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American Morning

Iraq: Three Years Later; Crash Mystery; Minding Your Business; Hero Teacher

Aired March 16, 2006 - 07:30   ET

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

ANNOUNCER: AMERICAN MORNING with Soledad O'Brien and Miles O'Brien.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back, everybody. A beautiful day here in New York.

This morning we're talking about this hero teacher. It took place, this story, in Reno, Nevada. And this is a gym teacher, Jencie Fagan, who saw a student with a gun, heard the gunshots, ran out of the gym and was able to confront the student and really talk him into putting the weapon down after he injured two students. We'll get an update on the injured students' conditions. Also talk to the teacher this morning about what kind of bravery it took to do something like that and really how she probably saved a lot of lives in the process.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, I think there was a lot of bloodshed that was saved by that act. A heroic act truly and that's a term that we overuse. This case, it fits.

S. O'BRIEN: Yes, I agree.

M. O'BRIEN: Did you know they had million-dollar Ferraris in the first place? I never knew . . .

S. O'BRIEN: I had three of them. It's so hard to polish those things.

M. O'BRIEN: You park them down in Chelsea.

S. O'BRIEN: Yes, my neighborhood.

M. O'BRIEN: Yes.

S. O'BRIEN: But look at that one.

M. O'BRIEN: Well, there was a crash on the Pacific Coast Highway. It's an odd, mysterious tale. There's word that there was a videotape rolling during the crash and we are going to try to unravel a rather unusual mystery on the crash of the million-dollar Ferrari.

S. O'BRIEN: Before that, though, let's get an update on some of the top stories making news. Carol's got that. She's in the news room.

Good morning. CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, got a bit of breaking news to tell you about right now. Let's go live to Belgrade in Serbia right now. Slobodan Milosevic's body has arrived in a casket, of course, in front of a museum here. You can see his supporters lining the streets. It's kind of a low-key event. Some supporters were crying but many others did not show up. As you know, Slobodan Milosevic died over the weekend in the Netherlands of a heart attack. He was on trial for war crimes. His body will then be taken to his family's estate where it will be buried this weekend. We'll keep you posted if anything else develops here. But there you can see his casket going into that museum in Belgrade.

In other news this morning, the wildfires in the Texas panhandle could be spreading into Oklahoma. Strong winds are causing some flair-ups. Firefighters are going back and re-spraying some areas. Nearly 900,000 acres have now been destroyed.

President Bush getting what he asked for. The House is expected to approve a $92 billion spending bill today that will raise the overall price tag for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to nearly $400 billion. The bill also sets aside funding for the hurricane damage in the Gulf here in the United States.

Thousands of documents about Iraq hitting the Internet. The Bush administration has released its first wave of declassified reports. The Pentagon website says they focus on the al Qaeda presence in Iraq, including photos and names. The release will continue over the next several months.

The man who assassinated Robert Kennedy will stay in prison. Sirhan Sirhan lost his 13th bid for parole. Had the parole board ruled in his favor, the matter would have gone to California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. And, as you know, he's married to Kennedy's niece, Maria Shriver, so there would be some conflict of interest there. Sirhan Sirhan's next hearing will be in five years.

In Houston, attorneys waiting to hear if Andrea Yates' trial will proceed as planned. The defense has asked for a delay. They say Yates faces double jeopardy if retried. She was convicted in 2002 but the ruling was overturned. If all goes as planned, the retrial will begin on Monday. Yates's husband, by the way, he's getting remarried this weekend.

And Kanye West rapping his way to Hollywood. The Grammy winner is bringing his music and himself to the big screen. He said -- I like this song. Anyway, he's set to develop a movie. That's according to New Line Cinema. It will sort of be a look at the United States through Kanye West's eyes. I'm sure it will be all about Kanye West and perhaps what he thinks about the Bush administration, Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Maybe so. All right, thank you, Carol.

COSTELLO: Sure.

M. O'BRIEN: The state of Iraq nearly three years after the start of the war. The anniversary coming up and growing violence we've been telling you about. A hundred and sixty bodies no less found in Baghdad, just since Sunday. And today, country taking steps towards self-rule. International Correspondent Nic Robertson talked this morning with U.S. Ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm joined now by U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad.

Mr. Khalilzad, you were a powerful force in bringing these politicians together early. What should we read into the fact the meeting broke so quickly?

ZALMAY KHALILZAD, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO IRAQ: Well, that's what was planned to happen. Today's session was to swear in new members and it was a moving moment when they all pledged allegiance to building a democratic Iraq. Then the session was to remain open but to close the meeting in order for the leaders of the various blocks to come together on an agreement about who would be the speaker, who would be the prime minister, and who would be the president. So they still haven't reached an agreement on those issues. That's why they suspended the meeting.

ROBERTSON: I heard that there was even a little bit of disagreement in this meeting over the introduction, whether one should say or should be said "God is the greatest" or "God is the highest," a sectarian issue. Were you surprised to hear that?

KHALILZAD: Well, there was a difference of view as to what the pledge of allegiance that they have to do, what did it say, but the fact the way it was done was the right one, one of the members had a different, slightly different text, so he got up and objected to it. But it was as stated in the constitution.

ROBERTSON: Given the high sectarian tensions at the moment, what sort of message does a small but necessarily an incident like that send to the people of Iraq?

KHALILZAD: Well, I don't think it will have any impact. It was a disagreement in terms of the text. He had a text that was different, maybe an earlier draft of the constitution. But I think what this meeting signifies is that the issue of government information needs to get underway in an urgent way and the last two, three days there have been very good meetings, give and take, a lot of progress has been made. But, still, they haven't agreed on any names for the prime minister, for the ministers, the president. They've got some difficult work ahead of them.

ROBERTSON: One of the stumbling blocks you understand is the prime minister. We just heard from Mr. Jaafari, the current prime minister, nominated to be the next prime minister, saying that he would only step down if the people of Iraq told him to. That does seem to be a stumbling block. What is happening that you know on that issue? What are the options for the politicians here?

KHALILZAD: Well, of course, the faction that nominates, has the right to nominate, has nominated Mr. Jaafari, but that faction doesn't have enough votes in the assembly to get him confirmed and the other factions have objected to him. They simply have to come to an agreement with each other. They're not focused on that officially yet, though unofficially there's a lot of discussions going on with regard to the prime minister. Right now the focus is the program of the coming government, the process for decision-making, and the next thing after they agree on those two would be names. And I think they will need someone to be prime minister who is a unifier, who is competent in terms of doing the job that needs to be done.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

M. O'BRIEN: Zalmay Khalilzad, who is the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, speaking to our Nic Robertson.

Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Thirty-seven minutes past the hour. Let's get another check of the weather with Chad.

Chad, what are you looking at this morning?

(WEATHER REPORT)

M. O'BRIEN: Hey, Chad, do you have a question for me?

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: I don't know.

M. O'BRIEN: Just any question at all? Because I'm on Pipeline today.

S. O'BRIEN: Again?

M. O'BRIEN: Ready to answer -- ready to answer your questions.

S. O'BRIEN: Chad's like, where is this going?

MYERS: When does the next shuttle go up?

M. O'BRIEN: July. No sooner than July.

ANDY SERWER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Oh, you couldn't stump him.

S. O'BRIEN: Oh, come on, Chad. (INAUDIBLE).

M. O'BRIEN: What I should have said was, I'll tell you on Pipeline at 10:30 Eastern Time.

S. O'BRIEN: You did this before. How did that go last time?

M. O'BRIEN: It was brilliant.

S. O'BRIEN: Really?

M. O'BRIEN: The questions were brilliant. I was kind of OK. But, you know, I mean, really, people had excellent questions. It was -- I really enjoyed it. And the Pipeline folks are wonderful. So we're going to take your questions, 10:30, a.m., put that up one more time so I can get the e-mail out for everybody, am@cnn.com.

S. O'BRIEN: Slash.

M. O'BRIEN: No, you can do an e-mail to am@cnn.com or you can go to our cnn.com am cite and then do an e-mail that way.

S. O'BRIEN: OK.

M. O'BRIEN: But the location, if you want to watch it, is at cnn.com/pipeline. I know what you're trying to get me to do.

S. O'BRIEN: Just trying to help you here. It's OK. It's OK.

M. O'BRIEN: Thank you. You were just pulling me along. Pulling me along.

S. O'BRIEN: I think -- so I'm going to start sending you e- mails.

M. O'BRIEN: So if I get these suspicious e-mails . . .

S. O'BRIEN: SO'Brien.

SERWER: Yes.

M. O'BRIEN: Complaining of halitosis on the set, I'll know it's you. I'll know it's you.

S. O'BRIEN: Could be Andy. Could be Andy.

SERWER: It comes all the way over here. Pitty (ph) me.

S. O'BRIEN: Let's get to business news in fact.

What you got coming up?

SERWER: Let's do that, Soledad.

Move over football, college basketball is the biggest sport in the land according to some measures. The business of March Madness coming up next on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: Here's one from the only in L.A. file. What started with a car crash has turned into a bizarre international mystery. The car in the crash, no ordinary car. The guy in the car, apparently no ordinary guy. CNN's Dan Simon unravels the weirdness.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT, (voice over): At first glance, anyone could have mistaken this Malibu scene for a Hollywood stunt. A Ferrari sliced in half sitting in the middle of the highway. Helicopters hovering overhead. Cameras rolling but they weren't shooting some high-budget feature, they were filming the action for the local news.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And that's the engine of this car.

SIMON: Hans Laetz, an L.A. freelance journalist, was at the crash scene in minutes.

HANS LAETZ, FREELANCE JOURNALIST: When you hear a nasty crash on the highway, it's in one little place. This stretched over almost half a mile of highway.

SIMON: Amazingly, no one was seriously injured in the early morning crash on February 21st. But car enthusiasts were mourning the loss of the incredibly rare Ferrari Enzo, one of only 400 ever produced. Authorities believe the million-dollar vehicle was going more than 160 miles an hour before it hit an embankment and crashed into a power pole.

Car accidents here in Malibu, or anywhere else for that matter, certainly aren't uncommon. But what makes this one so unusual isn't just the pricey car, but the man at the center of it all, a Swedish national named Stefan Ericsson.

This is Ericsson who made a fortune in high-tech. He told deputies at the crash scene he was just a passenger in his own Ferrari, which he said was being driven by a German acquaintance he knew only as Detrick (ph). And this mysterious Detrick, he said, ran for the hills, literally, and disappeared.

SGT. PHIL BROOKS, L.A. COUNTY SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT: It instantly put the deputies in a search and rescue mode.

SIMON: But there was no Detrick to be found and no trail of him either says Sergeant Phil Brooks. It would be the first of several puzzling statements made by Ericsson. Listen to what he said to Hans Laetz when the reporter tried to take his picture.

LAETZ: He said, don't take my picture, I'm with Homeland Security. Those were his exact words.

SIMON: Just who is this international man of mystery, Stefan Ericsson? Well according to investigators, in the early '90s, he served five years in a Swedish prison for counterfeiting. He later became a top executive for a European electronics gaming company called Gizmondo, a company that collapsed after losing more than $100 million.

BROOKS: It's like a James Bond story. It's just the background is just amazing.

SIMON: Authorities theorized Ericsson concocted a bogus story because he was drunk. His blood alcohol level was just above the legal limit. Sergeant Brooks says a DUI would have been a lot easier than the trouble Ericsson faces for allegedly lying to deputies. Not to mention the international media exposure. BROOKS: Well, I've had calls from all from Sweden, the UK, and even Australia.

SIMON: And what about Ericsson's claim of having ties to Homeland Security?

Does Stefan Ericsson have any connections to Homeland Security?

BROOKS: As far as I know, no, none at all.

SIMON: Ericsson's attorneys declined to speak with CNN and he's yet to be charged with any crime. The sheriff's department tells us he's left the country. In any case, the Swede probably wishes he got in a different car that day, a car that wouldn't have attracted so much attention.

Dan Simon, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

M. O'BRIEN: In case you're wondering, the Ferrari Enzo, 400 of them made.

S. O'BRIEN: It's a beautiful car.

M. O'BRIEN: A beautiful car. It ought to be. Four hundred of them made, $600,000 sticker price but they got jacked up to that million-dollar level. Zero to 60 in just over three seconds, which is . . .

SERWER: That's impossible.

M. O'BRIEN: Exactly what you need when you're on the Henry Hudson Parkway here in New York, right?

SERWER: Yes.

S. O'BRIEN: That will get you nowhere.

M. O'BRIEN: I think the top speed is, what, about 220 miles an hour. Another useful thing when you're on the New York thru-way . . .

S. O'BRIEN: You're waiting in traffic.

M. O'BRIEN: Because Smoky Bear will never catch you. Never.

SERWER: Right. Yes.

S. O'BRIEN: Beautiful car. Expensive car.

Let's talk business news for March Madness. Good morning. Andy's "Minding Your Business."

SERWER: Yes, Soledad. Good morning. Tis the season. You know, everyone thinks of football as America's number one sport, but a story in "The New York Times" this morning says it ain't so. By one measure, college basketball is bigger. How? TV advertising dollars.

Here's how it works. From 2000 to 2005, Madison Avenue spent $2.2 billion advertising on the NCAA tournament. Only $800 million on the World Series and only $800 million in the Super Bowl. So more money for the NCAA tournament. However, that's, well, it's not game adjusted, right? I mean game adjusted, 300 NCAA games over five years, 30 World Series games and only five Super Bowls. So if you adjust per game, of course football is a bigger thing. But it's still kind of an issue.

A lot of cool ads in the NCAA tournament and a lot of promotions. One by Papa John's Pizza. It's actually kind of interesting. It's the million-dollar pizza, million pizza prize. If you guess every game right, Papa John's will give you and people who participate at this sporting news bracket a million pizzas.

M. O'BRIEN: What do you do with a million pizzas?

SERWER: Well, you share it with all your friends.

S. O'BRIEN: Over a lifetime?

SERWER: You share it with all your friends.

M. O'BRIEN: Your million friends?

S. O'BRIEN: No, not at all one time.

SERWER: Not at all one time.

S. O'BRIEN: Oh my gosh.

SERWER: But a million -- you have a million pizzas.

S. O'BRIEN: Over a lifetime.

SERWER: Yes, that's still a long life.

M. O'BRIEN: That's a lot of pizzas.

SERWER: That's a lot of pizzas.

M. O'BRIEN: I don't know if anybody lives that long.

SERWER: Well, there will be thousands of people play this bracket. But still, you know, I thought that, you know, it's a huge prize. But actually guessing all of the games right, the probability apparently is one out of several billion.

M. O'BRIEN: I think it's . . .

SERWER: I didn't know that. It's very difficult to guess all -- incredibly difficult to guess all the games right.

M. O'BRIEN: Kind of cheesy to me.

S. O'BRIEN: I won the Super Bowl pool.

SERWER: There you go. (INAUDIBLE).

S. O'BRIEN: Anything can happen, you know.

SERWER: Yes. Right. That's good stuff.

M. O'BRIEN: That's true, stranger things have happened.

All right, still to come on the program, it's time to get off the treadmill. Really? It's time to pick up the weights. Especially if you're in our 30, 40, 50 group. Oh, we're not calling you a dumbbell. No, no, no, we would never do that. We love you, all of you 30, 40, 50 people. We're just telling you how to use those dumbbells, coming up.

S. O'BRIEN: Yes, burns more calories and burns it for longer. Tell you about that.

M. O'BRIEN: More than the treadmill?

S. O'BRIEN: Way more.

M. O'BRIEN: Way more.

SERWER: Really?

M. O'BRIEN: Really?

S. O'BRIEN: First, though, take a look at these pictures. These are pictures from a middle school, this is not "30s, 40s, 50s." There you go. Talking about this hero teacher. A woman, a gym teacher, who averted what could have been a massive tragedy at a middle school in Nevada. We're going to meet the teacher who confronted a teenage shooter, tell her story straight ahead. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: A middle school P.E. teacher in Reno, Nevada, being hailed as a hero after she risked her life to stop a school shooting. When two students were wounded on Tuesday, phys ed teacher Jencie Fagan confronted the teenage shooter, persuaded him to drop his gun. Jencie Fagan joins us this morning. She's in Reno, along with Police Lieutenant Ron Donnelly.

Nice to see you guys. Thanks for talking with us this morning. Sure appreciate it.

Boy, Jencie, this is a really unbelievable story. You heard the gunshots. Is that right? Is that what made you kind of run out of the gym?

JENCIE FAGAN, HERO TEACHER: Yes, yes, I heard a gunshot.

S. O'BRIEN: And tell me what happened. What did you see? FAGAN: Went to the door to our cafeteria, multipurpose room, and saw the student discharge his gun once more. And had students between he and I and realized I need to get the kids out of there, as well as get the gun from the boy.

S. O'BRIEN: So what did you do first? And how panicked were you or did you sort of feel that you were calm and in control?

FAGAN: Oh, I didn't feel panicked. I didn't worry about my safety. That seemed to be a prevalent question by a lot of people. I looked at it that I needed to make our students safe. And the students that were between he and I, I told them to go to my girl's locker room, which was right behind me, told one of the girls to shut the door. And then started talking to the student about putting down his weapon.

S. O'BRIEN: We know . . .

FAGAN: And told them that . . .

S. O'BRIEN: I'm sorry. Forgive me for jumping in there, Jencie. And I just want to sort of reiterate, we're not going to name the student. He's a minor and so our policy is not to name this young man or identify him. But I want to know, is this a student you knew well? You knew him, obviously, by name.

FAGAN: Yes. He is a student in one of my classes. I've had him for about three quarters. And we know each other.

S. O'BRIEN: So what did you tell him? What did you say?

FAGAN: Basically I said, please put down your gun. I told him I don't lie to him. I'm real straight up with my student population. I tell them good stories, I tell them bad stories. I mean if something's going well, I tell them they're doing well. I call home and tell their parents they're doing well. But the same is if they don't do well. So I told him, I said he needed to put down the gun and I kept asking him and he did. He tossed the gun to some tables where the kids have lunch and then went over and I hugged him.

S. O'BRIEN: And what did he do?

FAGAN: Let me hug him. Didn't fight me at all. And just -- I told him I wasn't going to let go of him. And waited until the police came and then they hand cuffed him.

S. O'BRIEN: Lieutenant Donnelly, I have to imagine this is the kind of thing that you absolutely, positively advise people never to do. You know, what do you make of Jencie's actions?

LT. RON DONNELLY, RENO POLICE: You know, there's obviously no book for this type of situation. I mean you can't expect people to put themselves in harm's way. But imagine the situation. She hears gunfire. The natural reaction of most people on the planet is to run the opposite way. She went towards that gunfire. She saw somebody holding the gun and she called out to him. When she did that, she made herself the focus of the gunman's attention. All of his attention was now focused on her. She placed herself in harm's way. She then . . .

S. O'BRIEN: Do you think she probably saved a lot of lives by doing that very thing?

DONNELLY: You know, she did everything right. She used empathy. She came across as sincere. Obviously there's a great deal -- it's very evident to me that there's a great deal of respect from the staff and the students at this school and, obviously, that's what allowed her to be successful with this student the other day. The fact that she was sincere. She was credible. That he did believe that she had his best interests in heart. And I believe that's why she was able to get him to put his gun on the ground.

S. O'BRIEN: Well, as we mentioned, two students were wounded, but I bet a whole bunch of other students saved. Jencie Fagan and Lieutenant Ron Donnelly, thank you for talking with us. I'm glad that it had a good ending as much as a good ending can be. Thank you very much. We appreciate it.

Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Amazing story.

In a moment, top stories, including three people dead following a lunch time shooting at a Denny's restaurant in California.

A new national security report says Iran, the biggest challenge to U.S. security.

At the Enron trial, Enron whistle blower Sharon Watkins testifies she warned her bosses of massive fraud.

Federal authorities charged more than two dozen in an international child porn case.

And a tense situation unfolding in France. Tens of thousands of students protesting a youth jobs plan.

Stay with us for more AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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