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American Morning
Moussaoui Verdict; Masha's Story
Aired May 04, 2006 - 06:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Top stories this morning.
Brian Doyle, a press aide in the Department of Homeland Security, is scheduled to appear before a judge in Polk County in Florida today. He faces 23 charges in connection with an Internet sexual predator sting.
Tough going in the rescue of two miners in Australia. A mine official says it is now unlikely that a tunnel to get the guys out will be completed before Friday.
In Cuyahoga County, Ohio, election officials are now asking for an investigation of worker at one polling station. The officials say criminal negligence may be involved. The polling place didn't open during Tuesday's primary until 1:30 in the afternoon.
Good morning. Welcome back, everybody. I'm Soledad O'Brien.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Miles O'Brien. Thanks for being with us this morning.
S. O'BRIEN: Our top story this morning, al Qaeda conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui back in court this morning. In less than four hours from now, in fact. He's going to be allowed to make a statement. The appearance comes after a federal jury says that he should get life in prison rather than the death penalty.
CNN's Sumi Das is outside the courthouse in Alexandria, Virginia, joins us live this morning.
Hey, Sumi. Good morning.
SUMI DAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Soledad.
Well, first, a jury determined that the only person to be tried for crimes in connection with September 11th was eligible for the death penalty, but ultimately that was not the sentenced recommended.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAS (voice over): A federal jury decided Wednesday that Zacarias Moussaoui's life should be spared but he should spend have rest of his life behind bars. Reaction from victims' families was mixed. Some feared a death sentence would make a martyr of Moussaoui, but many agree the eight-week trial has been stressful.
CHRISTIE COMBS, HUSBAND KILLED ON 9/11: Whatever the verdict was, it was not going to change my life at all. It wasn't going to bring my husband back. It wasn't going to make any of these people that died walk through their doors and make their families happy.
MARGARET POTHIER, BROTHER-IN-LAW KILLED ON 9/11: I'm very disappointed today because I would have liked to see Moussaoui get the death penalty.
DAS: Former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani, who testified in the trial, said Moussaoui knew of al Qaeda's 9/11 plans.
RUDY GIULIANI, FMR. NEW YORK CITY MAYOR: The reality is that he participated in a conspiracy that resulted in massive death of innocent people. And, to me, the way you deter that in the future is to have the ultimate penalty for it.
DAS: President Bush said that while this trial was over, the fight against terror was not.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Mr. Moussaoui got a fair trial. The jury convicted him to life in prison, where he will spend the rest of his life. In so doing, they spared his life, which is something that he evidently wasn't willing to do for innocent American citizens.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
DAS: Presiding Judge Leonie Brinkema will formally sentence Moussaoui in a hearing scheduled to begin just a few hours from now, at 10:00 a.m. Eastern Time this morning -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: Sumi Das for us this morning at the courthouse in Alexandria, Virginia.
You'll want to stay tuned to CNN day and night for the most reliable news about your security -- Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: It was a spellbinding, terrifying hearing on Capitol Hill. A young Russian girl who thought she was headed to a better life instead became the victim of her pedophile adoptive father. Just one small story that is part of the scourge of Internet pornography.
CNN's Andrea Koppel with the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Masha Allen was just five when a divorced businessman from Pittsburgh adopted her from a Russian orphanage. The first night in her new home he made her sleep in his bed.
MASHA ALLEN, CHILD PORN VICTIM: At first I thought it might be normal because, you know, some little kids sleep with their parents. But then after the first night I figured out that there was something wrong because he tried to touch me or something.
KOPPEL: Her adoptive father was a pedophile, and in testimony Wednesday before a House committee, a shy, yet stoic, Masha, now 13, described her five years of hell.
ALLEN: He molested me all the time. He made me dress up in adult's clothes and even pretended to marry me. Sometimes he kept me chained in the basement.
KOPPEL: Other witnesses spoke of international adoption agencies that operated without sufficient legal oversight.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The process that went on in Masha's adoption was actually typical.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Typical?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So, it begs the question in our minds, how many other Mashas are there out there? The fact is, no one knows. But the fact is, we are quite certain that there are.
KOPPEL: Now, two years after Matthew Mancuso, her adoptive father, was jailed, Masha is speaking out, angered by the countless pornographic pictures of her which she now knows he sold or traded on the Internet.
ALLEN: Because Matthew put my pictures on the Internet, the abuse is still going on. Anyone can see them. People are still downloading them.
KOPPEL: Masha asked that Nancy Grace, who had told her story on CNN, join her at the witness table.
NANCY GRACE, CNN: Together we join forces today to ask you for our voice to be heard.
KOPPEL (on camera): Masha and her supporters are urging Congress to back new legislation called Masha's Law, raising the civil penalties for anyone who downloads child pornography. Masha says under current law the penalties for illegally downloading a song are three times tougher than for someone who downloads a picture from her years of torment.
Andrea Koppel, CNN, Capitol Hill.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
M. O'BRIEN: Happening "In America" now, a follow-up on a story we brought you yesterday. He's the mayor and the funeral director of a small Colorado town accused of stealing money from Marine he helped bury. Well, now Mayor Jim Bostick admits he made a big mistake.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAYOR JIM BOSTICK, FORT LUPTON, COLORADO: It's my fault.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So what are you going to do now?
BOSTICK: Try to do whatever I can with Mrs. Sepulveda to get this issue put to bed. As soon as I get the money, it's hers. I mean, fast.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
M. O'BRIEN: Now, since this story broke, the mayor has been getting death threats, and we are told he is under police protection this morning.
Detroit could be the latest city to ban talking on cell phones while driving. The city council passed a bill calling for a $100 fine. Hands-free phones, however, are still allowed. And there's apparently no fine if you can prove you're making an emergency call. Detroit's mayor is expected to sign the bill.
That nasty cat with a mean temper now has a court date. Lewis's owner faces a reckless endangerment charge because her cat keeps attacking her Fairfield, Connecticut, neighbors. Ruth Cicero (ph) could avoid trial if she had Lewis put down, but she says no.
And Lewis has now become a cause celeb. "Save Lewis" T-shirts being sold to raise money for his defense. The cat has a MySpace page. The trial is set for May 23.
We'll keep you up to date on that one.
And you may soon be able to get legal body art in Oklahoma. The state senate approved a bill overturning the state's 43-year-old ban on tattoo parlors. Oklahoma is the only state that doesn't allow tattoos. An amendment would still make it illegal for anyone under 18 to get body piercings.
Hopefully my kids are listening to that one.
And in Tucson, Arizona, thing about this one. The next time you take out the trash, think about this one. Imagine having to go through eight tons of compacted trash to find a couple of heirloom diamond rings.
Barbara and Bill Davis did that. He had accidentally thrown away those rings wrapped in a paper towel. And get this: after searching through it for hours, the rings were returned to their rightful place...
S. O'BRIEN: Yes, and there they are.
M. O'BRIEN: ... on her fingers. And...
S. O'BRIEN: I guess it was worth it.
M. O'BRIEN: It's a good thing we can't smell that story. Put it that way.
S. O'BRIEN: Nasty, but they found the rings.
M. O'BRIEN: Nasty. Be careful.
S. O'BRIEN: Officials in the South Pacific are starting to assess the damage from a massive earthquake there. The powerful quake struck near Tonga in the South Pacific. Tsunami warnings were issued as far away as Hawaii.
Word, though, that those warnings never reached Tonga. A year and a half after more than 100,000 people were killed in South and Southeast Asia, people are once again calling for a better warning system. Some officials say word of the quake never reached Tonga because of a power failure there.
Tsunami sirens did go off in Oregon, but it was just a drill. The state was practicing for a possible earthquake, a potential earthquake off the northwest coast.
The Coast Guard, other agencies took part. The goal was to see if panicky groups could be moved about a mile in 20 minutes. Officials say people moved a little bit slowly, but it was just a drill.
Time for the forecast 30 minutes past -- 38 minutes past the hour. Chad's at the CNN Center for us.
Hey, Chad. Good morning again.
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, Soledad.
(WEATHER REPORT)
MYERS: I'm not sure, guys, do they still make carbon copies?
M. O'BRIEN: You know, I was trying to explain that to my kids the other day...
S. O'BRIEN: Yes.
M. O'BRIEN: ... what a carbon copy was. And my daughter said, "What's a typewriter?" So I knew I had real issues there. You know?
MYERS: What's a mimeograph machine?
M. O'BRIEN: Oh, my gosh. Dittos -- remember those?
S. O'BRIEN: I think they still...
(CROSSTALK)
M. O'BRIEN: Yes. You could spell them.
S. O'BRIEN: Remember, you could do it by hand in school.
M. O'BRIEN: That smell, yes. It ruined me.
S. O'BRIEN: I'm sure that was really good for your brain cells.
M. O'BRIEN: I could have been a Nobel Prize winner. Instead, I was smelling the dittos.
S. O'BRIEN: Hey, Chad, you've got a kind of new baby. Not a new, new baby, but a kind of new baby. How much did your baby way?
MYERS: My baby weigh?
S. O'BRIEN: Yes.
MYERS: Seven pounds, 6 ounces.
S. O'BRIEN: All right. Then you're going to love this story.
Super-sizing, as you well know, usually fast food. There is a California couple, I think from Manteca, California, they have a little super-sized baby. This is a newborn. This is not a 3-month- old. This is a newborn.
M. O'BRIEN: No way!
S. O'BRIEN: This is Olivia (ph). Yes. Yes.
M. O'BRIEN: No way.
MYERS: No. No. And better yet...
S. O'BRIEN: And 14 pounds.
MYERS: It's a preemie.
S. O'BRIEN: Yes, she's a preemie.
M. O'BRIEN: No!
S. O'BRIEN: Fourteen pounds at birth.
M. O'BRIEN: But her eyes are open. She looks easily 6 months old.
S. O'BRIEN: No. No. She's a preemie. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRANDY WOMACK, MOTHER: A week before we had her, the sonogram said she was going to be 11 pounds, 9 ounces. When we had her, she was 14 pounds. The next day, I finally realized we had a big baby.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
S. O'BRIEN: Yes, those sonograms are sometimes off. By a lot.
M. O'BRIEN: Apparently so.
S. O'BRIEN: She was early by a month, in fact. And doctors said if she had actually been on time, you know, gone for the full nine months, she would have weighed 16 pounds. That's a 3-month-old.
M. O'BRIEN: Oh, my.
MYERS: It's a bowling ball. S. O'BRIEN: That's a big old kid. But she looks cute and healthy. And that's all that matters.
MYERS: Yes.
M. O'BRIEN: God bless her mom on that one. Was it a C-section? Do you know?
S. O'BRIEN: I don't know any of the gory details.
M. O'BRIEN: Let's not go there.
S. O'BRIEN: She looks fine, so maybe not.
M. O'BRIEN: All right.
Still to come on the program, British Prime Minister Tony Blair on some shaky political ground. We'll tell you why. That's coming up.
S. O'BRIEN: And "The Da Vinci Code" set to hit theaters soon. The debate, though, not going away. Got a report from the Vatican in Rome 45 minutes after the hour.
M. O'BRIEN: Plus, a soldier's secret had some very tragic consequences. That's ahead as well.
But first, a look at what else is making news on this Thursday morning.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
S. O'BRIEN: A quick look this morning at some of the stories we're following from around the world.
The new Israeli government's position on Iran.
Prime minister Tony Blair under fire.
And what the Vatican is saying about "The Da Vinci Code."
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN VAUSE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm John Vause in Jerusalem, where the next few hours the new Israeli government will be sworn in with Ehud Olmert, the next prime minister. Leading a coalition of four parties, Mr. Olmert will now try and implement his campaign promise of defining Israel's permanent borders within the next four years with our without an agreement from the Palestinians.
Part of that plan will involve the forced evacuation of tens of thousands of Jewish settlers from the West Bank. But coalition governments have been notoriously unstable in Israel over the past decade, making the Olmert plan far from a sure bet.
(END VIDEOTAPE) (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ROBIN OAKLEY, CNN EUROPEAN POLITICAL EDITOR: I'm Robin Oakley, reporting from London.
Here, Tony Blair faces a crunch vote in local elections. His police minister is being slammed for releasing a thousand foreign convicts rather than processing them for deportation. His health minister has been barracked (ph) by nurses. And his deputy prime minister is being publicly ridiculed over an affair with his secretary.
Blair himself is still unpopular over the Iraq war. And if his party suffers badly, he will come under pressure to name a date for his already promised departure.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ALESSIO VINCI, CNN ROME BUREAU CHIEF: I'm Alessio Vinci in Rome. It would take more than just a movie to shake the foundations of the Catholic Church, but "The Da Vinci Code," which opens here in Italy in two weeks' time has caused at least a few small tremors at the Vatican.
One senior church official calling on Catholics to boycott the movie, while others are saying that the plot that Mary Magdalene and Jesus were lovers is just a load of nonsense. The pope has not spoken on the matter, but Vatican officials are beginning to realize that silence may not be the best way to counter claims made in a book read by millions around the world.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
S. O'BRIEN: For much more on any of these stories, or any of our top stories, you can go right to our Web site, cnn.com.
Ahead this morning at five minutes past the top of the hour, Zacarias Moussaoui sentenced to life in prison. We're going to take a look at what his life is going to be like inside the prison which is known as Alcatraz of the Rockies.
At quarter after, the death of a U.S. soldier in Iraq is made even more tragic by the secret he kept from his mother. We will tell you about it coming up on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
M. O'BRIEN: A deadly bombing this morning outside a Baghdad courthouse. At least nine people are dead, another 46 injured, all from an explosive vest left lying by the side on the building. The increasing sectarian violence in Iraq has forced many people, Sunni and Shia alike, to try to protect their identity in order to protect their lives.
CNN's Ryan Chilcote joining us live from Baghdad with more on that -- Ryan.
RYAN CHILCOTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Miles, gunmen posing as police stopped a bus at a fake checkpoint earlier this week in Baghdad demanding everyone, all of the passengers produced their IDs. They then pulled four of the passengers off the bus, all of them with Shiite names, and shot them dead.
We take a look at Iraqis who are changing their names to stay alive.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHILCOTE (voice over): What's in a name? In Iraq, maybe your life.
Just ask Marwan, whose name is usually associated with a Sunni sect of Islam. He wants to change it to a neutral name, something not associated with any sect.
"Every day I hear an 'Ali' was killed, a 'Marwan' was abducted," Marwan says. "Or a 'Hussein' was shot dead because of their names. These names are no good anymore. That's why I've decided to stop putting my life at risk and change my name."
Marwan isn't the only one. At this government office, at least seven out of the 30 men in line were doing just that.
Most wanted to shed Sunni names. Hussein, though, was filing papers to get rid of his Shiite name. He lives in a Sunni neighborhood, where he claims five others with Shiite-associated names have been killed. He wants to become "Ibrahim."
"It's a neutral name," he says. "It doesn't identify you with any sect."
Sectarian divisions and killings have escalated over the last year in Iraq. Shiite fringe groups targeting Sunnis and Sunni extremists targeting Shiites. Names have become labels that can give you the wrong impression.
Remember Marwan, who's getting rid of the Sunni name? He's actually a Shiite. His parents just liked the sound of it. Names didn't used to mean that much.
"Under Saddam," he says," no one cared about names. It's only now with the sectarian violence."
Shiite Marwan's childhood friend Omar, a Sunni, is also changing his name. The actual number of people changing their names is unknown, but on the increase.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHILCOTE: Miles, to legally change your name in Iraq, you have to put notice in the newspaper. Since most people feel that would invite only more problems, they actually pay a bribe to keep their name out of the papers. And besides, most people here are hoping that the change is only temporary.
And Miles, this just in, in the last couple of minutes, news that the insurgency in Iraq continues. We just learned that two U.S. soldiers were killed this morning in southern Baghdad in a roadside bombing -- Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: All right. Ryan Chilcote, we'll get more details on that as we get them in. Thank you very much -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: Business news is just ahead. Andy Serwer is "Minding Your Business".
Good morning. What are you looking at?
ANDY SERWER, EDITOR-AT-LARGE, "FORTUNE": Good morning, Soledad.
Bill Gates is unhappy that he's so rich.
Plus, the CEO as plagiarist. What should be done with him? We'll explore that coming up next on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
S. O'BRIEN: Oh, bring out the violins. Bill Gates says he doesn't like being the world's richest man.
SERWER: Yes.
S. O'BRIEN: Well, you know what? There's a way to solve that.
M. O'BRIEN: There are people standing in line who would like...
SERWER: Send check to Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: I'm in.
SERWER: Right. And Miles, yes.
S. O'BRIEN: I'd be happy to help you out with that, Mr. Gates.
SERWER: Yes.
Well, I mean, we could give a little context here, but, you know, he did say he didn't really like being the world's richest man. It invited all sorts of unwanted attention. And I guess you could understand that.
This is in an interview that he said yesterday. He's worth $50 billion, personal wealth, another $29 billion in his foundation. He didn't say that he wanted to be poor, and he didn't want to say that he...
S. O'BRIEN: People so rarely say that.
SERWER: He didn't say that he wanted less money. I think what he said was that he just wanted -- instead of being number one, you know, he didn't want that label on his forehead. He would like to be, like, the third or fourth richest man in the world.
M. O'BRIEN: Well, I'm sure if he gave away some money he could...
(CROSSTALK)
SERWER: Well, to his credit, he is giving away a lot of money.
M. O'BRIEN: He has. He has.
SERWER: At some point he won't be. Because, seriously, this is a guy who's giving away billions and billions of dollars.
M. O'BRIEN: Yes.
SERWER: Plus, Microsoft's stock hasn't gone anywhere for five years. So there's that -- there's that as well.
Speaking of other CEOs and corporate bigwigs, let's talk about this guy William Swanson, the CEO of Raytheon. Have you been following this case?
S. O'BRIEN: Yes.
SERWER: He's a plagiarist. And this is what's -- this is the story here.
He wrote a little book called "Swanson's Unwritten Rules of Management" in 2004 and it became sort of a cult hit. Three hundred thousand copies were given away free, until it became discovered very recently that actually most of these rules were borrowed, copied, stolen from a book called "Unwritten Rules" -- "Unwritten Laws of Engineering," excuse me, written in 1944 by UCLA professor W. J. King.
S. O'BRIEN: He even plagiarized out of the title?
SERWER: Yes.
M. O'BRIEN: Wow.
S. O'BRIEN: That's shocking.
SERWER: I mean, here's what Mr. King wrote: "Promises, schedules and estimates are necessary and important instruments in a well- ordered (ph) business." Mr. Swanson wrote, "Promises, schedules and estimates are important instruments in a well-run business."
Well, that sounds almost identical, doesn't it?
M. O'BRIEN: Equally banal.
SERWER: Now, here's what happened. He's sort of been getting a pass. The board of Raytheon just said, well, we don't like it, but, you know, it's OK.
Now, yesterday, they finally did something about it. No raise this year, and they cut his stock compensation for next year.
Does the punishment fit the crime? I mean, if they really don't like the guy, why don't they boot him?
S. O'BRIEN: Is Raytheon's stock doing just fine?
SERWER: Raytheon's stock is probably doing OK. It's a defense contractor.
S. O'BRIEN: I'm not the business guy, but I can tell you what...
SERWER: And contrast this with this Harvard sophomore...
S. O'BRIEN: Oh, Kaavya.
SERWER: Kaavya Viswanathan, who got in all kinds of trouble, a lot of publicity. This kind of was below the radar, less so now, I think. And a good thing.
S. O'BRIEN: Not anymore.
M. O'BRIEN: You've elevated it right here.
SERWER: I think. And I think that we should draw attention to it, you know?
S. O'BRIEN: I believe so.
SERWER: I mean, it's just -- it's not right. This is a guy, you know, running a company that supplies weapons to thousands of soldiers in Iraq. I mean...
S. O'BRIEN: Plus, I bet there's -- there's a chunk in that book about honesty, integrity, moral...
SERWER: Very important stuff, yes.
S. O'BRIEN: Important things, and then I'm sure not so much.
SERWER: That's right.
S. O'BRIEN: All right, Andy. Thank you.
SERWER: Thank you.
M. O'BRIEN: We better get to Chad. We're about to run into the top of the hour -- Chad.
MYERS: The best way to not plagiarize weather casts is don't watch any other TV. And you know -- then you know it's all yours.
M. O'BRIEN: So you don't, yes.
MYERS: There you go.
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