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Hundreds of Thousands Expected to Protest Harsher Immigration Laws; President Facing Pressure From Within Own Party to Explain Role in CIA Leak Case

Aired April 10, 2006 - 08:00   ET

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

BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm Bob Franken in Washington, where hundreds of thousands are expected to protest harsher immigration laws. That story is coming up.
ED HENRY, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm Ed Henry at the White House, where the president is facing pressure from within his own party to fully explain his role in the CIA leak case. That story coming up.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: And a heartbreaking story of a little boy, his unconscious mother and 911 operator who would not believe him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't care. You shouldn't be playing on the phone. Now put her on the phone before I tell the police officers to knock on the door and you're going to be in trouble.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

S. O'BRIEN: This story ends tragically. Ahead, we talk to this little boy and his older sister, too.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: And the hard edged documentary designed to care teenaged drinkers straight.

That's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

S. O'BRIEN: Good morning, everybody.

Welcome to Monday.

M. O'BRIEN: Good to have you with us this morning.

S. O'BRIEN: We begin with the fervor over immigration reform. Major rallies are expected today in cities across the U.S. including New York and Washington and Los Angeles.

This is what it looked like on Sunday in Dallas, when several hundred thousand people showed up for a huge demonstration there.

Americans rank immigration as one of the country's biggest problems. There's a new Associated Press/Ipsos poll out. It was done last week. And they placed immigration third, right behind Iraq and the economy. And that's a pretty big change from just a few months ago. Back in January, a similar poll found that just 3 percent of people think of immigration as a top national problem.

That brings us right to AMERICAN MORNING'S Bob Franken in Washington, D.C. -- hey, Bob, good morning.

FRANKEN: Good morning.

And the explanation, Soledad, is that it's gone to the front burner in the political realm, so there's a lot of attention being paid to it. And, of course, we've had the massive demonstrations, the ones in Dallas that you made mention of a moment ago, where 300,000 to 500,000 people packed the streets. And there were others.

And those were the preliminary demonstrations to the cities around the country. We're expecting 60 cities today, including here at the Washington Mall, where up to 200,000 could show up. There is, of course, a lot of symbolism here. So many political movements have really been catapulted by the big demonstration here.

And the other subplot is going to be the number of people who are away from work as the immigrant community tries to make the point that without them, it's really hard to sustain the U.S. economy.

There is an estimated 11 million illegal immigrants in the United States and no question that many of them will show up here, although, of course, that's hard to document -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Well, you know, you talk about subplots, Bob, and you have to say, it's an emotional issue. You're talking about an election year and you have a lot of bickering among all the politicians who are involved in this.

FRANKEN: Well, it's really interesting, the House of Representatives passed a law that was considered quite harsh. Among other things, it would make being an illegal in the United States a felony, as well as supporting that person. That has really been one of the inspirations for the turnout of these demonstrations.

In the Senate, they're trying to soften it, trying to come up with something that would include efforts to attain U.S. citizenship.

But compromises, thus far -- they have not been able to reach compromise.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JON KYL (R-AZ), INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: It seems to me that when we need foreign workers, we should invite them in with a temporary permit. But we should not turn them into legal permanent residents or citizens because there may well come a time, indeed, there will be a time when there is no job available for them.

REP. LUIS GUTIERREZ (D), ILLINOIS: They're part of the fabric of our society and they're necessary to the economic well being of our country. So let's include them. I agree enforcement is key and security is key, but let's do it comprehensively.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FRANKEN: Now, there will be counter-demonstrators today from organizations who believe that there should be very tough immigration laws. But, Soledad, they will clearly be overwhelmed by the thousands -- perhaps even a million -- who are going to be here demonstrating for better treatment of immigrants -- Soledad.

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

Bob, thanks -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Also on the front burner this morning, the administration's tactics in making the case for war in Iraq. There's mounting pressure on President Bush to justify releasing classified information.

CNN White House correspondent Ed Henry joining us live with more -- good morning, Ed.

HENRY: Good morning, Miles.

That pressure coming from a top Republican, Senator Arlen Specter, demanding that the president fully explain what happened in 2003 when the White House decided to release previously classified information to try to bolster the case for war.

That call from Specter coming as Ambassador Joe Wilson, whose tough questions sparked this whole dispute a couple of years ago, called on the president and the vice president to, in his words, "come clean" on this entire subject.

Of course, the latest round of bickering coming after last week's revelation from "Scooter" Libby, the former top aide to the vice president, who has been indicted and basically gave testimony saying the president authorized the release of this sensitive information.

The White House has said that the president, of course, has the legal authority to declassify any information. So technically this was not a leak in their eyes. And, of course, there's no evidence that the president was involved in specifically leaking the identity of Joe Wilson's wife, CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson.

But Democrats insist the president did mislead the public when he repeatedly denounced classified leaks. And the Democrats got a little bit of ammunition yesterday from Specter, who basically said, "There has to be a detailed explanation precisely as to what Vice President Cheney did, what the president said to him and an explanation from the president as to what he said so that it can be evaluated.

And this story clearly not going away.

On Wednesday, we're expecting a new court filing from "Scooter" Libby, which is bound to spark a whole new round of questions for the White House -- Miles. M. O'BRIEN: Ed Henry at the White House.

Thank you very much -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: The White House also trying to play down a report about attack plans for Iran's nuclear facilities. It's not a denial, but isstc instead that diplomacy is the administration's focus right now.

The report comes from "The New Yorker" magazine. Sy Hersh is the author. He says the U.S. is considering tactical nuclear weapons to be used against sites in Iran and that the Pentagon already has troops, American troops, inside Iran. Sy Hersh breaks that story in the new issue of "The New Yorker." We're going to talk to him about this story just ahead.

M. O'BRIEN: More cleanup this morning in Tennessee in the wake of those killer tornadoes that swept through over the weekend. The destruction immense. It turns out the big one that hit Sumner County, central Tennessee, was an F-3. That means 170 mile an hour winds. This morning, communities reaching out to help victims whose homes were destroyed. At least four tornadoes also hit Atlanta's northern suburbs on Saturday. No serious injuries reported there, however.

Let's get a check of the weather.

Chad Myers has one of the few quiet mornings we've had in a long while -- hello, Chad.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, I feel like taking a nap today to try to catch up from what we had last week.

M. O'BRIEN: You deserve it.

(WEATHER REPORT)

S. O'BRIEN: We have a really tough story to tell you about this morning. A little boy who called 911. The operator dismisses him, thinks it's a prank. There's the boy. Well, his mother was sick. Now she's dead. The family wants answers. This morning we talk to this little boy and his family members, as well.

M. O'BRIEN: Also, staffers say a congressman used them as a babysitter for his kids and a tutor for his wife. And guess what? You got stuck with the bill. How does he respond?

S. O'BRIEN: And more this morning on the showdown over Iran's nuclear ambitions. The U.S. is reportedly planning a military strike and nuclear weapons are on the table. We're going to talk to the reporter who's claiming all this just ahead.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: What to do about Iran's nuclear ambitions? The White House says diplomacy is the first option and they're playing down reports that military action is already being planned.

It's a major story in the current issue of "The New Yorker" magazine, written by Seymour Hersh.

Sy Hersh joins us from Washington this morning.

Nice to see you.

Thanks for talking with us.

SEYMOUR HERSH, "THE NEW YORKER": Glad to be here.

S. O'BRIEN: You claim in your article that military planners are considering, very much considering the use of nukes to destroy any kind of underground facility. Your sources, obviously, Sy, are anonymous. But give me a sense of who you're talking to.

HERSH: Well, first of all, that's not actually what the story says.

What the story says is a little bit the opposite.

What it is, is that the military was asked by the White House to give them a range of options for hitting the Iranian nuclear facility, the most important of which is -- are underground, deep underground. One of the places is called Natanz, 75 feet underground.

And they give the president a menu -- do nothing, if you want to make sure -- that's one option. If you want to make sure you're going to get rid of this facility underground, you use a tactical nuke. Most of the plans dealt with the bombing.

What happened is they gave this option, this menu to the president and the White House a few months ago. And then later the military, the joint chiefs, tried to walk back the nuclear option, which is, of course, crazy. Nobody in their right mind would use a nuclear weapon in the Muslim world. There's 1.2 billion Muslims that would be out to get us.

And the White House refused to rescind it. They told the planners to keep it in the plan. And that's the issue.

The issue is that the military wants this out and the White House is keeping it in. Nobody, I think, in the military, wants to use a nuclear weapon, but it's still in the plan.

S. O'BRIEN: So the military planners have now on that list of options nuclear -- the nuclear option is still on that list?

HERSH: Abso...

S. O'BRIEN: What have military officials told you about their concerns?

HERSH: Well, one of the concerns is that, as I said, it's irrational to think about using a nuclear weapon and there in -- the way, as I described it in the article, it's gotten to the point where, in a few weeks, it's hoped that the senior leadership of the military will go to the president and say categorically, Mr. President, no nuclear option. Take it off the table.

There is a lot of planning -- and, by the way, Soledad, the planning is not just contingency planning. It's going into the next phase, operational planning; that is, they're seriously looking at options.

But if the president doesn't choose to take -- remove the nuclear option, officers -- I'm told some senior officers will resign, probably privately, not publicly, but they will quit over this issue.

S. O'BRIEN: Here's what Dan Bartlett, counselor to the president, as you well know, has said yesterday in the Associated Press. He says: "Those who are drawing broad, definitive conclusions based on normal defense and intelligence planning are ill-informed and are not knowledgeable."

Why does this fall outside the range of normal planning?

HERSH: Because, as I say, it's operational. And the president has also made it very clear he and the vice president, Mr. Cheney, have both said, all options are on the table, which is probably one reason why they want to keep the nuclear option in the plans.

And the president has said is that if Iran goes to the next stage of nuclear development, which is beginning a small pilot program to enriching uranium, he will not let that happen. He will -- he will deal with it with force if he has to.

And so I think, in the military they take him very seriously. I quoted a number of people who described the president as privately talking about the leadership of Iran as being -- the president, who's been so critical of Israel, Ahmadinejad, who talks about the Holocaust not being a real thing. He thinks -- Bush thinks the leadership is Adolph Hitler, we're in 1935, he's messianic about it.

It's amazing language I'm hearing from some of my military sources. Their view of this president is someone who actually thinks it's really his mission in life to get rid of the nuclear threat in Iran once and for all, something he doesn't think a Republican or a Democrat would do who follows him.

S. O'BRIEN: If it's operational, what specifically are your sources telling you is being done right now?

HERSH: Well, we have -- we have men on the ground, not special forces, but regular Army -- military forces on the ground right now. Their job is to make contact with operational groups and also, in case bombing happens, these are the guys that are going to paint the targets with lasers. We use laser-guided bombs for -- our bombing is very accurate, within, you know, a few dozen feet. And the reason -- the reason the bombs are so accurate, we have people on the ground painting the targets with lasers. These guys would be in position to do that. And that's being planned right now. And that's, as I say, the next step, Soledad, when you're in this position, is you have a series of operational plans. You give them to the president. They pick one and then you get what they call a warning order.

And at that point they begin to really staff this one specific plan. And then the next stage is execute. This is going down the road right now.

S. O'BRIEN: Seymour Hersh wrote this article in "The New Yorker," the latest edition.

Thanks for talking with us, Sy.

Appreciate it.

HERSH: I'm glad to be here.

S. O'BRIEN: And there's much more on this story coming up a little bit later in this hour. We're going to put it in perspective with our Pentagon correspondent, Barbara Starr. And she's going to join us in just about 20 minutes -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: A little boy with a very sick mom gets the cold shoulder from a 911 operator. The mother is now dead. A lawsuit is in the works. You'll hear from the boy and his family shortly.

And drinking, driving and teens -- a powerful film that shows the tragic consequences of that mix. We'll talk to the filmmakers who are trying to keep our kids safe.

That's next on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: If the past weekend was typical, a teenager died in a car crash somewhere in this country, on average, each and every hour. Now, in half of those cases, alcohol is involved. The reality, the consequences of that carnage driven home in an award-winning HBO documentary called "Smashed."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP FROM "SMASHED," COURTESY HBO)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ETA on that?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Four minutes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What is this?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was a four-wheeler. The guy was ejected off it. I don't think he had a helmet on.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thirteen or 14 (UNINTELLIGIBLE)... UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Does anybody have scissors, please?

TIMMY'S MOTHER: Take it easy. Relax, babe. OK? The doctors are going to get you all better, OK?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The worst thing that could happen to him is he could become brain dead and die from this injury.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Until he wakes up and starts showing us what he can do, we can't tell where he's going to go right now.

TIMMY'S MOTHER: Timmy. It's Aunt Mary Jane and mommy.

MARY JANE: Hi, Timmy.

TIMMY'S MOTHER: Ah, hey, Timmy.

MARY JANE: Hi sweetie.

TIMMY'S MOTHER: Hi, baby. Timmy.

MARY JANE: Boy, you picked a hell of a way to get out of going back to school.

(CROSSTALK)

TIMMY'S MOTHER: Timmy, honey.

KATIE: I met these guys who weren't from anywhere around here and I thought the guy who was driving was pretty hot. So I, of course, got in the car with them.

I was in a coma for seven-and-a-half weeks.

KATIE'S MOTHER: You see TV shows where people wake up from a coma and they're perfectly fine and they walk out. Well, the only thing that comes to my mind to describe it is lights on, nobody's home. And you look at Katie and you think, you know, she's fine. And she's not fine. Her brain is not fine. Physically, she's probably 90 percent of what she used to be. The short-term memory is the worst thing.

KATIE: I keep losing my train of thought. I'm sorry, what was the question again?

TIMMY'S MOTHER: Stand up.

KATIE'S FATHER: Stand up. That's it.

TIMMY'S MOTHER: You see dad over there?

Can you walk over to dad?

KATIE'S FATHER: You're taller than I thought, man.

TIMMY'S MOTHER: You see dad up there? Are you going to follow him?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

TIMMY'S MOTHER: There you go.

TIMMY'S FATHER: OK.

TIMMY: I love you. It's frustrating to have to stay here.

TIMMY'S MOTHER: He's just looking forward to coming home and, you know, I finally got it out that he was going to have to go to rehab and he cried a little bit.

Are you getting scared a little bit inside?

TIMMY: Yes.

TIMMY'S MOTHER: A little bit?

TIMMY: Oh, yes.

TIMMY'S MOTHER: I know, Timmy. But it's going to be good for you. It's going to get you better quicker honey, OK?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

M. O'BRIEN: Terribly tragic stories. Every teen should see them.

The filmmakers behind that movie have just released a new book along with a DVD. It's called "Safe Road Home." The idea is to educate parents and help them talk to their teens about drinking and driving.

And we're joined now by the filmmakers, Karen Goodman and Kirk Simon.

Good to have you with us this morning.

What led you to this project? This is a movie that is, in many ways, a cause?

KAREN GOODMAN, "SAFE ROAD HOME": Absolutely.

Drinking and driving, it's like one word, the way we say it. The sad thing is it's been an issue for a very long time and it still is one. And so we wanted to take a different approach, using our skills as documentary filmmakers to really present real life stories of what happens to kids when they drink and drive or become passengers in a drinking and driving accident.

M. O'BRIEN: You know, you hit on something there, Kirk, that this is a subject that has been talked about for a long time, ever since the emergence of MADD and the real drive against this, if you'll excuse that term.

But the problem is what could be done differently? What was left to be said about it?

KIRK SIMON, "SAFE ROAD HOME": To make the DVD that's included in the book, we flew over 100 missions with EMS teams, picking up teenagers off of the highway at midnight, at 2:00 in the morning. We flew into the E.R. And, importantly, we told the story of six of them over the course of a year.

And in these conversations with parents, they endlessly would say what could I have done different? And we spent years talking with experts. And what you can do different is start talking to your kids. Start talking early and start talking often. The experts say as early as nine years old.

M. O'BRIEN: It's interesting, you know, talking to your kid at nine years old about drinking and driving, that -- it seems like that's almost premature.

But that's important, isn't it?

GOODMAN: It's very important, especially to begin talking about alcohol and the effects of alcohol on the brain. Sadly, statistics tell us that sixth graders, 10 to 15 percent of sixth graders say that they've actually dried a drink.

M. O'BRIEN: Wow!

GOODMAN: By tenth grade, when kids are learning how to drive and getting learner's permits and such, the figure rises to three quarters. Nearly three quarters of all teens say they've tried drinking.

M. O'BRIEN: Now, the book has some useful information for parents on how to handle this, including a quiz. And I'll just give you an example of one of the questions here. If your teen called you from a party at 1:00 a.m. asking for a ride home, would you: A, be relieved he or she called to ask; B, be annoyed; C, reprimand or even punish him or her for calling; or, D, be happy, especially since you encourage it.

Now, looking at that, you say well, you know, of course, you wouldn't reprimand -- but in the real world people get angry in these situations. It's important for parents to encourage that dialogue because that can save a life, can't it?

SIMON: We say start the dialogue and know what you would do in advance. Really talk to your teen so the teen knows in advance. A lot of these teens fear the wrath of their parents more than they will protect their own safety. And so they need to know that when they call at 1:00 -- because all the parents we know go to bed far earlier than that -- that you can...

M. O'BRIEN: Yes, especially me.

SIMON: ... you can wake your parent up and it's fine. And you'll be congratulated. M. O'BRIEN: Yes, I think that's really important. But that's changing mind sets here. It's changing the way parents communicate with kids. That's really important.

GOODMAN: Absolutely. And it's not a one time conversation. It's not like gee, we had the sex talk, we had the drinking and driving talk, it's over. It has to become a way of life.

Sadly, kids say that -- that they just don't believe that their parents won't get angry, the kids that we've talked to. They say they just don't believe that there won't be some repercussions, they won't be grounded when they get home. And, unfortunately, some of them become grounded for life if they get into an accident.

M. O'BRIEN: Quite literally.

You had the grim task of seeing just the real carnage that comes along with this. And in a sense, as awful as that was, did you find yourself kind of wishing that a lot of kids could see this and really understand what it's all about?

SIMON: Well, actually, a lot of kids have seen this.

M. O'BRIEN: Yes.

SIMON: It's a DVD that was on HBO. That's tucked into the back of the book.

M. O'BRIEN: No, I mean firsthand, being, you know what I mean?

SIMON: Well, that's what the point of DVD is.

M. O'BRIEN: Yes, yes.

SIMON: You really are there firsthand. And, more importantly, you're having teens talk to you about what exactly happened to them. And that's what we're trying to get across. This is the point of view of teens.

GOODMAN: There's no preaching in this DVD or in the book. This is information. This is reality. It's not about being pedantic.

M. O'BRIEN: And it's important information for parents and for teens.

Kirk Simon, Karen Goodman, good luck with the film.

Thank you for your time.

SIMON: A pleasure.

GOODMAN: Thanks.

S. O'BRIEN: Ahead this morning, a little boy's calls for help ignored by 911. Well, now his mom is dead. His family wants answers. We're going to talk to this little boy and his attorney, too. That's just ahead.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: A real life extortion scandal now played out in the gossip pages. A billionaire claiming he was told to pay to keep bad publicity away.

And a desperate call for help goes ignored. We're going to talk to a little boy who called 911 to report his mother unconscious. He was scolded by the operator and then she died.

M. O'BRIEN: Good morning.

Good to have you with us this morning on this Monday morning.

Let's get right to it.

Iran's nuclear ambitions may be prompting talk of a nuclear response, or so it is written in the new issue of "The New Yorker" magazine. Investigative reporter Seymour Hersh wrote the piece, claiming the Pentagon already is in an operational phase, with boots on the ground inside Iran and the White House is insisting on keeping a nuclear option on the table.

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