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American Morning

White House Security Report Declares Iran a Danger to U.S.; Student Protests Continue in France

Aired March 16, 2006 - 08:00   ET

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

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.
I'm Miles O'Brien.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Soledad O'Brien.

A child porn ring busted. It's so disturbing that even veteran officers are just horrified. Twenty-seven people now arrested in four countries. One of the victims an infant.

Tens of thousands of students take to the streets in Paris. It's a protest over jobs. We're live on that story. We'll explain ahead.

M. O'BRIEN: A dramatic and tragic scene at a Denny's restaurant in California. A lunchtime crowd. Two people are dead and so is the shooter.

And then, we'll tell you a little bit more about the lawyer at the center of the Moussaoui case, the government lawyer who sent a few e-mails which may have blown the case for the government.

S. O'BRIEN: Dan Brown in court. Again, he admits he reworked his best-seller, "The Da Vinci Code." Is it a damaging admission from the author? What did he say in court? Did it kill his case?

Those stories are all ahead on this AMERICAN MORNING.

Welcome back, everybody.

We begin with President Bush pointing the finger at Iran today. A new national security report names Iran as the biggest security challenge for the United States.

Let's get right to CNN White House correspondent Suzanne Malveaux -- hey, Suzanne, good morning.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning, Soledad.

Of course, this is the report. It came out about an hour ago from the White House. It's 49 pages, required by law for the president to submit and revise annually. The last time we got one of these, however, was four years ago. So it is long overdue.

There are two things, essentially, that stand out in this report. One, as you mentioned before, of course, is Iran. Very harsh words for Iran. This report saying we may face no greater challenge from a single country than from Iran.

It goes on to talk about 20 years, accusing Iran of hiding its efforts to build up nuclear weapons, develop nuclear weapons.

The other thing, of course, that stands out is the policy of pre- emptive strike, first strike policy that is reaffirmed. You may recall that the justification the United States used for going to war with Iraq was that it had weapons of mass destruction, that it was a danger to the United States. Of course, we now know that there are no -- were no such weapons of mass destruction.

Nevertheless, the policy is reaffirmed. It states: "If necessary, however, under longstanding principles of self-defense, we do not rule out the use of force before attacks occur, even if uncertainty remains as to the time and place of the enemy's attack."

And, Soledad, there's seven countries that are singled out as particularly dangerous regimes. Those seven countries being North Korea, Iran, Syria, Cuba, Belarus, Burma and Zambia -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Suzanne, why is this report coming out now?

This is something the president's supposed to file every year, right?

MALVEAUX: Yes.

Of course, the cynical take here is that it's a good time to change the topic. The other side, of course, I spoke with an NSC spokesman about this report. They put it together. He said look, it was not a priority. We're a nation at war. They were eventually going to get around to doing this. That's what they did. They started in July, he said, and that late last night they were still putting the finishing touches on it.

S. O'BRIEN: Oh, and, by the way, it's a good time to change the topic.

MALVEAUX: Exactly.

S. O'BRIEN: Suzanne Malveaux for us this morning.

Thanks, Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: Sure.

S. O'BRIEN: You want to stay with CNN day and night for the most reliable news about your security -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: In France, government ministers called into a crisis meeting today. This comes after a wave of student protests against a youth job plan. Trade unions are backing the students and are calling on the government to drop that plan. We'll get details on this now from CNN's Jim Bittermann, live from Paris -- good morning, Jim.

JIM BITTERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Miles.

In fact, I'm standing in front of the Sorbonne University, which you can see behind me here is surrounded now by police vans. Riot police are everywhere here, keeping the university away from the students and the students away from the university.

Basically, there's a large demonstration that's starting about this hour about two miles to the south of this location. It will pass by here and come within about maybe five or six blocks of the university. And, as a consequence, the police are really worried that there will be breakaway groups that will come over and try to reoccupy the university.

Already this morning, there have been a couple of skirmishes with police, nothing very serious. But since last week, there have been some very serious demonstrations here. In fact, the students occupied the university for several days and it took a really concerted effort by police to get them out of the university. A real pitched battle was fought here over the weekend. So the police want to prevent any kind of reoccupation of this building today during this demonstration -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Jim, let's just talk about what this proposal would do. It changes the way workers would be treated in the first couple of years of employment.

BITTERMANN: Exactly. I mean one of the things that you have to start from the fact that French workers are -- have among the most important protections of practically any workers in the world in terms of being fired. It's very difficult to get -- to lay off a French worker or fire a French worker after they have established themselves. And this new contract gives employers two years in which to give new employees a trial period. And during that two years, it's fairly easy for the employers to either lay off or fire their employees.

And, as a consequence, the students are against that. They think that it should be more permanent employment, more long-term employment that, once again, falls under the rules that have been traditional here that make it very difficult for the employers -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Give us a sense, Jim, how much -- obviously the students don't support it -- but outside of the students, I assume there's a lot of support among business leaders for this proposal.

BITTERMANN: Well, industry leaders are definitely behind the proposal and they told the government that's one of the ways they can do something about the unemployment rates here, which are around 10 percent. And one of the reasons they're so high is that employers hesitate to employ someone if they know they're going to be putting someone on the job who may be there for life.

So, in fact, yes, I think the employers are much behind the law. The students are against it and some of the unions are against it and they're all going to be out on the streets this afternoon. M. O'BRIEN: We'll be watching it.

Jim Bittermann for us in Paris.

Thank you -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: In central California, lunchtime at Denny's turned into terror. A gunman killed two people then turned the gun on himself. What's still a mystery is exactly why it happened.

Let's get right to Dan Simon.

He's got more on our story this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: An inexplicable act of violence here at this Denny's restaurant. Police say that at around noon time on Wednesday, a gunman calmly walked in here and just starting shooting at customers. Two customers were killed, a 65-year-old man and a 73-year-old man. Two others were injured, a married couple. And they've been released from the hospital.

Police tell us that the shooter, 60-year-old Lawrence Woods, is a transient and that he walked in here with two handguns and just indiscriminately started firing at people. The entire episode was captured on surveillance video and police tell us that video is very graphic and it's of very good quality.

Now, we do have some information about Mr. Woods. Police tell us that he is a transient, somebody who was living in his car. They also tell us that he has a criminal record, but they would not elaborate. And when he walked in here, they tell us that he mumbled something, something about finances.

But at this point it's still too vague to determine why he was so disturbed and why he started firing inside this Denny's restaurant.

Dan Simon, CNN, Pismo Beach, California.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

M. O'BRIEN: Well, she was billed as one of the government's star witness in the Enron criminal trial. Sherron Watkins is her name, the woman who became known as the whistleblower. She took the stand yesterday, sank her teeth into Enron's former bosses, her former bosses. And there was one surprise we should tell you about.

CNN's Chris Huntington was in the courtroom and has this.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

CHRIS HUNTINGTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Sherron Watkins lived up to the billing as a star witness in the government's case against her former Enron bosses, Jeff Skilling and Ken Lay. But it was a grueling day for her. SHERRON WATKINS, FORMER ENRON EMPLOYEE: I would have rather have been having a root canal.

HUNTINGTON: On the witness stand, Watkins was poised as she told the jury a story she's told countless times since Enron collapsed. In the summer of 2001, working for Andrew Fastow, she realized Enron was hiding hundreds of millions of dollars of losses in off the book deals that she believed were built on "fraudulent accounting."

She testified that Jeff Skilling's abrupt resignation as CEO confirmed the problems that she saw were just "the tip of the iceberg because the captain had abandoned the ship."

That drove her to fire off her famous memo to Ken Lay, beginning with the question: "Has Enron become a risky place to work?" and concluding with a warning that Enron would "implode in a wave of accounting scandals."

Over repeated objections by the defense, Watkins read that entire memo out loud to a riveted jury. Her testimony consistently hammered on Ken Lay, that he had made "misrepresentations about the accounting at Enron."

TOM AJAMIE, SECURITIES ATTORNEY: That she thought the company was going to blow up in a wave of accounting scandal. It did blow up in a wave of accounting scandal. She rang the bell then on it. She came into court today and I think she rang the bell for the government.

HUNTINGTON: But Watkins' credibility suffered when she admitted to selling $47,000 worth of Enron stock after she told Lay about the accounting problems but well before they had become public knowledge.

Lay's attorney picked up on that and cornered week. If she insisted Lay and Enron were committing accounting fraud, then her stock sale, he suggested, could amount to insider trading.

MIKE RAMSEY, KEN LAY'S ATTORNEY: I think the lady, during the end of the day, pretty much demonstrated what she was. She blew herself up. I don't have much else to say about it, other than it was an exercise in just hanging in there and waiting for her to self- destruct, which she eventually did.

HUNTINGTON: Watkins never directly implicated Jeff Skilling of any wrongdoing and admitted that she'd had very little contact with him at Enron. But her testimony left no doubt that she believed Skilling knew Enron was a sinking ship.

Chris Huntington, CNN, Houston.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

M. O'BRIEN: No testimony today. The Enron criminal trial will resume on Monday morning. And we'll keep you posted on that one.

Let's check some headlines. Carol Costello in the newsroom -- good morning, Carol.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, Miles.

Good morning to all of you.

Baghdad pretty much on lockdown as Iraq's parliament meets for the first time. The 275 members were sworn in during the session earlier today. The whole process lasted for about 30 minutes. They now face the task of choosing a new government.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says progress is stalled in Iraq. These are new pictures we're getting in of the secretary, as she's being greeted by Australia's prime minister. Rice says the political transition in Iraq will likely take years. China and Iran also among the topics being discussed, as she meets with officials during her visit there.

California police say a deadly crash on a sidewalk may have been caused by an argument. The vehicle jumped a curb, killing a teacher and wounding eight students. The driver, a woman, has been arrested on suspicion of manslaughter and hit and run. She claims her boyfriend grabbed the steering wheel during an argument and that's how the accident happened.

There is rain in the forecast for tomorrow, but that likely won't help firefighters battling flames in Texas today. High winds have fueled wildfires there. Nearly 900,000 acres have been destroyed and there's fear the fires may be spreading to nearby Oklahoma. People in about six towns waiting to hear if they'll have to leave. Texas Governor Rick Perry will be touring hard hit areas later today.

That's a look at the headlines.

Back to you -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: All right, Carol, thank you very much.

Oh, those pictures out of Texas are just devastating.

Let's check on the weather -- Chad, good morning.

How is it looking for folks there?

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, the winds have laid down a little bit in the overnight. They always do. They go down a little bit in the overnight hours because it's not mixing in with the jet stream aloft. But eight, nine, nine, 10, there's a couple of gusts over 16 miles per hour in Norman, 20 up in Garden City, 17 in Childress.

That's enough to kind of move some sparks around and keep the fires going. But other than that, really, this is not what we would call a firestorm kind of day like we had yesterday, where winds gusted over 45 miles per hour.

(WEATHER REPORT)

S. O'BRIEN: Still to come this morning, oh, this story is just brutal. Federal agents saying that this is the worst kind of child pornography you could imagine. A huge Internet chat room bust. We're going go talk to one of the officials horrified, literally horrified by the details of this case.

M. O'BRIEN: Then, "The Da Vinci Code" -- the latest chapter on this one. Author Dan Brown admits using other people's material for the basis for his piece of fiction. But it's one thing to get an idea from a work of non-fiction. It's another thing to start lifting words. He didn't do the latter, so is that plagiarism? You decide.

S. O'BRIEN: And all those folks who workout all the time at the gym, actually, they may be onto something. It turns out that putting on the weight can help you lose weight. If you're in your 30s or your 40s or your 50s, it's really important.

We'll explain it all ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: Look at these live pictures from Paris. French students and also some members of French unions vowing that they're going to step up protests like this one unless the government scraps a youth jobs law. That law has pretty badly hurt the prime minister's popularity.

There's opposition to a law that reduces job protection if you, you know, according to some, for young people. The prime minister says he is going to stand firm on this and try to cut youth joblessness. It allows employers to fire after two years, without cause, young employees.

The protests in Paris, as you can see from these live pictures, have been growing steadily -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: A big pornography bust to tell you about -- 27 people, four countries indicted in a child pornography ring. Apparently it took distribution of kid porn to a disturbing new level. It's really actually rather horrifying. Prosecutors say the child porn Web site, chat room, whatever you want to call it, featured live streaming video of kids as young as 18 months old being molested. That's hard to even say.

Julie Myers is in charge of immigration, customs and enforcement for the Department of Homeland Security.

She joins us from Washington.

Ms. Myers, it's kind of nauseating and it must have been very difficult to conduct an investigation like this, being exposed to all of this.

JULIE MYERS, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY: Absolutely. We actually learned of this case from Canadian law enforcement. And when they told us about this case, they said it was the most disturbing they had ever seen. And we found that to be exactly the same way when we looked at it.

M. O'BRIEN: All right, give us a sense of how it operated.

MYERS: In this case, there was a chat room called "Kiddie Picks and Kiddie Vids." And this chat room has very tight security. There was a marshal at arms and there were individuals there, a host and administrators that worked very hard to keep law enforcement out.

What would happen is that individuals in this chat room would request certain pornographic acts and those would be performed on demand by some victims as young as 18 months, as you noted earlier.

M. O'BRIEN: So they literally had sort of virtual bouncers at the door here.

How was law enforcement able to circumvent all this and get inside?

MYERS: Well, I can't tell you all our techniques, but we did have at least one undercover working in this operation. They are -- they are getting very clever. The criminals are getting very, very clever and we are trying to keep up with them, using all the investigative tactics that we know of.

M. O'BRIEN: All right, and this -- this whole security web that they put around this was deliberately to thwart law enforcement, correct?

MYERS: That's exactly right. In fact, they told members in the chat rooms, don't tell anyone your personal information, don't share your personal information with others. They would kick members off if they believed them to be associated with law enforcement. And, in fact, they were so desperate that one host said, "If I am arrested, we need a contingency plan so we can keep this site going."

M. O'BRIEN: Let me ask you this.

Was this -- was there a profit motive here or was it just -- this was just a bunch of sick pedophiles?

MYERS: Actually, there was no profit motive here. This was just a bunch of very sick individuals, very, very sick individuals.

M. O'BRIEN: Let's talk about these young victims.

Were you able to identify who these children are and get them some help?

MYERS: We were able to identify the victims and all of them are now safe, I'm very pleased to say.

M. O'BRIEN: Well, that's good to hear. But what is the lesson here?

This doesn't sound like -- as a parent, it's not as if my child is going to easily stumble into a chat room like this. But there is -- it just, for a parent, raises yet another concern about how dangerous the Internet can be.

MYERS: That's exactly right.

Parents need to talk to their kids about the risks of the Internet. One DOJ study says that one in five kids are approached online about a sexual advance or some sort of sexual issue.

Parents also need to be aware, if you have a family Web site that has innocent photos on them, put a password on it. We are finding, in some instances, that criminals are taking innocent family photos and doctoring them and can victimize your child in that way.

M. O'BRIEN: That's just awful.

And, finally, how did they find their victims in this case? Were they just anonymous people that they sought out or were these children they knew?

MYERS: Unfortunately, we do everything we can to, really, to protect the identity of the victims and so I really can't give you any more details about the victims in this case.

M. O'BRIEN: All right, Julie Myers, head of the immigration and customs for the Department of Homeland Security.

Thank you very much.

MYERS: Thank you.

M. O'BRIEN: Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Oh, what a brutal story.

Still to come this morning, think you're a little too for weight training? Actually, the opposite might be true. Believe it or not, as you get older, you need to weight train. We're going to explain why that's going to help, coming up.

And then we'll tell you how some schools are thinking a little bit outside of the box to get kids to stay in school. But is it bribery? We'll take a look at that ahead.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: Well, you want to drop that remote and pick up the weights. Maybe not right this minute, but as you age, it's important to keep your body in shape, obviously.

In our continuing series for those us in our 30s, 40s and 50s, CNN's Elizabeth Cohen looks at weight training well into your 50s.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): If you think this sort of workout is only for professional bodybuilders, you're wrong. Athletic trainers say anyone can benefit from a weight training program and that it's even more important as you age.

DEBBIE MACLEAN, COCA-COLA ATHLETIC TRAINER: You lose about five to seven pounds of muscle mass per decade as you get older. And so as a result your metabolism slows and you start to gain weight.

COHEN: In your 30s, it's all about your metabolism. Your body is changing. You're burning fewer calories and now is the time to add more muscle and definition. Focus on the back of the arms. This can begin to become a problem spot for people in their 30s. And the abs.

PHIL WRYE, 39 YEARS OLD: The abdominals. The lateral obliques.

COHEN: You may not have six pack abs, but you certainly don't want a keg sitting there, either.

WRYE: It just helps me to feel like I'm still younger and able to play the sports I like to play and to do the things I do.

COHEN: In your 40s, maintaining your muscle tone is key. Working on your leg muscles will alleviate common knee problems when you're forty something. And your lower back. Sitting at a computer may give you pain. Strengthening the back will help that.

In your 50s, it may be time to modify your weight training routine to slow down the effects of arthritis and osteoporosis. Focusing on strengthening your upper back and shoulders to avoid the fifty something shoulder slump.

GAYLE GARDNER, 50 YEARS OLD: As this toned me, my clothes fit much better. I feel much better.

COHEN: You may want to check first with an athletic trainer to find the best workout for you and to help prevent injuries. Also, you still need to exercise.

MACLEAN: If you don't do the cardio, if you don't do something to work your heart and lungs, if those don't work, it doesn't really matter what your bicep can do.

GARDNER: I personally feel like age is just a number and if you -- if you can walk everyday, you can weight train.

COHEN: Elizabeth Cohen, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

M. O'BRIEN: Those are words to remember -- get off the couch. If you can walk, you can weight train.

S. O'BRIEN: Absolutely.

M. O'BRIEN: I'm going to get right down there tonight and get right on it.

S. O'BRIEN: Uh-huh. Yes.

M. O'BRIEN: Still to come, more turmoil surrounding the Zacarias Moussaoui trial. New details this hour about what's going to happen to the lawyer accused of leaking information to witnesses.

S. O'BRIEN: And there's some pieces of New York history up for auction. Bit by bit, pieces of the Plaza Hotel sold off. Believe it or not, surprisingly high bids. We'll take a look at what's so special about The Plaza.

That's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

We're back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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