Return to Transcripts main page

American Morning

DNA Tests Back in Duke University Rape Investigation; Sharon Era Ends; Iran Nuclear Threat?

Aired April 11, 2006 - 08:59   ET

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

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: A state of emergency in California. One official there says they cannot control the rising rivers and reservoirs.
A similar story in Utah, where a massive mudslide forces evacuations. The worst may still be to come.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: More rain for California today and for Utah tomorrow. Two things they don't need.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: DNA tests are back in the Duke University rape investigation. This morning, reaction on campus as prosecutors plan their next move.

And a court appearance is just moments away for accused killer Neil Entwistle. We could hear from him for the first time since the death of his wife and daughter.

And also this...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I can't make it across in the amount of time that the light is set for.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

S. O'BRIEN: That woman punished because she wasn't walking fast enough. We have her story on this AMERICAN MORNING.

Good morning. Welcome back, everybody. Lots to get to this morning. Let's get right to it.

The district attorney in the Duke rape investigation says he is still pursuing the case even after defense lawyers say DNA results do not match any of the players.

CNN's Jason Carroll live for us in Durham, North Carolina, this morning.

Hey, Jason. Good morning.

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you.

And the district attorney in this particular case hopefully will be able to hear a little bit more later on today about his thoughts on the case. He will be attending a conference at the victim's university. That is North Carolina Central University.

That's going to be happening a little bit later on today. Hopefully we'll get some more thoughts about how he plans to pursue his case.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CARROLL (voice-over): The defense attorneys representing 46 members of Duke University's lacrosse team were very definitive.

WADE SMITH, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: No DNA material from any young man tested was present on the body of this complaining woman, not present within her body, not present on the surface of her body, and not present on any of her belongings.

JOSEPH CHESHIRE, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: There is no evidence, other than the word of this one complaining person, that any rape or sexual assault took place in that house on that evening. It wasn't here two weeks ago. It's not here today. It won't be here tomorrow.

CARROLL: Durham's district attorney handed over the results after receiving them late today. But he wouldn't comment on them.

MICHAEL NIFONG, DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA, DISTRICT ATTORNEY: It would be inappropriate for me to comment on any of the evidence at this point. And it would be inappropriate for me to comment on any of the things that have been said by the defense counsel. I'm trying to prepare a case, so that we can be in a position to do what we need to do, under my statutory authority.

CARROLL: An exotic dancer who attends a nearby university by day has told police she was raped by three lacrosse team members after she performed at a party at this off-campus house rented by the players. The players have maintained, nothing happened.

In addition to the DNA results, Bill Thomas, an attorney for one of the players, says he has time-stamped pictures that he says discount some of the young woman's allegations.

BILL THOMAS, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: These photographs corroborate the statement of all 46 of these young men. It's very clear that the victim in this case came to the house with injuries on her.

CARROLL: The father of one of the players expressed relief at the evidence, but concern about the impact on the team.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But they all are, as they say, cautiously optimistic. They know that this is -- is not over. They know that there's a lot -- a lot of scrutiny on the program, on the school, and that probably lacrosse at Duke and life at Duke will never be the same. We hope it's better.

CARROLL: The case has already magnified racial tensions in the community. The young woman is black. She says the three white players who attacked her used racial slurs. CHESHIRE: None of us standing up here are saying that there aren't proper social and moral issues that have come out of this discussion that aren't appropriate for discussion. There are. But, unfortunately, people have meshed those things with this sexual assault.

CARROLL: The defense attorneys say their clients are relieved, but not surprised by the DNA results. They also say it's time for the district attorney to drop the case, so Duke's players, the university, and the community can begin to heal.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CARROLL: And there has been the thought that perhaps once the DNA test results were released that that would help ease some of the tensions that were raised by this case. And I think as this day and as the week plays out, we'll have to see if that pans out to be true -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: So then, Jason, without the DNA evidence, what else is the D.A. going to rely on?

CARROLL: Well, in a conversation that I had with the district attorney last week, he did indicate that the alleged victim in this particular case did check into a hospital shortly after the alleged attack. Perhaps there's some evidence there, some evidence from the hospital. But what this ultimately may come down to is her testimony, her word against the word of the lacrosse players.

S. O'BRIEN: All right. We'll wait and see.

Jason Carroll for us this morning.

Thanks, Jason -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: The Boston-area man accused of killing his wife and young daughter, then fleeing to his native England is slated for a court appearance this morning. Accused murderer Neil Entwistle being arraigned in Cambridge. Live pictures of that courtroom. He should walk through that door shortly.

Carol Costello watching developments for us in the newsroom -- Carol.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Yes. You're taking a look at the door of courtroom 10B in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Neil Entwistle has not entered the courtroom yet, but friends and family are already in the gallery awaiting his presence.

As you said, this is an arraignment, so we could hear him speak out for the very first time. He could plead guilty or not guilty.

As you know, in the past he has pleaded not guilty to murdering his wife Rachel, 28 years old, and his baby daughter Lillian Rose, 9 months old. She would have been 1 year old yesterday. I'm sure you've heard the story before. Neil Entwistle claimed that he went home and he found his wife and daughter dead. He thought about committing suicide, and when he couldn't do that he went to his parents' home in Britain.

There was a manhunt going down for him. He finally was found. He was extradited back to Massachusetts, where he's going to stand trial.

And as I said, I'm still looking at the door here in courtroom 10B in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He has not come through the door yet. When he does, we'll get back to this live feed for you to show you. But again, this is only an arraignment, and he could enter a plea and we could hear him speaking out for the first time in public.

So when he enters the courtroom, I'm sure you'll come back to me -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: All right. Carol, thanks. We'll continue to watch it with you as well.

Let's talk about Israel now, the end of an era today. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon removed from his leadership role three months after he suffered a massive stroke.

CNN's John Vause has more on the Israeli cabinet's decision.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN VAUSE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Finally, the government made it official, declaring what almost every Israeli had come to accept, Ariel Sharon is permanently incapacitated and will not be returning to public office.

Sharon's slide from the peak of his political power began in the final weeks of last year. Suffering a minor stroke, he was rushed to Jerusalem's Hadassah hospital but was released just two days later, joking and smiling.

"I was touched by the great concerns expressed over my health, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart. But now I must rush off and get back to work," he said, leaving the hospital. Elections were looming, and he'd just formed a new party called Kadima.

DAVID HOROVITZ, EDITOR, "JERUSALEM POST": He felt he had to come out as quickly as he could smiling and on his own two feet because otherwise he would be a political lame duck.

VAUSE: But less than three weeks later, he was back in the same hospital after a major stroke. He would undergo three emergency operations in 24 hours. To stabilize his condition, doctors induced a coma from which it's unlikely he'll ever recover.

At the time, Sharon was declared temporarily incapacitated. Ehud Olmert made acting prime minister and took over as leader of the new Kadima party. At elections last month, Kadima won the most seats in parliament and Olmert is now forming a coalition government. Within the next six weeks it's likely he'll become prime minister in his own right, ending the Sharon era.

GERALD STEINBERG, BAR-ILAN UNIVERSITY: There will be a sense of loss and a realization that the new leaders, not just Mr. Olmert, but really everybody in the other parties are not going to have the presence that Sharon had, the domination of a political landscape.

VAUSE (on camera): Under Israeli law, Sharon had 100 days to recover before being officially replaced. The deadline is actually this coming Friday, but because of the Jewish Passover holidays, the announcement was brought forward with one condition, should Sharon somehow wake from his coma before Friday, the decision will be revoked.

John Vause, CNN, Jerusalem.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

M. O'BRIEN: A 50-foot wall of mud came crashing down on a Salt Lake City neighborhood the other night and now there's concern there might be more mudslides on the way. A 4-year-old girl suffered a broken leg when the mudslide destroyed her family's home, as you see there.

On Sunday, residents of 15 other homes evacuated. Experts now trying to determine how much danger there is right now. More mudslides.

Rivers and reservoirs in California, the central part, northern central part of California at a breaking point. There's a state of emergency there. More rain expected. California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger made the declaration to free up disaster money just in case.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER (R), CALIFORNIA: Any little thing now can really create a huge break in our levees. And we are now almost at the levels, at the water levels of the 1997 levee breaks, when we had a huge disaster here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

M. O'BRIEN: That would be bad if they had those huge levee breaks. A lot of concern. Those are a lot of old earthen levees, right, Chad?

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: You know, they were made originally to protect the farmland from the rivers. Well, then, someone thought it would be a really great idea to use some of that farmland to put houses on because people could live there. And now that's obviously a bigger problem then they probably thought of when they were thinking of building those houses there. And that's not in every case, but in many of the cases it is. And there's more rain today, an inch or two of rain.

(WEATHER REPORT)

MYERS: Back to you guys.

M. O'BRIEN: Chad, are you a country music fan?

MYERS: Absolutely.

M. O'BRIEN: Stay with me on this, because I need your help. Some prayers were answered last night at the Country Music Awards. Spiritual songs reigned supreme, but the night kind of kicked off a little hip shaking. Let's look at that first.

All right. Chad, am I hearing that right, it's the "Honky Tonk Ba Donk-A-Donk"?

MYERS: Yes. You know, but that looked like the Super Bowl before, more than the Country Music Awards, didn't it?

M. O'BRIEN: Was there any wardrobe malfunction we need to be aware of?

MYERS: I hope not.

M. O'BRIEN: I hope not.

That's Trace Adkins with the "Honky Tonk Ba Donk-A-Donk".

MYERS: Yes.

M. O'BRIEN: Who comes up with lyrics like that?

Keith Urban won video of the year for his song "Better Life."

You know this one, Chad?

MYERS: Great. You know, I just -- I love the entertainer. He was entertainer of the year last year and I just love his stuff.

M. O'BRIEN: Yes.

S. O'BRIEN: And he's so cute. And he's dating Nicole Kidman.

MYERS: That's...

M. O'BRIEN: Well, that -- now, see? All of a sudden, Soledad's awake.

S. O'BRIEN: Did somebody say Keith Urban?

M. O'BRIEN: Her ears perked up. Apparently, displaced choirs from the Gulf Coast backed him up, which is kind of a nice touch.

And then, of course, Carrie Underwood.

MYERS: Yes.

M. O'BRIEN: Really the only career out of "Idol," right?

MYERS: You know, though, you listen to the idols this year and then you listen to her, and she was so amazing. She still is amazing, right?

S. O'BRIEN: Kelly Clarkston also.

M. O'BRIEN: Oh, Kelly Clarkston. I was getting confused.

S. O'BRIEN: I mean, she's not a country singer.

M. O'BRIEN: There are two careers. There are two careers that came out of -- I'm sorry, Kelly, if you're watching. I got confused.

MYERS: And Bo Bice. I mean, he has some records, too.

M. O'BRIEN: He does?

S. O'BRIEN: Yes.

M. O'BRIEN: All right. Two-and-a-half careers.

S. O'BRIEN: Clay Aiken -- three and a half.

M. O'BRIEN: Anyway, sorry we missed that.

Oh, and then there's this one. Who is that? Kenny Chesney.

Chad, you need a hat like that.

MYERS: I have a hat like that.

M. O'BRIEN: You do? Well, why don't you -- why don't you wear it tomorrow?

MYERS: You know what, though? The black felt hat is for winter. And then the straw hat is for summer. So he's kind of right on the edge between summer and winter there. That's a -- that's a good looking hat.

M. O'BRIEN: So if you're a country guy, do you call it a faux pas or a foxy possie (ph)? What do you think?

MYERS: I say you call it the wrong hat.

M. O'BRIEN: You call it the wrong hat.

S. O'BRIEN: How many more minutes left in this show today?

M. O'BRIEN: It will be over.

S. O'BRIEN: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for trying to help him out.

M. O'BRIEN: Thank you, Chad, for your help, as always.

MYERS: You're welcome.

M. O'BRIEN: The immigration battle spills into the streets. Coming up, a closer look at how those protests could shape the midterm elections.

S. O'BRIEN: Also, if you wish you had more energy to get through the day, the author of a new book which is called "The 10-Minute Energy Solution" is going to be with us to offer some advice.

M. O'BRIEN: And one newspaper's nightmare, another newspaper's dream come true. A closer look at the New York City gossip wars and how the tabloids are going at it already.

That's ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: The big story we're following for you, we were watching the arraignment of this man, Neil Entwistle, the British national who was charged last month by a grand jury with murdering his wife and his infant daughter and then fleeing the country. Well, he has pled not guilty today in his arraignment, two counts of murder.

That was taking place in Massachusetts Middlesex Superior Court. He also pled not guilty to possession of firearms. He continues to be held without bail, and obviously this case is ongoing as his trial gets under way.

M. O'BRIEN: On the day after a bombshell, if you will, article in "The New Yorker" authored by Sy Hersh which indicated or suggested that the Bush administration was pushing for all manner of military options as it relates to Iran, up to and including the possibility of tactical nuclear weapons, the president yesterday went out of his way to say that diplomacy was the option the government is pursuing at this point.

So, what was that all about? Was that saber rattling, or was it a story that was wrong, or perhaps a little bit of both?

Ken Pollack is a former CIA analyst. He is now with the Saban Center at the Brookings Institution. He joins us from Washington.

Ken, good to have you with us.

KEN POLLACK, SABAN CENTER AT BROOKINGS INSTITUTION: Thanks, Miles. Good to be here, as always.

M. O'BRIEN: Well, about this time yesterday we had Sy Hersh on, and Soledad was asking him about the report, and specifically in the report was the notion that the White House was insisting to the Pentagon that the nuclear option be -- remain on the table as one of the options as it relates to dealing with Iran. Listen to Mr. Hersh for a moment.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEYMOUR HERSH, "THE NEW YORKER": 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 it out and the White House is keeping it in.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

M. O'BRIEN: All right. True, false or somewhere in between?

POLLACK: Well, look, honestly, Miles nobody has the sources that Sy Hersh does. He is an award-winning reporter for very good reason.

That said, I don't think any of us really knows what the truth on this matter is. My understanding from different people is you have targeteers in the Pentagon who are looking at the problem of, how would you go about destroying Iran's nuclear program if the president ordered you to do so? And these are -- these are technical people, and they look at some of the Iranian facilities and they say, you know what, these Iranian facilities are so well dug in, they are so well defended, that it probably would take nuclear penetrator (ph) munitions to actually destroy them.

You have other people out there saying, you know what? The United States is never, ever going to use nuclear weapons ever again, they are nothing but a deterrent for the United States. And I don't think any of us really has independent understanding of where things stand on that.

M. O'BRIEN: All right. Let's take the nuclear thing off to the side here for a moment.

When it comes to just considering the notion of a military strike against Iran, there's no real assure that they would be able to do anything more than perhaps delay the program for a couple of years. It runs the risk of really hardening the government and the people on the notion that they need to pursue this course of action, a nuclear program.

So the risks of a military operation seem very high.

POLLACK: I think that's right, Miles. And what you're getting to is the fact that there are a lot of real important unknowns about a military operation against Iran.

We don't really know how much we can set back the program. We know we can blow up a lot of things, and we can probably make life difficult for the Iranians in the short run, but would that mean setting back the Iranians a year? Two years? Five years? None of us knows, because we don't really know exactly where the Iranians are in their program.

In addition, as you're pointing out, there are some risks in terms of how the Iranians might respond. And I think this is a very important point to keep in mind.

People, I think, often think about the Israeli strike against the Iraqi nuclear reactor in 1981 at the Osirak strike, where just 15 Israeli warplanes went in, set back the Iraqi program for some amount of time. Well, no one really knows the answer to that either. And there was no real repercussions.

In the case of Iran, that's unlikely. It's a much bigger program. It would require a much biger air effort. And we would have to expect that the Iranians would hit us back.

This could be the start of an open-ended war with Iran. A much bigger prospect, and something, if we're talking about the military option, we need to keep that in mind. It's not going to be a surgical strike.

M. O'BRIEN: On that ominous note, one final thought here. Intelligence. The truth of the mater is, the intelligence leading up to Iraq was pretty much dead wrong. At this point, Americans would be forgiven if they don't trust anything they're hearing about the intelligence in Iran.

What do you think?

POLLACK: Yes. Look, I'm definitely in that category. I've been burned twice in both directions on the Iraq intelligence. I am very dubious about this. Let me make this point, though. In the case of Iran, the situation is very different.

In the case of Iran, the U.N.'s monitoring group, the IAEA, has actually found and the Iranians have admitted to what they could never find in Iraq and what the Iraqis would never admit to. The Iranians have admitted they are trying to build the entire nuclear fuel cycle, what they would need to build a nuclear weapon. And the world is pretty much in agreement that the Iranians shouldn't be allowed to have it.

So, I don't think it's likely that we'll fall into that same trap with Iran. What I'm nervous about is the other trap with Iran, the other trap we fell into with Iraq, where a group of people in the administration came to believe that going to war with Iraq would be quick and easy and wouldn't require a big effort. That's what I think would be wrong, that if we went to war with Iran and perhaps the president might decide we need to do so, we need to recognize that is going to equally be a very big and potentially costly operation.

M. O'BRIEN: Ken Pollack with the Saban Center at the Brookings Institution.

Thanks for your time.

POLLACK: Thank you, Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Well, the day has just begun, but are you already exhausted? I am. Coming up, tips on boosting your energy from the author of the book "The 10-Minute Energy Solution."

And if you knew what your kids would turn out to be 30 years from now, would that make you change how they eat and how they exercise? There's a new TV show that's helping families make some pretty big changes. We're going to talk to the host just ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: When you get up early, certainly energy can be tough to come by. Throw in some kids, and nearly impossible.

Is there a way to change the equation? Author and energy coach John Gordon says actually it's easy.

He's got a new book. In fact, he says it just takes 10 minutes of your day.

Jon Gordon joins us this morning.

Nice to see you. Good morning.

JON GORDON, "THE 10-MINUTE ENERGY SOLUTION": Good to be with you.

S. O'BRIEN: You have what you call the essential energy booster. So I want to read the list for you.

GORDON: Sure.

S. O'BRIEN: Get enough sleep, exercise, breathe to relief stress, drink plenty of water, eat breakfast and healthy meals, connect with energetic people, listen to music.

I read that list and I think, OK, I'm not really doing all those things, but I know I should be doing all those things. What's new about your book?

GORDON: Right. I think what's new is that it's a plan that -- there's a great gap between knowing and doing. So this plan helps you take action.

These are the foundations, the things mom's been telling us to do for years that we need to do every day. And when we do we feel more energetic, we feel more alive, like eating breakfast. You're more alert and you increase your energy throughout the day just by eating breakfast.

Water, we're made of 70 percent water. We're not made of dieted sodas. But the myth of eight cups a day, that's a myth. You're really supposed to drink half your body weight in ounces. So, if you weigh 100 pounds, you would drink 50 ounces of water.

S. O'BRIEN: So basically it's putting your mind to doing the things that are on this list. Let me ask...

GORDON: It's putting your mind to do, and it's strategy-driven.

S. O'BRIEN: You talk about sort of these 10-minute increments.

GORDON: Right.

S. O'BRIEN: And I think 10 minutes, I mean, you know, you're not going to get anything done in 10 minutes. Let me run through the list of the things you say people could do in 10 minutes.

Take a walk, smile and laugh, dance and play, lose your mind. And three simple exercises: chair squats, push-ups and crunches.

Is it really enough time to -- I mean, seriously, to change your life in sort of 10-minute increments?

GORDON: It really is. It's about investing your energy 10 minutes a day. For instance, if you would garden, you would plant flowers and weed 10 minutes a day. Now, one day wouldn't be a lot, but every day over 365 days a year produces amazing results.

S. O'BRIEN: So it's really consistency.

GORDON: It's consistency, and also, in those 10 minutes you raise your energy level. You raise your energy. And that lasts the entire day. And the accumulative effect of every day -- this is a 30- day plan, but my hope is that people would do it for the rest of their lives.

S. O'BRIEN: Yes, don't just stop after a month.

GORDON: Right. Yes -- right.

S. O'BRIEN: Have you really seen people sort of switch? I mean, you write a lot about some of the psychological changes.

GORDON: Right.

S. O'BRIEN: You know, can you change your world view from being like a glass half empty kind of gal to being a glass half full kind of person?

GORDON: Yes. I'm someone who has done that. I get e-mails every day from people who have done that.

It's about choice, and happiness really is a choice. Abraham Lincoln said a man or woman is about as happy as they choose to be. So we can choose our happiness.

For instance, if you're stressed, you can choose to be thankful. And when you're thankful, you flood your brain and your body with positive emotions that make you feel good rather than the negative emotions like stress, fear, anxiety that drain your energy. So it's a shift in perspective. And then when you -- for instance, if you're a worrier, you can say, I'm thankful I have all the people to worry about.

S. O'BRIEN: It's really just spinning your world view.

GORDON: Right.

S. O'BRIEN: Let me ask you about these energy drains that you just talked about. You list caffeine and negative people and technology overload. Or really coffee, specifically.

You think people should give up coffee?

GORDON: I don't think they should give it up. My rule of thumb is, a cup of coffee good, pot of coffee, bad.

S. O'BRIEN: I'm a pot of coffee kind of gal.

GORDON: If you love your morning cup, great. But afternoons, switch to green tea, which has less caffeine, more antioxidants, fights cancer, prevents against heart disease. Drink more water. Water is the ultimate energy drink, and you'll feel more alive.

See, the caffeine is borrowed energy. So you have that temporary boost, but then you need more to keep you going. Water, whole foods from nature, you sustain and nourish yourselves at the energetic level, which makes you feel good all day.

So, forget the quick fixes. Do the 10-minute energy boosters that make you feel alive. And it will be a feeling you have throughout the day and the year.

S. O'BRIEN: And then hopefully, right, we continue on.

GORDON: Right.

S. O'BRIEN: "The 10-Minute Energy Solution." Jon Gordon is the author.

Well, you have a lot of energy. I'm dragging. But you're not. Thanks so much for talking with us.

GORDON: Thank you. It's great to be with you.

S. O'BRIEN: Thank you.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com