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American Morning

Zacarias Moussaoui Defense; Iran Nuclear Threat; Michael Brown Out

Aired April 13, 2006 - 08:59   ET

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

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: I'm Jeanne Meserve at the federal courthouse in Alexandria, Virginia. The only man charged in connection with the 9/11 attacks may take the stand today as the jury considers whether he should live or he should die.
That story coming up.

ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: I'm Elaine Quijano, live at the White House. The Bush administration is talking tough about Iran and urging some strong steps by the U.N. Security Council.

I'll have details coming up.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Carol Costello. The idea of former FEMA chief Michael Brown going down to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina not such a good idea. We'll tell you what happened in just about two minutes.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: A new way to look at accidents. How dashboard cams are offering a clear-cut record of just who cut off whom.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: And inducing labor and elective C- sections. More and more women are making appointments to have their babies. Is it safe for mom and baby?

We'll take a closer look in this morning's "House Call."

M. O'BRIEN: Good morning, everybody. I'm Miles O'Brien. We're glad you're with us this morning.

S. O'BRIEN: And I'm Soledad O'Brien. Welcome back, everybody.

Zacarias Moussaoui, is he insane? Attorneys for the admitted al Qaeda conspirator hope to convince a jury of just that. His defense begins today. They're trying to save Moussaoui from possible execution.

Let's get right to CNN's Jeanne Meserve. She's outside the federal courthouse in Alexandria, Virginia.

Hey, Jeanne. Good morning.

MESERVE: Good morning, Soledad. The defense will be trying to rebut a powerful prosecution case which included the first public playing of the cockpit voice recorder from Flight 93.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MESERVE (voice over): It was 31 minute of horror beginning with the struggle for the cockpit. The hijackers repeatedly saying, "Shut up! Sit down!"

An unidentified crew member says pleads, "Please, please don't hurt me... Oh, god." And later, a voice says, "I don't want to die. I don't want to die."

A few minutes later, a hijacker says, "Everything is fine. I finished."

The hijackers turned the plane eastward. For a time all is quiet. Then the hijackers realize the passengers are in revolt. One says, "They want to get in there. Hold, hold from the inside."

An unidentified man says in English, "Let's get them." There was the sound of a struggle.

In the cockpit, "If we don't, we'll die," says a passenger, adding "Roll it." An apparent reference to a beverage cart used to batter the cockpit door.

The hijackers pitch the plane from side to side and tilt the nose up and down. More struggle. The hijackers discuss whether or not to bring the plane down.

"Allah is the greatest," one hijacker chants over and over. And then the recording ends. The flight has crashed.

Hamilton Peterson lost his father and stepmother on Flight 93. He was in the courtroom.

HAMILTON PETERSON, FLIGHT 93 FAMILY MEMBER: What was going through my heart is that this is an example of ordinary citizens stepping up to the plate on a moment's notice and protecting the United States Capitol from a terrorist attack.

MESERVE: As the courtroom sat riveted listening to the tape and watching a video simulation of the plane, its course and its instrumentation, Zacarias Moussaoui smiled.

ROSEMARY DILLARD, FLIGHT 93 FAMILY MEMBER: Witnesses would be up there pouring out their hearts and he's sitting there smirking. I mean, to have no concept of what a life is worth, I just can't imagine a person being that way.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

S. O'BRIEN: Jeanne, a quick question for you. Moussaoui, of course, as you know, did tons of damage to his own case when he was on the stand. Do you think he's going to be on the stand again?

MESERVE: Our understanding is that he will be and he could be today. He's indicated he does want to testify. The judge has indicated he has a right to do that, although it's probably the last thing his lawyers want to see -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Yes, I bet. The defense attorneys did want to see Richard Reid, they said, on the stand. Do you think we're going to see him?

MESERVE: Well, he's been subpoenaed. They want to see him because Moussaoui said in the first phase of the trial that he and Reid were supposed to fly a fifth plane into the White House on September 11th. So they've asked him to appear here. Unclear at this point in time whether he actually will -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Jeanne Meserve for us this morning.

Jeanne, thank you very much.

You'll want to stay tuned to CNN day and night for the most reliable news about your security -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: A top U.N. official in Iran this morning tried to slow that country's steady march toward a full-scale nuclear program and some suggest atomic weapons. Mohamed ElBaradei, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, is the man of the hour right now. He arrived in Tehran just a few hours ago, says he'll ask Iran to suspend its efforts to make nuclear fuel called enrichment.

Tehran's nuclear ambitions fueling the U.S. desire to slap sanctions on that country.

CNN's Elaine Quijano at the White House with more.

Good morning, Elaine.

ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Miles.

And officials here are emphasizing that it is not just the United States voicing concern about Iran's nuclear ambitions, but the international community. The U.S. says that Iran is moving in the wrong direction.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says that the world cannot let that continue. And she says when the United Nations Security Council reconvenes later this month, that it will be time for action.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CONDOLEEZZA RICE, SECRETARY OF STATE: I do think that the Security Council will need to take into consideration this -- this move by Iran, and that it will be time when it reconvenes on this case for strong steps to make certain that we maintain the credibility of the international community on this issue. (END VIDEO CLIP)

QUIJANO: So what could those strong steps be? Well, senior U.S. officials are saying they could include a travel ban against Iranian officials, and also the freezing of assets of the Iranian regime. On that latter point, the U.S. has already, of course, done that, but a U.N. resolution would mean that all 185 U.N. member countries would be required to do so as well -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Elaine, tell us about the difficult tightrope act that the administration has to walk here. They want to be tough with the government of Iran, and yet the people of Iran who actually love Americans, they don't want to alienate them, because they could take matters into their own hands and elect somebody else.

QUIJANO: Absolutely. It is a very fine line that the administration is having to walk. As you point out, on the one hand, the tough talk against the Iranian regime certainly continuing. At same time, though, White House officials are very mindful of the message that is being sent to the Iranian people themselves.

That is why we are seeing aides being so careful to emphasize that this is not a question of Iran's right to civilian nuclear technology, perhaps how the Iranian regime is trying to portray this, but rather, in the Bush administration's eyes, this is about the entire world saying they do not believe Iran should get its hands on a nuclear weapon -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Elaine Quijano at the White House. Thank you -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Well, he didn't even get a chance to do a heck of a job. Mike Brown is now backing out of a chance to get a paid consulting gig in St. Bernard Pairish in Louisiana.

Let's get right to Carol Costello. She's following that story for us this morning.

Hey, Carol.

COSTELLO: Well, he did have a slight chance, at least St. Bernard Parish councilman Junior Rodriguez thought it might be a god idea to employ the services of Michael Brown, the FEMA chief, to help guide the council through FEMA, because who knows the ins and outs better than Michael Brown? St. Bernard is still very troubled. It looks much the same as it looks right now in those pictures.

Those pictures were taken months ago. Twenty-six thousand homes damaged in this neighborhood, 129 people died. And again, they thought it would be a great idea to bring Michael Brown down.

He was going go before the council today, kind of lobby his cause and say that he could really help them get some money and help from FEMA. But then the controversy started and comments like this from Mark Matare (ph) of -- a St. Bernard Parish councilman. He said -- and I quote -- "It would be like me asking Michael Jackson to run a child care center. I thought the FEMA response during his tenure and since his tenure has not helped St. Bernard, and I felt if we were left by ourselves -- stranded. For us to bring him in now, the perception would kill us."

So, Michael Brown heard those comments, said there was too much controversy. Here's his response.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL BROWN, FMR. FEMA DIRECTOR: I heard the previous story about some people don't like me and they're mad at me and that sort of thing. I understand that completely, but I know in my heart what I was doing. I think the videotape showed that came out a few weeks ago what I was doing to try to help people in New Orleans. And I'm still trying to help people in Louisiana and Mississippi.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: In the end, the controversy got just too hot. Michael Brown said that would cloud really cloud his efforts. So he will not be lobbying to become a paid consultant, but he said he would offer advice for free -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Thank you very much, Carol.

The rain may let up today, but not the fear of mudslides in California. One mudslide in Monte Rio, near Napa, forced three families from their homes.

In Mill Valley, near San Francisco, searchers are trying to find a 73-year-old man believed buried under a wall of mud which came down on his house.

Time now for the forecast. Chad with that.

Hello, Chad.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: I mean, if you remember some of the past mudslides, even though the rain had stopped for two or three days, the mud was still moving. So, just because we're having a 24 to 36-hour break here in the rain, you really can't let your guard down if you live in one of those flood or mud-prone areas.

(WEATHER REPORT)

MYERS: Back to you.

S. O'BRIEN: Thank you, Chad.

M. O'BRIEN: Thank you very much, Chad.

Do you have a question for me, Chad? Any questions? Any questions?

MYERS: Are you back on that thing again? You back on CNN.com?

S. O'BRIEN: That would be a question.

M. O'BRIEN: One question would be, why are you doing that again?

MYERS: You would think that all the questions would be answered by now.

M. O'BRIEN: You would think.

MYERS: You're not that deep of a person, Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: No, that is trues. That is very true. There's a deep reservoir of questions. I have a very thin response level.

So, ask Miles at...

MYERS: There you go.

M. O'BRIEN: ... CNN.com/pipeline, 10:30 Eastern Time. But now is your time to do your part, which is to send questions to AM@CNN.com. And then you can spool up pipeline at 10:30, which we invite you to do. It's a great service offered by CNN.

MYERS: I'd like to do that with you some day.

M. O'BRIEN: Well, you know what? That is a great idea. We're going to work that out.

MYERS: OK. I'll fly to New York.

M. O'BRIEN: We can do it that way. We have the technology, you could probably do it right there.

MYERS: All right.

S. O'BRIEN: I'm going to send you a question right now.

M. O'BRIEN: Next week. Next week, we're going to include that.

All right. So, in the meantime, for today, since we don't have that worked out yet, it will just be me in my office. And actually, we'll preview a few of the questions at the end of this hour, and maybe we'll include you in that.

All right? So that's coming up.

S. O'BRIEN: And also coming up this morning, more and more women are trying to schedule the birth of their kids. Elective C-sections and induced labor, is that safe for both mom and child? We're going to take a look at that this morning.

M. O'BRIEN: Also, we're going to tell you about -- it's a story about unruly behavior, kids that do things that are destructive and disruptive. One solution will quite literally shock you. We'll have the details in just a moment.

S. O'BRIEN: And we often show you dramatic car crashes caught on tape by these dashboard-mounted cameras. Well, now those same cameras are being used to save lives. We'll explain how. That story's coming up next on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: If you've ever been in an accident and you felt like you didn't have the right evidence to prove your case, there may be a solution for you, dashboard cams, which are becoming not just popular in police cruisers, but in many cars you might have in your driveway.

CNN's Greg Hunter joining us now with us a closer look at these cameras that really, in some cases, could be lifesavers -- Greg.

GREG HUNTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It could be lifesavers, you're absolutely right. And it's not just taking a look at an accident, but it's also taking a look at an accident and also driver behavior that could make people better drivers on the road, especially commercial drivers.

Here's more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRYAN PACELLI, CAR CRASH VICTIM: I should have been dead. There's no doubt.

HUNTER (voice over): The last thing Bryan Pacelli, a father of two, remembers is traffic slowing down. Brian is driving the black Audi. Watch the semi-trailer or the right. All of a sudden, cutting through two lanes of traffic. Brian's car is trapped.

PACELLI: They put a blanket over me, and I saw them starting to cut up -- cut up the car. I remember that.

HUNTER: Bryan Pacelli was lucky to survive, although he doesn't remember much of the accident. But he knows exactly what happened thanks to a video camera installed on the windshield of this bus traveling in the left lane. The bus ended up pushing Bryan's car under the semi-trailer.

(on camera): More and more of those wrecks are being caught on video. And it teaches us two things, what happened, and, more importantly, how they might be prevented.

(voice over): For example, driving in the rain, distracted driving, mistakes which could be avoided.

Bill Schoolman owns a New York transportation company. A few years ago he installed cameras in all his vehicles.

BILL SCHOOLMAN, PRESIDENT, CLASSIC TRANSPORTATION: This camera, when mounted on the windshield, is the cop in the rear-view mirror. They drive more safely.

HUNTER: That metaphorical cop in the rear-view mirror didn't keep this taxi driver from dozing off at the wheel while he was working. Watch what happens next.

As soon as he falls asleep he loses control. It's hard to believe he walked away unhurt, but when his boss saw the video he lost his job.

We asked Joan Claybrook, a longtime road safety advocate and former head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, to look at some video like this one from a camera in this New Jersey limousine. The driver says the car on the left was trying to cut him off and almost crashed into it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, my god!

Safety experts like Claybrook believe video cameras can help keep all of us safer.

JOAN CLAYBROOK, FMR. ADMINISTRATOR, NHTSA: I think you can use it for training of drivers because it will reveal what the mistakes are, what the problems are.

HUNTER: Bryan says the video has changed his view of other drivers.

PACELLI: There's plenty of people like me every day next to those, you know, trucks or buses. That was a -- that was a loaded gun blowing down the street and nobody knew.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

M. O'BRIEN: All right, explain this, you've got a 20-second cache of video in there, right?

HUNTER: That's right. What happens is, when you have an impact, it's always rolling. So at the point of the impact, it takes 10 seconds before and 10 seconds after. And that's how you come up with that kind of thing.

Another application for this is to install it in the cars of teenaged drivers, and then...

M. O'BRIEN: Oh, yes.

HUNTER: ... the parents can download any kind of erratic action or speed up or slow down, and they can take a look and say, hey, what are you doing? What are you doing driving like that for? You speed up here, you ran this red light, you almost got hit here.

M. O'BRIEN: Could you set it for, you know, inappropriate speed, that kind of thing? In other words, have it trip on more frequently than a wreck for that kind of application?

HUNTER: According to people who use these things, sometimes they trip on when they hit a pothole. But a lot of times they trip on you when you do this...

M. O'BRIEN: Right. HUNTER: ... when you hit the brakes, or you suddenly accelerate or sudden stop. And so they come on, boom, just like that. Like, that came on actually when the thing -- when the guy started really severely braking and not at the impact of the crash. It will definitely come on there. But it's always rolling, so it's taking that 20-second swathe of time out from the point of the incident before and after.

M. O'BRIEN: Will an insurance company give you a better rate in you have one in your car?

HUNTER: They won't give you a better rate at this point. But according to Bill Schoolman, the guy that owns the transportation company out in Long Island -- he has a big transportation company -- he says he saves about $250,000 a year. To put that in perspective -- on insurance and costs -- one of his buses costs $400,000.

So every year and a half he gets a free bus because of these cameras in his vehicles. Now, there's cost, and he's also a paid spokesman part-time, but he thinks in the future that insurance companies are going to require, you know, commercial drivers and cabs and vehicles to have these things all throughout all fleets, otherwise they wouldn't insure them.

M. O'BRIEN: I think there are a lot of parents with 16-year-olds who are thinking, hmm, maybe I want one of these.

HUNTER: It could be a coming thing.

M. O'BRIEN: Greg Hunter, thanks for dropping by this morning.

And you can see more of Greg's story tonight on "PAULA ZAHN NOW" at 8:00 Eastern.

You've got a busy night tonight on "PAULA ZAHN NOW."

HUNTER: Well, actually, that was on last night. Tonight is the school bus thing. The school bus story.

M. O'BRIEN: I'm sorry. That was last night. School bus, which we saw in the last hour, will be on tonight.

HUNTER: That's right.

M. O'BRIEN: "PAULA ZAHN NOW" is the program -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Coming up this morning, kids at one school shocked with electricity to control their behavior. We're going to tell you about a mom's fight to stop it.

And then next in "House Call," more and more women are choosing to schedule the birth of their children either by inducing labor or through C-sections? How safe is that for mom and baby?

We'll take a look ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: Well, you know babies come when they come, whether that's in the middle of the night or in the middle of a snowstorm. But more and more mothers to be are scheduling their births, inducing labor or making an appointment for a C-section.

Dr. Mary D'Alton is chief of obstetrics and gynecology at New York Presbyterian Hospital.

Nice to see you. Thanks for talking with us this morning.

DR. MARY D'ALTON, NEW YORK PRESBYTERIAN HOSPITAL: My pleasure, Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: The numbers are sort of startling, to me, at least. C-sections now at an all-time high. Twenty-nine percent of women who are giving birth, 29, a third of women who give birth, are having C- sections. The National Institute of Health used to discourage people scheduling their birth, but now they're actually sort of taking no position on this issue.

Why the change?

D'ALTON: Well, I think there's been a lot of change in practice over the last 20 years. Anesthesia has become much more safe for women who are giving birth, and also we know that caesarean delivery that is done under scheduled circumstances is much safer than a woman who has an emergency caesarean section. It's actually safer for the woman and for her infant.

S. O'BRIEN: So how many of the 30 percent of the women, approximately, who are going to go ahead and have a C-section, how many of them, what percentage is scheduled, about?

D'ALTON: Well, scheduled caesarean deliveries are done for a variety of reasons, Soledad. And the majority of scheduled caesarean deliveries are done where there is maternal indication or obstetrical indication.

S. O'BRIEN: So this is not women who say, you know, I really would prefer to go on my trip to Spain with my girlfriends, so I would like to have this baby before I go?

D'ALTON: I would say that is the vast minority of women. The -- caesarean delivery on maternal request is a subset of elective caesarean delivery. We actually don't know the true incidents, but we estimate it somewhere about 5 percent nationally of all caesarean deliveries are for caesarean delivery on maternal request. So it's actually a small number of all of our caesarean deliveries.

S. O'BRIEN: One in five women are being induced when they give birth. That's twice the number that it was some 15 years ago. Why do you think that's going up as well?

D'ALTON: Well, the main reason is -- for induction, again -- is that there's a medical or an obstetrical indication. For some women there is the chance to have her own doctor there for her labor and delivery, which is very anxiety-reducing for the majority of women because they know their doctor. And for others they're nervous they won't get to the hospital in time because they have a traffic jam and they're concerned about not getting to the hospital in time. And for others, a minority, again, it's for scheduling reasons, for their work or for their family situations.

S. O'BRIEN: Is it more dangerous for the mother to induce labor, just generally speaking, than it is to wait for a natural birth?

D'ALTON: In general it is, because there is a higher incidence of caesarean delivery for inductions. And the caesarean delivery is then following labor, which is more complicated than a scheduled caesarean delivery.

S. O'BRIEN: There are women who go ahead and elect the surgery anyway in spite of this sort of being exception for 39 weeks, is what the NIH is saying, right?

D'ALTON: That's correct, yes.

S. O'BRIEN: So, for those women who go ahead and elect it, what's your advice for them?

D'ALTON: My advice is, first of all, don't take this lightly. This is surgery. Discuss the risks and benefits with your doctor. Do not do this if you're planning to have more than two or three children.

S. O'BRIEN: Why not?

D'ALTON: Because we know that the risks of caesarean delivery increase substantially with each caesarean delivery.

S. O'BRIEN: So once you've had a caesarean you need to have another one?

D'ALTON: You don't always need to have another one, Soledad, but the vast majority of women who have a caesarean usually have a caesarean in their second pregnancy.

S. O'BRIEN: I know you often say, if you're going to have more than two kids, don't go ahead and elect a caesarean. What's the risk -- I mean, what's the problem with having multiple caesareans?

D'ALTON: The main reason that we're concerned about it is, with increasing number of caesarean deliveries, there is -- it leads to placenta complications, a condition called placenta accreta that can be life-threatening. And it's because of that potential life- threatening problem, Soledad, that we recommend women who are considering to have caesarean delivery electively should only do it if they're planning a small number of children.

S. O'BRIEN: Do you think those numbers are going to go up? Because, you know, they've been rising steadily. That one day it will be 50 percent of women having caesareans and even higher? D'ALTON: You know, it's hard to predict, Soledad. And we have seen a continued increase, but I would say the safest way to deliver a baby is vaginally. And it's hard for us to predict the future, but if we were to predict, I believe we will see a continued increase.

S. O'BRIEN: With a strong epidural.

Dr. Mary D'Alton, nice to see you. Thanks for talking with us.

D'ALTON: OK.

S. O'BRIEN: She's from New York Presbyterian Hospital -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld under fire. Retired generals calling for him to go. We'll talk to one former commander who says Rumsfeld is not the problem.

Plus, how to deal with unruly behavior, behavior that is destructive and disruptive that can't be controlled. What about a jolt of electricity? Sound Draconian? We'll have the current events for you coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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