of these people.

S. O'BRIEN: Were there discussions going on in your newsroom about whether or not to go with this story? I mean, obviously -- I'm curious to know if you thought about that you might be risking operatives lives, or certainly just potentially blowing their cover by doing this story?

O'SHEA: Well, we didn't put their names in the paper. And we didn't disclose the specific details of how we found this out. But we felt that it was important to demonstrate to everybody that this could be done so that someone could correct it.

S. O'BRIEN: Have you had any discussions with the CIA? There have been reports, as I'm sure you well know, that the CIA head, Porter Goss, has just been absolutely "horrified" -- that's a quote, "horrified." But has he said that to you specifically?

O'SHEA: Not to me particularly. You know, their spokesman in Washington told our reporter, John Crutzen (ph), who is the author of the report, that Mr. Goss was horrified at what John had found out and that they were doing a top-to-bottom review of their security procedures.

S. O'BRIEN: Were you surprised that he was surprised?

O'SHEA: I think a little bit. I kind of -- it kind of makes you wonder, if we are -- be able to use the Internet to find out all this information, is the CIA also using the Internet to find out information about itself? I would have thought they would have been doing that.

S. O'BRIEN: The 2,600 -- when 2,600 either employees or operatives or people in the employ of the CIA popped up, what was the response and the reaction from your -- your -- your reporters?

O'SHEA: I think the first one is it shouldn't be this easy. It was pretty surprising to find out how much you could learn just by, I mean, you know, relatively simple kind of procedures doing data searches and data mining.

S. O'BRIEN: Have there been changes now? Have you noticed changes already in the CIA -- in the search procedures? Has some of that information been actually removed off the Internet?

O'SHEA: Yes, some of it has. I mean, we've gone back and looked at information that we unearthed just a few days ago, and it's been changed already.

S. O'BRIEN: Well, obviously, the CIA probably, it seems, trying to clean up its act on that one.

James O'Shea is the managing editor of the "Chicago Tribune."

Thanks for talking with us this morning. It's a fascinating story -- Miles.

O'SHEA: Thank you, Soledad.

M. O'BRIEN: Still to come, listen up, parents. You worry about your kids all the time, don't you? But you can't be with them all the time. Now, some have turned to high-tech gadgets to keep tabs on the kids, but they may offer a false sense of security. We will explain.

And what we have here is a failure to communicate. How you and your doctor can avoid a prescription for disaster.

Stay with us for more AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: It can be a prescription for trouble. Doctors and patients not communicating effectively when the subject comes to medications. A physician's group has taken a look at this and is out with a new poll that offers some insight and perhaps some guidance on how you can protect yourself.

Dr. William Branch joining us from the CNN Center in Atlanta. He is the president of the American Academy of Physician and Patient which conducted the poll.

Good to have you with us, Dr. Branch.

DR. WILLIAM BRANCH, PRESIDENT, AMERICAN ACADEMY OF PHYSICIAN AND PATIENT: Thank you, Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: The question -- the top question on this is, should doctors discuss medication errors with patients? I would assume a very large majority of people would say yes. Who would say no to a question like that?

BRANCH: Well, actually I think that's a change in attitude over the past five or six years. But the poll shows that 90 percent of patients want their doctors to fully discuss any medication errors with them.

M. O'BRIEN: You mean before people didn't want to have a full discussion about medication errors, really?

BRANCH: My guess is that people would be reticent to bring it up. But nowadays, with a lot of publicity around patient safety, I think there's a lot more awareness of it.

M. O'BRIEN: Yes. Let's talk about whether people are satisfied with the communication they have with their doctors. Doctors are so frenzied these days it's difficult to have, you know, meaningful time with them sometimes.

Are people generally satisfied with their communication?

BRANCH: I think they are. I think the polls show that 50 percent of the patients were very satisfied with their communication with their primary care physician. I view that as a good sign.

M. O'BRIEN: Of course, I hate to be half-empty guy, but that does mean 50 percent are not satisfied.

BRANCH: Well...

M. O'BRIEN: What are we going to do to fix that?

BRANCH: Well, I think more training in communication skills, especially in medical school. But we like to -- it's moving out into the practice community. We're beginning to have courses for practitioners.

M. O'BRIEN: Yes. I mean, when you say in medical school, are they teaching a bedside manner now?

BRANCH: Well, there are actually fairly extensive courses teaching communication skills on a scale of, you know, how do you -- how do you convey compassion to a patient and also how do you become compassionate. I mean, encouraging people to feel that way.

M. O'BRIEN: More specifically to the issue of medications, one of the issues I have come up with particularly in dealing with issues of my grandmother, is she has so many medications prescribed by so many different doctors. And really, it ends up -- has ended up in the past as being kind of a volatile mix.

Are doctors doing enough about that? And what do the people say in their poll about whether they are satisfied in that area?

BRANCH: Well, the poll showed some concerning findings, because 30 percent of the patients said that their physicians rarely or never reviewed their medications with them during office visits.

As a doctor myself with a practice, I know it's really hard to keep up with the medications. There's a lot more good medications these days, a lot more people are taking more medications. And it's a complicated problem.

M. O'BRIEN: Well, and you would think that would be a fairly basic fundamental question, particularly when you're prescribing something new, what else are you taking, patient X, Y, Z? Why does that get lost in the shuffle?

BRANCH: Well, I think you need to -- you have to have a system to keep up with them. At the moment, for example, we use a paper system where you have a list of the medications and you try to compare that with what the patient is taking. It's amazing how often I find that the patient is not taking exactly the dose or even not taking a medicine that I thought they were taking.

M. O'BRIEN: So when you say you need a system, simply asking the patient sometimes is not enough?

BRANCH: I think it would be best in -- if a patient is taking more than five or six medicines, especially, for the patient to keep their own list so they can bring it and you can double-check it with the doctor's list. Also, obviously, we're moving to the computer. And that's going to bring us some tremendous advantages.

M. O'BRIEN: All right. Bring a list. That's a good idea. Just keep -- be responsible for yourself. And that is a theme that comes through here. People are more empowered, aren't they?

BRANCH: The other thing I would add is that the pharmacists are playing a tremendous role in this. They are double-checking what the doctor prescribes. And if it isn't exactly the right dose, or if they are -- if there's some misinterpretation, the pharmacist will call the doctor. That's the best safety system we've got right now in the outpatient setting.

M. O'BRIEN: All right. Be responsible for your own care.

Dr. William Branch, president of the American Academy of Physician and Patient.

Thanks for joining us this morning.

BRANCH: Thank you.

M. O'BRIEN: Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Still to come, it's what "Sopranos" fans are talking about this morning, the dramatic end -- ooh, did you see it -- to last night's episode?

M. O'BRIEN: No, I didn't. I TiVo'd it and the whole thing has been ruined.

S. O'BRIEN: Oh, well. Sorry for you. Good for the rest of us, though. It was so worth...

M. O'BRIEN: You were up watching that.

S. O'BRIEN: ... the nearly two-year wait. I taped it and watched it.

We're going to have much more on that and a look at what's ahead for the season in "AM Pop" on AMERICAN MORNING.

We're back in a moment.

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